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December 7

Xbox

I have two original Xboxes (one is modded). I am wondering if there is a way to hook them up together to make a regular desktop computer. On one of them, the processor is fried, but everything else is ok. The other one works perfectly. Even if I can't hook them up, though, can I still put a desktop linux distro for the PowerPC processor on the one that works? 74.194.198.190 (talk) 00:00, 7 December 2008 (UTC)

I don't know anything specific about this, but I can say that you'd better have steady hands, a couple extra copper wires, and have ready access to a solder. And be aware that this will definitely void your warranty, and you'll never ever be able to use them as regular old XBOX's again. flaminglawyer^cneverforget 00:05, 7 December 2008 (UTC)

The original Xbox has an Intel processor, not a PowerPC processor, so keep that in mind when you choose an OS. -- JSBillings 00:16, 7 December 2008 (UTC)

(OP here) I have already voided the warranty. I modded it. It only cost me 15 dollars anyway. I should have done my research about the processor, I thought I had read somewhere that it was PowerPC; however, it appears that it is a Coppermine processor. Is there is linux distro that will run on this type of processor? I found several that are Ζρς ι'β' ^¡hábleme! 03:53, 7 December 2008 (UTC) I can't seem to find out what instruction set it uses. Also, what would I do with the copper wire. I have the solder and a gun, so what do I need to do? Ζρς ι'β' ^¡hábleme! 03:45, 7 December 2008 (UTC)

1. Hooking a dead Xbox to a good one: The short answer is "No". You'd need to know a heck of a lot about the functions of the specific pins of every chip - and be prepared to rewrite every line of software in the machine...if you have the skills and knowledge necessary to even consider doing that then you would definitely not be asking the question here - so I deduce that you don't - hence the answer is "No".
2. Linux: There is a Linux port for the Xbox360 (which DOES have a 3.2GHz 3-core PowerPC processor) - you can find out all about it here. If you are talking about the old (not-360) Xbox (which DOESN'T have a PowerPC - it's a 733MHz Intel CopperMine processor) then you need this page instead.

SteveBaker (talk) 03:47, 7 December 2008 (UTC)

The only thing wrong with the dead Xbox is the processor. Ζρς ι'β' ^¡hábleme! 03:53, 7 December 2008 (UTC)

Well...(a) How can you be sure of that? and (b) it really doesn't help because there is no remotely simple way to add the hardware from one Xbox onto the other and have it actually DO anything - and even if you could, you'd have to rewrite large tracts of the boot code, the operating system and the applications...and I'm sure you don't know how to do that. This would be a HUGE project - and a fairly useless one too. If you had the skills to do it (I've been in the business for 30 years and I doubt I could do it) - it would still be a ridiculous waste of effort - for the time involved, you'd be better off by far just buying a new computer.

The processor that the Xbox uses is custom hardware for that machine - you can't just buy a coppermine chip from Intel and plug it in. So repairing your older Xbox would require that you send it back to Microsoft to get it fixed...and that would cost more than a previous-generation Xbox is worth. Game consoles are simply not designed to be repaired, modified or otherwise tinkered around with.

SteveBaker (talk) 05:03, 7 December 2008 (UTC)

Well, I guess I won't put them together then. However, it seems that you were correct. The hard drive from the old Xbox also has a problem. I am getting Xebian right now, but the Xbox won't boot from CD (?) and since something is not right on the hard drive it won't boot into the normal Xbox OS, so is there any way to get Xebian installed? Ζρς ι'β' ^¡hábleme! 05:17, 7 December 2008 (UTC)

Hold on - you can't just boot an Xbox from a regular CD. You need to look back at the links I gave you earlier - there is a complicated dance you have to go through to boot Linux on your Xbox. I have not actually tried it myself - so you need to check out the site links I gave you and ask your questions there. However, running Linux on an Xbox with a dead hard drive isn't going to work either. SteveBaker (talk) 05:20, 8 December 2008 (UTC)

Word: Tracking changes though I toggled it off

I'm working in a Word document. In some version, I and another person used "track changes", and there are still a couple of comments marked as "changes." At the moment, however, I just want to work normally in the document, so I switched off "track changes." Or so I thought...

The document includes an automatic enumeration. When I move items in that list (so that, e.g., # 13 is moved above # 8, 9, 10, 11, and 12), all numbers get updated... but those changes get marked as changes. Strangely, they are marked in the color that is usually used to mark changes of the other person who worked on the document (not of me).

I've tried to switch "track changes" back on and back off, but to no avail. What on earth is going on, and how can I get rid of it?! --Ibn Battuta (talk) 06:07, 7 December 2008 (UTC)

TI 89 Titanium

I have recently removed and replaced all 5 batteries of my TI 89 Titanium graphing calculator, and, ever since, I have been unable to transfer files from my computer to it. Both devices will recognize that they are connected, and the computer will even recognize that the calculator is a TI 89 Titanium, but when I try to send a file to the calculator, a message pops up that says that the file could not be transmitted, and that I should "Please try again." What should I do? Lucas Brown (talk) 19:21, 7 December 2008 (UTC)

Remove all batteries (including a possible backup battery - disassemble it if needed), and wait 4 hours, then re-insert the battery. Mighta be something got corrupt in the memory. Or you might try a factory reset.HardDisk (talk) 23:07, 8 December 2008 (UTC)

Is it remotely possible that you put one of the batteries in backwards? With 5 batteries - it's possible that one or more of them are only there to support communications with the PC. This is actually pretty likely because batteries generally produce between 1.2 and 1.5 volts each - so five of them produces 6 to 7.5 volts. Since hardly any electronics needs more than the 4.8 to 6 volts you get from four batteries, that seems like a really strong possibility. SteveBaker (talk) 03:31, 9 December 2008 (UTC)

Text messages onto computer

Hi, I have a motorola W375 with some text messages I'd like to copy verbatim (+ metadata, eg date received) onto my computer. When I hook the computer and phone up over usb, I can only access the pictures and music stored on the phone. How do I get at the text messages, short of emailing them to myself (at cost) or typing them out? 79.78.66.177 (talk) 21:45, 7 December 2008 (UTC)

It is standard practice to store the text messages on the telephone company's server, not on your phone. So, you could rip your phone apart and copy every little spec of info stored on it and you won't find a single text message. -- kainaw™ 22:31, 7 December 2008 (UTC)

In which case, I'd like to have a way of archiving them. My fundamental problem is the same: getting the text messages from wherever they are, onto my computer. 79.78.66.177 (talk) 22:39, 7 December 2008 (UTC)

Really? Every phone I've ever owned (admittedly not many) stored SMS messages on the internal memory/SIM. — Matt Eason ^{(Talk • Contribs)} 23:20, 7 December 2008 (UTC)

It may be network dependent. I've used Sprint, Nextel, and Verizon - all in the United States. All of them stored SMS messages on the network's server, not on the phone. -- kainaw™ 23:37, 7 December 2008 (UTC)

I don't know whether it's operator/location-dependent, but (here in the UK) I hook my mobile up to the computer using Samsung PC Studio and can use that to transfer messages, backups/synching etc - I can even type the messages in the program and send it that way. I'm sure it's the same with the Nokia PC Suite. [cycle~] (talk) · 01:40, 8 December 2008 (UTC)

You could always forward the messages to an email account. They would remain accessible to your in box and/or you could then cut and paste. Time consuming and possibly expensive (depending on your plan) but effective. cheers, 10draftsdeep (talk) 14:35, 8 December 2008 (UTC) oops, sorry, I just read your last sentence. cheers, 10draftsdeep (talk) 14:37, 8 December 2008 (UTC)

From your IP address, it seems you are in fact in the UK, so yes, the messages are probably on either a) your phone's internal memory or b) the SIM card, as will the phone numbers in your address book. (Try putting the SIM into another phone, and you'll soon discover which.) The idea of storing them on the network's server seems weird to me, but then I gather SMS doesn't have quite the same reach in the US.

I believe Orange offer a service, or used to, where they make a backup copy of all the data on your SIM for you. Alternatively, it's worth looking around for software or hardware for your phone that allows access to the extra data, since it's quite common to want to "sync" this kind of info. - IMSoP (talk) 19:16, 8 December 2008 (UTC)

All GSM phones stores SMS in SIM card and/or phone memory. (According to Motorola W375 page, this is a GSM phone) GSM network stores only sent, undelivered messages. (If messages were stored in network, it would mean network access every time you eant to access them (and they would be inaccesiible while out of coverage)). If you have data cable (and phone can be recognized as modem), messages can be read using AT commends by terminal application. I do not have expierence with motorola phones, but this (AT+CMGL and AT+CMGR) works for siemens a65 (but does not works for nokia n70). There might be some application, which might allow access to messages using some obscure protocol (as in case with nokia's pc suite). -Yyy (talk) 08:15, 9 December 2008 (UTC)

December 8

What's this charcter?

What is this character:

่

I can enter is with some http://www.microsoft.com/globaldev/reference/glossary.mspx + #### combination, but I forgot. Does anyone know? When entered into the old MSN messengers, it makes the font huge. Acceptable (talk) 03:51, 8 December 2008 (UTC)

It's a Thai tone mark: mai ek, U+0E48. Bendono (talk) 04:05, 8 December 2008 (UTC)

How do I enter the character using alt + ####? Acceptable (talk) 04:13, 8 December 2008 (UTC)

Use the hex code point that I gave above. Assuming that HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Input Method\EnableHexNumpad is enabled, then alt + 0e48. (You need to hold Alt the whole time.) Bendono (talk) 04:42, 8 December 2008 (UTC)

Sorry, but how do I enter an "e" with the number pad? Acceptable (talk) 21:47, 8 December 2008 (UTC)

It's not an e. He meant to type a '3' or '4' but missed the key. Try both of them. I'm pretty sure thats what happened. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Neziwi (talk • contribs) 20:58, 11 December 2008 (UTC)

You can take a look at List of Unicode characters which unfortunately doesn't seem to have this character or Wikibooks:Unicode/Character reference/0000-0FFF to work out the numbers for this and other characters. However an E was intended and no one ever said to only use the numpad (the only mention to the numpad at all was a registry key and you should not intepret registry keys too literally, it's just the internal name for the function). If you do only want to use the numpad only you need to convert the hexadecimal code into decimal. Note that when you are entering a hexadecimal code you literally need to press the plus. Take a look at Alt+NumPad here for more details. Also Unicode input and Alt code may be of interest Nil Einne (talk) 09:17, 13 December 2008 (UTC)

WW2 Colossus versus modern laptop

A CBS News story by Shelia MacVicar [1] about Bletchly Park, World War 2 HQ for cracking Axis code messages, claims that the WW2 Colossus computer "still works as fast as a laptop." The Colossus computer article in Wikipedia says that recently a 1.5 Ghz laptop was able to break a code faster than a restored Colossus. It credits Colossus, according to some reckoning, as having "an equivalent clock of 5.8 Mhz", still orders of magnitude slower than the laptop. Is the CBS story full of beans? Edison (talk) 04:31, 8 December 2008 (UTC)

Be careful. The Colossus wasn't intended to be a general purpose computer - it had lots of specialised hardware for code-breaking. So it might well beat a modern laptop at codebreaking - but take a week to balance your checkbook! SteveBaker (talk) 05:14, 8 December 2008 (UTC)

Hmmm - having read the Colossus computer article, I think the CBS story is wrong. We have a direct (and referenced) quote from someone who broke a code using a 1.5GHz laptop 240 times faster than the Colossus replica could manage - so that pretty much says CBS were exaggerating. But it's still possible that there were other operations that the Colossus could do that are still more suited to it's highly specialized architecture - and might therefore allow it to beat a modern PC at that very specific task. SteveBaker (talk) 05:56, 8 December 2008 (UTC)

I seriously doubt it. Modern computers are fast, I highly doubt there is anything Colossus would be able to do faster. A regular cellphone is several orders of magnitude faster than the Apollo-program computers, and that was 20 years later. I understand that application-specific computers are faster than general purpose ones, but it's been 60 years since Colossus. No way it would be able to beat a laptop in code-cracking. 83.250.202.208 (talk) 11:39, 8 December 2008 (UTC)

Note: Regular cellphone processors are several orders of magnitude faster than any processors sent into space, regardless of whether they are Apollo-program ones, or 2008 ones. Like the Colossus, space-program chips (e.g. SPARC-design Leon) are reconfigurable, while cellphone processors like the ARM-design snapdragon are not. -- Fullstop (talk) 19:51, 9 December 2008 (UTC)

@Steve: the Colossus didn't really have any specialised hardware for code breaking at all. Bletchley had a very clever system whereby they broke the tasks of analysing the settings of a geimschreiber link into a few very simple (very mechanical) tasks. One was a very simple (by modern standards) letter-group frequency analysis (which is just a few counters). Another was "dragging" a crib over a ciphertext (testing a range of cribs against possible wheel settings), and another was "boxing", which involved exploiting statistical similarities between related machine settings, and was again another kind of counting. Before Colossus these jobs were done by an oddbod variety of bespoke machines (one rightly named a Robinson after Heath), which had no real stored program (they just did what a loop of punched paper tape did them, and thus didn't even have any kind of real conditional logic). The Colossus proved to be faster and more flexible, but even then it was heavily attended by wrens who feverishly reconfigured it and did a lot of the functions we'd expect even the most basic computer to do itself. Fundamentally the colossus reproduced the same statistical hacks that the earlier machines had, which in turn had (briefly) been done on paper by people. It made no attempt to simulate the target machine's operation, so it was entirely unlike a dedicated crypto-breaker box like the EFF's DES-cracker. It really didn't do much more than a bit of counting and some strcmp. 87.114.128.88 (talk) 01:02, 11 December 2008 (UTC)

Indeed, the evidence that there was a lack of a specialised architecture to the Colossus is that it ended up doing a bunch of tasks it wasn't intended for. It was built (in the face of stiff opposition from those who didn't trust electronics' reliability) to do just a couple of functions; but by the end of the war it was doing a whole slew of other tasks (and coping with significant enhancements made by the worried germans) - much of this is down to clever chaps like Donald Michie figuring out how to program it to do new things with its incredibly limited resources. Unlike the electromechanical monsters it replaced (which really were built with a single specific task in mind) it really was a proper programmable computer. 87.114.128.88 (talk) 01:21, 11 December 2008 (UTC)

It wasn't a Turing-complete machine (which is surprising given how much of it was designed by Turing) - and "programming" it meant rewiring bits of it, not typing in a program...so to describe it as a "proper programmable computer" is a bit of a stretch. SteveBaker (talk) 06:47, 11 December 2008 (UTC)

Read/Write rating of CF card

What is a typical read/write rating (ie how many times can it read/write) of a CF card? I'm only look for an estimate (1000 or 10,000 for example). Thanks, --Fir0002 06:37, 8 December 2008 (UTC)

The answer is that the number of read cycles is infinite but the number of write cycles is in the 10,000 range - (probably higher these days) but it varies a lot from one generation of hardware to the next. But the problem is not as simple as it first seems because you have to count the number of writes. Suppose you have a 4Gbyte MP3 player based on flash memory...when you write a song to it, it only takes up maybe 1Mbyte - but writing 10,000 1Mbyte songs to the MP3 player won't trash it because each song does not update the entire memory. So long as the software is smart enough to spread new data out across the media, your MP3 player (which can hold 4,000 1Mbyte songs) could be 'written to' 10,000x4,000=40 million times...so you could write (and then erase) 10,000 songs to it every day for about 10 years before it would crap out on you. Where things go horribly wrong is when device manufacturers are not very smart about how they use the devices. Suppose the MP3 player has a single memory location that counts the number of songs it's holding currently. Since that location would be written to every single time you wrote a track to it's memory, after only 1 day of loading 10,000 songs - that specific memory location would die and your MP3 player would stop working.

There have been some notorious cases of that happening. Apple had a printer that used a flash memory to remember the paper size settings - the intention was that this setting would only be changed through an interactive control panel on the computer and so it would happen quite rarely. That was back when the number of write cycles was probably around 1,000. It's very unlikely that someone would switch back and forth between 'letter sized' paper and 'legal sized' more than a few times a week - so the printer would probably last for years in normal use. Then someone came out with some new piece of software that redundantly reset the paper size at the start of every page it printed and these printers started failing after an alarmingly short amount of time.

SteveBaker (talk) 13:33, 8 December 2008 (UTC)

The CompactFlash article indicates that most newer cards use "NAND" type Flash Memory, and the latter article indicates a write endurance rating of around 100K. --LarryMac | Talk 14:01, 8 December 2008 (UTC)

Question

Why does [2] say "None that we know of" for games that have no multiplayer modes? There is clearly no multiplayer in those games. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 60.230.180.175 (talk) 07:06, 8 December 2008 (UTC)

Because sometimes there's a third-party add-on that converts a single-player game into a multiplayer game. --Carnildo (talk) 00:20, 9 December 2008 (UTC)

That reminds me...

Anybody happen to know if there is a way to get my music collection from my original Xbox hard drive to my computer, or to a 360 for that matter? I've ripped all of my cd's already, but I had some songs on the xbox that were by local artists and don't seem to be available anywhere anymore. DaRkAgE7_[Talk] 07:53, 8 December 2008 (UTC)

They're located at E:\tdata\fffe0000\music on the Xbox's HDD, in WMA files. You can either hook the HDD up to your computer and use a tool from to read it (with caution), or use a softmod or modchip to get an FTP server running on the Xbox, and access the files through there. The first thing will require 'hot swapping' the harddrive to unlock it, and plenty of information on that can be found at xbox-scene.com, most of it centered around doing that in order to install a softmod [3]. Softmodding can be done that way, or via a gamesave exploit [4], which might be somewhat safer. -- Consumed Crustacean (talk) 00:42, 10 December 2008 (UTC)

Question 2

What operating system is considered the best of all-time? 60.230.180.175 (talk) 12:58, 8 December 2008 (UTC)

That depends on your definition of "best" and your definition of "an operating system" and on whom is doing the "considering".

• Is Windows AN operating system or is it many operating systems that have gone by the same family name? Is UNIX one operating system or many? (Are IRIX, Solaris and Linux counted as "a UNIX" or not? Should we count MacOSX as "BSD UNIX"?)
• Is "best" the one that sold the most copies? Is it the one that crashed the least? The one for which most applications have been written? The most elegantly structured? The most widely ported? The longest lived? Depending on what you want, the answers will vary.
• Worse still, the definition of what an operating system *IS* is a little tricky to pin down. Windows is more than an operating system - it includes a windowing environment and a bunch of applications...but UNIX is the operating system and the common applications - the frequently associated windowing system is not a part of it. Linux is JUST the kernel - the applications are mostly GNU. BSD is like Linux in most places it's used - but as the kernel of MacOSX, it's just the kernel. If we consider the kernels that are incorporated into things like microwave oven controllers and car engine management systems as "operating systems" then the question opens so wide that it would be quite utterly impossible to decide.

At best, your question is vague - most likely it's flame-bait. Either way we cannot (and should not) answer it. SteveBaker (talk) 13:14, 8 December 2008 (UTC)

Don't listen to SteveBaker. The best operating system of all time is clearly SHODAN. Duh. --140.247.243.245 (talk) 15:23, 8 December 2008 (UTC)

The MCP might have something to say about that! <end of line> SteveBaker (talk) 03:22, 9 December 2008 (UTC)

Haiku? Tama1988 (talk) 09:11, 10 December 2008 (UTC)

Perhaps the disappointing answer to your question is "they're all the same". While it's fashionable for people to have a fave they claim beats the others hands down, for mainstream OSes (ones you're realistically likely to run) there's disappointingly little diversity in architecture, capability, or performance. Of the "big guys" (windows, bsd, macos, linux, solaris, aix, hpux) they're all portable (yes, even windows, when MS care to port it). The great monolithic/microkernel schism is less defined in practice, as most of that lot lie somewhere between the two extremes. They all support processes and threads and files and protected memory and IPC and network sockets and a bunch of GUIs that all work just about the same. They have different (but not unrelated) APIs, but those overwhelmingly are workalikes - to such an extent that writing a windows API system for unix, and a unix compatibility layer for windows, didn't turn out to be (fundamentally) that difficult a task (it's mostly a matter of endless detail). Now there's far more diversity in research OSes, but by the time concepts from research make it into "real" OSes the burden of unfortunate practicalities and the need to support existing software seems to mean we all end up with BlandOSv3. 87.114.128.88 (talk) 14:39, 11 December 2008 (UTC)

User:Topology Expert computer help

Could someone please try to help this user (maybe respond at his talk page)? He is having some sort of a strange problem with his keyboard[5] and asked me to ask for help for him here. Thanks, Nsk92 (talk) 17:45, 8 December 2008 (UTC)

It looks like the prob is that many of the letters they type are being dropped. I would suspect the issue is with the keyboard itself. First, try cleaning it. Hold it upside down over a trash can and shake it. This should dislodge any crumbs, hairs, etc. If this doesn't help, try a new keyboard. If you don't have a spare one at home, buy a new one, they only cost around $20 each. StuRat (talk) 17:58, 8 December 2008 (UTC)

(double u)hen I type (double u), my computer log off. (double u)hen I type the firt letter of your uername, the ection blank.

TOP EPERT

I'm guess that the control key is stuck or broken. Ctrl-W is a standard "Close Window" command for Windows. Not sure which username first letter is being referred to, Ctrl-N in Internet Explorer will open a new window using the current URL. --LarryMac | Talk 18:43, 8 December 2008 (UTC)

If you're using Windows, hit Start -> All Programs -> Accessories -> Ease of Access -> On-Screen Keyboard. That's for Vista at least, but it shouldn't be much different on other versions of Windows, and it'll be along the same lines on other operating systems. Won't fix your keyboard, but it should make typing a bit easier. CaptainVindaloo ^{t c e} 18:57, 8 December 2008 (UTC)

Thankyou for your help (and to Nsk92 for posting this)! The problem does not seem to continue but basically I had these problems:

'w' logged off the computer 's' blanked the Wikipage 'x' did not work (just made 's' appear so the keys switched functions) '2' did not work (just completely blanked a microsoft word document and I could not undo to get back to the original) '~' made the letters PKWHF (or something like that) appear and blanked a few lines

Actually, two reboots ago, it was working but one reboot ago it was not and now it is working again... Maybe the control key was stuck (it seemed to work when I tapped the key so thankyou for that) but I am still unsure of exactly what the problem was. Does anyone know whether this is because of a particular setting of the computer (in terms of command keys) or something of that sort? If so, how to undo it?

Thankyou for your help.

Topology Expert (talk) 19:47, 8 December 2008 (UTC)

Take apart the keyboard and clean everything carefully. The "bigger" keys are likely to catch loooots of dirt, at least on my experience in my friend's computer keyboards (HELL, what did they DO in front of their computer?!). You can wash the plastic parts (keys, housing) with warm water (a bit liquid soap is good for coke remainings). The electronic foil containing the printed logic can be cleaned by rubbing CAREFULLY over it with some wet piece of cloth or toilet paper. Please, do care about screws, btw... HardDisk (talk) 23:05, 8 December 2008 (UTC)

Thankyou, but my computer i a laptop... (and the problem i back).

Top epert.

Maybe it's time you took your laptop to a specialist, or try to get a replacement keyboard from the manufacturer or on eBay. You can also consider using an external keyboard (not so portable, but at least it will do if you don't need to travel too far). If you really want to go for a do-it-yourself clean then read on...

You can dismantle a laptop keyboard; it's just a little trickier. If your laptop is like mine, the keyboard is held in by 2 screws under a bezel near the screen. You will need to remove some other parts/panels to get at the screws that hold the bezel on. The keyboard is also connected to the motherboard by a very short (and fragile) ribbon cable. Once free of the rest of the laptop, the keys can be carefully prised off. The base of the keyboard and the keys can be cleaned as described by HardDisk above. If any parts become even slightly wet make sure it is absolutely dry before reassembly (leaving the parts out in a warm atmosphere for a couple of days will do). Unfortunately, there is no good way to test it without reassembling your laptop.

One last thing: Poking around inside your laptop has a high risk of breaking something critical and it will invalidate any warranty. If the machine is still under warranty, call the manufacturer's tech support first.

Astronaut (talk) 14:00, 9 December 2008 (UTC)

Assuming it is the control key which is sticking, and you have two control keys on the laptop, you could also disable the bad control key (by prying the key off) and exclusively use the other. It will look pretty bad, but hopefully solve the problem. StuRat (talk) 17:15, 9 December 2008 (UTC)

Thanks, that is what I have done. But according to what you have said control-w closes the window but not for me. Instead, 'w' logs off my computer. Does anyone know whether there is a program involved (or some setting) that I can set to default? Topology Expert (talk) 17:18, 9 December 2008 (UTC)

It doesn't sound like a setting - the reassignments seem a bit too random for that! It might be worth checking the Fn key isn't stuck down - the manufacturers seem to do all sorts of different things with that. Come to that, check all the keys! Then borrow a separate keyboard from a desktop PC, plug it into the laptop and try typing with that. If the keys work with the separate keyboard, the problem's probably that the laptop's keyboard is sending the wrong codes - perhaps a driver problem, or just a connection behaving oddly. If they don't, it's more likely to be a software problem of some kind.

By the way, does Captain Vindaloo's idea work? AJHW (talk) 11:45, 10 December 2008 (UTC)

Thanks for the help! I couldn't test Captain's idea because I don't have an 'ease of access' section on my menu. Topology Expert (talk) 15:20, 10 December 2008 (UTC)

No it works! But it is very tedious to type using that. Sometimes, my keys work; sometimes they don't. I don't really understand it...

Topology Expert (talk) 19:17, 10 December 2008 (UTC)

Sounds like it could be a hardware problem, then. The test with the separate keyboard should confirm that, if you can manage to do that. I think the most likely problems are a driver that's conflicting with the keyboard's driver, or a dodgy connection somewhere in the keyboard. If it's a driver problem, you might be able to fix it yourself by going to the manufacturer's website and searching for updated drivers. (Make sure you choose the right model number - the wrong driver can foul the system up badly! It would also be a good idea to make a System Restore point, so you can undo the update if it makes things worse.) A bad connection will be harder to fix yourself - so if updating the drivers doesn't work I'd be inclined to get an engineer, or the manufacturer's technical support if it's still in warranty. AJHW (talk) 12:38, 11 December 2008 (UTC)

Choosing web-hosting

How should be proceed to choose a web-hosting company? All are incredibly cheap, promise 99.9% uptime, and lots of stuff and all seem to have terrible review all over the internet about how they were down for days...--Mr.K. (talk) 18:35, 8 December 2008 (UTC)

If you want dependable webhosting service, you need a service which your monthly payment matters. If you are paying $1/month and have a complaint, why should the company care? It is just a dollar. If you are paying $25/month, the company might listen to your complaint, but you aren't important. If you are paying $100/month, the company may actually start taking your complaint seriously. You will see this in what the companies offer. The dirt cheap ones say "you can do this" and "you can do that". The expensive ones say "we will do this" and "we will do that". I am speaking from personal experience on the webhosting side. I do not even attempt to compete with the cheap companies. I charge a minimum of $120/month, but I have a staff of people that handle any issues the clients come up with as soon as the client calls in. Most problems are handled right away while the client is on the phone. The clients I have do not want to learn to do things themselves. They want to pay someone else to do everything and have the ability to talk to a human whenever they have questions. So, you need to decide what you want and then find someone who will give it to you for a price you are willing to pay for. -- kainaw™ 20:01, 8 December 2008 (UTC)

Note that servers that charge $1-10 a month are almost always colocating your site with dozens of others on the same server rack. Yes, your $10 a month doesn't mean much, but when the site goes down it's usually the whole batch that go down, and that has a bit more weight (suddenly we're talking $120-200 a month at stake). I've found that the reasonably cheap hosting (e.g. $10/mo. and lower) are, in my experience, pretty good about keeping good up-times, because they want the reputation and the mass signups that come with it. It's true that the individual matters little to them but their business model requires that many individuals be happy. --98.217.8.46 (talk) 01:31, 9 December 2008 (UTC)

Who's your ISP? My ISP hosts my site for free without ads. It doesn't support server-side scripting, though. If you're a student, you usually get a free site, too. At my college, our sites are free without ads and with Perl scripting.--192.94.73.1 (talk) 22:07, 8 December 2008 (UTC)

Even if your ISP doesn't host sites, many people have "always-on" high-speed Internet connections. If you want to "do it all yourself", you can host your site on a computer in your house and use one of many dynamic domain services to keep a domain name pointed to your home's IP address. -- kainaw™ 01:20, 9 December 2008 (UTC)

If you really need very cheap hosting, my suggestion is to try several of them out. At the same time. Use something like [6] to check on them regularly. Send them emails on several questions. After the month see which one is best for yourself. If you dont wanna wait 1 month, then time is to you more important than money so you should ignore those offering hosting for 1$ and pick a hosting with high ratio of good/bad reviews. And if you *really* need 99.9% uptime, then you need a [Service level agreement|SLA] guaranteeing 99.9% and that will cost you quite a lot. — Shinhan < talk > 11:15, 9 December 2008 (UTC)

There are lots of good web hosts out there. The review systems seem good and you just check the reviews and that they provide what you need. It is worth avoiding the free ones but even a tiny amount of money will get you a decent service if your requirements are basic. Support costs are especially important to suppliers so you can't expect many facilities if you don't pay much. Dmcq (talk) 12:02, 9 December 2008 (UTC)

I'd like to point out that there are bazillions of "free" hosting sites out there. They give anywhere from 512MB to 50GB of "free" storage. On the con side, though, they have limits on what types of files you can upload (i.e., no EXE's or obscure endings like QRH's), and they limit your max file size, and they can sometimes disappear with little/no prior notice, leaving you without your files. It happened to me with [7] (notice that there's nothing there...). And they aren't scared of losing customers, so their downtimes are pretty long. Another personal experience: L4RGE (at least it still exists...) has been claiming to be "upgrading their servers," which is a legitimate excuse for being down; the only thing with that is, it doesn't take 3 months to upgrade servers. And they've been regularly posting messages from the "staff" saying that they're having "difficulties" with their FTP service, which is 100% crap because they're just running Linux like everyone else... And most of them don't provide an IP address, so you can't register them with a DNS thingy-service. So, moral of the story: don't use them. flaminglawyer^cneverforget 06:39, 10 December 2008 (UTC)

In terms of free hosts, I'm guessing it depends on the type of free host. Some of them are part of a commercial service with limited bandwidth, data and other restrictions who are obviously hoping to attract you to their commercial service. In this case, although their paying customers are obviously going to get higher priority I would expect many of them do try to maintain a decent level of service since otherwise running their free service may be more likely to scare customers away Nil Einne (talk) 09:32, 13 December 2008 (UTC)

Note that 99.9% uptime really isn't that good; that's (on average) about 8 hours of downtime a year. 99.99% is 45 mins a year; even the industry gold standard "five nines" is about 5 minutes a year. Any supplier with a half-decent SLA already has things set up so that routine problems like a router dying or a server failing don't have any impact - but this means that when you get outages you get them in big chunks with hard to fix external causes. For example, one of the two electricity substations that supply one of my vendors in London went on fire a couple of months ago, leaving the remaining one at dangerous overcapacity - had it gone too my hosting supplier would have had to physically remove his servers from the building (because the fix would take weeks, and there just isn't enough mobile generating capacity available to rent) install them in another facility altogether. With everyone else doing the same thing, I recon that would have taken a week to come back on line. Once you get above three nines you're essentially talking geographically-distinct, trunk-network-distinct, international (legal jurisdiction distinct), replicated equipment. Setting that up is expensive and difficult, and needs skilled people and hefty bandwidth to keep it ticking. Even Amazon's web services platform (which runs on such a network) partially fell over last month, disgruntling many. 87.114.128.88 (talk) 00:35, 11 December 2008 (UTC)

Question

What's an effective way, on any site, of avoiding a user you don't like if you want to post something in a page that they often use? Yes, I know you can post it while they are inactive, but there are some factors:

1. What if you don't know what time zone that user lives in?
2. What if you don't know what time zone that user lives in, but you know they live in a country that uses multiple time zones?
3. What if that user lives in the same time zone as you?

Are there any other ways of avoiding such users? 58.165.14.208 (talk) 21:14, 8 December 2008 (UTC)

Does the page you and the user happen to work on mean a lot to you? If it doesn't mean a great deal to you, then avoid editing that page. Wikipedia is a very big place, so there are tons of other articles for you to work on. If the article you're editing is important to you , then try to be as polite and civil as you can in dealing with that user (easier said than done, I know). If you feel you can no longer reason with them, you can take it up to WP:WQA. --Crackthewhip775 (talk) 05:58, 9 December 2008 (UTC)

No. Why not simply change your username or move on to a different website? Failing that, you could try keeping in mind that everyone is different and the fact you don't like this individual doesn't mean you both can't learn to at least get along. Is it just me or was a very similar question posted before? Matt Deres (talk) 11:42, 9 December 2008 (UTC)

Installing software on Ubuntu

I have Ubuntu on my system on dual boot with Windows. I really want to learn to use it, but I cant seem to figure out some of the most basic things. Currently, I want to install Adobe Flash Player, but it's not working. For each build type, it's saying the architecture is not supported - it wants to use i386, while it is reporting I have x86_64 (apparently I have a 64 bit processor without even knowing it).

Help! Magog the Ogre (talk) 22:52, 8 December 2008 (UTC)

Try nspluginwrapper, the Ubuntu wiki somewhere has an howto for Flash on 64bit... and you mighta take a look at this UF thread. HardDisk (talk) 23:01, 8 December 2008 (UTC)

Uh oh - "Dont try alternate flash installs...which can leave files that conflict with the flash plugin." I pulled a bit of a hack on the last install (Unix leaves me the impression that little else is possible) and installed the 32 bit version (which doesn't work). How do I undo it before following these instructions. Magog the Ogre (talk) 23:32, 8 December 2008 (UTC)

Fixed italics. « Aaron Rotenberg « Talk « 19:43, 9 December 2008 (UTC)

There isn't a stable release of the x86_64 firefox flash plugin. Install the i386 one and use nspluginwrapper. There's experimental support for x86_64 now, check out the Installed user base section of the Adobe Flash article for a reference. -- JSBillings 00:52, 9 December 2008 (UTC)

I downloaded the rpm (the only type available), and archive manager stated "Could not open: Archive type not supported". I will say right now that I am quickly losing my patience with Linux; it is no where near as nice convenient as Windows or Mac. Magog the Ogre (talk) 05:46, 9 December 2008 (UTC)

And why the heck can't I log in as root? It always tells me I have an authentication failure... don't know the default password. Magog the Ogre (talk) 07:07, 9 December 2008 (UTC)

You can't log in as root in Ubuntu. You just can't. (Well, without screwing around with the default configuration anyway.) You should use sudo for all commands that you don't normally have the privileges to execute. « Aaron Rotenberg « Talk « 19:43, 9 December 2008 (UTC)

And if you want to be root for a while, type "sudo su", and enter your ordinary password. --NorwegianBlue ^talk 22:38, 9 December 2008 (UTC)

RPM is not the only version available. If you click "Different operating system or browser? ", you will see .tar.gz, which you should use for Ubuntu. Rather than blaming "Linux" for being inconvenient, consider Adobe is the one distributing a proprietary plugin without support for x64 on GNU/Linux (it's finally in beta, after literally years). They are responsible for their own software. Anyway, try the instructions at http://www.cyberciti.biz/tips/install-flash-10-ubuntu-linux-64bit.html . Superm401 - Talk 19:54, 10 December 2008 (UTC)

Copy whole IMAP repository to GMail

Hi all,

how do I clone my old IMAP repository to GMail (Google Apps)? Using Thunderbird ends up either in crashes or in mail loss (XP/Linux), KMail simply freezes (Linux)...what else options do I have to ensure that no single mail is lost?

Thanks,HardDisk (talk) 22:57, 8 December 2008 (UTC)

Copy to local first. Then copy from local to gmail. Do not create IMAP folders from the client. Instead, create tags on gmail; these will subsequently appear as IMAP folders on your client. -- Fullstop (talk) 19:57, 9 December 2008 (UTC)

A professional or educational Google Apps account has other migratory options Nil Einne (talk) 09:21, 13 December 2008 (UTC)

I now figured out how to do it with imapsync. Quite complex, but it works =) HardDisk (talk) 15:22, 13 December 2008 (UTC)

December 9

FTP Passive Mode behind NAT

Resolved

Hello wikipedians,

I'm tryin to setup a Filezilla FTP server behind our router (which is a pc running pfsense). I was able to install FZ without a problem, and i forwarded port 21 (also made an exception for that port on the router) and im able to login into it.

Now, problem is, I can't list directories (been using WinSCP as client), so I set the passive-mode on the server with the following settings:

• External server IP: Obtain from http://ip.filezilla-project.org/ip.php
• (ticked) Don't Use external IP for local connections
• (ticked) Use custom port range: 44431-44431 (which i then also port-forwarded to the machine)

But I still can't get a listing... Any Ideas? Thanks in Advance PrinzPH (talk) 00:04, 9 December 2008 (UTC)

BTW, here's the log from the FZ server, IPs were changed:

(000011) 12/9/2008 8:07:52 AM - (not logged in) (REMOTE-IP-HERE)> USER n1listings
(000011) 12/9/2008 8:07:52 AM - (not logged in) (REMOTE-IP-HERE)> 331 Password required for n1listings
(000011) 12/9/2008 8:07:52 AM - (not logged in) (REMOTE-IP-HERE)> PASS ***************
(000011) 12/9/2008 8:07:52 AM - n1listings (REMOTE-IP-HERE)> 230 Logged on
(000011) 12/9/2008 8:07:52 AM - n1listings (REMOTE-IP-HERE)> SYST
(000011) 12/9/2008 8:07:52 AM - n1listings (REMOTE-IP-HERE)> 215 UNIX emulated by FileZilla
(000011) 12/9/2008 8:07:52 AM - n1listings (REMOTE-IP-HERE)> FEAT
(000011) 12/9/2008 8:07:52 AM - n1listings (REMOTE-IP-HERE)> 211-Features:
(000011) 12/9/2008 8:07:52 AM - n1listings (REMOTE-IP-HERE)> MDTM
(000011) 12/9/2008 8:07:52 AM - n1listings (REMOTE-IP-HERE)> REST STREAM
(000011) 12/9/2008 8:07:52 AM - n1listings (REMOTE-IP-HERE)> SIZE
(000011) 12/9/2008 8:07:52 AM - n1listings (REMOTE-IP-HERE)> MLST type*;size*;modify*;
(000011) 12/9/2008 8:07:52 AM - n1listings (REMOTE-IP-HERE)> MLSD
(000011) 12/9/2008 8:07:52 AM - n1listings (REMOTE-IP-HERE)> UTF8
(000011) 12/9/2008 8:07:52 AM - n1listings (REMOTE-IP-HERE)> CLNT
(000011) 12/9/2008 8:07:52 AM - n1listings (REMOTE-IP-HERE)> MFMT
(000011) 12/9/2008 8:07:52 AM - n1listings (REMOTE-IP-HERE)> 211 End
(000011) 12/9/2008 8:07:53 AM - n1listings (REMOTE-IP-HERE)> PWD
(000011) 12/9/2008 8:07:53 AM - n1listings (REMOTE-IP-HERE)> 257 "/" is current directory.
(000011) 12/9/2008 8:07:53 AM - n1listings (REMOTE-IP-HERE)> TYPE A
(000011) 12/9/2008 8:07:53 AM - n1listings (REMOTE-IP-HERE)> 200 Type set to A
(000011) 12/9/2008 8:07:53 AM - n1listings (REMOTE-IP-HERE)> PASV
(000011) 12/9/2008 8:07:53 AM - n1listings (REMOTE-IP-HERE)> 227 Entering Passive Mode (123,123,0,1,173,143)
(000011) 12/9/2008 8:07:53 AM - n1listings (REMOTE-IP-HERE)> LIST -a
(000011) 12/9/2008 8:08:03 AM - n1listings (REMOTE-IP-HERE)> 425 Can't open data connection.
(000011) 12/9/2008 8:08:03 AM - n1listings (REMOTE-IP-HERE)> TYPE A
(000011) 12/9/2008 8:08:03 AM - n1listings (REMOTE-IP-HERE)> 200 Type set to A
(000011) 12/9/2008 8:08:03 AM - n1listings (REMOTE-IP-HERE)> PASV
(000011) 12/9/2008 8:08:03 AM - n1listings (REMOTE-IP-HERE)> 227 Entering Passive Mode
(123,123,0,1,173,143) (000011) 12/9/2008 8:08:04 AM - n1listings (REMOTE-IP-HERE)> LIST
(000011) 12/9/2008 8:08:14 AM - n1listings (REMOTE-IP-HERE)> 425 Can't open data connection.
(000011) 12/9/2008 8:08:34 AM - n1listings (REMOTE-IP-HERE)> TYPE I
(000011) 12/9/2008 8:08:34 AM - n1listings (REMOTE-IP-HERE)> 200 Type set to I

PrinzPH (talk) 00:13, 9 December 2008 (UTC)

Maybe File Transfer Protocol#FTP and NAT devices would be informative. --128.97.245.172 (talk) 00:16, 9 December 2008 (UTC)

Just thought I'd share: Turned out to be a Windows Firewall issue... I initially allowed just port 21, when i set the exception to the server executable it worked. PrinzPH (talk) 20:13, 11 December 2008 (UTC)

Defeating Rhapsody

How do I reset the whole 25-plays-a-month limit when the month hasn't ended yet? --Crackthewhip775 (talk) 03:56, 9 December 2008 (UTC)

Um - that would be stealing. I don't think we really want to encourage that kind of thing. SteveBaker (talk) 04:23, 9 December 2008 (UTC)

I can't download anything, I only listen, so no thievery involved here. --Crackthewhip775 (talk) 04:35, 9 December 2008 (UTC)

And yet--isn't that the whole point of a limit? You don't need to download anything to do something illegal.--Ibn Battuta (talk) 07:23, 9 December 2008 (UTC)

If I can't keep the song then how's it illegal? --Crackthewhip775 (talk) 07:38, 9 December 2008 (UTC)

Try Playlist.com. It's not all-inclusive, but it doesn't have a limit. flaminglawyer^cneverforget 08:29, 9 December 2008 (UTC)

So, your argument is "If I keep saying it can't be illegal, then it must be legal." Try using that in court. -- kainaw™ 13:00, 9 December 2008 (UTC)

You can't. You agreed to this licence when you signed up to the service, and attempting to circumvent the protection would both break the licence agreement, and may breach your local copyright laws, depending on where you live. Gunrun (talk) 09:36, 9 December 2008 (UTC)

I guess you might be able to sign up for an additional account, but I don't know if that costs money or if it violates the EULA. Anyway, I use imeem.com (for free) to great effect, as I haven't yet not been able to find a song I wanted to listen to (and I listen to weird stuff!) DaRkAgE7_[Talk] 02:23, 10 December 2008 (UTC)

Thank you for giving me an idea I just carried out. --Crackthewhip775 (talk) 06:37, 10 December 2008 (UTC)

Doesn't Rhapsody have a website that lets you listen to music for free? 216.239.234.196 (talk) 20:29, 12 December 2008 (UTC)

sending big files

How do you send big files (between 20 and 100MB)? I used to use Yousendit (before you had to register), and I wonder if there's still some (easy-to-use) option for which I don't have to register. (P2P won't work because of the receiver.) --Ibn Battuta (talk) 07:23, 9 December 2008 (UTC)

Try Rapidshare, Megaupload, or Badongo. See Category:File hosting. Magog the Ogre (talk) 09:08, 9 December 2008 (UTC)

I've also seen FTP hosting services for as low at $5/month. Google "FTP Hosting" --70.167.58.6 (talk) 16:00, 9 December 2008 (UTC)

Why are you recommending services with ridiculous captchas, lots of ads and forced waiting period before downloads? Those sites are good for warez but not for what the OP wants. I concur with grawity on drop.io. Also, you can set up a web server somewhere if you will be doing lots of transfers.

I like drop.io. --grawity 19:07, 9 December 2008 (UTC)

Website

Is there a website where you can commission an artwork, say a painted sculpture, in ceramic, metal, or glass, where you pay who ever will do this for the least amount of money, and then say after a week (and that you can choose THIS time frame), noone can offer their price? (Like an ebay auction? (This is called best offer, I think.)) I know there's a website like this for like crafts, like for necklaces, and such.96.53.149.117 (talk) 08:25, 9 December 2008 (UTC)

I can't speak for everyone, but I'm afraid I haven't the slightest what you're talking about. Could you please rephrase in different language? Magog the Ogre (talk) 09:09, 9 December 2008 (UTC)

I understand - they're looking for a website where you post a description of a piece of art you want created and artists bid on the commission. Lowest bid wins, creates the piece and sends it to you. You can choose the time frame in which bids can be received (a week, a month...) — Matt Eason ^{(Talk &#149; Contribs)} 11:25, 9 December 2008 (UTC)

When you commission a piece of art, you are usually committed to paying for it at the agreed price once the artist has progressed beyond a certain (agreed) stage. Astronaut (talk) 13:29, 9 December 2008 (UTC)

There would have to be some pretty serious controls. You ask for the MonaLisa and you get macaroni-on-cardboard with fingerpaint...you are not going to be pleased with the results. The difficulty is that art is in the eye of the beholder and whether someone will like what they get is impossible to know. How would you settle disputes? "I asked for THIS and I got THAT so I'm not going to pay for it."...."But you asked for THIS and I gave you my artistic interpretation of THIS - which turns out to be THAT - so pay me right now!". On something like eBay - you can see objectively whether what was delivered was what was advertised - and if it's not, you can return it. But the trouble with bespoke art is that when you return the painting of your mother because it looks like a bunch of blue cubes with eyes stuck on at odd angles - the artist isn't going to be able to sell it to anyone else because they want paintings of THEIR mothers - not YOURS. So either the artist has no guarantee of getting paid - or you have no guarantee of getting a piece of art that you think is worth what you paid. SteveBaker (talk) 15:26, 9 December 2008 (UTC)

None of this is unique to a web site, however. Anyone who commissions art is subject to just such a problem. For example, the city of Detroit, Michigan commissioned a memorial to Joe Louis, looking for something to uplift Detroit, and got a giant fist instead: [8]. StuRat (talk) 16:33, 9 December 2008 (UTC)

Surely any self respecting artist (and art buyer) would be able to describe the 'style' of the art they are looking for. If you ask for a traditional portrait and get presented an impressionist one then you could maybe have a case for not paying. I would say SteveBaker makes good points but I do think they could be relatively to fix and so I wouldn't be too surprised to find a site like you are requesting online somewhere.194.221.133.226 (talk) 15:36, 9 December 2008 (UTC)

NOt sure for artwork from a sculpture/etc. perspective but a website called sitepoint is one for art in a logo/company branding kind of way. 194.221.133.226 (talk) 14:31, 9 December 2008 (UTC)

If i understand the question correctly, i think the op is looking for something like http://www.getafreelancer.com/ , but for artwork. PrinzPH (talk) 20:20, 9 December 2008 (UTC)

I think the OP has identified a gap in the market, one that could quite profitably be filled. A few months ago the BBC ran a radio program about a lage community of artists in China who produced copies of old masters in large quantities (and by copies I do mean hand-painted). These were then sold (as copies; it's only forgery when you try to claim something really is the Mona Lisa) by an Australian bloke to shops in the west. While these guys specialised in mass production, they would do one-off copies of just about any painting, and they had guys who specialised in different styles. It was a bit sad, as they were all real artists, who could make more doing Rembrants and Monets than they could sell their own stuff for. I think a website with a decent reputation system and a system of staged payments would overcome SteveBaker's concerns; as StuRat notes, there's always a mitigable risk of misunderstanding between artist and patron ("I want one Christ, 12 disciples, no kangaroos, and I want it by Friday"). Imagine, say, you wanted a preraphialite painting of your wife to give her for Christmas. You'd go onto CustomArt or whatever and search for artists who do oil paintings in that style. For each they show a range of thumbnails of their work. You pick three or four that you like and send them a request-for-quote (you want a 3x2 foot oil painting in the style of Millais of a woman in dress). They reply with quotes (and maybe with other examples of relevant stuff they've done). You pick one, and deposit the fee in CustomArt's escrow. You send the artist photos of your wife and more detailed specs (blue dress, lacey collar, make her look more rosey cheeked). A few days later he sends a sketch or a quick colour study, or maybe two or three quick studies. You approve these (or answer his specific queries), release a staged payment from escrow, and he gets to work. Part way through (say he's just done the face) he sends you a photo; if you approve that he gets another stage payment from escrow and he goes to finish the work. Finally you approve a photo of the final thing, he gets another payment, and he FedEx-es the painting to you. You receive it and release the final payment. You've gotten a bespoke (ish) painting to your specification by someone on the other side of the world, all for maybe $700. Bargain 87.114.128.88 (talk) 01:53, 11 December 2008 (UTC)

Need to automate listbox in MS ACCESS 2003 like the one in MS EXCEL when we go to Menu: Format..Cells

Need to automate listbox in MS ACCESS 2003 like the one in MS EXCEL when we go to Menu: Format..Cells. On 'Number' tab, select number in 'Category' listbox and a 'Decimal places' listbox appears. This listbox changes the listindex value (ie the item selected) when we click on the up or down scrollbars. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 61.14.53.178 (talk) 12:44, 9 December 2008 (UTC)

Converting Indeo AVIs into something current

I'm a Mac user and Indeo codecs will never be made into Mac OS X compatible code. Indeo for Mac only runs on Mac OS 9, but Mac OS 9 "Classic" has been eliminated from Mac OS X 10.5. So I'm stuck with a collection of unplayable Indeo-encoded AVIs. If I fire up Boot Camp and go to WinXP, what are some free converters that will allow me to convert these old Indeo movies into something more modern, like h.264 .M4Vs or Quicktime MOVs? --70.167.58.6 (talk) 15:58, 9 December 2008 (UTC)

Try VirtualDub. APL (talk) 16:25, 9 December 2008 (UTC)

The article indicates that some versions can be read by FFmpeg—you might try ffmpegX? --98.217.8.46 (talk) 01:51, 10 December 2008 (UTC)

December 10

I need to see a comparison of Mobile Phones Operating Systems

I need to see a comparison of Mobile Phones Operating Systems and I couldn't find a page about that on wikipedia. Is there something that I can do to get that information? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Ahmedhesham3 (talk • contribs) 00:31, 10 December 2008 (UTC)

Wow. With the new Google Android, we need that article. I'm surprised we don't already. flaminglawyer^cneverforget 06:02, 10 December 2008 (UTC)

Clipboard catastrophe

I tried to paste a single character into Microsoft Works Word Processor (namely "à", bold, Times New Roman, size 24 font, if it makes a difference), and it crashed. Is this possibly connected to my computer, or does "Works" Word Processor just fail at copy and paste? I'm not really looking for a suggestion to a different program at the moment...I already have OpenOffice.org Writer, but I don't know how to use its finer features.--The Ninth Bright Shiner 01:35, 10 December 2008 (UTC)

Did you try it more than once? It could have just been a fluke. Try to Paste Special unformatted and see if that helps. --98.217.8.46 (talk) 01:41, 10 December 2008 (UTC)

I tried it several times in some sort of manic daze, as if seeking to lower the word processor's self-esteem by showing it how much it cost me and how badly it fails. O_o Just pasting that single character crashed it, regardless of what else was already in the window. Everything goes fine when pasted as unformatted, but I'd still like to know the source of MWWP's crash.--The Ninth Bright Shiner 02:03, 10 December 2008 (UTC)

Well, Microsoft Works is a sad piece of programming, one that makes the naturally buggy Microsoft Word look good by comparison. My guess is that it has to do with trying to maintain formatting and language codes or something like that. --140.247.11.35 (talk) 23:02, 10 December 2008 (UTC)

Sounds about right. Curses! Oh well...it's really all I have right now, until I can put enough time aside to tinker with Writer. Thank you!--The Ninth Bright Shiner 22:55, 11 December 2008 (UTC)

jpeg file format

I've been using the thumbnail image viewer built into Windows Explorer in XP (the one to the left that reads "details". I've noticed that images that cannot be opened in Windows Picture and Fax Viewer or MS Paint (ie, that are corrupted) can be viewed using this thumbnail viewer. I've also noticed that sometimes, jpegs that I've cropped in MS Paint can be viewed in their entirety using the thumbnail viewer. What is it about how jpegs are stored that allows this image viewer to find information that is inaccessible to MS Paint and Windows Fax and Picture Viewer? Thanks, --VectorField (talk) 08:00, 10 December 2008 (UTC)

I think the JPEG format stores the thumbnails at a separate place in the file - ie for the corrupted files the pictures are actually corrupted, and the thumbnail picture is just the thumbnail - there's no more information there to make the picture bigger. And some cropping programs don't change the thumbnail - there's a page on the Internet somewhere containing cropped pictures that people have put on their blogs, where the thumbnails contained more than the poster had intended. 129.240.49.10 (talk) 08:30, 10 December 2008 (UTC)

Windows starts in safe-mode, won't start from system restore or in normal-mode

I have a friend with a pc and it suddenly only began to start in safe mode. It just sits at the windows screen (you know with the kit from Knight-rider like rolling grey bars). Anyhoo while in safe mode we've managed to run McAfee scan disk on current updates and it shows no problems. The computer functions fine in 'safe-mode with networking' in the sense that you can work on docs, go online etc. but obviously it's not entirely the same. Have tried various windows-restore points and each time it completes that it restarts and stays at the above mentioned windows-screen, but when you turn it off and then boot up in safe-mode it claims to be successfully restored.

Have tried booting from most of the options in the menu (last known good, normal, safe mode with networking, safe mode etc.) and nothing we do seems to solve the problem. Anybody have any good ideas? Sorry I know this isn't quite the place but due to work-based internet can't get to many sites. 194.221.133.226 (talk) 10:12, 10 December 2008 (UTC)

• Antivirus software won't find a lot of spyware/malware - d/load the latest versions of SpyBot and Adaware, update and run them - see what they find. Exxolon (talk) 00:59, 11 December 2008 (UTC)

About worm in the coputer

wat do u mean by worm in the system?And how can we delete it? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 59.97.48.160 (talk) 12:00, 10 December 2008 (UTC)

Computer worm is a good place to start. --LarryMac | Talk 13:24, 10 December 2008 (UTC)

Daily Build for Ubuntu?

Anyone knows were to find a daily build for Ubuntu 8.10 Intrepid Ibex? I usually get if from http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/ but I have not found it there this time... SF007 (talk) 13:49, 10 December 2008 (UTC)

Internet speed + XNA Game studio

122.163.15.181 (talk) 15:01, 10 December 2008 (UTC)harshagg Hello,

Question 1:-
   I often tackle increase internet speed.But when I try it doesn't work and one effect my window SP3 e.g

1. Go to Start-> Run-> and type gpedit.msc 2. Expand the Administrative Templates branch 3. Expand the Network tab 4. Highlight QoS Packet Scheduler 5. Click on Limit Reservable Bandwidth and check the enabled box 6. Then Change the Bandwidth limit % to 0 % this effect my XP when I run my computer next time Is there no way tricks to increase net speed without paying

Question No.2:- How sucessfull will XNA will be? Can it beat openGL?

1 - the QoS thing won't help at all; except for people who run QoS aware apps all the time, you get all your network bandwidth all the time - so says microsoft.

2 - XNA doesn't really compete with OGL, they're different things. XNA is a higher-level framework that relies on DirectX to do the underlying drawing. It's DirectX that compares with (and competes with) OpenGL. DirectX is clearly competing very well against OpenGL. Whether XNA will take depends on whether developers find the framework useful or restricting. 87.114.128.88 (talk) 00:09, 11 December 2008 (UTC)

Switch off "urgent updates/restarts" in Windows

Is it possible to switch off those urgent updates in Windows, which will make your computer restart in 5 minutes unless you click no (and then it'll keep asking every few minutes)? I hate not paying attention to my computer for a moment, and next thing I know is that whatever I worked on is gone. I don't mind if Windows asks, but I don't want my computer to restart without my permission. --Ibn Battuta (talk) 17:19, 10 December 2008 (UTC)

Yes, at least on XP. The settings are in the control panel under automatic updates. Algebraist 18:39, 10 December 2008 (UTC)

Rapidshare auto download

IS there a program software available for free that can automate the downloading of Rapidshare links? It would be good if I could just batch enter maybe 10 links and it will download them, wait for the limits etc without human input. Thank you much. 66.63.184.3 (talk) 19:00, 10 December 2008 (UTC)

Try jDownloader. SN0WKITT3N 20:00, 10 December 2008 (UTC)

Amazon S3 as virtual disc

I'm using Cyberduck on Mac OSX 10.5 to connect to Amazon S3 for online backup storage. To send files, I can drag and drop to Cyberduck to send them to the archive. Is there any way I can use it to make them appear as a virtual/network drive?My name is anetta (talk) 20:34, 10 December 2008 (UTC)

From my Google results, it looks like JungleDisk has a Mac client, but I can't actually access the website. It might not be free. --LarryMac | Talk 21:30, 10 December 2008 (UTC)

It would seem you're right - Jungle Disk is basically Amazon 3S rebranded, is it? It would appear to host it's stuff on Amazon, and use its own client.My name is anetta (talk) —Preceding undated comment was added at 21:47, 10 December 2008 (UTC).

If you're using SFTP to access S3, you might want to look into SSHFS. There's a Mac port. -- JSBillings 22:12, 10 December 2008 (UTC)

I'm using Amazon's own protocol to connect to it, largely because it "just works." Yes, I'll take a look into it - I'm sure a little Googling will tell me how.My name is anetta (talk) 22:47, 10 December 2008 (UTC)

Another option that I use... I have a directory called "backup". Every night, I s3-backup (a set of scripts that mimic rdiff-backup) runs on the directory and saves incremental backups of my backup directory. The result is that I easily back up my files I want to back up (just drop them in the backup folder) and I can get back a file as it once was if it is something I change. That has come in very handy a few times. -- kainaw™ 04:03, 11 December 2008 (UTC)

Would your scripts (whatever language they are in) work on Mac OSX, and if so, can you post them to your site?My name is anetta (talk) 18:12, 11 December 2008 (UTC)

I didn't write them. Google for "s3backup". I downloaded them a looooong time ago and I don't remember where from. -- kainaw™ 18:20, 11 December 2008 (UTC)

[[9]] This looks like it does the same job (autobackup). It doesn't mount as as drive, though.My name is anetta (talk) 18:44, 11 December 2008 (UTC)

LCS-type algorithm

I'm looking for an algorithm that is basically an longest-common-substring algorithm. The trick is that I want it to provide all substrings in order from longest to shortest. I assume Knuth or someone similar wrote a paper on this back in the 70s. To be clear, here's an example:

Input: "wikipedia reference desk", "use wikipedia as a reference"

Output: Array("a reference ", "wikipedi", "e", "s")

I can write this myself, but I'm writing a methods paper and I'll be asked to provide a reference for the algorithm from existing work. I've been stuck searching for one that returns ALL substrings, not just the longest (or shortest) one. -- kainaw™ 22:27, 10 December 2008 (UTC)

Wouldn't "wikiped", etc. also be a common substring ? Is there a rule that once a common substring is found you eliminate all of the letters in the substring from consideration in both strings ? StuRat (talk) 15:43, 11 December 2008 (UTC)

Correct. I want the longest substring, then the next (or equally) longest, then the next. I do not want any elements of the original strings to show up in two different substrings. The purpose (in my paper) is to rate equivalence between two strings based on how many substrings they have in common and how long those substrings are. My algorithm works just fine. The problem with peer-review papers is that they nail you if you use an algorithm that someone wrote about and omit reference to the original author (even if you have never heard of the original author or paper). -- kainaw™ 18:16, 11 December 2008 (UTC)

Isn't there some way you can say "I wrote the following method, but make no representation that I am the first to do so" ? I remember when I "invented" the radix sort, only to be disappointed to find out somebody else had beaten me to it. StuRat (talk) 16:25, 12 December 2008 (UTC)

You can, but I think they demand references because they assume that if you don't somehow know who first referenced every algorithm ever made you are not qualified to be publishing papers. As it is, I included the entire algorithm I wrote in the appendix and noted that it was developed as a variation of a variation of the Needleman-Wunsch algorithm. -- kainaw™ 17:56, 12 December 2008 (UTC)

I don't have any answer to your question, I just wanted to say that I had a similar experience as StuRat with merge sort. I was so proud, and then so disappointed. 83.250.202.208 (talk) 21:31, 12 December 2008 (UTC)

December 11

table borders

I am trying to get my website to have no borders (i.e., hug the sides of the screen instead of the usual 1 or 2px borders), but it's not really working. I can't figure out what I'm doing wrong. The header and footer have no border (yay) but all the other tables on the page (and every other page on my site) still have the 1 or 2px borders, which annoys me because it's not aesthetically pleasing at all. I have my body tag set to margin:0 and padding:0. I'm not going to post the entire source code here, so I'll link to it and assume you can press Ctrl-U or whatever the button is. flaminglawyer^cneverforget 00:55, 11 December 2008 (UTC)

First, ensure you give a unit. For example, use margin:0px;, not just margin:0;. By setting your body tag to have no margin or padding, the content will be able to go all the way to the top and sides of the page. For content inside the page, such as a div, p, or table, there is a margin around those. You need to set the margin for those tags to 0px also if you don't want a margin around them. Look up info on the "box-model" for CSS for plenty of descriptions about how margin and padding are used. -- kainaw™ 02:28, 11 December 2008 (UTC)

How to keep Command Prompt open?

On Windows, I'd like to stick a line of commands into the "Run..." dialog, have it execute them in the Command Prompt window, then stay open long enough to read the results. I don't seem to be having much luck :-) One example is systeminfo | find "Up Time".

I've tried piping that to "more", and tried prefixing the whole thing with "start", to no avail. The latter really surprises me, start systeminfo | find "Up Time" gives error message "Windows cannot find start. What am I missing? --DaHorsesMouth (talk) 02:52, 11 December 2008 (UTC)

The simplest solution is to type "cmd" in the run dialog and paste the commands into the command prompt window. Another nasty solution is to end your series of commands with a batch file that just has pause in it - you can call it pause.bat. It window will freeze, waiting for keyboard input. -- kainaw™ 03:13, 11 December 2008 (UTC)

Typing cmd /C pause | systeminfo | find "Up Time" into the Run dialog worked for me, though the pause command may cause an error message at the end (but that's when the window closes anyway). Jørgen (talk) 09:44, 11 December 2008 (UTC)

You can also try opening a Command Prompt window yourself, then type the run command there. It's probably under Start + Programs or Start + Programs + Accessories, and labeled either Command Prompt or MS-DOS Prompt. StuRat (talk) 15:29, 11 December 2008 (UTC)

Resolved

Did you count the keystrokes in some of those solutions? Anyway, Jørgen comes closest -- thanks! (1) Click Start (2) Click Run (3) Click previously entered string cmd /K systeminfo | find "Up Time" (4) Read screen and click X to close. No cutting, no pasting, no pause.

Thanks to all for the education; I thought cmd.exe was the program behind the Command Prompt, and didn't know you could actually call it directly. --DaHorsesMouth (talk) 23:46, 11 December 2008 (UTC)

Adobe Illustrator question

Is there any way to make an Illustrator document's artboard size itself to fit to the content automatically? It seems like I either have to specify a print media size (e.g. letter, tabloid) or have to specify my own dimensions. Because I usually am exporting Illustrator images for use in other programs (e.g. InDesign), it'd be way more convenient if I could just automatically have the artboard crop itself to the minimum dimensions to fit the content, as can be easily done in Inkscape. Can this be done in Illustrator? --140.247.11.18 (talk) 03:16, 11 December 2008 (UTC)

ProDesktop

Hi, I made a created a design on a piece of software called ProDesktop. I added components I had already made to create a table and saved the finished design, but did NOT let it save copies of all the referenced documents because I already had them saved on my desktop so I thought there was no point. I have now tried to open the finished design now and I have been told that ProDesktop can't find the file, so I browse myself and show it the file, but it says it "is not the correct file."

I tried to open this referenced file but it can't find it, so I have tried to replicate it (it was simple so I think I have everything correct) but that doesn't work either, it also says it is not the correct file.

I've just spent over 4 hours on this so I really can’t have it fail on me now!

Is there any way I can force it to think that the correct file is in fact the right file, or could I force it to use the replica instead (as it is the same)?

Also what makes it think that this is the wrong file, i.e. how does it know (or in this case falsely know)?

Thanks. 92.6.195.164 (talk) 03:40, 11 December 2008 (UTC)

P.S. I think the origonal referenced file corrupted itself (somehow) and soit can't accept it. I can't see why it doesn't accept my replica.92.6.195.164 (talk) 03:47, 11 December 2008 (UTC)

If I understand you, it has a feature to create a repeated object, like a table, save it once to a file and only save links to this file in the main drawing. However, this feature doesn't seem to be working. If so, there are two workarounds I can think of:

1) Still save the table as a separate file, but place a copy at each location on the main drawing instead of a reference.

2) If that doesn't work, don't create tables and such as separate files at all, just create them on the main drawing and copy them there.

Both approaches are not ideal, as any change to the table will now have to be made at every location where the table occurs in the drawing. However, if the references don't work, these are the options which you are left with. You might also upgrade to a newer version which hopefully has this problem fixed, or use different CAD software entirely. StuRat (talk) 15:21, 11 December 2008 (UTC)

low bandwidth web-based email

My mom and sister have a very slow computer with a very slow connection to the internet. They use OE for their email, which, besides the usual problems, means they have to download an entire email to read it. I think they'd be better off using one of the many web-based free email services, but my guess is that something like GMail is going to be too slow to load due to flashy GUI, ads, etc. Can someone recommend a web-based email service that's a)free, b)simple to use, and c)targeted to folks with slow dial-up connections? It doesn't have to have any kewl options, it just needs to let them see an email before downloading all the attachments. Matt Deres (talk) 04:04, 11 December 2008 (UTC)

Gmail ads are just text so they are very low overhead. You can run it in non-cool-GUI mode as well (HTML only mode). I'd go with GMail configured for HTML only—it's basically text-only e-mail, which is better than all of the other services and their graphics and ads. --98.217.8.46 (talk) 04:10, 11 December 2008 (UTC)

Also, GMail has IMAP access. So you can view your emails in Microsoft Outlook or Mozilla Thunderbird (or another email client). - Akamad (talk) 12:03, 11 December 2008 (UTC)

Another good one is Fastmail (www.fastmail.fm) which is specifically designed to be quick-loading and not too laden down with features. The ads are text-only. I've used it for a year and have never had any problems getting at my mail or sending messages. AJHW (talk) 13:39, 11 December 2008 (UTC)

step and repeat - postscript, HPGL, or gerbers

My CAD software allows me create artwork for producing electronic circuits. Recently I have produced several designs that are very small. Single sided PCBs (printed circuit boards) can be produced at home with a little time and effort. The process that I use requires pre-sensitized circuit boards that are available in various sizes, but I frequently use single sided 4inch by 6inch boards like these: [http://www.circuitspecialists.com/level.itml/icOid/3802}.

Given that it is problematic and wasteful, but not impossible, to cut the boards into smaller size before the lithographic and wet chemical processing, and given that the size of the typical circuits that I have been producing are very small (many less than 2in^2), and given that (manual step and repeat) the process of printing many copies and manually and carefully taping the tiny pieces of fairly expensive vellum or onion skin paper while maintaining cleanliness and good UV transparency for the lithographic exposure is a pain and wastes a lot of paper,

So now the question...

Is there any FREE way to step and repeat the postscript file, the HPGL file, or the gerber file, which are the convenient output for me to generate, so that I can expose the whole board from one master and reduce the wasted time, effort and materials that I have had to expend to accomplish the seemingly simple task of making many copies of a circuit on one PCB.

Additionally, in the past (and without some resolution here, perhaps in the future) I have offset the design from center, in each of the 4 quadrants, and passed the same sheet through the printer 4 times, and found this does work; however, it is a lot of work, error prone, time consuming, and limited to 4 repeats.

One more thing, I have already looked at a shareware named ABviewer, but it showed a black page when I opened the HPGL output intended for my HPLJ5MP printer (generated via print to file).

Thanks in advance. U.S.Citizen (talk) 04:37, 11 December 2008 (UTC)

Try this: use ghostscript to convert the Postscript to PDF (Ghostscript compes with a script called ps2pdf that does this). Then open the PDF with Inkscape (which curiously doesn't seem to read PS or EPS files). Then duplicating your diagram should be a straightforward method of copy-and-paste; then you'd have to go back through that chain to generate a final PS (unless a print straight from Inkscape will be acceptable). Now how well this will work in practice depends on the details of the PDF that your CAD software emits (if you can persuade it to emit PDF or ideally SVG directly then all the better). There will also be a way just to hand-write a postscript file that does the whole thing - that just says "move to (100,100), emit file foo.ps, move to (200,100), emit file foo.ps, ...", but I'm afraid my postscript is too rusty to do that for you. 87.114.128.88 (talk) 14:59, 11 December 2008 (UTC)

I believe HPGL can use either absolute or relative coords. In the case of relative coords, only the first location needs be specified in absolute coords to provide a base for all the subsequent relative coords. If your design is implemented like that, you can repeat the instructions as many times as you like, and only change the locating absolute coord at the start of each sequence. StuRat (talk) 15:10, 11 December 2008 (UTC)

Sounds like you want to print multiple copies of the same image on one page; this is generally known as N-up. Check out PrintFile. --—— Gadget850 (Ed) ^talk - 15:27, 11 December 2008 (UTC)

Inheritance problem

I'm implementing a binary search tree in D with a Node class and a BinaryTree class. I've finished a basic unbalanced binary tree and I'm trying to implement an AVL tree. The Node class has several methods like depth, max, and min which are all non-modifying but make things a lot easier (depth calls other nodes' depth function). I want to have a new AVLNode class that inherits from the Node class (since AVL trees' nodes have an extra attribute - the balance factor). This makes the compiler go crazy:

1. Since each node has references to its left and right nodes, all of type Node, the AVLNode's left and right node references (which are inherited from the Node class) will also be of type Node. I want them to be of type AVLNode.
2. In the Node class I use this a lot, and since that will refer to the Node class instance instead of the (derived) AVLNode class instance, there are many compiler errors about types.

I've tried to fix (1) by using templates and aliases but they don't work for (2). Any suggestions? --wj32 ^t/c 07:29, 11 December 2008 (UTC)

Presuming class Node has pointers to the daughter nodes:

 class Node
 {
 protected:
   Node *left ;
   Node *right ;
 public:
   Node () {} ;
 } ;

 class AVLNode : protected Node
 {
 public:
   AVLNode ()
   {
      left  = new AVLNode ;   // This works just fine!
      right = new AVLNode ;
   }
 } ;

...because even though 'left' is a Node - we can assign an 'AVLNode' to it because an AVLNode is a kind of Node.

SteveBaker (talk) 18:20, 11 December 2008 (UTC)

That's true, but that's in C++. I'm using D, which for some reason, doesn't implicitly cast Node to AVLNode. That sucks. And I've still got problem (2). --wj32 ^t/c 22:38, 11 December 2008 (UTC)

Anyone know what's going on with all the new computer keyboards?

It's impossible to find a computer keyboard anymore that isn't messed up. It either has lots of extra unwanted buttons like "power management" that if you accidentally bump it, these buttons shut down your computer in a way worse than yanking out the plug and garble half your hard drive. If they don't have that, then they have the buttons all messed up. The insert button is moved far to the top right and the delete is double size with he home, end, and page up, page down buttons turned on their site. Also the arrow keys are moved all around so they are under the right shift.

Anyone know what's going on with all the new computer keyboards? Are you ready for IPv6? (talk) 09:29, 11 December 2008 (UTC)

I can think of two reasons:

1) To conserve space. A compact keyboard has to do that type of thing to maintain all the keys while fitting them into less space.

2) There's an infamous marketing strategy which requires that everything be changed, for no apparent reason, just so the makers can claim it's "new and improved". You obviously can't make that claim if it's exactly like the old model. StuRat (talk) 15:04, 11 December 2008 (UTC)

There is usually a driver for these keyboards that allows you to remap or disable the power keys. --—— Gadget850 (Ed) ^talk - 15:18, 11 December 2008 (UTC)

(And there is always the 'superglue-under-the-keycap' approach.) SteveBaker (talk) 18:14, 11 December 2008 (UTC)

Enforcing whitespace

Is there any tag (like <br />, I'm imagining) that enforces whitespace? Transcluding a template and inserting a few spaces here doesn't work (and a colon, which does enforce some whitespace, is just displayed). -- Mentisock 11:03, 11 December 2008 (UTC)

Hi & nbsp ; does it, is that any use? For example I have one between these   words.

If i add three or four togehter I get more space between these      words.194.221.133.226 (talk) 11:57, 11 December 2008 (UTC)

    Also,      if you start the line with a blank, 
    then your spacing is               maintained. StuRat (talk) 14:58, 11 December 2008 (UTC)

Yep, it works. Thanks! -- Mentisock 15:10, 11 December 2008 (UTC)

But then you get the pre formatting; this is useful for code listings and the like, but not appropriate for articles. Here are a few ways to maintain spaces:

• Use &nbsp;
• Use {{pad}}
• Wrap your text in <poem>...</poem>; this maintains both spacing and line breaks

--—— Gadget850 (Ed) ^talk - 15:16, 11 December 2008 (UTC)

Pad is nice though that's basically nbsp, no? -- Mentisock 16:35, 11 December 2008 (UTC)

Pad uses a CSS padding-left:; it can be set in px, em or ex. I use poem for formatted text as you don't have to add line breaks. --—— Gadget850 (Ed) ^talk - 21:10, 11 December 2008 (UTC)

jobs for an engineer in the field of networking

i'm a engineering graduate in computer engg..i want to know if i can make my career in networking..i don't have any clue..how can i do so.i need ur help or can say i need your guidance in making my career in networking —Preceding unsigned comment added by Shubham 3112 (talk • contribs) 13:00, 11 December 2008 (UTC)

Look for networking jobs. Apply for them. If you aren't hired, ask why. If it is something you can fix (ie: lack of knowledge for a specific topic), fix it. Look for more networking jobs. Apply for them. Eventually, you'll be hired. Work hard. Get promoted. You have a career. -- kainaw™ 13:59, 11 December 2008 (UTC)

Laptop disaster.

I am having a little trouble with my laptop computer. As I am going to visit my parents over Christmas, and my larger computer is rather too big to take with me everywhere, I was hoping to get all my work done on my laptop, but now it seems that isn't going to be possible.

Sometimes my computer decides to install updates I don't want to things I'm not even sure I have without my permission. this is annoying in itself, but the real problem is that after doing this, my computer then sometimes comes up with a message saying it will restart in 5 minutes. I've managed to get it to stay on as long as I want it to, but with my new laptop, unlike any other computer I've had, when I turn it off afterward, even though I intend to turn it back on later, thereby restarting it, it instead decides to restart right then, leaving me to wait for it to load in again before i can turn it back off. Usually, especially when in a hurry, I simply push the on button, which turns the computer straight off, the only problem being that when I turn it back on I have to select 'start windows normally', after which it works properly again.

But this one time that isn't happening. Instead whenever I turn it on, whichever option I choose, it loads a little way, then after making a few strange whirring noises it stops and starts loading from the beginning again, after which it tells me something is wrong and asks me how I want it to load. I've tried safe mode, last setting that worked and normal, but the same thing always happens. I tried unplugging the internet, taking the CD out, then I tried unplugging it so it was running just on battery power, but the only difference then was that it made a slightly different whirring sound. I went into the setting menu, but I don't know what most of the stuff there does, and none of the options look like they would help at all anyway. I found a way to ask it to use a different boot driver, or something like that, I may not have remembered the name quite right, but whatever it was, I tried all three and nothing changed.

I've about run out of options now, and I need this computer to work, or I will have no access to any of my work on it, or to the internet for three weeks, and with my work due in another week after that, and this computer barely working either, I'll probably end up failing everything. I'm already behind in most of my work, and a lot of what I have done before hasn't worked out too well, so this is my last chance to prove that I can understand what I am told, can do the work and am not an idiot who should go back to school, or whatever it is they are planning now. That's enough ranting though, I don't suppose you really want to know all my trouble, apart from with my computer. I've completely run out of things to try, and I really need it working by saturday morning.

148.197.114.165 (talk) 14:28, 11 December 2008 (UTC)

I have several suggestions:

1) Record the error you get when you boot the computer. If you have the common problem that the errors fly by so fast you can't read them, you might have to take a picture of the screen with a digital camera, load it onto your big computer, and zoom in. Report the errors here, so maybe we can solve the problem.

2) Certainly carrying a regular computer around with you isn't ideal, but it should at least be possible if you travel by car. If you fly, you could maybe take most of the computer, but leave the monitor at home, and plug into a TV or monitor at your parent's house (you would need to ask about inputs on their TV or monitor to make sure they are compatible with your PC's outputs). If it's not too far, but you normally fly, you could drive instead this time. (If you don't have a car, you could carpool with other students going home to the same area, most colleges have bulletin boards for this type of thing.)

3) You could put all your work on CD or a USB drive and take it with you, with the idea of renting a computer at your parent's home town. You could also rent a laptop where you are now, take it to your parent's home, then return it when you get home. That would be a bit more expensive, though, since you will have to rent a laptop, and for a longer period. You might even be able to rent a laptop from a fellow student who doesn't need it over the holidays (try a bulletin board post again). StuRat (talk) 14:49, 11 December 2008 (UTC)

I'd say it's very important to lose the habit of not shutting down properly. I'd imagine that you've now littered your hard drive with dozens of "recovered" bits of files that are now useless and taking up space. You might also want to change your settings for Windows Update so that it does not automatically download and install said updates. If, however, you are not able to get to a Windows desktop at all on the laptop, then it might be time to consult a nearby technician who can see exactly what is going on.

This happens to all of the computers at my school. It usually works if you select 'Start Windows in last good configuration' or something around those lines. Cheers, ṜedMarkViolinist^{Drop me a line} 16:30, 11 December 2008 (UTC)

It sounds to me like you have been interrupting the Windows update time and time again. Eventually it has got it self into such a state that you have several half-installed updates in conflict with one another. A half installed update is worse than no update at all. Windows update and anti-virus updates should be left to complete, no matter how inconvenient this is. No wonder your computer is sick.

As you have found out, messing around with mains or battery power, or the CD tray, the network, or the power switch is not the solution. One possible fix that might work is to boot from the original operating system disk and choose the "Repair" option. That usually fixes the computer enough so you can restart it.

If that is not possible, I'm afraid you might have to reinstall Windows (again using the original operating system disk). However, this will probably wipe the hard disk so the one thing that really must be done first is to try to backup all your work: Take the hard drive out of your laptop and put it in an external disk housing (you can get these from somewhere like PC World), then using another PC copy your work (and anything else you cannot afford to lose - emails, music, etc) to somewhere safe. You can then put the drive back in your laptop and do a proper repair without the fear of losing everything

In future, configure the Windows update to "download but don't install". Your PC will then tell you there's an update and you can choose to put it off to another time or do nothing and it will install before shutting down.

Astronaut (talk) 17:28, 11 December 2008 (UTC)

I tried 'last good configuration', but it didn't help. And I haven't been interrupting the updates, only the restarting of the computer afterward. Though I suppose that's just as bad.

My dad spent a long time setting it to download and install updates when I first got the laptop, and it wouldn't have seemed right undoing all that work, even if I knew how, and he seemed sure it was important. I don't really mind the updates, except when they interrupt whatever else I'm trying to do. The only real problem I had was when the computer decided to restart itself either part of the way through my doing something else, or instead of turning off.

I had though about taking the hard drive out, but it seemed too much like those unusual and rather too practical schemes I sometimes come up with, that my parents have spent a lot of time persuading me not to do.

148.197.114.165 (talk) 12:55, 12 December 2008 (UTC)

Actually it's probably the same time. Usually if the update requires your computer to restart, it means it hasn't finished installing. In Vista and in memory in XP you can delay restarts due to updates indefinitely. Nor do you have to restart. If you want to turn off your computer, don't tell it to restart (either with the update or with the start menu or whatever). Instead just tell it to turn off as you normally would (this would usually be via the start menu but there are other ways). Also in most modern computers pushing the power button should tell the OS to start to turn off. In some cases this may send it to sleep instead but you should be able to modify this via the bios or Windows. If you turn off your computer instead of telling it restart that should be fine (although it may take a while on next startup as it completes the updates). But resetting it when it's in the middle of completing an update is an exceptionally bad idea. Nil Einne (talk) 08:51, 13 December 2008 (UTC)

Open file with Python

How do I tell Python to open file xy? (using the standard program in the OS, and not opening a file for reading its content). Mr.K. (talk) 15:52, 11 December 2008 (UTC)

I don't know what you mean by "using the standard program in the OS", and if you're not reading, I have to assume you're writing. This bit of code comes from A Byte of Python -

f = file('poem.txt', 'w') # open for 'w'riting
f.write(poem) # write text to file
f.close() # close the file

--LarryMac | Talk 16:06, 11 December 2008 (UTC)

Thanks a lot for your answer, but I expressed myself poorly. I have files like xy.html, xy.txt, xy.pdf, etc and I want Python to open it with Firefox, gedit, Acrobat, etc. It's like a command that would double-click these files. Mr.K. (talk) 16:19, 11 December 2008 (UTC)

To do this on Linux (with Gnome installed):

 import gnomevfs
 gnomevfs.url_show("file:///home/myname/Examples/oo-trig.xls")  # it seems to require an absolute path

Equally there are (I think) KDE and DBUS equivalents, and presumably equivalents for OS-X and Windows. Surely there's a generic one (where the plaform figures this stuff out for you) but I can't immediately figure out what. 87.114.128.88 (talk) 17:35, 11 December 2008 (UTC)

A lot of Python programs I've found (¡viva Google Code Search!) exec out and call binaries - gnome-open (for gnome) and xdg-open (for KDE). 87.114.128.88 (talk) 17:48, 11 December 2008 (UTC)

If you're running under Windows, you can use the ShellExecute function from the Windows API. In Python terms, something like this should work:

import win32api

win32api.ShellExecute (
  0,          # window handle
  "open",     # action e.g. "edit", "print", or None for default action
  filename,   # file to open
  None,       # parameters to application
  ".",        # default directory
  0           # flags for showing application
  )

This is pretty much the same as right-clicking on a file and selecting "open", "print", etc. For more info on ShellExecute, see the MS website[10]. As far as I know, Unix/Linux doesn't have a generic method for associating file types with an application (other than "#!" in text files). --Maltelauridsbrigge (talk) 18:49, 11 December 2008 (UTC)

Linux doesn't have a generic method, as you say, but both Gnome and KDE do (in a manner that's much like how Windows does it). 87.114.128.88 (talk) 19:27, 11 December 2008 (UTC)

For Max OS X the terminal command is simply "open" followed by the filename, however I do not believe that "practical" Guido has omitted a generic way to do this in Python. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 84.187.77.141 (talk) 23:44, 11 December 2008 (UTC)

changing windows xp boot screen

alright, i know how to use resource hacker and how to edit the resources of ntoskrnl.exe to change the boot screen. But i'd like to know whether or not i can use GIMP 2.6.3 to edit the boot screen, or if i'll have to get Paint Shop Pro or some other program. Don't suggest BootSkin; i like to hack and to me that program is cheating.  Buffered Input Output 17:26, 11 December 2008 (UTC)

As long as you can save a bmp file with the correct size and number of colors, the Gimp should be fine. Don't forget to backup ntoskrnl.exe before you make any changes. --LarryMac | Talk 18:07, 11 December 2008 (UTC)

Ok, i tried it and it didn't work, the screen stayed the same. Is there a palette file i need to load or something?  Buffered Input Output 13:42, 12 December 2008 (UTC)

Quick Time 7 Pro--MPEG 1 Muxed????

another question, i have several videos downloaded as an MPEG file. The audio and video tracks are in a "MPEG 1 Muxed" format that refuses to export sound to any other format. I want these videos on my iPod and would really like to have sound with them. Is there any way to "un-mux" this muxed track?  Buffered Input Output 17:34, 11 December 2008 (UTC)

The term you are looking for is "demux", so search for "mpg demux" (and "mpeg demux"). There are plenty of them around. You won't need to convert the audio to anything. A player that can handle mp3's (correctly: mpeg 1 level 3) can also handle mpeg 1 level 2. -- Fullstop (talk) 20:28, 11 December 2008 (UTC)

Have you tried running them through iTunes? Advance>Convert Video to iPod format ? --70.167.58.6 (talk) 18:18, 13 December 2008 (UTC)

MSN: alternative webcam compatible clients for Windows/VMware Fusion

Does MSN/Windows Live Messenger have any alternative clients that can use webcams on Windows? Specifically, it's for use under VMware Fusion. My Mac OSX client (Adium) isn't (yet) compatible.81.143.61.181 (talk) 23:28, 11 December 2008 (UTC)

December 12

What's the largest wikipedia disambiguation page and how many entries does it have?

I'm just curious. I like the idea of a versitle concept. 75.71.18.225 (talk) 04:53, 13 December 2008 (UTC)

Perhaps you should ask at WP:HD... flaminglawyer^cneverforget 14:15, 13 December 2008 (UTC)

A complete guess would be People with the surname Smith. 83.250.202.208 (talk) 14:48, 13 December 2008 (UTC)

Regular expression to extract urls from link

I'm trying to write a regex (in .net) to extract a url given the linked text (eg: <a href="http://www.yahoo.com">foo</a></nowiki> should give me: "http://www.yahoo.com")

I have tried: "<a href=(?<url>.*?)>foo</a>" but it fails when there are many urls (eg: <a href="http://www.google.com">google</a> <a href="http://www.yahoo.com">foo</a>" gives me: "http://www.google.com">google</a> <a href="http://www.yahoo.com")

thanks —Preceding unsigned comment added by 96.15.145.57 (talk) 00:46, 12 December 2008 (UTC)

Regular expressions are greedy and will match as much as possible. Some implementations have a non-greedy option you can use. I don't use .net, so I don't know if you just turn off the greediness. If not, you have to tell it that > will not appear the URL. Using normal RegEx syntax, it looks like: "<a href=([^>]*)>". Of course, that will fail if you have something like <a href='somelink.html' style='color:red;'>. So, you need to assume that there are quotes of some kind around the URL and use <[aA] [^&gt]*[hH][rR][eE][fF]\s*=\s*['"]([^'"]*). Notice that I capture both upper/lower cases. I allow for any garbage between the a and href. I start after the ' or ". I don't need any more because it will stop looking as soon as it hits the next ' or ". -- kainaw™ 03:56, 12 December 2008 (UTC)

If it doesn't have quotes, you can extract it using the fact that urls can't contain spaces. Something like:

<a href="?([^" ]*)

should match it fine. It wont work if the link is like <a style="something" href="http://example.com">, so you might want to use

<a [^>]*href="?([^" ]*)

instead. That should work, but I haven't tested it. If it doesn't, report back. 83.250.202.208 (talk) 19:58, 12 December 2008 (UTC)

Oh, yeah, about case-sensitivity: perl has an option (/i) to specify that the pattern matching is case-insensitive. Don't know if .net has such an option. That's the simplest way to make sure it works. Otherwise, replace "a" with "[Aa]" and "href" with "[Hh][Rr][Ee][Ff]" in my regex. Then it should work perfectly. 83.250.202.208 (talk) 20:02, 12 December 2008 (UTC)

Thanks guys. Both of your suggestions worked very well. I've combined elements of both and ended up with: <a[^>]* href\s*=\s*['"]([^'" ]*)['"]> as it turns out that .net has a ignore case option. In the first one I was trying to use the non-greedy option, but I think it only works right to left, not left to right, if that makes any sense. 98.134.241.110 (talk) 20:49, 12 December 2008 (UTC)

Just one thing: I'm not sure that will work if the link-tag doesn't use quotes (that's bad html-writing, but it happens). I'd use ['"]? instead of ['"] just to be sure. 83.250.202.208 (talk) 21:23, 12 December 2008 (UTC)

C++ question!

Ok now assume i've written 2 lines like this:

int n=10;

char name[n];

Don't think the following question is a stupid one before reading my argument! Now assuming these two statements are part of a bigger program.Would you say that this is a correct intialisation or a wrong one? Is it necessary to have the keyword "const" (constant) before the "int n=10;" making it "const int n=10;"??? And if it is a correct one then is it a static allocation or a dynamic one? My argument is that it is a correct one. Even if these two lines are part of a much bigger program when the compiler first compiles the program ,it will come to this line "int n=10;" and EVEN THOUGH there is no const keyword it will intialise n with the value 10 and right after that the intialisation of the char array is taking place,so the value of n DOESN'T CHANGE during runtime, so technically it should reserve the memory of 10 bytes for the array "name".So whatever be the value of "n" before this line,but at this moment right here it is 10 and it ain't changing so technically it should work and reserve 10 bytes. Which means that it is a static allocation right?Because the memory is being reserved during the compilation period. But most people claim this is a dynamic allocation.Does anyone have a logical explanation to this? Oh and yes i have tried the above code and it gives no error whatsoever. I extended it to two more lines after that and it got initialised.

int n=10;

char name[n];

gets(name);

puts(name);

And it executed perfectly and takes the input properly and outputs it.But even then most claim that "theoritically " it shouldn't work . So if anyone has an explanation of some kind i would love to hear it. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Vineeth h (talk • contribs) 08:48, 12 December 2008 (UTC)

In your example, n is a variable. It is not a constant. So, you are using a variable length for the name array. Doing so means you have a dynamic array. You claim it worked, but did it really work. Did you verify you didn't have a memory leak since you didn't delete the name array when you were done with it? A memory leak means it isn't working properly. -- kainaw™ 14:30, 12 December 2008 (UTC)

It's wrong because the C++ standard says it's wrong. C++ does not have dynamic arrays. It's true that it would be easy for a language to support the feature you describe (C99 does), but C++ does not. The fact that it works for you means that your compiler does not conform to the C++ standard in this instance. You may be able to pass it some flag like "-pedantic" to get it to complain about non-standard constructs like this, which will make your programs more portable across compilers. --Sean 15:08, 12 December 2008 (UTC)

The compiler knows that the expression n is constant due to Constant folding. The type of name is char[10], which is a fixed sized array type. The C99 extension defines dynamically sized arrays; looks similar but works quite different. Whether name is allocated dynamically or statically depends on where you write that code snippet. In a function body, name will be part of the stack frame of the function, which means dynamic memory. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 84.187.56.177 (talk) 22:58, 12 December 2008 (UTC)

Also, the values in the name array are uninitialized, thus the call to gets is undefined. From the gets manpage^*: "gets() reads a line from stdin into the buffer pointed to by s until either a terminating newline or EOF, which it replaces with '\0'. No check for buffer overrun is performed (see BUGS below)."

The note in BUGS referenced in the quote applies to reading from the standard input stream (it turns out to be a security risk. The first sentence in the section BUGS is "Never use gets()."^*

Because it's uninitialized, you can't be guaranteed than either a terminating newline or an EOF will be within the array size. My point is, if the 4-line example you gave above runs correctly, you simply happen to be lucky. --Silvaran (talk) 01:46, 13 December 2008 (UTC)

Sal ex

oes anyone know where i can find info on this virus? 147.197.229.134 (talk) 09:26, 12 December 2008 (UTC)

Look for virus library on google or go to McAfee's website and look for info there. There are quite detailed lists about viruses on most of the major virus-scanning/protection websites. 14:05, 12 December 2008 (UTC) —Preceding unsigned comment added by 194.221.133.226 (talk)

Xbox 360 Arcade Bundle

My Xbox red ringed and I got a $300 check from dell to replace it. Since I can't just buy a core system through them I wanted to buy this bundle and attach the hard drive from my busted Xbox to it. Will it work? [11] Strifeblade (talk) 20:14, 12 December 2008 (UTC)

Sure, no reason it wouldn't. The Arcade doesn't come with a hard drive, but the console is otherwise the same, and you can still connect a hard drive to it. You'll probably want to run this after. -- Consumed Crustacean (talk) 20:27, 12 December 2008 (UTC)

Thanks for the help! Strifeblade (talk) 20:30, 12 December 2008 (UTC)

Building a PC

I'm interested in building my own PC, but I'm afraid I don't know too much about it. If anyone could offer some insight, I would be immensely grateful.

First of all, should I build a laptop or a desktop? I would prefer to have a laptop, but I've heard they're more expensive and difficult to build. How expensive is it to build a computer? I'm not going to buy a lot of expensive graphics cards or whatever, just stuff that's good enough to run some games on- I'm not a big gamer. I especially would like to know how expensive the OS would be. I do not want Linux, I want Windows. Also... how difficult is it to build a computer and how long will it take? Are there any online tutorials I can use to help me through the process and where should I buy the parts from?

If there's anything else you think would help me, please tell me. As I said, I don't know much about building computers, so I may not know what questions to ask. Thanks! 24.180.87.119 (talk) 20:35, 12 December 2008 (UTC)

Building a PC is much easier then you would think! First, go to a website like newegg.com to look up parts. You should build a desktop because building laptops are literally impossible. Things you will need for a custom PC is a 'computer case', a motherboard, RAM, a hard drive, keyboard, mouse, monitor, and a CD drive if you want to install Windows. Get those things together in a list, suiting your needs, I build powerful PC for less then $500 dollars! So, budget won't be a problem, Building it is a diffrent story. You might want to hire an expert for that. That's my recommendations. --Randoman412 (talk) 21:13, 12 December 2008 (UTC)

OK, thanks. I'll definitely be building a desktop, then... is there any site that has directions or tutorials? How difficult would it be to put it together on my own? 24.180.87.119 (talk) 04:19, 13 December 2008 (UTC)

A 2 second Google search turns up this as the 1st result. flaminglawyer^cneverforget 06:10, 13 December 2008 (UTC)

It used to be cheaper to build your own, but nowadays unless you've a good reason otherwise I'd advise against it. Dmcq (talk) 17:32, 13 December 2008 (UTC)

Note that "build your own PC" has two meanings:

1) Buy all the components and assemble it yourself.

2) Specify each component and have the retailer assemble it for you.

Do you mean option 1 ? StuRat (talk) 18:14, 13 December 2008 (UTC)

online guitar auto tuner

hi,

is there anywhere on the web where a free guitar auto tuner can be found, with a sound input as a microphone or something? thanks, --84.69.235.69 (talk) 20:56, 12 December 2008 (UTC)

I don't know what you mean by an auto tuner, but will this suffice? Google is your friend. edit: I see you're looking for something that'll tell you whether you're out of tune, and by how much. I can't help you with that, but it may be worth learning how to tune it yourself. Sorry! [ cycle~ ] (talk), 21:49, 12 December 2008 (UTC)

Did a google search with the keywords "guitar", "tuning" and "software" a la this. I try not to hassle people too much about not googling for stuff, unless I'm convinced by their experience that they should know better. Sometimes it's difficult to find just the right keywords to use in a search, after all. But kudos for leaving your original comment there instead of removing it completely :). To the original poster of the question: I would strongly suggest that you try not to rely on auto-tuning software. Sometimes struggling to get the strings just the right pitch can help improve your ability to distinguish between slight pitch differences. Also, remember that tuning a guitar is not just about twisting the keys on the headstock. Especially when installing new strings, you should check your guitar's intonation. I only mention it because I got hung up with this when I first started learning guitar. --Silvaran (talk) 23:14, 12 December 2008 (UTC)

There is, of course, this alternative! [ cycle~ ] (talk), 11:35, 13 December 2008 (UTC)

OS X language oops

I used the program 'Monolingual' (search for it on the Google) to remove some languages I didn't need from my hard drive. By accident, I deleted a language I needed (japanese) and now i cant get it back. I don't wanna have to reinstall OS X just to get 1 language back, what do I do? --67.81.115.70 (talk) 21:04, 12 December 2008 (UTC)

Debian package manager: Manually installed packages

How do I list the packages that were marked as manually installed? Can I remove this "manually installed" status from the package, so it appears as no longer needed when I remove dependent packages? --Silvaran (talk) 22:51, 12 December 2008 (UTC)

December 13

Yahoo! Mail Chat

Hey y'all. I have a Verizon Yahoo! account(ISP) and I sometimes use Yahoo! Mail. I have never used the classic interface sticking to the new one instead (Which is still boring). I sometimes also use the chat feature. (Not very well integrated, boring interface, etc, I prefer Gmail, :P) but I recently set some Custom Status Messages. How in the hell do you clear them? I only have three at the moment, (Lunch, Dinner, Breakfast[Out of order as you can see, but that's the way it happens, except for breakfast, I just added it for later on]) In Gmail I can clear my statuses in two clicks. But there doesn't appear to be any way clear your status messages in Yahoo! Mail chat???--Xp54321 ^{(Hello! • Contribs)} 03:40, 13 December 2008 (UTC)

Nvidia GeForce 9800 vs ATI Radeon HD 4830 graphics processors

On my laptop (Vista, 4 gigs ram), I'm using a GeForce 9300 and want to upgrade it. I use this laptop as a gaming pc. I've read [this review]and the 9800 slightly better, but I'm not totally convinced that the nvidia is the better deal. The over I'm willing to stray from the nvidia line. So should I give in to nvidia and buy the 9800? or buy the radeon 4830? Parker2334 04:41, 13 December 2008 (UTC)

Uh while I can't answer your question I would strongly suggest you look at more reviews (especially reviews with different sets of games and configurations of games and different hardware configs (that uses a quad core which I doubt your laptop has). For example in that review the Crysis Warhead FPS is a little on the low side on all cards and would probably be too low for many. I'm guessing that the game is playable you just need to change the config and testing that would probably be more meaningful. Also it's quite common you'd find different games give different results. (Actually even that review shows that although the 4830 never really 'wins') Also the difference shown by the review isn't great so if there is a substanial price difference I would strongly recommend the cheaper one. However a big questio might be do you know what you're getting into trying to upgrade the laptop video card? It's not unusual an easy process and sometimes may not be possible. (If your getting someone else to upgrade it then this consideration doesn't come into it). P.S. Remember to make sure the laptop versions of the card are the same configs (mem, GPU and shader frequency, memory config [256 bit or whatever], and number of shader) as the desktop versions otherwise the reviews are meaningless Nil Einne (talk) 08:40, 13 December 2008 (UTC)

Which is the best operating system?

Hello, I'm looking into buying a new laptop and want to seek your unbiased recommendation (no fan allegiances, and thanks for recommending Firefox!). Disregarding the cost of the operating system, which would you recommend based on reliability, user experience, and overall performance? I've used Windows for my entire life and know that I do not like it, because of many reasons, and would prefer not to get another Windows. But would really like my new computer to be fairly compatible with Windows and .exe files even if it means possibly getting another Windows. I've used a Mac for half a year at my old work and really like it and all the thousands of features it had except that wasn't compatible with my home computers even though the Parallels application was good, I hated switching OS's. I haven't tried Linux or any other operating systems so I can't say much about them. Can they come with as many features as a Mac and be compatible with windows applications? Which OS would you recommend disregarding cost? -- penubag  (talk) 07:27, 13 December 2008 (UTC)

It really depends on what you're looking for. Look at this article for a basic chart of information for quite a few operating systems. If you like games ... go with Windows. If you want it for anything else (music, video, or just the basics), I'd personally go with Mac. Linux Ubuntu is nice, if you know what you're doing. –  LATICS  talk  07:39, 13 December 2008 (UTC)

What else is Windows better than a mac for besides games? Can the newest Mac read .exe files? -- penubag  (talk) 08:42, 13 December 2008 (UTC)

No, macs can't directly use .exe-files, because those are windows-programs, and mac isn't windows. However, they do run fine under an application like Parallels, which virtualizes windows (think of it as sort of a simulator, the program thinks it's really running under windows, even though it's on a mac. It's like running a computer inside a computer). Linux can run a lot of windows-programs using something called Wine (it will, for instance, run Word 2003 fine). However, even though different Linux-distributions have made great strides recently to become more user (and newbie) friendly, they are significanly more challenging to use if you don't know what you're doing. There is a fairly significant learning curve.

I do think you are thinking about your choice in a slightly wrong way. You shouldn't ask yourself "what operating systems can run .exes", because Windows is the only one that's built to use them. What you should be asking instead is "Do other operating systems have good substitutes for the things I need in Windows?". And the answer for Mac is essentially yes. Besides games (which is completely dominant on Windows), you can pretty much do anything on a Mac (or Linux) desktop that you can do on a Windows desktop. You can't run Office for Windows in a Mac, but you can run a version specifically made for Macs. Not to mention the excellent OpenOffice which is pretty much just as good as Microsoft Office, but with the added benefit of being free (it is also interoperable, you can both save and open a file in Office's .doc format).

Is there any specific app you just can't live without on Windows? Do you have a list of apps that you would like to know if there are replacements for on windows? I'm sure we can help you out. And in the (very unlikely) event that there is an app for which there is absolutely no good replacement on an Apple machine, you can always run Parallels, and it will take care of that as well. I strongly recommend you go with a Mac. 83.250.202.208 (talk) 14:43, 13 December 2008 (UTC)

As to games you may find you are better off with a games machine linked to your telly for games and just not bother with that requirement for your computing needs, i.e. have two machines. Dmcq (talk) 17:26, 13 December 2008 (UTC)

Command Prompt unable to delete folder

Everytime I try to open a certain folder in my F:\ drive, Windows Explorer displays the following message:

Windows Explorer has encountered a problem and needs to close. We are sorry for the inconvenience.

I tried deleting the folder (it contains subfolders as well) using Command Prompt using rd, rmdir and del, but to no avail. Each time I hit Enter, Command Prompt simply closes down. I can't delete the folder using GUI either. Please help. (Windows XP, SP2) 117.194.226.34 (talk) 07:38, 13 December 2008 (UTC)

You could try copying everything else off to another drive and then reformat F: and restore. Think about this carefully before you try it. -- SGBailey (talk) 09:19, 13 December 2008 (UTC)

Sounds like filesystem corruption or something. I'd try a chkdsk and some similar kind of tools. Indeterminate (talk) 09:35, 13 December 2008 (UTC)

Filesystem corruption wouldn't cause a user-mode program to crash. It would result in a BSOD. I would say the folder contains files/directories with weird filenames, or that there is some sort of user-mode hook on the API functions used to open directories. Try using a Windows "Live CD" like BartPE or a GNU/Linux Live CD with NTFS-3G. --wj32 ^t/c 10:50, 13 December 2008 (UTC)

Question

Where can I find computers that run old operating systems (such as Windows 3.1)? I'd like to have my own personal computer for old stuff. Yes, I know I can use Ebay, but I'd also like to know other places. (Country: Australia.) 58.165.14.208 (talk) 08:15, 13 December 2008 (UTC)

You should be able to run Windows 3.1 in VMware or other virtualisation program. The only potential problem I can see is midi support. You can also run Windows 3.1 on DOSbox [12]. The hardest thing may be finding a legal copy of Windows 3.1 Nil Einne (talk) 09:36, 13 December 2008 (UTC)

That's exactly what I'm trying to ask - sort of. I would like to know where, not counting Ebay, I can buy computers that run Windows 3.1. Though I have only used Windows 3.1 about 10 times, it's one of my favourite Windows operating systems - and it's only fair that I can find a computer that has Win3.1 on it. 58.165.14.208 (talk) 10:30, 13 December 2008 (UTC)

If you actually want a physical computer to run Windows 3.1 on then your current computer should do, just install Windows 3.1 on a separate hard drive and format it as FAT, or if you're willing to do a bit of work then you could even partition your current hard drive. It shouldn't be a problem if your computer uses Serial ATA as most BIOS can emulate for older hardware. If you want the full nostalgic experience complete with noisy fans, high power consumption and unbelievably slow loading times then I'd imagine you can pick up old computers at second hand shops, garage sales, flea markets etc or ask around your friends as many old pcs still lurk in their owner's attics and basements collecting dust. My advice though would be to use Qemu Manager to make virtual computers. You can set it up to emulate older hardware and Windows 3.1 works well on this. SN0WKITT3N 15:07, 13 December 2008 (UTC)

I think we need to back up and explain that Windows 3.1 will run on either the old computers it originally was designed for or on newer computers. It will, however, be much faster on newer computers. In some cases, it can actually be too fast, if the programmer depended on the slow speed to give you time to view the display before it updated. One example of this is the information that scrolls by when booting a computer. It was originally displayed slowly enough that you could read it, but even a speed reader would be out of luck now, with today's faster computers.

So, if you want an old computer, then you may be able to get it with Windows 3.1 still on it. If you want a new computer, then you only need to find a copy of Windows 3.1 to install on it (I suppose there might be a few new computers that already have Windows 3.1 on them, but good luck finding them). What don't you like about buying things via eBay or other web sites ? If you don't like buying things over the Internet, then you're limited to computers near your home, and there aren't likely to be old computers and operating systems for sale in your town. If there are, they would be at garage sales, I suspect. StuRat (talk) 18:06, 13 December 2008 (UTC)

On a related note: for newer computers, are everything still compatible with those old DOS / Win3.1 drivers? Are sound cards, for example, still Sound Blaster compatible, and would one be able to get decent screen resolutions? It is my impression that the relatively decent plug-and-play capabilities of Windows XP has made people forget about the hassle this used to be. And the original poster should be aware that (as far as I know) networking on Windows 3.1 might not be easy; you would need some additional programs, right? Jørgen (talk) 18:46, 13 December 2008 (UTC)

Good point. The last time I tried Windows 3.1 on a new computer I could only get sound to come from the motherboard's internal speaker and a screen resolution of 640x480. Also whenever sound played the system would lock up until the sound had finished. That's why I think its best to install 3.1 on a virtual pc as it will emulate older hardware which the drivers will work with. If you do install on a newer computer check out this site which has a collection of drivers for newer hardware, even DVD and USB drivers for Windows 3.1 and DOS. SN0WKITT3N 19:34, 13 December 2008 (UTC)

Blue screen of death error report

Can anyone decipher for me the error report I got after I restarted from a blue screen of death. The error report said I had had a "serious error" and when I asked for detail on the report it was going to send to Microsoft (which I didn't bother doing), it gave me:

C:\DOCUME~1\(redacted)~1\LOCALS~1\Temp\WERccdc.dir00\Mini121308-01.dmp
C:\DOCUME~1\(redacted)~1\LOCALS~1\Temp\WERccdc.dir00\sysdata.xml

Thanks.--71.247.123.9 (talk) 11:33, 13 December 2008 (UTC)

I don't know if anyone here can decipher the report, but I'm sure they'd have to see it to even try. You need to upload those files so we can see them. StuRat (talk) 17:50, 13 December 2008 (UTC)

My problem with a C program

As a part of a college project, I have been asked to write a C program which accepts an employee's username and password. The difficult part is that the output screen is not supposed to show the password while the user types it in the console. I have a limited knowledge about C (since my major in college is electrical engineering) and do not know how to proceed with this problem. Please explain what to do. I will be very thankful for your help. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 220.227.68.5 (talk) 12:40, 13 December 2008 (UTC)

You don't say what platform your program will run on, and that makes a difference. On a unix platform, you'd call tcsetattr to temporarily unset the terminal's ECHO bit, read the data with gets or whatever, and then restore the terminal with another call to tcsetattr. Almost all modern Unix implementations, including OS-X and Linux, implement the getpass() call, which does this for you. I don't know the specific call for C on windows, but I'm sure it's much the same. 87.114.128.88 (talk) 14:41, 13 December 2008 (UTC)

#include <termios.h>

int get_a_char_from_kbd_without_showing_what_it_is(void)

{ /* blocking function to wait for a keystroke, then get it without also echoing it */

struct termios stored;

struct termios newios;

int fd, ch;

 

fd = fileno(stdin);

if (!isatty(fd)) {

ch = fgetc( stdin );

if (ch == EOF)

ch = 0;

return ch;

}

fflush(stdout);

tcgetattr(fd,&stored); /* Get the original termios configuration */

memcpy(&newios,&stored,sizeof(struct termios));

newios.c_lflag &= ~(ECHO|ECHONL);

#if defined(ECHOPRT) /* not POSIX */

newios.c_lflag &= ~(ECHOPRT);

#endif

#if defined(ECHOCTL) /* not POSIX */

newios.c_lflag &= ~(ECHOCTL);

#endif

newios.c_lflag &= ~(ICANON); /* not linemode and no translation */

newios.c_cc[VTIME] = 0; /* tsecs inter-char gap */

newios.c_cc[VMIN] = 1; /* number of chars to block for */

tcsetattr(0,TCSANOW,&newios); /* Activate the new settings */

ch = getchar(); /* Read a single character */

tcsetattr(fd,TCSAFLUSH,&stored); /* Restore the original settings */

if (ch == EOF)

ch = 0;

return ch;

}

Enjoy. -- Fullstop (talk) 16:11, 13 December 2008 (UTC)

How can I implement this feature in a database

How could I best implement the following in a (relational) database:
To keep things simple let's suppose I have table "Cars" which keeps records of information relating to various cars. It may have fields such as "Engine" "Drive" etc

Now say there's a field for the "Colour" of the car:
I want to be able to select a colour from a list in a manner which I could best be described by showing you the list below:
Red

Light red

Dark red

...

Blue

Light blue

Dark blue

Green

...

Yellow

...

...

From a list such as the one above, I want to be able to select "Red" or one of the types of red. It wouldn't necessarily be limited to 2 types of each main colour and there may be more levels (i.e. there may be different types of "Dark red")

Finally, I want to be able to search cars by colour so that if I search for "Red", the result will be any car which is any type of red. If I search for "dark red", the result will be any car which is any type of dark red etc

--212.120.246.219 (talk) 12:42, 13 December 2008 (UTC)

That idea, where "light red" is-a-kind-of "red" is one that natively sits well with an object database; if you wish to implement this in a relational database (where such familial relationships aren't captured" you could either:

1. have an additional field in your car table, say called "colour_family", where a maroon coloured car could have a colour of maroon and a colour_family of red
2. if doing stuff by colour was important (that you'd be doing a lot of queries and changes specifically in terms of colour, then you might chose to have a seperate colour index where you'd store cars in terms of their colours; you can have any number of entries for this, so a given car can be (if you choose) any number of colours. Obviously this is considerably more complex, and you need to keep everything up to date when making changes.

87.114.128.88 (talk) 14:35, 13 December 2008 (UTC)

---

You're basically trying to have a hierarchical structure in a relational database, which is a common problem. I'd suggest a structure like this for the color table:

    ID       PARENT     NAME      
+---------+-----------+-------------------+
| 100,000 |  0        | Red               |
| 110,000 |  100,000  | Light red         |
| 120,000 |  100,000  | Dark red          |
| 121,000 |  120,000  | Dark red metallic |
| 200,000 |  0        | Blue              |
| 210,000 |  200,000  | Light Blue        |
| 300,000 |  0        | Green             |
| 400,000 |  0        | Yellow            |
| 500,000 |  0        | White             |
+---------+-----------+-------------------+

There would then be some code to select a car color from this COLOR table which would look something like this:

ID = 0
LOOP:
 select COUNT from COLOR where PARENT = ID; ! Get number of sub-colors for this color 
                                            !  (or number of top level colors if ID=0).
 if COUNT = 0 goto END;                     ! Quit program if there are no more color levels.
 select *     from COLOR where PARENT = ID; ! Get sub-colors for this color 
                                            !  (or top level colors if ID=0).
 ...                                        ! Display list and let user select color (not shown).
 CONTINUE_SEARCH ?                          ! Once color is selected, user should be prompted 
                                            !  to either use that color or search for subcolors.                                
if (CONTINUE_SEARCH=YES) goto LOOP

Obviously there's quite a bit more needed to the code, like assigning local program variables, but that's the general idea.

Now, once a final color is selected, that color's ID would be added to the CAR table (as COLOR_ID, for example). To search for cars of a given color, you must first select a color from the color table. In this case, all colors should be listed. Note that you could make the list look more presentable, when displayed, by using some extra spaces in the NAMEs in the COLOR table:

    ID       PARENT     NAME      
+---------+-----------+---------------------+
| 100,000 |  0        | Red                 |
| 110,000 |  100,000  |  Light red          |
| 120,000 |  100,000  |  Dark red           |
| 121,000 |  120,000  |   Dark red metallic |
| 200,000 |  0        | Blue                |
| 210,000 |  200,000  |  Light Blue         |
| 300,000 |  0        | Green               |
| 400,000 |  0        | Yellow              |
| 500,000 |  0        | White               |
+---------+-----------+---------------------+

In this case a simple select would work:

select * from COLOR sort by ID;

You could also skip adding the extra spaces in the table and write some extra code to display the list that way, instead. Now, once you had the color selected, you'd need to prompt the user to either search for cars with that exact color or else that color and all subcolors of it. If they say they want that exact color, just do this:

select * from CARS where COLOR_ID = ID;

If they also want subcolors, here's where you could use the naming convention I've used for the ID:

select * from CARS where COLOR_ID like '1%%%%%%'; ! All cars any color under red.
select * from CARS where COLOR_ID like '11%%%%%'; ! All cars any color under light red.
select * from CARS where COLOR_ID like '12%%%%%'; ! All cars any color under dark red.  
select * from CARS where COLOR_ID like '121%%%%'; ! All cars any color under dark red metallic.

Note that this assumes that the ID and PARENT fields in the COLOR table and the COLOR_ID field in the CAR table are character strings. If they're numeric, some conversion between character and numeric fields would be needed in the program. StuRat (talk) 14:54, 13 December 2008 (UTC)

One other comment on the naming convention I've used for the COLOR table ID field: I've used numbers in the character strings in my example, but you aren't limited to just numbers. If you have more than 10 top-level colors, you could use uppercase letters for 26 possibilities, or uppercase and lowercase for 52, or add in numbers for 62. The same would be true at each level of subcolors. You could even use all ASCII codes for 128 (7-bit) or 256 (8-bit) possible colors at each level. However, beware that some of those characters are unprintable, so require more work when debugging (you have to print out the ASCII codes instead of the characters).

One other comment on the sort order of the COLOR table: I've sorted based on the ID, which works well for a static table. However, if you need to change the colors frequently, you can't change their IDs easily, as those are in the CAR table too. So, you might want to have an additional SORT_ORDER field in the COLOR table which controls how colors are displayed for selection. StuRat (talk) 17:25, 13 December 2008 (UTC)

---

However, if your set of colours and their relationships is fixed when you write your program, you can just do the work in your SQL query:

SELECT * FROM cars 
  WHERE colour="british racing green" 
     OR colour="green" 
     OR colour="moss"  ;

That's the very opposite of StuRat's suggestion; which is appropriate depends on your problem. 87.114.128.88 (talk) 15:36, 13 December 2008 (UTC)

www.a.com

Apparently, single letter domain names (e.g. www.a.com) are not allowed. Why ever not? I wanted need one. --Seans Potato Business 17:46, 13 December 2008 (UTC)

We have an article at single-letter second-level domains. According to [13], in the early days of DNS they considered splitting each TLD into 26 subdomains in order to split the load, so the English Wikipedia, for example, would be at en.wikipedia.w.org. They decided against it (obviously) and considered releasing them in 2005, but apparently nothing came of it. If they did release them, I imagine you'd have a hard time getting one - there'd only be 26 per TLD, and I could see some companies paying substantial sums for them (Google would probably want to snap up g.com, for example). There are some, actually - q.com and x.org are two. They were registered before it was blocked. — Matt Eason ^{(Talk &#149; Contribs)} 21:01, 13 December 2008 (UTC)

Google sites

Hello,

I recently wanted a info@mynamehere.com email for a website i'm in the process of building, so I went to 'gmail for organisations' and got one.. The bad news is that, becuase i bought the domain name through google, I can't see a way of uploading the website i've done in dreamweaver -i can only use their stupid templates. Does any one know how to get around this? I feel that as i've bought the site, its not for google to decide how it should look....82.22.4.63 (talk) 19:13, 13 December 2008 (UTC)

Sorry guys, I've just found out that the answer seems to NO. Is there anyway, i can therefore take the domain name off google and host it elsewhere? thanks..82.22.4.63 (talk) 19:55, 13 December 2008 (UTC)

Oh god, I've answered this one too! am hideous, ignore me..82.22.4.63 (talk) 20:00, 13 December 2008 (UTC)

Homer Simpson's big blue pants

I've noticed that cartoons are still using the old cheat of having each character wear the same clothes all the time, so scenes can be used interchangeably, without concern for clothing. Couldn't the coloring be done by computer, with each item, say "Homer's pants", assigned an index number, so that they could be filled in with a different color just by changing the mapping in a look-up table ?:

Index  Description     RGB Color  
-----  -------------   ---------
  1    Homer's pants   00 00 FF 
  2    Homer's shirt   FF FF FF

I realize that some cartoonists may always choose the same outfits as an "artistic choice", but this would give them the option to change the color of a clothing item in every panel, when they render the images, if they wanted. Also, couldn't a variable texture be assigned in the same way ? You might end up with something like this in a large table:

Frame#  XY_Location  Item Index
------  -----------  ----------
200000   100,100       1           
200000   100,200       2
 

StuRat (talk) 20:09, 13 December 2008 (UTC)

They could, but characters wearing the same clothes and having the same hairstyle isn't merely a matter of not having to recolour or redraw character frames (indeed, colouring and tweening are, for mass-production cartoons like The Simpsons, mostly done using automated or mostly-automated systems). Characters in comics are typically drawn looking much the same, even when the whole strip is hand-drawn (and thus there's no copy-paste economy to be had). Homer actually wears all kinds of things as the situation demands (a suit to dinner and to church, a muʻumuʻu when he's super-obese, a spacesuit when he's an astronaut. The normal Homer outfit merely means "the clothes don't matter, don't pay attention to them"; a different outfit means "something special is happening; the clothes are the clue as to what". And given the heavily-stylised art style of The Simpsons, they need to do that to properly communicate - if Homer wore a cheap suit to work and a fancy suit for a special occasion, they really couldn't easily draw the difference. All the Simpsons characters are the same: Apu wears the same outfit all the time, but when they want to show he's out on a date (shirt with ruffled collar) or getting married (white outfit with sash) they change it. 87.114.128.88 (talk) 21:47, 13 December 2008 (UTC)