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November 13

FTP running on CentOs, allow upload but disallow delete

Hi All,

I was wondering what I could do to allow specific (non-anonymous) users to upload files but not delete them.

TIA PrinzPH (talk) 00:48, 13 November 2010 (UTC)

Program memory size

if i have written a code to load a given program on to the specified size of memory. but the specified size of memory not available in a single stretch to load the program. this problem has to be solved. to solve this problem what input and output will i have to get. 117.204.3.99 (talk) 01:33, 13 November 2010 (UTC)

It appears that you are learning about fragmentation. Have you read this article and do you understand the concept? -- kainaw™ 15:39, 13 November 2010 (UTC)

Illustrator's equivalent of Photoshop's Twirl Filter

In Adobe Photoshop, there is a filter called Twirl where I can adjust by how many degrees I want to twist a an image. I was wondering if there was something close to this effect in Adobe Illustrator CS5 because its Twist effect does kind of the same thing but it comes out jagged and I want a smooth twirl effect for image. The image kind I want to work with is vector so I can't use the filter in Photoshop. --Melab±1 ☎ 02:32, 13 November 2010 (UTC)

"Himem.sys", a 'software driver' for use in personal computers.

This is a request for help. The subject of memory management using such drivers as Himem.sys is covered well by other pages accessable by the search engine of Wikipedia. However, some versions of Hymem.sys allow the use of a 'switch' which obviously modifies it's operation in some way. When the command: Himem.sys is set as the first command in the Config.sys file, then at boot time for the computer the operating system is loaded into upper memory and run from there. This is a necessary prerequisite for such operating systems as Windows 95 and 98, although it is not mandatory for using the early versions of Dos. The 'switch' is: ... "/ testmem on|off" ignoring the quote marks. Thus the command is either - Hymem.sys /testmem off or Himem.sys /testmem on. What Himem.sys does is obvious, what the other does is not.

My question is this. Since nowhere in Wikipedia can I find the function of this switch defined, nor can I find it defined in any Dos book either, would someone who knows please reply and attempt to explain. I have two dos books that clearly list the switch with Himem.sys without explaination.

Thank you. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Old Radio Searcher (talk • contribs) 03:27, 13 November 2010 (UTC)

I can't seem to find any reference for himem.sys on any of microsoft's sites, which is irritating, but if I recall correctly, the /testmem switch controlls a memory test that occurs during boot-up. If you have a lot of ram, and you're certain that there's no problem with it, it's worth turning that off to shave a couple of seconds off your boot time.

That's my recollection, but I could be completely wrong, I can't find a reference to back me up on this. APL (talk) 03:45, 13 November 2010 (UTC)

Google search for "himem.sys command line switches" finds several references, including [1] [2][3]. Mitch Ames (talk) 09:52, 13 November 2010 (UTC)

Search for a file called MSDOSDRV.TXT. The file, which is included with Windows 9x, describes the functions and switches of various MS-DOS device drivers (including HIMEM.SYS) under Windows 9x. An excerpt from the file relevant to the switch in question:

    /TESTMEM:ON|OFF
       Determines whether HIMEM performs a memory test when your 
       computer starts. By default, HIMEM tests the reliability 
       of your computer's extended memory each time your computer 
       starts. This test can identify memory that is no longer 
       reliable, and unreliable memory can cause system instability 
       or loss of data. HIMEM's memory test is more thorough than
       the standard power-up memory test performed by most computers. 
       To prevent HIMEM from performing the memory test, specify 
       /TESTMEM:OFF. Disabling the memory test will shorten the 
       startup process. The default setting is /TESTMEM:ON.

118.96.167.169 (talk) 01:56, 15 November 2010 (UTC)

Saving short texts online

Is there a free service that provides me with the possibility of saving short texts online for later access? When I need to do this I use drafts in my email account, but is there another way? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Jib-boom (talk • contribs) 09:05, 13 November 2010 (UTC)

I am using google docs. -Yyy (talk) 09:25, 13 November 2010 (UTC)

Pastebin 82.44.55.25 (talk) 12:08, 13 November 2010 (UTC)

delete program from the list of programs for spec. file types (and generally: delete!!)

How do I delete a program from the list of programs to be used with certain file types? (Where is that list anyways?)

After deleting a computer program (a test version of Microsoft Office 2003), it still appears in the list of programs with which to open some file extensions (e.g., docx): When right-clicking on a docx document & then clicking on "Open with," the first list item is the deleted Office version, even before the [older] working Word version is listed. 1.) How do I delete it from that list?

When I click to open the docx document with this (deleted!) program, I get two error messages, but then the basic Word (-> Office 2003) layout opens. 2.) Why is that still on the computer at all? How can I delete it?

Thanks for answering, Thanks for answering (talk) 12:40, 13 November 2010 (UTC)

You could try Revo Uninstaller http://download.cnet.com/Revo-Uninstaller/3000-2096_4-10687648.html Before using that, see if Ccleaner can fix it. If Revo does not fix it as-is, you could get Revo running, re-instal MO2003 (with Revo monitoring what was being installed), the get Revo to uninstall MO2003. Edit: there is also ZSoft Unistaller to try. 92.15.30.196 (talk) 16:29, 13 November 2010 (UTC)

Better algorithm?

I've just been given some code written in fortran that does something like this:

IF (x > 1 .and. x < 2)
A=1
GOTO 10
IF (x > 2 .and. x < 3)
A=2
GOTO 10

..repeated many times...

Now clearly the guy who wrote didnt seem of heard of a switch statement so he could of used break rather rather GOTO. Now after profiling the code (this bit plus the rest of the code) the program does seem to spend alot of time in this function, so it does seem sensible to do some optermisation here if possible. Would switching the code to a switch statement have much of an effect? or turning into IF..ELSE IF..ELSE? The code seems to be effectively a search over 3 planes (x,y,z) so would a search algorithms (some sort of tree i think?) work better? I'm not really an expert in these things so most of what i know i've picked up in its and pieces of the web, Thanks--81.147.110.238 (talk) 12:47, 13 November 2010 (UTC)

To me that seems just like an extremely awkward way to convert a float to an integer. Mind any special cases like x = 2.0, though. A binary search would be a lot better than what you have now but by no means the proper solution when INT(x) works just as well. --85.77.180.190 (talk) 15:02, 13 November 2010 (UTC)

Throwing it all out and replacing with INT is the correct solution according to what is shown here:

A=INT(x)
GOTO 10

However, that is not identical to the code shown here. According to what you have typed, functionality is undefined for x=1 and x=2. It needs to check if x "is greater than or equal to" 1. Further, using IF-ELSE would be better than just a lot of IF statements. As such, a switch wouldn't necessarily be any better once compiled. -- kainaw™ 15:33, 13 November 2010 (UTC)

Sorry should of been clearer, the numbers i used where just randomly picked from my head when i wrote it into wikipedia, I'll have a look at binary search though, thanks--81.147.110.238 (talk) 15:49, 14 November 2010 (UTC)

Random Numbers

I'm looking for a simple program which can generate random numbers between 1 and 100 and list the frequency which each number comes up. I searched with google and found plenty of random number gen erators, but couldn't find anything specific to this, ie the listing of frequency. The computer operating system is Windows 7. Thanks. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 82.44.55.25 (talk) 14:45, 13 November 2010 (UTC)

Use an array. The program will look like this in PHP (since it is pretty much a prototyping language):

$a = array();
for($i=1; $i<=100; $i++) $a[$i]=0; // Preset all values to zero.
for($i=0; $i<999999; $i++) // Generate 999999 random numbers.
{
  $r = rand(1,100); // Generate a random number 1 to 100
  $a[$r]++; // Increment the count for $r
}
for($i=1; $i<=100; $i++) print $i.": ".$a[$i]."\n"; // Print the frequency of each index.

It is rather simple to rewrite this in any common programming language. -- kainaw™ 15:27, 13 November 2010 (UTC)

Note that the frequency distribution can hypothetically vary a lot depending on how good the pseudorandom algorithm is. --Mr.98 (talk) 21:29, 13 November 2010 (UTC)

C++ header file problem

hi all,

i had been writing programms in C++ that was kept in C drive of my computer (it contains files of window), later i had to re install the windows,after doing so i putthe folder ie TC in c drive again. Now whenever i am making a programm and compling it a error shows up { actually every function is flashed as undefined or nut having a prototype but i know root error}

      Unable to open include file 'IOSTREAM.H '

this error shows up with name of every header file. When i press F1(help), under Possible Causes it shows :

The named file does not exit ---i know it exist i checked it out

An #include file included itself ---- i didane understood what it means please explain.

You donot have files set in CONFIG.SYS on your root directory. --- this i suspect most

Under solutions it shows:

Verify that the named file exists -- that i checked

set FILES = 20 in CONFIG.SYS --- could you please tell me how to do this

TAnx :) very much good night --Myownid420 (talk) 17:13, 13 November 2010 (UTC)

• Unable to open include file 'IOSTREAM.H' - note that C++ syntax has changed somewhat from the early days. Modern convention is that C++ standard library headers are specified without the ".h" e.g. #include <iostream> (new way) vs. #include <iostream.h> (old way) - I don't know what your compiler is expecting.
• The named file does not exi[s]t - even if the file exists, the compiler may not be looking for it in the correct location. You may need to update the search paths where your compiler is looking for header files (how to do this varies based on the compiler).
• An #include file included itself - Circular includes (a circular dependency) occur when you, e.g. have the line #include "example.h" in example.h itself, or in another header file which is itself included in example.h. This is the main reason for "include guards", the #ifndef/#define/#endif constructs that most C/C++ programs use in their header files.
• set FILES = 20 in CONFIG.SYS - CONFIG.SYS is a DOS configuration file, usually located in the root directory of the boot drive (i.e. C:\). For recent versions of Windows, it is completely superfluous, and may not even exist. The only reason for it to exist is for legacy support of DOS applications.

My impression is that you are either using a very old version of DOS/Windows, or you are using a very old C++ compiler. Unless you absolutely need the legacy support that an old compiler provides, I would highly recommend getting a modern C++ compiler. GCC is a well-regarded, free compiler available for multiple operating systems. Cygwin and mingw are Windows versions of GCC. -- 174.21.243.119 (talk) 19:39, 13 November 2010 (UTC)

the problem is that we are being tought C++ in school, i can use new versions of compiler but that will not be the as in our school, so i may feel incompatible .i am using version 3.0 and using windows XP service pack 3. i am open to all suggestions thanx--Myownid420 (talk) 02:45, 14 November 2010 (UTC)

Version 3 of which compiler? Also, how are you running the compiler (GUI/command line/etc.)? -- 174.21.243.119 (talk) 19:35, 14 November 2010 (UTC)

It looks like the compiler is Borland Turbo C (the OP says "after doing so i putthe folder ie TC in c drive again"). I think this might be the problem. If the folder containing Turbo C was simply copied into the C drive, anything set up during a full installation won't have happened, and so things like PATH statements may be in error. My suggestion would be to reinstall Turbo C. --Phil Holmes (talk) 18:34, 15 November 2010 (UTC)

Did Google have first data-center cooling towers?

I've heard that Google's data centers were the first ones to use cooling towers. Is that right? 209.42.105.74 (talk) 18:17, 13 November 2010 (UTC)

Nope. Water-cooling has existed for a very very long time in the computer industry. Cray-2 is famous for its unique shape, designed to facilitate water-cooling. Even before this, chilled water systems have been used to cool mainframes; and water coolant was commonly used even for pre-digital electronics (like RADARs and power stations). So, if anybody wants to claim that Google was the first to use a cooling-tower, they'll have to come up with some pedantic definitions of "first", "water", "cooling", and "tower." They might be able to make a claim for "biggest" towers specifically for cooling computers, but even that is a bit hard to back up; this New York Times article Google's not-so-very-secret weapon describes their cooling towers in an Oregon data center, but it isn't clear from the article how large they are. Nonetheless, massive chilled water plants are a common part of any large building or infrastructure, especially one that uses massive quantities of industrial equipment or electronics. IBM Poughkeepsie just installed 1700 tons of water-cooling capacity. And, the City of Toronto's cooling system will blow Google's towers out of the figurative water: they use deep lake water cooling, with all of Lake Ontario as a cold reservoir, to provide 270 megawatts of thermal relief for most of their downtown. Nimur (talk) 20:25, 13 November 2010 (UTC)

To be precise, the CRAY-2 was not directly water-cooled. The processors, memory, and power supplies were immersed in Fluorinert. IIRC, the Fluorinert was also circulated at low speeds from the bottom of the chassis to the top to ensure that it flowed between the densely packed circuit boards. The Fluorinert was then pumped to chilled water heat exchangers, where the heat was ultimately removed by radiators.

To answer the OP, Google was not the first to have data centers cooled by air conditioners. These have been around for a very long time, and I would imagine that these large air conditioners would have cooling towers (according to our article on cooling towers) so the claim that Google was the first to use this equipment in a data center is unlikely. Rilak (talk) 00:19, 14 November 2010 (UTC)

ipv6 and ipv4 question

hello

i need to view ipv6 website by mein isp not work with only ipv4. how to convert ipv6 to ipv4? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 188.72.107.117 (talk) 21:51, 13 November 2010 (UTC)

Section header added for the above question. Comet Tuttle (talk) 23:58, 13 November 2010 (UTC)

As I understand it, and as I understand your question, it's probably beyond your control. Assuming your operating system and browser are IPv6 compatible (and if they're relatively recent they probably are), it's probably either your hardware or possibly your ISP that isn't compatible with IPv6. If it's your hardware you can upgrade, but if it's your ISP, then there's not much you can do other than change ISPs or access the site via one that has upgraded. Maybe the site you are trying to view has an IPv4 version though? --jjron (talk) 05:22, 14 November 2010 (UTC)

Not really true. There are various ways to get IPv6 working even if your ISP doesn't have native IPv6. 6to4, Teredo, tunnel provider. There will depend on your OS, internet config, router/firewall if any and ISP (although I don't think it's often the ISP itself will be a hinderance unless youre behind a NAT or something). In some cases they may automatically work, but not all or always (and that's of course assuming they are enabled, simply enabling IPv6 may not be enough in some cases). Nil Einne (talk) 11:09, 14 November 2010 (UTC)

MP3 Download

I was looking at this website which allows one to generate a Morse code translation and then turn that into an MP3 file on this subpage. Has anyone any idea how I might download that MP3 file from the site to my computer? — Fly by Night (talk) 23:08, 13 November 2010 (UTC)

Where is says "Click here for the mp3 file", that's the link. To download it, right click and select "Save link as..." in Firefox, "Save Target as..." in Internet Explorer, or "Save linked content as..." in Opera. Then a dialog box should appear, selected where you want to save the file, and click save. 82.44.55.25 (talk) 23:48, 13 November 2010 (UTC)

November 14

internet homepages and tabs

I have currently Internet Explorer 8, and was wondering, is there any way of setting it such that, without changing my current homepage, when I open a new tab it comes up with Wikipedia straight away, rather than the usual page of options? The only way I can see from a quick look around the toolbars is having the site open as a second tab every time I start the internet, which I do not particularly want.

148.197.121.205 (talk) 11:28, 14 November 2010 (UTC)

Set Wikipedia as a shortcut in your Favorites Bar. Then to open it in a new tab middle-click it, or right-click and chose Open in New Tab (assuming you're on a PC). --jjron (talk) 12:08, 14 November 2010 (UTC)

Desparately needed drivers for the ethernet contoller

Hola..! I have searched for the needed drivers but couldnt find any link to download for free. Anyone if help me , it'll really be appreciated. Some of its specifications are: Ethernet Controller .... Unknown device from Dell Computer Corp .... Chip: Intel Corporation 82544XT PRO/1000 MT Gigabit Ethernet Controller Full Details PNP ID VEN_8086&DEV_100E&SUBSYS_01511028&REV_02 Windows Detective Device .. Ethernet Controller Detected Chip Vender ...Intel Corporation Detected Chip ... 82544XT PRO/1000 MT Gigabit Ethernet Controller Detected OEM Vender ....Dell Computer Corp Detected OEM Device ...82544XT PRO/1000 MT Desktop Adapter

I also have PCI Simple Communications Controller drivers missing... It's specifications are: ..Unknown Device from Intel Corporation ..Chip: Intel Corporation 536EP V.92 PCI Modem Full Details PNP ID VEN_8086&DEV_1040&SUBSYS_10008086&REV_00 Windows Detected Device PCI Simple Communications Controller Detected Chip Vender Intel Corporation Detected Chip 536EP V.92 PCI Modem Detected OEM Vender Intel Corporation Detected OEM Device PRO/Wireless LAN 2100 3B Mini PCI Adapter I'll be really greatful..--119.153.56.37 (talk) 13:11, 14 November 2010 (UTC)

Assuming the PC has not been radically changed from the time it was purchased from Dell, the Dell website should be able to provide all the drivers used in their computers. Go to their website for your country (maybe this page) and enter the Service Tag (it should be on a small sticker somewhere on the computer's casing). That should give you access to the available support information including driver downloads, user manuals, memory upgrade options, etc. Astronaut (talk) 01:51, 15 November 2010 (UTC)

Ping Localhost

I asked a question a while ago about why pinging localhost on my own Windows 7 computer suddenly stopped working (old question). The answer seemed to be that Microsoft doesn't like ping and disabled it, and that there's some arduous and undocumented method you have to go though to enable the "echo server". However I discovered today that pinging my ip address from this site works as expected so my computers echo server must be online and working. But I still can't ping localhost from my own computer. Does anyone have any idea how to fix this? 82.44.55.25 (talk) 16:07, 14 November 2010 (UTC)

Are you sure it's your computer responding to the ping, and not a modem/router ? Unilynx (talk) 16:44, 14 November 2010 (UTC)

Yes, I followed the instructions from the last thread on blocking ICMP packets with the firewall. When I do, pinging from that site fails. 82.44.55.25 (talk) 17:28, 14 November 2010 (UTC)

You mean with the Windows firewall? Also I can't recall and am lazy to check but are you pinging localhost or 127.0.0.1? Nil Einne (talk) 12:51, 15 November 2010 (UTC)

localhost should point to 127.0.0.1, so it should not matter. However, it is perfectly possible (in theory and in other OSs, at least; I do not know anything about Windows) that the echo server is disabled on 127.0.0.1, but listens on the interface assigned to the external IP address. 82.*, can you ping your real IP address (not localhost) from your computer?—Emil J. 14:49, 15 November 2010 (UTC)

I've tried pinging "localhost", "127.0.0.1", "::1", and my ip address from my computer. All fail with "request timed out". I looked in the host file too in case something had gone wrong there, but localhost is still set to 127.0.0.1 82.44.55.25 (talk) 14:54, 15 November 2010 (UTC)

Thanks for the clarification but are you referring to the Windows firewall of the computer that doesn't respond (with which you blocked ICMP packets and pinging from the remote site fail)? (I'm trying to understand why you believe it was your computer not the modem responding.) Also have you tried pinging the IP address of the computer as Emil suggested? BTW, have you ever on the current OS installation, installed any other firewall or other network software likely to screw around with the network stack like any sort of virtual machine software, Hamachi, bandwidth monitoring software, blocking software, AFS clients, Cisco clients etc? Some searches finds these as common culprits for problems and they can become reenabled unexpectedly (and can sometimes still cause problems when disabled I know this from personal experience too) and even if uninstalled could potentially have left something unwanted. Nil Einne (talk) 15:38, 15 November 2010 (UTC)

Yes, I blocked ICMP with the Windows firewall on my computer. When I did, pinging from the remote site stopped working. But when I removed the block in the Windows firewall, pinging from the remote site works again. I assume if it was the cable modem responding to the ping that pinging from the remote site would work regardless of what I set in the Windows firewall. Yes, I've tried pinging "82.44.55.25" from my computer but it doesn't work. I had not installed anything recently when the problem began back in September, since then I've only updated Firefox a few times. 82.44.55.25 (talk) 15:59, 15 November 2010 (UTC)

In that case I agree it does seem to be your computer responding to the remote computer. Does your computer actually see 82.44 as belonging to itself? I think it may from memory of the problems you had trying to share your connection, but it always pays to be sure. To find out, try ipconfig /all and see (it should show 82.44 somewhere). You will probably need to run this with an admin account with UAC permissions if relevant. You can also post the while result here or somewhere else with a link here, it may help although I admit your question is somewhat outside what I've much experience with and I've never been good at remote diagnostics so not promosing much. Nil Einne (talk) 17:36, 16 November 2010 (UTC)

I appreciate the help. This is the output from ipconfig /all;

Extended content

Windows IP Configuration Host Name . . . . . . . . . . . . : Unknown-PC Primary Dns Suffix . . . . . . . : Node Type . . . . . . . . . . . . : Hybrid IP Routing Enabled. . . . . . . . : No WINS Proxy Enabled. . . . . . . . : No DNS Suffix Search List. . . . . . : cable.virginmedia.net Ethernet adapter Local Area Connection: Media State . . . . . . . . . . . : Media disconnected Connection-specific DNS Suffix . : Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Realtek PCIe FE Family Controller Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-24-21-1A-8E-CB DHCP Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : No Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes Ethernet adapter Local Area Connection 2: Connection-specific DNS Suffix . : cable.virginmedia.net Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Realtek RTL8139/810x Family Fast Ethernet NIC Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-40-E1-22-19-18 DHCP Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : Yes Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes Link-local IPv6 Address . . . . . : fe80::9553:47f2:a891:b37e%24(Preferred) IPv4 Address. . . . . . . . . . . : 82.44.55.25(Preferred) Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.254.0 Lease Obtained. . . . . . . . . . : 16 November 2010 05:34:23 PM Lease Expires . . . . . . . . . . : 21 November 2010 03:44:11 PM Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : 82.44.54.1 DHCP Server . . . . . . . . . . . : 62.30.112.122 DHCPv6 IAID . . . . . . . . . . . : 402669793 DHCPv6 Client DUID. . . . . . . . : 00-01-00-01-12-87-29-C8-00-24-21-1A-8E-CB DNS Servers . . . . . . . . . . . : 194.168.4.100 194.168.8.100 NetBIOS over Tcpip. . . . . . . . : Enabled Tunnel adapter isatap.{435811AD-783E-453D-8997-F1544F3D38D2}: Media State . . . . . . . . . . . : Media disconnected Connection-specific DNS Suffix . : Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Microsoft ISATAP Adapter Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-00-00-00-00-00-00-E0 DHCP Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : No Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes Tunnel adapter Local Area Connection* 12: Connection-specific DNS Suffix . : Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Microsoft Teredo Tunneling Adapter Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-00-00-00-00-00-00-E0 DHCP Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : No Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes IPv6 Address. . . . . . . . . . . : 2001:0:5ef5:79fd:202c:1b28:add3:c8e6(Pref erred) Link-local IPv6 Address . . . . . : fe80::202c:1b28:add3:c8e6%11(Preferred) Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : NetBIOS over Tcpip. . . . . . . . : Disabled Tunnel adapter isatap.cable.virginmedia.net: Media State . . . . . . . . . . . : Media disconnected Connection-specific DNS Suffix . : cable.virginmedia.net Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Microsoft ISATAP Adapter #2 Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-00-00-00-00-00-00-E0 DHCP Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : No Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes Tunnel adapter 6TO4 Adapter: Media State . . . . . . . . . . . : Media disconnected Connection-specific DNS Suffix . : Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Microsoft 6to4 Adapter Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-00-00-00-00-00-00-E0 DHCP Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : No Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes Tunnel adapter Reusable Microsoft 6To4 Adapter: Connection-specific DNS Suffix . : cable.virginmedia.net Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Microsoft 6to4 Adapter #2 Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-00-00-00-00-00-00-E0 DHCP Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : No Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes IPv6 Address. . . . . . . . . . . : 2002:522c:3719::522c:3719(Preferred) Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : 2002:c058:6301::c058:6301 DNS Servers . . . . . . . . . . . : 194.168.4.100 194.168.8.100 NetBIOS over Tcpip. . . . . . . . : Disabled

82.44.55.25 (talk) 18:12, 16 November 2010 (UTC)

Actually on Windows 7 it's not uncommon localhsot will point to ::1 AFAIK. (And yes this was significant given the info at the time since most likely the external site was pinging the IPv4 address so if the OP had not tried 127.0.0.1 but only ::1 it could indicate the echo server was disabled for IPv6 or something of that sort.) Nil Einne (talk) 15:18, 15 November 2010 (UTC)

RAmos T9 and Android

Does the RAmos T9 portable media player run Android? If not are there any good portable media players out there running android with a screen that is at least the size of that of the iPod Touch? --Melab±1 ☎ 19:10, 14 November 2010 (UTC)

just get an iPod touch. It's obviously what you really want, and you'll go through 2-3 media players of different kinds which you won't really be satisfied with and which, in total, you'll spend like twice the money on as just buying one iPod touch. Owner satsifaction is really high, so I am sure you will like it, and you can have it for years. also, you will not be seen as nerdy. 91.183.62.45 (talk) 10:24, 15 November 2010 (UTC)

You might consider the upcoming T11pro: see here or other in the T11 series. 212.123.243.220 (talk) 12:54, 15 November 2010 (UTC)

html

In html, I know how to specify alternative text. But how can you specify an alternative image? 82.44.55.25 (talk) 22:43, 14 November 2010 (UTC)

Why don't you tell us what you think an alternative image would do? Alternative text is there for people with text-only browsers. It's not clear to me what an alternative image would be for then, if that's the analogy. (In Netscape Navigator, there was an IMG attribute called LOWSRC that let you designate low-res versions of images. But it's not standard and probably no modern browsers support it, as far as I know.) Depending on what you want, there might be a Javascript work-around. But there's no standard "alternative image" option. --Mr.98 (talk) 23:01, 14 November 2010 (UTC)

I was thinking that if an image displayed on a page became unavailable, for example the site it's hosted on being down or the image being deleted, a different image could be displayed in its place. Perhaps the same image hosted on a different server, or a "this image is gone" image placeholder. 82.44.55.25 (talk) 00:42, 15 November 2010 (UTC)

(What if the alternative image is not available?) You could do this with Javascript, but it isn't standard HTML at all. Here's one such implementation. It could be modified to be more general (e.g. to have every image have its own unique fallback), pretty easily, if you wanted.--Mr.98 (talk) 01:08, 15 November 2010 (UTC)

<object data="sourceone">
	<object data="sourcetwo"></object>
</object>

…or…

<object data="sourceone">
	<img src="sourcetwo" alt="">
</object>

…as desired; http://w3.org/TR/html401/struct/objects.html#idx-accessibility-1 ¦ Reisio (talk) 08:24, 16 November 2010 (UTC)

November 15

What ever happened to German Murder Case against Wikipedia?

What ever happened to German Murder Case against Wikipedia? Wired. Did the lawsuit ever happen? The Resident Anthropologist (talk) 00:19, 15 November 2010 (UTC)

Not really a Computing question and probably better asked on the Miscellaneous desk. However, we have articles on Walter Sedlmayr (the victim) and Wolfgang Werlé and Manfred Lauber (his murderers). The latter article contains a section about the cases against Wikipedia. Astronaut (talk) 01:42, 15 November 2010 (UTC)

List of College/University IP Allocations

In thinking about this year's fundraiser I thought it would be an interesting exercise to attempt to target colleges and university students by the IP blocks assigned to colleges and universities. For example, The University of Tulsa has 129.244.0.0/16 and MIT has 18.0.0.0/8. However, I was unable to find such a list online or through any of the registries. Does anyone know if such a list exists? Thanks, In2thats12

Block/blacklists used by P2P users tend to include educational institutions in their ranges you may block. E.g. I just checked [4] and it does have. Bear in mind you're talking massive lists, the list for educational institutions I just downloaded is 600k 7zip compressed or nearly 3mb uncompressed (this includes the ranges in range format i.e. 4.0.32.62-4.0.33.4 and the name of who they think is using that range). Note that educational institutions will usually include schools and kindergartens Nil Einne (talk) 12:33, 15 November 2010 (UTC)

Thanks for the response. That's certainly a place to start and see if such a list is easily compilable and verifiable. Yeah, the campaigns I had in mind wouldn't go over too well at an elementary school. In2thats12 (talk) 17:05, 15 November 2010 (UTC)

Might it be easier just to run a DNS resolver on the IP and see if .EDU is at the end? I guess that probably would be slower than a big look-up table. --Mr.98 (talk) 14:02, 15 November 2010 (UTC)

Airlines fare search; full URL

When I search an airline's website for fares, with places and dates selected, is it possible to get the full URL of the search result? I mean the unique URL that will reproduce this search result. Usually I see only the URL of the airlines in the address bar even when the search results are displayed. 180.149.48.245 (talk) 06:44, 15 November 2010 (UTC)

That depends entirely on how they've got their site set up. Which airline? APL (talk) 07:35, 15 November 2010 (UTC)

Batavia Air, TransNusa, Sriwijaya Air or Merpati.180.149.48.245 (talk) 10:16, 15 November 2010 (UTC)

There are two standard, basic ways to send a request for a response to a website: GET and POST. GET requests you can see in the URL. POST requests, you cannot. If you can't see the information in the URL header, they are usually using POST. There is not usually any way to easily view that information. You could, in theory, have a Firefox add-on, I'm sure, that would save the POST data to a file and later let you re-POST it, though that might not work depending on how they have it set up on the site. --Mr.98 (talk) 14:26, 15 November 2010 (UTC)

Thanks for the reply. If there is a unique URL, I can import that data into a spreadsheet application. Is there any way to retrieve data ( fares for various dates) into a spreadsheet by sending multiple POST requests. 180.149.48.245 (talk) 15:58, 15 November 2010 (UTC)

Not that I know of. --Mr.98 (talk) 16:23, 15 November 2010 (UTC)

One thing that often works but is not guaranteed to work: Even on websites that use POST you can usually do exactly the same things with GET instead. So you can figure out the parameters of a POST request and then put them into a GET request, or vice versa. Figuring out the parameters of the POST request is the hardest part. There should be a Firefox extension that allows you to look at that, and then you have to reformat it slightly for GET. However, there is an upper limit on the length of a URL, so if there is too much information in a POST request it may not fit into a GET request even if the server would otherwise support that. Hans Adler 16:48, 15 November 2010 (UTC)

I'm not sure "usually" is correct here. It's either caused by (somewhat dangerous) loose assignment of system variables (which used to be common in PHP about 5 years ago, but has long since been switched off) or requires the programmer to deliberately have the script recognize them as interchangeable. --Mr.98 (talk) 00:20, 16 November 2010 (UTC)

If you are (or have access to) a programmer you can code POSTs in (for example) Visual Basic for Applications, using the Microsoft XMLHTTP object. However, even this may not work in some cases: some web sites try to prevent this sort of automated access by various tricks (e.g. use of cookies). These tricks may be surmountable but in practice it can be hard to know how. AndrewWTaylor (talk) 17:19, 15 November 2010 (UTC)

But airline websites are a classic example of a session-based website. The server stores state about your actions (often, even if you have not logged in), so this violates the conventional wisdom that the same URL will point to the same specific content. This is a design choice by the website architects, who may want to discourage deep linking, bot indexing, and search-engines. Depending on the website, it may be entirely impossible to deep-link to a specific result set. Nimur (talk) 17:21, 15 November 2010 (UTC)

(ec) Even if you get the GET/POST queries set up correctly, it may not work. Many apps use server-side sessions. Instead of storing data in a cookie on your computer (or even temporarily in a query string), the data is stored on the server in a session. After a while, the session expires and the data is lost. By rebuilding the URL, you attempt to get back to the old session. Since it expired, there is nothing there and you may get nothing more than a "Session Expired" page. -- kainaw™ 17:22, 15 November 2010 (UTC)

How do websites like tiket2.com manage to search within these sites. They give only the fare for a single day; but if they are able to get it, they will be able to get the fares for multiple days. 180.149.48.245 (talk) 03:21, 16 November 2010 (UTC)

Subject

Which is better; organizing files by date or by category? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 79.90.180.252 (talk) 15:36, 15 November 2010 (UTC)

Sorry, neither is clearly better than the other; it depends on what sorts of files you're talking about, and your personal taste. For me, I keep business files sorted by category, but I sort my personal photos by date. Comet Tuttle (talk) 16:10, 15 November 2010 (UTC)

"Better" here is relevant to the task at hand. Photos, for example, might be better by category ("Fun times with Jim," "The Lost Pants Incident"), or might be better by date ("July 2010 photos", "September 2010 photos") depending on what you are trying to do with them (finding photos of a person, or finding photos of a day). This is why photo organizing programs that allow you to sort by both thrive, and why there are file organizing programs that let you sort by arbitrary factors as well. --Mr.98 (talk) 17:30, 15 November 2010 (UTC)

IPv6

Resolved

My isp (virgin media) claims they don't offer any ipv6 support at all, "have no plans scheduled in to use ipv6", and "will be sticking with IPv4 as we have more than enough IP addresses in reserve". However, when I visit http://[2620::860:2:21d:9ff:fe33:f235]/ it works. Is the isp clueless about their own service, or is what I'm seeing not actually true ipv6 and some sort of alternative? 82.44.55.25 (talk) 20:19, 15 November 2010 (UTC)

Your OS may have set up a IPv6 tunnel. Unilynx (talk) 22:31, 15 November 2010 (UTC)

Would that be on by default in Windows 7? I've never manually set anything to do with ipv6 82.44.55.25 (talk) 22:43, 15 November 2010 (UTC)

I can't recall for certain but I think Windows 7 enables teredo tunneling by default and this is used when IPv6 is not provided by the connection. I know various programs like uTorrent try to enable it in any case. Nil Einne (talk) 08:02, 16 November 2010 (UTC)

Ok thanks 82.44.55.25 (talk) 09:53, 16 November 2010 (UTC)

Actually on further consideration and looking at a Windows XP config when answering your other question my answer may be incomplete. I believe Windows 7 also provides 6to4 tunneling and this is probably tried first (if IPv6 is not provided by the connection). That won't usually work behind a NAT router though so Windows will probably next try teredo. Given your config, 6to4 would probably work so you may be using that. ipconfig /all should tell you how you're getting the IPv6 I think. (Your IPv6 address would help too.) Oh and from searching I now remember there's also ISATAP which I think will fit in somewhere, probably either before or after 6to4. (This answer is probably still incomplete, my IPv6 knowledge is primarily around setting it up for myself plus some extra.)

BTW if I'm right about your config your config, if you want to have a static (but considering it's free with no guarantees) IPv6 address you could likely set up a tunnel from a tunnel broker relatively easily (setting up behind a NAT is often possible but more difficult and likely to limit your POPs). This may or may not provide better IPv6 performance. Both Hurricane Electric [5] and SixXS [6] have POPs in the UK. see also List of IPv6 tunnel brokers.

Nil Einne (talk) 17:53, 16 November 2010 (UTC)

List of all the "about:<name>" that are recognized by FireFox and MS InternetExplorer

Resolved

In the web-browsers Firefox and IE one may type in certain combinations of "about:<name>" in the address field, to get to special pages. (For instance: "About:Blank").
Is there one "about:<name>" that gives you a list of all the other "about:<name>"s?
If not: are they listed on a web page somewhere? --178.232.169.222 (talk) 21:38, 15 November 2010 (UTC)

about: URI scheme has a pretty comprehensive list. Regarding IE, only about:blank and about:home still work (the other about: pages just allow access to error pages). Xenon54 (talk) 21:53, 15 November 2010 (UTC)

http://kb.mozillazine.org/About:config_entries ¦ Reisio (talk) 08:15, 16 November 2010 (UTC)

Thank you!  :-)
--(OP) Seren-dipper 17:50, 20 November 2010 (UTC)

November 16

windwl32.rom

Hello Everyone,

   Upon booting up (or restarting), my computer now displays the message "There was a problem starting windwl32.rom The specified module could not be found." This missing module does not seem to cause any problems thereafter. What is this module, does its absence adversely affect the operating-system, and what is the appropriate remedy?

   Thank you - any insight is appreciated.

That file is not a necessary part of the standard Windows system. A web search indicates that the file "windwl32.rom" is associated with a malware infection. You may want to completely reinstall your operating system. At the very least, consider running some malware-removal software. Nimur (talk) 01:06, 16 November 2010 (UTC)

I'd stab that it's Vundo. A strong rinse in antivirals could fix it. ResMar 03:56, 16 November 2010 (UTC)

I have performed a full scan (which took three hours) of my computer with McAfee Security Center, and it reported "No Issues Detected: During your scan, McAfee did not detect viruses, spyware, or other threats. Remember, you can run a full scan any time to thoroughly check your PC for threats." Nonetheless, the message "There was a problem starting windwl32.rom The specified module could not be found." is still displayed upon booting up. How do I get rid of this malware without wiping my C: partition and reinstalling my operating-system; this is not possible because I do not have the reinstallation disc(s). Rocketshiporion♫ 11:52, 16 November 2010 (UTC)

In the past, I've had issues where the virus is removed, but the registry entries that started it at boot-time are still there. Virus detectors tend not to pick that up, presumably because they look for the virus itself, not its lingering side-effects.

That sounds like what you're describing. If the virus itself was still there, you wouldn't get the 'module not found' error, it would find the module, start it, and do nefarious things to your computer.

If you're comfortable poking around in your computer, you might use the registry editor tp search for all references to "windwl32.rom" and get rid of them. You do that at your own risk, though. You can seriously break your computer with the registry editor. APL (talk) 15:26, 16 November 2010 (UTC)

Perhaps running MalwareBytes Anti Malware will help? Maybe changing the executable name may work (if the malware is still present, that is) General Rommel (talk) 21:24, 16 November 2010 (UTC)

   I ran Malwarebytes Anti-Malware, and then used regedit.exe to search for remove one remaining reference to windwl32.rom (which I discovered under HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SECURITY). My computer no longer displays the "There was a problem starting windwl32.rom The specified module could not be found." message upon boot-up. So, thank you to everyone, and in particular to Nimur (for informing me that windwl32.rom is not part of a standard Windows system), APL (for suggesting the use of the registry-editor) and General Rommel (for pointing me to Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware). Rocketshiporion♫ 22:23, 17 November 2010 (UTC)

PPP connection with Ubuntu

I am trying to connect to the Internet through a PPP connection.

I thought I had everything right and gnome-ppp appears to establish a connection, but no browser seems to recognize the connection. I have tried changing the proxy preferences of the browsers but no luck so far.

I am using a cell-phone as USB modem and I have connected with this same cell-phone before (but under Windows).

My firewall recognizes the PPP connection. (The problem is not the firewall, even if I turn it off, the problem is not solved).

Thanks in advance for any help.

This is what I get from gnome-ppp's log:

Extended content

WVCONF: /root/.wvdial.conf GNOME PPP: Connecting... GNOME PPP: STDERR: --> Ignoring malformed input line: ";Do NOT edit this file by hand!" GNOME PPP: STDERR: --> WvDial: Internet dialer version 1.60 GNOME PPP: STDERR: --> Cannot get information for serial port. GNOME PPP: STDERR: --> Initializing modem. GNOME PPP: STDERR: --> Sending: ATZ GNOME PPP: STDERR: ATZ GNOME PPP: STDERR: OK GNOME PPP: STDERR: --> Sending: ATQ0 V1 E1 S0=0 &C1 &D2 +FCLASS=0 GNOME PPP: STDERR: ATQ0 V1 E1 S0=0 &C1 &D2 +FCLASS=0 GNOME PPP: STDERR: OK GNOME PPP: STDERR: --> Modem initialized. GNOME PPP: STDERR: --> Sending: ATM1L3DP*99# GNOME PPP: STDERR: --> Waiting for carrier. GNOME PPP: STDERR: ATM1L3DP*99# GNOME PPP: STDERR: CONNECT GNOME PPP: STDERR: --> Carrier detected. Starting PPP immediately. GNOME PPP: STDERR: --> Starting pppd at Tue Nov 16 00:04:30 2010 GNOME PPP: STDERR: --> Pid of pppd: 6981 GNOME PPP: STDERR: --> Using interface ppp0 GNOME PPP: STDERR: --> Authentication (CHAP) started GNOME PPP: STDERR: --> Authentication (CHAP) successful GNOME PPP: STDERR: --> Terminate Request (Message: "No network protocols running" ) GNOME PPP: STDERR: --> Terminate Request (Message: "No network protocols running" ) GNOME PPP: STDERR: --> Disconnecting at Tue Nov 16 00:05:08 2010 GNOME PPP: STDERR: --> The PPP daemon has died: A modem hung up the phone (exit code = 16) GNOME PPP: STDERR: --> man pppd explains pppd error codes in more detail. GNOME PPP: STDERR: --> Try again and look into /var/log/messages and the wvdial and pppd man pages for more information.

Mr.K. (talk) 12:29, 16 November 2010 (UTC)

Do look at /var/log/messages like it said. There's probably more information there. It seems to be failing in the IPCP phase (which is where the 2 endpoints negotiate IP addresses) but from the incomplete log above we can't see why. Also you could try adding "debug" to /etc/ppp/options and if you're going to follow up, also mention the name of your service provider. 67.162.90.113 (talk) 08:25, 17 November 2010 (UTC)

OK. Thanks for the help so far. At the bottom is the information from /var/log/messages. You seem to be right when you say that the problem is the IPCP. Actually I do not get any IP number, even if gnome-ppp sets the status as connected and report that some data (a couple of KB) is being transmitted.

My service provider is the Spanish branch of Orange.

Extended content

Nov 17 12:41:01 mrk-laptop pppd[6413]: pppd 2.4.4 started by root, uid 0 Nov 17 12:41:02 mrk-laptop pppd[6413]: Using interface ppp0 Nov 17 12:41:02 mrk-laptop pppd[6413]: Connect: ppp0 <--> /dev/ttyUSB0 Nov 17 12:41:02 mrk-laptop pppd[6413]: CHAP authentication succeeded Nov 17 12:41:02 mrk-laptop pppd[6413]: CHAP authentication succeeded Nov 17 12:41:02 mrk-laptop kernel: [ 1201.019309] PPP BSD Compression module registered Nov 17 12:41:02 mrk-laptop kernel: [ 1201.177566] PPP Deflate Compression module registered Nov 17 12:41:34 mrk-laptop pppd[6413]: IPCP: timeout sending Config-Requests Nov 17 12:41:40 mrk-laptop pppd[6413]: Connection terminated. Nov 17 12:41:40 mrk-laptop pppd[6413]: Modem hangup Nov 17 12:41:40 mrk-laptop pppd[6413]: Exit.

for enquiry

dear madam/sir:

my question is if i want to get any information from wikipidia , what procedure will follow to the required information,

eg: how can i get the list of I.T parks in U.A.E from wikipidia —Preceding unsigned comment added by 122.166.12.77 (talk) 16:20, 16 November 2010 (UTC)

Hi. We have a list of technology centers worldwide; but the only one listed in UAE is Dubai Internet City. That article mentions a few others, including Ras Al Khaimah IT Park. We may have information on other technology centers in UAE, but it doesn't look like they're organized in a single list yet. Nimur (talk) 17:08, 16 November 2010 (UTC)

If your question is about how to locate information on Wikipedia; you can either type keywords into the Search-Box (which is located on the top-right corner of every page in Wikipedia) or use Wikipedia's Search page. Rocketshiporion♫ 22:29, 17 November 2010 (UTC)

Creating a wireless network using an aircard

I have an aircard from Verizon Wireless. I also have a wireless printer and a Wii. I was under the impression that I could get a router to plug my aircard in to, to create a wireless network that I can connect my computer, printer and Wii to. The two options I have come up with are the Verizon MiFi and a Cradlepoint. I have read that the MiFi is not worth the charges when going over your minutes, which apparently happens very frequently. But I do not know anything about the Cradlepoint, which has been a very popular suggestion. Can anyone help me find out about the Cradlepoint, which one I should get, or something else that can give me a wirless network without breaking my wallet? Thanks in advance!Amstokes1 (talk) 18:31, 16 November 2010 (UTC)

Your friend asked the question below, and I answered it there - but the article on celluar routers might help. A MiFi will do what your aircard + cellular router could do, with less components. I'm not an expert on Verizon's data plans, but if you have unlimited data it should not be an issue with either device. If you are out of contract on your aircard, you may be able to get a MiFi for cheap or free with a contract renewal. Do keep in mind that DSL or cable modem Internet access will likely be cheaper in the long run, and provide you with faster speeds and greater reliability. It's not mobile like the aircard or MiFi, though. coreycubed / talk 19:14, 17 November 2010 (UTC)

making "sed" match only once

Resolved

I'm trying to make a single change in a text stream using sed; that is, I want one change for the whole stream, not one change per line. So I've been running:

printf "hello jello\nsmello\n" | sed "s/ll/y/1"

and getting

heyo jello
smeyo

whereas I want

heyo jello
smello

Is there a way to make sed make a substitution exactly once, or alternatively to make it stop treating each line as an independent thing? 87.112.174.140 (talk) 18:34, 16 November 2010 (UTC)

Add "0,/pattern" to the beginning of the sed command, as in: printf "hello jello\nsmello\n" | sed "0,/ll/s/ll/y/1" -- kainaw™ 19:31, 16 November 2010 (UTC)

That's just the ticket. Thanks for your help. 87.112.174.140 (talk) 19:46, 16 November 2010 (UTC)

When did "I think I have I a virus/malware/spyware etc" = OMFG REINSTALL YOUR ENTIRE OPERATING SYSTEM FROM SCRATCH BEFORE YOUR PC EXPLODES!

I've noticed at least a couple of answers recently where the poster has reported a possible infection with some kind of rogue program and the first or an early answer is to advise them to reinstall their operating system. Unless you are pretty tech savvy, this is NOT a trivial procedure - it's time consuming, not everyone has the original installation discs and they then have to download every security fix and patch and probably reinstall all their software. Surely this should only be considered as a LAST resort when all other attempts to remove the infection have failed? Most normal computer users will never install or reinstall an operating system EVER - they are liable to simply replace the computer with a new one with the same or a later version of Windows. Why would anyone advise this as an initial response to the problem? Exxolon (talk) 22:40, 16 November 2010 (UTC)

Some of the viruses nowadays are pretty damn tenacious. Getting rid of them can almost literally be as much trouble as reinstalling. HalfShadow 22:42, 16 November 2010 (UTC)

I think its because of one or two fanatics here. I disagreed with that approach. I'm tempted to delete the viruses article - the one with a nuclear plume - and start again, but I bet it would get reverted by its 'owner'. 92.15.16.149 (talk) 23:28, 16 November 2010 (UTC)

Because it's a cure all way (99.999% of the time). Also it gives them a chance to make sure the computer won't die another time. And also makes sure that the virus is fully cured, some programs may not fully remove the virus and traces may remain. General Rommel (talk) 23:51, 16 November 2010 (UTC)

Its a cure, like amputating your head wopuld be if you have a headache. 92.28.250.11 (talk) 11:04, 17 November 2010 (UTC)

In What Colour are your Bits, (which is actually an essay only tangentially related to malware), there is a pretty profound discussion of why we trust a "cleanly installed" operating system, but we do not trust a compromised operating system. "The trouble is that because any of our files might be infected including the tools we would use to test for infection, we can't reliably compute the "is infected" function,..." This problem is about establishing a base-level of certainty about what is running. When a system is compromised, we don't know how badly it is compromised. Basic features - like "copy file" and "delete file" may be replaced with illicit versions by the mal-ware. By definition, using any tool to clean a malware infection is trusting that the malware has not taken certain defensive actions. To be on the safe side, we presume that any compromised system is completely compromised, and can not be trusted to assist in "cleaning" itself. I don't think this is heavy-handed - I think it is a correct assessment of the way malware works in 2010. Can you, for instance, guarantee that your shell32.dll is the proper one? Suppose you even want to use a technical mechanism to verify it: let's consider the MD5 hash of certain critical system files. Do you know their MD5 hash off the top of your head? Can you trust that any program(s) you use to compute or verify any MD5 hashes will operate properly when you know your system has already been compromised? You can't - so if you feel comfortable "trusting" the compromised system, you're taking a huge risk. Nimur (talk) 06:47, 17 November 2010 (UTC)

As the OP points out, what do the fanatics suggest that a user does who has not got any OS disks - probably most people? 92.28.250.11 (talk) 10:59, 17 November 2010 (UTC)

If you HONESTLY want this from the opposite point of view... Whenever I visit anyone (friends, family, enemies...), or even whenever I get a phone call, it is the same scenario. "Hi, how you doing..." That is just a formality. It doesn't take long before the conversation turns to, "Hey, Mr. PhD of Computer Science, make my computer stop doing (fill in the blank)." Every single time, this error just appeared. The user did nothing to the computer at all. Did he install anything? No. Was he running any programs? No. Was he even anywhere near the computer within the last few days? No. Has he ever turned on the computer since he took it out of the box? No. The user will not admit to ever touching the computer, but wants me to fix some random error. I know that he installed something stupid, but he won't tell me what it was. So, I don't want to waste my time screwing around with his computer. I tell him it is a Windows thing. Fdisk, format, reinstall. What? No install disks? That's a Windows thing. Go get some. Then, Fdisk, format, reinstall. What? You want to save your files? Losing files is a Windows thing. Fdisk, format, reinstall, and forgot about all those files you lost. Of course, it isn't a "Windows thing." It is a "user thing." But, after 20+ years of "fix my computer" requests, I simply don't care to poke around through Windows to figure out what the user did so I can try to figure out how to fix it. So, I do not answer the "how do I make Windows stop doing (fill in the blank) questions here." But, I do perfectly understand those who answer those questions with "Fdisk, format, reinstall." -- kainaw™ 13:29, 17 November 2010 (UTC)

Under most circumstances, I like to recommend the standard virus scan + any virus specific removal tools + one other malware scanner (ideally run off a CD/flash drive). However in some cases, it really is easier to simply back up what's important and start from scratch (as the last virus question seemed to indicate). If scans and removal tools have already been run and there are still signs of the virus or if it left junk around, the process of cleaning up after it can often be more time consuming and painful than simply reinstalling the OS and all your programs. It should never be the first thing to try, but once there are signs of the current operating system being too far gone to bother cleaning it, then it's a valid suggestion. 206.131.39.6 (talk) 15:42, 17 November 2010 (UTC)

I think the problem is if you have malware in the first place and then have to ask here for help, there's a fair chance properly removing the malware is beyond your level of expertise. Reinstalling isn't trivial although many OEM computers come with some sort of partition or media which may make it easier. Reinstalling software is a pain, but if your the person who's got malware because you try everything and sundry it may be best to start fresh and if you're not there's a far chance software consists of browser and associated plugins, perhaps an email client, perhaps some Office software and perhaps a media player. As others have said, even if you do have a high level of expertise guaranteeing theres no trace arguably is very difficult although depending on the malware you may be confident enough for your purposes. Nil Einne (talk) 16:05, 17 November 2010 (UTC)

As for what do the fanatics suggest that a user does who has not got any OS disks — I disagree with the premise, and also with the false "OMFG" premise of the original poster's section header; I am not a "fanatic" about this, but personally I prefer to be sure that the malware is gone, and the only sure way, as pointed out above, is to reinstall from scratch, because it is impossible for a user to know what exactly has been compromised, despite the best intentions of anti-malware software writers. As for the answer to the question, it seems obvious that if a user doesn't have the OS disks or the equivalent partition (as all HP computers have these days, for example), then the user has no choice but to gamble, and just use anti-malware software, and hope for the best. Comet Tuttle (talk) 18:12, 17 November 2010 (UTC)

The Wikipedia article about viruses ought to suggest doing scans etc first, not just Armagedon. 92.15.28.182 (talk) 18:15, 17 November 2010 (UTC)

Wikipedia is not a manual for removing viruses. So, it shouldn't suggest any method for removing them. The article on viruses should explain what they are and nothing more. -- kainaw™ 18:30, 17 November 2010 (UTC)

92 is referring to the RD "Viruses" FAQ at Wikipedia:Reference desk/Computing/Viruses, which is as unofficial as anything else on Wikipedia, and which is intended to help us answer the very frequent question encountered here, "What do I do to get rid of my malware", without us answerers forgetting things, and without having to write an entire page each time someone asks this question. To 92: I agree; please help us by improving the FAQ. But you haven't rebutted any of the arguments in this thread that detail how scans may not work, depending on how your system has been compromised. Comet Tuttle (talk) 19:41, 17 November 2010 (UTC)

Why is my system so slow with 2D DirectX graphics?

I recently updated/rebuilt my computer, here are the basic system specs of the new system:

• Asus M4A87TD board (upgraded from a crappy Elitegroup MCP78M)
• AMD Phenom II X2 545 (upgraded from AMD Athlon II X2 240)
• 4GB RAM, DDR3 @1333 (upgraded from 2GB DDR2, 256MB of which was used by the onboard graphics card)
• Geforce 250 GTS, using Nvidia's 260.99 driver (upgraded from the crappy onboard Geforce 8100)
• WinXP SP3 (fresh install, no change otherwise)

I know it's still not exactly a high-powered gaming rig, but it's enough for my needs. As expected, I experienced huge performance increases in 3D games (tested with Portal, GTA4 and Mafia 2, all of which run much smoother now than with the old system). What I don't get is that 2D DirectX graphics are markedly slower than on the old system; it's especially noticeable with my screensaver (I use JWZ's Matrix screensaver, a simple 2D display scrolling down letters in various shades of green) and with RPGmaker XP games - I'm toying around with making games with RPGmaker, the engine is pretty crappy and starts lagging heavily as soon as there is a bit going on on the map so a good part of making games in RPGmaker consists in coming up with clever anti-lag measures anyway, but the lag issues have become really unbearable on the new system. I've even noticed some lag when scrolling large maps in the editor. So...does anybody have an idea what's going on here? I'm aware 2D graphics do not benefit from the Geforce's 3D acceleration, but with twice the memory and a slightly faster processor I would have expected 2D performance to increase at least slightly, or at the very least stay the same. -- Ferkelparade π 23:13, 16 November 2010 (UTC)

November 17

Autorun problem in Windows 7

The following is saved under autorun.inf in my flash drive's root directory. It successfully changes the flash drive's name, but the READ ME option doesn't show up on the autorun menu when I insert the flash drive. What's the problem?

[autorun]

Open=READ ME.bat

Action=READ ME

Label=[my name]

--75.33.217.61 (talk) 02:38, 17 November 2010 (UTC)

Wireless network for a Verizon phone

A friend of mine asked me:

I have a Verizon Wireless Aircard, I have a wireless printer but apparently it does not connect to aircards... I have read about something called a Cradlepoint that you plug the aircard into and it creates a wireless network that I could connect my computer, printer and Wii to... Know anything about it.

What we mainly are interested in is the best way to create a wireless network by buying hardware and not paying a monthly fee. What's the best way? Thanks --Wonderley (talk) 02:52, 17 November 2010 (UTC)

Hmm, bizarre. I see my friend posted something here. I did a search on several keywords before adding this post with no hits. Feel free to answer either of us. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Wonderley (talk • contribs) 03:03, 17 November 2010 (UTC)

You've got two different kinds of wireless going on here. The Verizon Wireless aircard is providing access to their EV-DO mobile broadband over cellular networks. The rest of the wireless technology you described is for local networking - a wireless LAN, or "Wi-Fi". This will network your devices, but you will still need a source of Internet access provided by either a regular DSL or cable modem, or via cellular networks like the Aircard you already have. If you want to continue using the Aircard to provide Internet access to all of your devices, then you need a cellular router. A modular cellular router will take the Aircard and create a new, local wireless network that your other devices (such as your wireless printer and your Wii) will be able to connect to.

Personally, I'd recommend getting a dedicated connection via DSL or cable - speed and reliability will be greatly improved. They're not dependent on cellular coverage. coreycubed / talk 19:06, 17 November 2010 (UTC)

How do I restore all extensions and tabs on my Google Chrome?

After restarting from my computer freezing up, all my Chrome extensions and tabs were gone. The bookmarks were there, but the History was erased as well, so I can't reload the 38 tabs manually either.

My SessionBuddy has a saved session of all my tabs, but first I need to figure out how to put SessionBuddy back on there. (I downloaded it, so the folder is someplace.) Then I'd also appreciate putting back all the other extensions I've had. Please help me get them all back. Thanks. --Let Us Update Wikipedia: Dusty Articles 08:42, 14 November 2010 (UTC)

What disk formats can PS3 mount through USB port?

I know FAT32 works with everything. But FAT32's 2GB file size restricts the PS3 as a non-networked media playback device. Are there any other disk formats that the PS3 will recognize through the USB port? --70.167.58.6 (talk) 13:33, 17 November 2010 (UTC)

From the PS3 manual: "Note however that the disk must be formatted in the FAT32 file system to be recognized by the PS3™ system." -- kainaw™ 14:18, 17 November 2010 (UTC)

FAT32 doesn't have a 2GiB file size limit. As our article mentions, the limit is 4GiB-1B Nil Einne (talk) 15:56, 17 November 2010 (UTC)

How old is that manual? Does it cover the latest 3.50 update? --70.167.58.6 (talk) 16:42, 17 November 2010 (UTC)

Yes. For a question about using PS3, I would go directly to the manual. -- kainaw™ 17:15, 17 November 2010 (UTC)

Clock in RISC OS 3.7

I found this screenshot of the clock in RISC OS 3.7. What happens if you scroll down? --Andreas Rejbrand (talk) 15:06, 17 November 2010 (UTC)

Below the clock, it also shows the time as numbers, ie: 11:25:32. That is being cut off by the window, which is why there is a scrollbar. -- kainaw™ 19:41, 17 November 2010 (UTC)

Resolved

High capacity text editor?

I routinely need to hand edit some large (500MB) Maya ASCII files. Are there any text editors that are still nimble with such a heavy load? Ideally, I'd like a Mac OS X editor, but I can run Windows 7 in boot camp. --70.167.58.6 (talk) 16:40, 17 November 2010 (UTC)

Here and here are pretty good discussion of this for primarily Windows programs. Basically the consensus seems to be that the "best" way for editing such files is to use something like vim (gVim) or emacs, neither of which are very user friendly (which is code for me saying "they require you to do a lot of work to learn how to use them, like many Unix-y programs"), but can handle arbitrarily large files without a real performance hit. Standard "notepad replacement" programs like Notepad++ and TextWrangler or BBEdit either have real difficulties with files that size or simply cannot handle them because of RAM buffer limitations. VEDIT gets high marks from one poster. --Mr.98 (talk) 17:06, 17 November 2010 (UTC)

emacs should do it. Note that if you just need to search and examine a very large file, less is brilliant, and if you need to make some routing change (like search-and-replace some text to another) then sed can allow you to automate a lot of such tasks. -- Finlay McWalter ☻ Talk 17:09, 17 November 2010 (UTC)

I use EditPadPro [7] for a variety of text editing applications and am very happy with the facilities it provides. It's not free, but does some good stuff. I've just created a 1.4 Gig text file using it, and it takes a while to open and save it, but otherwise seems to handle it pretty well (with the odd out-of-memory error while doing all the copy-paste to get a file of that size). --Phil Holmes (talk) 18:14, 17 November 2010 (UTC)

Sorting by date modified

Working on an iMac G5, OSX, version 10.5.8. I have a ton of Word documents in various files. When I open a file directly in a window, the documents can be listed by the fields: "Name", Date Modified", "Size" and "Kind". However, when I perform a search, the list of Word documents that match the search entry only have the fields: "Name", "Kind and "Last Opened". I want to be able to see and sort by Date Modified here too, which is much more useful to me than is "last opened". Can anyone explain to me, step-by-step, how I would add this function? Thanks.--108.27.105.73 (talk) 18:53, 17 November 2010 (UTC)

Step-by-step:

1. Search for the files (in Spotlight > Show All, or just in the Finder window).

2. While the "Searching 'This Mac'" window is highlighted, go to View > Show View Options (Apple+J).

3. Select "Date Modified".

Should do it? Works on mine, though I'm using 10.6. It seems to make any columns added that way permanent features to Spotlight searches.--Mr.98 (talk) 19:14, 17 November 2010 (UTC)

Thanks much for the explanation! I was able to follow perfectly. However, when I go to show view option, the menu that appears says "There are no view options for the "searching "this Mac"" window." Any ideas?--108.27.105.73 (talk) 19:32, 17 November 2010 (UTC)

A further update. There are multiple macs in the office. I just tried your instructions with a different mac and it worked beautifully. Still stuck on mine though.--108.27.105.73 (talk) 19:37, 17 November 2010 (UTC)

You might look at the version (Apple > About This Mac) on the one it works with. It might be a 10.6 (Snow Leopard) only addition and not present in 10.5 (Leopard). --Mr.98 (talk)

I Am Still SoapFiend

Okay, so, I am still SoapFiend, but some &^%$#@# genius decide to hack into my ^%$#@!@! user account on this website and I can't even read the *&^%$## watchlist like I always do because of the motherz*&^^%$% "session hijacking" bull*&^%. --64.123.104.83 (talk) 20:58, 17 November 2010 (UTC)

All I want to do is to check into my user page and look at my watchlist and see if there are some changes in my articles related to television and television actors and actresses. How do I get my user account back in order for me to do that again? --64.123.104.83 (talk) 20:58, 17 November 2010 (UTC)

You need to be more clear. Are you complaining that you forgot your password, or are you complaining that your account was blocked? Comet Tuttle (talk) 21:42, 17 November 2010 (UTC)

I think he means that he wants to trick an administrator into naively removing SoapFiend's indef-block. APL (talk) 03:52, 18 November 2010 (UTC)

Coding help

Hi there. The following is a dreadful piece of code, but it works:

void SplitNumber(double dValue, double* dMantissa, double* dExponent)
{
    char szValue[32];
    char* pTemp;

    sprintf(szValue, "%e", dValue);
    pTemp = strchr(szValue, 'e');
    *pTemp = '\0';
    pTemp++;
    *dMantissa = atof(szValue);
    *dExponent = atof(pTemp);
}

Does anyone have any suggestions for a less-dreadful piece of code that still works? 80.254.147.84 (talk) 21:51, 17 November 2010 (UTC)

We need to ask - how portable do you want this code to be? The C language does not specify what format a float or double should take; but if we can assume you're running on a "normal" computer that supports Single precision floating-point format and double precision floating-point format according to IEEE 754, then we can use a bit of bit-masking. Do you need help writing code to apply a bitmask for the exponent and mantissa as illustrated in our articles? Be sure to take note of the special-cases of exponents. Nimur (talk) 22:27, 17 November 2010 (UTC)

Check out frexp(). It's standard. Example usage (in C++, but it's the same)..--Sean 22:34, 17 November 2010 (UTC)

(That's much easier than my system!) But note that frexp() returns results in power-of-two - whereas the original code returned results as power-of-ten - so a bit of intermediate conversion will be required. Nimur (talk) 22:56, 17 November 2010 (UTC)

How about:

void SplitNumber(double Value, double* Mantissa, double* Exponent)
{
    if (Value == 0) {
      *Exponent = 0;
      *Mantissa = 0;
    } else {
      *Exponent = floor(log10(fabs(Value)));
      *Mantissa = Value / exp10(*Exponent);
    }
}

(I have removed the "d" prefixes, which in a modern system accomplish nothing except to make the code less readable.) Looie496 (talk) 00:03, 18 November 2010 (UTC)

Downloading Silverlight Video?

What's a good way to download embedded silverlight video (preferably free of crappy adware-laden software packages)

Thanks in advance,

PerfectProposal 23:01, 17 November 2010 (UTC)

You will have to make sure the video is DRM free, otherwise you will not be able to play it. Graeme Bartlett (talk) 05:42, 18 November 2010 (UTC)

November 18

Post compile array size definition in Pascal

I'd like to create an array such as the type:

truthtable : array [1..n,1..x] of boolean;

in pascal after having used readln(n), and x:=n-1 to get the variables.

As far as I can tell the compiler only allows constants in the definition. Excluding creating a block of memory at run time and not using an array is there a work around ? 83.100.237.223 (talk) 01:41, 18 November 2010 (UTC)

You should use a dynamic array:

var
  truthtable: array of boolean;
begin
  SetLength(truthtable, n, x);
  // Now you got truthtable as an array[0..n-1, 0..x-1] of boolean
end;

--Andreas Rejbrand (talk) 08:29, 18 November 2010 (UTC)

Programming language

So I'm thinking about learning a more "hardcore" programming language.

I work on a Mac (so no Visual Studio products). I am pretty proficient with PHP, Javascript, VBScript, and Actionscript. I can meddle with VB.NET but I haven't used it as much as I could. I pick up things pretty quickly and have a fairly good programming mind. I know the basics of programming logic and object oriented programming. Of the languages I know, I find PHP the most straightforward and VBScript the least straightforward. What I like about PHP is I find it very easy to translate the logical structure in my head into the code on the page, without having to jump through too many jargony hoops, if that makes sense.

What's a good next step? I'd like whatever language I use to not involve too much meddling with the nuts and bolts of computer memory. I'd like it to be cross-platform enough to develop on my Mac, but to make programs that could theoretically be ported to PCs. I'd like it to be able to create GUI programs that look pretty good. The programs it make ought to be easily distributable as binaries.

I'm not 100% sure what I'd use it for at this point — I make lots of little things, and find that obviously having the capacity to use the language inspires me to have ideas as to what to make with it. My general model will probably be to get a "how to learn language X" book and work through it first, whatever the language.

I'm leaning towards Java. It seems to allow more portability than most others, seems to be relatively flexible and popular, and seems like it would open up opportunities for using it, say, in conjunction mobile apps.

Any other suggestions, thoughts, warnings? I understand this is entire subjective. --Mr.98 (talk) 01:57, 18 November 2010 (UTC)

If you are programming applications for "PC users," I would vote for Java as the best all-around power and tradeoff between portability, functionality, performance, and (this is critical), quality of free tools and documentation. If you decide to program embedded devices at a low level, there's no substitute for C. But nowadays, many "mobile" devices like phones and ipods provide platform-specific programming environments - so you often have to target a specific brand/technology and use that set of tools. Nimur (talk) 02:12, 18 November 2010 (UTC)

At first sight there doesn't seem to be much choice for languages with good GUI support, (no .NET on the mac). As you don't want nuts and bolts C++ sounds like a non starter - the main difference is the need to do memory management yourself - depending on the scope of your programs that might not be a big issue, or you might find you enjoy the task. There are some other options though, notably Ada and Lisp which can be used with the Qt widget toolkit amongst others.

I guess that when you say 'hardcore' you mean faster. Ada is fast, and a nice easy language to read, unfortunately it doesn't have a total feature set on either GTk of Qt widget toolkits according to the wikipedia articles. Lisp is well supported (in terms of GUI stuff etc) and is a totally different kettle of fish, it's just something you'd have to look at yourself to see if you think it'll be useful to you. There are also some other ALGOL descendents that have 'rapid gui development tools' - such as pascal + Lazarus (software) or other gui builders. Pascal is a bit old though, I'm not sure how well it would adapt to a network type setup. None of these would be of much use on a mobile device though as far as I know.

The page Comparison of integrated development environments might be useful - not all the IDE's listed will have the features you want - but it's a good place to start browsing.83.100.237.223 (talk) 03:35, 18 November 2010 (UTC)

External SATA + operating system

About 8 months ago, I bought a used computer which came installed with Windows XP or Vista (I can't remember which; probably the latter). You can actually read about it here (although I ended up buying a d620 not d520). As such I have two SATA hard drives:

• One 250MB, which I use primarily and run Ubuntu on
• One ~80GB, which is collecting dust in storage

I have a few questions about this setup:

1. If I place my secondary hard drive into an external USB like this[8], will it work?
2. Is it possible to run Windows from a USB while I have the first hard disk still attached? Windows is pretty pissy about sharing a computer with another OS. And is it wise to run Windows from a USB? I'm only doing it because there are games that can't play on Linux (Wine is utterly resistant to fixing the bug plugging up Sims 2 [9], and I don't have enough knowledge of remote programming - let alone modern 3D graphics - to fix the bug for Wine).
3. Will I run into any sort of issues with the Software Protection Platform locking me out because the hardware configuration has changed (the product key was activated by the vendor before they shipped me the laptop)?

Magog the Ogre (talk) 05:28, 15 November 2010 (UTC)

For Question 1 : While yes it seems to work (All SATA drives) Are you sure it's two drives or is it just 2 separate partitions? Just check if you are not sure (Seems you don't have XP. If you do, go to Disk Management)

For Question 2 : Yes, but it may be laggy. It depends on the disk speed (most likely 7200 rpm) of the hard drive, but I don't think there would be any problems. Just make sure the hard drive is not one of those eco ones that just go to standby and takes a few seconds to spin again, or you may see lag. But that's unlikely.

No idea for Question 3, sorry. Good Luck! General Rommel (talk) 06:01, 15 November 2010 (UTC)

Well, considering that the other disk is collecting dust in the basement, yes, I'm quite sure it's not a virtual drive. ;) Magog the Ogre (talk) 06:05, 15 November 2010 (UTC)

Also some searching finally turned up [10], but I don't think I have the CD. Magog the Ogre (talk) 06:34, 15 November 2010 (UTC)

Here at work, I use Ubuntu as my primary desktop environment. The machine also came with a separate partition with Windows XP installed, and GRUB gives me the choice to boot into Ubuntu or Windows. That's fine, but I have need of more regular access to Windows XP without leaving Ubuntu (mainly because the company's Exchange server works so much better with the Microsoft Outlook mail client than, say, Thunderbird), so I have switched from the dual-boot setup to running XP in a virtual machine, and I must say it is pretty seamless. I would recommend you give it a go, and you can always delete the virtual machine if you find it's not for you.

As for potential problems with SPP, I think you would encounter some problems but you should be able to simply re-activate it (though you might have to call the activation helpdesk and explain you have shifted it to a virtual machine). 212.123.243.220 (talk) 12:30, 15 November 2010 (UTC)

Come to think of it, if you don't have an XP/Vista installation CD and you don't have the Microsoft Certificate of Authenticity still attached to the machine, you might not be able to install Windows in a virtual machine. 212.123.243.220 (talk) 12:41, 15 November 2010 (UTC)

No, I use VirtualBox, but it has no support for DirectX. Virtual OS's are not good for gaming. Magog the Ogre (talk) 12:42, 15 November 2010 (UTC)

I'm moving this section back to the bottom to get more input. Magog the Ogre (talk) 02:18, 18 November 2010 (UTC)

Samsung Syncmaster 797MB monitor OSD

What does NP, PP and NN means in following context?

81. 3k 100 hz NP

60. 0k 75 hz PP

56. 4k 70 hz NN

Jib-boom (talk) 04:44, 18 November 2010 (UTC)

81.3k is 81.3kHz the frequency of the signal the monitor receives through the VGA cable

100Hz is the monitor refresh rate

NP refers to the polarity of the input signal (eg N negative, P positive)

If you follow this link [11] you can read what it say in the manual (page 33) - though it doesn't say a lot.83.100.237.223 (talk) 05:13, 18 November 2010 (UTC)

ㅇ== How to reset game in old Xbox ==

How do I delete game memory in my Xbox so that it resets to default? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 220.255.2.65 (talk) 08:49, 18 November 2010 (UTC)

Go to memory, select the game slot and click delete.

No add/remove programs in my settings folder!! what can i do to uninstall?

it's win 2003 srv std ed. thanx --217.194.34.103 (talk) 08:56, 18 November 2010 (UTC)