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July 23

Non-breaking tables in MS Word

Hello, I am writing a 300+ page work in MS Word. It is filled with various tables. It is very important that those tables would be presented as a whole in a single page and not split between two pages when there is not enough space on the first page. I have big issues tracking each table: I waste hours manually inserting blank lines and page breaks trying to preserve each of them as a whole on one page. And then I or my teammates add or delete something... and it's all over again... Is there some trick to prohibit Word from breaking tables in half between pages? Renata (talk) 01:30, 23 July 2008 (UTC)

One suggestion is to put each table in it's own Appendix. That way each will start at the top of that page. StuRat (talk) 07:24, 23 July 2008 (UTC)

Select the table by clicking on the square in its upper-left hand corner. Then go to Format --> Paragraph... --> Line and Page Breaks. If you click on Keep with next, it will move the table as a whole onto the next page.--Hello. I'm new here, but I'm sure I can help out. (talk) 08:13, 23 July 2008 (UTC)

I tried this one and it does exactly what I wanted. Awesome! I knew there has to be a checkbox somewhere... Thank you very much. Renata (talk) 19:51, 23 July 2008 (UTC)

Another trick, if you are accustomed to working with Word styles and if you use headings in the first row of a table:

• Format the headings with a specific paragraph style -- let's call it tablehead.
• Next, create a style based on tablehead, but with the added characteristic of 'page break before' -- let's call this style tablehead1.
• Now, apply tablehead to the headings of each new table. Then apply tablehead1 to the words in the first cell of the first row.

With this format, your table headings will automatically begin a new page. If you don't use headings in your tables, you can modify this trick; just create a style like tablehead1 and apply it to the text in the first cell of the table.

(You probably realize this already, but it's possible that an entire table will not fit on a single page.) OtherDave (talk) 16:04, 23 July 2008 (UTC)

I don't really want new table = new page. Much of my tables are supposed to be in between text. But I will keep this in mind for another report I will have to write in the fall... Should be very handy. Thank you, Renata (talk) 19:51, 23 July 2008 (UTC)

You're welcome. If you create the tablehead1 style, you can just apply it when necessary. The main point is to have the font and size and alignment identical to what the text would have anyway; tablehead1 just adds that page-break. OtherDave (talk) 21:28, 23 July 2008 (UTC)

Question I just thought of - is it possible to have table headings repeat if the table goes onto multiple pages in MS Word? --Random832 (contribs) 21:32, 23 July 2008 (UTC)

Yes. Select the row(s) of the table that you want to repeat (sometimes you want the first two rows to serve as your heading). From the Table menu, select Heading Rows Repeat. The rows will appear automatically if the table runs more than one page. Note: if you split the table, the rows will not repeat, because you've now got two tables. (You could copy the heading rows from the first one to the second one.) OtherDave (talk) 01:18, 24 July 2008 (UTC)

Just out of curiosity, have you thought of using LyX or LaTeX? I find them much better than Word for documents this big. Zunaid©® 12:09, 24 July 2008 (UTC)

Firefox hit count

How can I get Firefox 3.01 to show me the number of hits for a search? Clarityfiend (talk) 02:54, 23 July 2008 (UTC)

Hi Clarity. First we need to know what search engine you are using. --mboverload@ 04:40, 23 July 2008 (UTC)

Oops. The 900 lb. gorilla: Google. Clarityfiend (talk) 23:46, 23 July 2008 (UTC)

It is to the far right on the blue bar after your search something. Results 1 - 10 of about 23,000,000 for hippie [definition]. (0.06 seconds) --mboverload@ 14:54, 24 July 2008 (UTC)

Doh, how did I miss that? Thanks. Clarityfiend (talk) 20:10, 25 July 2008 (UTC)

USB keyboard doesn't work with bootloaders

For some reason when booting off of a CD or any non primary Hard disk, the system does not respond to any keyboard input. I know that the BIOS can see the keyboard, the boot loader can't, but any OS can see it again after booting. Examples: (1) When it opens GRUB, I can't boot into anything other than the default option when time runs out. (2) When the Knoppix 5.1 disk boots, I can't type any boot options ("cheats"), and have to wait for the timer to run out and boot the default configuration. (3) I can't use the Windows XP setup boot CD, it stops and says "Press any key to boot from CD" and ignores all input until the timer runs out and boots off the Hard disk. This is not a new machine, it has worked fine for years, but is failing now for no apparent reason. To reiterate, this is a USB (US-International layout) pluged into a USB 2.0 device built-into the mainboard. It doesn't work when any other USB keyboard either. I want to know what's going on and how I can fix it, permanently preferably. Please DO NOT SAY GET A NEW MOTHERBOARD, OR GET A <your favorite computer brand here> BECAUSE THAT ISN'T HELPFUL. ~Anonymous 04:29, 23 July 2008 (UTC)

Look in your BIOS for "USB Keyboard support". I have seen it hidden in a lot of places. It's the only thing I can think of with the circumstances you cite. How old is the machine exactly? --mboverload@ 04:40, 23 July 2008 (UTC)

I got this computer in October/November 2005, so it's a little more than 2.5 years old. I do apologize if my post sounded exaggerated, I am as you can tell under a lot of stress lately. ~Anonymous 05:06, 23 July 2008 (UTC) —Preceding unsigned comment added by 209.112.146.248 (talk)

In the BIOS configuration menu, there are 2 options, one says "USB Controller" and the other says "USB KB/Storage Support" and they are both set to "Enabled". Does the 'KB' stand for keyboard? The Keyboard is obviously working here, but as before it doesn't work until it boots into an OS. ~Anonymous 06:03, 23 July 2008 (UTC) —Preceding unsigned comment added by 209.112.146.248 (talk)

Try toggling off and on the USB KB support. You can also try to reset your CMOS - do you know how to do that? --mboverload@ 06:09, 23 July 2008 (UTC)

I had the same problem, and in the end, the only solution that worked, was plugging in a PS2 keyboard. USB keyboard worked in bios, worked in boot device selection (it is an extension of bios, anyway), but did not work in WinXP bootloader (where can be selected other operating systems or safe mode), it did not work in winxp installer either. After OS loading, keyboard worked just fine. It also worked firne, in windows vista installer. I suspect, this problem is caused by windows unloading bios drivers, after starting, but not being loaded far enough to have loaded OS drivers. -Yyy (talk) 09:30, 24 July 2008 (UTC)

comparing two software implementations

how would you compare two software implementations, where one is based on proper domain objects and abstractions, and another one hides complexity by just providing a way to generate code that you have to repeat through some kind of configuration files, etc.

many thanks in advance. --V4vijayakumar (talk) 10:26, 23 July 2008 (UTC)

Compare using what metrics? Hiding complexity is good, and proper abstractions are good, too. --Sean 16:40, 23 July 2008 (UTC)

Programming: Windows Vista API (Folder Redirection)

I'm attempting to figure out how to access the display name of a folder. Previously, my understanding was that folders (and files) had both short 8.3 filenames and long filenames. However, there seems to be a third, "display" filename on vista. For example, "C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Accessories\Accessibility" has the names:

• 8.3: ACCESS~1
• LFN: Accessibility
• display name: Ease of Access

So, I'm interested in some way to take an LFN (i.e. "Accessibility") and spit of the display name. (Also, I would want the ability to have it run on XP, in which case display name = LFN, presumeably). Ideally I'd like to do this in VB though in a pinch C++ would work. Similarly, I'd want the ability to change the display name.

I believe my issue relates to folder redirection.

Thank you --72.85.235.162 (talk) 14:55, 23 July 2008 (UTC)

Found an article called What the %$#&amp; is up with localized paths in Vista? for a starting point. --Random832 (contribs) 20:09, 23 July 2008 (UTC)

I guess I was wrong in predicting it related to folder redirection, since I am pretty sure this is what I needed. Thank you. --72.85.235.162 (talk) 13:49, 24 July 2008 (UTC)

Well, all of that stuff works fine for the localized names. However, I discovered that if a user renames (with the explorer) a folder which had a localized name, then the display name is still different from the LFN and 8.3 names yet is no longer a localized name (i.e. its name no longer resides in a resource file e.g. shell32.dll). Where is this new name? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 72.85.235.162 (talk) 14:30, 25 July 2008 (UTC)

Well, I figured it out. This information is stored in the desktop.ini files. --72.85.235.162 (talk) 18:25, 25 July 2008 (UTC)

Linux on a USB drive

I'd like to install Linux on my USB drive. (1 GB total, ~800 megs free.) Is it possible? What distribution should I choose? (Other than Fedora 9's LiveCD->USB tool.) --grawity 15:20, 23 July 2008 (UTC)

It's definitely possible, assuming your computer will boot from a USB drive. Here's a page on using Puppy Linux. --LarryMac | Talk 15:24, 23 July 2008 (UTC)

I know it's possible (I tried it with Fedora's tool mentioned above), but I want a real install - not something that runs off a read-only image with a few megs for user data. --grawity 16:25, 23 July 2008 (UTC)

I guess I was confused by your use of the phrase "Is it possible?" --LarryMac | Talk 17:39, 23 July 2008 (UTC)

[1] may help you. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Willnz0 (talk • contribs) 22:56, 23 July 2008 (UTC)

PendriveLinux. The min requirements are 1GB though; and you gotta have windows to install it :/ Abhishek (talk) 13:48, 24 July 2008 (UTC)

This also runs out of a squashfs image. --grawity 13:54, 24 July 2008 (UTC)

Unetbootin (http://unetbootin.sourceforge.net/) is a very good tool to create Live USBs, it works on Windows and Linux, and can install various distros... SF007 (talk) 14:34, 24 July 2008 (UTC)

HDRI in movie industry late 80`s

Hallo,

I have a question about the "High Dynamic Range Imaging article. Specifically about the part: "Probably the first practical application of HDRI was by the movie industry in late 1980s" Does anybody know which film or by whom?

Thanks --Xelabell (talk) 16:59, 23 July 2008 (UTC)

Sounds like that claim needs a citation tag. Just guessing here -- Willow (1988), The Abyss (1989), Indiana Jones 3 (1989), Back to the Future II (1989), Ghostbusters II (1989). Those were the major FX movies I can see on ILMs IMDB page [2] --70.167.58.6 (talk) 21:17, 23 July 2008 (UTC)

Safari web browser

Resolved

I'm currently trying out Safari web browser after aeons of using internet explorer as default.(To be honest I didn't get much choice as apple media player constantly harassed me to download it and i-tunes and wouldn't give up till I said yes - but ignore this..)

I'd like to know what font Internet explorer uses as I'd like to try it with this font - currently the text looks blacker, and also blurred (I assumed this is 'quartz' font smoothing - but setting that to 'light' doesn't solve the problem..)

So also if someone could tell be about the safari font, and whether I can turn off the anti-aliasing/oversampling/whatever that would be helpful too. Thanks.87.102.86.73 (talk) 17:10, 23 July 2008 (UTC)

The different appearance isn't (or isn't only) because of different font(s), it is (as you say above) a different font rendering engine (even on Windows). So the same font will look (depending on your tastes) smoother or blurrier when viewed in Safari than on IE. -- Finlay McWalter | Talk 18:32, 23 July 2008 (UTC)

Are the internet explorer fonts in general bitmaps - and hence pixel perfect - avoiding having to use oversampling? or not?87.102.86.73 (talk) 22:07, 23 July 2008 (UTC)

No, they're both vector fonts. Indeed, they'll both render the same font, but differently. The difference is, in part at least, a philosophical difference between Apple's and Microsoft's view of how fonts should be rendered - see this and this. -- Finlay McWalter | Talk 22:16, 23 July 2008 (UTC)

Aaah!, very interesting - it seems that microsoft is actually rounding up/down the letter spacing to match pixel boundarys to get that 'hand made bitmap' look (the follow on article from your link http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/archives/000885.html)

I'd imagine that as monitor resolution increases the apple method becomes better (yes the article says that too)- but at 768x1024 (what I'm currently looking at) I can still see the pixels, and as a result the apple method looks inferior. So all I need is a 3000x2000 monitor with a pixel size smaller than I can possibly resolve! Good I say.

Curiously I've had clear type turned off as it looked s..t, but that's another question.

87.102.86.73 (talk) 22:37, 23 July 2008 (UTC)

{{resolved}}

Hope you don't mind me responding after you've resolved the main issue... Cleartype as with most/all subpixel rendering techniques only really works well with screens with fixed pixels and subpixels (read the article). This applies to LCDs, but not generally CRTs. It sounds like you're using a CRT since there are few LCDs I know of with a native resolution of 1024x768 (I guess that's what you mean, or is your display really vertical instead of horizontal) which would explain why Cleartype looks crap. If you are using an LCD, are you sure you're running it at the native resolution? If not, then I strongly suggest you switch to the native resolution. LCDs because of the way their designed tend to look bad at non native resolutions particularly for the display of text and other sharp details and particularly without a good interpolation engine (which most LCDs seem to lack although Nvidia cards and drivers can do some decent downsampling). Cleartype definitely won't work well at any non-native resolution. If you do have an LCD, if necessary, increase the font size and run at the native resolution (although if you're running XP there can still be some issues even with a large font size). If you are running an LCD and at the native resolution, there are tools you can use to adjust your Cleartype which may be necessary if your LCD is non standard. Nil Einne (talk) 19:50, 25 July 2008 (UTC)

files renamed

Is there a simple 'wizard' that will take a user selected block of files (eg 1.jpg , 2.jpg , 3.jpg etc ) and rename them so that they read holiday1.jpg , holiday2.jpg , holiday3.jpg etc.. (in either windows or mac or something else ie built in)

If not then can someone recommend a scripting language (or general purpose language with scripting) that I could learn to be able to do this. (It would be good if the language was not OS specific but doesn't have to be. Thanks. 87.102.86.73 (talk) 17:38, 23 July 2008 (UTC)

Under Linux, there is the rename command that I think will do precisely what you want; I'm not sure this is available under Mac. Under Windows, searching for "Batch renaming" comes up with some results, but I haven't used any. Also, I suppose there may be a way to do it with a batch file, but I'm not sure - it's functionality seems limited to me (compared to linux's bash scripting). This might work on a Mac, but you (and me, too) might need to brush up on regular expressions. --Bennybp (talk) 18:01, 23 July 2008 (UTC)

Well, if you've got a modern Mac you'll have access to a Terminal, which you should be able to write scripts for. In this particular case, if you can get all the files into the same directory (folder), then you'll need something like:

#!/bin/sh

Prefix="Holiday"
for File in $(ls | grep .jpg$) ; do
    mv $File $Prefix$File
done

as a script to be run from the same directory. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 78.86.164.115 (talk) 22:03, 23 July 2008 (UTC)

Warning! The grep regular expression above will match any filename that has "jpg" anywhere in it, as long as it is preceded by at least one character. (The regular expression is not anchored, and "dot" has a special meaning in regular expressions.) So "foojpg.tiff", for example, will be renamed in addition to the files you intended. I expect the for loop will also break on filenames with spaces. Using the obvious solution (wildcards) instead of grep will produce the desired results. Note that you should also quote variable expansions, in case the filenames contain spaces:

#!/bin/sh

Prefix="Holiday"
for File in *.jpg ; do
    mv "$File" "$Prefix$File"
done

--Coneslayer (talk) 11:45, 24 July 2008 (UTC)

Well spotted, thanks.87.102.86.73 (talk) 17:57, 24 July 2008 (UTC)

Yes. what about if I would like to select files myself and then 'drag and drop' them to a 'program' for the above to happen.. Would I be able to work out what to do if I read a unix manual, or does the 'drag and drop' process involve stuff that is beyond unix's control -

I imagined that the selection and then drag and drop would simply make a list of files the inputs to a process/program. Does a linux/mac unix GUI make it that simple to convert 'drag and drop' to inputs and functions? (A simple answer appreciated)87.102.86.73 (talk) 22:21, 23 July 2008 (UTC)

Also to say that Microsoft have started offering something for Windows called Powershell, which promises easy scripting for stuff like this. --78.86.164.115 (talk) 22:14, 23 July 2008 (UTC)

Good thanks - I'm reassured to see it's free as well.87.102.86.73 (talk) 22:42, 23 July 2008 (UTC)

I swear by Lupas Rename for this sort of thing, I'm always batch renaming TV series episodes and the like. It can do Find..Replace text strings, Insert before/After filename (which is applicable in your case), Insert at position, left/right crop n characters and much more. To complement it I also use Oscar's Renamer which lists the file names in a directory like one big text file that you can freely edit. Useful for renaming all the files in a folder to different filenames quickly (e.g. putting the titles of the different episodes into the filenames. As you can tell I'm pretty anal when it comes to naming TV episode files). Zunaid©® 12:01, 24 July 2008 (UTC)

Thanks as well - at least I now have a back up plan. Thanks.87.102.86.73 (talk) 17:57, 24 July 2008 (UTC)

I have an e-mail problem...

I was trying to send an e-mail to one of my friends on AIM, but there was this error message:

The message was not sent because of an error with address "(e-mail address)"

We would love to send this email but your recipient never logged onto their free AIM Mail account.

Please contact them and let them know that they are missing out on all the super features offered by AIM Mail.

And by the way, they are also missing out on your email.

How can I fix this problem? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Sirdrink13309622 (talk • contribs) 17:55, 23 July 2008 (UTC)

How about doing what it says? Contact your friend by other means, and tell them to log into their free AIM mail. Algebraist 18:00, 23 July 2008 (UTC)

      How could I contact my friend?

Well, the obvious way that comes to mind is to send them an instant message. They probably already have another e-mail address they use, you could ask for that instead of insisting they sign up for AIM mail. --Random832 (contribs) 21:34, 23 July 2008 (UTC)

Google ranking

Dear Wikipedians:

I'm sure this is an old question on this board, but I was unable to find it in the archives. So here it goes again:

I have a newly created site: http://kingswaycomputertechsupport.googlepages.com/

that I would like people to find if they type in "kingswaycomputertechsupport" into Google search bar. But now when I do that Google turns up with nothing, so I'm wondering how to make the site appear in Google search.

If you know of any pointers to old documents in the Wikipedia archives please also point me to them.

Thanks.

74.12.199.151 (talk) 18:27, 23 July 2008 (UTC)

It should show up in a couple of days. Please consider adding your website to Google's index. Please also try "kingswaycomputertechsupport" googlepages in a few days. I am sure you know this already but if people find your website useful and link to it, it will have greater chances of being on Google's results. Kushal (talk) 18:35, 23 July 2008 (UTC)

http://www.google.com/addurl/ Google Spider (talk) 06:16, 24 July 2008 (UTC)

Best choice for a Laptop at college.

I'm going to start attending college from this fall onwards. I'm having a tough time choosing a suitable laptop. I'm taking up Computer Engineering major, so now you assist me through my choices. I was thinking of migrating from the windows platform to the Mac platform. This shouldnt be a problem cause i can run windows on a Mac notebook. so ma list is narrowed down to the Macs. so, i have a choice between the MacBook, MacBook-Black, MacBook pro. im not a very into gamer, nor am i interested in photo editing n stuff. I'm just a basic user. So kindly suggest me Accordingly about my choice, or shuld i stick to the windows platform?wat are the advantages if i do so?...thnks a lot! —Preceding unsigned comment added by 123.252.224.65 (talk) 18:45, 23 July 2008 (UTC)

The choice between Windows and MacOS will partly be determined by any software your course will require, or recommend, that you run. Surely almost everything they'd require you to know will run on both, but (particularly for a subject like yours) there may be some odd thing that they use (often that they've written themselves) that might not work on every platform you might wish. So I'd speak to the faculty. Also you might wish to wait until you've enrolled/matriculated, as some colleges can get you steep educational discounts on both computer hardware and software. Again, check with the college. -- Finlay McWalter | Talk 18:57, 23 July 2008 (UTC)

Consider getting a system with a decent docking station. Laptops are cool, but if you're going to be writing long papers and and longer programs you might be happier with a large screen and a fullsize keyboard. APL (talk) 01:18, 24 July 2008 (UTC)

desktop is not what im looking for, you were rite with your points, but portability is also what i have to keep in mind, desktop wouldn't be as convenient as a laptop would be to me. So plz temme the advantages n disadvantages of having a Mac platform laptop. should i go for it, or should i wait n give it a more educated thought?cheers —Preceding unsigned comment added by 123.252.224.65 (talk) 07:03, 24 July 2008 (UTC)

That's why I recommended a docking station. All the portability of a laptop, but the comfort of a desktop when it's actually on your desk. (You can plug in monitors and keyboards without the docking station, of course. But it's less convenient, which means you won't bother.)

But to answer your question, modern Mac OSs are not nearly as bad for engineers as they used to be. In fact, if you take the opportunity to familiarize yourself with Bash you may find yourself at an advantage over Windows users if the curriculum involves a lot of unix work. On the other hand A Mac machine tends to be more expensive than a similarly benchmarked PC. There are sometimes exceptions to this, but in general you're paying extra for the stylishness of the Apple brand name. (In addition, if you plan to use Boot Camp (And you may have to) you'll have to buy windows separately. )

However, the best advice here would probably be to ask your professors. If you can't wait until school starts try emailing them, or your adviser. They may even have a section on the Comp E. department's web page advising students on what type of computer to buy. APL (talk) 14:53, 24 July 2008 (UTC)

• Engineering major? =P Then be an engineer and install GNU/Linux. As you said you are not a gamer nor do you edit photos/videos, Linux can do all the basic stuff--programming, text editing, web browsing etc..Or you can just use windows. Don't spend money on a Mac when you really don't need it. Abhishek (talk) 12:56, 24 July 2008 (UTC)

Computer engineering major though. You'd likely need to be running Windows/Linux a lot, as almost all tools (Xilinx and Cadence softwares, for example) require Windows (some can run on Linux, but still). I'd also save the money and get a faster Windows based laptop or just save some money overall. --Wirbelwindヴィルヴェルヴィント (talk) 15:59, 24 July 2008 (UTC)

Linux is something to worry about with a Mac. Many linux tools can now work on Mac, but not all of them. And from what I understand running Linux via bootcamp is not an easy thing to do. APL (talk) 18:20, 24 July 2008 (UTC)

For Windows and Linux, consider VMware Fusion. When you do need another platform, it will probably only be for one program which you don't need want to do a complete reboot for - particularly as many mac laptop users rarely shut it down at all, only using the sleep function. (Close the lid and all but the RAM stops. Open the lid and it restores in three seconds.)89.242.166.148 (talk) 12:13, 25 July 2008 (UTC)

Onboard Video + AGP

I have an Optiplex GX260. I am currently using the AGP. I want to also make use of the onboard video. BIOS gives the option for Onboard (where AGP doesn't work) or auto (where onboard doesn't work). Does anyone know of any hack - even a BIOS hack - that will allow both to function? Is this just a motherboard limitation where it can use one or the other but not both? -- kainaw™ 19:21, 23 July 2008 (UTC)

It would seem (correct me if I'm wrong) that this machine has an Intel 845G chipset paired with an Intel 82845G graphics controller. Intel's page for this says you can do multi-monitor with a PCI card, but "Multi display is not possible with the onboard display and an AGP add-in card". -- Finlay McWalter | Talk 19:46, 23 July 2008 (UTC)

The datasheet for the 845/82845 similarly says "The BIOS will disable the [internal graphics device] if an external AGP device is detected." (this really is an instruction to BIOS authors). If this was just a bandwidth issue (the AGPx4 is more demanding than the PCI66 they do allow - List of device bandwidths) you'd think they'd just downscale your AGP to x2 (meaning you could use both for desktop work, but playing a game would force it to shut down the onboard controller) but they don't. I'm guessing (they don't say) that the issue is the way AGP uses the host memory interface directly (via the GART) conflicting with the 82845's own accesses to (UMA) "video" memory in the system memory (whereas PCI devices are more willing to be bossed around and do memory accesses when the PCI master tells them to). -- Finlay McWalter | Talk 20:17, 23 July 2008 (UTC)

That is what I figured - a memory access issue. I guess I have to hunt down a cheap PCI card since that can be activated after boot and used as a secondary device. -- kainaw™ 14:02, 24 July 2008 (UTC)

safely remove hardware... or just pull the plug?

Why is it neccesssary when using a flash drive or external hard drive to click on the "safely remove hardware" button and stop the device before removing it? I have always wondered why this is required...what damage could possibly occur if I just pull it out? I have actually done that many times and saw no noticeable problems. Thanks and cheers, 10draftsdeep (talk) 19:39, 23 July 2008 (UTC)

I must admit I have often just pulled it out and had no problems. If the computer's operating system was still writing data to the USB device it could cause corrupted or incomplete data. I usually "stop" the device just to be on the safe side. -=# Amos E Wolfe ^talk #=- 19:44, 23 July 2008 (UTC)

As long as the device is not currently operating it's almost certainly ok, if the device was working there's a chance of damage (or loss of data) especially with hardrives.

see Hot swapping.87.102.86.73 (talk) 19:58, 23 July 2008 (UTC)

Yeah, if I have a PowerPoint or something like that stored on it and I close it out, I just pull it. However, I sometimes run SAS and S&D off of it to scan my computer. Then, I stop the program and stop the USB device. Ζρς ι'β' ^¡hábleme! 20:01, 23 July 2008 (UTC)

Also, actual damage or loss of data other than what you were recently working with is quite a bit less likely than just losing the data you just edited/saved. --Random832 (contribs) 20:05, 23 July 2008 (UTC)

The basic problem is write-back caching. When a program modifies a file, the OS doesn't immediately write the changed data to the drive. One reason for waiting is that consecutive changes to the same sector can be pooled together and written just once. This can be a huge performance win in some cases (e.g. batch-renaming or batch-deleting files), and it will probably also extend the life of a flash drive since they can only tolerate a limited number of sector writes before they fail. Recent versions of Windows by default avoid delaying writes to removable drives to reduce the chance of data loss when people yank them out unceremoniously. You can change this on a drive-by-drive basis (in XP at least) by going to the device properties, "Policies" tab, and choosing "Optimize for performance" instead of "Optimize for quick removal". But you then need to be more careful about stopping the device before you remove it. -- BenRG (talk) 22:44, 23 July 2008 (UTC)

I can say from my own experience that I've had files get corrupted when I didn't use "safely remove" on a USB key (on more than one occasion). For that reason I'm always very sure not to unplug it without stopping it first. JeremyMcCracken (talk) (contribs) 20:06, 29 July 2008 (UTC)

Musician "Jam-with-a-friend-on-the-internet" Software

I remember looking into this a couple of years ago. There were software packages that let you jam to constant beat, then proceeded to merge the audio data a few milliseconds later to deal with the latency.

I never really got into it.

So is there a software package, or an internet technology under development, that would allow musicians to jam over a regular cable internet connection? NByz (talk) 20:16, 23 July 2008 (UTC)

sound card color ports

I was recently given a sound card, and would like to put it on my pc (in which the onboard sound went bad) so I can hook it up to my stereo receiver and listen to my music collection. The box lists the card as "PCI multi-channel sound card", doesn't list a manufacturer of the card - just that it uses the sound blaster live chipset.

There are four mini jack ports on the back: with an icon of concentric circles and an arrow pointing to the center of the circles, red - with a microphone icon, green with an icon similar to the blue one but the arrow is pointing outwards and there is a "_1" next to it, and black with a icon just like the green one but it say "_2" instead.

Am i correct in thinking that the blue and red are both input and the green and black both output? And are the green and black just the left and right channels? what kind of adapter do I need to hook this up to my stereo which takes rca inputs?

Thanks for your help, I looked at Sound Card and didn't see exactly what I am looking for so I came here (and the documentation with the card is pretty minimal.Man It's So Loud In Here (talk) 20:41, 23 July 2008 (UTC)

Green and black are both stereo outputs (they'll each take a stereo 3.5mm minijack); green is generally the normal out you'd connect to your stereo system - black will either carry the same or a "rear stereo" or something, depending on what the driver sends it. Any electrical store should have cables that will allow you to connect the single green connector to both a red and white RCA. -- Finlay McWalter | Talk 20:47, 23 July 2008 (UTC)

(ec) Red/microphone would definitely be an input, normally the card will apply some gain to this input. You didn't actually say which is blue, but I'm guessing it's the first one, that would be line-in. Green is line out (speakers or headphones), Black is a new one to me, perhaps the rear channels, since the card is "multi-channel" as opposed to just "stereo". This Google books link seems to confirm that for the SB Live. --LarryMac | Talk 20:51, 23 July 2008 (UTC)

PC System Design Guide shows sound card colors, but they do not seem to match your description. It would be helpful if you knew the manufacturer and model, or the FCC ID. --—— Gadget850 (Ed) ^talk - 21:10, 23 July 2008 (UTC)

Thanks for your help, I think I've got it now. I was thinking that the black and the green were left and right channels but really they are both stereo channels, to which I could hook up four speakers if I had them. Man It's So Loud In Here (talk) 22:55, 23 July 2008 (UTC)

Indeed from my experience black is usually read. Orange is subwoofer+centre. Nil Einne (talk) 19:26, 25 July 2008 (UTC)

how to integrate tomcat 6.x and iplanet 6.x versions

hi can any one tell me how to integrate tomcat 6.x and iplanet 6.x. needed explanation in proper steps 21:53, 23 July 2008 (UTC)203.99.204.99 (talk) —Preceding unsigned comment added by 203.99.204.99 (talk) 21:51, 23 July 2008 (UTC)

Lyrics in iTunes

I've recently added a whole pile of song lyrics to iTunes (using [3] - very good). Now I'd like to add the ability to search (i.e. using the search box in the top right hand corner of iTunes) by song lyrics. On Windows. Is there any app out there which will do this? I've managed to locate a couple for OS, but none for Windows. Thanks in advance. Willnz0 (talk) 22:40, 23 July 2008 (UTC)

Multi-page pdf

Hi. I'm trying to create some pdf documents to upload to my employer's website, and I've hit a snag. Some of the documents started out in Open Office format, and those were easy to export as pdfs. The other documents, however, exist in paper form only, so I'm scanning them.

My question is, how can I take scanned images of 5 pages of text, and convert them into a single pdf file? I searched on the 'net a bit, and it seems there are programs that are entirely for making pdfs. Do I really need one of those, or can I use Open Office tools? If I need a program, can someone recommend a good, free one? Thanks in advance. -GTBacchus^(talk) 22:54, 23 July 2008 (UTC)

If you scan the pages one by one as PDF, #PDF from Scanner has the solution, by stitching PDFs together (yes, on this page). x42bn6 Talk Mess 22:59, 23 July 2008 (UTC)

Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Computing/2008 July 19#PDF from Scanner --Kjoonlee 01:44, 27 July 2008 (UTC)

Can I turn my PC into a universal remote?

I already have all of my audio and video on my computer, so I figured I would get a TV-out video card and hook it up to my stereo receiver and television. This is great but I think it would be great if I could get my PC to turn on the stereo and television, maybe put them on the proper channel without my having to use a remote. I am imagining a usb device (it could be a pci card also) which is attached by wire (or wifi?) to an IR transmitter placed where it can interact with the devices. then the software on my pc could determine what frequency to emit, the device receives said signal and turns on etc, etc.

Seems like this device would be pretty easy to make (easy for people that make things like this that is - I imagine I could do it if I just hooked an IR transmitter up to LabView and played around with it but I don't know for sure), but it seems like the demand for this piece of hardware might be pretty limited. Maybe I'm the only one who wants this device, but I do. Whenever I search for computer+remote+control I get back devices that allow you to control the PC with an IR signal, and I'm interested in the opposite.

Does anyone make something like this?Man It's So Loud In Here (talk) 23:22, 23 July 2008 (UTC)

My choice of search keywords would be: programmable infrared transmitter. Looks like what you're looking for should be among the results. --tcsetattr (talk / contribs) 05:20, 24 July 2008 (UTC)

Thanks, that got me on the right path. I found two devices that seem like they do exactly what I want them to, the USB-UIRT and the tira, and a (non-free) application to control them. Man It's So Loud In Here (talk) 17:10, 24 July 2008 (UTC)

Mozilla Firefox 2 + 3?

Can I have both Firefox 2 and Firefox 3 installed on the same machine? Vivio Testarossa^{Talk Who} 23:15, 23 July 2008 (UTC)

Yes you can. If you are using windows, then the default installation directory for Firefox is C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox. So if FF2 is already there then to install FF3 make a different directory, say C:\Program Files\Firefox3. Google Spider (talk) 06:08, 24 July 2008 (UTC)

I can run two different Windowses on the same partition, so I see no problem with Firefoxes. Admiral Norton ^(talk) 11:33, 24 July 2008 (UTC)

However, you normally can't run Firefox2 and Firefox3 at the same time. (You need to use separate profiles for that, and mention the profiles in the shortcuts for each program. If you don't understand what this means, ask a guru for help, or don't bother. :)) --Kjoonlee 01:37, 25 July 2008 (UTC)

One other thing. If you want to run them at the same time, you need to use the -no-default option with the shortcuts as well. (You're meant to use it with versions that aren't your default browser.) --Kjoonlee 01:42, 27 July 2008 (UTC)

Kjonlee is perfectly correct. However, you can easily set up profiles and have Firefox ask you which profile to load when Firefox starts. If you want to have the profiles synchronized (so both profiles behave more or less the same), there are add-ons available for you. And congratulations on your choice of one of the world's best web browser. Kushal (talk) 15:52, 26 July 2008 (UTC)

July 24

computer software

how does Wi Fi work ?? Is there a way to connect more than two computers simultaneously through bluetooth ??? nemesiskaka —Preceding unsigned comment added by Nemesiskaka (talk • contribs) 07:40, 24 July 2008 (UTC)

Start at Wi-fi and then Wireless communication and Wireless network. As for a bluetooth network i suspect that there will be some hack/program you can get that allows a network to connect via bluetooth. If you have a bluetooth internet connection and 2 networked computers I suspect it would be relatively simple to allow sharing of that connection - as for creating a network using bluetooth it's not something i've come across, but then i've never really found bluetooth to be very appealing. 194.221.133.226 (talk) 08:03, 24 July 2008 (UTC)

Microsoft native Bluetooth stack allows networking devices over Bluetooth. --grawity 13:51, 24 July 2008 (UTC)

Disk Defragmention (moved from Misc Desk)

I defragmented my F: drive recently, and it took over five hours to do so. Is there any way to speed up the process in the future?? Also, after defragmentation, some of the files got compressed (word documents, pictures and such) and now they are shown in blue (I use Windows XP Professional, SP2). What can I do to decompress them, or at least changthe colour to normal black? Thanks in advance. La Alquimista (talk) 11:36, 24 July 2008 (UTC) 11:04, 24 July 2008 (UTC)

As for the time, it's likely restarting because the disk contents have changed (because some application is still running which writes to the disk periodically). I suggest the following method:

1) Restart the computer.

2) Once you log in, use CONTROL-ALT-DELETE to bring up the Task Manager. Kill every process except Explorer.

3) Run Disk Defragmentation.

4) Once completed, restart the computer to restore the applications you killed.

Also, is the compression causing a problem ? StuRat (talk) 11:19, 24 July 2008 (UTC)

When running defragmenter, kill only processes marked as "Username", where "Username" stands for your username. Do not touch other processes. Compressed files don't take longer to load or defragment than normal files and you can change the color back in Windows Explorer: Tools > Folder Options: View > turn off Show encrpted or compressed NTFS files in color. They probably got compressed because you ran Disk Defragmenter on too low disk free space, which also results in much longer defragmentation. Since you defragmented your hard disk now, the defragmentation won't take as long on this disk as before, but you have to defragment it at least once or twice a month and free up at least 20-25% of disk space (not 15% as the program says) to make it run smoothly. Admiral Norton ^(talk) 11:31, 24 July 2008 (UTC)

Ehh...edit conflict. Yes, that's exactly what I was going to say. If I kill a System Process like svchost.exe, the computer automatically shuts itself down. Thanks for telling me how to revert the colour back to normal. La Alquimista (talk) 11:36, 24 July 2008 (UTC)

I guess that must be a diff in Windows versions. On Windows 98, I can kill everything except Explorer, with no trouble. StuRat (talk) 03:24, 25 July 2008 (UTC)

Killing Explorer just kills the desktop and taskbar in XP, it doesn't do any other damage. Admiral Norton ^(talk) 13:27, 25 July 2008 (UTC)

The best bet is to not kill any process that the username "System" started. Kushal (talk) 15:49, 26 July 2008 (UTC)

But the culprit process could be one of those. For example, it may be doing an automatic backup periodically or could be going online to check for updates (and recording a log of this on the computer). Either of these could cause the defrag to restart, since the disk contents have changed. StuRat (talk) 05:11, 27 July 2008 (UTC)

A new device hampering our privacies

Please kindly answer my question:Recently I have heard that a person in my locality possesses a computer, which is even able to display the live video of a short-ranged area.It can even detect the sound voices of the area. The owner of it even claims that he can even view the interior of any house within the range by using X-Ray vision. But the most amazing feature is that the machine be used without even any Internet Connection. Can their be any such machine? If yes, then how can we check it from hampering our privacies? I'll be ever thankful to anyone who would like to answer me. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 117.201.97.83 (talk) 11:38, 24 July 2008 (UTC)

Umm... I think it's far from probable that someone has something like that, unless they come from Krypton. La Alquimista (talk) 11:41, 24 July 2008 (UTC)

X-rays do not work in the way you just described, so there isn't anything to be concerned about. However, terahertz rays can do this, but there isn't anything to be concerned about as this is very exclusive technology - you can't just go into any shop and buy one (actually, I don't think that anyone can buy one). As for a computer that can be used without an Internet connection, this is a normal feature applicable to most computers. With the video-capturing and sound-recording capabilities, these are also normal features of a many modern computers, useful for chatting with someone over the web, or recording movies and music. Absolutely nothing to be concerned about. Rilak (talk) 12:05, 24 July 2008 (UTC)

This device sounds like the one described. Nimur (talk) 22:27, 28 July 2008 (UTC)

The respective person also claims that he can effectively use the machine so as to disrupt the normal flow of working of any electronic device.Several times did my familier persons in the locality did find that many devices such as PCs,Laptops and ACs get damaged.The owner of the device also is a master hacker as known by us.But the man challenges many times many people that he'll destroy their electronic appliances.Within a small span of time many a devices are totally blocked because of some unknown cause. We think that the person is able to send electrical signals in the form of bytecodes which then disturb the normal functioning of the machine. If our theory is right, then can it be considered to be a cybercrime? Please kindly explain to me if it is possible at all. It is to be made known that even our phones and computers have often been blocked and later we did find out that the OS in the system has been corrupted. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 117.201.97.83 (talk) 12:27, 24 July 2008 (UTC)

As has been said, it is very unlikely that a single individual could purchase or build a device with all of the capabilities that you describe. If the person concerned truly believes that they have such as device, then it is possible that they are delusional. However, if you feel genuinely worried and threatened by their behaviour, then you should discuss this with your local law enforcement officers. Gandalf61 (talk) 13:01, 24 July 2008 (UTC)

Most of what you describe doesn't even make any sense. Reading our article on bytecode may give you an idea why. Rilak (talk) 13:08, 24 July 2008 (UTC)

Your theory about 'bytecodes' is complete nonsense, (sorry) but there is a possibility that someone has put together a HERF gun [4]. However, please consider that electronic devices fail all the time, and computers with viruses behave badly on a regular basis. You may be blaming this person for unrelated coincidences. (This is how witch trials get started.) APL (talk) 13:30, 24 July 2008 (UTC)

Power supply noise (I may have gotten the terms wrong - I'm not a electronics person) can fry computers and electronic appliances. That is why manufacturers of expensive computers recommend a power line filter. There are more rational explainations for computer problems than a "mad scientist"-type guy who lives in an old mansion the hill bent on zapping everyone's PCs with electronic death rays. Rilak (talk) 06:16, 25 July 2008 (UTC)

Downloading & UK law

Now that the 6 largest ISPs in the UK have decided to act with the government in identifying and sending out warning letters (and then what, who knows) to file sharers and downloaders of music (& possibly film too) there is an awful lot in the press about "illegal downloading", but no actual information on how and by which statute law/common law precedent the act of sharing files in this way is illegal in the UK. I had always understood that the charicterisation of this as illegal was more the British Phonographic Institute & others point of view than a clearly accepted fact among lawyers/judges. I realise that computing question desk may not be the best area to raise this but I'd expect there are a few here who're aware of the legal issues involved. By the way there was no info at File sharing and the law other than in relation to EU law & no mention as to whether the EU law has been incorporated into UK law.

Copyright and Related Rights Regulations 2003 -- Finlay McWalter | Talk 12:59, 24 July 2008 (UTC)

But after much Googlage I've been unable to find evidence of anyone being convicted under this for filesharing; someone was convicted, then acquitted on appeal, under the anti-circumvention section (for selling modchips). Until there's a fair body of case law, it's not clear exactly what does (and doesn't) contravene the act. It appears that this act tries to close the "making available" defense used in some cases under the equivalent US law, although this covers making available to "the public", which surely covers some kinds of p2p filesharing but arguably might not for others (e.g. for private networks, encrypted networks with invitations needed). -- Finlay McWalter | Talk 13:15, 24 July 2008 (UTC)

I'm not sure how precise you want us to be.. But obviously file-sharing is not illegal in itself..

There are two obviously illegal activities

1. Filesharing illegal material (I'm fairly certain) that people have been prosecuted many times for this - though this may related to 'possesion and distribution' of illegal material generally.

1a. A special case nowadays is filesharing of material that may be used for illegal acts eg terrorism, etc - the material may not be illegal in itself but you may find yourself in trouble in relation to the perceived motive of sharing that material eg how to blow up things..

2. Copyright. File sharing of copyrighted material - probably what you were asking about. In the UK as far as I know the is no fair use (as such) or very little fair dealing allowed (see later)excuse - (copies for ones personal use are generally ok) - but allowing others (especially en masse) to have access to copyrighted material could get you into trouble. I'm sorry I can't give any legal precedents for this. see Copyright law of the United Kingdom - there is a small amount of 'fair use' allowed.

Basically common sense applies here (UK). Offer other people songs/videos etc to many others (for free) and it's away to prison with you... Charge for that and it's 'rough prison' as well. Obviously don't expect to be made an example of just because you and your 'brother' borrowed each others dvds.. Did any of that tell you more than you already new?87.102.86.73 (talk) 17:53, 24 July 2008 (UTC)

Using computer during a thunderstorm

Is it safe to use a computer during a thunderstorm? Are power surges protector enough to protect, well, a power surge caused by a thunderstorm? Also, what are the chances of this happening?--15:28, 24 July 2008 (UTC)

I see no threat of a computer getting zapped by a thunderstorm. Unless you have a metal mouse and keyboard, it won't conduct and surge protector's will sheild your computer. As for your house getting hit by lightning...don't count on it. --Randoman412 (talk) 16:56, 24 July 2008 (UTC)

Most computers have multiple issues with surge from lightning. There is the obvious - the power cord. Then, there is the network connection: (telephone line, network cable, usb cable, coax cable...) that could be directly connected to an outside line. Finally, there are the less probable but possible areas of weakness: all other devices. For example, your monitor may be plugged directly to the wall and get a strong surge from lightning. That surge could possibly be put on the ground line for the video cable and return to the computer, causing damage to the video device inside the computer. The same goes for a printer. So, you should have everything that is plugged into your computer going through a surge protector. Also, it must be a surge protector and not a power strip. -- kainaw™ 17:03, 24 July 2008 (UTC)

Surge protector vendors (at least the name brand ones) generally certify against surges induced by lightning, but not against absolutely all lightning strikes. A typical one is rated at around 15,000 amps - some strikes can be much higher than that. The incredible potential of a lightning strike is such that, if it gets into your house through one wire, it can jump around to other wires across a wide air gap - so it can hit a telephone pole outside your house, run into your house down the phone line, jump to the mains wiring in (or near) something like a DSL modem or a fax machine, and from there run to ground through your computer, toaster, etc. Now this is worst case - the chance of a line right next to your house (where your premises are the most attractive route to ground) is very low, and for that strike to be big enough to get past a half-decent surge protector (which protects the phone line as well as the mains power) is much lower still. -- Finlay McWalter | Talk 17:10, 24 July 2008 (UTC)

Hi. Well, if you want to be really safe during a thunderstorm, do not use, touch, or be near anything connected to the electric, water, telephone, or gas lines, or to the outdoors, roof, or windows. The chances of being struck by lightning are rather small, but people have been struck using the phone or while touching or near other electric devices, which of couse have an insulative casing (and telephones run on a rather very low voltage. It might help if you have a corldless keyboard and mouse, but there may be some problems if lightning strikes your computer's electrical system directly, which is far rarer than striking nearby and causing a temporary power outage. Thanks. ~AH1^(TCU) 18:12, 24 July 2008 (UTC)

Also note that just turning off the computer isn't likely to offer much additional protection beyond the surge protector, you'd have to unplug everything and move the plugs far from the outlets to protect the comp from a lightning strike. StuRat (talk) 03:21, 25 July 2008 (UTC)

About 5 years ago I was using my computer during a thunderstorm and an overhead discharge caused the lights to flicker and disconnected and blew my modem. It was under guarantee and the technician was very puzzled and suggested it had been subjected to some sort of power surge. No, I didn't mention the storm because I thought it was maybe irresponsible to have the machine connected during a storm and it may have affected the guarantee conditions. Richard Avery (talk) 08:08, 25 July 2008 (UTC)

Calling java from command line, want to run more commands

Hi all,

I am running a java app from the command line in Win XP. The java app starts up, and I then want to run more commands from the command line without shutting down the app.

Actually, I've created a batch script (.bat file), and the script calls a second script which just runs 'java -jar ...'. I want to get back into my first script and keep calling commands without shutting down the java app, but control never seems to return to the first script.

Any suggestions? Thanks! — Sam 16:17, 24 July 2008 (UTC)

Instead of saying java -jar foo say start java -jar foo. It will run it in another command-prompt-window, however. -- Finlay McWalter | Talk 16:22, 24 July 2008 (UTC)

Why aren't linear feedback shift registers' output the whole contents of the register?

Linear feedback shift registers' output bit seems always to be said to be the binary digit that is shifted out of the register, e.g. here, here and... just about everywhere else I've looked. I am wondering why the contents of the register couldn't be used as the random number?

At first, I thought that using the contents of the register may produce some kind of a pattern because of all the digits gradually drifting in one direction, but I tested it and the numbers seemed random enough in a decimal base. Moreover, there were the same number of positive changes as negative ones in a complete cycle as long as a the correct tap sequence is used, meaning that if you ignored the fact that you can see all the bits being shifted, you'd think that it was random (although if you seed the register with something like 00000000 00000001, the first few numbers look suspicious).

Does anyone know the reason why the contents of the register is never used? It seems an awful waste of computer power to use only the bit that is shifted out.78.146.52.105 (talk) 16:32, 24 July 2008 (UTC)

An LFSR is like a little production line; as it ratchets forward, each bit gets more mangled up by the state of other bits (cf Avalanche effect). The bit at the end of the process is the most mangled up, so that's the thing we've been making. The other bits are less mangled up, and so are less useful. More formally, if you express the value of each bit value for each position in the register, the one at the end has the most complex equation (that is, it's dependent on the largest number of preceding bits); that means that if an attacker knows or can guess some of the input bits, the value of the last (output) bit is the hardest for them to figure out. As you're trying to make the attacker's life as hard as possible, you only use the scariest mangliest bits you can, those being the ones that come off the end of the register. LFSRs are fairly efficient to code in software (and very easy to build in hardware), so performance isn't such a big concern for most applications. -- Finlay McWalter | Talk 16:52, 24 July 2008 (UTC)

Thanks - that answers my question. You said that LFSRs are easy to implement in hardware, which I would agree with, but normal PCs don't have any hardware implementations of LFSRs do they?78.151.120.231 (talk) 09:39, 25 July 2008 (UTC)

No, indeed not. Given the very limited amount of cryptography that the average user needs her PC to do (view the odd DVD, do a very limited amount of ssl it's not cost effective to build any crypto in hardware. -- Finlay McWalter | Talk 15:02, 25 July 2008 (UTC)

LC3 PROGRAMM IN COMPUTER

HOW TO FIND PAGE NO AND OFSET NO HOW TO DO SIMPLE PROGRAM IN ADDITION,SUBSTRACTION. SOLVED QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS FOR INTRODUCTION TO COMPUTER PROGRAM —Preceding unsigned comment added by 122.164.68.213 (talk) 16:40, 24 July 2008 (UTC)

We have an article about the LC-3 system, which includes a link to the related textbook. -- Finlay McWalter | Talk 16:53, 24 July 2008 (UTC)

The 2nd screen

I have an iMac running leopard and i just got this second monitor which my friend doesn't need anymore. I wanted to know if there was some kind of software that could operate this monitor as a second screen. I know how to plug it in to the iMac, i just want to know if there's software that lets me have 2 desktops like that. --Randoman412 (talk) 16:54, 24 July 2008 (UTC)

Google "dual monitors iMac" and it'll tell you how to do it. It isn't a basic function of the iMac but with some software it can probably be made to do it, depending on your video card. See this article for a nice discussion and links to software. --140.247.241.140 (talk) 18:16, 24 July 2008 (UTC)

That program doesn't work with Leopard or my new iMac. --Randoman412 (talk) 22:42, 24 July 2008 (UTC)

Well Google around some more (e.g.). I'm sure there's a way to do it—seems like others have gotten it to work. --98.217.8.46 (talk) 03:10, 25 July 2008 (UTC)

All Aluminum iMacs support dual monitors without hacks. I believe the revision before could too. But G5 iMacs need a software hack for cetain. --69.148.27.146 (talk) 03:21, 28 July 2008 (UTC)

Can a virus infect the Linux OS?

Is there any virus which may infect the Linux OS? We all know it well that Linux can not generally run .exe files. But it can do so if the WINE' application is used. Apart from this, can a worm or trojan infect the Linux OS? If yes, how should we prevent it? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Asim Chatterjee (talk • contribs) 18:23, 24 July 2008 (UTC)

Every operating system has the capability of being infected. The only way to avoid any and all infections is to have an operating system that refuses to allow anybody to run software on it (which would be useless). The main defence is user intelligence. Teach them to avoid installing malware. The second defence is anti-virus software. If you are running WINE for Windows programs - your specific example - they commonly try to manipulate system files which do not exist in the Linux environment. -- kainaw™ 18:32, 24 July 2008 (UTC)

There are a small number of viruses that can live in a linux machine. The article on Linux malware has a list. APL (talk) 20:16, 24 July 2008 (UTC)

Creating audio cd's on Mac OS 10.4

Is it possible to burn audio content to a cd that can play in an average cd player on Mac OS 10.4 using either built in software or freeware. If so, how? 82.32.51.150 (talk) 19:17, 24 July 2008 (UTC)

iTunes will do it; if it works on OS-X like it does on Windows, you just put a blank CD in and iTunes lets you drag sound files from your iTunes collection over to it, then burn the disk. -- Finlay McWalter | Talk 19:27, 24 July 2008 (UTC)

Ok, thanks, I'll give that a try. 82.32.51.150 (talk) 19:39, 24 July 2008 (UTC)

Format

How do I format a CD? In Command Prompt I type:
format D: /FS:FAT32
It says the file system on the CD is RAW and the new one will be FAT32. (Or FAT, it won't let me format it to RAW.) I ok it and it says verifying 626M and then that it cannot format. Volume is write protected. So then I try to use the CACLS command and it says that that command can only be used on a volume using the NTFS file system. I can't delete any files off of the CD either. How do I get around this problem? Thanks, Ζρς ι'β' ^¡hábleme! 19:42, 24 July 2008 (UTC)

In general CDs and other optical media aren't written to like ordinary disks (floppies, hard-disks, flash drives), but must instead be written (generally in one big go) by speciall optical disc authoring software. In some cases it is possible to use additional packet writing software, which kinda lets you treat the optical disk like a normal disk (with some unfortunate limitations). -- Finlay McWalter | Talk 19:53, 24 July 2008 (UTC)

CDs are read-only file systems. You may be thinking of a CD-R disk, which is typically a write-once file system, or a CD-RW which can be written several times. If the disk is a comercialy produced CD or a homemade CD-R then you're probably out of luck, except in special cases data cannot normaly be removed from a CD or CD-R.

However, CDs are cheap. Just copy the files you want onto a new disk.

You can't easily do this at a dos prompt, however. You'll need some CD burning software. Hope this helps. APL (talk) 19:57, 24 July 2008 (UTC)

Alright, well this brings up another question. I have a .ISO Xubuntu file on my computer. If I put a blank CD-R in the CD tray and right-click the .ISO file and choose "Copy image to CD", will Xubuntu then be bootable from the CD to which the ISO file was copied? Thanks, Ζρς ι'β' ^¡hábleme! 20:33, 24 July 2008 (UTC)

No. An ISO is a special file that contains an image of the CD you want to burn. So rather than copying the ISO file to the blank CD, you need to use a special feature of your CD burning program to burn that ISO image to the disk. Most CD burning programs will have a "burn ISO to disk" or similar option. -- Finlay McWalter | Talk 20:39, 24 July 2008 (UTC)

Well, I have an ISO recorder. Do I need a CD burning program too? Ζρς ι'β' ^¡hábleme! 20:50, 24 July 2008 (UTC)

If [this http://isorecorder.alexfeinman.com/isorecorder.htm] is what you're talking about, then yes, that should work. APL (talk) 21:00, 24 July 2008 (UTC)

Yeah, that is what I have. Ζρς ι'β' ^¡hábleme! 21:03, 24 July 2008 (UTC)

So, I have 736 MB of RAM. Is this enough RAM to run Xubuntu 7.1 live? Ζρς ι'β' ^¡hábleme! 01:20, 25 July 2008 (UTC)

That's more than enough for Xubuntu.IIRC the minimum requirement is around 192 MB :) Abhishek (talk) 03:33, 25 July 2008 (UTC)

is it good

is this laptop good seems good to me i might buy it what do you guys think[5] i wont be playing games like crysis maybe spore and sims 3 so i think it is good what about you guys--Raisins9 (talk) 23:11, 24 July 2008 (UTC)

It seems like a pretty good laptop to me, but really, you're asking for opinions here, not facts. If you can tell what exactly you want to do with the computer, you can probably get better answers on whether this laptop will do the trick for you. Generally speaking, though, I'd say you're going to be fine with this. (You could probably run Crysis on this without any real problems, actually; I'm not that familiar with the laptop graphics adapters, but that's a very recent PCI-E model with half a gig of non-integrated memory, so I'd assume it wouldn't be a problem.) -- Captain Disdain (talk) 01:43, 25 July 2008 (UTC)

July 25

Limiting Internet Access on a Network

I am allowing my roomate a to use my wireless router, but I would like to limit his connectivity. Are there ways to limit the bandwidth alottment for specific IP or MAC addresses on a network? Is there a way for me to easily keep track of his internet activity (sites visited, bandwidth usage, etc)? I am using this router and Windows XP Pro. Thanks. --Russoc4 (talk) 01:54, 25 July 2008 (UTC)

It really depends on the router. The "Guest Access feature" listed on the page you linked suggests that yours might allow something like that, but for the details you really want to read the manual. —Ilmari Karonen (talk) 15:44, 25 July 2008 (UTC)

ATI SM BUS not working

In my PC, the direct 3D system is not working. Perhaps its drivers are corrupted. Can I download those drivers from the Internet? If so, which site should I connect to? (To be noted that my PC is of the Compaq Company)Asim Chatterjee (talk) 04:55, 25 July 2008 (UTC)

Look at the DirectX article and the links to the Microsoft pages there. If you're using Vista you can download DirectX 10, otherwise you need the latest version of DirectX 9. Also look at reinstalling your video card drivers with the latest version. Sandman30s (talk) 10:17, 25 July 2008 (UTC)

Did it work before? Have you added anything new to the computer (like a ethernet card or sound card?)? Sometimes if you add new hardware to a PC it can require some tweaking to get everything to work as the new hardware may be trying to use a similar port number to the graphics card..87.102.86.73 (talk) 12:20, 25 July 2008 (UTC)

how did I just copy a copy-protected DVD?

As a test, I tried to copy a few commercial DVDs onto my mac with Disk Utility. In one case, it didn't work: it said "permission denied" when I tried to create the disk image, which didn't surprise me. But then it worked in at least one other case: I now have a playable disk image on my hard drive, and I can copy around the individual .VOB files. So I figured "Hey, I guess I found a commercial DVD that's not copy-protected." But then I saw a tiny "Copy Protected" triangular icon on the back of the case. So is the disk not actually copy protected as claimed? Or have I not yet tried to do the thing that copy protection prevents? (The DVD that I copied was Be Here to Love Me, though I started to copy Castle in the Sky too and it seemed to be working fine, though I cancelled before it finished. One more detail that might be important: sometimes I got permission denied errors with Be Here to Love Me, but I avoided them by making the copy first thing after inserting the DVD and opening Disk Utility.) Thanks for any help in understanding this; I looked at Content Scramble System but if the answer is there I couldn't understand it. --Allen (talk) 05:32, 25 July 2008 (UTC)

Wow! Copy protection doesn't really work. News at 11, and congratulations on your newfound leet hacking skills. :-) —Ilmari Karonen (talk) 06:11, 25 July 2008 (UTC)

Added redirect for News at 11. (You thought wikipedia wouldn't have that covered?) --tcsetattr (talk / contribs) 08:11, 25 July 2008 (UTC)

Perhaps that CD is a counterfeit ? You didn't buy it out of some guy's trunk, did you ? StuRat (talk) 07:07, 25 July 2008 (UTC)

Some possibilities:

• The disc says it's copy protected but isn't. (Quite plausible, especially if it's a bootleg but even if it isn't.)
• You misinterpreted the triangle symbol. (I'm not familiar with the symbol you're talking about.)
• You simply copied the encrypted video to your hard drive, where it won't play. (Plausible in the case of Castle in the Sky.)
• You copied the encrypted video to your hard drive, and your DVD playing software is able to break the encryption directly instead of getting the key from the original disc. (VLC does this, for example, but commercial licensed players probably not.)
• You copied the encrypted video to your hard drive but left the DVD in the drive, and your DVD playing software gets the encryption key from any available DVD even when playing files from the hard drive. Unlikely.
• Disk Utility copies everything from the DVD including the hidden keys. Very unlikely (but technically possible).
• Only some of the video is encrypted, and you tried playing an unencrypted part.
• You have some kind of transparent CSS removal filter in place. (Such exist for Windows at least.)
• You made the whole thing up, or dreamed or hallucinated it.

That's all I can think of at the moment. -- BenRG (talk) 12:41, 25 July 2008 (UTC)

I'd go with the second-to-last option, especially if you, like me, have ten screens of programs listed under Add/Remove Programs (or whatever its equivalent is on a Mac). Admiral Norton ^(talk) 13:17, 25 July 2008 (UTC)

Thanks for the ideas! I think the answer was probably this one: Only some of the video is encrypted, and you tried playing an unencrypted part. I saw the intro and heard the music and assumed that meant the DVD was playing. I had already deleted the Be Here to Love Me image when I read that, but I finished copying Castle in the Sky, and it gave an error after the intro. --Allen (talk) 16:42, 25 July 2008 (UTC)

I'd recommend using Magic DVD Ripper. It's a really good program for ripping copy-protected DVDs. I believe it costs around $35. Useight (talk) 21:20, 25 July 2008 (UTC)

I don't recommend anything but you might want to look at HandBrake since you are on a mac. Just make sure to get the correct version, though. The latest version only works with Leopard. Kushal (talk) 15:41, 26 July 2008 (UTC)

Game studio

Resolved

Could someone please have a look at Maxum Games as I'm totally at a loss as to what to do with it. It clearly requires some 'tags' but which ones?87.102.86.73 (talk) 15:41, 25 July 2008 (UTC)

Thanks, somebody found a suitable 'tag'.87.102.86.73 (talk) 17:08, 25 July 2008 (UTC)

.spc to MIDI

Is there any kind of way to convert .spc files into MIDI files or something? It doesn't matter if the original instruments are lost. --99.175.74.84 (talk) 23:50, 25 July 2008 (UTC)

Google suggests yes. TSP (talk) 16:20, 26 July 2008 (UTC)

It is possible, you'll find some utilities on TSP's Google search. You will have to pick your own instruments for each patch. --Russoc4 (talk) 21:48, 26 July 2008 (UTC)

July 26

using a mobile Phone as a modem

Using Motorola Phone Tools in vmware Fusion, I managed to use a motorola 3G phone as a modem. As you might expect, it only works in Windows, not Mac OSX. I would have set it up System Prefs, but it asks for: telephone number, account name, password, APN and CID numbers. I don't have any of these things, and Motorola Phone Tools only needed to be paired with the phone. Is there any way you can learn from the setup in Phone Tools, and apply the same stuff to Mac OSX natively? I have tried myself, there is nothing technical on the surface of Phone Tools, and nor is there Motorola Phone Tools for Mac. It's Windows only. Are all of the above (account name, etc.) in fact relevant?78.148.164.133 (talk) 01:21, 26 July 2008 (UTC)

I'm in Scotland on the O2 network, and it's a Motorola v6 Maxx. Bluetooth Setup Assistant shows the model name as "Bitsurfer 56k."78.148.164.133 (talk) 02:00, 26 July 2008 (UTC)

I don't think you need Motorola software to do this. If you use Bluetooth, then there's no need for special drivers, and if your Mac shows the phone as a modem, then try creating a normal dialup connection (use *99# as a phone number). --grawity 14:12, 26 July 2008 (UTC)

Actually it works now. Thanks in part to you (for the phone number), the motorola stuff (which I ran in Windows, and borrowed some technical stuff from, when I looked further), more surfing, and trying it in USB before Bluetooth. (Trying in Bluetooth would be a bad idea, you don't know where your problems lie - with the modem connection, or with the bluetooth?) And then comes the letters from O2 telling me off. Do they even know that I have it connected to a laptop?89.240.129.112 (talk) 00:30, 27 July 2008 (UTC)

Quad-core question

Does Windows XP Home use multiple cores for its own purposes? Does Vista? It is rumored that it assigns separate tasks to separate cores when multitasking, but does it actually? Basically, my question is whether a quad-core CPU is good for anything but high-end games and CADs and the like. --Milkbreath (talk) 01:30, 26 July 2008 (UTC)

Any version of Windows that supports quad-core CPUs will schedule processes on all four cores. But it's uncommon for two processes to need the CPU at the same time on a typical single-user machine, and very uncommon for three or more, so most of the time you won't notice any benefit from this. -- BenRG (talk) 02:53, 26 July 2008 (UTC)

i got an hp quadcare (their multimedia baby) with vista and you can set up task manager to watch each core independently. i haven't thoroughly researched it, but just my curious watching shows it firing up two processors fairly frequently, but hardly ever more than that. this with no games and no multimedia either, so far, just pretty much dumb Internet Exploring and vista's internal housekeeping. Gzuckier (talk) 06:22, 27 July 2008 (UTC)

office productivity tool

íÉ≥ĵŲḶcan you pls.help me in my ass. about basic editing,how to use the keyboard & mouse,inserting & deleting text,overwriting 7 using the undo & redo command..thank you,,hoping for quick answers,. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 122.2.117.188 (talk) 02:40, 26 July 2008 (UTC)

........wut? --75.150.174.233 (talk) 04:31, 26 July 2008 (UTC)

I think I'll decline to "help you in your ass". However, I can help with basic editing. The following applies to most, but not all, Windows editors:

1) Use the arrow keys on the keyboard or use the mouse (and then left-click on it) to move to the area you want to edit.

2) To toggle between insert and replace/overstrike modes: Hit the Insert key (usually above the arrow keys on the keyboard).

3) To delete the character after the flashing text cursor: Hit the Delete key (usually above the arrow keys on the keyboard).

4) To delete the character before the flashing text cursor: Hit the Backspace key (usually above the Enter key on the keyboard).

5) To delete multiple words or lines: Highlight the text first by putting the mouse on one side of it, holding down the left mouse button, dragging the mouse to the other side, then releasing the mouse button. Once highlighted you can delete it all by hitting either the Delete or Backspace buttons.

6) To delete everything, hold down the Control key (the very leftmost, lower key on most keyboards), and hit A. This should select all. Then hit the delete or backspace button.

7) To undo an edit, hold down the Control key (the very leftmost, lower key on most keyboards), and hit Z.

8) To redo an undone edit, hold down the Control key (the very leftmost, lower key on most keyboards), and hit Y.

9) To move to the top of the page, hit the Home key (usually above the arrow keys on the keyboard).

10) To move to the bottom of the page, hit the End key (usually above the arrow keys on the keyboard). StuRat (talk) 05:05, 26 July 2008 (UTC)

We have an article on keyboard shortcut and a nice table of keyboard shortcuts for various operating systems. --—— Gadget850 (Ed) ^talk - 20:57, 26 July 2008 (UTC)

Seeking data compression code for short strings

I'm looking for a data compression library (callable from C or Python) suitable for compressing short English strings, i.e. the algorithm should be pre-initialized with the statistics of English (such as by loading in a big static text file at the beginning) so that it can compress a 30-100 byte input down to some small fraction of its original size (the decompressor would work by first loading the same static file). Using something like gzip or lzo the normal way doesn't give much compression for such small inputs, since they start with no statistical knowledge and have to build it up as they go. I guess I could hack up gzip or lzo in the obvious way but thought I'd ask here first if anyone knew of anything already available. Thanks. 207.241.238.217 (talk) 06:04, 26 July 2008 (UTC)

Why would you possibly want to compress strings of that size? If you lots of little strings you want to compress, you could string them together (pun not intended) and compress that using the standard methods. Otherwise, I can't imagine a situation in any modern computer - or even an embedded system - where it would be practical to compress strings of less than 100 bytes. Especially if you are using Python as your programming language... « Aaron Rotenberg « Talk « 07:07, 26 July 2008 (UTC)

Our algorithm on the LZW algorithm includes Python code. The article says it achieves compression ratios of around 50% on large blocks of text, but I doubt you will get anything close to this on 100 bytes of input. You could create a pre-built optimised coding for single letters and common bigrams in English text, but I think this will have to be a bespoke design - standard compression algorithms do not use built-in statistical assumptions, because they are deliberately not language specific (or even specific to ASCII text input). Gandalf61 (talk) 09:45, 26 July 2008 (UTC)

You could try Huffman coding with a pre-calculated and pre-shared tree. --antilived^{T | C | G} 09:51, 26 July 2008 (UTC)

Actually most compression algorithms can be tuned for English text pretty easily, since most of them (bzip2 is a notable exception) read the input from the beginning, spitting out compressed data and building a model as they go. If you feed them canned text followed by the string you want to compress, the output will start with the compressed canned text (always the same) followed by the compressed string of interest (which will benefit from the model built up at that point). Then you can strip off the invariant prefix. This is slow, of course, but it's just a proof of concept. zlib supports the same thing in a more direct way with the *flateSetDictionary functions. Coming up with optimal training data might be hard, but as a starting point you might make a histogram of words from your training set and let the dictionary be the most common ones separated by spaces. This is probably the easiest way to get decent compression, and it's future-proof since zlib is ubiquitous (as long as you don't forget the dictionary!). You could probably get better compression from something in the PAQ series, either training it as above or using one of the variants that ships with a dictionary, but PAQ is very slow (both compression and decompression) and uses a lot of RAM (on the order of a gigabyte). Huffman would also work well, but it would probably take more work than the zlib approach. -- BenRG (talk) 11:08, 26 July 2008 (UTC)

You could save yourself some work and just index all of the strings you intend to use in an array or hashtable. During transmission, you only need to send the index (presumably, if you know you will never need more than 256 possible text-strings, you can index them as a single byte; etc). This method trades storage space for compute time, but it is not a true general-purpose compression algorithm (it cannot compress a string you didn't index!). Nimur (talk) 15:19, 28 July 2008 (UTC)

Thanks all. BenRG's approach of using *flateSetDictionary is promising and I'll check into it but I'm concerned about the overhead of copying so many dictionaries around. To Aaron Rotenberg et al: the application requires storing 100's of millions of these short strings and they have to be randomly accessible (i.e. I have to be able to quickly lookup the 23,456,789th string), so concatenating them all together and compressing in one lump won't do it. It's ok if the compression stats aren't optimal--I expect doing something simple like the *flateSetDictionary calls will be plenty close enough (if they get 3x compression instead of 3.5x, it's fine). I expect any type of LZ coding to work much better than Huffman coding. I hadn't heard of PAQ and will read about it. Zlib is the most attractive since it is very standard. I just have to do some benchmarks on the *flateSetDictionary calls and see if they're fast enough. 207.241.238.217 (talk) 21:04, 28 July 2008 (UTC)

Relating to game development, what is a ‘.CCZ’ file?

Can anyone help me with this question please? All I know from a forum is that its a smaller version of a .cc file and I dont know what a .cc file is either. Thanks. 88.106.59.56 (talk) 13:47, 26 July 2008 (UTC)

I guess .ccz means it's a .cc compressed with gzip (.tar.gz -> .tgz and .svg.gz -> .svgz). FILExt lists many uses for .cc, and this says it's often used for C++ source code, but gzipping it would be a little unusual... --grawity 14:08, 26 July 2008 (UTC)

Of course, file name extensions are usually more of an "optional" convention; it's quite possible that this file is something else that has been intentionally obfuscated to slow down reverse-engineering efforts. A file's name and its contents are not necessarily meaningfully related. Nimur (talk) 15:14, 28 July 2008 (UTC)

safety of phone line wiring

Hi, I've been having problems with my phone line, so I tried to fix it by tampering with the phone jack, then I rang Telstra (the phone company in Australia) and asked them whether this was in fact safe. They told me no, the lines were classified as dangerous. This struck me as strange, because I always thought phone lines were so low voltage there was nothing to fear. Can anyone tell me what the voltage/ current are in Australia, and how dangerous it is playing around with the lines? Could you get a shock from them? thanks in advance, 203.221.127.38 (talk) 17:25, 26 July 2008 (UTC)

See Tip and ring. —Ilmari Karonen (talk) 20:34, 26 July 2008 (UTC)

regular phoneline voltage is around 40? 50? which is pretty safe under normal working conditions, but if your skin is wet or if you jab the wires into yourself to reach the nice saline interior, can deliver a decent current, which in the right place or to the right person can have unfortunate cardiac effects. the ring votage is like 100 which will give you quite a buzz, and likewise for the danger. but i find that most people, including myself, don't disconnect it before working on it. if i had a pacemaker or some such, i probably would. Gzuckier (talk) 06:19, 27 July 2008 (UTC)

Virus Issue

I have Windows XP and what I've heard from my university's IT people is a really good school-distributed version of McAfee antivirus. But lately it's been doing something weird. Every time I try to explore my C drive (which is my laptop's only local disk) I get a popup "VirusScan Alert!" from my antivirus program telling me that in the temp folder in local settings (C:\Documents and Settings\(my name)\Local Settings\Temp) it has detected a Trojan ("dtkcsly.dll") and deleted it. After I get this message, I have no trouble exploring the C drive, with the notable exception that Local Settings appears to no longer exist (and it isn't just hidden; I made made sure that hidden folders were visible.) To see what was up, I did start, run, and entered the address (or whatever you call it, I forget the name) of the problem folder that seemed to no longer exist: C:\Documents and Settings\(my name)\Local Settings\Temp. Run opened it up. No problem. I didn't even get one of those virus alert messages. And an in-folder search of all files didn't turn up the dtkcsly.dll file I was warned about. The other thing is, if I get McAfee to do an on-demand full-computer virus scan, it doesn't report anything. Only when I open C. And every time I open C. With the exact same problem. (And every time, it says that the file has been deleted, giving the time of deletion as that instant.) I'm confused. Any idea what the problem could be? The solution? Thanks a lot for any help. 41.249.20.34 (talk) 17:37, 26 July 2008 (UTC)

Hmm., obviously a serious problem. But don't worry friend, just uninstall the antivirus software and install it again. If this does not solve the problem, then proceed as follows:- 1.From the control Panel, open User Accounts. 2.With the guest account turned off, create a new administrator account. 3.Switch to the new account and after transferring your personal settings and documents, delete your previous account. 4.Install the software again.I think it will obviously work properly. Thank you for asking questions. Best Wishes.117.201.96.242 (talk) 20:16, 26 July 2008 (UTC)

You could have a bad install of McAfee, but it is not necessary to create a new user to install it properly. Just uninstall McAfee and install it again.

However, a quick google for "dtkcsly.dll" suggests it really is malware. When I have a virus/malware detected by McAfee, then it mysteriously returns and then I can't find it using Explorer, I start to suspect I have a rootkit which is hiding a lot more than that one file. Astronaut (talk) 09:21, 27 July 2008 (UTC)

Thanks, both of you. But what's your suggestion, then, Astronaut? Just reinstall? Or can I try to delete it manually? Or...? Thanks, 41.249.10.71 (talk) 18:09, 28 July 2008 (UTC) So I've got some additional weirdnesses for those of you interested in helping me to contemplate. a) I just downloaded some free fancy schmanzy rootkit finding program called Gmer. And searched. And nothing was found. b) while nothing has been found or deleted since I last posted, for some reason, when I open C, the popup no longer appears. c) it would appear that the Local Settings folder is indeed hidden, as I got to it through Run again, and the folder details on the left say it's hidden, and also as every time I go into the Documents and Settings\(my name) folder options to select "Show hidden files and folders," and then press "apply", nothing changes, and when I go back into the folder options, "Do not show hidden files and folders" is selected again. And at no point in between is the Local Settings folder visible. So I'm confused. Is there some rootkit/virus there that nothing can find that keeps instantaneously changing the folder options to keep local settings hidden? (And why?) And what's to stop me from just deleting the entire contents of the Temp folder. Is there anything really useful in there? It's taking up 1.3+ gigs of my hard drive and seems to be harboring something nasty. Thanks again, 41.249.72.25 (talk) 00:04, 29 July 2008 (UTC)

Owner of ImageShack image

I noticed that many pictures posted on various forums are hosted by imageshack. Often, the poster is not the person who owns the imageshack account for the image. So, when I see an image I like and I want to see more of those images, is it possible to somehow backtrack through imageshack to find the owner? The urls are similar to img49.exs.cx/img48/18203/some_image.jpg. I can tell that the "img49" is random. The "18203" is not shared by a single user. I find multiple, very different, images under the image directories. The image name tends to appear to be the name the user uploaded. None of that appears to be related to the actual user's account. -- kainaw™ 18:53, 26 July 2008 (UTC)

Membership is optional on imageshack. You can upload images without having to create an account. So the only ways to track users are cookies and IP, but they can be deleted or changed respectively. I believe imageshack does not create anything you can call a 'user album' for the unregistered users. -Abhishek (talk) 13:54, 27 July 2008 (UTC)

Java

How can I insert a previously compiled Java program into any electronic device such as DVD Player?117.201.96.242 (talk) 20:08, 26 July 2008 (UTC)

Uh, I don't think you can. I mean, you could certainly put the program on a DVD, but the DVD player doesn't know how to execute it. -- Captain Disdain (talk) 21:26, 26 July 2008 (UTC)

Blueray players can run Java, and so can many Digital TVs. If there is such a thing as device-independent deployment, it might be associated with the Globally Executable MHP effort. This discussion however indicates that installing Java software on home electronics may be too much to ask for, and the only option may be to embed the software on discs or TV broadcasts. 84.239.160.166 (talk) 18:33, 27 July 2008 (UTC)

Are you getting at the cross platform nature of Java? You can read about it in the Java (software platform) article. But a simple version of the "how?" is: your "previously compiled Java program" was compiled to be run by a Java Virtual Machine (which is itself a program) and not by any particular electronic device. This means that so as long as your electronic device has a JVM then it can run the Java program. And JVMs have been written for all sorts of things - nearly all major computer architectures and operating systems and stuff like mobile phones too. Note, if it's not clear from the above, that a JVM is written in some language or other but then compiled into device-specific code.

If you knew all this already and you're asking exactly how then I should think it depends on the device and is a right pain for an end user to figure out or do (since you wouldn't want people to be able to break their mobiles / DVD players / toasters easily or by accident - rather you'd want software installed in a factory and a backdoor available for updates). --78.86.164.115 (talk) 22:56, 26 July 2008 (UTC)

July 27

PDF files

Is there anyway to turn PDF files into something more like a book? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Tyler123459 (talk • contribs) 00:03, 27 July 2008 (UTC)

Yes, there is a device that was invented for this purpose. It is called called printer. --Juliano (T) 00:23, 27 July 2008 (UTC)

I believe most PDF viewers have the option to display a PDF in book format. That is, with two pages shown at once, and you flip the pages two at a time. However, be advised that you would need to have quite a small number of lines on each page or a rather large, high resolution screen, to be able to read it at that scale. For a typical PDF file and screen resolution, you could only read it if about half a page is shown at a time. StuRat (talk) 04:55, 27 July 2008 (UTC)

I occasionally export PDF files to png files, then read them with Mangariini. I find that a pretty pleasant way to read on my tablet. APL (talk) 13:47, 28 July 2008 (UTC)

It is possible you are looking for optical character recognition. This will convert a PDF into text form, and you may then be able to use a word-processor to reformat the text in whatever way you like. Nimur (talk) 15:21, 28 July 2008 (UTC)

Challenge

Is there a Wikipedia article on a website which has a higher Google ranking than that website for a search of the websites name? Skomorokh 04:09, 27 July 2008 (UTC)

Do you mean Googlefight or Google Trends or Alexa Internet ? 87.102.86.73 (talk) 11:20, 27 July 2008 (UTC)

I just meant came higher when one did a Google.com search for the website's name. But, if you want to get technical, let's make it the "I'm feeling lucky" result. Think you got one? Skomorokh 11:24, 27 July 2008 (UTC)

For google the page to read is PageRank - that's what they use to put the search results in order..87.102.86.73 (talk) 12:15, 27 July 2008 (UTC)

I'm not looking to read anything, I'm looking for empirical evidence of a link to a wikipedia article on website x appearing higher in a Google search for "website x" than websitex.com. Comprende? Skomorokh 12:21, 27 July 2008 (UTC)

So you want for example

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Msn

to have a higher page rank than

http://www.msn.com/

?

None I can find - have you tried looking for yourself?87.102.86.73 (talk) 12:47, 27 July 2008 (UTC)

Aye, that's it. Skomorokh 13:10, 27 July 2008 (UTC)

There are lots of them if you use generic nouns. For example, Soda is higher than soda.com. Also, the occasion long-disbanded classic rock band words too (Sweet (band) vs. thesweet.com). As far as products and companies go, probably not. —Akrabbim^talk 13:04, 27 July 2008 (UTC)

Interesting, thanks Akrabbim. If we were to narrow the criteria again such that the website name had to have as it's most common use that entity, could you find any? Skomorokh 13:10, 27 July 2008 (UTC)

I think they meant "wikipedia article on a website that is 'more notable' than the website itself"?87.102.86.73 (talk) 13:08, 27 July 2008 (UTC)

More notable in Google terms, not Wikipedia's, of course. Skomorokh 13:10, 27 July 2008 (UTC)

Was there any specific topic area you where thinking of?87.102.86.73 (talk) 13:20, 27 July 2008 (UTC)

No, I was just curious if it happened at all. Skomorokh 13:57, 27 July 2008 (UTC)

It doesn't happen very often - because wikipedia does not establish notability in itself any site that might fulfill your criteria would probably we deleted as non-notable..

Two possibilities exist 1. Sites that no longer exist 2. Sites that no-one wants to visit but people have heard off eg http://www.google.co.uk/search?hl=en&q=goatse&meta= change the search term to 'goatse.cz' and the situation is reversed.87.102.86.73 (talk) 13:43, 27 July 2008 (UTC)

Insightful, I hadn't considered those angles, thanks. Skomorokh 13:57, 27 July 2008 (UTC)

(Sorry about the initial misunderstanding - I've become so used to incoherent questions I didn't notice that yours made sense - and interpreted it incorrectly...)87.102.86.73 (talk) 14:06, 27 July 2008 (UTC)

De nada, thanks for all your help and effort. I help out at the ref desks occasionally so I now how it can get. Mahalo, Skomorokh 14:12, 27 July 2008 (UTC)

Bash script

Is it possible to write a script which will create directories and subdirectories based on information in a spreadsheet? Specifically, i want it to begin on the A1 of the spreadsheet and create a directory in the "home" directory using the data in A1 as a name. Then for every cell to the right of A1 (A2,A3,A4...) which isn't empty create a subdirectory in the directory created again using the data in the cell as a name. Repeat for A2, A3, A4 etc until it comes to an empty cell. Is this possible? --212.120.246.239 (talk) 13:36, 27 July 2008 (UTC)

Many spreadsheet programs have a macro language built-in. TBH I don't know for sure, but I would assume that a sufficently sophisticated macro language would be able to call system functions to do things like create file or directories. It would however very much depend on which OS and spreadsheet program you are using. Astronaut (talk) 14:33, 27 July 2008 (UTC)

Perhaps the bsh script could execute a command to export data from the spreadsheet into a flat file, possibly using a macro to format it, then read that data and go from there. If not, you would need to manually export the data from the spreadsheet before firing off the bsh script. StuRat (talk) 15:22, 27 July 2008 (UTC)

Some spreadsheet programs save the sheet as XML anyway (or have this as an option). So, if you're prepared to change gear from Bash to something like Python / Perl / Ruby then you can just grab an XML parser, and do whatever you like with the data. --78.86.164.115 (talk) 23:31, 27 July 2008 (UTC)

PS I don't mean to say that this will be impossible in Bash but possible in Python / Perl / Ruby, just that it'll be like a million times easier. --78.86.164.115 (talk) 23:32, 27 July 2008 (UTC)

I agree that Perl or similar is more appropriate for this kind of thing, but the following will work if you save your spreadsheet as comma-separated values and your data isn't too weird:

cat mysheet.csv | while read ; do mkdir -p "${REPLY//,//}"; done

--Sean 14:29, 28 July 2008 (UTC)

Reading a BMP file

I am trying to read a BMP file. First, of course, I read the BitmapFileHeader and BitmapInfoHeader structures. I define the integer

PaddingBytes := (bmpInfoHeader.biSizeImage - (bmpInfoHeader.biWidth * bmpInfoHeader.biHeight * bmpInfoHeader.biBitCount div 8)) div bmpInfoHeader.biHeight;

Then, if biBitCount is less than 24, I try to read the palette. For every integer i in [0, biClrUsed - 1], I read bytes blue, green, red, and flag and store those in palPalEntry[i] of a new LogPalette structure. Finally, I read the pixel data, from the last to the first line. The length of each line, I have experimentally found to equal

linewidth := (bmpInfoHeader.biWidth * bmpInfoHeader.biBitCount) div 8 + PaddingBytes;

(where the "surprise" is the addition of the PaddingBytes constant - actually, what I found experimentally was that tis constant is often non-zero). This approach works very well for most bitmaps where bfType = 19778 ("BM"), biCompression = 0, and biBitCount is 16, 24 or 32, i.e. for almost all modern bitmaps. However, if biBitCount is smaller, the colours get wrong and, even if the incorrect colours are ignored, the drawing appears corrupted, in a way I would blame on an incorrect value of PaddingBytes. What could be wrong? --Andreas Rejbrand (talk) 14:24, 27 July 2008 (UTC)

Your PaddingBytes calculation is confusing to me, first because I don't know how the height could be relevant and second because I don't know what language it is in so I can't be confident about what "div" means. According to BMP file format#Bitmap data, the padding after each row of the image is to make the total number of bytes per row a multiple of 4. So in C it would be calculated as (width*bitsperpixel)%4 ? 4-(width*bitsperpixel)%4 : 0 --tcsetattr (talk / contribs) 18:47, 27 July 2008 (UTC)

Dammit, that was wrong. I forgot to convert the bit count to a byte count. But I hope you get the idea. --tcsetattr (talk / contribs) 18:48, 27 July 2008 (UTC)

Time for some correct code... it'll be easy (and more educational) if I remove the macho "do it in one big expression" aspect.

bitsperline = bitsperpixel * pixelsperline;
bytesperline = (bitsperline + 7) / 8;
padding = 4 - bytesperline % 4;
if(padding == 4)
  padding = 0;

--tcsetattr (talk / contribs) 19:17, 27 July 2008 (UTC)

Thank you for your code, though it appears to do the same thing as my first code. Here is how I think: if there were no padding bytes, the size of the pixel data would be equal to the product

bmpInfoHeader.biWidth * bmpInfoHeader.biHeight * bmpInfoHeader.biBitCount div 8

where the "div" operator simply means (integer) division.

But the actual size of the pixel data is stored in the BitmapInfoHeader structure as bmpInfoHeader.biSizeImage, so, the total number of padding bytes must equal the difference

bmpInfoHeader.biSizeImage - (bmpInfoHeader.biWidth * bmpInfoHeader.biHeight * bmpInfoHeader.biBitCount div 8)

Thus, the number of padding bytes per line is given by my expression for PaddingBytes.

--Andreas Rejbrand (talk) 19:57, 27 July 2008 (UTC)

Does anyone know if there is a web site with sample code for reading a BMP file (with any value of biBitCount)? --Andreas Rejbrand (talk) 20:20, 27 July 2008 (UTC)

If there were no padding bytes, there could still be unused bits at the end of each row, if the number of bits per row is not a multiple of 8. But the whole idea of calculating a "total padding" amount for the whole image and then dividing it among the rows is asking for trouble. Calculate the padding per row by rounding the bpp*width up to a multiple of 32 bits, and ignore the stupid biSizeImage field. Being redundant, the only thing it can add is inconsistency. --tcsetattr (talk / contribs) 21:44, 27 July 2008 (UTC)

You might be right; in some cases my code does not work at all. --Andreas Rejbrand (talk) 23:46, 27 July 2008 (UTC)

But, then again, perhaps not... I have not found a single bitmap where our expressions differ, and your code produces the same error as mine. For instance, on one particular bitmap, both our methods give PaddingBytes = 0, where a "manual override" to PaddingBytes = 1 is needed to make the picture appear as it should. --Andreas Rejbrand (talk) 13:51, 28 July 2008 (UTC)

It's possible you have an error somewhere else in your code. Or you might have found one of the rarer bmp variants. Could you provide a sample image? I'd like to see the file, just to be sure. You can zero out everything after the header if the image data is private. Or just paste a hex dump of the first 54 bytes. --tcsetattr (talk / contribs) 18:55, 28 July 2008 (UTC)

The bitmaps that do not work are the 1 and 4 bit BMP images in the archive found at http://pobox.com/~jason1/bmpsuite/. These files look just fine if the padding number is 1, but both our expressions return 0. If I could just find a way to determine when to perform this "manual override", then my program appears to be able to read all (uncompressed) bitmaps. --Andreas Rejbrand (talk) 22:19, 28 July 2008 (UTC)

OK, that proves you're misinterpreting something. There are definitely no padding bytes in g01bg.bmp, for example. There is a single unused bit in the last byte of each row, but no padding bytes. Your error is elsewhere. --tcsetattr (talk / contribs) 23:18, 28 July 2008 (UTC)

best video database

What is the best database solution for storing large amounts of images and videos? I have used rar formats and zip but they become slow at large file sizes and zip only has a 4GB limit. ZigZap (talk) 14:53, 27 July 2008 (UTC)

Is there a problem with using your OS's filesystem? Images and video don't really compress that well anyway.--mboverload@ 20:28, 27 July 2008 (UTC)

iTunes will help store and index videos for you, if you're using windows or mac. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 75.31.172.73 (talk) 21:59, 27 July 2008 (UTC)

I'm pretty confused as to what you are really asking for. RARs and ZIPs are compression formats. They are not database systems. --98.217.8.46 (talk) 02:36, 28 July 2008 (UTC)

If you want to reduce file size, you should probably not rar or zip your video data, you should consider recompressing it with a video codec. FFmpeg is probably available for your platform and can perform this recompression. If you are just looking for a way to index your files, you might want to avoid placing large binary files into a database (it is possible, but it is usually easier to store a URI to the file). Nimur (talk) 15:27, 28 July 2008 (UTC)

Note that compressing it with a codec will probably significantly reduce the quality of the video itself. --98.217.8.46 (talk) 15:31, 28 July 2008 (UTC)

Help writing entry for my business website link to wikpedia

Hi

is there anyone that can help me write my entry on wiki and assist me link my website www.altogether-mbs.co.uk I have had eye surgery and cant spend hours researching the best way to do this professionally thank you for your time Tim MARTIN —Preceding unsigned comment added by 86.134.124.205 (talk) 14:56, 27 July 2008 (UTC)

It's not appropriate to link to commercial web sites from Wikipedia, unless your site is notable in some way, which seems unlikely for the typical small business. StuRat (talk) 15:17, 27 July 2008 (UTC)

Please see WP:CORP for what we mean by 'notable' when it comes to businesses. — Matt Eason ^{(Talk &#149; Contribs)} 15:32, 27 July 2008 (UTC)

Scorched Earth game

Where can I download a version of Scorched Earth (any version 1.0-1.5) that works with Windows XP with minimal fiddling? --The Fat Man Who Never Came Back (talk) 16:28, 27 July 2008 (UTC)

You can get it [Here http://www.dosgamesarchive.com/download/game/144]. I just tried it in XP. I needed to fiddle with the "mouse speed", and the sound was very quiet. But it was playable. Some of the animations go too fast on a modern PC, though. APL (talk) 17:20, 27 July 2008 (UTC)

Incidentally, if you're looking for a very good modern re-make, [Charred Dirt http://www.charreddirt.com/] captures a lot of the charm of the old original. APL (talk) 18:14, 27 July 2008 (UTC)

It actually looks great; the quiet sound was an issue, but the animations seem just fine. Thanks for finding it for me. I may check out the re-make as well.--The Fat Man Who Never Came Back (talk) 03:59, 28 July 2008 (UTC)

And, though you specifically asked for the old Scorched Earth, you might be interested in Scorched 3D. Though it's hardly the original version, it is my opinion that they have preserved the spirit of the game. Nimur (talk) 15:29, 28 July 2008 (UTC)

XP Lang.

I have a Windows XP disc, which has a default language of Spanish, is there any way that i can make it appear English (with all the menu options and everything) after i install it on ma computer? pl. help..cheers —Preceding unsigned comment added by 123.252.224.65 (talk) 17:04, 27 July 2008 (UTC)

I don't think so. Admiral Norton ^(talk) 17:31, 27 July 2008 (UTC)

You can get a "MUI" disc for Windows XP. MUI stands for multi user environment and the original idea behind it is to allow users of different languages to use the same computer/Windows installation.

Sadly, MUI discs are only giving out by Microsoft to very big companies, because it's just not the standard feature people need. So unless you are working for such a company, the only way to get your hands on such a disc would be an illegal download, which I in no way recommend hereby. --Natanji (talk) 18:03, 27 July 2008 (UTC)

Pronunciation

How do you pronounce API? A-P-I or A-Pie? Eklipse (talk) 17:43, 27 July 2008 (UTC)

A-P-I. Never heard anything different. After all it's not about eating ;) I find "A-Pie" very amusing, however. ;) --Natanji (talk) 18:24, 27 July 2008 (UTC)

or appy rhyming with happy. Graeme Bartlett (talk) 03:16, 28 July 2008 (UTC)

Linux distribution for offline use - recommendations

Hi, a friend of mine wants to try Linux. All he will do is read some pdfs, listen to music, watch movies etc. The problem is with installing drivers and proprietary multimedia codecs offline. We can't get internet connection on that machine. So we are looking for an out of the box distro.

Mandriva has drivers installed by default but doesn't have the proprietary multimedia codecs. Linux Mint has codecs but you have to use Envy to install the driver. Envy requires internet connection.

Is there any distro that comes with all these things (drivers+codecs) preinstalled and is free, too? (I don't want to buy Fluendo codecs)

Thanks -Abhishek (talk) 17:52, 27 July 2008 (UTC)

Ubuntu Super Edition already includes codecs and all that stuff, but not more drivers than in ubuntu, since it is not possible to have them all installed.... you can also use APT on CD to get the packages you need (on a PC with internet), and then just copy the local repositories to the other PC that is offline... SF007 (talk) 04:40, 28 July 2008 (UTC)

Javascript works in Firefox but not IE

This Javascript works 100% beautifully in Firefox and Safari but IE chokes on it. As is typical IE is somewhat cryptic in its complaint but it doesn't seem to like the line where I change the innerHTML of the SPAN element. Am I doing something wrong? (Other than trying to make sure my code is compatible with IE. But it's for work, and it's gotta be compatible with the major browsers.)

function tagloader() {
	for (i=0;i<document.getElementsByTagName("p").length;i++) {
		var s = document.getElementsByTagName("p").item(i);
		if(s.className=="tl") { 
			s.getElementsByTagName("span").length;
			for (x=0;x<s.getElementsByTagName("span").length;x++) {
				s.getElementsByTagName("span").item(x).innerHTML = " ";
			}
		}
	}
}

The code just goes through all of the P elements, and then if they are of the right class then it cycles through and modifies all of the SPAN elements. (It's part of a larger bit of code, if you're wondering why.)

Any clue? I assumed that it had something to do with getElementsByTagName but IE claims to be able to deal with it and in any case it only seems to choke on that particular line. Thoughts? --98.217.8.46 (talk) 20:27, 27 July 2008 (UTC)

It works fine for me in Windows XP/IE7 (more specifically 7.0.5730.11 ). What's the error message? BTW as a matter of good practice you should put var before i and x in the for statement, otherwise they will be treated as global variables, with potentially unpleasant and hard-to-debug consequences (it may even be the cause of the problem here, since you say this is partial code). AndrewWTaylor (talk) 12:36, 28 July 2008 (UTC)

The error message is just something like "object doesn't support this method" or something like that. Hmm. Well I'll play with it a little more. I was unable to get even just this snippet to run correctly outside of the rest of the code in IE7/XP. --98.217.8.46 (talk) 15:30, 28 July 2008 (UTC)

Unless you've got a JavaScript library, I don't think item() is a valid function for an array. You can do something like ps=document.getElementsByTagName('p'); and reference an item using ps[i] where i is an integer, rather than ps.item(i). Also, not sure what s.getElementsByTagName("span").length; is supposed to achieve. x42bn6 Talk Mess 19:29, 28 July 2008 (UTC)

Strictly speaking getElementsByTagName returns a NodeList rather than an array, so the item property is valid. AndrewWTaylor (talk) 08:41, 29 July 2008 (UTC)

MSCE or A+ certification for helpdesk job?

What is the current most common certification expected from somebody applying for a helpdesk job in a company? I was told that WSCE was replaced by something else? Or would it be A+? etc. --Sonjaaa (talk) 23:13, 27 July 2008 (UTC)

A+ Certification is pretty common. That's the one I hear most about. Useight (talk) 01:42, 28 July 2008 (UTC)

July 28

Partition

Ok, I am running a LiveCD of Xubuntu 8.04.1 . On my hard drive, I have the Windows XP OS. On my LiveCD, there is an application called Gparted. I would like to install Xubuntu on part of my hard drive and have the rest for Windows. However, I already have alot of stuff on the hard drive that I need to keep. My question is, can I partition from a LiveCD and if I can and do, would it harm Windows? Thank you, Ζρς ι'β' ^¡hábleme! 03:39, 28 July 2008 (UTC)

Try installing and you'll see that you can resize your Windows partition to make space for Linux using a simple slider or do it manually for more complex layouts. Linux is more user friendly than you think. --antilived^{T | C | G} 04:18, 28 July 2008 (UTC)

Although I can personally vouch for the greatness of GParted you should always backup your hard drive before doing any parition work. There's the .01% chance that something could go horribly wrong, even though GParted has specific protections against this. --mboverload@ 05:48, 28 July 2008 (UTC)

A problem with wireless card

I have a wireless internet card that is made by D-Link it is a DWL-G520m. I am running windows XP. Here's the problem, whenever I attempt to open the program that was installed with it I get an error "athcfg11.dll was not found". I know the fix for this is probably a reinstall however I cant seem to find a download that works on my computer. I keep being linked to this page. ftp://ftp.dlink.com/Wireless/dwlg520/Driver/dwlg520_driver_248.zip/ When this page opens nothing happens on my computer. I normally wouldn't care because I can still browse the internet but it sometimes fails to work properly and, when I attempt to run an ICS connection I get a DNS error. any help with this would be appreciated. -Thanks —Preceding unsigned comment added by 75.168.50.251 (talk) 04:47, 28 July 2008 (UTC)

Have you tried uninstalling the drives, removing the card from the computer and then re-inserting the card. wireless internet cards really should work on generic windows pre-installed drivers so it may be that by removing and re-inserting the card it'll re-start the 'plug and play' style install. Or it could be that the card has the software pre-installed on the card-itself (why don't more card/enhancement firms do this??) 194.221.133.226 (talk) 08:01, 28 July 2008 (UTC)

SSH on the ASUS EeePC

Does anyone know if the ASUS Eee PC comes with SSH installed so that one can directly type ssh -X username@example.com to get a connection with graphics forwarding? (Is there even a terminal available?) If it's not installed, is it easy to do, such as through a package manager? —Bromskloss (talk) 10:33, 28 July 2008 (UTC)

I googled around, and the Eee PC does indeed come with ssh installed. I haven't tried it or anything, but there should be no reason why X forwarding shouldn't work. ADFSGL (talk) 12:20, 28 July 2008 (UTC)

If not, there are a variety of windows SSH clients, including PuTTY, and X-Forwarding systems, such as Xming. Nimur (talk) 15:06, 28 July 2008 (UTC)

The Eee PC runs GNU/Linux, for which there is of course solid support for SSH and X forwarding. I just wondered if it was preinstalled or easy to install on the particular system that the Eee PC comes with. —Bromskloss (talk) 16:09, 28 July 2008 (UTC)

do NOT use the ssh preinstalled on the EEE. It has the notorious Debian security vulnerability [6] that affects all Debian-based distributions from that era. You have to make sure that you are running an updated openssl lib or all your openssl and openssh keys and sessions are COMPLETELY compromised. 207.241.238.217 (talk) 20:57, 28 July 2008 (UTC)

Oh, don't that kind of things get updated automatically? Or manually with apt-get? —Bromskloss (talk) 21:15, 28 July 2008 (UTC)

The updates are not applied automatically. Maybe apt-get update gets them but I haven't verified this. 207.241.238.217 (talk) 01:33, 29 July 2008 (UTC)

Security with broadband

Hi, I've just signed up for broadband with Amnet (in Australia), with a NetComm NB6, wired ethernet router. The user manual for the router keeps discussing security levels and firewalls. I used to have dialup, and never heard anything about the need for firewalls on my system, because I thought that was all taken care of by the isp, and unless you had the capacity to act as a webserver, there was no way for anyone to break in.

• Firstly: Is this right about dialup, is broadband less secure, and what can you do (beyond ramping up all of your security settings) to stop people from getting in?
• Secondly: Should I change the password for the router itself, or does this only protect it from someone altering the settings with physical access to the computer (ie. who can sit and the keyboard and alter them manually)? 202.89.166.179 (talk) 12:29, 28 July 2008 (UTC)

Dial-up wasn't safe either *grin*. Whilst in theory an ISP could filter inbound traffic it's unlikely; it would be hard to manage and people tend to expect to have an open net connection. Broadband isn't less secure, it's the same as dialup, it's just that with dialup you weren't connected all the time, so the likelihood of an attack went down. Consumer routers these days tend to have one built in; your router does Network Address Translation by default so that's a good start. And yes, changing the router password is a good idea; normally people can't use that password from outside the network, unless the router is configured to allow that, but better safe than sorry. --Blowdart | ^talk 12:50, 28 July 2008 (UTC)

This is a very good point, a NAT router (like the one you got from your ISP) is an excellent inbound firewall, and that alone will give you great protection from incoming attacks. As for changing the password, that's a very good idea. There are some (mostly theoretical) attacks whereby a website can get in and monkey around with your router if it can guess the password, and you want to avoid that. In general, it's always a good idea to change default passwords for anything, really.

As for software firewalls, the one that comes built-in with Windows XP Service Pack 2 is all you really need (you can pay a kings ransom to Norton or something, but their firewalls are essentially not going to do much more). With the Windows firewall and a NAT router, you're pretty much safe from incoming attacks.

However, that does not mean your computer is immune to viruses and trojans and such! The standard security advice applies here: don't install anything you've gotten from the web if you don't trust the source, don't open email attachments or links you get from an email, and don't surf the seedier parts of the internet. And most importantly, remember to keep your machine updated! If you do all that, you're probably safe from the bad dudes online. Cheers! ADFSGL (talk) 15:46, 28 July 2008 (UTC)

Hard drive issues.

While working on my Compaq Presario 1080 with Windows 95, I accidentally set the active partition to a non-dos partition that is 51 MB in size. So when I started my computer again, it said "Missing Operating System". When I saw this I was thinking, "Hey, no big deal just fix it with a bootable floppy." Below is my process and errors.

A:\FDISK
Do want to enable large disk support » Y
I then chose option 2 » set active partition
I then chose drive C:\ (partition 2) as my active partition.
Then I pressed esc to continue and esc again to exit
I then get the error "Error reading fixed disk"

Then I went and tried a different tactic:

A:\FORMAT C:
It chugged along and then toward the end it gave me the error "Error writhing partition table. Format 
terminated."

Then I tried deleting all partitions and making one large active partition:

A:\FDISK
Large disk support [Y]
Chose option 3
Chose option 4
Deleted all non-dos partitions
Back at the main screen chose option 3 again
Chose option 1
Deleted all Pri-dos partitions
Back at the main screen chose option 1
Chose option 1
Said yes to the info
Then the fdisk said the computer must restart for changes to take effect.

Restarted then ran FDISK from the floppy to see it changes had taken effect and they had not. What must I do to get the computer working again?

70.233.165.195 (talk) 13:33, 28 July 2008 (UTC)

Maybe you have a bad copy of FDISK ? It certainly should be able to do what you attempted. BTW, I like the "writhing partition table". :-) StuRat (talk) 14:41, 28 July 2008 (UTC)

context sensitive

I'm looking for a suitable article to link to for wiki-linking the phrase 'context sensitive' specifically in the case of user-interface context-sensitive input - eg context sensitive responses to button pressses in video games..

Can anyone find a suitable page?87.102.86.73 (talk) 17:41, 28 July 2008 (UTC)

I'm not sure what you mean. Maybe you're looking for context-sensitive? Admiral Norton ^(talk) 18:27, 28 July 2008 (UTC)

Context sensitive should work now, too. Admiral Norton ^(talk) 18:28, 28 July 2008 (UTC)

An article that covers 'context sensitive' in the context of computers (specifically computer games) eg I press the 'use' button and the computer decides whether or not I meant throw,drop,eat etc?87.102.86.73 (talk) 18:56, 28 July 2008 (UTC)

You are looking for Context-sensitive user interface - an article which does not exist, yet. Why don't you start it? -- kainaw™ 19:26, 28 July 2008 (UTC)

Is there definately nothing similar?

One problem I would have here would be getting references. Any hints.87.102.86.73 (talk) 20:00, 28 July 2008 (UTC)

I'm surprised no one has made any jokes about Conker's Bad Fur Day yet. --71.98.25.85 (talk) 20:40, 28 July 2008 (UTC)

OK you asked for it :User_talk:87.102.86.73#Context_Sensitive_User_Interface_Design - would anyone care to look it over, and if suitable make the article. Otherwise tell me where I went wrong.?87.102.86.73 (talk) 04:25, 29 July 2008 (UTC)

Making Dvd compatible

I have an avi file that I want to make compatible so I can play it on the dvd player not on the lab top . Now I started the compatibility application but the process doesn't seem to be moving at all, is there some other way to do it other than to rely on windows? And what occurs during this process?Why do CD-R, DVD-R and DVD+R require this process while other disc formats don't?Bastard Soap (talk) 18:29, 28 July 2008 (UTC)

Make it go faster, damn it!

At my local libary there are many computers and they all connect through the interent via a proxy server, and through my investigations I have found that the same server and indeed Ip address is used accross almost every libary in my area. Now, for the past three or so years I've have been going to the libary and downloading files via bittorrent (utorrent) at a rate of about 10GB per day. But recently the download speed has dramatically droped from around 7mbps to 800kbps. I feel that someone on the other end (the proxy server admin maybe) is limiting my downloads. How can I bypass these restrictions? This problem is not one I can complian to the libary about as I probablly shouldn't be mass downloading there and at present the connection speed is not low enough to troubble the average everyday internet user, so nobody else will be complaining. ZigZap (talk) 20:29, 28 July 2008 (UTC)

I'll be honest and say yes there is a way, but I am not sure if it is legal to even do as it is not your personal network. Rgoodermote^{Not an admin}  21:28, 28 July 2008 (UTC)

Without knowing the system setup, it is impossible to know if there are any workarounds to the speed limitation. Why don't you ask the system administrator about the speed change? They may have intentionally put a QoS limitation of some type to discourage high-speed downloading; or, there may be a system failure which needs to be fixed. Nimur (talk) 22:18, 28 July 2008 (UTC)

I suggest you find some massive download that the librarians wouldn't mind (like your own copy of Wikipedia, perhaps ?). That way, when you complain that "it doesn't work when I do X", they won't say "then don't do X". StuRat (talk) 22:46, 28 July 2008 (UTC)

Please Rgoodermote, tell me. Or at least link to a website that says how to do it. You can't just announce that there is a way and then leave me hanging! ZigZap (talk) 10:46, 29 July 2008 (UTC)

Upgrading Computer?

Okay so here are the specs for my computer, which I want to upgrade. I firstly want more RAM (and btw- would my computer be compatible with high density RAM? My computer only supports DDR1 RAM as of now), and I'd also like to know if you guys can think of any cheap but useful or necessary upgrades that would help the performance of my computer. Lastly, I'm planning on buying all of the upgrades from Newegg.com. Thank you for your help and suggestions! --71.98.25.85 (talk) 20:32, 28 July 2008 (UTC)

The link didn't work for me, so I don't know your exact specs, but you'll want to get DDR2. DDR3 isn't worth it at the moment. I'd recommend a Core 2 Quad, perhaps the Q9450, I believe it's called. I think it's about $330 on Newegg, but don't forget to also check Tigerdirect.com. As for a video card, probably an 8800GT would be the best bang-for-the-buck. Useight (talk) 22:00, 28 July 2008 (UTC)

DDR2 RAM won't work on a DDR1 motherboard. You would need to get a new motherboard and CPU, which starts to get a bit expensive. Most people don't need a faster CPU. Try running and minimizing Windows Task Manager; it will show a little tray icon with your current CPU usage. If it's frequently at 100% then a faster CPU may help you. If it's any lower (like 95%) then the bottleneck is elsewhere and a faster CPU won't help at all. Adding RAM will probably noticeably improve performance. What sort of performance (or other) problems are you having, by the way? -- BenRG (talk) 23:15, 28 July 2008 (UTC)

ai computational complexity

I'm trying to write a Pentago-playing AI. The problem is that there are 288 possible moves to make (6x6 grid * 4 blocks to rotate * 2 directions to rotate). And I have to check if the human could win, so that's another 288 moves. So my AI has to look through 576 moves to decide where to go. And if I want to look ahead a move, that's 331,776 possibilities. Two moves ahead? A whopping 191,102,976! I have the magic constant set to one move ahead and there's a full 2-second delay before the AI makes a move.. two moves ahead basically hangs.

So how do chess engines and such handle so many combinations? It hardly seems like Pentago is more complex than chess.. am I wrong to use recursion? I'm working in C++, is recursion just too expensive? 76.106.15.180 (talk) 21:17, 28 July 2008 (UTC)

See Computer chess for an overview of techniques to reduce the search space. alpha-beta pruning will be especially useful. --tcsetattr (talk / contribs) 21:42, 28 July 2008 (UTC)

Ooh, alpha-beta pruning looks nice! I just "started writing" and ended up with an algorithm that:

For every possible move:

• checks the board for a winner
  • if in winning state, make that move (results in a victory or a blocked victory)
  • if not in winning state:
    • make that move for the ai, recurse to step 1, then undo that move
    • make that move for a human, recurse to step 1, then undo that move

Pretty much as brute-force as possible, though it does beat the official pentago engine :D. I'll see if I can eliminate more cases than "that move" being occupied. 76.106.15.180 (talk) 01:06, 29 July 2008 (UTC)

The "brute force" approach of looking at every possible move only works for the simplest of games, like tic-tac-toe. For anything more complex, you need to program the computer to mimic human thought patterns as closely as possible. How would you decide what a good move is in this game ? Try to program the computer to use the same logic. StuRat (talk) 22:42, 28 July 2008 (UTC)

Because of the symmetry of the board, there are not as many moves possible as it would appear. For example, placing a marble on any of the four corners of a blank board is equivalent to placing it on any of the other corners. Just rotate the entire board. So, right off the top, you've pruned 75% of the seemingly infinite number of moves possible. Now, you can think of pattern matching. What moves are actually possible. Can you have a board with 8 black marbles and 3 white? No. Again, you've reduced the number of patterns that can be matched. So, now you should see that pattern matching is looking better. How can you cheaply represent a board? Each hole had 3 options (black, white, or empty). You are looking at a tertiary value per each of the 36 holes. That is a HUGE number, but we've already stated that only 25% of them are needed to represent all 100% of the possible layouts and most of those 25% are not valid anyway. So, from this point, you should see it possible to start a state tree. You do a depth-first search down each branch of the tree. If it ends with "human wins", you prune it. You'll end up pruning large subsections of the tree until you have a tree that always ends in draw or win. Is it possible to always win? Probably not. Creating the tree will take a very long time, but when it is done your AI program will be very simple. Just locate the state in the tree (rotating the entire board as necessary) and choose a move that eventually leads to a win state. -- kainaw™ 23:11, 28 July 2008 (UTC)

(ec with below) Deep Blue relied mostly on brute force, actually. I don't think its approach to chess resembled a human's much at all. The article has some interesting things to say about this in the section Computer_chess#Brute_force_versus_selective_search. I think Computer Go is more interesting from an AI perspective because the branching factor is much higher, which makes brute force too slow. -- BenRG (talk) 23:38, 28 July 2008 (UTC)

Chess doesn't have nearly as many moves per turn. So if you use a typical chess AI with minimax and alpha-beta pruning you're not going to get nearly the depth a chess program would work. Check out the article on Computer Go for the problems you're going to face with this project. APL (talk) 23:28, 28 July 2008 (UTC)

Subfolders and AppleScript

Hi. I am trying to make an AppleScript to hide all items in a folder and its subfolders. So far, I've got

tell application "Finder"

try set listOne to ((entire contents of (choose folder)) as alias list)

set countOne to length of listOne

set countOne to length of listOne

repeat with i from 1 to countOne

set theItem to (item i of listOne as text)

set TheName to name of (theItem as alias)

if character 1 of TheName is not equal to "." then

set name of item theItem to ("." & name of item theItem)

end if end repeat

end try

end tell

but that will only hide things inside the chosen folder. If I replace "entire contents of (choose folder)" with "entire contents of folders of (choose folder)" it ignores the contents of the chosen folder, going only for the subfolders, and if I put "every item of entire contents of folders of (choose folder)" it still ignores the contents of the chosen folder and hides the items in the subfolder. What am I doing wrong? How can I make it hide both files and folders? Thanks a bunch. Ilikefood (talk) 21:24, 28 July 2008 (UTC)

Raw (dd) copy of smaller to larger disk.

Scenario: I'm using a linux machine, where the main disk with linux is /dev/sdb. Let's assume that I have also connected a second disk (400GB) taken out of a healthy windows machine, recognized as /dev/sda, which has a single NTFS partition. Finally, a third disk (500GB) is connected, which is unformatted, and recognized as /dev/sdc.

Question: If I first use dd to make a raw disk image of the windows disk (dd if=/dev/sda of=my.image bs=1024), and then copy the image (dd if=my.image of=/dev/sdc bs=1024) to the unformatted, larger disk, will the larger disk then be functional (i.e. bootable as the main windows disk in the machine where its contents came from, or mountable in linux, or readable in some other way)?

Motivation: The scenario above does not describe what I'm trying to do, but I need to know if it would be expected to work, in order to interpret the results of an attempt at data recovery.

The real problem: I'm trying to help some friends recover data from a crashed harddisk. I have mounted the disk on a linux machine. It is seen by the bios, and cfdisk and sfdisk report no problems. However, when I try to mount it (mount /dev/sda1 /mnt/bad-disk), I get the message

$MFTMirr does not match $MFT (record 0).
Failed to mount '/dev/sda1': Input/output error
NTFS is either inconsistent, or you have hardware faults, or you have a
SoftRAID/FakeRAID hardware. In the first case run chkdsk /f on Windows
then reboot into Windows TWICE. The usage of the /f parameter is very
important! If you have SoftRAID/FakeRAID then first you must activate
it and mount a different device under the /dev/mapper/ directory, (e.g.
/dev/mapper/nvidia_eahaabcc1). Please see the 'dmraid' documentation
for the details.

So I checked if there are damaged sectors:

dd if=/dev/sda of=/dev/null bs=1024.

dd terminated after about 3 GB, reporting damaged sectors.

I then used dd_rescue, to get an idea of the extent of the damage:

dd_rescue -A -v /dev/sda /dev/null

(-A is replace damaged sectors by zeroed sectors of the same sice, -v is verbose). The result was that only 36 sectors were unreadable, some of which might be recoverable by reading the bad parts in reverse, and patching them into the main image. So my plan is this: use dd_rescue to make a disk image, with the unreadable sectors replaced by zeroed sectors, and then dd the image to an empty, healthy disk, and hope that it is mountable in either linux or windows. The problem is, I don't have a disk with the same geometry as the damaged one. I do, however, have a larger disk.

Other suggestions on how to recover the data would of course also be appreciated. In particular, advice about software that is able to reconstruct a physically OK but logically faulty NTFS disk would be most welcome. Thanks, --NorwegianBlue ^talk 23:15, 28 July 2008 (UTC)

I have done this far too many times so trust me here

First, go to the HDD manufacturer's website and download their diagnostic floppy/CD. Trust me - just do it. They can do a proper fix of all bad sectors and do a proper test of all the mechanics. This should be your first step with any hard drive that has a physical problem like yours. Once it is done scanning see if it boots the drive or if you can mount it. Chances are that there is extremely little file damage

Now you can try your dd trick - which SHOULD work unless your drive is so screwed even those manufacturer boot CDs can't fix it. Then the only thing you can do is try to bang the disk against stuff and put it in the freezer to get really cold.

If it will not boot Windows from the new drive slave the drive to another Window's install and use R-Studio NTFS if there are files missing. Only 50 bucks and the best recovery software I know of. If you want a free - but still great solution try the Ultimate Boot CD for Windows. It is free but requires an XP cd to build it. Every computer guy should have this in their bag. I PERSONALLY endorse it. It has similar free tools - masses of them.--mboverload@ 01:28, 29 July 2008 (UTC)

A critical Problem.

Last year, I had bought a PC game titled 'Conflict Vietnam' which consisted of 3 CDs. Now, after installing it, it ran well. But after a few monthes, my Hard Disk was damaged. After buying a new Hard Disk, I tried to reinstall the game from the CDs. But every time I try to install it, the installation fails (while running the first CD) and a messsage appears "Cyclic Error!(Data Redundancy Check). Can anyone please suggest me away to overcome this problem and reinstalling the game successfully? Any help will be gladly welcome.117.201.97.212 (talk) 00:08, 29 July 2008 (UTC)

It sounds like your CD is stratched. Run some warm water and scrub the surfaces with your fingers. Dry off with a soft towel. If this does not work you could buy a CD scratch repairer. However, it would be cheaper to just buy the game again. Copyright Jesus would not smite you for downloading the game from the internet in this case. --mboverload@ 00:55, 29 July 2008 (UTC)

Infinity in HTML

I can't figure out how to represent the infinity sign (∞) in HTML the way I ordinarily represent such symbols. I don't know what this is called, but if I wanted to show, say, the copyright symbol (©), I'd do it with "&copy;". Is there a similar way to show the infinity symbol, and if so, what is it? Also, what is this HTML trick called, so I can look these things up in the future? :) Thanks! --Masamage ♫ 02:44, 29 July 2008 (UTC)

They're called character entity references. The infinity sign appears to be &infin; --Bavi H (talk) 03:25, 29 July 2008 (UTC)

We have our own list of XML and HTML character entity references. --—— Gadget850 (Ed) ^talk - 09:56, 29 July 2008 (UTC)

Problem with toggling switches between laptop and Projector

hi, I have been using Acer Travel Mate 2300 Laptop. When i connect the laptop to a projector, I have difficulty toggling switches between the laptop screen and the projector screen. Using the F8 function to toogle bettwen the screen are unabled and by juz moving the mouse, it suddenly toggles from the laoptop to the projector screen. The Projector doesn't reflects the imaages that the laptop is screening. The Projector only shows the screens only the wallpaper of the projector and the prensentation slides and ther stuff that the laptop is running can't be screened by the projector.

It sounds to me like the laptop is set up to use two monitors with each having an independent screen. You don't want this setting, you want each screen to be a clone of the other. Go to Start (+ Settings) + Control Panel + Display Icon + Settings Tab, I believe, to change this setting. StuRat (talk) 03:12, 29 July 2008 (UTC)

filesystem in a file, linux

i have a 1gb file called filesys. i want to format it into a filesystem and be able to mount it. Can someone give me a tutorial? I'm pretty sure this is possible right?

Quick start: mke2fs filesys ; mount -o loop filesys /some/directory

Add whatever filesystem options you want to mke2fs, like -j to create an ext3 journal. Add -F to avoid the "are you sure you want to do that on a regular file" prompt.

If you want to bind the file to a block device without mounting it, losetup /dev/loop0 filesys --tcsetattr (talk / contribs) 05:14, 29 July 2008 (UTC)

where should the "inline" specifier be placed in c++??

eg: //file "foo.h" inline void foo();

inline void foo() {

  //do somthing 

}

//where should i use the "inline",before the declaration or the definition or both of them???

Well, a quick Google search seems to indicate that you should use it on the definition but not the declaration. Also, you should put the definition into the header file instead of the source file to stop the linker from whining at you. Now, I'm off to Java-land where it's safe... « Aaron Rotenberg « Talk « 10:25, 29 July 2008 (UTC)

Userpage woes

Help! I can't edit my userpage anymore! Everytime I hit the edit tab, a message pops up telling me that the script is unresponsive, and then, I can't see the HTML code anymore. Please get me out of this mess. If you want, you can even edit my page in the process. I won't mind. I just want my page back to normal. La Alquimista 09:21, 29 July 2008 (UTC)

Not that it's any help, but it works for me. What were you doing immediately before this happened? « Aaron Rotenberg « Talk « 09:37, 29 July 2008 (UTC)

cuil

Have you already tested cuil? How can it be that it indexes more pages but doesn't find many thing? Isn't it terrible that its name resembles culi.com?

The Reference Desk is not a discussion forum, and we will not answer purely subjective questions. If you have a more concrete question, ask away. Otherwise, we can't help you. « Aaron Rotenberg « Talk « 10:15, 29 July 2008 (UTC)

Defrag and partitioning NTFS from Linux live CD

I want to partition a NTFS HDD using Gparted from a Linux live CD. However, how can I defrag my Windows partition without booting Windows (that is not possible)? Is defrag before partitioning absolute necessary? Mr.K. (talk) 09:54, 29 July 2008 (UTC)

US cell phone in Europe

I have an LG Chocolate (VX8500) (which I hate) and I will be travelling to Germany, from the US, in a couple weeks. Will I be able to use the phone while over there? Dismas|^(talk) 10:16, 29 July 2008 (UTC)

No, since it is CDMA 800 / CDMA 1900.

Yes, you can use it for taking pictures, playing games, using the agenda. However you cannot use it for calling since Germany, as the rest of Europe uses a GSM standard.

word software

124.43.65.210 (talk) 11:48, 29 July 2008 (UTC)could you recommend a free software or a word game in which, if I enter the letters of a word it must show the possible words. e. g.1 if I enter the letters a, c, e, e, h, r and t (in alphabetical order ) it must show the word teacher. e. g.2 if I enter the letters d, e, o,r, and r it must show the word order.thank you