Wikipedia:Reference desk/Computing

Welcome to the computing section
of the Wikipedia reference desk.

skip to bottom

Select a section:

• Computing
• Entertainment
• Humanities
• Language
• Mathematics
• Science
• Miscellaneous
• Archives

Want a faster answer?

Main page: Help searching Wikipedia

   

How can I get my question answered?

• Select the section of the desk that best fits the general topic of your question (see the navigation column to the right).
• Post your question to only one section, providing a short header that gives the topic of your question.
• Type '~~~~' (that is, four tilde characters) at the end – this signs and dates your contribution so we know who wrote what and when.
• Don't post personal contact information – it will be removed. Any answers will be provided here.
• Please be as specific as possible, and include all relevant context – the usefulness of answers may depend on the context.
• Note:
  • We don't answer (and may remove) questions that require medical diagnosis or legal advice.
  • We don't answer requests for opinions, predictions or debate.
  • We don't do your homework for you, though we'll help you past the stuck point.
  • We don't conduct original research or provide a free source of ideas, but we'll help you find information you need.

Ready? Ask a new question!

How do I answer a question?

Main page: Wikipedia:Reference desk/Guidelines

• The best answers address the question directly, and back up facts with wikilinks and links to sources. Do not edit others' comments and do not give any medical or legal advice.

See also:

• Teahouse
• Help desk
• Village pump
• Help manual

July 22

removal of antivirus

It turns out I have some rather nasty adware on my computer, which is rather strange, because it is the sort of thing that is supposed to save me from this sort of thing. It's known as McAfee, and it keeps prompting me to buy. It was, of course, shipped with Windows Vista, but now it has well and truly outlived its useful lifespan, because there is nothing so irritating as a constant popup ad on your desktop. It used to be just once when I fired up the computer, but now, just in case I didn't get the message the first 3 million times, it is telling me about 4 times a session to upgrade. I have the free version of Malwarebytes (which interestingly, is telling me my trial has expired, but I don't remember any trial, and my understanding is that this will revert to the free version anyway). With the free version of Malwarebytes, is it safe to remove the McAfee? I've really had enough of it, and I just need to know if there is anything it is doing in the background that is not provided by Malwarebytes. If so, is there a free alternative? I wouldn't mind paying, but it seems the paid stuff is the stuff that comes with advertising - imagine if cable tv was full of ads, and free to air had none - would you buy cable? IBE (talk) 02:14, 22 July 2012 (UTC)

I have always bought my computers from one of the best in the city. They have always installed http://free.avg.com/ca-en/homepage in them when I ask to have the best free one they know of. The free one has protected 3 of my systems well for close to 10 years.--Canoe1967 (talk) 04:27, 22 July 2012 (UTC)

I too suffer from a similar 'adware' problem but from the 'trial' version of Norton Internet Security that came on my laptop. I also use AVG Antivirus free version and Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware and they seem to keep the overwhelming majority of viruses and malware at bay. If you install AVG you should be safe removing the McAfee software. - 220 of ^Borg 10:15, 22 July 2012 (UTC)

Most things that come preinstalled with Windows are going to end up annoying you. ¦ Reisio (talk) 00:28, 23 July 2012 (UTC)

Including Windows. Thanks for the advice. IBE (talk) 01:43, 23 July 2012 (UTC)

Weekly menu planner

I need a program that will help me plan weekly menus for a child developement center. using my meals and not having any repeats for 2 weeks. breackfast, lunch and snack. is there one i can download for free or cheap? — Preceding unsigned comment added by Hughesmarni (talk • contribs) 04:36, 22 July 2012 (UTC)

Do you want it to do anything besides listing the meals, like counting calories, making sure each meal is balanced, etc. ? If not, I expect a spreadsheet would work. If you have a Windows operating system, the Microsoft Office suite includes a spreadsheet program. You will have to manually verify that there are no repeats. I imagine just having 2 weekly menus which alternate and repeat is the easiest way, with perhaps something special substituted in on holidays. StuRat (talk) 05:15, 22 July 2012 (UTC)

You could also just use a text editor, and set it up like this (adding weekends if you have meals then):

            +----+----+----+----+----+
  Dates     | M  | Tu |  W | Th |  F |
+-----------+----+----+----+----+----+
| BREAKFAST |    |    |    |    |    |
+-----------+----+----+----+----+----+
| LUNCH     |    |    |    |    |    |
+-----------+----+----+----+----+----+
| SNACK     |    |    |    |    |    |
+-----------+----+----+----+----+----+

Your version will be larger, of course, and you would need to use a fixed size font (mono-spaced), like courier, to get the columns to work out right. StuRat (talk) 05:30, 22 July 2012 (UTC)

jpg pictures

I have around 4,000 jpg pictures taken by my digital camera. They're around 2MB each, and thus consuming quite a lot of hard drive space, and as I keep taking more pictures this is only increasing.

I did some tests and found that the pictures still look okay when saved as low as 800KB (with the same dimensions).

I am therefore considering reducing the quality of all the pictures to this level to save disk space.

Some questions;

1. There is almost no noticable difference (but obviously some) to me when looking at the original and the compressed versions. Is there anything I am missing here, something I haven't considered that would warrent keeping the originals? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 75.87.101.44 (talk) 13:56, 22 July 2012 (UTC)

No, you're not missing anything, other than that hard drive space is ridiculously cheap.

As you probably know (and as our JPEG article explains), "lossy" compression algorithms like JPEG can do a very good job of compressing pictures, since (a) there's a lot of order and redundancy in most pictures, and (b) it's really not a problem if you lose a little bit of information (indeed, as you've seen, one tends not to notice at all). So you can dial down the image quality, i.e. dial up the compression, i.e. dial down the file size, and save a lot of disk space, and not lose much of anything in return.

Mostly what you'll lose is time, doing all the re-compressing and re-saving! (Although there are programs which can automate this task for you, on lots of images at once.) Also, if you ever decide to print the pictures out on a high-resolution photo printer, or expand them to full screen, they may then look noticeably worse, and you may wish you'd kept the original, less-compressed versions.

Finally, when you say "a lot of hard drive space", are you speaking in absolute or relative terms? Yes, 4000 x 2 meg is 8 gig. But a modern personal computer is likely to have hundreds of gigabytes available (the one I'm typing on, which is about a year old, has 465), so you might be talking less than one percent of your available space. —Steve Summit (talk) 14:08, 22 July 2012 (UTC)

(ec)And 8Gb of hard drive storage costs, at desktop scales, less than $1.50. So spending the time to downscale all the pictures, and check them, will save 90 cents. That's a lot of work (even if you automate it, you need to set up the automation and check the results) to save a tiny amount of money. -- Finlay McWalterჷTalk 14:16, 22 July 2012 (UTC)

Did you mean "Gb" (Gigabits) or "GB" (GigaBytes) ? StuRat (talk) 18:49, 22 July 2012 (UTC)

Yes, bytes. -- Finlay McWalterჷTalk 18:51, 22 July 2012 (UTC)

Something else to consider is storing them on an external device, like a USB flash drive. This costs slightly more per GB but is much simpler, as it doesn't require you to open up your computer to add a hard drive (or, even worse, replace the hard drive, which involves moving everything else from the old one to the new one). This will free up the entire 8GB on your hard disk. You can also use multiple flash drives, if you prefer to separate your pics in some way. If so, be sure to label each one. One advantage to this method is the portability. If you don't need portability, you could go with an intermediate solution, by getting an external hard drive. However, while those cost less per GB, they come in larger capacities than USB flash drives, such that the total cost may be higher. StuRat (talk) 18:43, 22 July 2012 (UTC)

Note that an external hard drive (3.5" based one) can actually be cheaper per GB then internal drives in places like the US and NZ when on sale at bigbox stores. Nil Einne (talk) 06:14, 23 July 2012 (UTC)

"hard drive space is ridiculously cheap" What he said. ¦ Reisio (talk) 00:30, 23 July 2012 (UTC)

Another alternative to downsizing them is compressing them with something like 7-Zip. I'm not entirely sure what kind of ratio you'd get on jpgs but it's worth a try My Ubuntu (talk) 04:13, 23 July 2012 (UTC)

You won't get any noticeable compression with 7-Zip. You will with recent versions of WinZip and StuffIt if you use their JPEG-specific algorithms, but the savings are not all that large (less than 25%, I think) and it's very slow both to compress and decompress, so it's really not worth it. -- BenRG (talk) 04:39, 23 July 2012 (UTC)

Using generic non-lossy compression on already compressed sources (like mp3, jpeg, mpeg) won't give you any discernible improvement and may add size due to overhead. Shadowjams (talk) 21:31, 23 July 2012 (UTC)

The Connection Machines

Is it possible to do a quick comparison of the Connection Machines to modern day technology? Is a laptop or smart phone able to match these devices from the 80's? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 92.30.155.250 (talk) 14:23, 22 July 2012 (UTC)

Benchmarks aren't easy to meaningfully compare over generations. But we can see that FROSTBURG could perform around 65.5 gigaflops; for a modern comparison, check the GFLOPs column of the table in GeForce 500 Series. -- Finlay McWalterჷTalk 14:50, 22 July 2012 (UTC)

Gigaflops#Hardware costs contains some interesting metrics of cost-per-GFLOP. It doesn't have a CM, but does have a broadly comparable Cray X-MP. -- Finlay McWalterჷTalk 15:14, 22 July 2012 (UTC)

Also worth saying: although there were compilers for other languages, the only meaningful language Connection Machines understood was a weird variant of Lisp. So, really, unless your task is well-suited to be implemented in Lisp, it's not really even fair to compare gigaflops to gigaflops. I would surmise that a Connection Machine would perform very poorly at decoding an H.264 video, such as a Youtube clip, in real-time - even though that task is both parallelizable and highly limited by numerical calculation performance; whereas your modern mobile digital computer can do that on battery power. You could, in theory, try to code up a modern video toolchain for benchmarking on such a machine - it could even be ported to Lisp... but that is prohibitively difficult for a casual comparison. The thing to keep in mind is that for many specialized applications, modern computers get a lot of their performance from application-specific CISC-like hardware acceleration; so gigaflops of video decoding aren't comparable to gigaflops of wave equation calculation. Nimur (talk) 21:26, 22 July 2012 (UTC)

ring device from script

I have a "Voip Voice V653SK" [1] device with no manual or software. When I plug it into the computer via USB it recognizes it as a microphone. I want to make it ring loudly (using the devices built in ringer) on command from a batch script, but I cannot work out how to do this. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thank you 92.233.64.26 (talk) 15:41, 22 July 2012 (UTC)

Here's the quick start manual: [2]. It requires the CD, though, so you will need to find that. StuRat (talk) 18:58, 22 July 2012 (UTC)

Thanks but that only explains how to set it up to take calls, which isn't want I want to do. The drivers for it have already been automatically installed so the CD isn't needed. 92.233.64.26 (talk) 19:10, 22 July 2012 (UTC)

That's not necessarily so. The phone advertises itself to the OS as a "composite device": a collection of audio devices and a single human-input device (the keypad, which I imagine also includes the on-hook detector as a "key"). When you insert it into a modern Windows machine, Windows recognises the speaker and microphone on it and adds generic sound drivers to these (there's plenty of info in the USB device enumeration for this). But the keypad (a "HID" device) isn't a generic device (the different keys map differently on different phone keypads) and the concept of a "ringing" channel isn't generic either (some devices have a "ring" command which buzzes a piezoelectric sounder, others have another audio channel into which a "ring ring" tone must be played, and one or several MIXER and SELECTOR units which control where the audio goes). So with the generic driver you should get basic phone function (speak and hear) but the keyboard will be dead and the phone won't ring. Ideally you'll find a decent driver that supports both - but my experience (a few years ago) with a similar model from the same manufacturer was that their driver was poor. If memory serves (it's been 4 years since I plugged it into a Windows computer) the driver could get the keypad working and the ring-lights flashing, but I don't remember it actually making a ring noise. -- Finlay McWalterჷTalk 19:44, 22 July 2012 (UTC)

The keypad seems to work with the generic drivers, the top lights up blue when I press the answer key and I can turn the microphone on and off via it (maybe that's an internal function of the device though, and not being processed by the computer). It doesn't seem like there is an easy way to achieve what I want, so I guess I'll just give up with this idea. Thanks for the replies anyway 92.233.64.26 (talk) 19:54, 22 July 2012 (UTC)

How can I quickly and easily get to the first comments posted on this 'New Yorker' article (or others like it)?

The obvious link is to the newest comment but I would like to follow the debate from the oldest.

80.90.168.166 (talk) 20:34, 22 July 2012 (UTC)

The abomination that is http://www.newyorker.com/js/pluck.min.js injects ten comments at a time. If you figure out the function that's being called, you can do pretty much whatever you want, including swapping "Sort":"TimeStampDescending" for "Sort":"TimeStampAscending" and start with the oldest comments first. ¦ Reisio (talk) 02:05, 23 July 2012 (UTC)

I don't know how to even start doing that, but at least I've learned there isn't a way in the normal user interface. I presume your assessment of the 'New Yorker' is unrelated.80.90.168.223 (talk) 04:19, 23 July 2012 (UTC)

Merely commenting on the terrible JS they use. ¦ Reisio (talk) 04:34, 23 July 2012 (UTC)

Learning C++

I am nearing the end of my first book on C++ (C++: A Beginner's Guide, Herbert Schildt) and wish to advance my studies still further. Can anyone recommend a suitable second book? Thanks. asyndeton talk 21:52, 22 July 2012 (UTC)

Good third books are Koenig and Moo, Rumnations on C++, and Cline et al., C++ FAQs. I'm not sure about a second book.

Oh, wait: how about Meyers, Effective C++? —Steve Summit (talk) 00:48, 23 July 2012 (UTC)

You might consider starting over with another first book, based on how well known Schildt is at being wrong. ¦ Reisio (talk) 00:55, 23 July 2012 (UTC)

Yes, Schildt's books are terrible. Please try to forget everything you "learned" from this book, as a large fraction of it is not true at all. I think Steve Summit's recommendations are decent. Even if you don't like the style of those books, the authors do at least know C++. -- BenRG (talk) 04:22, 23 July 2012 (UTC)

I find this news to be rather unfortunate. I have just started learning C++ from Schildt's book. I'm pretty near the beginning though and this is something I would very much like to get right the first time round if possible; could someone please recommend an appropriate first book on C++ (for an almost complete novice programmer)? Thanks. meromorphic [talk to me] 21:33, 23 July 2012 (UTC)

• Well, the only way to advance your studies that really works is to start writing actual code. Looie496 (talk) 01:55, 23 July 2012 (UTC)

I highly recommend Code Complete ed. 2 by Steve McConnell (Microsoft Press ISBN 978-0-7356-1967-8). It is an amazing book, it is not language-specific, and assumes you already know how to program. It teaches you how to program properly, which in my personal experience is a rare skill. I've read it cover-to-cover, and it's worth re-reading every so often. Our article on it does it no justice, but it's a fantastic book which changes the way you think about programming. I really can't emphasize enough how much it's helped me improve as a programmer. Beg, borrow or steal a copy so you can see for yourself, and then go buy it. After that, if you want to deepen your programmer's toolbox, I recommend learning Design Patterns by the gang of four. It's on a more sophisticated level, but it makes an excellent reference even if you don't get a lot of immediate value from it. Pretty much anything by the GoF is worth looking at. BigNate37_(T) 04:45, 23 July 2012 (UTC)

Let me make clear that my recommendations, while written on topics which are important for any seasoned programmer to know, are not C++ references. If you're not finished learning the ropes, McConnell is still worth a read but Design Patterns won't be helpful until you've got some object-oriented programming experience already. BigNate37_(T) 04:52, 23 July 2012 (UTC)

July 23

HTTPS

Is there a way to make Firefox use https instead of http, and is there any point? — Fly by Night (talk) 01:41, 23 July 2012 (UTC)

There is an extension/plugin you can use with Firefox (https everywhere) to get HTTPS by default. The article at HTTPS has a link to it, and an explanation of why you might want it. RudolfRed (talk) 01:57, 23 July 2012 (UTC)

I don't think you can use https unless the server you're contacting is prepared to handle the https protocol, though. Most are not. There are tricks for securing parts of the pathway, but you can't secure the whole pathway unless the server is secure. Looie496 (talk) 02:15, 23 July 2012 (UTC)

Upgrading a TOSHIBA Satellite A215

A friend has the above mentioned laptop, and the ATI Radeon X1200 Series graphics card. They are unable to play the game Borderlands, because this card will not support Cell Shader 3.0. According to this, someone else who has the same model and wanted to upgrade their graphics card can not. Is this true? Are there any options out there? and decently priced i hope, perhaps around $60 that fit in the laptop, work with what slots it has, and can run borderlands?

Thanks for the help!

74.117.245.62 (talk) 07:47, 23 July 2012 (UTC)

The usual answer is no; the graphics card fitted inside your laptop is one thing you cannot upgrade. And a search seems to confirm this. For example, the first post on this forum from 2006 seems pretty emphatic. However, a very small number of laptops do support upgradable graphics cards, but I'm afraid the rather old Toshiba A215 almost certainly isn't one of them. That said, maybe this article has a possible, though rather expensive solution. For the $330 or more price tag (and that was in 2008 prices) you might be better off getting a new laptop or buying a cheap but better specified desktop machine just for playing games. Astronaut (talk) 16:48, 24 July 2012 (UTC)

Microsoft Research autobiography tool

I read somewhere that Microsoft Research has (probably within the last few months) released a tool that can be used to generate an autobiographical timeline from e-mail records etc. What's it called? NeonMerlin 10:24, 23 July 2012 (UTC)

Perhaps you are looking for the Microsoft Research LifeBrowser? The Verge has links to more sources. --Kushal (talk) 20:55, 24 July 2012 (UTC)

about live chat for website

how can insert a live chat box on a webpage?? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 59.178.144.3 (talk) 13:24, 23 July 2012 (UTC)

Well.. it depends on what kind of chatbox, you want.. Do you want to host the chatbox? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 65.49.68.173 (talk) 15:12, 23 July 2012 (UTC)

Googling live chat widget gives a lot of results, though I can't personally recommend any. --Colapeninsula (talk) 08:20, 24 July 2012 (UTC)

Same MAC

If someone changes the MAC of his computer and uses the same as an AP or other computer of a WLAN network, would he be disrupting this network (even if he's not logged on it)? If no, how does the network ignores him? If possible, WLANs would be pretty susceptible to disturbance. OsmanRF34 (talk) 13:36, 23 July 2012 (UTC)

Yes, it's very disruptive. An ethernet switch remembers to which of its ports a given MAC wired, and only sends traffic for that device out to that port (ref Radia Perlman Interconnections). Most modern OSes will notice if another station uses the same MAC as they do, and will alert the user, and managed switches can report likewise. I don't know about WLAN. There is no shortage of easy ways to disrupt a WLAN. -- Finlay McWalterჷTalk 14:21, 23 July 2012 (UTC)

Do you mean that there are lots of way of jamming a WLAN without extra jamming devices? I really mean, is that simple that someone sits with his laptop somewhere, fakes his MAC and a network near him is disrupted? OsmanRF34 (talk) 17:16, 23 July 2012 (UTC)

Yes, it's that easy. Because WLAN works as one big hub though, it might actually still work for each client. You'd have some weird effects though. This would depend on the OS of the router mostly. What Finlay's referring to are other attacks that are entirely software based... like sending REAUTH notices, or the Wifi equivalent of JAM signals... which can disrupt everyone on the network segment. Shadowjams (talk) 21:22, 23 July 2012 (UTC)

Hexadecimal objects at python

In python something like this

import os
print os.walk

outputs <function walk at 0x004D2DB0>

What 0x004D2DB0 means? 65.49.68.173 (talk) 19:12, 23 July 2012 (UTC)

You're printing the value of the function pointer to Python's os.walk utility function. That is not the same as executing the function. Nimur (talk) 19:26, 23 July 2012 (UTC)

(ec)When you try to print anything in Python, the runtime has to ask that thing to produce a string representation of itself. For objects (and other things) those override the __str__() method, and they return whatever their designer thought appropriate. But other things aren't defined in Python, but are created by the python runtime system itself. Different python implementations might chose subtly different ways of printing those. In the case of functions, the cpython system (which is what you're calling python, as its the most common python runtime) prints a hexadecimal string, as you've observed. I don't think they make any claim about that string, other than its unique to that function (at this exact moment in time); there's nothing you can meaningfully do with it (until you get to some pretty advanced coding) - it's a little implementation detail leaking through, and one you can safely ignore. Just for comparison, on my 64 bit linux system, in cpython your code prints:

 <function walk at 0x7f23cb643cf8>

but in pypy (a different python runtime system) it prints:

 <function walk at 0x00007f01699e6f98>

What it's actually doing (probably) is printing the address in the cpython process's memory into which that function has been loaded. -- Finlay McWalterჷTalk 19:27, 23 July 2012 (UTC)

A good illustration of why there numbers aren't necessarily "pointers" is this code:

     def a(): return
     def b(): return
     def c(): return
     print a,b,c

If I run this on cpython or pypy the values clearly are pointers (they're 120 apart from one another). But on jython, another python implementation, the result is very different:

 <function a at 0x1> <function b at 0x2> <function c at 0x3>

So obviously on that implementation they're just indices into some internal table. So the moral of the story is "it's just a magic number; don't worry about it". -- Finlay McWalterჷTalk 22:04, 23 July 2012 (UTC)

If the intention when using "print" was to get information on the function, try:

help(os.walk)

instead. You might also find:

dir(os)

useful to list the functions in a module.

help(os)

is also useful but much more verbose than the dir command.-gadfium 22:36, 23 July 2012 (UTC)

July 24

Copying and pasting in java-based formats

Hello everyone. I was wondering if there is any solution to this minor but nevertheless very annoying issue. When I am in java rooms--chat rooms, Yahoo! games, etc.--I cannot copy or paste any text into the dialogue fields.--108.54.25.10 (talk) 01:32, 24 July 2012 (UTC)

It's often considered a bad idea for external web pages and scripts/programs running on them to have access to your clipboard (which holds the data for cut-and-paste) because you may have been cutting and pasting some important private information which they could then steal.[3][4] So your browser may block access to the clipboard. Other programs don't always provide full cut-and-paste functionality because they use their own text-entry routines rather than the operating system's. So I don't think there's an easy fix. --Colapeninsula (talk) 09:00, 24 July 2012 (UTC)

I agree somewhat. The main thing is that your ability to paste into the text field is a function of whether or not the designer of the java program made it possible. If you cant right click and hit "Paste", try using the shortcut for it with "Ctrl + V". This may sometimes work even though menu based pastes don't work.

There ARE some nice java programs for IRC that allow full copy/paste functionality, but it seems this doesn't help you because you are talking about being specific places, like Yahoo.

Another option i have thought of is that if you really quite want this ability, i could try to write a short little program that would let you paste into IT instead, and it would type the info into the desired window very quickly, at almost the same speed as a paste. :P

172.162.124.190 (talk) 10:47, 24 July 2012 (UTC)

Why do iPads sold at the online Apple Store] are SIM locked to AT&T or Verizon, even iPads bought without contract?

Go to http://www.apple.com/ to understand what I mean. Or it is just that I have misunderstood the web page? 27.66.133.220 (talk) 07:18, 24 July 2012 (UTC)

Various web forums say they're not SIM locked in the USA (although they do use Apple's micro-SIM not standard SIMs)[5][6][7][8][9]. iPads on Vodafone in the UK are reportedly sometimes locked, and it may vary in other countries. Also note that the 4G iPads are somewhat network-specific because different networks use different forms of 4G, so if you change network you may no longer get 4G speeds.[10] Incidentally, I can't see anything on your link that says they might be SIM locked - could you point to where you saw that or quote what it said. You should contact Apple online or ask in an Apple store to be certain. --Colapeninsula (talk) 09:10, 24 July 2012 (UTC)

Just click on "Store" and then "iPad". 171.225.113.143 (talk) 10:04, 24 July 2012 (UTC)

Excel lists

Hi there,

I've got two lists of email addresses in Excel. For example, I'm going to call them "List A" and "List B". Some email addresses are on both List A and List B. What I need to do is merge the lists, and indicate on the merged list who is on each one:

Email	Tags
example1@hotmail.com	ListA
example2@yahoo.com	ListB
example3@gmail.com	ListA,ListB

Is there an easy way to use Excel to combine these lists, and flag up which people are on list A, which are on list B, and which are on both?

Thanks,

JanuaryFebruaryMarch (talk) 08:55, 24 July 2012 (UTC)

I would just do this manually — Excel is very quick about this sort of thing. Create a new worksheet. Paste List A's e-mails into Column A. Then write "ListA" in the first cell of Column B. Copy that, then select the entire row of column B that corresponds with List A's addresses. Paste. Paste List B right underneath List A, then also label it List B.

The only trick is in finding the duplicates. This is pretty easy. First, sort the list so that the e-mail addresses are in order alphabetically. Then, in cell C1 (assuming no headers, yet), make a formula that looks like this: =IIF(C1==C2,"!!!!!!!!",""). This basically says, "If C1 and C2 are equal, make it really obvious to me.". Copy and paste that formula all the way down (Excel should automatically change it to say C2, C3, C4, etc.). Now you should be able to quickly see exactly how many there are to delete and merge.

This approach is the easiest presuming the total number to merge is not prohibitive. If it is terribly large, then Excel is probably not the best way to handle this... --Mr.98 (talk) 11:11, 24 July 2012 (UTC)

Small correction to the formula - that should be IF, not IIF. AndrewWTaylor (talk) 11:35, 24 July 2012 (UTC)

You are right — I always get IIF (SQL) and IF (Excel) confused... --Mr.98 (talk) 12:55, 25 July 2012 (UTC)

Ok, so can I just check - this method will create a big double list, with the ones that are duplicated flagged up with a big "!!!!!!!!!" sign? And then can I then get a second formula that replaces the contents of the B cell with "ListA,ListB" if the C cell says "!!!!!!!!!"? (assuming I copy the C column so it's no longer dependent on the contents of column B), thus flagging up the doubles and marking them as such?

So for example, if "ListA" = "People I normally write to about hats", and "ListB" = "People I normally write to about dogs", I'm able to flag up all the people I normally write to about both hats and dogs, and flag them up as "ListA,ListB"?JanuaryFebruaryMarch (talk) 11:48, 24 July 2012 (UTC)

That's how I would do it, for a relatively small list. There are more elegant and complex ways to do this sort of thing, but one of the virtues of Excel is that with a little bit of clever sorting and flagging can you usually make the data work out without too much effort. --Mr.98 (talk) 12:55, 25 July 2012 (UTC)

Just a quick word of warning. Once you have created 2 columns (Column A with all the email addresses, and column B with either "List A" or "List B" depending on the origin of the address), make sure you select both columns for your sort. It is very easy to sort one column and leave the other unsorted; resulting in you having to start again.

So you avoid going from:

Email	Tags
bill@yahoo.com	ListA
johnd@hotmail.com	ListA
bill@yahoo.com	ListB
test175@aol.com	ListB
girly@gmail.com	ListB

to this, where the second column didn't get sorted at the same time and you lose the correspondance between address and which list they are in:

Email	Tags
bill@yahoo.com	ListA
bill@yahoo.com	ListA
girly@gmail.com	ListB
johnd@hotmail.com	ListB
test175@aol.com	ListB

Astronaut (talk) 16:02, 24 July 2012 (UTC)

I'd suggest the vlookup command would be a great place to start. It enables you to search for a match in a list, which is exactly what you wish to do. --Tagishsimon (talk) 21:41, 24 July 2012 (UTC)

DHCP connection

How do I enable DHCP and disable MAC filtering2602:30B:82C1:979:A131:55AA:92A2:EFD1 (talk) 15:14, 24 July 2012 (UTC)

That would depend on what operating system you are using. hajatvrc @ 16:03, 24 July 2012 (UTC)

Probably refers to a wireless router actually... again depends on the specific one you're using. If you reset it in most cases DHCP will be enabled and MAC filtering will be disabled. Shadowjams (talk) 04:19, 26 July 2012 (UTC)

Events in C# 2010

I am trying to program the Pokemon Trading Card Game using Visual C#2010 but I ran into a little problem. I have three objects:

Game: Handles all of the game’s data and rules.

Form1: The window shown to the player. Displays all the info the player is allowed to see about the game and allows the player to interact with the game.

ComputerAI: This object tracks what the computer is supposed to know and holds the AI’s logic.

To keep things moving, the game raises a “PriorityChanged” event, to let both the player and the AI know that priority has changed and which one received it (in the EventArgs). The Form reports this info in a log and displays the messages: “Waiting for you” and “Waiting for opponent” as appropriate. The computerAI uses it to decide if it should run its logic or not. The problem I ran into was that when the event was raised the AI was told and ran its logic (playing cards etc), this caused the player to get priority and raised another PriorityChanged, which the AI got and did nothing with (which was correct). Then the Form got both PriorityChanged events one after the other but in the wrong order.

To fix this I split the “PriorityChanged” event into two “PriorityChanged” and “PriorityRecieved”. The Forms updates the display on the “PriorityChanged” event, and the AI runs on the “PriorityRecieved” event. This solution worked, but it strikes me as wrong. Is there a better way?

Thanks 86.45.219.24 (talk) 17:21, 24 July 2012 (UTC)

You may wish to consider the observer pattern or the state pattern. BigNate37_(T) 22:37, 24 July 2012 (UTC)

Firefox jumping to the wrong spot on a web page

Firefox 14.0.1 on Windows XP SP3 here. When I navigate to a section of a web page (say by clicking on the arrow for the section on my Wikipedia watch list), it seems to go to the proper place, then jump someplace else on the page. This also happens when I finish editing a section, and seems to be a result of me enlarging the text on the screen (View + Zoom + Zoom In). Apparently it can't properly calculate the new spacing of the enlarged text. Has anyone else had this problem, and is there a fix for it ? StuRat (talk) 21:05, 24 July 2012 (UTC)

It happens to me sometimes and I use default font sizes. I notice it most when there's odd markup on the page, or on sites that hotlink images from a slow server. BigNate37_(T) 22:40, 24 July 2012 (UTC)

Old problem, more frequently encountered, I would say, with img elements that haven't been given explicit dimensions for the browser to know. Try searching http://forums.mozillazine.org/ or the like. ¦ Reisio (talk) 12:08, 25 July 2012 (UTC)

Thanks. StuRat (talk) 20:08, 29 July 2012 (UTC)

July 25

Verifying Android app publishers

Hi, at the Android market, or Play or whatever it's now called, the apps' publishers are all listed under the app name, but how do I know that these are genuine? For example, if I see the publisher "XYZ Inc.", then XYZ Inc. may be a company that I know and trust, but how do I know that this is the "real" XYZ Inc. and not someone masquerading as them? Who does that checking, and is it reliable? 86.129.16.51 (talk) 02:25, 25 July 2012 (UTC)

There is hardly any checking. You give Google your $25, think up a name, and you're in. (In contrast, Apple requires developers to send in some proof of (corporate) identity) Unilynx (talk) 06:45, 25 July 2012 (UTC)

So I could pay $25 and publish apps under the name Adobe, for example? 86.128.4.88 (talk) 11:40, 25 July 2012 (UTC)

You could try, but Adobe would certainly protest~this trade mark infringment. OsmanRF34 (talk) 12:16, 25 July 2012 (UTC)

But only if after they noticed or found out, and even then such things can take ages to resolve. Meanwhile, there could be a fake app that purported to be from Adobe sitting there for weeks? So basically I can't trust any publisher names on the Google app store? When it says "Adobe" or "BBC", or any other well-known name, the app could actually be made by any impersonator, assuming the peeople impersonated have not yet noticed and managed to successfully go through the process of trying to get someone to remove it? 86.128.4.88 (talk) 13:23, 25 July 2012 (UTC)

I would personally suspect Google to have some sort of automated process to weed out the odd names, because that's what they're good at (automating everything to avoid the need for human intervention) - hopefully they block auto-approval but forward to the relevant department any attempt to "use a company name where any part of the name matches a .com name in our top 10000 of sites", which should probably block your attempt from signing up as Adobe Inc. But if even the SSL certificate providers can't get the process of vetting people right [11], I definitely would view a mostly-automated system like Google Play's developer approval with suspicion. Unilynx (talk) 17:15, 25 July 2012 (UTC)

I somewhat doubt it will take ages once someone in BBC or Adobe or some other well known name takes action. On the other hand, if you have a company and fairly worldwide trademark for IP86Anon for selling computer software or portable devicxe applications and someone uses your company's name on Google Play, I wouldn't be surprised if it does take ages. Nil Einne (talk) 04:00, 26 July 2012 (UTC)

ISO = VMware?

If some software (Backtrack, for example) is offered in an ISO version and a VMware version to download, can you just download the ISO and use it through VirtualBox? OsmanRF34 (talk) 12:12, 25 July 2012 (UTC)

If you mean .iso extension, no it's not vmware, iso it's just the image of a CD, see ISO_image — Preceding unsigned comment added by 65.49.68.173 (talk) 13:20, 25 July 2012 (UTC)

I just wanted to know if they are equivalent. Now it's clear that VMware have its own file format. But I can run this ISO through VMware?OsmanRF34 (talk) 15:46, 25 July 2012 (UTC)

Virtualbox supports the .vmdk format which VMware uses, so you should be able to use both the ISO and the VMware version with virtualbox. You would need to create a new virtual machine and have it use the .vmdk file as its hard disk. AvrillirvA (talk) 15:34, 25 July 2012 (UTC)

Why does VMware have its own file format? Isn't the program meant to mount ISOs? Wouldn't issuing an ISO be always the best choice? If you don't have VMware or prefer to use Virtualbox or prefer to run it from the live CD, the ISO would work just fine. OsmanRF34 (talk) 15:51, 25 July 2012 (UTC)

VMware does mount ISOs, but .vmdk is a different format. An ISO is a CD image, but .vmdk is a hard drive image. The .vmdk is presumably for testing how the OS behaves when installed to a hard disk, which is different from running it as a live CD. They are offering both the ISO and the VMware version, so if you don't need the VMware version then just use the ISO, it will still work in VMware AvrillirvA (talk) 16:23, 25 July 2012 (UTC)

They are different things.

The VMware version is a complete installation of Backtrack in a VMware virtual machine (done by someone else). If you have the VMware product installed, you can then bring it up and running with the minimum fuss, without having to do any installation, although you will be stuck (maybe at first) with the virtual hardware configuration and OS configuration that the person who created it decided on when they installed it.

With the ISO version, you will need to do your own installation whether on real or virtual hardware. You then get to choose all the settings (language, keyboard, disk partitioning, and so on). It will take a lot longer to get going but might be more suited to your intended purpose. Additionally, some virtulization software is able to mount an ISO file as if it was an optical drive; otherwise you will need a disk burner to create the physical optical media.

Astronaut (talk) 17:23, 25 July 2012 (UTC)

What is this bar?

When you type

 lspci -v | grep Network

in Linux, how do you call this |? OsmanRF34 (talk) 16:33, 25 July 2012 (UTC)

The vertical bar is generally known as a "pipe"; see pipeline (Unix). Incidentally, you've been asking a lot of questions -- could you try to limit yourself to one or two per day, please? Looie496 (talk) 16:37, 25 July 2012 (UTC)

What are you talking about? Can't you count? Just look at my contribution and you'll discover that if I ask 1 or 2 questions/day that would INCREASE the number of question that I'm asking. If you don't feel like answering there is no need to it. Besides that, you should know by now that such comments belong on talk pages. OsmanRF34 (talk) 16:49, 25 July 2012 (UTC)

"...that would INCREASE the number of question that I'm asking..." :D Try taking a look at the "advanced bash scripting guide"[tldp.org/LDP/abs/abs-guide.pdf][tldp.org/LDP/abs/html/]. I found it awfully useful as a beginners (:P) guide too. It has detailed explanations, exercises and examples. "The linux documentation project" has several other good guides too.Staticd (talk) 05:01, 26 July 2012 (UTC)

32/64 bit problem when running an ASP.NET web application in Microsoft IIS

I faced an interesting problem today at work. I had been developing an ASP.NET web application on Windows 7 on a 64-bit computer. When running the web application directly from Visual Studio, everything worked fine, but when I installed it under Microsoft IIS and accessed it from there, I got an error about an invalid architecture or something. It turned out that setting "Allow 32-bit Applications" to True in the application pool properties in Microsoft IIS solved the problem. I thought that this was because the web application was 32-bit code, but the computer was 64-bit, so IIS had been set to run 64-bit code by default. But now my coworker said that it's not because of that, .NET code should be compiled to MSIL and run under an MSIL interpreter, so it should be bitness-agnostic. He said that the reason was that a server process, which the web application communicates with through WCF, is 32-bit code, because it calls Managed C++ libraries compiled as 32-bit code, which in turn call Windows native C++ libraries. But isn't WCF communication simply sending SOAP messages through TCP? There isn't a direct procedure call involved anywhere. This way the client and server processes can even be on separate computers. What is the reason here? JIP | Talk 18:06, 25 July 2012 (UTC)

Windows seven start menu replacement

I replaced my old XP machine with a Windows 7 box about six months ago. I'm mostly happy with it, many improvements, but I sorely miss the user-customizable XP start menu, i.e. being able to edit the Start-menu folder, and create a logical folder hierarchy with links to the applications that I have installed. It is especially those applications that I use rarely that are difficult to locate in the "improved" start-menu. Now I have to resort to creating a folder on the desktop with subfolders "Audio", "Graphics", "Internet", etc., with links to the applications. I've tried to find out if it is possible to activate this functionality in Win 7, and the answer apparently is "No": In this thread, Microsoft support engineer Diana D says that "Unfortunately, there is no way that you can customize the Start Menu in Windows 7 to have Windows XP like functionality".

My question: is anyone aware of an application that can be installed in the system tray or pinned to the taskbar, which implements XP-like start menu functionality? Thanks, --NorwegianBlue ^talk 18:11, 25 July 2012 (UTC)

I use and recommend Classic Shell. -- BenRG (talk) 18:44, 25 July 2012 (UTC)

Thanks a lot, BenRG. I'm setting up my start menu now, and like the solutions for some other minor annoyances too (like no longer needing to tap the alt key to see the toolbar in windows explorer). Much appreciated! --NorwegianBlue ^talk 21:08, 25 July 2012 (UTC)

I'm surprised at the answer you have got. Windows 7, like XP, has got 2 start menus laid over one another - one for the currently logged in user and one for 'all users'. In XP these were in 'c:\documents and settings\<user>\start menu\' and 'c:\documents and settings\all users\start menu\' (I think ... working from memory here). On Windows 7 the user's menu is at 'C:\Users\<user>\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu' while the all user's menu is at 'C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu'. On XP anyone can edit anything by default. On Windows 7 you need admin rights to modify the all users menu. Many applications install their menu entry in the all users menu so everyone who uses the computer can access it. Windows Vista (and subsequently 7) introduced a fixed panel that you initially see when you click the start button, but you can modify what you see in there too by adding and removing (or pinning and unpinning) items, and there are settings to modify how many entries are shown and what other things are visible (links to control panel, documents, etc.). Pretty flexible in my opinion. Astronaut (talk) 19:05, 26 July 2012 (UTC)

Astronaut, I think you may have misread my question. BenRG gave precise answer to my question, with a solution that was better than anything I had hoped for! -NorwegianBlue ^talk 08:51, 27 July 2012 (UTC)

Sorry you thought that. I did read your question and I understood you asked about modifying the start menu. I was surprised someone suggested additional software when I think similar functionality is already present in Windows 7. For example, my own Windows Vista machine has a highly customised start menu grouping programs into menu folders such as "software development", "media tools", "internet", and so on. The Windows 7 PC I use at work, also has a customised start menu. Both use the Aero skin, but I assumed you already knew about the "windows classic" theme since it was mentioned in the Microsoft Answers forum page you linked. And all that is available without downloading some other software, it is just that maybe it doesn't go far enough towards being XP like for your tastes. Oh well, never mind. Astronaut (talk) 16:12, 27 July 2012 (UTC)

My apologies, what I was asking about is exactly what you describe. When using the Win 7 start menu, I have ended up writing the beginning of the name of the application in the text box, and following the links that appear. That is, if they appear, and if I remember the name of the application I installed two months ago, and only have used a couple of times. When clicking the "All programs" item above the text box, the menu (pinnable items) is replaced with a scrollable list which is a mess of directories and root-level links to programs. I realize now, after a (perhaps temporary) uninstall of the program BenRG suggested, that the list is a tree control, and that modifications I made with the ClassicShell program still are there, now as part of a tree control instead of nested menus. I was under the impression that modifying the "All programs" list was not possible with Win 7, and interpreted the Microsoft answer I linked to as a confirmation of that. I shall explore this a little further, before I decide if I need the additional software, or if Win 7 does what I need. Thanks! --NorwegianBlue ^talk 20:02, 27 July 2012 (UTC)

aa3

Will aa3 run on win 7 64-bit with intel pentium 2.7 ghz and 5 mbo/s internet and intel HD graphics card.TheAnnoymousUser (talk) 18:15, 25 July 2012 (UTC)

Presuming you mean America's Army 3, you can find the system requirements at http://www.americasarmy.com/support/requirements_aa3.php. Looie496 (talk) 18:35, 25 July 2012 (UTC)

HTC Rhyme browser?

What's the... I dunno, "platform," I guess, of the default browser (entitled "Internet") that comes with the HTC Rhyme? It supports WikEd, if that helps at all. - Purplewowies (talk) 21:00, 25 July 2012 (UTC)

The Rhyme runs Android, and that article describes the standard Android browser as "based on the open-source WebKit layout engine, coupled with Chrome's V8 JavaScript engine." One might be tempted to call that "Mobile Chrome", but Google also has (on Google Play) a full Chrome for Android. So if one wanted to characterise the standard browser, I think the best one can say is WebKit+V8. -- Finlay McWalterჷTalk 21:06, 25 July 2012 (UTC)

July 26

Hard drives

I'm checking out new computers, and what I notice is that a lot of the ones that have lots of storage space (anywhere between 500GB and 1TB) seem to only come with 5400rpm, most of which don't even come with the option to upgrade to 7200rpm (which should be the default if it's upwards of 750GB) or add an SSD (you have to buy and install one yourself or at least get someone to install it for you). Even if you're ordering from the manufacturer's site where you can choose custom options, only few of them offer the 7200rpm/SSD upgrade as an option. Even then, they seem to limit the 7200rpm option to 640GB or lower. What gives? Why aren't manufacturers realizing that hard drives with that much space cannot function properly with only 5400rpm! It's slow as hell! I even tried explaining this to employees at Best Buy, and some of them don't seem to even have clue as to what RPM is or what it does! 173.2.164.121 (talk) 06:38, 26 July 2012 (UTC)

I imagine it's a physical limitation, that those large disks can't be spun that fast. My suggestion, buy two 640GB disks, if you need both space and speed. StuRat (talk) 06:42, 26 July 2012 (UTC)

Large drives easily run at 7200 rpm stu. [12] Stop commenting your first instinct on stuff you don't know about.

It's a simple business decision. Most consumers don't care/notice. There's a lot of irrelevant info on those displays, and a lot of missed actual information. And arguing with clerks at big box stores about the merits of a corporate decision is about as useful as arguing on wikipedia. Shadowjams (talk) 08:31, 26 July 2012 (UTC)

Finding that they exist at that speed doesn't mean it's "easy" (whatever that means) and saying "it's a simple business decision" doesn't explain it. There must be some advantage to slower large drives, or they wouldn't continue to sell them. Perhaps it's power consumption, cost, longevity, heat generation, etc., but there must be some physical reason why they are reluctant to use higher speeds on larger drives, if this is indeed the case, as the OP claims (and I assumed good faith, that the OP was telling the truth). You seem to be doing exactly what you accuse me of, commenting on something you know nothing about, since, from your vague answer, it's quite apparent you are not an engineer involved in the design of hard drives. StuRat (talk) 18:22, 26 July 2012 (UTC)

5400rpm is still the standard for laptop drives, I assume for power consumption. 7200rpm drives are available, but are usually part of the premium lines and cost significantly more. Although it isn't as convenient, you can always buy a computer with a small, slow drive and then upgrade it yourself to the one you want (after making the recovery disks). Sometimes the price increase for the upgrade is more than the cost of the disk, so you save money in the end as well. What I'm curious about now is if you get better performance out of a 5400rpm 1TB disk than a 7200rpm 160GB disk because of the higher data density. 209.131.76.183 (talk) 12:55, 26 July 2012 (UTC)

Also, the fact that Best Buy employees know little about technical specs should be pretty obvious. They are the bottom of the barrel when it comes to technically-savvy people. They know enough to fool people who don't know much ("No, you really do need this whiz bang feature, even though all you do is check e-mail") but they aren't any kind of barometer for informed people. You should not discuss serious technical decisions with them, unless you are just looking to spend money pointlessly. They aren't paid much (even their repair technicians are paid less than $20 an hour) — take pity on them. --Mr.98 (talk) 14:29, 26 July 2012 (UTC)

It's probably due to the fact that the average consumer doesn't need a fast spinning hard drive for their data. I'd imagine that viewing photos and watching videos is a less concentrated and possibly less intense use of a hard drive than 173.2.164.121 intends out of theirs. I'd also imagine that 7200 RPM hard drives are more expensive to manufacture than 5400 RPM ones/cost more to run/possibly wear out sooner, though again speculation.

As for the question on a 5400rpm 1TB disk or a 7200rpm 160GB disk: there is a method out known as stroking that can answer this. By only using the faster, outer parts of the disk, a fast partition can be created. This article provides a much better explanation of the idea, and this blog entry goes into some calculations. Sazea (talk) 18:25, 26 July 2012 (UTC)

Half the answers here are ridiculous. The lower 5400 rpm drives are cheaper. You're probably looking at "mainstream" laptops. If you buy the cheapest "gaming" laptop, it'll come with a 7200 rpm, but the price for those laptops are a couple hundred higher. Why would they offer SSDs? A 640GB SSD will likely more than double the cost of the laptop, in today's prices. A consumer would pay maybe $80 for a 640GB 5400 rpm 2.5" hdd, or about $650 for a 640GB SSD. Why would they offer it, and who would buy it? Furthermore, I don't know where the OP got the notion that a 500GB 5400rpm drive is ok, but not for a 640GB drive. Size doesn't determine much. And there are 5400rpm 2.5" drives that are faster than many 7200rpm drives, so that point is moot too. If you actually know you need something faster, then yes, you should do it yourself. Edit: And yes, power does come into play. Most casual users care more about getting 2 hours more battery life, than 2 seconds faster load time when booting into Windows. --Wirbelwindヴィルヴェルヴィント (talk) 23:04, 26 July 2012 (UTC)

Well as you said, the question starts of with the ridiculous assertation that 'What gives? Why aren't manufacturers realizing that hard drives with that much space cannot function properly with only 5400rpm! It's slow as hell!' so perhaps the answers aren't that surprising. In reality while 5400RPM drives can be a fair amount slower depending on what you're doing [13], they are far from unusuable and as you mentioned issues like platter density may mean they are faster in some cases. (Concentrating on one spec and saying something must be slower because of it is usually a good way to be wrong.) And as you also said the power consumption and cost advantage is likely to be more important for the majority of consumers, so it isn't surprising they are the majority of drives. I mean even desktop (3.5") drives briefly re-turned to slower drives being the mainstream for power, noise and cost reasons. (With the duopoly that now exists, WD are still doing the green ones but Seagate abandonded it.) Nil Einne (talk) 23:23, 26 July 2012 (UTC)

I'm the OP here, sorry for my late reply to this discussion. I plan on editing and storing videos and photos, so speed is pretty important to me. I'm just wondering which would be more economical: buying a 1TB computer with 5400rpm capacity then adding an SDD or buy a 500GB computer with 5400rpm and buy external hard drives for extra storage? If I plan on partitioning the hard drive, would 1TB be the better choice? 173.2.164.121 (talk) 01:20, 27 July 2012 (UTC)

Are you getting a laptop or a desktop? It's more economical to buy a 500GB computer with a 5400rpm and buying external hard drives... but it'd be faster with an SSD. --Wirbelwindヴィルヴェルヴィント (talk) 03:15, 27 July 2012 (UTC)

I'm getting a laptop. 173.2.164.121 (talk) 03:51, 27 July 2012 (UTC)

Have you considered the feasibility of your first proposal? As far as I know, most laptops only have one 2.5" bay. While a SSD doesn't have to be in that form factor, I don't believe they're generally small enough and most laptops are well packed enough that it's likely not easy if possible to fit an SSD in unless your laptop has an optical drive bay (used that you plan to remove the optical drive from or unused) [14] or is otherwise designed for an SSD in addition to a HDD. If the HDD is particularly thin perhaps you could fit a thin SSD under or on top of it but this is unlikely with a 1TB drive. So unless you're limiting your search for laptops which can somehow fit an SSD in addition to your HDD you may be in for a surprise. You can of course remove the HDD, but I don't get why you'd bother geting a laptop with a 1TB drive unless you plan to keep it in the laptop or have some other use from it and it's really cheaper. You can use an SSD externally but this seems a bit naff with the laptop and in many cases will probably not gain the expected advantages. Nil Einne (talk) 08:09, 27 July 2012 (UTC)

You want your fast drive to be the internal one. External drives will be limited by USB transfer rates, unless you are getting USB3.0 hardware. I'm not sure what sort of premium you pay for that, I haven't priced anything recently with USB 3.0 in mind. A fast internal drive will let you do everything you want at the highest rate, then back it up to the slower disk when you don't need the performance. It also means you won't have to lug around an external drive with your laptop - your important work will be on the internal drive. Some laptops have two internal disk bays, but you're more likely to find one with a regular disk bay and an mSATA slot you can use for an SSD. The people at Best Buy almost certainly won't be reliable to ask about the availability of an mSATA slot. 209.131.76.183 (talk) 15:05, 27 July 2012 (UTC)

Original poster, I hope you realize that, as data densities increase, transfer rates increase also at any given rotation rate, so a 5400 rpm drive with a higher density platter can easily be faster than a 7200 rpm drive with a lower density platter. At any given time there are drives with a fairly large range of platter densities on the market. Also, a physically larger drive (3.5" vs 2.5") will be faster at a given bit density and rotation rate, because the bit rate at the outer edge of the platter (where the first data is recorded on a newly formatted drive) will be faster. Also, all else being equal, a 7200 rpm drive is only 33% faster than a 5400 rpm drive in sustained transfer, whereas two lower-capacity 5400 rpm drives in a RAID 0 configuration is 100% faster and may be no more expensive. Basically, you are looking at the wrong number. You should look instead at sustained read and write rates, either from independent review sites or the manufacturer's own specs (but ignore the burst transfer rate, which is meaningless). And if you really care about the highest possible transfer rates, you need to use RAID. There's no point even considering a non-RAID solution. -- BenRG (talk) 21:04, 27 July 2012 (UTC)

How are strings stored?

Also, what does exactly the % does in cmd?

I'm curious about how strings are stored in c, apparently in windows the %d, displays the numeric value of a variable, and doesn't really care about it's type, which it's very useful when studying types...

Below I'm trying to print "Hello World!" as a number.

#include <stdio.h>
main(){
        printf("%d\n" ,"Hello World!");
}
//output: 4206634

When running in cmd the output is 4206634 for any string, why? When you work with singles characters it gives the ASCII value of a character, so why not with strings? How are they stored?

Also, %d, %f ,%c ,%s is windows only, why? what it is calling? thanks. 65.49.68.173 (talk) 15:17, 26 July 2012 (UTC)

When you create that string "Hello World!", you're creating a const string in the const data segment (which different object formats call text or cdata or rodata or something like that). In your case that's an anonymous string (it doesn't have a name in the symbol table). Let's create another const string, but this we'll also have a named variable pointing to it, foo:

#include <stdio.h>
const char* foo ="greetings";
int main(){
  printf("%x\n" ,"Hello World!");
  printf("address of const string: %p\n", foo);
}

Now foo (which is not a constant) points to "greetings", which is. I've changed your print to print in hex, and then I'm printing out what foo points to. You'll find the two are close to one another. So your code printf("%d\n" ,"Hello World!"); means "print the address at which the const char Hello World! is located"); that is, you're printing the value of the pointer (not what it points to). %d, %f ,%c ,%s are not Windows only. -- Finlay McWalterჷTalk 15:34, 26 July 2012 (UTC)

Thanks!, but then, is there anyway to get the value of the pointer, and then get the value of the address, the pointer points to? Also, how do the os know when it is a pointer or it's the value itself? 65.49.68.173 (talk) 16:17, 26 July 2012 (UTC)

int p = (int)&"Hello World!" or (slightly shorter and to my mind clearer) int p = (int)"Hello World!"

The OS has nothing to do with it; the compiler knows the type of things, and generates code appropriately. If you were to wilfully cast one thing to another (as you've implicitly cast a char* to an int with your code above) then you're telling the compiler to override what type it thinks something is, and use another. You'll get a warning with an implicit cast (the compiler saying "that looks wrong, I hope you know what you're doing") but when you explicitly cast, the compiler will let you get on with it, and reap the consequences if you're doing something wrong. -- Finlay McWalterჷTalk 16:30, 26 July 2012 (UTC)

Wow, It seems that a "string" is actually a pointer to an address, and all the addresses ahead until the \0 character... Thanks a lot. 65.49.68.173 (talk) 18:06, 26 July 2012 (UTC)

Strictly speaking, no it isn't. It behaves like one though, when used as an rvalue. However, it only behaves like a pointer to the first address. It's the %s specifier in printf() (and other similar string handling mechanisms in C) that expand this to addresses ahead of it until the \0 character. printf("%c\n", *"Hello world!"); would print H instead of Hello world! because the %c specifier expects a single character, not a string. JIP | Talk 18:24, 26 July 2012 (UTC)

Note that all this is C-specific. In particular, both the fact that strings are represented as pointers to the first characters, and the fact that pointers and ints can be cast into each other, are particular to C and, to a degree, even the particular implementation. The example also is questionable style, and most modern compilers will warn if a pointer is provided as an argument to a %d. To print the value of a pointer portably, use %p. Unfortunately, while that will print a pointer value, its not specified how it is printed. --Stephan Schulz (talk) 12:39, 27 July 2012 (UTC)

So.. Strings in another computer languages are stored in a different way? How so? 65.49.68.173 (talk) 13:40, 27 July 2012 (UTC)

It depends. See String (computer_science)#String_datatypes. Most common are zero-terminated (the C method) or some variant of length+array, although others exist. Length+array has some advantages (fast concatenation, zero can be in the string) and some disadvantages (somewhat more complex algorithms for some things). --Stephan Schulz (talk) 13:53, 27 July 2012 (UTC)

Programming (computer) languages

I am unable to understand programming languages in computer. I know that I can read Wikipedia article on Programming language, even after reading I could not understand generation of languages. I want to know features of languages and differences between Machine language, Assembly language, High level language, and 4GL. 16:31, 26 July 2012 (UTC) — Preceding unsigned comment added by 106.212.40.209 (talk)

That article, and the related articles of those subjects, is very good. It seems you just want someone to do your homework. 146.90.201.44 (talk) 18:06, 26 July 2012 (UTC)

While that article may be comprehensive, perhaps you will find the Simple English version easier to understand. Alternatively, perhaps the Computer programming article is a better place to start, since it explains about the "...process of designing, writing, testing, debugging, and maintaining the source code..." rather then trying to take an abstract view of a very large topic.

Another approach may be to take a look at one programming language and get at least a basic understanding of how it instructs the computer what to do. Once you have this as a reference point, you can then expand your knowledge to other programming languages. In some ways that approcach is a bit like learning a foreign language, by making specific links between terms in your mother tongue and the foreign language - it is easier trying to learn one language at a time than learn all of them at the same time. Astronaut (talk) 18:37, 26 July 2012 (UTC)

The 4GL article isn't very good, actually.  Card Zero  (talk) 18:56, 26 July 2012 (UTC)

I don't want to learn programming. I, only, want to learn what programming and generation of languages is. Sunny Singh (DAV) (talk) 18:55, 26 July 2012 (UTC)

I give you: Machine code, Assembly language, Low-level programming language, and High-level programming language. They should get you most of the way there. Fourth-generation programming language is a bit 1990s, nowadays. I'd head more in the direction of Software framework. --Tagishsimon (talk) 19:03, 26 July 2012 (UTC)

But still after reading these articles, I don't have clear concept about computer languages. Tell me simple difference between Machine language, Assembly language, High level language, and 4GL in this section so that I have a clear concept. Please, bear me. Sunny Singh (DAV) (talk) 14:34, 27 July 2012 (UTC)

Machine code is the actual bytes that the CPU executes. Assembly language is (more or less) a human-readable version of those bytes. High-level programming languages hide the details of what the computer is doing, with the amount of hiding varying depending on how high-level the language is (eg. Perl hides far more detail than C does). 4GL refers to a particular set of high-level languages. --Carnildo (talk) 01:06, 28 July 2012 (UTC)

Getting Windows 7 working on a new computer

It's been 8 days since I built a new computer. Every install of Windows has either refused to install, not worked, or bluescreened constantly. I'd suspect a hardware issue, except Ubuntu 12.04 is installed on there and runs fine, no issues at all that I've noticed. I've run checks on the temperatures (through BIOS and using SpeedFan) and some of the hardware, including the RAM (through using some software a friend installed, I've no idea what it was, though). Here's the story as a whole:

A friend of mine built a computer for me, with my assistance. The parts are on aria.co.uk:

• Case: 47777
• Power Supply: 47037
• CPU: 41578
• Motherboard: 47109
• RAM: 41882
• HDD: 43780
• Optical Drive: 49545
• Graphics card: Nvidia GT430 1GB - I didn't get this from Aria, I harvested it from my old computer.

All operating systems are 64-bit.

1. Try to install Windows 7 from friends' USB drive - "files corrupt or missing"
2. Install Ubuntu 12.04 from disc - Works, albeit with extremely unstable Internet connection
3. Install Windows 7 from disc (burned on Ubuntu) - Installs, but I can only get to the desktop and then when I try to access anything, it says I don't have permission
4. Install Windows 7 from a second disc (burned on a friend's computer) - Installs, but bluescreens everywhere
   1. Find software online to test my hardware. Test RAM and CPU, seems fine
   2. Use the BIOS screens and SpeedFan to check temperatures - all fine (nothing above 45 degrees C)
   3. Play video games to stress the system - doesn't seem to cause a crash. After my longest period without a bluescreen (3.5 hours) the computer eventually gives up while on Skype
5. We notice that crashes happen most often while using the internet connection. We Google for solutions and decide to...
   1. Unplug a Belkin wifi dongle which has been known to cause bluescreens in 64-bit Windows
   2. Remove graphics card (use onboard graphics instead)
   3. Reinstall Windows 7 from disc 2 - Lasts longer, but eventually, still bluescreens
6. Install Ubuntu 12.04 (dual-booting, disc burned using a different computer) - works fine using a wired connection (This is the first time so far we've had a fully functional OS on this computer)
7. Try to reinstall Windows 7 from a third disc (Burned on Ubuntu using better software than last time) - "files corrupt or missing"
8. Try to reinstall Windows 7 from a fourth disc (Obtained from parts unknown) - "files corrupt or missing"

At this point I have no idea where to turn. It seems like it can't be a hardware issue because Ubuntu works fine, but it seems like it can't be a software issue because five different Windows installs have all failed...

Any suggestions would be appreciated. I'm thoroughly stumped. My next few steps are likely to consists of removing the RAM from the computer I'm using now and putting it in the new computer to see if it works, installing Windows XP instead of Windows 7, and an exorcism. 90.193.232.17 (talk) 18:34, 26 July 2012 (UTC)

You might have some hardware issues, but I think it is more likely is problems with the hardware drivers. So where did you get all these versions of Windows 7? If you burned you own disks from some dodgy download that was incomplete, didn't have the drivers, and/or came infested with malware, then I'm not surprised you are having all kinds of problems. Astronaut (talk) 18:44, 26 July 2012 (UTC)

The first 7 was from the friend that built the computer. The second 7 was a pirate copy I downloaded. The third 7 was a pirate copy a different friend downloaded (that works on his own computers at home - though he only tested 32 bit). The fourth copy was an official Microsoft download (not pirate - I would never have used pirate copies if I'd realised I could have done this from the start). The fifth copy was obtained, as I mentioned, from parts unknown. To be clear, I'm only downloading pirate copies for ease because I thought it was the only way - I have a legit and legal activation key, I just didn't have Windows. 90.193.232.17 (talk) 18:50, 26 July 2012 (UTC)

Oooh, I've just remembered. At some point towards the end, I attempted to update the BIOS. But the BIOS did not recognise the file I downloaded. 90.193.232.17 (talk) 19:02, 26 July 2012 (UTC)

Did you ever try a different reader (preferably with a different data cable)? Did you at least verify all the burnt images verify to the original ISO after burning, preferably on the target reader? If not, I would't rule out a problems with the reader or the discs used. If I understand you correctly, you did try one USB hard drive or memory stick, the issue here is you only tried once and getting bootable images put on USB disks to work properly can sometimes be tricky (although the problem is more commonly with booting although I believe I had a similar issue with Windows install giving a funny error once when using something I put on USB). If you are going to put the content on a USB disk, I'd recommend you start with the Microsoft tool first. Also what checks were run on the RAM? I'd memtest86 2 complete passes at a minimum and perhaps more before coming to any conclusion about the possibily of RAM causing errors. Put did you use memtest 86at all? Memtest isn't generally installed but you said your friend installed some software. Memtest86 and memtest86+ are the gold standards for memory testing on an consumer PC, I wouldn't trust anything running in more complicated OS given the access issues. Similarly what did you use for CPU testing? I may be somewhat out of date here but probably somnething like [[superPI], prime95 or OCCT or perhaps more then one or at least with different options and four an hour or two each. (As with memtesting, when it comes to the CPU you want something which verifies the result is as it should be not simply tries to cause crashes.) Note that while it's likely something so consistently causing errors would happen fast, it can be complicated since doing certain things can cause crashes far faster then other things and it's not always consistent what causes a crash (meaning doing a certain thing with the memory or CPU may cause a crash fast in one computer but doing a different thing with the memory or CPU in another). This problem is particularly acute for memtesting. Nil Einne (talk) 23:05, 26 July 2012 (UTC)

Another thought, did you verify any of your downloads? If it's just an ISO image, it obviously can't self verify, so obtain a reliable hash of what you expect and confirm it by that. If you use torrents this shouldn't be necessary in terms of making sure you receive the exact content in the original torrent since the built in ECC is normally enough, but if you're getting from a questionable source, it would be wise to verify what you downloaded is what you expected to download if possible (and with MS stuff from MSDN it often is if the ISO is unmodified). If you use HTTP/FTP/whatever, verifying large downloads is always wise particularly for something as critical as the OS, don't rely on TCP error correction since there are still many things which can go wrong somehow (as many people including me have experienced). It's a bit strange that you would get errors multiple times with multiple downloads on different computers from different locations unless both you and your friend are using the same internet connection (or possibly the same buggy network drivers), but verification is still wise. Nil Einne (talk) 02:28, 27 July 2012 (UTC)

Thank you for the advice. We're pretty sure by now that the media used to install Windows aren't at fault; half of them have installed successfully on other computers. The DVD drive is possible, but installing from a flash drive (one verified to install fine on other computers) has also failed; I'll use Memtest to test the RAM, try out the CPU tests, and then go from there. 90.193.232.17 (talk) 20:34, 27 July 2012 (UTC)

Excel Conditional Formating

Ok, let's say that I have hundreds of Excel documents. Across all the documents columns A, B, and C are the same. I want to create a new spreadsheet with the count of each of the different the possible combinations of text from columns A, B, and C. Is this possible and if so, how do I best go about doing it? Do I use conditional formatting, and if so, what, or do I use a macro? Thank you in advance. --207.62.209.212 (talk) 22:21, 26 July 2012 (UTC)

Because you have hundreds of input files, a macro would likely be a more efficient approach. It can be done more laboriously by hand using simple formulii. Conditional formatting does not enter into it, and I worry about seeing it as an option in your question. Doing a count of the number of each unique combination is relatively easy once you've constructed a single list composed of the contents of the hundreds of files. --Tagishsimon (talk) 23:04, 26 July 2012 (UTC)

July 27

TBV files

Are there any avaliable programs that can extract or view .TBV files? The only one I found was unavaliable on my browser

Also in regards to my last posted question:

"Changeing words on websites - Is there any downloadable program avaliable that is capable of changing any instance of one word into another word whenever i surf the web, for example if i am browsing through random wikipedia pages the program automatically replaces any instance of the word "robin" and replaces it with the word "bird"?"

"That's something that can be done with a Greasemonkey script (such as this one) but one needs a bit of JavaScript knowledge to get it doing what you want..."

"Why would you want that? Apart from pranks, of course"

Its not for pranks, its for my own personal preferences....it won't affect the appearence of anyone else who views the same website on a separate computer, just my computer for my viewing preference. 72.235.221.120 (talk) 00:27, 27 July 2012 (UTC)

// ==UserScript==
// @name           ReplaceWord
// @include        http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/*
// ==/UserScript==

var word = document.body.innerHTML
word=word.replace(/Robin/g,'bird');
word=word.replace(/robin/g,'bird');
document.body.innerHTML=word;

AvrillirvA (talk) 00:46, 27 July 2012 (UTC)

Note that javascript uses regular expresions so instead of

word=word.replace(/Robin/g,'bird');
word=word.replace(/robin/g,'bird');
//you can use this
word=word.replace(/[Rr]obin/g,'bird');

190.158.212.204 (talk) 05:19, 27 July 2012 (UTC)

Commons template

Does anyone here know how to modify templates on commons? It is probably a simple mod but I don't want to crash all the servers if I try it.

• http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/User_talk:Mdennis_(WMF)/Staff_uploads --Canoe1967 (talk) 03:20, 27 July 2012 (UTC)

Resolved

--Canoe1967 (talk) 04:16, 27 July 2012 (UTC)

Migrating from Ubuntu to Lubuntu, with version upgrade

I have a Linux machine that is currently running Ubuntu 11.04 Natty Narwhal, that I am considering migrating to Lubuntu 12.04, (corresponding to the Ubuntu Precise Pangolin LTS release). I access it using NoMachine from my Win 7 PC. I use it mostly (but not exclusively) as a server, and need a GUI.

The most important GUI applications that I will need to run are:

• Firefox with add-ons (AdBlock etc)
• Synaptic package manager
• CodeLite
• Libreoffice

The machine has been running for some years, and I've done many tweaks and fixes to config files relating to various services. I have several cron-driven scripts running. My record-keeping of the tweaks and fixes I've done is mostly non-existant. In other words, a total reinstall would be a pain.

My questions:

1. Is there a painless way to do the migration (like installing LXDE + various packages, de-installing various packages)?
2. If so, what would I need to install, and what could be removed, in order to "Lubuntify" Ubuntu?
3. If this approach is possible, I assume the most sensible thing to do is to do the migration to LXDE first, and the upgrades afterwards, correct?
4. There is an intermediate release, 11.10. Would I need to first upgrade to 11.10, then to 12.04?
5. Would the end result of such a migration be equivalent to a Lubuntu install, or would I keep some of the current bloat?
6. Do I need to (manually) change software repositories?

Thanks! -NorwegianBlue ^talk 08:57, 27 July 2012 (UTC)

Having a several-year-old machine full of undocumented changes is a situation fraught with peril no matter what you do. If the machine is doing something important, you really need to think about finding a path that will allow you to replace it when it fails, which it is bound to sooner or later. If it isn't doing anything important -- well, it really doesn't matter what you do. Looie496 (talk) 16:51, 27 July 2012 (UTC)

Well, what the machine is doing is of no great significance to mankind, but it is important to me! As I said above, the changes have not been systematically documented, regrettably. The oldest changes have survived the normal Ubuntu upgrades. I may have exaggerated the lack of documentation slightly. Every change is marked with a comment, tagged with my first name for easy grepping, and inserted blocks are marked with "#MyName INSERTION(BEGIN)", "#MyName INSERTION(END)" etc. Similar comments above and below lines in config files have been uncommented by me, and in the beginning of lines that I have commented out. The changes mostly reside in /etc. The machine is thoroughly backed up. So what I fear is not disaster, it is the amount of work involved in the migration/upgrade. I do take your message seriously, though, and will do some grepping of /etc, and write some documentation about what I've done and why, before starting the upgrade.

Of the questions above, the most important ones to me are whether the end result, if successful, is equivalent to a Lubuntu installation, and whether I need to make changes to the repositories other than those that are performed by the upgrade scripts. --NorwegianBlue ^talk 18:56, 27 July 2012 (UTC)

Well, I can't speak to this specific combination of distros, but from general Linux experience I would say almost certainly it won't work. I doubt you'll find anything anywhere that systematically removes large numbers of packages, because the dependency issues would be overwhelming. I think if you want Lubuntu, the only way to make it work is to do a reinstall -- leaving /home intact if you have it on a separate partition, as you ought to -- and then redo your customizations. I doubt you will find any other way to make this work. In future your goal should be to set things up so that you can do as much customization as possible in user space, or at least in a restricted set of files that you can copy over to a new system. Looie496 (talk) 00:36, 28 July 2012 (UTC)

Thanks! --NorwegianBlue ^talk 06:52, 28 July 2012 (UTC)

Is it possible to charge a battery from 0% to 100% instantly?

Is it possible to charge a battery from empty to full in no time (the battery goes to 100% as soon as you plug the charger)? 11:36, 27 July 2012 (UTC) — Preceding unsigned comment added by 183.81.73.132 (talk)

In general, and for all I know, for all cases, the answer is a clear no. Charging a battery tends to be about changing the chemistry of the battery. That tends to be an exothermic reaction. There are limits to the speed of charging imposed by such things as the ability of the battery to withstand the heat developed; the speed of the chemical reaction; and the ability of the anode and cathode to pass sufficient current through to cell to effect charging. --Tagishsimon (talk) 12:25, 27 July 2012 (UTC)

AFAIK instantaneity is an unphysical concept to begin with; two events occurring simultaneously are causally disconnected from one another, and do not in fact occur simultaneously from a different reference frame. If you were to substitute "in an imperceptibly small amount of time" for "instantly", then it becomes more realistic (and perhaps even possible in the real world, for some values of "imperceptible"), but there will always be some minimum amount of time required. As Tagishsimon stated, for any real battery, the speed of the chemical reaction in the battery and the heat produced by any large current are going to be limiting factors. Superconductors may resolve some of the heat problems, and the use of a capacitor in lieu of a battery can eliminate the chemical reaction speed, but an arbitrarily small charge time requires an arbitrarily large current, and even superconductors have a finite critical current density. It would probably be possible to make ultra-rapidly-charging "batteries" using such techniques, but they would almost certainly be extremely large and heavy (not to mention expensive!) and require cryogenic cooling, and eliminating the charge time entirely would simply be impossible. --Link ^(t•c•m) 13:35, 27 July 2012 (UTC)

Even charging near-instantly would be very very difficult. For instance to charge the battery from my Camera(870mAh) in the blink of an eye (1/3 seconds) would require 9396 Amps. Passing this through any circuit would generate a huge amount of heat - even a circuit with a very low resistance of 100μΩ (1/10,000 Ohms) would produce 9kw of heat - three times as much as a 3-bar electric fire; and in reality no circuit containing a battery would have such low resistance. Cheers, davidprior ^t/_c 18:51, 27 July 2012 (UTC)

To get the effect of charging instantly, without actually doing so, you can swap the uncharged batteries with charged ones, and then put the uncharged ones on the regular old charger. This approach has some promise for electric cars, where you could keep a spare set of batteries at home in order to do the swap when you come home. This would have the advantage of allowing you to drive twice as many miles in a day (say discharging one set driving to and from work and the 2nd set while going out in the evening) or allow for slower charging, which is generally better for batteries. Having some quick, hopefully automated, way to exchange the batteries is important, of course. Doing the battery swap away from home is more problematic, though, as this means you'd sometimes give your new batteries away and get weak, old batteries in their place. StuRat (talk) 18:17, 27 July 2012 (UTC)

I suppose it would be technically possible to create a very tiny battery that fully charges in under 1 second. It would likely have few practical uses though. 92.233.64.26 (talk) 15:22, 28 July 2012 (UTC)

I need to find a great Desktop sidebar with which to replace Google Desktop.

Google made the mistake of discontinuing support for Google Desktop Sidebar. It was GREAT the way it was.

Since I can't find the "Currencies" gadget anymore on it, I need to find a viable replacement that gets updated regularly. It must work on Windows 7, and be as good as Google Desktop Sidebar used to be, if not better. Please offer suggestions. Thank you. --70.179.170.114 (talk) 12:49, 27 July 2012 (UTC)

I'm afraid that our silence suggests that there isn't anything that could be considered a direct replacement. Until very recently we could have pointed you to Windows Desktop Gadgets, but Microsoft has just pulled them since they had a rather serious security flaw.

Can we ask what you hope to achieve with the gadget? You might be able to use either Google's search-box currency conversion, or an iGoogle widget, or one of these tools, or maybe you need something like a VBA macro in Excel. - Cucumber Mike (talk) 10:25, 28 July 2012 (UTC)

Two questions about cassette tapes

1. A cassette can store any kind of data, not just audio. Is it true? 2. What is the capacity (in bytes) of a regular tape?

27.65.101.220 (talk) 16:44, 27 July 2012 (UTC)

The Data recording section of the cassette tape article gives some information about it. The article suggests that regular cassette tapes could hold "up to 60 MB", and streamer cassette tapes made specially for data storage could "hold anywhere from 50 to 160 megabytes of data". These capacities seem to be based on using modern modulation techniques, so using older techniques like Kansas City standard would result in much lower capacities, probably less than 1MB per tape. AvrillirvA (talk) 16:49, 27 July 2012 (UTC)

And yes, they can store any kind of data, although you'd need a lot of cassettes, say, to store a movie (maybe a dozen for standard def, more for HD). StuRat (talk) 18:08, 27 July 2012 (UTC)

See also Digital Audio Tape. I think old floppy disks were made from similar material. One of the advanages was disks could access anywhere but tapes had to access 'linearally' from one end to the other.--Canoe1967 (talk) 18:26, 27 July 2012 (UTC)

And, of course, (magnetic) computer tapes were used for mass storage of data before either of those. I actually had an early computer which stored programs on regular cassette tapes (the Texas Instruments TI-99/4A). StuRat (talk) 18:37, 27 July 2012 (UTC)

July 28

Linux Mint 13 - switch user password problem

Hello, I tried to search the web and found nothing about this issue. I also don't want to register to any kind of forums, so I am asking this here.

I have Linux Mint 13 Mate, and when I select System->Log Out->Switch User, it goes to the login screen. The problem is that the login screen has an additional fourth button named 'Quit', and when I click it, it logs in to my user without asking for password. 88.148.251.200 (talk) 12:18, 28 July 2012 (UTC)

EDIT: I do have an option called 'Lock Screen', but if I have some sound-outputting programs open, the sound will be played at the password prompt. 88.148.251.200 (talk) 12:25, 28 July 2012 (UTC)

Language suggestion needed

I would like to write for Linux. Could you recommend me some language or environment?

Сriteria:

0. a lot of manuals for noobs, help desks, forums etc. about

1. It's simple to write a user interface which work under Ubuntu

2. Delphi-like environment

3. "programmer-friendly" language. You can really enjoy writing

4. cross-platform (linux and Windows)

5. software need no or few dependences

6. Modern, powerful language

I'm poor self-educated programmer, programming is my hobby. I don't write for other people.

Thanks! --Ewigekrieg (talk) 13:11, 28 July 2012 (UTC)

Hi Ewigekrieg! The programming language Python is as programmer-friendly as you can get. In my undergraduate studies they taught us C++ and Java, but when I later learned Python on my own I never used anything else again! An IDE that is good for Python is Komodo. Unfortunately, it is not in the official Ubuntu repositories, but it is very easy to install manually in Ubuntu. A step-by-step guide on how to do this is here. Komodo works on Linux, Windows, and Mac, so you will be able to just learn one IDE and never have to switch when you are using a different OS. hajatvrc @ 16:29, 28 July 2012 (UTC)

Use USB devices with a phone via the microUSB port?

Is it possible to use USB devices with a phone via the microUSB port, with some sort of converter? --2.97.18.184 (talk) 16:15, 28 July 2012 (UTC)

On Android phones you sometimes can [15] [16] [17] [18] Nil Einne (talk) 16:22, 28 July 2012 (UTC)

Isn't that copyvio

We see lots of people post hypercam video recordings of uberstrike on youtube, isn't that copyvio or are you allowed to do that.TheAnnoymousUser (talk) 17:30, 28 July 2012 (UTC)