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January 23

What Windows tool is good for gathering bandwidth statistics?

I’ve rented a hosted dedicated server running Windows Server 2003 Web Edition for several years now. The server is mainly used as a web server (with Tomcat), but it’s also running e-mail (James) and SQL (MySQL) services. Starting sixteen days ago, the daily bandwidth usage skyrocketed according to the web hosting company, but the Tomcat log files don’t show a significant increase in HTTP bandwidth served. Furthermore, at the moment the network utilization shown on the Task Manager is low, so the super high bandwidth isn’t occurring all day. I suspect that maybe someone’s trying to hack the server using an attack that uses high bandwidth, but the attack isn’t going on all day. It would be very helpful to at least figure out which service is using up the bandwidth, so it would be very handy to be able to see the bandwidth over the course of a day broken down by how much of that bandwidth is going through each port. It would also be handy to see which remote IP address is using up the most bandwidth over the course of a day. Is there a more-or-less standard tool that would let me figure those two things out? I can’t find a tool built into Windows Server 2003 Web Edition that does what I need.

I happened to see a somewhat related thread above that mentions WireShark, so I’ve been reading some about that, thinking perhaps that would do what I need. But I’m concerned that for security reasons, my web hosting company might not be happy about me using a tool that puts the network card into promiscuous mode. Plus, I don’t have any need to see all the traffic passing through the network; I only need statistical information about packets that are addressed to my server. Since it sounds like there are ways of detecting a network card that’s in promiscuous mode, I’d prefer to not use a tool that uses promiscuous mode, to avoid any possibility of getting in trouble with the web hosting company. Red Act (talk) 01:50, 23 January 2010 (UTC)

Wireshark only puts the adapter into promiscuous mode if you tell it to; if you tell it not to, it just captures all the packets to and from this specific MAC (and broadcast and multicast packets). Wireshark is built on pcap, and the page for that lists a number of monitoring tools that might be more suitable for your purpose than Wireshark. -- Finlay McWalter • Talk 03:23, 23 January 2010 (UTC)

Notebook stops in the welcome page

My notebook is not showing the accounts on the welcome page, you can move the mouse, but there is no windows account icons to click. When i try to boot in safe mode, the notebook shows those account icons and so i can enter in safe mode. I tried to disable some things in MSCONFIG to see if that helped, but that didnt helped my notebook. What can be the problem? 189.99.75.225 (talk) 03:48, 23 January 2010 (UTC)

What OS? Did this occur after you installed some new software? (If so, try uninstalling the software while in safe mode.) Comet Tuttle (talk) 16:48, 23 January 2010 (UTC)

Windows xp 187.89.87.206 (talk) 00:51, 24 January 2010 (UTC)

The problem was the mouse, someway it was creating this problem.187.89.101.82 (talk) 22:14, 28 January 2010 (UTC)

Image help

I would like to use the public domain panel of drawings from this newspaper article in an article I am writing. I use Paint.NET for cropping/cleanup. I want to get the cleanest copy of the image I can, which I could if I could download the image and then manipulate it with the program, but the newspaper image (see previous link) provides pdf and "JP2" (which I think is JPEG 2000). I don't have Adobe Professional, which I think would allow me to save it as a different file format and then I could import that into Paint.NET. When I tried the download option, nothing on my computer supported opening the JP2 format, and I'm not how I could import that either even if I could download. Using print screen I need to make the image far too low a resolution to capture the six panel image with the descriptive text legible. I thought maybe I'd break it into two three panel images but the resolution still sucks. The only way I could do it is to zoom in on each of the six panels and print screen from there, resulting in six images, and I don't want to use them in that way. So, can anyone tell me what I can do? Maybe some free program I can download that will accept the JP2 format and allow me to convert it to a file format Paint.NET will recognize?--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 03:50, 23 January 2010 (UTC)

You can open the pdf version in GIMP, crop/edit it, and save it in any format you like. -- kainaw™ 04:08, 23 January 2010 (UTC)

Imagemagick should convert JPEG2000 fine: convert foo.jp2 foo.png -- Finlay McWalter • Talk 04:12, 23 January 2010 (UTC)

Can't remember which version it is (I'm borrowing someone else's computer), but I have Adobe Acrobat Professional (I think version 9) on my computer. What about using Special:EmailUser/Nyttend to send me the file? I'll be happy to try to help you when I get back to my computer late tomorrow. Nyttend backup (talk) 06:47, 23 January 2010 (UTC)

I do realise, BTW, that you can't attach images; but once I have your email address, I'll send you mine for you to be able to attach the image. Nyttend backup (talk) 06:48, 23 January 2010 (UTC)

Okay. I've tried a few things none of which have worked. I tried downloading Imagemagick but the program downloaded without a wizard. Instead it had readme documents for various platforms which describe how to compile the program. Not a task I'm up to handling. I downloaded Gimp (which I'm keeping) but when I import the pdf (using "open location") with the URL of the PDF, the downloaded version doesn't have anywhere near the resolution that the image on the website does. In other words, if you use the "zoom box" on the Chronicling America site, you can get crisp resolution over one panel of the six panel image. When I try the same with either the pdf version download using adobe reader, or the GIMP import of the download, when I zoom the same way it pixelates, leading me to believe the pdf version they are allowing is fixed at a much lower resolution than the original. So I think downloading the JP2 is the only workable solution. Thanks for the offer Nyttend! However, as I said the pdf isn't viable. I'll try to figure something else out. Going to go try some JP2 google searches for a free program.--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 14:42, 23 January 2010 (UTC)

For ImageMagick: What OS are you running on? If it is a Windows-based, all you really need is the executable, convert.exe, that comes with the download package. If you are on anything Unix-based (e.g. OS X or Linux), then yeah, welcome to free-software hell, you might as well ignore it because it'll take an entire day to compile even if you don't run into trouble compiling the secondary packages. (Am I bitter about this? Yes indeed.) --Mr.98 (talk) 15:10, 23 January 2010 (UTC)

On linux instead of compiling from source you'd use a package manager like the overwhelming majority does. I hope you haven't got all your info on linux from this study. --194.197.235.240 (talk) 15:24, 25 January 2010 (UTC)

Running Windows XP. I looked for an executable in the download but didn't see one (and already trashed the download and emptied the trash).--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 15:55, 23 January 2010 (UTC)

I have another issue. Now. When I click on the download JP2 it tries to open using Quicktime, and what I get is a screen opening with the Quicktime logo with a question mark overlayed. How do I make it so that the program I download to open the JP2 is the actual program that is used by my computer to attempt to open the JP2 when I download it from the Chronicling America site? (yes I know, I'm needy).--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 15:55, 23 January 2010 (UTC)

One workaround is that instead of clicking the JP2 file, right-click it, choose "Open With", and then choose whatever app you want to use instead of the QuickTime player. (BTW, I use Irfanview for all graphics conversion needs and recommend it; it works with JPEG 2000 also.) Comet Tuttle (talk) 16:47, 23 January 2010 (UTC)

I tried but it doesn't give the option for "open with". Here's a screenshot.--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 18:35, 23 January 2010 (UTC)

You need to download it to your computer first (select "Save Link As..." from the menu shown in your screenshot). Then open the folder you saved it to, right-click the file and select "Open With..." and then pick the program you want from the submenu. —Ilmari Karonen (talk) 23:43, 23 January 2010 (UTC)

Thank you all. With all the various help I received, not only did I learn a few things, but was able to download the file in its full version and upload it in high resolution glory, here. For closure, I was able to download and use Irfanview to recognize the JP2 and convert it to a format Paint.NET/Gimp both recognize. Thanks again.Fuhghettaboutit (talk) ---07:51, 24 January 2010 (UTC)

Virus

1. What is a computer virus? 2. How can we build one? 3. What does an antivirus do to protect a pc from viruses? 4. How is a virus healed? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Chetanbasuray (talk • contribs) 06:51, 23 January 2010 (UTC)

Please do your own homework.

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

It seems that you might want to read the computer virus article. The term "virus" is sometimes (incorrectly) used to describe any type of malicious computer software; really, to qualify as a virus, it needs to self-replicate. You can design such a program using a programming language and a compiler. Antivirus software uses numerous methods to prevent a virus infection - most commonly, the software has a database of known bad programs, and prevents the computer from downloading any file which contain those programs. You'll find some information about repairing a computer from malware in the malware article. Nimur (talk) 07:00, 23 January 2010 (UTC)

How to remove the password from a pdf

I have a few password protected pdf files that I want to remove the passwords from. I have the passwords. I can read these files and print them, but there is no longer any reason for them to remain protected and I'm tired of looking up passwords whenever I want to open one. I already tried printing them to a pdf creator. I don't understand why that didn't work, but it didn't. Any other ideas? 69.208.0.74 (talk) 07:21, 23 January 2010 (UTC)

Download PDFSharp. Create a tool based on the following code:

static void Unlock(String filename, String password)
{
	PdfDocument document = PdfReader.Open(filename, password, PdfDocumentOpenMode.ReadOnly);
	document.Save(filename);
}

The newly written PDF will contain all of the same contents but will not be password locked. I use this technique quite frequently. 124.214.131.55 (talk) 07:41, 23 January 2010 (UTC)

pdftk can do this. The command line would be something like pdftk [protected pdf name] input_pw [password] output [unprotected pdf name]. -- BenRG (talk) 00:33, 27 January 2010 (UTC)

difference between html server componemts and asp.net server components

difference between html server componemts and asp.net server components .can i use the html server components in a asp.net web applications ?

HTML components are sent directly to the browser as is. ASP.NET components are converted into HTML by the server, then sent to the browser. So, no matter what component you use, they'll all end up as HTML in the end. You can mix them up. It doesn't matter.--Drknkn (talk) 18:39, 23 January 2010 (UTC)

Pascal prob.

Tryin to manipulate pascal and u can helpme tanks thanks

this is the question insertion sort in a chained linear list of n elements can be formulated as follows: power p: = 1 to n-1 1 = CONSIDER the sorted list formed by the first p elements 2 = delete the P +1 th element 3 = insert this sublist has its proper place without creating a new link 4 = write the sorted list

and this is my code

Pascal source code

program EMD;

TYPE
Typeelem = INTEGER;
Pointeur = ^Maillon;

Maillon = RECORD
Val : Typeelem;
Suiv : Pointeur
END;

{ Définition des variables }
VAR
Tete : Pointeur;
p,q,L,nouveau:pointeur;
pos:integer;
{ Définition des opérations du modèle sur les listes linéaires chaînées }

PROCEDURE Allouer ( VAR P : Pointeur ) ;
BEGIN NEW(P) END;

PROCEDURE Affval(P : Pointeur; Val : Typeelem );
BEGIN P^.Val := Val END;

FUNCTION Valeur (P : Pointeur) : Typeelem;
BEGIN Valeur := P^.Val END;

FUNCTION Suivant( P : Pointeur) : Pointeur;
BEGIN Suivant := P^.Suiv END;

PROCEDURE Affadr( P, Q : Pointeur ) ;
BEGIN P^.Suiv := Q END;

{ Module de création d'une liste linéaire chaînée à partir de N nombres lus se trouvant sur un fichier TEXT }

PROCEDURE Creer (VAR L : Pointeur );
VAR
I, N : Integer;
Nbr : Typeelem;
P, Q : Pointeur;
BEGIN
WRITE('Nombre d''éléments de la liste à créer : ');
READLN(N);
write('values are:)');
READLN(Nbr);
Allouer(P);
Affval(P, nbr);
L := P;
FOR I := 1 To N-1 Do
BEGIN
READLN( Nbr);
Allouer(Q);
Affval(Q, Nbr) ;
Affadr(P, Q) ;
P := Q ;
L:=p;


END;
Affadr(L , NIL);
END;
procedure recherche_s_l(var L:pointeur;var pos:integer);
var q,p:pointeur;

trouv:boolean;
begin
pos:=0;
p:=L;
{trouv:=false;}

while suivant(p) <> nil do begin if valeur(p)> valeur(suivant(p))then begin p:=suivant(p);
pos:=pos+1;
Q:=p;
end
else begin
q:= nil;
{ trouv:=true; }
L:=q;

readln;
end

end
end;

procedure acces_pos(var L:pointeur; var pos:integer);
var nouveau1:pointeur;
i: integer;
begin
i:=1;

nouveau1:=L;
while (nouveau1<>nil ) do begin
{ nouveau:=suivant(nouveau); }
nouveau1:=nouveau1^.suiv ;
i:=i+1;
if ((i= pos) and (nouveau1<>nil ))then nouveau := suivant(nouveau1) ;

{ if suivant(nouveau)=nil then writeln('maillon n''existe pas');}
end



{nouveau:=nil; }
{ if suivant(nouveau)=nil then writeln('maillon n''existe pas');}
END;
{ Affichage des éléments de la liste }

PROCEDURE Lister (L : Pointeur );
VAR
P : Pointeur;
BEGIN
P := L;
WHILE P <> NIL do
BEGIN
WRITELN(Valeur(P)) ;
P := Suivant(P)
END;
END;

procedure insertion(var L:pointeur;var nouveau:pointeur);
var courant: pointeur;{pointeur local servant a parcourir la iste}
begin courant:=L;
writeln('hello from insertion');
readln;
while (suivant(courant)<>(nil ))and (((valeur(nouveau)))<((valeur(courant)))) do BEGIN courant:=suivant(courant);
if valeur(courant) > valeur(nouveau) then begin
affadr(courant,nouveau);
courant:=nouveau;
affadr(suivant(courant),nouveau);
{suivant(courant):= nouveau;}
L:=courant;
{lister(L); }
end
END

end;


{le programme P}

begin


creer(L);
READLN;
repeat
recherche_s_l(L,pos);

{ lister(L);}
acces_pos(L,pos);

insertion(L,nouveau);

lister(L);
L:=L^.suiv;
readln;
until L=nil
end.

—Preceding unsigned comment added by 212.49.88.34 (talk) 13:06, 23 January 2010 (UTC)

And what is your question? Marnanel (talk) 15:19, 23 January 2010 (UTC)

The Wikipedia:Reference desk/How to ask a software question tutorial may provide the OP with useful guidelines. With this question and source code in its present form, it is unlikely anyone here will be able to give you a meaningful answer. Nimur (talk) 07:04, 24 January 2010 (UTC)

the programme doesn't work !it doesn't show the complete final list —Preceding unsigned comment added by 212.49.88.34 (talk) 08:10, 24 January 2010 (UTC)

That still isn't a question. Marnanel (talk) 17:47, 24 January 2010 (UTC)

The question is clear isn't it - what is the bug - (my weak french and 'hate' of pascal prevents me from giving a definative answer), there's no dead for whatever character trait you are displaying :)87.102.67.84 (talk) 17:44, 27 January 2010 (UTC)

Have you tried using a debugger in a pascal IDE - maybe something like free pascal / lazarus. Free Pascal , Lazarus (software)

I think it's worth asking - have you tried testing the program in parts? ie test the individual subroutines for correct behaviour? Also do you know if steps 1 to 3 have worked correctly? 87.102.67.84 (talk) 17:44, 27 January 2010 (UTC)

program remember

Some trail programs allow say 30 days of use then stop working a demand payment. If the program is uninstalled, then reinstalled it still remembers that the 30 days have been used. Obviously the uninstall process isn't a complete clear of all changes; something remains in the windows system. I want to clear this "remember" information to ensure the system is cleared of ALL traces of the previously installed program. How? Many thanks. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 82.43.91.83 (talk) 15:38, 23 January 2010 (UTC)

It no doubt varies program by program. Usually such things are hidden in the Registry, but exactly where that info is stored, is probably different for each program. --Mr.98 (talk) 16:02, 23 January 2010 (UTC)

They deliberately leave Registry entries and small files in different places to prevent what you are proposing to do. In theory, you could edit (or restore a backup of) your registry, and delete any small data files, but you will need to find out where they all reside. Formatting your hard drive and reinstalling your operating system is a very drastic solution to your problem. Dbfirs 08:44, 24 January 2010 (UTC)

An easier way would be to set up a small virtual environment just for using the program (e.g. with VMWare). You could then wipe and restore the virtual environment after 30 days. --Mr.98 (talk) 17:00, 24 January 2010 (UTC)

Yes, a much neater solution! I've never used VMWare. Does it create its own copy of the Registry .dat files? Dbfirs 07:50, 27 January 2010 (UTC)

Indeed. Some programs even go to the extreme of hiding data in an used sector of the HDD, sector 32 being a common one (used by Macrovision Safecast for example used by numerous Adobe products among other things). I didn't include any links because I couldn't find a safe one (most discuss how to remove specific copy protections). In such a case, even formatting and reinstalling often won't be enough since much software won't touch that part of the HDD. Something like Darik's Boot and Nuke will do of course. Nil Einne (talk) 09:06, 28 January 2010 (UTC)

Networking question : What layer in the osi model does a server work with

What layer in the osi model does a server work with? I would guess Session and application, but does it know anything about the other layers.--Dbjohn (talk) 16:18, 23 January 2010 (UTC)

It would depend on the type of the server (e.g., DNS, application, etc.). I think that application servers and web servers are unfamiliar with the details of the lower layers. The operating system would handle breaking up the data into packets and resolving addresses (with the aid of other servers and routers, of course). The application server would simply perform method calls using the operating system's networking API. It does not care how those methods work. It only calls them and the OS knows the individual instructions within those methods.--Drknkn (talk) 18:36, 23 January 2010 (UTC)

It's worth noting that a lot of modern "Web 2.0" servers are streaming multimedia over proprietary protocols (RTMP comes to mind). So, the server software must be aware of at least OSI layers 4 through 7 (since it's probably spewing out UDP packets with custom payloads). Most other stuff on the "web" uses TCP and HTTP, allowing the server software to only care about Layers 6 and 7. Nimur (talk) 20:08, 23 January 2010 (UTC)

None of the cited examples use a network protocol that follows the OSI model, these are all TCP/IP based systems.

need new monitor - what happened to full screens?

Currently wide screen monitors are cheaper than the full screen computer monitors. Not only that, some stores don't stock monitors with a 4:3 aspect ratio. My own 19" acer monitor died recently and I'm using a ViewSonic widescreen TV/monitor as a makeshift screen. Using this monitor there are a couple of things that bother me. 1) some programs force the screen resolution to 800x600, 1024x768, etc. meaning it looks stretched on this widescreen. 2) this monitor does not have a way to adjust aspect ratio. Sure, I can adjust adjust the desktop resolution to make things proportional, but that ONLY works for the desktop. Yes Widescreen is how human eyes naturally see the world and its good for watching movies, but its really bad for games and programs built for 4:3 (i.e. anything older than two years). Of the wide screen monitors out there, are there kinds that can switch between 4:3 and 16:9 aspect ratios? Preferably something that can automatically adjust aspect ratio based on the input resolution. — Kjammer  ⌂ 21:39, 23 January 2010 (UTC)

Many video cards let you choose how to handle scaling when displaying a resolution lower than the LCD resolution. For instance, my nVidia driver lets me choose between "Use nVidia scaling", "Use nVidia scaling with preserved aspect ratio", "use the LCDs built-in scaling", and "do not scale". --Andreas Rejbrand (talk) 21:49, 23 January 2010 (UTC)

I think you are either out of date or confused as to how programs handle wide-screen monitors these days. Every game I run that has a 4:3 aspect ratio just puts black bars on the side—it does not warp the image. They are far more flexible than you think they are. I have a wide-screen monitor and a wide-screen laptop and have no problem at all playing older games on it. --Mr.98 (talk) 22:22, 23 January 2010 (UTC)

Don't have a widescreen monitor either, but I know some (can't recall brand) have a button on them to switch between 16:9(wide) & 4:3(normal) ratio. Some games allow you to select wide screen as well as 'standard' resolution/ratios, without any bars or distortion. --220.101.28.25 (talk) 23:42, 23 January 2010 (UTC)

Mr.98, your video drivers may be fancier than mine — my games don't do that; Warcraft 3 is an example of a game that just stretches wide to fit my monitor. Kjammer, I agree, it drives me nuts, too, that my local large-chain electronics store seems to stock 95% 1080p resolution monitors, which is just lame. I have started to buy monitors from Newegg or other online electronics retailers, but this seems to be some sort of wave of the future, unfortunately. Comet Tuttle (talk) 23:44, 23 January 2010 (UTC)

I agree, if you send a non-widescreen image to a monitor, by default it'll stretch it UNLESS: A) The video driver is set to add the black bars/keep the normal proportions (as mentioned above NVIDIA cards can do this, but it's not on by default) or B) The monitor is set to diable scaling/streching in it's options, but then it'll also introduce lines above and below too (a 1024x768 image on a 1920x1200 monitor would result in a smaller squarer image in the middle of the widescreen monitor with black borders all around). ZX81 ^talk 00:21, 24 January 2010 (UTC)

Mr.98, I'm sure you mean well, but your post comes across to me as being pompous and arrogent. Just because you don't have a problem, doesn't mean you are right. Not all computers are created equal. I don't know about nVidia, but ATI cards do have the "maintain aspect ratio" option, but it is dependant on the kind of monitor being used. This works for brand name DVI monitors but it doesn't work with analog signals (VGA). Kjammer, if you have an ATI card with DVI-out, get a widescreen monitor with DVI-in, and find the appropriate settings in the Catalyst Control Center. Or if you're lucky to find an affordable 4:3 screen in working order, go for it! 137.229.82.44 (talk) 19:58, 24 January 2010 (UTC)

You can still find professional 'old' monitors on sites like B&H. Certain professionals still need them, apparently. Navigate to monitors and, on the left, select "standard" monitors. Mxvxnyxvxn (talk) 20:17, 25 January 2010 (UTC)

Yes try an office supplier - 4:3 is still common - just not for the 'consumer products' side of the market.87.102.67.84 (talk) 17:47, 27 January 2010 (UTC)

SATA Drive not recognized

I have a computer with 2 hard drives, one IDE drive and one SATA drive. I installed a kind of old version of Windows XP (without a slipstreamed SATA driver) in the IDE drive and now I have a fully working Windows XP, however, the SATA drive is not recognized, neither by the OS, neither (apparently) by the BIOS.

What's the problem?

Thanks in advance. 85.244.155.144 (talk) 22:19, 23 January 2010 (UTC)

Hm — if it really isn't showing up in the BIOS screen then the problem is of course irrelevant to your OS. First you need to see that thing in the BIOS. Switch the SATA drive to a different physical SATA connector on the motherboard; or disconnect the IDE drive and see if the SATA drive starts showing up; or try a different SATA cable. Comet Tuttle (talk) 23:45, 23 January 2010 (UTC)

I'm not testing right now, but I'm almost sure the computer booted from the SATA disk the last time I tried without the IDE one. Actually, the former operating system was installed on the SATA drive. Perhaps the board recognizes it and I didn't notice. Or can the IDE disk be causing some problem? 85.244.155.144 (talk) 23:57, 23 January 2010 (UTC)

Just to confirm, did you have both drives working with your previous operating system? Or is the IDE drive a new addition? If it's a new addition it might be that your motherboard supports an IDE emulation mode for SATA disks (which is what you are using) but that only works as long as you don't have something plugged into the IDE ports. If this is the case you'd need to into the BIOS and either turn off the SATA->IDE emulation (so it is truely seen as SATA and IDE) or experiment with the different physical ports. Bewarned that changing these options may result in Windows no longer booting due to the "boot drive" having changed physical location and you'd either need to reinstall again or edit the boot.ini file with another boot disc. ZX81 ^talk 00:18, 24 January 2010 (UTC)

I had both drives, however, since there was valuable information in the SATA drive and the OS was malfunctioning, I preferred to install the new operating system in the IDE drive. 85.244.155.144 (talk) 11:07, 24 January 2010 (UTC)

FWIW, I have a couple of SATA 3.0 Gb/s disks on my elderly (SATA 1.5 Gb/s) motherboard, and neither disk is recognized by the BIOS when I first power on the system. I have to push the reset button after it's been on for a few seconds, and then it sees the disks. Worth trying if you haven't already. -- Coneslayer (talk) 17:03, 25 January 2010 (UTC)

Although 3.0 Gb/s disks are in theory backwards compatible, some SATA 1.5 Gb/s have problems with them for reasons I can't remember. Some drives have a jumper you can use to limit the disk to 1.5 Gb/s, the OP may want to look into this Nil Einne (talk) 09:07, 28 January 2010 (UTC)

January 24

Spin-button control in HTML form

Does standard HTML provide, or are there plans to expand it to provide, a number-entry field with spin buttons, equivalent to the .NET Framework's System.Windows.Forms.NumericUpDown or Java's javax.swing.JSpinner? NeonMerlin 02:19, 24 January 2010 (UTC)

No. You can do it with Javascript but there is no standard control for it. (If you Google, "Javascript spinner control" you get a bunch of pretty straightforward ones.) --Mr.98 (talk) 05:42, 24 January 2010 (UTC)

How to connect speakers to my tv

I have a set of speakers with the sort of cords that plug into a computer sound cord. My tv/dvd only has rca inputs. Can I connect them using some sort of adapter? I found one review saying the speakers were good except they cannot be connected to a tv easily. Is there hope for me, or should I give up and just use them with my computer? Calliopejen1 (talk) 04:27, 24 January 2010 (UTC)

If your TV only has RCA inputs, you can't connect that to a speaker. Your TV needs outputs. If it does have RCA outputs, you can buy an RCA-to-3.5mm adapter cable for anywhere from $5 to $15. This cable may be called an "A/V-to-Stereo" cable, an "RCA-to-Stereo", "RCA-to-1/8 inch", or "RCA-to-3.5mm" cable. Here's one from Amazon, and a similar one with a male 3.5mm connection. Do these look like they would plug in to the input/output combination you need? Nimur (talk) 04:36, 24 January 2010 (UTC)

The [ http://www.amazon.com/Audio-Adapter-Rca-Mini-phone-Stereo/dp/B000A3GPIS first one] looks good, but my speakers have three of the speaker cord things (black, green, and orange). Is there a cable for that? I'm so helpless because I don't know cord vocabulary. Calliopejen1 (talk) 04:43, 24 January 2010 (UTC)

Maybe you can photograph the back of the TV or DVD player; and the speakers, with cord(s). Do you need help uploading images? If there's a black/green/orange set of cables, usually this is a 5.1 system or a subwoofer connection - you'll need a source device (like a DVD player or Blu-Ray player) that supports surround sound to connect everything, but you can use the Green for just standard 2-way stereo. But I'm confused - I was under the impression you said the speakers plug into a "computer sound cord" (i.e., like a headphone jack - a 3.5mm stereo cable). Can you clearly describe or upload an image of how many speakers you have, how many cables they connect to, and what jacks you have available on the TV or DVD? Nimur (talk) 05:36, 24 January 2010 (UTC)

Okay, sorry for the confusion.... My TV has three holes. They take cords that look like this (I think these are RCA cords). My speakers are these and have three cords that look like this. I read somewhere on the internet that these plugs go into a sound card, so that's why I wrote that... They do plug into computer but I only have one speaker jack on my computer. When I plug the speakers into my computer, the black one makes the sound go to the back speakers, the orange one makes it go to the center speaker, and the green one makes it go to the front speakers. Calliopejen1 (talk) 15:01, 24 January 2010 (UTC)

The first image is of RCA connectors, the second is of TRS connectors and is probably the 3.5 mm version. You can get adapters at most big box stores. The Creative Inspire T6100 is a surround sound system— to fully use them, you need a system that has outputs for front, center and surround.

What model and brand is your TV? What are the labels on the RCA connectors? ---— Gadget850 (Ed) ^talk 15:55, 24 January 2010 (UTC)

My TV is an older Sylvania, I don't know what model. The labels on the RCA jacks are just L and R. I have two DVD players. (I could just hook the speakers straight to the DVD, because I don't need surround sound for normal TV.) They each have L, R, and coaxial RCA jacks. One also has an HDMI jack. Any thoughts? Calliopejen1 (talk) 17:31, 24 January 2010 (UTC)

So, if you want to have surround-sound, you'll need to get a DVD player which actually outputs 5.1 (i.e., has the electronics and software to generate separate signals for each speaker). In the meantime, you can do a few things. First, as I mentioned before, you can use the green cable only (which connects to the two front speakers) and one of the adapters linked above. This will produce sound, but most of your speakers will have no signal and will essentially be "off." Or, you can get an adapter like this, ($13), which "fakes" a 5.1 setup by feeding the single stereo signal from your DVD player to all of your speakers. This isn't really generating the full effect of surround sound, but it will make sound come out of all speakers. Is this what you're looking for? Nimur (talk) 04:30, 25 January 2010 (UTC)

Thanks for your help! I ended up with these speakers because I got them for free to replace a 2.1 set of speakers for my computer I lost the power cord for... Then I found the power cord, so I was trying to put the new ones to use with my TV. But my roommate already has a 2.1 set for the television, so it doesn't really make sense to use these if I can't get 5.1. I don't really want to invest in a receiver or expensive cables because I rarely watch TV/DVDs anyways. So I guess these are probably heading to craigslist!... Calliopejen1 (talk) 20:16, 25 January 2010 (UTC)

Looking for a data entry job

Helo sir This is tarak nath choubey from west bengal.

Sir i am a handicaped person and i find a Genuine homebased data entry job for high Earning.

Sir now i am lossed my both legs, that's Why i need this type jobs for high earn To join my artifitial legs.

Sir need your great response as soon as Possible.

THANKING YOU. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Nirmalbaba (talk • contribs) 05:17, 24 January 2010 (UTC)

Hi Tarak. This is the Wikipedia Computing Reference Desk. We're able to help answer your questions related to technology problems and computer-related issues. But, we're staffed by volunteers; we're working on a non-profit encyclopedia. It's possible that somebody who reads this desk may know of online job opportunities, but in general this isn't a great place to post job-seeking requests. Have you tried searching the web for data entry jobs? There are lots of commercial job-finding websites which are better equipped to help you find a job you're qualified for. There are also non-profit and government organizations that can help you specifically, whether you need medical care, financial aid, or job/occupational advice/placement, because you are handicapped. Here are some organizations which might help:

• National Institute for the Orthopaedically Handicapped (NIOH), Calcutta - Rehabilitation services including occupational therapy
• Disability India - information on facilities and benefits
• Centre for Services and Information On Disability (CSID), Dhaka, Bangladesh

Further contact information, including address and telephone numbers, are available in the links I provided. Good luck with your situation. Nimur (talk) 05:57, 24 January 2010 (UTC)

That was a nice response Nimur, I hope that it helps him Regards,--85.210.90.232 (talk) 12:28, 24 January 2010 (UTC)

php database question

is there any concept of grid is in php as like asp.net data grid ?if not , then what we can used for the same in php . —Preceding unsigned comment added by Rahjos4 (talk • contribs) 09:57, 24 January 2010 (UTC)

There is no built-in functionality for this, but you can use PHP to build up a datagrid-like control. Google "datagrid php" and you'll find lots of code that others have used to do just this. E.g. phpGrid looks pretty snazzy and straightforward, though I haven't used it personally. --Mr.98 (talk) 15:34, 24 January 2010 (UTC)

Wireshark help

I'm trying to use Wireshark but I keep getting the error The capture session could not be initiated (failed to set hardware filter to promiscuous mode). Please check that "\Device\NPF_{30841233-ED1D-4C6E-9CF1-440DB4D01588}" is the proper interface.

I've tried with Belkin N1 Wireless USB Adapter and D-link DWL-G122 on Windows 7 and Windows XP. How can I solve this problem? Thank you! :) —Preceding unsigned comment added by 82.43.91.83 (talk) 15:23, 24 January 2010 (UTC)

You're trying to set the ethernet adapter to promiscuous mode and its driver is saying it can't. Promiscuous mode is rarely supported by wireless ethernet adapters (and is meaningless when the connection is encrypted) and usually doesn't work with modern wired network equipment (even the cheapest hubs really work like switches and don't send all traffic to each port). So you need to set the capture session to not use promiscuous mode. -- Finlay McWalter • Talk 15:28, 24 January 2010 (UTC)

Note that even if a wireless driver claims to support promiscuous mode, it may be lying. My Belkin USB 802.11g adapter (with the Microsoft Win7 64 bit driver) accepts a request to go into promiscuous mode, but you still only see traffic for the same machine (and broadcast stuff). -- Finlay McWalter • Talk 16:21, 24 January 2010 (UTC)

kismet (program) could be of interest. home page --91.145.88.228 (talk) 16:24, 24 January 2010 (UTC)

See the Comparison of open source wireless drivers#Driver capabilities for a list of open-source drivers that support monitor mode (virtually all of them do). That page only lists drivers for Linux and BSD, though; not Windows. --128.97.245.117 (talk) 01:14, 25 January 2010 (UTC)

You might never get this working in Windows. The driver framework for Windows will crash if you succeed in putting a wireless device in promiscuous mode. I would suggest to try Kismet on a linux-based OS, as then you'll be able to use promiscuous mode as you wish. NeoThermic (talk) 11:18, 25 January 2010 (UTC)

Precision of older British credit cards

To which precision could the value stored on older British credit cards? --84.61.165.65 (talk) 19:32, 24 January 2010 (UTC)

I'm not sure I understand the question. AFAIK, credit cards do not store values on them. However the account to which they are attached produces statements accurate to 1 penny (0.01 GBP). I'm not sure what the banks' computers do about daily interest which is probably calculated to more precision - no idea what though - likely to differ from bank to bank. -- SGBailey (talk) 21:55, 24 January 2010 (UTC)

Interest usually isn't paid daily. It may be compounded daily, but it will be paid monthly or annually. --Tango (talk) 02:50, 25 January 2010 (UTC)

As I understand it, they do the calculation daily based on the balance in the account each day - so yes computed. But to what resolution do they store the result? They certainly don't put 8 decimal places on a statement, but they may well store the balance to that accuracy. -- SGBailey (talk) 15:46, 25 January 2010 (UTC)

It's been some time since I read the article, so I don't know if it addresses the question, but Salami slicing may be of interest to the OP. Dismas|^(talk) 20:07, 25 January 2010 (UTC)

Is the OP thinking of Stored-value cards or a prepaid debit card instead of credit cards? And in particular those that use a magnetic strip instead of a chip? In both cases, I don't know if the precision stored is particularly relevant. Even if the card could store the value to 8 decimal points, they would usually only work with the normal precision that people use in daily life i.e. to the penny in the UK. In other words, when someone subtracts or add value, it would only be to the penny, it may not even be possible to subtract to a greater precision. Nil Einne (talk) 08:46, 27 January 2010 (UTC)

Because of Floating point#Accuracy problems, any system designer would be foolish to store currency values as a real number/floating point number. The only rational method of storing currency values in computers is as fixed point numbers - that is, as an integer representing the smallest possible denomination. Conversion to the printed denomination then happens at the computational level. For example, the computer would do all the calculations with number of pence/penneys/cents, and then divide by 100 to compute the number of pounds/dollars/euros. The original questioner may have had pre-decimalisation British currency in mind. In that case, a reasonable design would be to store the amount in farthings, and then divide by 4/48/960 to get the number of pence/shillings/pounds. If you're confident the system would never encounter a farting, you would be able to store pence, and do division by 12/240 to get shillings/pounds instead. Note that even with a fixed point scheme, you're still going to have rounding issues with compounded interest. -- 174.21.224.109 (talk) 05:47, 28 January 2010 (UTC)

The OP appears to be a known on RDL for asking non-sense questions and has been blocked. I suggest this question be ignored Nil Einne (talk) 08:49, 27 January 2010 (UTC)

4G Network

What does "4G Network" mean? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 216.249.193.88 (talk) 22:42, 24 January 2010 (UTC)

It probably means the next (forthcoming) generation of cellular telephony and data services and equipment - see the 4G article. -- 22:45, 24 January 2010 (UTC)

Finding and adding to CSV (Comma-separated values) files

I have some CSV records of my bank accounts, or checking accounts in American-English. The CSV files have the fields of a record delimited by commas. ",," would be an empty field. Is anything available (preferably easy to use and quick to learn by the non-programmer please) that could look through all the records, and for example where it finds an entry for "567.89" in the seventh field, will put the text string "mortgage" in the empty third field? Something to insert an empty field in the right place would be useful too. Thanks. Update: I have found and installed CSVed dot exe, but I do not think it can find in field X and place in field Y. 89.242.94.72 (talk) 23:53, 24 January 2010 (UTC)

OpenOffice.org has a spreadsheet application similar to excel called Calc which can do all sorts of fancy things to CSV files. Doesn't sound like it would be too hard to work out how to do it, you might even be able to do it with the find and replace tool. Vespine (talk) 00:23, 25 January 2010 (UTC)

Depending on how many distinct substitution cases you have, a spreadsheet such as in OpenOffice will enable you to use a series of nested IF statements in column Y, acting on values on column X. So, in cells in column Y one might write:

=IF(X3=567.89,"Mortgage",if(X3=100,"Cash withdrawal",if(X3=123,"Very large pizza","Not sure what this is"))) --Tagishsimon (talk) 00:33, 25 January 2010 (UTC)

(Note that Excel will do the same thing, if you have it.) --Mr.98 (talk) 01:20, 25 January 2010 (UTC)

Since BASIC was built to use CSV, I wrote something in that. I had to change the 0A character to 0D in the CSV file to get it to work though. 78.149.231.228 (talk) 02:22, 28 January 2010 (UTC)

January 25

Origins of wizards

What's the etymology of the name for software wizards? I can't find any sources with Google, and our article on the subject doesn't help me either. Nyttend (talk) 02:00, 25 January 2010 (UTC)

You might find our article on expert systems helpful. I would guess that the term "wizard" predates its use in software, meaning any (human) individual who is a subject-matter expert. The rise of expert systems and knowledge-based systems was motivated by a desire to encapsulate the human knowledge of such experts in software form - a sort of special-purpose, domain-specific artificial intelligence. In the early 1970s and 1980s, these sorts of ideas were really impressive, novel concepts - an expert system computer software could provide information to the user in full English sentences! It could guide the user through very complex tasks! It'd almost be like having a real human present to do the hand-holding. I'd guess that this is the source of the terminology - software that fulfils the role of the office 'wiz'. The Wiktionary entry, wikt:wizard has an etymology, but not for the specific meaning of a talented, non-magical individual. Nimur (talk) 02:20, 25 January 2010 (UTC)

According to the OED, the meaning "wise man", etc, is the original, from which the magician meaning is derived. Warofdreams talk 15:58, 25 January 2010 (UTC)

It might be from British WW2 slang perhaps. 89.242.40.192 (talk) 12:47, 25 January 2010 (UTC)

Telephone calls management

I have a telephone address book in excel.I want to have a program which records the calls made by me and sorts the address book entries in such a way that the most frequently dialed numbers are always at the top.Is there any idea? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 113.199.164.48 (talk) 02:11, 25 January 2010 (UTC)

Do you use your computer to make phone calls? If not, you'll need some way to synchronize your telephone system with your computer. A lot of smart phones can do this sort of thing. I'm not aware of any smart-phone synch software which can analyze voice call logs, but it seems like it might be a feature in at least some systems. Nimur (talk) 02:24, 25 January 2010 (UTC)

In addition to Nimur's idea, you might be able to enter in data from your phone bill every month if they itemize your calls. If you can get your data into the computer in a uniform way, then we could help you work with that data to itemize your list. But ultimately you're going to have to get the data into the computer. Shadowjams (talk) 02:51, 25 January 2010 (UTC)

Upgrading Graphics Card in Laptop

Hi there, can anyone point me in the direction of where to go to find a list of graphics cards that would fit a HP G60 laptop computer, as I am thinking of upgrading to a better one than the one that came with it. Alos, in the UK, how much are these things usually? --KageTora - (影虎) (A word...?) 09:45, 25 January 2010 (UTC)

Laptops and notebook computers rarely have modular graphics cards. It looks like the HP G60 is no exception. So, it's probably not possible to upgrade the graphics without replacing the entire motherboard (e.g. essentially replacing the entire computer). Nimur (talk) 09:52, 25 January 2010 (UTC)

windows 7

Resolved

lemme start from the begining.

I installed xp on my pc but i installed it on drive D: So D was my local disk. On Drive c i put movies and my own stuff. Then i installed windows 7 on my pc just last night. I installed it on that same drive D; and it created a windows old folder on that drive. Now i later deleted it after installing windows 7. Now windows 7 has renamed drive D to local disc C: and the initial drive C has disappeared all my movies and music are all gone. In fact that partition has vanished. So what can i do to get my old drive c: —Preceding unsigned comment added by 212.49.88.34 (talk) 11:20, 25 January 2010 (UTC)

If the partition has been deleted and then overwritten with the new operating system, there's no way to recover the data. The "C:\Windows.old" folder might have contained your files, but it's unlikely since your files and Windows XP weren't on the same drive letter. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 82.43.91.83 (talk) 11:42, 25 January 2010 (UTC)

Try going into Control Panel -> Administrative Tools -> Computer Management and then click on Storage/Disk Management. With any luck the partition is still there and you just need to Right-Click it and "Change Drive Letter" (and add a drive letter) and then you'll be able to access it. Either way you'll be able to see the partition table though so that'll explain what has happened. ZX81 ^talk 13:29, 25 January 2010 (UTC)

It is rather alarming that Windows 7 would decide that by deleting the old OS, you no longer want what is on another partition. Were there any extra questions like "Are you sure you want to remove/overwrite this partition?" Astronaut (talk) 18:43, 25 January 2010 (UTC)

Thanks man. Got it and you are a genius. Totally awesome..i rechanged the name of the drive and got my stuff back. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 41.191.226.2 (talk) 16:36, 26 January 2010 (UTC)

Cannot delete video file

Resolved

Whenever i try to delete a particular mp4 video file the dialog box says "this action cannot be completed as the file is open in another program ".As there are no programs running is there a way to delete the file? Shraktu (talk) 12:07, 25 January 2010 (UTC)

First, you should make sure there really are no processes accessing the file. You can use Process Explorer[1] to do this, just press CTRL+F and enter a portion of the file name. Depending on which process is holding the file, you can just kill it from Process Explorer and proceed to delete the file.All this assuming you're running Windows decltype (talk) 12:21, 25 January 2010 (UTC)

I've tried that and also tried after restarting the computer but still can't delete the file. Is there any other way?Shraktu (talk) 12:42, 25 January 2010 (UTC)

I've noticed that sometimes OSes try to "preview" media files and whatever process is involved in previewing it (e.g. as a thumbnail or icon or whatever) sometimes seems to crash or hang mid-way, leaving the file open. In such a case deleting it through DOS is probably the best way, after rebooting. --Mr.98 (talk) 14:39, 25 January 2010 (UTC)

Try this —Preceding unsigned comment added by Kv7sW9bIr8 (talk • contribs) 17:17, 25 January 2010 (UTC)

I think Mr. 98's answer is your culprit. If you let the image preview settle for a moment I think you'll find you're able to delete them. Shadowjams (talk) 20:21, 25 January 2010 (UTC)

Thanks ,that software suggested by Kv7sW9bIr8 above totally worked.

Does intel atom architecture have special virtualization accelerating instructions?

Resolved

Some Intel architectures have special instructions/optimizations that greatly accelerate virtualization tasks; is the intel Atom architecture one of them? (this is not homework). Thanks! 84.153.196.92 (talk) 13:31, 25 January 2010 (UTC)

It depends on exactly which Atom processor you're looking at... see Intel's list of processors supporting VT. -- Coneslayer (talk) 13:44, 25 January 2010 (UTC)

Thanks for the links! Unfortunately, my processor (n280) is one of the ones that doesn't. Oh well.. 82.113.106.95 (talk) 14:14, 25 January 2010 (UTC)

For some background, the Atom was designed to be an ultra-low-power laptop/mobile processor. The inclusion of virtualization on some new models suggests that Intel aims to target the same ultra-low-power technology towards the server market. Here is a blog reporting on Microsoft Research's efforts toward that goal. Nimur (talk) 17:17, 25 January 2010 (UTC)

Approximately how many megabytes is the Internet as of Today?

--20.137.18.50 (talk) 16:34, 25 January 2010 (UTC)

Sorry, but it's like asking "how long is a piece of string?". There are many websites which give different results based on what you click on, what time of day it is, what a particular Lava Lamp is up to, so the answer is essentially "infinitely big". --Sean 16:46, 25 January 2010 (UTC)

How about this: what is the estimated cumulative size of the storage capacity of all the computing devices which comprise the Internet? That would at least be an upper bound.20.137.18.50 (talk) 16:48, 25 January 2010 (UTC)

Except, of course, that not all internet content is ever stored anywhere - how do you want to count the size of dynamic content? Total hard-drive space is not actually an upper-bound for that. Nimur (talk) 16:58, 25 January 2010 (UTC)

Fair enough, not including dynamic content.20.137.18.50 (talk) 17:01, 25 January 2010 (UTC)

Google estimates that the portions of the internet they index are 5 trillion megabytes in size. This was in 2005, but is probably as accurate as any modern guess, and almost certainly much larger now. 206.131.39.6 (talk) 17:10, 25 January 2010 (UTC)

Thank you. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 20.137.18.50 (talk) 17:13, 25 January 2010 (UTC)

If I may ask, "5 trillion megabytes" thats 5 million million megabytes? 5 x 10¹⁸ bytes? Which could easily be x 4 by now, 20x10¹⁸ bytes, 20 exabytes? Is that correct?--220.101.28.25 (talk) 18:08, 25 January 2010 (UTC)

If the source is Google, the notation is most likely short scale. That would put a reasonable estimate in the 20 x 10¹⁵ byte range. What would be an interesting side question is how much unique data is out there, which would count the latest software-giant's bloat-ware product, the Wikipedia mirrors, and all the illegal Avatar videos once each. -- Tom N (tcncv) talk/contrib 00:59, 26 January 2010 (UTC)

As per the first response above, that's a damned long piece of string! --220.101.28.25 (talk) 01:15, 26 January 2010 (UTC)

Theres a lot of different Net Statistics here, unfortuntely way out of date (2003) 220.101.28.25 (talk) 01:30, 26 January 2010 (UTC)

Google earth images

when were the satalite photos taken?Accdude92 (talk to me!) 17:07, 25 January 2010 (UTC)

They're taken, and updated, on a continuing basis. There are plenty of places where the image is 5 years old or older, but sometimes they update much more frequently. I don't believe that they say when any specific image was taken. -- Finlay McWalter • Talk 17:12, 25 January 2010 (UTC)

Would the year they copyrighted the images be some of guide? Chevymontecarlo (talk) 17:13, 25 January 2010 (UTC)

Maybe, maybe not. A typical screen of Google Earth shows a fusion of several images (sometimes many) - they're very skilled at blending images together. So that alone means there's a range of dates possible for a given screen. -- Finlay McWalter • Talk 17:35, 25 January 2010 (UTC)

I was surprised to see that the answer to this pretty obvious question was not in our very long Google Earth article, according to my skimming. Comet Tuttle (talk) 17:37, 25 January 2010 (UTC)

If you use the Google Earth client (not the web-based version), there is an option to enable overlays that explicitly render boxes and text around each source image. This makes it clear when they are mixing/blending images - you can see multiple images used to generate same viewable area. Nimur (talk) 17:55, 25 January 2010 (UTC)

Piggy back question

To add on a new question to this one, is anyone aware of exactly what sources Google and Microsoft and the others use? Obviously they are pulling from GEOS satellites, and probably some commercial ones too, but does anyone have any more detailed information on their sources?

On that note too, I know there are recent (usually within 24 hours) satellite images of North America available here from the MODIS system, but the resolution is only good enough to make out cities (250m resolution). Is anyone aware of any relatively recent (within a weeks) imagery sources with better resolution? Shadowjams (talk) 20:18, 25 January 2010 (UTC)

At least some Google imagery comes from GeoEye. -- Coneslayer (talk) 20:21, 25 January 2010 (UTC)

I don't directly know but the images for Haiti have been updated within the past week. I was looking at the Presidential Palace and the relief efforts for the earthquake with Google Earth last night. Dismas|^(talk) 20:24, 25 January 2010 (UTC)

That's kind of what I'm getting at. The news media often gets updated images when there's some disaster, but in a few cases I know these images come from NASA or some other government source, because either they retasked the satellite for it, or it was a part of the normal image flow. I'm wondering if there's a public source for what must be thousands of images taken each day (obviously many of these aren't public). [I'll check out geoeye too, thanks.] Shadowjams (talk) 20:35, 25 January 2010 (UTC)

It's not just satellite images either. A lot of it comes from airplanes. APL (talk) 21:09, 25 January 2010 (UTC)

When all else fails, they use Landsat images (ref). You'll mostly only find those now in remote places where the commercial imagery providers haven't found it profitable to collect and process images. -- Finlay McWalter • Talk 21:32, 25 January 2010 (UTC)

This Google posting discusses, in brief, some of the sources for Google Earth images. -- Finlay McWalter • Talk 01:03, 26 January 2010 (UTC)

It may also be noted that the high-resolution images provided for places like big cities are taken from airplanes, not satellites. Last time I looked at Manhattan there was an obvious joint in Midtown between images taken from east and west of the island (the skyscrapers slant opposite ways); presumably the planes were not allowed to fly up the middle. --Anonymous, 00:03 UTC, January 30, 2010.

downforeveryoneorjustme

Since downforeveryoneorjustme.com seems to be down, what other similar services are there? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 82.43.91.83 (talk) 19:30, 25 January 2010 (UTC)

googling downforeveryoneorjustme brings up some candidates, http://isthatsitedown.com/ is one --194.197.235.240 (talk) 19:44, 25 January 2010 (UTC)

Use optical drive on one PC to install software on another PC

Resolved

I've got a desktop with an optical drive, and a notebook without one. I've got some software on disc that I want to install on the notebook. Is there a way to connect the notebook to the PC, so it can use the optical drive on that? Both run WinXP. DuncanHill (talk) 20:55, 25 January 2010 (UTC)

If the software does not use copy protection to verify that you have an original disc in the drive, and if both your systems are on a network, then you could turn on file sharing on your desktop, insert your disc, share it (double-click My Computer, right-click the optical drive, choose "Properties", then click the "Sharing" tab and share accordingly), then find the drive from your notebook. You'll be able to open it; run the "autoplay" file to begin. Comet Tuttle (talk) 21:05, 25 January 2010 (UTC)

Or, Duncan, were you thinking of physically plugging the desktop drive cable directly into the notebook? Unfortunately the interface(connector) on desktop PC drives is usually(always?) incompatible with notebooks, as the notebook connestors are far smaller and different type (in my experience) than 'standard' size drives esp. Parallel ATA. If it was a SATA (Serial ATA) drive then it might be possible. 220.101.28.25 (talk) 01:01, 26 January 2010 (UTC)

Side Question. Do laptops or notebooks nowdays use SATA internally? 220.101.28.25 (talk) 01:01, 26 January 2010 (UTC)

• I was hoping there was some way of doing it with a USB cable between the two. Hey ho, looks like I'll have to find a friend with an external optical drive and borrow that. DuncanHill (talk) 17:06, 26 January 2010 (UTC)

Actually USB should be possible, thought perhaps quite slow compared to a more direct connection. I assume your notebook has no Ethernet or other networking connection connection? Also, how large are the software files? It may be possible to copy to, and then install the software from a USB Flash drive.--220.101.28.25 (talk) 18:09, 26 January 2010 (UTC)

It's got an ethernet connexion. The biggest of the programs needs 1.5GB disc space when installed. DuncanHill (talk) 18:16, 26 January 2010 (UTC)

In that case you could do as Comet Tuttle suggested via a network, or quoting Ethernet crossover cable; "An Ethernet crossover cable is a type of Ethernet cable used to connect computing devices together directly where they would normally be connected via a network switch, hub or router, such as directly connecting two personal computers via their Network adapters." NOTE you CANNOT connect the notebook directly to the PC with a 'standard' Ethernet cable.

If you don't have to copy a lot of files (which could be tiresome this way), then as suggested before a USB Flash drive may be the way to go, and 2+ Gb drives are possibly cheaper than a crossover cable. Of course if you can borrow an external optical drive then try that.Sorry took so long to get back, FYI it's 3 AM Here!--220.101.28.25 (talk) 16:05, 27 January 2010 (UTC)

It may help if you can tell what brand/model of Notebook computer you have, or is it actually more of a laptop? I have asked an RD question below Do laptops or notebooks nowdays use SATA internally? which may answer whether you can plug your PC HDD into the other computer 220.101.28.25 (talk) 17:38, 27 January 2010 (UTC)

Comment - use the network sharing as described above using an ethernet cable - I've done this many times and it works - note right click on the optical drive icon in "mycomputer" select properties, - then the sharing tab..

(I've yet to see an ethernet cable that wasn't the right type..)

Well, the TX & RX wires are swapped in a crossover cable, and they are usually a different colour from "straight through" cables. But they cant't be used in the same application. To connect two PCs directly via Ethernet it must be a crossover cable. 220.101.28.25 (talk) 21:26, 27 January 2010 (UTC)

Alternatively you can use wifi if you have it on both instead of the ethernet.

You will need to create a home-network first - this is simple - search for "set up a home or small office network" in windows help - and run the wizard - the only bit to remember is to give both computers the same network name - run the same wizard on both computers.

(edit conflict)

As per responses to my RD question, it seems that your notebook could well be SATA interface, in which case as long as you can access the drive or drive connector inside it then the possibility of connecting the Desktop PC Optical drive directly to the notebook to install the software holds up. --220.101.28.25 (talk) 21:26, 27 January 2010 (UTC)

• Thanks for all the suggestions. I've been able to do it by copy/pasting the disc onto a micro-SD card in my dongle, then loading it from there. If anyone's interested the notebook is a Zoostorm Freedom. The 1.5GB program only actually takes up 380 MB on the disc, so didn't even need to buy a bigger memory card. Many thanks again. DuncanHill (talk) 21:18, 27 January 2010 (UTC)

Thanks for letting us know it worked out in the end and how you did it!. 220.101.28.25 (talk) 21:29, 27 January 2010 (UTC)

Interesting, it has a Solid State' 8GB NAND HDD, and is variously described as a 'Netbook' or a ' Mini Laptop' 220.101.28.25 (talk) 21:39, 27 January 2010 (UTC)

Um, it's got a 160 GB hard-drive Toshiba MK1655GSX. DuncanHill (talk) 21:49, 27 January 2010 (UTC)

Oh, sorry!. I Googled 'Zoostorm Freedom' and had a look at 2-3 reviews which all mentioned an 8 GB SSD. I was silly to assume that that is what you had too. 8 Gb is far too small anyway. Looked up the HDD and Yes, it is a SATA drive as I thought. 220.101.28.25 (talk) 04:56, 28 January 2010 (UTC)

I think they've used the Freedom name for several models, mine's the 1GB Ram, 160GB HD version, cheaper than and just as much memory and storage as the desktop I bought a few years ago. DuncanHill (talk) 12:51, 28 January 2010 (UTC)

These are the reviews I looked at, Zoostorm-Freedom-Netbook, review-of-zoostorm-freedom, expertreviews zoostorm netbook, if you're interested 220.101.28.25 (talk) 15:50, 28 January 2010 (UTC)

This is the one I've got [2] DuncanHill (talk) 15:58, 28 January 2010 (UTC)

undent
Yes, looks like it's much better value. Seems the SSD ones are aimed a bit more at kids. Probably more resistant to shock. Can't imagine using a current 'PC' with so little storage! I started with a 6.8 GB HDD, in 1998! (now I have 1 TB to go in and 500 GB external) Suppose an External HDD to dump data to would be the way to go with these 'notebooks' as well! Anyway I think we've played your Question out, if you want any more discussion maybe my talk page page would be more appropriate? Any more PC questions don't hesitate to post them. See ya round! --220.101.28.25 (talk) 08:33, 29 January 2010 (UTC)

January 26

TOR inside a LAN and destination IPs

If I use TOR inside a LAN, can the LAN admins see which websites I'm visiting based on the network traffic? 218.25.32.210 (talk) 00:37, 26 January 2010 (UTC)

Ideally, all they see is the IPs of the Tor nodes that you communicate with (which doesn't tell them much). But you don't set things up correctly, they can see the DNS lookups you do (see Tor (anonymity network)#DNS leaks) which of course can itself be very enlightening. In addition, the operators of the exit nodes, where your traffic leaves the TOR network, can see everything you're doing (and as you don't know who they are, why should you trust them). See Onion routing#Weaknesses. Oh, and are you sure that the Tor client you're using is really the real Tor client, or a hacked one that the LAN admins have substituted instead? If you're concerned enough to use Tor, you should be concerned enough to worry about that kind of thing. -- Finlay McWalter • Talk 00:56, 26 January 2010 (UTC)

Adding to the above, if the machines are installed/managed by people other than yourself then it'd be safer to error on the side of caution and say "yes they can". It's completely possible they might have monitoring software installed which might log keystrokes or addresses typed into the browser or anything at all really. They could even have something like VNC installed and simply just "watch" your screen without you even knowing ZX81 ^talk 01:09, 26 January 2010 (UTC)

And note this. -- Finlay McWalter • Talk 01:13, 26 January 2010 (UTC)

Also (as the linked articles above say) Tor has very limited resistance to traffic analysis and timing analysis attacks. Some kinds of traffic have very distinctive patterns, which you can discern even when the content of packets is encrypted and their IP addresses intermediated. p2p traffic does lots of traffic, is roughly symmetrical (about as much is sent as is received), and opens lots of sockets. Email tends to be periodic, and if you get as much spam as me then you download much more than you upload. The same is true for online video like Youtube, but that consists of lengthy runs of downloads with negligible upload. So if your intention is, for example, to do p2p on a network that forbids it, Tor will only be of some use. -- Finlay McWalter • Talk 01:13, 26 January 2010 (UTC)

Well, I'd be running Tor on my own hardware (laptop) hooked into their LAN. The copy of Tor I have is legit, coming directly from the Tor Project. So that excludes keyloggers and screen monitors. Everyone uses the internet here, so I figured the traffic would look just like any other user's except that the IPs would be other computers, not websites, right? 218.25.32.210 (talk) 01:18, 26 January 2010 (UTC)

How to you know it came from the Tor Project website? Did you check the binary checksums, and did you verify those checksums were the same when viewing the site from several unrelated networks? Detecting Tor traffic is trivial: firstly it's all encrypted (something almost all traffic done by non-tor users isn't), and secondly (as most Tor nodes are run from someone's home cable or adsl connection) most of your traffic will be going to random addresses in BT and Pacbell and Telstra address blocks, and not to the big providers like Google and MSN and BBC. I know to an absolute certitude that my own ISP notices connections from my adsl connection to other home-or-small-office connections (they're looking for zombies phoning home) so evidently existing network monitoring systems already check for that. -- Finlay McWalter • Talk 01:28, 26 January 2010 (UTC)

Thanks for the persistent explanations, Finlay! 218.25.32.210 (talk) 02:01, 26 January 2010 (UTC)

You're welcome. In practice whether Tor is sufficient for your purposes depends on what your purposes are. If you just want to edit your secret Facebook account, or download the odd video from veryhairychicksallegedlynaked.com then Tor is sufficient. If you want to plot revolt against an autocratic government, probably not. -- Finlay McWalter • Talk 02:26, 26 January 2010 (UTC)

Just want to point out that be careful what you check. Checksums are strictly speaking only intended to guard against accidental modification (such as download error). For checksums like CRC32 for example, it is trivial to generate a file which gives the same checksum with different content. While things like SHA256 are commonly called checksums (and it's arguably an accurate name), the key point is that they are cryptographic hash functions (i.e. secure hashes) and are intended to guard against malicious modification. Generally speaking, if authenticity verification is intended against malicious modification, cyptographic hashes will be provided and perhaps they won't even provide checks that are not secure hashes (like CRC32), it is important you make sure you do check against a secure hash if you are concerned with such things. Also consider the source of the hash. If for example your using the same network which you don't trust and don't have a secure connection to the server then it's pointless trusting the hash Nil Einne (talk) 12:22, 28 January 2010 (UTC)

wants to get data structures subjects

I want full information about data structures —Preceding unsigned comment added by 115.118.113.50 (talk) 06:32, 26 January 2010 (UTC)

Whole university courses are given on this topic, so you are unlikely to get full information in a reply here. Our article on Data Structure won't be of much help for the detail, except that it might have some useful links. There is a Wiki Book on Data Structures[3] that gives an outline of each structure. You will need to read several text books if you want to study the subject in detail. Dbfirs 10:24, 26 January 2010 (UTC)

The differences beetween white DVD and purple DVD

There are 2 types of CD. The most popular is "green" CDs, whose bottom's color is green (not exactly green), which we usually use to burn data to. The other one is "white" CDs, whose bottom's color is white, which we may obtain from offical software publisher. The white CDs often are the original CDs, and the blue one are always pirate. There is the same thing with purple DVDs and white DVDs.

Some wise one plz explain the difference of these to me. All I know is that the white CD/DVD lasts longer than the other, and that it can be play even if it is quite rough, but the green/purple won't. What are exactly purple DVD and white DVD? Why do they have different colors? Why does the white one last longer? The time it lasts also depend on burning speed, is that true?

Besides, I hear that all white DVDs work well on PlayStation 2, but the purple DVDs don't -- it depends on purple DVD type, some work, some not. Is that true? And, they also say that to get a DVD work on PS2, I must burn it at the slowest speed possible (ie: 2x). I always burn CDs with 52x speed and it work well on PC but high speed burning shall make the disc cannot be play on PS2, why? The console has so much... troubles. -- Livy the pixie (talk) 09:06, 26 January 2010 (UTC)

I've never heard the white, green and purple terms, but anyway ... CDs (and DVDs) that are produced by the publisher are generally stamped, not burned. Areas called "pits" and "lands" which are roughly analogous to the 0s and 1s that make up all binary data are stamped into the molten plastic, which is then coated with metal. See the Manufacturing section of Compact Disc and the more detailed article linked from there. Discs which can be or have been burned contain layers of dyes which change reflectivity during the burning process; these areas of differing relectivity can be interpreted the same way pits and lands can be. See the Recordable CD portion of Compact Disc or CD-R. One reason that your "white" discs last longer is that the dyes used in recordable discs may deteriorate. See Disc rot.

I can not comment on the PS2 considerations, I'll leave that to somebody more familiar with gaming consoles.

Finally, though, I wanted to point out that CD-Rs (at least) are available in many colors - here is one example. It's not completely clear from the product image on that page, but the five colors they show are on the recordable side of the disc (as well as the top, if I recall correctly) --LarryMac | Talk 13:34, 26 January 2010 (UTC)

Stamp? I've never heard of this term before -- I'm a noob indeed. In my country, holding a disc in hand, we always say that all data (in the disc) is already "printed" to it as if it is a paper. It is a habit since it is easy to understand. If you say "burn a CD", then they will think of setting fire to a CD to burn it into ash, lol. The term "burn" is used rarely by teenagers only. We use it in original English, not translated, and it means "write data to disc", no matter that disc is stamped or burned, so that I really don't know what is "stamp". I have no knowledge 'bout such aspect. Stamping and burning are two different methods of writing data into a disc? Can you explain further? If true, then the green/purple discs I mention above must be burned discs and the white ones must be stamped discs. -- Livy the pixie (talk) 14:11, 26 January 2010 (UTC)

See our articles on Compact Disc manufacturing, Compact Disc, CD-R and CD-RW. Gandalf61 (talk) 16:07, 26 January 2010 (UTC)

• Stamping and burning are in the end different ways of putting data onto a disc. In 'stamping' the data is put on during manufacture of the disc, in 'burning' the disc is made first, then the data is put on the disc by the laser in a CD/DVD drive. The end result is much the same, a disc that can have data read from it. Stamping means to press one thing onto another with force, such as raising your foot and stamping your heel on the ground.
• I think when you say 'white' you actually mean silver, which is the colour of mass produced stamped optical discs due to the layer of silver an alloy of (mostly) aluminium that is put on them during manufacture. This will deteriorate far less than the dyes in recordable discs so should last much longer. --220.101.28.25 (talk) 16:19, 26 January 2010 (UTC)

My thanks. Now that I got it. The alloy of aluminium makes the silver color of stamped discs, which burned discs do not have. But what about the burning speed problem with PlayStation 2? Many say that if a PS2 DVD is burned at above 4x speed, it is hardly to run properly. The loading time of the game is awful long, and the disc even does not run. It sounds odd, but they claimed that they had tested themselves -- many said that. I kinda doubt it. How does burning speed affect the disc? -- Livy the pixie (talk) 17:05, 26 January 2010 (UTC)

Sorry Livy, I too don't know much about the PS2 side of things, theoretically, as you are talking about game discs, then I expect this is a deliberate move by Sony to help protect the copyright of the game manufacturers. That is they make it hard to make good copies by a copy protection scheme. Going back to stamped vs. burned discs, I recommend that you read through the Compact Disc manufacturing article and other articles as suggested by LarryMac and Gandalf, as I got a few things wrong before I checked it there. ie. I believed that silver was used to coat the discs. --220.101.28.25 (talk) 17:58, 26 January 2010 (UTC)

"articles as suggested by Gandalf"... harrumph! --LarryMac | Talk 20:26, 26 January 2010 (UTC)

Apologies, corrected 220.101.28.25 (talk) 12:07, 27 January 2010 (UTC)

Whether you burn a DVD at 1x, 2x, or 4x should make no difference if you have a properly working DVD writer. Actually, when recordable CDs were new, Sony's big external SCSI 2x CD burner came with instructions saying that you were supposed to burn CDs at 2x and not 1x, because at 1x there was increased disc wobble, and the number of uncorrectable errors burned to disc was expected to be higher. Based on that, I would speculate that burning at low speeds probably does not help. Anyway, you are asking for advice about a PlayStation 2 that has obviously been "chipped" or "modded" so it can play pirated games — you don't say where you're from, but in some countries, I understand, all available PS2s are chipped — so I would expect unreliability would be due to the chipped PS2, rather than being due to the pirated game discs you are trying to play. It could be that the PS2 copy protection system is actually functioning here. Comet Tuttle (talk) 19:35, 26 January 2010 (UTC)

Comet Tuttle has a point, although some suggest to burn CDs and DVDs at the lowest possible speed, this is often poor advice. In fact this is usually a bad idea with modern burners and media. Very commonly they will perform very poorly when burning at the lowest speed. I'm not saying to burn at the highest possible speed. With CD & DVDs, we've started to reach the level where sometimes burning at the highest speed can generate poor burns, even worse if you have shitty media to begin with (which makes up most of the media). However I wouldn't recommend 4x. 8x or 12x perhaps. Certain drives enable you to do error checking on the CD/DVD with the right software. E.g. Nero CD/DVD speed. These can give you an idea of the PI/PO errors of your burn on that drive (basically how many errors the drive gets on reading that it auto corrects). You may want to check out MyCE formerly known as CDfreaks for more info on how burn quality can vary with speed and other factors. Nil Einne (talk) 06:13, 27 January 2010 (UTC)

There are actually 3 different dyes that are used with CDR which give different colours. These dyes may also sometimes be mixed. And the precise colour you see will depend on whether silver or gold or gold & silver are used for the reflective coat. And according to our article, some manufacturers may colour the dye anyway. These provides more info [4] [5] CD-R. The colour of the top side can of course be whatever you want since you can just print on it. DVD dyes also vary, but this doesn't affect the colour you see much Nil Einne (talk) 06:25, 27 January 2010 (UTC)

Execute a file when computer has been inactive.

Is there any way to set your computer to execute a file when it has been inactive for certain number of minutes?  Hamza  ^{[ talk ]} 09:22, 26 January 2010 (UTC)

It would be trivial to write a Windows application that restarts a timer at each key or mouse event, and then ShellExecutes something when the timer has reached a certain value. But perhaps you can use Windows task scheduler for this - I do not know. --Andreas Rejbrand (talk) 11:25, 26 January 2010 (UTC)

Well, I work for the USAF, and computers here are programmed to do pretty much exactly that. If there has been no activity for five minutes, they automatically self-lock. I've wondered about the possibility of [someone, not me... I'm not a programmer] writing an "idle timer," so to speak, so one could see how close they're getting to the five minutes. I'll Google it, but does anyone already know of one? Kingsfold (talk) 13:20, 27 January 2010 (UTC)

I now checked, and you can use Windows Task Scheduler for this. Simply create a new task and select "Inactivity" as the triggering event. --Andreas Rejbrand (talk) 11:30, 26 January 2010 (UTC)

I can't see that option in Windows XP. Actually a program that executes after a certain amount of inactivity is usually called a Screensaver - maybe you can cheat by renaming the exe file with an extension of .scr and setting that as your screensaver (in Control Panel/Display/Screen Saver). AndrewWTaylor (talk) 12:21, 26 January 2010 (UTC)

I've already checked Task Scheduler in XP. As Andrew said, there is not inactivity option in it. Is there any freeware that can do it?  Hamza  ^{[ talk ]} 15:49, 26 January 2010 (UTC)

I just created a scheduled task in Windows XP and found a relevant "When idle" option. It's not shown in the "Add Scheduled Task" wizard, but is available if you look in the properties window of the task. --Bavi H (talk) 02:14, 27 January 2010 (UTC)

Why am I spam?

I send emails to myself so I can be on any computer when I send them or when I receive them. I could store documents on my own computer but I never have, since I didn't have one for so long.

But this is a new problem. I used my Yahoo address to send an email to myself, and the email containing the information I wanted to send was in the sent folder. This meant when I replied to it with additional information, I replied to the same address. Believe it or not, this ended up in the spam folder!Vchimpanzee · talk · contributions · 14:17, 26 January 2010 (UTC)

Many modern anti-spam techniques use heuristic techniques like Bayesian spam filtering, which weigh a number of factors when assessing each candidate email. Some anti-spam systems (such as Spam assassin) add email headers to emails as they process them, which explain the statistical reasoning used for assessing a given email (so get your email client to show you the headers for the emails in question). Common reasons are magic words like viagra (I guess this isn't the case for you), HTML emails, mostly or entirely binary (that is radix encoded) emails (which does sound like what you're doing), forged (or forged-looking) sender or from fields (if you're sending to yourself or an account that looks almost like yours, that might trigger it), lots of non-ascii characters (particularly an odd mixture of characters found in different alphabets, in a manner that you wouldn't find in real human writing in any language). Any decent anti-spam system should have a mechanism to whitelist a given sender, so you should be able to avoid this happening again. -- Finlay McWalter • Talk 14:31, 26 January 2010 (UTC)

In other words, you triggered a false positive on the default spam settings. You may have to change the filter from the default settings, (adding yourself to a whitelist is the easiest way to do this, as Finlay suggested). This Yahoo Help page, and others linked from it, may help. Nimur (talk) 14:50, 26 January 2010 (UTC)

That's right. By the way, if you're wondering why Yahoo hasn't configured their e-mail system to automatically place "e-mails from me" in the Inbox and never in the spam folder: It's because many people (including me) get a lot of spam that forges the "from" address to look like it's from themselves. It's a common attempt to get you to read the spam. Unfortunately this also means that when you whitelist yourself as suggested above, you may get a little more spam in your inbox that appears to be from you. One last recommendation: I know you have said in the past that you prefer to stick with the familiar, but Google Docs is a way better way to work on documents from multiple computers, compared to eternally e-mailing stuff to yourself. You just sign in with your Google account name from wherever you are and work on the documents. Comet Tuttle (talk) 17:26, 26 January 2010 (UTC)

surfing sux

ok, I have IE8 and windows basic vista and a slow (uk typical) internet connection of 1/2 mb.

I think this is now equivalent to surfing with an old style modem.

Here is an example, I go to bbc news.....lag of 7 seconds.Then I go to facebook ...freeze....shoutdown browser. restart go to another forum... lag... then it all works perfect for 1/2 hr. I make a cup of tea and come back ... lag,freeze,shutdown restart ... wireless signal lost.

Then it all works the next day.,,,,, then.... the cycle of bullshit is repeated.

my questions are:

1) Has the net slowed down in general? 2) Are stupid flash designers the cause... overdoing there web design? 3) No Im not switching OS so what can i do about it!!!

Whoa — wireless signal lost? I think that's the problem. If you want to verify that this is the problem, hook up your computer with an Ethernet cable to your router for a few minutes and try surfing; wired connections are fast and reliable. If you find your Web surfing to be 100 times better, then we've narrowed down the problem to wireless connectivity. Comet Tuttle (talk) 17:33, 26 January 2010 (UTC)

(edit conflict) From what you've said about "wireless signal lost" it suggests to me that the problems are not necessarily to do with your Internet connection, but rather your connection to your wireless access point/router. What signal strength does it show you as having? If you have an low/poor connection then it would drop out frequently and you would experience pauses like you have described. Is it possible to position yourself closer to the access point (even temporarily) and see if you have the same problems? ZX81 ^talk 17:34, 26 January 2010 (UTC)

Adding to the above, the freeze on Facebook is likely caused by the wireless going down. Facebook uses AJAX to enable a lot of its functionality, and if the internet connection is lost, the code that pulls updates from the site may go hinky, possibly looping infinitely trying to acquire the data and crippling the page responsiveness. Of course, using IE8, each tab is a process, so a freeze in one shouldn't affect the others, but if your wireless has gone down, that won't do you much good. —ShadowRanger ^(talk|stalk) 17:59, 26 January 2010 (UTC)

Actually IE8 isn't guaranteed to use a seperate process for each tab. I was under the impression they use up to 3 processes total for tabs because according to Microsoft their research suggests most people don't use more then 3 tabs however it seems I was wrong. They may use more but it depends on your computer. Look at both the blog entry and the comment from Andy here. Note also that if one process/tab is using very high CPU (and you have a single core CPU or it's multithreaded) or very high RAM, you could get slowdowns for the whole computer including every other process. I have had this before due to unknown bugs (probably Flash or Java) Nil Einne (talk) 08:24, 27 January 2010 (UTC)

What sort of environment are you in? How far away from your wireless router are you? 10m is about the maximum indoors. Are there any obstacles in between your laptop and wireless router? What are they made of; thin plasterboard, or bricks, mortar and bits of metal? Are there any sources of interference? If you can pick up lots of other people's wireless networks, they may be causing you interference, but other devices like cordless landline (not mobiles - they use different frequencies) phones and microwave ovens - anything in the 2.4GHz ISM band - can also cause interference. CaptainVindaloo ^{t c e} 11:56, 27 January 2010 (UTC)

File permissions?

I opened one of my documents and made a quick change, then tried to close and save it. However, Word informed me that "Word cannot complete the save due to a file permission error," including in parentheses the location on my hard drive. I haven't done any meta-file mumbo jumbo with the document since I last edited it (last night), so what could have happened? How should I solve it? I already tried to check out the permissions for the file, but nothing seemed out of the ordinary. I was able to edit a document in the same folder as it...--The Ninth Bright Shiner 22:29, 26 January 2010 (UTC)

File / Save As seems to be the way out of the immediate problem; and if not, then a cut and paste of the content into a new file. Do you by chance make use of Live OneCare? Long discussion here, seems to be anti-virus products and/or an acer driver not getting on with an MS product. --Tagishsimon (talk) 22:44, 26 January 2010 (UTC)

Adobe/Acrobat product suite questions

Our office computers have Adobe Standard 6.0 installed on them -- more than the Reader, but less than the full Acrobat Professional suite. With this version, I can not only view PDFs, but also highlight, make minor text changes, and I have "Adobe PDF" as a system printer, which allows me to create PDF files from anything that can print. (This was once known as the Distiller; it may have a different name today.)

Q1: When I use those additional features, am I using the same executable of Reader as I might have downloaded, but with permissions to do the other stuff, or am I using a completely different executable to do the other features? It appears to be acroread.exe, but I'm not sure if that's the whole story. (Maybe there are different DLLs that enable the other features?)

Obviously, V6 is two releases out of date. I really should upgrade one of these days. The answer to Q1 probably impacts the answers to the rest of these:

Q2: If I download/install just the V7 reader, and I use the PDF printer, will I generate V6 or V7 PDF files?

Q3: If I download/install just the V7 reader, will I lose my capability for highlighting and markups? Or, in order to maintain those features, do I have to download something more than just the reader?

Q3a: If I have to install "something more", do I have to pay for the whole enchilada again, or is that considered a free upgrade?

Many thanks to those who have trod this path before. DaHorsesMouth (talk) 23:41, 26 January 2010 (UTC)

A1: It's a completely different executable. You can have both Acrobat and Reader installed on the same machine and they will operate independently of each other, however whichever one was installed last (probably Reader) will try and take over the default "pdf" file association (which you can swap back) as well as be the reader in your browser (which you probably want anyway) (and you're actually 3 versions behind as V9 is out now)

A2: The PDF printer won't be upgraded and will still create exactly the same same V6 files it did before.

A3: No, you can still open Acrobat as before and do editing as you did before, but watch out for the file associations as mention in A1.

On my work computer I have Acrobat 8 Standard and Reader 9, they work just fine together, but I had to change the PDF associations back to V8 ZX81 ^talk 01:03, 27 January 2010 (UTC)

OK, I think I get it. Any advice on whether upgrading Standard is fee or free? Thanks!
Wow, I could have had a V8? DaHorsesMouth (talk) 03:27, 27 January 2010 (UTC)

Sorry, but all upgrades of Acrobat to a newer version require payment. They offer free updates within the same version number (i.e. 8.0 -> 8.2) but anything else is considered a new product. They do offer cheaper upgrade pricing though for existing customers. ZX81 ^talk 03:52, 27 January 2010 (UTC)

Just keep in mind that Adobe Acrobat and Adobe Reader are two entirely difference software suites. Standard costs money in all of its form, Reader is free. So if you upgrade Standard to a new version, that will require money. Upgrading Reader costs nothing. --98.217.71.237 (talk) 13:47, 27 January 2010 (UTC)

January 27

Range decoding and random numbers

Can a range encoding's decoding function, applied to a hardware RNG's output stream, be used to generate random numbers in an arbitrary discrete probability distribution (e.g. an implementation of percentile-roll tables such as these in an online game server) with a minimum of wasted entropy? NeonMerlin 03:16, 27 January 2010 (UTC)

Could you further explain what you wrote before your 2nd comma? If I understand correctly, you're suggesting writing a decompression algorithm that intentionally has no checksum or other error correction methods, and feed it random data. The output of such an algorithm will inevitably be less random, so I'm going to say "no", assuming randomness is valuable to you. Even though I don't know much about arithmetic data compression or range encoding. Comet Tuttle (talk) 05:26, 27 January 2010 (UTC)

What I mean is converting the RNG's output, which chooses between 1 and 0 with equal probability, into an output that chooses between any number of symbols with whatever probability distribution we specify, without throwing away true random bits, and without the degradation of randomness that we might get if we used the output to seed a conventional PRNG. NeonMerlin 15:10, 27 January 2010 (UTC)

I'm not sure why you're reaching for a decompression algorithm when you could instead just grab n bits from the RNG, and use arithmetic to apply this to your desired range and probability distribution. Comet Tuttle (talk) 18:49, 27 January 2010 (UTC)

The answer is yes. But you have to either use arbitrary-precision integers for your range boundaries (in which case your memory and time consumption may increase without bound) or else throw away some entropy. -- BenRG (talk) 08:44, 29 January 2010 (UTC)

Got something I need ID'd

'Kay, I have here something I have no idea what it is (except for maybe perhaps a Memorex audio device of some sort). It's black, has a clip on the back, is roughly hemispherical with a port on the left/top end for a headphone jack, play/pause, seek, and stop buttons, and a long cord coming off the right/bottom end that terminates in a jack. I've no idea what it is; could someone ID it based on the description? —Jeremy ^{(v^_^v Boribori!)} 09:31, 27 January 2010 (UTC)

Probably a toaster. See our article on Toaster for more info. Good luck. :) Shadowjams (talk) 09:57, 27 January 2010 (UTC)

Ugh. as much fun as it is to leave my above comment, you really should post a picture. And I have to wonder how you got some device you have no idea what it is.... perhaps some context would make us feel a bit more at ease. I know you're not new here, but come on... every walkman made in the last 30 years qualifies for what you described if you turn it upsidedown. Shadowjams (talk) 10:01, 27 January 2010 (UTC)

This isn't a CD player; it's no bigger than my ring and index fingers and just as wide. My father found it in an apartment he was turning and brought it home. As for a picture, I don't have a digital camera I can use. —Jeremy ^{(v^_^v Boribori!)} 10:03, 27 January 2010 (UTC)

Possibly a headset cord with an integral remote control for a CD Walkman or MP3 player. 220.101.28.25 (talk) 10:46, 27 January 2010 (UTC)

open new rss items into new tabs

I asked this before but I'd like to try again, in case someone who didn't see the first question knows something that could help me

I desperately need a program or a scrip or anything that can monitor an rss feed every 60 seconds and open every new item into a new firefox tab. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 82.43.91.83 (talk) 11:36, 27 January 2010 (UTC)

Looking for Parrot Basic 1.0 and Parrot Basic 2.0 - something to do with Perl.

I'd like to get copies of both of these. Parrot Basic 1.0 is a freeware Windows clone of GWBasic, the only language I'm fluent in. (I actually prefer the very simple lightweight editing). The 2.0 version is a clone of Qbasic. Although there are many mentions of these on Google, the links are all to the home site of Geeksalad dot org which has closed. An email to the author bounced back. The Waybackwhen Machine shows the old pages, but the download links there do not work, nor do the more recent .zip file links. I understand that "Parrot" may be something to do with Perl. Does any super search sleuth know where I could find them please? A pity to let someone's work go to waste. Thanks 92.27.165.25 (talk) 12:42, 27 January 2010 (UTC)

The only connection with Perl is that their compilers were written in Perl, as far as I can tell. Thus their announcements were distributed to Perl listservs. Find them does not look promising to me. (You could probably learn basic Perl in the time it takes you to track these down.) --Mr.98 (talk) 14:53, 27 January 2010 (UTC)

parrot is the (somewhat well known) bigger project you mention. Look under the "Languages" tab on that site, there are installation instructions too. --194.197.235.240 (talk) 15:28, 27 January 2010 (UTC)

Parrot is I think what Parrot Basic is written in. Did not find them at that site. 89.242.92.249 (talk) 12:27, 28 January 2010 (UTC)

bugging devices for night clubs

Are there bugging devices that can be used in night clubs? Is it somehow possible to listen to the talk of people despite the music playing? --Lowlife001 (talk) 13:47, 27 January 2010 (UTC)

Probably not. It's impossible to properly separate even instrumental music from voices algorithmically (the only reason mash-ups are possible is that the new instrumental track drowns the old one out). You'd have to either know what song was playing and where you could download it from in real time, or else you'd have to intercept the sound signal to the speakers (which may be possible if they're wireless). I doubt such a device would sell enough units to pay for the firmware development. NeonMerlin 15:21, 27 January 2010 (UTC)

The intelligence agencies of the world probably have pretty sophisticated bugs that can be tuned to specific situations. Their capabilities are no doubt classified. I suspect there is nothing on a consumer market that can do such a thing. --Mr.98 (talk) 15:45, 27 January 2010 (UTC)

I would think that you can use some narrow band filters tuned to the voice frequencies to filter out a lot of irrelevant noise. --Stephan Schulz (talk) 15:51, 27 January 2010 (UTC)

If you have considerable resources (money, access to the room, ability to conceal pickups in walls, signal processing capability) you could probably construct a large phased array of microphones and isolate a speaker through beamforming. In fact, it appears that such an array has been prototyped at MIT. Be sure to check out the YouTube videos. -- Coneslayer (talk) 16:04, 27 January 2010 (UTC)

The problem is sorting the background noise out from the speech you want to record. With a single microphone, as noted above, that's very difficult. But if you have time to prepare, and some tech, it's quite achievable. Lets imagine you're a police department and you want to bug a bigtime traffiker making a deal in the club. You know he always sits in a given VIP booth. If you install several directional mics in the ceiling, pointing at the general areas where people's heads will be, then you'll record the raw sound of what people say. If you make sure the walls behind and around the booth are covered with sound-absorbing material (which they often are anyway, as are places like cinemas) to minimise the backscatter going into the directional mics. But the mics aren't perfect, and there still will be backscatter, so you'd have several omnidirectional mics in the same area. To maximise the speech you subtract the omni signal from the directional signal, and hopefully remove a lot of the background noise and music. To optimise this you can map the local acoustics by emitting a tone and measuring the response of the room - that's exactly how high-end conference phones, and they use the data to calculate the reflections off each wall, which they can use to subtract the speaker's sound, delayed, from what its mics receive (and thus minimise feedback). Then you can go to signal processing to clean things up further. -- Finlay McWalter • Talk 03:26, 28 January 2010 (UTC)

Perhaps you could do something like you do to remove vocals from music to make kareoke tracks. In that case, you know that the voice is generally in the center of the stereo image and the instruments are off to the sides. If you digitally subtract the left stereo track from the right (or vice-versa) the vocals simply vanish! So if you have more than one microphone, it ought to be possible to eliminate (or at least drastically reduce) the other sounds by arranging that the microphones are placed such that they are all about the same distance from the people you want to monitor - but at dramatically different distances from the sound system. SteveBaker (talk) 06:35, 29 January 2010 (UTC)

Do laptops or notebooks nowdays use SATA internally?

Resolved

This arises from another question an OP asked before Use optical drive on one PC to install software on another PC 220.101.28.25 (talk) 16:28, 27 January 2010 (UTC)

Yes. The great majority of laptop hard drives for sale at Newegg are SATA. -- Coneslayer (talk) 16:34, 27 January 2010 (UTC)

Thanks for quick answer. I had a look and can see the specs. And, notebooks generally use 2.5" drives too? 220.101.28.25 (talk) 16:52, 27 January 2010 (UTC)

The kind you linked to doesn't. My impression has always been that notebook and laptop are essentially synonymous, with manufacturers preferring notebook so that users don't burn their genitals. Did you mean to ask about netbooks? I suspect some or all use 1.8" disks, but I'm not positive, and can't investigate further right now. Anyone? -- Coneslayer (talk) 17:00, 27 January 2010 (UTC)

Thanks again, I've fixed the link. :-) Must admit I don't know the brand/model of computer the OP wishes to connect to a Desktop PC in order to install software on the 'Notebook'. Must remember to check all links I use in any text! 220.101.28.25 (talk) 17:26, 27 January 2010 (UTC)

Yes notebooks use 2.5" drives generally (in the future maybe the smaller ones) - but currently 2.5.Shortfatlad (talk) 18:13, 27 January 2010 (UTC)

Excellent, Thank You! 220.101.28.25 (talk) 20:40, 27 January 2010 (UTC)

error report

Anyone want to hazard a guess at what caused this error report on XP "access violation at address 00553c88 in module 'RTHDCPL.EXE' Read of address BBE4C4E8" - the module is legitimate - an audio driver thing - curiously the computer made a funny beep. (also the error report was displayed at the back (low z) not up front?) - impossible to determine what happened or not?87.102.67.84 (talk) 17:33, 27 January 2010 (UTC)

There's no real way of knowing unless you happen to be running a version of the driver that was built with debug symbols and if you were running a programmer tool like Watson. In other words, if you were the programmer you might be able to figure out what happened. Googling RTHDCPL.EXE does indeed say it's part of the Realtek audio control panel, and you've indicated this is legitimate, so the traditional advice is to get the latest update from their website; maybe it fixes some bugs; and if not you can file a bug report with Realtek with, preferably, a repeatable set of steps that causes this error every time; and then you have a one in 10,000 chance that someone will take your bug report seriously and fix the bug internally and send it through QA and come out with a fix in the next version of the driver they publish in six months. Ah, how I hate computers. Comet Tuttle (talk) 17:47, 27 January 2010 (UTC)

Yes. in a 1GB machine BBxxxxxx is outside memory?

Memory is virtualized for each process; if the process hasn't allocated that address, then it counts as an access violation. The amount of memory on the machine doesn't matter. —ShadowRanger ^(talk|stalk) 18:38, 27 January 2010 (UTC)

In several years this error never happened before, could this be a sign of some sort of attack such as a buffer overflow exploit - I fail to see how - but I know nothing..87.102.67.84 (talk) 18:17, 27 January 2010 (UTC)

Unlikely. Usually it's a bug in the code (some edge condition that isn't hit often), or a minor memory error (even good memory flips a bit every once in a while, and if it's less than perfect, or the power fluctuated, or any of a million other things went wrong, you might get a corrupted address. If it is a virus, it didn't get in via your sound driver; they don't maintain network connections. It's possible a virus affected the functionality of other executables, but unless you have other reasons to suspect a virus, it's probably just an unimportant blip. —ShadowRanger ^(talk|stalk) 18:38, 27 January 2010 (UTC)

Thanks.

Resolved

87.102.67.84 (talk) 22:10, 27 January 2010 (UTC)

hellos

Whats the difference between 3g and 3g+ in laymans terms. I understand both are 3rd generation speeds. I think that 3g is for gsm and 3g+ is for cdma. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 212.49.88.34 (talk) 21:13, 27 January 2010 (UTC)

This page says it's 3G with High-Speed Downlink Packet Access. As the box at the bottom of 3G shows, terms like "3G+" and "3.75G" are marketing terms that vaguely roughly sorta relate to actual collections of technology. -- Finlay McWalter • Talk 22:01, 27 January 2010 (UTC)

related question

As long as we're on the subject ... is the "G-level" more of a hardware thing, or a software thing? By this, I think I mean:

• It's a hardware feature if it consists primarily of infrastructure, wiring, etc, upgrades, which in turn allow faster communication speed and/or data bandwith. If this is the case, an older handset could run on the newer network, could likely see better performance for existing applications (but obviously wouldn't have and be able to use the newer applications).
• It's primarily a software thing, if the difference between nG and n+1G (or n+0.5G) is mostly new protocols and support for additional applications, yes? If this is the case, I don't know what to expect for interoperability.

So, which is it? How far off base am I :-) DaHorsesMouth (talk) 00:27, 28 January 2010 (UTC)

is there a single enterprise user of windows 3.1? (in a vm of course)

Is there a single enterprise anywhere in the world using windows 3.1 in a VM, to accomplish anything? As for why, I imagine MAYBE they lost the source, but the program is very proprietary and impossible to reproduce and for some reason won't run under a win32 subsystem... Anything like that 'in the wild', anywhere in any enterprise anywhere in the world? 82.113.121.204 (talk) 21:33, 27 January 2010 (UTC)

Until about three years ago I worked for a company that made banking (epos) computer equipment. We were contractually obligated to keep a working development environment for anything we'd sold that our customers still had deployed. The toolchain for one of these wouldn't run on anything better than windows 3.1 (toolchains for embedded systems are often scary junk, and this was more so than most). For a long time I had a physical win3.1 machine which I would fire up whenever they asked for changes (which in practice was about once a year); when it started making odd noises I switched it to a VM. There wasn't enough ongoing revenue to justify figuring out a modern toolchain for the thing, so we lived with the antique. It was still there when I left; as far as I know they still use it when they need to. Hmm, it may strictly have been W4W3.11 but that's just 3.1 with knobs on. I don't doubt that, for much this reason, there aren't quite a number of these type arrangements going around. -- Finlay McWalter • Talk 21:47, 27 January 2010 (UTC)

Right; as the original poster is saying, if you have spent US$1 billion on a software system that's sufficiently complex, you don't muck with it by upgrading or improving any part of the system. It works! Don't touch it! One proof of an old system from a while back was when the radar system at Los Angeles International Airport completely went down, because of a bug in the version of Windows used by some component of their radar system (Windows 3.1? Windows 95?) that caused Windows to dependably crash every 34 days, or thereabouts, when some timer overflowed. This was a known bug in the OS. The airport knew about this bug, and their workaround was, rather than spend a ton of money fixing the bug and then re-obtaining whatever FAA re-certification was necessary, to hire a guy to physically drive over and reboot the machine every month in order to reset the timer to 0. The trouble occurred when he screwed up and didn't follow his checklist. Personally, for what it's worth, I totally endorse this saving of money by using a low tech solution that's proven 100% effective (when you follow your damn checklists every day) rather than using a super-expensive higher-tech solution. The Russians and the purported space pencil, and all that. (Links to stories about the LAX story are appreciated — I'm having trouble googling anything about this, probably because I've got one major fact wrong.) Comet Tuttle (talk) 22:08, 27 January 2010 (UTC)

The space pen[cil] story. --Tardis (talk) 22:24, 27 January 2010 (UTC)

I don't know about enterprise, but my friend used to (and I think still does) run a website on win 3.1 for shits and giggles. I think he had the entire thing, including the OS on one floppy disk! —Preceding unsigned comment added by 82.43.91.83 (talk) 23:00, 27 January 2010 (UTC)

About 15 years ago I worked for a while in the UK on a machine called the "Venturer" - a small fairground-type ride [6] involving a machine the size of a small bus being bounced around on hydraulic jacks with up to 14 people inside watching thrill ride movies that synced up to the motion of the cab. The company brought me in to rewrite their software. It turned out that this was because the existing software was written in WBASIC for an 8088 PC running DOS - and all of the super-critical hydraulic valve timing was done with "FOR I = 1 TO 537 DO X=X+1" 'timing loops' (Eeeekkk!). Because the original programmer had long ago left the company - and running the software on anything other than an 8088 PC shortened the time the loop took to execute and caused literal hydraulic overpressure explosions - they were kinda desperate! They were selling these machines at a rate of a couple a month - but the number they could sell was limited by their ability to find and refurbish ancient used 8088 computers (it was more than 10 years after the last time you could buy new ones). Finally they were resorting to going to "car boot sales" (think "yard sale") to find machines with 8088 CPU's! My job was to rewrite the software in C++ with proper interval timers and interrupts and all that good stuff so it could be run on a modern PC with any clock rate. Scarey stuff - there was about ten thousand lines of undocumented BASIC with single letter variables and NO comments at all. There were a dozen or so different movies - each with different motion - and each movie had a slightly different BASIC program with all of the motion information packed into "DATA" statements at the end of the code. In the end, redoing it was very satisfying work - it bothered me a lot to know that there were machines like this out in the world with the safety of a dozen riders being handled by such appalling software on ancient hardware that had been bought by people scouring yard sales for the oldest possible used PC's! SteveBaker (talk) 06:25, 29 January 2010 (UTC)

Toolchain

Resolved

In respect to the immediately preceding question, could the term 'Toolchain' be explained please? --220.101.28.25 (talk) 21:58, 27 January 2010 (UTC)

Preprocessor, compiler, assembler, linker, locator, Rom image generator, eprom burner software. -- Finlay McWalter • Talk 22:02, 27 January 2010 (UTC)

That is, all the software you need to turn a BCPL or C or ASM or whatever program into a binary image loaded on a memory chip. -- Finlay McWalter • Talk 22:03, 27 January 2010 (UTC)

Tool chain means any series of pieces of software used on some data before the data is touched by your main application. In video games, an artist might use two or three Autodesk software applications to model and texture and animate a monster, and then some proprietary scripts are run in order to massage the data, and then another proprietary application is run to do some animation compression, and then another little application flips around all the data because the byte order needs to be the other way, and then finally the data is ready to be placed on disc with the game application. All those little programs along the way are the "tool chain". Comet Tuttle (talk) 22:17, 27 January 2010 (UTC)

Thanks very much. I have never heard that terminology. I'm into IT but I'm not a programmer. I consider the question Resolved. But if anyone has any added comment, go for it. 220.101.28.25 (talk) 22:37, 27 January 2010 (UTC)

Apple Time Capsule

I am trying to set up an Apple Time Capsule to work with my MacBook Pro but am so far having no luck. Could someone help me out? I've been told to "connect the time capsule to your mac with an ethernet cable and then run airport utility". So, I connected the TC to the internet via one ethernet cable, the MacBook to the TC via another and then ran AirPort Utility but no luck. It detects and AirPort device, just not the one that belongs to me. Does anyone have any suggestions? Thanks 131.111.247.136 (talk) 22:13, 27 January 2010 (UTC)

When you buy software on the internet.....

....how is it delivered to customers? As far as I'm aware all the professional sites direct you to a url that seems to be automatically generated by the server or something... I would like to sell my own downloadable products but I can't find a secure way to deliver the goods, if I just linked to them on the thank you for ordering page couldn't anybody just go to that page and download the product even if they hadn't bought it? 92.27.148.18 (talk) 23:43, 27 January 2010 (UTC)

If your software is small enough, why not just email it to your customers? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 82.43.91.83 (talk) 00:00, 28 January 2010 (UTC)

It's too large to be emailed unfortunately otherwise I would. 92.27.148.18 (talk) 00:04, 28 January 2010 (UTC)

In the absense of a proper answer (I can't think of the wikipedia page for this) here are a few options

• Give the customer a user name and password - obviously if they share their password anyone can download the stuff - but you can monitor or limit downloads
• Link the download (or even usage) to a specific computer or computers - or require them to 'log in' before they use the software - these methods are all collectively called Digital rights management or DRM.

Quite a lot of sites use the first method, and rely on trust.. or only allow a single download. Did you want methods of acchieving the second way - or would a login/password be enough?87.102.67.84 (talk) 00:25, 28 January 2010 (UTC)

Why not create a password-protected self-extracting zip file that your customers can download from your website? You can then e-mail the password on payment. If your customers are likely to post the password on the internet, then you could change the password daily and ask prospective customers their date of download. If you need higher security, then you will need to build into your software something along the lines of a unique installation code for each customer which is checked against your database, or a routine for identifying the machine on which it is running and checking this each time the software is run, or any similar restrictive routine. How paranoid are you about your customers cheating on you? Dbfirs 00:19, 28 January 2010 (UTC)

I'd really like to have a secure page for the download to take place after purchase I don't mind paying for this little bit of extra security but I wouldn't even know where to start in regards to a secure page that has its URL automatically generated. 92.27.148.18 (talk) 00:29, 28 January 2010 (UTC)

I searched "sell your own software" and found a site called payloadz.com, among several others. I am in no way recommending this site, but I'm sure at least one of those in the search results could be useful. --LarryMac | Talk 01:23, 28 January 2010 (UTC)

"Secure" in the web sense means the connection is encrypted. You don't need that—you're not worried about someone intercepting the download or data. With PHP, it would be rather trivial to make a script that generated a random URL (or a download URL with a random password) that was keyed to the transaction, would keep that functional for maybe a day or so, and would lock it to only work with the IP address that paid for it in the first place. I can't see any reason to go more overboard than that, since the real trouble with piracy will not be people sharing download addresses, but just re-uploading the file elsewhere. You need enough just to discourage opportunism, but you can't do more than that without finding a better way to secure the software itself (e.g. DRM of some sort). It is not a problem worth investing too much time/effort into because the re-uploading issue will take precedence almost immediately, in terms of difficulty for someone else to conquer, if that makes sense. You just don't want the download URL to be the weakest link in the security chain—making it the strongest link doesn't make much sense when there are far weaker ones. --Mr.98 (talk) 01:28, 28 January 2010 (UTC)

If you're looking to set up your own server, you need some ecommerce software that can handle "digital content". Like SurfShopPro or this project with the most generic name ever.(I have never used either of those products, I'm not recommending them, just offering them as examples.) However, if you don't want to set that up yourself, there are services that will do this work for you. The first one that came up on a google search was All Charge, but I know nothing about them so I'm not recommending them either. APL (talk) 01:58, 28 January 2010 (UTC)

Thanks for your help everybody. 78.146.182.215 (talk) 13:22, 28 January 2010 (UTC)

One last thought: the danger of any complicated system is that the people who just paid money for it won't be able to download it. (For example, keying the download to their IP address, as I recommended above, will work most of the time, unless the downloader is on AOL, in which case it won't.) You want your security to be just enough to deter casual piracy, but not enough to endanger irritating customers. (As the whole DRM controversy has pointed out.) It's a tricky balance, but just keep in mind that "security" is not the only consideration. --Mr.98 (talk) 13:52, 28 January 2010 (UTC)

javascript - name of behaviour type

function A() {
  if (flag==0) {
    var x=10;}
  else {
    x=x+1;}
  document.writeln(x);
  }
 \\main prog
 var x=5;
 var flag=0;
 A();
 flag=1;
 A();

I assume getting "NaN" on the second pass of the subroutine with flag=1 is defined behavoiur - however what I expected was one of two other things:

1. when flag!=0 the local variable x is not created in the function so the function uses the global variable x - thus outputs 6 (5+1)
2. or when flag!=0 the variable x is not defined to be 10, but the program store the previous local x and uses that - giving 11 as an output (I didn't expect this - but mention it for completeness)

Not actually asking for an explantion of why or how - but to ask - are there names for the types of behaviours described? - specifically 1. Also are there programming languages that give behavoiur 1 or 2 (for equivalent code) ? - (specifically narrowed to those with first class functions). Thanks.Shortfatlad (talk) 23:50, 27 January 2010 (UTC)

I don't know Javascript enough to give you a specific answer, but Doug Crockford talks at length about the weird behaviours both of javascript's == and != operator, particularly in respect to the many kinds of bottom value, and the behaviour wrt accessing non-existing variables. It's in this excellent Google Talk he gives. He also talks about a lint-like program (JSlint, I think) that he maintains, which yells at you for doing all kinds of reasonable but nevertheless wrong things in javascript. I heartily recommend the talk. -- Finlay McWalter • Talk 03:32, 28 January 2010 (UTC)

Actually I saw the talk 3 days - ago - which led me to experiment.. and thus here.. (I forgot about jslint though -I'll try that) - yes I recommend the talk too. :)

Shortfatlad (talk) 14:35, 28 January 2010 (UTC)

I know you said you didn't want an explanation of "why", but here's one anyway... Non-global variables in JavaScript always have function scope, so all the references in A() are to a local variable, because you have "var x" at least once. (For that reason the global x is not accessible within A()). When you call A() with flag==1 you get an uninitialised local x wih a value of undefined, and adding 1 to that gives NaN. AndrewWTaylor (talk) 10:50, 28 January 2010 (UTC)

Yes - function scope - as http://www.jslint.com/lint.html says in section "Scope": "In many languages, a block introduces a scope. Variables introduced in a block are not visible outside of the block. In JavaScript, blocks do not introduce a scope. There is only function-scope."

Thanks (both). Got the right search terms now - looks like I was wanting "block expressions" - which seemed to be a proposal for Javascript2.0 , not sure - anyone know if 'block scoped variables' (possibly using 'let' ala lisp/scheme) has survived into the latest proposals?Shortfatlad (talk) 14:35, 28 January 2010 (UTC)

January 28

PHP Login recommendation please?

Can someone in the know please recommend a good PHP login script for me? I don't want to roll my own because I'm still only getting my feet wet in PHP and am not confident I could produce a secure system. The Catch-22, though, is that I'm also hesitant to pick out a script from the wild because I'm not sure I'd be able to accurately appraise its security & quality... because I'm still only getting my feet wet in PHP. :-) Ideally, the script would allow for multiple levels of user privileges (basic/contributor/admin for example) and would have email confirmation/password reset ability. Failing that, I can always bolt on my own scripts for those features in the end. Thank you for any assistance you can provide! 218.25.32.210 (talk) 00:50, 28 January 2010 (UTC)

What backend do you want to use? PHP doesn't store any data. Are you going to store it in text files? Are you going to store it in MySQL? Are you going to store it in Excel spreadsheets? Do you have an LDAP server? Without knowing what you plan to do, it is hard to tell you what to do. In the end, a login script is rather straightforward. The common method is to store the user's password as a salted hash in a database. When the user logs in, you salt and hash the password they supply. If it matches what is in the database, you let them in. Use $_SESSION to store that they are logged in - as opposed to sending the password back and forth repeatedly. Anything extra is straighforward as well. Levels of security are nothing more than flags for the user in the database. A password reset will just change the hash and email a temp password to the user. -- kainaw™ 02:11, 28 January 2010 (UTC)

MySQL. 218.25.32.210 (talk) 02:33, 28 January 2010 (UTC)

Kainaw, a very simple log-in script is easy, but something that is a bit more bullet-proof, and has more features (like being able to reset the password securely), is a non-trivial endeavor, even for an experienced programmer. This is not what I would consider a "do it yourself" job unless you really didn't care if it was secure or not. --Mr.98 (talk) 22:07, 28 January 2010 (UTC)

Resetting a password is not complicated. Create a reset key. Email that to the user. User goes to reset page with reset key. If it is valid, allow the user to enter a new password. Done. Afraid people will automate the sending of reset keys just to be a pain? Add a captcha to the "I forgot my password" page and the reset page. Now they have to be humans. I do not see such a small algorithm to be complicated. -- kainaw™ 14:19, 29 January 2010 (UTC)

USB drive shrunk....

My USB drive is supposed to be 4GB... now it's only 385MB with 3.37GB of unallocated space for some reason! Windows won't let me add, delete, expand, or shrink any partitions on it either!! Why?? --76.221.146.179 (talk) 03:39, 28 January 2010 (UTC)

I've run into similar situations in the past. I think it had something to do with me deleting things off of it in Linux, and Windows not recognizing it correctly. I can't remember for sure, but whatever the case was it made absolutely no sense to me. In retrospect, Linux may have left deleted files in a hidden folder on the flashdrive... The way I got around that was formatting the flashdrive on Windows, which reset the space to the normal amount. Absolutely don't do that until you back it up, or decide that you don't care about what is on it. You will lose all the data on your flash drive in the formatting. I can't guarantee it will make any difference, but it may be worth a shot. Falconus^{p t c} 05:28, 28 January 2010 (UTC)

I think windows also keeps a "Recycle" folder on flash drives. If you have recently deleted lots of stuff, it might still be lingering on the drive. Try reconnecting it to the PC where you deleted the stuff off it, then empty the recycle folder. Astronaut (talk) 15:45, 28 January 2010 (UTC)

Backup your files then format the usb drive. Should fix the problem. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 82.43.89.14 (talk) 18:30, 28 January 2010 (UTC)

EXCEL short cut

Frenz, this is Lawrence. i need to know whether there is any short-cut key to scroll from one sheet to other in ms-excel. can anybody help me? thanks —Preceding unsigned comment added by Johndlawrence (talk • contribs) 03:46, 28 January 2010 (UTC)

CTRL+PAGEUP, or CTRL+PAGEDOWN. More here --Tagishsimon (talk) 04:34, 28 January 2010 (UTC)

Facebook question.

Hello all. I was wondering, do any of you know if it's possible for me to deactivate/remove my Facebook account and still keep the fan pages I created running normally? If I hand over control to someone else, will they still get deactivated along with my account, seeing as I'm the creator? 202.10.94.125 (talk) 04:39, 28 January 2010 (UTC)

A New Undertaking

I`d like to make a site that approximates this:

WARNING: Medical pictures that may be not safe for work, or may be unpleasant to look at - it's a medical "guess the disease" test from the "new england journal of medicine"
http://image-challenge.nejm.org/?ssource=rthome#09172009

in its structure and function.

What would be the easiest way to go about it? Should I learn Javascript? Should I learn flash? or Both?

Or should I give up? I have a basic knowledge of HTML and CSS and a bit of time on my hands!

-Cacofonie (talk) 04:40, 28 January 2010 (UTC)

Forgive me for editing your post, but I clicked your link and just had a lovely picture of a diseased penis appear on my workstation. 218.25.32.210 (talk) 05:09, 28 January 2010 (UTC)

Sounds like you were unlucky - all I saw was a slightly bruised leg..(I modified the warning)

You want to make a site that is similar in layout and style to the site you linked ? if so you need html, css, and yes javascript - that's what the site uses.87.102.67.84 (talk) 13:46, 28 January 2010 (UTC)

You need to learn a back-end scripting language (PHP, Perl, Ruby, etc...) if you want to completely mimic a site like that. -- kainaw™ 14:26, 28 January 2010 (UTC)

Ah! I`m sorry about that! I purposely picked the tamest picture so as not to bother people. I`ve modified the link to a much tamer set. I hope no-one was traumatized. All I would really want to mimic is the zoomable picture, the multiple choice questionaire, and the easy scrolling between questions. Would I need to learn PHP for that? or can I do that all with javascript (including the animated scrolling?).

--Cacofonie (talk) 14:53, 28 January 2010 (UTC)

If you attempt to do it all in JavaScript, it will be a nightmare. Doing it with a backend script (like PHP) will be very easy - assuming you know how to program. I'd also use a database (like MySQL) to make it even easier. Once you have the backend, the content is not part of the page. It is added in dynamically. So, you create the user interface with JavaScript and CSS (the scrolling and such). You will in the pictures and questions with the backend script. You can load a bunch of different picture/question sets by just changing the query for the database. -- kainaw™ 15:06, 28 January 2010 (UTC)

Here's what's going on in the page and what's responsible for it:

• The general layout and appearance: HTML structures the elements, CSS determines how they look.
• The animated bits, zooming, etc.: all Javascript
• The database of images, the recording of votes: a server-side script, like PHP, probably in conjunction with a database, like MySQL.

Now you can cut out some things if you simplify it a bit—e.g., if you are content with a less flashy site, you can drop Javascript. (It could still load up images and look similar, but you'd lose the slick effects.) You could maybe skip out on CSS, and do it all in pure HTML, though the idea makes accomplished web designers squirm. But if you want to record votes, and have dynamically-updated content, you're going to need something like PHP. --Mr.98 (talk) 21:56, 28 January 2010 (UTC)

Strictly, you can write server-side stuff using almost any programming language - I have web pages that are generated on-the-fly in C++ for example. However, I strongly agree that this would be a hard task for anyone who is not a programmer. Step #1 in the process is to learn how to program...if you can't already do that then step #2 starts about a year later! SteveBaker (talk) 05:59, 29 January 2010 (UTC)

Safe Keylogger

Where can I download a free, safe keylogger for personal use? I want to let it run on my computer so that I can create a log of all the keystrokes I enter. Since I will not be using it maliciously or installing it on other people's computer, discretion is not important and its ok if the keylogger runs visibly in the tray or something. Acceptable (talk) 06:10, 28 January 2010 (UTC)

Family KeyLogger, found here. If I remember right, it has a limited trial period, but will continue to run with limited features past that point. It will be visible in the system tray; you will need a paid registration if you ever decide to hide it. If you like it, I would recommend purchasing it, even if you don't need the extra features, to support the company/developers. And it's a deal at only $28 USD. Hope this helps. -^Avic_ennasis @ {{subst:CURRENTTIME}}, {{subst:#time: xjj xjF xjY }} /@10:05, 29 January 2010 (UTC)

about the racing car engine

where can i get the details of a racing(F-1)car? I need to know the whole engine working in detail and in simple language —Preceding unsigned comment added by Rohit100 (talk • contribs) 09:41, 28 January 2010 (UTC)

If it's Formula 1 in particular that you're interested in, try this article. You might get a better answer to your question on one of the other reference desks, like Science, Misc or maybe even Maths. CaptainVindaloo ^{t c e} 12:43, 28 January 2010 (UTC)

A formula one car is basically a high performance version of a normal car - for the engine "internal combustion engine" try these [7] [8], for more specific details on F1 try http://www.howstuffworks.com/auto-racing/motorsports/formula-one.htm 87.102.67.84 (talk) 16:51, 28 January 2010 (UTC)

bash filenames and redirecting output

If i run a bash script say, Script [Some Options] Input > Output, is there some way for me to make Output=Input.txt, without me having to know what the input name is, for instance i might want to run sort -un *.dat > (Whatever the *.dat matched to).sort , where the output has been piped to a file named like the input was named but with a suffix at the end (or any other string manipulation i may want to do), Thanks --137.205.124.72 (talk) 14:19, 28 January 2010 (UTC)

What would you want it to do if there were more than one .dat file present? You can sort each such file separately with

for t in *.dat; do sort -un "$t" >"${t%dat}sort"; done

(and that would work fine if there were exactly one). The quotes are to handle file names with spaces etc. There are several modifiers like % that you can use on a variable's value: %#/ are the most useful. --Tardis (talk) 16:20, 28 January 2010 (UTC)

Google Earth

How often does the radar update? Or how do I get it to update?Accdude92 (talk to me!) 16:52, 28 January 2010 (UTC)

If you mean the terrain altitude (relief) information, I believe that all comes from the Shuttle Radar Topography Mission, which is over. So I don't know if they ever update the radar info, other perhaps than fix bugs or plug obvious gaps ion the dataset. -- Finlay McWalter • Talk 17:43, 28 January 2010 (UTC)

No, there is a weather layer, and a subgroup "radar"Accdude92 (talk to me!) 17:45, 28 January 2010 (UTC)

On my copy, it says that it is updated every 5-6 minutes. (Click on Weather -> Information) Titoxd^{(?!? - cool stuff)} 10:35, 29 January 2010 (UTC)

TrueCrypt Recovery Disk

I wish to use TrueCrypt on a system partition. The program requires that a "recovery cd" be made, however the computer I wish to encrypt does not have a cd drive. The recovery disk isn't necessary, it's just a backup, yet the program simply will not continue unless one is made. How can I bypass this step? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 82.43.89.14 (talk) 18:29, 28 January 2010 (UTC)

With the "official" installation, basically you can't bypass it because it's a failsafe. You would need to either plug in a USB optical CDROM drive or download the source code and modify and recompile it not to require the check. Using the USB CDROM method would be the best idea though (you can burn the iso image on another computer, but it needs to be able to "read" it on your computer) and the recovery disk is for your own protection. You say it's not necessary, but it's there in case you ever have a problem with it and using the recovery CD you'll be able to unencrypt the drive (assuming you know the password still). Without that recovery CD, in the event of a problem, there's literally nothing you can do to get the data back. ZX81 ^talk 19:06, 28 January 2010 (UTC)

Won't work, each disk is different. You can't use another computers recovery disk, the headers and password hash will be different

Mounting the ISO file using a virtual CD mounting tool will fool TrueCrypt, I think. If you don't burn a recovery CD right away, you should at least keep the ISO file in a safe place where you will be able to burn a copy if you ever do need it. (The encrypted partition is not a safe place, needless to say.) -- BenRG (talk) 08:03, 29 January 2010 (UTC)

What ISO file?

Threat detected and quarantined but site in history

I got a pop-up message from Norton saying it had found and removed a threat. I think the word "quarantined" may have been used. When I looked at the Norton security history I found a series of numbers and letters which I also found when I went to my history to look for a site I had gone to. I never intentionally went to Google-Analytics and yet there it was. Never have I found any site in the history that I didn't go to by clicking on a link or typing where I type the URL. And at home I'm careful where I go. I'm not at home now. By the way, I deleted the history just as a precaution, though by tomorrow the history would have been gone anyway.

What should I tell Google?Vchimpanzee · talk · contributions · 18:36, 28 January 2010 (UTC)

Google Analytics is a web statistics tracking tool. Anyone can embed a GA tracker into their website so that when you go to their website you ALSO connect to the GA server so that they can count the hits, collect data for traffic pattern graphs, etc.

It's perfectly harmless unless you're more than normally worried about privacy. APL (talk) 18:46, 28 January 2010 (UTC)

Well, Norton considered it a threat and I had a false alarm when a company told me I had viruses and demanded I download their software, so these days I'm overly sensitive.Vchimpanzee · talk · contributions · 18:58, 28 January 2010 (UTC)

By the way, those alerts that pop up while web surfing which claim "YOU HAVE A VIRUS! DOWNLOAD OUR SOFTWARE IMMEDIATELY TO CLEAN YOUR COMPUTER!" are all fake, and install malware, or at least install difficult-to-uninstall ad-vomiting software. You can safely ignore them all. Comet Tuttle (talk) 19:23, 28 January 2010 (UTC)

User:Comet Tuttle is referring to WinFixer like pop-ups. Although WinFixer was shut down a little over a year ago, others are still lurking. PCHS-NJROTC ^(Messages) 23:48, 28 January 2010 (UTC)

Wierd attempts to access port 44281

I noticed today that a DSL IP from Mexico has been trying to access port 44281 on my network, and I'm kind of puzzled why. I'm guessing it's a virus, but why after it continues to fail? Anyone hear of any viruses that behave in this way? I've already contacted the abuse contact for the IP. PCHS-NJROTC ^(Messages) 23:33, 28 January 2010 (UTC)

It may be part of a botnet trying to contact a zombie, or a zombie trying to contact its master. Either way, assuming you're not infected (and the issue is caused because some previous user of your IP address) then there's nothing to worry about. Or it might be a peer-to-peer filesharing program (which occasionally run on weird ports, in part to try to evade blocking) which again is trying to connect to another p2p client which was run by some former user of your IP. Either way, it's probably nothing to worry about. 87.112.52.108 (talk) 23:42, 28 January 2010 (UTC)

I figured it's botnet, I'm just curious which one. I over 50 attempts a week at NAT level, usually coming from residential IPs around the world, but I rarely see any given IP keep trying besides those annoying port 445 attempts on my own CIDR range. PCHS-NJROTC ^(Messages) 23:52, 28 January 2010 (UTC)

January 29

micro-SIM

It looks like that any 3-year-old can use a pair of scissors to make a micro SIM card from an ordinary SIM card.

http://apcmag.com/images/micro-sim.jpg

Do they put the electric circuits under the "fingers"? -- Toytoy (talk) 01:18, 29 January 2010 (UTC)

As you can see in this photo - the actual circuit is a really tiny bit of silicon. It's about the size of the central contact patch on the smart card. SteveBaker (talk) 05:53, 29 January 2010 (UTC)

Regular expression - write n at nth match

Is there a way to use sed in order to replace the n-th match of a pattern with the number n? E.g. if the pattern is "xyz" and the file's content is "abcabcxyzuioxyzasdf" then the output should be "abcabc0uio1asdf". Thanks in advance. Icek (talk) 06:09, 29 January 2010 (UTC)

sed is Turing-complete, so it can be done, but not easily, I think. For what it's worth, you can do it in Perl like this: perl -pe 'BEGIN{$n=0} s/xyz/$n++/eg' -- BenRG (talk) 08:18, 29 January 2010 (UTC)

I don't know how you could replace a match with an arbitrary string using only POSIX regex. Using a programing language of course would work, but I don't think it's possible with a typical regex alone. There may be some work around I don't know about in either of those, but if there is I don't know it if it's part of the general spec. Keep in mind that sed and grep use a better (as in more efficient) regex engine when it comes to non-recursive patterns than does perl and nearly every other reg ex out there. Shadowjams (talk) 11:58, 29 January 2010 (UTC)

Where to get a capture card?

Any of you gamers out there making videos with capture cards or what not, could you text me back and tell me where you can get a capture card? Can you get them in Australia? Originally posted in article namespace by Jyejonah (talk) 10:21, 29 January 2010 (UTC)

Laptop Problem

If I put my laptop on hibernate after connection to the WiFi in my college, when I return home I can't connect to my home network without a reboot. Getting DNS problem and also it says something about keyports. My usual solution is to sign into MSN and use the inbuilt repair with MSN to connect. But it is getting to be a pain now any suggestions? Thanks. BigDunc 11:28, 29 January 2010 (UTC)

Cyberarticle 4.364

Does anyone know where I can get this last-freeware-version without using Torrent please? All the sites I can find that may host it also appear to be in Chinese or Japanese. I am looking for 4.364, not 4.363. Thanks 78.149.174.141 (talk) 12:39, 29 January 2010 (UTC)

Why not use BitTorrent? Get a copy of uTorrent or similar, and download it that way. Dedicated servers aren't cheap, not everything gets hosted in perpetuity. —ShadowRanger ^(talk|stalk) 15:02, 29 January 2010 (UTC)

Screensaver or program showing progression of night and day across the atlas

Where can I find one of these please? Similar things I've seen before show a world map which is light where daylight is, and dark where night is. The dark/light border is like a "S" shaped wave. 78.149.174.141 (talk) 12:43, 29 January 2010 (UTC)

Pick one. --LarryMac | Talk 14:37, 29 January 2010 (UTC)

Just providing a link to Google is not a helpful answer to the question, nor is it clever. I should have added that I'm looking for a freeware one. 78.149.174.141 (talk) 14:56, 29 January 2010 (UTC)

(ec)The link in his response lists several such screensavers in the first few lines. How exactly is that not helpful? Do you expect someone to test and evaluate each of them for you? —ShadowRanger ^(talk|stalk) 14:58, 29 January 2010 (UTC)

Following up based on your addition to your comment: Several of the links are shareware, which is better than nothing. Sometimes you have to pay for software you like though; someone does have to write it after all. —ShadowRanger ^(talk|stalk) 15:00, 29 January 2010 (UTC)

No need to be so aggressive, gentlemen. I was hoping that someone who had used one or knew of one could suggest one they were familiar with. If every question was answered with a Google link, what would be the point of this Reference Desk? If you do not want to be helpful but just macho, then let's consider this question cancelled. 78.149.174.141 (talk) 15:08, 29 January 2010 (UTC)