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April 14

preventing windows from changing folder names

Windows exhibits some strange behavior when copying "My Videos" (or "My Music" and "My Pictures" for that matter) to an external hard drive, for example.

1. When I Ctrl+C and Ctrl+P, the folder is moved, its video icon remains intact, and the DeleteOnCopy stuff in the desktop.ini file is deleted.
2. When copy with a mirror backup program, its video icon disappears, but the desktop.ini is unchanged.
3. When I try to remedy this by setting the icon through folder properties, "My Videos"'s name changes to "Administrator's Videos" (where "Administrator" is my name).

Does anybody know how to undo this automatic name change? That is, I don't want the name of the folder to change, but I also want to keep the video icon. Where is the setting for the name change stored, anyway? Obviously, desktop.ini does not fully determine the state of the folder, and there appears to be some hysteresis.

Thank you, --VectorField (talk) 00:39, 14 April 2009 (UTC)

I don't the folder's name is actually being changed, it's just being displayed differently - it goes a bit like this:

Having joyfully scattered the word "My" around our filesystems, the Windows developers realised that this made things jolly confusing on multi-user systems because looking in another user's profile you can see their "My Documents" etc ["But they're not mine, they're my sister/mum/colleague/cat's!"] So, in a typical case of Windows trying almost too hard to be user-friendly, they put special code in the OS somewhere that means that if you look at someone else's "My Documents" folder, it replaces the word "My" with their name.

So, something in that folder's magic properties (in desktop.ini or elsewhere) is triggering this name translation. And since the folder is no longer in its normal place, it sees it as not "your" folder but the folder of someone else - in this case, someone with your username! - IMSoP (talk) 12:28, 14 April 2009 (UTC)

Video Editor

Kay, me and my amateur filmmaking group need an equivalent of Windows Movie Maker, but able to use .mov files. we need something either freeware or preferably under $30. i cant find anything, does anyone know of one? 71.35.25.93 (talk) 02:01, 14 April 2009 (UTC)

Unfortunately the options for freeware non-linear editors are pretty slim—there are a few in Category:Free_video_software but none of them are production-level to my knowledge. Of things that are unfree but pretty cheap, I think maybe iMovie is the only thing that comes to mind as immediately fitting the bill, but even it is pretty weak. --98.217.14.211 (talk) 11:07, 14 April 2009 (UTC)

You could convert the .mov files to .avi or .wmv with SUPER, which would then allow you to open and work with them in Windows Movie Maker. Once you'd completed editing you could then convert back .mov if need be. SN0WKITT3N 13:19, 14 April 2009 (UTC)

My home wireless network has DHCP disabled.

My laptop is set to use DHCP by default, and an Alternate Configuration (WinXP) if DHCP is unavailable. Whenever I turn it on it takes a couple of minutes to use the static IP settings from Alternate Configuration. Why? Thanks in advance. Imagine Reason (talk) 03:42, 14 April 2009 (UTC)

Sorry, but I'm unclear to what your question actually is? Why does it take a few minutes to realise there's no DHCP server? or why is DHCP turned off? I'm not sure whether you can actually reduce the DHCP timeout value (there's possibly a registry setting), but to turn DHCP, assume you use a router, you would need to login to that router (usually via a special webpage) and turn on DHCP and configure as needed. I hope this helps, but if you can give us more information we can try and assist further. ZX81 ^talk 14:32, 14 April 2009 (UTC)

Basically, it takes the laptop a long time to realize that it's not going to get a response from using DHCP. As you can tell from reading the DHCP article, the laptop client sends out a broadcast packet to the network asking for any dhcp server to respond. Then it waits a few seconds for a response. If it doesn't get one, it tries again. It does this several times, so it can take quite a long time if it doesn't get a response. I don't know why you have DHCP turned off on your home wireless network (it doesn't actually improve security or anything). If I were you, I'd turn DHCP back on but only use static assignment for the computers you wanted to use it. Indeterminate (talk) 20:25, 14 April 2009 (UTC)

So my problem is a "feature" then? I disabled DHCP on my router because the two wireless devices that connect to it require special ports to be opened, and that's easy to do with static addresses--DHCP is not used. I want my laptop to use DHCP by default, though, because away from home it mostly connects to free wi-fi. Imagine Reason (talk) 16:11, 16 April 2009 (UTC)

XBox 360 to LCD Monitor

I'm thinking of buying [1] this monitor. I'd like to use it for both my XBox 360 and my PC. It has a DVI, VGA and HDMI input. My XBox is the older one, with the regular composite HD out (no HDMI).

This monitor should accept 1080p, and is a 16:9 (TV and gaming, vs. the usual 16:10) ratio.

What method of connecting the XBox to the PC will yield me the best picture? I'd like to be able to use the DVI input for the PC, but that's not necessary. Is there an XBox 360 direct to VGA/DVI converter that works well? A component HD to HDMI converter?NByz (talk) 04:00, 14 April 2009 (UTC)

(edited after re-reading) You are thinking that you want to pipe your Xbox video into your PC somehow, and output the PC's video signal to this monitor? I would never choose to do that; I would choose an HD monitor with 2 sets of inputs, one for the PC (presumably a DVI connector) and one for the Xbox (in your case, component HD connectors). There is an Xbox AV pack that has an analog VGA connector on it, but that AV pack outputs 480p video, not the 16:9 HD video you want, so whether you pipe it through the PC is immaterial. There is no converter box I know of that inputs component HD and outputs an HDMI cable. I think your best bet is to not purchase this monitor, and instead purchase a monitor that has two sets of connectors, one of them being a set of component HD connectors for your Xbox. It's not going to cost much (or any) more money, and will be far, far less technical hassle to use. Tempshill (talk) 05:38, 14 April 2009 (UTC)

The Xbox 360 VGA cable will output HD. And there are devices to go from Component to HDMI, such as [2]. I own one of those suckers, and it works fine on anything except for 1080p, where it flickers horribly; there is flicker on lower resolutions however, even through unconverted component, so it may very well be that my console's GPU is wigging out. -- Consumed Crustacean (talk) 06:04, 14 April 2009 (UTC)

Hah, that first sentence of the last paragraph should be "...connecting the XBox to the MONITOR..." whoops. Can anyone suggest a monitor that actually has composite HD inputs? Or a HD composite -> HDMI converter that looks good @ 1080p? NByz (talk) 14:46, 14 April 2009 (UTC)

If Consumed Crustacean is correct, then I was mistaken about the Xbox VGA AV pack outputting 480p. I did it myself but only remember getting 480p output. If you can confirm that he's correct that the VGA AV pack outputs HD video, then a good solution might be, indeed, to get a monitor that has one DVI input (for your PC) and one VGA input (for your Xbox), and then hit the 'video' button on the monitor to switch back and forth. This link at xbox.com does claim that he's right. (I think you can get them for cheaper than US$39.99 if you shop around.) It will be much easier to find a monitor with this configuration than to find one that has composite HD inputs. Tempshill (talk) 15:37, 14 April 2009 (UTC)

I don't know exactly which resolutions it'll output, but I know it certainly goes past 480p. There are Google results suggesting that, with the latest patches, it'll do 1080p. And ya'll are thinking of component video, not composite video. -- Consumed Crustacean (talk) 01:40, 15 April 2009 (UTC)

[3] Hmmmmmm! Well thanks guys. VGA AV pack it is!NByz (talk) 03:29, 15 April 2009 (UTC)

By the way, I just confirmed what Confirmed Crustacean said; my initial claim above about 480p was wrong - the VGA adapter supports lots of video modes. I had not gone to the "System Settings" tab of the Xbox to configure what resolution I wanted. Tempshill (talk) 18:57, 16 April 2009 (UTC)

Mozilla Thunderbird: Putting downloaded mail back into online mailbox

I like Thunderbird but when I installed it on a new computer it downloaded my mail into a local folder. Apparently in doing a download of mail, it erases the mail that's on the server. This is bad, because I deleted everything in the local folder and restarted the new account set up process because I only wanted to use Thunderbird to manage an online mailbox. Now what's in that online mailbox is gone. How can I get my mal back INTO my online mail server after it downloaded it onto a local folder if I've permanently deleted what's in the local folder? Is there an undo? -- Guroadrunner (talk) 04:52, 14 April 2009 (UTC)

As far as I know, if you didn't make a backup, it's as gone as any other deleted data on your system - that is, you might be able to use data recovery techniques to find old versions of your profile on the disk, but I doubt Thunderbird will have retained the data after you hit delete. (The hint is in your own question "I've permanently deleted ... is there an undo?")

I could be wrong, though, so check your profile; assuming you are on Windows:

1. Click Start->Run... and type "shell:appdata\Thunderbird\Profiles"
2. There will probably be one folder, with a randomly generated name ending ".default"; this is your profile
3. Look inside that folder for a folder named "Mail", and then "Local Folders"
4. This is where your mail was stored - try opening some of the files in a text editor and see if any of your lost mail is in there.

The only other possibility is that your ISP (or whoever provides your mailbox) has a backup from before you deleted the mail from there. Worth asking, I guess...

As for why it happened, this is how POP3 mailboxes were designed to work - the remote server is just a holding pen for new mail, with the "real" inbox on a single local machine. Of course, this is no longer appropriate for many people's needs, which is why IMAP has grown in popularity. - IMSoP (talk) 12:40, 14 April 2009 (UTC)

Deleting Account from PC

I have just given my mother a small netbook computer, as I will not be using it any more. She has made an account for herself, and I will be using it periodically when I go to visit, so I have left my own account on it. However, in a number of weeks, I shall be moving away to a new area, and won't be using the PC at all. If I deleted my own account from the PC, would that get rid of all the files that were in that account? I have already backed them up, and this would be a good way to get rid of some files which have personal information in them (National Insurance No., etc.) I would like to do this in case sometime in the future she decides to sell it or something, and I don't want my personal data getting into the wrong hands. --KageTora (talk) 08:14, 14 April 2009 (UTC)

Windows will ask you if you want to delete the files or move them. --wj32 ^t/c 08:48, 14 April 2009 (UTC)

Simply deleting files from the operating system will not physically remove those files from disk. See data erasure. With enough effort, the data can be recovered. The question is what kind of adversary you want to protect yourself against; Some random person snooping around, or a federal agency. If you are running Windows XP, the Cipher utility should provide security against casual attackers. After deleting your account, go to start->run and type

"cipher /w:"C:\Documents and Settings" (this is the default path of the user accounts, could be different on your computer) 

This also assumes that the files you want to wipe were all stored in your account folder, like on the desktop or in "My Documents". Disclaimer: I am not taking responsibility for any damage caused to your computer by doing this, but it works like a charm for me. decltype (talk) 10:22, 14 April 2009 (UTC)

.lit files in Windows Vista without Microsoft Office

How do you read them? I have OpenOffice, but nothing else.--Over2u (talk) 14:50, 14 April 2009 (UTC)

Our Microsoft Reader article says that it's, well, Microsoft Reader, which is apparently a free download. Tempshill (talk) 15:39, 14 April 2009 (UTC)

You could also just try and open them from Notepad, That will show any clear text at least. VectorEng. Inc.19:12, 14 April 2009 (UTC)

.lit#Converting .LIT files into an open format says "Tools exist (calibre, Convert LIT, ABC Amber LIT Converter) to convert .LIT files into other formats for use with software or devices not directly compatible with Microsoft Reader." However, this may not work if your .lit file suffers from DRM. Certes (talk) 21:35, 14 April 2009 (UTC)

Delphi Absolute Address

In Delphi, you can declare a variable that points to an absolute memory address, given by the address of a previously declared variable.

var
  MyStr: ShortString;
  MyStrLen: byte absolute MyStr;

(Because the first byte of a short string is its length, MyStrLen will always equal the actual length of MyStr.)

What I want to do, is to declare a variable pointing not to the address of a certain variable, but to this address plus a few bytes. In theory, it could have been possible to write it like this:

var
  MyVar: cardinal;
  MyVarLowWord: word absolute MyVar;
  MyVarHiWord: word absolute MyVar + $2;

Is there any way of achieving this? --Andreas Rejbrand (talk) 19:57, 14 April 2009 (UTC)

Disclaimer: I've never written a single line of code in Delphi, but what you want to do is called pointer arithmetic. A Google search for "pointer arithmetic delphi" gets some hits that are probably useful. Unfortunately, I am too confused by the many dialects of Delphi, or Object Pascal, or whatever it's called to provide a definite code example. But from what I can see, you can use Inc and Dec to achieve what you want. But note that the increment scales by the number of bytes in the base type of the pointee. Hope that helps. decltype (talk) 10:46, 15 April 2009 (UTC)

You don't have to use inc or dec, but the scaling can be helpful. I think you'll find what you need in the third answer here. BTW, StackOverflow is a great resource for programming questions/answers (I searched for "[delphi] pointer math"). Also, this looks good. --Scray (talk) 11:40, 15 April 2009 (UTC)

Now I can't see why I didn't think of pointers myself! Thank you very much, both of you! --Andreas Rejbrand (talk) 16:39, 15 April 2009 (UTC)

Resolved

Problem network copying a >10GB file

I am trying to copy a 10.6GB file called "source.tar.gz" from a Windows XP machine to a Windows Vista machine on the same LAN. When I copy the file in the usual way with Explorer (just dragging the file from one window to the other), it sits and copies for a while, counting down from 81 minutes remaining … and after a few minutes, the XP machine displays an error message saying the path is too deep. This is nonsense, however; the source directory is L:\public_shared and the destination directory is \\COMP\public-shared. The path isn’t too deep. Unless Windows is somehow digging into the TAR file! Googling "The path is too deep" brings up a lot of forums with useless suggestions about shortening the path name length.

• I've also tried renaming the file to "source.g" just to make sure that it didn't have to do with Windows trying to parse the .tar.gz file. Same error.
• I've also tried mapping \\COMP\public-shared to Z: and dragging the file to the Z: window. Same error.
• After mapping the destination directory to Z:, I've also tried copying the file with xcopy from the command line. I didn't get that error dialog, but after a while Explorer did stop responding.

Any help is appreciated! Tempshill (talk) 21:08, 14 April 2009 (UTC)

Make sure the file system is NTFS —Preceding unsigned comment added by 82.43.88.87 (talk) 21:10, 14 April 2009 (UTC)

Both filesystems are NTFS. I'm pretty sure the error message actually being displayed is spurious. Tempshill (talk) 22:20, 14 April 2009 (UTC)

Although it shouldn't make a difference as you're only copying a single file, what's the real directory for \\COMP\public-shared ? Is that multiple levels deep? ZX81 ^talk 21:30, 14 April 2009 (UTC)

It's not; it's 1 or 2 levels deep from C:\. Tempshill (talk) 22:20, 14 April 2009 (UTC)

I'd suggest that you sit down at the computer that the file is going to be copied to, go though the network and grab the file that needs to be copied. 64.172.159.131 (talk) 21:42, 14 April 2009 (UTC)

Just tried this, thanks for the suggestion - the network connection fails at about the same point, and this is again fatal to the XP machine (see below). Tempshill (talk) 01:36, 15 April 2009 (UTC)

OP here. Here's an awesome symptom that I am seeing in addition. This has happened 3 or 4 times, twice when trying to copy my big file by using the command line. The source machine, running Windows XP, connects to the LAN via a Netgear 802.11g WiFi PCI adapter that claims it's got a "Very Good" signal at 54.0Mbps. When the copying of my big file stops (the Task Manager network activity graph shows network activity going to 0), Windows reports via the wireless networking icon in the tray that my "Very Good" signal is running at 1.0Mbps! In fact there is no more network activity; Firefox is never able to see or reload another website. (Additional info since last posted: This seems to be fatal to the OS. Explorer stops functioning, and the OS gets a forever-hang.) This has happened four times. I have never seen it happen before yesterday when I started these shenanigans. Tempshill (talk) 22:20, 14 April 2009 (UTC)

On wireless this happens all the time with mine, I have to unplug the card to get it back, no idea why. But if you have no luck copying the file, you could try RARing it into a split volume file (ie multiple smaller files) that should be easier to transfer to the target machine, maybe 2gb per volume, and you can join them together once transfer is complete. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 82.43.88.87 (talk) 23:53, 14 April 2009 (UTC)

As another option, you could try alternative copying methods, like Xcopy or Teracopy. They both work much better than the default Windows copy mechanism. Indeterminate (talk) 10:38, 15 April 2009 (UTC)

Site that tell what terms people use to find a site

Hello there -

I was wondering if there was a website (or websites) that can tell you what terms people use to find particular websites, in which you can type an address and be informed of the words people are using in search engines to find certain pages.

All the best, --Ae Fond Kiss (talk) 22:53, 14 April 2009 (UTC)

I don't know of a public way you can see search terms used to find any website. But if you are the maintainer of a website, you can use Google Webmaster Tools to see searches where your own website appears in the results and those that people actually clicked on. --Bavi H (talk) 02:14, 15 April 2009 (UTC)

[4] has a list of links for various search engines.
Sleigh (talk) 08:51, 19 April 2009 (UTC)

Paradox

Suppose you had an actual drive named Z:. Since DosBox uses an imaginary Z: drive as its "default" drive, what would happen if you loaded it up and you had an actual Z: drive? 58.165.25.29 (talk) 23:20, 14 April 2009 (UTC)

Dosbox's default drive is virtual. I don't think it would matter at all if you had the same name for the drive. Dosbox wouldn't notice. Not a paradox. --98.217.14.211 (talk) 23:37, 14 April 2009 (UTC)

Just wanted to confirm the above is correct and it wouldn't matter. All mapping is performed via the dosbox.conf file and if you wanted you could even map Z: to the real Z: ZX81 ^talk 12:22, 15 April 2009 (UTC)

Program error

In XP and Vista, under what conditions does the sound marked as "Program Error" play? I know that it plays in Windows 9x if you get a general protection fault, but in XP and Vista, the sound doesn't play in their GPS's. So under what conditions does it play in those two? 58.165.25.29 (talk) 23:23, 14 April 2009 (UTC)

I think it's there's just for backwards compatibility so that if a program has a problem and specifically requests that Windows plays the "program error" sound then it won't cause an error of its own. I could be wrong though! ZX81 ^talk 19:35, 15 April 2009 (UTC)

April 15

2 questions about Ubuntu...

My first question is, how do I set up a dial-up connection on Ubuntu 8.10 Intrepid Ibex? I've tried all the ways on this site, none of which worked: http://www.ubuntugeek.com/setting-up-dial-up-connection-in-ubuntu.html. (The main problem is, there is no System > Administration > Networking option...)

The second question is, how do I get that GRUB thing to boot into Windows by default?

Thanks

144.138.21.27 (talk) 00:32, 15 April 2009 (UTC)Will

I have an answer to the second question. When you see the GRUB menu, you need to count the number of operating systems that are listed. The first OS is 0, the second one is 1, the third is 2, etc. Keep counting until you get to Windows, and stop. Remember this number. Boot into Ubuntu and open /boot/grub/menu.lst with the text editor of your choice. Gedit will do the trick. Somewhere in there, there should be a line that says default 0. Change 0 to the number of the Windows entry. Then, run sudo update-grub. Xenon54 (talk) 01:12, 15 April 2009 (UTC)

Hey Xenon54, while that might work, I strongly suggest an easier way: just install StartUp Manager ( http://web.telia.com/~u88005282/sum/index.html ). it is available at the ubuntu repositories SF007 (talk) 05:41, 15 April 2009 (UTC)

Thanks for solving that second one, works a treat now :) If only I could say the same for the dial-up, I've re-tried everything on the above page, to no avail... I think if I can somehow get the old System > Administrator > Networking dialogue back, or that GnomePPP installer working, I should be able to sort something out from there. Thanks! —Preceding unsigned comment added by 144.138.21.148 (talk) 08:20, 15 April 2009 (UTC)

That article is over 2 years old, so it's a bit inaccurate. The System->Admin->Networking dialogue was provided by NetworkAdmin, which they've apparently been trying to phase out in favor of NetworkManager, which... well... I don't care for it much, but it mostly works. However, it doesn't seem to do dial-up, and I'm frankly surprised that they didn't include dial-up configuration in 8.10 by default. Anyway, if you follow this guide, which seems up-to-date, you'll need to install either the gnome-network-admin or gnome-ppp package. Then you can follow the steps they outline there, and assuming there are drivers for your modem, it should work. Good luck! Indeterminate (talk) 10:33, 15 April 2009 (UTC)

I tried the link in that article, and it siad to try a wvdial thing, and I ended up finding out I have no driver for the modem installed... how can I fix this? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 144.138.21.129 (talk) 02:19, 16 April 2009 (UTC)

I've just realised, there is a "Network Configuration" option in System > Preferences, but it says never to dial the connection... as well as that, it should ask me for the number to dial, but it doesn't, so how can I get this dialogue box to work for dial-up? 144.138.21.36 (talk) 09:01, 16 April 2009 (UTC)

Ticketmaster PDF file - wrong characters printed

This question is mostly out of curiosity because I have already printed a fresh, correct copy of my document. So, I got a PDF file from Ticketmaster containing event tickets, along with 2/3rds page of advertisements (which I gladly paid $2.50 for the privilege of printing on my own printer with my toner... I guess that's another story...). The images printed fine, but everything that was text, like the venue name and event, as well as the date and time, printed what appeared to be random character strings. I didn't notice at first, but someone pointed out to me that the line "SAT APR 18 2009 3:30PM" was printed as "TBU!BQS!29!311:!4;41QN" . OK, so I looked at 311: and thought, "Isn't that 2009, but incremented by one?" Why yes, it is.

So, the real question is not WHAT happened, but WHY? Freedomlinux (talk) 00:52, 15 April 2009 (UTC)

I've had the same problem, try the "print as image" option under advanced options. Sealedinskin (talk) 08:57, 15 April 2009 (UTC)

Yeah, all those characters that were printed are just the correct Ascii value + 1. Interesting. No idea why. Indeterminate (talk) 10:21, 15 April 2009 (UTC)

Formating problem

I think I got some kind of virus on my PC. It doesn't let me do a system restore (it won't come up) and some normal files (mp3 etc) are also not opening. I tried to format the drive so I can clean up the thing. Now the problem is, when I tried to format it when booting using the windows XP CD, it does not boot from the CD but starts as normal. When I tried to go to the boot menu at startup, the keyboard doesn't work there (at the boot menu) so I can't select anything. Is there any way to format this drive? Any help would be appreciated202.124.190.174 (talk) 05:32, 15 April 2009 (UTC)

Can you get into BIOS (usually, there is a message at the very start of bootup saying something like Press F2 for BIOS). If so, set the CD to be the primary boot device, not the hard drive. -- kainaw™ 06:05, 15 April 2009 (UTC)

Are you using a USB keyboard? Try a PS/2 one.F (talk) 09:45, 15 April 2009 (UTC)

@Kainaw: As I said, when I go there my keyboard is disabled. So I can go there but can't change anything once I'm there. I should also add that the keyboard works fine everywhere else, but is disabled only when I access those BIOS menus. 202.124.190.45 (talk) 13:04, 15 April 2009 (UTC)

To be clear... The "boot menu" which you mentioned is a menu that comes up AFTER the BIOS loading sequence that usually lists the devices you have with number in front of them. You press the number you want to boot. The "BIOS menu" comes before the boot menu. You usually get to it using a keypress (ie: F8). It has a lot of settings about drives, graphics, etc... It is difficult to know if you can't access one, the other, both... Another option is to reset BIOS completely. There will be a jumper on your motherboard - two pins that stick up for no apparent reason. Usually, there is a little metal clip wrapping in black plastic to look like a tiny black plastic rectangle - it will be sitting on one of the pins, but not the other. Pull it off and place it on both pins for a few seconds. Then, return it to the way it was. Your BIOS will be reset. Of course, you have to ensure you are using the BIOS reset jumper and not one of many other possible jumpers on the motherboard. That usually means that you have to identify the make/model of your motherboard, go online to get the manual, and then read the manual to figure out which jumper is the BIOS reset. -- kainaw™ 13:12, 15 April 2009 (UTC)

Try a PS/2 keyboard instead of a USB keyboard. Also if the first BIOS screen says "Press F2 for boot options" or "Press F2 for configuration" or whatever, hit F2 repeatedly during this screen, not just once - some BIOSes I've worked with have a pretty narrow window of when you can hit the key. Tempshill (talk) 16:52, 15 April 2009 (UTC)

archive calendar in WordPress

For my blog (now seven years old), I'd like to have an archive calendar page like many webcomics have. Anybody know of such a thing done in WordPress? I don't grok the SQL anywhere near well enough to write it myself. —Tamfang (talk) 06:39, 15 April 2009 (UTC)

Don't worry, they're one step ahead of you. :) This guide [5] looks pretty easy to follow. They have some links at the bottom to other archive options if that isn't specifically what you want. Indeterminate (talk) 10:15, 15 April 2009 (UTC)

Thanks but I don't see anything there that even vaguely resembles what I have in mind (see the Sinfest link above): a series of monthly calendars with a link for each day that has >0 posts. (There is a function to show such a calendar for the current month.) This would work too. —Tamfang (talk) 18:45, 15 April 2009 (UTC)

Unformat

How can you unformat a drive that has been formatted? 58.165.25.29 (talk) 11:45, 15 April 2009 (UTC)

Do you want to restore a particular file? Then you can try some of the software available to "undelete" files (I believe that a simple "format" command in general will not destroy any data on the disk). I do not know of any simple way of simply "undoing" the command. --Andreas Rejbrand (talk) 12:54, 15 April 2009 (UTC)

But, whatever you do – do not write anything to the disk, for doing so may overwrite the data you want to restore. If you need to install a file recovery software, do so on another disk! --Andreas Rejbrand (talk) 13:04, 15 April 2009 (UTC)

See our article Disk formatting. As Andreas Rejbrand stated, your best bet is probably to try using undeletion software; I don't know of any way to undo a disk format. See Undeletion and Data recovery. Tempshill (talk) 16:34, 15 April 2009 (UTC)

Try testdisk. --wj32 ^t/c 02:24, 16 April 2009 (UTC)

DVD Decoder Location

Resolved

where is CLVSD.AX located in relation to my system? I LEGALLY PURCHASED this decoder and want to use it on my new computer (NOT IN VIOLATION OF EULA BTW it says for use on ONE computer so if i delete it off the old one i'm ok) but i can't seem to find the decoder. Where would it be?  Buffered Input Output 13:29, 15 April 2009 (UTC)

I googled CLVSD.AX and the first entry is how to install and uninstall AX files. Is there a reason you didn't just use the uninstaller and then use the installer on the new system? Tempshill (talk) 16:45, 15 April 2009 (UTC)

Sorry for wasting time...i resolved it on my own (after an e-mail to CyberLink later)  Buffered Input Output 22:21, 15 April 2009 (UTC)

Question

Explain ways to protect your computer against viruses and trojan horse programs. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 68.51.212.48 (talk) 16:29, 15 April 2009 (UTC)

See our article List of antivirus software, and for an explanation, see Antivirus software. Also, you should normally set up 2 accounts on your computer: one account with "administrator rights", which you use only to install software that comes from a trusted source; and one "user account" with no administrator rights, which you should use to surf the web, use e-mail, etc. This will make it harder for a trojan horse or virus to infect the system. Comparison of privilege authorization features talks a little about this principle, though it's full of jargon. Tempshill (talk) 16:45, 15 April 2009 (UTC)

Blender's game engine

What are the shortcomings of Game Blender? Can you create a multiplayer game with it? Can you create a game for any platform? Can you create an online game (like a Flash game)? Can you create a 3D online game? 80.58.205.37 (talk) 17:00, 15 April 2009 (UTC)

You can do all that except no browser plugin will run your game so no online game and "any platform" is a bit vague (it supports linux/windows afaik). It's possible to use python to script your game, so only the sky is limiting if you can be bothered to write some (eg networking) code of your own. Of course it can then be questioned if Blender scales for such large projects but let's not get into that. --194.197.235.70 (talk) 18:38, 15 April 2009 (UTC)

Linux/Xorg rich input

Is there an easy way to have a context sensitive keyboard layout, ie if the previous key typed was an vocal some button would be 'r' but after consonant it would be 'a'? --194.197.235.70 (talk) 18:52, 15 April 2009 (UTC)

Just to clarify what you mean. Say on a normal layout you would press 'Q' to have that letter appear on your screen. This would normally go for any letter that is on your keyboard. The layout you are asking about would do this; Pressing 'Q' would only type out 'Q' should the previous letter have been 'A', 'E', 'I', 'O' or 'U', maybe 'Y'. If i am correct this would be a very complex layout that would take some time to master. Only to provide little advances over the current QWERT layout. Depending on the layout it would be difficult to type out words such as 'Lie' and 'Lye', Or 'Bite' and 'Byte', How about the words 'Fart' and 'Fat'? There are a lot of words, maybe even sentences, out there that would be very hard to type out with your proposed layout... at least for the English language. – Elliott(Talk|Cont)  19:50, 15 April 2009 (UTC)

I realize that i have not answered your question. To the best of my Knowledge i dont know how you would define 'easy'. To an experienced programmer using Ubuntu, i supose this task would be easy. To a native of a lost tribe in Inda who has never seen a comoputer this would be a very hard task. The only way i could think of doing this task in away that would not matter what OS you used would be to do it in Flash. But it would take me weeks if nto months to achive this task. – Elliott(Talk|Cont)  19:55, 15 April 2009 (UTC)

Yes you understood correctly. Easy == existing. I use dvorak myself so I must say that even if the speed improvement to qwerty isn't huge, the "feel" of typing is more comfortable. Having layouts alternating would have better home row usage if the layouts are designed with some statistics of target languages in mind. Maybe more than ~200wpm is excess for anything but copying texts and even that's a bit obsolete nowadays, but hey we do what we must because we can. --194.197.235.70 (talk) 20:46, 15 April 2009 (UTC)

Your best bet is to look in to this keyboard.– Elliott(Talk|Cont)  20:55, 15 April 2009 (UTC)

You might also be interested in chorded keyboard. --Sean 21:34, 15 April 2009 (UTC)

On Windows XP, there is an utility that allows you to define your own keyboard layout (which you can then load like any other layout) - I'll assume something similar exists for Linux. By mapping "dead keys" you can have combinations like that on the Norwegian keyboard layout - for example, if I press the ¨ key on my keyboard, nothing happens. If I press space afterwards, I get just the dots (¨), if I press "o" afterwards I get ö. This is logical to people but of course what the computer does is just defining the ¨ key as an extra "shift-type" key, and conditioning the response of the next key on this. (If I want to type ¨ I have to press ¨ followed by a space). Now, similar things can be set up by the keyboard editor mentioned and you can of course have any combination you want - I think. The only disadvantage to the way I understand your request is that after pressing the first button nothing would happen until you press the next - to follow the example above, if you press A nothing will happen, then when you press Q you will get AQ. If you press Q directly you will get Z. That should be feasible. To press only A would then require two keystrokes, A and, say, space. This probably makes it not good enough for you but if you use this to create something, let me know, I'd be curious. Jørgen (talk) 23:31, 15 April 2009 (UTC)

OS - what's the point?

So far as I can tell, no operating system is different from any other. I don't see how I'd be doing anything differently if I was using Windows 95 right now instead of Vista. I used a Mac once (never again...two mouse buttons, plskthnx), and it didn't seem much different either, though I will admit I'm unfamiliar with anything non-Windows.

I use my computer seven hours a day.

Er...what are the differences between OS's? To me? Now that I come to think about it, this same question applies to internet browsers, too... =\ Vimescarrot (talk) 19:15, 15 April 2009 (UTC)

Perhaps I should clarify slightly; I use my copmuter for internet gaming and finding out new stuff. Oh, and watching videos. That's about it. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Vimescarrot (talk • contribs) 19:21, 15 April 2009 (UTC)

I would say that the graphical user interface (GUI) in Windows Vista is much more appealing than the GUI in Windows 95, but I believe that this argument is not very convincing to you. A more important thing is system stability and security. If one single application crashes in Windows 95, it is likely that the entire system will become unstable and unresponsive – likely, you have to perform a "hard" reboot (power cord out). In Windows Vista, this is very unlikely. Also, I have a lot of important data on my PC, and I do not want any other member of the family to be able to damage this data. In Windows Vista, they can't do that. In Windows 95, on the other hand, there is no protection at all (the password is just there for aesthetic reasons) – to access the data of another user, you only have to open the C:\WINDOWS\Profiles\<User Name>\ folder. Also, most new hardware (e.g. printers) will not work on Windows 95, because the system is too old. --Andreas Rejbrand (talk) 19:22, 15 April 2009 (UTC)

Stability. Check. Aesthetics. Check. Security. Check. This alone takes up the kajillion million rams that Vista requires? (Genuine question, I have no idea if it would or not) Vimescarrot (talk) 19:25, 15 April 2009 (UTC)

Yes, this is why vista failed as an operation system, And why windows 7 is coming out. But you seemed to have left out one type of operation systems; Linux. Linux is a unix OS, as is Mac. I know there is one thing that you can do in Mac and Linux that you cant in windows. And that is use Aircrack-ng to it's fullest. – Elliott(Talk|Cont)  19:35, 15 April 2009 (UTC)

Vista failed because it's superior? I didn't "leave them out"; I stated I didn't know them, you're more than welcome to comment on them. And I didn't think I'd have to point out that I don't know what Air-Cracks are. Vimescarrot (talk) 19:41, 15 April 2009 (UTC)

Vista failed because it was a memory hog. As for windows, there are some restrictions that disallow you to mess with the operating system. For instance you can access the Registry useing regedit, But your dont have access the the files that regedit uses. Have you ever tried to delete a file that is being used by a program? Windows wont let you. Linux will. Weather this is a good or bad thing really depends on the program (Virus? Excel?) and the file. From what i know (and i could be wrong) windows does now allow direct hardware controll. Now this is inportatnd to advanced users but not the someone who jsut uses the computer to surf the web and play games (as i do). Were as linux does allow direct hardware control. I hope this helped in some way. If you are intrested in the differences i'd this suggest link. —Preceding unsigned comment added by E smith2000 (talk • contribs) 20:08, 15 April 2009 (UTC)

The reasons Vista failed are IMHO too complicated and too widely debated to be summed up in to one simple sentence Nil Einne (talk) 14:28, 18 April 2009 (UTC)

Directionality of restrict

The restrict keyword in C99 is said to prohibit (for optimization) aliasing among pointers. It's pretty clear what this means when you have two restricted pointers; you're promising that they're unaliased (or else that you only read from them, in which case you needn't mark them with restrict in the first place). However, how they interact with normal pointers is less clear — even in the C99 standard draft that I have, I don't confidently understand the implications of the word "access". So: does the following code (compiled with or without RESTRICT_WRITE defined) violate the restrict rules if f() returns the same pointer twice?

int *f(void),g(void);
int h(void) {
  int *restrict p=f(),*q=f();
#ifdef RESTRICT_WRITE
  *q=g(); return *p; /* no write through p is visible via q */
#else
  *p=g(); return *q; /* no read through p depends on q */
#endif
}

In each case, one can argue that because q is unrestricted, it can do whatever it wants, and p must deal with it (and be less-well optimized). But one can also argue that p is restricted and that any use of q is automatically a mistake. --Tardis (talk) 19:36, 15 April 2009 (UTC)

A useful rule of thumb is that the compiler is allowed, for alias-analysis purposes, to pretend that any initialization or assignment to a restrict-qualified variable has a right hand side of malloc(something). In your code the compiler is allowed to pretend that the first call to f is a call to malloc; thus it's unsafe whether or not RESTRICT_WRITE is defined. -- BenRG (talk) 21:02, 15 April 2009 (UTC)

linux boot problem

when i boot my linux fedora laptop up i get three fedora 10 options from grub, know which ever option i choose i get this message:

ata2.00 ACPI cmd 00/00:00:00:00:00:b0 failed Emask=0x04 Stat=0x00 Err 0x01
ata2.00 ACPI cmd 00/00:00:00:00:00:b0 failed Emask=0x04 Stat=0x00 Err 0x01
ata2.00 revaildation error Errmo=-5

then some loading message that flashes before i can read it

now for the first two fedora boot options after this message i get the fedora loading bars and then the computer freezes with a flashing underscore in to the top left corner, but the third fedora boot option works and i can boot normally

googling round some people seem to say its a loose cable though i opened up my laptop and tried pushing the cable back in, no luck

some people seem to think its a problem with grub and they suggested :

$ cd /boot/grub
$ sudo cp menu.lst menu.lst.backup
(Type your own password when asked and go on.)
$ sudo vi menu.lst
-> You enter in vi editor to apply changes in the file menu.lst
-> Move forward until the first line begining with "kernel" (without any #)
-> Type i to begin inserting text
-> Delete "quiet splash" at the end of the line and replace it by "irqpoll all_generic_ide" as steph33560 said
-> Press Echap to finish insert mode
-> Type :wq and Enter to save and exit.

it threw up alot of text but it didnt stop the boot freezing problem

heres a copy of my grub

# grub.conf generated by anaconda
#
# Note that you do not have to rerun grub after making changes to this file
# NOTICE:  You have a /boot partition.  This means that
#          all kernel and initrd paths are relative to /boot/, eg.
#          root (hd0,2)
#          kernel /vmlinuz-version ro root=/dev/VolGroup00/LogVol00
#          initrd /initrd-version.img
#boot=/dev/sda
default=0
timeout=15
splashimage=(hd0,2)/grub/splash.xpm.gz
hiddenmenu
title Fedora (2.6.27.21-170.2.56.fc10.i686)
       root (hd0,2)
       kernel /vmlinuz-2.6.27.21-170.2.56.fc10.i686 ro
root=/dev/VolGroup00/LogVol00 rhgb quiet
       initrd /initrd-2.6.27.21-170.2.56.fc10.i686.img
title Fedora (2.6.27.19-170.2.35.fc10.i686)
       root (hd0,2)
       kernel /vmlinuz-2.6.27.19-170.2.35.fc10.i686 ro
root=/dev/VolGroup00/LogVol00 rhgb quiet
       initrd /initrd-2.6.27.19-170.2.35.fc10.i686.img
title Fedora (2.6.27.15-170.2.24.fc10.i686)
       root (hd0,2)
       kernel /vmlinuz-2.6.27.15-170.2.24.fc10.i686 ro
root=/dev/VolGroup00/LogVol00 rhgb quiet
       initrd /initrd-2.6.27.15-170.2.24.fc10.i686.img
title Other
       rootnoverify (hd0,0)
       chainloader +1

i have to say i'm a linux noob so please take pitty--80.4.77.200 (talk) 21:31, 15 April 2009 (UTC)

Please tell us what the 3rd boot option is, the one that works. – Elliott(Talk|Cont)  21:38, 15 April 2009 (UTC)

After some googling i think you might have a filing hard drive in your laptop. test this by trying to use a live CD. If the live CD works without any problems then you either do have a failing hard drive or your OS is bad. {i think}– Elliott(Talk|Cont)  21:42, 15 April 2009 (UTC)

the third boot option is this one:

title Fedora (2.6.27.15-170.2.24.fc10.i686)
      root (hd0,2)
      kernel /vmlinuz-2.6.27.15-170.2.24.fc10.i686 ro
root=/dev/VolGroup00/LogVol00 rhgb quiet
      initrd /initrd-2.6.27.15-170.2.24.fc10.i686.img

if it is the OS whats the best way to fix it while keeping my data? dont have any cds atm to test a live cd, i hope its not the hd as the laptops ~4months old --80.4.77.200 (talk) 22:09, 15 April 2009 (UTC)

Did you recently update your system? Install new hardware?– Elliott(Talk|Cont)  22:18, 15 April 2009 (UTC)

hardware no, i apply what ever updates linux says i need, did recently have to play and around to update my nvidia graphics card (change init? and boot into terminal like mode) —Preceding unsigned comment added by 80.4.77.200 (talk) 22:36, 15 April 2009 (UTC)

i tried a live cd and the error messages still appeared during boot up, and it froze with the loading bars completed (used fedora 10 live) though i had problems burning a live cd, problem therefore could be either with the drive or the cds (even using low speeds)--80.4.77.200 (talk) 20:02, 17 April 2009 (UTC)

second thoughts it has now got as far as showing the mouse, just took some time--80.4.77.200 (talk) 20:04, 17 April 2009 (UTC)

Browser Crash

OK. This is my first time asking a question here, after several months of referring people here from the help desk. Anyways, lately my Firefox browser has been crashing. I'm running 3.0.8 on Mac OSX (10.5.6). This only seems to happen when I'm trying to view some Flash content (but not all Flash content). For example, Zero Punctuation. It starts to load, but then hangs. It also happens when I try to play some flash games. I've checked to make sure that I'm running Flash 10 and can't figure out what's going on. Does anyone have any tips? TNXMan 22:06, 15 April 2009 (UTC)

I am not really sure what is wrong with your browser but i'd suggest you try removing all your cookies, cache, Offline website data and maybe even your browsing history. From firefox you can do this by holding down ctrl+shift then hitting Del (at least you can from Ubuntu and windows XP). Also try removing your flash player and re-installing it. Do these flash videos work in a different internet browser? – Elliott(Talk|Cont)  22:14, 15 April 2009 (UTC)

Hmm, clearing my cache worked. I don't why I didn't think of that first. :( Anyways, thanks Elliott! TNXMan 22:25, 15 April 2009 (UTC)

Resolved

Video issues

Resolved

My Nvidia GeForce FX 5200 Ultra card (an older card) is having problems. When i play Halo on this card, odd, small, flickering boxes appear on certain texture maps. Do i have a driver issue? or is the card dying?  Buffered Input Output 22:20, 15 April 2009 (UTC)

It might be that the card is overheating which could be because of dust build up within the case clogging fans/airflow. The easiest way to test is to run it with the side of the case off and see if you have the same problem. ZX81 ^talk 23:33, 15 April 2009 (UTC)

Nope, still there. Although i turned off some options in the Nvidia control panel and SOME of the boxes went away, but not all of them. I'll try to clean out the fan on the card; it looked pretty dusty.  Buffered Input Output 12:54, 16 April 2009 (UTC)

Still there after cleaning the card and reseating it AND reinstalling it. But i tried Star Wars Republic Commando and no boxes at all. I changed a supposedly relevant setting in the Nvidia control panel (conformant texture clamp) and the boxes still appear IN HALO ONLY!!! WTF???  Buffered Input Output 16:30, 17 April 2009 (UTC)

This is just a guess and may be completely wrong, but possibly your Halo installation is corrupted or at the very least perhaps some of the texture maps are damaged. I don't know how much hassle it is to reinstall the game (or where the save game files are stored), but it's probably worth a try. You could also try lowering the resolution/graphics settings to their minimum and seeing if the problem is still there (and then work out what setting causes the problem). ZX81 ^talk 18:25, 17 April 2009 (UTC)

It's the card. eVGA (the manufacturer) says the card was prone to overheating and are sending me a new one with a better fan. It should arrive soon. Thanks!  Buffered Input Output 16:03, 20 April 2009 (UTC)

An instant messaging client for the CLI and icons in Awesome

I have two questions:

• Is there an (open source) IM client for Linux you can use with the command line interface (a bit like rTorrent only for IM). I just started messing around with Awesome and both Pidgin and Emesene look pretty bad. (amazing coincidence, while looking for a picture for question 2 I found a screenshot of Awesome using what 'seems' to be an IM client)
• This one is also related to Awesome, how come the theme looks so ugly? Like Firefox, the buttons to go back and forward look ugly and old fashioned and so does the 'stop' button. The general theme is also rather ugly, some light-brownish gray compared to the the default Firefox in Ubuntu. Is this because I'm using the wrong theme? How do I change it? --BiT (talk) 22:22, 15 April 2009 (UTC)

For question #1, Pidgin usually comes with a CLI called 'finch'. Have never really used it though. --Bennybp (talk) 01:14, 16 April 2009 (UTC)

Oh nice! This is exactly what I was looking for. Now can anyone answer question two? :) --BiT (talk) 02:37, 16 April 2009 (UTC)

I just want to mention again how great Finch is! The only thing you have to do is to read the man finch and then you're set, it's great! (why hadn't I heard anything about it before?) --BiT (talk) 19:54, 16 April 2009 (UTC)

Paper Animation software

I am looking forward to a career in animation, but don't know where to start in terms of software. I don't want to use a completely paperless animation suite because I won't get the results I want. I want to draw out the scenes and characters, scan them onto computers, and then put it all together. What software can I use to do this? I will use multiple suites and programs. Mac OS X is preferred. Please give suggestions and thanks in advance. --Randoman412 (talk) 23:21, 15 April 2009 (UTC)

In my experience i have come to like Flash, Some-what easy program to use, you can use it as a glorified flip book. Or if you want to get really advanced you can use it for some (limited) 3d animation. But if all your looking for is to scan photos in and throw them together then feel free to try Adobe Flash. – Elliott(Talk|Cont)  23:29, 15 April 2009 (UTC)

If you would like some help getting to know Flash, i suggest you try Tutorialized.com, This website really helped me when i was trying to further my knowledge in 2D/3D animation. I hope this helped. – Elliott(Talk|Cont)  23:35, 15 April 2009 (UTC)

Autodesk Maya is the usual piece of animation software. Not sure about the use of paper with it, though. Tempshill (talk) 06:04, 16 April 2009 (UTC)

For very simple animation, you could simply scan each drawing as a .gif and edit into a single multi-frame gif using a raster graphics editor. Check for the features you need in the comparison of raster graphics editors or just try GIMP. Certes (talk) 16:21, 16 April 2009 (UTC)

You can certainly use Maya to do that - but it costs over a thousand bucks and it's distinctly overkill. You can make movies from still frames with any number of $0 OpenSourced software packages. (I use mplayer/mencoder because I like command-line tools - but there are any number of alternatives). However, I've gotta say that I'm entirely skeptical of your ability to make a career with paper animation...you're going to need to know packages like Maya like the back of your hand and adapt your animation style to the digital world - like it or not - that's where the work is. SteveBaker (talk) 05:00, 17 April 2009 (UTC)

April 16

XP and Vista icon Flickering when shutting down

While in the process of shutting down, a desktop icon usually flickers a few times before the computer shuts down. Why does this happen and how does the computer determine which icon to flicker? Acceptable (talk) 02:36, 16 April 2009 (UTC)

The flickering is because as Windows shuts down it will keep changing the active window between each application as it closes it down and the desktop. Everytime the focus shifts back to the desktop it highlights the last icon you were on and when it goes to shut down the next application it will change the focus from the and unhighlighting the icon in the process. Because of this you get that flicker effect you're describing. Hope that helps to explain! ZX81 ^talk

To add on to that, a typical Windows system has at least 3-4 'hidden'/invisible active windows as programs shut down. My favorite has been a Microsoft 'should not see this' shutdown task that hung and displayed an 'End Process' prompt. Washii (talk) 02:29, 19 April 2009 (UTC)

Windows Vista Home Premium SP1 Trial

Anyone know where I can download a Windows Vista Home Premium 32-bit SP1 trial version --Melab±1 ☎ 03:30, 16 April 2009 (UTC)

Although an unactivated version of Vista (any edition) will effectively function as a "trial" for 30 days, as far as I know Microsoft don't offer it as a download. The only download versions they do offer are the versions on MSDN or Technet (I've just checked and Home Premium is available on both), but you'd need a current subscription to either of those services to be able to access the downloads. ZX81 ^talk 04:15, 16 April 2009 (UTC)

Use bittorrent to download a dell OME vista installation iso... that will install as a trail on any non-dell comp. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 64.30.106.235 (talk) 04:19, 16 April 2009 (UTC)

then look for serials or patches to make it non-trail. WIN! —Preceding unsigned comment added by 82.43.88.87 (talk) 07:48, 16 April 2009 (UTC)

If you are downloading, might as well get one from the Pirate Bay. F (talk) 10:17, 16 April 2009 (UTC)

Window (not screen) video capture

I think that a problem I'm having with a piece of software could be best described/illustrated to its support desk if I could capture 20-30 seconds of pseudo- (or maybe real) video of only its own window, not the whole screen. I know nothing about the available technology in this area, so -- where should I start? Don't omit the basics, like "what's the correct name of what I'm looking for?"

Thanks! --DaHorsesMouth (talk) 03:40, 16 April 2009 (UTC)

Apparently it's called "screencasting software". See List of screencasting software. I have personally found HyperCam intuitive and easy to use. It allows you to select an area of the screen or window to record. Hope this helps. decltype (talk) 05:19, 16 April 2009 (UTC)

Forwarding email

Hello,

I was just wondering; is there a way for people with aol.com email addresses to forward all their saved mail to another aol.com email address? I have a lot of saved mail, and don't want to have to go through all of it. Thanks. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 69.16.93.243 (talk) 05:02, 16 April 2009 (UTC)

Actually, I think this is what I want instead: I just made a new AIM screen name. But aol gave me a new email account too. I want to keep my old email account and delete the new one, while keeping the new screen name. How can I delete the new email account? 69.16.93.243 (talk) 05:09, 16 April 2009 (UTC)

Do you really need to delete anything? Can you simply use the old e-mail account (ignoring the new one) and use the new screen name (ignoring the old one)? Certes (talk) 16:26, 16 April 2009 (UTC)

Video Card problem

I was running a CHKDSK on a hard drive and I needed to use the monitor on another computer so I swapped the cable out.

When I plugged it back in I got no signal out. I then restarted (probably interrupting the CHKDSK). Still couldn't get signal to the monitor (even the BIOS screens).

I put the video card (X1950XT) in other computer, and it works fine.

I put another video card (HD3400) into the computer and I see the BIOS screens but when it boots Windows (XP and 7) the monitor says "out of range". I can boot Windows in safe mode. I think this may be a separate problem to the one with the X1950XT...

Thanks in advance --130.194.165.125 (talk) 06:54, 16 April 2009 (UTC)

Try uninstalling the X1950XT and reinstalling it. And by uninstalling i mean going into device manager and delete it from the system. Then reinstall the drivers and the card and try again. Hopefully, this helps.  ;)  Buffered Input Output 12:58, 16 April 2009 (UTC)

Is it possible in your testing that the fault was actually following the video cable? If you can - try another cable. SteveBaker (talk) 04:47, 17 April 2009 (UTC)

How to paste into Word without the font changing?

Hi there, everyone:

I've been using Word for as long as I can remember, but there's one thing that has always annoyed me that I haven't been able to solve: Using Word 2002, I have set a default font, but when I paste from other resources, it nearly always changes all Serif Fonts to Times New Roman and all Sans serif fonts to Ariel - neither of which is my default. Is there any way to avoid the irritating need to change the font back every time I paste something?

All the best --134.151.34.100 (talk) 14:31, 16 April 2009 (UTC)

I'm not sure about Word 2002, but in 2003, when you paste an icon representing the clipboard will pop-up. Click the icon and a menu will appear. Click Match Destination Formatting or Keep Text Only. Another way is to paste the text into a text editor (such as Notepad). This will lose the formatting. Then copy and paste the text from Notepad into Word. A Quest For Knowledge (talk) 14:43, 16 April 2009 (UTC)

If I understand correctly: "Edit .. Paste Special .. Unformatted text" (you could also create a keystroke combination, but that's a bit more involved) — Ched :  ?  17:37, 16 April 2009 (UTC)

Web-based game programming (not flash)

I am interested in developing gadgets (think widgets) for igoogle and similar sites, which use the common web stuff: html, css, javascript. Does anyone know of a good resource (tutorials, forum) geared toward game programming in javascript or other applicable language? (I know I could do it in flash, but I'm interested in the other alternatives.)

For examples, I'm thinking of:

• this crossword gadget
• and this color-shifting game (really, anything by LabPixies)

Bencejoful (talk) 17:07, 16 April 2009 (UTC)

You might be interested in some of the standards-based madness at chromeexperiments.com. --Sean 18:32, 16 April 2009 (UTC)

Well, there are two components here. One is general javascript programming. The other is game programming. You can do game programming in any language—the key things that are different are that Javascript sets some pretty hard constraints on how you deal with graphics, what kinds of operations can be performed efficiently, and a lot of other things relating to how Javascript specifically interacts both with HTML and CSS as well as with the browser.

So if it were me, I'd first focus on Javascript in general. Build a simple Tic-Tac-Toe game using HTML tables, for example. Get a feel for the syntax and etc. From there, pick a somewhat more complicated project (say, checkers). Keep working up. As you get more familiarity with the language and the logic of games, when you look at things on the labpixies site and elsewhere you will be able to somewhat easily figure out how it must be done (e.g. the Google gravity code on the chromeexperiments page probably carves up the page elements into individual objects, then has some nice physics-like coding to deal with falling bodies, then goes through a timer loop moving each element according to the physics model, etc. — it's no doubt a lot harder than that in practice, but in terms of structurally breaking down the logic into its components, it is easy once you have some small association with the various elements at play in such a model). --98.217.14.211 (talk) 21:23, 16 April 2009 (UTC)

For 2D graphics in JavaScript, you need to look at the "<canvas>" extension. It's supported natively on every browser on the planet...except Internet Explorer. There is a plugin (courtesy of Google) for IE that solves that - although it's kinda slow. I wrote http://www.fmbaker.com/samegame/ using canvas - and I've been working on a 'god-game' "The Foot of God" http://www.sjbaker.org/tfog/ (think "Populous") using it and although that's FAR from finished, the graphics are close to working (sometimes you have to hit "reload" after you reach the page - I have a problem with preloading images). You can find documentation on "<canvas>" here: https://developer.mozilla.org/En/HTML:Canvas

For 3D - there is work in progress on adding OpenGL graphics to JavaScript too (there are hints in the canvas document about how they'll add it)...that would be a wonderous and beautiful thing and could well be a Flash-killer.

SteveBaker (talk) 04:00, 17 April 2009 (UTC)

Outlook 2007 and too-big images

I seem to always have size problems in Outlook 2007 when pasting, or inserting, a small JPG or PNG file directly into a message — that is, as part of the message, visible in the window, and not simply a file attachment. Outlook always scales the picture larger. It appears to always scale it to 133% of its original size. Trouble is, the picture "Size" dialog box (reached at Picture Tools->Format->(Size button in the ribbon)) claims the scale is currently at 100%, and there is some text claiming an "Original Size:", measured in inches; both claims are shameless, bald-faced lies. If I order Outlook to scale the picture down to 75% then it appears to be pixel-perfect, as I want.

Does anyone know what the problem is here? Why does Outlook want my pictures to look larger? Tempshill (talk) 19:44, 16 April 2009 (UTC)

I have an idea - I get the same problem. My screen resolution is 96 dpi (right click desktop > properties > settings > Advanced) but when I paste images that are 72 dpi they will look too big. If I save the image with a resolution of 96 dpi, it will look right in all Office 2007 programs. /Christian

iPod Volume boosting

Heya all,

ages ago there was a way to boost the volume of a 5.5G 80GB iPod video by opening the firmware with a Hex editor and swap two bytes. Anyone remember this hack and if it'll run on recent firmware?

Thanks, HardDisk (talk) 22:27, 16 April 2009 (UTC)

PS: Yes, I know software solution exist, but they all simply set the "Amplify" flag in the iTunesDB to max. for each song...

reformatting vista on acer aspire 6920-6968 using backup dvds

i made backup factory defualt dvds for my acer aspire 6920-6968. it uses windows vista home premium edition. want to reformat it, so i was wondering if it is alright if i reformat in the normal way or if there is a special way i have to, though i would prefer doing it the normal way. i do not have a windows vista cd.--Extra101 (talk) 22:51, 16 April 2009 (UTC)

also, I see that my laptop has a seperate partition of 140 GB that isn't being used; i dont want that, i want all my hard drive space usable, so how would i merge that space with the 144 GB that i am currently using (my laptop has 320 GB space).--Extra101 (talk) 23:14, 16 April 2009 (UTC)

April 17

How do you raise you miniclip world ranking?

How do you raise your miniclip world ranking? i have a bunch of highscores and i have star ranking but it wont show my world ranking....why? you can add or challenge me if you want, my user name is dnemo28 —Preceding unsigned comment added by Dnemo28 (talk • contribs) 00:33, 17 April 2009 (UTC)

webroot Spy Sweeper

Is webroot Spy Sweeper vista compatible? I googled it and I got mixed results. Anyone with first hand experience?--AtTheAbyss (talk) 02:42, 17 April 2009 (UTC)

Why not check with the source? Their product page on their website says it is. Tempshill (talk) 21:02, 17 April 2009 (UTC)

Firefox Ridiculous Mem usage

For some reason when I'm using Firefox, the amount of memory it uses builds up to ridiculous amounts after a few hours use, often as much as 800K, slowing it down significantly and requiring to both shut it down and also end the process using task manager, If I don't do that too, it stays there, using the same amount of memory and I'm unable to reopen it. Any idea why? Its 3.0 running on Vista btw--Jac16888^Talk 02:45, 17 April 2009 (UTC)

800k? That's NOTHING! 0.8Mbytes - that's probably one tenth of one percent of your computer's RAM! SteveBaker (talk) 03:40, 17 April 2009 (UTC)

Heh, sorry my bad, I meant 800k as in 800,000, 800Mbyes, around a quarter of my RAM--Jac16888^Talk 04:06, 17 April 2009 (UTC)

Have you got any plugins installed? Possibly one of those is (very) leaky. Try disabling them and seeing if you have the same problem, if not then reenable them individually/batches to narrow down which one(s) are causing the problem. ZX81 ^talk 04:31, 17 April 2009 (UTC)

Thanks for the tip, will try that.--Jac16888^Talk 04:47, 17 April 2009 (UTC)

Just so I know, what kind of memory does firefox generally use?--Jac16888^Talk 16:41, 17 April 2009 (UTC)

That really depends on what webpage(s) you are visiting and how many tabs are open (as well as what plugins are active). I've just created a clean install of Firefox 3.0.8 on Vista x64 and on my computer visiting the main www.google.com page uses 47Mb. I then installed the Flash plugin and loaded around 15 tabs of YouTube videos and it shot to over 300Mb. Closing them all down returned to the 47Mb fairly quickly. Although whilst writing all that I've just noticed that the usage has increased to 58Mb and Firefox hasn't changed page or even had the focus so I don't know what's going on there.... In fact just as I hit save it jumped to 62Mb although it appears to be holding steady now. ZX81 ^talk 18:40, 17 April 2009 (UTC)

Well I have the Facebook page open in one window (I know i know) and two Wikipedia tabs in another and its saying 200mb--Jac16888^Talk 19:58, 17 April 2009 (UTC)

Right now I'm on XP with FF2and 2Gb RAM, and it's only using 281,000 for 37 tabs, BUT they've been open all day. If I open and close a lot of tabs, it will shoot up to as high as 600,000 (beyond that it is too slow to tolerate so I restart it). Turning off caching appears to improve it, but only a little. Some of it is caused by tracking tabs for the Undo Closed Tab and crash recovery features,

To get rid of some of the leakage, change the configuration to release memory when the window is minimised. This is most effective if used regularly before the usage goes over about 150,000; beyond that it doesn't release much. If using multiple windows they all have to be minimised at the same time.

In the address bar, type about:config and hit enter. Right click anywhere and select New, Boolean. In the dialog that comes up, type config.trim_on_minimize, click OK, then select True and click OK again. Restart the browser.KoolerStill (talk) 06:15, 19 April 2009 (UTC)

.Desktop files and relative paths

I am currently trying to make a .desktop file to launch portable Firefox (on Linux), but I just can't get it to work! Does anyone know if it is possible to use relative paths on .desktop files? Like this:

PATH=./

I have read the .desktop file specification ([6]/[7]), but that did not helped....... Hacktolive (talk) 03:16, 17 April 2009 (UTC)

Hardisk and Hotspot

1.My laptop is Acer with specs: 120Gb HDD, 2Gb RAM, And OS Windows XP SP3 Balck Edition. one mount ago I install my Laptop with Windows XP Sp 3 Black Edition. Now when I want change my OS with other OS, I Can't install the other OS because my laptop can't detect my HDD (HDD doesn't exis or install). I start install booting from CD and fail. I scan My Laptop With many antivirus, there is no virus. So until now i still use OS Windows XP SP3 Black Edition. My somebody can help me, Please? 2. My laptop can detect hotspot in my area, but that hotspot protected with password. I want to know, How can we input the corect password or we can see the password is? Thank Lott —Preceding unsigned comment added by Cah1126 (talk • contribs) 08:22, 17 April 2009 (UTC)

2. Ask the hotspot owner.F (talk) 12:03, 17 April 2009 (UTC)

1. Sounds like you need a driver disk so that when XP is starting to install you can press F6 and read the driver from the floppy drive (so it can detect the harddrive). However, because you're using an illegal version of Windows it's hard to say if that would fix the problem as expected (there is no official version called "Black edition" except the pirated version which also contains other pirated apps). Didn't your Acer come with an XP CD/Recovery CD? I'd recommend just using that and then installing Service Pack 3 afterwards, but make sure you've backed up all your files first! ZX81 ^talk 13:15, 17 April 2009 (UTC)

Browser Back button

Is the web browser Back button a legacy of the days of static HTML pages? Do current web designers frown upon it? Are there usability standards as to what an user experience must be when he hits the back button? Any links to articles or blogs would also be helpful. Jay (talk) 11:15, 17 April 2009 (UTC)

The Back button is supposed to do one thing: Take the user back - to the previous page (the one that was opened before clicking the link or button). (That's one reason why "META refresh" and JavaScript-based redirection are disliked by many - when you click Back, you get to the redirector page, which forwards you to the same page again.) --grawity 13:22, 17 April 2009 (UTC)

Current web designers that know what they are doing do not mind the back button at all. They plan for it. Current web designers who do not know what they are doing hate the back button because it exposes their limited ability to make dynamic websites. Instead of learning to do things properly, they attempt to break the back button. There are very rare cases in which breaking the back "function" (not really button) is necessary. Here is an example: You have a special web object that the user can type text into. It is not a text box, but acting very similar to one. You want the user to be able to backspace to delete text. However, the backspace is the keyboard shortcut for the back button. So, when the user has your little web object selected, you don't want the backspace to be a "back button click". In some browsers (ie: Opera) you cannot override the backspace key. -- kainaw™ 14:06, 17 April 2009 (UTC)

Things that matter if you do them twice - like clicking the "buy" button in an online shop - are submitted as a HTTP POST rather than the normal HTTP GET. The browser will warn you if you go back in that case. I guess the source for this is rfc2616 9.5. --h2g2bob (talk) 19:48, 17 April 2009 (UTC)

That is what I meant by programmers not knowing what they are doing. The server should recognize that the same user submitted a purchase (or clicked the buy button) twice. Going back shouldn't cause a problem. -- kainaw™ 21:25, 17 April 2009 (UTC)

So, the Back functionality is good, and is part of modern browsing. And breaking the Back functionality would mean not letting the user go to the current/cached version of the previous page, even if he is navigating across 2 or 3 different websites. There are secure websites likes bank sites that log you off if you click the Back button. Can this also be considered breaking the Back functionality? Jay (talk) 03:59, 20 April 2009 (UTC)

MIME types for tracker modules

What are the standard (or most commonly used) MIME types for tracker modules such as .s3m (ScreamTracker), .xm (FastTracker) and .mod?

I have found some pages that list all of them as audio/x-mod, but others have audio/x-screamtracker-module and audio/x-protracker-module and so on. Which ones should I use? --grawity 13:19, 17 April 2009 (UTC)

Delete Key Launching Task Manager

Hi. Anyone heard of where the Delete key (one below 'insert' and 'Del' on the numpad) launches task manager screen on its own? Just pressing either of these keys brings up the task manager, and I don't know how to disable this so I can use the decimal point key on the numpad and the normal delete function. Oh, and it's in a remote desktop connection to another workstation that this happens, it opens the task manager or the computer i'm connected to. Any help is appreciated, thanks. 161.181.53.10 (talk) 15:05, 17 April 2009 (UTC)

I've had this exact thing happen in Remote Desktop a couple of times, for 2 different reasons. First, someone had created a macro on the local box binding DEL to CTRL-ALT-DEL due to a physical handicap. The second time someone had left a screwdriver on the local console's keyboard, and it was pressing on CTRL and ALT, so my DEL completed the trifecta! Both rather unlikely circumstances, but they also both did happen, so YMMV. :) Arakunem^Talk 16:31, 17 April 2009 (UTC)

Sound problem

My sound is fuzzy. It crackles, like a radio approaching the edge of its range.

It's not a sound card problem, because it happened before I got a sound card and the brand new, mid-range sound card had no effect at all.

It's cured by restoring factory settings, but I don't want a cure, I want prevention. Factorising every three months is annoying.

It's not the speakers; I've replaced them numerous times.

It happened on both my old and my new computer.

I think that's everything. Anyone got any ideas what's causing this, and how I could prevent it? Thanks in advance for anything you try. Vimescarrot (talk) 19:34, 17 April 2009 (UTC)

Do you live in an area that would have a lot of EM interference? Near an airport, or a radar array or something like that? 65.121.141.34 (talk) 19:55, 17 April 2009 (UTC)

EM interference would be my first guess as well, then I'd look to a driver issue. — Ched :  ?  19:58, 17 April 2009 (UTC)

Not that I know of. Would that explains the cumulative nature of this phenomenon - the fact that it just gets worse and worse as time goes on? Vimescarrot (talk) 20:00, 17 April 2009 (UTC)

Oh, and I've also moved house since it first happened. Twice. Vimescarrot (talk) 20:01, 17 April 2009 (UTC)

So it happened on two completely unrelated computers, on the second one with a number of speakers and soundcards, and at three different locations? That is highly unlikely. Perhaps the two computers were not completely unrelated, after all? Perhaps you used the same OS on them (an unusual OS)? (And, forgive me for asking, does other people also hear the distortion?) --Andreas Rejbrand (talk) 20:10, 17 April 2009 (UTC)

I completely understand your skepticism. Yes, other people hear it. The OS on the first computer (which, if it matters, was used in locations 1 and 2) was Windows XP; in the second computer, in locations 2 and 3, it was (and still is) Windows Vista. I tried multiple speakers (but only one soundcard...well, the built-in one) on the first computer. The second computer has tried different speakers as well as different soundcards. Vimescarrot (talk) 20:20, 17 April 2009 (UTC)

I agree it's highly unlikely, which is why I think something must have caused it - something which I'm doing. I use a webcam with a built-in microphone - someone suggested that could cause it, via feedback. Or something. Someone else suggested a virus, but no scan has found any trace. Vimescarrot (talk) 20:21, 17 April 2009 (UTC)

My radio crackles when I use a hair-dryer. Kittybrewster ☎ 20:26, 17 April 2009 (UTC)

Yes, the only common factor is the user, and the user-specific activities and applications. I do not believe it is a virus, for then a quite rare virus must have infected two different computers. I agree that all audio input devices, such as microphones, are "suspicious". Try to disable them (temporarily). Also, are there any application you have used on all three computers? (Of couse, the application have to be quite uncommon, e.g. Microsoft Word is not qualified.) Or did you experience the distortion when any computer was new and "clean" as well? --Andreas Rejbrand (talk) 20:37, 17 April 2009 (UTC)

The computers were fine when new. I use mostly Internet Explorer (started on 6, am now on 8), a lot of Java, Windows Live Messenger and...that's pretty much it. Common activities are RuneScape and watching videos. I've uninstalled my webcam (which contains the microphone) but did not hear any difference in the sound. Of course, it's possible that the sound stopped getting worse, but since it's over such a long time period (a few months) it's difficult to tell... Vimescarrot (talk) 20:41, 17 April 2009 (UTC)

(P.S. I have to go to bed now, will be back same time tomorrow) Vimescarrot (talk) 20:41, 17 April 2009 (UTC)

I it possible that you've got some sort of software program that's redirecting your "Line-In" or Microphone inputs to the speaker?

Also, stupid question the needs to be asked: When you replaced your speakers, did you also replace the audio cable that runs from your computer to your speakers?

Also, if your sound card supports EAX, you might try disabling that through your sound-card drivers. I used to have a soundcard that would get all staticy when that was turned on. (Never figured out why.) APL (talk) 15:52, 18 April 2009 (UTC)

How would I check/do all of this? Vimescarrot (talk) 22:03, 18 April 2009 (UTC)

iPhone as spirit level

How can a phone become a spirit level using an "app"? Kittybrewster ☎ 20:23, 17 April 2009 (UTC)

From the sound of one reviewer, it doesn't. CTRL + F "Spirit level" here. Vimescarrot (talk) 20:33, 17 April 2009 (UTC)

Just to clarify if you don't want to read it, you calibrate it to zero first, using a perfectly flat surface. I imagine it detects its tiltiness the same way a Wii Remote does. Vimescarrot (talk) 20:35, 17 April 2009 (UTC)

accelerometer --Nricardo (talk) 01:55, 18 April 2009 (UTC)

The iPhone has a pair of accellerometers inside that detect when you tilt it or shake it or whatever. They detect when the phone is being accelerated. When the iPhone is perfectly vertical, the up/down sensor reports 9.8 meters per second squared - 1g - and the left/right sensor reports zero. When you tilt the phone, the up/down sensor reads a little less than 9.8 and the left/right sensor reports a little more than zero if you tilt it to the right - or a little less than zero when you tilt it to the left. If the phone is completely flat (sitting on it's back) then both sensors return zero. So the software can figure out exactly how the phone is tilted - so long as the value for 'g' is known. That's why some of the apps need to be 'calibrated' because 'g' varies depending on where you are in the world, etc.

The Wiimote doesn't work quite like that. It knows where it's aimed using a tiny camera to look for the two infra-red LED's in the bar that you put on top of your TV. It has accelerometers too - but they are only used for relatively coarse measurements of how fast the Wiimote is being moved when it's going too fast or when the camera isn't pointing towards the LED tracking bar. There is a new gizmo for the Wii that (IIRC) comes with the StarWars lightsabre fighting game which is supposed to have much more sophisticated accelerometers. SteveBaker (talk) 01:45, 20 April 2009 (UTC)

PPTP VPN considerations

Hi All,

We use have 2 LANs with separate ISP's. On both of these LANs we have dhcp enabled and both of them assigns ip address in the form of 192.168.1.x.

I've recently been playing around trying to get pptp to work on these so I can be on both networks on the same time (so i can manage/monitor on both networks, so am not really trying to bridge both networks completely).

I have been able to enable pptp on the router (a dedicated computer running pfSense on the target network ill call Network A) and connect to it successfully from the network I'm currently on (Network B). on XP, I can do a ipconfig /all and it lists the pptp adapter showing the ip I assigned on the router of Network A. My problem is I dunno what I have to do to specify which network connection should be used when I issue some sort of command: ie how do I ping 192.168.1.1 on Network A? It always defaults to pinging the ip on my current physical connection (Network B).

Do I have to change one of the LANs to use a different mask (192.168.2.x) to get it to work?

TIA PrinzPH (talk) 22:35, 17 April 2009 (UTC)

Yes, you will need to renumber one of the networks, otherwise the local route will win. Gavint0 (talk) 12:37, 18 April 2009 (UTC)

Am I allowed to name ISP's here?

I have been a subscriber with AOL BROADBAND in Scotland Uk for many years and have no issues with that. But recently, I have noticed that the longer I stay online, the slower the service becomes ie., slower, erratic and at times unresponsive. BUT when I disconnect and reconnect Hey Presto, the service goes back to being fast and slicky. Can I be forgiven for suspecting that I am being penalised the longer I stay on? Secondly, AOL used to have a LIVEHELP button that connected me in realtime with a LIVE helper who would answer problematic queries and help me to solve them. But for several months now, whenever I click that button, I get a message telling me that AOL are in the process of improving that service????????????????? and offering instead a 48 hour e-mail question and answer service. My question? Oh yes. Can I believe the second part of that summary? And how can I decide which is the best all-round alternative ISP in my area given my scepticism about AOL. Thanks.92.9.138.136 (talk) 23:37, 17 April 2009 (UTC)

AOL does seem to be in a downward spiral, constantly lowering services, losing customers as a result, then lowering services further to save money so they don't suffer a financial loss. The root cause is probably that they just took on too much initially. For example, they have their own browser (based on IE). Why ? Most ISPs are sensible enough to allow you to use your own browser. They also have their own e-mail system, instant messenger, bulletin board, news, etc. Most of that is overkill, since other web sites can provide all of that. So, they've set up a business model that requires a large staff to support, at considerable expense, with little benefit to the customers (since just about every add-on that AOL offers is available for free elsewhere). It's a bad business model. I can't make recommendations for other ISPs in Scotland, but perhaps others will do that. StuRat (talk) 14:56, 18 April 2009 (UTC)

AOL has been around for a long time. Their custom software once ran on the Commodore 64 and Apple II. There was no public data network for them to use, no standards for email or instant messenging, no preexisting client software, certainly not any free client software. The Free Software Foundation wasn't even founded until 1985. That's why AOL has custom versions of everything—because they were early adopters of everything. Not that I'm sorry to see them falling on hard times. Good riddance, and hooray for the open Internet. -- BenRG (talk) 21:34, 18 April 2009 (UTC)

Yes, long ago I called them and asked that they create a low-cost version of AOL that just provides the Internet access, without all the other crap. They didn't listen to me. StuRat (talk) 15:26, 19 April 2009 (UTC)

Selecting part of a raster object in Inkscape

I opened a scan in Inkscape because I am trying to autotrace part of it. Inkscape treats the entire scan as one object, which I expected, but unexpectedly, I cannot select part of the object, the part that I want to trace. Is there a way to do this on Inkscape or is this a lost cause? I have Version 0.45 —Preceding unsigned comment added by Elatanatari (talk • contribs) 23:42, 17 April 2009 (UTC)

path -> break_apart -- Finlay McWalter | Talk 22:52, 18 April 2009 (UTC)

Incidentally, if you can move to 0.46, then you'd be well advised to do so. The Inkscape people don't release very often, so even that single-minor-digit change actually reflects a considerably improved product (not just minor fixes for issues you probably don't care about). -- Finlay McWalter | Talk 22:55, 18 April 2009 (UTC)

Thanks. I'll get on that. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Elatanatari (talk • contribs) 19:01, 19 April 2009 (UTC)

April 18

SVG in Safari

When I try to view SVG images in Safari (version 3.2.1, Mac OS X 10.5.6) at full size, I can only see a part of the image, and there is no way to scroll around to see the rest. Is there any way to fix this, or is there another browser that works better? Lesgles (talk) 01:04, 18 April 2009 (UTC)

I ran into the same problem (with IE) yesterday when trying to study this image from a PC that had only IE installed. Back home, with Firefox, it works nicely at full resolution, with scrollbars on the bottom of the page and on the right edge. --NorwegianBlue ^talk 06:14, 18 April 2009 (UTC)

Try the Safari 4 Beta, or Opera, both of which have greater standards compliance. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_web_browsers might help also. 144.138.21.23 (talk) 06:19, 18 April 2009 (UTC)

Thanks, I'll try those! Lesgles (talk) 06:55, 18 April 2009 (UTC)

Getting Sick of This 'Administration Priveliges' Bollocks

How do I set my own account on my own PC to have administration priveliges? It's a real PITA that I keep getting denied access when I need to do stuff. I am using Vista.--KageTora (talk) 10:27, 18 April 2009 (UTC)

You mean the error messages or the continually being asked to confirm? - Jarry1250 ^{(t, c)} 10:43, 18 April 2009 (UTC)

Well, in this particular case (prompting me to post this question) I have been told by a game I have just installed that I need admin priv to get protection or whatever. So, how do I set my account to be the admin?--KageTora (talk) 10:46, 18 April 2009 (UTC)

Open the start menu, click on your picture at the very top of the menu, and then choose "Change account type" (or whatever the name of the option is in English). However, it is indeed very possible that you already are an administrator. Then, maybe it is UAC that annoys you, or you might need to run the game as administrator. To do so, right-click on the game's icon, select "Preferences", "Compatibility" and check "Run this program as an administrator". --Andreas Rejbrand (talk) 11:55, 18 April 2009 (UTC)

Beware that this would give the game the power to mess up things which it couldn't otherwise do, so a downloaded game with a virus could cause more serious problems. StuRat (talk) 14:41, 18 April 2009 (UTC)

Rather than disabling the entire User Account Control, might I suggest simply elevating yourself when needed? To do this simply right-click the program/shortcut and select "Run as administrator". Although the UAC can be a pain, security has never been convenient and it's there for a reason. ZX81 ^talk 15:33, 18 April 2009 (UTC)

Trucrypt Question

How do I find out my password for the files I have encrypted on TruCrypt? Or are they all just gone forever? I'm not having a good day on this bloody PC. --KageTora (talk) 11:43, 18 April 2009 (UTC)

TrueCrypt does not contain any mechanism or facility that would allow partial or complete recovery of your encrypted data without knowing the correct password or the key used to encrypt the data. The only way to recover your files is to try to "crack" the password or the key, but it could take thousands or millions of years depending on the length and quality of the password/keyfiles, on software/hardware efficiency, and other factors. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 82.44.54.169 (talk) 11:47, 18 April 2009 (UTC)

Do you remember anything about the password, like whether it contained an English word or any letters/digits/symbols that you're sure aren't in it? If you can narrow it down to a billion possibilities or less then brute-force password cracking might be feasible. I'd guesstimate that you could check ~100 passwords per second per CPU core on a modern PC. There's no known attack on a TrueCrypt volume that's faster than brute-force password checking. -- BenRG (talk) 16:50, 18 April 2009 (UTC)

Let's be realistic here - the whole reason you encrypted the file in the first place was to prevent "the bad guy" from doing precisely what you are asking to do! Why would you imagine it's even possible? Forget it - if the contents of the files are worth less than a million dollars - they're history. SteveBaker (talk) 01:00, 20 April 2009 (UTC)

Dim monitor

Are there ways to dim monitor screens further than the default buttons allow? I find it very hard to focus on a bright screen in an area without any lighting. The operating system I'm using is Windows vista on an LCD monitor. Thank you for your help. -- penubag  (talk) 12:18, 18 April 2009 (UTC)

You can use software for that (I can't think of any right now, though). The application simply changes the brightness of each pixel, so that the LCD receives a dimmer image. Also, you could try to wear polarizing sunglasses, at an appropriate angle (in fact, you can adjust the apparent brightness of the LCD by tilting your head). A very interesting approach would be to place a polarizing thin film just in front of the screen. Then you could rotate this to adjust the brightness. --Andreas Rejbrand (talk) 13:32, 18 April 2009 (UTC)

Many graphics drivers let you adjust the brightness via a control panel application. Perhaps you have an icon to open this control panel in the bottom-right corner (Swedish: meddelandefältet) of the screen, or in the Control Panel "folder". --Andreas Rejbrand (talk) 14:01, 18 April 2009 (UTC)

This will vary quite a bit by monitor. On mine I can go to Control Panel + Display + Settings tab + Advanced button + Color tab. From there I can change the "Target Gamma" or all 3 "Color Splines" (for Red, Green, and Blue), either of which can make it dimmer. Another hint is to change the Desktop to black (or at least a dark color) and also change the window backgrounds to dark colors. I find white text on black background far easier on my eyes than the reverse. I've changed my Wikipedia profile to do this, as well. StuRat (talk) 14:33, 18 April 2009 (UTC)

A minor note: I believe that it is more likely to vary, in general, by graphics card, not by monitor. --Andreas Rejbrand (talk) 15:39, 18 April 2009 (UTC)

PHP Hit Counter Help

Hi. I'm trying to create a PHP hit counter. I want it to display the number of unique visitors to the site. If the user has a cookie from the site, it does not increment the count. If he doesn't, it increments the count. In either case, it prints the number. Here's what I have so far. Right now, it isn't incrementing. If I get rid of the conditionals, it increments, but doesn't care if you've been to the site before. Thanks.

			<?PHP
				if (isset($_COOKIE['id']))
				{
					$filename= "counter.txt" ;
					$fd = fopen ($filename , "r") or die ("Can't open $filename") ;
					$fstring = fread ($fd , filesize ($filename)) ;
					echo "$fstring" ;
					fclose($fd) ;
				}
				else
				{
					setcookie( 'id', 'counter', time()+(60*60*24*7));
					$filename= "counter.txt" ;
					$fd = fopen ($filename , "r") or die ("Can't open $filename") ;
					$fstring = fread ($fd , filesize ($filename)) ;
					echo "$fstring" ;
					fclose($fd) ;
					$fd = fopen ($filename , "w") or die ("Can't open $filename") ;
					$fcounted = $fstring + 1 ;
					$fout= fwrite ($fd , $fcounted ) ;
					fclose($fd) ;
				}
			?>

—Preceding unsigned comment added by Tim james 5 (talk • contribs) 12:47, 18 April 2009 (UTC)

Looks basically fine. In the else clause you may want to echo $fcounted after you set it (rather than $fstring before) if you want the new user to see the newly incremented counter. -- KathrynLybarger (talk) 17:40, 18 April 2009 (UTC)

Your code is not thread-safe. If two people hit the site at the same time, the following may happen:

1. Visitor 1 hits the code: $fc = fopen($filename, "w")... erasing the contents of the file.
2. Visitor 2 hits the code: $fstring = fread($fd, filesize($filename)); ... reading an empty file.
3. Visitor 1 finishes up, saving the count.
4. Visitor 2 continues, opens the file ("w" erases the contents), adds 1 to $fstring (which is empty), and saves $fcounted (now 1) to the file.

The end result is that your count will reset to 1. You must use flock (php command is flock) to ensure the file cannot be read while it is being written. -- kainaw™ 20:02, 18 April 2009 (UTC)

Or even better, as some more complicated PHP hit counters do (like BBClone), have a series of possible files it can open in a queue, so that you can accommodate, say, 7 hits at the same time and not lose any data. Also, I suspect there are a lot of things that will hit your page (like bots) that won't allow cookies. In such cases looking at the IP address itself might prove more useful. --98.217.14.211 (talk) 03:04, 19 April 2009 (UTC)

Encryption

Is there a way to encrypt a single text file? I wouldn't mind either encypting the text in the file, or the file itself. --RefDeskAnon (talk) 18:06, 18 April 2009 (UTC)

There are many, many ways; too many to list. A few easy possibilities, you could zip the file with a password, use an online encryption tool, put the text file in a TrueCrypt volume, or try this self modifying text program which acts just like notepad but with a password to secure your text. 8I.24.07.715 ^talk 18:28, 18 April 2009 (UTC)

Beware of snake oil (cryptography). That online encryption tool looks completely worthless. fSekrit is a good idea, but it looks like it was written by a crypto novice and is pretty weak (no salt or IV). I think modern ZIP encryption is fine and it might be your best choice, but you'll probably have to save the file to disk in plaintext before you encrypt it, which might be a problem depending on what you want the encryption for. TrueCrypt is a good choice except that the container overhead is going to be pretty large for a single text file (at least 256K). Don't use random encryption programs you find on the Web, stick to products with Wikipedia articles (and whose articles don't say they're snake oil). -- BenRG (talk) 21:44, 18 April 2009 (UTC)

It all depends on how secure Op needs the encryption to be.To just stop your friends from looking at your diary for instance, the above methods should be fine. If you protection missile launch codes then... you get the idea —Preceding unsigned comment added by 82.44.54.169 (talk) 22:29, 18 April 2009 (UTC)

See GPG. --194.197.235.70 (talk) 00:36, 19 April 2009 (UTC)

Someone mentioned Zip encryption. It's actually pretty rubbish, and there are a whole bunch of programs that will unpassword a zip file nearly instantly. The encryption on RAR files is better, at least I guess this from the fact that password braking programs for rars rely on brute forcing. Gunrun (talk) 08:13, 20 April 2009 (UTC)

Setting up RAID arrays / need disk imager suggestion

Okay, so I've got two 250 GB HDDs and two 1 TB HDDs. I want to set up two RAID arrays: the TB drives in RAID 1 (mirroring), and the two 250 GB HDDs in RAID 0 (striping); important stuff, photos, documents, videos, etc. go on the TB array, installed apps and the OS go on the other one. I know RAID 0 doesn't provide a huge performance benefit, but it's slightly better than plain spanning, and will let me install as many games and crap as desired without space concerns.

Am I right to assume that my motherboard's hardware RAID controller (Intel® ICH8R Southbridge RAID) will allow me to set up two separate RAID volumes? Will I hit any issues at all with this plan?

Also, both the 250 GB HDDs have data on them already. I'm going to need to do some disk image juggling to keep that data; anyone have suggestions for good disk imaging software?

Edit: Going to amend this with one more question: if I take an HDD out of a RAID 1 array, will it be accessible without issue by any other computer?

-- Consumed Crustacean (talk) 23:24, 18 April 2009 (UTC)

Yes the ICH8R should allow you to create multiple RAID volumes, at least 2 and probably 4, although this may vary depending on your motherboard implementation.

Do the 1Tb disks contain data? If not then the simplest solution rather than disk imaging is probably just to copy the data to them first and move it back when the RAID-0 is setup. I'm sure you are aware of this, but I just want to mention it in case, RAID-0 provides no redundancy. If EITHER 250Gb disk fails then you will lose the entire volume and you may want to consider keepin ghtme as separate disks or just having another RAID-1 mirror with the 250Gb disks, but obviously that's up to you though.

You can break a RAID 1 array at any time and have two exact copies of the same disk - I do this all the time, it's VERY convenient. This is assuming the RAID-1 volume wasn't in a rebuild state obviously. Hope this helps! ZX81 ^talk 23:55, 18 April 2009 (UTC)

Okay, cool. I know about RAID 0's limitations, and I'm still debating it, but like I said it's intended only for installed programs and the OS. The installed games, mods, and applications have basically filled a whole of one of the 250 GB drives, and I've still got several others that I've had to uninstall because of space issues. I wouldn't mind simply being able to install to that partition without any regard for how much space is left, rather than having to juggle between two.

The imaging software would be used to keep the MBR and things straight, though I suppose I could just use fixmbr or whatever the equivalent is in Vista. -- Consumed Crustacean (talk) 00:08, 19 April 2009 (UTC)

On running the HDD through SequoiaView, I've found a few things that I can do to save space on the main partition (relocating Steam to the TB array will save a hell of a lot of space and cause no inconvenience, for instance), so I'll just RAID 1 both sets. Thanks for the help. -- Consumed Crustacean (talk) 00:44, 19 April 2009 (UTC)

I use R-Drive Image and it works pretty well for me. Better than Norton Ghost and Acronis True Image. SF007 (talk) 02:19, 19 April 2009 (UTC)

April 19

Gateway Laptop completely freezes when AC cable is unplugged.

Hi everyone,

Somewhere around half of the times that I unplug my AC plug from my laptop when it's turned on the computer completely freezes. Clock doesn't move, mouse stops, everything. The only way to fix it is to hold down the power for a few seconds until it turns off then turn it back on.

I can't think of anything I did that might have caused this, and I've ran numerous virus/spyware scans (ad-aware/avg/hijackthis). This leads me to believe something in the hardware is failing, or it's some setting I changed somehow without knowing.

The fact that it doesn't always happen bothers me, also rarely when I remove or plug in a USB device while the laptop is on, it does the same thing.

I have a Gateway M-6851, running Windows Vista SP1. Any ideas? Thanks!

Chris M. (talk) 00:19, 19 April 2009 (UTC)

I'm no expert, but it sounds like it's causing a momentary power fluctuation - which sometimes is bad enough to crash the laptop but sometimes not. Exxolon (talk) 02:38, 19 April 2009 (UTC)

That's just what I was thinking. Try unplugging the other end of the power cord first, and see if that makes a difference. Also, if you have an outlet hooked up to a wall switch, try turning it off at the wall switch before you unplug. You could also use a power strip and flip that switch off before you unplug. StuRat (talk) 15:20, 19 April 2009 (UTC)

Awesome window manager

I need some help with the Awesome window manager. I basically want it to look like this. I'm looking for the name of that font, what terminal/console that users is using and what the best file manager would be for Awesome. File managers always look horribly when I use them with Awesome. --BiT (talk) 00:51, 19 April 2009 (UTC)

Also, can someone tell me what file managers are being used in the aforementioned link and in this one? They both seem to have the GNOME icon but they don't look like Nautilus or anything like that. --BiT (talk) 01:06, 19 April 2009 (UTC)

Pretty sure the file manager is Thunar. It's the default file manager for Xfce. Indeterminate (talk) 00:41, 20 April 2009 (UTC)

Are you sure? I've tried Thunar and the form looks rather like it but as you can see the Thunar manager doesn't have the GNOME icon in the corner. --BiT (talk) 01:12, 20 April 2009 (UTC)

Yep, I installed it on my ubuntu system here and it's got a little gnome icon in the corner. I don't know what build they're using in that picture. Indeterminate (talk) 01:40, 20 April 2009 (UTC)

But I'm currently using Thunar with Awesome and there isn't a GNOME icon there? Also, have you got any idea what theme those people are using? --BiT (talk) 01:47, 20 April 2009 (UTC)

Hmm, strange. Maybe it depends on what distribution you're using and what version of Thunar. Anyway, sorry I can't help much, I haven't used AwesomeWM before. Indeterminate (talk) 09:54, 20 April 2009 (UTC)

Installing MakeHuman

I've just downloaded MakeHuman, and extracted all the files from the zipped folder, now how do I actually install it? (I'm running Windows XP SP3). Thanks! 203.40.181.54 (talk) 01:16, 19 April 2009 (UTC)

I believe it's a "plugin" for the blender (software) 3D modeller - right? That being the case, I think you need to find the blender instructions for installing plugins from the blender website - at which point (hopefully) it'll be obvious. SteveBaker (talk) 00:30, 20 April 2009 (UTC)

Umm... I don't think it is, Wikipedia says it is a stand-alone piece of software (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MakeHuman), not a plug-in for anything else... 144.138.21.31 (talk) 03:38, 20 April 2009 (UTC)

[Check this out]. Apparently you need to install the Microsoft package and then double-click the makehuman.exe file. Indeterminate (talk) 09:58, 20 April 2009 (UTC)

Learning VisualBasic

I downloaded the visual basic thingy...from...somewhere (it was a long time ago). Is the in-built tutorial (which, from what I did, is pretty in-depth) a particularly good or bad way to learn my first programming language? I ask because I'm unable to learn anything from it. Vimescarrot (talk) 12:40, 19 April 2009 (UTC)

I've never seen this tutorial but the language I'm most familiar with is visual basic and I've done a lot of work with it. After I had learned some I had grabbed VB 6 for dummies (on amazon), which I thought was impressively well written and easy to understand, even though I had done a lot of it, the parts that were new were very clear. If you're using a new version (.net, or 2008 for example) there are equivalent books I assume would be valuable. On the other hand, a free but very effective tool to learn visual basic is the wikibook. Several of my friends learned with this source (link) and feel that they understand it well enough to use it. It also goes into some more advanced things the dummies books wouldn't, which is nice for the future. Chris M. (talk) 15:10, 19 April 2009 (UTC)

Thank you for that information but it didn't actually answer the question I asked. ;-) Vimescarrot (talk) 19:05, 19 April 2009 (UTC)

Sorry, the answer was more subtle then I had intended. You said that you weren't able to learn anything from it. I said that it's not hard to learn from several other sources, and so by saying that I was implying that it wasn't a particularly good source, or I would expect you'd have more success. 74.218.161.17 (talk) —Preceding undated comment added 19:56, 19 April 2009 (UTC).

But the logic of that is flawed. It may be my sheer ineptness which prevents me from learning, not the tutorial. Vimescarrot (talk) 21:11, 19 April 2009 (UTC)

I don't know the answer - but unless you have a specific need to learn VB (eg for your job) - I would pick a different language to learn as your first. VB is an evolutionary dead end. Learn Java first. SteveBaker (talk) 00:31, 20 April 2009 (UTC)

"VB is an evolutionary dead end." Care to back that up? Granted, I haven't done any VB development in years, but I still see job ads for VB and Microsoft keeps updating it so I'm not sure how VB is an evolutionary dead end. A Quest For Knowledge (talk) 01:28, 20 April 2009 (UTC)

I was recommended VB as an easy language. But I'd be happy to hear reasons to learn something else. Vimescarrot (talk) 10:54, 20 April 2009 (UTC)

Creative SoundBlaster Live! Sound Problems

Hi.

I have a Creative SoundBlaster Live!, its not the one with the full chip, but the cut-down version. (I like the MIDI SoundBank manager better on this version.)

I have two problems with this sound card which cropped up last year. I was on XP SP2 and it worked fine, upgraded to SP3 and it was still fine for a while, but then these problems started appearing. Me being the type of person I am, I had to re-install Windows after fiddling with it. I am now using XP SP2 again and the problems are still here.

1.) If I have my sound volume very low, the sound card will actually turn its self off. i.e. nothing plays, not even the small buzzing that usually comes out of speakers. The only way to cure this is to move the main slider (called playback) on the Mixer up to a higher level, let go of the mouse and it plays the XP error noise (like it should) and then move it back low again.

2.) If I use certain programs then my P.C. after a little while, randomly each time between about 10 and 30 seconds, will pause with the sound jamming and playing the last "second" over and over again. The only way to get rid of this is to do a hard reboot.

Known programs that cause this error:

Audacity - version 1.2.6 (Recording or Playing), Notation Player - version 2.1.2

It might help to know this piece of information. Its a nightmare trying to find drivers from Creative. They have this soundcard in about 5 or 6 different varieties. It is possible I have the wrong drivers installed. I used Creative's Auto-Update service to determine what my soundcard was, and then manually downloaded the drivers from their website. I manually downloaded them because Creative seems to not Auto-Update everything like it claims to.

I have disabled the onboard audio, and as this sound card wasn't with the P.C. (Its basically been built from scratch, but with HDD and RAM from an older P.C. which used an onboard chip. The old sound drivers (C-Media) won't uninstall and that could be the problem. Everytime I go to uninstall them it says uninstalling and then asks to re-boot. When it boots its still there in the Control Panel. I have done this under my account, in safe mode using the Administrator account. and using TuneUp Utilities 2008 to try and remove it.

If anyone knows what could be the problem I would be grateful to know your thoughts. Thanks. Elven Spellmaker (talk) 13:06, 19 April 2009 (UTC)

I've owned almost every Creative soundcard since the Soundblaster 1 and the most joy I ever had was with the SBPro. It was the most compatible card ever, and it worked until I had to retire it. Ever since, I've found all SB cards deteriorating over time... ranging from annoying little sound crackles to the computer not even picking it up. I think your card has had its life (since it did work at one point with XP). Use your onboard sound... this has caught up over the years to be as good to sometimes better than Creative's mid-range offering. Creative's top-end is for a minority of audiophiles or for people with extra cash. On one of my older computers, I've thrown out the Audigy 2 and enabled the onboard 6 channel sound - and it actually sounds better, not to mention some games actually picking up the 3D sound. Onboard is also more efficient as there is no overhead of having to use the PCI bus. Sandman30s (talk) 14:41, 19 April 2009 (UTC)

I would use my Onboard sound, if I didn't use MIDI so much. The general MIDI DLS that Windows uses is appalling. Also I think that the C-Media drivers might confuse the onboard chip. Elven Spellmaker (talk) 16:17, 19 April 2009 (UTC)

Re the drivers, the only way would be to delete the drivers themselves after removing all C-Media entries from the registry. You can always download Yamaha/Roland soundfonts (not free but worth it and cheaper than buying a soundcard) if the default ones are that bad. I thought that the default Windows General MIDI samples (in XP onwards) have always been better than the default AWE32/Audigy/Live! soundfonts anyway. Good luck, elven friend! Sandman30s (talk) 18:49, 19 April 2009 (UTC)

what's the cheapest fm radio attachment that plugs into the BOTTOM of an iPod ie completely portable (not lighter jack for the car thing)

Which one is the cheapest fm radio attachment for the iPod that just plugs into the bottom of it in a portable way, ie suitable for just carrying with you in your purse? 79.122.6.184 (talk) 14:38, 19 April 2009 (UTC)

Script to replace an image

Resolved

I'd like to write a greasemonkey script that will replace a certain image on a webpage, say for example the Wikipedia Globe logo with another image of my choice. I'm still a n00b at userscripts, so any help would be awesome. Thanks —Preceding unsigned comment added by 82.44.54.169 (talk) 15:08, 19 April 2009 (UTC)

Never mind guys, I worked it out myself

garage door opener, forgot code

I need some help reseting the code on my garage door i can't figure out how. thanks for your help, -Rob 64.198.92.180 (talk) 21:16, 19 April 2009 (UTC)

Garage door opener: Sears Craftsman 41a5021-2b Wireless outdoor keypad: Sears Craftsman 132b2171-2 —Preceding unsigned comment added by 64.198.92.180 (talk) 21:16, 19 April 2009 (UTC)

I don't know about that specific opener - but on mine there is a reset button on the motor housing - you have to bring all of the remotes to the garage with the door shut, press and hold the button for (IIRC) 30 seconds and all is well. But I don't know specifically about yours - the procedure might be way different. SteveBaker (talk) 00:25, 20 April 2009 (UTC)

April 20

Base classes (C#)

I have a handle management class called Win32Handle (written in C#) and specialized derived classes for objects like job objects, processes, threads, etc. In Win32Handle I want to have a Duplicate() method which all derived classes will inherit. The problem is, instead of the Duplicate() method returning a Win32Handle I want it to return a specialized class instance. For example:

ProcessHandle ph = ...;
ProcessHandle ph2 = ph.Duplicate(ProcessAccess.Terminate);

instead of:

ProcessHandle ph = ...;
Win32Handle ph2 = ph.Duplicate((int)ProcessAccess.Terminate);

How can I do this? --wj32 ^t/c 02:49, 20 April 2009 (UTC)

You could make your Win32Handle class be generic Win32Handle<T>. Then redefine Duplicate to return a T. 124.214.131.55 (talk) 04:59, 20 April 2009 (UTC)

Great, that works! Thanks a lot! I didn't try this before because using D the compiler just segfaulted. --wj32 ^t/c 06:25, 20 April 2009 (UTC)

You may want to post this question to the newsgroup "microsoft.public.dotnet.languages.csharp" instead. Quite possibly you will get a better answer. That's not to say that there's anything wrong with 124.214.131.55's answer (I couldn't tell). decltype (talk) 05:51, 20 April 2009 (UTC)

Time Travel

What is your current advances on time travel? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 64.30.106.235 (talk) 05:48, 20 April 2009 (UTC)

Take a peek at the article on time travel. Going forwards works pretty well. (Or, given that this is the computing reference desk, you didn't mean time capsule did you?) 88.112.62.225 (talk) 06:47, 20 April 2009 (UTC)

I have formulated a way to travel forward in time about an hour every 3600 seconds! Gunrun (talk) 08:09, 20 April 2009 (UTC)

TrueCrypt's security

Why does everybody (internet forums, wikipedia, etc) believe that TrueCrypt is really secure? How should a skeptical proceed to test this assertion?--80.58.205.37 (talk) 10:23, 20 April 2009 (UTC)

Mostly because it is open-source for public scrutiny, and the rationale for all the security design considerations are very well documented, and it uses well-known ciphers. As opposed to proprietary software who claim to be secure because of their "amazing 4096-byte parallel matrix" closed-source cipher. decltype (talk) 11:00, 20 April 2009 (UTC)

Type of DC socket in a HP laptop

The laptop shows it is powered only when the power plug is inserted and kept at certain angle. I did some research on the internet and found out that the problem lies in the socket in the laptop. One of the tests was to remove the battery and see if the laptop goes off if the angle is slightly changed. HP's website unfortunately does not have a manual for this model (ze5700). I have never opened this laptop before, if the socket is soldered to the mother board I cannot replace it anyway, so i won't open it in that case. If the socket is of non-soldered type, perhaps I can buy one and replace it. ( is it a generic part? or i have to order it from HP?). Can you please say which type of socket this laptop posseses?. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 131.220.46.24 (talk) 10:47, 20 April 2009 (UTC)

I've never seen your exact model so I accept I could very well be wrong, but I've personally never seen a non-soldered power socket on a laptop motherboard. Soldering is simply the quickest/easiest/cheapest way for them to do it and I would assume that yours is the same too. I also doubt that your socket is faulty, the socket itself doesn't really have anything in it that can break, but from you're describing the problem sounds like part of the solder connecting the socket to the motherboard has come off and you only get a proper connection when you angle it a certain way forcing the connection. Whilst you could try getting it repaired under warranty (if it's still valid?) it's not really a manufacturing defect and it's only really the sort of thing that can happen if it's dropped or knocked whilst the lead is in and I'm afraid finding someone to try and resolder it is probably the only solution. Even then it might not work very well though, we had a Dell laptop that we tried to fix for this problem and it just kept breaking again and in the end we had to get the user another laptop. I appreciate my entire post is an assumption on your laptop, but I hope it's of some help. ZX81 ^talk 11:26, 20 April 2009 (UTC)

kezboard trouble

to get y i have to tzpe z and vice versa. close square brackets comes up as equals. how do i fix it_ cannot find the tilde.

I think you are mapped to a german keyboard. If you are using windows xp, click the "DE" icon in your task bar (near the clock) and select EN to change it. If that is not the case, perhaps there are other errors.