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January 17

Add date to toolbar

How do I add a date to the xp toolbar bottom right? I cannot get the upright line to hover over the top edge of the bar; it remains an arrow. Kittybrewster ☎ 09:05, 17 January 2010 (UTC)

Right-click on the taskbar, and uncheck "Lock taskbar" (or whatever it is called in the English version of XP). --Andreas Rejbrand (talk) 12:57, 17 January 2010 (UTC)

It's "Lock the Taskbar". Pretty close though, Andreas. Thanks, gENIUS101 18:48, 17 January 2010 (UTC)

Hidden folder search

I have some hidden folders in a file on my computer. I always accessed them by searching by enabling the hidden folder option. Now whenever I click the search button on the toolbar, nothing happens. The search options do not appear on the side of the screen as they normally do. What is the problem? I use windows xp. Thanks. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 116.71.54.159 (talk) 13:04, 17 January 2010 (UTC)

I'm not sure why your search options aren't appearing, but you can also access hidden folders by going to the control panel, to "folder options" (in classic view) and picking "show hidden files and folders" in the advanced section of the "view" tab. Rckrone (talk) 20:59, 18 January 2010 (UTC)

.flv split

I'm trying to find a program that splits (and maybe joins) .flv files without encoding the entire thing (is this possible) - so far the options I've found require me to re-encode the entire stream - when I think it only needs to tidy the ends (create new key frames at the beginning?) and update meta-data? Will pay, (not house prices though), at a pinch can use the command line - but would need someway of finding the frame or time to sub-second accuracy.

When I say flv I almost certainly mean H264/AAC encoded files. Just to clarify I'm looking for something that can split flv without the image degradation associated with de-encoding/encoding. Shortfatlad (talk) 14:11, 17 January 2010 (UTC)

avidemux --kv7sW9bIr8 (talk) 14:20, 17 January 2010 (UTC)

I tried that before - but kept getting the message - "H264 detected.. if the file uses B frames... use a different method y/n" then beyond that got errors if I selected the optional method or not - either failure to insert a key frame at the beginning (giving 'LSD' type effects), or timing messed up/no sound.

it does very nearly work though...

(The generic software "ultra video splitter"/"allok video splitter" does work, but the seek method is so simplistic that it makes editing near impossible.)

Shortfatlad (talk) 15:13, 17 January 2010 (UTC)

Are there any other options?Shortfatlad (talk) 16:13, 17 January 2010 (UTC)

AVS Video Remaker, however the free version limits the video time to 5 mins --kv7sW9bIr8 (talk) 16:35, 17 January 2010 (UTC)

I tried that before, but I tried again just in case - 50% of the time it works, but the other 50% of the time produces totally garbled output (+other problems). Front end is quite nice though.Shortfatlad (talk) 17:23, 17 January 2010 (UTC)

Lots of people want to chop .flv files - the first person to make available something - hopefully freeware - will have a huge demand. The format conversion programmes I've tried are very poor. Since several video players can play flv files, I'm wondering what is so difficult about editing them. 92.29.80.215 (talk) 16:42, 17 January 2010 (UTC)

I would guess (from some failed edits I've seen) that one problem is reconstructing the frames at the 'cut ends' amongst other things - though I'm don't know enough to know why this is problematic for flv when windows movie maker has done it for wmv for many years..Shortfatlad (talk) 17:34, 17 January 2010 (UTC)

Every modern video editing program can do flv. If it's fucking up you've obviously got some weird ass flv file encoded in a shitty way or perhaps not even a normal flv just using flv as a container

DIY screensaver or moving wallpaper?

Is there any easy way to make my own screensavers? And would it be possible to have moving 'wallpaper'? I use Windows XP; but soon I am also going to be using Ubuntu. Thanks. 92.29.80.215 (talk) 16:06, 17 January 2010 (UTC)

You can make screensavers in any programming language with a decent compilator for the Windows platform, because a *.scr file is actually a *.exe file with an odd extension. When the application starts, you simply have to check the command-line flags to determine wheather to start the screensaver, open the settings dialog box, or create a preview of the screensaver. I have made several screensavers in Delphi, for example. --Andreas Rejbrand (talk) 16:40, 17 January 2010 (UTC)

I made a screensaver in Visual Basic: [1]. I think VB apps will run in Ubuntu since it includes Mono. As for a moving wall paper, just use an animated GIF. You could also use Active Desktop, which is essentially a web page on your desktop. You could embed a flash movie into that.--Drknkn (talk) 16:42, 17 January 2010 (UTC)

Thanks, although as I am only familar with GWBasic that looks too difficult for me. 92.29.80.215 (talk) 18:39, 17 January 2010 (UTC)

Maybe you could try Screensaver Factory. There are a bunch of other applications out there for making screen savers, although the screen saver probably wouldn't work in Ubuntu. Yes, VB is very different from GWBasic, so I don't blame you.--Drknkn (talk) 18:44, 17 January 2010 (UTC)

Thanks again, although I was hoping to do some kinetic art like a cellular automata, not really a slide-show. 92.29.80.215 (talk) 20:56, 17 January 2010 (UTC)

media player

I was typing when a window opened up to aks me if i wanted to play a cd in media player or itunes or whatever, but my typing somehow inadvertantly selected media player. Now every music cd opens in media player.

Since, as we all know, windows media player is an annoying pile of toss, how do i change the settings so it just asks me what programme to use like it used to? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 129.67.39.49 (talk) 16:18, 17 January 2010 (UTC)

More than one way - select a file of the type you used using right click - then select "open with" - then pick your program from the list - AND - check the box that says - "always use the selected program to open this type of file". Done.

Or. Open your preferred media player and open the options or preferences box - you need to find the bit which says "file associations" or similar. Then check the boxes you want.Shortfatlad (talk) 16:32, 17 January 2010 (UTC)

Very similar for dvd/cd drives - again more than one way - see [2] seems to cover most methods.Shortfatlad (talk) 16:37, 17 January 2010 (UTC)

On Windows XP right click your cd drive and select properties, then go to the autoplay tab and change the settings. On Vista or Win 7 go to the control panel, then click hardware and sound, then autoplay and change the settings --kv7sW9bIr8 (talk) 16:57, 17 January 2010 (UTC)

Cheers guys. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 129.67.39.49 (talk) 01:04, 18 January 2010 (UTC)

LHC Computing Grid

Would it be correct in calling the LHC Computing Grid as a supercomputer?--Seraphiel (talk) 17:23, 17 January 2010 (UTC)

Any help, anyone?--Seraphiel (talk) 18:12, 17 January 2010 (UTC)

Hold on.. I think it's a borderline case - from what I read the system is primarily used for storing massive amounts of data, but not so much performing calculations (though their still is a lot of that), which is what most people think of when we say "supercomputer" - it probably could be reconfigured into a respectable cluster - see [3] (first 2 para) also news news - this makes me think of describing it as a "cloud supercomputer".. no idea if I just coined a new term.

The other article is Grid computing which explains the hair-splitting differences. I don't think their would be any real issue with calling it a supercomputer

...CERN (said sic) that its Tier-0 computing center runs on about 30,000 CPUs and houses about 5 PB (5 million GB) of disk storage and 16 PB of tape storage. [4]

, it's just not a conventional one like a cray.Shortfatlad (talk) 18:22, 17 January 2010 (UTC)

Hmm...interesting..Maybe I'm safer not to call it one then, since it is a borderline case.--Seraphiel (talk) 18:51, 17 January 2010 (UTC)

Processor speeds and graphics hardware

Hello all. I have a Dell Latitude D630 with Intel Core 2 Duo T7500, which has a speed of ~2.20Ghz. My laptop's graphics card is a "Mobile Intel(R) 965 Express Chipset Family"; device ID 2A02 and 2A03. I am looking to possibly purchase this program. I need some help figuring out if my computer could run the program. The website recommends the following system requirements (which I have partially checked):

• Pentium4 2.26GHz or higher (see question below)
• 512MB of system memory ( Yes)
• At least 128MB of dedicated video memory ( Not sure...Where do I find if I have this?)
• 256-bit video memory bus -or- a high speed 128-bit video memory bus ( Not sure...Where do I find if I have this?)
• 8 or more pixel shader units ( Not sure...Where do I find if I have this?)

With the processor, would my 2.20Ghz processor be able to run the program, given the recommended requirement is a 2.26Ghz? I don't really know how much of a difference 0.06Ghz makes.

Thanks in advance for any help you provide. Ks0stm ^(T•C•G) 20:08, 17 January 2010 (UTC)

Yes, you will. (If you have Windows XP or later.) The CPU frequency is only mentioned at the recommended requirements list. In addition, Pentium 4 is old. Your Core 2 Duo is faster. But if this indeed is a GPU and CPU intensive application, it will probably run more smoothly on a (powerful) stationary computer. But it will probably run quite well on your laptop too. --Andreas Rejbrand (talk) 20:35, 17 January 2010 (UTC)

I think that this will not work. Your CPU speed may be enough, but the Intel 965 Express is about the lowest end video chip you can get. It lacks the pixel shaders necessary to do what you need, and probably the ram.

But don't take my word for it. Download this program to scan video card's capabilities. Make a note of the physical memory, and the shader processors. (You need either more than 8 "unified" or more than 8 "PP"), and finally make a note of the Direct X version. That software needs a video chip that is comparable with 9.0c. APL (talk) 04:16, 18 January 2010 (UTC)

Yes, I have to agree. I focused only on the CPU (due to the headline). In general, mobile GPUs are not good, and this is probably more low-end than most GPUs. I would not dare to say that the app will not work, but if it does start, animation and rendering may be very slow. --Andreas Rejbrand (talk) 08:22, 18 January 2010 (UTC)

Ok, I downloaded the program, and it came out with 384MB graphics memory and Direct X 9.0c, but a grand total of 0 VP and 0 PP. And therefore, a new question: What would I have to do to upgrade my computer to be able to handle the program, and what is a rough estimate of what it might cost? Ks0stm ^(T•C•G) 20:42, 18 January 2010 (UTC)

I'm afraid that I don't have a good answer here. If it were a desktop PC we could easily tell you about upgrades, but notebook computers are much more model-specific. Unless someone here has experience with your particular notebook your best next step would be to contact Dell and ask them what options are available for your particular machine, if there are any. APL (talk) 20:43, 19 January 2010 (UTC)

Intel graphics chips (I should put the word "graphics" in quotes I think) are horrible. Complete crap. They are exceedingly slow and lacking in features compared to ATI and nVidia chips. If the program you want to buy runs at all, it would be very slow. That said (with one major caveat which I'll come to later):

• At least 128MB of dedicated video memory - You can probably configure the BIOS to allow the Intel chip to use 128MB of memory (that may be the default) - but Intel chips don't use "dedicated" memory - they share it with the CPU. That shouldn't affect whether this program runs - the only difference between shared memory and dedicated memory is speed. If course if you give the graphics chip 128MB - then that's 128MB that your CPU can't use - so be sure that you have at least 512+128 = 640MB or total memory in your laptop in order to meet both this AND the other main memory requirement.
• 256-bit video memory bus -or- a high speed 128-bit video memory bus - Again, no. The Intel chip can only access main memory which is likely to be 32 bits wide if you have a 32 bit laptop or at most 64 bits wide on a 64 bit laptop. But here too - this shouldn't determine whether the program runs or not - it can't tell how wide the bus is. However, without enough video memory speed, it might be horrifyingly slow.
• 8 or more pixel shader units - Yet again, the Intel ship doesn't have this either - but again, the application program should work no matter how many of these there are because the driver software arranges to share the work between however many are available. So this too shouldn't stop the program from running - but would certainly make it run slowly.

So if these are truly the only requirements, then I'd expect this program to run on your machine - but excruciatingly slowly. However, since they go to the trouble to make this list of features into requirements, then if you can't meet them then you have no grounds for complaint if for some other reason it doesn't run...and the odds are high that it won't because it probably needs some feature that the Intel chip can't implement.

Another possibility is that this program uses an nVidia library called "CUDA" - which uses the graphics chip for doing parallel processing tasks that are unrelated to displaying graphics. CUDA programs might truly require some of these things in order to run on the graphics chip at all. However, CUDA has a software-only fallback mode in the event that it doesn't find an adequate graphics chip...so it should STILL be true that the program would run - but yet more slowly.

As you can probably tell - each of these little issues all result in the thing being slower - and when you multiply all of those factors together, you may end up with a program that is essentially unusable even if it does run.

Given this is evidently a piece of specialised professional software, you ought to be able to call or email the support people at the company that makes it and ask them directly whether it will run on your laptop. However, past experience with Intel "graphics" chips bodes ill. They really are horrible devices. Next time you buy a laptop - make sure you get one with either an ATI or nVidia graphics chip - and, personally ("trust me I'm a computer game graphics programmer") I'd buy nVidia because ATI's drivers are so frequently flakey.

Upgrading the graphics on a laptop is usually impossible. On a deskside computer, you could have fixed this by tossing a $100 graphics card in there - which is why I try to avoid laptops if at all possible. SteveBaker (talk) 04:24, 20 January 2010 (UTC)

Windows 7 wake up alarm

I lost my mobile phone over the weekend and now find that I've no alarm to get me up for work tomorrow morning. Is there a way I can set my PC to wake me in the morning. I'm using windows 7 but can find any alarm clock app. Thanks. Stanstaple (talk) 20:55, 17 January 2010 (UTC)

Any respectable music player - for example, Winamp - should have an alarm clock function built-in or available as a plugin. Obviously you would need to leave your lappy on for it to work. If you have an iPod, it might also have a built-in alarm clock, depending on how new it is (my 5G nano does). As a last resort, you can try searching websites such as download.com. Xenon54 / talk / 21:29, 17 January 2010 (UTC)

There are probably a lot of desktop gadgets that you can use. --Andreas Rejbrand (talk) 23:03, 17 January 2010 (UTC)

That's what I thought, but I can't seem to find one I like. Stanstaple (talk) 18:54, 20 January 2010 (UTC)

Citrus alarm clock works well. It's a thirty-day trial, but after the thirty days it doesn't stop working, it just starts nagging you. 202.10.91.153 (talk) 17:00, 22 January 2010 (UTC)

Windows Product Key Update Tool

Not the same as activating a new product. What does the user get out of using this? Apparantly it replaces your old Windows product key with a new one. http://www.microsoft.com/genuine/selfhelp/XPPkuinst.aspx?displaylang=en&sGuid=7b567a9d-8e31-4c2c-b039-6ea2cf0c9cf4 Wouldnt the old product key be just as good? I can see that Microsoft gets to check if you have authentic software, but what is the advantage to the user if the old product key was OK and legitimate? 92.29.80.215 (talk) 21:04, 17 January 2010 (UTC)

You only need to use the tool if you have reason to do so (i.e. a wrong/non genuine key was input and you now need to enter a new one). If your product key is working fine then there's no reason to use it. ZX81 ^talk 04:15, 18 January 2010 (UTC)

January 18

Nameservers and domain question.

This seems like a kind of a dumb question, but I can't work it out. My friend has a website set up with a domain name set up pointing to it. I've bought two more domains, and I just want them to redirect to his site. Is there some simple way I can whois the site, and find out what nameservers to use? Do I need his registrar login too, or can I just do this myself? 202.10.88.75 (talk) 03:04, 18 January 2010 (UTC)

All you need is the IP address of his server, and you can point your DNS names to that IP. You don't need anything from his DNS registrar at all.

One potential issue, which you may or may not actually experience, is related to DNS-based virtual hosts. Some servers are configured to verify that the DNS-name matches the expected DNS name. This is called Name-Based Virtual Hosting. Personally, I think it's a bad idea. But, some people like it (either for "security reasons" or to allow multiple sites to be hosted on the same IP address). If your friend's site is configured this way, you need to add or allow the virtual host for your DNS names, on the server configuration. Here are instructions for Apache 2.x. Nimur (talk) 03:45, 18 January 2010 (UTC)

Although name based hosting does offer some mild security because it's harder to "stumble" across it, the main reason is simply because in most cases there just aren't enough IPv4 IP addresses available for every site to have a unique IP. You can read more about that at IPv4 address exhaustion ZX81 ^talk 04:13, 18 January 2010 (UTC)

Windows - file & folder permissions q

Consider a domain built around or incorporating, say, a Windows Server 2003 file server. Is it possible to construct a permissions matrix such that users are able to write files in subdirectories, but are unable to create new folders/subdirectories? If so, pointers to exactly which permissions options should be checked would be welcome. thanks --Tagishsimon (talk) 14:51, 18 January 2010 (UTC)

Printer driver problem

I'm trying to connect an x86 machine (XP) via a wireless connection to a usb printer connected to a x64 (win7) machine. - for printing.

The problem is that I get to the add a printer part - and the computer says that it doesn't have the correct drivers.. (on the x86 machine). Going on the x64 machine I see that it says it only has x64 drivers installer for the printer, and suggests adding x86 for older computers connected to it on the network. So far so good - that's what I need.

However I can't find x86 drivers - the option given is to browse the x86 folder - but I have no idea what I'm looking for. If I try any driver updates the computer just installs the x64 driver again and gives no option to add x86 drivers.

The machine is a HP PSC 1400 type. On HP's website there I can't find "drivers" just a 70MB program that installs a "HP Imaging and scanning solution"

(Note the network etc all is fine, and the system used to work before until the x64 windows 7 machine replaced a x86 XP machine)

Can someone tell me what file I'm actually looking for (the x86 HP PSC 1400 driver) - so I can search for it, or suggest what else to do. Thanks.87.102.67.84 (talk) 16:16, 18 January 2010 (UTC)

On the Win7 box: right click on the printer icon and select Printer properties > Sharing > Additional drivers. Is there a check box for x86? If so, check it and select OK. Browse to the driver install and see if you can install it. This loads the driver so that it can be pushed to an x86 box when it tries to use the share.

Otherwise try installing the printer on the x86 box using LPT1 so that the driver is in place, then install it using the share. ---— Gadget850 (Ed) ^talk 17:23, 18 January 2010 (UTC)

First paragraph - I got stuck at Browse to the driver install

I got to the check box - and ticked it - it then came up with a dialog in which the only option seemed to be to browse the hard disk for it (there was another option to select a driver from a list - but my printer wasn't on that.) - the problem is that I have no idea what file I am looking for - I guess it's not called "HP PSC driver for x86" :) , it likely isn't actually on the computer anyway.

On HP's site there are various downloads, Windows 7 won't accept the x86 software package on the x64 machine, so I can't get a driver that way. On that site there doesn't seem to be anything like a descreet driver - just 700MB software suites that include everything.

I tried using windows update, but it won't install an additional x86 driver - just thinks I want the x64 type. no options given.

I can probably try to install a driver directly onto the x86 XP machine- but again I don't have the driver, and HP doesn't seem to give one - just the option of the massive software suites with a driver somewhere within - maybe if I install that I could find the driver, copy it, and dump the bloat? Any clues as to what the file will be?87.102.67.84 (talk) 17:53, 18 January 2010 (UTC)

I wonder if I carry the x86 machine over to the printer and plug it directly into the USB would it automatically install the drivers? 87.102.67.84 (talk) 18:10, 18 January 2010 (UTC)

I don't see a 1400, but there is a 1410. From http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/softwareCategory?lc=en&dlc=en&cc=us&product=441115 you can select then XP then "HP Officejet and PSC Basic Driver". And your sneakernet idea just might work. ---— Gadget850 (Ed) ^talk 18:16, 18 January 2010 (UTC)

Yes 1410 (or 14xx series) (or as HP's software calls it the 4200 series) - this has to be one of the most uninspiring experiences of my life - the fully featured HP software refuses to detect the printer on the network - despite the fact that I can see it on the network. If I try direct connection the software fails to do anything. Plug and play fails to find drivers via windows update. If I run the software, and connect to the printer later it decides to work.! Actually being connected to the printer when running the setup seems to be a problem for it despite it telling me that is exactly what I must do. :)

I still haven't got a .inf file for the x64 machine, but at least it works.87.102.67.84 (talk) 21:01, 18 January 2010 (UTC)

But now that you have the driver installed, you should be able to browse the network for the printer, double click on it and it should use the installed driver. ---— Gadget850 (Ed) ^talk 22:49, 18 January 2010 (UTC)

Yes it does do that. I was hoping that I'd be able to find a suitable set of files to copy over to the x64 machine for it to keep in case I need to connect another, but I didn't find anything. I still find it slightly annoying that I have (yet another) program showing up on my installed list - just to get a driver, but it's better than 10m of usb cable.87.102.67.84 (talk) 23:33, 18 January 2010 (UTC)

What I really don't understand is how the installer fails to find the printer on the network when told to do so - it shows up pretty clearly for me in controlpanel>printers - I wonder where it's looking?87.102.67.84 (talk) 23:37, 18 January 2010 (UTC)

analyze internet connection

I need a program that can record every connection through my internet connection, where the requests were going, the sites being browsed etc etc basically any activity through my internet connection it can show. Any suggestions for programs that can do this? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 82.43.91.83 (talk) 17:19, 18 January 2010 (UTC)

Wireshark. You need some knowledge of networking and protocols to interpret the traces. ---— Gadget850 (Ed) ^talk 17:24, 18 January 2010 (UTC)

You may be able to snoop on the history of the ingoing and outgoing connections via your router's web browser interface. Comet Tuttle (talk) 19:23, 18 January 2010 (UTC)

Also look at Ethereal --Phil Holmes (talk) 09:21, 19 January 2010 (UTC)

Wireshark is the new name for Ethereal. -- Coneslayer (talk) 18:34, 19 January 2010 (UTC)

Instant alerts for web-based email

I spend too much of my life going to the window that I keep my Hotmail open in and pressing refresh (occasionally I get important emails that need immediate attention) I'm starting to get a bit OCD over it. Is there some way of getting instant alerts for this? The Hotmail pages have left me merely confused. Changing my email address isn't really practical for me, as I'm self-employed almost-instinct 18:24, 18 January 2010 (UTC)

Such a thing is generally called a "notifier" - if you search Google for "hotmail notifier" you'll find a bunch, both free-standing and built into the browser. -- Finlay McWalter • Talk 18:40, 18 January 2010 (UTC)

Perhaps not really useful to you I know, but there are a lot of tools like this for gmail in particular. It's also quite easy to get a gmail address and have all of your hotmail forwarded to that address. This would allow you to use (in my opinion) a far superior e-mail client, still easily get e-mail from your old address, have a fancy new and (again, in my opinion) more professional sounding e-mail address, and you can use many of the organizational features in gmail including some of their notification tools. </faux sales pitch> Chris M. (talk) 18:46, 18 January 2010 (UTC)

You could get a gmail account and set up your hotmail account to forward emails to it. Then install the google toolbar, which has a little notifier on it to tell you if you have new email. I use this method myself because it's a hassle to log into one of my email addresses. I think Finlay's method might be a simpler option though! (Edit conflict, just saw Chris post the same message). Seraphim♥ 18:48, 18 January 2010 (UTC)

Also if you get a phone that supports pushmail (what, no article?) you can get a little "beep" in your phone whenever you get mail, at least with Gmail (my iPhone can do this, but I found it amazingly annoying and turned it off after one day...) Jørgen (talk) 19:10, 18 January 2010 (UTC)

I added a redirect to Push e-mail which we do have an article on. Livewireo (talk) 19:07, 19 January 2010 (UTC)

I think if you get your hotmail via Windows Live Mail rather than web based you can change the settings to give an alert (like messenger) when a new message come in. Check - you can get it to play a sound when new messages arrive - in "options">"general", There is supposed to be a way to get it to send a message to a mobile phone as well if you get new mail. Alternatively have you tried searching for "hotmail automatic alerts" - there seem to be many programs that will monitor one or many e-mail accounts for new messages and alert you eg [5] I've no idea which if any can be recommended. 87.102.67.84 (talk) 20:16, 18 January 2010 (UTC)

Thank you for all these suggestions. I tried out the final one, using Windows Live Mail. The mail notifications are not absolutely instant, but you can set how often it checks for new mail - so I set it for every one minute. The forwarding to Gmail idea wasn't an option as Hotmail can only be forwarded to other Microsoft mail accounts. Unlike most people on the planet, I don't like Gmail (which I also have an account with) anyway. Before I downloaded Windows Live Mail, it didn't occur to me that it would also want to download ten years' worth of mail- that took a while! The final result is that when I get new mail, the Mail icon in the bottom right hand corner gets overlaid with an envelope and my computer beeps. Thank you everyone! almost-instinct 10:33, 19 January 2010 (UTC)

Ubuntu: add "gksu" to a GNOME action

Is there a way to prepend gksu to an action I perform with the GNOME GUI? Right now, for example, I would like to select all the files and folders in a particular folder, right-click, and choose "Properties", but would like sudo invoked so I can set the permissions how I want. Comet Tuttle (talk) 21:01, 18 January 2010 (UTC)

In the general case, nautilus-actions might be able to help you. I think "Properties" is kind of hardwired, though, so you might be out of luck if you want to gksu it (though I haven't checked for sure). Marnanel (talk) 14:53, 19 January 2010 (UTC)

Windows Media Player shutting down

I'm running XP SP3, with the most current version of Windows Media Player (11.0.5.etc). WMV files play correctly, but nothing else does. MPGs show in very stilted fashion (like one frame for every two-three seconds). AVIs seem to play normally, but when I click the seek bar to "fast forward", the player shuts off completely. It's difficult to say for certain, but I believe the behaviour started since installing DivX. This is a new machine, but I've installed DivX and used it with WMP numerous times before without anything like this. So far as I can tell, I'm up-to-date with everything. Any suggestions? Right now I'm using VLC for playback, but I'd prefer to get WMP running again. Matt Deres (talk) 23:13, 18 January 2010 (UTC)

FFDShow, an open source codec/directshow utility for Windows, is much more stable than DivX. When FFDShow is installed, it can play DivX videos in Windows Media Player or other video players. The root cause of your playback problem(s) is difficult to diagnose from the information you provided; but it could be related to incompatability between DivX and your new graphics adapter. To some extent, DivX and other packages use hardware acceleration for video decompression; if your new machine is failing with the same software that worked on an older machine, I would suspect something related to hardware overlays or video drivers. As far as a solution, I would just switch to FFdshow. Nimur (talk) 03:45, 19 January 2010 (UTC)

January 19

Long Range wireless router

I need a wireless router that's longer range than most consumer type routers. I need to cover 3 floors of an older home...not super concerned with speed though. I can't run cables through the walls etc...it's been harder to find than I thought...ideas? 69.180.160.77 (talk) 05:25, 19 January 2010 (UTC)

Google wireless-g repeater. Comet Tuttle (talk) 05:38, 19 January 2010 (UTC)

It's not entirely a matter of range - three floors isn't much distance for a regular WiFi system. The bigger problem is the amount of intervening walls, floors and ceilings which attenuate the signal. Remember also that the signals have to go both ways - so while getting a higher power router helps in getting signals out to your PC's - it won't help with getting them back again because that's down to the transmitter power in the PC's - which you can't reasonably change. The idea of using wireless repeaters (as Comet Tuttle suggests) is therefore the better answer. SteveBaker (talk) 03:53, 20 January 2010 (UTC)

last logon time in yahoo mail

where do i find last logon date and time in yahoo mail —Preceding unsigned comment added by Ismail pcs (talk • contribs) 09:40, 19 January 2010 (UTC)

I came up empty after a couple of minutes' time in the help section, suggesting that Yahoo Mail does not have a feature letting you see this information. Comet Tuttle (talk) 17:37, 19 January 2010 (UTC)

I agree with you and as far as I know it's not possible to view the last logged in time on Yahoo (or Hotmail for that matter). It's probably not any help, but Gmail does offer this feature. ZX81 ^talk 17:54, 19 January 2010 (UTC)

I think Fastmail upon successful login automatically shows the time of last previous login attempt and whether it was successful or failed. - 23:35, 19 January 2010 (UTC) —Preceding unsigned comment added by 84.46.48.150 (talk)

Graphics in BASIC (1)

Resolved

I write graphics programs in BASIC using SCREEN 12 mode which gives a display size 640x480 pix and 16 colours. I would like to change the palette colours, for example to a 16-step grey scale, by POKE'ing bytes into the palette address. (There is a PALETTE command but I have not succeeded in using it to get what I want.) Can anyone tell me the address where the palette is stored? Cuddlyable3 (talk) 12:07, 19 January 2010 (UTC)

It is not stored in memory but in VGA registers, so you would need OUT instructions, or whatever they are called in Basic. (If not OUT try PORT or something.) —Preceding unsigned comment added by 195.35.160.133 (talk) 13:13, 19 January 2010 (UTC)

The part of the VGA you need to OUT to is called the DAC (Digital Analog Converter). It has 256 byte-triplets for the red-green-blue values of the max. 256 vga colors. Technical details here: [[6]]. Btw, PALETTE should work too, I think. 195.35.160.133 (talk) 13:25, 19 January 2010 (UTC) Martin.

In QBasic 1.1, when you are using SCREEN 12, you can use the PALETTE statement as follows:

PALETTE n, r + (256 * g) + (65536 * b)

where n is 0 to 15, and r, g, and b are 0 to 63. --Bavi H (talk) 01:11, 20 January 2010 (UTC)

PALETTE command in Turbo Basic is different. The second parameter is not an rgb triple, it is an index 0 to 64 into the VGA palette. (That's according to the manual. I wonder why 64 and not 63. On trying it I get various colours but no grey scale.) Cuddlyable3 (talk) 22:54, 22 January 2010 (UTC)

I couldn't find a manual, but did find a copy of Turbo Basic and played around with it. In QBasic, the PALETTE command accepts a different range of arguments depending on what SCREEN mode you are in. However, it seems the Turbo Basic PALETTE command only lets you choose from the 64 colors available in the VGA text mode (SCREEN 0 with a VGA monitor), no matter what SCREEN mode you are in.

value = (r and 1)*32 + (r>1)*-4 + (g and 1)*16 + (g>1)*-2 + (b and 1)*8 + (b>1)*-1

PALETTE n, value

Note: (x and 1) is 0 if x is even, otherwise 1. (x>1) is -1 if x>1, otherwise 0.

r, g, and b can be 0 to 3. value ends up being 0 to 63. (Not 0 to 64, probably a misprint in the manual.)

The only grayscale values are 0 (black), 56 (dark gray), 7 (light gray), and 63 (white). --Bavi H (talk) 07:41, 23 January 2010 (UTC)

The EGA color palette has more info about this set of 64 colors. --Bavi H (talk) 02:15, 24 January 2010 (UTC)

After a little searching, I found The VGA palette, QBasic, and you, which shows the appropriate OUT commands to use as a faster alternative to the PALETTE statement. --Bavi H (talk) 02:51, 20 January 2010 (UTC)

I found how to get the 16-step grey scale. The 16 colours numbered 0..15 mode have to be non-linearly mapped to palette indices thus:

for c=0 to 15   'c is colour
 select case c
   case 0 to 5, 7
     cc=c
   case 6
     cc=20
   case else 'i.e. c=8..15
     cc=c+48
 end select
 out &H3c8,cc 'put the palette index in the DAC Write Address register
 
 'write 3 bytes RGB of a grey tone
 for n=0 to 2
  out &H3C9,c*4  'DAC Data Register. Allowed values are 0..63
 next n
next c

ADDENDUM to archived answers: I suspect the above program works only for text-mode. Also it lacks Gamma correction. 195.35.160.133 (talk) 10:38, 26 January 2010 (UTC) Martin.

Thank you. Cuddlyable3 (talk) 00:46, 25 January 2010 (UTC)

Graphics in BASIC (2)

Resolved

My graphics programs written in Borland Turbo BASIC worked on every PC until I used Vista Home Premium. This OS refuses to show VGA graphics and warns "This system does not support full screen graphics". A) What can I do? B) Is the article Video Graphics Array wrong to say VGA is (as of 2009) the lowest common denominator that all PC graphics hardware supports" ? Cuddlyable3 (talk) 12:09, 19 January 2010 (UTC)

I suspect your hardware supports VGA, but Vista won't allow direct hardware access to VGA. 195.35.160.133 (talk) 13:15, 19 January 2010 (UTC) Martin.

(A) Have you tried setting the properties of your compiled app such that Vista thinks it has to run it in Windows 95 Compatibility Mode? (B) I put a fact-tag on that sentence in the article because it is unreferenced. I have no evidence but would suspect that all graphics boards in current production support at least 640x480, 256-color Super VGA, or even 800x600; I would be quite shocked to find a current graphics board that doesn't support those two. Alternatively, it might be wrong if a demented hobbyist somewhere is still making EGA graphics boards. Comet Tuttle (talk) 17:32, 19 January 2010 (UTC)

I installed DOSbox and now I can show my full screen VGA graphics. Cuddlyable3 (talk) 17:46, 30 January 2010 (UTC)

is JSP a Servlet?

is JSP a Servlet?

Assuming you mean JavaServer Pages then "Architecturally, JSP may be viewed as a high-level abstraction of Java servlets." (from the article).87.102.67.84 (talk) 13:35, 19 January 2010 (UTC)

JSP is a technology, encompassing a programming meta-language, a compiler integration technology, and a set of standard practices for installing on a web server. A servlet is a specific compiled incarnation of a specific program that conforms to certain specifications. JSP can be used to generate servlets - these technologies are commonly used together and integrate well. Servlets can also be compiled directly from Java source code, without ever writing JSP. JSP can also operate a dynamic web page without ever compiling a servlet, but this is uncommon. Nimur (talk) 20:18, 19 January 2010 (UTC)

Crack search engine

What is it? Kittybrewster ☎ 15:39, 19 January 2010 (UTC)

It usually refers to a search engine of software cracking tools—used for pirating software, games, etc. The cracks are programs that modify the original program in order to eliminate its copy-protection schemes. I suspect they have gotten a lot less necessary for pirating these days, as it has become more common to just download the entire, cracked program available via torrent websites. But back in the day, you could borrow a disc from a friend, download the crack (usually a very small file), and use that to install it, even if there were copy-protection schemes. --Mr.98 (talk) 15:56, 19 January 2010 (UTC)

You may be thinking of Astalavista.box.sk, but I can't say that I recommend it. Make sure you've got good virus protection. APL (talk) 16:49, 19 January 2010 (UTC)

I found it by searching for terrapin ftp which led me to the word "crack" and I couldn't see the connection. Kittybrewster ☎ 17:33, 19 January 2010 (UTC)

Nowadays crack engines are full of viruses, adware, etc. The days of cracking your own software are pretty bygone at this point. --Mr.98 (talk) 17:52, 19 January 2010 (UTC)

Finding cracks via google is easy —Preceding unsigned comment added by 82.43.91.83 (talk) 18:34, 19 January 2010 (UTC)

Finding things that look like cracks but are actually viruses is also easy. APL (talk) 22:19, 19 January 2010 (UTC)

But it's how I make a bit of cash cleaning Vundo and the rest of the crap. Last customer was honest enough to tell me that he downloaded a keygen. ---— Gadget850 (Ed) ^talk 22:51, 19 January 2010 (UTC)

Serpentine Gallery

Does anyone know how to change the contact details for the Serpentine Gallery?

I have been trying and cannot get my head round it?

The correct address is:

Kensington Gardens London W2 3XA

NOT

Queensborough Terrace, Paddington,

Please help???? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Serpentine gallery press dept (talk • contribs) 18:16, 19 January 2010 (UTC)

There is no contact information in Serpentine Gallery. It appears that you are concerned about the coordinates. They are not based on an address. It is the latitude and longitude of the gallery. Many mapping services will show an address when you give it a lat/lon coordinate. That address may be wrong - but it has nothing to do with Wikipedia. -- kainaw™ 18:21, 19 January 2010 (UTC)

Google seems to be the thing that has it wrong. Frankly, I'd recommend you talk to their PR people, who might have a better chance of routing an enquiry to someone in the organisation who has a clue. Wikipedia's geographic coordinate for the gallery is spot on and is not the cause of the issue. --Tagishsimon (talk) 18:35, 19 January 2010 (UTC)

The Serpentine Gallery article does have the correct coordinates. Quite why Google has it wrong is puzzling, but I did click on the "Is this accurate?" link provided in the Google search. Astronaut (talk) 02:18, 20 January 2010 (UTC)

WLAN problems

Until recently, I used an XP laptop on a WiFi network. The router was connected to an XP desktop, which had a printer. I could print fine, and access files fine, but if I tried to drop any files from one to the other, the WiFi connection dropped immediately.

Now I have a Windows 7 laptop, and the same happens, plus the fact that I can't print from a PDF file (MS Word prints fine etc.) - what could be the problem? Thanks! ╟─TreasuryTag►belonger─╢ 22:18, 19 January 2010 (UTC)

Sounds vaguely familiar. What is the router brand, model and firmware? ---— Gadget850 (Ed) ^talk 22:48, 19 January 2010 (UTC)

It's a Zyxel... would P-660HW-T1 v2 be the brand number? ╟─TreasuryTag►sheriff─╢ 22:54, 19 January 2010 (UTC)

Never played with Zyxel (and I have tested some odd stuff). There is a P-660HW-D1 v2. Looks like the latest firmware is V3.40(ATA.0)C0 | 3/28/2007— you will have to open the router web page to get the firmware revision. I looked at the rev notes in the download (marked company confidential?) and there is nothing obvious; but it is in Engrish and in my experience, engineers are horrible at documenting changes. I do suspect the router— couldn't hurt to ensure you have the lastest firmware and do a reset. Otherwise, routers are relatively cheap. ---— Gadget850 (Ed) ^talk 23:12, 19 January 2010 (UTC)

Eurasian telephone country and area code

What geographical information is in the following telephone number?

007077226…and then three digits which I omit for privacy

As far as I understand, 007 is Russia and Kazakhstan, and the following zero is perhaps somehow not part of the area code, but inserted for all international calls (if so, wouldn't that make the country code +70 instead of +7?), but I failed to find any area codes starting with 77 (or 077) in lists of area codes: kasach.de, Rostelecom, Kazakhstan (Казахстан), Russia (Россия)

So, is it a special number (mobile phone? secret service? god?), or did I get something wrong and it's a normal place like eastern Kazakhstan or Almaty? 23:37, 19 January 2010 (UTC)

I assume by the wording in your question that you are located outside of Russia and inside Europe, so your international dialing prefix is "00". Is that correct? Also, are you sure this is exactly how the number was written (i.e. are you sure the "007" is a country code and prefix as opposed to part of a local number)?

The reason I ask is because the number you give is also one digit short. Normal Russian phone numbers are 10 digits, in the format (NNN) XXX-XX-XX after you remove the country code and prefix. In addition, no Russian phone number has an area code starting with 7, and Kazakstan's area codes all seem to be 71x or 72x. Xenon54 / talk / 01:15, 20 January 2010 (UTC)

Thank you. Yes, I am in Germany, and I've given the number as displayed in the phone (somebody called in the early morning), minus the last 3 digits. I'm not sure but I don't think there's anything that starts with 00 except calls from/to abroad. The phone always shows calls from abroad as 00, followed by the country code. The easiest thing would probably be to call back and ask, but that's expensive and requires a common language. Somebody must have dialed the wrong number, but it itches me that whoever it was seemingly called from nowhere. I've added another list of Kaz. area codes to my original post. 84.46.48.150 (talk) 01:32, 20 January 2010 (UTC)

Hmm...interesting. Germany's phone numbers are 10 digits, correct? Continuing the theory that the caller is from Kazakhstan: perhaps the mysterious caller's number was too long to display properly. Try going to yellowpages.kz (in English, surprisingly) and typing in the number beginning from 226, leaving the drop-down at any city. See what comes up. If you don't get any results (because the linked website is "yellow pages" and thus businesses only) that doesn't rule out the number being a residential area, but as there are no white pages for the country you would be out of luck. Xenon54 / talk / 02:07, 20 January 2010 (UTC)

How it used to be is like this: '00' is the international access code in use in most countries, '7' is the code for Russia. Unlike most countries, Russia did not drop the leading '0' from area code; so '077' would be the area code of a city somewhere in Russia. However, according to Telephone numbers in Russia, there have been many changes including the replacement of area codes with a leading '0', so the '077' could be an obsolete area code. The international operator here in the UK confirmed that the leading '0' is no longer needed.

The operator did propose another theory though, that the number is infact a UK mobile and someone has added the '007' international code to Russia thinking that it is needed if the person is visiting Russia (it isn't - just enter the number as if they were still at home). However, I did notice that if that was the case there are too few numbers for a UK mobile. Perhaps this is nothing to do with Russia at all and it's just a UK mobile number with an extra zero on the very front. Or perhaps it is nothing to do with UK mobiles but another country's mobile service (one that uses only 9 digits). What happens when you call? Astronaut (talk) 02:06, 20 January 2010 (UTC)

Actually, since they called you the caller's number should appear to come from a real place. I think the only way you are going to find out is to call them back. TBH is is likely to be a wrong number - if they really want to speak with you, they'll probably call again. Astronaut (talk) 02:08, 20 January 2010 (UTC)

And if it is a UK mobile number, use caution - 07077 mobile numbers are 'personal' or 'vanity' numbers and some are used under the PN2 system which have the ability to be diverted anywhere in the world, some of the cost of which is charged to the caller. Nanonic (talk) 02:14, 20 January 2010 (UTC)

Thank you people for your efforts, I didn't expect anyone to go to the trouble (and cost?) of calling and asking an operator! You're a very helpful bunch! To Xenon: When this phone truncates numbers for display, it attaches a "…" in front of what fits in the display to indicate removal of the first digits. I tried your yellow pages, which showed no results for the exact number and likely variants, but showed a few numbers in Almaty and Astana starting with the first four digits (226X). What I know about German phone numbers is this: I dial 0+four digits for my grandmother's village and three digits for her house, newer lines have longer numbers. The city I live in has 0+two digits area code followed by a number of six to eight digits of which the first must not be 0. To Astronaut: The caller called on 2009-01-19, so they couldn't have used an obsolete code. The German counterpart to the UK's 070 numbers are 0700 numbers. I've checked several times, and the number at hand does not start with 070…, but with 0070… as given above. I haven't understood the operator's theory, but if it were a UK number, wouldn't my phone show 0044… as it does with simple landline callers? Not sure about this, though – I don't think I've ever had somebody call here from a special personal/vanity number. Oh, and a UK person probably wouldn't have called between 5 and 6 am. To Nanonic: Since it doesn't look like a UK number to me, I might try VoIP later to call our mysterious caller back. Will post result here. If it's god, what should I ask? 84.46.48.150 (talk) 02:58, 20 January 2010 (UTC)

January 20

Right click to mean ESC

Hello! I have a laptop that can connect to my TV so that I can see the screen and watch Internet TV. I use a wireless mouse to navigate from my couch. The problem I have is when I watch some full-screen videos, the player ignores all input and I must walk up to the laptop's keyboard and press ESC to access another video, change the channel, etc. I was wondering if anyone could write me a program so that when I right-click on my wireless mouse, the program "translates" the input and fires an ESC key event so that I can exit from full screen without getting up (and satisfying my laziness :) ). If it's C, I can compile the source on my side. If that's too much to ask, I would appreciate some pointer for writing the code myself (navegating the Windows API has been a disaster, and registering a global hook that can communicate with another application has been beyond my comprehension. My biggest problem has been after I load a dll with LoadLibrary() that has the hook function and a function that returns a boolean of whether the right-click has happened, I don't know how to tell my C program where the right-click-checking function is in the memory). Thank you! (Windows Vista 64-bit)--el Aprel (^facta-_facienda) 00:50, 20 January 2010 (UTC)

You didn't mention what sort of mouse you have. I have the "Mouse" control panel here from a Microsoft IntelliPoint mouse, and it allows you to easily configure the right mouse button to be any text string, including just the ESC key. You may be able to download and install the IntelliPoint driver without even owning the mouse (YMMV). Comet Tuttle (talk) 01:16, 20 January 2010 (UTC)

You could use Windows' onscreen keyboard [7], or you could write a Java AWT Robot program to do this. Nimur (talk) 03:46, 20 January 2010 (UTC)

Or AutoHotkey - it seems to be designed for just this sort of thing. I've written several small programs like that with AutoHotkey. AJHW (talk) 12:21, 20 January 2010 (UTC)

Thank you so much for your responses. The IntelliPoint program worked great for me, but I will try the AutoHotKey in the future if I need more complicated keystrokes. A question about using a Java Robot: is it possible to have Java intercept input events (the mouse, in this case) even when the application's window does not have the focus? I've had this problem in the past, and I didn't know if there was a way around it.--el Aprel (^facta-_facienda) 16:58, 20 January 2010 (UTC)

Yeah, and I vaguely recall that our conclusion was that no, an AWT Robot can't intercept mouse events unless it already has focus. You could try some clever tricks, like keeping the robot focused, but forwarding events to the intended program; but in general this isn't really going to work very well. Other languages do allow you to intercept all system IO events, at the expense of guaranteeing enforcement of a security policy. Nimur (talk) 18:24, 20 January 2010 (UTC)

Acer eDataSecurity/EmpoweringTechnology

Hi! I had an Acer laptop up until a few weeks ago, when it crashed beyond repair. I rescued the data off it, but I had some files encrypted using this Acer utility (eData Security). I know the password... is there any way to decrypt the files? Thanks! ╟─TreasuryTag►without portfolio─╢ 08:52, 20 January 2010 (UTC)

I don't know the encryption algorithm, but if you can find someone else with an Acer laptop then the password should work on their machine. (I don't use the facility on my Acer, but I'm happy to test my claim for you if you have a not-too-confidential file, though it would not be wise to send your password over the internet). This website[8] claims to allow decryption on another computer, but I can't vouch for its safety or effectiveness. Dbfirs 08:31, 21 January 2010 (UTC)

web design consensus on floating CSS sidebar menus?

Is there a web design consensus (acceptable / irritating & to be avoided) on floating CSS sidebar menus that maintain their position as a user scrolls down a long page? I'm considering adding one to a site I'm designing, but can't recall ever seeing one "in the wild" as opposed to on CSS menu demo pages. This leads me to wonder if they're considered bad form and I just hadn't heard... 218.25.32.210 (talk) 09:13, 20 January 2010 (UTC)

[9]. Even the W3C uses elements that remain visible no matter how much the visitor scrolls: [10]. --Andreas Rejbrand (talk) 09:21, 20 January 2010 (UTC)

If it matters, I consider it kind of irritating. I think you can trust your user to know the menu is at the top if they want it. But it's a matter of taste, ultimately. --Mr.98 (talk) 16:45, 20 January 2010 (UTC)

Thank you both. I appreciate the example links and the personal opinion. I guess I'll try and make it as unobtrusive as possible and see where we end up... 218.25.32.210 (talk) 01:19, 21 January 2010 (UTC)

Emailing RSS feeds

My work blocks web access to a large number of sites, unfortunatly these include blogs. I have been using a service called "FeedMyInbox" to forward the rss feed to me as an email. This used to be a free service, but about a week ago I got notification that they were switching to a paid service. Does anybody know of a free service that would send rss feeds to an email adress. I have tried searching with google but I'm not really much good with that kind of thing.

Thanks Schpat 196.213.43.74 (talk) 11:14, 20 January 2010 (UTC)

Permissions in Ubuntu & Vista

Resolved

I've asked a similar question before about this issue, but have not been able to get a solution, unfortunately. My problem is I have a folder moved from Vista to Ubuntu over my network. It still has Vista permissions on it, so my Ubuntu machine can't modify the folder (I actually just want to delete it), but my Vista machine can't delete the folder on Ubuntu because it doesn't have the Ubuntu permissions. I'm wondering if I can get Samba to allow all activity from my Vista machine (modifying and deleting folders, etc.) and yet still deny access from anyone else? Or at least, how can I get rid of this unsightly folder on my otherwise lovely clean desktop? A walkthrough would be wonderful because I'm still new-ish to Linux. TIA! --KageTora - (影虎) (A word...?) 11:35, 20 January 2010 (UTC)

Well, if the folder has been copied over, it will not have "Vista permissions". It may have limited permissions on Ubuntu, and it may belong to a different user from your normal account, but its permissions are under Ubuntu's control. Open a terminal, navigate to the folder containing your folder, and do either of sudo chown -R `whoami` stubornfolder; chmod -R u+rwx stubornfolder (to make it yours and grant yourself all rights), or simply do sudo rm -r stubornfolder. sudo may ask for your password, depending on the configuration. --Stephan Schulz (talk) 12:44, 20 January 2010 (UTC)

Excellent! You are a genius! Successfully deleted! Thanks! --KageTora - (影虎) (A word...?) 13:38, 20 January 2010 (UTC)

Re-Activating Windows XP

Ok so I recently (well, 6 months ago) upgraded just about every component of a PC I bought in '07 that came with Windows XP, and now it's demanding to be re-activated. It claims I can do it online, but won't let me connect to the internet (I guess because it won't let me do anything until it's re-activated.) So I tried doing it over the phone but it was one of those weird "I'm a robot, read off some numbers to me" things, so even though it didn't work I figure it could just be because "3" sounds like "Z" or something. Should I go to the trouble of trying again, or is it impossible to reactivate Windows XP once you've changed the motherboard? Digger3000 (talk) 14:05, 20 January 2010 (UTC)

It's not impossible - it shouldn't be any different than trying to activate a completely different computer. —Akrabbim^talk 14:15, 20 January 2010 (UTC)

If it's an OEM version of Windows (and it sounds like it is because you said it came with the PC), then you shouldn't be able to reactivate it. I'm afraid OEM licences are for the machine they're sold with and can't be transferred (unlike retail licences which can). From Microsoft's point of view changing the motherboard is basically creating a whole new computer (which is essentially what you've done) and when changing a motherboard on an OEM licence it should be changed by the original OEM manufacturer who should supply a compatible one (if not exactly the same) thus not breaking the EULA so it can be reactivated. You can read more here. Basically though you can ring Microsoft and ask them nicely, but they're not obligated to transfer it as it's not the same machine. Sorry. ZX81 ^talk 14:41, 20 January 2010 (UTC)

Game recommendation

I haven't played a game on my PC since the days of Quake, MDK and Riven. Can anyone recommend a good game to get me back into it? I like Myst/Riven type adventures, also shoot-'em-ups, but I'm not too keen on war scanarios - I prefer puzzle solving or the odd worlds of MDK etc. 86.150.103.201 (talk) 15:40, 20 January 2010 (UTC)

For a point and click game in the same vein as Myst I recommend Syberia.

For First Person Shooters, it's harder to say. That genre has grown enormously since the days of Quake. Do you want squad-based survival horror? Try Left 4 Dead. Action Packed soldiering? Try Modern Warfare II. Creepy retro-future single-player? Bioshock. First Person puzzle game? Try Portal. And that's just for starters. APL (talk) 15:56, 20 January 2010 (UTC)

Wow, no games since the days of Quake? You missed out on a number of classics :) Sadly, adventures in the style of Myst and Riven have pretty much disappeared, but the AGS community is still pretty active...you can find a number of free adventure games on Big Blue Cup, the main AGS website. As far as firt-person shooters go, Half Life and Half Life 2 were pretty good (if you decide on getting Half Life 2, get the Orange Box, that way you'll also get Portal as a bonus - it's pretty short, not really a full game, but had extremely innovative and funny puzzle gameplay). My favourite Shooter in the last couple of years was Deus Ex - it's more of a hybrid of FPS and RPG gameplay, and it has the best storyline I've ever found in a game. If you don't mind the violence and occasional profanity, have a look at the GTA series - I'm still hooked on GTA San Andreas's early 90s nostalgia and open-world sandbox gameplay. -- Ferkelparade π 16:09, 20 January 2010 (UTC)

Yeah, well, I thought I was too old to be playing them ... but an old nostalgia has crept over me. Never was a techie, so another related question from me - are games much better on a Gameboy/Nintendo/whatever the gizmo of choice is these days etc than a PC? Do they justify the cost? Or should I just stick with my PC? Thanks for all suggestions so far. I ought to add I'm female so the war scenario games don't do it for me though I did enjoy the sniper-scope in MDK with the mooning aliens. 86.150.103.201 (talk) 16:17, 20 January 2010 (UTC)

Well, the main difference between PCs and consoles is that consoles are (in theory) hassle-free - you just put in the game disc and start playing without ever worrying about graphics drivers or hardware upgrades. The downside is that all consoles have a somewhat limited choice of games compared to whats's available for Windows PCs (still enough to keep you occupied for months, probably :) and that the controllers used by consoles take some getting used to and don't work too well for certain types of games (I can't play first person shooters or strategy games without a mouse, but that may just be me). All the games recommended by APL and me are already a couple of years old, so they will run on relatively modest hardware and probably not require you to spend huge sums on upgrading your PC -- Ferkelparade π 16:34, 20 January 2010 (UTC)

While the PC has "more" games, I'm not sure that's a selling point. The vast array of crap tends to hide the good stuff, and the best games of recent memory sometimes don't release for the PC or delay the PC release for weeks or months. I'd argue that between the Xbox and the PC, the Xbox has more variety in modern games. That said, if she hasn't been playing since Quake and Riven, she's got a long backlog of good games for the PC. —ShadowRanger ^(talk|stalk) 16:49, 20 January 2010 (UTC)

It's not true that point and click adventure games have disappeared. They're a large market. Walk into a Best Buy and they'll have an entire shelf of them for PC! (It's just that shooter games have gotten larger.) Of course, only a certain percentage of those are worth playing, But that has always been true.

Try games by The Adventure Company. There are also a good number of adventure games for the DS. (Try Hotel Dusk) If those aren't "lighthearted" enough, The most recent Sam & Max game was in '07. That's not exactly point-and-click, but it's similar.

If you liked first person games like quake, and you like puzzles, I do recommend Portal (video game). It's quite good. APL (talk) 16:44, 20 January 2010 (UTC)

Half-Life 2 is one of the more rewarding recent games I've played—it sucks you in pretty good, and has an excellent balance of action and puzzle sequences, great plot pacing, clever innovations, etc. GTA: Vice City is a great way to try out a "sandbox" style game. I tend to go for games that came out a couple years ago—the prices are usually low, my not-totally-up-to-date system can usually handle them just fine, and it's easier to figure out which are the stinkers and which are really worth your time. Deus Ex is a bit older but I thought it was pretty enjoyable as well. --Mr.98 (talk) 16:39, 20 January 2010 (UTC)

(ec)Games are *different* on a console vs. a PC. For certain genres, they may be better or worse (FPS games are usually better on a PC due to the enhanced precision of a mouse, but you may lose out on online matchmaking and co-op play that is more common on the console). RTS games are frequently harder to play on a console as well (though the Wii seems like it would work well, since the Wiimote can substitute for a mouse). And RPG type games are usually simplified for a console; on the other hand, any RPG released on both PC and console will likely be similarly simplified on the PC. That said, while the number of available controls is less on a console, it's easier to use them all due to the ergonomics of the controller, and game conventions are little more static, so it's often easier to translate your muscle memory across games. Shooting uses the trigger buttons, A (on an Xbox) is usually a movement related button (jump or roll), etc. While I still feel RPGs lose out from the reduced control set, action/adventure games which use less controls, but use them all frequently (e.g. Shadow Complex, Assassin's Creed and its sequel, Batman: Arkham Asylum) often benefit from the fact that all the controls are equally accessible.

Consoles provide a more consistent experience at a lower price; a PC capable of playing the most modern games will run at least twice what the console would, and is often less stable due to the array of hardware involved, but the graphics and load times can be much better in exchange. You'll have more options on a console too, particularly on a 360, less so on a Wii; the PS3 has some good exclusives, but far less games in general, and the multiplatform games released for it are usually better on the Xbox or PC. Porting to the PC adds enough of a test load that smaller game companies often don't bother.

I don't know of many Myst/Riven type games nowadays; on the other hand, most of my friends that appreciated that genre like the story driven games like Way of the Samurai. You might also like puzzle games like Braid. For FPS games, Left 4 Dead and its sequel are a good game to start on now; it encourages team play, and it works well on both console and PC (since zombies don't dodge much, the loss of precision with a console analog stick isn't a huge deal). —ShadowRanger ^(talk|stalk) 16:45, 20 January 2010 (UTC)

Oooh I've just looked at the trailer for Half Life 2 - looks good, with those war of the world tripods. Syberia looks like my sort of thing too. Not too sure about all the GTAs - too much testosterone/violence for me maybe (I like messing things up, not people): I prefer aliens/weirdness to human opponents. Thx. (Sorry for the edit conflict thingy too) 86.150.103.201 (talk) 16:48, 20 January 2010 (UTC)

Just a note: I wouldn't discount GTA IV based on the reputation of the franchise. While you can play it as a sandbox mafia game, it actually features a reasonably in-depth storyline; the main character is at least somewhat conflicted by the actions he takes, it's not just "I'm the best, so I kill everyone and take their stuff". I haven't finished it myself (only just unlocked the third island), but it's not a mindless violence type of game. Yes, when you do fight, it's people, so weigh that yourself, but there's more to it than killing people (there's a reason the game is the highest rated Xbox game of all time on Metacritic). Also, for a shooting game that isn't just shooting (and features more alien surrounding), I'll plug Mass Effect. It's a hybrid RPG/shooter (weighted in favor of RPG) that features a decent storyline and some pretty awesome settings and enemies. —ShadowRanger ^(talk|stalk) 16:56, 20 January 2010 (UTC)

"There's more to it than killing people". LOL. As I'm not into killing people, period, I'll give it a swerve, thanks! By the way, is there a single game with female characters without boobs the size of balloons? All that running around, they're in danger of giving themselves black eyes ... 86.150.103.201 (talk) 17:24, 20 January 2010 (UTC)

Half-Life 2; the female character without boobs the size of balloons is a friend but not your character. Comet Tuttle (talk) 17:45, 20 January 2010 (UTC)

I lost interest in GTA games now that I can get my "driving around recklessly" fix from "Offroad Raptor Safari". (Buy here, Play Free on Facebook Here) APL (talk) 17:53, 20 January 2010 (UTC)

Mass Effect (which I mentioned before) has a range of body types. The female version of the main character (you choose the gender) has what I'd guess are around a B cup (my ability to gauge exact cup size isn't great, but it's no larger than a C cup, and I'm pretty sure A cup is flatter), though it's hard to tell through armor. An example can be seen here (ignore the specific facial features, which are customizable). I think the human female NPC that serves as a potential romance target is a little larger, but I'm pretty sure she's still well below D cups. I should warn you though, Mass Effect does occasionally involve killing humans. I can only think of one main story quest where it's required (tracking down a lead, you have to fight through a bunch of thugs protecting a minor crime lord, and some of those thugs are human). That said, most of the combat will be against sentient machines, creepy plant creatures, and psionic insectoids. The fights against humanoid creatures are less common, and those are fairly evenly split between the various combat capable sentient races of the galaxy, meaning humans are less than 10% of your total foes. Aside from the quest I mentioned, I believe it is possible to avoid killing any humans in the rest of the game, through diplomacy and avoiding certain side-quests. —ShadowRanger ^(talk|stalk) 17:57, 20 January 2010 (UTC)

I liked Syberia, but I preferred Lego Indiana Jones, lots of puzzles and no blood (hides head in shame) :) Dmcq (talk) 17:17, 20 January 2010 (UTC)

Er, ... there was no blood in Syberia.... APL (talk) 17:53, 20 January 2010 (UTC)

I was just giving a reason I like it. I guess it's part of the reason I liked Syberia too. I think the Simpsons Hit and Run game based on Grand Theft Auto is about my violence limit and GTA itself is far above it. I'm, a wus by the standards of hard core gamers. Dmcq (talk) 21:48, 20 January 2010 (UTC)

My admiration for Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion knows no bounds. The female characters (you can play as several and alter faces, complexions, etc.) are not "Dolly Parton in zero gravity" boobed. Some killing of people, but mostly monsters and ghosts and such. Matt Deres (talk) 21:46, 20 January 2010 (UTC)

I'm a 'bit' behind the times, But DOOM 3 for a shooter, and SPYCRAFT was a fun puzzle solver/adventure style game, though a bit dated now graphically, it's ~10 years old? Splinter Cell series is not a bad combination shooter/ 'adventure' style IMHO. The latest Lara Croft titles have at least (I'm told), toned down her 'assets' :-o. Too OLD! Never! Have fun!--220.101.28.25 (talk) 06:39, 21 January 2010 (UTC)

One problem with PC games is the never ending cycle of developers stretching the latest/fastest/best hardware to the absolute limit. In my experience it is not long before your bearly 1-year-old PC is incapable of playing new games without serious upgrades. On the other hand, consoles tend to be much more stable in their long-term specification. Astronaut (talk) 10:10, 21 January 2010 (UTC)

You should try Unreal Tournament 2004 or Unreal Tournament 3 which have an assortment of soldiers, aliens and robots. I agree with Mass Effect although I found the controls a bit klunky and cumbersome. Call of Duty is just awesome - you should try it. You're never too old to play games! Sandman30s (talk) 14:53, 21 January 2010 (UTC)

Actually try Machinarium. Adventure game, click on stuff, free Flash demo. Comet Tuttle (talk) 22:06, 21 January 2010 (UTC)

If you like a combination of adventuring and at-your-own-pace shooting, I can't recommend Fallout 3 highly enough. Also, if you're thinking of taking up shooters, you will find that Team Fortress 2 is an excellent light-hearted FPS (with fairly modest requirements). It is probably worth noting that Modern Warfare II is controversial with some PC gamers as a result of some development choices, and that Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare still has a very active online community. Brammers (talk) 11:40, 22 January 2010 (UTC)

I was going to recommend Fallout 3, but I didn't think that would meet the questioner's standards because she specifically asked for no human-on-human violence. (It's not all humans, though! There's also mutants and giant ants!) Modern Warfare also fails that, obviously. (Team Fortress 2 might be ok, though. Still human-on-human but in hilarious cartoon rendering.) APL (talk) 15:31, 22 January 2010 (UTC)

Probably not too hard OpenGL question

If I create a cone in OpenGL, it will point in the $(0,0,1)$ direction. I want to rotate it, so that it ends up pointing in the $\mathbf {v} =(x,y,z)$ direction. Then I have to rotate (a positive angle) around the $(0,0,1)\times (x,y,z)=(-y,x,0)$ axis. To this end, I introduce a new orthonormal basis in $\mathbb {R} ^{3}$: I set $\mathbf {f} _{1}=(x,y,0)/norm$, $\mathbf {f} _{2}=(0,0,1)$, and $\mathbf {f} _{3}=(-y,x,0)/norm$, where $norm={\sqrt {x^{2}+y^{2}}}$. Hence, the orthogonal basis transformation matrix is

$T={1 \over norm}{\begin{pmatrix}x&0&-y\\y&0&x\\0&norm&0\end{pmatrix}}$.

In this basis, we need to rotate the angle $\varphi =\arccos {{(\mathbf {e_{3}} ,\mathbf {v} )} \over {\|\mathbf {e_{3}} \|\|\mathbf {v} \|}}$ around $\mathbf {f} _{3}$. Hence the linear tranformation matrix is

$A_{f}={\begin{pmatrix}1&0&0\\0&\cos(\varphi )&-\sin(\varphi )\\0&\sin(\varphi )&\cos(\varphi )\end{pmatrix}}$

so that the matrix in the standard basis is

$A_{e}=TA_{f}T^{t}$.

Before I tell OpenGL to render the cone, I multiply the model-view matrix by $A_{e}^{'}$, where $A_{e}^{'}$ is obtained from $A_{e}$ by first adding a zero row and then adding the column $(0,0,0,1)$. But it appears not to work quite as one would expect. Why? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Andreas Rejbrand (talk • contribs) 18:56, 20 January 2010 (UTC)

The matrix $A_{f}$ above is a rotation around the first basis vector, not the third one. --Andreas Rejbrand (talk) 18:57, 20 January 2010 (UTC)

Resolved

Special characters question

I have a Mac using OS X 10.4. I'd like to use the characters "barred small capital i" (U+ID7B, ᵻ) and "barred Latin upsilon" (U+1D7E, ᵾ), which I've heard are available on newer versions of Lucida Grande, but on my version they just show up as boxes. See this not so enlightening exchange that I had with John Wells:

Lazar said... I'm still waiting for barred small capital i and barred Latin upsilon.

John Wells said... Lazar, didn't you like the ᵻ (U+ID7B) I gave you yesterday? Or have you not got the current Lucida Grande font installed? The other one you ask for is ᵾ (U+1D7E).

Lazar said... Oh, I have an older version of Lucida Grande. I must look into that.

These characters show up fine on the computers at my university using Vista, but on my Macbook, they don't. How do I go about getting them? Do I need to buy Leopard or Snow Leopard? --Lazar Taxon (talk) 23:29, 20 January 2010 (UTC)

I know this will seem like a dodge, but you're probably better off asking on the language desk. In my experience the only people who really know about linguist-related computing are other linguists (I say this having worked with one linguist on a computing task once, and finding out there was a whole crazy world of "how do we type these crazy characters" that went well beyond the standard character sets). --Mr.98 (talk) 13:27, 21 January 2010 (UTC)

Interesting question - I never thought that extended characters could be font related. I can't talk for Macs since I use Windows 7, but doing some tests on Microsoft Word it seems that weird characters are supported by all fonts. I'm not sure if it is font support or at some point there is a cut-off and it extends less common fonts into a system font that supports characters beyond ASCII. You should investigate unicode support for your Mac - see if there is a setup somewhere that allows you to change the default code page being used. AFAIK UTF8 (unicode) and variants like UTF8-AL32 support all languages and major characters (unless you happen to speak Klingon). Sandman30s (talk) 14:32, 21 January 2010 (UTC)

Note on your last point, many unicode fonts do however lack support for less common real world languages. Take a look at Help:Multilingual support (Indic) for example. Windows 7 & Vista are a lot better then Windows XP, but still lack the Burmese character set. Also for extinct languages, e.g. Gothic alphabet or Help:Fonts (we helped someone with this here once). [11] may also be of interest. Of course in some cases even if the fonts are there, the OS or browser may not handle Complex text layout properly, necessary for some languages. Nil Einne (talk) 14:34, 22 January 2010 (UTC)

If you don't mind any font, there may be a free font available which supports them. Usually I believe, the OS or browser will automatically use an alternative font if necessary so it should show up fine if you have at least one font. If you want Lucida Grande, I'm not sure if there's much we can do. Presuming your computer is up to date, it may not be possible. It's fairly common that fonts are not updated and you need a newer version of the OS or program to get the latest version. And scalable fonts are held to be copyrightable in the US [12] so you're not going to get help violating copyright here. And Lucida Grande is almost definitely copyrighted. P.S. If you know John C. Wells, could you see if we could get some other free photos of him? Currently we have a decent one from 1991 albeit black and white and one from 2008 which is okay but fairly in profile and with a mic which some may find distracting as it was taken while giving a talk Commons:Category:John Wells. Nil Einne (talk) 14:47, 22 January 2010 (UTC)

January 21

Program start

How can a program be made to start automatically when you start the computer in windows? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 113.199.170.77 (talk) 12:53, 21 January 2010 (UTC)

Create a shortcut to the program in the Autostart folder in the Start Menu. --Andreas Rejbrand (talk) 13:07, 21 January 2010 (UTC)

In Windows XP (and earlier) the folder is called Startup. AndrewWTaylor (talk) 13:17, 21 January 2010 (UTC)

Bank statement in CSV/spreadsheet - want to put each amount in a category

I have some CSV files of my bank statements over serveral months, and have downloaded them into an OpenOffice spreadsheet successfully. They include a column of money paid out and another column of money paid in. I would like to be able to manually decide which of many categories these various individual amounts should be in (eg insurance, petrol, salary, electricity bill, and many more) so that I can total each of them over a year. What would be the easiest and quickest way of doing this please? Just copying them item by item to various columns would take a long time.

Does anyone know (without guessing) if Grisbi or Gnucash could do the same thing more easily? I have never used any accounting or bookeeping software before. Thanks. 92.24.85.238 (talk) 14:15, 21 January 2010 (UTC)

Make another column for type, fill in the type for each entry, sort by type, then sum each section. ---— Gadget850 (Ed) ^talk 14:43, 21 January 2010 (UTC)

Thanks, although I almost added above that I would like to preserve the date order. Is there any way of doing it that retains the date order? 92.24.85.238 (talk) 14:50, 21 January 2010 (UTC)

Yes — fill in the "type" column as above, with each row having one cell saying "petrol", "insurance", etc., and then sort it by date; and then to see the summary of where you spent your money, see our article Pivot table; in OpenOffice it is called a "DataPilot". Comet Tuttle (talk) 18:00, 21 January 2010 (UTC)

Thanks, I've found that the freeware Easy Cash Manager can do the above and import CSV files. (The overpowering green colour can be changed to battleship grey or blue). Minor quibble: no running total, would like choice of more columns. I tried Grisbi but could not get it to work, and the manual is only in French. 92.29.31.202 (talk) 17:40, 22 January 2010 (UTC)

Trojan - question

An antivirus program recently detected a trojan - "Alureon" - the warning appeared when looking at e-mail (web based) in a browser - the trojan appeared to located in the browsers temp. directory.

Question: I can understand a web page downloading many unwanted things (but actually activating them is another thing), but what about a web based e-mail program (using ajax)- given that I didn't get any instructions to start an .exe or activeX, or similar - does this mean the trojan wasn't activated. If it could have been activated without me actually opening anything other than the email - how? Thanks.87.102.67.84 (talk) 16:07, 21 January 2010 (UTC)

You're probably okay; downloading a Trojan without activating it is usually harmless. The webmail site or your browser may have cached the attachment locally in preparation for downloading, but that doesn't mean they ran it. If there is a flaw in the browser (e.g. the recent zero day exploits against IE6, and to a lesser extent IE7/8), it might be exploited to activate the Trojan (in which case it's not properly a Trojan; a Trojan by definition requires the user to activate it). You should make sure your browser is up to date with the latest patches, if it isn't, or if you're running IE of some flavor (for which the known exploits have not had a patch released yet), you should run a full system scan with your regular virus checker and, if possible, one other checker (you don't need a second live scanner, but a second opinion system scan would be a good idea). —ShadowRanger ^(talk|stalk) 22:26, 21 January 2010 (UTC)

One unusual thing that happened was a memory access error from adobe reader when I shut the system down (never happened before) - this makes me suspicious of noise on the system - maybe something like a buffer overflow exploit messing up memory. Enough to make me reinstall.

However if my suspicions are true - it's not clear to me how using just html and javascript such a thing could (overflow) have been done. I thought I understood that modern OS's just didn't allow memory writes outside a sandboxed area set aside. It's possible that the adobe error had nothing to do with it. Any clues?87.102.67.84 (talk) 00:06, 22 January 2010 (UTC)

Assuming there was a JS exploit, they don't need to infect the OS itself immediately. If they can break the JS interpreter, they can just request the OS write a file and start a program; any program can do this unless that privilege is explicitly removed. The browser is designed to not start programs without user interaction, but if the browser itself was compromised, it can do anything you can do (although it can't take admin privileges on Linux or Vista or later machine unless the OS itself has an unpatched vulnerability). Even without admin privileges though, it can write to your user directory, create registry entries specific to your login, etc. Admin privileges are needed to hide itself from virus scanners well, but they aren't required to listen to keystrokes, operate a covert server on your machine, and run most programs. —ShadowRanger ^(talk|stalk) 15:58, 22 January 2010 (UTC)

Why do virtual machines peg the CPU?

Why when running DOS, Win 95 98 or ME in a virtual machine does it always use 50% of hosts cpu when idle, whereas running Win 2000, XP, Vista or 7 in a virtual machine uses very little of the host cpu when idle? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 82.43.91.83 (talk) 16:45, 21 January 2010 (UTC)

I'm not familiar with this behavior (I've only used VMs in the past five years or so, and usually with XP or more recent OSes), but I can provide a theory. The high CPU OSes you mention are all OSes that provide some level of direct access to the hardware by random programs. Simple actions like polling for I/O must be intercepted, interpreted and then passed along to the safe interface used by the host OS. In a more modern OS that shares the aversion to direct hardware access, you can recognize and rewrite the API calls on load to point to the VM manager's functions that pass them to the host OS. On an older OS, the lack of an API means you need to examine every memory access to see if it's trying to access "special" addresses associated with hardware under the old OS. There's no marking to tell you ahead of time that the address is special, so you're stuck with dynamic interpretation on the fly.

Again, this is a theory. I'm a CS major, and I worked with people on the VM team at Microsoft, but I'm not an expert; take this as the likely explanation, but don't rely on it to land on the moon, pass a test, etc. :-) —ShadowRanger ^(talk|stalk) 22:17, 21 January 2010 (UTC)

One additional note: The 50% really means 100% of one core, it's not some magic number. The VM is completely occupying a single CPU, and you have a dual core (or hyperthreaded) machine. The VM tells the guest OS that there is only one processor, so as to maintain performance for the host OS and other programs competing for CPU. —ShadowRanger ^(talk|stalk) 22:20, 21 January 2010 (UTC)

The real reason is because those operating systems don't make use of the hlt instruction and instead place the CPU in an idle loop. There are third-party utilities available that can make those operating systems utilize the instruction. 96.226.235.46 (talk) 02:10, 22 January 2010 (UTC)

Oh, duh. I'm an idiot. I think I read about that ages ago on The Old New Thing, but had completely forgotten. Yes, that's likely the cause of a lot of the difference. —ShadowRanger ^(talk|stalk) 15:52, 22 January 2010 (UTC)

power supply issues

I am working on a Gateway 300S LTD and when I plug it in and push the power. THe power button flashes on then goes out and won't come on again unless I pull the plug, then plug it back in. But it does the same thing. What could be wrong with it —Preceding unsigned comment added by 152.31.162.62 (talk) 18:07, 21 January 2010 (UTC)

Many things could cause this. Make sure all cables between PC power supply and Motherboard are plugged in & in the correct sockets. CPU correctly inserted in socket. RAM SIMMS installed correctly. CPU cooling fan operation is ESSENTIAL, check cable. Why are you 'working' on the PC? Has it been faulty in any other way?
ps. Please sign your message. Type ~~~~ or use the 'sign' button. --220.101.28.25 (talk) 20:56, 21 January 2010 (UTC)

Presuming this is a desktop with an ATX power supply. Remove the PS connector from the motherboard and jump 16 (green) to 15 (black)— the PS should turn on. If the PS comes on, then remove all the memory and plug-in boards from the motherboard, connect the PS and see what happens. ---— Gadget850 (Ed) ^talk 13:18, 22 January 2010 (UTC)

e-Ink longevity

What's the known lifespan of an e-Ink display? Does it only work for so many on-off cycles or so many years? What happens when they stop working? Does it go light/dark/or freeze the last image? --70.167.58.6 (talk) 18:53, 21 January 2010 (UTC)

The manufacturer does not give it a lifespan. It is electronic, so it will eventually wear out. It is also pixel-based. There are a bunch of little capsules (like pixels) that can be one color or a different color (black/white is normal). The color changes based on the charge behind the capsule. It is possible for a capsule to break through force - such as slamming the display with a hammer. I see the circuit behind the crystal as the point of failure. I expect that when it begins to fail, you will see lines where it is always white or always black - very similar to what an LCD display looks like as it begins to fail. -- kainaw™ 22:03, 21 January 2010 (UTC)

I'd suspect, based on what I know of the technology, that the lifecycle would be measured primarily in on-off cycles. On the other hand, I suspect the screen itself won't be the main point of failure in these devices; damage due to accidents and poor care, combined with the relatively short useful life of the built-in batteries are likely to off it before the screen has been used enough to suffer wear from mere pixel cycling. —ShadowRanger ^(talk|stalk) 22:08, 21 January 2010 (UTC)

Now that I think about it... Being off for an extremely long time will likely cause the charged "ink" to lose some charge. Being on puts a charge near the ink, so it will tend to work properly. Being off places the positive/negative charged ink near each other. I see it similar to tossing bunch of magnets in a drawer. If left for an extremely long time, some won't work as well. However, we are talking about long after the circuit to charge/discharge the ink has worn out. -- kainaw™ 22:19, 21 January 2010 (UTC)

I think the charge is chemical (eg think of charged surfactant like molecules (eg oleyl trimethyl ammonium) embedded in a polymer with the counter ion (eg Cl-) being soluble - slightly different in practice) - so loss of charge as such wouldn't be a problem. Excluding the damage to wires already mentioned above, I'd expect degradation of the polymer to be one problem - eg especially under uv light or in radical rich enviroments (eg a sunny california, outdoors and in the smog) - a glass cover would stop most of this. Simple things like the charged particles starting to stick together (agglomeration) would reduce effectiveness over time, which is not beyond the bounds of possibility. Thickening of the carrier liquid (again uv light) could slow or eventually stop response. Beyond that there is much I can think of - they may be very long lasting - I couldn't find any much data either.87.102.67.84 (talk) 23:20, 21 January 2010 (UTC)

We have an article, see E Ink, and the company website is www.eink.com 220.101.28.25 (talk) 11:50, 22 January 2010 (UTC)Bold text

Quick Java question on Thread.interrupt()

Resolved

Hello! Consider the following code snippet:

//Thread 1 extends Thread
InputStream in;
byte[] bytes = new byte[100];
//... in is initialized properly, but may or may not contain bytes yet
try{
in.read(bytes);
}
catch(IOException e) {
//ignore
}
catch(InterruptedException e)
{
//do something
}


//Thread 2
Thread_1 toInterrupt = new Thread_1();
toInterrupt.start();
//...
toInterrupt.interrupt();

If Thread_1 is interrupted while it is blocking waiting to read at in.read(), will an InterruptedException be thrown, and execution will switch from in.read() to code in the catch{} block? This is probably an easy question, but I'm just not sure if the method to interrupt must throw a checked InterrruptedException (like Thread.sleep()) for the interrupt to work properly. Thank you!--el Aprel (^facta-_facienda) 23:10, 21 January 2010 (UTC)

Yes, if the timing is right and Thread 2 executes the interrupt() call during a period when Thread 1 is still blocking on the read, then control for Thread 1 will transfer to the catch block, because an InterruptedException was received. (Thread 2 will continue marching along, unless you intentionally wait for some response or notification from Thread 1). in.read() is a blocking method. If it is interrupted, the behavior of the InputStream will depend on the instantiated class type of InputStream. You may or may not lose bytes as a result of this - again, check carefully whether the exact InputStream you instantiated is declared thread safe. (In other words, whether an interrupted read() operation guarantees some kind of rollback mechanism). If you're using one of the Sun implementations, thread-safety and behavior for I/O is defined in the javadoc. Also, note that Thread.interrupt() documents behavior if the java.nio InterruptibleChannel API is in use. ("If this thread is blocked in an I/O operation upon an interruptible channel then the channel will be closed, the thread's interrupt status will be set, and the thread will receive a ClosedByInterruptException.") For other cases, you may have to check with the sourcecode of the InputStream or unit-test it. This article from a Java developer news site discusses some finer details. Nimur (talk) 23:33, 21 January 2010 (UTC)

Thank you for the quick response, Nimur! Exactly what I needed to know.--el Aprel (^facta-_facienda) 00:13, 22 January 2010 (UTC)

January 22

What countries has the internet not spread to?

Easier to answer than the reverse question. I was surprised to see an Amazon reviewer from Yemen, although I do not know if they were based there. Are there any countries where the internet has not spread to? And is there a list anywhere of the proportion of the population using the internet for various countries? Thanks. 78.147.245.100 (talk) 12:10, 22 January 2010 (UTC)

See List of countries by number of Internet users and http://www.internetworldstats.com/stats.htm for some info. Nanonic (talk) 13:02, 22 January 2010 (UTC)

Internet in North Korea may also be of interest Nil Einne (talk) 14:00, 22 January 2010 (UTC)

Some printer trouble

I have been trying to print some work out from my computer, but all the colours are coming out rather different to they are on screen, mostly rather paler than I had wanted, but also dramatically bright, particularly the browns which look orange instead. At the same time, the print quality is rather bad, but the printer is pouring so much ink onto the page that the paper has been bent out of shape. And the margin on one side has gone, the pictures go right to the edge, where there is a row of smudgy triangles, presumably something to do with the way the ink moves back and forth over the paper. Is there any way of fixing all of this rather soon, such that I can get everything printed out nicely?

148.197.115.54 (talk) 12:12, 22 January 2010 (UTC)

I'm guessing you have an inkjet printer— the manufacturer and model would really help to evaluate the issues. ---— Gadget850 (Ed) ^talk 12:51, 22 January 2010 (UTC)

Apparently it's a Canon Pixma printer. 148.197.115.54 (talk) 14:17, 22 January 2010 (UTC)

You may be able to find an option on the printer menu to clean the print head - try that. Or go to the Cannon website and see if they say anything about your problems and how to fix them. 92.29.31.202 (talk) 17:33, 22 January 2010 (UTC)

OpenOffice and Firefox - bloatware?

I am not a fan of Microsoft, but. Microsoft Office 2000 is 128mb in size, OpenOffice is 401mb. Internet Explorer is 4.7mb, Mozilla Firefox is 26.4mb. Why the huge difference in sizes? I've heard it said that Internet Explorer is smaller because it is integrated into Windows, but I should'nt think it makes that much of a difference. 92.29.31.202 (talk) 13:56, 22 January 2010 (UTC)

Um why are you comparing a 10 year old version of Office to (I presume) a modern version of OpenOffice? Also it's not clear to me where these sizes are coming from. I have the IE8 download for Windows XP x32 on my computer. It's 16.5mb. I also have the download for Firefox 3.5.3, it's 7.5 mb. Of course such sizes are not particularly useful since it depends on things like optional components, compression used etc. Are you referring to RAM usage when running? If so it'll vary depending on a number of factors. For example, what component of Office? For the browser, did you just open it with a single window, no tabs and no page open? P.S. The integration can make a big difference because the various components can make up for a substanial proportion of the size or memory usage. For example, if I could program, I could surely design a special version of Firefox with a download size of say 250k and memory usage of a few mb even with many windows open but it requires the 'Firefox support component' which is always running and is an additional download of say 10 mb with memory usage in the hundreds of mb with lots of windows open. Would you say this special Firefox is 'less bloated' then the normal Firefox? P.S. I hope you're not considering a version if IE older then IE8 considering what buggy POS they tend to be, particularly IE6 or older. Before someone says IE8 is the same, that may be partially true, but ignores the may point which is that however bad IE8 may be, IE7 and particularly IE6 and older are far worse Nil Einne (talk) 14:06, 22 January 2010 (UTC)

The size is the size of the program. MS Office 2000 is the only one I've got. Internet Explorer is version 8. Now I think of it Firefox may include the size of some plugins, but I recall the plugins were small in size. Let us not let hysteria triumph over an objective consideration of the facts. 92.29.31.202 (talk) 15:30, 22 January 2010 (UTC)

Keep in mind, OpenOffice and Firefox ship not just their executables, but all their support code in one package. By contrast, many elements of IE are common controls in the operating system; you paid the cost for them when you installed the OS in the first place. IE8 is less tightly integrated, but in older versions of IE, IE was just the menu bar and frame encapsulating an instance of the HTML rendering DLL that shipped with the OS, so you couldn't get an exact "size" of IE. Beyond that, we've reached the point where even small flash based hard drives are 32 GB in size or larger. A difference of a couple hundred meg is very little; most people only use a dozen programs or so, so even if you "wasted" 200 MB a pop (and keep in mind, the software may be providing additional features with the space used), you'd still only use up an extra 2.4 GB. My home machine has 1.7 TB of storage space, and maybe 10% of that is programs (and most of that is games, not productivity programs). If Firefox used five times the space I'd still consider the features to be worth it. —ShadowRanger ^(talk|stalk) 15:44, 22 January 2010 (UTC)

My Firefox version 3.5.6 is 17M. I don't have a single size for OpenOffice because you can download each part you want separately. The core that is always needed is 220M. After that, the word processor is 73K, the spreadsheet is 61K, and the presentation program is 58K. If I download everything, I'll never get to 401M. -- kainaw™ 14:48, 22 January 2010 (UTC)

Do you mean the word processor is 73M, the spreadsheet is 61M and the presentation program is 58M? Nil Einne (talk) 14:54, 22 January 2010 (UTC)

According to the download packages, each one is K. I double-checked because I couldn't see it being so small, but it says K. I figure you are downloading them in the core and then doing nothing more than downloading a launcher for each one with the separate packages. Rather stupid way to do it in my opinion. -- kainaw™ 15:13, 22 January 2010 (UTC)

On my Mac, MS Office 2004 is 524 MB, OpenOffice is 345MB. I would count these as being pretty much in the same range. Firefox is 50MB, Safari is 102MB. --Mr.98 (talk) 15:43, 22 January 2010 (UTC)

That's actually a good illustration of my point: On a Mac, the OS doesn't ship with the support DLLs Microsoft can rely on in Windows (for example, the Edit and RichEdit controls), so the program has to include them in the installer, so you see the cost of MS Office more accurately. That said, my point about hard disk space being infinite stands; the only way you run out of space on a home machine nowadays is media files (video in particular); programs really don't enter in to the equation. —ShadowRanger ^(talk|stalk) 15:48, 22 January 2010 (UTC)

Apache redirect question.

Is it possible to create a .htaccess file that redirects while keeping the original URL displayed in the browser's address bar, even across filenames? 202.10.91.153 (talk) 16:50, 22 January 2010 (UTC)

I'm afraid not, any redirect will literally redirect them and the browser will show the new URL. The only way to do what you want is to have an HTML page on the server using a frame or iframe to point to the "real" site. ZX81 ^talk 17:09, 22 January 2010 (UTC)

(edit conflict) Yes, at least as long as the URL you're redirecting to is on your site. What you want is what Apache calls an "internal redirect" (as opposed to an actual HTTP redirect). With mod_rewrite, you accomplish that by not using the "R" flag in your RewriteRule (and making sure that the redirect target is not a full URL, or at least not one pointing to another site).

If you have both mod_redirect and mod_proxy installed, you can also use the "P" flag to issue an "internal redirect" to an URL on another site, at least sort of: what Apache does in this case is act as a proxy server, fetching the content of the URL from the other server and sending it back to the user as if it had come from your site instead. Ask yourself twice if this is really what you want to do, though: usually, it's not. —Ilmari Karonen (talk) 17:13, 22 January 2010 (UTC)

CD players

Many years ago I was told that a CD would outlive a CD player if played constantly 24/7. Is this true?