The best answers address the question directly, and back up facts with wikilinks and links to sources. Do not edit others' comments and do not give any medical or legal advice.
For the first time today my network traffic monitor is showing ARP requests. In one minute it shows some 1500–2000 ARP frames. Is this normal background network activity, and why would I be seing it in Wireshark or Microsoft Network Monitor only now? (I did get a new cable modem a few weeks ago.) –Outriggr§01:45, 11 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]
1500-2000 ARP frames per minute is only normal if your host is looking up (or being looked up by) 750-1000 other hosts on the same subnet (i.e. subnet==hosts whose (ip & mask) match). -- Fullstop (talk) 01:56, 11 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]
My IP address is not involved, if that's what you mean: what I see is "CCC.CCC.vvv.vvv asks for CCC.CCC.vvv.vvv", where C is fixed and v is variable. –Outriggr§02:03, 11 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]
Well, my C matches their C. I don't think my modem is a router. What I don't get—now that you've implied maybe this is normal—is why I have seen this traffic for the first time only now, and in the bigger scheme of things, why this traffic exists—is it the result of more unnecessary Windows services? Why would computers on my subnet (if that's the right term) need to know the hardware address of others? It's little to do with the common uses of residential internet service, no? Thanks BTW. –Outriggr§02:24, 11 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]
A little background info first:
The MAC (ethernet) level, which includes your network card, knows nothing about IP. Accordingly, the ethernet packets (as opposed to the IP packets, which are encapsulated inside the ethernet ones), need to be tagged with the ethernet address of the recipient. So, to look up the ethernet address of another host, your machine does a hardware-level broadcast that asks "Is IP address x.x.x.x yours?" Other hosts on your net see these requests, and if the x.x.x.x matches theirs, they respond with their ethernet address so that both sides then know how to translate IP addresses to ethernet addresses for further communication.
Now, it would be extremely inefficient if, for every single IP packet sent, each side had to first ask for the hardware address of the other party. So, ethernet addresses are cached, and a new "Is IP address x.x.x.x yours?" request will only be sent when the cache entry turns stale (typically about 10 minutes after communication with that destination ceases).
When ARP caching is working, and there are no malicious hosts around, it is not at all normal to see 1500-2000 ARP frames per minute. Even in a big LAN party, the ARPS that will necessarily precede regular communications are never seen again.
I can only imagine a handful of reasons why anyone would see the kind of ARP traffic that you are seeing, and most of those reasons are not good. Presumably, you are seeing ARP requests (the "Is IP address x.x.x.x yours?" broadcasts) coming from only a single host (or, by now, a handful of them). Such a single-origin pattern could indicate one of two things: A) The gateway (on the border across which all internet traffic is flowing) was misconfigured such that wasn't caching properly. B) There is a bad apple in your midst that is probing for security loopholes on the other machines on the subnet, or trying to poison their ARP caches.
Tip: Browse/edit over https if you can. In a non-switched environment where you can see other people's traffic, they can also theoretically also see yours, and so can nick your password. -- Fullstop (talk) 12:28, 11 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]
Good explanation. Perhaps I should have looked at the traffic more closely. Over less than four minutes there were the following number of ARP frames from these IPs:
So there's a clear pattern... are dot-1 machines gateways? (I once began an introductory networking course - suffice it to say, hanging around with just-out-of-high-school students in basic courses and 3-hour no-content computer labs while losing pay was not how I wanted to learn IT. ;) –Outriggr§23:18, 11 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]
a) Yes, .1s are typically (but not necessarily) gateways. Mine for instance is at .254.
b) I have a very strong feeling that those gateways are misconfigured, most likely with inappropriate netmasks. Those hosts are very obviously chatting on the subnets of their neighbours, and not compartmentalizing (what you show as) a /17 network (32,768 addresses) is just ... bad.
Such a large subnet is a very possible cause for lots of ARP traffic. Not just because there are so many hosts to talk to, but also because it can cause the caches to be continuously purged for lack of space ("ARP cache thrashing" i.e. the cache entries are discarded to make space for new ones, even though the old ones aren't yet stale). -- Fullstop (talk) 02:43, 12 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]
the exampleNo, that's not your problem. Let me explain. MediaWiki has SVG capabilities, but most/all browsers don't. So MediaWiki has to convert the SVG into a PNG file for display in a browser. In order to download an SVG file, you can follow the link to the image description page, then click on the big picture and click "Save link as..." (Note: That's not "Save image as...). i.e., if you wanted to download Image:Abusive admin star.svg (to the right), you could right-click that image and click "Save image as..." but that would give you a PNG. So don't do that. Instead, left-click the image to go the the image description page (Image:Abusive admin star.svg). There, right-click the big image and click "Save link as..." which will give you the SVG. (wow that was a long answer to a short question...) flaminglawyerc06:41, 11 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]
Now that's weird... The image to the right (as provided by Flaming) appears as an empty box in my browser, yet it appears as its proper image if I click on it or if I see it on other pages. I'm using IE7 and Vista if that is of interest. Astronaut (talk) 11:44, 11 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]
That'll be because the image above is not an svg, but a sort of pseudo-png (/blahdeblah.svg.png). Because my browser (among many others) has SVG support, when you actually get through to the file it works. It's the conversion from svg to png that the wiki software's doing that messes it up. - Jarry1250(t, c)21:31, 11 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]
What's with the 'width="300pxsdfsdfsdf"' in the .svg source? If I remove 'sdfsdfsdf' the image moves to the left of the page. Maybe the white box is just the left side of the image. —Noah22:54, 11 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]
In my previous post, i gave way too much information and expected like 5 answers. So let's start with only one question, and I'll cross any more bridges when I come to them.
I've been messing around with my IDE HDD (like taking it out, putting it back in, etc.). Now my comp won't boot off of it. My BIOS's boot order is in the table to the right. When I turn on my comp, it skips all the way down to "network boot," which is weird because I have an OS installed on my HDD, which means it should boot from it. I know my BIOS doesn't have anything wrong with it because I can still boot from my Linux LiveCD's.
I didn't have my harddrive near anything magnetic. All I did was take it out, put it onto a desk, and put it back in. What's wrong with my harddrive, and iss there anything I can do to get this HDD to boot again? flaminglawyerc06:30, 11 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]
I'm assuming you have both power and ide ribbon plugged in, checked to make sure you didn't pull ide cable lose from mobo. could you have knocked off the jumper that makes drive boot Master, CS, or slave? And when you say not near magnetic, I assume you include electrical. ...(thinking) .... does the boot LiveCD recognise the drive as there and with info on it? Ched (talk) 06:37, 11 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]
Wow. I forgot to check the mobo. Checking... (this might take a while, my case is uber-tiny and has like 700 cords in like 2 cubic inches) [I need a new comp so bad :( ] flaminglawyerc06:49, 11 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]
When you are tugging cables, especially in a small space, it is easy to pull something else out by accident. I suggest you go round making sure all the plugs are properly seated in their sockets. Try to get your PC back to how it was before you started messing with the drives at all, including the master/slave jumpers, power connectors and IDE cables. You should then be confident in finding out whether or not you have broken your old hard drive. Astronaut (talk) 12:34, 11 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]
Another possibility is that a static electricity discharge to any exposed circuits/wires on the hard drive could have damaged the drive electronics. Have you experienced static buildup recently, and do you recall shocking/being shocked by the drive? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 74.137.108.115 (talk) 15:27, 11 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]
If static buildup is causing you problems, try new and improved "Bounce" ... I'm sorry, I just couldn't resist that ;) ... just hand me my wiki-demerit on my way out ;) ... Ched (talk) 17:19, 11 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]
One possibility is that the data cable is plugged in backwards, as some of them actually aren't keyed to prevent this. Another possibility is that you plugged the hard drive into another cable or a different position on the same cable. If you do this you often need to change the jumper position to indicate the new "location" of the hard drive (primary master, primary slave, secondary master, or secondary slave). StuRat (talk) 06:59, 12 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]
I've never seen jumpers on a hard drive for primary/secondary (with the exception that some drives use primary/secondary as PC replacements for master/slave). From the drive's perspective, it's connected to an IDE bus with no visibility to other parallel IDE busses. Also, some motherboards have more than two IDE busses, which would presumably confuse a drive that was somehow capable of identifying which IDE bus it was on. --74.137.108.115 (talk) 08:50, 12 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]
Anyone familiar with the development of free software?
Now I know many people develop free software and then often does some revolutionary process or what not that if the software was made by a company that sold it, that company would patent such a process. Now as free software is often written by people who are small groups or even one persn and don't have the money to engage in legal battles, well I'd think that rich companies would come along all the time and just steal their idea patent them and claim it as their own. And some software processes can be patented, such as eBay patented its "Best Match" search system. Now I know of one instance where a big company ripped off a project called KittenAuth, see this google search query for more info. Now I know keeping a patent costs as much as a house each decade in all the various fees and most people who develop free software don't do any intellectual property stuff to it, so I'm surprised that big companies aren't constantly stealing from freeware/open source work an then patenting it and then forcing the true inventors from working on their ideas because the true inventors can't afford the lawyers. Well anyway, anyone know more about this related subject? I think there's a bunch of people on Wikipedia who develop free open source software and so would know. Are you ready for IPv6? (talk) 08:30, 11 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]
One does not patent software in the sense of programs. Patents are issued for means to get a certain job done in a particular fashion, i.e. algorithms. Software is artwork, and like any other creative act, is (automatically!) protected by copyright. Unlike a patent, a copyright costs nothing (unless you need to defend it in court, in which case help from the FSF and pro-bono council is available).
As you point out, patents are expensive. Consequently, engineers (software or otherwise) do not patent algorithms unless there is money expected in return.
And there is always more than one way to skin a cat... png would probably not exist if the Lempel-Ziv-Welch algorithm had not been patented.
In the United States we currently have a first-to-invent system and not a first-to-file system. That makes it reasonably hard to "steal" patents from projects that involve multiple witnesses, open-source, and lots and lots of timestamps. If it changes to first-to-file, as it is likely to do so at some point, that would make it a lot easier.
But could it happen? Sure, it could. Big Company X could rely on the idea that the open source people aren't organized enough to file a lawsuit. Would that be true? Almost surely not—there are plenty of organizations (EFF, FSF, etc.) that would love to sue some big, thieving company on behalf of open source software, as the publicity would be great and there could be real money involved. So it's not as risk-free a venture as you might think. --98.217.8.46 (talk) 15:11, 11 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]
Yep - it's called "prior art" - if you can prove that you used something before someone else filed a patent on it - then the patent is invalid and may simply be ignored. That's why nobody has patented the wheel (for example). Software engineers who produce OpenSource code are generally also very much against software patenting - so they are very unlikely to want to patent something themselves and typically have no problem at all with a commercial organisation "using their ideas"...in fact, part of the idea of OpenSourced software is to promulgate ideas. SteveBaker (talk) 01:19, 12 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]
and get a working bisoncalc executable. Or then I can swap the arguments:
$ gcc -Wall -ly -lfl -g -O2 -o bisoncalc bisoncalc-calc.o bisoncalc-parser.o bisoncalc-lexer.o
bisoncalc-calc.o: In function `main':
/foobarpath/bison_calc_autotools/src/calc.c:7: multiple definition of `main'
/usr/lib/gcc/x86_64-linux-gnu/4.3.2/../../../../lib/liby.a(main.o):(.text+0x0): first defined here
bisoncalc-parser.o: In function `yyparse':
/foobarpath/bison_calc_autotools/src/parser.c:1391: undefined reference to `yyerror'
/foobarpath/bison_calc_autotools/src/parser.c:1537: undefined reference to `yyerror'
bisoncalc-lexer.o: In function `yylex':
/foobarpath/bison_calc_autotools/src/lexer.c:850: undefined reference to `yywrap'
collect2: ld returned 1 exit status
Unfortunaly when I run make it seems to prefer the form that fails. Why it fails and what can I do to fix it? This is about the first time I have used automake and I'm a bit lost. --194.197.235.38 (talk) 15:15, 11 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]
when a search engine brings up sites for you to explore, where does the information above the web site come froom and how does it get to appear on the web site —Preceding unsigned comment added by 70.213.3.97 (talk) 21:46, 11 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]
(I am not quite sure that I have understood your question.) When you open a web page from Google or any similar search engine, sometimes the upper part of the web brower page is filled with content from the web engine and not from the web page you just opened. This may be the case if you for example are searching for images, for then Google may want to remind you about the copyright laws. Technically, Google is not sending your browser to the desired web page (e.g. www.example.com), but to a frameset web page on google.com. This frameset web page consists of two frames, the uppermost displaying informaiton from the search engine, and the large one displaying the actual web page (e.g. www.example.com). --Andreas Rejbrand (talk) 21:54, 11 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]
No. what I am trying to get to is the list of sites the search engine gives you to select from
what is the information called or the subject matter called and where does it come from and how does it get there to be able to get to a web site? for example:
BEST PRODUCT, can't find anything better on the web,
great stuff, nothing like it.
www.example.com/html
Those words beginning with "BEST" and ending with "it".
OK. In a HTML page's HEAD section, you can add meta tags. Consider the following sample HTML document:
<?xml version="1.0"?><!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd"><htmlxmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><head><metaname="description"content="This page contains the BEST PhotoShop tips available on the Internet today!"/><metaname="keywords"content="PhotoShop tips, image editing, free tips"/><metaname="author"content="Andreas Rejbrand"/></head><body></body></html>
Google calls them snippets. Typically they're either a chunk of the page showing your query in context, with the query in bold (eg on a search for Wikipedia, the second result is "30 Dec 2008 ... Reference desk — Serving as virtual librarians, Wikipedia volunteers tackle your questions on a wide range of subjects. ..."), the meta description, or a description from DMOZ. Matt Cutts talks about the anatomy of a search result here — Matt Eason(Talk • Contribs)13:32, 12 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]
creative zen and bloody vista
hi all, don't get me wrong i've never really had any problems with vista, but... santa brought me a second hand creative zen nomad jukebox xtra for xmas, santa should have researched a bit more before he ordered it from e-bay, but santa was "tired" after a hard day mixing with Mr daniels, sooooo.... vista no likey me zen, it no see it connected, it driving me insane. have been on various sites, saw and tried various fixes, have came to realise that i'm not the only one that has this problem... and here is the rub dear friends, can the ref desk of St Wiki fix the unfixable? can it come to the aid of a broken man? please say it's so, please let me listen to the greatest hits of whitesnake in the comfort of my zen moment... Here i go, again on my own/Down the only road that I have ever known...Perry-mankster (talk) 21:51, 11 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]
You haven't actually listed the specifics of the problem. It's possible that the new computer doesn't meet the minimum req's for Vista, in which case a less bloated O/S, like Windows XP or Linux, may still work. StuRat (talk) 06:49, 12 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]
aah bigdunc have been to this site already, scooted over to the free download last night, waited the 20 minutes it took to download and then watched as vista repeatly told me that the program would not install. The main prob sturat is that the zen is not compatable with vista (or vice versa), vista does not recognise that the device is there and closes down the music management software if you try and load tracks onto the zen (which it says isn't there) windows xp can work (with a bit of jiggery pokery), but hell i've got vista I WANT IT TO WORK GODDAMN IT! sorry had to get that oot ma system, anyhoo there is apparently a few 'fixes' out there, but they are a bit hit and miss wether they work or not, i was hopeing the ref desk might know of a surefire, 100% 'that'll work bigman' way to zen enlightment Perry-mankster (talk) 18:02, 12 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]
I recal somewhere that Windows Media Player 11 is causing problems, have you tried uninstalling it and adding back an older version? Or just take it off completly. BigDuncTalk18:32, 12 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]
In my foobar2000 for some artists the tracks are not in order and are mixed up (ex. track 1 followed by track 4). I am using panelsUI as well. Can someone help me identify the problem? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 154.20.167.198 (talk) 23:44, 11 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]
What criteria is foobar2000 using to sort songs? This can most likely be changed in a menu or by clicking on a relevant table heading somewhere. You should also compare the files from a folder that sorts correctly to one that doesn't; my guess would be that foobar2000 is sorting by filenames, and the "correct" filenames are of the pattern "(ARTIST) TRACK# TITLE" while the "incorrect" filenames omit the TRACK#, thus sorting alphabetically by title. If your files have additional information (mp3s for instance have a Track# field in their header, though it isn't reliably used) foobar2000 may allow you to sort the albumn using that field. Otherwise, you could rename the files such that their track number is included in their filename. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 74.137.108.115 (talk) 00:33, 12 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]
.bat file crash
Resolved
I'm making a .bat file, but I have a problem: when a user inputs a space (" "), it just crashes, instead of saying "Option not valid", here is the code:
@echo off
echo 1 - Print "Option 1"
echo 2 - Print "Option 2"
echo Option:
set /p option=
if ‘%option%’ == ‘1’ goto OPT_1
if ‘%option%’ == ‘2’ goto OPT_2
goto error
:OPT_1
echo Option 1
goto end
:OPT_2
echo Option 2
goto end
:error
echo Option not valid
:end
pause
I don't have a Windows machine to hand to test it out, but I think that the variable being blank is a problem. The solution might be to code as follows:
if ‘x%option%’ == ‘x1’ goto OPT_1
if ‘x%option%’ == ‘x2’ goto OPT_2
Hey gadfium, good idea, but it did not worked. Your solution worked Fullstop (I only had to add pause at the end), although it is a bit complicated for me to understand... I think the program calls itself right? Can you explain the theory behind it? SF007 (talk) 03:26, 12 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]
a) Yes, it calls itself, thus making use of the fact that arguments passed on the command line are stripped of extraneous whitespace. As a side-effect, it also makes the script usable as "your.bat 1", etc, which is the way things are usually done in the command line world.
b) With respect to "%1", etc: "%0" is the name of the script itself. "%1" is the first argument, "%2" the second, and so on. Variables (==Environment variables) need to be read as %variable% when they are created with the set command. In contrast, "%1" etc are not variable; the cannot be assigned new values (except with shift). And see also for, the "variables" of which need to be addressed as %%scalar%% (double % on both sides) and also cannot be assigned new values.
I'll try to provide as much information to make this question easy to answer. As you may remember, I have a dial-up internet connection at my home (Netzero provides it). Every night I have to plug my PC into the phone jack to get to the slow internet.
If I were to purchase a laptop, what would I have to do to get internet for it? I have a disc from Netzero with the internet program on it that I had to install on my PC. I'm assuming I would install that on my laptop and then I could just hook my laptop up to the phone jack like normal.
But what if I were, say at a friend's house, who has broadband (I believe that's the right term)? Could I use my laptop there and access that internet or would I need specific software? I ask that because I have seen friends use each other's internets with laptops, but they all have high speed internet at their homes. Thank you so much : ] Evaunit♥666♥01:51, 12 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]
It depends on how your friend accesses the Internet. It is likely that no external software is required. If that is the case, then all you need is to plug the ethernet cable (it looks like a phone cable, but the male end is a bit wider) into the ethernet port (usually next to the phone port). Your operating system should automatically recognise the new connection and take care of everything. If, for some reason, your friend needs special software to access the Internet, you'll need to install it on your computer. Xenon5402:28, 12 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]
One thing to be cautious about: Many(?) modern laptops don't have a dial-up phone modem built in, and also don't have a serial port or other Legacy ports either (for example my Dell laptop has VGA, Ethernet, Firewire and USB ports only). You might be able to get a dial-up modem with a USB connection, or maybe some kind of PC Card or ExpressCard. Astronaut (talk) 16:09, 12 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]
Welcome to the Wikipedia Reference Desk. Your question appears to be a homework question. I apologize if this is a misinterpretation, but it is our aim here not to do people's homework for them, but to merely aid them in doing it themselves. Letting someone else do your homework does not help you learn nearly as much as doing it yourself. Please attempt to solve the problem or answer the question yourself first. If you need help with a specific part of your homework, feel free to tell us where you are stuck and ask for help. If you need help grasping the concept of a problem, by all means let us know. SteveBaker (talk) 05:16, 13 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]
We will not do your homework for you. However, if you type the topic (singular form) in the Wikipedia search box on the upper left of your screen and click go, I expect you will find the information that you need. -- Tcncv (talk) 02:20, 12 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]
I have a PC with 256 MB RAM and 3.06MHz CPU Pentium 4 with Windows XP loaded. A few days ago, my computer RAM was reported to be 223 MB only. And, recently, I've seen that the RAM has decreased to 191 MB only. As a result, my PC is getting slower and slower. Can anyone please explain to me what is happening? And how can I bring back the RAM of 256 MB in my Computer once again? Any help is gladly welcome. 117.201.98.147 (talk) 08:10, 12 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]
That is an important question, yes. Are you reading the numbers from BIOS, Windows (Win+Pause), or some other software? By the way, 256 MB is very little by modern standards. If I were you, I would upgrade to at least 1 GB of RAM (at least 2 GB if you are planning to upgrade from XP to Vista). --Andreas Rejbrand (talk) 13:24, 12 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]
Actually, I am getting thses RAM numbers from several softwares, namely 1.CCleaner (a registry cleaner). 2.Windows Doctor 2008 Professional Ed. 3.XP Tools (a collection of essential tools for XP). Furhter, in BIOS, the RAM number is yet displayed to be 256 MB. In response to User-Andreas Rejbrand, I want to state that we live in a remote area named in India, which is quite far away from our local megacity Kolkata (or Calcutta). So, here all services related to Computers are not available. So, please excuse me for using 256 MB RAM.
Windows XP was designed quite a while ago, when 1 GB of RAM would have been considered excessive by many standards (64MB was the listed minimum--yes, it has been that long ago). The addition of service packs in the interim has probably pushed the minimum up significantly, but I would expect 256MB to be usable. Anyway, to answer your question, the memory isn't missing, it is currently being used by one program or another. You can find a list of programs currently running in "Windows Task Manager" (accessible via Ctrl-Alt-Del) under "Processes", with a convenient "Mem Usage" column. Unfortunately, the names given are sometimes cryptic, but searching the internet for the process name generally gives more information on what it does. To reclaim memory from processes that you don't want to run, you can end the process (note that windows warns of dire consequences, but generally nothing bad happens). Also, rebooting your computer would tend to reclaim memory from all but system and autorunning programs (and should probably be performed every few days with only 256MB). --74.137.108.115 (talk) 14:44, 12 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]
I have an old laptop with 256MB of ram. For web surfing and occasional document editing (OpenOffice) it is usable, the main problem being the boot time. I set up a dual boot with Ubuntu Linux as an experiment and this loads significantly faster but shows similar performance when loaded. 256MB is certainly sufficient for home use (go and make a cup of tea while it boots) but when I tried to edit a 60 page document on it the machine came to a virtual halt. -- Q Chris (talk) 15:04, 12 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]
Yeah, I have an XP virtual machine with 256 MB of memory allocated that runs good, but then again it's a fresh install. If you have enough gunk on the machine, even 2 GB wouldn't be enough.
@117: Memory is really cheap and easy to install. A gig of memory is only about $20 if you order it off of Newegg.com. You'd still have to make sure it's the same type of memory you have now, and ground yourself to avoid static shock, but it's still a piece of cake.--K;;m5m k;;m5m (talk) 15:02, 12 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]
I agree with the previous comments that you likely still have 256 MB total, but that a reduced amount is currently available, as the rest is in use. The only way I can see the total memory reduce is if you have more than one RAM card, and one either became disconnected or is broken. That still wouldn't explain a constantly changing amount of memory, though, so this sounds more like the first case. If much of your memory is in use, how do you free it up, you may well ask. First reboot, then use the Task Manager to kill all nonessential processes. That should help. You might also want to stop CPU hogs, like virus scans, from running automatically at start up. StuRat (talk) 16:12, 12 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]
You're better off using a program like Spybot to identify nonessential processes and stop them before they start up. Most people don't have a great sense of what an essential process is just by the name of it and are likely to crash their machine by just shutting things off at random. --98.217.8.46 (talk) 23:06, 12 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]
That's how you learn. If you kill a process and the computer crashes, write down that process, reboot, and don't kill that one the next time. In a few tries you will have figured out which processes are essential and which are just mucking up the system. Spybot is OK, but doesn't get rid of things that aren't spyware but still take up lots of resources, needlessly, such as RealPlayer. StuRat (talk) 02:07, 13 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]
Maybe your integrated graphics is using more of your RAM than usual? I suggest you stop running extra "cleaner" software in the background; they are usually completely useless. --wj32t/c02:30, 13 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]
Substitute switch - how much does amperage matter?
I am wanting to build my own light switch, but the switch I want to use is rated at 10A 240V ac - but so far as I know UK mains sockets provide 13A ~230V AC.
Although my switch can handle the voltage, it is 3A short - how big a problem is this?
Will the switch still work? And if so, are there any side effects i.e decreased life of operation?
Will it be shorted out?
Will it overheat tremendously and melt solder connections?
I am not sure if this is posted in the right section, I was in two minds whether or not to post it here or in science.
I would appreciate any help.
Thanks in advance!
Lights normally take much less current than 10A so your switch should work, but it worries me that you are talking of delving into mains voltage circuitry. Please consider using a qualified electrician to do this wiring and under no circumstances work on live electrical conductors (wires). --GreenSpigot (talk) 15:00, 12 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]
GreenSpigot is right, if you can't afford an electrician try to get a friend or relative with the right experience to help you or at least check your work before you switch the mains back on. (You must turn the electricity off at the main supply switch to the house before doing the work). -- Q Chris (talk) 15:08, 12 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]
This should probably be a science question. Anyway, There are likely electrical specifications/codes that provide the minimum ratings for switches; I would highly recommend consulting them before you wire in any switch. To answer your questions, the most important concern is the fuse/breaker for the switch's circuit. If the fuse/breaker is rated for less than 10A then the switch should never reach the 13A overload. If the fuse/breaker is rated greater than 10A, an overcurrent condition could cause overheating of the switch instead of the fuse that is supposed to protect it. Since this can cause a fire, it is important to make sure your switch is appropriately rated for the fuse/breaker it is on. The tendency of a switch to short out is reliant mainly on voltages (higher voltages require better separation of conductors). Depending on what exactly the switched circuit drives, the circuit should probably never reach 10A anyway (that would be one very bright light!). This means that there would likely be no side effects of decreased life of operations, etc. -- 74.137.108.115 (talk) 15:14, 12 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]
If you are doing something to the mains wiring of a house, then the lighting circuit is probably fused at 5A not 13A. f you are making a "plug into a socket" lamp, then use a 13A plug with a 3A fuse fitted. -- SGBailey (talk) 15:46, 12 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]
As a general rule, never (ever) introduce a situation where one electrical component in a circuit is "under spec'd". For example, DO NOT put a switch that is only rated to 10 Amps on a circuit that has an 20 Amp circuit breaker. You may never screw in something to the light socket that draws over 10 Amps... but you don't know what the next person in that house is going to do. Another example would be DO NOT use an outlet with special 30 Amp plug receptacles on a circuit with wiring only rated to 20 Amps. —Noah17:32, 12 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]
Thanks to everyone for your help - especially the tip about fuses, i'll get a 10A fuse fitted first. Also, just so happens my uncle is an electrician, so i'll get him to check over it and give it the okay before I use it. Thanks again! —Preceding unsigned comment added by 81.155.36.58 (talk) 12:21, 13 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]
Unknown weblink
Whenever I browse any web page by using Firefox, this unknown link open in new window in Internet Explorer. I'm worried with this link as it is appearing even when I don't browse. I have blocked this link through IE option. Also I cleared cashe and history file and installed a adware software to get rid off this link. But unfortunately, it did not work at all. I have searched about this link in hard drive where operating system installed, but failed to detect this problem. How can I permanently remove this link, so that it won't appear in future? :( --202.168.229.245 (talk) 17:41, 12 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]
Sounds like a spyware/malware infection. You might try running Adaware and Spybot. If that fails, you might try upgrading IE and/or renaming the IE executable (unfortunately, IE is tied into windows rather tightly, so bad things might happen; if so, rename it back). Finally, reinstalling windows will definitely fix the issue (but may be more work than closing the IE windows occasionally). -- 74.137.108.115 (talk) 18:12, 12 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]
Well, it'll probably still keep opening, but you can get it to stop loading content by doing the following: Hold the windows key and hit R. Enter notepad %SystemRoot%\system32\drivers\etc\hosts. Go to the bottom and add the line 127.0.0.1 www.aiqianming.cn. That'll prevent your computer from contacting the server. Indeterminate (talk) 04:22, 13 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]
Thanks. But when I hit the "save" button it says, cannot create the .......... Make sure the path and file name are correct. After pressing the OK button another interface shows up and take me to a folder name "etc" which is located in "system 32". It also makes a new folder named "hosts". Should I save it as new txt. file in that folder? --202.168.229.245 (talk) 12:22, 13 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]
No, dont make the hosts folder. You want to save the file as "hosts" (no extensions, which means when notepad asks you keep the quotes in order to prevent the notepad from saving the file as hosts.txt). — Shinhan < talk > 14:02, 13 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]
You're also going to need to edit & save it with an administrator account. That's probably why you can't save it. As far as other software to try, I don't know of any, but that's not really my area of expertise. I'm sure someone can point you in the right direction. Indeterminate (talk) 09:53, 17 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]
browsing internet on tv
there are many ways you browse internet on tv.
one is msn tv. another is using wii.
how is the experience?
what resolution is yours?
I don't see the point. If you have a computer, why not use that? At least you can type with it (which you need for putting passwords in, and such).--KageTora (talk) 18:33, 12 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]
Some people who hate computers like the idea of using their TV as a computer. This applies to people who only use their computers for e-mail, for example. I don't find it to be a very satisfying experience, myself, however. A few notes on screen resolutions:
1) A standard def (old) TV will have unacceptably low resolution, giving you a blurry pic with text you can't read.
2) A new 720p resolution digital TV will give a marginally acceptable pic, but only expect to be able to view a few lines of text at a time.
3) A 1080p resolution digital TV is quite acceptable. There are computer monitors with much higher resolutions, but this is certainly adequate.
The monitor size, sharpness, brightness, contrast, and refresh rate also come into play. Larger isn't really better for a TV used as a computer monitor, because you just have to sit back farther to see it all at once. StuRat (talk) 19:38, 12 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]
And why would anyone want to watch videos on their computer when they have a perfectly good TV with a remote and all? There are several reasons why one might choose to browse the internet from a TV: downloading new content (mainly game consoles), watching/listening to streaming media, checking a site for updates during commercials, playing web-games, or staying connected when your main computer is non-functional or in use by someone else. I have a computer connected to my TV; though it doesn't get a lot of use, I have found it useful in the past. My experience with TV browsing is that the resolution has to be cranked down to make small text legible, and reading large amounts of text will likely cause eyestrain. The lack of a keyboard can be rather problematic, but windows offers an on-screen keyboard utility which is sufficient for infrequent use, and most web browsers are capable of storing username/passwords. I would *not* recommend TV browsing as a replacement for a computer, but then I spend more time using a computer than most people. If you only spend an hour a week online a TV internet solution might work just fine. -- 74.137.108.115 (talk) 19:30, 12 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]
The other problem is that the gizmo's like the Wii that provide this service generally have weird browsers that adhere poorly to de-facto standards - so a LOT of pages come out screwed up or won't run for some complicated reason or other - along with the awkard peripherals and the terrible resolution - it's useless. Use a PC. SteveBaker (talk) 05:08, 13 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]
"2) A new 720p resolution digital TV will give a marginally acceptable pic, but only expect to be able to view a few lines of text at a time."
Wait what? 720p is 1280x720, which is basically a wider version of 1024x768. That is hardly "a few lines of text at a time". That is two pages of A4 side by side at a readable resolution, especially on a 32"+ screen.
And SteveBaker, the Wii uses Opera as the base of its browser, and apart from lack of flash 8+ support is more standards compliant than even Internet Explorer. 212.219.8.231 (talk) 09:06, 13 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]
But what you're failing to account for is that TVs tend to have "fuzzier pixels", meaning you need to use more pixels to be able to clearly read a line of text. This does vary by technology, though, with LCDs generally having sharp pixels, and projection TVs being fuzzier. So, if you have a nice, sharp LCD, then maybe your statement is correct, but not for a fuzzy projection TV. StuRat (talk) 13:24, 13 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]
The happiness of having Vista
I got a new laptop just before Christmas, because my old one's power cable died and I needed one urgently for my work. The power cable wouldn't come until after Christmas, which was way too long to wait, so I got a HP Dual Core with Vista Home Premium on it. Anyway, after a month, every time I plug my USB modem in (or even any USB), it has started asking security questions, like 'have you used this before?' and so-on. It wasn't doing this for the first three weeks. Why has it suddenly started now? I haven't played around with the settings or anything, so why does it suddenly change like this? I've had problems with Windows before (who hasn't?) so I'm starting to wish I just waited for a power cable for my Mac. It's just infuriating how it changes without you knowing or doing anything. I can see it just falling apart within the year and I'll have to fork out another £300 for a new one. Anyway, rant over. Does anyone know how to fix this?--KageTora (talk) 18:21, 12 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]
I've only used Vista once and it bugged me with security questions at every turn. See this and this for how to get rid of it, but if you can install XP on your laptop, it's much better.
I'd exercise caution before just "installing xp". Do some research first and make sure you can find xp drivers for the hardware you have. Not all of the newer hardware has xp drivers. Ched (talk) 20:28, 12 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]
And anyway, if you've paid for Vista, you're not just going to throw it out. It is trying to help, one must assume; turning UAC off cannot really be recommend; it would be like tearing down an entire city wall just because you couldn't figure out how to put a gate in it. What questions do you get exactly? - Jarry1250(t, c)20:38, 12 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]
(Would it really be so wrong to tear down a city wall if there was no way to put a gate in? There are only so many times one wants to climb over a useless wall.) —Preceding unsigned comment added by 140.247.236.243 (talk) 20:44, 12 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]
The shared computer in our house has a problem. It's in a place where playing sounds bothers the other people around, so naturally I've been trying to use headphones. Unfortunately, none of the ones we have available seem to work. Switching loudspeakers on and off doesn't change anything and all the volume controls are open in the appropriate panel. What else can I try? - 87.211.75.45 (talk) 21:32, 12 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]
Make sure you're plugging into the headphone jack, not the microphone jack; on many computers, this jack will be green (mike will be red). Verify that the headphones work using some other piece of equipment. --LarryMac | Talk21:41, 12 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]
Both checked. The headphones worked on another computer and they were inserted in the right spot. It is a specific problem with either the hardware or the settings of this particular machine.- 87.211.75.45 (talk) 21:56, 12 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]
So the speakers work correctly, but replacing them with the headphones in the same audio port results in silence? Since the headphones are powered by the computer while many speakers are externally powered you will may need to increase the computer's output volume significantly. If the headphone plug is not inserted fully you might end up receiving a single channel (and if the computer's balance is off center you might receive no apparent output on that channel). If your computer contains integrated audio (most do these days) you might be able to change a setting or two in BIOS--though I haven't seen any that would resolve this issue. If you have particularly power-hungry headphones and a relatively powerless audio out there may be insufficient output current to drive the headphones. It is also worth noting that "system sounds" (the annoying beep when you type too many characters or the computer boots in BIOS) are generally *not* handled by an external audio driver (they use an internal speaker). -- 74.137.108.115 (talk) 22:17, 12 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]
I had this problem with a Dell machine at work - I was amazed to find that I had to install a new driver to get the headphones to work!! I gather that the card measures the impedance of the thing that's plugged in and figures out whether it's headphones or speakers! There comes a point where these things are just TOO smart to be truly useful. SteveBaker (talk) 04:58, 13 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]
Firefox vs IE
Hello,
I'm currently building my (very simple)website and IE seems to have difficult with my left hand navigation bar (the body text mashes into it).. I was wondering if IE has any 'golden rules' (i.e. things to be aware of) so i don't keep running into this problem?
Well it depends how you are coding it, really. IE has a different box model than other browsers, among other things. But we'd need to see the code itself to tell you what IE was interpreting differently. --98.217.8.46 (talk) 22:33, 12 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]
Good point! Am i right in thinnking that, as the CSS is in a different file, you only need this one? If so its here:
body{padding-left:11em;font-family:Helvetica,Geneva,Arial,SunSans-Regular,sans-serif;color:yellow;background-color:black}ul.navbar{margin-right:1em;padding-right:1em;border-right:dottedyellow;list-style-type:none;padding:0;margin-top:1em;position:absolute;top:2em;left:1em;width:9em}ul.navbarli{background:black;margin:0.5em0;padding:0.3em;border-right:1emyellow}ul.navbara{text-decoration:none}a:link{color:yellow}a:visited{color:blue}h1{font-family:Georgia,"Times New Roman",Times,serif}border-bottom{thindotted;}hr.blue{color:#0000FF;width50%:}
If not, let me know and i'll post the rest of the HTML. Once again, the issue is with the nav bar and the rest of the main copy... thanks guys86.6.101.208 (talk) 23:25, 12 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]
January 13
Cheapest stable setup for GTA IV?
Does anyone know of a cheap yet reliable configuration for the PC version of Grand Theft Auto IV? I currently have a 1.8Ghz Pentium Dual Core, a gigabyte of RAM, and a GeForce 8400GS, which lagged and coughed when I play the game. I could've gotten more FPS if only that they optimized the source code better rather than just hastily porting a console game to a PC (they could've gotten so far as to using assembly language... :p), but what do you think? I don't need to max the settings out, I'm happy with low or medium settings... Blake Gripling (talk) 04:25, 13 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]
The cheapest setup would be a $200 Xbox360 Arcade (cheaper if purchased refurb'd from GameStop). It's guaranteed to play GTA4 smoothly! --70.167.58.6 (talk) 20:40, 13 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]
It runs slow because you have a 1.8GHz dual-core CPU and 1Gbyte RAM...which are both the very minimum the game will run on (I bet it says that, right there on the box). Hence you shouldn't expect to run it at anything above the very minimum settings - and then at the lower end of the 'playability' spectrum. Your knowledge of game development is clearly comprehensive...oh - wait...NOT. Nobody writes stuff in machine code anymore, modern C++ compilers can write code VASTLY better than any human for anything but the very shortest code sections. If they'd written much of it in assembler - it would have been a lot slower...not faster.
It's actually VERY tough for games developers to make software run on PC's as well as consoles efficiently. The consoles have rigidly known parameters - so you can optimise the heck out of everything in the sure and certain knowledge that what you get on your development station is what the consumer will get. But with PC's - there are at least a dozen different CPU performance levels - RAM availability that's all over the map, dozens of GPU configurations (also with different amounts of RAM), fifty different sound cards - different hard drive and CD/DVD speeds - even different keyboards and mice to consider. Then you have 7 varients of Vista and god-knows-how-many for XP. The user may have installed god-knows-what drivers and have left who-knows-what running on the desktop then the game is started. He may also have "improved" the default settings of Windows and BIOS...Worse still, because there is no control over cooling or whether the power supply is adequate or not - either CPU or GPU or both may drop into thermal throttling without warning at any time! In essence, no two PC's are alike. If that's not bad enough - a PC game sells for less - the prices drop very soon after launch and piracy is rife. So providing games on the PC platform is 'iffy' at best from the point of view of profitability - hence RELATIVELY little effort can be put into making it work at the absolute peak of perfection. That's sad - but it's a fact of life. SteveBaker (talk) 04:51, 13 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]
If this were any other game than GTA 4 I would recommend getting 2GB of ram, and a more powerful graphics card (the ATI HD4850 if you can afford it, something like a GeForce 8800GT/GS or a 9600GT if your budget doesn't stretch that far)
However GTA 4 is very CPU intensive, due to its complex physics engine, and the Euphoria animation engine, coupled with the large amount of characters on screen. You don't tell us what CPU you have so I can't tell you a specific processor for your socket, but a 2.4Ghz Dual Core should be your minimum on that end. 212.219.8.231 (talk) 09:11, 13 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]
@SteveBaker - Yeah, agreed. It's kinda' similar to the issues Hackintosh users are facing right now - since practically no two PCs are the same, hacking Mac OS X to work on all motherboard models (Asus, ECS, Foxconn, you name it) and OEM PC configurations is no easy task. And oh, sorry for the assembler comment, my mistake.
@212.219.8.231: Hmm, I could've gotten at least an Nvidia 8600, but I already spent my Christmas money on an 8400, although I'm planning to upgrade in the next couple of months, or when I get a job. Blake Gripling (talk) 11:57, 13 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]
Well not meaning to insult but your 8400 is a pretty basic card by todays standards. It will run just about any program you can throw at it but certainly not at settings that look nice, and maybe not at good FPS. Please don't upgrade to an 8600. The improvement will be negligable. The minimum you should be aiming for is a a GeForce 9600GT, or an ATI HD4650, both of which give you good bang for your buck. If you wait a little while the Nvidia GTX 130 might come out in a non mobile form, and that will surplant the 9600. You would also see a significant boost in everything by putting some more ram in your PC, especially considering how cheap ram is right now. 212.219.8.231 (talk) 13:03, 13 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]
OK, maybe if I rack up some more cash, I'll get a 9600GT. And another stick of RAM. Besides, the 8400 is only good at running those cheesy Korean MMORPGs the kids are into nowadays... Blake Gripling (talk) 23:40, 13 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]
You're taking a risk that you'll spend money on the 9600 and the RAM and get zero (and I mean, literally zero) speedup. If the bottleneck is your CPU (which I think it is) then upgrading the rest won't help at all. As others have said, GTAIV is a CPU hog because of all of the physics and animation - since you have the slowest CPU the game will support - I'd say that was your problem. Anyway - you can find out by reducing the resolution of the screen. If cutting the resolution down makes things go faster - then the graphics card will help. If it doesn't then putting a faster graphics card in there probably won't make a difference to frame rate at your current screen res. Adding RAM won't help unless you have a bunch of other software running - so try shutting down every program and unnecessary service before starting the game - if that helps then more RAM may help...if it doesn't then it won't. SteveBaker (talk) 17:05, 15 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]
No, if he doesn't have a good video card, then he would have wasted his money. To be safe, he should upgrade all three. How do I know this? Because I bought a new laptop with a 2.5 GHz dual-core CPU, 4 GB of RAM, and an ATI Radeon HD 3400 video card. The result? GTA IV barely runs.--K;;m5m k;;m5m (talk) 22:24, 15 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]
Which is precisely why I recommended reducing screen resolution to see if that speeds things up. I am actually a graphics programmer, working in the games industry - so I do know just a little about what I'm talking about! If you drop the resolution, the graphics card will have fewer pixels to draw - so it will be less heavily loaded. If it is the bottleneck and the CPU is sitting around waiting for it - then dropping the resolution will produce a faster frame rate. If the CPU is the bottleneck then giving the graphics card a little less work to do doesn't help the CPU at all - all it does is to make the graphics card sit around twiddling it's thumbs for even longer. So, if you try this simple experiment - you'll know which thing needs to be upgraded. Similarly - if the game does actually RUN in 1Gb (as it claims) then adding more RAM can only help if the game doesn't actually have access to all of that RAM because something else that the game designers didn't expect to be there is hogging RAM. So - try shutting stuff down. If the frame rate of the game improves when you free up more RAM - then buying more RAM might help...if not, then don't bother spending the money. These are not difficult tests - but they do actually work. "Trust me, I'm a professional!" SteveBaker (talk) 02:51, 16 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]
I thought I just answered that question, but do whatever you want. I have a 2.2 GHz CPU, 1 GB of RAM, and an NVIDIA GEForce 7300GT in my desktop, and it doesn't even run.--K;;m5m k;;m5m (talk) 23:27, 15 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]
COMPUTER ENGG> OR COMPUTER SCIENCE>!?????????
hey all,
Ok i know this isn't the "education" related reference desk but i'm pretty sure many computer professionals answer questions in this section and so hoped that one of them might answer my question rather than if i asked it in another section.I'm going to do my undergraduate in the computer stream and i'm hoping to join florida institute of technology.Firstly i would like to ask is florida institute any good for computers or good in general?
Secondly i'm divided on whether to choose computer engineering(1) or computer science(2) because as of now the only difference i know between them is that (1) has subjects related to computer hardware as well whereas (2) does not.But i still fail to understand which is a more promising stream in the future.So i basically want to know which is a better stream to do and I'd appreciate it if you of you guys could help me out in figuring out which is the better option for and why you would choose one over the other.P.S. i want to specialize in 3D games programming so is it a good option to get into FIT for my undergraduate and then specialize elsewhere?
And also if i take computer engineering could you specify what extra subjects there would be in the course?(P.P.S.I hate physics(if it helps in your answer))!
Vineeth h (talk) 05:06, 13 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]
Unfortunately, I'd expect that physics would, indeed, be important for a career in computer engineering, with topics like heat transfer being absolutely vital. If you want to do 3D games programming, that would be computer science (except creating the consoles and equipment for the games). StuRat (talk) 13:15, 13 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]
Of course, if you really want to work in games, Vineeth, you might also want to consider a school that offers a curriculum specifically geared towards that career. Gamecareers.com has a pretty exhaustive list of various schools that have programs like that, both in the United States and elsewhere. Not all of these institutions are created equal, obviously, but if you want to learn how to make games (as opposed to learning things that can be applied to making games), why not really go for it? -- Captain Disdain (talk) 15:08, 13 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]
From my experience at an engineering institute, "Computer Engineering" meant participation in the introductory engineering classes, but no specific focus on physics concepts, etc., with a few high-level courses on transistors and VLSI. Realistically, the class overlap with "Computer Science" is quite extensive (and can be made even more so with electives), and most employers lump "Computer Engineering" in with "Computer Science" anyway, which is good considering there is significantly less demand for hardware design than software design. No reputable firm is going to hire a "Computer Engineer" to design heatsinks any more than they would hire a "Mechanical Engineer" to lay out a CPU. The game design sector can be quite intense; I'd recommend against a school specializing in "game design" unless you are certain that's where you want to end up (and even then it's worth a second thought). If I had to choose between "Computer Engineering" and "Computer Science", I'd pick both. If that wasn't possible, I'd pick "Computer Science". Of course, this (and all advice, especially from random people on the web) should be weighed against what *you* want to accomplish. -- 74.137.108.115 (talk) 05:03, 19 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]
If you just check the questions made after january 1st ,2009, then you will come across the exact same question asked by another person.I have already replied to his answer so just check up the question asked about "retrieving files asked after january 1st and you will see the question and my answer.Vineeth h (talk) 05:46, 13 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]
I want to reinstall Windows on an old laptop, but I don't have the cd it came with. It's a legit copy of Windows, and I do still have the product key (from the sticker on the laptop). Is there any way I can download it and burn it? (I've heard that would be illegal, but I figured there might be a way since I do have a product key). I tried to use the system recovery program on it (it's a gateway laptop) but it said I needed a recovery cd. Gah! I'm so glad my current computer has a recovery partition. Anyway, any help would be appreciated. DaRkAgE7[Talk]05:57, 13 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]
Let's assume that you do infact have the cd-key and that you aren't lying.Then it'd be perfectly alright to just do a torrent download for windows xp professional and then enter the cd-key which you legally bought. (Removed this line. We should be linking to potentially illegal downloads, even if this particular person does have a licence - 212.219.8.231 (talk) 09:19, 13 January 2009 (UTC))[reply]
Alright now, last time I checked there was considerable contention over whether torrent servers were "linking to potentially illegal downloads", and here we were linking to a search engine linking to a torrent server. Is it acceptable to link to a Wikipedia page linking to a search engine linking to a torrent server? How about a Wikipedia page linking to a Wikipedia page linking to a search engine linking to a torrent server? -- 74.137.108.115 (talk) 10:29, 13 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]
The odds are that someone who owns a laptop has already paid the Microsoft tax, and I personally see no reason why they should be required to purchase another copy of windows to reinstall software they already "own". Unfortunately, downloading the windows xp install isn't quite that easy. You need to find the version of windows xp that corresponds to your product key (probably not the "corporate" version widely available online). You can theoretically find out what version of windows xp to search for in Start > Control Panel > System. If you are able to find that version online then there is some hope that your product key will work. I would also recommend downloading the most recent service pack and writing it to a CD before you reinstall windows; you should be able to find a download link on Microsoft's support site. Finally, if/when you have to call Microsoft for support, it would probably be best to skip the details of this process since it undoubtedly violates the terms of their end-user license agreement--just tell 'em you reinstalled with a recovery disk. -- 74.137.108.115 (talk) 06:41, 13 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]
Your user page says This user contributes using a Mac, and doesn't know why Windows was ever invented. There seems to be a certain contradiction..... But let's put aside the contradiction and instead concentrate on your presumed familiarity with the Mac. This of course uses Mac OS X (unless you're really old and funky). This in turn is based on Unix. GNU is not Unix, but well, it works in the same way (plus a few more). "Linux" is GNU. Whoopee, you can download and install GNU/Linux, and legally too. Morenoodles (talk) 10:48, 13 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]
You'll notice it also says I use Microsoft Windows under duress... if you going to take the time to investigate me, at least do a thorough job. haha. DaRkAgE7[Talk]19:19, 13 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]
S-Video... 7-pin laptop to 4-pin TV
Hello. Because my DVD player's screwed, I'd like to connect my laptop up to my TV. My laptop has a 7-pin S-Video socket, but my TV only has 4-pin. What is the solution? Use a 4-pin for both, or buy an adapter? Or something else? ╟─TreasuryTag►contribs─╢08:30, 13 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]
According to our page on S-video, "The 7-pin socket accepts the 4-pin plug (unlike the standard 7-pin socket) and the S-video signals are available on the matching pins." So it would seem that a four-pin cable would allow you to connect your laptop to your television. -- 74.137.108.115 (talk) 09:44, 13 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]
Keylogger removal
I'm trying to help a friend and can't find much help generally available online. She doesn't seem comfortable telling me too much. This is what I seem to understand so far. She's using an HP laptop running Windows (she could possibly be running Ubuntu, but I'll assume Windows). She feels that when someone was in her place, that they installed a keylogger that isn't getting flagged by any of the Anti-spyware/Anti-virus software she's tried. She claims it's not visible in applications, processes, or services. When I asked her why she felt there was a problem, she mentioned "Naim feedbags" which apparently keeps/is some sort of log. "Naim feedbags" didn't seem to score any useful hits on Google, so I'm a bit confused here. I know this isn't much to work with, but hopefully someone here can at least point me in a useful direction. Thank you.
Hmmmm... Perhaps AIM feedbags? Which could be an error message upon trying to add more than 150 "buddies" [1] or just adding new "buddies" [2] using iChat. Some directions for potentially fixing one cause of this error are available at [Macworld forums].
And hey, maybe she's right? If someone has installed some really custom software it's totally possible it wouldn't show up on a blacklist. Tell her if she's really worried to copy all her data off, wipe the drive clean, and reinstall the OS. And then show her how to put a password on her machine. --98.217.8.46 (talk) 00:59, 14 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]
Yeah, because somebody who can write a custom keylogger will be stymied by a Windows password. *If* there is a keylogger or if you want a resolution that practically guarantees there isn't then a reinstall makes sense. But, given that she is unable/unwilling to provide details on what operating system she's running or what error message she's receiving to her would-be rescuer a reinstall sounds rather unfeasible. An alternative might be to have her download and burn a live CD like Knoppix which she can then use to boot and protect herself from keyloggers whenever she feels the need. -- 74.137.108.115 (talk) 01:33, 14 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]
Don't be a twit. A custom keylogger can be written with just a smattering of knowledge of Visual Basic. It isn't exactly rocket science. And who knows what she can provide—there's a difference between having provided it and being able to provide it. There are lots of non-technical ways to infer the existence of something technical. If someone starts telling you about things you've been typing, you can probably guess that something is up, even if you don't understand the technical aspects of it. --98.217.8.46 (talk) 18:33, 14 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]
And a windows password can be bypassed by any bootable media. If she'd provided *any* evidence of a keylogger then we wouldn't be having this discussion. But she didn't ("Naim feedbags"?). Of course she could at some point in the future provide such evidence; then we would be able to offer actual assistance instead of randomly guessing. -- 74.137.108.115 (talk) 20:00, 14 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]
Get a program like IceSword (google it) and check the Hooks. If there's no keyboard hooks from unknown programs, you're safe. --wj32t/c05:46, 14 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]
Hey guys, I'm sorry I haven't gotten back to this board for a while. Thank you for your help. I could have gotten more info from her, but she felt she was inconveniencing me. It would have been rather awkward at the time. Anyway, I will suggest she try Ice Sword for now. Thank you. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 68.37.189.37 (talk) 15:03, 16 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]
a "pop" is either a stack operation, or an acronym for "post office protocol", both of which are programming language independent. C++'s standard-template library has a "stack" class for non-hardware stack operations, one method of which is named "pop".
Technology can actually block the transmission of emotions, hence the need to add emoticons to typed sentences in order to restore the emotional subtext. Of course, this emotional deficiency in writing is as old as writing itself, but the diff is that we now use writing for quick, terse, informal communications that don't allow for careful wording to try to get the emotional subtext just right. Thus a smilie or flame stamp on an e-mail can get the job done quickly. StuRat (talk) 16:16, 13 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]
I thought of posting this in the Math section but I think that this post would be most relevant here. I have a couple of questions. I am working with MATLAB 7.1 with service pack 3. I wrote a function with generates a matrix (according to some rules), updates the matrix (using some more rules), and after a certain criteria is reached, the function terminates. Now the problem is that I want the function to run a couple of times so I wrote a script which basically executes the function (let us say) ten times. If the function by itself takes t units of time to run, then running the script should take around 10t. But when I run the script, it seems to take much much much longer, like 100t or something. My questions is, is this typical behavior with programs? I have done plenty of simple programming in the past but this is my first attempt at something so big. What is happening? Is my system getting bogged down because of the function running 10 times consecutively? Is it because the RAM doesn't have a chance to be cleared? By the way, I am working with Windows XP with Service Pack 2 and my machine is decent with AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core Processor 5600+ 2.81 GHz with 2GB of Ram. I also tried increasing my virtual memory. The initial is 4092MB with the maximum allowed being 8092MB (is this good for my hard drive? Is this recommended or will this kill my drive faster?) but this seems to have no effect.
I am thinking that running the function once takes a certain amount of RAM which is probably less than what I have to offer so there is no problem. And then when the function stops running, the RAM is freed. But when I run the script, you need ten times as much RAM which is more than what I have to offer so when my RAM fills up, it has to clear up the RAM and then uses it again. Is this what is happening? Does anyone know how do these programs deal with memory? Also, how much slower is writing to my hard drive than writing to RAM? Is paging beneficial at all?
(And by the way, there are no graphics involved. I am only concerned with speed so far. I know that displaying stuff causes the program to run much slower. The function just runs and all the calculations are done in memory and at the end a number is displayed).-Looking for Wisdom and Insight! (talk) 18:37, 13 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]
For best performance, you very much want to avoid going to paging space, as this is usually far slower than running directly from RAM, especially for programs that must constantly read and write data to memory. A good program would, indeed, free up all the memory when it's finished with it and then allocate new memory as needed, but the real world is full of horrid programs that may never free up the memory they reserve. Whether MATLAB has this flaw, I can't say, but you seem to have provided evidence that it has. StuRat (talk) 20:51, 13 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]
Manually expanding your paging file probably has little impact because by default Windows will automatically expand it when necessary, and I believe writing to the hard drive is on the order of at least 100 times slower than writing to RAM. While in my experience Matlab was never particularly fast, there are definite things to avoid to prevent it from slowing to a crawl. Searching Google for "Matlab performance" will return a number of hits with good advice on how to work around Matlab's quirks. In particular, this site shows how you can profile your code's execution to determine where Matlab is behaving poorly. -- 74.137.108.115 (talk) 21:06, 13 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]
Given that you have two loops — the iteration inside the function that decides when to stop frobbing the matrix, and the iteration that calls that function n times — the first thing to check (before worrying about complicated things like swapping) is how many times the loops are executing. Have the function print (or store in a variable, or whatever) the number of times it frobs the matrix, and see if — for reasons I can only guess at from this information — the function is doing more work in the case where you call it repeatedly than in the case where you call it once directly. Also important, presumably, is the size of the matrices involved (since it counts as yet more loops, perhaps implicitly, nested inside the function's loop); is that a constant? --Tardis (talk) 23:48, 13 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]
Animation Software
I am interested in a career of animation. Not the CG animation of today, just traditional drawn cartooning. I realize it would take too long to animate everything by hand, so I would scan in drawn images and use computer assistance for coloring, putting together the frames, etc. This is my question. What software would be used for computer assisted hand drawn animation? What shows use this style of animation? For Mac would be nice. --32.140.39.233 (talk) 19:42, 13 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]
Not sure about specific software, but tweening is one thing you'll want, where two frames are provided by you and the computer creates additional frames in between those two. StuRat (talk) 20:44, 13 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]
It seems to be a bug in the camera software but ever since I changed the background on the camera, I have been unable to use it as an mp3 player. I tried formatting my SD card and resetting the camera (from the camera menu) but to no avail. Does anyone know what I can try to fix the issue? Thanks a lot. Kushal (talk) 21:55, 13 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]
Equal lenth columns works in standards-compliant browsers, but not IE
I've searched all over Google for an answer, but I haven't found anyone else with a situation like mine. I have two divs as columns on User:Dudemanfellabra/Sandbox2. The first column is 60% width floated left, and the second one has a 61.3% left-border to give a little space between the columns. I'm trying to make the two columns equal length (without using tables), and I've found a solution for lengthening the right column if the left one is initially longer than it, but this only works in standards-compliant browsers (I have FF3, Opera, and Safari) and doesn't work when the right column is longer than the left one initially. To make the right column expand to the left column's length, I simply added a <br style="clear:all"/> to the end of the column and removed the bottom padding. This expanded the right column all the way down but left it one pixel longer than the left, so I removed the bottom border and replaced it with a div with negative margins and zero padding to make a faux bottom border. This is not possible to do when the right column is initially longer than the left because the left column is loaded before the right and placing a br clear:all results in a regular br because there is nothing to clear yet when it is loading. On top of that, I can't get this solution to work in IE at all; the br clear:all does nothing to the end of the right column.
So I guess I actually have two questions. The first is how to get it to work when the right column is initially longer than the left, and the second is how to make the fix (or a new fix) compatible with IE. Any suggestions? --Dudemanfellabra (talk) 22:33, 13 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]
I also tried floating both columns left, but that doesn't even work in FF3 etc.. I can do it with javascript, but I'd rather not have to use it. Anyone? --Dudemanfellabra (talk) 23:03, 14 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]
Alright, I'm a nineteen year old college student, and I'm looking forward to a career designing and marketing analog synthesizers/guitar pedals. At this point I'm assuming a major in electrical engineering will be enough to help me realize my goal, but are there other fields I ought to look into? Kenjibeast (talk) 01:21, 14 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]
Unlike a lot of digital stuff which is just as commercial as sneakers, analogue stuff is now more then ever in the realm of real enthusiasts. Like Moog Music and Dave Smith Instruments, it's a dying breed, increasingly rare, some people might try to talk you out of it, not me, I own an Andromeda A6 and I love it.. I've found the communities based around these synths to be amazingly open and friendly. My honest opinion is shoot some emails to Dave Smith, or moog or Alesis / Numark or who ever else you can think of, and I wouldn't be surprised if you get the info from the horse's mouth, so to speak.. Vespine (talk) 03:06, 14 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]
The trouble with audio enthusiasts is that they are quite frankly mostly idiots trying to prop up the dying remnants of a golden age. The claim that analog is somehow magically better shows zero understanding about what's really happening in terms of signals, frequencies, etc. The idea that analog synthesisers and pedals will continue to have this bizarre cult appeal - and especially making an entire career around - it is a bad decision. If you want to be in the music business longer than the next one or two cycles of gear - get into analog AND digital AND software. Even modern analog equipment (such as the latest Moog stuff) is controlled digitally and with software. The effects you can produce with digital circuits and computer software are quite literally unlimited - you can do things with digital filters and delays that are quite impossible with analog techniques. So long as your sampling rate and bits-per-sample are high enough, you can always beat the quality of an analog system and reproduce precisely everything it does - and you can do it cheaper and more effectively. By all means learn the old-school stuff - but if that's all you learn, you'll be out of touch with the cutting edge before you're 25. SteveBaker (talk) 16:57, 15 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]
RIJNDAEL/AES and them Endians
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advanced_Encryption_Standard#Libraries says: "Care should be taken when implementing AES in software. Like most encryption algorithms, Rijndael was designed on big-endian systems. For this reason, little-endian systems return correct test vector results only through considerable byte-swapping, with efficiency reduced as a result."
I've spent several hours googling and haven't found much details on the issue. Does this return different results on big vs. little endian systems?
Good catch. The basic message of that para from "AES#Libraries" is false. The "For this reason..." does not follow. As the Knudsen paper says, the algorithm does not care about endianness. Nor is there anything in Rijndael to indicate what it was designed on. -- Fullstop (talk) 02:48, 14 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]
Easy free wiki like database for personal local use. windows xp.
So I'm writing a setting backstory for something I'm working on and so far I have lots of characters and locations and lots of cross references, I've been thinking that creating a wiki for myself would be the perfect way to track all this info. It would be very basic, just a page for each person and location with links describing relationships and perhaps categories/tags, that's about it. a wiki would be perfect, dead simple to create new pages and dead simple to create links. I've downloaded mediawiki, and had a look at it and you have to get all web server running and all this stuff, I don't need it to be "online" or anything, I could do it with some basic html but it would take some mucking around which I'm reluctant to start since I'm sure there must be a basic application which pretty much does exactly what I'm after already. Does anyone have any ideas? Vespine (talk) 02:49, 14 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]
I've used MoinMoin for this sort of purpose. Specifically, I've used the Desktop edition, which is suitable for use on a single machine with no internet connectivity, which I think is what you want. I understand that the desktop edition is now an option in the main software. The main downside that I'm aware of is that the wiki markup is not the same as MediaWiki's, so any experience you have of editing on Wikipedia won't directly help.-gadfium03:34, 14 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]
This looks pretty cool, thanks for the suggestion, plus I already have python installed on my machine.. However, i've already hit a hitch trying to get this thing installed, and i'm trawling through the help and config files and I'm still thinking: surely there must be an easier way! all this command line configuration and installation, isn't there an app that just lets you create entries with links to other entries? That's pretty much all I'm after... Vespine (talk) 04:19, 14 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]
Actually!! you've helped me find what I was after, the problem was I wasn't 100% clear on exactly what I want in the 1st place, you've helped me realise what I need is listed on this page Personal_wiki, thanks.Vespine (talk) 04:27, 14 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]
Hard drive space
I'm getting a little nervous. I only have ~16 gb of space left on the main partition of my computer. This is just not a good thing. So I tried a little visual representation of my hard drive, via WinDirStat, and discovered to my surprise that almost 10 gb is unknown! Now what the heck could that mean? Where is 10 GB of storage capacity gone to!? How can I free up space on my hard drive??
I'm already running CCleaner to clear my cache, recycle bin, etc.. Thanks for suggestions and tips, and helping me figure out the unknown! --72.69.148.204 (talk) 03:21, 14 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]
I'm guessing here, but perhaps the recovery partition? You don't say what the total size of the HD is? If you're using CCleaner, you're already taking care of a lot of the buildup. If you're using a Windows OS, perhaps your System Restore area could be downsized. Of course, music, and videos (and to a lesser extent pictures) could be archived to CD/DVD to free up some room. Check to see if there are any programs that you're no longer using, some take up a great deal of space. Ched (talk) 03:53, 14 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]
wow ... completely missed link to graphic. obvious that I'm editing when I should be in bed. I must be on my way to wikiholic and in need of a wiki-break. Ched (talk) 05:02, 14 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]
Go to My Computer --> Tools --> Folder Options --> Show Hidden Files and Folders. Then go to the WINDOWS folder and delete all those $NtUninstall folders. That should save you about 400 MB ;).--K;;m5m k;;m5m (talk) 04:02, 14 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]
You do realize that 16GB is better than 25% of your C: drive? If you don't *need* 16GB free then I suggest you wait until you reach around 10%, say 5GB, before deciding to go on a delete-spree. If you really must free up some space, you could try seaching C: for files/folders of the name * then sort the results by size to see what the largest files are, then go down the list removing any that are unwanted. Getting rid of one or two forgotten DVD images is much faster than trying to recover 5GB from 10MB files. -- 74.137.108.115 (talk) 04:12, 14 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]
That space could be either taken up by System Restore backups or sparse files. The latter is more likely. Sparse files don't actually take up that much space on your hard disk though. Sparse files are common with torrent programs/other download apps. --wj32t/c05:54, 14 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]
IRC usage statistics
What statistics are available for the number of users globally connecting to all IRC networks over time? I get the impression that there are fewer people on IRC than there used to be, perhaps due to the rise in popularity of things like Second Life and instant messaging. Any pointers would be greatly appreciated – thanks. --Richardrjtalk email08:32, 14 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]
Thanks, that's a great website. For most networks it looks like users reached a peak in 2004-05 and have been in steady decline since then. Unfortunately this graph combining stats for all networks only goes back two weeks; it would be good to have that data going back years. Thanks again for the link. --Richardrjtalk email09:14, 14 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]
Open a WDB File
STOP! BEFORE YOU ASSUME THAT I AM AN IDIOT, I AM NOT TALKING ABOUT AN MS WORKS DATABASE FILE!
You probably already know this, but anyway: Try to open it in Notepad - the file may be a simple text file, e.g. a XML file. If not and if it would be sufficient to recover some strings from the file, you could open it in a hexadecimal editor, e.g. XVI32. --Andreas Rejbrand (talk) 15:56, 14 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]
Answering both responses. Neither notepad nor the hex editor work. I am trying to get music, pictures, and other resources out of it (i tried a resource hacking program, but those only work with executable files) for my own personal, noncommercial use. I've read that World of Warcraft uses WDB files to store the same kind of "stuff" i want to extract. Would a tool meant for WoW work for LEGO Island? BufferedInputOutput17:10, 14 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]
Well, without knowing anything about the file contents, it's hard to know what is likely. At the very least the files are all in there in some way that the program knows how to organize to get what it wants. They may be encrypted or encoded in some non-standard way. They may be organized in a very systematic fashion or they may not. They may be compressed, they may be not. You can poke around in a hex editor to look for file types one might recognize, but that's a crap shoot at best. It doesn't look like there is any easy, straightforward way to do it.
As for WoW—from what I can tell the WDB files that WoW use are just their own way of storing data. It is pretty idiosyncratic—what type of data, how long the columns are, etc. differs from file to file. More info here. I'm not sure there's any reason to think a WoW tool would work with Lego Island. --98.217.8.46 (talk) 00:49, 15 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]
If the original games programmers want you to get at stuff like that from their game, you'll find the information on how to do it all over the internet. If not, they'll smoosh it up in ways so complicated that you'd need to be extremely determined and have an awful lot of time and skill (and probably some 'insider' information) to even stand a chance. Since you are asking us - I presume you don't have the necessary skill & determination...so if you didn't find out how using a web search - you almost certainly can't do it at all. Every game is done differently - it's highly unlikely that Lego Island and WoW use the same tools even if the filename extension happens to be the same. SteveBaker (talk) 16:39, 15 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]
DON'T SHOUT PLEASE. The database itself will (usually) store the records in files, but the number of those files is not directly related to the number of objects (usernames, articles, edits, etc. in this case) in your application. --Sean13:00, 15 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]
Websites
About how many websites are there on the internet? Of course, it is impossible to attain an exact figure, keeping in mind the rapid growth of the internet, but none the less, about how much? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 59.103.69.20 (talk) 16:20, 14 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]
Vista 64: In my folders view, I see 2 folders called Documents. It's not in the actual c:\users\name area, just in the area that lists:
name
public
computer
network ... etc.
anyone have any ideas on why this is showing as such? Both folders seem to have identical content, and one is not listed as a shortcut or anything. Ched (talk) 19:41, 14 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]
I am planning on creating some sort of program or script to backup my entire Linux home directory to a USB hard drive once every couple of nights. It is supposed to create a "snapshot" of my entire home directory and erase the previous one it created earlier. But how I am supposed to go about it remains an open question. There are two very simple ways, both of which have drawbacks.
Erase the old backup first and create a new one second. Drawback: If the backup fails for some reason, I am left with a snapshot missing files.
Create a new backup first and erase the old one second. Drawback: Requires twice as much space, can also potentially create redundant, obsolete backup files.
So I have formulated a solution to backup each file separately, by first backing up the file and then erasing the old backed-up file. This would solve both of the above problems. But this is much more difficult than a simple copy and erase of the entire directory. So I have two questions:
Is there a free, open-source program that does this for me already?
If there is not, how do I go about creating my own? I think I know how to do it in Java, but C would be faster. Is there an easy Unix C API to get all files and subdirectories in a directory? Also, the program needs to be symlink-aware, otherwise it could get in an infinite loop upon encountering a symlink pointing to its own parent directory. JIP | Talk20:23, 14 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]
I have only ever used tar to create handy single-file bundles of several files. man tar tells me tar knows how to update the archive by only adding new files and leaving old ones untouched. Because most of my important personal files, such as the 26000 pictures I have taken with my digital camera, seldom, if ever, change, this would be a good idea, but I would still want a solution that also deleted the old, obsolete versions after they have been safely replaced with fresh ones. JIP | Talk21:03, 14 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]
Just a couple pieces of unrequested advice - A prudent backup strategy would have more than just one "generation", even if this might require more storage than you'd planned on using. You should also test your recovery process to ensure that it is at least as robust as your backups. Google something like "backup strategy best practices" for more. --LarryMac | Talk21:18, 14 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]
Agree with LarryMac. Buy a second USB disk (and preferably third and fourth as well), and then
JIP, you should use rsync. Although intended for remote (network) copies, rsync does fine for local copies too. And because it only copies the files that have changed since the last time you ran it, most times a copy takes a trivial time. Using its --delete option tells it to erase any file that has been deleted in the source (and not supplying that option means that the destination copy keeps that, regardless). So you'd do: rsync -a /home/jip /media/myusbdisk/tuesdayMimetic Polyalloy (talk) 12:57, 15 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]
I agree with NorwegianBlue's answer - except that it has a problem. If you trash an important but infrequently used file - but don't notice that you trashed it - then if you have three drives and back up daily - then after three days, the file is gone forever. So if you want to be truly secure, have longer term backups. Save a copy once a month - and recycle that drive less often. I also save annual copies onto DVD-ROM - so I have less frequent backups going back three years now - and I have had occasion to be glad I did. I also put files out on the Internet where possible. I have a web hosting service for my web site - and I check my linux 'home directory' into a 'subversion' repository on there as another backup. That's AMAZINGLY useful. SteveBaker (talk) 16:30, 15 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]
Bypassing Passwords
My sister is using a log-in password and she has Windows XP. Also let me clear this point up, she is not banning him from using the computer forever he is on punishment right now and long story short she would like to know how he is bypassing the log-in password and getting onto MySpace? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 76.83.33.32 (talk) 22:16, 14 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]
Recently my sister put keeps changing the password on her computer so that her teenage son can't use the internet. Even though she has changed the password repeatedly she has caught him using Myspace. Firstly, how is it possible that he can get to Myspace or the internet without knowing the password? And how can she prevent him in the future from continuing to do this? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 76.83.33.32 (talk) 21:39, 14 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]
What "password on her computer" is she using, specifically? A log-in password? A router password? A third-party program? Or what? It's not clear to me what password she is setting, thus it's not clear to me what the issue is. In my opinion the best way to deal with it, assuming she is using Windows, is to set up separate user accounts with passwords, and make the one the son has access to have no internet access whatsoever. This is not so difficult to do, depending on the specific version of Windows she is using. --140.247.250.236 (talk) 21:48, 14 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]
(EC) Assuming this is a Windows PC . . . it's child's play to find and run a password cracking program, for example Ophcrack. How can she prevent it? Switch to a Linux based operating environment, perhaps? Although all her son would have to do is insert a bootable CD and run from that. Which would mean she has to reset the BIOS so that booting from CD is not possible. In which case he'll probably find another way. Sorry, but this sounds like a parenting problem, not a technical problem. --LarryMac | Talk21:50, 14 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]
OMG she won't let him use the internet at all? Why on Earth not? My advice would be to put the computer in the kitchen or living room and allow the boy to use it as much as he likes where she can keep an eye on him. Trying to keep kids of myspace is futile and rather cruel, What about internet cafe's friends houses etc? The best way to keep kids safe online is to keep en eye on them and offer advice and guidance. But that's just my opinion. Theresa Knott | token threats22:03, 14 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]
I suggest a BIOS level password, assuming the computer supports it. That way, he can't boot it from CD/DVD and use a password cracking program. Whatever keystroke the computer says to use to get into the BIOS at boot time, like Delete or F1, she can hit that to set the password. One warning, though, if she forgets her BIOS password she would be in trouble. StuRat (talk) 22:20, 14 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]
And then of course he could open up the computer and use the "clear password" jumper or just remove the CMOS battery for a while, etc. And then your sister would have to buy a lock to lock up the case, a decent one that he can't pick. But then maybe he could just saw or smash through it. --164.67.100.97 (talk) 00:20, 15 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]
Another suggestion is to take some item of hardware with her, like the keyboard and/or mouse, and lock it in her trunk, to make the computer unusable. Her son could buy or borrow replacements, I suppose. If he does this, she should take the whole computer with her (except maybe the monitor). StuRat (talk) 22:24, 14 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]
At the login screen if you hit ctrl-alt-delete a few times it brings you to a login box. Most people do not know this..but that can be used to log in to a hidden admin account. That admin account can have a password placed on it. To get to the admin account type "Administrator" then hit enter. You may have to try it with a small "a" instead of cap..not sure if it is case sensitive or not. I suggest doing that and checking in. Cause I doubt a kid would do any of the above. No offense guys. Rgoodermote23:35, 14 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]
Is it possible that your sister didn't modify the passwords for *all* the accounts on the computer? There are (sometimes hidden--thanks Microsoft!) "Administrator" and "Guest" accounts, and the son could have created other accounts as well. To lock down all the accounts, navigate:
Start > Control Panel > Administrative Tools > Computer Management
Expand:
Computer Management (local) > System Tools > Local Users and Groups > Users
Then, for each account without a red 'X' _except_ your account, right-click, select "Properties" and check the "Account is disabled" box. If all the other accounts were already disabled then the son is using one of the other attacks listed here. -- 74.137.108.115 (talk) 23:58, 14 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]
If they have physical access to the computer - there is no form of security that'll work against a determined kid - period. I STRONGLY recommend putting the computer in the 'family room' - or the kitchen or wherever everyone hangs out. Treat use of the computer (whether for playing games, doing homework, web surfing, whatever) as a family thing, just like watching TV - so that the kid knows that someone will be looking over his shoulder from time to time. Hiding the computer away in some other room is simply asking for trouble of one sort or another. Locking him out of the Internet is unnecessary overkill - and in this day and age, it truly will cut the kid off from his friends and from the culture of HIS age - which will have results that are far worse (in terms of isolation, subsequent bullying, etc) than the worst that MySpace could do. SteveBaker (talk) 16:19, 15 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]
Signed Executables
Some executables like Microsoft Word (WINWORD.EXE) and Visual C# Express (VCSExpress.exe) are digitally signed (you can view the certificate in Windows Explorer or by seeing that it has CertificateData in its image data directory). Most Windows components, however, are not signed (explorer.exe, notepad.exe, rundll32.exe, many others). Why does Process Explorer say these are "verified", then, and how does it know these haven't been tampered with? Thanks in advance. --wj32t/c22:13, 14 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]
Just guessing: because Microsoft said so? The difference between "components" that ship with Windows and "programs" that are installed separately is that the former share the same trust as the shell that is (presumably) executing them since they were built at the same time. So, possibly the shell already knows what signatures these components should have, or perhaps Microsoft didn't bother since the certificates were probably intended to verify the software on install (and the components are already trusted/installed). Either way, you wouldn't want parts of the operating system showing as "unverified". It'd be interesting to copy notepad.exe, hex edit a string inside it, then run it to see if Windows still thinks it's "verified". -- 74.137.108.115 (talk) 00:12, 15 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]
When I go to Run... --> msinfo32 --> Tools --> File Signature Verification Utility, Windows confirms that all system files are signed. I'm not familiar with the intricacies of signatures, but when I also right-click on Explorer.exe and Notepad.exe and click on "Version," I see detailed metadata about the applications. To answer your second question, Windows has Windows File Protection (WFP). Whenever you remove a system file, Windows instantaneously replaces it with a new one. When you over-write one, a message box pops up informing you of the change and asking you to if you want to keep the modified file or replace it.--K;;m5m k;;m5m (talk) 12:29, 15 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]
That metadata can be easily spoofed. That's why we need digital signatures. Windows files don't have digital signatures (at least not the standard CertificateTable in the PE image data directory). --wj32t/c21:30, 15 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]
January 15
In search of the elusive long-tailed mouse....
Does anyone know where I can get a mouse with a 20 foot cord ? I would also accept a cordless mouse with that range, but most only seem good for 2-3 feet. I'm not picky, I like mice either with or without balls. I use the mouse to play videos from my computer on my TV, and I want to be able to use it from across the room. I currently use a PS/2 franken-mouse that's been spliced together from two other dead mice to have a double-length cord. A USB mouse would also work. StuRat (talk) 00:52, 15 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]
I doubt you will find a mouse with a 20 foot cable out of the box. What you need is a ps2 mouse extension cable. I would also recommend you consider switching to a trackball, which doesn't need a hard flat surface. It takes a bit to get used to, but once you do, you might never want to go back to the traditional mouse. -- Tcncv (talk) 00:59, 15 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]
If you Google around you can find wireless mice that are advertised with much longer range than those meant to be used close to the receiver. There are different wireless technologies as well, with different ranges. BlueTooth mice apparently have a range of around 30 feet. This little one claims to have a range of 65 feet. --98.217.8.46 (talk) 01:10, 15 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]
I'm using a Logitech wireless optical mouse and it seems to have about 20 feet of range (total estimate). Beyond that, a quick look at the USB page says USB has a range of 5 m... so you might be able to use a chain of USB extension cables or a combination of extension cables and wireless. I'd suggest ditching ps2 if possible, as any new equipment you buy will probably be obsolete in a few years. DaRkAgE7[Talk]01:21, 15 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]
Thanks for all the suggestions. The PS/2 extension cable sounds the cheapest, and also has the advantage of working for the keyboard, so I think I'll go with that. Finding a hard, flat surface is no prob. I've used a trackball for 3D CAD systems, but it seems like overkill for playing movies. If, in a few years, PS/2 becomes obsolete, I will upgrade at that time. (Although being "no longer supported" is probably a better way to describe it than "obsolete", which I reserve for technologies like VHS, which truly suck compared with DVDs. By contrast, I see no inherent advantage to a USB mouse over PS/2, and at least one disadvantage, the way USB connectors allow the cable to sag and become disconnected.) StuRat (talk) 03:36, 15 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]
Just for reference, USB mice work on a much more recent and flexible standard. USB mice can have higher resolution, higher update frequencies, and are hot-swappable. In addition, the plug itself on a USB cord is more durable, the mouse is allowed to draw more current (For whatever that's worth) and you're allowed to plug in more than one mouse.
One of the HDDs in our family computer is no longer showing up in Windows (neither in My Computer or in Admin Tools->Disk Management). Does anyone know of some kind of recovery software? Or is this more than likely unrecoverable hardware failure?
perhaps booting with a third-party CD? UBCD is a tool (well, collection of tools) that I've found useful. UBCD. If you can see the drive there, you might be able to recover info. Also a quick test would be to keystroke into your BIOS (F1, del, etc. depending upon make and model of computer) and see if the drive is listed there. If it is listed there, you may be able to recover. Also, if the computer has been moved recently, sometimes cables work their way loose. Ched (talk) 07:21, 15 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]
I've checked the BIOS and unfortunately the drive doesn't appear! I've also checked cables so that's not the problem... I'll try put it into another computer and see if it detects it but I guess things aren't looking good --Fir000202:04, 16 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]
Try this experiment. Open a new document in MSWord, and type some nonsense text like kjlkjlkj. A red underline appears informing you that the “word” is misspelled. Now copy some text from a WP article and paste it into that blank document a couple of line down the page. When I do this, something really weird happens. If I type ABOVE the pasted text, the spelling checker works fine. If I type BELOW the pasted text, the spelling and grammar checkers are inactive. If I am editing something on WP, I ALWAYS copy the pertinent text over to MSWord and work on it there, where I can make use of spelling, grammar checkers and other nifty facilities. etc. I do this with all the stuff I work on, but only WP gives me this headache. Text pasted from IMDB and Yahoo QA and many others do NOT have this strange effect. Any ideas on what might be happening? I’m afraid that I ‘m not much of a techie, so keep it simple please. Hand puppets might be needed. 210.1.198.109 (talk) 07:36, 15 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]
What version of Word (and of Windows) are you using? I tried on Word 2003 Professional Edition SP1 and the spell-checker worked above and below the pasted text. Have you tried doing Edit->Paste Special->Unformatted Text instead of normal paste? When you post HTML into Word, it tries to convert the formatting to the native Word formatting, so it's possible there's some formatting attached to the HTML that's confusing your version of Word. --Maltelauridsbrigge (talk) 10:53, 15 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]
I wonder if the reason for this behavior isn't that for some reason, Word thinks that the stuff you paste below is written in some other language, one for which it doesn't have the proper spell-checking files. You can see the language Word is using for any particular part of the text by placing the cursor on the middle of the text and looking at the status bar on the bottom of the window: it'll display the name of the language there. -- Captain Disdain (talk) 20:49, 15 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]
OP myles325 back. Bingo! Maltelauridsbrigge's advice works. When I use Paste Special (Unformatted) I can get the Spell and Grammar checker to work again, which is great. Thanks too to Captain Disdain. You guys have been a real help.
I suspect that Word is applying a style to the pasted text that inhibits spellchecking (language = none). Text typed immediately after the pasted text assumes the same style. If you press enter and then move the cursor up a line before pasting, your original style will be preserved at the end of your document. Recent versions of Word also provide a "match destination formatting" option that also retains your original style and applies it to your pasted text. -- Tcncv (talk) 01:07, 16 January 2009 (UTC) (PS - I entered the editor before I saw the preceding resolution, so this is somewhat redundant.)[reply]
Software or data types that don't leave a signature in the file
Resolved
Hi. Without giving too much away, I need to create a picture and a sound file for a contest. However I would like software or file-types that don't embed blatantly obvious headers into the file, as the participants will need to guess the file type from the clues I give them and rename it appropriately (actually it is going to be one file embedded in appended to another). Someone should not be able to guess the file-type by opening it in Notepad for example. I notice that gifs immediately start with gif in the header, and similarly mp3 software tend to embed their names and the word "mp3 ID3" at various places in the file. Is there any way I can get around this? I'd like to use gif or jpeg and mp3, as the combined embedded joined file works with Windows Picture Viewer and Windows Media Player (embedded appended wav does not work on WMP). If necessary I'm willing and able to hex edit the file to remove telltale info, if you could guide me on what to do. Thanks. Zunaid10:46, 15 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]
MP3 files shouldn't have identifiable headers saying "mp3", though it may depend on the encoder. You can chop the start/end off if there's an identifiable ID3 tag, because the decoder can synchronise at any point in the file (they do need to contain synchronisation strings of 0xFFF, however). Most other formats seem to include text tags, e.g. JPEG/JFIF, PNG, GIF, Ogg, MPEG-4/.m4a, 3GPP, WAV, BMP file format. If you want to store audio without headers, raw PCM is the way to go, with no information on number of channels, sampling rate, word size, etc. There are some very obscure audio streaming formats for MPEG-2/MPEG-4 audio (AAC), like LOAS and LATM, but I'm not sure how many decoders actually support them. You could also try one of the more obscure file compression/archiving formats from list of archive formats. --Maltelauridsbrigge (talk) 11:18, 15 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]
The whole point of file formats is for them to be standardized and to be recognizable by software using them. If you simply use a Hex Editor to remove file format headers and other essential information, then the file wouldn't be in whatever format it was originally. You could say that these signatures are what defines file formats!
MP3 files do not usually contain "mp3" in them; they usually start with "ID3" because people like tagging their music! You might find "MP3GAIN" somewhere in the file if it has that information, though. You said that software like to "embed their names", and that's easily solved - just delete the tags from the MP3s.
What audience is your contest designed for? I doubt if you remove important file headers anyone would recognize them! -wj32t/c11:08, 15 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]
This is a good idea, though. People have documents in some file types and it'd be nice to be able to rename the files so even if the encryption is broken, people still have to wonder what file type it is. Are you ready for IPv6? (talk) 11:16, 15 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]
Thanks for the replies so far. I checked out the MP3 again and you are right, I should have said ID3 instead of MP3, have corrected my post. I can remove any identifiable info from the MP3's by simply editing the properties. WMP does not want to play an MP3 appended to a jpeg, so I might be stuck using gif. It's a pity because the jpeg header actually says jfif which is sufficiently obscure for the target audience (which is just laymen). This is just the first clue and probably the only "technical"-type one. It is actually for a scavenger hunt like that famous "Race" on TV, without mentioning names ;). Oh, and when I say embed I actually mean append one file to another, not as in embedding an mp3 in a Word document. I'm going to try appending it to MS Word or pdf files as well, else I'll just stick to gif, and whoever figures out the correct file extension from notepad rather than the clue, good luck to them. I can't use non-standard codes or formats, it would defeat the purpose if I need to specify which program they need to use. Zunaid13:21, 15 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]
You are basically doomed. Every file type that I can think of has a means for identification in the first four bytes of the file (known technically as the "magic number"). This is a tradition that has grown up around the UNIX 'file' program and the associated '/etc/magic' file which translates magic numbers into human readable filename types. Nowadays it's such a common convention that I doubt there are any remotely 'mainstream' file formats left out there that can't be identified in this manner. In fact, if any of your respondants is REMOTELY hip to the Linux/UNIX scene or knows the Cygwin toolset for Windows - then they'll blow away your silly puzzle by typing:
file filename.wibble
...and getting:
filename.wibble: GIF image data, version 89a, 234 x 228
...or whatever. So the 'puzzle' ends up being "Do you happen to know about the 'file' program?". Even zipping up the file and renaming the zipfile won't work. Solving the problem would take me about 20 seconds - and it would go something like this:
% file frame.wibble
frame.wibble: gzip compressed data, from Unix, last modified: Thu Nov 30 18:00:00 2006
% mv frame.wibble frame.gz
% gunzip frame.gz
% ls
filename.wibble2
% file filename.wibble2
filename.wibble2: GIF image data, version 89a, 234 x 228
%
...not much of a challenge. I suppose you could just trash the first four bytes of the file - but in all likelyhood that just makes the puzzle impossible because the header information in binary files could literally mean anything. Sorry - but I think this is a pretty terrible idea for a contest.
Hmm well I remember once on 4chan, people uploaded mp3 files as PNG and get a staticy picture out of it and also could share music files but I didn't try it myself. As for SteveBaker's comment, I wonder if removing the exif info from the file and then hex editing the JPG, GIF, etc. at the start of the file to remove that would work. Are you ready for IPv6? (talk) 16:19, 15 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]
Also, I have two old games on my computer that use LBX files. I even have some add-ons that can modify those LBX files. I think these LBX are FoxPro database files. Well inside them, there's no way to tell what they are. Maybe you could use a really obscure file format. Are you ready for IPv6? (talk) 16:23, 15 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]
Both Motorola s-record and uuencode don't explicitly show their format at the beginning (although anyone at all familiar with them will instantly recognise them by their rubric). So you could SREC encode or uuencode a text file (perhaps the next clue); if you were evil you could encode a binary format file like an image. Mimetic Polyalloy (talk) 17:28, 15 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]
Hmmm - sadly, the 'file' program has other tricks. Let's see:
% uuencode helloworld.txt helloworld.txt > myfile
% file myfile
myfile: uuencoded or xxencoded text
OK - uuencode wasn't much of a challenge...what about S-Records?
% objcopy -O srec helloworld.txt myfile
% file myfile
myfile: Motorola S-Record; binary data in text format
Shew guys, you're making it way too complicated! These are not engineers and computer people. In fact I guarantee that almost none of have heard of *nix in any form. Appending an mp3 to a gif works just fine. Determining the file type is not the final answer, it merely allows them to listen to a clue I give them, they then have to find the location given my clue and carry on with the rest of the race. It might annoy the computer literate amongst us for being way too easy but trust me, it will work. Consider this resolved. Zunaid07:44, 16 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]
Spread Sheets To Standalone
Is there any way that a standard Microsoft Excel spreadsheet can be converted to a format that does not require excel to run? Java, or .exe for example. Thanks Kirk UK —Preceding unsigned comment added by 87.82.79.175 (talk) 10:50, 15 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]
It depends what you mean by "converted". If you want it to act like a spreadsheet, then you need a spreadsheet program to do the calculations. There are others apart form excel and it is liekly possible to import an excel spreadsheet into those programs. Alternatively if you just want to view the results, print them to a pdf file or to paper. -- SGBailey (talk) 11:10, 15 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]
If you're looking to view them on a computer that doesn't have excel, try google docs, or zoho.com. both free and capable of most of the excel, but they are online solutions. for stand-alone, try openoffice.org Ched (talk) 14:35, 15 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]
Technically, you can pick "File ... Save as"" and save it as an html file as well. but you'ld lose the bulk of your functionality as far as a spreadsheet goes. Ched (talk) 15:01, 15 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]
If your interest is allowing recipients who don't have Excel to view your Excel files, Microsoft provides a free Excel viewer application here. You might also have a save-as-html file menu option which may give you what you need. -- Tcncv (talk) 00:57, 16 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]
Save as XLS rather than DOCX or whatever the new filename extension is; then people can open it with OpenOffice, NeoOffice, etc. Not standalone, but no need for Excel either. Morenoodles (talk) 10:13, 16 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]
I'm currently doing a Graphic design course, which uses Mac and I want to work from home so dutifully acquired Adobe CS3 for my PC. All is well, apart from the fact that the fonts my school use don't seem to work on my PC =-i have them on USB stick at the moment. Is there a way of getting these to work, ideally without spending money? (Adobe used to have a thing called ATM but that seems to have been discontinued...)
When I first opened them up, windows then asked me if i wanted to install them, so i said yes.. it then came up with error message for certain kinds of fonts (the good ones -helvetica etc), which are the ones i can't use.. I tihnk there might be an issue with Font formatting -my Indesign software only seems to recognise True Type and open type but i'm sure there' another mac one isn't there? 86.6.101.208 (talk) 11:48, 16 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]
It's possible that some of them are Mac font suitcases, and won't work with Windows. You'll have to either buy or "find" TTF or OTF versions of them to use them on Windows. --98.217.8.46 (talk) 15:01, 16 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]
I would personally use such tools with suspicion. My guess is that they end out tossing out some of the proprietary data which can effect how fonts print, are displayed. Better to find a real OTF or TTF version that can be used on both without fear, if you are doing graphic design. --98.217.8.46 (talk) 02:51, 17 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]
Connecting two PCs at home.
I possess computers, one running Windows XP and the other Redhat Linux. According to me, Windows is a far more advanced OS as equated to Linux. I find it quite difficult to work properly in Linux. Recently, I have decided to keep both of my PCs connected to one another. But can I connect the two PCs just by using ethernet cables, DSL USB modems and Phone cables? If so, how can I do so? And after connecting, how can I set up the remote desktop connection between the two? Can anyone please help me out? Any help is heartily welcome. 117.201.98.161 (talk) 10:42, 16 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]
This doesn't answer your question, but if Red Hat is what I think then it's pretty ancient. You might try Ubuntu or something else that's new. Morenoodles (talk) 10:56, 16 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]
You can connect two computers using a special ethernet cable from one computer's network card to the other computer's network card. This requires a crossover cable and manually configuring the two computers on the same subnet. Another solution would be to purchase a router (~$50) then connect both computers to the router. The router will supply DHCP addresses to the computers, automatically configuring them on the same subnet. The linux box does not support "Remote Desktop" (the Microsoft program), though there are alternatives that accomplish similar connectivity. You cannot bridge two DSL modems to create a network (the modems are asymmetric). -- 74.137.108.115 (talk) 11:51, 16 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]
If the two machines aren't remotely ancient, you don't need a crossover cable. Ethernet cards made since around 2000 have auto MDI/MDI-X sense detect, so they'll automatically handle a computer to computer connection with a regular (non-crossover) ethernet cable. Mimetic Polyalloy (talk) 14:34, 16 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]
Even if you have a cross-over cable, although you'll be able to connect the two together, you won't necessarily be able to do anything with them. To do normal internet applications you will need to give both machines IP addresses, and also proper routing information. A router (which can easily be found for less than $50) will assign IP addresses and routing information automatically. Otherwise you will have to assign addresses to both computers manually, and that will probably be difficult to do. What exactly do you want to do with them together? If you want to transfer files it would be helpful to know what versions of Redhat you have, and what software (software to do the task you want to do) you're comfortable with on your Windows computer. If you can give each computer an IP address, then you can use them for many internet applications, although this too will require some basic understanding of internet addressing, protocols, etc. It would be helpful if you were more specific in what exactly you are trying to accomplish. LH (talk) 10:06, 17 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]
Have I killed my USB Flash Drive ?
I have got a Maxell 512 MB USB 2.0 USB flash drive that I had for a year or two (I think)that has
worked perfectly until one day I plugged it in and I couldn't access it. It didn't come up in the
My Computer or the Windows Explorer screens. Also the little LED light that should light up when
the flash drive is plugged stopped lighting up.
But the day before it worked properly, it came up in both the My Computer and the Windows Explorer
screens and when I double clicked the little green arrow for the Safley Remove Hardware it was in
that screen also.
Can you plug a different USB device into that port and see if it is detected correctly? If so, the USB drive is at fault. If not, Windows may have disabled the USB port due to an overcurrent (most likely if you have several devices connected). Rebooting the computer (if you haven't already) should reinitialize the hardware and might cause it to start working again. You might also try plugging the USB drive into a different computer. -- 74.137.108.115 (talk) 12:19, 16 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]
And yes, USB pen drives do have a limited life. The number of read/write cycles would normally make it last for years, unless it's being used for some very intensive purposes, like as paging space (an extremely poor idea for many reasons). A half gig drive is so cheap that it's hardly an issue, though, just pick up another one. StuRat (talk) 14:54, 16 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]
I can use any other USB device on any of my computers or any other computer that I can use. If I use that USB device regardless of which computer I am using than I can’t access it.
Scotius (talk) 15:03, 16 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]
It sounds like your USB drive has indeed failed catastrophically, although the failure mode doesn't necessarily fit with overuse. Was the drive exposed to large variations in temperature, or any handling that could have damaged it? Anyway, as StuRat said the drives are very cheap these days; the only concern would be trying to retrieve any valuable data from the failed drive. If it's really valuable, you can contact a data-recovery service to salvage the contents. If it's not _that_ valuable, you might try opening the USB drive to see if there is any obvious damage to the circuit board inside. -- 74.137.108.115 (talk) 15:47, 16 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]
I had one do the same thing. Worked fine one day, stopped working the next. Alas. I went out and bought a new one. I always get the $20 model for this reason—every year or two they fail, but you get more space for $20 each year (was 2GB last time I did this). --140.247.248.76 (talk) 16:42, 16 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]
I have a 60mb flash drive from 2003 still going good. I use it less these days now I have a 500Gb portable hard drive, but occasionally I boot up a linux from it to hack admin passwords. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 82.43.88.87 (talk) 22:18, 16 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]
When that Flash drive died on me I started using a laptop hard drive that I got a case for , not sure what the proper name for it is , caddie is it, so that I can use it as a portable hard drive. I think it's only 12GB though.Scotius (talk) 11:46, 17 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]
High-resolution Windows 9x on Modern Laptops?
Occasionally, I install old Windows operating systems (Windows 9x) on old (ca. 1997) or "quite old" (ca. 2004) computers. (This is not a simple procedure. Because Win 9x installation CDs are not bootable and have no partition manager, I first need to boot the PC from a bootable partition manager, and then I need to boot the system from a bootable DOS CD. Only then can I execute install.exe on the Windows 9x CD.) This usually works fine, but if I try to install Windows 9x on a "quite old" laptop, there is a big risk that I will only be able to use the horrible 640×480 16 colour video mode. Is there any simple way of making the OS run in a "normal" high-resolution mode? I do not need the hardware's all 3D acceleration capabilities; running Windows in perhaps 1280×768 24 bit colour mode would suffice very well. --Andreas Rejbrand (talk) 14:05, 16 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]
It depends on the graphics hardware of he pc more than anything else. The old pc may have a graphics board that only supports 256kB for instance in which case you can't expect anything more than 800x600 in 16 colours. For 1024x768 by 24 bit colour you need 4Mb. I guess most of them could do that if they aren't totally awful. You can download drivers for most display boards off the net. Dmcq (talk) 14:17, 16 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]
No, the problem is that the computer is too new for the OS - or, that the OS is too old for the computer. The computer I am working on now is from 2006 and was designed for Windows XP... However, Windows 9x does not know how to use the hardware, it appears. So, my question is: how to make an old OS (Win 9x) use the hardware of a modern PC. --Andreas Rejbrand (talk) 14:50, 16 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]
I bet! Unfortunately, I'm not sure there's a solution to your problem: hardware manufacturers simply don't support the older versions of Windows anymore. (Which is pretty understandable, as it's very rare for users to install decade-old software on new computers.) Unless you can locate a third-party driver for the hardware, you're pretty much out of luck. Alternatively, you could install an older graphics card in the computer... with a laptop, of course, that may not be an option at all. -- Captain Disdain (talk) 18:40, 16 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]
Which "Windows 9x" are you installing? There are three of them (95, 98, and 98SE), and the ease of getting drivers varies greatly. For any computer more than a few years old, 98SE drivers shouldn't be a problem, while 98 drivers are harder to find, and drivers for Win95 are almost impossible to find. --Carnildo (talk) 00:28, 17 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]
(When I speak of "Win 9x", I include Windows ME.) Well, I have CDs for all three of them (95, 98SE, Me), and have tried them all, but have never succeeded in making the screen high-res. --Andreas Rejbrand (talk) 12:31, 17 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]
Vista Updates
How do I know when (or even if) Vista is installing an update or security patch? On XP it was simple. You had a little yellow shield in the bottom right, then you got told to restart when it finished. This has not happened with my new machine so far. I am concerned because of a recent article on the BBC website saying that a critical update (MS08-067) was needed. I don't know if I have it or not. How would I find out? Ok, two questions there, sorry.--KageTora (talk) 20:23, 16 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]
Vista is updating software using Windows Update. If you open your start menu (press the Windows button), type "Windows Update" and press Enter, you will open Windows Update. --Andreas Rejbrand (talk) 20:30, 16 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]
Here you can choose "Search for Updates", "Show Update History", "Change Settings" and so on (I have translated the strings from Swedish - they may be slightly different on your computer). --Andreas Rejbrand (talk) 20:33, 16 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]
While Windows Update downloads updates from the internet, there is a little blue rectangular icon in the system tray (bottom right of your screen). If memory serves correctly, it is animated a little bit as well. Killiondude (talk) 20:36, 16 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]
Answer to question 2 (do I have it?): My best guess would be to go Control Panel > Programs and Features > "View installed updates" (on the left hand side). That certainly lists the KB index numbers of all installed updates. - Jarry1250(t, c)20:42, 16 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]
My Vista installation is set up to notify me when there are updates. To get that option, I went to Control Panel -> Windows Update and chose Change Settings in the left hand panel. In the settings page I moved the selected option to Download updates but let me choose whether to install them (it is not the recommended option and IIRC I got a couple of warnings at first). I now get notified about updates every couple of days, usually with a definition update for Windows Defender, but sometimes a security patch or something bigger. I find it's nice to know the update process is ongoing and I get the opportunity to defer a big update like Office SP1 to a more convenient time. Astronaut (talk) 11:03, 17 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]
XP Screen resolution
Is there a way to link the screen resolution to the user? Another person also uses my computer and changing the resolution screws up the order of my desktop icons. Clarityfiend (talk) 20:57, 16 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]
Well, why not simply use another user profile? I'm pretty sure screen resolution settings are user-specific. (I mean, desktop images and icons and whatnot certainly are.) -- Captain Disdain (talk) 21:38, 16 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]
I am getting this message: 'An error occurred while sending mail. The mail server responded: 5.7.0. Must issue a STARTTLS command first. 1sm2080490ewy.49. Please verify that your email address is correct in your Mail preferences and try again.' Why this all of a sudden? I sent mail easily about five minutes ago. Anyway, can anyone give me any idea of what to do here?--KageTora (talk) 22:55, 16 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]
Addendum - it seems to have happened since I added a new Gmail account to it. I have been using a different Gmail account up until now, and am trying to have both of them work on Thunderbird, which has never been a problem before. I can use the new one with no problem, but the old one is my main one. How do I sort this out? --KageTora (talk) 23:09, 16 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]
Unicode character not showing up properly across computer
Today, I randomly discovered that the following Unicode character is not showing up properly across my computer: ♡. In some locations it is showing up as the open heart icon, but in other places (where I have several other Unicode characters) it shows up as three horizontal lines similar to the symbol for the equivalence relation: ≡ (although it appears with shorter lines). The item appears in the fonts I have installed that appear here, but nowhere else. Is there a way to get this fixed?—Ryūlóng (竜龙) 00:15, 17 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]
It sounds like you are describing the geta character. This is displayed when the selected font does not have an appropriate glyph to display. While you may have an appropriate font, for whatever reason it may not be selected in all cases. Can you elaborate more on the cases when it does not display correctly? Bendono (talk) 11:44, 17 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]
I'm on a tight budget, but have this computer with some old virus protection; Webroot and Trend Micro Antirus, each of which expired about a year ago, and a McAfee Security Center. I was wondering if there were good free anti-virus problems which can also get rid of viruses, or if not, which one would be best to renew? I thikn the McAfee is current. Thanks.209.244.187.155 (talk) 00:16, 17 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]
Well that can be a loaded question, everyone has their own points of view. You may want to read 2 wiki articles: List of antivirus software, and Anti-Virus. AVG, Avira (sp), and Avast seem to do well in tests for free AV software, I like Nod32, and Norton has made some very good improvements lately. For a comparison of products, you can visit: AV-Comparatives. While it's easy for every editor to provide their favorite solution, it's probably best for you to make a decision based on your own needs, and preferences. All have good points, and all have short-comings. To be honest, you'll probably see that McAfee is struggling at this time for various reasons, but again, it's a choice you should make after some research. I personally like AVG, and NOD32, but my opinion doesn't mean any more than anyone else's either. Best of luck. Ched (talk) 00:48, 17 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]
Actually, I have AVG on most of my computers (NOD32 on 1), and I agree with the first part. But it appears from all I've read, that Norton has made some very good strides to combat those very resource issues with it's newest 2009 version. Granted, 2006 -2007/8 was a real ahhh... let's use the phrase (less than desirable). I can't say I've tried 2009, but most of the comparisons I've read say it has improved a lot with their latest release. Ched (talk) 07:48, 17 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]
I think you have a common issue with some older versions of XP when they're reinstalled. Microsoft has a solution on their knowledge base (try clicking the "help" link when the error comes up), although I can't find the link offhand right now. The solution though is to add the windows update website (the secure one) to your "trusted" list in internet explorers. I don't remember the address for sure, but try adding https://windowsupdate.microsoft.com. LH (talk) 09:57, 17 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]
What's with the catch on the end of the video card slots (AGP/PCIe)? What is its purpose? Anyone have a good suggestion on how to remove the card while holding only its edge to prevent static discharge and at the same time pulling out the catch?121.72.172.186 (talk) 09:45, 17 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]
Its purpose is to ensure that the card doesn't move and to press it in properly. I don't really have suggestions, but note that there's no reason to get paranoid about static discharges. As long as you ground yourself before touching the components, you're going to be fine. Or if you're worried, you can always get a ground bracelet. -- Captain Disdain (talk) 14:44, 17 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]
Removing power plugs?
Sometimes the power plug for old style(IDE) hard drives and CD drives are on really tight. Anyone have a good method of removing them without damaging the hardware or hurting themselves? 121.72.172.186 (talk) 09:47, 17 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]
Rocking back and forth is the method I usually use, although a pair of pliers might work well too. You should unplug the CPU from the wall before attempting any of these too. LH (talk) 09:52, 17 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]
My goodness and I thought I was the only one with that problem. Pulling out the IDE cable first helps, as that gives you more 'leverage' to tweak the plug to the left and right (not up and down, that might break something). Pliers works too... with care. Sandman30s (talk) 22:09, 17 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]
I have never heard of the font "Ariel" – you are probably referring to Arial. I do not know what you mean by "smaller", for every (vector) font can be used in any size (at least almost). Perhaps you are looking for a monospaced font that is readable in small sizes (many free fonts are very hard to read already at 10 pt). I would recommend Courier New, Lucida Console, and - above all other - DejaVu Sans Mono which is free and supports a big part of Unicode. --Andreas Rejbrand (talk) 15:03, 17 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]
Yeah, I meant Arial. :-p Silly typo. And it seems that at an equivalent size courier new would be displayed larger than Arial. Certainly when tested here at least:
OK, now I understand what you mean. The fact that the letters of two different fonts will have unequal sizes even though they are the same "size" can be a difficulty in many software development situations. (The last time I encountered the problem was only a few weaks ago, when I wrote a text editor with a "Unicode fallback" mechanism.) --Andreas Rejbrand (talk) 15:37, 17 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]
I've got a backup set, made in Windows Backup. It's on 2 DLT tapes. The second tape, with the saved index, is missing. Is there any way to restore data from the first DLT with no index? When I try the basic restore, it reads to the end of the tape, then asks for the second tape. As that one is missing, all I can do is abort the restore. Any help will be appreciated! —Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.62.100.108 (talk) 17:36, 17 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]
Ichat log files
Hey, i have some ichat binary log files with the .ichat extension,that a friend sent me, i can barely read them using an hexadecimal editor which is not comfortable at all, what do you suggest to me to read those files knowing that i'm on XP, and it is hard to do mac emulation on PC ... all i want is to convert them to normal raw text files ... thanks in advance.
196.217.40.159 (talk) 18:39, 17 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]
I did a little searching and found a few programs that might do what you need. The problem, as I'm sure you've found, is that most of them seem to be written for mac. If, however, you have access to a mac (or your friend would do it) you can export the ichat files to a more portable format with some of these programs. If you're lucky though, you might be able to get one of these to compile under XP or linux. I have not used any of these programs myself, and I can't vouch for their safety or how well they work, but you might want to check them out.
IMlogconverter - [4] On Sourceforge. Convert between different Instant Messenger chat log formats. Supports reading old-style Gaim and Poisoned logs. Supports writing iChat v3.0+ logs.
iChatExporter [5] extends functionality in iChat so you can export any real-time or saved chat conversation into a text file
ichatexporter - A chat file to text exporter for Apple iChat.
I don't know the ichat format well enough to know if this will work, but you can try to stip out all the non printable characters and see if that leaves you with distinguishable text. For instance, using this command from any *nix shell might work: cat ichatfile.ichat | strings > ./ichatfile.txt
It probably means that the wire strands inside the cables are frayed so that the wire is cut, and when you mess with cable, the ends come into contact with each other again. Typically, this happens when a cable has been bent a lot over time or gets stuck somewhere (jammed between a desk and a wall, for example). Alternatively, but more unlikely, it's also possible that the problem is in the connector on your computer (or CD player, or whatever) or speakers that the cable plugs into -- oxidation, for example, can cause that to occur over time -- and again, when you tweak the cable, you get a contact going. -- Captain Disdain (talk) 18:51, 17 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]
I want to mod my new xbox 360 to play backup/burned games. I've tried to do a little research, but I'm having a difficult time finding any good tutorials. Could someone of knowledge explain it to me, or give me a link to a "noob-proof" tutorial? I've gathered that I'll need to flash the dvd player's optical drive with ixtreme 1.5...but that's about all I know at this time. Thanks for any help and any links! --71.98.10.217 (talk) 22:15, 17 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]
—Noah 23:02, 11 January 2009 (UTC)
Resolved
Please do your own homework.
