Wikipedia:Reference desk/Computing

Wikipedia:Reference desk/headercfg

August 23

Digging info about an ELF file

I was sent a C program, but didn't get the source code, just a precompiled ELF executable (grmpff). I can't seem to run it on my Linux computer (the program is called "abc"):

-bash: ./abc: cannot execute binary file

Are there commands I could use on the file to extract information about for which processor and operating system it was compiled, what libraries it needs etc., to try to figure out what would be needed for me to be able to run it? —Bromskloss 07:39, 23 August 2007 (UTC)

file is a good start. What does it report about abc?

Ah, there we have something.

abc: ELF 32-bit MSB executable, SPARC, version 1 (SYSV), dynamically linked (uses shared libs), not stripped

My computer has an x86, not SPARC. —Bromskloss 09:04, 23 August 2007 (UTC)

Looks like you'll need a SPARC then ;) —Preceding unsigned comment added by 203.49.213.95 (talk • contribs) 09:54, 23 August 2007

or an emulator that can emulate SPARC; but it would probably be easier to ask the person to send a Linux x86 executable instead. --131.215.159.28 20:56, 24 August 2007 (UTC)

Question Related to VBA in MS Excel

My question is regarding using VBA in MS Excel. I have an Excel sheet which has data in 3 columns A, B & C. Column A has some names, Column B has data (date of birth) in Date format & Column C has the age in number format. The data in the sheet is like:

Column A	Column B	Column C
Name	DOB	Age	ROW1
ABC	21-Aug-01	6	ROW2
XYZ	11-Jun-03	4	ROW3
RST	15-Dec-06	1	ROW4

This sheet has a command button also which has the following coding in it:

Private Sub cmd_butt1_Click()

 Dim i As Integer
 For i = 2 To 6     'iterates through rows
     MsgBox ("Row ID: " & i & " value: " & Cells(i, 2).Value) 'displays row number and the 
     value in that cell of column 2 i.e; column B.
     'Output will be like: "Row ID: 2 value: 21-AUG-01"
 Next

End Sub

My question is that now if I delete Column A from the sheet and make the following changes in the above code:

MsgBox ("Row ID: " & i & " value: " & Cells(i, 1).Value)

because now after deletion of column A, column B should have the column index as 1.

When I execute the code by clicking the command button cmd_butt1, it displays the following output:

     Row ID: 2 value: ABC

i.e; it shows the value of column A which I have deleted already whereas it should now take column B as Column A i.e; rowindex should be 1 and not 2.

Also how can I get the number of rows which are having some data. Like above worksheet has data in only 4 rows.

Are you sure you've deleted Column A not just just hidden it? The behaviour you describe seems impossible if you have. Does the column header of the dates say "A" or "B"?

There are various ways to get the "number of rows containing data". Depending on exactly what you need you could use one of the following (see Help for details)):

• the UsedRange property of the worksheet
• The COUNTA() worksheet function, which tells you how many cells in a range are not blank - you can use it in VBA as Application.CountA()
• ActiveSheet.UsedRange.SpecialCells(xlCellTypeLastCell)

Hope this helps AndrewWTaylor 15:27, 25 August 2007 (UTC)

Are there any public domain wiki engines/softwares?

I'm seeking a public domain Wiki engine that operates in PHP and that I can install on my own server. Do you know of any? Guroadrunner 12:21, 23 August 2007 (UTC)

Try checking out the Comparison of wiki software article. -- JSBillings 12:38, 23 August 2007 (UTC)

Media Wiki, the software which Wikipedia uses, is freely available. Google for it or click the link on the bottom right of every page. JoshHolloway 12:56, 23 August 2007 (UTC)

Wait, the engine for Wikipedia is public domain? All I'm trying to avoid is being stuck into a situation that the engine is GFDL, which may mean I would need to license the content I put on my wiki into the GFDL. Guroadrunner 17:05, 23 August 2007 (UTC)

Mediawiki is open source, but not public domain. I'm pretty sure that the licensing applies only to the code, and not to the content. You are free to apply any license you'd like the to content of your wiki. Just like editing a file in Microsoft Word doesn't make your document the property of Microsoft. --Mdwyer 17:17, 23 August 2007 (UTC)

MediaWiki is not public domain. It is also not GFDL. It is GPL. I am not a lawyer. But it's my understanding that the GPL cannot put any restrictions on your content. It's entirely possible to use GPL software to handle proprietary data, this happens all the time or else no one would ever use Linux. 69.95.50.15 17:19, 23 August 2007 (UTC)

Good to know. I will further this question along at another part of the Wiki RefDesk by asking if GPL for an engine has any licensing affect of the content put in the Wiki itself (but I think the above answers cover that) -- I already think I'll use either PmWiki or one of the others that operate with ease. Guroadrunner 23:32, 23 August 2007 (UTC)

GPL puts no restrictions on what you do with the content created by the GPL's software. The license only dictates how you can distribute/modify the software itself. --24.147.86.187 23:37, 23 August 2007 (UTC)

The more people who affirm this, the more I feel secure with building a web site using someone else's Wiki engine under the GPL (I don't know how to build my own Wiki engine). Guroadrunner 00:02, 24 August 2007 (UTC)

You're right to avoid the GPL like the plague (because it is one) but your wiki's content is safe from its clutches. It's only when you're writing code that incorporates GPL'd code that you need to start worrying. --froth^t 21:22, 24 August 2007 (UTC)

I think calling it a plague is a bit much. Free software is generally a good thing, and I think viral licensing is not a bad idea, though there ought to be developed protocols for combining free licenses a bit better. --24.147.86.187 21:54, 24 August 2007 (UTC)

Yep, there are plenty of GPL game ENGINES where the CONTENT (areas, characters, items) are copyrighted. I can think of around half a dozen off the top of my head. In short, it's the software that's GPL, not the content --lucid 21:29, 24 August 2007 (UTC)

iPod transfer

I didn't get a definitive answer the first time, so I'll just ask again. Is there any way to transfer all of the music and videos from an iPod to a new computer? I know there's a method that's described on the Apple web site, but it requires having the old computer. Is there some other way?--The Ninth Bright Shiner 14:55, 23 August 2007 (UTC)

The files on the iPod are simply hidden files, in the usual way that the Mac OS GUI and Unix hide files. Through the terminal, use the shell and unhide them, or grab any of several utilities off the web that will do it for you. Once their unhidden, they can be accessed from the iPod just like any other files you've placed there.

Atlant 15:51, 23 August 2007 (UTC)

Yeah, just make sure your windows explorer is rigged to view hidden files and you should be fine. The file names, however, will be a bunch of gibberish, but the artist titles, song titles, etc, will still be stored within the mp3 file.

--Cacofonie 21:28, 23 August 2007 (UTC)

Wow! That was really simple! The songs aren't registering in iTunes until I try to play them, but hey, go through a few folders a day and the whole library will be back! Thanks a lot! Big problem number one, annihilated!--The Ninth Bright Shiner 23:25, 23 August 2007 (UTC)

Probably an even easier way that should work, including allowing you to keep all playlists, song names, etc in iTunes is to set your library to an external hard drive (iTunes will handle the transfer of all files for you). Then on the new computer, copy necessary database files from the old iTunes folder to the new iTunes folder, set your library to be the same external drive, plug in the iPod and sync away. Note that I'm making the assumption that you already have the stuff on a hard drive accessible through iTunes, not just on the iPod; if that assumption is wrong, then just ignore me ;) . --jjron 01:50, 24 August 2007 (UTC)

Having just reread the question again, I think my assumption is wrong. However, in future, keeping at least a backup of your library on an external drive is a good idea. --jjron 01:53, 24 August 2007 (UTC)

If you're on a Mac, Senuti is a very good program; it will even copy over the play counts and ratings from your iPod. --M1ss1ontomars2k4 17:02, 26 August 2007 (UTC)

"Adobe Printshop Software"

Is their a such software as Adobe Printshop and if there is where can I buy one (tell me websites and stores, if you would)?

--Writer Cartoonist 15:31, 23 August 2007 (UTC)

I don't think that's an Adobe title. The Print Shop is a package from Broderbund that has been around for years and years; there is a link to the publisher's site in the article. --LarryMac | Talk 18:20, 23 August 2007 (UTC)

There isn't such a title listed at List of Adobe software. Why do you want the software? What do you expect to do with it, if you do not know it even exists? --24.147.86.187 23:34, 23 August 2007 (UTC)

Cron Executing PHP Script

I have a few PHP scripts that I use to create caches or to parse external websites. I tried to set them up to run as cron jobs, but they don't appear to be working. This is a sample of the crontab -l output:

*/15 * * * *,1,2,3,4,5,6 php -f /home/badgmup1/titans.php > /dev/null

* * * * *,1,2,3,4,5,6 php -f /home/badgmup1/players.php > /dev/null

0 * * * * php -f /home/badgmup1/dev_pull.php&dev=0 > /dev/null

The scripts themselves modify a database to do their dirty work - the output is irrelevant. They are all in the crontab of the user that owns the scripts. However, I have discovered that they don't seem to be running - or are failing during execution. Does anything look obviously wrong with any of the syntax? -- Sapph42 17:32, 23 August 2007 (UTC)

Cron doesn't exec your .login, .profile, or other login scripts when it runs. This means it is often missing some environment variables or paths. Try it again without the /dev/null and see what gets emailed to you. Check the system logs to see if cron was unable to start your task (is bin/php really in the path, or do you need to specifiy it explicitly in the crontab?) --Mdwyer 18:30, 23 August 2007 (UTC)

For titans and players, I get this from cron: 'No input file specified.'. For another one I have that runs dev_pull.php&fetch, I get '/bin/sh: fetch: command not found

No input file specified.'

Looks like my php syntax is wrong. Quotes perhaps? -- Sapph42 19:02, 23 August 2007 (UTC)

Even with quotes - 'No input file specified.'. -- Sapph42 19:08, 23 August 2007 (UTC)

The line with & needs to be quoted, because the shell interprets it. Can you get rid of the ampersand completely? Your cron entries are very odd. What is the point of having *,1,2,3,4,5,6 as the day of the week, that just means it'll run every day in addition to monday through saturday, redundant. -- JSBillings 10:32, 24 August 2007 (UTC)

I noticed that after I pasted it in. I found out there were two issues involved. The main was that apparently scripts executed through the CLI do not take GET variables. The line had to be adjusted to say (for instance): 0 * * * * php -f /home/badgmup1/www/dev/dev_pull.php dev 0 > /dev/null. The CLI delimits arguments by spaces, and they are loaded into $_SERVER['argv']. The second issue is that I had the incorrect path. :|. -- Sapph42 11:02, 24 August 2007 (UTC)

gsmarena.com

which country does this mysterious website belong to? I call mysterious because they do not give their country or address anywhere in their website.

Its whois data lists an address in Bulgaria — Matt Eason ^{(Talk • Contribs)} 17:40, 23 August 2007 (UTC)

Corrupted registry on an OEM machine

Hi everyone,

I recently rebooted my Dell Inspiron 6000, to be greeted by a giant blue screen saying:

Stop: c {Registry File Failure} The registry cannot load the hive (file): \SystemRoot\System32\Config\SOFTWARE or its log or alternate

Doing some research, I happened upon this suggested, Microsoft Fix. I procured myself a HOME XP cd, booted, and used the recovery console, but the fix told me to copy c:\windows\repair\system , and this directory did not exist. System, software files are stored in the repair folder but they exist as .BAK files.

Now, XP came installed on the laptop, and is, I think an OEM-version. Is there anyway to open up those BAK files and use them? Or is there some workaround for OEM-installed computers?

I would be eternally grateful for your assistance
--Cacofonie 21:26, 23 August 2007 (UTC)

The .bak file might just be a renamed file for something else. Do you by chance have a recovery disk or partition? I had this problem two days ago and that fixed it. -Wooty [Woot?] [Spam! Spam! Wonderful spam!] 21:19, 26 August 2007 (UTC)

Forums hosting service

Can someone recommend me a more reliable hosting service than IF for my forums, I've heard Invision boards are relatively easy to bruteforce. I'd greatly appreciate it to be free. Thanks in advance.

is the best --froth^t 23:26, 23 August 2007 (UTC)

And regarding brute-forcing, I don't really see the difference between Invision Power Board and vBulletin - both have security mechanisms. x42bn6 Talk Mess 10:10, 24 August 2007 (UTC)

Brute forcing what? It's not like IPB makes its password hashes public information.. --froth^t 21:18, 24 August 2007 (UTC)

August 24

itunes music cards

Hello there,

I recently bought my first itunes music card and i went to the store to redeem it but after i entered the code correctly (checked code many times) it wouldn't recognize my card as a "free music card".

please remedy

thanks

142.161.239.199 00:53, 24 August 2007 (UTC)

http://www.apple.com/support/itunes/store/ ~ lav-chan @ 02:03, 24 August 2007 (UTC)

PHP Lexicon

Hey there, I'm writing a search engine in PHP and I need a way to distinguish between proper nouns and regular English words. Does anyone know of a fast-access lexicon implemented in PHP? Or maybe it wouldn't have to be implemented in PHP, but accessed via PHP? It also wouldn't need to have definitions, just a comprehensive list of English words. I'd very much appreciate any direction in which you folks could point me.

Thanks. Codeblue87 01:44, 24 August 2007 (UTC)

Well, there are lots of world lists around (i.e. [1]). The difficulty would be that to use it with PHP you'd have to load it up into PHP, which could be memory/processor intensive unless you do it carefully (i.e., have the words indexed by first three letters, or more if necessary). It wouldn't be too hard to set up a system like that, using a sufficiently large word list—a lot of processing done at one time (dividing up a text file of words into multiple text files of words by their first three letters) would relieve the processing needed to be done later. --24.147.86.187 02:21, 24 August 2007 (UTC)

I actually have a good Lexicon class implementation in C++ that can read in from a file. Is there a way to make an instantiation of this Lexicon class from a .php page? So far I've looked at COM objects and SWIG, and both have left me feeling confused. Thanks for your help. Codeblue87 03:08, 24 August 2007 (UTC)

Hmm, that sounds like more trouble than it is worth.

Here's what I'd do: download one of those word lists above, pick the text file you like the most, then write a little script (in PHP, in whatever) that divides it up into multiple text files based on the first three letters. Once you have all of those, then you can write a quick PHP function that will take a given word, get its first three letters, load the appropriate text file into an array, and check if the word is in it. --24.147.86.187 11:22, 24 August 2007 (UTC)

The Printshop

Does the Printshop have Garamond 3?

--Writer Cartoonist 02:58, 24 August 2007 (UTC)

Just for the record, various versions of this question have been doing the rounds this week. See Free Downloading and Garamond and Adobe Printshop from the Miscellaneous Desk. --jjron 10:01, 24 August 2007 (UTC)

We haven't even established there is anything called "Adobe Printshop." If you want Garamond 3 so bad, why don't you just buy it as a separate font? --24.147.86.187 11:30, 24 August 2007 (UTC)

color space

I know there's an extension of POV-Ray that allows light intensity to vary by factors of more than 256; this can make a difference with indirect effects like radiosity (i guess) even with standard output. So I'm curious: when Hollywood does digital effects, do they use standard 24-bit color or more precision than that? Related question, how many colors should I expect to be able to distinguish by eye on my monitor? —Tamfang 06:19, 24 August 2007 (UTC)

(32 bit colour is more common nowadays - that's 3 x 8 bit RGB plus 8 bit exponent - giving an accuracy of more than 1% in colour and a range of +/- 2¹²⁷ which is about +/- 10³⁸ this in general is known as high dynamic range lighting High_dynamic_range_rendering. - though that's really just 24 bit with an intensity additon - this would be the minimum for hollywood at least..)87.102.79.29 12:25, 24 August 2007 (UTC)

There's one thing I don't quite understand about 32 bit color. Isn't intensity already specified by the RGB combo ? That is, 0-0-0 RGB would be equal values of red, green, and blue, but pure black, while would be equal values of red, green, and blue, but pure white. So how would the intensity byte figure into this ? Would 0-0-0-0 be even blacker than pure black and be even whiter than pure white, somehow ? StuRat 13:08, 24 August 2007 (UTC)

Think of it as being illuminated - 255,0,0,10 would be pure red lit (or glowing very dimly). 255,0,0,250 would be a pure red star - very very bright.

So 255,255,255,200 would be pure white but much brighter than pure white 255,255,255,100 - think of a white wall on a dull day and a white wall on a very clear day - both are still white - but one is brighter.

Yes. The fourth value is really a brightness factor. - so anything with 0,0,0,x would be black no matter how brighlty illuminated.

I thought the 4th value was always the alpha channel... --froth^t 13:43, 24 August 2007 (UTC)

..Depends... though if you are using HDR you need an exponent (OR use 16 bit colour values instead - leaving space for 4 in a 64bit unit - RGBalpha.... There are numerous ways to store the data.87.102.79.29 13:48, 24 August 2007 (UTC)

Currently computer monitors scale these 32 bit values if used since they can only usually display 24 bit values - have you ever played oblivion? - this game gives a good example of how 32bit values are used.87.102.79.29 13:40, 24 August 2007 (UTC)

This link High_dynamic_range_rendering#Preservation_of_detail_in_large_contrast_differences might answer your question better than I can - see the image on right - in this case not oblivion but far cry87.102.75.201 15:37, 24 August 2007 (UTC)

Please continue answer below:

Does Color depth#Beyond truecolor answer your question ? StuRat 13:08, 24 August 2007 (UTC)

Your second question ("Related question, how many colors should I expect to be able to distinguish by eye on my monitor?") is of interest to me so I've posted a similar on the science page see: Wikipedia:Reference_desk/Science#Colour_question_.(related_to_one_above.) I'll pop the answer here anyway if I get one.87.102.79.29 13:53, 24 August 2007 (UTC)

MAIN QUESTION ANSWER see Digital cinema - the answer is - more than 24 bits.. quotes a 12bits per component - 36bits - so that accuracy will be continued down the production line to post production..87.102.79.29 13:58, 24 August 2007 (UTC)

Simple Question about Myspace and HTML

Or at least i hope so! you know the part in a profile that says "About Me:" in myspace? and usually you enter things in the text box and it appears below that part?

Is it possible to write some code to appear ABOVE that? heres the start of my code....

<span class="orangetext15">Join the Chillspot Experience:</span><br>

This basically makes a bit of orange text just like the words "About Me:".... but i need them to be ABOVE that section. is this in any way possible? if so, what is the code please?

172.133.149.52 06:28, 24 August 2007 (UTC)

Quick Java question

I'm trying to translate some relatively simple Java code into PHP. I don't know Java but most of it is just juggling variables and that's pretty straightforward. One line that I can't figure out, and that I couldn't find anything on with a quick Google search: for (;;) { Obviously it is the beginning of a for loop but what do the two semi-colons (without any other variables or instructions) indicate? How would I do this in php? Is it basically just an unconditional loop (later on in the code it breaks out of the loop)? --24.147.86.187 12:49, 24 August 2007 (UTC)

It's an infinite loop. There's no stopping condition. Also synonymous for while(1) {...} or while(true) {...}.

The same construction is valid in PHP. --Sean 13:36, 24 August 2007 (UTC)

OK, that makes sense. Thanks. I guess I in general never create infinite loops (seems like a scary thing to do), which I guess why I never recognized it. --24.147.86.187 21:05, 24 August 2007 (UTC)

Generally, the reason for constructs like that is that there is a condition that breaks out of the loop in the middle. Its good for when you don't want to duplicate code, as in instead of

pre();while(test()){ post(); pre();}

it may be more intuitive to write it as

while(true){ pre(); if(test()){break;} post();}

this is especially true if you have multiple tests (or a select case statement), each of which could possibly break you out of the loop. Root⁴(one) 01:38, 25 August 2007 (UTC)

DOS Torrent

Does a DOS version of Torrent software exist? 82.198.250.7 13:39, 24 August 2007 (UTC)

Almost certainly not, given that DOS has pretty much gone the way of the Do-do and the number of people who would be interested in such a program is probably pretty much just one (you). What's the specific purpose for? If you want a command-line torrent program, though, you could probably rig it up via perl and have that run from the DOS prompt, but it would take some workin'. --140.247.240.228 18:42, 24 August 2007 (UTC)

If you just want a command line bittorrent software, there are probably plenty out there for linux. If you're looking for that software because the computer is actually that old, I doubt it will be able to hold the data at all. You might also try something like DeLi Linux for really old computers, but STILL probably not that old --lucid 21:31, 24 August 2007 (UTC)

Effort formula to move a load up an incline with weight on two wheels

Hi, Can you advise if there is a fairly simple formula that can compute the amount of effort needed to raise a weight load up various encountered inclines on a two wheeled cart with known wheel radius? Use would be for ramping a boat on a sulky by hand and understanding the effort needed to do so after taking a measure of the incline. It would also help one understand what aids need be employed as tire stops, pulleys, winches or perhaps motorized assists given any given incline. For this tire flex, bearing friction, and surface changes could be considered constant, Plenty of discussion about wheel impacts on inclines but have yet to find anyway to quantify the portion of load need for effort given an incline plane. Can you advise what this formula might be?

You may have more luck with this over at the mathematics or science reference desks — Matt Eason ^{(Talk &#149; Contribs)} 14:49, 24 August 2007 (UTC)

Quickly (in brief)

Force needed = mg sin(a)

Where (F)force = newtons, m = mass of cart (kg), g=gravity acceleration (9.8m/s/s) and a = angle of incline (0=flat 45degrees=1 in 1 slope)

This formula excludes friction which might be approximated to be proportional to the mass of the load

F = mg sin(a) +mk

what k is you would need to find experimentally..87.102.75.201 14:57, 24 August 2007 (UTC)

Video recording

I have a digital video camera Sony DCR TRV15E.I like to convert the video taken on the tape to CD's on my PC.How can I do it? -Amrahs

From what I could find on the web, that particular model has a Firewire port. If your computer also has Firewire and you have Windows XP (or later), then you should easily be able to bring the video into Windows Movie Maker. Here is an article from Microsoft talking about the process. Once you have the video on your computer, you should be able to burn it to a CD or DVD, again depending on the specifics of your computer. What is it you want to do with the discs once you have created them? --LarryMac | Talk 17:51, 24 August 2007 (UTC)

Is it possible to manipulate strings in dos/batch (windows) without using anything but the built in windows commands (not using temporay files)

Hi I am a novice in dos scripting, and have been quite successful in writing small dos/batch scripts to do some tasks. But one thing I haven't figured out yet is how to avoid using files for storing temporary data. My scripts always have to write to some temporary file when using string manipulation.

What I want to accomplish is to avoid using the harddisk when I use findstr and find and type, so basically, can you point me to some sources where I can grasp how you use escape characters in combination with stringparameters.

This is an example script where I use a temp file to extract a string

@type "%~f1"|findstr /R /I ".*ProductCode>.*</ProductCode>" >%TEMP%\result.TD

ROUND0

@call:Extraction "<ProductCode>" "" %TEMP%\result.TD >> %TEMP%\result.TD

ROUND1

@call:Extraction "</ProductCode>" "" %TEMP%\result.TD >> %TEMP%\result.TD

ROUND2

@call:Extraction " " "" %TEMP%\result.TD >> %TEMP%\result.TD @for /f %%a in (%TEMP%\result.TD) do @set TRXCODE=%%a @set TRXCODE=%TRXCODE:~0,-1% echo %TRXCODE%

The extraction routine also use a temp file. Is it possible to pipe my way around...instead?'

I know it's easier to just use a java script or something, but...some code snippets that does string manipulation/substitution without using temp files....

Possible?? Asked by Danni 85.81.121.107 19:59, 24 August 2007 (UTC)

GAG. Do yourself a favor and use bash. --froth^t 20:22, 24 August 2007 (UTC)

I have to agree with froth that you are really trying to do things which are beyond the complexity of the DOS batch scripting, and so the only "solutions" are hack-y workarounds, which is a really bad approach (especially if you are planning to have this work on other people's computers). I have little doubt that whatever you are trying to do, there is a better way to do it. In any case I can't really figure out what you are trying to do. Instead of piping into temp files, can't you just pipe into a variable (i.e. %%result)? --24.147.86.187 21:48, 24 August 2007 (UTC)

The trouble with using bash, or indeed Windows PowerShell, is that you generally can't assume a machine has it installed. So if you're writing code to run on someone else's machine (as opposed to your own) they're an unappealing option. You might wish to write in VBscript or Jscript, which are far more fully featured than BAT script; you can generally assume a windows machine will support these via Windows Script Host. -- Finlay McWalter | Talk 11:09, 25 August 2007 (UTC)

Unless you're using a pretty old version of Windows, none of this has anything to do with DOS. cmd.exe is a Win32 executable. It's a lot more capable than command.com. That said, I have no idea whether it can do what the original poster asked.

If you're just using batch files to avoid dependencies on installed software, I must point out that any system that supports Windows batch files will support Windows executable files. There are a gazillion languages that can compile to self-contained executable files. (Personally I'd use Glasgow Haskell. Haskell is pretty good for shell-scripting stuff.) -- BenRG 00:35, 28 August 2007 (UTC)

I've typed that license key like ten times already!

Just another thing to bog my success. I've got an Office 2007 Upgrade disc, and a Microsoft Works 9 disc. Now, on the side of the Office packaging, "Microsoft(R) Works 6.0--10.0" is listed as a product that will allow the installation. So I go and buy Works 9. I install it, agree to the EULA, then put in the Office disc. I type the license key in (after so many times, it burns itself into your memory), and lo and behold, it can't find a previous version of Office! Why not?! I've got what the packaging tauts as a qualifying upgradeable product, so why can't it install?--The Ninth Bright Shiner 20:46, 24 August 2007 (UTC)

On this one, perhaps you've got to call Microsoft and hash it out. One thing to potentially try is to at least run Works once before trying to install Office, though I doubt that will fix it. --24.147.86.187 21:01, 24 August 2007 (UTC)

I'd do that, but Microsoft is stubborn enough to charge me $50 to call them. I probably could get Works support for free right now, but the problem is really Office.--The Ninth Bright Shiner 21:46, 24 August 2007 (UTC)

Hey man, you're the one so hot to trot about upgrading to Vista. ;-) Personally I would have avoided it for a year or two until they got all the bugs out, at the very least. --24.147.86.187 23:33, 24 August 2007 (UTC)

Office 2007 is annoying.. not that works is better but seriously 2007 is screwed up :x --froth^t 00:48, 25 August 2007 (UTC)

Well, I did wait for like six months. And I was sick of XP. It's been five years already! Office 2007, annoying? Well, it does have its flaws, but I don't think it's that bad. It's better than Wordpad and Works, at least.--The Ninth Bright Shiner 22:47, 25 August 2007 (UTC)

If you want change you can just tinker with Linux, free of charge, until your brain melts... --antilived^{T | C | G} 00:12, 26 August 2007 (UTC)

Agreed- vim is much more powerful than Word ;) --froth^t 18:49, 28 August 2007 (UTC)

Wireless Internet Lock

Hi! Does anyone know if there is any way to set-up your wireless internet so that in order to connect to the internet, you must have a password? I don't mean encrypting it - not a WEP key or something. What I am thinking of is something where every time you open your browser or something, you have to enter a password to allow access to the internet...

Thanks so much! -- Vamooom 21:51, 24 August 2007 (UTC)

You connect the access point to a proxy, which on the first time a computer connects, redirects them to a login page; and after they login, subsequent connections from the same computer are passed through. --Spoon! 01:49, 25 August 2007 (UTC)

Any free software that can do this? I don't think squid or privoxy can. --froth^t 05:04, 25 August 2007 (UTC)

You're looking for a captive portal. F 12:49, 25 August 2007 (UTC)

UC Berkeley does this with its AirBears network. However, I'm not sure what the software is; if you want, post on my talk page, and I'll try to look it up. --M1ss1ontomars2k4 17:01, 26 August 2007 (UTC)

PHP user security

I've been programming in PHP for a long time but I never really wrapped my head around the best way to do user security (i.e. if I have a part of a script which requires a password, how best to deal with that). Obviously sending passwords in the clear (via GET or POST) is not really very secure. What are the various options that are used for this, and what are their ups and downs from a practical point of view? Keep in mind that in many cases I have only limited control over server settings. Thanks! --24.147.86.187 23:25, 24 August 2007 (UTC)

I think one way would be to set up a login form with a https connection. Check the input to that against a database of username/password pairs with the passwords stored as md5 hashes. If successful, provide a random value (a token) to store in a cookie, and anyone from that IP address is logged in, provided they have that token (cookie). The token should expire after a while. This solution would require a second database table with username, token, ip and expiry time. That's the sort of solution I'd aim for, though I must admit to not being very experienced in these matters. --h2g2bob (talk) 00:28, 25 August 2007 (UTC)

Can you use HTTPS if you don't have much server access? From what I can tell HTTPS requires you to be able to exec() cURL, and I'd be pretty surprised if my server allowed me to exec() random files I uploaded to it. I don't have that much security access (and I'm not going to be getting it anytime soon). --24.147.86.187 03:27, 25 August 2007 (UTC)

No... you just have to set up your server to accept connections on port 443 and be able to negotiate SSL. There's absolutely no way you can configure the server to do this if you have limited control. After a weekend of frustration I was completely unable to get Apache2 for windows to do it (and I had direct access to the machine). Later I found an installer than includes openssl and ssl extensions as part of the package, but you're not supposed to distribute it or somtehing o_O Anyway yeah, just set up to accept SSL connections, then just point your form action to https://whatever.com/whatever.php. You can use md5 hashes in a text file or database to validate logins and the builtin php session functionality to keep a login persistent across pages --froth^t 05:02, 25 August 2007 (UTC)

Well, as I said, I have very limited control over the server, and as you said, that probably won't work if I have limited control over the server. --24.147.86.187 11:59, 25 August 2007 (UTC)

Yep, even if he has openssl previously installed and his server daemon just happens to be set up to recieve connections on SSL, you'll still need root access to bind the server to port 443. Unless it is already- try going to https://yoursite.com/yourpage.whatever and if it just happens to work and connect securely, then skip everything I said up above until "anyway yeah" --froth^t 16:34, 25 August 2007 (UTC)

I am he and he is me. Anyway I checked the phpinfo(); and openssl isn't installed (and that means it never will be — I'm dealing with a university-as-host here, and they don't change things nor do they really know what they are doing). I think what I'll end up doing is just sending the password in the clear at first and then just use sessions after that. It's not perfect but since this is a very low-profile project at this point, it'll work; for anything serious I'll get into the ssl stuff. thanks! --24.147.86.187 18:48, 27 August 2007 (UTC)

August 25

Mmorfe, DVD Burner Specifications

I'm confused about DVD burner specifications including all the writing and reading speeds and what they actually mean.

Appreciate your help.

Mmorfe 00:33, 25 August 2007 (UTC)

The speeds are maximum speeds for doing the specified action: reading, writing a R, or writing a RW disc. For CD the numbers are a multiplier for a CD playing audio in a CD player. However in normal burning the speed is nowhere near the claimed speed, and gradually increases as the burn continues. If you have a slow computer or slow disk drive you will have to set a lower speed for the burn. For example when I had a Pentium 166, the burn would always be reliable at 4x, and would work some of the time at 8x. Also for RW disks the speed may not be the maximum speed of the burner or the disk, but some other lower speed that the firmware thinks it can do with that brand of disk. All the new burners for sale now are fast, any faster and the disk would disintegrate. At the fast speed they are very noisy. Graeme Bartlett 11:16, 26 August 2007 (UTC)

japanese.exe

About 8 years ago, I bought a computer which had several games installed in it. One of them was named japanese.exe. In that game, a Japanese girl has to whack squid-like things with a hammer. Where can I find that game again?

Good luck. Its probably a Dōjin soft. If it were a well known game its filename would probably be different. — Shinhan < talk > 15:24, 25 August 2007 (UTC)

CDs

I have this CD that plays on a CD player but when I try to play it on my laptop it first registers as a blank CD, then when I try to access the CD drive it asks me to insert a disk. All other CDs work, but not this one. There isn't supposed to be any protection on the disk. What could be the problem? LCecere 06:09, 25 August 2007 (UTC)

Is it one of those 'special' cds that have extra things on them like photos/etc? If so I understand that some of them don't always get recognised by your PC as they aren't sure what to treat them as (audio or data). Alternatively try it another PC/Computer and see if it works there. It could be that your CD player is less bothered by small scratches than your PC is. ny156uk 14:20, 25 August 2007 (UTC)

One obvious thing to check is the extent of damage on the CD, are there any obvious scratches? The other thing to consider is that your Computer's CD drive might need to update its drivers etc. What operating system are you on? Some software can scan CDs and pick up what's on them, and be able to tell you how many audio tracks / data tracks there are etc- for example using Nero's diskinfo (That is, the 'diskinfo' function inside the Nero program). If you're in Windows, try this: Insert the CD, go into My Computer, find your CD drive's icon, right-click it, and see what options you have. For example you can click on "Open" to see if it can read any contents. Another idea is that your CD has an autorun statement for computers - what this does is it will automatically do something when you insert your CD, and, if your operating system can't support the actions of the autorun, it might fail or just do nothing. That's why using the right-click "Open" command you're telling it to just access the drive - ignoring any autorun files. Rfwoolf 17:24, 26 August 2007 (UTC)

PNGout

Hi. I downloaded the PNGout and I don't know how to install it and how to use it. --Jackl 11:34, 25 August 2007 (UTC)

If you have the command line version, then the easiest way to use it is to drag a PNG file to the pngout.exe program icon. The dragged file will be optimized using the standard settings. This only works with one file at a time, but you can write a batch file to run pngout in several png files at once:

for %%f in (*.png) do pngout.exe "%%f" "optimized\%%f"

Get a .bat file with this and pngout.exe in the same folder, along with a bunch of png files. Then just run the bat file, and pngout will throw the optimized versions in the "optimized" folder that will be created. — Kieff | Talk 06:03, 27 August 2007 (UTC)

newsgroup reader for windows XP

Hi, my 2 newsgroups that i look at are now subject to lots of spam.

1) is it possible to set up a kill file with "google groups?"

2) if not , is there a FREE safe newsreader (free agent has been cancelled)

3) (unrelated) how i do get my name to come up when i post rather than my email (yes i'm that good!)

TIA

I don't think Google Groups supports any killfile functionality. Wikipedia has a list of news clients, many of which are free software. I'm not sure which to recommend. I use Thunderbird, but its killfile support is pretty limited (which hasn't been a problem for me). Since you'll need an NNTP server for your client, you might just want to find one that does a good job of filtering out spam for you. I think many of them do, but again I don't know which to recommend. -- BenRG 00:13, 28 August 2007 (UTC)

Changing just the container of a video

I occasionally download 720p versions of television shows (that's right, I'm bad to the bone!), and are encoded in H.264 in a Matroska container. I'm thinking of getting an Apple TV and I know that plays HD H.264 videos in whatever container apple uses (mov, is it?) Here's my question: to reencode such a video would take a ginourmous amount of time, but since it is already encoded in H.264, is there any easy way to just simply change the container so that it would work on an Apple TV? I imagine that would be MUCH quicker. --Oskar 13:42, 25 August 2007 (UTC)

Apple TV plays back .mov Quicktime containers as well as 'naked' .m4v (h264) files. If you can open your Matroska (?) movie in Quicktime Player Pro, select all, copy and paste into a new movie (File -> New Player) and save it as a self contained .mov, that might work. Also you can do Window > Movie Properties -- select the video stream, click the 'extract' button and save out that file. Again, I've never even heard of Matroska, so I don't know if it will work. But good luck! --72.202.150.92 18:31, 25 August 2007 (UTC)

I think you can use VLC's Streaming and Exporting Wizard for this, but I've never needed to even play a Matroska file, so I'm not sure. --M1ss1ontomars2k4 16:59, 26 August 2007 (UTC)

VLC plays Matroska fine (oh, and by the way, it's an excellent container) and it would work to do that, it's just that it would reencode the entire thing. As I said that would take a humongous amount of time, and I don't want to reencode it. I just want to change the container. --Oskar 14:16, 27 August 2007 (UTC)

IP Adress?

What is the danger of revealing one's IP Adress? When I do a WHOIS search on many, all I get is their ISP's adress and info.

Perfect Proposal ^{Speak out loud!} 15:02, 25 August 2007 (UTC)

Did you read about WikiScanner? You can find out the approximate location of the IP. And, if you are law enforcement agent you may be able to ask the ISP to tell you who used that IP address at some precise time (Which they may not want/be able to give you). — Shinhan < talk > 15:28, 25 August 2007 (UTC)

If you're doing something illegal, then law enforcement can get a court order to force your ISP to look up who had that IP address as a certain time, and they'll give the police your name. No other danger really, though it's possible to "be hacked". A hacker can run nmap on your IP address and get a list of what programs are listening to internet traffic on each port, then look up buffer overflow vulnerabilities and the like for those programs, and possibly run arbitrary code on your computer. Just stick with windows, while it might be much easier to find a vulnerability, I'd think there'd be much less to do after gaining access. What are you going to do, inject shellcode? Oops no shell. Hm. --froth^t 16:26, 25 August 2007 (UTC)

Hooking a laptop 2.5" drive to a desktop PC

Unidentified HDD connector

Hi, I am looking for a way to connect a laptop hard drive to my PC. For this, I must know the connector on it and get the necessary adapter. Unfortunately, I can't detect what type of connector it is (Wikipedia is rather lacking images of connector types). I don't think it's either IDE or SATA. In the picture to the right is the hard drive in question and its connector (apparently wafer-like, with 44 pins), taken from a SCENIC 510 Mobile AGP laptop computer, somewhat old, fabricated before the year 2000. The initial problem was that it didn't boot from the hard disk (a "NTLDR missing" error), and since the laptop won't boot from anything else, even though the BIOS settings instruct it to, I want to see whether I can save some of the files on it by connecting it to my desktop computer.

My desktop computer has internal IDE cables, but I have the possibility to attach a SATA drive to the PC by using a rack connected to it by USB already holding a SATA hard drive. So, I would need an adapter for whatever connector type my laptop drive has to either IDE of SATA.

If anybody has any advice on how to fix the drive and make it bootable (it won't boot from the Windows boot diskette), or if somebody knows the connector type on the drive, it would be of immense help. Thank you in advance, Danielsavoiu 15:04, 25 August 2007 (UTC)

SCSI? — Shinhan < talk > 15:31, 25 August 2007 (UTC)

Are you sure that the drive is not inside some kind of custom enclosure with a proprietary plug? My laptop hard drive is like that. If you take the drive out of the little mounting enclosure you might find a standard 2.5" PATA connector (If this is the case, you will need to buy a little adapter to plug it into your desktop's IDE cable.) -- Diletante 15:48, 25 August 2007 (UTC)

I can't believe that your BIOS won't boot from anything else. Are you sure that your boot order has cd rom before hard drive? Just boot from your windows xp disk and enter the recovery console, then type fixmbr and fixboot. That should restore ntldr. --froth^t 16:21, 25 August 2007 (UTC)

I have seen plugs like this on early 2000s laptop hard drives. Note that the hard drive has not connector other than the IDE-like socket. I believe the plug combines the functionality of power and data transfer, thus 40 pins equivalent to the IDE standard and 4 pins for power. Your best bet is a 2.5" external USB enclosure. I have one that I like very much and works with drives similar to this, but I can't recall the model number and can't seem to find it. Scratch that, closer examination reveals minor dissimilarity to my hard drives, making my suggested USB enclosure incompatible. Very likely proprietary in shape, if not in design function. Freedomlinux 04:24, 26 August 2007 (UTC)

Take the hard drive out. I'm guessing there will be a little plastic piece that will come off the front of the drive, and behind that, a regular PATA connector.

Before SATA arrived, 2.5" drives used a 44-pin connector that was electrically compatible with ordinary 40-pin PATA (IDE) connectors but physically smaller. It also contains the power connection so there's no big honking 4-pin Molex connector that's practically as big as the rest of the drive.

Computer shops can sell you an adapter that will let you plug a 2.5" drive onto an ordinary 40-pin PATA cable and its associated 4-pin power connector.

Atlant 11:34, 27 August 2007 (UTC)

You can try this . Feel free to ask me further questions, I'm a freelance pc professional--Doktor Who 12:42, 27 August 2007 (UTC)

Upgrading to Xbox360 Elite

I currently own an Xbox360 and am considering buying an Elite for the HDMI and larger hard drive. How can I transfer my game saves and purchased Live Arcade games from my old HD to the new one? --72.202.150.92 15:14, 25 August 2007 (UTC)

Says here in Xbox 360 Elite#Retail Price and Xbox 360 accessories#Storage that you can buy the 120GB drive by itself and it comes with a special transfer cable for this exact purpose. Don't know if the full Elite box comes with the cable or if you can buy the cable by itself. Perhaps you could borrow the cable from someone who bought the drive? CaptainVindaloo ^{t c e} 21:44, 25 August 2007 (UTC)

The cable is free from Microsoft (click "How to get your Free Transfer Cable" at the bottom"). JoshHolloway 23:10, 27 August 2007 (UTC)

echo

What's the term for unnecessarily calling echo in a shell script when you can equivalently use the < operator? --froth^t 17:08, 25 August 2007 (UTC)

< is usually an input operator, I don't see how you can use it equivalently to echo, which is a program that displays a line of text. -- Diletante 17:41, 25 August 2007 (UTC)

It's like when you want to write a line to a file. You can either:

echo EXAMPLE | filename
filename<EXAMPLE

Apparently the first one annoys purists to no end since it actually starts an additional process, while the 2nd stays within bash. I know theres an article on this specific topic on wikipedia, but I can't find it. I think it's a 4 letter acronym that has something to do with useless echos --froth^t 18:18, 25 August 2007 (UTC)

Ah I found it eventually, sorry. It was UUOC, and cat not echo. And streaming text from a file into a command, not from text to a file. x_x --froth^t 18:26, 25 August 2007 (UTC)

But those two statements are not equivalent, with the piped echo the program will get the string "EXAMPLE". With < the program will get the contents of the file named EXAMPLE. Maybe you are thinking of using cat? edit: ok I must have started wrting this reply right after you found the answer which I didn't see. -- Diletante 18:30, 25 August 2007 (UTC)

In some shells (bash and ksh at least), you can replace the first of these lines with the second:

echo text | command
command <<<text

...as another simplification. Here documents are more generally applicable, but look less pretty. --Tardis 17:41, 27 August 2007 (UTC)

Infinities, NaNs and IEEE 754

Why does the maximum value of a floating-point number have to be cut in half just to accommodate infinities and NaNs? Why not declare that (a) NaN occurs only when the exponent is 2^e – 1 and the fraction 2^f – 1, and (b) infinity occurs only when the exponent is 2^e – 1 and the fraction 2^f – 2? Are there any alternative floating-point standards that do this? NeonMerlin 23:05, 25 August 2007 (UTC)

At a guess you are referring to the maximum value of floating point number is being cut in half to take into account negative and positive numbers. That is why. Mathmo ^Talk 08:05, 26 August 2007 (UTC)

As far as I remember all special values have the maximum characteristic, so you loose far far less than half of the number space.

No, I'm not talking about signs. I mean that apparently if the exponent portion is all 1s, it's either infinity or NaN, which means that a lot more than two bit patterns are being assigned to two values, in each sign. NeonMerlin 00:03, 27 August 2007 (UTC)

There is the potential to use the mantissa to signal different things with signalling NANs, but I don't know if this standard.

August 26

TotoBaggins's (also known as Sean) code

Hi. I'd like to use User:TotoBaggins's code, at his user page. I think I have already downloaded Perl. What do I do now? A.Z. 02:15, 26 August 2007 (UTC)

Copy and paste and let us know what errors you get back?? Mathmo ^Talk 08:04, 26 August 2007 (UTC)

You save the code into a file called c:\wiki-blame.pl, and then in a command window you type the following:

cd \
perl wiki-blame.pl http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User_talk:TotoBaggins 'That code on your userpage looks really useful.'

If that doesn't work, come back and tell us (verbatim) what the computer said when you tried it. --Sean 12:29, 26 August 2007 (UTC)

How do I save the code into a file called c:\wiki-blame.pl? A.Z. 16:52, 26 August 2007 (UTC)

Select all of the text with your mouse, then select "Edit", then "Copy", then open "Notepad", and select "Edit", then "Paste", and then select "File", and then "Save", and type into the little box "C:\wiki-blame.pl". That should work, but I don't use Windows so it's untested. --Sean 19:36, 26 August 2007 (UTC)

I saved the code into a file called C:\wiki-blame.pl.txt, I typed the text in the command window. It replied Can't open perl script "wiki-blame.pl": No such file or directory. A.Z. 02:40, 27 August 2007 (UTC)

(edit conflict with dr.ef.tymac. I'll read your post now, dr.ef.tymac)I tried typing "wiki-blame.pl.txt" instead of "wiki-blame.pl", and now it responds Can't locate File/Slurp.pm in @INC (@INC contains: C:/Perl/lib C:Perl/site/lib.) at wiki-blame.pl.txt line 88. BEGIN failed--compilation aborted at wiki-blame.pl.txt line 88. A.Z. 02:55, 27 August 2007 (UTC)

That means either: 1) you do not have a required add-on that perl needs in order to run the script the way it is supposed to; or 2) you have the add-on, but perl cannot find it on your machine. the "add-on" can be found here. dr.ef.tymac 03:43, 27 August 2007 (UTC)

Step-by-step: Since you're on a windows box, perhaps a step-by-step walk-through can help track down the source of the problem:

• step: Start Menu :: Run :: Type in :: cmd and press [Enter]
• step: type in perl -v
• step: check to see if you got the perl help message. If yes, perl is good, if not, you may need to re-install
• step: rename "wiki-blame.pl.txt" to "wiki-blame.pl"
• step: go back to the cmd window and type in perl c:\wiki-blame.pl

HTH. dr.ef.tymac 02:51, 27 August 2007 (UTC)

I type cmd but when I press enter a box opens that says "Windows can't find 'cmd'." Then it suggests that I typed the wrong name. A.Z. 03:00, 27 August 2007 (UTC)

I typed 'command' now and a window opened. I typed perl -v and a message appeared. A.Z. 03:01, 27 August 2007 (UTC)

The message seems to be the perl help message, with the name of the website www.perl.com. A.Z. 03:03, 27 August 2007 (UTC)

Ok. That verifies that your perl installation at least works properly, and the problem is with the script, or something else. dr.ef.tymac 03:46, 27 August 2007 (UTC)

Thank you. Couldn't there be an easier way to do the same thing that this code does/should do? I think it would be an useful tool. A.Z. 04:58, 27 August 2007 (UTC)

Sure. If someone had some spare web space that can run CGI scripts, it would be just a two-field web form. I just don't happen to have any. --Sean 13:23, 27 August 2007 (UTC)

or on *nix, using /home/az/ should work fine. --lucid 21:17, 26 August 2007 (UTC)

Carbon not working properly in Mac OS X 10.4.10

I highly doubt anyone else is having this same problem, so I'm not going to ask. I'm using a 1st generation Macbook. I seem to be able to run only some PowerPC apps: the non-working ones bounce maybe once in the Dock then exit. For example, I can use LilyPond but not StarCraft. Likewise, Age of Empires II no longer works either. Neither does 2005 World Book, but as that's not really licensed for use on my Macbook (only on my iBook) I'm not terribly concerned about that. AOL Instant Messenger (4.7, build 1333 for Mac OS X) doesn't work anymore either. My HP printer's installer software doesn't work either. However, if I check "Open using Rosetta" for any Universal application, it will still open, and Activity Monitor will reveal it is running as a PowerPC process.

Here's the output that I get when I try to run AoK directly from Terminal.app:

fre-74-178:~ chris$ file /Applications/Age\ of\ Empires\ II\ Gold/Age\ of\ Empires\ II 
/Applications/Age of Empires II Gold/Age of Empires II: header for PowerPC PEF executable
fre-74-178:~ chris$ /Applications/Age\ of\ Empires\ II\ Gold/Age\ of\ Empires\ II 
-bash: /Applications/Age of Empires II Gold/Age of Empires II: cannot execute binary file

All the above programs that no longer work used to work fine. Help, please? --M1ss1ontomars2k4 04:55, 26 August 2007 (UTC)

Removal of Spy Shredder

Please help. I am being bombarded by a very aggressive attempt to get me to purchase a spyware tool called Spy Shredder whenever I am on my PC. I am not a competent IT technical user, merely a browser so any simple advice would be very gratefully received. I should add that under no circumstances will I be forced or persuaded to purchase ANY product marketed so aggressively. I would rather buy a new PC first. Thanks 81.145.241.180 12:55, 26 August 2007 (UTC)

Isn't it ironic that most programs that (aggressively, mostly) advertise spyware (or virus) removal are actually classified spyware or viruses themselves? I'm guessing you've been hit by some variant of spyware that advertises an anti-spyware program to, well, remove those annoying messages. But it could be that you have this program but it wants you to buy the full version to remove apparent spyware. If this is the case, then I suggest you follow instructions here. If not, then download Ad-Aware, AVG Anti-Spyware or Spybot - Search & Destroy (I use the second one, but usually they all work well), install the program, run the program, update the program (usually a button away on the main screen of all these programs), and run a full scan. These 3 are amongst the best anti-spyware programs available, and best of all, they are free. x42bn6 Talk Mess 13:04, 26 August 2007 (UTC)

Spy-Shredder itself, is classified as spyware. You need a spyware program. Google Spy Shredder for more info.Perfect Proposal ^{Speak out loud!} 19:56, 26 August 2007 (UTC)

Don't you mean "you need an anti-spyware program" ? :-) StuRat 22:02, 26 August 2007 (UTC)

Wikipedia and money

How does Wikipedia make money? Heegoop, 26 August 2007 (UTC)

The Wikimedia Foundation is non-profit, but the money to run its various projects comes mainly from donations I think. — Matt Eason ^{(Talk &#149; Contribs)} 21:09, 26 August 2007 (UTC)

Wikipedia currently makes money via an offset printing process, but hopes to upgrade to a better method, which is more difficult to detect, as soon as possible. :-) StuRat 21:58, 26 August 2007 (UTC)

Money is, in fact, not Wikipedia's primary resource boon: time is. If you calculated how much per hour the people who edit on Wikipedia would be paid were they charging their "normal rates" for their time (obviously depends on skill level, education history, where they live, and everything else), you would find that revenue to be far greater than most corporations, I'm betting (meaning, more precisely, that you would consider the donated time to be equivalent with donated money). --24.147.86.187 22:03, 26 August 2007 (UTC)

Wikipedia is a project of the non-profit Wikimedia Foundation. Their finance reports page is here. The vast majority of their support comes from cash and in-kind donations. The 2006 financial statement is here in PDF. TenOfAllTrades(talk) 03:24, 27 August 2007 (UTC)

itunes plus help

I accidentally put itunes plus on an album that I wish to buy but because itunes plus is on the album it is currently too expensive. How do I take itunes plus off the selections?

Thanks

142.161.235.74 20:32, 26 August 2007 (UTC)

In iTunes go to Store>View My Account in the menus. Log in using your username and password. In your Account Information Screen the top thing listed should be about iTunes Plus. Click the Manage iTunes Plus button, untick the checkbox, and click the Save Changes button. All selections should now revert to the standard versions at the standard prices. --jjron 14:28, 27 August 2007 (UTC)

Thank-you very much, very useful advice...

OUP/Basic sample

Hi,

I'm looking for a reference implementation or a sample project for OpenUP/Basic. Can anyone point me to one if it exists?

Regards, Masoud Mahanchian 22:41, 26 August 2007 (UTC)

August 27

Top websites

Where can I find a frequently-updated list of the top 100 most-vistited websites? I've found lists of best-rated websites, but no list that merely counts site hits and is up to date. Thank you for your help.RavenLuna 03:09, 27 August 2007 (UTC)

Alexa? --Wirbelwindヴィルヴェルヴィント (talk) 04:42, 27 August 2007 (UTC)

Is this a good computer?

I'm looking for a mid-level laptop that I would like to be able to do graphic editing (Photoshop CS3), web design and some mild gaming. The following laptop caught my attention: [2] I have a few questions:

1. Is this a good laptop for the price? (NB: it's in Canadian dollars)

2. Will I be able to run Photoshop CS3 smoothly? (I do a lot of 8.5 X 11 300 DPI print work)

3. How is the Acer brand?

4. Is there a large difference between a Intel Core duo and Intel Core 2 duo?

Thanks a lot =) Acceptable 03:21, 27 August 2007 (UTC)

4 is really the deal-breaker here. When buying a laptop, you need to get the best you can possibly get because it's nearly impossible to upgrade anything but RAM. The Core Duo is an outdated processor and will bog you down in PS work. Settle for nothing less than a Core 2 Duo. Mild gaming will not work on an integrated graphics card and I imagine that will also slow you down in Photoshop as well. In short - no, you need a C2D and possibly a low-end video card. -Wooty [Woot?] [Spam! Spam! Wonderful spam!] 06:15, 27 August 2007 (UTC)

Core Duo may be "outdated" but it's still a beast... Core 2 is only a year old, it's not the lowest common denominator yet. --froth^t 18:53, 28 August 2007 (UTC)

What about an AMD equivalent? How do the Turion chips compare to the Core duo's and the Core 2 duos? They usually seem a lot cheaper. Acceptable 15:26, 27 August 2007 (UTC)

Personally I'll be much more worried about the RAM here then the CD. The CD is somewhat outdated but it isn't that bad. Nil Einne 23:23, 27 August 2007 (UTC)

Actually I just remember the CD AFAIK isn't x64 so with any more then 2gb it's going to have problems with Windows XP (you can increase the limit to 3gb but that adds other potential problems). Since you really should have 4gb with your demands I would recommend against anything other then a x64 computer and a x64 OS. Nil Einne 23:26, 27 August 2007 (UTC)

Erdős number in computing?

Is there anything like this in the computing industry? And if not, who are some likely candidates for it to start with? --lucid 06:56, 27 August 2007 (UTC)

Maybe a Knuth number? At least one guy has calculated his own. As for the equivalent in terms of collaboration on, say, open-source software projects, rather than academic papers, there might be more interesting results. iames 14:23, 27 August 2007 (UTC)

Keymap

I am using Cygwin and just realised that the Swedish characters on my keyboard aren't with me any longer (I think they have been before). I what way should I rub it to get it working? —Bromskloss 07:55, 27 August 2007 (UTC)

Can you run locale in cygwin to check your locale settings? Also, do you have the same problem in cmd.exe? --h2g2bob (talk) 13:29, 27 August 2007 (UTC)

The locale command doesn't seem to exist. Everything is fine in cmd.exe. —Bromskloss 14:36, 27 August 2007 (UTC)

Vista "Audio Mixer" for xp?

Is there an app that will give me the same amount of control over the volume of my applications as vista does? —Drexalot

Try Power Mixer Lurker (said · done) 13:37, 28 August 2007 (UTC)

Free flash video player?

Anyone know of a good Free Software flash video player? I used to use flowplayer but the author has started including syndicated ads in it. I am talking about a flash movie that is embeddable in a web page, not a standalone desktop player. Thanks. -- Diletante 15:02, 27 August 2007 (UTC)

Look at Flash Video#FLV Player. VLC and MPlayer are among the free software ones. --Spoon! 12:27, 28 August 2007 (UTC)

Thanks, I already use mplayer, but I need something I can embed in a webpage, not a desktop app. -- Diletante 15:29, 28 August 2007 (UTC)

You know that Flash is a proprietary format, why do you need a free software player? Are you looking for a browser plug-in? Why not use the Adobe Flash plug-in? --24.249.108.133 16:38, 28 August 2007 (UTC)

Okay I understand. You need a Flash applet that plays Flash Videos.

First, let me mention that, since FlowPlayer is open-source, if there is something you don't like in there, you can just change the source. I doubt that an open-source player would put ads in it. Perhaps you can inquire about this in the forums.

Searching on the internet returns a ton of other possible players. Here are some of them: [3] [4] --131.215.159.4 20:24, 28 August 2007 (UTC)

Technically flash applets are called flash movies. Yeah I thought the same thing. The author introduced ads in the program with almost no warning, I was working on a webpage for a client and then these ads popped up after the video which makes ME look bad. I went digging thorugh flowplayers website and found that indeed it does run ads and the author is asking for $50 to get a version with no ads. I know I could just modify the source, but then I'd have to install multiple tools learn the flash compile chain and all that. It would also be hard to keep it up to date if i had to continually modify it. Bottom line is that I no longer trust the developer. Hopefully someone will fork flowplayer. AFAIK it is the only flash video player that supports lighttpd-style streaming.

That first link looks good, I see its realeased under Creative Commons, but I can't discern the license for the player on the second link. Thanks! -- Diletante 15:26, 29 August 2007 (UTC)

Emulating a computer that's useless.

I've been fooling around with the registry crashonctrlscrll for a while now, although I was wanting to do a bit more with my PC. Basically, render it "useless" (but not actually, just emulated). Is there a way to make insane error messages show up at mind boggling intervals (every minute maybe?), programs except the antivirus (and tasks that windows requires to run) to continuously quit out unexpectedly, with or without error messages, Windows display that window that it has to shut down messages, CD and DVD drives malfunction (like discs won't spin every other time they're inserted, drive bays won't open/close), and of course, Bsods. Please, no .bat files.

As unusual as this sounds, I'm trying to help my dad out with a computer seminar he's making. He works at the local community college and is giving a class on this kind of stuff. Thanks. --TV-VCR watch 17:14, 27 August 2007 (UTC)

Hmmm, if you are using a Windows XP-based system, I would suggest to disconnect/take away a ram module; say, you have 1 GB of memory, just cut it at 128 MB. It's the only way that I am aware of an that will not damage anything for sure. With Windows Vista, I don't know what can be done, I'm no longer a Windows user, I use Linux, forever Linux.Doktor Who 17:27, 27 August 2007 (UTC)

This is my old personal computer, I don't have any others to fool with (My mother's computer? Yeah right...). I meant by just adding things to the registry, or error creators, and that stuff. Just anything but getting into the computer's guts. --TV-VCR watch 17:43, 27 August 2007 (UTC)

Well, not that I necessarily think the above will work, but it is super easy to deal with RAM, it is not a difficult hardware operation. Usually you can just open up the case and see it sitting there, and it snaps right out. In this case you'd probably need to buy a replacement RAM chip, and make sure it is the right kind, because your existing RAM is probably in very large amounts per chip. Anyway, all I am saying is that RAM is really, really easy to deal with, and as far as playing around with the registry goes, playing around with the RAM is far less likely to create a serious problem for the computer. --24.147.86.187 18:36, 27 August 2007 (UTC)

Whatever you do, if you are planning to play with the registry, I recommend installing a virtual machine and using that, instead of your actual registry. Too many "experiments" and your OS will need to be reinstalled. Something like Parallels Workstation or VMWare or whatever would allow you to install a "sandboxed" OS that you could do whatever you wanted to and instantly roll it back to some sort of "safe", working state, without any danger whatsoever of damaing your primary OS. --24.147.86.187 18:36, 27 August 2007 (UTC)

what OS are you using? What is your system's configuration?Doktor Who 18:50, 27 August 2007 (UTC)

I am using Windows XP Home edition. Well, to be honest, I have a brand new Vista PC, but I'm not in the mood to screw it up. This is my old computer. I don't mind if it gets destroyed from incorrect use of regedit or anything. --TV-VCR watch 19:44, 27 August 2007 (UTC)

Just do a fresh install of windows, disable security updates, then start surfing questionable sites and opening spam email attachments, your computer will be bogged down with malware in no time. -- Diletante 20:17, 27 August 2007 (UTC)

Overclock your RAM too heavily and you'll get lots of errors within seconds until your comp crashes. Beware you're also liable to lose data on your hard disks or at least have partition table corruptions and in Vista maybe even with ones that the stupid OS shouldn't really be accessing (maybe it's the indexing I don't know). Yes I know this from personal experience when I accidently forgot to underclock my RAM while overclocking my CPU Nil Einne 23:21, 27 August 2007 (UTC)

You're not getting the point. In a nutshell, I just want something i.e. a registry edit that generates errors, Bsods, etc. on it's own. I am not messing with this computer's internal parts, because it is sell-able. Who would want to buy a fried computer anyway? --TV-VCR watch 00:38, 28 August 2007 (UTC)

Just go into the registry then and delete random stuff from it, if you want. You'll get unpredictable results and odds are it won't restart. Why not just delete some random system files while you are at it. --24.147.86.187 03:45, 28 August 2007 (UTC)

You didn't tell your system's specifications, anw, I agree with the last advice; also, disabling virtual memory (provided that you have not more than 512 mb) should give out some error messages, depending on the application that you are running.Doktor Who 09:49, 28 August 2007 (UTC)

If you want to make a computer useless and full of error messages, you're already running Windows! *rimshot*

On a serious note, just close the three or four security programs you have running in the background and go to a few "wipikedia.org"s and maybe click a few of those "YOU NEED ANTIVIRUS NOWZ!!!" ads and such until you have enough spyware to get crap like this wonderful screenshot, and then if you can try to teach people to remove all of it (good luck). Unless you're much more specific, we can't really do anything to help though, just saying that you want to show error messages is far too generic. This could be anything from rigging a shell script or a webpage to just create a bunch of error boxes, to intentionally screwing up your system files. --lucid 10:04, 28 August 2007 (UTC)

If you have a programme that random changes the memory at a random location then it will freeze eventually... --antilived^{T | C | G} 10:07, 28 August 2007 (UTC)

Ooh, that's a good one! Will windows even let a userspace program do that though? If it's a low-power CPU I'd suggest totally taking off the heatsink. It should be able to survive for awhile if you don't do much but as soon as the students start doing things, it will crash without the slighest hesitation.. confusing them into thinking that whatever they were doing was causing the problem :) --froth^t 18:56, 28 August 2007 (UTC)

That technique worked in the 9x era when there's hardly any memory protection, but in NT it should at least throw a BSOD of memory violation or something? --antilived^{T | C | G} 08:26, 29 August 2007 (UTC)

OpenGL command

Does anyone no what the command for waiting until the screen refreshes in OpenGL (or GLUT)? I'm using gcc on FreeBSD if either of those matter (or if they don't, for that matter). — Daniel 22:43, 27 August 2007 (UTC)

The screen refresh is actually outside of the scope of OpenGL, so yes, it matters. On FreeBSD you are probably using GLX. Any call to glXSwapBuffers should automatically block until the screen refreshes. If it does not, look for some configuration options to set when you create the gl context. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 84.187.22.254 (talk) 00:50, August 28, 2007 (UTC)

August 28

default password

I forget my windows password and also linux password.So I want to know what its default password?Iloveugourab 00:21, 28 August 2007 (UTC)

There is none, else compromising a server would be so easy. On Linux, you can always boot to some recovery mode to gain root access. Splintercellguy 00:35, 28 August 2007 (UTC)

Boot singleuser. Use the kernel flag "single" to do this, then reset the password. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 129.78.64.102 (talk) 00:52, August 28, 2007 (UTC)

On some Linux installs the default password for "root" is also "root". (In general, try using the same password as the username.) StuRat 01:41, 28 August 2007 (UTC)

The default password is sometimes "toor" (root backwards) Think outside the box 14:37, 28 August 2007 (UTC)

For Windows XP, boot in safemode to bypass login details and then change relevent passwords in the control panel. JoshHolloway 11:01, 28 August 2007 (UTC)

For Windows, use the Offline NT Password & Registry Editor to change the password. --Spoon! 12:24, 28 August 2007 (UTC)

School Internet Filtering

Okay I fully understand if no-one wants to answer this on moral grounds but I heard this thing on the radio yesterday from this guy saying he bypassed his school Internet filter by changing an option in Google that would allow him to bypass it. I'm really curious as to how this would work. Does anyone know how to do this or how it could possibly be done? Thanks Mix Lord 00:59, 28 August 2007 (UTC)

If you pick the "Advanced" button to the right of the place where you type in the Google search term, it takes you to a page which contains, among other things, the SafeSearch setting. If it has defaulted to "Filter using SafeSearch", simply select "No filtering", instead. If your school uses it's own filtering system, this won't work, however. StuRat 01:37, 28 August 2007 (UTC)

Or search for something that's on a banned website and click "Cache". This'll show Google's version of the site. JoshHolloway 11:00, 28 August 2007 (UTC)

Note that many institutions with filters will block access to Google's cache, and other similar sites. Lurker (said · done) 13:31, 28 August 2007 (UTC)

My school blocks the google cache (but only of pages it has blocked). OP, if the school has their network set up perfectly then it's impossible to bypass such a filter. If your school lets you connect your own computer or run arbitrary code on their computers (I'd be wary of monitoring software in the latter case though), then just SSH home, or use a proxy set up on your home computer. If you're still in high school this is real easy (just install privoxy and forward tcp 8118 on your router to the appropriate computer, and configure your browser at school to use the proxy server at your home router's external IP).. if you're at college your parents probably don't want you sapping their bandwidth while you're away, so don't steal. Note that if your school already restricts HTTP traffic through a proxy (rather than just the network gateway, which is how it should be done) you'll have to find some other VPN protocol to tunnel through, in which case you'll have to have some additional software at home to recieve the connection- not to mention the ability to run arbitrary code at school like ssh or stunnel with the proxy patch. --froth^t 19:11, 28 August 2007 (UTC)

By the way, I share this because I object on moral grounds to censorship of the internet! And of course I was vague enough to just give you a few leads to figure it out yourself, which is the most important thing anyway :) --froth^t 19:13, 28 August 2007 (UTC)

BoingBoing also keeps a list of some anti-censorship techniques. From the page: "If your employer or corrupt, undemocratic, dictator-based government uses a filtering service ... you can try the following workarounds". --h2g2bob (talk) 21:36, 28 August 2007 (UTC)

I can't get through the cached pages or the search option. Apparently it's possible to exploit some fundamental weakness in the filter or something and that it's a problem that would be impossible to fix.Mix Lord 04:11, 29 August 2007 (UTC)

SSH to a server listening on port 80/443? Splintercellguy 04:56, 29 August 2007 (UTC)

seminal paper

how to find the seminal paper of a particular topic? i want to find the seminal paper on 'PID Controller'. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 155.69.22.235 (talk) 03:15, August 28, 2007 (UTC)

I can't help you with the PID Controller but usually the easiest way to find a seminal paper (if one really exists) is to trace backwards: find a paper, find the earliest relevant paper it cites, then go to that paper and find the earlier paper it cites, etc. At some point you'll usually find one citation which makes it clear which is seminal; i.e. it'll be the first one in multiple articles and have some sort of tone of "oh yes, we've all read this paper" to the way it is cited. Note though that not all topics have seminal papers — a seminal paper is usually only consider seminal if the paper basically presents a radical new approach/answer, and in many cases discoveries or technologies are quite additive in nature (there is no seminal paper on the light bulb or the automobile, for example; they are technologies which gradually developed from others over time. The closest thing you can get to a seminal paper is a seminal patents, but even those can be misleading in their individual nature). --24.147.86.187 22:38, 28 August 2007 (UTC)

Not intended blanking

Hello, I was referred to this page as a possible source of help with my problem. When I use certain computers to edit pages I end up unexpectedly blanking pages. In essence, what happens is that after I hit the 'edit' button, only a portion of the text that is supposed to load on the edit box ends up loading. As a result, if I pay no attention to checking if the entire section loaded and I save my changes I may inadvertently blank the bottom portions of sections. Here is an example. I was told that it could be a virus, but I find this hardly unlikely since it tends to happen from the computers at school which have no administrator privileges and their memory is cleared up every time after use (they are well maintained too.) Do you know how I can keep this from occurring? Thank you, Brusegadi 04:49, 28 August 2007 (UTC)

I would speculate that the computer doesn't have enough available memory to load the entire page, and handles this situation badly. It should give an error, but instead appears to load part of the page, but otherwise behave normally. One suggestion is to use section edits whenever possible, instead of full page edits. Another suggestion is to switch to a different browser. StuRat 05:07, 28 August 2007 (UTC)

OK, two possible reasons, neither of which is necessarily applicable to you.

1. About a year ago there was an issue, I think it was with using the Google toolbar in Firefox. If you loaded a page bigger than say 30kb it would cut the bottom off. I think this issue has been resolved, but that may depend on users having updated their software.
2. I have met this problem with pages, especially big pages, being cut off when downloading on a slow connection, such as a modem (especially if multitasking, such as downloading files, opening several pages, etc all at the same time). Now it's possible that your school connections are slow, or prone to times of overload when very large numbers of people are accessing simultaneously, when this could happen. If this is the case, there's no way of stopping it, you must just ensure the pages have loaded properly. The pages will claim to have loaded properly, so you really have to be vigilant. If this does happen, often you have to use <Crtl><F5> to force a reload, as the refresh button in the browser won't do it. --jjron 08:09, 28 August 2007 (UTC)

Thank you all. Since the internet connection is fast, and it happens with the two available browsers, I am inclined to believe it has to do with the memory settings the computer has. I always stick to section editing, but it is not fun when you need to remove or add templates at the top of the page. Oh well. Thanks again, Brusegadi 04:15, 30 August 2007 (UTC)

If you want to add to the top of the page, just click any [edit]. Then change the last number of the url (after &section=) to 0. That will load everything before the first section (&section=1). HYENASTE 23:23, 30 August 2007 (UTC) —Preceding unsigned comment added by Hyenaste (talk • contribs)

XML extensions

Hi! I'm a newbie working on xml-based formats in developing applications. From the development point of view, is there a difference if I give it a custom extension, of say .ABCD rather than .XML? Is there a deep difference in the extension used for xml files (so as long as it does not conflict with other registered file types)? Regards —Preceding unsigned comment added by 203.78.219.4 (talk) 05:53, August 28, 2007 (UTC)

Extensions are used by most operating systems to guess at a file type. There's no requirement for you to use "proper" extensions. For example, I can have a MS Word document with the extension ".ihateword". I can have a pdf with the extension ".pdfsareevil". Some (old) operating systems limit extensions to 3 characters. Those are rare to find in modern times. So, feel free to use whatever you like. Anyone opening the file will easily see that it is XML and not care what the filename is. -- Kainaw^(what?) 12:13, 28 August 2007 (UTC)

Minor add-on: To Kainaw's entirely suitable answer; some applications also use the file extension for various purposes, and failing to use the "proper" extension won't necessarily break anything, but it may give you additional headaches. For example, some Text editors use the file extension to determine what kind of Syntax highlighting to apply to the currently-edited file.

In this instance, you would want to go into the configuration options for your text editor and register the extension "ABCD" (along with xml, xsl, svg, xhtml, ... and so on) so that your application "knows" that abcd is just another type of xml file. dr.ef.tymac 14:49, 28 August 2007 (UTC)

HQ1

Could you please provide for me any information about HQ1 chipsets that Sony produces them also, if you can give me the datasheet for them?

Thank you in advance

Suliman —Preceding unsigned comment added by 146.232.75.208 (talk) 09:26, August 28, 2007 (UTC)

The Forum Game

In every classroom, meeting or forum, whether online or not, there seem to be persons who can not resist the temptation to disrupt to the point that it is to them obviously a game. One rule for dealing with trolls in such situations is "Not to feed the trolls." Are there other rules that administrators, moderators and users who merely wish to contribute and learn can follow to play and win The Forum Game? Clem 11:33, 28 August 2007 (UTC)

Ignoring trolls ("do not feed" them) is the best method. Trolls want attention. That is why they are trolls. Ignoring them deprives them of what they want and they go elsewhere. It is hard sometimes. There are many trolls here on Wikipedia. I've got into it with a few of them - which is completely my mistake. I know better. I am learning though. Just last week, I pointed out (on the Science RD) that driving slower gets better gas mileage. A troll piped in and said I was completely wrong - driving slower does not get you where you going as fast as driving faster. He equated my comment to a religious argument. Note: He didn't respond to what I wrote. He responded to something different and threw in an insult. I recognized him as a troll and didn't respond - even though I really wanted to. -- Kainaw^(what?) 12:10, 28 August 2007 (UTC)

Why didn't you just answer his legitimate claim about gas mileage? You're both wrong by the way- there's an optimum speed for each vehicle, it's not a general rule about faster or slower --froth^t 19:15, 28 August 2007 (UTC)

As I stated, he did not respond to what I wrote. He responded to something totally different in a highly confrontational and insulting tone. I'm doing my best not to respond to trolls. -- Kainaw^(what?) 19:35, 28 August 2007 (UTC)

One problem is that it's human nature to label anyone as a troll who disagrees with us and won't be convinced of our argument. Thus, giving administrators the mandate to ban trolls results in them banning anyone who disagrees with them. The "ignore the trolls" policy gets around this problem, by simply causing those who disagree to disengage. StuRat 13:37, 28 August 2007 (UTC)

I don't think that's quite fair. Most admins don't ban people as trolls unless they are blatantly being disruptive to the editing process. I think the "human nature" bit is really that when many people who show up here don't get what they want, they behave very poorly. --24.147.86.187 15:25, 28 August 2007 (UTC)

I've always found them a bit like fleas - once they're there it's difficult to ignore, and obviously they spoil your experience. I've found that over time I've just become immune (mostly) - persevere and you'll just find the problem seems to go away (mostly). I think they like 'fresh' ones - once you've been bitten a few times they must get bored of the taste.87.102.90.8 13:57, 28 August 2007 (UTC)

Also why not take a look at slashdot with the moderation turned down to -1 and learn how the masters do it.87.102.90.8 14:20, 28 August 2007 (UTC)

Or alternatively - give them the scrap they want - get it out of your system (I recommend this!) if so you might want to take a look at the articles linked from Pejorative. Good luck anyway87.102.90.8 14:20, 28 August 2007 (UTC)

I always thought this comic summed it up well. Personally I think a combination of ignoring the quick drive-by trolls (don't give them an audience, hope they find something better to do) and banning the persistent ones works out as well as one can hope for. --24.147.86.187 15:28, 28 August 2007 (UTC)

Programming Language for working with hardware

HI friends...I would like to work with the PC hardware and with external communication devices using PC serial port,USB etc...For that which language wouldbe recommended to learn?...I prefer Visual Basic which can be used to make windows GUI as well as programming to communicate with peripheral devices....Or shall I use C?(can we do those stuff it in C?).I thought C is complicated for these sort of applications.Or is there anything else more specific?...For eg, I want to make interface so that I can copy some data from one medium say, CD drive to a serial EEPROM device or maybe a modem, etc..?..Please help —Preceding unsigned comment added by 122.164.249.89 (talk) 11:34, August 28, 2007 (UTC) (I created a separate section for this question. JSBillings 12:01, 28 August 2007 (UTC))

You can use just about any language you like. What you need is a library of functions for working with the serial port or USB port. Since you are learning, I suggest C# or Java. My reasoning is that they are similar to C, Object Oriented, and easier to learn than C. However, there will surely be a slew of radical religious responses claiming that C# and/or Java were designed by Satan to drive all of humanity into the pits of Hell. What you should get from arguments like that is that some people take programming languages way too seriously. It really doesn't matter which one you choose. -- Kainaw^(what?) 12:06, 28 August 2007 (UTC)

Thanks a lot...Oh really?..But isn't learning java a tougher job when compared to C?..And I heard many saying that wihout an affluent knowledge in C, one can't be a master in C# or java or any higher languages that are above to C?...Is it true?...Anyway I will start with that... —Preceding unsigned comment added by 122.164.249.89 (talk) 04:36, August 29, 2007 (UTC)

You can probably learn C in a day. It is a very simple language. However, fully understanding using pointers, memory management, all the necessary library functions, etc. can be complex, that's why languages like Java are popular, since they handle a lot of the complex OS interactions for you. It still doesn't hurt to understand C and how your OS works. -- JSBillings 12:59, 29 August 2007 (UTC)

Correct. It is easier to learn Java (or C#) because a lot of things are handled for you. You can put off learning about them while you learn the basics. When you are ready, you can make the jump to C++ (or C if you wish) and try to pick up what you ignored in Java/C#. -- Kainaw^(what?) 13:02, 29 August 2007 (UTC)

Transferring data between computers

I have two computers connected by the same router. Is there any way I can share folders and transfer data from one computer to the other through my LAN connection? One of the computers is running Windows Vista, while the other is running Windows XP. Thanks. Acceptable 13:15, 28 August 2007 (UTC)

You can use Windows networking to do it. There are many ways to do this. The easiest is to right-click on a folder on the one that currently has the files. Select "sharing" and share the folder. It may go through a lot of steps to set up file sharing. Now, go to the other computer and look in the Network Neighborhood. You should see the shared folder appear so you can open it and copy the file. Of course, there are many reasons that the folder may not appear. It is best to try this and then, if it doesn't work, come back for the long process of troubleshooting. -- Kainaw^(what?) 13:18, 28 August 2007 (UTC)

I have such a system at home (in our case we have Windows 98 and Windows XP computers), and it seems to be almost random whether a particular folder shows up on the network for any given computer on any given day. Rebooting everything, including the router, changes the status of each folder (again randomly), so doing it enough times will eventually make the folder you want appear on the Network Neighborhood for the computer you want. StuRat 13:29, 28 August 2007 (UTC)

If you had a Mac all you'd need to run is a Firewire cable or ethernet cable between the two - with no router. --24.249.108.133 16:46, 28 August 2007 (UTC)

"If you had a Mac..." is not the answer to any Windows problem. Notice that there are no "If you had Linux..." answers here. -- Kainaw^(what?) 17:05, 28 August 2007 (UTC)

If you have a real computer, all you need is a length of ethernet crossover cable, which is specifically designed for file transfer. And I seriously doubt that macs can perform the same feat with standard cat5, you need a crossover cable or its non-ethernet-standards-compliant. --froth^t 19:19, 28 August 2007 (UTC)

Macs auto-sense when there when Ethernet is connected to another Mac and automatically reconfigure the port so you can indeed use a standard patch cable as a crossover cable. Pretty neat! Back on topic, have you thought about 802.11n? --24.249.108.133 06:15, 29 August 2007 (UTC)

Actually, macs automatically cross the cable. Works very well, my friend and I always use that feature to transfer files. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.195.124.101 (talk) 23:30, August 28, 2007 (UTC)

If I do what Kainaw suggests, where will the folder be stored? Is it stored on the computer with the folder that I right-clicked on? Thanks. Acceptable 17:19, 28 August 2007 (UTC)

Yes - you create a "shared" folder just as you would any other folder. For example, go into "My Documents", make a new folder called "Shared", and then right-click on it. That is the computer the folder is physically on. Then, once you right-click and share it, the other computer should be able to see it. If not, come back and ask for further troubleshooting help. -- Kainaw^(what?) 18:24, 28 August 2007 (UTC)

Windows networking is all fine and good but if it's a lot of data, like hundreds of gigabytes, then set up a samba share on the host and connect to it from the other computer. Or use sftp. --froth^t 19:20, 28 August 2007 (UTC)

I should have said this before... I use a USB drive myself. -- Kainaw^(what?) 19:31, 28 August 2007 (UTC)

Malware on Vista

Hi does any one know how I can remover malware of my computer I am running vista thank you weare2good lol —Preceding unsigned comment added by Weare2good (talk • contribs) 15:48, August 28, 2007 (UTC)

http://www.lavasoft.com/products/ad_aware_free.php?PHPSESSID=e891ea4176f42a6658ddf7c17b05720a

Contrary to the wikipedia article Ad-Aware this does work with Vista (at least according to their 'badge' on the screen. I don't have vista so cannot vouch for it. ny156uk 18:10, 28 August 2007 (UTC)

Thank you but I have spybot but it has not removed eveything so I need something that will remover all spyware ect.Weare2good 18:23, 28 August 2007 (UTC)

No one program seems to remove everything. The combination of Spybot S&D and AdAware seems to get most malware. --LarryMac | Talk 19:02, 28 August 2007 (UTC)

Software release date database

I was curious if there are any online resources that track the release dates of major software? (ie: when was Photoshop 2.5 released? Or Windows 98SE? Or Netscape 1.1?) --24.249.108.133 16:31, 28 August 2007 (UTC)

Check Wikipedia. For example, the Photoshop page has a link to Adobe Photoshop release history -- Kainaw^(what?) 17:29, 28 August 2007 (UTC)

Interchanging desktop and laptop RAM

Can I take apart my old PC and put its RAM into a laptop and vice-versa?Acceptable 17:23, 28 August 2007 (UTC)

Under nearly all circumstances, no, you cannot. RAM for desk computers is physically different from laptop ram - so they don't interchange. There are rare exceptions. -- Kainaw^(what?) 17:30, 28 August 2007 (UTC)

I found this out the hard way when upgrading an old desktop of mine. >_< CaptainVindaloo ^{t c e} 18:21, 28 August 2007 (UTC)

The easiest way to check is to use a memory upgrade tool and plug in the values for each system. Crucial.com has one, for example. If they don't match, it won't work. They probably won't match. And note that this isn't something that you can "just try"—in many cases the RAM won't even fit in the same slot and will be in a totally different physical shape. --24.147.86.187 22:30, 28 August 2007 (UTC)

To be specific, most laptops use SODIMMs -- small outline DIMMs, whereas desktops use regular-sized parts. --Mdwyer 23:50, 28 August 2007 (UTC)

Wordpress, Markdown and New Lines

Hello,

I'm using markdown to write the posts for my wordpress blogs and I've run into a minor formatting issue. Markdown outputs the text in HTML format like this:

<P>blah blah blah</P>

<P>blah blah blah</P>

<P>blah blah blah</P>

Which I then copy/paste into wordpress.

The problem is that wordpress only leaves one carriage return after each paragraph, which lumps all the text together.

Is there anyway to fix this?

Thanks for your help,

--Grey1618 22:12, 28 August 2007 (UTC)

Three possible solutions: 1. adding an extra carriage return? 2. manually adding <br/> after each paragraph? 3. modifying your wordpress style sheets to add more space after every paragraph entity? --24.147.86.187 22:34, 28 August 2007 (UTC)

August 29

Word doc into picture

I've been collaborating with a few people to create a document. It's vital that the formatting not change between computers. However, each collaborator's computer formats the word document differently. I was hoping to find a way to create a picture, which is also satisfactory. I tried to take a screen shot, but in addition to it not working, the document is too long to fit in one screen shot. We all have Windows XPs.

Any suggestions? Thanks! FruitMart07 02:07, 29 August 2007 (UTC)

There must be something like "Print to File" or "Export to PDF". Try that. —Keenan Pepper 02:14, 29 August 2007 (UTC)

PDF exporting wasn't added to Word until version 2005 (whatever they called it) if I remember correctly. You can use PDFCreator, which installs a PDF exporter as a "printer" on the computer. Print from Word to the PDFCreator to create a PDF. -- Kainaw^(what?) 02:17, 29 August 2007 (UTC)

What about something like OOo? It might give you less troubles than Word, but word shouldn't give you problems in the first place --lucid 02:20, 29 August 2007 (UTC)

As the above users have said, convert the Word file to a PDF. Another great free program to do this is CutePDF (or CutePDF direct to their website), which also installs as a printer, and you just print to a PDF file. Dead easy. --jjron 05:55, 29 August 2007 (UTC)

Your description sounds a lot like the need for PDF - which was designed so that colours and formatting get preserved when you share it. The problem with PDF is that they aren't really editable - you can invest a lot of money to get something can edit PDFs properly - and some image editing software (Photoshop, Corel, etc.) sometimes manages to edit. There are free PDF generators from Word, you can look up CutePDF (see the above post). To take a screenshot (not recommended for your situation) you can consider zooming out in Word and then taking a screenshot. I think ultimately what you're looking to do is have documents that you can share and easily edit - such as Word documents, but without any distortion, therefore you could consider software like Open Office (apparently free), getting everybody to install the same versions, and hope that somehow the documents shared will all display the same. You do get more formal publishing software that might be your answer Rfwoolf 14:23, 29 August 2007 (UTC)

It may depends exactly what formatting is changing. Largely, Word should preserve formatting across machines, but if, for instance, there are differences between the Normal.dot template on each machine then that may affect the formatting - what is being affected? Worm ^{(t | c)} 15:11, 29 August 2007 (UTC)

Thanks for your answers, everybody! I tried this out and have had great results with PDFCreator. This is exactly what we were looking for. I'm one of the main collaborators for this document, so I would know. Perfectionista777 21:42, 29 August 2007 (UTC)

Internet Speed

Hello. I had my Internet speed tested by cNet. According to my ISP 295.ca, my high speed Internet is supposed to be up to 5 Mbps. cNet says that my Internet speed is about 1 Mbps. I know that cNet's Internet speed results should not be entirely taken for granted. However, that is a big difference. Something must be wrong. Is my ISP cheating me? Thanks in advance. --Mayfare 02:22, 29 August 2007 (UTC)

What your ISP says is what your connection can do at the max, while the CNET test gives you your speed to their server, internet latency and all. Splintercellguy 02:23, 29 August 2007 (UTC)

Tell me what [5] gives you. Be very specific about the way you format your answer - there's a big difference between KBs and kbs. JoshHolloway 02:31, 29 August 2007 (UTC)

And an even bigger difference between MBs and mbs ;) Capuchin 07:11, 29 August 2007 (UTC)

It is true that the ISP mentions the maximum speed that a user is expexted to get. But it also does not imply that the speed may dip to any levels. In fact most ISP's mention the speed in bits/sec eg. kilobits/sec (Kbps) or megabits/sec (Mbps). Whereas download speeds are generally calculated in bytes/sec although the denotion seems the same (KBps, MBps,etc.) except that the "b" is replaced with "B". The conversion is One Byte = 8 bits. So if the ISP gives a speed of 8 Mbps then the download speed will be 1 MBps. So check the units of speed first. - Gurkirat. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 164.100.147.246 (talk) 09:42, August 29, 2007 (UTC)

speedtest.net gives me a download speed of 1287 kb/s and an upload speed of 555 kb/s. All units are case sensitive. The latency is 42 ms. The server is in Fenton, Michigan, US. (I chose the recommended server). The distance is about 200 miles. Is it supposed to be like that? --Mayfare 15:22, 29 August 2007 (UTC)

I would say that's very good. I have a 2mb connection (where you have 5mb) and I get 200kb/s downstream and 30kb/s upstream. Saying that a 2mb connection = 200kb/s, a 5mb connection would be 500kb/s...but you get twice that at 1287 kb/s. JoshHolloway 17:38, 29 August 2007 (UTC)

Thanks everyone. --Mayfare 20:31, 30 August 2007 (UTC)

Google Maps/Earth

How do I email Google and tell them that when I look up my address on Google Maps or Google Earth the arrow points to my neighbours house? --124.254.77.148 03:22, 29 August 2007 (UTC)

Does it point to your neighbours house on googlemaps (maps.google.com) or just on google earth? Most 'satellite' view pictures from close range on google earth (if no all) are taken from air-planes and aren't always exact.--Dacium 06:19, 29 August 2007 (UTC)

It points to my neighbours house on both. Can they readjust it? --124.254.77.148 09:08, 29 August 2007 (UTC)

They just take whatever street numbers they have, and extrapolate in between those for addresses they don't have (which is most of them). They're not likely to change this method for you. --Sean 10:17, 29 August 2007 (UTC)

And hey, if mysterious people come and kidnap your neighbors, you can say, "Maybe it was meant.. for me!" --24.147.86.187 13:24, 29 August 2007 (UTC)

Another problem happens when the photo was taken at an angle and your building is high, it will be spread sideways in the image and the location may not be correct. But a map should not have this problem. Graeme Bartlett 14:06, 29 August 2007 (UTC)

Hello 124.254.77.148. Whenever I used Google Maps to locate someone's address, it points me a bit off the actual location. Relax; it happens to everyone. --Mayfare 15:29, 29 August 2007 (UTC)

Yes, the resolution of the images is better than the absolute position accuracy, so even if you can see features of your house less than a meter, the position could be off by 5 or 10 meters. They won't be able to do anything about it if you complain. —Keenan Pepper 17:39, 29 August 2007 (UTC)

And honestly, why should they care all that much? If someone was really using Google Maps to find your house as part of a trip there, they're not going to rely on a picture of the roof to tell them which one it is, they're going to rely on the number facing the street. --24.147.86.187 17:56, 31 August 2007 (UTC)

Free antivirus software for Windows XP?

My boyfriend would like a new anti-virus program. He is running Windows XP and just uninstalled the free version of AVG Anti-Virus. It was working fine as far as virus protection, but he doesn't like the way it pops up windows on the screen and interrupts whatever you're doing several times a day whenever it updates. It corrupted his install of BioShock and has also caused problems with other games. Can you suggest an anti-virus software program that's free (or has a decent free version) and will do the job without him knowing it's there? Thanks in advance. --Grace 05:11, 29 August 2007 (UTC)

I use avast!. It notifies you of updates etc via Messenger-style 'toast' popups in the corner of the screen. — Matt Eason ^{(Talk &#149; Contribs)} 13:33, 29 August 2007 (UTC)

I've used AVG for a long time; you can configure it not to notify you when it updates. I also have it set to update weekly. "Several times a day" seems like overkill to me. jeffjon 19:00, 29 August 2007 (UTC)

I use AVG, though I don't have the resident scanner installed or automatic updates enabled. In fact, I can't even connect to the update server, I have to install update packages manually :( But I never have problems with notifications (which I can't stand)- I probably have it configured away --froth^t 07:50, 30 August 2007 (UTC)

I'm sure it's possible to configure all that stuff, but he was frustrated with AVG and just wanted it gone (and I believe it wasn't the update thing, just AVG in general, that corrupted BioShock). I'll tell him about avast! Thanks for the help. --Grace 05:18, 31 August 2007 (UTC)

This thread made me curious, so I did some searching. It seems to be well-documented that AVG and Bioshock do not get along (just Google "bioshock antivirus"). I'd probably place the blame on the game's publishers however, for including SecuROM on the game disks. There are sections in both the SecuROM article and the Bioshock article discussing a little bit of the controversy surrounding this rootkit-like software. --LarryMac | Talk 19:38, 31 August 2007 (UTC)

How difficult is starting an ad agency?

We are thinking of starting an advertising agency for serving ads to our own website and at the same time use that platform to serve ads to other PC and mobile publishers. Can an advertising agency be started with very minimum investment ($10,000) or is it a big boy's game? The one thing which comes to my mind is collecting payment from advertisers and giving out payment to publishers. Can that part be completely outsourced? Can you name any one company that does that? What are the other challenges and difficulties?

Is there any website or book which explains how to start an online ad agency? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 59.96.28.225 (talk) 10:30, August 29, 2007 (UTC) Thanks. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 59.96.28.225 (talk) 10:26, August 29, 2007 (UTC)

You may wish to examine Affiliate marketing which is one kind of business model that could be used for very low entry cost. But don't add your URL as a spam link like many have tried in the past! Graeme Bartlett 14:03, 29 August 2007 (UTC)

The competition in this area is huge, and you can expect dirty players, the history of adware, spyware and spam demonstrates this. Graeme Bartlett 01:16, 31 August 2007 (UTC)

The problem will not be in setting up a payment system — that is relatively easy, especially with a digital businesses (just keep good records). The tough part will be soliciting advertisers, and convincing websites that you are the best ad service for them. To do that you'd have to come up with a reason why your company is really better than the ones which are already established, and have to make it obvious that you aren't just going to fold up in a day or so. Additionally if you do not have many affiliates (people running your ads), then you are going to have a hard time convincing companies to pay anything to you (you won't have enough page views).

I think you could do it with a pretty low investment. You need hardware services that will be able to deal with your ad serving, but bandwidth and space is pretty cheap these days. You need people who know how to set it up if you can't do it yourself, and that can be expensive. Most important is that you need people who are willing to serve your ads and advertisers to pay for it -- that's the hard part. --24.147.86.187 17:54, 31 August 2007 (UTC)

Google Earth Help

Recently I downloaded Google Earth, and also downloaded the Blue Marble add-on. Unfortunately, whenever I click the Blue Marble Icon, Google Earth always takes me to just west of the Congo, and I can't spin the globe aropund to see my desired location. Any ideas? The Updater would like to talk to you! 10:40, 29 August 2007 (UTC)

My line-out is acting up!

The audio line-out on my computer is getting wonky (sound only comes out of one speaker unless you jiggle it like a crazy person). Is there like some USB device or something that I could plug in that would give me an extra one of those? Preferably something that would work for both linux and windows, but windows-only is fine too. --Oskar 11:30, 29 August 2007 (UTC)

There are external USB sound cards that you can get that will act as a line-out, yes. Search for "USB sound card" and you'll find a bunch. --24.147.86.187 13:40, 29 August 2007 (UTC)

Video conversion software

Hello, I am looking for software to convert .wmv files to the .avi format. I'm looking for the best choice in your opinions. Speed of conversion is important, as lossless as possible. Freeware is much preferred.

Thanks for your help, Wikipedia is great for seeing what is available, but its opinions that I am really looking for. Five of Eleven 17:34, 29 August 2007 (UTC)

VLC works well for me. It supports many file formats. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.195.124.101 (talk) 22:04, August 29, 2007 (UTC)

Boo! VLC devs exhort users not to use their streaming functionality for transcoding, and I agree with them. Try mencoder, that's the best for general avi transcoding.. or virtualdub if you can't figure out the syntax of mplayer. And you should read up on avi, it's just a container format. Completely uncompressed avi is still a container format technically but it just directly contains the video, not an encoded stream.. though it's massive. Maybe that's what you're thinking of? --froth^t 07:48, 30 August 2007 (UTC)

May I ask why that is? I mean, it's not the most advanced transcoder, but if you just want to transcode something, it works fine for me. TheArv 15:00, 31 August 2007 (UTC)

The Simpsons Hit & Run

When I start the game The Simpsons Hit & Run on PC, I get an error message saying "The procedure entry point _RADSetMemory@8 could not be located in the dynamic link library binkw32.dll". What is wrong and how do I fix it?James P Twomey 17:48, 29 August 2007 (UTC)

Perhaps you have an old or damaged (or missing) version of that DLL file. Try Googling the file and downloading it or reinstalling the game. --Taraborn 21:24, 29 August 2007 (UTC)

It looks like a video-related error to me. Try making sure your video drivers are up to date, maybe try installing the latest version of DirectX. --24.147.86.187 00:31, 30 August 2007 (UTC)

mod_rewriting

I'd like to rewrite a url, using mod_rewrite. I want anything requesting mydomain.com/hats/more_url to get the page at mydomain.com/clothing/hats/more_url. The line in my .htaccess file currently reads RewriteRule ^hats/(.*)$ clothing/hats/$1, but that's not working. Can someone please help me understand where I've gone wrong? Cheers, →Ollie (talk • contribs) 20:26, 29 August 2007 (UTC)

I would expect it to be ^/hats/(.*)$ - the beginning slash should be there. Also, ensure Apache is allowing you to alter things in .htaccess. -- Kainaw^(what?) 21:07, 29 August 2007 (UTC)

Turned out I was putting the htaccess file in the wrong directory... oh dear. Thanks for your time anyway! →Ollie (talk • contribs) 21:33, 29 August 2007 (UTC)

Font family

If I'm using a generic font family such as fantasy, is there a way to tell the actual font being used for the computer I'm on? I've already tried some font-finding websites, so I'm wondering if there is a file where its defined. aznshorty67 21:48, 29 August 2007 (UTC)

Fonts are found at C:/WINDOWS/FONTS on Windows XP. I don't really understand what you mean other than that. JoshHolloway 21:54, 29 August 2007 (UTC)

Also, you can go to the control panel, make sure it's in classic mode, and click fonts. It should take you there, but trust me, there is a ton of fonts in there, be cautious. If you don't want to search through that mess, just search for the font. Jonathan (formerly Jonjonbt) 23:18, 29 August 2007 (UTC)

The questioner is asking about the generic font families in CSS. I'm afraid I don't know where (or even if) they're defined system-wide; I do know that Opera allows the user to change the defaults (Tools > Preferences > Advanced > Fonts), but I don't know if Opera's defaults are the same as Firefox and IE's. — Matt Eason ^{(Talk &#149; Contribs)} 02:26, 30 August 2007 (UTC)

Thanks, but I wanted Firefox specifically. I probably should have mentioned that. aznshorty67 20:14, 30 August 2007 (UTC)

Old RAM with new RAM

If I put a stick of slower RAM into a new computer, will it hinder the performance of the computer in anyway? Acceptable 23:25, 29 August 2007 (UTC)

It depends on the speed of the motherboard's bus and the speed of the CPU's front-side bus. If they are already slower than the slowest RAM you put in, you won't see any difference (as the RAM will be running slowed anyway). Usually, the answer is "yes - very little, but just enough that you might notice now and then." The worst thing to happen is if you have mixed speeds of RAM and the motherboard is too buggy to handle it properly. -- Kainaw^(what?) 03:18, 30 August 2007 (UTC)

AVI codec

Where can I download a free AVI codec for Windows Media Player 11 in Windows Vista that will allow me to watch movies in the .avi format? Thanks. Acceptable 23:43, 29 August 2007 (UTC)

AVI is just a container format, it doesn't have its own codec. What you need to do is figure out what codec is inside the AVI (i.e., DivX, XVid, etc.) and then get that. In WMP for XP you can usually figure it out by looking at the "file properties" of the movie inside WMP. Usually with codec issues you can resolve them by getting an "all-in-one" codec set, but the last time I got one of those was some time ago (DefilerPak), so I am probably out of the loop on which ones are best for Vista. --24.147.86.187 00:22, 30 August 2007 (UTC)

Whatever you do, don't just install a big codec pack! Research on your own and install the appropriate decoders and directshow filters every time you need a new codec. Otherwise you're taking a performance hit, and you don't know what's going on in your own computer --froth^t 07:42, 30 August 2007 (UTC)

Well, DefilerPak isn't exactly "big", and the codecs are pretty standard ones for internet-related things. I'm a bit surprised that having more codecs would result in a performance hit — wouldn't WMP, etc., only load up the codecs it needs? (It seems to do that, anyway). And I'm not sure codecs are really the big threat to "what's going on in your own computer"... --24.147.86.187 14:54, 30 August 2007 (UTC)

You also could use GSpot to identify the codec. Splintercellguy 02:47, 30 August 2007 (UTC)

August 30

Ipod/MP3 player memory upgrade

Is it possible to upgrade the memory of an Ipod or similar mp3 player (e.g. upgrade a 10gig ipod to a 20gig ipod), and how does one go about doing this?--68.91.192.173 02:11, 30 August 2007 (UTC)

See this. It is difficult, expensive, and voids your warranty. -- Kainaw^(what?) 03:16, 30 August 2007 (UTC)

The ones with small amounts of memory, say up to 4GB, use flash memory, the ones with more memory like the 40 & 80 GB ones use mini hard disk drives. As Kainaw says, upgrading is probably more trouble and more expense than it's worth. You'd be better off selling what you've got and buying a bigger one. --jjron 08:51, 30 August 2007 (UTC)

I have a SanDisk Sansa that has an SD card slot for upgrading storage. Useful. -Wooty [Woot?] [Spam! Spam! Wonderful spam!] 04:52, 31 August 2007 (UTC)

desining of logical circuit

A water well pump is to be turned automatically if the water level is low in any two or more of the reservoirs .water level detectors in the reservoirs each generate a logic zero if the level in a reservoir is low.Design alogic system that turns ON the pump by generating a logical '1' in response to inputs received from the level detectors.202.141.98.204 06:14, 30 August 2007 (UTC)

This looks strangely like a home work question, is that the case? Graeme Bartlett 08:38, 30 August 2007 (UTC)

Website

What criteria or qualities qualify a website as a good one? in other words what are to be observed when i build a website? thx --218.250.157.77 14:21, 30 August 2007 (UTC)—Preceding unsigned comment added by 218.250.142.227 (talk) 10:15, August 30, 2007 (UTC)

The quality of the content would be one major factor.87.102.14.233 10:40, 30 August 2007 (UTC)

What are you trying to achieve with your site? You have to look at who your audience is, and whether your content matches what they want to read. If you can keep a reader on your site going through multiple pages, before they lose interest, then I suppose you are successful. For a commercial site it may be important how many sales leads are generated. Other aspects such as whether your pages work in all browsers, and is fast also add to its usability. Far too many web authors assume that Internet Explorer 6 is installed on the readers computer, and are surprised when the page does not work or looks crappy, say on an old computer with a 14 inch screen. Graeme Bartlett 11:12, 30 August 2007 (UTC)

I echo 87.102.14.233's comment - it is all about the content. If the site is plain black text on a white background, but the content is what people want, then it is a great site. If the site is jam-packed with flash, CSS, javascript, cookie trackers, and a little butterfly that follows the cursor around, but has no content - it is a terrible website. So, if you are planning on designing a website, you should spend 99.99% of your time gathering content and 0.01% of your time worrying about design. Once the content is in place, you can tweak the design and pretty it up. -- Kainaw^(what?) 13:00, 30 August 2007 (UTC)

You say that as though flash, CSS, javascript, cookie trackers, and little butterflies that follow the cursor around were good things. -- BenRG 22:11, 30 August 2007 (UTC)

I agree, many websites seem to follow the Hollywood movie model ("if you have enough special effects there's no need for any actual content or plot"). StuRat 00:44, 1 September 2007 (UTC)

thx guys, my site is mainly informative. --218.250.157.77 14:21, 30 August 2007 (UTC) —Preceding unsigned comment added by 218.250.157.77 (talk) 14:14, August 30, 2007 (UTC)

windows installer for vista

Hi can any one help me I am unable to install anything, as vista keeps saying that windows installer is not installed I have tried reinstalling but windows will not let me do so saying the window installer is not installed help please 86.141.95.208 11:15, 30 August 2007 (UTC)

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/315346 -Wooty [Woot?] [Spam! Spam! Wonderful spam!] 08:42, 31 August 2007 (UTC)

live cd to live usb

I recently bought a Linutop--a computer that boots only from USB. The problem is that I want to use Oralux--a distro only available as a live CD. So I need to change a live CD into a live USB. I looked at the Wikipedia article on Live USB and it makes it seem easy, but the only guides I've found with Google are for doing it under Linux, and I can never make head or tail of the shell. Is there a way to do this under Windows, or at least an automated way of doing it under Linux? 4.79.17.248 14:01, 30 August 2007 (UTC)

How to remove a motherboard secured with clips not screws

How do I replace a motherboard secured in this fashion?

I am about to replace my computer but would like, if possible, to reuse my current case. All the guides I've found through Google talk about undoing screws to remove a motherboard. My current motherboard however is not secured by screws but metal clips as shown in the photo. The clips do not bend upwards, and the motherboard does not want to move laterally (bottom to top in the photo) - at least not without more force than I am comfortable using. How do I go about removing the motherboard? Is the new motherboard likely to come with mounting screws or will I need to reuse these clips?

In case it matters, the motherboard is an MSI "K7N2GM L" (branded as "N1996") and the case is branded as Aries (the Watford Electronics own brand) without any further identification I can find. Thryduulf 14:48, 30 August 2007 (UTC)

From the photo, it looks like clips that you squeeze. They compress so that the hole can slip over them. Installing is much easier - just push the board down over them. A side photo is needed to see if this is actually the case or if it is an entirely different sort of clip. -- Kainaw^(what?) 14:56, 30 August 2007 (UTC)

Btw, that looks like a normal screw hole for your motherboard that the clip is going through, so it's definately a weird case rather than your motherboard :) Capuchin 14:58, 30 August 2007 (UTC)

I don't know what you mean by squeeze - there is only part to the clip (it appears to be Г shaped, overlapping the edge of the hole) and it doesn't appear to move in any direction. I can't get a side on photograph, there is not room in the case for my camera. Thryduulf 15:09, 30 August 2007 (UTC)

I have often found that these "easy release" boards may have one or two screws at other locations. Have you carefully examined the board for any permanent attachment points? You may need to remove a few, and then you will find that the board easily slides up and away from the clips. Nimur 16:29, 30 August 2007 (UTC)

I don't recall seeing any screws anywhere, but I will have another good look. Thryduulf 16:51, 30 August 2007 (UTC)

Ugh. The user manual took 20 minutes to download and has no useful diagrams of the mounting bracket. It simply mentions "6 mounting holes" which appears to contradict the photograph, on which I can count at least eight (maybe nine) mounting holes. Nimur 17:05, 30 August 2007 (UTC)

Believe it or not I've seen this done before. Be very, very careful when doing this but take a screwdriver to gently but firmly pull the clips away/back so they no longer holding down the motherboard. (You can do this with your fingers if possible). Be sure to ground yourself at all times. It's a little like how you had to pull away clips in older computers to remove RAM. Guroadrunner 17:47, 30 August 2007 (UTC)

It is really hard to tell from the angle of the photograph—virtually any other angle would give more information. If the clip is bent down to hold the motherboard, then you'll have to unbend it. Avoid using the board as leverage as you can easily cause cracks. Hold the screwdriver or, perhaps, needle-nose pliers in such a way that if it slips as you're applying force, it won't damage the board. The new motherboard will not come with screws or any mounting hardware. It will only come with holes in standard positions. The case manufacturer is responsible for supplying the mounting hardware, which might be clips or standoffs and/or screws. If there were no other way, I'd cut the clips off with a pair of dykes. &mdashBradley 04:55, 31 August 2007 (UTC)

how many writes

How many writes does an average flash memory stick take before it fails?--69.118.235.97 18:19, 30 August 2007 (UTC)

100,000 to 1,000,000 writes to any given sector of the Flash ROM. To help extend the device's life, most thumb drives use some sort of wear levelling file system.

Atlant 18:35, 30 August 2007 (UTC)

Thanks! --69.118.235.97 18:56, 30 August 2007 (UTC)

This question has come up a few times before. Given moderate usage most of these devices can expect to have write-cycles far longer than the lifespan you would expect of the product itself. Here's a bit of an article about it (http://www.storagesearch.com/ssdmyths-endurance.html), quite technical but should give you an idea. ny156uk 23:10, 30 August 2007 (UTC)

Sample flash / flash video files

Hi, I'm testing some software which is supposed to be able to use flash (.swf) and flash video (.fla) files. I'm just looking for some samples of these to test with since as far as I'm aware I can't create them from here. Anything non-obscene would do, any ideas where I could download from? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 81.107.38.194 (talk) 19:21, August 30, 2007 (UTC)

You could download some from Youtube with a tool like this, or consider WinFF[6] - new versions of WinFF can re-encode other videos into Flash Video (.flv) format. Nimur 19:35, 30 August 2007 (UTC)

Those are FLV, not FLA or SWFs. (You use a SWF to view a FLV in the browser, but they're not the same thin). --24.147.86.187 22:19, 30 August 2007 (UTC)

SWF files can be download from any place that uses Flash. Simply view the source, search for .swf, copy the path and it should download.

FLA files might be harder, because they are the source code to make SWFs and most people keep them privately. If you Google "FLA sample" or "Flash tutorial sample" you'll find a bunch, though (the latter is useful because many tutorials for Flash include a FLA file to download so that you can view how things "ought" to look). --24.147.86.187 22:19, 30 August 2007 (UTC)

I suppose I'm confused by the question - do you want the .swf file, or the actual video file? Flash Video files tend to be .FLV files, although you might be referring to .SWF animations. Can you clarify what you're looking for? Nimur 16:36, 31 August 2007 (UTC)

Screen saver quirk

Just a little quirk I spotted on Vista...the screen saver never seems to turn on when the laptop is plugged in. But when it's unplugged, it works just fine. Anybody have an explanation?--The Ninth Bright Shiner 20:37, 30 August 2007 (UTC)

In your Power Options (or something like that) control panel, you can set different power settings for plugged in and on battery. --131.215.159.4 21:11, 30 August 2007 (UTC)

Wireless newtworking/router

Hi. I've got a belkin wireless router and use it for a macbook (and a home pc that is wire-connected to the router). Well my question is does it matter what channel I 'broadcast' on? I seem to notice a major difference between channel 8 (low signal, ridiculously slow internet speed) and channel 11. granted there must be about 5 more wireless networks in my range and perhaps 8 is 'busy' with those and so gets interference, but is there any other reason beyond this? Also is there a default channel that routers use/channels best avoided? ny156uk 23:04, 30 August 2007 (UTC)

Continual failure of wireless network

My friend brought his wireless-enabled laptop to my wireless network, but dangit I couldn't find my 25 digit code. No problem, I thought; I could just make a new network and start fresh. But every time I tried to make a new wireless network, it wouldn't show up on either computer. I thought the old one (with the forgotten key) was clouding the newer ones, but I couldn't even delete/remove the old one. And in the meantime I had set up ~10 wireless networks. What's the easiest way to clear all the old wireless networks from the computer, and start fresh with a new network? HYENASTE 23:32, 30 August 2007 (UTC)

I think Advanced Options -> Wireless Networks, then removed the preferred entries? Were you making IBSS (peer-to-peer) networks? Splintercellguy 02:11, 31 August 2007 (UTC)

No, I was just trying to let him access the Internet. HYENASTE 02:19, 31 August 2007 (UTC)

Laptop external monitor

I have a laptop with a native resolution of 1280x800 pixels. I want to connect an eternal LCD monitor with a native resolution of 1280x1024, so that I can use the bigger LCD screen at home. Would the picture displayed be in 1280x800 or 1280x1024? If the latter is the case, will my computer performance decrease because of the increased resolution? Thanks. Acceptable 02:04, 31 August 2007 (UTC)

Depends on what you are going to do with the other monitor. If you are using it in "extend" mode, then it will have 1280×1024 resolution (or whatever you set it to), but if you use it in clone mode it will clone your laptop LCD and thus have the same resolution. Yes it will decrease performance, but only a tiny bit that you aren't really gonna notice. --antilived^{T | C | G} 04:46, 31 August 2007 (UTC)

Boosting saturation on laptop monitor

I have an Acer Aspire 5610 laptop with Windows Vista Home Premium. I have noticed that the monitor seems a bit light in colour and low in contrast. Is there anyway I can increase the monitor saturation and contrast? Acceptable 02:08, 31 August 2007 (UTC)

Some laptops have buttons just like normal monitors to change the options. Usually they are invoked using the Fn-key. For example, on a Dell laptop I saw, you can increase the brightness by pressing Fn-Up (and decrease using Fn-Down). Sometimes, your video card will have other options. For example, aTi cards allow you to change colour options via your display settings > Advanced (at least in XP, not sure about Vista). x42bn6 Talk Mess 06:48, 31 August 2007 (UTC)

Usually monitors have their own video settings as well. Try pressing the buttons on the front or back of it; you'll likely find a menu that will let you adjust the color and contrast. --24.147.86.187 17:49, 31 August 2007 (UTC)

DVD-lab - Project does not compile

I have a problem with DVDlab. My project won´t compile. I think the problem might be that something´s wrong with the header of the first .vob, because in the verification log everything shows up with "0", but I could use the file in the program without any problems, add chapters, branching etc. The file also plays without errors in VideoLan. I tried fixing the header with DVDPatcher, but that didn´t seem to do anything. Here´s the log, maybe someone can help me.

Mit VideoLan wird mir die Datei auch abgespielt. Hab versucht das ganze mit DVDPatcher zu reparieren, also die passenden Daten eingegeben, aber es scheint keinen Effekt zu haben. Ich hoffe es kann mir jemand helfen. Ich kopier mal das komplette Log rein:

Full DVD Lab Pro Verification Log

*** DVD Lab Pro Verification Log ***
    8 - 31 - 2007 -- 8:42:59


************************
*                      *
*   VMG Verification   *
*                      *
************************


Number of VTS - 1
Number of Menus: 2


Menu 01 - Type - Dummy


Menu 02 - Type - Dummy

Number of imported VTS: 0

************************
*                      *
*   VTS Verification   *
*                      *
************************


<<< VTS Number 1 >>>
Number of Titles: 10


*Title 01 - Type - VOB
*Segment 1, Video File C:\Dokumente und Einstellungen\Frederik\Eigene Dateien\VTS_01_1.VOB
*Video type does not match
*Frame size: 0 X 0
*Frame rate: 0   	[1--23.976, 2--24, 4--29.97, 3--25, 5--30]
*Wrong video frame rate
*Aspect Ratio: 0   	[43--4:3, 169--16:9]
*Video aspect ratio is neither 4:3 nor 16:9
*Chroma: 1   		[1--4:2:0, 2--4:2:2, 3--4:4:4]
*Audio Stream Count: 0
*Subtitle Stream Count: 0


*Title 02 - Type - VOB
*Segment 1, Video File D:\VIDEO_TS\VTS_01_2.VOB
*Frame size: 352 X 576
*Frame rate: 3   	[1--23.976, 2--24, 4--29.97, 3--25, 5--30]
*Aspect Ratio: 43   	[43--4:3, 169--16:9]
*Chroma: 1   		[1--4:2:0, 2--4:2:2, 3--4:4:4]
*Audio Stream Count: 1
*Subtitle Stream Count: 0
*Audio type: AC3_Mot, Channel: 1, Sampling: 48000, Bitrate: 256000


Title 03 - Type - Clone


Title 04 - Type - Clone


Title 05 - Type - Clone


Title 06 - Type - Clone


Title 07 - Type - Clone


Title 08 - Type - Clone


Title 09 - Type - Clone


Title 10 - Type - Clone



Number of Menus: 7


Menu 01 - Type - Dummy


Menu 02 - Type - Still
	nMenu cell count - 1

	Menu Image File C:\Temp\54868552_tmp1.bmp
	Picture size - 720 x 576
	Menu Audio File - None
	Menu Sub-Picture File C:\Temp\54868552_tmpsub1.bmp
	Picture size - 720 x 576


Menu 03 - Type - Still
	nMenu cell count - 1

	Menu Image File C:\Temp\55463944_tmp1.bmp
	Picture size - 720 x 576
	Menu Audio File - None
	Menu Sub-Picture File C:\Temp\55463944_tmpsub1.bmp
	Picture size - 720 x 576


Menu 04 - Type - Still
	nMenu cell count - 1

	Menu Image File C:\Temp\59359240_tmp1.bmp
	Picture size - 720 x 576
	Menu Audio File - None
	Menu Sub-Picture File C:\Temp\59359240_tmpsub1.bmp
	Picture size - 720 x 576


Menu 05 - Type - Still
	nMenu cell count - 1

	Menu Image File C:\Temp\60553808_tmp1.bmp
	Picture size - 720 x 576
	Menu Audio File - None
	Menu Sub-Picture File C:\Temp\60553808_tmpsub1.bmp
	Picture size - 720 x 576


Menu 06 - Type - Still
	nMenu cell count - 1

	Menu Image File C:\Temp\67733104_tmp1.bmp
	Picture size - 720 x 576
	Menu Audio File - None
	Menu Sub-Picture File C:\Temp\67733104_tmpsub1.bmp
	Picture size - 720 x 576


Menu 07 - Type - Dummy

************************
*                      *
*   Status Messages    *
*                      *
************************
	Pre verification fails. Process abort ! - 1998

81.201.224.13 07:45, 31 August 2007 (UTC)

I have taken the liberty of formatting your log to avoid cluttering the desk. Nimur 16:32, 31 August 2007 (UTC)

WHIRLPOOL

Hello. Sorry, the title must be capitalized; otherwise, the link would not work. Where in Canada may I get the WHIRLPOOL software or the like? Thanks in advance. --Mayfare 20:38, 31 August 2007 (UTC)

Is there a reason you couldn't use the links at the end of the article? Does it matter that you are in Canada versus anywhere else? It is just a hashing function; there are at least three implementations linked to at the bottom of the article, and if you wanted it in another language I am betting you could just google "WHIRLPOOL HASH FUNCTION" and the language in question (i.e. PHP or Javascript) and probably end up with it, if it is easily available. --24.147.86.187 22:56, 31 August 2007 (UTC)

Gaining access to LAN computer

I have two computers (1 wireless laptop and 1 wired desktop) connected in a LAN connection by a router. The laptop is running Vista, while the desktop is running XP. Is there anyway I can "hack" into my desktop using my laptop? For example, can I view the files on my desktop through my laptop?

As well, my desktop is connected to a printer with a wire. Is there anyway I can print a document wirelessly from my laptop through the desktop and through to the printer? Thanks. Acceptable 00:01, 1 September 2007 (UTC)

PSP Help

Hi, a few months ago I downgraded my 3.03 Official Firmware PSP using the Illuminati exploit. I then installed 3.40 OE firmware. My question is can I go back to official Sony Firmware now? (BTW, I have a TA-082 motherboard.) Any help would be very very appreciated. RedStateV 00:43, 1 September 2007 (UTC)