Computing desk
< January 11	<< Dec \| January \| Feb >>	January 13 >

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.

January 12

Keylogging

Before I start, this is hypothetical. What would be the consequences of attaching a keylogger to an email (the chainmail kind), over the course of a month? The article doesn't appear to touch on it or the punishment. Yamakiri ^T_C § 01-12-2008 • 04:11:43 04:11, 12 January 2008 (UTC)[reply]

I don't know what the punishment is, but it is illegal. Keyloggers themselves aren't illegal, if say, a boss has them installed on employees' computers. But if you purposely send them out to people and then see their passwords, credit card information, or even just personal details, that's invasion of privacy, plus if you end up using any info for identity theft that's of course even worse. Whether it's one year in prison or ten years in prison, I really don't know, and from where I'm standing it doesn't matter. Equazcion •✗/C • 08:23, 12 Jan 2008 (UTC)

Installing a keylogger on an employes computer without telling them is in fact illegal where I come from. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 84.187.112.117 (talk) 14:15, 12 January 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Not if it's the company's computer. And of course the company can look at the network traffic even if it's an invasion of privacy --f f r o t h 19:04, 17 January 2008 (UTC)[reply]

In Germany, according to the IP the home of 84.187.112.117, it *is* illegal for an employer to install a keylogger on a computer, even if it the company's computer, without consent of the employee. The same holds for network traffic sniffing. There might be exceptions if the employer has a good reason to suspect that you use the computer for private stuff without permission, but I'm not sure about that. Please be aware that not everyone has the same laws like the U.S. 80.130.160.103 (talk) 20:20, 18 January 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Wiki Technical

What version of MediaWiki does wikipedia use? and, i'm not good at html, so how did you get it to be en.wikipedia.org/wiki/* without the index.php? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 68.5.79.108 (talk) 05:18, 12 January 2008 (UTC)[reply]

The first part of your quesiton can be answer at Special:Version. --ShakataGaNai ^Talk 05:19, 12 January 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Oops, i didn't sign in. Oh well.

∂☺1♂K∫ ₪&+(_)+5 (talk) 05:21, 12 January 2008 (UTC) and i'll be waiting for the second part of the question.[reply]

Its Apache mod_rewrite: mw:Manual:Short_URL — Shinhan < talk > 07:21, 12 January 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Guillemot graphics

Why don't we have an article about the Guillemot graphics cards? I remember that once they were fairly common. --Taraborn (talk) 09:32, 12 January 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Because noone who has ever heard of them has started that articel yet? I'm not meaning this maliciously, but {{sofixit}}... 68.39.174.238 (talk) 12:58, 12 January 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Hmmm... so that's all? Well, in that case perhaps I'll be the starter of the article. I was asking because I was somewhat surprised by that, I thought those cards had been famous enough to have an article among the >2 million ones. --Taraborn (talk) 09:50, 13 January 2008 (UTC)[reply]

WatchWAN alternatives for logging bandwidth usage.

watchWAN bloats to 50+ megabytes at times, often freezes and hangs. is there an alternative that log bandwidth usage in the same way? (i pay thru the nose after 5 GB/month.)

I also haven't had luck using Bandwidth Monitor.

Thanks! —Preceding unsigned comment added by 212.51.122.1 (talk) 11:13, 12 January 2008 (UTC)[reply]

I remember using NetLimiter. There's also DUmeter. 68.39.174.238 (talk) 12:58, 12 January 2008 (UTC)[reply]

If your router is compatable, you can try third party firmwares. The one I use (Tomato) can log bandwidth use. F (talk) 03:16, 15 January 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Wirelessly bridgin a NAS-device

My pop just bought one of those big NAS devices that uses RAID 1 and two 500 gb HDs for backup. It is connected by ethernet cable to his wireless router because it doesn't have any WiFi capabilities. This is non-optimal, obviously, it would be much nicer if you could just put it in a closet somewhere where it connected over WiFi to the router, and thus the network. So they wouldn't have to be right next to eachother. I got the idea to use a WiFi-ethernet bridge so it can go wireless. My dad has like 3 AirPort Expresses which he uses to stream music all over the house (AirTunes-style) and I figure you could just use one of those. Right? Has anyone done anything like this? Would it work? 83.252.191.12 (talk) 13:15, 12 January 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Nokia 6680 Camera My Nokia 6680 back camera is not working.Here are the few task whick i do . (1)I remove the cover but the back camera not open automaticaly. (2)Yes the front VGA camera work properly. (3)when the front camera is open and i select "Use Back Camera" from the option menu.It says that "OPEN CAMERA LENS COVER".that i have already oped.so please help me.thanks .....usman —Preceding unsigned comment added by 202.125.143.65 (talk) 13:30, 12 January 2008 (UTC)[reply]

does opening keyboard's tiny hind legs improve ergonomics?

sorry don't know what to call them, the small things toward the back of the keyboard that lift the whole keyboard so that it's at an angle -- the tiny keyboard legs/stands on either side on the bottom of the rear of the keyboard -- should I open them to improve the keyboard's ergonomics or is the ergonomics better when the keyboard lies flat? THanks for your thoughts. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Curious guy32 (talk • contribs) 14:34, 12 January 2008 (UTC)[reply]

The ergonomics specialist I asked about this told me to leave it flat, and even suggested a negative incline (i.e. what you'd get if the legs were on the two near corners instead of the two far corners). I think the most important thing is to avoid bending your wrists while you type (since it puts pressure on the tendons) and a positive incline would probably encourage bending. On the other hand my experience from talking to many ergonomics specialists is that nearly everything one of them says will be contradicted by another. -- BenRG (talk) 17:45, 12 January 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 212.51.122.20 (talk) 18:07, 12 January 2008 (UTC)[reply]

In my particular case, being a person who suffered from repetitive strain injury (fortunately I'm fully recovered now), I never use those legs, I feel they apply a degree of unnecessary stress to my wrist tendons. However I remember using them before my wrists started to hurt, I remember I felt "strange" if I typed without the legs. Now I feel the same "strange" sensation whenever I type with the legs. --Taraborn (talk) 09:58, 13 January 2008 (UTC)[reply]

shrunk hard disk

i had the 80 gb which all over sudden shrunk to 33 gb.on mmc it shows 33 gb.even bios indicates i have a 33gb hard disk.maybe i dint give u guyz the full story,i hard three partions one was 33,the others were 20 n 20gbs.the latter were behaving funnily they were always full and acessing them was very slow.they seemed unstabled n both partions were full to the brim with files,the 33 gb was half empty and it was not such a hassle acessing it.even i remeber sumtym back when i pasted a document on the 20 gbs they wud be pasted on top of another document or somewhere random within the hard disk.culd it be so fragmented that those partions crushed.? 2.how do i run an application like realplayer 10.5 on suse enterprise linux 10.1.i know am supposed to open the terminal am using gnome. then type some command.i have never used linux before(give me a break am from kenya and linux is still new to us)i have read some dummy tutorials but they dont quite hit the nail on the head.am not sure if am to use the exec comman or what —Preceding unsigned comment added by 212.49.87.89 (talk) 15:02, 12 January 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Sure you haven't got sand in it?--ChokinBako (talk) 22:28, 12 January 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Now that's really weird. Can you afford to do a full reformat (after appropriate backup) of your had disk using one of the bootable CDs that format your hard disks? Kushal^t 01:25, 13 January 2008 (UTC)[reply]

i ran mmc again and everythings is all right.80 gb is intact.thanks —Preceding unsigned comment added by 212.49.89.35 (talk) 11:07, 13 January 2008 (UTC)[reply]

i over reacted but everythings fine after running mmc and doing some fiddling around.thanks a bunch.

Glad to be of use. Kushal^t 01:25, 15 January 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Screenshot?

For a Wikipedia-related reason, I'm trying to take a screeshot from a DVD. However I've never tried such a thing before, and the obvious approach doesn't seem to work. What I tried was playing the DVD in Windows Media Player, paused it at the appropriate moment, pressed FN - PRT-SC, opened Paint, and chose EDIT>PASTE.

What I got was a pretty good screenshot of the rest of my screen, but an oddly-transparent rectangle where the DVD image had been, which leaves me a bit stuck. I can't think of another approach. Any thoughts? AndyJones (talk) 15:25, 12 January 2008 (UTC)[reply]

do you have a digital camera?--TreeSmiler (talk) 15:27, 12 January 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Yes. Do you mean take a photo of the screen, or telly, while it's paused? AndyJones (talk) 15:38, 12 January 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Correct. This may be easier. I once took some photos of my TV screen as a test and they came out very well indeed. THen you can import into photoshop or something and crop/ adjust before uploading.--TreeSmiler (talk) 16:35, 12 January 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks. I'll give it a try. AndyJones (talk) 16:37, 12 January 2008 (UTC)[reply]

The reason you get a black or transparent box there is because the DVD is being hardware accelerated and skips out on the OS altogether, or something along those lines. There are two easy ways to make screenshots from DVDs: 1. you can get a DVD playing program that has this as a native possibility (I think VLC, for all of its bugginess, does this?), or 2. you can go into your control panel, to your video settings, and turn hardware acceleration all the way to zero (off), THEN run the DVD in WMP and you should be able to take the screenshot in the convention print-screen way (but if you do this, don't forget to change your video settings done when you are done!). --24.147.69.31 (talk) 16:42, 12 January 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Video overlay is the specific feature which gets in the way of screenshots. Oh look there's even an article. Hardware overlay is more specific and even mentions the screenshot problem. One movie player with built-in screenshot ability is MPlayer. (Run mplayer -vf screenshot dvd:// and press s at the appropriate time) --tcsetattr (talk / contribs) 21:40, 12 January 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Also, VLC Media Player has a nice way to take screenshots (and you can even turn off overlay if you want, but that's not recommended for performance reasons) 83.252.191.12 (talk) 12:37, 13 January 2008 (UTC)[reply]

how to splice wires with electrical tape

What I did after my dog bit through my iPod cable

my dog chewed through my ipod cable, but luckily the wires inside are color-coded, so what I did was cut off the chewed-off parts, strip a bit off the the end of each little wire inside, exposing the copper, then twist the two wires of each color round and round each other, and then the same thing with the naked wire at the end -- twisted it round and round and round so that it forms one short wire (though you can see how the two wires twist to form it).

I then made sure the naked wires face in all different directions, and that's what you see to the right.

Now the cable works, and I've bought some white electrical tape and would like to tape it. I was wondering if my method is the correct way of splicing two wires (ha! probably not.. what happens when strain is put on the splicing?), or if not, what method I should use.

Should I tape electrical tape around the exposed wires twisted together, and then tape the whole thing back into a straight line, or what? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Curious guy32 (talk • contribs) 15:33, 12 January 2008 (UTC)[reply]

ps. I didn't mention but I did the same thing with the grounding thing (or whatever) that the whole thing was sheathed in. the sheathing (ground or something?) from the two sides is also twisted together. also, just to be complete: I put a tight knot just below where I taped, to keep strain off.

Hmm not really a satisfactory or reliable method of connection as your twisted wires can easily become untwisted, oxidized etc. The proper method would be to get hold of a 4 way screw type cable connector block and join the wires that way. Then you can wrap the whole thing in tape for extra security, prevention of short circuits s etc. Cant see an article on these connectors yet.(Do we have one?)--TreeSmiler (talk) 16:25, 12 January 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Heres the type of terminal block I mean [1] (Second item)--TreeSmiler (talk) 16:30, 12 January 2008 (UTC)[reply]

So if all I have is electrical tape and help from the reference desk, I'm out of luck?? Even with the most clever knots and taping imaginable? I'm sure macguiver could do better... —Preceding unsigned comment added by Curious guy32 (talk • contribs) 17:04, 12 January 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Im assuming that what you are connecting are wires with non dangerous voltage. OK heres the way I would do it without any proper stuff: Bare the ends of the wires and twist together red to red, green to green etc. Its best to then solder them if you have a soldering iron. Then lay the splices parallel to and next to the wires and use a small piece of tape wrapped around each splice to insulate them from each other. When you have done all 4, use a larger piece of tape around the whole thing ensuring the tape is also wrapped around the outer insulation of each piece of wire to give some tensile strength.. You now have a connection which is not that secure and may become flaky at some point in the future, but it should work for a while (until you find the proper stuff)!--TreeSmiler (talk) 17:14, 12 January 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Thank you for the help. I do happen to have a soldering iron, but no solder. can I still do anything? (for example with a piece of aluminum foil or somesuch..heh) —Preceding unsigned comment added by 212.51.122.20 (talk) 18:06, 12 January 2008 (UTC)[reply]

No Im afraid you can only use solder as other metals will not melt a the temperature of your soldering iron--TreeSmiler (talk) 00:44, 13 January 2008 (UTC)[reply]

I'm sure you could buy a new cable. You might be able to claim on your house contents or pet insurance - read the small print about accidental damage. Astronaut (talk) 09:47, 13 January 2008 (UTC)[reply]

If you're dead set on repairing this cable rather than buying a new one, you could get a cleaner result using Heat-shrink tubing rather than electrical tape. Small diameter tubes on each internal connection and a larger diameter tube around the entire repair opening. AUTiger » talk 23:37, 14 January 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Yeah but, as he said earlier, all he's got is some electrical tape and the RD! and he wants to do it with just those.--TreeSmiler (talk) 00:36, 15 January 2008 (UTC)[reply]

• If you're dead commited to keeping this cable, then I don't see why you don't invest in some heat shrink tubes and a soldering iron. Thats the best way to repair your cable.

mechanical turk proxy

How would I go about finding someone who is registered and able to create HIT's on Mechanical Turk to be my proxy (since I'm not able to register to do that) using my money to submit HIT's and taking a cut for his or her trouble?

Obviously I'd like to find someone reliable, so that I don't just send money that is lost. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 212.51.122.20 (talk) 18:15, 12 January 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Find someone who you know in the real world and trust. BTW, why can you not register? Kushal^t 01:21, 13 January 2008 (UTC)[reply]

i have only a non-US bank account, also a paypal acct, but no us bank acct at present or a credit card. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 212.51.122.2 (talk) 09:12, 13 January 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Would advertising on Craigslist work? I don't know how I can suggest you to trust a person who you do not already know with hundreds (at least one hundred US dollars which, I believe, is the amount you need to earn before being sent any payment).

Maybe I am missing something and a fellow Wikipedian will come to answer your question to a better degree. Kushal^t 20:29, 13 January 2008 (UTC)[reply]

I am sorry I misunderstood you. You want to request a task for the workers at the Mechanical turk to work? I thought you wanted to work on the hits that were already there! I am not sure how this would work. I have a friend who might be able to help you. His name is Keenan Pepper and he is an administrator on The English Wikipedia. Try requesting at User_talk:Keenan Pepper. Even if he says no, he will not be rude to you (or anyone, in fact). Kushal^t 23:57, 13 January 2008 (UTC)[reply]

I am glad it worked out for you! Kushal^t 01:14, 15 January 2008 (UTC) Done[reply]

Sense and absurdity of firewalls

Hello, many people say, that firewalls for the home use aren't needed. But can someone explain me, why? And why did it take so long to share this fact, because firewalls for the home use are available for a long time? --84.169.209.12 (talk) 19:44, 12 January 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Many 'modems' are actually routers, which already provide a small amount of firewalling through network address translation. People outside generally cannot make a connection directly to your computer -- you must make a connection out to them. --Mdwyer (talk) 20:17, 12 January 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Thank you for the explanation. :) --84.169.224.100 (talk) 00:19, 13 January 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Not really a very good answer.. a firewall is very important, but home routers perform that function for you- at least for incoming connections --f f r o t h 05:29, 13 January 2008 (UTC)[reply]

As froth says, you'll still need one if you want to prevent already installed trojans in your system from establishing connections with outer servers or any other kind of outgoing connection. --Taraborn (talk) 10:03, 13 January 2008 (UTC)[reply]

USB 2.0 on WinXP SP2

My few-years-old computer was built long enough ago that it doesn't have USB 2.0 ports, so whenever something like my flash drive is plugged in, it gives the message "This device will perform better if plugged into a 2.0 port" or something. However, with some devices (such as my sisters' ~~cursed wma drm-mongering~~ mp3 players, the problem extends to the drivers. Windows cannot for the life of it find the drivers so that they will show up as removable drives. It always detects it, but it always fails before it showing up in My Computer. I have WinXP SP2 installed, and I've seen that there is a 2.0 patch for SP1, but I can't seem to find anything to solve my SP2 problem. What can I do? Thanks —Akrabbim^talk 23:11, 12 January 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Do you want the mp3 player to show up as a device rather than as a removable drive? Are you able to use it as a removable device to move music (and other data) back and forth? What program do you want the mp3 device to work with? Thanks for answering. Kushal^t 01:19, 13 January 2008 (UTC)[reply]

It doesn't have to be compatible with Windows Media Player or anything, it just needs to show up as a drive. When I plug it into my laptop (made last summer w/ Vista installed now), all the drivers install without a problem, and then it just shows up in My Computer, where any music that I drag into it will play on the mp3 player fine, without needing to sync with any program. I just don't understand why my old desktop is having so much of a problem with it. —Akrabbim^talk 03:06, 14 January 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Did the device come with an installation disk of any kind? Kushal^t 01:13, 15 January 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Yes, but only for the Realplayer online store. The instructions manual even says that it should show up as a drive before it says to install anything from the CD. —Akrabbim^talk 04:37, 15 January 2008 (UTC)[reply]

The best longterm solution would be to pick up a USB 2.0 PCI card which I am pretty sure you can buy for next to nothing. This would also give you the advantage of faster file tranfers and the likeTheGreatZorko (talk) 12:53, 16 January 2008 (UTC)[reply]

That would certainly be the most ideal option to take, but it doesn't do anything for the fact that XP isn't recognizing drives as it should. —Akrabbim^talk 13:04, 16 January 2008 (UTC)[reply]

60 fps to 25 fps

Hi... i'm trying to convert some 60fps footage i have to 25fps in the attempt to get slow motion footage. Whenever i use Super it converts to 25 fps but deletes all the extra frames in between . Is there something out there i could use to achieve this quickly and easily? I don't really want to stick it into After Effects and play around with timelines etc - i may have a lot of footage to convert . Thanks for your time :1 Boomshanka (talk) 23:59, 12 January 2008 (UTC)[reply]

That is not what you want. You want to time expand the video not converting 1 fps to another fps. Depending on the format of your files, it may be very easy to tell it to play back at 25fps. Some video files have a header that specifies the play back speed (fps) of the film. If this was your case, all you need to do is change that header info. NYCDA (talk) 21:55, 14 January 2008 (UTC)[reply]

mencoder -nosound -ovc copy -speed 25/60 -o slow.avi foo.avi will give you the same video with a lower frame rate. Overkill, perhaps, but easier if you don't already know which bytes to poke in the header. If you want the sound too, I think you'll have to re-encode it. --tcsetattr (talk / contribs) 22:28, 14 January 2008 (UTC)[reply]