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December 28

Girlfriend crashed her Mac 24.7GHz

She unplugged it while it was downloading. Stupid machine should have thought of that one. It shows lack / grey / white text that looks like MS-DOS. First word is Panic. Lots of error codes. It says to de-boot it or restart (huh?) it. When I turn it off using the power button it returns the same screen. Kittybrewster ☎ 02:17, 28 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Probably a kernel panic. Did she unplug it while it was installing an OS upgrade? Try reinstalling the OS with the OS media that came with the computer. -- JSBillings 02:36, 28 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Reset the PRAM and NVRAM first thing[1]. If that doesn't help, try a boot disk, check the hard drive. If none of that helps, try reinstalling the OS. --98.217.8.46 (talk) 04:19, 28 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Try booting into safe mode [2] and installing the OS upgrade again (while its in safe mode). If it was an OS upgrade. I don't see how unplugging a computer while downloading a file would permanently screw it up; it's probably filesystem corruption then (very unlikely though). --wj32 ^t/c 05:21, 28 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

I don't know what file system OS X uses, but file system corruption can occur if the power is unexpectedly cut. The probability depends on the file system used. XFS for example, is one of those that are more prone to corruption in the event of power failure. Rilak (talk) 08:34, 28 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

The file system is HFS+, if I'm not mistaken. — neuro^(talk) 10:33, 28 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Yes, and surely HFS+ doesn't use delayed allocation as much as XFS does (I use XFS)? I've had one or two power outages with XFS, but the worst that has happened is certain files I was working on got filled with nulls. You would (almost) never get file system corruption with a power outage. Unless HFS+ sucks more than I think. --wj32 ^t/c 23:15, 28 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

24.7ghz? Hell I want that. Or is this some sort of P4 derivative? :-P We really need some of those error codes to help more. If you have a digital camera of some sort (whether phone or standalone), try taking a photo Nil Einne (talk) 11:30, 28 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Checking system time in batch file

I would like to know if it is possible (if so, how) to write a batch file in such a way that it executes a desired command at a specific time? Ideally it would check the system`s time (I know there`s a command that allows me to see the time, but I don`t know how to manipulate the values it gives me) and then execute my command at the appropriate time. -- 03:28, 28 December 2008 (UTC) —Preceding unsigned comment added by 89.155.228.247 (talk)

There's a command called at that does that. It uses military time. So, if you wanted to start the command prompt at 9:22 p.m., you'd type this into a batch file:

at 21:22 cmd.exe /interactive

But, as you may have guessed, you probably don't even need a batch file to run a command on a schedule. You can just type the command above.--Djnghfg (talk) 04:24, 28 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Deleting option from Windows boot loader

I recently installed Windows XP to a second drive within my PC to determine whether the installation was the root of an Internet-connectivity issue. Since it was not, I would like to remove the installation. I have already deleted the Windows folder from that drive, but when the computer boots, two options are still presented (a choice between booting the original installation or the newer/deleted installation). How do I restore order? Thanks ----Seans Potato Business 05:51, 28 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

It depends on what OS created the boot loader. If it's Vista, you'd use the BCD command. If it's XP, you can open up the boot.ini file located in the root of your primary partition with Notepad. It's a hidden file, and it's read-only. But once I know your primary OS I can give you more detailed instructions.--Djnghfg (talk) 06:02, 28 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks. The primary OS is WinXP but I have been unable to locate a boot.ini in the root of any of my partitions, neither in the GUI (hidden files made visible) nor with a CMD DOS-style prompt. My original and present WinXP installation is on the D: drive, while my recent installation went on the C: drive. However, according to the Windows Disk Management utility, C: is system and D: is boot. I appreciate any help offered. :) ----Seans Potato Business 17:08, 28 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

That's because boot.ini is marked as hidden and system. Turn "Hide protected operating system files" or whatever it is off (it's in the same place you turned on hidden files). To actually modify the file, run: attrib -s -h -r C:\boot.ini (you can skip the previous step if you do this). Open up Notepad and change it, and when you're done, run attrib +s +h +r C:\boot.ini. --wj32 ^t/c 23:20, 28 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Oops, I just noticed you said D: is marked as boot. Well, change C: to D: in my instructions. --wj32 ^t/c 23:21, 28 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Nonetheless, the boot.ini file was on C:\! I changed the default setting and deleted the superfluous indication. Thanks very much. :D ----Seans Potato Business 10:20, 29 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

GPRS/GSM tracking

This maybe sounds odd, but I've heard of somebody who geographically tracked another person's mobile phone by using it's GPRS/GSM signals, by only knowing the phone number. Thus effectively locating the person in question. This is likely false, or it could be done with some (possibly illegal) device? Is this technically feasable? Or there is some paid website which offers such a service? Thanks in advance. --Rev L. Snowfox (talk) 08:45, 28 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

It's very well possible, I believe that over here (Poland) the police forces have such equipment. SteveBaker will definitely know more :) --Ouro (blah blah) 10:38, 28 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

But I guess these kind of devices are illegal to be owned/used by civilian people (outside of military/police/other authorities), and they can't aquire these legally. I wonder if it is legal in the Netherlands...? Probably not. I know that GSM service providers (and thus police) can locate people by cell information (but that can mean a wide or narrow area too), but what I specifically heard is about GPRS data remotely being tracked, from a considerable distance (well, 1000+ kilometers). Possibly with some kind of satellites involved. But yeah, maybe it's a hoax, prank or such. I just don't know because I'm not a telecommunications expert nor a specialist policeman/military technician... But it keeps me bugging. --Rev L. Snowfox (talk) 20:14, 28 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

This was used to assassinate a rebel leader in Columbia albeit this was with a satellite phone [3]. However you are wrong about 'just needing to know the phone number'. You really need the cooperation of the mobile service provider. Also the phone needs to be own and transmitting/receiving a signal to a base station. This may not be a problem for law enforcement agencies with warrants, but is not something some random person can do. If you install your own base stations you may be able to track a specific account but this would likely require you are able to identify the phone which again may not be possible without the cooperation of the service provider. Most GPS devices are one way. If you have something like a personal locator beacon and it's sending a signal then obviously anyone capable of receiving that signal will know where you area. Nil Einne (talk) 11:27, 28 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Surprisingly, it may infact not (always) need the cooperation of the mobile service provider; a few weeks ago I saw reports of an FBI system which did cellular phone tracking (in specific areas) by having special fake "cell" towers that partook of only the initial handshake part of the phone/cell connection protocol. These things would announce themselves as available cell towers, and all the phones in the area would respond (with their IMEA numbers) allowing the FBI to identify (and with a couple of diverse antennas triangulate) the location of all the responding phones. The article gave no indication as to how the FBI deployed this technology; one would imagine it would be a number of mobile units. 87.113.77.112 (talk) 17:51, 28 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

New SATA HD for laptop

A friend of mine has bought a new sata HD for his Acer laptop, he has inserted it and when he tries to load his copy of vista on it it will not complete the installation anyone any ideas I could pass on to him thanks. BigDunc^Talk 13:16, 28 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Does it produce an error message? Where does it stop installing? You provide so little information that all anyone can do is make wild guesses such as "Remember to turn the computer on when installing Vista." -- kainaw ™ 14:54, 28 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

My apologies I posted before I had the full details what happens when he tries to load on Vista is he gets screen saying windows is loading files and then gets a BSOD stating:

DRIVER_IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL STOP:0x000000D1 or he will get this BSOD: PFN_LIST_CORRUPT STOP:0x0000004E. BigDunc^Talk 18:06, 28 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

This probably indicates a hardware incompatibility. The KB article is 293077, but it seems like it isn't there any more. Hm. — neuro^(talk) 18:11, 28 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

You may need to set the SATA mode in the laptop's BIOS to something like 'legacy,' 'IDE' or something other than current. After you get drivers installed (which, if using a manufacturer-provided restore set, it will do by first log in), you can revert to the 'proper' SATA mode. Washii (talk) 01:11, 29 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Oddly, it turns out this is what my old computer throws up now. Not used it for years, but yesterday I went to install Vista on it and it threw up a very similar situation to this. Long story short - I disabled AHCI. — neuro^(talk) 07:56, 29 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

You may want to turn AHCI back on after you get all the drivers installed. It should enhance the performance of the system, all told. Washii (talk) 03:19, 3 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

NNTP server software for small group message exchange

Can someone suggest a simple (meaning easy to install and manage) NNTP server app for small group collaboration? The server will be hosted locally and will not be exchanging messages with other servers. It only needs to have basic features and should not consume a lot of resources. --173.49.9.242 (talk) 15:00, 28 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

I don't have a good answer to your question (apologies), but can I ask you a question? Why NNTP, specifically? Don't get me wrong, I love NNTP, but it's sort-of an antiquated technology, and unless you have extremely techy users, I'm pretty sure that they'd be much more comfortable with either a mailing list or a simple web forum. Almost certainly the software for those things will be much easier to install and to maintain, in addition to being much more frequently updated. There's very little semantic difference between a news-group and a mailing list.

However, just for the hell of it, I made a search in the ubuntu package database, and indeed, there are something that might suit you. See packages nntp, cnews and cyrus-nntpd-2.2. Obviously, I have no experience with any of them, but you might be able to figure them out. Belisarius (talk) 19:04, 28 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

For collaboration, I find it sometimes helpful to preserve the discussion that lead to a decision. Many NNTP clients have good built-in threading and rule-based message handling capabilities. I find web-based message boards less easy to use and take more effort to navigate. NNTP may be dated, but it works well for hosting discussions in a friendly environment. --173.49.9.242 (talk) 01:25, 29 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

virtual hdd images

Two questions:

Is there a universal virtual hard disk format that virtual box, vmware, and qemu will all work with?
Is there a way to convert virtual images from one format to the other, say vmware to virtual box? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 82.43.88.87 (talk) 15:11, 28 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

This article describes how to interchange between QEMU and VmWare formats. If you get really stuck you can dd a disk from one vm to an external disk (or over a netcat to another machine or running VM). 87.113.77.112 (talk) 17:45, 28 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Upgrading laptop hard drive

I'm planning to upgrade my MacBook's hard drive. I don't have an external enclosure and would, ideally, like to not use one, since buying one just for this task seems a little silly to me. Is there any way to use my Firewire external drives to clone the old disk to the new disk? I was thinking of using some program like the GParted LiveCD to try and create a disk image from the old drive to the Firewire drive, then swap the new drive for the old one, then try to boot up in GParted LiveCD again and have it apply the image from the Firewire drive. Will this work? Will I run into problems with "growing" the partition from the old drive (80GB) to the new drive (320GB)? Both will be HFS+. --98.217.8.46 (talk) 16:36, 28 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

If you have a firewire external drive, the best way to do it is to make a Time Machine backup. Then when you reinstall it again, then you can restore from the external backup. Carbon Copy Cloner (free of charge) works well to. 78.148.224.67 (talk) 20:10, 28 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

I am using OS X 10.4 so I don't have Time Machine. CCC seems like a good program but I don't see how it'll help me here—surely CCC cannot completely clone the drive that it itself is running on? Without a LiveCD I'm not sure I see how this can work... --140.247.236.37 (talk) 21:47, 28 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Nevermind—I figured out a way to do it with CCC. Basically I'll 1. use CCC to make an image to my external drive; 2. install the new drive; 3. use my wife's iBook to mount the new drive in "target disk mode", and 4. install the image off of the external drive with CCC (linking to the external drive either daisy-chained with the MacBook or with a USB port). That should create no issues with having to "grow" a HFS+ drive. --98.217.8.46 (talk) 01:22, 29 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Actually CCC does make bootable clones, at least it did before yesterday, when it didn't - for me anyway. I've cloned ~150GB+ with it an got something bootable on an external disc. 89.242.188.116 (talk) 18:53, 29 December 2008 (UTC) This is the original answerer here, in case anyone is wondering. My IP address seems to have changed.89.242.188.116 (talk) 18:54, 29 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

history deleted ,page visited are not available offline

when I visit pages on the internet, these are some time deleted from the history even after closing internet ,although I have adjusted history for 15 days ( from control pannel ,internet options ,setting ),what may be the problem with my computer .I have installed an antivirus norton on my computer ,is this antivirus is doing this.help me to overcome this problem —Preceding unsigned comment added by Khubab (talk • contribs) 20:37, 28 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Your Antivirus program wouldn't delete your browsing history. Don't disable it. Why do you need to keep your browsing hsitory? If you need to view web pages offline, save them. --wj32 ^t/c 23:26, 28 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Although admittedly Norton is absolutely abominable, wj32 is right. If you do suspect that it is your AV, though, you could always test by disabling it, closing, and then seeing if it is still there. — neuro^(talk) 07:54, 29 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

There is a difference between retaining browser history (the list of pages you've visited) and retaining the browser cache (the actual contents of those pages last time you visited them). I suspect the setting you've changed only applies to Internet Explorer's browsing history, and does not automatically mark websites to be available offline.

There are separate settings that tell IE to make pages available offline, and a special "offline browsing" mode that makes sure it uses these wherever available. I believe you have to turn this on for each site (I think creating a bookmark and saying "make available offline" is one method) rather than for all sites at once, but you may have to look in the online help as I don't know the details. - IMSoP (talk) 17:59, 29 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

no sound

I have core 2 dua processor with intel mother bord .I have installed 1:-intel(R)chippest software installation utility 2:-Realtek audio driver some days before all things are working well.but now there is no sound and no appearence on toolbar(a small speaker on tool bar) what should be the problem .and what is the purpose of installing intell(R) chippest software utillity. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Khubab (talk • contribs) 20:58, 28 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Windows XP or Windows Vista? Rgood erm ote 21:56, 28 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

windows xp —Preceding unsigned comment added by Khubab (talk • contribs) 00:46, 29 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

If you go to Device Manager, do you see your sound card listed under "Sound, video, and game controllers"? Do you see any devices that have a question mark or exclamation mark next to them? --71.141.98.38 (talk) 03:21, 29 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

December 29

Borland C++

Hi,

What is the command that i can use to get a print out in Borland c++ compiler? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 202.124.160.216 (talk) 12:04, 29 December 2008 (UTC) "[reply]

We can't understand your question. What do you want to print out? --Sean 17:18, 29 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

If the compiler has a Graphical User Interface (also known as a GUI or Integrated Development Environment or IDE), you can likely use the Print command from the File menu when the window which has what you want to print is open. If you are using a command-line compiler, just open the file you want to print with your favorite text editor, and print it from there. (You do not need a special program to open C or C++ source or header files - any text editor or word processor will do.) If you want to print the output of a command-line compiler to paper, the easiest way is to redirect the output to a file, and then print that text file using your favorite text editor. If those hint don't work for you, you'll need to be more specific, telling us 1) what, exactly, you are trying to print 2) the full name and version of the Borland C++ compiler you are using 3) which operating system you are running it on 4) anything you have tried that hasn't worked. -- 128.104.112.113 (talk) 19:33, 29 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Taskbar disappeared

I'm running Windows XP on my computer. I had a problem with a virus so I installed a program called Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware. I ran it and allowed it to clean whatever infections it showed on my computer. Trouble is that it might have ended up deleting some files that aren't malware. Now my Windows starts up without a Taskbar, and it also loads a message at startup saying a certain file (MKMKrnl.dll) is missing. The software in question also refuses to load (it gives its own message about some file being missing) but that's the least of my concerns right now. Can someone tell me how to get back my taskbar? --120.138.100.216 (talk) 15:12, 29 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Hmm... are you sure this Malwarebytes thing is reputable - it sounds deliberate to me... There'll be a way to get the taskbar back somewhere in the control panel, I'm sure... Try bressing the windows key on your keyboard - that should fix it if it's only temporary and accidental. If nothing else works, either re-install Windows or back-up the files you need onto a memory stick and restore your computer to its factory state. In future, try using programmes that have been recommended by friends or computing magazines - it saves a lot of trouble, trust me. Dendodge Talk^Contribs 15:23, 29 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Pressing the Windows key isn't working. The software, by the way, I got from download.com (it's on the most downloaded list and has gotten mostly good reviews). It did delete the files that I knew to be viruses, but I'm assuming it ended up giving some false positives. Anyway, I need a quick fix for this problem now before my dad gets home. Can you tell me how to get back the taskbar from the Control Panel? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 120.138.100.107 (talk) 15:29, 29 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

First, Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware is a well regarded tool for dealing with malware. Aside from that, MKMKrnl.dll seems to be part of a virus, so it looks like the infection was not completely removed from your computer. As far as the taskbar, is there any chance it is collapsed? If you place your mouse pointer at the very bottom of the screen and it turns into a double-headed vertical arrow, just press the left mouse button and move up to resize the taskbar. Finally, is there any chance you can use the system restore function to get your computer back to a point prior to the virus problem? --LarryMac | Talk 15:37, 29 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Ah, yes, that is what had happened. My taskbar was locked however, which was why I couldn't resize it. Problem is it still doesn't show any of opened windows in it, even after minimising them. Also, does someone have any knowledge about a virus/trojan(?) going by a file called "amvo.exe". I seem to have gotten it from a USB disk-drive and now I can't double-click on any of my disk partitions directly from My Computer (the computer just restarts on its own when I do). It also stopped me from viewing any hidden and system files (though Malwarebytes seems to have solved that problem). --120.138.100.107 (talk) 15:46, 29 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

A Google search for "amvo.exe" returns thousands of hits; this one might be useful for the links mentioned within the posts. --LarryMac | Talk 17:09, 29 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

I know this isn't answering your question and probably isn't much help, but I absolutely hate dealing with viruses and trojans that have somehow permeated through the excellent defenses of my system. I find it easier (maybe not for you though!) to save all of my important documents and files onto a flash drive (I use my iPod, because it has a massive hard drive) and just re-install my OS. Clean start. --71.117.36.29 (talk) 20:46, 29 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

The irony is that that is exactly what I had done in the first place. However, the virus in question spreads through flash drives itself, not something I knew before. So now, not only is my main computer infected (because I re-transfered all my backup through a flash drive) but also my secondary computer (on which I transferred all of my backup through - again - a flash drive)! Anyway, does anyone have a solution for my taskbar problems? It still isn't showing any of the opened programs on it, and its presence seems to be linked to whether the Language Bar is enabled or not.

P.S. Among other problems I've noticed (after my attempts at malware removal) - the audio isn't working, the copy-paste function isn't working and my computer starts up a lot more slowly. I can't even do a System Restore as it either fails to open (the first time I try it) or just shows a blank screen (the second time I try it). --120.138.100.51 (talk) 08:21, 30 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

P.P.S. Btw, I've found a log file of all the infections removed by the said program. Would uploading here help if anyone would care to show me whether any necessary files were deleted in the process? --120.138.100.51 (talk) 08:28, 30 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Well, I have cleaned too many of these amvo.exe viri at my hostel. To start off, boot your pc to safe mode by pressing F8 just before the OS loads till start options appear. Open command prompt. Move to your system directory (mostly c:\windows\system32\). Type attrib -s -h -r amv*.* . Delete all those that appear. There might be more in the system. So, run msconfig.exe and view the startup tab. Uncheck all except the things you are most sure of. Then restart. 117.201.114.148 (talk) 09:16, 30 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

A simple configuration for processing received emails

Right now I use Thunderbird on Ubuntu connecting to a number of external POP and IMAP servers (e.g. gmail). I'd like to enhance my current email system to add smarter processing and filtering of received emails (in particular I'd like to sort the email into several folders, based on several evolving criteria - it's something beyond what Thunderbird's rather basic filter setup can do). I'm a pretty competent Python programmer, so the actual filtering (and if necessary, retrieving the email) isn't difficult - but I don't see a simple way to deliver this email on to Thunderbird (or a similar program).

From looking at various howtos, it seems that I need quite a lot of stuff - fetchmail or getmail to get mail from remote POP/IMAP; an MDA like procmail to filter; a local POP3 server that takes procmail's output and re-presents it as POP (or IMAP); and only then can Thunderbird read the mail. This seems like an awful lot of stuff to set up, for one person reading three email accounts, delivering to one final client, with no need for remote access. I see why this paradigm would be necessary if I were supporting lots of recipients (i.e. hosting my domain's email servers myself), but for this simple task, this seems rather like overkill to me.

[Incidentally I can retrieve the email with getmail and deliver to an mbox inside my thunderbird's own storage, but Thunderbird doesn't see changes, and I guess isn't locking the files properly, as it doesn't anticipate anyone is doing anything nasty behind its back like this].

So my question is - is there a more straightforward way of configuring email fetch/filter/deliver-to-single-client than this? Thanks for your help. 87.114.154.43 (talk) 17:51, 29 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

You could do everything up to the procmail step, but then use Movemail to get thunderbird to get the local spool. -- JSBillings 04:38, 30 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

UVa online judge runtime error

I solved the first problem of the first volume in the UVa Online Judge in C++. When I compiled it with the compiler and options specified on their page, and ran it on the sample input, it gave the sample output. But when I submit the code, UVa tells me "Runtime error".

Is there some way to get the input for which my program failed, from the online judge?
Could someone look at my code version 3? It uses C++ and STL. I write readable code (Atleast I think so ;-) )

--Masatran (talk) 17:55, 29 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Are you sure that "runtime error" isn't being generated by the website? After all, there are no uva challenges running. You could determine that with this. -- Fullstop (talk) 19:52, 29 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

btw, was your code by any chance intended to demonstrate how not to program?

If you're going to be rude, you should elucidate your superior solution. And sign your posts. --Sean 21:27, 29 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

I'm not the rude poster, but would say it could use more than the single comment that's currently included. StuRat (talk) 06:26, 30 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

@Fullstop: The "Runtime error" is not a website error since the webpage is fine. I am not participating in any contest; in UVa, submissions are allowed outside of contests.

@StuRat: I have added comments, etc. Could someone look at my code version 4?

--Masatran (talk) 09:04, 30 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

I have looked at the code; and one problem I see is that vector_extend() resizes the vector, which in this case just pushes uninitialized integers to the end of the vector. In update(), supposing the vector cycle_length isn't long enough, you extend it to length (cycle.back() + 1); then in the next line, you access cycle_length[cycle.back()], which would be the last element that you pushed on; but it is some uninitialized garbage. This raises a BIG RED FLAG. You cannot possibly have a good reason for accessing an uninitialized value. --71.141.112.60 (talk) 10:43, 30 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

I read somewhere that C-style realloc() of native arrays extends with garbage values, whereas resize() of STL containers is done with the default data-type value. I don't remember where. Could anyone provide any references on this? --Masatran (talk) 11:51, 30 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Yeah but primitive types like "unsigned" don't have a default value (i.e. its default constructor returns an uninitialized value). --71.141.148.143 (talk) 21:29, 30 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

I searched but could not find any references on this...so I rewrote the code without making the assumption. Thus, my code version 5 --Masatran (talk) 12:33, 30 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Regarding the comments, they're a definite improvement. However, I'd like to see more explanation in the header of the program as to it's purpose. It currently says "Collatz conjecture" and lists a web site. However, the program needs to say what it does without reference to a web site. Does it try to prove the conjecture ? Disprove it ? List some numbers in the sequence ? StuRat (talk) 14:39, 30 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Missing font support

There are many symbols on the internet which I cannot view correctly, and appear as or similar. How can I view these symbols? (Vista Home Premium SP1, FF3). Dendodge Talk^Contribs 20:40, 29 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

See Help:Multilingual support. --Sean 21:31, 29 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Album/Cover Art

I've been trying to re-tag my music library so that the metadata is correct. One of my main goals, however, is to get some cover art for every song I have. I have been using MusicBrainz's Picard tagger to do the job. It *seems* like it is successfully saving the cover art, and I think it is because when I click on a file that supposedly has album art, the art is displayed. The only reason I'm not positive that it is working is that I cannot for the life of me get the album/cover art to show in Songbird! I switched to Songbird a while ago because I absolutely hate iTunes, and Songbird works just great...besides the cover art problem. Because Songbird is not recognizing the cover art, it is not being synced into my iPod. I am embedding the art in the ID3 tag. Any suggestions? Thanks. --71.117.36.29 (talk) 20:43, 29 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Slow rotation

Last week I was having difficulty with the Internet like never before.

The details are in a section I started last week which no one answered in a short time, so it might not have gotten any responses.

What was different on this occasion was that when I clicked on "Diagnose" and "Repair" the computer went very slowly on both processes. And the circle that normally rotates quickly was rotating very slowly to the left of the name of the page I am going to.

I forget how to find out what version of Explorer I have, but here's the rest of my information, minus what identifies me:

OS Name Microsoft® Windows Vista™ Home Premium Version 6.0.6001 Service Pack 1 Build 6001 Other OS Description Not Available OS Manufacturer Microsoft Corporation System Name System Manufacturer HP-Pavilion System Model KT369AA-ABA a6512p System Type x64-based PC Processor Intel(R) Pentium(R) Dual CPU E2200 @ 2.20GHz, 2200 Mhz, 2 Core(s), 2 Logical Processor(s) BIOS Version/Date American Megatrends Inc. 5.23, 4/21/2008 SMBIOS Version 2.5 Windows Directory C:\Windows System Directory C:\Windows\system32 Boot Device \Device\HarddiskVolume1 Locale United States Hardware Abstraction Layer Version = "6.0.6001.18000" User Name Time Zone Eastern Standard Time Installed Physical Memory (RAM) 4.00 GB Total Physical Memory 3.99 GB Available Physical Memory 2.15 GB Total Virtual Memory 8.18 GB Available Virtual Memory 6.13 GB Page File Space 4.28 GB Page File C:\pagefile.sys Vchimpanzee · talk · contributions · 21:57, 29 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Too little information to diagnose. Try flushing your dns cache with ipconfig /flushdns, then releasing with ipconfig /release, and renewing with ipconfig /renew. — neuro^(talk) 22:50, 29 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Looking at your previous post, it sounds like you are using an external dialup modem, probably one that hooks up to your USB port. Is this correct? Who makes the modem? You might indeed want to get a new phone cable, especially if it's as flimsy as a twist-tie. Internally the copper wire may have broken inside the cable; and phone cables are cheap. Long phone cables should work fine (I used a 25-foot phone cable for net access for years) but as a general principle you ought to use the shortest cable that will reach the plug. Tempshill (talk) 16:12, 30 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

No, it's not a dial-up modem. It was the power cord that was "flimsy as a twist-tie". Siemens makes the modem but it has the phone company's name on it and the phone company provides a manual which isn't worth much. The lights are only explained in the guide to setting up the computer.

The new cord connecting the modem to the phone jack, which has a splitter or filter, depending on who is describing it, is sturdier. The old one wasnt too substantial-looking.

By the way, the available disk space statistics are outdated. I just stored that information in case anyone asked, but the available disk space is pointless.

Neurolysis, I don't understand. The Internet is working fine now, though.Vchimpanzee · talk · contributions · 17:02, 30 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Composite video & audio cables for component video connection?

Can I use the 3 RCA cables for composite video (yellow) and audio (red & white) to connect the 3 component video connections? I don't own nor can afford a component video cable. The connectors are the same (RCA connectors); and the cables look the same. So it should work, right? Unless there are any physical differences in electrical properties of the cables. --71.141.116.30 (talk) 22:46, 29 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Yes, they are the same. -- Fullstop (talk) 23:20, 29 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

I do this for my HDTV setup, and I use A/B switches that were designed for composite cables. I have to use 2 of the switches (one has the 3 component video cables and one has the 2 audio cables), but the nice thing is not having had to pay $100 for a switch box. They're just cables, you're correct. Tempshill (talk) 16:07, 30 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Calculating CPU usage (Solved)

There's an API function, GetSystemTimes, that tells you the total time spent by the CPU in three areas: kernel-mode, user-mode and idle time. I'm polling using this function every second and calculating the deltas (differences compared to the previous values) of the three times. How would I calculate the kernel-mode CPU usage (in %) and the user-mode CPU usage using these deltas? I've tried this article at CodeProject but I can't seem to get it working for calculating kernel-mode CPU usage and user-mode CPU usage as opposed to calculating the overall CPU usage. --wj32 ^t/c 23:07, 29 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

you need a baseline to compute the percentage of. In other words, you need to know how much wall-clock time has elapsed in your clocking period. You get the latter from GetTickCount(). Then...

for...

FILETIME ftktime, ftutime; /* delta FILETIMEs. Rate=10,000,000 per/sec (100 nanosec resolution) */

DWORD elapsed_msecs; /* delta time from GetTickCount. Rate=1000 per/sec (1 millisec resolution) */

get...

ULONGLONG k_usecs = ((((ULONGLONG)(ftktime.dwHighDateTime))<<32) | ftktime.dwLowDateTime) / 10u;

ULONGLONG u_usecs = ((((ULONGLONG)(ftutime.dwHighDateTime))<<32) | ftutime.dwLowDateTime) / 10u;

DWORD ktime_perc = (DWORD)((k_usecs*10u) / (elapsed_msecs / 10u)); /* same as (k * 100) / elap */

DWORD utime_perc = (DWORD)((u_usecs*10u) / (elapsed_msecs / 10u));

That's off the top of my head, and intentionally unoptimized. ;) Note that none of these counters really have the rated resolutions. QueryPerformanceFrequency() gives you the real resolution. -- Fullstop (talk) 00:05, 30 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks. Is there any way to do it just by using the three deltas? In that article there's a formula for doing that, but I'm not sure if it actually works. --wj32 ^t/c 01:31, 30 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

elapsed_msecs, ftktime and ftutime are the three you need. elapsed_msecs is from GetTickCount, and the other two from GetSystemTimes (or GetProcessTimes). I might be able to say more if you tell me what you are intend to show (or what you are timing). -- Fullstop (talk) 01:50, 30 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Well... if you want to know - I have this project called Process Hacker (written in C#) at SourceForge. I'm making a clone of Process Explorer's System Information window. I have a CPU usage graph that should display the kernel-mode CPU usage (in green) and the user-mode CPU usage (in red).

I'm not actually using GetSystemTimes; I'm using NtQuerySystemInformation with SystemProcessorPerformanceInformation, but it's practically the same. It gives me a struct with IdleTime, KernelTime, UserTime, DpcTime, and InterruptTime. The weird thing is, KernelTime is always very large, almost as large as IdleTime, but UserTime is very small. This happens with both GetSystemTimes and NtQuerySystemInformation. So, I have two questions:

1. Shouldn't IdleTime be a lot bigger than KernelTime and UserTime, and why is UserTime so small compared to KernelTime?

2. How do I calculate the kernel CPU usage and the user CPU usage separately? You've already given me the answer, but is there a way of doing it without using GetTickCount?

--wj32 ^t/c 03:02, 30 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

And, by "using the three deltas" I meant the idle time, kernel time, and user time. --wj32 ^t/c 04:11, 30 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

I've found a solution! Thanks to this guy's tip:

 // Total all of the CPUs
 //      KernelTime needs to be fixed-up; it includes both idle &
 // true kernel time 
 //  Note that kernel time also includes DpcTime & InterruptTime, but
 // I like this.

.. and thanks so much, Fullstop! --wj32 ^t/c 07:31, 30 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Backdoor Again

1. Remember that "backdoor.tidserv" virus I was talking about above? Well, I got rid of it by deleting it manually (or, more accurately, "them" since there were multiple copies of it on the computer) - and by manually, I mean going to their directory, removing them, then deleting them from the Recycle Bin. Is it safe to do it this way? And the search engines are still acting strangely (they take me to random sites instead of the site I want). How can I fix this?

2. There is another virus on the computer called w32.tidserv. Everytime I scan for it, it says it was cleaned by deletion, but when I restart the computer, the damned virus is still there. Could this other virus be the cause of Google's and other search engines' strange behaviour? And can I delete this other one manually?

60.230.124.64 (talk) 23:13, 29 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

TidServ is a rootkit. I already gave you instructions for removing it; get IceSword and you will be able to delete the rootkit. Also, deleting viruses is definitely safe. Just don't try to unload rootkit drivers while they're running. --wj32 ^t/c 04:22, 30 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Deleting files manually is not sufficient to remove a virus from your system. Most viruses embed parts of themselves in various system files where you won't be able to get at them. Use an antivirus / antimalware program. If your antivirus program claims it cleaned your system but it seems like the virus keeps coming back, then try a different antivirus program as well. Tempshill (talk) 16:03, 30 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

December 30

Help with Picture of the Year? :(

Hello, I'm sorry if this is inappropriate, but I was wondering if there is anyone able to help with Wikimedia Commons Picture of the Year 2008. The project started in October but since November nothing has happened. I asked over at Commons and someone said that the users in charge of the project had retired and weren't going to continue with it. I was looking forward to the event, and now I'm sad that it's been abandoned. Nevertheless, they also said that it would be possible to do it for January. Once again: I'm hoping somebody here could help out. I don't have anything to do with the planning of the POTY (nor do I have the skills for it), but I would help with anything I could. Thanks in advance. (If there is a more appropriate place to ask, please tell me.) Kreachure (talk) 00:40, 30 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

I would try WP:FPC. Sorry to hear the POTY might not happen this year. :( · AndonicO ^Engage. 04:21, 30 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

What's this doing at google's site ?

I found this [4]. What's this, a pornographic image doing at google's site ? 117.201.113.95 (talk) 08:56, 30 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

When I view that, I see a small Google logo with a white background, as its name would imply. 87.113.92.163 (talk) 11:41, 30 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Me too.--droptone (talk) 12:31, 30 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

If you see something other than the Google logo you may want to do a virus scan on your computer post-haste. Or is this question a little joke perhaps...? 88.114.222.252 (talk) 14:02, 30 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

I only see the Google logo with a white background, I would have to agree with the above comment, scan your computer with a virus scanner, you can find many free ones on the net, like AVG...

Xbox 360 Arcade HDMI cable...

I have a 360 Arcade and i'm just about to get a LCD tv with HDMI ports. My question is simple - will any HDMI cable work for my Xbox 360 or do I have to get the over-priced Microsoft one? 194.221.133.226 (talk) 11:12, 30 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

I have a PS3 not an XBox 360 but I would say that as long as the XBox 360 has a standard HDMI output jack (and not some propriatary jack), any HDMI cable should work. I bought a third-party HDMI cable for my PS3 and it works fine. 216.239.234.196 (talk) 13:04, 30 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

I have a Xbox360 arcade and you can use any HDMI cable, its a normal output on the back.— chan dler — 13:14, 30 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks peeps, good work. 194.221.133.226 (talk) 15:33, 30 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Crosstalk between audio and video

What are the visible and audible effects when there is crosstalk between an analog video signal and an analog audio signal? Neon Merlin 15:43, 30 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

We may need some more information but i think that there would be static on both video and audio channels. —Preceding unsigned comment added by E smith2000 (talk • contribs) 16:41, 30 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

I've noticed on several TVs that a bright image causes static on the audio channel. So much for hearing the Lawrence of Arabia (film) sound track. StuRat (talk) 17:00, 30 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

that's because the whiter the image, the greater the current flowing through the wire, and so the stronger the electromagnetic field. This is heard as hum/buzz on the audio channel, which gets louder as the picture gets brighter, and softer as the picture gets dark. -- Fullstop (talk) 19:27, 30 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

PAINT IN C++

hey all, Myself and my friend are currently working on our version of paint in c++ using turbo c++ graphics and dev c as the compiler. As of today we've already added many features to it, like changing colour, drawing lines,circles,rectangles,spray paint,writing text and the best one --> saving the drawn image and retrieving it at a later point in time.But these are the usual things which are already present in the microsoft paint and we were trying to think of atleast one feature that we can add to our paint which is like a unique feature if you know what i mean. So i'd love it if you guys could help us out with ideas on what that feature could be. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Vineeth h (talk • contribs) 16:25, 30 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

There's an ASCII format bitmap that I wish Paint would support (read and write), as it would allow me to use a program to create the bitmaps, then use Paint to display them or change them to a more compact format. Yes, you can create the usual binary bitmap formats from a program, but it's rather difficult to debug such a program, whereas human readable ASCII output is quite easy. Unfortunately, I forgot the name of the format, but it had RGB codes for each pixel, as two digit HEX codes. StuRat (talk) 16:55, 30 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

The Netpbm formats (including PPM) are fairly widespread and have a simple ASCII variant. The values are decimal, not hexadecimal, though. -- Coneslayer (talk) 16:59, 30 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

The .xpm format uses hexadecimal. --NorwegianBlue^talk 18:38, 30 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

ok. Thats a good idea. But i wasn't exactly looking for a file saving kind of feature. I'm looking for an idea for a unique feature which i can use on the drawing screen which could be useful for making the image or doing something to it/on it.Vineeth h (talk —Preceding unsigned comment added by 122.162.70.166 (talk) 17:05, 30 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Plenty of people have already done the easy cool things,you'll have to be content with a gimmick or not so cool feature if it's not to be a copy of something already done. But that's what imagination is about. As a quickie how about something based on drawing with a line of different colours like a bunch of crayons tied together? Or making the line wider the slower you draw? Or changing the last bit of the colours so you have a secret message or drawing you can reveal? Dmcq (talk) 18:35, 30 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

I'd like to be able to do a print screen, paste into Paint, then convert a text image into black and white. Sounds simple, right ? But I don't want red text to come out as stippled black and white, I want the red text to become solid black text. Basically the program should make every color either black or white; no grays with stippling. Determining which colors become black and which become white could take some work. Why do I want this feature ? So I can print to a black and white printer without having it look like crap. StuRat (talk) 03:49, 31 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

I'd also like to be able to create geometry by keying in coords, like the center of a circle and it's radius, rather than with mouse clicks. StuRat (talk) 03:56, 31 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Sturat your first idea sounds useful and kind of easy ,i've come across the same problem you've just mentioned.But your second idea ,i disagree. You'd spend far more time trying to figure out the required coords and then trying to draw the circle by inputting those coords than if you just used mouse clicks because then it just makes its a whole lot easier that manually typing in the coordinates yourself.And Dmcq yeah the coloured line sounds easy and do-able.Well i'll give it a shot and see what i can do.Thanks for your ideas.Vineeth h (talk —Preceding unsigned comment added by 122.162.68.234 (talk) 04:20, 31 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

There are definitely times when it would be useful to be able to type in those coordinates - but it shouldn't be the only way to draw things like circles and rectangles...it shouldn't even be the default or 'normal' way to do it. But there are certainly times when that would be really handy. SteveBaker (talk) 22:48, 31 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Agreed. One time I wished I had this feature was when I tried to create the Olympic Rings in Paint. StuRat (talk) 07:19, 2 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

A feature I find really useful is 'clone paint' in GIMP. You have a normal kind of brush (an airbrush say) and you move the cursor over one place in the image and do a Ctrl-Click with the mouse to mark it. Then when you start painting, it copies the pixels from the place you marked into the place where you are laying down the paint. As you drag the mouse around doing your painting, the marked position moves in the same speed and direction as your cursor. This simple feature is amazingly useful for removing things from photos and such. You can download GIMP (it's free) and try it out for yourself. SteveBaker (talk) 22:48, 31 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

07:12, 5 January 2009 (UTC)harshagg Hk why don't you do that you file show animation when you retrive file That will be awesome just use delay harshagg(talk)

RDP From windows to linux

I was just wondering if there was a way to use the RDP built in to windows to remote in to a Linux box. I am awear of several programs that work like RDP but those are not what i want. The reason is this: I switch computer often and most of the time i am unable to install new software on to these computers, and only very few of them am i able to stick a CD/Flash/any other type of memory device. In fact, most of the computers are very limited in what they allow me to do, but i have found a way to open RDP. So my queston is this: Is there some type of RDP server that i can run under Linux that would allow me to remote in to it? —Preceding unsigned comment added by E smith2000 (talk • contribs) 16:40, 30 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

xrdp? --h2g2bob (talk) 18:52, 30 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Many of the standard VNC clients offer a Java-viewer, so you don't need to install software on the client-computer. You just open the browser to http://[addresstocomputer]:[someport] and a java-program starts and you can use that. Then you don't need to install any additional software, the computer only needs java (you can find the right port-number in the settings/documentation for the software). Look at Comparison of remote desktop software under the "Java Viewer" heading.

BTW, if you don't have a registered domain-name for your computer and don't want to be messing around with IP-numbers (they have an annoying tendency to change), you can use a free dynamic dns-service like No-IP. They work excellently, in my experience. Belisarius (talk) 18:59, 30 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

xrdp is an RDP server for unixen. Also, several other remote desktop tools (including RealVNC, UltraVNC and x11vnc) also have Java clients, so all one needs at the client end is a Java-capable browser, and software installation is then unnecessary. -- Fullstop (talk) 19:00, 30 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Resolved

Light on new modem not working

The full details of my question are in a post I made last week.

I went back to using the old modem, because whenever I would describe the lights on that modem, the tech support people would get concerned and claim I needed a new one. Therefore, they shipped me one.

The first light is the power light. It starts out red and turns green. It's not supposed to blink, but shortly after I started using that modem it started blinking for a while.

I never did see the leftmost light blink. It's supposed to blink in an irregular pattern but it never did anything (though the Internet worked fine for a while and I suspect an outside problem; see last week). If it doesn't blink on the old modem, the middle light starts blinking. The middle light is supposed to be solid, and when it is out or blinkiing, the Internet doesn't work. If a page is solw to load and the left light is off, the page will often come up just as the leftmost light blinks on.

A separate post from yesterday describes this modem.Vchimpanzee · talk · contributions · 17:14, 30 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

It sounds to me like those are indicator lights, if the internet is working then i would not be concerned.

The problem is described in last week's post here.

I assume the Internet quit working because of something external and not a problem with the new modem.

I'm still using the old modem and it seems fine.Vchimpanzee · talk · contributions · 18:46, 30 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

idiot...64.172.159.131 (talk) 23:58, 31 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Well, what would you do if they wouldn't take the blame for their own Internet problems and told you the modem with the bad light was the problem? Fortunately, I haven't had to ask yet.Vchimpanzee · talk · contributions · 21:39, 1 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

how to stop skype spam

I have a Skype account which I use infrequently, but sometimes have on standby while doing other things. Today I have received yet another porn spam chat message, of the genre: "Hi there!". I thought I'd better test my assumptions, so I responded blandly and immediately got, "I'm feeling lonely, do you have time for me?". A second bland response from me and then another reply so immediate that it shows it has all been automated long ago (and I thought the pornspam-meisters might use actual human beings to lure chatters into their lairs). This third line has the website, and a supposedly sexy temptation to visit it. Fat chance. So. My question is, what is Skype doing about this? And what should I do about this? I know the general rule is not to reply to spam, but in this one case I wanted to see what the procedure was. BrainyBabe (talk) 20:10, 30 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

You could try closing Skype, only opening it when you need it. —Preceding unsigned comment added by E smith2000 (talk • contribs) 20:31, 30 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Thank you, I'll take the suggestion at face value. I had thought of that, but some days would prefer to have Skype available in the background. My questions remain: Do I have any other options? And, more broadly, what is Skype's response? BrainyBabe (talk) 16:17, 31 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

making a download link

Anybody know how to render an HTML link so that the end user's browser will go into its special download dialog, rather than rendering the linked-to page as usual? —Steve Summit (talk) 20:45, 30 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Tell said end-user to go to file > save to download the page. —Preceding unsigned comment added by E smith2000 (talk • contribs) 21:12, 30 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Well, that's what *I* do when I'm the end-user, but I know there's a way to cater to the less-computer-savvy end users, 'cos all the other websites do it. —Steve Summit (talk) 21:31, 30 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

I think download links will always open in the browser if they are things like jpg or mp3, which the browser is configured to render. Only way I see is to put the file in a .zip archive, then it will show the download box. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 82.43.88.87 (talk) 21:33, 30 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

I can give the files a binary content-type, and that does force the browser to ask where to save it, but it's not the same dialog as you get with a download link. (I think that a true download link would also let you download something which is normally renderable, like HTML or plain text). —Steve Summit (talk) 22:08, 30 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

I do this by sending all downloads to a php script in the form http://www.example.com/pdf.php/filename.ext where "filename.ext" is the file to be downloaded and "pdf.php" contains the following php script. This example only allows files with .pdf extension.

<?php
#if no file specified, redirect browser to error page
if ( substr($_SERVER['PATH_INFO'], 1) == "" ) {
	header("HTTP/1.1 301 Moved Permanently");
	header("Location: http://www.example.com/error.html");
	exit(); }
#retrieve specified file and send to browser
$pdf = substr($_SERVER['PATH_INFO'], 1); if(preg_match('#^[a-zA-Z0-9_\-]+.pdf$#', $pdf) == 0)
{ print "Illegal name:  $pdf"; return; }
header('Content-type: application/pdf');
header('Content-disposition: Attachment; filename=' . $pdf); readfile('path/' . $pdf);
?>

An example of that script in use: http://www.northantscamra.org.uk/pdf.php/overthebarrel-dec2008.pdf (link is a pdf version of a free beer magazine, 1,91MB). -=# Amos E Wolfe ^talk #=- 21:47, 30 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Aha. So is the key factor the Content-disposition header? —Steve Summit (talk) 22:08, 30 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Throwing said file in to a zip would be a good way to go. however, you could try replacing the letters 'pdf' with 'html' in the above script.. it could work, or it could not. E smith2000 (talk)

Amos Wolfe was right: the key is the Content-disposition header. With that clue to go on, I found this page, which confirmed it and suggested several other techniques. So, rather than messing around with a CGI script for downloading, I just put

<Files *.AHX>
    Header set Content-Disposition attachment
</Files>

in an .htaccess file, and that did the trick. (Well, after enabling .htaccess files, and mod_headers.) I also used ForceType application/octet-stream to force a binary file type, which (as others had suggested) tends to do the same thing. —Steve Summit (talk) 01:31, 2 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Resolved

Virus Question

Changed heading to avoid conflict Astronaut (talk) 11:06, 31 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

I think I've got a virus or something on my computer. It's affecting google, when I click the search results it goes to ad pages instead of the proper site. I've double checked that I'm on google.com, and I've tried this in firefox, opera and internet explorer. Another thing is my floppy disk drive seems to make noises every 2 minuets or so, for no apparent reason and it wasn't doing it two hours ago. I've run avira anti-virus, clamwin, avg, I've looked for odd things with process explorer, tried ComboFix, rebooted, and nothing works. I can't find any evidence at all that there is a virus but my computer is still acting weird. What can I do? 66.63.184.3 (talk) 22:15, 30 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Check your hosts file (Start --> Run... --> %SystemRoot%\system32\drivers\etc\) for malicious entries. Also check your C:\WINDOWS and C:\WINDOWS\system32 folders for newly-created files without a company listed.--Djnghfg (talk) 22:19, 30 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

You could restart your computer in to safe mode and run virus scanners there, I have had a virus on my computer that did nothing but place it's self in the registry, only way i was able to remove it was to format my drive. E smith2000 (talk) 22:35, 30 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

You sound like you have done a pretty thorough job, but keep looking. I would try running Spybot in case it's malware of the page redirecting type because some antiviruses don't look for it. (I am not familiar enough with your virus scanners to know if they catch that sort of malware). Spybot also lets you keep tabs on the programs that have entries in the registry to run at start up and will flag known bad ones which will help with what Djnghjg was talking about. 152.16.15.23 (talk) 06:25, 31 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

You could also look at the DNS entries. I once cleaned up a virus which had modified the DNS settings from the ISP's DNS to a rogue DNS in Ukraine. View the setting in a DOS box using ipconfig/all, then track down where their IP addresses are based. The virus itself was particularly difficult to remove because it used a rootkit to hide itself from Windows and the virus scanner (it also disabled access to the Task Manager, but Process Explorer still worked). I used IceSword to disable the rootkit and then went on a hunt for the virus. Astronaut (talk) 08:48, 31 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

You might have some luck doing a search for "Winsock Repair" or "Fix Winsock" ... there are tools out there that will repair the DNS and restore the hosts file. Ched (talk) 14:59, 31 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

RSA Generator

I'm looking for a site that lets generate 1024 bit or 2048 bit keys online. --Melab±1 ☎ 22:44, 30 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

A quick google search turned up this :www.cyotec.com/resources/cyogenerator/E smith2000 (talk) 22:48, 30 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Without downloading. I'm looking for one that is web-based.--Melab±1 ☎ 22:57, 30 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Internet watch

My company is thinking about installing some device or program to monitor and store internet activity. My question is this: What would be a good device or program to use to monitor the internet activities of a little over 50 people? E smith2000 (talk) 22:46, 30 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

For 50 people, couldn't you just walk around the office and look at the screens? anyway I'm not a fan of spying on people computers, —Preceding unsigned comment added by 82.43.88.87 (talk) 23:08, 30 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

sorry I wasn't particularity helpful in my above post. See Comparison of network monitoring systems for some solutions, also SpectorSoft makes lots of computer spying programs, worth a look. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 82.43.88.87 (talk) 23:43, 30 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

It would be pretty hard to do that; most network monitoring programs are very low-level and probably not suitable for monitoring web traffic. A better idea would be to have a central proxy that records what websites are visited, etc. --wj32 ^t/c 23:40, 30 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

This would be for a growing bushiness, we are trying to decide if we need a filter on web traffic or not, the monitoring would only be temporary. This would be for a domain with a local domain controller and a redundant controller. E smith2000 (talk) 00:39, 31 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

GNU Apps

I don't really understand GNU apps. I have GnuPG How do I make RSA keys? Which one of the these commands?

$ gpg --gen-key
gpg --gen-key
--gen-key

And which one of the apps in the package? gpg.exe, gnupg.exe, gpg_curl.exe, or gpg_finger.exe, etc.?
--Melab±1 ☎ 23:27, 30 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

At your command prompt (where all you see is text, no pretty buttons to click on), type "gpg --gen-key". -- kainaw ™ 01:11, 31 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

But I don't know which one of the EXE's (I downloaded it staight not compiled) gpg.exe, gpgkeys_curl.exe, gpgkeys_finger.exe, gpgkeys_hkp.exe, gpgkeys_ldap.exe, gpgsplit.exe, or gpgv.exe? --Melab±1 ☎ 16:54, 31 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Well the command line above impiles it is just gpg, which would mean gpg.exe. --98.217.8.46 (talk) 20:26, 31 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Windows is poor at letting you use command line applications. I suggest picking one of these graphical utilities for use on Windows and using that. The $ before the first example represents the command prompt for Unix/Linux/OS-X systems. How to use the text-based gpg.exe (quickly): (1) Open command prompt; (2) cd into the directory you downloaded gpg; (3) run gpg.exe --gen-key. --h2g2bob (talk) 22:25, 31 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

December 31

Any modern dot matrix printers?

Just curious if there are any modern dot matrix (or daisy wheel) printers that are natively USB and will work with today's computers out of the box. --71.158.216.23 (talk) 02:29, 31 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

They are out there. Businesses that need to print multipart forms, such as auto repair shops, use them. Here are some at Tiger Direct, at Office Depot, and at amazon.com. -- Tcncv (talk) 03:26, 31 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Not sure if I'm allowed to promote any make/model etc, but I know in my work place we use multipart forms, and have a whole set of Tally Genicom 2348 - They work over parallel or USB with no problems. Currently set up with USB running through print servers. I think they do a whole other set of them as well. Hope you find what you are looking for! —Preceding unsigned comment added by 213.105.223.175 (talk) 22:17, 3 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

OpenGL and GLSL book suggestions

Anyone have any? I've got C and C++ down, but haven't done anything with 3D graphics yet. 24.76.161.28 (talk) 06:57, 31 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Save the money, take these tutorials: http://nehe.gamedev.net/. Later on you might want to read the "Red Book". —Preceding unsigned comment added by 84.187.125.220 (talk) 09:05, 31 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Hey man , i just recently started opengl as well and i have some pretty good books. The above suggestion if the best becuase nehe's 48 tutorials are the best with excellent explanation but if you goto the site you'll have to download each tutorial separately but if you just google "nehe's pdf" you'll get all the tutorials in a pdf format which you can download in one go. Just google these other books and they should be more than enough to get you starting and finishing with open gl: -->The Red Book, The Official Guide to Learning OpenGL, And OPENGL SUPERBIBLE( THIS TRULY IS THE MASTER OF ALL OPENGL BOOKS)! You should find all these books if you just google it ,you'll get 'em via rapidshare or something like that. And if you don't leave your email id i'll mail 'em to you. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 122.162.69.91 (talk) 11:08, 31 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

I've gotta second the suggestion for the "Red Book" (it has a red cover) - and the "Orange Book" (guess!) because they are both written and published by members of the OpenGL ARB (Architecture Review Board) who are the keepers of the OpenGL specification...hence these books are "right". They are also very approachable and teach the API in a logical order. The Red Book covers OpenGL and the Orange Book covers GLSL. The OpenGL Superbible...is OK. I didn't like it as much. AMazon links are: [6] and [7]. SteveBaker (talk) 22:40, 31 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Easily modifying a stylesheet with Javascript

I'd like to modify a CSS stylesheet with Javascript. Basically, I have a class named "hidden" that I'd like to add a "display: none;" attribute to. I don't want to do the standard getElementById or similar things because I'd like this modification to happen before the page loads (so things don't appear and then disappear). I don't want to have to have the display: none; automatically in the stylesheet from the beginning because the only way to get the elements to display again requires Javascript, so I want it to fail gracefully if Javascript is not enabled. Ideally I'd want something where I can say ("document.TheStyleSheet.Classes("hidden").style.display = 'none';") or something similar to that. Is this possible? Googling has not suggested anything other than potentially iterating through every part of .cssRules or .Rules (depending on browser, I imagine), and looking for properties, which is not really what I want if I can help it (seems slow and inefficient, not to mention unwieldy) so I thought I'd ask if someone else had another solution...

Or, put another way: is there a way to insert another line to a stylesheet with javascript? I could load an external stylesheet that has the class descriptor in it, but that also seems a little silly, though comparatively simple. --98.217.8.46 (talk) 15:48, 31 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

In the end, I found loading the external stylesheet to be a not-too-clumsy solution to the problem. --98.217.8.46 (talk) 20:23, 31 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Resolved

Why can't I do an Internet search on hkcmd.exe?

OK, this is f****ng weird. When I try to do a Google search on hkcmd.exe, I get the following error:

Internet Explorer cannot display the webpage
Most likely causes: You are not connected to the Internet. The website is encountering problems. There might be a typing error in the address.

However, if I do a search anything else, it works. In fact, when I do a search on hkcmd.ex (note I dropped the e), it works. If I add the e back, it fails. I've repeated these searches about a dozen or so times. It always fails on hkcmd.exe. Why?

It gets weirder. If I try to do the same searches using Yahoo, I get the same behavior. What is so special about hkcmd.exe that I cannot search on it? Does anyone else experience this behavior? Is it possible my work is somehow blocking this search? 216.239.234.196 (talk) 16:12, 31 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

When i do a google / yahoo search on that file name it does something weird, it shows me a list of webpages that contain the word: hkcmd.exe. Weird isnt it?

heres a link to that odd page: http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&client=firefox-a&rls=org.mozilla%3Aen-US%3Aofficial&hs=ec4&q=hkcmd.exe&btnG=Search E smith2000 (talk) 17:01, 31 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

That's expected behavior. The behavior I'm experiencing is that I don't get a list of webpages. IE gives me a a "Internet Explorer cannot display the webpage" error page. Firefox gives me a "The connection was reset" error and Opera just gives me a completely blank page. But if I change one letter, it works. It's bizarre. I'll update my virus checker and do a full scan. 216.239.234.196 (talk) 17:45, 31 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

My first thought was that hkcmd was malware, as some viruses stop you from googling their filenames to evade detection. But according to this (which is the first site listed by that google search), hkcmd is a pretty important Intel program. Something to do with hotkeys for Intel multimedia devices. How odd. CaptainVindaloo ^{t c e} 18:02, 31 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

I tried it on two other computers in our office and they all experience this strange behavior. So it must have something to do with our network. 216.239.234.196 (talk) 18:31, 31 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

I just uncovered another clue. When I did a search on hkcmd.ex (note the dropped e), I got a list of hits. I clicked on about 5 or 6 of the links and some (but not all) gave me the same "Internet Explorer cannot display the webpage" error page. I didn't think too much about this at first, but then I noticed a pattern. If the link has hkcmd.exe embedded anywhere in the URL, it fails. So, for example, www.neuber.com/taskmanager/process/hkcmd.exe.html doesn't work for me but www.liutilities.com/products/wintaskspro/processlibrary/hkcmd/ does. This also sheds light on why all the search engines failed - because they all have hkcmd.exe embedded in their URLs. Now what's so special about hkcmd.exe I have no idea. 216.239.234.196 (talk) 18:48, 31 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

looks like your office has some internet censorship going on there. hkcmd.exe works fine for me. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 82.43.88.87 (talk) 20:10, 31 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Note that many malware do masquerade as legitimate system processes so this doesn't indicate it's definitely legitimate. Of course it's somewhat stupid to pretend to be a legitimate process then block people from searching which gives people a clue there's something up but many malware authors are stupid. I.E. If you do have concerns about this process I would do use one or more virus scanners to check your computer. The fact that several office computers may indicate it's some sort of screwed up internet filtering or it may indicate your whole office is infected Nil Einne (talk) 10:05, 3 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Does anyone know what xwc7f8.exe is?

My co-worker's computer appears to be infected with one or more malware apps. I've run a virus checker, Ad-Aware and Windows Defender. I noticed in Task Manager that there's process named xwc7f8.exe. I did Google, Yahoo and Microsoft Live searches on this file and I did not get a single hit. Does anyone know what xwc7f8.exe is? 216.239.234.196 (talk) 16:22, 31 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

I don't know about that file, but you might want to download and run Process Explorer, which will be able to tell you a lot more about where that file is installed and what it's doing. --LarryMac | Talk 16:28, 31 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

i suggest you check your registry

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE > SOFTWARE > Microsoft > Windows > CurrentVersion > Run

Check that for that file name, if it is there try deleting it, once deleted hit F5 to refresh, if it re-appears restart in safemode and try the same thing

E smith2000 (talk) 17:08, 31 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Unfortunately, her PC is running so slow it might take a while to do download Process Explorer. I end-tasked it. I noticed a new EXE named WWE6A.exe is now running. Is it possible that this virus/adware/whatever randomly renames itself? 216.239.234.196 (talk) 17:09, 31 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Yes, that is a posibility, thats why i suggest you restart in safemode... or at least do a selective startup (i think thats what it's called)E smith2000 (talk) 17:13, 31 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

It could be anti-virus software — I used to use a package that behaved just like that. Every time it started, it would pick a new random 6-alphanumeric-character name for the executable. From what I understand, it's supposed to be a defensive measure (against being disabled/killed by malware). —Preceding unsigned comment added by 173.49.19.42 (talk) 17:26, 31 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

I think it is the anti-virus software. We using Trend Micro OfficeScan. I just noticed I have a process with a somewhat similar name. Under Process Explorer, it says it's by Trend Micro Inc. 216.239.234.196 (talk) 18:27, 31 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

key combo (like Alt-Tab) for next/prev window in TASKBAR ORDER?

Is there a key combo like that?

I mean like, in this picture, key combos for:

Next window in taskbar order (ie in this picture pressed once it would switch to the "XDMCP..." window)
Prev window in taskbar order (ie in this picture pressed once it would switch to the "Novell..." window; pressed again to the "exceed..." window; pressed again to the "Exploring..." window)

Thanks! 94.27.239.144 (talk) 16:56, 31 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

That looks like Windows 98. We may need some more information. E smith2000 (talk) 17:11, 31 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

no no that's not my computer at all, it was just an example. I just want to do something like press alt-tab twice, to move two to the right in the taskbar (instead of getting back to the same window, which is what would happen if I really pressed alt-tab twice -- or if I held alt while pressing ta twice, I would get to the second-most-recent window). what I want is to move one button to the left or the right in the taskbar.

Do you get what I'm asking? to give you an example: if you have five windows open, look at your taskbar, on the very bottom of your screen. Let's say the third button is pressed. I would like to be able to get to the second (to the left of the depressed one) or the fourth (to the right of the depressed one). What can I press to achieve this? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 94.27.239.144 (talk) 17:51, 31 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

No, I don't think that there's a keyboard combo for that. There might be some third-party tool that can do this, I'm not sure. 216.239.234.196 (talk) 18:07, 31 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

I am not really sure what you are talking about or hope to accomplish but if you hold down Alt + shift then hit Tab it will move to the left instead of the right. E smith2000 (talk) 18:14, 31 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

I think this might be helpful... Taskbar Shuffle, Also, holding down alt and hitting Esc will simply go through the list... might also be useful information E smith2000 (talk) 18:24, 31 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

how can you guys not understand what i'm talking about!!! look at the taskbar at the bottom of your screen. Those are your running programs. Click the one immediately to the right of the one that is active. Now: how do I do this with a keyboard combo? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 94.27.239.144 (talk) 19:37, 31 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

I think i know what you are talking about, you want to be able to switch to a different program that is running without having to click on the button on the taskbar. There is a key combo that will do this for you. Alt + Tab will switch to the next open program, but if you keep holding down alt and only hit Tab it will show you a small dialog in the middle of the screen that you can choose from. If you dont want that dialog to be shown then sipmly holding down Alt + Esc will switch you to the next program, then the next one, then the next one untill you reach the end of the running programs, then it will switch you back to the beginning. E smith2000 (talk) 20:46, 31 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

No, there is a difference. Alt+Tab doesn't necessarily cycle applications in the same order that they appear in the Taskbar. The Taskbar lists applications in the order in which they were launched. Alt+Tab it seems is MRU. 216.239.234.196 (talk) 20:56, 31 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

And alt+esc? E smith2000 (talk) 20:58, 31 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

94.27.239.144, stop being stupid. You are talking about Alt Esc (or Alt Shift Esc) 64.172.159.131 (talk) 23:55, 31 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

(To clarify with everyone else, Alt+Tab and Alt+Esc work based on the order of the icons in the Alt+Tab pop-up window. This is the same as the order of the windows stacked on the screen from top to bottom, except minimized windows also have a place in this "stacked" order, even though you can't see them.

Alt+Esc: moves the top window to the bottom.
Alt+Shift+Esc: moves the bottom window to the top.
Alt+Tab: moves the second window to the top, etc.

The original poster wants shortcut keys that work based on the order of the buttons in the taskbar. The order of the buttons in the taskbar is usually different from the order of the icons in the Alt+Tab pop-up window.)

Not exactly what you want, but here's the closest thing I've found in Windows XP: Win+Tab will focus on the second taskbar button, then you can use Win+Tab again or use the arrow keys to focus the taskbar button you want, and then press Enter or Space to activate it. --Bavi H (talk) 04:34, 1 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Auto Refresh

I was just wondering if there was a way that i can have this page reloading every few minutes? (or i can be notified if it changes) E smith2000 (talk) 19:00, 31 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

There is an Extension for Firefox that will reload a page every so often. Reload every.--droptone (talk) 20:59, 31 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Perhaps you are also referring to your watchlist? You'll have to click the "watch" tab at the top of the page first... also, you could try the RD history DaRkAgE7 _[Talk] 21:08, 31 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Yes, the watchlist is a good tool, but i would need to have that list auto refresh aswell. E smith2000 (talk) 21:16, 31 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Just FYI, you can subscribe to any article using RSS, so that any changes to the article show up in your RSS-reader. Just open the history for any page and click the little RSS icon that appears in the address-bar. I actually find it much more convenient than using your watchlist, especially if you don't follow that many articles or you read your feed-reader obsessively. Belisarius (talk) 16:32, 1 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Resolved

Virus question 2

An update to my previous question here, I've found out why the floppy drive was making noises every 2 minuets. I put in a disk and a file called "autorun" was written to it, and a folder called "resycled". The autorun file contained this when I opened it in notepad:

[autorun]
;ogivtujwitdhhgqdxqdsejcvkowfyw
shellexecute="resycled\boot.com c:"
;tiqvjbimcezubnbbyooiquajuxxfbluiluujxhdvt
shell\Open\command="resycled\boot.com c:"
;cdjyvfxotmuwafblnhmvralvhowtogpkdzkffknaomkyasjukizvdvuwljtebklkpgudbzjxukjxsjnyzaterv

The file was also on my hard drive. I've deleted the file from the floppy disk and hard drive but it appears again every time the floppy drive activates, I've removed the disk and deleted it from the hard drive and it still doesn't go. There is nothing in process explorer doing this, I've terminated every process one by one, some crashed the computer, but by elimination not one thing in process explorer is doing this. Please help. I've tried anti-virus, combofix, icesword, everything. 66.63.184.3 (talk) 18:57, 31 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

I found this. It says to delete the autorun.inf file in the root of your drive. You have to show hidden files, first (Tools --> Folder Options... --> View).

A virus doesn't need a .exe file to run. It can load itself into memory using a DLL or OCX file. That's why it's so important to look in your Windows and Windows\system32 folders for new DLL and .exe files. You have to show details first from the View menu and then sort the contents by clicking on the header for creation date. You may have to delete them in Safe Mode, or even from the Recovery Console because they may be in use.--Djnghfg (talk) 00:59, 1 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Sounds like a virus, i suggest you restart in safe mode, and remove those files. E smith2000 (talk) 19:12, 31 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Theres a command for the command prompt called "net" use that with "start' and 'stop" you can kill prossesss, 'net start' to see whats running. 'net stop Internet Explorer" to stop programs like internet explorerE smith2000 (talk) 20:16, 31 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

No. Net start and net stop are for services. To kill a process from the command line, you type taskkill /f /im and then the file name. Taskkill is a command that comes with Windows XP Professional, and not XP Home. To see what programs he has running, he'd type tasklist /svc. This lists both processes and the services they're "hosting."--Djnghfg (talk) 00:59, 1 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Take a look at this page; they recommened Malwarebytes, but in the comments some people indicated that simply removing the autorun.inf files has been a quick solution. --LarryMac | Talk 19:28, 31 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Here is what i would do, (i am not recommending this, jsut what i would do). I would restart the computer in to linux using a live CD. Then i would back up any files that i find important, then i would reformat the hard drive, then i would shutdown the computer and restart it with a windows XP installation disk and i would proceed with reinstalling windows E smith2000 (talk) 20:17, 31 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

A virus that uses floppy disks to spread? Wow, how old is the virus?... Get Process Explorer and see which processes have handles to the floppy disk. Deleting autorun.inf isn't all. You need to get rid of the virus. --wj32 ^t/c 01:25, 1 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Network discovery conundrum

So... I'm using a public internet connection on my Vista machine running the Windows OneCare firewall. Onecare reports that network discovery is off because I'm on a public network. When I click on Network (in the start menu) I can see a bunch of other PC's connected to the same router, which makes me think network discovery is on. When I go into the Network and Sharing Center it says Network Discovery is on. So my question is, and I'm assuming other computers can see my computer in their list of network places, how to I turn off network discovery for good? Or any other way of making my PC not show up. Thanks in advance, DaRkAgE7 _[Talk] 20:48, 31 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Zone Alarm is a good program that can do that (its another firewall). As for network discovery, it does not affect how you see the network, it only affects how others see you on the network. If you are really concerned about your computer while in a public place heres something that you can do (i do this sometimes) Get a linux live CD, boot in to that and use that to explore the internet while at a public place. the good and bad things about doing this is that everytime you restart all your data is lost, if someone hacks your computer they will see a linux OS running. If they manage to mess something up simply restarting will fix it. —Preceding unsigned comment added by E smith2000 (talk • contribs) 21:15, 31 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

selling PDFs on the web

Someone I know wants to know the best way to set up a site whereby they would sell PDFs on the web. One possibility of course is just having them get the payment via PayPal, and then they e-mail the PDF to the person in question. But is there a better, easier way? --98.217.8.46 (talk) 23:00, 31 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

I suggest that you use ebay, its an established website that will protect both the seller and the buyer.E smith2000 (talk) 23:26, 31 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Ebay would be a good choice if everyone wanting to buy the PDF files were a member. 64.172.159.131 (talk) 23:53, 31 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

The PDFs will be sold through the main website. What I'm asking about is a good site to use as a way of automating the processing of receiving transactions and sending the PDFs themselves. Fraud is a not an especially high concern here—we're talking about PDFs, not stereos. --98.217.8.46 (talk) 03:11, 1 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

January 1

Mouse issues

Hello, i seem to be having some problems with my mouse. Here is some background information, the mouse is a logitech cordless trackball model number Y-UT76. The mouse bad is a 11.5 inch X 8inch World of Warcraft mouse pad, very flexible but not very stretchy. I am working on a Dell notebook running windows vista business, dual core 1.2GHZ with 2 gigs of ram (and a 4 gig flash drive acting as readybost). I have a 3Mb connection through Comcast. My office is 13 feet X 13 feet X 15 feet. I have a 22inch monitor. There is a ESI phone sitting next to my computer and it seems like it is plugged in to the network cable. My problem is this: My mouse courser is on the far left side of the screen, while my mouse has reached the right end of the mouse pad. I cant move my mouse any more to the right. I have no idea what to do. my secretary suggest that i need a mouse pad upgrade but i really dont want to spend the $800 for a new mouse pad. What can i do? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 64.172.159.131 (talk) 00:13, 1 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

I've been having similar problems with my new Laptop SteveBaker (talk) 23:00, 1 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

I'd suggest moving the mouse to the far left of the mousepad: the cursor on the screen can't move to the left so will stay where it is. But the trackball won't be on the far-right of the mouse pad any more, so you can now move to the right. If this happens a lot, you could adjust the sensitivity of the mouse so it covers more distance for the amount of roll (if this makes the trackball difficult to control, you could reduce the resolution of the screen to make the screen feel "smaller"). These options are somewhere in Start, Control Panel. --h2g2bob (talk) 00:45, 1 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

I would suggest that you upgrade your hardrive, it sounds like you need more room on your harddrive since your trackball cant move to the right anymore. Or you may need a faster CPU... or perhaps a new ENDUSER. E smith2000 (talk) —Preceding undated comment was added at 00:51, 1 January 2009 (UTC). Remember WP:BITE, please. 86.133.55.169 (talk) 01:02, 3 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Do you really need an $800 trackball ? Why won't a $20 mouse serve your needs ? StuRat (talk) 06:59, 1 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

~~Sounds to me like an :ID-10T error. Haha, somebody had to say it... DaRkAgE7 _[Talk] 08:51, 1 January 2009 (UTC)~~ Remember WP:BITE, please. 86.133.55.169 (talk) 01:02, 3 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

WP:BITE doesn't apply to trolls. And don't bother quoting WP:AGF at me Nil Einne (talk) 10:10, 3 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Greek letter λ misspelled in Windows Vista

Isn't the Greek small letter lambda (λ) misspelled in Windows Vista's charmap.exe application? The applications calls it "Greek Small Letter Lamda". Is this bug present in older versions of Windows (e.g. XP) as well? And where are the charater names stored? Are they stored in charmap.exe or is there a Win32 API function that is utilized by charmap.exe? If so, which function is it? If not, where can I obtain a list of Unicode character names for my application? --Andreas Rejbrand (talk) 01:55, 1 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Sadly (because it's great to beat up M$), they have it right. The Greek spelling of lamda is: ΛΑΜΔΑ - No 'beta' - hence, no 'B'. However, lots of people (including many dictionaries) put the 'b' in - so I guess either spelling is OK. SteveBaker (talk) 03:33, 1 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

However, in English, it is spelled lambda. So people spell it that way because they speak English. --71.141.148.143 (talk) 05:41, 1 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Interesting. Another character, U+019B, ƛ, is called "Latin Small Letter Lambda With Stroke", though. But I see the logic: the true Greek characters are spelled with Greek rules. (Or, as SteveBaker wrote, either spelling is OK.) --Andreas Rejbrand (talk) 12:45, 1 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

The spelling they have matches the spelling in the Unicode charts (see [8]). I think their character names are all just the Unicode names, and has nothing to do with them. --71.141.148.143 (talk) 05:32, 1 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

But how to get character names as a software developer? I would like a function that accepts a unicode codepoint (e.g. 0x019b) and returns the character name (e.g. "Latin Small Letter Lambda With Stroke"). --Andreas Rejbrand (talk) 12:45, 1 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

I just studied charmap.exe in a hexadecimal editor, and realized two things:

The character names are not stored in charmap.exe.
The character names could very well be stored in – or at least obtained via – GetUName.dll. --Andreas Rejbrand (talk) 13:53, 1 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

It appears as if GetUName.dll exports a single function GetUName. Can I use this function? I so, how do I know how to use it, e.g. which arguments will it require? --Andreas Rejbrand (talk) 15:41, 1 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Googling that function on MSDN turned up this blog post. Apparently, that function is not part of the public API, and therefore undocumented, no guarantees, etc. But some of the comments might give you some other ideas on how to get these names... - IMSoP (talk) 17:27, 1 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Thank you very much. That kind of discussion was exactly what I was looking for! Tanks again! --Andreas Rejbrand (talk) 18:22, 1 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Resolved

x86 assembly

I have 4 questions about x86 assembly:

Is the inc X instruction faster than add X, 1, and is dec X faster than sub X, 1?
Is lea X, [X+Y] faster than add X, Y where X and Y are registers?
Is there any way to perform a divide in the lea instruction?
Should I be able to use 64-bit assembly code when I'm using a CPU with EMT64 but an OS that's only 32-bit?

Thanks, --wj32 ^t/c 09:02, 1 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

I haven't been programming assembly in a long time, so I can only answer #4: No. You need to be in long mode. -- Aeluwas (talk) 13:04, 1 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

inc and dec are indeed faster because the data for the value to be added/subtracted (ie '1') does not have to be fetched from memory.
I doubt lea is faster.
Don't know.
No.

IMHO, there is almost zero reason to use x86 assembly these days. Use C or C++ and let the compiler make these decisions for you (it does a MUCH better job than you'll ever do!) SteveBaker (talk) 20:04, 1 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

I'm just attempting to make an efficient implementation of CRC32. gcc (with -O3) seems to generate some inefficient code (putting local variables on the stack when it already has ebx, edi, and esi available, using jmps for simple logic). --wj32 ^t/c 23:15, 1 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Program in C++ to print number combinations

The question is as follows:

A positive natural number, for example 3, can be represented as follows:

1+1+1

1+2

where each row represents a combination of positive natural numbers which add up to 3. The combinations 1+2 and 2+1 are same, so only one combination is taken. Write a program in C++ which inputs a positive natural number, n>=2, and n<=20 (the program should reject the input if n<2 or n>20 and ask to re-enter n) and print the possible number combinations (except n itself) which when added give n. The output should contain possible combinations without the '+' sign, but at least one blank space in between the number combinations.

For example: if n=3, Output: Combinations:

            1 1 1
            1 2

if n=4, Output: Combinations:

I've managed to do the part with the 1s, but the other combinations have left me stumped. Even if it's only till 20, how long can the code possibly be? I'm at a loss. This is how much I've done:

//program to print all possible combinations

include<iostream.h>
include<conio.h>

void main()

{clrscr();

int n=0,num=0,a[25],i=0,j=0;

for(i=0;i<5;i++)

{cout<<"Enter a number between 1 and 21"<<endl;

cin>>n;

if(n>1&&n<21)

break;

else

continue;}

while(num<n)

{a[num]=num;

num++;}

cout<<"Combinations:"<<endl;

for(i=n-1;i>0;i--)

{for(j=1;j<=i;j++)

cout<<"1"<<" ";

cout<<(n-i)<<endl;}

{for(i=2;i<n;i++)

{cout<<i<<" "<<(n-i)<<endl;}}

}

Any help, as fast as possible (I've got exams coming up) shall be greatly appreciated. So, do try and help! PLEASE!!! Z ebe c 10:30, 1 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

This is actually a little more tricky than it looks. The simplest way is to use a recursive function to allow you to search through all the possibilities for the first number, then for each first number search all the possibilities for the second number, etc. This has the problem that you probably have to pass lists of numbers into functions, or return lists of numbers, but it's the most logical way of doing it. --Maltelauridsbrigge (talk) 15:41, 1 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

I have a feeling there is a smarter way of doing this, but this recursive function should do the job:

    void doit(int arr[], int len, int number)
    {
        int sum = sum_of_array(arr, len);
        int maxval = number - sum;

        if (maxval == 0 && descending_order(arr, len) && len > 1)
        {
            write_array(arr, len);
        }
        else if (maxval > 0)
        {
            for (int i = 0; i < maxval; ++i)
            {
                arr[len] = maxval - i;
                doit(arr, len+1, number);
            }
        }
    }

arr is an array declared in main, len is the current length of the array, and number is the number that the user entered. You call it from main, like this:

    doit(arr, 0, number).

You'll have to write the functions sum_of_array, write_array and descending_order. The first two do what their names say, the third returns true if the array is in descending order, false otherwise. This function is necessary to avoid printing duplicates. Also, note that main should return int, not void, and that the header's name is "iostream", not "iostream.h" in a standard implementation. I'd drop that conio.h and clrscr stuff too, it's not part of the C++ standard. And I would write a less ambiguous prompt (it is not clear if the intended range is 1..21 or 2..20). --NorwegianBlue^talk 16:17, 1 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Thank you very much. I'll write the functions and rewrite the program and tell you the result. But, I have one question,why should main have return type void? Happy new year, and THANK YOU! Z ebe c 17:17, 1 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

This is indeed very tricky. The technical name for what you are trying to do is list all the partitions of a number, and the study of integer partitions requires some deep mathematical hoodoo. Some googling turned up this paper (warning, pdf) describing a number of algorithms for figuring it out. I haven't read it (it's not my homework!), so I can't testify to the quality of the article. Belisarius (talk) 16:26, 1 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Fixed redlink in Belisarius' post. Good to hear it is tricky, I was unable to come up with anything smart. But the brute force approach that I suggested will do the job. --NorwegianBlue^talk 16:43, 1 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

You actually posted in between me clicking "edit", writing my answer, and clicking "save page", so I didn't see your excellent little piece of code, it just posted my answer after yours :). I didn't have the energy to work it out myself (I could have! I promise! I'm smart, dammit!) so I'm glad you did :) Belisarius (talk) 23:45, 1 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

For n=4, didn't you miss the solution {1,1,2} ? StuRat (talk) 16:53, 1 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

StuRat, you're right. Thanks for pointing out the glitch. I've made the change.Z ebe c 17:17, 1 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Zebec, main should return int, because the C++ standard says so. See Here, from Bjarne Stroustrup's FAQ. --NorwegianBlue^talk 17:35, 1 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

I see. And, by write_array you mean displaying all the elements of the array, right? Z ebe c 17:52, 1 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Yes. --NorwegianBlue^talk 18:00, 1 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Which brand of BIOS is used by recent Toshiba, Dell, Hewlett-Packard laptops

Which brand of BIOS is used by recent Toshiba, Dell, Hewlett-Packard laptops? Thanks! --Masatran (talk) 13:45, 1 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Dell generally user their own BIOS. 87.113.3.217 (talk) 14:03, 1 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

You'd pretty much have to see the computer booting up to know, since major manufacturers get their parts in batches and the supplier of each batch can change. (i.e. a certain model of laptop might not have the same BIOS as a near identical laptop.) Despite what the member above states, Dell doesn't make their own BIOS. They simply license and brand it from one of the major vendors. Major BIOS vendors include American Megatrends (AMI), Insyde Software, and Phoenix Technologies. You'll probably see one of the vendors mentioned in the first screen when powering up, assuming the splash screen isn't enabled (the one that hides the POST checks). If you don't, but you do see a version number somewhere, grab it and check it our with google, along with "BIOS". (Use the pause button to give you time to write the number down, it'll probably be quite long (20-30 alphanumerics.) Hope this helps! --EvilEdDead (talk) 05:13, 3 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Dells have a modified Phoenix bios, except in the super-cheapo models which are essentially unmodified (except the boot logo). IIRC, HPs have Phoenix too. -- Fullstop (talk) 05:31, 3 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

sprtcmd.exe and LIBEAY32.dll

I have a Dell Inspiron 1520 laptop. For a few months now, everytime I turn on my computer, two error boxes pop up with a title of

sprtcmd.exe: LIBEAY32.dll not found. Please reinstall the program.

What program does this belong to? I think it is one of my Dell components, but how do I figure out which one to reinstall without trial and error? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 156.34.89.130 (talk) 14:52, 1 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

It's the "Support and Command Center." Disable it: Start --> Run... --> msconfig --> Startup. One of my customers complained about it, too. It's safe to disable.--Djnghfg (talk) 16:00, 1 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Anitlog in C++

How can I find the antilog of a number in c++? Pseudocode will also do. --Seraphiel (talk) 15:35, 1 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

You mean the value of the power

a^{x}

? Some languages have a specific function for that, e.g. in Delphi you could write math.power(a, x). If no such function exists, you can use the fact that

a^{x}=e^{\ln {a^{x}}}=e^{x\ln a}

so that you can use exp(x * ln(a)), where exp and ln surely can be found in any language. --Andreas Rejbrand (talk) 15:45, 1 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

In C/C++, the appropriate function is pow(x,y), which returns x^y for input and output of type double. This is defined in <math.h>, or in C++ in <cmath>. If you don't want to do it like that, or don't have a math library, you could use the formula for e^x, continuing until the xⁿ/n! term is sufficiently small:

e^x= 1+ x/1! + x²/2! + ... + xⁿ/n! + ...

For alternative formulas, see Representations of e. If you want the antilog to a base of other than e, you can use the identity

(a^b)^c = a^bc

in the case where a^b = your desired base and a=e.--Maltelauridsbrigge (talk) 16:01, 1 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

If you are referring to the base-e exponential function, then simply exp(x) is what you are looking for. --Andreas Rejbrand (talk) 17:11, 1 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks for pouring in with help, guys! I wanted a general purpose answer for any given base. Got it now. Thank you.--Seraphiel (talk) 20:39, 2 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Cheap Blu-Ray player for PC ?

Does anyone have an inexpensive Blu-Ray player for PC they would recommend ? I'd use it in Windows XP or, if possible, under Puppy Linux. An internal drive is probably cheapest, but an external USB drive or a standalone unit for TV could also work. StuRat (talk) 17:09, 1 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

You'll find playing Blu-Ray on Linux difficult and vexing. Here is how Ubuntu says to do it (puppy should be much the same); you have to rip the disk to your hard disk (using a key you get off the internet) before playing. The newer disks have updated DRM which means that you can't get the required keys (yet). THings on XP won't be much better - because XP (unlike Vista) doesn't implement the secure-data-path/secure-driver-model stuff, official software players will downgrade the quality of the video they output (so much so that you'd be wasting your time switching to blu-ray). 87.113.3.217 (talk) 21:38, 1 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Also, a continuing shortage of blue laser diodes is keeping the prices of all BluRay drives kinda high. Player-only drives are getting a bit cheaper - but BluRay writers are still costing an arm and a leg. SteveBaker (talk) 22:56, 1 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Trouble Installing MediaWiki

i'm having trouble installing mediawiki on my webpage, which i'll call foo.org for anonymity

i'm following the instructions at [9] and [10] exactly. for my mysql databases, i'm using another website which uses phpmyadmin.
the folder which i uploaded has been unzipped and named "wiki" so that it is located at www.foo.org/wiki
within wiki, config has ben chmodded as 777.
within my browser, i navigate to http://www.foo.org/wiki/config/index.php
right after i fill out the form fields and click the "install mediawiki!" button, the browser takes a while, and then gives me a page whose contents i have pasted below

Thanks, --VectorField (talk) 17:22, 1 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

 MediaWiki 1.13.3 Installation

    * Don't forget security updates! Keep an eye on the low-traffic release announcements mailing list.

 Checking environment...

 Please include all of the lines below when reporting installation problems.

    * PHP 5.2.6 installed
    * Found database drivers for: MySQL SQLite
    * PHP server API is cgi-fcgi; using ugly URLs (index.php?title=Page_Title)
    * Have XML / Latin1-UTF-8 conversion support.
    * Session save path (/tmp) appears to be valid.
    * PHP's memory_limit is 90M.
    * Couldn't find Turck MMCache, eAccelerator, APC or XCache; cannot use these for object caching.
    * Found GNU diff3: /usr/bin/diff3.
    * Found ImageMagick: /usr/bin/convert; image thumbnailing will be enabled if you enable uploads.
    * Found GD graphics library built-in.
    * Installation directory: /home/jianli/harvardexperimentors.org/wiki
    * Script URI path: /wiki
    * Installing MediaWiki with php file extensions
    * Environment checked. You can install MediaWiki.

post re-formatted slightly - IMSoP (talk)

I'm not clear what you're saying the problem is - the text you pasted appears to be a success message from the first part of the web-based installer. Are you saying that this text appears a second time after you have filled out the form? Does the form also reappear, or is this the only text on the page? If the form is there, have you looked through to see if there are any messages telling you to correct missing or invalid entries? If it's not, is there any indication that there might have been a server error (e.g. in Apache error logs)? - IMSoP (talk) 17:36, 1 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Yes, it is as i wrote it - this success message appears (again) after i fill out the form and click the button, and it appears duplicated, with nothing else (such as an explanatory error message) on the page.

Regarding the error logs, I have quite a lot that are like the three here: [Thu Jan 01 09:13:29 2009] [error] [client xx.xxx.xx.xxx] File does not exist: /home/myname/foo.org/favicon.ico

[Thu Jan 01 09:13:29 2009] [error] [client xx.xxx.xx.xxx] File does not exist: /home/myname/foo.org/missing.html

[Wed Dec 31 15:50:18 2008] [crit] [client xx.xxx.xx.xxx] (13)Permission denied: /home/myname/foo.org/wiki/config/.htaccess pcfg_openfile: u$

--VectorField (talk) 18:01, 1 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Ah, figured it out. It was a problem with the mysql server. thanks, --VectorField (talk) 20:48, 1 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

World of Warcraft question

I would like to be able to play wow at the highest possible settings. what would be an ideal computer build to be able to run WoW at the highest settings while maintaining about 30 FPS. (like what kind of processor / video card / amount of ram and such) Thank you 69.62.151.224 (talk) 19:53, 1 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

An expensive computer. I am not an expert, but if you buy a new Dell with a power supply of perhaps 1 kW, a quad-core processor, 4 GB of RAM and one, or perhaps two (via crossfire (?) or any similar method), expensive ATI or nVidia GPU:s, then you will get an astonishing performance. Don't forget to buy a > 21" widescreen LCD and at least a 2.1 sound system as well. --Andreas Rejbrand (talk) 21:49, 1 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Really? I'm not that familiar with how WoW actually performs these days (I haven't played the game in, what, two or three years now), so it's entirely possible that the latest updates really require a lot more oomph if you intend to run the game in all its glory, but still. I mean, does the high end really get that high? You're talking about a system that could run Crysis pretty well, and WoW certainly can't approach those visuals, no matter how high you crank those settings. Or, to put it differently, is WoW that much of a resource hog? (I'm not trying to be contrary, I'm honestly asking, 'cause I'd like to know.) -- Captain Disdain (talk) 00:09, 2 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Currently, I play WoW on a self-built system using an EVGA 680i motherboard, Intel Q6600 2.4GHz processor overclocked to 3.6GHz, EVGA GeForce GTX260 Core 216, 4GB of OCZ PC2-8500 RAM and a 650w Silverstone power supply. I get a constant 60 frames per second (VSync locked) throughout all parts of the game at a monitor resolution of 1600x1050. The system is complete overkill for WoW, you certainly don't need as fast a CPU or video card to play it with all the settings maxxed out using the settings interface. I do recommend that you have at least 2GB of RAM if you're playing it using Windows Vista, as I do. I've actually tweaked the WoW video settings higher than you can configure them from the settings interface, while still maintaining 60 frames per second. The settings I use are below, applied in-game. These make a major difference to the appearance of the game, but will cause frame rate issues with slower systems. Note that these settings are only applicable when you have the Wrath of the Lich King expansion installed.

/console overridefarclip 1


/console farclip 1600

/console horizonfarclip 6226

/console groundeffectdensity 256

/console groundeffectdist 140

/console smallcull 0

/console skycloudlod 3

/console characterAmbient

/console extshadowquality 4

/console environmentDetail 2

Hope this helps! --Chasingsol ^(talk) 03:15, 2 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Program to print number combinations: Suggestions incorporated, but, this time, no output!

I made the changes NorwegianBlue asked me to, here's the code, but, there's no output. I'd love to know where I went wrong! (<include> didn't work on Turbo C++ 4.5, which is the version I use)

//program to print number combinations
#include<iostream.h>
void main()
{int i=0,n=0,arr[25];
void doit(int arr[], int len, int n);
int sum_of_array(int arr,int len);
void write_array(int arr,int len);
int descending_order(int arr[],int len);
for(i=0;i<5;i++)
{cout<<"Enter a number greater than 1 and less than 21"<<endl;
cin>>n;
if(n>1&&n<21)
break;
else
continue;}
doit(arr, 0, n);
}
int sum_of_array(int arr[],int len)
{int i=0,sum=0;
for(i=0;i<len;i++)
sum=sum+arr[i];
return sum;}
void write_array(int arr[],int len)
{int i=0;
for(i=0;i<len;i++)
cout<<arr[i]<<" ";}
int descending_order(int arr[],int len)
{int i=0,flag=0;
for(i=0;i<len;i++)
{if(arr[i]>arr[i+1])
continue;
else
{flag=1;
break;}}
if(flag==1)
return 2;
else
return 1;}
void doit(int arr[], int len, int number)
    {
        int sum = sum_of_array(arr, len);
        int maxval = number - sum;
 
		  if ((maxval == 0) && (descending_order(arr, len)==1) && (len > 1))
        {
            write_array(arr, len);
        }
        else if (maxval > 0)
        {
            for (int i = 0; i < maxval; ++i)
            {
                arr[len] = maxval - i;
                doit(arr, len+1, number);
            }
        }
	 }

And, I'm a bit confused about the function of the array arr[]. What does it store, exactly? Thanks for your help (though I still need more! ^_^) Z ebe c 18:32, 1 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Well, if you would format your code to make it readable, you'd probably get more responses. --jpgordon^∇∆∇∆ 18:35, 1 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

And, even more importantly, if you format your code to make it readable, it is easier to spot errors. There are three things that need to be fixed.

Your write_array function should write an end-line character before exiting.
In your descending_order function, the index i goes one past the end of the array, when you access element arr[i+1]. The termination criterion in the loop should have been i<len-1, since you are accessing element i+1.
In the body of your descending_order function, the test should be (arr[i]>=arr[i+1]), greater than or equal, otherwise partitions such as {2,2,1} will be skipped.

Apart from the errors, your descending_order function is quite awkward, with the flag, and the "magic" integer return values instead of booleans. Even if your compiler hasn't implemented booleans, I'm pretty sure it has macros for BOOL, TRUE and FALSE. My version looks like this:

    bool descending_order(int arr[], int len)
    {
        for (int i = 1; i < len; ++i)
        {
            if (arr[i-1] < arr[i])
            {
                return false;
            }
        }
        return true;
    }

As for the contents of the array, it'll be easier to understand when you've got the program working. Here's the output of my version of the program:

Enter a number in the range 2..20
5
Partitions:
4 1
3 2
3 1 1
2 2 1
2 1 1 1
1 1 1 1 1

The array contains the integers that you see printed, as well as many other combinations that are not printed, because they fail the test

if ((maxval == 0) && descending_order(arr, len) && (len > 1))

To understand the program better, you could try moving the write_array statement from inside the if-test, to above it, like so:

    void doit(int arr[], int len, int number)
    {
        int sum = sum_of_array(arr, len);
        int maxval = number - sum;

        write_array(arr, len); // ** JUST TESTING
        if (maxval == 0 && descending_order(arr, len) && len > 1)
        {
            //write_array(arr, len); ** MOVED **
        }
        else if (maxval > 0)
        {
            for (int i = 0; i < maxval; ++i)
            {
                arr[len] = maxval - i;
                doit(arr, len+1, number);
            }
        }
    }

Then you'll get a print-out of all combinations that have been generated. --NorwegianBlue^talk 19:39, 1 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Zebec's real-life friend here. Our school hasn't taught us boolean functions in C++ which is why we aren't supposed to be using them in our programs. We have to use cumbersome alternatives instead.And in our version of Turbo C++ 4.5, the <iostream> header doesn't work if we don't specify the ".h" part. I tried out a code based on the one you've given, but different from Zebec's. It didn't work either. Can you help us out, please? That doesn't neccessarily mean giving us the completed code..... La Alquim ista 10:40, 2 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

If your teacher insists on your using "magic" return values, like 1 and 2 in the code above, instead of TRUE and FALSE, I'd say your teacher needs some re-education, and that might explain the rather odd coding style of the program posted. Most C++ programmers declare and initilalize a variable at the point where it's needed, and usually one variable at a time (one variable per line). Stuff like the

                  int i=0,n=0,arr[25];

in Zebec's code reads more like C than C++ to me. And putting the prototypes of the program's functions within main is also unusual (you would normally put these at the top of the file, right after the include statements, or in a separate header file).

You didn't specify how your program failed, but if it simply produced no output, focus on the if-statement:

if (maxval == 0 && descending_order(arr, len) && len > 1)

My guess is that the error is in the descending_order function.

Did you try fixing the three errors that I pointed out in Zebec's code, and compile the program? I did, and it worked. --NorwegianBlue^talk 14:16, 2 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Yes,I made the changes you asked me to in my program, and it worked! Thank you SO much. I owe you one! Z ebe c 15:44, 2 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Yeah. I ran the corrected program just now. It's working fine, but there's just an extremely small glitch. The output is arranged in a manner that's just the opposite of the one given.... But I don't think that matters. Thank you so much NorwegianBlue.

P.S And as for the "re-education" part... Oh ha ha.....!

La Alquim ista 16:31, 2 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

You're very welcome, both of you!

If you want the printout to be in the format {1,2,2} instead of {2,2,1}, replace the function descending_order with an analogous function ascending_order.

If you want {1,1,1,1,1} to be listed before {1,1,1,2}, change the for-loop in doit to

for (int i = maxval-1; i >=0; --i)

Some final pieces of advice:

When you write a function, always write some temporary code to test that it works as expected, before proceeding. The descending_order function of Zebec never returned TRUE, because of an off-by-one error - it tested the final element of the array against whatever garbage was sitting in memory one past the end of the array.
When a program doesn't do what you expect it to, walk through it with a debugger if you have access to one, or add print statements at critical points in the program, so that you can figure out where the error is occurring.
Since this is homework: the important thing for you is not just to get the program working, but to understand WHY it works. Recursion is a tricky concept to grasp. Add some print statements (write_array) etc, and play with the program until you understand it.
Suggest to your teacher that you switch to a less ancient C++ compiler. There are several free ones, Microsoft Visual C++ 2008 Express, gcc, MingW and others. --NorwegianBlue^talk 18:31, 2 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Three-pass protocol

Are there any implementations of the Three pass protocol that offer authentication? --Melab±1 ☎ 21:17, 1 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Facebook - is it down?

Is it me or is Facebook down at the moment? I can access the page that asks for my login details but when I put them in and submit, I get an error page after a few seconds - on Firefox it says "The operation timed out when attempting to contact login.facebook.com." and in Internet Explorer I don't even get that far - it says:

The page cannot be displayed The page you are looking for is currently unavailable. The Web site might be experiencing technical difficulties, or you may need to adjust your browser settings.

I can ping www.facebook.com but not login.facebook.com -

Pinging www.facebook.com [69.63.184.142] with 32 bytes of data:

Reply from 69.63.184.142: bytes=32 time=121ms TTL=245 Reply from 69.63.184.142: bytes=32 time=120ms TTL=245 Reply from 69.63.184.142: bytes=32 time=121ms TTL=245 Reply from 69.63.184.142: bytes=32 time=120ms TTL=245

Ping statistics for 69.63.184.142:

   Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0% loss),

Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:

   Minimum = 120ms, Maximum = 121ms, Average = 120ms

Pinging login.facebook.com [69.63.178.23] with 32 bytes of data

Request timed out. Request timed out. Request timed out. Request timed out.

Ping statistics for 69.63.178.23:

   Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 0, Lost = 4 (100% loss),

TRACERT gives the following results but I don't know exactly what they mean. It looks to me like the request has not made it beyond the Entanet (my ISP) servers.

Tracing route to www.facebook.com [69.63.184.142] over a maximum of 30 hops:

 1     *        *        *     Request timed out.
 2    34 ms    32 ms    32 ms  lns02.inx.dsl.enta.net [78.33.38.134]
 3    32 ms    32 ms    32 ms  gi4-47.interxion.dsl.enta.net [78.33.38.133]
 4    32 ms    32 ms    32 ms  te2-3.interxion.core.enta.net [87.127.236.209]
 5    33 ms    32 ms    33 ms  te5-1.global-switch.core.enta.net [87.127.236.85

]

 6     *        *        *     Request timed out.
 7     *        *        *     Request timed out.
 8     *        *        *     Request timed out.
 9   121 ms   121 ms   121 ms  te-9-1.csw03b.ash1.tfbnw.net [204.15.23.87]
10   121 ms   121 ms   121 ms  www.05.03.ash1.facebook.com [69.63.184.142]

Trace complete.

Tracing route to login.facebook.com [69.63.178.23] over a maximum of 30 hops:

 1     *        *        *     Request timed out.
 2    32 ms    43 ms    33 ms  lns02.inx.dsl.enta.net [78.33.38.134]
 3    33 ms    32 ms    32 ms  gi4-47.interxion.dsl.enta.net [78.33.38.133]
 4    32 ms    32 ms    32 ms  te2-3.interxion.core.enta.net [87.127.236.209]
 5    34 ms    32 ms    32 ms  te5-1.global-switch.core.enta.net [87.127.236.85

]

 6     *        *        *     Request timed out.
 7     *        *        *     Request timed out.
 8     *        *        *     Request timed out.
 9     *        *        *     Request timed out.
10     *

Please note I can access all other websites (well those that I have tried today anyway) without a problem. I don't think it's my PC as I cannot access Facebook on my laptop either (which connects to the same internet router). My ISP's status page indicates that there are nmo problems. Any suggestions? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 62.249.220.179 (talk) 21:50, 1 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Fine here. Algebraist 21:52, 1 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Hmmn strange. It isn't just Facebook either as www.yoomedia.co.uk causes exactly the same error. Is there something these two websites have in common that could be causing me problems? If so, it must be a problem with Windows XP or my AVG antivirus software as I can't think of anything else that my PC and laptop have in common. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 62.249.220.179 (talk) 22:06, 1 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

if they share the same internet connection it could be that. No problem with facebook for me but yoomedia.co.uk gives me a "You don't have permission to access / on this server" error. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 82.43.88.87 (talk) 23:58, 1 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Recycle bin

I read somewhere a while ago that deleting something from the recycle bin does not truly delete it. If this is true, how do I truly delete something from my computer? I have Windows Vista if that matters. 75.169.208.225 (talk) 21:57, 1 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

See data remanence. Algebraist 22:02, 1 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

'Deleting' an item from your Recycle Bin doesn't actually delete it - it just marks the space that was taken up by that item as free for use for new files. You can get software that properly deletes files by overwriting the space on the disk with 1s and zeroes - if you Google for 'Freeware delete' you should get some good results. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 62.249.220.179 (talk) 22:04, 1 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Really, really, really deleting something is tricky.

When you delete a file, it merely moves it into the wastebasket. Getting it back is easy.
When you empty the wastebasket, it marks the space used by the file as 'free' and removes the directory entry for it. Getting it back is possible with an 'undelete' program so long as nothing re-used that empty space in the meantime. This might mean that the file can still be undeleted months or years later - or it might make it impossible to undelete 30 seconds later - it depends on how much you use your PC, where the file happened to be on disk, how full your drive is...who knows?
Some files may have been temporarily stored in 'cache' files or may have been placed into 'swap space' on your hard drive. Getting rid of the data for email you've received (for example) may be tough for that reason. You think you've removed the file - but the data is still there in some other place on the drive.
When the drive detects that a sector has 'gone bad' - it'll use another disk sector instead. The data on the 'dead sector' is still there and may be read by a sufficiently determined person!
But even when the file has been completely overwritten in every possible place on the drive where it might ever have lived...a forensic analysis of the hard drive may be able to recover data from the file in one of two ways:
- When you overwrite a file which has a binary data pattern that goes (say) 1,0,1,0,1,0 with a new pattern that's (say) 1,1,1,0,0,0 - what happens is that where a '1' is overwritten by another '1', you get a perfect '1' written into the magnetic media - and when a perfect 0 is overwritten with a 0 you get a perfect 0. But when a '0' is overwritten by a '1', the result may not be a perfect '1' - it might only be an '0.99' and when a '1' is overwritten with a '0' you might get an 0.01 on the disk. When the hard drive sees a value that's not quite a 1 or is a bit more than a 0, it just says "close enough!" and everything works OK. But a forensic lab can measure the actual voltages that come out of the drive head and compare that to the data that the drive reads (1,1,1,0,0,0 in this case) with the actual analog voltages (1,0.99,1,0,0.01,0 in this case) - and by subtracting one from the other, discover which bits were changed when the data was overwritten - and thereby recover the overwritten file.
- Because the disk head doesn't follow the EXACT same path across the disk every time the disk rotates. So if the file was originally written when the head was moving a bit further out than usual - and was overwritten when the head was moving a bit further in than usual - then there could be a thin strip of your original file still there on the hard drive. There is no way to get that back without dismantling the drive in a clean-room and using special equipment to read the disk - but (for example) the government could do it if they had to.

Fixing the data so that even forensic labs can't read it is actually kinda tricky. There are some programs out there that will write 0's over the entire 'free' area of the drive. That prevents an 'undelete' program from getting the data back. Some of those programs write alternating '1's and '0's over the drive over and over again - which stops the first of the forensic tricks from working...but the 'mispositioned drive head' problem is harder to permenantly erase because you really can't tell whether the head has mispositioned by a small amount. In the end, using a bulk eraser (basically a big electromagnet) to wipe the entire drive - and then smashing the disk into teeny-tiny pieces is probably the only 100% certain way to get rid of data. — Preceding unsigned comment added by SteveBaker (talk • contribs)

If your only concerned with the wife finding the ebay receipt for her wedding ring, I'd suggest you try one of the programs suggested earlier. But, if your concerned with the FBI breaking down your door shortly after you hacked in to the CIA then i would suggest that you boot off of a live CD (perhaps a customized Linux distro) and have tons of ram (or a ram drive). That way simply turning off the computer will wipe everything. (at least this is what i understand) 69.62.151.224 (talk) 03:28, 2 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

You can use the free program, CCleaner (http://www.ccleaner.com) available at http://www.ccleaner.com/download/builds, which provides the ability to do multi-pass deletion when you empty the recycle bin or clean up temporary files from your system. I recommend downloading the 'slim' build, which does not include the Yahoo! toolbar as part of the package, although there is an option to not install it if you download the regular version. The program also provides a registry cleaner to keep your system registry free of unneeded entries. I have used this software for years, and it has always proven to be safe. Hope this helps! --Chasingsol ^(talk) 03:35, 2 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

I suspect anon is not asking how to wipe, but rather how to delete a file without it being moved to the recycle bin. The answer to that would be... "hold down the shift key when clicking/pressing 'delete'". -- Fullstop (talk) 22:45, 2 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Blackberry Storm videos to PC

How do I upload videos I recorded on my Blackberry storm to my PC? I've connected the Blackberry to my PC via USB and cannot locate the videos anywhere. Also, the videos are too big to send to email. Thanks in advance.--Endless dan and his problem 22:25, 1 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

??? Worm on Wikipedia ???

Okay, I know this is a false positive, but what the heck is triggering it???

Worm pic --71.117.47.248 (talk) 23:55, 1 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

EDIT: Interestingly enough, it only appears to give the pop-up warning for the worm on the WP:RD/C page..--71.117.47.248 (talk) 00:16, 2 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

What anti-virus is this on? There was a similar problem a few weeks ago with Norton anti-virus, see here and here. The solution was to run liveupdate once Norton had made a fix —Preceding unsigned comment added by 82.43.88.87 (talk) 00:22, 2 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Hmm that is rather odd. I'm running ESET's NOD32, as per the pop-up warning box. They are usually pretty good about not having false positives...wonder what's going on. I guess I'll just wait it out until it gets fixed. The weirdest part is that I can view EVERYWHERE and everything on Wikipedia except the /Computing reference desk. --71.117.47.248 (talk) 06:19, 2 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

I use NOD32 too, and I've got the same problem..... Wonder what's going on. La Alquim ista 06:24, 2 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Likely NOD32 is seeing some code on this page and regards it as suspicious. Most likely the code is Wikipedia:Reference desk/Computing#Virus question 2. Once the page has been archived (so it doesn't disappear and they can't find it) you may want to submit it to ESET so they can hopefully prevent this happening in the future Nil Einne (talk) 10:08, 3 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

January 2

Oh how I miss my Unix shell

I've definitely decided now that I just can't live without my awk, grep and sed. Can anyone recommend a free set of unix-like utilities for Windows XP? I like csh, but I can live with bash and ksh - I just really need the good stuff - diff, sort, cut - all that magic. Pointers to good (free) software packages are appreciated! Franamax (talk) 01:00, 2 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Cygwin may be a good solution. I haven't used it myself so I can't comment on it. - Akamad (talk) 01:13, 2 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

I use Cygwin all the time (well, on those -- thankfully rare -- occasions when I'm forced to use Windoze), and I can definitely recommend it. Easy install, and it gives you bash plus all your favorite indispensible Unix utilities.—Steve Summit (talk) 02:18, 2 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Yes - using Windows without Cygwin is like...um...it's like...um...driving an Acura instead of a MINI Cooper'S. With Cygwin installed, you'll be right at home. All of the standard 'GNU' tools you have under Linux/Unix are right there - the slashes in the filenames point in the right direction and you have /usr, /bin, /etc and /home just like you like it. You can use tcsh (as well as bash...dunno about ksh). awk,grep,sed,diff,cut,sort - and all of the pipes and redirects and back-quotes, the GNU C/C++ compiler/make suite...everything. If you squint just right so you can't see the flappy-flag logo at the bottom-left of the screen...then you're right at home (er...except for having to unnecessarily double-click to launch programs...<grrrr>). SteveBaker (talk) 15:19, 2 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

I've installed it and I have a very large smile on my face. Finally, I'm home again. :) Took a while to figure out the packages, but the whole command line is there and it's got X app's. Now if I could only get the Solaris cmdtool with the proper window controls - can't have everything I guess. Thanks for the tip, now I'm going back to playing with my new toy! :) Franamax (talk) 01:24, 3 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Setting up cygwin

Now that you're on about Cygwin ... I tried it a week or so ago, and I'm completely dumbfounded on how to use it. – LATICS talk 04:16, 2 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

What do you mean how to use it? What do you want to do? --76.167.241.238 (talk) 05:15, 2 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

I've installed it (the .exe) ... and since that point, I'm completely lost. I basically just wanna mod the GUI to look like Ubuntu. I really enjoy using Ubuntu, except for the lack of computability. – LATICS talk 05:35, 2 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Cygwin is very useful but the installation process can be quite confusing. To install it, you first download the setup.exe installer from the Cygwin website. There are many optionally application/utility packages you can choose to install, and you probably won't need them all.

Before installing Cygwin, you may want to take some time to study the list of packages available and make an alphabetized list of the ones you want. It is often not obvious whether you may want a particular package, and some packages have dependencies on others. Fortunately, the Cygwin installer automatically takes care of the dependencies for you — if you select a package for installation, the installer will automatically select other needed packages as well. Sometimes a utility is part of a -utils package. It may take some digging to find out what package it is a part of, or if you have already selected it when you selected another package. If you are just using a software package, but are not developing (e.g. modifying and compiling) it, you probably won't need the corresponding -develop package.

When you run the setup.exe installer, you will be asked to select a mirror site to download software from and then to select the optional packages you want to install. At the "Select Packages" screen, you may want to click the "View" button (in the upper right part of the screen) to switch the view to "Full". With the help of the (alphabetized) list of packages you made earlier, select the ones you want on the big scrollable list. (To select a package for installation, click under the "New" column on the line for the package. It will change from "Skip" to the version # of the package.) The rest of the installation process is quite straightforward.

Two tips:

In Cygwin, the C: drive of Windows is mapped to /cygdrive/c/ in the file system. Other Windows drives are handled similarly.
By default, your home directory will be a directory under /home. You may want to make that a symbolic link to your Windows %USERPROFILE% or %USERPROFILE%\My Documents folder (so that you can work on the same set of files easily from both Windows and Cygwin.)

Good luck. --173.49.79.200 (talk) 06:31, 2 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Most people use Cygwin to run useful Linux command-line utilities and stuff, and develop software that depend on Linux libraries. It sounds like you want to run a desktop environment or something; I'm not sure how to advise you on that. GNOME packages are part of Cygwin, so you might want to try installing GNOME and see what that does. But I'm not sure what kind of "compatibility" you would get out of it. I'm not sure that Cygwin is the right solution for what you want. --76.167.241.238 (talk) 06:54, 2 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Wait, wait, wait...we're all answering the wrong question. You said you "wanna mod the GUI to look like Ubuntu" - that's not what Cygwin is about. It's mostly about being able to run a Unix-like command-line environment using the same GNU toolset as Linux, BSD, etc. The Windows GUI is something you're more or less stuck with. There is an X-windows environment for Windows - but it's not going to end up looking like you're running Ubuntu's desktop without an insane amount of messing around...and probably not even then.

a couple of responses: first, the commandline is the Unix GUI :-P. J/k. Second: KDE RUNS JUST FINE UNDER WINDOWS. I've done it myself. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 94.27.219.202 (talk) 20:46, 2 January 2009 (UTC) [reply]

Yeah, that's how little I know about operating systems outside of Windows. :P – LATICS talk 21:35, 2 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Using programs in OS X to overlap two images transparently like MS Paint does.

Just so it is clear what I mean, in MS Paint, you can define a "background color" (i.e. whatever is in the color box underneath the other one in the bottom left corner ) and with the appropriate transparency setting selected, when you move one image overtop another, and the color of the bottom image will show through any pixel with that "background color" in the top image. This makes it easy to say, stack a dozen separate graph images atop one other for easy comparison fairly quickly. How do I do the equivalent thing in OS X (4) about as fast I could in MS paint using either the default programs or downloading something free which has the desired functionality? Thank you in advance, 152.16.15.23 (talk) 02:08, 2 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

So far, I found a hideously complicated method in Appleworks involving creating a "Painting section" in a "Drawing" sheet, pasting the image into the painting area and manipulating some settings and doing other things that I have already forgotten, and then repeat the process for every image I want to stack. I then take a screen shot of the drawing sheet with the now stacked image, crop it, and save it as a normal jpg, png, or whatever. The above method I described takes far too long and is difficult to manipulate, especially when I have to stack lots of images. I saw some free "Paint clones for Macs" when I googled for a solution earlier, but I don't know if they have this functionality. I feel a little uneasy downloading them to try them out since the computer in question is a shared work computer. I'd be willing to get permission if someone confirms that one of programs can do what I want it to. 152.16.15.23 (talk) 02:42, 2 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

GIMP + magic wand tool on the "transparent" color + delete + paste new layer onto another image? --98.217.8.46 (talk) 03:00, 2 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

GIMP is certainly the tool of choice - it's a free program and it's every bit as good as high-end paint programs such as photoshop (and WAY better than MS Paint!). Start up GIMP, create a new image - then right-click somewhere in the image window to pop up the menu. Under 'File' you'll see 'Open as layers...'. Click that and you get a file load dialog box which lets you select multiple files to load...each will be loaded into its own layer. Then right-click to bring the menu up again, under 'Dialogs' you'll see 'Layers'. Click that to open the layers dialog. Click on any of the thumbnails then use the 'Opacity' slider at the top of the dialog to adjust the transparency of each layer - or click on the 'eye' icon to the left of the thumbnail to turn the layer completely off or on again. You can also do fancy tricks like setting the 'mode' of each layer to modify the layer beneath in some interesting way - but you'll probably have to experiment to find modes you like. If you want to remove the solid-colored background of a graph or something - then right-click to get the menu and under 'Select' you'll see 'Select by color...' - click that then click on someplace in the image to pick a color from whatever layer you have selected - then type Ctrl-X (or whatever 'Cut' is on the Mac) to cut out all of the pixels of that color. SteveBaker (talk) 15:09, 2 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Paint in Windows

Some time ago my XP-based Daktech laptop was having these hardware problems that made it harder and harder for me to use it except as a really small desktop, so I bought a new Vista-based HP laptop and transferred my data to it. I virtually never use the Daktech now. It didn't take me long to get fed up with Vista (like how it doesn't even have Windows Pinball, not to mention the way that file folders work somewhat differently, and some programs are rather different, like Paint which doesn't have simple reds and yellows in the basic color palate. Because the Daktech still works, I got Pinball and other things I needed from it; while Pinball works fine (I've broken my old record score :-) other things don't always. When I loaded the older version of Paint onto the HP, it worked fine: it opens image files fine, modifies them fine, saves them fine, etc. I've made the XP Paint the default program for opening .jpgs, .pngs, etc., but for some reason they always keep opening in the annoying Vista Paint. I'm tempted just to delete Vista Paint to solve the problem, but I don't want to cause big problems — would this do something bad to my computer? Would this be a good way to solve the problem? Or should I do something else? Or should I simply give up because there's nothing I can do? 24.93.116.128 (talk) 04:06, 2 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

I suggest a test. Instead of deleting the Vista version of Paint, just rename it to something like "paint.exe.disabled". Then, if this causes any problems, you can rename it back. StuRat (talk) 07:15, 2 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

SYN attack?

Does this mean that i am being attacked?

01/01/2009 21:30:11 **SYN Flood to Host** 192.168.2.103, 49530->> 74.125.19.104, 80 (from WAN Outbound)

01/01/2009 21:17:27 **SYN Flood to Host** 192.168.2.103, 53775->> 74.125.19.103, 80 (from WAN Outbound)

01/01/2009 21:16:15 **SYN Flood to Host** 192.168.2.103, 53501->> 66.135.200.11, 80 (from WAN Outbound)

01/01/2009 19:56:48 **SYN Flood to Host** 192.168.2.103, 51612->> 66.135.220.11, 80 (from WAN Outbound)

01/01/2009 19:51:40 **SYN Flood to Host** 192.168.2.103, 50726->> 66.135.220.11, 80 (from WAN Outbound)

12/28/2008 10:39:31 **SYN Flood to Host** 192.168.2.105, 2759->> 17.112.152.32, 80 (from WAN Outbound)

12/27/2008 23:45:36 **SYN Flood to Host** 192.168.2.100, 49291->> 213.199.149.11, 80 (from WAN Outbound)

12/27/2008 23:45:15 **SYN Flood to Host** 192.168.2.100, 49250->> 213.199.149.8, 80 (from WAN Outbound)

12/26/2008 19:45:48 **Smurf** 157.166.255.39, 80->> 192.168.2.103, 53895 (from WAN Inbound)

12/26/2008 19:45:36 **Smurf** 157.166.255.39, 80->> 192.168.2.103, 53892 (from WAN Inbound)

12/26/2008 19:45:35 **Smurf** 157.166.255.39, 80->> 192.168.2.103, 53892 (from WAN Inbound)

12/26/2008 19:45:30 **Smurf** 157.166.255.39, 80->> 192.168.2.103, 53892 (from WAN Inbound)

12/26/2008 19:45:29 **Smurf** 157.166.255.39, 80->> 192.168.2.103, 53892 (from WAN Inbound)

12/26/2008 19:45:26 **Smurf** 157.166.255.39, 80->> 192.168.2.103, 53892 (from WAN Inbound)

12/24/2008 17:22:01 **SYN Flood to Host** 192.168.2.103, 50272->> 66.135.200.13, 80 (from WAN Outbound)

12/24/2008 16:56:59 **SYN Flood to Host** 192.168.2.103, 65513->> 96.17.109.113, 80 (from WAN Outbound)

12/24/2008 16:47:48 **LAND** 10.202.46.2->> 10.202.46.2, Type:5, Code:1 (from WAN Outbound)

12/24/2008 15:31:21 **SYN Flood to Host** 192.168.2.100, 2216->> 65.254.35.18, 80 (from WAN

—Preceding unsigned comment added by 69.62.151.224 (talk) 05:48, 2 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

I'm a novice at this stuff, but I'd say it's looks very possible that you are. Just googled and found this, seems it may help. If it doesn't, just check google. (see SYN flood) – LATICS talk 06:13, 2 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

After doing a whois search i found out that those ipaddresses belong to ebay, Microsoft, Apple, Google and 2 of the ip addresses were from 'Microsoft London Internet Data Center'

Was i jsut attacked by a zombie network?69.62.151.224 (talk) 06:15, 2 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

It doesn't look like you're being attacked by a zombie network. Rather, it seems that your machines were being exploited to attack other computers. (In other words, your concern should be whether your machines are already compromised and are now part of some zombie networks.) I'd suggest checking the documentation of the firewall or IDS that generated the log entries and see exactly what conditions would cause those events to be logged, as a first step to understanding what was going on. --173.49.79.200 (talk) 15:17, 2 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

KDE: Force undo video mode change

In KDE, is there any way to undo a video mode change and bring up the desktop, which no application can override? Just now I started Neverwinter Nights and had "VIDEO MODE NOT SUPPORTED" come up on my monitor. Nothing else would display. I tried Alt-Tab, Ctrl-Alt-Esc followed by a click, and Ctrl-Alt-Del, to no avail, and was ultimately forced to hit the power switch. I need some way to deal with this if another game does it in the future. Neon Merlin 05:55, 2 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Ctrl+Alt+Backspace will restart the X server. Plus, if the X server's frozen you can try the Magic SysRq keys. --wj32 ^t/c 07:27, 2 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

(Note: The magic sysrq keys only work if the kernel is compiled with that option enabled...which it's typically not). SteveBaker (talk) 14:51, 2 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

aha! Now we know why you're so powerful, SteveBaker, across all the reference desks!! You roll with Linux. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 94.27.219.202 (talk) 20:42, 2 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

PCI express slot

Can I have a PCI express slot installed on my motherboard since it does not have one? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 116.71.52.231 (talk) 10:47, 2 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

No sorry, it is not possible to add that type of a slot. Your best bet is to get an AGP or PCI graphics card as they are still available. 62.25.96.244 (talk) 11:26, 2 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

It's certainly not possible - but even if it were - it would be a waste of effort. If your motherboard still has AGP then it's doubtful it has enough CPU horsepower to keep a PCI express graphics card fully loaded (at least not with 'typical' applications like games) - so the upgrade wouldn't actually achieve very much (if any) practical benefits. SteveBaker (talk) 14:50, 2 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Yeah my motherboard only has an AGP slot but I bought a new 512 MB AGP card last year and it runs most games pretty fast so that's your best bet unless you want exceptionally high performance, in which case you'd probably want to upgrade your motherboard anyway so you could take advantage of the latest technology.62.25.96.244 (talk) 15:12, 2 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

The problem is that, supposing there were something like that, some kind of "adapter" that provides a PCI Express slot and connects to your motherboard somehow, through another slot or connector, then whatever connection it uses must be at least as fast as PCI Express, for the PCI Express slot to be used to full potential. But such a slot or connector probably doesn't exist on your motherboard, because the PCI Express is among the most high-bandwidth slots even on motherboard that have it. --128.97.245.52 (talk) 00:32, 3 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

There was actually an adapter in reverse i.e. AGP to PCIe Bridge Card [11] [12] but compatibility was poor. I would probably have been possible to do the same thing in reverse after all most AGP cards nowadays are PCI-express native with a bridge chip but again compatibility is likely to be extremely poor plus there would probably be other issues (e.g. the device would need to be externally powered so it can supply the 75W guaranteed by PCI-e). Actually I seem to recall talk of one in the works a while back, I guess they realised it was a dumb idea and abandoned it. BTW, you don't need to be as fast, technically it's possible by design for most cards to work with only 1 lane. Performance will suffer although for a long time there was little difference between 8 lanes and 16 lanes and 8x AGP is roughly equivalent to 8 lanes. Of course a card running on an adapter is quite different from one properly designed to use a bridge chip, the later being much more desiriable Nil Einne (talk) 10:27, 3 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

notebook with windows vista BSOD problem

My notebook, started to give a blue screen of death, when starting vista, (after the loading screen), this problem occur even in safemode. I put my notebook to make tests, something that he is able to do, and when starting to make HD test it said that was a problem and he was not able to make the HD test. I tried to run the chkdsk in the command prompt that i am able to select when windows vista shows it starting fixer (the place where i am able to test the memory, use the command prompt...), but is didnt fixed the problem. Also tried running the defrag but it didnt started (and said something about an dll). What can be the problem?? The last user that was using the notebook said she didint made somethig very different. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 189.97.5.198 (talk) 15:39, 2 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Put the original Vista install disk in the CD drive and boot your notebook from the CD (press F12 before the computer starts loading Vista from the hard disk, and choose boot from CD). When started from the CD, you should choose the option to repair your Vista installation. Then you should be able to start Vista from the hard disk into Safe Mode. Once in safe mode, look at the system recovery options in the control panel and try to roll back the computer to an earlier System Restore Point. These links might help: here and here (found with this Google search). Astronaut (talk) 16:40, 2 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Tried to recover to a ealier point before but windows vista says that the system dont have a ealier backup. Another thing I dont have a windows vists cd here because I am not in my house, (well not in my official house, i am on my vacation house), so i left my cd in my house. I am talking and using wikipedia with an another notebook that I have. (before you ask with windows xp). —Preceding unsigned comment added by 189.97.5.198 (talk) 17:13, 2 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

I suggest you wait until you get home and try a proper repair like I described above.

If you really can't wait until then and you have a way to burn an ISO image onto CD (using your other notebook?), now might be the time to play with a Live CD (a linux you can run straight from the CD without installing anything). You should be able to use the internet, check your mail, access your documents by mounting the hard disk, and maybe learn a little about Linux. Astronaut (talk) 02:00, 3 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

wiki tools problem

I wanted to check stats on my contribs yesterday, and got a timeout error message. I checked again today, and I get the same results. If I do a contributions summary I get a "Gateway Timeout error", if I do the Edit and Action count I get:

Can't connect to local MySQL server through socket '/var/run/mysqld/mysqld.sock' (2)ERROR: No result returned.

is there an upgrade or problem going on, or is it an issue with my computer or setting in my preferences that I'm missing. Thanks for any input. Ched (talk) 16:29, 2 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

The toolserver's been having problems lately. That hasn't been working for me either. Dendodge Talk^Contribs 17:18, 2 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks, if it's not my computer or settings, guess I won't worry about it. ;) Ched (talk) 17:34, 2 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Typically, if you have a problem with a certain part of a single website or service, but everything else on the internet works fine, it's not your problem. Or rather: it may be your problem, but it's not your fault. ;) -- Captain Disdain (talk) 19:27, 2 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Compromised email?

Hello! Just recently (according to my spam folder Dec. 21 last year), I started receiving emails in my spam folder from "me." I checked the details of the sender, and it did indeed say "From:<myemail>@gmail.com To:<myemail>@gmail.com." I checked my "Sent Mail," but none of these messages where recorded. I also looked into Gmail's discussion board, but mostly everyone else who had the problem had noticed the messages in the "Sent Mail" folder, so I'm not sure how severe my situation is. Do I need to take action? Is my account compromised? I run good periodic virus checks, watch for phishing, and believe I maintain good computer hygiene. Any advice appreciated. Thank you very much!--el Aprel (^facta-_facienda) 20:59, 2 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Much of the information in the header of an email can be spoofed; it is common for spammers to put in bogus "from" and "reply-to" data. Here is one (not very detailed) discussion of the topic. It sounds like you have nothing to worry about, just keep maintaining that good hygiene. --LarryMac | Talk 21:04, 2 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Anyone can put anything in the From: field and it does not make any difference because that field is not used in mail transport. (Any email client should allow you to put anything you want in the From field.) People get spam mail "from" themselves all the time, and it doesn't mean anything. --71.106.183.17 (talk) 21:06, 2 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Thank you very much—and for the quick reply! That makes sense, and I'm glad it looks like I have nothing to worry about.--el Aprel (^facta-_facienda) 21:21, 2 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Designating Commons for file uploads on my MediaWiki wiki.

Hi,

I run a website that uses MediaWiki. According to MediaWiki's help page, "A group of wikis may have designated one wiki that is preferred to upload files to, with sharing of those files enabled. Among Wikimedia wikis, Wikimedia Commons works for this." How do I designate Wikimedia Commons as the preferred wiki for my personal wiki?

Thanks, --VectorField (talk) 21:52, 2 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

By using $wgForeignFileRepos. However, you should read Commons:Project scope and Commons:Licensing so that you understand what content is allowed on commons first. Nanonic (talk) 09:00, 3 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

New Hard Drive

I bought a lenovo 3000 N200 laptop over a year ago (with a year's warranty, damn) and I had to buy a new hard drive. Problem is, Windows Vista was already installed before I bought it and I don't seem to have been given a recovery disc. Can I install it on my new hard drive without having to buy it again?

Thanks 90.221.241.230 (talk) 23:05, 2 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Can you still access the old hard drive with vista on it? There should be an option in Vista to create a recovery disk if you've never done it, and as long as you're using the same laptop it should install fine on the new hard drive. If not you'll need to get hold of a new install disk, I recommend Mininova —Preceding unsigned comment added by 82.43.88.87 (talk) 23:29, 2 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks for the quick response. The old drive was not recognised so I don't think it'll be an option. I'll try mininova. How do I transfer the Vista from one computer to the other. It is too big to fit on a CD/DVD, right?90.221.241.230 (talk) 23:30, 2 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

What do you mean? Download one of the torrent files from Mininova, the "Extreme Edition" has lots of seeds so it'll be fast, and open it in utorrent. Once the file is downloaded (this could take a long time depending on your connection as it's a 4GB file) burn it to a DVD. Make sure to burn the iso to the disk as an image and not as a file, otherwise it won't work. Then put the disk into the laptop, restart with the new hard drive in and it should install. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 82.43.88.87 (talk) 23:37, 2 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

I downloaded Windows Automated Installation Kit (900MB) eariler (will this do the trick) but it didn't fit on my 700MB CD/DVD. Can I get a bigger CD/DVD to burn this 4GB file that you are talking about? 90.221.241.230 (talk) 23:43, 2 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

I don't know anything about Windows Automated Installation Kit, but it looks like it's a preinstallation environment for large scale deployment of vista and not what you're after. Either way, you'll need to burn the files bigger than 650mb to a DVD as they have 4.3GB capacity. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 82.43.88.87 (talk) 23:52, 2 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Ah, thanks for all your help. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 90.221.241.230 (talk) 23:53, 2 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Technicolour spinning wheel of despair?

Yo computer wizards. I use an apple mac. Doh. Can one of you describe what is a actually happening when I ask my computer to do something, say I click on a link, and before it does what i have asked it to do, nothing happens for a long time, and the circular, rainbow-coloured, spinning thing takes the place of my cursor? I think the equivalent on windows is an egg-timer thingy? what exactly is happening at this moment? Why cant I be taken to the link or whatever I have asked for instantly? Is it 'loading', like a Commodore 64 had to? Are there popular names for the 'loading/waiting' icons on the mac or pc? Is there anything I can do to reduce the amount of time I must confront this technicolour wheel of frustration? If it isnt completley obvious, I am completley ignorant about computing, so I would greatly appreciate if you could explain in terms a retard could understand. Thanks. Willy turner (talk) 23:20, 2 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

What you're seeing is the Spinning wait cursor or Spinning Beach Ball. You don't get taken to the link's destination immediately because your computer has to establish a network connection with the host the link's destination refers to, and then wait for the host to give you the web page you asked for. One way to speed up that conversation is to get faster internet service. -- JSBillings 23:32, 2 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Uh, no. That's incorrect, it's got nothing to do with the speed of your internet connection. The beach ball is an indication that the computer is indeed busy with something else -- yes, just like the Commodore 64 back in the day -- and the software being used at the moment is too busy to respond. Adding more RAM to the computer in question will make the beach ball appear less frequently (and more briefly when it does). A cheaper way address the problem is running fewer applications at the same time.

By comparison, the whole thing with establishing the network connection and downloading the page's contents is represented by the browser software itself, which (in Mac OS X) displays an animated circle of sorts, composed of lines that seem to radiate from the center of the circle, in the tab in question. -- Captain Disdain (talk) 00:09, 3 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

It's not just that it's busy, it's that it's sooo busy that the operating system has noticed that it's no longer responding correctly. It's not a good thing and is usually a sign of really process intensive stuff or something having gone wrong. (It is not quite the same thing as the hourglass on Windows—on the PC, the hourglass can be a signal from the programmer to you that they want you to wait a minute, white the beachball occurs at the system level and programmers are supposed to indicate things are loading with other means, like progress bars). As for reducing it, I would add more RAM. Depending on your machine it's usually not that expensive—a machine that is about a year old today could have its RAM maxed out for $60 or so if you shop around. --98.217.8.46 (talk) 02:12, 3 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

January 3

Al Gore and the internet

I know that Al Gore didn't *really* invent the internet, but what was the real extent of his involvement in its creation? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 81.77.240.141 (talk) 00:03, 3 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

It's discussed in Al Gore's article. -- JSBillings 00:06, 3 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Take of special note this article written by the guys who actually invented the internet (i.e. Vint Cerf and Bob Kahn), who gives Al Gore tons and tons of credit for it. He really deserves praise for his part in the process. He's a big part of the reason why we can do what we're doing right now Belisarius (talk) 04:41, 3 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Note as well Al Gore never said he invented the internet Nil Einne (talk) 09:53, 3 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Also see this article [[13]]. 67.184.14.87 (talk) 15:44, 3 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Microsoft OS disks and product keys

For a specific version of a Microsoft operating system (eg. Vista Home Premium), are all the disks identical? So, for example, can I borrow a friend's disk and use my product key to reinstall the operating system after a hard disk upgrade? - The scenario I'm thinking of here is I lost my original install disk or I forgot to create a recovery disk before the hard drive broke. Astronaut (talk) 02:17, 3 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Yes, the version it installs is based purely on your product key. --wj32 ^t/c 03:07, 3 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Not necessarily. Only product versions that are identical may be identical, and some OEMs (original equipment manufacturers) (Dell, HP, IBM, etc.) will have their own discs. All of these versions might be different disks. These disks might differ in one of three ways. 1) Different XP/Vista versions (Premium, Professional, Home, Corporate, etc.),; 2) Different service packs (more applicable to XP); 3) Version or vendor specific differences, such as if it came with the computer or was bought retail (some versions of Dell discs will check the bios of the machine to determine if it is the correct type of Dell computer (probably the right series, although i don't know how they split it up)). Product keys will be unique between these factors. LH (talk) 07:13, 3 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Formatting my USB Drive

I have a portable USB jump drive which is 16GB. I want to format it using NTFS but when I plug it into my computer (Windowx XP Professional with SP2) and right-click to format it, I only get the option to format it with FAT32. The reason is that sometimes I want to put some large files on it (like DVD images) and FAT32 is limited to 4GB. So the computer just tells me that there is no space even if the entire drive is empty which is kind of annoying. So the question is how can I force-format my USB drive with NTFS? Does it have something to do with the fact that when I plug in the USB drive, it shows up under "devices with removable storage" with my optical drives instead of "hard disk drives" where my other hard drives show up (even external backup ones)? I tried Norton Partition Magic also but the jump drive doesn't even show up in it. Thanks!-Looking for Wisdom and Insight! (talk) 06:51, 3 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

I'm surprised that windows won't let you format it NTFS; I doubt it's simply because it's removable, because I have formatted removable hard-drives attached as "removable" with NTFS. If you have the expertise, and are able to format the disk from Linux or on a Mac (if you have NTFS tools on your mac) then it should be recognized and work under windows.

Update: Looks as though this website addresses your issue. It appears that you have to designate the drive as "optimized" before it will permit NTFS. In order to do this 1) right click my computer, select Manage, 2) Double click storage, then double click Disk management, 3) right click on your removable drive (make sure it's the right one) and select Properties, 4) Under the policies tab select optimize for performance and click ok, 5) Format as NTFS should now be an option.

I have not tested this personally. LH (talk) 07:20, 3 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Dude, that was awesome. That is exactly what the issue was. The drive was setup optimally for speed as opposed to for performance. This ensured that the data was always written directly on the drive so that I could just remove it without safely removing the drive. As soon as I optimized the drive for performance, NTFS became available and now I can put large files on it. But now I have to be careful to safely remove my drive always. It works! Thanks69.110.132.49 (talk) 07:36, 3 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Problems with Firefox

Resolved

– Xenon 54 17:20, 3 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

The whole thing seems to have gone totally bad. It won't run as normal. I'm using IE now instead, but I prefer Firefox. I think I'm gonna have to do a uninstall and reinstall of Firefox. I think I was on some porn forum which may have had malware. My firefox's noscript, downloadhelper, etc are all just gone, and it won't load sites properly.--Veritable's Morgans Board (talk) 16:12, 3 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

But in Windows Vista, I don't even know where the Add/Remove programs thing is anymore because I can't find it in the Control Panel. I hate Vista.--Veritable's Morgans Board (talk) 16:13, 3 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Done. Reinstalled it. Scratch that. This question is solved.--Veritable's Morgans Board (talk) 16:47, 3 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Memory card for my phone

Two part question; I would like to get an 8 GB memory card for my phone (LG Dare). The type of memory card, is it called a Micro SDHC? Also, where is the cheapest place online to buy my phones memory card? A few months back someone saved me a lot of money from a website out there for a camera memory card. Thank you in advance. --Endless dan and his problem 18:58, 3 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

One caution when buying over the web: For low cost items the shipping charges frequently negate any savings. If you buy expensive items or many inexpensive items at once, this may make the shipping free or the shipping charges less significant. However, places with free shipping for everything must charge higher prices to cover that free service. So, be sure to compare the total cost, including the shipping costs and any taxes. StuRat (talk) 19:40, 3 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

iTunes

I have two questions regarding iTunes: 1. Can downloaded iTunes be used on more than one device and 2. can iTunes be played on normal mp3 players? Thanks, --87.114.175.178 (talk) 19:20, 3 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

1. Yes, iTunes music can be put onto as many iPods as you want, but only 5 computers. 2. Not in its native format. iTunes music is in .m4p format (aka a protected m4a, aka an iTunes version of an mp3). mp3 players can't play m4a's, or m4p's. iTunes can convert their songs to AAC (which some mp3 players can play, but not all), or you could use one of the converters online. There are a bunch, this is one example. flaming lawye r^c 21:08, 3 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Almost all m4as already use AAC as their codec. --123.243.7.17 (talk) 00:08, 4 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Connecting to the internet on gNewSense

On gNewSense linux how do I set up a connection to the internet (either ethernet or wifi - I only need to be able to connect in one way). Thanks, 82.32.53.160 (talk) 20:42, 3 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

I've just worked it out. 82.32.53.160 (talk) 21:02, 3 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Youtube is in a different language...

For some reason YouTube is in a different language on my comp, and I don't know why. I'm not at any alternate YouTube site, it's just regular, www.youtube.com. All of the text is in some foreign language, and I don't know how to fix it. ScienceApe (talk) 22:44, 3 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

It's changed your default language, probably using your IP address. If you can work it out, change it in your preferences. A Gogle webpage translation should do until then. Dendodge Talk^Contribs 22:48, 3 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

some games are not playable

I have a p4 with core 2 duo processor but I have only 40 Gb hard disk formated with FAT system (because my 250 GB

hard disk is out of order). I have downloads the games "Mad dogs on the roads" and " Lost road races " and installed but I can not play them on my computer.games starts as usual and ask  for the name , "  new game or ---" then first level sign appear but after that an error message appear .and for one of them it appears that "memory access denaid " what should be the problem ?  —Preceding unsigned comment added by Khubab (talk • contribs) 00:27, 4 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

internat explorer sign is not " e " like

In start menu, the picture within the "internet explorer" is changed from sign of "e " to an other sign . what should be the problem and how can i get original sign.

December 28

Girlfriend crashed her Mac 24.7GHz

Checking system time in batch file

Deleting option from Windows boot loader

GPRS/GSM tracking

New SATA HD for laptop

NNTP server software for small group message exchange

virtual hdd images

Upgrading laptop hard drive

history deleted ,page visited are not available offline

no sound

December 29

Borland C++

Taskbar disappeared

A simple configuration for processing received emails

UVa online judge runtime error

Missing font support

Album/Cover Art

Slow rotation

Composite video & audio cables for component video connection?

Calculating CPU usage (Solved)

Backdoor Again

December 30

Help with Picture of the Year? :(

What's this doing at google's site ?

Xbox 360 Arcade HDMI cable...

Crosstalk between audio and video

PAINT IN C++

RDP From windows to linux

Light on new modem not working

how to stop skype spam

making a download link

archives

Virus Question

RSA Generator

Internet watch

GNU Apps

December 31

Any modern dot matrix printers?

OpenGL and GLSL book suggestions

Easily modifying a stylesheet with Javascript

Why can't I do an Internet search on hkcmd.exe?

Does anyone know what xwc7f8.exe is?

key combo (like Alt-Tab) for next/prev window in TASKBAR ORDER?

Auto Refresh

Virus question 2

Network discovery conundrum

selling PDFs on the web

January 1

Mouse issues

Greek letter λ misspelled in Windows Vista

x86 assembly

Program in C++ to print number combinations

Which brand of BIOS is used by recent Toshiba, Dell, Hewlett-Packard laptops

sprtcmd.exe and LIBEAY32.dll

Anitlog in C++

Cheap Blu-Ray player for PC ?

Trouble Installing MediaWiki

World of Warcraft question

Program to print number combinations: Suggestions incorporated, but, this time, no output!

Three-pass protocol

Facebook - is it down?

Recycle bin

Blackberry Storm videos to PC

??? Worm on Wikipedia ???

January 2

Oh how I miss my Unix shell

Setting up cygwin

Using programs in OS X to overlap two images transparently like MS Paint does.

Paint in Windows

SYN attack?

KDE: Force undo video mode change

PCI express slot

notebook with windows vista BSOD problem

wiki tools problem

Compromised email?

Designating Commons for file uploads on my MediaWiki wiki.

New Hard Drive

Technicolour spinning wheel of despair?

January 3