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December 15

Firefox (v3.6.13) : How do I open a new tab right next to the currently active one?

Resolved

I usually have 15 or more open tabs at a time in Firefox.
When I press <ctrl>+T then a new tab appears on the far right end of the tabbar.
I want my new (blank) tab to appear right next to the currently active tab instead.
How can I make this happen? --178.232.37.77 (talk) 01:05, 15 December 2010 (UTC)

I don't know about Firefox, but in IE you can right click on the current tab, select "New tab" from the drop down menu, and the new tab will appear right next to the earlier one. --ReluctantPhilosopher (talk) 08:48, 15 December 2010 (UTC)

This addon claims to do what you want, although it isn't updated for newer versions of Firefox. You can follow this instructions to make it work, or you could try this addon which was recommended in the comments of the previous one as doing much of the same functionality. I also just found this 82.44.55.25 (talk) 10:15, 15 December 2010 (UTC)

@ Reluctant Philosopher - Just tried the: right-click > new tab... afraid it didn't work, the tab opened on the far right of the tab bar Darigan (talk) 11:09, 15 December 2010 (UTC)

That is strange, when I try it it works correctly. To be more accurate, it opens to the right of the 'tab group' that that tab is a part of. So, if you clicked two links (opening in new tab) from Tab1, they would open in Tab2 and Tab3 right next to Tab 1. Then, if you right-clicked on Tab1 and selected "New Tab," it would open a new Tab to the imediate right of Tab3. I'm using Version 8.6.7600. --ReluctantPhilosopher (talk) 14:06, 15 December 2010 (UTC)

@ ReluctantPhilosopher: I think Darigan is talking about Firefox(v3.6.13), while you (by "Version 8.6.7600") are still talking about InternetExplorer or some other browser perhaps?

Hey! Yes, I did mention in my original reply above that I was talking about Internet Explorer; I guess Darigan didn't notice that, hence the confusion :) --ReluctantPhilosopher (talk) 16:35, 15 December 2010 (UTC)

Thank you all! :-) Problem solved! --OP 14:28, 15 December 2010 (UTC)

Hooray! --ReluctantPhilosopher (talk) 16:35, 15 December 2010 (UTC)

@Reluctant Philosopher - Yup, sorry about that - My post certainly could have done with a bit more clarity. The OP seems have worked it out now in any case. Darigan (talk) 17:10, 16 December 2010 (UTC)

Printer Power On

Hello. How can I have my printer (HP C309g) turn on automatically when I send a print command? Thanks in advance. --Mayfare (talk) 04:22, 15 December 2010 (UTC)

Sorry, but I don't think you can. The user manuals doesn't suggest it supports Wake-on-LAN (I don't personally know of any printers that actually do) and likewise that'd only work with a wired connection, not wireless or USB. All it says is about the energy saving mode (which is on by default) which you can disable so that startup is quicker, but then you're using more power whilst "off" than you would otherwise. Sorry!  ZX81  ^talk 04:49, 15 December 2010 (UTC)

The Canon inkjet printers I've used over the past 5 or so years (in the Pixma IP4X00 line) have an option to be automatically turned off and on via the drivers in Windows. I don't know if the power usage is very different from when you push the button. Clearly anything which can respond to commands can't be truly off whether using Wake on LAN or something else. If the printer supports the One Watt Initiative and presuming any standby mode controlled via drivers is part of that, then the standby power should be relatively low although I'm not sure how much power printers normally use in standby mode anyway. Nil Einne (talk) 12:34, 15 December 2010 (UTC)

The way I handle it is to put the printer on the same power strip I use for the computer, so they both are turned on and off together. Yes, the printer does that annoying cleaning the printer head routine every time I boot my computer, but that's supposed to help to keep it from getting clogged. And yes, it also uses a trivial amount of power while in standby mode when I use my computer, but at least it's always ready when I want to do a print. StuRat (talk) 06:50, 15 December 2010 (UTC)

The problem with that is that

1. powering off an inkjet printer when it's not expecting it (i.e. via the switch on the power strip rather than the pushbutton on the printer) will not properly park the printer head, so you end up with a dried-up printer head when you don't print for a while, and
2. the act of cleaning a printer head involves dumping ink through the head, which is a waste of ink and
3. said wasted ink ends up in a sponge - excessive head cleaning may exceed its holding capacity, so you might end up with ink overflowing into parts of the printer where it absolutely shouldn't go.

So, when you went for a cheap ink jet printer, using its power pushbutton is the only safe, cheap and environmentally friendly way. -- 78.43.71.155 (talk) 21:33, 15 December 2010 (UTC)

The power button on the HP Deskjet 3420 would light up (if unlit earlier) when I send a print command. Does HP currently assume that my new printer (C309g) is always on standby? --Mayfare (talk) 02:22, 17 December 2010 (UTC)

Browser problems

some problem seems to be occurring in the working of internet explorer and google crome web browsers on my computer. what could be the possible problem? what should i do to set it right?117.204.7.110 (talk) 09:00, 15 December 2010 (UTC)

As per the header message of this page, I've given your question a seperate title to distinguish it from the preceeding unrelated question Nil Einne (talk) 12:34, 15 December 2010 (UTC)

And what exactly are the problems ? StuRat (talk) 05:38, 16 December 2010 (UTC)

bginfo

at first it seems to work even if I'm connected in remote desktop, but if I close the rdp connection with X button and then I reopen it with the same user, the desktop looses all the text I had added. T.I.A. --217.194.34.103 (talk) 09:02, 15 December 2010 (UTC)

difficulty in setting path

I have installed python25 and and pygame ,on window xp .In the tutorial of pygame, I have found some code for setting the path as

set PATH=%PATH%;c:\python24\
cd "\Program Files\Pygame-Docs\examples"
python chimp.py

but I have windows xp on derive D and i want to load bitmap image chimp.bmp which is in D:\Python25\Lib\site-packages\pygame\examples\data ,i have tried to set path in autoexec.bat file as, set PATH=%Path%:D:\Python25\Lib\site-packages\pygame\examples in autoexec.bat and by us

Example

ing

   
Monkey = os.path.join("data","chimp.bmp")

in pythan shell and

   
Monkey_surface = pygame.image.load(monkey)

but we will get error message .also i can not under stand why in command prompt python chimp.py is used.please guide me for the correct code. — Preceding unsigned comment added by True path finder (talk • contribs) 11:51, 15 December 2010 (UTC)

I've fixed the text layout for you. CS Miller (talk) 13:15, 15 December 2010 (UTC)

I don't do Windows, so this is just a guess. Identifiers in Python are case-sensitive. You wrote upper-case Monkey for the path and lower case monkey in the load command. If that is not the cause, it would help to report (copy&paste) the full error message. --Stephan Schulz (talk) 14:36, 15 December 2010 (UTC)

it is not the just case of uper case or lower case, I have tried it with different ways. I want to understand the command , Python chimp.py

For your path command in autoexec, you probably want to point to the base python directory, so just "D:\python25" should be sufficient. As far as why you type "python chimp.py" on the command line - "python" is the command that tells Windows to run the python interpreter. "chimp.py" is the paramater that is passed to the python interpreter telling it what program you'd like to run. --LarryMac | Talk 15:07, 15 December 2010 (UTC)

The PATH variable is a list of directories where the command shell looks for the command you type, in this case, "python". It looks in the directories in order from left to right. In the original example, if there was a python.exe somewhere in the PATH before the first line added to it, then that python.exe will run; otherwise c:\python24\python.exe will run. The Python interpreter (python.exe) then reads its command-line arguments (in this case, chimp.py) and looks for a script by that name in the current directory; it doesn't use the PATH. Likewise, most other things that take a pathname as an argument, such as pygame.image.load, don't use the PATH. Does that help? -- BenRG (talk) 22:19, 15 December 2010 (UTC)

I want to explain more my diffulty in setting path.Window XP is installed on derive D: and command written on autoexec.bat file or as

 set PATH = D:\Python25
cd D:\Pytyhon25\Lib\site-packages\pygame\examples

d:
python chimp.py

whenever i restart the computer, and on the command prompt in windows i can see as D:\Document and setting \Administrator> .But when on c:\ i run the command autoexec.bat and then it run well , and chimp.py runs and closin this it changes to D:\Python25\Lib\site-packages\pygame\examples ,then after this writing cd data and chimp.bmp will alo run ,is it means that autoexec.bat file is not run on restarting computer. And after running autoexec.bat file manualy on command prompt,and I want to understand this,and want to write correct code,please help me — Preceding unsigned comment added by True path finder (talk • contribs) 02:22, 19 December 2010 (UTC)

Windows Live Messenger suddenly stopped working?

Every time I try logging in, I get the following message:

We can't sign you in to Windows Live Messenger Your contact list is not available right now, please try again later. Get more information...

Error code: 84cc0020.

Problem has persisted for three days so does not appear to be temporary. I can sign in through Windows Messenger and eBuddy, but I want the full functionality of WLM. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 59.189.217.198 (talk) 13:23, 15 December 2010 (UTC)

For me this is the first Bing and Google search result for '84cc0020' [1]. This is the second for Bing [2] and the second for Google [3] Nil Einne (talk) 15:31, 15 December 2010 (UTC)

You could try re-installing Messenger, as it may be missing important files.Sboy365 (talk) 08:06, 18 December 2010 (UTC)

Flash drives and SD drives

I recently purchased a miniSD card and observed it to be about half the size of a US postage stamp, despite featuring 16G of storage capacity. If that's so, why are flash drives so big -- just to make them more keychainable and less lose-able? It seems that the entire memory of the flash drive can be stored in the male metal docking piece. DRosenbach ^{(Talk | Contribs)} 16:36, 15 December 2010 (UTC)

And indeed one can buy such a thing (e.g. this). -- Finlay McWalter ☻ Talk 17:18, 15 December 2010 (UTC)

One element to consider is the form factor - the smaller a thing is, the easier it is to lose. Hell, I've got a standard-sized 4GB Flash Drive, and I can't tell you how many times it's gone through the wash. UltraExactZZ ^Said ~ Did 17:27, 15 December 2010 (UTC)

Ultraexactzz, I take it the data survives? AndyTheGrump (talk) 17:32, 15 December 2010 (UTC)

Every time, so far. (Knocks wood) UltraExactZZ ^Said ~ Did 17:41, 15 December 2010 (UTC)

"...why are flash drives so big..."? I suspect that 'bigness' is in the age of the beholder. The real question is how did we manage to make them so small so quickly? You might want to look into the history of mass storage devices, e.g. here: History of hard disk drives. Presumably there is a limit on just how much data you can cram into a given volume, but we don't seem to have arrived there yet.

Bigger flash drives may contain cheaper components or higher performance components. They may be more ruggedized or it may simply be a design decision to prevent the flash drive from being easily lost. Whatever reason the manufacture chose for the size, shape, or build of the flash drive, I have seen so much variety in what you can buy that you can probably find one for whatever specific requirements you have. I personally carry a flash drive that's barely bigger than the USB connector in my wallet, but I also have a big (in size and capacity) "high performance" flash drive I keep in my laptop bag or bring with me when I anticipate needing to move more than the 4GB or free space I leave on my little drive. 206.131.39.6 (talk) 18:08, 15 December 2010 (UTC)

Besides the fact that larger size may be a little cheaper, faster, and less prone to overheating, large size is usually just to make it easy to handle and harder to lose. Indeed, there are so many flash drives that are made as small as possible, and some even do not have the metal case around the USB plug which makes them as small and flat as memory cards for cameras. Roberto75780 (talk) 02:54, 16 December 2010 (UTC)

I think we are running up against the practical small limit for a hand-held device. They become too hard to handle, easy to drop, and easy to break if they become too small. If you've ever worked with those tiny screws used on eyeglasses, for example, you probably noticed that they are more difficult to deal with than an average sized screw. Of course, there's no reason why they can't just jam more and more memory into the standard sized flash drives (as long as the architecture allows it). StuRat (talk) 05:35, 16 December 2010 (UTC)

There's not really much advantage to going below "keychain size" for something that plugs into a full sized computer.

But if you do need tiny you can get them. Google for "World's Smallest Flash Drive" and you'll find a bunch of them. Some of them are as thin as an SD card (getting them into the usb port is tricky. Without the outer shell of the plug it fits upside down, but doesn't work that way.) APL (talk) 00:58, 17 December 2010 (UTC)

Ping

In the context of ping, what is jitter? 82.44.55.25 (talk) 19:18, 15 December 2010 (UTC)

Jitter#Packet_jitter_in_computer_networks. --Sean 19:27, 15 December 2010 (UTC)

Laptop freezes occasionally: What is going on?

I have a one-year-old HP Pavilion laptop PC running Windows 7 in 64-bit mode. Periodically, it freezes up for 10-20 seconds every 10 minutes or so. During this time, I can't click on any links, type any new text, open or close windows, etc. Eventually, everything starts acting normally again. This happens whether on battery or AC power. I am not trying to play a DVD or run any graphic-intensive programs when this symptom occurs. Is there some type of system monitor that might be able to tell me what is hanging up, and better yet, how to stop this from happening? --Thomprod (talk) 19:26, 15 December 2010 (UTC)

You should seek real-time help: irc://irc.freenode.net/windows ¦ Reisio (talk) 20:47, 15 December 2010 (UTC)

It would be useful to know what happens if you do ctrl-alt-del while it is frozen. Looie496 (talk) 23:53, 15 December 2010 (UTC)

Have you checked the process monitor to see if something is eating up the cpu cycles?Smallman12q (talk) 00:47, 16 December 2010 (UTC)

This is entirely anecdotal but when I've hard hard drive trouble this kind of thing has happened, on a Mac. Basically sometimes on a hard drive I had, whenever it was doing certain types of read/write cycles it would take a few seconds to figure out where it was or what was going on. This would translate into the computer waiting for a reply on certain types of processes that usually run in the background without any difficulty. The basic symptoms were the same — total freezing and non-responsiveness that would mysteriously fix up. One thing you might try, just as a test, is a full hard drive scan for bad sectors and so forth. --Mr.98 (talk) 00:54, 16 December 2010 (UTC)

December 16

Resolution of still images on HD television

I have an image that is 1000 pixels high and saved at 72 pixels per inch. When it's put on a 44" HD 1080p television, it's coming out pixelated. What can I save the file at so that it doesn't look pixelated when seen on the television screen? Dismas|^(talk) 02:02, 16 December 2010 (UTC)

What are you using to display the image? Presumably a computer, but what program, and over what kind of cable? 87.115.159.188 (talk) 02:45, 16 December 2010 (UTC)

Saving at a different DPI without resampling does not affect the quality or file size at all. It simply tells the printer to print it at a different size. Make sure you resize the image with resampling. Don't worry about the DPI number, that is just for printing. Look at the pixel dimensions. If you resize it to larger pixel dimensions, you will only see it less pixelated if you use software interpolation. The most common resampling for enlarging images without pixelating is bicubic resampling or Lanczos3, both of which are supported with freeware like VSO Image Resizer and photo editing software such as GIMP and Adobe Photoshop. Roberto75780 (talk) 02:50, 16 December 2010 (UTC)

An HDTV image is 1920x1080 pixels, so the best you can do, if the image is going to be displayed fullscreen, is to save it as 1080 pixels high. Looie496 (talk) 03:44, 16 December 2010 (UTC)

As a side question of my own, what happens when you display a 13mpx picture on a 1920x1080 screen, yet it shows the full image. Does it just eliminate some rows of pixels at random, or what? Ks0stm ^(T•C•G) 04:36, 16 December 2010 (UTC)

yes, but not exactly at random. most TVs use nearest neighbour interpolation, which is basically no interpolation, the two grids are overlayed, and the closes pixel from the image is chosen for each pixel on the screen. the best interpolation for size reduction is bilinear resampling for sharp images, and bicubic if a smooth image is desired, but most TV's dont have enough computer power to do either for video, so they only use nearest neighbour (no interpolation), usually for both video and still frames. Roberto75780 (talk) 04:49, 16 December 2010 (UTC)

Thanks, all. I've got it working. Dismas|^(talk) 04:50, 16 December 2010 (UTC)

And what did you do to get there ? StuRat (talk) 05:23, 16 December 2010 (UTC)

I got what I was looking for at this site. Page two basically summarizes it. Dismas|^(talk) 01:06, 17 December 2010 (UTC)

Ok, thanks. StuRat (talk) 05:22, 17 December 2010 (UTC)

Resolved

Jesus christ... a one megabyte shortcut?

I downloaded the Google GMail app for Windows Mobile 6.5 and it was a wopping 850 KB for the presumably compressed .CAB setup file, and then when I use it, I find all it does is open GMail in your default browser! Why on earth is it almost a megabyte? Is it working properly or is this some kind of alternate start up because it cannot run properly? — Preceding unsigned comment added by Roberto75780 (talk • contribs) 02:59, 16 December 2010 (UTC)

It's hard to know without looking in the file (and I can't see where to download it if one doesn't have a Windows Mobile phone), but surely it also installs a background notifier (something that runs in the background and periodically check that there's new mail, and optionally opens the full client if there is). That should still only a few K, but it's more than just a bookmark. 87.115.159.188 (talk) 03:23, 16 December 2010 (UTC)

Still would only be a few KB as you said, but im positive it doesnt do that, as it doesnt remember login info beyond the usual check box in your browser web page, does not have any sort of settings page, and does not notify after 3 days and 10+ emails. all i can think of is the icon and very minimal graphics for the startup button, but that wouldnt even be a meg if it was high resolution uncompressed icons. its a very small cheezy icon. there has to be something else im missing... its 850 KB for the download and 1.25 megabytes installed on my almost full 40 megabyte internal storage. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Roberto75780 (talk • contribs) 04:55, 16 December 2010 (UTC)

I'm pretty sure the Gmail app is actually a Java MIDlet and I'm guessing you don't have MIDlet support on your phone so instead of failing to run at all it just does the next best thing and opens Gmail in your browser. A lot of Windows Mobile ROMs don't come with MIDlet support, a quick (but not definite) check is to look for a MIDlet manager application which would often be there if you do.  ZX81  ^talk 05:37, 16 December 2010 (UTC)

Change from 'Libraries' to 'My computer'

In Windows 7, whenever I press the Windows Explorer icon, instead as in previous versions of Windows it takes me to Libraries instead. Is there a way to change it back to My computer? General Rommel (talk) 10:12, 16 December 2010 (UTC)

You can open your start menu, and drag n drop the Computer item to the desktop.

You'll get a Computer - Shortcut you can use instead the Windows Explorer icon. --Dereckson (talk) 20:06, 16 December 2010 (UTC)

Sorry I didn't make it clear earlier, I mean if I pressed the Windows Explorer button on the taskbar, instead of My Computer, it shows up as Libraries. Is there any way to change this? General Rommel (talk) 21:54, 16 December 2010 (UTC)

Youtube login sessions

I was logged into my YouTube account on my PC, then I closed my browser without logging off, but I knew that I would be automatically logged out anyway. So then I go to access YouTube on my phone, only to find that I am signed in, when I do not recall ever accessing my YT account on my phone. Is it due to the fact that I use my Google account on my phone (I'm using an Android, see above question about Opera), that it is why I'm automatically signed into YouTube? Because I do not have a separate YT account, I use my Google one to log into YT. How do I disable automatic login on my phone? 24.189.87.160 (talk) 11:44, 16 December 2010 (UTC)

Yes, that's probably why. When you first log in, is there a check-box that says something like "Remember my password on this computer" ? If so, make sure that box isn't checked. (To get back to that screen, sign out first.) StuRat (talk) 15:24, 16 December 2010 (UTC)

I don't recall ever checking the box, which is what makes it all the more mystifying. And how do I sign out of my Google account on my phone? It seems that I am permanently signed in in order to access the Android market. 24.189.87.160 (talk) 19:38, 16 December 2010 (UTC)

Depending on your phone/version of Android, you possibly can't. I know that on my HTC Desire Z running Android 2.2 one of the setup screens required me to put in a Google login (or create one if I didn't have one) and it wasn't possible to bypass it. After an account has been added to Accounts & Sync the Market is then tied to that and you're unable to remove it from the device. Clicking "Remove" from the accounts screen simply tells me: This account is required by some applications. You can only remove it by resetting the phone to factory defaults (which deletes all of your personal data). You do that in Settings, under SD & phone storage. Of course after doing this the phone goes back to how it was when I first received it, forcing me once again to add a Google account or I can't actually use the device...  ZX81  ^talk 20:42, 16 December 2010 (UTC)

Oh, so I guess I'm screwed. But here's the funny thing, I have a YouTube app, which is the that one I'm currently attempting (and failing) to log out of. But if I access YouTube via my mobile web browser, I'm not signed in at all. What's up with that? 24.189.87.160 (talk) 01:10, 17 December 2010 (UTC)

wget

When downloading with wget, how can I instruct it to delete local files which do not exist on the server? 82.44.55.25 (talk) 11:55, 16 December 2010 (UTC)

How can wget delete something which it doesn't know about? Another way to put it: If the files are not on the server, what is the file names? You need to know the file names to delete them. So, understanding that, the way to achieve what you appear to want is to download with wget into a directory. You will need a separate directory for each site you want to download. Then, before you download, delete all the files in the directory to ensure that when wget finishes you will have an up-to-date list of files. -- kainaw™ 14:10, 16 December 2010 (UTC)

I assume wget knows everything it downloads (or checks exists with timestamping) during a recursive retrieval, so anything in the local directory which it didn't detect on the server can be deleted. That's what I want. Httrack and many other download programs can do this, but I would rather use wget. Deleting the download directory and redownloading say 2GB of files which haven't changed since the last download, just to make sure 100 files which are no longer on the server are deleted from the local directory is insane. 82.44.55.25 (talk) 14:57, 16 December 2010 (UTC)

I don't know that wget has this feature, but it would be straightforward to just parse output lines like:

 Saving to: `site.com/index.html'

and delete all files that don't appear. Something like this (untested):

 wget -o log ...
 perl -ne '$saw{$1}++ if /Saving to: `(.*).$/; END { for (`find -type f`) { chomp; s/^..//; unlink unless $saw{$_} } }' < log

--Sean 19:33, 16 December 2010 (UTC)

SECURITY TO FOLDERS

HOW CAN I SECURE A FOLDER NOT ABLLING OPEN/GIVING ACCESS OTHERS AS WE CAN DO THE SAME TO FILES .--RAIJOHN (talk) 12:38, 16 December 2010 (UTC)

Try NTFS EFS encryption. GanKeyu (talk) 14:15, 16 December 2010 (UTC)

Encrypting File System is the "EFS" that GanKeyu is referring to. Comet Tuttle (talk) 18:58, 16 December 2010 (UTC)

I don't think EFS will encrypt directories. Directories can be marked as encrypted, but that just means that new files created in them will be encrypted by default. You could try TrueCrypt. -- BenRG (talk) 23:46, 16 December 2010 (UTC)

It's true that EFS does not encrypt directories, per se. However directories do have permissions, very similar to files, so you can prevent some people from reading them, ie from seeing the names of files in the directories. You can also make them read-only, thus preventing some people from creating new files or deleting existing files. However, it is not a task for the inexperienced (with no offense intended to RAIJOHN) - it takes some time and knowledge to get right. Mitch Ames (talk) 12:31, 17 December 2010 (UTC)

Sorry for misunderstanding you, as it is, NTFS permission couldn't be a solution if you need a protection of high level. TrueCrypt is a nice software which provides a virtual encrypted 'folder'. However, although the data cannot be decrypted without permission, it can be deleted. To prevent that, try another way. I don't know why you need to secure just a folder. GanKeyu (talk) 09:52, 18 December 2010 (UTC)

EFS is not a good solution for normal users because of the key management and backup issues. More complicated than it's worth IMO. NTFS is only useful if you use multiple accounts on the same computer that are not administrators. It is not worth anything against someone with a Linux boot CD. The best way to protect your files is Truecrypt. Just don't forget your password. --71.240.162.87 (talk) 04:31, 21 December 2010 (UTC)

Noisy fan

When I use my old laptop, the fan kicks in after some time of web-surfing, specially when I navigate through web- pages loaded with Flash. Having this noise is very annoying. Disconnecting Flash (through a Firefox plug-in) makes things better. Additionally I thought about increasing the RAM of my computer, but would that make the processor work less? 83.40.11.19 (talk) 13:16, 16 December 2010 (UTC)

Lot's of different issues here:

1) Why is the fan noisy ? It might be unbalanced (say by a clump of dust stuck to one side) or it might be hitting some wires, which could be very bad once it cuts through the wire insulation.

2) Why does Flash turn the fan on ? If Flash performs CPU-intensive operations, that might heat the laptop up to the point where the thermostat turns the fan on.

3) Would more RAM make the CPU work less (and thus generate less heat and require less fan blowing) ? Probably not. The one situation where it might is if your RAM overflows and the computer starts to use paging space, which requires a lot of reading and writing to the hard disk. This won't generate much more CPU activity, but will warm up the hard drive, which may also trigger the fan. StuRat (talk) 15:19, 16 December 2010 (UTC)

also, how old is the machine, and what software is it running? an older, slower processor using out-of-date software may produce more heat than a newer, faster product (the older processor is working closer to its CPU capacity than the newer machine). --Ludwigs2 18:57, 16 December 2010 (UTC)

Could be the graphics card fan, anyway, waking up to do some graphics. 81.131.5.206 (talk) 00:26, 17 December 2010 (UTC)

My money is on the fact that your fan and the cooling element is full of dust. If you open it up and suck the dust out, it won't have to work so hard to keep itself cool, and will be less noisy. Zzubnik (talk) 10:17, 20 December 2010 (UTC)

How to tell if an image has been enlarged or not?

Is there any automatic or objective way of deciding if a digital image has been enlarged from the original or not, rather than just looking at it? Thanks 92.28.247.44 (talk) 16:51, 16 December 2010 (UTC)

If you limit "enlarged" to strictly "doubled in size" (or any power of 2 increase), you can calculate the transformation matrix for all odd-line/odd-row pixels to even-line/even-row pixels. It should be a constant transformation when an image is doubled. If the image is enlarged by an arbitrary amount, it will be difficult to know where to look in the image to detect enlargement. For example, if a single row of pixels is added, which row contains the new data? -- kainaw™ 17:37, 16 December 2010 (UTC)

What about if you have two images of exactly the same scene, one bigger than the other. Is there any way to tell which is the original (as the smaller may be a reduction). Thanks 92.28.247.44 (talk) 18:03, 16 December 2010 (UTC)

Aside from the obvious truisms (large enlargements tend to be pixilated or blurred - insufficient information present to create a clear detailed image), large reductions tend to lose information (things that are clear in the larger image are indistinct in the smaller), no. I mean, an expert analyst could probably make an educated guess by looking for artifacts produced by the software that changes the size of density of the image, but unless there's something in the metadata there's no smoking gun. It's like trying to figure out from a normal photo what lens was used to capture it - except in odd cases, how would you do that?. --Ludwigs2 18:51, 16 December 2010 (UTC)

I'm surprised at the responses above. There's an extensive mathematical theory of sampling. I don't know anything about current research in that area, but the basic theoretical answer is yes, it's possible, because there are far more large images than small images. Even taking a variety of upsampling methods into account, only a tiny fraction of large images can arise from the resampling of small images. Actually detecting this in practice might be hard. The most obvious thing to do is compare Fourier transforms of the images, or corresponding parts of the images. If the larger one was enlarged from the smaller one, its transform will have the smaller one's transform in the upper left corner, somewhat distorted, and faded reflections of it filling the remaining space. If the smaller one was reduced from the larger one, the smaller one's transform will be the upper left corner of the larger one's transform, somewhat distorted, with faded and reflected copies of the rest of the larger transform overlaying that. The better the sampling algorithm, the less visible the reflections will be. -- BenRG (talk) 22:30, 16 December 2010 (UTC)

Of course that doesn't take into account deliberate attempts to obfuscate the fact that the image had been enlarged. An opponent could write a program that uses a random-number generator to make up detail that could have been in a larger photo. It wouldn't be easy. --Trovatore (talk) 05:23, 17 December 2010 (UTC)

The type of enlargement really matters here. The simplest type just duplicates rows and columns periodically, so you could just check for that (use a program to do it quickly, but you could also eventually do it manually). A more sophisticated type of enlargement would be more difficult, but not impossible, to detect. StuRat (talk) 05:14, 17 December 2010 (UTC)

How can i make games

Hi, My laptop is a Dell Latitude D505, my web browser is Mozilla Firefox, and the software i have is Windows XP, so my questions is how can i make games? is there any tutorials where i can go? or any software i could download for free? and also i don't have Frontpage Xp, How can i get it? thank you —Preceding unsigned comment added by 63.112.48.34 (talk) 19:16, 16 December 2010 (UTC)

First, most of the popular games are not made by a single person. They are made by large companies employing hundreds of employees. Second, what kind of game do you want to make? Knowledge of how to make a flash version of checkers won't be too helpful in trying to make a 3D FPS game. It comes down to learning to program. Pick a language (hopefully a common language like C++), get a book on it, read the book, and learn to program. -- kainaw™ 19:19, 16 December 2010 (UTC)

As a beginner who doesn't know how to program, you might want to try the Nintendo DS cartridge WarioWare: D.I.Y., which lets you create minigames on the DS. There's a Windows product called Game Maker which you might look into (I've never used it). There was an old Windows product from Interplay Productions called Learn to Program BASIC which taught the user how to write games using the BASIC programming language. Comet Tuttle (talk) 19:24, 16 December 2010 (UTC)

Many good games have been made by single persons. For example, the critically-acclaimed spelunky was made by a single person using Game maker. This tool is designed to make game-making accessible to people with little prior programming experience. There is a free lite version you can try. SemanticMantis (talk) 19:29, 16 December 2010 (UTC)

Well, i saw the other night on TV a kid who made a game for Iphone, and he didn't have any programming skills, he learned through tutorials and he made me realize that we all can learn. also i hear my Dell Latitude D505 is not good for 3D graphics, but thats just what i heard.i will try to download the programs all of you mentioned, i hope they are free. i know a single person can create something and i know i could do it. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 63.112.48.34 (talk) 19:40, 16 December 2010 (UTC)

Absolutely. Everyone starts with no programming skills; you learn it by doing it. Many, many, many programmers have learned to make games on their own without going to any class; they just try programming a game that's super simple, then add something that's a little harder to program, then a little harder, and they build their skills over time. Comet Tuttle (talk) 19:51, 16 December 2010 (UTC)

I disagree, after doing programming, you get programming experience, not programming skill. The two are quite different, and entirely divorced from each other. To learn a skill, you need a teacher, be it a book or a physical person, to gain experience you simply need to do. Experience doesn't connotate either good or bad, just the process of doing, and in my experience, many that have done much programming have very little skill indeed. Need examples, look no further than current giants Livejournal, Facebook and Twitter. Anybody using them in the early days remembers just how buggy and crap they were. It wasn't 'growing pains' it was poor architecture made by unskilled people. Armtuk (talk) 04:24, 18 December 2010 (UTC)

To make the point clearer... A kid can start making a game with no programming skills, but when he finishes making the game he will have programming skills. NeHe is an example of someone who wanted to make games and learned as he went - luckily, he kept an ongoing tutorial/blog so others could learn what he learned. -- kainaw™ 20:13, 16 December 2010 (UTC)

Thanks for the website!. One question: How can i get Frontpage Xp for free and can i make games with it too? i know i can make websites but what about games.thank you —Preceding unsigned comment added by 63.112.48.34 (talk) 20:21, 16 December 2010 (UTC)

Microsoft FrontPage is commercial software, and discontinued at that. It is a very poor tool for game making. There is likely no legal way to get it for free. The reference desk will not help you pirate software. SemanticMantis (talk) 20:28, 16 December 2010 (UTC)

Aaaawww Thats too bad! because i have a book about web design that focus on FrontPage. well, is there anything similar to it and that is a free download too.thank you —Preceding unsigned comment added by 63.112.48.34 (talk) 20:52, 16 December 2010 (UTC)

The "Lite" version of Game Maker, which was linked for you above, is free to download and use. Comet Tuttle (talk) 22:27, 16 December 2010 (UTC)

If you are under the impression that a book on web design will teach you to program flash games, you are mistaken. Flash is a plugin for web pages. It is not a web page. To learn to program flash games, you need a book on flash programming, not web design. To embed the flash game in a web page, web design will do. -- kainaw™ 01:10, 17 December 2010 (UTC)

@kainaw™ so can you give me any tutorials or programs i can use. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 76.79.129.82 (talk) 02:06, 17 December 2010 (UTC)

Here. -- kainaw™ 02:15, 17 December 2010 (UTC)

I'm thinking that writing your games using HTML 5 rather than Flash may be a more future-proof way to proceed. Marnanel (talk) 03:54, 17 December 2010 (UTC)

It might be true. But at this point he or she really just needs to jump into programming, any programming. Once they've done that, adapting to a different language or platform will not be such a big deal. --Mr.98 (talk) 13:50, 17 December 2010 (UTC)

There are some beginner's programming languages listed at List of educational programming languages such as Scratch (programming language) or Alice (software). Logo (programming language) could be something to start with although it does not do games, but can do interesting patterns. 92.24.176.82 (talk) 15:26, 17 December 2010 (UTC)

@Marmanel So where i can download for free those HTML 5 game making programs? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 76.79.129.82 (talk) 18:28, 17 December 2010 (UTC)

You don't need a game making program, and in my experience those that do exist are largely a waste of your time. To write an HTML5 canvas game you'd need a browser that supports it (Chrome, Firefox, Safari), to read some javascript tutorials, and you'd probably want a javascript debugger for that browser (e.g. Firebug). You don't need any additional software or books. -- Finlay McWalter ☻ Talk 19:16, 17 December 2010 (UTC)

I heard Notepad can help you make games. is it true and how? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 76.79.129.82 (talk) 19:41, 17 December 2010 (UTC)

Ok, I think you need to slow down. Asking us how to use notepad to make a game is like asking us how to use a hammer to make a house. We could spend a month typing in all the different ways a hammer could be used while making a house, and when we were done you still wouldn't know how to make a house, you'd just have a list of things hammers are good for. Notepad, like a hammer, is just a simple tool.

You need to decide what kind of game you want to make. (Browser based flash games? 3d OpenGL Games? X-Box 360 games? Text Adventures?) And then you need to get a book on how to make that sort of game. Do not try to learn everything at once, and do not try to skip ahead to advanced topics, you'll just confuse yourself.

Depending on the kind of games you want to make you weeks, months, or even years to learn enough to even start. APL (talk) 20:20, 17 December 2010 (UTC)

I saw this tutorial:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X0TRrDXgQ1s&feature=fvw. and i kinda got the idea of it. i did everything they showed in the video and i made it. so it's basically a text-based game in my opinion, it's the easiest way I've tried, but i would like to know more —Preceding unsigned comment added by 76.79.129.82 (talk) 00:28, 18 December 2010 (UTC)

The tutorial you saw was about doing batch scripts. Batch scripts are very restricted in what you can do, a proper language would be better as you can do much more things with it. Logo (programming language) would be a good choice for you, as in addition to text-based things you can also use it to draw and design lots of different patterns like the old spirograph toy, but better. After learning Logo for a while you would be able to learn another more difficult language that could do more exciting graphical games. There is an online Logo here http://www.calormen.com/Logo/ but there are also lots of other free Logos you could download and use. 92.15.22.103 (talk) 11:22, 18 December 2010 (UTC)

The tricky thing here is that it's not ever clear where to start. "Games" is a huge category, some of which can be learned in a day or two (you could probably have "Tic-Tac-Toe" up and running in Javascript in a couple day's effort), some of which you will never be able to do on your own (e.g. a complicated real-time-strategy game or a truly good looking first-person-shooter). What it sounds to me like what you are looking for is something that will give you fun results fast (rather than the kinds of tedious exercises that "learning languages" like Logo provide), something that is free, and something that will let you dive in quick.

Personally I am a believer in getting a real book on any language I want to learn. Online tutorials are often amateurish and skip out on important things and can be hard to use. A "learn to program PHP" or "learn to program Javascript" or "learn to program Java" book is going to get you further faster, and serve as a reference if things get complicated too quickly. Languages that can be programmed "for free" (e.g. without having to buy a program) include PHP, Javascript, Java, VB.NET, C, and dozens and dozens more. I would probably recommend sticking to things like Javascript and Java to start out with — if you like it, you can always "graduate" to harder things like C, or proprietary languages like Actionscript (for Flash games), and you'll see results faster that way. A "learn to program" book will also tell you about what programs can be used to start programming (Notepad is an option, but not a very good one), and all of that basic stuff. Any basic bookstore of any size should have a bunch of said books on display that you can peruse. I've found the Deitel books to be pretty good.

If you don't have a lot of money, and still live with your parents, you could tell them that computer science is an excellent investment in terms of a long-term career at this point, and complements nearly every other field of study as well. :-) Just my two cents, anyway. --Mr.98 (talk) 13:43, 18 December 2010 (UTC)

The OP seems very young to me - I doubt if reading a thick textbook would be appropriate. 92.15.4.135 (talk) 14:28, 18 December 2010 (UTC)

So notepad is not for making at least text-based games? wow, i'm sad.what is exactly Pelles C? my friend told me to start writing on Pelles C even though i don't know what is it. Could i download it? i'm old enough,i'm 21, i have downloaded Just Basic, Crimson Editor, Microsoft Windows Logo, and Game Maker and of course i already have Notepad, so i just need to figure out how to create a game using these tools, i'm in no hurry, i have basic computing skills, i know i will learn more along the way, i just want to practice. I just have to see how to make those programs work together —Preceding unsigned comment added by 76.79.129.82 (talk) 00:27, 19 December 2010 (UTC)

The easiest way to make games is in Adobe Flash Professional, in my opinion. You can publish the games as standalone programs called projectors, or embed them in web pages. You draw things on the stage with your mouse and animate them using frames. You will still have to write some code in ActionScript, though. So, it will still be hard to do. Learning to make games -- no matter what method you use -- will take a few months, at least.--Best Dog Ever (talk) 00:49, 19 December 2010 (UTC)

You are really all over the place. Getting a bunch of random tools and fiddling without an idea of the bigger picture is probably one of the most frustrating ways to learn.

Don't get me wrong. Learning by experimenting is good, but experimenting with tools without knowing what they're good for and having some idea of your bigger picture goals is not good.

I strongly recommend that you go to your local bookstore or library and check out a single book on learning to program games. (There's a lot of them.) Work through the tutorials in that book, in order. If you don't understand something, then by all means Google it, look it up online, or ask here.

The scatter-shot approach you're taking now will end in frustration. APL (talk) 03:47, 19 December 2010 (UTC)

Are there any free program that's like Adobe Flash Professional?

Are you a student? If so, you can download Expression Studio Ultimate from Microsoft for free. Included is a product called Blend that is similar to Flash Professional, but that is even easier to use. When opening blend, you should create a "WPF Application." However, there are fewer tutorials on Blend than on Flash. It's a nice program. It can also create Silverlight movies that you can embed in web pages, but fewer people have the Silverlight plugin than the Flash plugin, so those are less popular. But if you create a WPF application, you'll be able to reach a lot of people.--Best Dog Ever (talk) 23:37, 19 December 2010 (UTC)

Thanks, for the moment i want to know more about Pelles C, i downloaded it, find tutorials or books, and by the way my aunt is a librarian. So easier way to get books. i want learn more about it and its game making capabilities.

jpg -> video

I have 200,000 jpg files from a webcam. How can I convert them into a video? They are all of the same dimensions and named sequentially 82.44.55.25 (talk) 19:43, 16 December 2010 (UTC)

FFmpeg is the ideal software for that.

If your jpg filenames are cam000001.jpg to cam200000.jpg and you want 24 frames per seconds, it's as simple as:

ffmpeg -r 24 -i cam%06d.jpg result.mpg

You'll find more detailed instructions on http://electron.mit.edu/~gsteele/ffmpeg/ --Dereckson (talk) 20:01, 16 December 2010 (UTC)

Is Facebook down?

All I get is a blank screen, both on Chrome and IE. DuncanHill (talk) 21:32, 16 December 2010 (UTC)

Fine here. Algebraist 21:35, 16 December 2010 (UTC)

It's been giving me issues for the last few minutes but it seems to be fine now. Side question, why do people come here to find out if some site is down? Can't sites be down for a couple minutes? Dismas|^(talk) 21:43, 16 December 2010 (UTC)

It's just popped back for me now, but I had that same problem for about fifteen minutes. ╟─TreasuryTag►draftsman─╢ 21:45, 16 December 2010 (UTC)

Thanks, has come back for me too. I come here to see if a site actually is down, or if it's my computer or internet connexion playing silly buggers. DuncanHill (talk) 21:48, 16 December 2010 (UTC)

This is quite a good tool in that regard, I often use it! (Although admittedly it claimed Facebook was up for the duration of this incident...) ╟─TreasuryTag►voice vote─╢ 21:49, 16 December 2010 (UTC)

It did that because facebook wasn't inaccessible, but rather delivering blank pages. Looking at the source, I saw

<html></html>

which probably is sufficient for downforeveryoneorjustme.com to flag it as "up". -- 78.43.71.155 (talk) 12:41, 18 December 2010 (UTC)

It was down earlier. [4] APL (talk) 01:23, 17 December 2010 (UTC)

December 17

Updating a Firefox extension to work with newer versions of the browser

POW (Plain Old Webserver) is a useful Firefox extension. Due to a lack of maintenance, it won't install on Firefox 3.6.x. It will, however, continue to work if installed on Firefox 3.5.x and the browser is later upgraded to version 3.6.x. It seems that the extension relies on some mechanism for installation that has been retired. Can someone tell me what changes to the extension are needed to make it install on Firefox 3.6.x? Thanks. --108.16.202.155 (talk) 01:04, 17 December 2010 (UTC)

I haven't done this personally, but the following procedure might work:

• Extensions are distributed as JAR files. You want to open and edit one of the files contained therein, so you need to be able to extract and change files stored in a JAR. Some archive programs can do this natively; if not, rename the .jar to a .zip and it'll open with most archive managers (e.g. Winzip).
• This article suggests the important file is install.rdf, which contains minVersion and maxVersion lines. You might succeed by just changing these
• Then save that file back into the JAR and try to have Firefox load it.

This should work if the only impediment is the versioning (which you might well expect for an addon that's no longer being maintained). If, however, the addon relies on APIs that aren't in the newer version, or work materially differently, then it might not work, and indeed might make the whole Firefox profile unstable (you can always manually remove the extension). I'd be interested to know how you get on with this. -- Finlay McWalter ☻ Talk 02:08, 17 December 2010 (UTC)

This is the OP. I've tried the method you described before asking the question, but it didn't work. I suspect that the reason the extension doesn't install on newer versions of Firefox has to do with its use of an obsolete "contents.rdf" method for registering chrome. (AIUI, the new method uses a "chrome.manifest" file.) I know very little about Firefox extension development so I don't know if my suspicion is correct, and if so, how to create the required chrome.manifest file to make the extension installable again. Any ideas? Thanks. --108.16.202.233 (talk) 22:27, 17 December 2010 (UTC)

⛬

Can anyone point me to an image of this character? It only appears on my screen as a little cube, and I don't feel like downloading a new character set just so I can see what this one looks like. Nyttend (talk) 01:11, 17 December 2010 (UTC)

here. -- Finlay McWalter ☻ Talk 01:15, 17 December 2010 (UTC)

Thanks! I didn't really know how to search for it via Google etc., since I wouldn't know if I'd gotten the correct results. Nyttend (talk) 03:23, 17 December 2010 (UTC)

If you know the codepoint, you can search for that. If you don't know the codepoint, go to your browser's address bar and type javascript:'⛬'.charCodeAt(0).toString(16) (copying and pasting the symbol in between the apostrophes). It says "26ec", so you search for U+26EC and there you go. (This only works for characters in the Basic Multilingual Plane, at least in Firefox. javascript:'𐑑'.charCodeAt(0).toString(16) returns some nonsense about surrogate pairs. I suspect this is a bug.) Marnanel (talk) 03:46, 17 December 2010 (UTC)

For me, Firefox shows ⛬ as a little box glyph with 26EC written in it, so I didn't need to do this javascript business (this is true for 3.6.13 on Linux, and whatever I have on Windows, which is probably the same). One can also do much the same thing as Marnanel's javascript thing if one has a Python interpreter handy - one can paste the unknown glyph into it, so u'⛬' prints as u'\u26ec' -- Finlay McWalter ☻ Talk 14:02, 17 December 2010 (UTC)

My favourite is iconv -f utf-8 -t ucs-2 | hexdump (or ucs-4le if outside BMP).—Emil J. 17:40, 17 December 2010 (UTC)

OpenGl compatible with windows Xp

I want to download OpenGl but i don't if it is compatible with Windows XP, Is it going to work? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 76.79.129.82 (talk) 02:36, 17 December 2010 (UTC)

See the Windows section on The official OpenGL getting started page. Specifically, the sentence "If you are running Windows 98/Me/NT/2000/XP/2003/Vista, the OpenGL library has already been installed on your system." -- kainaw™ 02:42, 17 December 2010 (UTC)

Yeah but i can't open it —Preceding unsigned comment added by 76.79.129.82 (talk) 03:00, 17 December 2010 (UTC)

I don't understand. There's nothing to open. It's just an set of drivers and an API. What are you trying to accomplish? APL (talk) 03:46, 17 December 2010 (UTC)

This is the same user who originally wanted to use Frontpage to make games. I mentioned NeHe (an OpenGL tutorial site). So, I assume the user is planning to use OpenGL. -- kainaw™ 04:05, 17 December 2010 (UTC)

I am (eternally) writing a game on XP using OpenGL and Pelles C, if that's any help. The Integrated Development Environment would seem to be the element you're missing, not OpenGL. 81.131.23.182 (talk) 11:07, 17 December 2010 (UTC)

Can you make games using OpenGl!? I didn't know that! how can i fix it without paying money? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 76.79.129.82 (talk) 18:26, 17 December 2010 (UTC)

Your OpenGL is almost certainly not broken. You can test this easily: see those four screensavers that came with XP, the ones which start with "3D", such as "3D Flower Box"? Those use OpenGL. 81.131.62.210 (talk) 18:52, 17 December 2010 (UTC)

OpenGL is not a program that you can open and then type into and then somehow make games with. It is not a program at all. It is a set of drivers and interfaces. If you were to write a computer program, that computer program could use openGL to draw graphics on the screen. APL (talk) 20:10, 17 December 2010 (UTC)

How to build serial strings without MS-Excel-like softwares

For an easy example, the result that I want to generate is like below:

copy /b 1.txt+1.nfo C:\1.zip
copy /b 2.txt+2.nfo C:\2.zip
.
.
.

Although I know MS-Excel can do this job well, I am still looking for more efficient methods or softwares. So if you know something about this, please be generous to share your experience or ideas. Thank you. --Merry Rabbit 05:05, 17 December 2010 (UTC)

If you are using Microsoft Windows, go to the command shell ("run"--> type "cmd") and write HELP FOR. That works fine for tasks like the one above. For more complex things, I guess you'll want to learn a scripting language like Perl or Python. Jørgen (talk) 09:25, 17 December 2010 (UTC)

Here's a site that lets you run code online without installing anything. I've written a program to do what you want from 1 to 100: http://codepad.org/k1OShDA8 --Sean 18:31, 17 December 2010 (UTC)

I see. It's cool. Thank you very much. --Merry Rabbit 15:32, 20 December 2010 (UTC)

Red google results

How come if I search for 新撰東錦絵 ("New Selection of Eastern Brocade Pictures") the query term is highlighted in the results in bold, but if I search for just 新撰東 ("New Selection of East") the query term is highlighted in red? What's the red mean? 81.131.20.102 (talk) 05:50, 17 December 2010 (UTC)

I assume it has to do with silently switching to their http://www.google.com.hk/ backend (or not), depending on obviously inconsistent/imperfect detection systems. Compare: http://www.google.com/search?q=新撰東錦絵 with http://www.google.com.hk/search?q=新撰東錦絵, or http://www.google.com/search?q=新撰東錦絵&hl=zh-CN and http://www.google.com/search?q=新撰東錦絵. Likely another "Instant" search UI inconsistency. ¦ Reisio (talk) 07:16, 17 December 2010 (UTC)

How odd that it can't detect the language every time. Those three Japanese characters aren't any less Japanese than the whole phrase (are they?). 81.131.23.182 (talk) 10:46, 17 December 2010 (UTC)

The question is more likely how _Chinese_ they are (as interpreted by FOO crazy system in Google dungeon BAR at BAZ given time from FRED browser after executing BARNEY keystrokes, etc.). ¦ Reisio (talk) 12:52, 17 December 2010 (UTC)

From my Google search for Red google results, the first result was Google China Highlighting Query Terms in Search Results in Red.

—Wavelength (talk) 07:22, 17 December 2010 (UTC)

Yes, I did that search too before troubling the reference desk, and read that page, but I thought they were just guessing, particularly since the results aren't always red. 81.131.23.182 (talk) 10:41, 17 December 2010 (UTC)

I'm just guessing also, but I'm almost 100% sure that the answers above are correct: it's a misperforming heuristic combined with different stylistic decisions in different localized interfaces, influenced (in the Chinese case) by the fact that Chinese fonts don't react well to bolding. For a well-known example of a misperforming heuristic see Bush hid the facts. Here's the search with three explicitly specified interface languages, and no other differences: English, Japanese, Traditional Chinese. The only thing I don't understand is why the Japanese interface uses bold. -- BenRG (talk) 20:19, 17 December 2010 (UTC)

My google highlights all terms in red. The possible reason is following. Chinese characters are rendered in the font called '宋体'(SimSun) (For SimpChn) or '细明体'(PMingLiu) (Trad). No corresponding bold font is specially designed. In order to render texts in bold, the system would like to extend edges of characters, which may lead to an aliasing result. the Google chooses to red them instead. GanKeyu (talk) 10:02, 18 December 2010 (UTC)

In addition, the font '微软雅黑' (Microsoft Yahei) (named after '微软正黑体' in Trad system) introduced in Vista and the newer systems do provide a better rendering performance. GanKeyu (talk) 10:14, 18 December 2010 (UTC)

How much RAM is that?

If the memory specs of a computer is:

DDR3 1066 MHz SDRAM, 2 x SODIMM socket for expansion up to 4GB SDRAM 

Does it mean you can put 2x 4GB in it (thus each socket up to 4GB? Or just 2x 2GB up to 4GB. 80.58.205.34 (talk) 16:17, 17 December 2010 (UTC)

I would take it to mean 2x 2GB for a total of 4GB. Dismas|^(talk) 16:22, 17 December 2010 (UTC)

Reading the text above, I'll also say you can only have 4GB in total. However, DDR3 is normally able to handle more memory (and this is the reason why it was introduced). So, it sounds surprising to have two slots and only 4GB. If you want to know the precise specs check crucial.com or the manufacturer. Quest09 (talk) 16:39, 17 December 2010 (UTC)

I've searched for the computer and found 'Asus Lamborghini VX 5 Laptop'. Is that the computer you're considering about? The ticket received from ASUS cheif engineer described the computer can support only up to 4 GB in total. GanKeyu (talk) 10:07, 18 December 2010 (UTC)

I'm the OP. Thanks for the answers so far. It is an ASUS, but not this model, although maybe it is the same mainboard. I wanted to purchase the ASUS UL80-JT as seen here: [5]. It is advertised with: "Memory: 4GB DDR3 system memory (up to 8GB)". Crucial.com confirms that the computer can handle 8GB. The information at my first post is directly from ASUS and slightly ambiguous. You can parse it as 2x (SODIMM socket up to 4GB) or (2x SODIMM socket) up to 4GB Wikiweek (talk) 18:27, 18 December 2010 (UTC)

You can just about certainly put two 4gb modules into it, giving 8gb. The spec probably says 2x2gb because at the time that laptop was first made, 4gb modules weren't easily available, so they hadn't tested them. That is a pretty common situation. There are actually 8gb laptop modules now, letting you put 16gb in the box, but they are hard to find and cost a fortune. 67.117.130.143 (talk) 09:12, 22 December 2010 (UTC)

ram

What is the most ram that is available for customer buyable computers? 16gb maybe? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 84.61.56.34 (talk) 17:26, 17 December 2010 (UTC)

A quick check of Newegg, which is not definitive or anything, looking at the highest-priced PC motherboards, yields this motherboard which supports 16GB; but when I looked at the highest priced motherboard listed under "servers", I saw this motherboard, which says it supports up to 192GB of RAM. Comet Tuttle (talk) 17:31, 17 December 2010 (UTC)

Dell and HP will sell "home" computers configurable with up to 24 GB of RAM. Very high end servers (e.g. $100k+) can be purchased with 1 TB or RAM or more, but in general not all of that RAM is available to every CPU. Dragons flight (talk) 17:42, 17 December 2010 (UTC)

Usually what the operating system can access plays a role in how much memory is sold with a computer. For example, Windows 7 has a physical memory limit of 8/16 GB for Home Basic/Home Premium, so it would be rare to see a computer sold with Windows 7 Home and more than 16 GB of memory, because the rest would be unusable. For Windows 7 Professional and higher the limit goes up to 192 GB, so business-type or high-end home machines might come with more. Windows Server 2008 can reach up to 2 TB, also depending on version. [6]. (For Linux, I found a figure of 16 TB [7]). -- 174.24.216.113 (talk) 05:20, 18 December 2010 (UTC)

Are the Windows 7 limits imposed by Microsoft to make money or is there a reason why Windows 7 home can't used more than 16GB? Like 32-bit couldn't use more than 4gb 82.44.55.25 (talk) 10:31, 18 December 2010 (UTC)

The 16GB limit is almost definitely just for licensing reasons. (The 192 GB limit is probably more complicated then that.) Nil Einne (talk) 14:08, 18 December 2010 (UTC)

It's called market segmentation. An amusing blog post on the subject. The idea is that richer customers pay more for more or less the same product; the poorer customers get it for less, but the product is hacked down a bit in order to keep the richer ones from buying it. It makes good business sense even if it is irritating from the user point of view. --Mr.98 (talk) 00:40, 21 December 2010 (UTC)

As a user of ASUS Republic of Gamers Rampage II Extreme motherboard, I can say I installed 24GB (4G*6) DDR3 memory. — Preceding unsigned comment added by GanKeyu (talk • contribs) 10:08, 18 December 2010 (UTC)

The typical home pc will have 1 cpu slot and 6 ddr3 ram slots at most. 4gb ram modules are now fairly cheap (giving 24gb) and 8gb modules (48gb total) are available but cost a lot more per gb. I think 16gb modules might be available at stratospheric prices. "Workstation" and server pc's are available with 16 or 32 ram sockets and multiple cpu sockets but you're into a higher class of machine then, starting around $3000 and going to $10,000+. pogolinux.com (not intended as an ad) has a nice selection. 67.117.130.143 (talk) 09:32, 22 December 2010 (UTC)

What is a crumb?

From time to time on Lycos email I delete an email and get the error message "action not allowed without a valid crumb".

The crumb page has nothing helpful.Vchimpanzee · talk · contributions · 22:13, 17 December 2010 (UTC)

HTTP cookie says 'The term "cookie crumb" is sometimes used to refer to the name-value pair'; it may just be their own rather twee way of saying "a web cookie". -- Finlay McWalter ☻ Talk 22:21, 17 December 2010 (UTC)

Thanks. I fixed the disambiguation page accordingly.Vchimpanzee · talk · contributions · 22:35, 17 December 2010 (UTC)

See also Breadcrumb (navigation).Smallman12q (talk) 20:43, 18 December 2010 (UTC)

December 18

Installing programs on my new Mac

I'm a bit confused. I just got a new Mac (long time PC user and good riddance). I've used macs at work and I remember that it was sometimes hard to get programs to work; that you sometimes had to do something further than just downloading, like dragging them into applications. Anyway, I wanted to watch a video. When I tried it told me I needed to get the flash player. Rather than trust the website it linked to, I went to Adobe.com and downloaded it. After it downloaded I installed it double clicked, agreed to the terms, used my password to allow it to install and eventually it said " "installation successful" So then I tried to watch some videos requiring flash (at more than one site) and they each say I need to install flash player (I though I just did). So then I went to finder and typed in "flash player". It shows Adobe Flash Player Install Manager" in utilities, and Flash Player in applications. So then I clicked on the one in applications and instead of opening any program it places an icon on my desktop of the player, and when I click on that I'm back in the install program. So it's not working when I try a video that uses it, and it appears to not really be installed. Like I said, I'm confused. P.S. On a PC I can get an em-dash using control+ hitting the dash in the numerical pad twice. How do I get an em dash using my keyboard on a mac? P.P.S. I am used to ctrl+c, ctrl+v, ctrl+x, Ctrl+z, but on the mac it's all command+ to copy, paste, cut, go back etc.--is there a way to switch it to control?--68.160.243.32 (talk) 04:55, 18 December 2010 (UTC)

First, the easy one: An Em-Dash on a Mac is Option+Shift+Hyphen. (An en-dash is just option-hyphen.) In general Mac has much easier shortcuts for special characters than a PC, but like all new things, they take a little while to learn. If you get totally lost, in most programs (but especially Finder), go to Edit > Special Characters, and you can find just about anything you're looking for. --Mr.98 (talk) 13:11, 18 December 2010 (UTC)

Now for the more complicated one. With Flash specifically, you probably have installed the program just fine. The installer program might still be on your desktop, but that isn't necessary. Try opening a video and seeing if that helps. Try going to YouTube and see if the videos are visible.

In general with applications, on a Mac the install project goes like this. First, you download the installer. It'll probably put it in Username/Downloads to begin with. The installer program will either be a file that opens up a little window that shows a picture of the icon and the Applications folder in it, or it will be a full "installer" program like you are used to on the PC. If the former, you just drag the icon into the Applications folder, and it is installed. If the latter, you run the install program like usual. Once you've run the installer, you can get rid of the DMG file or whatever it was that you originally downloaded. You run the installed application from the Applications directory. I apologize if this sounds very basic and obvious, but I'm just trying to make sure the basic software "paradigm" is clear, because it is a little different than PCs.

One thing that often trips new people up: DMG files mount a little "drive" in Finder that have the installation files on it. When you're done installing, you'll want to "eject" the drive (click on its little "eject" button or drag it to the trash), and delete the DMG file. I've known a lot of new users who get mixed up about which application icon is the "real" one (in Applications) and which one is the "install" one (in the mounted drive), and will not realize that the mounted drive is something that should be "ejected".

Feel free to post follow-up questions here. --Mr.98 (talk) 13:17, 18 December 2010 (UTC)

With flash specifically you may have an added issue - flash (on PC and Mac both) is both a free-standing application and a plug-in for web browsers. what you probably did (accidentally) by downloading the installer is installed the application itself but not the browser plug-ins. I would go back to the original webpage and install flash through the browser - that's low-risk, and should guarantee that the plug-in gets installed correctly. --Ludwigs2 13:32, 18 December 2010 (UTC)

No no no, spoon feeding is the right thing to do (and in my case required). Thanks for the info. It appears that I needed to restart for the flash player to work. After I left this post I downloaded Firefox and then flash videos were working, but not with Safari. So then I restarted Safari and they're working now. Regarding ejecting the dmg file, I just did that I think—I ejected the icons that were on my desktop. By the way, I got the em-dash in the preceding sentence following your instructions:-) I have another question but I think I'll put it in a new section. Thanks again.--68.160.243.32 (talk) 16:25, 18 December 2010 (UTC)

To switch the modifier keys (command, control, alt, shift, and caps lock), You can go into System Preferences, click Keyboard, and you should see a button that says "modifier keys." This will let you switch them around as needed. (Useful if you're hooking up a Windows keyboard to your Mac) 206.131.39.6 (talk) 15:50, 20 December 2010 (UTC)

English Malayalam dictionary software

Where can i download the English Malayalam dictionary software as free --RAIJOHN (talk) 05:25, 18 December 2010 (UTC)

I need someone to neaten (code) my user page...

Ok, I'm not the best with coding, so I need help with my user page, I need the box that says Community Info moved to the top right, and the gallery which says my maps to the bottom left.

Any admins or users that could help me would be greatly thanked and appreciated! o, and please leave a message on my talk with the changes you made to make it work.

Blue Grey Wolf (talk) 10:34, 18 December 2010 (UTC)

You might be better off asking at the help desk instead, as although this is computing-related I think it's more about Wikipedia. But it's your choice. Chevymontecarlo 12:28, 18 December 2010 (UTC)

I've tried difference Is this what you wanted? 83.100.225.242 (talk) 18:11, 18 December 2010 (UTC)

Computer in stand-by mode

Some computers go into stand-by mode if left unused for several hours. The hard drive stops spinning and the video card stops sending a signal to the monitor, making the screen go blank. Even the power-on light starts blinking. Touching the mouse or keyboard wakes the computer up, ready to continue immediately from the exact same state as it was in when it went to stand-by mode. My question is, what happens internally to the OS and the processes during the stand-by mode? Do they continue running, or does the processor freeze them, so that as far as they're concerned, the time during the stand-by mode never existed? JIP | Talk 14:31, 18 December 2010 (UTC)

There are several degrees of sleepiness - see Advanced Configuration and Power Interface#Global states. In some the CPU and RAM are still powered, in others the system state is written off to a hard disk and the computer is essentially off. But even in "off" mode parts of the computer can be left as a watchdog to switch back on in response to certain stimuli - see Wake-on-LAN for an example. -- Finlay McWalter ☻ Talk 15:38, 18 December 2010 (UTC)

All of the sleep modes have in common that the CPU stops executing instructions, so indeed from the processes' perspective there is a time warp. Most operating systems will notify processes just before sleep mode starts and just after it ends. -- BenRG (talk) 18:21, 19 December 2010 (UTC)

I suppose it's a semantics issue, but some people probably refer to the CPU staying active while the screen goes blank and/or hard disk stops as "sleep mode", even if this isn't the official name. StuRat (talk) 05:16, 21 December 2010 (UTC)

Mac alternatives to Quicktime?

After watching many videos in Quicktime, I've come to the conclusion that it... well... sucks. It opens videos in tiny windows all the time and gives no options for expanding them that I can see (I think it's limiting me to the best resolution, but I want the choice of watching it larger, even if it would be pixelated). It can't play all kinds of file formats and I just don't like the interface. I found a page at Apple.com ([8]) that supposedly has "Windows Media Player for Mac OS X" but all it is is a program that allows Quicktime to play wmv file. Long story short, can someone please list a few other media players (must include video) that I might try on a mac? Thanks.--68.160.243.32 (talk) 16:33, 18 December 2010 (UTC)

try VLC (google it). --Ludwigs2 16:37, 18 December 2010 (UTC)

Quicktime on Snow Leopard allows you to resize the window dynamically (just grab the lower right corner, and drag), or to switch to fullscreen. But I do second the suggestion to look into VLC media player, which is both excellent and Free Software. --Stephan Schulz (talk) 16:47, 18 December 2010 (UTC)

I have found VLC to be pretty buggy on a Mac in my attempts to use it over the years. It's pretty prone to crashing when seeking and other irritating things. Like much open source software, its programmers don't seem to care very much about making it truly work well on the Mac. I don't really consider it much of a Quicktime replacement; sometimes I'll use it to watch a single video (because it is good with subtitles, for example), but otherwise I have tried to just find ways to make Quicktime a little more useful.

There are actually two different Quicktime programs on modern Macs. There is Quicktime Player 7, and Quicktime Player 10. Quicktime Player 10 was in my opinion a step backwards and is not as good as 7. It is more limited in terms of interface and number of extensions it can handle. If you're using 10, try downloading 7. You can have both installed without any problems. If you have trouble with file formats, install Perian. It'll allow Quicktime 7 to basically read whatever you throw at it.

Both Quicktime 10 and 7, though, let you resize the window arbitrarily by dragging the lower-right corner of the window, though, or through the options in the "View" menu. --Mr.98 (talk) 19:53, 18 December 2010 (UTC)

Hmmm. VLC (currently Version 1.1.5 The Luggage (Intel 64bit))) has been very stable for me. I don't remember any crashes. --Stephan Schulz (talk) 20:08, 18 December 2010 (UTC)

I've downloaded VLC (and Perian just now for good measure). Thanks for the advice. Initially I did so as a browser add-on, but then realized that wasn't what was meant (I think) and downloaded the whole program. Question: how do I make it the default player, rather than Quicktime? Regarding resizing, I am telling you that quite a few videos I tried to look at with quicktime, had instead of the player the video opening as a frame inside of a larger page with no way to resize it. I have subsequently used it and it has provided an interface where I can, but this is something different. Maybe it's the website's frame and the reason I am seeing the quicktime icon come up because that is how my computer is accessing the video provided but it's the websites restriction I am seeing. I don't know.--68.160.243.32 (talk) 23:59, 18 December 2010 (UTC)

make default for a file type - see - http://wiki.videolan.org/How_to_make_VLC_the_default_player 83.100.225.242 (talk) 04:21, 19 December 2010 (UTC)

I think that VLC is unstable on all platforms. I haven't used it in a while (because of the instability) so it's possible they've fixed it in the mean time. Mplayer has the same universal video playing abilities and is much less buggy, but it lacks some of VLC's fancy features. -- BenRG (talk) 21:50, 20 December 2010 (UTC)

The last couple versions of VLC have worked quite well for me, and I think that for anything more than basic viewing, it's probably a better choice than Mplayer. Buddy431 (talk) 04:30, 21 December 2010 (UTC)

Problem Losing Stored Usernames

After using Ccleaner, I find that Yahoo and other often-used sites don't recall my login username. What option do I need to untick to prevent this, and are there any more negative effects from unticking whatever it is?

Hope you can help.

Gurumaister (talk) 23:53, 18 December 2010 (UTC)

On the cleaner section(left hand tabs), on the application tab, on the browser in question, untick whichever one applies to you and the browser in question. That should solve the problem. General Rommel (talk) 08:13, 19 December 2010 (UTC)

There are several different options under my browser heading. Did you mean that I untick them all? Gurumaister (talk) 18:00, 19 December 2010 (UTC)

December 19

Torrent use

Yes, this is my third question today (I'm the guy with the new imac, and I'm coming from a PC background). Sorry for being such a greedy brain picker. So I'd never used bit torrent before today. I read a few articles here on it, and then downloaded μtorrent. I then downloaded a (public domain) movie to it. Now I'm stumped. I want to be able to watch the movie (isn't that sort of the point?). I'm sure I'm missing something staring me on the face, but for the life of me I can't see anything in the μtorrent interface that allows me to do anything with the download. I opened up imovie, thinking that maybe that would allow me to watch it but I didnlt understand that either. I also might like to burn the movie to a dvd (but I don't have any blank ones right now to do so). I found the disk utility on my mac. If I had a dvd to put in my drive, would I be able to burn the download to there and then play it on my dvd player? So two questions how do I play the damn download and how would I put it on dvd. Thanks.--68.160.243.32 (talk) 00:17, 19 December 2010 (UTC)

Has the entire movie finished downloading? If you just downloaded a .torrent file, you need to load that into utorrent which will then start the download of the actual movie; the .torrent file itself is just a reference file for utorrent to use. If the movie is completely downloaded, just navigate to the download folder, or right click on the movie in utorrent and select "open containing folder". The movie file will be here and you can play it with a media player like VLC, move it somewhere else, or whatever. 82.44.55.25 (talk) 00:26, 19 December 2010 (UTC)

I'd recommend Transmission over µTorrent. (I'd recommend Deluge, but it doesn't have a "proper" Mac OS build or dmg) ¦ Reisio (talk) 00:48, 19 December 2010 (UTC)

No, it downloaded all right. It took and hour, showed download as 100% complete and is 790+ megabytes of files. I was able to move them into a folder on my desktop. It's made up of 47 separate files each having the names "imbt-xvid-name of movie.r1". I tried dragging them into the VLC player, and then opening then and it says "no suitable decoder module." I tried using quicktime. When I go to that in applications and double click, I don't get anything at all on my screen—only menu options at the top of the screen which show I am in that program; the only thing in there I can think to use is "open file" and when I do that and navigate to the folder, all the movie sections are greyed out. I am very frustrated right now!--68.160.243.32 (talk) 01:40, 19 December 2010 (UTC)

It sounds like the torrent contained the movie split into a bunch of chunks, which you'll need to merge into a single file that can be played by VLC. You'll need to figure out what program was used to split it up (perhaps there will be an accompanying TXT or NFO file in the torrent archive that explains) so you can recombine it. 87.115.159.188 (talk) 02:18, 19 December 2010 (UTC)

RAR is a possibility (with names like movie.r01, movie.r02, etc...) see the linked article for information on unpacking 67.162.90.113 (talk) 06:18, 19 December 2010 (UTC)

If Mac has a terminal emulator program, open it, and then enter

  cd '/path/to/torrent/download/dir'
  file 'imbt-xvid-name of movie.r1'

The file program will display a best-guess of the file-type. CS Miller (talk) 12:29, 19 December 2010 (UTC)

I'd be willing to bet it's RAR as one of the posts above stated. Vespine (talk) 00:48, 20 December 2010 (UTC)

Generally when there are lots of files with names like .RAR, .R01, .R02, etc., they are RAR file. Find the one with "RAR" as the extension and you should be able to open it with StuffIt Expander (which should already be installed automatically). --Mr.98 (talk) 03:57, 20 December 2010 (UTC)

World of Warcraft

I've played World of Warcraft for a while, no problem. I bought The Burning Crusade expansion set today and installed it. The installation worked fine. But then when I try to run the game it says "Launcher requires write permission to the World of Warcraft Registry key to successfully locate and run the game. Please enable write access to the Registry key using an administrator account." I've looked in the folder where the game is installed and there's nothing with that name. I tried right-clicking and running as an administrator, but it didn't work. Can anyone help? — Fly by Night (talk) 18:28, 19 December 2010 (UTC)

The bottom post in this forum discussion claims a solution. -- Finlay McWalter ☻ Talk 18:37, 19 December 2010 (UTC)

Thanks for the reply. That didn't work. I managed to find the answer. It seems that the DVD's carry an old version of the game, i.e. patch 2.x or 3.x, when the game client uses 4.x. When I was playing the old WoW I was updated to patch 4.x. When I installed the newer DVD it still carried an old patch compared to what the system runs on today. So I replaced all my nice new updated files with old ones. It seems a bit stupid to sell a DVD in the shop that if you install it, it'll mess up your game! It seems that all I needed to do was update my account with the CD code. I could put the DVD in the bin. — Fly by Night (talk) 21:48, 19 December 2010 (UTC)

Connecting a laptop to the Internet through UMTS

How many ways are there to connect through UMTS to the Internet with a laptop? I know that you can use some cell-phones as modem, use a UMTS modem (which looks like a pen-drive), and there are also PC- cards, where you put your UMTS card inside. However, can you simply insert the UMTS card in some kind of UMTS slot on the laptop? Quest09 (talk) 21:45, 19 December 2010 (UTC)

What do you mean when you write "UMTS card"? Do you mean a Subscriber Identity Module? -- Finlay McWalter ☻ Talk 21:49, 19 December 2010 (UTC)

Yes, a SIM that allows connecting through a UMTS net. 21:53, 19 December 2010 (UTC) — Preceding unsigned comment added by Quest09 (talk • contribs)

What that would amount to is a laptop having a built-in UMTS modem (which is essentially the same equipment as in the PC-card or USB modem, just inside the laptop's body, and with the antenna integrated into the laptop frame), with just the SIM socket exposed somewhere. There are a few laptops and netbooks that do this (it seems Fujitsu Siemens make ones that do). -- Finlay McWalter ☻ Talk 22:01, 19 December 2010 (UTC)

But what is the official name of this "UMTS slot-with-a-UMTS-modem"? — Preceding unsigned comment added by Quest09 (talk • contribs) 22:06, 19 December 2010 (UTC)

There is no standard; different manufacturers may choose to offer an optional module for a given laptop that implements UMTS (e.g. Samsung NC10). But one module from one laptop will not fit into another laptop. So there's no official name. A manufacturer might call it a "UMTS module" or something, but that's up to them. -- Finlay McWalter ☻ Talk 22:10, 19 December 2010 (UTC)

December 20

Converting color images to grayscale

Hello,

I have a few color images that I need to convert to grayscale and I don't currently have access to Photoshop or Photoshop elements, which are the only tools in which I know how to do that. Does anyone know of an easy tool available freely online that can do this?

Thanks, rʨanaɢ (talk) 03:02, 20 December 2010 (UTC)

http://www.lunapic.com 87.115.159.188 (talk) 03:14, 20 December 2010 (UTC)

GIMP APL (talk) 03:27, 20 December 2010 (UTC)

Thanks, everyone. rʨanaɢ (talk) 03:35, 20 December 2010 (UTC)

Paint.NET is probably simpler than GIMP to use for most purposes (If you are running Windows). AndyTheGrump (talk) 03:37, 20 December 2010 (UTC)

That is almost always true, but this is an admitted Photoshop user. I have extreme difficulty explaining Paint to Photoshop users. However, I find that they pick up on Gimp very quickly (and often complain that it isn't Photoshop). -- kainaw™ 04:19, 20 December 2010 (UTC)

IrfanView. 92.15.13.152 (talk) 10:51, 20 December 2010 (UTC)

Was it specified which OS the OP is using? If it's windows then even MS Pain has this function, you don't need to download anything. Image>Attributes - Black and white. Vespine (talk) 02:51, 21 December 2010 (UTC)

I think that MS Paint only does black & white (pixels are all either one or the other), rather than greyscale. AndyTheGrump (talk) 03:00, 21 December 2010 (UTC)

Lol, you are right! I swear I thought I'd used it before... Vespine (talk) 23:33, 21 December 2010 (UTC)

Google spreadsheet help

I'm not sure how to phrase my query to Google to get a helpful answer anytime soon, so...

I'm putting together a spreadsheet of names and addresses for Christmas cards on Google Docs. I have the names and addresses on Sheet1. Then I plan on doing a separate sheet for each year to track who we received cards from and who we sent them to. To that end, I started Sheet2 and in Column A used "=Sheet1!A2" to pull in the names from Sheet1. That works fine. Then I put an X under the Sent and Received columns on Sheet2. All was fine there. Then I needed to add another name to Sheet1 in the middle of the alphabet (I'd like to keep it in alpha-order, naturally). Though, on Sheet2, that shifted the names down but not the Xs indicating Sent/Received. So, how do I tie the Xs to the names? Dismas|^(talk) 03:16, 20 December 2010 (UTC)

Since no-one else has suggested a clever solution, I suggest that you always add names to the end in sheet 1, then just display the names in alphabetical order in sheet 2 etc by sorting on the appropriate column. I don't use Google spreadsheet so I can't test this, but it works in other spreadsheets. Dbfirs 07:49, 22 December 2010 (UTC)

i-Pad Bonfire

Silly question from repeat offender troll

My friends and I had a bonfire with i-Pads in them because we thought they're a stupid idea on Apple's part.Anyways I keep getting phone calls from my neighbors saying that the toxic fumes mad them sick and they're in the hospital we were wearing masks so we aren't sick and the EPA stormed into my house a few days later when I was at work at Burger King sleeping in the freezer and they left a note near the front door which they broke down saying that I polluted the air from the fumes after my some of my neighbors called them about the fumes . I wanna know do burning i-Pads really make toxic fumes and if so are these fumes bad for the environment? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 76.176.141.172 (talk) 06:10, 20 December 2010 (UTC) Burning fluorinated or chlorinated plastics does produce toxic fumes, including dioxins and dioxin-like compounds. There are probably other potentially hazardous components in an iPad that shouldn't be burned (and heavy metals; e.g. metal fume fever), but I would guess that the plastics are the dominant source of toxic fumes. I've been around accidentally burning teflon, and it doesn't take much material being burned before one starts feeling ill. Dragons flight (talk) 07:13, 20 December 2010 (UTC) It's no more harmful than burning anything else you shouldn't burn, which people often do anyway. I'm sure that your neighbors did this to kind of "get back at you" because they were upset with this behavior. When the Sony PS3 came out, a customer bough one and smashed it in the parking lot just shock the people standing in line for hours to buy one. He was later arrested citing mischief and littering, of all things. People do much worse mischief in the mall all the time without formally facing consequences... they are just cracking down selectively because this case got to them. Roberto75780 (talk) 16:46, 20 December 2010 (UTC) "It's no more harmful than burning anything else you shouldn't burn, which people often do anyway." On what basis do you make that assertion? Electronics are full of all sort of unpleasant heavy metals, exotic plastics, and things which really do release noxious chemicals when burnt. I would imagine that there could easily be acute physical responses if you burned an iPad in an enclosed space, for example. I doubt the overall environmental effects from one such incident would be detectable, but if they were incinerated on a regular basis it probably would have detrimental effects on communities nearby. --Mr.98 (talk) 16:54, 20 December 2010 (UTC) Please don't feed the trolls. --LarryMac | Talk 16:55, 20 December 2010 (UTC)

usb hidden files

Hi, I use Linux, and have a 1gb Sandisk cruzer usb stick. One day, I was going through its filesystem, and I found a folder labelled ".Found". To my surprise, it had about 4000 files in it, which turned out to be thumbnail images of almost everything I had ever downloaded. The full stop at the start of the name (ie. "<dot>Found") clearly suggested it was a hidden folder, so I don't know what I did to make it show up on the filesystem all of a sudden, since it had never been there before. I also don't know what it was doing storing a copy of everything (or at least every image) I had ever downloaded on the Internet, but really I want to know if this is a common feature of USB flashdrives, or is it a feature of Linux, or is it (perhaps worse still) a sign that my machine is playing up? Furthermore, what can I do to stop this from happening, and are there any other threats of secret record keeping that I should be aware of? I occasionally share USB sticks, and obviously, regardless of what I download, I don't really like the thought of my browsing history being so visible to anyone I know. Thanks in advance, It's been emotional (talk) 06:23, 20 December 2010 (UTC)

Thumbnails like this tend to be generated by image viewing applications.—Emil J. 13:49, 20 December 2010 (UTC)

Linux (and most *NIX) OSs will use the /lost+found directory when it does a fsck (file system check) on its native file system, and finds files that don't have a directory entry. I'm not sure what Linux's behaviour is for FAT32. All *NIX OSs will hide directories and files that start with a full-stop, as they don't have the hidden attribute. CS Miller (talk) 22:58, 20 December 2010 (UTC)

OS

Is it possible to run a MAC OS on a non Apple product....and run a non Mac OS on a Apple product???Rohitbastian (talk) 06:50, 20 December 2010 (UTC)

The history of the first is a long and winding road. See Mac clone. You can run Windows on a Mac via Boot Camp (software). And some versions of Linux have been made to run on a Mac. Dismas|^(talk) 07:07, 20 December 2010 (UTC)

Yes. You can do both. It's not easy to run OS X on a PC, but it can be done. This web site contains lots of tutorials on how to do it.--Best Dog Ever (talk) 07:25, 20 December 2010 (UTC)

A good search term for this is "Frankenmac". APL (talk) 07:33, 20 December 2010 (UTC)

See also, Hackintosh. --Kateshortforbob _talk 14:53, 20 December 2010 (UTC)

The other question here is... why would you do that? It requires that you violate Apple's software license (I think), takes a good bit of effort, and will produce something that's ultimately less stable and satisfying than the original product. Whatever satisfaction you get by doing this will not be worth it in the long run - spend a couple of hundred extra bucks, get the original product, and be happy. --Ludwigs2 15:21, 20 December 2010 (UTC)

The price difference can be significant even if you're planing on buying new hardware. Furthermore, For all you know he may already have a PC he's not using. APL (talk) 16:37, 20 December 2010 (UTC)

I've been installing Mac OS X inside VMWare Workstation for years. It's just for testing purposes. It costs me nothing and I learn a lot about the Macintosh operating system while doing it. I don't like Mac hardware or software, so I use Windows as my main operating system with custom hardware. But, yes, it is against their license, just like jailbreaking an iPhone is against their license. It's not illegal, though.--Best Dog Ever (talk) 04:19, 21 December 2010 (UTC)

You can also run non-Mac OSes on OS X using a virtualizer like VirtualBox. I'm a Mac user and I do this all the time whenever I need to run something that is proprietary to Windows (like Microsoft Access). It runs slower than it would if I dual-booted, but doesn't require a restart and can be done while I do all of my normal Mac things at the same time. --Mr.98 (talk) 17:16, 20 December 2010 (UTC)

visual studio for windows ce

Does it exist? t.i.a. --83.103.117.254 (talk) 10:33, 20 December 2010 (UTC)

It's obvious that there's no official Visual Studio IDE on Windows CE. The only IDE/complier I know that can work on WinCE is Basic4PPC (for WindowsMobile/CE, and support only VB.NET). GanKeyu (talk) 13:24, 20 December 2010 (UTC)

Do you mean Windows CE, or its derivatives Windows Mobile and Pocket PC? The normal way to program for WinCE & derivatives is to set up Visual Studio as a cross-compiler, and then use ActiveSync to upload your program to the device, and control a remote debugger. Basically, on your desktop, install Visual Studio's CE support, and do all the development on the desktop. CS Miller (talk) 19:25, 20 December 2010 (UTC)

How to show/hide status bar automatically in IE8

I want IE8 to hide its status bar when fullscreen, and show it after restored automatically. How can I do it? GanKeyu (talk) 13:22, 20 December 2010 (UTC)

Be easier with Firefox, which you can make look like IE8 if you really want to. https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/search/?atype=2&q=ie8&y=0&x=0 ¦ Reisio (talk) 16:44, 20 December 2010 (UTC)

Remote access via Skype

Does anyone know of a good way to remotely control the other party's computer (with both parties knowledge, of course) via Skype? I'm looking for something that could be used for remote troubleshooting and maintenance. Thanks!—Ëzhiki (Igels Hérissonovich Ïzhakoff-Amursky) • (yo?); December 20, 2010; 15:44 (UTC)

You don't need Skype for that, Windows has "Remote Assistance" and it works very good on fast internet connections. One of the methods to initiate it involves sending a small email file that Remote Assistance generates for you. I found that to be the easiest way to do it. You just open the email attachment and enter the password. Roberto75780 (talk) —Preceding undated comment added 16:32, 20 December 2010 (UTC).

If I didn't need to do it via Skype, I wouldn't have asked the question :) I am well aware of the Remote Assistance feature, but under the circumstances using Skype would be preferrable, if that is at all possible, of course. Do you know of any such way? And yes, I should have mentioned that both computers use Windows (one has WinXP, the other Win7).—Ëzhiki (Igels Hérissonovich Ïzhakoff-Amursky) • (yo?); December 20, 2010; 16:46 (UTC)

Longshot - if both pcs have a dial up modem, could they communicate through them via Skype? Exxolon (talk) 19:02, 20 December 2010 (UTC)

Thanks for the idea, but neither PC has a dial-up modem; both are on a DSL connection. I was looking for something like a Skype add-on.—Ëzhiki (Igels Hérissonovich Ïzhakoff-Amursky) • (yo?); December 20, 2010; 21:47 (UTC)

iPhone

Does the iPhone 4 sold by the carrier Softbank in Japan work on any network in Canada (assuming you unlock it if necessary)? If so, which ones? Does it take the same kind of SIM card? Which 3G technology does it work on (UMTS, W-CDMA... etc)? Also, if you know these things for previous iPhone versions that would be helpful. Roberto75780 (talk) —Preceding undated comment added 16:28, 20 December 2010 (UTC).

As far as I know all iPhone 4s are exactly the same. --71.240.162.87 (talk) 06:00, 22 December 2010 (UTC)

html

Is there any such thing as a reverse <br> in html? So if you had separate lines in the html file they would display as one continuous line in a browser? 82.44.55.25 (talk) 16:44, 20 December 2010 (UTC)

Can you give us an example of what you mean? There are about three different ways I can imagine what you are trying to ask about, and it'll be easier if you just clarify it with an example. You can do all sorts of magical wonders with CSS which can negate hard returns. --Mr.98 (talk) 16:48, 20 December 2010 (UTC)

Basically in the raw html file imagine there is the following:

123

456

789

but when displayed in a web browser is reads as "123456789", not on separate lines. I'm looking for the html way to do this, not css. 82.44.55.25 (talk) 16:53, 20 December 2010 (UTC)

if you mean you want to prevent the browser from wrapping the text to the current windows size, you can place the text inside an invisible table with explicitly specified width. this will cause the appearance of a horizontal scroll bar if that table doesn't fit the window. Roberto75780 (talk) 16:51, 20 December 2010 (UTC)

He may be looking for an in-browser solution for pre-existing HTML files. I'm not sure if there's a ready-made solution for that, but a clever greasemonkey script would probably be possible. APL (talk) 16:58, 20 December 2010 (UTC)

Well, I'm still fairly confused as to what you want. HTML ignores whitespace for the most part anyway, so a file like this:

<html>
123

456

789
</html>

Will render like this:

123 456 789

I'm not sure there's a way to make it not display the carriage returns as spaces in such an example.

I'm not sure there is a way to do what you want with just HTML in any case. In CSS, take a look at the "inline" option for the display property or the overflow property. --Mr.98 (talk) 17:05, 20 December 2010 (UTC)

This really doesn't make much sense... The questioner is asking for some HTML code to undo the breaks. So, the question can edit the HTML files. What the questioner appears to want to do is take something like "Line 1<br>Line 2" and change it to something like "Line 1<br><nobr>Line 2". If the questioner can edit the file, why not just do a searc/replace and remove all instances of <br>? On the other hand, it is possible that the questioned doesn't realize that if you type text onto multiple lines in an HTML file and you don't stick in any <br> tags, it will all show up on one line. On yet another hand, it is possible that the questioner thinks that wiki-code is equivalent to HTML code. In this Wikipedia's website, if you add a blank line between lines of text, a <br> is inserted. That is done by Wikipedia. It is not HTML. Until we have a grasp of what the questioner is asking about, attempting to answer is rather fruitless. -- kainaw™ 17:53, 20 December 2010 (UTC)

I think the question makes perfect sense, but I think the answer is that handling basic html tags such as "br" is a function performed by the browser, and I don't think there is any way to alter or override them except by changing code in the browser. Looie496 (talk) 18:11, 20 December 2010 (UTC)

foo br { display: none; }

¦ Reisio (talk) 19:27, 20 December 2010 (UTC)

Maybe <pre> tag?Smallman12q (talk) 22:55, 21 December 2010 (UTC)

Mobile phone standards

List of mobile phone standards seems like a catastrophe to me. Why hasn't this dwindled down to 1 or 2 competing standard in use at a time, most other format wars. Roberto75780 (talk) 17:07, 20 December 2010 (UTC)

A number of standards listed on the page are obsolete standards that are not in use anymore. Another set of standards are simply enhanced versions of an other standard, so it probably should not count as "yet another" standard. 118.96.157.246 (talk) 17:40, 20 December 2010 (UTC)

(edit conflict) And yet another set of standards are standards that are simply … standards, meaning they only exist in specification documents, and have no market (supporting devices, networks, vendors, network operators, users, etc.) whatsoever. 118.96.157.246 (talk) 17:48, 20 December 2010 (UTC)

There are two standards, GSM and CDMA. Under GSM, you have some using 3GSM (aka UMTS). Under CDMA, you have most using CDMA2000. -- kainaw™ 17:47, 20 December 2010 (UTC)

Note that for 4G most mobile phone network operators and in particular the hardware companies that support them have in fact settled on one standard LTE Advanced. However other companies less traditionally involved in the mobile arena are pushing IEEE 802.16m (which arose initially more for last mile internet access). This perhaps somewhat reflects the convergence of those two fields. Nil Einne (talk) 11:32, 21 December 2010 (UTC)

ASP.NET question: Pressing Enter on a text field vs. clicking on a button

In my official work, I am developing an ASP.NET web application. One of our testers reported that whenever he presses Enter on a text field, the application toggles its language between Finnish and English. It turned out that, apparently, the web browser itself was submitting the form, and what it thought was the default submit button just happened to be an image button that was intended to toggle the language. Is there a way in ASP.NET to go around this, preferably to make the web browser somehow distinguish between pressing Enter on a text field and actually clicking on the default submit button? JIP | Talk 19:07, 20 December 2010 (UTC)

Without seeing the code itself, it looks like the image is inside a button and the button is defaulting to "submit". Further, the image button must be inside the form. The easiest fix is to remove the image button from the form - placing it outside the form's HTML code. Another option is to set the type of the button to "button". In IE, buttons default to a type of button. In Firedox, they default to submit. So, an IE developer wouldn't see this happen. -- kainaw™ 19:13, 20 December 2010 (UTC)

The image button is not encoded directly into the HTML, it comes from an ASP.NET asp:ImageButton tag. Therefore, as far as I can see, changing its default type or moving it outside the form would be quite an effort, if it was supposed to retain its intended functionality. I tested this on FireFox, the tester (as far as I can remember) tested it on Internet Explorer. The bug happened in both. AFAIK ASP.NET ImageButtons even render into <input type="image"> tags by default. JIP | Talk 19:26, 20 December 2010 (UTC)

You should only have one submit button per form, type="image" included. ¦ Reisio (talk) 19:30, 20 December 2010 (UTC)

A workaround might be to intercept the hard return in the text box, via Javascript, and then cancel its submission action. --Mr.98 (talk) 20:34, 20 December 2010 (UTC)

It would help to work around the bug, but there's two reasons why I don't like that solution:

1. There's quite a lot of those text boxes. The image button is actually on a master page that is included on several pages.
2. Some users might be accustomed to quickly submitting forms by pressing Enter and would get upset when they encounter a site which forces them to actually click on the submit button. JIP | Talk 18:52, 21 December 2010 (UTC)

Would it somehow be possible to replace the image buttons with normal images, but with a JavaScript "onclick" event causing the browser to submit the form? JIP | Talk 21:06, 22 December 2010 (UTC)

Here's how you would capture the ENTER key to submit a form. Also included is an on-click handler for an image, in case you'd want to do it that way:

<html>
	<head>
		<script type='text/javascript'>
			function send(_event)
			{
				if(_event.keyCode == 13)
				{
					document.getElementById('frm').submit();
				}
			}
		</script>
	</head>
	<body>
		<form action="http://www.google.com" id="frm">
			<input type="text" onkeyup="send(event)">
			<img src="img.jpg" onclick="document.getElementById('frm').submit()">
		</form>
	</body>
</html>

--Best Dog Ever (talk) 22:04, 22 December 2010 (UTC)

What is QuiBids's secret about their penny auctions on high-ticket items?

I feel skeptical about this site that offers spectacular deals:

http://www.quibids.com/landing/index.php?v=15

I have a feeling that they sound too good to be true. If I try to get something on this site, will I receive far less of a deal than what it was cracked up to be? What ARE their secrets? How DO they make a profit off such low bids anyhow? A business that loses money is 1. Not worthy of staying a business, or 2. is just doing it for promotion, and will change their tactics to something more profitable real soon.

Please enlighten me about QuiBids's true nature, and how much of a deal I'd really get from sites like these. Thanks. --70.179.178.5 (talk) 23:34, 20 December 2010 (UTC)

Here's a pair of nice blog posts on these "penny auction" sites. They are dubious. You pay money even if you lose the auction, for one thing, and you're spending money on the hope (without any justification behind it) that you'll be the "winner", which makes it akin to gambling (or a raffle). You could get very lucky and buy only a few bids and happen to win something wonderful. Or more likely you will not win and just end up spending the money anyway. Ergo the gambling aspect. The site just buys these things off the shelf and makes all of its money because people pay even if they lose — so they make back far more than the cost of the item in question by exploiting the fact that lots of people lost a little bit of money trying to get it. --Mr.98 (talk) 00:07, 21 December 2010 (UTC)

I see. How do I proxy bid on QuiBids? --70.179.178.5 (talk) 00:17, 21 December 2010 (UTC)

I don't know the specifics of QuiBids. Here is a Time magazine article explaining QuiBids (and urging people not to use penny auction sites); here is an article in The Economist which discusses the difficulty of the business model; and here is an article in Wired article explaining more about the business model and why sites like these highlight a few cases of really nice things selling cheaply, when they're really just hustling for more losers to skim off of. It's not a good business model for anyone involved. The bottom line is that they are not really "auctions" in the strict sense. Basically every article you can find on these things from reputable news sources (including those listed on the top of QiBid's site) say "don't do these" unless you understand that they are just gambling. --Mr.98 (talk) 00:32, 21 December 2010 (UTC)

December 21

Good forums

Besides this RD (which is sometimes difficult to navigate) and stackoverflow.com which forums are there, which have a descent level (no Yahoo! Answers please) and have a general aim? 212.169.184.68 (talk) 03:06, 21 December 2010 (UTC)

There's Usenet. -- BenRG (talk) 09:26, 21 December 2010 (UTC)

4chan 188.186.237.190 (talk) 10:32, 21 December 2010 (UTC)

4chan is certainly a joke here. Quest09 (talk) 15:51, 21 December 2010 (UTC)

Could you give us your feedback on what it is about the Reference Desk that you find difficult to navigate? Improvement is always possible. Comet Tuttle (talk) 18:26, 21 December 2010 (UTC)

Reddit has AskReddit, in case that's the sort of thing you're looking for. Marnanel (talk) 23:13, 21 December 2010 (UTC)

.net methods corresponding to old win32 api

i.e., how can I find the .net method corrensponding to FindNextFile function? t.i.a. --83.103.117.254 (talk) 09:35, 21 December 2010 (UTC)

Check the help for Directory.GetFiles(). --Phil Holmes (talk) 09:41, 21 December 2010 (UTC)

Ok but it was only an example, is there any mapping resource? --83.103.117.254 (talk) 14:41, 21 December 2010 (UTC)

I'm not aware of one. Given that the .Net framework is quite different from the Win32 functions, I don't think a straight mapping could exist. But it's not too hard to find the functions that do the same thing, or to read a book to understand how the .Net functions work. --Phil Holmes (talk) 16:34, 21 December 2010 (UTC)

Wifi type N or type G?

My internet connection keeps dropping. Then when I go downstairs it works again. I went to the shop to buy an external antenna. The man had some dongles for type N and type G. If the thing in my computer is type G then I can get a dongle for type N and that will double the range.It seems he was refering to the IEEE. But how I could check which one I have? — Fly by Night (talk) 15:02, 21 December 2010 (UTC)

see IEEE 802.11 standards - the N type has a longer range and probably might be more resistance to drop outs - but that might not be the cause of your problem.

For N to work you need N type adaptors at either end for it, (not just the aerial, the card, router etc must support N).

You can check the type you have by clicking properties on your wifi connection icon.. or maybe it will say on the box - for more specific info I think you need to say what OS you are using, or tell us what model wifi box you have.

As for dropouts - someone else might be able to give full advice - possible the range is an issue here - there are programs that can check signal strength which might help you decide - I'll leave that to someone else to complete.83.100.225.242 (talk) 16:49, 21 December 2010 (UTC)

If you buy an IEEE 802.11n router and an dongle that supports it, your problems should be over. 802.11n has a useful range of up to 70 metres indoors and more than 250 metres outdoors and it also can use two different radio frequencies at the same time which means that any interference will likely have much less impact. Of course, it is possible that getting a better 802.11g router will solve your problem too and it would much cheaper. I'm assuming you're using a laptop to connect wirelessly and if you are it will already have a 802.11g adapter built in if your computer is less than 6 years old. However, the only way to find out if a new 802.11g router would work would be to actually install one so unless you can return the router easily if it doesn't work, I would recommend that you simply get the 802.11n router and dongle. Though if you do, make sure you turn on the WPA security on the router because as stated before it will probable work more than 200 metres away and you don't want people freeloading off your internet access point. And if it gives you the option to use WEP for your security, just don't use it. One of my friends used to break it into WEP-secured routers in less than 15 minutes for fun. WPA is practically unbreakable. Thingg^⊕⊗ 21:22, 21 December 2010 (UTC)

script

Resolved

In greasemoney, the following script makes an alert box appear after 6 mins saying "Hello";

window.setTimeout("alert('Hello.');", 360000);

I would like to be able to see how long is remaining before the box appears. Would it be possible to generate a little countdown clock somewhere on the page? 82.44.55.25 (talk) 17:10, 21 December 2010 (UTC)

The problem is that the timeout event doesn't provide access to the time left. To do what you want to do, you need to go through the following steps:

• Add an element to the page that will contain the countdown.
• Write a function that places 360 in the element (360 seconds).
• Have that function use setTimeout with 1 second call a function using setTimeout that will do the following:
  • Read the value of the element containing the countdown.
  • Subtract one from that value and update the value in the countdown element.
  • If it is now 0, do the alert.
  • Otherwise, call itself with another 1 second timeout.

It is a lot of work, but it will do what you want. -- kainaw™ 17:18, 21 December 2010 (UTC)

Thanks for the quick answer. I had a another problem with a script, I guess I can ask here instead of making a new section? I'm having trouble with the following:

function nowtime ()
{
var currentTime = new Date()
var hours = currentTime.getHours()
var minutes = currentTime.getMinutes()
if (minutes < 10){
minutes = "0" + minutes
}
alert(hours + ':' + minutes);
}

I think the problem is that part of the script has a "}" in it and the function thinks I'm closing it when I'm not. Is there a way to fix that? 82.44.55.25 (talk) 17:51, 21 December 2010 (UTC)

What problem are you having? I copied your code into a very basic html file and it worked without any problem. --LarryMac | Talk 19:07, 21 December 2010 (UTC)

If I try to use

setTimeout("nowtime()", 5000);

nothing happens 82.44.55.25 (talk) 19:30, 21 December 2010 (UTC)

I guess you're going back to your first script? My comment was on the second script that you added. What you've just posted tells the system to run the function "nowtime()" five seconds from now. What would you like to happen? --LarryMac | Talk 19:47, 21 December 2010 (UTC)

This was for the second script. The problem was greasemonkey does javascript a bit differently. Instead of

setTimeout("nowtime()", 5000);

I had to use

setTimeout(nowtime, 5000);

It all works fine now :) 82.44.55.25 (talk) 19:53, 21 December 2010 (UTC)

I figured it out. Thanks everyone! 82.44.55.25 (talk) 19:42, 21 December 2010 (UTC)

Memories of an old computer game

Back in the middle 1980s, I remember playing some Commodore 64 game. Its name was "Quanco" or something similar. It was a Boulder Dash clone and its instructions mentioned a character called Angus McFungus. That's all I remember about it. Does anyone know anything about this game? JIP | Talk 18:50, 21 December 2010 (UTC)

Are you sure about that name? Angus McFungus seems to be the victim in The Detective Game - see http://www.mobygames.com/game/detective-game. Exxolon (talk) 19:42, 21 December 2010 (UTC)

Yes, I'm sure. It seems to be a different Angus McFungus. The name isn't exactly difficult to think of. JIP | Talk 19:49, 21 December 2010 (UTC)

Could be Quango - see http://www.gb64.com/game.php?id=6083. Exxolon (talk) 20:43, 21 December 2010 (UTC)

Yes, that's most likely it. Thanks! JIP | Talk 04:48, 22 December 2010 (UTC)

December 22

FCC's new Internet traffic rules: WHAT DOES THAT MEAN FOR US?

First, I hope someone's made an article on that by now. If so, but that still redlinks, please redirect.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/technology/us-regulator-adopts-internet-traffic-rules/article1846054/

What will it mean for you and me now that this FCC regulation is in effect???

My ISP is Cox Communications. Will being part of Cox restrict me on anything now? --70.179.178.5 (talk) 01:50, 22 December 2010 (UTC)

From what I heard on NPR today, your ISP cannot block or limit what you see on the net. Dismas|^(talk) 04:30, 22 December 2010 (UTC)

Listened to the same broadcast. They said except for illegal things. Which will eventually be most things. --71.240.162.87 (talk) 06:21, 22 December 2010 (UTC)

THE GOOD: They can't block or slow down access to sites they don't like, such as their competitors. They also can't use that ability to blackmail sites to pay them money so they will have full speed restored. This would have been bad for free sites (like Wikipedia) and especially those with a need for a lot of bandwidth (like YouTube), which couldn't afford to pay for high speed, and thus would slow to a crawl and lose users.

THE BAD: This might tend to overload the entire Internet, if some sites irresponsibly send large amounts of uncompressed data, knowing they won't be punished for sending such a big load down the "pipes". Thus sites that could have paid for top speed, if allowed, will now be slowed down, too. This would include sites that sell products, especially large-ticket items, like cars.

THE UGLY: Sites that send nasty, but legal, stuff, like lots of porn, may also be protected from discrimination by ISPs.

See net neutrality for more info (although the article hasn't yet been fully updated with info on the new law). StuRat (talk) 07:26, 22 December 2010 (UTC)

Apple Apps that are removed from the AppStore

When an app is removed from the iTunes store, such as this one from WikiLeaks, what happens to those who have already downloaded the app? Does it cease functioning? Does it continue to work? Dismas|^(talk) 04:27, 22 December 2010 (UTC)

afaik Apple does not remove apps from someone's phone if they already downloaded it even though I am pretty sure they have the capability to do so. I can't remember for sure but I think I remember them doing that at some point and they got a lot of flak about it so they stopped. So afaik it should still work if you already downloaded it. For what it's worth I have downloaded a few apps on my Android phone that got pulled from the market later and they still work but I realize Android is an entirely different situation than the iPhone so I don't know for sure. Thingg^⊕⊗ 05:12, 22 December 2010 (UTC)

Apple could indeed delete apps installed in iPhones. And this is possibly irrespective whether the app was withdrawn, removed, censored, DMCA-ed, etc. from the App Store. 118.96.167.217 (talk) 05:18, 22 December 2010 (UTC)

Tables in HTML and wiki text

Due to the order of the hierarchy (Table > Row > Cell) of HTML and wiki text, it's very easy to add a new row anywhere in the table, but it is very hard to add a column because the code line for each row has to be modified... so what's the solution? What's the easiest way to add a new column when writing out HTML manually? I already have a hypothesis... maybe tables can be written out with a Table > Column > Cell hierarchy instead? Although... that would just create the other problem of difficulty adding new rows! Input your solutions please! Roberto75780 (talk) 09:26, 22 December 2010 (UTC)

Format the text nicely and/or use an editor that supports columns. Emacs "rectangle" commands are very useful here. --Stephan Schulz (talk) 13:14, 22 December 2010 (UTC)

Agreed. Reversing the order would just reverse the problem, so that adding, deleting or changing a row would be more difficult. Since this is normally what happens most often, this would be a problem. The other advantage of laying it out as a table in the source code is that it's easier to view there:

BAD:

Washington,District of Columbia,United States
Toronto,Ontario,Canada
Lansing,Michigan,United States
Sacramento,California,United States
Yellowknife,Northwest Territories,Canada

GOOD:

Washington     ,District of Columbia     ,United States
Toronto        ,Ontario                  ,Canada
Lansing        ,Michigan                 ,United States
Sacramento     ,California               ,United States
Yellowknife    ,Northwest Territories    ,Canada

Be sure to put plenty of room between the columns, so you don't have to increase it when a longer cell is added. Tabs can be used to line up columns nicely, but some editors may have problems with those or interpret them differently. Sorting things in a more logical order in the source code would also make sense. StuRat (talk) 16:16, 22 December 2010 (UTC)

Why so many different computer languages?

Most computers use the Von Neumann architecture I think, so instead of constantly re-inventing the wheel, why are there not just a small number of languages that are written for specific purposes, instead of lots of similar ones? 92.29.126.195 (talk) 12:17, 22 December 2010 (UTC)

There are many reasons for programming languages to exist. They may have been created for hobbyist, educational, or commercial purposes; they may have intended to include language features that optimize some particular part of a software cycle (like compiler-performance, software-maintenance, or human-readable code). In fact, almost all computer languages are functionally equivalent to each other; this is a fact of being Turing complete (meaning that any algorithm could be expressed in any Turing-complete language, perhaps with more characters needed). So, even something nutty like Haskell is essentially a functional equivalent of something very different like Java. (However, expressing the same statement will look very different in the two languages, and each will be more compact at expressing certain types of ideas). On the other hand, other languages really are virtually identical, aside from some syntactic sugar - so, C# and Java are essentially the same language (albeit with different keywords, a different system library, and so forth). Some languages go to great effort to hide machine characteristics (like Java); others make huge efforts to expose them (like pure C, or even more so in machine-specific assembly languages and macro languages for specific hardwares). Any time a language has been created, and a user community of at least one person exists, there's a potential for useful tools and software to spring up in that language; so legacy software and community momentum keep the language alive, even if it is flawed or has a suitable replacement. But in general, even though many thousands of computer languages do exist, it's safe to say that no more than a dozen or two are relevant. Furthermore, except for those pesky esoteric programming languages, if you understand the logical program-flow of computer programming, the difficulty of hopping to a totally new language is usually pretty low (provided that the language is reasonably-well-designed). Nimur (talk) 13:30, 22 December 2010 (UTC)

For the most part, there is only one computer language - assembly. Everything else is an abstraction of assembly to make it much easier for programmers to do their job. Different programmers working on different projects have different requirements. So, you end up with many different languages. Because they get compiled down to the same base language for basically the same hardware, the languages all appear to be very similar. -- kainaw™ 13:22, 22 December 2010 (UTC)

Assembly itself is somewhat of an abstraction of machine language.Smallman12q (talk) 14:18, 22 December 2010 (UTC)

An additional reason not mentioned is politics and commercial interests. At one point Microsoft felt threatened by Java, which was not under their control, so they released a very similar language called C#. C# has since been made available for systems besides Windows, but many people decline to use it because they don't trust Microsoft. Java itself might get that treatment due to recent actions of its current owner, Oracle. --Sean 19:39, 22 December 2010 (UTC)

Operation of redirects on other websites

When I go to http://www.bn.com, the old website for Barnes & Noble, I'm immediately redirected to http://www.barnesandnoble.com. Is the HTML for this similar to what's used to have http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WP:RD/C redirect to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Reference_desk/Computing? Obviously I don't get a little "(Redirected from www.bn.com)" message at the top of the Barnes and Noble page, and the URL of the page immediately changes to barnesandnoble.com (instead of staying "WP:RD/C" until I click the "project page" tab), but otherwise I can't see any differences. Nyttend (talk) 12:21, 22 December 2010 (UTC)

It's mostly done in DNS configuration or the web server settings rather than in HTTP, but it can be done with a "meta" tag in HTML. URL redirection explains. -- Finlay McWalter ☻ Talk 12:31, 22 December 2010 (UTC)

Indeed. And redirections in wikis (like Wikipedia) are configured in and processed by the wiki software (which, in Wikipedia's case, is MediaWiki), not the DNS server, HTTP server, or your web browser. 118.96.160.94 (talk) 13:53, 22 December 2010 (UTC)

The http://www.bn.com web site issues a 301 response (permanently moved) which redirects to http://www.barnesandnoble.com/. Technically, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WP:RD/C issues a 301 redirect to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:RD/C, and that page returns a 200 status, but there's no redirection that I see after that. -- JSBillings 14:22, 22 December 2010 (UTC)

Usb drive in the mail

Hi, I'm wanting to send a usb stick with some large files on it to a friend in dubai (I'm in the uk), the drive is very small and light (sandisk cruzer blade), would the files on it remain safe?, or is there a chance any data on it may be wiped, or someone would look through the files to check it? Thanks--77.44.28.237 (talk) 12:49, 22 December 2010 (UTC)

If you don't want it read, use something like Pretty Good Privacy to encrypt it (providing this is not illegal out there). USB sticks are about the best way to send files through the post that I can think of -as they are so tough. Keep a backup copy too. Don't send the key until it safely arrives at the other end. Use a very long key. Better still use digital_steganography to conceal the files.--Aspro (talk) 13:18, 22 December 2010 (UTC)

Regarding x-rays and other technologies: it is unlikely that any x-ray or other scanner device would accidentally wipe the data off of a USB flash-drive. (ref. Tips for Caring for Your Flash Memory). It may be legal for customs, border control, or other security agents to view or copy your flash-drive contents; it is rarely legal for anyone to delete them; but you can encrypt your data (as Aspro advised above). This will make the data irrelevant and unreadable to any agent who does not have the decryption key. Nimur (talk) 13:51, 22 December 2010 (UTC)

However, sending large amounts of data there, in an unreadable form, may get you put on a terrorism watch list, since that's the type of thing a terrorist might do. StuRat (talk) 15:56, 22 December 2010 (UTC)

I think BlackBerry was recently prohibited in Dubai due to its encryption. Quest09 (talk) 17:47, 22 December 2010 (UTC)

VLC

I have a WinTV-NOVA-T USB. I read that VLC can be used to watch tv through it, but I can't work out how. I followed several guides on setting the capture device to direct show dvb but it doesn't seem to work. What am I doing wrong? 82.44.55.25 (talk) 14:56, 22 December 2010 (UTC)

Yes, this is pretty easy to do actually. Just open VLC player, and from the Media menu, select Open Capture Device, and choose your TV tuner card in that dialog box. You will also notice your webcam is in the drop down list, as it's also a capture device and can be played by VLC. Another interesting thing is that when you use Yahoo, Skype etc you can select any capture device, including your TV tuner card, as your "webcam" from their respective options menu. Roberto75780 (talk) 21:48, 22 December 2010 (UTC)

I got that far, but just clicking play doesn't work; no picture or anything is displayed. There are "transponder/multiplex frequency" and "terrestrial bandwidth" settings, but I don't know what to do with them 82.44.55.25 (talk) 22:06, 22 December 2010 (UTC)

Pictures Gone

Since a few days ago no pictures appear on my WP pages. I see just a little sign instead. Anything wrong with my ie8 settings? I have this same problem in Google Chrome as well. Thanks for comments. Omidinist (talk) 16:40, 22 December 2010 (UTC)

Pics that no longer display usually mean my computer is out of memory, and a reboot fixes the problem. Have you tried that ? StuRat (talk) 02:08, 23 December 2010 (UTC)

Analyzing patterns in general

I know that tools like BLAST can be used for different purposes, but can you use it for analyzing non-sequential structures? (like a network). Are there other pattern analyzing software tools available (not to be confused with Software_analysis_patterns) that are so developed as BLAST? (specially for analyzing graph-like structures, for example a network).Quest09 (talk) 17:40, 22 December 2010 (UTC)

BLAST (and FASTA) are simplification/estimates of performing a full Wagner-Fisher analysis for either a local or global alignment. You can ignore the simplications and perform a full analysis. What you are doing is trying to align (locally or globally) two sequences. For example, if you have 12345 and you try to align 153, you will align 1 to 1 on both. If it is a local alignment, you will align the 3's together. If it is a global alignment, you will align the 5's together. Then, you also end up with a Levenshtein-like distance between the two alignments. If you don't have a background in sequence alignment, I can expand on this further. -- kainaw™ 17:45, 22 December 2010 (UTC)

No, I don't know anything about sequence alignment, but I am not interested in bioinformatics directly, but in analyzing patterns in general. Can you analyze a road-map or city street grid with such sequential alignment tools? Or would the similar patters be irrelevant? 18:01, 22 December 2010 (UTC) — Preceding unsigned comment added by Quest09 (talk • contribs)

You can use sequence alignment for a lot of things, such as comparing a Wikipedia editor's contributions to a large number of existing websites to see if the editor's contribution is pretty much copied directly from a small part of another website. You'd be performing a local alignment of the editor's contribution with each website. After alignment, you check the distance. If the distance for the local alignment to one of the websites is negligible, the editor's contribution is a copy of a subsection of the website. The key here is that you need a sequence, not a pattern. In DNA, the sequence of letters is obvious. In an editor's contribution, the sequence is also the sequence of letters that form each word and eventually each sentence. I've seen this used to compare the order in which people read books - the order in which a person reads a book is a sequence of books. I've seen it used to analyze roads that people take - the order of roads and intersections becomes a sequence. So, you need to decide how you will encode your sequences. Then, you can compare two sequences to one another for alignment and/or difference. -- kainaw™ 18:08, 22 December 2010 (UTC)

But, imagine that you have a city map (infinite number of sequences between point A on the West and B on the East), and you want to find the shortest route between point A and B. Would you generate a number n of sequences and compare them? In the examples that you gave, you already have the sequences (DNA, lists, whatever) and are comparing them. In this example, it is not clear which sequences exist, you just have the layout of the graph. How to find the shortest path (sequence) here? Quest09 (talk) 18:21, 22 December 2010 (UTC)

You need to solve the Graph_theory#Route_problems with an algorithm for solving the Shortest_path_problem#Algorithms80.58.205.34 (talk) 18:57, 22 December 2010 (UTC)

You began with BLAST, which is a sequence alignment tool. To align sequences, you must know the sequences. If you want to look for shortest paths, you shouldn't be using a sequence alignment algorithm. -- kainaw™ 19:10, 22 December 2010 (UTC)

Apple products

Why doesn't Apple append a simple model number to the name of each version of the iPod, iPhone, iPad, and even the Mac computers? The "generation numbers" people tack onto them are a little inconsistent and confusing, especially since the introduction of iPhone 3G, in which its 3G phone technology not the third generation of iPhone. It would make referring to (or searching for!) a specific model much easier. A simple (and unique!) 4 digit model number after the name like BlackBerry and Nokia phones would be so convenient. In the first few years of iPod it was even worse, as the flagship model was always officially called "iPod" with no further qualification whatsoever. Names like "touch" "3G" "3GS" etc have helped a lot but there is still ambiguity about which generation of "touch", "nano", or "shuffle" one is referring to. So what's up with the over-simplified and ambiguous naming? I know they have some sort of long model numbers but why not prominently displayed in their names, (like blackberry and nokia many other electonics) Roberto75780 (talk) 22:54, 22 December 2010 (UTC)

Apple does a fantastic job of presenting a simple product line to normal people who don't spend much time worrying about the specifications of their phone, or its features, or its generation. And they're making billions of dollars, mostly at Blackberry's and Nokia's expense. Do you really think that by adding little numbers to the names of their phones they'd sell more of them? If not, "do as Nokia does" is a silly move - Nokia is dying. 87.115.159.188 (talk) 02:57, 23 December 2010 (UTC)

Usage statistics

I am looking for the following statistics, with references if possible:

• What fraction of the full CPU capabilities of a computer is actually exploited, on average, in a given year?
• What fraction of the full internet bandwidth capacity does an average person use, on average, in a given year?
• How much does a person spend every year, on average, on computer hardware and software?

I am also interested in general references which provide similar information.

Cheers, 92.156.151.218 (talk) 23:20, 22 December 2010 (UTC)

file headers(?) / embedding a file into an image

Hi All,

I happen to recall back when IRC was still very popular (~late 90's I think?) there was a virus which spread an image (gif/jpg) which when viewed only had the words 'rename this to .com', and when you do so it would in fact be a valid .com executable. I'd like to read up on an article which discusses the technique involved, I am intrigued how the headers(?) and overall file composition would be valid as both file types.

On a related note, there was also a way to embed other files into an image, which involved using the dos/cmd prompt 'echo -B <..>' (forgot the actual part, but it was like a binary echo thingy).

It was quite a bit too advanced for me at the time, but know I wanna look into it :D

Thanks in advance PrinzPH (talk) 00:35, 23 December 2010 (UTC)

The technique is probably something similar to polyglot. 118.96.165.178 (talk) 00:48, 23 December 2010 (UTC)

Here's a partial solution to your "related note" question - if you concatenate a ZIP archive onto the end of a JPG file, the result will be a valid image and a valid ZIP, depending on what program you use to open it. On Unix the syntax is cat foo.jpg bar.zip > output.jpg ; off the top of my head the same in DOS/cmd.exe is copy /b foo.jpg+bar.zip output.jpg Most programs that read a given file rely on file magic to confirm that a file is of the approved type, which they mostly take from the opening; the JPG/ZIP thing works because unzippers are a bit more flexible about finding the ZIP header. -- Finlay McWalter ☻ Talk 00:49, 23 December 2010 (UTC)

A .com file is simply a dump of memory, so it won't hurt anything to stick any extra information you like at the end (the program won't be looking there anyway, since it believes it's uninitialised). It has no header. A JPEG also has no header; it's a series of segments in a particular form. The segments have a particular (simple) structure. So it looks pretty feasible to create a file which goes:

1. a block which looks to a JPEG decoder like the start of a block, but if interpreted as X86 machine code is ignored (or starts with an instruction to skip over the rest of it)
2. a block of X86 machine code which is accepted by the JPEG decoder as part of an unknown block (but is executed when the file is considered as a .com)
3. anything else you like, which in practice will be the image data segments from the JPEG.

I'd like to see this file if you can find it. Marnanel (talk) 00:59, 23 December 2010 (UTC)

As to the .com file thing - COM files are loaded by DOS' own loader, which is very inflexible about how it does so. GIF and JPEG files have characteristic fields in their file headers that distinguish them, and unlike ZIP the readers for them don't (in my limited experience) tolerate some random unknown data prepending the image header. Unless the malware was targetting some reader that did tolerate a nonsense prefix, I guess the secret was for the malware author to find an x86 instruction sequence that satisfied the GIF header validator (which would be very basic, probably just checking the six byte characteristic) and that was also an executable sequence - that is, that it executed through the GIF file header without downright crashing the machine or jumping off into some unwanted space - it doesn't have to actually do anything, as long as execution can run through to a point in the header that the malware author can add working code without it failing the GIF file checker. I don't know the specifics, but I guess if you find a book on real-mode Intel machine code and figure out what the bytes GIF87a actually do (when treated as 16 bit 8086 real mode machine code loaded at 0x100), you'll be somewhere along to figuring out what the malware author actually did. I think I've seen one if these executable-images before, and it was evident that there was something weird about it - the colours were all mangled, suggesting that there was executable code stored in a location where the GIF reader expected colour or pixel data to be. Note that .COMs don't execute (natively) on later Windows OSes; I haven't thought about how easily the MZ (win32) and PE (winNT) file formats can be gamed - they're a lot more complex that .COM's format-less braindump, so this attack is probably a lot harder to pull of on a modern Windows install. -- Finlay McWalter ☻ Talk 01:07, 23 December 2010 (UTC)

A slight correction to the above: MZ is DOS (whereas .COM was CP/M and early DOS but didn't die when it should have), NE is windows, and PE is NT3 onwards. -- Finlay McWalter ☻ Talk 01:37, 23 December 2010 (UTC)

In a slightly related vein, I can't help but be weirded-out when I compile a C# program with Mono on Linux to get a .EXE file, only it's none of the above executable-loadable binary formats, but a .NET assembly. The same platform will load "genuine" executables like PEs with the Wine binary loader but will run the .NET assemblies with the Mono runtime.-- Finlay McWalter ☻ Talk 01:37, 23 December 2010 (UTC)