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November 16

Quantum microprocessor

As an imaginative student, I have followed the development of quantum computers. I know that they are in service in some institutions, and or research. But what is taking so long for Intel and the other companies to develop a quantum microprocessor chip being used in PCs, laptops, etc.? Also, can quantum technology be used for data storage? data transfer? If it doesn't cause too much trouble, please respond to my talk page. Thanks! —Preceding unsigned comment added by LastLived (talk • contribs) 03:08, 16 November 2009 (UTC)

If you're interested in an answer you'll look here. Answers are put on the reference desk for other people besides the original poster. The reason quantum computers are taking a long time to develop is that it is a very hard problem. It'll probably take as long as fusion reactors which still aren't in a production phase. The main reason is the problem of decoherence and there's a sectiion about that on the quantum computer page. Dmcq (talk) 03:25, 16 November 2009 (UTC)

The problem is that the qubits used for the computation have to be kept in perfect thermodynamic isolation from the environment for the whole time needed for the computation. That's hard, perhaps impossible. Nothing like a real quantum computer has ever been successfully built anywhere, even as a research prototype. There have been a few claims to "factor 15 using Shor's algorithm", but I think those are mainly publicity stunts.

In theory, quantum computers could displace classical computers entirely because you can run classical algorithms on a quantum CPU attached by a quantum bus to quantum RAM, a quantum hard drive, and a quantum networking card connected to the quantum Internet. In practice, I seriously doubt that will ever be economical because it's so much easier to engineer reliable classical hardware. The known quantum algorithms wouldn't be of much use to a typical person anyway. -- BenRG (talk) 11:40, 16 November 2009 (UTC)

BenRG's final sentence is the point you should focus on. Quantum computers won't make everything magically faster; they're interesting and important because they could compute things that simply cannot^* be computed now, which we're obviously doing just fine without. If they are ever made practical, the most likely scenario is that at some point you'll just have a quantum computer peripheral for when you need to break into the NSA. --Sean 14:48, 16 November 2009 (UTC)

Droid vs Blackberry Bold 9700

I use the cell phone for texting, calling people, surfing the internet briefly, using Facebook and using the turn-turn directions offered on my AT&T Blackberry Curve. There are no other features or apps I necessarily use or need. However, I am going to upgrade soon. Which phone would be better for me?--Reticuli88 (talk) 14:02, 16 November 2009 (UTC)

It sounds like you're happy with what you've got, and I assume the newer Blackberry is similar to the one you've got now, so it probably makes the most sense for you. The biggest difference in your daily experience of it will probably be the physical keyboard on the Blackberry versus the virtual keyboard on the Droid. People have strong opinions on both sides of that question. Oops, didn't look hard enough. --Sean 14:50, 16 November 2009 (UTC)

The Droid has a physical keyboard. If you're happy with your Blackberry, there's no sense in finding a new OS you are unfamiliar with. Both are capable of doing what you want, so any recommendation would be a matter of opinion. Try store models out and see what you like the feel of best. I personally hate the Droid's keyboard so I wouldn't pick it, but I also know people who absolutely love the feel of its keys. 206.131.39.6 (talk) 19:08, 16 November 2009 (UTC)

Thank you guys! I'm sticking with the Blackberry! --Reticuli88 (talk) 13:24, 17 November 2009 (UTC)

As (almost) always, there is a (vaguely) relevant xkcd strip. AndrewWTaylor (talk) 13:27, 17 November 2009 (UTC)

Web design news sites

Hi, does anyone know a regularly-updated news site or blog on web design? Where can I find info on web design, new web browser releases, tips and tricks of HTML/CSS, pointers to basic scripting (be it server-side or client-side), and so on? I'm thinking along the lines of Groklaw/OSNews/Linux Weekly News/etc. Thanks. --Kjoonlee 15:19, 16 November 2009 (UTC)

http://www.useit.com/alertbox/ has much about how not to design web sites. But little in the way of code - all more strategic. -- SGBailey (talk) 15:34, 16 November 2009 (UTC)

I have found A List Apart to be pretty useful at times. --Mr.98 (talk) 01:48, 17 November 2009 (UTC)

No... the absolutely best thing for webdesign is Script and Style. It's like the Digg of webdesign. They have about 10 entries per day. 129.97.226.160 (talk) 21:43, 17 November 2009 (UTC)

Virgin Media broadband downtime

Is Virgin Media broadband in the London area down right now? Is there a way I can check online, like a status page or something? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 82.43.88.87 (talk) 22:10, 16 November 2009 (UTC)

The status page is at http://status.virginmedia.com/ if there are no problems listed for your area, check the daily update page. Nanonic (talk) 22:31, 16 November 2009 (UTC)

Thanks! Could I ask one more favor, under the boardband tab on that page, is the circle red for you? It's red for me, so I guess that shows there's a problem, but could you confirm? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 82.43.88.87 (talk) 22:37, 16 November 2009 (UTC)

Yes it's red for me, however I used to be a virgin customer and would check that page daily and that little icon NEVER went green. I notice from the regional selection dropdown that there are outages in N6 and KT4 at the moment in the London area. Nanonic (talk) 22:57, 16 November 2009 (UTC)

November 17

Keep browsing private from network administrator?

Hi all,

Is there a way to browse the web from within my company's network while keeping my browsing habits from my network's administrator? Are there services that can encrypt your requests and encrypt the response, perhaps?

Thanks, Sam 01:54, 17 November 2009 (UTC)

Try a web proxy, like https://www.letmesurf.co.uk/. There's also an http://www.letmesurf.co.uk/, but make sure whatever proxy you use has an s after the HTTP, as that encrypts everything. These web proxies are better than regular proxies, because they hide the URL you're visiting. You could also use a regular SOCKS or HTTPS proxy to browse encrypted to an HTTP web proxy site like Let me Surf. If they have key loggers installed, then you'd need to hide what you type by typing the letters out of order. For example, Google.com could be typed backwards and you could use your arrow keys to move to the left after each letter. You could also try to confuse them by browsing to each site's IP address instead of the URL, after converting the IP to binary 0s and 1s and then pasting the binary into your address bar. Browsers understand binary IPs, but humans have a really hard time with them.--Drknkn (talk) 02:12, 17 November 2009 (UTC)

Tor would also do what you want. It has some additional assumptions you want to check on, and the fact you were using it would be apparent to anyone looking at outgoing traffic on a detailed level (although basic HTTP filters wouldn't know what the traffic was).

Another way would be to login to a home computer and browse from there. Windows Remote Desktop would be ideal for this. VNC would work too, but native it is unencrypted so you would want to tunnel the vnc protocol using an encrypted protocol. If the link was encrypted, anyone looking at it would only see the link to the home machine.

None of this would help if the actual machine it's coming from is under the eavsedropper's control.

Obviously if this behavior violates the employer's terms of service, you shouldn't do it. But this information is pertinent to other unprotected network connections, like wifi hotspots. Shadowjams (talk) 02:20, 17 November 2009 (UTC)

It depends what your administrator has done to prevent you. It may not be possible to use Remote Desktop if your admin has banned that. It may not be possible to use any other protocol, since your admin could have potentially banned all except web browsing. If they've done this, they could use a proxy themselves to see all the traffic you pass. It's even possible for them to intercept https (normally secure) traffic by spoofing the certificate for the site you're visiting and fixing your browser so that it accepts the spoofed certificate. So, depending on how much effort your admin has gone to, the possible answer is no. If your job is important to you, it would be wise to stick to the rules concerning accessing the web. --Phil Holmes (talk) 10:36, 17 November 2009 (UTC)

I was going to say nearly as much as Mr. Holmes but it seems he said it all. Your network administrator will see you using proxy servers or TOR. Although they may not know what you are doing, they will get suspicious. Best to just follow the rules at work.--TParis00ap (talk) 20:43, 17 November 2009 (UTC)

You could use a cell card in a laptop or a modern cell phone (iPhone, Android, etc) to do your personal browsing (during your lunch break, right?). That's the only way I could think you'd avoid suspicion... unless they use CCTV to monitor employees. That does cost money though. 206.131.39.6 (talk) 21:27, 17 November 2009 (UTC)

Very strange web domain

I noticed that §.com is (apparently) a valid web domain. I did not think that this was possible (i.e. characters not within the English Alphabet/base 10 numbers/'-')? --Joe^Talk_Work 03:51, 17 November 2009 (UTC)

See Internationalized domain name. -- kainaw™ 04:01, 17 November 2009 (UTC)

Wow. Interesting. Thanks for the quick reply. --Joe^Talk_Work 05:35, 17 November 2009 (UTC)

Free small biz website design/host site?

Office Live is free. Is there any similar free site? Intuit's Homestead charges $60 a year. I need only extremely simple site for an elderly person who knits once in a while, so it's a very low volume "business." Thanks. Imagine Reason (talk) 15:56, 17 November 2009 (UTC)

Are they just trying to sell knitted items occasionally? Might I recommend using something like Etsy instead? It is a lot easier than hosting your own website, and also has the benefit of being something that people might actually stumble across while looking for craft items. It is not strictly free (there is a 20 cent charge to list items, and they take 3.5% of each sale), but it is a LOT easier and more reliable and has more exposure than hosting your own free site will be. --Mr.98 (talk) 16:20, 17 November 2009 (UTC)

Redirect I/O error messages from a Linux Ctrl-Alt-Fkey console

A minute ago in Kubuntu, when I pressed Ctrl-Alt-F1, I kept getting a message about once per second, "Buffer I/O error on device sdh1, logical block 3", preceded by a number in square brackets. I pressed Ctrl-Alt-F2 to open another console so that these messages would stop interfering with my attempts to fix the problem from the command line. But they would always output to whichever console actually had the screen. How do I stop this and make them always output to, say, the Ctrl-Alt-F1 console? (I know how to redirect error output from a program when invoking it, but this was clearly from a program that was already running.) NeonMerlin 16:27, 17 November 2009 (UTC)

See man rsyslog.conf. --194.197.235.240 (talk) 18:09, 17 November 2009 (UTC)

Online Image Editor w/Brushed Edges Effect

Does anyone know of an online image editor that can give a brushed edges effect? There is some free software you can get for Mac that does it very well, but my Mac cable is broken so I'm stuck with Vista for the moment and would like to do some editing while I wait for my new cable to arrive. All I need is the brushed edges effect, as I can do most else (and can't be bothered doing this particular effect with GIMP). --KageTora - SPQW - (影虎) 18:38, 17 November 2009 (UTC)

I can't remember where, but I've seen an online version of Photoshop in a very slim down version. You might try the adobe site.--TParis00ap (talk) 20:32, 17 November 2009 (UTC)

Have you tried [1]? --Andreas Rejbrand (talk) 21:08, 17 November 2009 (UTC)

... or [2]? --Andreas Rejbrand (talk) 21:12, 17 November 2009 (UTC)

Excellent! SumoPaint has a brush I could use! Thanks! --KageTora - SPQW - (影虎) 21:43, 17 November 2009 (UTC)

You could also try http://www.splashup.com - their interface is much like photoshop's and free -- penubag  (talk) 21:57, 17 November 2009 (UTC)

Internet connection monitor

Resolved

Is there any program that will monitor my actual computers connection to the internet and tell me of any times when the connection is lost?

Windows will do that. Just go to network connections -> right mouse click the network adapter -> click properties -> click "Show connection in status bar".--TParis00ap (talk) 20:34, 17 November 2009 (UTC)

Yeah but I can't sit at the computer all day looking at the status bar. I want something that'll monitor it constantly and log any loss of internet connection. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 82.44.55.114 (talk) 21:51, 17 November 2009 (UTC)

You could set up a VBScript and use Windows Scheduled tasks to run it. This script would use the XMLHTTP object in VBScript to try to access google and if it fails, you can use CDOSYS.sys to send an email but you'd have to find an open SMTP server to relay it for you. If you lost a network connection, how are you supposed to get notified other than by sitting at your computer? Or are you looking to store it in a log? If so, like I said, you could use the XMLHTTP object in VBScript to constantly check google and then if it ever fails use the filysystemobject to append the end of a log file.--TParis00ap (talk) 21:59, 17 November 2009 (UTC)

Thank you but I don't understand about scripts. I just want a simple program that will monitor the connection and log when it loses it's connection to the internet —Preceding unsigned comment added by 82.44.55.114 (talk) 23:40, 17 November 2009 (UTC)

I think pingplotter is what you want. (Me too; I use a DSL connection occasionally which drops out for a minute or longer every so often; I've yet to figure it out & I'm never using it when tech support people are available. It's been going on for years :( --Tagishsimon (talk) 23:48, 17 November 2009 (UTC)

This is perfect thank you!

cannot connect to wireless network

Hello wikipedians my new housemate cannot connect to the wireless network at my house. He has windows XP on his laptop. He has connected to my house's wireless network and receives excellent signal strength. When he opens up internet explorer he can't surf the web. I pressed diagnose connection problems and the following message was the result: 'Windows cannot connect to the internet using HTTP HTTPS or FTP. This is probably caused by the firewall settings on this computer. Check the firewall settings for the HTTP port (80) HTTPs port (443) and FTP port (21). You might need to contact your ISP or manufacturer of your firewall software.' I tried disabling his firewall but still couldn't connect to the internet. Any suggestions? Thanks RichYPE (talk) 19:51, 17 November 2009 (UTC)

Did you check to make sure that he did not have a proxy configured? Also, is your Wifi configured to only allow any certain MAC addresses? Can he get to the internet on other wireless connections? You can try uninstalling/reinstalling the TCP Protocol (Remove/add it from Network Connections -> right mouse click on the adapter -> properties) but that will only help if the problem is if it is corrupted - I've only had that ever happen once. Did you try pinging google from a command prompt? Try pinging an ip address. Did you verify he is picking up a gateway and DNS server from your router?--TParis00ap (talk) 20:31, 17 November 2009 (UTC)

I would recommend as a first step opening a command prompt and typing ipconfig. Check the IP address - if it start 169.254 then you don't have a connection to the wireless network and probably need to sort out something like the security sessions. Any other IP address - probable OK and try typing "ping www.google.com" in the command prompt. --Phil Holmes (talk) 14:14, 18 November 2009 (UTC)

html remote save php

I'm trying to create a webpage where I can input a URL to a form, then the page will grab the html of the URL and save it along with all images. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 82.44.55.114 (talk) 20:33, 17 November 2009 (UTC)

Use the php function called fopen and then use the php filesystem object to save the file. Piece of cake. Of course, you'll have to read the source and pick each image out then use fopen in a loop to save them. Also, for the images, you'll have to save it in binary form, if you don't specifically save as binary - it won't work.--TParis00ap (talk) 20:36, 17 November 2009 (UTC)

thanks!

Some hosts disable the ability to fopen() remote URLs, make sure your allows it or you run it on your own PHP installation. --antilived^{T | C | G} 23:35, 17 November 2009 (UTC)

I'm not sure if you are doing this just to learn, but if it were me, I would use the php snoopy class to parse the pages for URLs. It makes life a lot easier. --Mr.98 (talk) 02:32, 18 November 2009 (UTC)

I would use a system call to wget to save the whole page. Much easier than attempting to rewrite wget in PHP. -- kainaw™ 04:17, 18 November 2009 (UTC)

My Vista laptop has a default Administrator account with blank password?!

I am concerned about the weak network settings of my computers. I am a student on a student home network with a desktop and a laptop. I followed this tutorial for Cain (software) and was able to "hack" into my laptop using username 'Administrator" with a blank password. I did not follow the instructions to install Abel onto my laptop. I went to my laptop and to the user accounts via Control Panel. I want to give the Administrator account a password but a) it does not appear in the list of user accounts and b) it is not possible to create the account (with a password) because the computer complains it already exists. How can I fix this security flaw? ----Seans Potato Business 23:15, 17 November 2009 (UTC)

Hi Sean! Try this one: Click on Start > Run >> Type in "Control userpasswords2" and hit enter. "Control userpasswords2". This seems to be a good first resource. http://wiki.ljackson.us/Control_Userpasswords2 Any other questions? Please feel free to reply. :) Kushal (talk) 00:58, 18 November 2009 (UTC)

Hi. Thanks for the reply, but unfortunately this solution seems to suffer the same problem - the account is apparently hidden. It does not appear in the list of accounts (despite the fact that my account (the only account shown and the only account that I myself set up on the machine) is a member of the group 'Administrators'). If I click on the 'advanced' tab and then the 'advanced' button under 'Advanced user management', I get something telling me I can't use this "snap in" because I only have Vista Home Premium. ----Seans Potato Business 01:32, 18 November 2009 (UTC)

Windows generally renames the root Admin account to whatever you set when you setup Vista. It can be accessed via "Administrator" or your user account. The admin account is likily the primary account you use. Just add a password to your primary account and that should fix the problem. Ie, let's say your running Vista set up and it says "What is your name" and you type "Bob" -> then Bob is not the exact same account as "Administrator" is. Same SSID and everything. If you go to the registry and go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\ProfileList that lists every profile on your computer. You'll notice there will not be an "Administrator". As I said, this is because the SSID (each folder under profile list) is the same for both "Administrator" and "Bob". DISCLAIMER: I am not certified in anything (not A++ especially) so I am giving this a 95% certainty rating on my scale of "things I think I know but I could be wrong."--TParis00ap (talk) 03:07, 18 November 2009 (UTC)

I think you have a meaning-altering typo: "not" should have been "now" in the post above. I think the description above does not apply to all versions of Windows (specifically not to the server editions), but it looks accurate for the "Home"-branded Windows editions. Nimur (talk) 04:46, 18 November 2009 (UTC)

(From personal experience administering my wife's Compaq laptop, with pre-installed Vista...) In Windows Vista Home Basic, there is a separate Administrator account which is disabled. It can be enabled by a user who has administrator privileges (which the initial user after first run will have) by the user running a Command Prompt "as administrator" then typing "net user administrator /active:yes". The default password is empty, so if you enable the account, it would be wise to set a password.
(From personal experience installing XP on my own PC...) Windows XP Pro Corporate (SP2, SP3) has a separate Administrator account which is enabled by default with an empty passord. It is not visible on the "welcome screen" or the "user accounts" control panel if there exists another user in the Admin group, however it becomes visible if it is the only user in the Admin group. However (I believe) that it is always visible in Computer Management, Local Users and Groups (which is not available in Vista Home Basic). When XP is installed, it prompts for at least one user (other than Administrator) who becomes a member of the Administrators group. However good practice is to use the real Administrator to do actual administration and make the normal users NOT administrators, to reduce the risk of malware. If you're using the "Welcome Screen" you can log in as Administrator even if it is not visible, by pressing Ctrl-Alt-Del twice to get the "classic" login prompt. Mitch Ames (talk) 06:11, 18 November 2009 (UTC)

The SSIDs are different according to CAIN. Also, I was able to login with username: Administrator and password [blank] despite the fact that I set a password for my personal account. --Seans Potato Business 12:13, 18 November 2009 (UTC)

The solution to the problem on Vista is to run CMD as administrator and type Net user Administrator [password] (replacing [password] with your chosen password). On XP, it's the same except it's probably not necessary to context-click > run CMD as administrator, provided the user already has administrator privileges. --Seans Potato Business 12:16, 18 November 2009 (UTC)

I think, in Windows XP/Vista/7, if the Administrator account has a blank password its network access is disabled. It can only be compromised by physical access to the machine.

Also, keep in mind, you can hack Windows XP/Vista/7 passwords with a Linux-based bootable CD. So your machine is never really secure physically, but can be secure on the net. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 67.248.251.195 (talk) 17:40, 18 November 2009 (UTC)

Another alternative (at least on XP, I'm not sure about Vista or 7) is to boot the computer in Safe Mode; the root sysadmin account will be amongst the listed accounts there. Log on as the root account, enter the Control Panel, and give it a password - I can tell you from experience that this works. -Jeremy ^{(v^_^v Stop... at a WHAMMY!!)} 11:12, 19 November 2009 (UTC)

November 18

Virteal microscope

I have download virtal microscope 6.2.2 .But I could not install it ,which programme is used to install it . --True path finder (talk) 00:17, 18 November 2009 (UTC)mks

It looks like a standard EXE file to me. Are you on Windows? Are you sure you didn't accidentally download the Macintosh or Unix versions? APL (talk) 21:50, 18 November 2009 (UTC)

I have download version for windows —Preceding unsigned comment added by True path finder (talk • contribs) 18:01, 19 November 2009 (UTC)

2wire gateway/DSL modem "Excessive sessions warning"

My antivirus subscripton just expired two days ago so Norton has ceased to protect my computer. When I was browsing Facebook, I got this message titled "Excessive sessions warning" saying "Your 2701HG-S Gateway has intercepted your web page request to provide you with this important message. The following devices on your network are using a large number of simultaneous Internet sessions:

Admin-PC

The most likely cause of this issue is a ~blaster~ type virus which has infected the device. It is strongly recommended that the devices above be scanned for potential viruses.

Note that a large number of sessions may occasionally be the result of application software or gaming software installed on the device. If you believe this is the case, click the ~Do not show me excessive session warnings in the future~ to disable this feature.

To access the requested Web page that was intercepted, please close all browser windows and then restart your Web browser software.

If you continue to see this page after closing all open Web browser windows, restart your computer." I maintain a zero tolerance policy for botnets/maicious use, so the device will be formatted, but I was wondering if anyone could indentify what exactly it is that's causing this using this HiJackThis log. PCHS-NJROTC ^(Messages) 03:58, 18 November 2009 (UTC)

Logfile of Trend Micro HijackThis

Logfile of Trend Micro HijackThis v2.0.2
Scan saved at 10:50:03 PM, on 11/17/2009
Platform: Windows Vista SP1 (WinNT 6.00.1905)
MSIE: Internet Explorer v8.00 (8.00.6001.18828)
Boot mode: Normal

Running processes:
C:\Windows\system32\taskeng.exe
C:\Windows\system32\Dwm.exe
C:\Windows\Explorer.EXE
C:\Windows\System32\igfxtray.exe
C:\Windows\System32\hkcmd.exe
C:\Windows\System32\igfxpers.exe
C:\Program Files\Toshiba\Power Saver\TPwrMain.exe
C:\Program Files\Toshiba\SmoothView\SmoothView.exe
C:\Program Files\Toshiba\FlashCards\TCrdMain.exe
C:\Program Files\Apoint2K\Apoint.exe
C:\Program Files\Windows Defender\MSASCui.exe
C:\Program Files\Toshiba\ConfigFree\NDSTray.exe
C:\Program Files\Internet Explorer\iexplore.exe
C:\Program Files\Toshiba\Utilities\KeNotify.exe
C:\Program Files\Common Files\Symantec Shared\ccApp.exe
C:\Program Files\Google\Google Desktop Search\GoogleDesktop.exe
C:\Windows\RtHDVCpl.exe
C:\Program Files\Trend Micro\RUBotted\TMRUBottedTray.exe
C:\Program Files\Toshiba\TOSCDSPD\TOSCDSPD.exe
C:\Windows\system32\igfxsrvc.exe
C:\Users\David Morris\AppData\Local\Google\Update\1.2.183.13\GoogleCrashHandler.exe
C:\Program Files\Apoint2K\ApMsgFwd.exe
C:\Program Files\Internet Explorer\iexplore.exe
C:\Program Files\Toshiba\ConfigFree\CFSwMgr.exe
C:\Program Files\Apoint2K\Apntex.exe
C:\Windows\system32\Macromed\Flash\FlashUtil10c.exe
C:\Windows\system32\wuauclt.exe
C:\Program Files\Internet Explorer\iexplore.exe
C:\Windows\system32\Taskmgr.exe
C:\Program Files\Trend Micro\HijackThis\HijackThis.exe
C:\Windows\system32\SearchFilterHost.exe

R1 - HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main,Default_Page_URL = http://www.toshibadirect.com/dpdstart
R1 - HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main,Search Bar = Preserve
R1 - HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main,Search Page = http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=54896
R0 - HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main,Start Page = http://www.myembarq.com/
R1 - HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main,Default_Page_URL = http://www.toshibadirect.com/dpdstart
R1 - HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main,Default_Search_URL = http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=54896
R1 - HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main,Search Page = http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=54896
R0 - HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main,Start Page = http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=69157
R0 - HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Search,SearchAssistant = 
R0 - HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Search,CustomizeSearch = 
R0 - HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Toolbar,LinksFolderName = 
O1 - Hosts: ::1 localhost
O2 - BHO: Adobe PDF Reader Link Helper - {06849E9F-C8D7-4D59-B87D-784B7D6BE0B3} - C:\Program Files\Common Files\Adobe\Acrobat\ActiveX\AcroIEHelper.dll
O2 - BHO: (no name) - {1E8A6170-7264-4D0F-BEAE-D42A53123C75} - C:\Program Files\Common Files\Symantec Shared\coShared\Browser\1.5\NppBho.dll
O2 - BHO: SSVHelper Class - {761497BB-D6F0-462C-B6EB-D4DAF1D92D43} - C:\Program Files\Java\jre1.6.0_03\bin\ssv.dll
O2 - BHO: Google Toolbar Helper - {AA58ED58-01DD-4d91-8333-CF10577473F7} - C:\Program Files\Google\Google Toolbar\GoogleToolbar_32.dll
O2 - BHO: Google Toolbar Notifier BHO - {AF69DE43-7D58-4638-B6FA-CE66B5AD205D} - C:\Program Files\Google\GoogleToolbarNotifier\5.2.4204.1700\swg.dll
O2 - BHO: Google Dictionary Compression sdch - {C84D72FE-E17D-4195-BB24-76C02E2E7C4E} - C:\Program Files\Google\Google Toolbar\Component\fastsearch_B7C5AC242193BB3E.dll
O3 - Toolbar: Show Norton Toolbar - {90222687-F593-4738-B738-FBEE9C7B26DF} - C:\Program Files\Common Files\Symantec Shared\coShared\Browser\1.5\UIBHO.dll
O3 - Toolbar: Google Toolbar - {2318C2B1-4965-11d4-9B18-009027A5CD4F} - C:\Program Files\Google\Google Toolbar\GoogleToolbar_32.dll
O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [IgfxTray] C:\Windows\system32\igfxtray.exe
O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [HotKeysCmds] C:\Windows\system32\hkcmd.exe
O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [Persistence] C:\Windows\system32\igfxpers.exe
O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [TPwrMain] %ProgramFiles%\TOSHIBA\Power Saver\TPwrMain.EXE
O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [SmoothView] %ProgramFiles%\Toshiba\SmoothView\SmoothView.exe
O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [00TCrdMain] %ProgramFiles%\TOSHIBA\FlashCards\TCrdMain.exe
O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [Apoint] C:\Program Files\Apoint2K\Apoint.exe
O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [jswtrayutil] "C:\Program Files\Jumpstart\jswtrayutil.exe"
O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [Windows Defender] %ProgramFiles%\Windows Defender\MSASCui.exe -hide
O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [ITSecMng] %ProgramFiles%\TOSHIBA\Bluetooth Toshiba Stack\ItSecMng.exe /START
O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [NDSTray.exe] NDSTray.exe
O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [HWSetup] \HWSetup.exe hwSetUP
O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [SVPWUTIL] C:\Program Files\TOSHIBA\Utilities\SVPWUTIL.exe SVPwUTIL
O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [KeNotify] C:\Program Files\TOSHIBA\Utilities\KeNotify.exe
O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [ccApp] "C:\Program Files\Common Files\Symantec Shared\ccApp.exe"
O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [Google Desktop Search] "C:\Program Files\Google\Google Desktop Search\GoogleDesktop.exe" /startup
O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [RtHDVCpl] RtHDVCpl.exe
O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [Symantec PIF AlertEng] "C:\Program Files\Common Files\Symantec Shared\PIF\{B8E1DD85-8582-4c61-B58F-2F227FCA9A08}\PIFSvc.exe" /a /m "C:\Program Files\Common Files\Symantec Shared\PIF\{B8E1DD85-8582-4c61-B58F-2F227FCA9A08}\AlertEng.dll"
O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [TMRUBottedTray] "C:\Program Files\Trend Micro\RUBotted\TMRUBottedTray.exe"
O4 - HKCU\..\Run: [WindowsWelcomeCenter] rundll32.exe oobefldr.dll,ShowWelcomeCenter
O4 - HKCU\..\Run: [TOSCDSPD] C:\Program Files\TOSHIBA\TOSCDSPD\TOSCDSPD.exe
O4 - HKCU\..\Run: [Google Update] "C:\Users\David Morris\AppData\Local\Google\Update\GoogleUpdate.exe" /c
O4 - HKUS\S-1-5-19\..\Run: [Sidebar] %ProgramFiles%\Windows Sidebar\Sidebar.exe /detectMem (User 'LOCAL SERVICE')
O4 - HKUS\S-1-5-19\..\Run: [WindowsWelcomeCenter] rundll32.exe oobefldr.dll,ShowWelcomeCenter (User 'LOCAL SERVICE')
O4 - HKUS\S-1-5-20\..\Run: [Sidebar] %ProgramFiles%\Windows Sidebar\Sidebar.exe /detectMem (User 'NETWORK SERVICE')
O8 - Extra context menu item: E&xport to Microsoft Excel - res://C:\PROGRA~1\MICROS~3\Office12\EXCEL.EXE/3000
O9 - Extra button: (no name) - {08B0E5C0-4FCB-11CF-AAA5-00401C608501} - C:\Program Files\Java\jre1.6.0_03\bin\ssv.dll
O9 - Extra 'Tools' menuitem: Sun Java Console - {08B0E5C0-4FCB-11CF-AAA5-00401C608501} - C:\Program Files\Java\jre1.6.0_03\bin\ssv.dll
O9 - Extra button: Send to OneNote - {2670000A-7350-4f3c-8081-5663EE0C6C49} - C:\PROGRA~1\MICROS~3\Office12\ONBttnIE.dll
O9 - Extra 'Tools' menuitem: S&end to OneNote - {2670000A-7350-4f3c-8081-5663EE0C6C49} - C:\PROGRA~1\MICROS~3\Office12\ONBttnIE.dll
O9 - Extra button: Research - {92780B25-18CC-41C8-B9BE-3C9C571A8263} - C:\PROGRA~1\MICROS~3\Office12\REFIEBAR.DLL
O13 - Gopher Prefix: 
O16 - DPF: {9C23D886-43CB-43DE-B2DB-112A68D7E10A} (MySpace Uploader Control) - http://lads.myspace.com/upload/MySpaceUploader2.cab
O16 - DPF: {E2883E8F-472F-4FB0-9522-AC9BF37916A7} - http://platformdl.adobe.com/NOS/getPlusPlus/1.6/gp.cab
O20 - AppInit_DLLs: C:\PROGRA~1\Google\GOOGLE~1\GOEC62~1.DLL
O23 - Service: Agere Modem Call Progress Audio (AgereModemAudio) - Agere Systems - C:\Windows\system32\agrsmsvc.exe
O23 - Service: ccEvtMgr - Symantec Corporation - C:\Program Files\Common Files\Symantec Shared\ccSvcHst.exe
O23 - Service: ccSetMgr - Symantec Corporation - C:\Program Files\Common Files\Symantec Shared\ccSvcHst.exe
O23 - Service: Symantec Lic NetConnect service (CLTNetCnService) - Symantec Corporation - C:\Program Files\Common Files\Symantec Shared\ccSvcHst.exe
O23 - Service: COM Host (comHost) - Symantec Corporation - C:\Program Files\Common Files\Symantec Shared\VAScanner\comHost.exe
O23 - Service: ConfigFree Service - TOSHIBA CORPORATION - C:\Program Files\TOSHIBA\ConfigFree\CFSvcs.exe
O23 - Service: GameConsoleService - WildTangent, Inc. - C:\Program Files\TOSHIBA Games\TOSHIBA Game Console\GameConsoleService.exe
O23 - Service: GoogleDesktopManager - Google - C:\Program Files\Google\Google Desktop Search\GoogleDesktop.exe
O23 - Service: Google Software Updater (gusvc) - Google - C:\Program Files\Google\Common\Google Updater\GoogleUpdaterService.exe
O23 - Service: InstallDriver Table Manager (IDriverT) - Macrovision Corporation - C:\Program Files\Common Files\InstallShield\Driver\1150\Intel 32\IDriverT.exe
O23 - Service: Jumpstart Wifi Protected Setup (jswpsapi) - Atheros Communications, Inc. - C:\Program Files\Jumpstart\jswpsapi.exe
O23 - Service: LiveUpdate - Symantec Corporation - C:\PROGRA~1\Symantec\LIVEUP~1\LUCOMS~1.EXE
O23 - Service: LiveUpdate Notice Service Ex (LiveUpdate Notice Ex) - Symantec Corporation - C:\Program Files\Common Files\Symantec Shared\ccSvcHst.exe
O23 - Service: LiveUpdate Notice Service - Symantec Corporation - C:\Program Files\Common Files\Symantec Shared\PIF\{B8E1DD85-8582-4c61-B58F-2F227FCA9A08}\PIFSvc.exe
O23 - Service: pinger - Unknown owner - C:\Toshiba\IVP\ISM\pinger.exe
O23 - Service: Trend Micro RUBotted Service (RUBotted) - Trend Micro Inc. - C:\Program Files\Trend Micro\RUBotted\TMRUBotted.exe
O23 - Service: Swupdtmr - Unknown owner - c:\Toshiba\IVP\swupdate\swupdtmr.exe
O23 - Service: Symantec Core LC - Unknown owner - C:\Program Files\Common Files\Symantec Shared\CCPD-LC\symlcsvc.exe
O23 - Service: TOSHIBA Navi Support Service (TNaviSrv) - TOSHIBA Corporation - C:\Program Files\Toshiba\TOSHIBA DVD PLAYER\TNaviSrv.exe
O23 - Service: TOSHIBA Optical Disc Drive Service (TODDSrv) - TOSHIBA Corporation - C:\Windows\system32\TODDSrv.exe
O23 - Service: TOSHIBA Power Saver (TosCoSrv) - TOSHIBA Corporation - C:\Program Files\Toshiba\Power Saver\TosCoSrv.exe
O23 - Service: TOSHIBA Bluetooth Service - TOSHIBA CORPORATION - C:\Program Files\Toshiba\Bluetooth Toshiba Stack\TosBtSrv.exe
O23 - Service: TOSHIBA SMART Log Service - TOSHIBA Corporation - C:\Program Files\TOSHIBA\SMARTLogService\TosIPCSrv.exe
O23 - Service: Ulead Burning Helper (UleadBurningHelper) - Ulead Systems, Inc. - C:\Program Files\Common Files\Ulead Systems\DVD\ULCDRSvr.exe

--
End of file - 10143 bytes

71.54.238.131 (talk) 03:59, 18 November 2009 (UTC)

I hid your lengthy and unformatted HijackThis log.

Unless Symantec has changed it's policy, Norton should continue to protect your PC with an expired subscription (you can see it running in the HijackThis log). The subscription just ensures you continue to get regular updates of new virus patterns. Astronaut (talk) 04:48, 18 November 2009 (UTC)

I don't see anything of obvious concern in the log, but of course most malware is good at hiding. However are you sure you have malware? "Excessive sessions warning" sounds like the sort of thing P2P programs are liable to cause as well (and a Google search finds numerous discussions [3]). Although I don't see any running in the log, perhaps you closed them, which BTW if you did do is a bad idea, if you are having problems and seeking help you should leave your computer as is when it has the problems if you are going to provide logs to help diagnose the problem. Nil Einne (talk) 07:36, 18 November 2009 (UTC)

I'm pretty certain considering I was forced to reboot because right after I clicked continue on the 2wire page I lost control of the mouse and keyboard; I had to improperly shut down the PC. Just wondered what the virus was; Trend Micro Housecall didn't find anything, but I'm certain it's infected. Also, I do not use any P2Ps or Bit Torrents. I'm going to have to format one way or another; I just wondered if anybody knew what virus it is that I keep picking up from Myspace and Facebook; this is a repeat issue. And Norton does stop protecting when the subscription expires; Windows reports that I don't have an antivirus installed, and I am unable to run scans with the program. 71.54.238.131 (talk) 23:05, 18 November 2009 (UTC)

Are you sure the malware didn't disable Norton - it is a very common thing for malware to do. Astronaut (talk) 00:24, 19 November 2009 (UTC)

These are some indicators of malware:

• Task Manager will not open
• Regedit will not run
• Your browser opens a different home page
• Google search links go to unexpected sites
• You get a popup telling you you have hundreds of viruses and you need to buy some software

You can try Superantispyware free, Spybot - Search & Destroy and Avira free. If these won't install or start, it is another indicator of malware. ---— Gadget850 (Ed) ^talk 01:01, 19 November 2009 (UTC)

Locally run web applications

What applications are you aware of that, like POPFile, run on a user's machine, but have a web interface as their primary UI? 173.75.150.14 (talk) 05:11, 18 November 2009 (UTC)

Taken literally, the most common is probably a help file that ships with the application as an .htm or .html file. Double-click it to read it with the browser. I see this a lot. Comet Tuttle (talk) 06:20, 18 November 2009 (UTC)

Any file run as ".hta" will run as a web application. But you can also install Apache on any unix system or IIS on a windows system with the appropriate free database and language engines and effectively run any website or web-based application from your computer for no cost.--TParis00ap (talk) 13:16, 18 November 2009 (UTC)

Firefox runs on the local machine and uses a web interface to change the settings by going to about:config. -- kainaw™ 18:51, 18 November 2009 (UTC)

I'm specifically interested in apps that include their own web server, or that expect to run under an HTTP server on the user's machine. 173.75.150.14 (talk) 22:48, 18 November 2009 (UTC)

IIS is an HTTP server. Web based apps do not contain their own web servers. That's like suggesting you'll get Windows 7 with every purchase of Office 2007. HTML files will run in any web browser without an HTTP server, but any advanced language such as PHP, Perl, ASP, or ColdFusion require a parser. Apache has a number of addins to parse those languages and IIS does as well but also has ASP pre-installed. IIS also comes built into Windows XP, Vista, and 7, all you have to do is enable it. Although this does open up security vulnerabilities considering you'd be giving folks access to your system so you're going to want to control this via your firewall.--TParis00ap (talk) 22:55, 18 November 2009 (UTC)

Thanks, but I know all that. POPFile *does* contain its own Web server. I'm asking if there are any other apps that do so. 173.75.150.14 (talk) 03:28, 19 November 2009 (UTC)

One of my dreams is that someday you will be able to use generic local servers for running PHP without installing Apache, PHP, etc., which is a huge pain. It would be nice if there was a program that would emulate an Apache/MySQL/PHP/Perl environment without all the install, ports, etc., and still serve up browser-like pages. (The web UI is much easier to program than other UIs, in my opinion, and way easier to modify on the fly.) Alas, at the moment, there appears to be no such thing. Someday, perhaps. I write all sorts of programs in PHP that I only use on a local server, and there are ways in which that vastly simplifies things. But I can't distribute them to anyone else without going through the endless installations, making sure the settings are exactly correct (same version of PHP, etc.), etc. If you did have a more integrated/standardized environment, you could distribute such programs much easier. --Mr.98 (talk) 01:05, 19 November 2009 (UTC)

It is trivial to write a program in C++ (or any other executable language) that listens on a port for HTTP-style requests and responds with what appears to be a web page. This turns a local web browser into the user interface. The big problem is that web browsers are not highly compatible with one another when it comes to scripting. Further, browsers are constantly increasing restrictions on usage for security. In my opinion, it has been a monstrous mistake to spend the last 10 years trying to turn the web browser into an application browser. We need a highly standards compliant application browser that can act as a universal UI for local and remote applications. Right now, the closest thing I've seen to that sort of thing is the work on mobile devices, not on home computers. -- kainaw™ 02:22, 19 November 2009 (UTC)

Mr.98, if you're on windows and want a dead easy, no-config way to run PHP without having to be a genius, check out EasyPHP, which is a dead simple way to install that stuff (it includes Apache, PHP and MySQL all configured and ready to go). If you're on Linux, you're presumably good enough with computers to know how to install a few packages. Belisarius (talk) 03:26, 19 November 2009 (UTC)

Google Desktop is configured with a browser. The search interface is also your browser, although the indexing is independent from it. --Kjoonlee 09:26, 19 November 2009 (UTC)

iPhone on a PHS network

I'm thinking of buying an unlocked iPhone to use instead of the shitty one they gave me here with Willcom (a PHS provider, i.e. not GSM/3G) and I'm wondering if a phone has to be specifically designed to work on PHS? I've never heard anything to suggest that, but I just want to make sure as I don't want to buy it only to have it not work! Thanks! 124.154.253.31 (talk) 05:33, 18 November 2009 (UTC)

Yes if you want to use the phone on a PHS network, you will need a phone which is compatible with the PHS network which the iPhone is not. The same as if you want to use a phone with a CDMA2000 network (which is 3G but the iPhone is not compatible with as it is UMTS/W-CDMA only) or whatever. In some cases you also need to consider what frequencies are supported (perhaps not with PHS) Nil Einne (talk) 07:24, 18 November 2009 (UTC)

OK, I guess it's not possible then, thanks! 124.154.253.31 (talk) 00:55, 20 November 2009 (UTC)

Net access

How can I prevent a single application from gaining internet access, without actually unplugging the computer from the internet and disrupting everything else? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 82.44.55.114 (talk) 13:14, 18 November 2009 (UTC)

Are you running Windows? You can configure the application to be blocked by the Windows Firewall in Windows XP/Vista/7.--TParis00ap (talk) 13:20, 18 November 2009 (UTC)

Hello!, that is a nice and important thing to do, but how can someone do it?.

Thank you. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 190.241.44.109 (talk • contribs) 08:08, 18 November 2009

This question was removed by 190.241.44.109 accidentally here [4]. I added it back several days later [5] Nil Einne (talk) 13:48, 23 November 2009 (UTC)

Laws and precedences related to caching and proxying illegal content

I am trying to determine the laws and/or case precedences related to caching and proxying illegal content. Currently I am preparing a presentation on setting up a web proxy and/or a web cache, and I would like it to include some information related to legal protections of the operators if a user transmits or otherwise obtains illegal content through the proxy or cache.

I am most interested in the laws and case precedences related to operating a proxy and/or web cache daemon in the United States (federal and of individual states) and the United Kingdom.

Does anyone know of any information related to this?

« D. Trebbien (talk) 18:57, 18 November 2009 (UTC)

Wikipedia does not give legal advice. However I remember tor has some stuff about this on its website. --194.197.235.240 (talk) 19:20, 18 November 2009 (UTC)

The legal liability article is very short, but it may be a good start. Liability is always a gray area and will depend on the specific circumstance, geographic location, and applicable laws; that is one reason why we don't answer legal questions on the reference desk. This 1994 research paper from MIT (which is an academic research summary, not a legal opinion), called Liability of System Administrators, may also be helpful. Nimur (talk) 19:39, 18 November 2009 (UTC)

To be clear, I am not asking for legal advice. I am merely asking for lists of laws, sections of laws, and/or cases that are related to the topic. « D. Trebbien (talk) 20:52, 18 November 2009 (UTC)

(Note: I think I found what I was looking for related to protection of providers in the United States: Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act. Now I am searching for equivalents in the United Kingdom and European Union. « D. Trebbien (talk) 21:14, 18 November 2009 (UTC))

There are few ways to answer this question without giving legal advice. For you to read the safe harbor provisions of the CDA are a good start, but remember that state law may also be applicable, but it may not. If you're going to do this you should get a lawyer to help you. Shadowjams (talk) 07:06, 19 November 2009 (UTC)

How can I emulate a screen resolution?.

Hello!, I need a screen resolution of at least 1024 X 768 to run some programs, but my mini-laptop computer only has one resolution available: 1024 X 576. I can go to "Advanced options" and uncheck "Hide modes that this monitor can not show", then set it to 1024 X 768, but the windows go beyond the screen. Is there any other way to do it, like a screen emulator, or a way to shrink the windows to fit in the screen?.

Thank you very much for all your help. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 190.241.44.109 (talk) 20:05, 18 November 2009 (UTC)

I don't know what operating system you use, but a standard feature of the X Window System (which comes with most Unix/Linux computers) is the ability to have a screen resolution much larger than the physical resolution of the monitor. This feature -- called the "virtual resolution" -- works by having your monitor show only a viewport on the full display. The viewport pans around when your mouse touches the edge of the screen. Perhaps you could use that, or something similar for your system. --Sean 12:21, 19 November 2009 (UTC)

Try using an external monitor. The combo of the monitor and graphics card determine what resolution you get. It sounds like your graphic card supports 1024×768 already. Just about any external monitor will support that resolution, too. StuRat (talk) 13:14, 19 November 2009 (UTC)

Thank you for the answers. I have Windows XP Home Edition with Service Pack 3, so I have nothing to do with Linux. I need a way to run the programs in my HP Mini 1000 computer, which has a 10" screen, and I can not buy a monitor, I need to run the programs on the computer I presently have with the hardware it presently has. I can run one program but the window goes out of the screen, so I have to touch the edge of the screen with the mouse to see the other parts of the window (do not need an advise about that, since I stated that at the beginning). I definitely can not run the other program because it needs at least a 1024 X 768 resolution. Can someone help me about this please?. I do not know if there are resolution emulators and if any would be useful. I also would like to know if I can "shrink to fit" or something like that, so the window fits completely on the screen.

Thank you very much again. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 190.241.44.109 (talk) 18:33, 19 November 2009 (UTC)

I think you're out of luck on this one. The problem is that LCD displays, unlike the older CRT displays, really only have a fixed number of pixels and can't possibly display any more (and a 10" display has a very low number of pixels to work with). If they attempted to downscale an image to display on your screen, it would look absolutely horrid, so that's why they offer that scrolling feature instead. I'll bet you can find an old, used CRT display dirt cheap, as people are replacing them with wide-screen LCD monitors. StuRat (talk) 23:11, 19 November 2009 (UTC)

Where Are the Images Used for Icons on OS X?

Hello,

I'm not quite sure how to ask this question, so please be patient. Here is what I want to end up with:

• An image file (SVG preferably) of the icons used in Mac OS X to display different file types.

So, for example, an Open Office spreadsheet files uses a particular image for the icon. Where does this image exist on my computer, so that I can make a copy of it? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 72.253.80.241 (talk) 20:30, 18 November 2009 (UTC)

The images are PNG images of various sizes (up to 512 x 512px) located in .ico files, which are usually located in various places within .app bundles. Common Document formats may be located in Text Edit, Preview, and a few other included applications, likely under the Resources folder. 206.131.39.6 (talk) 21:23, 18 November 2009 (UTC)

The easiest way to get at the OS X icons is to use an icon editor, like Iconographer X (which I now see is defunct, and don't know if it works with recent version of OS X, but certainly did with 10.4). --Mr.98 (talk) 22:43, 18 November 2009 (UTC)

Email question regarding symbols, colors, fonts, etc.

I'm trying to copy information that I'm saving for later into an email.

Over the years, when I included different fonts, symbols,colors and so on, sometimes I would try to add information and I would get a set of four arrows pointing in the four compass directions. If I attempted to add in the space, I would see a box with a square in each corner and a square halfway between the corners, with the border consisting of what looks like a bunch of slashes.

What is this and how do you deal with it?Vchimpanzee · talk · contributions · 21:49, 18 November 2009 (UTC)

Are you using Outlook? Because that sounds like Object Linking and Embedding. Indeterminate (talk) 03:40, 20 November 2009 (UTC)

No. I never use that. I have had this happen at many different libraries with different operating systems and browsers and different email addresses. But let me look at the article and I'll get back to you.Vchimpanzee · talk · contributions · 19:35, 20 November 2009 (UTC)

Okay, the OLEs are symbols that I am copying intentionally into emails. It's harder to to take the time to copy the letters and symbols that would produce the object. Sometimes, though, I don't want symbols but I can't come up with a plain-text alternative to put these into the emails.Vchimpanzee · talk · contributions · 19:40, 20 November 2009 (UTC)

November 19

Utilities with an API?

Electricity company Powershop is beta testing an API. [6] Anyone know of another electricity/gas/water/etc company that also offers an API? F (talk) 05:57, 19 November 2009 (UTC)

Can a "server" be used as a normal computer?

Sometimes second-hand desktop computers that are described as "servers" are available. Can these be used as normal ordinary computers without any problems? 78.144.197.46 (talk) 11:04, 19 November 2009 (UTC)

They may have strange hardware (dual/quad CPU? ECC memory? SCSI?) that are hard and/or expensive to find replacement for if they died, be in a different form factor to normal PC (rack mount or full tower), and can be really loud. But otherwise there aren't really any obstacles in using them as normal computers. The server/client distinction isn't very distinct anymore. --antilived^{T | C | G} 11:20, 19 November 2009 (UTC)

Antilived is right about nice server hardware (example), but my guess is that the vast majority of machines used as "servers" (file and print servers for offices, largely) are just regular light-duty PCs. --Sean 12:27, 19 November 2009 (UTC)

None of my servers have accelerated graphics cards. So, they are not capable of displaying much in the way of an acceptable graphical desktop. However, a graphics card would be a cheap addition to the server considering that if I sold one at half the price I paid for it, it would still be well over $5k. I don't see why anyone would spend money on graphics for a server. Perhaps they want it to impress a passing janitor by showing a 3D pipes screensaver. -- kainaw™ 13:20, 19 November 2009 (UTC)

Kainaw, you might be interested in GPGPUs, which are becoming increasingly common in commercial and scientific compute clusters. However, many of these systems have GPUs without a video-out capability, so it's a moot point. Also, although it was listed as "esoteric server hardware" above, ECC memory is almost ubiquitous on desktops by now (I think). Nimur (talk) 15:45, 19 November 2009 (UTC)

I've got a used server, a Dell PowerEdge 1600, running CentOS. It has a used 15" screen that has an acceptable GUI for server-like things, administration tasks, and learning about Linux. But I don't use it much and avoid leaving it on long term because it is noisy as hell. Astronaut (talk) 17:45, 19 November 2009 (UTC)

I don't think ECC is particularly common on desktops. It's rather expensive and commonly unsupported by motherboards. I wouldn't exactly call it 'esoteric server hardware' and there are definitely some desktops which use (particularly those sold as workstations for professional use rather then for home computing or typical office use) it but I wouldn't say it's close to ubiquitious either. Nil Einne (talk) 10:53, 20 November 2009 (UTC)

There's nothing really preventing using a normal computer as a server or vice versa. It's practically just about what programs it is used to run: servers run services, normal computers run clients. Nevertheless, to be able to better perform their role, servers usually have faster processors, more memory, and more hard drive space than normal computers. On the other hand, their capabilities for direct computer-to-human IO such as graphics are usually much poorer, if they have any at all - servers usually only need to be directly interacted with to do system maintenance. JIP | Talk 20:11, 19 November 2009 (UTC)

Eg some servers don't have a sound card.F (talk) 02:06, 20 November 2009 (UTC)

Of course they can, although the more a computer serves, the bigger a target for crackers and malware it becomes, and the slower it runs. Any computer can be used as a server. Server is actually a very broad term. Programs are often called "servers." They serve other programs on your computer -- either in- or out-of-process, other computers, or you. The software -- not the hardware -- makes a computer into a server, and if you just want to use a "server" to browse the Internet or edit photos, then maybe you should just shut down all those server programs. My Windows XP Professional machine can be made into a server by turning on the FTP service. Then, it'd technically be an FTP server. It also has a Telnet service that I can turn on. Then, it'd be both an FTP and a Telnet server. I can also install IIS from the Windows XP CD to make it into a web server, as well. These server processes can all be accessed from the Internet (assuming a firewall or router doesn't block them). So, if you don't want to turn off the server processes in your computer, then at least make sure they're up to date with the latest security patches. I would never browse the Internet on a server computer that's being used for anything important. For example, if you accidentally browse to a malicious web site using an e-mail server, and that site hijacks your computer, then that site could then use your machine to send out spam. And if you have a domain name, then that domain name could be become blacklisted by Yahoo!, G-mail, and Hotmail if it sends out too much spam.--Drknkn (talk) 11:16, 20 November 2009 (UTC)

Characters support

Currently I'm unable to see the characters of Wikipedias in the following languages: Japanese, Chinese, Korean, Cantonese, Gan, Amharic, Wu, Burmese, Classical Chinese, Sinhalese, Hakka, Tibetan, Oriya, Lao, Old Church Slavonic (the Glagolitic alphabet only), Gothic, Cherokee, Tigrinya, Dzongkha, Sichuan Yi. Could you tell me how I can download and install such fonts so I can see all those characters, or at least the most important ones? Thank you. --62.204.152.181 (talk) 11:23, 19 November 2009 (UTC)

Instruction for east asian languages: Help:Multilingual_support_(East_Asian) , more broad information (also links for other languages) are in Help:Multilingual_support. Lukipuk (talk) 12:12, 19 November 2009 (UTC)

Thank you very much, everything has been considered here. But I still can't find the Glagolitic alphabet. --62.204.152.181 (talk) 18:43, 19 November 2009 (UTC)

There seems to be a variation on this same question every few weeks. Check here for fonts with glyphs to display Glagolitic. 220.233.133.226 (talk) 04:50, 20 November 2009 (UTC)

Picture of the Day screensaver

Is there a way to set up a series of Picture of the Day pictures as a screensaver? How can you download all the Pictures of the Day? If such a screensaver can be made for your own personal PC, can it display on the next time starting where it left off from the last time assuming you have hundreds of pictures available for a screensaver or slide show? 64.138.237.101 (talk) 12:05, 19 November 2009 (UTC)

1) Sure. 2) For past ones, go to Wikipedia:Picture of the day/Archive and start downloading. For future pictures of the day, you would need to write or buy a program that downloads the current one each day from Wikipedia:Picture of the day. That would be quite easy to do (just a few lines of Perl or similar). 3) That depends on your screensaver software, and I didn't fully understand the question, but I'm sure you could find something that worked like you want. --Sean 12:38, 19 November 2009 (UTC)

Open Excel files in "Page break preview" mode as default

I have to check and pdf a vast number of Excel files. I want to save myself (and the mouse) some wear and tear by opening them in "Page break preview' mode. Is it possible to do this? If it makes any difference I can do this task on either a Mac running 10.5.8 or a Windows box running XP Pro.   pablo_hablo. 12:47, 19 November 2009 (UTC)

Meaning of leet?

The edit summary for this edit is "This Gallia Co.. village is spelled Centreville; QR6U 9 ]\=)". Does "QR6U 9 ]\=)" or "QR6U 9 ]\=" have a meaning in leet, or is this something else? Nyttend (talk) 15:00, 19 November 2009 (UTC)

Nope its just spam.Accdude92 (talk to me!) (sign) 15:30, 19 November 2009 (UTC)

It doesn't look like leet to me.

smoke stream

Question moved to Science Desk by Falconus^{p t c}

Posting a python script in Wikipedia

Hi there, I've got a python script for making SVG maps that I think might be useful to other editors, but I can't figure out how to present it properly in Wikipedia. I'm sure I've seen "example code" before on the site that comes up in a little box, but I can't find an example to copy off of at the moment... Could anyone tell me how to display code in a little box or whatever? Thanks a lot, TastyCakes (talk) 17:01, 19 November 2009 (UTC)

Take a look at the markup in some other questions here. For example WP:RD/C#A script language for doing things with blocks of text?. You will probably want to try something like: <source lang="python">...</source>. Astronaut (talk) 17:39, 19 November 2009 (UTC)

That's perfect, thanks a lot! It even colours the text properly. I hadn't noticed the questions using them above, I guess that would have been a smarter place to start ;) TastyCakes (talk) 20:15, 19 November 2009 (UTC)

Model View Controller in ASP.NET

I'm trying to wrap my head around the MVC design pattern in .NET. I just read Implementing Model-View-Controller in ASP.NET from MSDN. It starts with a non-MVC example where all code in the ASPX file (read: no code behind and no business layer). It then goes on to separate out the code into 3 files: the ASPX file (view), the ASPX.CS code behind (controller), and finally a .CS business class (model). What confuses me is that this is pretty much how most ASP.NET applications have been written since .NET 1.0. Visual Studio creates the code behind by default - you kind of have to go out of your way not to use a code-behind. As for the business class, people have been seperating their UI from their business logic since VB5 days. Is this really how MVC is supposed to work, or is there something more? 216.142.208.222 (talk) 20:13, 19 November 2009 (UTC)

MVC is just a formalization of a specific software architecture paradigm, using a particular set of terminology to refer to the proper separation of presentation and implementation. The concept has existed at least since the design of object oriented languages, and even earlier, simply in the form of modularity. Our Model–view–controller has a history section, if you're interested in how the concept evolved. Nimur (talk) 23:59, 19 November 2009 (UTC)

You speak with the refreshing sweetness and untrammeled innocence of someone who has never slogged through a million lines of:

if (park_disk_head() != SUCCESS)
   popup_warning_window("Hi, this is your device driver. Your disk is in poor repair. "
                        "Shall I dial YoyoDyne Support on your modem and order a replacement?");

--Sean 15:18, 20 November 2009 (UTC)

Windows Media Player does not stop playing

I can open a file on my computer - a podcast, for example - using Windows Media Player and, despite closing the player using the upper right X button, the file continues to play. Has anyone else noticed this? What can I do to stop this? --Blue387 (talk) 20:44, 19 November 2009 (UTC)

Yes, this is a common problem. One solution, of course, is to kill the wmplayer.exe process. --Andreas Rejbrand (talk) 21:35, 19 November 2009 (UTC)

That is, press Ctrl+Shift+Esc, open the tab named "Processes", select "wmplayer.exe" by pressing the "w" key a few times, and then press the "Delete" key. --Andreas Rejbrand (talk) 22:53, 19 November 2009 (UTC)

Vtable table

In compiled object-oriented programs, under what circumstances if any will a table mapping classes to their vtables be created, and what is such a table called? NeonMerlin 20:53, 19 November 2009 (UTC)

Virtual method table says "To avoid this overhead, compilers usually avoid using vtables whenever the call can be resolved at compile time." So a virtual-method indirection is created only when some code is being compiled when the compiler doesn't know what the actual class a given object will be at compile time. That's when you're invoking a virtual (overridable) method on an object declared as a non-final (base-able) class. I don't think they're calling anything fancier than "vtable" or "virtual method table". -- Finlay McWalter • Talk 22:11, 19 November 2009 (UTC)

Vtables by definition are implementation defined, so there won't be a single answer to your question. They are perhaps best known in C++ implementations, in which the thing you describe is unlikely to exist as there is no reason for it: C++ has very little introspection ability and is not particularly dynamic, so the class-to-vtable relationship is known at compile time and there is no reason to have a separate table to find the vtables. In C++ you never ask at runtime, "I have this class, please give me a pointer to one of its virtual methods^*", and you never say "I have this class, please replace one of its virtual methods with this other method". A vtable's only role in a static language like C++ is to map objects to their virtual methods, which is a different thing entirely. YMMV with other languages. --Sean 15:05, 20 November 2009 (UTC)

*Footnote: C++'s bletcherous pointer to member function misfeature looks like you're doing this, but it's really just a way to give a type to an individual virtual member function, and still looks at the object's pointer to vtable at the time of the call. --Sean 18:42, 20 November 2009 (UTC)

Fakeroot

If the Linux fakeroot command weren't designed with a way to detect it, could the application still detect that it wasn't really running as root? If so, how? NeonMerlin 20:57, 19 November 2009 (UTC)

fakeroot doesn't try very hard - it doesn't really implement open and creat properly; so you can go fakeroot touch /root/foo and it fails. Even if it did implement a faked filesystem (using chroot and lots of hard links, or a UnionFS overlay) fakeroot would still be detectable. Notice it works by intercepting the dynamic link to libc. If you make a system call directly (using SYSENTER rather than calling the appropriate libc function) and do something that only root can do (like creat("/root/foo", O_RDWR) then that skips the fake environment that fakeroot established, calling straight to the real kernel, which will know that you're not really root, and will return EACCESS. I guess fakeroot could be further enhanced by rewriting child programs to patch out SYSENTER, but that opens yet more worm cans. fakeroot really is only for goofing around with stuff that wishes it was root; it's not a proper jail, and isn't trying to be one. -- Finlay McWalter • Talk 22:02, 19 November 2009 (UTC)

November 20

Designing my own simple computer language

Just how difficult would it be to design my own computer language? Is there a complier-compiler available that will churn out a compiler (or preferably an interpreter) if I give it a grammar in BNF for example? I would like to design a language that can do things with blocks of text, as described in questions above. Maths etc not needed. Would it be possible to find a freeware compiler for a simple version of BASIC written in Forth, for example, and modify it to my needs? Perhaps what I want to do is something like an old-fashioned macro-preprocessor. 92.27.154.180 (talk) 00:28, 20 November 2009 (UTC)

An interpreter is generally easier than a compiler (as you don't have to generate machine code or assembly language for a specific processor). Typically you need to parse the input program; it's common to use a parser generator to take some of the effort for that (they often take a BNF grammar and produce a parser for you). Which one you choose, and how you proceed from there, depends on what language you already know well). I doubt taking an existing interpreter would be the clearest path, but your mileage may vary. -- Finlay McWalter • Talk 00:37, 20 November 2009 (UTC)

Take a look at flex lexical analyser and GNU bison. (These are free alternatives to the original lex and yacc tools). Between these two tools, designing and implementing a new computer language is a fairly modest "textbook exercise." (In fact, I believe it is a textbook exercise in Patt & Patel, the best introductory computer systems textbook I ever used). There will be some ugly details, but if your language is well-defined (e.g. can be written in Backus–Naur Form), then the rest is just a matter of how much you want to polish the product. Nimur (talk) 03:09, 20 November 2009 (UTC)

The other suggestions here are great - but just as an aside, I've developed my own languages a few times, (most recently as a teaching language), and using an interpreter is, indeed, much easier and very quick to throw together. A simple Turing-complete language, with dynamic typing and a fairly flexible syntax, isn't that hard to do. That said, I'd lean towards looking for a pre-existing language first, as the big problem will be in efficiency. It's fairly easy to throw together an interpreter, but it is relatively difficult to throw together an interpreter that runs well. :) Perhaps something like Perl will do what you want (when people mention blocks of text I think Perl, but maybe that's just me). - Bilby (talk) 12:34, 20 November 2009 (UTC)

Perhaps a Template processor or something related to it is what I am seeking. Chances are there is already a language out there that can do what I want, if I can find it. The essential thing is to be able to deal with blocks of text (such as paragraphs or even pages) rather than just lines. 78.151.128.59 (talk) 12:25, 20 November 2009 (UTC)

This looks like more of a representation problem. How would you represent pagination in normal text? Via markup or via a form-feed character? If your format is well-defined, any scripting language will do. I'm partial to Python, but AWK and Perl would serve just as well. If, on the other hand, when talking about "text" you mean a heavily formatted opaque format like MS-Word files, you are in for a lot of hurt - but that will not go away with your own language. --Stephan Schulz (talk) 12:52, 20 November 2009 (UTC)

I prefer just simple plain text files. A paragraph has a blank line (ie two carriage-returns) above and below it. A page has a page-break character above and below it. Or the start or end of the file as appropriate. I did not think AWK could deal with blocks of text, only lines? Perhaps Perl etc could do what I want, but its hidden by a lot of other stuff that I don't want to use. 78.151.128.59 (talk) 13:06, 20 November 2009 (UTC)

For GAWK you can define what constitutes a "line" by assigning a proper regexp to RS (the "record separator"), e.g. gawk 'BEGIN{RS="\n\n"}{print "Para: " FNR "\n"; print $0 "\n"}' [your input file]. For Python, you can just read the whole text and split pages on one regexp for pages, and on another for paragraphs. Of course you need to decide what you want to do if a paragraph is on two pages... --Stephan Schulz (talk) 13:25, 20 November 2009 (UTC)

If you're just writing a compiler to educate yourself, then good for you. If you're really doing it because you think it will be less effort for doing the simple things you want to do than just learning any of the many general purpose languages that can do them, you're fooling yourself. Look at Stephan's last post there: it can do everything you've described, in a line or two of code. The source code to even the simplest compilers is not a line or two. --Sean 14:49, 20 November 2009 (UTC)

Indeed. I wrote a simple C-like scripting language interpreter (PSL - a part of my PLIB library) a while back - I just checked and the compiler/interpreter came out at 5,365 lines of C++ code. You can do an awful lot of fancy text processing with 5,300 lines of code in almost any language! So, yes - designing and implementing your own language is interesting and quite instructive - but it's hardly ever productive as a way to solve a problem.

As for "compiler-compilers" - there are syntax generators (eg yacc/bison) and parser generators (eg lex/flex) - which certainly handle the parsing of the source code - but don't help much with building parse trees, generating some sort of byte-code and then interpreting that code. I've used yacc and lex many times in the past - but for PSL, I wanted to simplify the build process - so I decided to write the parser in C++ code. The parser went together very smoothely - I believe my parser was easier to generate in C++ than in yacc/lex - and it's vastly simpler and faster than a yacc/lex-generated parser. Yacc and Lex are also a pain to deal with in large projects - it's difficult to build a project with more than one yacc/lex parser for example. I honestly believe that compiler/compilers are overrated. SteveBaker (talk) 20:35, 21 November 2009 (UTC)

Google cache

Whenever Google updates it's cache of a website, does the previous version of the cache get overwritten? If not, how can a previous version of Google's cache be accessed? -- penubag  (talk) 01:08, 20 November 2009 (UTC)

I don't think you can get old versions from Google cache. Try archive.org. --Tango (talk) 11:19, 20 November 2009 (UTC)

Netbook performance

I'm really interested in this whole netbook thing, but am left with questions regarding their actual performance. Would most netbooks be able to handle running an XAMPP instance along with an IDE like PHPEdit or Netbeans and an open browser? Or would that max out the current average hardware setup available? 218.25.32.210 (talk) 02:37, 20 November 2009 (UTC)

My Lenovo IdeaPad S10e has a dual-core Intel Atom, and I have used it to run ("toy-problem"-size) parallel processing jobs, compile FORTRAN-90, operate a Java IDE (Eclipse (IDE)), as well as to compile and synthesize FPGA firmware, run 3D SolidWorks modeling, and operate a webserver. I have done some of these tasks simultaneously. The two things which seem to tax the processor are 3D rendering and Adobe Flash Player 10. The first, I accredit to the lack of much video RAM (I think up to 128MB, but shared video RAM and an Intel Mobile graphics accelerator); the latter, I attribute to Adobe Flash Player 10 being a truly horrible piece of software. Nimur (talk) 03:19, 20 November 2009 (UTC)

Toolbar disappeared

Help. My toolbar (if thats the correct name for it) has suddenly vanished - the gray bar across the top of a window that says file, edit ... tools etc. Instead there's a dark blue bar across the top with an e in lighter blue with a gold ring on it which does nothing, then a gray bar with the address, refresh and google search stuff, then another gray bar with a star which does nothing and a W. How can I get back to normal? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 98.64.88.193 (talk) 04:13, 20 November 2009 (UTC)

Which operating system? Which program is missing its toolbar? You need to provide more details to get any kind of sensible answer. Astronaut (talk) 07:33, 20 November 2009 (UTC)

Microsoft Windows XP, Media Center Edition, Version 2002, Service Pack 3. This information hasn't changed since I had my old top of the screen. The new dark blue and gray top is on all internet screens. Thanks for replying. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 98.64.88.193 (talk) 08:13, 20 November 2009 (UTC)

So Internet Explorer on Windows XP. Sounds like it has gone into full-screen mode, or some/all of the Internet Explorer toolbars have been hidden.

First try pressing F11 and see if it all comes back. If not try to right-click in the grey bar between the "star" and the "W" and see if a menu comes up with ticks next to things like "address bar" and "status bar". If that menu appears and there is no tick next to "menu bar", then click the "menu bar" option. Astronaut (talk) 09:13, 20 November 2009 (UTC)

Hi Astronaut. Thanks for writing. I tried F11 and the whole gray and blue top disappeared, so I had nothing. I tried right-clicking on each level and the only thing I got was a small box which said " Restore to smaller screen (in light gray, not useable) Move, Size, _ Minimize, X Close Alt + F4." By looking at my ADD and REMOVE PROGRAMS I saw that I have Windows Internet Explorer 8 with five updates and Microsoft .NET Framework 3.5 SP1 with 3 updates. I tried removing Explorer 8 and it gave me all kinds of warnings that many programs might not work properly if I did that. The first time I quit, but I get so much grief (for example Task Manager is terrible) that I went back and removed Explorer 8 and let the chips fall where they may. Well I got into a terrible loop as soon as I got back from restart which seemed to come from my registry so I was able to restore back to being stuck with Explorer 8. Besides, that might not even be the problem, since this blue top has only been around for a day or two and I got Explorer 8 in October. I tried removing two recent non-security updates but it didn't make any difference. Please help. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 98.77.181.227 (talk) 15:28, 20 November 2009 (UTC)

Try pressing "Alt" and see if you get the menus and then follow Astronaut's instructions for checking Address bar and status bar.--TParis00ap (talk) 18:55, 20 November 2009 (UTC)

I pressed Alt and nothing happened, no difference. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 74.233.227.101 (talk) 20:02, 20 November 2009 (UTC)

Try pressing F10, then clicking View, Toolbars, Menu Bar. --Bavi H (talk) 02:12, 21 November 2009 (UTC)

The bar across the top which normally says "File Edit View Favoirtes Tools Help" is missing. There is no "View" but thanks for replying. I pressed F10, and all the other Fs - nothing happens except with F11 I gain and lose what bars I have. On the right of the "W" bar is a blank gray square which, when I click on it gives me a new blank screen on top of what I doing, and a small square between the star and the "W" which has four even smaller boxes in it which, when I click on them enables me to switch from one window to the other. When I first got Explorer 8 I could get up to seven bars across the top and the toolbar was one of the bars which I could uncheck. Therefore I think this problem might have something to do with Explorer 8. ALSO it only happens when I'm on the internet, when I'm looking at something within my PC I get the normal toolbar. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 98.77.193.59 (talk) 17:34, 21 November 2009 (UTC)

OK, now I'm a little baffled. You seem to be describing the situation similar to this image, with the menu bar missing. If that is the case, pressing F10 should make it reappear temporarily so you can choose the "view" menu. Alternatively, you could try right-clicking on one of the areas I have highlighted in this annotated image to make a pop-up menu appear, and making sure there's a tick next to "menu bar". Unfortunately, I don't have a "W" bar and have no idea what that might be.

Can produce a screenshot (press alt-print screen and paste into your favourite image editing program) of what you have now in IE8. It would be really useful to upload it to somewhere like imageshack or photobucket, and put a link here so we can all see what's up.

Failing that, you could always try repairing your Windows XP installation. To do that you will need to boot the PC from the XP installation disk (you probably got one when you bought the PC), and choose the Repair option. Astronaut (talk) 18:49, 21 November 2009 (UTC)

Ah! This image is what I mean by the pop-up menu that lets you put a tick next to "menu bar". To get this I simply right-clicked where the top left of the menu is. Astronaut (talk) 19:00, 21 November 2009 (UTC)

WOW Thanks for telling me about imageshack, it's really interesting and useful. I took a printscreen of this page as I see it and saved it by paint>edit>paste>save and here it is: this image I hope you can see it. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 98.77.193.59 (talk) 20:26, 21 November 2009 (UTC) As you can see I don't have the pink areas and all the other things which you have, and no F key makes any difference except F11 makes the whole top disappear and clicking on the square gray box gives me another, blank screen and a little box between the star and the W which I can use to switch from one of my screens to the other. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 98.77.193.59 (talk) 20:40, 21 November 2009 (UTC) Here I used the other window to switch from here to imageshack, took a printscreen and uploaded it so you could see it here. This is about all I can do now - I can't print, save, create an icon, save in favorites, have any tools etc. Here's the second page

C download

Hi,

I got new computer and I want to install C/C++ on it, where can I download it for free (if possible at all).--Gilisa (talk) 09:16, 20 November 2009 (UTC)

Free C/C++ Compilers and Interpreter

GCC, the GNU Compiler Collection

Your favourite search engine will probably find more. Mitch Ames (talk) 09:36, 20 November 2009 (UTC)

Are you sure you want to be programming in C or C++? Please don't take offense at this assumption I'm making, but the word usage in your post makes it sound like you're relatively new to programming. C and C++ are not at all for beginners. They're meant for interacting with the system at its deepest level. They're not easy languages to learn, and there's also a lot of other things you have to learn about before you can successfully write programs with them. If you just want to be able to dive into programming -- for example, to write a program and then run it -- a higher-level language such as Python may be a better choice.

Now, if you do plan to write C/C++ programs, you haven't said the most important thing, which is what operating system your new computer is running. I'll start with the easy one: if it's a Mac, you should get out the "Developer" CD that came with the computer and install Xcode. If it's Linux -- well, it's probably not Linux, but if it were, you'd have most of what you need set up already. If it's Windows, you can learn to use Cygwin so that you can write and compile C code using gcc and other free software, or you can use whatever Microsoft's free version of Visual C++ is. Just keep in mind that they'll probably be trying to gouge you for money later when you want to do something more complex. rspεεr (talk) 09:49, 20 November 2009 (UTC)

Under windows, there's Microsoft's own Visual Studio Express editons. Astronaut (talk) 09:53, 20 November 2009 (UTC)

rspεεr, you made a hell of assumptions based on the wording I choosed (but with good and appreciated intention). I know the difference between the two, anyway, each of both is good for my needs (which are not big and anyway, everything can be done with C can be also done with C++...). As you guessed, it's not linux -it's Windows XP and I already found what I need. Thanks to all who helped.--Gilisa (talk) 10:48, 20 November 2009 (UTC)

OCR software that supports Japanese

Is there software (preferably free) than can take an existing image, scan it and extract the text on it - even if that text is in other languages including Japanese (it doesn't have to something fancy like translate the text into English). Astronaut (talk) 09:58, 20 November 2009 (UTC)

And your OS is . . . ? -- Hoary (talk) 10:16, 20 November 2009 (UTC)

Sorry, forgot. Windows Vista and various shades of Linux. Astronaut (talk) 10:20, 20 November 2009 (UTC)

It would seem to me Optical character recognition#OCR software combined with Optical character recognition#OCR software language support would provide a decent answer to your question. Is there any reason it did not? Nil Einne (talk) 10:30, 20 November 2009 (UTC)

Note that OCR for kanji, which has a symbol for each word, is unlikely to work well, as the probability of being able to recognize the correct symbol out of 50,000-100,000 is very low. On the other hand, recognizing katakana, where there's a symbol for each syllable, is far easier, as it reduces the list of possible symbols to around 51. StuRat (talk) 17:03, 21 November 2009 (UTC)

Bandwidth of Video

1. What is the bandwidth of the video signal from computer to the monitor? My monitor is a CRT with the connector to CPU having typical blue colour and three pin rows. I did something like (1024*768(Pixels)) * (3(RGB) * 8(bit)) * 60(fps) and got a really crazy number 1Ghz!
2. What is the name of that cable (standard used)? 59.93.13.187 (talk) 15:36, 20 November 2009 (UTC)

The cable is a VGA cable if it has three rows of pins, and the connector is a DE15. If it has a T-shape on one side, then it's a DVI cable. Bandwidth would be measured in bits/second in DVI, and is around 4Gb/s. VGA connections don't have a measured bandwidth since they are analog, but your monitor would be measured as 1024x768@60Hz. Assuming 8 bit color, the digital version of your resolution is 360Mb/s. 206.131.39.6 (talk) 17:06, 20 November 2009 (UTC)

It sounded like they said 24 bit color, in which case it would indeed be right around 1080Mb/s (or approximately 1Ghz). So, his numbers were right on the money. StuRat (talk) 18:18, 20 November 2009 (UTC)

I missed the 3*RGB that I forgot to factor into my calculations. In that case, it would be correct to say 1GHz 206.131.39.6 (talk) 18:36, 20 November 2009 (UTC)

Thanks for the clarification. Was doing a problem in information theory just after microwave and radar examination and when I saw such numbers, (rigid) waveguides came to my mind and so I thought I might ask here just to clarify. My processor is working at just 1.7GHz so how can it keep rendering at such high frame rates even with graphics card since it has to generate the data to send to the graphics card? 59.93.11.91 (talk) 15:41, 21 November 2009 (UTC)

It only sends very simplified data to the graphics processor, like "draw a white line from (x1,y1) to (x2,y2) and keep it there". The graphics processor then calculates the pixels to send in each frame, and that's where the heavy work lies. StuRat (talk) 16:48, 21 November 2009 (UTC)

EULAs

Hello, I was just wondering whether or not EULAs (End User License Agreements) are legally binding. I was having an argument about it the other day, and would like to get an answer. Thanks! Rootusercyclone (talk) 15:38, 20 November 2009 (UTC)

I just looked at Software license agreement, from which it seems that it depends upon the court jurisdiction, upon how the license is presented, and upon whether a customer needs to accept the license in some way before installing the software. Software license agreement#Shrink-wrap and click-wrap licenses includes examples of specific court cases. Tckma (talk) 16:15, 20 November 2009 (UTC)

It should be noted that EULAs and such are stupendously recent inventions (compared to the rest of contract law, which dates back to, you know, the Roman Empire), and exactly what is allowed to be put in there, what legal binding they have, and so on has yet to be properly hashed out. It's going to take courts years (maybe even decades) to properly get a grip the legal foundations of those dastardly things. Belisarius (talk) 16:06, 21 November 2009 (UTC)

Dreamweb

I am sorry for the double post but I am really desperate here, There is a game called Dreamweb that is from the mid 90's, I am desperate to play it again, I can download it, and I can install it but I canmt get it to run, there is no .exe file. Please, if any one can help me in anyway with this I would be eternally greatful Zionist —Preceding unsigned comment added by 62.172.59.90 (talk) 16:00, 20 November 2009 (UTC)

If it is from the mid-90s, it could be a DOS or Windows 3.2 file which could be .BAT or .COM file. I am not sure it'll run in later operating systems though.--TParis00ap (talk) 18:46, 20 November 2009 (UTC)

Our article, Dreamweb, may be useful. Also take a look at DosBox. Nimur (talk) 08:48, 21 November 2009 (UTC)

Tying special key on laptop to a script for closing programs

There is a button on my ASUS 5738Z which does something with the graphics card such that it uses less power. Is there some way that I can maintain this functionality while triggering some script to close programs that aren't necessary? I'm running Windows Vista. I downloaded this scancode program: http://www.brothersoft.com/scancode-download-199761.html but it does not respond to the special keys (e.g. this energy-saver key, the bluetooth-disable key etc) on my keyboard. Also, how would I write such a script in Windows (what would be the simplest way)? ----Seans Potato Business 18:37, 20 November 2009 (UTC)

I use AutoHotkey for scripting. F (talk) 04:22, 21 November 2009 (UTC)

How would you decide which programs "aren't necessary"? Astronaut (talk) 19:04, 21 November 2009 (UTC)

You can manage power settings from the command prompt using the powercfg command. You'd type this code into a file in Notepad, save it with a .bat extension, copy it, right-click on the start menu, choose Explore All Users, then right-click in the Start Menu folder and choose Paste Shortcut. Then, you'd right-click on the shortcut and choose Properties, and then select a short-cut key combination. I do this to create all kinds of short cuts, like opening Internet Explorer or Outlook. Here's the code:

@echo off
powercfg /setactive "Max Battery"

As for shutting down programs, you could create another batch file. If I wanted to shut down spoolsv.exe, for example, I would type this into a file:

@echo off
taskkill /f /im spoolsv.exe

It think the taskkill command is only available in Windows Vista Business and Ultimate, though. If you're using another version, then we can use VBScript or JavaScript to automate the shutdown.--Drknkn (talk) 19:41, 21 November 2009 (UTC)

With gray rectangles, the arrow keys don't work

Most library computers I use now have blue rectangles at the bottom of the screen and a green start button. Today, I was using a computer with Firefox that had gray rectangles at the bottom of the screen and a gray start button. Whenever I would use the actual down arrow, it would go right to the bottom of the page. The up arrow would return me to the top. To go anywhere on the page, I had to use the mouse and the up or down arrow on the screen, which I find annoying.Vchimpanzee · talk · contributions · 19:43, 20 November 2009 (UTC)

There are a variety of reasons why a library or public computer might override the default user interface. Take a look at our article on kiosk software. Sometimes, the intended goal is not realized very well (it sounds like the keyboard interface in your example has been tweaked with unintuitive results). Your best bet may be to contact the technical support or the computer/IT librarian directly - they have a better chance of knowing what customized interface they are using; and you might be providing helpful feedback to them about ease of use. Remember that they have many users besides you, so your convenience isn't the only consideration for them; but if your feedback is worded diplomatically, it might have an impact when they roll out the next software version. Nimur (talk) 08:16, 21 November 2009 (UTC)

Also look into using the PageUp and PageDown keys. Other users may have customized the various function keys into a manner which others (including yourself) find annoying, but PgUp and PgDn usually keep their intended function. --DaHorsesMouth (talk) 22:15, 21 November 2009 (UTC)

Keeping more digits in Excel

If you expand a cell in MS Excel and type in a really long number like 1234567890987654321, Excel will automatically round it to 1234567890987650000. That's if you're left enough space, of course; it gives it to you in scientific notation if you don't. Is there a setting to change to force Excel to keep more digits? Failing that, is there another spreadsheet-style program that would? I'm using Excel 2002 in Xp and Excel 2007 in Windows Server 2003.

The numbers are handled internally in scientific notation, and the rounding that you see is because the computer floating-point hardware has a limited number of digits of precision (see IEEE 754-2008). Arbitrary-precision arithmetic software exists, but it is slower. --Jc3s5h (talk) 21:55, 20 November 2009 (UTC)

Having to cope with Zimbabwean dollars are you? I don't know of any spreadsheet program that does what you want and I doubt there is any. There are simple calculator programs around though that will work with more digits if you just want to do something small. Perhaps if you describe the problem a little more someone might have a better solution. Dmcq (talk) 10:17, 21 November 2009 (UTC)

I was just playing around with the patterns you get when you multiply increasing larger numbers with themselves; nothing serious. I made a series of numbers in the A column that went 2, 22, 222, 2222, and so on for something like 15 iterations. Then I created a series of formulae in the B column, so that I was multiplying 2x2, 22x22, 222x222, etc. They make for an interesting pattern (no the one given) until you get far enough and the rounding comes into play. I was hoping there was a spreadsheet-style program that would allow me to go further as I wanted to see how the pattern developed (calculator programs generally only give you one answer at a time :-). When I noticed the rounding, I started just entering large numbers to see if it was an arithmetical shortcoming or just a limitation on the number of digits - obviously the latter. As I say, it was just idle curiosity. If there was a setting to change somewhere, I would do it, but there's not, so I'll move on with my life somehow :). Matt Deres (talk) 13:39, 21 November 2009 (UTC) (OP, who apparently didn't sign his question)

This is when it's nice to have a proper programming language or (even better) a real Computer algebra system around. This is a conversation I just had with my Python interpreter:

2,22,222,2222,...

>>> rows = 15
>>> a = [int("2" * n) for n in range(1,rows+1)]
>>> b = [n * n for n in a]
>>> for i in range(len(a)):
...     print a[i], b[i]
...
2 4
22 484
222 49284
2222 4937284
22222 493817284
222222 49382617284
2222222 4938270617284
22222222 493827150617284
222222222 49382715950617284
2222222222 4938271603950617284
22222222222 493827160483950617284
222222222222 49382716049283950617284
2222222222222 4938271604937283950617284
22222222222222 493827160493817283950617284
222222222222222 49382716049382617283950617284

As Jc3s5h alluded to, the issue here is that internally, computers represent large numbers in a floating point format, roughly analogous to our human scientific notation. By necessity, this means that when the numbers lose some precision and become a little fuzzy around the edges when they are very large (if you're interested in the nitty-gritty of how the numbers are stored, I recommend the article Single precision floating-point format, which has a very nice diagram and some examples). And as Jc3s5h correctly stated, if you absolutely positively need the exact number, Arbitrary-precision arithmetic is the way to go, but you either need to learn a computer language to do that, or install a Computer Algebra System (Maxima is free and does the job very nicely). Though moving on with your life sounds like a better alternative :) Belisarius (talk) 16:02, 21 November 2009 (UTC)

As a stop-gap, if you try dividing your number by say, 2, 3 and 7, and then saving both factors - for example 21*123456787654321. Then, replace uses of say A1 with A1*B1. That way, you might keep the accuracy (I'm not sure). - Jarry1250 ^{[Humorous? Discuss.]} 10:28, 21 November 2009 (UTC)

I can thoroughly recommend Python if you're doing things like this on an occasional basis. It is good for a lot of other tasks you might think of besides as well. Dmcq (talk) 18:29, 21 November 2009 (UTC)

The specific example our OP gives has 16 digits of precision - and that is (essentially) the upper limit for double-precision floating point arithmetic. That's the most precision that the computer can perform operations on using it's built-in hardware logic. To make a human analogy - doing more precision than 16 digits that requires it to do something akin to "long multiplication" and "long division" - numbers under 16 digits is something the computer can do using "mental arithmetic" alone. It's certainly possible to write software to handle much more precision (the 'bc' calculator program under Linux/UNIX can do that, for example) - but it's very slow compared to 16 'double precision' floating point. Since there are very VERY few situations in the real world that demand more than 16 digits, it's not worth slowing down the performance of a spreadsheet program to accommodate the needs of so few users. Almost all programming languages and almost all application programs have the same inherent limitations - simply because it matches the precision of the computer hardware. If you need arbitary precision arithmetic - you could install the "Cygwin" package for windows and use the cygwin command line tool to run the 'bc' calculator program:

     steve@gnosis:~> bc
     bc 1.06
     Copyright 1991-1994, 1997, 1998, 2000 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
     This is free software with ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY.
     For details type `warranty'.

     1234567890987654321 + 1
     1234567890987654322

Tadaaaa! SteveBaker (talk) 19:44, 21 November 2009 (UTC)

Help deleting this folder

I have a folder on my desktop called "Perforce" and I can't delete it. Every time I try it gives the message "Could not find this item. This is no longer located in C:\Users\Jeska\Desktop. Verify the items location and try again". I've restated the computer three times now, and no programs are using this folder. How can I delete it? Windows 7 btw

Help Transferring Files

I have a hard drive that was removed from a computer and I want to put the files on it onto my new computer. Does anyone know if any big electronics stores like Best Buy, would do it. Thanks in advance!

Americanfreedom (talk) 23:40, 20 November 2009 (UTC)

If you are referring to the files and only the files, there is no reason they won't. It is very trivial. Plug in the extra drive. Turn on the computer. Drag/drop the files. Turn off the computer. Remove the extra drive. However, if you want them to reinstall all the programs you had installed on the old drive, that isn't going to happen. You have to reinstall from the install disks. -- kainaw™ 23:44, 20 November 2009 (UTC)

Thanks, I tried that at home but it wouldn't plug into my computer or his. Do you know how much asking Best Buy to transfer files would run me?

Americanfreedom (talk) 17:02, 21 November 2009 (UTC)

November 21

Media player can play .iso images directly?

I've transferred some old VHS tapes to DVD. I'm then backing up these DVD to .ISO files onto a hard drive. Are there any Mac video players or HD media boxes that can play back .iso images directly? (without mounting) --68.103.143.23 (talk) 03:20, 21 November 2009 (UTC)

There certainly is, VLC Media Player can play back ISOs of DVDs (seriously, is there nothing that video player can't do? it's like magic!) Belisarius (talk) 12:09, 21 November 2009 (UTC)

Windows Mobile software compatibility issues

I just bought a dirt cheap 2nd-hand HP iPAQ 6365 smartphone running Windows Mobile 2003 SE (TI OMAP1510). It is very frustrate for me to see many software already are incompatible with this old model. I downloaded many software and noticed that my PDA fails to run the installer. Is there a way to check the compatibility of downloaded Pocket PC software so I don't need to waste my time trying?

By the way, I tried to install Skype on this underpowered model. It seems like there once was a version specially built for the 6365. However, I could not locate it on Skype's official site. Never mind, I tried to download software updates from HP and their ftp site seems to drop support for this model. -- Toytoy (talk) 09:58, 21 November 2009 (UTC)

In additional to Skype problems, I find Windows Media Player on the PDA sucks. The interface takes most of the space. When you play a movie full screen, if you click the touch screen by accident, it returns to the interface mode and rotates the movie 90 degrees back. It is nearly impossible to watch any educational video using it. You cannot go back a little bit when you don't fully understand. -- Toytoy (talk) 12:30, 21 November 2009 (UTC)

Best way to calculate an ETA...

I'm making a program where something needs to be processed for a while and it gives a little timer estimating how long it will be until it's finished. You know, like how when you're downloading something from the internet it says "5 minutes, 24 seconds remaining", and it bases that on the how fast your download speed is. I'm wondering what the best way to make an estimation like that is. Are there any guidelines?

The first thing I did (just because I was lazy) was to simply take how much time had passed since the last update, divided that with how much data I had processed and multiplied it by how much data was left. Obviously, this is not a very good method, since it is vulnerable to small temporary changes in speed and the number was all over the place. What I have now is a simple moving average of the speed from the last 60 updates (since it updates about twice a second, that would be about the average of the last 30 seconds). Is there a better way? Belisarius (talk) 12:03, 21 November 2009 (UTC)

That system is still vulnerable to wild variations right at the beginning if the processing speed changes. A few suggestions:

1) Don't give an estimate until several steps have passed. This can be annoying, though, if they start it going and want a time estimate right away.

2) Store the historic average speed and use that initially. This can result in a jump (either up or down) when you switch from that to the current average. To minimize that jump, you might want to slowly change the weighting on the weighted average between the historic speed and current speed. You could start out at 100% the historic speed, then go to 90% historic and 10% current after the first step, etc. The simplest way to store the "historic average" is just to overwrite it with the average time for the last run, after it completes. A more complex way is to do a recency weighted average of the last few runs.

3) List steps completed instead. So, rather than give a time estimate, say something like "10:38 elapsed, and 19 of 38 steps completed". This completely eliminates the problem of time estimates jumping all over the place, as there aren't any. The user can come up with one based on the info provided, if he wants, but can't blame the program for giving bad estimates. This method has the advantage of being the simplest to code and provides valuable debugging info: "why does it always stall on step 19 ?". (It's also quicker for the user to detect when a stall occurs, as the steps stop going up, rather than just having an increasing time estimate, or, worse yet, a time estimate that never changes.) Note that ideally each step should be of equal length, but they don't necessarily have to be. You can also weight the steps: "This step takes about ten times as long as each of the others, so I'll count it as ten steps".

The third option is my personal favorite, and I always use that. StuRat (talk) 12:34, 21 November 2009 (UTC)

:-h emoticon

Can anyone explain what this emoticon means: ":-h" ? There is no information in the article for it. thanks --helohe (talk) 13:16, 21 November 2009 (UTC)

"lmao 10x ur so funny".

Google email

Is there a email address of Google, so that it can be reached through email?--Mikespedia (talk) 13:54, 21 November 2009 (UTC)

Google is a huge company, of course, so there's no single email address for the whole company. They have their ["Contact Us" page that has a variety of ways of getting in touch with them depending on who you want to contact, and why. APL (talk) 21:02, 21 November 2009 (UTC)

Dump password hashes on Mac

Is there a way to dump the password hashes under Mac OS X? Preferably in a way that results in a unix-style passwd file. Horselover Frost (talk) 16:37, 21 November 2009 (UTC)

Java Scanner

Is there a way to use the Scanner function in Java which means when a user is inputting some text under the scanner on the command line, the text isnt shown. I am thinking of something like in unix when typing in a password, nothing is shown on the screen to show the user is typing someting in. Is this possible in Java? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 86.133.56.241 (talk) 20:56, 21 November 2009 (UTC)

producing DVD's that will play on television

I am trying to produce DVD's with my pictures that will play on my TV. I have Windows Vista. I have tried DVD-RW, DVE+RW and DVD-R, and when I try to play them my DVD player says "bad disc". What must I do to correct this? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 216.223.225.133 (talk) 21:01, 21 November 2009 (UTC)

For best compatibility, use a DVD-R disc, and make a video DVD of it. It is (of course) not enough simply to burn a set of video files to it (indeed, which format should you use? AVI, MPEG, WMV, MOV, QT, ... ?), but you need to use an application that really creates a standard video DVD. Windows Media Player, Windows Media Center, and Windows DVD Recorder can be used. --Andreas Rejbrand (talk) 21:18, 21 November 2009 (UTC)

But now it seems like you do not have video files, but only pictures. Then the app also needs to create a video from these pictures. I am not sure, but perhaps e.g. Windows DVD Recorder can do this. Otherwise, you can always use Windows (Live) Movie Maker. --Andreas Rejbrand (talk) 21:20, 21 November 2009 (UTC)

Note that if you want to use DL discs, DVD+R DL booktyped to DVD-ROM DL is better then DVD-R DL [7]. BTW if you have a DVD player with JPEG support bear in mind these players often are limited in what they support but provided limited info on what is supported. You should at least check out your user manual and see what it says. And when burning I recommend you make sure you include ISO level 1 file system. I've also heard that sometimes they don't work with DVDs but only CDs. Nil Einne (talk) 21:25, 21 November 2009 (UTC)

How to extract from .tar files on Vista 64-bit

Hello! I need to extract from .tar files on my Windows Vista 64-bit laptop, but when I download tar from the GNU project website and try to run it, I get an error message that says it is incompatible with my 64-bit environment. Is there any alternative for those of us with 64-bit systems? Almost all of the GNU software requires tar to extract it.--el Aprel (^facta-_facienda) 23:04, 21 November 2009 (UTC)

Tugzip and 7zip should both extract tars. -- Finlay McWalter • Talk 23:14, 21 November 2009 (UTC)

cracking fable

hey, so my friend gave me this disk with a fable crack, i installed alright but then i get to a point where it says something like "cannot find library", i have no idea what this means and my friend can't remember. i'm not sure if its just individual to the game or if it happens with all cracked games, but in anycase i need help.

anyone out there who can? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Masheeofthefunk (talk • contribs) 23:38, 21 November 2009 (UTC)

Please don't ask us questions about pirate software; we're not interested in helping you steal. 87.115.143.163 (talk) 23:39, 21 November 2009 (UTC)