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June 10

catalyst overdrive

in that section of the driver panel, it has these various icons on the top of it, there is this power one, with a chord plug pictured on it, wHAT DOES IT MEAN?? IT shows zero on mine, im just curious as to what its for — Preceding unsigned comment added by 77.35.15.169 (talk) 09:58, 10 June 2012 (UTC)[reply]

It appears to be a tool to boost performance of the GPU by overclocking it. 77.97.198.48 (talk) 11:46, 12 June 2012 (UTC)[reply]

mojibake in OOo text file

A friend sent me a file (a short list of books) that she made in OpenOffice (.odt). I opened it in LibreOffice and saved it as Text (.txt), then opened the textfile in vi. As I manipulate it (experimentally sorting by different words), junk keeps appearing at the beginning of one line, looking like this:

ï»¿

I delete the junk and sort again, and it reappears on another line. Any idea what's going on? —Tamfang (talk) 15:49, 10 June 2012 (UTC)[reply]

At some point, something is adding the UTF-8 byte order mark to indicate the text encoding is Unicode UTF-8. At a later point, something else is interpreting the text with encoding ISO/IEC 8859-1, causing the UTF-8 byte order mark to appear as ï»¿. --Bavi H (talk) 16:09, 10 June 2012 (UTC)[reply]

June 11

Nokia N8 fails to connect to WiFi

My Nokia N8 now fails to connect to WiFi services. I get to a café, order a beer, ask for the café's password, enter it, the status goes 'connecting' and then 'known' but not 'connected'. If I enter a wrong password it doesn't say 'connecting'. If I enter a password that is too short, it tells me to enter a longer one. But it doesn't connect. I can't find any settings that would have caused this. What can be done? Hayttom (talk) 19:57, 11 June 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Hmm. I don't have an N8 to hand, but maybe there are some things you can try. Firstly, does this happen with other WiFi networks, or only in this particular cafe? It might be worth trying a different hotspot to see if it's an issue on their end. Also see what happens with unencrypted networks - i.e. the ones you can connect to without a password. I saw murmurings about the N8 being incompatible with various forms of WPA on some forums. If you can't connect to any network, it is more likely to be a problem with the phone. See here for some other people with similar issues. You may like to try a) doing a firmware upgrade (look in the manual for instructions) or b) a 'factory reset' (that is, resetting the phone back to its original state. Make sure to backup any important data, photos, contacts, and apps before trying either of these steps. - Cucumber Mike (talk) 21:55, 11 June 2012 (UTC)[reply]

{OP} It happens everywhere I've tried recently. I'll try in an unencrypted network when I find one. I'm 99% sure this is a new phenomenon - but I'd have to retrace my recent travels (now in Vilnius, previously Warsaw and Krakow) to check hotspots that worked before. I can't do a firmware upgrade until I can connect. I don't want to do a factory reset - yet.Hayttom (talk) 04:19, 12 June 2012 (UTC)[reply]

{OP} I couldn't find the reason (and so will not mark this question 'resolved') and needed to get a solution fast so I reset my phone by dialling *#7780#. I will have to re-load data but at least I can immediately download new GPS maps, which was urgent. Thanks Cucumber Mike (talk) for your help! Hayttom (talk) 11:03, 13 June 2012 (UTC)[reply]

June 12

The 'Ç' character with Swiss French keyboard

On the Swiss keyboard, I have been having trouble figuring out how to write the capital 'ç'. I can do it on Linux by means of the CAPS LOCK, but it doesn't work that way on Windows. Does anybody know how it is supposed to be inserted (other than with the CAPS key?). Thanks, Falconus^{p t c} 13:59, 12 June 2012 (UTC)[reply]

If you can't find anything better, Ç#Input describes the keymap independent way of entering, as an alt code. -- Finlay McWalterჷTalk 14:06, 12 June 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Okay, thanks. Falconus^{p t c} 15:00, 12 June 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Wikipedia ipv6

Since Wikipedia now supports ipv6, I was wondering how does one access the site via ipv6? Is it the normal address, or a special one like ipv6.google.com? 92.233.64.26 (talk) 16:29, 12 June 2012 (UTC)[reply]

You might want to inquire at the talk page of WP:IPv6.

—Wavelength (talk) 17:03, 12 June 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Unless you're an internet engineer, you don't need to do anything. It's the responsibility of whoever operates your network - your commercial internet service provider, or your institution's system administrator - to eventually migrate your connection to IPv6. All Wikipedia has done is make it possible for IPv6 routes to resolve to its servers. If you aren't using one of these new routes, (because, like most of the planet) your route to Wikipedia still uses IPv4 then you need take no action. There's no benefit or difference, as a user, because the website appears and functions identically, whether you access it over IPv4, 6, or any esoteric network protocol that can sustain HTTP protocol. One day, your ISP may make an IPv6 address available to you, and you will be able to use it transparently. Nimur (talk) 04:06, 13 June 2012 (UTC)[reply]

That isn't entirely true. Although unlikely, it's possible your ISP is already providing an IPv6 address. However although high end routers have supported IPv6 for a long time, a lot of even very recent home routers and CPE (particularly ADSL modems) have not. (See e.g. these fairly recent [1] [2] discussions.) If your ISP is providing IPv6 but your equipment isn't capable of supporting it, then you do have to do something to make it work. (Of course if the equipment is still owned by the ISP, then it becomes their responsibility again but in many countries this is exceptionally rare.) Similarly while most recent OSes have a dualstack network and have IPv6 enabled by default, it's possible that you have it disabled for whatever reason. In such a case, again you have to do something. Whether you want to bother or just wait until eventual normal upgrades fix the issue is up to you and as I said it's very rare ISPs provide IPv6 anyway. Of course you can probably get IPv6 working even if your ISP doesn't provide native IPv6 by default. A small number of ISPs provide IPv6 for on request either natively or via some other method like PPtP. And of course there's other options like tunnel brokers if your ISP doesn't. There are plenty of guides out there even long before World IPv6 day. Again whether you want to bother is up to you. There are some potential benefits, e.g. free binary IPv6 news servers (I've used them and they aren't too bad), the possibility of getting around a NAT issues if your ISP is not able to provide a public IP to each of their users, providing a public IP to each computer if you have multiple ones, in some cases getting around throttling imposed by the ISP (I was able to do this somewhat in the past particularly since I was using a NZ tunnel broker however my ISP throttles a lot less now so it isn't so important, and before anyone complains my tunnel broker clearly said they welcome use provided it's non malicious). Note that in the specific case of wikipedia, I would disagree functionality is identical. For editors, there's always the risk of being blocked for something you didn't do because of a shared IP. Even if you create an account, occasionally hard blocks of IPs are placed meaning unless you ask for and are granted an Wikipedia:IP block exemption, you're still SOL. IPv6 is too new that we don't know exactly how things are going to work out, particularly for services like tunnel brokers. But either way, depending a lot on where you get your IPv6 address from and the nature of your IPv4 address, there is the possibility you're at less risk of being blocked for something you didn't do. (There is also the risk you're more likely to be blocked.) Nil Einne (talk) 07:37, 13 June 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks for the interesting answers. According http://test-ipv6.com/ I have "6to4" access and I've been able to access every ipv6 site, so it would appear I do have an ipv6 address? But I don't seem to be able to make a choice about which method I use when visiting a site that supports both, it always just picks ipv4. Do I have to do something else to make it used ipv6? I know there is no real difference in end-user functionality between the two, I'm just curious and want to see it work. 92.233.64.26 (talk) 10:10, 13 June 2012 (UTC)[reply]

I believe it depends both on the browser and potentially the OS. I believe most new browsers and OSes prefer IPv6 where it's available but I could be mistaken and I'm not sure if this applies to 6to4. It may also depend on other factors as concern over buggy set-ups (where the OS and browser think IPv6 is working so try to use it but it's not) was one of the reason many sites chose not to turn on IPv6 until the recent world IPv6 day (the decision was made partially based on the results of the previous world IPv6 test day). See e.g. [3] [4] [5]. Note that if you're using 6to4 you're unlikely to have any specific advantages when it comes to accessing wikimedia sites unless perhaps you're a network admin and want to track abuse which from the discussion is not the case. Nil Einne (talk) 07:43, 14 June 2012 (UTC)[reply]

dim screen

Is this section just for computing or also for computers? How much relative energy efficiency can I get from dimming my laptop computer's screen? (I only hope for general answers but my laptop is a Sony Vaio VPC-YB3V1E - which I just read has a "A high resolution screen and fantastic keyboard, but performance and battery life are underwhelming") Hayttom (talk) 18:33, 12 June 2012 (UTC)[reply]

This is the right desk. You probably don't mean efficiency, as that may even go down with a dimmer screen, meaning less light is produced per energy used. What you care about, I suspect, is total battery time at the dim vs. bright settings. Giving it a test yourself, at each setting, is the best way to get an answer. StuRat (talk) 19:22, 12 June 2012 (UTC)[reply]

1) You're right, I meant total battery time. 2) If I manage to do the tests I'll post the results. (I suppose I'll have to monitor closely to see when the computer shuts itself down, and using the computer would skew the results.)Hayttom (talk) 03:48, 13 June 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Excellent, I look forward to your results. BTW, the figure the seller gives for how long the battery lasts is probably on the dimmest setting with the computer doing nothing, using a brand new battery. So, it's virtually impossible to get that much life out of it in the real world. StuRat (talk) 21:39, 13 June 2012 (UTC)[reply]

June 13

Help me my laptop DVD drive is damaged!!!

It was when I inserted a DVD into my laptop's drive, then suddenly the DVD drive icon dissapears. I cannot open the drive; restarting did not help. Why? 117.5.2.187 (talk) 11:42, 13 June 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Is your DVD drive one that can be slid completely out of the computer? Maybe when closing the drive you managed to bump something just right to slide the whole drive out a little bit, disconnecting it. If it is a removable drive, try removing it then pushing it back into place. 209.131.76.183 (talk) 13:01, 13 June 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks. Seems like my drive work again automatically. 117.5.9.218 (talk) 13:08, 13 June 2012 (UTC)[reply]

OK, I will mark this Q resolved. StuRat (talk) 21:35, 13 June 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Which version of Ubuntu is Wikimedia using for their servers?

Which version of Ubuntu is Wikimedia using? 117.5.9.218 (talk) 13:17, 13 June 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Does this help? Thincat (talk) 14:28, 13 June 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Security check website

What is the recommended way of checking the security of a (my own) website (php,mysql)? I found some tools, but don't know how recommended or useful they are: skipfish, nikto, wapiti, spikeproxy, ratproxy, prewikka, paros. The website should be checked on a test server, pre-use. The tool should run on linux. bamse (talk) 17:54, 13 June 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Wiki having trouble after migration

We run a community wiki, and recently had to switch providers. Our main sysop C&P'ed the entire wiki to the new server, but since then we've run into a number of problems. Notably, images are not displaying correctly, and tables aren't working, either.

If you know what's wrong and can recommend solutions, that would be awesome. If not, I'd be happy to know where I can go for help, or what I can read that will help me to understand the problem myself (right now we really don't know why things aren't working; they worked fine before migrating to the new server).

Here's an example of a problematic page: http://wiktenauer.com/wiki/Andr%C3%A9_des_Bordes

Problems:

The thumbnail at the top isn't displaying (even though the raw image is located in the correct place).
The wikitable at the bottom isn't rendering properly; it should be a collapsible table, not a standard table.
The infobox at the top should be self-contained and allow text to wrap around it. It's not doing that.

I've tried searching for solutions extensively, but I've been unable to figure out what the problem is. The Jade Knight (talk) 18:17, 13 June 2012 (UTC)[reply]

If you look at http://wiktenauer.com/wiki/Special:Version, it shows the version of the MediaWiki software that your server is running, and the extensions that are added to it. Most likely you are running different versions of things on the new system than on the old one. Without knowing more about the old system it is hard to be more specific. One thing I notice is that your version of MediaWiki is 1.15.3, which was released back in 2010. Looie496 (talk) 18:39, 13 June 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Looie, that is incorrect. Run some maintenance scripts like update.php. Find them at mediawikiwiki:Manual:Maintenance_scripts. --J (t) 00:31, 14 June 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Two or more people call the same cell phone number at the exact time

(I wasn't sure if this question should go in this section or the "Miscellaneous" section, but I had to pick one of them).

I have two questions regarding this.

My first question (which is, yes, very theoretical, but still technically possible): What would happen if two or more people called the same cell phone number at the exact time (and I mean exact; and, for that matter---just thought of this as I've been typing---, what would happen if two or more people pressed the "Edit" button on the same Wikipedia article at the exact time, as well?)?

Going along with this, lets say (using cell phones as opposed to home phones) "James" calls "Kyle." Kyle isn't able to get to his phone. While James hears ringing and Kyle's phone is ringing, "Bruce" calls Kyle; what would happen---to both Kyle's phone (in one respect, I mean what would happen if you pressed the "talk" button, since two people are calling at once) and James's and Bruce's phone calls (would they continue ringing for them)?

Any help on this would be great. Thanks!

P.S.: Sorry for asking three questions in one section, but I hope you see how they are all very related. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 108.85.4.130 (talk) 19:25, 13 June 2012 (UTC)[reply]

The resolution of simultaneous access to a shared physical medium is called collision management and is well-studied in network engineering. The exact details of how the "machine" would resolve the collision (that is, how two phone-calls trying to reach the same end-point) would depend on specifics (which type of telephone network). For a very thorough overview of one type of resolution protocol, you can see how a packet switched network like ethernet works: Carrier sense multiple access with collision detection. The standard procedure is first to detect that multiple clients are trying to use the network; and then to resolve that simultaneous access by either sharing the medium, or denying access to one client. Many telephone networks use ethernet and IP at the long-haul layers, so this is actually a very probable resolution in practice.

Your follow-on questions are essentially answered in the same way; and ultimately depend on specific details of the software and hardware in use. Nimur (talk) 19:46, 13 June 2012 (UTC)[reply]

The "Kyle" question is most easily answered: a call made to a number that is already ringing (or is the source of a call that is ringing) is redirected immediately to voicemail (as if the target phone were turned off). For a (single-line) land line target, a busy signal is produced, even if it has call waiting. (A corollary is that calling your own number produces a busy because your phone is already dialing out and cannot ring.) The other points are ultimately decided by arbiter circuits at some junction or another. --Tardis (talk) 04:53, 14 June 2012 (UTC)[reply]

June 14

Global and local variables in JavaScript

Is an if block considered a function for the purposes of determining whether a variable declared with the var keyword is global or local? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 203.116.187.1 (talk) 01:59, 14 June 2012 (UTC)[reply]

While not an authoritative reference, this site indicates that the answer is no. -- Tom N (tcncv) talk/contrib 03:26, 14 June 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Are there time machines?

No. :-) StuRat (talk) 02:34, 14 June 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Are technological devices intended to travel into the past (time machines) available now? 117.5.13.52 (talk) 02:35, 14 June 2012 (UTC)[reply]

What's your hurry? --Trovatore (talk) 02:55, 14 June 2012 (UTC)[reply]

How long will a modern computer take to break an Enigma cipher?

--113.105.70.226 (talk) 03:54, 14 June 2012 (UTC)[reply]

That depends on what you mean by "break." Do you intend to provide a program to perform the decryption, and measure how long it takes to try "all possible inputs"? Nimur (talk) 04:13, 14 June 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Let's say we have the settings of the scramblers and some ciphertext already and what we need to do is to determine the Key setting.--211.162.75.201 (talk) 08:14, 14 June 2012 (UTC)[reply]

This page suggests that a mostly brute-force search of the entire key-space for a 4-rotor enigma would take 4 days CPU time on 2006 hardware. In practice, guessing a crib would enormously reduce the search space. This 2005 paper by Geoff Sullivan and Frode Weierud seems to be frequently cited. Gandalf61 (talk) 09:09, 14 June 2012 (UTC)[reply]

If you have the programming skills and tools you can try it yourself. There are plenty Enigma simulators available online that you can use to generate an encrypted source text. Roger (talk) 09:31, 14 June 2012 (UTC)[reply]

There's a difference between "how long would it take to break" and "how long would it take to guarantee a break". While it's tiny, there's a chance that your first random guess would be correct and thus you'd break it immediately. Nyttend (talk) 11:06, 14 June 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Playing .swf file in Powerpoint (.pptx)

I've inserted a .swf file into a .pptx presentation after going to much trouble. But now, everytime I play the slideshow, the video keeps getting stuck. If it plays properly once, it gets stuck on all the subsequent trials, because the "Play" parameter in teh .swf file's properties keeps getting reset to false. Is there any way I can fix this? Thanks 204.4.182.16 (talk) 05:36, 14 June 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Video to GIF in Ubuntu 11.10

Can anyone suggest me any software which can covert video to gif? Ubuntu software centre software will be better! Please add a tb in my talk page if possible! --Tito Dutta ✉ 08:30, 14 June 2012 (UTC)[reply]

FWIW, we prefer to answer here so that others can see the answer. Asking for the answer to be reserved to your talk page is a little, how to say, selfish. --Tagishsimon (talk) 14:41, 14 June 2012 (UTC)[reply]

There are several ways to do it -- if you Google for "video to gif linux", the first four links each spell out a method. (Tagishsimon, the OP is only asking for a talkback notice, not an answer on the talk page.) Looie496 (talk) 17:03, 14 June 2012 (UTC)[reply]

IPv1, IPv2, IPv3, IPv5

IPv1, IPv2, and IPv3 redirect to Internet Protocol, while IPv5 redirects to Internet Stream Protocol. Why is v5 different from the rest — was it simply an editorial decision, or is the protocol substantially different? And if the latter, in what ways? I notice the edit summary here, but the article text says nothing of that, unless I'm overlooking something. Nyttend (talk) 11:13, 14 June 2012 (UTC)[reply]

I suspect it's because IP protocoll number 5 is Internet Stream Protocol. See List of IP protocol numbers. But, with the exception that IPv4 has number 4, I don't think protocol number is the same as protocol version. Taemyr (talk) 11:47, 14 June 2012 (UTC)[reply]

I might be wrong. According to Internet Protocol IPv5 is Internet Stream Protocol, so the difference between IPv5 and IPv1-3 is that we have a seperate article for the former. Taemyr (talk) 11:49, 14 June 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Macbook Specs

I am preparing to buy a computer, and I'm wanting to buy an Apple, for several reasons. I'm wondering what specs I need to max out on my Macbook, and which ones I can stand to not max out in order to save some cash. What I'll be using my computer for: spreadsheets, powerpoints, typing and saving papers, documents, watching movies/videos, lots of music storage, lots of music editing, and I do some on-the-side gaming such as League of Legends, Medeival Total War and the likes. I want my computer to be fast enough and with good enough graphics in order to run what I need. My biggest pet peeve is slow click-to-run ratio, or super lagging screen/graphics. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 208.11.0.18 (talk) 14:26, 14 June 2012 (UTC)[reply]

If you're looking to customize a computer, a Macbook isn't the answer. The options are going to be basically how fast do you want the processor (as far as possible) and how much RAM do you want (quite a bit). Personally I've found you can usually buy RAM cheaper if you don't buy it through Apple. But other than that, I can't think of too many other work-arounds to shelling out a lot of cash. I can think of a few faster tweaks that would involve shelling out more cash (e.g. a solid state hard drive), but not too much you can hold back on. --Mr.98 (talk) 16:58, 14 June 2012 (UTC)[reply]

When you say buy RAM cheaper, are those the "kits" I've glanced at before for upgrading RAM? And if so, aren't there still intrinsic limitations to the computers RAM? Essentially I'm wondering if this- 2.4 GHz Quad-Core Intel Core i7 Processor

4 GB 1333MHz DDR3 SDRAM 750GB 5400rpm Hard Drive; 8x DVD/CD SuperDrive 15.4-Inch LED-backlit Display, 1440-by-900 Native Resolution; AMD Radeon HD 6770M with 1GB GDDR5 would be enough for my needs? And if I get one of those RAM kits for 8GB would that increase it to 12GB, or replace it with 8GB rather than 4GB? Feel free to explain any of these things as well. My knowledge is rudimentary and I'm not too confident in it. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 208.11.0.18 (talk) 17:22, 14 June 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Average Number of Citations in Wikipedia Articles

Hi, I can't seem to find data anywhere about the average number of citations found on Wikipedia pages. Any ideas about data or where to look? (Isn't on any of the wikipedia statistics pages)

Thanks! --Cucumbergelato (talk) 14:35, 14 June 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Previously, the Reference Desk Talk Page entertained the idea of statistically aggregating "number of references" per contributor. Here's (one of the numerous) discussions: from Reference Desk Talk Archive 80, circa January 2011. If I may reiterate my objections: "what about references that are not hyperlinks? (I often cite textbooks and academic papers from my library or personal collection, without always linking to any web resources). What about hyperlinks that are not references?" These issues present difficult technical obstacles to meaningful statistical aggregation of "citation count." Nimur (talk) 16:28, 14 June 2012 (UTC)[reply]

These are valid points for regarding that previous silliness, but the OP's question is quite different, and there is no technical challenge. 1) create list of all WP pages that have a "References" section. 2)store the number refs in each of these articles. 3) take the mean or plot a histogram. Checking random WP pages leads me to believe that it is typical to have non-hyper linked refs(e.g. to books, as you decribe) , and non-ref links (e.g. many internal WP links), but in general, it seems fair to assume that the numbered lists in the "References" section do indeed contain references that have been cited in the article. Sure, there are probably spurious refs and vandals specializing on the reference sections, but that should work itself out. Thus, it seems completely reasonable to say "The average number of references contained in WP article (among those that have a refs section) is X (as of a certain date)". SemanticMantis (talk) 18:07, 14 June 2012 (UTC)[reply]

(I should also note that I'm assuming the OP is more interested in number of references than the number of citations, despite what they wrote.)

There are still many problems. The list in the references section may not be numbered. The reference section in the source code may be nearly empty, containing only <references/>. A single source may appear several times with different pages cited. And so on. Jc3s5h (talk) 19:21, 14 June 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Sounds like what you're saying is that it's not at all a trivial question and that it's not so bad that I didn't find an answer elsewhere. You are indeed correct -- I am looking for the number of references rather than the number of citations. (I think I probably meant to say "number of sources cited" rather than "citations.") While it would be interesting to know just how many references are able to be visited via hyperlink, I'm guessing that's really the next step after determining the total (or average) number of references.

Until then, though, any estimates? I looked through 75 random articles and found them to average about 6.4 references, but this certainly isn't a large enough sample size, especially since one of them had 164 and many of them had none. What do you think the actual amount might be? (Or even, what feels right?)

Despite no numbers out yet, helpful nonetheless. --Cucumbergelato (talk) 20:31, 14 June 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Syllogism as the first address bar suggestion for en.wikipedia.org using Firefox: why?

I was wondering why always when I start typing into my address bar en.wikiepdia.org using Firefox (after I have dumped all history and cookies), the first dropdown suggestion is always Wikipedia's article on syllogism, i.e., I type en. (that's as far as I get), and then the drop down menu provides as a first suggestion:

W Syllogism – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
  en.wikipedia.org/wiki/syllogism

My computer is pretty much scrubbed regularly (and my browser history and cookies are scrubbed constantly) so I can't imagine this would be so consistent (it's been this way for a long, long time) and come from something from my computer's settings – but I have no idea. Thanks in advance for any replies.--108.14.195.239 (talk) 16:13, 14 June 2012 (UTC)[reply]

When that happens to me, it usually transpires that I've accidentally bookmarked a page (with some ham fisted keymash that I didn't notice I'd done). Firefox's completion also completes on bookmarks, as well as history. 90.198.88.8 (talk) 20:07, 14 June 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Oh man, so ridiculously simple. Yes. It was in "unsorted bookmarks" – somehow (which don't display when you click on bookmarks). Thanks for clearing up the mystery of the century.--108.14.203.159 (talk) 22:27, 14 June 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Question about Linux security

This might open up a can of worms, but I just felt I should ask it. I read on a Finnish Linux wiki site that Linux bootloaders offer a "single-user boot mode", where the user is dropped straight into a shell, run by root. The user now has full root privileges over the computer without ever having to type the root password. Doesn't this mean that anyone who has physical access to a Linux computer has full access to all data stored within it, even if he/she doesn't know anything about its configured usernames and passwords? Is this considered a security risk? JIP | Talk 19:19, 14 June 2012 (UTC)[reply]

That's how all computers work; if someone has physical access to the machine they have access to the data stored on it. And, just like on Windows and Macs, if someone uses disk encryption then the attacker can only see the cryptogram, not the plain data. It's no more, and no less, of a security risk than the same circumstance on Windows or Mac. 90.198.88.8 (talk) 20:01, 14 June 2012 (UTC)[reply]

For kiosk operation (where an attacker has access to the keyboard and mouse, and maybe a usb port, but can't open the case) one can configure the bootloader (and the BIOS) to require a password before allowing a boot from anything other than the internal disk. Again this is no different between Linux, BSD, MacOS, and Windows. 90.198.88.8 (talk) 20:05, 14 June 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Yes. But if you have encrypted your hard-drive you are safe, if you have not they could just pull the hard-drive out and plug it into a different computer. --80.112.182.54 (talk) 01:43, 15 June 2012 (UTC)[reply]

June 15