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

February 16

Strange error with norwegian characters!

I have a game that i made that allows users to unscramble letters to make norwegian words for points....

The problem is, the norwegian letters end up goofy most times! This is a list of 16 letters:

giæuvvgføfmbyøaå

it looks like this, but the 'æ' character combo is the norwegian character 'å'. I paste the two characters by themselves and it comes out fine, but when i run the program it likes to keep switching between correct and goofy characters.

I wrote the program in mirc script, and use the $read function to get the norwegian letters from a text file. Does anyone know what is going on? is UTF-8 broken or breaking my script?

Many thanks in advance!

137.81.40.122 (talk) 00:17, 16 February 2009 (UTC)

Well, it's a little hard to know what's going on when we don't have the source code and it is in a relatively obscure language. But why don't you try it with English words and see if you get something similar. That'll at least let you know if it has something to do with the Norwegian character set. If it is indeed something related to the language handling Norwegian characters, you're almost certainly going to have to get in touch with a more specialist community of mirc script programmers to get any useful advice. --98.217.14.211 (talk) 01:25, 16 February 2009 (UTC)

I do think this is UTF8-related... "breakup" of a character in two is typical. Is mIRCs language UTF8-safe? HardDisk (talk) 01:53, 16 February 2009 (UTC)

Yeah - that would be my best guess too. For characters that lie outside of the ASCII set - there is frequently a multi-byte representation. When you 'scramble' your letters, you need to keep all of the bytes that make up these 'special' characters together or it will do exactly what it seems to be doing. SteveBaker (talk) 04:13, 16 February 2009 (UTC)

Merge contacts in WM6

Hi all,

how do I merge contacts in the Contacts app of WM6, if there exist 2 contacts (one MSN, one Outlook) for the same person? Do I have to copy all the 45 double contacts and all their info by hand or do there tools exist?

Thanks,HardDisk (talk) 01:39, 16 February 2009 (UTC)

There's only 45? Just do it by hand. Tempshill (talk) 06:01, 16 February 2009 (UTC)

Not really... that'll take me a lot of time to sort out this mess by hand... HardDisk (talk) 14:48, 16 February 2009 (UTC)

unistalling programmes

I have sevsral pprogrammes which I would like to uninstal, one is a music player called "KMPLAYER" the issue is that it's not included in the list of programmes in the add/ remove programmes list in the control panel neither does it has an option in the startup programmes list for uninstal. Is there a way of removing the programme and all its content from the registry? Regards! —Preceding unsigned comment added by 151.9.197.28 (talk) 08:11, 16 February 2009 (UTC)

nirsoft had a program at one time called Myuninstaller ... let me look ...yep ... try this link ... now that I look, mine copy is an older version - guess I should update. — Ched (talk) 09:41, 16 February 2009 (UTC)

This link might provide advice on removing the KMPLAYER program.

I am a little puzzled by Ched's advice - why install something else just to uninstall a program?? Without an entry in add/remove programs and no uninstall option on the Start menu, it would be just as easy to delete the program's folder from "c:\program files" and delete the Start menu entries associated with the program. Astronaut (talk) 21:31, 16 February 2009 (UTC)

Those steps won't clean up the registry like how the OP wanted. Jay (talk) 03:56, 17 February 2009 (UTC)

re: Astronaut - Actually, the program is a standalone/portable - no need to install it. I have it on a thumb-drive, and only use in the rare cases when there is no unwise/uninstall entry for a program. I'm not saying it's perfect, but it does seem to remove a little more than just deleting a folder from "Program Files" There are some brute-force uninstall tools as well, but they tend to be a little more complex. Wasn't my intent to mis-lead or provide faulty information. — Ched (talk) 09:07, 17 February 2009 (UTC)

I've used Revo Uninstaller (sorry, only a pathetic stub here) for that purpose. Yes, it needs installing, but it does a good job of removing registry entries for half-installed/half-uninstalled programs. And it also does a good job of uninstalling itself, once you're done. --NorwegianBlue ^talk 21:43, 17 February 2009 (UTC)

opening files

Hi! I do come across several files including system files plus other files which I would like to view or change their contents but when you double click to open them you get the notification" windows cannot open the file" is there a software which one can use to open such files? Thanks in advance —Preceding unsigned comment added by 151.9.197.28 (talk) 08:14, 16 February 2009 (UTC)

These would be files which are meant for use by the operating system or applications running on your computer, and not meant to be viewed or edited by the end-user. Programmers use an IDE to open some of them. Jay (talk) 09:12, 16 February 2009 (UTC)

To directly answer your question: yes. A hex editor will open these files. Word of warning though: be careful. You can kill your system with one of those things, very very easily. --Aseld ^talk 09:17, 16 February 2009 (UTC)

I always use Notepad to open such files. If they're garbled then you may be able to figure out what program created the files by Googling the 3-letter file extension (like ".hex"). Tempshill (talk) 16:21, 16 February 2009 (UTC)

linux!

Halo there!

I want to explore linux os. I have downloaded fedora 10 and burnt it to a disk. I have never used linux before. I basically use my computer for playing music, doing school work which include programming, database management services, webdesign etc, also playing games plus other stuff. would I be able to use the softwares that av always used in windows like Netbeans, Visual Studio; music players like VLC etc. And if possible pliz refer me to a link where I can be able to get sufficient beginners tutorial on using linux esp fedora 10. Would you recommend another version of linux?

Thanx in anticipation. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 151.9.197.28 (talk) 08:22, 16 February 2009 (UTC)

While NetBeans can run on Linux, Visual Studio, being a Microsoft product, will not. However, there are equally good *nix alternatives available; for IDEs you can use Anjuta, KDevelop or Eclipse. In general, software made for Windows will not work on Linux, but there are almost always alternative solutions available. Fedora is a good enough distribution for beginners, however if you have trouble adapting I would suggest trying out Ubuntu. --Aseld ^talk 09:00, 16 February 2009 (UTC)

It is true that you may not be able to use all windows based software directly on Linux, but there are some solutions that make it so you can use this software while running Linux. Basically what you would have to do is create virtual environment in which a windows program can run. There are several programs out there that do just that, the best known one being Wine (software). Another solution that you can try would be in install a Virtual Machine like VirtualBox and install windows under that, there are some limitations to both Wine and VirtualBox, I am unable to go in to much more detail on those limitations (mainly because i don't know them). But since your 'new' to Linux, i would suggest that you try Ubuntu, It has an option to install it self under windows and allows you to dual boot to it when ever you like. And it does this without the need to make a seperat partition on your Hard drive. I use Ubuntu and i have to say that i enjoy it a lot, i supose the best thing i like about it whould be the extensive reposotoryies. Making the finding, downloading and instalations of programs very easy. (generly all three is as easy as typing in this command: 'sudo apt-get install VirtualBox'). I hope this helped – Elliott(Talk|Cont)  17:10, 16 February 2009 (UTC)

Wine is a set of libraries that link to the Windows program and convert all of the system calls into the equivelent calls under Linux. It doesn't work 100% perfectly for all Windows programs - but it's pretty good. The result is that your Windows program runs like other Linux programs and the GUI's look a lot like Linux programs under whatever window manager you've chosen. VirtualBox and other similar programs work by actually running an entire copy of Windows as a program running 'inside' Linux. In that case, you have an entire Windows desktop - and all of the benefits of switching to Linux are lost because the 'virtual' Windows computer is just as vulnerable to all of Window's issues as a 'real' Windows computer - it can even be infected by viruses and malware. However, I'd strongly advise you to try to use 'equivalent' Linux programs rather than trying to stick with Windows tools in a Linux world. There really are very few applications programs for Windows that don't have some sort of Linux equivalent. SteveBaker (talk) 04:10, 17 February 2009 (UTC)

Cutting the junk in Mac OS 10.4

My "iBook G4" has just four lousy GB of space, even after I moved piles of jpegs and videos elsewhere. A program called Duplicate Files Searcher does what its name proclaims, but I'd like to do more, without spending too much of my time on it. My guess is that this Mac has video tutorials for software and miscellaneous other junk that I could easily remove. Is there software that would guide me through this?

("System Profiler" tells me that I have a "27.94 GB TOSHIBA MK3025GAS" drive and I suppose I could replace it with a drive of ten times that capacity; however, the procedure seems alarmingly intricate; I might break something. And come to think of it I've no idea of limits imposed by the filesystem, by power consumption, etc. etc.) Morenoodles (talk) 09:42, 16 February 2009 (UTC)

Your best bet is to remove the (normally) un-needed and pointlessly big language-tools thing. These pages (http://ogasawalrus.com/blog/node/233 or http://www.mac-forums.com/forums/os-x-operating-system/22127-uninstalling-unneeded-options.html) should give you an idea. OS X is a pretty big OS on a laptop with that kind of storage so your best bet is to reduce down what is installed from the OS - there'll be plenty of stuff you don't need. 194.221.133.226 (talk) 10:37, 16 February 2009 (UTC)

As it happens I'd like to keep one or two of those bulky drivers. But yes, printer drivers! Thank you for the links. Morenoodles (talk) 10:43, 16 February 2009 (UTC)

The procedure for replacing an iBook G4 drive is alarmingly intricate and takes well over an hour or two just to do the hardware swapping. (Apple appears to have realized the limitations of this approach as the next model, the MacBook, is comparatively simple by comparison—one little hatch removed and you just slide the drive in.) I don't recommend undertaking it yourself unless you have had some experience inside computers (there are a million tiny screws that can easily get lost and a few moments in which you have to do rather delicate things).

When I clean out my hard drive I find a disk visualization tool useful — it shows me what's actually taking up the space. Disk Inventory X is the one I use but I'm sure there are others. Printer drivers are a big thing you can drop; so are sound files for Garageband if you don't plan to use it ever. --98.217.14.211 (talk) 15:46, 16 February 2009 (UTC)

I suppose the alternative is to buy an external USB hard drive (I presume those work with MacOSX). You can pick up drives that are not much bigger than a credit card and less than a half inch thick for pretty low $$$. —Preceding unsigned comment added by SteveBaker (talk • contribs)

They work fine with OSX. And as you say, they're cheap. But they're more stuff I'd have to remember to cart around. It's a possibility, but not such an appealing on. Morenoodles (talk) 09:03, 17 February 2009 (UTC)

I'm just an old cynic -- I assumed that making hard drives hard to get at was deliberate, deterring people from upgrading (and driving up the price of upgrades by others) in the hope that they'd buy replacement computers. Yes, I'll zap as much of Garageband as I can find, and also the program for making DVDs. Thank you for these new ideas. Morenoodles (talk) 09:03, 17 February 2009 (UTC)

You can run du / | sort -n (that's a Unix command) to see which directories are heaviest. —Tamfang (talk) 17:00, 17 February 2009 (UTC)

Thank you for the reminder. I found that I don't have Garageband, but I did have iDisk--and now I don't. Morenoodles (talk) 07:32, 18 February 2009 (UTC)

iBook battery retention

Another iBook G4 question, sorry.

We have two of these things at home. One's due to be replaced, and one of several reasons is that the plastic ring that's part of the coin-operated battery-locking mechanism has shattered, meaning that the battery springs out, meaning no battery, meaning that if you unplug it even momentarily it forgets everything.

Today I noticed a crack in the same plastic ring of the second machine.

I asked about having that fixed. Response: the entire underside of the computer has to be replaced (presumably with one including the same terribly designed plastic washer). Estimated price: about half what the entire computer cost me four (?) years ago. Ha ha no thank you.

Is there a cheaper fix? I googled but was unsuccessful. Morenoodles (talk) 09:55, 16 February 2009 (UTC)

Cheap but ugly fix - Sellotape the battery in place. Cheap less ugly but potentially less strong fix - double-sided sticky-tape on the underside of the battery to hold it in place. 194.221.133.226 (talk) 10:32, 16 February 2009 (UTC)

I assumed that sellotape wouldn't be sufficient but I'll certainly give it a go. (I really don't care what the result looks like.) Thank you for the tips. Morenoodles (talk) 10:45, 16 February 2009 (UTC)

Unfortunately the labor is really the cost here—you could probably get another iBook bottom shell without too much trouble by buying a dead iBook on eBay or something like that. But removing the bottom shell takes some time. It's not as hard, though, as replacing a hard drive, though it's still no walk in the park. The iBook has a lot of irritating little design flaws like that (has your little hook holding it closed come out yet? my wife's did and there's no way to replace that without removing the whole screen chassis—not really worth the effort). --98.217.14.211 (talk) 15:50, 16 February 2009 (UTC)

No, that one hasn't happened yet. Apple does put a high percentage of its effort into pretty packaging for the showroom, doesn't it? If I want OS X again, I think I might get some rival company's machine to run it on. Unless I'm reassured that Apple's newer machines are, mechanically as well as cosmetically, better than this "iBook" thing. Morenoodles (talk) 09:12, 17 February 2009 (UTC)

Self-taught programmers

Are most programmers self-taught? I assume that since someone could learn seamlessly through actual programming (computers... with the help of the Internet) and that because it's mostly sbout experimenting (there's not much theory that's formally taught, is there?) do programmers usually learn at university or such? And if not how do they prove themselves if they want a job? 94.196.67.254 (talk) 12:38, 16 February 2009 (UTC)

I taught myself a few simple computer languages. But in my experience, it's much too hard to learn a complex language on your own. (The same goes for human languages, too, by the way.) For example, I taught myself JavaScript and HTML, but I had to learn VB.NET and Java in school. A friend of mine taught himself PHP, another easy language. Another friend of mine was taught Java and C++ on the job, although that's definitely less common. In other words, you need a firm hand to keep you on track when you have a lot of learning to do. I've talked to other people who just lied and said they taught themselves C++, but when we sat down to code, it turned out they didn't know squat. They just read part of a book and declared themselves gurus. It doesn't work that way.--K;;m5m k;;m5m (talk) 12:54, 16 February 2009 (UTC)

Much of programming is essentially a craft, and is mostly self-taught. Little of what computer scientists and software engineers learn at university and college could be called "programming", programming is the language it is taught in. Instead they learn formal, theoretical stuff - lots of math, operating systems, database theory, graphics, hci, signal theory, abstract algebra, algorithms and datastructures, analysis, functional programing, linguistics, artificial intelligence, formal methods and verification, and the (rather nebulous) "software engineering" (which can be everthing from specifications and testing to teamwork and a bit of product marketing). While it's certainly possible for the dedicated autodidact to pick all this stuff up too, but you won't chance upon 1st order predicate calculus or formally verifying VHDL designs when hammering out another php site, so it'd take a dedicated programme of study. The downside, I suppose, of this is that graduate CS/EE/SE are often initially not terribly good programmers (that is, they really haven't written all that much, particularly on preexisting systems and with teams of people); a year or two of graft will fix that because (bluntly put) engineering is hard, but programming ain't no thang. 84.45.132.96 (talk) 12:56, 16 February 2009 (UTC)

Yes, there is lot of theory that is taught, there are courses in universities, and there are programming certifications. See Category:Computer science education and Category:IT qualifications. There are also many self taught programmers. Some consider programming to be a skill, some consider it an art, some consider it a mix of both. Jay (talk) 13:21, 16 February 2009 (UTC)

"Are most programmers self-taught?" I don't have any statistical data, but it seems that way.

"there's not much theory that's formally taught, is there?" Actually, there's quite a bit. I have a 4 year degree in Computer Science and in retrospect, that's probably enough. After graduation, I went on to read another 100 or so books subject which helped me a great deal. Even still, I know very little about design patterns so even my knowledge is incomplete. It's funny. All day at work I think to myself about all the things I don't know. Then I interview someone and I'm amazed at all the stuff I do know.

Here's my 2 cents. In my experience, most developers suck. Even worse, they don't know that they suck. They think that what they're doing is perfectly fine when it's not. I've recently become active on Microsoft's MSDN forums and the amount of code that should never reach production is staggering (at least on the VB.NET forums). You try to help these people but sometimes their code is so bad, there's only so much you can do.

Personally, when I look over a stack of applications, all things considered, the ones with a Computer Science degree carry more weight. A Quest For Knowledge (talk) 13:36, 16 February 2009 (UTC)

Personally I learnt everything myself and wasn't taught anything. However you must be willing to continuously learn - something I'm afraid many programmers do not do. If you want to prove yourself you could try an open source project or just do your own thing and sell it as shareware. That's an apprenticeship route and will take just as much effort or more as a course but you might get through quicker if you're good. Dmcq (talk) 14:02, 16 February 2009 (UTC)

You say "(there's not much theory that's formally taught, is there?)", but that's completely wrong. There is a large amount of theory. If you don't mind me generalizing a bit, theory is what the self-taught programmers are usually (but certainly not always) very weak on. It's virtually impossible to pick that up by "experimenting". Instead you would have to intentionally research it. "The Art of Computer Programming" is often mentioned as a good tome to learn from, but it's a bit heavy. There are any number of easier books.

Incidentally, when I went to college, there was very little instruction on programming languages beyond the first semester. After that you were expected to pick up language and syntax more or less on your own. APL (talk) 15:52, 16 February 2009 (UTC)

Before studing software development in college, I created probably the worst sorting algorithm of all time. It was only later that I learned formal sorting algorithms (quick sort, shell sort, hash sort, etc.). A Quest For Knowledge (talk) 16:40, 16 February 2009 (UTC)

• Most programmers I work with enjoy programming as a hobby, so all of them are self-taught at least to some degree. As for demonstrating their ability without having a degree, that comes out in the technical job interview, and by showing off demos. It would have to come out in the interview, anyway, because you can't assume a coder is proficient at the particular specialty that's being sought just because they have a degree. Tempshill (talk) 16:24, 16 February 2009 (UTC)

I am completely self-tought. I began programming when I was 12, and today I write quite advanced Delphi applications, using Win32 API. --Andreas Rejbrand (talk) 19:28, 16 February 2009 (UTC)

You can teach someone how to program - but they'll NEVER become great programmers unless they (a) love doing it and (b) write lots and lots of code. Truly practice is the only thing that makes anyone good at it. Part of that is being able to use your language of choice without having to think about it - so it's as natural as speaking in English - the other part is that you need this big 'library' of code snippets in your head. You should be able to program something like a circular buffer or a linked list or a hash table without having to think about it - and you should be able to have it work first time. So I believe that a little initial teaching is valuable - but it's only practice that'll get you good at it. SteveBaker (talk) 03:57, 17 February 2009 (UTC)

The instant-hashtable part depends on one's language of choice. I'm a Java programmer, so while I know how a hashtable or linked-list is implemented I'd never normally write one myself - I should and do just use the standard java.util implementations. Generally I agree with you though. I'd also add requirement (c), which is to read a lot of good code (most of the snippets posted on Web forums etc don't qualify) and to have other (skilled) people look at your code while you're learning. I don't necessarily mean formal mentoring or code-reviews, just a shared codebase that isn't split into separate "personal empires" will do. This allows the novice to pick up some of the standard ways of doing things, and a reasonably sane code style, and allows his colleagues to (politely!) point out improvements, or the fact that that approach X isn't a great idea for Y well-known reason, and so on. 93.97.184.230 (talk) 09:34, 18 February 2009 (UTC)

Yea, programming theory sucks. I feel sorry for those people - using up so much of their time learning theory but never applying it. The best thing to do is to learn the theory as necessary while you're programming. --wj32 ^t/c 08:58, 18 February 2009 (UTC)

Loud buzz from computer while hard drive very busy

It only lasted less than a second. Does anyone know what it signifies please? I'v never heard it before. I've been looking for this article: "Defective Hard Drive Noises" by Marc Erickson, but it and the sound files that go with it no longer seem to exist.......or do they? Thanks 89.240.213.147 (talk) 22:01, 16 February 2009 (UTC)

Is the buzz coming from the hard drive itself or something else ? If it's from the hard drive, it's probably on it's last legs. If it's from something else, perhaps it's a wire/cable hitting a fan. Vibrations from the hard drive could cause the wire/cable to move into the path of a fan. In this case just move the wire/cable. Removing the case will make it easier to identify the source. StuRat (talk) 02:43, 17 February 2009 (UTC)

Not sure. Is it the noise the hard-drive makes when the thing-that-reads-it hits the suface? 78.149.164.211 (talk) 11:55, 17 February 2009 (UTC)

Suggestion for a small web-browser?

My IE7 browser will not display most .png images - although it will some. There seem to be various reasons or solutions for this problem, but I have not found the solution that works on my computer despite trying several. Therefore, please can anyone suggest a small web-browser that does not take up much room, and that does not get deeply imbedded in the computer, that I can use when I have to see a png image, when for example I have to type a security code that is given in a png image only - such as that required to register Avast anti-virus for example? 89.240.213.147 (talk) 22:10, 16 February 2009 (UTC)

What's wrong with Firefox? Algebraist 22:14, 16 February 2009 (UTC)

Google Chrome is much smaller and faster than any other (not IE based) browser I have ever tried. The installation wizard will not even write to the Program Files folder! However, IE7 should not have any problems reading PNG images... --Andreas Rejbrand (talk) 22:19, 16 February 2009 (UTC)

Can I take the oppurtunity to plug Opera? It's the lightest browser I've ever seen, and can do pretty much anything out of the box. CaptainVindaloo ^{t c e} 22:30, 16 February 2009 (UTC)

Note that Firefox, Opera, and Chrome are not bulky and do not mess with the operating system. However, the Windows installers for them will ask if you want a bunch of extra garbage. If you fail to say "No. Absolutely not.", you will get a lot of bulky junk that can easily mess with the operating system. -- kainaw™ 22:32, 16 February 2009 (UTC)

I have to say, out of all the web browsers that I have tried, Google Chrome is by far the best. Easy to use, fast, small. Its just amazing. I haven't found a problem with it yet--Dlo2012 (talk) 22:39, 16 February 2009 (UTC)

About a month ago, I asked myself a similar question. In terms of memory usage this is what I found:

I fired up each web browser and opened a single page, the Google search page. This was the memory usage:

Firefox 21,412
Opera   24,072
IE      26,012
Chrome  27,944
Safari  50,008

Then I opened up 3 pages I use frequently and this was the memory usage:

Firefox 40,358
Chrome  41,360
Opera   41,636
IE      62,696
Safari 100,736

It pains me to say this because I've been a long time Opera fan, but Opera is buggy. It crashes all the time for me. But granted I'm a heavy web user so I expect it to be able to have 10-15 pages open at any given time. If your web usage is less, you might have better luck with Opera. A Quest For Knowledge (talk) 00:39, 17 February 2009 (UTC)

EDIT: The above looks much better in a mono-space font. A Quest For Knowledge (talk) 00:40, 17 February 2009 (UTC)

One space preceding whatever you're typing, and it monospaces it. Example:

this is monospaced

24.76.160.236 (talk) 00:45, 17 February 2009 (UTC)

Thank you so much! I didn't know how to do that. A Quest For Knowledge (talk) 01:40, 17 February 2009 (UTC)

Many of us learn it by accident! —Tamfang (talk) 17:09, 17 February 2009 (UTC)

On one of my computers, I have Opera 6 (2001). I wouldn't use it for SSL, and of course it doesn't handle much CSS as intended. However, I do use it whenever Firefox is unhappy. It's compact and its few noticable bugs aren't the crashing/freezing kind. Morenoodles (talk) 09:18, 17 February 2009 (UTC)

How to selectively download Windows Updates?

Windows Update will only let me download all or none of a group of updates. These total 285mb, or which 284mb is an update to NET. Is there any way to avoid downloading the NET update for the time being, and just download the other updates please? I have XP SP3. 89.240.213.147 (talk) 22:20, 16 February 2009 (UTC)

Are you updating by going to http://windowsupdate.microsoft.com ? If so, you should be able to do a custom update and select each package one at a time. Note that some packages depend on other ones and will force you to install all dependencies. -- kainaw™ 22:29, 16 February 2009 (UTC)

I have not been given the option to choose things, although I was in the past. I think I will uninstall NET completely, since the various versions and updates total about 600mb, which is a lot for something that is seldom required. 78.149.164.211 (talk) 11:58, 17 February 2009 (UTC)

I think it's worth mentioning that if you uninstall the .NET framework it might stop some programs from working. Obviously I have no idea what you have on your computer, but quite a few things use the framework now so it's just something to be aware of. ZX81 ^talk 12:19, 17 February 2009 (UTC)

Maybe I should have clicked Custom rather than Express. 78.151.117.148 (talk) 18:45, 17 February 2009 (UTC)

That is what I meant by "you should be able to do a custom update" above. -- kainaw™ 17:05, 18 February 2009 (UTC)

HVAC administration software for Linux?

Is there such a thing? I was wondering if there are free, open-source HVAC administration software for Linux distros... Blake Gripling (talk) 23:14, 16 February 2009 (UTC)

cad software

I need to find software that converts 2d line drawings to 3d drawings for use on printers. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 207.144.94.62 (talk) 23:51, 16 February 2009 (UTC)

Convert 2D to 3D in what way ? If you mean taking two views in an engineering drawing and combining them to make a 3D solid model, that's going to be extremely difficult to do automatically. Human interaction is required to do such a conversion, to tell the computer which lines and curves should be "married". StuRat (talk) 02:34, 17 February 2009 (UTC)

February 17

Communication software

I'm planning to setup a 802.11n network. What's the best communication software (like Skype) or the easiest to setup that could work in the 802.11n network? The software should support video telephony. Thanks for the answers. roscoe_x (talk) 09:01, 17 February 2009 (UTC)

Marketing Research survey software

As a small charity we need to conduct some MR on why people visit our town. Recommendations on low cost or free software to download to Mac will be appreciated.86.216.250.162 (talk) 10:08, 17 February 2009 (UTC)DT

We need more info here. Do you intend for people to fill out this survey on this Mac ? Do you intend for them to fill it out on other computers via the Internet ? Do you have paper surveys and just want to enter the results on the Mac ? Does this survey include text answers or only multiple choice ? How many surveys do you expect to have ? StuRat (talk) 15:05, 17 February 2009 (UTC)

Thanks for the response. We plan to have paper surveys, and so need to be able to set out the questionnaire, and then to process the responses. I can set up an Excel spreadsheet easily enough to crunch the data, but would like professional style questionnaires. Also, of course, if a processing package is up and running I'll use that. There will be multiple choice, ranking, and brief text answers. Expect to issue about 1,500 and get a 10-15% response.86.216.250.162 (talk) 16:46, 17 February 2009 (UTC)DT

Why not just write the questionaires yourself in a word processor? I would expect in Word for example you could probably even include little square boxes for tick marks. No special software needed. Similarly with the number crunching - use Excel as you sugggested. 78.146.209.79 (talk) 11:44, 18 February 2009 (UTC)

I agree with using Word. The most difficult part might be getting useful info out of the text responses. For example, if you have an OTHER category for a Q, and they can write in answers, you need to decide how to lump similar comments together. Perhaps if you put all the text comments for one Q together in a Word Doc and then manually sort and arrange them, that might work best. StuRat (talk) 16:36, 18 February 2009 (UTC)

32 -> 16

is there ways to convert 32bit modern windows programs to 16bit so that might work on older windows 3.1? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 194.80.240.66 (talk) 12:03, 17 February 2009 (UTC)

Short answer: only if you have the source code for the program.

Longer answer: yes, but if you don't have the source it will require so much work to be not worth it unless it's absolutely critical. --Aseld ^talk 12:09, 17 February 2009 (UTC)

Even if you do have the source - there would STILL be many problems - not least that 16 bit Windows had a horrible memory model and doing things like having arrays bigger than 64kbytes or programs bigger than 640kbytes was insanely difficult. Basically - even if you had the sources, you'd need some pretty serious programming skills to stand any chance of pulling this off. SteveBaker (talk) 01:16, 18 February 2009 (UTC)

It is indeed difficult, unless if you try to port a 32-bit version of Solitaire back to 16-bit. Blake Gripling (talk) 02:21, 19 February 2009 (UTC)

There is Win32s for Windows 3.11. But maybe you already knew that? 84.239.160.166 (talk) 07:55, 22 February 2009 (UTC)

Conveting numbers into telephone letters

I know that companies often choose a telephone number along the lines of 555-PILAGE or whatever. I have a telephone number and I would like to know what possible words would yield the same number when dialed. Is there an application online for this? ----Seans Potato Business 12:27, 17 February 2009 (UTC)

You could try either PhoneSpell or PhoNETic. There are also a few more in there references of the Phoneword article. Hope this helps! ZX81 ^talk 12:49, 17 February 2009 (UTC)

It isn't all that hard to do it manually, just write down the possible letters for each digit and try the various combinations. Yes, if you tried every combination that would be a huge list, but most possibilities can be quickly eliminated due to a lack of vowels. You might want to start with the vowels and see which adjacent consonants you can use to make words. Unfortunately, most of the words you can form will have missing or extra letters, which makes it not all that useful as a mnemonic device. StuRat (talk) 15:01, 17 February 2009 (UTC)

For example, I once had the number JEDI KNT; my sister apparently had trouble counting to seven, and kept trying to dial JEDI KNIT. —Tamfang (talk) 17:14, 17 February 2009 (UTC)

Knitting Jedi? --Carnildo (talk) 23:40, 18 February 2009 (UTC)

It's a dexterity exercise. —Tamfang (talk) 09:07, 20 February 2009 (UTC)

If you fail, do you get stuck in the butt with a knitting needle ? StuRat (talk) 13:26, 20 February 2009 (UTC)

Yesterday I saw a white Chevy pickup with the plate JDI KNIT. —Tamfang (talk) 04:18, 3 March 2009 (UTC)

word 07 amd figure numbering

in word 07 (may be possible in other versions i dont know) when i insert a picture i can add a figure caption, with a anumber that auto-updates if i say add another picture before it,which is good but is there a way to then reference that figure in the main body of my text so it updates as well, ie i insert a figure 1 then talk about figure 1 in my text,i then insert another picture before it,and the caption updates plus the number in my text updates as well?--137.205.21.59 (talk) 13:43, 17 February 2009 (UTC)

You can highlit the text "Figure 1" beside the image, and then save it as a bookmark (use a meaningful name, not Fig1 since it may become Fig2 etc). I suggest something like "Fig2008SalesGraph". Else where you can then insert a field of type "Ref" with the option of the named bookmark. If it seems to be old data, refresh the field with Ctrl-A then F9. -- SGBailey (talk) 14:26, 17 February 2009 (UTC)

Cross-References. This is what you are looking for. You can find the button for this either on the Insert or the References Tab of the Ribbon. They dont update automatically, just highlight everything and rightclick, and chose "Update Field." I just used these for a 40 page document and they worked very well.--omnipotence407 (talk) 20:45, 17 February 2009 (UTC)

HTML Help

I use Visual Web Developer 2005 Express to make my web pages. I use a tag called <BGSOUND> to have a sound play in the background. VWD 2005 insists that <BGSOUND> must be placed within a parent tag, but complains when <BGSOUND> is within the <HTML>, <HEAD>, or <BODY> tags. What tag do i use to enclose <BGSOUND> to stop the complaining? Also, <BGSOUND> seems to not work in Firefox; how do i do the same thing in Firefox? Thanks.  Buffered Input Output 14:13, 17 February 2009 (UTC)

Take a look at this tutorial. Also, seriously reconsider whether your web-page really needs background sounds. They are very distracting to a lot of web users. Nimur (talk) 16:34, 17 February 2009 (UTC)

Normally, i would agree with you, but this web page is for entertainment purposes only, so distractions are not a worry. Thanks for the help :)  Buffered Input Output 17:29, 17 February 2009 (UTC)

The best way to learn these kind of things is by looking at other websites. If you use firefox, you can click view page source and see the contents of a page that plays sound and see how they did it. Also I would highly recommend the firefox addon firebug for web developers. If you have that installed, you can't make a mistake and you will find your developing experience to be a lot easier. -- penubag  (talk) 04:32, 18 February 2009 (UTC)

GIF Question

I am trying to make animated gifs of movie clips. But, the delays i set in the program (Advanced GIF Animator 3.0) do not seem to work in the browser (IE6 and Firefox 3.0). The animation is 173 frames with a delay of .2 seconds per frame. The browser animation speed is .6-.7 seconds per frame with many, many graphical errors. But, an animation of 20 or less frames plays properly. I have seen animations on the web with 200+ frames and quick delay times that play perfectly. What am i doing wrong?  Buffered Input Output 14:24, 17 February 2009 (UTC)

My first instinct is to say that it's not you, it's the browsers. Specifically, I bet they are still viewing an animated GIF as a series of pics. That is, they wait until the time interval has elapsed, then they start loading the next frame, and they just don't have the time to do a decent job of it. What they should do, instead, is read ahead and properly load the next frame so it's ready to go when needed.

This seems to be part of a greater failing in browsers, they don't appear to have much intelligence in how they load things. When loading a web page, for example, they seem to randomly load parts of different pics on the page, causing the text to jump all over the place as the pics appear. What they should do is first load the size of all pics, allocate the sizes on the page as empty boxes, render the page with all text and boxes for the pics, then load the pages from the top to the bottom (unless you are returning to a previously viewed page, where they should put you at the same part of the page you viewed last and load those pics first). StuRat (talk) 14:45, 17 February 2009 (UTC)

It would be very wrong of a browser to pre-load the entire GIF before starting to 'play' it. Remember that GIF files were specifically designed to load up line-by-line in an interleaved fashion in order to allow people to see a crude/fuzzy version of the picture rapidly and then gradually fill in the missing lines to make the image progressively sharper. That mechanism was subverted to make animated GIFs (which were never really 'designed' into the file format per-se). This was a valuable thing back in the days when everyone had slow modems - but (as you are discovering) it's a bit of a liability in the modern world. GIF's should be reserved for tiny animated buttons and logos and stuff. For movie clip replay you need Flash or something similar. Aside from anything else, the 256 color palette GIF uses is highly inappropriate for photographic material - ESPECIALLY when it's animating at low resolutions. SteveBaker (talk) 01:00, 18 February 2009 (UTC)

Ummmm... No. According to the GIF89a spec, GIF supports interlacing and multiple image streams (simple animation) through two different mechanisms, and interlacing is quite optional. Not that GIF is optimal, but it's about the only game in town (yes, you can use flash on your own site; no you can't post flash in forums, send it in email, or add it to Wikipedia). – 74  01:30, 18 February 2009 (UTC)

I didn't say the browser should "pre-load the entire GIF before starting to 'play' it". What I said is that it should start loading the next frame immediately upon completion of the current frame, not wait for the delay interval to elapse before starting to load the next frame. StuRat (talk) 13:30, 19 February 2009 (UTC)

Microsoft Office Live Workplace for Linux users

I'm moving this to the Computing Desk from the Science Desk... Nimur (talk) 16:30, 17 February 2009 (UTC)

Somehow Microsoft don't let Linux users use their Microsoft Office Live Workplace. Probably due to technical problems made on purpose. Is there any work-around this? What are the alternatives?--Mr.K. (talk) 12:34, 17 February 2009 (UTC)

The obvious reason is that they don't want Linux to take market share from them. There are Linux equivalents to each item in the Microsoft Office suite. Which items are you interested in ? MS Word, MS Excel, MS Access, MS PowerPoint ? StuRat (talk) 14:31, 17 February 2009 (UTC)

This question will get more responses at the Computing Desk. Nimur (talk) 16:29, 17 February 2009 (UTC)

Principally, I need an online Office version. When a group can upload and share their (Open) Office documents. It is not only the tool in itself.--Mr.K. (talk) 16:48, 17 February 2009 (UTC)

Have you tried out Google Docs? And it works on windows too :) Dmcq (talk) 18:27, 17 February 2009 (UTC)

You might be able to get the Windows version of Microsoft Office Live Workplace via Wine. (I'm pretty sure you can). -- penubag  (talk) 04:23, 18 February 2009 (UTC)

Creating DVD menus

You know those fancy menus you get on DVDs?

Is there any free software which will allow me to create my own?

(I have access to both XP and Vista). Thanks! Dendodge Talk^Contribs 18:25, 17 February 2009 (UTC)

On Mac OSX, you can use iDVD to do it. I have no idea about Windows, though... flaminglawyer 18:28, 17 February 2009 (UTC)

It's not free but I've found Ulead VideoStudio to be the best (most flexible and powerful). ConvertXtoDVD is 'free' (for a period at least) but limited in what you can do to create DVD menu's. Sandman30s (talk) 19:11, 17 February 2009 (UTC)

Never mind, it appears that Windows DVD Maker can do it. (I've not tried, mind, so it might not be very good, and I would love other suggestions). Dendodge Talk^Contribs 19:14, 17 February 2009 (UTC)

I've never done it before but I know Windows Movie Maker can do it. WMM comes bundled with every XP/Vista. You can probably find a tutorial by searching on Google (since our wikibooks entry sucks). -- penubag  (talk) 04:20, 18 February 2009 (UTC)

pixels on computer screens

Hi..

Just a really dumb question about pixels if you don't mind...

I thought that a pixel was, in effect, a relative measurement. I.e. an element on a webpage (if inputted in pixels) will take up the same proportion of the screen whether the screen is 13" or 19 (i know that you can change your screen setting manually, but assuming most people don't do this...) SO i guess question 1 is.. is that true?

Ok, so now, when i open up IE, it opens in 'small screen' format so the website i'm building looks a bit messed up until you swtich it to full screen. I'd like to know whether a similar thing will happen on a small screen (say an 8" screen or even a mobile phone) or whether its just doing this becuase it knows its in 'half-screen' mode and is doing weird and wonderful things? thanks!81.140.37.58 (talk) 18:35, 17 February 2009 (UTC)

The word "pixel" can be used in 2 different senses. Computer screens have pixels. They physically exist, and cannot be changed in size. Operating systems tell browsers and other software how big a pixel is so they can display properly. If you have a 42" HD TV set up in Windows as an 800x600px monitor, then Windows (and all the other software) will think that a pixel is reeealy big. So everything will take up more space on your screen, because the software is using the wrong measurement for a pixel.

When your IE opens in the small-screen mode (not maximized), everything isn't displayed right. It's like setting your screen to a small setting (like 800x600). Mobile phones and/or small-screened comps might do this, depending on how they're set up. Some mobile phones (like the iPhone) open a web browser with a large screen setting, then make you double-tap an area to zoom in. Other phones just use a really small (like 100x200) screen setting. Most small-screened comps have a small screen setting (like 800x600) as the default, because the OS knows that it's using a small screen. If you set it to a larger dimension, everything on the screen would be really small and hard to see. flaminglawyer 19:34, 17 February 2009 (UTC)

(after EC)It sounds like you are assuming that a 13" and a 19" display will have the same horizontal pixel setting. This is possible, but seems unlikely. For example, an Asus EEE netbook with an 8.9" screen has a native resolution of 1024x600 pixels, while the HP notebook sitting next to me has a 15.4" screen with a 1280x800 resolution. Thus, an image that is declared in a page's HTML as being 500x500 pixels would take up roughly half the width and nearly all the height of the browser window on the Asus, but not nearly as much on the HP (41.6% of the width, 62.5% of the height). You can, of course, use CSS to set proportional sizes for the elements, based on the size of the viewport. One way to control how a site looks on a mobile device is to have a "handheld" stylesheet which is specifically designed for mobile devices. However, there's no guarantee that the browser on the device will actually use that stylesheet. More info here. --LarryMac | Talk 19:42, 17 February 2009 (UTC)

Recover ICQ6 password

Hi all,

where exactly does ICQ6 store the user's password? Network sniffing and hours of googling brought to me that the password hash is quite difficult, if not impossible, to reverse-md5 (http://code.google.com/p/joscar/wiki/LoginPasswordHash). Registry search for "ICQ" or "Mirabilis" didn't give out anything useful.

Or is there still some legacy way one can send his password to the mail address attached to an account? Unfortunately, I don't have any clue in what way I spelled the answer in my security question, this is the problem.

thanks,HardDisk (talk) 19:52, 17 February 2009 (UTC)

Have you tried this. I created a simple MD5 hash using Sneak and then reversed it with that program with success might be worth a try. BigDunc^Talk 20:29, 17 February 2009 (UTC)

Salted MD5, no way to RE. HardDisk (talk) 21:15, 17 February 2009 (UTC)

I recommend asking someone at Wikipedia:WikiProject Cryptography. User:Davidgothberg might be a good person to ask. -- penubag  (talk) 04:16, 18 February 2009 (UTC)

If you are saying that your ICQ program saves the password and displays them as asterisks, then programs like this or this will reveal the password behind the asterisks. --71.106.173.110 (talk) 07:18, 18 February 2009 (UTC)

Graphics card upgrade part 2

A couple of weeks ago, I had asked about upgrading a graphics card on a Dell Inspiron 531s running Windows Vista. I received some very helpful replies, and I've done some more research. I'd like to check what I've learned against what you knowledgeable folks know and see if it makes sense...

One of the issues that arose is that the Inspiron 531s is a "slimline case", meaning that any card I buy would need to be a low profile one. User:CaptainVindaloo recommended an XFX GeForce 9500 GT Standard card, saying that he had upgraded a 531s using that (and a low profile bracket kit). The link he provided was to the UK version of Amazon.com, but since I'm in the U.S., I did some research of my own to find the card in a place a little closer to home. I found it on Dell's website. However, the description didn't say anything about it being low profile.

Being the cautious and paranoid person that I am, I decided to chat with a Dell representative to make sure this would work for me. The rep indicated that this card was NOT low profile because "...it has 2 DVI ports. Slim towers have 1 DVI port only". As an alternative, she recommended the ATI Radeon HD 4550.

TL;DR version of the above: A) Is it true that low profile cards only have 1 DVI port instead of 2? B) How does the ATI Radeon HD 4550 compare to the XFX GeForce 9500 GT? Both seem to be 512 MB. Thanks again for your help! Dgcopter (talk) 20:11, 17 February 2009 (UTC)

Not really. It always depends on the cooling solution what profile a card has. Try to walk to your local HW store and ask the dude there; if you're lucky he already has a sample card for you. HardDisk (talk) 21:17, 17 February 2009 (UTC)

Well, the problem I'm having is that there don't seem to be any computer hardware stores around where I live. There are chain stores like Best Buy and Circuit City, but I'm not convinced that the people who work there will necessarily know more than the rep at Dell I spoke with today ... Dgcopter (talk) 21:42, 17 February 2009 (UTC)

Perhaps call www.tigerdirect.com. Well, call their number, obviously. They usually have some pretty good technical information, but they'll know quite a bit more about an item if it is one they actually sell. Useight (talk) 02:11, 18 February 2009 (UTC)

And, according to this site, the 9500 GT is better than the Radeon 4550. Useight (talk) 02:13, 18 February 2009 (UTC)

While I haven't read the review and have no idea how the two cards compare, I would read several reviews and the entire review if I were choosing a card based on performance. It's often the case from my experience summaries given in reviews are incredibly misleading. For example, a card may perform better at lower resolutions or settings where you get playable frame rates but lose at higher resolutions where the frame rate is so low the game isn't playable at the resolution/settings anyway. Yet the reviewer will say the second card wins even though for most people the first card likely makes more sense. Or perhaps a card usually performs around 5% better but is a lot worse in certain games or settings (all playable). In this case, unless the poor performance is a driver bug, most people would probably prefer the second card since a 5% performance difference is virtually nothing but the reviewer may say the first card is better. It also helps to look at the specific settings and games you are likely to be using and make sure the settings of the card being reviewed are the same. It's not uncommon the GPU or memory clock varies, sometimes even the memory type or memory path size between cards with the same model number. Particularly at the low end Nil Einne (talk) 15:20, 18 February 2009 (UTC)

In this case, the 9500 GT does seem to be 20% faster than the 4550. However it's a good point: what games are going to be played, and at what resolution?

Pursing low-profile: a larger picture on Newegg shows that the second DVI port is detachable. So it is the right height, you will probably need a low-profile bracket. I suppose you could buy the card from Dell and then buy this. - mako 02:49, 22 February 2009 (UTC)

MS Word Equation Editor

I am using MS Word 2007 in order to type up my math work. When I am working on it, I click Shift+Enter in order to go to the next line and start another equation. For some reason, after too many equations, I click Shift+Enter and word goes into draft view. It will not let the user get out of the draft view and some of the notation in the final lines is lost. In addition, one can no longer save the file as a *.docx, only as a *.doc. Are there any solutions out there? Please don't give me solutions such as "dont use MS Word," that is not helpful. Thanks!--omnipotence407 (talk) 20:35, 17 February 2009 (UTC)

I've used Word 2000 extensively and I haven't had a problem with Shift+Enter. I think Word changed the whole way it operates so I wouldn't know. Microsoft just cannot fix it's formatting kinks. I've been so frustrated over Word I've switched over to OpenOffice (which is free and has a built-in equation editor). I still have no idea as to why it changes the view but I'd recommend selecting all the text (but not with select all) and open a new word document and do paste special and select only the text option. Now that I think about it, I believe I've had the same problem you've described before, I can't really remember the details though. -- penubag  (talk) 04:00, 18 February 2009 (UTC)

Since you seem intent on using Word, perhaps you might contact Microsoft Tech Support. Or you could just create multiple documents, each with only as many problems/equations as Word will allow. – 74  04:02, 18 February 2009 (UTC)

As you know, Microsoft Word 2007 has a built-in equation editor, unlike previous versions, where you had to use Microsoft Equation (3.0) or any other external editor. The new editor is great, except for some bugs. I also had a lot of problems with not being able to save documents after having edited some formulas, but it appears now as if these problems have disappeared (probably due to updates). Have you installed Service Pack 1? (The most annoying thing about the new editor, however, is that it is not possible to number equations, without automatically reducing the equation's text size.) --Andreas Rejbrand (talk) 06:31, 18 February 2009 (UTC)

74.137 - I would contact tech support, but its about 50 bucks, and I'm not willing to pay that. Andreas - I do have SP1 installed, but it still seems to do it. also, I have been able to number the equations no problem. If you just want to number it like in an outline, you just put the 1) in the equation. If you want it labeled like a figure, you just highlight it, go to references, and click add caption. But I agree, this editor is great, this just seems to ber a bug that I was hoping someone would have a fix to. The best I've come up with is a pain, but it involves copying the entire document (minus the last two lines) into a new document. --omnipotence407 (talk) 22:39, 18 February 2009 (UTC)

Heh, who knew writing buggy software could be that lucrative? I guess I just expected too much from "professional" software. – 74  23:42, 18 February 2009 (UTC)

omnipotence407: Yes, of course it is possible to add the numbering inside the equation and to use field captions, but what I want to do is to have the equation alone centered on a line with the equation number in the margin. The natural way of doing this is to use a centered tab stop for the equation, and (if the margin is the right one) a right tab stop at the right margin for the equation number. But if you do this, the equation will automatically change to the small style, used if the equation is embedded in "normal" text. It would be possible to overcome this problem with "text boxes" (Swedish: textrutor), but since most of my documents are quite long and I really need a convenient way of numbering equations, it does not appear to be a solution. --Andreas Rejbrand (talk) 09:04, 19 February 2009 (UTC)

Looking for a bookmarking site that can organize like Wikipedia

So I've been all over the Google indexed web on a quest for a bookmarking service that fulfills my apparently unusual needs; I feel like I've tried every major one out there, but I still haven't found what I'm looking for. So I'm entering this as a last resort before I give up completely…

All sort of web sites allow to to enter pieces of information and then categorize them in something like a file directory. Among the hipper such places are the major social bookmarking sites, for which the cool thing is tags. I started to like tags when I first got into them, but lately they're an unweildy drag, and I've gone back to preferring folders. But plenty of bookmarking sites also do folders, so what's the problem?

The problem comes from Google Docs and Wikipedia (or more specifically, MediaWiki). Thanks to having used both of these services extensively, I've come to see the ideal category system as one in which categories can themselves be part of multiple parent categories — SO AWESOME. Yet it seems that only these two sites actually do such a thing. I really really really want to do this with one-click bookmarking, but the only ways I know are awkward: making a new Google Doc (or page on my personal wiki at [wiki-sites.com], and pasting the link (plus any text or images I want to keep from the page). At this point, I'd be plenty jazzed if there was a one-click way to add the current URL to a new Google Doc, but even that seems out of the question.

I know this is a pathetic "peel me a grape" sort of question, but still… any ideas? Anyone know of a very well-hidden site (or downloadable program) that can do this? The only necessary ingredients are the whatever-you-call-this-kind-of-category-scheme and one-or-two-click action. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 216.169.163.106 (talk) 21:02, 17 February 2009 (UTC)

It might help if you specify which browser on which OS, but if you use Firefox, you can check out here. --Whip it! ^{Now whip it good!} 22:39, 17 February 2009 (UTC)

Additionally, you may also want to check out here if you're not a Firefoxer. --Whip it! ^{Now whip it good!} 01:12, 18 February 2009 (UTC)

February 18

berel is good?

Added title for question --NorwegianBlue ^talk 08:25, 18 February 2009 (UTC)

berel is good? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 69.114.223.129 (talk) 00:53, 18 February 2009 (UTC)

What are you talking about? Algebraist 00:54, 18 February 2009 (UTC)

Beryl (window manager), perhaps? I haven't tried it, but according to our article, Beryl and Compiz have decided to merge their projects back into one, and to shut down the Beryl project in favor of the new merged project Compiz Fusion. --NorwegianBlue ^talk 08:34, 18 February 2009 (UTC)

GAME MAKING

Hello,

 I want to make a game 3D and more over a FPS.

So I was thinking should I programme through OpenGL in c++ or should I do it on some game engine like BLender or ORGE. I know just basics of graphics in c++ and want to upgrade myself in game programming so what should I do. I want easy and better method if it is there, else I want to know better method to go for.

If game engine is better then which game engine should I prefer

124.247.198.69 (talk) 03:43, 18 February 2009 (UTC)harshagg

Perhaps it would be a good idea to start with an existing open source FPS game, and make a few modifications as you learn your way around the system? (If you insist on starting from the engine, there's also a list of open source FPS engines.) Good luck. – 74  04:13, 18 February 2009 (UTC)

Re-Size Pictures Program

Many computers ago, I had a stand alone freeware program that would re-size pictures (jpg, jpeg, gif). The program was named something like "MPEG". Does anyone know what the program may be called or where I could find another copy? (After the resize, there was no loss of color or pixels.)—Preceding unsigned comment added by 76.225.133.60 (talk) 08:38, 18 February 2009 (UTC)

No loss of pixels? What do you mean by resize? Resize the image so it has less pixels (e.g. 640x480 to 480x320) or compress the image so it takes up less space (e.g. 8kB to 2kB)? --wj32 ^t/c 09:03, 18 February 2009 (UTC)

I mean the loss is not noticable. It will take a regular size picture and either shrink it or enlarge it. Mainly done so you can email the picture to someone. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 76.225.133.60 (talk) 10:19, 18 February 2009 (UTC)

I was going to suggest a website called rasterbator which does let you take your photo and increase its size to much larger without (based on the theory of viewing distance v resolution) any notable loss in quality, but it seems you want to go downwards. 194.221.133.226 (talk) 11:23, 18 February 2009 (UTC)

If you are using Windows XP, there is a powertoy specifically for that. It's not stand-alone, but it works. To use it, just right click the image and select "resize pictures". [1] It's free, but it's Microsoft (not open-source or whatever). Gabeeshy (talk) 12:25, 18 February 2009 (UTC)

This kind of thing is ImageMagick's bread and butter. --Sean 13:19, 18 February 2009 (UTC)

I don't think the OP is talking about resolution reduction - they said "not noticable", which wouldn't apply to that. Again, do you want to change the picture's resolution or change its filesize? These are completely different topics - you didn't answer the first time. --wj32 ^t/c 07:52, 19 February 2009 (UTC)

I just want to shrink a large picture down to a smaller picture, so it is easier to email. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 76.225.133.60 (talk) 09:29, 19 February 2009 (UTC)

Pretty much any image editor lets you shrink your image and resave it. Take your pick Category:Graphics software. Astronaut (talk) 15:37, 19 February 2009 (UTC)

I use EZthumbs, found at www.fookes.com/ezthumbs. Easy to use, and quite versatile. Bunthorne (talk) 19:04, 22 February 2009 (UTC)

How do I convert .rm to .wmv in MediaCoder?

Please answer!!--Editor510 ^{drop us a line, mate} 09:53, 18 February 2009 (UTC)

P.S. There could be a barnstar in it for you!--Editor510 ^{drop us a line, mate} 09:59, 18 February 2009 (UTC)

Suggestion here and forum here. Seems to have a rather awkward interface, sounds like it would be easier to try another convertor - http://www.download.com has lots of freeware and shareware bits and pieces, bound to be something there somewhere (would suggest one but SurfControl doesn't want me to look). Barnstar not required, I don't come here for the gongs. Lanfear's Bane | t 15:19, 18 February 2009 (UTC)

I used this one with no problems. Free trial was enough for what I needed.BigDunc^Talk 09:45, 19 February 2009 (UTC)

Visual Basic application installation shortcuts

This is a work question... A colleague is using VB from Visual studio 2001 and has created an application and a user manual as a PDF. When installing the application, the program and manual are placed into the "Program Files" tree and shortcuts are added to the Windows start menu. For some reason, the shortcut pointing to the PDF file comes with a generic icon and doesn't pick up the icon associated with PDFs. He can't find a way to specify an icon that isn't included as part of the project itself, and anyway it is likely to be in different locations on different computers. Any suggestions as to how to fix this? -- SGBailey (talk) 12:37, 18 February 2009 (UTC)

It's a pain, isn't it? The difficulty seems to be in the fact that they're not "real" shortcuts. When you do an install and look at the properties of the shortcut, it registers as an application target instead of a "pdf document" or "text document" etc. I'd like to know if there is a solution... yandman 15:24, 18 February 2009 (UTC)

Web download

How can I resume my download after shutting down my system —Preceding unsigned comment added by 124.124.171.124 (talk) 13:30, 18 February 2009 (UTC)

What browser/download manager are you using? More modern ones let you pause over system restarts, and then provide an easy resume button. If you didn't pause the download before the system restart, you've got less of a chance (I actually submitted that as a bug to Mozilla). - Jarry1250 ^{(t, c)} 13:39, 18 February 2009 (UTC)

It also depends on the web server you are downloading from, and where the file comes from. If the file is dynamically generated from form input or something, then chances are that you won't be able to resume. --164.67.100.97 (talk) 21:35, 18 February 2009 (UTC)

Word 2007 Spell Checker

I'm doing some biology coursework and I need the spell checker to work, but as I have been typing I've noticed that it does not appear to be spell checking tables, and if I type a load of gibberish it comes up with nothing, no red zig-zags or anything. Does anyone know how to fix it or have similar problems?

78.145.34.128 (talk) 16:56, 18 February 2009 (UTC)

See if the spell check is enabled. Go to options and click the spelling and grammar tab and see if the Check Spelling As You Type option is checked. If that does not fix it, change your font to Times New Roman. The spell checker cannot check all kinds of fonts. Even if your font looks like Times New Roman, double check to make sure it's not Times New Roman Unicode or anything else with a similar name-- penubag  (talk) 05:14, 19 February 2009 (UTC)

Downloadable JavaScript Tutorial

Where?  Buffered Input Output 17:14, 18 February 2009 (UTC)

Not sure about a downloadable, but w3schools.com has a very nice JavaScript tutorial Belisarius (talk) 22:37, 18 February 2009 (UTC)

Ours and theirs — Ched (talk) 22:46, 18 February 2009 (UTC)

We have a Wikibooks entry on it here b:JavaScript. Usually you can download wikibooks entries in pdf format. -- penubag  (talk) 05:11, 19 February 2009 (UTC)

Add gui search to Excel file

Hello. I have a fairly large excel file (about 11mb). I would like a program that i can use to search the contents of this excel file. It would be awesome if this program can be embedded in to a web page (as a few hundred people would need to use it in any given month). I don't need this program to be able to edit the file, just search it and display the results. Thank you – Vector Eng. Inc. 17:21, 18 February 2009 (UTC)

There are a number of Javascript spreadsheets about never mind Google Docs but your spreadsheet is a bit big for that sort of thing. Your web host may supply SQL database support, mySQL is very common, in which case I'd load the data into that and just treat it as a database. Dmcq (talk) 19:00, 18 February 2009 (UTC)

Microsoft provides a suite of integrated tools that can accomplish this (Excel files can generally be read and used by Visual Studio projects, including ASP.NET, which would allow you to create the web interface). However, this does require support from your webhost and is not an "out of the box" solution (some programming will be required). Alternatively, Dmcq's suggestion of converting the spreadsheet into a database will work with a large number of webhosts and shouldn't require much more than writing simple SQL queries. – 74  20:20, 18 February 2009 (UTC)

It is not very hard to convert Excel files into flat CSV files that, say, you can read with a quick PHP script. But it is not so quick as to be effortless. --140.247.249.163 (talk) 20:30, 18 February 2009 (UTC)

If you do go for the SQL which you'd probably support using PHP then can I just ask that you really take the messages on the SQL injection page to heart thanks. Dmcq (talk) 20:35, 18 February 2009 (UTC)

You can also use the built-in VBA for Excel. Hit Alt+F11, it'll bring up the a project window, right click your project (the excel file), insert -> Userform. When done with the form, add [your-form-name].Show() to the Workbook's Open event. PrinzPH (talk) 18:05, 25 February 2009 (UTC) -whoops... missed the part about the webpage, sorry-

Autofilling of song metadata

Hi there, I have some songs on my computer, in mp3 format. The other day I went to open one and saw that some of them had had their metadata (album, artist, year, etc.) filled in automatically. However, some of the songs hadn't been touched. These songs were not downloaded via iTunes or anything like that. I recently downloaded WinAmp. Would that be affecting the songs, or is it something else? My computer is a Windows XP. Thelb⁴ 17:41, 18 February 2009 (UTC)

The place you downloaded them from may have tagged the metadata automatically. Or if you burned them off a CD, the same may have been done by whoever made the album. Livewireo (talk) 20:26, 18 February 2009 (UTC)

According to Winamp's website, Winamp has a feature called "Auto-tag" which automatically updates metadata. Presumably this modification occurs when the song is accessed/played (not on all songs on load), and it probably won't update songs that aren't in its database (due to insufficient identification, insufficient distribution, etc.). – 74  20:29, 18 February 2009 (UTC)

Easy way to see # of RAM modules installed

Say I know a computer has 2 gigs of RAM currently installed, and I know that there are 4 total RAM "slots" available (i.e, 4 DIMM connectors). Short of just opening up the case and looking inside (which isn't that hard, I guess), is there an easy way to tell if the 4 2 [edit: correct typo] gigs is made up of 2 x 1 gig modules or 4 x 512 MB modules? I can't imagine it'd be the latter, but I just want to make sure so I know how many 1 gig RAM modules I need. In Windows XP/Vista, is there some "system information" page or something that will state this? Thanks... Dgcopter (talk) 21:12, 18 February 2009 (UTC)

cpu-z will tell you exactly what is plugged exactly where. yandman 21:15, 18 February 2009 (UTC)

dmidecode for Windows can also do this, I used dmidecode for this task under linux. -- JSBillings 22:26, 18 February 2009 (UTC)

(edit conflict) Belarc Advisor will also tell you the info you require. BigDunc^Talk 22:40, 18 February 2009 (UTC)

Personally, I wouldn't trust software to tell you that. If you simply get the screwdriver out and take the cover off, you should be able to count the memory modules and establish their type for sure. Astronaut (talk) 15:30, 19 February 2009 (UTC)

cpu-z and Belarc have both been quite reliable for me in the past. The amount/number of ram chips is something the OS must know since it manages the memory. Cracking open the case and taking a look is also a good way, but it doesn't necessarily tell you what you have. 2 gigs of memory and 4 chips. That could be 4x512meg... or 1x1024, 1x512 and 2x256.---J.S (T/C/WRE) 18:12, 21 February 2009 (UTC)

OpenSSL

I'm using OpenSSL and I have a file that contains the keys I want to use file.key. How can properly put it into a pem file that will contain parameters for an X.509 certificate like how it will work when you use this command:

openssl req -x509 -nodes -days 1825 -newkey rsa:1024 -keyout host.pem -out host.pem

This would make a new key though which I don't want, instead I want to use the keysthat are in file.key --Melab±1 ☎ 22:36, 18 February 2009 (UTC)

February 19

Dell Inspiron 5100 Processor

I just cleaned all the dust out of my Dell Inspiron 5100 processor fan and heat sink. I had been getting increasingly bad performance during even mildly CPU-intensive activities, during which the CPU would go to 100%, and the air coming out of the fan area was noticeably hot. The Dell 5100 has had plenty of overheating problems. I suspect it wasn't too wise to put (what I think is) a regular P4-2.6Ghz processor in a laptop.

Anyway, I installed the Dell Inspiron temperature management software after the cleaning. I'm watching the temperature closely.

My question is: In what temperature range should the P4 (again, I'm not sure this is a regular P4, I only think so. I don't think it is the P4-M.) be operating? At what temperature does it slow itself down to prevent further overheating? Is there any harm in setting my fan utility to always blow at 100% (the computer's original BIOS doesn't seem to step it up to 100% often enough to properly manage the temperature)

Also, the wireless card on the computer is getting old. I constantly lose my connection and have to release/renew to get it going again (even though the signal strength remains high and there exists no apparent indication of a problem by looking at the wireless utility in the system tray. Also, drivers are up to date). Because of this, I often leave a non-stop ping going to google.com to indicate whether or not I have a connection. Is there a little utility that will run in my system tray that will indicate whether or not I have a good ping to some URL?

Thanks (PS - as I was posting this, I lost the connection again...)NByz (talk) 02:28, 19 February 2009 (UTC)

The thermal management threshholds vary from processor to processor (not just from series to series). Each one is individually calibrated before it ships. About two years ago I did some tests with a P4 1.7Ghz + heatsink and passive ventilation only, and it began throttling at about 60C, and shut itself down at 120C. YMMV of course.

Your sporadic WLAN problem sounds more like radio interference. Garage door? Babyphone? Evil neighbour with a Jacob's ladder? -- Fullstop (talk) 19:14, 19 February 2009 (UTC)

Thanks! I've set the processor fan to go to 100% at 50 degrees. I don't mind the noise, and I don't suspect it will hurt it to be on more often..? It really feels like it starts slowing down at around 55 or 60 degrees.

It could be interference on the wireless card. The thing is, it happens pretty regularly (about once per hour) regardless of what's going on. I also have five other computers using the same wireless network in this house that don't have the same problem. NByz (talk) 19:46, 21 February 2009 (UTC)

I think my friend has a 5100, and yeah, it runs hot. Running the fan more often will wear the fan down a bit more, but that's not something to worry about, realistically. As for your wireless issue, it could be a slight incompatibility with the router. I have solved similar problems by assigning an IP to the device MAC address, using the router config. Just a suggestion. - mako 02:02, 22 February 2009 (UTC)

If your friend hasn't popped off the keyboard and cleaned out the fan casing and heat sink yet, he should give it a try. It has really helped the heat handling. Instructions can be found on google pretty easily.NByz (talk) 03:04, 22 February 2009 (UTC)

protecting online images

Is there a straightforward way to prevent exposure of image folders on web sites? If you type http://[sitename].com/images on my (inexperienced) friend's site, you get "Index of /images" and access to everything that's there (including parent directories). But I have seen "Forbidden" on other sites. How can I help her make her image folder forbidden? Thanks! --Halcatalyst (talk) 03:51, 19 February 2009 (UTC)

With Unix permissions, one simple trick is to deny read permission bit for "other" (people not in your group, which includes the web server program) for the directory. Like 0751 (r-xr-x--x) or 0711 (r-x--x--x). Without the read permission, they won't be able to list the directory, but will still be able to access everything inside, provided that execute permission is granted.

A more proper way to do it would be to place Options -Indexes in a .htaccess file in the directory. You can of course, always upload any index.html file (either blank or displaying some message of your choosing) and that will do the trick too. --164.67.206.11 (talk) 04:17, 19 February 2009 (UTC)

As 164.67.206.11 said, A less proper (but easier) way to do it is to put an html file in the directory with one of the "standard" names—index.html, index.htm, default.htm, etc.—so the webserver will return that page instead of an automatic index. The file can be blank, or have a "Forbidden" message, or auto-link back to the webpage, or whatever. Again, this isn't the "correct" way to prevent indexing, but it tends to be the easiest. – 74  04:26, 19 February 2009 (UTC)

That sounds like it ought to be easy to subvert at the client end. Is it? Algebraist 15:52, 19 February 2009 (UTC)

No, there is no way to subvert it. --76.167.241.45 (talk) 20:30, 19 February 2009 (UTC)

A good security practice is to turn off directory indexes for the whole site, and then selectively enable it on particular directories if desired. --Sean 13:29, 19 February 2009 (UTC)

Copying a website

Is it possible to download or copy a whole website ?If yes, are there special softwares for this purpose ? the whole procedure ? Thanks —Preceding unsigned comment added by 201.220.215.12 (talk) 04:46, 19 February 2009 (UTC)

You might want to take a look at HTTrack; it even has an online tutorial. – 74  04:52, 19 February 2009 (UTC)

wget -r ... --76.167.241.45 (talk) 06:18, 19 February 2009 (UTC)

You'd better read more of the wget docs before you start using wget, otherwise you might find it downloading gigabytes more than you want. It's a good program, designed for people willing to read and think. Morenoodles (talk) 09:55, 20 February 2009 (UTC)

Video conversion software

I want a free software that i can download off the internet that will convert video files to be played on my ipod. iTunes does convert them, but i get no audio on the converted files. Thanks. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 116.71.58.66 (talk) 15:49, 19 February 2009 (UTC)

What format are the videos in? Algebraist 15:50, 19 February 2009 (UTC)

They are in MPEG and WMV formats. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 116.71.58.197 (talk) 12:55, 20 February 2009 (UTC)

For YouTube videos>iPod format, you can use this. --KageTora (talk) 19:57, 19 February 2009 (UTC)

Avidemux, SUPER, MediaCoder, HandBrake, megui SN0WKITT3N 20:28, 19 February 2009 (UTC)

Toshiba Satellite L350 laptop -- Is the memory dual-channel?

Toshiba Satellite L350 laptop -- Is the memory dual-channel? The webpage does not give this detail. I searched the web with Google but could not find any reliable information. Is there something in the specification that implies that this laptop is dual-channel? Or could someone who has any recent Toshiba Satellite let me know? Thanks! --Masatran (talk) 16:02, 19 February 2009 (UTC)

According to the detailed product specification, it uses PC6400 DDR2 SDRAM. I believe that this is dual channeled. - Akamad (talk) 02:53, 20 February 2009 (UTC)

MATLAB: is it possible to selectively save only one output variable from a multi-output function?

If one has a MATLAB function along the (generic) lines of [a,b,c,d] = f(x,y,z), is there a way to evaluate the function and save only one of the output variables?

For example, if the function above is called in the following manner:
[a,b,c,d] = f(x,y,z)
variables 'a', 'b', 'c', and 'd' will all be saved.

However, if the function is called like this:
q = f(x,y,z)
only the output variable 'a' will be saved.

Is there a way to have behaviour analogous to the second case, but for other output variables besides the first one? (For example, save only variable 'b' or 'c'?) —Preceding unsigned comment added by 128.100.36.234 (talk) 16:24, 19 February 2009 (UTC)

You can save all four variables to temporary variables and then delete them using the clear command.

 [temp_a,temp_b,c,temp_d] = f(x,y,z);
 clear temp*   % or explicitly clear temp_a; clear temp_b; clear temp_d;

This will result in only c being stored. Nimur (talk) 16:42, 19 February 2009 (UTC)

Algorithm Wanted

What I want to do is accept a double-dimensional array’s elements from the user, then find out the combination of elements (no two of which are in the same column)which have the minimum possible sum. Can anyone suggest an algorithm for this? Thanks in advance. La Alquimista 17:58, 19 February 2009 (UTC)

If I understand you right, the minimum possible sum would be the sum of the two smallest values. :Assuming that the elements are unsigned integers, and that neither dimension has more than 64K elements,...

unsigned array[5][10]; /* 5x10 array to search */

unsigned minval[2] = {UINT_MAX, UINT_MAX}; /* slots for the smallest two values */

unsigned minpos[2] = {UINT_MAX, UINT_MAX}; /* for position in the matrix */

unsigned r, c;

for (r = 0; r < ((sizeof(array)/sizeof(array[0]))/sizeof(array[0][0])); r++) {

for (c = 0; c < (sizeof(array[0])/sizeof(array[0][0])); c++) {

if (array[r][c] < mival[1]) {

minval[0] = minval[1];

minpos[0] = minpos[1];

minval[1] = array[r][c];

minpos[1] = (r << 16) | c;

}

}

}

printf("Minimum possible sum: array[%u][%u] + array[%u][%u] => (%u + %u) => %f\n",

minpos[0]>>16, minpos[0] & 0xffffu, minpos[1]>>16, minpos[1] & 0xffffu,

minval[0], minval[1], ((double)(minval[0])) + ((double)(minval[1])) );

That's off the top of my head, but should be ok I think. -- Fullstop (talk) 18:53, 19 February 2009 (UTC)

I don't think they wanted to limit the sum to just two values, but probably one from every column. This would still be trivial, just find the minimum value in each column and sum those. I suspect there's another part they didn't mention, though, like that no two values can be used from the same row, either. This would make it into a challenging computer problem. Since the user probably can't enter all that many values, I'd suggest a brute force approach here of trying every possible combo and taking the lowest. A more elegant solution is also possible, but not likely to be necessary for such a small amount of data. For 100 values in a 10×10 array, for example, there would be 10 billion possible combos to try, but most of those would be eliminated because they shared a common row. Only 10! (3,628,800) would need to be summed (and, even then, you could abort any trial as soon as it's total exceeded the minimum so far). StuRat (talk) 20:47, 19 February 2009 (UTC)

I guess I forgot to mention a few details... Ok, so, rules: The array is a square matrix, and the maximum size for my program is 6. One and only one number (neither more, nor less) can be taken from each row. The same goes for each column as well.Quite obviously, the output should remain the same even if the order of the rows are scrambled. For example take the following matrix:

 12 23 5

 5 12 23

 2 15 12 

The output should be:

1st Row: 5

2nd Row: 12

3rd Row: 2

Minimum possible sum: 5+12+2=19 La Alquimista 06:53, 20 February 2009 (UTC)

I suppose you've figured out that the obvious greedy algorithm will not work. This is a common example of a problem easily solved with recursion - although it is normally the goal to get a certain value given an array of possible units: ie, given 1 3 5 9, create 72 using the minimum number of 1's 3's 5's or 9's. For you, the algorithm is very straightforward. For each element of the first array, try using each element of the next array with each element of the last array. If the set is invalid, don't consider it. If it is valid, check the sum. If it is lower than the best sum you've previously found, that set is your current best set. -- kainaw™ 07:12, 20 February 2009 (UTC)

I guess that'll work fine for an array of size 3. But what about the bigger ones?? The number of nested loops will become way too cumbersome then, don't you agree?? La Alquimista 07:42, 20 February 2009 (UTC)

You wouldn't be looking for the Hungarian algorithm would you? yandman 08:12, 20 February 2009 (UTC)

Wow!!! It is what I wanted!! Thanks a bunch!! La Alquimista 08:27, 20 February 2009 (UTC)

Also see recursion. There are no "nested loops" as you mentioned. It is a function that calls itself. -- kainaw™ 15:34, 20 February 2009 (UTC)

Firefox issue, probably me being an idiot

My friend was using my laptop, and then when I got back on it, it appears that a text-cursor like flashing bar appears at the end of every line or box I click on, almost like in a text editor. I think this has happened before, but I've completely forgotten how to turn it off. Any ideas? I'll screenshot if anyone needs it. Thanks :) —Cyclonenim (talk · contribs · email) 18:58, 19 February 2009 (UTC)

Tools --> Options... --> Advanced --> Always use the cursor keys to navigate within pages. Hermione1980 19:06, 19 February 2009 (UTC)

Thank you :) —Cyclonenim (talk · contribs · email) 19:12, 19 February 2009 (UTC)

Acer Aspire One

Do all Acer Aspire One come with Linux? My friend has one, and hers is dual boot Linux + WinXP. She said mine should be, too, but I can't get it to boot into Linux or anything because the 'press F12 for such-and-such' screen is only on for a split second - not even long enough for me to press anything. Anyway, question is, do they all come with Linux? If not, then I will just assume I only have XP, because I can't be bothered testing my reactions with the 'F' buttons.--KageTora (talk) 19:42, 19 February 2009 (UTC)

Can you tell us the model number of your computer? If it ends in L, or A followed by a letter standing for the colour, then it should have a light version Linux installed. If it ends in X or B followed by a letter standing for the colour, then it has only Windows XP. —Cyclonenim (talk · contribs · email) 20:58, 19 February 2009 (UTC)

By the way, I got the above from our article: Acer Aspire One. —Cyclonenim (talk · contribs · email) 20:59, 19 February 2009 (UTC)

No I have a Linux version and that comes only with Linux. When I went to buy it (a month ago) you could have XP or Linux but not both. I have not heard of a dual boot one out of the box. Having said that, if you want to, why not just install linux anyway? (assuming you have the hard drive version) Theresa Knott | token threats 09:32, 20 February 2009 (UTC)

In Windows Vista, say you're downloading a file from a filesharing service, one click hosting...

Say it's a big file, and you need to go out but you also need to lock your computer so other people cannot tamper with your stuff, but the file is still downloading. If you lock the computer with password protection, sometimes, especially after a period of time, the file will fail to have downloaded, will just stop, by the time you get back onto the computer. What can be done about this?

Is there a program you can run to change this? (Having said that, you could just go Ctrl+Alt+Del and get around it... if such a program even exists.)--AbilityAgility (talk) 22:08, 19 February 2009 (UTC)

No program will continue to run if Windows decides to suspend/hibernate, but you can adjust the power management settings to prevent this (and some programs specifically prevent power management triggers). Other than that, you might want to look for a download manager with "Auto-Resume". This probably won't help much if the site you are using doesn't support download resume, however. – 74  23:56, 19 February 2009 (UTC)

Printing excel spreadsheet page: want guide marks for ring-binder hole-punch

I have created a paper form using a small one-page Excel spreadsheet. Is it possible please to get guide marks included on the left margin of the printed sheet to help with aligning a two-hole-punch for use with a ring-binder? How is it done? And, while I'm here, what about guide marks on the left margin in MS Word to help folding a letter into three? 78.147.141.29 (talk) 22:36, 19 February 2009 (UTC)

I don't know of any feature to do this directly, but you can insert autoShape circles (Insert→Picture→AutoShapes on older versions of Excel) and place them such that they serve as guide marks. This will require some amount of trial-and-error, but in the case of a commonly-printed form it might be worth the effort. Similarly, AutoShape lines can be inserted into a Word document, although again I wouldn't bother unless it's a form letter likely to receive frequent use. – 74  23:04, 19 February 2009 (UTC)

Sound file conversion

I have some .wma files on my computer that I can listen to on Windows Media Player. Is there any way possible I could convert them to .mp3 so I can have them on iTunes and put them on my iPod? They're useless to me otherwise, so I'll really like to be able to convert them. Illegal is okay. Thanks! Reywas92^Talk 23:02, 19 February 2009 (UTC)

Perhaps this page might provide some useful information. – 74  23:12, 19 February 2009 (UTC)

Thanks! I can be so computer illiterate sometimes! Should have known that it was easy and legal. Reywas92^Talk 23:15, 19 February 2009 (UTC)

If the files contain DRM (and if you are in the United States) then circumventing the DRM *is* illegal according to the DMCA (but often still easy). – 74  23:29, 19 February 2009 (UTC)

I can list a few more offline apps that do this, but it seems like you got what you wanted. http://mediaconverter.org might be of interest to you though. -- penubag  (talk) 05:19, 20 February 2009 (UTC)

Users

Are there any Wikipedia users who, these days, only or mainly use an older version of Windows? I know there are some - by clicking on the images in User:Google box - but 1) some of those users don't edit anymore or 2) some of those users now use a new version of Windows and haven't bothered to update their page. So are there any such users right now? JCI (talk) 23:26, 19 February 2009 (UTC)

Depends on what you mean by "older version". I edit mainly from Windows XP, which, since the release of Windows Vista, is technically an older OS. If you mean Windows 95 or (heaven forbid) MS-DOS, I don't know. Out of curiosity, why are you asking? Hermione1980 23:31, 19 February 2009 (UTC)

Because of the relatively small number of users who use older versions of Windows these days. And slightly off-topic and as a second question: how many, in numbers, copies of each version of Windows are in use today? JCI (talk) 23:39, 19 February 2009 (UTC)

My old computer still uses Windows 97 98 [sorry, just a typo], and I won't update it. I usually don't use it anymore because it has some severe issues... but if my current computer should suddenly have more severe issues/die completely, why not? --Thanks for answering (talk) 03:13, 20 February 2009 (UTC)

I almost always use my Windows 98 machine to edit Wikipedia, as I am right now. StuRat (talk) 04:15, 20 February 2009 (UTC)

I sometimes use Windows 2000. I haven't even heard of "Windows 97", which somebody above claims to be using. I don't see how anybody could possibly calculate how many copies of each version of Windows (or almost any other kind of software) are in use today. Morenoodles (talk) 09:52, 20 February 2009 (UTC)

Your comment (and Thanks's typo) inspired this graph investigating the frequency of "Windows X". – 74  16:15, 20 February 2009 (UTC)

Until 2007 I was using windows 98 SE to edit, but it had trouble with unicode, and trashing the IW links. Now with Windows XP. Graeme Bartlett (talk) 21:52, 20 February 2009 (UTC)

Not a representative sample (I get more Linux visitors than the Internet as a whole), but from my website's 2008 visitors:

• Windows XP: 60%
• Windows Vista: 15%
• Windows 2000: 4%
• Windows 98: 2%
• Windows Server 2003: 2%

I've also got hits from people running Windows NT (presumably 4), Windows 95, Windows CE, and Windows ME. The numbers from 2009 are still too small to tell for certain, but there seems to be a slight drop in the number of people using Windows Vista, and a corresponding increase in MacOS users. --Carnildo (talk) 22:47, 20 February 2009 (UTC)

I have a working windows 3.11 workgroups which can access the internet and could edit wikipedia, though I don't use it. Windows 98 and 2000 seem likely to be the oldest people are using on a regular basis though one or two people using windows 95, perhaps in places where better computers are unavailable, wouldn't surprise me either

No bullshit, free program that converts .flv to .wmv with good quality and no setbacks?

I've been unable to find one. Replay Converter only does 90 seconds in demo mode.--AbilityAgility (talk) 23:45, 19 February 2009 (UTC)

Also, if a QuickTime to .wmv converter exists, I'd like to know about that too, although it's of lesser importance.--AbilityAgility (talk) 00:00, 20 February 2009 (UTC)

You could give SUPER a try. I'm pretty sure I've used it for Flash Video. The download link is at the bottom of this page. Cycle~ (talk) 01:52, 20 February 2009 (UTC)

Seen it before, but why do you have to take all these unusual measures just to download a link? Seems to be a bit suspect to me. Is it available on rapidshare or anything, which would be more normal?--AbilityAgility (talk) 02:30, 20 February 2009 (UTC)

SUPER is a disgusting piece of software. What I mean by that is the horrible GUI - cluttered menus with 20 or so menu items, an over-complicated main window, and an author who is too proud of his software. Anyway, I'm sure VirtualDub combined with Combined Community Codec Pack will do the trick. --wj32 ^t/c 10:15, 20 February 2009 (UTC)

I know that you probably use Windows, but if you continue have problems, you can consider searching for a Windows port of ffmpeg. In Linux, converting flv to wmv is rather simple: "ffmpeg -i video.flv -vcodec wmv1 -acodec adpcm_ima_wav video.wmv" -- All that vcodec and acodec stuff is rather redundant and used to just to ensure that it encodes in simple wmv that everyone can play instead of some weird wmv that only runs on certain players. -- kainaw™ 15:27, 20 February 2009 (UTC)

February 20

Screencasting software

Which free screencasting software do you recommend for Windows? (Which one for Linux in case I should finally switch in the near future?) Criteria are

• not slowing down my computer
• size of output files (I'm talking about recordings of approx. 2 hours each!)
• audio quality (video quality is secondary)
• probably doesn't exist, though it'd be sweet: recording different parts of the screen with different resolution (most of it, I don't need at all; other stuff I need only with very low resolution; etc.)

... am I forgetting something? I have never used one before. Thanks! --Thanks for answering (talk) 03:13, 20 February 2009 (UTC)

Do you use firefox? If so there is a ff addon that does screencasting [2]. You may also want to view Wikipedia's category page and you might find something good. Category:Screencasting software. -- penubag  (talk) 05:24, 20 February 2009 (UTC)

Yes, I'm using Firefox. And I'm familiar with Wikipedia's category page (I linked to the list, which is even more comprehensive because it also includes programs for whom we don't have articles yet), but I'd prefer specific recommendations rather than randomly trying what's out there. --Thanks for answering (talk) 10:41, 20 February 2009 (UTC)

free virus scan

Which free virus scan program do you recommend? Criteria are

• finding viruses etc. !!! (well, obviously!)
• not slowing down my computer
• ... ?

Thanks! --Thanks for answering (talk) 03:13, 20 February 2009 (UTC)

What operating system to you use? Algebraist 03:16, 20 February 2009 (UTC)

Well, I can tell you one I don't recommend: AVG Free. It comes with the added bonus of making one's browser unstable when one does a Google search. (Or maybe I'm just an idiot, but I prefer the first option). Avast! is okay. IIRC, though, its interface is a little confusing. I haven't encountered an antivirus program that slows down my computer since I quit using Norton. Hermione1980 03:27, 20 February 2009 (UTC)

Are you looking to download antivirus software or just interested in a scan that doesn't remove viruses? If you just want the scan, Kaspersky Labs, as most other antivirus companies have free scans on their website. Kaspersky Labs was rated the best antivirus program so I might try them http://usa.kaspersky.com/products_services/free-virus-scanner.php -- penubag  (talk) 05:30, 20 February 2009 (UTC)

I would highly recommend the NOD32 anitvirus software. Works wonders for me! La Alquimista 07:09, 20 February 2009 (UTC)

Are all of these free like how the OP wanted? Jay (talk) 10:24, 20 February 2009 (UTC)

I've just started to use Avast! On the plus side, it can do a boot-time scan which other free anti-viri cannot. On the negative, it is very irritating that it hogs the computer and makes it unusable for several minutes everytime you start the computer. There seems to be no way of turning this off. As a result I have been thinking of returning to AVG or some other program. 89.241.159.155 (talk) 10:24, 20 February 2009 (UTC)

Sorry, I forgot: Yes, I'm using Windows. (To some extent, I'm also interested in Linux--I'm still hoping to switch oen of these days...) I've been using AVG for quite a while now, and it really slows down my computer and eats a lot of power. I've also heard rumors that it isn't the most reliable... - And yes, I want to remove the viruses/spyware/etc.--I'm not a zoo. ("And here we have a beautiful specimen of a xy virus!") ... But that's probably not what you meant? - And what's the advantage of doing online checks/scans? I generally prefer to be able to do everything offline for a multitude of reasons (incl. simply being able to switch off my modem and save a bit power)... but maybe there's an advantage that I'm not aware of? - Thanks, thanks, Thanks for answering (talk) 10:41, 20 February 2009 (UTC)

Well, most of the above mentioned software, if not free, can be easily downloaded via torrent, along with their cracks and patches. That's what I did, and my anti-virus can now update itself regularly from the original website without having to worry about neat little labels stuck to their side claiming that I've been a victim of software counterfeiting!! 117.194.227.135 (talk) 12:13, 20 February 2009 (UTC)

I've been using AVG on my Windows Vista laptop with no problems at all. Astronaut (talk) 12:50, 20 February 2009 (UTC)

I tend to find AVG can slow down a PC, but only when doing its automated scans. If you time them right, you shouldn't notice a thing. - Jarry1250 ^{(t, c)} 22:24, 20 February 2009 (UTC)

OK, my 2-cents. The big 3 in the free market right now seem to be: AVG, Avast!, and Avira. There's good and bad in all. Avira lately has placed higher in virus detection rates - but I don't like the popup ads (and as of yet haven't been able to turn them off) Avast! places very high in overall ratings - but the user interface is a little different, and some folks have complained about their difficulty in understanding it. AVG does well in the overall - but may miss a few of the newer viruses in it's attempt to find the spyware. PC-Tools also has a package, but it seems to be a hit-and-miss package at the moment. <thumbs up to the Nod32 post - I love it, - wish it was free>. On the torrent / P2P packages - we're probably not supposed to advocate such things. Anytime you go the route of downloading "cracked" software, you run a real risk of picking up a trojan dropper. While one might risk that if they had total faith in their AV program - I'm not sure I'd want to pick up the actual AV program through that route. All IMHO. — Ched (talk) 13:33, 21 February 2009 (UTC)

Oh ... almost forgot. You may want to look through this page List of antivirus software. It'll give you an idea of the feature sets of each. — Ched (talk) 13:37, 21 February 2009 (UTC)

Video Editing Software

I want a nice and clean little video-editing software, which is better than the crap Windows MovieMaker is.(It drastically reduces the quality of the original clips I provide.) Any ideas where I might find one?? I've got this handful of clips that I want to paste together, add a bit of background music, and do all that's neccessary to convert it into a lovely little music video for my friends. La Alquimista 07:39, 20 February 2009 (UTC)

Nero is pretty nice and you can get a free 15-day trial at their website. An online solution is OneTrueMedia, which has decent editing capabilities and will help you to either stream it online for free (or pay for higher def) or purchase a custom DVD. --Eustress (talk) 09:02, 20 February 2009 (UTC)

Sony's Vegas Video is powerful and easy to use. I strongly recommend it. There's also Avid, but it's used mostly by production studios.--K;;m5m k;;m5m (talk) 09:07, 20 February 2009 (UTC)

Avidemux works well for me. Simple interface, lots of features and supports most formats. To join lots of clips, open the first one and then go File -> Append and select the next and so on. For the music go Audio -> Main track and change the source to external mp3 or WAV. SN0WKITT3N 13:36, 20 February 2009 (UTC)

I agree with K;;m5m, Sony Vegas is fantastic software. You might also try the 15-day trial of Adobe Premiere CS4 (since the trial's only time limited). miquonranger03 (talk) 14:55, 20 February 2009 (UTC)

VBScripting and HTML

In an HTML document when you put the scripts in the head tags how do you access them in the body tags. For instance when the Submit button for a form is pressed how do you make it so that it doesn't display a message box but rather a math result is displayed in a textbox. And do you have to use a Function statement to write the process and a Sub statement to use it. And are the syntaxes for VBScripting in an HTML document and for a normal program-like script the same. --Melab±1 ☎ 18:28, 20 February 2009 (UTC)

Rather than try to explain all the ins and outs of scripting here, I will instead recommend that you check out the W3Schools VBScript tutorial. There's a lot of great information there. --LarryMac | Talk 18:37, 20 February 2009 (UTC)

JavaScript

Resolved

What's wrong with this code? [3] I'm not getting any output. Thanks -Magic.Wiki (talk) 18:42, 20 February 2009 (UTC)

Is it better now? - Jarry1250 ^{(t, c)} 18:47, 20 February 2009 (UTC)

I think the thing you have to do is put a "+" between two strings you want to concatenate together. You're not doing that in 'document.write("y="y);'. Also, if you're using Firefox, install the Firebug extension; it'll let you see error messages that your JavaScript produces. (Normally, when an error occurs in JavaScript code, it stops executing and it doesn't do whatever it was supposed to do.) -- Why Not A Duck 18:52, 20 February 2009 (UTC)

I didn't realise pastebin wouldn't show my correction automatically. In short, WNAD is right, I think. - Jarry1250 ^{(t, c)} 18:57, 20 February 2009 (UTC)

Ah,thanks a lot. Installing Firebug now Magic.Wiki (talk) 19:19, 20 February 2009 (UTC)

onclick

Resolved

Javascript noob here, for

img_ex.setAttribute("onclick", "expandImagesPartial()");

how can I instead make it automatically "onclick" rather than requiring user input? Many thanks —Preceding unsigned comment added by 82.43.88.87 (talk) 22:11, 20 February 2009 (UTC)

Javascript's 'onload', perhaps? – 74  23:32, 20 February 2009 (UTC)

Thanks

Troubleshooting old software

Okay, here's the story. I have an ancient Windows 98 computer (First edition) that I was using way back when I was very young. My parents had loaded the computer with Juno Online Services (at that time version 5 I think?) in order to establish a dial-up connection to gain access to the Internet. That worked fine, until one day it just stopped working. I don't know if was my fault (as the only interest in computers for me at that time was games) or some glitch/bug or whatever. Now that I'm older and wiser (maybe), I'd like to see what could have possibly caused the error. After that day, everytime someone tried to run the Juno program to connect to the Internet, it would result in an "invalid page fault". Uninstalling/reinstalling did not help, as it would result in the same error.

JUNO caused an invalid page fault in
module VARONAY.DLL at 0167:035d624c.
Registers:
(a bunch of register stuff}
Bytes at CS:EIP:
(a bunch of byte stuff}
Stack dump:
(a bunch of stack dump stuff)

After that a similar error would appear, except with "module <unknown>". I searched high and low for what varonay.dll could possibly be, but no luck. All I know now is that it's some form of adware (clkoptimizer) as tagged by my antivirus on my laptop (I nor my parents had known much about antiviruses back in the day, so we just used a preinstalled trial version of McAfee which has long since expired). So, I'm asking any of you who are much more intimate with these types of errors to offer any suggestions, help, advice, etc. Perhaps then maybe internet access would then again be possible... Thanks. Vic93 (t/c) 23:45, 20 February 2009 (UTC)

Get Process Explorer and see where varonay.dll is. You can then see the description for the DLL. --wj32 ^t/c 04:31, 21 February 2009 (UTC)

Using Process Explorer v11.11 (seeing as how later versions do not work on Win98), it shows varonay.dll being located in C:\WINDOWS (I had already known this), but the description, company name, and version number are all blank. Vic93 (t/c) 16:56, 21 February 2009 (UTC)

A guess I could make is that something (a game install?) replaced that VARONAY.DLL. Graeme Bartlett (talk) 21:01, 21 February 2009 (UTC)

Okay well I downloaded and installed BitDefender Free Edition to my Windows 98. It detected quite a few viruses, trojans, and adware, but was unable to remove them. I booted up into Safe Mode to try and run a scan, but I wasn't able to open the BitDefender interface to initiate it. So can anyone recommend a free good antivirus compatible with Windows 98 that can be run under safe mode? I guess the first step is to get rid of all the malware present before trying to diagnose the error (it may even be related). Vic93 (t/c) 22:13, 22 February 2009 (UTC)

February 21

CD/DVD drive not reading a disk...

OK, my question is a bit odd. I have an older computer (4-5 years old, Windows XP, the whole nine yards). It works fine most of the time (except it seems to be interminably slow lately... I guess she's just getting old), but tonight I tried to play a DVD I rented, and it simply wouldn't read it. I could go into My Computer and look at the drive and everything, and it simply was not reading the disk. I tried a CD, it picked it up right away. I tried a different DVD, it read that as well. What possible reasons could there be that it's not reading the rented disk?

There's another bit I should have mentioned earlier... I also tried the disk in a laptop (about the same age, also Windows XP [I suppose that's obvious, what else would it have?!]), and it worked fine. So it's not the disk. Does anybody know why the drive isn't reading that particular disk and how I can fix it? I seem to recall this happening once before, but for the life of me I can't remember how it was fixed. --Alinnisawest,^{Dalek Empress} (extermination requests here) 03:20, 21 February 2009 (UTC)

My guess would be that it *is* the disc. Major studios often include DRM to limit or prevent access to content in certain situations, and computer access is sometimes prevented in a misguided attempt to prevent copying. (It's also possible that the key for your specific DVD drive was "leaked" and revoked by the powers that be to prevent further decryption of their content.) If this is the case, you can try replacing your DVD drive with a newer one, purchase a standalone DVD player, or download software to circumvent the DRM (which is illegal according to the DMCA). Or save some time and money and just download an un-DRM'd copy from Pirate Bay (legality questionable). – 74  04:11, 21 February 2009 (UTC) edited 06:45, 21 February 2009 (UTC)

There are some relatively cheap disk cleaners out there as well. Computer DVD readers can be a little more picky about the first track than TV DVD players. Sometime if the first track has a scratch or bubble (I forget if it's the inside or outside) they don't want to read the rest of the disk. — Ched (talk) 13:40, 21 February 2009 (UTC)

Yea, I've noticed this difference between computer DVD readers and units for TVs. I played a scratched movie DVD on my TV, and it was fine except for a few glitches. I tried playing it on my computer and it just kept trying to read the same bad spot over and over again until I ejected it. The problem seems to be that the computer DVD readers assume that it's data you're reading, where one bad bit means the program containing the bad bit might crash or do something else very bad. However, with a movie, a few bad bits are no big deal, we can just ignore them and move on. Computer DVD players need some way for us to tell them it's a movie or music, so it'll just keep going past any errors. StuRat (talk) 18:53, 21 February 2009 (UTC)

The existence of Linux's sdparm --set=RRC=0 suggests that the ability to tune the hardware retry count is not unknown ;) And... there must be a way to put the drive into 'raw' mode too (I'm thinking cdda), so I'm inclined to think that its not really computer DVD readers assuming anything, but rather the devdrv/OS doing so. -- Fullstop (talk) 20:26, 21 February 2009 (UTC)

According to this webpage, obtaining RAW DVD data is somewhat complicated. – 74  21:18, 21 February 2009 (UTC)

All right, thanks for all your input... there were a few scratches on the disk, and that may have been it. They weren't particularly bad scratches to the eye, but that was likely it... it did work on a different computer, though, so I don't think it was the DRM, though. Unless it's specifically protected against desktops... --Alinnisawest,^{Dalek Empress} (extermination requests here) 02:29, 22 February 2009 (UTC)

whats the number one wikipedia article

by page view. and congrats for whoever created this new function!!!Troyster87 (talk) 06:16, 21 February 2009 (UTC)

The top Wikipedia article is Main Page. --wj32 ^t/c 06:18, 21 February 2009 (UTC)

how bout the top ten?Troyster87 (talk) 11:08, 21 February 2009 (UTC)

and actually you're wrong Main Page says its #2=(Troyster87 (talk) 11:10, 21 February 2009 (UTC)

Interesting feature, indeed. But what is the most viewed page? I tried Special:Watchlist, Special:RecentChanges and sex, but it was not one of them. --Andreas Rejbrand (talk) 12:50, 21 February 2009 (UTC)

Main Page is correct. #1 is Special:Search, which isn't an article.

Also, Top 1000 ranking is as of August 2008, which skews things quite a a bit. "2008 Summer Olympics" ("#4"), Sarah Palin ("#7") and Michael Phelps ("#9") are not really high interest pages anymore. -- Fullstop (talk) 13:03, 21 February 2009 (UTC)

Oh yes, I replied Main Page but I don't consider that to be an article :) --wj32 ^t/c 22:34, 21 February 2009 (UTC)

It changes all the time - see WP:POPULAR. Dendodge Talk^Contribs 22:42, 21 February 2009 (UTC)

Skype wireless headsets

Hi, I'm looking for the cheapest way to get a wireless headset for Skype so I can wander about the room while talking. Wireless headsets that use RF frequency seem to be 2-3 times more expensive than buying a Bluetooth dongle and Bluetooth headset. Are Bluetooth devices easy to setup? Are they suitable for what I want do? A class 2 device looks suitable in terms of range. I have no experience with Bluetooth though. I found installing Skype easy but setting up a wifi modem hard to give you an idea of what I consider easy and hard. Thanks. 202.74.217.143 (talk) 10:39, 21 February 2009 (UTC)

Bluetooth devices are generally very easy to set up. All it typically takes is that you need to press a button on the Bluetooth device -- in this case, the headset -- while pressing another one on the base station you plug into the computer in order to pair the two devices (so they know that they are to stay connected to each other). Unless there's a problem -- and if you buy a headset from a well-established manufacturer, there really isn't any reason to expect problems -- that's pretty much it. -- Captain Disdain (talk) 15:10, 21 February 2009 (UTC)

I'm interested in this too. Can anyone recommend a model that would appeal to my extremely thrifty nature, but is still fully functional and practical? And is offered in Canada? (probably not a problem). NByz (talk) 19:55, 21 February 2009 (UTC)

Oregon Trail on Which Exact Model of Apple II

Which exact model of the Apple ][ did this version of Oregon Trail first appear on?

File:OregonTrailScreenshot.png

Thanks for any help,

--Grey1618 (talk) 13:44, 21 February 2009 (UTC)

Sorry, I had to de-link the image. We can only use 'free' images here and not ones that we are using under "fair use". Anyway, as I recall it was available for the Apple IIc. I don't know if that helps you any. ---J.S (T/C/WRE) 17:50, 21 February 2009 (UTC)

According to the The_Oregon_Trail_(video_game) article, the game was published in 1971. According to "Apple II series" they were first released in 1977. It seems to me that Oregon Trail would work with any Apple II. ---J.S (T/C/WRE) 17:53, 21 February 2009 (UTC)

I know the article says all the apple II's but that's for all versions of the game. I suspect the screenshot I've linked to is for the Apple IIc, but I wanted to try and confirm that. --Grey1618 (talk) 08:52, 22 February 2009 (UTC)

Word 2003

I'm running Word 2003 on XP. I saved a wikipedia page on my local drive from MSIE and opened it in Word. Then I saved it as .doc. I have deleted the Wikipedia header and footer and left column data to just leave me with the article itself. For reasons I am unable to fathom, every line starts ~1.5 inches from the left margin (which itself is 3 cm from the paper edge). I cannot move the text over to the margin. Indents are all set to 0, there are no tabs, there don't seem to be any frames, the ruler at the top of the screen shows the line as being margin to margin and yet I can't make the text do that. Anyone got any ideas? (BTW the article I'm doing this to is Carcassonne (board game) in classic skin) -- SGBailey (talk) 21:22, 21 February 2009 (UTC)

It's hard to tell without a screenshot. But, in these situations, I tell Word to display formatting marks (CTRL + SHIFT + 8). I also display table borders (Table --> Show Gridlines) in case Word saved it as a table. If it is a table, then you would highlight and right-click on the cells you don't want and delete them. In the future, you might want to open up HTML documents in a web-page editor, like Microsoft Expression.--K;;m5m k;;m5m (talk) 21:38, 21 February 2009 (UTC)

Does Ctrl+Shift+N help? --Andreas Rejbrand (talk) 21:42, 21 February 2009 (UTC)

The printable version (accessible by clicking 'Printable version' in the toolbox on the left) has much simpler formatting and no sidebar, so if all you need is the article you may have more luck saving this version and importing it into Word. — Matt Eason ^{(Talk &#149; Contribs)} 22:10, 21 February 2009 (UTC)

See File:Word carcassonne.jpg. I am displaying formatting marks, there aren't any relevant ones that I can see. Table gridlines are hidden, when I showed them they were all internal to the infobox shown, so it isn't a table. The whole purpose of this was an experiment to see how easy it is to get wikipedia articles into a "formatted but non-html format" in Word, so other applications are not what I am wanting here (but thanks for the suggestion). I'm not sure what Ctrl+Shft+N does, it seemed to removed the bold from the first line. It left the text still in the middle of the that line. The suggestion of using the print version is sensible and I'll do that in future. I still want to understand why this text can't be moved to the left margin though. -- SGBailey (talk) 22:18, 21 February 2009 (UTC)

I just saved the entry inside Internet Explorer and opened it inside Word 2003. Then I saved it as a .doc file. The body of the entry is set correctly. The infobox is a table, but you can get text to wrap around it by moving your mouse to the upper-left corner of the box. A square with a cross should appear, and if you right-click on it and choose "Table Properties," you will be given the option to wrap the text around the table. It will also let you align the table. Also, move your cursor around and see if the center alignment button becomes selected on its own. Text and tables can be left-aligned by highlighting them and then clicking the left-align button.--K;;m5m k;;m5m (talk) 23:09, 21 February 2009 (UTC)

Your best bet would be to strip the formatting using this trick: copy the text into notepad... copy it again from notepad and then into Word. Yes, there are easier ways, but that is quick and dirty. ---J.S (T/C/WRE) 23:14, 21 February 2009 (UTC)

Thanks but... I have now deleted everything except the title line which says "Carcassonne (board game)". I still can't make it move to the left margin. There must be some Word setting that is doing this, but I've no idea what it could be. I've looked everywhere in "Format styles", I've looked on toolbars. Word is often too clever for its own good. It is doing something here that must be turn-off-able. Bt what? -- SGBailey (talk) 00:44, 22 February 2009 (UTC)

Is this just an issue with that document, or Word in general? If it's just that document, then I would start over and try converting it again. I think I went through the same steps an hour ago, and the alignment was fine. I saved it as a web page (complete). It was in Word 2003.--K;;m5m k;;m5m (talk) 01:19, 22 February 2009 (UTC)

I tried again and exactly the same thing has happened. I'll list the steps in detail:

• View Carcassonne (board game) in MSIE7 on XP using Classic skin. Save As Webpage complete.
• Open Word 2003. Open htm saved file. Get warning message "Missing file: ...php?title=User:SGBailey\standard.css&action=raw&ctype=text\css"
• Save as word document. Get warning message "Linked style sheets are only supported in web format files. By saving to this format, all links to style sheets will be lost."
• Highlight table above title line. Right click. Cut.
• Highlight little yellow box at start of title line. Delete.
• Place cursor at the start of the second line (that says "From Wikipedia"). Ctrl-Shft-End. Delete. Leaving only the title line.
• View Print layout which shows the problem.

There just must be a hidden word parameter doing this indent. -- SGBailey (talk) 08:59, 22 February 2009 (UTC)

Agreed, or possibly a bug. However, I am unable to reproduce the problem in Vista and Word 2007. --Andreas Rejbrand (talk) 11:57, 22 February 2009 (UTC)

For anyone who cares, I think I've found a work around. Having cropped the head and tail I don't want, select the entire remaining document (Ctrl-A) copy it and paste it into a new blank document. It is now left margin aligned. -- SGBailey (talk) 09:22, 23 February 2009 (UTC)

February 22

Firefox 3.06 add-on

I don't remember where I got it, but I had something that let me use Google to search just Wikipedia without having to specify it every time. My old PC is kaput and I'd like to install it on my new Vista machine. Sound familiar? Clarityfiend (talk) 07:41, 22 February 2009 (UTC)

See Wikipedia:Searching#Google -- SGBailey (talk) 09:04, 22 February 2009 (UTC)

Thanks. That's what I was looking for. Clarityfiend (talk) 22:50, 22 February 2009 (UTC)

It's not an add-on. It comes standard with FFox. It's in your 'Google Search' box on the top right hand corner. Just click on the 'G' and choose 'W' from the drop down menu.--KageTora (talk) 13:12, 22 February 2009 (UTC)

3G/GSM/CDMA confusion

I am really confused with these technologies and how they play together - 3G/GSM/CDMA. I have read the wikipedia article on each of them, but I'm still confused, please help me out here. I stay in India, where most users use GSM, CDMA is very rarely used. I heard that it's the opposite in US, most users prefer CDMA. Is that true? Also, where does 3G figure? Is it a "higher" version of both CDMA and GSM? Is 3G available only for GSM networks? So that would mean that people in USA who want to use 3G would need to use GSM?

One more thing which surprises me - why does USA have different set of frequencies for 3G? All phones need to re-released in NAM (North American) version because of this. Is it possible for a 3G-capable phone to support both the USA set of frequencies, and "rest of the world" set of frequencies?

Thanks! --RohanDhruva (talk) 09:11, 22 February 2009 (UTC)

One possible reason why cell phones might work differently in the US is if the US "went first" in installing a large number of cell towers. With any new technology, the country which takes the lead often ends up with a large installed base of obsolete technology once the rest of the world adopts an improved version of the technology. The first country can always scrap their whole system and start over, but this is very expensive. In the case of cellular technology, this could mean replacing all phones and cell towers. So, in this way, an outdated standard can continue to be used for some time. (I wonder if there's a term for this and if we have an article.) You can later get a "leapfrog effect". This happens when the original country finally upgrades to the latest technology, which can be even newer than the rest of the nations. The rest are then in the same situation, where they have obsolete technology and would incur a large cost to upgrade, so may wait until the technology improves sufficiently to justify the upgrade. Thus, these countries may leapfrog one another, never using exactly the same technology. Besides the US, Japan and the Scandanavian countries also developed early cell phone technology, so those nations may also be stuck with more obsolete technology. StuRat (talk) 12:13, 22 February 2009 (UTC)

Thanks StuRat, that might explain why USA uses CDMA and rest of the world GSM. However, can you (or someone else) please also clarify the 3G part of the question? And most importantly, why don't manufacturers make phones which work on frequencies in both USA and rest of the world, instead of having NAM versions? --RohanDhruva (talk) 22:02, 22 February 2009 (UTC)

3G should be taken literally as "third generation", representing an evolutionary step from older standards. There is 3G for CDMA (CDMA2000) and 3G for GSM (HSPA,UMTS). In the US both CDMA and GSM networks are fairly well represented. Competing companies have built separate networks based on their preferred standard. I have a GSM phone and know people who have CDMA.

There do exist GSM phones that work in most of the world. These are called quad-band phones. However, most people in the US do not travel overseas on a regular basis, and hence do not need all of the bands. Also, the US cellphone market is primarily one where new phones are subsidized by signing a long-term (typically two-year) service contract. Providers will promote certain models of phones and ship large volumes of them, cutting out the features that they do not want. Supporting more bands adds to the cost of the phone, hence the North-American versions. - mako 06:11, 23 February 2009 (UTC)

Thanks, that explains everything :) --RohanDhruva (talk) 13:21, 23 February 2009 (UTC)

Asking Questions on Wikipedia

How do I include a small image in my questions on Wikipedia to help clarify my question? Where do I upload the picture to so that it displays alongside the question? How do I keep it from being deleted by someone who says I have the wrong license?--KageTora (talk) 13:09, 22 February 2009 (UTC)

You upload the graphic as you'd upload any other graphic. You link to it as you'd link to any other. And of course you keep it from being deleted by ensuring that you have candidly described a suitable license. Hoary (talk) 13:14, 22 February 2009 (UTC)

Thank you. Now, just what is the physical procedure for this uploading, linking, etc.? Sorry to sound like I don't have a clue, but I actually don't. :) --KageTora (talk) 13:16, 22 February 2009 (UTC)

Don't worry. It seems I managed it (see question below). The picture is a little too big, maybe....--KageTora (talk) 13:27, 22 February 2009 (UTC)

I've made it smaller (down to 200 pixels wide) Click edit to see how it's done. Theresa Knott | token threats 23:07, 22 February 2009 (UTC)

Links from Thunderbird

Big upheaval in the Hoary household as the missus has a new computer, new LAN, and other new goodies. Mac OS 10.5, Thunderbird and Firefox (among other stuff) are the sparkling latest versions. Thunderbird works. Firefox works. Firefox is the default browser. But when one clicks on a link in a T'bird message, Firefox pops up a new and blank window.

Googling around for this, I found numerous reminders to set Firefox as the default browser (it definitely is, not that she'd care if Safari, Opera or Shiira opened the page) and also the advice here. Not sure if the latter was relevant, I followed it anyway; going to [and I'm having to retranslate from the Japanese, so these may be a bit off] Thunderbird|Environment settings|Advanced|General|Setting editor, I found there was no entry for network.protocol-handler.app.http and so I added one, pointing to /Applications/Firefox.app — but this has had no discernible effect. Ideas? -- Hoary (talk) 13:24, 22 February 2009 (UTC)

You might try adding a command-line option to Firefox; this page lists "-new-tab <URL>" as a likely candidate. Here are instructions for setting the command-line invocation of the link handler (and for completeness's sake, here are the instructions for Windows.) – 74  14:03, 22 February 2009 (UTC)

Thank you! My brain is succumbing to sleepiness right now but I'll try them in the morning. -- Hoary (talk) 14:33, 22 February 2009 (UTC)

The links were interesting, but I have to say that they didn't help. However, that inspired me to do a bit more googling, whereupon I encountered "Thunderbrowse", which does what's needed and also rather more besides. Thank you again. -- Hoary (talk) 00:30, 23 February 2009 (UTC)

What are these two icons in Firefox?

Can anyone tell me?--KageTora (talk) 13:26, 22 February 2009 (UTC)

Hovering your mouse pointer over them and/or left/right clicking them provided no information? You might try Organize Status Bar, an extension that allows you to rearrange and hide statusbar icons (and determine what the icon is called and associated with). Once you know the name, it should be easy to Google for more details. – 74  14:12, 22 February 2009 (UTC)

Cheers. Nothing happens whwn I mouse over these two icons, just the two on either side. Also, clicking them just crosses them out. I have no idea what they are for. Thanks, anyway, I will try that thingummyjig.--KageTora (talk) 14:26, 22 February 2009 (UTC)

From this site, I conclude that GP probably is the Google preview add-on. Dunno about the other icon. --NorwegianBlue ^talk 18:13, 22 February 2009 (UTC)

Yes, that's definitely Google preview. The other one? I'll have to pass. - Jarry1250 ^{(t, c)} 18:22, 22 February 2009 (UTC)

Try selectively disabling your add-ons to narrow it down. --76.167.241.45 (talk) 19:51, 22 February 2009 (UTC)

The other one is Read It Later. When you click it on any page, it saves the page so you can find it easily later... like bookmarks, I suppose, but I find it handy to differentiate between, say, a site I've bookmarked and a particular article I want to read later. --Alinnisawest,^{Dalek Empress} (extermination requests here) 22:31, 22 February 2009 (UTC)

Images won't display on Ript

I am having trouble getting images to display on Ript. I drag'n'drop as I am supposed to, but nothing appears in the 'pile'. I don't have this problem with text, just images. On the website it says 'some images will not appear', but I have not had any success with a single image. I have used Ript before on older computers whose specs are not as good as the two I am using now (Vista and XP laptops), and had no problem then. I have Googled for any known issues and came up empty-handed. I have contacted the software makers (twice) and had no reply. Does anyone else have a problem with it (or had a problem in the past)? --KageTora (talk) 15:55, 22 February 2009 (UTC)

AHA! It seems to work with IE8, but not with Firefox, even though on the site it says it is compatible with Firefox...... Hmm, looks like I shall just have to use the browser I hate the most..... What a pity.--KageTora (talk) 16:12, 22 February 2009 (UTC)

FlightGear 1.9

I fly aircraft in the FlightGear, the open source flight simulator and recently, there was a new version. The new version has this problem with aircraft, notably this F-16, with a giant black screen (radar?) which takes up part of the cockpit when I fly and impedes visibility. Is there any way I can get rid of this screen? I have included a link to a photo to what I am talking about. --Blue387 (talk) 17:41, 22 February 2009 (UTC)

That looks like a graphics bug. I think there's supposed to be a HUD there, with a transparent background. Now the background is black, not transparent. Not being familiar with the software, I don't know if there's a fix to that, but you might try turning the HUD off or otherwise messing with the settings. Updating your graphics card drivers may also do the trick. And if you can't get it to work properly, you might want to submit a bug report to the developers. -- Captain Disdain (talk) 18:08, 22 February 2009 (UTC)

CRON and .htaccess pasword protection

Sorry if I come across as "infuriated": I've just been on to my host's technical support. !#!*%

Anyhow, is it possible to have a password protected (via .htaccess) PHP file run by what my host calls a "scheduled job" (which I'm guessing is CRON, it's a UNIX server)? I get authentication failed because Iam unable to specify the username and password. - Jarry1250 ^{(t, c)} 18:37, 22 February 2009 (UTC)

I suppose the cron job is running wget. You can do this:

wget --http-user=USERNAME --http-password=PASSWORD URL

And send the result to wherever you want (/dev/null or some file). Replace the bold text with the appropriate stuff, of course. If necessary, use quotes to pass a string with whitespace. For example, if your password is "My Password", use --http-password='My Password'. — Kieff | Talk 18:51, 22 February 2009 (UTC)

Your supposition is correct. It works! Seriously though, you deserve a barnstar for that. - Jarry1250 ^{(t, c)} 19:23, 22 February 2009 (UTC)

Social Bookmarking Website

Does anyone know of a social bookmarking website by the name of 'Stacks' or something like that? It looks very similar to Cooliris, but is a bunch of bookmarks that you put together yourself. Anyone know of it?--90.195.135.55 (talk) 18:48, 22 February 2009 (UTC)

Don't worry. Found it! It's called Searchme.com . Sorry. --90.195.135.55 (talk) 19:08, 22 February 2009 (UTC)

Value of old laptop

I have broken the laptop of a good friend. I would like to know how much a Compaq, year 2000, running Windows 2000, 64 MB of RAM would be worth for compensatory damage. --Mr.K. (talk) 19:18, 22 February 2009 (UTC)

Not very much. On eBay similar items [4][5][6] go for $10-11. Search on ebay for something similar and it'll show you what people are willing to pay for it, if anything. Old laptops deprecate pretty quickly as unlike even desktops really every part of them becomes incompatible with newer models very quickly. Desktops are a little more flexible in terms of swapping hardware in and out and can be a bit more valuable later on (I'm still using a Trinitron monitor from 1999 as a spare monitor, works just as well as it did a decade ago). --98.217.14.211 (talk) 19:49, 22 February 2009 (UTC)

I personally would be insulted by an offer of $10 in restitution. That number fails to account for time spent replacing/recovering/reconfiguring/etc., which, unless the laptop was being used as a thin-terminal, will probably be a couple of hours bare minimum. If you want to make it right, ask your friend for an estimate or err on the side of caution and send $100. A reasonably large sum also potentially has the added benefit of reminding you to be more careful with other people's property in the future. – 74  22:07, 22 February 2009 (UTC)

I agree that $10 as restitution is a bit low; it is just meant to illustrate that the price of the hardware itself, as purchased today, is quite low. Of course, it was no doubt quite expensive back then, and replacing an old laptop with a new laptop is quite expensive. If one thinks of it as "a broken primary computer" rather than "a broken decade-old laptop" then the cost of the old laptop today is somewhat unrelated to the total cost. A better metric would be thinking of the cost of the laptop back then, with some adjustments... unless you just want to buy him a new version of the old laptop. --98.217.14.211 (talk) 23:23, 22 February 2009 (UTC)

In fact... the more I think about it, if it is a friend's primary computer that has been broken, the age and make of the machine doesn't matter unless it is somehow implicated in the way it was broken. Whether it was a brand new machine or an old one, the overall cost to the friend to buy a new computer is fixed. So ethically, the issue is not that you broke an old computer, but that you have forced a friend to get a new computer. (Assuming this is the case, of course.) Thus the total amount you have likely compelled your friend to expend is far more than the cost of the old laptop on the modern market, but is in fact something like the cost of a laptop today that is comparable to what the old laptop was in its day (which is to say, not *that* fancy. 64MB of RAM was not very impressive even in 2000, unless my memory is wrong. Processor type/speed would be more revealing of its price). That's my reasoning, anyway... --98.217.14.211 (talk) 23:34, 22 February 2009 (UTC)

Right now I am using a Toshiba of similar vintage, though with considerably more RAM. There is a small amount of darkening toward the edges of the screen (enough to notice, but not enough to irritate); the keytops are shiny and the white paint (?) of "M" and "N" has now completely disappeared: there are no other symptoms of age that I've noticed. It's very slim and the (full size) keyboard is one of the best I've encountered on any laptop. If you broke it, I'd want another slim notebook with first-rate, full-sized keyboard. How much would that cost? That's the figure that would be needed, though I don't know who should pay. Hoary (talk) 00:25, 23 February 2009 (UTC)

A follow-up question that comes to mind is that the data must be recovered. What kind of HDD does this laptop have? Does it have an IDE HDD that can be mounted externally or is it more difficult than that? As a side note I might add that I was not terribly negligent. The laptop was old and really not meant to be carried around. It was also not his primary computer. --Mr.K. (talk) 10:38, 23 February 2009 (UTC)

Archiving old hard drives.

I'm running XP sp3.

I've got a Disk enclosure that I use for back-ups. I found a bunch of hard drives that I removed from computers years ago. The newer, larger ones have no problem. I'm able to copy the information from them onto my hard drive.

However, I've got some older ones that have an unusual problem. The computer has no problems "seeing" the drive, but I can't find it listed under Windows Explorer.

For example, after installing one of the drives, if I do the following:

My Computer

Properties

Hardware

Device Manager

Disk Drives

I can see the drive (Maxtor 7171 AT USB Drive) listed. I assume that it says "USB Drive" because it's in the enclosure. But I can't find it in Windows explorer, so I'm unable to copy the files.

Any ideas? Bunthorne (talk) 19:29, 22 February 2009 (UTC)

Perhaps they are using a filesystem that Windows can't read? (like various Linux filesystems or Mac filesystems) Or they are not partitioned at all? You should get some kind of partitioning software and see what partitions are on there and what filesystems are on the partitions. --76.167.241.45 (talk) 19:49, 22 February 2009 (UTC)

Well, I know that they're all Windows, of one type or another, since they all came from my old computers, and that's all I ever used. As far a partitions, I'll have to look that up. Thanks. Bunthorne (talk) 20:06, 22 February 2009 (UTC)

You can see if they show up in the Windows XP disk manager by going to Start->Run and typing "diskmgmt.msc". (unless you did that already). A thought: could it be that the enclosure doesn't support FAT16? Or are these things filesystem-independent? Jørgen (talk) 21:18, 22 February 2009 (UTC)

Right click - there's been a few times I've seen a ... awww I forget the exact wording, but something like activate, or use this drive thing in that popup right-click menu. — Ched (talk) 23:37, 22 February 2009 (UTC)

I'd like to second Jørgen's suggestion of trying diskmgmgt.msc. The problem may simply be that the OS for some reason hasn't assigned a drive letter to your disk. When you assign a drive letter with diskmgmt.msc, the disk will appear in windows explorer. --NorwegianBlue ^talk 08:48, 23 February 2009 (UTC)

February 23

3D graphics software

I've looked a little for a good open source program that would be great for 3D architecture. By reading Blender's article, it seems that program's more for artwork than for architecture, but I may be wrong. I want a good, free, 3D program that I can use to recreate my house so I can do some remodeling. Can anyone give me a suggestion as to which one would be good? -- penubag  (talk) 00:10, 23 February 2009 (UTC)

How about Google SketchUp? The basic version is free. - mako 06:16, 23 February 2009 (UTC)

Sisoftware Sandra - where is systemreport.txt hiding?

I downloaded and installed this. It said it could produce a customised report full of "tips" or fixes to improve the computer. Chose options to make the report a plain text file. Waited a very long time for it to churn through the computer. Waited some more. Nothing happened - no sign of the report anywhere, HD silent. However, looking at the various parts of it eg Motherboard does include some "tips". I must say, its got a badly designed user interface, and the help and faq are bad too. Can anyone explain please step by step how to create and view the system report? Thanks. 78.149.161.52 (talk) 00:36, 23 February 2009 (UTC)

Wireless Messaging API hardware

What are the hardware requirements to use the J2ME Wireless Messaging API to send SMS? NeonMerlin 01:12, 23 February 2009 (UTC)

Windows

1. Is Windows XP trademarked as "Windows xp"? That's how the title appears in the logo.

2. You know how when you go into Display, on the Appearance tab, there's a screen preview, including menus entitled "Normal", "Disabled", and "Selected"? Well, on XP, the "Selected" menu isn't really selected. Is this a bug or is it by choice? JCI (talk) 02:04, 23 February 2009 (UTC)

The "XP" stands for experience. The Windows XP article doesn't say anything about XP being trademarked, but I don't think they could trademark two letters that derived from a word they certainly didn't invent. And could you please clarify the second question a little bit? I went to the Appearance tab and I couldn't find anything with "normal" "disabled" and "selected. Unless you mean the fonts, which have "normal", "large" and "extra-large". But I use the Media Center Edition. --Whip it! ^{Now whip it good!} 03:43, 23 February 2009 (UTC)

You can definitely trademark "letters that derived from a word they certainly didn't invent". Trademarks are not about being original, they are about being unique. There is a difference—it is about brand identification, so you can trademark nearly anything in the context of your product (so the color orange is actually trademarked in regards to cellular technology, by the company Orange; it doesn't mean you can't use the color ever again, it means you can't use it to sell tellecommunications in a similar motif). Microsoft has multiple trademarks on the phrase "WINDOWS XP" and I'm not sure the Trademark office cares about capitalization. I don't know if they have "XP" itself just trademarked, but plenty of other companies do for different products, so I wouldn't be surprised if Microsoft did too somewhere in the long list. You can look up trademarks on the USPTO's webpage. --98.217.14.211 (talk) 13:48, 23 February 2009 (UTC)

It was a few years since I last used Windows XP, but as you know the UI is themed (the theme is called Luna) by default. Custom settings for UI elements (e.g. custom colours for windows, menus, buttons, title bars, ...) is only effective when Luna is disabled, so that Windows looks more like the Win 9x family of operating systems. --Andreas Rejbrand (talk) 13:06, 23 February 2009 (UTC)

a way to find max memory consumption of a quick program?

I want to know if there is a way, on linux, to find what the max memory use of a process during a quick run of its program. Since it runs so quick, I cant juggle a "top" process list window and quickly see the line for a split second, I want to analyze this data. I was thinking of possibly using strace, but that isnt showing me anything different for memory on the stack, although it seems pretty straight forward for memory allocated on the heap (I can just look at the mmap and sbrk commands).--yuowin ^tawk 04:28, 23 February 2009 (UTC)

You could use ltrace to count up all the malloc() and free() calls. --Sean 11:40, 23 February 2009 (UTC)

Add/remove icons on systray - win98se

How do I customize the systray? I am running win98se. Phil_burnstein (talk) 08:45, 23 February 2009 (UTC)

You can't do that in Windows 98. The general icon options "show", "hide", "hide if inactive" were added to Windows XP. The only way to customize the icons in Windows 98 (SE) is to change the system tray icon setting for each application, if that is possible. --Andreas Rejbrand (talk) 13:02, 23 February 2009 (UTC)

Matlab Particle in a Box Simulation

Hey, I am working on a matlab project, part of which requires me to write a simulation code for a box with many electrons in it and to track their movements.The following theory is how I can describe the project best as :

In the particle in a box method, you place a large number of electrons in a data structure representing the volume to be simulated. You divide this volume into small boxes that contain n electrons. If we use a 2D rectangular region we can define n(i, j) as being the number of electrons in box {i, j} and N – the total number of electrons is the sum over {i, j} of n(i, j).

What I have come up with so far as to use variables with my convenience is this: The simulator should start at t = 0 and advance delta t each timestep. So t = delta t × k where k is the current timestep.

This is how i started out, but I am trying to get the simulator to do some of the following steps:

To model transport we need a set of rules that govern how the electrons move from box to box. 1. In each time step a given percentage of the electrons in a box will move (diffuse) to it’s neighbors.

2. If we have an applied electric field present the flow (movement) of the electrons to it’s neighbors will be effected - ie the percentages for all four sides will not be the same.

3. Walls can be defined as “reflecting” or “absorbing” or somewhere in between.

The simulator will step through time evolving the distribution of n(i, j) Lastly, Iam trying to get this done in 3d and use contour plots and animate the distribution. I am stuck as I have never learnt Matlab before. Can someone please help me out on this one?