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March 19

Two questions in one

1. Is this website safe? Web of Trust says it isn't.
2. I use the add-on Download Video Helper to download videos off of sites, such as YouTube. But when I try to convert the videos, I end up getting a sub-par quality version of the videos. Do I have to register to fix that? And does it cost money to register? --Whip it! ^{Now whip it good!} 00:54, 19 March 2009 (UTC)

1. Site is now down - even at the root: www.vistabase.co.uk (probably a good call on WoT - I trust it .. so to speak).

Number 2 I don't know - have a converter somewhere for that - but haven't used in months. — Ched ~ ^(yes?)/_© 01:12, 19 March 2009 (UTC)

You'll lose quality going from any lossy codec to another lossy codec, though the amount of loss you're ending up with might be because of some encoder settings. Anywho, what are you converting it for/to? You can play FLVs and whatnot directly with VLC media player. You might have luck reencoding with HandBrake, but I've not tried it with FLVs. -- Consumed Crustacean (talk) 02:12, 19 March 2009 (UTC)

I want to convert it so that it can be played both on Windows Media Player and iTunes, as well as being successfully synced to my iPod. --Whip it! ^{Now whip it good!} 02:23, 19 March 2009 (UTC)

See [1] --wj32 ^t/c 05:51, 19 March 2009 (UTC)

Not working. :( --Whip it! ^{Now whip it good!} 06:38, 19 March 2009 (UTC)

Can you give more details? It works perfectly for me. --wj32 ^t/c 09:42, 19 March 2009 (UTC)

I drag it to the links bar, like it tells me to, I click the bookmarklet, but I don't see the download link. I'm using Firefox 3.7, if that helps. --Whip it! ^{Now whip it good!} 22:04, 19 March 2009 (UTC)

Go to a YouTube video page, click the bookmarklet, and a download box should appear. --wj32 ^t/c 22:24, 20 March 2009 (UTC)

I'm not exactly sure what kind of website you were trying to download the video off of, but for future reference, don't use apps that nag you to upgrade or pay. There's Firefox addons out there :). [2] [3] I like the preceding one better than the ladder since it's so clean, neat, and non-obtrusive, where-as the second one comes with too many fancy shortcuts, icons, and useless capability. If you're going to use the first one though, after you install the add-on, right-click on a default icon up on your FF toolbar (say, the refresh button) and click Customize in the context menu. Then drag the addon onto your toolbar and click on the grey box in the UI to download. Doesn't work on YouTube though.-- penubag  (talk) 00:54, 21 March 2009 (UTC)

Sites such as YouTube work by supplying a file to your browser, which you can retrieve from the browser's cache without extra software. Find the cache (In Firefox, go to about:config, heed the scary warning about not changing anything and search for browser.cache.disk.parent_directory; your browser may vary) and look for a large file created at the right time. Copy it to a permanent directory and give it a name and suitable suffix for the type, e.g. myvideo.wmv. This technique does not work for streams such as BBC iplayer, and legal issues such as copyright may apply. Certes (talk) 14:25, 21 March 2009 (UTC)

Every Single Hardrive Fried?

I usually consider myself to be pretty savy with computers..however i have run into a puzzling problem.

Due to recent bushfires, heat (overloading the grid) and power issues all my internal drives have suffered damaged from power surges. (or me plugging something in the wrong way..50/50)

I was quoted 1000-3000 (Australian Dollars) for recovery untill i found a firm that would do it for 500 ( http://www.payam.com.au/ ). I am happy to wait the 4 weeks it will take them and pay this cost.

In the mean time i need an up and running system.

Full specs off drive casings are below:

Drive 1: Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 320 Gigabytes S/N: 5QF0SVH4 ST3320620AS P/N: 9BJ14G - 305 3.AAD Date Code: 07092 Site Code: WU

Drive 2: Western Digital Caviar SE16 500GB WD5000AAKS MDL: WD5000AAKS - 65YGA0 DATE: 27 DEC 2007 DCM: HBRNNT2MAB GPN: XXXXXX - PX2 P/N: 5188-2517 CT: 2815001VZVI87S WD P/N: WD5000AAKS - 65YGA0

[Both drives do not spin up/ show in bios/ make noise/]] [Drive 2 has most of the important files off drive 1 backed up (i didnt really expect both to fail) + additional files, so id prefer drive 2 be fixed)

I came into the possession of a new hard drive today.

Plugged it in..it didnt not turn on.

Im 100% confident i plugged it into the correct power connector (its not brain surgery). So, it can not be that..

So maybe its brought me back to wondering before i pay for recovery..maybe the drives arent damaged at all..maybe its something else inside my computer that is broken.

(all drives run off a singular power line comming from PSU which branches off into several different connectors and such)

Any help solving this would be appreciated.

—Preceding unsigned comment added by 138.217.69.59 (talk) 08:33, 19 March 2009 (UTC)

I think the odds of both drives failing at the same time are pretty small to begin with, and if a third drive also refuses to respond, it's pretty safe to say that the problem probably isn't with the drives. I think the culprit is most likely a failing PSU that can't provide enough power to the drives. A new PSU is pretty cheap, so it's probably worth testing. Alternatively, you could take the hard drives to a friend's computer and plug them in just to see if they'll spin properly. -- Captain Disdain (talk) 09:54, 19 March 2009 (UTC)

I plugged my *new* drive (forgot to try the old "broken" ones..doh!) the new drive functioned perfectly in his PC.

I am actually using the computer right now..on a linux live cd.. hardware systems seem to be functioning perfectly. Im staring at a hungry graphics card and cpu.. do hard drives draw that much power?

In the mean time ill look into new PSUs if you think that is the problem.

138.217.69.59 (talk) 10:53, 19 March 2009 (UTC)

Well, hard drives need to spin pretty fast in order to work, and that means a motor has to do the work to spin them up, and that does take a fair amount of power. But really, if the problem is with your PSU (and since the drive works fine in your friend's computer but doesn't even spin up in yours, that seems likely), it's not so much that the hard drive takes a lot of power, it's just that your PSU isn't giving out enough. As your PSU starts to fail gradually (as opposed to just giving up the ghost in one bang, which is another popular choice!), it gives out less and less power, and at some point, it's not enough to run all of the components in the computer. I've had that happen to me, as well as a couple of friends. -- Captain Disdain (talk) 11:53, 19 March 2009 (UTC)

It may be that just part of your PSU is fried, I agree it is much more likely than that the heat has caused the drives to fail. The PSU provides a number of different voltages and sometimes on high power systems even has different bits for different supplies even at the same voltage. Dmcq (talk) 13:16, 19 March 2009 (UTC)

iPod touch jailbreaking

Is there a way to jailbreak an iPod touch without completely restoring the iPod, or without deleting music and videos? Or do the tools do that already? I've read that PwnageTool erases everything while QuickPWN doesn't - is this true? Thanks in advance. --wj32 ^t/c 10:31, 19 March 2009 (UTC)

Hi, this is completely not true. All "JailBreaking" is done by uploading a re-written firmware, and part of the involved process is formatting your iPod (much the same way the doing a "Restore to Factory Condition" restore does). Easiest way to ensure that you do not lose all your music / videos / photos / AppStore applications is to sync them back to iTunes prior to doing the JailBreak, and then once you have the iPod running, and have rebooted it at least once, re-sync all your music / videos / photos / apps back.

How to identify SDRAM memory exactly for compatability reasons

My old Windows computer only had 128MB memory. I obtained another 128MB memory card. This second card works perfectly when installed on it own. But when both cards are slotted in the computer becomes unusable, so they are obviously incompatible. I have tried swapping the cards between various slots in several different ways - still no joy. I also got a 64MB card which is now giving me a total of 192MB without problems.

I want to buy some more memory off eBay or somewhere. For compatibility reasons, how can I excatly identify the spec of the particular cards so that I'm sure to buy something compatible? The 128MB card currently inside this computer has a proper label on it - I'd have to open this computer and remove the card to look at it. The 64MB card does not have a label. The label on the other card only says "1100 12341 Warranty Voild If Removed 06 133".

Is there any software that can exactly identify memory please? Everest does not go into enough detail. Thanks. 78.144.206.211 (talk) 13:15, 19 March 2009 (UTC)

I've always found aida32 to be a good program in providing information about a computer and it's various components. You can d/l a copy from Major Geeks here. Hope that helps. — Ched ~ ^(yes?)/_© 15:47, 19 March 2009 (UTC)

Aida32 seems to be earlier version of Everest, wtitten by the same programmer. Neither of them provide enough information about the memory - I've just tried them both. 78.146.49.11 (talk) 18:12, 19 March 2009 (UTC)

Have a try of Belarc Advisor can be found here. BigDunc^Talk 18:16, 19 March 2009 (UTC)

No, no, no. You need to look at the shape of the memory. Memory types can be identified by the placement of the notches and the number of pins. The memory you put in your computer must be completely identical (same manufacturer, same frequency, and same connectors) as the old memory. And since it's old, good luck finding some it unused. It might also say on the boot screen or in your BIOS. SDRAM is 168 pins, DDR SDRAM is 184 pins, and so on. More info about your computer would help me tell you what kind you need, but if it's very old (10 years or more), then you should rebuild your computer with a new motherboard.--K;;m5m k;;m5m (talk) 18:28, 19 March 2009 (UTC)

Ideally, the manufacturer is unimportant. While there are some cases where memory from multiple manufactures won't "play nice", in my experience that is the exception, not the rule. As long as the specs (type, connector, frequency) match you should be able to use memory modules from different manufacturers. – 74  03:28, 20 March 2009 (UTC)

I had similar concerns with my old PC. I found the technical specs for it on the manufacturer's website (Compaq in my case), which provided all kinds of details like the type of motherboard, jumper settings, and the various memory options (type, number of slots, maximum memory supported, etc.) I have now successfully upgraded the memory from 128MB to 640MB. I found the (new) memory I needed in a small independant computer supplies shop close to where I live (ask me on my talk page and I'll give you their URL and UK phone number) - K;;m5m k;;m5m is obviously not looking hard enough :-)

If you can't find the machine specs, examine the memory chips and motherboard carefully. They usually have various ID numbers written on them. Try googling some of the numbers you find. You might also find the following articles helpful: DIMM, SO-DIMM and maybe SIMM. Astronaut (talk) 01:09, 20 March 2009 (UTC)

Odd connector

I brought old LP-player and it has this connector. What is it called as I need cable to connect it to computer?

89.166.36.103 (talk) 13:24, 19 March 2009 (UTC)

That looks like a DIN connector. CaptainVindaloo ^{t c e} 13:47, 19 March 2009 (UTC)

I've not seen anything that could be used to directly connect a DIN connector to a PC. You could in theory cut off the DIN connector and solder a replacement 3.5mm jack plug in its place, but a specialist Hi-Fi shop might have (or be able to make) an adapter or you. You could then connect it to the audio-in port on your sound card.

Note however, the analog output from a turntable is pretty weak - Hi-Fi amplifiers often had special connections just for turntables which included an additional pre-amp stage to boost the signal. Therefore, an alternative solution might be to get a separate Hi-Fi amplifier to sit between the turntable and your PC. In that case, you will probably need a different set of connectors called phono plugs to replace the DIN connector, and to take the output from the amplifier to a 3.5mm jack plug for your PC - again a specialist Hi-Fi shop might help here. Astronaut (talk) 15:25, 19 March 2009 (UTC)

Yes, it's a five-pin 180-degree DIN plug. The other aspect of the 'phono' input of hi-fi amplifiers was that the pre-amp had a built-in RIAA equalisation filter. The audio, as recorded onto vinyl was not suitable for direct listening as high frequencies had been artificially boosted - and need to be reduced again (along with hiss, crackles and surface noise) for correct reproduction. What you need is an RIAA phono preamp between the plug you have and the computer, or maybe someone now does a software equivalent. The RIAA filter was designed to be very simple to implement, just a few capacitors and resistors around an op-amp, so this needn't be expensive item. Of course, I think it was rare, but there may be an RIAA de-emphasis filter built into the deck you have - it's not possible to tell from a picture of the plug! --Nigelj (talk) 16:06, 19 March 2009 (UTC)

Are you sure? It's ages since I've used it but I've got an adaptor lead that is a 5-pin din leading to a left and right phono plug. Which suggests that as long as you have the right plug at the end of the din cable, you can take the signal straight to a speaker, or straight into a computer. Meowy 16:21, 24 March 2009 (UTC)

Apostrophe

How can I make it so that my keyboard writes curly apostrophes instead of straight ones? JCI (talk) 23:44, 19 March 2009 (UTC)

You need special software for that. It is probably quite easy to make such software. However, I cannot think of any right now. --Andreas Rejbrand (talk) 00:21, 20 March 2009 (UTC)

Many word processors provide a feature called "smart quotes" which automatically replaces straight marks with the appropriate curly marks. If you have Microsoft Word then you could use that; if not, OpenOffice provides a free word processor with "smart quote" functionality. Just type up your text in your word processor of choice, then copy and paste it wherever you need it. – 74  03:19, 20 March 2009 (UTC)

Of course. This is especially important if you write texts in different languages. For instance quotation marks look quite different in different languages: ”Svenska”, “English”, „Deutsch“. However, I got the impression that JCI wanted a solution that works independent of the application accepting the text input. --Andreas Rejbrand (talk) 13:40, 20 March 2009 (UTC)

Whatever you do, please don't use the grave accent as an apostrophe. -- Consumed Crustacean (talk) 04:03, 20 March 2009 (UTC)

DOS

Are there any DOS emulators besides DosBox? I know of one - Dosemu - but sadly it's unique to Linux. Is there a version of Dosemu for Windows? Or are there any other DOS emulators? JCI (talk) 23:44, 19 March 2009 (UTC)

Dosemu isn't an emulator; it's a compatibility layer. Doesn't Windows already have a DOS compatibility layer? --76.167.241.45 (talk) 03:59, 20 March 2009 (UTC)

Is there any particular problem that you're having with DosBox on Windows? Only problem I remember having with it was sound synthesis issues, which have probably improved since I last gave it a shot. ←Spidern→ 15:51, 20 March 2009 (UTC)

This is probably the 'Captain Obvious' answer, but you could just install DOS in your favourite virtualization environment - VMWare, QEMU, etc. --Monorail Cat (talk) 21:06, 22 March 2009 (UTC)

FreeDos. Not exactly an emulator, but similar. Shadowjams (talk) 04:24, 25 March 2009 (UTC)

March 20

SLI in 8x?

Hi,

I remember reading on a motherboard specification (don't fully recall the model, but it was a cheaper Foxconn one) had 2 16x PCIE slots, but mentioned that using SLI would run both slots as 8x... Doesnt that defeat the purpose of using SLI? Or does the bus speed not matter as much as the combined computing power?

TIA PrinzPH (talk) 01:05, 20 March 2009 (UTC)

Well, there are many things going on when measuring graphics performance - bandwidth into the card is only one of them So, sure, you lose out on the amount of data you can send to the card per second...but if you are trying to (say) drive three high-resolution monitors from the system, the limiting factor is more likely to be the rate that the system can push pixels - not the rate that vertex data can be fed to the GPU. So in that case, doubling your pixel throughput rate by using SLI is more than worth the cost of reduced geometric complexity. It's a tricky business - a lot depends on how you are using the card - and what software you are using. SteveBaker (talk) 04:35, 20 March 2009 (UTC)

Thanks for the response. I was looking at it strictly from a gaming standpoint. How does it affect a title like Crysis for example. 119.92.84.120 (talk) 11:24, 20 March 2009 (UTC) Forgot to login :s PrinzPH (talk) 11:26, 20 March 2009 (UTC)

I assumed you were talking about games. But as I said "it depends" - mostly it depends on whether you're running multiple monitors at high resolution or not. But still - no two games are alike. It's tough to know in general. SteveBaker (talk) 02:05, 21 March 2009 (UTC)

It also depends on whether you're referring to PCIe 2.0 or 1.1 slots (and cards). If the slot is PCIe 2.0 then 8x will already have the same bandwidth as 16x with PCIe 1.1. However from what I've seen in general, 8x is generally enough for most cards including with SLI with a minimal performance hit. Probably PCIe 1.1 at 8x is no longer enough for the top gen cards and it's been a while since I've really looked in to it; not that it's something I've looked in too much ever (since SLI has always seemed a dumb thing to me, only worth it if you're talking about the absolute top cards or perhaps situations like SB discusses with multiple monitors). Edit: This although slightly old may be of interest [4] Nil Einne (talk) 12:18, 23 March 2009 (UTC)

Turning off a computer on a network via dos

Are there a set of DOS commands that can turn off a computer other that the one being used on a network? SHUTDOWN attempts to give help but I can't make much scene from it. -- penubag  (talk) 05:45, 20 March 2009 (UTC)

Just to confirm, is this DOS within Windows? Also what operating system is running on the computer you are trying to shutdown? If both are running Windows then yes the "shutdown" command will work: shutdown /m \\COMPUTER /s /t 30 /c "Shutting down" /f /d 0:0 would shut down COMPUTER (change the name) with a 30 second warning and force applications to close (/f). The /c is the comment to display on the machine and /d is the reason code just for logging purposes (0:0 is unplanned other). You will however need to have access on the other machine so if it says access denied you could send a net use \\COMPUTER /user:domain\username first to authenticate it. Hope this is of some help! ZX81 ^talk 11:01, 20 March 2009 (UTC)

Yeah, from what I can tell, you can use the "shutdown" command to turn off a computer on the network. For example, if the computer's name was PENUBAG, you could type "shutdown -s -f -m \\PENUBAG" to turn it off. ("-s" is the command to shut down, "-f" forces all programs to terminate -- otherwise, all it takes is an open document in Notepad to hang the process -- and "-m \\PENUBAG" is the command to the remote computer.) I'm not sure about what kinds of access rights this would require to work, though. You probably need to be a network administrator, and of course you'd need to be in the same LAN with the target computer. -- Captain Disdain (talk) 11:04, 20 March 2009 (UTC)

...huh, didn't get an edit conflict. Had I know that ZX81 was on the case as well as he was, I wouldn't have posted my response at all! -- Captain Disdain (talk) 11:05, 20 March 2009 (UTC)

I'm running MS Vista and the target is an MS XP, which are connected by a LAN. Both ZX81's and Captain Disdain's method returns "Access Denied. (5)". ZX81, could you elaborate more on the "net use" command? Would I do this on the Vista? The target computer's name is DININGROOM so is this correct? net use \\DININGROOM /user:domain\Kevin (Kevin is my username on the target). Thank you for your help so far. -- penubag  (talk) 22:50, 20 March 2009 (UTC)

I have actually tried this command and fell foul of the access rights. In the end I downloaded a remote boot/shutdown utility. I would provide a link, but can't remember what it was called. I found it by googling for "remote boot" or "network boot" (the shutdown bit usually came as a bonus with these remote utilities). Astronaut (talk) 12:47, 20 March 2009 (UTC)

You may want to check out PsShutdown, a tool which is part of PsTools. I also use PsExec frequently. ←Spidern→ 15:48, 20 March 2009 (UTC)

I downloaded this on my Vista but it doesn't seem to work. The help file (Pstools.chm) says "Navigation to the page was canceled" and any of the .exe files briefly show the command line before closing without any noticeable effect. -- penubag  (talk) 22:50, 20 March 2009 (UTC)

The PsTools utilities are all for use on the command line and they all expect parameters (so they can be used in scripts etc if needed) which is why you see them popup and vanish so quickly. If you open up a command prompt and run them from that you'll be able to read the text and see the parameters you need to specify. Regarding the .chm help file, it's likely you need to unblock it - see here for more information on that. ZX81 ^talk 04:17, 21 March 2009 (UTC)

Sorry, I'm not that well versed in all this but when I typed psshutdown.exe in the command line it says psshutdown.exe isn't a recognized command. Could elaborate on that bit? Thanks, ZX81 -- penubag  (talk) 06:08, 21 March 2009 (UTC)

Well, in order to run a program, you have to be in the folder where that program is located. You can also copy the program to a folder in your path, like C:\WINDOWS, and then you'll be able to evoke it anywhere. You use the cd command to change directories (folders). But it's not as if any of this will actually work, because you need to disable most of the safeguards against attack on the other machine first. For example, if the firewall is on the victim's machine, turn it off (or at least open a hole for NetBIOS). Likewise, if you want to evoke the net use command, you need to share the root drive of the victim's machine, from the victim's machine. You also need to type secpol.msc in the search or run box on the victim's machine, then go to Local Policies, then User rights assignment and allow "everyone" (literally, that's the user name) to access the computer, shut down the system, etc. In other words, you need to make the computer a sitting duck on the network. This is what some viruses do, so just make sure you don't have anything important on that computer before you do this (like tax returns) because it's about 20 minutes before a vulnerable networked machine is "owned" by a worm nowadays. If I understand you correctly, you also have a router (or switch). Some routers will help protect you against external threats (using their default configuration), so just be careful not to connect directly to the Internet.--K;;m5m k;;m5m (talk) 11:51, 21 March 2009 (UTC)

I hate to directly disagree with another Wikipedian, but because of the security implications of this I feel I should say something. There's really no need to allow "everyone" access and it would be far more secure to create an admin user on that remote machine (if one doesn't already exist) so you have a specific username/password, but if it is a home network the user may not mind this lack of security. Likewise you don't need to create an open share on the root of the drive, if file sharing is turned on then Windows itself will already share the root of the drives as hidden admin shares like \\computer\C$ and only users with admin access on the machine will be able to access it. Finally, the net use command doesn't need to be used to map a drive which I think was what you meant with regarding to sharing the drive, you can use it simply use it as in my example above to authenticate to the remote computer (so that you can perform other activities like shutting it down). ZX81 ^talk 13:45, 21 March 2009 (UTC)

Really? You don't need to share the drive? You just wrote "C$", which is the root of the drive. I turn off sharing and this is what happens:

C:\> net use \\192.168.1.101\ipc$
System error 67 has occured.

The network name cannot be found.

C:\> net use \\192.168.1.101\C$
System error 67 has occured.

The network name cannot be found.

So, now I right-click on the drive and select Properties, then Sharing and create a share:

C:\> net use \\192.168.1.101\ipc$
The command completed successfully.

C:\> net use \\192.168.1.101\C$
The command completed successfully.

And no, it's going to be difficult to get complete access to that computer if the username on the local machine is different from that on the remote machine. Hence, you allow everyone access. And this is with "Simple file sharing" disabled, given you need to edit the ACLs to specify what they can access, anyway.--K;;m5m k;;m5m (talk) 14:58, 21 March 2009 (UTC)

Sorry, but I'm not really sure what point you're trying to make. As I said above if folder sharing is turned on then Windows itself creates the hidden shares (and from your examples you've demonstrated this). "net use" isn't used ONLY to access a specific share and you can leave the share name off if you just want to authenticate with the computer itself net use \\COMPUTER /user:domain\username and that's what this question was about (turning off a remote computer - once you've authenticated to it). You've started talking about access lists on the filesystem and folder shares and I don't see how that's related or required. ZX81 ^talk 15:18, 21 March 2009 (UTC)

Whichever method he chooses, it's not as simple as executing a net use command. He'll have to allow other users to shut down his computer via the secpol.msc snap-in or via the registry. Settings for the firewall, services.msc, sharing, and ncpa.cpl (to enable netBIOS) also usually have to be tweaked. I'm not sure if we'll be able to walk him through the steps to allow a specific account, but you can try.--K;;m5m k;;m5m (talk) 15:46, 21 March 2009 (UTC)

The original poster has already confirmed that the error message they get is "Access denied" so we know there's no firewall/connectivity issue and likewise we know NetBIOS is turned on to be getting that error (the Windows default) so the problem is purely an authentication one and with all due respect you seem to be making it over complicated. By default Windows allows local administrators to shut the computer down so there's really no need to change any of the policies IF the user has administrator access on that remote machine and although it's an assumption, if this is a home network they more than likely do. Penubag, you wrote above about "Kevin" being your username on the XP machine to be shutdown, I assume that Kevin has admin rights (and isn't a limited user) do they also will have a password? (built in XP security stops authenticating over the network with a blank password so you will need to give them one). If so you can use the following: net use \\DININGROOM /user:DININGROOM\Kevin If needed it will prompt for the password or optionally you can add the password on the end of the net use command and it will return The command completed successfully. if it worked. After this you should be able to re-run the shutdown command without a problem. ZX81 ^talk 16:46, 21 March 2009 (UTC)

Thanks guys for all your help so far. Yes, I am and administrator on both computers and not a limited user. I tried what you said net use \\DININGROOM /user:DININGROOM\Kevin but the command line returns: "System error 1219 has occurred. Multiple connections to a server or shared resource by the same user, using more than one user name, are not allowed. Disconnect all previous connections to the server or shared resource and try again." Perhaps this is because my user name on the Vista is Kevin Duke and not Kevin? I don't know. I appreciate your support.-- penubag  (talk) 23:56, 21 March 2009 (UTC)

Yes it's because the Vista machine has already tried to access the XP computer since you last rebooted (probably via filesharing?) so it's already picked up the "Kevin Duke" name. If it's an option the easiest way to fix this would be just create an additional user on the XP machine called "Kevin Duke" with the same password as you use on the Vista machine. It doesn't have to actually be logged in/used, it merely has to exist. ZX81 ^talk 00:52, 22 March 2009 (UTC)

I renamed my XP name from Kevin to Kevin Duke so now I have the same names and passwords on both computers, but the same problem persists. I've already tried restarting both computers. net use \\DININGROOM /user:DININGROOM\Kevin_Duke returns the same "System error 1219..." but this time it took much longer if that means anything. Do I need to enter a password? I also tried combining both the commands on one line in this image and File:Net use cmd.png tried showing some net use syntax which shows a password. I really appreciate your support so far. -- penubag  (talk) 04:03, 22 March 2009 (UTC)

No I'm afraid you can't combine the net use/shutdown command together, but can you confirm the username is Kevin Duke or Kevin_Duke? (you originally wrote with a space, but now you're using an underscore - Assuming it's a space it'll need to be in quotes and possibly the computer name in the username is throwing it out so. Two more things to try:

• net use \\DININGROOM /user:"Kevin Duke"
• net use \\192.168.1.1 /user:"Kevin Duke"

You'll need to replace 192.168.1.1 with whatever the IP address is of your XP machine and it should prompt you for a password if needed (or you can put it on the end of the command). Likewise if the IP address works you can just use \\192.168.1.1 in the shutdown command. Hope this helps more. ZX81 ^talk 18:24, 23 March 2009 (UTC)

I think I know what may be the problem. My account on the XP is Kevin and on the Vista is Kevin Duke. I renamed my XP to Kevin Duke but renaming and account doesn't change the directory or other system files(?). I've had much problem with this in the past and remembered about it now. So even if I rename my account, the directories don't change (see below). But if the directories not changing doesn't have to do with anything this is what I get on the command line File:Netuse shutdown denied.png. -- penubag  (talk) 23:25, 23 March 2009 (UTC) I just tried this on my XP trying to connect to the Vista and it works. But when it prompts for a password I can't input any text. Why's that? The only key that works is the Enter key and all that returns is "bad password". It might just be that I need to input the password in the same line as the command, but I wonder why this works on the XP and not the vista. Could it be security settings on the XP? -- penubag  (talk) 01:29, 24 March 2009 (UTC)

Li-ion battery

Is it healthy to leave a li-ion battery (as for a laptop) plugged in at all times when not in use and only unplugged when away from a power source as long as it's kept cool? Our Wikipedia article says to recharge often and to avoid complete discharge, which is the complete opposite ideology I've had with Nickel-cadmium.-- penubag  (talk) 05:53, 20 March 2009 (UTC)

This depends heavily on the design of the laptop. Each of the following designs are valid and exist:

• Laptop always uses the battery. Plugging it in only causes the battery to charge up slightly faster than you discharge it by using it. So, leaving it plugged in all the time is just charging it while you discharge it.
• Laptop will disconnect the battery completely while you have it turned on and plugged in. It only charges the battery if you turn off the computer and plug it in. So, leaving it plugged in and on all the time has nothing to do with the battery.
• When plugged in and turned on, power comes from the wall outlet to run the computer. Some power is split away to charge the battery as needed. When the battery is fully charged, it just stops charging it.

Since I have no way to know what kind of laptop you have, I have no way to know how it is designed. What I can say is that any respectable charger will not overcharge your battery. So, once it is charged, leaving it plugged in does nothing except waste a few watts of electricity. -- kainaw™ 15:25, 20 March 2009 (UTC)

I'm using a Dell Studio laptop and when I plug it in the battery status says "idle" instead of "discharging". So how would you interpret this? Would it be reasonable to leave this plugged in and charging for weeks on end without discharging a little? -- penubag  (talk) 22:56, 20 March 2009 (UTC)

As kainaw mentioned above we have no way to know how it was designed, but personally I would suspect that due it is constantly being "topped" up to make sure it remains fully charged. Although it's more a workaround than answering your question, you could always just remove the battery and run the laptop without it? Most laptops that are plugged in will run quite happily without one and if anything it'll be a little cooler without the heat from the battery charging. If you do decide to do this for long periods of time I would recommend making sure the battery level is around 50% to help extend the life of the battery - There's more information about this in our Lithium-ion article. ZX81 ^talk 04:31, 21 March 2009 (UTC)

If working without a battery, beware that a power outage (or carelessly pulling the plug) may lose your work in progress. Certes (talk) 13:32, 21 March 2009 (UTC)

"Looking glass" for SMS routing

Hi,

I'd like to know if there's a service similar to the Looking Glass services provided on the IPv4/IPv6 Internet, but for SMS routing instead. If not, how can I discover how a SMS is routed from its source to its destination? I'm aware that there are SMTP-to-SMS gateways, but I'd like to know how a new CLEC telephone provider would implement SMS into, say, an existing VoIP system. (The internal part of the CLEC's implementation is assumed to be a simple SMS-to-SMTP mailbox.)

Props to those who can shed some insight. Thanks for all who read this.

jdstroy (talk) 15:41, 20 March 2009 (UTC)

To clarify, here are examples of two Looking Glass servers: Level 3 LG, Qwest LG jdstroy (talk) 19:01, 20 March 2009 (UTC)

Assuming lookingglass is little more than a BGP aware traceroute-like utility, I doubt it. Once SMS goes from the phone or user to the cell phone network, it's proprietary. Unlike TCP there's no sendback (as far as I understand) making SMS a lot more like UDP. Then again, I know very little about SMS so maybe someone out there's done this. Shadowjams (talk) 04:29, 25 March 2009 (UTC)

Unbearable low screen resolution on Vista which is impossible to alter by normal methods. Help!

I was playing a full-screen game on my Vista laptop (you know, one of those games trhat changes your screen resolution), and got stuck in an infinite loop, which there was no way to get out of, due to a bug.

I pressed Ctrl+Alt+Del, but the screen resolution was too low to reach the task manager (because of that stupid screen Vista brings up with options no-one uses), so I logged off (it was either that or cancel).

Unfortunately, it retained the screen resolution settings of the game, which is the lowest I have ever seen. It has rendered my laptop almost completely unusable.

In fact - it's so bad, I can't get to the screen resolution settings in the control panel.

It works perfectly in safe mode, if that's any help, and startup repair doesn't change anything.

Is there any way out of this without losing all my files?

Please help! Dendodge Talk^Contribs 21:01, 20 March 2009 (UTC)

You can change your resolution even though you cannot see all windows on the screen. First, start the control panel by using Win+R, typing "control desktop" and pressing Enter. Now, press Tab six times, to select the "Screen settings" (or whatever it is called in English) option. Press Enter. Now you need to set focus to the resolution slider, by using Alt+AccCh, where AccCh is the underlined character in the slider's text label. Because I have a Swedish Vista, I do not know what character this is. However, you can press Tab a few times (probably two times is the right number), and hope you have focused the right control. Now, select the highest supported resolution by pressing End. Finally, press Enter. To be sure, it might be an idea to press Tab a third time after having pressed End, and then press End again, and Tab a fourth time, and End yet again, to make sure that the resolution slider really has been set to the right-most value. --Andreas Rejbrand (talk) 21:27, 20 March 2009 (UTC)

In English, the key combo to access the screen resolution slider is Alt+R. After that, simply press End then Enter to set the screen resolution to max supported. Once you can see waht you are doing, you will probably have to go back and reset your video settings properly.

If that situation is repeated in future, bring up the Task Manager. Then press Alt-Space followed by "M", you should now be able to move the task manager around with the arrow keys to bring it into sight so you can resize, kill your game, and so on. Astronaut (talk) 23:01, 20 March 2009 (UTC)

The other option is to just restart or alternatively if this isn't possible turn off (if your power button is set up turn off the computer this is a good way if you can't use the shutdown options in Windows) and then start back up your computer and then press F8 to get the boot options and select VGA mode rather then safe mode. You should go to 640x480 from which you can then change your resolution etc and it will stay when you restart (actually you may have to restart your computer after going to VGA mode before you can change the settings properly) Nil Einne (talk) 12:39, 23 March 2009 (UTC)

Old-header (Windows 1.0 and 2.0) bitmaps

Where can I find old Windows Bitmaps, using the old headers from Windows 1.0 and 2.0? I am writing a high-compatibility image viewer, and would like to test some old files. --Andreas Rejbrand (talk) 21:29, 20 March 2009 (UTC)

March 21

net

i'm buying a usb modem to have net at home. Can interconnect 2 PCs using one usb modem. one is downstairs and one in my room. what do i need. And is there a wireless way i can do that? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 193.220.225.251 (talk) 00:06, 21 March 2009 (UTC)

The easiest way to connect multiple computers to have access to one internet connection is a Router. You can get Wireless routers pretty much everywhere these days - even the supermarket. To be able to be wireless you will need a wireless enabled computer/laptop - though most wireless routesr have at least 4 wired-connection slots too (at least from what i've seen) so you could have a (wired-connection) desktop PC and a (wireless connection) laptop. ny156uk (talk) 00:23, 21 March 2009 (UTC)

To connect your modem to a "router" (confusingly known as either a residential gateway or a wireless router here on Wikipedia) you'll need to have a modem with a network connection. If you have a pure USB modem, you'll need to connect it to one of your computers and have that computer "share" the internet connection across a home network (where a "router" would also prove useful). The latter layout has some limitations (all traffic travels through the "host" computer, so it has to remain on; setting up the connection is somewhat more complicated; and you don't get the security benefit of the router's firewall), so it would be best to purchase a networkable modem instead (many support both USB and network connections). – 74  03:28, 21 March 2009 (UTC)

Slow Computer

My computer's gotten slow, both at bootup and while running applications. I have Norton and AdAware running, so I doubt it's a virus. Any idea what could be causing this or how it can be fixed? Black Carrot (talk) 07:00, 21 March 2009 (UTC)

What OS? Ζρς ιβ' ^¡hábleme! 07:37, 21 March 2009 (UTC)

You have Norton running. That's one. Also, try doing Start->Run (or Win + R), and type in "msconfig". Go to the startup tab and see what's starting. May also want to check services.msc to see if you've got any strange services, but don't mess with any entries in either unless you know what they are. -- Consumed Crustacean (talk) 08:09, 21 March 2009 (UTC)

Once you've cleaned out the start-up as Consumed Crustacean suggests, do a defrag ... Start, Programs, Accessories, System Tools. — Ched ~ ^(yes?)/_© 08:52, 21 March 2009 (UTC)

I think the most likely reason is because you need more system memory (not be confused with hard drive space). What version of Windows are you using and how much memory do you have? These days if you're running XP with Service Pack 2 or newer and antivirus etc like you are then you'll need at least 1Gb+ and if you're running Vista you'll need 2Gb to run things comfortably. In both XP and Vista you can go to "Control Panel" then "System" and after a short time the first page that shows will display the system memory. ZX81 ^talk 13:25, 21 March 2009 (UTC)

The startup tab of msconfig doesn't show a very long list, and I don't understand any of the names well enough to know what to change. The defrag system says I don't need to defragment. The General tab of the System Properties folder says, Microsoft Windows XP > Professional > Version 2002 > Service Pack 3, and AMD Athlon(tm) 64 Processor > 3200+ > 2.01 GHz, 1.00 GB of RAM > Physical Address Extension. Does that narrow anything down? Black Carrot (talk) 19:01, 21 March 2009 (UTC)

When the computer starts going slow does the hard drive light flash like crazy/constantly on? Sadly 1Gb in XP is pretty much bare minimum needed these days (with SP2 onwards/antivirus/spyware/firewall running on the computer) and quite likely it's ran out of real memory so it's using the hard disk which is much slower. If you load up Task Manager (Press Ctrl-Alt-Delete) under the Performance tab you'll be able to see memory usage. Although the whole page is quite helpful, if you can tell us what the available/system cache numbers are next to "Physical Memory" that'll help to confirm if you're running low or not (do it when you have your "normal" programs running, having everything closed will give a false reading) ZX81 ^talk 19:24, 21 March 2009 (UTC)

• You can Google most of the executable names; anything exceptionally odd that doesn't come up on Google is suspicious. And like I said, Norton isn't helping. -- Consumed Crustacean (talk) 05:19, 22 March 2009 (UTC)

A friend's laptop had this problem and it turned out his hard drive was running in PIO mode for some reason. In XP you can view and change this setting in Device Manager, IDE ATA/ATAPI controllers, Primary IDE Channel, Advanced Settings. Just another thing to try. -- BenRG (talk) 13:21, 22 March 2009 (UTC)

I suggest you download Antivir's antivirus immediately, then uninstall Norton Anti-Virus with Revo Uninstaller (with an advanced uninstall). Procede to install Antivir. You will notice a difference immediately. Plus, CCleaner can help a little, and it's always useful in freeing up space. --71.98.14.96 (talk) 21:20, 22 March 2009 (UTC)

Fork bombs

(source: Fork_bomb#Example_fork_bombs)

I have two questions. First, will someone please explain why

:(){ :|:& };:

is a fork bomb and how it accomplishes it's task. Next, why is

format ELF executable
entry start
start:
	push	0x2       ; Linux fork system call
	pop	eax       ;
	int	0x80      ; Call to the kernel
	jmp	start     ; Loop back to the start

used instead of

format ELF executable
entry start
start:
	mov	eax,0x2   ;
	int	0x80      ; Call to the kernel
	jmp	start     ; Loop back to the start

TIA, Ζρς ιβ' ^¡hábleme! 07:37, 21 March 2009 (UTC)

1. [5].

2. Maybe the push/pop combination takes up less space? --wj32 ^t/c 08:47, 21 March 2009 (UTC)

2. I can't see how that would be as you would have to change both push and pop to their hex equivalents and change eax and 0x2 to their hex equivalents. In the second example, you just have to translate mov and the two operands. Ζρς ιβ' ^¡hábleme! 13:47, 21 March 2009 (UTC) P.S. Is it something about null/non-ASCII bytes?

It is indeed done to save space. PUSH has a form with a one-byte operand that's sign extended to four bytes, but MOV doesn't. The register operands are part of the opcode byte, so the PUSH/POP pair takes three bytes and the MOV instruction takes five. -- BenRG (talk) 18:46, 21 March 2009 (UTC)

For the first question (which I assume is about shell commands), this code:

:(){ :|:& };:

is evidently deliberately obfuscated. First it declares a function called ':'. That's an unusual name for a function - but it's not illegal. It's clearly deliberately confusing, so let's call it something less confusing like "bomb". Now we have:

bomb(){ bomb|bomb & } ; bomb

. That's really two commands separated with a semicolon:

  bomb(){ bomb|bomb & }
  bomb

In other words, it's declaring a shell script function - and then calling that function. So what does the function do? Well, the innards of the function are:

 bomb | bomb &

- which means run the function 'bomb', pipe the output of it into another instance of the function 'bomb' and run the whole mess in background. So this is a recursive function that calls itself twice each time. So you run 'bomb', and it creates 'bomb|bomb' which results in (bomb|bomb)|(bomb|bomb) ...and so forth - doubling the number of backgrounded threads each time. SteveBaker (talk) 18:43, 21 March 2009 (UTC)

Oh, dear, that a cue for a song:

(bomb|bomb)|

(bomb|bomb)|(bomb|bomb)|

(bomb|bomb)|(bomb|bomb)|(bomb|bomb)(bomb|bomb)

there's no limit! (sorry) 87.114.29.204 (talk) 21:10, 21 March 2009 (UTC)

question

Can I have a links to free chess games for my windoes computer? thank you. -jonty —Preceding unsigned comment added by 194.80.240.66 (talk) 11:34, 21 March 2009 (UTC)

How about WinBoard, or another game from Category:Free chess software? In future questions, please use a more descriptive header than "Question". Xenon54 (talk) 11:40, 21 March 2009 (UTC)

ah well thank you, i am still learning all the pages to this site, it seems there is a page for everything it's finding them that is the problem -jonty

Windows Vista comes with a quite nice 3D chess game. --Andreas Rejbrand (talk) 12:22, 21 March 2009 (UTC)

By "free chess games" do you mean you want to replay famous chess games, play chess against the computer, or play against a human opponent ? For the last case, Pogo.com does a decent job, as does Yahoo!. StuRat (talk) 05:19, 22 March 2009 (UTC)

You could also try the chess game that comes with the Microsoft Entertainment Pack. JCI (talk) 01:58, 24 March 2009 (UTC)

XP windows update: how to start custom install

Resolved

 – Certes (talk) 20:33, 21 March 2009 (UTC)

I run Windows XP (legally but without WGA) and would like to install some but not all of the updates I have downloaded. Shutting down the computer only allows me to install all or none. What I need is the Custom Install available via the yellow shield in the taskbar or something equivalent. Is there any way to make the yellow shield or the dialog it opens appear on demand? Obviously XP contains a program or service to do this but a long trawl through the search engines fails to reveal its identity.

If not, is there any other way to run a Custom Install? I realise that I can use Microsoft's website if I install lots of unwanted software first but would rather avoid this. I have tried stopping wuauserv, amending registry keys within \HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\WindowsUpdate\Auto Update (not necessarily the right ways) restarting wuauserv and running wuauclt /detectnow, but nothing visible happens.

All suggestions gratefully received. Certes (talk) 12:07, 21 March 2009 (UTC)

For the benefit of anyone else with this problem, someone kindly pointed me at [6] where "ulogic" has a solution. Certes (talk) 20:33, 21 March 2009 (UTC)

Stickam.com

How would I go on about & making my stream title/display name like this guy: http://www.stickam.com/tweetybirdluvsu, "hidden"?

I've seen it done on various people's profiles, on this site but I just don't know the exact coding nor fully get it.

Also...

"You may enter HTML/CSS. JavaScript is not allowed." —Preceding unsigned comment added by Kvltgrinder (talk • contribs) 13:08, 21 March 2009 (UTC)

Turning things off and on

It seems that there's an old adage somewhere that says to "save electricity", you have to turn things off when they're not in use. So, my question is, would it be more beneficial for me to leave something on, rather then turning it off and then back on after a few seconds? For example, if I were using my calculator for homework, I tend to turn it off after every question (just a habit), but then turn it back on after I finish reading the next question. Does this waste more battery life than if I just leave it on completely? Another thing, my mother used to tell me to turn lights off when I leave a room, even if it were for a short time (usually just a few minutes). Would this cause more electricity to be used than just leaving it on for that short duration? Furthermore, when turning something on, does it use more electricity then it does when it's currently in use? I'm hoping someone can answer these questions. Thanks a lot! 141.153.217.159 (talk) 15:58, 21 March 2009 (UTC)

This has been covered in many (MANY) areas. There is a lot of anecdotal evidence that turning off something for a very short time will save less energy than the amount it takes to get it turned back on. The key thing to remember is that the plural of anecdote is not data. The data, produced by testing, even on rather pathetically scientific shows such as MythBusters, indicates that electrical devices do not require a lot of energy to turn on. Therefore, the rule "leave it on" only applies if you plan to turn it back on within less than a second of turning it off. -- kainaw™ 16:04, 21 March 2009 (UTC)

The problem with repeatedly turning things on and off isn't that it wastes energy, it's that it subjects the items to unnecessary wear and tear. For example, most switches are only good for a finite number of uses, based on what they expect the typical usage to be, and this doesn't include the type of duty cycle you seem to have in mind. StuRat (talk) 05:09, 22 March 2009 (UTC)

They did this on Mythbusters for lamps and for them it showed that it saved the lightbulbs if you turned them off everytime you left the room. chandler · 10:09, 22 March 2009 (UTC)

The OP hails from New Jersey, so this is not relevant, but incandescent bulbs are being phased out in the EU, commencing in 2010. The aim is to reduce CO2 pollution by 30 million tons. This brings up the question if CFLs (compact fluorescent lightbulbs) and other options like halogen or LEDs require more power when being switched on repeatedly.

According to one site Mythbusters gave these data:

• Incandescent: 0.36 seconds
• CFL: 0.015 seconds
• Halogen: .51 seconds
• LED: 1.28 seconds
• Fluorescent: 23.3 seconds for a switch off / switch on to break even. Presumably this refers to energy usage and not wear and tear on the switches. --Cookatoo.ergo.ZooM (talk) 10:53, 22 March 2009 (UTC)

How is the case with turning the vehicle engine off while at a traffic signal where the light is expected to turn green in half a minute or so? Does re-starting the engine burn more petrol than keeping it running for half a minute. Not a computing question, but fits in this discussion thread. Jay (talk) 08:18, 23 March 2009 (UTC)

Generally no (though it does depend on the car). Some vehicles are designed to do this automatically as a feature (mostly hybrids), but frequent restarting in vehicles not designed to do so could cause excessive wear on the starter and electronics. – 74  14:28, 23 March 2009 (UTC)

Solaris 9 in VMWare

I installed Solaris 9 inside VMWare Workstation 6.5, and I have everything working except audio and ethernet. I'm using the CDE. Whenever I type ifconfig -a no ethernet adapters show up, just lo0. I tried typing ifconfig hme0 up, just for the heck of it, but it said there was no such interface. My NIC is a Broadcom Gigabit Ethernet, and I've tried using NAT and bridging the connection, to no avail. I also typed dmesg, but nothing stood out to me in the output. I'd love to paste the output from that command here, but shared folders don't seem to be working in the guest, even though I installed VMWare tools. Whenever I run the Perl config script I get an error message:

Guest vmxnet fast network interface: failed
Unable to start services for VMWare Tools

That's the only error I see, and I can see the driver:

prtconf -D | grep 1022
pci1022,2000 (driver name: vmxnet)

—Preceding unsigned comment added by () John 44 fhm (talk • contribs) 17:26, 21 March 2009 (UTC)

blocked mediawiki export, api.php - gfdl freedoms

One wiki (not wikimedia related) blocks mediawiki export page, api.php and does not provide any database dumps. How can I download whole wiki (it has hunderdeds of articles) with full edit history? Person who hosts it says that he will block ip range if anyone tries to download too many articles. If a wiki is on gfdl, mustn't it provide a way to download it as a whole, not just parts? 217.75.59.5 (talk) 19:51, 21 March 2009 (UTC)

Not all wikis are GFDL licensed, but wikis licensed under the GFDL must provide a machine-readable version of published materials. See WP:GFDL for text of license. --h2g2bob (talk) 20:34, 21 March 2009 (UTC)

I think having per-article source available is enough for that though. Algebraist 20:36, 21 March 2009 (UTC)

The hoster may be worried about performance or cost. You will have to reduce your impact, possibly by downloading the articles slowly, perhaps one per minute, rather than one per second! Graeme Bartlett (talk) 21:24, 21 March 2009 (UTC)

There's nothing in the GFDL that requires you to allow people to download a complete database, or to download it as a whole rather than as parts. --98.217.14.211 (talk) 23:11, 21 March 2009 (UTC)

OK, thanks. So i guess we can only make sure everyone of the editors know that wiki is 100% owned by evil admin (who won't give dumps), and persuade at least some of them to move to another wiki. (last free dump is not too much old). It is not really possible to dump automatically, because admin would easily make little changes to obstruct dump-tool. 217.75.59.5 (talk) 23:58, 21 March 2009 (UTC)

Is 10-to-1 still valid?

Back in the days when a 1200-baud Silent 700 was the leading edge of technology, all of us in the Time-sharing business knew that even though a byte contained 8 bits, asynchronous communication added a bit on each end of the data (start and stop bits), so that "1200 bits per second" really delivered only 120 characters per second rather than 150 as might be naively assumed. On the other hand, if you had a big-ass synchronous modem, you could send and receive blocks of 400 or 800 characters at 4800 baud, true 8 bits per character minus some block-level overhead (but much less than the 20% of async "interactive").

Are today's communication rates on the phone line, over DSL and cable and so forth, still 10 bits per character, start + 8 + stop? (I assume the answer is Yes using 56K dialup.) As I sit here browsing the web and downloading photos, does 120KB/s still mean 1200Kb/s?

--DaHorsesMouth (talk) 20:17, 21 March 2009 (UTC)

For ADSL things are rather complex, as the spectrum used is divided into "bins" that have different characteristics; the ADSL article notes "The total maximum capacity derived from summing the bits-per-bins is reported by DSL modems and is sometimes termed sync rate. This will always be rather misleading as the true maximum link capacity for user data transfer rate will be significantly lower because extra data is transmitted that is termed protocol overhead, a reduced figure of around 84-87% at most for PPPoA connections being a common example". Much of that is due to the structure of ATM frames, which have 5 bytes of overhead for every 48 bytes transmitted. Over and above that (in ADSL, cable, and the earlier dialup solutions you mention) have additional overheads for IP and TCP packet headers (overheads that are per-packet, which means end-to-end efficiency differs greatly between bulk transfers and smaller packets). 87.114.29.204 (talk) 20:49, 21 March 2009 (UTC)

The encoding schemes on DSL and cable don't remotely resemble those old dialup modems. Modern dialup modems (that use V.42 and so forth) don't work like that either. They delete stop/start bits and do fancier data compression as well. 75.62.6.87 (talk) 10:35, 25 March 2009 (UTC)

Intel Core 2 Duo processors vs Centrino 2 Duo

Good Morning and thank you for being available to ask questions. Laptops are being sold with either Intel Core 2 Duo processors or Centrino 2 Duo processors. Could you please tell me which is better in a way that an end user will notice. I did look at the article http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_Intel_processors. It lists processor features but not Centrino or how each new model is better than the last. Many thanks Cadbury29 (talk) 21:38, 21 March 2009 (UTC)

Centrino isn't a processor, but rather Intel's chipset for laptops - the Centrino article says "There is usually a lot of confusion with Core 2 Duo and Centrino Duo. Centrino Duo is the combination of Core 2 Duo and Intel Next Gen Wireless Systems." 87.114.29.204 (talk) 21:47, 21 March 2009 (UTC)

My apologies for missing this on the Centrino article. Does the combination improve the user's computer usage experience whilst improving battery life or does it slow the computer down in comparison with a standard Core 2 Duo? Thank you again. Cadbury29 (talk) 21:57, 21 March 2009 (UTC)

You're still not seeing what Centrino is. It's a brand of chipset. All PC CPUs need an accompanying chipset; you can't run a Core 2 Duo without a chipset; if you didn't install Centrino you'd have to have the equivalent offering from nVidia or VIA (or you'd have an AMD processor with an AMD chipset). So you can't run a "standard core 2 duo" alone; there's no comparison to make. We don't have articles comparing mobile chipsets from different vendors, it seems, but there's generally not a lot in it between Intel and nVidia at least. 87.114.29.204 (talk) 22:14, 21 March 2009 (UTC)

It's like saying, a Windows PC vs. a Dell PC, which one is better? --76.167.241.45 (talk) 23:42, 21 March 2009 (UTC)

Assuming, of course, that the Dell PC runs Windows (they do have some Linux versions now). Thanks, Genius101^Guestbook 15:26, 22 March 2009 (UTC)

Centrino is simply a marketing "certification" All it means is the devices has an approved A) CPU, B) Chipset, C) Wifi Card. All Intel laptops will have core 2 processor and perform the same, however some may include a dell other brand wifi card instead of an intel one, for example, or maybe use a different chipset, perhaps one from nVidia. That one change will make the laptop no longer "centrino" but other than that it's all the same. 204.16.236.254 (talk) 22:28, 27 March 2009 (UTC)

March 22

HD camcorder with emphasis on microphone jack (and budget)

So I need a camcorder. I would like to record a singer/songwriter friend of mine for an upload to youtube in HD quality. The 720p video recommendation from youtube is very easy to find. Flip's minoHD, or Creative's vado HD, or Kodak's Zi6, are all compact, handsome options but none of them have a mic jack to emphasize sound quality (please correct me if I'm wrong!). Giant brains of the reference desk, I beseech thee: tell me of any low cost, 720p, compact camera with extremely high audio quality, or preferably a mic jack. And, of course, if I'm posting this in the wrong place, please flame me as I deserve. 96.255.205.141 (talk) 00:01, 22 March 2009 (UTC)

Would you consider doing it in two pieces, then cutting it back together? I'm thinking the Zoom audio recorders. That said, I suspect getting the audio to sync back up will make you pull your hair out. --Mdwyer (talk) 01:55, 22 March 2009 (UTC)

Thank you so much! Zoom is an awesome option. I only wish it was a little more inexpensive. I'd like to plug in an inexpensive mic into an inexpensive 720p hd camera. I don't know if it's possible. Sappysap (talk) 02:35, 22 March 2009 (UTC)

Personally - I'd record the audio with a separate digital recorder (you could use a laptop for this) and stereo mike and then sync up the video and audio in a post-production step. That way you can adjust the audio balance and do noise filtering and other adjustments using high quality audio tools (I recommend Audacity - it's a great tool and it's free) - then marry together audio and video using the crappy video recorder's sound track to help you get them in perfect sync at the end. It's more effort - but if you're serious about wanting a quality result - that's the only way to go. SteveBaker (talk) 21:20, 22 March 2009 (UTC)

Just a random tip to the OP... I have found that if you disconnect your laptop from the power supply, it eliminates a lot of hum. If possible, run an unpowered mic through a battery-powered preamp if you're not getting enough gain from your line-ins on your soundcard. Plus don't overestimate the benefit of sinking money into hardware. If you are new, its tough to understand how setting mic levels and input levels and mic positioning and all those simple things make a huge difference. I even learned that different rooms of a house record better in, maybe something to do with electrical wiring (maybe the cheap wiring is in bedrooms?) or the way a house's electrical circuits are drawn. I've been waiting a long time for prices to come down in the HD cams. Last time I seriously studied them, they were over $1500. My biggest complaint was that you couldn't use an XLR jack, and that those inanely expensive cameras required you to use their $3 high pickup built-in mic. 71.54.173.193 (talk) 09:08, 23 March 2009 (UTC)

Skype Data Consumption

A friend is considering purchasing a new laptop mainly for the purpose of communicating with friends overseas using Skype. The model in mind comes packaged with a 3G connection (Huawei E220, SIM Card Based, operating on the local mobile network) which is capped at 500mb per month. Question 1: Is a 3G connection suitable for Skype ... despite its high speeds would latency on the mobile network not degrade the Skype experience ? Question 2: How much data on average say per minute does Skype consume when making calls and will the 500mb cap be sufficient (answer obviously dependent on how long they actually talk for) ? Does it also consume data when not making calls due to its peer-to-peer model ? What other VOIP software would be better ? Thanks in advance !--41.16.218.139 (talk) 05:24, 22 March 2009 (UTC)

1) Latency on 3g networks varies a lot, from 100ms to 800+. Some people report 1 second delays in their skype calls, but for other people it works fine. Depends on where you are, I guess.

2) Skype uses 70kbps during a call according to this one guy [7], so 500mb will come out to about 1000 minutes. Although they say that the average is ~20kbps [8], which would be 3x as much. But yeah, skype can also use bandwidth while not actively calling (especially if you become a supernode), so watch out for that.

Maybe someone who actually uses Skype on 3g will know more. Indeterminate (talk) 05:16, 23 March 2009 (UTC)

I've used skype on a 3g connection many, many times, and it almost always works just fine. A tiny bit of latency perhaps, but not much more than you'd get on a wired internet connection. 90.233.134.63 (talk) 02:31, 24 March 2009 (UTC)

While connected to your wired/wireless connection, make a call to a friend or echo123. When in the call, if you hover your mouse over call timer on the pop-out window, a tooltip will appear with call statistics. On the top 'paragraph,' the last line reads:

BW (avg/60 secs): upload =  2 kBps; download = 3 kBps

You can use this number to gauge how much you are using in real time as an average over a minute. Note that this shows the usage in bytes per second rather than bits per second.

Edit: If you do not have a tooltip popup, go to Options -> Advanced -> Connection. Check the box that says "Display technical information during calls" aszymanik speak! 06:18, 24 March 2009 (UTC)

Scheduling/alert application in Windows Vista

I want an application that will allow me to set up half-hourly reminders/alerts on my computer. Does anyone know of one that is both free and compatible with Windows Vista? 99.245.16.164 (talk) 06:35, 22 March 2009 (UTC)

It may not be what you want, but I remember a site from years ago: http://www.gregorybraun.com/ that had a nice little alarm thing called reminders. I haven't tried it with Vista, and I'm sure if you wait a little longer someone may be able to point you to something better - but I always liked Braun's stuff - small footprint, etc. — Ched ~ ^(yes?)/_© 09:17, 22 March 2009 (UTC)

That's quite good actually, thanks. 99.245.16.164 (talk) 15:02, 23 March 2009 (UTC)

IE8 vs. Chrome

Chrome has the function where if one tab crashes, freezes, or, malfunctions in some other way, it will not crash other tabs, or the whole Window, or other Chromewindows, or tabs in these other or the other Chromewindow(s). In other words, independent events is incorporated into the browser.

Does IE8 have this, or is IE8 like this?68.148.145.190 (talk) 07:43, 22 March 2009 (UTC)

I don't have any refs to back me up on this, but I don't think IE8 does at the moment. I use Chrome, and Firefox (which is also sandboxing some processes, but not to the extent that Chrome does). So ... "No", but that's just "IMHO", "FWIW", "IIRC" stuff. — Ched ~ ^(yes?)/_© 09:20, 22 March 2009 (UTC)

Again, I don't have the links, but apparently the newly-released... ehm... release version of IE8 does run tabs in separate processes... but only up to 3 tabs, after which they start sharing again and stop being independent. Microsoft decided people generally didn't use more than 3 tabs, so they "optimised" for this. Rawling4851 09:47, 22 March 2009 (UTC)

Geez, I have 10 tabs open in Firefox right now, and this is typical for me. StuRat (talk) 15:00, 22 March 2009 (UTC)

I have 108 tabs open, all faviconized. Beat that! —Preceding unsigned comment added by 82.43.88.87 (talk) 21:03, 22 March 2009 (UTC)

Microsoft are engaged in this peculiar "we know how you work and we won't give you more things than we think you need" thing right now. Windows-7 will limit you to three user-tasks running at once in the most basic 'home' edition...why? Well, that's all they think you can get your tiny little heads around. Given a limit of only 3 user-tasks, it makes sense to optimise IE8 to deal with just 3 tasks and get people used to the idea before Windows-7 hits the streets. It's also possible that they are leading up to the IE8 'pro-edition' which allows more tab-threads but costs actual $$$. Who knows? They've gone quite off the rails in the last year or two since the Vista debacle. The worst part of all of this is that it shouldn't be necessary. The need to recover from crashed tabs shouldn't happen because tabs shouldn't crash. The problem is that we have flash plugins with bugs that the browser writers can't fix because it's in the hands of Adobe - who either can't or won't fix it. When the plugin crashes - it takes the browser with it. The obvious thing would be to fix the stupid flash plugin and leave it at that. SteveBaker (talk) 21:15, 22 March 2009 (UTC)

"Gone off the rails" = "gone nuts" ? As for making apps that never crash, it's a nice dream, but I'd also like to see a system that can minimize the damage if a crash occurs, just in case. StuRat (talk) 03:57, 23 March 2009 (UTC)

You appear to be mistaken about Windows 7 Home Basic. According Windows 7 editions it doesn't have the limitation. I suspect you're thinking of Windows 7 Starter. But the Starter editions (both Vista and XP) have always have the limitation and I have never heard the explanation offered that they think it's all that people can manage. Even if this explaination has ever been offered, which I somehow doubt, I think it's quite clear this is not the reason. Starter has always been intended to be a very low cost option offered by Microsoft for developing countries so they limit it very severely (e.g. it only supports one core and I believe for a while something like 512mb RAM altho this may have changed with Windows 7 and IIRC 1024x768 was the resolution limit). Also given the sort of hardware it's intended to run on and the fact that it's still Windows with all the associated overhead, I personally wouldn't recommend trying to run more then 3 tasks anyway :-P Now whether it makes sense to use Starter as opposed to something else is of course an interesting issue but clearly one that is OT. Now the 3 tabs thing is I agree a dumb thing (and Microsoft does tend to do that we know better then you thing a lot) although I would expect it is in fact the case for perhaps 95+% of users. P.S. Ironically even though the 95+% thing was a number I made up as a random guess, Microsoft says exactly the same thing (See Tuesday, July 29, 2008 4:25 PM by AndyZei [MSFT)] Nil Einne (talk) 11:31, 23 March 2009 (UTC)

They probably made it up, too. Nice round numbers like that always raise my suspicions. StuRat (talk) 15:42, 23 March 2009 (UTC)

To answer the OP, I would definitely go with Chrome. It's a lot faster than IE. But if I were to choose, I'd get Firefox over Chrome any day since every inch of the browser and websites are customizable. A few off the bat that make me love firefox so much are Ad blocks, speed enhancers, stylish, my list would continue for miles but I'll stop. -- penubag  (talk) 06:15, 23 March 2009 (UTC)

How is that answering the OP? The OP didn't ask whether to choose Chrome or IE nor didn't he/she ask which one is better (unless you count the header but that seems a bit of a stretch given that the post itself was rather clear about what was being asked). And Firefox was never brought up at all. The question simply pertained to whether one feature was available in IE8 which has already been answered more or less and your reply seems a case of needless advocacy that in no way pertains to the question or any discussion that has since started. Nor if you were saying Firefox had this feature, that might be relevant even if not specifically asked but as it stands I'm starting to understand why people are getting annoyed at the advocacy Nil Einne (talk) 11:31, 23 March 2009 (UTC)

Where and How should I write this code?

where and how should i write the code in this page: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb760252(VS.85).aspx
I tried it with my VS2008 C# application but i cannot be compiled which compiler, language, libraries or tools do i need? thanks in advance Supersonic8 (talk) 12:42, 22 March 2009 (UTC)

The code that you have linked to is code for a native Windows application, which cannot be run in the .NET Framework. If you are looking for the .NET counterpart of what it does, that's here: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.windows.forms.tooltip.aspx . If you still want to compile this code, you need a C or C++ compiler (such as VS2008 for C++, free Express edition available, I think) and the Windows SDK which provides the libraries needed (may be included in the IDE). 84.174.102.84 (talk) 13:11, 22 March 2009 (UTC)

That's C++, using the Win32 API. Visual C++ would work to compile it. Whether you could use those functions from C# I don't know, but it's definitely not worth it. If you have a C# .NET program then look for C# .NET examples. -- BenRG (talk) 13:06, 22 March 2009 (UTC)

"New mail" notifier for IMAP

Hi! I'm looking for a small application, that just connect to my IMAP mail account and print something if there is a new mail. I dont want any mail client or anything that run as a process in background, just check new mail and end. Do you know about something like that? Thanks! Lukipuk (talk) 13:05, 22 March 2009 (UTC)

Googling for "IMAP notifier" finds a couple (for Windows), but I've not used them so I can't make recommendations; his is a Linux one (I've not used it either). You might find that "new mail" is a concept that doesn't quite map to IMAP as you might expect - IMAP knows the difference between read and unread mail, but "new" mail is generally "mail that's been received since you last checked", and "since you last checked" is something that a mail client knows about, but that a simple notifier doesn't. 87.114.147.43 (talk) 13:37, 22 March 2009 (UTC)

Crysis sandbox2 Sound

How do I add sound from my own computer to the game editor?--81.227.64.85 (talk) 16:07, 22 March 2009 (UTC)

Inkjet Printing onto Canvas (Epson Stylus Photo R2880)

I have recently purchased an Epson Stylus Photo R2880 and would like to print photos to canvas-style paper but have found it difficult finding an appropriate style of paper. I plan to print to the canvas then attach it around a wooden frame to achieve a canvas painting style photo. Specifically of course I need to know which paper, if any, will work with the R2880.

Many thanks. Lukerees1983 (talk) 22:39, 22 March 2009 (UTC)

Epson.com lists two types of compatible "canvas" paper, both in roll format, 13 inches by 20 feet. --LarryMac | Talk 12:26, 24 March 2009 (UTC)

March 23

Windows EXE's on Mac OS x x86

How can I run .exe's on Mac OS X x86. I downloaded the Mono Project for a .NET framework for Mac OS X. Is it all I need? And what about WINE, it says on some pages on its site that it can be used for Mac OS X, but on the downloads page I can't find the one for Mac OS X. I'd really like some help with this. I'm looking for a free way to do this. --Melab±1 ☎ 01:31, 23 March 2009 (UTC)

The Mono tools will only let you run .exe's that were built with .NET. But for those .exe's, it should work pretty well. According to here: [9] you just have to type "mono myprogram.exe" and if it's a .NET program, it'll run it. I'm not sure how you can find out whether an .exe is .NET compatible or not.

Installing Wine on OS X - [10]. Wine can have trouble with newer software, but if you're really dedicated you can probably get whatever you want to run. Indeterminate (talk) 05:04, 23 March 2009 (UTC)

Bump for Wine. Your milage may vary but I've had success several times with this software. aszymanik speak! 06:19, 24 March 2009 (UTC)

See also Darwine. --76.167.241.45 (talk) 08:42, 23 March 2009 (UTC)

Anyone else have one of these stupid things?

I got an InCharge for PS3, made by TeknoCreations. Here's a pic. The stupid thing didn't work (I'd place a controller in it, the controller lights would blink once, then stay unlit). I managed to take it back and get a new one several months later. The new one still doesn't work, and the behaviour is similar. Anyone had any success getting this thing working, or should I take this one back and stick to USB cables? --Silvaran (talk) 02:36, 23 March 2009 (UTC)

I have to say that inductively charging lithium batteries in a form-factor that fits inside a standard battery bay sounds like a really 'iffy' idea. I'm not surprised they don't work well. But it's surprising that they'd stay in business if they didn't. SteveBaker (talk) 05:45, 23 March 2009 (UTC)

The induction pack clamps onto the back of the controller. It's hard to see in the pic, but it plugs into the USB port on top of the controller and there's a clamp on the bottom of the controller to keep it attached. The pack fits into the base where it's supposed to charge. --205.174.162.243 (talk) 13:58, 23 March 2009 (UTC)

I've got a pair of induction charged headsets, and it's a bit touchy about where I place the base unit. I *wanted* to place it right on top of my projector, but it kept turning itself off. (Probably an important safety feature.) I've found that I really can't place it near any other electronic device. It's now sitting on top of a cardboard box on top of my projector until I find a small table for it.

I wonder if you're having a similar issue with your PS3 controllers? APL (talk) 16:02, 23 March 2009 (UTC)

Maybe... though encasing the whole thing in a faraday cage kind of defeats the convenience of having charge by induction :).--205.174.162.243 (talk) 18:15, 24 March 2009 (UTC)

recovering CD data

So I've got some CDs that were probably not "finished" properly, and I'm attempting to recover any data that might be whole on the CD-Rs. I've come across a program called PhotoRec which claims it can recover data from unfinished CD-Rs, but I'm not having much luck figuring out how it works, or it's just not responsive (it just opens a console and says "Please wait..."), so I'm wondering if there is anything else (free) that I could try. Thanks! 210.254.117.186 (talk) 08:22, 23 March 2009 (UTC)

Search for a program called "ISOBuster" - it will probably do it (it will bypass the Window's "please wait" console and go directly to the actual data that is on the CD). There is a free version with some restrictions on its functionality. The program's instructions are very complicated though, and recovering data from a CD that is damaged or only partially readable may take, quite literally, days. Meowy 15:56, 24 March 2009 (UTC)

Hidden files aren't shown

Recently I can't unhide my jpg files in the folder. I click "show the hidden files and folders", then ok or apply, but nothing changes. The folder shows that the files are there though. 91.135.251.174 (talk) 10:06, 23 March 2009 (UTC)

"Show hidden files" merely shows the files, It won't "unhide" them. To do that you need to either go into the properties of the file and untick hidden or go into the properties of the folder they're in to force everything to unhide in one go. Hope this helps! ZX81 ^talk 15:05, 23 March 2009 (UTC)

This question isn't clear enough to give a helpful answer. What Operating system are you using? What application are you using to show files and folders. Where are you finding "show the hidden" upon which to click? You say "nothing changes" - What would expect to happen?. How does the folder show they are there? You may mean Windows Xp with Windows explorer and "Tools | Folder options | View". If windows explorer says the file is there, then it is there, otherwise it isn't. Please clarify what you are eeing. -- SGBailey (talk) 15:06, 23 March 2009 (UTC)

I agree it's a little bit unclear, but I can guess from the question that the user is using XP/Vista from the "show hidden files and folders" dialog, and from the fact that xe can see the image files from the preview of the folder contents (i.e. the folder icon includes a little preview of the images in XP/Vista). By "unhide", xe probably means "make visible", i.e. the user knows the files should be there from the previews, but explorer doesn't show any files within the folder. I don't have any answer mind you, other than that the preview might not have been refreshed properly. 210.254.117.186 (talk) 15:33, 23 March 2009 (UTC)

Yep, make visible, I'm using Win XP. I don't know whether it's a temporary issue or something actually has happened. Additionally, it takes too long for my antivirus to download at start now, may be the things are connected. Recent scanning revealed no viruses. 91.135.250.125 (talk) 20:00, 23 March 2009 (UTC)

Copy a binary file in C/C++

I'm trying to copy a binary file containing random binary characters using a C program to another file. In the process, I want to append some extra data to the file at the beginning and end. Can someone point me in the right direction here, please?--117.196.133.136 (talk) 13:39, 23 March 2009 (UTC)

fopen the input file (with mode "rb") and output file (with mode "wb"), fread big blocks of data from the input and fwrite same to output, and keep freading and fwriting until fread returns 0 (or either function returns an error). Then fwrite the stuff you want to append, and then fclose both files. Dog Day Today (talk) 13:51, 23 March 2009 (UTC)

I end up with just a small part of the original file. Somehow the whole of abc.exe (around 3.25 mb) doesnt get copied. After running this, test.exe is only around 360 bytes. Can you please see if I'm doing something wrong?

FILE *ptr1,*ptr2;;
char c[500];
ptr1=fopen("c:\\abc.exe", "rb");
ptr2=fopen("c:\\test.exe", "wb");
while(fread(c, 500, 1, ptr1)!=0)
 {
  fwrite(c,500,1,ptr2);
 }

--117.196.133.136 (talk) 14:31, 23 March 2009 (UTC)

I don't immediately see what's wrong with your code, other than you're assuming the read will always get 500 bytes (and you don't check errors). Anyway, this works:

#include <stdio.h>
#include <errno.h>
#include <stdlib.h>

#define BLOCKSIZE 500

int main() {
  FILE*  inFile,
      *  outFile;
  char   data[BLOCKSIZE];
  size_t readsize;

  inFile=fopen("in", "rb");
  if(!inFile){
    perror("opening input file");
    exit(1);
  }

  outFile=fopen("out", "wb");
  if(!outFile){
    perror("opening output file");
    exit(2);
  }
  do {
    readsize=fread(data,1,BLOCKSIZE, inFile);

    if(readsize) {
      fwrite(data,1,readsize, outFile);
      if(ferror(outFile)){   // need this for stuff like media removed or space exhausted
	perror("writing");
	exit(3);
      }
    }
  }
  while(readsize);

  fclose(inFile);
  fclose(outFile);

  return 0;
}

Dog Day Today (talk) 16:32, 23 March 2009 (UTC)

Actually, on thinking about it, the above code is wrong - I should be checking ferror after every fread too, as an error (say media-removed, network-down) will cause the thing to emit a truncated out file - instead it should close the output file, unlink it, and then die with an error. Dog Day Today (talk) 16:56, 23 March 2009 (UTC)

... which means the fread section look like:

    readsize=fread(data,1,BLOCKSIZE,inFile);
    if(ferror(inFile)){
      perror("reading");
      fclose(outFile);
      unlink(argv[2]);
      exit(5);
    }

Dog Day Today (talk) 17:52, 23 March 2009 (UTC)

You also need to check the return value of fclose(outFile) because it flushes leftover data from the stdio buffer, and that write may fail. -- BenRG (talk) 23:30, 23 March 2009 (UTC)

Yes, good catch. I wonder how, in practice, one could test that? For testing the failed writes above I simply wrote a large file to a smaller volume, and for testing the failed reads I read from a usb stick and yanked it mid way through. Getting just that fclose to fail is a challenge (bar a dynamic-linking shim, which is cheating). Dog Day Today (talk) 13:56, 24 March 2009 (UTC)

Making a PDF of a Book

There are a certain number of books I have, of which I would like to scan and make a .pdf of, basically because they are very old books and some are very valuable to me (personally, not monetarily). Now, what I want to do is make a .pdf of these books by scanning, but with each page kept within one file (i.e. as an acrobat file that I can peruse each page without opening another .jpeg). How do I do this? All I can guess about this is that I may need to scan each individual page then try to sew them together as a .pdf. Is there a free software that eliminated the 'sewing' bit?--KageTora (talk) 15:18, 23 March 2009 (UTC)

Basically, "is there a free alternative to Acrobat"? I don't think so. If there is, I'd like to know... yandman 17:12, 23 March 2009 (UTC)

There are a number of free programs that can do a bunch of things Acrobat can do (although some do some things, some others, and some things aren't done well by anyone, so there isn't a full replacement for Acrobat). Inkscape will open and edit PDFs (which Acrobat really won't). Ghostscript and ImageMagick will convert things into PDF (and sometimes vice versa). PDFtk will do other stuff like merge and split. Dog Day Today (talk) 17:34, 23 March 2009 (UTC)

Use ImageMagick's convert program: convert mouse.jpg cat.jpg dog.jpg output.pdf takes three jpgs and makes a pdf. Dog Day Today (talk) 17:34, 23 March 2009 (UTC)

Some scanning software - eg Canon can do this built in, but it has limited editing, so you would have to get the scan correct first up - ie not skipped pages. Graeme Bartlett (talk) 20:39, 23 March 2009 (UTC)

Why are console games more expensive?

The specs are identical. The hardware is (almost) completely identical and the functionality is certainly the same. You've got NONE of the configuration issues that you have with PCs. It must SURELY be simpler to develop for a fixed/known hardware platform like a console than the chip/motherboard/graphics card/memory/Windows zoo that is your "average" PC. And yet console games are about double the price of PC games. Why? (enter SteveBaker, stage left...) Zunaid 15:54, 23 March 2009 (UTC)

I'm no SteveBaker, but I would guess licensing fees, development costs and price agreements. Anyone can release their own computer software, but an "official" PS3 game requires approval from Sony, including expensive development kits, a per-disc licensing fee and possibly even requiring a minimum price. Here's a discussion on the topic. Also, at least a few sources think console game prices might decrease in the near future. – 74  16:23, 23 March 2009 (UTC)

And another answer is simply, "because people will pay those prices". --jpgordon^∇∆∇∆ 16:40, 23 March 2009 (UTC)

No - that's absolutely not the reason. ("Trust me - I'm a game developer") SteveBaker (talk) 00:10, 24 March 2009 (UTC)

That is, in fact, the only and complete answer. There is virtually no unit production cost (you burn a CD/DVD, print a label, put it all in a case and transport it, that's all - for the numbers they are producing that probably comes to a few cents per unit), so they determine the price simply by working out the demand/price curve (they have lots of data from previous games, so they should be able to do that pretty well) and pick the price that maximises revenue. The cost of development only determines whether it is profitable to make a game or not, it doesn't determine the price. (I'm grouping the whole games industry into a single entity here, which isn't entirely realistic - there may be per unit licensing costs for the games producer to the console producer, but that's all just money moving within the industry so doesn't make much difference to those of us on the outside.) --Tango (talk) 19:30, 23 March 2009 (UTC)

That's not true though - we have to pay Microsoft or Sony or Nintendo for every copy we sell. Then there is the profit margin for the store that sells it to you. Those are both per-unit costs - and they probably add up to more than half of the shelf price. But the other thing you're missing is that making the game is outrageously expensive. Consider the last game I worked on - we had something like 60 artists, a dozen level designers, a dozen programmers, story writers, motion-capture performers, voice artists, a handful of musicians and audio guys, translators, managers, human resources...about 100 US workers in all, then add another 100 to 200 people 'outsourced' in places like Mexico, India, Singapore churning out 3D models by the bucket load. Our game took three years to build - and for much of that time, it cost a million dollars a month to develop - perhaps $36 million. We had to sell about 5 million units just to break even (that's actually a LOT - sure the GTA VI's and the Halo III's sell in the hundreds of millions - but most games count themselves lucky to hit 2 or 3 million. We also have to pay millions to advertise the damned thing. Then - it's a fact of life - but only about one game in three ever makes it to the store shelves and only about one in thirty actually turns a profit at these supposedly "inflated" prices. I agree 100% that the cost of making the DVD is about 50 cents - and the packaging about the same - so about a dollar is the cost of the media. But even when amortized over millions and millions of copies - development costs in the hundreds of millions are not trivial! Think instead of the movie business. It costs hundreds of millions to make a movie - but the cost of shining a light through the film onto the screen pretty much pays for itself from the money you spend on a soda and a medium popcorn. Why aren't movies free? Same deal. SteveBaker (talk) 00:10, 24 March 2009 (UTC)

Yep, and in addition to the lower costs of developing for a nearly uniform platform (in practice it's not quite fixed, as modern consoles have varying firmware and very occasionally hardware revisions are material) that gives then a similarly simpler support burden. And the piracy rate for console games is much lower. Dog Day Today (talk) 17:14, 23 March 2009 (UTC)

For the same reasons as Nespresso capsules, ink cartridges etc. It's a business model made possible by complete vertical integration. I'm guessing that Sony et al. make relatively small margins on consoles, knowing that this will seduce users ("Consoles are so much cheaper than PCs", "The printer came free when I bought the computer", "It costs far less than a real espresso machine"). As they have complete control over the "ecosystem" (something that is not the case for PCs), they can make their profits by taking their cut on every game/capsule/cartridge you buy instead of having to make it all in one go. Console games are as "overpriced" as the consoles themselves are "underpriced". It's just a different way of making money (more adapted to kids, with their regular weekly income and aversion to saving). yandman 17:29, 23 March 2009 (UTC)

I think, in addition to the above, it's something to do with copy protection. PC game makers, although some of them still try, have mostly accepted that that is going to be a crack and pirate copy on the net. A PS3 game, on the other hand, is almost impossible to copy - therefore they can charge more, knowing people are forced to buy these games. PS3 games are so overpriced that rentals are becoming popular (where I live at least). Also, the average person that buys a "TV Game" (as they fondly call it) knows a lot less than the average PC enthusiast, and would have no idea how to copy an xbox or PS2 game anyway. This person would see no alternative but to buy games. The price of games is a shame, as I know kids who have to save for months to buy their favourite game. Sandman30s (talk) 19:59, 23 March 2009 (UTC)

The dirty truth is this. When you buy a PC, you pay what it costs to make - plus some profit for the manufacturer. When you buy an Xbox or a Playstation, you're buying approximately the same 'stuff' - but you're paying a LOT less for it. An Xbox essentially IS a PC - the original Xbox particularly.

In fact, consoles are so cheap that you're almost certainly paying less money than it costs to make the thing! Both Sony and Microsoft lose money every time someone buys one of their consoles! They make their money back (in theory, at least) by charging the game manufacturers (or their own game manufacturing groups) a certain amount of money for the privilage of making games - and a certain amount for every game they sell. Hence, so long as everyone who buys a console buys a statistically reasonable number of games, the console manufacturer makes a profit. However, in PC land, there are hundreds of manufacturers and anyone can write software for any of them. The manufacturers make their profits by selling their hardware at a profit. Hence there are zero licensing fees for game manufacturers - and generally, they pass those savings on to the consumer. There are some other issues at play - but that is far and away the largest. Of course there are exceptions - Nintendo makes a small, but significant, profit on the Wii console (despite being sold so cheaply - it has no hard drive, very much less memory and a smaller, cheaper CPU+Graphics system). However, Nintendo are still able to charge people for the privilage of making and selling Wii games - so they make profit both ways! There are other small savings for the PC game makers - one is that when you make a game for Sony/Microsoft/Nintendo, you have to pass fairly strict quality guidelines and they may also require that certain advertising rules are met. If you write for the PC, you can push out any old crap and get away with it.

One interesting side-effect of that is the perpetual shortage of new machines when they first come out. Remember those L-O-N-G lines to buy the new Xbox? You might ask yourself: If their big market is just before Xmas - why on earth don't they make enough machines for everyone? Well - here's the reason...because they lose money on every machine they sell - the more they sell over Xmas - the more money they lose! They can't make the money back from game sales because there aren't enough games on the market yet. The game's manufacturers don't want to put out a new game on a new console because there aren't enough of them out there yet to justify the development cost. So you have this giant "chicken and egg" situation. The console manufacturers only want to sell just enough machines to pursuade the game developers to make games for it...only when they've got some money back from game sales can they afford to put more machines out there. So as game revenue comes in - they can afford to lose more money by selling new machines to boost game sales and allow them to make more machines! The whole market isn't driven by making huge numbers of machines to turn a massive profit - it's about rationing machines so that only the most fanatical game players buy them...the ones who will buy the most games. The last thing they want (and one of the big problems with the PS-3 launch) is people buying the machines just to surf the web.

This pricing model is a bit odd - but it's becoming more commonplace - when you buy a printer, you're paying quite a bit less than it costs to make - and the manufacturer hopes to make money by charging through the nose for ink. We get cellphones for much less than cost - providing we sign up to use them for a couple of years on just one network. It's a rather nasty practice IMHO. I'd rather pay what things cost. The idea is that they make something look amazingly cheap - so you rush out and buy it - without a thought for how much it's going to cost you in ink/minutes/games over the life of the machine. But if you are that rare individual who buys a console and only one game - or a printer and prints so rarely that they never need another ink cartridge - then you're onto a good deal. The downside (IMHO) for the games business is that it effectively rewards the person who hardly ever buys a new game - at the price of ripping off your core demographic - the person who buys 20 or more games over the life of the console.

So - how long will it be before you can buy a car at half price if you can only run it on gasoline from one manufacturer at $10 per gallon? I think it would happen if they could figure out a way to stop you putting regular gas into it instead.

SteveBaker (talk) 23:49, 23 March 2009 (UTC)

Priority over wifi network

Hi, I regularly have to download large files over a wifi network for work. Every time I'm downloading, and even when I limit the rate, it blocks access to the internet for the computer that is plugged directly into the router. Is there any way to give it priority so that its internet access is not affected? Thank you 190.17.201.142 (talk) 17:21, 23 March 2009 (UTC)

It shouldn't be able to block access completely...the ethernet just doesn't work like that. I wonder whether your router is limiting the number of simultaneous connections - or the number of DHCP addresses it hands out? SteveBaker (talk) 23:12, 23 March 2009 (UTC)

The feature you're looking for is called Quality of Service (QoS). Some consumer routers support basic QoS settings; others can be upgraded with third-party firmware (like dd-wrt) to add QoS. You can simply increase the "priority" of the second computer to prevent starvation. – 74  01:48, 24 March 2009 (UTC)

I'll have a good look into it, thank you very much. 190.17.201.142 (talk) 02:46, 24 March 2009 (UTC)

This link from the article seems to say that the only place where QoS can be applied in an ethernet/wifi configuration is in the upload part. Anyone know how to give download priority to the ethernet connection? Thank you. 190.17.201.142 (talk) 02:58, 24 March 2009 (UTC)

You can't control your ISP's routers, but if your router is prioritizing certain connections and dropping other low-priority packets then the low-priority connection will effectively be throttled. This is necessarily a reactive, not a proactive, strategy, mostly useless for low-latency applications (like internet telephony) but perhaps acceptable for your specific application. You might also read Bandwidth throttling; if you directly throttle your download speed on your first computer (by using a download manager, for instance) then the second computer should have no problem accessing the internet. – 74  03:55, 24 March 2009 (UTC)

Be sure and check out DD-WRT's supported devices before flashing it to your device. Some newer Linksys routers require a stripped-down "mini" version, due to memory constraints. They do still make a special version called the WRT54GL which works well for custom firmware, though. ←Spidern→ 13:11, 25 March 2009 (UTC)

WEP Key

Alright, can somebody please tell me (in simple English, please ;D) how to find my WEP Key? 86.41.90.174 (talk) 17:36, 23 March 2009 (UTC)

If it's your WEP key, there's usually a sticker on the underside of your ADSL box. And if there isn't, just plug in an ethernet cable and access the config page. yandman 17:49, 23 March 2009 (UTC)

If it's not your WEP key look up Backtrack 3, it contains lots of tools for getting keys —Preceding unsigned comment added by 82.43.88.87 (talk) 18:08, 23 March 2009 (UTC)

yandman is right that the default wep key is often pasted to the newer routers. However, if you want to make sure that it is still the actual key being used, or if you're looking at an older box - you can login to the router (192.168.1.1 is common but not absolute). Depending on the brand and model, the config page you'll want to look at is the wireless settings, and perhaps a security sub-tab to find the current WEP encryption key. — Ched ~ ^(yes?)/_© 21:09, 23 March 2009 (UTC)

With many wireless boxes (but not all) you can connect your computer up using an ethernet cable (it WON'T work via wireless) - and point your browser at http://192.168.1.1 - this is usually a tiny little 'mini-website' that's running from inside your router/wireless box (this somehow never ceases to amaze me!). If it demands a password to log into it - and if you don't know that password either then you'll have to do a 'master reset' on the box - which will probably set it back to factory defaults. Don't do that unless you are reasonably confident that you know enough about setting up such things. Anyway - you need to find the reset button on the box (it's usually in a little round hole underneath somewhere and needs to be pressed in with the tip of a ballpoint pen or something - and perhaps held in for 10 seconds or something). That should allow it to come up without a password - and probably resets the WEP password too. Either way - you can now get into the box - and you should find a whole bunch of menu options on the web page. One of these will let you set up the admin password (I strongly advise you to do that) - another lets you set the name of the router, the encryption scheme you want and the WEP passkey (assuming you decide to opt for WEP as your encryption scheme). Be sure to write these things down and put them somewhere secure so you can find them next time! (And sticking them on the underside of the box isn't really a security risk since anyone who can get at the underside of the box can reset it just like you just did). Running the box with the default encryption key is probably a bad idea anyway. SteveBaker (talk) 23:10, 23 March 2009 (UTC)

Just a quick note : The password might be a blank password. I mean that leaving the password box completely blank might actually work. Some routers default to that. (Possibly with "admin" as the log-in name.) APL (talk) 13:39, 24 March 2009 (UTC)

Am I misparsing you, or are you claiming it's impossible to log into a router via wireless? I can certainly log into my Netgear WGR614v9 router without a wired connection. Algebraist 23:04, 24 March 2009 (UTC)

There is no reason why it would be impossible, but it is disabled (or only optionally enabled) on some routers as a "security feature". Similarly, configuring the router from the WAN uplink is usually disabled. Considering many owners don't bother to change from the default password (if they even access the router at all), I'd have to say that it's a reasonable precaution. – 74  02:23, 25 March 2009 (UTC)

Well, you CAN enable 'wireless admin' but I strongly advise against it. It only takes for someone within radio range to do a successful dictionary attack against the password and you're doomed. SteveBaker (talk) 03:50, 25 March 2009 (UTC)

Right, because once they've cracked your ultra-secure router configuration they can… use your internet connection? Reconfigure your router to reject your connections, forcing a reset? Eavesdrop on "private" wireless communications? The thing is, to be able to access the configuration page they would have had to crack your wireless encryption key, which means they already have access to your internet, your private network, and your wireless communications. "Doomed" would seem to be a bit of an overstatement here. – 74  04:15, 25 March 2009 (UTC)

Why does Facebook demand my email password? Scam?

I signed up for Facebook, and am unhappy to see that the service repeatedly asks for my email password. Access to my email would grant access to any passwords emailed to me by other online services. The excuse that they want to search my email to see who I might wish to befriend seems pretty flaky. Has there been any discussion of this as a possible identity theft or password stealing ploy? I have never seen any reputable online service ask for my password for any other service. Edison (talk) 19:21, 23 March 2009 (UTC)

There is absolutely no reason for Facebook to require your email password. Either you are misunderstanding them or it isn't Facebook that is asking. It is probably a phishing scam. --Tango (talk) 19:23, 23 March 2009 (UTC)

Facebook does have a 'find friends' feature which works as you have described. I've never used it and (as far as I can recall) Facebook has never spontaneously suggested it to me. If Facebook keeps asking you to use this feature, then you should report this as a problem. Algebraist 19:25, 23 March 2009 (UTC)

It does? Well, there you go. I have always resisted signing up to Facebook (I must, by now, but the only student in the world that doesn't have a Facebook account) - I've never liked the idea. Sites that help you communicate with people you rarely see in real life are one thing, but most people use Facebook to communicate with people they see in lectures several times a day. The only useful feature is events invites, and my friends have long since got used to the fact that whenever they send out a Facebook invite they have to let me know separately (and they've long since given up complaining about it, too!). --Tango (talk) 19:34, 23 March 2009 (UTC)

It becomes more useful when you are out of school—it lets you find folks you went to school with but have since parted ways with. --140.247.240.243 (talk) 20:21, 23 March 2009 (UTC)

Quite a few of them do it - Twitter's another. Google even provides an API for accessing contacts data. They're not demanding it, and you can sign up without providing it. Facebook also lets you upload contacts as a CSV file if you want to find your contacts but don't want to supply your email login details. (But yes, in general it's sensible not to use login details from one service on another. A password management program like KeePass may be a better idea than keeping passwords in your email inbox, though) — Matt Eason ^{(Talk • Contribs)} 19:36, 23 March 2009 (UTC)

Google's approach is much better—the API allows you to grant access to your contacts data without giving access to your e-mail or your password. Whether you want a site trawling through your contacts is another question entirely than whether you should have to give them access to your entire e-mail account to do so. --140.247.240.243 (talk) 20:20, 23 March 2009 (UTC)

It's really really really irritating that sites do this. Just say no. For those who don't know about this, here is a nice blog entry on the practice, which lots of sites now utilize. --140.247.240.243 (talk) 20:18, 23 March 2009 (UTC)

It's silly to assume that I would want an online service to issue a "personal invitation" in my behalf to everyone I have ever emailed to join that service. Much better for an individual to issue invitations to those few individuals who might remotely be considered "friends." Edison (talk) 03:14, 24 March 2009 (UTC)

Agreed 100% but remember that their primary demographic are students who aren't using e-mail for, say, professional life. Obviously if one's e-mail is part of a formal professional network you don't want to invite everyone to be your "friend", but if you're in high school... --98.217.14.211 (talk) 13:18, 24 March 2009 (UTC)

The occasionally interesting blog "Coding Horror" did a post on the topic a while back, here.

To me it feels like a dangerous practice. System administrators spend a lot of effort trying to educate users that it's never OK to give your password out, and that no one but yourself has a legitimate need for it. And then this comes along and confuses people. Worse, think of how many passwords must be stored, in cleartext, in the databases of these social networking sites!

It's a stupid solution to a problem, but people will accept it until it causes a disaster or two. APL (talk) 13:37, 24 March 2009 (UTC)

Be careful when anybody asks you for your password, especially by email. It's possible that it is a phishing scam which was brought on by a virus or malware that is running on your computer. Do a virus check (see AVG Antivirus) and a malware check (try Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware, they have a free version) to ensure that your system is clean. ←Spidern→ 13:06, 25 March 2009 (UTC)

DVD audio selection

My TV has a 2.1 speaker system (right speaker, left speaker, and subwoofer). Most DVDs have the choices for 2.0 or 5.1 audio. Which would be best for a 2.1 speaker system ? What happens if I choose 2.0, do I get nothing sent to the subwoofer ? What happens if I choose 5.1, do I get 3 of the speaker channels just dropped ? If so, which 3 ? StuRat (talk) 20:34, 23 March 2009 (UTC)

I believe that 2.1 audio only contains two channels (stereo); the subwoofer merely produces the low-frequency content of these channels, i.e. the tones the two normal speakers cannot produce. Thus, a 2.1 speaker system is designed to work with stereo (2-channel) audio, i.e. 2.0. If you choose 5.1, I guess (but I do not know) that the channels merge to stereo. --Andreas Rejbrand (talk) 20:44, 23 March 2009 (UTC)

Btw, have you read Surround sound? --Andreas Rejbrand (talk) 20:50, 23 March 2009 (UTC)

That just made things more confusing, since there are apparently 4 different types of 5.1 audio, and I have no idea which the DVDs use. StuRat (talk) 21:32, 23 March 2009 (UTC)

Yes, I see now that the article might not be the right one for you. Nevertheless, the answers to your questions, I believe, are

1. The low-frequency content in the two stereo channels will be produced by the subwoofer. Probably your 2.1 speaker system is designed to work with 2-channel (stereo) audio sources, automatically sending the low-frequency content to the subwoofer.

Of course it would be possible to have three distinct channels for left, right and subwoofer, but I think this is very uncommon.

1. If you try to play multichannel (e.g. 5.1) audio on your 2.1 speaker system, the most reasonable thing to happen is that the five audio channels merge to only two channels: your left and right channels. For instance the right stereo waveform will probably be a linear combination (perhaps with coefficients ~1/3, ~1/3, ~1/3) of the center and the two right channels in the 5.1 arrangement, and the corresponding is true about the left stereo waveform. Consequently, no audio information (no channel) is really "lost"; no channels are "dropped" or ignored. This is the reasonable way of playing 5.1 audio on a 2.1 system – how your system is implemented, I do not know, though. --Andreas Rejbrand (talk) 22:35, 23 March 2009 (UTC)

Thanks, it sounds like the 2.0 is the best choice, then. StuRat (talk) 23:33, 23 March 2009 (UTC)

I'm not sure all the advice here is 100% accurate. I always thought 5.1 meant six discrete channels, and each channel is encoded separately on a DVD using 5.1 AC3 encoding. Look at the article Dolby Digital - this says that if you choose 5.1 on your DVD player, it should use downmixing (or downsampling) to transfer the relevant channels to your 2.1 system. Therefore, 2.0 is not the best choice for a DVD as you will miss out the LFE (subwoofer) sound from the ".1" channel. Sure, if you played an audio cd and chose surround sound, you would get upmixing or upsampling to get the full range of sound on all your speakers. So, I think 5.1 is the best choice as most DVD players support downmixing. Sandman30s (talk) 22:01, 24 March 2009 (UTC)

I do not see where I have been mistaken. --Andreas Rejbrand (talk) 23:00, 24 March 2009 (UTC)

...although I did not mention (or even think about) the fact that the possible LFE channel in 5.1 may be used in the downsampling to 2.1, to give a slightly different (and, hopefully, more appropriate) subwoofer signal than what would be the result of automatic extraction from a pure stereo signal. --Andreas Rejbrand (talk) 23:06, 24 March 2009 (UTC)

OK, then I'm back to picking 5.1. I wish they had a test sample (with subwoofer and all other channels played sequentially), so I could easily determine which is best. StuRat (talk) 14:44, 25 March 2009 (UTC)

Assembler syntax

I have a ARM/Linux hello world:

.global _start
_start:
mov r0, #0
@ no '#' next line?
adr r1, msg
mov r2, #msglen
mov r7, #4
swi #0
mov r0, #0
mov r7, #1
swi #0

msg:
.ascii "hello arm\n"
msglen = . - msg

Why is there no '#' in front of msg on the "adr r1, msg" line? I think it has something to do with the label being "derefenced", but I can't find any instruction that wouldn't cause a syntax error both with and without a #, not that I had tried very hard. So, a) is something similar common in other architectures and b) is there some general rule for when a # should be used? I'm using gnu assembler. --194.197.235.58 (talk) 21:10, 23 March 2009 (UTC)

If in doubt - write the same thing in C and compile it with the '-S' flag ("Stop after compilation - do not assemble") - and look for a '.s' file containing assembler source. SteveBaker (talk) 22:53, 23 March 2009 (UTC)

In ARM assembly language, the # denotes an immediate operand, i.e., a fixed value that is actually stored with the encoded instruction. The numbers 0, 1, 4, and even msglen (which the assembler will calculate to be 10) are fixed values that can be stored with the instruction. In contrast, msg refers to a location in memory which is not fixed at the time the program is assembled. Each time the program is run, it might be loaded into a different location in memory, so the address of msg would change. -- Tcncv (talk) 01:12, 24 March 2009 (UTC)

adr is a pseudo-instruction or macro. It can map to a variety of instructions and possibly an out of line literal but always means get the address of the operand into the register. The mov instruction on the other hand has a variety of different possible operands, # would mean the operand is a literal rather than a register. so 'mov 1,2' means load the contents of register 2 into register 1 whereas 'mov 1,#2' means load the literal value 2 into register 1. Dmcq (talk) 08:38, 25 March 2009 (UTC)

Translation

If I have a list of words in English, is there a way I can translate them in one go. I have them on excel and in html format. The language I wish to use is Polish but even as a general enquiry about other languages. 90.202.109.206 (talk) 21:24, 23 March 2009 (UTC)

Have you noticed Google Translate? It might not translate all of them with one go if there are many. --194.197.235.58 (talk) 21:43, 23 March 2009 (UTC)

Just a general note: you probably shouldn't rely on machine translation for anything important. Its reliability is kind of iffy at best, and can have misleading or embarrassing results. -- Captain Disdain (talk) 22:50, 23 March 2009 (UTC)

But the advantage a human translator has is in being able to use the context to provide a custom translation. When you are just given a list of words, there is no context, so a human translation may be just as bad as a machine translation, in this case. StuRat (talk) 23:30, 23 March 2009 (UTC)

Well, I've done a lot of translation work (some of which has included cleaning up confusing messes made by machine translation), and the problem here is that there tends to be a lot more ambiguity between words than people think. You're right in that context is everything, but unless the list is a list of truly random words, there's probably more context there than you might think. If you've got a list of video game-related words, to pick a random example, and one of the words is "controller", that's context right there, but what the automatic translation spits out probably won't be the correct Polish translation for that, but another translation for the word. Also, when you have a list of words, in my experience a lot of the time that won't be a list of single words. It may include things like, oh, "action game" or "power-up" or things in that vein, which is likely to confuse the translator program even further, and it'll spit out one word for "action" and another for "game", but the end result may not be even remotely comprehensible. A practical example: "game", in English, refers to both a game (as in video game) and something kids do outside, but in Finnish the word is not interchangeable -- the former is "peli" and the latter is "leikki". For all I know, Polish has a similar situation. I'm not saying that you can't produce something reasonably understandable with machine translation, but you shouldn't rely on it to be accurate, and to a native speaker, it's probably going to be painfully obvious that you don't know what you're doing. If that's not a concern for some reason, then what the hell, it's a quick and easy fix, but no one should rely on it in a professional or academic context unless you're prepared to take the credibility hit. I guess the underlying moral here is that if you don't know the language and still translate it without any input from someone who does, the end result is likely to be bad. -- Captain Disdain (talk) 09:08, 24 March 2009 (UTC)

I'm Polish and a translator. I could have a look at your list if you want. Is the word list long? --Ouro (blah blah) 08:20, 25 March 2009 (UTC)

Thanks for th offer but the list is very long. I was hoping to translate it all in one go. As for context, my girlfriend is Polish and is currently studying for exams but she will be able to check my translations anyway, manual or computerised. I thought a quick method would be better. I guess its not possible but I'm getting through it. Thanks 90.197.204.133 (talk) 10:31, 25 March 2009 (UTC)

Directory after remaming a user

File:Directory after remaming user.png

I renamed my account (Kevin Duke -> Kevin) but none of the directories are changing. How can I fix this? (screen shot to right) -- penubag  (talk) 22:34, 23 March 2009 (UTC)

I'm afraid there's not really a perfect solution here as the directory/registry entries are only created at the point the user account is first logged on and it's never updated. Basically it involves renaming the account back, creating a new profile of Kevin, logging it on once (to create the correct directory) and then copying the Kevin Duke profile on top (using the Control Panel|System|User Profiles function to do this, not just copying the files in Explorer). Technically you could do a lot of registry editing (both both current user and local computer so the location changes and the directories still work) and just rename the directory on the disk but I've personally never tried that and it might make things really bad. Either way it's very messy and I'd totally advise against it as not all settings will migrate correctly and could cause you serious login problems if it goes wrong. To make it even more complicated you'll need a 3rd account to do the copying as you can't copy to/from a profile if you're logged into either account and likewise you'll need to reboot first to completely "unlock" an account to allow you to copy it. I know you renamed your account because of your earlier problem on here, but I would recommend simply renaming the user account back and creating the Kevin account (with the same password as on your other machine) and simply not using it as a login account (this was actually what I posted in the thread). You only needed to create the account so it would exist/authenticate again, you don't actually need to log in with in on the machine itself although with hindsight if you have the XP friendly logon screen showing you probably don't want the other account showing, but there is a way round that/hide accounts if needed. Sorry for any confusion caused. ZX81 ^talk 16:51, 24 March 2009 (UTC)

I believe MS's TweakUI can do this in XP (Change system / My Document folders), but have not tried in vista yet, but its worth a shot. PrinzPH (talk) 17:39, 24 March 2009 (UTC)

March 24

Network Adaptor

I am trying to add a computer to a wireless network that has been set up, when when it looks for a list of wireless networks, it says that 'No network card' has been detected. Yet when i look in device manager under network devices it says there is a realtek network adaptor that is working properly. I have tried to uninstall the network device and restart the computer, but that hasnt made any difference. I really cant figure why it cant detect it, but i reckon it is something extremely obvious that i have completely overlooked! It is on windows Vista.

Thanks in advance. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 86.168.87.199 (talk) 01:15, 24 March 2009 (UTC)

Are you sure the realtek network adaptor is not a wired LAN device? --Wirbelwindヴィルヴェルヴィント (talk) 05:50, 24 March 2009 (UTC)

Check Start/Setting/Network Connections. Is the device listed under "Device Name" & what does it say? What is its Status column (if disabled, click Name column, right click, select Enable). Also in the device manager, can you find a dialog that says "Device status: This device is working properly" and "Device usage: Use this device (enable)". 88.112.62.225 (talk) 06:21, 24 March 2009 (UTC)

It is a Realtek RTL8169/8118 Family PCI GBE NIC, which i am sure is a wireless network adaptor. Under the Network Devices it says it is enabled, but the 'Network Cable is unplugged', and when i try to diagnose it says please plug in a network cable. 86.129.215.180 (talk) 17:13, 24 March 2009 (UTC)

Umm... everywhere on the Internet says that that is not a wireless network card. So I don't know where you are getting this idea from. --76.167.241.45 (talk) 19:25, 24 March 2009 (UTC)

Oh, it isn't —Preceding unsigned comment added by 86.129.215.180 (talk) 21:43, 24 March 2009 (UTC)

Is it a laptop? I spent a good hour trying to get my sister's laptop to connect to a wireless network only to finally find there was a teeeny-tiny switch on the front of the laptop (where no other buttons/ports are) which turned the wireless-card on/off. I would have happily thrown the thing out of the window at that point - what kind of insane company puts an on/off switch on the outside of a computer for wireless?! Grrr makes me mad just thinking about it! (p.s. I know it's pretty common but up until then all laptops i'd used were Macs which have the on/off capability in an icon on the menu-bar...in the OS). 194.221.133.226 (talk) 10:42, 24 March 2009 (UTC)

It is a desktop computer 86.129.215.180 (talk) 17:13, 24 March 2009 (UTC)

Freeware software alerts

How can i get freeware software alerts —Preceding unsigned comment added by RevathiCh (talk • contribs) 11:02, 24 March 2009 (UTC)

I don't understand your question (what is a "freeware software alert"?), but I added a heading for it so it'll stand out properly. I bet you're going to get better answers if you explain what you mean. -- Captain Disdain (talk) 13:05, 24 March 2009 (UTC)

It sounds to me like they want to be notified whenever any new free software becomes available. I suspect that they'd need to limit the search to a few specific areas, or else they'd get notices of hundreds of free games each day. StuRat (talk) 14:55, 24 March 2009 (UTC)

Yes, something like that you're better just signing up with download.com or majorgeeks.com or whoever your favorite d/l site is: Sign up for the email newsletter on a couple, that should keep you busy with the new stuff fairly well. — Ched ~ ^(yes?)/_© 16:51, 24 March 2009 (UTC)

Hourly check for updates on Ubuntu

Does anyone know if it is possible to change some configuration file, to allow Ubuntu to check for updates every hour? I know you might think it is a bit overkill, but I really like a secure system... SF007 (talk) 16:02, 24 March 2009 (UTC)

This wee script would update your system

 #!/bin/sh
 apt-get update
 apt-get update

and you could then schedule it using cron or some front-end to it (e.g. gnome-schedule). Hope this helps, 80.192.24.24 (talk) 22:30, 24 March 2009 (UTC)

I'm not 100% sure, but it seems that /etc/cron.{daily,weekly,whatever}/apt does the actual update fetching and the graphical update notifier is only reading the results. So you should be checking for updates hourly if you arrange the /etc/cron.foo/apt to run hourly. (apt-get update should be enough but probably the cron script deals better with some special cases) --194.197.235.58 (talk) 22:28, 24 March 2009 (UTC)

Personally I'd just save the script 80.192 mentioned (i.e. /usr/bin/updsys.sh), type chmod +x /usr/bin/updsys.sh, and then type crontab -e to access the cron settings. Add this line to the bottom:

0 * * * * /usr/bin/updsys.sh

←Spidern→ 13:02, 25 March 2009 (UTC)

Oprea tabs

When I open a local html or mht film in Opera web browser, it opens the file in a new tab. How can I set Opera to always open new files in the current tab, or even better turn tab browsing off temporally? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 82.43.88.87 (talk) 18:26, 24 March 2009 (UTC)

You can disable tabs by checking "Tools → Preferences… → Tabs → Additional tab options… → Open windows instead of tabs", but I don't know if that will do what you want. Opera doesn't appear to have any options for handling externally-opened files, doesn't support advanced Dynamic Data Exchange options, and doesn't appear to have any command-line options that would help here (except possibly kiosk mode, which most likely isn't what you want). I'd say Opera probably isn't the right tool for this particular job. – 74  02:37, 25 March 2009 (UTC)

MS Word tables

I have a dozen or so MS Word documents, which heavily rely on tables. Unfortunately, the creator of those documents did not know about the tables feature being available in Word, so he created bunches upon bunches upon bunches of pseudo-tables, utilizing fixed fonts and extended ASCII characters 179-218 (such as ├─). Does anybody know of an easy way to convert these into proper tables?—Ëzhiki (Igels Hérissonovich Ïzhakoff-Amursky) • (yo?); 20:03, March 24, 2009 (UTC)

Copy/paste into Excel may work, with a bit of stripping out of duff characters. If you're lucky they've used a consistent character for every 'column separator' - if that's the case maybe a find/replace with a comma would help - then you can copy/paste all the rows into excel and do a data-conversion from CSV (comma separated values). Those are your best bets i'd say - it depends on how complex the tables are though. ny156uk (talk) 20:21, 24 March 2009 (UTC)

Oh wow, what a pain! I was hoping for maybe a macro or whatnot—surely this problem was pretty common in the 1990s, with all those documents converted into Word from various other text formats which did not support any tables other than ASCII?

The solution above works when one just needs to produce a Word table (I've just tried it), but my needs, unfortunately, go beyond that. See, I have this exact same set of documents from years later, and those use proper Word tables. What I need to do is to document the differences between the old documents and the newer ones, and the "compare document" feature in Word would not properly compare ASCII-based tables and normal tables (I need to see the changes line-by-line, and I very much want to avoid doing it manually!). Converting an ASCII table via Excel is too time-consuming for that (there are just too many little extra tweaks that need to be done in the process). If anyone knows a better solution, please, please, please, let me know; it will be greatly appreciated!—Ëzhiki (Igels Hérissonovich Ïzhakoff-Amursky) • (yo?); 20:49, March 24, 2009 (UTC)

I feel your pain. It depends on the level of messiness. I would first use search/replace to strip all ASCII funnies, then output the entire mess into an editor like UltraEdit which has column editing and a macro feature that actually works (it also has a nice compare utility). If then I achieve anything readable, I would write a little Delphi app to output that into a comma-delimited file that can be imported into Excel and then pasted into Word tables. Sandman30s (talk) 21:50, 24 March 2009 (UTC)

Hire an intern? – 74  02:39, 25 March 2009 (UTC)

Actually there are a lot of ways to handle this situation, depending on the level of inanity the person used when making the tables. The first question is, how consistent is everything? Is there a consistent delimiting character for all the columns, and then a different delimiting character (perhaps even a carriage return) for the different rows? If that's the case then text to table feature in excel should handle them pretty easily. If not, then maybe something more complex like sed in *nix would work well. Even without getting into linux, complicated "replace all" approaches in word can handle a lot of scenarios. Provide more information and maybe I'd have some sed ideas about how to handle it. Shadowjams (talk) 04:13, 25 March 2009 (UTC)

So long as the tables are pretty normal with just one line of text in each cell and without too many merged cells, I think this could all be done in Word with a series of find & replace operations like this:

• Replace all line junctions with "+"
• Replace all horizontal line segments with "-"
• Replace all vertical line segments with "\t" (the search & replace special character for <tab>)

Then use Word's "convert text to table" function with <tab> as the column separator. You can then delete any rows with only "+" and "-" in them and eliminate any empty columns. It might be helpful to print out the document first to use as a guide to see when you have it about right.

Astronaut (talk) 11:39, 25 March 2009 (UTC)

March 25

Game Maker Help

Moved from Miscellaneous

Using Game Maker, How do i make the screen follow a powered up, or down, version of my player? I am trying to make a Mario-like game, so when the player gets hit by one of the enemies he shrinks, and i found out how, but the screen stands still when i move the shrunk player around. Also, how do you make power ups, like the fire shooter in mario, and what should i do Path-wise for the fireball? Thank you.DruhDrizzle (talk) 19:31, 24 March 2009 (UTC)

DVD drive woes

Well..to make a long story short..all my hard drives stopped functioning i was about to pay for them to get recovered when someone on the reference desk suggested it was the PSU. Installed a new PSU now alll but one of the drives are fine (dead due to other reasons).

The dead drive had windows, so i had to reinstall onto another drive. I consider myself pretty decent with computers and every time ive reformatted same process..install windows..pop in motherboard driver cd..install drivers.

I can see the DVD drive in hardware devices and my computer but as soon as i pop in a CD it doesnt change..like the icon..and when i do click it every single time explorer crashes. I've been running a linux live CD off the drive for a week off and on..so i know its not the actual drive hardware. (usually the drivers make everything work..but the drivers are on the cd..which i cant read..)

I tried installing firmware..to no avail.

Any ideas?

Drive is 111D Pioneer and motherboard is 965p DS3 Gigabyte (Rev 1.0) —Preceding unsigned comment added by 121.220.48.94 (talk) 11:39, 25 March 2009 (UTC)

Try checking the event log for insight into why the computer is crashing. To get to the event log, right click on "My Computer" and click "manage". Then click the little "+" sign next to "Event Viewer" and check the Application/System logs. I've seen explorer crash with a faulty autorun, or even certain video files. If we access your drivers without triggering the autorun we just might be able to get it to work. One thing you could try is to access the drive from command line (start, run, cmd, then type the driveletter and a colon). ←Spidern→ 12:57, 25 March 2009 (UTC)

The driver detected a controller error on \Device\CdRom0.

For more information, see Help and Support Center at http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/events.as

Not very helpful log eh. Ive tried it in someone elses laptop and the cd works fine.

Ive tried dvds and other discs in my drive to the same result. (crashing) —Preceding unsigned comment added by 121.220.48.94 (talk) 13:13, 25 March 2009 (UTC)

Citing works from the Commons in a research paper

I have several questions.

1) If a picture or something is licensed under multiple identical licenses (such as the CC-BY-SA 2.0, 1.5, and 1.0), do i need to cite all the licenses or just the most recent one?

2) If a picture or something is released under the GFDL, would i be required to release my paper under the GFDL and include a verbatim copy of the license with the paper itself?

3) Would not citing the licenses constitute plagarism?

Any help would be appreciated...my teacher frowns on plagarism (and by frowns i mean suspension or worse). Thanks.  Buffered Input Output 13:31, 25 March 2009 (UTC)

1) If a picture is multi-licensed, you may comply with whichever license you wish, ignoring the others.

2) You would certainly have to include a verbatim copy of the license to comply with the GFDL. I think that you should be able to leave the image GFDL-licensed and the rest of the paper not, but I'm not sure. The GFDL is even less well-suited to licensing images than it is to licensing Wikipedia articles, and it's hard to interpret.

3) To my mind, plagiarism (note spelling) is the passing off of another's work as your own, so as long as you're attributing, you aren't plagiarizing. You teacher may disagree, and even if you aren't plagiarizing, you may be in violation of copyright (I am not a lawyer and I know nothing about the copyright status of class research papers).

Algebraist 13:43, 25 March 2009 (UTC)

Viewing the MFT

I noticed that Defraggler[11] can very quickly go through the MFT and list every single fragmented file. I'm interested in viewing every single file regardless of fragmentation. Are there any programs or commands I could use to do this? Thanks, --VectorField (talk) 15:51, 25 March 2009 (UTC)