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December 26

Computer, mini computer, and etc

Whats the similarities and differences both of them? Is it worth it or if not what?

Have been wondering about this ever since first Apple Mini came out. As for me I have recently broke my computer and it isn't first time that I done it. At the moment unsure if it can be fixed, but going try again when I get back the disc that has everything that I need to try to fix it. The computer itself is working, but not the connection. Messed stuff as well on it as well. If that doesn't work I'm out of luck with getting a new computer. Since in the past I always got my way with getting a new computer. At the same time unsure if I want new one since I still live with my parents. Can easily use the main computer (my dad's work computer as well) and my iPhone as well. Also, I'm not the only one in my family whom has broken a computer and my dad did more then once as well. Anyway, my dad has totally switched from Microsoft Windows to Apple Mac. Somewhat don't understand why my dad in the family whom has already made switched isn't allowing me to. That also goes for my mom and twin sister as well.

Believe this is it for now. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Jessicaabruno (talk • contribs) 01:31, 26 December 2009 (UTC)

A bit unsure about exactly what your question/s are here. Seems your internet "connection" is down? Try Personal computer for general info on computer types. Don't use dads work computer! He may not be happy if you stuff it up, though perhaps less likely to if it's a Mac. But not worth the risk! ps. If the PC is broken, this is a good time to learn how to fix it. Wikibooks may help more than Wikipedia. If you can be more specific about "broken"?--220.101.28.25 (talk) 04:49, 26 December 2009 (UTC)

I haven't heard anything bad about the Mac Mini's hardware. By the way, in the old days, there were (in order of size) supercomputers, mainframes, and minicomputers (small mainframes). That's what I've always thought minicomputers were. Sorry if that was off topic.--Drknkn (talk) 05:00, 26 December 2009 (UTC)

I agree - the term "minicomputer" is a sort of out-dated terminology for machines from the late 1970s, like the PDP-8 and its successors. According to this nomenclature, almost everything we use today is a microcomputer; but as technology and markets have evolved, almost everybody refers to today's machines simply as computers. The Mac Mini throws a wrench into the works, because its description is comparative to other desktop systems (which are, technically, microcomputers); this is just a description and a brand/trademark, it has no real specific technical meaning. Nimur (talk) 11:42, 26 December 2009 (UTC)

Little computers like the Mac Mini generally have less memory, smaller hard disks, less powerful CPUs, and less powerful video cards than larger desktop computers. You know, your computer is probably fine, and when you reinstall Windows from scratch, you'll probably be able to get it running. When a person says "I broke my computer" they are almost always overstating the problem. Usually, in my experience, the problem is just a software configuration problem, relatively simple compared to the user's fear of a computer that has somehow been entirely broken. Comet Tuttle (talk) 05:51, 26 December 2009 (UTC)

Thanx for all your responses to my question. For the first responder its not just his, but he allows others to use it as well. Thinking about donating it and his old one then having spend money on Microsoft Windows. Had it up to here with Microsoft Windows and prefer to have Apple now.

Believe this is for now.-- —Preceding unsigned comment added by Jessicaabruno (talk • contribs) 15:30, 26 December 2009 (UTC)

All of this nomenclature is really ancient history. But basically, all desktop and laptop computers are "microcomputers". Anything from about the size of a microwave oven to a large refrigerator is a "minicomputer" and anything that's from the size of a couple of refrigerators to a roomful of stuff is a "mainframe". But the terms have changed meaning slowly over time and using any of them with confidence over the last 20 or so years has become difficult. SteveBaker (talk) 19:16, 27 December 2009 (UTC)

Good point. If we consider it in terms of computing 'power' then Supercomputer says "Moore's Law and economies of scale are the dominant factors in supercomputer design: a single modern desktop PC is now more powerful than a ten-year-old supercomputer". From that point of view we all have "supercomputers"! --220.101.28.25 (talk) 03:00, 29 December 2009 (UTC)

Side-by-side config screwup

OK, so I performed a repair install on my Windows 7 system. After that I noticed that my Google Sketchup no longer works and is nagging me regarding my SxS configuration. The same goes for a Nokia PC Suite component. Tried installing the needed runtimes a dozen times (i.e. Visual C++ 2005, the SP1 revisions, etc.), but still they won't run at all! Any workarounds to this problem? Blake Gripling (talk) 03:36, 26 December 2009 (UTC)

Dare I suggest re-installing any software that is now not working? Or (shudder) a full re-install of the Operating system (drastic!). Try everything else before doing this, but it was very frequently suggested to me by others for 'weird' problems. Do you have a full backup that you could 'roll back' to. Did you try Restore first?. Q, Why did you need to do a "repair install" --220.101.28.25 (talk) 04:57, 26 December 2009 (UTC)

Reinstalling did the trick. Although that means I have to reconfig all them apps. Blake Gripling (talk) 07:57, 27 December 2009 (UTC)

Well I'm glad you're happy. I must admit I'm still using XP, so I'm not up on the differences in the 'restore' set-up on Vista and Win' 7. I'd suggest that when you have everthing up and running to your satisfaction, create a restore point, or if possible make a full backup of your "system" files at least. Good idea to make a restore point before software upgrades, hardware/driver installs, or similar. If anything 'breaks' then you should be able to "roll back" to before the change and get your PC running again. --220.101.28.25 (talk) 12:01, 27 December 2009 (UTC)

Resolved

iPhone tethering situation Germany

Hi, can u pls give me a Brief summary of the official and de facto iPhone tethering situation in Germany: do you have to pay extra per month to officially enable it, what happens if u use a jailbroken device and just tether with moderate data usage without paying, etc. Thanks! 92.230.66.35 (talk) 11:44, 26 December 2009 (UTC)

Hi! Welcome to Wikipedia. The official provider of iPhone in Germany - T-Mobile claims they do not officially support tethering, although Apple claims they do. You will need to talk to your carrier about how to go about official tethering. If you use a jailbroken device to tether, they may have systems to detect this or they may not. Usually the carrier is more likely to detect this from the User agent and access point name in use at the time of the connection - not just the amount of data. Cheers, — Deon^talk 16:37, 26 December 2009 (UTC)

Keep Laptop Plugged After Charging?

In order to maximize battery life, should one unplug a laptop once the battery has been recharged when not in use? Acceptable (talk) 14:35, 26 December 2009 (UTC)

I'd have to know what model laptop (and therefore what kind of battery) is in use, but it's safe to assume that it'll make no difference. Almost all devices have a cut-off switch that will divert power away from the battery and to the actual unit (so the battery is not being used at all) when the battery is full. This goes for iPods and mobile phones as well. — Deon^talk 16:39, 26 December 2009 (UTC)

Yes, but what about the heat of the laptop harming the battery? I suspect it has an effect on some types of battery.--88.1.118.193 (talk) 18:00, 26 December 2009 (UTC)

Most batteries are happier warm than cold (though not too hot). A battery will be harmed and will get too hot if it is being over-charged, but if the cut-off circuitry is working correctly, then little harm will be done, and very little heat will be generated in leaving the laptop connected. The instructions for my (Acer) laptop advise that the power should not be left connected permanently for best battery life. I have ignored this advice for over two years and my battery life is now much shorter, but this might have happened without leaving it connected. It would be interesting (but expensive) to undertake a comparative trial. Presumably Acer have done this and found a slight difference in battery life, but it is probably small. Has anyone used a laptop for two years (with the battery permanently installed and occasional discharge) without a deterioration in battery life? Dbfirs 19:25, 27 December 2009 (UTC)

HUAWEI

i remember sometimes back i posted my imei number on this page and it was later deleted. What damage can someone do remotely with my imei number, it was for my E160 modem or is it that it's just a rule. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 212.49.88.34 (talk) 14:53, 26 December 2009 (UTC)

I am guessing that no one can ascertain whether you actually own the modem. 67.243.1.21 (talk) 15:59, 26 December 2009 (UTC)

Pretty much nil. In fact in most online transactions, such as eBay listings, you are generally required to include an IMEI. Most countries allow the public to enter an IMEI to check if it might be in the database of stolen phones. — Deon^talk 16:29, 26 December 2009 (UTC)

If I recall correctly it was me who removed the IMEI number. I think I was under the assumption that your IMEI number could be "spoofed" on another device by someone with ill intent. I vaguely recalled something about SIM card spoofing and may have gotten the two confused. Let's see if this link is blue, it is a SIM that you can use whereby you can use the network provider and are basically untraceable and do not get billed: ghost SIM card. At least, that's how I half-remember it being explained to me. Zunaid 16:40, 26 December 2009 (UTC)

A while ago there was a bit of a scare about IMEIs being cloned, but the expertise/time required pretty much makes it a thing of the past. Having ones ICCID would also be required for SIM cloning, I assume. — Deon^talk 11:47, 27 December 2009 (UTC)

Should I turn off the monitor before turning off the surge protector?

The only other device connected to the strip is the netbook. Thanks. 67.243.1.21 (talk) 15:29, 26 December 2009 (UTC)

It probably makes no difference, but if the monitor power-down sequence does anything other than just shutting off power (i.e. saving your monitor's internal firmware settings), it may not trigger the shutoff sequence properly unless you use the main power button interface. Nimur (talk) 21:36, 26 December 2009 (UTC)

Well, this is a decade-old CRT that's probably going out soon, if that helps. Imagine Reason (talk) 12:36, 27 December 2009 (UTC)

I don't know what is the correct answer, but personally I always turn off my surge protector instead of turning off the monitor and surge protector. Save time turning it back on. Never had any monitor-related problems I am aware of. Smaug 05:46, 27 December 2009 (UTC)

Reducing picture size in e-mail?

Please could someone help me? I recently accepted an offer from AOL to have my AOL Broadband service upgraded to include my telephone service at a single all-inclusive monthly charge and so far, I am very happy with both aspects. But the AOL service (called Platinum 2) changed the way my screen works and I have lost a lot of the options I used to have with AOL when sending e-mail. I find that I cannot make any pictures I attach to my e-mails "Fit to Window" as previously. And I cannot reduce any that I receive so that I can see the whole picture on screen. I also used to be able to "frame" each picture and add sub-text to them but no longer. AOL have been unable to help and so I am hoping someone here will be able to help. Thanks in anticipation. 92.30.88.20 (talk) 15:36, 26 December 2009 (UTC)

Cross posted and answered to the OP's satisfaction in Miscellaneous ref desk. Astronaut (talk) 00:54, 29 December 2009 (UTC)

December 27

Old Computer/s

Is there any possible way to donate it/them?--Jessica A Bruno (talk) 02:05, 28 December 2009 (UTC)

Have been thinking about donating my current computer and my dad's old computer. Rather switch from Microsoft Windows based to Apple Mac altogether. As for the computers that I want to donate. Both of them are Dell and are almost 3 1/2 years old and one has Microsoft Windows Vista Business on it. At the same time one of them is in good shape. Expect some what messed because of security and etc. Another one is messed up big time because it has Ubuntu and no longer has Windows on it.

Believe this is it for now. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Jessicaabruno (talk • contribs) 17:56, 26 December 2009 (UTC)

Do you have a question? I'm not sure what your saying--Jac16888^Talk 17:59, 26 December 2009 (UTC)

My question is in the subject line of here.--Jessica A Bruno 18:07, 26 December 2009 (UTC)

Well who do you want to donate the computers to? --Jac16888^Talk 18:09, 26 December 2009 (UTC)

Have no clue whom to donate them to. Expect Apple Mac if I do indeed get a new one and which is a mac.--Jessica A Bruno 19:10, 26 December 2009 (UTC)

May I suggest that you advertise them on Freecycle?. Dbfirs 18:37, 26 December 2009 (UTC)

Interesting, but no thank you. Please see above your answer to my question concerning whom I would prefer to donate them to. --Jessica A Bruno 19:10, 26 December 2009 (UTC)

sorry but you're making no sense at all. Do you want to know who to donate them too? How to donate them?--Jac16888^Talk 19:13, 26 December 2009 (UTC)

Questions in the reference desk should consist of a title plus a question plus optionally some explanation. You have a title okay but no question. Questions in general start with something like 'What', 'Why', 'Where', 'Who', 'When', 'Is there', or 'How' and end with a question mark '?'. The following is both an example of a question and a question: Have you got a question? Dmcq (talk) 23:56, 26 December 2009 (UTC)

This being Wikipedia, we have a whole article devoted to what a question is! Mitch Ames (talk) 00:37, 27 December 2009 (UTC)

+1, Dmcq. Comet Tuttle (talk) 08:19, 27 December 2009 (UTC)

I'm going to assume you are thinking of donating these two computers to some charitable concern but are unsure how to go about this. There are small charities which will accept computers as donations, for example googling "computers for the disabled" quickly led to this UK based charity. I'm sure you could come up with some search terms to find something to suit your location and favourite charitable cause. That said, some charities are reluctant to accept any electrical appliance for resale out of fear of the potential liability should that appliance electrocute someone.

As an aside, giving away two relatively new computers simply because you think you have messed up the operating systems or you just don't get on with that operating system, is a pretty expensive and drastic solution. In my experience, Dell always supplies the necessary disks to let you reinstall the operating system, and there are plenty of free alternatives out there. Astronaut (talk) 02:02, 27 December 2009 (UTC)

I don't understand the question either, but would echo Astronaut and my own previous response to one of your threads: Your computer with Ubuntu is not "messed up big time" because it has Ubuntu on it and not Windows; all you have to do is reinstall the operating system. If you're insistent on getting rid of them, then I'd also echo Astronaut and recommend you make some phone calls before driving over to a charity; some US charities specifically say they don't want PCs — I have assumed this is because of the high likelihood that they are misconfigured in some way, and the end user will be unhappy with the computer; and no charity has enough donated volunteer time from skilled IT workers to configure computers for this purpose. Comet Tuttle (talk) 08:17, 27 December 2009 (UTC)

Sorry, for all of the trouble that I caused and fixed everything that needed to be fixed.--Jessica A Bruno (talk) 02:05, 28 December 2009 (UTC)

Don't worry about any trouble - you didn't cause any - and you don't need to delete your questions (out of embarassment?) as you have previously - just ask very clear questions in the future, and you're likely to get good answers here. Comet Tuttle (talk) 04:25, 28 December 2009 (UTC)

Router ports in stealth mode

Hi. I need to open a bunch of TCP and UDP ports on my router due to the requirements of a PS3 game. I believe that I have opened the ports, but a scan on ShieldsUp! indicates that all the ports are in stealth mode. I think that a port can be open, but be in stealth mode, so that it receives data but does not give a response, and I assume that is what is happening in this case. Is that right? Also, I am forwarding the ports onto the static IP of my PS3. By doing this am I reducing (or removing) the ability of an intruder to connect to the other machines on the network? BTW I have a Netgear DG834G router. Thanks in advance for any help. AnyPortInAStorm (talk) 02:57, 27 December 2009 (UTC)

No. "Open" means the router sent a SYN/ACK flag to the scanner. "Closed" means it sent a RST flag. "Stealth" means the connection timed out, and the router is dropping the packets without responding. So, the router did not accept those connections. By the way, TCP connections will not work without a response. UDP is connectionless, but not TCP.--Drknkn (talk) 03:23, 27 December 2009 (UTC)

Well, the router could be forwarding the packets to the PS3, but the PS3 might be the one dropping the packets. I think that's what the OP was asking, although their terminology wasn't quite right. OP, see our article on port forwarding if you haven't already. Indeterminate (talk) 05:35, 27 December 2009 (UTC)

Wireless connection on Xubuntu

Ok, so I just installed Xubuntu on my (sister's) laptop, because her laptop was fubar and the only way I could see to fix it was to reinstall Windows (which I don't have a CD for) so I installed Xubuntu instead. Since this is pretty much the first time I've ever used Linux, I'm having some trouble figuring somethings out. Namely, how to connect to my wireless router. It connects automatically when I plug it into the router with just an ethernet cable, but since it's a laptop I'd like it to be able to work wireless. On Windows there's that list of available wireless networks, but I can't seem to find anything like that on Xubuntu. Could someone give me a hint, please?

Extra info: The laptop is a dell, and the router is Netgear. Digger3000 (talk) 05:31, 27 December 2009 (UTC)

Did you install the latest (9.10 aka karmic koala) version? See here for everything else, especially for troubleshooting. . --88.194.194.181 (talk) 18:12, 27 December 2009 (UTC)

If you connect the laptop to the router with an ethernet cable then you can use that internet long enough to get the necessary driver software. If you play around enough, a window will come up that mentions drivers to install. If that doesn't work, ask here: http://ubuntuforums.org/forumdisplay.php?f=336 Lolita chan (talk) 19:20, 29 December 2009 (UTC)

Using a TV to hook up to a Projector - TV requirments for resolution, quality, size, etc?

There is a room in which I want to watch TV. It has a cable out and a projector, but no TV. I want to use a TV primarily as a means so that I can watch TV with my group of people using the projector. So I plan on buying a TV, hooking the cable up to the TV, and then hooking up the TV video-out to the projector.

I assume, and correct me if I'm wrong, that a lower size and lower resolution TV will result in a worse projected picture.

So what minimum size (in inches) and resolution do people reccomend I get? The projector is nothing special but it will blow the picture up. The TV will serve no other immediate purpose than to be this conduit.

Thanks for any advice you can give. Smaug 05:43, 27 December 2009 (UTC)

I'm not sure whether I am understanding your question correctly, but are you just wishing to project cable TV? If so, then you don't actually need a TV, just a cable decoder with suitable output (which might be contained in a TV). The quality of the projected image depends on the output of the decoder (and on the projector of course). This output might or might not correlate with the picture quality of the TV. I would first determine what resolution your projector can achieve (should be stated in the specifications), then make sure you can match this from your chosen video-output. I assume that your projector has only Composite video input (where you lose quality because of analogue modulation of an RF signal). If your projector has a modern digital input, then using this will avoid loss of quality. Dbfirs 08:14, 27 December 2009 (UTC)

I do this at home. I have no conventional television, but I have a DVR from Verizon, that contains a television tuner, connected to an overhead projector. You may be interested in a TiVo or a TV tuner card or a Cable card. Samsung makes HDTV Tuners including the DTB-H260F, SMT-H3090, and SMT-H3050. You do not want a conventional television for this purpose because, if I understand your question, you will not be using the very expensive screen that is a part of the television. You simply want to make use of the television tuner inside the television. From here there are a few choices. You should decide whether you want to pay for cable television, or use an HD antenna to receive TV signals. That decision will help you narrow your choices. The projector's capabilities will determine whether you can display HD content. You want a television tuner that can make full use of your projector. If you want to display premium cable television HDTV content you'll need a projector and a television tuner that can handle at least 720p and the two should be connected via an HDMI cable. Jasondburkert (talk) 21:48, 28 December 2009 (UTC)

USB mouse stops working when new camera is plugged into alternate USB port

I'm not sure why this is happening, but whenever I plug my Nikon Coolpix S570 into my computer via the provided USB cable, my mouse stops working. This problem only happens when I plug in the camera. I've tried countless configurations (mouse in port 1, camera port 2, etc...) any suggestions or thoughts? Thank you.161.165.196.84 (talk) 05:45, 27 December 2009 (UTC)

There is a limit to how much power can be drawn from USB. Do you have many other things also plugged in to the USB? ... for example a USB hub, card reader, external disk, etc. Astronaut (talk) 10:18, 27 December 2009 (UTC)

Nope, when I am experiencing this problem the only things plugged in are the mouse, keyboard, and camera. At times I may have the aforementioned components (excluding camera) plus an iPod and a flash-drive plugged in, and everything works fine. the problem only exists when the camera is plugged in.161.165.196.84 (talk) 11:23, 27 December 2009 (UTC)

Have you installed any drivers that may have come with the camera? Have you looked at the "Device Manager" utility when the camera is plugged in to see if there is any 'conflict' with the mouse? May help to say what operating system you are using ie. Widow XP/Vista other?. --220.101.28.25 (talk) 14:54, 27 December 2009 (UTC)

What make/model of mouse do you have? I ask because I think Astronaut has the right idea and that it's a power issue and some mice (especially "gaming grade" ones are rather power hungry. I used to have a Razer mouse that was very insistent (in the product literature) about where you had to plug it in because they said about needed lots of power. It could be that your mouse and camera combined want more power than your computer can supply (is this a laptop or a desktop?). If it's a desktop you could try one port round the back and one round the front (sorry I know you said tried lots of configurations). If it is a power issue then you would need to buy a powered USB hub which should be able to provide for the camera without an issue. ZX81 ^talk 23:00, 27 December 2009 (UTC)

There are numerous USB-related issues discussed on the http://www.nikon.com tech support forum. I suggest you first download and install their latest drivers - and if that doesn't help, call their tech support. Obviously, what you're doing SHOULD work seamlessly. SteveBaker (talk) 18:16, 27 December 2009 (UTC)

Absurd calculation error?

While copying a large number of files to an external hard drive, I noticed an absurd calculation error: although I had less than 4GB to go, and although the transfer was going at about 15MB/second, the computer said that completing the transfer would take nearly fifty minutes. Since 4GB/15MB yields a time of less than 300 seconds, why does the computer think that it will take so much longer? Nyttend (talk) 18:39, 27 December 2009 (UTC)

I've noticed similar glitches in estimated time. I assume that the estimate is recalculated based on the files being copied at that time, and if there is some glitch in the copying process (possibly a large number of very small files, or the processor slowing because it is doing something else?), then the calculation assumes that the problem will continue for the remainder of the batch. Dbfirs 19:02, 27 December 2009 (UTC)

You are not the only one. This is the relevant xkcd cartoon. Comet Tuttle (talk) 01:06, 28 December 2009 (UTC)

Haha, I too was reminded of the xkcd comic :) — Deon^talk 08:41, 28 December 2009 (UTC)

Maximizing a window

I want the main window of my Win32 application to enter fullscreen mode when the user maximizes it. To this end I read the WM_SYSCOMMAND message and scan for the SC_MAXIMIZE parameter. When found, I perform my own code to enter fullscreen mode. This works perfectly when the user maximizes the window by pressing the button at the top-right corner of the window, or when he selects the Maximize system (or taskbar) menu item. But if the user double-clicks the title bar, the window is maximized the normal way instead. How do I capture this event as well? NC_HITTEST? --Andreas Rejbrand (talk) 19:45, 27 December 2009 (UTC)

Would this be of any use to you? I hope this helps. JW..[ T..C ] 23:12, 27 December 2009 (UTC)

That solved it! Thank you very, very much! --Andreas Rejbrand (talk) 23:19, 27 December 2009 (UTC)

Please consider making this behaviour a user selectable option in your program. Some users (myself included) prefer our software to follow the standard Windows conventions, ie "maximize" means maximize, not full screen. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Mitch Ames (talk • contribs)

Resolved

December 28

IE and absolute positioning divs

I have a div that I place with absolute position using top:1em; left:1em; right:1em; bottom:1em;. So, it should be centered in the window with a 1em margin all the way around. If I set overflow:auto, it will have scrollbars inside the div if the contents overflow. It works fine in Firefox, Konqueror, Opera, etc... I checked it in IE and it vertically expands the div. Instead of placing "bottom:1em" at the bottom of the window, it places it at the bottom of the virtual window that has been expanded to fit all of the content. Is there some bastardized trick to convince IE that by "bottom" you mean "bottom of the damn window" instead of "bottom of the stretched out crap you just did"? -- kainaw™ 00:48, 28 December 2009 (UTC)

Sounds like a z-index & nested DIVs problem to me. Can you post some code? 218.25.32.210 (talk) 03:40, 28 December 2009 (UTC)

There isn't much to post...

<html>
<body>
<div style='position:absolute;left:1em;right:1em;top:1em;bottom:1em;overflow:auto;'>
Put more than a full screen of text in here.  It *should* create a scroll inside the div.
In IE, it stretches the div out vertically.
</div>
</body>
</html>

What is expected is that this code will make a div in the center of the screen with a scroll down the right. -- kainaw™ 03:48, 28 December 2009 (UTC)

Well I can reproduce your problem and can't come up with a way to fix it. I suggest you post the question & code at Stackoverflow.com - they should set you straight within 30min. 218.25.32.210 (talk) 04:59, 28 December 2009 (UTC)

Readyboost

I have a computer with 2 GB of ram running Windows Vista and was wondering about Readyboost. I have a 1 GB flash drive, USB 2.0, that I am not using so I just hooked it up and set it up to do Readyboost. My question, I guess, is how much will this help? I also saw a 2 GB flash drive at Walmart for $6 so I thought about buying it. Would it make the amount of help noticeably better? I know my hard drive runs at 7200 rpms. I know you can't say with 100% certainty and you'd probably need more information, but in general do you think this would help and how much? I read the Wiki article Readyboost and it says things such as Windows recommends you use a flash drive 1 to 3 times as large as your ram. I didn't do this obviously. I also read some article that said Readyboost can actually slow your computer down in Vista, but the problem is fixed in Windows 7. So, with things like this, I just want to know more. Thanks for any help. StatisticsMan (talk) 04:22, 28 December 2009 (UTC)

Interesting. Have to admit I'm not expert here as I still use XP!. 2 GB isn't all that much RAM nowadays. I think you are always better of having more RAM, (which is comparitively dirt cheap to what it was a few years ago) up to a certain point as 2x ram will NOT give you 2x PC 'performance'. But I suppose flash drives are even cheaper. To measure 'help' I think you would need a HDD benchmarking utility. According to the article Readyboost only helps with HDD caching. 7200 rpm drive sounds a bit old, is it SATA (Serial ATA interface)? If you are using older Parallel ATA interface, it's possible you may get better results from a small SATA HDD. Though BIG drives are much cheaper per giga-byte. Theoretically I don't think you would get much difference for a 2GB over 1 Gb flash drive. The particular drives seek time, as per the Readyboost article are probably more important. It appears also that the flash drive must be marked as "ReadyBoost-capable". --220.101.28.25 (talk) 06:31, 28 December 2009 (UTC)

My recommendation would be to take out a stopwatch and time how long it takes for your computer to start up with and without ReadyBoost enabled. I enabled ReadyBoost on someone else's computer that was running Vista and noticed a significant improvement. He had 1 GB of RAM. There are different types of flash drives, though. Some are fast enough to use ReadyBoost, and others are not. Windows will not let you use a slow USB flash drive for ReadyBoost. Here are some drives that support ReadyBoost: [1]. Also, although you can never have enough RAM, Windows will always write some temporary files (virtual memory) to the disk drive. This is where ReadyBoost comes into play. It writes that data to the flash drive, instead. Thus, your hard drive won't be tied up while Windows writes data to virtual memory. If your USB flash drive is fast enough, I bet you will notice an improvement.--Drknkn (talk) 06:49, 28 December 2009 (UTC)

Events based on UI elements or on functions?

In Visual Studio programs, when multiple events (e.g. selecting a menu item, clicking a toolbar button and pressing a keyboard shortcut) all have the same effect and are handled by the same method that doesn't distinguish among them, is it considered better to replace them with one event? If so, does this remain true even when not all of them are directly caused by the user interface (e.g. a display that refreshes once per minute and can also be manually refreshed)? NeonMerlin 04:24, 28 December 2009 (UTC)

Array-of-functions declaration

Would the following be a valid way in any programming language to create the functions operation[0](), operation[1](), operation[2]() and operation[3]()? If not, what is the closest construction in an existing high-level language?

void operation[](int& x) = {
  {x++;},
  {x--;},
  {x*=5;},
  {x/=5;}
};

NeonMerlin 04:33, 28 December 2009 (UTC)

Once a function is created in the normal fashion in most languages, you can refer to it by reference or callback or name (depending on the language). I will just call it a hook here to keep the confusion down. So, you make a function in your language and you have a hook to refer to it. Make an array of hooks and you have an array of functions. You just have to define the functions separately from defining the array. If you have a language of preference, I can give example code. These "hooks" are rather different from language to language. -- kainaw™ 04:46, 28 December 2009 (UTC)

That's not valid in any language I know, but this Perl does something like it:

my @ops = (
 sub { $_[0]++ },
 sub { $_[0]-- },
 sub { $_[0] *= 5 },
 sub { $_[0] /= 5 } );

my $x = 10;
foreach my $func (@ops) {
  $func->($x); 
  print $x;    # prints 11, 10, 50, 10
}

--Sean —Preceding unsigned comment added by 76.182.94.172 (talk) 20:49, 28 December 2009 (UTC)

In C++0x, you should be able to write

#include <std>
typedef std::function<void(int&)> func;
func operation[4] = { 
   [](int& x){++x;},
   [](int& x){--x;},
   [](int& x){x*=5;},
   [](int& x){x/=5;}
};

Which is relatively close to the original example. decltype (talk) 01:44, 29 December 2009 (UTC)

There are any number of functional programming languages that treats functions as first-class objects and in most of them you should be able to some version of what you are proposing. This is a slightly modified version in Python (the modification is that the variable isn't passed by reference, it just returns a new value, it doesn't modify the old one):

operations = [
lambda x:x+1,
lambda x:x-1,
lambda x:x*5,
lambda x:x/5]

x = 10

x = operations[0](x)
print x
x = operations[1](x)
print x
x = operations[2](x)
print x
x = operations[3](x)
print x

This prints 11,10,50,10, just like you'd expect. Belisarius (talk) 07:19, 30 December 2009 (UTC)

.Mac

I have 'lost' the .Mac icon from my Desktop . How can I recover it please? With thanks in anticipation.--85.210.188.64 (talk) 08:58, 28 December 2009 (UTC)

What version of OS X are you running? .Mac ceased to exist in 2008 and was replaced by MobileMe. It's likely that if you recently performed a software update, anything related to .Mac was replaced by MobileMe information probably after this update. Casey (talk) 23:51, 30 December 2009 (UTC)

Thanks for this I was begining to wonder if anybody had ideas! You are probably right as I do update fairly frequently and had forgotton that .Mac had been changed to MobileMe. I would however expected there to be a desktop icon. I did had an on screen "chat" with an Apple Advisor who was no help at all and did not mention this aspect. Unfortunately the page you refer me to does not apply to my System X 10.4. Thanks for your help never the less. Regards--85.210.170.108 (talk) 08:31, 1 January 2010 (UTC)

Disc won't leave drive, although computer thinks it has

When I try to eject a CD from my Macbook drive, it shows up on the computer as if it's left but although it makes the usual whirring noises before the CD leaves the drive, the physical disc doesn't come out of the slot but it goes away on iTunes as if the disc has left the drive's sensor but hasn't come through the drive slot. Please help! Chevymontecarlo (talk) 11:17, 28 December 2009 (UTC)

If you're brave...try this http://www.silvermac.com/2006/dvd-stuck-in-macbook-pro/ and good luck. ny156uk (talk) 14:03, 28 December 2009 (UTC)

Here are some less-brave options: [2]. If the drive is just confused, it is easy to get the disk out. If it is truly mechanically stuck in the slotless drive, that is a lot harder to deal with. --Mr.98 (talk) 16:46, 28 December 2009 (UTC)

ENIAC described in modern terms

What would the CPU speed and memory be for the ENIAC computer described as modern computers are? I read that ENIAC took seventy hours to compute pi to 2037 decimal places in 1949. I was curious to find out how long it would take on my old home PC with a CPU speed of 1.8GHz, memory 1GB. Using PiFast, it calculated 2037 decimal places in 0.03 seconds - that's over eight million times faster. And I wonder how much time the world's most advanced computer now in December 2009 would take? 89.242.213.201 (talk) 13:29, 28 December 2009 (UTC)

Haven't found any specifics yet but this from the ENIAC article may give an indication: "As of 2004, a square chip of silicon measuring 0.02 inches (0.5 mm) on a side holds the same capacity as the ENIAC, which occupied a large room" --220.101.28.25 (talk) 14:33, 28 December 2009 (UTC)

From History of Computing Hardware: "It could add or subtract 5000 times a second, a thousand times faster than any other machine. High speed memory was limited to 20 words (about 80 bytes)" So 2 Gb RAM ≈25,000,000 times ENIACS memory in bytes. If we assume one tick of the computers clock per operation (probably took several) a typical PC(Several years old!) might run at 2Ghz+. 2,000,000,000 / 5000=400,000xfaster (conservatively) on clock speed alone. And todays computers can carry out more than one operation per 'tick'. These are very rough & quick calculations, but in the ballpark(I hope)--220.101.28.25 (talk) 14:56, 28 December 2009 (UTC)

So ENIAC was about 0.0000005GHz and 0.00000008Gb RAM? 89.242.213.201 (talk) 22:31, 28 December 2009 (UTC)

I've removed the commas that someone put in my remark about - for one thing I do not think it is customary to put commas in decimal places, for another it is a breach of etiquette to alter someone elses writing. So the more correct figures are 0.00000005GHz and 0.00000008Gb RAM. 92.24.98.128 (talk) 12:17, 29 December 2009 (UTC)

Very close!. On Clock speed you're 10x too fast actually. 0.000,005 GHz = 0.005 Mhz =5 Khz. The memory is right though!.

As for the Supercomputer question "And I wonder how much time the world's most advanced computer now in December 2009 would take?". Not very long! These things are running at PetaFlops ($10^{15}$ FLOPS-FLoating point Operations Per Second), which is about 1,000,000 GHz! The time the answer takes to reach the display from the computer is probably longer than the time spent calculating it!

According to Supercomputer the current fastest is the Cray Jaguar (1.759 PetaFlops) at DoE-Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Tennessee, USA. (Jaguar has 224,256 Opteron processor cores) For a general comparison the same article says, "Moore's Law and economies of scale are the dominant factors in supercomputer design: a single modern desktop PC is now more powerful than a ten-year-old supercomputer". I would guess that ENIAC was not even as 'powerful' as a simple $A 5 calculator. --220.101.28.25 (talk) 01:43, 29 December 2009 (UTC)

I think I have an answer to "And I wonder how much time the world's most advanced computer now in December 2009 would take?"

"The new value of pi is 2,576,980,370,000 decimal places long, the result of a computation on T2K-Tsukuba in April of this year that took 73 hours and 36 minutes. The time included verification. The T2K-Tsukuba consists of 640 nodes with peak calculation of 95.4 trillion floating point operations per second." Full story HERE. Interesting that the time taken is similar, but the calculation is to about 100,000,000 more decimal places! Also this was 4 months ago, and this is (apparently) NOT "the world's most advanced computer" so the time taken could be reduced signifcantly.--220.101.28.25 (talk) 02:33, 29 December 2009 (UTC)

there is any gaming website that has a recommender system

There is any gaming website (other than gamespot) that has some recommender system? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 201.78.151.130 (talk) 17:33, 28 December 2009 (UTC)

Googling "video game recommender system" gave a number of results. One of the first results was this. I hope this helps. JW..[ T..C ] 20:55, 29 December 2009 (UTC)

Thanks~~ —Preceding unsigned comment added by 201.78.207.222 (talk) 21:07, 30 December 2009 (UTC)

Is it possible...

To have a computer with the best of both worlds or what? Mean with closed source and open source. Have been wondering about this as well. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Jessicaabruno (talk • contribs) 18:48, 28 December 2009 (UTC)

Short answer: Yes.

Longer answer: Even within the same project, there are ways to multi-license code that allow different licensing/sourcing schemes to coexist. Much less in general on a computer.

Recommended reading: The Cathedral and the Bazaar is an interesting read about what the "best" of the different development models are. --Mr.98 (talk) 20:17, 28 December 2009 (UTC)

It is very likely that your current computer has both closed-source and open-source software. My Windows Vista machine, for example, has on it closed-source software like Microsoft Outlook as well as open-source software like Mozilla Firefox. My Ubuntu machine has mostly open-source software on it, but also has closed-source NVIDIA video drivers on it. There will always be both types of software, and many (I'd say probably most) computer enthusiasts work with both types daily. Comet Tuttle (talk) 06:02, 29 December 2009 (UTC)

programming for beginner

I'm a complete newbie, so what is the best tools or programming language to use for making extremely simple little programs that can do things like download urls and stuff? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 82.44.54.127 (talk) 18:49, 28 December 2009 (UTC)

Perl or Python are both good languages to start with for that sort of programming. Just jump on in! I recommend working through one of the many "tutorials" you'll find on the web for either, just to get a sense of how the grammar works, and then jump right in to specific programming tasks, looking up functions and asking for help whenever you hit a brick wall. --Mr.98 (talk) 20:20, 28 December 2009 (UTC)

For simple tasks, scripting languages (like Perl and Python suggested above, along with PHP, Ruby, and many many others) is nice. There's no compile time. Just script and run. Of course, you can even do shell scripting (even on DOS - or whatever Windows calls their CLI now). Learning any language for a "newbie" is tough. Just pick up a book on whatever language seems of interest and start. Once you learn one language rather well, jumping to other languages is rather easy. I started with assembly language and since then I've only had to struggle with one language, Mumps. Every other language has been very easy to pick up. -- kainaw™ 20:26, 28 December 2009 (UTC)

Is Visual Basic a good thing to start with? I heard it has a gui which makes building programs very easy for beginners —Preceding unsigned comment added by 82.44.54.127 (talk) 20:36, 28 December 2009 (UTC)

My impression of Visual Basic and other Microsoft programming products is that they keep their developers on a never-ending technology treadmill that causes one's skills to become obsolete faster than they should. I would stick with an open and public project like Perl or Python, which (book sales aside) do not have a vested interest in getting you off the old thing and on to purchasing the new new thing. --Sean —Preceding unsigned comment added by 76.182.94.172 (talk) 20:58, 28 December 2009 (UTC)

In my opinion, the simplest coding language is HTML. If you're completely new, this will help you learn how tags work (even if commands are different in other languages). However, you cannot build a program in HTML. It seems like you want to learn how to develop programs moreso than web applications, so visual basic may be a good start, even though it is considered somewhat nontraditional. Be wary that Visual Basic only runs on Windows (or possibly in Wine_(software) if you want to get technical...), so if you want to be cross-platform, maybe you should try C or related languages. If you do wish to try Visual Basic, Microsoft always has a free download of their latest beta, which would currently be Visual Studio 2010. --EpicCyndaquil (talk) 21:07, 28 December 2009 (UTC)

HTML isn't actually a programming language. It is a markup language. It doesn't let you do anything except format documents. To do anything more than that, you have to learn a real language—like Javascript, or PHP, or whatever. HTML just structures the output and makes it pretty. You can't do any real programming with it, though. --Mr.98 (talk) 21:46, 28 December 2009 (UTC)

There's a lot to be said for Perl and Python, although of the two I strongly suggest students pick up Python, as it is less of a "free form" language, and forces programmers to pick up good layout practices. I know a few universities - mine included - that teach Python as a first language before moving on to something like Java. That said, Visual Basic is quite a good choice, given that historically Basic was a teaching language as the syntax is a tad closer to English than some other languages, and Visual Studio.Net is a very nice tool, as you have heard. I've taught VB.Net (the current version of Visual Basic, more or less) to beginning students, and generally they've argued that it was a bit easier to learn than the alternatives we offered (mostly C# and Java). However, if your intent is to pick up other languages, the difficulty with learning VB is that it doesn't really prepare you for moving into other popular ones, such as Java, C++ and C#, due to the syntax. This is fine if you don't want to move into them, of course, and I've known many a dedicated VB programmer, but it can make changing languages a tad more difficult. :) As a compromise, I generally recommend C# - the syntax is a tad more difficult than VB.Net, so it isn't as easy, but in return you're learning a syntax that is (basically) common with Java, C++, C, PHP and Perl, and you still get to use the same GUI as with VB.Net. - Bilby (talk) 21:19, 28 December 2009 (UTC)

Visual Basic, as in old-school, Visual Basic 6.0, was pretty straightforward for a new programmer but had some limits. New, VB.NET, is less bounded by what it can do but is really a pain to get into—it is no longer as straightforward and simple as VB6 was. I wouldn't recommend VB.NET as a learning language, personally. It has a much higher learning curve than VB6 had.

If you're interested in an interface, I would personally go with learning PHP or some kind of web scripting. It's much easier to make a simple interface with web languages (because the interface controls are handled by the browser) then it is with a GUI language.

Once you understand the basics of programming, jumping into new languages is not so hard. The first one is the one that gives you real work—just making sense of how to structure a program, and learning how to look up the kinds of solutions you need to continue. Just pick a language, stick with it for a little while, and in not too long you'll be able to pick up all sorts of things if you want. --Mr.98 (talk) 21:46, 28 December 2009 (UTC)

I'd second that VB6 was much easier to learn than VB.Net. Thus VB6's reputation as a teaching language doesn't translate well to VB.Net. We used to teach VB6 as a first language to the business students. It was fine, but we had to make the change to VB.Net when Microsoft moved the emphasis over to it, which meant that the students had to learn Object Oriented programming. This made it a much more difficult language, so the question emerged (after teaching it for a couple of years) as to whether or not VB.Net, with the easier syntax but retaining the complex OO elements, had enough of an advantage over Java and C#. The answer was generally no, although I'm aware of other universities which stuck with it. - Bilby (talk) 22:07, 28 December 2009 (UTC)

Much of the decision by a university on a "beginning language" has to do with the nature of the university. I've taught at three very different universities. At a strongly liberal arts one, Java was chosen because it was deemed to be "easy". At a military one, Ada was chosen because many of the programmers will go on to the military and be required to use Ada. At an engineering university, C++ was chosen because it is the base language for most real-world projects. Due to the difficult nature of C++, "beginning" programming is three different classes. One is for people who need to know what programming is, but don't need to know how to program. Another is for people who have never programmed. The third is the actual beginning class that requires you to either know how to program in some language or have taken the pre-beginner course. I personally don't see what is hard about C++. I mentioned that Mumps is the hardest language I've learned. After that, Visual Basic was the hardest. It is so unintuitive that I spent most of my time looking through books and searching the Internet to try and figure out how to do the simplest things. When I found out a proper function name for something, it was simply painful to force myself to use a function name that in no way implied what the function was supposed to do - or often did the exact opposite of what the function name implied it would do. Then, when I complained to VB programmers, they said that it was just my backwards C++ thinking that was causing all the problems. -- kainaw™ 22:24, 28 December 2009 (UTC)

I like the look of Rebol, which can do the things the OP described with one-line programs. The Rebol article is off-puttingly technical, but see the links to a tutorial and its very short programs at the base of the page. 89.242.213.201 (talk) 00:04, 29 December 2009 (UTC)

Some programmer-Luddite keeps removing the tutorial and other links from the Rebol page, so here they are: http://www.rebol.com/ http://re-bol.com/rebol.html http://www.rebol.com/what-rebol.html "REBOL rebels against software complexity. Do it in 1MB, not 200MB."78.149.161.55 (talk) 11:45, 30 December 2009 (UTC)

If you just want to do some simple stuff, like getting web-pages, read the manpages on wget and curl. That'll probably answer you pretty directly. If you need to do more, grep and, god forbid, perl will stitch those two together. Shadowjams (talk) 09:56, 29 December 2009 (UTC)

When I knew nothing about programming I started with HTML. After a year I started with php and css. now 4 years later I am a web developer and can make some pretty optimized sites. If I knew how long and agrivating it would be to learn I would have taken a course. it will come naturally with time142.176.13.22 (talk) 01:35, 1 January 2010 (UTC)

December 29

downloading a video clip from a computer to a FLIP camera

Is it possible to download a video clip from my computer to my FLIP camera? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Cgreenwood5 (talk • contribs) 04:07, 29 December 2009 (UTC)

I don't have a Flip, but theoretically yes. It would have to be in the right format, which is apparently MP4. "Video Format: H.264 video compression, AAC audio compression, saves as MP4 file" for the Flip ULTRA HD. You might need conversion software if your original video is in MPEG, AVI, WMV or other formats. What does your user manual say? That's always a good place to start. Support site Flip Support --220.101.28.25 (talk) 08:33, 29 December 2009 (UTC)

Actual amount of electricity utilized in sleep mode

I just wanted to ask how much electricity is actually utilized when the computer is in sleep mode or when it is switched off or hibernating. Can this portion of electricity be routed through a renewable source of energy. If yes, then what is the technological progress of the same in INDIAProject1985 (talk) 07:23, 29 December 2009 (UTC)

Regardless of how much electricity it requires, it is possible to generate it with renewable energy. Just because it is possible does not mean it is cost effective. Nothing is keeping you from getting solar panels, wind-powered generators, or even a small hydroelectric dam if you live near a river. It doesn't matter if you are in India or not. If you want a more useful answer, you must refine your question to what you are willing to do. Are you willing to replace your roof with solar panels? Are you willing to put a huge windmill in your backyard? Are you willing to put a nuclear reactor in your basement (yes - many people consider nuclear energy a "renewable" resource)? -- kainaw™ 08:29, 29 December 2009 (UTC)

There are devices that will tell you exactly how much energy a load is using on the electrical outlet. I've found laptops are about 30-80 watts (that could change a lot). Don't know what sleep mode is, but trust it's a lot lower. Shadowjams (talk) 09:53, 29 December 2009 (UTC)

I don't have my meter here to measure at the moment, so this note is going to be very general and you may already know this, but I'll note that a hibernating computer consumes exactly as much electricity as the computer does when it is off, since hibernation just means the computer's state has been saved to disk and then the computer switched itself off. I believe that most computers these days do consume a trickle of electricity while they are ostensibly off, whether it's to monitor a soft power switch or light up an orange LED on the case. Comet Tuttle (talk) 16:55, 29 December 2009 (UTC)

After writing that, I troubled to google the matter, and this Microsoft article, though I think it contains many errors, claims that a hibernating monitor consumes 5 watts and a hibernating computer consumes 2.3 watts, whereas a computer in 'sleep' mode consumes 3.1 watts. (Why the precision? The amount surely varies a ton between computer types.) Comet Tuttle (talk) 17:12, 29 December 2009 (UTC)

IT question

please tell me latest techlogy that has come out in 2009 in the field of IT —Preceding unsigned comment added by 59.92.80.132 (talk) 14:04, 29 December 2009 (UTC)

See this. -- kainaw™ 15:30, 29 December 2009 (UTC)

How does this happen?

As of right now http://www.wheels24.co.za does not point to the Wheels24 site but instead diverts to a search portal http:// searchportal.information.com/?a_id=86034&domainname=www.wheels24.co.za My question is, how does this situation come about in general? Wheels24 is a large, popular site and is part of the News24 group. Are they simply down for some reason (all the other "24" group sites seem to be up, including www.news24.co.za). Or have they somehow been hijacked? Or have they been careless enough to let their domain registration expire (this sounds unbelievable but has it happened to large corporates before?)? Regards. Zunaid 15:08, 29 December 2009 (UTC)

It points to the right site for me, at the moment. There are a couple of possibilities, though. Do you end up at the searchportal.information.com site whenever you type in a dead domain (e.g. [3])? If so, then that just means Wheels24 was temporality down and your browser or ISP uses that site whenever you put in a bad domain. If not, then it just might have to with their DNS information being either incorrect or tampered with or something along those lines. --Mr.98 (talk) 15:32, 29 December 2009 (UTC)

It is still pointing to searchportal.com for me as of now. Your fake link leads me to the Firefox "Server not found" standard warning. So 2 new question: why does that specific link redirect to searchportal but not your fake link? And how come the site was up for you but not for me? I also neglected to check earlier but I have done so now: http://downforeveryoneorjustme.com/www.wheels24.co.za reports that the site is indeed down. Is it on their side that the page is being redirected to searchportal.com? (Good luck to them getting tech support during Christmas week!) Zunaid 18:30, 29 December 2009 (UTC)

For what it's worth, I just clicked your link and did end up at the wheels24 website. I wonder if your ISP's DNS servers are having trouble with it, and are redirecting you to the search portal of their choice as a result of the trouble. Is it possible to try their backup DNS server? Comet Tuttle (talk) 18:36, 29 December 2009 (UTC)

(EC) It points to the right site for me too. http://downforeveryoneorjustme.com/www.wheels24.co.za tells me the site is up. Could you tell us, if the problem still exists for you, some details on your ISP and network settings? and your computer? Do you have anti-spyware software? Is it up to date? Could it be a "toolbar" in firefox that just is a hidden addon? I think it could be 1. your computer 2. (less likely) the network system in your building or 3. (least likely) the ISP. Kushal (talk) 18:38, 29 December 2009 (UTC)

You obviously have a virus that is redirecting you to that page for ad money. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 82.44.54.127 (talk) 19:14, 29 December 2009 (UTC)

Possibly...to answer Kushal...I'm using a MTN 3G USB modem (I'll check at work tomorrow on the corporate LAN if it gives the same issue). I don't have any new add-ons or toolbars installed since last week when everything was working. Question is, how can I fix it if it is my computer that's the problem? Delete the hosts file? When it comes to PC's, networking is really my kryptonite so please explain slowly :P I'm on WinXP, busy running anti-virus and anti-spyware scans right now... Zunaid 21:19, 29 December 2009 (UTC)

Sounds like the work of malware to me, probably replacing your ISP's DNS settings with the malware's DNS to deliberately send some sites via their paymasters' site in the hope that you will click on something else and earn them a fraction of a cent. Unfortunately, in my recent experience, this type of malware is making increasing use of rootkits, sometimes making it very hard to remove. Astronaut (talk) 01:39, 30 December 2009 (UTC)

For what it's worth, I've got the same issue going through our corporate LAN this morning. Any advice as to how to fix it? Zunaid 06:50, 30 December 2009 (UTC)

If it's XP, try downloading Hijackthis to take a look at your registry settings. [4] (It's a Trend Micro free product now, so pretty safe BUT be careful when you click the "Fix this" button, best to back up your registry first) Look for entries that mention DNS, particularly entries after the IP address(es) of your correct DNS servers. This is a favourite way to take over (as Astronaut says too), just change the preferred DNS server in the registry. Also, you can find the man page for the "nslookup" command-line utility - look up the host name using your default DNS server, then change over to use (say) register.com's DNS server and see if the host still resolves to the same IP address. Franamax (talk) 07:25, 30 December 2009 (UTC)

For instance, when I run my HijackThis v. 1.98.2, my entry O17 is "HKLM\System\CCS\Services\Tcpip...<weird crap>: NameServer = <redacted, but they are my legitimate nameserver addresses>". If you see further NameServer= entries in the listing after the ones you know are right, you have been hijacked. Investigate the IP addresses using whois etc. just to be sure, then delete the bogus entries. (Back up your registry first if you're not sure on this, maybe do one of those "system copy" things too, an emergency recovery CD never hurts) Franamax (talk) 07:41, 30 December 2009 (UTC)

Thanks guys. After running HiJackThis I found a suspicious R1 entry for 196.9.207.23 amongst the list of other corporate LAN-looking stuff. Specifically this entry was in Firefox's Network --> Connection Settings --> "No proxy for:" field. It was absent from Internet Explorer's similar field but I assume it somehow hooked into IE in a different way because I had the same problem in IE. I deleted the entire entry via HiJackThis and re-input the proxy exceptions for the corporate LAN, which has now fixed the problem in both IE and Firefox. I've also run virus and spyware scans which have found nothing suspicious...can something still be lurking on my PC waiting to pounce at the next restart? One last question...if anyone would like to browse to the given IP address, what is at that site? Zunaid 14:42, 30 December 2009 (UTC)

It belongs to AfriNIC, which apparently has control over all IP addresses beginning with 41, 196, and 197. Here's WHOIS. Geolocation tells me that the address is served by MTN and located in Sandton, South Africa - a "wealthy suburb of Johannesburg". Do any of those names or locations sound familiar - for example, the place where the site is based? The IP address in question does not host a website and does not respond to an HTTP request. Xenon54 / talk / 15:05, 30 December 2009 (UTC)

Oddly, the IP address also doesn't respond to a connection on port 53, which one would expect to happen if it was a DNS redirector. Franamax (talk) 20:04, 30 December 2009 (UTC)

Installing XP Pro x64 on a new partition

I want to be able to dual boot Win7 and XP (both x64). I already have Win7 installed on my C drive. I added a new 10 GB partition with the disk management tool in Win7 (D drive), which is where I will install XP. When I boot from the XP disk, I hit a 0x7B BSOD after the setup files load. I looked it up and found this page: 324103. It seems like I'm running into the problem listed under #Device Driver Issues, where I need to install a mass-storage device driver with F6. When I do that, setup tells me that there are no drivers that were loaded automatically or something. According to 314859, I guess that means I need the driver on a floppy. If I am wrong so far let me know.

At this point I'm not exactly sure what I need to do. First of all, I don't have a floppy drive, as it is my laptop. Second of all, I don't really understand where to get the drivers, and what the deal is with the boot disks that are mentioned in that second article. Also, I have no idea how to use the link given in 314062 for the hardware compatibility list. I end up here, then here, which is absolutely no help to me, with what I know. So I just need some advice on where to go from here. I have an Intel Core2 Duo T6500 64bit processor. Thanks —Akrabbim^talk 21:36, 29 December 2009 (UTC)

I would go into BIOS and change the HDD access mode from AHCI to IDE. After installation, you can then install the SATA drivers and re-enable AHCI. I'm speaking from experience, by the way.--Drknkn (talk) 23:12, 29 December 2009 (UTC)

OK, I changed it to IDE, and the XP installation was successful. However, I was expecting some screen like this to show up when I boot up, but it just automatically boots up XP. The partition with Win7 is untouched. Did I miss something? I don't see in the boot options in the bios how to change this. Also, could you explain SATA drivers? I'm completely unfamiliar with the term. Thanks —Akrabbim^talk 15:47, 30 December 2009 (UTC)

That screen only appears if you install Windows XP first and then Windows 7. Windows XP wrote a new master boot record to your hard drive. If Windows 7 were installed second, then it would install its own boot loader and the master boot record would load it first instead of the XP boot loader.

Did you get your Windows 7 DVD from Microsoft? If so, then you can boot from it and run a tool to repair it. It cannot be a DVD from a computer manufacturer. It must be from Microsoft. If you do not have a DVD from MS, then you can install EasyBCD and repair the boot loader.

Windows XP came out before SATA hard drives were on the market. It was designed to work with IDE drives. All new computers come with SATA hard drives. Windows 7 might work with the access mode set to IDE, by the way. Try it just like that and you might not have to install any SATA drivers.

As for the phrase SATA drivers, all parts in your computer need a driver (a piece of software) to receive commands from Windows. This includes your disk drives.--Drknkn (talk) 16:32, 30 December 2009 (UTC)

Alright, thanks, I'm back on Win7. The repair worked, but it crashed until I switched it back to AHCI. Now, what can I do to force a boot screen, now that Win7 is booting automatically? The repair program didn't recognize XP on D:\, only Win7 on C:\. —Akrabbim^talk 17:56, 30 December 2009 (UTC)

Try changing the system configuration (type msconfig in run). The "boot" tab should list available operating systems. If it isn't showing up, then something is wrong. J.delanoy^gabs_adds 17:58, 30 December 2009 (UTC)

Yeah, it isn't there either. Is there a way that I can get it to detect it, or will I have to reinstall XP? If I have to reinstall, how can I get the XP setup to not write a whole new master boot record? —Akrabbim^talk 18:10, 30 December 2009 (UTC)

No. You're making progress. Now you just install EasyBCD inside Windows 7 to add XP to the Windows 7's boot list. There's also a command called bcdedit you can use from the command prompt, but EasyBCD is much easier to use.--Drknkn (talk) 18:18, 30 December 2009 (UTC)

Fantastic, it's working great now. I haven't found the hard drive drivers yet, but I'll use the Seagate support for that. Thanks for the help. Of course, I now know that the program that I had in mind that I needed XP for is completely x64 incompatible, not just Vista/7 incompatible, so I'll have to reinstall with a XP x86. Figures. (:P + XD = XP) —Akrabbim^talk 19:30, 30 December 2009 (UTC)

December 30

Blackberry PIN

If I know someone's PIN on their Blackberry, is there a way from that I can find out which model of Blackberry they have? Thanks 81.157.54.103 (talk) 00:42, 30 December 2009 (UTC)

This link and this link may be of use to you. I hope this helps. JW..[ T..C ] 01:52, 30 December 2009 (UTC)

Thanks, It was of help. :) 81.157.54.103 (talk) 13:59, 30 December 2009 (UTC)

Connecting an XBOX 360 to the internet (XBOX live)

Hello... My cousin gave me a broken XBOX which I am in the process of sending to Microsoft to repair the three rings of death. When I get it back, I would like to play my XBOX online. What will I need? I don't know much about 'puters or XBOX for that matter, so here is all the info I have... I will gladly answer/research any questions about my set-up and I appreciate everyone who is able to help me out or contribute to this query. I have wireless internet throughout my apartment. As in, my landlord has an open internet connection and allows us (me, my roommate and other tenants) to use the connection. It is password protected, but I have the password. I purchased a wireless-G USB adapter for my computer to connect to the net. I do not pay for the internet so I do not know what HER connection speed is, but its relatively fast. Will I just need to buy the XBOX wireless router? Will I need some other contraption? Or can I do this a cheaper way - if so, where can I buy this online? Will I have to pay for my own internet source?? I'm sorry if I am missing any bullet points, but if there is any information I have not provided, I will be glad to research. Thanks!!!--24.187.98.157 (talk) 01:01, 30 December 2009 (UTC)

Also, I know I will need to buy an XBOX live card to connect. --24.187.98.157 (talk) 01:06, 30 December 2009 (UTC)

In addition to that Xbox Live card — it's US$50 per year in the US — you'll need to connect the Xbox to the Internet, either by wire or by wireless. Our article Xbox 360 accessories#Wireless Network Adapter mentions the Microsoft-manufactured adapter that is your easiest solution. You plug it into the Xbox's Ethernet port and configure it with your landlord's password, and you are go. Unfortunately it's US$100 or so which is really expensive. (That article has footnotes to a couple alternatives.) A cheaper alternative is to run an Ethernet cable from your 360 to your PC and, depending on the PC's Windows version, you can set up the PC to "Share Internet connection". The only disadvantage to this is the hassle of configuring your PC; and you need the PC to be on in order to play on Xbox Live. Comet Tuttle (talk) 02:00, 30 December 2009 (UTC)

Wireless networking using a USB adapter

In order to get the internet upstairs with the minimum amount of hassle, I am considering getting a USB Wireless adapter similar to this one. The wireless signal from the IEEE 802.11n access point is particularly weak in the bedroom, so rather than hide the USB adapter in a fixed location behind the PC (a desktop), I would like the flexibility to place the adapter elsewhere in the room. Is it possible to use it with a USB extension cable like this one and is there a maximum length of extension beyond which the network connection won't work? Astronaut (talk) 01:56, 30 December 2009 (UTC)

Assuming you are plugging into a USB2 port, the distance at which it is supposed to work without any slowdown or signal loss is 7m. Obviously, it can go longer. I saw a page a while back in which a guy claimed to have a usb connection from his basement to his attic without any problem and estimated it to be 120m of twisting and turning around his house. He claimed that he didn't use a repeater (you are supposed to be able to get 30m with 5 repeaters and 6 cables). -- kainaw™ 02:46, 30 December 2009 (UTC)

If you want the least amount of hassle, consider getting a wireless PCI card that you put inside your computer. USB wireless devices are notoriously buggy. Plus, with a PCB in your computer, you can screw off the antenna that would stick out of the back of the PC and screw on a coax cable that you can connect to an antenna in another room. You could screw it onto a Pringles can and point it at the router, for example. If you have to get one of those USB devices, then at least get one with an antenna that you can screw off. You could then hook up a coax cable to an antenna that way.--Drknkn (talk) 08:06, 30 December 2009 (UTC)

We already have a PCI card with an external antenna at the end of a coax cable. It was useless with the old 802.11g access point (dropping the connection every few seconds), and it is just as useless with the new 802.11n access point. The weak signal upstairs was one reason for upgrading to the new access point (the other was the good deal from the ISP). That said, the Pringles can sounds interesting. I remember readin an online article about it somewhere a couple of year ago but have forgotten the details. Do you have a link to a suitable design I could try? Astronaut (talk) 11:25, 30 December 2009 (UTC)

Cantenna. Comet Tuttle (talk) 18:20, 30 December 2009 (UTC)

There's also WokFi that does away the with the coax cable/connector stuff. What I did to improve wireless quality in my house is to connect a directional yagi antenna to my router (40NZD, 9dbi, made by TP-Link) and point it to the centre of my house (since the router is at a corner). Seems to work well. --antilived^{T | C | G} 23:22, 30 December 2009 (UTC)

E-mailing tips

Is there any way to send e-mail to many receipents, at the same time nobody knows it is sent to others also.The recipient should be at 'TO' field. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 113.199.138.47 (talk) 05:06, 30 December 2009 (UTC)

Blind carbon copy may be of interest to you. I hope this helps. JW..[ T..C ] 05:52, 30 December 2009 (UTC)

But do experiment first with yourself and a trusted recipient or two. Some email clients do Bcc in such a way that it's fairly obvious it's a mass mailing, like sending the mail but leaving the "To:" header blank. Franamax (talk) 07:53, 30 December 2009 (UTC)

Well if you don't put anything in the To: field then it should be blank... Note that BCC is primarily intended to hide the addresses of recipients, it may also hide the fact that the email was BCCed to the To: and CC: recepients but it's not guaranteed. It's not intended to hide the fact a BCC was sent to the people who are BCCed and is evidentally not even guaranteed to hide the addresses of other people who are BCCed to people who are BCCed (although from my experience it usually does). It's possible some servers may put the BCC recepient into the To: field but this isn't 1 of the ways that is specified as acceptable in the RFC, and I'm not aware of any servers which do this (I'm sure there are some but I don't think they're common). Also look in the article for more. Anyway in reply to the original question, you should also be aware to avoid them being used for spam, some SMTP servers may limit the number of simulataneous recipients. On the same point, you'll want to make sure you have the permission to e-mail each recepient otherwise you might find yourself in trouble with your SMTP service provider and/or the law Nil Einne (talk) 11:25, 30 December 2009 (UTC)

Usually the sender of a BCC'd mailing that is legit puts their own address in the "to" field. E-mails with empty "to" fields often get treated as spam, incidentally. And I really don't think you have to "have the permission to e-mail" each recipient—if you are not a hard-core spammer, you are not going to run into any trouble, legal or otherwise. Even if you are a spammer, the chances of getting prosecuted are tiny. --Mr.98 (talk) 19:07, 30 December 2009 (UTC)

See Mail merge. manya (talk) 10:36, 30 December 2009 (UTC)

Torrents

OK, I'm new to this so please bear with me =P I just downloaded a "torrent" for a video from some website. Now I have a small file with the .torrents extension. But how do I get the actual thing from that? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 202.129.234.196 (talk) 09:45, 30 December 2009 (UTC)

You open it with a program like μTorrent.--Drknkn (talk) 10:33, 30 December 2009 (UTC)

And then you wait for it to download the actual file(s). -- kainaw™ 15:14, 30 December 2009 (UTC)

Lost product Key Windows XP Pro

Hi I have found an old copy of Win WP Pro that I had but the product key is missing, is there any way I can find it again, is it stored on the disk anywhere? Thanks. BigDunc 13:46, 30 December 2009 (UTC)

If Windows XP copy in question is installed on the computer, then the answer is yes. The key is stored in the registry, but it is encrypted. Use one of these to find and decrypt the key.

If the copy is not installed, call Microsoft's main support number and ask for a replacement key. They will determine if the copy you have is genuine, then after you pay a small fee the replacement key will be sent. In the US, I believe this number is 1-800-Microsoft; in the UK, it's 0844 800 2400 (5p per minute, 6p "set-up fee"); for other countries, check the website. Xenon54 / talk / 14:07, 30 December 2009 (UTC)

So the key is not stored on the disk? BigDunc 14:13, 30 December 2009 (UTC)

I don't believe so, because the product key is not tied to a particular disc. Your hardware manufacturer (or Microsoft) ships out eleventy million identical Windows CD's, but each customer gets a unique product key. -- Coneslayer (talk) 14:25, 30 December 2009 (UTC)

Ahem... you could always.... google for product Key crackers..... —Preceding unsigned comment added by 82.44.54.145 (talk) 10:46, 31 December 2009 (UTC)

simultaneously wired and wireless

When I have my laptop at home, I plug it directly into an ethernet cable that goes into my wireless router (I find it is a lot faster using the wired connection than the wireless one), but I leave the wireless network on. The computer knows to use the ethernet as the main connection when it is plugged in. When I am plugged in, my router sends the information to 192.1.1.2 (or something like that), and on wireless it goes to 192.1.1.4.

Here's the odd bit. I was downloading a torrented file the other day, and my router was port forwarding to 192.1.1.4 (wireless), while the main torrent connection was operating out of the ethernet (192.1.1.2). I was sort of surprised by this, because rarely does the ethernet and the wireless connection operate simultaneously, yet it was doing a pretty good job of it.

My question: Is there any advantage or disadvantage to being able to use both connection types on the same machine simultaneously? --Mr.98 (talk) 17:59, 30 December 2009 (UTC)

It could be an advantage if they were going through separate routers. Back in the stone age, the fastest modem I could get was 1200bd. To get a fast connection, I made a box of four 1200bd modems. Each went to a separate phone line (Major drawback - had to get 4 phone numbers from the phone company. Got a good deal: $15 per extra line with no long distance on them). Then, I could dial in each modem separately and get 1200+1200+1200+1200bd. Then, I learned about Amdahl's law. However, you can see that having different sources of network traffic will speed up your connection. Running multiple connections to the same router limits you to the speed of the router. -- kainaw™ 18:37, 30 December 2009 (UTC)

Quick SQL Question

Hi All,

I have a table with the following fields: Refnumber and PostingDate. My problem is that Refnumber has duplicates (1 dup per ref number) with a different PostingDate (difference is just a couple of seconds). What would be the easiest way of returning just the older (based of postdate) refnumbers?

Thanks in advance PrinzPH (talk) 19:33, 30 December 2009 (UTC) EDIT: What I meant to say was most recent, so I guess that means the latest based on postedate

select refnumber, max(postingdate) from yourtable group by refnumber. -- kainaw™ 19:39, 30 December 2009 (UTC)

You mean you want all refnumbers with the most recent postingdate? select refnumber from yourtable where postingdate = (select max(postingdate) from yourtable) -- depending on the flavor of SQL, you may need to use "in" instead of "=" and/or name the subquery. -- kainaw™ 19:50, 30 December 2009 (UTC)

Thanks Kainaw! Happy New Year to all! :D PrinzPH (talk) 23:48, 30 December 2009 (UTC)

Self install of a cable modem

I am changing my internet service from DSL to cable. The cable company has given me a "do it yourself kit" (basically a splitter and some cable) and also a cable modem. I already own a wireless box for a lap top and I will also have a desk top plugged in. The last time I had cable internet service I had the company come out and install it. So my question is : Will simply hooking everything together be the major part of the project, or will I need to perform any extensive actions within the operating systems of my two computers to get everything configured properly? Any advice is greatly appreciated. Thanks, 10draftsdeep (talk) 21:03, 30 December 2009 (UTC)

Assuming your "wireless box" is actually a wireless router, all you need to do is place the cable modem in the same location in the connection chain your DSL modem was originally. So the LAN ethernet output from the cable modem plugs into the WAN ethernet input on your wireless router. You will then probably have to enter the correct username and password in your router's settings to access the cable connection. 61.189.63.130 (talk) 21:44, 30 December 2009 (UTC)

December 31

Sending data to a website from within a program.

My son and I are trying to write a complete PC computer game over the week between Xmas and New Year - and we're doing pretty good. I've done almost all of the coding except the high score table, the art is 99% complete and the game is playable & fun.

However, I've run into a problem - we need to store the high-score table on a web site. So I need to figure out how to send the high score data to a web page on a remote computer. I know how to to it under Linux - but I also need to have this work under Windows. So what I want is to be able to have my Windows/C++ program send something like:

 http://www.sjbaker.com/mygame.html?score=1234&player=Steve&securitycode=0x123456

...to the web - where a PHP script on the game's web site can grab it and update an online database that anyone can view in a browser. I know how to do all of the server-side stuff - and I have the string coded up in the game - so all I need to know is how to make an HTTP request from within C++ under Windows. The security code should prevent vandals and cheating (it's a mildly encrypted hash of the score and the player's name).

Is there an easy way to do this in Windows/VisualStudio C++ code?

SteveBaker (talk) 02:03, 31 December 2009 (UTC)

Of course the easiest way is to use ShellExecute with the URL above, but this will open the web browser, and that you do not want. You want the data to be sent in the background. This is not too hard using Windows API. I believe you should use InternetOpen and InternetConnect followed by some other calls to the WinINet functions. (Well, a few years ago I did write a small FTP client using the WinINet API, but I have never used any other "parts" of it.) --Andreas Rejbrand (talk) 02:32, 31 December 2009 (UTC)

You can try WinINet. Here is a simple example. manya (talk) 03:51, 31 December 2009 (UTC)

The sample example I mentioned above is for sending post request. Since your request is "GET", you can pass second parameter of HttpOpenRequest as null or "GET". If you are interested in writing your own socket code, then you need to connect to the server and once connected send "GET http://www.sjbaker.com/mygame.html?score=1234&player=Steve&securitycode=0x123456 HTTP/1.0" followed by two newline characters. And server will respond "HTTP/1.0 200 OK" if everything is fine. It may be required to send HEADER information also. You need to study HTTP protocol to understand HEADERS. Also, since users may be using proxy servers, you need code to handle that too. Then it becomes complex, and you end up developing your own network library. I think it is best to try out WinINet first, which provides all functionality for calling web server from application. manya (talk) 04:21, 31 December 2009 (UTC)

Psst... it sounds like the request you're making should really be a POST, not a GET. -- Coneslayer (talk) 13:35, 31 December 2009 (UTC)

If it needs to be cross-platform, the easiest thing will be to either get some library like libcurl or else just write a very simplistic bit of socket code. You could also just include a copy of wget or whatever in the game's Windows distribution. --Sean 14:43, 31 December 2009 (UTC)

help me

http://shop.ebay.co.uk/sis.html?ssPageName=VINS:SIM&_kw=REMOTE+UNLOCK+CODE+Huawei+E160+E160G+by+IMEI+Number&_fis=1&_id=380187543101&_isid=3&_sibeleafcat=50197

i'm planning to start a remote unlocking service. i'm in Kenya and basically i want modems to be able to support all networks. I was doing some research and currently Ebay seem to giving the cheapest option. i tried Nextgen servers i was recommended by a friend that they offer cheaper rates but from their site they charge nearly 10 times what ebay is charging.. http://www.nextgenserver.com/broadband_dongle_unlock.htm

question--what's the cheapest way to unlock modems? Anybody who's been down this path kindly assist. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 212.49.88.34 (talk) 08:03, 31 December 2009 (UTC)

You might find some information here BigDunc 13:10, 31 December 2009 (UTC)

modern trends and technologies in processor

i wand t get information related to modern trends and technologies in processor (including processors used in desktop,laptop,nettop,supercom,pc,servers,custom made,mobile,and other procssors made my intel amd , cyrix etc) with fig.

• include time chart of processors
• tabulated comparison of technologies used in processors by various manufatures
• perfomence facter and grafical represntation
• draw backs of each technologies
• details regarding forth coming technologies and recherch going on to invent new technologies

—Preceding unsigned comment added by Mikimon (talk • contribs) 11:03, 31 December 2009 (UTC)

The reference desk volunteers won't do your homework for you. However, you might find the following articles helpful: Microprocessor, VLSI, Intel, AMD, Cyrix and the other articles linked on CPU technologies. You could also follow some of the external links on those articles for more detailed information. Astronaut (talk) 13:14, 31 December 2009 (UTC)

Please do your own homework.

Welcome to the Wikipedia Reference Desk. Your question appears to be a homework question. I apologize if this is a misinterpretation, but it is our aim here not to do people's homework for them, but to merely aid them in doing it themselves. Letting someone else do your homework does not help you learn nearly as much as doing it yourself. Please attempt to solve the problem or answer the question yourself first. If you need help with a specific part of your homework, feel free to tell us where you are stuck and ask for help. If you need help grasping the concept of a problem, by all means let us know. SteveBaker (talk) 13:11, 31 December 2009 (UTC)

define the scope of it

define the scope of it —Preceding unsigned comment added by Mikimon (talk • contribs) 11:08, 31 December 2009 (UTC)

The scope of what? Do you have a question? Astronaut (talk) 13:06, 31 December 2009 (UTC)

Perhaps Mikmon's keyboard is malfunctioning, and he wants to know the scope of IT. -- Coneslayer (talk) 14:55, 31 December 2009 (UTC)

computer memory

Until recently I used a computer which was about the best available in the shops when I got it in I think 2003. I was wondering roughly how much RAM that would have on it. Is it possible for a computer of that age to have 2GB?

80.47.223.218 (talk) 13:27, 31 December 2009 (UTC)

Are you running Windows? If so, right-click on "My Computer" and select "Properties". The dialog box that pops up will tell you how much memory (RAM) is installed. -- Coneslayer (talk) 13:28, 31 December 2009 (UTC)

As it happens, I no longer have access to that computer. I thought I had made that clear in the question, but apparently not. 80.47.223.218 (talk) 14:09, 31 December 2009 (UTC)

2003, well I had a laptop in 2003 with 250MB ram, so a desktop probably had a little more. I'm guessing around 500MB - 1GB