Computing desk
< March 5	<< Feb \| March \| Apr >>	March 7 >

Welcome to the Wikipedia Computing Reference Desk Archives
The page you are currently viewing is an archive page. While you can leave answers for any questions shown below, please ask new questions on one of the current reference desk pages.

March 6

Microsoft Word 2007 [Trial]

A pop-up comes up every time I open "Microsoft Word 2007 [Trial]". It reads, "Please run Setup then click Repair." Does anyone know where "Microsoft Word" Setup is or how to fix this problem? 68.193.147.179 00:52, 6 March 2007 (UTC)If[reply]

Go to Start -> Control Panel -> Add or Remove Programs -> Then find Office 2007 and select "Change". If you're in Vista it won't be called Add or Remove Programs it'll be called Programs and Features. --⁪froth^T 01:11, 6 March 2007 (UTC)[reply]

I tried that but, it doesn't work, do you know anything else to do? 68.192.10.128 21:51, 6 March 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Winzip

please privide me a brief definition of winzip.what can i do with it and how i can operate it—202.70.64.41 02:31, 6 March 2007 (UTC)rameshbista2003.[reply]

Did you read winzip? --TotoBaggins 02:37, 6 March 2007 (UTC)

It's really easy. You can open a zip archive, see its contents, and extract them -- just what you'd expect. (I think it has a bunch of other features, too, but I've never used them.) Was there some particular aspect you were having problems with, or wondering about? —Steve Summit (talk) 03:15, 6 March 2007 (UTC)[reply]

WinZip allows you to open or create .zip files. Zip files contain other files and folders. It groups them together and makes them smaller (compresses them), which makes them handy for transfering files between different computers. You can then extract them - using WinZip - to get the original files back. I prefer FilZip, which does exactly the same as WinZip. --h2g2bob 07:43, 6 March 2007 (UTC)[reply]

I like 7zip; its pretty fast, and has vastly better compression than any other program of similar speed except WinRAR, which isn't free and still is often worse than 7zip. 7zip also has very fast decompression when using LZMA. Of course if you want really good compression you have to use PAQ8K ;) —Dark•Shikari^[T] 19:13, 7 March 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Playstation 1 games on Playstation 2

I just got some PS1 games and tried them on my PS2. They work fine except the games don't seem to recognize that there is a memory card in the slot. Is there a way overcome this so I can save games? ike9898 02:32, 6 March 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Unfortunately, looking at google, you can't. See this forum thread. --Wirbelwindヴィルヴェルヴィント (talk) 03:11, 6 March 2007 (UTC)[reply]

As the thread says, you can use a memory card; it just has to be a PS1 memory card (they fit in the same slot). I have two cards of each kind for exactly this reason. --Tardis 14:05, 6 March 2007 (UTC)[reply]

you also can't use the PS1 cards with more than the standard 15 blocks for some reason... I had one I bought from Game that just went haywire. Jackacon 22:29, 6 March 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Old DOS game

I remember an old DOS space-combat game I used to play when I was younger. All I remember was that there were a bunch of weapons (i believe they were unlocked throughout the missions), one of them was Photon Torpedoes (and it wasn't a star trek game, I think you pressed 3 or 5 to use them), and the final mission had you fly inside a giant core ship with barely-get-the-ship-through openings (it wasn't like the Death Star II, it was completely open but had small openings). I thought it was something called Space Quest or something but that's a completely different game. It may have had roman numerals. It came in a software pack I got, maybe around 1995-1999 (thinking around '96, cause my first FPS was Chex Quest :) )Anyone know what game I'm talking about, and the name? -Wo o ty Woot? contribs 03:34, 6 March 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Is it a vertical/horizontal scroller, or 3D? It'd help narrow it down. --Wirbelwindヴィルヴェルヴィント (talk) 06:53, 6 March 2007 (UTC)[reply]

3d. You were in the "cockpit". -Wo o ty Woot? contribs 08:04, 6 March 2007 (UTC)[reply]

It wasn't Wing Commander or Descent, was it? --Wirbelwindヴィルヴェルヴィント (talk) 08:23, 6 March 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Nope. I think my best bet at this point is to find any space sim with a level described like the one I did, and go from there. I have a feeling it's not very well-known, and that's why I can't find it. EDIT: I'm not sure, but I think it might have had wingman support, and on the last mission you had to blow up the core of the giant station as well. -Wo o ty Woot? contribs 09:23, 6 March 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Did the level you describe involve having to move the spacecraft vertically up and down to get through the openings? And were the openings all in a straight line? I have a faint recollection of a game similar to that on the Amstrad CPC 464, but unfortunately don't know the name of it. However, if it was available on the 464, it should be easier to find by a process of elimiatation by going through a list on a site like this and seeing if any of those ring any bells. Johnnykimble 11:11, 6 March 2007 (UTC)[reply]

I believe the openings were in a straight line (weren't haphazardly placed), but of course they were all the way around the ball-shaped structure. Think of a chain link/chainmail sphere. -Wo o ty Woot? contribs 21:20, 6 March 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Shadows and rounded corners using CSS

Can someone explain to me how to put rounded corners around div tags using css? I'd like to get something that looks like this:

Thanks in advance ^^ Mango Sango 03:44, 6 March 2007 (UTC)[reply]

I believe it's just images. It´s in the CSS3 draft and firefox supports it (using -moz extensions) but neither of which are standard at the moment. --antilived^{T | C | G} 03:50, 6 March 2007 (UTC)[reply]

It's done with images indeed. -- mattb @ 2007-03-06T04:06Z

How do you align the images though? Do you you a position;relative and then set the parent to the main column? Mango Sango 17:23, 6 March 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Why not look at the source? — Matt Eason ^{(Talk  Contribs)} 17:49, 6 March 2007 (UTC)[reply]

DHT

Asked this awhile ago but didn't get a good answer. When you're downloading from the bittorrent DHT network with a compliant client (say utorrent) on a fresh install of the client, how does it find the very first node? Supposedly if you know the address of one node you can route to any other node in the network, but how does it find that very first node? Is there an uber-populated DHT node run by the bittorrent people that everyone running utorrent connects to at least once to populate their own hash tables? Doesn't that defeat the decentralization? --⁪froth^T 06:30, 6 March 2007 (UTC)[reply]

I've always wondered about that too. Maybe trackers count as uber-populated DHT nodes, but then you're still right, it defeats decentralization for the most part. --Wirbelwindヴィルヴェルヴィント (talk) 06:47, 6 March 2007 (UTC)[reply]

I believe DHT nodes are discovered via peers and seeds discovered via tracker, or via DHT information in the torrent file. Splintercellguy 07:53, 6 March 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Newly installed clients have no node table saved and do indeed get initial information from the torrent file. See the protocol draft sections "BitTorrent Protocol Extension" and "Torrent File Extensions". Note that you don't necessarily need to have the address of a node with peer information for the torrent you're interested in, you merely need to know the address of a node with a populated routing table. In my experience maintaining tracker software, DHT is a kludge and a generally evil thing. Then again, so is the rest of the ill-defined BitTorrent "protocol". -- mattb @ 2007-03-06T15:13Z

Ill-defined maybe, but clients and trackers seem to do a good job compromising on a specific protocol. Thanks guys this is definately a satisfactory answer --⁪froth^T 17:37, 6 March 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Try writing a tracker that attempts to keep precise track of byte transfer statistics. You'll find just how fun a a loosely-defined protocol can be. -- mattb @ 2007-03-06T21:35Z

Well aren't piece negotiations and "byte transfers" supposed to be P2P anyway? The tracker doesn't really need to know what's going on between peers --⁪froth^T 20:59, 7 March 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Dual Display on iMacs

Can the new iMacs handles dual display? With extended desktop, not mirroring? THanks, --Fadders 07:48, 6 March 2007 (UTC)

Yes all current iMacs support dual extended display (not mirroring). In fact you can make old iMacs support dual monitor spanning with an Applescript like Screen Spanning Doctor. --24.249.108.133 21:27, 6 March 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Digital Image Resolution

I cannot work out why an image downloaded from a digital camera will have a resolution of 300dpi when examined under "properties" on the desktop of a PC, yet, when opened with Adobe Photoshop, the image resolution sets it at 72dpi. If the image resolution in Photoshop is lifted to 300dpi, the picture is huge and unworkable. Why and how does this happen? What does it mean? —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Giaccirillo (talk • contribs) 08:55, 6 March 2007 (UTC).[reply]

It sounds to me like the image is just too large at that resolution (too many pixels) for that version of Adobe Photoshop to handle properly on your computer, so it lowers the resolution to something it can handle. They should really pop up a message when they do something like that (perhaps they did once a long time ago, and you picked "Don't show me this message again"). StuRat 14:26, 6 March 2007 (UTC)[reply]

I have a feeling that photoshop ignored the 300dpi (if it's there at all) and reverted to 72dpi for internal purposes. Note that these numbers mean nothing when it comes to viewing or working with the image, only when printing it on paper, for which you typically have a set size in mind. At that point any previous DPI information is scrapped anyway as the image is mapped to the printout. Typical --66.195.232.121 16:33, 6 March 2007 (UTC)[reply]

DPI can be a very misleading setting -- in the end pure pixel dimensions are all that really counts. DPI is used for printing and sometimes for displaying. My guess is that your camera does not properly indicate that the files should be 300 dpi so Photoshop is just assuming they are 72 dpi. But if the pixel dimensions are the same then there is no difference in the file itself spare the resolution setting. --140.247.251.81 17:21, 6 March 2007 (UTC)[reply]

ASP on Apache

I have been running MS Personal Web Server with ASP and connection to a MS Access database. Here is an example of the code:

default.asp
<html>
<body>
<%
dim ansl
set ansl = Server.CreateObject("ADODB.Connection")
ansl.ConnectionString = "DRIVER={Microsoft Access Driver (*.mdb)};DBQ=" & Server.MapPath("bokrec.mdb")
ansl.Open
dim databas
set databas = Server.CreateObject("ADODB.Recordset")
databas.Open "Sorterabok",ansl
do while not databas.EOF
Response.Write databas("Titel")
Response.Write databas("Genre")
databas.MoveNext
Loop
databas.Close
set databas = Nothing
ansl.Close
set ansl = Nothing
%>
</body>
</html>

add.asp
<!-- #include virtual=/adovbs.inc -->
<%
dim ansl
set ansl = Server.CreateObject("ADODB.Connection")
ansl.ConnectionString = "DRIVER={Microsoft Access Driver (*.mdb)};DBQ=" & Server.MapPath("bokrec.mdb")
ansl.Open
dim databas
set databas = Server.CreateObject("ADODB.Recordset")
databas.Open "Bokrecensioner",ansl,,adLockOptimistic,adCmdTable
databas.AddNew
databas("titel") = Request.Form("titel")
databas("genre") = Request.Form("genre")
databas.Update
databas.Close
set databas = Nothing
ansl.Close
set ansl = Nothing
Response.Redirect "default.asp"
%>

Can I switch to Apache? Jacob Lundberg 13:21, 6 March 2007 (UTC)[reply]

I don't think so — at least not easily. ASP is not something Apache will natively understand, so you'd at least have to install some third-party software to interpret it. Even then you'd have to make sure that said software could properly instantiate database objects, which seems slim. If you had something like this then you could probably do it easily, but that presumes both the ability to install things onto the server and also some money for the software. Sounds like an expensive hassle to me.

Now, it would not be too hard to re-write your code in PHP and to try and use Access via and ODBC connection (though I've never tried it -- it would be easier to just import your Access data into a MySQL database in my opinion). But as for just dropping your code into an Apache framework, it would be pretty tough, unless someone out there knows something I don't. --140.247.251.81 17:30, 6 March 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Trivial. Easy. Use the Apache::ASP module --⁪froth^T 17:34, 6 March 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Did you read their FAQ? They don't support VBScript (which he uses) and their database support is quite minimal (ODBC with Perl, certainly not ADODB). --140.247.251.81 17:37, 6 March 2007 (UTC)[reply]

So the real problem is that there is nothing free that interprets VBScript for ASP on Apache. Searching the Internet, I came across ModVB, which does that, but is in alpha development and has not released any files. --Spoon! 21:32, 6 March 2007 (UTC)[reply]

It seems that I will have to learn how to write PHP and use MySQL. Thanks anyway, everybody! Jacob Lundberg 18:22, 12 March 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Computerised control

What ways are there of computerised control for other computer systems? —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 195.97.199.237 (talk) 14:46, 6 March 2007 (UTC).[reply]

I don't think you have expressed this question well enough for us to be able to tell what you are really looking for. Have you seen our articles about Computer-aided manufacturing? or maybe CNC? They might have something to do with the information you are looking for. If not, try to reword your question and give it another shot. Vespine 02:32, 7 March 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Long-term laptop care

I just replaced a laptop after only 2.5 years of service and I was quite unhappy with how quickly it ran into hardware problems (I have been using the same desktop for almost a decade now). My thought is that there must have been something I was doing with it that caused it to have a very rough and short life. I've Googled around for "laptop care" instructions and all of them are obvious and useless (don't spill things on it, don't drop things on it). Are there any other strategies to promote longevity in a laptop? Cases that reduce their ability to be bumped around in transit? Better ways to carry it or set it down to avoid anything getting loose or coming into any strain? I'd like this one to last a bit longer -- any way to encourage that? (Obviously buying an extended warranty will be useful, too.) --140.247.251.81 17:43, 6 March 2007 (UTC)[reply]

To tell you the truth, I don't think it's worth doing much more then the obvious. Don't knock it around and get a good laptop carry bag, one with a metal frame, not a completely soft one. Apart from that, I think it is important realise and understand what a laptop is and why it fails like it does. I work in IT and the most common fault I see with laptops is hard disk failure, so I can't stress enough: back up important data! It's almost inevitable that you will lose data at some stage if you don't back up. The second most important thing is, like you mentioned, extended warranty! With all computers, it is quite common for something to fail at some stage, but in a laptop, unlike a desktop, if any one single component fails it usually means replacing the entire main board because it is so tightly integrated to everything in the system, which makes any repairs usually very expensive. Vespine 21:28, 6 March 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Did it feel hot after you used it ? If so, this heat may have shortened it's life. Some strategies to cool it off are:

1) Point a fan at it when one is available, and leave it on until after the computer has cooled.

2) Place it on a stand so air can circulate under it, or alternatively place it on a thermally conductive surface, like metal.

3) Remove the battery when plugged in and using the computer. Then, after the computer cools down, replace the battery and allow it to charge. This will allow air to circulate into the battery compartment and will also avoid combining the heat from charging the battery with the heat from the computer itself. Beware, however, that this method will mean you have no battery backup in case of a power failure, so be sure you have an uninterruptable power supply.

4) Set the power management settings to shut down the computer quickly when not used.

Also, don't allow people to smoke around the computer, as the tar from smoke can gum up the components. If you need to use the laptop in particularly harsh environments, you might also consider a rugged laptop: [1]. StuRat 13:33, 7 March 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Good PHP user management system

I'm looking for a good PHP/MySQL user management system that is 1. free, and 2. works pretty well and will not be a bear to integrate with any existing code. I'm going to be setting up a user-editable database and would like to be able to do things like create new accounts, let people edit their accounts, and give people varieties of permissions, and it occurred to me that rather than re-invent the wheel here there should be easy systems already put together for this. Googling "PHP user management" or "PHP user login" came up with a few results; does anyone have experience with any of them? I'd prefer not to have to experiment with 10 of them if there is one which is known to be good and relatively easy to use.... Thanks! --140.247.251.81 17:46, 6 March 2007 (UTC)[reply]

This sort of thing is likely to be very application-specific (permissions to what? what can the users modify about their accounts?). I'm inclined to believe you'd be better off writing what you need yourself. -- mattb @ 2007-03-06T21:30Z

I find that highly unlikely. All you would need is a set of classes that would let you retrieve the permissions settings and then the application itself could figure out what to do with it. It would be much easier to modify existing code in this respects (if it were well written and modular) than it would be to write an entire user system from scratch (which also would involve all sorts of messing with cookies and passwords and etc.) --24.147.86.187 01:14, 7 March 2007 (UTC)[reply]

You're overestimating how much code goes into a PHP "user system with cookies and passwords", but others are welcome to comment. I still think you'll be best off writing the solution that fits your site best. Otherwise, I would look for some kind of pre-fab ACL system (if anyone has bothered to write such a thing). -- mattb @ 2007-03-07T01:34Z

There are many pre-fab systems available, as I wrote above, I was asking if anyone had any experience with them to distinguish between them. And in my own experience getting a decent user system set up correctly has been more hassle than I'd like it to be at this stage of the project. --24.147.86.187 13:50, 7 March 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Making a good user management backend is a one day project- one of those prefab things for which developers practically have the entire code memorized. It's really not that big of a deal, do it yourself --⁪froth^T 20:49, 8 March 2007 (UTC)[reply]

djvu

I just downloaded a library of files with the extension .djvu. I want to open them but don't know how! I have Roxio Deja Vu installed on my computer, but I have no idea how to open the files with that. Can somebody help? [Mαc Δαvιs] X (How's my driving?) ❖ 21:41, 6 March 2007 (UTC)[reply]

A quick googling suggests Roxio Deja Vu is unrelated; appears to be backup software? The little DjVu viewing I do I use WinDjView; google for it or there is a link at DjVu. There's also MacDjView if the Mac in your name means that Mac :-) Weregerbil 10:24, 7 March 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Printing in Internet Explorer 7.0

In Internet Explorer 7.0 [Running on WinXPHome], there is a zoom button on the top of the screen (it says: "Shrink to Fit, 100%, 95%, etc...). Is there a way after zooming in to 150% to move to a different spot on the page to print? 68.192.10.128 21:50, 6 March 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Can you be more specific? Are you wanting to print out a section of a zoomed in page in IE? If that's the case, the print command with just print out the whole page. However, if you hit Alt+Print Screen while using IE with a zoomed in page it will copy the image of your web browser into the windows clipboard. From there you can paste the image into a simple image editing utility, like paint, and print it out. —Mitaphane _?|! 05:05, 7 March 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Would 'Print selection' accomplish what you want? Anchoress 05:30, 7 March 2007 (UTC)[reply]

When I click "Shrink to Fit" and change it to "150%", it automatically enlarges the top-left corner; is there a way to change the are you want to enlarge? 68.193.147.179 20:28, 7 March 2007 (UTC)[reply]

You mean something like rasterbate? --Wirbelwindヴィルヴェルヴィント (talk) 21:50, 7 March 2007 (UTC)[reply]

No, when I click zoom in to 150%, it automatically prints the top-left corner. Is there a way to change the area that I want to print (ex: the center of the page). 68.193.147.179 21:48, 8 March 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Wikipedia

Do you know how Wikipedia's web page dynamically scales as you widen your browser? Most sites have a static size. thank you.

JakeV —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 64.198.77.150 (talk) 22:23, 6 March 2007 (UTC).[reply]

If by static size you mean these sites which force the whole content in a small 800 pixel column (while your browser window is twice as wide, leaving a huge amount of white space), Wikipedia doesn't have to do anything; the default on the web is to dynamically scale, and you have to add special instructions to prevent it. Why these sites restrict the content width is a mistery. --cesarb 22:58, 6 March 2007 (UTC)[reply]

For effect. And, previously, people typically only had screen widths between 800 and 1280 so it wasn't really a big deal to force it to be 800 pixels. On the other hand, quite a lot of pages look really bad when stretched to 100%, say, on monitors at resolutions 1600x1200 - unless it has a lot of content, i.e. Wikipedia. But yeah, Wikipedia uses percentages for scaling - as it should always be unless you are forcing sizes for images and stuff. x42bn6 Talk 23:19, 6 March 2007 (UTC)[reply]

In other words, Wikipedia demonstrates proper web design. Most web pages are designed by print media people who stay awake at nights worrying about the specific height of the letter "i" in the logo text on the top of the page. Images, also, should be set using percentages or em-height. If you absolutely have to have an image take up half the screen, set it to 50% and let it take up half the screen. Don't force me to look at an itsy-bitsy little page scrunched up in the upper left corner of my browser. --Kainaw ^(talk) 00:04, 7 March 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Also, before CSS was popular, you made fixed sized layouts. I had to when I used to work as a web designer. Maybe the habit for some people stayed. --Wirbelwindヴィルヴェルヴィント (talk) 05:35, 7 March 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Couldn't you use percentage as the width of a table block before CSS? --antilived^{T | C | G} 07:17, 7 March 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Yes. Images have always had percent widths/heights. Tables always had percent widths. Never has HTML required fix-width layouts. The practice of doing fix-width layouts came from ignorance of HTML. The main reason that it bothers me so much is because I am tasked with dealing with print media idiots all the time who will never ever understand the concept of percentage-based layout. I wish that a requirement for being a web designer is that you can never, under any circumstances, ever have had any experience in print media. --Kainaw ^(talk) 13:08, 7 March 2007 (UTC)[reply]