Wikipedia:Reference desk/Computing

Welcome to the computing section
of the Wikipedia reference desk.

skip to bottom

Select a section:

• Computing
• Entertainment
• Humanities
• Language
• Mathematics
• Science
• Miscellaneous
• Archives

Want a faster answer?

Main page: Help searching Wikipedia

   

How can I get my question answered?

• Select the section of the desk that best fits the general topic of your question (see the navigation column to the right).
• Post your question to only one section, providing a short header that gives the topic of your question.
• Type '~~~~' (that is, four tilde characters) at the end – this signs and dates your contribution so we know who wrote what and when.
• Don't post personal contact information – it will be removed. Any answers will be provided here.
• Please be as specific as possible, and include all relevant context – the usefulness of answers may depend on the context.
• Note:
  • We don't answer (and may remove) questions that require medical diagnosis or legal advice.
  • We don't answer requests for opinions, predictions or debate.
  • We don't do your homework for you, though we'll help you past the stuck point.
  • We don't conduct original research or provide a free source of ideas, but we'll help you find information you need.

Ready? Ask a new question!

How do I answer a question?

Main page: Wikipedia:Reference desk/Guidelines

• 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.

See also:

• Teahouse
• Help desk
• Village pump
• Help manual

January 23

3rd Generation iPod Nano

I own a black 8 GB third-generation iPod Nano. It's about a year and a quarter old. It often freezes up. Occasionally, it will not turn on, or freeze at the screen saver, where it shows the time, and battery level(that's what is happening now). This has been happening for a while, and I am now sick of it. Thanks in advance, Genius101^Guestbook 00:28, 23 January 2009 (UTC)

Okay. Do you have a question? Supposing that it's just "how do I fix this?", I suggest you try a reset. If that doesn't do the trick, I don't think you have many options besides contacting Apple's support -- unfortunately, iPods aren't very user-serviceable devices. -- Captain Disdain (talk) 01:17, 23 January 2009 (UTC)

This has been happening with every generation since the original, and there's really no way to fix it. You just wait for it to run out of battery (that means don't plug it in to charge it), then you just plug it into your comp, wait for it to charge, and it's fixed. Yay. flaminglawyer^c 02:23, 23 January 2009 (UTC)

Okay, thanks, I tried the reset, and..tada! My question was "how the heck do I fix this?" Thanks, Genius101^Guestbook 16:54, 24 January 2009 (UTC)

Is the battery really the problem??

I've got a several-year-old (meaning, out-of-support) Dell 8300 (WinXP SP2), which apparently has a battery of some type in it. Over the holiday break, I powered my system down at the surge protector, and it stayed off for about 15 days. During startup, I got a "system battery is low" message, but bootup completed successfully -- except that the system no longer knew what time it was :-).

Since then (and after manually resetting the clock), I now get a one-line message at bootup: Press F1 to continue, or F2 to enter Setup. Continuing seems to work fine; entering setup, doing nothing, and exiting also seems to work fine. I assume that the battery eventually recharged, as there are no more messages about it.

What else happened, and how do I make that message go away?

P.S. Googling for "System Battery is low" gives a plethora of horror stories. I am certainly hoping that I don't *really* have a battery problem!

--DaHorsesMouth (talk) 04:44, 23 January 2009 (UTC)

Your experience is consistent with a CMOS battery failure. The only way to resolve the problem is to replace the small 'coin' battery on the motherboard. This is generally a relatively simple procedure, but I wouldn't recommend attempting it if you don't feel comfortable doing so. Nearly any computer repair business should be able to replace it for a reasonable charge (less than an hour of work). Alternatively, you can simply press F1 to continue each boot. -- 74.137.108.115 (talk) 05:06, 23 January 2009 (UTC)

It is a simple procedure and will take 1 minute, tops. (Assuming the CMOS battery is the problem and your computer uses a standard battery.) 121.72.195.132 (talk) 10:38, 25 January 2009 (UTC)

As far as I know, CMOS batteries are alkaline and do not "recharge". As long as the AC power is plugged in, it can use a small amount of power from that to preserve the CMOS settings (like the time), even if the battery doesn't work, so that's why you haven't seen the time get reset again since. But if you unplug the AC power again, the settings will be lost again. --131.179.33.138 (talk) 05:23, 23 January 2009 (UTC)

Linking via an image

On my Wiki, I want to place an image called Image:Gofaffiliateimage.png and insert the relevant code so that, when someone clicks on the image, it links them to an external website. Is there a way to do that? --Ye Olde Luke (talk) 05:17, 23 January 2009 (UTC)

Something close can be accomplished using layers. Essentially, you place a "link" layer on top of an "image" layer, with the result that clicking on the image actually triggers the link instead. Here's an example:

    

<div class="plainlinks" style="position: relative; width: 128px; height: 128px; overflow: hidden">
<div style="position: absolute; top: 0px; left: 0px; font-size: 128px; overflow: hidden; line-height: 128px; z-index: 3">
[http://en.wikipedia.org/ <span title="Visit Wikipedia!">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</span>]</div>
<div style="position: absolute; top: 0px; left: 0px; z-index: 2">[[Image:Wikipedia-logo.png|128px|Visit Wikipedia!]]</div>
</div>

The code I butchered for this example originally came from Malcolm's userspace. -- 74.137.108.115 (talk) 11:31, 23 January 2009 (UTC)

• Here's an example using the ImageMap extension:

<imagemap> File:Bad Title Example.png|150px|Alt text here default [[Main Page|Title text here]] </imagemap>	Alt text here
<imagemap> File:Bad Title Example.png|150px|Alt text here default [[Main Page|Title text here]] desc none </imagemap>	Alt text here

—AlanBarrett (talk) 17:51, 23 January 2009 (UTC)

Thanks AlanBarrett and 74.137.108.115! I've decided to use 74's since Alan's only seems to work with internal links. One last question, how do you make the image either 1) stay on the same line as the text, or 2) move to the center of the line it's on? 70.179.52.204 (talk) 00:12, 24 January 2009 (UTC)

You've got several options:

    

• Option 1: add "float:right" or "float:left" to the outer div (it'll appear on the same lines as the text)

• Option 2: add "margin:auto" to the outer div (it'll appear centered in its container; IE may not honor this)

    

Option 3: wrap the whole

thing in a wiki table

(it'll appear wherever you put it in the table)

I'm sure there are other ways to position it as well, but hopefully one of these will work for you. -- 74.137.108.115 (talk) 01:02, 24 January 2009 (UTC)

Windows Live OneCare back up issues

I ran the regularly scheduled Windows Live OneCare tune-up on my computer (I use Windows XP SP3), and when I tried to back up my files on DVD with a disc I had already used from previous back ups, it got rejected with a message telling me the data was corrupted and to enter a blank disc, which I did. That disc also got rejected for being "corrupted", so I inserted another blank disc. Same deal. The error message told me I should try another brand of DVDs for back ups, but the brand I've been using (Memorex) has been working fine for every back-up I've ever had until now. I've had previous discs rejected for being corrupt, but inserting a brand new disc usually solved the problem, only not this time. What's the deal? --Crackthewhip775 (talk) 06:25, 23 January 2009 (UTC)

I'd say it's your DVD drive. It probably always was borderline at being able to write to DVDs, such that sometimes it worked and sometimes it didn't. It sounds like it just got a bit worse, and now they don't work at all, at least not that brand. It is possible that another brand will work. If not, you may need to replace your DVD drive. StuRat (talk) 16:20, 23 January 2009 (UTC)

laptop and notebook

To concerned

Please provide me details regarding difference of laptop and notebook both technically and commercial viewpoints with application basis.

Im interested in buying one and have limited domestic personal use only.Please guide. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Raje786 (talk • contribs) 10:22, 23 January 2009 (UTC)

Really the words "laptop" and "notebook" mean the same thing. Mimetic Polyalloy (talk) 10:31, 23 January 2009 (UTC)

I suggest you compare Laptop and Netbook. manya (talk) 10:42, 23 January 2009 (UTC)

Internet Explorer version 8

Hello Dears!I have currently downloaded Internet Explorer version 8.but i cant install it ,all the steps go just untouch.Yes i have Net connection active .It saya could not install and restart your computer and see a troubleshooting shortcut on desktop.Any help please! —Preceding unsigned comment added by 119.154.30.31 (talk) 10:47, 23 January 2009 (UTC)

What operating system do you have ? Windows XP ? StuRat (talk) 16:14, 23 January 2009 (UTC)

I don't mean to sound snotty, but did you restart your computer and see the troubleshooting shortcut on the desktop? Livewireo (talk) 20:01, 23 January 2009 (UTC)

Keyboard mapping.

Hello.

the 'r' and '1' keys on my laptop are broken. Is there and option in Windows, and/or a program I can download, that I can use to assign o1her keys (like '[' and ']')for these keys, so I can press 1hem instead of 1he broken ones?

thanks a lot in advance!220.237.140.75 (talk) 11:00, 23 January 2009 (UTC)

I've had success remapping keys with KeyTweak. Still, if you do much typing you might want to consider replacing your keyboard--they generally aren't *that* expensive. -- 74.137.108.115 (talk) 11:54, 23 January 2009 (UTC)

I agree with replacing the keyboard, they only cost around $20 for a basic one. However, you might want to try cleaning yours first. Turn it upside down over a trash can and shake it vigorously to dislodge any crumbs. If that doesn't work, pry the bad keys off, clean off anything stuck underneath, then replace them. If the keys still don't work, replace it. StuRat (talk) 16:12, 23 January 2009 (UTC)

A replacement laptop keyboard will probably cost more than $20 and require some disassembly of the laptop for install. If you generally don't move your laptop then an external keyboard (for $20) would be an option. I would not recommend prying keys off a laptop keyboard--they tend to be attached differently than stand-alone keyboards, and there is the potential for damage to the screen if the keys are seriously messed up. -- 74.137.108.115 (talk) 16:40, 23 January 2009 (UTC)

Damage to the screen from prying on keys ? StuRat (talk) 17:29, 23 January 2009 (UTC)

There's generally not a lot of space between the keyboard and screen when the screen is closed; a botched attempt to remove the broken keys could leave something sticking up which would impact the screen. It doesn't take too much force concentrated in a small area to crack an LCD panel. (I admit it isn't all that likely, but I've seen the results of closing a laptop screen on a pen before.) -- 74.137.108.115 (talk) 17:51, 23 January 2009 (UTC)

I did miss that it was a laptop, but would agree with the idea of an external keyboard, in that case. StuRat (talk) 17:26, 23 January 2009 (UTC)

I have actually found that laptop keyboards are actually cheaper than many desktop keyboards. Dell, for example, charges around $11-$16 for laptop keyboard replacements. Changing the keyboard is a little more complicated, of course... gnfnrf (talk) 05:38, 28 January 2009 (UTC)

Your "T" key shouldn't buy any green bananas, either! --Sean 12:58, 23 January 2009 (UTC)

Incidentally, by "broken keys", I had assumed the keys were intact, but just didn't work. If you meant the keys are cracked or missing, you might want to remove some less-often-used keys and replace the one that are broken. If you have any duplicate keys of the same size, like an <ALT> on either side of the keyboard, that might be a good choice. StuRat (talk) 15:09, 24 January 2009 (UTC)

I've had a lot of luck fixing jammed up keys using electronic 'switch cleaner' (which you can get from any decent electronics store). However, keyboards are amazingly cheap and the switch cleaner may very well not work and probably costs more than half what a new keyboard would cost. I have switch cleaner around for other purposes - and the keyboards I love aren't made anymore...so I have to fix them. SteveBaker (talk) 03:25, 25 January 2009 (UTC)

Buckling spring? Seriously though, I would be hesitant to recommend applying chemicals to a laptop keyboard without removing it from the laptop first. -- 74.137.108.115 (talk) 04:03, 25 January 2009 (UTC)

Switch cleaner is OK though - it's specifically designed for unsticking switches close to fancy electronics. It evaporates without messing up your electronics. I've used it (with mixed success) on several laptops - while it doesn't always fix the keyboard - I've never known it to mess up the electronics. Also, you have a really fine 'straw' that you poke right into the switch to spray through (you have to remove the keycap first) - so the stuff only goes exactly where you squirt it. SteveBaker (talk) 07:13, 25 January 2009 (UTC)

There's something snake-oil-ish about a product that claims to "chemically dissolve and quickly clean away oil, grease, dust and atmospheric contaminants, then evaporate to leave a thin protective lubricant." [1] Unless science has been recently rewritten, all of that gunk has to go somewhere, and anything strong enough to vaporize contaminants probably wouldn't be very safe on anything else. In actuality, I suspect that the gunk ends up redeposited wherever the cleaner evaporates, but as long as it's ouside the switch the "cleaning" would be a technical success. -- 74.137.108.115 (talk) 19:46, 25 January 2009 (UTC)

Dial Tone but no Internet

If I have a phone dial tone, but my router shows 0 up and downstream speed, what does this signify about my connection? I'm in the UK. 82.111.24.28 (talk) 12:00, 23 January 2009 (UTC)

The dial tone is unrelated to ADSL (which I'll randomly assume you have). The ADSL modem's signal is a high pitched screech at a low volume; the dial tone can drown it out. Keep the receiver off the hook for a couple of minutes; the phone center might stop giving the dial tone after a while and you'll hear the modem. Or dial one digit on the phone and (at least where I live) the dial tone shuts up.

I doubt we can diagnose the problem over the Internet. Unplug and re-plug all the wires (sounds trivial advice, but a loose connector is so often the problem.) Then call your Internet service provider's tech support. 88.114.222.252 (talk) 13:22, 23 January 2009 (UTC)

I wouldn't say they're totally unrelated. If you have no dial tone, you probably have no Internet either. That's a relationship. StuRat (talk) 16:07, 23 January 2009 (UTC)

Some things you can try: Reboot your modem/router; move the modem's connection to another phone socket; try a different ADSL filter; check the rest of the wiring (eg. make sure the ethernet cable is still pluggesd in, check for damaged cables, etc.); phone your ISP to find out their current service status; phone BT and ask if there's a problem with your line; have you paid your bill? Astronaut (talk) 13:51, 23 January 2009 (UTC)

Also reboot your computer, both before and after you try the steps above. If something like moving to another socket doesn't work, then move back to the original, as you could otherwise end up with two simultaneous probs, which is far more difficult to diagnose. StuRat (talk) 17:20, 23 January 2009 (UTC)

All links

I need a website or program that can list all the links contained within a website, including all the images urls, download files etc. I don't want to download the links i simply want them listed in a very simple way to i can copy them into a notepad file for later. thank you for your help. jemaru —Preceding unsigned comment added by 194.80.240.66 (talk) 12:45, 23 January 2009 (UTC)

By the look of it, http://www.webmaster-toolkit.com/link-extractor.shtml can do that (separately for links to other webpages, and src links suchs as images) Rawling4851 13:02, 23 January 2009 (UTC)

thanks. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 194.80.240.66 (talk) 15:58, 23 January 2009 (UTC)

I use the GNU 'wget' program - it has all sorts of options to let you tweak how much recursion you want - retries for flakey servers - the ability to 'pretend' to be InternetExplorer, etc...use the '--spider' option to stop it from actually doing the downloads. SteveBaker (talk) 03:15, 25 January 2009 (UTC)

Browser addon visual update checker

Does anybody know of a browser tool (or any tool actually) that can check for updates visually? For example, it would alert you when a video changed, or when something changed in a flash applet. Obviously the window has to be open, but I'm talking about firefox tabs here, so it would probably be in the background (hence the need for an alert). It's not so much that it has to respond to visual changes, just that the contents of this flash applet are updated off site, and the flash applet itself doesn't change, so I can't think of any other way to verify when it changes. Thanks in advance! 210.254.117.186 (talk) 13:06, 23 January 2009 (UTC)

Update Scanner will check the page contents. It won't check the actual videos, and doing that would be rather a lot of effort as it would have to download each video you wished to check, them run some sort of comparison of them. Doing that many times would not be worth just checking manually. But when the videos are updated wouldn't there be a little text message update on whatever website, saying there is a new video or whatever? It could check for that. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 82.43.88.87 (talk) 21:23, 23 January 2009 (UTC)

If you only want to ensure that you have the most recent version, Opera supports automatic page reloading based on a configurable delay, which likely means there is a Firefox plugin for the same functionality somewhere. (Automatic reloading can be quite handy when a webmail provider decides to implement a 5 minute inactivity timeout.) -- 74.137.108.115 (talk) 01:38, 24 January 2009 (UTC)

Yeah the point here is that the images are streamed through flash, so there is probably no actual change in the page contents, at least not that I can find. Tabplus in Firefox has a simple page reload function (like opera), but that doesn't help. The tabs are left open so it shouldn't have to download the applet or anything, I just can't think of any other way this would be possible if not visually. 210.254.117.186 (talk) 02:49, 25 January 2009 (UTC)

The kind of notification your asking about *could* be added to the source code of the flash applet. But there isn't anything you can do on the browser side to detect updates without performing a request. How does the flash applet know which images to show? Either a) they are coded into the applet, b) they are coded into the page and passed to the applet, or c) information is available at a specific location where the applet knows to look. In the first two instances the applet and the page must be reloaded respectively (which in practice means a page reload). In the third case, you could theoretically find the address where the image information is posted and open *that* in a seperate browser tab to monitor for changes. But, there is no way to know if a file on the internet has been changed without sending a request in one form or another--the visual update feature you're describing would have to send requests for content and filter those against the prior page, making it essentially an auto-reload with change tracking. Which is actually an interesting idea... it seems like there are certainly situations where such a feature would be helpful (tracking price updates, comments on Wikipedia, or modifications to a candidate's platform). Anyway, reloading the page should be a low-cost operation if the contents have not changed (thanks to caching); why is that unacceptable? -- 74.137.108.115 (talk) 03:48, 25 January 2009 (UTC)

Well the flash applet shows an image when there is no activity, and it shows a (streamed video) once in a while. In the flash code it (presumably) checks for a video feed, and if it doesn't find one, shows an image. Reloading the page won't show any difference in code, I don't think. 210.254.117.186 (talk) 10:38, 27 January 2009 (UTC)

better crash course

I'm planning to create a niche startup company in bioinformatics. However, I have little knowledge in programming and web design. I found inexpensive crash courses that might help me but I have no idea which would be better. The criteria for choosing which is the better course are:

1. Money spent on applications (legally downloadable programs are preferred, I don't like to pay royalties :))
2. Target flagship program (I'm still researching the demands of the bioinfo world) for my startup would probably be online with the user typing variables (genetic code, amino acid sequence) while the program produces a text based output.
3. Skills earned should be on the demand on various computer jobs just in case my future start-up folds.

The courses are:

• $200 (50 hours) Database programming: visual basic, C++, C#

• $170 (40 hours) Webpage development: HTML w/ CSS, JAva Script plus ASP.NET or PHP

--Lenticel ^(talk) 15:49, 23 January 2009 (UTC)

I would expect you'd want to set up a web site before setting up a database, so I'd think you'd take that class first. StuRat (talk) 16:02, 23 January 2009 (UTC)

HTML/CSS and JavaScript won't need anything more than a simple webbrowser. However, the second portion either requires you to get a copy of IIS for ASP.NET (which costs money past the evaluation period), or Apache for the PHP. For Database programming, it looks like you'll need a copy of Microsoft Visual Studio, but the IDE limits interaction to SQL Server Express and Microsoft Access. Overall, you won't have to pay for additional software for Database programming, but you'll need to get the IIS Evaluation just as soon as you start the ASP.NET section. --Sigma 7 (talk) 17:27, 23 January 2009 (UTC)

Thanks for your advice.--Lenticel ^(talk) 04:51, 25 January 2009 (UTC)

huawei c5330 virgin mobile

how to connect net to pc from huawei c5330 virgin mobile —Preceding unsigned comment added by 117.200.0.51 (talk) 15:54, 23 January 2009 (UTC)

adblockplus

how can i disable adblock plus on only one website? i want it to work everywhere else except for on never at all on one website. thanks you, sorry if i asked more questions than is allowed. jemaru —Preceding unsigned comment added by 194.80.240.66 (talk) 15:59, 23 January 2009 (UTC)

I haven't tried this yet but it might work. Go to the website that you want to disable Adblockplus. Click on the drop-down list next to the ABP icon. You should find options that tells "disable on (site name)" and "Disable on this page only". Click "disable on (site name)". See if it works.--Lenticel ^(talk) 16:16, 23 January 2009 (UTC)

Yep, that's definitely the right thing to be doing - the icon should go green. Just remember to refresh to see the effects (i.e. the "ads"). - Jarry1250 ^{(t, c)} 18:03, 23 January 2009 (UTC)

However, this method will only work for addresses below the main domain you select as an exemption. For example, disabling Adblockplus on wikipedia.org will not disable it on en.wikipedia.org or fr.wikipedia.org etc etc. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 82.43.88.87 (talk) 20:05, 23 January 2009 (UTC)

It merely requires a little tweaking to ensure complete (e.g. Wikipedia) exemption. If you exempt en.wikipedia.org and want fr, de and so on also to be exempted, click on the arrow again and select "Preferences". On the dialogue that comes up , you should see a line beginning @@| then a web address (eg. @@|http://en.wikipedia.org/ ). To make the exemption more flexible, change any areas where difference might occur to an asterisk. Mine ends up as @@|http*://*.wikipedia.org/ - thus working on all versions and security levels of Wikipedia. Hope that helps! - Jarry1250 ^{(t, c)} 20:39, 23 January 2009 (UTC)

Hey awesome! Thanks Jarry1250 —Preceding unsigned comment added by 82.43.88.87 (talk) 21:52, 23 January 2009 (UTC)

Java Pics

In java, is there a way to import a bitmap as an array of numbers, and save an array as a bitmap? Black Carrot (talk) 16:41, 23 January 2009 (UTC)

It's possible. java.awt.image.BufferedImage has two methods, getRGB and setRGB that allow using an array for input or output. They also work for individual pixels if you prefer (but importing and exporting is faster using the array version.) --Sigma 7 (talk) 17:18, 23 January 2009 (UTC)

I looked up some tutorials on BufferedImages and ImageIO yesterday, but I can't get it to work. Could you post or point me to some functioning code? Black Carrot (talk) 18:15, 24 January 2009 (UTC)

Why not post some simple code (perhaps only the contents of a lone main() without imports or declarations for the class and method) and explain what you expected it to do and what it did instead? --Tardis (talk) 16:32, 26 January 2009 (UTC)

BufferedImage pic = ImageIO.read(new File("inputfile.bmp"));
int width = pic.getWidth();
int height = pic.getHeight();
image = new int[height][width];
for(int r=0; r<height; r++)
	for(int c=0; c<width; c++)
		image[r][c] = pic.getRGB(c,r)+16777216;

//area for editing image

for(int r=0; r<height; r++)
	for(int c=0; c<width; c++)
		pic.setRGB(c,r,image[r][c]-16777216);
ImageIO.write(pic, "bmp", new File("outputfile.bmp"));

It gives a null pointer exception early on, and careful checking shows that it reads in an entirely empty file (0 bytes). It seems to be working fine with jpg and png, so I'm using those right now, but it would be nice to be able to use bitmap. Black Carrot (talk) 17:21, 26 January 2009 (UTC)

[I reformatted your code.] Code much like that works for me; what do you mean by "reads in an entirely empty file"? If you're getting a NullPointerException, that implies that the read() call can't find a filter that recognizes your input. That happens to me if I give it an empty bitmap file, as you might be doing. Also, you really don't want to add/subtract 16777216; what you're really doing is masking off the alpha field and then supplying an alpha value of "opaque", so you want pic.getRGB(c,r)&0xFFFFFF and image[r][c]|0xFF000000. --Tardis (talk) 19:33, 26 January 2009 (UTC)

The error occurs at the "pic.getWidth()" line. When I remove everything except the ImageIO.read and ImageIO.write lines, it complains during the ImageIO.write line that "im = null", and similar experiments have caused it to save the destination file as an empty file with zero bites. How can I get a filter that will recognize it? For instance, I just tried it on the image here [2], and got the same result. What do the ampersand and vertical bar represent in your last sentence? Black Carrot (talk) 01:50, 27 January 2009 (UTC)

What is im? We're not (yet) interested in the destination file, because your code doesn't even read anything in correctly. The only way I can get a NullPointerException is by giving it an input file of 0 bytes; perhaps you accidentally truncated your input file by specifying it as the output file at some point? The JavaDoc for javax.imageio specifically promises that BMP is supported out of the box, so surely that's not the issue. My code (which follows) has no trouble with the image you linked.

final BufferedImage pic = ImageIO.read(new File(args[0]));
final int width = pic.getWidth(),height = pic.getHeight();
for(int r=0;r<height;++r)
  for(int c=0;c<width;++c)
    pic.setRGB(c,r,pic.getRGB(c,r)^0xFFFFFF);
ImageIO.write(pic, "bmp", new File(args[1]));

(It toggles every RGB bit in the image, just to do something interesting.) Finally, the & and | represent bitwise AND and OR respectively; they're used to operate on the alpha channel. (The channel is trivial, since bitmaps do not support transparency.) --Tardis (talk) 18:27, 27 January 2009 (UTC)

When I paste in your code and run it, it gives me an ArrayIndexOutOfBoundsException on the first line. When I replace args[0] and args[1] with an input and output file, it gives me a NullPointerException on the second line. Black Carrot (talk) 15:23, 28 January 2009 (UTC)

(The ArrayIndexOutOfBoundsException is because you ran it with no arguments; my code expects to be run as java ClassName input.bmp output.bmp.) It sounds like you have a broken (or perhaps old) Java installation, or maybe an incomplete one (I don't know if GNU Classpath happens to support BMP, for instance). What do you have, and can you upgrade it? --Tardis (talk) 18:48, 28 January 2009 (UTC)

I got this version of Java from my CS teacher in high school about four or five years ago. I'm using JCreator 2.5 LE (version 2.5 build 8) according to its info screen. I don't know if there's anything missing, it's whatever she handed us. Is there a way to fix it for free? Black Carrot (talk) 21:40, 28 January 2009 (UTC)

JCreator is an IDE, not a version of Java. I say that not to be pedantic, but because you need to know what to upgrade: according to its FAQ, it makes use of an installation of the standard Sun JDK. There are other implementations of Java (some mentioned in that article), but that one is the most standard and almost surely what you want. It may be the case that you have to upgrade JCreator as well; the "LE" versions appear to be freeware. There are in fact many free source code editors, some of which are not merely freeware but free software. --Tardis (talk) 16:05, 29 January 2009 (UTC)

why is fanboi spelled with an i

why is fanboi spelled with an i if it is fanboy —Preceding unsigned comment added by 82.120.227.136 (talk) 19:03, 23 January 2009 (UTC)

See Meme. Also, this is more suitable for the Wikipedia:Reference desk/Language. --Sigma 7 (talk) 19:06, 23 January 2009 (UTC)

The spelling with the "i" is typically used when implying the fanboy is annoying or immature. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 82.43.88.87 (talk) 20:02, 23 January 2009 (UTC)

There are non-annoying, mature fanboys? Where? SteveBaker (talk) 03:04, 25 January 2009 (UTC)

See also Sk8er Boi. Where's the Avril troll when you need him? -- Coneslayer (talk) 17:48, 27 January 2009 (UTC)

Gradients on Inkscape (or GIMP)

How is it possible to make a gradient on a photograph on Inkscape or GIMP? I can do it with 'drawn' objects, but I have not been able to do it with photographs. I found some websites with tutorials, but the best information I got told me to 'select' the object, which I am unable to do. I am using Inkscape Ver.0.46 and GIMP Ver.2.6.3. Can anyone help? If possible, a step-by-step walk-through would be very much appreciated.--KageTora (talk) 21:01, 23 January 2009 (UTC)

In inkscape: first add the photo, then draw another rectangle. Set a gradient in the rectangle, then set the alpha of the rectangle to (e.g.) 50%.Resize the rectangle to be the same as the photo, and drag it over the rectangle. Mimetic Polyalloy (talk) 22:07, 23 January 2009 (UTC)

Thanks, so far so good, until 'setting the alpha'. Now, how do I do that? Sorry to be a pain.--KageTora (talk) 22:18, 23 January 2009 (UTC)

In its "fill and stroke" sheet, use the "opacity" slider. 87.113.74.22 (talk) 23:05, 23 January 2009 (UTC)

Ah! Now it becomes clear! Thanks, both of you!--KageTora (talk) 23:13, 23 January 2009 (UTC)

There are a million ways to do it in GIMP - but I'd do this:

1. Make sure the image is not an 'indexed' image (go to Image/Mode and make sure that 'RGB' is checked) Unless you are dealing with '.GIF' images - it'll probably be in RGB anyway - so you can skip this step.
2. Right-click on the image and in the popup menu, select the "Select/All" option (this selects the entire image).
3. Click on the gradient tool - double-click to get the options dialog if you need it.
4. Now, in the image: Click where you want the gradient to start - hold the mouse button down and drag to indicate the direction and end of the gradient. Release the mouse button.
5. Voila!

SteveBaker (talk) 03:03, 25 January 2009 (UTC)

Thanks, Steve, but that doesn't work. It just covers the picture with a half-colour-half-white piece of paper.--KageTora (talk) 06:25, 25 January 2009 (UTC)

Could you be MUCH more specific about what you want? From your question, it seemed that you got exactly what you asked for. If you pick (for example) the "FG to transparent" gradient and set the Foreground color too (say) Red - then you'll end up with an image that fades from solid red to the colors in your photograph. Is that not what you want? SteveBaker (talk) 07:07, 25 January 2009 (UTC)

You need to edit the gradient. One stop should be white and alpha should be 100% the other stop should be white and alpha at 0% . Alternatively you could do it in GIMP by adding a a layer mask to the image and then putting a black to to white gradient on the layer mask. The image will be opaque when the mask is white and transparent when the mask is black.(If you need detailed step by step instructions on how to do this let me know) Theresa Knott | token threats 06:38, 25 January 2009 (UTC)

How to Disable the Hard Drive Temperature Sensor

Does anyone know how to disable the hard drive temperature sensor on the compaq presario v2000 notebook? Or if that is not possible how to override the overheating fail-safe? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 70.171.16.131 (talk) 21:47, 23 January 2009 (UTC)

The temperature sensor was probably included for a reason; overriding it wouldn't seem to be in your (or your hardware's) best interest. Anyway, this is most likely a BIOS feature, so you might be able to modify/disable it in your BIOS setup. Alternatively, if the sensor is implemented as seperate hardware, you may be able to disconnect it, move it away from the hard drive, or replace it with a circuit that behaves predictably. If it's implemented internally to the hard drive then replacing the hard drive with a model that doesn't support temperature sensing would probably disable it. Again, I don't think any attempt to circumvent the computer's built-in hardware protection is advisable. -- 74.137.108.115 (talk) 01:20, 24 January 2009 (UTC)

So can you please be more specific on what I have to do? My laptop does not allow me to finish installing windows xp because it keeps shutting down at a random times during the installation. I think this might is most likely a temperature sensor error. When I took out the hard drive after trying 10 installations it was much cooler than my normal hard drive and the laptop case was not that hot as well. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 70.171.16.131 (talk) 11:42, 24 January 2009 (UTC)

Are you sure it has anything to do with the hard drive? A good start to diagnose/resolve overheating is to make sure the laptop is on a hard surface with proper ventilation, and away from any other heat sources. Next, check that all the ventilation fans are functional and free of dust and debris. A spray of compressed air can help remove accumulated particles. You might also try removing the battery (charging it produces heat) or the power cord (running on battery power usually reduces power consumption). If the computer is still overheating at this point, more invasive procedures may be necessary. This page mentions the lack of thermal paste can lead to CPU overtemp conditions. Finally, there is the possibility that the system shutdowns could be caused by some factor other than overheating (bad power supply, loose screw inside the case, etc.). -- 74.137.108.115 (talk) 13:45, 24 January 2009 (UTC)

My laptop can start and does not shut down with my current windows xp / hard drive. But when I try to install windows xp on a different hard drive the laptop shuts down at various stages of the installation. So the problem is with the most likely with the hard drive temperature being interpreted incorrectly by the bios. The new hard drive is much cooler than my current hard drive when its taken out of the laptop. Also I am able to install applications and do computationally intensive tasks on my laptop with the old hard drive for long periods without it shutting down. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 70.171.16.131 (talk) 15:29, 24 January 2009 (UTC)

That certainly makes it sound like the new hard drive is at fault. SMART is a drive feature that supplies information on expected failures--including in some cases temperature data. If your BIOS supports disabling SMART you might try that. Otherwise, I would recommend you contact the drive's manufacturer for support. -- 74.137.108.115 (talk) 18:55, 24 January 2009 (UTC)

location of Mac OSX *.keylayout file

New keyboards can be added to Mac OSX by dragging an XML based file to the "Keyboard Layouts" folder. They end in the extension ".keylayout". Is it possible to find where it keeps the equivalent files for the default installed ones? My name is anetta (talk) 22:25, 23 January 2009 (UTC)

Well, if you have dragged it to the 'Keyboard Layouts' folder, I would assume it was there. This would be found in one of the two libraries that you will have. One will be in your Home folder, and the other in your Macintosh HD folder. It should be in one of those.--KageTora (talk) 22:52, 23 January 2009 (UTC)

Failing that, use Finder to search for them, by typing in '*.keylayout' (without quotes) as the search term.--KageTora (talk) 22:54, 23 January 2009 (UTC)

Neither of those seem to work out. Both of my "Keyboard Layouts" folders are empty; the search turns up nothing. I don't see them anywhere, which is odd... --98.217.14.211 (talk) 00:48, 24 January 2009 (UTC)

They appear to be in a different format, in /System/Library/Keyboard Layouts/AppleKeyboardLayouts.bundle. It's a "bundle" (aka "package"), which means it's actually a directory but the Finder displays it as a single file. If you want to look inside, right-click on it (or control-click) and select "Show Package Contents". The layouts themselves seem to be in a pair of files named AppleKeyboardLayouts-B.dat and AppleKeyboardLayouts-L.dat.

Just in case you're interested, there are actually 4 different Library folders on Mac OS X:

• The System Library (/System/Library), containing resources that're supplied by the core OS
• The Network Library (/Network/Library), containing resources that're shared by all computers on a network (actually, a Netinfo or LDAP domain) (this is intended to be mounted from a network server) (it's almost never used anymore)
• The Local Library (/Library), containing resources and settings that are installed/configured on a per-computer basis
• The User Library (~/Library), containing resources and settings specific to one particular user

-- Speaker to Lampposts (talk) 06:54, 24 January 2009 (UTC)

Thankyou, it's the Local library. Spotlight doesn't seem to search this folder, and as Speaker to Lampposts rightly says, the pre-installed layouts aren't kept in the folder I asked about. It seems to be exclusively for user added ones. How do I open the *.dat file, even in Windows or Linux? I have seen this [3]. Hopefully, it will be stored in a similar fashion. I tried TextEdit, which makes gibberish.My name is anetta (talk) 12:04, 24 January 2009 (UTC)

Download speed limiter

Hi!

Where can i find an utility to allow me to download (microtorrent) at full speed when i'm the only one to use my network, but to decrease this speed when somebody else on my network is trying to connect to the internet, to allow him to have a decent speed?

Thanks! —Preceding unsigned comment added by 85.5.187.241 (talk) 23:21, 23 January 2009 (UTC)

Adjusting your maximum upload and download speeds should really be a built-in feature of your BitTorrent client, it's such a basic thing. μTorrent, for example, has that functionality, and it's a cinch that it's not the old one. Old one? Only one, I meant to say. -- Captain Disdain (talk) 00:26, 24 January 2009 (UTC)

Or -- and this just occurred to me -- do you mean that it should do that automatically? -- Captain Disdain (talk) 00:27, 24 January 2009 (UTC)

I would also like to be able to make μTorrent do this automatically. At the moment I have to make sure μTorrent is either turned off or manually restricted to slow downloading whenever any of my housemates is using the internet. Algebraist 00:30, 24 January 2009 (UTC)

I think that would be pretty difficult to do. μTorrent really has no easy way of knowing whether someone else is using the same internet connection at the same time. In order to be effective, it wouldn't be enough to be aware of another computer's presence in the network, it would actually have to know whether that computer is actually transferring data at the time and vary its own transfer rate accordingly. -- Captain Disdain (talk) 01:06, 24 January 2009 (UTC)

It should be possible to do that (since I have admin access to the wireless router), but it's well beyond my puny programming skills. Thanks. Algebraist 01:13, 24 January 2009 (UTC)

You're right; you'll want to look for "QoS" (Quality of service) settings which allow you to prioritize non-torrent traffic. If your router doesn't support such settings (and many basic ones do not) you might try DD-WRT; it supports many advanced routing features (including QoS). -- 74.137.108.115 (talk) 01:28, 24 January 2009 (UTC)

It's certainly not impossible, but it'd be very difficult to do it with a program you install on the computer that runs the BitTorrent software. If it's something a router does, that's another story -- or, alternatively, it could be a piece of software that runs on every computer in the network and makes sure that they're all in sync, for example. -- Captain Disdain (talk) 01:51, 24 January 2009 (UTC)

January 24

PPPoE Password

For an unknown reason, my DSL modem (2Wire 2071) stopped working this morning. The error message stated that PPP authentication had failed, and that the username and password were incorrect. It was quite strange, considering I've never had to enter any username or password before, but here it was, all of a sudden this morning. Now the problem is, I have no idea what the username or password might be. I've accessed the modem via browser and found the username, but the password shown was simply "XXXXXXXX", which did not work when I entered the login credentials. I've contacted my ISP to inquire about this problem and if I could reset or retrieve the PPP password, but no luck. So I'm stuck to using dial-up for the time being until I can get this resolved. Any suggestions on how to find out the correct username and/or password? Running Windows Vista if that matters. I appreciate it. Vic93 (t/c) 02:52, 24 January 2009 (UTC)

Your particular modem is also a router. Let me get this straight: You can still log into the modem, but you can't change the PPP password? Or are you locked out of the modem entirely? What did your ISP say, by the way? They should have your PPP password. The password for the router/modem is another story.--K;;m5m k;;m5m (talk) 03:11, 24 January 2009 (UTC)

Usually when I start up my modem, I wait a while until I get a solid green DSL light and a green Internet light and from there, everything's a go. No Internet light or a red light indicates a problem. Open up a browser when there's a red light, there's usually an error message. This time it was that PPP Authentication had failed, as in I couldn't connect to the internet because of the wrong credentials (at least, that's what I think is happening). I can access the modem via web browser, by going to 192.168.0.254. I had tried to change the PPP password, but it seems it still doesn't accept it (still returns the failed PPP authentication error). My ISP pretty much told me to go through the textbook routines (i.e. restart modem, reset modem, check DSL filters) and just ignored the problem. I asked them if I could retrieve the password, but they said that was a separate issue altogether, and they're elevating the case. Sounds like they didn't know what I was talking about. =\ Vic93 (t/c) 17:50, 24 January 2009 (UTC)

Your ISP's tech support is the best place to call (again) for help, but here are some ideas. The PPPoE username and password are possibly the same as the username and password for your ISP e-mail account. (Did you or someone with access to your account recently change or reset the e-mail password?) Since you can access the internet another way, you might try looking on your ISP's website for a way to reset the e-mail password yourself. --Bavi H (talk) 23:05, 24 January 2009 (UTC)

It also, can depend on your ISP, some DSL providers have switch to a Bridge1384 network, and other to a Ethernet network. It is possible, that your ISP has either switched their configuration in there Redback Redback_Networks. Or the config in the modem is set wrong. Nick910 (talk) 00:29, 25 January 2009 (UTC)

Don't know why, don't know how, but it started working again today. Weird. It was probably a problem on their side, I'm guessing. Thanks to everyone who helped though! Vic93 (t/c) 21:00, 25 January 2009 (UTC)

Second natural language of open source

English is clearly the main language used by the FSF, OSI, Linux distro vendors and developers, etc..., but what is the movement's second language? German and Spanish are clearly the primary secondary languages, but Japanese and Italian also seem to be prevelant. --hello, i'm a member | talk to me! 03:42, 24 January 2009 (UTC)

I'd say German, due mainly to the Knoppix distros. StuRat (talk) 06:26, 24 January 2009 (UTC)

You'd think that the Finns should deserve it, but yeah, I agree, it's probably German. Belisarius (talk) 14:51, 25 January 2009 (UTC)

Outlook Web Access security

Hiya. I'm thinking about running OWA, just a couple of quick questions:

1. It always says that when logging out, you should close all open browser windows. Would not doing that (or forcing users to do that) compromise security?
2. Is it possible to monitor access (accounts, times, IP addresses etc.)?
3. Does it have access to the "Outlook" options-menu, for altering signatures etc., or must that be done from the actual computer?

Thanks! ╟─TreasuryTag►contribs─╢ 08:42, 24 January 2009 (UTC)

Regarding 1, I think this is mostly (justified) paranoia about cross-site scripting and cookie-theft.

Regarding 2, this info is available in the server logs, but I don't know of any way for regular users to see that

Regarding 3, OWA has its own settings (which means you need to set the sig again in OWA).

Note, incidentally, that there are virtually two different OWA clients. If you're using IE you get a very full featured (really very nice) client that's a lot like the Outlook client. If you're using another browser like Firefox you get a pretty basic webmail (entirely inferior to Gmail). They're so different that one might as well consider them unrealted programs. Mimetic Polyalloy (talk) 10:15, 24 January 2009 (UTC)

I'd assume 1 actually refers to session cookies, which may hold sensitive data, or even keep you logged in. Whilst logging out should have dealt with these, it seems a reasonable idea to close all windows and hence manually wipe them all. - Jarry1250 ^{(t, c)} 10:45, 24 January 2009 (UTC)

It could also be an attempt to prevent anyone with access to the computer from using the back button to view private communications. Even when properly logged out of the site (cookies and all), back button functionality may display secure content without performing a request to the server (which would be denied due to the logged-out status). Closing all the windows theoretically removes temporary information stored on previous pages (but not cached). -- 74.137.108.115 (talk) 14:02, 24 January 2009 (UTC)

Diode Differences

First off I'm no electrician! I would like to make a very simple box that takes seven 3.5mm stereo connectors and outputs the whole lot to one 3.5mm stereo socket. I tried a quick mock up just using headphone splitters but sound 'leaks' from one device into another causing a drop in volume. I'm assuming that if i use a diode on each of the input terminals I can stop this from happening. A quick look at diodes and there are rectifier, signal, zener, schottky and bidirectional transient voltage ones. Can anyone advise, or even inform if this crackpot scheme will work? thanks Kirk UK —Preceding unsigned comment added by 87.82.79.175 (talk) 09:15, 24 January 2009 (UTC)

First, straight-wire combining multiple outputs can lead to multiple sources attempting to drive the line, and might damage sources that can't handle the conflict. A simple mixer circuit can combine multiple inputs using resistors. A Google search for "audio mixer" will provide any number of projects and products, ranging from the simple resistive combination above to professional audio equipment, allowing you to select according to your application and budget. -- 74.137.108.115 (talk) 14:37, 24 January 2009 (UTC)

The previous advice is good if you really want to combine the 7 signals into one. However, if you just want any one of the 7 signals to pass through at a time, then a switch box would be better, so you can select which of the 7 signals are passed through at any time. StuRat (talk) 15:06, 24 January 2009 (UTC)

I'm more of a digital guy - analog stuff is a bit of a black art for me...but I don't think diodes help because you have A/C signals. Personally - I'd stick a 741 op-amp on each input and use a simple resistive mixer to mix the outputs of the amplifiers together. The amplifier chips should stop the signal from one input being pushed back into the other - and the amps can be adjusted to give you volume controls for each input. You can pick up a quad 741 chip in Radio Shack for a couple of bucks...circuit diagrams for hooking them up are everywhere on the web. SteveBaker (talk) 02:30, 25 January 2009 (UTC)

You need a virtual earth mixer using an op amp. This will add all your signals together and give you one out put. Of course for stereo, you need one summer (mixer) for each channel. I'm pretty sure there's a circuit for this under Opamp applications. YES there is! Look at the summing amplifier paragraph.--GreenSpigot (talk) 03:56, 25 January 2009 (UTC)

Also see here [4]--GreenSpigot (talk) 04:08, 25 January 2009 (UTC)

OK - but how do those prevent the input from one source being fed back into one of the other sources? SteveBaker (talk) 07:03, 25 January 2009 (UTC)

The passive mixer in the lk doesnt. but the opamp mixer does prevent coupling because all the current from the inputs go to a virtual earth at the opamp inverting input. —Preceding unsigned comment added by GreenSpigot (talk • contribs) 13:07, 25 January 2009 (UTC)

Ummm... No. Consider the situation where input one supplies 10v and input two supplies -10v. Since the R's are equal, the voltage of the "virtual earth" will already be 0v, so the op amp (with an output of 0v) will not draw the current. The current will travel from input 1 to input 2. Any excess voltage at the input junction will be drawn by the opamp (a 10v and 0v input, for example, would not feed a significant current back the 0v input), but if two inputs differ in sign then there will be a feedback current (depending on your definition; see below). The key, in this circuit and the resistive join above, is that the resistances are chosen such that any feedback currents will be acceptable to the inputs. -- 74.137.108.115 (talk) 19:42, 25 January 2009 (UTC)

Upon further thought, if you consider the -10v input as defined to accept an incoming current (similar to how a 10v input is defined to provide an outgoing current) then your definition of "feedback current" might exclude the example given above. (In that case, a "feedback current" for a -5v input would be to source current to a -10v input.) But, regardless of your definition of "feedback current", the key is still to choose resistances such that no input is driven outside of its current limitations. If the resistances are too small, this circuit can damage inputs just like a straight-wire join. -- 74.137.108.115 (talk) 21:06, 25 January 2009 (UTC)

This really is a non problem. Obviously the input resistors on each channel must be sufficiently large such that they do not load the source too much. Sources may be typically around 1kohm. So if you use 10kohm input resistors you aint going to affect the source voltage too much.GreenSpigot (talk) 01:26, 29 January 2009 (UTC)

Drawing trees with OpenOffice Draw (or some alternative)

Here you see a syntax tree. I want to create something rather similar, although with unlabeled nodes. Donald Derrick's "TreeForm Syntax Tree Drawing Software" (explanatory video here) doesn't seem designed for this. Consider this diagram and imagine that "AgrP", "VP" and the rest were removed to form an unbroken line from the top to the bottom right with lines branching off it to the left: that's the kind of thing I want to do. Having all the lines at a default to form an equilateral triangle would be a welcome bonus.

Surely this kind of thing ought to be possible with OpenOffice Draw but (maybe because it's a program I'd never tried till today) I found that if I had two points that were (pretty much) horizontal I couldn't even get Draw to draw two lines from them to form an equilateral triangle. (After much trial and error I could get two lines that met at a point and stopped there. But there was no obvious way to move the point to make the result equilateral.)

Does OpenOffice suck, or am I approaching it in the wrong way? (I even have Haugland's OpenOffice.org 2 Guidebook at hand and that doesn't help -- it's full of laborious explanations of how to produce visual gimmickry.)

If there are suggestions for other software, I can use a Linux, Mac OS X or Windows computer. Thank you. Morenoodles (talk) 10:49, 24 January 2009 (UTC)

I would use Dia for this. It is called Dia because it is specifically designed for drawing diagrams. I'm sure other programs could do it, but I prefer programs that are designed to do it. -- kainaw™ 15:09, 24 January 2009 (UTC)

I'm no linguist, but I've read enough Language log to know that a great tool for diagramming sentences is phpSyntaxTree. It'll diagram the heck out of your sentences! Go to the site and enter

[TP [Spec] [T' [T] [AgrP [Spec] [Agr' [Agr] [VP [Spec] [V' [V] [...]]]]]]]

It's not exactly what you want (the vertical line isn't completely vertical), but it's pretty darn good, IMHO. If you want to have much more control over how it looks, I'd recommend Inkscape, not having any in-depth knowledge of software specifically made to do diagrams. But I know that you could easily do it in inkscape. Belisarius (talk) 14:48, 25 January 2009 (UTC)

Many thanks to both of you. Dia seems to do the job, but I've made a note of phpSyntaxTree and Inkscape and will investigate both soon. Morenoodles (talk) 05:36, 26 January 2009 (UTC)

Error Message on Startup

I use Windows XP SP2, and for a few days now, I've been getting this error message everytime I switch on my PC.

Can't run 16-bit Windows Program.

Insufficient memory to run this application. Quit one or more Windows applications and then try again.

Please help me get rid of it. Thanks in advance! La Alquimista 16:11, 24 January 2009 (UTC)

I'm assuming that the memory in your computer hasn't changed recently, and that POST displays the correct amount of RAM. Either the amount of available RAM has changed (perhaps due to a near-full hard drive providing limited virtual memory), or additional programs are being run at startup. This page provides instructions on how to check startup programs and conserve memory. Finally, you might want to consider purchasing more memory (it's relatively cheap and one of the best computer upgrades available if not already maxed out). -- 74.137.108.115 (talk) 19:16, 24 January 2009 (UTC)

You may want to check your "msconfig" and see if something has been added there. If so, just uncheck it - and it won't try to run at startup. Ched (talk) 19:41, 24 January 2009 (UTC)

I did check msconfig, and found an executable file by the name of remind.exe, which is probably something to do with my Turbo C++ version 2.4. I deleted the file from its directory, but now the message has changed to:

Cannot load or run C:/TCWIN45/PIPELINE/remind.exe. Make sure you've typed the name correctly.

La Alquimista 05:14, 25 January 2009 (UTC)

It's not the file you want to delete, but the setting that's telling Windows to load that file. In msconfig, you can untick the box next to that entry, and next time it boots it will do a "selective startup" without that item.

If that solves the problem, then you can remove it from the startup list permanently using regedit [insert Microsoft-style disclaimer about the dangers of using regedit here!]: Next to the item in msconfig, it will tell you the path to the value in the registry which is loading that program ("HKLM" is short for "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE", "HKCU" is "HKEY_CURRENT_USER"). Run regedit, find and delete that entry, and Windows will no longer try to run it on startup. - IMSoP (talk) 19:30, 25 January 2009 (UTC)

how to get a long-living cellphone

I'm looking for a long cellphone with a long life expectancy. But all models I've looked at are described in reviews as having a fair chance of breaking within one or two years, which I find unacceptable (for environmental reasons). So how would you go about looking for something more long-living? Particular brands, models, etc. that you would recommend/avoid... and why? Or which forums/websites/... would you look at?

(If you're thinking of particular models: I'm looking for nothing gimicky, just plain calling and text-messaging to be used with a SIM card. Reliable (minimum of lost calls, etc.)!!! Reasonable volume and decent batdullllasssssssstery life. Vibrate if possible. Sturdy (given that I want a long-living phone). And I need tri-band or quad-band (with the European frequency bands and at least one--probably 1900--US band).)

Thanks for answering - Thanks for answering (talk) 16:26, 24 January 2009 (UTC)

All the phones I've had (mostly Sony Ericsson, but also a Nokia or two) have served me 2 or 3 years before I have passed them on in good working condition to various younger relatives. They have then gone on to serve my relative for a further 2 years or so. I suppose it depends on how well you look after your stuff. Of course, if you throw it around, mix it with your loose change and keys, and send it through the washing machine, it's lifetime will be seriously reduced. Astronaut (talk) 20:23, 24 January 2009 (UTC)

I recently bought a cell phone, and bought a couple of extra lithium ion batteries for it. This is because, in the past, I've had the battery stop working, only to be told that they don't sell that battery any more, so I can't get a replacement. The kicker, though, is being told that any minutes left on the phone will be lost. I've also noticed that it seems harder to get phones with separate buttons any more, instead they want to sell those phones with the pressure sensitive spots behind a solid sheet of plastic. That type is probably better at avoiding spilled liquids getting inside, but I've had bad luck with those type of "non-buttons" before, notably on a 1983 Pontiac Trans Am, which had them for the door locks, which took to locking and unlocking spontaneously. So, to me, that technology is just total junk, and I avoid it. Give me separate buttons every time. StuRat (talk) 21:04, 24 January 2009 (UTC)

Avoid the iPhone unless you're going to buy a case that covers the screen (it breaks easily). RAZRs are pretty good for longevity, as long as you don't drop them in anything at all (coffee, swimming pools, you name it: the RAZR dies instantly when tainted by liquid). The RAZR can handle anything; dropping, throwing, you name it, it'll survive it. Mine has even gotten run over by a truck... twice. And I still use it. Slider phones tend to be able to survive some intense dropping. Some people say that flippy phones can break if you flip them too much, but don't believe them, it's a myth. flaminglawyer 21:26, 24 January 2009 (UTC)

Hmmm... that's interesting; my last "flippy" phone did in fact break from excessive flippage. I then ordered three "parts" phones online, and all three had at least partially broken hinges. That being said, my old phone served a good while before becoming unhinged, and my new phone is another "flippy" model. The hinge *is* a point of failure, but it'll last a good long while if you aren't too rough with it. -- 74.137.108.115 (talk) 01:03, 25 January 2009 (UTC)

Sorry, let me rephrase that - Flippy phones rarely break from over-flippage, but that's just about the only thing they break from. So any broken flippy phones you find will be from over-flippage. flaminglawyer 03:57, 25 January 2009 (UTC)

I have a Sony Ericsson that's about five years old and works fine. That's for one nation. For another, I have a Casio that looks as if it might withstand drops and so on. I dropped it about 50 cm once onto a not-terribly-hard surface and its mike stopped working, or got disconnected. That was irritating, but the phone company fixed it without charging me anything. -- Hoary (talk) 15:34, 25 January 2009 (UTC)

January 25

Literati java window help

I used to play a game called literati at Yahoo games. I hadn't been there in ages and I went back a few months ago to play and here's the problem I encountered. When the apple javlet window for the game opens, the bottom part of the screen is cut off. That part of the screen has your score, and the typing screen as well as the place where you see messages. There's no way to access it. I tried going to half screen and grabbing the corner and moving it down and up. It doesn't work. The screen moves up but it doesn't resize the game any way; the applet size is hardcoded. Moving it up just obscures more of the screen. I got rid of my task bar and have the upper part of my browser hidden but it's still obscured. I thought maybe it would work with a different browser (I was using Firefox), so I tried with Internet Explorer and with Safari. Same thing happened. So then I thought, well maybe the program is broken and everyone is having this problem. But I've gone back in succeding months and it's the same. People are playing without problem on the site. By the way, I have a normal size monitor, 19 inches. Anyone have any advice?--70.19.64.133 (talk) 00:48, 25 January 2009 (UTC)

Monitor size is unimportant; the key is display resolution. You can likely change your display's resolution. In Windows xp, right-click on the desktop and select "properties". Click the "settings" tab, then use the "screen resolution" slider to change you display resolution. If the slider is grayed-out you probably need to upadate your video drivers. Another option is to try Opera; it has a "zoom" feature that works correctly with images, flash, etc., which might allow you to "shrink" the java applet (I don't recall ever testing it with java, though). -- 74.137.108.115 (talk) 01:21, 25 January 2009 (UTC)

Amazing! Worked like a charm. I would kiss you but ip addresses taste metallic:-p--70.19.64.133 (talk) 02:18, 25 January 2009 (UTC)

Firefox auto-restore feature

So Firefox has this nice feature where if it or the computer it's running on crashes precipitously, the next time you restart it, it notices, and offers to restore your previous session, i.e. which pages you had open in which tabs and windows. A very nice feature, especially if you tend to keep 37 different tabs open as reminders of what you're working on.

But I've noticed that it doesn't always work, because it seems to collide with this other feature. If you've upgraded Firefox or any of its plug-ins, the next time you restart Firefox, it auto-opens one or more pages crowing about the upgrades. And that auto-opening step seems to take precedence over the restoring-your-last-session step, nuking the list of what you had open last time.

Question 1: Is this a bug? Has anyone else noticed it?

Question 2: Anyone know where Firefox keeps its list of what it had open last time? I'd like to try to find the 37 tabs I had open before my computer crashed a little while ago, and before the upgrade I forgot I'd performed three weeks ago was finally able to consummate itself with its little splash screen. —Steve Summit (talk) 03:35, 25 January 2009 (UTC)

For Q1 - that's not a bug. Firefox recognizes that it wasn't an involuntary close, so it deletes the list of tabs (which are backed up at regular intervals on your HDD). Either that or Firefox has decided that knowing what browser version you have takes priority over your old tabs. For Q2 - Firefox probably keeps them in some kind of file with a weird file type that would be hard to find/open. You should consider just bookmarking your "reminders of what you're working on" instead of keeping them open; keeping this open is killing your performance. flaminglawyer 04:04, 25 January 2009 (UTC)

Oh, it certainly *was* an involuntary close: as I said, the computer crashed. (And I *know* Firefox keeps the information somewhere, and that the information probably won't be trivial to use, which is why I'm asking if anyone knows anything about it, so I won't have to spend time rediscovering it.) —Steve Summit (talk) 04:10, 25 January 2009 (UTC)

For Q2, this page has details on where the restore file can be found and how to force a restore prompt on the next execution. As for Q1, it sounds very buggish to me. -- 74.137.108.115 (talk) 04:27, 25 January 2009 (UTC)

Perfect! Thanks much. (Unfortunately, the referenced sessionstore.js file, now that I know what it's called, contains details only of the now-open splash screen concerning the upgrade, not of the 37 previous tabs. Wish I'd known to stash a copy of sessionstore.js *before* the restart. :-\ ) —Steve Summit (talk) 04:42, 25 January 2009 (UTC)

Hallelujah! There's also a sessionstore.bak file sitting in the same directory, containing what appears to be the previous state! All is right with the world again! Thanks again, 74! —Steve Summit (talk) 04:46, 25 January 2009 (UTC)

You can start ignoring my advice now... flaminglawyer 05:18, 25 January 2009 (UTC)

web designing

html tutorials —Preceding unsigned comment added by Yerragudivishnu (talk • contribs) 06:52, 25 January 2009 (UTC)

Type "HTML tutorial" into Google - you'll get hundreds and hundreds of great links to tutorials. Every one of the results on the first page you get back is great stuff. SteveBaker (talk) 06:56, 25 January 2009 (UTC)

For HTML/CSS (and even PHP), I strongly recommend w3. flaminglawyer 21:52, 25 January 2009 (UTC)

Windows Vista Sidebar RSS Gadget

I use Windows Vista's RSS Gadget to view the newsfeeds from http://svt.se. The gadget shows four items at once, and cycles through all pages (1..4, 5..8, ..., 37..40). But every time it changes page from the last page (37..40) to the first page (1..4), it consumes 100 % of my CPU's both cores, for approximately a second. It is no "big deal", but I really do not understand how such a simple application (gadget) can be so CPU intensive... Any ideas? --Andreas Rejbrand (talk) 12:11, 25 January 2009 (UTC)

Well, the reason is probably that the gadget is updating. When it's listed all the items in the rss-feed, it downloads and parses the feed for the next cycle through. It's incredibly weird that that would take up 100% of your CPU for no good reason though, it's a rather trivial task. Maybe it does it in a thread with super-high priority or something. Probably it's just a badly programmed gadget. Belisarius (talk) 14:21, 25 January 2009 (UTC)

McAfee SystemGuard keeps getting disabled.

I'm using McAfee Security Center on a Dell PC running Windows XP. I've got no major problem except my McAfee keeps informing me that 'I'm not fully protected' and I have to open up the Security Center and click 'Fix' every half hour or so because the 'SystemGuard has been disabled'. I assume this is some sort of spyware trying to get in?? I've a scan with the McAfee to detect any problems and they've not shown anything up. I've also updated my Windows Defender and done a full scan with no results. Any ideas on how to stop this happening? Thanks.91.109.235.99 (talk) 14:18, 25 January 2009 (UTC)

I'm guessing that "SystemGuard" is a program that runs all the time and checks for viruses in every file you download. This may sound good, but this level of protection can make your computer unreasonably slow. Perhaps it was set to not run when installed, either by you or by it doing an analysis of your computer and determining that SystemGuard would put too much of a load on it. So, when this is turned off, it instead waits until some event happens, perhaps a certain number of files are downloaded, and then suggests that a scan be run (this might be the "Fix"). If you are downloading more than they anticipated, this might cause the warning (that you need to do a virus scan) to pop up annoyingly frequently.

Also, it might be trying to run with SystemGuard on, but be unable to do so. An amazingly large percentage of software, when it gets any type of error, just tries the same thing again and again, ad infinitum. If so, consider yourself lucky that it at least waits half an hour before trying again. One possibly cause for this type of error is running two anti-virus programs at once. They can view each other as a virus and thus fight each other. You might want to try running either Windows Defender or McAfee, but not both at the same time. StuRat (talk) 15:31, 25 January 2009 (UTC)

bloody XP

So i was going to install the Windows 7 beta onto my comp. and before that downloaded AVG anti virus and installed it and it went smoothly.But the moment i ran it its executable ran but no window came up.So i checked the task manager and saw its process running there.Then i tried to run some other software but it said "You do not have permission to access this file or whatver" .Then i saw that whatever i clicked on my desktop the same message came .I couldn't even open My Computer,nor could i open control panel to try and uninstall AVG.Then i restarted my computer and quickly went to control panel and uninstalled it before it could run and then everything became alright.Then i downloaded avast antivirus and AGAIN THE SAME THING HAPPENED.Only this time Avast's User interface came up and it actually started scanning but even then i couldn't access any other file or folder or run anything . Finally i managed to somehow remove it .Does anyone know why this is happening on my comp.?And this seems to be happening ONLY when i install some antivirus! And Don't say its some virus cause i haven't come across a virus which can block all the processes and do this by DETECTING EXACTLY when an antivirus is being installed!Vineeth h (talk) 14:31, 25 January 2009 (UTC)

I suspect that the anti-virus programs, being more worried about security (specifically some virus attacking them), intentionally create files which only they have access to. There is probably a way for you to access them, by using a different logon, for example, but you don't normally have this access. StuRat (talk) 15:19, 25 January 2009 (UTC)

Yeah StuRat thats a possibility but i really need to know how to overcome this problem!If anyone else whose reading this has had the same problem amd solved it do reply ASAP.Vineeth h (talk) 15:48, 25 January 2009 (UTC)

I think that you do infact have a virus, depending on how advanced the virus is and whether it has a rootkit or not it could do what you are talking about. This virus could infact simply prevent you from installing an anti-virus for the sol purpose of leaving your computer open to attacks. I would recommend you not enter any sensitive data in to your computer until this problem is fixed. (sensitive data being credit card numbers, SSN and so on. If you have the ability i would recommend that you download a Linux live CD, burn that to a CD and boot in to Linux, after doing so you could run an anti virus on your main hard drive. If you have no idea what i am talking about then i would not recommend it. —Preceding unsigned comment added by E smith2000 (talk • contribs) 16:40, 26 January 2009 (UTC)

• This is a problem with AVG. Apparently (according to this website) a recent definition for AVG 8 for some languages can destroy a working copy of windows. 63.80.111.2 (talk) 02:55, 27 January 2009 (UTC)

Plug in Problem.

I want to download web videos but I am not finding desired plugins all the time. If I reinstall the Operating System, then I need to install the Plugins once again. Is there any browser which can automatically store videos without any plugin? 217.151.231.10 (talk) 15:00, 25 January 2009 (UTC)

Yes, you can obviously try one browser, that is Safari, it can download any video without any plug-in. Although it is for Apple, it can also be used on XP. To download any video, go to Window->Activity and expand the symbol of the page. You'll find a number of processes and out of those, one will be very large sized, say more that 3 MB. Double click on that process and you'll start downloading the video. Anirban16chatterjee (talk) 15:07, 25 January 2009 (UTC)

My first thought was that this sounded ridiculous, but I now realise you're just taking the question more literally than me, and showing how to save the video file that the page is trying to load. But I'm not sure this really answers the question, because even if this works, the poster would still need something to actually play the video.

Surely the real answer is that there is no one standard for videos on the web. Some sites will just present them as files, which can be downloaded by any browser, but which will need software that can play them (e.g. VLC); others will embed them in the page itself, using a plugin such as Adobe Flash or Microsoft Silverlight; still others may use some proprietary P2P plugin.

Browsers can make finding and installing these plugins easier, but there is no way they could handle all video formats without any plug-ins at all. - IMSoP (talk) 19:14, 25 January 2009 (UTC)

Most of the Web videos are .flv or .mpeg or .wmv. For playing .mpeg and .wmv, Windows Media Player id sufficient, and for .flv (such as in youtube), You can try Applian Flv Player, which is free! You may also try Sothink Video Player, as per your choice. Thus the video can be played easily. Thank you friend

IMSoP, for further extending the answer. Anirban16chatterjee (talk) 08:02, 26 January 2009 (UTC)

Thank you Anirban16chatterjee, it solves the problem! Safari Browser is awesome! It can download almost anything from any page. Its display quality is better too and added a new dimension to Wikipedia browsing! May I keep contact with you via your talk-page? 217.151.231.10 (talk) 08:05, 26 January 2009 (UTC)

eee pc

Can I buy a eee pc? what are the advantages and disadvantages of it? how easy is web browsing in 1) 7 inch eee pc, 2) 9 inch eee pc, 3) 10 inch eee pc? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 59.92.113.42 (talk) 17:58, 25 January 2009 (UTC)

Hello - I'm using an eee pc (Eee 900 series). It's the 9 inch screen model. I'm pleased because it does all I want it to do - mostly browsing the web and listening to music. And it's very small and light, which is good. I'd say the 7 inch screen is too small; some programs/websites only just fit in my 9 inch (they could probably fit better if I reduced the font size, but then I'd just be squinting at it all the time). But overall it's not a problem, but sometimes a website with flash video like BBC iPlayer only fits if I change FireFox to full screen. YouTube fits normally, but only just. The keyboard is also smaller than I'm used to (but that's just because the whole thing is so small). If you can, go to a shop and try the screen/keyboard and see if it works for you.

I'm a bit unusual because I got the Linux version and installed Ubuntu on it (rather than the default Xandros), so I can't speak for the XP version. --h2g2bob (talk) 20:24, 25 January 2009 (UTC)

I found the keyboard on the eeePC too small and so I went for an Acer Aspire One which has much better keys, but a lower battery life, (which I personally don't mind). Theresa Knott | token threats 20:37, 25 January 2009 (UTC)

Yacc (bison) %union

main.c

#include <config.h>
#include "parser.h"

int yyparse(void);

int main(int argc, char **argv)
{
    return yyparse();
}

parser.y (this is the one that fails)

%{
#include <config.h>
#include <stdio.h>
#include <gmp.h>

int yylex(void);
void yyerorr(char *s);
%}

/* gcc goes error on mpq_t: "error: expected specifier-qualifier-list before 'mpq_t'" */

%union {
    mpq_t q;
}

%token T_STMT_END
%token T_LPAREN
%token T_RPAREN
%token <q> T_NUM

%type <q> exp

%left T_ADD T_SUB 
%left T_MUL T_DIV
%right T_NEG

%%

input:      /* empty */
        |   input exp T_STMT_END
        ;
exp:        T_NUM
        |   T_LPAREN exp T_RPAREN
        |   exp T_ADD exp
        |   exp T_SUB exp
        |   exp T_MUL exp
        |   exp T_DIV exp
        |   T_SUB exp %prec T_NEG
        ;

lexer.l (not so relevant I think)

%{
#include <config.h>
#include <stdio.h>
#include <gmp.h>
#include "parser.h"
%}

STMT_END         ;
LPAREN          \(
RPAREN          \)
NUM             0|0[1-7][0-7]*|0[Xx][a-fA-F0-9]+|[0-9]+
ADD             \+
SUB             \-
MUL             \*
DIV             \/

%%

{STMT_END}      {return T_STMT_END;}
{LPAREN}        {return T_LPAREN;}
{RPAREN}        {return T_RPAREN;}
{NUM}           {return T_NUM;}
{ADD}           {return T_ADD;}
{SUB}           {return T_SUB;}
{MUL}           {return T_MUL;}
{DIV}           {return T_DIV;}

When trying to compile the above, I get a very verbose error from parser.y: "parser.y:11: error: expected specifier-qualifier-list before ‘mpq_t’". If I replace mpq_t with int everything works fine. I'm not too good with these things so it could be something obvious but it would help a lot if somebody told me what's wrong. I'm on Ubuntu 8.10. --194.197.235.61 (talk) 21:13, 25 January 2009 (UTC)

parser.y has an unterminated comment. --Sean 18:16, 27 January 2009 (UTC)

Oops, but it's not the problem.. I don't have the comment in the original copy. (missing */ added now). --194.197.235.61 (talk) 19:37, 27 January 2009 (UTC)

Solved. gmp.h needs to be included before parser.h. --194.197.235.61 (talk) 19:06, 28 January 2009 (UTC)

January 26

Kubuntu: Compile options for a package

In Kubuntu, what's the simplest way to download a package from source (ideally using apt-get), compile it with specific options, and ensure that it continues to be automatically updated with the same options applied each time? Would this be easier on another distro that uses KDE? NeonMerlin 00:06, 26 January 2009 (UTC)

Analog Electronics

Query:

This is a take home test I am having trouble with and need it for work.

First question, The instrument used to measure resistance is A) DVM digital volt meter B)Ohmeter C) Megger D) VOM Volt Ohm Meter

There is no option for all of the above, I think Megger, but could be VOM. Any assistance would be greatly appreciated.

-- 216.142.142.105 (talk) 00:08, 26 January 2009 (UTC)

We don't answer homework questions, but instead I suggest you do some transcendental meditation, and I'm sure the answer will come to you. And if, for some strange reason, that approach fails you, try looking those words up here or in a dictionary. One hint, they likely means "which device is used to measure resistance OMLY". :-) StuRat (talk) 02:10, 26 January 2009 (UTC)

But we can suggest that you look though our Electrical resistance article. You may find your answer there. -- Tcncv (talk) 02:22, 26 January 2009 (UTC)

Hmm: depends on what the resistance and test voltage is doest it? Most DVMs have a resistance range. Ohmmeter measures ohms. Megger measures insulation Resistance at high voltage, and VOM measures volts and ohms. I would look at your course notes to choose the answer the teacher wants.--GreenSpigot (talk) 01:48, 28 January 2009 (UTC)

Alternatively you could put down all four of the above with your reasoning and expect bonus marks. (or get none for being a clever sod)--GreenSpigot (talk) 02:01, 28 January 2009 (UTC)

Gaming Rigs: Be All, End All?

When I go into a store and buy computer, the store sales person will ask me what I will be using the computer for: email, word processing, games, etc... If I buy a gaming computer, say an Alienware or a Dell XPS, will it be able to do everything else (within reason)? Like word processing, graphic design, etc...? The Ayatollah (talk) 05:53, 26 January 2009 (UTC)

Pretty much, yes. Gaming comps need a good graphic card, big RAM, a good processor, and a reasonable sound card. A graphic design/video editing comp will need a high-end graphics card and some big RAM, which you have from your gaming comp. A music editing/recording comp will need a high-end sound card, which might come with a gaming comp, but it might not. A gaming comp will do everything a regular comp will do (i.e. word processing, email, web browsing, etc.), but it'll do it better. So, I say again: Pretty much, yes. flaminglawyer 06:21, 26 January 2009 (UTC)

Gaming has traditionally driven many of the computer improvements of the last decade. There are, however, a few specialized tasks that a gaming rig might be less than perfectly equipped to handle. Specifically, extensive video editing would benefit from RAID striping (increased disk throughput) and increased disk space, while servers would benefit from RAID redundancy and more CPU cores. Meanwhile, graphic designers like high-end (not low-refresh) monitors and tablet input devices, and developers prefer multiple monitors. But, to be fair, you'll likely not find a computer for any of these niches at a major retailer, and a "gaming rig" would likely prove satisfactory even if these examples aren't excluded by your "within reason" clause. -- 74.137.108.115 (talk) 08:29, 26 January 2009 (UTC)

Even for high definition video editing a high spec standard PC will be fine nowadays. The only thing you might find lacking is RAM. Many gaming machines will only come with 2GB of ram, whereas with graphic design on high resolution images 4GB or more is useful, but if you do this you will need to install a 64 bit Operating System such as Vista x64, as a 32bit OSes (as XP and the majority of shop bought machines version of Vista are) can only address 4GB maximum, including graphics card memory. Oh as above if you wish to record or edit music (or if you have a decent set of your own speakers) you might wish to get a dedicated sound card as most shopbought machines rely on onboard sound.

If you know the specifications of the machine feel free to post them! 212.219.8.231 (talk) 09:01, 26 January 2009 (UTC)

Liquid Helium Cooled Computers

I read somewhere that computer speed is limited by CPU heat. If the CPU is too fast, the computer will be too hot and burn. If I was somehow able to use liquid helium to cool my computer as to render the heat-issue non-existent, would I be able to clock a Core 2 to, say, 8 ghz? The Ayatollah (talk) 05:54, 26 January 2009 (UTC)

Many people have tried this, but with liquid nitrogen (example). It considerably lessens the heat-issue, but it'll always be there. I honestly have no idea of actual speed improvements with liquid nitrogen/helium cooling, but I will say that it's a huge difference. So it might be possible to clock one up to 8Ghz. flaminglawyer 06:14, 26 January 2009 (UTC)

Temperature isn't the only limit on CPU speed. As you increase the speed of the processor, propagation delays (the time it takes for a signal to move through the chip) can exceed the clock speed. This necessitates some type of hardware modification, from chip layout (reduced signal lengths) to buffering signals (the transfer takes multiple clocks), to just shrinking thr die size (everything gets smaller). With reasonable tolerances on the chip and appropriate cooling, a (semi-stable) overclock of 2x is reasonable. That said, computer parts were not designed for exposure to liquid nitrogen/helium, and extreme temperature fluctuations can cause fractures in circuits that will take your computer out of commission. -- 74.137.108.115 (talk) 08:14, 26 January 2009 (UTC)

To continue with the previous comments, yes, cooling with liquid nitrogen could make for a faster computer, provided the computer was designed to be cooled in that way. You can't just pour liquid nitrogen, much less cooler and more expensive liquid helium, into a computer designed to be air-cooled and expect it to survive. A liquid nitrogen cooled home computer seems possible, although it would be quite expensive, for home use. I would imagine a design where a cooling unit produces the liquid nitrogen, then delivers it to the computer, automatically, so no handling is required.

Then there is also another stage, using either liquid helium or liquid hydrogen, where you get superconductivity; meaning no resistance, and therefore no heat, is generated. Supercomputers could possibly use this method. It seems quite unsuitable for home computing, as dealing with temps close to absolute zero is very dangerous, and hydrogen also becomes flammable when it heats up, becomes a gas, and mixes with air. StuRat (talk) 17:31, 26 January 2009 (UTC)

Also see computer cooling. StuRat (talk) 17:44, 26 January 2009 (UTC)

XP probs

Hello dears! i have a problem in windows XP sp3.when i try to open drive C it returns an error saying that(windows cant find resycled/boot.com Make sure you type the name correctly)i dont know what is this and what it means.how i repair this error.and the drive is renamed to Yama Ramin.Any help please —Preceding unsigned comment added by 119.154.16.107 (talk) 06:06, 26 January 2009 (UTC)

(Added section title) flaminglawyer 06:10, 26 January 2009 (UTC)

Very virus-like. Take a look around. This, that and the other _[talk] 06:50, 26 January 2009 (UTC)

Yep. A virus that copies itself to the RECYCLED folder so that people without "show system files/folders" on can't see it. Try deleting it from Run... - "del C:\RECYCLED\boot.com" or whatever the DOS command is --wj32 ^t/c 08:04, 26 January 2009 (UTC)

macintosh OS X: navigating forms with the keyboard compared to Windows XP

Macintosh is asserts that it favors accessibility, but it seems a lot less flexible when I try to navigate user input forms using only the keyboard and no mouse. For example, when I logged into wikipedia, there is the username and password dialog box. On windows I can navigate to both of these input boxes using only the tabkey. I can also navigate to the checkbox for "remember me" with the tab key, and toggle it on and off using the space key.

In comparison, on the Mac OS X, I cannot seem to get the tab key to bring focus to the checkbox.

Also, in comparison, if I am on a web page using firefox on winxp, I can navigate to all the links on a webpage by repeatedly pressing the tab key.

Yet on the Mac, pressing tab only seems to navigate over the chrome and doesn't go into the links.

I checked the article on Table_of_keyboard_shortcuts "Widget navigation" and there does not seem to be a way to do this simple thing on a Mac. Does anyone know how to navigate all the widgets on an input form using only the keyboard? NoClutter (talk) 06:23, 26 January 2009 (UTC)

I'm not in front of my Mac right now but I think what you're looking for is the "full keyboard access" or something similar setting in the Keyboard Control Panel. Also try, I think it's... option-tab to move between links on a page. I personally hate the way XP tabs from one link to the next when I just want to go to text fields. Dismas|^(talk) 09:10, 26 January 2009 (UTC)

It's in System Preferences -> Keyboard & Mouse -> Keyboard Shortcuts tab. However, if you're using Safari, that overrides the general system setting -- look in Safari's Preferences -> Advanced tab for "Press Tab to highlight each item on a webpage". Or as Dismas mentioned, you can use option-tab to toggle its behavior. -- Speaker to Lampposts (talk) 06:38, 27 January 2009 (UTC)

Where did all the info on AgesaCode go???

Hi!

I remember bumping into the term AgesaCode previously, and searching Wikipedia (English) for it. The search gave some results, I read the general stuff and was happy with the info I got. After all, I just wanted to know what the term meant. Now it occurred to me that maybe the same articles would answer to some additional questions I had. Now it seems that the whole term has disappeared from Wikipedia. No search results whatsoever. And I'm positive it was here before. What happened? AgesaCode, by the way, is a method of keeping the AMD (64) based computers' bioses up-to-date with a minimum effort. The job of adding new CPU's is done just once resulting a new version of AgesaCode and the motherboard manufacturers are able to use the versions of the common AgesaCode to implement support for the new CPU's.88.114.54.245 (talk) 11:03, 26 January 2009 (UTC)

You must be mistaken; there is no history (including deletion history) for any article titled "AgesaCode". But since you didn't say what additional questions you have, and it seems that you have a slight misunderstanding of what it is, I have created the article AGESA. Enjoy. -- Fullstop (talk) 12:48, 26 January 2009 (UTC)

How to select an exit node in Tor

Resolved

Hey, could someone familiar with the Tor network help me out here. I'm trying to access a uk based website that only allows users from the United Kingdom to view. I'm using the Tor network but most of the exit nodes it connects to are from Germany or the US, and I have no way of selecting uk exit nodes from the vadalia control panel. So is there a way to specify which exit node I want my traffic to be sent from? It's for a text website, not bbci player or other high bandwidth sites so Tor would be perfect for this. Thanks. 65.49.2.26 (talk) 13:12, 26 January 2009 (UTC)

Don't know about Tor, but when I googled for "UK proxies" I found a website with a list of proxy servers in the UK. 4th or 5th one in the list. –Capricorn42 (talk) 13:16, 26 January 2009 (UTC)

Thanks but I really need this for Tor as proxy websites are blocked where I am. 65.49.2.26 (talk) 15:37, 26 January 2009 (UTC)

I think you can by editing the TOR configuration file: http://www.nntpnews.net/f1009/manually-selecting-tor-exit-node-714968/ .--K;;m5m k;;m5m (talk) 16:49, 26 January 2009 (UTC)

Thanks everyone. I eventually found an unblocked proxy site

Internet over Power lines

hi

i was wondering if there was any way to send broadband signals over the power lines in my home because i do not feel like running Cat6 cable all over my house. i would use wireless, but the only routers i saw had huge ranges, and i don't want my neighbors stealing my internets. i saw something for internet over the power lines (i think it was called homepny or something) a few years ago. is this tech still available, or alternately, is there a better version?  Buffered Input Output 14:05, 26 January 2009 (UTC)

Have a read here. BigDunc^Talk 14:07, 26 January 2009 (UTC)

Your neighbors aren't very likely to get their filthy hands on your internets if you just have a wireless router with a decent degree of wireless security on it -- that is to say, WPA rather than WEP. As for huge ranges, how huge are we talking about here? I think your average wireless router today tends to have a range of about 40 to 50 meters, or around 130 to 165 feet, if you prefer, although heavier walls, certain electronics and the like will cut down on that. Is that huge enough to reach your neighbors' houses? I believe some models have an option to reduce the signal's power, which will cut down on the range, but honestly, a good password will probably be your best bet. Or, if you like, you could just use MAC addresses, which would mean that only specific computers would be allowed to connect to the network, regardless of passwords. -- Captain Disdain (talk) 15:13, 26 January 2009 (UTC)

I would recommend that you try using a Wifi router and set it's encryption. That way since only you know the password only you can access the internet. E smith2000 (talk) 17:14, 26 January 2009 (UTC)

Well I'm using my neighbors internet right now and they have it secured. Simply a matter of collecting enough packets to get the pass. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 82.43.88.87 (talk) 21:44, 26 January 2009 (UTC)

How would i use the MAC addresses? that sounds like a good option (when combined with WPA or something else)  Buffered Input Output 17:17, 26 January 2009 (UTC)

That depends on the router, the settings are different depending on the company/deviceE smith2000 (talk) 17:47, 26 January 2009 (UTC)

No no no no no no no! Don't use MAC address filtering, it's crap! It's trivial to break, it takes literally 5 minutes. And it's way complicated!

Using WPA is much simpler and much more secure. All you do is set a password at the router (preferably long and hard to crack), and then you just enter the password at every computer that you wish to be on the network. It's super-easy, and if you have a good password, incredibly hard to break. Don't bother with MAC address filtering, it's just a big hassle and does no one any good. Belisarius (talk) 18:57, 26 January 2009 (UTC)

I would tend to agree with FlavusBelisarius MAC address filtering can be a bit of a pain also it is not infalable as some wireless clients allow their MAC address to be impersonated or spoofed and a hacker could break into your WLAN by configuring their client to spoof one of your MAC addresses. But saying that everything can be hacked if someone is determined enough. BigDunc^Talk 19:10, 26 January 2009 (UTC)

returning to the original question... Powerline adapters are an excellent alternative to running cat5. The advantages/disadvantages of powerline are the same as wire; i.e. good resistance to interference and cannot be snooped on, but not extensible without more hardware. There are also Powerline/WLAN combos (e.g. the Netgear WGX102/XE102), so you can start with powerline, and still have the option to get on the WLAN bandwagon later. -- Fullstop (talk) 19:36, 26 January 2009 (UTC)

OpenDNS

Hello, Something called OpenDNS has installed intself on my computer and is now ruining the wordrous experience of using Firefox. Anyone know how it got there and how to get rid of it? (Ideally, i'd like to keep my cookies..)81.142.143.17 (talk) 14:58, 26 January 2009 (UTC)

OpenDNS isn't software; someone changed your DNS settings. Go to the Internet settings on your computer. In Windows, Control Panel -> Network Connections -> right click the connection you use -> Properties -> select Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) -> hit the Properties button -> select Obtain DNS server address automatically. The DNS server address boxes should have the OpenDNS addresses of 208.67.220.220 and 208.67.222.222 - remove those for good measure. If it is already set to obtain automatically and the boxes are blank, talk to your ISP (unless you have a home network, in which case talk to the person who has access to the router settings). Xenon54 (talk) 16:36, 26 January 2009 (UTC)

Hyperlinks in AS 3

Hello WIkipedia, I'm trying to build a website in Flash and have been trying to create basic hyperlinks. (i.e. you click on a button saying 'services' and go the 'services' page). I've done some google searches and cyberspace seems to be confused.... ANy thought? P.s. i'm no expert so please assume no knowledge!81.142.143.17 (talk) 16:19, 26 January 2009 (UTC)

I have not played around much with AS 3 but i do know that in AS 2 you can place the following code on a button to open an internet site in a new window:

on (release) (GetURL("http://www.google.com")
);

In AS2 you could do (to correct yours slightly:

on (release) {
getURL("http://www.google.com")
}

If I want to shamelessly self-plug, I would direct you straight to my site which explains AS3's way of doing things. Instead, I'll helpfully extract the code to here:

myButton.addEventListener(MouseEvent.CLICK,goThere);
function goThere(e:MouseEvent){
var request:URLRequest = new URLRequest("http://www.foundation-flash.com/");
navigateToURL(request);
}

Or you could view the link below, it looks fine also. - Jarry1250 ^{(t, c)} 17:23, 26 January 2009 (UTC)

Here, read this: http://scriptplayground.com/tutorials/as/getURL-in-Actionscript-3/ --98.217.14.211 (talk) 17:17, 26 January 2009 (UTC)

Jarry1250, your website is great! (a little pointer, the volume is very quiet...) but thanks for shameless plug!86.6.101.208 (talk) 21:43, 26 January 2009 (UTC)

Usb to PCI adaptor

I was just wondering of there existed a device that would allow me to plug in my PCI devices and then plug said device in to a laptop, enabling me to use a desktop's PCI cards on a laptop. Thank you E smith2000 (talk) 16:26, 26 January 2009 (UTC)

A quick google brought up this site http://www.arstech.com/ --TrogWoolley (talk) 17:27, 26 January 2009 (UTC)

As you'll see from List of device bandwidths, the fastest USB currently sold has only half the bandwidth of the slowest PCI. So while someone may sell you a box that translates one to the other, there's not enough bandwidth for many uses. You could probably run a PCI modem card or PCI sound card in such an unfortunate arrangement, but a video card or RAID adapter will be too much for it. Mimetic Polyalloy (talk) 22:31, 26 January 2009 (UTC)

Problems with flash video in Firefox

When I run firefox (v.3.0.5), I can't watch flash videos at veoh.com, perezhilton.com (yes, I'm classy like that), or theonion.com. In IE, these work fine. I have the latest flash installed for both firefox and IE (which I just reinstalled after manually uninstalling with the adobe-provided uninstaller). Other websites with flash videos (like youtube) work fine. Does anyone know what could be causing this? Obviously I can just switch over to IE when necessary, but it's kind of a pain. Calliopejen1 (talk) 17:06, 26 January 2009 (UTC)

Check your firewall. i know this may seem silly but i just ran in to this problem the otherday and it turned out that my firewall was blocking the loading of scripts and flash videos in my default browser(which is FireFox). try disabling your firewall and then try and load a video. (remember to re-enable your firewall)E smith2000 (talk) 17:11, 26 January 2009 (UTC)

Just figured out the problem! Stupid adblock acting up. Now off to figure out the rule that is causing this problem... Calliopejen1 (talk) 19:51, 26 January 2009 (UTC)

what is the largest IDE hard drive that was made?

what is the IDE hard drive that was manufactuered (before they switched to SATA)? Thanks! —Preceding unsigned comment added by 82.120.111.130 (talk) 17:20, 26 January 2009 (UTC)

I think it is 1TB made by Total Micro —Preceding unsigned comment added by E smith2000 (talk • contribs) 17:25, 26 January 2009 (UTC)

Fry's sells a IDE to Sata converter, if you are looking for a large hard drive but lack sata ports. E smith2000 (talk) 17:30, 26 January 2009 (UTC)

PSP Capabilities

Other than playing games, what can the PSP do? Looking on the PSP page here, it says that you can remotely play your PS3 stuff, but websites I check say that it can't watch movies or play PS3 games. I've also noticed sites stating that you can't watch YouTube, you can't check email (except some capabilities with AOL mail and GMail in classic mode). So, I'm left wondering is the PSP is useful if you have no intention of playing games on it? My current opinion is that a PDA is better for non-gaming. -- kainaw™ 20:08, 26 January 2009 (UTC)

A PSP can not view youtube videos. A PSP can view emails regardless. A PSP can play movies and videos. I suggest converting them though using a program called SUPER. Rgoodermote  22:11, 26 January 2009 (UTC)

I'd say that if you wanted to play games the PSP is a fantastic choice, but from your post i think that you dont want to play games. A Smart phone or a PDA would be a better choice (a smart phone with a data package means that you can get your email anywhere that you can make calls)

E smith2000 (talk) 22:51, 26 January 2009 (UTC)

If I play games, it will be on my PS3. If I could play my PS3 games remotely on the PSP, it would be useful. From what I've seen, that is not possible. If I could watch blu-ray movies remotely on the PSP, that would be useful. From what I've seen, that is not possible. So, I would only be interested in using the PSP for checking my email using a client (not web-based email). I don't see any hint of Thunderbird for PSP coming soon. So, I think a PDA is best for me. -- kainaw™ 23:37, 26 January 2009 (UTC)

PHP

If I have a large array (stored in a file) that is essential to a web application written in PHP, how would I cache the array in memory and not have to read it every time a page is requested? I don't see why this should even be called caching - programs should store everything in memory anyway! Why was PHP designed like this? ASP.NET has global variables that persist across page loads, for example. --wj32 ^t/c 23:02, 26 January 2009 (UTC)

Look into sessions. Once a session is started, data can be stored in memory across page loads. Or - are you looking to store stuff in memory across page loads from completely different users? -- kainaw™ 23:34, 26 January 2009 (UTC)

Each time you load a PHP page it basically starts fresh in terms of the system state. I don't know why ASP.NET does it another way, but anyway, that's how PHP works, it is part of the overarching programming paradigm of it and that's just how it is. As noted above you can use sessions and other means to share variables between pageloads but if you're talking about a lot of data you probably don't want to do it that way.

If you look in the PHP manual, there is a section on "shared memory". That's probably the only way to deal with it. I suspect it would be easier on the machine, though, to just dump the array into a file that PHP can read quickly (e.g. dump it as a PHP array into a new PHP file and then just "include" that each time it runs—obviously you have to be careful here to keep it safe to run). I have a function that can do that if that would be useful for you. It's probably a lot easier than messing with the shared memory stuff. As to how ASP.NET does things, again, I don't know, but somehow I doubt it really uses shared memory.

But again, if you're really butting your head against this a lot, you might really want to re-think your program design, as you are apparently trying to do something that is very, very non-standard for PHP and there is probably a better, PHP-like way to do it that will be a lot easier for you to work out and maintain. But again, I don't really know what specifically it is you are trying to do here. --98.217.14.211 (talk) 00:00, 27 January 2009 (UTC)

PHP is a Hypertext Preprocessor, not a stateful server environment. Which essentially means it behaves exactly how you think it shouldn't. Perhaps the simplest way to accomplish what you asked is to create a RAM disk and copy the file in question to it. Then every open/read will be a memory transaction, but your still paying for PHP to process the entire thing, especially wasteful if you only want a specific part. Another option is to store this array in a database (which, conveniently, *is* a stateful server environment which is easily optimized for cached access). With a database you also get the ability to retrieve arbitrary portions of the array instead of loading the entire thing. -- 74.137.108.115 (talk) 03:32, 27 January 2009 (UTC)

No, I'm just wondering why PHP was designed like that. Thanks for the replies. --wj32 ^t/c 06:41, 27 January 2009 (UTC)

If it was designed as a stateful server environment, there would be people asking, "Why isn't PHP stateless so I can start each page request from scratch?" In 30+ years of programming, I've found that any time you give a program to the general public, half the people will say, "Your program sucks because it doesn't do exactly what I want it to do." PHP is no exception. There are Ruby people who hate that it isn't like Ruby. There are ASP people who hate that it isn't like ASP. There are Perl people who hate the entire world because they have to use Perl all the time. All in all, PHP was designed to meet the needs of the programmers in the way that the programmers wanted. Nothing special. -- kainaw™ 13:46, 27 January 2009 (UTC)

How to make your desktop background a slideshow (while you work)?

I am pretty sure I could do this once but I forgot. I work on a Windows XP. Any advice would be appreciated. Thanks! --PST 23:20, 26 January 2009 (UTC)

I'm sure it is possible with the "active desktop" thing. I haven't used Windows XP for any length of time, but I remember seeing an option for active desktop being a slideshow of photos from a specified directory. -- kainaw™ 23:35, 26 January 2009 (UTC)

I know for certain this is possible but I just can't remember how. There is also Winwall which apparently does something similar. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 82.43.88.87 (talk) 23:39, 26 January 2009 (UTC)

Creating a simple active desktop is a trivial affair. You right-click on the desktop, choose "Properties," then "Desktop," then "Customize desktop," then "Web" then "New." Then, you pick a web page to use. Now comes the hard part: making the slide show. It's probably going to be either JavaScript/CSS embedded in the .html file or a Flash movie embedded in the HTML. If you don't know either Javascript, CSS, or Flash, then you might want to pick up a slideshow template or hire a coder...--K;;m5m k;;m5m (talk) 00:18, 27 January 2009 (UTC)

One thing I miss about Linux (I went back to Apple) is that I could have xearth as my background. —Tamfang (talk) 06:00, 27 January 2009 (UTC)

Slideshow? You could try John's Background Switcher... [5] --wj32 ^t/c 09:37, 27 January 2009 (UTC)

Sorting dates in PHP

Here's something that I'm sure will sound like homework but is really just something I've been struggling with in PHP.

Let's say I have a list of dates in an array in any arbitrary string format (say, "MM/DD/YYYY"). For the sake of simplicity, let's say that I have them already sorted in order by date.

I want a function that, with that array as its input, return the date soonest from now in the future, with the cutoff point being the day after the date in question.

So, practically speaking, let's say the array had three dates in it: 01/25/2009, 01/26/2009, 01/29/2009. If today is 01/26/2009, I would want it to return "01/26/2009" as the next future date. If today was 01/27/2009, I would want it to return "01/29/2009". And, while we're at it, if today was "02/03/2009", I would want it to return the last date in the list, "01/29/2009".

Does that make sense? I've had a hell of a time getting the PHP date functions to get this to work for me, so if anyone had any suggestions, that would be great. Here's the function I currently use, if that is of any help, and it doesn't quite work correctly:

function get_soonest() { global $schedule; foreach($schedule as $key=>$val) { $event_date = date("Ymd",strtotime($val["date"])); if(date("Ymd",time())<=$event_date) { return $key; } } return count($schedule)-1; }

As you can see, I have the date fields kept in a bigger array ("schedule"), but otherwise it should be pretty easy to read. This is a pretty primitive approach as you can well appreciate. Any suggestions as to how to make this work better? --98.217.14.211 (talk) 23:27, 26 January 2009 (UTC)

When working with dates after Jan 1, 1970, it is usually easiest to use a timestamp. Instead of using 1/27/2009 as your index, use strtotime("1/27/2009") as your index. It is a big number (the number of seconds since Jan 1 1970). It is very easy to sort and work with numbers. Then, when you want to print the date back out, use date("m/d/Y", $index) where $index is the index you were using. -- kainaw™ 23:32, 26 January 2009 (UTC)

Well, yes, I know that, in theory, but my troubles come from wanting to get it to know when to change the time. I actually have a lot of trouble dealing with the timestamps because, as you note, they are in seconds, which is far too precise a level of detail for these purposes (where everything is a matter of days)...--98.217.14.211 (talk) 00:13, 27 January 2009 (UTC)

OK, nevermind. I rethought what it is what I was trying to do and it was simpler than I had thought. I really just want to know what is the next date in the future, so:

function get_soonest() { global $schedule; $now = time(); foreach($schedule as $key=>$val) { $event_date = strtotime($val["date"]) + (1*24*60*60); //day after event date if($event_date > $now) { //is in the future return $key; } } return count($schedule); //nothing in the future so return the last one }

Should work fine.... --98.217.14.211 (talk) 00:23, 27 January 2009 (UTC)

January 27

Big numbers in C++

How can I deal with big numbers which are too large even for a "long long unsigned int" in C++ --RMFan1 (talk) 00:11, 27 January 2009 (UTC)

I guess you getting paid in Zimbabwean dollars. See Arbitrary-precision arithmetic Dmcq (talk) 00:35, 27 January 2009 (UTC)

the not-ipod

My best friend's brother just got this new handheld iPod-like thingy. It's South Korean, has (approx) a 4-inch screen, can play 720p video and music, movies, pictures, etc. Everything that an iPod can do (plus 720p vids), but on a bigger screen. I'm in the market for a new portable media player device thingy that's not and iPod and this thing looks like it fits the bill. Only thing is, I have no idea what it is, what it's called, or where to look for it. Does anyone know of such a device, or where I could buy one? flaminglawyer 00:12, 27 January 2009 (UTC)

Does it look like an iPod? A quick Google search for "iPod copies" threw up this as the top result. Cycle~ (talk) 00:18, 27 January 2009 (UTC)

Sorry for not clearing that up: No. It looks nothing like an iPod. Imagine a rectangle, about 4x5 inches, with like a 4x4 inch screen and the other inch for buttons. And you've got it. flaminglawyer 00:25, 27 January 2009 (UTC)

It has a 1280x720 screen at 4x4 inches? Are you, uh, positive? An older news article (2005) suggests the most popular companies for media players in Korea, at that time at least, were iRiver, Cowon, and Samsung. You can get these just about anywhere, might as well look at their sites and see if you can spot the one you're looking for. None of them have 4x4" 720p screens though. -- Consumed Crustacean (talk) 01:27, 27 January 2009 (UTC)

I assume he meant it takes 720p as input, then down-converts to something more like 480p for display purposes. Otherwise, those are some freakin' tiny pixels. StuRat (talk) 01:29, 27 January 2009 (UTC)

Have a browse around DealExtreme, you might find it there. It's a Hong Kong based company that sells almost anything you could think of (and probably many that you could not!) with free worldwide shipping. If you do find it, you might then want to read the forum comments as well as do a Google search to find out how haclable it may be, if that's your thing. Zunaid 08:29, 27 January 2009 (UTC)

Holy schizz, dude... That site's got some crazy stuff on it... Thanks for pointing me to it :) flaminglawyer 23:20, 27 January 2009 (UTC)

Update

I've found it (it appears at 19 seconds in the MegaWhat video on this page), but I still have no idea what it's called. Anybody know? flaminglawyer 23:48, 27 January 2009 (UTC)

Wikipedia layer in Google Earth

Does anyone know how often the Wikipedia layer in Google Earth is updated? It presumably uses the {{coord}} template. I've noticed that the placemark for Westchester County, New York is in the city centre of Birmingham (UK) and has been for at least a year. The coordinates were removed from the article on 19 January 2008, but the placemark remains. Similarly, articles I've created (with coordinates) haven't been included. Cheers! Cycle~ (talk) 00:15, 27 January 2009 (UTC)

all the tech conferences

It appears that there are a bunch of different conferences for people announcing new tech stuff. There's G3, Mac World (cancelled), and all the other ones that I don't know of... which is why I'm here. Is there a list of all the tech conferences that regularly happen? Also, how does anyone ever find out about the ones that are announced short-notice? Like the one to announce the Palm Pre? flaminglawyer 00:22, 27 January 2009 (UTC)

Check out Trade fair for a list of a lot of technical conferences. Livewireo (talk) 04:14, 27 January 2009 (UTC)

Niche calculations

What's the best way to automate calculation of the random Fibonacci sequence? Let's say I have 10,000,000 bits of "random" data that I want to seed my random Fibonacci algorithm with. For each and every bit, I want to either add f(n-1) and f(n-2) or subtract them, depending on whether the current "random" bit is a 0 or 1. This would be easy enough to do with a spreadsheet like Excel, except that Excel has a very small limit to the maximum number of cells, and it's very time-consuming to import bit-wise data into Excel (am I right?). So I guess I'm looking for a super-spreadsheet to do this. Suggestions? Accuracy of the result is not too important, as long as the exponent is close to the actual one. An arbitrary precision/speed tradeoff would be nice, of course. 4.242.108.158 (talk) 01:00, 27 January 2009 (UTC)

Excel would be a horrible choice, for the reasons you've mentioned as well as the fact that a huge amount of processing power goes to its (quite poor) GUI, and all you want to do is crunch numbers. You'd be better off with just a scripting program (in your language of choice) that would input your numbers from a text file and output to another one. I'm sure someone on here could write you such a program in Python or Perl quite quickly.... --98.217.14.211 (talk) 03:31, 27 January 2009 (UTC)

#!/usr/bin/env perl
local $/=\1;
$a=$b=1;
while(<>) {      # input is 0 or 1
  $a*=-1 if $_;
  die "Odd input count" unless defined($_=<>);
  $a+=$b*($_?-1:1);
  ($a,$b)=($b,$a);
  print "$b\n";
}

This expects as input a file containing only the ASCII digits 0 and 1 (no spaces or newlines!) and prints what follows the two initial 1s. It uses floating-point arithmetic if the numbers get big. --Tardis (talk) 18:05, 27 January 2009 (UTC)

Volume configuration file on Ubuntu?

Does anyone knows the configuration file that stores the value for the volume control in Ubuntu ("master" and "speaker")? I've searched a lot, but with no success... :(

PS:I know there are GUI and CLI tool to change that, but I really need the file that sores that info...

PS-2: I know it is a global value (for all users, so it is probably not stored at the home)

Thanks. SF007 (talk) 02:05, 27 January 2009 (UTC)

Single-user PostgreSQL

Is there a version of PostgreSQL that's simpler to install and use for a single-user, non-network database, but that has all the same features for the database itself (e.g. triggers, polymorphism and inheritance)? NeonMerlin 03:36, 27 January 2009 (UTC)

I'm on Linux. The complete install process is: "yum install postgresql-server". In Windows, I believe you download the installer and double-click on it, then click ok-ok-ok-ok-ok. I don't know about Mac. So, my problem with answering your question is how to make it simpler. -- kainaw™ 13:50, 27 January 2009 (UTC)

IP address

Question moved from the Miscellaneous desk. -- 74.137.108.115 (talk) 04:27, 27 January 2009 (UTC)

Just wondering, is it legal (or even possible) to modify one's computer or Internet device so that the location and IP address it gives off can be controlled? ^Tezkag₇₂ 03:44, 27 January 2009 (UTC)

See Proxy server, Tor. –Capricorn42 (talk) 04:36, 27 January 2009 (UTC)

(ec) We cannot give legal advice, but I don't think setting an arbitrary IP address would be illegal (pretending to be a different person, however, could be). In fact, it is quite possible to set any IP address you'd like on your computer. The problem, though, is that many other computers will not talk to your computer if it isn't at an expected IP address. Realistically, the closest thing you can do is route your traffic through a proxy which will make your IP address appear to be the proxy address. -- 74.137.108.115 (talk) 04:41, 27 January 2009 (UTC)

It depends on the method you use to spoof your IP address. Using a proxy (as mentioned above) is usually legal. But cloning someone's MAC address or using someone's firewall as an unauthorized proxy would be illegal.--K;;m5m k;;m5m (talk) 04:56, 27 January 2009 (UTC)

How is setting your MAC address to some arbitrary value illegal? Now, connecting to another computer with intent to defraud is another matter, but it's the fraud that's illegal, not the MAC. -- 74.137.108.115 (talk) 05:14, 27 January 2009 (UTC)

Uh..Mac Addresses can't be changed....Rgoodermote  15:22, 27 January 2009 (UTC)

Our article MAC spoofing disagrees with you. Algebraist 15:25, 27 January 2009 (UTC)

Well, I need to hunt down the makers of my Cisco course then and show them said article. XD. Rgoodermote  17:12, 27 January 2009 (UTC)

Sure you can; the card is in your physical possession, after all. On my machine the syntax is "ifconfig eth0 hw ether 12:34:56:78:9a:bc". Multihoming ethernet basically requires you to make up a MAC address for your virtual interfaces. It's a variation of "On the Internet, nobody knows you're a dog". --Sean 18:25, 27 January 2009 (UTC)

Windows Address Bar question

Is there a way to adjust the address bar in Windows so that it doesnt show all the sites that I've been to? What I mean is when Im about to write an address into it,as soon as a write the first letter it gives me the list of all the sites that I've been to starting with that letter. Can that be adjusted and how?

Thanks a lot(and please do answer if you know how to do it,cause I would really hate my girlfriend to know all which sites I visited).

87.116.154.181 (talk) 07:47, 27 January 2009 (UTC)

That would depend on the browser. Some browsers have an option of not memorizing addresses. (Safari, for example, calls this "Private browsing".) And I think every browser allows you to delete its memory of addresses (as well as cookies, etc). -- Hoary (talk) 08:09, 27 January 2009 (UTC)

If you use Internet Explorer (IE7 here, but it was similar in IE6), you can turn Auto-Complete on or off. Click Tools at the top of the screen, then Internet Options. Click the Content tab, then where it says Settings beside Auto-Complete. There are a number of boxes there which you can check or uncheck, depending on what you want Auto-Complete to store. Tools/Internet Options also enables you to delete your browser history. In IE7, the Favorites Center has a History feature which, when clicked, displays everything you've looked at in detail unless you delete the browser history. Pavel (talk) 09:19, 27 January 2009 (UTC)

720p vs 1366x768

Hi. Our article on 720p states that it is 1280x720 and mentions absolutely nothing about 1366x768. However, every single 720p TV I've seen advertised in South Africa has a resolution of 1366. Actually to be more accurate, they are always advertised as "HD Ready" rather than 720p. Similarly, 1080p TV's are advertised as "Full HD". Now at the moment we still don't have digital broadcasting although it WILL come in time for the 2010 FIFA World Cup. Not sure if it wll be 720 or 1080.

I'm looking to get an "HD Ready" LCD for gaming (Xbox360) and watching TV series via PC. So in light of all this, is there anything to be concerned about? If any of these sources are coming from a 720p signal, stretching it to 1366 would probably look terrible given how close the ratios are. On another note, I've noticed that most graphics cards (including the onboard graphics on my PC) only support 1360x768 as a standard resolution. What would happen to the extra 6 pixels? Will the display from the PC look absolutely horrible (trying to stretch itself horizontally)?

Nth question (how many is that now?): How did 1366x768 for TV's come about in the first place if the standard was 1280x720 for broadcasting and 1360x768 for graphics cards? Why choose a ratio that is not a standard? If anyone can untangle this whole mess I'd be grateful. Thanks. Zunaid 08:58, 27 January 2009 (UTC)

On my LCD TV, when I plug my computer into it and set it to the max resolution it allows, I believe it might have a few pixels of black at the top or bottom—it doesn't try to stretch it. This is with a MacBook, and not necessarily generalizable, but anyway, that's my little experience, if that helps. If I recall more completely, depending on the monitor mode I use in the MacBook (mirroring vs. multiple monitors), it works a bit differently... (one stretches a bit, one does not), but maybe I'm not remembering this right.. --140.247.241.150 (talk) 17:48, 27 January 2009 (UTC)

Take a look here: High-definition_television#High-Definition_Display_Resolutions, and you will see that 720p is 1280×720, or just a bit less than 1366x768 (WXGA). So, I would hope your screen will letter-box it (put black borders around it), instead of stretching, which could indeed introduce some distortions. StuRat (talk) 20:30, 27 January 2009 (UTC)

1280x768 (WXGA) has an aspect ratio of 15:9, the 16:9 equivalent of which is 1366x768. ((1280/15)*16 => 1365.3333). However, 1366 is not evenly divisible by 8, so 1366 gets rounded down to 1360. -- Fullstop (talk) 03:59, 28 January 2009 (UTC)

Pywikipedia code

Hello, where can I find (or how can I make) some code which I can use to have my bot copy automatically templates from other Wikipedias every X days? There are some templates which have to be updated often from the corresponding templates on other Wikipedias every now and then, and it would be great to be able to do that with a bot. I'm bad at pywikipedia programming so I hope someone can please lend me a hand. Thanks a lot. Leptictidium (mt) 09:24, 27 January 2009 (UTC)

Perl, Regex, translation, ARRRRRGGHHHHHHHH!

Microsoft Excel can understand January 1, 1911, Feb 2, 1922 but not Mar. 3, 1933. If the name of the month has a period in it, it fails to parse the date. So I am writing a simple Perl program to fix my text documents.

open (IN, "<dates_in.txt");

@test = <IN>;

$i = 0;

foreach (@test) {

    chomp($test[$i]);

    print $test[$i] . " - ";

    $test[$i] =~ tr/(Jan\.|Feb\.)/(January|February)/;

    print $test[$i] . "\n";

    $i++

}

For simplicity's sake, only two months are translated here. The output is beyond my wildest imagination:

Jan. 1, 1911 - Janu 1, 1911

Feb 2, 1922 - ry| 2, 1922

Mar. 3, 1933 - Maru 3, 1933

Apr. 4, 1944 - Apru 4, 1944

May 5, 1955 - May 5, 1955

Jun. 6, 1966 - Junu 6, 1966

Jul. 7, 1977 - Julu 7, 1977

Aug. 8, 1988 - Augu 8, 1988

Sep. 9, 1999 - Sypu 9, 1999

Oct. 10, 2000 - Octu 10, 2000

Nov. 11, 2001 - Novu 11, 2001

Dec. 12, 2002 - Dycu 12, 2002

What went wrong? -- Toytoy (talk) 10:40, 27 January 2009 (UTC)

You invoked transliteration (or translation) instead of substitution. s/tr/s/ -- 74.137.108.115 (talk) 11:15, 27 January 2009 (UTC)

But can I do many-to-many replacement? I tried:

$test[$i] =~ s/Jan\.|Feb\./January|February/;

It doesn't work at all. The "Replace With" part does not allow multiple one-on-one mapped alternatives (like "case" of flow control).

Surely I can do 11 replacements for each month except for May. But if the text files are huge, 11 replacements may take a long time to execute. What else can I do? -- Toytoy (talk) 12:01, 27 January 2009 (UTC)

Perhaps s/(Jan|Feb|Mar)\./$1/ is more to your liking? It doesn't expand the months, but it does remove the dots. -- 74.137.108.115 (talk) 12:39, 27 January 2009 (UTC)

If the text files only contain the dates, why not do a global search and replace, replacing "." with ""? - any text editor should be able to do that. Astronaut (talk) 13:00, 27 January 2009 (UTC)

I can solve my current problem by using the UltraEdit. However, I want to see if there's a way to do "case"-like replacement. For example, I can expand each country's shortened name to its full name (e.g. U.S. -> U.S.A. -> the United States of America) in a very large text file. Or I can use a complicated replacement program to simplify a HTML page downloaded from a web site. -- Toytoy (talk) 13:43, 27 January 2009 (UTC)

A slightly more complicated alternative is to add the 'e' option at the end of the regex, which causes Perl to eval the substitution string. So you could, for instance, create a hash mapping Jan=>January etc., then use s/(Jan|Feb|Mar)\./$hash{$1}/e to expand the months. -- 74.137.108.115 (talk) 13:11, 27 January 2009 (UTC)

This is a much more advanced solution. I guess that you can't use the 'o' option (compile once for all replacements), if the replacement is executed within a loop. But this is a much better solution. This may be used for other purposes, such as mapping an animal's English names against its scientific name (if one-to-one). Thank you! -- Toytoy (talk) 13:33, 27 January 2009 (UTC)

---

It looks like that Perl has a major bug.

%month = ("Jan" => "January", "Feb" => "February", "Mar" => "March", "Apr" => "April", "Jun" => "June", "Jul" => "July", "Aug" => "August", "Sep" => "September", "Sept" => "September", "Oct" => "October", "Nov" => "November", "Dec" => "December");

open (IN, "<dates_in.txt");

@test = <IN>;

$i = 0;

foreach (@test) {

    chomp($test[$i]);

    print     $test[$i] . " - ";

    $test[$i] =~ s/\b(Jan|Feb|Mar|Apr|Jun|Jul|Aug|Sep|Sept|Oct|Nov|Dec)\.?\b/$month{$1}/ge;

    print     $1 . " > " . $test[$i] . "\n";

    $i++

}

Perl fails to clear $1 (group 1) when there's no match, see May:

Apr. 4, 1944 - Apr > April 4, 1944

May 5, 1955 - Apr > May 5, 1955 <-- See the bug!

Jun. 6, 1966 - Jun > June 6, 1966

This is a potential source of unpredictable output. Larry Wall I want my money back.-- Toytoy (talk) 14:29, 27 January 2009 (UTC)

The s/// operator returns the number of replacements made (or a false value if that's 0). If you want to use $1 iff it's current, you need to say something like

if($test[$i]=~s/.../.../) {print $1,...;}

Hope that helps. --Tardis (talk) 15:54, 27 January 2009 (UTC)

If Perl was created by Microsoft, this bug is certainly a valuable "feature." But why did Perl have such a "feature"? Is there a reason to justify its existence? Can anyone name a good use of it? -- Toytoy (talk) 16:22, 27 January 2009 (UTC)

The documentation says "The numbered match variables ($1, $2, $3, etc.) and the related punctuation set ($+, $&, $`, $', and $^N) are all dynamically scoped until the end of the enclosing block or until the next successful match, whichever comes first.", so it's working as advertised. --Sean 18:32, 27 January 2009 (UTC)

[edit conflict] Perl, as you've already said, was created by Larry Wall. The man page perlre describes the feature as follows:

• NOTE: Failed matches in Perl do not reset the match variables, which makes it easier to write code that tests for a series of more specific cases and remembers the best match.

When you use s/.../.../g, you may do any number of matches in one statement; which value of $1 is so important for you to have afterwards, anyway? --Tardis (talk) 18:53, 27 January 2009 (UTC)

Internet

My internet connection is not working, I have been told by my provider that the problem is either with my cable from my modem to my computer or with my modem itself. I have however tested my conection with a different computer, and this workied, I have also tested all of these with other cables, and modems, I am now confident that the problem is with the provider in one way or another. The enat light on my modem, is off, and I hae been told this indicates a problem with my conection on my side. Now what I think the problemis is that there is one conection coming from outside the house, and then split into two in the hall way thus allowing myself and another person in the house access to the internet via two seperate Accounts. Could this be the problem or can any one who is more computer savvy than myself help me to fix the problem as I am tired of having to use other peoples computers to access my email, and my beloved wikipedia. Plese help. Thank you very much guys and girls. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 208.74.58.129 (talk) 13:10, 27 January 2009 (UTC)

It could be your computer's settings. However, the shared connection thing is worrying. Here in the UK, we are only allowed one ISP per physical connection to the phone exchange, and ADSL modems only allow one account to be set up in the modem. So, maybe your connection is not working because the other person is monopolising the modem and account. I suggest you talk with this other person and find out if they're having the same problem or if they changed anything. Astronaut (talk) 16:36, 27 January 2009 (UTC)

Epson Stylus Photo R2880 and Quality Photo Papers

A keen photographer, I am about to set up a mini studio where I can print my own work for exhibition, and have chosen the above printer as my first step. My only concern is that I am very inexperienced in choosing good quality paper to use in such printers to get the best quality. I am particularly keen on matte prints and plan to print largely in A4 and A3 sizes. Can anyone give me some good suggestions and some useful suppliers online?

Many thanks. Lukerees1983 (talk) 13:55, 27 January 2009 (UTC)

You could have a peek at http://epsonality.com/. Also kind of cool site. Lanfear's Bane | t 15:05, 27 January 2009 (UTC)

I'd suggest sticking with Epson's own line of papers to start with, as the printer driver should be optimized for their media. In my experience (in the US), the prices on their website are competitive and they often offer discounts and/or free shipping. --LarryMac | Talk 15:19, 27 January 2009 (UTC)

Seeking freeware program to compare two binary files

I had thought it would take seconds to find such a program on the internet, but I've now been searching for over an hour. I am seeking a windows freeware program that will compare the contents of two binary files and tell me if they are either exactly the same or different. Can anyone recommend one please? Note that this is not comparing text files, but comparing two binary files. The files names will be different. I would prefer to avoid bloatware, and highlighting of the differences of the files would be a bonus. Thanks. 78.146.240.116 (talk) 14:37, 27 January 2009 (UTC)

Our article diff has links to various implementations. Algebraist 14:41, 27 January 2009 (UTC)

(ec) In Unix/Linux, the program is called "diff". So, I just googled "diff for Windows" and found this as the first hit. For binary files, it will normally only say they are different since it can't print binary code nicely. -- kainaw™ 14:43, 27 January 2009 (UTC)

Would and MD5 check do the same thing? --Russoc4 (talk) 14:47, 27 January 2009 (UTC)

Usually, yes. Technically, no. If you just happen to have two files with an MD5 collision, it will say they are the same, but they are actually different. The same applies for all hashing techniques. Timewise, I doubt hashing will be any faster than diff. -- kainaw™ 14:53, 27 January 2009 (UTC)

Lets be clear about this: yes, comparing MD5s would work excellently. The chances that two files will collide is so vanishingly small (remember, there are vastly more possible MD5 checksums than there are atoms in the universe) that it is pretty much not possible. The only risk with doing that is that since MD5 has been shown to have some weaknesses, you could artificially create two files with the same MD5 hash, but it would take a long long time (I'm think it's essentially infeasible for anyone without a supercomputer), and that problem goes away if you just use another, safer, cryptographic hash like SHA-512.

As for comparing just two files, using hashes and just comparing them directly, then yes, they have the same computational complexity (straight comparison would probably be slightly faster, but not much). But if you had, say, 1000 files and find any two that are identical, hashing is much faster. In short: hashing files to check for equality is an excellent way to do it (btw, I realize that I'm going a little off-topic from the question. My apologies) Belisarius (talk) 21:59, 27 January 2009 (UTC)

Thank you for replies so far, but none of the links indicated (or links to the links) are Windows programs. It may be possible to get the GNU program to run in Windows if you have a degree in computer science, but I do not. There is a Wikipedia table comparing different file comparisons programs, but it ommits to record if they compare binary or merely text, and all the ones I have come across so far are only text. So I'm still looking please. Thanks again. 78.146.240.116 (talk) 15:21, 27 January 2009 (UTC)

The link provided by Kainaw (which is also linked from the article I pointed you to) is to a Windows program. It can be installed and used without a degree in computer science (though my testing cannot exclude the possibility that a degree in mathematics is required). Algebraist 15:35, 27 January 2009 (UTC)

Perhaps I took it for granted that "for Windows" was a very technical term for implying that a program was designed to work in Windows or that a link labeled "Complete Package" would download the complete program package so it could easily be installed. So, for non-computer-science people, go to the page linked above (which is titled Diff for Windows) and click on the link that says "Complete Package". You'll get an executable file. You should select the option to run the executable. After a lot of the normal "accept this license" and clicking ok-next-next-ok-ok-next-next..., you will have finished installing Diff for Windows. -- kainaw™ 15:40, 27 January 2009 (UTC)

See fc. It comes with all modern versions of Windows and can do what you want. Comparison of file comparison tools does have a "Binary comparison" column in the "Features" table, but for some reason it had neither yes nor no for fc. (I fixed it.) --Tardis (talk) 15:43, 27 January 2009 (UTC)

Thanks. Apart from fc (which is dos-in-windows), KDiff3 is the only other one listed which compares binary and is free. I have now also found the Comparison Of Hex Editors Table, and those that are both free and can compare are HxD, AviHex, and HHD Software Hex Editor Neo. The GNU diff page seems to indicate that it requires four or five other programs as well to work, and that it will not work interactively - so too complicated already. Thanks again. 78.146.240.116 (talk) 16:03, 27 January 2009 (UTC)

Fixing Extremely Long Startup Times On IBM Laptop

I have a friend who has a problem with her IBM Laptop. I haven't seen the laptop yet, so I don't knwo what type it is, but she says it is only two or three years old. She has also informed me that she uses a P2P software to download music, so I believe that it must be an adware/spyware/malware problem. I have told her I will try to fix it tomorrow, but in order to do so, I may need to get software that I can put on a USB to run on her system, without the huge start-up time (in excess of 20 minutes). What I want to do is get the computer to run as fast as possible so I can install the anti-spyware and anti-adware, as well as software to deal with the malware that may be present. I am doing this for free, so I don't want to have to burn a disk (which I would have to go and buy), so USB is the only option. Does anyone have any ideas here?--KageTora (talk) 15:46, 27 January 2009 (UTC)

I'd suggest booting into one of Windows's "safe modes" where a lot of extraneous crap isn't running. That'll probably be sufficient to install your anti-malware and clean things up. And seriously, how much do blank CDs cost over there? -- 74.137.108.115 (talk) 16:19, 27 January 2009 (UTC)

(ec) Try to find out which version or Windows your friend uses and whether or not they have the original install disk to hand (not a "recovery disk" which will wipe all your friend's data). You should be able to get the laptop to boot from that CD and repair the operating system. If the install disk is not available, you can put together a few tools on a USB drive (when downloading this software make sure it come from the official site rather then the first link you come across - some fakes exist made by malware makers):

• Download Process Explorer and Autoruns.
• Download a free Anti Virus program (I've used both AVG and Avira with no problems).
• Download some malware detection software (I've used Ad-aware and I've heard good things about Spybot - Search & Destroy).
• Download some rootkit detection software (I've used Icesword and Rootkit Revealer with no problems, though neither work with Windows Vista).
• HijackThis might also prove to be useful in case you have to turn to forums for help.
• A Linux Live USB might still be useful if there is room on the USB drive.

The next step is to boot your friend's laptop into safe mode (press F8 before Windows starts). Make sure it's disconnected from the internet. Use Process Exploer to look for unusual programs running. Use Autoruns to look at all the stuff that runs at boot time (again you're looking for unusual stuff - it is helpful if you are familiar with what is supposed to be there). Sweep the machine for viruses and malware. If it is still acting up, look for rootkits and go through the whole process again.

Astronaut (talk) 16:22, 27 January 2009 (UTC)

Yes, malware or something like it may certainly be the problem, but there is another possibility: anti-malware software. On not-so-hot computers, a firewall/anti-virus that's extra intrusive (it continually scans files and TCP streams and so forth) can completely cripple a computer. This is a particularly on computers with low memory, because those programs can take up hundreds and hundreds of megabytes and the OS has to constantly keep paging the stuff to the hard disk. I've seen it completely screw up boot time several times. I'm not recommending you to just plain remove security software, but keep that possibility in mind.

As for what programs to use, IMHO the most important one is Process Explorer (like my friend the space-traveller recommended). It gives you a complete inside look into what's going on at any given time. Look for things that shouldn't be there. Then use Autoruns to kill the useless stuff that's starts with the computer. And, oh yeah, do the whole malware/virus sweep thing :) Belisarius (talk) 01:55, 28 January 2009 (UTC)

Weather Radio Alarm

On my weather radio (I don't remember the model or anything), there is a setting which transmits a loud somewhat high-pitched beeping noise. That is the only thing it does. Do you have any idea what that is? There is a seperate setting for Weather Radio and normal radio, but I want to know what the alarm does. It is not a clock alarm beause my weather radio does not have a clock. Nick (talk) 16:35, 27 January 2009 (UTC)nicholassayshi

I've got a radio like that. On mine the documentation indicates that you're supposed to use the alarm as a sort of siren so that rescue workers can locate you.

I figure it would work because anyone who hears it would drop whatever they were doing to locate the radio so that they could turn it off. I'm not certain that they'd be inclined to rescue me, though.APL (talk) 16:54, 27 January 2009 (UTC)

Thats odd, because mine is periodic at random times. It is never on all the time. Any ideas?Nick (talk) 17:01, 27 January 2009 (UTC)nicholassayshi

Presumably if it remained on continuously it would a) run down the batteries significantly faster and b) possibly be undetected as background noise. By making an intermittent beep battery life can be preserved for ~10 times as long, and by making it semi-random it is more likely to catch the attention of potential rescuers (less likely to be discounted as background beeping). At least, that's my idea. -- 74.137.108.115 (talk) 21:31, 27 January 2009 (UTC)

A safe Php -> mail form

I'd like to add a simple "contact us" form to my website (which was written in php, which I don't know). While Google finds any number of "php email form" type things, I'm all too aware that, naively implemented, these things are susceptible to all kinds of misuse. Is there a simple, well-respected free (in both senses) php->smtp form that takes adequate care of escaping its inputs to make it safe for use? Thanks. Mimetic Polyalloy (talk) 17:40, 27 January 2009 (UTC)

Perl, regex, line number counter

Let's say I have the telephone directory of the NYC or Tokyo. There are several million entries and each entry counts as a line.

I want to do a pattern matching, e.g., all persons having the last name John or Johnson.

In Perl I can store all hits into an array.

How do I create a list of the hits with line numbers?

I can split the file into a million-line array or hash and use the loop and counter to solve this problem. If there's a match at Line No. 8,775,765, the hit and the number are saved.

This is certainly not a good idea. You have to execute regex several million times. If you have a very complex expression that requires "e" option, you may take a long vacation and forget about your computer.

Is there an easier way to do it? -- Toytoy (talk) 17:24, 27 January 2009 (UTC)

FYI:

$ wc wikipedia.all.titles 
4264251  4264251 85551445 wikipedia.all.titles

$ time perl -lne '$num_johnsons++ if /Johnson/; END { print $num_johnsons }' wikipedia.all.titles 
3278

real    0m2.763s
user    0m2.712s
sys     0m0.052s

--Sean 18:42, 27 January 2009 (UTC)

awk can do it too. It might be a bit easier than perl for some cases like this. --194.197.235.61 (talk) 19:32, 27 January 2009 (UTC)

On your average multigigaflop desktop computer doing a regex millions of times is not a big deal. However if you want to do this many times you may wish to build an index. One time you scan through the file, extract the surname, and then make a string indexed array with the value being all the record numbers that have that surname. Then you just have to look up the surname and count the record numbers it returns. Graeme Bartlett (talk) 20:18, 27 January 2009 (UTC)

The point wasn't awk vs. Perl, but man vs. machine. It took longer for me to type the brute force Perl one-liner than for it to execute, so it doesn't make sense to optimize it for runtime efficiency. --Sean 00:53, 28 January 2009 (UTC)

I meant easier as in having to think less writing that one-liner (of course it doesn't make much difference if you already know perl well as it seems to). --194.197.235.61 (talk) 14:20, 28 January 2009 (UTC)

Question about Linux

Hi all! I joined Wikipedia recently. I have a question about Linux, that is why is not Linux easily infected by Viruses? Asimsingh121 (talk) 17:42, 27 January 2009 (UTC)

Hello and welcome to Wikipedia! Unlike most other OS, Linux creates a special account on the computer, known as root or Superuser. The general user accounts in Linux do not have permission to access the system files and critical areas of Linux. Only the root has the permission to access them. So, even if the account of an user gets infected by a virus, only the areas are infected which are accessible to the user and not the critical areas. Another reason for this is that, Linux does not automatically execute the .exe files, which are the most probable files containing virus. So, Linux does not get easil infected by viruses. You may check out the Linux article for more information on this question. Thank you. Anirban16chatterjee (talk) 17:49, 27 January 2009 (UTC)

Welcome to Wikipedia! Hope you enjoy it here :) I'll get the snarky answer in first second (dam! beat me to it!), before everyone else weighs in with the "proper" answers. Let me answer your question with a question: who would bother to invade Timbuktu? Virus writers are looking for attention, they want to affect as many people as possible by their actions. Given that Linux has such pathetic market penetration amongst desktop users, 90% of the world wouldn't notice the virus's existence. If I were a virus writer I'd certainly put more effort into writing viruses for the OS that most people are using. It's the same reason why most software developers don't port their games to Linux, it just isn't worth the effort for the size of the market. I'll now politely give way to SteveBaker to explain about root privileges and the inherent security of Linux having been designed from the ground up as a networking OS. Zunaid 17:54, 27 January 2009 (UTC)

I've never really bought that argument. It may not be a common desktop OS, but there's plenty of high-profile web servers running Linux, and a virus that pwned those web servers would be a highly visible accomplishment. (By the same token, Code Red was a well-known worm, even though only a small fraction of Windows machines ran IIS.) -- Coneslayer (talk) 18:01, 27 January 2009 (UTC)

::Windows also has a vast, vast majority of the market share on PCs, so there isn't as much a market for viruses on Linux (if you could call it that). And I was beaten by an edit! Curse you, Zunaid!Livewireo (talk) 17:56, 27 January 2009 (UTC)

In answer to your question, the last people to attack (one doesn't normally speak of invading a city) Timbuktu seem to have been Tuareg rebels in the early 1990s. Algebraist 18:10, 27 January 2009 (UTC)

But that is not the answer to the question! And whom are you cursing? Me?! But for what reason? Anirban16chatterjee (talk) 18:00, 27 January 2009 (UTC)

Actually, Anirban16chatterjee, one thing I did not get from your answer, that is, what prevents the virus from accessing the root or superuser? Is it something like Windows Firewall or DEP? Asimsingh121 (talk) 18:04, 27 January 2009 (UTC)

The thing goes like that, the root or superuser has some other password, which is unknown to the virus. One may log into the root too and change the password. For example, in a machine with Redhat Lnux, the default superuser log in name is root and the default password is redhat or simply password. Thus it prevents the virus from accessing the root. Anirban16chatterjee (talk) 18:09, 27 January 2009 (UTC)

Oh! Now I acn understand. Thank you very much for making me understand. But can you tell me how to log on to root? (if we can do it) And, suppose one account named UserA gets infected, what should be done to delete the virus? Asimsingh121 (talk) 18:14, 27 January 2009 (UTC)

To log on to root, just type the word root in place of your user ID. And, you must know the root password which you should type in the password field. And, to delete the virus, you can delete the account of UserA from the root with all his/her documents from root. This will delete the virus too. If still the problem exists, then you should check out http://www.linuxburg.net/conhtml/sgs-scanners.html for downloading virus scanners for Linux. You may have heard of I love You virus of 2000-2001, which infected hundreds of Windows Computers, but not a single Linux Computer was infected. But still, gradually, the Kaspersky Lab has stated that there are still yet 800 malwares for Linux. So, we should better take care. Again, let me give you some more information. In 1997, a virus called Bliss was made which wasprimarily targeted to Linux. But the result was zero. So, don't worry, Linux is very secure. Although I am an admirer of Windows XP than that of Linux, still I appreciate the tough security of Linux-based Computers in general. Anirban16chatterjee (talk) 18:26, 27 January 2009 (UTC)

Thank you! That solves my question. Cheers. Asimsingh121 (talk) 18:28, 27 January 2009 (UTC)

Another slightly related note... On a Windows box, you just write a virus that infects the machine and tries to infect all other Windows machines. There are usually two reasons to do this. First, you are a pathetic person who just wants to cause trouble, so you write a virus to do damage to other computers. Second, you want to make use of a lot of computers (called a bot-net) to do things like send out tons of spam, so you write a virus to take over control of the computers. Windows is a great environment for both reasons. You can be an ass to a lot of people and/or control a lot of machines. In Linux, you won't get a lot of people mad or control a lot of machines, but you have the possibility of getting access to some rather important machines, such as financial databases. So, in Linux/Unix, the people who would normally be writing viruses spend their time simply trying to gain root access to the machine. With root access, they can gather the information they want and try to profit from it. It is mainly the usage of Linux/Unix that makes it less a target for virus activity. -- kainaw™ 22:51, 27 January 2009 (UTC)

RoseGarden Playback Feature

Moved from Entertainment desk:

Does anyone have any info about if RoseGarden, the sheet music engraver program that comes with Linux, has a playback feature with sounds for ALL or at least most of the instruments it features? I have never used before and I'm trying to research about it but the RoseGarden article here mentions the playback feature but does not specify about which instruments have that feature and the same info did I find in the RoseGarden official page. Any info would be very appreciated. PabloClark (talk) 02:12, 26 January 2009 (UTC)

Although I haven't used it a lot, I'll attempt to answer until someone more knowledgable comes along. The sheet music engraver program that comes with linux is Lilypond, which AFAIK does no playback. The article on Rosegarden states that it has no built-in software synthesizer, but can use other software synthesizers such as Fluidsynth, and it can also of course use hardware synthesizers or sound cards, provided there are drivers for the cards in question. With sound cards of the Soundblaster series, you can load Soundfonts, and will then get the instruments that are contained in the sound font. So General MIDI should work. I should add, that I've found working with midi under linux rather troublesome. Apart from silly (yet frustrating) things such as not loading a sound font and not turning up the volume, there are things such as conflicts between the sound card that I've installed, and sound chips on the motherboard that I've disabled in the BIOS, yet which still are detected by linux and preventing my sound card from working. And once I've got it working, if I decide to switch to another distro, it's the same story over again. It's one of the major issues that's keeping me from switching completely to linux. --NorwegianBlue ^talk 17:52, 27 January 2009 (UTC)

Thanks for moving the article and for the answer. I had read a bit about what you said but I hadn't really understood it. Because of the problems mentioned in the previous answer now I'm not sure RoseGarden is exactly what I need. To give you the context of my question I need to clarify that what I'd like to do with RoseGarden is basically create sheet music for the bass guitar, however, I didn't know if the program had the capability of playing back what I write using the sounds of the bass guitar, without having to get sound cards or anything as Norwegian Blue mentioned in his/her answer. I tried Rosegarden first because it's free, but a bit off the original question; for what I want to do with the program, what would be more easy for me (I'm not very knowledgeable about sheet engraver programs) to use; RoseGarden or Guitar Pro? Thanks for the answers!PabloClark (talk) 01:35, 28 January 2009 (UTC)

Which operating system do you intend to use? RoseGarden is linux-only, Guitar Pro is Windows and Mac, but not linux, according to the article. Also, do you want tablature or ordinary sheet music or both? --NorwegianBlue ^talk 14:27, 28 January 2009 (UTC)

You might want to take a look at the list Category:Scorewriters. I've used the Windows version of Sibelius in the past for arranging vocals, and found it reasonably user-friendly, with beautiful output. --NorwegianBlue ^talk 21:50, 28 January 2009 (UTC)

SWF

Anyone know of any open source SWF player that allows you to skip frame? Thanks. 99.226.138.202 (talk) 19:02, 27 January 2009 (UTC)

I don't have any experience with them, so I can't tell for sure, but I think that Gnash and Swfdec are the premier open source flash players. So I'd check them out, if I were you. Belisarius (talk) 21:00, 27 January 2009 (UTC)

US Government Digital Certificate

Anyone know where I can find the United States Government's root digital certificate? --Melab±1 ☎ 19:28, 27 January 2009 (UTC)

I'm not sure what you mean by "root digital certificate". The whitehouse.gov site has an SSL certificate with an 1024 bit RSA key, the public part of which starts with "30 81 89 02 81 81 00" and goes on for a while. Is that what you mean? It can be found by going to https://whitehouse.gov and right-clicking and examining the page information (I use Google Chrome in an odd Teutonic language, so I don't know what the specific menu items and such say) Belisarius (talk) 21:26, 27 January 2009 (UTC)

Unix security model

Is the superuser model really suitable for modern OSes? Reading about the trojan on the iLife torrents really made me think... is the superuser model any better than the everyone-is-admin "model" that Windows uses? Viruses and rootkits may start using these social engineering attacks to gain root access, so Unix systems are only slightly more secure than Windows systems. Plus, Windows does have a better security model, even if it's not used - ACLs for all processes/threads/files/objects, privileges (GNU/Linux has PolicyKit though), etc. Can anyone point me towards any resources/papers on this subject? All the stuff on the web seems to be fanboy-type material biased against Windows. Thanks in advance. --wj32 ^t/c 21:58, 27 January 2009 (UTC)

Unix, including GNU/Linux, also has ACLs, btw. The trouble with ACLs has been, on Windows as well as Unix, that in practice administering the roles involved and the permissions available turns out to be a complex affair - it's manageable on a nailed-down system but becomes very complex in many real-world cases, such that ACLs aren't really used to full effect on any platform. Secondly Windows isn't "everyone-is-admin", merely "first user is admin"; if a multi-user system is routinely set up with everyone as admin, it's set up wrongly. Just like on Linux, admin privileges should be granted only to people who know what they're doing. That admin privileges end up in the hands of both windows and linux users who don't really know what they're doing is a social problem (stemming from the way in which computers and OSes are distributed and sold at retail), and bar a draconian law that says "you only get admin/root on machine you own when you pass a test of competency", enforced by something like TPM, there's no technical solution to that (it sure ain't ACLs). That inevitable, if unfortunate, profligacy of admin/root to the unqualified means that, as you say, these systems are susceptible to social-engineering-based attacks ("install megacursor now!!!"); no technical solution can exist to fix that if the computer's incompetent owner has the keys to override the security. One might argue that our society requires people who operate powerful, dangerous machines like forklifts and cars and nailguns to take classes and pass tests before they're allowed to use them where misuse might harm others; computers are powerful machines too (and hugely more complex than a car) and are available to everyone with no qualification. Every time you receive a spam you've been victimised by the incompetence of someone who allowed their computer to be come a spam proxy. Now there is a solution to this, but it's a social one, and as I noted above, it's very draconian. You have (say) two categories of computer - "open" and "closed". Closed systems are remotely administered (by AOL, or Microsoft, or Comcast, or whoever) and stuff like software updates and backup are done by them, en masse. Only approved applications can be run. To get an "open" computer, one like you have now, to which you have full admin access and can do what you like, you have to pass a test, and maybe a background check, and probably post a bond or provide evidence of insurance (insurance that will compensate anyone harmed by your maladministration of your own machine). This would, by and large, put paid to viruses, spyware, trojans, and probably to most spam too. But it's a police state; inevitably those external parties contracted to manage the computers of ordinary people will seek to run their networks to their own advantage - so you'll get no p2p apps, no dvd ripping, and the browser and IM client and mail program they, and not you, choose. This essentially is how most non-trivial business installs are (whether windows or unix), but introducing it to everyone is a drastic step. Right now the freedom to install and set up your own computer is the freedom to grant too much privilege to the wrong people, and thus the freedom to screw all kinds of stuff up. Like the song says, freedom isn't free. 87.113.74.22 (talk) 22:38, 27 January 2009 (UTC)

Well, what I really meant by "everyone-is-admin" is that most people who use Windows choose to be admin because they can't be bothered to use a restricted account/UAC. Surely, there must be a way to minimize the risk/damage of viruses by having some sort of a mechanism-policy system? I guess this is where GNU/Linux will succeed in the future with PolicyKit. Windows won't be getting anything similar anytime soon... --wj32 ^t/c 22:49, 27 January 2009 (UTC)

PolicyKit is clearly an improvement - particularly if, as I think it does, it addresses the perennial unix snafu whereby a process has to be (effectively) root to open a privileged port, meaning that (historically, less so now) far far too much code was running as root (although decent programing can mostly avoid this already). A few years ago I did have the idea of using "security envelopes" for each application, which enumerated in detail what a given application could do (that, by itself, is kinda how security is handled for Applets and other downloadable content in Java2). But to be useful it needs two wrinkles - firstly the envelope itself can (optionally) have some executable code (because defining what a given application can and cannot do in a purely declarative language isn't enough. Secondly break with Java2's model of having the security descriptor packaged with the program (which returns us to the "install this or not" question to an unqualified person, which is the same pointless exercise as UAC). Instead you subscribe to one (or several) envelope-feeds, wherein a trustworthy third party provides the envelopes for applications. On Ubuntu (say) you'd get an envelope feed from Canonical, and you'd pay a few dollars a month for a second feed from McAfee. The feeds verify apps by checksum, and if an app tries to exceed its envelope you get a warning. That's like UAC, but you never see it unless a known app is misbehaving, so average users don't get conditioned into always approving, the way UAC tends to. This is, kinda, like ACLs but with the complexity outsourced to someone knowledgeable and kept up-to-date as applications evolve. It's still an issue how you handle an envelope-transgression by default (on a system Joe Bloggs set up for himself). I'd probably default to simply saying "SuperMegaCursor as tried to do something that McAfee Lovelyshield doesn't like, so SuperMegaCursor has been stopped". There's still an avenue for social-engineering-attack (as inevitably there would have to be an admin-level override for stuff), but the evil authors of the trojan would have to say on their page "make sure to disable your McAfee security before installing SuperMegaCursor", which hopefully regular users can't be trained not to do. Doing all this without killing system performance is a challenge (some security enhanced OSes do a simpler version of this, and it does indeed hurt). I guess this is a half-way-house between the police-state, above, and the current anarchy. 87.113.74.22 (talk) 23:18, 27 January 2009 (UTC)

Or perhaps it's simpler to just mandate that everyone who connects to the internet must have "internet insurance", to compensate for any problems their systems might cause. You get a steep no-claims discount for not being a malware victim, and maybe other discounts if you (as a home user) can show you're using a modern OS, proper security software, and you have some qualification in administering the thing. That way a) it's people who don't manage their machines properly who pay more and b) the insurer is incentivised to improve client security - and historically insurer have been pretty good at forcing safety improvements on other products, rather better either than regulators or consumers. 87.113.74.22 (talk) 23:35, 27 January 2009 (UTC)

To get back to the original question, yes, it is unquestionably more secure to use the GNU/Linux model of regular users having very few permissions (this is called the Principle of least privilege, btw). It's true, if a malicious hacker is able to use social engineering to fool you into installing a certain software, and you give that software the permission it needs to wreak havoc on your computer, then obviously the hacker has succeeded despite a regular user only having limited access.

But here's the thing: security is never an "all or nothing" proposition. Just because there is a possibility that a devious person can get around an obstacle doesn't mean that the obstacle is completely useless. It's certainly possible that a thieve can pick a lock, but that doesn't mean you necessarily leave your door open when you go on holiday. It's even possible that he can hack your alarm system, but that doesn't mean it's stupid to buy it in the first place. The lock on the door and the alarm will make it significantly more difficult for a burglar to rob your house, so they're definitly not "useless".

Lets consider a real life example of a breach of computer integrity: say that there's a buffer overflow vulnerability in your browser, and just by entering a certain web-page a malware author is able to execute arbitrary code (not an uncommon way to infiltrate computers). If the browser is running with administrative privileges, the code can do anything; it can install viruses, bots, worms, trojans, adware, spyware, even rootkits which makes these things pretty much impossible to detect. If the browser is running with lower privileges, the damage that the code can do is severely limited. It can't modify the OS, it can make it so a certain process starts every time the computer starts, it cannot in any way harm the other users of the system. It's possible that it can find a buffer overflow in the OS itself, so that it's able to elevate it's own privileges, and do all the things it wants. But that's a significantly harder to do, you've presented the author with a significant, almost undefeatable, obstacle.

The fact is, your argument can be applied to pretty much any computer security equipement. Firewalls, anti-virus software, non-admin accounts, routers, rootkit detectors, passwords, encryption, etc. can all be defeated one way or another (well, really good encryption can't, but then it has to be really good). Does this mean that these things are all useless? No, of course it doesn't! But they are going to make you much safer. Belisarius (talk) 00:35, 28 January 2009 (UTC)

My point was that Unix-type (desktop) systems are only slightly more secure than Windows (or at least the way most newbies run it) if the user is attacked using social engineering. Thanks for the replies. Anyway, this is turning into a discussion... --wj32 ^t/c 02:37, 28 January 2009 (UTC)

how to print a wikipedia article to pdf file

I'm having trouble printing an article to a PDF file. I can "print it" to a pdf file, but sometimes a page is missing (e.g. if i print an article that is 5 pages long, page 2 will be blank for some weird reason). Please help me correct this. thanks. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Nippon22 (talk • contribs) 23:42, 27 January 2009 (UTC)

What article are you looking at, and how exactly are you converting it to PDF? Algebraist 23:46, 27 January 2009 (UTC)

You are using a PDF printer, I assume. The output depends on two things:

1. the web browser (IE, Chrome, Safari, Firefox, Opera, ...) rendering the pages, and
2. the PDF printer (e.g. PDFCreator).

You can make sure that the PDF printer is working properly, by trying to use it with another application, e.g. a word processor. You could also try to print using another web browser. --Andreas Rejbrand (talk) 08:37, 28 January 2009 (UTC)

January 28

found it, but what's it called?

I've found what I was looking for in my previous post: it's the square-shaped thingy that appears at 19 seconds in the MegaWhat video on this page. Does anyone know what this is called? flaminglawyer 00:54, 28 January 2009 (UTC)

The device on the video at 00:19 (after the dude on the Roland drum kit and before the Coke machine) looks like the back end of some sort of digital camera. Cycle~ (talk) 01:02, 28 January 2009 (UTC)

Damn, you're right. I've been conned by my own brain! flaminglawyer 01:14, 28 January 2009 (UTC)

Resolved

Diode Matrix ROM

How does a diode Matrix Rom Work? Can I construct a diode matrix only with four LED's and 9 diodes, if yes then HOW? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 120.138.111.178 (talk) 04:49, 28 January 2009 (UTC)

A diode matrix ROM has multiple address lines, each of which is connected to a number of output lines using diodes. When the first address line is active, any output lines that are connected with a diode will become active. Similarly, when the second address line is active any output lines that are connected to it with a diode will become active. Here is an example circuit diagram from this project on instructables. You can easily construct the left half of this circuit using your specified materials (plus two switches and four resistors). Here is a historical example of one diode matrix ROM panel. -- 74.137.108.115 (talk) 06:17, 28 January 2009 (UTC)

Wow! That takes me back. I once hand-wired a 30 byte diode matrix containing a ROM paper tape loader subroutine...ROM chips were prohibitively expensive and that was the only way to boot my hand-built Intel 8008 home computer. Debugging hand-assembled-binary software while also finding dry joints and diodes put in backwards is TOUGH! SteveBaker (talk) 02:25, 29 January 2009 (UTC)

iTunes and MP3s and WMAs

I'm fairly computer literate and I'm also a musician and a songwriter. But my girlfriend is computer illiterate. She's curious in my music and would like to add the tracks I've written and performed by myself into her iTunes library. The problem is that (in the end) she's having trouble listening to my songs on her iTuns. I recorded my songs mostly WMP but also a few MP3 files. My computer illiterate girlfriend says that she has problems importing them into her computer. (I assume because they're not in Apple's proprietary format? You knows?). So my question is actually pretty simple. How do I add songs into iTunes library if the songs are MP3s or WMAs? A Quest For Knowledge (talk) 05:14, 28 January 2009 (UTC)

As you'll see from the section immediately below, I am no Mac expert. But I think VLC media player may be your answer. -- Hoary (talk) 05:30, 28 January 2009 (UTC)

iTunes can convert from WMA to MP3 or AAC (both of which work with iTunes/iPod). A problem would only arise if you've made your WMAs with Digital Restrictions Management (DRM). And although Apple does have their own proprietary format for loseless audio, Apple Lossless, they seem to prefer AAC. --wj32 ^t/c 07:17, 28 January 2009 (UTC)

Well, let's ignore the issue of WMAs. There has to be a way to get iTunes to play MP3s, right? I mean, how can the world's most popular media player not play the world's most popular media format? A Quest For Knowledge (talk) 11:47, 28 January 2009 (UTC)

Why are you thinking that it doesn't? You do realize that the iTunes store recently stopped selling protected songs and is now selling mp3's? iTunes, like iPods, are 100% compatible with mp3's... as long as you converted it right. If you just took a WMV file and changed the file extension, that would be a problem. flaminglawyer 12:52, 28 January 2009 (UTC)

iTunes Store non-DRM files are still AAC, not MP3. --LarryMac | Talk 13:38, 28 January 2009 (UTC)

Well, I don't use iTunes. (I use Windows Media Player and MediaMonkey.) This is just what someone else is saying. I'm just trying to help her figure it out. Anyway, I'm downloading iTunes right now so I should be able to figure it out. Sometimes, it's hard for computer-savy people to explain to non-computer savy people how to do things on their computer so I was hoping maybe somebody already created a step-by-step guide, preferably with screenshots. A Quest For Knowledge (talk) 13:37, 28 January 2009 (UTC)

I've never had trouble getting MP3s to work with iTunes. You add them to the library (in the file menu) like you would any other kind of file. --98.217.14.211 (talk) 00:38, 29 January 2009 (UTC)

Resolved

Genuinely standalone Mac OS X installation

Last night I set up a brand new Mac 10.5 computer, straight out of the box, for a friend. She connects to the net via modem [remember those?] and plans to get a 21st-century-style net connection within days, but anyway I thought we'd get the main hardware up and running first and only then connect it to the world. So I arrived with an external HD brimming with goodies like NeoOffice and Inkscape that I definitely wouldn't want to get via modem.

No modem jack on the back. Well, no big surprise there; Apple got rid of FDDs decades ago.

What did come as a surprise was to be asked during initial setup which of four available wireless networks I wanted to use. Uh, no thanks; click return to previous screen. (Or whatever it would be called in English; by this time the computer was already talking in Japanese.) However, unless I overlooked something (and I looked very hard), there's no option to bypass selection of some conduit to the web. So, forward again. Luckily one of the wireless networks wasn't password protected so I used that. [My apologies, Mr/Ms unknown neighbor.] The connection wasn't a bad one, and I forgot how to prevent NeoOffice from updating itself to the tune of tens of megabytes.

It made me wonder, though: What's one supposed to do with no net connection during installation? Or is a net connection mandatory? The section of the Mac OS X article about hardware compatibility doesn't mention any requirement for net access. No urgency here, since I got the job done: just wondering.

(Feel free to tell me to RTFM, though I have to say that TFM is petite and seemingly full of vital stuff like reminders of the need to connect to a power supply.) -- Hoary (talk) 05:30, 28 January 2009 (UTC)

One thought: Perhaps if you chose a type of network which isn't available, it would have given you an error message, and then allowed you to retry or continue without a network connection. I agree that they should either give you an option to install without a network connection right up front or else make it very clear on the box/packaging that this is a network-only computer. Even for people who want to use it with a network, they might quite possibly want to install and test the computer first, before adding the network connection. This would be a good way to tell, for example, if it's slow because of the network connection or for some other reason. StuRat (talk) 15:49, 28 January 2009 (UTC)

It wasn't that simple. Another network had a three-letter name but required a password. First I tried a zero-length password (a stab at the enter key) and was told I was wrong, then I tried using the same three letters as the network name and was told that was wrong. No "Hey, wanna give up?" option. Well, I'm happy I could "piggyback", and I'm happier today to learn this wonderful new verb for what I did and also that "piggybacking" is only thought by some people to be a sin that will damn me to burn eternally in a vat of molten lead as cackling devils thrust their white-hot pitchforks into my sizzling flesh. (Or so I hazily recall the scenes from some rather good old paintings.) -- Hoary (talk) 16:14, 28 January 2009 (UTC)

I don't know about OS X but I know that on some Windows installs you must connect to the internet in order to register your serial number with them or something along those lines. If you can't do that, there's a number you can call in the manual and someone at the other end reads off a string of numbers that you type in to prove you called them. Or something like that. But again, that might not apply here, but I suspect there's some way to do it (for the simple reason that there are just so many imaginable situations in which you couldn't have a network connection without yet having the computer set up). --98.217.14.211 (talk) 16:29, 28 January 2009 (UTC)

Yes, 'Doze XP and beyond, and for something like "product activation", if I remember correctly. But with OS X it was, or seemed to be, different: I wasn't given any OK from Apple ("Thank you! We've verified that your Mac isn't a Chinese knock-off! Congratulations on buying the real thing, made in Taiwan!"). Instead, there seems to be an over-eager assumption that you are connected to the world, and a desire to get this working smoothly. And I agree with the last part of what you say too. -- Hoary (talk) 01:00, 29 January 2009 (UTC)

Biggest non-white contribs to comp sci

What are the greatest contributions to computer science that have been made by non-white people? NeonMerlin 06:18, 28 January 2009 (UTC)

• The medieval Muslims win this, hands down, for inventing programmable machines, cryptography, and the algorithm (named after Al-Khwarizmi, who first broke down computations with Arabic numerals into precise steps). See history of computer science. If you're looking for contributions to modern digital computing, though, the answer won't be as clear. rspεεr (talk) 09:05, 28 January 2009 (UTC)
  • Egyptians used cryptography 5000 years before the invention of Islam, see History of cryptography. The first known analog computer, from Greece, predates Islam by 700 years, see History of computer science. Al-Khwarizmi's name was adopted into Latin by a grammatical mistake and misunderstanding of a book title; although he was one of the mathematicians who worked on step-by-step calculations, saying that he invented algorithms is a rather gross exaggeration. Please let's keep the urban legends to a minimum. 88.112.34.160 (talk) 09:38, 28 January 2009 (UTC)
    • Al-Khwarizmi wrote down arithmetic algorithms using Arabic numerals. His contemporaries should get credit too, but we don't know their names. Algorithms were named after him because he had his name on the book, even if it was a grammatical mistake.
      I am largely going by history of computer science here, in which Muslim mathematics plays what I would say is the largest role in the early history of computing. I do not mean to discount contributions made by the Egyptians, Indians, Greeks, or Chinese, or quibble over who did it first. rspεεr (talk) 19:18, 28 January 2009 (UTC)
• Here's a place to start for modern computing: Manindra Agrawal, Neeraj Kayal, and Nitin Saxena developed the AKS primality test. For showing how to determine whether a number was prime in polynomial time, they won the 2006 Gödel Prize. rspεεr (talk) 09:14, 28 January 2009 (UTC)

You also could browse Category:Computer scientists by nationality: Category:Chinese computer scientists, Category:Japanese computer scientists, and Category:Indian computer scientists all have several members. --Maltelauridsbrigge (talk) 12:09, 28 January 2009 (UTC)

White House email

According to this article, the White House's domain is who.eop.gov. I figure the "who" stands for White House but what does "eop" stand for? Dismas|^(talk) 09:44, 28 January 2009 (UTC)

That would be the Executive Office of the President of the United States, I believe. -- Captain Disdain (talk) 09:53, 28 January 2009 (UTC)

web page not updating

A website I'm viewing is not updating when I go to it. I know its updated a few times over the last few days because I've viewed it on other computers. But I am seeing a page from a few weeks ago and I can't seem to get a more up to date page. I'm guessing its a problem with my browser (firefox) but I don't know how to fix it. Thanks in advance for any help. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 144.137.211.202 (talk) 11:20, 28 January 2009 (UTC)

Try Ctrl+F5 to clear the cache. –Capricorn42 (talk) 11:33, 28 January 2009 (UTC)

Or there's ⇧ Shift+F5 on some browsers, or ⇧ Shift while clicking reload. These are all browser-specific. flaminglawyer 12:34, 28 January 2009 (UTC)

In the (old) version of Firefox I'm using now, it's F5 or Ctrl-R (Shift-F5 does nothing). -- Hoary (talk) 16:18, 28 January 2009 (UTC)

That's just to reload. We're talking about clearing the cache, which is totally different. On Firefox it's Shift while clicking reload. flaminglawyer 19:31, 28 January 2009 (UTC)

I like that tag for displaying the keys... very cool - learning something new all the time. Ched (talk) 01:45, 29 January 2009 (UTC)

Me too, I didn't even realise until you said it. I kinda assumed flaming has uploaded images. 86.145.152.5 (talk) 06:37, 29 January 2009 (UTC)

TCP/IP

hi... whats meaning of the swift segment using TCP/IP? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Ramky singh (talk • contribs) 16:37, 28 January 2009 (UTC)

I'd never heard of it before but it is a TCP modification to change the method of flow control and re-establishment. Technically it's a whole new transport layer protocol designed for satelite systems. This is the primary article [6] and the abstract will give you some basic info. Shadowjams (talk) 02:09, 29 January 2009 (UTC)

sound in Firefox

Argh. Suddenly I get no sound from Youtube. (It worked before my last reboot.) What gives? I'm using Firefox on MacOS (current versions). —Tamfang (talk) 17:51, 28 January 2009 (UTC)

Might be a problem with the flash plugin, try re-installing here —Preceding unsigned comment added by 82.43.88.87 (talk) 21:29, 28 January 2009 (UTC)

Calculating values that add up to a given sum in Excel

Hi, I have a question about MS Excel, and while I suspect the answer is "It can't be done", I figured I'd at least try.

My problem is this: Say I have a large group of numbers, and I need to know if there is a combination of them that add up to a specified separate number, is there an easy way to do this?

For (a really simple) example, let's say I have the following numbers:

1, 3, 10

and I need to know if any of them add up to 13. Is there a formula (or other method) I can use that will give a 'True' value for this? My list of figures is pretty huge, and so I suspect this may be beyond Excel's capabilities (it would have to, I imagine, calculate the sum of every combination of two or more numbers and try and match them to my specified number(s)), but even a long shot is worth a try, right? Any assistence would be gratefully received. Phileas (talk) 17:54, 28 January 2009 (UTC)

This may be of at least some interest to you. Cheers,—Ëzhiki (Igels Hérissonovich Ïzhakoff-Amursky) • (yo?); 18:14, January 28, 2009 (UTC)

See here and related message board thread here. Mike R (talk) 18:23, 28 January 2009 (UTC)

See also here. Mike R (talk) 18:27, 28 January 2009 (UTC)

Excellent! That's great! Thanks for your help! Phileas (talk) 19:14, 28 January 2009 (UTC)

Resolved

Perl, regex, distinct matches

In Perl, you can store the regex matches into an array.

Can Perl only store distinct matches? I mean it may act like SQL's SELECT DISTINCT * FROM blah.

For example, I want to store all distinct words (no numbers) of an article into an array. I may use the array of distinct words for other purposes. -- Toytoy (talk) 18:12, 28 January 2009 (UTC)

Have you tried searching Google? Generally, hashes enforce distinct values; arrays do not (though they can be post-processed). – 74 18:51, 28 January 2009 (UTC)

Idiomatic Perl for getting distinct values would look like:

$hash{$_}++ for split ' ', $article;
my @distinct_words = keys %hash;

--Sean 20:08, 28 January 2009 (UTC)

January 29

Unexplained internet activity

My windows icon for network activity lights up frequently when I'm not using the LAN/internet. When I pull up the 'Local Area Connection Status' there will typically be more packets sent than received. I have a router, asdl modem, 'Windows Live One Care' virus and spyware monitoring, and my firewall is on. I realize that some of my programs auto update, but it can't be as frequently as my light flashes. The unexplained network activity is really driving me nuts.

How can I easily find out what's autonomously pumping through my LAN/internet connection when I'm not using it? Is there a simple little monitor or shell program that will show where the data packets are going to/from, like a scrolling shell where I can watch it in real time without having to open a log file. I'd really like to know what Windows is doing with my computer. thanks. TungstenCarbide (talk) 00:46, 29 January 2009 (UTC)

Get a packet analyzer, or a software firewall like ZoneAlarm. --98.217.14.211 (talk) 01:21, 29 January 2009 (UTC)

A packet analyzer would help tell you what the info is. It could be something as nasty as spyware calling home, or something benign as your AV software checking for updates or IM proggie checking for activity. Ched (talk) 01:42, 29 January 2009 (UTC)

I wouldn't be too concerned if this is the only symptom. Installing a packet analyzer is a good idea, and you will be amazed how much ambient traffic exists even on your own personal network. The internet is worse. My recommendation would be Wireshark, which is both open-source and free. Shadowjams (talk) 01:56, 29 January 2009 (UTC)

If you don't want to install anything, you could also try the built in command "netstat" (in windows, mac, and linux, it's the same). This will show you what connections are in use. Generally it only works for TCP connections since UDP is connectionless. In windows you will probably want to use the following command netstat -o 15.

The command netstat -h will tell you more options. Shadowjams (talk) 02:04, 29 January 2009 (UTC)

You might also consider installing a personal firewall (compared here) on your computer. Typically they can be configured to only allow connections to and from specifically authorized applications, such as your web browser. If any other program attempts to connect, you will be alerted to the program's identity and given the option to allow of deny the current (and future) connections for that program. This should help you track down what connections are being made, although not what information is being passed. -- Tcncv (talk) 05:24, 29 January 2009 (UTC)

Do also read this thought-provoking page. -- Hoary (talk) 11:52, 29 January 2009 (UTC)

I believe what you are looking for is TCPView from www.sysinternals.com Sandman30s (talk) 12:02, 29 January 2009 (UTC)

No program-writing program

One of the few things computers still can't seem to do adequately is write programs. Is this because it's not actually possible to create a satisficing general-purpose program-writing program, or just because no programmers want to render themselves obsolete by creating one? NeonMerlin 05:36, 29 January 2009 (UTC)

The essential thing the programmer does is provide information. For example, "when this happens, we should do this". I can imagine a program for writing programs, but it would then need to ask a person a great deal of questions to figure out exactly how the program should work. Let's take a very simple program to "ask a person their name, then print it backwards". The program-writing program would have to ask "how long can the name be ?" and "by backwards, do you mean 'John Doe' becomes 'nhoJ eoD' or 'eoD nhoJ' ?". StuRat (talk) 06:05, 29 January 2009 (UTC)

Right, for general purpose program-writing program we have to wait till Artificial intelligence software becomes reality. For limited use, Wizard (software) are useful. Many Integrated development environment software offer wizard that take input from end user and create (sample) programs (to demonstrate concepts of programming language). manya (talk) 07:19, 29 January 2009 (UTC)

I'm pretty sure the programmer who was able to accomplish such a task (assuming such a task is possible) would be both obsolete and obscenely wealthy. Yeah, I'd say if it were possible today it would definitely have been done already. Although, in a way we do have programs capable of making other programs: we call 'em compilers. Unfortunately, the use of these compilers requires significant domain knowledge and training. There have been several efforts over the years to provide so-called natural language programming, but Dijkstra argued such was foolishness. The problem is that any sufficiently robust system exhibits the inner-platform effect anti-pattern: to provide as many features as the original platform, the inner platform ends up at least as complex. Other efforts have focused on visual programming with slightly more success, notably Simulink, but that program is focused primarily on system simulation using discrete (individually separable) components, which is a tiny fraction of a generic programming language's solution space, and still requires significant domain knowledge to operate. In essence, this question is like asking "why isn't there an automated assembly line that anybody can use to make automated assembly lines?" – 74  07:32, 29 January 2009 (UTC)

To expand on a point that 74 briefly made: There are program-writing programs, they're just not magical or intelligent. Compilers are certainly program-writing programs, and so are more specific programs like parser generators. Also, many dynamic Web pages need to write JavaScript programs on the fly. The reason that program-writing programs don't make programming obsolete is that you still have to be able to precisely tell them what to do, which is programming. A program-writing program that did not itself have to be programmed would have to be able to take imprecise requirements and turn them into a precise sequence of steps, which would require an AI equivalent to an educated computer programmer. rspεεr (talk) 08:16, 29 January 2009 (UTC)

It's because it's not possible to create anything remotely close to app that writes apps. Think about it this way. Before you can even begin to write an app, you have gather business requirements. So first, the program would have to be able to have actual discussions with human beings and have it actually understand what people are talking about. Those don't even exist right now and might never be possible.

People sometimes get the impression that computers are intelligent because they can perform complex calculations very quickly. The reality is that computers are extremely stupid. According to our AI article, no program can even pass the Turing test which is an very poor indicator of intelligence. The Turing test doesn't even measure intelligence. It measures the ability to trick a human into thinking it's human. A better indicator would be an actual IQ test which I severely doubt that any of these programs could score higher than a 0. A Quest For Knowledge (talk) 14:19, 29 January 2009 (UTC)

In addition to the information gathering portion, there also has to be an estimation phase. That is, what resources would be required to complete the task. Often, a programmer has to say "we can't do that, but how about if we do this, instead, which should be just as good or even better". A programmer often suggests additions, too, like "since we're printing out all these error messages, wouldn't it make sense to store them in an error log, too ?". So, this program-writing program would not only need to follow instructions, but make suggestions, too. Also, programmers must deal with faulty info. For example, I've had documentation that says "you provide this input to this call and it returns this output", but I've found the documentation is wrong in some way, so updated it myself. You can also get specs which are illogical, and must figure out where the error is, rather than implement them. StuRat (talk) 14:26, 29 January 2009 (UTC)

The act of computer programming, is to precisely describe what you want the computer to do. That process is being simplified all the time, and there are many simplified, or graphical programming languages. I don't understand how that process could be removed entirely.

I suppose you're imagining a programming language that is the same as conversational English. If that's the case you've got a long time to wait. Natural language processing is one of the most difficult problems in computer science, we are not anywhere near a general solution. APL (talk) 14:36, 29 January 2009 (UTC)

We have to be rather careful about how we answer this. First and foremost, in order for some 'program writing program' to know what program to write - we have to tell it. The form in which we tell it is...what? ...It's another program! Even if you somehow managed to have it accept standard English, you'd still have to say "Look up every one of my employees in the company database, look at how much they earn and write out a check for their monthly salary putting their name and address into the appropriate box on the envelope.". But I'm not sure you really want natural language English here because it's too ambiguous. I remember trying to write a natural language 'adventure' game - it's really not easy: "Hit the Wizard in the head using the sword"...OK, no problem..."Hit the Wizard in the cave using the sword"...ah...not so easy is it? So we tend to want to use a form of language that's a little more formal and is defined unambiguously. That's just a programming language. Your first reaction will to avoid things like C++ :

• template <class T> const void *Get ( T &x ) { x = 6 ; return &x ; }

... and instead use

• "ADD A TO B AND MULTIPLY BY C GIVING D"

...but sadly, that's a language called 'COBOL' which is probably the most hated language on the planet!

So where all of this leads us is to a program writer that uses a formal language which is not horribly verbose. That program-writer is what we call a 'compiler' and we use them all the time!

The issue is how high-level the language is. Very high level languages do exist - but they tend to be limited to small problem-domains. Very general-purpose languages tend to be quite low level.

Attempts have been made to make 'full-scale' program writers - one that comes to mind was arrogantly named "The Last One"[7] (meaning 'the last program that'll ever be written') - but it was a total disaster.

Many people have claimed to make 'program writers' using graphical input such as flow charts. If you buy a Lego Mindstorms system - it' comes with a flow-chart-like program generator. But in truth that's no different from conventional programming - except that you are doing it graphically instead of with a text editor - which may be a little less intimidating for the neophyte - but for people who do this for a living, it's frustrating as all hell! But it has it's place. I've just finished writing a graphical programming language to let artists write 'shader programs' for computer graphics cards - and many computer games make use of a system called Kynapse for programming AI and other game 'logic' without directly writing lines of code.

More directly to the answer the OP wants - we have genetic algorithms and neural networks that (in effect) "write programs" - but without a formal description of what the program has to do - they "learn by example". These things are becoming relatively mainstream. My car (a MINI Cooper) has an engine management computer that learns how to optimally tweak the engine parameters to suit the climate, the kind of gasoline and your driving style. When you take it in for a service and they have to download a new version of the software into the car, your miles-per-gallon drop by about 20% until it re-learns over then next few weeks.

SteveBaker (talk) 16:07, 29 January 2009 (UTC)

Another point to consider is that even if such a program could be built, could you afford to pay for it? We had a potential client where we recommended buying a utilty that would help upgrade their code. The utility cost 17 grand and the client couldn't afford that. 216.239.234.196 (talk) 16:45, 29 January 2009 (UTC)

Removable USB Disk Drive for Ubuntu

I recently received a new USB disk drive (a Western Digital "My Passport Essential" if that makes a difference). I plugged it into my laptop under Ubuntu 8.04 (Hardy Heron), and using the Partition Editor (GParted 0.3.5) partitioned the drive into a NTFS partition and a ext3 partition. The partitioning seemed to work O.K.; when I plug in the drive, the NTFS partition shows up as "/media/disk" and the ext3 partition as "/media/disk-1". Unfortunately, I can't copy anything into the ext3 partition (the NTFS partition seems to work). When I right-click copy something on the Desktop and then attempt to right-click paste it into the /media/disk-1 window, I can't even get the Paste option. Using the command line, I noticed that there were no write permissions for group and other on /media/disk-1 (unlike /media/disk , how'd that happen?), so I sudo chmod go+w /media/disk-1 to get that in, but it still doesn't work. Newsflash! I just discovered that I can use the command line to copy files into the ext3 partition (or create them with vi for example). I still can't do the right-click Copy/Paste though. What gives???

Also, when I get the properties on the partition (by right-clicking on the disk drive symbol for it and choosing Properties), it says under Contents "(some contents unreadable)". Wha...??? (It doesn't say this for the NTFS partition.) And what could those unreadable contents be, since there was nothing there except the "lost+found" directory when I looked at Properties.

A few more questions: where did Ubuntu come up with the names /media/disk and /media/disk-1 (as opposed to "/media/MyNiftyNewDisk" ? Is this something I can change?

Also, I thought about the /etc/fstab config file as being something I should look into regarding this problem, but there are no entries for these partitions in it, presumably because they are on a removable drive. Is there somewhere else I should examine? TresÁrboles (talk) 06:49, 29 January 2009 (UTC)

See [8]. Relating to the second question: my old iPod's FAT32 partition had a label, and when Ubuntu auto-mounted it, it used the partition's label. Have you set a label for your NTFS drive? Surely, /media/disk and "160GB Media" can't be worse than letters (F:, G:, etc.)? --wj32 ^t/c 09:52, 29 January 2009 (UTC)

And have you tried Properties... for your disk? Can you change the label there? --wj32 ^t/c 09:54, 29 January 2009 (UTC)

videos in powerpoint

is it possible to embed videos from youtube etc, onto a powerpoint presentation? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 88.106.79.249 (talk) 10:37, 29 January 2009 (UTC)

Depending on your operating system, you can usually embed Windows media files or Quicktime files without too much difficulty. You can't embed straight FLV (the native YouTube format) into Powerpoint. You need to download the FLV from the YouTube video and then convert it to another format, first, and then you can import it to Powerpoint. --98.217.14.211 (talk) 12:34, 29 January 2009 (UTC)

Or, to be more specific: you can download the video with something like vixy.net (which only works for me about 50% of the time), and have it be converted into either an AVI file (Windows) or a MOV file (Mac, or Windows if you have Quicktime player installed), and you should be able to import it. Powerpoint can be a little finicky about such things, and you have to remember to include the movie file when you copy the Powerpoint somewhere else (if you do), since I think it usually just references it and does not really "embed" it in the file itself. --98.217.14.211 (talk) 12:43, 29 January 2009 (UTC)

Use KeepVid. It works the best (for me at least) and offers to let you download in iPod format, which is more easily converted into AVI.  Buffered Input Output 16:09, 29 January 2009 (UTC)

I hate my computer...

Alright...here's yet another problem for someone to solve.

Yesterday, the fan in my case started making grinding noises. I turned off the computer, and carefully removed the fan and checked it (it was broken, btw). So then i turned the computer back on, and the CPU fan began racing at full speed. My BIOS settings say that system fan control is enabled. So, i reconnected the broken fan, thinking it would fix the problem, but instead both fans started going full speed. Did i break something, or do i need to DUMP THIS SHITTY eMACHINES T5010??? ANY help would be appreciated.  Buffered Input Output 16:07, 29 January 2009 (UTC)