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January 12

"Can't extract MFC42.DLL"

My computer has two issues:

• The battery does not charge. I don't know why - I've bought two batteries for this computer, and the second one doesn't work either. I tried checking the service tag in the BIOS, but it is properly set. My understanding was that the service tag must be properly set.
• I downloaded the latest BIOS from Dell. However, it does not work: when I tried running it from the command prompt in administrator mode (Vista), it says Can't extract MFC42.DLL. It does not give any message at all when I run it not from the command prompt.

I was hoping to fix the first problem with the second. (anonymous) 00:03, 12 January 2012 (UTC)

And just to clarify I downloaded MFC42.dll from support.microsoft.com and put it in the same directory but it still is coming up with that message. (anonymous) 00:20, 12 January 2012 (UTC)

Have you (or, are you able to) tried using a different charger? Dell laptop chargers have a chip which tells the computer that you are using a 'Genuine Dell Charger' - and if you are not, the battery will not charge. I believe you would normally see a message on startup if this was the case, though. However, if you know someone else with a Dell laptop, try using their charger before playing with the BIOS - it just might work! - Cucumber Mike (talk) 01:24, 12 January 2012 (UTC)

I have tried two different non-Dell chargers, and neither is charging it properly. I figured out the BIOS error (after a ton of searching) is because it won't allow the BIOS to work unless the battery is charged or not plugged in (Dell's programmers are apparently paid about $2.50/hr because the program exits with "error 144" or just crashes altogether, giving no coherent explanation whatsoever). Is there any way to fool the battery into thinking it's working with a Dell charger? The charger works just fine; Dell just puts the check in order to force the consumer to buy another from them. (anonymous) 05:01, 15 January 2012 (UTC)

Mind you, I don't want to pay $60 [1] for a cord when I have a perfectly functioning one. (anonymous) 05:07, 15 January 2012 (UTC)

People want to start a class action lawsuit against Dell. Dell turns quite a big profit on the batteries. There are some knock-offs that are supposed to have a chip that fools the laptop’s “Dell screws their customers” circuitry. If you have a lot of l33t skillz it is probably possible to fix this, but I wouldn't recommend it because it takes too much time. Von Restorff (talk) 15:59, 16 January 2012 (UTC)

Upgrading RAM while hibernated

I recently added more RAM to my Windows 7/Xubuntu dual-boot PC. On booting, Windows reported that it could not resume the hibernated session because \HIBERFIL.SYS was invalid; I assume this is because the new memory was unaccounted for. Does an analogous problem occur with hibernated sessions in Linux? Has anyone built a tool that can update hibernated sessions after a RAM upgrade? NeonMerlin 00:09, 12 January 2012 (UTC)

I might be wrong old chap but I would suggest if you are going to make a physical change to your system to do a full shutdown first so that Windows has a chance to detect new hardware during the bootup sequence and install any drivers etc it needs to run it when it reboots from scratch? Quintessential British Gentleman (talk) 00:21, 12 January 2012 (UTC)

My bet is that, if anyone were to build such software, you'd need to restart the computer to install it... (because it would interact with the kernel) Paul (Stansifer) 01:45, 12 January 2012 (UTC)

It's hopeless to alter the hibernation file to give immediate access to the new RAM, because there are undoubtedly many different internal data structures that are initialized once per boot under the assumption that the amount of RAM is fixed. It may be hopeless even to make the hibernation file bootable (using only the old amount of RAM) because of the complexities of mapping RAM chips and memory-mapped IO zones into the "physical" address space, and it would be pretty much pointless since you'd have to shut down and restart anyway to complete the upgrade. If you just want your lost hibernated state back, and you haven't otherwise booted Windows since then, it will boot if you restore the original RAM configuration. I know because I made this same mistake once. -- BenRG (talk) 16:32, 12 January 2012 (UTC)

This is pretty much why I never put my computers to hibernate. The only way around it is take the new ram out, reboot the system, shut it down fully, fit the ram, and boot it up with all the ram. Mrlittleirish 16:03, 13 January 2012 (UTC)

Average amount of time for two-qubit entanglement.

I was wondering if anyone knows what the average amount of time is for an entanglement of two-qubits. I would have to assume that the amount of time is longer than say for seven qubits. This question is obviously about quantum information science. Thanks. This is the second time I'm asking this question by the way. Lighthead ^þ 03:24, 12 January 2012 (UTC)

What's with the eerie silence? Nobody knows about qubits? Lighthead ^þ 03:06, 13 January 2012 (UTC)

No, sorry, I don't know anything about qubits. I do know stuff about DJ Qbert and the game Q*bert. I googled around a bit but everything I could find was too complicated for me to understand. Von Restorff (talk) 03:51, 13 January 2012 (UTC)

That's funny... thanks for trying at least. Yeah; it can get pretty complicated. I thought I was unofficially being blacklisted because I started trouble here on Reference desk one time. Pheww! What a relief! Lighthead ^þ 05:50, 13 January 2012 (UTC)

As far as I'm aware, we don't blacklist people from asking sensible questions, unless they're site-banned or something. As for qubits, I'm vaguely familiar with quantum computing but I honestly wouldn't know where to begin with that question. --NYKevin @292, i.e. 05:59, 13 January 2012 (UTC)

It's been a while since I've studied quantum things, but I may be able to help. However, I'm not sure what you mean by average time for an entanglement; if you can help me, I can probably help you :-) Phoenixia1177 (talk) 12:49, 13 January 2012 (UTC)

Like the majority here (and in the computing world) (but possibly unlike Phoenixia1177), I know next-to-nothing about quantum entanglement of qubits, and I can't find anything in Wikipedia about time of entanglement of Bell states. Can anyone else find an appropriate article? (Greenberger–Horne–Zeilinger states and W states involve three qubits, and there is no mention of entanglement time there either.) Dbfirs 17:51, 13 January 2012 (UTC)

I think you asked in the wrong place. :-) I have heard talks about quantum computing technologies where decoherence times were mentioned, but I've forgotten them, and it's a bit hard to find information online. All I know is that it depends totally on the type of hardware. Quantum computer#Quantum decoherence says that decoherence times "typically range between nanoseconds and seconds at low temperature". -- BenRG (talk) 19:17, 13 January 2012 (UTC)

1) Which Reference desk should I go to? 2) I haven't seen that article section, and I also don't know a whole lot about quantum computers compared to experts, but I do know enough to be pretty certain that there's never been a documented decoherence in the second range. Nanosecond for sure but not second. Maybe nanosecond is the average for now. And therefore I've answered my own question. As to that article section, it might have to be rewritten. Not by me because I only know somewhat more than you guys. I have heard about decoherence in the microsecond range, but I had no idea that people knew so little about the field. I'm sorry if anyone felt like their time was wasted. Lighthead ^þ 04:13, 14 January 2012 (UTC)

The reference in that article section has a serious problem. The link is to an abstract that doesn't even close to mention said decoherence range. I'll put the appropriate tag. Lighthead ^þ 04:18, 14 January 2012 (UTC)

According to Quantum Computation and Quantum Information(Nielsen/Chuang) from 2010, they give a crude estimation based upon the type of system:

Nuclear spin 10 ** −2 to 10 ** -8

Electron spin 10 ** −3

Ion trap (In+) 10 ** −1

Electron – Au 10 ** −8

Electron – GaAs 10 ** −10

Quantum dot 10 ** −6

Optical cavity 10 ** −5

Microwave cavity 10 ** 0,

With 10 ** -k being an average in seconds. Quantum Information and Quantum Computation (Bellac) says, "the decoherence time, is inversely proportional to some positive power of the size of the system, often the square of this size. Thus, we expect decoherence to be more and more important as the number of qubits increases.". This is all I have, most of my quantum books aren't about quantum computing, so I'm not to helpful. (On an aside, how hard would it have been for someone to give a quick one line refresher on what "entanglement time" meant? Sorry if that sounds bitchy:-) Phoenixia1177 (talk) 06:58, 14 January 2012 (UTC)

By the way, the table from Nielsen/Chuang seems at odds with what you are saying above, they do no say where they got their table, so I can't say much about how accurate it is, sorry about that, its the best I could locate. Phoenixia1177 (talk) 07:01, 14 January 2012 (UTC)

Thanks for the info. Lighthead ^þ 18:12, 14 January 2012 (UTC)

Looking for a 3d First Person Shooter/Engine/Game Making System that Allows Tinkering with Enemy AI

I recently started playing Bioshock and started thinking about the AI in the game, specifically the dynamic between npcs that can end up engaging in conflict and goal based behaviour, which leads me to wanting to experiment with more elaborate versions. However, I do not have the time, or the graphics ability, to program a shooter from scratch just to experiment with enemy ai (and doing a program that just relays results of what would happen lacks the fun of something you could actually interact with) Thus, I'm looking for some system/game that would let me design custom levels and enemies; the more flexible the better. I don't care about graphics (I'd be happy with Wolfenstein/Doom era, or even polyhedra moving about in 3d), though if it does use advanced graphics, I would need there to be a decent ammount of existing resources. Finally, I have no preference in programming language or complexity, so long as a basic framework is already in place; I would also be happy with a pc game that had the ability to build sufficiently custom levels. Side Note: My question reads a tad on the ill defined/rambling side of things, if anything is unclear, please let me know so that I can elaborate/clarify. Thank you in advance for any help:-) Phoenixia1177 (talk) 08:18, 12 January 2012 (UTC)

This is the op, around a $100 is the most I would be capable/willing to pay for this, I am not looking to make an actual game and don't require any type of license and would like to be able to use free existing graphics. 209.252.235.206 (talk) 09:09, 12 January 2012 (UTC)

I don't quite know if it's what you want but Garry's Mod has programmable scriptable NPCs, which you can program in Lua. It's probably a bit simple for what you want but it's very cheap. http://wiki.garrysmod.com/?title=Basic_Scripted_NPC has some info plus the forums at facepunch.com 192.84.79.2 (talk) 10:03, 12 January 2012 (UTC)

I'm not really into modding, but the source code to Quake, up to to Quake III Arena, is under the GPL, and OpenArena seems to be an entirely free game build around this. Alternatively, Half-Life and its descendant Counter-Strike are heavily modable and have huge mod communities. I assume this also enables changes to the AI, but don't know to what degree. --Stephan Schulz (talk) 10:05, 12 January 2012 (UTC)

Possibly helpful could be Unity (game engine). fredgandt 11:54, 12 January 2012 (UTC)

Thank you all very much for your responses:-) All of these look interesting (now I have something awesome to work on this weekend!) Phoenixia1177 (talk) 10:17, 13 January 2012 (UTC)

every time i search the web my internet explorer stops working what can i do to fix this problem?

every time i search the web my internet explorer stops working what can i do to fix this problem? — Preceding unsigned comment added by Jake.edu (talk • contribs) 18:04, 12 January 2012 (UTC)

Run the fixit thingy. If nothing else works download malwarebytes free and scan your computer. If that does not work either then run the System File Checker. Von Restorff (talk) 10:25, 13 January 2012 (UTC)

What are you using to search the web? What version of Internet Explorer are you using? What add-ons (yes, even all those fancy toolbars) have you added? -- kainaw™ 19:32, 12 January 2012 (UTC)

Why stay with stone tools, many people have now switched to more popular browsers. --Aspro (talk) 20:05, 12 January 2012 (UTC)

Err, "popular" is probably not the right modifier there. IE is still the "most popular" browser out there by market share for desktop computers. It's gotten less popular over the years, but it's still the most popular. --Mr.98 (talk) 22:50, 12 January 2012 (UTC)

Perhaps Aspro meant to speak of popularity within a specific cohort, excluding people who, for instance, refer to email as 'the email,' like my dad :) DRosenbach ^{(Talk | Contribs)} 23:52, 12 January 2012 (UTC)

I didn’t have the benefit of you young folk that learnt all this high faluting new mathematics that can prove less-is-more etc., but in my day this graph would suggests that IE had less than 50% and hence the less popular. Not withstanding also, that many browser are set to report themselves as being IE so as to access IE only sites. (Graphic linked because it is huge and a bit OT) But then again, all this, is from Wikipedia and who believes anything on that website. However, I am willing to sit (not stand) and be corrected. --Aspro (talk) 00:42, 13 January 2012 (UTC)

Oh, and as Drosenbach hints at, the WP cohort is 34 %.(ditto). Note: the OP asked on WP ref desk and so he is one of us (this cohort) – one must presume... And still using neolithic apps. Thats all I'm saying!--Aspro (talk) 00:53, 13 January 2012 (UTC)

If you are considering it IE vs. everything else, then it's less popular. But if you consider it every browser for themselves, it's IE as the most popular. If I said that apples were the most popular fruit, you wouldn't assume that I meant that they were more popular than the sum of the popularity of all other fruits put together, would you? But anyway, we're getting off topic here. I've shrunken those graphs to links — they're distracting from the actual question-answering. --Mr.98 (talk) 03:04, 13 January 2012 (UTC)

Feel like I could be accused of splitting hairs here and being overly pedantic, but here goes:'“pop·u·lar/ˈpäpyələr/Adjective:Liked, admired.” The OP does not seem enthralled by IE. Most PC users are just stuck with IE. If Mr.98 had said it was the most “ubiquitous” then yes, I'd might had agreed, but the most “liked” and “ admired” ...!!! People whose native tongue is English don't seem to have command of it.- -To use an old English phrase: I rest my case, mi' Lord.--Aspro (talk) 18:22, 14 January 2012 (UTC)

popular is not the same as frequently used. IE users generally never made a choice to use that particular browser. Von Restorff (talk) 10:19, 13 January 2012 (UTC)

I would phrase it differently: they never made the choice to use a different browser than IE. --Ouro (blah blah) 17:53, 13 January 2012 (UTC)

i dont have addons i have Internet explorer 8 on windows XP — Preceding unsigned comment added by Jake.edu (talk • contribs) 19:24, 13 January 2012 (UTC) thank you

Jake: To be frank; there is too little detail about how, when, where, whither, wherefore and whitebait, to be able to pinpoint any particular issue you may be experiencing (and thus provide a method of fixing it). My personal recommendation is to download and use (as your default browser) Google Chrome. IE is a bug ridden dinosaur which is prone to an endless procession of problems. Chrome never gives me any trouble. fredgandt 19:31, 13 January 2012 (UTC)it works thank you i am now useing Google chrome its the best no bugs

I think fredgandt gives good heart felt advice here. Try Google Chrome. What have you got to loose, other than a lot of frustration.--Aspro (talk) 22:36, 14 January 2012 (UTC)

The difference of TouchWiz and Android?

Hello, I'd like to know what TouchWiz does, and how would Android acts if it'll be deleted from a Galaxy phone. Does it control over the "relation" of the touchscreen and the kernel? Exx8 (talk) 23:27, 12 January 2012 (UTC)

Reading the TouchWiz it sounds like TouchWiz is primarily a launcher (that is, it's the thing that runs when the phone starts, and it's from TouchWiz that you start other apps). If TouchWiz is anything like HTC Sense (which is what HTC brand Android phones use for that task) it's also responsible for desktop widgets, notifications, and locking the screen. It's possible to install other apps that function as a launcher too (some are listed here). I don't know if you can remove TouchWiz altogether, but you can try a different launcher. -- Finlay McWalterჷTalk 00:00, 13 January 2012 (UTC)

Note that my "launcher" link above is for the equivalent thing for Windows; I don't think we have a summary article for Android or iOS launchers. -- Finlay McWalterჷTalk 00:08, 13 January 2012 (UTC)

Googling suggests that TouchWiz can be disabled (if not actually removed) on some but not all phones. If you disable it you get the standard Android launcher (by Google), which is not much different. -- BenRG (talk) 02:44, 13 January 2012 (UTC)

Embedding a video into PPT 2003

I would like to embed a 1-minute segment of Spaceballs into a PPT and I use the 2003 version (because I like it the best). I have the film in avi format, but after finding instructions online about how to embed it, it comes up with audio but no video. The 1-minute segment is a very comedic one, and is featured as 3 different youtube videos, and I watched a youtube video showing me how to embed such a youtube video into PPT, but all 3, when clicked on to begin playing in PPT format, say 'embedding disabled by request -- please visit youtube.' So I think I'm back to my film in avi format -- does anyone know how I can embed it with audio and video, and also perhaps if I'm able to do just the 1-minute segment, rather than having to find the place and stopping it after a minute. Thanx! DRosenbach ^{(Talk | Contribs)} 23:50, 12 January 2012 (UTC)

I can help you with the one-minute bit - use a simple editing tool like VirtualDub, cut out the portion you'd like to embed, save it to a separate file. --Ouro (blah blah) 07:28, 13 January 2012 (UTC)

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/885915 Von Restorff (talk) 09:55, 13 January 2012 (UTC)

January 13

Split files unrecognized

So I downloaded a movie and it was 10.1 GB, mkv format. The original opens fine using VLC and quicktime. I wanted to split it into smaller parts so I downloaded an application, "pif splitter". I successfully split the file into ten parts. The parts are each named name001.mkv, name002.mkv and so on. However when I try to open any of those with VLC I get an error message: "No suitable decoder module. VLC does not support the audio or video format "undf"". When I try to open any of them with Quicktime I get the message "...is not in a format that Quicktime understands". I though "okay, this splitter didn't work right let me try another." So then I downloaded "split@concat". That program likewise successfully split the original into ten parts. However, I am getting the same error messages when I try to open them. So I guess even though it's keeping mkv in the name it's not actually keeping the format? Something else? Can anyone explain what I'm doing wrong or what I can do?--108.46.103.88 (talk) 01:44, 13 January 2012 (UTC)

The purpose of a file splitter is to allow you to move the file to different media, which may have size limitations (eg, some file systems have a 4 GB file size limit; single-sided DVDs only take 4.something GBs). You might use such media in the process of copying your big file to another computer. To actually use the file, you need to rejoin the pieces back to a single file again. Each program to split a file will come with a method to rejoin the results.-gadfium 01:52, 13 January 2012 (UTC)

To split a video so that the chunks can be opened separately, you'll need an MKV-specific tool. Google:MKV splitter. NeonMerlin 01:59, 13 January 2012 (UTC)

Thank you NeonMerlin. That's very helpful. Gadfium there must be other people whose reasons for splitting is otherwise. Me, I want to burn to dvd but standard disks won't allow files of large sizes.--108.46.103.88 (talk) 02:40, 13 January 2012 (UTC)

Ya, as merlin said I think the MKV format doesn't deal well with arbitrary splits. Other containers seem to handle it. Depending on your uses, different formats might be more appropriate. Shadowjams (talk) 07:34, 13 January 2012 (UTC)

Quantum OpenCL?

How does the performance of a classical computer simulating a quantum computer tend to compare with that of a classical algorithm solving the same problem? Would it be practical for a quantum programming language to converge with OpenCL to help make quantum and classical computers interchangeable to the programmer? NeonMerlin 01:49, 13 January 2012 (UTC)

Let me start with saying I don't know anything about OpenCL. However, a classical computer simulating a quantum computer would still be doing classical computation and, thus, would be running a classical algorithm. Are you asking, perhaps, how classical algorithms that attempt to be "quantum" compare to one's that don't? From the phrasing of your question and that you seem to be asking if programming languages can make quantum and classical computation interchangeable on a single device, but quantum computation is quantum computation because of the physics of the device, not any abstract elements of the programming language. Or do you mean to ask if OpenCL could be used to program in parallel a quantum and classical device? It looks like you are crossing the roles of algorithms and physics in your question, is there some specific thing you are considering that might help to clarify this? Phoenixia1177 (talk) 10:15, 13 January 2012 (UTC)

I think the question is just whether quantum algorithms running in a quantum-on-classical emulator perform as well as classical algorithms. I'm not sure, but I think the answer is a strong no for known algorithms (which includes known emulation algorithms). For example, the quantum part of Shor's algorithm involves finding the period of a^x mod N with a QFT, where N is the number to be factored, and I don't think a classical emulation will do better than O(N) on this, making the algorithm worse than trial division. But it could be that the "real" answer is yes, with as-yet-undiscovered quantum and emulation algorithms. -- BenRG (talk) 18:34, 13 January 2012 (UTC)

Quantum computing is not "pin-for-pin" interchangeable with parallel computing. OpenCL doesn't seem to be the optimal language set for the best expression of quantum algorithms. Nimur (talk) 18:31, 13 January 2012 (UTC)

Can you blackout jan 18 to protest the SOPA act?

i love wikipedia, actually one of my friends father met with one of the fouders, my friend is kiran sonty from boyton beach florida, anyways, this site has so much information and i think it will really have a big effect on people if they seen this site closed down, reddit is huge but wikipedia is bigger, it will be much appreciated and it would be so cool to see that real people control the internet, pelase consider — Preceding unsigned comment added by 174.61.66.210 (talk) 18:22, 13 January 2012 (UTC)

That would be a clear-cut case of breaking Wikipedia to make a point. I do not believe there would be traction in the Wikipedia community to intentionally disrupt Wikipedia in order to make a political point, irrespective of the validity of the point, even if the stance has (hypothetically) widespread consensus approval among Wikipedia contributors. Nimur (talk) 18:29, 13 January 2012 (UTC)

Not actually so clear cut. As Nil Einne mentions, there's a consensus to "blackout" wiki on the 18th... and before you freak out, "blackout" means providing a clickthrough. I almost consider that less annoying than the annual fundraising banners. Shadowjams (talk) 23:11, 13 January 2012 (UTC)

Please explain using an embarrassingly obvious use case. Does this mean If I'm already on a Wikipedia article page and click on a wikilink to stick, it won't work, but if I type in my browser www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stick it will, and if I type 'stick' in the search box on the English Wikipedia homepage, it will work? 69.243.220.115 (talk) 15:47, 17 January 2012 (UTC)

I believe that most Wikipedia users would strongly disagree with any attempt to take down an international resource because one country is discussing a law that is very similar to ones already in force in Denmark, Finland, Ireland and Italy. -- kainaw™ 18:34, 13 January 2012 (UTC)

I believe that none of us really know what "most Wikipedia users" would think about this. The US is a big player in the content-generation and web-hosting market, much less the place where Wikipedia's servers are hosted. --Mr.98 (talk) 02:44, 14 January 2012 (UTC)

This is under active consideration and debate at Wikipedia:SOPA initiative/Action. -- Finlay McWalterჷTalk 21:34, 13 January 2012 (UTC)

This is semi OT but note that it currently appears consensus is leading to a click thruable blackout for US users and a banner for non USs. If you want your opinion heard, I suggest you make your views heard soon the current plan is that this will be decided in 2 days to be implemented on the 18th. It is semi supported by the foundation. Nil Einne (talk) 21:59, 13 January 2012 (UTC)

One thing that's needed, even here, is to tell non-US users what SOPA is. I've seen it mentioned a few times now and made a point of finding out a little about it, but non-Americans generally haven't heard of it. This is definitely a time when American editors need to broaden their own perspective if they want broader support. HiLo48 (talk) 02:51, 14 January 2012 (UTC)

Actually I think most Americans don't have any idea what it is either. That's one of the points of the proposed action Nil Einne (talk) 17:01, 14 January 2012 (UTC)

Even most US Wikieditors. The page above has only hundreds of watchers. Jim.henderson (talk) 17:07, 14 January 2012 (UTC)

The issue is potential censorship by the American government. Surely there's a way to get that word into any title we use to decribe this action. HiLo48 (talk) 21:52, 14 January 2012 (UTC)

I think that's the point of the blackout. In any case, it now seems a full global blackout is likely, if the foundation can implement it. I would suggest people keep a local copy of Wikipedia:Mirrors and forks if they feel they may need it. I would not suggest they rely on Google cache since Google updates Wikipedia fast. I have no idea how they will handle the blackout, but still seems a bad idea to rely on them. Nil Einne (talk) (sorry forgot to sign)

Hi guys. The discussion here does seem to forget that the Italians blacked their Wikipedia out. Did it work? I think it achieved their goals. (It had to do with some stuff Berlusconi was doing I think). Can someone comment further? 80.98.112.4 (talk) 18:25, 15 January 2012 (UTC)

No. The Italian blackout did nothing except piss off a bunch of Wikipedia users. Some claimed they would never use Wikipedia again. I am of the same opinion. I really don't give a shit of some teenagers might lose access to some website to trade stolen music and videos. I do give a shit when those teenagers become assholes and decide that if they don't get what they want then they can take Wikipedia away from me. I believe that this is a direct result of telling every kid he or she is special. They are not special. They are assholes who are acting like immature brats who cry, "If you don't do what I want, I'm taking my game and I'm going home." -- kainaw™ 23:26, 16 January 2012 (UTC)

Really? I don't see it as clear cut as that at all. I know this is not a soapbox, but in fact it sounds like you are the one with the indignant reaction: access to wikipedia is not a human right (yet ;) ), it's free and run by volunteers, getting "pissed off" and claiming you'll never use it again because you can't access it for ONE DAY is, well, make up your own minds. I don't mean anything personal of course. Vespine (talk) 02:10, 17 January 2012 (UTC)

If the blackout happens it will be with the approval and active involvement of Jimmy Wales and the Wikimedia Foundation. It's not a bunch of editors blanking the pages. Many people oppose SOPA for the wrong reasons, but when isn't that true? You should always be suspicious of bills that claim to protect you from a currently fashionable bugaboo. -- BenRG (talk) 06:57, 17 January 2012 (UTC)

My reaction is that I spent nearly 8 years contributing to this with plenty of money and time. This is now a non-free political baby toy for a select few idiots. So, I want my donations back. I want my money back. I want my content back. Further, I do not support this in any way. Instead of contributing security fixes, I will spend my time developing hacking and vandalism tools. Previously, the tools I've found have been written by those who obviously didn't understand how Mediawiki works. I've worked on the code a lot and understand it very well. So, I believe I can make major contributions into continuing this blackout as long as possible. -- kainaw™ 14:12, 17 January 2012 (UTC)

Personally I opposed any action affecting non US users from the beginning, when it was first propose by Jimbo Wales on his user page. I continued to voice my opposition and in the final call, I again said I didn't want anything, not even a banner affecting non US users, and also said that although I felt it was up to US users what to do that would affect US users, I was opposed to a full blackout feeling it went to far. (I also suggested I felt the process with about 2 days required for a decision was rushed. ironically I had been thinking of suggesting if people want to do something they really need to start planning and get a proposal together because it would ideally need ~ a month for proper consensus. I never bothered but I never thought the foundation themselves would push for a decision to be reached in about 2 days.)

However your earlier comment ignores that many experts have raised concerns of the risks the bill poses, not just to those who want to 'trade stolen music and videos' but to people using the internet in general, in a number of ways. These people may or may not be right, clearly the experts don't agree. And the nature of laws being drafted is it depends on the final law, as well as how various parties respond after the law is in force, particularly in the US how constitutional issues play out. But you can't deny that the law has raised serious concerns. Even our own lawyer has said there is some minor risk to wikipedia, although my reading is it's unlikely to be an issue since we are already fairly strict with the stuff that could be a problem.

As you said, other countries have similar laws. Here in NZ we have a law targetting users, which is slightly controversial although much less so then the earlier law which would have allowed mandatory loss of internet access without a court case which was abandonded partially as a result of a public outcry (including from a number of blogs). In Malaysia, despite the government promosing no censorship (and to be fair, they have been much more restrained then a number of countries like Singapore or even I'd say Thailand, let alone China) a number of P2P and file sharing WWW sites (like RapidShare) have been blocked (see Censorship in Malaysia). Usually by DNS filtering which in that case is trivial to circumvent for the technically inclined since you can just use a non Malaysia DNS like Google. This of course is something proposed in the US, but give the large percentage of root servers in the US, it does raise much more serious concerns.

The foundations letter, and some of the people involved have suggested they support the blackout because of the other countries. This incidentally is one of the reasons I opposed, there are indeed laws in other countries, some of which seem worse. And other countries lack something like the first amendment which seems to greatly restrict anything closely resembling censorship in the US. (Other countries may have their own constitutional guarantees of free speech but for most they don't seem to be intepreted as widely as US courts do.) Yet despite half hearted mentions of other countries, this action is clearly targetted at the US, there isn't even any reason why that particular day should be chosen. However getting back to my point, none of this means the US law is okay.

As to your latest comments, to be honest it makes you sound more childish then those you say are behind the action. (I didn't get my way, so let me break all the toys so no one gets to play.) As I said, I opposed the action, and I'm disappointed that the decision was made for a full global blackout. But it was a decision made by a majority. (I hesitate to say consensus since people mostly voted often without any real explaination, but the number and percentages for a wikipedia community decision were rather large. And for such large polls, IMO and with due respect to people like Jayron32 who closed the recent RFC on verifiability, it mostly comes down to a strong majority then a real consensus based process anyway.)

So as much as I dislike the decision and even to some extent the way it was made, I respect that some decision was made and by a large number of people. If I felt strongly enough about it, I may abandon wikipedia, perhaps leaving a strongly worded parting note. (And I respect some people may feel that way.) However I'm not going to threaten to continually damage the work of others, because I, one person, disagrees with a decision made, no matter how radical that decision was. Any content I distributed is still out there on many mirrors and on the WMF servers (although I won't be able to access it for one day). And I'm free, as entitled by the licence I agreed to release my content under, to make a mirror or fork of my own. I can't of course revoke my licence. And I knew from the beginning that the foundation ultimately controls the servers, and they've delegated a large number of decisions to what they intepret as the community but also are free with the legal framework they operate under, to do what they want. (In this case it appears to be a combination of both, a decision made in sme way by the community, but with the backing and pushing of the WMF.)

I made the choice to work under that basis. For those who made that choice, but then when something didn't go the way they wish, do make that abount turn and decide to continually harm the work of others, that I cannot respect. (And if you're a supporter of SOPA/PIPA, no prizes for guessing what this suggests to me of supporters vs opponents.)

P.S. Funnily enough for all your talk of teenagers, I suspect they're the most likely to be negatively affect by the blackout. As I understand it secondary schools in the US are generally in session (but perhaps not universities). They also are in Malaysia (where universities are also I think in session) and I suspect a number of other countries although not New Zealand. I believe you have a history of teaching so I guess you know students tend to leave a lot of work to the last minute. (If you didn't know, I suggest you check out the history of school and university projects on wikipedia and see how the major contributions always seem to come at the same day or two each year after a small amount over the previous few weeks. Definitely it was what I did a lot as a student, but I think I did it to an extreme extent although not being particularly sociable I wasn't sure how much so.) I think it's quite likely a number of horrified teens are going to find one of their major resources they need to finish (or start!) their project due in 18 hours is now offline for at least 18 hours. Adults do have deadlines too, and do sometimes use wikipedia for them, but I suspect the number affected in the same way is going to be small in comparison. A large number aren't even going to notice.

Nil Einne (talk) 16:32, 17 January 2012 (UTC)

Lord, Kainaw, get a grip and get some perspective. It's a community decision done in the way that the community has always operated. If you don't like it, feel free to fork or go home. You didn't donate money or time with any stipulations attached. Nobody owes you anything. --Mr.98 (talk) 19:00, 17 January 2012 (UTC)

Finding names of Flash files/Associated flash content

Hi! I'm trying to archive a website, http://ttmfilm.com/final1.swf , so I can archive information about a film.

• Using the original link http://ttmfilm.com/final1.swf - When I click the "Film" and then the "University of times a dog" (sic) I receive the content related to the film.
• So I archived the file at http://www.webcitation.org/64fi9Rq2q - When I load this file and I click the "Film" and then the "University of times a dog" (sic) the browser says "waiting for www.webcitation.org..." - and then the content never loads. I suspect there is another file that is loaded, that had not been archived, but I am not sure how to get the name of it. I tried using Mozilla Firefox's (2.0.0.20) "Tools -> Page Info -> Media" to get the name of any new files, but I only see the links to the original file.

How do I find the names of the files of the associated content, so I can archive them? Thanks WhisperToMe (talk) 23:27, 13 January 2012 (UTC)

I made a permanent mirror for you (sourcefiles). To answer your question: use a Flash decompiler. You owe me your first-born child. Von Restorff (talk) 08:32, 14 January 2012 (UTC)

I really do. Thank you so much! WhisperToMe (talk) 08:37, 14 January 2012 (UTC)

BTW how do I get a flash decompiler? WhisperToMe (talk) 08:38, 14 January 2012 (UTC)

You are very welcome of course. Sothink SWF Decompiler has a 30 day free trail. Lemme know when the kid is born. Von Restorff (talk) 08:39, 14 January 2012 (UTC)

You will be the first to know ;) ;) WhisperToMe (talk) 16:43, 14 January 2012 (UTC)

That would be kinda cool since I am not a female. Von Restorff (talk) 16:44, 14 January 2012 (UTC)

As always, wikipedia has a helpful article for situations like this: Gender identity Can I be God-farther?--Aspro (talk) 23:01, 14 January 2012 (UTC)

January 14

Microsoft Office problems

I received a Powerpoint presentation that I need to do a little editing on so saved a copy to my desktop. When I clicked to open the .pptx file I get the popup saying Windows can't open this file, the only way I can open the file is to go to Start, All Programs and open PowerPoint and from inside Powerpoint go File, Open and navigate to my file on the desktop, anyone any ideas what has gone wrong. This doesn't happen with Word docs. Mo ainm~Talk 10:23, 14 January 2012 (UTC)

Right-click -> Open with -> select PowerPoint and check the checkbox "always open with this program" -> press OK. If you do not see the "open with" option in the context menu you need to hold shift while rightclicking. Von Restorff (talk) 10:30, 14 January 2012 (UTC)

I tried that, it isn't picking up PowerPoint in the selections of programs to use. Mo ainm~Talk 10:35, 14 January 2012 (UTC)

There is a browse button near the bottom right corner of the "Open with"-dialogbox. Click it, a window appears in which you can browse to the folder where powerpoint is installed and select powerpoint (usually named powerpnt.exe). Which windowsversion are you using? Von Restorff (talk) 10:37, 14 January 2012 (UTC)

Got it working doing it that way thanks Von, I'm using Windows 7, any reason why this happened, I notice too now that txt files I had saved also on my desktop which were saved using Notepad also no longer open without going through the above steps, what the hell happened, have just ran a Virus check which came back clear, running MalwareBytes as I type see if that picks up anything. Mo ainm~Talk 10:47, 14 January 2012 (UTC)

YVW. I do not know what caused it, lets blame Bill Gates. Von Restorff (talk) 10:56, 14 January 2012 (UTC)

All scan came back clear, so have to back you up, "Bill you incompetent..." :) Thanks for the help. Mo ainm~Talk 11:08, 14 January 2012 (UTC)

Don't jest! His Billiness had a very highly responsible position in Microsoft. If anything didn’t work out right, -he was responsible. Oh, Scrub that. The penny's just dropped! --Aspro (talk) 22:50, 14 January 2012 (UTC)

It's possible you installed some other program which registered itself as the default to open Powerpoint files. Perhaps then you uninstalled it again, so it was not available to open the file when clicked. I'm not sure whether a well-behaved uninstall program is expected to restore previous defaults.-gadfium 22:48, 14 January 2012 (UTC)

How do you explain the same thing happening to .txt files? Virii, malware, or weird bugs. Von Restorff (talk) 03:49, 17 January 2012 (UTC)

livejournal

Out of curoisity, if I post something onto this livejournal site, would there be any way of finding out whether anyone has read it? 148.197.81.179 (talk) 17:32, 14 January 2012 (UTC)

What you're probably looking for is typically called a "hit counter" or "web counter". These typically only track page visits, and can't tell if it's someone actually reading it, or if it's just a web spider, or you reloading the page to check the hit counter. I'm not familiar with livejournal, but searching for /livejournal hit counter/ give a few hits, although nothing I would class as definitive. -- 71.35.113.131 (talk) 19:00, 14 January 2012 (UTC)

Most modern web analytics tools — like Google Analytics — can give you pretty sophisticated views of who is reading it, how long they spend there, how many times they reload, if they are a bot or not, what search terms they used to find it, what links referred them to it, whether the same user is coming back later to read more pages, etc. Googling "Google Analytics Livejournal" turns up this page, which seems to imply that it is compatible. I don't use Livejournal myself, though. Google Analytics is dead easy to set up (and free) — I recommend it if you want to be able to suss out who is reading your stuff. --Mr.98 (talk) 19:19, 14 January 2012 (UTC)

Yes, and I see that's only for people that have their full paid account. Of course. 148.197.81.179 (talk) 20:42, 14 January 2012 (UTC)

wordpress.com Von Restorff (talk) 22:45, 14 January 2012 (UTC)

I was on there, but I never bothered to update my blog, then lots of things changed and I wanted a fresh start to try and do better. A few hours in and I'm already regretting the move. 148.197.81.179 (talk) 23:29, 14 January 2012 (UTC)

January 15

What is PCle versus PCIe

The reference for PCIE notes that video cards are designated as PCIe (seen also as PCie) and this stands for Peripheral component interconnect express. However, there are many video cards designated as PCLe - among which are the NVidia series. What is a PCLe and how does this differ from a PCie? Shouldn't this be added to the reference? — Preceding unsigned comment added by Dbvogt (talk • contribs) 16:43, 15 January 2012 (UTC)

What specific cards are designated PCLe? I can't find any mention of that on nVidia's website. -- Finlay McWalterჷTalk 16:46, 15 January 2012 (UTC)

The main differences between PCI-E and PCL-E are that PCI-E is not a typo and it actually exists. Von Restorff (talk) 23:42, 15 January 2012 (UTC)

going rate for used macbook pro

of the vintage that has the quad core i5 or i7 and can TAKE the 2x8gb Ram pack that Crucial says some MBP can take. 15 inch. I mean, on the used market. thanks. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 80.98.112.4 (talk) 22:43, 15 January 2012 (UTC)

Which country? in good condition or bad? does the battery still work correctly? how frequently was it used? was it moved a lot? how much RAM is in there? It depends on a lot of variables. Von Restorff (talk) 23:15, 15 January 2012 (UTC)

Wouldn't ebay be a simple first port of call? fredgandt 23:29, 15 January 2012 (UTC)

right. could u check? ebay america, a range is fine. should be core i5 (NOT duo), i thikn this was introduced in the past year. thanks. im on some terrorist lists so I cant check ebay myself sorry.. 80.98.112.4 (talk) 00:17, 16 January 2012 (UTC)

O.o fredgandt 02:43, 16 January 2012 (UTC)

Sorry, we are unable to check ebay too, for the very same reason. Is the laptop stolen? Von Restorff (talk) 10:20, 16 January 2012 (UTC)

In that case, perhaps the CIA will offer you free room and board, with lots of entertainment in exchange for the laptop (and yourself)? — Preceding unsigned comment added by Nil Einne (talk • contribs)

Normally macs keep their prices quite well, so if it was a recent model, I wouldn't expect much of a discount. --80.99.254.208 (talk) 11:16, 16 January 2012 (UTC)

I see this one for $1050 (April 2010, 15.4 inch, i5 processor, 4 GB RAM - upgrades to 8 GB - 320 GB hard drive). Otherwise, there's this i7 model for $1,600 (February 2011, 15.4 inch, i7 Processor, 8 GB RAM - I think upgrades to 16 GB - 500 GB hard drive). You really need to look at the specific model - it appears to vary quite a bit. Buddy431 (talk) 04:03, 17 January 2012 (UTC)

January 16

3G Wifi Router

I would like to know if there is a way you can convert your 3G (from a usb 3G modem) to WiFi for your house? Is there such routers and is it posssible? Thank you! — Preceding unsigned comment added by 41.16.132.219 (talk) 17:10, 16 January 2012 (UTC)

Lots of routers have USB ports on them for WAN failover to 3G, most Drayteks do this for instance. Nanonic (talk) 17:19, 16 January 2012 (UTC)

There are routers that support converting a 3G signal into a WiFi signal — e.g. this one or this one. The magic search terms seem to be "3G router Wifi". --Mr.98 (talk) 17:35, 16 January 2012 (UTC)

January 17

Is machine translation really a CS topic or a linguistics one?

Hi all, is machine translation really a topic in Computer Science, or is it more a specialist field of linguistics, or a combination of both? In other words, are the people who are really called "researchers" (rather than workers) in the field from any particular specialty, or do they come from a range of disciplines? Thanks in advance, IBE (talk) 00:41, 17 January 2012 (UTC)

It has more to do with Computer Science. But different kinds of research fields mix and blend, and there are no longer clear distinctions. Everything has to do with CS nowadays; and CS has to do with everything. Linguistics says: "Although linguistics is the scientific study of language, a number of other intellectual disciplines are relevant to language and intersect with it..... Linguistics additionally draws on and informs work from such diverse fields as acoustics, anthropology, biology, computer science, human anatomy, informatics, neuroscience, philosophy, psychology, sociology, and speech-language pathology." Von Restorff (talk) 01:50, 17 January 2012 (UTC)

Aside from the general comments above, it's worth noting that different approaches probably fall under different disciplines more squarely. "Example based" machine translation is very CS — it's about taking statistical correlations between existing texts (e.g. UN documents) and drawing inferences from those that can be applied in the future. "Rule-based" is a very linguistic approach — find the way natural language "works", and then just translate that into (fairly rudimentary) computer code. My assumption — not being super well versed in this — is that most of the major projects these days (like Google Translate) are of the Hybrid approach, and probably fit well within both disciplines. --Mr.98 (talk) 02:36, 17 January 2012 (UTC)

Just to be clear (from a linguist's point of view) - Google Translate is _not_ a translation tool, it compares the frequency of occurrence of words in texts and attempts to substitute those in one language with those in another. I would infer there can't be that many liguists employed with this project. --Ouro (blah blah) 08:15, 17 January 2012 (UTC)

That's like saying that Deep Blue wasn't a chess computer because it didn't think like a human chess player.

I suspect that there are a bunch of linguists working on Google translate. Especially since their current system works a lot better that previous grammar-based attempts at machine translation, it's difficult to believe that sort of improvement could be achieved without the assistance of skilled linguists. APL (talk) 09:05, 17 January 2012 (UTC)

My question is whether Google Translate is purely Example Based or whether it has Rule Based aspects to it. It looks a bit too clever to me to just be Example Based, which is why I guessed it was probably Hybrid, but I'm just guessing. Google does employ some linguists, though I don't know how many. --Mr.98 (talk) 13:02, 17 January 2012 (UTC)

Both. With crowdsourcing. But don't ask for refs. Von Restorff (talk) 15:51, 17 January 2012 (UTC)

I need help with a TV remote!!!

I'm working with relatives on fixing a TV remote. Their Channel button won't work. The remote is a Synergy V RT-U64CP / RT-U64CD.

They have an LG TV, and can see the names of the shows on other channels as they click it, but they can't see the pictures from the other channels. Do you know how to fix this, and how to make the channel button work? We've tried reprogramming...Please help. DCItalk 00:55, 17 January 2012 (UTC)

Here is the manual for the RT-U64CP. Try the TV codes 023 053 068 073 090 107 108 233 360 and 361. Universal remotes are quite cheap nowadays. Von Restorff (talk) 01:52, 17 January 2012 (UTC)

Some follow-up questions:

1) Is this broadcast TV, cable, or from other source ?

2) Did you try hitting the channel buttons right on the TV, to see if it's a bigger problem than just the remote ? StuRat (talk) 05:28, 17 January 2012 (UTC)

In my (and my family's) experience, TV remotes don't last more than two or three years. The contacts of the most frquently used buttons seem to wear out. It's a nuisance, but the simplest solution is just to buy a new one.--Shantavira|^{feed me} 08:45, 17 January 2012 (UTC)

My B&O remote is built like a tank and has worked for the past 10 years.--85.211.142.228 (talk) 11:01, 17 January 2012 (UTC)

Opening download.

Have Downloaded Santos vs Barcelona World Club Soccer Final 2011 on to my hardrive (Windows 7 Inspiron). Guided thereon to a variety of expensive software to open it!! Can anyone advise if there is any other way I can open it, other than purchasing expensive software with doubtful credentials. Hamish 84. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Hamish84 (talk • contribs) 03:18, 17 January 2012 (UTC)

Do not purchase that software, it is a scam. I have sent you an email with detailed explanation how to download this soccer match for free. Von Restorff (talk) 03:47, 17 January 2012 (UTC)

Is it possible for a Photoshop tool's effect to "wrap around" an image?

Hello,

Is there any way to have the effect of a tool in Photoshop wrap around an image as if the image were continuous? For example, if the brush tool is in use and positioned such that half of the brush area is outside the right edge of the image, is it possible to have the brush's area of effect "wrap around" to the other side of the image? (In this hypothetical situation, using this "wrapped around" brush would result in altered pixels on both the right and left sides of the image.) Overall, the image would behave as if its opposite edges (and corners) were connected (sort of like an active version of the offset filter).

If this isn't possible in Photoshop, are there any other image editing programs that do incorporate this functionality?

Thanks,

Hiram J. Hackenbacker (talk) 03:52, 17 January 2012 (UTC)

You can achieve that effect by drawing a mask around the center of the image. Then, you could set up a large brush and brush over the whole image. Because the center of the image is masked (i.e., protected), your changes would only apply to the left and right sides.—Best Dog Ever (talk) 08:56, 17 January 2012 (UTC)

A mask wouldn't make the tool "wrap around", though; with a brush diameter substantially smaller than the image it would still be necessary to use the brush tool twice, once on the right side and once on the left, and there's no way of ensuring that the results would line up if the image were tiled (or if the offset filter was applied afterwards), particularly if brush strokes were used. The basic use case I'm considering is adding details (e.g., brush strokes, colour changes, etc.) to an image that's intended to be tiled. Hiram J. Hackenbacker (talk) 13:04, 17 January 2012 (UTC)

Photoshop doesn't do this. I've done weird things for tiled images, like making a 3x3 version of the image and then splice the pieces back together. It's not pretty. I'm sure there are dedicated programs to making tiles (since that's rather common in a number of graphics contexts), but I'm afraid I don't know what they are. Asking specifically for a tiling program, though, is probably a better bet than trying to figure out how to make Photoshop do this. --Mr.98 (talk) 14:32, 17 January 2012 (UTC)

One solution might be to copy the affected edges of an image into a new image, put them up against each other, make the edits, and then copy them back into place. It's probably a bit of a pain, though. Paul (Stansifer) 16:33, 17 January 2012 (UTC)

Another solution is to simply create a new transparent layer. Use the brush on it. Then cut it as desired and move the left piece to the right border of the bottom layer and vice versa for the other piece. It wouldn't do for tools like dodge etc. though, but you can always use the brush tool on the new layer and use layer fx instead.-- Obsidi♠n Soul 19:07, 17 January 2012 (UTC)

You can divide the brush tip into two by opening the brushes palette and clicking on Brush Tip Shape, then moving the Spacing slider to the right. You can also define your own brush by going to Edit → Define Brush Preset.

But, the short answer to your question is no, and thankfully so. I for one am glad that Photoshop does not wrap anything that is too large to fit on the right over to the left because it would overlap my work.—Best Dog Ever (talk) 17:08, 17 January 2012 (UTC)

Obviously no one wants this to be the regular way it operates. But if you do have to tile something — which I've had to do a number of times, when making backgrounds for web pages — it's a huge pain as it currently stands. I wish it had some sort of plugin or something that would make creating tiles easier. --Mr.98 (talk) 18:57, 17 January 2012 (UTC)

As it stands, it seems that using the offset filter twice (once to move the image such that the edge in question is in the middle and once to move it back after making alterations to the image) is probably the most efficient solution when it comes to encompassing both brush and non-brush tools (like dodge, burn, etc.). Mr.98, it's interesting that you'd mention making a 3 x 3 grid, as I considered doing that (I think it'd be an excellent way to present a "wrapping mode" in an image-editing program regardless). At any rate, I'll look into image editing programs aimed specifically at making tiling images; hopefully something suitable already exists. Hiram J. Hackenbacker (talk) 23:52, 17 January 2012 (UTC)

"multiple networks" on a Windows 7 home network

One of the Windows 7 computers on my home network is having some network problems. Under control panel/network and sharing center, at the top it shows "multiple networks" between it and the internet. Below that it shows two networks, both "home network", both joined to HomeGroup. The first one says "local area connection", the second says "Hamachi" (what ever that is I assume that is Hamachi (software)). The first has internet access but the second one doesn't. The first says 1Gbps (it has a 1GB card, etc) whereas the second says 100Mbps. I think the problem may be caused by the second network being there, but I can't figure out a way to remove it without deleting the first one too. (There is an XP computer on the network that has a 100Mbps card, this computer can access it. There is a W7 computer with a 1Gbps card, but this computer can't access it.)

Could having the two networks cause a problem, and how to remove it? Bubba73 ^{You talkin' to me?} 04:15, 17 January 2012 (UTC)

If you do not experience a problem there probably is no problem. Ask the users of your LAN if they have installed Hamachi (e.g. kids use it to play network games). You could try uninstalling Hamachi, but I do not think it is necessary and if both computers have internet access it is probably wise to ignore the extra network connection. Von Restorff (talk) 04:30, 17 January 2012 (UTC)

I am having a problem, but I don't know the cause. The problem is that the other Win7 desktop can't be accessed by the other computers on the network. It shows up under \\computername, but they can't access it. I've spent many hours working on this and I've done everything I can think of. I noticed this tonight and I thought it might be the problem. My daughter plays games on the internet, but not over our home network. The other computer shows "network" but this one shows "network 2" and "network 7" - I thought that might be the problem. Bubba73 ^{You talkin' to me?} 05:06, 17 January 2012 (UTC)

Hamachi is disabled in MSCONFIG but I see that it is from LogMeIn. I have used that to let tech support connect to my computer. Bubba73 ^{You talkin' to me?} 05:14, 17 January 2012 (UTC)

I uninstalled LogMeIn and network 7 went away, but I still have the problem. Bubba73 ^{You talkin' to me?} 05:33, 17 January 2012 (UTC)

I think it is very unlikely Hamachi caused the problem, but it may be the solution. If you spent many hours on this I am going to assume you tried all the basic stuff with permissions and firewalls and testing with and without passwords. You may want to use Hamachi to create a connection between the computers, that should be a simple and quick solution. I understand this sounds a bit weird, but it is probably a solution without actually solving the problem.

If you really want to solve the problem: on Windows XP there are no homegroups, just workgroups. Try this or this. If you do not care too much about security and you want to simplify things set up an administrator account on both the Windows XP computer and the Windows 7 computer, both with the same username and password.Von Restorff (talk) 09:51, 17 January 2012 (UTC)

Thanks, yes, I've tried a lot of stuff and this worked without a problem until a few days ago, when that computer locked up (the one that isn't accessible from the others). When it restarted, it said that it had a problem starting and went through a configuration. The only problem is the networking. After I worked on it many hours, I took it to a computer store. They said that an old antivirus program was causing the problem and they removed it (it wasn't supposed to be running but was). When I got it home late yesterday, I still had the problem. I called them and they suggested having all leave the homegroup and rejoin. I did that but it didn't help. I don't need any security on the wired part of the network. Bubba73 ^{You talkin' to me?} 15:59, 17 January 2012 (UTC)

Right, just to be sure, I assume that all computers are on 'WORKGROUP' or 'HOMEGROUP' or something similar. You need to make sure that all computers have the same workgroup name with the same case, to avoid confusion. Next. Are all the computers on the same network? Do you have more than one internet source, more than one router? Make sure all computers are on the same subnet. For example, one computer can be on 192.168.1.2 and the next computer could be on 192.168.100.2 and they may not be able to see each other. Are you able to provide the exact setup for your network? (i.e two desktops, one laptop, a wireless router, modem). I work in IT, and deal with alot of users with networking issues, but that's mainly domain related. Mrlittleirish 17:02, 17 January 2012 (UTC)

I went through the process, except that I didn't see "customize your printer" on either computer. But the problem is the same. The other computer name shows up but clicking on it says "Windows cannot access \\computername". Trying to map the network drive has the same problem. Now, yesterday on the laptop I did get a message that there was another computer with the same IP address. I don't know how to check or fix that.

How do I check the "workgroup" name? They are all on the same network, one internet source, one router (wired plus wireless). How do I check the subnet?

One router, one cable modem, two Win7 desktops (wired), one XP desktop (wired), one Win7 laptop (wireless).

One thing I have thought about is simply putting a wireless network card in the computer the others can't access. How about that? Bubba73 ^{You talkin' to me?} 18:29, 17 January 2012 (UTC)

Good wikipedia mirror?

As you've almost certainly noted from the huge banner up at the top wikipedia won't be online tomorrow. I agree with the reasoning and whatnot (though I think it should have been given longer notice) but this is going to massively disrupt my classes work tomorrow. I am wondering if anyone can recommend a good up to date mirror we could use, preferably one with an easy web address. Thanks! 31.52.28.233 (talk) 11:46, 17 January 2012 (UTC)

This is the perfect opportunity to explain the people affected by the blackout what SOPA is. Maybe you can use the Google cache or Archive.org. Von Restorff (talk) 11:51, 17 January 2012 (UTC)

We already know about SOPA and I don't think a whole day can be dedicated to a piece of legislation that isn't part of our country and something we basically can't do anything about. 31.52.28.233 (talk) 11:56, 17 January 2012 (UTC)

There's a list here. Google cache is probably the best method AvrillirvA (talk) 11:53, 17 January 2012 (UTC)

Yes, I know about this list, but I don't know which ones are good. Is there no recommended backup mirror for the times when wikipedia has gone down unintentionally or something? Google cache often leaves out pictures and the intrasite search probably won't work. Also who's to say google won't cache the SOPA'd version of wikipedia? 31.52.28.233 (talk) 11:56, 17 January 2012 (UTC)

Usually I use the secure server, that is the backup server I normally would recommend, but I guess that will be blacked out too. If the Google cache does not work, try archive.org (a bit slower). But the whole point of the blackout is the fact it will be a minor inconvenience. Von Restorff (talk) 13:27, 17 January 2012 (UTC)

If I understand how the blackout will be implemented (full sized CSS banner), Google won't notice the difference with the normal situation. -- Luk^talk 17:22, 17 January 2012 (UTC)

If that's the case, browsing with styles turned off (e.g. firefox: view->page_style->no style) will make everything readable fine. Wikipedia works very well with no style. 87.115.118.8 (talk) 18:04, 17 January 2012 (UTC)

Ad Block Plus FTW. Von Restorff (talk) 18:11, 17 January 2012 (UTC)

I recommend you simply keep a local copy of Wikipedia:Mirrors and forks/All as mentioned by AvrillirvA and look for something that works for you when needed. Incidentally, it occured to me anyone not keeping a local copy of the contrib history would potentially be violating the CC licence during the blackout even if they are otherwise compliant and link to our articles. Nil Einne (talk) 19:17, 17 January 2012 (UTC)

When does the blackout start

Does anyone know what time UTC we'll be going offline? KägeTorä - (影虎) (TALK) 12:46, 17 January 2012 (UTC)

At 05:00 UTC on Wednesday, January 18. Von Restorff (talk) 12:57, 17 January 2012 (UTC)

Cheers. And thanks for the new section. I wasn't going to, as it was trivial, yet related to the above section. KägeTorä - (影虎) (TALK) 13:14, 17 January 2012 (UTC)

YVW. Just to be precise, we won't be going offline AFAIK. Von Restorff (talk) 13:30, 17 January 2012 (UTC)

If you actually click the wonderful banner up there, it tells you. >.> Mrlittleirish 17:05, 17 January 2012 (UTC)

Where does it says Wikipedia goes offline? Von Restorff (talk) 17:14, 17 January 2012 (UTC)

I got a message at the top of my page last night EST saying that WP is going down 26 hours from then for 24 hours as a protest. So it is sometime tonight, EST. Bubba73 ^{You talkin' to me?} 18:34, 17 January 2012 (UTC)

It is midnight EST, which is 0500 GMT. [2] Bubba73 ^{You talkin' to me?} 18:36, 17 January 2012 (UTC)

The blackout does not mean that Wikipedia goes offline AFAIK. Von Restorff (talk) 18:54, 17 January 2012 (UTC)

But the content won't be available. Bubba73 ^{You talkin' to me?} 19:07, 17 January 2012 (UTC)

So, what does you suppose it's going to happen during the blackout? 88.9.214.30 (talk) 23:03, 17 January 2012 (UTC)

I think I will get some more important stuff done! :-) Bubba73 ^{You talkin' to me?} 23:17, 17 January 2012 (UTC)

January 18

Xbox 360 emulator

Has anyone succeeded in making a good Xbox 360 emulator? If they did, I suppose one could install such an emulator on a small form factor PC with a DVD drive and play Xbox 360 games on that. --Melab±1 ☎ 00:41, 18 January 2012 (UTC)

I don't think so. Not for now, at least. Emulating sixth-generation systems has been quite difficult even for console manufacturers themselves, i.e. the Xbox compatibility mode on the 360 and PS2 software emulation on the PlayStation 3. Anything else that claims to emulate the 360 or any recent console is most likely to be a scam. Blake Gripling (talk) 01:14, 18 January 2012 (UTC)

Tor Proxy

Just how anonymous is Tor? Is it really untraceable? Is it even anonymous to the courts if someone did something mildly bad from it, but not anything serious like fraud or threatening to blow up the White House? (Not asking for legal advice here, obviously since I'm not providing enough details for somebody to provide good legal advice, I just want to know exactly how anonymous Tor is) 31.204.130.206 (talk) 01:47, 18 January 2012 (UTC)