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July 9

Unicode 6.0

At the risk of sounding like a total idiot, how do I go about installing/running Unicode 6.0.0? I can't seem to get it up and running on my computer (I use Firefox 5.0 and IE 8, if that's any help). The Blade of the Northern Lights (話して下さい) 00:33, 9 July 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Unicode is a standard, not a software package. There's nothing you can install to force any program (such as Firefox) to follow any particular version of the standard. -- BenRG (talk) 01:03, 9 July 2011 (UTC)[reply]

That's what I suspected, but I wanted to make sure. The Blade of the Northern Lights (話して下さい) 01:05, 9 July 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Dual video cards and gaming

I have a Dell XPS 15 laptop with 2 video cards, an integrated Intel HD card for low-intensity things and an NVIDIA GeForce GT 540M card for high-intensity things, like games. When I installed PES 2011, it seems to only be able to detect the integrated card, so it won't run on high settings, even though it will use the NVIDIA card when it actually runs. Any ideas on how to fix this? Simeon24601 (talk) 03:24, 9 July 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Sorry, but are you 100% sure about the 2 video cards part? It's just that I've never heard of a laptop having 2 different video cards (the lack of space being the main reason, but a graphics card can easily be underpowered to save battery as well as scaled up to full speed when needed for games etc). I went along to the Dell website just to be sure though, but I couldn't see anything that suggested it has two cards. The basic configuration does have an Intel HD graphics card, but the majority of configurations of the XPS 15 laptop seem to come with various NVIDIA cards instead (not in addition). So to answer your question about improving the performance of the game, you said it's using the NVIDIA card (which makes sense as that's probably the only card in there) so as long as you're using the latest video card drivers, I'm afraid the performance is probably about as good as you're getting to get. Although laptop video cards are considerably better than they used to be, they're still nowhere near the performance of graphics cards that fit in desktop computers. Obviously it depends on what exactly it's doing, but I looked up some benchmarks for the GT 540M, but in comparison it's under half the speed of a GTX 260 that I have in this machine which is over 2 years old now (which in turn looks terrible compared to the latest GTX 580). The only other things you can try are making sure you have plenty of system RAM (not usually much of an issue these days with new computers, but worth mentioning anyway) and also just make sure you don't have anything processor intensive running in the background whilst you're trying to play. ZX81 ^talk 04:35, 9 July 2011 (UTC)[reply]

It is now quite plausible for a laptop to have multiple graphics cards. Right now, I am using a 2yr-old Lenovo W500 that has integrated Intel GMA4500 and a discrete ATI FireGL V5700. I can switch between them without restarting the computer, so it is quite effective for power management.

Switchable graphics are much more common on workstation / desktop replacement laptops, which I am quite sure includes the Dell XPS. Freedomlinux (talk) 07:45, 9 July 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Oh cool, I stand corrected on that part then! Thanks, learnt something new today! :) ZX81 ^talk 15:02, 9 July 2011 (UTC)[reply]

As Freedomlinux wrote, you need to look up how to set your laptop to use the high-performance, high-power-using Nvidia chipset instead of the low-performance, lower-power-using Intel chipset. Unfortunately, at least some laptops with dual video chipsets do not let the user configure this. I bought a~~n HP~~ Sharp laptop within the last two months which had dual chipsets, and *the software* on the laptop decided when to switch. When playing my game of choice, the idiotic laptop decided to always use the Intel chipset rather than the fancy Nvidia chipset, so I could only play my game of choice with slow graphics. Amazingly, HP Sharp did not include an option for me to manually switch between the chipsets. I returned the laptop to the store immediately. Comet Tuttle (talk) 06:42, 10 July 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Edited: Not an HP laptop, but a laptop from Sharp. Comet Tuttle (talk) 21:07, 11 July 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks for that tip. I have done that; however, the game seems to think that my video card isn't good enough to run the game, when I'm pretty sure it clearly is. Also, I can't manually override the settings. A GeForce GT 540M should be enough to run PES 2011 at fairly good graphics, right? Simeon24601 (talk) 21:46, 10 July 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Can you identify the country location in mail addresses on the Internet?

Hi I always thought that you could identify a country location by addresses on the Internet e.g. .uk (United Kingdom), .cy (Cyprus), .au (Australia), .tc (Turks & Caicos), etc. I have been trying to identify .cc with no luck. Is there a listing anywwhere that lists all the .??s against country location? Thanks. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Jimjamdog (talk • contribs) 12:43, 9 July 2011 (UTC)[reply]

.cc is the top level domain for the Cocos (Keeling) Islands. The islands only have a population of ~596 people, and almost all the websites and email providers that use .cc are from other countries. So it's overwhelmingly likely that an email you get from a .cc address are in fact from some other country; you really can't figure out much about where such an email comes from. But then you can't tell much about the geographical location of any email sender - just because someone has a .com email address, or even an email server located in the US, doesn't mean the original sender is the US - they can be anywhere. -- Finlay McWalter ☻ Talk 12:48, 9 July 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Here is a Country code top-level domains AvrillirvA (talk) 14:10, 9 July 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Modem Too Far

Hello. If I wire my computer, which is 15 ft from the nearest phone jack, to the modem, my Internet connection is unreliable. My computer cannot connect to the modem wirelessly. What should I do? Thanks in advance. --Mayfare (talk) 19:04, 9 July 2011 (UTC)[reply]

What kind of modem do you mean? How long is the cable you are using to connect your computer to the modem? Are you sure that the cable isn't broken? (Cheap Ethernet cables can break pretty easily.) Looie496 (talk) 22:08, 9 July 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Move the modem nearer the computer. In the UK its easy to buy an extension cable that you plug in to the phone plug or "jack", so that the modem is near the computer and only needs a short cable from it to the computer. Don't know if you can do that where you are. 2.101.12.198 (talk) 10:20, 10 July 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Voice-picking program

Is there a software which allows to pick the voice pitch from a song and them make a new phrase from that voice sample (and probably replace some part of the song with the words I want)?--46.204.100.73 (talk) 21:58, 9 July 2011 (UTC)[reply]

There are programs to remove vocal tracks entirely, but those only occasionally work. (It depends how the song was mixed.)

But if you're looking to extract the voice, use it as raw material for a speech synthesizer, and use that to make a new song with new words? No. There is nothing that can come close to doing that. APL (talk) 22:12, 9 July 2011 (UTC)[reply]

To do this type of extraction using existing technology and software would require lots of manual editing of the waveform. It might take several hours (not to mention, years of audio signal-processing expertise) to produce a few seconds of useful, extracted audio. The reason this process is not (and probably never can be) automated is similar to the reason that audio signals can not be easily converted to MIDI. See this archived discussion for some detailed explanation why the audio-extraction problem is theoretically hard. Nimur (talk) 00:11, 12 July 2011 (UTC)[reply]

July 10

User agent string spoof

How do I spoof user agent string in Internet Explorer 9? 123.24.106.106 (talk) 00:49, 10 July 2011 (UTC)[reply]

That's not a supported feature of IE 9. Could you explain why you want to do that, and we can help find another way of attacking your issue? i kan reed (talk) 13:37, 11 July 2011 (UTC)[reply]

If you must use Internet Explorer, but insist on pretending that you are not using it, there are other solutions. You can always proxy your web connection, and write a proxy-side script to modify HTTP headers. Here's the official Squid Cache manual section for replacing HTTP headers; (don't forget to specify header access) and here's a fun "hacker" website that instructs you how to randomize your user-agent string using Perl.

As the Squid manual makes abundantly clear: intercepting and modifying HTTP headers "...VIOLATES the HTTP standard. Enabling this feature could make you liable for problems which it causes." In other words, using this feature may (will) break your web browsing experience in interesting ways. Nimur (talk) 00:19, 12 July 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Corrupt master file table

Hello all, I have a 2 TB external hard drive from Seagate, a FreeAgent. This drive is a tertiary hard drive that is only used for file storage (two others are a 60 GB primary with XP, and a 1 TB Seagate). Yesterday it wouldn't let me do anything with it, XP popping up a systray bubble saying something about $MFT being corrupt and unreadable, and to try chkdsk. I set it to run and fix errors. I left it running overnight, and it was on 23% of Stage 2 when I left early this morning. When I got back home (~12 hours later) it was still at 23% on Stage 2. I decided to exit chkdsk and try again, but now chkdsk tells me:

C:\Documents and Settings\[censored]>chkdsk F: /F
The type of the file system is NTFS.
Volume label is FreeAgent Drive.
Corrupt master file table.  CHKDSK aborted.

It had detected some errors before I exited chkdsk but unfortunately I didn't copy them down.

Any ideas? -- MegaGuy (talk) 01:34, 10 July 2011 (UTC)[reply]

I'm not an expert but someone in the comments here http://www.techsupportalert.com/best-free-data-recovery-file-undelete-utility.htm recommends Test Disk for a corrupted disk. As it is not your main HD, then you don't need to use a LiveCD. 2.101.12.198 (talk) 11:55, 10 July 2011 (UTC)[reply]

SATA drivers

Hello,

I'm trying to install Windows XP (Pro, 32 bits) on one of the partitions of my main HDD (Hitachi 5450 something). However, the boot CD crashes because I apparently don't have the required SATA drivers. I tried incorporating the XP version chipset drivers with nLite to no avail. My Samsung laptop's mobo is a RF711.

I want to do this to troubleshoot my two iPods who have started freezing during sync at specifc points. HD Tune shows bad sectors but it seems odd that this happened so suddently. CHKDSK doesn't find anything, neither does CopyTrans Doctor. Since I heard iTunes has problems with Windows 7 64 bits, this is pretty much what I haven't tried. Reset, restore, quick format (low-level doesn't work, drive is protected), can't do in-built HDD scan because some dimwit removed the feature for the iPod classics, tried shutting down Zone Alarm and all other security thingies, aso tried downgrading iTunes (reinstalled/uninstalled as well) and trying other .mp3 files and putting the devices on cooling pads during sync, without forgetting compatibility mode and running as administrator, disabling UAC. Tried using Winamp and Media Monkey for sync too.

Sorry for formatting I'm writing on my Kindle. Things I haven't tried include running with everything disabled except required Apple services and processes, CHKDSK during boot through O&O defrag, opening the devices and playing with the HDD wires and shooting both iPods with my Glock, but I'm at work ATM. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 8.18.145.160 (talk) 06:39, 10 July 2011 (UTC)[reply]

I'm not sure the "chipset" download contains the SATA driver. Try the download called "Intel Rapid Storage" (for Windows 7), or this. You can probably set the SATA interface to compatibility mode in the BIOS and avoid the need for a driver entirely. CHKDSK won't scan for bad sectors unless you give it the /R option. I don't think I can help you with the rest of your problems. -- BenRG (talk) 09:59, 10 July 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Java Class

Suppose i have class named Vehicle. whats the difference between the following two:

Vehicle scooter;

and

Vehicle bike = new Vehicle();

117.201.249.207 (talk) 08:54, 10 July 2011 (UTC)[reply]

scooter and bike are both references (of type Vehicle). bike is a reference to a new concrete instance of Vehicle, but scooter is null (it doesn't refer to any instance). -- Finlay McWalter ☻ Talk 09:49, 10 July 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks, that was helpful. I have another question :D:
Do i need to always define the main method as static. if yes, why? 117.201.249.207 (talk) 10:04, 10 July 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Yes. The answer, which is a tad unsatisfactory, is "just because". When you start the java interpreter with a class to run, it looks for a method called main that takes a String[] and is static. That's just the way they defined it when they created Java (I think for some wrong-headed notion of symmetry with C). There's no reason at all that Java couldn't have an abstract base class Application and your application would be a concrete subclass of that (and that's how things work for every other kind of Java program). So "just because". -- Finlay McWalter ☻ Talk 10:13, 10 July 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Finlay is absolutely correct: Java's inventors decided to make the program-entry-point static. The benefit, though, is that a Java program may begin execution before the heap is fully initialized. You can read more about JVM internals, and implementation-choices: The Structure of the Java Virtual Machine. Some of these implementation details are specified by the Java language; for example, every Java program will start with a public static method named main whose arguments are an array of strings. Other details are not required by the spec, but are merely common amongst the most popular implementations of Java VMs and compilers. For example, the language requires starting execution in a static method whose offset in the classfile bytecode is trivial to calculate. The language doesn't require, but does allow, that the execution of main() can be executed in parallel with (and before the completion of) the initialization of the heap. Nimur (talk) 17:31, 10 July 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Home routers with good IPv6 support

Just a few months ago, I read that many home routers had poor support for IPv6 despite being advertised as supporting it. Has the situation changed lately? Are there home routers that are known to have good IPv6 support (and performs well in other respects)? Thanks. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 173.49.11.217 (talk) 09:44, 10 July 2011 (UTC)[reply]

New Partition On Ext HDD

I have an external HDD, and I am wanting to put a new partition on it and put Win7 on there as a bootable backup/recovery (in addition to the Ubuntu I am currently using for the same reason). The HDD is used alternately between two laptops - one already with Win7 on it, and the other with Vista. Now, I have a couple of questions:

Will it be possible to partition the HDD and put Win7 on it, using up 100GB on the partition?
More importantly, will this be possible without deleting existing data on the HDD (there are 670GB left on the disk)?
If I boot into this new partition, will my data on the existing Vista/Win7 partitions be accessible?

The tools I currently have at my disposal are Vista and Ubuntu (as the Win7 laptop is upstairs being used). Cheers! --KägeTorä - (影虎) (TALK) 11:30, 10 July 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Creating a new partition using unassigned sectors of a hard disk is simple, but shrinking an existing partition to make room for a new partition is not. If that's what you want to do, it may be possible, but this may involve moving data around on that partition, or even copying the data off it, reformatting, then putting it back (there are utilities that do this). As for accessing data on the non-boot partition, that's easy, as long as the partition is in a recognized format. Note that you will need to run a boot manager to select which boot partition you want, each time you start a computer. StuRat (talk) 20:07, 10 July 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Late reply, but use Gparted (comes by default with ubuntu ) after booting from the live CD. you can graphically resize and even move partitions on your Drive.Staticd (talk) 09:20, 15 July 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Scrolling

My cat has just walked across my keyboard and now I can't scroll using the arrow keys. I don't have a scroll lock button. Any ideas how to fix this (the cat is of no help)? Bradley0110 (talk) 11:57, 10 July 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Is one of your Ctrl keys perhaps stuck down? (Probably not, because that would interfere with typing too.) Details of your system and software would help. Card Zero (talk) 12:37, 10 July 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Try pressing the NUM LOCK key. If that doesn't work try the SCROLL LOCK key.--Shantavira|^{feed me} 13:33, 10 July 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks, both. I managed to fix it through Firefox options (would love to know what shortcut the cat managed to trigger to get it like that though!) Bradley0110 (talk) 14:26, 10 July 2011 (UTC)[reply]

It might have been F7 ("caret browsing"). There's a list at " http://support.mozilla.com/en-US/kb/Keyboard shortcuts ". (I'd like to link to that directly, but the URL contains an unencoded space, which I didn't think was even possible. The wiki software has now automagically created the wrong link - you have to add "shortcuts" to the end.) Card Zero (talk) 14:49, 10 July 2011 (UTC)[reply]

http://support.mozilla.com/en-US/kb/Keyboard%20shortcuts

URLs containing certain characters will display and link incorrectly unless those characters are encoded. For example, a space must be replaced by %20.

sp	"	,	'	;	<	>	?	[	]
%20	%22	%2c	%3a	%3b	%3c	%3e	%3f	%5b	%5d

Single apostrophes do not need to be encoded; multiples will be parsed as italic or bold markup ---— Gadget850 (Ed) ^talk 16:54, 10 July 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Ah, that's how you do it. I knew about percent encoding and originally tried adding the %20 in the address bar, which didn't work because that's not what the page is called on the server. Card Zero (talk) 17:32, 10 July 2011 (UTC)[reply]

In case you didn't know this, original poster, the 2000 Ig Nobel Prize in Computing was won by a guy who wrote some software that detects when your cat is walking on your keyboard. It displays a dialog box saying CAT-LIKE TYPING DETECTED and waits for you to click a mouse button. Comet Tuttle (talk) 12:51, 11 July 2011 (UTC)[reply]

If the cat has managed to kill the mouse you'd have a bit of a problem! Roger (talk) 17:15, 14 July 2011 (UTC) [reply]

Email address left on guestbook problem

Good afternoon, I have a problem (I don't know if you can help me here). I have put a message on the guestbook of somebody with the help of my e-mail adres. Everytime now I go to goggle and I write my name (my name entirely), the beginning of the page and the beginning of the message I have sent appears because I have used my name in my e-mail adres that I needed to send the message. Now everybody can read my message. It attacks my private life. I would like to remove it by my own but it doens't work. Must I wait until (with the years) due to others messages on the guestbook I 'll be put backward (in the last page) and then disappear but it can take years. Thank you very much. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 81.241.70.217 (talk) 13:47, 10 July 2011 (UTC)[reply]

I gave your post a title. Tips: next time, click the "ask a new question" button instead of "edit", and put four tildes at the end to generate a time-and-IP-number signature. Card Zero (talk) 14:54, 10 July 2011 (UTC)[reply]

~~:Try clearing your history and cache. You will find that this is actually your browser auto-completing. Use a different browser, if you want to test this.~~ Ignore me. --KägeTorä - (影虎) (TALK) 15:43, 10 July 2011 (UTC)[reply]

I would suggest you politely write to the admin of the site asking them if they could kindly take down the message or at least obscure your name. Of course there is no guarantee they will respond in the manner you wish, particularly if your original message was rude or attacked them. In that case there is probably not much you can do other then to wait it out (the site may disappear and in any case most people aren't going to hold a single thing a person said 15 years ago against them if they've changed significantly since then). Also take this as a lesson to be more careful in the future when posting on the internet, particularly when using your real name (although many would say often if you don't want people associating what you are writing with your real name you probably shouldn't be writing it in the first place) or any other identity that can be associated with your real name. Of course if you establish a more positive online identity which people link to and admire then this will likely push the unwanted result down in the search results. Nil Einne (talk) 18:05, 10 July 2011 (UTC)[reply]

using a proxy

I am at a loss. I am in Singapore, and I want to watch shows on websites that do not let me, e.g. formula 1 from the BBC iplayer and Daria from the MTV USA website. Both tell me that I cannot watch in my country/zone. So I hear about proxies, and how people use them to watch whatever they want from whatever website. So I read about them, follow the instructions, and paste in the URL. I try again and again with a bunch of the most popular proxies, but instead of the video playing, no player appears on the screen at all. The rest of the BBC or MTV page is present, but no video player. Can someone please explain how to use these cursed proxies!?! Also in case it's relevant I have a macbook OSX 10.6.4 using safari (I have tried with chrome also to no avail)

Cheers Ballchef (talk) 14:34, 10 July 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Publicly advertised open proxies are overloaded with traffic from people like you as well as people who want anonymity for various reasons. You'll never get good service from them, even if you get them to work. It's possible that the operators of the proxies have deliberately blocked high-traffic sites like the BBC in an attempt to avoid overload. And the BBC and MTV may monitor the same open proxy lists you used and block those IPs.

I'm afraid you will probably have to pay a monthly fee if you want a proxy (or VPN) that doesn't suck. -- BenRG (talk) 17:59, 10 July 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Disk enclosure

Apparently, it is much cheaper (on a 1:2 relation) to buy a disk enclosure and a HDD to build your external HDD (instead of buying a ready to go external HDD). Is there any recommendation against doing it? Any details to consider? I already know I have to check the type of connection (SATA, IDE, ...) and the size (1T, 2T) of the HDD that the controller can handle. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Wikiweek (talk • contribs) 16:08, 10 July 2011 (UTC)[reply]

You can get a 2TB internal HD from Amazon for about $80 or an external for about $100. Building your own only makes sense now if you already have a drive. ---— Gadget850 (Ed) ^talk 16:50, 10 July 2011 (UTC)[reply]

It's not really cheaper, I'd only do it if I already had the drive (ask Gadget said) or wanted a very particular setup. With an external that comes with its own enclosure, someone has already (potentially) considered the problem of heat and various other things for you. ¦ Reisio (talk) 23:54, 10 July 2011 (UTC)[reply]

It might be that I got the prices wrong, and that simply at different places, the DIY version was cheaper. Gadget850 must know something about gadgets. Wikiweek (talk) 01:35, 11 July 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Can't delete a corrupted folder

Resolved

Yesterday, I created a file folder and placed a few images into it, and slightly more than an hour ago, I changed the names of the images in the folder. Just now, I tried to look at the images, only to receive the following message:

[path from C: to the folder] is not accessible.

The file or directory is corrupted and unreadable.

Figuring that there's no point to keeping a corrupted folder and images that I can't access, I tried to delete it, but was greeted by the following message:

An unexpected error is preventing the operation.

"Error 0x80070091: The directory is not empty"

Any ideas how I can delete the folder or uncorrupt the images? I'm running Windows Vista Home Premium; to my surprise, I can't figure out how to find what edition of Windows I'm running — my customisations to restore the look of previous Windows editions means that the Windows Help features tell me to try features whose functions I've changed. Nyttend (talk) 16:18, 10 July 2011 (UTC)[reply]

After I posted this request for help, it occurred to me that I'd not restarted the computer. To my surprise, after the restart I'm able to view the images without difficulty, and I've now uploaded them: 1, 2, and 3. Nyttend (talk) 17:14, 10 July 2011 (UTC)[reply]

If something like that happens again, Unlocker might be able to fix it without having to restart. AvrillirvA (talk) 17:54, 10 July 2011 (UTC)[reply]

defence

why defence depatment is not using advance technology for storing ammunitation as land are becoming costlier and less day by day and away from civil socities ? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 121.245.134.7 (talk) 17:30, 10 July 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Which defence department, advanced technology and ammunition do you have in mind? Card Zero (talk) 17:39, 10 July 2011 (UTC)[reply]

In the United States, Joint Munitions Command is the coordinated service command (operated by the Army) that supplies ammunition to all services of the United States armed forces. They take safety and security very seriously. As far as advanced technologies, numerous facilities that use a variety of technology to stay safe, stay secure, reduce cost, and preserve the environment. All of these potential hazards must be addressed; and the United States has a pretty solid record for preventing major ammunition safety incidents. You can read more at http://www.jmc.army.mil or in our article. Do you have a question about a specific technology? Nimur (talk) 17:46, 10 July 2011 (UTC)[reply]

SFTP double hop

I have an SFTP (and SSH) machine that I use a lot. However, it isn't connected to the Internet. So, I have to SSH into another machine which is connected to it and then SSH into the machine I want to use. I often open SFTP sessions with servers like this one, but I cannot do it with this particular one because I have to SSH to one server and then SFTP to the one I want. Is there some trick to get a double-hop for SFTP - tell it so ssh to one machine and then sftp to the next? -- kainaw ™ 20:10, 10 July 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Say you're going from A to B to C. You should be able to ssh from A to B with a tunnel set to forward to C:

   ssh -f kainaw@A -L 9999:C:22 -N

Then you can run the sftp on A directed at the forwarded port on B, which should forward it off to C:

   sftp -P 9999 B

I've not tried this particular thing, so let me know how this works out. -- Finlay McWalter ☻ Talk 20:22, 10 July 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Haven't tried it yet, but I know it will work. I've used port forwarding before, but not for this task. Sometimes the obvious stubbornly eludes me. -- kainaw ™ 12:42, 11 July 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Pushdown Automaton Formal Definition

In the formal definitional of pushdown automota it describes the transition function as a mapping from the Cartesian product of the set of states, the set of the input alphabet and the set of the stack alphabet. In my textbook it says the this is because it will pick the next state and new stack based on the current state, input and what's at the top of the stack. But why do we just have to input the value at the top of the stack, surely it should be a function from a list of elements of the stack alphabet, otherwise how does it know what else is on the stack (e.g. when it pop's, how does it know what's below, if that wasn't an input). — Preceding unsigned comment added by SlakaJ (talk • contribs) 23:35, 10 July 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Do you mean that the transition would depend on the entire contents of the stack? Yes, that would make the machine more powerful, but it would actually not be a very useful model: since the stack can be arbitrarily large, the description of the transition function could get very complicated. But the idea of the pushdown automaton model is to make a simple machine that can do complicated things with the aid of a stack. A stack is simple to implement and very fast to use... provided you don't have to go through the entire contents of the stack on every transition step.

However the main problem is that a pushdown automaton that can make a transition on the basis of the entire contents of the stack is just as powerful as an arbitrary function: consider an automaton that simply copies the input to the stack, appends an end-of-input mark, and then looks up the correct result by using the transition function. (Cleaning up the stack afterwards is also easy to arrange.) The interesting thing about the pushdown automaton as defined is that it is a simple machine that is realistically implementable (as long as you don't run out of stack space, but that is another discussion) and that can do more than a finite state automaton, yet less than a Turing machine, or an arbitrary function.

By the way, it is also important to note that a stack element can be defined as a list of a fixed number of input elements (say, the 10 latest input characters). This is useful in practice, does not require unbounded storage space, and does not increase the theoretical power of the model. 188.117.30.209 (talk) 05:49, 11 July 2011 (UTC)[reply]

July 11

How do I get gtk working?

Hi, I'm using Fedora 4 and trying to do some gui programming. Certain websites say to use the header #include <gtk/gtk.h>, but the compiler doesn't recognise it. I have gimp, and I at least have a folder called gtk (I actually have /etc/gtk and /etc/gtk-2.0, both of which contain a handful of files, all of them small), but somehow nothing is working. Is there a path variable I need to alter so the compiler picks these things up? I have the same problem if I do #include <gnome.h>. I even used the line at the command prompt (for <gnome.h>): g++ -o hello2 hello2.cpp `gnome-config --libs gnomeui` but to no avail. What can I do? I just want to do easy graphical programming, like using gui windows for inputting simple data. Many thanks, It's been emotional (talk) 01:09, 11 July 2011 (UTC)[reply]

I don't know Fedora (rather than Ubuntu) but you'd expect the headers to be in /usr/include/ and the libraries in /usr/lib (/etc/gtk-2.0 is for configuration). To generate the necessary -I and -L commands that gcc wants (which tell it where to look for headers and libraries) the gtk tutorial) says one should use pkg-config rather than gnome-config (my system doesn't have anything by that latter name). If, for example, I directly run pkg-config --cflags --libs gtk+-2.0 at the command line, it reports a hefty swathe of -I -L and -l (and a few other) gcc options. -- Finlay McWalter ☻ Talk 10:12, 11 July 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Are you really using Fedora Core 4 (from 2006)?; if so then my reply is probably wrong, as things will have changed over the last 5 years. -- Finlay McWalter ☻ Talk 10:15, 11 July 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Even if you have gimp installed, the gtk dev files maynot be. do a search for gtk.h; if you find it you can use the -I option to add the directory to your gcc call. good luck. Staticd (talk) 10:32, 11 July 2011 (UTC)[reply]

It is really beating your head against the wall to do Gtk programming without using Autoconf and Automake. There is a serious learning curve involved, but without them the dependencies are just too hairy to manage. It's also, in my view, beating your head against the wall to do Gtk programming with an out-of-date OS. Looie496 (talk) 21:30, 11 July 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks for the help. Somehow I've got it working, and I now have some useful tricks to improve it as well. It's been emotional (talk) 08:33, 13 July 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Formalizing a rule

What does that mean when a programming teacher tells you to 'formalize a certain rule"? — Preceding unsigned comment added by Wikiweek (talk • contribs) 01:38, 11 July 2011 (UTC)[reply]

I imagine it means write the rule in a computer language. 92.24.187.78 (talk) 14:49, 11 July 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Let me give an example. Let's say the rule is "Each person has a gender". To formalize this for programming, we need to decide the following:

1) Are people allowed not to specify their gender, say if they are worried about discrimination ?

2) Are "male" and "female" the only allowed genders ? What about intersex people, can they select both "male" and "female", or neither ?

3) Do we mean their genetic gender in the case of people who've undergone sex-change operations, or their current apparent gender ?

4) Same question for transvestites.

5) What should people with extra sex chromosomes put as their gender ?

So, you can see that even the simplest question can become quite complex, once you think through all the possible implications. StuRat (talk) 18:48, 11 July 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Special help for access 2007

Please i need help !

I do not know if this is possible , and cant explain with acceess word so i will use drawings. I have these two tables:

this table is for the dog , and some values of him (medical values).

Header text	minimal	maximal
Value A	10	20
Value B	15	30
Value C	30	40

this table let say is for the cat and some medical values for it .

Header text	minimal	maximal
Value A	10	20
Value B	15	30
Value C	30	40

IN ANOTHER TABLE i want to make this :

type of animal	Value A	Value B
dog (or cat)	input value	input value

In this finale table , is my question . With a combo box i will select the type of animal (dog cat ect).

After i select , the values in columns should take the min and max values from the two first tables.

Examlpe : When i select dog , it takes values from the dog table .

And when i write a value greater than max or lower than min it should turn red AUTOMATICLY .

I have tried hard , using relationships or referncig some columns to other tables.NOTHING

Can it be done with codes or scripts , or i can use the interface of access 2007 ?

Sorry for the long question everyone , i hope someone knows this . Thank u in advance 95.107.197.68 (talk) 08:05, 11 July 2011 (UTC)[reply]

This can be done, but it will require quite a bit of work setting up the interface. I'll be doing some Access programming later today (lucky me) so I'll take a look at exactly how I'd set this up. I believe it can be done without using VBA, though VBA is in some ways the easiest answer to this (there is no question you could do it with VBA scripting in Access). --Mr.98 (talk) 13:34, 11 July 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Here's one way to do it, using VBA. This is the easiest way that I know of. There is some of what you are describing that is ambiguous to me — what kind of forms you are thinking about. Below is one interpretation. If it is incorrect, please feel free to clarify what you mean.

This assumes that your cat data above is in a table named tblCat, and your dog data is in tblDog, and that your min/max values are in fields named "Min" and "Max".

Create a new form. On it, create a new combo box control, and give it the name, "cbo_select." Give it the values of "cat" and "dog".

Create a new text box control, and give it the name "txt_value". Make sure the Properties window is open. Select the text box (txt_value) and then go to the Event tab in the Properties window, then to the On Change event. If you click on the white space next to "On Change," an ellipses button (...) appears to the right of it. Click on that button, then select "Code builder," and it will open up the VBA editor.

This will put you into a subroutine called Private Sub txt_value_Change(). Paste in the following code:

'prepare some variables
Dim theMin As Single
Dim theMax As Single

If cbo_select.ListIndex <> -1 Then 'first we check that a table has been selected
    Select Case cbo_select.Value 'figure out which table is selected
    'note that DMin and DMax are funtions that return the min or max of a given column in a given table
    Case "cat": theMin = DMin("Min", "tblCat"): theMax = DMax("Max", "tblCat")
    Case "dog": theMin = DMin("Min", "tblDog"): theMax = DMax("Max", "tblDog")
    End Select

    'now we see if the current text is outside of the bounds.
    'note that we use the .Text property and not the .Value property, because
    '.Value assumes the control has already "registered" the value, where .Text
    'means "whatever text happens to be in there right now."
    If Val(txt_value.Text) < theMin Or Val(txt_value.Text) > theMax Then
        If txt_value.ForeColor <> RGB(255, 0, 0) Then 'if it's not already red...
            txt_value.ForeColor = RGB(255, 0, 0) 'make it red
        End If
    Else
        If txt_value.ForeColor <> RGB(0, 0, 0) Then 'if it's not already black...
            txt_value.ForeColor = RGB(0, 0, 0) 'make it black
        End If
    End If
End If

Then you can save and close out of the VBA editor.

And that should do it, so that if you start to type in a value into your text box, it will change color if it is within the bounds of a given table. If that's not what you wanted, let me know. The code above is pretty straightforward but let me know if you have questions about how it works, how to modify it, etc. --Mr.98 (talk) 14:28, 11 July 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Like Mr 98 says this can be done via forms and queries (relatively easily just the exact syntax is a pain). If the data in your two table is uniform you can use a UNION query to merge the data tables and then run a SELECT query on those results filtered by the choice you make in the first form's drop down list. I don't have MS Access on this machine so can't say for certain how i'd build this but this was something i've built many times without needing to use VBA (though it can be more flexible in VBA). Anyhoo here's a link to the syntax for referencing the form field's value (http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa223116(v=office.11).aspx). Good luck! ny156uk (talk) 17:22, 11 July 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Ignore my answer - teaches me for not reading the whole question! Sorry! ny156uk (talk) 17:24, 11 July 2011 (UTC)[reply]

single left click in e speaking software

I have downloaded and used e speaking voice and speech recognition software. I have read the mouse commands, as mouse up ,mouse down and others.but I can not get how to use single mouse click using this software. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 182.187.18.164 (talk) 08:40, 11 July 2011 (UTC)[reply]

what is cloud computing?

what is cloud computing? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 59.144.62.18 (talk) 11:52, 11 July 2011 (UTC)[reply]

See Cloud computing as a start. AndrewWTaylor (talk) 11:59, 11 July 2011 (UTC)[reply]

A marketing perspective: cloud computing is dynamic, it is liberating, it is empowering, it is efficient, instead of wasteful, it is amazing, instead of agonizing, it is massive, social, user-centric, and colossally world-wide in its scope, power, breadth, and depth. It is your key to the door to the window. 188.28.228.34 (talk) 15:44, 12 July 2011 (UTC)[reply]

VBA unicode

I have made a VBA program that gives output texts in english.I have to change the code so that the program gave output in Unicode font other than Latin alfabets.How can it be done? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 113.199.159.35 (talk) 15:23, 11 July 2011 (UTC)[reply]

I've Googled a little and apparently it is quite a pain in the neck. What kind of output is it? It is apparently different if you want it to output to the screen or to a file. It is not something that VBA does very well with, shamefully enough. --Mr.98 (talk) 23:40, 11 July 2011 (UTC)[reply]

My question is how to type unicode alphabets from other languages in VBA codes with taxts and comments. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 116.90.230.202 (talk) 10:42, 12 July 2011 (UTC)[reply]

It's not, not, not easy. It requires using the ChrW$() function for each and every character that requires unicode. See this post and program that is meant to make it a little easier. It seems pretty awful to me. --Mr.98 (talk) 14:25, 12 July 2011 (UTC)[reply]

pipelinks

I have read the section and have pipe-linked other words but cannot, for the life of me pipelink this:

the earl of Oxford - link to John de Vere, 7th Earl of Oxford

Can you tell me what I am doing wrong. It comes out that I lose the first mention i.e., the earl of Oxford but what appears and appears ONLY is the linked John de Vere, 7th Earl of Oxford.

I only want: the earl of Oxford to show in the text of the article (but for it to be linked to John de Vere, 7th Earl of Oxford) which I do not want to show in the article.

thankyou. Mugginsx (talk) 16:19, 11 July 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Do you want to do this: the Earl of Oxford? Card Zero (talk) 16:28, 11 July 2011 (UTC)[reply]

The underscores in the wikisyntax are not necessary, they are optional. More examples can be found on the Help page for links. Nimur (talk) 18:43, 11 July 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Here: the Earl of Oxford. Or is this not what you want? --Mr.98 (talk) 15:41, 12 July 2011 (UTC)[reply]

how do i download a file online to itunes for free

how can i download south parks La reststance song to itunes for use in the iphone for free. i dont whant to pay $12 for the whole album — Preceding unsigned comment added by UltraJosh97 (talk • contribs) 16:36, 11 July 2011 (UTC)[reply]

It depends on what you mean by "download." iTunes uses the terms Add to Library, Import, and Convert to describe different iTunes functions.. "Choosing File > Library > Import Playlists allows you to import playlists and other data files into iTunes." Nimur (talk) 18:40, 11 July 2011 (UTC)[reply]

It sounds like what your wanting to do is commit copyright violation. The music you want is not free, and there is no way for anyone on wikipedia to change that for about 90 years. There is lots of music available on the internet that IS free, but not the song you're looking for. I'm going to avoid suggesting places where you could illegally acquire this song, but they do exist. i kan reed (talk) 21:16, 11 July 2011 (UTC)[reply]

http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=la+resistance + http://winff.org/ ¦ Reisio (talk) 06:31, 12 July 2011 (UTC)[reply]

I want to note that in some cases you can usually only buy one song in the album. However you will not able to get legally for free. If you do wish to 'be illegal' please consult other means. Sorry, but this is not the place to ask for illegal stuff. General Rommel (talk) 08:53, 12 July 2011 (UTC) If anyone believes this is too harsh, please discuss on my talk page[reply]

Laptop adapter

I will be traveling from the United States to Ireland with a Dell Latitude D620. Will I need to purchase an adapter for my power cable? If so, what type? Thanks. 151.204.184.212 (talk) 17:04, 11 July 2011 (UTC)[reply]

This article on the VisitIreland website may be of use (http://www.visitireland.com/planning/electricity.asp). Unfortunately it suggests most electrical items from the US won't work in Ireland (though above that it mentions that most laptops should be fine as they're likely dual voltage). Hopefully someone will be along with an answer based on experience soon enough (it may also be worth moving this to the Miscellaneous section to get more responses)ny156uk (talk) 17:16, 11 July 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Nearly all modern laptops come with a multi-voltage power supply. Check the label - it should say something like "Input: 100-240V, 50-60Hz". In this case, it's compatible with most power outlets in the world, and certainly with power in Ireland (both Northern and the Republic of). You will need a plug adapter. Ireland uses a three-pronged outlet/plug. You should be able to get it for about US$ 5 from Amazon (but see many related products), or pick it up, at the usual absurd markups, in most airport electronic shops. --Stephan Schulz (talk) 17:31, 11 July 2011 (UTC)[reply]

If you're going to be spending a while in Ireland (or the UK, or other places with the same power outlets) then it'd be worthwhile buying a C5 <-> BS 1363 cable (I'm almost certain the power supply on your Dell will have a C5 "mickey mouse" connector). Any computer or electrical shop in Ireland will sell one of those. -- Finlay McWalter ☻ Talk 19:32, 11 July 2011 (UTC)[reply]

It looks like I'll only have to get a three-prong adapter. Thanks for the help.151.204.184.212 (talk) 19:35, 11 July 2011 (UTC)[reply]

I used to have a Latitude D620 and travelled from the UK to work for a few weeks out of our US office. The power block itself said "Input: 100-240V, 50-60Hz", so I had no problems just using a UK/US plug adapter. If you are going to visit for business, the company's local IT guys might be able to fix you up with a suitable adapter. Astronaut (talk) 10:43, 12 July 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Step by step explanation of internet processes

Hello everybody, does anybody konow where I can find a step by step explanation or a good diagramm that shows all the steps that take place before a web page can be displayed by a browser. Things like first, you enter the URL wikipedia.org, then the computer looks up the IP adress of Wikipedia at the name server and so on...Just a little overview where things like HTTP or TCP/IP are explained. It would really help me if somebody finds me something like this. Thanks a lot! --87.173.106.57 (talk) 19:12, 11 July 2011 (UTC)[reply]

You could read Douglas E. Comer's Internetworking with TCP/IP(vol.1) which covers all the layers from ethernet to IP to TCP to HTTP and ancillary stuff like DNS, BGP, and ICMP. Or you could set up Wireshark, set it tracing, view a website, and then spend the rest of the day analysing all the packets that went back and forward. Really every tutorial or book you see will try to view each level of the transaction with the lower layers abstracted away; if you really care to see the totally of the thing, down to the individual ethernet frames that are exchanged between your PC and your home router, you can't do much better than Wireshark. It's kind of drinking-from-the-firehose, as there's all kinds of other stuff going on at the same time, and stuff like retries and fragmentation can make the lower levels rather confusing at first, but if you really want to see what's going on, I really recommend it (and having a copy of Comer around so you can figure out what's supposed to be happening). -- Finlay McWalter ☻ Talk 19:26, 11 July 2011 (UTC)[reply]

That goes well beyond the "little overview" that was requested. Also beyond what was requested, but not that deep, would be browsing the relevant RFCs, like RFC 2616 (start at section 1.4), or just browsing our Hypertext Transfer Protocol article. That is not the whole story but it's a significant part of it. Comet Tuttle (talk) 21:04, 11 July 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Our main articles are Protocol stack, OSI model, and TCP/IP model (which contain many diagrams). I would recommend that you begin reading about HTTP version 1.0, which is significantly simpler than the version 1.1 protocol used by most browsers. Once you understand HTTP 1.0, 1.1 will seem like a trivial and logical extension to take advantage of server-side and network- parallelism. When you understand the streams transport, you may then dive down to understand TCP, which packetizes the streams. And finally, if you are very interested, you can dive down to understand IP, which is used to route the packets. At that layer, you will understand the need for a DNS server. If you are a hardware-minded person, you may choose to continue learning about specific PHY ("physical") implementations that convert and encode data into electromagnetic signals for transport by wire, by fiber-optic link, or by radio.Nimur (talk) 21:39, 11 July 2011 (UTC)[reply]

July 12

backup firefox address bar search

I'm currently preparing for a re-install and am wondering if there is anyway to backup the database used in the firefox address bar search?

Cheers, --124.180.216.146 (talk) 11:32, 12 July 2011 (UTC)[reply]

All your settings are stored in a profile folder. The location of this varies depending on your OS, but you should be able to save this folder and copy its contents back. See here for more info. It probably helps if you re-install the same version of Firefox as you had before, but I don't know how essential that is.

There are also various tools/plug-ins that claim they can back up all kinds of settings including your history and bookmarks (which are what the address bar search uses). I can't recommend any, but two are FEBE[1] and MozBackup[2]. But copying the profile folder is probably sufficient. --Colapeninsula (talk) 13:23, 12 July 2011 (UTC)[reply]

This page on the Mozilla website explains how to back up your info. --Colapeninsula (talk) 13:24, 12 July 2011 (UTC)[reply]

At minimum, you could try saving your places.sqlite database and using it with your fresh install. TheGrimme (talk) 16:41, 12 July 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Text Converter

Hello, a long time ago on the internet you used to get all sorts of sites that would convert a website / some text into certain dialects or styles, for example you used to get one that turned it into the A-Team, so if you wrote "Me and Bobby went to the shops to get some ham", it would make it say "Me and Murdoch modified the crazy damn shops to not get on no plane, fool!", and you also got them so it would turn ordinary language into porno talk so it would be "Me and ****ing Bobby went throbbing hard to the fisting shops, ****ed some ham in the ***", or similar. What were these things called and do they still exist and where can I find them? Jeremy Wordsworth (talk) 13:59, 12 July 2011 (UTC)[reply]

There's such a translator here. I think there may also have been some proxy servers that did it more transparently, but I can't find any now. AndrewWTaylor (talk) 14:34, 12 July 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Multiplication and addition of arrays using foreach() loop

I would like to know the PHP code/program for multiplying and adding two 3x3 arrays using the foreach() loop. I've been trying to do it for days, but nothing seems to work. Somebody please help, and FAST!!! Z ebe c 15:58, 12 July 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Organizing music

Hi, I was just wondering in what ways and how you organize your music. Do you organize them by artist/album/song (and what do you do with soundtracks from films/plays)? Do you go by genre/artist/song? Or do you just plop everything in one (or maybe many) places on your hard drive and let software such as MediaMonkey or foobar2000 do the rest? Thanks, 141.150.23.93 (talk) 16:06, 12 July 2011 (UTC)[reply]

I have my music organized in folders by genre, then by artist, and finally by album. If I have a single song by an artist, I have a 'Misc' folder inside of each genre. I also use mp3tag in order to rename my files to [track #] - [artist] - [album] - [title].mp3. It's all a matter of preference, but that is mine. TheGrimme (talk) 16:48, 12 July 2011 (UTC)[reply]

One difficulty is that the concept of "Artist / Album / Song" as a top-to-bottom hierarchy is really not well-suited to many types of music and audio. For example, much of my audio collection consists of files from independently produced creators who never released anything in the form of an "album." And as a personal preference, I have never liked the idea of "genre" to describe music or audio: are the Beatles rock or pop? There is never a good answer; "genre" seems like a poorly contrived effort by music marketing corporations who sought to segment the purchasers into demographics, rather than a sincere effort to categorize the audio according to any aesthetic or meaningful, technical metric. So, it's unsuitable to try to fit these tracks into a folder or database structure that expects a well-ordered, unique tree-structure ("genre > album > artist > ..."). Similarly, there is not a one-to-one mapping between artist and song: consider the case of remixes, cover-songs, group collaborations, and so forth. Consider, Tree (data structure) vs. Graph (data structure); it is my opinion that a collection of audio-tracks with associated metadata describing their style, creator, and so on, are much better described as a graph than as a tree.

After years of trying to make a sensible hierarchical ordering that could account for these various permutations, I have finally succumbed to the "giant directory full of unsorted tracks," and a directory database that intelligently scans audio tracks for metadata (usually, an ID3 tag) to allow rapid search. I have used WinAmp and iTunes, which are both available for free; I have also used Rhythmbox, which is free software. These software can all assist you in organizing your music and data files. Nimur (talk) 17:00, 12 July 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Trees are also graphs, I think, but only of a more restrictive kind. So, that would be graphs in general vs. a particular form of graphs. Wikiweek (talk) 22:57, 12 July 2011 (UTC)[reply]

I group them into my own roughly aligned Genres then it's just every song in that genre sorted by artist name (my key thing being that I personally would look for, say, Aimee Mann under 'M' not 'A' so I have to have them set as Mann, Aimee in my naming (well probably not but I do). ny156uk (talk) 17:44, 12 July 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Math for hardware vs. math for software

Is there math for hardware and math for software in a degree program of computer science? I suppose some things, like Calculus, might be common in both cases, but I also suppose some topics and subfields are specific for hardware or software. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Wikiweek (talk • contribs) 22:18, 12 July 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Output of Image

(I have been bold and assumed this is a separate question. Please correct me if I'm wrong. I have also added a title (In which I could be wrong). Thank you, General Rommel (talk) 00:00, 13 July 2011 (UTC))[reply]

Hi I was wondering how the 5th line is true in picture shown on the page http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Combinational_logic.

i.e T F F output is T. doesnt the product of the T x F x F a false?

Chaituchill (talk) 23:44, 12 July 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Yikes, that section is about as badly written as it could be. The point of the example is that it is possible to represent any truth table using that technique. In other words, each "Result" in the truth table could be T or F, independently of the other "result"s -- you get a formula that produces that pattern of T's and F's by oring together all of the and-expressions whose results are T. Looie496 (talk) 06:22, 13 July 2011 (UTC)[reply]

July 13

5,000 BTU air conditioner in a ~150 sq. ft. room

I have the unit on max but the room doesn't get near freezing. Is this normal or is this like-new unit not very good? I do have the door open and the next room, whose air doesn't mix much with that in the rest of the house, is not air conditioned, but still... Imagine Reason (talk) 00:13, 13 July 2011 (UTC)[reply]

I can't give you a full answer (so hopefully someone else can), but you definitely need to have the door closed (as well as any windows). When you have it open all the cool air will literally seep out and mix (and then become warm) which severely dampens the results. Close the door and run it flat out for about 20 minutes, you'll probably feel the difference then, especially if you then leave the room. Of course it will depend on what the temperature of the room/outside temperature is as well as the actual dimensions of the room (ceiling height etc) so if you can give better dimensions (rather than just total square foot) I know that'll help the next person out who might be able to give a better answer. ZX81 ^talk 01:01, 13 July 2011 (UTC)[reply]

You pretty much need to close the door for this sort of thing to work. Air masses of different temperatures will mingle a lot more than you think.

In addition to closing the door, make sure you don't have any ventilation ducts that are blowing in air from the rest of the house.

Is it a window unit? Or an upright? 5,000BTU should be fine for a 150sq ft room (With the door shut!) if it's a window unit. It's kind of borderline for an upright unit. (I'm not sure why the upright units are so much less effective.)

Finally, make sure you've got the thermostat on the A/C set properly. Most of them will shut themselves off (or switch to fan-only) mode long before the room gets literally freezing. But it should be possible to get it down into the 60s or perhaps even 50s. APL (talk) 03:53, 13 July 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Unless you have very well insulated walls, ceiling, floor, doors and windows, a unit of this rating will not be sufficient to get the temperature down to near freezing in summer, but it should reduce the temperature to perhaps 20 or 30 degrees below the surroundings if doors, windows and other ventilation inlets are all closed. Dbfirs

Even a like-new unit should have a plate on it giving the specs (or you could try downloading the spec sheet from the company website). That should state its minimum temperature, which is likely to be no lower than about 60 F. Why do you want it lower than 72 F are you opening a morgue? If its a free standing one with an exhaust pipe, then you do need a little ventilation with the out-side to replenish that being pumped out.Also, close the binds or curtains as an amazing amount of radiated heat can come through the windows.--Aspro (talk) 08:26, 13 July 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Domestic air conditioners usually have a hot air exhaust - it is where the heat that was in the room is dumped. Of course, that hot air needs to be dumped outside the room you are trying to cool. If not, you are just moving the heat around the same room and using up electricity. Astronaut (talk) 15:20, 13 July 2011 (UTC)[reply]

How to use Queue with multiprocessing in python

I'm trying to use a queue with the multiprocessing library in Python. After executing the code below (the print statements work), but the processes do not quit after I call join on the Queue and there are still alive. How can I terminate the remaining processes?

Thanks!

def MultiprocessTest(self):
  print "Starting multiprocess."
  print "Number of CPUs",multiprocessing.cpu_count()

  num_procs = 4
  def do_work(message):
    print "work",message ,"completed"

  def worker():
    while True:
      item = q.get()
      do_work(item)
      q.task_done()

  q = multiprocessing.JoinableQueue()
  for i in range(num_procs):
    p = multiprocessing.Process(target=worker)
    p.daemon = True
    p.start()

  source = ['hi','there','how','are','you','doing']
  for item in source:
    q.put(item)
  print "q close"
  q.join()
  #q.close()
  print "Finished everything...."
  print "num active children:",multiprocessing.active_children()

— Preceding unsigned comment added by Legolas52 (talk • contribs) 04:34, 13 July 2011 (UTC)[reply]

The remaining processes aren't terminating because you aren't terminating them. joining on the queue only waits until the queue is empty; it doesn't do anything to the workers. So the simplest modification to what you have is to keep a list of the workers as you create them, and once the queue join is done you call each worker's terminate() method. Note that immediately after calling their terminate method those children will still show up in the process table (and thus in .active_children()) because the daemons' ordered closedown happens asynchronously. Much of this is simplified if you use multiprocess.Pool, which allows you to create and terminate workers (and manages work for them) and itself keeps track of the workers. -- Finlay McWalter ☻ Talk 11:55, 13 July 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Blog for selling toys?

hi Iam miki. I am intrested in making toys. And i have blog. Now i want to sale toys through my blog. But I don't know how to integrate gateway for ordering and payment. Help to add an interface to take orders and payment on blog (blogger). — Preceding unsigned comment added by 117.214.21.232 (talk) 09:19, 13 July 2011 (UTC)[reply]

You can integrate Google Checkout (Google's shopping platform for merchants) with Blogger; in your case you'd set up the items in Google Checkout and then add a "buy now" button (see this Google explanation) which sends visitors off to the Checkout pages. -- Finlay McWalter ☻ Talk 12:00, 13 July 2011 (UTC)[reply]

You might look at Etsy if you're not already familiar with it. Depending on the kind of toy you're making, it might be useful for you. APL (talk) 18:24, 13 July 2011 (UTC)[reply]

'Bad Mac Read' SSL Error

Resolved

– Sorted!

Since I put ZoneAlarm's free firewall on my system, I have been getting dialogue boxes saying:

An error occurred during a connection to [gmail]. SSL received a record with an incorrect Message Authentication Code. (Error code: ssl_error_bad_mac_read)

I get them primarily when trying to check my Gmail, whether using Firefox (i.e. in the browser) or Thunderbird (my email client). I have tried this with ZoneAlarm on, and ZoneAlarm off, and I still get the dialogues - every couple of minutes. Uninstalling ZoneAlarm is a project in itself, so before I do that, is there any way I can stop these messages (i.e. fix this ssl error) in the meantime? --KägeTorä - (影虎) (TALK) 10:38, 13 July 2011 (UTC)[reply]

EDIT - It also happens with Google Chrome, so this is not a Firefox/Thunderbird problem. --KägeTorä - (影虎) (TALK) 11:02, 13 July 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Not that it is necessary to ask, but how did you solve it? General Rommel (talk) 11:35, 13 July 2011 (UTC)[reply]

I used RevoUninstaller to uninstall ZoneAlarm Free, and it worked without a hitch. After a restart, and a cmd console screen for five minutes (cleaning.....), everything was fine. Wi-fi card still works, no ssl errors, nothing. --KägeTorä - (影虎) (TALK) 11:42, 13 July 2011 (UTC)[reply]

how do people make web comics?

how do most large web comic authors produce their web comics? (I mean what software and hardware). I'm asking about the actual status quo. Of course, I could just scan something in from paper, and perhaps that's how they do it? Thanks. 188.28.227.240 (talk) 11:16, 13 July 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Adobe Illustrator is pretty good for producing comic-book style images, as are GIMP and Photoshop, and numerous other drawing softwares, such as Autodesk Sketchbook Pro. --KägeTorä - (影虎) (TALK) 11:39, 13 July 2011 (UTC)[reply]

For more information, see Digital illustration and List of vector graphics editors. --KägeTorä - (影虎) (TALK) 11:45, 13 July 2011 (UTC)[reply]

A good deal of them these days use graphics tablets for the actual drawing. I've no idea whether that is status quo or not. I also know that a number of them draw them by hand (like old-fashioned, non-web comics) and then use the computer primarily for inking. --Mr.98 (talk) 14:09, 13 July 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Just about any way you can think of! I'd point you to the book How To Make Webcomics, but that spends only about a chapter on actually making the comics, and the rest about the non-artistic sides of operating a website and business.

Here is a video showing how Jeph Jacques draws Questionable Content. He works almost all digital.

And here is a video (Accelerated and narrated) showing how Dave Kellet draws Sheldon (webcomic). He does things entirely the old fashioned way.

Both of these artists are popular enough to make a living with their comics. APL (talk) 18:32, 13 July 2011 (UTC)[reply]

URL bar

Using windows xp and firefox. The URL bar should be showing en.wikipedia.org/refdesk... but it shows google.com/http://www.facebook.com. How come? How can I fix it? Kittybrewster ☎ 11:42, 13 July 2011 (UTC)[reply]

CTRL+F5? Or CTRL+L, followed by CTRL+Z as needed? ¦ Reisio (talk) 14:13, 13 July 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Perhaps you are stuck inside a frame? Though, the URL you supplied isn't even a valid URL. Are you sure it isn't the bookmark bar you are seeing? You can hit Ctrl + L to go to the Location Bar (as Mozilla calls it). If you type in a website and hit enter does it still say google/facebook.com ? TheGrimme (talk) 14:20, 13 July 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Unreadable external harddrive; missing driver?

Hi, I am currently using an Acer Aspire netbook (can't remember the exact model) with Windows XP SP3. After 3 years of working pretty well, my Trekstor 500gb external hard drive (after looking around the web I think it is a Datastation Maxi G U) decided to go kaput; it will not read, even though the power is on and the light is showing blue. I've tried connecting it both to my own laptop and another (Toshiba something or other running Windows 7 Starter); on my laptop, it is reading as a Sunplus USB2Sata bridge which it most definitely is not, while on the Toshiba it doesn't appear in My Computer at all. On both laptops it is showing "0kb of 0kb remaining", and the other gives an extra message along the lines of No Media Detected. I am currently far, far, far away from where I purchased the drive (15,000 kilometres (9,300 mi) or so) and don't quite trust the local repair shops. Is there a way for me to recover the 300gb or so of data I have on the drive? Would downloading the correct driver help? Where could I download the driver? The manufacturer's website does not have it for download. Crisco 1492 (talk) 17:19, 13 July 2011 (UTC)[reply]

You don't need a driver for a USB mass storage device on Windows XP (or anything else that's not ancient); it comes with one. What persuades you that the Trekstor enclosure definately isn't a Sunplus USB2Sata bridge - that's just the kind of thing you would expect such an enclosure to show up as. Some Google searching suggests that many Trekstor mass-storage devices use Sunplus bridges. Most likely either the drive is bad or the enclosure is bad (or maybe just the connection in the enclosure between the bridge and the drive has become loose). The thing to do is to open the enclosure and extract the SATA disk within, and plug that directly into the SATA interface of a desktop PC. If the disk is okay you'll be able to read the data off that way; if the disk has died then you won't. -- Finlay McWalter ☻ Talk 17:39, 13 July 2011 (UTC)[reply]

So no matter what I have to see if the "experts" won't botch it and then still charge an arm and a leg? Joy... Hopefully it's only the connection; I don't want to lose some (most, actually) of that data. I guess I'll just put it off until I have the money. Thanks. Crisco 1492 (talk) 17:43, 13 July 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Probably. You could try opening the enclosure yourself (with the power off, obviously) and re-seating the sata and power connectors to the drive. I doubt it's that, but you never know. -- Finlay McWalter ☻ Talk 17:53, 13 July 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks for the idea, but I have very uncoordinated fingers. Thanks for all the help. Crisco 1492 (talk) 23:45, 13 July 2011 (UTC)[reply]

called phone, heard dialup sound

i called a phone number and after a few rings i heard the old dialup sound. does this mean the guy was connceted to the internet by dialup? — Preceding unsigned comment added by Earthumeets9 (talk • contribs) 22:07, 13 July 2011 (UTC)[reply]

You called a fax machine. -- Finlay McWalter ☻ Talk 22:09, 13 July 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Alternatives to connecting to a router which is too far away

What can be done if my router is too far away? Besides that putting my computer nearer it (which is possible, but not what I want), which options do I have to strengthen the signal? 88.9.104.139 (talk) 22:11, 13 July 2011 (UTC)[reply]

You can use a wireless repeater, which means it receives the signal and retransmit it to other points in case if the router is too far away. You can look here and here for more information about repeating and wireless repeater. I hope I answered your question. -- Luke ^Talk 22:20, 13 July 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks for the prompt answer. And can I also attach an antenna to my computer to broaden its range? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 88.9.104.139 (talk) 22:24, 13 July 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Yes, you can use an antenna. A cantenna can be used to broaden your WiFi range. However, it can also pick up other networks in the vicinity. -- Luke ^Talk 22:27, 13 July 2011 (UTC)[reply]

I don't know the name for it (I'm sure someone else will), but you can also get a device which uses your power sockets. Its a pair of devices, one plugs into a power socket near your router attached to by an ethernet to the router, and another plugs into a power socket near your computer and cables into that, and the devices have power plug in them too so you don't need extra sockets--Jac16888 ^Talk 22:30, 13 July 2011 (UTC)[reply]

July 14

sprint and text/sms costs?

Hey, im using http://www.textem.net/ to communicate with a friend. They have sprint. according to one of the responses here http://sms411.net/2006/07/sprint-sms/ sprint has really bad service switching from email to phone, which i THINK textem uses... maybe they somehow send a message directly? not sure.

Anyway, i'm having big issues with my messages not going through, and also with not getting messages from my friend. I dont know if its the site or sprint or both.

If i text them using email (######@messaging.sprintpcs.com) will i get better service? will it cost them where textem doesnt?

I just want to find a way to text RELIABLY for free, hopefully not costing my friend either. Is this possible? Opinions and any pertinent info please!

Thank you very much! 172.163.26.218 (talk) 02:56, 14 July 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Macbook hardware diagnostics (memtest, disk drive)

I am trying to help a friend who has a Macbook Pro with an Intel processor. I'm trying to install Mac OS X Snow Leopard, but it hangs in the middle of the install.

If this were a PC I would load up Ultimate Boot CD for Windows and run memtest86 and a hard drive test, but I obviously can't do that on a Mac.

During the install, I have tried to erase and reformat the hard drive, that does not help. I have run the verify and repair tools on the hard drive, that doesn't help either (they both 'pass').

Q: How can I diagnose problems with either the memory or disk drive on a Mac, if I can't boot into the operating system?

Thanks, TheGrimme (talk) 03:47, 14 July 2011 (UTC)[reply]

How do I forcibly move some stubborn Android apps onto the SD card?

On my Sony Ericsson Xperia Play, I only have 380 MB of internal memory. I remember when 380 MB was a LOT (alas, that was in 3rd grade.) However, I have gigs on my SD card.

The only problem is, some apps won't let me move them to SD cards and I'm running out of room. Therefore,

How do I forcibly get those said apps onto the SD card anyway?
How do I swap out the internal 380MB card for a bigger one, and transfer all the internal data to the bigger one?
Being low on internal space, will new apps download directly to the SD if they're eligible for it? (Or do I have to manually change something to let that happen?)
On the Android market, how do I tell whether the apps are eligible for the SD card?
Is there an app that removes the stubbornness of those apps that normally won't let me move them to the SD card, by way of somehow changing that particular permission?

Having hoarded hundreds of fine apps, now would be a great time for epic assistance. --70.179.165.67 (talk) 03:54, 14 July 2011 (UTC)[reply]