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June 20

Help with switchboard (MS Access)

I have read sites , about how to maximize the switchboard when the database is opened , but please will u tell me step by step to : -write the macros in visual basic (it should be docmd.maximize) -enable the macros

but please write it in simple english words...Thank u in advance --95.107.197.91 (talk) 11:31, 20 June 2011 (UTC)

Just a note for those who are confused: this is a reference to Microsoft Access scripting. I've edited the title to indicate this. --Mr.98 (talk) 13:45, 20 June 2011 (UTC)

The easiest way to do it, in my opinion, is to do the following:

1. Open up the database. Make sure that the Database view is open (so you can see your forms). (You may have to go to Window > Unhide, if it is hidden. If it is hidden to the point where it won't show up in Unhide, or you can't enter Design View as in step 2, close and re-open the database while holding down the Shift key to override any startup options.)

2. Open the Switchboard form. Go to View > Design View to make it editable.

3. Go to View > Properties to open the Properties Window.

4. Make sure that "Form" is selected in the Properties window. Click on the "Event" tab within the Properties window. Scroll down to "On Open" which ought to say "[Event Procedure]" in it. Click on the "[Event Procedure]" line in "On Open," then click on the button with the ellipses (...) to the right of it. This will open up the Visual Basic Editor, into a function called "Form_Open".

5. Right after the line that says Private Sub Form_Open(Cancel as Integer), add a new line, and type in DoCmd.Maximize on that line.

6. Click "Save" in the Visual Basic Editor, and close the Visual Basic Editor. You should be back at your Switchboard form. Click "Save" there. Close the Switchboard form. Re-open it. It should be maximized.

Let me know if you have any questions. A shorter version of this would be just to say, "Add DoCmd.Maximize to the Switchboard's Form_Open function," but I assume that since you asked for a step by step approach, you wanted a more basic explanation, so the instructions above assume very little Access knowledge. You could also do it through Macros, but that would be somewhat more difficult, because the Switchboard already uses VBA scripting, and I'm not sure you can mix-and-match macros and VBA scripting. --Mr.98 (talk) 14:04, 20 June 2011 (UTC)

Thanks a lot 95.107.197.91 (talk) 09:35, 21 June 2011 (UTC)

Memory Stick question

My digital camera stores image files on a little solid state device called "Memory Stick Pro Duo". I used to be able to push that device into a slot on my computer and copy the image files to the hard disk. But that no longer works.

The memory stick still works okay in the camera. When the memory stick is inserted into the slot on the computer, the little green light still comes on to acknowledge the stick is there.

But "Removable Disk (I:)" no longer appears in the Window "My Computer" so I cannot access the files.

I think the memory stick is probably fine since it works in the camera. Is the problem more likely to be with hardware or software?

Thank you, Wanderer57 (talk) 02:02, 21 June 2011 (UTC)

I used to do this when t was annoying. What I did was to restart the computer, without the card, and then instert it again. See if it works now, good luck. General Rommel (talk) 02:33, 21 June 2011 (UTC)

A Pro Duo usually requires an adapter to fit into a computer's Memory Stick slot. You might also want to check your computer manufacturer's website for a card slot driver so that you can reinstall and/or update the appropriate software. --LarryMac | Talk 17:43, 21 June 2011 (UTC)

how is version control for a development team usually set up?

we have access to virtual servers on request through a cloud sharding solution and I've been tasked with setting servers up for web development (facing the public) of a web application run from the company. From what I can gather, the best practice is to have three servers: production, staging, and development. These would I suppose ideally be three different logical servers (own ip, etc), and even more ideally, as web developers and designers we hopefully wouldn't actually touch production. If I have it right so far, my next question is about version control. I have a recommendation for Gitosis. Shoudl this be set up on the development server, or on a fourth, separate server? Thanks for any other information you would also have. ALSO: at the moment tehre is only one production server, with gitosis half set up for it - it's serving the public. DO you think I can just clone it three times, once for staging, once for development, and on the third clone finish setting up gitosis? Or, what is the best practice approach here? Thanks. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 188.28.194.120 (talk) 23:56, 20 June 2011 (UTC)

As for the 3 environments, that's a good approach, and what I'm used to, too, although the middle one is sometimes split into "unit testing" and "integration testing" environments, with programmers doing the unit testing and customers doing the integration testing (also sometimes called beta testing) using cloned production data. StuRat (talk) 08:35, 21 June 2011 (UTC)

June 21

Tracing MAC address over the Internet

Is it possible? What if a computer has to login on a page? That would mean it would be part of your network, and therefore it's not only a visitor to your page. 88.8.78.155 (talk) 00:34, 21 June 2011 (UTC)

It is rare that the MAC address is broadcast outside of the local network. This is repeatedly asked from those who are trying to uniquely identify a computer that is visiting a website. To do that, the common solution is to use Flash cookies. -- kainaw™ 00:47, 21 June 2011 (UTC)

Administrator bullying situation - where to report it?

Where do I report a situation where an administrator is mean to a user? --J (t) 03:00, 21 June 2011 (UTC)

You might want to consider learning a bit more about how Wikipedia works before setting out to attack people. Poorly directed attacks have a tendency to boomerang. Looie496 (talk) 03:43, 21 June 2011 (UTC)

I would also suggest learning to look and read more carefully may help. Wikipedia:Help desk would be the place to ask any question concerning wikipedia as Wikipedia:Reference desk specifies. As with Looie496 I'm presuming you're referring to wikipedia, we have no idea where you can report an administrator in some other unspecified random website (if it is even possible). Nil Einne (talk) 05:57, 21 June 2011 (UTC)

WP:AN/I AvrillirvA (talk) 09:42, 21 June 2011 (UTC)

... but almost always better in the long run to just walk away and ignore it, rather than escalating the situation. As noted above, Wikipedia:Help desk is the appropriate venue to ask for further advice. Gandalf61 (talk) 10:31, 21 June 2011 (UTC)

It's not clear that the question is about Wikipedia admins: it could easily refer to a workplace problem, in which case we would need more details, though it would probably be very difficult (and verging on the "legal advice" area) to give an answer. AndrewWTaylor (talk) 11:03, 21 June 2011 (UTC)

Good point, but a glance at recent posts on the OP's talk page suggests they are probably asking about Wikipedia. Gandalf61 (talk) 11:21, 21 June 2011 (UTC)

Don't waste your time, admins protect each other on Wikipedia if at all possible; usually how they got to be admins in the first place. ¦ Reisio (talk) 15:34, 21 June 2011 (UTC)

• Reisio, if you have evidence of this phenomenon, post it on your talk page, please. I think that many anon editors think it is "admin abuse" when it isn't. WhisperToMe (talk) 16:09, 21 June 2011 (UTC)

I think many anon editors and non-anon editors think it is "admin abuse" when it is. What good would it do to post about it on my talk page? I just got done telling this guy not to waste his time. ¦ Reisio (talk) 01:35, 22 June 2011 (UTC)

The reason why I asked you to post it on your talk page is, in order to successfully defend your thesis that "admins protect each other on Wikipedia if at all possible" you would have to provide evidence, and I do not believe that the best course of action would be to get this discussion off of a tangent. But you need to provide the evidence, so the best place is to do it on the talk page.

If someone makes a fantastic claim like "admins protect each other on Wikipedia if at all possible" in a way to suggest that admins have a cabal conspiracy keeping the anon/new user down, then I am going to ask him/her to provide evidence.

In many cases, Reisio, anons make honest mistakes and need to learn from them. Or the anon/new user has committed a serious act of willful misconduct.

Also admin abuse is only admin abuse is the guy says "I'm an admin" to get more credibility or actually uses his admin powers.

WhisperToMe (talk) 02:33, 22 June 2011 (UTC)

You say it’s fantastic, which means you’re either an admin, a wannabe admin, or ignorant. (/me checks your page, big surprise you’re an admin) You just proved my point, thanks. ¦ Reisio (talk) 05:09, 22 June 2011 (UTC)

• Reisio, Wikipedia:No personal attacks makes it very clear: "Comment on content, not on the contributor".
• That was not an okay response, and it does nothing to refute my point. Failure to address my argument and attacking me personally will not help your thesis.
• Also, administrators have more trust in them, but they do not count more than regular users. I have the same weight in a Wikipedia discussion as any other user would.
• It would be wise for you to not do that again.
• WhisperToMe (talk) 06:10, 22 June 2011 (UTC)

I think the OP is complaining about being told by an admin to lay off editing a particular page. Astronaut (talk) 17:29, 21 June 2011 (UTC)

When an editor politely tells someone to make their signature compliant with the rules and that editor even offers suggestions on how the other person can modify the signature to make it compliant but the other person feels that the comments were 'rude' to extent they move both to their semi hidden archive page for 'negative' comments User talk:Jeffwang/Archive 0 this makes one think the other person has problems. Even more so when the other person has been editing since 2008 so isn't a complete noob.

When that person gets into another huff, again moving the content into this semi hidden archive when it is politely suggested yelling at people in an edit notice it not the way to interact on wikipedia this calls in to further question whether that other person has problems.

So when an admin and bureaucrat suggests that same person is making problems in a page and asks them to stay away, without mentioning they are an admin and bureaucrat, and without suggesting they will take any administrative action, it seems likely the problem is more with the person then the admin and bureaucrat. Particularly when the person's response is to yell and suggest they will stop but also report the admin while again yelling and then to come to the RD/C and post an offtopic question. And regardless, calling it admin abuse when the admin has apparently not even said they are an admin in the dispute seems a little rich.

If this is the sort of thing Reisio is calling admin abuse, I would have to conclude with others that that they have no evidence for their claims. It's no wonder we can't deal with real admin abuse when people experienced with wikipedia like Reisio call stuff like this 'admin abuse'.

The simple fact is of course most human interactions whether in real life or on the internet and this includes wikipedia requires that people don't take extreme offense at every single suggestion on improvement that could be intepreted as mildly critical of them.

Nil Einne (talk) 02:02, 22 June 2011 (UTC)

P.S. Looking briefly at the actual cause for the recommendation, it seems one of the problems was the removal of a request with insufficient info but where the normal policy is to leave such requests in case the person who made it comes back. This may not be the worst crime but it does suggest they were making problems not only for the people working on the page but for the people seeking help.

Nil Einne (talk) 02:41, 22 June 2011 (UTC)

It's a little more like the sort of thing you’re saying I’m calling admin abuse, and a little less like the sort of thing I’ve actually called admin abuse. Reviewer, rollbacker, let me guess — wannabe admin? ¦ Reisio (talk) 05:16, 22 June 2011 (UTC)

Well, if you are saying that this isn't a case of admin abuse, but there are other real cases out there and what you describe is "admin abuse" is the real cases, then the discussion on real admin abuse should go on another page.

If you want to say "there is admin abuse" then take the time to document, comment, and explain. Show diffs, link to pages, catalog everything. Start appropriate threads.

Above all "Don't waste your time" (on reporting admin abuse) is absolutely not a healthy attitude on Wikipedia. Nihilism is not a good philosophy. People need to learn to appropriately engage in disputes with administrators (administrator status is only relevant if admin powers are used or if the person flaunts admin status)

WhisperToMe (talk) 06:10, 22 June 2011 (UTC)

My dear WhisperToMe, what I’ve said is above for your reading enjoyment. ¦ Reisio (talk) 18:47, 22 June 2011 (UTC)

I have already read everything that you posted before 18:47, 22 June 2011 ([1] [2]), and I replied to those comments ([3] [4]).

WhisperToMe (talk) 20:47, 22 June 2011 (UTC)

Just saying, if you want to actually know what I’ve said instead of just making up on your own what I’ve said, there it is. ¦ Reisio (talk) 21:15, 22 June 2011 (UTC)

I link to diffs, which say exactly what you said.

I do not believe that I have mischaracterized anything that you have said. If so, where? How was it mischaracterized?

WhisperToMe (talk) 21:17, 22 June 2011 (UTC)

Hopeless case. ¦ Reisio (talk) 07:02, 23 June 2011 (UTC)

When a Wikipedian makes a claim, it is up to him/her to provide evidence. When Wikipedian A makes a claim without showing diffs/evidence, Wikipedian B is in the right to ask him or her to show the evidence. So Wikipedian A ought to say "Okay, here's the evidence" and lay down everything. Wikipedian A should not attack Wikipedian B for asking for evidence.

Wikipedian B has no obligation to search for sources for Wikipedian A's claim.

If Wikipedian A makes a statement, doesn't back it up, and criticizes attempts to ask for evidence, Wikipedian A's campaign is a "hopeless case"

WhisperToMe (talk) 17:52, 23 June 2011 (UTC)

Archiving a Polish report

From http://komisja.smolensk.gov.pl/portal/kbw/633/8695/Raport_koncowy_MAK_ze_wskazaniem_zmian_do_projektu_raportu.html there is a Polish report at http://komisja.smolensk.gov.pl/download.php?s=65&id=11976

But if I use webcitation.org to archive http://komisja.smolensk.gov.pl/download.php?s=65&id=11976 , the archiving fails (instead it becomes a download link to "download.php").

How do I successfully archive the file? WhisperToMe (talk) 03:12, 21 June 2011 (UTC)

Can you download it? General Rommel (talk) 00:14, 22 June 2011 (UTC)

Yes, I can download it.

But what I want to do is have the link archived on http://webcitation.org. The website has no problem archiving a barebones PDF link, like http://www.somewhere.com/This.PDF - But the site does not successfully archive the URL http://komisja.smolensk.gov.pl/download.php?s=65&id=11976 - I want to find a way to get the real file location of the file so that I can archive it

WhisperToMe (talk) 00:54, 22 June 2011 (UTC)

Also I want to find the real location of the file at http://komisja.smolensk.gov.pl/download.php?s=65&id=11861 WhisperToMe (talk) 02:43, 22 June 2011 (UTC)

Would it be enough for You to refer to Issuu? Because the reports are there - one, two. --Ouro (blah blah) 09:46, 22 June 2011 (UTC)

I've tried one and it seems to have worked: [5]. Happy archiving. --Ouro (blah blah) 09:49, 22 June 2011 (UTC)

Thanks for referring me to Issuu! I've never heard of the site before. I could possibly see if I could upload documents there myself.

However when I checked the webcitation of the first Issuu document, it doesn't seem to work (the content doesn't display)

WhisperToMe (talk) 17:45, 22 June 2011 (UTC)

I wonder if the website is using a content management system... WhisperToMe (talk) 18:16, 22 June 2011 (UTC)

But why doesn't it work for You? It displays after the link is clicked. Darn, I'll only be able to answer more thoroughly in the morning... --Ouro (blah blah) 22:43, 22 June 2011 (UTC)

I see the page, but not the document that the page is supposed to contain WhisperToMe (talk) 03:31, 23 June 2011 (UTC)

I see it now (I mean, I see your point, and I don't see the document). Okay, so how about one link from good old Wikipedia, and another from a mediocre Polish newspaper? --Ouro (blah blah) 05:07, 23 June 2011 (UTC)

Whoa! I had no idea the CVR transcription was in the Commons!

Thanks for finding the alternate Polish language report location!

WhisperToMe (talk) 17:34, 23 June 2011 (UTC)

I was able to get an archive of the one at Gazeta: http://www.webcitation.org/5zf3EFa3M WhisperToMe (talk) 17:42, 23 June 2011 (UTC)

What about the other one, do you also need to archive it or is it enough that it's on the Commons? Stumbled upon it while searching for the PDFs for you, simple as that. --Ouro (blah blah) 18:33, 23 June 2011 (UTC)

It might be useful to find another location of the CVR transcript file that can be archived, just in case :) WhisperToMe (talk) 01:51, 25 June 2011 (UTC)

Well, take your pick. --Ouro (blah blah) 04:45, 25 June 2011 (UTC)

Best cloud desktop service

What's the best commercial cloud-computing service for occasionally running desktop GUI applications, where all I need that I don't have locally is more CPU power? NeonMerlin 07:17, 21 June 2011 (UTC)

Google's Chrome OS claims to do that. In fact it shoves everything into the cloud - your data and your apps. Astronaut (talk) 16:56, 21 June 2011 (UTC)

I dont think that's possible, as it would require very big badwith to move datat between laptop and the cloud, as the laptop still needs to display what the user is doing. So if you need more CPU power, I'd believe the only way is for the CPU to be housed in the cloud, and somehow the CPU's instruction transferred between the cloud and a reciever. Perhaps that would be the future; buying a computer that would be stored online-the only thing necessary would be a display that has a superfast wireless connection.General Rommel (talk) 01:56, 27 June 2011 (UTC)

Windows PE image restore

I'm restoring a computing using Windows PE, during the restoration process a message appears in the command line ending in "...SACL is going away". Is this a good or a bad thing? Jackacon (talk) 10:22, 21 June 2011 (UTC)

It's a normal part of the process. gnfnrf (talk) 15:45, 21 June 2011 (UTC)

Great cheers! Jackacon (talk) 14:32, 22 June 2011 (UTC)

Is there a charity that will send my old computer to the 3rd world?

I'm sure there are many schools and other facets of 3rd world life that would appreciate a computer, even if old.

There is a computer I had two systems before the one I have now, sitting in a closet in my apartment. I got it to work last time I turned it on, so it's still of some use. I wish to see it off to Africa, SE Asia, or any other impoverished area of the world that could use another secondhand computer.

Would you please help me find the right resources to get that system sent there? Thanks. --65.64.190.134 (talk) 13:46, 21 June 2011 (UTC)

Chances are you can find someplace in the very same city you live in that can relocate that to an impoverished person... in the very same city you live in. My understanding is also that most computer and electronics recycling programs end up shipping all the components to the "3rd world", where they're dismantled and separated on the cheap. It's unlikely that shipping an old computer to another continent would be an efficient use of anyone's money/time/effort. ¦ Reisio (talk) 15:41, 21 June 2011 (UTC)

The main problem with old computers is the software. Sure - you can send your old computer to someone else - you can actually walk down to a school in a poor neighborhood and ask the principal which student would make the best use of it (that's what I do). But, you need to wipe it clean first. Then, you need to reinstall the operating system - do you still have your Windows license? Then, you have make it useful by adding Microsoft Office - do you have that? Then, you need to show the kid how to use it - because you can't expect a kid in a poor school to have ever used a computer before. Then, you have to plan to be forgiving when all your time is wasted because the kid's parents take the computer straight to the closest pawn shop to get a quick $20. -- kainaw™ 18:30, 21 June 2011 (UTC)

Sometimes the agency collecting the computer installs the OS itself. WhisperToMe (talk) 03:31, 22 June 2011 (UTC)

If what you always do ends up with it being pawned, maybe you should stop doing that. In my town (which I wouldn't consider particularly special in this regard), we have various organizations that collect old computers to use in free computer labs, for people to learn how to use various software with, so they can get better jobs. They aren't pawned. As for kids and learning, I'm fairly sure science has proven they're much better at it than adults, particularly when there's the potential to play games. :p Linux, OpenOffice. ¦ Reisio (talk) 01:41, 22 June 2011 (UTC)

On the other hand, many charities in the UK are reluctant to take any electrical item due to liability problems should it later exhibit a fault. As for computers, there are additional problems with the software licenses - the last thing a charity needs is to be sued by Microsoft for 'distributing' improperly licensed copies of Windows/Office. Astronaut (talk) 09:45, 22 June 2011 (UTC)

That's what Linux & OpenOffice.org are for. Sending old computers to third-world countries runs into issues around toxic waste. Roger (talk) 11:04, 26 June 2011 (UTC)

Web server on top level domain only?

I pretty distinctly remember seeing a url leading to a working http server on just a top level, something like http://example or http://.example. Anyone know what I'm talking about? 71.200.137.85 (talk) 18:05, 21 June 2011 (UTC)

Generic top-level domain? It's also possible that you aren't using Internet DNS servers. If you're using a local name-resolution server (part of your intranet, or something you intentionally configured in your hosts configuration file), then a URL may point to a non-globally-qualified host. Nimur (talk) 20:55, 21 June 2011 (UTC)

In a quick sweep of country codes, I found that all of the following countries have an IP address directly on the top-level domain: ai bi cm dk gg hk io je ph pn sh tk tm to uz ws. Checking them all for the presence of a web server is left as an exercise. 67.162.90.113 (talk) 22:41, 21 June 2011 (UTC)

'Monitor Program'?

For a while now, a certain well-known game downloader /updater (similar to Steam) has not been working properly on my machine. Every time I try to run it, I get a small dialogue box titled 'WinLicense' (sometimes 'Themida'), and a message saying "A monitor program has been found running in your system. Please, unload it from memory and restart your program." I am unable to find out what 'monitor program' this is referring to, and I contacted the company that owns the game downloader. They told me that I probably ran some debugging software, but I have no knowledge of this. Since then, they haven't spoken to me at all (for over two weeks, and despite my persistent and repeated requests for help), but the problem still persists and it's driving me crazy. AVG Internet Security 2011 does not detect anything, and nor do Malwarebytes Antimalware and Ad-Aware Internet Security 2011. I also have Zemana Antilogger running and it detects nothing. Does anyone have any idea of what to do here? KägeTorä - (影虎) (TALK) 18:43, 21 June 2011 (UTC)

For some games, particularly online games, people make available programs like Glider that automate boring processes (heck, what in WoW isn't a boring process) or maphacks that allow otherwise invisible stuff to be seen. These programs sometimes attach to the game process using the OS' debugger APIs so they can monitor and intercept what the game is doing, and sometimes patch the game processes memory. Some malware also uses these APIs to steal licence keys or login information from programs (e.g. Win32WowStealer). So anti-cheating software like Warden and PunkBuster look for programs they recognise, and also for programs that hook the debug APIs. That may be what they mean by "monitor program". In this case it looks like the program in question is protected by Oreans Technologies WinLicence program (info). So it sounds like something is using one of the APIs that WinLicence finds objectionable. Unfortunately makers of programs like that aren't always very forthcoming about what they object to; and they don't give direct support to the end user (their customer is the game's maker). Assuming you really aren't running a cheat program, and you've not got any malware, then the most common category of stuff is indeed programs used by software developers - debuggers, network monitors, program-crash monitors, and things like RegMon and FileMon. Unfortunately these hooks are also used by other programs that you might not expect, such as accessibility software and remote-access software (like VNC). And (given the unresponsiveness of the vendor) figuring out what their program is objecting to can be tricky. The trouble with such hooks is that they frequently install a probe at bootup time (technically they install a ring0 monitor and hook the relevant kernel hooks) - so simply killing a program (e.g. with the Task Manager) doesn't uninstall these objects (they have to not be loaded at boot in the first place). Worse, anti-virus and anti-malware programs also hook these. Good security and licence software should recognise and whitelist other legitimate security software, but maybe in you case it's mistaking a good cop for a villain. Unfortunately the responsibility really is on WinLicense and the game program company to tell you what they're specifically objecting to, as it's really not reasonable to expect you to experimentally uninstall programs until you chance upon whatever it is they mistake for malware. -- Finlay McWalter ☻ Talk 19:51, 21 June 2011 (UTC)

Ah, cheers. Well, I know I do not have any cheat software at all. I do have Punkbuster, but I have had that longer than I've had this downloader (the name of which I would rather not divulge as they are an up-and-coming company and I do not want to give them any bad press, plus they have been very good with me in the past). At one point, I had Greatis UnHackMe, which I uninstalled - but after the uninstallation I was informed there were files left over that had to be manually removed. I did so (at least, by clearing out what was left in Program Files). Perhaps this is the culprit, as it runs a number of monitors, and perhaps I have not fully cleansed and exorcised my system of it. After reading through your post, I thought also that TeamViewer may be to blame, but uninstalling that made no difference. In the end, I have re-contacted the company in question, and they are looking into it once again. Cheers. --KägeTorä - (影虎) (TALK) 01:48, 23 June 2011 (UTC)

June 22

Firefox Icon

As can be seen here, my Firefox icon isn't showing. I tried re-installing Firefox, but that didn't help. Is there a way to get the Firefox symbol back? 74.15.136.219 (talk) 01:10, 22 June 2011 (UTC)

Unpin and repin? Bluefist ^talk 01:12, 22 June 2011 (UTC)

Unfortunately didn't work. 74.15.136.219 (talk) 01:33, 22 June 2011 (UTC)

What's that pic supposed to show ? (I was expecting a screen shot of your desktop with a non-standard Firefox startup icon.) Maybe I don't understand the problem. Is it one of these ? :

A) There is no longer any Firefox icon on your desktop.

B) There is a Firefox icon, but it's not the usual one.

C) Some other problem ? StuRat (talk) 01:30, 22 June 2011 (UTC)

The weird first icon is supposed to be a Firefox icon. For aesthetic and perfectionist reasons, it would be nice to have the regular icon. 74.15.136.219 (talk) 01:33, 22 June 2011 (UTC)

I’d ask http://webchat.freenode.net/?nick=w7pinIcoMIA&channels=##windows about it, but I’d be surprised if uninstalling Firefox, backing up your profile folder & deleting it, reinstalling Firefox and copying back your profile contents wouldn’t fix it. As tedious as that is, it’s fairly straightforward. ¦ Reisio (talk) 01:46, 22 June 2011 (UTC)

Couldn't you right-click on the icon, click on properties, and then change the icon back to what it's supposed to be? Even if it's windows icon caching problem, I think that would cause it to reset. APL (talk) 03:22, 22 June 2011 (UTC)

mouse single click e speaking software

I have installed e speaking voice softwre , i have used by giving some commands for example ,Mouse up ,mouse left ,..... but i do not know ,how to do single left click by using voice command ,how can i import this command. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 119.152.12.109 (talk) 05:50, 22 June 2011 (UTC)

Have you downloaded and read the manual? Have you tried the online support pages, e.g. www.e-speaking.com/support.htm?--Shantavira|^{feed me} 10:21, 22 June 2011 (UTC)

It'd be odd if you were having trouble with this one key and no other, but just FFR, software like AutoHotkey (win32) and AutoKey (also xdotool, xautomation, xmodmap [Unix]) can often fill gaps for things like this. ¦ Reisio (talk) 18:45, 22 June 2011 (UTC)

Elite question

Elite (computer game) is a 3D spaceflight computer game from several decades ago. It features a massive galaxy, and travel between stars is done by using hyperspace jumps because the distance is supposedly too large to cover without them. My question is a technical one - does Elite, in theory, allow travelling between stars without the hyperdrive, or is there a separate "space bubble" for each star that can't be exceeded (or that goes on infinitely for an arbitrarily large distance)? What about Oolite (computer game), the free clone of the game? 212.68.15.66 (talk) 06:39, 22 June 2011 (UTC)

This is covered in the article - ships can carry enough fuel for a maximum of seven light years, which is enough to get between almost all of the stars within a galaxy. Warofdreams talk 09:39, 22 June 2011 (UTC)

The 7 light years gets you a few stars over; to get across the galaxy you have to make dozens of jumps (with refuelling between each jump). But as the article notes, the procedural generation for stars does put some outside normal hyperspace range (not that it matters, because all these procedurally generated places are as dull as one another). But that's not the OP's question - it's whether one can travel between stars without the hyperdrive; whether one can just head off in normal space (normal space travel doesn't require fuel) and eventually end up at another star (if you left your Acorn Electron turned on for 20,000 years). I believe the answer is no. I've seen back-engineered code purporting to match Elite's logic and it only flipped the "which star system we're in" indicator in response to the Jump operation. And secondly there's no meaningful correlation between the 2d coordinate system used in the galaxy map and the 3d coordinate system used in the gameplay; so one can't meaningfully head in the direction of Reidquat, because even if the coordinate systems did mesh there's no way of knowing what direction that would be. I don't know about later Elite games or things like Oolite - they all appear to have added more features. The one time in classic Elite when you can end up (in the galactic map) outside a star system is when you misjump and end up in WitchSpace (typically without enough fuel to jump anywhere), but then the Thargoids blast you to bits and it's back to the saved game. -- Finlay McWalter ☻ Talk 10:19, 22 June 2011 (UTC)

Thank you. Actually, in Oolite you can also be intercepted in witch space, but luckily they added (I think) a feature which may cause a random passing ship to notice you... In any case, seeing that Elite was very limited in memory and acording to the developers in several documentaries they worked very hard to remove unnecessary computation and memory requirements, having all the stars "coexist" seems unlikely as they would certainly be a rather superfluous feature. 212.68.15.66 (talk) 11:57, 22 June 2011 (UTC)

Does anyone know how this works in the sequel, Frontier: Elite II? JIP | Talk 19:24, 23 June 2011 (UTC)

Simplified Chinese Music Notation software

Where can I find or purchased the Simplified Chinese Music Notation software for computer that I can put in the Chinese song lyrics and guitar chords.Simonsimon123 (talk) 13:45, 22 June 2011 (UTC)

I'm not 100% certain of this, but Finale Notepad is a pretty feature rich sheet music editor. It's not free, but my recollection from when I last used it was that it supported wider character sets than most sheet music programs. i kan reed (talk) 17:37, 22 June 2011 (UTC)

Be pretty easy with LilyPond (frontends available). If you don't know how to type any Chinese, I'm not sure what will help you, it'll be tedious. If you do know, you shouldn't need the help of the music typesetter. ¦ Reisio (talk) 18:42, 22 June 2011 (UTC)

Having trouble with my computer

I just did a system restore to fight a stupid viris and now my programs don't work except a few. Any program I try to run brings up the open with window and most of my programs are not in there. Thank God Firefox is or I couldn't ask for help. Please what do I do to fix this? PS it dosnt matter if i use the desktop shortcut or try to run the exe direct. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 97.125.133.231 (talk) 17:38, 22 June 2011 (UTC)

If you reinstall Windows, you normally have to reinstall all your programs, too. Have you done this? --Phil Holmes (talk) 17:58, 22 June 2011 (UTC)

Is a system restore the same thing as re-installing windows? Googlemeister (talk) 18:19, 22 June 2011 (UTC)

No it is not. It rolls back the registry and program files to a previous state, removing any system changes along the way. All your documents and similar files are retained, but replaces things that viruses can use to control the system with a specific previous version. i kan reed (talk) 18:31, 22 June 2011 (UTC)

So the OP must have restored to an early point before most of the software was installed. The software will still be there, but its registry entries will be missing. In theory, these could be re-written with a registry editor, but it's not a task I would like to attempt! I think re-installation is the only easy option, unless a more recent restore point is still available. Dbfirs 20:35, 22 June 2011 (UTC)

I don't think so. It sounds like the OP's programs are gone. The program files folder is an exploitable point for viruses, so it gets rolled back. i kan reed (talk) 20:36, 22 June 2011 (UTC)

But then why wasn't his Firefox taken out? Googlemeister (talk) 21:11, 22 June 2011 (UTC)

I was working on the assumption that "system restore" might well be a reinstallation of the initial system as delivered, using the "restore system to its original state" manufacturer-delivered rollback solutions. --Phil Holmes (talk) 21:22, 22 June 2011 (UTC)

Assuming the OP has a Windows system, Firefox would probably not be on the initial system as delivered. Googlemeister (talk) 21:24, 22 June 2011 (UTC)

Yes I have windows and no I only did system restore for 3 days ago. I had this coputer for a year. So what do I need to do to fix this? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 97.125.133.231 (talk) 22:35, 22 June 2011 (UTC)

Was the virus something that plagued you with warnings about all kinds of weird system errors and potential hardware faults, in an effort to get you to buy some fixer program? Did it also replace your desktop background with a plain colour and make all your document disappear? That particular variety of scareware is well known for also hiding your stuff, including the program names in the start menu. Astronaut (talk) 12:48, 23 June 2011 (UTC)

With the above, if that virus hid an important dll file, that might cause something like this to happen. Googlemeister (talk) 12:58, 23 June 2011 (UTC)

Generally it sounds like the OP has malware along the lines of Windows 7 Recovery/Restore. It hides all your start menu programs (it actually hides the whole c drive). The result is that there are no programs you can launch from the start menu. This describes the problem [6]. If this is what's happening post back and there are some resources that can help. RxS (talk) 13:43, 23 June 2011 (UTC)

By the way, if this is what's going on this page has some detail about how to recover the start menu shortcuts [7] RxS (talk) 14:13, 23 June 2011 (UTC)

Kenya WiFi Security

I am going to be travelling to Kenya for a few months and will be using mainly internet cafes to access my email, facebook account and other web services. I am worried about my laptop being stolen so I have already backed up and erased all personal files. Is it safer to remove all cookies from my web browser so that I have to re-enter the passwords and account name every time I log into my email or to just leave my accounts logged in? On one hand, if my laptop gets stolen, the thief will not have access to my accounts, but if I enter my password everytime I log in, will hackers be able to sniff out my password if the WiFi connection is unsecure? Acceptable (talk) 18:03, 22 June 2011 (UTC)

Even if the WiFi in some hotel or bar or whatever was itself secure, you have no way of trusting that the hotel's wired network is secure, or indeed that the upstream connections beyond it are either. At the very minimum you should make sure that you're doing stuff over an https connection. But if it were me I'd get a VPN service like StrongVPN and only connect (for doing anything worthwhile at least) over that. Personally I wouldn't be comfortable with things that claim to clear all the confidential information; I'd use whole disk encryption as well. -- Finlay McWalter ☻ Talk 18:18, 22 June 2011 (UTC)

Router logbook

Are WIFI routers supposed to have a kind of logbook? Or do they only show the current users logged? Wikiweek (talk) 22:23, 22 June 2011 (UTC)

I'm afraid it'll depend completely on the access point make/model and the firmware it's running. Most consumer ones will simply show the MAC address of all connected devices and not much else, some will also show websites currently being visited and other current connections details, but some will literally show nothing at all.  ZX81  ^talk 23:01, 22 June 2011 (UTC)

And a tech-savvy operator of a router could enable it to log all traffic that goes through it.--el Aprel (^facta-_facienda) 01:38, 23 June 2011 (UTC)

If it's supported by the device...  ZX81  ^talk 02:23, 23 June 2011 (UTC)

True. I included that statement because it seemed that the OP might be concerned about their privacy (which is non-existent) over an unknown WIFI network.--el Aprel (^facta-_facienda) 21:55, 23 June 2011 (UTC)

June 23

Running program for Unix-based OS

Can I run softwares for Unix-based operating system on Windows?125.235.100.105 (talk) 01:07, 23 June 2011 (UTC)

That's a complicated question.

The short version is that most unix-only software will not run natively on Windows, however if the software you're looking to use is open-source, it's very likely that someone has made a windows version of it.

And, in a worst case scenario, you could probably install linux within a "virtual machine" on your windows machine, though that would probably be more trouble than it was worth.

If you can tell us what software you're specifically interested in we may be able to help. APL (talk) 03:35, 23 June 2011 (UTC)

It's not that difficult to install a linux distribution as a virtual machine in Windows. I think it's possible with the Microsoft Virtual PC and I know it's possible with Oracle VirtualBox. I have 3 Ubuntu virtual machines running on VirtualBox.--Phil Holmes (talk) 08:08, 23 June 2011 (UTC)

The software I looking for use is a platform that run Unix-based softwares on Windows, like Wine that run Windows software on Unix-based operating systems. 125.235.100.158 (talk) 09:23, 23 June 2011 (UTC)

That's co-linux. You can download a compressed image of a 1GB file system running Ubuntu for it. Extending the image is a bit of a pain - you are probably better off creating a second image for storing your documents (/home). You should also install an X-server if you want to run graphical programs. cygwin's or mingw's ones is probably the easiest. Ask here again if you need advice to set it up. CS Miller (talk) 12:07, 23 June 2011 (UTC)

There's always Cygwin. It provides a Unix-basd compatibility layer on top of Windows. You can start Cygwin as a normal Windows program, and it presents you with a Unix shell. It's not an emulator - that shell is running directly on Windows. You can traverse your own Windows file system through the Unix shell interface, to read and write files. You cannot run Unix binaries from "real" Unix distributions like Linux, Mac OSX or Solaris, but you can get Unix-based source code and compile it in Cygwin, which will then result in completely native Windows binaries that can be run from inside Cygwin. JIP | Talk 19:15, 23 June 2011 (UTC)

Ubuntu: Command + ` OSX equivalent?

On the Mac, I use Command + ` (the tilda) to cycle through windows in the current application (eg terminal or chrome). It's like alt + tab except only for the current application's windows. I also don't want any flashy graphics like exposee or anything. Is there anyway to do this on Ubuntu (possibly on compiz?)? Thanks! — Preceding unsigned comment added by Legolas52 (talk • contribs) 04:35, 23 June 2011 (UTC)

Try CTRL+TAB, CTRL+SHIFT+TAB, CTRL+PGDN, CTRL+PGUP. You can make ⌘+` mapped to any of these. ¦ Reisio (talk) 06:57, 23 June 2011 (UTC)

On my Ubuntu set up: CTRL+ALT+LEFT or CTRL+ALT+RIGHT cycles through the workspaces; ALT+TAB cycles through the windows in the current workspace (minimised windows stay minimised but still have a place in the cycle); CTRL+TAB cycles through the tabs on the currently active window. Astronaut (talk) 12:38, 23 June 2011 (UTC)

Torrents

My torrent is apparantly downloading, but olny 6.5% has been done and it isn't making any progress after that. Its ETA displays the infinity symbol. Do I have to wait some more or move to a different location or country to get more data? What are ways to speed up a torrent download, or at least not make its ETA be infinity? 72.235.230.227 (talk) 05:35, 23 June 2011 (UTC)

Usually indicates that the only person/s who were seeding it are not presently online or available. If you leave it attempting to download eventually they'll probably get back online, though eventually many torrents do "die" (lose all seeders). Most likely the same time tomorrow you'll get similar download speeds. ¦ Reisio (talk) 07:00, 23 June 2011 (UTC)

Depending on your torrent program, you can usually tell how many complete copies there are on the network by clicking around a bit. If it is less than 1, you won't be able to complete the download unless more seeders come online. Starting up torrents that have very low numbers of seeders is a recipe for stalled torrents. --Mr.98 (talk) 14:26, 23 June 2011 (UTC)

Maybe your peers or peer don't have the complete film either, and will never have, since new downloaders just pass around the pieces that they have. No need to speed torrents up, just go for healthy torrents; they'll give you at least 200 kb/s download rate. Wikiweek (talk) 14:37, 23 June 2011 (UTC)

MS Outlook 2007

I have just bought a new home computer and installed Outlook 2007. I have set up mail accounts exactly as they are already set up on my office computer. This seems to work perfectly well in terms of receiving incoming mail. However, whenever I try to send an email it immediately bounces back to me as undeliverable. I get the following error message: 553 sorry, that domain isn't in my list of allowed rcpthosts. I am hopelessly non-technical. Can anyone explain in words of one syllable how I can fix this problem? Thanks for any help. Maid Marion (talk) 09:38, 23 June 2011 (UTC)

If (as seems likely) you're using your work's email servers then they may be configured so as only to allow mail to be sent from certain IP addresses, so as to prevent spammers and other evildoers using them as SMTP relays. I'd suggest asking your IT department for advice on how to get around this. Edit: Thinking about it a bit more, the details of my answer may be wrong, but I still think the advice of asking the IT dept is valid. AndrewWTaylor (talk) 10:01, 23 June 2011 (UTC)

Thanks for trying Andrew, but there is no IT department. I am just a solitary individual, working sometimes from home, sometimes from a tiny office. The server that hosts my email and website is provided by a third party - I just pay an annual rental for this. Does your answer mean that I need to contact the outside third party? Problem with this is that I am not a high priority for them and I may get no response. Any simpler solution possible? Maid Marion (talk) 10:21, 23 June 2011 (UTC)

Googling an error message is normally a good way to get answers. You could have a look at these[8][9][10][11][12] There are a variety of possible causes, and it will depend on your mail server and other settings. One common cause is that you may have configured your email settings incorrectly in Outlook.

Most ISPs and web hosting company provide extensive online help pages or forums that you can search or post to. You should certainly try emailing them; many use semi-automated systems to respond to emails, so they may reply by pointing you to their website or other useful information, even if you do not get a response from a human being. --Colapeninsula (talk) 10:56, 23 June 2011 (UTC)

Many thanks Cola. Those links provide a mine of information. I will try their suggestions when I get home this evening. If they don't work, I'll be on my knees again asking for further help tomorrow! Maid Marion (talk) 11:09, 23 June 2011 (UTC)

In my experience the majority of Outlook outgoing e-mail problems come from issues with the outgoing server port or SSL settings. First thing I'd try is to set the outgoing server port to 587 or 465 (try both). Accounts>Your email account>more settings. Depends on if your account needs SSL or not but many ISP's are blocking port 25 these days. That setting can be affected by who you are using for an ISP. The SSL less so, but it will still be worth trying to adjust the outgoing SSL settings as well. RxS (talk) 13:50, 23 June 2011 (UTC)

Given the fact that you get a proper error message, firewall or port filtering does not seem to be an issue. You can try setting the SMTP port to 587 and to enable authentication, but this will only help if your work ISP has actually configured their outgoing email server (SMTP) to accept authenticated cnnections from users that are not directly connected to them. A lot of ISPs will not bother setting things up that way. As a spam prevention measure, most SMTP servers only allow IP addresses of their own customers to send mail through them. So when at work, you should use the work SMTP server. At home, you should set the SMTP server to the one provided by your home ISP. Unilynx (talk) 06:12, 24 June 2011 (UTC)

Many thanks to all of you - the usual fantastic Wikipedia response. The problem is now solved. I followed one of the suggestions in Cola's links and simply checked a box on my outgoing server settings saying 'Use same settings as incoming server'. It worked like a charm. Thanks again everyone. Maid Marion (talk) 10:03, 24 June 2011 (UTC)

Secure VPN + Insecure (W)LAN

If you want to connect to the Internet using a (W)LAN that you don't trust, would a secure VPN make it considerably secure? Or would it always be possible for an attacker controlling the (W)LAN (or some link above that) to pretend he is your VPN - forwarding all traffic passing through him? Wikiweek (talk) 14:34, 23 June 2011 (UTC)

When you sign up for a VPN they send you their cryptographic certificate and on subsequent connections your VPN client verifies the identity of the VPN using that. With that working properly, a man-in-the-middle attack wouldn't succeed. The danger point is that initial key exchange. For that you most often rely on public SSL certificates which your browser verifies against the SSL certificate authorities that it knows about a priori. Good VPN providers go to great lengths to make sure you get the correct certificate and not one that's been altered in transit - if memory serves the last time I signed up for a VPN they read the certificate fingerprint to me (in hex) over the phone. This isn't foolproof (certificate authorities can, in theory, be compromised, for example) but it's much more elaborate than simply putting a fake VPN inline between you and the real internet. -- Finlay McWalter ☻ Talk 14:42, 23 June 2011 (UTC)

BrowserChoice.eu - does it really work like this?

This isn't really a problem as such: more a peculiar thing that I wonder if I've understood correctly.

I've recently had to completely wipe my hard-drive and start again from scratch. So, I've got my old copy of Windows XP and am slowly going through the many, many critical updates in sequential order. One of these is the Browser Choice thing, and I make my browser choices, none of which are Internet Explorer. All seems well, and all trace of Internet Explorer seems to be gone.

But then, I go to clean my start-up folder (it comes preloaded with things like Messenger), and notice BrowserChoice.exe, which I unselect. When my computer restarts, all the Internet Explorer shortcuts are back and an Internet Explorer folder containing (among other things) the connection wizard and Internet Explorer itself has appeared. The folder cannot be deleted, because something in it is too important. If Internet Explorer is deleted, it recreates itself by the time you look in the folder again. The shortcuts can be redeleted, but are put back in all their places when you restart. When I reselect BrowserChoice.exe in the start-up folder, this behaviour stops and Internet Explorer again appears to have gone. Except that, when the only browsers I had chosen were Firefox and Opera, if I click on the 'check for updates' thing in the Security Centre, it uses Internet Explorer (which it otherwise pretends has been removed) to open the webpage. Once I installed Maxthon 3 (which uses the same engine (?) as Internet Explorer), it used that instead.

So, my understanding is that, in order to comply with the directive on provided browser choice, rather than providing a patch which deleted Internet Explorer in any way, Microsoft wrote a patch that put an exe in my start-up folder, which runs every single time I start my computer, to supress Internet Explorer from restoring all the shortcuts, and somehow hides Internet Explorer, while leaving it installed and available to the system to open a specific webpage. Is this accurate? Is it actually impossible to delete Internet Explorer from Windows XP?

And, if Internet Explorer is somehow completely embedded into the system, am I opening myself up to any problems if I don't download and install the various patches for Internet Explorer which the system keeps offering me, even after I selected not to be told about them again? I'd assumed I wouldn't need them, since I don't have or use Internet Explorer, but if it's inextricably twisted into everything else, I wonder if there will be unfortunate consequences of not updating it. 86.164.66.52 (talk) 18:44, 23 June 2011 (UTC)

The bulk of Microsoft's web browser is a GUI widget that can be used by any application. It is technically possible to delete it, but not useful because it breaks too much software. You can probably delete iexplore.exe, which is a wrapper around the widget, but you'll save hardly any disk space that way. It makes more sense to just delete the shortcuts and forget that it's there, just like the the hundreds of other small utility programs that you never use. You do need to install security updates to "Internet Explorer" because they are really updates to the browser widget.

I've never encountered BrowserChoice.exe, which is apparently a fairly new, Europe-only thing. I've never noticed IE shortcuts being automatically recreated, but I'm not sure I've ever tried to delete them. -- BenRG (talk) 00:04, 24 June 2011 (UTC)

This Technet blog entry from Microsoft explains what it does. It doesn't say it uninstalls Internet Explorer. Astronaut (talk) 11:43, 24 June 2011 (UTC)

Thank you, these were helpful answers that told me what I needed to know. I'm glad I poked around! I don't quite understand how Internet Explorer is a wrapper on a GUI widget, given what our article on GUI widget seems to describe, but I can understand it being a generic bit of software used by lots of programs. So, thanks muchly. 86.164.66.52 (talk) 16:20, 25 June 2011 (UTC)

Restarting the display in Linux

Hello. I have two questions:

1. I'm running Debian Linux 6.0 on one of my computers. I have it set to not run gdm on bootup, so I boot right to the terminal and then run startx if I want to work in Gnome. That's been working fine until recently; now when I run $startx, it cuts to a screen that is completely blank except for a cursor and doesn't display anything no matter how long I wait. Even odder: I ran #gdm as root, which is supposed to bring up a login screen (but the same thing: blank screen with a cursor). Without seeing anything, I typed in my username, password, and hit enter, Alt+F1'd back to the terminal, ran ps aux, and saw that all the processes where running in Gnome under my uid indicating a successful login, even though the screen is blank. Is this problem easily corrected? It seems that everything is working okay except actually displaying the desktop on the screen.
2. Since I couldn't logout of the desktop since I could not see it, I killed all the processes affiliated with Gnome at the terminal. When I Alt-F7'd to check that the mouse had disappeared and that there was no trace of Gnome, the screen froze. It's frozen on the old ps aux listing and won't let me change terminals (or do anything, for that matter). I connected with PuTTY over SSH, logged in, and everything is working fine. I logged out my frozen session through PuTTY, but the screen is still frozen. I tried Alt+F'ing to a different terminal, and even though it was frozen, I typed my username and password, and called ps aux on PuTTY and it confirmed the login—despite the frozen screen—was successful. So, is there any way to restart or resynchronize whatever is responsible for displaying the terminal to screen?

PS I'm running some lengthy processes on my Linux box that I'd rather not have to shut it down and re-run them. That would be okay if it's necessary, but I figured I'd take the time to learn a little more about Linux, too, since it seems the only problems I'm having are with the display, which may be easily fixable. Thanks!--el Aprel (^facta-_facienda) 21:52, 23 June 2011 (UTC)

http://webchat.freenode.net/?nick=brokenX&channels=#debian ¦ Reisio (talk) 22:58, 23 June 2011 (UTC)

Samsung Galaxy S II release date in China?

Can someone help me find the Galaxy S2's China release date? I'm having some trouble... The Masked Booby (talk) 22:30, 23 June 2011 (UTC)

Laptop design

Hello, why is it that new laptops tend not to have a screen that locks into the keyboard when closed ? The screen just sits loosely on it. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 41.141.77.57 (talk) 23:55, 23 June 2011 (UTC)

It isn't clear to me what value such a lock would have -- and if you had one and it jammed, you'd have a problem. Looie496 (talk) 00:39, 24 June 2011 (UTC)

Apple's design aesthetic is the actual answer to your question. ("why is it that new laptops tend to not have a screen that locks into the keyboard when closed".) --188.29.15.168 (talk) 01:20, 24 June 2011 (UTC)

Because without a lock, or some sort of springy firmness the two halves rattle against each other when closed.

I don't know know why they don't have latches anymore, but I suspect that it's a combination of better hinges and style. APL (talk) 01:29, 24 June 2011 (UTC)

Eh, in my experience, the hinges tend to be so bad you don't need the lock - you have to use more than one hand to open them regardless. The answer is, of course, that it is the current trend. The bulk of electronics are not designed to consumers' wants, but to consumers' present expectations (which trend low). ¦ Reisio (talk) 02:55, 24 June 2011 (UTC)

The hinges aren't "bad", they're intentionally stiff, so the laptop will stay as opened or closed as you left it. StuRat (talk) 05:03, 24 June 2011 (UTC)

Yeah, they're bad. ¦ Reisio (talk) 05:22, 25 June 2011 (UTC)

From my laptop owning experience the latch-mechanism is one of the weaker/less reliable parts of the construction. My current laptop uses magnets to hold the lid closed. This works extremely well and is (in my eyes at least) 100% better than any latch mechanism. ny156uk (talk) 05:04, 24 June 2011 (UTC)

Just to illustrate this, Apple's iBook G4s had hinge locks which, if broken, necessitated replacing the entire top frame of the laptop, which was neither a cheap nor an easy piece to replace. (Or using velcro or other ersatz solutions.) --Mr.98 (talk) 12:50, 24 June 2011 (UTC)

June 24

2 x 500 GB (WD) or 1 x 1 TB (Toshiba)

Either option costs the same. Which is a better choice as external HD? Wikiweek (talk) 22:03, 24 June 2011 (UTC)

I would go for the two 500GB drives; that way if one fails you only lose half your data, instead of losing everything if the 1TB fails. AvrillirvA (talk) 22:23, 24 June 2011 (UTC)

Note that there are probably other factors here — specific models have better failure rates than other, different rotational speeds mean different data access, etc. A pro-tip is to check each specific model on newegg.com first; they're a very reliable place, and you can usually tell which drive models are lemons pretty quickly. --Mr.98 (talk) 22:26, 24 June 2011 (UTC)

I'll check newegg, although I believe both WD and Toshiba are serious manufacturers. I thought also that the formating of the two smaller HDs will occupy more space than of the bigger HD, right? Wikiweek (talk) 23:29, 24 June 2011 (UTC)

In the USA, 2TB externals can currently be had for the same price as 1TB externals (I assume retailers overestimated how long it would be before cheap 2TB externals flooded the market). As AvrillirvA said, I wouldn't suggest getting one disk unless you already have a backup plan (another disk with enough space for data you care about), and I wouldn't suggest getting a 1TB because the 2TB models are the same price. ¦ Reisio (talk) 00:18, 25 June 2011 (UTC)

My experience on newegg is that even with serious manufacturers, certain models have significantly different ratings than others. It's worth a check. --Mr.98 (talk) 23:40, 24 June 2011 (UTC)

Different models can definitely have different failure rates even from the better manufacturers. The manufacturers know and probably large scale OEMs and other large companies with a lot of HDDs like Google but us peons don't tend to get access to such data. I'm not convinced looking at NewEgg is much use even more so if you can't buying from NewEgg so may have a completely different supply chain (particularly when it comes to internal HDDs a big reason for failures is probably damage in transport which depends on the supply chain). I don't know much about their methodology for calculating reliability but since it's rather unlikely we're talking about a random sampling here but instead a lot of self selection and user bias I'd suggest 10k minimum sample size per model before you get anything close to useful data which I'm not convinced they have. (I presume we're talking about some sort of NewEgg provided RMA rate not simply random user reviews which are typically next to useless for quantitative data particularly on things like reliability. Even the StorageReview reliability database is IMHO somewhat questionable and they at least try to turn user submissions into something approaching useful quantitative data on reliability.) Nil Einne (talk) 15:07, 25 June 2011 (UTC)

Onboard video card

I want to stop using the video card I brought some years ago, as I suspect it's malfunctioning, and use the onboard video card instead. However, if I connect the monitor to it, nothing happens (neither in windows nor while loading, as if the monitor was not connected to the PC). Do I have to actually remove the video card from the motherboard for the onboard video card to work, isn't there a way to shut it off and activate the other? Cambalachero (talk) 22:20, 24 June 2011 (UTC)

I'm sure there's a way, but I can't think of a better way to stop using a malfunctioning card (or even help rule out whether it's that particular card that's malfunctioning) than physically removing it. ¦ Reisio (talk) 00:19, 25 June 2011 (UTC)

You first make sure that the on-board video chips are turned on (access your BIOS, they might be disabled there for energy saving reasons, I believe have now made sure that mine does have this option, I can switch for the onboard VGA adapter between onoff and auto; just for reference reasons, my BIOS is a PhoenixBIOS and the machine is some kind of Fujitsu-Siemens Scenic something... which I like by the way) and second make sure that you at least downloaded the necessary drivers for Windows to run on the on-board chips. Check back with us after you try this. --Ouro (blah blah) 07:17, 25 June 2011 (UTC) (Ouro (blah blah) 07:26, 25 June 2011 (UTC))

You can often change the settings in the motherboard on whether to init the IGP or the external video card first. You may be able to use the IGP in Windows without changing this but it would be hard to do if you can't see anything. In any case I agree with Reisio, just remove the malfunctioning video card Nil Einne (talk) 14:54, 25 June 2011 (UTC)

Looking for an audio media player SOFTWARE

Which could let me play PLAYLISTS in FASTER playing rates. i tried with VLC media player and even asked the VLC support team, but in the current version, there is no working way to do so in a playlist (fasten) rather, only in single media files.

as mentioned, i look for a program WHO WILL (!) let me the option to do so (Fasten a playlist), for i could hear lot's of files faster than they originally played...

many thanks and blessings, would dear much for me!.

Beni. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 79.179.8.59 (talk) 22:54, 24 June 2011 (UTC)

With MPlayer, the command would be mplayer -speed 2 -playlist path/to/playlist/file. I checked SMPlayer for a convenient pref to pass -speed but didn't see any place in a cursory examination; I'd be surprised if it weren't there, though (and actually I'd be surprised if you couldn't make VLC do it). The simplest way I know of using commandline mplayer on Windows is downloading this, and inside its codecs directory, placing the contents of this. You can then add the directory to your path (or just dump it all into C:\Windows\System32\) if you wish to, to be able to access it from a cmd window at any location. ¦ Reisio (talk) 00:46, 25 June 2011 (UTC)

June 25

A Software which SEPERATES refrences from the main text of a scientific paper?

does anybody knows such a software?

blessings.

there's hardware. or you could be more specific. --188.28.47.94 (talk) 00:15, 25 June 2011 (UTC)

grep, perl ¦ Reisio (talk) 00:49, 25 June 2011 (UTC)

The questioner may be thinking about reference management software, such as Reference manager. --NorwegianBlue ^talk 11:20, 25 June 2011 (UTC)

Hello, indeed, i mean for the bibilography... if referance manager is the software who can separate the REF's from the paper than it is the software for me.

thanks. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 79.179.8.59 (talk) 12:47, 25 June 2011 (UTC)

disappearing link

I posted the following link on my web page, tested it, had several other people also test it, and it worked fine.

<a target="_blank" href="https://www.securedata-trans14.com/ap/stjohnthebaptistcatholicchurch5/index.php?page=10">
<img border="0" src="images/onlinebutton_2.jpg" width="156" height="111"></a>

Next thing I knew, people were calling in saying they clicked on the image and nothing happened. It was easy enough to fix, but what could have possibly caused the link to disappear (as shown on a cached version of the page)? --Halcatalyst (talk) 01:17, 25 June 2011 (UTC)

What was it you did to "fix" it? ¦ Reisio (talk) 01:28, 25 June 2011 (UTC)

Incidentally, img elements should not be used this way, you should use a CSS background image instead; and JPEG is for photographs (the 'P' stands for 'Photographic'). [and target="_blank" is just annoying] ¦ Reisio (talk) 01:33, 25 June 2011 (UTC)

I use a web editor, so I simply put the link address back in. I understand HTML well enough to inspect the code but not to employ it originally. --Halcatalyst (talk) 03:59, 25 June 2011 (UTC)

If the link wasn't there, then someone or something removed it. ¦ Reisio (talk) 05:24, 25 June 2011 (UTC)

That's what I would think. However, it wasn't me, and no one else has access to the site. Can pages displayed on the Web be altered directly? I suppose it would be possible for a cracker, but I wouldn't think they would attack my little site. What about something mechanized? --Halcatalyst (talk) 19:32, 25 June 2011 (UTC)

PHP regular expression

Resolved: Magog the Ogre (talk) 07:16, 25 June 2011 (UTC)

How could i formulate a PHP regular expression to ensure that that there are no control characters in a string? Magog the Ogre (talk) 03:16, 25 June 2011 (UTC)

Addendum: silly me, I forgot to specify it's unicode. Magog the Ogre (talk) 03:32, 25 June 2011 (UTC)

Nevermind, I got this one. Magog the Ogre (talk) 07:16, 25 June 2011 (UTC)

Enquiry about purchase of Monitor Inverter

Hi all,

Currently I have experienced a number of monitor-error issues from my Toshiba laptop, of which the monitor backlight appearance is very blur, faded, and sometimes, discoloured. I wonder whether the primary problem lies either at the Monitor Inverter or at the monitor itself. As I want to try to get a displacement of the Monitor Inverter first rather than the more expensive TFT monitor, I'm about to order one at batterysupport.com.

So this is my doubt: is there any one here having experienced such a monitor-error relating issue like mine before? if yes, how have you been dealing with it? I can get the order online straightaway from batterysupport.com, but to the best of my knowledge, this company is based in China (maybe it's a Chinese company itself) which in turn gives me a second thought about making purchase from the site. Hence, I write here seeking more information regarding to the issue. Thanks in advance. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Predestination (talk • contribs) 03:57, 25 June 2011 (UTC)

I've had problems with my laptop back-light going out entirely, so I use an external monitor now. This obviously reduces the portability somewhat, but will definitely fix the problem quickly, and, if you choose, you can get a larger and better monitor than you had. StuRat (talk) 17:11, 25 June 2011 (UTC)

Safe Mode in Windows XP

1) Does it make sense that a computer would run a LOT faster in safe mode than in regular?

2) I understand that some "functionality" is not available in safe mode. But if the computer is doing what I need done, is there any reason I could not or should not use safe mode all the time? Does it cause later problems for example?

Thanks, Wanderer57 (talk) 04:49, 25 June 2011 (UTC)

unfortunately, Safe Mode is not designed for regular-utilization purpose, but for solving hardware or software conflicts instead. You can temporarily use it for urgent issues; however, in the long term you expose will yourself to vulnerabilitiesPredestination (talk) 05:19, 25 June 2011 (UTC)

Some WP:OR... In my experience, safe mode is not always faster. One of the bits of "functionality" that may be disabled is disk caching, and that can have a serious impact on performance, depending on what you are doing. Mitch Ames (talk) 09:00, 25 June 2011 (UTC)

Safe mode disables a lot, a lot of functionality for compatibility purposes, basically so that there is as little reason for the PC to crash as possible (hence the designation 'safe') so you can get your stuff together to fix it. It would probably be a lot of algos in the buttocks to use it long-term. If there's a specific problem you're encountering which hinders your ability to run Windows in normal (contrary to safe - unsafe?) mode, why not describe it here? --Ouro (blah blah) 13:25, 25 June 2011 (UTC)

Thank you all. My naive assumption was that "safe mode" was called that because it was less suspectible to viruses and other malware from outside. Am I wrong about this?

I went to safe mode while trying to find malcode (and the search programs did find Trojans).

The computer has become slower over time. I found that in safe mode, the computer runs noticably faster. Does this speed difference give any clues as to why the computer has become slower? (aside from the effect of the Trojans of course). Thanks, Wanderer57 (talk) 15:12, 25 June 2011 (UTC)

Short answer: not really. Something is slowing it down, but with this little information it's hard to say what it is. But it does suggest that safely backing up your data and reinstalling the OS would be something to consider if you happen to have a weekend free some time. --Ouro (blah blah) 18:26, 25 June 2011 (UTC)

Addendum, because I was thinking over and over about this: there's too much default-loaded software hogging your PC's resources (system memory, CPU time, disk usage), that could be why it's slower when booted normally. It's just a guess though. --Ouro (blah blah) 19:57, 25 June 2011 (UTC)

Every PC I've ever had has slowed down with time. Reinstalling Windows and the programs you use, then waiting all day for endless updates to be downloaded and installed, will make your PC faster. It is also a good way to be sure you have got rid of any malware. Of course, it is a big step so you should make sure you can find all the install disks and back up your documents, photos, music, emails etc. before starting. Astronaut (talk) 09:30, 26 June 2011 (UTC)

remote processor networks

Question withdrawn. --DeeperQA (talk) 14:43, 25 June 2011 (UTC)

If routers have 192.168.1.1 as IP...

...how do I know that I am connecting to my router (in a building with many WLANs). I know that I can connect to my network and go to my 192.168.1.1, but what if I cannot connect to my network Wikiweek (talk) 13:20, 25 June 2011 (UTC)

...because you are connected to a specific SSID. It is the SSID you see when you choose the wireless "connect to a network" option from your PC. The 192.168.x.x addresses are internal to the network of your access point and your computers that are connected to it, whether wired or wireless. Network address translation (NAT) is used by the access point to translate the external IP address (which is given to the access point by your ISP), into a 192.168.x.x address on the internal network. Many access points assign 192.168.1.1 to themselves. You may think there are many 192.168.1.1 addresses, but you can only get to the one access point that you are currently connected to. If you are not connected to a network, then you cannot go to the 192.168.1.1 IP address. Astronaut (talk) 09:08, 26 June 2011 (UTC)

Economical side of torrent

How do torrent creators earn? It seems that some have so many that you can exclude for sure a private exchange; it looks much more like a full-time job. 88.9.209.112 (talk) 14:47, 25 June 2011 (UTC)

filesystem

Is there a type of filesystem or something which automatically adds data redundancy and error correction to files? 77.197.196.159 (talk) 15:35, 25 June 2011 (UTC)

RAID. StuRat (talk) 17:03, 25 June 2011 (UTC)

secure against file corruption

I want to secure a file against the worst type of damage and corruption. What free software does this? 77.197.196.159 (talk) 15:35, 25 June 2011 (UTC)

If this file doesn't change, then all you need to do is copy it to a safe place, say a CD or memory stick, with no special software required. Store the copy off site, in case of fires, etc. StuRat (talk) 17:02, 25 June 2011 (UTC)

Sound advice. No file on rewritable media connected permanently to a live system is completely, fully safe. For security make a few copies and store them at different locations. --Ouro (blah blah) 19:44, 25 June 2011 (UTC)

parchive

If I have a file which got corrupted, would making a Parchive AFTER it got corrupted be able to restore the corrupted parts? If not, what other methods might be able to salvage a corrupted file? 77.197.196.159 (talk) 15:35, 25 June 2011 (UTC)

The Parchive would help you be able to recover the data to the state it was when you created the Parchive file/s. For example if you later found the original data and deleted the corrupted data you could then use the Parchive file/s to try to get back the corrupted copy of the data. Nil Einne (talk) 16:08, 25 June 2011 (UTC)

What about AFTER the data was corrupted? The article says parchive uses good data around broken / missing data to guess what the broken / missing data should be. Would that work? 77.197.196.159 (talk) 16:23, 25 June 2011 (UTC)

No. It may be possible to recover some of the data, depending on the file type and the nature of the corruption, but not using parchive. -- BenRG (talk) 08:04, 26 June 2011 (UTC)

Storing 15GB of data in my garden for 50 years

If I wanted to store 15GB of data in a waterproof box buried several feet beneath the surface in my back garden for 50 years, what storage medium would be most likely to survive? Assume that in 50 years I'll have a perfect working computer able to read any of todays storage mediums. 77.197.196.159 (talk) 15:35, 25 June 2011 (UTC)

Paper is the best storage medium for you. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 88.9.209.112 (talk) 16:26, 25 June 2011 (UTC)

Not really, that would be a huge amount of paper, maybe 3 million pages. Two DVDs (or one double-sided) sounds like the best option to me. Note that you'd need to bury it below the frost line, or the freeze/frost cycle might break through the box in that time period. StuRat (talk) 16:55, 25 June 2011 (UTC)

And how can you know that DVD-Readers will be available in 50 years? Indeed, no digital device that we use today will probably be available in 50 years. But, just imagine that you print little dots (=bits) on a sheet of paper. In the future, you'll have to scan/take pictures of the sheets and convert that to information. It is probably a lot of paper, but not the 3 million pages that you suggest above.It's probably something like 1 MB/page.88.9.209.112 (talk) 00:14, 26 June 2011 (UTC)

Unfortunately our article section CD-R#Expected_lifespan says a CD-R disc is expected to last about 10 years only; see Disc rot. Different longevity numbers are scattered in 3 of our articles; Optical disc recording technologies#Longevity says that Mitsui claims its discs will last 100 years (which is obviously an extrapolation and not empirical); but Compact disc#Recordable CD says the design life is 20 to 100 years but discs can die in 18 months. A major reason that 88.9 mentioned paper is its demonstrated longevity of hundreds of years over the right traditions; plus paper is immune to obsolescence. (My old Apple II floppy disks, even if they survived physically, would be very difficult to read just because of the difficulty of obtaining a system that had the hardware to read a good disk.) Comet Tuttle (talk) 17:24, 25 June 2011 (UTC)

This. But really, LOCKSS is a better strategy than burying stuff in your garden. 24.6.39.50 (talk) 03:01, 26 June 2011 (UTC)

I'm curious about how confident our OP is about having access to the same garden in 50 years time. (Not a Computing question, I know.) HiLo48 (talk) 03:10, 26 June 2011 (UTC)

Any digital archive must be continiously maintained. The file format and media technology used must be kept up to date, you can't bury it in the garden. The best place to keep it is in your computer with adequate backups using current technology. Right now your options include DVD, external hard drive, or flash memory. Roger (talk) 10:00, 26 June 2011 (UTC)

What is the weird little separator in my Firefox 5 tabs?

There's this weird little animated separator between one tab and another when I use the recently downloaded Firefox 5. I thought at first it just delineated the last tab open so that you could see which one it was when you had many open and the last might be scrolled to the right off the screen but that's not it. I have 8 tabs open now and It's between the fourth and fifth. It's hard to describe so let me see if I can find a text symbol that looks like it.Well not exactly but it's like a vertical line that has a circle at the top--like a pipe "|" with an "o" resting on top, and it's blue and it's between two tabs and stretches a bit below where the tabs end, meaning it overhangs the window a bit. What is that? I tried googling "new features" and "firefox 5" but didn't find anything, and I also looked at Wikipedia's article without luck.--108.54.17.250 (talk) 16:41, 25 June 2011 (UTC)

Sounds like a bug. I downloaded Firefox 5.0 and created over 8 tabs, but couldn't reproduce it, so it's not a universal bug. StuRat (talk) 16:48, 25 June 2011 (UTC)

Hi, not an answer as such, but, I have found FF5 to be a little bit buggy - On mine, the tabs across the top of the browser currently obscure the "full screen/not full screen" option and the "x" option to close the browser. I think FF5 may have some issues that need to be resolved. I could of course be entirely wrong :s Darigan (talk) 16:56, 25 June 2011 (UTC)

Hmm. It looks like a feature. Glitches don't usually look so purposeful, neatly placed, but maybe it is. I took a screenshot. Let me try to upload it.--108.54.17.250 (talk) 17:47, 25 June 2011 (UTC)

Interesting, it may very well be a feature - I'll check back in a bit to see if you have managed to upload a picture. Darigan (talk) 17:58, 25 June 2011 (UTC)

Here it is: --108.54.17.250 (talk) 18:07, 25 June 2011 (UTC)

I thing it's a feature of one of the extensions you have added. Try running firefox in safe mode (firefox -safe-mode) which should disable all the extensions and should confirm that it's not a standard Firefox mac feature. Looking at it I'd suspect it's from some tab-group extension, and it wants you to drag or toggle that blue thing somehow. -- Finlay McWalter ☻ Talk 21:00, 25 June 2011 (UTC)

I'll try the safe mode thing. I don't think I have any extensions though. When I first saw that thing after I downloaded Firefox 5 I tried to access it, drag it, toggle it—it's just static.--108.54.17.250 (talk) 02:02, 26 June 2011 (UTC)

A device doesn't "support" .txt files?

This is a new one to me. Windows Vista, and I connected a digital camera via its USB cable. When I try dragging a .txt file to any folder within the digital camera's windows, I get a "Cannot Copy File" error dialog which explains: "The file 'thisfile.txt' is not supported on this device. Although this device supports document files, it does not support .txt files." What? Googling some of this error text hasn't helped. Any ideas why this error is being displayed, and what it really means? Comet Tuttle (talk) 17:16, 25 June 2011 (UTC)

Digital camera’s windows? You’re trying to use a camera as a storage device? ¦ Reisio (talk) 18:46, 25 June 2011 (UTC)

Take out the storage medium (memory card?) from the camera and access it via a memory card reader connected to your computer. You'll be able to store the text file then (but of course the camera itself will not be able to read it). --Ouro (blah blah) 19:51, 25 June 2011 (UTC)

Yeah, I need to add something (a bit in the dark because not a Windoze user any more, but there's enough left between my ears to figure it out). Well, if you plugged the camera via a USB cable directly to the computer, Win recognised the equipment as a digital camera, and I suppose that is the reason it doesn't allow you to copy a text file onto it - because, simply put, a digital camera is not supposed to support text files, but store images. Try different file formats. It doesn't matter in this setup that there's a run-of-the-mill memory card inside the device - the connection had been established to a digital camera. Now, what I described earlier, putting the card into a memory card reader and plugging it into the PC is a completely different story - because now the PC will recognise a card reader with a memory card - ergo, a storage device, the interface (driver? logic?) of which is to accept and support any and all file types and formats as you please. I hope this helps further. And sorry for posting two answers, I just had a bit more time to think about this issue. Cheers, Ouro (blah blah) 21:33, 25 June 2011 (UTC)

Most newer cameras are not mounted as block devices, but by way of Picture Transfer Protocol (PTP). The camera itself may limit what you can transfer to/from it by means of that protocol (and actually I don't know whether text files are even supported by the protocol itself, but my guess would be that they are; why would you build in a limitation to the kinds of files at the level of the protocol?). For example I can mount my camera using PTP under Linux, and list directories with ls and everything, but the Digital Negative (DNG) files don't show up, even though they are definitely there. --Trovatore (talk) 21:41, 25 June 2011 (UTC)

Windows stable work

I haven't had problems with malware since 1990's, but a less fortunate and much less computer literate friend of mine just caught a scareware/malware called Windows stable work. It's a fake (and fairly convincing looking) "anti"virus that launches on startup, prevents running any programs (giving a great choice, between "NO, I don't want to run" and "YES, I want to block this program!") and offers a paid version of the software to remove these threats. Being a bit more experienced with Universal Calculators, I told him how to reach safe mode: now it appears that CLI safe mode doesn't allow the malware to run, allowing us to execute programs without it interfering. However, I'm clueless on how to actually remove that thing, as my friend's installed antivirus/malware programs (I think it was Avira and MalwareBytes) failed to notice the programa non grata. Any help is appreciated. Zakhalesh (talk) 20:30, 25 June 2011 (UTC)

http://www.google.com/search?q=windows%20stable%20work ¦ Reisio (talk) 21:13, 25 June 2011 (UTC)

Wireless

Any insights help-deskers can offer on this would be gratefully received since, as usual whenever I encounter IT, it is driving me up the wall.

Until now my home has got by with one computer connected via a USB cable to a modem which in turn is connected by an ADSL cable to a signal splitter which plugs into a broadband-enabled phone socket in the wall.

However, this summer we have students staying with us so clearly a wireless network will be needed for their benefit.

I had an old router and I plugged it in to find that it was broken, so I trundled to the shops to buy a new one.

Now, the new router, it turns out, after I opened the box, doesn't contain an internal modem like my old one did, but needs connection, via ethernet cable, to an existing modem which in turn connects to the wall.

But, as mentioned above, my existing modem has neither an ethernet cable nor an ethernet port to plug one into: just a USB cable.

So where do I go with this? Is the answer:

1. Take the new router back to the shop and replace it with a different one with a modem built in?
2. Buy a new modem of the variety required by the new router?

I suppose it is worth adding that:

1. I'd prefer a solution which is quite cheap over one which is brilliant; but
2. Too much loss of connection speed would probably really annoy. AndyJones (talk) 20:37, 25 June 2011 (UTC)

Yeah, take it back and get an integrated one. That's the simplest thing to have, and shouldn't cost much (most UK ISPs just give you one, or sell you one at a knockdown price, when you sign up). -- Finlay McWalter ☻ Talk 20:58, 25 June 2011 (UTC)

I'm surprised you were easily able to get a router without a modem. Most "wireless routers" sold in the UK have a built-in modem. This page from the website of a popular UK retailer lists 23 of the devices, only one of which appears to have no built-in modem. Be careful though: the hard to find technical specification for that one product says it does have a modem, which calls into doubt the accuracy of the information on the website (in my experience with that retailer's website, the only thing you can trust is the price and image of the product). It is probably better to verify technical specs with the manufacturer's website. Astronaut (talk) 08:28, 26 June 2011 (UTC)

The page you linked is a list of "BT Wireless Routers", and "BT" appears to mean "ADSL" (yes, I know what it really stands for). If standalone modems are routers are hard to find now, that's a pretty recent phenomenon, isn't it? In my admittedly limited experience with UK and US home broadband, they were always separate. -- BenRG (talk) 08:50, 26 June 2011 (UTC)

The OP self-identifies as British, and I have assumed they are still resident in the UK. It is not really a recent phenomenon. In my experience in the UK, when you go to buy a wireless router from a retail store like PC World, or get one for free when you sign up with an ISP, they will nearly always come with a built-in modem. In the box, you usually get the combined modem-router device, the power brick, a phone filter, a RJ-11 modem cable and maybe an ethernet cable, along with a small manual and a driver disk (some of this is shown in this image). On the rear panel, the device itself usually has the power port, four ethernet ports and one RJ-11 port for the modem cable. If you have a cable router instead, you get slightly different package contents but it is essentially the same device. Back in the early days of broadband provision in the UK, before ISPs considered people might want to connect wirelessly or connect multiple internet-enable devices, ISPs supplied a free USB modem to replace your dial-up modem; this is probably the kind if thing the OP currently has. From what I have read (here on the ref desks and elsewhere) the situation seems to be slightly different in the US, where it seems to be more common to have separate devices. Astronaut (talk) 12:41, 26 June 2011 (UTC)

Zero-byte files in WinXP

Using Duplicate Cleaner, I find I have a large number of zero-byte files on my computer. Is it safe to delete them? How much space do they take up? Thanks. 92.29.120.186 (talk) 21:27, 25 June 2011 (UTC)

They're probably just junk and it's probably safe to delete them (but it'd be safer moving them to a special folder for a while, so you can restore them if they do mean something). Some programs might make zero-size files as a little reminder they can store in the filesystem - sometimes as a lock file and sometimes as a little note to subsequent runs of the program that something has happened (e.g. some programs might create an "initialisation performed okay" zero-size file after their first run, so they don't show the "please input initial setup parameters" screen every time you run it). There are preferred methods for doing some of this (the ATOM table, the registry, the LockFile API) but some programs may make zero-size files anyway. If I understand the NTFS filesystem layout properly (which I definitely don't) then a zero-size file should take up a small-file-record in the MFT; so "not much space", but I don't know exactly how little. -- Finlay McWalter ☻ Talk 22:00, 25 June 2011 (UTC)

MFT entries are almost always 1K, so a file small enough to fit there (up to maybe 600–700 bytes) takes roughly 1K (and a little more for the copy of the filename in the parent directory index). But unused MFT entries are not reported as free space, so you won't see any obvious space gain if you delete the files. -- BenRG (talk) 08:31, 26 June 2011 (UTC)

Tooltips In System Tray

When I mouse over the icons in my status bar, tooltips come up telling me what each icon represents. In most cases, these tootips cover up some of the other icons, forcing me to move the mouse (and be greeted by further tooltips covering up other icons). How do I switch off this feature? --KägeTorä - (影虎) (TALK) 21:42, 25 June 2011 (UTC)

Which top-level domains are limited as far as who can own them?

I know that certain top-level domains like .gov and .mil are not allowed to be privately owned. What about .edu? Could I purchase a .edu site for personal use? (in the same manner that I can purchase a .org site, even if it's not for an organization) ... What other TLDs are limited where they cannot be purchased for personal use? ~ Mesoderm (talk) 23:21, 25 June 2011 (UTC)

Our article .edu answers the question, I think: no. Looie496 (talk) 00:30, 26 June 2011 (UTC)

Indeed, "no", but only insofar as you'd have to first purchase something passable as an educational institution. ¦ Reisio (talk) 03:58, 26 June 2011 (UTC)

See sponsored top-level domain. Gobonobo ^{T C} 07:04, 26 June 2011 (UTC)

June 26

Saving passwords on Android apps

Is there a way to save the passwords for Android apps I use, so I don't have to type them in every time? Like Wells Fargo app. I have the HTC EVO. CTJF83 00:29, 26 June 2011 (UTC)

Do you feel good about a person who steals your EVO having access to your bank account? Looie496 (talk) 00:32, 26 June 2011 (UTC)

....Well Wells Fargo covers it, but is it possible? It's a pain typing in long complicated passwords on a phone. CTJF83 00:35, 26 June 2011 (UTC)

I have an Android, and I've worked in the computer support departments of a bank before. I am 95% sure this isn't possible; banks would make sure to not to include the capability from the app, and I don't know of any apps which can manipulate other apps. You might find one that can automatically paste a given piece of text, but that's probably more effort than it's worth.

If you're really worried about it, you might try using the web interface and saving the password. I do not recommend this unless you have decent security on your phone already, and frankly, not even then. But if you do implement it, make sure that if you ever lose your phone, that you immediately check your online banking that your password hasn't changed, that your address hasn't been changed, that you haven't sent any secure messages to your bank. Your bank may or may not have a note upon sign in telling you of your most recent sign in time. Magog the Ogre (talk) 01:02, 26 June 2011 (UTC)

Oh, ok, thanks. And actually now that you mention it, even on Firefox and Chrome it won't let me save any of the 3 banks I use to log in. Like you said, they must have something to prevent it. It makes sense...ok, I'll just be non-lazy and type it in. Thanks to both of you! CTJF83 01:07, 26 June 2011 (UTC)

It can be done, but it's probably not worth the trouble. ¦ Reisio (talk) 03:55, 26 June 2011 (UTC)

adding automatic subtitles for VLC videos?

is this possible?

is there another player who does that if not VLC?.. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 79.179.8.59 (talk) 02:45, 26 June 2011 (UTC)

What do you mean automatic? VLC will play embedded subtitles, and subtitles of certain formats that have the same filename as the video being played, and are in the same directory. It doesn't find subtitles automatically, but it wouldn't be that hard to make a script or two to, for example, check the entire tree of a directory for subtitles files (even in archives), and use them, or even to find subtitles from sites such as opensubtitles.org. ¦ Reisio (talk) 03:57, 26 June 2011 (UTC)

Hello. what i need is a plug-in or maybe another player how could automaticly show subtitles to my videos, whatever this will be?.

is there such a thing today?.

thanks. 79.179.8.59 (talk) 13:24, 26 June 2011 (UTC)

Tracking down a group of hackers

I'm talking about a notorious group of hackers who have a significant presence on Twitter. I'm curious as to why they haven't been tracked down already by law enforcement. The VPN they use (by their own account) is HideMyAss which keeps logs for 30 days, and for at least 7 on US territory. Its a US based company too. Judging by their IRC conversations, they only use the VPN, and not any shells or such. Why haven't they been tracked down then? — Preceding unsigned comment added by Temptre.22 (talk • contribs) 10:55, 26 June 2011 (UTC)

You are referring to LulzSec. The identity of the main players were posted online by a group of kids who admitted to having no real hacker skills. Very quickly, one was arrested, a few quickly left the group, and the rest decided (yesterday) to shut down LulzSec. They are probably busy trying to erase every computer they've used while they wait for the slooooooow arm of the law to knock on their door. (Damn laws - require real evidence to arrest someone.) -- kainaw™ 13:02, 26 June 2011 (UTC)

I know who I'm referring to; I avoided naming them. But that's just the thing. Their identity was posted online, but not due to their VPN. Those who quickly left the group left because the group attacked the FBI. And I don't pretend to know why they disbanded, I'm just curious as to why they would choose a VPN that logs, and why the FBI hasn't used the Patriot act to seize logs. Temptre.22 (talk) 13:06, 26 June 2011 (UTC)

The Patriot Act will do nothing more than speed a warrant request through the court system. That is only useful when trying to get a warrant for logs kept on a computer inside the United States. Where are the HideMyAss servers located? If they are in Virginia, that may explain why the FBI stormed a data center and took all the servers - even those that didn't have anything to do with HideMyAss or LulzSec. -- kainaw™ 13:19, 26 June 2011 (UTC)