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August 21

When was the first Whitehouse email?

I'm trying to figure out when the first "email" was sent or received by the Whitehouse. I've found lots of other milestones (first email, SMTP history, whitehouse website history, etc.) but not the actual date that a president, or their whitehouse staff, had access to email in the building. Ronabop (talk) 06:13, 28 August 2009 (UTC)

Looking for a nutrition web site

I originally posted this Q on the Science Desk: Wikipedia:Reference_desk/Science#Looking_for_a_nutrition_web_site. It was suggested I cross-post to here.

I'm looking for a site which will list foods which are good for diabetics, those with high blood pressure, those with kidney failure, etc. No big deal ? Well, I want it to recommend foods for those with multiple medical conditions. (Note that I'm not asking anyone here to recommend any foods, just a site where I can look it up myself.) Ideally you should be able to weight the medical conditions, say if you only have slightly high blood pressure but have severe diabetes. In that case avoiding foods with a high glycemic index would be more important than avoiding salt. It should also list foods from best to worst, for the given medical conditions and weighting factors.

The Best Buy web site can do something similar with appliances right now. You give it some parameters, like the size of monitor, it's resolution, and cost range, and they give you a list of monitors that match, then they can sort by, say, the current price. The same thing could easily be done with foods, where the parameters become low glycemic index, low salt, etc. The site nutritiondata.com already has this info, I just need it to be made "searchable" and "sortable". So, does such a site exist, or must I create it myself ? If so, is there a way to extract the data from an existing site and add searchable and sortable columns to it ? StuRat (talk) 00:44, 21 August 2009 (UTC)

Categorization tool/bot

I want to add several categories to existing articles on a major scale. For instance, adding [[Category:Gram positive bacteria]] to all Staphylococcus articles. Is there a tool or bot that can help? I've searched WP:BOTS, WP:TOOLS, and the searchable archives for this talk page to no avail. - Draeco (talk) 07:22, 21 August 2009 (UTC)

WP:AWB. ---— Gadget850 (Ed) ^talk 12:50, 21 August 2009 (UTC)

Mediawiki error

So I have been getting this annoy error, it first popped up when I tried to use the Social Profile with Mediawiki 1.15.1, then in a desperate attempt to see if it was because the software was incompatible due to age or something I updated to 1.16 and then when that failed I did a shits and giggles attempt and installed 1.16WMF (which comes with the most recent version of the extension). The error is "Warning: Parameter 1 to incEditCount() expected to be a reference, value given in ****\w\includes\Hooks.php on line 132"

The extensions I used can be found here.

This error happens with ANY AND EVERY extensions that has to use Hooks.php. Please note that I have deleted the Hooks.php and replaced it a number of times and the error makes editing impossible by happening after an attempt to confirm an edit is made.Rgoodermote  07:28, 21 August 2009 (UTC)

Is there a search engine or program that can manipulate row/column arrays?

Many web sites have tables of numeric row coumn data. For example, imagine a nutrition table with rows of foods and columns of nutrient contents for each food. Does anyone know of a program that could manipulate any recognizable website data array like a spreadsheet, so that you could sort the rows by the values in a specific column? alteripse (talk) 11:50, 21 August 2009 (UTC)

Note that this is related to my nutrition Q, 3 questions up. StuRat (talk) 12:04, 21 August 2009 (UTC)

It sounds a bit fiddly or problematic without <td id="???"> or <td name="???"> tags - is it possible to assume that it uses tags such as these (ie the standard HTML Document object model)?83.100.250.79 (talk) 12:54, 21 August 2009 (UTC)

It would be trivial to write a greasemonkey script to do this with the tags, less so, but still possible without83.100.250.79 (talk) 12:56, 21 August 2009 (UTC)

If you are writing the web page from scratch then it should be easy to use javascript to create a sortable table using the tags described above.83.100.250.79 (talk) 15:48, 22 August 2009 (UTC)

Unfortunately, the idea is to extract the info from an existing web site, and we can't rely on them having those tags there, either. StuRat (talk) 19:39, 22 August 2009 (UTC)

MySQL -- from scratch to database in how long?

I know this is highly subjective, but I'm just looking for a rough estimate.

My personal background: master's degree in science, HTML literate, learned CSS this past Spring without difficulty, comfortable in Dreamweaver CS4, no real programming language experience, maintained a personal website as a hobby for years

My goal: Add a searchable, sortable, expandable post-launch database with upwards of 200+ binary (yes/no) variables for each entry to my existing website.

Tools at hand: Learning PHP, MySQL, and JavaScript: A Step-by-Step Guide to Creating Dynamic Websites by Robin Nixon + whatever info I can find online.

Basically, this dbase has been a dream project of mine for a few years and I've finally got time to pursue it. Hosting is a non-issue, as I've already got a lovely plan with all the extras I need. I'm here to ask about time. Not knowing a lick of MySQL, I am wholly unable to estimate how long it will take me to get up to speed and how simple/complex my dbase idea is compared to other MySQL applications (I'm guessing "not very")... the upside of the project is that daydreaming about it for several years has resulted in a rock-solid task list, with no possibility of feature creep.

Anyone out there wanna take a shot at this? 100 manhours? More?

Thank you, 61.189.63.183 (talk) 12:03, 21 August 2009 (UTC)

If you want an accurate estimate, you need to give us that rock-solid task list. For example, how does the data get entered, updated, and accessed ? All through the web site ? And how much data is there ? StuRat (talk) 12:09, 21 August 2009 (UTC)

Yes, more info needed. The hardest part about a database is getting the data in it. If, for example, you already have the tables filled out in Excel spreadsheets, turning that into a functional database takes not very long at all. If you have to put together complicated data entry tools, though, that takes 90% of the time. MySQL itself is generally dead easy, because you aren't doing that much with it (add a row, get a row, compare value X to value Y, etc.). It's the PHP, Javascript, etc., that you are making work with the MySQL that takes time. The database is the easy part—it's just a bunch of values in a table—the application is the time-consuming part. --98.217.14.211 (talk) 12:40, 21 August 2009 (UTC)

OP here. I was planning on having the data updated via a form on the website, but could certainly do it via Excel spreadsheets. This is the part of the plan that I can't speculate on because I don't have any experience with anything other than HTML & CSS. As far as data structure, each entry is a unique name and then a simple has/hasn't checkbox for a LOT of variables. I'm guesstimating 200+ right now, but each actual entry will probably never have more than ~40 checked boxes (yeses). Because the data entry will be brutal no matter how you slice it, I was hoping to make that available online for multiple people to input together. So I guess the database would have 2 access methods - browsing & editing/updating. As for searches, I just want visitors to be able to check as few or as many of the same variables as they wish, and then have the dbase spit out every entry that contains those variables. (chocolate AND vanilla AND nuts AND low-fat...) Because everything will be binary (yes/no), I'm imagining this aspect being relatively simple. Please ignore any urges to get sidetracked about the usability of the system - that can come later! Right now I'm just looking for a rough estimate. More info, if necessary, can be provided. 216.93.191.240 (talk) 13:14, 21 August 2009 (UTC)

In my experience, unless you have a bunch of slaves who are happy to do the data entry no matter how you set it up, you will be best served by spending some time thinking about what an intuitive way to enter all that data in would be. Hint: clicking on Yes/No checkboxes is NOT a good way to do it -- it is time consuming and much more difficult than, say, keyboard-based approaches. Coming up with a good interface is a MUCH harder programming and design task than the database.

Your database structure is pretty simple (though there are a few different ways you could do it—depending on the specifics of the data, which I can't tell from your description). Setting up a MySQL database can be done very quickly if you get a GUI program for it, like phpMyAdmin. You could probably have the basic data structure up and running in a few hours. Setting up the PHP to access the database is pretty straightforward if you follow the instructions in your book (and don't try to just guess your way through it—there are specific ways things are done and orders things should be done it). So I would say, setting up a bare-bones proof-of-concept probably would take, oh, maybe 20 hours total, assuming you are able to learn and debug your work at a modest pace. (For someone more familiar with the tools, it would take maybe 1-2 hours, but there's a learning curve in this as in everything). Developing something more user-friendly, that would take maybe 100 hours, assuming you are not a Javascript whiz already (Javascript is your friend for creating good interfaces, but it takes a little time to learn how to use it appropriately as well). --98.217.14.211 (talk) 16:42, 21 August 2009 (UTC)

Thank you for taking the time to post, everyone. 216.93.191.240 (talk) 23:02, 21 August 2009 (UTC)

Word Processing - half a line

In the usual suspects, is there a way to easily insert half a line feed. eg between two paragraphs to have a blank line that is only half the standard blank line. Specifically I'm thinking is there a way to make it easy to insert as well eg CTRL+Enter = Line feed 1.5 ? 83.100.250.79 (talk) 12:10, 21 August 2009 (UTC)

In MS Word, the way you'd generally do this is select the paragraph in question, then go to Format > Paragraph. There is a section that says "Spacing"; set the "After" to whatever the equivalent of 1.5 lines is at your font size (it is in points; so if it is 12pt, try 18pt). --98.217.14.211 (talk) 12:44, 21 August 2009 (UTC)

Thanks, I can't find an equivalent in open office - is setting "spacing below paragraph" to be >0cm the way to do it? Or have I missed a better option?83.100.250.79 (talk) 12:51, 21 August 2009 (UTC)

Yes, it is probably that. --98.217.14.211 (talk) 17:02, 21 August 2009 (UTC)

Directly below the "Below paragraph" is "Line Spacing" and a drop box where you can choose 1.5 lines. -- kainaw™ 14:32, 21 August 2009 (UTC)

I want extra lines after the paragraph, not in it.83.100.250.79 (talk) 14:35,

Then, increase the spacing either "Before paragraph" or "Below paragraph" as mentioned. You can alter the style itself so you don't have to manually do it to each paragraph. -- kainaw™ 21:07, 21 August 2009 (UTC)

21 August 2009 (UTC)

More:line feed without carriage return

A way to do this ?83.100.250.79 (talk) 12:51, 21 August 2009 (UTC)

Vertical proportional printing/justification

Is this possible (eg within a text box), does it have a proper name?83.100.250.79 (talk) 12:51, 21 August 2009 (UTC)

HDR

How do High dynamic range imaging and High dynamic range rendering work? The respective articles are a bit too heavy on the jargon for me. 69.77.202.90 (talk) 13:23, 21 August 2009 (UTC)

The short version is that HDR combines three images taken at different exposure settings. Using photos as an example, most digital cameras have a range of five stops - which means that you can have detail in the dark areas or detail in the light ones, but not both at once. Thus the camera normally picks something in the middle, allowing the mid range to look good, but not the two extremes. You normally see it with dark areas where you can't really make out what's in them and a "blown out" sky that just looks like an expanse of white. With HDR you take three pictures, one with a short exposure showing the light areas, one with a long exposure showing the detail in the dark areas, and one in between (the photo you would normally take). Then you combine the three, giving a picture that shows detail throughout. - Bilby (talk) 13:44, 21 August 2009 (UTC)

The rendering (of three photos into one) takes place by comparing the three photos pixel by pixel, this is why the three must be EXACTLY the same shot, at various exposures. The minimums in the short exposure (the too dark shot) and the maximums in the long exposure (the too bright shot) are thrown away and replaced with a more balanced value from one of the other two shots. The process is deceptively simple, but obtaining a good balance of what is 'too dark' or 'too bright' is sometimes difficult, leading to advantages in certain applications that use more complex algorithms. This is why HDR is most often used as a silly effect filter as opposed to a serious technique to improve a scene. --66.195.232.121 (talk) 13:54, 21 August 2009 (UTC)

(This is the answer for High dynamic range rendering, the first sort is different and given above.)

A typical computer monitor has ~256 scales of grey going from 0 black to 255 white.

In the real world light intensities vary much more eg the light in the sun is 1000 times brighter than indoors light (eg a lightbulb looks very dim when turned on during the day)

High dynamic range rendering calculates the light intensities at the higher scale (ie a big range of numbers typically with a intensity range of greater than 1 to 1billion actually even more)

However though the computer can stored these numbers (ie the calculated light intensities) for each pixel, a computer monitor can't display them.

To get round this the values are scaled back to fit inside the 0-255 range. (basically divide by a big number so that the most intense lights match 255)

(The scaling isn't always linear - can be logarthymic.) - in fact the way the big light intensity values are scaled is an important part of making computer HDR work well.

Ask if you require more expansion.83.100.250.79 (talk) 13:49, 21 August 2009 (UTC)

Windows mail password prototection?

My wife and I both use the same login profile for windows vista. When I (or she) click on 'Windows mail' my inbox automatically comes up. She logs into her hotmail email via the web. Is there any way I can put a password on windows mail so she can't get into my email. I love her dearly but I need a little privacy for the next few weeks. I don't want to give her a whole new vista profile to log into (that might make her suspicious) but I would like to stop here accidentally getting at my mail.58.170.109.8 (talk) 13:55, 21 August 2009 (UTC)

Sorry, but as far as I know you can't. Because Vista (and XP for that matter) are setup with the ability for people to make their own Windows user profile this is why the option doesn't exist in Windows Live Mail as it's expecting the security to be handled by the login itself (i.e. password protect the Windows account). ZX81 ^talk 14:16, 21 August 2009 (UTC)

Just remove the account info from Windows Mail (if possible) and use webmail for the next weeks? Or start a Gmail account to get all the info about the super-secret surprise anniversary vacation (or whatever your secrets are) sent there instead? Jørgen (talk) 17:45, 21 August 2009 (UTC)

Install Windows Live Mail. It's an upgrade for Windows Mail, and you can set it so that a a password is required everytime. Warrior4321 19:18, 21 August 2009 (UTC)

Another alternative might be to move windowsmail.exe (or whatever it's called) from wherever it lives now to C:\super\secret\location. Then clicking the icon won't work, but you can still go and manually start it. --Sean 19:32, 21 August 2009 (UTC)

The path is "C:\Program Files\Windows Mail\WinMail.exe". But moving the file might not work (you can try, though). However, my personal opinion is that every person using a computer should have her own user account. Always. --Andreas Rejbrand (talk) 20:38, 21 August 2009 (UTC)

I agree - it's not really even about privacy, it's about accuracy. If the computer says "Joe has mail", you won't know whether Joe or Joe's wife, daughter, cat, or sentient robot (who share the same account) actually need attention. The computer has no way to distinguish individual users, except in the form of login-accounts. If you want to make data shareable between different users, that can be arranged on most modern operating systems (including Windows); but the computer can still treat accounts separately. The sentient robot part isn't so far from the truth. This actually happened to me this morning - cron, which was incorrectly running in a user-account on spacenimur was sending email to nwmoussa (me, the human), when it should have been sending it to the ntp-daemon - just this morning! Unfortunately, I didn't know what to do with that email and it was written in a language that only the NTP-daemon would speak, and NTP-daemon wasn't getting the update requests, so disaster ensued and the system-clock was way out of whack! Point is, even automated tasks that are being done FOR you should properly be run under a separate login authorization - this is best practice for security. Nimur (talk) 21:13, 21 August 2009 (UTC)

Controlling google results

I am in desperate need of help. Someone posted my full name and other identifying information in the comments section of a video on xtube, an amateur pornography site. I have no idea why this happened. I got the site to remove my name and information, and after a lot of difficulty I got google to remove the page from a search for my name.

It is now 4 months later, and the same page suddenly started appearing on my results again, with the comment visible, even though when you actually go to the page the comment is gone. I don't know if this is a cached page or what. I don't know anything about search technology. I requested that google remove the result again but they keep denying the request. I contacted xtube but haven't gotten any response.

Anyone with a knowledge of search technology, please tell me what steps I can take or who I can contact to fix this. I can't even figure out why it is happening, so if you can tell me that I would also be grateful. Isn't it ridiculous that wikipedia is the only place I am pretty sure someone might respond to this question?

Thank you! Gohome00 (talk) 17:11, 21 August 2009 (UTC)

If by "my results" you mean "the page google returns when I search for my name", then the problem is still Google - they've not removed it from all of the places they had it, and you need to yell at them again. Unfortunately tech companies are particularly bad at responding to electronic communications, so it might be time to write to their legal department at their HQ in Mountain View, California. -- Finlay McWalter • Talk 18:06, 21 August 2009 (UTC)

I would like to not do that but I understand I might have to.... thanks!Gohome00 (talk) 20:50, 21 August 2009 (UTC)

Google can help remove personally identifiable information. There is a link to the website removal request information. Ironically, you must have a Google Account, and submit information to them, if you wish them to remove information about you. [1]. Nimur (talk) 20:20, 21 August 2009 (UTC)

I tried this 3 times. It's an automated form, and if there is some part of the request that doesn't work, all you get is a message that says "denied" with a link to a list of vague possible explanations, none of which apply to me. That's why I'm so frustrated. Gohome00 (talk) 20:50, 21 August 2009 (UTC)

Google books - copyright

Can someone help me out on this google books/copyright thing - I'm a bit confused. The impression I've got is that google has scanned (and used optical recognition to convert to 'text') books; some of which are still under copyright, and then offered them as electronic versions, but doesn't make any effort to observe any original copyright rights due to the author(s)unless they come along and claim them in which case it gives them $60. Have I got this wrong - or does something happen to the copyright when the book is scanned. eg from the Google Book Search article

publishers maintain that Google has no right to copy full text of books with copyrights and save them, in large amounts, into its own database

ok on the surface it seems a no-brainer to me that what is being described is obvious copyright violation (without a prior agreement). What's going on here? Thanks.83.100.250.79 (talk) 20:17, 21 August 2009 (UTC)

Yes, it was blatant and obvious copyright violation; the result was that Google Books stalled for nearly two years in a pitched legal battle (first in 2005), and again in a new legal fight which was recently resolved out of court (despite much continued opposition). After a re-think of the business model, Google Books now partners with advertisers, publishers, and online booksellers; they offer their service as a sort of "advertisement." Nimur (talk) 20:23, 21 August 2009 (UTC)

Any point asking "what were they thinking" (also perhaps even what happened to "do no evil" - hardly saintly anyway)

Can I ask for a second opinion (not that I don't trust your word Nimur - it's just that it seems so blatant as to be almost unbelievable) - is there no explanation for it (excluding economic boldness?) 83.100.250.79 (talk) 20:49, 21 August 2009 (UTC)

My curmudgeonly answer is that a lot of people at google really think that they are changing the world and it is their responsibility to drag everyone else along with them, even at the expense of currently accepted notions of copyright, privacy, etc. Gohome00 (talk) 20:53, 21 August 2009 (UTC)

A bit like WP:BOLD perhaps. Nobody is suggesting a legal excuse though - not even tentative ????83.100.250.79 (talk) 20:57, 21 August 2009 (UTC)

Presumably, one of the things rethought is that you will find sets of a few consecuetive pages missing from the scanned books. I have on occasion found the google books service useful, but of course the bit you want to read is always in the missing bit. Astronaut (talk) 21:37, 21 August 2009 (UTC)

If you look at the McGraw-Hill complaint found here (near the bottom) you can see some screenshots of Google Print as it existed at the time of the complaint. Public domain books were viewable in full. Copyrighted books were only viewable as a few lines surrounding the highlighted search terms (like the current fragment view), unless the publisher had explicitly authorized Google to show more. It's no different from their web search service, which also shows short excepts from each returned page with search terms in context, again without the explicit permission of the page owner in most cases. They weren't serving the full text of copyrighted works. It wasn't blatant and obvious infringement. The copyright code is very unclear regarding this sort of thing, to everyone's detriment. The result of the Authors Guild settlement was an increase in the number of full pages that are viewable, not a decrease, as far as I know. -- BenRG (talk) 00:47, 22 August 2009 (UTC)

Someone said "what happened to 'don't be evil?'" To me it sounds like Google Books did what they did staying true to the mantra. How evil would it be to withhold vast quantities of knowledge from being absolutely free to the human population? Pretty fuckin evil if you ask me. Mac Davis (talk) 01:52, 22 August 2009 (UTC)

I think you should ask authors who depend for their livelihood on their material NOT being free what they think about who is "evil" in this situation. As far as I'm concerned, unilaterally deciding that they know best IS being evil, no matter what the specifics of each situation and initiative may be. Gohome00 (talk) 17:25, 22 August 2009 (UTC)

"Don't Be Evil" is a useless slogan if evil is not well defined. Evil has a huge span of contradictory interpretations. Specifically in the case you mentioned, not everybody agrees that all information should be free - just because you and I think it should be does not make the opposite "evil." I can think of at least a few cases where information privacy might outweigh the "goodness" of information proliferation. Take a look at the unfortunate situation brought up by the previous question - this isn't a matter of copyright, but proliferating personal information, in the guise of "free expression", doesn't sound too good to me. Nimur (talk) 07:56, 22 August 2009 (UTC)

Thanks. I got the impression that they were serving up entire copyrighted books to everyone, rather than just indexing them (and displaying parts in search results). That's more understandable.83.100.250.79 (talk) 09:41, 22 August 2009 (UTC)

Resolved

Blender Fade

How can I fade objects in Blender? --81.227.67.213 (talk) 21:52, 21 August 2009 (UTC)

This was a mystery to me as well, but I experimented a bit and managed it. (I assume you mean "fade over time" rather than just making an object transparent, or transparent at one end.)

My first step was to look at the IPO Curve Editor window. On the right of this window are a list of variables you can vary over time. One of these, helpfully, is "ColA", which is to say the alpha transparency of the object's colour. To insert a keyframe, you go to the 3D view, choose a frame from the timeline and press I. The menu that pops up does not have an alpha option (or red, green or blue, for that matter). So I picked a different option, because I just wanted to get a curve of some kind into the IPO window. You should know that curves in this window can be manipulated like an object's mesh - you can press tab and select and move the vertexes around in the same way (though not in the Z dimension, since there isn't one). I therefore copied my curve to the buffer (press the icon with an arrow pointing downwards towards an orange area - apparently buffers are orange, don't ask me), deleted it (delete key), clicked on ColA on the right hand side, and pasted it. I adjusted it so that over the desired time period it went from 1 to 0, and set the interpolation to linear.

This didn't work at all. It didn't vary the object's alpha. Eventually I found out what it was varying, which was another alpha variable located on a panel called "draw" among the "object" buttons in the buttons window. Just above this is a patch of red colour: the object apparently has a secondary colour as well as a secondary alpha. The tooltip says that these are "used when faces have the ObCol mode enabled". I found that button, ObCol, among the object's material buttons, just above the sliders where you set its ordinary colour. Clicking it made the alpha fade work (and also turned it red). Hope this is what you wanted. 81.131.36.121 (talk) 01:02, 28 August 2009 (UTC)

August 22

How to really search for an exact phrase on the internet

I just searched for the phrases "Made in China (E)" and "Made in China (W)" (with quotes, as in http://www.google.com/search?q="Made+in+China+(E)"), and both Yahoo and Google just take the parenthesis out and seem to take neither the space nor the characters literal, so they'll match such strings as "made in China,e.g." or "MADE IN CHINA è un marchio di fabbrica". Is there any way to really only get the pages that contain this exact phrase? — Sebastian 01:28, 22 August 2009 (UTC)

Unfortunately, I don't think it is possible to do that (if anyone else knows a way to do so, please let us know). What you can do, though, is tell Google not to include certain phrases, such as http://www.google.com/search?q="Made+in+China+(E)" - "e.g." - "fabbrica". I did this when I was searching for info on the mathematical term "matrix" and kept getting hits for the movies. A "matrix" - "keanu" - "film" - "movie" search did a much better job for me. StuRat (talk) 13:20, 22 August 2009 (UTC)

Apparently you're only allowed _ and &. See http://www.marketingshift.com/2006/3/google-special-character-search-string.cfm 81.131.6.207 (talk) 17:32, 22 August 2009 (UTC)

Thank you, that's interesting! — Sebastian 18:51, 22 August 2009 (UTC)

The replies provide two links: http://www.google.com/apis/reference.html, which is generally interesting, but doesn't say anything about this particular issue, and http://www.google.com/support/websearch/bin/answer.py?answer=430 which is 404 now. But it's not just Google: Yahoo seems to have the same problem. — Sebastian 19:06, 22 August 2009 (UTC)

• Simply search "Made In China (E)", including speech marks. 84.92.105.93 (talk) 11:42, 24 August 2009 (UTC)

  That's what I did - it's what I meant by "with quotes" above. Yes, it should work, but it doesn't. — Sebastian 15:05, 24 August 2009 (UTC)

Download an entire YouTube channel

I want to download all of somebody's videos. There are 435. What is the most efficient way to do this? Mac Davis (talk) 01:35, 22 August 2009 (UTC)

I'm afraid you'll have to download each one seperately using a youtube video downloader. Do you use firefox? Warrior4321 04:18, 22 August 2009 (UTC)

I know enough ways to download an individual video. I was hoping there was a batch tool of some sort. Mac Davis (talk) 05:39, 22 August 2009 (UTC)

Here is a command line youtube video downloader. Here is a youtube channel's URL:

http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=BarackObamadotcom&view=videos&start=0

Here is what each video link looks like in that channel page:

href="/watch?v=R3XW5XQLnk8&feature=channel_page"

so to get the whole channel, just do something like:

#!/usr/bin/perl -w

$max_batch = ceil(435 / 20);

for $batch (0 .. $max_batch) {
  $batch_url = "http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=BarackObamadotcom&view=videos&start=$batch";
  $page = `wget -O - '$batch_url'`;
  while ($page =~ /href="(/watch?v=(\w+))&feature=channel_page"/g) {
    $vid_url = $1;
    $vid_id = $2;
    system "youtube-dl -a -o '$vid_id.avi' '$vid_url'";
  }
}

Untested! --Sean 12:49, 22 August 2009 (UTC)

Microsoft Word keyboard thing

So, what’s happened is that at work, I got a new (used) computer, but in Microsoft Word, some of the keyboard shortcuts (Control + whatever) have gotten changed around. Instead of Ctrl+c giving me the copy function it prints the character “ç” for some reason. It’s the same for Ctrl+a, instead of selecting everything, it prints “à,” and Ctrl+ gives “î” instead of italics. There are probably some other ones. It’s really annoying. Anyway, how can I stop this and bring everything back to normal? I’ve looked in the help file and online, but apparently I haven’t typed in the right words or something. Anyway, any help you have will be greatly appreciated. Thanks. 169.231.32.17 (talk) 08:07, 22 August 2009 (UTC)

It sounds like your Ctrl key now has the function of an AltGr key. Have you installed the computer from scratch, or did you take someone else's installation? If the latter, then maybe that person messed around with the keyboard layout. There are programs, such as Microsoft Keyboard Layout Creator and Wyrdplay, with which you can change the individual key settings. Maybe you can reset it by going into Control Panel -> Regional and Language Options -> Languages tab -> Details -> under "Installed services", select "English" -> click Add button -> check "Keyboard layout/IME" -> in the dropdown, select another layout (presumably one of the "United Kingdom" or "United States" settings, depending on your preference). — Sebastian 19:23, 22 August 2009 (UTC)

Oh, I overlooked that you wrote "Microsoft Word". Do the keys behave as expected in other programs? In that case, it seems as if the settings in Word have been changed. Go to Tools -> Customize -> Keyboard button -> Reset All. (Before you reset all, it may be wise to check if the keys are really reassigned in word by testing them. Do that as follows: Select the box under "Press new shortcut key" and check what it says below after "currently assigned to". If that's the correct function, then the key has not been reassigned in Word. — Sebastian 19:29, 22 August 2009 (UTC)

I'm pretty sure it's the second one, but in either cse, I now know what to do. Thanks so much. 169.231.32.17 (talk) 19:35, 22 August 2009 (UTC)

Adobe's code signing cert revoked?

Hi, I'm trying to install Flash on XP. The installer downloaded wouldn't run, saying "You must unblock this publisher". Digging further, I found that the code signing cert issued to Adobe Systems Incorporated serial ‎76 57 f9 cb ca c1 ea 95 04 83 8e 3e d9 35 5d 2d is "revoked by its certification authority". Anyone know why? Should I just remove the revocation and install it anyway? 121.72.171.75 (talk) 10:30, 22 August 2009 (UTC)

FWIW, I can't reproduce this under Windows 7. The installer runs fine. — Matt Eason ^{(Talk &#149; Contribs)} 01:45, 23 August 2009 (UTC)

OK this is weird, Youtube works fine now, no need to reinstall Flash. Thanks. 121.72.171.75 (talk) 09:14, 23 August 2009 (UTC)

How to reinstall Windows XP - where can I get CDs?

I have MS Windows XP which I have a license for. I have no install CDs - either I lost them or I suspect I never had any. How can I get them - will MS give them to me? Thanks. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 62.49.27.114 (talk) 11:31, 22 August 2009 (UTC)

Contact whoever you bought the computer from (assuming it came with XP?) - They may be able to sell you a "media kit" for a small fee. ZX81 ^talk 11:53, 22 August 2009 (UTC)

Check first whether there is a recovery partition. 121.72.171.75 (talk) 12:16, 22 August 2009 (UTC)

Download them —Preceding unsigned comment added by 82.43.89.136 (talk) 05:34, 23 August 2009 (UTC)

I removed a direct link to a probable copyright violation above which is against policy Nil Einne (talk) 18:11, 23 August 2009 (UTC)

I linked to a search engine, not any copyright works directly. My link was no more of a copyright violation than linking to a google search string.

That's a highly inaccurate description of what you did and your link was most definitely a link to a probable copyright violation. In any case, this is clearly OT here so I won't discuss it anymore here Nil Einne (talk) 19:05, 23 August 2009 (UTC)

My link was to a page on mininova.org, a simple html page with text and a few images. There is zero copyright work in that page. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 82.43.89.136 (talk) 19:19, 23 August 2009 (UTC)

Thanks, but we're not up for any sort of pointer to a copyright violation. --Tagishsimon (talk) 20:09, 23 August 2009 (UTC)

[2] may be of use Nil Einne (talk) 20:50, 23 August 2009 (UTC)

To clarify the "recovery partition" mention by 121 above — HP, for example, does this; the hard disk is partitioned so C: is most of the drive, and D: is the "recovery partition". You are supposed to get 3 DVD+R discs when you open up your computer, and run a utility that ships on the HP's hard disk which will use the data on the D: drive to create boot discs you can use to start from scratch, erasing everything on the hard disk and returning it to the way it was when you first opened the box. (They make you burn these discs rather than ship the discs in the box, because, like all computer manufacturers, HP is trying to shave every cent off of the cost of the computer.) I think you can boot from the D: drive, too, though I'm unsure whether HP's recovery partition lets you. Anyway, look to see if your computer has a similar D: (or other letter) drive that looks like it might be a recovery partition, and you may be able to boot from it or otherwise recover the C: drive with it — check the website of your computer manufacturer. Tempshill (talk) 05:27, 24 August 2009 (UTC)

Testing a web based software Vs testing a conventional software

Its not about comparing two types of softwares that do the same. It is about differences in testing methodologies. Can you please say the differences in testing a web based software (say a pixlr) and its software counterpart (say gimp)?. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 131.220.46.25 (talk) 13:06, 22 August 2009 (UTC)

With any web-based software, I would expect the performance to vary dramatically based on the current connection speed. Therefore, you'd need to test to see how it handles that. For example, Netflix streaming videos dynamically adjust the image quality based on the current connection speed. Software that doesn't do that may become unusable if the speed drops dramatically, as it often does. Netflix also has an example of how not to do things, on their queue on their website. When you select the widget to move a movie to the top of the queue, it appears to move it up one position in the queue, refresh the page, then move it up another position, refresh the page, etc., until it gets to the top. This type of inefficient programming may work fine on a dedicated computer, but not when dealing with web connections of suspect speed. Instead, the obvious solution is to move the movie to the top of the queue and only refresh the page once, instead of up to 500 times.

So, any web-based testing should be run with both high-speed and low-speed connections. I'd even test on dial-up, to see what happens. StuRat (talk) 22:43, 22 August 2009 (UTC)

I'd add that testing should not only be high-bandwidth vs. low-bandwidth, but also high-latency vs. low-latency. Another awful area of testing is that you do not control what browser your users are using. There will be bugs viewing the web-based software in Internet Explorer 6 that do not exist when using Mozilla Firefox 2, and probably vice versa. Tempshill (talk) 03:42, 23 August 2009 (UTC)

Not just bugs, but varying levels of implementation of javascript and the document object model amongst others.

A related question came up a few moons ago about how to find what language a user is using within a browser - the actual implementation of this is more complex that might be thought see [3] - in this case the way the navigator. object works depends on what browser is being used - I imagine there are many more (I'd call this a bug). Assuming you are aware of these issues it should be a design problem rather than testing..83.100.250.79 (talk) 18:44, 23 August 2009 (UTC)

glDeleteTextures

I've been doing some OpenGL programming (in C, no garbage collection). Will I be leaking graphics card texture memory if I don't call this function at the end of my program? The examples I've been working from don't use it, and the GL redbook only mentions it as useful for freeing up memory to put more textures in. 81.131.6.207 (talk) 17:10, 22 August 2009 (UTC)

You won't be leaking memory. The gpu driver will get informed when your program terminates and free (if it's not buggy) all resources allocated by you. --194.197.235.63 (talk) 18:10, 22 August 2009 (UTC)

Excellent! Thank you. 81.131.6.207 (talk) 18:36, 22 August 2009 (UTC)

chess script programming

is there any way to change the script for the chess game that comes with apple computers? I want to tinker a bit but can't find it's programming... Thanks for any help 81.34.109.174 (talk) 17:41, 22 August 2009 (UTC)

It's a compiled program, not a script. You can get the source code here. --Sean 18:51, 22 August 2009 (UTC)

Specifically, here — Matt Eason ^{(Talk &#149; Contribs)} 01:43, 23 August 2009 (UTC)

August 23

chroot and graphical apps: is it possible?

is it possible to set-up a chroot and use graphical apps? I don't want them in a xnest window or similar, I want them to be displayed on my normal desktop, like all other apps. Is this possible? How can I do it? (I already have the chroot prepared) - SF007 - 05:07, 23 August 2009 (UTC)

Yes; but I think you might be confused about what chroot does. Which graphical application do you plan to use? I think anything which uses any dynamically linked libraries is going to complain if you chroot it and deny access to your library paths... are you writing the graphical applications yourself and statically linking them? Nimur (talk) 06:57, 23 August 2009 (UTC)

You could always copy the libraries your app needs into the chroot. The debian debootstrap package might be useful. --194.197.235.54 (talk) 11:13, 23 August 2009 (UTC)

Mediawiki Error - Still

Not writing this againRgoodermote  06:20, 23 August 2009 (UTC)

Chances are, everyone who looked at your question earlier was unable to answer it. Reposting probably won't help. If you can rephrase or elaborate on what the problem is, we might be able to help; but just reposting (especially when the original post is still on the desk) is not going to get you any more answers. Nimur (talk) 06:54, 23 August 2009 (UTC)

Well that is as elaborate as I can actually make it, I can tell you that it seems to have something to do with my version of PHP. As I never noticed it before till today that the PHP number was 5.1.37 not 5.1.33 and some Google searching turned up a lot of people complaining..but of course getting no answers..about this problem. When I updated my version of PHP is beyond me. I also got this little doozy recently "Warning: Parameter 1 to ConfirmEditHooks::confirmEditMerged() expected to be a reference, value given in ***\w\includes\Hooks.php on line 132". Second, I find it unlikely that there is not one single person on Wikipedia who can't answer this question. Rgoodermote  07:20, 23 August 2009 (UTC)

The obvious thing to try is to go to an earlier version of PHP, hopefully without the bug. StuRat (talk) 08:23, 23 August 2009 (UTC)

The Reference Desk is only read by a tiny fraction of Wikipedia users. I promise we're not holding out on you; nobody here seems to know the answer. Perhaps you should contact the developers of the software? --Sean 14:08, 23 August 2009 (UTC)

It sounds like a legitimate software bug (with MediaWiki); try contacting the developers. The message means that a wrong variable type is being passed to a function, which is the sort of thing they are probably interested in knowing about. --98.217.14.211 (talk) 16:45, 23 August 2009 (UTC)

(undent) Thank you to the above, as for downgrading PHP, I tried that, however it's nigh impossible, it for some reason will render Apache unstartable and the error does appear to be related to PHP, however it is most likely related to a variable that was probably removed from the latest PHP release that the software relied on..so yeah a bug. I looked around and it would appear that I am not the only one who is having this issue. Rgoodermote  22:59, 23 August 2009 (UTC)

I filed a bugzilla report. So I'd say this is resolved if anyone else wants to comment. Rgoodermote  23:13, 23 August 2009 (UTC)

To me, this does not look remotely like a bug with PHP. This looks like your extension is not for the version of MediaWiki that you are running. Each extension will state which version of MediaWiki it was designed for (and some work with multiple versions). -- kainaw™ 23:15, 23 August 2009 (UTC)

It ran fine before updating PHP, I used 1.16WMF for some time before and used only the software bundled with it. This only happened when setting up a wiki on the latest version of Xampp/Lampp (those two continually get misspelled by me by the way) which had the latest version of Apache, PHP and MYSQL. On earlier version of the Xampp/Lampp software the mediawiki software worked like a charm. Rgoodermote  00:11, 24 August 2009 (UTC)

I want to clarify that when I said it looked like a bug, it is with the software (e.g. the extension or MediaWiki or whatever), not PHP. --98.217.14.211 (talk) 02:19, 24 August 2009 (UTC)

To those who guessed software bug with Mediawiki, you would be correct. Rgoodermote  03:20, 24 August 2009 (UTC)

"This was fixed yesterday." Love it. Tempshill (talk) 05:30, 24 August 2009 (UTC)

Resolved

Practical measures to preserve privacy and security when computer is stolen

What can I do to preserve my privacy on the assumption that my computer will be stolen one day? I dont just mean keeping credit card details safe, but keeping correspondence encoded or otherwise private? Log-in and other passwords too. (A version of OpenOffice that works with encoded word-processing files would be a good idea.) Something good enough for the average computer -burglar or -fence not to bother with decoding it rather than just deleting it. This is a seperate issue from backing up files. 78.149.186.253 (talk) 13:14, 23 August 2009 (UTC)

The easiest way would be to just encrypt the whole hard-drive or at least the user directory. Most operating systems have ways to do this built into them (e.g. FileVault for Macs). If you want to encrypt the whole thing, TrueCrypt can do this. Doing it on a file-by-file basis is not terribly practical—that's a lot of passwords to type in, and makes it quite difficult to send you files to others, and there are cryptologic problems with encrypting lots of small files. --98.217.14.211 (talk) 13:42, 23 August 2009 (UTC)

I partially agree with 98. Although I've never done this, TrueCrypt can encrypt the entire hard disk, so it will be unusable to anyone who does not know (and can't guess) the password. BitLocker is Microsoft's full-disk encryption system, which comes with some versions of Windows Vista and Windows 7. Alternatively, you could use TrueCrypt to create a single "container" file on your hard disk that is encrypted, and store all your sensitive data in that container file. But it sounds like you want a little more certainty than that in the case of Outlook's .pst files being stored somewhere else, maybe temporary files on the hard disk will have sensitive data — whole-disk encryption avoids all those problems. Tempshill (talk) 17:26, 23 August 2009 (UTC)

I've used TrueCrypt for years and would reccomend it highly. As long as your computer is decent, you will not notice any performance decrease. — neuro^(talk) 15:45, 26 August 2009 (UTC)

Windows Movie Maker

Is it possible to download windows moviemaker to XP without downloading service packs? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 81.197.87.181 (talk) 13:54, 23 August 2009 (UTC)

Windows Live Movie Maker requires at least Windows XP with Service Pack 2 to run, so it's either install the service pack or don't install Movie Maker. (Is there any particular reason you don't want to install a service pack? I can't think of any.) Xenon54 (talk) 17:58, 23 August 2009 (UTC)

Well I can't imagine installing SP2 on a fresh Windows XP over dialup is a fun experience, particularly if you pay by the minute. For that matter installing over a GPRS connection. However the IP looks up to a Finnish ADSL connection which doesn't exactly speak 'slow connection' Nil Einne (talk) 18:09, 23 August 2009 (UTC)

A LOT of things require at least SP2 nowadays; in a developed country like Finland there is very little reason to use vanilla XP (not to mention the security vulnerabilities). --antilived^{T | C | G} 09:50, 24 August 2009 (UTC)

Java: loading only the objects you need

Hello! I'm working on a Java program that randomly creates simple sentences one-at-a-time from a bank of Word objects. Each word object will contain significant fields such as a string representation of the word, gender, part of speech, etc. The only way I know how to do something like this is declaring and constructing every Word into memory:

Word word1 = new Word("dog", Gender.MALE_AND_FEMALE, PartOfSpeech.NOUN);
Word word2 = new Word("man", Gender.MALE, PartOfSpeech.NOUN);
Word word3 = new Word("she", Gender.FEMALE, PartOfSpeech.PRONOUN);
//...

But each randomly generated sentence will only contain a few Words, and declaring all the Words the program can draw from uses memory way too inefficiently. I need a way to have the program load only the words needed for a sentence then dispose them and get new ones for another sentence. So, my question is, what is the most efficient way of accomplishing this? I was thinking about creating a file full of all the Words (or separate files full of related words, like noun file and verb file), and the program just randomly streams in all the objects it needs for each sentence, but I'm not sure how to do this or if this is the best way. Thank you for any advice!--el Aprel (^facta-_facienda) 21:28, 23 August 2009 (UTC)

If each instance of Word only contains a String and a couple of enums, that's really not using very much memory, so even tens of thousands of them won't take up that much storage. It sounds like you should have an array of Word objects (whether initialised from a file or from a static initialiser is up to you). But if you really are very hard-up for memory, and are sure that you only want a few Word objects in memory at once, then you'd need to load them from some randomly-accessible store (accessed by something like java.io.RandomAccessFile.seek) - but doing that will take some kind of index or a standard layout (which means it's a bit of work organising things). -- Finlay McWalter • Talk 21:39, 23 August 2009 (UTC)

What you have is a database, in the generic sense. There are many ways to store data in files for efficient retrieval. For your purposes a sorted CSV file may be suitable:

"dog","MALE_AND_FEMALE","NOUN"
"she","FEMALE","PRONOUN"

etc. More sophisticated requirements might make using a relational database sensible. For anything beyond a toy program or school assignment keeping the data in the program -- and recompiling when it changes -- is going to be a pain. --Sean 21:47, 23 August 2009 (UTC)

Help getting rid of horrible trojan

Hello. I few weeks ago I posted here about a virus horribly infecting my computer—"System Security 4.52". I got good advice to download Malwarebytes, which I did. It was successful in removing part of the virus but not all of it. Specifically, I was able to download it in safe mode with networking, and then ran it, and once downloaded, ran it in safe mode, where it found some of the files, which I deleted. Then I restarted and ran it again (now that I was able to open up the program, which the virus theretofore blocked) and it found more of the virus which I deleted. And everything looked fine—for a time, until the virus came back! I went through the same procedure again, and it came back again, and I've just done it for a third time in order to get online to write this post. Obviously, the virus is leaving something on my computer that is downloading itself back to my computer. I am running Avira Antivirus. Windows XP. Dell Dimension 8400. Thanks in advance.--141.155.22.185 (talk) 23:21, 23 August 2009 (UTC)

If I was you I would backup all my important data, reinstall OS, install antivirus, and scan the backupped data for viruses before starting to use it again, or better yet just dump it and be safe for sure. --194.197.235.54 (talk) 23:53, 23 August 2009 (UTC)

I don't know how to do that. If I could I would do a system restore but when I try it just doesn't work.--70.19.34.166 (talk) 00:21, 24 August 2009 (UTC)

Reinstalling windows should be an easy solution - did the computer come with an XP disc (CD)?83.100.250.79 (talk) 00:37, 24 August 2009 (UTC)

I agree with 194, I'd back up everything, format, reinstall, and start from scratch. You'll need your Windows disc. Tempshill (talk) 02:59, 24 August 2009 (UTC)

I heartily recommend AVG Free, Superantispyware Free and ComboFix.[4] ---— Gadget850 (Ed) ^talk 03:15, 24 August 2009 (UTC)

I would not reccomend using AVG (high false positive rate, low true detection rate) or ComboFix, the latter because it can screw things up if you don't know what you're doing. I've seen many a time where people have used ComboFix and it has caused major issues, hell, I've used it for a long time and it still occasionally goes mental. NOD32 (or Avira, if you're low on cash) is a good AV, but having worked with malware removal for years, I would certainly not recommend AVG. — neuro^(talk) 15:48, 26 August 2009 (UTC)

August 24

all website links

Resolved

I need to way to scan an entire website and list the url of every html page, image, and file in a plain text —Preceding unsigned comment added by 82.43.89.136 (talk) 08:13, 24 August 2009 (UTC)

• Sorry but the only way to do this is to manually visit and get the url for every page

Alex (talk) 11:54, 24 August 2009 (UTC)

bullshit. sorry but web crawlers do exactly what I'm asking, they just download files instead of generate a list of links. I'm looking for something similar to a web crawler, that will scan the site and list every link, file and image. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 82.43.89.136 (talk) 12:52, 24 August 2009 (UTC)

I imagine greasemonkey would allow you to do this, though you'd have to write a script to make it so. --Tagishsimon (talk) 12:55, 24 August 2009 (UTC)

I have a greasemonkey script that can extract links from a single page, but that's not what I need. I need a program to scan an entire website, possibly hundreds of pages, and list every .html .jpg .exe etc etc link it finds. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 82.43.89.136 (talk) 13:08, 24 August 2009 (UTC)

Use wget to get all .htm or .html files (with its "recursive" parameter), then process the files with a Perl script using regular expressions to get the names on all the links? (I don't know the details of this, but it should be possible to learn with some effort) Jørgen (talk) 14:06, 24 August 2009 (UTC)

:( I was hoping for an easy way. I found this program called URL Extractor which does exactly what I want but it's limited on a free trial. I've searched for free open source alternatives but can't find anything. Ah well, thanks for trying :) —Preceding unsigned comment added by 82.43.89.136 (talk) 14:30, 24 August 2009 (UTC)

Try Xenu - it has some save/report options that probably do what you want. Unilynx (talk) 21:26, 24 August 2009 (UTC)

holy shit that's perfect, THANK YOU!

With wget, you can just run wget -m --delete-after -nv http://yoursite.com and it'll do pretty much exactly what you want, although it'll download every file on the website, so it can take a lot of bandwidth/time. If you use this on a site that you don't own, it would be considerate to use a wait interval, like -w 10. This will take a lot more time, but cause less load on the server. Also, keep in mind that using recursion won't show you files which aren't connected to your starting point through some path of links. But other than that, it's an easy solution. Indeterminate (talk) 22:40, 24 August 2009 (UTC)

You can tweak that command in various to make it faster and friendlier, like excluding everything but HTML files and so on. There are many reasons this won't get all links though, as web sites are very dynamic these days. --Sean 23:58, 24 August 2009 (UTC)

Using Nokia AD54 remote control as an extension cord

I'm trying to use the Nokia AD54 remote control as an extension cord for my earphones on my laptop since the cords on my earphones are extremely short. It works well on my Nokia phone and on my stereo but on my laptop (a Dell Vostro) when fully pushed in gives something like a poorly designed vocal removal effect, which I suspect is because it's sending signal L-R to both channels of my earphones. If I pull it out a bit I get left channel on both earphones. The connector on the remote is a standard 3.5mm TRS connector with an extra ring above the right channel. Does anyone know why does it not work on my laptop while it works on my stereo and desktop? Is there anything I can do to fix it? --antilived^{T | C | G} 11:13, 24 August 2009 (UTC)

problem in Excel: left and right buttons navigate bar instead of going from one cell to another

Hello there, everyone:

I have a problem with Excel which is small but considerably annoying. I rely on using the left and right buttons to go from one Cell to another, as it makes putting in a bunch of data much easier than constantly clicking. Suddenly, it stopped doing this and now it only goes moves the navigation bar without going from one cell to another - does anyone know how to fix it?

All the best —Preceding unsigned comment added by 81.202.202.14 (talk) 12:50, 24 August 2009 (UTC)

This is usually because you have your Scroll Lock on. ny156uk (talk) 13:27, 24 August 2009 (UTC)

Anyone an expert on DOS game history?

Please see Wikipedia:Reference_desk/Entertainment#Game 83.100.250.79 (talk) 14:38, 24 August 2009 (UTC)

Unblocking a downloaded file in Windows Vista

I have downloaded an executable file from the Internet, and I am positive that it is not malicious. However, Windows Vista has blocked it, so I have to confirm the execution of the program, everytime I try to run it. This is very annoying. And worse yet: In the file properties dialog box, there is a "Unblock" button, but it does not work! (Apparently this is a bug in Windows - even if Microsoft for some reason really do not want me to be able to unblock the application, the button should not be enabled if it has no effect. I have SP2.) I have tried to run "explorer.exe" as administrator, and opened the file properties dialog from there, but that did not work either. How to unblock the file? --Andreas Rejbrand (talk) 18:42, 24 August 2009 (UTC)

Apparently the zone information about where the executable came from is kept in an alternate data stream associated with the file. One way to supposedly clear up the problem is to download this command-line program. If you put streams.exe in the same folder as your executable, then open a command prompt, cd to that folder and type "streams -d (yourexecutablefilename).exe", it'll delete the associated data streams. Hopefully that should clear it up. If you want to disable the feature altogether, try option 3 on this page to disable it through local policy. Indeterminate (talk) 22:13, 24 August 2009 (UTC)

He can also do it an easy way and right click go to properties and there should be an option to unlock it. Rgoodermote  06:54, 25 August 2009 (UTC)

If you had read my original post three paragraphs above, you would have noticed that this was the first thing I tried, but it didn't work! :) --Andreas Rejbrand (talk) 11:52, 25 August 2009 (UTC)

Thank you very much, Indeterminate! It really worked! --Andreas Rejbrand (talk) 11:56, 25 August 2009 (UTC)

Resolved

Why does the fan stay on after switching off?

I have read that the leading contributor to eventual failutre of electronic components is the constant warming up and cooling down, and that it is better for the components to warm up slowly and cool down slowly. Why then, would a fan continue turning (both my laptop and PC PSU do this) after the power goes off? Surely this is unecessary at best and at worst, damaging by cooling component down more quickly that would otherwise be the case? ----Seans Potato Business 18:54, 24 August 2009 (UTC)

If you have a hot object, that's being continually kept cool-ish with a fan, and you turn off the power to both it and the fan at once, it will be at the same temperature (for a while) but without the fan cooling it will stew in its own heat. Keeping the fan on for a while after lets its temperature coast down to ambient at a more gradual pace. Remember that you're not really "cooling" something with a fan, just controlling the extent to which it heats its environment. -- Finlay McWalter • Talk 19:47, 24 August 2009 (UTC)

Also, while thermal-cycling is probably a leading cause of failure for certain components, (e.g. wirebonds with different thermal expansion coefficients); other components (like semiconductors) are probably more sensitive to number-of-hours-exposed-at-temperature. Migration of dopant is proportional to number of hours endured at high-temperature. Failure analysis is a tough problem; letting the fan run seems like an "engineering approximation" to the optimal thermal profile, given the constraint that it's hard to really estimate the likely cause of failure, and even harder to actually control the temperature in an ideal way. Nimur (talk) 21:23, 24 August 2009 (UTC)

FWIW integrated circuits don't fail because of doapnt migration - much higher temperatures are needed for that that you will ever get running hot (typically 800 to 1200 degrees celcius). They fail for a variety of other reasons, but one classic failure mode was "electromigration", where aluminium atoms are pushed along by electrons and we end up with voids in the conductor tracks. That, like most other failure modes, is temperature sensitive. Of course, if you get the chip hot enough, the aluminium will just melt :-) --Phil Holmes (talk) 08:31, 25 August 2009 (UTC)

I have never seen a computer PSU keep the fan running after turning the power off. Slide projectors do let you leave the fan running after the lamp is turned off, and a myth evolved that cooling the bulb down faster (by running the fan) makes it last longer. The real reason for that feature is that if a bulb burns out, you want to cool it off quickly so you can change it without burning your fingers, minimizing the length of interruption to your slide show. 70.90.174.101 (talk) 07:52, 25 August 2009 (UTC)

I own a "Be Quiet 1200W Dark Power Pro Modular" PSU and it does this by design. There are 4 special ports designed specifically for fans to be connected to them and they keep those 4 fans spinning for 2 minutes after the machine has powered down. I don't have the manual to hand, but the reason was literally something like because it keeps cooling the components down rather than just leaving them hot like a normal PSU would. ZX81 ^talk 12:30, 25 August 2009 (UTC)

August 25

Zipped folders

In Windows XP... is the compression algorithm used by zipped folders lossy or lossless? --72.197.202.36 (talk) 00:51, 25 August 2009 (UTC)

Lossless. -- Finlay McWalter • Talk 00:55, 25 August 2009 (UTC)

Lossy file compression wouldn't work that well. Lossy compression is generally used for things that have analog analogues (hmm)—images, video, sound. The human brain patches together the lost bits or ignores them. For things that are wholly digital—text, for example—lossy compression would totally corrupt it and not be recoverable. I'm willing to wager that NO practical folder compression algorithms are lossy. --68.50.54.144 (talk) 02:16, 25 August 2009 (UTC)

Fair point... Thanks! --72.197.202.36 (talk) 21:39, 25 August 2009 (UTC)

Well spoken, 68... sorry to nitpick (but this is the refdesk!) "Wholly-digital" is probably a poor choice of words, since lossy compression is also "wholly digital" (and ascii text does have an analog equivalent). I think your meaning comes across, though. Lossy compression works better on multimedia data like images, movies, and audio. Our lossy compression article does talk about applications to text, and includes a fairly complicated published algorithm. The simplest one I can think of is simple vowel removal (lvng mst txt stll rdabl to mny rdrs). In general, though, this is not applied by standard file compression. The original poster can be assumed to be describing the pkzip format, which uses a lossless LZ77/Huffman coding algorithm; or gzip (which uses the same lossless technique). But, in general, a folder could be serialized and compressed by any algorithm (with potentially catastrophic results and unrecoverable files). There's no reason JPEG couldn't be applied to an arbitrary input file (we could pretend the bits represented a grayscale image, for example; zero-padding and a suitable spoofed header might be needed to stuff the file in to a standard tool). The result might be fun! Nimur (talk) 03:12, 25 August 2009 (UTC)

Wiki markup

This may be a dumb question, seeing that I barely understand even one other question posted on this desk -- I notice wacky things in Wikipedia that I never knew could exist, in terms of: formatting mathematical equations, colored bands and bars and boxes, large font-almost cartoonish quotation marks, and lots of things I can't remember, but basically, things that are way more sophisticated that just plain text. Is all of it programmed in to be able to work, or do you just play with the markup and things happen (that's sort of the dumb part :) If it is all programmed in, how does everyone know how to do it? Is it listed somewhere? The way I do it is I have to wait until I see something crazy and then I click "edit this page" and try to figure out the HTML (I think that's what it's called) -- but obviously, that's not the way to do it properly, or else the first time never would have happened. DRosenbach ^{(Talk | Contribs)} 02:05, 25 August 2009 (UTC)

Some of it is in HTML, some of it is in CSS, and some of it (the equations) are in a specialized language called TeX. People who do science or math know TeX because it is basically required if you do anything with equations these days in an academic setting (even science papers that don't have equation are usually written in TeX). TeX is powerful but not user-friendly—it's one of those, "once you know it, you know it and can use it a lot, but if you don't know it, it might as well be Chinese" sort of things. Wikipedia has special TeX interpreters that render the code as graphics—it's a plug-in or something like that.

As for HTML and CSS, they are just standard web markup. If you do any web programming you know them. Wikipedia doesn't do anything special with them, other than not filter them out. --68.50.54.144 (talk) 02:19, 25 August 2009 (UTC)

How did we learn them? Some of us have been here a while; you pick up on details and learn how to navigate the (somewhat disorganized and scattered) help pages. First, you might want to read Wikipedia:Template messages to learn about the basic syntax of templates. Next, you might want to read Help:Displaying a formula, Template:Cquote, and Wikipedia:COLOR - since you specifically asked about those things. Then, to broaden your understanding overall about how the wiki works, you can start learning about wikisyntax in general. Technically, the correct term is wiki markup or wikitext, (not HTML). One of the primary roles of the MediaWiki software (which runs on the Wikipedia servers) is to convert wikitext into renderable HTML and CSS (which your browser then uses to actually draw the fonts and images to your screen). Wikipedia / MediaWiki does this with server-side scripting (in php). Technically, you can manually add a lot of HTML into the wikitext area, but this is frowned upon for a variety of reasons. You can read Help:HTML in wikitext for details. Finally, you can read the Help:Contents for a general overview. Some subtle things, like the difference between WP:Project namespace and WP:Article namespace never really get "explained" to newcomers - you either pick up on the detail, or ignore it. If you install your own copy of MediaWiki on your own server, you'll have the opportunity to muck around with more of the under-the-hood implementation details; that insight will help you understand the interplay of all the different components of the wiki. Nimur (talk) 03:20, 25 August 2009 (UTC)

IGGP site missing!

Hello, I am the chair of the Steering Committee of the International Grape Genome Program (http://www.vitaceae.org/index.php/International_Grape_Genome_Program). This page has been operational recently (at least a couple of weeks ago). I checked the page today and it won't open. I don't know what to do. Has it been deleted? Has the link been damaged? Any advice on what I must do would be most helpful.76.193.49.119 (talk) 04:04, 25 August 2009 (UTC)

I can't even access the main page, let alone the subpage you linked. (Though, I can ping the machine, so it's alive). It seems like the web-server has been disabled or is no longer reachable through that alias; possibly, some new firewall is responsible. Your best bet is to contact your web administrator or IT specialist. Tell them the web server at 169.237.195.13, or its network, needs maintenance. If it is managed (as I suspect) by UC Davis, your IT guys can be found here or by phone (530-754-HELP (4357)). Nimur (talk) 06:38, 25 August 2009 (UTC)

CD copyright information

Is copyright information on CDs, DVDs, and BluRay discs, regulated in a way, so that the information may be found, in the same way, in the same format, so that programs may check any copyright info without problems?

For example, Copyright (C), TradeMark (TM), and RightsRestricted (RR) symbols are regulated, so they may always be found in the bottom right corner of the image, name, logo, etc. —Preceding unsigned comment added by HitmanNumber86 (talk • contribs) 05:24, 25 August 2009 (UTC)

Nope. You can safely assume that everything recent is copyrighted. If the author has granted you particular rights (such as under a Creative Commons license), they'll make that obvious by including the license or a reference to it. And no, those symbols are not "regulated" in the manner you suggest. --FOo (talk) 08:08, 25 August 2009 (UTC)

Driver update

Hello there, recently I have upgraded my system. I found a driver update link in ATI catalyst control center (My graphics card is XFX 4890 1 GB). After clicking on "update driver" link, this page appeared and showed that driver update for XP, Vista and windows 7 (both 32 and 64 bit) are available. I already have CD for my graphics card provided by manufacturer. Both XP and Vista showed that G. Card driver is up to date. Should I stick with CD or go for up date to that link? (though 4890 1 GB released on April 2, 2009. It's not so backdated)if I download and install that driver update should I uninstall my previous one, though they are same driver software?

One more thing, if you go to that page you'll see three box. First One is for Operating system second one is for product family and third one is for product series. There I found that two series are available for updating. One is Redeaon 4890 series and another one is Radeon 4800 series. I checked both them and they showed same driver software. If they are same then why they are representing two separate series? Which series I should pick up? Thank you--119.30.36.45 (talk) 08:31, 25 August 2009 (UTC)

Language changes in Microsoft Word (resolved)

Whenever I type the following in Microsoft Word, the set language changes to Russian and the characters are replaced with what I assume are the ones in the same keyboard position on a Russian keyboard:

5. R = 5.5 cm; Q = 20.5 nC; R_in = 10.5 cm

changes into

5ю К = 5ю5 сьж Й = 20ю5 тСж К_шт = 10ю5 сь

Why does it do this and how do I stop it? --superioridad ^(discusión) 09:16, 25 August 2009 (UTC)

Never mind, I figured it out. Incidentally, the 'detect language automatically' feature is incredibly annoying. --superioridad ^(discusión) 09:21, 25 August 2009 (UTC)

Yes it is - it keeps guessing wrong, marking half your document as containing spelling mistakes. — QuantumEleven 11:03, 26 August 2009 (UTC)

Project management software

Is anyone able to identify the program that has been used to create this image (before I removed most of the text in an image editor)? Could anyone recommend open-source software that runs on Windows, suitable for creating such graphs, and for project management in general (single-user programs are ok)? Thanks, --NorwegianBlue ^talk 09:32, 25 August 2009 (UTC)

It looks somewhat like a Gantt chart. If so, there are some OS options on comparison of project management software. --Sean 13:08, 25 August 2009 (UTC)

Definitely. I've been looking through the list and it's quite a mixed bag. I realize that my question should be more focused.

1. I need to insert tasks on a time axis, with their estimated duration
2. I need to insert deadlines/milestones
3. I need to put the tasks into different categories, that are reflected in the graphical output (e.g. with different colors).
4. I want reasonably visually pleasing output (I liked the output in the image I linked to).
5. Ability to indicate the interdependencies of tasks would be nice, but is not a must.

I do not need

• document management or version control
• issue tracking
• allocation of manpower.

Although I asked for recommendations for windows-based programs, a php+mysql web-based program would also be of interest. I installed Planner now on a linux machine, to try it out (it appears to have a Windows version too). Unfortunately, it does not satisfy my requirements number 3 and 4. --NorwegianBlue ^talk 14:32, 25 August 2009 (UTC)

My experience is with Microsoft Project, but pretty much any Project management software should be able to do what you want. Unfortunately, the list suggests to me that not all packages are equal. From the Open Source products, I would suggest taking a look at Project.net, eGroupWare and GanttProject. Project.net requires Oracle (definitely not open source and not free either), eGroupWare has web interface and requires PHP and a database like MySQL, and GanttProject could be limited in what you can do (but it does create Gantt charts). One hint might be to consider resource management as a means to separate the tasks into categories. Astronaut (talk) 22:06, 25 August 2009 (UTC)

eGroupWare looks very promising. I have a hosted account with MySQL and PHP, so I'll try it out. Thanks! --NorwegianBlue ^talk 08:39, 26 August 2009 (UTC)

Game not compatible with vista?

Hi I just bought age of mythology and the titans expansion pack from ebay and at the time I didn't realise that the items advert said the game not compatible with windows vista. I was wondering why this is. If it is compatible with XP why not with vista? RichYPE (talk) 09:47, 25 August 2009 (UTC)

Can you not tell vista to run it in XP mode? I vaguely recall this is an option ... indeed, after right-clicking on an exe, one can select properties, compatibility. Not sure if it'll work for you but... --Tagishsimon (talk) 13:14, 25 August 2009 (UTC)

[Obligatory Vista-hating message] 67.243.4.208 (talk) 16:20, 25 August 2009 (UTC)

hmm I am in a bit of a dilemma now... The game is new and still in its packaging. If I open it and try and run it in XP mode and it doesn't work I can't return it. Someone please help! Thanks RichYPE (talk) 21:14, 25 August 2009 (UTC)

Googling "age of mythology vista" seems to return a lot of people having problems with it so unfortunately I'm afraid there probably isn't going to be a yes/no answer, but it doesn't look good. It might work, it might not. As you know it didnt' say it supports Vista, but this isn't just because the game was released before Vista's launch, it's officially not supported even with patches. Sorry I haven't been able to be of much help. ZX81 ^talk 21:41, 25 August 2009 (UTC)

Current in mac mini

I have a mac mini that seems to be discharging a constant current through it... It gets stronger at the back to the point of not being able to touch it... It's giving off at least a few volts of electricity but definitely more than that... If anyone knows anything about this some advice would be muchly appreciated... Thanks 81.35.161.99 (talk) 10:00, 25 August 2009 (UTC)

Well, I know you should unplug that computer right now and have an actual technician look at it, since clearly you aren't one yourself. -- Captain Disdain (talk) 11:02, 25 August 2009 (UTC)

Well, you were absolutely no help at all... Cheers 81.33.81.250 (talk) 12:37, 27 August 2009 (UTC)

I'm not really sure what help you are you looking for though? You obviously understand the problem you have with it, but we certainly can't walk you through diagnosing (and fixing?) it on the reference desk, because quite simply electricity can very dangerous and it's not the sort of thing that will necessarily make any sense unless we can see it. Like Captain Disdain said, if you don't know how to do it yourself, you'll need to give it to someone who can. ZX81 ^talk 12:52, 27 August 2009 (UTC)

IMAP: Loading all messages simultaneously

I am using a slow internet connection, which causes Thunderbird to take a long time to download each message. It loads each message individually: I click on a message, it loads, and appears in the viewing panel below. On hitting the down arrow, it may take 10sec to load the next one.

Is there a way in which Thunderbird can download them altogether, so I can do something else while they all load? My name is anetta (talk) 10:42, 25 August 2009 (UTC)

Rightclick the account (in the left-hand bar), hit properties, go to the "offline and disc space" section for that account, and hit the "make the messages in my inbox available when I am working offline". It should then download all the messages. -- Finlay McWalter • Talk 12:17, 25 August 2009 (UTC)

DTMF

Why the telephone has to sound the DTMF coding at every telephone call?--Mikespedia (talk) 10:55, 25 August 2009 (UTC)

I don't really understand your question. If you are asking "why does my phone continue to issue DTMF tones after I've dialled", then there are two reasons. Firstly normal phones can't tell if a call has completed - they'd dumb, and just send DTMF tones whenever you push buttons, and it's the exchange's problem to figure out call state. Secondly, even when phone systems are smart (like mobile telephony and VoIP) and do know if a call has been dialled okay, DTMF is used by IVR systems, voicemail, etc., so the handsets have to continue to send them as needed. Indeed, systems which don't use DTMF for call setup (e.g. VoIP systems like Skype) still have to have little DTMF-emitting virtual keypads, so IVR and voicemail apps still work. -- Finlay McWalter • Talk 12:23, 25 August 2009 (UTC)

Phone keyboard

strange symbol on the one key

Why the number 1 on the phone keypad (mostly on mobile phones) has a "o_o" sign? What is it and how does it come from?--Mikespedia (talk) 11:16, 25 August 2009 (UTC)

It's been there on every mobile I've ever owned and on a press-and-hold always connects me to my voice mail box. Since it looks like a stylised tape, I would suggest that. It doesn't seem to be part of any international standard such as E.161. Nanonic (talk) 11:29, 25 August 2009 (UTC)

voicemail —Preceding unsigned comment added by 82.43.89.136 (talk) 12:25, 25 August 2009 (UTC)

voice mail recorder for fixed phones also uses tapes. I have seen in English movies. --V4vijayakumar (talk) 14:28, 25 August 2009 (UTC)

It's funny that we still use the "tape" metaphor when it's incredibly unlikely that tape will be all that useful in the future. Then again, the floppy disk as a universal "save" icon is pretty similar, in that respect. --68.50.54.144 (talk) 21:53, 25 August 2009 (UTC)

Sleepy Hard Drive

You know when you leave an external hard drive inactive for about 5 mins it goes into power save mode? How can I make it do that on command? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 82.43.89.136 (talk) 12:22, 25 August 2009 (UTC)

On Linux you can say "hdparm -Y /dev/yourdrive". More options here. --Sean 13:14, 25 August 2009 (UTC)

In windows go to "control panel", and look for something called "power options" or similar - there you will find various options to control when stuff turns off, and how long before it does that.83.100.250.79 (talk) 13:44, 25 August 2009 (UTC)

Bear in mind that you can run hdparm on Windows. — neuro^(talk) 14:41, 26 August 2009 (UTC)

How do I get songs off of my iTouch iPod onto my new laptop for free?

I created a new iTunes on my new laptop and burned some CD's onto it so there is about 50 songs on my iTunes. However, there are 500 songs on my old iTouch that I want to download onto my laptop but it keeps asking me to erase everything on my iTouch. How do I avoid this? --Reticuli88 (talk) 13:53, 25 August 2009 (UTC)

Try iRepo; you can use if for free (you just have to repossess each song one by one) or you can pay something along $19.99 to do them all at once. I used the free for 600 songs, just because money is tight. It took like thirty minutes. It was really easy to use, though. Hubydane (talk) 15:56, 25 August 2009 (UTC)

What kind of laptop? You should be able to copy the songs off if you are willing to play around in a shell. I was able to get everything off of my iPod in Mac's Terminal with just a little bit of playing around—the music is on there, just hidden in deep and sometimes hidden folders. --68.50.54.144 (talk) 04:23, 26 August 2009 (UTC)

How to add to file to a zip file?

How to replace a file (/dir1/file1) to a zip file (/dir2/zip), without renaming the zip file; without adding any directory hierarchy like, 'dir1/file1' to zip file; and without '.zip' file extension. I tried all options like, 'rjufmTb' and combination, but none of them are working. --V4vijayakumar (talk) 14:09, 25 August 2009 (UTC)

I assume you're using linux, since you're using a forward slash as a directory separator. If I understand your question correctly, this achieves what you want to (Tested on my Debian box, in a directory which initially is empty):

     mkdir dir1
     mkdir dir2
     echo "First version of file1." > dir1/file1.txt
     echo "This is another file in directory dir1." > dir1/another_file.txt
     zip -r dir2/foo.zip dir1
     # ********** Now wait three seconds... **********
     sleep 3s
     echo "NOTE: file1.txt is now updated to second version." >> dir1/file1.txt
     zip -u dir2/foo.zip dir1/file1.txt

I had to add sleep 3s to make zip understand that the file actually had changed, otherwise things were happening too quickly for the time-stamp to change, and therefore, the file wasn't updated in the zip file. --NorwegianBlue ^talk 20:01, 25 August 2009 (UTC)

Thanks. But, I already have a zip file (test) without '.zip' extension. When tried to update / replace a file using 'zip' command, it is creating a new file (test.zip). I am just looking for a command like "zip zipfile_without_dotzip_ext --files-from this_dir --replace_with file1". platform, linux 2.4.27 / bash 2.04.21. --V4vijayakumar (talk) 05:09, 26 August 2009 (UTC)

I don't think that can be done using zip alone. My version of zip (I'm on a ubuntu machine now, but that should hardly make a difference) adds the .zip extension if you don't explicitly type it, i.e. zip foo dir1 produces foo.zip. So, to get a zip-file without the .zip extension, it must have been renamed after being created. Why do you want to avoid the extension, anyway? If it's important to achieve this, you could always write a shell script that renamed the file (adding .zip), did the update as specified above, and renamed it back. --NorwegianBlue ^talk 08:23, 26 August 2009 (UTC)

thanks. yeah, this problem was solved by renaming the file to '.zip' and back. I was trying to do it without renaming. It is good that 'zip' is doing some extra work by adding this extension, and there is no way to prevent it; that is really bad. :) --V4vijayakumar (talk) 09:31, 26 August 2009 (UTC)

Retaining leading quote in Excel

As many will know if you insert a leading quote ' in an Excel cell it will display the following text as entered without the quote, e.g., '01 will display the cell contents as 01. If I want to keep that leading quote I can't find how to do so (have tried many different Number Cell Formats and they don't seem to work).

The issue is I'm trying to get a Concatenate formula to work correctly but am hitting this issue. Abbreviated form of formula showing key part is:

CONCATENATE("*[[:",B4,"|",D4,"]]")

Now say cell B4 contains text with a leading quote, my concatenate formula loses the quote, when I want to keep it in the formula result. I can solve the problem by using two quotes instead of one (so that the first one is 'lost', and the second one becomes the de facto required first quote), but that's not my preferred solution. Any ideas? --jjron (talk) 14:14, 25 August 2009 (UTC)

CONCATENATE("*[[:'",B4,"|'",D4,"]]")? (Your formula plus a couple of added apostrophes.) Now you get an apostrophe every time, irrespective of the source. I'm struggling to understand why you wish to retain the apostrophe when it looks as if you are constructing some wikimarkup. Meanwhile I have checked that IF statements appear unable to recognise the leading apostrophe, which seems to rule out that approach. --Tagishsimon (talk) 14:48, 25 August 2009 (UTC)

Yeah, right on the wikimarkup, but the solution doesn't work. The reason I want to keep the apostrophes (but not hard code into the formula), is because sometimes I want italics (e.g., for species names) but usually not - to get the italics I want to enter ''Homo sapiens'' into B4 and have it work in my concatenate formula when I join it with some non-italicised text. As I say I can just enter '''Homo sapiens'' and it works, but it annoys me that I can't get Excel to do exactly what I want it to! :-) --jjron (talk) 14:55, 25 August 2009 (UTC)

I share your annoyance in this instance. You could enter all of your italic data as '''Foo'', although in the long term this might result in apoplexy. You could enter your species as plain text, have another column indicate it is a species, and then use a conditional formula to construct the wikimarkup. It does look to me as if you'll have to use some sort of workaround. --Tagishsimon (talk) 15:18, 25 August 2009 (UTC)

Hmm. You could attack the problem with visual basic. Interesting read. --Tagishsimon (talk) 20:53, 25 August 2009 (UTC)

OK, thanks for your efforts. Yep, reading that VB article you mention (and from trying to fix this) it sounds like Excel is programmed in such a way that the leading apostrophe isn't even regarded as part of the cell contents, so in effect doesn't exist. Therefore as you say, would need a work around - probably will keep it simple and just go with the additional leading quote (the italic indicator cell would work, hadn't thought of that, but it cuts down the flexibility if you only want part of those cell contents italicised for the final wiki code). Ultimately I'd like to get a bot to do this stuff, but don't have time to learn how to do that in the foreseeable future. Cheers, --jjron (talk) 07:46, 26 August 2009 (UTC)

The conditionality based on an indicator should not be too hard: if(b99="Italic",CONCATENATE(this'a'way'with'italics),CONCATENATE(that'a'way'without'italics)). But it's a kludge. Another option, if feasible, is to substitute some more benign character for the apostrophe - such as a tilde "~" - involving putting the input (if scraped from somewhere) and the output through a search & replace (maybe in a text editor) before uploading it to the wiki. --Tagishsimon (talk) 08:51, 26 August 2009 (UTC)

Hmm, true, could use an alternative symbol for the italics, hadn't considered that either. If so I'd just build a replace into the concatenate formula (an IF to check for it, then truncate the alt symbol and replace it with the quotes), however if I have to remember to use an alternative symbol I may as well just remember to add an extra quote I guess :-). Thanks again. --jjron (talk) 15:07, 27 August 2009 (UTC)

My Roller Coaster Tycoon 3 has an error!

I loads fine, but there is this annoying box in the upper left hand corner that has the games logo, and it wont go away.Accdude92 (talk) (sign) 14:29, 25 August 2009 (UTC)

A screenshot would be nice if you could link it (but, for obvious reasons, don't upload it here). — neuro^(talk) 20:49, 25 August 2009 (UTC)

Windows Live

So I asked on here and the answer worked... But then evidently something changed, because my email address ***@email.lmc.edu now only receives messages. When I try to send messages I get a server error message. Help, please! Hubydane (talk) 15:54, 25 August 2009 (UTC)

What error are you getting? "Server error" sounds like HTTP 500 (which you can't do anything about) or a misconfiguration of settings in your client. Make sure the server is set to "smtp.live.com", port 25, SSL, and check that the username is set to your e-mail address. Xenon54 (talk) 20:42, 25 August 2009 (UTC)

I keep getting these two error messages; the first one is new, since my AOL account -just- stopped working.

1) The connection to the server has failed.

Subject 'Address' Server: 'smtp.aol.com' Windows Live Mail Error ID: 0x800CCC0E Protocol: SMTP Port: 25 Secure(SSL): No Socket Error: 10060

2) The connection to the server has failed.

Subject 'Re: ' Server: 'smtp.live.com' Windows Live Mail Error ID: 0x800CCC0E Protocol: SMTP Port: 25 Secure(SSL): Yes Socket Error: 10060

Any thoughts? Hubydane (talk) 23:14, 25 August 2009 (UTC)

Just a suggestion (sorry if I'm off track, didn't see the earlier discussion you mention).This could be an error at the receiver's end rather than your end. Have you tried sending emails to different people, preferably who use different email providers? If so, do they all produce the same error message? If it's particular to one address or provider then the problem would most likely rest with them (for one address you may simply have an error in that address). Start by sending an email to yourself (i.e., from and to this same account) and see if that works. --jjron (talk) 23:38, 25 August 2009 (UTC)

(See Hubydane's first post about this problem here: Windows Live Mail)

If you use SSL, it usually doesn't use port 25. I recently had to change the servers for my hotmail address in Outlook Express. For the outgoing server, I had to use smtp.live.com, check the SSL option, and enter port 587. --Bavi H (talk) 02:13, 26 August 2009 (UTC)

Tried the port 587 on both of my e-mails and it worked! Is using port 587 the solution to my AOL not sending as well? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Hubydane (talk • contribs) 12:53, 26 August 2009 (UTC)

multi-audio, multi-subtitle MKV file

Dear Wikipedians:

I am looking for a small, sample MKV file that contains multiple audio streams and multiple subtitles. I want to test it out in Windows Media Player to see how I could switch between the audio and subtitle tracks.

BTW, are there any MKV files out there that contain multiple video streams? So that I could switch between multiple videos, perhaps even have a picture-in-picture?

Thanks.

70.29.26.86 (talk) 16:17, 25 August 2009 (UTC)

http://dl.eve-files.com/media/0906/test.mkv is the only one I could find. 30 seconds of some MMORPG, but only one video track. At least you will be able to tell if WMP can play them or not. No problems with playing it for me under Ubuntu. I can tell you that VLC media player (free for just about every OS in existence) has a "Audio" menu and a "Video" menu to switch between different tracks, but there is only one track on this file. I'm sure WMP has a similar mechanism. This forum thread might be of interest to you as well. Xenon54 (talk) 20:53, 25 August 2009 (UTC)

Thanks.

Resolved

For how long will Google retain its advantage?

discussion closed see disclaimer below, sorry to be such a spoilsport

{{{2}}}

WP:What_Wikipedia_is_not#Wikipedia_is_not_a_crystal_ball 69.255.26.5 (talk) 04:58, 26 August 2009 (UTC)

Unknown hard error

I like to play Age of Kings on my Windows 2000 PC. It's a ropey old thing, prone once every couple of months to spates of hanging or crashing, and it's very bad at running Age of Kings - it tends to freeze once in a while and spin the CD for ages. Just now I had a spectacular crash, which dumped me into the desktop with an alert box that just said "unknown hard error" and an "OK" button. Nothing else on the screen would respond to clicks, and when I pressed ctrl-alt-delete, instead of task manager the PC just restarted. It then couldn't find my boot disk. Fortunately when I turned it off and on again it was in a better mood and everything was fine.

I think this is my favourite error message ever, so terse and baffling. What does it mean? 81.131.41.17 (talk) 20:54, 25 August 2009 (UTC)

Hard errors are usually a STOP error that wouldn't throw you to the desktop, but instead would throw you to a BSOD, which would explain why CAD rebooted the PC. It basically means that a driver (or critical system file) is corrupted. — neuro^(talk) 23:12, 25 August 2009 (UTC)

How exciting. I've just been playing my game again and am currently running with no problems, so I'm not sure what to think. I guess I'll try and run chkdsk. 81.131.46.11 (talk) 01:08, 26 August 2009 (UTC)

A better plan would be to run 'sfc /scannow' from the run dialog. :) — neuro^(talk) 14:39, 26 August 2009 (UTC)

Mobile phone comparison matrix

What websites or tools can I use to drill down the mass amount of mobile phones being offered by the manufacturers?

I'm looking for something similar to http://www.wikimatrix.org/. i.e.: Being able to select phones from a range of criterias, then being able to compare them side by side.

Thanks! --jcmaco (talk) 22:17, 25 August 2009 (UTC)

Most websites of electronics retailers will allow you to select a few phones and compare features. (I don't know which country you're from, so I couldn't recommend any.) Manufacturer websites should allow you to do that as well - if you have a specific brand you're interested in, there would be a good place to start. Xenon54 (talk) 23:07, 25 August 2009 (UTC)

I'm more interested in something independent, not tied to a specific manufacturer/provider. Specifically, I want to know which recent phones offer quad-band GSM, tri-band 3G (W-CDMA) and 500+ hour battery life. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Jcmaco (talk • contribs) 23:16, 25 August 2009 (UTC)

In which country? Astronaut (talk) 23:32, 25 August 2009 (UTC)

None in particular. This phone will be used in my round the world trip (South America and Asia are the highlights). Quad band GSM is essential and I think that tri-band (any combinationn) of W-CDMA should allow me to access Internet pretty much everywhere. --jcmaco (talk) 23:56, 25 August 2009 (UTC)

Not necessarily. Many tri band UMTS phones are either 850, 1900, 2100 (more common, the iPhone for example) or 900, 1900, 2100 (there may also be some other combinations, e.g. with 1700). Some may be one or the other depending on the model/where you buy it. 2100 is usually used in urban areas in Europe Asia-Pacific but 900 is planned to be used in rural areas (because of its greater range). 1900 and 2100 are often used in the US and possibly South America in urban areas with 850 used in rural areas. 850 is sometimes used Asia-Pacific. Not sure about 900 in South America but I would guess so. Having said that, there aren't actually that many 900 networks at the moment (like 6 or so and mostly in Europe plus Australia and NZ both of which also have 850 networks last time I looked which was about 2 months ago) and I don't think many 850 networks either. UMTS frequency bands may be of interest. Quad band UMTS is rather rare. Of course you can use GPRS in most places and maybe even EDGE if it's supported but that's not guaranteed but both of these particularly GPRS will be slow. Mind you, you may find given the prices of data in a number of countries particularly on a local prepay SIM (I wouldn't recommend you bother looking at the roaming prices from your own network, probably not even if your on a $200 a month postpaid plan) you probably don't want to use the internet too much anyway, just for emails and the like. In what country is somewhat relevant in terms of the ranges of phones available will vary and you may have to import your phone from overseas. GSMArena tend to have most well known brand phones although I don't know if they allow a search of the sort you want. ESato does appear to, their forums tend to concentrate on camera phones but according to their page they cover all new phones (well I presume that means at least mid to high end ones in the Western world, but it sounds like that's what you want). I seem to recall encountering some other site that seemed to allow comparisons recently but can't find it now. Nevermind found the GSMArena search thing [5]. It does have one problem in that HSDPA and UMTS are distinct. I'm presuming all HSDPA phones will be HSDPA only in other words, if you decide 900, 1900, 2100; you only have to look at HSDPA and UMTS for each. You don't have to look at HSDPA 1900, 2100 and UMTS 900 or something of that sort, but I can't say for sure. Esato may have a similar issue, either that of their database is incomplete since the iPhone never showed up for me. The final site I'm referring to may be [6]. I stress the may since I'm not sure, I kept coming across it a while back but as so often happens with these sort of things can't now. In any case, phones.com doesn't allow you to do what you want, it allows comparisons but you have to select by brand and model from what I can tell (the site I saw was comparing phones side by side with some Google searches) Nil Einne (talk) 19:54, 27 August 2009 (UTC)

I was thinking about your comment and wondering if there was some confusion. When you said W-CDMA, I presumed you meant UMTS as obvious from my comment. This is what W-CDMA generally refers to in mobile phone parlance. UMTS gives higher speed but as I mentioned above is not necessary solely for internet (or pretty much anything other then video calls and push to talk and I guess internet services which require a high speed like video streaming) because GSM has GPRS which can provide internet access albeit slowly. (One thing I didn't mention above, bear in mind UMTS access may not be great in parts of Asia and South America anyway) and although there are a few W-CDMA only networks, I believe the majority of places with them (e.g. UK, Australia, NZ) also have GSM networks with good coverage from other providers. However if you were referring to CDMA2000 the successor to IS-95 (cdmaOne) both of which are particularly used in the Americas and a bit in parts of Asia. That's a completely different issue. Don't be confused by the fact UMTS uses W-CDMA. UMTS is a successor to GSM and so UMTS phones don't support CDMA2000 or cdmaOne as a rule. Phones which support both are usually called Dual mode mobiles or sometimes global mobiles or world mobiles. They are a completely different category and probably less common then quad band GSM, tri band UMTS at least for the major brands and likely hard to find in many countries. I don't know much about the band situation for cdmaOne or CDMA2000 so can't help there and not sure whether the sites I provided are of much use (GSMarena not surprisingly concentrates on GSM phones, not sure if they tend to include dual mode ones). You may find it better just to look for a list of dual mode phones since as I've mentioned I don't think they're that common. One thing I do know, you'll have far more choice if you also look at Chinese manufacturers (and Indian and Thai to some extent). However because these phones don't tend to be sold outside of China and perhaps a few other developing countries with similar situations; and other factors, you usually won't see them in many listings like the GSMarena one. Your best choice may be to use something like Google Language Tools or Bing Translate and visit the official site and perhaps some other Chinese sites. Alternatively you can look at sellers like on ebay and a few other places. I may be able to offer some help here. One thing you want to consider is whether you want to look at only decent Chinese brands, e.g. CECT, Lenovo, K-touch or also at the more random brands who make clones and other random stuff. Probably a good idea if you want a 500 hour battery life since I would take claims made of some of the more random manufacturer phones with a grain of salt, they're often completely fictitious with 6000mAh battery capacities and 3MP cameras that can only save 640x480 images (with the better manufacturer you can at least look at their official websites as I mentioned.) As I've already suggested you can buy them from Ebay and some other places if you do decide to go with one of them, I may be able to offer some tips here if you like (I've looked at but never purchased Chinese mobiles but not into the dual mode area but have seen them). You may also be able to find some discussions, reviews etc from forums, blogs and other such sources. P.S. One more factor to consider, I'm not sure how common [[UICC] or R-UIMs are in the Americas (I think most networks in Asia have them although they don't have them on the CDMA network here in NZ). I believe they not so common in the US. This is significant since it's great having a CDMA2000 or cdmaOne phone, but not so great if you can't actually use it because you can't purchase a SIM for the CDMA portion. You'll have to have some foreign network for roaming, and since it's probably not going to be postpaid, that could be expensive. Nil Einne (talk) 2

August 26

Putty recycle bin hack

A student in one of my classes asked if there is such a thing that allows files deleted during an SSH session in Putty to be automatically copied to the Windows recycle bin. He (and another student) claimed that they were told that this exists. I cannot see how it would work. It would be a rather annoying hack to program. You'd have to first recognize that you connected to a Unix/Linux system. Then, you'd have to detect the use of "rm filename" typed in. When you see it, you must suppress the enter key and launch an SFTP session to copy the file to the recycle bin. Then, allow the file to removed. But, if someone decided to go through all that trouble, I'd like to let the students know where they can download this hack. Has anyone head of it? -- kainaw™ 02:44, 26 August 2009 (UTC)

I've used PuTTY for a while, and never heard of such an extension or tool. However, there are a variety of ways to make a unix system use a "safer" delete. One way is to alias "rm" to some other command (e.g. by editing the .bashrc file):

alias rm='\mv \!^ .trash/'

Assuming that you have created a .trash/ directory. Then, you could map that to a shared network drive, (or something). (Conceivably, your students have been loosely describing an alias mapping rm to scp or something - but I don't know how they're scp`ing directly to a Windows recycle bin - one could imagine a convoluted setup, running openssh on windows and using SSH keys to avoid typing a password for each transfer... can you say "unmaintainable"?). Personally, I do not think it is good practice to alias the basic shell commands (especially "volatile" commands like mv and rm), because it gets the user into a false sense of comfort. Then, when they migrate to an unconfigured server, their safe "rm" is no longer safe - and they have not developed the discipline to use the shell properly. Nimur (talk) 04:33, 26 August 2009 (UTC)

X11 on MacBook

I'm trying to install OpenOffice on a MacBook running OS X 10.4. The latest version that I can find that will run on it is version 2.4 but that requires X11. And according to Apple's site, I can't download a version of X11 for 10.4. The install discs (with X11 on them) are literally 1000 miles away. What I'm trying to do is make it so that my father can open MS Word .doc files on his PowerPC MacBook without having to buy (or steal) MS Word. And getting him to install X11 once he goes home and then walking him through the install process for OOo over the phone is out of the question. I'd like to find a version of OOo Aqua that doesn't need X11 but they don't seem to have one for US English. Does anyone have any suggestions as far as either dealing with the root issue of opening Word docs or the issue of installing X11? Thanks, Dismas|^(talk) 03:52, 26 August 2009 (UTC)

Root issue: how about AbiWord? X11: Only thing I can think of, barring borrowing disks, is possibly downloading an ISO from some torrent site. Technically not legal, though ethically I think one could live with it (why X11 is only available on the disk, I have no clue and have always thought silly). --68.50.54.144 (talk) 04:04, 26 August 2009 (UTC)

Maybe this works? Not sure though.. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Sealedinskin (talk • contribs) 07:10, 26 August 2009 (UTC)

Get it from here: http://cjmart.in/2006/12/01/install-x11-on-tiger-without-the-tiger-install-dvd/ --Spoon! (talk) 07:59, 26 August 2009 (UTC)

Thanks guys! I downloaded that guy's copy of X11 and then went through the Apple Software Updater to update it. Opened up OOo and it worked like a charm! Thanks! (I might have gone with AbiWord but I already am familiar with OOo, so tech support for my dad over the phone will be easier with something that I already know) Dismas|^(talk) 17:54, 26 August 2009 (UTC)

This is probably too late but why don't you try NeoOffice instead? It's OS X-native. --antilived^{T | C | G} 20:14, 26 August 2009 (UTC)

It is too late. He went back home this morning. Thanks though. Had never heard of that. Dismas|^(talk) 22:04, 27 August 2009 (UTC)

about router

when a ip datagram is transfered from one interface to another one on the router,what changes would happen to the MAC address sections of the datagram?please good guys tell your opinions. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Newton2009 (talk • contribs) 06:40, 26 August 2009 (UTC)

If it's genuinely a router (unfortunately people seem sometimes to call switches routers, which they entirely aren't) then it'll send a new ethernet frame (with its own and the destination router's MAC addresses) with the received IP packet encapsulated within it. You shouldn't look upon it as being the same packet with its MACs rewritten. -- Finlay McWalter • Talk 08:14, 26 August 2009 (UTC)

Mobile phone internet protection

Do mobile phones have anti spam, anti virus and defence against hackers from the internet? Simply south (talk) 09:40, 26 August 2009 (UTC)

yes,it does.There are some mobile security software in the market.If you're intrested in it,search "mobile security software" for it.— Preceding unsigned comment added by [[User:{{{1}}}|{{{1}}}]] ([[User talk:{{{1}}}#top|talk]] • [[Special:Contributions/{{{1}}}|contribs]])

Thanks, however that seems to imply that whenever you get a mobile with the internet, there is no protection originally in the phone. Simply south (talk) 18:32, 26 August 2009 (UTC)

Fan controller schematic: comments needed

I've designed a schematic a personal desktop cooling system, which is essentially a temperature sensor, a microcontroller, 4 old computer case fans and a fear-instilling, Doctor Octopus-like suspension, powered by an ancient ATX supply. Being a complete beginner when it comes to hobbyist electronics (I've put together a few designs I found online, but this is my first time actually building something I designed from the ground up all by my lonesome), I was hoping some of the more experienced people here were willing to comment on, and generally audit, my schematic -- I want to be really sure everything is correct before I order any parts. The design can be found at [7] (warning: large image!).

The function of the microcontroller in this design is to read in the temperature from the LM335 through its ADC and output a PWM signal to the fans. Multiple ADC inputs are used in case I someday decide to use multiple temperature sensors; each ADC input has a corresponding PWM output, so each fan can have a separate sensor. The design can also easily be modified to support up to 3 additional fans using the 6 microcontroller pins that currently have pulldown resistors.

Thanks in advance! --Link ^(t•c•m) 10:29, 26 August 2009 (UTC)

I'm by no means an expert but I am a bit puzzled by your design: why do you need R9-R12? Why not just replace the two resistors with a 1k and save some parts and soldering? I probably wouldn't bother with calibrating the LM335 unless you actually have the equipment for it (it's not like you require much precision anyway), and you should include connectors for in-place programming (it'll make debugging a lot easier). Unused pins don't really need to be pulled-down (I don't know about the ATTiny26 but most new Atmels have internal programmable pull-up resistors), and you should leave the unused ADCs unconnected, with a wirepad for future expansion (currently it's almost impossible to connect extra sensors). And one last point, you do know that Molex gives out 5V too right? You might be able to do away with the 7805 too. --antilived^{T | C | G} 11:13, 26 August 2009 (UTC)

Thanks for the reply! The R9-R12 are needed for the manual operation and tuning modes (which I have forgotten to post about); by setting S1-S4 to the constant 5V rail, the fans run independently of the µc and their speed can be adjusted down by means of the aforementioned pots. In microcontroller-based mode, it will still be possible to decrease the base speed of the fans using the exact same pots; e.g. if the fans just produce too much blast. I definitely agree on the ISP and extra connectors (I'll get cracking!). Regarding the 5V line on the molex: that is already connected, but from what I've heard, ATX supply voltages are quite unstable, so I decided it wouldn't be a bad idea to add a regulator on that line to stabilise it for the µc and temperature controller. --Link ^(t•c•m) 16:03, 26 August 2009 (UTC)

The manual mode with adjustment will, however, defeat the purpose of PWM (efficiency) though, since you're just using the Darlingtons in active mode. If I were doing this I'd connect the pots to the left-over ADC pins and do the manual override in software instead. And I just noticed you've connected the 5V line to the input of the 7805. That will give you minimal filtering as the 7805 requires about a volt (at this load) of voltage drop for reliable filtering. If you want a clean power supply you need to connect the 7805 to the 12V line, or otherwise remove the 7805. --antilived^{T | C | G} 20:03, 26 August 2009 (UTC)

The main reason I personally chose to do this with PWM and a microcontroller is that it appears to be extremely difficult to scale the LM335 output precisely with analogue components. None of the cheap µcs I can get my hands on have multi-channel DACs, so I figured I'd use PWM. It's not so much about efficiency for me as it is about getting it done. It's more of a learning and hobby project anyway. Also, if I did the manual override in software, I'd lose the ability to use the full-manual mode without using more potentiometers. As for the 7805, good call. I reckon it's best to hook it up to the 12V line, because I don't want to brick a microcontroller due to a spike on the 5V rail. Thanks! --Link ^(t•c•m) 21:01, 26 August 2009 (UTC)

With a bit of software you can maybe designate different ranges of the potentiometer to different settings, like if the value from ADC is >240 (8-bit ADC) then it's in full auto mode, otherwise set the speed according to the potentiometer's setting (full manual mode)? --antilived^{T | C | G} 07:14, 27 August 2009 (UTC)

How self-sufficient is the Internet?

That is, if everyone in the world disappeared, how long would it be before the internet stopped working? Obviously, it wouldn't be updated, but would simply viewing a page be possible after a day? A month? A year? Thelb⁴ 13:39, 26 August 2009 (UTC)

It would probably depend on one important thing - electricity. All webservers, switches, routers, fibre repeaters, modems, telephone exchanges and computers are powered by electricity from some source. The main datacentres and exchanges will have some for of UPS backup which in some cases will last them for a day or two (depending on whether it's battery backup or generator backup) but apart from that, when the power station stops, it all stops. Nanonic (talk) 14:30, 26 August 2009 (UTC)

Part of the answer is: How long would electrical power plants continue to run, unmanned and unmaintained? Tempshill (talk) 15:23, 26 August 2009 (UTC)

Another way to view the question: How long will the information remain intact? Assume all humans disappear at once. Then, a thousand years later, some aliens come and turn the electricity back on. Will they be able to use the Internet to gather information about our culture? Please don't get into a discussion about what they will think of us when they see half the Internet contains porn. I'm just slightly rephrasing the question in such a way that "stopped working" could mean "is not able to function even if another form of intelligence were to get it operating again". -- kainaw™ 16:02, 26 August 2009 (UTC)

A thousand years should be fine for some storage, but degredation will no doubt be existent. — neuro^(talk) 16:03, 26 August 2009 (UTC)

Half? You my friend are an optimist... or pessimist.

This is an active area of research. It's not only the technological failure you need to worry about - even if the technology infrastructure persists, the connectivity may fail catastrophically. Without a central governing authority, many researchers theorize that the internet will cease to be economically viable, and may schism into disconnected sub-networks. (What is astonishing is that this has not happened yet, despite 30+ years of evolution. Amazingly, the "internet" continues to be economically viable; to have universal connectivity to a single, globally-addressable network; and to be unambiguously the internet, as opposed to many competing large networks that are not mutually accessible, as we see with mobile telephony. (It is theorized that the status-quo is only stable due to government mandate - i.e., phones operated by one brand can successfully dial and call phone-numbers hosted by competitors - as this represents an economic loss for all involved parties). A "stable system", allowed to relax along capitalist profit-motivation lines, is theorized to result in in-network-only phone calls (and similarly, in-network-only IP addresses for the computer networks. Evolution of the Internet AS-Level Ecosystem (Srinivas Shakkottai et al.); Internet Interconnection and the Off-Net-Cost Pricing Principle (Laffont et al) , and A Market Model for Networked Systems (by me) . Nimur (talk) 23:10, 26 August 2009 (UTC)

I would guess in-network-only calls would rapidly result in a monopoly by one provider. That would be the only way everyone could call everyone. People may be willing to install multiple free IM clients, but far fewer people would be willing to buy and pay line rental on multiple phones (some already do for various reasons, of course, but I doubt many people would). --Tango (talk) 23:32, 26 August 2009 (UTC)

I've taken the liberty of correcting some ambiguous grammar in my earlier post. I should reiterate that our current best economic models of network connectivity are certainly incomplete, as they predict an outcome which we are not observing (yet). So, at best we can say that we do not really understand how "the internet" is managing to scale so well; or why its architecture is so resilient to major changes in hardware, software, audience, and usage patterns. It's very hard to predict how the network as a whole would respond to a catastrophic "wipeout" event - but I think a safe assumption is that certain high-redundancy systems would persist long after any humans were around to maintain them. Those systems, however, would fail to be "connected" via a global internet. Nimur (talk) 05:23, 27 August 2009 (UTC)

For the electricity question The Straight Dope estimated that if humans all disapeared, the electrical grid (in North America) would collapse in under 24 hours leaving only a few isolated islands of working electricity. (Their analysis is more detailed than that, and a fun read. I recommend clicking.) APL (talk) 02:47, 27 August 2009 (UTC)

Question about SD card moved from WP:MCQ

I have a sd media card that some how got encripted is there a device i can purchas to be able to uncript those files —Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.136.34.82 (talk) 03:18, 26 August 2009 (UTC)

Could you explain how exactly you know the data on the card is encrypted? Tell us what error message you are getting, and how it is you believe the files became encrypted. Tempshill (talk) 15:22, 26 August 2009 (UTC)

If the device is encrypted, you'll need to know the key (pass) to decrypt it. It cannot be decrypted without it, unless you brute force, which I will not go into. — neuro^(talk) 15:41, 26 August 2009 (UTC)

If the files are properly encrypted, there is no feasible way (no device, no software) which can unencrypt them without the password. You can guess the password, e.g. by brute force method, as Neurolysis has hinted at. Nimur (talk) 23:15, 26 August 2009 (UTC)

Maybe you mean the files have got DRM (I.E. Content Protection for Recordable Media), and you aren't allowed to access them? Unfortunately I'm not aware of a reliable way to break that (and it may be illegal in some jurisdictions). I don't think it's that hard, it's just that few devices use them so it hasn't been well studied. It's possible you'd need a specially designed card reader or at least one with updatable firmware but this is just a random guess. I know some phones (MicroSD obviously) have bugs where they ignore DRM requirements under certain circumstances, e.g. when you aren't supposed to be able to copy the file although that's clearly only when you can already access the file. Then again if you can't access the files with any device you may be SOL anyway Nil Einne (talk) 19:28, 27 August 2009 (UTC)

Simple HTML Question: Forcing Side Scroll

I have the "shifting content" problem with a website i am making. I looked online for a way to force scroll bars to always be on, and i got this:

html { height: 100%; margin-bottom: 1px; }

From the following sites:

http://hicksdesign.co.uk/journal/forcing-scrollbars-now-even-better http://www.communitymx.com/content/article.cfm?cid=528a0

Neither of these sites are clear as to where this code goes. Is it javascript or straight html? between what tags should it go? Can someone please help me? Thanks!

71.214.145.141 (talk) 17:47, 26 August 2009 (UTC)

It's neither, it's CSS. It either goes in a special section of an HTML page or in a dedicated .css stylesheet document that's included. This tutorial should get you started. -- Finlay McWalter • Talk 17:51, 26 August 2009 (UTC)

Perfect, i put the code after the <style type = "text/css"> tag, it works fine! thanks!

71.214.145.141 (talk) 17:57, 26 August 2009 (UTC)

I'd recommend html { overflow-y: scroll; } though - clearer, and doesn't cause a 1-pixel scrolling scrollbar. Unilynx (talk) 22:00, 27 August 2009 (UTC)

Resolved

August 27

Sony Vegas, memory problems?

I've been using Sony Vegas for the last year or so on the same computer, and I've only recently had any serious trouble with it. I'm working with a relatively large project (about 40 mins, many small videos, no HD content, some 300k .jpegs, mp3 soundtrack) and while I can preview and edit it alright (I had a couple problems where the mp3s were imported incorrectly, and as so made no sound in the preview, but it was fixed by reinserting them after deleted the file that sony makes), although I need to turn down the preview quality to reduce lag.

My problem comes when I try to render it (I'm using a Youtube style .avi render that I've used about 50 times before for shorter videos). At first I couldn't figure out what the problem was because the program would just exit instantly, or freeze after a couple percent (progress was very slow), but by looking at task manager it became apparent that the program was wrestling with memory resources.

Vegas will take up to 1,000,000 K in the process monitor, which my computer can handle (physical memory goes up to about 80%) but it keeps on dropping and giving the appearance of "reloading", during which time Vegas will appear to freeze. If I keep the focus on Vegas and make sure that nothing else is running, I can stop it from "losing hold" of the memory for the most part, but rendering still crashes. If I cut the project in half (which is well within the limits of other projects I have done) I can keep the rendering from crashing instantaneously, but it will still crash later on, and it takes insanely long to get even 10% done.

Why is Vegas "battling" for memory like that, when I clearly have enough, and why is it crashing on renders that I've always been able to do in the past? Any help is appreciated, thanks! 210.254.117.186 (talk) 03:25, 27 August 2009 (UTC)

My guess is that some higher priority process periodically demands large amounts of memory. Try using the Task Manager to kill off all nonessential processes, and see if rendering runs after that. If so, restart the computer and go through and kill off processes one at a time, and retry rendering after each, until you find the culprit. StuRat (talk) 13:10, 27 August 2009 (UTC)

MSO 2003 Excel won't open directly from a folder in XP

Win XP, MSO 2003

All other Office applications automatically load a document if I open it from a folder.

However, for spreadsheets Excel itself opens, but then does not open the document. I have to manually load the document from within the Excel application in order to use it.

PPTs, Docs, etc are all operating as usual. This problem started this morning during routine use of the software.

Any ideas?

Spreadsheets are still associated with Excel in My Computer. Double-clicking the spreadsheet loads Excel but not the file. Files must be loaded manually from within Excel. Reinstall of MS Office and restart of the PC did not solve this problem.

I'm stumped. 218.25.32.210 (talk) 03:26, 27 August 2009 (UTC)

In Tools/Options/General tab, check that "Ignore other applications" is not ticked. AndrewWTaylor (talk) 08:23, 27 August 2009 (UTC)

Try right-click and "Open with" and then select Excel and see if that works. It might be that the association is still to Excel, but it doesn't have the %1 on the end of the path to Excel so it's not passing the file across to it. "Open with" (and saving it if it as the default if it works) might fix this is if that's the case. ZX81 ^talk 12:54, 27 August 2009 (UTC)

OP here, AndrewWTaylor's suggestion was on the money. I have no idea how the hell that option got ticked, but everything's back to normal now. Thank you! 218.25.32.210 (talk) 00:45, 28 August 2009 (UTC)

what are the underlying server's protocol

as the subject. thanks in advance!

I'm not really sure what you're asking, here. If you meant to ask which protocols the Wikipedia servers use to connect to the internet, then the answer is HTTP for the standard ones and HTTPS for the secure ones. Many servers also have an SSH channel open for administrative purposes. See Internet Protocol Suite for more common protocols. --Link ^(t•c•m) 06:15, 27 August 2009 (UTC)

The question stuck me when I read the rfc 2616 about HTTP/1.1.the origin is:"A more complicated situation occurs when one or more intermediaries are present in the request/response chain. There are three common forms of intermediary: proxy, gateway, and tunnel. A proxy is a forwarding agent, receiving requests for a URI in its absolute form, rewriting all or part of the message, and forwarding the reformatted request toward the server identified by the URI. A gateway is a

receiving agent, acting as a layer above some other server(s) and, if necessary, translating the requests to the underlying server’s protocol. A tunnel acts as a relay point between two connections without changing the messages; tunnels are used when the communication needs to pass through an intermediary (such as a firewall) even when the intermediary cannot understand the contents of the messages. request chain --------------------------------------> UA -----v----- A -----v----- B -----v----- C -----v----- O <------------------------------------- response chain

Okay, they're talking about a Gateway (telecommunications), which means that the "underlying server's protocol" could be basically ANY network protocol. Realistically though, they're talking about HTTP/1.1 in this case, so they're talking about protocols at Layer 5 and above of the OSI Model. I wouldn't worry about it too much: it's usually HTTP, but it could also be TLS or something else.

Also, please sign your edits with four tildas (~). Indeterminate (talk) 02:12, 28 August 2009 (UTC)

.m2ts Files in iMovie

I have recently been sent a disk containing .m2ts files shot on a recent holiday, but can't import them to iMovie to start editing. I have seen on a mac forum that voltaic software will convert the files to something readable. I just wanted to know if there is something free that can do this and what it would be best to be converting to.

Many thanks 94.3.69.124 (talk) 16:32, 27 August 2009 (UTC)

Scanning Microfilm

I've got a bunch of old microfilms and was wondering if there was any way of scanning them? They're bits of card with a small window in containing the microfilm. I have tried scanning them using my standard flatbed scanner (using the highest resolution - 9600 dpi) and it's better than nothing but I really need a higher resolution. Is there any way I can magnify these things to scan them? I know you can get professional equipment to do this but I only want to scan a dozen or so. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 78.33.180.73 (talk) 17:49, 27 August 2009 (UTC)

Are you sure its microfilm? Sounds more like they are Photographic_slides. If they are in fact slides you will want a special scanner like the ones found hereto do it yourself. Since you only have a few you might want to look for a shop that does it. These people say they will do it for US$0.16 per slide, no idea if that it a good rate or not. 161.222.160.8 (talk) 21:51, 27 August 2009 (UTC)

If you are lucky your library will have a mircroform reader with a scanner attached so that you can digitize it. Graeme Bartlett (talk) 22:18, 27 August 2009 (UTC)

I need a shortcut.

Is there a "keyboard shortcut" for the "back button" in the Safari web browser? I'm using OS 10.5, on a MacBook. 18:18, 27 August 2009 (UTC) (signing) Bus stop (talk) 18:25, 27 August 2009 (UTC)

http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=42951

Press delete? does it work? 83.100.250.79 (talk) 18:33, 27 August 2009 (UTC)

Wow -- it does seem to work. That's really beautiful. I have to experiment with that. Thanks! Bus stop (talk) 18:46, 27 August 2009 (UTC)

Command-Left Bracket works for me. Dismas|^(talk) 22:03, 27 August 2009 (UTC)

Wow -- Command, Left Bracket works too! Great! And an interesting thing is that Command, Right Bracket moves browser windows forward again. Thank you. Bus stop (talk) 16:32, 28 August 2009 (UTC)

This is a weird artifact - Mac keyboards do not have a "Backspace" button. That purpose is served by the "delete" key (contrary to logic - the other delete key on the Mac keyboard has a forward-pointer arrow, but the two "delete" keys do different things). Anyway, in some cases, they are mapped to the same command. Noting that on other platforms (ones with more intuitive user-interfaces, /rant), that "Delete" key is a "Back" or "Backspace" button - so it makes perfect sense to press "Back" to go back in a web browser. The Mac interface tries to clone this behavior, and the result is... "why on earth would you press delete to move back one page?" Nimur (talk) 22:09, 27 August 2009 (UTC)

I use Apple+Left-arrow to go back a page and Apple+right-arrow to go forward. 15:42, 28 August 2009 (UTC)

Amazing -- that works too! Thank you. Bus stop (talk) 16:36, 28 August 2009 (UTC)

OCR program that can screen scrape

Hi, Is there a free tool that can scrape screen for text? For example to text some Google books paragraphs? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 117.204.86.220 (talk) 18:21, 27 August 2009 (UTC)

Very small windows when I click on a link

A few days ago my computer started opening very small windowxs when I click on a link, such as a desktop shortcut or the results of a Google search; but not when I click on links in Wikipedia. The windows are too small to see any of the content. How can I increase the default size of these windows please? I have XP and IE8. I know I can increase the window to full screen, and I know I can drag the sides of the window to make it bigger, but its the default size I want to increase. I have restarted the computer a few times since the problem started - no effect. I have run anti-virus scans, nothing found. 78.146.255.137 (talk) 21:24, 27 August 2009 (UTC)

Try sizing your browser as you wish, then shut it down. Does it behave when you next click a link? --Tagishsimon (talk) 21:45, 27 August 2009 (UTC)

sounds like some sort of virus / adware crap. They do things like opening unwanted windows and alter google search page results —Preceding unsigned comment added by 82.43.89.136 (talk) 07:18, 28 August 2009 (UTC)

Is there a way that I can make my windows xp account visable only by pressing ctrl alt del?

Accdude92 (talk) (sign) 22:40, 27 August 2009 (UTC)

Do you use Windows XP Home and want to get rid of the welcome screen? That's possible - go to "Control Panel -> User Accounts -> Change the way users log on or off" and untick "Use the Welcome screen". Then you need to press Ctrl-Alt-Del on startup and type your username and password, as you would do when using a school or work computer. If that's not what you want, you need to be more specific. Xenon54 / talk / 22:46, 27 August 2009 (UTC)

i want to hide my account so my parents dont see it.Accdude92 (talk) (sign) 22:48, 27 August 2009 (UTC)

Yes you can do that, but you'll have to do some registry editing so be careful or you can totally mess up the whole computer. More information (at your own risk) here ZX81 ^talk 23:10, 27 August 2009 (UTC)

You might want to read about security through obscurity. One of the tenets of modern information security is that the best place to hide something is out in the open - true data protection comes by design, not by camouflage. If you have certain files or behaviors you need to protect, you should read about encryption and file permissions; these techniques are more robust than simply hiding your account-name at the login screen. Nimur (talk) 05:35, 28 August 2009 (UTC)

Google Book work around

I'm trying to upload various public domain images to Commons from old books for use in articles. Google Books does not allow you to "save image as", so the only way I know to get the largest image possible is to go to full screen in my browser and then play with ctrl+ or cntrl- until I get the maximum image I can that is still within the screens borders, then hit the print screen button, then save the screen, crop the image from the screenshot and then upload it. There's got to be a way to get around the ?ajax? to get the full image at highest quality. Well maybe there isn't. Anyway, that's my question—is there a work around?--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 23:20, 27 August 2009 (UTC)

The google document is a PDF based on a book scan. I think the only two options are as you're doing it now, or download the PDF and do a screengrab when viewing the file with Acrobat. --Tagishsimon (talk) 23:33, 27 August 2009 (UTC)

I think I just figured it out! If you go to "plain text" from the links provided in Google Books the image becomes savable.--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 23:45, 27 August 2009 (UTC)

Plain text gives you the plain text, yes. Download (top right when looking at a page) gives you the PDF. --Tagishsimon (talk) 23:54, 27 August 2009 (UTC)

Yes, but why would I need to download the pdf if I can save the image in its full version with "save image as" from the plain text version. Am I missing something? My understanding, basic as it is, is that when you take a screenshot, it is equivalent to a photograph of the screen, so your quality is however close you can get, whereas when you "save image as", your computer is downloading the source image, so it takes whatever full resolution the original has (or allows).--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 00:04, 28 August 2009 (UTC)

A quick experiment I've just done with the first image in this book gave me a fairly tiny PNG using your technique. If I download the PDF, I can get a much larger much sharper image; expanding the PNG to the same size as I can get the PDF gives me a wretched, fuzzy image. So I'm thinking they're creating the PNG at a certain size on the fly, and it ain't a better way to go. --Tagishsimon (talk) 00:14, 28 August 2009 (UTC)

Then that answers the question and it's time for me to go back and reupload a better version at Commons of the image I uploaded earlier, if it works:-)--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 04:17, 28 August 2009 (UTC)

Different books have different license permissions. Books which do not have a "plain text" link probably are not licensed for machine-readable formats (or are copyrighted, or otherwise protected). Technically, you are probably violating the terms of use if you screen-grab or otherwise attempt to perform optical character recognition on that book. (This is a form of analog hole and is a major reason why digital rights management is inherently flawed). Nimur (talk) 18:14, 28 August 2009 (UTC)

I have made no agreement with Google; there is no contract, shrink wrapped or otherwise and no terms of use I must abide by at law. I must comply with copyright law and I know copyright law and upload nothing to Commons that's post 1923. Neither here nor there but Google is the probably the most massive copyright violator in the world through Google books.--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 03:38, 29 August 2009 (UTC)

August 28

mySQL game dbase question from a few days ago expanded!

Ok, I'm back! Here's a more or less accurate breakdown of what my dbase will need to offer.

Category	Input Method	Search Method	Est, Choices
Games Required	Select all that apply	Select all that apply	40
Scenario Code	manual entry, unique ID	hidden	1500+
Date	Select all that apply	Select all that apply	16
Nations	Select all that apply	Select all that apply	20
Maps	Select all that apply	Select all that apply	35
Battle Type	Choose 1 from a list	Choose 1 from a list	10
Turns	manual entry	enter maximum desired	n/a
Day/Night/Both	Choose 1 from a list	Choose 1 from a list	3
VCs	Select all that apply	Select all that apply	10
SSRs	yes/no	yes/no	2
Hidden Units	yes/no	yes/no	2
OBA	yes/no	yes/no	2
Morale	Choose 1 from a list	Choose 1 from a list	5
Infantry Units	Select all that apply	Select all that apply	20+
AFV Units	Select all that apply	Select all that apply	100+
Naval Units	Select all that apply	Select all that apply	10+
Misc Units	Select all that apply	Select all that apply	20
Fortifications	Select all that apply	Select all that apply	5
Total Choices			300+

Required Features:

Admin Access - omnipotent
Contributor Access - can use backend data submission page, can review flagged entries for errors & edit as necessary
Visitor Access - can search and sort dbase, no write priviledges

Simple searching. A scenario must have all checked options in order to return as a result. It may additional details, but may not have less than those marked.
Database must be expandable, as it chronicles an ongoing game series with frequent new releases.
Database search results must be sortable. (ex: fewest maps to most maps, fewest turns to most turns, etc.)
Database core unit will be a scenario entry with unique scenario ID.
Search results must return a list of matching scenarios, linking to each scenario's page.
Each scenario page must be flaggable for errors by visitors.
Flaggable pages must be findable by Contributors/Admins for examination.

I think that's the long and short of it.
I realize this is a big project, but it's part hobby/ part labor of love and the only thing stopping me from doing it so far has been lack of the requisite programming knowledge.
Any suggestions as to structure and composition, as well as general criticism, would be greatly appreciated. 218.25.32.210 (talk) 01:15, 28 August 2009 (UTC)

Well, each of those "categories" gets to be its own table. Think about what fields they would have in them (like it was a spreadsheet in Excel—what are the column titles?). Again, the database part of it is pretty straightforward—setting up the tables with something like phpMyadmin will take almost no time at all. Setting up a PHP interface to edit and search it will take longer, but it's doable. Once you get it working for one table—pick a juicy one—the others are basically identical with small tweaks. --68.50.54.144 (talk) 01:51, 28 August 2009 (UTC)

Thank you for the speedy reply, but I don't quite follow the "each is a table" part. That data would be as presented as listed above. For example, in the Games category it would just be a list of ~40 titles. That's it. So the table would be:

ID Code	Full Name
XXX	Game1
XX2	Game2

yes? 218.25.32.210 (talk) 02:05, 28 August 2009 (UTC)

Horrible time with javax.sound.sampled

Hello! I'm working on a very, very basic "voice recognition" program with Java. The program will execute a block of code when I speak loudly into my laptop's microphone. I just need to use the javax.sound.sampled package to recognize a loud sound in the microphone (instead of quiet background noise) and run the code block. I found the Dataline.getLevel() method, which I think would do the job, but I've been reading through the API for the past 3 hours and still have no idea how to use it. Any help on continuously measuring the system microphone's volume much appreciated. Thank you!--el Aprel (^facta-_facienda) 02:33, 28 August 2009 (UTC)

First of all, you might want be aware that Java's sampled sound system has crummy latency (I measured it worse than 600ms on Windows, and not much better on Linux, even with ALSA). As far as how to use the API, you might try Java Sound Demo, which has code that runs. Also, the official Java Sound tutorial is pretty helpful. I did find, however, that depending on your operating system and driver, some API functions behave "strangely". In any case, it is helpful to read through the "What is sampled sound" tutorial, because it explains the Java object model for the various components of your audio system. The representation of the system into Sound Providers, Mixers, Devices, and Channels, is either "convenient" or "over-complicated". If you've ever worked with a lower-level audio API, you are probably expecting a place to just read a buffer out and get the numeric values of the audio samples - to do that with Java Sound, you need to initialize a Mixer/request the mixer from the operating system; then get the default device; and then open a line from it. The Line object will be able to give you raw read-access to the numeric buffer, but it (and everything it depends on) needs to be properly initialized. Once you have access to the samples buffer, you can run a simple moving average on it to estimate the line level based on whatever smoothing parameters you like. (I believe that the getLineLevel() function actually requires hardware-support, and it has undetermined behavior if your audio card/driver doesn't implement this). Nimur (talk) 05:44, 28 August 2009 (UTC)

Thanks again for the help, Nimur!--el Aprel (^facta-_facienda) 20:42, 28 August 2009 (UTC)

Berkeley sockets

Is there a limit to the amount of data that can be received by a single recv() call? If not, how can buffer overflows be prevented? 70.26.154.147 (talk) 03:45, 28 August 2009 (UTC)

Because you limited your question to Berkeley sockets, yes. There is a limit. The length is given in the form of an int. Depending on the architecture, I believe it is a normal int (not an unsigned int) - so it isn't extremely large. The maximum size possible is limited by the maximum value of an int. There is a catch though when you are talking about buffer overflows. It is not unusual for a programmer to be lazy. I make a buffer of, say, 128 bytes. I recv a message and the size is clearly 200 bytes. But, I don't have my code handle the overflow. I just send all 200 bytes into my 128 byte buffer. The prevention is clear. I, as the programmer, must handle overflow properly. I can ignore long messages. I can truncate them. I can parse them as two messages (splitting them). I can expand my buffer. There is a lot that I can do. Unfortunately, many programmers don't do anything. -- kainaw™ 04:00, 28 August 2009 (UTC),

The OP may also be using the term "berkeley socket" to refer to internet sockets in general. Many higher-level sockets APIs will transparently buffer and protect against buffer-overflow. Java Sockets, which are similar in structure to Berkeley sockets, are merely an API; the actual buffering depends on your Java provider's SocketImpl class (which may choose to buffer or not). Nimur (talk) 05:53, 28 August 2009 (UTC)

I am using a higher level API (which is why I forgot that the buffer length is passed to recv), but calls to recv still cause buffer overflows. Why could this happen and how could I detect it beforehand? 70.27.196.200 (talk) 16:22, 28 August 2009 (UTC)

This question needs some help from Wikipedia:Reference desk/How to ask a software question. What language, what higher-level API? Can you post a code-fragment (preferably, the fewest number of lines that replicates your bug? It's impossible to diagnose your buffer overflow without a little more effort on your part to narrow down the root cause. As Kainaw has elaborated above, most often, the buffer-overflow is "programmer error" but we can't help you identify where in the code that error is unless you are a bit more descriptive about what you are doing. Nimur (talk) 18:03, 28 August 2009 (UTC)

What's Thunderbird up to?

It keeps quietly downloading data in chunks of just over 300k from various places around the world. So far I've had an IP address that resolves to somewhere in Sweden, and then kyoto-mz-dl.sinet.ad.jp, sagres.c3sl.ufpr.br, and my81-91-196-39.mynow.co.uk. What's up with that? Is this how it updates itself, perhaps? 213.122.66.56 (talk) 14:51, 28 August 2009 (UTC)

That sounds very suspicious. Do you have any plugins, add-ons, or extensions in Thunderbird? How are you certain Thunderbird is responsible for those data transfers? Nimur (talk) 14:59, 28 August 2009 (UTC)

My firewall, which has an activity page, told me so. And, actually, I just opened Thunderbird again and this time instead of downloading any data it installed an update. This always happens straight away, hence my suspicion that it sneakily collates the update data in little chunks beforehand during quiet moments. It's quite a sensible scheme (if that's what it's doing), but I wish it would display some kind of "downloading update data" message to stop me getting paranoid. No, I don't have any plug-ins, etc. 213.122.66.56 (talk) 15:18, 28 August 2009 (UTC)

I think you mean anxious, you can't get paranoid if there is a rational cause.

Strange new quirk in Lycos email

For composing an email Lycos now has these two pairs of arrows with the blue rectangle that moves from top to bottom. Where I am typing the arrows are at the top and bottom on the right but there is no blue rectangle because I haven't filled up the box. Why do they need two pairs of arrows with blue rectangles? That makes it so complicated to move up and down when I want to keep the individual components in order.

But with Lycos I send myself very long emails to print out. Lycos is almost ideal because when I can figure it out it gives me the most text on the page when it is printed out, not just when I send the final email but also when I send an email TO Lycos to put in the very long email that gets printed out. I don't like Yahoo or Gmail for sending or receiving because each leaves a lot of white space on the right. And that brings up another question: why can't I get the full screen when I simply copied and pasted? I didn't put in anything that would give me all that whitespace on the right.

To answer another question some might have: I didn't have my own computer until a year ago, but I didn't want to print out every newspaper article at once as I read it. At 10 cents a page, that gets expensive. But if I copy and paste the article and send it to myself in an email, I can combine it with others and print out all of them at once later.Vchimpanzee · talk · contributions · 17:15, 28 August 2009 (UTC)

Are you asking about the scrollbar? There is probably a scrollbar provided for the page; and a second, separate scrollbar provided by the textarea (which is the editable-text HTML component). Some web applications use Javascript or some other technique to change the default scrollbar behavior; others allow your browser to decide how to split the screen up. See layout engine for some technical details on how this process works. Sometimes, hidden HTML formatting is preserved when you copy/paste; this can cause unintuitive formatting behavior in your "plain text" box (especially if a "semi-intelligent" layout script doesn't know how to handle that formatting). You might consider saving the text in a plain-text file first, and email it as an attachment. Nimur (talk) 18:08, 28 August 2009 (UTC)

Yeah, there are two scrollbars just in the email. So if I see those I don't want to use that, because some very strange things happen when all I want is the plain text. I don't even know where the thing came from, because I thought I was creating a plain text email.

When I have a place to save my text, I rey to do it with plain text. I don't even think Hotmail has plain text emails any more, but I send from Hotmail to Lycos after formatting in the Excite box. I like Excite's pop-up plain text boxes. AOL doesn't have them, but they do have pop-up, which is conveneient.Vchimpanzee · talk · contributions · 18:20, 28 August 2009 (UTC)

Monitor magic

Something truly mind-boggling happened to my laptop's monitor. About a week ago, when I turned the computer on in the morning, the display was all buggy. The monitor displayed about 70% to 80% of the total horizontal area, and about 85% to 90% of the vertical area. The display shrunk to fit these new dimensions. Also, there was a thin bar on the right side of the screen, past the border of the normal working part of the screen, that re-displayed part of the working screen. Ergo, if the cursor was within a certain part of the right side of the screen, it could be seen on both the working part of the display and within that thin bar. On the lower border of the screen, anything that touched that border was...repeated along the bottom. So the Windows Vista start button left a stream of button-bottoms, and...well, to say the least, things weren't working right.

However, when I restarted the computer today, it reactivated with a fully functional screen, albeit at a lower resolution. Before I had even completely signed in, it had switched to the proper resolution.

Now, what could have happened over this week? Why would the screen suddenly shrink, only to later regain what it lost? Oh, and I'm pretty sure this is a monitor problem rather than some sort of graphics card / video card problem; I took my computer to Staples look into replacement costs, and we hooked up a separate monitor to it, on which everything displayed fine.

Any ideas?--The Ninth Bright Shiner 22:18, 28 August 2009 (UTC)

I've seen this in improperly configured video drivers. The RAMDAC is being filled at a resolution which does not match the vsync and hsync clock frequencies (usually due to a video driver error). That means you get a miniature screen, and memory address aliases the screen data to appear somewhere else on the monitor. The result is a beautifully catastrophic example (one of the few!) of a broken digital system that is "half-functional" (usually it's all or nothing with digital hardware!) This glitch often happens when the system is woken from hibernate (if it went to sleep at a non-standard resolution); or if you are experience graphics controller hardware or driver problems. It's almost impossible to be sure what is causing the trouble in your particular system though. Nimur (talk) 22:49, 28 August 2009 (UTC)

Commons?

Why does http://www.wikimediacommons.org lead to the main page? Intelligentsium 23:26, 28 August 2009 (UTC)

You should probably ask dns-admin at wikimedia.org that question. --Tagishsimon (talk) 23:32, 28 August 2009 (UTC)

http://www.wikimedia.org produces an interproject dab. Intelligentsium 01:24, 29 August 2009 (UTC)

That is a little weird, seems like a mistake. I would definitely email dns-admin. — neuro^(talk) 01:41, 29 August 2009 (UTC)

You might also try clearing your cache, or trying a different browser on the same computer to verify the problem is on wikimedia's end. Indeterminate (talk) 04:32, 29 August 2009 (UTC)

August 29

BSODs referencing nvidia display driver with new 260GTX

Resolved

 – May or may not be resolved. — neuro^(talk) 03:08, 29 August 2009 (UTC)

I've just reformatted my PC and put all my games back on, the games seem to run fine generally, but I'm getting a weird STOP error which I haven't had before. It references nv4_disp, and I've took a look in WinDebug but apparently the x86 SP3 kernel symbols I have on my PC are wrong, so all I can really find out is 'something went wrong with the display driver'. I'm running a brand new 260GTX (stock) on the 190.62 forceware drivers. Overheating is not the issue, the temperatures are fine, and it crashes at various temperatures (but only in games). I've uploaded two minidumps generated from the crash, hopefully they should be able to help in diagnosing what exactly is causing this (but as I say, for some reason WinDbg won't work for me). Thanks a lot in advance. :) — neuro^(talk) 01:40, 29 August 2009 (UTC)

Google suggests this might be an error with the newest drivers themselves. Going to roll back to an earlier version (186.18) and see what happens. — neuro^(talk) 01:48, 29 August 2009 (UTC)

Seems to be working with 186.18. Marking as resolved for now, will do more rigorous testing tomorrow. — neuro^(talk) 03:08, 29 August 2009 (UTC)

Firefox addons

What's the name of the Firefox extension that overrides the version check and allows you to use old addons on new Firefox? I used to have it but I can't remember the name. Thanks!