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April 6

Atto FastFrame NS14 Quad-Port 10GbE NIC Card - Transceiver Removability

Hello Fellow RefDeskers!

  I trying to determine whether the four 10Gb transceivers on the Atto FastFrame NS14 Quad-Port 10GbE NIC Card are removable or soldered in. If the transceivers are removable, I'd like to buy this card this card to use with Direct-Attach Cables. But I don't want to buy the card before determining whether the transceivers are detachable, and the Atto website has not been of any help.

  Thanks in advance to all RefDeskers! Rocketshiporion♫ 12:24, 6 April 2012 (UTC)

AFAIK, you need transceivers at both ends to connect an NIC to an iSCSI SAN disk-array, even if you're connecting the server directly to the disk-array without using a switch. I don't see where on the website it says that the card comes with transceivers - the photo seems to show the card without any transceivers installed. The transceiver should be removable from the NIC card, but there's not really any point in detaching the transceiver unless you're swapping out a faulty transceiver. 124.197.110.96 (talk) 13:43, 6 April 2012 (UTC)

Hacking

For some reasons my computer got some kind of virus i have no idea of. It seems to me that the virus only works on Wikipedia site. I tried to go to many other websites and none of them get affected by the virus. Only Wikipedia site got affected. Every time i go to Wikipedia, there is some kind of ads pop up (there is a little words down at the bottom says that ads are not from this site). I know for the fact that Wikipedia doesn't allow any ads. I think the virus must have somehow invaded Wikipedia on my computer. Does anyone know how to get rid of the ads on Wikipedia?65.128.167.101 (talk) 03:57, 6 April 2012 (UTC)

Get rid of the virus with an anti-virus program. 46.208.224.194 (talk) 09:09, 6 April 2012 (UTC)

I don't have one. Plus i thought Wikipedia has the most secure anti-ads system. It turned out that it is the weakest since it is the only affected. Doesn't Wikipedia has some kind of anti-ads program that i can run on my computer?65.128.167.101 (talk) 13:23, 6 April 2012 (UTC)

Several people have had this problem recently. You need to disable a browser plugin called Codec-c 1.0 then get yourself some antivirus software to stop it happening again. There are plenty of good free ones these days, see list of antivirus software.--Shantavira|^{feed me} 14:45, 6 April 2012 (UTC)

There's no such thing as an anti-ads system for a website. Once malware (what you have is not necessarily technically a virus), is on your system, it can do whatever it wants. For whatever reason, they chose to put ads on Wikipedia. (They might also be replacing the real ads on Google, etc. with their own ads; this would be more effective than merely adding their own, and is also potentially unnoticable.). You might want to try anti-malware software. Paul (Stansifer) 21:33, 6 April 2012 (UTC)

WP:RFAQ#ADS, and please don't post the same question to multiple reference desks. RudolfRed (talk) 15:48, 6 April 2012 (UTC)

How can i disable Codec-c 1.0? Where can i find it? If possible, tell me in steps. Thanks!65.128.167.101 (talk) 22:19, 6 April 2012 (UTC)

What is your browser? Try to find "Plugins" or "Extensions" in its menu. Since it's malware, it may try to prevent removal. PrimeHunter (talk) 14:17, 7 April 2012 (UTC)

It is google chrome. Where can i find "Plugins" or "Extensions"? Can you tell me in steps how to get there? Thanks.65.128.167.101 (talk) 21:16, 7 April 2012 (UTC)

Type chrome://plugins/ into the address bar. Vespine (talk) 01:27, 10 April 2012 (UTC)

How to determine if an email was forwarded?

As above, is it possible to determine by some means (like the analysis of code data) whether an email I've received is a forwarded copy of other email and not made up just to look like a forwarded one? Regards Trybald (talk) 09:39, 6 April 2012 (UTC)

Basically no. You could check with the senders of the original email. Nil Einne (talk) 16:21, 6 April 2012 (UTC)

Spammers use a variety of techniques to track emails as they flow through the network. Some of their techniques are quite clever, and can usually distinguish between human- and non-human consumer of email. For example, some methods only flag when the email's embedded HTML is rendered, which may cause the user to make an invisible server-query. However, such techniques are susceptible to false-positives, false-negatives, and are generally ill-regarded as "spammy" or privacy-invasive techniques. All of these techniques require that you are the original crafter of the email.

If you have access to server logs (which very few people do), you can also verify the email's embedded history (i.e., the route it claims to have taken) against the servers' own logs. Because most people use third-party email servers (like Hotmail and Google), and these providers don't publish their server-logs to the public, there's no way to validate. But if the mail is routed through your server, you can check your logs; this is a major reason why large companies use internal email servers, rather than third-party providers; operating the SMTP and IMAP servers guarantees access to an extra level of accountability tracing. Nimur (talk) 19:20, 6 April 2012 (UTC)

About call back advantage

can anyone tell me about call back advantage? — Preceding unsigned comment added by Rocalabs9 (talk • contribs) 12:12, 6 April 2012 (UTC)

I found here something globaltel[dot] com — Preceding unsigned comment added by Rocalabs9 (talk • contribs) 12:13, 6 April 2012 (UTC)

I assume you mean the system where, when a call can't be completed immediately, it waits until the line is clear, then calls the party again on your behalf ? It could be useful for an extremely high priority call, where getting through as soon as possible is paramount. However, for normal calls I find it quite annoying. I want to initiate the call, not a machine, so I can time it when I want, and am prepared for it (have the info I need handy, etc.). StuRat (talk) 18:28, 6 April 2012 (UTC)

Javascript regex question

Hi all, I have a Javascript regex to grab the content between square brackets:

/\[[^\]]+\]/g
"this is [a test] expression"
=> "[a test]"

This works great, except I want to to ignore any inner brackets:

"a b c [d e [f g] h] i [j k]"
= "[d e [f g] h]", "[j k]"

Any thoughts on how to do this? Thanks! — Sam 71.192.35.33 (talk) 22:37, 6 April 2012 (UTC)

Ordinary regular expressions can't deal with nested brackets. I don't think Javascript regexes have extended features that would let you do that, but I don't know for sure. You might have to just write a loop that goes through the string character-by-character. 130.76.64.115 (talk) 00:04, 7 April 2012 (UTC)

What you need is recursive regular expression. A google search for "recursive regex" ([1]), yields many useful discussions, including some very similar to your case. Unfortunately, I do not believe recursive regular expressions are available in JavaScript. They are available in Perl and environments that support the entire Perl regex syntax. If you could use Perl, you could write something like $regex = qr/\[([^\[\]]|(??{$regex}))+\]/;. Parsed out, the expression looks like:

   \[              /* Opening bracket */
   (
     [^\[\]]       /* Some character other than left/right bracket */
     |             /* or */
     (??{$regex})  /* A nested bracketed string */
   )+              /* one or more (non-empty) */
   \]              /* Closing bracket */

Note that the first part now excludes both left and right brackets. The second part contains a nested reference to the entire expression that recursively defines a properly nested bracket sequence. To get a similar behavior without recursion, you will need to manually replace the "(??{$regex})" part with a copy of the whole expression and repeat that substitution for however many levels of nested brackets you need to support. (I'll leave that as an exercise. It gets longs and messy fast.) The innermost nesting would simply disallow any bracket characters with "\[[^\[\]]+\]". Note that your initial example required that the bracketed lists be nonempty. To support empty lists, replace "+" with "*". -- Tom N (tcncv) talk/contrib 00:09, 7 April 2012 (UTC)

This may actually be a case where a non-regexp parser is simpler and easier to use. You aren't performing general expression matching; you're just scanning for a specific magic character ']' and you want to ignore it if it's nested. So, implement a counter; scan the string character-by-character; start a match-string on the opening '[' and for each subsequent '[', increment the counter; for each ']' decrement the counter; and when your counter is back to 0, close the match on the first ']'. This can be implemented with a while() loop and charAt() in JavaScript. Be sure to gracefully handle the corner cases, like when an unmatched '[' opens, but is never closed, and you reach the end of the string. Nimur (talk) 00:35, 7 April 2012 (UTC)

April 7

Changing the wallpaper on Windows 7

My old computer (running XP) crashed so I purchased a new one. It is running Windows 7. I want to use the same wallpaper on my desktop as I had on the old computer. I can't figure out how to do this (I have saved the pic on my desktop).

Thanks. 99.250.103.117 (talk) 01:46, 7 April 2012 (UTC)

The easiest way is to right click the image where you should see a "Set as desktop background" option. Alternately, you can right click the desktop, select "personalize", click on "Desktop Background", and then navigate to the image you would like to use. -- Tom N (tcncv) talk/contrib 02:02, 7 April 2012 (UTC)

Unfortunately, neither strategy worked! When I right click the pic (which is sitting on my desktop), I don't get the message. Same for the second strategy - the message noted in the post does not show up! Could it be a problem with my version of Win 7?99.250.103.117 (talk) 16:34, 7 April 2012 (UTC)

What if you right click on the image after opening it? Basically as you're viewing and enjoying the image, right click anywhere in the image itself. Dismas|^(talk) 18:20, 7 April 2012 (UTC)

This Microsoft help page runs you through a further way to change your wallpaper if the above ideas do not work. If you still have trouble, there is an article here which may help. One of the things noted at that link is that if "[you] are using Windows 7 Starter; this version of Windows 7 does not support changing the desktop background picture" - could this be the issue? - Cucumber Mike (talk) 18:47, 7 April 2012 (UTC)

Ahhh! In all liklihood, I am using the Windows Starter version - I know the Word, Excel, etc. programs that came with the computer are starter versions, so probably the Win 7 is as well. I will try the above suggestions just in case. Thanks everyone. 99.250.103.117 (talk) 21:50, 7 April 2012 (UTC)

It does sound like you might be on the Starter edition, yes. If you want to check, you can click Start then Computer then Properties. The version will be written at the top of the window. - Cucumber Mike (talk) 21:57, 7 April 2012 (UTC)

Searching in Chrome

How do I search a page while browsing with Chrome? I know how to do it in IE and Firefox, but I can't find a search option in my Chrome browser. 69.62.243.48 (talk) 05:17, 7 April 2012 (UTC)

In Windows, Ctrl-F works for me just like in all other browsers. Dismas|^(talk) 05:29, 7 April 2012 (UTC)

Thanks. 69.62.243.48 (talk) 05:31, 7 April 2012 (UTC)

Title Tools in Premiere Pro CS5.

Can anyone help me with this? I've been trying to get the Titler applet in Premiere Pro CS5 to work, but no matter what I do it just gives me the beachball of death upon trying to spawn a new title. Clearing the font cache and removing duplicate fonts didn't help, and neither was reinstalling the application. I'm using Snow Leopard 10.5.8, btw. Blake Gripling (talk) 07:54, 7 April 2012 (UTC)

Today's featured picture

How could I get a list (in JPGs) of "Today's featured pictures" for all the pictures submitted to Wikipedia in the last few years? I want to use them as my screen saver pictures for Windows 7.--Doug Coldwell ^talk 13:54, 7 April 2012 (UTC)

They're available all the way back to May 2004. -- Zanimum (talk) 14:54, 7 April 2012 (UTC)

Now how do I get them as a series of JPG pictures so I can use for my screen saver as a slide show that changes the picture (of dozens) every 10 seconds? How do I download a series of dozens of pictures without having to download each one individually?--Doug Coldwell ^talk 15:55, 7 April 2012 (UTC)

One way would be to use a bulk downloader. There is a Firefox add-on, a Chrome extension and a standalone program (for Windows). There are more options out there - I found these through a Google search for 'download all images on a page'. One limitation is that these will only download the images from a single page at a time - you would have to click on each month's archive separately. There may be a solution out there that could use a regex or similar to match all the subpages in the archive, but I haven't found it yet. - Cucumber Mike (talk) 16:12, 7 April 2012 (UTC)

Thanks, I'll go to work on it.--Doug Coldwell ^talk 16:22, 7 April 2012 (UTC)

Cabling options

what cabling options can i use to connect 2 offices that are 2km apart.media,connectors,cost of cabling and data transfer rates — Preceding unsigned comment added by 83.143.30.91 (talk) 14:24, 7 April 2012 (UTC)

If you're running the cabling yourself, you're building what amounts to a campus area network or perhaps a metropolitan area network - those articles link to the various technologies used. This works okay if your organisation owns all the land between the two offices, or has rights to run cabling through ducts between them - but in many places the right of way (e.g. the right to run cabling under or over the public highway) is owned by a public authority like a city government, or by a licensed telecoms company (like the phone company) - in that case you might have to buy the long-distance interconnect with them, and use whatever communications technology they supply, Or you can avoid running cabling, but instead build a virtual private network using the existing connections your two offices have to the public internet, and tunnelling the interconnect between them virtually (that is, through an encrypted Internet connection, rather than an actual physical cable). Which is best depends for you depends on the communication needs of the offices and whether/how cabling can be run. -- Finlay McWalterჷTalk 15:36, 7 April 2012 (UTC)

if you have line-of-sight between the two buildings, you could use Microwave transmission between them instead of cables. RudolfRed (talk) 18:08, 7 April 2012 (UTC)

We've had questions like this before, though I can't find the last one at the moment. Our article on Category 6 cable says the maximum length is about 100 meters. Since you're trying to go 20 times that distance, that obviously won't work. Fiber is an option, as is dls, as are certain microwave technologies. This assumes too you can address the physical issues of having access to run cable/line of sight.

But really these are theoretical answers because if you're undertaking a project like this you couldn't possibly base your answer on what people on a forum told you. This is a rather major undertaking, and if you have 2 km worth of office space to span, you probably have a group in your organization that handles that sort of thing. What's more likely is that you have two locations you want to connect. It's probably better to use existing technologies, like a vpn to link separate locations like that. Shadowjams (talk) 00:08, 8 April 2012 (UTC)

Something else to consider is the reliability you require. That is, is it OK if you lose connectivity during bad storms, and such ? Underground cable would be more resistant to this, but some idiot in a backhoe can always cut the cable. StuRat (talk) 01:34, 8 April 2012 (UTC)

OK some more concrete suggestion, put in single mode optic fibre, at least 12 cores. Terminate the ends with lc or SC terminations. Transceivers to run 100 megabits will cost about $300 each, rising to $5000 for 10 gigabit per second. Digging the trenches and supplying fibre may cost around $100000 as a one off cost. Using a carrier you will have to pay around $5000 installation for each end and a similar amount in rent each year, and your speed will not be 10 gig. In a city this is likely to be an option, but out in the suburbs or country side it will be cheaper to install your own. For the single mode fibre you can use 1310nm LED equipment. Graeme Bartlett (talk) 10:25, 8 April 2012 (UTC)

svn blame rate limit

In a typical repository, what's the typical server-side rate limit on anonymous svn blame requests? I've had "No response from server" errors when running 2,720 parallel blames (on a Core i7 2600k that takes more than 3,500 of them to fork-bomb). NeonMerlin 15:51, 7 April 2012 (UTC)

Remember that Subversion Server doesn't communicate to network clients. It requires a network layer server - typically httpd, or a webDAV Apache module, or sshd, to handle the client communication. As the official SVN webpage indicates, "Rather than writing a bunch of proprietary security mechanisms for Subversion, we prefer instead to teach Subversion to interoperate with security libraries and protocols provided by those with knowledge of that space. For example, Subversion defers wire encryption to the likes of OpenSSL. It defers authentication and basic authorization to those mechanisms provided by Cyrus SASL or by the Apache HTTP Server and its rich collection of modules.". So, your answer is going to depend on what protections you have set up for, e.g., simultaneous HTTP requests in Apache, or whichever other mechanism you are sending the SVN transactions over.

If your transactions are to a local svn server, simultaneous transactions are probably limited by transaction locking; by Unix system resource limitations (maximum user processes, maximum open file handles, and so on); and ultimately by actual hardware performance limits

I've decided not to ask why you are simultaneously transacting thousands of log queries. I don't... want to know. Nimur (talk) 16:08, 7 April 2012 (UTC)

@User:NeonMerlin Umm, why are you simultaneously transacting 2,720 queries? I'm curious... Vickreman.Chettiar 05:02, 9 April 2012 (UTC)

I need line-by-line edit dates for all the source code and header files in several builds, for a research paper on code's stability over time. If I knew a way to fetch a blame log for an entire tagged build at once, rather than file-by-file, that's what I'd do. NeonMerlin 19:47, 11 April 2012 (UTC)

April 8

History of X.25 packet switched networks

I can't figure out from [2] whether there were any companies offering X.25-style data communications prior to 1976. Can anyone find a history that says when such commercial datacom services were available? Did the "Joint Working Party on New Data Networks, which was created by the IVth Plenary Assembly of the CCITT in 1968" result in anything commercial? 71.215.74.243 (talk) 06:10, 8 April 2012 (UTC)

Some like Compuserve were around then but also used propriatory network protocols. Back in those early days asynchronous communication, ie characters with start and stop bits were used, rather than packet switching. The main connections were direct from terminal to computer, and only later multiplexors came into being so that you did not have to make a phone call across the country to the computer. Standard speeds were 45 50 75 bits per second, later stretching out 300 bits per second. The telecom companies mostly offered point to point data services, if you did not want to use a modem on a phone line. Graeme Bartlett (talk) 10:12, 8 April 2012 (UTC)

Thank you. I see now that the CCITT JWP on NDN was mostly circuit switched technology prior to 1976. 71.215.74.243 (talk) 23:12, 8 April 2012 (UTC)

Pictures spreading through Facebook showing people in need

Everytime I look at Facebook, I frequently see these sad and touching images that people ask to share. For example, one says "This baby has cancer. Like of you wished cancer didn't exist ! :(" while another says "this is so sad giving drugs to babys :'( 1 Like = 1 prayer for each baby that died from drug abuse. :'/" which is a picture of a picture of a baby in pink clothes in a coffin, which is found on a celebrity's Facebook page (I am not subscribed to him, but some of my friends are). But, are these pictures real, are the people really sharing them, or is this just some chain post stuff? If they are real, I'm sure their sharing intentions are good, but are their good intentions being abused? Narutolovehinata5 ^tccsdnew 06:43, 8 April 2012 (UTC)

They're obviously hoaxes or just some sort of schadenfreude at the expense of the person in question. Even if they claim that Facebook will be giving a portion for the benefit of the supposed beneficiaries, the way these shared posts are circulated reeks of a typical chain hoax. Blake Gripling (talk) 09:00, 8 April 2012 (UTC)

They're chain posts. Check Snopes.com for any one of them. The one I've been seeing lately is the burned baby and the text usually says something about someone giving money to help the baby for each share. But it's bogus. See this article for more on it. Dismas|^(talk) 09:32, 8 April 2012 (UTC)

However, the ones I see don't say anything about donations. Instead, they say something like "share if you love your mother", or "share if you are touched". Narutolovehinata5 ^tccsdnew 09:52, 8 April 2012 (UTC)

Probably false. Slacktivism in any case. --Mr.98 (talk) 12:48, 8 April 2012 (UTC)

Just another way to waste your time on the Internet. HiLo48 (talk) 12:56, 8 April 2012 (UTC)

Flashback trojan

Is there any way that I can check, and clean if necessary, my Macs for the Flashback trojan without having to install any anti-virus software? Will updating Java and the OS with the latest patches sanitize an infected system? Dismas|^(talk) 09:35, 8 April 2012 (UTC)

An article in Ars Technica suggests typing the following commands in Terminal if you'd like to check for any infections:

    defaults read ~/.MacOSX/environment DYLD_INSERT_LIBRARIES

    defaults read /Applications/Safari.app/Contents/Info LSEnvironment

    defaults read /Applications/Firefox.app/Contents/Info LSEnvironment

If Terminal tells you that the stuff you queried doesn't exist, then you're good to go. As for updates, well, yeah, you should do that especially if you determined that your Mac's clean. And you should install an antivirus, as, well, you'll never know. Blake Gripling (talk) 13:46, 8 April 2012 (UTC)

newly created torrent won't seed

I've been using bittorent software and torrents for several years, but have never tried creating my own. I need to create a torrent in order to share a single large private file with a friend. I've followed a number of tutorials and each time I have the same problem. I select the file, add a public tracker, create and save, and then the torrent is added to my queue. It says "downloading" and does nothing. I stop it, change the download location to the same location as the file, and then restart it. According to the advice I've read, it should then recognise the file and build it, say download is complete, and start seeding. Why won't it get to this seeding stage? It doesn't get past "downloading", where it stays stuck at 0. Any ideas what I'm doing wrong? I'm on a Mac, Lion OS, and am using BitTorrent. Katherine.J.W. (talk) 13:39, 8 April 2012 (UTC)

Have you tried using uTorrent instead? Blake Gripling (talk) 13:47, 8 April 2012 (UTC)

Yes. It appears to be exactly the same program, with different branding. Katherine.J.W. (talk) 13:52, 8 April 2012 (UTC)

Nevermind, I got it to work with uTorrent, though I'd like to understand why it doesn't work with BitTorrent. Katherine.J.W. (talk) 14:50, 8 April 2012 (UTC)

That's a very inefficient way to send a file to one person, though. Ftp would make a lot more sense. Looie496 (talk) 16:02, 8 April 2012 (UTC)

I know, but the recipient doesn't want to reveal their IP address. Katherine.J.W. (talk) 16:31, 8 April 2012 (UTC)

Torrenting doesn't hide your IP address. Take a look at the list of peers on your torrent list and there it is. Kind of silly to go to all that trouble for, well, zero security benefit. --Mr.98 (talk) 16:47, 8 April 2012 (UTC)

Ah, neither of us realised that was visible. Good thing I didn't look! We abandoned the idea though because I was seeding such a minuscule amount to him. We went back to Opera Unite, which gives fairly good speeds but unfortunately doesn't rebuild the file whenever there is an interruption. And Opera crashes a lot. Meaning he's had the first half of the file about half a dozen times! Katherine.J.W. (talk) 10:09, 9 April 2012 (UTC)

You'd want something like gnunet for private sharing. --145.94.77.43 (talk) 18:21, 10 April 2012 (UTC)

An alternative way to send a large file to one other person, or a small number of people, is to upload it to a file hosting service, and then notifying them of the file name and service.-gadfium 22:48, 8 April 2012 (UTC)

USB light

I have a simple USB light which draws power from a USB port. There is no software for it, simply plug it and it lights up. I would like to be able to turn it on and off via the Windows 7 command line (for use in a batch script). I figure the only way to do this would be to selectively disable the USB port it is connected to, but I do not know how to do this. The other USB ports must remain on and unaffected. Is this possible? How would it be done? Operating system is Windows 7. Thank you 82.45.62.107 (talk) 16:35, 8 April 2012 (UTC)

Someone else out there in internet-land had the same question as you. The answer given then was that it's not really possible as you describe it - without some extra software or hardware, you can really only have all the USB ports on, or all of them off. A couple of other suggestions were made - Drive Disabler, which is some software to allow selective disabling of USB drives, and Devcon, which is a command line tool to do about the same thing. Alternatively, Texas Instruments do something called a USB power switch which might be a hardware solution to what you want. I say might because the documentation is in electronic-engineer-speak, and I'm not fluent. Maybe someone else could have a look and translate. - Cucumber Mike (talk) 17:11, 9 April 2012 (UTC)

Does windows recognise the USB light as hardware when you plug it in? Mrlittleirish 10:39, 10 April 2012 (UTC)

April 9

Android Tablet

an Android Tablet is a new kind of tech, like an ipad but smaller ?

Android tablets come in many sizes, but the most common are 7-inch and 10-inch screens. iPads have a 9.7-inch screen. While iPad started the current tablet computer popularity, and Android responded to the demand, both are evolving. I have both a 7-inch Android tablet (which I upgraded to version 4.0.3 yesterday), and a 3rd generation iPad. They're both nice, but I use them for different purposes - the Android mostly as an ebook reader with the capability to browse the web, and the iPad mostly as a web browsing device plus a few more specialised applications.-gadfium 01:51, 9 April 2012 (UTC)

It's not particularly new, no. It's relatively new for a Linux distro (of sorts) like Android to be backed so greatly by such a powerful organization as Google. Apple focuses on a few specific form factors and tightly controls their OS, not allowing it to be used on any devices but their own. Since Android is free and largely unregulated manufacturers and distributors are naturally using it on a number of different form factors. ¦ Reisio (talk) 13:04, 9 April 2012 (UTC)

Windows Explorer remembering CD/DVD info even after rejecting

I have a problem with Windows Explorer. After ejecting the DVD or CD in the DVD/CD drive, Windows Explorer still shows the volume info of the disc that has been ejected. It doesn't matter how long you wait, Windows Explorer never seems to show updated information. When I try to do an "eject" on the drive, it will take an unusually long time before the disc tray ejects. I seems that Windows is checking the drive for the disc that was there before (and will actually eject the disc tray only after it has failed to find the disc).

I don't know what might have caused it, but I remember having made some registry changes a few months ago while fixing/troubleshooting some issues. Is there a registry setting that, when set a certain way, would explain the symptoms that I'm seeing? If so, how do I reset it back to the normal setting?

If it doesn't look like a registry problem, what should I check to troubleshoot? --108.52.38.199 (talk) 01:15, 9 April 2012 (UTC)

This sounds like a very old behavior when you ejected a floppy disk. At least you don't get the infamous Retry/Ignore/Abort prompt (all of which repeat the same prompt). StuRat (talk) 02:01, 9 April 2012 (UTC)

Did you mean Abort, Retry, Fail?. CambridgeBayWeather (talk) 00:59, 10 April 2012 (UTC)

Yes. StuRat (talk) 05:35, 10 April 2012 (UTC)

Running a windows program on my mac

I have access to a free (legal) version of Turbotax--my father's purchase covers everyone in the family, up to five downloads, but I have a mac and the purchase is Turbotax for Windows and the download, no surprise, is an .exe file. How can I use this on my mac? I know there are programs that allow you to spoof/run the Windows interface but I have no idea what they're called (and I want this to be free). Any help?--108.54.27.24 (talk) 03:04, 9 April 2012 (UTC)

Look at Parallels Desktop for Mac. You might be able to get a demo version or free trial that will let you run Turbo Tax. Or you can ask Intuit if your father's licence includes the Mac version. (The version sold in stores has both). RudolfRed (talk) 03:12, 9 April 2012 (UTC)

I'm pretty sure the demo version will be pretty much useless on its own since AFAIK and as per the article, Parallels is simply a virtualisation program. You need a copy of the OS you want which is obviously Windows here and it sounds unlikely the OP has a spare licence for Windows to be used on a VM. You can sometimes get Windows trials but I'm not sure if the trial licence extends to running it on a VM. And in any case, it seems fairly pointless if the OP needs a long term solution (and it sounds like they do) and wants something free as they mentioned. If the OP does want to run Windows in a virtual machine, particularly since there only seems to be a single non demanding program they want to run (so any possible issues like limited GPU virtualisation shouldn't matter), it would seemingly make more sense for them to choose something that's free like VirtualBox or QEMU (possibly in the form of Q (emulator) although from what I can tell that hasn't been updated since 2008) both of which, from what I can tell, support Mac OS X in some fashion. Then at least they only have to worry about finding a Windows licence. Nil Einne (talk) 03:37, 9 April 2012 (UTC)

Wine and Mono are the first ones I can think of. →Στc. 03:13, 9 April 2012 (UTC)

Hmm I'm lost. I downloaded Wine and Wine bottler and then tried to Open the Turbotax and after about 100 errors it closed down. According to the wine database and some things I googled it's not going to work. Maybe I just have to try to get the Mac version.--108.54.27.24 (talk) 04:08, 9 April 2012 (UTC)

Any chance that you're a student? If so, you can get free versions of Windows 2003 and Windows 2008 (which are the server equivalents of XP and Vista) from dreamspark.com. Then use VirtualBox (also free) to boot into your legally licensed new copy of Windows. I use this setup on my Mac and it works very well. There is near-seamless integration so I can continue to work on my Mac as normal while running Windows as just another app/window. Julia\^talk 10:22, 9 April 2012 (UTC)

Typically licensing is separate from downloads — you might at least attempt to apply whatever licensing information you have to a Mac OS trial download (try to match the version as best you can). You could also call them up and see what your options are. ¦ Reisio (talk) 13:10, 9 April 2012 (UTC)

Solid state holographic data storage

I saw this, Holographic data storage and this, Holographic Versatile Disc, and it intrigued me. But I'm wondering if there's a holographic data storage medium that is solid state with no moving parts. ScienceApe (talk) 05:57, 9 April 2012 (UTC)

That'd severly limit the space (or require an incredible amount of redundant parts). Holographic storage systems already have many fewer moving parts than a traditional hard disk, and the medium itself does not have to come into as close contact with anything that could easily physically damage it. ¦ Reisio (talk) 12:57, 9 April 2012 (UTC)

Very interesting. Silentmidnight7q (talk) 11:29, 11 April 2012 (UTC)

Mains Adapter for iPod Touch

Is there such a thing as an adapter that I can plug into the wall socket and recharge (or keep charged) my iPod Touch? The battery doesn't seem to last very long - 5 hours or so of continual use - and I tend to use it a lot when I am outside. It would be nice to be able to plug it in when at a restaurant, for example. Googling has only got me hits for 'USB mains adapter', which makes no sense. KägeTorä - (影虎) (TALK) 09:01, 9 April 2012 (UTC)

Hmm, my iPod Touch came with such a thing - which is indeed a USB mains adapter. It's just a wall-wart with a usb socket, which plugs into the usb-ipod cable you surely already have, which plugs into the iPod to charge it. -- Finlay McWalterჷTalk 09:28, 9 April 2012 (UTC)

Mine came with the same thing. You can get them here if you've lost yours. Dismas|^(talk) 09:56, 9 April 2012 (UTC)

OP here. Sorry, I wasn't clear. I do indeed have a USB charger. I am looking to recharge from the mains - the household electricity supply, for example, not via USB. 145.236.189.201 (talk) 10:19, 9 April 2012 (UTC)

Yes, we know what you mean. This thing plugs into the mains outlet on the wall. It has a transformer, which produces the normal USB power level. It then emits this on a usb connection (which carries no data) into which you can plug an iPod. -- Finlay McWalterჷTalk 10:20, 9 April 2012 (UTC)

Sorry, I hadn't clicked on the link Dismas provided. I did not get one with mine, and that is indeed what I need. Now I just need a European and UK version. Thanks, I will look around. 145.236.189.143 (talk) 10:28, 9 April 2012 (UTC)

Here you go. Straight from Apple. Dismas|^(talk) 10:34, 9 April 2012 (UTC)

The standard adapter comes with interchangeable power pins for different standards. Graeme Bartlett (talk) 10:38, 9 April 2012 (UTC)

How do I live-download to YouTube?

I would like to put up a live broadcast from a digital camera (or a cameraphone) to my YouTube channel. I don't like to wait until I go to a computer, or even wait until the recording is done. I want the footage to be placed on the site as it's being filmed. Then the live broadcast has a set length once I stop recording.

How do I get this to happen? Thanks. --Tergigress (talk) 09:54, 9 April 2012 (UTC)

Youtube can't do this, you may want a live stream. 190.60.93.218 (talk) 13:01, 9 April 2012 (UTC)

A better tool for doing this would be Bambuser, which does pretty much exactly what you describe. - Cucumber Mike (talk) 16:59, 9 April 2012 (UTC)

It can be done on YouTube, but I think you need a sponsered or paid account to be able to do this. Mrlittleirish 10:35, 10 April 2012 (UTC)

Processor iddle

I would like to know if there are side effects when the processor is not iddle? (I mean when it's always being used). Current;y I'm bruteforcing a tripcode but I don't know if this is bad to the processor, thanks. 190.60.93.218 (talk) 13:05, 9 April 2012 (UTC)

Processing is what processors are designed to do. ¦ Reisio (talk) 13:13, 9 April 2012 (UTC)

So It doesn't matter if the processor is 100% being used than or if it is iddle most of the time? 190.60.93.218 (talk) 13:25, 9 April 2012 (UTC)

It depends on your system. In general, a processor that runs hotter will age quicker and may develop faults earlier. However, in a well-designed system, the temperature should remain well below the point where this effect is noticeable. So unless you have a very crappy thermal design, you should be fine. BTW, the processor state is called "idle" (one "d"), as in "idling away your live" ;-). --Stephan Schulz (talk) 13:44, 9 April 2012 (UTC)

It looks that I'm going to have to pause it.. cause I can feel warm.. of it.. Thanks.. 190.60.93.218 (talk) 14:47, 9 April 2012 (UTC)

You shouldn't have to worry about it, the processor will take care of itself, in the worst case it'll shut itself down before any damage is done. I'm really confused how someone could know enough to have a legitimate reason and the capability to bruteforce as you're suggesting but doesn't have the knowledge about how a processor works. Chris M. (talk) 14:54, 9 April 2012 (UTC)

I didn't wrote the brute forcing program. But I'm constantly learning about programming... And I don't really know much about hardware.... 190.60.93.218 (talk) 16:13, 9 April 2012 (UTC)

I'm not sure what you consider a side effect but busy processors usually use more electric power. Some people only crunch numbers when they would otherwise turn up the heat. Electric power is an expensive heat source. PrimeHunter (talk) 16:37, 9 April 2012 (UTC)

If just the processor is being used, then heat would be the main concern, yes. However, if it's also using the hard drive, then those moving parts might wear out much quicker than you would expect. Similarly, since flash drives have a limited number of read/write cycles, they might wear out quickly, too. StuRat (talk) 05:27, 10 April 2012 (UTC)

I'd expect several years of use even if it's running constantly. By then you will want a new computer anyway. --145.94.77.43 (talk) 18:18, 10 April 2012 (UTC)

IE8 converting numbers into telephone numbers

When the death of my Windows Vista computer in November forced me to buy a computer equipped with Windows 7, I made sure to go back to the same IE8 that I'd been using on the old computer, as I have to use IE9 at work and I hate it. However, there's one "feature" that changed that I don't know how to undo: whenever it sees a string of numbers in certain formats, the browser renders them as a telephone number, complete with a link that will call the number if I click it. How can I turn this off? It's mildly annoying when the browser does this to things that really are telephone numbers, but it's downright confusing when it gets confused, such as when it converts the DOI in citation #7 of Micro black hole into a link allowing me to call a telephone number in Spain. Nyttend (talk) 15:44, 9 April 2012 (UTC)

It's an add-on, maybe Skype Click to Call. PrimeHunter (talk) 15:54, 9 April 2012 (UTC)

Your Firefox profile cannot be loaded. It may be missing or inaccessible.

Hi, I've had this error for about a week, have tried everything, and am now at a loss for what to do. I uninstalled Firefox, and reinstalled it, but it didn't work. I uninstalled it, deleting all preferences, then deleting the Program Files folder for Firefox, then reinstalled, but it didn't work. Uninstalled Thunderbird too, as it's also made by Mozilla, but it's still not working. The file profiles.ini looks right. I made a new account on my laptop (which is running XP) and installed Firefox on that, and it works fine. I copied the new accounts Firefox folders (including the profile) into my normal account and it's still not working. I am using Firefox 11. I even tried to install Firefox 3.6, but that didn't do anything, so I just uninstalled it, and reinstalled Firefox 11. I broke my normal laptop, and so I'm using this, my old laptop, now, and so I've edited a lot of things to get it working as I want. I have edited the registry, so thought it might be that. I have tried to restore to previous positions in the registry, but every restore point cannot be restored to. I have run CCleaner to the registry, but it's still not working. It isn't a virus causing this because I've run Malware Bytes, and AVG to check there are no viruses. I've done everything I can think of, and now I'm stuck. I know that I cold just switch to using the new account, but the reason I've spent a week trying to fix this is because it's a lot of effort to install everything for the new account (a lot of things are installed for this account only), and to set up preferences, etc. I have googled the issue, and I'm unable to fix it from the help I have found via Google's results. I am also unable to run the Firefox Profile Manager as I am unable to run Firefox. Thank you for any help that you can provide. 134.83.207.178 (talk) 18:05, 9 April 2012 (UTC)

Can you start the profile manager by running firefox from the command line (with no firefox windows hanging around) as described here? -- Finlay McWalterჷTalk 18:53, 9 April 2012 (UTC)

Thank you for your help. No, unfortunately the same error appears. 134.83.207.178 (talk) 20:01, 9 April 2012 (UTC)

Assuming you don't want anything in the profile you've already created: Read this page to find your profiles folder (you might be looking in the wrong spot), and then rename the affected profile to something ridiculous, like "324tvgdsvcw". Then try restarting. If that doesn't work, move said affected profile folder out of the main profiles folder (onto your desktop, for example), then restart again. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 143.85.199.242 (talk) 20:11, 9 April 2012 (UTC)

Thank you. I had already done that, to no avail. I have a copy of my profile, which I am using for my temporary account, and it works fine. I have changed the profile, deleted the profile, edited the profile name and correspondingly edited profiles.ini, and even deleted profiles.ini expecting Firefox to create a new one, but unfortunately none of that has worked. Now it is just installed with the standard profile that is created on installation. 134.83.207.178 (talk) 20:19, 9 April 2012 (UTC)

Have you tried going into the affected profile (make sure Firefox is not running), copying the folders/files inside one-by-one ("extensions", "bookmarkbackups"; I use 1.5 and 3.0 but you should know what I mean), and pasting them into the standard profile folder, then restarting after each one? It's time consuming, but you'll likely find out what file is causing the problem with that method. -- MegaGuy — Preceding unsigned comment added by 143.85.199.242 (talk) 20:38, 9 April 2012 (UTC)

Hi, thank you again. No I haven't because the the standard profile and my customised profile both work on the temporary account I've made on my computer, but both the standard profile and my customised profile don't work on my usual account, so the issue doesn't appear to be within the profile itself, but with Firefox recognising that the profile is there. The profile is in the default location, and profiles.ini correctly describes that location, so I don't understand why it isn't being recognised. 134.83.207.178 (talk) 20:45, 9 April 2012 (UTC)

Sorry, I must have misunderstood your original post. So, a complete delete of the Firefox profiles folder, and a complete uninstallation of Firefox, then a reinstall of Firefox and the standard profile it creates will not work on your usual account? -- 143.85.199.242 (talk) 20:49, 9 April 2012 (UTC)

Yes, a full deletion of the profiles folder, a full uninstallation of Firefox, and deletion of any remnants of the C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox folder, then a reinstallation of Firefox, with its standard profile, still results in the same error. Thanks for your help. 134.83.207.178 (talk) 21:01, 9 April 2012 (UTC)

Have you tried going back any further with the Firefox installations (namely, before they began using SQLite for a lot of the files)? I'd do a complete delete of the profiles/Firefox again, install 1.5 and see what it does with its standard profile, then try 2.0. Perhaps your usual account has some issue with newer versions. Another possibility is that your usual account is somehow installing incorrectly. Copy the profiles and installation that was created (and accessed) successfully on your temporary account to your usual account. -- 143.85.199.242 (talk) 21:10, 9 April 2012 (UTC)

Unix time

Hello, I was interested in making a Unix time calculator with Excel. However, it seems to be slightly off (it returns a timestamp for April 30 when I enter today's date). Could you take a look at these formulas and tell me where I'm going wrong? (I'm using a time of 20120409, 12:51:00.)

2012 in seconds = 31536000*2012
04 in seconds = (31536000/12)*4
09 in seconds = 9*(24*60*60)
12 in seconds = 12*60*60
51 in seconds = 51*60

Then subtract the seconds of 19700101 00:00:00 (62125920000) from the total seconds of the above equations. Am I supposed to be doing something else with 1970 other than getting the seconds of the year alone? Thanks for your help! -- MegaGuy — Preceding unsigned comment added by 143.85.199.242 (talk) 19:56, 9 April 2012 (UTC)

You can't calculate the number of seconds for April 9 the way you are trying. First, there are only three months passed so far (Jan, Feb, March), not four, and second there is not an equal number of seconds per month (March has more seconds than February, for example). After you fix that, you then need to account for all the leap days between 1970 and now. RudolfRed (talk) 21:24, 9 April 2012 (UTC)

And leap seconds. Also things like time-zone. ImoTimoTurbo (talk) 21:47, 9 April 2012 (UTC)

Strictly speaking, Unix timestamps do not account for leap seconds, so you don't have to worry about those.

But Unix timestamps are most definitely in UTC, so yes, you certainly do need to worry about the offset for your local time zone. —Steve Summit (talk) 01:56, 10 April 2012 (UTC)

Easily confused letters/numbers/glyphs

I need a list of easily confused glyphs, either numbers or letters. I mostly care about Latin character-sets, but the others would be helpful too. I've found a list for certain ones used in domain fishing, but I'm interested in ones within-language that would be confused. Thank you. ImoTimoTurbo (talk) 21:45, 9 April 2012 (UTC)

Have you read IDN homograph attack? Nimur (talk) 22:00, 9 April 2012 (UTC)

Yes. That's the list I was referring to above. ImoTimoTurbo (talk) 22:22, 9 April 2012 (UTC)

Homoglyph is much closer to what I'm looking for, but something more comprehensive. ImoTimoTurbo (talk) 22:26, 9 April 2012 (UTC)

IIRC, unicode.org maintains tables of easily confused chars; I'm afraid I don't have a direct link handy, though. ¦ Reisio (talk) 22:27, 9 April 2012 (UTC)

The technical name is Unicode equivalence - characters that are semantically equivalent, or interpreted equivalently (or rendered as equivalent glyphs). This is heuristic; it is domain-specific, and corpus-specific. As it would happen, companies like Google (who process large volumes of text in many languages and encodings) maintain proprietary lists of equivalency characters. In C#, you can use Character Classes; in Java, you can design a custom class implementing Character Comparable<T> interface for use in string recognition. You can also read about unicode normalization straight from the source: "Unicode Technical Report #15" - Normalization. This is an "unsolved problem" because ultimately it depends on how people are using the encoding and standards out in the wild. All the APIs, libraries, and specifications only go so far; people play silly games with domain hacks, incorrect encodings that mismatch their languages, and other non-ideal usage of binary-representations-of-characters; so any functional implementation of text normalization is going to use a lot more improvisation and hacking than most Unicode-junkies would like to admit. Let's not even bring in the nightmare of glyph representations in various fonts: the simplest example is the confusion of "i" and "L" in some case-forms in some fonts. In some fonts, these are the same glyph, and in others, they are totally distinct and dissimilar glyphs. Needless to say, "i" and "L" are semantically distinct; so should their "equivalence" depend on font and page-layout? And of course, what to do about ligatures and combined forms... control characters, accent-marks (single byte precomposed é or control-character accent + 'e' (combined by the layout engine?), ... it gets quite horrible quite fast. There are literally hundreds of thousands of potentially equivalent ("canonically equivalent," "compatible," or just plain "confusing.") Nimur (talk) 02:09, 10 April 2012 (UTC)

Transferring 50 MB to a friend

I have a stack of 20 or so high-resolution JPEG images (about 50 MB altogether, they don't .zip any smaller) that I'd like to send to a friend several thousand kilometers away. Without reducing the resolution or quality of the images, what are the tools that my fellow would Wikipedians use to move moderately large image files from one person to another? (That is, files too large to comfortably attach to an email, but too small to justify mailing a DVD, USB stick, or SD card.) Something free (gratis) and online, that doesn't require too much in the way of relinquishing privacy, personal information, or my first born (always check the fine print of the EULA) would be ideal. Thanks! TenOfAllTrades(talk) 22:26, 9 April 2012 (UTC)

Most instant messenging protocols/clients of note (including IRC, often) can transfer files. There are also one-off services like http://justbeamit.com/ and other slightly more involved things like Dropbox. ¦ Reisio (talk) 22:30, 9 April 2012 (UTC)

For the purposes of this question, let's say I'm not using an instant messaging tool to communicate with this friend. You can assume that we both have a live broadband internet connection and email access, but no other applications installed. TenOfAllTrades(talk) 22:38, 9 April 2012 (UTC)

Why not create a free account at a photo-hosting site? Personally I use Flickr but others are available. There is often the option to make your uploaded photos private or viewable to family / friends only. Once your friend has downloaded and saved the images, you could then, if necessary, delete them. -=# Amos E Wolfe ^talk #=- 22:43, 9 April 2012 (UTC)

Flickr's okay, but it doesn't support sharing the full-resolution original files unless one upgrades to a 'Pro' account. (I'm also hoping to be able to transfer a .zip file or similar so that my friend doesn't have to click through and download each image individually.) TenOfAllTrades(talk) 23:08, 9 April 2012 (UTC)

If e-mail is the only application you have access to, then you'll need to send it by e-mail. How are you posting this question? RudolfRed (talk) 23:00, 9 April 2012 (UTC)

Don't be a smartass, RudolfRed. (Or, if you must, use small type or a smiley so that you're less likely to distract from the helpful responses.) TenOfAllTrades(talk) 23:08, 9 April 2012 (UTC)

For you: split (Unix) (which, despite its name, is available for Windows) or HJsplit: split the files into handily email-friendly sizes, mail 'em, counterparty reassembles. Email is rather inefficient use of bandwidth because of the way binary files are attached, but it'll work. If it was me: rsync over ssh. -- Finlay McWalterჷTalk 22:48, 9 April 2012 (UTC)

MediaFire 82.45.62.107 (talk) 22:54, 9 April 2012 (UTC)

Thanks to Reisio, justbeamit met my needs this time around. TenOfAllTrades(talk) 23:08, 9 April 2012 (UTC)

I notice you've found a solution you're happy with, but I'll just let you know my way of doing it, which is to upload the file in question to Dropbox, place it in my 'Public' folder, then send the download link in an email/IM. If you feel you will send files to this friend on a regular basis, you can share Dropbox folders with them, and anything placed in the folder will be visible to both of you. - Cucumber Mike (talk) 17:55, 10 April 2012 (UTC)

April 10

LaTeX chapters and sections

Hello! I have a \documentclass{report} with several chapters and several sections within each chapter. If I use \ref{sec:mySection}, I get chapterNumber.sectionNumber, but in some cases I just want the section number that the label corresponds to, not the chapter number with the section number. How can I get some command to return just the section number of the label? Thank you!--el Aprel (^facta-_facienda) 05:04, 10 April 2012 (UTC)

Partial answer: \renewcommand{\thesection}{\arabic{section}} -- This will change the section numbering from e.g. '3.1' to 1, and return a simple number with \ref. However, there's a problem of ambiguity here. Of course, there's an inherent problem of ambiguity with what you're asking for: If you refer to "section 3" and there are three section 3s (e.g. 1.3, 2.3, 3.3), how is the reader supposed to know to what you are referring?! So, some general advice someone once gave me: "Think twice before you go mucking about changing the behavior of well-used LaTeX classes, because there is usually a good reason why they work the way they do." :) SemanticMantis (talk) 20:00, 10 April 2012 (UTC)

To do what you want (label sections as 'chapter.section', but have the ability to have \ref{section:key} return \thesection without \thechapter), I think you'll have to \renewcommand{\ref} with some self-made options that let you control the behavior. If you don't get an exact answer here within a few days, these people [3] can probably tell you how to do it. SemanticMantis (talk) 01:38, 11 April 2012 (UTC)

I can't get WP using Perl's get command...

It works with other web pages, but not Wikipedia. I've posted the problem and an example script on WikiProject Perl's talk page. Please reply there. The Transhumanist 06:21, 10 April 2012 (UTC)

Places in Battle Ready (Tom Clancy Novel)

I just want to ask where in Mindanao is the place called Carabao,Mindanao in Tom Clancy's Novel Battle Ready. It is mentioned in Chapter 7 and is described as a small port city that served as the capital of the autonomous region I tried looking for it in the map but I haven't come across a place named Carabao in Mindanao. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 121.97.192.138 (talk) 10:14, 10 April 2012 (UTC)

The carabao is a water buffalo native to that area. I believe the port city with that name to be entirely fictional. The closest I find to a location named that is the Philippine Carabao Center [4], which sells carabao milk, as part of Central Mindanao University. StuRat (talk) 17:44, 10 April 2012 (UTC)

I was wrong to refer to the book as a novel since it is actually a non-fiction work of Tom Clancy & Gen Tony Zinni. In relation to this, I suppose the name of the place is not fictional as the names of other places in the book such as Mogadishu,Somalia and Aceh,Indonesia can be located on the map. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 121.97.192.138 (talk) 23:58, 10 April 2012 (UTC)

Could it be one of those "names were changed to protect the innocent" things ? Perhaps giving the real name of the city would have put some of it's residents in danger ? StuRat (talk) 00:19, 11 April 2012 (UTC)

wordperfect mail merge

Resolved

i have been sent a document created in wp.mm - how do i open and read it please? Kittybrewster ☎ 16:46, 10 April 2012 (UTC)

Microsoft Word or OpenOffice/LibreOffice might be able to open it. Otherwise, you'll need WordPerfect. I see that Corel offers a trial version [5], which might be enough to get the file opened so you can copy it into your favorite editor. RudolfRed (talk) 18:03, 10 April 2012 (UTC)

Thank you. success with OO. Kittybrewster ☎ 18:17, 10 April 2012 (UTC)

Price of Windows 7

The difference in price between laptop A with or without Windows 7 is about $50. However, if I buy a boxed version of Windows 7, I'll end paying about 10x that. Why is the price difference so big? — Preceding unsigned comment added by MangoNr1 (talk • contribs) 20:51, 10 April 2012 (UTC)

I certainly see why there would be some difference, due to bulk discounts, large companies being able to negotiate better prices, etc., but 10X does seem a bit much. I wonder, if you buy a laptop without an O/S, do they first put an O/S on it to test it out, then remove it ? If so, this would certainly eat up much of the savings. StuRat (talk) 20:57, 10 April 2012 (UTC)

I think companies also get paid for installing the trial versions of antivirus and other programs that many new computers come with. If you don't have Windows preinstalled, then the company can't collect that other money either. RudolfRed (talk) 21:18, 10 April 2012 (UTC)

(ec)It's a good question - one that comes up a lot, and that we can't definitively answer, because Microsoft keeps its OEM pricing very very close to its chest. Some of the contributory factors are:

• When you're buying that Windows 7 install set in the shop, you're buying the retail version. Microsoft also sells an OEM version (which comes in plain packaging with no manuals) which is intended for small system builders - the idea is that the small system builder provides the support, rather than Microsoft (but who calls microsoft support?) It's about half the price of retail.
• For larger builders they offer steep discounting, and for very large builders like Dell they reportedly over even steeper discounting.
• When a system builder ships a Windows system, these days they bundle a bunch of other preinstalled software, some of it trialware - security, dvd authoring, skype, sometimes games or accounting software. The system builder gets a payment for these, either a flat fee for installing, or a revenue share if the customer buys the full version.
• Many systems ship with Windows 7 Home Basic; if the customer upgrades that to Home Premium then the system builder gets a share of the revenue. I think the same is true if the customer pays to activate the Microsoft Office Ready thing (which can be a significant spend).
• There's a support cost associated with a system building selling a no-windows machine (no-os, Freedos, or Linux). Despite them being really clear that it doesn't come with windows, a nontrivial proportion of people still complain to them that it doesn't come with windows, and yell, and raise chargebacks, and demand restocking.
• When a system builder advertises a machine with Windows, they can participate in one of Microsoft's Windows ad-sharing schemes - so when an ad says "Dell Recommends Microsoft Windows 7 Ultimate Edition", Microsoft have paid for a proportion of that ad buy.
• Lastly, the weirdest one. A few years ago, I think as a result of a court case, it was disclosed that one large builder paid Microsoft a flat fee for Windows for each machine they shipped (presumably they'd negotiated a small flat fee) - they paid that even if Windows didn't ship on that machine. If that's true now, and generally, that means the builder makes no saving at all from shipping a "clean" machine, and because they lose all that bundling stuff above, it actually costs them more to sell you a clean machine that one with Windows.

-- Finlay McWalterჷTalk 21:36, 10 April 2012 (UTC)

That last point is crazy. I believe you (given similar practices by microsoft.), but does anyone have a ref? SemanticMantis (talk) 01:42, 11 April 2012 (UTC)

I don't have a ref at hand either, but of the legends I've heard, (1) it's almost true, and (2) it's at least 20 years old. The "almost" part was that it was Microsoft that demanded the license fee for EVERY machine shipped, whether or not it had MS-DOS (?) on it or not -- purely the "I-can-get-away-with-this-until-they-force-me-to-quit" model to make it VERY cost-ineffective for the custom assemblers of the day to offer a machine with the user's choice of OS pre-installed.

'twill take some legwork to chase down a real ref, though. Memory fades with time . . .

--71.220.29.34 (talk) 02:31, 11 April 2012 (UTC)

As I remember it, they were trying to claim that purchasers of machines with no operating system must be planning to install a pirated version of Windows. Which, to be fair, may have been the case some significant fraction of the time, but hardly seems like justification to make Linux users pay tribute to Redmond. I welcome factual corrections as my memory may not be perfect and I can't be sure I got the straight story even initially. --Trovatore (talk) 03:16, 11 April 2012 (UTC)

I would expect such a practice, if allowed to continue, would have resulted in different manufactures of Windows computers and non-Windows computers. This is similar to how, in the US, credit card companies managed to force gas stations to charge the same price, cash or credit, despite the increased costs to the station for using credit cards. This resulted in some cash-only gas stations, until all stations were eventually allowed to charge cash customers less. StuRat (talk) 04:59, 11 April 2012 (UTC)

It was the 'CPU License', more - [6], [7], [8] and [9]. Nanonic (talk) 07:04, 11 April 2012 (UTC)

April 11

Constructing a small embedded PC

Once I learned how the bootloaders in smartphones and other devices work (no BIOS, larger than 512-bit limit on traditional PCs, signature checks) I wanted to play around with this on an x86 platform. I determined that I would need a system that does not use a BIOS and looked around online x86 tablets running Android or MeeGo (if it was capable of running Windows then that meant it used a BIOS). I could only find tablets that used Intel processors normally used in PCs telling me they probably used a BIOS. Apple TV and Google TV came to mind, but I found that most x86 TV boxes were locked down. Now, I looked at embedded boards and devices. Toradex's Xiilun PC appeared to be what I was looking for: the Intel Atom E6xx processor comes with non-BIOS options, the casing looked nice, and it didn't have ugly looking VGA outputs. They never mass produced it because of thermal issues. So, how would I go about making a small embedded PC? I do not mean designing it from scratch like OEMs do; just the assembly of a few OTS components. --Melab±1 ☎ 01:28, 11 April 2012 (UTC)

In January of last year, I replied to a similar question; pick your computer carefully. You may find the links in my earlier post helpful. I highly recommend the DE-2 FPGA dev-board, which I've mentioned in the past; it will allow you to configure your hardware and simulate a CPU and its peripherals, though it requires a little more technical expertise than some microcontroller boards. You may find the Raspberry Pi a fun board and a cheaper alternative; I have no experience with it, but it's been very popular with hobbyists and students. Microchip.com sells cheap and simple PIC controllers; I have some Zigbee Raven boards you can buy from atmel.com that were a lot of fun until they broke; and I have a few Renesas M16C cards that were solid workhorses and great utility controllers. I would trust my life to my M16C controller - which is more than I would commit to for almost any other computer system I've ever worked with. You need to decide what you want your computer to do, and then spec it out accordingly. A good real-time system controller will make for a terrible web-browsing experience. Nimur (talk) 02:23, 11 April 2012 (UTC)

C# performance lint

Are there any good programs for C# that can detect fairly basic performance mistakes, such as using long.Parse() in a try-catch construct when long.TryParse() would work better? NeonMerlin 20:52, 11 April 2012 (UTC)

The key terms you're looking for are 'static analysis' (take the source code, identify performance or style problems) and 'profiling' (actually run code, measuring where time is spent). See this StackOverflow thread. Profiling is supported by Visual Studio itself, although there are third-party tools available. 77.97.198.48 (talk) 23:39, 11 April 2012 (UTC)

Why did a new window not open?

I can't remember whether I have asked this, and using Google seems to be of no help.

When I first turn on my computer, and click on the Internet Explorer logo, I am sent to what used to be the sign-in page for the email address given to me by my Internet service provider. I have to click there, and I am sent to the telephone company's home page. If I am already signed in there is a list of emails in my inbox, and clicking on any of those is supposed top open a new window in which the inbox appears.

If that window is already open and I have gone to another site (where I might be editing a Wikipedia page or composing an email), clicking on an email on that telephone company home page causes the inbox to appear in that other window, which wrecks what I was doing. Although once, a new window did open.

I don't know the terminology for what I'm asking. Why does the inbox come up in the window that is already there, though not the window where I clicked to produce it, rather than creating a new window?— Vchimpanzee · talk · contributions · 21:42, 11 April 2012 (UTC)