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August 2

Porting programs between architectures and operating systems

I've been thinking about this for a long time.. ..how difficult is it porting programs from, say, Windows to GNU/Linux and from Intel to PPC? Of course they have to change all the directories since the filesystems are differ between Windows and Linux but what else is there (let's say you have the source code)? I'm pretty sure porting between OS's a big task but it doesn't seem like porting between architectures is as difficult (Ubuntu e.g. supports a lot of architectures that have a small user-base and I doubt they'd go through immense trouble for the few PPC users that want to try Ubuntu) --BiT (talk) 00:22, 2 August 2009 (UTC)

It depends on the program. If you were just changing architecture (e.g. Linux Intel to Linux PPC) most programs will work just with a simple recompile; a small number that make assumptions about how structure and memory is laid out will need those assumptions readjusting. The same is true for moving Windows apps from IA32 to x8x-64 or IA64 (and formerly to Windows-Alpha). Moving between Window and Linux is orders of magnitude more work, because they don't share the same application programming interfaces; the extent to which a given program uses a platform's API defines how much effort it will take to move. Some APIs are fairly isomorphic between the two: network, process, thread, and filesystem stuff is a fairly obvious mapping. Some are conceptually similar but require a major overhall - e.g. changing from a Windows GUI interface to GTK, or from DirectX to OpenGL is a lot of work. And some technologies don't have easy analogs on the other platform - if you were translating a windows DCOM program to Linux, you'd probably rip out all the DCOM and write that part from scratch. But there are shortcuts: Linux programs written with GTK/GlibC can be moved to Windows, as those libraries are available there. And some Windows apps can run fine on Linux using Wine, or can be recompiled for Linux with Wine's "winelib" (that's how Google's Picasa works on Linux). So, in short, it depends very heavily on the program. -- Finlay McWalter • Talk 01:08, 2 August 2009 (UTC)

Ok so porting programs between architectures is not that difficult. But why does it take so long e.g. for Google to release a version of Chrome for Linux and OS X, since Chrome only has some minor GUI changes to GTK (which they actually fixed ages ago with both Chromium and the dev build of Chrome) and although being little-of-programming I believe Chrome includes minimal, if not no amount of DirectX. Where does the complexity lie there? Has it got something to do with the javascript..? bah, I dunno --BiT (talk) 01:58, 2 August 2009 (UTC)

I don't know the specifics, but Chrome has worked fine for me on Linux for several months. I think their ports have lagged Windows because they don't send that much effort on them. -- Finlay McWalter • Talk 02:19, 2 August 2009 (UTC)

Yes I'm using the dev version of Chrome atm and it's working great except for lack of Flash and other minor issues. I was just wondering why it has taken this long to get Chrome working on other OS's than Windows when almost a year has passed since it's initial release. You're probably partially correct in assuming that they aren't spending that much effort on non-Windows versions but they do want their browser to become wide-spread and Unix-based OS's constitute for almost 10% of the entire world's computer usage. Why didn't they simultaneously release it on all OS's- or would that be too difficult? --BiT (talk) 02:28, 2 August 2009 (UTC)

There's a discussion about porting the UI to Linux/OS X featuring some of the Chromium developers here which you might find interesting. — Matt Eason ^{(Talk • Contribs)} 10:25, 2 August 2009 (UTC)

Now that is interesting, thanks for posting that! It's helpful reading a conversation between professional programmers and trying to follow their train of thought. On a side note, is there any word on when the Mac/Linux version of Chrome is going to be completed? I've heard the Mac version is almost ready and the dev version for Linux seems very close to completion. --BiT (talk) 14:25, 2 August 2009 (UTC)

One thing that wasn't been mentioned is whether the code contains any assembly. It's not uncommon for highly optimised code, e.g. codecs, to use assembly. Frequently these will be in addition to more normal code, e.g. Xvid [1] but if it not, porting between architectures is likely to be significantly more difficult. Of course if assembly is used, even if porting is not that hard, the actual code may perform significantly worse. This is particularly relevant when it comes to x86-64 vs x86-32 since there the user often has a choice. Nil Einne (talk) 19:22, 2 August 2009 (UTC)

Porting can be rather easy if you intentionally design your software to use APIs and libraries that work on both systems. On the other hand, if you design your system to depend on DirectX you're going to have a headache if you try to move it off of Microsoft platforms.

So why don't all software developers instantly release ported versions of their software? Well, for one thing, even if it's easy, they've still got to do it, and they may be busy with the deployment and support of the Windows version. But I think that the main hold-up is that they've got to restart their whole testing procedure to make sure that their newly ported version is robust. For a web browser, testing can be rather extensive. APL (talk) 07:23, 2 August 2009 (UTC)

I get your point, of course the Windows version of almost every software is the first version that needs to be completed since Windows users are more than 90% of all users. --BiT (talk) 14:25, 2 August 2009 (UTC)

x86 instructions atomic?

I know that you can use the lock prefix to produce a multi-processor-safe instruction on x86, but are normal instructions somewhat atomic? That is, is there any chance of me using the add or mov instruction and another processor reading half of the new value? --wj32 ^t/c 08:16, 2 August 2009 (UTC)

With read modify-write instructions like ADD mem,reg you have the following race: both processors read, then processor A writes, then processor B writes, with the result that only processor B's change takes effect. That's not equivalent to A-then-B or B-then-A order, so the instructions aren't atomic. This can't happen with MOV.

Unaligned operands can generate more than one memory access for each read or write and I think that can lead to getting part of a value that another processor was in the process of updating. According to the docs, LOCK ADD mem,reg is atomic even when misaligned, but LOCK ADD reg,mem and LOCK MOV are illegal, even though they could potentially benefit from this aspect of locking. -- BenRG (talk) 08:48, 2 August 2009 (UTC)

Thanks, I get it now :) --wj32 ^t/c 06:37, 3 August 2009 (UTC)

Can't get rid of Norton AntiVirus

For months now, I've been struggling to expunge this stupid program from my system. It no longer appears in Add/Remove Programs, but every now and then, MS Word crashes, and the error-report blames Norton. Sure enough, when I run the Norton Removal Tool, downloadble from the Symantec website, the problem stays fixed for a couple of weeks. Then the same thing happens again. Any tips? Thanks. ╟─TreasuryTag►stannator─╢ 15:04, 2 August 2009 (UTC)

Run msconfig and look for any services/startup items referencing Norton. Rjwilmsi 15:58, 2 August 2009 (UTC)

I can't immediately see any under "Services" or "Startup" – any idea of what they might look like specifically? ╟─TreasuryTag►constabulary─╢ 16:03, 2 August 2009 (UTC)

Following that, I found one "Synaptics" entry in regedit (HK_LOCAL_MACHINE > Software > Windows > Run) and deleted that, I assume that will help somewhat? ╟─TreasuryTag►assemblyman─╢ 16:11, 2 August 2009 (UTC)

Isn't Synaptics the manufacturer of laptop touchpads, and most Windows machines with such a laptop run a synaptics driver (which implements some features over the basic mouse functionality, such as tap-to-click). I don't think "synaptics" and "symantec" have anything to do with one another. -- Finlay McWalter • Talk 16:24, 2 August 2009 (UTC)

Yes, sorry, my mistake. I meant "Symantec", it was that that I deleted. :P I hope... ╟─TreasuryTag►Captain-Regent─╢ 16:27, 2 August 2009 (UTC)

Doesn't Windows Defender help detect (and delete) unwanted start-up and network programs. (I seem to remember discovering a quicktime network program using it long after I'd uninstalled quicktime) If so it might be worth running (or downloading) to check for any more programs left behind/ possibly that it's just a prettified version of regedit in that respect/83.100.250.79 (talk) 16:59, 2 August 2009 (UTC)

You could also search the file system and registry for anything starting "nav...". I've noticed that Symantec products also use a "common files" folder (either c:\program files\common files\symantec\ or c:\program files\symantec\common files\) ... or maybe it's "common tools". Of course, be careful deleting stuff and keep a backup incase you delete someting critical. Astronaut (talk) 14:23, 3 August 2009 (UTC)

Times where working in a computer shop have been helpful. Symantec/Norton builds their own separate removal tool because some of the AV products lock down a Windows OS so hard, even after being 'uninstalled,' that no other product really runs

G norton removal tool Make sure you get it from the Symantec website. The tools occasionally time-expire. Washii (talk) 22:21, 5 August 2009 (UTC)

haven't you just described the exact original problem - namely that the removal tool acts like a Time bomb (software).83.100.250.79 (talk) 15:05, 6 August 2009 (UTC)

No...the tool itself will just not run after it's built-in expiration has passed (this is mostly applicable to Norton 360, since they change so much with updates). It removes the NAV stuff perfectly fine. I have customers that were humming along just fine months later. It isn't any type of time bomb, and I don't see where you got the idea it was. Washii (talk) 07:17, 8 August 2009 (UTC)

Create a windows 7/Vista restore disk.

I want to create a boot disk for windows 7 or Vista that will restore my computer to the state it is currently in from a disk but don't know exactly how to do this. I know it can be done with norton ghost but I'd like to use completely free software altogether if possible. If someone could help I'd appreciate it. Thanks! 65.184.21.210 (talk) 16:57, 2 August 2009 (UTC)

Norton Ghost won't (or didn't i should say, its been a decade since i've used it) create a boot disk, but a disk image, a byte-for-byte copy of the drive, which you would then back up and write over the disk with when needed/written to other machines to clone system settings across an enterprise. Using free software to do this is pretty similiar to the usb image question up the page- just use dd with the drives dev path as input file and get a raw image. If you mean more the boot disk phrasing, i believe finding a web guide on slipstreaming windows install discs to add software, files and other such into the base system, and see if those methods apply to win7. --M^ask? 12:43, 3 August 2009 (UTC)

You might be surprised at how complicated disk imaging can be... but for a free, relatively easy one, I recommend Clonezilla. Indeterminate (talk) 20:24, 3 August 2009 (UTC)

Unmount USB drive on unplug

In Kubuntu, how do I set my external USB hard drive to automatically unmount when I unplug it? If it makes any difference, I'll usually be unplugging the power cable first or only. NeonMerlin 19:00, 2 August 2009 (UTC)

Unfortunately, things don't work that way. The drive needs to have power for a few moments to actually do the unmount sequence. By removing the power there is no way to "inform" the drive and the computer that you want to unmount it, hence it's impossible. The only way this could be done is through a sensor/button that tells the OS to unmount the hd/ssd. The moment when you remove the power/data connection it's too late to unmount. Mile92 (talk) 03:26, 3 August 2009 (UTC)

It's possible to do a lazy unmount (umount -l), but if the file system on the drive was mounted read-write, removing it without correctly unmounting it first can cause data loss or corruption. If your drive is only ever mounted read-only, or if you make absolutely sure to do a proper, manual unmount whenever it's mounted RW, then the lazy unmount is a viable option. In this case I'd say the easiest way to do it is to write a udev rule for it. You'll have to google for that or ask someone else, because I know very little about it. I do believe it to be the way to go for this, though. --Link ^(t•c•m) 09:52, 6 August 2009 (UTC)

MS Access Help

I have 3 Tables in Microsoft Access.

1st Table has a list of nursing homes. (Field 1 - names of Nursing Homes - Facilites)

2nd Table has a list of Patients names. (Field 1 - names of Patients - Names)

3rd Table has a list of treatments in Field 1 - Treatments, and the Associated Costs in Field 2 - Costs.

What would be the best way for me to go about making a database?

What I have done is this:

I made Field 2 in the 2nd Table and I used "Add Existing Field" function under the Datasheet tab and added the Facilities field from Table 1.

So now, after adding the patient name in the 2nd table, I can select which nursing home the patient resides in using the drop down function.

Now in field 3 and field 4 inside Table 2 I am trying to add Treatment and the associated costs. However, I cannot make it such that when Field 3 = Field 1 of table 3 then automatically Field 4 = Field 2 of table 2

--33rogers (talk) 23:35, 2 August 2009 (UTC)

I have to admit, I read your post a few times but I'm not quite following you, so forgive me if this is wide of the mark. It sounds as if you're trying put data from one table into another, based on a relationship between them. The concept I think you're missing is that you don't do that with tables; rather, the tables stand alone, and you join them up by using queries. Try creating a new query in Access and putting your relationship joins in there. --Rixxin (talk) 15:51, 3 August 2009 (UTC)

I get it (I think). Each patient has a treatment, and for each type of treatment the associated cost is the same.

Technically I think you're trying to do it wrong - all you need is 'treatment' field in table 2, and a association between the 'treatment field' and 'associated costs' in a 3rd table. In openoffice these are called "relationships" but in MS access they are called something else.

If you do this you only have to enter the treatment for each patient - and the "associated costs" are automatically connected from the table of treatment/costs ... did that make sense.

I think they call them relations

See http://support.microsoft.com/kb/304466 (you want a 1 to many relationship - 1 treatment type in the treatment/costs table can link to many instances of a treatment in the patient table.

There will be lots of tutorials on this if you need it (search "microsoft access relations tutorial" or similar) - though the article I linked above is a good explanation.

Basically you shouldn't need field4 - but a relational link to a new table. I'm fairly certain that this is the thing you want to do - please say if you need more.

When creating queries you can include both tables.83.100.250.79 (talk) 17:01, 3 August 2009 (UTC)

By the way if you do a query on table2 and 3 - outputing all the fields (with no exclusions) the result will be the table you desire - with "costs" as an additional field tacked onto the end of table2 automatically83.100.250.79 (talk) 17:27, 3 August 2009 (UTC)

• How do I use the query function MS Access 2007? --33rogers (talk) 22:54, 6 August 2009 (UTC)

http://databases.about.com/od/tutorials/l/aaquery1.htm

or search for "query microsoft access" for more, or use the help button on access which should give more details.

Also please start a new question when the original question is beginning to enter the archives.83.100.250.79 (talk) 11:51, 7 August 2009 (UTC)

Nasty vicious virus: "System Security 4.52", help!

Hello. My computer has been infected with "System Security 4.52", a very annoying virus. It won't allow me to open up most applications, won't allow me to access add remove programs, and won't allow me to run system restore. I have looked up various ways to get rid of it using google searches (safari and firefox wouldn't access the Internet but I was able to get on with IE and am clicking off bullshit popups from the virus as we speak). The two programs that came up in searches frr removing it, one was free but the download site was down, and the other was Spyware Doctor. I tried to download it but the virus wouldn't let me, Anyway, I logged on in safe mode after looking up how to do so, and tried to do a system retore but for some reason it wouldn't let me (I tried multiple times—it gets to the screen to choose a retsote point, I click next and nothing happens). Okay, so then I couldn't access the internet to do the download so then I figured out how to log on in safe mode with networking allowed. Long story short (I've been trying to remove this thing for many hours) I was able to dowload Spyware Doctor )I paid $30 to do so!) and run it in safe mode (the virus stops it from running otherwise). Spyware Doctor found the virus by name and removed "261 infected files". I then restarted and the virus was still on my computer, full blown. I restarted again in safe mode, ran the program again, and it found 89 files infected and supposedly fixed them. I restarted again and, you guessed it, it's still on my computer full blown. I tried again with a full scan and this is driving me crazy: it found something like "system security downloder codec" on the full scan, but, unlike the prior scans, it didn't say "do you want to fix this"; instead it just gave me a summary "1 threat detected" 0 threats removed", I guess meaning it couldn't remove it. I rebooted again and here I am with the Virus still making me its bitch. Any advice would be much appreciated.--70.23.79.67 (talk) 23:44, 2 August 2009 (UTC)

Upload the infected files to Virus Total. Virus Total will then use 40+ different products to scan your file. I personally would suggest for you to download a free trial of Avira AntiVir to remove the malware, you can download it here [2] --33rogers (talk) 00:31, 3 August 2009 (UTC)

Souns like Malware, fake AV crap. Try Malware Bytes, it's very effective. [3]. If it won't install read the 3rd post here: [4] RxS (talk) 00:52, 3 August 2009 (UTC)

I second using Malwarebytes Anti-Malware. I also like to use SuperAntiSpyware for the first or second scan (in my experience, Malwarebytes will go a bit faster). Washii (talk) 22:23, 5 August 2009 (UTC)

August 3

Use one MySQL view column to calculate another

What's the most elegant workaround to the restriction that no column in a MySQL view can refer to another column's output from the same row of the same view? NeonMerlin 01:18, 3 August 2009 (UTC)

As far as I know there is no such built in feature in MySQL. You could either have a program updating the dynamic column every so often, or implement that in the program that reads your database(when you read the db, you could just have a "virtual" column, in a variable and pretend like it came from the db) Mile92 (talk) 03:29, 3 August 2009 (UTC)

What I mean is that I have a view that contains the following two columns:

CREATE VIEW ... AS SELECT ..., least(max(copylimit.max_copies), maxdesiredcopies()) as desired_copies,
greatest(least(max(copylimit.max_copies), maxdesiredcopies()) - total_copies, 0) as lacking_copies
FROM ...

and I'd like to eliminate the redundant least(max(copylimit.max_copies), maxdesiredcopies()) if it's possible. NeonMerlin 18:21, 3 August 2009 (UTC)

Downloading ALL attached pictures of a forum?

I need help Downloading ALL attached pictures of a forum, the pictures are posted on the website under \attachments. I have tried using Extremepicturefinder and picture ripper, but both programs have trouble following the links and threads. All of the pics are posted under a single category but in different threads. The only way I've found is downthemall but thats a grueling process of going through hundreds of threads! anyone have any ideas? --Gary123 (talk) 02:57, 3 August 2009 (UTC)

You could use the UNIX tool called wget. It is made for this kind of stuff. Here's a tutorial on how to download a whole site and the files on it using wget: [5]. Just read the documentation for wget and you can eventually filter all that to output just images and just from one category. And yes, you can run wget on windows, just search it on google. Mile92 (talk) 03:32, 3 August 2009 (UTC)

I've used neodownloader for something similar and it's awesome. It's not a free program though, but *ahem* there are some cracked versions floating about the net which work a treat // 20:40, 3 August 2009 (UTC)

Resetting a LayoutManager in Java

Resolved

Hi, Java programmers! I'm writing a Swing program that has my subclasses of JComponents that resize themselves after the main frame is resized (i.e. fires ComponentEvent.COMPONENT_RESIZED). The hierarchy is JFrame >> JLayeredPane >> JPanel, and I'm using a GridBagLayout. When the event is fired, all my JComponents resize themselves correctly, but they stay in the same position in the JFrame and overlap each other (when they resize larger). The problem seems to be with the LayoutManager, which isn't laying out my JLayeredPanes to give them the new space they need. I have overridden getPreferredSize() to indicate the amount of space needed after resizing events. What else do I need to do to get the GridBagLayout to space out my JLayeredPanes? Thank you!--el Aprel (^facta-_facienda) 03:37, 3 August 2009 (UTC)

GridBagLayout disregards the preferred size of components (on most implementations, anyway). You need to specify the grid sizes using the GridBagConstraints object. Nimur (talk) 05:57, 3 August 2009 (UTC)

Thanks! I had a look at my code for creating the GridBagConstraints and fixed the problem, but now something else has cone up. When the user resizes the JFrame, the contents all resize themselves in response, but the LayoutManager doesn't re-lay them until the next resize (which can be as simple as clicking to drag the JFrame but not making it any bigger). I suspect that the LayoutManager is re-laying the contents before the resize each time. How can I make the LayoutManager not do its job until after my code resizes the contents? Thank you!--el Aprel (^facta-_facienda) 19:46, 3 August 2009 (UTC)

Oh, just found the doLayout() method in java.awt.Container and think that solved my second problem. I try to look at all my possiblilities and be really stumped before I post, but sometimes I just for get to try one more thing.... Thanks again, Nimur, for your response to this and my previous questions. I appreciate your help and support despite my Java ineptness.--el Aprel (^facta-_facienda) 20:07, 3 August 2009 (UTC)

Blogging

Hello. I have no experience in blogging, but want to start a blog. Is it possible to earn money through blogging, i.e. through advertisement in blogs? Does wordpress allow advertisement in personal blogs? How to find/contact an advertiser? And which is the best weblog hostingprovider? --GeneticRobot (talk) 08:22, 3 August 2009 (UTC)

It's possible, sure, but it's not probable. If you're really funny, or knowledgeable about your topic, or famous, or otherwise interesting, you may attract advertisers that are actually willing to pay decent money, but chances of this happening aren't too good. Merchandising is probably going to be a lot more profitable than advertising, but again, you need to have a loyal (and large) reader base for that to be an option. You should understand that first you need to make a name for yourself as someone worth reading, and then you can start think about making money -- and for that to really work, you need to do it in a way that doesn't alienate those people who're reading you. It's not an easy trick to pull off, and you should understand that the odds aren't on your side. Making a living -- or any kind of income, really -- from blogging is the exception, not the rule. Still, if you're a good writer, you have a shot.

As for your other questions, I believe the free blogs you can get at WordPress.com allow advertising, but I'm not sure. You find advertisers the way anyone finds them: you find someone you think might want to reach your audience, and you ask them if they would be interested. That, of course, can take a lot of time and effort, and you need to have a product -- that is to say, your blog -- that they think is interesting and popular enough to be worth their dime. This means you already need to have a lot of popularity before you start talking to anyone. Some people are in a position where advertisers approach them, but you really can't count on that. I couldn't tell you which provider is the best. It largely depends on what your requirements are.

I don't mean to rain on your parade here, but if you're thinking this is an easy way to get some money, you really need to reconsider. I'm not saying it's impossible, but chances are it's not going to happen, and it's certainly not going to happen without a great deal of work. -- Captain Disdain (talk) 08:45, 3 August 2009 (UTC)

(Sorry - experience and opinion alert!) - Google is purported to send you checks for ads put on your blog on Google's Blogger, but I've been blogging for years and have never once received a check, because, basically anyone who visits my blogs does so because they want to read my blog, not run around clicking on advertisements (and you have to agree to not clicking on them yourself). In my experience, it's not a good way to make cash, but you can try it. As said above, if you a good at writing about your topic, you will certainly attract a lot of readers, and companies may pay you to host their ads, but I doubt you'd get much cash (if you a good at writing about your topic, you'd be better off writing a book) - good luck, anyway, though. --KageTora - (영호 (影虎)) (talk) 11:43, 3 August 2009 (UTC)

There are a LOT of articles online about how hard it is to make money while blogging. Some people pull it off spectacularly well (and get book deals, etc.) but they are actually quite rare. If you want to blog, definitely give it a shot! But I wouldn't quit your day job unless substantial income is coming in. As for ad revenue, most people use Google Ads at least in the beginning, because anyone can sign up for those easily. --98.217.14.211 (talk) 14:36, 3 August 2009 (UTC)

What do the clock and viruses have in common?

I work in a school in Korea and recently there was an announcement that government institutions were hit by a virus (three times), and we were advised that the best way to combat the virus was to reset the time on the clocks on all the computers to an earlier time. We did this, and luckily none of our computers were affected, but I am wondering why this advice was issued. What does resetting the time on the clock have to do with the viruses? Oh, and it wasn't a system restore, it was a case changing the time. This confused me, and nobody could tell me the answer. --KageTora - (영호 (影虎)) (talk) 11:51, 3 August 2009 (UTC)

(My guess)I guess that the virus was set to activate after a certain time, so setting the clocks before then eg 1 year back or something.? would prevent the virus from activating. I'd assume this was a temporary measure whilst they worked out how to remove the virus. 83.100.250.79 (talk) 12:05, 3 August 2009 (UTC)

See logic bomb — Matt Eason ^{(Talk • Contribs)} 15:43, 3 August 2009 (UTC)

Formatting strings in Python

I'm programming in Python and this trying to format strings with a code taken directly from the Python tutorial found here. This is the code I tried: print 'We are the {0} who say "{1}!"'.format('knights', 'Ni') and this is the outcome:

Python 2.5.2 (r252:60911, Oct  5 2008, 19:24:49) 
[GCC 4.3.2] on linux2
Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.
>>> print 'We are the {0} who say "{1}!"'.format('knights', 'Ni')
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "<stdin>", line 1, in <module>
AttributeError: 'str' object has no attribute 'format'

Why doesn't it work? Is it because I'm using an old version of Python, because I tried a lot of examples from the Python tutorial and they all failed. --BiT (talk) 12:09, 3 August 2009 (UTC)

str.format is new in Python 2.6 (ref), and you're running 2.5.2. -- Finlay McWalter • Talk 12:17, 3 August 2009 (UTC)

Ah, the shame. I'm at my girlfriend's place using her computer and decided to finally start learning programming but apparently she hasn't upgraded Python to 3.1. Bad thing is that I don't have root access so there isn't much I can do about it until she gets back from work =) thank you --BiT (talk) 12:48, 3 August 2009 (UTC)

It's unlikely you need Python3, and I wouldn't recommend updating, as too many tutorials will contain code that won't work (that'll be easy to fix, but that will confuse you as a beginner). You can do that same print with print 'We are the %s who say "%s!"' % ('knights', 'Ni') -- Finlay McWalter • Talk 13:09, 3 August 2009 (UTC)

Yes I was just about to ask whether using "%" to format strings is exactly the same as using {}? Is one better than the other? Also, is it bad upgrading to the third Python version? I've heard about some changes like the print command being a function in Python 3.. but that's about all I know. Should I maybe upgrade to 2.6? --BiT (talk) 14:24, 3 August 2009 (UTC)

I'd stick with % to begin with, again because most code you'll see and most tutorials will be written that way. Incidentally, % has a nice feature where you can print named elements from a dictionary, and locals() is a dictionary containing the list of local variables. So you can print local variables like this:

      name="john"
      age=23
      # then, some time later...
      print "my name is %(name)s and I am %(age)d years old" % locals()

which can be handy when you've got a large print with many fields, and you want to move things around without having to reorder the data tuple. -- Finlay McWalter • Talk 16:31, 3 August 2009 (UTC)

I see (I compiled Python3.1 so now I can use both the old version and new). Nevertheless the official Python page does say "Since str.format() is quite new, a lot of Python code still uses the % operator. However, because this old style of formatting will eventually removed from the language str.format() should generally be used.". Shouldn't I rather use str.format() then? --BiT (talk) 15:36, 4 August 2009 (UTC)

Another problem... I tried compiling Python 3.1 and then downloaded Python 3 using apt-get but it worked on neither one! What's going on here? This is the result for Python 3.1:

 Python 3.1 (r31:73572, Aug  3 2009, 20:24:49) 
 [GCC 4.3.2] on linux2
 Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.
 >>> print 'We are the {0} who say "{1}!"'.format('knights', 'Ni')
   File "<stdin>", line 1
     print 'We are the {0} who say "{1}!"'.format('knights', 'Ni')
                                         ^
 SyntaxError: invalid syntax

And this is the result for Python 3.0:

 Python 3.0rc1+ (py3k, Oct 28 2008, 09:23:29) 
 [GCC 4.3.2] on linux2
 Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.
 >>> print 'We are the {0} who say "{1}!"'.format('knights', 'Ni')
   File "<stdin>", line 1
     print 'We are the {0} who say "{1}!"'.format('knights', 'Ni')
                                         ^
 SyntaxError: invalid syntax

It's the same Monty Python reference as I used first time (boy there sure are a lot of them in Python tutorials), taken directly from the official documentation- on a Python version I downloaded from the official Python webpage, and compiled from source and on another version downloaded directly from the Ubuntu repositories but it still doesn't work! What is going on?! --BiT (talk) 20:18, 4 August 2009 (UTC)

Ok, phew =) I managed to solve my own problem. By using dir(str) I saw that format was included in the list of operations for strings.. so I tried formatting my strings without the print function and it worked!

"Thank you {0} for helping me!".format('Finlay')

=)

Resolved

Audio Streaming

Is it possible to stream voice quality audio files over a LAN with a delay of less than a second? Is it possbile on a thin client system like citrix?--202.164.141.164 (talk) 12:40, 3 August 2009 (UTC)

On a good LAN, with "residential"-style traffic, you can expect network latency lower than 1 millisecond on average. However, audio acquisition, (from the microphone to the sound-card to the operating system) is always the bottleneck that I find - with latencies ranging anywhere from <1ms to 500 ms (totally unsuitable for "real-time" processing). Also, if you intend to encode, downsample, or otherwise operate on the signal, you can expect a delay equal to the computation time. Your best bet is to invest in a high quality sound-card which specifically advertises low-latency on linux. Nimur (talk) 16:19, 3 August 2009 (UTC)NOOO

"Volume Header needs minor repair"—2006 Intel MacBook 10.4.11

This is about my flash drive that seems to have some issues. Whenever I use Disk Utility to repair it, it says it repaired it successfully but it finds the error again when I "repair" the flash drive with the disk utility again. Could someone tell me what is wrong with my flash drive? Thanks. Kushal (talk) 13:23, 3 August 2009 (UTC)

Here's the log of a typical event.

Disk Utility log snippet

|headerstyle=background:#ccccff}}

**********
Aug  3 08:12:14: Disk Utility started.

Verify and Repair disk “Mac”
Checking HFS Plus volume.
Checking Extents Overflow file.
Checking Catalog file.
Checking Catalog hierarchy.
Checking volume bitmap.
Checking volume information.
Volume Header needs minor repair�
Repairing volume.
Rechecking volume.
Checking HFS Plus volume.
Checking Extents Overflow file.
Checking Catalog file.
Checking Catalog hierarchy.
Checking volume bitmap.
Checking volume information.
The volume Mac was repaired successfully.
Mounting Disk

1 HFS volume checked
Repair attempted on 1 volume
	1 HFS volume repaired


Eject of “Generic USB Flash Drive Media” succeeded

**********
Aug  3 08:18:58: Disk Utility started.

Verify and Repair disk “Mac”
Checking HFS Plus volume.
Checking Extents Overflow file.
Checking Catalog file.
Checking Catalog hierarchy.
Checking volume bitmap.
Checking volume information.
Volume Header needs minor repair�
Repairing volume.
Rechecking volume.
Checking HFS Plus volume.
Checking Extents Overflow file.
Checking Catalog file.
Checking Catalog hierarchy.
Checking volume bitmap.
Checking volume information.
The volume Mac was repaired successfully.
Mounting Disk

1 HFS volume checked
Repair attempted on 1 volume
	1 HFS volume repaired


Verifying volume “Mac”
The disk “Mac” could not be unmounted


Verify volume failed with error Could not unmount disk




Verify and Repair disk “Mac”
Checking HFS Plus volume.
Checking Extents Overflow file.
Checking Catalog file.
Checking Catalog hierarchy.
Checking volume bitmap.
Checking volume information.
Volume Header needs minor repair�
Repairing volume.
Rechecking volume.
Checking HFS Plus volume.
Checking Extents Overflow file.
Checking Catalog file.
Checking Catalog hierarchy.
Checking volume bitmap.
Checking volume information.
The volume Mac was repaired successfully.
Mounting Disk

1 HFS volume checked
Repair attempted on 1 volume
	1 HFS volume repaired



**********
Aug  3 08:19:32: Disk Utility started.

Verify and Repair disk “Mac”
Checking HFS Plus volume.
Checking Extents Overflow file.
Checking Catalog file.
Checking Catalog hierarchy.
Checking volume bitmap.
Checking volume information.
Volume Header needs minor repair�
Repairing volume.
Rechecking volume.
Checking HFS Plus volume.
Checking Extents Overflow file.
Checking Catalog file.
Checking Catalog hierarchy.
Checking volume bitmap.
Checking volume information.
The volume Mac was repaired successfully.
Mounting Disk

1 HFS volume checked
Repair attempted on 1 volume
	1 HFS volume repaired

Kushal (talk) 13:23, 3 August 2009 (UTC)

When you say it "finds the error again", do you mean if you run Disk Utility again right away, or the next time you insert the flash drive? If the first one, then it sounds like Disk Utility isn't actually fixing the error, and if the second one, it means the disk probably isn't being removed/unmounted safely. Another alternative is that the drive is starting to physically fail, but I'd only consider this option if you've had the flash drive for a year or more, or if all else fails.

If Disk Utility isn't fixing the error, you can use fsck. First, open a command prompt, either with Terminal or single-user mode. Typing "diskutil list" should show you the device name for your flash drive if it's currently mounted. Then type "fsck -f flash drive device name". If it finds errors, it'll ask if you want to repair them. It should give you more information than Disk Utility, so if it still fails, hopefully you'll have more information for us. Indeterminate (talk) 20:18, 3 August 2009 (UTC)

Thank you for your reply, Indeterminate. I did what you asked me to do and here's the result for fdisk:

fsck -f /dev/disk1

• • /dev/rdisk1 (NO WRITE)

BAD SUPER BLOCK: MAGIC NUMBER WRONG

LOOK FOR ALTERNATE SUPERBLOCKS? no

Is that giving any indication to what we need? When I said it finds errors again, I mean both. It does it if I run disk utility right away and when I eject and reinsert the drive (I usually eject drives safely). The flash drive is almost two years old but I am not sure if it is physically failing yet. Anything else that I could do to give you more information? Thanks, Kushal (talk) 22:39, 3 August 2009 (UTC)

It is quiet in here. Please help? :( Kushal (talk) 23:19, 4 August 2009 (UTC)

It looks like you've just got some corruption, and it's tricky for the automated tools to handle. Do you have an option to say "yes" to looking for alternate superblocks? If so, I'd try that. Hopefully it'll tell you that you have a backup superblock at (for example) address 32. Then you can run fsck -b 32 -f /dev/disk1, which will tell it to restore from the alternate superblock 32. If you're very lucky, it'll automatically fix it for you. Another way to try finding the backup superblocks on the drive is to enter newfs -N /dev/disk1, but you'll still need to do fsck -b to tell it to use the backup. If you don't care about the data currently on the drive (or if there aren't any backup superblocks), reformatting the drive might also fix the problem. Indeterminate (talk) 01:58, 5 August 2009 (UTC)

Actually, you might also want to see this discussion. It looks like this could be an indication of hardware failure. No guarantees, though. Indeterminate (talk) 02:03, 5 August 2009 (UTC)

Is the "this discussion" supposed to link to the same about page? Just wondering. Thanks. Kushal (talk) 14:04, 6 August 2009 (UTC)

Thanks for your reply. I found a bunch of backups with newfs but none of them seem to work. Is it possible to salvage this flash drive? I can still use it to carry data around (although it acts strangely sometimes) but my priority right now is getting a Mac installer on it so that if (or should I say when) the hard disk on my computer crashes, I can replace it with the 320 GB WD I bought recently. (No, the DVD drive just spits the disc out and I don't trust slot-loading on anything unless its a Wii anymore... long story.)

What should be the next step to take? Thanks. Kushal (talk) 13:06, 6 August 2009 (UTC)

Terminal log snippet

Last login: Thu Aug  6 07:03:53 on console
Welcome to Darwin!
Spiderman:~ kush$ diskutil list
/dev/disk0
   #:                   type name               size      identifier
   0:  GUID_partition_scheme                    *55.9 GB  disk0
   1:                    EFI                    200.0 MB  disk0s1
   2:              Apple_HFS Macintosh HD       55.6 GB   disk0s2
/dev/disk1
   #:                   type name               size      identifier
   0:  GUID_partition_scheme                    *3.9 GB   disk1
   1:                    EFI                    200.0 MB  disk1s1
   2:              Apple_HFS Boot               3.6 GB    disk1s2
Spiderman:~ kush$ fsck -f /dev/disk1
** /dev/rdisk1 (NO WRITE)
BAD SUPER BLOCK: MAGIC NUMBER WRONG

LOOK FOR ALTERNATE SUPERBLOCKS? no

Spiderman:~ kush$ fsck-b 32 -f /dev/disk1
-bash: fsck-b: command not found
Spiderman:~ kush$ fsck -b 32 -f /dev/disk1
Alternate super block location: 32
** /dev/rdisk1 (NO WRITE)
BAD SUPER BLOCK: MAGIC NUMBER WRONG
Spiderman:~ kush$ newfs -N /dev/disk1
Warning: Block size and bytes per inode restrict cylinders per group to 4.
Warning: 2688 sector(s) in last cylinder unallocated
disk1:  8189952 sectors in 1004 cylinders of 255 tracks, 32 sectors
        3999.0MB in 251 cyl groups (4 c/g, 15.94MB/g, 3968 i/g)
super-block backups (for fsck -b #) at:
 32, 32704, 65376, 98048, 130720, 163392, 196064, 228736,
 261408, 294080, 326752, 359424, 392096, 424768, 457440, 490112,
 522784, 555456, 588128, 620800, 653472, 686144, 718816, 751488,
 784160, 816832, 849504, 882176, 914848, 947520, 980192, 1012864,
 1045536, 1078208, 1110880, 1143552, 1176224, 1208896, 1241568, 1274240,
 1306912, 1339584, 1372256, 1404928, 1437600, 1470272, 1502944, 1535616,
 1568288, 1600960, 1633632, 1666304, 1698976, 1731648, 1764320, 1796992,
 1829664, 1862336, 1895008, 1927680, 1960352, 1993024, 2025696, 2058368,
 2091040, 2123712, 2156384, 2189056, 2221728, 2254400, 2287072, 2319744,
 2352416, 2385088, 2417760, 2450432, 2483104, 2515776, 2548448, 2581120,
 2613792, 2646464, 2679136, 2711808, 2744480, 2777152, 2809824, 2842496,
 2875168, 2907840, 2940512, 2973184, 3005856, 3038528, 3071200, 3103872,
 3136544, 3169216, 3201888, 3234560, 3267232, 3299904, 3332576, 3365248,
 3397920, 3430592, 3463264, 3495936, 3528608, 3561280, 3593952, 3626624,
 3659296, 3691968, 3724640, 3757312, 3789984, 3822656, 3855328, 3888000,
 3920672, 3953344, 3986016, 4018688, 4051360, 4084032, 4116704, 4149376,
 4182048, 4214720, 4247392, 4280064, 4312736, 4345408, 4378080, 4410752,
 4443424, 4476096, 4508768, 4541440, 4574112, 4606784, 4639456, 4672128,
 4704800, 4737472, 4770144, 4802816, 4835488, 4868160, 4900832, 4933504,
 4966176, 4998848, 5031520, 5064192, 5096864, 5129536, 5162208, 5194880,
 5227552, 5260224, 5292896, 5325568, 5358240, 5390912, 5423584, 5456256,
 5488928, 5521600, 5554272, 5586944, 5619616, 5652288, 5684960, 5717632,
 5750304, 5782976, 5815648, 5848320, 5880992, 5913664, 5946336, 5979008,
 6011680, 6044352, 6077024, 6109696, 6142368, 6175040, 6207712, 6240384,
 6273056, 6305728, 6338400, 6371072, 6403744, 6436416, 6469088, 6501760,
 6534432, 6567104, 6599776, 6632448, 6665120, 6697792, 6730464, 6763136,
 6795808, 6828480, 6861152, 6893824, 6926496, 6959168, 6991840, 7024512,
 7057184, 7089856, 7122528, 7155200, 7187872, 7220544, 7253216, 7285888,
 7318560, 7351232, 7383904, 7416576, 7449248, 7481920, 7514592, 7547264,
 7579936, 7612608, 7645280, 7677952, 7710624, 7743296, 7775968, 7808640,
 7841312, 7873984, 7906656, 7939328, 7972000, 8004672, 8037344, 8070016,
 8102688, 8135360, 8168032,
Spiderman:~ kush$ fsck -b 32704 -f /dev/disk1
Alternate super block location: 32704
** /dev/rdisk1 (NO WRITE)
BAD SUPER BLOCK: MAGIC NUMBER WRONG
Spiderman:~ kush$ fsck -b 65376 -f /dev/disk1
Alternate super block location: 65376
** /dev/rdisk1 (NO WRITE)
BAD SUPER BLOCK: MAGIC NUMBER WRONG
Spiderman:~ kush$ fsck -b 8135360 -f /dev/disk1
Alternate super block location: 8135360
** /dev/rdisk1 (NO WRITE)
BAD SUPER BLOCK: MAGIC NUMBER WRONG
Spiderman:~ kush$

Are the snippets from the terminal of any use? Kushal (talk) 15:34, 8 August 2009 (UTC)

Flash player is sometimes slow

Everything that runs flash such as Browser's Flash player , vlc player's flash video player etc runs (at times) slow for no apparent reason. Only cure is restarting the machine. Once it runs at normal speed, no problems until I shut down the machine. It does not matter even if I restart the browser or vlc player. I use flash player 10 on windows and the machine its self is fast enough- well over 2GHZ and hundreds of RAM. Please say how to fix flash. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 131.220.46.25 (talk) 13:28, 3 August 2009 (UTC)

What browser are you using? Also does the flash player stutter, or play like a slideshow missing frames.?83.100.250.79 (talk) 13:58, 3 August 2009 (UTC)

When it is slow, it is slow on both browsers ( IE and firefox). In both browsers, it would play like a slideshow when it is slow, after the movie is over (sound is track is finished and youtube shows play again icon) it would play the remaining video at slightly higher speed than slideshow. This lag between audio and video exists only in big ( greater than 10 minutes and better quality videos). —Preceding unsigned comment added by 131.220.46.25 (talk) 08:09, 4 August 2009 (UTC)

Have you tried using something other that vlc for flash video to see if the problem is still there?83.100.250.79 (talk) 18:10, 4 August 2009 (UTC)

Also are flash video files slow when played as outside the browser.83.100.250.79 (talk) 19:00, 4 August 2009 (UTC)

Cpmputer is freezing after 6 to 9 hours of use and dvd drive problem

Recently, I am having bitter experience with my newly upgraded hardware. If I run my system for 6 to 9 hours it gets freeze. The symptoms are: mouse pointer stops for a while then I can move it and again it stops, music gets crashed if I play. Same thing happens with keyboard. My usb modem also gets disconnected at that time. I tried to run my system with case cover open and blow a fan into inside (My pc case contains 4 cooler fan inside though). But nothing happens. It gets frozen (until I press power button to shut it off). I am using vista 64 bit ultimate. My mobo is 750i SLI Nvidia Geforce, Graphics card ATI Radeon 4890 1 GB (GPU Clock 850 MHz). All are 64 bit supported.

Another problem I have just faced is my dvd rom icon suddenly disappear from "my computer" and system gets frozen. The above mentioned symptoms were also happening. It happened when I inserted a dvd.

I checked system with diagnostics tools (prime95) and no errors. My all drivers are up to date.

Is overheating causing all these problems? Should I reduce my GPU Clock from 850MHz to 750MHz (ATI Radeon 4870 1 GB) or 625 MHz (ATI Radeon 4850 1 GB)?--119.30.36.54 (talk) 17:32, 3 August 2009 (UTC)

Download and run PC Wizard, which has a temperature sensor button. Here are my temperatures: CPU=35C, mainboard=21C, GPU=47C, Hard Disk=30C. Also check that all your voltages are correct. If the figures you get are close to these, then you do NOT have a heating problem. If your GPU is for example 70C, then it IS overheating and it needs to be cooled OR replaced. Now if you do NOT have a heating problem, here is where things get difficult. First - go into your BIOS and select 'fail safe defaults'. Then, if you can, try different components one at a time. Disable your sound card and see if that makes a difference. Disable your network card. Try a different graphics card. Try a different power supply. Etc. If you're still not coming right, please don't post another plea here. Try techsupportforum.com, or go and support your local computer shop. Yes, sometimes you have to pay to fix problems, such as when you pay a mechanic to fix your car. Sandman30s (talk) 20:10, 3 August 2009 (UTC)

• Well, Ive downloaded its exe file and run it. It shows my CPU=27C, Mainboard=40C. But I could not find GPU and Harddisk temprature option. where are they? Thank you--119.30.36.33 (talk) 22:08, 3 August 2009 (UTC)

They should be right there, below CPU. Maybe your motherboard doesn't have sensors for these other things, maybe the sensors are broken, etc. Mainboard=40C could signify that something else, like the GPU or HD is causing it to overheat. I'm not sure if your ATI card comes with a temperature sensor - I'm curious to know how hot it is. Overheating can cause things to freeze... but funny that your dvd icon disappears?! Weird. You can also try backing up your data, formatting your drive and reinstalling windows... but I suspect either a hardware or heating problem. In my experience when I've had problems like these, it was the hardware that was at fault. We should stop blaming poor windows for everything :) Sandman30s (talk) 13:40, 4 August 2009 (UTC)

Mainboard hotter than CPU sounds odd - I assume that the motherboard contains the chips that cover serial devices and sound - so it might be that. Have you checked all the fans, and the heatsinking on the motherboard. Also what was the upgrade.83.100.250.79 (talk) 14:19, 4 August 2009 (UTC)

Are you overclocking - if so stop - that could cause problems even if it is not overheating. Also is it a new problem - have you added any new devices - sounds similar to problems caused by having an underspecified power supply (amongst a 1000 other things). It's good that it runs for over 6hrs before problems - suggests the computer is not borked. 83.100.250.79 (talk) 23:23, 3 August 2009 (UTC)

Actually all those problems (DVD, mouse, keyboard) are serial devices - you might want to focus on that area eg troubleshoot drivers etc.83.100.250.79 (talk) 00:07, 4 August 2009 (UTC)

• I have reinstalled windows again from vista to XP. But same thing is happening. I have checked all the fans. They are running properly. I am not overclocking but thinking to under clocking. My PSU is Thermaltake 750W. Is there any way to cooling down mainboard? Should I reduce GPU Clock of Graphics Card to avoid overheating?
  

Update: I have Just checked Graphics card temperature with CPUID Hardware Monitor software. It showed GPU Core temperature is 61*C (Value), 61*C (Min) 62*C (Max) and HDD temperature is 29*C (Value, Min and Max). One more thing I want to know is how in BIOS "fail safe defaults" option works. If I choose it will all drivers work properly?Thank you. --119.30.36.42 (talk) 17:48, 4 August 2009 (UTC)

61C is pretty hot if you haven't just run a game or something graphically intense. If you choose fail safe defaults everything will still work - the advantage of choosing this will be if you overclocked by mistake, everything will default back to how the manufacturer set it... most machines run off these defaults so unless you had a reason to change anything, you should be safe. I would take that graphics card back and get it tested or swapped - 61C is too hot for just running windows. Sandman30s (talk) 19:05, 4 August 2009 (UTC)

Actually, some people argue that 60C is OK and over 70C is too hot for ordinary windows operations. It's up to you. If those fail safe defaults don't work, then get the graphics card tested or swapped if you can. Sandman30s (talk) 19:11, 4 August 2009 (UTC)

YES [6] these got 58C on idle for a 4890 - I don't think it's the graphics card. It sounds like some serial chip is going on the blink to me.83.100.250.79 (talk) 19:47, 4 August 2009 (UTC)

Potentially you should close the case, and let the convection design work properly. Power supply sounds big enough, there shouldn't be a need to underclock. As mentioned above the machine should detect overheating and take action, (eg shut down or throttling).

Question what are the temperatures when it starts to go wrong.?83.100.250.79 (talk) 19:44, 4 August 2009 (UTC)

also does this apply to you? [7]<quote>So for you buyers of a 4890 card out there - be aware that your regular run of the mill ATX midtower case may be overwhelmed by the amount of heat this card puts out</quote> —Preceding unsigned comment added by 83.100.250.79 (talk) 19:50, 4 August 2009 (UTC)

eBooks

Can all PCs display all eBooks? • S • C • A • R • C • E • 18:41, 3 August 2009 (UTC)

No. A lot of eBooks are distributed only for hardware readers (chiefly Amazon's Kindle and Sony's reader) can only be read on those devices, not on PCs. -- Finlay McWalter • Talk 18:46, 3 August 2009 (UTC)

Is there any free way to split PDF pages down the middle?

I have a scanned PDF book with 2 pages on each page. Is there any way I could split the whole doc down the middle so there is 1 book page per page. --Gary123 (talk) 21:37, 3 August 2009 (UTC)

The Gimp will import PDFs and then you can manipulate them as you want.--80.176.225.249 (talk) 21:56, 3 August 2009 (UTC)

...which is exceptionally cumbersome for more than just one page. --98.217.14.211 (talk) 22:29, 3 August 2009 (UTC)

It's not easy to do, unfortunately. I've long struggled with the same problem. You can chain a number of free command-line programs (e.g. ImageMagick, pdftk) to do the actions for you, but it is slow and takes a LOT of fiddling. I had some success with using OS X's Automator to effectively just double the pages (so that the output PDF was 1,1, 2,2), and then use Acrobat (not free) to crop "even only" and "odd only", but this is also cumbersome. So far I don't think there's an easy solution to this even though it is a common-enough activity if you scan books or articles on a regular basis (which a lot of people do).

And just to reiterate, so that others are sure what you mean: if you scan a book on a flatbed scanner, you get one page of PDF that has two pages of book on it. The ideal program would create a new PDF where the left and right pages were separated. Effecting this manually is extraordinarily time consuming. --98.217.14.211 (talk) 22:29, 3 August 2009 (UTC)

I know it is not what the OP asked, but would you normally want such software to take the original pdf file, and create two consecutive pages from each source page;thereby recreating the original book in page-by-page order? I would be surprised if software for that task doesn't exist. Astronaut (talk) 04:14, 4 August 2009 (UTC)

That's exactly what we are talking about. And yeah, it seems like something that would be easily handled, but alas, it is not. (Why not? Because there is actually precious little software that can actually read—not just make—PDFs. PDF is a tough format and there are only a couple open codebases around that do anything with it, and the number of programs that give you content-level control over them is pretty small. Programs like ImageMagick can let you render individual pages into raster images, while programs like pdftk let you manipulate the internal structure of PDFs, when what we need here is something that easily lets you do both at the same time.) --98.217.14.211 (talk) 15:03, 4 August 2009 (UTC)

Could it be ... because PDF is an antiquated, proprietary format held over from the days when every brand of printer needed its own programming language, and foisted upon an unsuspecting public who doesn't understand the technical details, via an aggressive marketing campaign, unethical business collusion, and vendor lock-in? Nimur (talk) 16:20, 4 August 2009 (UTC)

The PDF is the best cross-platform document format I know of. It offers several advantages over other formats such as DJVU. These include lossless JPEG2000 compression and vector objects. Bookmarks make it ideal for books. I have tried distributing read-me files in RTF, but Linux systems render them inaccurately. So, I now distribute all read-me files as PDFs. They not only display consistently across platforms, but print consistently from printer to printer. A PDF is a faithful print preview. Publishers also like them because they are hard to edit. So, they are able to protect their intellectual property more easily. The success of the PDF has little to do with the factors you just mentioned.--WinRAR anodeeven (talk) 04:57, 5 August 2009 (UTC)

Maybe. But if programmers would take the existing PDF reading code out there, like Xpdf and turn it into a free, easy-to-use API, then it would be a lot easier for others to exploit. As it is, most of the people who have bothered to use the xPDF code have either turned it into vanilla readers or tools that are meant to compete with Acrobat and sell for hundreds of dollars. So we're left in the cold. The code is out there... but nobody has bothered to make it very easy to use. Port xpdf to something easier to script with than Java and we'll be in business, I'll write the dang app myself. Baaaaddd programmers. --98.217.14.211 (talk) 18:16, 4 August 2009 (UTC)

I agree, 98. I mucked with some PDFTK code a while back, and it's no fun at all. I don't know what the prospects are for making this tenable, but I'm hoping that the slew of new open document formats will simply replace PDF. Nimur (talk) 04:45, 5 August 2009 (UTC)

The article on Portable Document Format documents PDF as an open standard. Is the article wrong, or are you spreading FUD, or am I presenting a false dichotomy in suggesting those are the choices? The reference desk is not a soap box, even if you use <small> to advance your views. 62.78.198.48 (talk) 18:55, 4 August 2009 (UTC)

Yes and what exactly is the "unethical business collusion" refering to. Yours sincerely, adobe lawyer.83.100.250.79 (talk) 19:39, 4 August 2009 (UTC)

Maybe I was on the edge of soap-boxing, but I am not the first to use these terms to describe the unethical (and in some cases, illegal) marketing of PDF and other Adobe technologies practices:

• Adobe-FedEx Kinko's: Convenience and collaboration, or collusion and security breach?.
• "Adobe may have its own legal problems.....swearing out a false statement that caused incarceration and prosecution."
• "How long before Adobe turns it legal team on XPDF (violating a possible tradmark on the letters P, D, & F)?"

So, it may have been soap-boxing, or it may not have been - that is for you to decide - but these are hardly fringe ideas. You can easily investigate these topics for yourself and form your own opinion. Perhaps it's FUD, or maybe I'm just a concerned computer-user. Nimur (talk) 04:38, 5 August 2009 (UTC)

It's worth remembering that although PDF is an open standard now, it wasn't for a long time (only a defacto but propriety standard). Also Adobe owns patents relating to PDF but has agreed not to sue provided the application complies with the PDF spec. I'm not sure but I believe Adobe's conditions were stricter or perhaps just unclearer in the past before they agreed to release PDF as an international standard. I don't know the specific reasons why Adobe decided to make PDF into an open standard however I seem to recall that when I looked in to it, Microsoft had made clear their intentions to develop XPS and possibly even to make it into an open standard before Adobe annouced they intended to submit PDF to the ISO which has always made me wonder Microsoft's plans were part of the reason Adobe decided to make PDF an international standard. Finally during the development of Office 2007, Microsoft had planned to make "Save to PDF" available in Office by default but Adobe threated to sue them [8]. Microsoft eventually agreed to make it an optinional download, although I believe they've now reached another agreement so it will be available by default in 2010 and I think is installed with one of the service packs. I was never able to ascertain precisely what Adobe's threat was, whether it was alleged Microsoft's implementation didn't comply with the standard (seems unlikely since this was never mentioned) or perhaps more likely Adobe was arguing MS was abusing their monopoly position again. (I believe Adobe had already started the standarisation process by that time and agreed not to sue anyone developing a spec complaint implementation). Nil Einne (talk) 14:14, 7 August 2009 (UTC)

It would still be cumbersome because you would have have to interlineate after, but if you have adobe professional you can just take the document and duplicate it. Then take the first document entire and crop all the pages from the left edge in one function so that one side of the document i.e. one page width is cropped away. Then take the duplicated document and crop all the pages from the right edge edge in the same manner. Then you'd have two documents, one with all the odd pages and one with all the even pages. Then you'd have to interlineate back to order. The first part would take moments but the second would be a pain.--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 05:10, 5 August 2009 (UTC)

August 4

web host

If I created a website with a database and all, where would I find a server to host it? 202.124.189.196 (talk) 11:11, 4 August 2009 (UTC)

Just Google web host and you'll find literally thousands of companies that will do this. You just need to know what features/space/traffic you'll need (or a rough idea) and how much you're willing to pay per month. ZX81 ^talk 13:39, 4 August 2009 (UTC)

You also need to ensure that the web host supports whatever script you used for your website and the database platform you used. In general, the extremely cheap (even free) ones will not support anything useful. Like everything else in the world, you get what you pay for. -- kainaw™ 15:46, 4 August 2009 (UTC)

Though the $9/mo. range (e.g. dreamhost, bluehost, etc.) should support any of the really common open source ones (like MySQL or postgresql). If you need something proprietary (like MS SQL Server) that will probably cost more. --98.217.14.211 (talk) 17:46, 4 August 2009 (UTC)

There seems to be many free web hosts out there. I found that many offer PHP and MySQL support, but very few indeed offer .NET and MS SQL Server. If you are willing to pay, then the situation is much easier. Astronaut (talk) 10:09, 6 August 2009 (UTC)

Passing all ascii characters as a parameter

Hi. I'm debugging a program and I've found that it passes the whole ASCII character string, that is "ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZabcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz0123456789+/-" as a parameter to some function. Why would a program do that? --Georgeascii (talk) 14:47, 4 August 2009 (UTC)

We'd have to see the program to know, really. Maybe it's a lookup table to translate from ASCII to some other format (such as the ROM character table of a digital character display). While you can (and often should) to this with character arithmetic (if x>='A' && x <='Z', etc.) some high-performance uses may benefit from a lookup table (which, for example is often how ctype.h macros are implemented). -- Finlay McWalter • Talk 14:52, 4 August 2009 (UTC)

Also, changing a table like "ABC...123..." when you want to modify the (say) valid characters for a name is a lot easier than changing logic like

if (x>='A' &&... || x>='0' &&...)

195.35.160.133 (talk) 15:14, 4 August 2009 (UTC) Martin.

Do you have the source code for that function? Maybe the best way to find out is to read the source code. (Better yet, if there's documentation for that function...). As you have phrased the question, there is no way we can possibly know what this function does - it could disregard the input, for all we know. It seems likely that it is setting up a list of "acceptable" characters for either display or input, and the programmer chose to manually configure which characters were active with this string. Nimur (talk) 15:37, 4 August 2009 (UTC)

Doing a Google Code Search for that string turns up many results, such as this function:

char *
basic_strip (char *s)
     /* Returns a pointer to the first character in s that is not
        a special character, or NULL if no such character exists.
        Cf, man strpbrk(). */
{
  return ((char*) strpbrk
          (s,
           "ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZabcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz0123456789"));
}

--Sean 17:54, 4 August 2009 (UTC)

In standard C and C++ the values of the members of the character set are implementation-defined, and not necessarily corresponding to ASCII, provided that all of the above-mentioned characters (and a few more) have distinct, positive values, and the values of the characters 0-9 are consecutive and ascending. Code such as

void f(char c) {
  if(c > 'a' && c < 'z') 
    ; /* ... */
  
  /* or even */
  c -= 'a'; 
}

is therefore not strictly portable. For this reason it may be desirable to maintain such a string literal to perform some kind of character aritmetic with predictable results across platforms. But note that the following is guaranteed to be correct, given a character from '0' to '9' as input:

int char2int(char c) {
  return c - '0';  
}

Regards, decltype (talk) 22:34, 4 August 2009 (UTC)

Yes, what I find odd is the "+-/" at the end of the string - out of curiosity - does this match anything anyone recognises as say 'valid names for variables or files' or something else in a given language?83.100.250.79 (talk) 22:54, 4 August 2009 (UTC)

Well, without the "-", it would be the normal characters used in Base64. But with that, iono. --131.179.160.144 (talk) 02:02, 5 August 2009 (UTC)

Thanks must include negative numbers then - I had no idea there was a standard for base64 input. Cheers83.100.250.79 (talk) 12:30, 5 August 2009 (UTC)

I can think of one place I've done exactly this before - setting up a font in some kind of non-standard character rendering situation (eg drawing text using 3D a object for each letter in a game or something). You might "register" the font with a function by passing the graphics for the font in one parameter - and the list of characters contained in that font in the other. If the program that's using it is (say) displaying someone's name and their current score - then letters, numbers, plus and minus would be the only characters you'd need. But, frankly, this is an impossible question...it could be anything. SteveBaker (talk) 01:01, 6 August 2009 (UTC)

Here is a link to MSDN's online help page for strpbrk, and the associated wcspbrk and _mbspbrk, functions. Astronaut (talk) 10:05, 6 August 2009 (UTC)

Shocking stuff...

My Dell XPS laptop was purchased by myself this time last year and the warranty has just recently ran out(coincidence or not). It now is making electric zap noises, though the screen does not flicker nor any processes stop. However im rather frightened it will set on fire. I removed and then placed the battery back in but tis had no affect. Any help would be appreciated as everytime it does the electric zap, i am rather worried! Thanks 15:12, 4 August 2009 (UTC)

Faulty electronics can be dangerous - if you really have an arcing power supply, you should stop using the system and have it checked out by a repair shop. Even after warranty, you can still arrange for repair (for a fee). At the very least, you might prevent further catastrophic damage to the system. Dell offers out-of-warranty service starting at $49. Nimur (talk) 15:40, 4 August 2009 (UTC)

Yes, best advice is to take it in for repair. One thing to note before you rush off to pay $49 to dell, is that some credit cards (American Express I believe is one), offer an extension of original manufacturers warranty for free. Might want to check on that before paying cash. --Zarfol (talk) 16:57, 4 August 2009 (UTC)

(after edit conflict) If its the manufacturer's fault, they might service it free of cost to you even after your warranty is over. If I were you, I would investigate further on the issue. Talk to the place who sold you the computer and also look for further information on Dell's website. If it is not an isolated incident, Dell may call it back. I would say that backing up your most valuable data (only if possible) and talking to your manufacturer are the first two things to do. Kushal (talk) 17:01, 4 August 2009 (UTC)

Be sure that the sound isn't just coming from the speakers. Perhaps something is causing a burst of static? APL (talk) 17:26, 11 August 2009 (UTC)

WoW addons -- can a malicious one cause your account to get "hacked"?

I'm curious about how the World of Warcraft addons work ...

I believe the official line from Blizzard is that it is impossible for an addon to cause your account to get hacked, simply because the addons are not executable files; they're all .lua scripts (I believe) that just modify the interface of the game. However, a guildie whose account was hacked recently claimed that a GM told him that an addon might've been responsible for it. This struck me as being flat-out wrong based on my previous assumption on how they work. So, for you more Computer Sciencey-minded folks out there: is it possible that a World of Warcraft addon could cause one's account to be hacked (that is, compromised by, say, logging the username and password used to login and sending that data to someone)? Again, pretty sure the answer is no, but I'd like to get validation from someone who understands how these things work from a technical side.

Thanks. Dgcopter (talk) 21:28, 4 August 2009 (UTC)

No, lua scripts are only executed when the user interface is started (that is when the world is loaded). However, a malicious "script updater" that executes outside World of Warcraft might be responsible. As an addon developper myself, I can assure you that lua scripts have no access to that sort of data. -- Luk ^talk 22:10, 4 August 2009 (UTC)

That is, unless there was a buffer overflow exploit or similar in the WoW application that allowed a malicious addon to execute arbitrary code. A similar exploit in Warcraft III was recently patched.^[9] decltype (talk) 22:43, 4 August 2009 (UTC)

August 5

Adobe Flash

I use Firefox, and whenever I go to a page with Flash material (Youtube, Facebook, [10], etc.), that material does not show up, instead displaying a Lego-like brick with "Click here to download plugin." A toolbar also appears at the top saying "Additional plugins are required to display all the media on this page" with an "Install missing plugins..." link. Clicking on either brings up an "Available Plugin Downloads" window displaying Adobe Flash Player. I click Next, and it tells me nothing was installed, but I can manually install, which takes me to the Adobe Flash Player download page [11]. Nothing I do there works. When clicking to download and install it brings up "install_flash_player.exe", which I can save but nothing happens. According to the directions a window should ask me where to have it to.

The odd thing is that I also have Internet Explorer and all of these websites and their media using Flash work perfectly fine. This leads me to assume I already have Flash, but then why would everything on Firefox say I don't? Might it be because it isn't the most recent version? Why then can I still not even re-download it? Thanks!! Reywas92^Talk 01:24, 5 August 2009 (UTC)

The trick may be as easy as to find the downloaded install_flash_player.exe somewhere on your machine, and run it. Double-clicking it when it is in the download window is one way of doing this. Let us know how you get on. --Tagishsimon (talk) 01:28, 5 August 2009 (UTC)

But I can't find it. It did not create a desktop shortcut, and using the search function doesn't yield it. The funny thing it that when I click "save file" for that, the box just closes. It doesn't take any time to download or ask me where it goes at all. The troubleshooting doesn't help. But I know I do have Flash already, it just won't work on Firefox.

So I went back to IE and downloaded it, and it worked fine. Until it automatically opened this page on Firefox. "When you see the installation completion movie above and text below, your installation was successful." I can't see the movie. I copied the url back to IE, and it works! I'm completely lost. Thanks. Reywas92^Talk 01:46, 5 August 2009 (UTC)

IE plugins (which I believe are ActiveX plugins) are completely separate from plugins for other browsers. You have the Flash for IE plugin, but not the Flash for Firefox plugin. You need to run the installer for the Flash plugin for non-IE browsers to install it. You say you have trouble finding the file you downloaded. Well what happens when you usually download things? In Firefox, there is a setting for where things are downloaded to (Tools -> Options -> Main -> Downloads: Save files to...); maybe you should check there first. --131.179.160.144 (talk) 01:59, 5 August 2009 (UTC)

Or just double click the file from the Downloads window. --antilived^{T | C | G} 10:05, 5 August 2009 (UTC)

Go here http://get.adobe.com/flashplayer/ make sure you select the right browser and os. Click download. Yoy should then be here http://get.adobe.com/flashplayer/thankyou/?installer=Flash_Player_10_for_Windows_-_Other_Browsers

Ignore the save dialog box (close it). —Preceding unsigned comment added by 83.100.250.79 (talk) 12:28, 5 August 2009 (UTC)

Find the part that says "Your download will start automatically. If it does not start, click here to download"

Right click on the part "click here to download" and select "save as" - save it somewhere you can easily find it, eg the desktop. (ie click on desktop in the save dialog box).

Once it has downloaded, look on the desktop for a red box. Double click , and install.

Hopefully nothing can go wrong.83.100.250.79 (talk) 12:26, 5 August 2009 (UTC)

Importing fonts

Once you have a TrueType font file saved to your Fonts folder, can you get GIMP or Paint to interact with them, do they need to be imported? etc. • S • C • A • R • C • E • 02:25, 5 August 2009 (UTC)

What do you mean by "interact"? Do you want to edit a font? That requires a different program, like FontForge. I don't know about GIMP, but you can also type some text into Adobe Illustrator (even a single character), convert that text into vector shapes (Type --> Create Outlines), and then modify the shapes of the letters. If you just want to type text in the font without modification, then why don't you try it yourself? What a strange choice of words.--WinRAR anodeeven (talk) 05:15, 5 August 2009 (UTC)

It's generally not a good idea on here to get on people's cases about incorrect technical language — the reason that many are asking here is because they don't know the proper name of what they are inquiring about, and thus can't Google it or do other obvious modes of investigation. It's also not a great idea to compare apples-and-oranges programs (Illustrator is a vector graphics program; GIMP and Paint are bitmap graphic programs, and they don't have a whole lot to do with one another). --98.217.14.211 (talk) 14:02, 5 August 2009 (UTC)

Yeah, I know the difference between vectors and bitmaps. We still don't know whether he wants to edit a font or type some text. And that's why I mentioned Illustrator.--WinRAR anodeeven (talk) 18:18, 5 August 2009 (UTC)

Gimp automatically imports any new fonts during start-up, if this is what you are asking. --KageTora - (영호 (影虎)) (talk) 13:44, 5 August 2009 (UTC)

If you put it in the Fonts folder, it should show up in the programs once you restart them. --98.217.14.211 (talk) 13:51, 5 August 2009 (UTC)

Yay! Look what I created! Thank you everyone • S • C • A • R • C • E • 20:32, 5 August 2009 (UTC)

which filter

hi friends, i am using image processing in matlab for analyzing flames(flickering study).i would be goin for some further processing.kindly let me know which matlab filter to use for the data obtained.for your information ,no filters were used(in front of camera) for taking images. SCI-hunter (talk) —Preceding undated comment added 03:39, 5 August 2009 (UTC).

avg 8.5

how do I go about putting avg 8.5 on my computer, when it does nothing whenever I try to download it, and the one I already have refuses to work either or to uninstal from my computer?

I've tried deleting all of it and putting it back, but then I searched for avg and there are thousands of programs with those letters in and I don't know which ones to remove.

88.108.18.179 (talk) 09:50, 5 August 2009 (UTC)

The 8.5 installation removes all prior versions, so you should concentrate on understanding either why the download of 8.5 is failing, or why you are unable to run the downloaded installer. --Tagishsimon (talk) 12:30, 5 August 2009 (UTC)

Avg8 is one of an increasing number of anti-virus programs (following on from Norton and McAfee) which need a separate removal tool for successful removal. This is because uninstalling them does not remove Registry entries, which will interfere with later versions and/or other brands of AV programs. So first use this free uninstaller. - KoolerStill (talk) 14:28, 5 August 2009 (UTC)

Half the programs on my Mac can't seem to find the web

Hi All,

I have a Mac OS X 10.5.6. My browser (Firefox) and my email clients (Thunderbird and FirstClass) all work fine.

However, several programs have trouble either accessing the web or authenticating or something. If I run my Software Update, I get the message "Software Update can’t connect to the update server. Make sure you’re connected to the Internet, then try again. Software Update can't check for updates because of a network problem." I then click the Network Diagnostics button and the Network Diagnostics report nothing wrong -- it says I can connect to the web (which I can). Further, my RSS reader, Vienna, doesn't work, my Twitter application, Nambu, doesn't work, my new social application, EventBox, can't log into any of my services or read RSS, and every website that allows you to upload photos (Facebook, Flickr) fails when I try to do so.

This has been happening for about two weeks. Prior to this everything worked.

The fact that all these programs that fails seem to require some kind of authentication (except I guess the RSS readers...) makes me wonder if that could be the problem, but I really don't know.

Anyone have any clues as to what the problem could be?

Thanks! — Sam 76.24.222.22 (talk) 15:01, 5 August 2009 (UTC)

How do you access the web? Is there any settings in the router you use that may be causing a conflict? If the router you have has a built in firewall it may be a setting in the firewall that is prevent the apps connecting. 194.221.133.226 (talk) 15:43, 5 August 2009 (UTC)

Try checking out your OS X firewall settings. System Preferences > Sharing > Firewall. You may want to try toggling it off temporarily to see if that changes anything. If it does, it may mean making some kind of exceptions for those programs. Though it is still very odd. --98.217.14.211 (talk) 15:58, 5 August 2009 (UTC)

Another thing: you say these issues began happening about two weeks ago. Did you install a new program then? Make a change in your system or program preferences? Install a new router? Install a VOIP system (such a Vonage device) between the internet and your router/computer? ···日本穣^? · 投稿 · Talk to Nihonjoe 20:13, 5 August 2009 (UTC)

Browser plug-ins and HTTP referrer

Under what circumstances, if any, will a link opened from within a browser plugin (e.g. Flash, Java, Adobe Reader, word processor) generate an HTTP referrer? NeonMerlin 19:19, 5 August 2009 (UTC)

Referrer headers are optional, so it's up to the browser and/or plugin. For what it's worth, I just tried it with a Java applet, and it did indeed send the referrer header. --Sean 20:07, 5 August 2009 (UTC)

You can also disable referrer headers in Firefox: instructions here. Nimur (talk) 20:31, 5 August 2009 (UTC)

I couldn't get on the Internet

My computer information is here:[12]

It may have been a problem so minor I didn't need to call tech support.

I couldn't get a straight answer on whether this was connected, but I'll ask anyway.

Instead of a dial tone, I heard the sound I get when I misdial and get a fax machine number. I hung up and there was a dial tone. So I was all right.

Three hours later I turned on the computer and clicked on the blue E. The screen was blank and the circle kept rotating. I tried clicking on the Yahoo button. Same thing. I just got Internet Explorer 8 and I couldn't figute out how to diagnose connection problems. It won't let me click there. At one point there was a screen with the number of emails I have (I must not have deleted that Monday, but there waa no history showing that it should be there). I clicked and was told I needed to be on the Internet so I clicked where it said to. Still nothing. I kept going back and forth from online to offline. At one point I unplugged the modem and plugged it back in, but that didn't seem to change anything. The modem lights were normal, and the light on the back of the computer was normal.

I finally made the phone call. I never really did anything different that I know of, but it finally just came up.

When I asked about the noise that I heard instead of the dial tone, the girl said something about changing something in my computer. But despite the box that comes up saying I am using dial-up, it is actually not. There is a splitter at each phone jack.Vchimpanzee · talk · contributions · 21:22, 5 August 2009 (UTC)

It is not a permanent problem. You appear to have an excellent computer, and I believe you do use dial-up Internet service, which just means you use a modem to connect to the Internet over a phone line. The "fax machine sound" you heard is called a carrier tone and it's just the sound of the computer on the other end of the phone line, picking up the phone and starting to communicate with your computer. (If you want to hear this ruckus "live", connect to the Internet, start downloading a Wikipedia page, pick up the phone, and enjoy the computers' screaming at each other. Picking up the phone, by the way, will disrupt your connection and you'll have to make the computer hang up and call again.) That time you heard it, your computer for some reason did not start doing any communicating. Nothing is broken in your computer; this happens occasionally. By the way, if you frequently get connection problems, I would recommend finding out about getting "always-on" broadband service, either via a cable modem from your cable TV company, via DSL from your phone company, or via FiOS if Verizon services your neighborhood with it. It's faster, and problems with disconnected signals are much rarer when connecting via broadband. Tempshill (talk) 21:53, 5 August 2009 (UTC)

Did you change your modem or its drivers recently? Try going to modem settings, and where it says "listen for dial tone" or similar, untick it. That way it will try to put your request onto the line whether it recognises a dial tone or not. If the line is available, the number will go through. But if it's available, but for some reason making unusual sounds, it won't refuse to try on the grounds that it's "not a dial tone". (This was always necessary with cheap imported modems that were set up for the dial tones of some other country). Of course it the line is truly occupied, you still won't get a connection. So make sure the splitters are properly tightly plugged in and no real phone is off the hook. -KoolerStill (talk) 07:02, 6 August 2009 (UTC)

I do have DSL. I haven't had a problem in months. The last time the modem lights even blinked was during a thunderstorm. My last call to tech support was in January.Vchimpanzee · talk · contributions · 17:42, 6 August 2009 (UTC)

August 6

seeking identification of an icon

Previously on WP:RDC....

Does anyone know what program this icon is from?—msh210℠ 17:03, 27 July 2009 (UTC)

I don't know but maybe if you crop it you can run it through tineye-- penubag  (talk) 18:31, 27 July 2009 (UTC)

What happens if you hover the mouse over it, or click on it (left or right)? Astronaut (talk) 23:24, 27 July 2009 (UTC)

No, the image is too small. You could try interpolating/scaling it but I don't know if that will help, I suspect TinEye just doesn't do that sort of thing Nil Einne (talk) 23:50, 27 July 2009 (UTC)

End of quotation from the archives.

I missed Astronaut's reply at the time, so am starting the conversation again. Clicking (single, double, right, left) does nothing, but hovering over it yields the tooltip "Managed by sk2000 at [IP address of a nearby machine, but not this one]:1347".—msh210℠ 23:08, 5 August 2009 (UTC)

It's Symantec Ghost Corporate Edition's client. We used to use it and I think that's version 8.0, but not sure on the exact version number. ZX81 ^talk 23:35, 5 August 2009 (UTC)

Thanks so much!—msh210℠ 15:41, 6 August 2009 (UTC)

Congratulations, OP. Maybe we could rename the image if we have positively identified what it is. :) Kushal (talk) 17:58, 6 August 2009 (UTC)

Or delete it. I don't think it serves the purposes of the encyclopedia much.—msh210℠ 21:56, 6 August 2009 (UTC)

Rhemetic

What is today?

See our article today for a complete list. Tempshill (talk) 03:31, 6 August 2009 (UTC)

Thursday (which isn't on that list). AlmostReadytoFly (talk) 15:47, 6 August 2009 (UTC)

Copying iTunes playlists

I've just recently got a new external hard drive for my computer and copied my iTunes' stuff over to it but the playlists haven't been copied. How would I go about copying them over as well? Thanks for any help 83.37.186.149 (talk) 10:27, 6 August 2009 (UTC)

Did you copy all of your iTunes folder and all of its contents and selected the new location as your iTunes folder in the iTunes preferences? More details please. Kushal (talk) 14:06, 6 August 2009 (UTC)

Microsoft SQL Server 2011 & Compatibility level 80

Our application is heavily dependent on legacy outer joins (the *= syntax) for which Microsoft dropped support with SQL Server 2005, requiring developers to use the ANSI standard "LEFT OUTER JOIN" syntax. They provided a compatibility switch, level 80, which we have been using since then. I have heard that support for this compatibility level will be dropped with the next release. I am looking for suggestions as to how I can get a definite answer. (I am not looking at this time for suggestions on how to port our code.) Ma^t_chups 15:33, 6 August 2009 (UTC)

Is there a program that gives convienent sort of bar charts analysing the size of each folder/subfolder?

I need a program that easily shows how much space is being used per folder, and Windows isn't good at doing that without having to look individually, it's too much hassle. any program that can do something like this?--IHABihat (talk) 16:37, 6 August 2009 (UTC)

Try windirstat, which shows a treemap; that turns out to be much more useful than a simple barchart at answering the question I guess you care about, "why is folder X so darn big?" -- Finlay McWalter • Talk

See also SequoiaView and Disk space analyzer for more options. Hope that helps. Kushal (talk) 17:56, 6 August 2009 (UTC)

I'll give my standard answer to this question: screw WinDirStat, SequoiaView etc. If you really want to see your folder sizes directly in the Windows Explorer interface, install FolderSize for Windows, change your Explorer view to "details" view, and enable the "Folder Size" column (and disable the "Size" column since you won't need it any more). Job done! No need to stuff around with 3rd party applications just to check your folder sizes, it's right in front of your eyes every time you open up My Computer and start browsing. Zunaid 18:19, 6 August 2009 (UTC)

Are you referring to this program from SourceForge? Mitch Ames (talk) 13:08, 7 August 2009 (UTC)

That's exactly it, and the screenshot shows exactly how it works in Explorer. You can also choose to display size dynamically so it automatically displays MB or GB when the file/folder size gets too big for kB to be useful. Zunaid 13:21, 7 August 2009 (UTC)

css / xml / word processing question

(Warning - fuzzy question - user may be the problem)

Is there a word processor that allows the user to define headins/sub-headings/other styles as indirect labels, and then apply an external style sheet to the document.

eg At the level of understanding I'm at now I can create formatting styles for each heading, sub head heading etc. , but if I want to change the whole look (ie everything font, spacing, etc) it seems I need to either totally reformat the whole document, or change all the formatting styles to suit. (I'm aware that sub-headings can inherit properties from their parent headings).

I'm thinking of something like css for word processing. Please de-ignorantify me. Thanks! 83.100.250.79 (talk) 17:29, 6 August 2009 (UTC)

TeXmacs probably can do it, although I don't use it myself. It's worth a look while waiting for better informed answers. --91.145.88.63 (talk) 19:03, 6 August 2009 (UTC)

It possibly does, yes, from a brief read of the manual.83.100.250.79 (talk) 20:35, 6 August 2009 (UTC)

Aren't you asking about CSS? It seems like you already know what this is. There's no reason you can't use CSS and HTML; there are plenty of word-processing softwares that can save to HTML format. Nimur (talk) 20:15, 6 August 2009 (UTC)

No I'm not asking about css, I'm asking about word processing software that supports the equivalent (or the same as) style sheets (out of the box). You're aware that a web page can be created with tags such as <myheading1> etc, and that the basic body can be used with different style sheets for a different look. I'm asking about the equivalent in a word processor.83.100.250.79 (talk) 20:35, 6 August 2009 (UTC)

A word processor that instrinscially works in html would/might make an obvious solution though...83.100.250.79 (talk) 20:37, 6 August 2009 (UTC)

Just to clarify - I'm not really asking about a complex workaround/solution where I have to type complex markup into notepad etc. More so I was asking about such a thing as a supported feature for end users.83.100.250.79 (talk) 20:43, 6 August 2009 (UTC)

Actually I think I've worked out that I can already do this.. (still experimenting) - please continue to answer if you have any hints...83.100.250.79 (talk) 21:10, 6 August 2009 (UTC)

Adobe InDesign supports style sheets. They aren't written in CSS, though. Nor are they stored outside of the document. It also supports master pages. By the way, you can actually open HTML pages in Microsoft Word and save them back to HTML. It is not recommended, but it can be done without any tricks. Also, you can specify the type of heading in Word 2003 by going to Format --> Paragraph and clicking on "Outline Level." Upon styling, similar outline levels update.

XML in general can be styled with CSS. So, theoretically, you could save your document as XML from MS Word or Adobe Framemaker, create a CSS, apply the CSS to the XML, and open the XML in a web browser. It should display fine.--IndexOutOfBounds (talk) 21:25, 6 August 2009 (UTC)

Thanks. Does MS Word still make a mess of HTML saving - I seem to remember saving the text "this is a test" as HTML and word deciding that it needed about 4 pages of markup and meta information..

I've discovered that I could already make a 'master template' and save it, for later application to other documents (just not familiar enough with the software).

I don't use MS Word much, and haven't lately, but seem to recall that it has the option to style lines of text as "First-level header" etc., and then to pick whatever style you choose for "First-level header". Same with WordPerfect. YMMV.—msh210℠ 22:03, 6 August 2009 (UTC)

There are some follow on questions:

word processors using css, and other stuff

Following on from the above - are there any word processors that can input and convert css style sheets to their standard internal markup.

Also in a webpage I noticed this :

<STYLE TYPE="text/css"> <!-- '''''css instructions here''''' --> </STYLE>

ie the css commented out - yet they still worked - ie changing them affected the page. Removing the comments made no difference. What's with the comments?83.100.250.79 (talk) 21:59, 6 August 2009 (UTC)

That's an oddity which (also applies to script by the way and) is put in place so that older browsers that don't know what to do with the style or script element don't display its contents.—msh210℠ 22:03, 6 August 2009 (UTC)

Right. The rendering webpage ignores the HTML comments when rendering CSS or scripts. It's only required for very old browsers. At this point I sort of think it is optional, though I don't really have hard facts on whether there are a lot of totally noncompliant browsers being used... --98.217.14.211 (talk) 01:19, 7 August 2009 (UTC)

MS Word works with "templates" (saved with the .dot extension). When you open a new document,it uses Normal.dot, the default template. If Word is what you're using, you can make a new template that matches your requirements, then import your document into that template. Just make up a sample page with the features you want. Save it as a template (File menu). That saves the formatting but not the text. Then open that template and import the old document onto it. Or, of course, use it for writing new documents in that style. - KoolerStill (talk) 10:02, 7 August 2009 (UTC)

Thanks

Resolved

83.100.250.79 (talk) 10:40, 7 August 2009 (UTC)

Blackberry Storm camera problems

I am having trouble with my Blackberry phone. When I click the side button to take a picture, it does not consistently work. It will focus and center the picture, but it will not take the snap shot. Instead, I have to use the center touch screen button to take the picture. Is this a common problem? How can it be resolved??--98.109.60.26 (talk) 18:22, 6 August 2009 (UTC) _{Moved from Misc desk. Fribbler (talk) 19:37, 6 August 2009 (UTC)}

php flat files

I've written a very simple php guestbook script (when I say written, I've mean stolen bits of code from all over the place and hacked them together) which uses one txt file to store all the comments. What are the possible problems with using a flat file system like this? If there are a lot of people posting comments at the same time could there be corruption of the files contents? Or does php have a built in safeguard for this? Many thanks // 19:54, 6 August 2009 (UTC)

Primarily the issues are maintenance and performance once the single flat file becomes very large. If you don't care about this, it's not a really major issue. You can always manually archive the system, if you so desire. Nimur (talk) 20:14, 6 August 2009 (UTC)

If PHP does automatically lock the file (which I don't believe it does), two users at the same time wouldn't be able to save the content. If at all possible, you should use a database software like SQL (MySql is pretty good) for multiple entries at the same time. Thanks. AHRtbA== ^Talk 20:22, 6 August 2009 (UTC)

Use flock. You need a strategy of what to do if getting the lock fails - whether sleep-and-retry or report-error is best for you depends on your application - the "tinymountain" commenter at that page has a sleep-and-retry script. -- Finlay McWalter • Talk 21:12, 6 August 2009 (UTC)

There's nothing inherently wrong with a flat file if you're using something like flock and are prepared to deal with file access collisions. A more advanced database lets you obviously do a lot more (like be able to retrieve specific records easier, and sort them, and etc.) but for a guestbook, a flat file is fine. --98.217.14.211 (talk) 01:07, 7 August 2009 (UTC)

OpenDNS

I was wondering if using OpenDNS really gives you a faster internet connection and a more secure connection. On a side note I saw a few posts about uninstalling Anti-Virus and how they required special apps, to clear the registry. I used Revo Uninstaller to uninstall AVG and it got rid of everything. It's a general uninstaller so its good for more then just one thing. You can find alot of useful freeware at Gizmos TechSupportAlert, for doing various jobs like this. 66.133.202.209 (talk) 22:10, 6 August 2009 (UTC)

Speed: they claim it's faster than your own ISP's DNS (the Wikipedia OpenDNS article cites this claim to a forum, the very opposite of a reliable source), but even if that's true for you, it'll only help with domain lookups (not machine lookups, which always go to the domain's own DNS server). You don't do enough domain lookups for that to make much of a difference. Beyond that it will have no effect whatever. Security: they have an anti-phishing blacklist, but you get that from firefox or google toolbar or yahoo toolbar (I don't know about IE). And I don't see why you'd trust a company that you have no relationship with to provide you DNS, when you're already paying your ISP for the same service. -- Finlay McWalter • Talk 22:21, 6 August 2009 (UTC)

Wow thanks for the fast reply. Guess there is no real benefit for an average computer user like me. 66.133.202.209 (talk) 22:38, 6 August 2009 (UTC)

I think you'd only be likely to find openDNS of a significant benefit if your own ISP had particularly slow DNS servers. Rjwilmsi 23:16, 7 August 2009 (UTC)

August 7

PHP/MSQL assist

This is one of those days where things avoid me and my ability to describe is subpar, so excuse me and try to bare with me.

I am trying to make something similar to a poll but for the life of me I can't remember how to do this, so I come to you guys. Here is a basic layout to give you an idea of what I am working on doing. There are two textareas, one of which is a multiple line and the other is a single line. Below the multiline is an Add Button, Subtract Button and the singe line (not in that order). So you write a value..in a numerical fashion...like 2 and hit add, I want that value to be checked against the existing in the multiline box and then redisplayed as the outcome number. So let us say the multiline number is current 6. I'd like it to go "Alright, so you are currently 6? I want you to add 2 then display the outcome.". I would like for the new value to replace the old one inside a MYSQL database...which I have also managed to forget today, perfectly able to add a new value as long as the old still exist..can't remember for the life of me how to make a new value and remove the old one...anyways, if you need anymore clarification just ask, thanks guys. Rgoodermote  01:33, 7 August 2009 (UTC)

Quick clarification, the question is, what is the code or the functions needed for this? Rgoodermote  01:34, 7 August 2009 (UTC)

S/PDIF

HELP! I just bought a 3.5mm to digital optical so that I could plug it in my soundcard (Creative Audigy 2 Sound Blaster) into my receiver and listen to music from iTunes via my surround sound. The problem is that I plugged it in both of them and no sound came out! I tried it on Vista and XP, it didn't work on either :(. Thanks for the help! --71.117.37.217 (talk) 02:39, 7 August 2009 (UTC)

Well at a guess, there would be some setting where you have to enable the digital output.. Have a look through the "sounds and audio devices" settings in control panel, and if you still can't get it going then RTFM. ;) Vespine (talk) 05:07, 7 August 2009 (UTC)

I've already tried enabling S/PDIF out, then made sure it was un-muted on both OS's. If I had the manual I wouldn't be asking here... --71.98.18.213 (talk) 18:50, 7 August 2009 (UTC)

Well, here's the Audigy manual. I noticed on one of the web pages at Creative's site that SPDIF output is not supported on sources protected by Microsoft's DRM. Not sure how that would affect output from iTunes. Have you tried just playing a system sound via your receiver? Is there any setting on the receiver to enable digital input for whichever source you've chosen? If you have the cable connected to the Soundblaster, can you see a red glow at the optical end? --LarryMac | Talk 19:11, 7 August 2009 (UTC)

Windows security blocking my Safari downloads

Everytime I try to download a file in Safari, I get a pop-up from my Windows security system (or whatever it's called) that says something similar to "Windows found this file to be potentially harmful" and blocks the download, how can I disable this? • S • C • A • R • C • E • 02:43, 7 August 2009 (UTC)

May I ask what OS you are using (XP? Vista?)? Also you ever tried to download from IE or Firefox? It could be that your Windows Firewall..or Windows Defender..or whatever the call it today is set too high and just blocks everything or this is some new form of denial of service attack by windows (ignore that paranoid statement). Rgoodermote  03:14, 7 August 2009 (UTC)

Yeah, I currently have IE8, Firefox, Safari (of course) and Opera, because it seems like some browsers give you different features or because I don't feel like transferring my content I have saved when I try a new browser :). I do all my downloads from Firefox but Firefox is rather slow to load and I shouldn't have to do that. I disabled my security system and it still blocked it. I use XP Professional • S • C • A • R • C • E • 03:20, 7 August 2009 (UTC)

Um, well could it be that just maybe it is an actual virus? I know Windows Defender can be wrong..often...but how about trying to download it from IE (Microsoft's baby) and seeing what it does? If it does it in IE, it isn't MS blocking Safari. Rgoodermote  03:34, 7 August 2009 (UTC)

Every single download I attempt gets blocked. I downloaded Opera and it got blocked, I doubt that file is a virus, and the warning says "potentially" • S • C • A • R • C • E • 03:50, 7 August 2009 (UTC)

Are you on the latest version of Safari? I have the same OS as yours and the same browsers (and then some!) and have never had this trouble. Of course I have the built-in Windows security system turned off. That may be what you'll have to do, too. Use the firewall from your anti-virus instead. But if the problem is in Safari only, it could be a glitch in the particular minor version WebKit it's running on. Download the latest updates (to Safari, not WebKit) and see if that works. - KoolerStill (talk) 10:16, 7 August 2009 (UTC)

Unless you are downloading .exe files Windows Defender won't normally alert. Have you got any internet security settings turned up to 11?83.100.250.79 (talk) 14:11, 7 August 2009 (UTC)

I have a suspicion it's related to this - [13] - it may be that MS has decided to block downloads to protect you the use...

Are you using third party firewalls or anything like that. Also are you using any other browsers? Has the problem just started (windows update?) or always been like that.

I'd recommend uninstalling and reinstalling safari, make sure internet options are set to default.83.100.250.79 (talk) 14:26, 7 August 2009 (UTC)

There's another possibility - are you getting this message "File download - Security warning - do you want to open or save this file" every time - if so go to preferences (press the cog button top right hand corner, select preferences) then in the dialog box, select general, in the section "save downloaded files to" uncheck the "prompt before downloading box" ie no tick. Then close.

Once you have done that when you try to download a file the warning box will still appear at first - but with a new item "always ask before downloading this type of file" - if you uncheck that box (no tick) - the next time you download a file you will go straight to the "save to" dialog.

You'll get the box for each type of file eg .jpg , .pdf , .doc , once only - and it will only appear if you try to download a type of file you haven't downloaded before. Hope that helps.83.100.250.79 (talk) 14:55, 7 August 2009 (UTC)

Microcomputer I/O before the TV Typewriter

Before the TV Typewriter kit became available, what did home microcomputers use for input and output? NeonMerlin 06:15, 7 August 2009 (UTC)

On things like a Altair 8800 you toggled switches on the front and little lights went on and off. As most people who owned such machines were electronics hobbists, or at least knew some, they might rig up some fancier arrangement of lights or switches to a serial or parallel port. If someone had a lot of money, they could hook up a teleprinter, which was the way minicomputers and mainframes did human IO until the VDU. -- Finlay McWalter • Talk 14:27, 7 August 2009 (UTC)

Learning C

What's a good book/website for learning C (NOT C++)?
The problem is that I'm not new to programming, I can program in Java, C++ and few more languages. all the books and websites I've found are aimed at novice programmers with little or no programming experience or are about C++ (Obviously Bjarne Stroustrup wasn't aware of how hard it is for search engines to distinguish C from C++, since there were none back then). I want to learn C without C++ because the linux kernel and alot of open source projects are written in pure C. And I find the combination of C and C++ quite confusing.

To rephrase: I want to migrate from Java to pure C. What books or websites do you suggest? 95.84.72.151 (talk) 10:15, 7 August 2009 (UTC)

As an aside to search for "C" type C -"C++" into search http://www.google.co.uk/search?hl=en&q=c+-"c%2B%2B"&btnG=Search&meta= or more specifically tutorial c -"c++" -"c#" -"hepatitis" -"objective-c" -"c-sharp" (edited) 83.100.250.79 (talk) 10:31, 7 August 2009 (UTC)

"THE" book for C is "K&R" -- the original book by Kernighan and Ritchie who wrote the whole language. Slim and simple and all you need, especially if you have programmed before.

This online/downloadable tutorial claims to be specifically for experienced programmers. Your C++ compiler should be able to handle pure C, if you set it up appropriately. If you work through the examples in the book, you'll have it down, by the time you get to the end. Don't be fazed by it being a lot more cryptic than the object-oriented languages. That is the beauty of it; you can get on with telling it what to do,not worry about spelling a 31-character name. - KoolerStill (talk) 10:34, 7 August 2009 (UTC)

Searching for "C tutorial" also misses most of the C++ eg "c+tutorial"&meta=&aq=f&oq=

In fact it turns up this [14] , (note the disclaimer) , by Brian Kernigan, which should be a good intro, despite being out of date.83.100.250.79 (talk) 14:06, 7 August 2009 (UTC)

There is an excellent book called "C for Java Programmers" - $70 at Amazon. If, as you say, you are a proficient java programmer, then you need some "translation" about some fundamentally identical concepts, and some "transformation" about some fundamentally different concepts in pure C. One of the biggest things that I had a hard time with was that C is much less standardized than Java - while Java had Sun Microsystems' rigorous specification, C evolved, flourished, contracted, and reflourished, several times over the last decade. A few "versions" exist, and you probably want to stick with ANSI C or the slightly expanded version supported by the Gnu C Compiler. (Or possibly, you want to use one of the Microsoft compilers, but for a beginner, you will have a hard time learning what is a language construct and what is a part of the Windows and MFC API).

Obviously, as you know, C is not object-oriented. There are no classes; there are no instances; but you can use struct and pointers to "fake" some object-like behavior (or at least keep your code modular). Scope of variables still exists, but you will probably need to learn about the "extern" description, because there is a difference between "declaring" and "creating"a variable in C ((e.g. declaring vs. allocating stack or heap space - this concept did not exist in Java). C language uses static in a totally different way than Java - it has to do with locally scoped, globally present variables. Threading is not natively supported but is widely available using standard thread libraries. Memory is not automatically allocated; you must explicitly allocate heap memory; and you need to learn the difference between Heap and Stack (which also existed in Java, but you probably ignored). You need to understand the role of the C Preprocessor (and learn to use it just enough to get the job done, and not any more). You should learn about linking, because this part of the compile process never got your attention in Java (not in Java SE, anyway, unless you played with the runtime classloader for fun and profit). C does not natively support Exceptions, nor try/catch blocks. If you get stuck on any of these specific concepts, please feel free to post specific questions; I'm just trying to point out some major conceptual obstacles you might encounter so that you realize you've hit a "weird different thing" you never realized would be different. Nimur (talk) 15:03, 7 August 2009 (UTC)

Old Website URL

Hi, my company migrated to a new website, however some pages on the new website still have the old URL. Note all the content on those pages is correct and up to date. Any idea how to stop the old url from getting displayed in the address bar of the new website?

Thank you for any assitance.217.17.248.45 (talk) 14:38, 7 August 2009 (UTC)

What you mean by "some pages on the new website still have the old URL" - surely if they have the old URL, they're in the old website? Or do you mean that search engines like Google are still finding the old site, and you'd like visitors to be redirected to the new one? -- Finlay McWalter • Talk 14:41, 7 August 2009 (UTC)

What i mean is when i click on a subpage, im taken to the desired page, but the url displayed in the address bar changes to the old website address. 217.17.248.45 (talk) 15:36, 7 August 2009 (UTC)

The browser merely displays the URL of the page it was told to go to. So if a browser is displaying an old-site url, that's where you really are. It sounds like links inside your new site are defective; that they should be pointing to new-site pages, but are still pointing to their old-site equivalents. So the fix is to fix those pages. There's a chance, depending on how your web server is configured, that you've added url-rewrite rules to the server configuration (which point certain incoming urls to the old site); the fix for that is to alter, or remove, the url-rewrite rules from the server's config. Some other possibilities: your browser, or some intermediate cache, is storing old versions of pages, so clear your caches (a good way to tell is to have the scripts that build web pages put timestamps in html comments - if you're seeing a page that should have been fixed, check its source to verify that it's been generated since you made the switch). And lastly you might have some non-obvious way of doing navigation, like a flash-menu, whcih has URLs embedded in it, and which you've neglected to fix. -- Finlay McWalter • Talk 15:42, 7 August 2009 (UTC)

Can you give an example?83.100.250.79 (talk) 15:48, 7 August 2009 (UTC)

It's very likely that they redirected the old DNS name to the new server (for in-transition compatibility) - you say that the old URLs are delivering updated, new content. So either the old server is still alive, and automatically mirrors the new server; or the old DNS name is now pointing to the new server. Hopefully the web administrator will eventually update the hyperlinks in the pages and completely remove the old DNS name. Are you the responsible person who needs help with this updating/transition process, or are you just curious why your web administrator has not finished the transition yet? Nimur (talk) 17:29, 7 August 2009 (UTC)

hi, im the Techie who works for this organization, and assigned the task of fixing this mess. Our new website is www.rvis.edu.bh, and the old one(which btw is still active, can this be deleted now?) www.riffaviewsschool.org. You might get a clear idea by visiting the new website and navigating to its sub pages. The website is managed by finalsite not me. Not sure who i should be contacting to fix this. Appreciate your help. 217.17.248.45 (talk) 19:44, 7 August 2009 (UTC)

It looks like most of the links connect to the new website, but the news links connect to the old ones - I'd suspect this is because the news is from an archive prior to the new website? Assuming you had a redesign I'd suspect that the old links were kept so that links from external sources did not become broken.

The obvious solution would be to contact whoever does your website design and get them to update the news stories so that they are on the new site. At least that's the answer if I've understood correctly.83.100.250.79 (talk) 19:56, 7 August 2009 (UTC)

It also looks like you should be asking to redirect all traffic from the old name to the new name.83.100.250.79 (talk) 19:57, 7 August 2009 (UTC)

That shouldn't be necessary, but it couldn't hurt either. All you really need to do is go through the News section and change all the links that start with "http://www.riffaviewsschool.org" to "http://www.rvis.edu.bh" and everything should work just fine. I'm not familiar with Finalsite, so I can't give you an exact walkthrough - if you have any trouble, you could ask those guys for help. Indeterminate (talk) 11:35, 8 August 2009 (UTC)

real time processing?

When you convert Kbs to Mbs on this site, you get results real quick. Is this real time processing? Apparently, it is not the server where the page is hosted doing the calculation. Where is the calculation done then? Is it performed using the resource of the client side computer? The page uses javascript. Can python do the same function?--Clericalmonk (talk) 16:59, 7 August 2009 (UTC)

It's javascript running in your browser. -- Finlay McWalter • Talk 17:02, 7 August 2009 (UTC)

It is probably not real-time processing. Real-time processing typically refers to a computer system running an algorithm that is guaranteed to complete operation in an exact amount of real clock-time. This requires, among other things, total control of the operating system scheduler (or lack of a scheduling operating system), as well as a known hardware configuration. Javascript, Windows, Firefox, "personal computers," and most of the stuff that you work with (including this example that you posted) strictly do not fall in to this category. They may be called "very fast and responsive processing" but they are not "real time computing." Nimur (talk) 17:32, 7 August 2009 (UTC)

Python can do the same calculations, but won't run in a browser (normally) - there are work arounds to getting python code to run in a browser, but in general it doesn't currently happen (as far as I know)83.100.250.79 (talk) 20:32, 7 August 2009 (UTC)

Follow-up question

Referring to [15], this may explain why I couldn't get on once I plugged the modem back in. I've been told to unplug the modem when the phone company had problems but the Internet was back. I mentioned what happened when I made a phone call in hopes of hearing there might have been such a problem that needed solving.

Why is it that if the computer is hung up causing the circle to just go around and around, it can't just find the web site it is looking for when the Internet comes back?

And what does it mean if the cursor turns into a circle going around and around too?Vchimpanzee · talk · contributions · 17:52, 7 August 2009 (UTC)

If the cursor goes round in a circle it means 'waiting' or 'processing' - in this case it may be waiting for a connection or for a download of a page to finish. I'm sorry I can't answer the rest of your question.83.100.250.79 (talk) 19:59, 7 August 2009 (UTC)

I see you stated in the earlier thread that you have DSL. That's good. In the future, you'll need to mention DSL every time you ask a question here, because if you just say "modem" then we're all going to assume it's a dial-up modem instead of a DSL modem. When your computer just does nothing and the "waiting" circle goes round and round forever, it may be waiting for a number of different reasons. I think the most likely one is that your computer has not connected successfully to your ISP (the phone company). One thing I always try is to click Start then in the "Start Search" field that appears, click and type "cmd" and hit Enter. A command prompt will appear. Type ping www.yahoo.com and hit Enter, and tell us what happens. Tempshill (talk) 20:50, 7 August 2009 (UTC)

Sorry, I forgot I had even asked a question.

Yeah, once when I was unable to get on the Internet I was told how to type "cmd" and I think I have that written down somewhere too. I think that's what I was expecting from tech support. In that other situation, the light on the back of the computer wasn't working and they couldn't help because that involved calling the manufacturer, whose tech support people said do a system restore.

Thanks.Vchimpanzee · talk · contributions · 21:50, 7 August 2009 (UTC)

anonymous free (or low cost) email service?

This is not to disparage the free email services by companies like Yahoo!, Google, MS (Hotmail), et al. I just don't want to choose between (a) giving information like my name, birthdate, or ZIP code on the registration form; or (b) lying about such--however easy it might be. I'm not too worried about the computer I'm using--this one is in a government office. I'm not a terrorist. I'm well over 18. I'm not a spammer. (Pity those in China or Iran who have to face lying even more.) I just want something were I can (a) get an address, (b) require only a password, (c) type out the funny looking words to prove I'm a person. Any info would be appreciated. Thanks. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 68.179.108.25 (talk) 19:52, 7 August 2009 (UTC)

They exist - ireland . com only requires your age (not date of birth)- no address, dna sample etc, there must be others, have you tried all the ones in the Comparison of webmail providers , Comparison of e-mail clients 83.100.250.79 (talk) 20:48, 7 August 2009 (UTC)

Why not just put gibberish in for the Gmail registration for First/Last Name? The only other stuff you seem to have to put in is the e-mail address you want (what an idea!), your password, a location (set it to Canada?) and the CAPTCHA. Washii (talk) 07:31, 8 August 2009 (UTC)

He said he didn't want to lie, even though he knows he can.

Looks good.

I've thought of the gibberish idea too. I also thought of blantant lies--such as gibberish, emailing the very service--telling them what I've done and why, and waiting a few months. The problem is, the deed would be done (the lying), I'd have to wait a few months, and I might get an email from them telling me the answers is "no."68.179.108.25 (talk) 15:50, 8 August 2009 (UTC)

Though, for all practical purposes, the lie is pretty white. I mean, it's not like the services are actually going to care all that much. I know—obviously for you it's about "the principle of the thing" but still, the principle of the thing is about not wanting to give obvious bogus data to free e-mail providers, and that's a pretty small principle. I assure you that nobody—NOBODY—actually cares if you lie on those forms. In any case, Gmail's prompt asks only for "First name:" and "Last name:". If you put in "First name" and "Last name" as the respective fields, you'd technically be telling the truth ("First name"="First name"), and thus not technically lying. (Perhaps you were just confused.) --98.217.14.211 (talk) 19:29, 8 August 2009 (UTC)

Setting up spell check in Opera

How do you set up spell check for Opera? I already installed GNU Aspell and the English dictionary (aspell-en-0.50-2-3.exe). Yet it doesn't seem to be working, did I miss something? • S • C • A • R • C • E • 20:55, 7 August 2009 (UTC)

Did you check the instructions (we've all got to) [16] - maybe you didn't check the spell checking option - if that doesn't work something is seriously wrong.....83.100.250.79 (talk) 21:23, 7 August 2009 (UTC)

Did you fix the download problem with opera you had before?83.100.250.79 (talk) 21:52, 7 August 2009 (UTC)

It won't check as you type. Right click in any text field and choose CHeck Spelling to check the whole field. To check one word or phrase, highlight it first. - KoolerStill (talk) 22:32, 7 August 2009 (UTC)

"Restart Opera" oops! Works now, thank you. • S • C • A • R • C • E • 03:04, 8 August 2009 (UTC)

August 8

Context T9?

Do any existing T9 predictive text entry systems take previous words into account to help decide which word is most likely (e.g. interpret 46 as "in" if the previous word is "come", but as "go" if it's "let's")? NeonMerlin 06:03, 8 August 2009 (UTC)

As far as I know, most predictive text systems only use lexical analysis, so they don't do any analysis on the syntax level. They certainly could, but it'd drastically increase the size of the "dictionary" database, since the developers would have to add data about which words would be likely to follow or precede each word in the dictionary. Right now, size of the predictive text engine might be more important than relevance of word suggestions, but that'll probably change as phone memory keeps increasing. Just my two cents; there are probably lots of opinions. Indeterminate (talk) 10:57, 8 August 2009 (UTC)

No-cost spreadsheets that reference data by name rather than by cell address?

I understand that Lotus Improv, Javelin of Javelin Software, and Quantrix could do this, although Quantrix is the only one still available. Are there any freeware or other no-cost spreadsheets that can do this please? 84.13.197.233 (talk) 15:02, 8 August 2009 (UTC)

Would the ability to name addresses do ie naming A1 as "tax" and then being able to use tax as a variable? Both calc and excell can do this. (calc is the free one) (You could put the variable cells somewhere 'off to one side'..)83.100.250.79 (talk) 15:17, 8 August 2009 (UTC)

Master Pages in InDesign

When I create a 10 page document in CS3 for the PC, I place a text frame into the master page. I want to see an editable text field in each of the pages I can flow text into. However, when I go to the document, although the pages pallette tells me each page has a text frame (the little blue dotted line) none of the text boxes are selectable. Obviously I can select them in the master page, but if I type anything in, the text will appear on each page.

So how do I get editable text boxes. The master page text frames were created in the Doc Setup dialogue with the Master Text Frame option, so don't bother suggesting that!

Thanks

80.229.160.127 (talk) 17:05, 8 August 2009 (UTC)

You're using master pages wrong, me thinks. You can't create an element on a master page and then edit it when you are out of master pages. Master pages are for things like page numbers, headings at the top of each page, etc. They aren't for putting editable text fields, they aren't for putting things that vary with each page. I don't use Master Text Frame myself; googling it shows it to be a somewhat curious and tempermental feature, which might be related to your problem as well. --98.217.14.211 (talk) 18:06, 8 August 2009 (UTC)

So if I make a document with 100 pages, I have to draw a new text box for each one? 80.229.160.127 (talk) 19:54, 8 August 2009 (UTC)

Hi. Just hold down the the CTRL and SHIFT keys while doucle-clicking on the frame with the type tool, and you will be able to type into each frame individually.--IndexOutOfBounds (talk) 22:19, 8 August 2009 (UTC)

php ereg_replace

I'm looking for a way to convert a string into a html self link using the php "ereg_replace" expression. So for example, if I wanted to convert:

--link

into

<font color="red"><a href="#link">--link</a>

where "link" can be anthing, such as

--cats

and it will convert to:

<font color="red"><a href="#cats">--cats</a>

Thanks so much for your help! —Preceding unsigned comment added by 82.43.91.128 (talk) 17:12, 8 August 2009 (UTC)

It would probably help if you can guarantee that the "link" is always followed by a space or newline or something - can be assume a space> —Preceding unsigned comment added by 83.100.250.79 (talk) 19:38, 8 August 2009 (UTC)

I don't know PHP, but the regex (in Perl) you would be:

s,--(\w+),<font color="red"><a href="#$1">--$1</a>,g;

so it's probably similar. That assumes "anything" means alphanumeric characters plus underscore. --Sean 20:28, 8 August 2009 (UTC)

wglUseFontOutlines

I use the Windows OpenGL function wglUseFontOutlines to create characters to display in my three-dimensional world. However, it takes more than one second for the function to return. Is there any faster way to draw three-dimensional text in OpenGL in Windows? --Andreas Rejbrand (talk) 17:33, 8 August 2009 (UTC)

HP Pavilion dv6386: Forgot BIOS logon password

I have forgotten the BIOS logon password on my HP Pavilion dv6386 computer. I have tried to disconnect the CMOS battery for a few seconds, but then I was surprised to learn that the computer's BIOS still remembered the password. Perhaps the password is stored in a non-volatile memory, or there might be third power source somewhere. Or, perhaps it wasn't the CMOS battery I disconnected, after all (although it sure looked like a battery...). Is there anything I can do? I am afraid that HP has been careful to design a secure system, so there might not be much to do. --Andreas Rejbrand (talk) 17:45, 8 August 2009 (UTC)

This page [17] says remove the battery for 700 seconds - maybe it's worth trying again.83.100.250.79 (talk) 18:30, 8 August 2009 (UTC)

The same page also mentions 'master bios passwords' - probably time to ring up HP (or the bios maker)?83.100.250.79 (talk) 18:31, 8 August 2009 (UTC)

If you still get stuck it's worth mentioning - the motherboard manufacturer, and the bios manufacturer.

There's a lot of advice via "bios forgotten password" search, but all mostly useless with out knowing the bios type.83.100.250.79 (talk) 18:36, 8 August 2009 (UTC)

.NET Framework SDK Folder

I'm running Windows Vista and I have the .NET Framework v3.5 with SP1. I seen a lot of sites talk about different tools and resources in C:\Program Files\Microsoft.NET\FrameworkSDK or some location like that. The thing is though I cannot find it. Can someone tell me where it is located, if I need to install something extra, or if the location of the resources has been changed and they've been moved. --Melab±1 ☎ 20:13, 8 August 2009 (UTC)

The chance is that you have the ".net runtime", which lets you run ".net" programs, but not the ".net software developement kit" which lets you create programs as well. For free you can get http://www.microsoft.com/express/ "visual studio express edition", or pay and get a more expensive version.

There are also separate products for c++, c# etc. which you can download.

(aside - I know you have Vista)If you're on XP there's a chance you don't have the .net framework either - it can be got via windows update, but if you download the sdk it's automatically included.83.100.250.79 (talk) 20:24, 8 August 2009 (UTC)

Microsoft Visual Studio83.100.250.79 (talk) 20:30, 8 August 2009 (UTC)

alternatively just do a search for "SDK" to see if it's in there.83.100.250.79 (talk) 20:37, 8 August 2009 (UTC)