Wikipedia:Reference desk/Computing

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October 17

PICAXE programming under Ubuntu GNU/Linux

Hi,

So far, I have failed to find any substitute for the Programming Editor available for PICAXE programming on Windows. I tried to run it on Ubuntu with Wine, but it's really garbage.

So... Any substitutes under Ubuntu or rather Linux as a whole? Thanks.

--inky 05:27, 17 October 2006 (UTC)

Um, have a look at gnupic.org to see if there's something suitable for you. --Robert Merkel 06:58, 17 October 2006 (UTC)

Thanks for the response... although the site's a bit confusing...--inky 20:38, 19 October 2006 (UTC)

Hmmm... According to this article, PICAXE is a modified version of PIC chips. Are they compatible? --inky 21:09, 19 October 2006 (UTC)

Converting Google Video to mpg

Say, I want to convert this google video file I downloaded into an mpeg format. How so? — X [Mac Davis] (SUPERDESK|Help me improve)08:58, 17 October 2006 (UTC)

That is not possible, A Google Video file is a closed format. But you can download a Google Video file for a Sony PSP or an Ipod, I think you can convert those files to an other format. Tukkaatje 12:44, 17 October 2006 (UTC)

I don't know if it currently exists, but it should be possible via video capture software. StuRat 13:36, 17 October 2006 (UTC)

Naevius GVI Converter claims to be able to convert GVI files to the standard AVI format, though I know nothing about it and have never used it, so can't vouch for that. Loganberry (Talk) 14:41, 17 October 2006 (UTC)

By using regular screenshots, you can capture and re-encode the video. You can then capture the audio as it goes to your sound card. You'll have to get/write the scripts for that yourself though (since Google Video Player is a VLC fork, it should have an option to disable DX overlays).--Frenchman113 on wheels! 22:22, 17 October 2006 (UTC)

No. The best way to do this is to use something that can play and convert FLV files. For example, mplayer's mencoder can do it. --Kjoonlee 06:45, 19 October 2006 (UTC)

But why convert when you can use mplayer to play the files? --Kjoonlee 06:45, 19 October 2006 (UTC)

VLC and MPlayer can both play FLV files. --Kjoonlee 06:55, 19 October 2006 (UTC)

Does Google rank pages by outgoing links?

I thought Google ranks pages by incoming hyperlinks.

Does the number of outgoing links also affect a page ranking?

What effect does this have on Wikipedia?

As far as I know the basic method involves ranking by incoming links, and it wouldn't make any sense to do it the other way around. I've heard that Wikipedia was granted an especially high rating by Google employees (and I assume many trusted websites are given similar treatment) which may boost articles to the top of the search even when there are few incoming links. I can't say I'm familiar with the methods that page ranking services like Alexa operate on.  freshofftheufoΓΛĿЌ  09:17, 17 October 2006 (UTC)

Yes, I'd say only incoming links (weighted with the credibility of the linking page) have any effect. —Bromskloss 11:56, 17 October 2006 (UTC)

It is my opinion that the age of a website is also used by Google. I've had the same domain name, with an active web page, for many years - long before Google or Lycos or Alta Vista or Yahoo... There are very few sites on the web that link to my website. So, it shouldn't be considered much of anything. But, my site is spidered by Google (and Yahoo and MSN and Ask...) daily. Without the incoming (or outgoing) links to use as a basis for why Google considers my page worth spidering, I'd have to say it is the age of the site. --Kainaw ^(talk) 17:22, 17 October 2006 (UTC)

(As directed at the top of this page, please sign your posts using four tildes ("~~~~").

Automatic page ranking done well is what boosted Google to the top of Internet search engines. The original theory was published, so is no secret. However, any such system can be manipulated, and many folks have a huge financial incentive to do so. Therefore the details of what is done today are constantly changing, and not made public; here's the little Google itself says. Speculation abounds, some better informed than others.

And did it not occur to you to seek an answer to this question by searching the web? --KSmrq^T 04:51, 18 October 2006 (UTC)

And going back to the original question (after a little more reading, and maybe realizing the questioners original intent), the number of outbound links also plays a major role in page ranking, as described by the original page rank algorithm. Basically, any page's relevence to the page rank of another is inversely proportional to the number of outbound links, which obviously helps prevent sites bent on advertising from boosting the ranking of many other sites bent on advertising. So simple yet so wicked cool.  freshofftheufoΓΛĿЌ  06:12, 19 October 2006 (UTC)

Image comparison script

We get a quite a few questions about identifying sources for pictures, and I swear I've read somewhere (popular science or something like that perhaps?) about programs/a program that index internet images (like google images does) and then compare them using some sort of algorithm to find similarities, and find duplicates.

I've found a couple pages boasting similar abilities, but only for small limited sets of images. Does anyone know of such a program?  freshofftheufoΓΛĿЌ  09:12, 17 October 2006 (UTC)

I've discussed just such a program at the Ref Desk before. It's quite difficult, as it would ideally need to be able to deal with the following:

• Different scale images.

• Different image formats.

• Different clipping. For example, a pic should be able to be matched with a close-up of one part of the pic, or two pics which have an area of overlap should be matched.

• Different color schemes, 32 bit, 24 bit, 16 bit. 8 bit, greyscale, and even black and white.

• Different aspect ratios.

• Mirrored or rotated images.

• The most difficult problem, likely requiring some form of artificial intelligence would be to match pics of the same object from different angles.

You could write a program to do all that, but it would take a long time to compare any two pics. If Google were to try to use it to categorize all their pics, the resources required to get this job done would be extreme. StuRat 13:27, 17 October 2006 (UTC)

If you've ever used a tool which implements the SiFT algorithm, you'd be pretty impressed at how good the feature recognition is. (It deals with stretched, squashed, sheared and rotated images, and image parts.) I wouldn't think it entirely out of the realm of possibility. You'd have to have a human on the end of it, but there are algorithms which can cut down tremendously on the amount of human work. grendel|khan 16:07, 17 October 2006 (UTC)

That sounds good, and is basically how I imagined it, though I don't think it should be all as difficult as StuRat makes it out to be. I guess the images would have to be prepared for scanning before they could be included in a search, e.g. by simplifying the image at certain levels, maybe 1/10 detail, 1/3 detail, and 2/3 detail. That would obviously take a lot of space, but storage volume never seems to be a problem anymore (just look at Wikipedi!). It should be relatively easy to compare extremely basic arbitrary shapes with posterized colors, even if rotated. Clipping is a bit of a problem, but I guess most of the searches would/should be for identical or similar pictures that haven't been radically clipped, so at least for now clipping can be ignored. The simplified images would all be scaled to the same size (let's say max dimension 500 pixels) and would be in the same format, so you don't have to worry about that.

There should at least exist a search tool that can find identical images of different dimensions/file formats/colors, maybe I'll try to do that myself when I go back to school.  freshofftheufoΓΛĿЌ  06:00, 19 October 2006 (UTC)

One place this comes up is when I use Google image search to look for pics from a movie. I end up with 10,000 pics of the cover of the DVD and/or promotional poster, and very few of the actual movie, scattered sparsely amongst all those duplicates. StuRat 15:44, 19 October 2006 (UTC)

Yeah, it's probably a very high-priority project for them o'er at Google, to reduce the number of useless image results.  freshofftheufoΓΛĿЌ  04:09, 21 October 2006 (UTC)

WIFI 2-way control with Pocket PC

Hello! I want to be able to control my Pocket PC from my desktop via WiFi. BUT: I also want my Pocket PC to send back images from its camera. Is there any easy way of establishing this 2-way control? The reason I want to do this is to control a robot using beeps emitted from the Pocket PC's headphone socket, but also see where it is going at the same time.

I have tried Microsoft Portrait, but that gives me no control of the Pocket PC. Please can you help me. I have also tried Portrait and MS Remote Command but that is a very slow process. Please can you help me! --212.56.97.238 11:35, 17 October 2006 (UTC)

Best programming tool for beginner

Whats the best free programming environment for a beginner with no programming experience? It should due GUI stuff and create stand alone executables. Cross platform prefered.

What about Lazarus, which is based on the open-source Free Pascal and runs on Win32, Linux, MacOS, FreeBSD...? Lazarus is a clone of Delphi, which is itself based on Pascal. It's still a work-in-progress so may not be stable or complete enough for large projects, but on the basis of a few minutes' playing around with it I think it's quite good enough for learning on - and you also have the advantage that much of the huge volume of Delphi documentation will be applicable to Lazarus too. Loganberry (Talk) 14:38, 17 October 2006 (UTC)

If by environment you mean something broader than IDE, I recommend BASIC. Try FreeBASIC or PowerBASIC. --froth^{T C} 17:15, 17 October 2006 (UTC)

IMHO, a "beginner with no programming experience" should not be worried about GUI "stuff" and cross-platform executables to start with, but with learning programming. It's like asking what's the best driver's education program? It must allow me to drive an F-1 class Ferrari next week. --LarryMac 19:06, 17 October 2006 (UTC)

Yeah, I agree. Although, VB makes it pretty easy to do GUIs, if I remember correctly. Newbie easy. It's a very BAAAAD way to learn though, you should learn the basics first Oskar 23:35, 17 October 2006 (UTC)

Oh yes, VB has ruined many an aspiring programmer's career. Learn it much later if you absolutely must, but otherwise stay the heck away --froth^{T C} 02:08, 18 October 2006 (UTC)

A beginning programmer needs to learn programming, which is an uncommon discipline. See Category:Educational programming languages for a selection of languages intended to help, most of which come with development environments and cross-platform implementations. Notable examples are Logo, Scheme, and ToonTalk, from the MIT tradition, and the Smalltalk family out of Xerox PARC.

Programming requires structured thought, structured action, and structured data. Daily life is not adequate preparation for these demands; in fact, most people give terrible directions and unsound explanations. A mistake in a single character in a program can cause it to fail — a daunting challenge when confronting a program requiring thousands of lines of code. Thus programming includes not only problem definition, method design, and program implementation, but also structured testing, structured diagnosis, and structured correction. A final essential is documentation, especially important in a large project.

Do not be embarrassed to begin with a training environment like Alice; the insights and habits gained there will be more important in the long run than wrestling with the obstacles of a “serious” implementation language like C++. And, paradoxically, the total time to mastery of C++ will likely be shortened by including this learning step. --KSmrq^T 06:57, 18 October 2006 (UTC)

Odd first line on "database" entry page

I think this might be vandalism, but the first line on the entry for "database" reads like a nonsequitur. I don't have a user account and I'm not sure how to fix it, since when I try to "edit" the line doesn't even show on the edit page - only the published page.

Can someone check it out?

Thanks, A.Pacchia

Is this what you were referring to? Seems that it was caught in about half an hour. Well it seems fine now.. in the future use WP:HD instead of this desk --froth^{T C} 17:11, 17 October 2006 (UTC)

USB Cables

I am interested in controlling electricity in a usb cable. My aim is to send a small but significant voltage to a device the other end.

I understand that there are three main parts to a usb cable, a live wire, a ground wire and two twisted wires for data.

Can the two power wires be controlled from a computer?

I don't really know what to search for, Google has given me a list of USB based products which doesn't help much and any pages which are related tell me information I already know.

Could you suggest some online resources which would make this easier or explain how i would go about doing it.

Thanks very much

PeteL 18:28, 17 October 2006 (UTC)

I suppose that actual functionality would depend on your USB controller, but the specification doesn't allow for any variation in power. You're better off just using the power lines for power and resisting it depending on what's on the data lines. USB uses differential signaling to reduce interference so you might want to read up on that before trying to design your own controller. Also the data lines are asynchronous so make sure it's not oscillating before addressing it to the resistors (or variable resistor). Or if I'm totally off here and you don't need variable power, just use the power lines and interrupt them when you don't need power (use the data lines to determine this) --froth^{T C} 18:54, 17 October 2006 (UTC)

Have you looked at our USB article, and more importantly, some of the external links on that page? --LarryMac 18:59, 17 October 2006 (UTC)

nivbamit 12:28, 23 October 2006 (UTC)

1. "Small but significant voltage" is not a term I can relate to - The USB standard (2.0 as well as the older 1.1) allows you to consume, from the embedded host, up to 5Vdc/500mA (total of 2.5W but check the USB spec for conditions). This power can be converted, within the allowed consumption limits, to whatever voltage/current combination using a DC-to-DC converter circuit.

2. The above power source is available, as described (and assuming your computer complies with the USB standard), from the two outer pins of the USB host connector.

These could be controlled by the host computer only if it is equipped with a power/load switch (normally, a power MOSFET circuit such as Fairchild's Load Switches). Some software driver for this function is required as well.

If the above are not provided in your computer, you will need to add them externally with some kind of a control (on-off switching) circuit. This control circuit could be based on a simple switch, the computer's parallel (or serial) port (with some software driver) or better yet, with an OTG USB controller (like Cypress' CY7C67200) attached to the very same USB port, which would allow you to (software) control this circuit from your computer.

3. The best online resources I'm aware of are the above mentioned Fairchild and Cypress sites, in addition to: Intel's Resource Center, the USB Implementers' website, and the Interfacebus site.

Nokia cell phone

i know this is not exactly a computing question but i hope one of you can help me out. i have a Nokia 3155i (Virgin Mobile edition). i know it can play MP3 and AAC because most of the ringtunes it comes with are in those formats. I am wondering how i could load my own MP3 music from my computer onto it and use it as an mp3 player. does it have a music player interface? i couldnt find it in the menus. Also, i know it only fits 12 MB. is there anyway to expand the memory?

They talk a little about connecting to your computer on their page, but don't mention sound files. You could always ask them. —Bromskloss 01:00, 18 October 2006 (UTC)

October 18

How does a PC find a specific web page on a server in another location?

When I type www.amazon.com and press enter, do electronic signals search the entire web. This may sound naive, but does a pulse go to China, Germany and look for it? I know the words are a pointer to a number but I just don't understand the path the electonic car takes to deliver the correct page. Thank you. This has been on my mind for a while.

Your computer sends "www.amazon.com" to your nameserver. You don't know what your nameserver is. It is provided to you by whoever is providing your internet access. The nameserver send back the real name for "www.amazon.com", which is 72.21.206.5. Then, your computer sends the request to the real name, which is easy to find. It is on the "72" network. From there, it is on the "21" subnetwork. From there, it is on the "206" subnetwork. From there, it is computer "5". --Kainaw ^(talk) 02:02, 18 October 2006 (UTC)

Uh not exactly. The IP address is a unique identifier that's composed for four octets that happen to be separated by dots, they're not subdomains. See my answer to a similar question here. This is an extremely complex question and internet archetecture is a pretty mind-boggling topic. the ISOC has a lot of good articles about it if you're a member. --froth^{T C} 05:37, 18 October 2006 (UTC)

It appears you think subnetwork is a typo for subdomain. They are two completely different words. --Kainaw ^(talk) 16:10, 18 October 2006 (UTC)

Thanks for thinking!

It happens “automagically”, using complex technology to produce miraculously simple results. The first part of the process involves changing a name to a number, which involves domain name resolution via the domain name system. In a common case like amazon.com, it is likely that the name can be resolved without external requests, because it has been seen before. The resulting IP address is like a street address for a postal service, an exact destination on the Web. Ever wonder how a physical package reaches its destination? Tracking sites for, say, UPS or FedEx show a series of intermediate steps along the way. The Internet uses packet-switching technology to accomplish much the same thing with electronic “packages”, sending the data along a path that is dynamically determined at each step by target and traffic. A large message will be broken into smaller packets, and each packet may take a different route; thus out-of-order reassembly is needed at the destination. At each step, local software uses large tables of connections, speeds, and reliabilities — all constantly updated — to choose where next to transfer the packet. If an accident or congestion takes out one path, another will be used.

Fortunately, all this resolving and routing can be done without any step requiring information about the entire Web. By keeping only local data about a small piece of the whole, each step can be quick and reliable.

In the famous words of Arthur C. Clarke, “Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.” --KSmrq^T 07:49, 18 October 2006 (UTC)

I think the article on router is a good starting point to understanding network traffic. Vespine 05:25, 19 October 2006 (UTC)

ipod

Can you put video found on DVD on an ipod?

Yes, there are several tools to do this. With Windows, I tend to use the Videora iPod Video Converter. -- Consumed Crustacean (talk) 01:22, 18 October 2006 (UTC)

thankyou

Can't find mpdat.exe

Every time I turn my PC on, it gives this message. Is mpdat.exe an important file? Should I be worried it's not there? And how can I get it to stop saying that if not? Cheers --212.100.250.212 01:58, 18 October 2006 (UTC)

Google says that mpdat.exe is bad stuff; more specifically, it's an IRC/botnet trojan. I'd run a full virus/adware scan, just incase. If you do have a virus scanner, it could be showing that message because it caught and removed the file. It could also be because the botnet operator decided to nuke the network, for whatever reason. -- Consumed Crustacean (talk) 02:02, 18 October 2006 (UTC)

It's done this for quite a while now and my scans haven't turned anything up. If the virus has gone then how could I get this message to stop coming up. It's the standard 'Windows can't find this file, you may want to search for it' box. I guess it's not going to be easy...? --212.100.250.212 02:09, 18 October 2006 (UTC)

It's showing up because Windows is still trying to run it. Try running msconfig.exe in the run box (Win+R). I'm still betting something is there though, or this wouldn't be suddenly showing (unless you had it all along and the botnet operator caused it to self-destruct). Is your AV up to date and everything? -- Consumed Crustacean (talk) 02:29, 18 October 2006 (UTC)

Yeah AV is up to date. Ok thanks for that command, I'm going to go through what is causing it. Thanks! --212.100.250.212 02:49, 18 October 2006 (UTC)

Might want to try another AV if it's not catching it try Avast!. I switched over to Avast! about a year ago and it picked up 9 trojans that Macafee said I didn't have. Whispering 20:36, 19 October 2006 (UTC)

Lanczos Resampling

Hi, I'm trying to put together a program that can resize images using the Lanczos kernel. I already have the code to convert the image to an array of RGB values. However, I'm not sure how to convolve this two-dimensional image with the Lanczos kernel. The article seems to indicate that there exists a two-dimensional formula for kernel. Does anyone know what it would be? Or I might be going about the problem in the wrong way. I would greatly appreciate any advice. Thanks. Austboss 03:57, 18 October 2006 (UTC)

A bit of guessing here. The one-dimensional thing was

$L(x)={\begin{cases}{\frac {2\sin(\pi x)\sin \left({\frac {\pi }{2}}x\right)}{\pi ^{2}x^{2}}}&-2<x<2,\,x\neq 0\\1&x=0\\0&\mathrm {otherwise} \end{cases}}$.

Is it unreasonable to believe that we would get the two-dimensional version if we interpret $x$ as the distance in the two-dimensional plane, rather than just on the one-dimension axis? —Bromskloss 09:48, 18 October 2006 (UTC)

Oh, and another thing. Is this method considered to be the best for resizing images? We don't seem to have an article comparing different algorithms. —Bromskloss 09:50, 18 October 2006 (UTC)

Thanks for the responses, Bromskloss. I've been looking into this for several hours now, and I think I've figured out what I was doing wrong. Just in case anyone cares, I'll explain it here. To resample and resize a two-dimensional (or more, actually) image using a filter like this, you need only apply the one-dimensional version multiple times. That is, first resize one dimension of the image, and then resize the resulting "intermediate" image in the other dimension. Also, we don't have an article comparing them, but there has been extensive work done comparing various sampling algorithms. The Lanczos kernel, while not always the best, is generally considered to be a good choice when both computation time and image quality are considerations. Most image processing software uses this filter as the default. I'll probably try to update the article with this information soon. Austboss 11:40, 18 October 2006 (UTC)

Ah, one dimension at a time. Convenient. Why is it that one talks about two- and three-lobed versions but not higher numbers? I mean, wouldn't it be better to have as wide a window as possible? And which algorithm should one choose if computation time isn't a problem? —Bromskloss 12:34, 18 October 2006 (UTC)

The proposal to process one dimension at a time means working with a separable filter. That is, the impulse response H(x,y) factors as F(x)G(y). A Gaussian filter is both radially symmetric and separable, but it's special that way. Replacing a 1D Lanczos filter in x with a 2D filter in radius does not give a separable filter. However, for resizing purposes, use of two 1D filters gives a very good result quite a bit more cheaply. The education links at Rice University might be helpful. --KSmrq^T 15:36, 18 October 2006 (UTC)

Ah, I think I see it. The circular symmetric function I proposed, needs to be shaped square for us to get the separable version, right? —Bromskloss 15:48, 18 October 2006 (UTC)

Questions reguarding the Task Manager in Windows XP

One, whenever I turn on my computer, and I log onto Windows as the owner, and I press ctrl+alt+del to bring up the task manager, a window pops up saying "THE TASK MANAGER HAS BEEN DISABLED BY YOUR ADMINISTRATOR" with a red circle and an X in it. So I looked on Google to see if there were anyways to fix this, and I found that by running REG add HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System /v DisableTaskMgr /t REG_DWORD /d 0 /f in the "run..." in my start menu, it enables me to view my task manager, but only for that current session of windows. If I logout or restart my computer, the task manager becomes disabled again. Please note that I am the only user on this computer, and I am the administrator, so obviously it's an error message that shouldn't come up. My question is, is there a way to permanently enable the task manager so I don't have to run that application to enable it every time I turn on my computer? Thanks.

And then my second question is, I use the task manager to terminate "owner" (as opposed to SYSTEM or LOCAL/NETWORK SERVER) programs that begin at startup. Is there a way to permanently stop these programs from running themselves whenever I turn on my computer? My computer has low specs and if I don't stop those programs immediately at startup then my computer functions very slowly. Thanks for answering my questions. --Ķĩřβȳ♥ŤįɱéØ 05:12, 18 October 2006 (UTC)

For your first problem try this. For your second question, run regedit and browse to HKCU/Software/Microsoft/Windows/CurrentVersion/Run. These items on the right are startup items, just delete ones you don't need (but dont delete anything that you don't know what it is). Also look in the Startup folder in your start menu (both for you and for the All Users pseudo-profile) --froth^{T C} 05:28, 18 October 2006 (UTC)

Or, for a somewhat less daunting way of managing startup programs, run msconfig (enter it into the run box (Win+R)), and click Startup. -- Consumed Crustacean (talk) 06:26, 18 October 2006 (UTC)

Regedit seems to be disabled too (!) "Registry editing has been disabled by your administrator". Will the fix for the first problem fix this one too? --Ķĩřβȳ♥ŤįɱéØ 07:19, 18 October 2006 (UTC)

Also, I ran that program at symantec.com and it said it didn't find anything. --Ķĩřβȳ♥ŤįɱéØ 08:31, 18 October 2006 (UTC)

It's definately malware, google around for a fix --froth^{T C} 14:15, 18 October 2006 (UTC)

Shareaza's Advanced Settings

I'm trying to tweek them to get the most powerful searches, fastest downloads, and anything, and everything that fits along these lines, etc.. For example, I want to get as many possiblities in my bittorrent downloads, so do it make it 100% in BitTorrent.BandwidthPercentage. Like, what does that even mean? Help would be greatly appreciated. You can also reply on my talk page. Thanks! Danke!100110100 10:10, 18 October 2006 (UTC)

It means that you shouldn't use shareaza because 1) It's horrificly bloated and 2) Because it has poor bittorrent support. Many trackers will refuse to serve clients running shareaza; you're better off using utorrent. Oh and I guess that BitTorrent.BandwidthPercentage is probably the percentage of your bandwidth that is allocated to torrent traffic rather than other "networks" like gnutella which shareaza also supports. --froth^{T C} 14:13, 18 October 2006 (UTC)

html forms

i was making a form field bit for a web page and i got the

form action="MAILTO:email address"
method="post" enctype="text/plain"

i was wondering can i add anything/edit something that will allow me to control what the subject line of the email will be?--Colsmeghead 14:38, 18 October 2006 (UTC)

Yes, you can. The body text too, in fact.

mailto:user@example.com?subject=This_is_the_subject&body=This_is_the_body

Remember to percent-encode any characters that need it. For example, if you want spaces (instead of the underscores I used), you use "%20". —Bromskloss 15:39, 18 October 2006 (UTC)

Oh, wait. You're using a form? Hmm, are you sure you don't just want an ordinary link? Like this:

<a href="mailto:user@example.com">Link text</a>

—Bromskloss 15:43, 18 October 2006 (UTC)

I think he wants a form so you can type the message in the web page. First - that is a very dumb thing to do unless you really desire getting spam-injection in your web-based forms. If you want to do it, drop the "method='post'" so it is all on get. Then, add the subject as a hidden input tag and keep the textarea you are likely using as the body. --Kainaw ^(talk) 16:13, 18 October 2006 (UTC)

DFT bins

I often read terms like transform bin or DFT bin in papers concerning DFT and other transforms.. Can you explain me the meaning? --Ulisse0 16:44, 18 October 2006 (UTC)

Version numbers

I've read the version article, but I have two questions:

1. What happens if I am at version 1.9 and want to release a new version with a minor update? What should the next version be called? Is version 1.10 understandable? Or would I have had to start with v.1.01 (the extra '0') all along?
2. The article says that the major version number only gets changed for major upgrades. But what happens if I keep releasing minor upgrades? No one upgrade is enough to say "this is a major upgrade", but version 1.7 (say) is by now really different than version 1.0. Should one arbitrarily say "now this version is different enough than 1.0 that the next minor upgrade will get the number 2.0"?

I'm not so interested in the marketing forces behind version numbers, just the general practice.

Thanks! --Sam

"1.10" is perfectly okay, and has been used in some circumstances. It should be pronounced "one point ten". As for major upgrades, it's entirely up to whomever releases the program. The convention on what constitutes a major upgrade varies wildly, but generally major UI changes constitute major versions. —BorgHunter (talk) 17:52, 18 October 2006 (UTC)

Personally, I always thought if you have 10 updates at one level, then you don't have enough levels. I always used a three step version, MAJOR.MINOR.FIX, to avoid this problem. After I had 9 fixes, then I would put out a minor version. After I had 9 minor versions, then I would put out a major version. StuRat 18:00, 18 October 2006 (UTC)

But why would the random fact that we have ten fingers (i.e. that we have a base-10 counting system) have any bearing on when a program should have a major release? Capping a maximum of x updates at one level is something that ought to be decided by the specific program, not fixed by our counting system, I would have thought. No? --Sam

If I were using hex numbering, then I would stop at version F, I suppose. StuRat 21:56, 18 October 2006 (UTC)

Add another level, [version 1.9.1] is quite legitimate. Vespine 05:18, 19 October 2006 (UTC)

NPROTECT folder

When I use various scanning programs, it scans a folder (apprently hidden) NPROTECT. So what is in there and why is it hidden? - Tutmosis 18:32, 18 October 2006 (UTC)

Are you kidding me... --froth^{T C} 19:39, 18 October 2006 (UTC)

Yea this was a crazy joke I thought up. Man that korean company sure explains why I have a hidden folder. Thanks. - Tutmosis 19:32, 18 October 2006 (UTC)

Check the link again --froth^{T C} 19:39, 18 October 2006 (UTC)

Oh... okay thanks. I tried google but my search wasn't as detailed and it just showed info on nprotect.exe. - Tutmosis 19:52, 18 October 2006 (UTC)

Extending wireless range?

I live in Corpus Christi, where free wireless is being provided by the city. The problem I have is that there are four wireless access points surrounding me, but all four of them are just a little too far away for me to get access on my laptop with built-in wireless. Is there any way that I can extend my range so I can access them from inside my house? 69.154.49.244 19:43, 18 October 2006 (UTC)

You can get signal boosting replacement antennae quite easily from computer stores/websites, but they are usually for desktop PCs (the antennas themselves are detachable even if the wireless network card isn't). I think Laptop antennas are built in; if not, i'd like to know where to get one too. CaptainVindaloo ^{t c e} 19:49, 18 October 2006 (UTC)

Laptops with built in wireless cards do, indeed, also have the antenna built in, so you're kind of stuck there. There is, however, nothing preventing you from disabling the built in adapter and using a Pcmcia or Usb adapter, such as this one. Livitup 04:01, 19 October 2006 (UTC)

One possibility would be to use some kind of wireless bridge? TERdON 23:54, 21 October 2006 (UTC)

Some registry keys

Got a virus or something a while back that screwed around with my registry. Although I removed the virus, the registry stands broken. An issue is that when I hit start, then {my documents, my computer, my network places, my pictures, control panel, my music}, nothing happens. So I navigated to an area in the registry: HKLM/SOFTWARE/Microsoft/Windows/CurrentVersion/Explorer/StartMenu/StartPanel. I think the virus messed with the entries in there. Specifically, each folder (ControlPanel, MyPics, etc) has three subfolders (Hide, Menu, and Open) that might be malicious. Seeking guidance before I go and delete something. Hyenaste ^(tell) 20:03, 18 October 2006 (UTC)

Do a Google search for "Tweak UI" ... install it, run it ... there should be repair functionality within it that might help with this issue. If I remember correctly, that is. :) A Google search for "repair Special Folders" might yield some results as well. Good luck! JubalHarshaw 20:17, 18 October 2006 (UTC)

TweakUI was fun, but the Repair Regedit didn't fix anything. Still checking Google for "repair Special Folders"... Hyenaste ^(tell) 20:41, 18 October 2006 (UTC)

(edit conflict) I've got Norton SystemWorks, which has a tool called WinDoctor (love CamelCase, don't they?). That would fix something like this. You could borrow a CD from someone and run it off the disc, but I think there is a similar standard Windows tool that would do the job, only I can't remember what it is called... CaptainVindaloo ^{t c e} 20:21, 18 October 2006 (UTC)

Making money from web design

I'm reasonably handy with web design and CSS, and good at Photoshop too, and I'm sure there's some way to make money out of this but I'm not sure how. I designed a website for a friend's business which netted me a cool £80, but friends with businesses are not thick on the ground and so I need clients. Problem is, I have no idea where to start: I don't have the time or inclination to set up a fully-fledged web design company. Worth1000.com has corporate Photoshop logo contests, where companies pay you money to design a logo for them. Is there a similar thing for web design? Or have you any other ideas? Thanks.

(also, speaking of Worth1000's contests: these seem too good to be true to me. Not that I don't think they're genuine, but it just seems to me that only a small percentage of Photoshoppers are good enough to design acceptably professional corporate logos, otherwise everyone could do it. How easy is it?) Sum0 20:15, 18 October 2006 (UTC)

There isn't much money in "web design". The money is in "web maintenance". Get a hosted server that can easily hold 10-20 websites. Then, hit up a few small businesses that need cheap websites. You'll get a big payment for the initial design and then charge them every month to host it (and make minor changes). I have many clients who pay every month that haven't asked for even the smallest change to their site in years. Over time, you'll have a rather stable income that allows you to think about getting some kid to do your web design work and then you charge money and do nothing at all. --Kainaw ^(talk) 20:22, 18 October 2006 (UTC)

Freezing and Jumbled Screen

I recently built a new computer. First build and is going horribly bad.

After finding out the RAM was bad I bought a new pair of sticks and now after getting the system booted randomly the system freezes and the screen jumbles/scatters. Also when I try to reboot the system via the front reset button the system is unresponsive. I am forced to turn off the system via the psu switch. When I turn the switch back on and try to turn the computer on it will not turn on unless i play around witht the motherboards atx connector at which point the system boots but their is no display and the system is unresponsive again. IF i leave turnthe main power off for 20 minutes then the system will boot.

I believe it may be a motherboard problem because my motherboard (asus m2n-e) is riddled with bios problems. I currently have bios 0402 installed and have maxed out the vdimm's to 1.95v. My RAM runs at 1.8v so there is alot of overhead.

Ram timings have been manually set to 4-4-4-8 2T. CPU frquency is at 220 mhz and cpu multiplier is at 11x. In addition the cpu voltage is set to 1.5625 V and is offset by 50mV. These settings have given me longest up time but the system does still crash.

The system specs include:

Amd 4200+ X2, Asus m2n-e, Asus en7600gs (256mb), Kingston valueselect 2X512 pc4200, Enermax noisetakeII 420W, 250 gig WD SATAII hd.

Thanks in advance Rahul.

Your problems sound somewhat like a PSU problem (though it could be a motherboard problem). You can test it with a paperclip and some duct tape as seen here. Unplug it from everything except for a fan or a light, then leave it running for a while and see if anything goes wrong. Safety first: make sure everything's unplugged when you insert the paperclip, cover it with duct tape for safety, and then turn everything on. I've no idea if this will definitely show up any problems, but it might help. Sum0 21:07, 18 October 2006 (UTC)

I just tried another psu. ThermalTake TR2- 430 W. Same problem but now the jumbled screen wasn't as bad. The original display on the monitor wer scattered and the text was readable. Could my problem be that my psu is too weak for the job? The one i just tried is 430W and the last one was 420w.

Well, I'm no expert but I think that would be enough. If you get the same problems then it sounds like the problem is somewhere else... If you have spare unused components you could try replacing the components in your PC with them and seeing if that solves the problem, in which case the component you replaced would be faulty. I'm not really sure what the problem might be, so you might be better off trying another site like Guru3D. Sum0 09:47, 20 October 2006 (UTC)

nesting in css

when you nest in css, for example

body table { width:100% }

where that would make the width of all tables in the body 100%, can you do something like:

#myID table.myClass { ...; } thanks.

--66.193.5.99

Sounds like you need to read about specificity of selectors. A more specific selector (which that ID would provide) will dominate a less specific one.

Incidentally, it's (usually) silly to say "body table", since a table could appear nowhere else. --KSmrq^T 08:17, 19 October 2006 (UTC)

If you're asking about cascading and selectors, then yes, they work that way. --Kjoonlee 09:28, 19 October 2006 (UTC)

LaTeX formatting

I've got a pretty nice-looking LaTeX document, with just a handful of tables and figures. So few, in fact, that it seems really stupid to have the List of Figures on one page and List of Tables on the other. Is there any way to stop them automatically creating a new page? Confusing Manifestation 20:51, 18 October 2006 (UTC)

You could probably use \renewcommand to redefine the \tableofcontents not to include a \clearpage (or whatever does the page break) at the end. This might be what the original looks like (found in the file book.cls:

\newcommand\tableofcontents{%
    \if@twocolumn
      \@restonecoltrue\onecolumn
    \else
      \@restonecolfalse
    \fi
    \chapter*{\contentsname
        \@mkboth{%
           \MakeUppercase\contentsname}{\MakeUppercase\contentsname}}%
    \@starttoc{toc}%
    \if@restonecol\twocolumn\fi
    }

Hmm, I don't know how to modify this so as not to make it start on a new page. :-( I see no \clearpage, for example. —Bromskloss 12:20, 19 October 2006 (UTC)

I almost have an answer, but unfortunately I don't know what makes LaTeX generate thoses lists in the first place. Can you specify more about your file? Is it two-column, for instance, so that the automatic returns to two-column mode force a page break? Are you using some particular package and/or command to generate the lists? --Tardis 20:27, 19 October 2006 (UTC)

I decided I could live without them, but the commands I used were \listoffigures and \listoftables. Confusing Manifestation 10:10, 21 October 2006 (UTC)

I use both of those commands for my thesis. I am using the article class and they do not make new pages between them for me. I use \listoffigures before \listoftables if that makes a difference. Ansell 10:39, 21 October 2006 (UTC)

October 19

Chmod < Linux < Internet < Computing

Hello I have read countless tutorials on the web about the issue of chmod on Unix-like computers.

Basicly you can set the permissions of a file or directory (by chmod'ing it) to control who can read, write and execute it.

A good explanation of this is here: http://www.phpdebutant.com/articles/CHMOD-777.php

What always seems to be lacking from any tutorial on chmod, that i have found, is exactly WHO is the 'user', 'group' or 'world'. (Or at least there are conflicting defintions.)

I have a website, which sits on the World Wide Web.

If i am right in believing many of these chmod articles - if i chmod 777 a file in the publicly accessable part of my server's file system (below my web root), this would mean that the World (or sometimes called 'All') can read, write and execute that file.

So, if i chmod a directory below my web root - does this mean that ANYONE can just upload files to it? or does 'World' in the chmod sense actually mean - anyone who has access to the inner workings of the machine that the file sits on?

So, in a chmod-sense who is World?

The reason why i'm trying to find this out is because i am about to use a dedicated server, which means that the only person who has access to the machine is me.

Therefore, should i worry about chmoding something to 777 in my document root, bearing in mind that i will be the only person who can FTP to the machine, login to the command shell, etc.?

I would appreciate any helpful definitive answers.

Notes about this question. Pre-empting some answers... In the tutorial i linked-to above it says that World includes websurfers. Yet, i find documentation of various PHP applications (which seem to be have been running well for years without problems) telling me to chmod 777 web-browsable folders as part of the installation process (and not saying to un-chmod it away from 777 after). See: http://fudforum.org/doc/d/manual.html#install.wizard.step1

So this kind of thing only confuses me more!

--Ronnystalker 00:09, 19 October 2006 (UTC)

File permissions on a *nix system always refer back to the account and group that own the file. You can view this information if you type 'ls -l' at the command line. You will see two names after the permissions column, the first is the account that owns the file, the second is the group that owns the file. These can be changed using the chown and chgrp commands. By default, if you create a file, the owner and group will be set to yourself, and your primary group. Where this comes into play as far as webservers are concerned, is that the webserver itself actually runs as, and accesses files, as a user on the system. Most webservers run under the guise of a special account, such as "apache" or "nobody" so that hackers can't access special system files via the web server. So, if you create a web page, and the user/group gets set to your own account and group, the webserver won't even be able to read the file when a client requests it. That's why most web files are changed to less strict permissions. If the webserver needs to be able to change a file, such as a simple database or something, then I could see using permissions like 777, though just 774 should be enough for most static web pages. I'm not an expert on web security though, so I'll defer that last bit to someone more qualified. Livitup 04:12, 19 October 2006 (UTC)

Another note about "world". What that really means is "anyone who is not the owner of the file, or a member of the group that owns the file." So world includes the account the webserver is running as. If you place a script on your webserver that allows users to upload files to your server, then it would need a world-writable directory (or a directory the webserver's account owns) to put the files in. That doesn't mean that anyone in the world can just put files on your server, the webserver has to execute some kind of code to let them do it, either planned (in the case of our file-uploader script) or unplanned (hacking). Livitup 04:17, 19 October 2006 (UTC)

I don't have any proof of this, but it's my understanding that sometimes webservers (particularly if running as root) determine and simulate the permissions on a file, rather than being bound by them but otherwise ignoring them. Typically, then, websurfers (who in general aren't authenticated as anyone in particular) are treated as "world", and HTTP PUT commands may be used iff the target file (if it exists) or its containing directory (if it does not) are world-writable. So (unless you want PUT) giving world-write is probably a bad idea, since it's never useful to servers that need permissions and sometimes damaging with servers that grant permissions. (If the server itself, but not websurfers, needs to be able to write to a file, it should be owned by the server user/group.) --Tardis 16:31, 19 October 2006 (UTC)

The simplest answer to to the first question (who is 'user', 'group' and 'world') is that the user is the account that owns the file, group is the group that is given access to the file, and world is all other user accounts on the host in question. The key is that all of these terms refer to local users on the host. The web server, as with all applications, run as a specific user. In most installations of the Linux system, the most common web server (apache) runs as the 'apache' or 'httpd' or 'nobody' user. You can see who owns a file or directory by running 'ls -l filename' and you can see the user as which a program is running by running 'ps auxf | grep programname' (where programname is something like 'httpd'. A list of all users (that can own files) is in /etc/passwd, and a list of all groups (and who is in them) is stored in /etc/group (caveat - this does not apply if your system is running NIS, and if you don't know what that means, don't worry).

Regarding the second part of your question - what is the effect of setting a directory to mode 777 within your document root, it is always something to be nervous about because if the application that the web server is running (your wiki, forum, bulletin board, etc.) is not secure, then web users can abuse that area. However, many of those applications need a space the web server can write to in order to do things like allow users to upload their own avatars and so on. In reality, what those applications really mean is that the user as which the web server runs must have write access to that directory. You could, instead of making the directory mode 777, change ownership to the user as which the web server runs and make it mode 700 or more (750, 755, 775, etc.). However, since getting permissions exactly right is sometimes difficult, most applications installation instructions simply say 'make it mode 777' and ignore the subtleties. The bottom line is that (especially on a system on which you are the only user) the security of the application itself is more important than setting a directory mode 777. The concern you have for openinig the directory to the 'world' is more applicable to a system on which there are many (untrusted) users; since the directory is mode 777, any local user can modify the contents. In that case, it is safer to set the directory to be owned by the web user and mode 755, which will allow the web software to write to the directory but will not allow other malicious local users to modify the contents. --Maplebed 04:10, 22 October 2006 (UTC)

Font Not Detected in MS Word

According to this article, MS Word does not support "custom" fonts which have been manipulated by a font program. I have a font I created in FontForge that I would like to use in MS Word. Does anyone know how Word can tell that a font is "custom" and if there is any way to override this? (I have Word 2004 for Mac.) --72.140.146.246 01:11, 19 October 2006 (UTC)

You misquote the article. It does not say "MS Word" does not support such fonts, meaning it will not recognize and use them; it says "Microsoft" does not support them, meaning if you have a problem don't call Redmond. --KSmrq^T 08:22, 19 October 2006 (UTC)

Form information in Firefox

Firefox saves form information and makes suggestions when I type in a form field. The suggestions come in a kind of drop-down list. I know how to clear this list altogether, but what I want to do is clear some items from the list but not others. It's possible to do this in IE by highlighting the item and pressing Delete, but this doesn't work in Firefox. Any idea as to whether this can be done? Many thanks. --Richardrj ^{talk email} 08:58, 19 October 2006 (UTC)

I always use shift-delete (a matter of habbit) and it works in Windows 2000. I haven't tried with plain delete, though. (Using Firefox 2.0 RC3.) --Kjoonlee 09:18, 19 October 2006 (UTC)

That works! Thank you! --Richardrj ^{talk email} 09:38, 19 October 2006 (UTC)

How does it know…

…what suggestions to put on the list? Sometimes, it seems to me that it is showing things I entered into other forms on a nearby page. —Bromskloss 10:20, 19 October 2006 (UTC)

I've noticed that as well. It seems to be quite random. --Richardrj ^{talk email} 12:21, 19 October 2006 (UTC)

If you "view source", you will see that the input field has the same name as other input fields that you've put information it. So, Firefox assumes that if you type "Detroit" in an input field marked "City", then you will likely want to type "Detriot" in an input field marked "City" on another website. --Kainaw ^(talk) 13:17, 19 October 2006 (UTC)

This could lead to interesting results:

FORM 1
 List the name of the person to receive the Mother's Day:
  PERSON:______

FORM 2
 List the name of the person to receive your naked pics:
  PERSON:______

StuRat 15:40, 19 October 2006 (UTC)

It can't be just the name, can it? You mean it has nothing to do with who is serving the page? —Bromskloss 15:51, 19 October 2006 (UTC)

There's some context related to page (logins, for example). However, for info form things -- nope, not related to server. Firefox nearly always assumes that I want to enter the same email address whenever prompted at a new site. — Lomn 20:21, 19 October 2006 (UTC)

Size

Q-1)What is the total size of whole wikipedia website?

Q-2)from where can we download the whole website? --Utkarshkukreti 13:54, 19 October 2006 (UTC)

            1 - Whole site adds upto about 6gb

            2 - Download from http://download.wikipedia.org/ choose the ones you want.

Except that the enwiki page has "5 items failed", including the "all pages" ones... Loganberry (Talk) 01:15, 20 October 2006 (UTC)

Q-3)IS THERE ANY SINGLE LINK TO DOWNLOAD ALL DATA AS A SINGLE FILES?

Q-4)IS THE WHOLE DUMP OF 6GB AVAILABLE ON DVD/CD?

Please don't use caps, it's not the most polite. If you count that DB dump, yeah, that's a single file, though you'll need MySQL to use? There is a Wikipedia CD project if that is what you are looking for. Splintercellguy 07:13, 20 October 2006 (UTC)

GOOGLE SKETCH UP

how do you create domes and cones on google sketch up???--84.67.66.218 13:58, 19 October 2006 (UTC)

It's tricksy. From their website: [1] -- Consumed Crustacean (talk) 14:16, 19 October 2006 (UTC)

building a website with credit card payment functionality

hi, i am building a website for a client which is the basic store with inventory browse put stuff in shopping cart checkout and pay with credit card. what is the common way people go about this without a 3rd party payment system? what is it usually written in? is asp.net common or usually php or somethign else? what kind of services will i need from my domain host(not sure who is hosting the site yet)? obviously i dont know much about how to do this but i have plenty of time and am a good learner. thanks for any input, im sure ill have a few follow-up questions though Modesty84 15:08, 19 October 2006 (UTC)

This isn't advised in general, because of the potential of credit card info being compromised. One of the reasons for using another company is also to put the blame on them in case anything happens, as far as I know. However, I'm not too sure if there are relatively secure software to handle money transactions, since it's been a few years since I worked in IT. --Wirbelwind 02:49, 20 October 2006 (UTC)

Avoid doing this AT ALL COSTS. If at all possible, you should use a 3rd party payment system such as authorize.net and do not store the credit card information on your own. If you must create this type of system, follow the Payment Card Industry (PCI) recommendations (https://www.pcisecuritystandards.org/), and hire an auditor to do a complete audit of the card-related portions of your code. It doesn't matter what language you use; it does matter that it is secure. --Maplebed 04:18, 22 October 2006 (UTC)

.wmv to .mov

Is there any program that could convert .wmv (Windows Media Video) to .mov (QuickTime)? I have a .wmv file, but I want to put it into my iTunes library, and iTunes isn't compatible with .wmv nor able to convert it like it can .wma. Any suggestions? —Akrabbim^talk 15:18, 19 October 2006 (UTC)

I think this will tell you everything you need to know [2]. - Tutmosis 15:39, 19 October 2006 (UTC)

Thanks. I appreciate it. —Akrabbim^talk 14:35, 20 October 2006 (UTC)

Spy software

Do Spybot and Ad-Aware do the same basic things? It seems to me that they do but I'm not sure... Dismas|^(talk) 17:18, 19 October 2006 (UTC)

The free version of Ad-Aware does the same basic task of Spybot - identify and attempt to remove spyware. However, each program has its own other features - for example, Spybot has a resident program that protects sensitive registry entries upon modification. However, each program has a different database and hence there may be some variants of spyware one program can remove but not the other. The paid version of Ad-Aware does quite a bit more. x42bn6 Talk 18:05, 19 October 2006 (UTC)

According to a PC World (no link sorry) article, it is best if you use them together. They do not interfere with each other. --inky 07:18, 20 October 2006 (UTC)

Website menu templates

On a website with frames you can have a menu.html for every page, and so if you want to change the menu you just change menu.html and it instantly updates on all "pages". However, without frames the menu is in the HTML for every page and so if you want to change the menu on every page you have to go through all the pages laboriously changing the menu. A friend of mine asked if there was a better way to do this, i.e. having a centralised menu that can be changed and updates on all pages immediately (using PHP or something?) and I honestly didn't know. So... is there? Sum0 18:21, 19 October 2006 (UTC)

Server Side Includes are one fairly straightfoward way to do it. It might require a bit of configuration of the webserver to enable, but after that, you just do the <--#include virtual="menu.html"--> bit. Any complex system (eg. php like you mentioned, or content management systems like wikimedia) would have their own way to do it as well. --Interiot 19:42, 19 October 2006 (UTC)

Ah, that looks very useful. Thank you! Sum0 09:39, 20 October 2006 (UTC)

Format HFS+ iPod to FAT32 without using Windows

Hi :-) I'd quite like to install Rockbox onto my iPod (4th generation, colour), but my iPod is HFS+ formatted, and I've been told that Rockbox only works on FAT32 iPods. I don't have a Windows computer handy, so is there any way I can FAT32 format my iPod with either Mac OS X Tiger or Ubuntu 6.06? Surely formatting it as an ordinary disk would stop the iPod firmware from working properly, and I the iPod updater (I think it's integrated into iTunes now) will only format iPods as HFS+. I think. Thanks :-) --Saxsux 18:51, 19 October 2006 (UTC)

Azureus GB download size DECREASES!

Hi all! I found nowhere else in the Net but here to ask this. I'm trying to download a 2.80 GB file through Azureus (from torrent.to). I was a few days ago at 180 Mb, but every few minutes, the file starts decreasing to less than that! I'm currently at... 2 Mb!!! Azureus says that it has discarded 24.XX MB, and Hash fails: 867 (1.67 GB)!! What am I doing wrong? Is it an Azureus problem? Is it a tracker problem? I'd already deleted a 1.38 GB file with the same problem... and I was at 80% already T-T! I have DHT disabled, but I have already downloaded other GB-size files before with the same configuration... Please HELP! Kreachure 23:45, 19 October 2006 (UTC)

My first thought is that there's a governmental peer seeding with something that fits the checksums but is not the actual piece, causing torrents to discard it and download it again and discard it. In other words, it's a torrent with a bad source. And is it 180 Mb downloaded total, or 180 Mb complete? If it downloads 180 Mb and discards 180 Mb, you still have 0 Mb of valid data. There's a fault with CRC32 where multiple files can have the same checksum, thus making bad files possible. That's why some like MD5, etc. I'm not sure if this helps, or even if this should be asked here, but from what you said, this is about as much as I can answer. --Wirbelwind 02:45, 20 October 2006 (UTC)

Er, I don't quite get the difference between "downloaded total" and "complete"... the total size of the file is 2.80 Gb, and as of right now (*sobs*), it says: Downloaded: 0 Mb (24.87 Mb discarded)! (the discarded size seems to reset everytime I restart it, ao it might have discarded more before.) And, Hash fails: 898 (1.75 Gb)!!! I've had it going for about three days now (at 17k Down speed average)! Oh, by the way, there are 25 seeds, and 55 peers for the file right now... Do you think I should forget about this file for good? Or is there a way to check, uh, that CRC32 thingie you talk about? Again, if there is a better place to ask this, then please tell me. Thanks! Kreachure 04:05, 20 October 2006 (UTC)

Ok, this is how it works. Say you have a 50 meg file, and the creator of the torrent put each piece to be 1 meg, 50 meg / 1 meg is 50 pieces. Each of these pieces have a checksum, and I believe BT uses CRC32 (the 8 alphanumerics you see on anime episodes for example, are also CRC32). This number tells the program (and you) that the pieces is complete and not corrupt/invalid after you download it. When you download, you're actually downloading a piece at a time, each peer sending a piece. When it hits the 1 meg mark, the piece is complete, BUT then it checks against the checksum to see if the file is correctly transferred. If the checksum doesn't match with the original, it's discarded. However, that 1 meg still goes on Azureus as 1 meg downloaded, since the 1 meg did get downloaded, just the incorrect 1 meg. So repeat this process for hundreds of pieces, and it'll say you downloaded hundreds of megs, but all were discarded, so you're left with 0 good pieces. Now that the explaination is out of the way, something is happening where none of the pieces you've downloaded are passing the checksum. It could be many things, like you have a bad .torrent file and it has the wrong checksums (I don't know if this can even happen), your internet is transferring poorly (such as losing packets, but even then, there should be error checking for packets, so this probably isn't the case either). Your diskdrive is not saving the pieces right (not likely either, cause Azureus will probably tell you if that's happening), the seeds are all fake (not likely either if there are 25 seeds), or maybe the ISP is blocking something (I don't know if this is possible either, because you're still getting data). I'm not really sure what the situation with you is, but I would probably try to get another .torrent of the same thing from a different source and try that. Someone else might be able to narrow the problem with what you've given, but I've never encountered it. --Wirbelwind 04:34, 20 October 2006 (UTC)

Jacked router? It may be dropping packets because it identifies certain patterns in the packets as bad. Well-known BT problem :) Also, it could be a bad torrent, though it doesn't seem too likely. See http://www.azureuswiki.com/index.php/Torrents_stop_at_99_percent Splintercellguy 07:04, 20 October 2006 (UTC)

Well, I think I'll try finding another torrent for the same thing, and see what happens. Thanks for trying to come up with a problem concerning the ISP or the router, but the Azureus settings are too technical for me to dare tinker around with them (and the wiki doesn't get friendlier either...) ! If the problem pops up again, I'll be more concise then. Thanks again, anyway! Kreachure 18:49, 20 October 2006 (UTC)
PS. I'm not a caveman, either!

October 20

Using Microsoft DNS server to block sites?

I'm trying to get two things I have done before and combine them, but it's not going too well!

Using Windows Server 2003's DNS server, is it possible to configure an external domain name to resolve to an internal IP? Similar to adding the name to a hosts file to block ads - except on a sitewide basis.

I'm not able to find where this can be added - all that I can think of is that under forward lookup zone, I add a new zone "blockedsite.domain.com" and set it to point to a local IP. I need to be careful as I don't want to block "domain.com" or "www.domain.com", just the subdomain. It needs to be all attempts to access this address, either via the web or otherwise.

This is a third party business I am doing this for so I can't just install extra software. The server is Windows 2000 Server Professional with SP4.

Is there a better way of doing this? Am I missing something obvious? Thanks for any help! -- Chuq 03:08, 20 October 2006 (UTC)

Auto Redirect File in IE

I remember that there was some system file which had a list of URLs which will automatically redirect in IE (e.g. about:blank redirects to some system file). What file is this? Mo-Al 03:11, 20 October 2006 (UTC)

it's the Hosts file and it's not just for IE --froth^{T C} 17:19, 26 October 2006 (UTC)

Downloading torrents when they are blocked

i used to download torrents from my university lab. but somehow the administrator blocked torrent traffic and i am unable to download. is there anyway i can bypass the firewalls? (i ain't downloadin porn !)

If using a different port (default is usually 6881) or proxy doesn't work, you're out of luck. --Wirbelwind 03:38, 20 October 2006 (UTC)

whats wrong with downloading porn? provided its not copyrighted of course. thats why i stick to amateur Modesty84 17:16, 20 October 2006 (UTC)

Most Universities don't allow the downloading of certain materials, including pornography. That said, the easiest way is to change ports or attempt to mask it somehow. Note that I don't know how to do these, but if you are caught, you could face punishment for flouting regulations. x42bn6 Talk 19:31, 20 October 2006 (UTC)

Compression techniques

What is the difference between the various video compression formats?How about the efficiency of DIVX being better than that of MPG??

Use google. I have found this and this from top results in one search. Main points are that some video codecs strive for best quality other for smallest size or fastest encoding or fastest decoding. There are also issues with hardware support (DVD players that support only MPEG2 are more common than those that support both DivX and MPEG2) or open source vs closed source. In short there are a lot of differences. And "efficiency" is very vague term to use here as it can refer to several mutually exclusive parameters. Shinhan 10:47, 20 October 2006 (UTC)

For example, efficiency could mean creating the smallest possible file or using the least amount of CPU time. These two would tend to vary inversely, as it takes more CPU time to compress and decompress an extremely compact format. StuRat 12:20, 21 October 2006 (UTC)

Visual basic question

How would I add a counter in VB, so for every time a button is clicked, a number goes up by one, which displays in a label? Also, how do I make it only go up if criteria is fulfilled?

Many Thanks, --86.142.85.213 18:41, 20 October 2006 (UTC)

This sounds like homework. In VB.net you can declare the counter variable as static or in VB6 you can use a global variable, or store it in the button control's Tag property. I don't remember if VB6 has the static modifier for variable declarations other than arrays. And I'm sure you could figure out conditional statements. 138.162.140.45 19:55, 20 October 2006 (UTC) Eric

are you using vb.net? first at the top of the code below public class whatever type

private count as int

find out the name of the label you want to be updating. it is good practice to name it lblxxxx, an example of a good name would be lblCounter. now double click the button in design mode. this will bring up the event for the button being clicked. type

count = count + 1

lblCounter.text = count.ToString

the good thing about vb.net is that its not case sensitive. so dont worry about a case. if you want it to only increment upon a ceartin condition you are goign to need an if statement in your button event... change the code to

if (argument here) then

count = count + 1

lblCounter.text = count.ToString

else

msgbox("Criteria not fufilled")

endif

as far as the argument goes, say you want it only to increment if the button has been pressed less than 5 times... the line would like this

if count<5 then

hope ive been helpful, sorry if ur not using vb.net --Modesty84 00:48, 21 October 2006 (UTC)

OEM vs Rebranded Graphics Adapters

I want to buy the new ATI Radeon X1950 XTX video card, however I don't understand why there are so many different brands (e.g. MSI/Diamond/Sapphire/etc.) offering the same ATI video card at varying prices. The box's hardware contents are identical in most cases. Is it different packaged software? Basically, what's the advantage/disadvantage (if any) of buying the ATI OEM box vs other branded boxes? 138.162.140.45 19:42, 20 October 2006 (UTC)Eric

The biggest difference between the two is warantee. An OEM version of computer hardware is made for computer makers. They are typically sold at cheaper, wholesale rates but there is no guarantee by the maker (at least for indivuals). Thus if the card goes bad, the maker will have no responsibility in replacing it. Branded cards are usually backed by some warantee of a year or so. In my experience, I have never had much of a problem with OEM hardware. —Mitaphane _talk 00:37, 21 October 2006 (UTC)

I'm not sure if he means OEM in the actual sense. I think he just means what's the benefit of buying an ATI brand graphics card versus a 3rd party ATI graphics card with the same specs. --Wirbelwindヴィルヴィルヴィント (talk) 07:20, 21 October 2006 (UTC)

Yes, that's what I meant, thanks. User KSmrq below helped a lot.

The premise is in error. Use of a given graphics chip is not the same as using the same card, nor the same components. For example, cooling may differ. Also, some manufacturers subject their components (including the graphics chip) and finished card to more rigorous quality control tests. In fact, some test to be sure the card is capable of substantial overclocking. --KSmrq^T 12:40, 21 October 2006 (UTC)

A Computer Memory question

Can anyone please explain to me what exactly 1 GB (2 x 512) Memory means? I understand the gigabyte part, it is the (2 X 512) that has me confused. Thank you in advance for your help!

It means that the 1GB is made up of two 512MB DIMMS. -- Finlay McWalter | Talk 21:45, 20 October 2006 (UTC)

most computers today come with 4 dimms or 4 memory slots. a 1GB (1x1024) stick is better because it only takes up 1 slot, leavign you 3 more slots if you want to upgrade. (2 x 512) is definitely not bad because it leaves you 2 slots for upgrade. the size of your memory is important, however you will want to look at the speed of it too. as a general rule, DDR ram is good, DDR2 ram is much better. however i believe its not backwards compatible, meaning that if you have a motherboard built for DDR2, DDR ram will not work, and i think vice versa. --Modesty84 00:47, 21 October 2006 (UTC)

Eh, that's not really true. To start, 1 gigabytes is 1024 megabytes. Thus, 2 sticks of 512 megabyte sticks is 1024 megabytes, or 1 gigabyte. And I don't know about most computers today coming with 4 memory slots, because most computers are probably like Dells and other pre-built packaged computers, which probably only has 2 slots to save cost. And also, 1 stick being better because it only takes up 1 slot is again not true. There is dual channel configurations with matched ram (meaning they were made at the factory in the same batch, thus more identical than two different batches), which makes accessing RAM faster. I'm not sure about exactly why dual channel is better, but I do know that x86 processors store even and odd addresses on different portions. And another thing, I believe they're now SIMMs and not DIMMs, in the newer computers. --Wirbelwindヴィルヴィルヴィント (talk) 07:27, 21 October 2006 (UTC)

October 21

Freeware censorware for XP

What's the best free content-filtering software? Don't care much about how effective it is, or anything like that, but it is important that it be configurable so that it applies to SOME users but not apply at all to others. Is there anything free like that out there? If it doesn't include spyware or otherwise disturb the system, that's a big plus. --Alecmconroy 00:20, 21 October 2006 (UTC)

Maybe ICRAplus is what you're looking for... but it relies on self-rating of the websites. And it doesn't apply to some users and vice versa. I used to use it but, hmm... Don't like it... --inky 02:10, 21 October 2006 (UTC)

History Button in IE7 ? How can I add it back to the toolbar ?

I know you can access your history by first clicking on "favourites" and then there is a "history" button available - but it is hardly convenient to hide it two clicks away ... I may as well just type the address in after all that effort! Also there is no option to add the button to the toolbar if you use the "customise toolbars" option. Thanks ! --Dr snoobab 04:29, 21 October 2006 (UTC)

Removing music from an iPod

My sister bought an iPod about a year before I did, and I just got one today. As soon as I plug it into the computer it fills my iPod with Gwen Stefani and the like. How do I remove her shitty music from my iPod, and prevent iTunes from automatically updating my iPod EVERY time I plug it in (short of deleting all her music from iTunes?) Is there anyway to maintain separate playlists?

Don't worry, I've figured it out.

I would have answered, throw it out the window and buy a different brand =P --Wirbelwindヴィルヴィルヴィント (talk) 07:32, 21 October 2006 (UTC)

For anyone that was wondering, the most common solution is to create a seperate user account. Pesapluvo 03:10, 24 October 2006 (UTC)

You can quite easily configure it to only download music on your command from your library. Poke around itunes a bit, its not hard to find. Perhaps in the properties of the ipod as seen from itunes, or ipod properties. Something to that effect. Id be more detailed, but itunes is not on this computer. --The Corsair. 21:50, 24 October 2006 (UTC)

Wikipedia

when i try to import articles downloaded from download.wikipedia.org into wikimedia i get this error

Unknown import source type

Please export the file from the source wiki using the Special:Export utility, save it to your disk and upload it here.

what is the problem??? --Utkarshkukreti 05:26, 21 October 2006 (UTC)

I'm not familar with running MediaWiki software. Perhaps you should try MediaWiki's help page—Mitaphane _talk 17:36, 21 October 2006 (UTC).

Change Windows resolution before going into Windows

Yesterday, computer was working fine - today, when I try to load Windows XP the monitor stops receiving a signal, as soon as it gets past the bit with the black screen with the Windows logo and the blue loading bar. It's definitely loading Windows properly as I can hear sound, I just can't see anything. Safe Mode and the pre-Windows boot up sequence displays fine, so I suspect that something's gone wrong with the video card (a Radeon X1900) and the onboard video can't display the high resolution I normally run Windows in.

Is it possible to somehow change the resolution that Windows XP boots up in before it loads? Obviously, I can't do it from within Windows because I can't see anything, and Safe Mode doesn't seem to have any way to change it, so somehow I need to make it boot up in 800x600 resolution. I'd like to be more sure about the problem before I go to the effort/expense of getting a new video card. While in Safe Mode, the card still shows up in the Device Manager, though going into properties and looking at the status just gives the not-very-helpful "Status is not available for this device when Windows is running in Safe Mode", so I'd like to get into Windows properly and see what it says then. Is it possible?

(One way that did just occur to me was to try and work out in Safe Mode the correct sequence of keyboard shortcuts to switch to the lowest resolution, then repeat it, but that seems like a wild shot in the dark - literally - so I'm going to post this anyway before trying that.) --Sam Blanning^(talk) 11:53, 21 October 2006 (UTC)

I've just realised that I've overlooked the fact that my monitor is plugged into the video card - so the fact that it's displaying anything at all means it can't be completely broken. Still, if anyone knows the answer to the above question or has any idea what could be causing the whole thing, I'd be grateful. Using keyboard shortcuts to navigate the Display options blind didn't work for some reason. --Sam Blanning^(talk) 12:41, 21 October 2006 (UTC)

I've had many video cards that worked in safe mode (VGA display), but not in any other mode (SVGA display). They had to be replaced. Also, I was able to set my video card's default display in safe mode when the card was working, but not when it stopped displaying SVGA. --Kainaw ^(talk) 16:35, 21 October 2006 (UTC)

Get the command line program QRes, and make a shortcut (that's what it's called in Windows, right?) that runs "C:\Program Files\Qres\QRes.exe" /x 1280 /y 960 /r 75 /c 32. You might want to change the parameters (horizontal resolution, vertical resolution, frame frequency (Hertz), colour depth (number of bits to use)). Place the shortcut in the autorun folder of the start menu. —Bromskloss 21:07, 21 October 2006 (UTC)

pen drive

friends,I am using a pendrive for the first time.So I want to know how to safely load data into it and remove it from usb.I have heard that one cannot directly pull it out.I am using windows xp.kindly help.

There may be an icon in the tasktray (bottom right corner) that you should use to safely remove hardware. Double click on it and select your USB key and click on 'remove' (or similar). Wait until you are told it is safe to remove the drive.

In my case, after saving my files on the USB drive, and noting that the red light is not flashing, I go ahead and unplug the drive. The only problem would be if you were transfering data at the time you unplugged the drive or if you had a file open, edited it, and pulled the drive from its socket before remembering to save (in which case you could just pulg it back in and then save). --Username132 (talk) 14:42, 21 October 2006 (UTC)

Many computers save changes to USB drives in memory. So, even if you are done saving, the changes may not be on the USB drive yet. You have to close out all remaining changes to the drive before removing it. In general, if the light is on you can't pull it out safely. When the light is off, you can pull it out safely. It doesn't work all the time (my PC never turns the USB light off - even when I turn off the computer), but it is a general rule. --Kainaw ^(talk) 16:33, 21 October 2006 (UTC)

Use the safely remove hardware icon, often items aren't written to a USB drive until it is worth the power to right to it (fill up the cache). Not an issue when it's still plugged in when you're working, but if you don't let it empty the cache (by safely removing it) you could lose some changes. It's unlikely, but it has happened to me. Chris M. 02:20, 23 October 2006 (UTC)

All the Safely Remove Hardware icon does is dismounts the pen drive. Most drives have an LED on them that blinks when the data is being accessed. If the light's off after you've saved everything, it's usually OK to close all of the open files on the pen drive and then pull the drive out without dismounting it. However, if you've got important files on it, you should always dismount it unless the computer's restrictions somehow forbid you from doing so. --Jrothwell ^(talk) 10:24, 24 October 2006 (UTC)

Moved Files Got Deleted In Windows

I tried to move a folder, itself containing three folders, to another HD. After moving the contents of the first folder of three, Windows complained that it could not delete the folder because another program was using it. It told me to close the program and try again. I clicked OK and noted that not only were the contents gone from the original copy of the folder, but they were not present on the drive to which I tried to move them (i.e. they're gone).

a) Why would Windows do this? and b) Is there a freeware undelete utility that might handle this (noting that the files weren't meant to be deleted, just moved). --Username132 (talk) 14:37, 21 October 2006 (UTC)

are they in the recycle bin? they might be in the recycle bin of the particular drive, which may be hidden. otherwise, i think that means the files are permanantly deleted. i think Sashafklein 15:09, 21 October 2006 (UTC)

They are not in the recycle bin, but then, they were never deleted. I asked Windows to move them. An undelete utility should be able to read the files without their records in the file allocation table. --Username132 (talk) 15:34, 21 October 2006 (UTC)

I think pointed someone to this page a while back when some talked about deletion recovery from Windows. I hope that helps your situation. —Mitaphane _talk 17:34, 21 October 2006 (UTC)

I found this free utility which got those files right back (Win XP). --Username132 (talk) 13:49, 22 October 2006 (UTC)

Making your own laptop

I known of a couple people who have "made" (ie put together) their own computers. I am looking for a obscenely powerful 15 inch laptop and have had trouble finding one. Alienware has ridiculous laptops, but all the REALLY nice ones are 17 inch, which is really too big. So I was wondering about the feasability, utility, and cost of buying various parts of a laptop and making my own uber -computer from them. I know nothing of how to do this. Does making your own computer generally cost less than buying a pre-made one? Where could i get top-notch drives etc? Is it very difficult? Do you guys suggest that a novice on the subject not try to put together a laptop? Will I really be able to make myself a laptop any better than one I can buy (I want a VERY good laptop. 200+ gigs, approx 4+ ghz processor, great speaker system, nice display, fast as hell)? Is there any site I could visit to learn more? Thanks, Sashafklein 14:57, 21 October 2006 (UTC)

The hardware in laptops is not generic - so you'll have a headache getting things to work with one another. You can look at mini-itx.com for extremely small motherboards. If you can get one to fit in a 15" laptop case, you should be able to add all kinds of extra stuff to it. The trick will be getting the keyboard and video from the laptop to plug into the motherboard. --Kainaw ^(talk) 16:29, 21 October 2006 (UTC)

I've never heard of anyone building their own laptop. If you want a very small, very fast (and very expensive) laptop, the IBM/Lenovo X60s is tiny and very nice. -- Finlay McWalter | Talk 16:37, 21 October 2006 (UTC)

Sounds like you are looking for a Desktop replacement computer. If you're looking for a reccomendation, I would try Sager. I purchased one about 2.5 years ago (3.2 Ghz P4, 1GB RAM, 120GB HD, DVD Burner, built in WiFi, 16.1 in display, Radeon 9000 128MB Video Card) and it still serves me well. I've had very little problems with it and as far as cost goes it was much cheaper than what Alienware offered at comparable specs. Building your own laptop might be cheaper but as people have mentioned above, it's going to cost you in headaches and time. —Mitaphane _talk 17:29, 21 October 2006 (UTC)

Trust me the equipment that you would have to buy to build a laptop would buy you a top of the line laptop from Alienware. Whispering 00:53, 26 October 2006 (UTC)

Changing System Drive

If I copy all the files from my system drive (currently two SATA drives in RAID 0) and copy them onto another drive (ATA) - will this work in the same computer? I takes ages to install all that crap on my computer and I don't want to have to go through the rigmarole again...

Raid 0 means that each drive is an identical mirror. You should be able to pull one out and replace it with a blank drive. The RAID controller should recognize this and start copying the good drive to the bad drive. Then, you have 3 identical drives - one of which can be used by itself. Note that I said "should". Chances of this working are nil to none. You'll more likely have to put the ATA drive in your RAID computer, copy all the files to it, and then put it in another computer. Being as it is a system drive, you'll likely have to reinstall the OS (as an "upgrade" or "repair") to get the drivers working. --Kainaw ^(talk) 16:27, 21 October 2006 (UTC)

You are using RAID 0 (i.e., striped, non-redundant.) Kainaw describes a RAID 1 (i.e., 1-to-1 mirrored) system. His approach is not relevant to your problem. For you, I assume the ATA drive has sufficient space for all of the files on your current RAID 0 filesystem. If so, you can simply copy the files. You will also need to install the bootloader and configure it to find the OS. The approach for this varies depending on your OS. The reason you must do this is that the boot track on the disk is not part of the filesystem and is therefore not copied when you copy the filesystem. -Arch dude 14:10, 22 October 2006 (UTC)

Does WinXP use a bootloader? --Username132 (talk) 14:55, 23 October 2006 (UTC)

The primary bootloader on any computer will be part of the BIOS or other firmware( see Booting ). The secondary bootloader used by Windows XP is NTLDR. --LarryMac 12:57, 24 October 2006 (UTC)

VPN Connect/Disconnect Icon

Can someone point me to a tutorial for making a KDE icon that shows an unplugged icon when I'm disconnected from my VPN and a connected icon when I'm connected? I'd like to be able to double-click the icon to toggle the status. I've been googling all week and haven't found anything useful. --Kainaw ^(talk) 16:22, 21 October 2006 (UTC)

Win98 security -- my options?

In case the following message doesn't make it clear. I pissed off at Microsoft and I mean really pissed off. (If you don't like rants, you can skip to next paragraph and go straight to my question).

Phasing out old software is standard practice, but one single look at the visitor statistics of any random website shows a whole lot of people are still using it - ergo, it's not old enough to outphase. They're willfully creating security holes to fill their own pockets with our hard-earned cash. I don't have the money to buy Windows XP (especially not when it's about to be phased out itself in a few years) and even if I could pay for it, my computer is too slow to run it; it would also kill any space I have left on my hard drive and I certainly can't pay for a new computer. In other words, they're forcing people who don't have the money to run insecure systems because they don't take care of the people who can't afford to upgrade their system (to a still buggy and insecure 'upgraded' version). I could try Linux, but then again too much software is made for Windows and I just know some of the software I require is going to fail on me if I try to run it under Linux, so I'm up against the wall.

So I've decided: screw it all. I'm happy to abide by copyright, trademark and piracy laws, but Microsoft simply doesn't earn it. Are there any cracked versions available for anything above Windows 98 or are the security risks for those equally high? Viruses already target the newer systems. What holes are most hackers currently exploiting? - Actin 21:40, 21 October 2006 (UTC)

I haven't had Windows on any of my computers since 1998. I only run Linux. Many people do. So you won't be able to play all the latest games - that is what a PS or XBox is for. By switching to Linux you will be giving up the ability to use Windows programs, but there are many similar and nearly as good (if not better) ones for Linux that are free. Linux is free. In fact, I haven't paid a single penny for any computer programs since I bought Windows 95 (I'm not including my PS2 games). So, you can complain that using Windows costs money - yes, it does - and pretend that justifies stealing software, or you can just use free software. --Kainaw ^(talk) 22:24, 21 October 2006 (UTC)

He beat me to reply. Use something else, like FreeBSD, and WINE can be used to play even games like World of Warcraft, and it can run a multitude of other Windows software, or you can get free versions of similar software, like Open Office to replace Microsoft Office. You can also only install what you want, which can be more space saving than Windows. --Wirbelwindヴィルヴェルヴィント (talk) 22:28, 21 October 2006 (UTC)

You didn't say what you use your computer to do. I firmly believe in running old, proven software, not new, "bleeding edge" software. If they would ONLY fix bugs, then new versions of software would be better, but they do all sorts of other crap, like adding copyright protection software, which actually makes it harder to accomplish anything (you may be asked to enter registration codes periodically, for example). They also change things for no apparent reason. One example was when they renamed the File Manager to "Windows Explorer". Does that actually improve anything ? No, it just makes it difficult for those who knew the old name and it's less obvious to new users that "exploring" means managing files. So, I suggest you stick with the minimum level of software and hardware that will get the job done. For security, have you tried just tightening up your built-in security tools, like cookies permissions and prompting before running JAVA ? StuRat 11:57, 22 October 2006 (UTC)

• Actin didn't say he was using the machine to play games. I'm having much of the same problems. Screen sharing software - Win XP, That Wikipedia category mass editing software (what's its name) runs on Windows XP or above too. Running Linux would also mean giving up on Wikipedia editing software and other more exotic types of programs. - 87.209.70.231 22:06, 22 October 2006 (UTC)

I think that "giving up" isn't the proper phrase. It should be "changing". I rdesktop Windows machines all the time. In fact, we set up a rather powerful little Win2003 box that all the developers rdesktop whenever we need to run IE (or some other Windows-Only program). It isn't exactly "sharing" a desktop. But, why share? Don't you mean collaborate? There is a lot of collaboration software available. Google has been developing (by which I mostly mean purchasing) online collaboration tools. All in all, it comes down to choices. I chose long ago to use free software. I do check webpages in IE before sending them off to production - but I don't really use IE. I've even checked rather complex documents in MS Word (which I wrote in Open Office). For me, it is a matter of freedom. I helped a friend learn to use MS Money 2006 this weekend. First of all, it is such a terrible program that you have to "learn" to use it. Then, after paying over $100 for the program, it is full of bugs and advertisements - yes, advertisements! It is times like that when I am happy to use my free little copy of GnuCash for balancing my accounts. --Kainaw ^(talk) 12:36, 23 October 2006 (UTC)

Speeding up a Windows machine

I've used Macs most of my life. Although my wife has a PC running Windows that's running slower than we think it should. Also, when she's working with her digital photos, iTunes will skip during playback of songs. The chip is at least 2 gig and she has 3 gig of memory in it. I've run Spybot and Ad-aware on it lately. She doesn't have Norton or McAfee (sp?) running on it so those aren't in the way. What else can I check or run that might speed it up some? Dismas|^(talk) 22:51, 21 October 2006 (UTC)

Spybot and Ad-aware will find spyware but won't find viruses. If you don't have something I'd recommend AOL AVS. A friend of mine had an inexplicably slow machine, and it turned out to be many copies of a spamer virus. -- Finlay McWalter | Talk 23:06, 21 October 2006 (UTC)

We're using AVG Anti-Virus for virus protection. Dismas|^(talk) 23:29, 21 October 2006 (UTC)

That's pretty good, and not a memory/CPU hog. From your description above, it might be that you're running out of memory. I'd to a ctrl-alt-del to bring up the task manager, sort by memory use, and see what's taking up the memory. -- Finlay McWalter | Talk 23:33, 21 October 2006 (UTC)

Agreed. I would also say you should kill any process you can't identify or that doesn't seem to serve a valid purpose. Be sure to save everything you're working on first, however, as you might inadvertently shut down a critical process. Also, a periodic reboot will help to clear out old processes that just take up memory. StuRat 11:43, 22 October 2006 (UTC)

So, I've gone through the task manager and all of the processes that are taking up the most memory seem to be necessary except for "WUSB54GC.exe" which from what I've read is the application for the USB wireless adapter for the wireless internet connection. Right now, shortly after a reboot, it's at 14,192K. And according to this it will keep climbing the longer the computer is up and running. That link did talk about "...decided to switch from that over to the wireless network wizard and then went into my services and set the linksys wireless manager service to manual, rebooted..." So is that something I should do? If so, how do I do what they describe? I'm really rather frustrated with the Linksys crap that we have and am planning on going with a wired connection when I have the money for a new router and cables. So she has to use the wireless adapter for now. Oh yeah, it's Windows XP. I realize now that I didn't put that in the original question.

Also, there are two hard-drives and two optical drives (one CD and one DVD) in the box. It's been suggested that I take one of the hard drives off the same ribbon cable and swap it with one of the optical drives. Therefore each ribbon cable would have one optical and one hard drive each. I was told that the two hard drives on the same ribbon cable could create a bottleneck. Is this accurate? Is it worth investigating more? I opened the box a few minutes ago and the cables aren't long enough to reach one optical and one hard drive each. Dismas|^(talk) 15:42, 22 October 2006 (UTC)

I suggest you kill the suspect process and see if that cures the problem. If so, then you can possibly put a higher priority on switching to a normal wire connection. Having both hard disks on the same cable will indeed cause a slow down, particularly when using both hard disks simultaneously, as when copying large numbers of files from one to the other. You can buy longer cables, if needed. If killing the suspect process doesn't cure the problem, then that might be the next thing to try. StuRat 02:12, 23 October 2006 (UTC)

I was under the impression that having an optical drive and hard disk on the same IDE cable meant that the data rate was lowered to that of the optical drive. You can always give it a try though... Robmods 12:27, 23 October 2006 (UTC)

That may depend on which is the master. StuRat 20:20, 24 October 2006 (UTC)

Have you tried defragmenting the drive/s ? This works wonders if fragmentation is the problem. If you do a lot of graphics editing or download and discard a lot of songs your drive may be badly fragmented. I've seen PCs grind to a complete halt from this. Right click the drive in My Computer, click properties, tools, defragment now. --Dave 14:14, 25 October 2006 (UTC)

October 22

Changing codec format of .avi files

I have an oral presentation to present for a subject at school and as part of it I intended upon playing two video clips relevant to my talk. I took the small clips (~30seconds) from a larger file (~2 hours) using virtualdub. My problem is that the computer I will be using at school for the presentation lacks any media codecs apart from those inherent in Windows. The details of the two clips are below. As I cannot install the codecs on the school computer (for "security" reasons) I would like to know a way that I can change the codec format of these files so that they would be able to run on a system with NO downloaded codecs. Ideally, the output format would be one that I can imbed into a powerpoint presentation.

First File Format  : AVI Info  : Audio Video Interleave Family  : RIFF File size  : 7.91 MiB PlayTime  : 52s 10ms Bit rate  : 1276 Kbps Writing application  : VirtualDubMod 1.5.10.2 (build 2540/release) Writing library  : VirtualDubMod build 2540/release

Video #0 Codec  : DivX 5 Family  : MPEG-4 Codec settings  : BVOP PlayTime  : 52s 10ms Bit rate  : 1183 Kbps Width  : 532 Height  : 222 Aspect ratio  : 2.35 Frame rate  : 23.976 fps Resolution  : 8 Chroma  : 4:2:0 Interlacement  : Progressive Bits/(Pixel*Frame)  : 0.418

Audio #0 Codec  : MPEG-1 Audio layer 3 Family  : MPEG-1 Info  : MPEG-1 or 2 layer 3 PlayTime  : 52s 854ms Bit rate  : 80 Kbps Bit rate mode  : CBR Channel(s)  : 2 channels Sampling rate  : 48 KHz Resolution  : 16

Second File Format  : AVI Info  : Audio Video Interleave Family  : RIFF File size  : 1.83 MiB PlayTime  : 28s 445ms Bit rate  : 539 Kbps Writing application  : VirtualDubMod 1.5.10.2 (build 2540/release) Writing library  : VirtualDubMod build 2540/release

Video #0 Codec  : DivX 5 Family  : MPEG-4 Codec settings  : BVOP PlayTime  : 28s 445ms Bit rate  : 446 Kbps Width  : 532 Height  : 222 Aspect ratio  : 2.35 Frame rate  : 23.976 fps Resolution  : 8 Chroma  : 4:2:0 Interlacement  : Progressive Bits/(Pixel*Frame)  : 0.157

Audio #0 Codec  : MPEG-1 Audio layer 3 Family  : MPEG-1 Info  : MPEG-1 or 2 layer 3 PlayTime  : 28s 902ms Bit rate  : 80 Kbps Bit rate mode  : CBR Channel(s)  : 2 channels Sampling rate  : 48 KHz Resolution  : 16

I didn't actually read through that whole list but your best bet is to make it into a .wmv file for Windows based system, preferably with the Movie Maker. I hate both, but, hey, it's not my presentation. --Wirbelwindヴィルヴェルヴィント (talk) 02:33, 22 October 2006 (UTC)

Since you already have virtualdub you can use it to re-encode. Open the video in virtualdub, make sure "Video->Full processing mode" is checked, then select a codec in "Video->Compression...". Some of the codecs are old and what would be considered low quality but for short clips that shouldn't matter that much. I don't know which codec to recommend, sorry. The "Configure" button in the codec selection window allows to change encoding quality in some codecs. Optional step: if you want to re-encode sound too, check "Audio->Full processing mode" and select an audio codec in "Audio->Compression" (the default "Audio->Direct stream copy" will copy the audio track as is, leaving the audio codec unchanged.) Then "File->Save as avi" to encode. You can select a short range of the video first to check how the result looks or play with codec settings. Weregerbil 06:56, 22 October 2006 (UTC)

NO pop up script

Hello, I have a webpage in which there are links that are pop-up windows. Is there a html script in which I could disable having pop-ups? Note that i don't want to make them to load in my main window, i just want to disable the pop up on my page. Thanks --(Aytakin) | Talk 02:25, 22 October 2006 (UTC)

You say that you have the page - which makes me assume you made it. So, remove the popups that you put there if you don't want them. Then, you say you don't want them to load in the page and you don't want them to pop up. What do you want them to do? All in all, your question is far too confusing to answer. --Kainaw ^(talk) 04:40, 22 October 2006 (UTC)

It's much more likely that he's using a free web-hosting service that forces popups onto his page. There are ways to block popups using JS and (I think) advanced HTML, but the popups are what funds your free-hosting service, so you're likely to lose it if you attempt to block them.  freshofftheufoΓΛĿЌ  05:43, 22 October 2006 (UTC)

Yes, and there are popup blockers you can download onto your computer, but that would have the same problem. StuRat 11:31, 22 October 2006 (UTC)

Running a wikibot

I'd like to run a bot on a small Wikia wiki, but I have no programming skills. All I need it to do (for now at least) is to move a list of pages to a new namespace, and to italicise all instances of a proper noun. I'd like to run the bot of my own machine (a Windows, tee-hee!) for a few minutes a day at least until the job is done. I've asked before here and received some answers, but none were particularly helpful. So again I am seeking instructions on how to implement such a bot. Hyenaste ^(tell) 06:25, 22 October 2006 (UTC)

Have you read WP:BOT and the accompanying articles? Dismas|^(talk) 10:17, 22 October 2006 (UTC)

Yes, but nearly all of the associated pages involve the politics of setting up a bot in Wikipedia instead of helping getting one to function. The only page I've found that offers any help is meta:Using the python wikipediabot, but it doesn't say whether it works for Wikia or anything else except for a few lines of code scattered around. Hyenaste ^(tell) 17:42, 22 October 2006 (UTC)

Moving application/binary directories' locations in Ubuntu/Linux as a whole

Hi,

My filesystem partition is running out of space with everyday. I want to move some big software directories to another partition, then put a symbolic link in its place. Is this feasible? Thanks! --inky 07:35, 22 October 2006 (UTC)

Yeah, it should be. A symbolic link can point to any file/directory, regardless of the partition, device, or file system that it's on. Depending on how you're doing it, you might want to do this through the fstab, though a symlink will probably suffice in any case. -- Consumed Crustacean (talk) 08:01, 22 October 2006 (UTC)

Hidden/Private folders on XP

Multiple users all work on the same computer. How can I have a folder that only one user has read/write permissions. (And yes, I tried to sell the "just install linux" solution, but they wouldn't go for it.) --Alecmconroy 07:44, 22 October 2006 (UTC)

This (ignore #2 unless for some reason you're dealing with zips), or if you want maximum security, TrueCrypt. -- Consumed Crustacean (talk) 07:54, 22 October 2006 (UTC)

Software Radio

In software Radio, what is the analogy to decode FM?

You mean such as internet radios transmitting through the wires? The analogy to decode FM would be the same, I believe, since both transmits through a medium, and goes through a Digital-to-analog converter, and out the speakers. --Wirbelwindヴィルヴェルヴィント (talk) 16:14, 22 October 2006 (UTC)

Video Compression

Any idea about which coec is the best in terms of compression and quality???

Well I'm not sure by benchmark comparisons but, based on its popularity, MPEG-4 (and the many codecs based on it) seems to have reached a good balance between size and quality. See video codec for some examples of codecs based on MPEG-4. —Mitaphane _talk 13:38, 22 October 2006 (UTC)

Computer Lockup

The problem arises when I play games, for apparently no reason. I startplaying the game normally and press a key, the game does the action corresponding to that key e.g. going forward, then I take my finger off the key. But the player does not stop, he still executes the action as if the button were actually pushed. At this point, whenever I try to press NUM-Lock, CAPS-Lock and SCROLL-Lock, their LED on the keyboard doesn't change. Then one of two things happens:

1. The player stops doing the action the NUM-Lock Led changes, and I can resume playing.
2. The player continues on going until a BSOD pops up with a BAD_POOL_CALLER error, dumping physical memory to disk.

Could anyone help me on this? It's really annoying... Thanks in advance.

My specs are:

• Processor Pentium 4, 1.8 GHz
  • L1 Code TLB 4 KB pages, 4-way set associative, 32 entries; 4 KB/4 MB/2 MB pages, fully associative, 64 entries
  • L1 Data Cache 8 KB size, 4-way set associative, 64 byte lines, sectored
  • L1 Data TLB 4 KB/4 MB pages, fully associative, 64 entries
  • L2 Cache None
  • Trace L1 Cache 12 KµOPs, 8-way set associative
  • Unified L2 Cache 512 KB size, 8-way set associative, 64 byte lines, sectored
• Graphics Card ATi Radeon A9600PRO from ASUS

--Danielsavoiu 09:46, 22 October 2006 (UTC)

A BAD_POOL_CALLER error in Windows is a device driver conflict. It sounds like some driver that's getting used in your game is causing the problem. Try updating your drivers for devices(Vid card, sound card, controller, etc) that the game uses. That might do it. —Mitaphane _talk 13:45, 22 October 2006 (UTC)

Canon Pixma IP1600 on Linux?

My grandmother recently bought a Canon Pixma IP1600 inkjet printer and I set it up for her. In the process, I thought it would be cool to buy one for myself also. Only problem is, I am using Linux (and only Linux) in my computer, and at least according to the user manual of the printer, Canon isn't even aware that Linux exists. Does anyone have an idea if the printer would still work? It uses a USB connection. I'm also thinking of upgrading my Linux installation from Fedora Core 3 to Fedora Core 5. JIP | Talk 11:44, 22 October 2006 (UTC)

"Canon isn't even aware that Linux exists" Haha! :-) I know what you mean, it seems to happen far too often when you want to buy a product. Gah, why can't they just stick to some standard and make it work for everyone, even on systems they actually haven't heard of? I'm afraid I have no answer to your question. Isn't "printer over USB" standardised by now? —Bromskloss 20:22, 22 October 2006 (UTC)

The only thing I found after a quick Google search is [3] which says you can use the free driver from [4] up to 300 DPI (if you try to use more than that it writes a logo to the paper unless you pay for the registered version).

Try using CUPS (Common Unix Printing System). I used this on my parents' Mac to print to their Canon printer and it worked perfectly. --Canley 05:41, 23 October 2006 (UTC)

Of course you could always try it on your mothers computer. If you don't want to install Linux there (and why not?) you could use a live cd. DirkvdM 06:53, 23 October 2006 (UTC)

My grandmother's computer, actually, not my mother's. But I found that the Canon Pixma IP2200 has Linux drivers available, and is only 19 € more expensive. I might buy that instead. JIP | Talk 09:28, 23 October 2006 (UTC)

Removing weapons from Unreal Tournament GOTY

Hi @ll. Is it possible to make all weapons (except translocator) not working (not displaying either in HUD or in level) and not working? Emptying the class definitions and recompiling with UnrealEd didnt help; google doesnt find any real helpful n this topic. Greets, HardDisk 14:03, 22 October 2006 (UTC)

Yeah there's some weapons mutator (I think it's called "weapons mod" so it will probably be hard to find) that lets you replace any gun with any other available to UT. Very useful for mixing and matching the old infiltration weapons (which are hellishly hard to find these days) with the UT weps. Theres an option to replace the weapon with "None" IIRC so you could just replace all the weapons with nothing and turn on the translocator in the normal UT options. I'm surprised that unlinking the class definitions didn't do it though.. did you just delete them or did you actually clear out the code that calls them? --froth^{T C} 21:02, 22 October 2006 (UTC)

Intel Processors

What is the highest-end Intel Processor available for consumer home desktops? And why do some newer processors have slower clock speeds than older ones? Jamesino 16:50, 22 October 2006 (UTC)

Clockspeed is not necessarily indicative of the processor's performance. Intel used to market their Pentium's clockspeeds heavily because they were so stupidly high (compared with AMD, whose CPUs still matched or bettered Intel's). This is probably backfiring somewhat right now because their new CPUs do often clock slower, despite actual performing better. See Megahertz Myth.

The Intel Core 2 CPUs are probably the best consumer CPUs right now. They're faster than AMD CPUs of the same price, they've got less heat output, less power consumption, and they overclock well. The super fancy Conroe XEs are the fastest variety of those (see the article), but they cost a lot. -- Consumed Crustacean (talk) 19:58, 22 October 2006 (UTC)

What is the Hyper-Threading they talk about? Jamesino 20:02, 22 October 2006 (UTC)

Hyper-threading. Intel's current CPUs don't support it, only the old Pentium 4s do. So, it's not that important. -- Consumed Crustacean (talk) 20:08, 22 October 2006 (UTC)

Hyper-threading is a way to let a CPU pretend to be two separate CPUs, each running a separate execution thread. The second trhead gets to use the cycles that would otherwise go to waste due to stalls in the execution of the first thread. Intel cannot seem to make up its mind as to how effective this is, but the overally gain is relatively modest. By contrast, most of the Core 2 devices have two complete CPUs on one chip. Intel has also announced a quad processor, (two chips, each with two CPUs, inside one MCM package.) If they ever do get around to re-implementing Hyper-threading, a quad-core package would execute 8 threads -Arch dude 21:15, 22 October 2006 (UTC)

Whistling Monitor

My girlfriend's CRT monitor is producing a whistling sound occassionally when it's on. The whistle is usually a constant sound, but does come and go. There is no change in the picture quality when the whistling begins. Can anyone explain what the problem may be? --Kiltman67 18:22, 22 October 2006 (UTC)

I like Wikis. There seems to be an answer in this one. One possible fix is to change the monitor's refresh rate. Besides being extremely annoying it's not necessarily a sign of any problem, though I have seen a couple CRTs get very loud the day or so before they break. -- Consumed Crustacean (talk) 19:47, 22 October 2006 (UTC)

Errors introduced by processor change?

What I have is an implimentation of Conway's Game of Life in C. I compiled it and it ran perfectly on my University server. I have since brought a second computer to school with me for the sole purpose of using it as my C compiler, so I can crash my own computer with massive memory leaks rather than a departmental server. I took the exact same code from the department server and transfered it to my little "server." I compiled and ran the code, no errors. But to my great dismay, the results are different. This is what I should get, and do on the department server:

0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0
0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 1 0 0 0 0 0
0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 1 0 0 0 0 0
0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0
0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
0 0 0 0 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 0
0 0 0 1 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 1
0 0 0 0 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 0
0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0
0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 1 0 0 0 0 0
0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 1 0 0 0 0 0
0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0
0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 
# of live cells = 24

On my own "server" I, incorrectly, get the following:

1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
0 1 0 1 0 0 0 1 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0
0 1 0 1 0 0 1 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0
0 0 1 0 0 0 0 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 
# of live cells = 15

As a test, I also compiled and ran the code on this very computer, only to obtain the incorrect result as well. The only commonality I can find between my "server" and this computer is that they are both AMD procesors, and the department server is more than likely an Intel processor. Is there an argument in gcc specifically for AMD processors, besides those for optimization? The basic form of my code can be found here. I know my comments are over the top, but that may be helpful here. Any ideas as to what the problem could be? --yaninass2 | talk 23:46, 22 October 2006 (UTC)

Where are you initialising the automatic array a? -- Finlay McWalter | Talk 23:57, 22 October 2006 (UTC)

a takes integers, is then passed into the eval function, where it sets the beginning pattern of the game in the basis array. What goes into a changes depending on the pattern, obviously. What is used for this particular version is:

for(i=0; i < 5; i++){
a[i]=0;
}
a[5]=2<<5;
a[6]=7<<5;
a[7]=5<<5;
a[8]=2<<5;
for(i=9; i < 16; i++){
a[i]=0;
}

Hope this explains my code a bit more. --yaninass2 | talk 00:24, 23 October 2006 (UTC)

If you're not sure if the university server has an Intel processor or not, have you considered Endianness? Intel and AMD are both little-endian, but if the server is a SPARC or PowerPC processor then it may be compiling differently (correctly by the looks of it) on a big-endian machine, especially if you're messing around with bits and arrays (I've had a similar problem with gcc on my pre-Intel Mac and a friend's PC coming up with different compilations). There's some code in the article to detect Endianness if you want to check. --Canley 05:28, 23 October 2006 (UTC)

Just looking at your code, it might be this bit where you're masking the significant bit:

basis[row][loc] = (a[row]>>(15-loc))&0x00000001;

--Canley 05:34, 23 October 2006 (UTC)

October 23

Music writing program

Can anyone suggest a free program with which I could write standard notation music? --The Dark Side 00:40, 23 October 2006 (UTC)

Although it is technically shareware, I recommend NoteWorthy Composer. It's only limitations are when you print sheet music, it prints an order form with it, and you are limited to 10 saves of its native file format .nwc, but have unlimited .mid saves available. Download it here. If you are in need of a keyboard program that can record keystrokes and save them as .mid files, then MidiPiano is what you want. Download that here.--Russoc4 01:02, 23 October 2006 (UTC)

GNU LilyPond! —Keenan Pepper 05:22, 23 October 2006 (UTC)

Although I haven't used LilyPond, it looks like a pain for doing casual work in. Dysprosia 09:41, 23 October 2006 (UTC)

Take a look at Scorewriter for quite a list. What OS are you using? — QuantumEleven 10:15, 23 October 2006 (UTC)

Are you talking to me? Maybe you need to adjust your indenting. Dysprosia 10:19, 23 October 2006 (UTC)