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July 17

Removing images from a PDF, using Adobe Acrobat Professional

Assuming that the file doesn't require a password, is it possible to remove images from non-locked PDFs with Adobe Acrobat 9 Professional? A discussion is going on at Commons:Commons talk:Licensing, section "PDF with possible unfree images", about a PDF that's marked as free but has images that may well be non-free; people are talking about deleting it because the images can't be removed, but it seems silly to delete if it's not too hard to remove the images. Nyttend (talk) 02:03, 17 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Go to Tools → Advanced Editing → TouchUp Object Tool and select the image, then hit DEL on your keyboard. You can also right-click on the toolbar and select Advanced Editing, then click on the TouchUp Object button.--Best Dog Ever (talk) 02:53, 17 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks; I was expecting the first response to be "sorry, it's not possible". Removing them was quite easy. Nyttend (talk) 10:33, 17 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

How to find current Mac OS version usage

Is there any place where I can learn what percentage of Mac users are currently using Cheetah, Puma, Tiger, Panther, Leopard, Snow Leopard... and even Mac OS 9? --68.102.163.104 (talk) 05:52, 17 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Here are the polls I've seen: [1], [2]. Nothing in the last few months, but it seems as though 10.6.x accounts for roughly 65+%, 10.5.x accounts for about 20%, and 10.4.x accounts for around 7%, with the remaining few percent tapering off on 10.3 and lower. --Ludwigs2 06:19, 17 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Sound won't stop

Just a couple of minutes ago, I accessed a site with music playing in the background, then Internet Explorer closed itself, but now the music is continuing playing! Apart from muting the computer's sound, as well as restarting the computer, how can I stop that music? jc iindyysgvxc (my contributions) 06:30, 17 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Assuming you are running a Windows computer, my first weapon would be to kill any remaining Internet Explorer processes. Hit ctrl-alt-del and launch the Windows Task Manager, then click the Processes tab, click iexplore.exe, and click the "End Process" button. Repeat until all the iexplore.exe processes have been killed. Comet Tuttle (talk) 06:48, 17 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

availability of multipurpose 'Light Emitting Diode'(LED) monitor

is there such a LED monitor available in market that can be connected to CPU,DVD player,internet, any USB and a cable network simltaneously for the respective purposes06:41, 17 July 2010 (UTC)~ —Preceding unsigned comment added by 218.248.64.129 (talk)

I'm not really sure as to what you're looking for, but yes, there are monitors out there with TV tuners built in. The CPU and DVD could function as one, I assume the internet access is meant for the computer, and the cable network could come from a DVR box hooked up to the monitor. 184.36.120.202 (talk) 07:10, 17 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

There are however few true LED monitors. Most things sold as 'LED monitors' or TVs or whatever are actually LCD monitors with LED lighting Nil Einne (talk) 11:20, 18 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Ubuntu 64-bit - Not recommended for daily desktop usage?

The Ubuntu download page advises against using the 64 bit version for daily desktop usage. My questions are (1) why?, and (2) which version would be the better choice for virtualizing Ubuntu with VirtualBox on a PC running 64 bit Windows 7? --NorwegianBlue^talk 07:13, 17 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

I'm running Ubuntu 9.04, 64-bit, on a laptop. Mostly works great. But there's a certain amount of consumer software that hasn't been completely ported. For example I have to run a beta version of Skype, and it doesn't seem to want to let me select the output sound device. There's a drop-down box for it, but only one entry in the box. So I can't use my USB headphones, which is very annoying. --Trovatore (talk) 08:06, 17 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks! --80.32.202.187 (talk) 11:48, 18 July 2010 (UTC) (NorwegianBlue, not logged in)[reply]

Weird computer flying shadows after Windows update

I did a Windows update yesterday on my XP computer and when I turned it on this morning it displays weird behaviour. Unfortunately I also installed a Java update, a Flash player update, and an Adobe security patch, so not too clear what is responsible for the problem. It was working OK after I did all this yesterday. 1) When I put the cursor over any icon on the desktop, a dark blue 'shadow' of the icon and its text flies off to the right. 2) When running programs such as Ccleaner, the buttons do not function. What might be the cause please? How can I fix it? Thanks 92.29.114.16 (talk) 08:57, 17 July 2010 (UTC) Update: After writing the above post, the computer behaved normally again. Perhaps something was protesting thast it needed time after start-up to do whatever it had to do. I'd be interested to know what it was. Thanks 92.29.114.16 (talk) 09:06, 17 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

I recommend you do a virus scan on your computer, as it could be malware. A p3rson ‽ 02:35, 22 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Google Street View

I use Google Street View in the UK. What is the significance of the yellow line that is sometimes displayed in place of the white line? The views are shown as a series of panoramas at regularly spaced positions along the street. Is it possible to get Street View to display the view in between these positions? Is it possible to save an image to HD? Is it possible to drive or cruise along the street without needing to keep clicking the arrows? I recall a freeware program that allowed this, have not been able to find it aghain. Thanks 92.29.114.16 (talk) 12:14, 17 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Which yellow line, do you mean double yellow lines? If near the kerb in the UK, they mean no parking. If in the middle of the road in the USA, they mean no overtaking. The single yellow line near the kerb in the UK indicates a restriction on parking.

I haven't succeded in getting Street View to show an intermediate image. As I understand it, a Google car drives down the street taking still photos at fixed intervals - intermediate images simply do not exist. Images can be saved by pressing print-screen at any time. An image editor can be used to manipulate the image as you wish. However, the resolution in which the image is saved is dependant on your screen resolution. Astronaut (talk) 20:18, 17 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

No I do not mean road markings, but the line that Google shows over the image. 92.24.178.184 (talk) 08:59, 18 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

My logical deducation is Street View is just following Google Maps in the line colour. A quick test suggests this is correct, as when the lines show as yellow on Google Maps, they show as yellow on Google Street View, when white on the map they show as white on Street View. As to what the actual difference between yellow and white is, my logical deducation is they mean what they mean in most maps (Google or otherwise) yellow being some form of highway/motorway, white being a more ordinary road. Again a quick look at Maps shows my deducation appears born out by what's being shown. There may also be a legend somewhat which will say the same thing or you can look at the map yourself and see Nil Einne (talk) 23:43, 18 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

sequential numbers

I need a program that can make a list of urls with sequential numbers at the end. For example, if I wanted everything from http://example.com/page1 to http://example.com/page50390000 I've been using a javascript snippet someone here posted a few weeks ago, but it does not work for very large (5000+) numbers. 82.43.90.93 (talk) 13:45, 17 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

can you link or copy the script you're using so that we can modify it? --Ludwigs2 15:33, 17 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Here, but I'm unsure if using my browser to to this task is wise for very large numbers of links. I'd prefer a stand-alone program if possible 82.43.90.93 (talk) 15:43, 17 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

well, then we'd need to know what platform you're working on (unless you want something written in PHP, and have PHP enabled on your system). --Ludwigs2 16:38, 17 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Windows 7 82.43.90.93 (talk) 17:56, 17 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

well, it's for someone else, then - not something I work with. --Ludwigs2 18:05, 17 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Why not just do it in Excel? Set cell A1 to 1. Then set cell B1 to: ="<a href=""http://example.com/page" & A1 & """>http://example.com/page" & A1 & "</a><br>" Now just set A2 to: =A1+1 . Then copy and paste A2 to as many you'd like (it'll auto-update the reference), and copy B2 down the column as well. If you want to start with a number larger than 1 (because I think Excel can only have 32,000 rows or so), just change A1 to be whatever you want to start with (e.g. 5000). If you copy all of B2 and paste it into a text editor, it'll just output as a list of HTML links. If you want the output formattedly differently, just modify B1 and re-copy. This is how I'd do it, anyway—easier than scripting. --Mr.98 (talk) 19:03, 17 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

I don't have Excel on my computer. 82.43.90.93 (talk) 19:17, 17 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

You could do it in OpenOffice Calc, as a free alternative. --Mr.98 (talk) 20:47, 17 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Powershell is standard on Windows 7, isn't it? (I only have Vista and XP boxes handy.) If so, then 1..50390000 | foreach { echo http://example.com/page$_ } should do it. —Korath (Talk) 19:25, 17 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

OT but yes Powershell 2.0 is installed/available by default on Windows 7 although I'm not sure if that applies to all version e.g. Windows 7 Starter. Nil Einne (talk)

The Javascript you linked does work with large numbers, but it has a hardcoded limit of 1000 URLs (to − from ≤ 999). You can search for "999" in the code and add some more nines to increase that limit, but you will probably crash your browser if you try to list 50,390,000 URLs at once. -- BenRG (talk) 22:00, 17 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Windows 7 start menu + hovering

This is a bit complicated to explain, but on Windows 7, whenever you hover over the name of a programme in the start-menu, a list of recently-opened-files-with-that-programme pops up to the right. This all worked absolutely fine for me until within the last day or so, when Microsoft Word 2007 completely stopped responding to this. Every other piece of software is OK, but Word has stopped. Any clues? (Diagram here if it helps...) Thanks! ╟─Treasury Tag►directorate─╢ 07:25, 18 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

I know what you're talking about but have never had this problem. You could try unpinning Word 2007 from the taskbar or startmenu if it's pinned and removing Word 2007 from the recent list (right click) although I doubt that will help. I'm guessing clicking on the arrow doesn't work either? Does the shortcut still work i.e. you can open Word 2007 with it? Nil Einne (talk) 02:45, 20 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Scam using Logmein123

I got phone call other day from indian gent telling me my computer was infected and I had to go to logmein123 website. When he asked me to put in pass word I refused and hung up. What is this scam? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 88.104.91.109 (talk) 22:30, 17 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Can you expand on your question? It's a scam - not sure what else could be said? --mboverload @ 22:32, 17 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Nothing about it on WP.--88.104.91.109 (talk) 23:23, 17 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Well, no, but there aren't articles on thousands of other scams that are out there either. They have to be notable for inclusion here. Perhaps there's something at Snopes. Dismas|^(talk) 05:43, 18 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Essentially, you log into the site and you're prompted to install an ActiveX control that allows the remote technician to take control of your computer. I've seen it used by legitimate technicians for troubleshooting, but it can obviously be misused, as in this case.--Best Dog Ever (talk) 05:48, 18 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

This scam is to earn money from people in the UK, US and Australia. They operate from India. DO NOT in any cases listen to them. They will scam money from you, telling you're computer will get infected without installing some expensive software. Here's the article: [3] Sir Stupidity (talk) 00:02, 19 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

July 18

Finding things on my cluttered desktop

I wanted to know if there was an easy way to find things on my very cluttered desktop. I am not looking for advice telling me to clean it up. I like having my files there and I hate when I download things and they go somewhere in my C drive and I have to hunt for them. I clean it pretty regularly of junk, but there' still many files. What I wanted to know is if there is maybe an equivalent of the find function you can use in your browser, just hit ctrl+F enter in some desk and it highlights what you're looking for lickety-split. The search your computer function is no equivalent. Oh, I guess I should mention: Dell PC running windows XP. Thanks.--162.83.139.249 (talk) 02:01, 18 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Sure. Click on "Start", "Search". This should bring up the dialog with the stupid dog. Click "All files or folders". There's a drop-down labeled "Look In" there's an item marked "Desktop". Choose it and use the search dialog like normal.

The other option is to click on the desktop and just start typing the filename. It will select the first/best match as you type. It does this by literally matching the first few letters in the filename, so you have to know that filename exactly. (And if you're looking for "My absolute favorite cat photograph 00003.jpg" but not "My absolute favorite cat photograph 00002.jpg" this method would be pretty tedious.)

Finally, you can browse the desktop like any other folder. Which can be handy if you're looking for the largest file by filesize, or the newest. Or if you simply want to see a list in alphabetical order. APL (talk) 05:36, 18 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Aha! I just tried that click on the desktop and start typing—that works great. By the way, I don't think you read my message to the end. I specifically discounted using the computer's search function as not what I was looking for.--162.83.139.249 (talk) 07:46, 18 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Are you aware of the technique where you click on an empty area of your desktop and start typing, and it'll highlight the file whose name you are typing? Sorry to suggest something so basic but from your original post it sounds like you may not know about this. Comet Tuttle (talk) 17:35, 18 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

You could also install a cool software utility called Pitaschio (Google it) which, amongst it's very many handy features, allows you to shrink your desktop icons to "list" view size, which should eliminate your desktop clutter problems at once. I find it invaluable. Zunaid 18:55, 18 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

You can also create folders on your desktop - this may help organise things to make it easier to find them. Mitch Ames (talk) 13:30, 19 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

... or, even better, create shortcuts on your desktop to folders stored elsewhere. There is a slightly increased risk of loss, and a possible slowing of startup if you save files on the desktop. Dbfirs 21:35, 19 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

HP C309g-m Photosmart Printer Network

Hello. I usually leave my printer on all day so I do not lose my network settings for my computers that are networked wirelessly. My computers are networked through a modem equipped with a router. Even if I do turn off my printer, it takes a long time for the printer and computer to register to the network. During this waiting time, I cannot print, scan or copy. Is there anything that I can do about this? Thank you very much in advance. --Mayfare (talk) 02:05, 18 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Give your printer a static IP address instead of using DHCP. Most routers allow IP addresses from 1 to 99 to be used statically. For example, 192.168.1.10 is a static IP address. 192.168.1.123 is one of the DHCP served IP addresses. Once you program the printer to use a static IP address, set the computers to use that IP address, not a domain name. They won't have to wait for DHCP resolution to trickle through the network. -- kainaw ™ 02:26, 18 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Actually, keep the final number in the IP address between 2 and 31 (1 is often used by the router). The subnet mask would be 255.255.255.0. PleaseStand ^(talk) 12:31, 18 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

I am using Firefox version 3.0.18 on Windows XP. Lately, I have been noticing weird things: first, when I would exit, I would occasionally get a popup asking if I wanted to save before exiting, which I only used to get if I forgot that I had an extra window open; however, I only had the one window open. Second, I would get a popup saying you have chosen to open "blank.php" from infomoneyservice.com . I had never heard of this website and have never gone there, to my knowledge. Third, the most recent thing I discovered, is that this is somehow related to Google -- not necessarily that it is on Google's servers (but who knows?), but certainly it is at least targeting it. I found that a consistent, reproducible technique to see this funny business is: 1) Start up Firefox; 2) Go to google.com (whether by using the bookmark that has been there for years, or by typing it in directly); 3) Click on the History menu and voila! there are all sorts of references to infomoneyservice.com in the history! It seems to be going there by itself (with invisible windows?)! I haven't seen this happen with any other website so far. It must be caused either by some malware on my system, or could it possibly be a malicious script on Google's end?!? It seems to be script-related because I have the NoScript extension; I had had google.com as a trusted site (as I do wikipedia.org) because it is used so much (search, maps), but after I discovered the above technique to reproduce the problem, I removed google.com as trusted, redid the technique, and it stopped happening!

Troubling footnote that mean nothing, or maybe not: I did a search on Google for "infomoneyservice" and didn't find anything notable. Searching for it on bing.com though, and I find an entry that seems to indicate someone else having the same problem (on bleepingcomputer.com)! I hope results aren't somehow being scrubbed from Google by this thing...

Anyone have more info on this? TresÁrboles (talk) 06:51, 18 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

It seems to do with malware. I searched google for the site, and it looked suspicious. So don't go to any banking website etc and clean your system with Malwarebytes anti malware, and if it still plays up, sometimes a Spyboy SD botcheck can resolve it. Or you can refer to the Wikipedia Virus help page(may someone add the internal link?) Sir Stupidity (talk) 08:01, 18 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

As was written above: I currently favour Avast! as the resident antivirus. There are other things you can have also such as Ccleaner and SpywareBlaster. Good malware on-demand scanners are Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware, Superantispyware, and Spybot – Search & Destroy. The so-called antivirus FAQ is just someones idiosyncratic and inappropriate approach to dealing with them and should be deleted in my opinion. 92.24.178.184 (talk) 09:10, 18 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Well, if our virus FAQ is so inappropriate, why don't you improve the section about removing malware in place? It's an important approach that is favored by most people, and the section needs expanding. The problem is of course that you can never be sure that you removed every scrap of virus from your system. If you're comfortable with knowing it's likely that you removed the malware, then using all the above is perfectly appropriate. Comet Tuttle (talk) 17:34, 18 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Once a machine is compromised it's pretty impossible to assure it's security ever again in the future. That's why companies just reimage the whole thing instead of trying to fix it. I LOVE fixing viruses. It's the best part of my job. But if a computer is in a company building and not in the field then it's getting reimaged. I am expanding the article to include further removal steps. --mboverload @ 20:30, 18 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks for the replies. I was hoping for more info on the Google angle though. By the way, I did run both Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware and Avira AntiVir Personal (both free versions), and they said the system was clean, so they are obviously missing this... unless of course, the thing is indeed solely a script hosted on Google. P.S. I think I saw another fishy site pop up: secure-google.com . Looking at domain info from iwhois.com (for example) leads me to think it's not really from Google, Inc. (I wanted to send an e-mail to Google to ask them directly about these issues, but had no luck finding their e-mail address.) TresÁrboles (talk) 07:11, 20 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Some types of malware will specifically intercept and redirect addresses such as google.com. I would either follow the steps in the one thread on bleepingcomputer or start your own on that or one of the other malware help desk forums out there. --LarryMac | Talk 12:37, 20 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

I second Bleeping Computer. They're true experts. --mboverload @ 01:12, 21 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Laptop scroll

Hi. Often I accidentally press a certain combination of keys on my laptop computer, and the screen ends up scrolling to the top of bottom endlessly, and I have to close the window and log out to fix the problem. Any ideas on what causes this, and how to fix it without having to close the window? Also, which keys or buttons set forth this effect? Thanks. ~A H 1^(TCU) 16:57, 18 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Are you sure it's keys and you're not hitting the touchpad? Dell has some pretty stupid touchpad settings out of the box. Which OS are you using? --mboverload @ 00:04, 19 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

It could be a combination of the touchpad and the keyboard mousekeys and/or some other key. The laptop is a Lenovo, on Windows Vista. ~A H 1^(TCU) 19:38, 19 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Lenovo has extremely in-depth Touchpad settings. Have you looked through all the settings in their software? I think it's called UltraNav. --mboverload @ 06:47, 20 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

java - pass command to OS then return

I know this is absolutely not the point of java, but, is there a way in java to pass a command (eg as a string) to the OS, and have java capture it's return value or string eg a=system.notjava("dir c:/home") or a=system.notjava("notepad.exe") 77.86.59.77 (talk) 17:00, 18 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Use java.lang.Runtime.exec(), which yields a java.lang.Process instance by which you communicate with and control the invoked subprocess. -- Finlay McWalter • Talk 22:21, 18 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks, I wasn't expecting such a thing to exist.77.86.59.77 (talk) 13:14, 19 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Headphones

When I plug headphones into my computer, the speakers stop producing sound. I would like sound from the headphones and speakers at the same time. How can I do this? The computer is Windows 7 82.43.90.93 (talk) 18:06, 18 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

The only obvious way I can think of to do it is to get a headphone splitter, and just run both your speakers and the headphones out of the same jack. You would only be able to differentiate the volumes by means of hardware (e.g. volume tuners on the headphones and speakers), because you wouldn't be able to change the software volume output independently. --Mr.98 (talk) 19:09, 18 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

If your speakers are inside the computer case, then they are being disconnected by insertion of the headphone jack. It is easy to short out this at the jack socket, but you should be aware of a possible affect on warranty, and a possible (though not likely) overload of the sound output amplifier. Dbfirs 12:05, 19 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Whether the speakers are internal or external is irrelevant - the front headphone jack includes a switch that disconnects the speakers or the rear speaker jack. Roger (talk) 12:41, 19 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

This is not always a hard switch. On some computers the switch merely notifies the sound drivers and turning off the speakers is done in software.

The Creative drivers' control panel has a reasonably obvious switch for this, if I recall correctly. I had to turn that off on my desktop after a headphone plug broke off in the socket! APL (talk) 16:15, 19 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

For a Realtek HD Audio chip using the Realtek driver, common on newer motherboards (so you probably have it): right-click on orange loudspeaker icon in system tray (may need to click arrow to expand tray). Select "Sound Manager". Click on the folder icon that is below "Device advanced settings" (which is for the "Connector Settings" window). Check the box "Disable front panel jack detection", which causes both outputs to work simultaneously, playing the same audio. As a side note, the Realtek control panel is interesting; the actual "Device advanced settings" window actually allows both output jacks to function as separate output devices to Windows. PleaseStand ^(talk) 22:09, 19 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Yes the new HD device with audio jacks designed for HD jacks work fairly different from the older PC 97 or whatever ones which did what the earlier respondeds described (cut off the connection to the other audio jacks when you plug in something). They basically have a switch so when you plug something in it activates the switch (i.e. allows current to flow), this is detected by the motherboard or audio chip and the drivers can do whatever they want. A simple way to know if you have this is to open the audio control panel (Windows or audio chip manufacturer) and if it detects/tells you when something is plugged in you obviously do. Note that if you do have this you can actually usually use the 'mic' and 'earphone' jacks as seperate jacks for either mic or earphones or whatver and have multiple outputs as described above, since the jacks aren't actually any different. Nil Einne (talk) 02:37, 20 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

July 19

GNU Octave Commands in Octave 3.2.4

Hey, I'm running GNU Octave 3.2.4 in Windows 7 and I was able to get these commands to plot correctly before (when broken up):

x=linspace(-10,10,100);

y=2*abs((0.5*x))/(0.5*x)*(abs(5*(2*abs((1/5*0.5*(0.5*x)-0.5)-2*floor((1/5*0.5*(0.5*x)-0.5)/2)-1)-1)*abs((5-abs((0.5*x))%(2*5))))
-abs((5*(2*abs((1/5*0.5*(0.5*x)-0.5)-2*floor((1/5*0.5*(0.5*x)-0.5)/2)-1)-1)*abs((5-abs((0.5*x))%(2*5)))))*(5*floor(abs((0.5*x))%(2*5)/5))*2/5)/((abs(5/2)/(5/2)*(abs(5*(2*abs((1/5*0.5*5/2-0.5)-2*floor((1/5*0.5*5/2-0.5)/2)-1)-1)*abs((5-abs(5/2)%(2*5))))
-abs((5*(2*abs((1/5*0.5*5/2-0.5)-2*floor((1/5*0.5*5/2-0.5)/2)-1)-1)*abs((5-abs(5/2)%(2*5)))))*(5*floor(abs(5/2)%(2*5)/5))*2/5))/(5/2));

plot(x, y);

now, I get "syntax error" and then "plot(x, y);" with a caret below the "t" in "plot(x, y);". --Melab±1 ☎ 03:50, 19 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

The problem is in your earlier line (the giant one that assigns y). First, are you aware that most of that statement is commented out? You are using %, which is a single-line comment. Perhaps you meant to use the Modulo function. As a result of these comments, you have mismatched parentheses. In addition, unless you have customized your Octave workspace, you probably need line-continuation characters: ... otherwise code that wraps more than one line will not be interpreted properly. You can find some information on this feature/requirement, motivated by compatibility with compatibility with MATLAB. Nimur (talk) 16:17, 19 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Thank you. --Melab±1 ☎ 01:35, 23 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

stopDrag

Here is what I put on frame 64 of scene 3 of my game, on the 'main' layer:

stop();

box1.onPress = function(){
	startDrag(this);
}

box1.onRelease = function(){
	this.stopDrag();
}

box3.onPress = function(){
	startDrag(this);
}

box3.onRelease = function(){
	this.stopDrag();
}

box4.onPress = function(){
	startDrag(this);
}

box4.onRelease = function(){
	this.stopDrag();
}

box6.onPress = function(){
	startDrag(this);
}

box6.onRelease = function(){
	this.stopDrag();
}

The only problem: stopDrag doesn't work: I'm still dragging when I release the button. I've double-checked everything, including cases and spelling. I'm using flash 8. Kayau Voting IS evil 08:41, 19 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Wikipedia:Reference desk/How to ask a software question. --Sean 16:13, 19 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Without seeing the rest of your code it is pretty hard to diagnose. But is this meant to be AS2 or AS3? It doesn't look like AS3 to me, but I thought I would ask. --Mr.98 (talk) 18:42, 19 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

No, that's definitely AS2. I don't know what to say, because it works great for me inside Flash CS3. I assume that you converted all the boxes to movie clips and gave them instance names of box1, box2, etc.? Maybe you could just upload the game somewhere so we could take a look at it?--Best Dog Ever (talk) 21:16, 19 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

As I said, I was using Flash 8, so it's AS2, not AS3. I have four buttons, box1, box3, box4 and box5. (That's their actual names not library names. :P) I want the player to be able to drag them in the right places, and when they hit done, they would win under the circumstance that the _x property of the boxes are right. But that's unrelated. Now when I run the thing, I can press a box and drag it, but I can't stop dragging when I release. What is the problem? Kayau Voting IS evil 03:02, 20 July 2010 (UTC) ...wait, did you say movie clip? I made them buttons! Let me convert them to movie clips... Kayau Voting IS evil 03:03, 20 July 2010 (UTC) Converted the buttons to movie clips, and they work perfectly. Thanks a million! Kayau Voting IS evil 03:08, 20 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Read-only folder in pen-drive?

I've got a pen-drive with some marketing material and it has one folder which cannot be deleted. Somehow, they made this folder read-only, althought the rest of the pen-drive is accessible. It wouldn't be a big deal, if it had not also an autorun script, which means that every time I try to use the pen-drive, I have to see the marketing material. I tried to change the permission of the read-only folder with chmod, but it didn't work. What can I do? --Mr.K. (talk) 10:48, 19 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Format the drive. 82.43.90.93 (talk) 11:16, 19 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Alternately, turn off autorun for that drive letter. —Korath (Talk) 12:58, 19 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

the drive doesn`t allow to be formated. When I try to use it, Windows recognized two drives, one with the marketing material and one free. Only the latter can be formated.--Mr.K. (talk) 17:11, 19 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

It sounds like the drive has two partitions. You could try deleting both partitions (make sure to move all your important data off the pen-drive, as this will delete everything) and then create a new partition which will be free of the marketing material, and probably slightly larger than the usable partition previously was. However, I think Windows Disk Management (assuming you are using Windows) doesn't allow you to modify partitions on removable media, so you would have to use a third party partition tool such as gparted. It's free, but you will have to download and burn it to a CD to use it 1230049-0012394-C (talk) 17:46, 19 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

You can suppress AutoRun by holding Shift, if nothing else works. --Tardis (talk) 18:12, 19 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Judging by what you are saying, I believe your drive is running U3 software. You should be able to remove the partition by finding the "Uninstall U3 Launchpad" option in the settings/in the Launchpad. A p3rson ‽ 02:11, 22 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

I second that. It sounds like U3 is on the drive. Go the to vendor page, the U3 removal software works well. Shadowjams (talk) 06:57, 22 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Python compiler

Where's a Python compiler that I can download as a zip file? The one from http://python.org requires installation. --138.110.206.101 (talk) 15:02, 19 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

You can download source, Python 3.1.2.tgz, and build it yourself. If I recall correctly, the installer program only unpacks a compiled executable directory and sets file-associations, so as installer-programs go, it's fairly benign in terms of mucking with your system. There is also a functioning uninstaller if you change your mind about it. Nimur (talk) 16:22, 19 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

MP4 Player Problem

I have a (Chinese?) MP4 Player as shown

.When I plug it in to computer, the computer does recognise it, but shows it as blank (on "H: drive"), though all the files are there (you can play them). What to do ? Kindly help. Thanks. Jon Ascton (talk) 18:20, 19 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

The device may register as a USB Mass Storage interface (therefore, exposing itself as a file system to your PC). However, unless the designers intended the music files to be accessible over that software interface, the actual storage may be unavailable. (In other words, the device is only "sharing" parts of its internal storage capability). Did this device come with some other software to transfer music and files? Often, these devices can support both mass-storage access and other USB-based protocols, and prefer to use some other (proprietary) technique to actually transfer files. Nimur (talk) 21:08, 19 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Try copy and pasting music files from your computer directly into the device.--75.185.120.28 (talk) 00:55, 20 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Already tried that out. Did'nt work...

Which OS do you use? Try to format the device in its current format (FAT16?) or try to format it as FAT32. This solved my problem with a Zen Stone Plus which according to Creative is not supposed to run on Linux. --Ouro (blah blah) 10:01, 20 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Windows XP

Did reformatting it help? What about access on other computers? --Ouro (blah blah) 09:04, 21 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

you deserve it for buying an iPod knock-off. Why don't you reward companies that innovate and not thieves and robbers. Would you let your children be babysat by a rapist if he will do it for a bit cheaper? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 84.153.179.98 (talk) 15:36, 21 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

That's a bit harsh! Not all of us can afford to pay top price for iPods - they do not represent good value for money for my purposes, though they might for some. Like most intelligent people, I'm sure that Jon Ascton looks at value-for-money when purchasing such devices. In retrospect, this particular MP4 player might not serve as well as expected, but most others do. I don't think Apple have a patent on MP4 players! Dbfirs 16:57, 21 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

I agree with the sentiment. That's why I'll never buy an Apple product as they just steal copy what other people do and then convince a bunch of fanboys to buy it for an insane price by a lot of hype. I only support real innovaters not johnny-come-latelys like Apple. I'd actually prefer to let my children be babysat by a rapist then ever use a product by the thieves and robbers that are Apple. P.S. The OP I believe lives in India. I presume he has an above average wage since he's able to post on the internet and has an MP4 player but if not I can somewhat understand his reluctance to spend probably more then half his annual wage on an iPod. Nil Einne (talk) 15:31, 22 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

I actually sent this link to my buddy who is an iPod Nano hardware engineer; according to him, the external façade is definitely similar; but not "similar enough" for them to care. If it was really similar, (not just a knock-off, but actually using Apple parts, which happens), then Apple would probably start an internal investigation to determine which one of their subcontractors or manufacturers were skimming parts off the assembly lines... Apple really is a draconian company, but it's still not okay to steal their parts. Copying the general design is acceptable, up to a limit - "look and feel" is an intellectual property gray area - and Apple has historically been very notable for pressing the legal limits of how much they can actually protect. Nimur (talk) 19:29, 22 July 2010 (UTC) [reply]

I understand the stealing parts thing but I somewhat doubt they'd bother with that sort of look and feel stuff with noname Chinese manufacturer players sold in India. I don't think there'll be much contest that this sort of stuff [4] wouldn't survive in a developed country if sold by a reputable manufacturer (even if we remove the frequent trademark violations), but hey they're fairly common in China and places like that I'm guessing including India (without intending to comment on the ethical and other such issues in any way). BTW for all the problems the iPhone clones tend to have and I did look into them a while back, on thing they do usually have over the iPhone (other then price) is removable memory and removable batteries although I wouldn't exactly call it 'innovation'. Nil Einne (talk) 23:31, 22 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Right - but in some cases, electronic and/or mechanical parts were invented specifically for use in an iPod or some other Apple device. If it is recognized that some other device is using that exact part, it means somebody in the supply chain is black-market'ing parts that were manufactured for and purchased exclusively by Apple. They like to know who's slipping units out of factories, whether or not it's cutting into their market-share in a meaningful way. Nimur (talk) 00:04, 23 July 2010 (UTC) [reply]

July 20

16-bit microprocessors

Do these still exist on any wide scale? It seems like the embedded processor world is now divided into small 8-bit (AVR, Pic, etc) and bigger 32-bit (ARM, x86-32) processors. Not much 16-bit seems to exist any more, except maybe some DSP's. Is that accurate? Also, are 4-bit processors still used on any scale? 67.122.211.208 (talk) 06:27, 20 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

They are certainly still available. I used a Renesas M16C and an M32C (despite its name, both are 16-bit CISC-style instruction sets - actually, the architecture derives from Mitsubishi/Hitachi lineage). Here is the product-family-tree. You can see that Renesas still sells processors with 4-bit, 8-bit, 16-bit, and 32-bit instruction sets. They also have a "Product Roadmap" displaying the lineup and each processor's "intended" application - these categories are a business/marketing target, but are generally based on each device's actual capabilities. Nimur (talk) 07:39, 20 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Convert <? to <?php

I have to work on some scripts that are using <? instead of <?php is some files. I need to convert them all to <?php. That wouldn't be too much of an issue, but I also need to convert <?= to <?php print. Is there a program that already does this before I write a sed replacement for all the files? -- kainaw ™ 13:17, 20 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

I dunno, but wouldn't this do it?

perl -pi.bak -e 's/<\?=/<?php print/g; s/<\?(?!php\b)/<?php/g' *.php

Obviously you'll need to be cleverer if the input files have things that look like PHP tags that you don't want to change. --Sean 14:00, 20 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Yes, it would, but I just wrote it in sed instead. I hope that <?=/<? print and <?/<?php are the only replacements that need to be made. -- kainaw ™ 14:17, 20 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

QT

I'm trying to "compile" a QT program. I have no idea what I'm doing, but I downloaded Qt Development Tools and installed it. Now I'm trying to make the source files I downloaded for the program I'm trying to "build", but I'm clueless. I tried Qt Created and "run qmake" which finally outputted an exe but when I tried to run it it kept asking for a load of .dll files, one of which was 140mb in size. What am I doing wrong? 82.43.90.93 (talk) 16:51, 20 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Have you acquired all of the DLLs the program is requesting? If so ~~you may want to check the source code to ensure the program is looking in the correct location for them~~. It would easier for people to help if you let us know which program you have downloaded. AJ Cham 20:01, 20 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Or rather, one of us can check the source code and tell you which directory the program is trying. AJ Cham 20:03, 20 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Digital Images

Like all computer software files, digital images are made up of 0s and 1s. Then how can we open them down to 0 & 1s and see actually how are they made etc. Jon Ascton (talk) 19:50, 20 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

A hex editor is what would typically be used to edit or analyse a file at the binary level. It doesn't actually display binary, but every hexadecimal pair is directly convertible to an 8-bit byte (eg. 5D = 01011101). I don't know what you intend to learn of a digital image file from its binary however. Mind sharing? AJ Cham 20:10, 20 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

The 1s and 0s of an image file are really pretty meaningless by themselves. They don't necessarily correspond to individual pixel values or anything like that (raw image formats are the exception to this). Of more interest is probably the specifics of any given image format, which tells how 1s and 0s (in hex form) store the actual image data. --Mr.98 (talk) 20:35, 20 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

I have recommended GNU Octave before, because it will simplify the process of reading an image, and load its decoded values as a matrix of numeric values that directly represent pixel intensity levels for each color. One command - imread - will open most common image file formats, automatically convert them to a bitmap image, and produce the matrix of pixel values for that image. This may be more intuitive than a hex-editor; though strictly speaking, it is not bit-identical to the file on disk (it has been decoded into a bitmap, and any meta-data or headers have been stripped). If you care about the actual bit representation of the file, then a hex editor is what you need. "Nobody reads binary" - rather, almost nobody reads binary (because it is unwieldy), it is much more common to read hex, which is why there are so many hex-editor tools and so few binary-editor tools. Experience and memorization will help you look at a hex-code and decode its value quickly to either a decimal numeric value or a binary bit-vector, as the context requires. Most of the time, you will write or obtain a program that interprets the binary for you and present output in a human-consumable form (in a sense, that's what any image-viewing software is doing for you). Nimur (talk) 20:39, 20 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Hub

Yesterday I got an "OfficeConnect dual speed hub 16" for £4. It has 16 ethernet ports on the back (presumably where it gets it's name from). I have some questions;

how exactly do I use this thing? Can I just connect my computer into one of the ethernet ports and it will work it out itself? My computer is Windows 7 / XP
can I plug my internet ethernet cable into the hub and all other computers connected to the hub as well will have the internet?
does this thing eliminate the need for a cross-over cable?

Thank you 82.43.90.93 (talk) 21:08, 20 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Yes, yes, and yes. Here is the manual for your hub. Our article Ethernet hub may be of interest, also. For the record, it's hard to find hubs nowadays; this part appears to have been from around 1998; nowadays network switches are much more common. Comet Tuttle (talk) 21:57, 20 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

That's awesome, thank you! :D Why are network switches more popular than hubs these days? Do they do everything a hub can do and more? Also, is it possible to change the mac address of a hub? 82.43.90.93 (talk) 22:07, 20 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Here is a nice comparison of hubs vs. switches. Apparently the biggest thing in favor of a hub used to be its price, but switches have gotten cheaper. Switches are apparently smarter about traffic handling than hubs, which probably won't matter much for casual use. --Mr.98 (talk) 22:42, 20 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Hubs are dumber than switches. Once you have your network set up, every time you watch a YouTube video or look at a Wikipedia page from computer #1, every single data packet is going to get broadcast through every port in that hub, which will cause many, many packet collisions for computer #2. This isn't fatal, but it will slow down network performance. Switches actually look at the data packets and only route them to the appropriate port. Hubs don't have MAC addresses; as our Ethernet hub article states, they basically just wait for an electrical signal, and then repeat it on all the other connected ports. All that said, of course — a good buy for 4 pound! Comet Tuttle (talk) 23:40, 20 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

It should be said that for "normal" networks, a DHCP server and (usually) a router are needed - a hub does neither of these things. Usually, if you have a router or a cable-modem (often a modem + network bridge), then that device fulfills the DHCP role as well; you just connect it into the hub, and everything works. However, if you have no router, and just connect the hub straight to a PC that is not configured to "share network connection" (or more completely, to serve as a DHCP server and router), then the hub can't facilitate IP-based networking on its own. You can work around this by assigning static IPs; assigning static routes; or setting up a hardware or software router. Nimur (talk) 01:02, 21 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

If Windows XP/7 is configured to automatically set up the network and it cannot find a DHCP server, it will fall back to a Link-local address. That will be sufficient for computers on the same hub to talk to each other, but not for sharing internet access. Unilynx (talk) 02:44, 21 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

July 21

Is it bad to standby a computer too often?

For example I'm going to take a 20 minute break. Should I put the computer on standby? Or should I just keep it on? Is it bad to always be doing that?--75.185.120.28 (talk) 05:28, 21 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Do whatever you want to do. I'd personally just leave it on. In general the whole argument about turn off/leave on is overblown and not worth debating. But you really shouldn't be turning your computer off and on all the time (as far as most of your components care, standby is shutoff) --mboverload @ 07:19, 21 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

In standby the hard drive will stop so to the hard drive, as mboverload said above, standby is the same as shutdown. This means that each time you enter and exit standby mode, the hard drive has to go though the start cycle which if done many times might lower its lifespan. Personally I wouldn't put the computer to standby, but then again I haven't tuned my computer off for 2 years (except for 30 second reboots) so maybe I'm not a typical user... 82.43.90.93 (talk) 09:27, 21 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Does 20 minutes of use degrade the components more or less than a shutdown and restart cycle? This is not an easy question to answer without data. Here's a good article on interpreting the statistics: "Disk failures in the real world: What does an MTTF of 1,000,000 hours mean to you?" Nimur (talk) 19:59, 21 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

GIMP versus Photoshop

If GIMP is so good and available free then why at all is Photoshop still in business ? Jon Ascton (talk) 07:02, 21 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

It's not as good as Photoshop. Literally, there's no need to answer any further than that. --mboverload @ 07:20, 21 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Indeed. I've used both GIMP and Photoshop, and Photoshop is definitely far superior. Theleftorium ^(talk) 07:24, 21 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Even if Gimp was as good as Photoshop, even perhaps if it was better, many people would still use, and still pay for, Photoshop.

For a creative professional, learning to really use Photoshop takes literally years, and the cost in productivity to them from changing to another system that does thing in different ways would be very great.
Similarly there's a training and documentation infrastructure built up for Photoshop
There's a huge ecology of Photoshop related software like plugins
Most importantly, Photoshop files are the lingua franca for many creative professionals' interchanges - they expect to be sending one another Photoshop files that they guarantee work and look identical on others' machines. To the extent that this isn't true for Photoshop (nothing's perfect), experienced Photshop professionals know the gotchas to look for.

For any software system (free or not) to replace an entrenched incumbent it has to overcome all of these obstacles. That's a task at least an order of magnitude harder than simply producing a product that's of comparable quality and capability as the incumbent. -- Finlay McWalter • Talk 12:07, 21 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Also, for the short term, people who are using Photoshop now have already purchased Photoshop (it's a sunk cost). It's not expensive vs. free, it's (no additional cost) vs. free. (Although Finlay's points come into play when they consider upgrading.) -- 174.24.196.51 (talk) 16:58, 21 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

But you'd almost surely not go from, say, Photoshop CS3 to GIMP (as opposed from CS3 to CS5 or whatever they are up to). For an experienced Photoshop user, GIMP is really retrograde. It's not so much the things like filters (which GIMP does okay at), but the elaborate ways Photoshop (and all the newer CS products) let you set up very sophisticated and reliable work flows both within applications and between them. Photoshop also has an army of professionals trying to improve its interface and its capabilities with every release, to give people a reason to upgrade. The GIMP as I've seen it lately looks pretty identical to the GIMP I saw three years ago—still the same stubbornly annoying interface that is dissimilar from all other graphics programs, more or less the same capabilities. (As someone who just spent a lot of time learning Blender's stubbornly annoying interface, I have come to appreciate how nice it is that all of the Adobe products are synchronized in appearance, hot keys, etc.) --Mr.98 (talk) 18:32, 21 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

On the flipside to Finlay's point, I, as someone who has invested a lot of time into learning GIMP, would not switch to Photoshop even if I was given a free copy, unless my needs were to change in such a way that it was an absolute requirement. I don't deny that GIMP falls short in quite a few areas (the lack of proper CYMK support is a deal-breaker for creatives working in print), but it is on par or superior in others. AJ Cham 19:36, 21 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

In my less ethical days, I made use of pirated software. I haven't for some time now, but it's a phase I went through. I had the latest PhotoShop... the latest everything, for that matter. Yet for graphics stuff, I still made use of Jasc Paint Shop Pro and I ended up uninstalling PS because I never used it. It's not that PSP was better, it's just that I already knew how it worked. For complex programs, that ability to almost work it with your eyes closed is invaluable. I still maintain that what killed WordPerfect was when they switched all their function keys around (though not entirely of their own volition). Matt Deres (talk) 20:34, 21 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Ah yes, I remember (legal) Word Perfect. In fact I still (perversely) configure Microsoft Word to use a few of Word Perfect's keyboard shortcuts. Habit persists! Dbfirs 07:23, 22 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

But that's exactly what I'm talking about. PS and the other Adobe products have really tried for the most part to keep consistent keys and to use fairly intuitive key assignments. You want the "Hand" tool? Press H. You want the "Marquee"? M. Paste and copy are standard V and C. You know, simple, obvious stuff. I compare that with, say, Blender, which has totally idiosyncratic key assignments that vary depending on context. ("X" either means, "delete this" or "constrain this action to the X axis." Cause, you know, that key with DELETE written on it wouldn't have been more appropriate for the former!) The point is, the goal of the whole Adobe Creative Suite at this point is that you learn one set of skills and concepts and it works across all of their programs. For a guy like me, who uses Photoshop, Illustrator, and InDesign pretty much simultaneously, that's pretty important. Juggling the different interfaces and compatibility between GIMP, Inkscape, and whatever the free InDesign equivalent is, is a huge pain. The open source community is deliberately fragmented, all drawing little territorial lines around themselves, all very proudly claiming their UI ideas are the best, all blindly holding to the mantra that "once you learn the interface, you'll wish all programs were like this!" and so on. In short, it's what happens when you let engineers design interfaces without managers. ;-) Too many engineers is a problem, just like too many managers is (Cf. Microsoft). --Mr.98 (talk) 13:59, 22 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Virus

Is, this virus warning real ? http://www.gimpdome.com/index.php?topic=1500.0 —Preceding unsigned comment added by Jon Ascton (talk • contribs) 08:30, 21 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

What virus warning? --Ouro (blah blah) 09:02, 21 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

I too see no virus warning. You might want to check your machine for viruses and malware. Astronaut (talk) 14:03, 21 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Perhaps OP was talking about the "This site may harm your computer" warning Google search sometimes throws up, many times on sites which are not harmful at all, and then later the warning is removed as it was in error. 82.43.90.93 (talk) 16:20, 21 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

What does this error mean?

Resolved

I have recently installed Eclipse on a spare laptop running Fedora and it works OK. Today, I thought I would try using the laptop through Microsoft's Remote Desktop Connection so I can make use of my Vista machine's larger screen and nicer keyboard and mouse. After some trouble getting the remote connection to work at all (install and configure the xrdp daemon, configure the firewall and SE Linux settings), I now have the remote connection working in glorious 1920x1080 high def. However, when I start Eclipse, I get the following (lengthy) error message:

Error message from Eclipse

VM terminated. Exit code=-1
-Xms128m
-Xmx512m
-Dorg.eclipse.equinox.p2.reconciler.dropins.directory=/usr/share/eclipse/dropins
-XX:CompileCommand=exclude,org/eclipse/core/internal/dtree/DataTreeNode,forwardDeltaWith
-XX:CompileCommand=exclude,org/eclipse/jdt/internal/compiler/lookup/ParameterizedMethodBinding,<init>
-XX:CompileCommand=exclude,org/eclipse/cdt/internal/core/dom/parser/cpp/semantics/CPPTemplates,instantiateTemplate
-XX:CompileCommand=exclude,org/eclipse/cdt/internal/core/pdom/dom/cpp/PDOMCPPLinkage,addBinding
-XX:CompileCommand=exclude,org/python/pydev/editor/codecompletion/revisited/PythonPathHelper,isValidSourceFile
-XX:CompileCommand=exclude,org/python/pydev/ui/filetypes/FileTypesPreferencesPage,getDottedValidSourceFiles
-Djava.class.path=/usr/lib/eclipse//plugins/org.eclipse.equinox.launcher_1.0.201.R35x_v20090715.jar
-os linux
-ws gtk
-arch x86
-showsplash /usr/lib/eclipse//plugins/org.eclipse.platform_3.3.201.R35x_v20090813/splash.bmp
-launcher /usr/lib/eclipse/eclipse
-name Eclipse
--launcher.library /usr/lib/eclipse//plugins/org.eclipse.equinox.launcher.gtk.linux.x86_1.0.200.v20090520/eclipse_1207.so
-startup /usr/lib/eclipse//plugins/org.eclipse.equinox.launcher_1.0.201.R35x_v20090715.jar
-vm /usr/lib/jvm/java-1.6.0-openjdk-1.6.0.0/jre/bin/../lib/i386/client/libjvm.so
-vmargs
-Xms128m
-Xmx512m
-Dorg.eclipse.equinox.p2.reconciler.dropins.directory=/usr/share/eclipse/dropins
-XX:CompileCommand=exclude,org/eclipse/core/internal/dtree/DataTreeNode,forwardDeltaWith
-XX:CompileCommand=exclude,org/eclipse/jdt/internal/compiler/lookup/ParameterizedMethodBinding,<init>
-XX:CompileCommand=exclude,org/eclipse/cdt/internal/core/dom/parser/cpp/semantics/CPPTemplates,instantiateTemplate
-XX:CompileCommand=exclude,org/eclipse/cdt/internal/core/pdom/dom/cpp/PDOMCPPLinkage,addBinding
-XX:CompileCommand=exclude,org/python/pydev/editor/codecompletion/revisited/PythonPathHelper,isValidSourceFile
-XX:CompileCommand=exclude,org/python/pydev/ui/filetypes/FileTypesPreferencesPage,getDottedValidSourceFiles
-Djava.class.path=/usr/lib/eclipse//plugins/org.eclipse.equinox.launcher_1.0.201.R35x_v20090715.jar

Eclipse still works OK on the Fedora laptop even while the remote connection is still active, but it is squished into the cramped laptop screen. Any ideas what causes this error and how to fix it? Thanks. Astronaut (talk) 11:50, 21 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

That's not an error message, that's just the list of command line option used to start the program. -- Finlay McWalter • Talk 11:52, 21 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

The first line says "VM terminated. Exit code=-1". The Eclipse development environment doesn't appear, nor do I get the questionabout which workspace to use. Astronaut (talk) 11:58, 21 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

A quick googling suggests there are several things that can give that error. See if any of those suggestions help. 88.112.56.9 (talk) 13:19, 21 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

In fact, I think I've managed to solve this myself. When I ran Eclipse from a terminal, I got a different error message: /usr/lib/jvm/java-1.6.0-openjdk-1.6.0.0/jre/bin/../lib/i386/client/libjvm.so: cannot enable executable stack as shared object requires: Permission denied According to this page, such errors are caused by the shared object requesting an "executable stack" and SE Linux again stepping in to prevent it, even though "executable stack" are rarely actually required. By entering the following command (as root): execstack -c /usr/lib/jvm/java-1.6.0-openjdk-1.6.0.0/jre/bin/../lib/i386/client/libjvm.so, I can now start Eclipse, though I am unsure what imapact that will have later.

TBH, most of my problems so far have been caused by SE Linux stepping in to prevent some apparently risky activity. It seems like a bigger menace than Vista's much loathed UAC. Is there any compelling reason to keep SE Linux running? Astronaut (talk) 13:47, 21 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

I have found SE Linux to be both less effective and more buggy than default linux / unix permissions. The greatest advantage is that it can support hardware cryptographic signatures, like the Trusted Platform Module chip, or some SSL hardware accelerator cards (though SELinux is not required for these hardware). However, it is so often incorrect or overbearing in its protection-mechanisms, that it is widely known to create insecurity - because it must be manually circumvented - Security-Enhanced Linux describes some of these complaints. Set your file-permissions properly; if you have sensitive data, encrypt it; and if you have very highly confidential data, carefully control physical and network access to the machine. SELinux does none of those things. The few things that SELinux actually does, like control access to certain .so files (breaking Eclipse and the JVM, in your case), often interferes with normal use-cases that are non-security-breaches. If anyone for any reason can come up with a legitimate need to control access to an .so file, then I would recommend placing it in an encrypted user-space file-system with properly-managed user and group permissions. Nimur (talk) 17:01, 21 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

distance and signal strength relation in wlans

according to various sources (e.g.[5] pg3.)the APs with stronger RSSI are generally closer to the client. i want to know to what extent this is true. like out of say 100 APs sampled to be nearest to the mobile node at different points of time what percentage are likely to be having the best signal strengths?? any help would be great. thanks. --scoobydoo (talk) 15:20, 21 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

You can read about multipath interference to learn about the greatest pitfall to this method of distance-estimation. The other unknown is the source signal power - but if we can assume that every "consumer-grade" access-point is transmitting omnidirectionally at a known power level, then there is a strict 1/r² falloff with distance. This is compounded by atmospheric effects, interfering objects/walls/vegetation, and of course multipath interference (which is difficult, if not theoretically impossible) to solve. Nimur (talk) 17:05, 21 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Understanding C++ code

I have a C++ code which is spread over many files (it is RADONUMBERS on this site). Is there a website where I can someone can help me understand the whole code (and take payment for it in return for his time). Thanks-Shahab (talk) 17:39, 21 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

That's not much code! Just 1103 lines total. It's also barely C++ (since there's just the one eq.cc). I don't know about any established "code mentor for hire" site, but you ought to be able to buy that amount of help for a candy bar if you know the helper. I'll tell you for free that the only interesting bits as far as the code goes (I didn't try to understand the mathematics, except that I noticed it was using random numbers) are that it's generating a small amount of machine code dynamically (the gen* files; you have to arrange to include the appropriate header file for your architecture when compiling gen.c) and that eq.cc is just a simple parser. --Tardis (talk) 18:39, 21 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

And for what it's worth, the author explains it as well: "It determines, given k and j, the minimum integer N such that any 2-coloring of [1,N] admits a monochromatic solution to x+y+kz=jw." If this explanation isn't sufficient, maybe our coloring problem article can help. Nimur (talk) 18:43, 21 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Timezone Databases in Javascript

I want a simple Javascript function that accepts a city/location and a UTC-date as input, and returns a correct UTC offset for that timezone during that date (compensated for daylight-savings-time, regional changes, and so on).

I have a simple JavaScript clock that accepts a location and spits out a time, corrected for timezone offset. Unfortunately my implementation of time-zone is a direct lookup-table between city-name and UTC offset. I was going to add some time-zone changes for daylight-savings time, but I know that this is not easy. Modern time-zone handling programs are really complicated. In Java, I would just create a Date object, and I know and trust its internal giant database of every time-zone/DST corner-case in the world (Taipei had no daylight-savings-time from 1979 to 1980?)... Similarly, in C or C++, I would query the operating system's timezone database. But I need this program to run in Javascript in a web-browser. I want to be able to input a city (or a "locale" or a "zone" or whatever), and obtain a current, accurate UTC offset for that city. Is there an easy way to do this in Javascript? Can I query some operating-system database? Is there an easy-to-use web service that I can query? Nimur (talk) 18:41, 21 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Same question with some good-looking answers here. --Sean 18:46, 21 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

From that link, I got to EarthTools.org... it provides exactly the service(s) I need. And I don't even have to wrap my requests in some bloaty JQuery or SOAP framework! Thanks for the help. Nimur (talk) 19:53, 21 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

No prob. I just googled "time zone web service". --Sean 21:55, 21 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

tor

In Tor I specified "ExcludeExitNodes" and an ip address in the torrc file but Tor is just ignoring this and using it anyway. This is extremely annoying, why won't it obey ExcludeExitNodes? "ExitNodes" and "StrictExitNodes" settings are working fine, it's just ignoring ExcludeExitNodes 68.44.168.121 (talk) 19:19, 21 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Quad-Socket 128GB RAM Server

I am looking for a server with the following characteristics. If anyone knows of a rackmount server which meets these criterion, please let me know.

Accomodates four Intel eight-core or AMD twelve-core processors.
Accomodates 128GB of DDR3 ECC RAM (with a speed of 1333MHz or 1066MHz) in either eight or sixteen DIMM slots.
Operates or is able to operate on Microsoft Windows Server 2008 R2 HPC Edition.
Consumes only one or two units of rackspace.

Thank you to everyone in advance. Rocketshiporion (talk) 06:06, 22 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

I don't think any such system exists yet. High-performace IBM System X may be able to deliver 96 GB; they will soon be able to deliver 192 GB as soon as 16-GB RDIMM memory is available. SunBlade X6000 series, the top-shelf from Sun (rather, Oracle, now), still fails to meet your spec. SGI Altix'es are probably way out of your (or anybody's) price-range; but they offer 96 GB per 2U, and can chassis-stack up to 3 2U's in one 6U chassis. Your additional constraints are going to be pretty impossible - a 2U server with 4 Nehalems may be a thermal impossibility, so few mainstream vendors will even attempt to build one. You might try some of the smaller system-integrators who could customize a system board and chassis for you. (Also, just in case you're unaware, such a system, if it becomes available in 3Q or 4Q 2010, will not be cheap. Have you considered node-level parallelism as a cost-effective alternative?) For perspective on how "not cheap" we are talking, the server links I have sent you do not have prices on the websites. Instead, they have a telephone number you can call, and IBM or SGI will send a sales-man to your corporate office to discuss procurement with you, should you wish to actually buy. Nimur (talk) 23:18, 21 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

July 22

Windows Picture & Fax Viewer vs. Win7 Photo Viewer

Is it just me or does the Windows 7 "Windows Photo Viewer" seem a lot clunkier than the old XP Pic & Fax viewer? Zooming in on pics in WPV is very blocky whereas P&FV zoomed smoothly, and so on. Any way to get it back in 7, or otherwise tweaks to WPV in 7? Thanks!

As far as I know, P&FV is a WinXP component. It is not available in Win7. Attempting to copy the files will not work, as it uses a DLL file "shimgvw.dll", which will not work in Win7. See here for some alternatives.. A p3rson ‽ 02:05, 22 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Google translate errors

Given the number of times this comes up [6] I have tried to create a simple section expanding on the types of errors google translate makes.. Google_Translate#Translation_mistakes_and_oddities

However despite being a common topic on the internet I'm having trouble finding non-blog references to this, or references that cover this topic in simple fashion. Does anyone know of articles that are suitable for referencing/explaining this behaviour. (or please expand/fix article yourself) Thanks. 77.86.76.47 (talk) 02:33, 22 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Perhaps GT had not yet been subject to thorough scientific examination. Please consider that it is not a true translating machine, rather a statistical translator, as our article states in its lead section. A scientific analysis of this instrument would be like comparing target efficiency of a particular gun to the targeting efficiency of rain. --Ouro (blah blah) 08:07, 22 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Why would statistical machine translation not be a suitable area for scientific study? I don't follow your logic. Warofdreams talk 14:01, 22 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Try searching on Google Scholar for "Google Translate" and "machine translation" - there are a large number of relevant studies. Warofdreams talk 14:01, 22 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Realted Image Search

Hey, I have an url of an image and I want to search for all the related images. How can I do that ? 218.248.80.57 (talk) 11:40, 22 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

One idea is the use Tineye at http://tineye.com to show images that contain or are part of that image. ALternately try the url in Google and see what you come up with. On Wikipedia a what links here click may show where it is used. Graeme Bartlett (talk) 12:23, 22 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks, but Tineye couldn't find it. Feeding the url to google search doesn't match anything. Anyways, thanks you gave me a pretty useful site !218.248.80.57 (talk) 13:08, 22 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

If you post it here or some other popular place someone might have more information. --Sean 15:16, 22 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

LinkedIn raiding my emails?

I recently joined the social networking site LinkedIn and have since received a couple of emails asking me if I would like to link to a couple of people. They have helpfully suggested some people that I might like to link. Their suggestions are of people that I know. So this must mean that LinkedIn has read through my email list and found people on LinkedIn, so they can suggest them. Is this legal? Ooops sorry didn't mean to ask for legal advice. I mean, are they allowed to do this? What are the rules surrounding this type of thing?91.109.244.67 (talk) 13:25, 22 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Well, for one, you don't know if they've raided your e-mail lists or the other peoples' lists. You also may have given them access without realizing it—a lot of sites these days do the "give us your e-mail info and we'll get your address book!" shuck (which I personally detest). But my suspicion is that it's the kind of thing that after joining for awhile they'll ask you if you want to integrate your e-mail list in, and then store that info. They probably did that with the people who they've suggested and had your e-mail on file just waiting for you to sign up.

There's also the possibility it isn't e-mail based at all; that it's just a very clever algorithm to detect who you might know, based on where you work and things like that. I don't know. There are limits to how clever such a thing can be, but in general predicting social networks is not that hard if certain things (like school, employment, city, etc.) are known.

But in general, no, they aren't allowed to hack into your e-mail account without your permissions, of course. (Though it should be noted that the specifics of what is illegal and whether this alleged activity would be considered illegal depends a LOT on jurisdiction.) BUT they almost certainly didn't do THAT, and got the contacts voluntarily either from you (without you really paying attention to it) or from the other people. --Mr.98 (talk) 13:42, 22 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

My guess is that it's the opposite actually. That other folks who have signed up and have attempted to "link" with you providing your email address when looking for you. Now that you have signed up using an email address that's been searched for, it makes the connections so they as well as you don't have to. Tuxhedoh (talk) 13:54, 22 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

I'm guessing that I missed a button and allowed them access. The people in question are people that I hardly know but happen to have in my address book. They wouln't try and add me (a couple of them are people who have shunned/avoided me in the past), and they are also connected with my type of work so LinkedIn must be doing some kind of work to figure out who is already there and might be connected to my kind of thing.91.109.244.67 (talk) 14:03, 22 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Remember, this is what LinkedIn does, it looks at your companies, looks at your job description, and attempts to connect you with peers you may not even realize are in the same job/industry as you. They do a good job with it too. Tuxhedoh (talk) 14:08, 22 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Dell D630 - Touchpad does not move the mouse cursor

Windows XP - Dell D630 - Synaptics Touch Pad driver installed- and updated.

The system tray icon that shows the movement of your finger on the touchpad registeres movement. The scroll feature of the touchpad works on any window with a scroll bar. The double click works even. But it never actually moves the cursor on the screen. An external mouse works with out problems, and I've replaced the palm-rest/touchpad and it continues to happen. The touch stick in the middle of the keyboard works without problems. I have done many google searches and have not turned up much. Does anyone have any ideas? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Tuxhedoh (talk • contribs) 13:32, 22 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

What's wrong with my Computer?

Please expand and see the picture given on side. This is happening to all my menu based Windows progarms (Wordweb.exe and MSPaint are shown in this screenshot) - you can see ugly white rectungular backgrounds behind all menu-captions as I have marked in red. I am sure this is some malware etc. that has somehow sneaked into the system (No, I have almost no defences etc. ) The OS is XP. I am sure deleting a couple of files will set all things right. What which ones ? That's where I need your help. Thanks Jon Ascton (talk) 15:19, 22 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

You have tried restarting right? 15:22, 22 July 2010 (UTC)

Of course. That's the first thing I did. Did'nt work...

Come on. Is this for real? We aren't psychics. If you think it is malware, download some anti-malware software and give it a scan. We can't tell you "which files" it is to delete from a screenshot alone, if that is even the problem. If you are worried about malware, get some "defences etc." Don't waste our time with guessing games when the solution is obvious to you. --Mr.98 (talk) 15:48, 22 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

I've seen this many times on Xp, sure it's not a virus - one thing to try - go to control panel>>system>>advanced tab>>performance (settings button)>>visual effects .. and from there check that you have visual effects turned on. (Try changing it and press apply) - It's a common bug in XP that some programs get confused about visual effects (more typically trying to use visual effects when they are turned off, or turning them on in-effectively).77.86.76.47 (talk) 15:51, 22 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]