Wikipedia:Reference desk/Computing

August 9

Old Hard Drive Blues: need help.

Hey - So just for kicks, I'm trying to install a second internal drive into a 2000-built Gateway desktop. I finally have figured out how to get everything connected - but now the FIRST internal drive, the one that was in the computer in the first place, isn't working. In fact, it isn't responding at all - when I boot up the system from CD (and manage to get the DOS prompt), every time I try to queue the C:\ drive, I get a "General Failure Error Reading Drive C:\." So is there any hope here? Is there any chance at all the drive isn't completely fragged? Any advice anyone can give me? Thanks. Brasswatchman 00:55, 9 August 2007 (UTC)

Have you set the additional drive links for slave operation? And have you gone into the computer bios to set it for 2 drives?--SpectrumAnalyser 01:10, 9 August 2007 (UTC)

I believe so. The second drive was salvaged from another system, where it was already a slave drive. And the BIOS seemed to recognize it as such from the moment I installed it. Maybe I need to change the jumper setting on the master drive? Is that generally required in these situations? --Brasswatchman 01:14, 9 August 2007 (UTC)

Check the links on both drives. One should be set for master, the other for slave. (Do not set for cable select, just to be safe). If you know the drive manf and the model no, you can look on their website for the link settings. Failing that, disconnect the new drive and reset the bios and see if your old drive still works.--SpectrumAnalyser 01:21, 9 August 2007 (UTC)

Did all of the above. When it still wouldn't boot, I took your advice, disconnected the new drive, and tried it again. And guess what - a new and exciting error message that hadn't been there before:

ERROR | Expansion ROM not initialized - PCI Mass Storage Controller in slot 03 | Bus:00, Device:0F, Function:00

What do you think that means? No luck on the Gateway support site. --Brasswatchman 02:48, 9 August 2007 (UTC)

In addition - thank you very much for your help. Didn't mean to sound rude in my last post, if I did; I'm just a wee bit frustrated at the moment. :) --Brasswatchman 02:59, 9 August 2007 (UTC)

Never seen that massage (maybe specific to Gateway computers) Message seems to say that your HDD controller is not working. It may be that in your 'experiments', you have disturbed the seating of one of the plug in boards (or maybe the RAM modules). Make sure all daughter boards are firmly seated esp the one in slot 3!(remove and reinsert). If this dont fix it, it sounds like a new HDD controller board job.--SpectrumAnalyser 14:27, 9 August 2007 (UTC)

Cannot get internet

There are two computers on my network. One gets internet, the other doesnt. The one that doesnt clames that the network adapters are on and connected. This is what I get when i tell it to repair the network. When I run the diagnostics, I get this. Thanks for your help, the parentals are getting pretty ticked because its the family comp that wont work.

Thanks --Omnipotence407 02:10, 9 August 2007 (UTC)

What kind of home network do you have? Is it one of those home routers? It appears that the one that doesn't work is expecting DHCP and not getting it. -- Kainaw^(what?) 02:15, 9 August 2007 (UTC)

Im afraid I dont follow. As far as im concerned, its cat5 wire hooked to a Linksys Router. --Omnipotence407 02:26, 9 August 2007 (UTC)

So, you have a Linksys router for your network. Assuming that it hasn't been messed with, is still in DHCP mode, and is working properly, have you checked the network cables. It appears that the computer that does not work is expecting DHCP and not getting it. In other words, the computer that is not working is turning on the network card, screaming out "Hello! Is there anybody out there?", and not hearing anything coming back. What it expects to hear is the router saying "Well hello there! You're cute. I think I'll call you 192.168.1.112. If you need anything off the Internet, just ask and I'll fetch it for you." -- Kainaw^(what?) 03:27, 9 August 2007 (UTC)

You might try Wikihow.com - Pharrar 08:18, 9 August 2007 (UTC)

More like: "You will be named 192.168.1.112. If you hear me ask of you and your friends 'ok whos 192.168.1.112' you must reply with your hardware address so that I can make a connection for you. If you need anything you can reach me at 192.168.1.1. I'll be your gateway and DNS server. Have a nice day" --froth^t 16:26, 9 August 2007 (UTC)

None of the above has really offered any suggestions on how to fix it. Is there a solution? --Omnipotence407 23:53, 9 August 2007 (UTC)

The message "failed to query TCP/IP settings of the connection" sounds like you need to check the TCP/IP settings of your connection. Right-click on the Local Area Connection icon and click Properties. Make sure Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) is checked, then highlight it and click the Properties button. Make sure it's set to obtain an IP address automatically and obtain a DNS address automatically.

If that doesn't work, a brief search for the error message turns up mentions of reinstalling TCP/IP or using System Restore to get things working again. This page says "if you are using XP you do not have the option to uninstall TCP/IP so you have to reset it from command prompt: netsh int ip reset."

--Bavi H 04:59, 10 August 2007 (UTC)

I just tested on my sister's Windows XP computer. I was able to re-create the error message by unchecking Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) and then trying to Repair, so I'm pretty sure the solution involves checking that box to get it working. --Bavi H 05:14, 10 August 2007 (UTC)

Well, it turns out htat the computer had been flagged by the office, as the account had never been set up, only installed. So we got a little over a week of free internet. Thanks for all your help Omnipotence407 21:50, 10 August 2007 (UTC)

Error Message

I am getting this error message every couple minutes. I have run CCleaner and that hasn't worked. What can I do to stop this pestilence. (I'm sorry, but its running ME) --Omnipotence407 02:15, 9 August 2007 (UTC)

Running any app that's trying to access that file? And I would suggest a switch to a Linux distro :P. Splintercellguy 03:19, 9 August 2007 (UTC)

I dont know. Anything besides linux? --Omnipotence407 23:49, 9 August 2007 (UTC)

Open the file in Notepad or edit or something, it MUST start with a string of text that identifies it as a registry file. If it doesn't have that, Regedit will refuse to have anything to do with it. 68.39.174.238 02:00, 10 August 2007 (UTC)

So should I add that string of text? What would it be? Thanks --Omnipotence407 11:25, 10 August 2007 (UTC)

Heres the file. Do I even need it? I dont have McAfee. [User:Omnipotence407|Omnipotence407]] 14:22, 10 August 2007 (UTC)

That's no Registry file, that's a website (Rename it to "common.html" and open it in a browser)! Anyway, for some reason something's trying to add that to the registry. I would check your list of running programs. 68.39.174.238 17:02, 10 August 2007 (UTC)

What's the secret?

Hello. Inkjet refill stores can always successfully refill my cartridges. However, when I try refilling my cartridges with self inkjet refill kits, I am not so fortunate. What is the inkjet refill store's secret? --Mayfare 02:50, 9 August 2007 (UTC)

Maybe they're really good at it? --froth^t 16:16, 9 August 2007 (UTC)

This is a wild guess, but maybe they use a vacuum system to distribute the ink better? At home, all you can do is add the ink slooooowly. --Mdwyer 16:53, 9 August 2007 (UTC)

Mac OS X backup

Does anyone know of any software utilities (preferably free) that backs up all the files on the computer that differ from the default when installed? I'm thinking of reinstalling the OS (because my computer is going really slow (i.e. taking five seconds to minimize a window)). If anyone has any ideas on how to speed it up, those would be appreciated too.

I forgot to sign above, but I do want to confirm that I have Mac OS X Version 10.4.10. Abeg92contribs 12:59, 9 August 2007 (UTC)

The easiest way to backup your files in OS X is to just copy the Users, Application, and Library folders to an external drive. I don't know of any software that can distinguish between originally install files or not.

As for the speed, how fast is the processor and how much RAM do you have? The easiest way to speed things up might be to just upgrade the RAM, but if the processor is too slow for 10.4 then that won't help much anyway. I would take a look at the Activity Monitor to figure out what is going on, personally — what programs are hogging the CPU time and the RAM? Should they be? --24.147.86.187 14:50, 9 August 2007 (UTC)

My processor is a 1.8 GHz PowerPC G5. It has 512 MB of RAM. I will check the Activity Monitor soon... Abeg92contribs 05:30, 10 August 2007 (UTC)

Wiki

Hi

I want to set up a file sharing wiki for my class for studying from/getting information to study. I'm a bit overwhelmed by the options available. It needs to be easy to use, have a big data allowance and probably almost up to 50 members (and FREE). Any suggestions? Aaadddaaammm 03:15, 9 August 2007 (UTC)

Yes. Click the "Powered by Mediawiki" button at the bottom of this page. Download and install Mediawiki. It is a Wiki and it allows you to upload/download files (even though Wikipedia is pretty much limited to images - Mediawiki can allow any file type). -- Kainaw^(what?) 03:34, 9 August 2007 (UTC)

Thanks for the reply, but I was hoping for a wiki hosted by someone else. I don't want the hassle of setting it up too much - and don't want to leave my computer plugged in all the time. Any suggestions that fit this? Aaadddaaammm 04:13, 9 August 2007 (UTC)

If you want a lot of file storage, you will have to host it yourself. Find a cheap beige box in the basement and install slackware --froth^t 16:58, 9 August 2007 (UTC)

I had some reasonable success with pbwiki, though I haven't checked any of the alternatives. Anyway, they make it really easy to create a wiki, so you could see how it works. -- Creidieki 08:15, 9 August 2007 (UTC)

I'd be willing to host this for you on my website, if you need. -Wooty [Woot?] [Spam! Spam! Wonderful spam!] 20:25, 9 August 2007 (UTC)

If you can trust everyone in your class not to be jerks (delete files, change the password) then make a gmail account and upload all the files as attachment as send them to the account. The give the username and password out to everyone. Jon513 19:58, 12 August 2007 (UTC)

necessity of Diffie-Hellman key exchange?

What's the point of all the math and stuff? Why don't the two parties just send each other their public keys in plaintext, use the other persons public key to encrypt outgoing data, and use your own private key to decrypt incoming data? Why do you need a "shared secret key" which sounds like a terrible idea compared to the staggering security of simple asymmetric cryptography? And why do they use g^b^a=g^a^b instead of g*a*b=g*b*a or g+a+b=g+a+b which are equally commutative?

Also in the example that shows what Eve knows, how is 's' hidden from her? Both (8^15 mod 23) and (19^6 mod 23) were sent to the other party.. that's the secret 's' completely out in the open twice.

Finally what exactly is the point of all this? I see that 's' is their shared key (presumably their data exchanges could be XORd with s or shifted s bits or some similar algorithm), but the article repeatedly claims that it's an asymmetric key exchange, with public and private keys... I don't see that at all --froth^t 03:32, 9 August 2007 (UTC)

The point of this is that public/private key encryption/decryption takes longer to process than a simple key. For speed's sake, you agree on a shared key and use a fast form of encryption/decryption. Then, it is not an asymmetric exchange anymore since both sides have the same key. Why the powers functions? Because they work. It isn't simply because they are commutative. This gets into public-key encryption (RSA), not Diffie-Hellman. What it comes down to is that with mod there are an infinite possible set of answers. If I said "What number mod 5 gives you the answer 1?", you could answer, "1, or 6, or 11, or 16, or 21, or 26..." Now, if I said "What number times 5 gives you the answer 15?", you could answer "3". If I asked "What number divided by 5 gives you 3?", you could answer "15". See how commutative properties isn't the issue? Then, you can see that by passing the answer to the mod function isn't handing out the answer because there are so many possible answers. -- Kainaw^(what?) 03:45, 9 August 2007 (UTC)

This seems extremely vulnerable to a brute force attack, especially as g and p are known to eve. All she'd have to do is run through all the combinations of a and b. Firstly I don't see how this is such a theoretically difficult problem- if you have enough time or a fast enough guesser, it's cracked with just two runoff nested loops. And secondly I don't understand how cpu performace is that big of an issue here. The D-H exchange takes several hops back and forth across the network, and that's certainly more expensive in terms of time than just swapping precomputed public keys and using a bit more power to process data, which can be done afterwards anyway --froth^t 14:29, 9 August 2007 (UTC)

In real applications (as opposed to toy examples for illustrating the calculations), the parameters g and p are of such sizes that solving the discrete log problem by exhaustive search is infeasible (and, for that matter, the parameters sizes are chosen such that the solving problem remains infeasible even with the most efficient discrete log algorithms known). We're talking about sizes like 2048 bits in length. --64.236.170.228 15:00, 9 August 2007 (UTC)

The key-exchange handshake only takes a few KB to complete, while the actual data exchange could be arbitrarily large, so for the common case of the data transfer size exceeding the handshake size, trading keys for symmetric encryption is a win over using the public-key crypto. --Sean 17:23, 9 August 2007 (UTC)

What does that matter? The actual data exchange is still the same size. So the symmetric handshake takes much longer, is less secure, but is somewhat less cpu-intensive to encrypt/decrypt. Asymmetric is a very simple quick handshake, is rock solid secure, and is somewhat more cpu intensive, but the network is still the bottleneck --froth^t 19:43, 9 August 2007 (UTC)

There are several reasons one may want to use the Diffie-Hellman protocol. One reason is to provide perfect forward secrecy. Another reason is that analogs of D-H can be implemented using groups other than ${\mathrm {\mathbf {Z} } }_{p}^{*}$ under modular multiplication. One example of an alternative choice of group is the points on an elliptic curve, under point addition. W.r.t. the best known algorithms, the analogous discrete log problem for some groups may have higher computational complexity, which can translates to practical efficiency (both in terms of computation & data size). --64.236.170.228 20:08, 9 August 2007 (UTC)

Asymmetric encryption can be *thousands* of times slower than symmetric encryption, not just "somewhat" slower. The network can not be assumed to be the bottleneck: imagine an e-commerce site with thousands of concurrent encrypted connections. Using a technique 1000 times slower can be the difference between a request taking 100 milliseconds and 100 seconds. Sorry, but performance matters, and it always will. Systems that can't scale up and down tend to be uninteresting. --Sean 23:03, 9 August 2007 (UTC)

Downloading Files on XP SP2

Is it possible to download files on WINXP with SP2 from sites such as rapidshare, as an object blocked message appears.59.92.244.178

You need to be far more specific. Of course you can download files on winxp sp2 from rapidshare. What program are you using and what exactally is the message.--Dacium 05:20, 9 August 2007 (UTC)

Try using a non-Microsoft browser like Firefox if you are getting annoying security warnings that you can't seem to disable. --24.147.86.187 14:53, 9 August 2007 (UTC)

Well the same seems to be happening with Firefox too.Its just that I cant download a file unless I get the direct link (which I can right click and select "save as")...~~

Java Programming:Bytecode

What is the difference between bytecode and machine code? I only know bytecode is produced by software and machine code is produced by hardware but what is the difference in the code produced? I have just started learning Java so it would be better if you explain this to me with reference to Java.

(Duplicate question on bytecode removed) -- SGBailey 05:26, 9 August 2007 (UTC)

Bytecode runs on a virtual machine, machine code on a real machine. -- SGBailey 05:26, 9 August 2007 (UTC)

Machine code is not "produced by hardware," it is produced by software, e.g. a compiler. As SGBailey says, it runs on "a real machine", aka hardware. For example, when a program written in C is compiled, the output is a file containing instructions that are processed directly by the CPU. When a Java program is compiled, the output is a file containing instructions that are processed by the virtual machine, which is just another program which has been written to translate the bytecode into machine code. This is why there are different Java packages for PCs, Macs, etc. Operating systems come into play also, since many of the Java functions will ultimately call OS specific libraries, so you'd have different Java implementations for a Windows PC versus a Linux PC. --LarryMac | Talk 14:22, 9 August 2007 (UTC)

Java bytecode is just machine code for a processor which was only implemented in software at the time of its design. There is nothing to prevent hardware implementation of the same instruction set architecture. (I think at one point, Sun Microsystems actually had a Java chip that would execute Java bytecode natively.) On the other hand, machine code for real microprocessors can be executed on software emulators. --64.236.170.228 14:34, 9 August 2007 (UTC)

That's interesting- was it just a JVM implemented in hardware and attached to an existing chip, or could it actually natively run java bytecode? I thought java bytecode still had to be pretty heavily processed by the JVM before it's proper simple machine code, and that's why it's so slow.. --froth^t 20:00, 9 August 2007 (UTC)

Not having studied the JVM specification, I don't know if there's anything in it that makes bytecode execution inherently slow. The slowness of bytecode execution on software JVM might be the result of simulating a foreign VM on architectures not well-suited for the task. Even for real microprocessors, machine-language instructions may be implemented by microcode. I'm not sure if Java bytecode instructions are worse (in that they require more low-level operations to implement) than the most complex instructions of modern microprocessors with CISC instruction sets. Transmeta's Crusoe processors apparently were able to implement the x86 instruction set quite efficiently. It seems, at least in theory, they should be able to implement Java bytecode efficiently too. --64.236.170.228 20:32, 9 August 2007 (UTC)

Machine code consists of instructions fed directly into the processor. This is the computer's native language- things like "move what's in register A to register B" expressed by 'opcodes' that tell the processor what to do. These are typically very simple instructions like add subract multiply divide jump load compare, etc, that add up hopefully to something useful. You can program directly in machine code (or a step away in assembly language, which is machine code but with symbolic names and you can for example use the word JNE instead of 0102 0129 or whatever the opcode for jne is) but it's extremely difficult on full scale computer processors due to high complexity and the prefetch input queue which is usually taken care of by the compiler. Java bytecode is simply an arbitrary language similar to machine code that the Java Runtime Environment reads like a script and executes machine code corresponding to the 'script' it's reading. This makes java highly portable since to port a java program to another platform you don't need to recompile, you just need to have the bytecode read by a JRE written for your destination platform and it should run similarly. --froth^t 19:56, 9 August 2007 (UTC)

Another problem with the Windows Movie Maker...

I am enjoying Windows Movie Maker, without any codecs checked. But there is a nother problem...when I drag down a picture to the timeline or storyboard, the SAME error comes up as the one with any codec checked, and this error appears for pictures with the codecs unchecked! How can I fix the problem?

Finding out library dependencies of a Windows application

Is there a way to find out, using freely available tools only, the library dependencies of a Windows application? (I'm trying to understand why the Windows version of an open source application does not work on one particular machine. The same application works correctly on most Windows machines but I've been unable to determine what library version and/or configuration differences might have caused the problem.)

Dependency Walker (depends.exe) Angus Lepper^{(T, C, D)} 14:32, 9 August 2007 (UTC)

help! lost data!

Hello, I have a memory card that has gone corrupt and I need some free ware means of getting it back. Thank you very mush and I appreciate all solutions... Lmc169 14:46, 9 August 2007 (UTC)

Have you tried 'Drive Rescue' Its free ware and very powerful. Google it, download (1M), install and run! You can recover most files with it from any drive on your system.--SpectrumAnalyser 15:00, 9 August 2007 (UTC)

Thanks.. i'll find it and try it Lmc169 15:11, 9 August 2007 (UTC)

memory cards are still that good old DOS FAT directory structure; all the same utilities that retrieve files on FAT hard drives and floppies work on them. (so i hear; haven't tried it myself)Gzuckier 16:22, 9 August 2007 (UTC)

Thats correct, but presumably Lmc doesnt have any of these tools?--SpectrumAnalyser 16:49, 9 August 2007 (UTC)

Try TestDisk? Splintercellguy 17:20, 9 August 2007 (UTC)

Wow. only expecting one response here. Thanks very much everyone but for teh moment Drive Rescue is doing it on albeit locking up its interface. When it does lock up though it still carries on working. ill try out the other methods. Thanks for putting an end to a very stressful day! Lmc169 19:29, 9 August 2007 (UTC)

Ok thankls folks, ive so far secovered the stuff i need and want but teh pics are taking ages. and I want sleeeeeep. (Goodnight) Lmc169 20:45, 9 August 2007 (UTC)

PhotoRec would probably work better. --cesarb 00:05, 10 August 2007 (UTC)

Isnt PhotoRec part of TestDisk already?--SpectrumAnalyser 00:47, 10 August 2007 (UTC)

Need passive RFID locator system

My Dad is getting senile and loses things right and left. I got a regular key finder system but it was not satisfactory because each tag had a battery in it that quickly went dead. The problem is, once they go dead, you can't locate them to replace the battery ! So, I decided what would be ideal is a passive RFID system with dirt cheap, disposable tags and a base unit that can point to the direction and range to each selected tag. The cost of the base unit is less of an issue (although I probably need to buy a pair of those as he will no doubt lose one), but I'd like one under US$100 if I can find one. I've done some Internet searches but the only passive RFID systems I've found seem set up for large-scale businesses (like clothing retailers). Does anyone have a home system to recommend (or even one for a small warehouse) ? StuRat 18:27, 9 August 2007 (UTC)

The only thing I know of is Loc8tor. Sorry Lmc169 19:45, 9 August 2007 (UTC)

I believe they use active RFID tags, which still leaves me with the problem of the batteries in the tags going dead in short order. StuRat 20:02, 9 August 2007 (UTC)

I don't the largest range you will find on a batter-less RFID tag is about 8 meters. There are no directional finding systems for this either as far as I know because it is assumed the distance is so small. Your best idea would be to find one that is solar powered or motion powered etc.--Dacium 00:13, 10 August 2007 (UTC)

8 meters sounds like more than enough for a portable locator, if he could take it from room to room and get a direction and distance when it's in the room. StuRat 07:22, 10 August 2007 (UTC)

What type of things is he losing? Just his keys? Why not try a low tech solution, like put a small decorative bowl in a strategic position in each room, tell him the ONLY place he is allowed to put his keys down is in one of the bowls, I know it's hard to teach an old dog new tricks, but if he makes a habbit of using the bowls for his keys, if he sticks to the rule, at most he'll only have to search a few bowls. Vespine 00:41, 10 August 2007 (UTC)

I've tried that, and no, it doesn't work, he just drops whatever he is holding wherever he is at the time. He loses everything; his keys, wallet, medications, etc., on a daily basis. StuRat 07:22, 10 August 2007 (UTC)

Another low-tech solution idea: attach a broad, bright-colored lanyard to his keychain. This gives it a long "tail" and makes it more difficult to "hide". --71.175.69.118 12:54, 10 August 2007 (UTC)

In the past we've found stuff down under couch cushions, under a pile of clothes, etc. His ability to bury things is amazing. Also, if he can't fit stuff in his pockets that would make it even more likely he would put it down and lose it. StuRat 14:18, 10 August 2007 (UTC)

(sorry, slightly off topic) My late grandmother suffered with alzheimers for many years. She lost many things including important documents and items of great sentimental value. We would often find them in the strangest places, hidden in the back of wardrobes or under the mattress for example, but she never had an explanation as to why she had put her things in such strange places. I always thought the best approach was to simply look for the things she had lost. If I found it, I would say "found it" with no further explanation or questioning as to why the gas bill was inside a pack of frozen food in the freezer. If I couldn't find it, I would suggest that perhaps I could come back another time to look for it again.

If we were unable to find something, it would either mysteriously show up some time later and she would deny ever having lost it, or she would accuse people (including family members) of breaking into her apartment and stealing it. I guess what I'm getting at here is you need to be aware that the condition is debilitating and can cause a great deal of stress and confusion for sufferers and family members alike.

90.240.111.20 03:03, 12 August 2007 (UTC)

But some of this stuff is of critical importance, like his insulin. He could die if we can't find it quickly, when his blood sugar spikes. My usual strategy of getting several backup copies of critical items, like keys, doesn't work here, as docs only prescribe small amounts of many meds, because they expire quickly (insulin) or can be abused (antibiotics) or resold for profit (epoetin). StuRat 14:17, 12 August 2007 (UTC)

Well, I guess nobody offers what I need. I did find a South African company named Trolley Scan [1], but they want some US$3000 to start and US$4.20 per tag. Also, each tag is too big (credit card size) and the locator seems to give output as text data that still needs to be put into graphics form by a user program. I guess I'll have to buy the crappy active RFID system and replace all the tag batteries once a month (at considerable expense) so they don't get a chance to go dead. StuRat 23:33, 12 August 2007 (UTC)

Powermac G4 HDD Upgrade

I just purchased a powermac g4 dual 450. I have a larger 80gb drive that I would like to install into it and use it as the MAIN drive. (startup disk) The only problem is that no system disks were included. Is there anyway I can do this. Note: I can have both drives connected to the computer at the same time. BTW I am running 10.4.10

You can use Super Duper or Carbon Clone Copy to duplicate your startup drive to your other drive to make a bootable volume. --24.249.108.133 18:37, 10 August 2007 (UTC)

Namespaces

I've made a wiki but I don't know how to create new namespaces. If it makes a difference I used EditThis.info to create my wiki.--WikiEarth 21:01, 9 August 2007 (UTC)

When I go to EditThis.info, I get nothing but a "Login required" error that never goes away, but I'm going to assume the idea is that they set up a MediaWiki for you.

Creating a new namespace requires changing things in a configuration file on the server, LocalSettings.php. Assuming that EditThis.info doesn't actually give you access to the server -- which I rather doubt a free service would do -- then you're stuck unless they've given you some other way to make a namespace over the Web. rspeer / ɹəədsɹ 23:07, 9 August 2007 (UTC)

bots

i would like a person to show me how to make a bot. if you know anybody who can please tell me at my talk page. thanks. Smithcool 22:00, 9 August 2007 (UTC)

Wikipedia:Creating a bot is a good place to start. --h2g2bob (talk) 02:20, 10 August 2007 (UTC)

A Wikipedia bot? An IRC bot? A bot that plays first-person-shooter games? --Mdwyer 04:00, 10 August 2007 (UTC)

Surely he means sexbot. Vespine 04:54, 10 August 2007 (UTC)

We have an article on that - fembot. Lanfear's Bane

August 10

Auto Network Config

We know that the process of pinging a particular address is quite long(~~5 sec).Any idea how WINXP auto configures a network IP address in a short time going through the entire range of addresses???59.92.244.243 03:44, 10 August 2007 (UTC)

I might not be understanding your question, but I'm going to barge ahead, anyway. XP doesn't search an entire range when it picks out an IP address. It sends a message to a DHCP server that says, "Hi! I'm new! Can I have an address?" The DHCP has a range of addresses it is allowed to assign -- often less than 100, for a home network router -- and maintains a list of which machines belong to which addresses. It looks for a free address in its list, and sends it back to XP. "Here's your address! You're allowed to keep it for 24 hours, but you can renew your checkout anytime!" --Mdwyer 03:59, 10 August 2007 (UTC)

Hm, as a little side question, why do home routers still utilize ARP when they have DHCP on every machine connected? --froth^t 13:31, 10 August 2007 (UTC)

Because DHCP is responsible for IP level addressing, but doesn't have any ideas about MAC-level addressing. To get from computer 1 to computer 2 via ethernet (especially across a switch), you still need to know the ethernet address. ARP uses broadcast-ethernet packets to figure that out. --Mdwyer 00:36, 11 August 2007 (UTC)

Well DHCP keeps track of what MAC addresses hold leases on what IP addresses, so why not just use that instead of a whole other protocol and separate list? I mean sure it would only work for home routers where the switch -is- the DHCP server but it would be more efficient --froth^t 03:47, 11 August 2007 (UTC)

It's possible to set computers plugged into the router to have static IP addresses in the same subnet. Since those computers never ask for an address via DHCP, the DHCP server doesn't know about them. --Bavi H 00:21, 12 August 2007 (UTC)

The poster may be talking about Automatic Private IP Addressing (or link-local). These are IP addresses in the range 169.254.x.x that are assigned automatically when there is no DHCP server present. Wikipedia's article on link-local refers to RFC 3927, which seems to be a have details about how an (IPv4) address is assigned and ensured it is unique. -- Bavi H 04:11, 10 August 2007 (UTC)

Oh, thanks! I was wondering about that. If XP follows the RFC, then it uses a random number generator to pick an address within 169.254.1.0 to 169.254.254.255. There are something like 32,000 possible addresses, so the odds are really good that it will be able to pick an empty address on its first try. Then is sends out packets that say, "Anyone else using this address?" If nobody answers before a timeout, it gets to claim that address. --Mdwyer 04:19, 10 August 2007 (UTC)

Invoking user-preferred file handler in Windows, programmatically

I want to be able to invoke whatever program the user has registered for a given file type (say, for AVI files, could be WinAmp, or then again something else). The long way I've found is: First look in the registry in HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.avi to find the document type (say, "WinAmp.File"), then look in HKCR\WinAmp.File\CLSID to get the CLSID ({25336920-03f9-11cf-8fd0-00aa00686f13}), then look in HKCR\CLSID\{25336920-03f9-11cf-8fd0-00aa00686f13}\LocalServer32 (which, I now see, doesn't exist) to get the path to the application program.

Is there a more robust way? I'm kind of concerned that if the program happens to be installed on a network server, the LocalServer32 key is not going to exist. Perhaps there's just a direct Win32 API that does all the registry lookup for you and invokes the server? --Trovatore 08:25, 10 August 2007 (UTC)

I think LocalServer32 is more to do with local services than anything to do with networks. BUT, I'm no expert here - I could be wrong. 90.240.111.20 02:28, 12 August 2007 (UTC)

It looks like the AssocQueryString function has options to take a file name extension (like ".avi") and return the associated program name. --Bavi H 05:30, 12 August 2007 (UTC)

Hm, none of my VC++ 6 include files contain this AssocQueryString API. Do I need to install an updated SDK or something? --Trovatore 08:12, 14 August 2007 (UTC)

I'm using Windows 95 and VC++ 5, so I don't have it either. I searched online for the shlwapi.h file mentioned on the AssocQueryString page and found information that it's part of "the Internet Explorer SDK (AKA Microsoft Web Workshop SDK)" [2]. I just looked at that page again now and noticed the last post mentions that "the Web Workshop is a component of the Platform SDK" and has more info about that. (It doesn't appear to be for Windows 95, though, so I can't try it out.) --Bavi H 04:18, 15 August 2007 (UTC)

inverted screen

what should I do to revert back the inverted screen in my computer?

Try Ctrl-Alt-UpArrow. --LarryMac | Talk 14:38, 10 August 2007 (UTC)

You, or someone else may have changed your Windows appearance or Theme. Right-click on the desktop, choose Properties from the popup list, and see if you reset the Theme and/or Appearance back to standard settings, such as Windows XP. --jjron 14:42, 10 August 2007 (UTC)

By "inverted" do you mean black is white and white is black? or do you mean the text is upside-down? The first could be to do with display themes/appearence settings, or maybe there's an electrical problem with the monitor or the VGA cable. The second could be that some joker has turned your screen over :-P 90.240.111.20 02:34, 12 August 2007 (UTC)

am trying to get this book so that i can read it offline

Byte of Python:Downloadable version. how do i download it in pdf format

The author says (here): "This version is much improved over the last publically released download. A downloadable version of this latest version will be made available soon (as soon as I figure out how to export a "book" from the MediaWiki pages)". So your choices are to wait until s/he figures out how to do that, or get an old version from here. --Sean 15:05, 10 August 2007 (UTC)

Entering data into Microsoft Excel

I know this is probably not the place to ask this type of question, but you people have been very good at answering my questions in the past, so I wondered if you could help me here. I'm using Microsoft Office Excel (2003) to enter in the results of a questionnaire, one of the questions for which was "To which of the following age categories do you belong?" Available answers included 10-19, 20-29, 30-39 and 40-49 (plus <10 and 50+). Unfortunately, whenever I input "10-19" into Excel, it converts it into "Oct-19". It does this even if I include spacing ("10 - 19") and clicking "undo" deletes the lot. The really daft thing is, I'm working from the UK, where "10-19" doesn't even mean the nineteenth of October (that would be "19/10"). The help menus are no use, and it still converts it even when I switch off autocomplete. Is there any way I can input the data without it messing with it? It's driving me mad, so any help here would be much appreciated. RobbieG 12:18, 10 August 2007 (UTC)

(I don't have excel to hand, so this is from memory) - type an apostrophe (') before the 10-19 etc. -- Finlay McWalter | Talk 12:21, 10 August 2007 (UTC)

Perfect! That's some memory you've got there. Thanks for the help! RobbieG 12:34, 10 August 2007 (UTC)

Or use Data Validation on the column (or relevant cells) and only allow entries from a list - then use your list as the source. --Worm 13:17, 10 August 2007 (UTC)

Or select the relevant column, or appropriate cells, from the menus choose Format>Cells..., in the dialogue box go to the Number tab and under the Category select Text. --jjron 14:36, 10 August 2007 (UTC)

This is one of the known risks of using Excel; see Excel garbles microarray experiment data, for instance. --cesarb 11:25, 11 August 2007 (UTC)

Virtual Hard Disks (vhd)

Can virtual hard disks, like those used with Microsoft Virtual PC, be mounted on a normal operating system so that they act like another hard drive (ie, accessable from Windows Explorer etc)? Think outside the box 13:31, 10 August 2007 (UTC)

There appears to be a program included in MSVPC called VHDMount which does this - see this blog for details and issues. And this page describes how to install VHDMount from the MSVPC installer without installing the whole MSVPC. -- Finlay McWalter | Talk 13:53, 10 August 2007 (UTC)

Thanks Finlay McWalter, I'll check it out Think outside the box 14:44, 10 August 2007 (UTC)

Dreamhost - experiences?

Does anyone have experiences with the web hosting service Dreamhost? On features alone their hosting offerings look very competitive, but of course the proof of the pudding is in the eating. Reviews seem to be highly polarised; from those it's impossible to tell if the unfavourable (and generally badly spelled, I notice) reviews are from disgruntled cranks or if the (generally rather polished) good reviews are the work of people in their referrer program with something to gain. Does any regular wikipedian have direct experience of Dreamhost? -- Finlay McWalter | Talk 13:33, 10 August 2007 (UTC)

I have a small website hosted on their cheaper plan. Nothing much for me to say besides, well, it runs pretty smoothly. They have some neat-o features, such as being able to put up YouTube-type flash videos with their own tools, and simplified installs of software such as WordPress. Not entirely a fan of their control panel but, hey, it works. From time to time I hear from other people (or see on their status blog) that a number of servers are down; however, I've personally never experienced any downtime myself (knock on wood!). bluemonq 21:25, 16 August 2007 (UTC)

PHP echo() problem

I'm trying to write a PHP page to save comments to a blog I'm setting up, and I can't get the PHP to echo a quotation mark (") correctly. I tried doing the backslash ignore (\") and the code doesn't generate an error, but it echoes the backslash as well as the quotation mark which prevents the html fron executing properly. (most browers probably won't know what to do with <td class=\"blog\"> Anyway, does anyone know how to solve this problem? 69.205.180.123 13:41, 10 August 2007 (UTC)

ok, nevermind. I realized what I was doing wrong. (grabbing the source code of my article page, and outputting it in the result. brilliant I know. Well we all have our days...... you do too. (you know you do)69.205.180.123 14:08, 10 August 2007 (UTC)

Recognizing media player type/ html object backgrounds

Is there a way to detect what media player a user has turned on from a website? (using javascript/php/asp/etc.) I know it is possible to detect things about the user's computer (like screensize and browser type) using javascript. Just wondering if you could do the same with a media player.
Also, is there a way to set the background of an html <object> tag to something other than white? Is there a way to make it transparent? (I'd like the latter more than the former, but either is better than nothing.) 69.205.180.123 13:56, 10 August 2007 (UTC)

SIM Cards

If I have phone X, and if cellular provider Y does not sell or support phone X on their network, but I have a SIM card from cellular provider Y and place it inside of phone X, will phone X function on cellular provider Y's network? Is there any feature that will allow the SIM card to reject the phone it is placed inside of, barring it from the cellular network? I want to know if the miniOne (http://www.popsci.com/popsci/technology/e7e48a137b144110vgnvcm1000004eecbccdrcrd.html) iPhone clone from the People's Republic of China can or cannot be effectively banned from the US, due to IP reasons, through the third-party cellular providers. Thanks. - MSTCrow 15:15, 10 August 2007 (UTC)

Assuming that the phone meets the GSM specs and is not locked to a specific carrier (which is common with many phones sold under contract by US carriers), then you should be able to use it on the cellular provider's network. There's been some discussion surrounding the current bandwidth auction (the frequencies being freed up by the transition to digital TV) about whether to require that providers support any device that follows specs on their networks in that bandwidth. Not sure what the US law is currently on cell phone providers, but I've never heard of them going through the trouble (or having the capacity) to restrict access beyond what they do through locking phones. Donald Hosek 17:45, 10 August 2007 (UTC)

In theory, it could be banned, not by the SIM card but by the network itself, since it knows the phone's IMEI (which also identifies the model). In practice, I think nobody ever does that (other than banning specific phones as stolen). --cesarb 11:08, 11 August 2007 (UTC)

One-page web photo galleries

Does anyone know of a code that allows a photo gallery to appear on one, narrow page of a website? I'm not looking for those full-fledged gallery software things, just some simple html/CSS/java to do the trick, like this or this. I've tried both code on my site, neither works. -- Zanimum 15:22, 10 August 2007 (UTC)

You can easily do it all with HTML alone, as long as you don't want thumbnails that expand to full-sized pics. (Actually, you can sort of do that by having thumbnails at the top, with links to full sized pics down below, but that still means the page takes a long time to load on slow networks. The more common way to do this with HTML alone would be to have the top page have thumbnails only, and have a subpage with each full sized pic, which are each linked to the corresponding thumbnail on the top page.) StuRat 11:53, 11 August 2007 (UTC)

Yeah, I know all of that stuff, I've done the whole thumbnail page/subpages for enlargements thing for multiple artist's websites. But I'm specifically needing code that can create galleries like those. I've since had limited success with simple JavaScript behavior commands, the whole "Set Text of Layer" thing, but that only works to an extent. -- Zanimum 17:58, 14 August 2007 (UTC)

One thing you may want to try would be using CSS popups, ala Eric Myers [3], but I'm not too sure if that's what you're fully looking for or not. You may have luck with lightboxes as well, although I'm not sure if the code will suit you. Google turns up a fair number of CSS and JS variations on this, perhaps some of those results may be of use? 198.103.96.11 18:49, 15 August 2007 (UTC)

Thanks, I'll keep these in mind. (The person I'm doing the site for seems to be satisfied with a Flash slideshow I posted, but it's quite possible they won't be in the future.) -- Zanimum 17:45, 16 August 2007 (UTC)

second-level domain traffic counting

I just noticed that our article Microsoft Office Online is out of date; its traffic statistics are three years old, and I wanted to update them. However, I'm not able to find any (free) statistics that list second-level domains. What would be a good source we can cite? — Sebastian 16:02, 10 August 2007 (UTC)

I question the legitimacy of the original statistics, since there's nothing there that says where THEY came from. 68.39.174.238 17:06, 10 August 2007 (UTC)

GlovePIE sensitivity

I have a Wiimote hooked up to my computer, and I'm using GlovePIE. The motion controls are fine on the desktop, but when I start up Halo PC, the aim is super sensitive, even though the one in controls is set on minimum. Is there a script command to reduce the Wiimote's sensitively? 67.169.185.206 19:23, 10 August 2007 (UTC)

round-robin program.

Let's say I'm having a really long round-robin tournament with almost 150 competitors. I need a program where I can select the winner of each game and the program will automatically calculate the number of wins for each competitor. These games have no points, only wins are counted. I don't need a whole scheduler. Furthermore, the list of competitors is in MSExcel. Is there a program that will allow me to import this data? Does anybody know of anything like this? Thanks in advance. - Zepheus <ゼィフィアス> 20:43, 10 August 2007 (UTC)

I came up with one on the maths desk a while ago - that was very inefficient - don't recommend it. However if you look at Round-robin_tournament#Scheduling_algorithm you will see that the method is really simple - you barely need a computer - however I'm sure someone else can help more.87.102.74.130 21:04, 10 August 2007 (UTC)

Under "File + Save As" you can select "Comma Seperated Values (CSV)" as "Save as type". This format is easily read by any number of program languages, including FORTRAN (my favorite). If you like, I could write you a standalone FORTRAN program to do what you wish, all I would need is a sample CSV file. StuRat 11:41, 11 August 2007 (UTC)

Some experiments in Excel look promising, depending on what you wanted to do. You could for example create a grid 150 x 150, in this case at the top of the first 150 columns you would write each person's name (technically, just their unique number), and in the first colum you would again list each person from 1 - 150. So in the top cells you have "allen, ben, charlie" and on the left running down you've got "allen, ben, charlie". Obviously the first match is "allen vs allen" so you put a null. "ben vs ben" is also a null (null as in 'blank' not '0'. Now you will create a double-entry system, i.e. if Allen beats Charlie, in Allen's column you put a '1' and in Charlie's column you put a '0' (and yes you have to put it in the right row). Ultimately you put an autosum at the bottom of each column which will count the number of wins that the person has (wins are worth 1 and losses worth 0). The tricky thing of course is your data entry, because at the end of every round you have to enter in approximately 150 results (because of the double-entry). With some Excel mastery you could maybe get it to do the double-entry for you, thereby halving the end-of-round data entry to 75.

Speaking of doing this programatically, if you only need to count wins, then excel really is probably the way to go, and simply tally the wins and losses of each player (the "losses" is only as a checksum for integrity purposes, i.e. at the end of the game you should have an equal number of losses and wins (draws excepteD). Programatically to "count" the number of wins is actually very simple, so its unlikely someone's made a program that only calculates the wins of each competitor.

Programatically this would be one way of looking it (you may consider Microsoft Access as an option

Simply create a database table with 4 fields (columns) namely: "UNIQUE PLAYER #" + "NAME" + "WINS" + "LOSSES"

Then the program would ask you who played who, and which player won, and then amend the data for you.

It could then very easily have a feature that would tell you who had the most wins.

This doesn't however help you schedule - there's an entirely different solution for that

Having said all this, it still remain unfeasible to specifically write a program for this (scheduling aside), because you can literally do it on pen and paper with a tally. The scheduling aspect would be a lovely challenge - imagine just being able to push a button and it will print out who is versing who! It's all doable. Let me know if you're desperate and I can look at writing something for you. Are you perhaps imagining more than one point of data-entry (maybe for time purposes, at the end of the round you'll have 2-3 attendants entering in who won?) Rfwoolf 21:13, 11 August 2007 (UTC)

Follow-up: If I were to use Excel... I have all the entrants in a column is there a way to rotate that column so the names also become column headers? - Zepheus <ゼィフィアス> 17:56, 14 August 2007 (UTC)

Yes, I believe that's called transposing. Select all your entrants in the first row, and copy. Then, where you want to paste these as column headers, right-click and select "paste special" and check the "transpose" checkbox. Then click OK. Rfwoolf 11:50, 15 August 2007 (UTC)

Awesome. Thank you so much. That will definitely save time in the future. I looked in Excel's less-than-helpful Help file and found nothing. I guess one has to search for "transpose." Thanks again! - Zepheus <ゼィフィアス> 18:49, 15 August 2007 (UTC)

"Add to cart" button for wikipedia

Is there any way (using a script or something) I can have an "Add to cart" button on wikipedia, so that I can keep putting into a cart articles I want to read but do not have time to read right now. Technically, it would be something similar to the "watch" feature, but I really want a separate list for articles I want to "watch" and for articles I plan to "read". deeptrivia (talk) 23:27, 10 August 2007 (UTC)

I use my browser to bookmark articles I want to come back to. --Mdwyer 00:30, 11 August 2007 (UTC)

Another way would be to create a new Wikipedia screen name and add any articles you wish to read to that screen name's watch list. StuRat 11:32, 11 August 2007 (UTC)

I guess I'll try Google Bookmarks. deeptrivia (talk) 16:34, 11 August 2007 (UTC)

August 11

Playing 3D games in PC

hello friends and technicians....I need your overall suggestion for buying a proper graphics card for my PC. I will explain you my doubts...I once had a celeron processor 2 GHz hosting on a mercury 845 model VIA chipset based motherboard(low end) and with memory upto 384MB and with NVIDIA 128MB Geforce MX 4000 AGP card. With this configuration I was able to play almost many 3 D games like NFS underground 2 with almost 80%(800x600) graphics under windows 2000 and about 50% under windows xp. Simiarly I was able to play other few games of that sort too..Recently I sold that for a lower price since it was not upgraable. Now in the past week I bought a new configuration.It has Pentium D 3.0GHz residing on Intel 965RY Motherboard with 1 GB RAM. I thought the system wouyld be excelleent for gaming since it has INtel GMAX3000 which can have shared memory range upto 256 MB.Since it has 4 MB cache in CPU and its a dual core I thought it would outperform in playing most of the games..But what the unfortunate thing was that this new system could not do any better when compared to my older pc mentined in the 1st line. I don't understand why is this..I played many games and checked its performance...I finally concluded that both pcs are just doing the same thing.No improvements..I now feel like that my pc is not perfect for playing good high end games with good graphics...What would be your suggestion?..Is there any way that I can upgrade by buying high end graphics card like 8600GT or so. OR do I gotta change my pc again?....Can anybody tell me what kind of graphics card will my pc can drive with maximum load?...For eg, my older pc was not able to drive MX 4000 card 100%.I don't want the same condition happening again for this model too.I want to know the proper card for this..Plz give me a proper guide.Expecting your suggestions...Thanks for your time with me in advance...

I thought the system wouyld be excelleent for gaming since it has INtel GMAX3000 which can have shared memory range upto 256 MB. there's your problem. Get a real graphics card. Integrated cards suck. If you're serious about gaming, an 8600GTS from Newegg for around 200-300$ is going to be the most effective use of money with that computer --Lucid 01:06, 11 August 2007 (UTC)

Oh really?....I can't believe that a 3D card can really change the way game plays completly.I looked at the onboard card's features(on intel site)and then only purchased..I even thought I should have purchased extreme edition Motherboard(975)series and core 2 duo CPU for gaming.Never thought of graphics card :-) ..So buying a PCI express card is my solution!...I hope both PCI 1x and PCI 16X are the same, aren't thay?..Mine has two provisions too...I will check out soon...Thanks really

Uh, no, PCIe 1x and 16x are completely different. 16x is what any decent graphics card will be nowadays, 1x is going to be crappy budget cards. --Lucid 01:31, 11 August 2007 (UTC)

And you don't have to get a 8600GT. A 7600GT or 7900 should be good enough and cheaper. But yes, intergrated cards are generally not as good as separate cards, and shared memory cards are especially bad for performance (due to bus speed/timing issues and using up the RAM for its own memory). --Wirbelwindヴィルヴェルヴィント (talk) 17:43, 13 August 2007 (UTC)

Ghost File Win98

Hi! How can I make a Ghost File WIN98?Plz Help —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Star33 2009 (talk • contribs).

[4] might help. Googling would have saved you the trouble. Splintercellguy 22:26, 11 August 2007 (UTC)

JavaScript archiving function

I'm interested in creating an auto-archiving function for my talk page, that includes not only the "[edit]" link, but another link ("[archive]"), and using autosave functions (&autoclick=wpSave, etc) to add the section to one of my archives. I've started a little something in my userspace, autoarchive.js, but I'm not too sure where to go from there, and what I have done is correct, or could be done a better way. All help is appreciated. Kind regards, –sebi 02:54, 11 August 2007 (UTC)

Nokia 6680 help

Hi....! i am asking a question about mobile phone. i have Nokia 6680 which cant display the main menu.i am using Telenor SIM but when the sim is removed it works well.plz help —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Star33 2009 (talk • contribs).

Wireless Router loosing signal

I have a Netgear router and it is about half way across the house from my room where I have my laptop. Before the signal strenth to my laptop was always either Very Good, or Excellent. And also the speed was always at 54.0Mbps. However it started about three months ago where I started having signal strenth problems with my router. Now the signal strenth of the router has a mind of it's own. One minute it goes from Very Good to very low and the Mbps goes to like 54.0Mbps to like 11.0Mbps. My router has a problem of some sort. Why is this happening? And I know for a fact that it is not the wall problem because remember I said before it never had the signal strenth problem. So what is the deal here? It would be very appreciated if someone could give me the correct information. Thank you Bond Extreme 03:05, 11 August 2007 (UTC)

Someone nearby could have a device that may be interfering with your router, for example, another conflicting router in a neighbours house, a newly built moblie phone base station nearby, etc. Wireless devices use normal radio frequencies, so the same tricks you'd use to get a better signal on an analogue radio will work for them too (lifting it higher, trying different positions, tin foil, etc) Think outside the box 10:53, 11 August 2007 (UTC)

I do know that one of our neighbours does have a router running close to our house. Would that be the problem? How do I resolve this?17:24, 11 August 2007 (UTC)

Maybe your neighbour is having similar problems. Have a chat over the garden fence and see if you can both experiment a bit - moving the equipment around to improve the signal in both houses. Astronaut 01:57, 12 August 2007 (UTC)

You could also try running a "sniffer" like Network Stumbler http://www.netstumbler.com/ and look to see if any other wireless networks are on the same channel as yours. If there are, try changing channels up or down by 3. --Blowdart 17:24, 12 August 2007 (UTC)

Non-animated animations

My computer has never really displayed an animation. That is, stuff like GIF animations. I can't for the life of me think of the problem...browser? Firefox. RAM? Approximately 2GB. OS? XP. Anybody have any suggestions?--The Ninth Bright Shiner 03:12, 11 August 2007 (UTC)

In Firefox, the way image animation is handled is configurable. See [5] for the details. (Sounds like you have the parameter set to "none" in your browser.) --71.175.69.118 04:06, 11 August 2007 (UTC)

Ah, still nothing. It is set to "Normal," but nothing has changed. In fact, it was set to "Normal" to begin with!--The Ninth Bright Shiner 05:03, 11 August 2007 (UTC)

Some firewalls and adblockers have options to block animated GIFs, by removing their animation. Got anything like that running? Check their options. — Kieff | Talk 05:41, 11 August 2007 (UTC)

All I've got is the infinitely ambiguous EZ Firewall. Didn't see anything about GIFs.--The Ninth Bright Shiner 02:58, 12 August 2007 (UTC)

Try viewing a page with animated GIF using an alternative browser on the same machine to see if the problem is specific to Firefox. --71.175.69.118 11:45, 12 August 2007 (UTC)

IE didn't reveal anything...--The Ninth Bright Shiner 19:41, 12 August 2007 (UTC)

Is your ISP messing with your connection? F 09:54, 13 August 2007 (UTC)

I wouldn't suspect Road Runner of anything...--The Ninth Bright Shiner 18:35, 14 August 2007 (UTC)

Clock difference in Pentiumdual core Vs Core 2 duo

Hi friends, I have a query that if a Pentium D running at 3 GHz can outperform a pentium core 2 duo at 2 GHz?...The key point is that this pentium D has 4 MB cache where as the core2duo has only 2 MB L2 cache...Both are 800 MHz bus speed....what makes these two processors unique and which among these two beat the crowd?..anyone knows?....

Core 2 duo will outperform the pentium D (as long as you can take advantage of both cores I think) - the Pentium D's are cheaper though (if you can still get them)..87.102.5.144 10:36, 11 August 2007 (UTC)

Though as you've probably guessed the situation could be reversed, for instance if the program is very large ie more than 2MB.

Someone else could probably give you more info on what advantages a Pentium D has over the Core 2 Duo in terms of instruction pipeline length etc.

Unless you can produce empirical evidence to show that at the same price, a Pentium D will overall outperform a Core 2 Duo, please don't make uncited assertions that contradicts most benchmarks out in the wild. --antilived^{T | C | G} 00:14, 12 August 2007 (UTC)

?I didn't - I said the opposite??87.102.1.234 10:15, 12 August 2007 (UTC)

I think he meant op. --Wirbelwindヴィルヴェルヴィント (talk) 17:36, 13 August 2007 (UTC)

That was to the person directly above me and below User:87.102.1.234. --antilived^{T | C | G} 06:01, 14 August 2007 (UTC)

That was me too (User:87.102.1.234. forgot to sign) - I meant that Pentium D's are now cheaper (in general) for instance here excluding one example the "D's" are all cheaper than the "Duos" sorry I wasn't clearer..?87.102.66.187 12:27, 14 August 2007 (UTC)

Oh and re-reading I should have added 'and vice-versa' at the end. and underlined "could be"87.102.66.187 12:30, 14 August 2007 (UTC)

And made it clear that having the kernel>2MB was most unlikely..Sorry.87.102.66.187 12:33, 14 August 2007 (UTC)

Dual-ported RAM re-ask

1. Are there more articles about multiply ported memory here (I couldn't find them)?

2. Does anyone know of RAM with more than 4 'ports' currently in use - if so what/where/when?

3. Have we got an article on quad ported ram under another name? Thanks.87.102.35.197 11:53, 10 August 2007 (UTC)

Please don't re-ask so quickly. Anyway, it looks like our coverage of that subject is very limited, so probably "no" to the 1st and 3rd questions although you can try Googlewhacking to see for sure. 68.39.174.238 13:25, 11 August 2007 (UTC)

HTML <object> backgrounds

Is there any way to set what color/image/transparent is the background to an HTML <object>?

I'm trying to write a webpage with some embedded audio and video on it. The video shows up fine because both Quicktime and Windows Media Player are about the same size, but when I try the audio, Quicktime is 15 pixels tall and WMP is 45 pixels. If I make the object 15 pixels tall, the WMP looks really wierd and there's no way to control the audio flow except for stop/start. If I make the object 45 pixels tall, WMP looks great, but QT has white rectangles above and below it. (My page's background is kind of a green fading into blue from top-left to bottom-right. A white splotch looks just great on that.....)

Anyway, if there's no way to set the background of an HTML <object> tag, does anyone know how to make an "in-house" player like on youtube or myspace? Thanks. 69.205.180.123 14:30, 11 August 2007 (UTC)

YouTube and MySpace players are just done using Flash. They are easy to make, generally speaking because the Professional versions of Flash (which you can demo for 30 days without paying for) come with pre-fab media players that you just need to customize. --24.147.86.187 16:23, 11 August 2007 (UTC)

As for the question about the <object> -- have you tried giving it a CSS class and then setting the class background to transparent? That is what I would try... --24.147.86.187 16:24, 11 August 2007 (UTC)

Not sure but try the <span> tag which has a background colour thing - it technically highlights whatever is between the span tags, so its great for a 'highlight' effect on text - yet its entirely different to a 'background' which normally refers to table cells (and your actual webpage). Google it for the syntax, maybe say "HTML" + "Span" + "highlight" Rfwoolf 20:36, 11 August 2007 (UTC)

No, <span> tags are only for inline elements, not block elements. You can try setting <object style="background: transparent" ...> but it is likely that the white blotch is from Quicktime itself, not knowing what to do with the extra space. Also, it is much better practise to embed sound using Flash to ensure consistent controls and not needing to load yet another plugin. --antilived^{T | C | G} 00:10, 12 August 2007 (UTC)

Page Loading Speed

I recently upped my watchlist count by a considerable amount to over 370 pages. Since then, whenever I try to load a page it takes much longer than it did before I watched all those extra pages. Is there anything I can do to sort it out? (I doubt this will make a difference but I use the latest version of Safari). I originally brought this to the Help desk but was directed to the reference desk and this seemed most appropriate. Thanks asyndeton 19:01, 11 August 2007 (UTC)

370 is not a large watchlist, and there's no reason that should impinge on performance. Those with very large watchlists might experience some slowdown when actually viewing their watchlist page, but not otherwise. -- Finlay McWalter | Talk 23:37, 11 August 2007 (UTC)

I heard a developer say that in general you will get a faster page load if you are logged out. It's not a huge difference, but when you are logged in it has to load all of your preferences and stuff (like date preferences, for instance) instead of just showing you the same page that everyone else is seeing. You may want to try that, although I don't really think it will make much of a difference. --Oskar 16:50, 14 August 2007 (UTC)

Sometimes. Non-signed in users see a cached version of pages (served straight from the squid cache), so if the page is in the squid then you get it straight away (I honestly don't know how that scheme handles "you have messages" for anons). This isn't possible for signed in users, as their pages are affected by their settings and their .js file. But if you're looking at an article that is sufficiently obscure for it not to be in the cache then a server will have to render that page whole regardess, so you'd not see much speedup from being anon. I don't know what the caching situation is for special: pages - I rather suspect they'll be set not to cache. -- Finlay McWalter | Talk 17:00, 14 August 2007 (UTC)

It's really really hard for a logged out user to see his watchlist, though. --LarryMac | Talk 17:04, 14 August 2007 (UTC)

CPU designation according to windows

Apparently only the business and ultimate versions of Windows Vista are compatible with more than one "physical CPU". I intend to install windows vista on a Mac Pro dual processor dual core xeon machine. Within the framework of windows vista, does this constitute one, two, or four physical CPUs? Basically, if I install one of the more basic systems only capable of utilizing one physical CPU, will it be capable of using the full processing power of the computer, or only a fraction thereof? Tuckerekcut 22:45, 11 August 2007 (UTC)

The key is the phrase "physical CPUs". A dual core processor is a single physical CPU and so any version of Vista will make full use of a single dual core processor. Your mac pro is a dual processor, two physical CPUs, and thus the lower SKUs of Vista (Home Premium and lower) will only make use of one of those (although it will make use of both cores on it). Even before dual core processors were release Microsoft stated [6] that all cores would be utilised and they would be treated as a single CPU. --Blowdart 15:55, 12 August 2007 (UTC)

August 12

Quintuply Hypnotized

Trying to get some live iTunes support is so hard...anyway, I was tinkering with titles and stuff, when I noticed my numerous System of a Down titles. Most were labeled "System of a Down," but some were labeled "System Of A Down." I tried editing all of the songs at once to have a lowercase "of" and "a," but something really strange happened. In the Cover Flow display, there are five Hypnotizes. I can't figure out why it multiplied, or what's keeping them from rejoining. Any suggestions?--The Ninth Bright Shiner 02:57, 12 August 2007 (UTC)

I suggest EasyTag for tagging your music. --antilived^{T | C | G} 10:08, 12 August 2007 (UTC)

Perhaps trailing spaces? What happens if you delete the album title from all those songs, then replace it? What if you replace it with something other than "Hypnotize"? Tesseran 19:00, 12 August 2007 (UTC)

Woo-hoo! I deleted the Album name and Artist name for all the songs, then put them back in. All sorted out! Thanks a bundle!--The Ninth Bright Shiner 19:46, 12 August 2007 (UTC)

Types of processors

WHAT ARE THE DIFFERENT TYPES OF PROCESSORS???WHAT IS A DUAL CORE AND A QUAD CORE PROCESSOR

At the top left of this page there is a "search" box. Type CPU into it and press "Go". Also try searching for dual core and processor. Lots of information there! The blue words are links that you can click to find out more about related concepts. Weregerbil 08:06, 12 August 2007 (UTC)

Pseudocodes, DFDs and Flowchart

Guys, its ADIDS.

Well i have another problem.

My Computer Studies teacher can't give detailed diagrams for how DFDs work and more and more diagrams for it. I dont also have flowchart examples. I am just doing my O levels so all I want is a non technical examples. Can any one post a link here for me?

PSEUDOCODES

Well. I had a problem writing a pseudocode/algorithm (formal) for i)finding out the avg,highest,lowest no.s from a set. ii) using various loop constructs (like for-next, loop-until,while-do,etc)

Can any one find me a review about such pseudocodes.

Wikipedia gives a much more difficult technical overview on such topics. SO HELP ME!!!!!!!!!!

ADIDS

There are plenty of examples on the net for a lot of these, and the ones on Wikipedia I think are actually pretty good. Take the [[while loop]] for example:

x = 0;        // a variable 'x' is reset to 0;
while (x < 3) // "while x is less than 3..."
{             // "...do the following BEGINing of loop"
   x++;       // "increment x"
}             // "ENDing of loop"
// Note that the loop statement is run from left to right, top to bottom, until the loop conditions fail to be met.

See do while loop, while loop, for loop, foreach.

And of course google any of those. Rfwoolf 14:11, 12 August 2007 (UTC)

Data flow diagrams simply show the "flow" of data through a computer system. So for a program to find the square of a number, you get the original number from a user, shove whatever value that is through a process which squares it, and send the result to the screen for output:

[ keyboard ] ------------------> { square value } -------------------> [ VDU ]
               input number                         squared number

I've used [...] and {...} in place of "external" and "process" icons. The icons used are not always the same - use whatever your teacher says. I'd say take a look at your text book or ask your teacher for help on this one.

The iteration page has some information on looping and even has some pseudocode. Pseudocode is a human-readable form of the steps you need to go through to complete your algorithm. There's no standard for pseudocode, so I'm guessing your teachers are more worried about the algorithm. Imagine you're doing the process yourself, then write down the steps you went through:

for each item
   check if it's the maximum so far and remember the number if it is

You should probably then write it more like a computer language if you like. The first line makes sure max_number has a value which can then be compared to item.

max_number = first item in list_of_items
foreach list_of_items as item
   if item > max_number set max_number = item

--h2g2bob (talk) 14:17, 12 August 2007 (UTC)

Completely unrelated note, but use boldface type sparingly, thanx. 68.39.174.238 22:47, 13 August 2007 (UTC)

How can I protect my Laptop's Ac/Dc adapter?

I recently had to replace my ac/dc adapter. At first when I jiggled it, there would be a power connection but eventually it went completely black no matter how much I jiggled it. MY question is what are some ways I can protect the AC/Dc adapter and prevent this from happening again? --Gary123 14:04, 12 August 2007 (UTC)

This wouldn't be an IBM ThinkPad by any chance ? They seem to have a problem that the plug receptor isn't mounted properly to the laptop case, but instead is only mounted to the circuit board. Thus, whenever you plug and unplug the adapter you put stress on the weak solder connections on the board, which were never meant to take those kind of forces. To compensate for this bad design and/or defective manufacturing, I'd permanently leave it plugged in at that end, and just wrap the adapter's wires around the laptop to travel. Unfortunately, if this is the problem, replacing the adapter won't help. If you meant the problem is where the adapter plugs into the wall, then I see two possibilities here:

1) The plugs don't fit properly in the outlet. This could be the (electrical) fault of the outlet (the slots are too big and/or the springs which push the metal contacts against the plug prongs are worn out). Or, the prongs on the plug might be too small or improperly spaced or bent.

2) There is an internal electrical fault in the "wall wart", caused by a loose connection between the prongs and the wires.

If the fault is with the outlet, replace it. If the fault is with the plug, replace it. In this case it might be covered under the laptop's warrantee, if any. StuRat 14:35, 12 August 2007 (UTC)

If it's a thinkpad they'll fix it, period --froth^t 17:01, 12 August 2007 (UTC)

BLAST IT I had this happen with a Apple laptop, I suspect what's described above is what happened... 68.39.174.238 22:48, 13 August 2007 (UTC)

I recently got a laptop fixed with this problem. It was not the plug but the adapter - however, both go out rather easily in laptops and it's somewhat of a hidden cost if you manhandle your power cord. -Wooty [Woot?] [Spam! Spam! Wonderful spam!] 23:28, 13 August 2007 (UTC)

August 13

Fireworks Cs3 Transparency

Does anyone know how to change the color of the transparent background pattern in Fireworks? The white and light gray checkerboard pattern is difficult for me to use.

Physics on Graphics cards

I'm pretty sure that nvidia's newest graphics cards (8800 series) have built in physics capabilities. Will Blender automatically use this extra power for fluid and soft body animations? Thank you. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.195.124.101 (talk • contribs)

HTML <object> with a transparent background

I am trying to embed some audio files in my webpage, but I can't get the object's background to be transparent. I used the following code, and the object rendered with a transparent background for a split-second before the plug-in (In this case QuickTime player.) loaded and apparently overrode the transparency and put a (dreaded) white background instead.

<object width="500" height="45" allowtransparency="true> <embed src="audio/somefile.mp3" autostart="true" type="audio/mpeg" allowtransparency="true" width="500" height="45"></embed></object>

does anyone know how to override the QT override? Note: I have asked questions relating to this problem before, and some of you have mentioned using Adobe Flash to embed media in a webpage. It's a great idea, but at 17 years old, I can't really afford to buy it. Thanks for the idea though.69.205.180.123 14:20, 13 August 2007 (UTC)

You could always use the embed tag instead, which works on Firefox and I'm pretty sure on IE (example from my website):

<embed src="filenameofmusic.mp3" width="0" height="0" loop="true" autoplay="true" controller="false" pluginspage="http://www.apple.com/quicktime/download/"> </embed> -Wooty [Woot?] [Spam! Spam! Wonderful spam!] 23:27, 13 August 2007 (UTC)

That is extremely bad practice as you have no way of stopping it if the controls doesn't exist (0 height and width). There ARE pre-made MP3 players in Flash out there, like this (CC-by-nc-sa license) which you just need to tinker with the xml file to play your own MP3 on your own site. --antilived^{T | C | G} 05:58, 14 August 2007 (UTC)

Unicode usernames

I'm developing a simple user login system for my website. At the moment the database stores usernames in UTF-8 encoding, and using the various multi-byte functions in PHP this seems to be working well so far.

Is there any reason why allowing unicode in usernames would be a bad idea, or otherwise are there any precautions I should take? I'm using PHP 5.2 and MySQL 4.1. ~Inkington 15:26, 13 August 2007 (UTC)

The only real problem I've seen is that users can pretend to be someone else by using unicode for letters that look practically identical to standard ascii letters. It can be difficult for users to type in unicode - but if they used unicode when creating their username, they should be able to type it again. -- Kainaw^(what?) 16:42, 13 August 2007 (UTC)

Better to use unicode as this supports all types of foreign languages and characters, rather than a single-byte character set (or even worse, 7-bit ASCII), where your data would be impossible to convert/correct later on. UTF-8 (UTF8-AL32) is recommended in Oracle's latest RDBMS. Sandman30s 17:41, 13 August 2007 (UTC)

Nuh uh. I'd say stick with strict ascii for identity-information like login name. As was brought up before, it's easy to impersonate other users or even screw up your administration backend by using control characters. International support really isn't that necessary, and you're certainly not alone if you say "I don't think so" to the supporters of unicode-ization. Support it in the rest of your application so your users aren't frustrated by characters that don't work, but force ascii text for the login name. People won't mind such a reasonable precaution- international users are used to it anyway --froth^t 20:17, 13 August 2007 (UTC)

If so do so, offer "display names" that are customizeable, similar to WpA's difference between usernames and signatures. 68.39.174.238 22:58, 13 August 2007 (UTC)

The simple solution is to offer a subset of UTF8 and exclude characters that can be potentially confusing/less useful/insecure.

I have heard of, but never actually seen implemented, systems that color letters from different character sets different colors (and possibly highlight them with different background colors.) This makes similar characters more obviously different 69.95.50.15 20:10, 14 August 2007 (UTC)

Thanks for the advice. I was thinking of limiting it to a subset of UTF8, as mentioned above, but so far I haven't found an easy way to do this in PHP, apart from using some very ugly (and limited) regular expressions... ~Inkington 17:37, 15 August 2007 (UTC)

Pictures

Where can I find pics like the ones shown on these menus. I was planning on making my own menu and wanted pictures that have that "digital" look. I already asked at the Help desk but they misundersstood and told me to copy and paste. I'm guessing they'll be on the commons. Please answer on my talk page - Pheonix 23:25, 13 August 2007 (UTC)

I think it's called the "crystal" icon look. Try here? --froth^t 00:31, 14 August 2007 (UTC)

also --froth^t 00:31, 14 August 2007 (UTC)

August 14

Trackballs

Why did the trackball die out? I always found it far easier and more accurate than the touchpad. Sure it was a little bulky, and you had to plug it into the side of your laptop, but I still found it a pleasure to use. Our article seems to account for its decline by "the replacement of mouseballs by direct optical tracking", but from an ergonomic point of view this doesn't seem to tell the whole story. Has any research been done comparing the speed and accuracy of trackball use vs. touchpad use? --Richardrj ^{talk email} 07:10, 14 August 2007 (UTC)

You can still buy them, they haven't "died out", they just didn't really catch on in the first place. Like dvorak --Lucid 07:34, 14 August 2007 (UTC)

Thanks for that, I didn't know you could still get them. Will they work with today's available laptops? --Richardrj ^{talk email} 08:07, 14 August 2007 (UTC)

They use a standard USB connector and mouse drivers, so yeah, afaik. I don't know if they still make the type that 'clip on to the side' like our article talks about, but they definitely still have trackball mice, even WalMart has a few --Lucid 09:04, 14 August 2007 (UTC)

Also, the moving parts mean it is more subject to failure. I prefer the SpaceBall, which used strain gauges to detect how you were attempting to move the ball, even though you didn't actually move it. StuRat 07:39, 14 August 2007 (UTC)

I don't know about that. The trackballs I see nowadays are optical, so the only real extra moving part is whatever keeps the ball from rolling freely. --Wirbelwindヴィルヴェルヴィント (talk) 16:17, 14 August 2007 (UTC)

They typically use a roller for that. Just like an old-style ball mouse, they can get hair and other debris stuck around the roller and start to move in a jerky motion. StuRat 17:02, 14 August 2007 (UTC)

Vista Sound card problem

Hello I recently installed windows vista on my Sony desktop(came with XP) and cannot play audio. I checked the hardware and it appears the system doesn't recognize the sound card, or see it at all. I don't know where to get the drivers and have lost a lot of the papers that originally came with the pc. All I can remember is that Yamaha made it. How do I get sound to start working again

Thanks, Robert

You might need to go to the manufacturer's website, and download drivers for Windows Vista.

Rechargeable CR2032 button batteries

Does anyone know where I can get the batteries and charger ? StuRat 08:55, 14 August 2007 (UTC)

I buy them at Walmart or KMart next to the watches. They are very cheap, so I've never considered recharging them. -- Kainaw^(what?) 14:42, 14 August 2007 (UTC)

I want to use them in key finders, where they go dead in a month or two. If I have 10 units and replace each battery once a month, that's 120 batteries a year. If they cost $5 each, that's $600 a year. Now perhaps you see why I want rechargeable batteries. StuRat 16:59, 14 August 2007 (UTC)

I buy similar batteries in bulk over the internet from dedicated battery supply companies (the same guys who supply small watchmakers). For CR2032 Google finds me someone who'll sell me 20 for £10, so that's about 1 US dollar each. I really don't think they make rechargable batteries that small. -- Finlay McWalter | Talk 22:08, 14 August 2007 (UTC)

FrontPage html

Is there a free downloadable program to clean up a frontpage html file in order greatly to reduce its size? - Kittybrewster (talk) 11:05, 14 August 2007 (UTC)

See HTML Tidy for cleaning up bad HTML and HTML Tidier for removing redundant HTML. -- Kainaw^(what?) 14:40, 14 August 2007 (UTC)

Youtube search

I'm probably revealing my wanton ignorance of Youtube, but does it allow uploaders to specify a copyright license? If so, does Youtube have a search-by-copyright-license feature - that is, results returned are tagged with a certain copyright license, ala flickr? Raul654 14:08, 14 August 2007 (UTC)

I've uploaded a few videos to YouTube and they have never presented me with such an option. I'm almost certain that it's not possible. Also, when you do upload your content, you basically agree to give YouTube a full license for them to do whatever they want with it (there was some bruhaha about this on a bunch of blogs when someone realised this a few months ago). The actual text is this (from the TOS):

For clarity, you retain all of your ownership rights in your User Submissions. However, by submitting User Submissions to YouTube, you hereby grant YouTube a worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free, sublicenseable and transferable license to use, reproduce, distribute, prepare derivative works of, display, and perform the User Submissions in connection with the YouTube Website...

Makes the GFDL look pretty good, doesn't it :) --Oskar 16:46, 14 August 2007 (UTC)

Knowing the age of a computer

Is it possible to know when a computer was first switched on? Maybe somewhere in the BIOS? Or does it sound rather unlikely? Thanks. --Taraborn 14:51, 14 August 2007 (UTC)

There may be circumstantial evidence by checking the dates on the files on the harddrive. You can get a guess, but keep in mind that dates on files can be altered. Also, the drive could have been filled with files from a master system and then put in the PC at a much alter time. Also, the harddrive could be reformatted, losing the files with the original date. -- Kainaw^(what?) 15:13, 14 August 2007 (UTC)

Most modern operating systems keep a boot log. Assuming it never gets cleared (and this is probably an unlikely assumption), it should have a record for the first time the machine was booted with that OS installed. Of course, other than OEM machines (where the HD is pre-imaged) you have to boot the machine to install the OS Raul654 15:17, 14 August 2007 (UTC)

I'm guessing that you meant not the first time 'ever' but literally when it was first switched on in a day/period (if it has been on a few days). I expect that there will be something to let you know this but a relatively short search on google found nothing. Perhaps looking for an audit trail of the windows account (presuming windows) would help...This (http://www.windowsecurity.com/articles/Auditing-user-accounts.html) seems to suggest such a thing is possible. ny156uk 16:36, 14 August 2007 (UTC)

There's no definite standard, but a lot of PC manufacturers will run a "burn-in" test in the factory, which is when it was first turned on. It might even be logged in the service log, or stamped on the case. -- JSBillings 18:08, 14 August 2007 (UTC)

Interesting points. Thanks to all. --Taraborn 23:37, 14 August 2007 (UTC)

If you look at the BIOS, the BIOS version will sometimes include the date when it was made. Assuming the BIOS has not been upgraded, it gives a good indication of when the computer was made. --Spoon! 13:08, 15 August 2007 (UTC)

SharePoint vs. wikimedia

My employer recently decided to create an internal wiki for us to share our knowledge base. It was decided to do it with SharePoint, and nobody seems to know who decided it, or why. The documentation available for SharePoint, official and general Web-stuff, isn't too helpful. Can somebody play the devil's advocate and explain the great advantages of SharePoint as a wiki site so I won't feel so screwed? TIA. 206.213.209.31 18:12, 14 August 2007 (UTC)

I'm going to hazard a guess that your office is using a whole bunch of Microsoft products. That's almost certainly why your managers choose it, they like Microsoft a lot and they are pretty much bound to it. Many businesses look at open source products (like MediaWiki) with suspicion. As for the advantages, you should probably look at the article, but I assume that it integrates very well with Office and other Microsoft products. --Oskar 18:31, 14 August 2007 (UTC)

A question about DDR RAM

I have two RAMs working together in my computer (one 512 MB RAM and one 128 MB RAM). They have been fitted into adjacent slots. I used a software called CPU-Z which gives all the information about the computer when installed. It has a section called as TIMINGS TABLE. This table is in the following fashion for the 512 MB RAM.

Timings Table

Frequency               166 Mhz      200Mhz
CAS# Latency             2.5           3.0

And various other values have been given which I cannot understand but I am sure would not be relevant to my question. Now the problem is that in the above table there are two frequency values. I have given the exact reproduction of the table and hence there is no heading for the last two columns of the table. For the 128 MB RAM the timings table has 100 and 133 Mhz instead of 166Mhz and 200 Mhz respectively. Is there a frequency mismatch here? If so, is it still good to have the two RAMs working together? What will happen if they have a frequency mismatch and they are made to work together? In the computer properties I still get a total memory of 512+128=640 MB RAM. Please explain. Should I keep them together or not? Thanks for whoever answers this question. I will be very grateful to you.

Email and Applescript

Can anyone please show me the code to send an email with Applescript?

A beginning relational database application?

I'm interested in creating a relational database of spells from the System Reference Document.

Each spell would have to consist of the following fields:

• Name — single-line text
• School and subschool — pointer to a school-and-maybe-subschool object
• (optional, any number of) Descriptor — pointer to a descriptor object
• (any number of) Level — pointer to a class object or cleric domain object, plus an unsigned integer
• (1 to 5) Components — any subset of "V", "S", "M", "F", "DF" and "M/DF"
• Casting time — possible values are "See text", "1 free action", "1 standard action", "# rounds", "# minutes" or "# hours", where # is a positive integer.
• Base duration — possible values are "See text", "Instantaneous", "Permanent", "# rounds", "# minutes", "# hours" or "# days" where # is a positive integer.
• Extra duration per level — possible values are zero, "# rounds", "# minutes", "# hours" or "# days".
• Range — possible values are "See text", "Personal", "Touch", "Close", "Medium", "Long" or "# feet".
• Targets — single-line text
• Saving throw — possible values are "None", "See text", "Fortitude/Reflex/Will negates/half/partial".
• Spell resistance — yes or no
• Harmless — yes or no
• Object — yes or no
• Material component cost — unsigned integer or "See text"
• Focus component cost — unsigned integer or "See text"
• Description — multi-line text that should ideally be able to include hyperlinks to other spells.

Ideally, the database should know when sorting by duration or casting time that 1 day = 24 hours = 1440 minutes = 14400 rounds, and that "Instantaneous" and "1 free action" should be treated as zero, "1 standard action" as 1/2 round, and "Permanent" as positive infinity.

Would this be possible in OpenOffice.org Base, and how much skill would it require? I have very little experience with relational databases. NeonMerlin 18:35, 14 August 2007 (UTC)

There is nothing unusual about the type of DB that you are describing, I don't see why any DB application would have a problem describing the model as you outlined it. In fact, most likely any tutorial that you find about programming a basic DB will end up with something close to what you require. Vespine 01:23, 15 August 2007 (UTC)

Where's the "relational" part of this? It looks like a single table. A relational database requires multiple tables so there can be some field shared between them. For example, you could have a School table with all the schools and save the school's ID in the School field of the Spell table. -- Kainaw^(what?) 02:13, 15 August 2007 (UTC)

You could do this in OOo Base though in my opinion it is a bad program to start to learn DB programming on — aside from being relatively unused, I have found it to be extraordinarily slow, incomplete, and sometimes buggy. As someone with a LOT of relational database programming skill (MySQL, MS Access, etc.) I find it almost impossible to use productively at this stage (I hope that someday this will not be the case, because it would be great to have an open-source alternative to Access that worked well!!).

As has been pointed out, this isn't really a relational database, because you have only one table. Some of your fields are somewhat complete datatypes, but they could be easily abstracted as numbers (i.e. "None", "See text", etc. could be 0, 1, etc.).

As it is basically a flat database, something like Filemaker Pro would probably be the easiest way to approach it, if you had access to it. Otherwise you could think about programming the data structure in MySQL and the code to handle it in PHP — it is an ambitious first project but not one that would be insurpassably difficult if you got a "learn PHP in 30 days" type book, which usually deal with how to use PHP with MySQL databases. --24.147.86.187 02:25, 15 August 2007 (UTC)

• With any database design you need to take a whole list of things into consideration, one of these many things is what do you intend to do with the database once you've created it? Why this is important is because presumably OpenOffice is going to have its own data format. That means if you ever wanted to try and connect OpenOffice's Database Management System (DMBS) into a program you might write, you may encounter problems. Also, don't forget that what you're putting in your table is just data, with very little or no intelligence. The only intelligence it has is data constraints - it knows when it's dealing with a date or a number or a character string, etc. But for example if you want it to say "infinite" it would depend on how your program/software is ultimately going to interpret "infinite" if your field is for an integer. You could for example enter in '0' as infinite, or '-1'. My point being, is that to add intelligence to your data you're going to have to write software that goes with it -- all depending on what it is that you're trying to do. Finally, just in case you don't know, a database is a very generalised term, but these days refers to a collection of tables (and can include other metadata info like schemas etc) - and what you've provided is only one table. In order to call your database relational you'll need more than one table, and frankly, if you're going to be doing what I think you're going to be doing then you'll definitely need more than one table. You'll need ones like "Players", "Schools", "Subschools", "Gamedata", "Cast spells" etc. One more thing, it's also a good idea to give your table a primary key - that is a field that will always have unique values - you could for example have your Spell's name as its primary key - unless there's any chance you might have to spells with the same name (in Magic: The Gathering for example, cards with spells were sometimes re-released in a new edition with different artwork, and sometimes different wording). That's why you might consider giving each spell a unique ID, such as "SpellID". Okay I'll shut up now. Rfwoolf 13:42, 15 August 2007 (UTC)

Hard Drive System Conversion?

Hello,

I'm not sure if my Hard Drive is FAT, FAT32 or NTFS, but I want to convert it to NTFS if it's not. Is there any way to check, and if it's FAT, would changing it have any adverse effects? Would there be any file deletion or the like?

Thanks,

Perfect Proposal ^{Speak out loud!} 22:09, 14 August 2007 (UTC)

Recent versions of Windows have a utility called "convert" for this - see this Microsoft article. But make a backup of your valuable data regardless. -- Finlay McWalter | Talk 22:12, 14 August 2007 (UTC)

webcam capture/basic editing.

So I recently happened upon a webcam, I'm thinking of making a few "you tube" style clips, musical in nature. I suppose I need to do two things, one: Is there a good program to capture the webcam into a file, something that lets you chose the bit rate would be nice. Also, I'd then like a SIMPLE program to do very basic video clip editing, things like cutting and splicing, doing simple fades and audio mixing, the audio will probably be recorded not through the web cam. Thanks. Vespine 23:18, 14 August 2007 (UTC)

for the editing part, the easiest thing to do would be to use windows movie maker, its really easy to use + its free.

Reverse image search

Is there any such thing as a reverse image search? For example, with Google, a subject can be searched not only by websites but also by what images come up related to the query. Is there a search engine that allows you to enter an image, such as a picture of a person or bird, that then attempts to identify the subject by finding similar images? If there is not such a search engine, is this idea even feasible? --Joelmills 23:51, 14 August 2007 (UTC)

I don't think so, but I've also wanted this feature occasionally.

Feasible as in possible to set up, somewhat, facial recognition software is basically a 'people search engine'. As far as setting it up on a website, there is a 'family tree' gene site thing that will find faces in pictures, and then match them to celebrities, so it's somewhat possible. Having a large amount of people, and managing the server load from all that though would be a logistics nightmare. Something like this might make more sense in 10-20 years, when computing power is significantly cheaper, or as a client-side application, as already exists in places like casinos --Lucid 01:13, 15 August 2007 (UTC)

Headway research into this type of application is being made in the field of Artificial neural networks. You also may be interested in Photosynth, not really what you are after, but related to the topic. Vespine 01:18, 15 August 2007 (UTC)

IBM's Journal of Research and Development [7] wrote about such a system a few years ago (4? 5?). I don't know what's become of their research, though.

Atlant 12:10, 15 August 2007 (UTC)

In theory a search engine has to first 'crawl' its pages so that it knows what's on them and then feeds this information into its database. When you then do a search, it doesn't go back to those pages, first it goes through its databases and sees what matches. For the type of search that you speak of, the search engine would have to either put a lot of images into its database (think of the huge amount of space - but that's becoming less of a problem) - or, it will have to come up with some kind of data off of the images, like "number of pixels" + "dimensions" + "size" + "contrast" + "number of colours" + "format" etc. etc. I believe that might be possible, but probably would be a significant challenge to create -- all for a very simple search utility that few people would use

I'd also like to comment about the face-matching people were talking about. To my knowledge, these computers take a source image, and then almost literally try match the image with images it already has in its database. So once again the database would have to hold the images (major space). Then, it would specifically trained at faces. For anything else it would probably not be very useful.

So in short, I do believe we have the technology to do something, but it's just not very feasible. Perhaps you should write to google on this one, they might look into developing it. If they do, please come back here and let us all know, so we can call up our lawyers ;) (jokeing). Rfwoolf 13:52, 15 August 2007 (UTC)

August 15

Vista "Run" and "Run as administrator"

I have UAC disabled (of course). But now any time I manually start a new process through the "Run" dialogue, or the New Task option in the task manager, it says "this task will be created with administrator privileges." Now hold on there cowboy, if I wanted cmd to be running with administrator privileges I'd use Ctrl+Shift+Enter. Is there any way to get "Run" to start programs with normal admin-level-but-not-really (the vista equivalent of a 'sudoer' I suppose) privileges? For that matter, am I automatically running everything I click on as an administrator since UAC is disabled? --froth^t 04:04, 15 August 2007 (UTC)

Don't quote me on this because I'm not positive, but I assume that yes, everything you do is run as administrator privilages, unless your user has a different configueration. Hopefully someone that's certain can come along and confirm. Rfwoolf 13:27, 15 August 2007 (UTC)

10-Key SPM

Hello. I am trying to fill out an online application as a cashier and I have been asked what my speed in 10-Ket SPM is. The exact question writes, "Please note your speed in 10-Key in SPM:". Could somebody graciously clarify what 10-Key SPM is? Google finds nothing, and other search engines do not either. Thank you. -- Wilhelm Von Hortzweneger Über der Hügel [ 216.178.50.184 04:48, 15 August 2007 (UTC) ]

10-key is a ten key number pad, like is on calculators, your keyboard's numpad, or in this case the number controls on the register. SPM is "S" per minute, I'd assume Sales, or how fast you can ring it up. I'd just be honest and tell them that you don't have any prior 10-key experience. --Lucid 04:56, 15 August 2007 (UTC)

Thank you muchly. --Von Hortzweneger Über der Hügel [ 216.178.50.184 04:58, 15 August 2007 (UTC) ]

Also SPM is an academic certification in malaysia :). But seriously if my last 2 summers of work experience as a cashier is of any value let me tell you that not many sales will be made in one minute unless you're working at CVS or something and they pay in plastic every time. Maybe sales per hour.. but I doubt it. I'd say 's' has to stand for something else and PM as a standard "per minute" is a good enough guess. But "10-key" seems an awkward way to refer to a keypad- do some cashiers work in hexadecimal for extra efficiency or what? I think we're way off track --froth^t 05:03, 15 August 2007 (UTC)

Aha I think I might have an answer. 10-key is apparently a typing test and I'm betting SPM stands for Strokes Per Minute! Better change that resume because it's probably not a good idea to advertise the fact that you have no prior experience in typing. --froth^t 05:04, 15 August 2007 (UTC)

Froth, 10-key is just a retail way of referring to a numpad. Saying you have prior experience in typing when someone is asking how proficient you are at 10-key is like saying you're a great driver when someone asks how you handle a Harley. The tests on google are just that- tests for 10-key typing, not QWERTY typing we're all used to. --Lucid 05:08, 15 August 2007 (UTC)

Hm ok, well I'm still convinced it's strokes per minute --froth^t 06:12, 15 August 2007 (UTC)

You're probably right about that, but it's referring to strokes per minute on a numpad --Lucid 06:13, 15 August 2007 (UTC)

vista in-place upgrade

I hear that vista performs abysmally after an in-place upgrade from XP. File locations are unreliably virtualized to different locations, settings are lost or misplaced, it's a mess. But how about upgrading from one version of vista to another? I'm not talking about the streamlined Anytime Upgrade but rather a full Upgrade installation to ultimate. I know it's possible but messing with windows setup is a big deal and I want to know if vista will weird out on me if I try it --froth^t 06:15, 15 August 2007 (UTC)

where to buy .fr domain name?

What's the cheapest registrar to buy a .fr domain name?--Sonjaaa 07:55, 15 August 2007 (UTC)

Europeregistry is reasonable but probably not the cheapest. Djmckee1 - Talk-Sign 09:52, 15 August 2007 (UTC)

To avoid your question, why not buy a .com instead? - Kittybrewster (talk) 10:54, 15 August 2007 (UTC)

Because A) almost all the legible .com names have been taken, and B) some people want their website to be identified as 'French'. But I admit I'm assuming here - the OP might have a different reason, but my point is that as great as a .com is, good luck finding a good one. Rfwoolf 16:37, 15 August 2007 (UTC)

Thunderbird folder display

Back in golden times of yore Netscape Mail would display (for each mail folder) both the total number of messages in that folder and the number of unread (in the left-hand panel. The display would look something like:

• inbox (103/4)
• work (944/16)
  • project X (16/0)
  • project Y (330/1)
• private (1/0)

Now Mozilla Thunderbird just displays the total unread, and if none are unread there no number at all after the folder name. Is there an option (or failing that an extension) which restores this welcome behaviour? Thanks. Harmonation 11:29, 15 August 2007 (UTC)

TDEncypt Application

when ever i ask my laptop to hibernate there is a error reported, saying the TDEncypt Application is not functioning properly. why does this problem arise and i tried gaining information about this kind of Error, but i could get nothing. Can you please hepl me out solving this problem.

• What operating system are you using? Are you sure you got the name right, is it not "TDEncrypt" ? If you're running Windows XP, press Ctrl + Alt + Esc to bring up the task manager, click on Processes, then click on the "Names" tab, and it will show you all the currently running process - see if you can find anything called "TDEncypt" or "DEncypt" or "Encypt" etc. If you find it it will give you a little more information about the process, and you can try end the process, and then try your hibernation. I would also do a search for it. Click Start -> Search, and type "Encypt" (you can leave off the TD because Windows will still find it - in fact you can even do a search for "ypt" or "enc"). This might leave more clues that you can use to try to find out what the process is, what it does, and when it is run. Rfwoolf 16:34, 15 August 2007 (UTC)

ChartXL by Harvard Graphics

I am looking for charting software, specifically stock charting software. I am looking for something that is easy to use with pre-made templates. The built-in stock charting options in excel are good but of no comparison to the best charts available thru subscription or for free over the internet which are copyrighted (i.e. yahoo/finance beta & bigcharts.com). I know that ChartXL has a few options but I cannot get samples or examples of what their software offers. Any ideas? ````