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August 25

NLB Browsers in Windows 7

Hey, I have access to several internet connections on my desktop computer and i have long been wanting to buy a few NICs and increase my bandwidth. Now I know Windows 7 will automatically load balance but i believe individual applications will still send all of their traffic through only one connection. That would still be nice for parallel downloads etc. but I'm more interested in increasing my download speed for just normal web browsing, does anybody know if its possible to load balance the traffic from a browser across multiple NICs, or do any of the browsers support load balancing natively? I know most applications will just automatically go through the default gateway. I know its possible go merge NICs into one virtual NIC with a single IP address but the way my network is configured they must each have their own unique IP (our bandwidth is shaped per IP address). Cheers Benjamint 03:39, 25 August 2011 (UTC)[reply]

What happens to files and programs when you install linux over windows?

My Vista PC has completely died whilst "updating" itself - I want to install ubuntu instead, hoping that I can retrieve my files. I've created a USB drive with ubuntu on it - if I choose to install it, what will happen to all my files and will installed programs still function? Also, to boot from the USB - do I just put it in a pot and then boot the computer? SmartSE (talk) 09:36, 25 August 2011 (UTC)[reply]

At first you should be able to boot into the Ubuntu installation on your USB drive. You may have to enter your computer's BIOS to enable booting from USB, though, and making a USB installation bootable can also be tricky, I believe. In the worst case you may have to boot from a CD ROM and chain boot into the USB drive.

Up to that point (running Ubuntu from the USB drive), you can still get back and nothing will have been deleted. You can use Ubuntu to make a copy of all your files on the Windows partition. Maybe put them on another USB drive, or an external hard disk. Or burn them to a DVD. (In that case consider doing it several times to avoid data loss when a disk goes bad.)

Once you instruct Ubuntu to install the operating system to the hard disk, you will lose your entire Windows installation, including all your files. An exception would be in case there is more than one partition on your hard disk (typically C: and D: under Windows, where D: is often empty or just contains the vendor's recovery files), and so you have an empty partition there that is big enough for a Linux installation that does not overwrite the main Windows partition. Hans Adler 09:53, 25 August 2011 (UTC)[reply]

You can use ntfsresize to resize the Windows partition to make room for an Ubuntu partition. How much room this will leave you to install Ubuntu is variable; depends partly but not only on how full the Windows partition was in the first place.

There is no warranty on this and you have to realize that data loss is a possibility, especially if the partition was already corrupted. However I have used it successfully (on an uncorrupted drive). --Trovatore (talk) 09:59, 25 August 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks for the quick replies. Managed to get it booted up in Ubuntu and get to my files :) Think my days as a windows user are up! SmartSE (talk) 12:05, 25 August 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Good luck! But before you do anything drastic, I recommend verifying that all your crucial hardware works. Some may need a bit of research, and very occasionally something is still not supported at all. Hans Adler 12:11, 25 August 2011 (UTC)[reply]

On the other hand, the support community for Linux is very broad, and there is a lot of help out there if you run into trouble (forums for example). Just make sure, before installing, that you don't lose (too m)any of your important data files, so as not to sour the first steps in Linux though :) and good luck! --Ouro (blah blah) 13:18, 25 August 2011 (UTC)[reply]

I'm confused. The page you linked explains how to fix the update-of-death problem, making the system bootable again without a new OS install. The solution involves booting a Knoppix or Ubuntu live CD, but an Ubuntu live USB drive would work too, as would a Windows Vista install CD. If you can open a command prompt (Shift+F10 from Vista install) and have the ability to rename files on your boot volume, you're set. If you really want to install a second OS, or change operating systems, then go for it, but you don't need to. I guess I'm too late... -- BenRG (talk) 19:40, 25 August 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Sometimes people take an event as just a little nudge. It's a good thing. --Trovatore (talk) 20:09, 25 August 2011 (UTC)[reply]

If he switched to Ubuntu sight unseen because of one bug in Vista's automatic update, he's not going to be very happy. Humans have a tendency to vote the bums out when things are bad without looking at the bums they're voting in, and that's not a good thing at all. I'll just assume he had been thinking about installing Ubuntu for a while, and chose this moment to do it. -- BenRG (talk) 20:45, 25 August 2011 (UTC)[reply]

There are many paths unto enlightenment, young grasshopper. Next stop, doing everything from the command line, and all documents in LaTeX. --Trovatore (talk) 20:56, 25 August 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Windows Media Player 11 - Resizing

How is it possible to resize Windows Media Player 11, and have it be that size next time I play a video, regardless of the actual size of the video? I make a lot of gameplay videos, and of course they are the same size as my screen. When I watch them myself in WMP11, the window is nearly full screen, even if I resize it to YouTube size, which I do, and have to do, every time. Is there a way to make it stay at the size I resized it to? --KägeTorä - (影虎) (TALK) 12:31, 25 August 2011 (UTC)[reply]

this may or may not be desirable to you, but i could write a program that quick detects if the program is open, and if it is it will resize it to your desired "default" and then close... I offer this just in case there is no way to do it naturally (eg, having windows remember the size)

216.173.144.164 (talk) 20:26, 25 August 2011 (UTC)[reply]

How involved was Steve Jobs in technical design/architecture?

Was he known to have any knowledge or provide any direction on nitty-gritty things at the electronics level in the hardware domain or at the actual coding level in the software domain? 20.137.18.50 (talk) 12:45, 25 August 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Off-topic discussion about spamdexing

The following discussion has been closed. Please do not modify it.

See http://www.askstevejobs.com/.

—Wavelength (talk) 14:28, 25 August 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Wavelength, posting links to random spam websites does not really contribute to an answer to this question. The website you linked is not a reliable source.

You can read Steve's official biography at the Apple Public Relations website. Nimur (talk) 14:38, 25 August 2011 (UTC)[reply]

How is that a spam website? How is Steve Jobs not a reliable source of information about Steve Jobs? Does his official biography have more than three paragraphs?

—Wavelength (talk) 16:28, 25 August 2011 (UTC)[reply]

How can we be sure that's not a complete stranger who got incredibly lucky securing that domain name? 20.137.18.50 (talk) 16:32, 25 August 2011 (UTC)[reply]

The website you linked appears to be an email-harvesting machine. Nimur (talk) 16:31, 25 August 2011 (UTC)[reply]

The title bar of http://www.askstevejobs.com/ contains the expression "Alex Mandossian - Access To Leaders Presents". My Google search for that expression found many similar websites. (Alex Mandossian has his own blog at http://www.alexmandossian.com/.) If he is only pretending to host questions by e-mail on those websites, then he is damaging his own reputation. If someone else is doing so and using Alex Mandossian's name, then Alex Mandossian should know about it and do something about it.

—Wavelength (talk) 17:58, 25 August 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Have you looked at those websites? "Make Money Online!" "Ask Steve Jobs!" ... The relevant article for this tactic is Spamdexing. A junk web-developer creates a site stuffed with popular search phrases, and uses it to direct traffic to advertisers, or to harvest emails for use in spam, or to gain data for use in phishing attacks. This garbage flies on the internet, but on Wikipedia, we have a very stringent set of rules: WP:BLP. If you are not 100.0% certain that the material you cite about a living person is correct, reliable, accurate, ... do not post it. Nimur (talk) 18:09, 25 August 2011 (UTC)[reply]

I am sure that in terms of up-to-date technical knowledge the answer is "almost none". Jobs is a strategist and marketeer. When you possess a reality distortion field you tend not to worry about details at the "how the **** are we supposed to do that ?" level. Gandalf61 (talk) 15:24, 25 August 2011 (UTC)[reply]

If I remember Accidental Empires correctly, Jobs did a variety of technical tasks in Apple's early garage times, including stuffing circuit boards and writing assembly and basic software. But he hasn't done a technical job per-se since the Apple II project. But that doesn't at all mean it's not interested in, knowledgeable about, and often vexingly opinionated about, all kinds of technical subjects. Engineers at Apple tell (horror) stories where Jobs notices their little area, wherein he insists that the device be thinner, the boot time shorter, the number of ventilation holes drilled be fewer, the plastic a subtly different colour, and so forth. So while he couldn't do a given engineer's job, he knew (and crucially, cared) enough to have an intelligent conversation with that engineer on that subject, and to be able to insist on things the engineers were reluctant to do. Few senior managers in technical companies have such a willingness to wade in the technology with that width and depth, but Jobs isn't unique in that. Where he is remarkable is that "marketing" word. Many people (including, depressingly, all too many people whose job it nominally is) mistake "marketing" for "advertising" or "pre-sales". Really it's figuring out what can be made, what people want (or will want), how to make it and sell it to them, and how to sustainably make money doing so. The Napoleonic grasp of the whole business, and the similarly Napoleonic ego, it takes to bind all the wobbly warring bits of a company together to make this all work, that's Jobs' genius. So he's not a salesman, or a marketer, or a finance guy, or a technician: he's some wonderful, terrible chimera of them all. Apres Steve le deluge. -- Finlay McWalter ☻ Talk 17:06, 25 August 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Nice word 'chimera' LOL! Mr. Jobs been one of the world's foremost computer pioneers. Forget everything he did in terms of pioneering font and Macintosh GUI design thirty years ago... what has impressed me most is that he has kept up to date against the new age pioneers (e.g. google and facebook), taken them all on, and transformed Apple into the world's most profitable company. Astounding when you see <ahem> Microsoft struggling in the online space against the newcomers. You cannot be this sort of pioneer without having technical knowledge of your product. Now a certain Mr. Ellison of Oracle (the world's real Tony Stark) has many parallels with Mr. Jobs. He too is a slave-driver and expects a great deal out of his staff and more so his management. They are both chimeras (lol) of sorts and Uncle Larry as we call him in oracle circles has a vast technical knowledge in addition to his marketing genius. I totally agree with Finlay in that these gentlemen cannot have indepth engineer-type knowledge of every product (that is why they hire very clever people to do that) but they DO have an encompassing knowledge of their entire product line and do have the last say when new products are released. They also frequently demand new products from their employees and often make the time for innovative design. I think it was Jobs who said that innovation requires a lot of work and preparation! You can't go 'eureka' and expect someone else to be on your wavelength, even if he's technical. Sandman30s (talk) 12:03, 26 August 2011 (UTC)[reply]

I'm not aware of a single thing Steve Jobs invented himself. Most of the inventions were either taken from other companies (e.g., the Mac GUI, which he got from Xerox) or from employees (e.g., Jonathan Ive, who designed the iPod, iPad, and iPhone). His talent, I think, was in recognizing the value in ideas of others and then marketing the product in an appealing way to consumers.—Best Dog Ever (talk) 00:39, 27 August 2011 (UTC)[reply]

school lab a little lost

learn how to configure a serial attached SCSI device.I need to research host adapters,SAS Backplanes,Cables, and Hard drives.

i need to know what bus and motherboard to support a 5x150= 750 MB
why i chose that bus,dose mother board have enough bandwith to support amount of hard drives (5x150)
what type of cables did i use?
what are some advantages of backplane vs enclosure
why do SAS hard drives have less capacity
dose my host adapter support raid
concidering the above parts how much storage cost is it comparable to pre-config NAS configs?

i am looking for help for this project not give info

1st time question asker — Preceding unsigned comment added by Ssrs68 (talk • contribs) 19:08, 25 August 2011 (UTC)[reply]

I've formatted your question to be a little more readable. Why don't you start by taking a look at motherboards on a major commercial vendor website, like Newegg? I also have found this review website, Tom's Hardware, useful and objective. They have an entire section on motherboards, including comparisons and review articles. Nimur (talk) 21:15, 25 August 2011 (UTC)[reply]

I'm not used to new windows installs (formatting etc)

Resolved

Hi, I had my computer goof up majorly recently, the sort of problem that causes it to blue screen indefinitely and fail to load windows. I just recently fixed it and installed a new version of windows....

The problem is I'm used to (perhaps VERY) old style windows installs; i seem to recall the installer reformatting the drive, resulting in an erase of all files on that drive. Windows didn't do that. Instead, i get a neat "windows.old" file, and all my other files still intact.

I sort of want the format, because then i start TOTALLY clean. Should i do it? is it the right way to go? I guess I'm just not used to all my old things being there still. I backed up what i need already and i just feel awkward trying to make this decision, when it used to not be a choice.

Any thoughts please? 216.173.144.164 (talk) 19:16, 25 August 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Formatting a hard-disk and installing an operating system are two separate steps, conceptually. Strictly speaking, you can do either one, or both. If you intend to do both, and need instructions, you might want to look here: the official help-guide from Microsoft, Installing Windows 7. The section Using the Custom installation option and formatting the hard disk will provide you step-by-step instructions for a "clean" install. Nimur (talk) 21:20, 25 August 2011 (UTC)[reply]

The install CD seems not to have a custom setting.... should i try formatting using 3rd party software? lol

216.173.144.164 (talk) 21:35, 25 August 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Phone calculator

I noticed that the highest number my phone's calculator can manipulate is 999,999,999,999,999.93749. Is there any significance to the decimal portion of this number? 209.147.141.95 (talk) 21:47, 25 August 2011 (UTC)[reply]

It's very close to the value of 15/16, suggesting that the computer uses 4 bits for the fractional part in a fixed-point arithmetic scheme, but uses some other algorithm (e.g., conversion to binary coded decimal or some other intermediate representation) for computing or rendering the value in decimal. It's very difficult to know for certain, unless you can provide more information about the type of computer and/or software in your cell phone. This sort of thing could be determined by hardware, or software, or a combination of both. Nimur (talk) 21:55, 25 August 2011 (UTC)[reply]

August 26

A little help please with new windows install/getting my hardware to work?

I have a Gateway LX6810-01 http://support.gateway.com/s/PC/LX/LX6810/LX6810sp3.shtml

i just installed windows 7 and started installing drivers from here: http://support.gateway.com/us/en/product/default.aspx?tab=1

...but its so confusing.... which ones do i get? So far ive installed....

The top (NVIDIA) audio driver... The bottom chipset driver... and i think the middle VGA driver

on that page.... Do i need any of the others, like the chipset driver that says its for "MCP7A" ?

Also, i have a 15 in one card reader that used to show up in "My computer" as 4 or 5 different devices, how do i get those to show again? Additionally i have a tv tuner and an infrared remote im wondering about as well.

I know its alot of items, but if anyone has knowledge on any of these hardware devices id very much appreciate it. Thanks!

216.173.144.164 (talk) 01:27, 26 August 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Did you try installing the detection utility from support page? Kushal (talk) 19:30, 31 August 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Missing audio channel?

Hello. I am listening to Pandora Radio and it seems that I am getting only one channel of stereo audio from the site. Sound is coming from both of my speakers, and my audio control is set to the middle, yet I only hear one channel of the music. There is also a bit of "echo" coming from Pandora (but not from any other site). Is there a setting somewhere that I've missed? — Michael J 04:49, 26 August 2011 (UTC)[reply]

extracting 3d coordiantes from 2d images of face

Is there a way that one can merge two or three 2d images of the same object (from different angles) to create its 3d model? Suppose i have a few samples of a face from a face database then i want to make its 3d model, the objective is to get the 3d coordinates of different points on the face. Can this be done or is there any alternative way to get the 3d coordinates?--tathagata 17:26, 26 August 2011 (UTC) — Preceding unsigned comment added by Nonstop funstop (talk • contribs)

Yes, it can be done, and fairly easily with a frontal shot and a profile. Of course, this will only give you half the face, since one profile only shows half the face. You could then either mirror that half of the face to get the other side (which would only be an approximation, since faces aren't completely symmetrical), or use another profile shot to get the other side. The 3D reconstruction could also be done using different angles, but would be more complex and the results less accurate. In any case, the trickiest bit is mapping each point from one pic to the other, say the tip of the nose, corners of the mouth and eyes, etc. StuRat (talk) 17:32, 26 August 2011 (UTC)[reply]

As far as alternative methods, I suppose you could take a single frontal shot, and project it onto a "standard face". You'd need to pick a standard face from a library based on the face outline, eye position and size, mouth position and size, etc. The height of the nose, etc., might not be quite right, though. Note that facial hair would be most difficult to map using this method, but would also be a problem with any method. StuRat (talk) 17:40, 26 August 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Some research paper links: Generation of a 3-D Face Model from One Camera; Stereo photogrammetry for generating and matching facial models. We also have an article on photogrammetry. You might also want to look at geometric modeling. There are numerous ways to represent faces: feature-models; point clouds; polygon meshes; eigenface or generalized geometric basis coefficients; and so on. What are you looking for? Nimur (talk) 18:12, 26 August 2011 (UTC)[reply]

i think the problem is solved. i have exported .stl files using geomagic studios (from the wrl files in the database) and this is easily accessible through matlab. thanks anyway for your suggestions...--tathagata 18:27, 27 August 2011 (UTC) — Preceding unsigned comment added by Nonstop funstop (talk • contribs)

August 27

Reading PDFs that have columns

(I searched the Archives for this topic and got 100s of hits. I hope someone can point me to an answer.)

Reading a two column PDF document with Foxit Reader is very fiddly. Scroll down left col, move up to top of page, move to right side of page, scroll down right col, jump to next page, jump to left side, continue over & over & over. (I can view two column widths but the font size is too small for comfortable reading.)

The mechanics of moving the view area are a major distraction from the actual reading. I have done this many times but it struck me today that there must be a program for reading PDFs that would not require moving between left and right columns.

Is there such a program? Or is there a better way of using the program I am using?

Thanks, Wanderer57 (talk) 00:25, 27 August 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Preview, on the Mac, with a Magic Trackpad, is very convenient. Just slide your hands around, and the PDF display similarly slides around.

On iPad, you can double-tap to zoom in to content areas. When you are done reading, just unzoom to see the full document.

If you're committed to reformatting your document, PDF is not really the best file format; reflowable documents like a Microsoft Word document or an HTML file allow the layout-engine to dynamically reflow text. PDFs are intended to deny you this capability, because they are supposed to mimic paper-printouts. Nimur (talk) 03:33, 27 August 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Thank you. Just to clarify, PDF is not my "choice" but it is okay for reading single column PDF documents.

I just tried something which seemed to come close to doing what I would like to have happen. I selected a block of text (which can be the whole document),and pasted it into Microsoft Word. The text appears in single column format (good) but each line in the initial text is treated as a separate paragraph (bad) and all spaces between words are lost (very bad).

I wonder about the value of a copy/paste function that loses the separation between words. Maybe from the POV of the developer this is a feature rather than a flaw? Wanderer57 (talk) 12:54, 27 August 2011 (UTC)[reply]

It has to do with how PDFs store text. They don't store it as coherent text flows the way that word processors do; they see them more as masses of characters. It's part of the prioritization of making sure everything looks identical on every computer system. It's one of the down sides of using PDFs in this way. --Mr.98 (talk) 13:16, 27 August 2011 (UTC)[reply]

In Adobe Reader, you can use View → Zoom → Reflow to reformat multiple columns into one column. It works with plain column layouts, but has more difficulty with complex layouts. Perhaps Foxit Reader also has a Reflow command? --Bavi H (talk) 14:35, 27 August 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks. I tried the Adobe Reader Reflow. It works. However when the font size is enlarged, the letters crowd together, giving the same result as in Word. Wanderer57 (talk) 18:46, 27 August 2011 (UTC)[reply]

There's also the hand tool, which allows you grab the page and pull it around, and is a lot more convenient than clicking scroll buttons. (Too obvious?) ... and the page up button on the keyboard, for getting back to the top of the page when you reach the foot of a column. Card Zero (talk) 13:35, 28 August 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Secret Facebook Group

I have created a secret Facebook group for communication between members of a teenage youth organisation of around 20 members. I would love to somehow publish the organisation's future program of events there. Anyone know how to do that? (I know how to add single events, but with a program of, say, 20 special activities over the next 12 months, that would get very clumsy.) So, any ideas please? HiLo48 (talk) 03:38, 27 August 2011 (UTC)[reply]

You could list them in a "Doc" (document) on the right side of the page. — Michael J 03:40, 27 August 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Yeah, that's worth a try. Thanks. HiLo48 (talk) 04:15, 27 August 2011 (UTC)[reply]

(Handy hint from experience using Docs: If you want to leave a blank line between paragraphs, you have to type "space-return". Just hitting return will close up the double-space upon saving.) — Michael J 04:54, 27 August 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Are hex codes, CMYK, and RGB equivalent, or does one have greater color range than the rest?

Googling for this gets me lots of tools to convert back and forth, but no answer to my question. It's simple really - do hex codes, CMYK, and RGB colors on the computer describe the same range of color, or is one of those notations more comprehensive than the rest? The Masked Booby (talk) 10:10, 27 August 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Hex codes are just a way to describe RGB values. RGB can also be specified in decimal notation. You have three channels -- red, green, and blue -- and each usually has eight bits. Eight bits is eight zeros or ones. So, the maximum decimal value of each channel is 255 (or FF in hexadecimal). CMYK is usually described using percentages. You have 0 to 100% of each color.
An eight-bit per channel CMYK image will have more colors to work with than an eight-bit per channel RGB image. Why? Because CMYK has four channels, and RGB has only three.

—Best Dog Ever (talk) 10:32, 27 August 2011 (UTC)[reply]

When I put hex codes into InkScape it always adds an additional 2 characters for ... saturation? Not sure. That's what prompted me to ask...The Masked Booby (talk) 10:44, 27 August 2011 (UTC)[reply]

My recollection is that those extra two codes are for opacity (alpha). --Mr.98 (talk) 13:11, 27 August 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Not saturation, alpha value (transparency). An alpha of 255 (xff) is the full colour of that object; of 0 it's the full colour of whatever is underneath it; intermediate values between the two blend together. -- Finlay McWalter ☻ Talk 13:12, 27 August 2011 (UTC)[reply]

It's complicated. There are many different color standards called "RGB" and "CMYK". sRGB is the standard RGB color space of the web, modern video cards, and modern monitors. The six-digit hex codes like #89abcd identify sRGB colors; the colors you can represent with those hex codes are the same as the colors your video card can display in "24-bit color" (or "32-bit color") mode. I don't know much about CMYK (subtractive color), but I'm pretty sure most/all CMYK spaces can represent colors outside the sRGB gamut. However, your monitor can't reproduce those colors. You shouldn't necessarily trust any online conversion tools you might have found. I googled "rgb to cmyk" and the first two hits were [1][2]. These sites are worthless, made by people who have no idea what they're doing, and do not actually convert between real RGB and CMYK spaces. -- BenRG (talk) 10:36, 27 August 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Gamuts and accurate reproducible colour systems matter very much if you're designing for a medium where the final product will be reproduced with a reliable colour-accurate scheme (like magazine printing or rendering to film stock). But if you're designing for the small (domestic) screen, for a medium like TV or the web, where displays are poorly calibrated and quite divergent in their colour response, there's only so much effort that's worth putting into worrying about accurate colour imaging. Whenever a designer complains to me that object A should be "just a little more green" I drag it over to the other screen of my dual-monitor system (both are decent enough screens, but of a normal office/consumer grade) where she sees the same green isn't the same green at all. -- Finlay McWalter ☻ Talk 13:18, 27 August 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Also note that most TVs or monitors can have their color settings changed by the user, at the hardware level and/or with software settings. StuRat (talk) 17:57, 27 August 2011 (UTC)[reply]

We have a gamut article that explains this better than any RefDesk answer possibly could, I believe. Looie496 (talk) 17:05, 27 August 2011 (UTC)[reply]

What irc channel has the most people in it?

What irc channel has the most people in it? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 173.53.127.9 (talk) 14:15, 27 August 2011 (UTC)[reply]

It's been a while since I've 'irced' but I remember that mirc had a channel list function and you could sort that list by the number of people in each channel. Most popular channels vary from server to server. Sandman30s (talk) 08:19, 28 August 2011 (UTC)[reply]

My pro-Wikipedia bias wants me to say #wikipedia-en ^connect --

Σ talk contribs

08:21, 28 August 2011 (UTC)[reply]

That only has 150, #python has over 800 people and I've seen other channels go over 1,000 a few times. 82.43.90.90 (talk) 21:22, 28 August 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Why is idling in irc channels considered bad?

Why is idling in irc channels considered bad? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 173.53.127.9 (talk) 14:15, 27 August 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Is it? I do it all the time, and so do many of my friends.

Must be a social thing among certain groups of people. Where do you learn this? APL (talk) 21:33, 27 August 2011 (UTC)[reply]

It's called lurking. And no, I also don't think it's considered bad, depends on what channel I guess. Sometimes having lurkers in a channel can make the more active members feel like having a silent audience which can make them uncomfortable, or it may be that you were supposed to contribute to the discussions but aren't doing so, it may also be frustrating for some to see a full channel and no one talking, etc. Some channels might kick you out, but in my experience, it's perfectly fine. -- Obsidi♠n Soul 21:47, 27 August 2011 (UTC)[reply]

How to sync a Palm Tungsten E with a Dell Studio XPS with windows 7 ?

Can a Palm Tungsten E sync with Windows 7? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 24.102.168.98 (talk) 14:47, 27 August 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Maybe. --Ouro (blah blah) 11:44, 28 August 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Free PDF software

I'm looking for a free online PDF creator and this site is the first hit I got back from Google. On trying to download my computer warned me that files of this type can be harmful. So I'm just wondering if anyone has used this site and if it's safe to download. Cheers TheRetroGuy (talk) 14:51, 27 August 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Any executable files you get from the internet can be harmful. That isn't a very strong statement other than saying, "do a little investigation first." Googling for "PDF Creator" (the software in question) turns up a SourceForge project which includes reviews that are a pretty good way to tell you whether it's something you want or not. The reviews are pretty mixed — it seems like it installs some sort of adware or spyware as well. --Mr.98 (talk) 18:36, 27 August 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Cheers. Perhaps not such a good idea for me to install it then. I was hoping to get away without having to spend several hundred pounds on Adobe's version, but maybe that's the best thing to do. At least I won't get any unwanted spyware with that. I'll keep looking though before I make a final decision, but having said that, I'd be interested to hear from anyone who has installed a free PDF maker. If there is a reliable one around it would save me a bit of cash. TheRetroGuy (talk) 19:34, 27 August 2011 (UTC)[reply]

It's safe to install PDF Creator if you download it from SourceForge. It does have bundled adware, which you can (and obviously should) opt out of during the install. I wouldn't install it (or any software) from random single-page third-party sites like the one you linked, because people have been known to create custom installers for legitimate products that silently install malware at the same time (without giving you a chance to opt out). Legitimate sites are the ones with update logs, previous versions available for download, an active discussion forum, etc. Another way to find the legitimate site is to follow the link from the Wikipedia article. -- BenRG (talk) 20:12, 27 August 2011 (UTC)[reply]

CutePDF is probably worth a look. We use it at work (it's free for commercial use as well) and you simply "Print" to a PDF printer and it just works perfectly for what we want. ZX81 ^talk 19:48, 27 August 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks, I'll take a look at that. TheRetroGuy (talk) 19:56, 27 August 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Another point just to throw out there is that if you switch to LaTeX for document creation, making PDFs of the output is automatic. I won't kid you though; the buy-in is pretty big. The payoff is also big but only after a high learning burden. --Trovatore (talk) 19:57, 27 August 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Cheers. I basically need one to submit a manuscript as they want it in PDF format. Why they can't accept Word is beyond me. TheRetroGuy (talk) 20:01, 27 August 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Probably because Word creates an evil, non-documented, proprietary format. And because Word files from different versions are not always compatible with other Word versions. That said, your simplest option is probably to install OpenOffice/LibreOffice, which is as compatible with MS Word as other versions, and which allows you to export to PDF directly. --Stephan Schulz (talk) 20:05, 27 August 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Actually newer versions of Word used Office Open XML, which is open, documented, and only mildly malcontent. --Mr.98 (talk) 20:25, 27 August 2011 (UTC)[reply]

I don't think that's irrational. Word docs can look different on different machines (for example, if you don't have the same fontset installed, and possibly even just because you're using a different release of Word, though I don't know how far apart they'd have to be before you'd notice that). PDF is more reliably portable — if I understand correctly, the fonts are embedded in the document itself (not sure if that's always true?) and the pagination and margins are completely determined. Another nice thing, though more for you than for them, is that PDF is harder to modify, so unless someone works hard to mess with it, if they show you your document back you can be reasonably confident it's the same way you sent it to them. --Trovatore (talk) 20:07, 27 August 2011 (UTC)[reply]

ok, now have OpenOffice downloaded so will mess about with it for a while. I see from the File menu I can export a document in PDF format so hopefully it should give me what I need. Think I might also grab CutePDF. Thanks for all the help and suggestions. Cheers TheRetroGuy (talk) 21:53, 27 August 2011 (UTC)[reply]

I'm late to the party but I've also used CutePDF Writer and OpenOffice to create PDF files. I have Office 2010 on one machine here, and although they are also late to the party, Microsoft now supports writing PDF files in Office 2010. Comet Tuttle (talk) 16:07, 28 August 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Actually they did in 2007 as well. But it was removed by the default install due to a legal threat from Adobe so you had to download the PDF export seperately. It was added back in one of the service packs I believe. Nil Einne (talk) 17:21, 28 August 2011 (UTC)[reply]

I recommend PrimoPDF from personal experience. Rocketshiporion ♫ 22:05, 28 August 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Maximum RAM capacity for a Compaq presario CM2050 1456VQL1N laptop

I'm trying find out the maximum this computer's hardware allows. I'm tired of searching through forums and would appreciate some kind soul that would throw me a fish. Thanks. 69.243.220.115 (talk) 15:47, 27 August 2011 (UTC)[reply]

The best approach for questions like this is usually to connect the computer to www.crucial.com and run their online memory advisor -- it not only tells you the capacity, but what kind of memory will work for you. Other than that all I can say is good luck bwah hah hah hah. (You'll have trouble finding any that works for such an antiquated beast.) Looie496 (talk) 19:01, 27 August 2011 (UTC)[reply]

"Additional logon information required" error message Windows 7

I am using Windows 7 (Home Premium) on my laptop. When i connect it to the LAN with RJ 45 connector it shows the error message "Additional log on information may be required". When i open my browser it says "Update your browser" and does not open the site. This happens on all the browser and even though i have the latest versions of each. This problem goes away after waiting for a few minutes. Any ideas?Shraktu (talk) 15:49, 27 August 2011 (UTC)[reply]

To get a working internet connection, your computer has to connect (via your modem) to your Internet Service Provider, and be accepted as a valid client. That connection process is where the difficulty is occurring, but the solution to the problem may be specific to the internet provider you are using (which you haven't told us). Looie496 (talk) 18:47, 27 August 2011 (UTC)[reply]

It sounds like it might be trying to do a network login, where, instead of running things locally on your computer, it tries to load them over the network (then eventually gives up and does run them locally). So, if there's a way to turn that option off, I'd try that. StuRat (talk) 07:39, 28 August 2011 (UTC)[reply]

This sounds similar to some public WiFi networks that require you to log in before you can browse websites. If you connect to a network like this, any address you enter in your browser will take you to the log in page.

See Windows 7 Network Awareness. When you connect to a WiFi network (and I guess also when you plug in an Ethernet cable), Windows checks a specific Microsoft website as a test. If it doesn't get the expected response, it thinks you might be connected to a network that prompts you for a log in. That's why it shows the message "Additional log on information may be required."

In your case, it sounds like something is redirecting any website address you enter to a message asking you to update your browser. This redirection may be caused by your ISP or by your router. Or if you have manually configured DNS server addresses, it may be caused by your DNS provider. On the "Update your browser" page, look for any logos or company names. That might provide a clue who is doing the redirection. --Bavi H (talk) 18:06, 28 August 2011 (UTC)[reply]

I think you're referring to a captive portal. I had a ADSL router modem that had a captive portal that showed up when the modem was having problems logging on but also showed up when the modem had just been started and hadn't yet managed to log on, perhaps that's what the OP is referring to. Nil Einne (talk) 18:28, 28 August 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Resolved

Shraktu (talk) 04:42, 25 April 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Mozilla support forums - few messages since August 18

I read two Mozilla newsgroup support forums mozilla.support.thunderbird and mozilla.support.firefox. Up through August 18 there were several messages per day but only a trickle since then, and one of them was asking why there are no new messages. Has something changed about the Mozilla support newsgroups that would cause me to not get new messages? Bubba73 ^{You talkin' to me?} 21:06, 27 August 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Resolved

Bubba73 ^{You talkin' to me?} 02:12, 29 August 2011 (UTC)[reply]

select count vs. mysql_num_rows

I have been testing this and I want to ensure this isn't an anomaly on my box. I have a MySQL database table with about 2 million rows. I want to know how many records meet a certain criteria. I have two options. I can use a "select count(*)" query that returns the count -or- I can use a "select id from" query that selects all the ID's that match and use mysql_num_rows to count how many records the query matched. In my test, select count is much faster than mysql_num_rows. However, I've been told that they should be the same. Can anyone else verify if my results are correct or not? -- kainaw ™ 23:55, 27 August 2011 (UTC)[reply]

I've not done any testing of this, but I would personally expect select count to ALWAYS be faster. That way the server simply calculates the total rows, end of story. The other way it has to actually gather up all the data and generate a recordset for the client only then to be told to get the row count instead of looking at the actual data. The speed difference is going to be down to the amount of data and the speed of the hardware, but I can't see select count ever being slower. ZX81 ^talk 01:57, 28 August 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Agreed. StuRat (talk) 07:00, 28 August 2011 (UTC)[reply]

This page suggests that MySQL caches the row counts in tables, which is why count(*) is so fast. I don't know if that's true, but it would make sense if it was. --Mr.98 (talk) 02:09, 28 August 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks. -- kainaw ™ 11:57, 28 August 2011 (UTC)[reply]

August 28

New technology info

Can anyone suggest some good online resources for finding out about new technological advances, gadgetry, trends, etc etc? Dismas|^(talk) 01:19, 28 August 2011 (UTC)[reply]

I like the KurzweilAI daily/weekly newsletter. sample --Codell (talk) 01:57, 28 August 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Ars Technica is a pretty common tech news resource. --Mr.98 (talk) 02:11, 28 August 2011 (UTC)[reply]

TG Daily Sandman30s (talk) 08:16, 28 August 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks! Dismas|^(talk) 06:04, 29 August 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Stellarium

In Stellarium, how do I keep an astronomical object (specifically the Moon) to be always on the screen? 123.24.89.84 (talk) 06:00, 28 August 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Select the object you want to track – using the search window (F3) if necessary – and press space. You will then keep tracking that object, as long as you don't select anything else. Of course, you may need to turn off the ground and atmosphere (keyboard shortcuts G and A, respectively) to see it at all times. --Link ^(t•c•m) 10:25, 28 August 2011 (UTC)[reply]

NLB Browsers in Windows 7

Hey, I've got two internet connections to my pc, windows 7 automatically load balances between them but unfortunately there is only an improvement with concurrent downloads e.g gaming at the same time as downloading files.

I have been searching for some way to load balance the traffic from just a single process (web browser/SVN client etc.) across both connections. would it be possible, and do you know how? I've done plenty of googling, but perhaps i'm searching for the wrong thing. I know bit torrent programs will work well, but i'm not interested in them.

Thanks in advance Benjamint 12:05, 28 August 2011 (UTC)[reply]

API usage to view deleted file

Resolved: Magog the Ogre (talk) 18:22, 28 August 2011 (UTC)[reply]

I'd like to be able to view a deleted image via the API. However, the API only allows me to view deleted edits [3]. Is there a way to view a deleted image file through the API, or would I have to put together a hack of the HTML? Magog the Ogre (talk) 18:05, 28 August 2011 (UTC)[reply]

PS. If it is possible, is it possible to create a thumbnailed version, like it is with all non-deleted images in the history of a file? Magog the Ogre (talk) 18:07, 28 August 2011 (UTC)[reply]

The Help desk or Village Pump might be better places to ask about Wikipedia specific questions. And it seems like only administrators will be able to answer this question fully, as viewing deleted edits requires an account with the administrator flag 82.43.90.90 (talk) 18:13, 28 August 2011 (UTC)[reply]

{{Trout}} on me. I meant to post this at the Village Pump. Thanks

. Magog the Ogre (talk) 18:22, 28 August 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Chrome IDN whitelist

Dear Wikipedians:

Is there an extension or setting in Chrome that will allow me to add sites whose IDN I wish to display in Unicode instead of Punycode no matter what Chrome may think otherwise?

As an example, Chrome says that it will never display http://☃.net/ in Punycode, but I would like it to show up as the cute Unicode snowman. Is there anyone I can make Chrome do it?

Thanks,

科幻南北朝 (talk) 19:53, 28 August 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Internet explorer first to use domain greying out in address bar?

I just noticed in my Firefox, that the URL .com is in black and the rest is grey. Obviously good to know the root URL on complex URLs. I think IE did it first on IE7 or something. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 66.23.238.101 (talk) 20:42, 28 August 2011 (UTC)[reply]

IIRC Internet Explorer was the first popular browser to inflict this nonsense on users, yes. ¦ Reisio (talk) 16:54, 29 August 2011 (UTC)[reply]

I find this feature useful. To turn it off in Firefox, browse to about:config, search for browser.urlbar.formatting.enabled and set it to false. Certes (talk) 22:05, 29 August 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Symantec Norton Ghost 15.0 - Tape Drive Support

Good Morning, CompRefDesk!

Does Symantec Norton Ghost 15.0 support backing up to a tape drive? And can backups to a tape drive be scheduled?

Thanks as always to all respondants. Rocketshiporion ♫ 21:56, 28 August 2011 (UTC)[reply]

August 29

First stage bootloader larger than 512 bytes

I want to write a secure bootloader that will verify the digital signature of whatever it is goong to boot. I think it would need more than 512 bytes to fit all of the code, so I need to find a way that will make it possible to do this. Maybe a disk that does use sectors or is sectorless would work since the 512 byte limit is based on sector size? --Melab±1 ☎ 02:37, 29 August 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Advanced Format drives have 4096-byte sectors. A disk cannot be sectorless; as the sector is the basic unit in a data storage device in which data is stored. Rocketshiporion ♫ 04:45, 29 August 2011 (UTC)[reply]

In the old days of floppy discs, it was possible to read a complete track into memory if one had direct access to the disc controller. (Of course, the data was not directly available from this read because it was spread in sectors, but a simple software routine could extract the data from all sectors in that track.) This facility has possibly been removed from the disc control firmware of hard drives because they are usually low-level formatted at manufacture. Dbfirs 08:42, 29 August 2011 (UTC)[reply]

The boot process won't be secure unless the BIOS verifies your first-stage bootloader before running it. That means there's code in the BIOS to verify digital signatures and you should be able to use that to verify the next stage. -- BenRG (talk) 06:11, 29 August 2011 (UTC)[reply]

I'm assuming you mean a computer that is sufficiently like what we normally call "a PC", right? In that case you have two problems: loading and checking signatures. Firstly loading (neglecting the digital signature part for a second):

The standard way to work given the BIOS 512 byte load is to load a tiny stub loader (and if we're talking Master boot record loading here, you only have 440 bytes for code there) which uses BIOS calls to load a fuller loader (which can be just about as many sectors as you want). That's what LILO and GRUB do.
Use a system with Unified Extensible Firmware Interface rather than a BIOS boot, which doesn't have that limitation.
(At a stretch) add whatever functionality you want to a custom flash image, and replace the BIOS image with that. People have wedged stuff into coreboot, for example.

But, as BenRG says, this is all for naught if you can't verify the first thing you boot. Even with the coreboot solution, if you can change the boot flash image, so can anyone else. And where would you keep your key information - the BIOS flash part is just a memory device, readable by anyone. The industry-suggested solution to this is to use Trusted Platform Module, which stores keys in a relatively secure manner and which performs cryptography and validation. Some higher end desktop and server machines have TPM modules, and it seems many laptops do. But even then, this requires that the flash part be write protected and the boot code therein use an already initialised TPM to verify the bootloader it reads off the disk (see p12 onward in this presentation), which it seems isn't something that's practically available to an end user (cf TrouSerS FAQ). Even if it was, this is of very limited practical utility. TPM is mostly intended to provide a chain-of-trust so someone can trust the integrity of a loaded OS image, not to absolutely lock people out of otherwise generic hardware. Flashes can easily be physically swapped, non-integrated TPMs desoldered, and integrated ones removed by replacing the CPU. Even the original XBox, which went to extraordinary lengths to verify its boot chain (integrating that logic into its custom CPU and GPU dies) was still extensively modchipped. -- Finlay McWalter ☻ Talk 10:20, 29 August 2011 (UTC)[reply]

CSS Full-Height Scrollable Columns

I'm trying to make a layout with three main components: a fixed-height horizontal banner on top, and two columns beneath it filling out the rest of the space. Now, I know that normally I can use a combination of height: 100%, overflow: hidden, and padding to create full-height columns without creating a scrollbar for the page. However, I want the two columns to be full-height and both have overflow-y: scroll, so that they can each be scrolled individually without the entire page having a scrollbar. Unfortunately, the usual column tricks don't seem to work here. If the columns have height: 100%, the scrollbars are able to go off the bottom of the window, even though the column content displays normally; if I try absolutely positioning the columns and force them down with padding, the scrollbars go through the top banner (while forcing them down with margins causing the scrollbars to go off the bottom again). This would of course be easy to fix if I, say, gave the banner a height of 10% and the columns 90%, but I need the banner to have a fixed height. I'm a little stumped as to how to do this without resorting to JavaScript. Obligatory lazy table diagram:

Top Banner
Vertical Column With Scrolling	Vertical Column With Scrolling

71.179.14.98 (talk) 18:04, 29 August 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Use 3 divs. I'll call them header, col1, and col2. Make all 3 have position:absolute. Set header.top:0px, header.height:3em (or whatever height you want it to be), header.left:0px, header.width:100%. Set col1.top:3em (or whatever header.height is), col1.bottom:0px, col1.left:0px, col1.width:50%. Set col2.top:3em, col2.bottom:0px, col2.left:50%, col2.width:50%. -- kainaw ™ 18:18, 29 August 2011 (UTC)[reply]

hibernate a single program

Is there any way to hibernate a single program on a Windows 7 operating system; to save its current state from the RAM onto the disk and resume at a later date? I imagine this isn't a standard Windows feature, but perhaps some third-party software exists that can do this, maybe? 82.43.90.90 (talk) 18:36, 29 August 2011 (UTC)[reply]

I'm not very familiar with Windows, but I believe in general the ability to "freeze" a program requires internal support by the program itself. Suppose, for example, that the program has files open at the moment you want to freeze it -- there's nothing the operating system could possibly do to make that work without help from the program itself. Looie496 (talk) 01:23, 30 August 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Well, you can just close and reopen the files. There are a lot of gotchas in process hibernation, but there are a lot of gotchas in full system hibernation too. (What if a process had a locked file open on a network drive? What if you hibernate an OS, boot into another, modify the first OS's system partition, then resume it?) The idea is reasonable enough, and similar to process migration, which is actually supported by some OSes.

But I'm not aware of any way to do this in Windows. Microsoft could make it happen, but I'm not aware of any plans to do so. In theory Sandboxie might be able to do it, since the state that would need to be saved and restored is the same state that it has to track anyway. But in point of fact it doesn't support it. VMware and competitors support it, of course, if you think of the whole VM as an app (which is not so unreasonable). -- BenRG (talk) 04:15, 30 August 2011 (UTC)[reply]

August 30

Mozila reloading previous sessions

So, I prefer using Mozilla as my web browser for various reasons. But one thing that drives me crazy is that, if I suddenly need to end a session, or if my browser closes unexpectedly (which happens often with this old work cpu I'm stuck with), when I try to open up the browser, it wants to "retrieve" my previous sessions...and I really don't need it to...and it often slows things down greatly, when I could just start a new session and manually reload my e-mail, or whatever I need. So, is there a way to stop it from constantly trying to "retrieve" my previous sessions? Quinn ^{❀ BEAUTIFUL DAY} 00:05, 30 August 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Disabling crash recovery AvrillirvA (talk) 00:43, 30 August 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Editing .bashrc

Okay so I am running Ubuntu 11.04 and I am trying to edit the .bashrc file so that if I open up a terminal window and type in matlab then MATLAB should run and if I type in mathematica, then Mathematica should run. I opened up the file and added at the end of the file the line

export PATH=$PATH:$Home/Mathematica/Executables:$HOME/MATLAB/bin

When I type in matlab, it opens up fine but for mathematica it says command not found. The location for mathematica is indeed $Home/Mathematica/Executables/mathematica because when I type this whole thing into the terminal, Mathematica opens up fine. I am not familiar with linux at all so I don't know what am I doing wrong. What is the right way to do this? Thanks!128.138.138.122 (talk) 01:21, 30 August 2011 (UTC)[reply]

You mean the file is $Home/Mathematica/Executables/mathematica.exe ? Perhaps $HOME wasn't properly defined and this command then propagated the problem ? Try "echo $HOME" before the command in .bashrc (you sure it isn't .bshrc, without the "a" ?), and "echo $PATH" after, to see if it's properly defined, then do the same in the bash window you opened. Also, are both commands performed in the same terminal window (and are you sure that's a bash window, not csh, or ksh) ? As for the one command working and the other not, it's possible one directory was added to the path elsewhere, say as a result of the installation of that program, and that your setting of the PATH variable isn't working at all. Also beware that there are other environment variables for things like libraries, which may also need to be set. StuRat (talk) 01:47, 30 August 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Minor points: it probably doesn't have .exe in the name on a Unix system. It certainly is .bashrc; however, the rules for bash's init files are relatively complicated and sometimes you want .bash_login or the environment variable $BASH_ENV. If the command isn't running at all, it may need to be moved. --Tardis (talk) 02:56, 30 August 2011 (UTC)[reply]

If you used that text literally, then your problem may be simply that you're using $Home instead of $HOME. --Tardis (talk) 02:56, 30 August 2011 (UTC)[reply]

wikipedia mirror on my local network.

Let's say I wanted to mirror the entire Wikipedia site, images and all, locally on my home network for private use. I know how to download the wikipedia database dumps and use them offline with various software packages, but these dumps don't include images. Furthermore, I want my mirror to be accessible through a web browser when I point it at a certain IP on my network.

So how would I go about doing this? 209.182.121.46 (talk) 07:40, 30 August 2011 (UTC)[reply]