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April 10

Compressing my old music

I was thinking just now about how valuable my music collection is to me. I've been keeping it exclusively on an external hard disk. and it is taking up about 60 GBs. I've worked very hard to put this collection together and I'd be a tad destroyed if I were to lose it (even just the Table of Contents from the drive). I have another 250 gb drive that I use for media.

I'd like to do a backup of this music on my media drive. What is the best compression format for a collection of (mostly) mp3s 60 GB in size? NByz (talk) 02:30, 10 April 2009 (UTC)

Mp3s are already compressed; further (lossless) compression is unlikely to yield a significant reduction in size. Your best bet is probably just to copy the entire collection to the second disk. – 74  02:39, 10 April 2009 (UTC)

Broken XP

A friends computer encountered a stop error(0x00000021a). Anyways, the only way to get access to his hdd was to hook it up to one of my computers as a slave. I removed any spyware that I could find off of it and replaced winlogon, csrss, msgina. At any rate, none of these things helped. My best guess is that there is something nasty loading up at boot or something wrong with the registry, thus, this is my question: is there any way to access the registry or modify the startup programs for the copy of windows on the drive when it is set up as a secondary drive? (Obviously, attempting to do this the usual way only allows me to change the settings for my primary drive.) Thank you for any help:) Phoenix1177 (talk) 04:15, 10 April 2009 (UTC)

Have you tried safe mode? Or an on-top reinstallation of XP? F (talk) 09:59, 10 April 2009 (UTC)

It won't go into safe mode, that's why I had to hook it up to a second computer. I, unfortunately, don't have any of the windows disks to do a reinstallation. If I could just edit the registry of it from the second computer, I could fix it; I'm almost positive what the problem is. Unfortunately, I don't know how to get at the registry since its not the registry being used by Windows on the computer the drive is a slave to. Is it possible to edit by directly manipulating the files the registry is stored in? 66.202.66.78 (talk) 10:19, 10 April 2009 (UTC)

In regedit, highlight HKEY_USERS or HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE and go to File -> Load Hive. Then browse to the second hard drive and load up some hives (on XP: Windows\system32\config). Regedit will ask what to mount the hive as, make sure to use a name that won't conflict (like deadsystem_software and deadsystem_system if you load the software and system hives). Washii (talk) 22:45, 14 April 2009 (UTC)

I would try putting the hard disk back in the original computer, and booting it with BartPE or some other "rescue" boot disk, and see if that allowed you to eventually fix the problem. See also List of live CDs. The free virus program Avast! allows boot-time virus scanning, but I do not know if it would work with a "rescue" disk. When I tried different memory in my computer, and indavertantly swapped the order of the memory in the slots, that produced similar problems. Another problem where I could only boot into safe-mode was caused by a defective video driver or videocard - disabling it solved the problem. 78.147.135.185 (talk) 22:52, 11 April 2009 (UTC)

May i suggest teh of teh live cd BackTrack? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 64.30.106.235 (talk) 06:32, 12 April 2009 (UTC)

Disc space

Can I increase the space of an already created disc drive?I did an idiotic thing by creating a small 4.87GB drive for storing the system files and the program files.Now it is almost full leaving a paltry 32MB.I am not able to install MS office since it requires 100 MB space on the drive in which the system files are stored.I think it is compulsory that it should load its files only on the system files drive.Is there any other way out? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 59.165.84.9 (talk) 04:16, 10 April 2009 (UTC)

Your question appears to make sense, but actually doesn't. I seriously doubt you created a disk drive. Did you create a partition on a drive? If so, you can resize partitions (there are many programs that do it - just Google for "resize partition"). If you want to change the size of an actual drive, you are out of luck. That will require taking it apart and replacing all the insides - which is far more expensive and difficult than just purchasing a larger disk. Do you want to install a second drive? That will help. However, Windows will not automatically use it. You need to manually move files to the second disk. However, only move things such as music and movies. If you move executable programs, you will cause problems. The registry knows where the programs currently reside and will not realize they just moved to another drive. If you can make your question clearer, please do. Then, someone can provide a better answer. -- kainaw™ 04:23, 10 April 2009 (UTC)

Apologies to Kainaw, above, but while your question appears not to make sense, actually it does. Or anyway it does if your "32GB" is, as I suppose, a mere typo for "32MB", and if, like many people, you are a bit hazy about the distinctions between partitions and logical drives. Still, it's likely that you created too large an additional partition (whether primary or extended). Yes, you can get software that will adjust the boundaries separating partition from partition, decreasing the size of what's unnecessarily large and adding this to what's too small. It's a very long time since I've done this but if my memory is working right this might involve some time and disk thrashing. Typically there's an awful lot of junk in C: and also a lot of material in C: that you do need but that could go elsewhere. (For example, where are your browsers? Where's your mail program, and where are your mailboxes? On my sole surviving Windows machine, whose C: drive is roughly the same size as yours, they're all in E:, not C:. And, before I deleted it [because I never used it and wanted the space], MS Office too was running off a combination of C: [a bit] and E: [a lot].) Incidentally, OpenOffice requires little or no space on C:. -- Hoary (talk) 05:16, 10 April 2009 (UTC)

Partition editor —Preceding unsigned comment added by 82.43.88.87 (talk) 06:48, 10 April 2009 (UTC)

Yes, and for junk removal see nLite and vLite and XPLite. -- Hoary (talk) 09:11, 10 April 2009 (UTC)

Before you go messing with the partitions, it would be a good idea to back up the entire system including the 4.87GB drive. Pay particular attention to your documents, photos, music, emails, and internet bookmarks - ie. the stuff that is real hard (or impossible) to get back if it gets deleted. Astronaut (talk) 15:01, 10 April 2009 (UTC)

WLM & dll problems

i can't sign into my WLM (windows live messenger) accounts no matter what client I'm using (WLM 2008 8.5.1302.1018 and Pidgin 2.5.5). I get error code 80048820. I tried the steps on this site but when i try to register wintrust.dll i get the error 0x80070005 and am told by my computer to do an internet search to fix it. well um, screw that; an internet search only comes up with forum posts of people who have the same problem but don't know how to fix it. cursory googling tells me this might have something to do with 1. cookies, 2. windows defender, 3. permissions or possibly all of the above. can anyone help me? i am an MSN addict I need my freaking MSN. 99.245.16.164 (talk) 04:28, 10 April 2009 (UTC)

Using sed to remove characters

I would like to have sed remove a specific character. The twist is, I need to be able to remove it only when it appears in a certain context. For example, I want to remove dashes from numbers in a document: [Document 000-00000-000-000000-00], but only when they appear in a certain context (with brackets and the word document before it, for instance). I know how to do this if I know the number of dashes, and I know how to do it if I wanted to remove all of the dashes in the document (tr -d '-'), but I don't know how to make it work if I want to remove all dashes that fall inside of some standard formatting, without actually knowing where and how often the dashes will occur. Any ideas? Other basic unix utilities that will do the same job are fine, but I don't want to get any more complex. Thanks. Shadowjams (talk) 05:37, 10 April 2009 (UTC)

One way would be to write some code to remove the first dash found inside those brackets, then put that code in a loop and run it as many times as the maximum number of dashes which might occur on such a line. This isn't the most efficient approach, but, if performance isn't a problem, it might be the simplest. StuRat (talk) 14:31, 10 April 2009 (UTC)

This'll do it:

perl -pe 's/-//g if /^\[Document.*\]$/'  file.txt

--Sean 15:23, 10 April 2009 (UTC)

Thanks. Perl works perfect. I knew I could put the whole thing inside of a loop, but I wasn't sure how to do that loop in bash and have it exit after it had finished, but only after it had finished removing all of the dashes. Come to think of it, perhaps I could use grep to do that search, but it looks like that perl will be more efficient. Shadowjams (talk) 23:33, 10 April 2009 (UTC)

Here's one in Sed:

sed '/^\[Document [0-9-]*\]$/s/-//g' file.txt

or if you want it to work with [Document] entries embedded in text, not just on a line on their own, you can use a loop though you have to split the sed script across multiple lines:

sed '{:a
s/\[Document \([0-9]*\)-\([0-9-]*\)\]/[Document \1\2]/
ta
}' file.txt

Awm (talk) 22:14, 11 April 2009 (UTC)

Computer Languages

I want to build a base strong in computer languages. I want to learn Python;Lisp;Perl;Javascript;Java. Can someone suggest me books available in India for deep knowledge of these above mentioned languages? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Ingineered (talk • contribs) 06:57, 10 April 2009 (UTC)

I am not a programmer. Nevertheless.... There's learning, and there's deep knowledge: they're different. In your position, I'd start by learning the basics of one language, and for that purpose I'd ask about a good introductory text (which might be one that allows for deep knowledge). With my elementary but functional understanding of one language, I might want to explore the language further or I might want to move on to another language. If you don't know which language to start with, I'd choose the one that's most likely to let you achieve something that you want to achieve in the short term: that will be a powerful incentive for practicing. Of course, there may be texts that are good introductions and also examine theory and go into advanced areas, but they're likely to be big, so they're likely to be expensive, and if after you have consumed 20% of a large, wonderful and expensive book you decide that the language is not the right one for you, you may wish you hadn't spent all the money. -- Hoary (talk) 09:25, 10 April 2009 (UTC)

My advice is to start actually writing code in a single language. It makes learning far more rapid and deep. Write larger and more ambitious programs. The point of a university education in computer science with an emphasis in programming isn't to teach graduates all the details about every computer language, but to teach them how to program. Once they know how to program in one language, it only takes 2 or 3 weeks for the graduate to learn 90% of what he needs to know about any new language. Anyway, learn to code by writing code. This link is Microsoft's free Visual Studio Express versions; one is for BASIC, one is for C#, and one is for C++. Tempshill (talk) 16:45, 10 April 2009 (UTC)

www.infibeam.com/Books/ is an India-specific online bookstore. If you search on the various programming languages you are interested in, these appear to be the exact same books I see in the UK and US - so I don't think there are special recommendations required here. Personally, I like the O'Reilly books - (they all have white covers with line drawings of animals on them) - those are great for delivering the information with the minimum of extraneous junk - and they remain good reference material, long after you've basically grasped the language.

If you are already a programmer (ie if you already understand one language pretty well) - then this is certainly the way to go about picking up these other languages. However, if you are not already pretty competent with at least one language - then I strongly agree with Tempshill that you should concentrate on just one language because first you have to learn how to program...and in a sense, that's independent of the language you choose. So pick one (I'd suggest Java) - study it and write as many programs as you can...the only way to get good at programming is to do a LOT of it!

After you've been writing programs with one language every single day for at least a year - you can call yourself a "programmer" and start looking at learning a second programming language. The second language you learn will be tough because while some things will translate pretty cleanly from one language to another - some things have to be "unlearned" because they are different or do not apply at all for your second language. At this point, you don't know what things are true of pretty much all languages - and which were unique to the first one you just happened to learn. However, after a couple of months - you'll have that second language down pretty good and you can start looking at more and more additional languages.

Eventually, you'll be able to learn a new language in just a couple of days and become fluent in it after just a few weeks of practice - but that's mostly because you'll be saying to yourself: "Oh! That feature is just like JAVA and this other feature is just like Python..." etc - so the more languages you know, the easier it is to learn another. I have literally lost track of the number of languages I know. It has to be more than 30...but then I've probably forgotten a good number too. There comes a point, where you really don't bother to learn new languages unless you absolutely need them. Sure, I know enough 'Python' to get by - but since I can do nearly everything I want in C++, PHP and JavaScript - I very rarely need to serious amounts of work in Python, Java, Perl, etc. Hence, my need to retain details about those languages is much less since I pretty much only need those skills for debugging and extending existing programs written by someone else. This weekend I learned MEL (so I can write scripts in Maya) - I didn't even bother with getting a book - the online documentation was enough. I doubt I'll ever write more than a few thousand lines of MEL...but it didn't take much to pick it up and there are a few tasks I have to undertake for which it's the only language available...so I have to learn it. SteveBaker (talk) 07:21, 12 April 2009 (UTC)

Hoary has it just right if you're serious about programming. And SB also has it right, use mastery of a single language to leverage yourself toward deep knowledge.

I disagree with the recommendations, however. And the reason I do so is because of a superb introductory text. K N King's Modula-2 is superb, nearly encyclopedic (fitting, eh?) and about a language it's possible to learn completely. No one knows everything about C++ (and certainly no one uses all features with facility). Same with Java, and the Microsoft attempt at an equivalent, the .NET projects. Nevertheless, Modula-2 includes a sort of elementary object oriented arrangement (but much easier for a beginner to follow than the full blown business in some languages), and modern program structure provisions as well. Unlike some programming languages, Modula-2 encourages clear thinking about programming, and makes opaque programming style difficult -- you must go out of your way, while in some languages, poor programming style is not only allowed, but is tempting and common. There are free compilers available, perhaps especially for the xxxBSDs or one of the Linux distributions. All have advantage of no cost, and the further advantage of reduced opacity, as in Microsoft's various editions of windows. An important consideration for someone in a learning mode.

So get King's book, start at the beginning and go to the end, answering every exercise, and making a serious attempt to answer even the advanced exercises. It will probably take something like 6 or 8m months, if you stick to it with discipline. King will provide much support whilst learning.

Next, or simultaneously while finishing the last 1/4 or 1/3 of King, read the original edition of Software Tools by Kernighan and Plauger (NOT the Pascal edition), and do all the exercises in it as well, but in Modula 2. This will force you to confront differences between languages in a systematic way, a useful thing for a new programmer to learn. Software Tools is superbly written and is a great learning tool as well. You'll be spoiled for the usual not-so-high quality of most computing books, unfortunately.

King is at Georgia Tech in the US, and both Kernighan and Plauger were at Bell Labs (the original, legendary one) when they wrote their book. In fact, Kernighan is generally credited with the name Unix, and has helped write several other excellent books on programming.

There are likely to be used copies available at one or more of the big Internet booksellers, so cost can be somewhat reduced as well.

You may want to look up E W Dijstra's savage, and hilarious, comments about various programming languages. It was one of EWD series (perhaps nr 485?; Google for BASIC and brain damage and EWD -- it'll turn up), and all are available on the Net. His opinions are blunt in this little note, and not very politically correct. But, though funny, they're more accurate than most will publicly acknowledge. A remarkable man and an important computing pioneer (he invented semaphores, possibly modern style operating systems, and ...). ww (talk) 10:54, 19 April 2009 (UTC)

Files not played (Q moved from entertainment desk)

Hello. When i open a .avi movie with any of my players, i am just getting a black screen. The audio is coming fine, but no video. Please help me. Files that have played well previously are also now facing the same problem. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Rkr1991 (talk • contribs) 07:43, 10 April 2009 (UTC)

Have you tried VLC Player? That seems to play .avis pretty well. --Richardrj ^{talk email} 08:05, 10 April 2009 (UTC)

I have tried all players in the world! Including VLC player. The files played very well previously are also facing this problem. What do i do? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Rkr1991 (talk • contribs) 08:11, 10 April 2009 (UTC)

Well, it sounds to me like you have a codec missing. I don't know much about this, but until someone more knowledgeable comes along you might want to have a look at Video codec. --Richardrj ^{talk email} 08:30, 10 April 2009 (UTC)

I don't think it's likely be a codec problem, especially if they were playing before and now aren't. VLC plays pretty much anything, so if that's not working either then I'd look somewhere else for the problem, perhaps some sort of graphics card error? I don't know. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 82.43.88.87 (talk) 13:31, 10 April 2009 (UTC)

I'd recommend downloading GSpot and opening the AVI file in that. It'll show you what codec the video is using (even if you don't have it installed) and with that we'll be able to work out where to go next. ZX81 ^talk 15:12, 10 April 2009 (UTC)

Facebook ?

If I am logged into Facebook, search for somebody by name, and click on the profiles that come up to get more details, will those people know that I have been checking out their profiles, even for example under the "other people you might know" section ? Don't worry, not up to anything nefarious, just want to avoid embarassment ! Thanks ! --41.15.58.173 (talk) 09:45, 10 April 2009 (UTC)

No. F (talk) 09:57, 10 April 2009 (UTC)

Short answer; No. Long answer; Maybe. To elaborate on the long answer; It is possible for that person to find out who has looked at his profile, But he/she must have access to FaceBook's logs or your personal computer's logs. several ways this person could obtain this, either by directly hacking FaceBook's computers or by hacking your computer. Another way would be if your computer is infected with malware, where this malware uploaded your browsing history to some website, and that website desiced to try and blackmail you with that information... highly unlikley but it is not infeasible. If you are really parenoid then i'd suggest you try and go though a proxy server... or go to a puplic libarey ... or take a laptop up to an open (or, using aircrack, closed) network and look from there... —Preceding unsigned comment added by 64.30.106.235 (talk) 06:26, 12 April 2009 (UTC)

What they mean to say, is no, unless they have the technological knowhow to hack into facebook and find out. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Yakeyglee (talk • contribs) 00:41, 13 April 2009 (UTC)

Is it possible to have a dynamic ip for one wireless network and a static ip for an other without having to change the settings each time you connect.

Well it's basically all in the subject line. I want a static IP in one wireless network and dynamic ip in the other ones, how do I do it guys? Bastard Soap (talk) 13:32, 10 April 2009 (UTC)

You could write shell scripts that configure the network interface. The details depend on your operating system; here are samples for Windows[1]. Write two .bat files, one for static and one for DHCP, and place shortcuts to them on your desktop for quick access. For more instructions and other operating systems google is your friend: [2]. 88.112.62.225 (talk) 08:52, 11 April 2009 (UTC)

Do you use Windows? Look up Alternate Configuration in Help. You change the settings in TCP/IP on your network adapter. Imagine Reason (talk) 16:14, 16 April 2009 (UTC)

Reusing laptop DVD drive

I recently dismantled a broken laptop for spares. One thing I thought would be useful was the CD/DVD drive, which I imagined I could reuse in an external enclosure. Unfortunately, the connector on the back of the drive doesn't seem to be compatible with the external enclosures I've seen in my local computer accessories or on eBay. The connector looks like this, but all I can find is enclosures with standard IDE or SATA connectors. Does the connector on the drive have a specific name that I should be searching for?

Ideally, I'm looking for a slim enclosure that doesn't need an external power source - ie. it draws power via the USB connection. I've seen such a thing for sale, but it already has a drive fitted and is quite expensive. Does anyone have any hints on how to find just the enclosure? Thanks. Astronaut (talk) 13:34, 10 April 2009 (UTC)

Sorry, don't know what connector that is and can't quite make out the model number on the label in order to Google that model number and find out what sort of connector it is. One point that comes to mind, though, is that new DVD-ROM drives cost US$30 currently, and DVD±RW drives cost only US$10 more, and any enclosure you buy is likely to cost around US$25 at least ... so this used drive is probably not worth converting into a working drive. Tempshill (talk) 19:41, 10 April 2009 (UTC)

I'm pretty sure the connector is standard across many (or maybe all) laptops. I just don't know what it is called.

I know I can buy a new external DVD drive in an enclosure for around £40, but this is actually for a friend who is on a very limited budget. I thought that since I can buy an empty external enclosure (IDE or SATA) for about £10, I should be able to get a similar thing to take the old laptop DVD drive for a similar price - and that is much closer to the budget my friend has in mind. Astronaut (talk) 00:49, 11 April 2009 (UTC)

Do these look like it: [3][4]. 88.112.62.225 (talk) 08:46, 11 April 2009 (UTC)

Yes, that's exactly what it is like. So it's a 50-pin JAE.

I'll try to find an external drive enclosure for a slim DVD drive, or failing that get a JAE - IDE adapter and try a regular IDE drive enclosure. Astronaut (talk) 11:33, 11 April 2009 (UTC)

If you do get a JAE to IDE, you still don't have USB. IDE to USB converters run about $20 to 30 US, depending on how fancy they are. You'd need a JAE to IDE, then an IDE to USB, and these do NOT draw the power through the USB. Then you need an enclosure of some kind. It is going to come to a lot more than getting a new one. Really the cheapest way to put this drive back into service is to mount it as an internal drive, with only a JAE to IDE converter cable needed, and maybe a splitter for one of the existing Molex power cables. When you mount it, cut the drive bay cover plate to fill the gap left by the DVD being a slim one.KoolerStill (talk) 05:11, 19 April 2009 (UTC)

Linux devices

I'm quite a linux newbie and one thing has been puzzling me about the devices in /dev. If I connect a device it needs to be mounted using a command like mount /dev/??? /mnt/somewhere When I connected an external IDE disk drive via a USB cable, I looked up and down the many devices in /dev and nothing hinted at which device I should mount. It was only when I looked in /etc/fstab that a comment line suggested to me that external USB drives were /dev/sda1, /dev/sda2, etc, and I successfully mounted the drive. But, is there a way I can tell which device in /dev is the one to which my physical device is actually connected to? Astronaut (talk) 15:21, 10 April 2009 (UTC)

There is some variability, but there are guidelines about how things are listed in /dev . IDE hard drives and CD drive will generally be listed as hda, hdb, etc and the number after it is the partition number. SCSI drives are listed like sda, sdb, etc (USB disks will also be listed like this because Linux tends to use SCSI emulation). Other devices have handy shortcuts like /dev/audio, /dev/cdrom, etc. Have a look at Device_file#Naming_conventions for the specifics. Freedomlinux (talk) 15:41, 10 April 2009 (UTC)

SATA drives are also listed as sda, sdb, etc.  Buffered Input Output 12:52, 13 April 2009 (UTC)

The easiest way is to use dBus to detect when external drives are added/removed. The hardware abstraction layer (HAL) sends a signal along the system dBus which all programs can see (this is how Nautilus realises usb sticks/cds have been inserted). --h2g2bob (talk) 17:33, 10 April 2009 (UTC)

dev has loads of devices other than just disk drives. The naming convention in MOST linux setups is to use sd for sata, then a sequential letter for a drive, and a sequential number for the partition. So sde1 is the fifth sata drive, partition one. IDE drives are usually hd with the same drive and partition sequencing. The simplest way to determine what node a device is assigned to is to take a look at "dmesg" which is a copy of the recent kernel messages. Just type dmesg at the shell, and it might help give you some hints as to the device. Shadowjams (talk) 02:38, 11 April 2009 (UTC)

See also udev, which (when you have it) reduces the confusion by dynamically creating the device files that correspond to what currently exists. It's still a bit inobvious how to determine which device is which, but it helps; the /proc and /sys information directories can also be of use, although there's a lot to sort through in them. --Tardis (talk)

When I'm curious about which device file corresponds to something I just plugged in, I run "tail /var/log/syslog" (on some systems syslog.0). Usually some diagnostic messages about the device being detected will be printed there, and they usually mention the device filename. Indeterminate (talk) 10:43, 12 April 2009 (UTC)

Failed emails which I never sent

Logging into Windows Live Messenger today, I find myself with 19 emails. Surprised, I check them to find that they are delivery failure notices. Every invalid address on my contact list is contained within these 19 emails which tell me the message I sent failed to reach them. My first thought was that someone obtained the email addresses (presumably by somehow obtaining my password) and emailed everyone. This would seem to be confirmed by the list of addresses at the bottom of each failure notice; the list is of every address the email was sent to, and between them, the 19 emails contain every contact I have.

However...

I've contacted several people who are on the lists at the bottom of the emails. None of them receieved the email.

Can anyone explain this? Vimescarrot (talk) 18:19, 10 April 2009 (UTC)

I get these phantom failure notices all the time, and have for years. There are a couple of possibilities. (a) Your system has been infected with a computer virus or some other malware that read your address book, and then sent copies of itself to everyone on that address book (or maybe just sent them Viagra ads). (b) A friend of yours has been infected with similar malware, and the malware signed each outgoing e-mail with your e-mail address, as though you personally had sent it. (In case (b) here, your computer itself was never involved; the malware just found your e-mail address in your friend's address book and thought it would be fun to pretend you had sent the e-mails.) I would scan your computer with two anti-malware scanners, for safety, and if nothing is found, then just ignore these phantom failure messages. Tempshill (talk) 19:32, 10 April 2009 (UTC)

(edit conflict) - Spammers will often "spoof" a valid email address in hopes of getting more views once their own accounts have been flagged as a blacklisted account. That basically means - someone else used your email address as the return address for some spam they sent out. You can try to track IP numbers and report them to various ISP's, but in the long run it's going to be a lot of work with little result. I just delete those messages myself. — Ched :  ?  19:35, 10 April 2009 (UTC)

Don't forget that these email messages contained my entire contact list; somehow, they had access to my account; they weren't just using it as a return address. I scanned four days ago and did nothing out of the ordinary since then; is it really worth scanning again? Vimescarrot (talk) 19:43, 10 April 2009 (UTC)

If you just saw the failure messages today then maybe it's scenario (a) above. Yes, scan again; it doesn't hurt. And scan with an alternative program, too; all malware scanners have different approaches and find different things. Tempshill (talk) 21:55, 10 April 2009 (UTC)

Executables files on Linux (ELF)

Resolved

I was just wondering if ALL executable files that run on Linux (Ubuntu, Fedora, Debian, etc...) are ELF files? PS: I am not counting with scripts (nor stuff like wine to run .exe files) Thanks -- SF007 (talk) 20:32, 10 April 2009 (UTC)

No, they could also be a.out or a number of others. If you look at the files called binfmt_XXX.c here, each one implements a different binary format. --Sean 22:27, 10 April 2009 (UTC)

In practice, however, a modern system will only have ELF binaries - the a.out article says that Linux's a.out implementation was unsuited to shared libraries, and was phased out fairly early on in Linux history.

The binfmt-related kernel config options show what's available, and include the message:

"Linux used the a.out formats QMAGIC and ZMAGIC until they were replaced with the ELF format. The conversion to ELF started in 1995. This option is primarily provided for historical interest and for the benefit of those who need to run binaries from that era."

An interesting point is that "binfmt_script" is what implements shebang handling, and binfmt_misc allows binding various kinds of magic to interpreters or virtual machines, so the kernel can execute a Perl script or Java class in much the same way as an ELF or a.out binary, blurring the distinction made in the original question. - IMSoP (talk) 23:04, 10 April 2009 (UTC)

Cool, thanks to all. SF007 (talk) 03:13, 17 April 2009 (UTC)

April 11

Common displayable Unicode mathematical symbols

Sorry if this belongs in the Math section, but it kind of seeps into both. I was wondering what are the most commonly displayable. Sure, most of them can display whatever's on the keyboard, but what else? Some computers back in the day were capable of displaying things like ², «», ±, °, √, ≤, etc. Now, they have much more advanced functionality, capable of displaying obscure symbols like ►,₪,↔,∕,⌡,∂,⅝, etc. But what's the limit to these symbols? Would they be able to display Unicode characters like ⁶ (superscript 6),₍ (subscript left parenthesis), or even ℏ (reduced Planck's constant)? I don't think so. So what would be the most common set of characters that would be compatible to computers back to say, the Windows 98 era? Obviously it would be different from computer to computer, but I'm asking just for the general sets. The use of images aren't acceptable in my case. I greatly appreciate your help! Thanks so much. 141.153.214.155 (talk) 02:31, 11 April 2009 (UTC)

Off the top of my head: Windows 98 didn't support Unicode via UTF-8, let alone any other character encoding system. A US-market copy of Windows 98 supported character set X, whereas a Japanese-market copy supported set Y. Not "X" or "Y" of course, but I forget what the names were -- all of this stuff is available for the searching within a certain online encyclopedia -- but anyway X didn't even include the Cyrillic alphabet, let alone fancy-schmancy maths symbols. What people did was to use odd, nonstandard fonts that substituted particular nonstandard symbols they wanted to use for those that they didn't want. Thus (imaginary example) Bludoni (which included ê and ç, though not ŏ or ą) might have had an additional Bludoni Math, with maths symbols taking the place of ê and ç and so forth. It was all rather nightmarish and I'd say you'd have to be perverse or masochistic to want to relive it. -- Hoary (talk) 04:05, 11 April 2009 (UTC)

I'm pretty sure that Windows 98 didn't only support ASCII, however. I think it used the localized variations of ISO/IEC 8859. See the table in that article; it looks like what you probably want. Column 1 is the most commonly used, the Western European set. Indeterminate (talk) 10:32, 12 April 2009 (UTC)

Win9x didn't support Unicode in file names or in the standard GUI widgets (buttons, edit boxes, etc.) but it did support Unicode text rendering (TextOutW was implemented). Some applications (including the major web browsers and word processors) took advantage of this and provided full Unicode support. But typical applications were limited to the system default code page, which was an extended ISO Latin-N in many countries but certainly not all. I don't think there's a single non-ASCII character that's found in all of the widely used code pages. -- BenRG (talk) 16:21, 12 April 2009 (UTC)

PCs didn't need to support displayable Unicode characters when using TeX, a typesetting program for books and theses. Most of the technical symbols used couldn't be displayed on the screen.
Sleigh (talk) 08:01, 19 April 2009 (UTC)

Music Player Site

Is there some sort of website in which you can somehow enter musical notes and it will play the music? --Nick4404 yada yada yada What have I done? 03:32, 11 April 2009 (UTC)

How about Musipedia? Oda Mari (talk) 04:43, 11 April 2009 (UTC)

Technically, zefrank. Search for its holiday carol music creation tool or click this: [5] -- Guroadrunner (talk) 05:01, 14 April 2009 (UTC)

Right-justified text in text box

Sometimes when I am editing Wikipedia, I accidentally press some key combination that causes the text in the text box to become right-justified. Similar to when you edit in Wikipedias where the writing is right to left (e.g. Hebrew, Arabic). The keys involved are some combination of :

1. CTRL and (ALT or SHIFT)
2. and:
   • some letter(s) in the lower left (on a QWERTY)
   • or (the left arrow xor right arrow)

This is probably more detailed than necessary, since some of you may already know the combination. What key combination causes this, and what key combination do I need to press do undo this? My current solution is to open a new window, and copy and paste my progress into that. — Twas Now ( talk • contribs • e-mail ) 10:12, 11 April 2009 (UTC)

In Firefox, Ctrl+Shift+x. Same to switch it back. — Matt Eason ^{(Talk • Contribs)} 11:07, 11 April 2009 (UTC)

Ha ha, thanks. That makes things easier. — Twas Now ( talk • contribs • e-mail ) 23:07, 11 April 2009 (UTC)

Open source game developing

Are there open source platforms out there for game developing? The main idea is that I would do the "screenplay" and graphics and put it on a kind of virtual machine that would deliver the logic behind the game.--88.6.158.100 (talk) 11:59, 11 April 2009 (UTC)

Blender has a built-in game engine. --93.106.178.219 (talk) 12:16, 11 April 2009 (UTC)

It does - and there are other things like it - but they don't really do what the OP needs - there is always some programming involved somewhere. Your best bet for most game genres is to find an existing game that's similar to what you want and which is 'mod-able'. SteveBaker (talk) 06:51, 12 April 2009 (UTC)

Note however that won't meet the open source requirement. I presume the OP want his/her games to be widely available so doesn't want to limit them to people who own a certain game Nil Einne (talk) 15:43, 12 April 2009 (UTC)

It really depends on what sort of game your talking about and what you want to do besides creating the graphics. For example, there is Adventure Game Studio which unfortunately is not open source (but is freeware) and also only has a Windows version (there used to be a Linux and Mac OS X version of the engine but that was discontinued) which is commonly used for creating amateur adventure games. As SB mentions, there are moddable FPSes, RPGs, RTSes and probably other games although these suffer the limitations I mention above. I believe ID software regularly releases the code for their older FPSes under an open source licenses and I presume versions of these have been made which are modable Nil Einne (talk) 15:43, 12 April 2009 (UTC)

iD games are generally moddable out of the box - but indeed, there are huge opensource communities who take the OpenSourced Quake/Doom engine code and make entirely new games with little or no actual programming. I have good friends who work at iD - they are truly one of the better software companies out there...they entirely "get it". SteveBaker (talk) 18:59, 12 April 2009 (UTC)

whats with possible loss of precision (java)

This isn't exactly what I'm trying to do, but it will illustrate what I'm asking well enough: http://www.cs.princeton.edu/introcs/31datatype/Rot13.java.html

In that program

   char c = s.charAt(i);

complies fine. But if I replace that with

   int d = s.chatAt(i);
   char c = d;

the code refuses to compile, and I get a "possible loss of precision" error. Why? And how can I avoid possible loss of precision errors in general?

Thanks in advance. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 137.165.246.36 (talk) 20:08, 11 April 2009 (UTC)

The "possible loss of precision" is because you are assigning an int (d) to a char, which stores less bits than an int. Thus if d had a value greater than 255 (or 65535 if a char in Java is wide), it would be "trimmed" to fit inside a char, producing the "loss of precision". --wj32 ^t/c 23:27, 11 April 2009 (UTC)

Yes. This is called a narrowing conversion, and Java does not allow these implicitly. You need to explicitly specify the conversion using a "cast" expression, such as

char c = (char)d;

which is allowed. -- Tcncv (talk) 04:07, 12 April 2009 (UTC)

A puzzle about a puzzle game cookie

Recently I had been doing an online puzzle game which has many levels. When I got up to level 33 I, and several other people on the internet, found that the game would not allow entrance to that level, despite there being several levels beyond that. The site owner does not respond to emails. After examining the cookie for level 32 with IECookiesView by Nirsoft dot net it seems that the cookie may not work due to having an invalid date, which can be corrected with IECookiesView.

However I was busy at the time and I have now lost the cookie I had after completing level 32 (the levels have to be done in sequence). I do not want to plod through all 32 levels again. Instead I have inspected the cookies obtained after completing levels one, two, and three, and the relevant differences in the cookies are shown below:

LEVEL ONE
Key  : __utma
Value  : 11671083.1539782161861915000.1239481907.1239481907.1239481907.1
Key  : __utmb
Value  : 11671083.1.10.1239481907

LEVEL TWO
Key  : __utma
Value  : 11671083.1539782161861915000.1239481907.1239481907.1239482097.2
Key  : __utmb
Value  : 11671083.1.10.1239482097

LEVEL THREE
Key  : __utma
Value  : 11671083.1539782161861915000.1239481907.1239482239.1239482420.4
Key  : __utmb
Value  : 11671083.1.10.1239482420

Can anyone deduce what the relevant values may be for level 33 please? Note that the value for utmb for the first and second levels differs by one digit, the fourth from the end. The online game, if you are curious, is Ice Breaker by Nitrome, which was recommended by someone here. Thanks. 78.147.135.185 (talk) 22:37, 11 April 2009 (UTC)

1239481907 appears to me to be the number of seconds since Jan 1, 1970 if measured at Sat, 11 Apr 2009 20:34:57 GMT. -- kainaw™ 00:01, 12 April 2009 (UTC)

You're looking in the wrong place - __utma and __utmb are Urchin (Google Analytics) tracking cookies. The unlocked levels information is stored Flash cookie somewhere in %appdata%\macromedia\flash player\#sharedobjects . Dig down in the directory for cdn.nitrome.com and you'll eventually find a file called so_icebreaker1.sol. Open it in a hex editor like xvi32. Starting at address 38, every other address is the 'unlocked' status of a level (level 1, level 2, level 3...). Just change the value from 00 to 01 to unlock that level (select the cell and type 01). Hit Ctrl+S to save, reload Icebreaker, and the levels should be unlocked. — Matt Eason ^{(Talk • Contribs)} 01:52, 12 April 2009 (UTC)

Thanks!!!! I did as you said and now have access to all levels, including the mysterious level 33! Design note - I hate games that require you to go through a series of levels again if you restart the game or whatever - destroys the fun completely. 78.151.152.56 (talk) 20:47, 12 April 2009 (UTC)

I think a better way to design multi-level games is to allow access to all levels right from the start, but have some bit of info that is divulged at the end of each level which is needed to be successful in higher levels. For example: "Don't waste ammo on schnurzels, just charge at them and they will run away". StuRat (talk) 10:04, 13 April 2009 (UTC)

That's a reasonable idea - but it only lends itself to games where new features (like ammo and/or schnurzels) are introduced on each and every level...there aren't many games that are like that. Consider how your idea would work with (for example) space invaders or PacMan - where things basically only become incrementally faster at each level. The save-game approach is really what works best...and even on simple web-based games, that's easily achieved with a cookie. Serious, professional game level-designers (who know stuff about story arcs and difficulty arcs and attract/reward theory) would be utterly horrified at the idea of revealing all of the levels at the outset - even if they were effectively unplayable until you'd worked up to them gradually. There is actual science behind how games build tension and reward people who solve hard levels with a couple of easy ones to follow and you ignore that stuff at your peril. SteveBaker (talk) 03:04, 14 April 2009 (UTC)

You must be able to save the current level, to be able to switch the computer off and come back to it later. Save it at the end of every level, and find out where the saved file (or cookie) is placed. If you mess up the next level, delete the cookie for it, turn off the game,and it will restart at the last good level you had. SteveBaker, I don't think OP wants to start at level 100; they just don't want to do 1-30 again if their player dies on level 31. KoolerStill (talk) 13:25, 19 April 2009 (UTC)

April 12

Wiki-table syntax

This is more a request for assistance than a question. I'd like to remake the table at Chinese pronouns (which I didn't make) in a vein similar to this one. I've looked at Help:Table but am still too inexperienced with wiki syntax to attempt it. There are apparently HTML-to-wiki conversion tools but no English-to-HTML tools for those with no background in HTML. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Recognizance (talk) 04:53, 12 April 2009 (UTC)

This is indeed not a question. You should probably ask at the Village Pump or perhaps at WP:HELPDESK. SteveBaker (talk) 06:46, 12 April 2009 (UTC)

Replied on talk page. — Twas Now ( talk • contribs • e-mail ) 14:14, 12 April 2009 (UTC)

Resetting my homepage

I am trying to reset my homepage on IE8 with a couple of issues: First, my intended homepage is google.com, but for some reason that is completely ignored and instead, IE always opens with Internet Explorer 7: Get It Now. Second, when I try to change the homepage by going in Tools -> Internet Options, the option for setting my homepage is inexplicably disabled with a message that says "Some settings are managed by your system administrator". I AM my system administrator, my computer is not part of a domain or a group, so what the hell? That happens only on my administrator account, IE functions normally on my limited account. I use Windows XP SP3. --Whip it! ^{Now whip it good!} 06:25, 12 April 2009 (UTC)

I dont know if this would work but try typeing in about:config in your address bar... this works in FireFox. From there you should beable to change the settings. Alternately go to "c:/documents and settings/YOUR USER NAME/application settings/Internet Explorer" from what i remember there should be a file or folder there that will house your user settings for internet explorer... try playing around in there and see if anything sticks out as being usefull. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 64.30.106.235 (talk) 06:59, 12 April 2009 (UTC)

Alternatively, switch to Firefox ;) — Twas Now ( talk • contribs • e-mail ) 13:00, 12 April 2009 (UTC)

_{Law 87 of The Intertubes; if someone says "Internet Explorer" then, no matter how irrelevant to the discussion, someone will say "Get Firefox". Vimescarrot (talk) 18:35, 12 April 2009 (UTC)}

By an amazing coincidence, Law 88 of The Intertubes says; if someone says "Get Firefox" - you should immediately do what they suggest. SteveBaker (talk) 18:55, 12 April 2009 (UTC)

And Law 89 is that everyone should follow SteveBaker's advice. Genius101^Guestbook 19:09, 12 April 2009 (UTC)

People, I have Firefox. I just don't want some suspicious website making its way through ANY of my browsers. --Whip it! ^{Now whip it good!} 22:26, 12 April 2009 (UTC)

My guess would be that there's a value somewhere in the Windows registry telling IE to force this as the homepage for admin accounts, presumably to encourage adoption of IE7. You could try searching for that string using Regedit to see if you can find it - although you run the risk of messing up your system if you edit or delete the wrong thing. Also, the value in the registry may be a redirect URL that you don't notice, so you won't find the full URL anyway.

I suppose something like Ad-aware or Spybot S&D just might be able to reset it, since hijacking the homepage is frequently exploited by adware.

The other option would be to follow Microsoft's advice and install IE7, assuming you haven't actually already done so - it really is miles ahead of IE6 in all sorts of respects, and as a web developer I would love to see the eradication of IE6 with all its eccentricities! The only downside is that the pared down user interface can take a bit of getting used to if you're familiar with the toolbars and menus presented by IE6. - IMSoP (talk) 13:39, 12 April 2009 (UTC)

The asker has IE8. — Twas Now ( talk • contribs • e-mail ) 14:22, 12 April 2009 (UTC)

D'oh! That's what skim-reading does for you! - IMSoP (talk) 16:19, 12 April 2009 (UTC)

Does installing Visual C++ 2008 express edition interfere in any way with an existing Visual C++ 6.0 installation?

Title says it all. Anyone here tried this? I don't want to mess up my existing installation, but would like to try out Visual C++ 2008 express edition. --NorwegianBlue ^talk 14:52, 12 April 2009 (UTC)

I've never found it safe to install a "limited" version X+1 over an unlimited version X, especially a Microsoft product. It's called "asking for trouble". --jpgordon^∇∆∇∆ 17:34, 12 April 2009 (UTC)

I'm pretty sure VC++ 2008 won't conflict with VC++ 6; they are almost completely different products. It's more likely that VC++ 6, being so old, would interfere with your OS (which I'm assuming to be XP or Vista) by installing old DLLs. --wj32 ^t/c 03:44, 13 April 2009 (UTC)

I have Visual Basic 6, Visual Studio 2005 and Visual Studio 2008 all on my Vista laptop and have not had problems continuing to use Visual Basic 6 for continued development. (Although I should note that Visual Basic .NET (and later) is esentially a different language from Visual Basic 6.) I believe there is still a large base of Visual Studio 6 developers out there who have transitioned to the .NET environment, but who also still maintain legacy applications, so I suspect that the two environments coexist in general. Minor conflicts such as file extension associations exist (clicking on a .cpp mat bring up the later version), but for project based development, this should not be a significant problem. And I would doubt that even Microsoft would engineer the express version to introduce conflicts that don't exist with the full version. Bottom line, you should be OK. Worst case - you have to uninstall Visual C++ 2008 Express and might have to reinstall Visual C++ 6.0. -- Tcncv (talk) 04:48, 13 April 2009 (UTC)

Thanks, all. I took the chance and installed it. I've so far only tested at the "Hello world" level, no obvious problems. --NorwegianBlue ^talk 21:01, 13 April 2009 (UTC)

I have been running VS6 and VS2005 on XP without any problems at all. But if you care at all about standards compatibility, do not use VC6. decltype (talk) 09:34, 14 April 2009 (UTC)

Bash script to install file to all $HOMEs (Linux/Ubuntu)

Hi, I am currently trying to make a bash script that would install a script to the "homes" of all users in the system (part of App Runner). I was told the best way was to use the /etc/passwd to check the current home of all users. Any ideas how to do it? (samples, please?) "Sample" of what I wanted:

  if <read the homes location and make the "if" go through them>
   then 
        cp /var/myscript.sh <path to home of user currently in the "if" variable>
   fi

Instead of "if" a "while" or "for" or "until" are also fine (as long as it works properly, of course!). Thanks Hacktolive (talk) 15:21, 12 April 2009 (UTC)

the easiest way to break /etc/passwd apart is with awk. You need to skip comment lines and non-users in your environment e.g. uid < 100

awk -F: '/^[^#]/ && $3 >= 100 {print $6}' /etc/passwd | while read homedir; do cp /var/myscript.sh $homedir; done

$3 represents the third passwd file field (uid) and $6 is the sixth (home directory)

Awm (talk) 16:06, 12 April 2009 (UTC)

[simultaneous post via edit conflict]

Well, the basic requirement is to extract the 6th field of /etc/passwd into a local variable, using something like awk or cut. Something like the following should work:

</etc/passwd cut -d':' -f6 | while read homepath; 
do
	echo -n "Doing something with $homepath... ";
	echo OK;
done

Caveats:

• I've only run this, briefly, under bash; I've no idea if it's portable, in particular the | while read variable_name idiom
• I'm not 100% confident that /etc/passwd is guaranteed to be the authoritative source for this information
• This will include a whole load of "home directories" that you almost certainly don't want to mess with - on my system, the results included /, /bin, /sbin, and /dev/null!

You might want to think of some criteria for identifying "real" users. One thought would be to filter out users whose login shell is not a shell (system users will often have /bin/false or similar in that field) - a quick and dirty way would be to see if the shell's name (and therefore the whole /etc/passwd entry) ends in "sh":

</etc/passwd grep 'sh$' | cut -d':' -f6 | while read homepath;
...

Alternatively, you could look within each of the directories found for existing settings that imply they are likely to run nautilus. - IMSoP (talk) 16:10, 12 April 2009 (UTC)

Yes, the awk approach is probably superior, since it will be easier to combine extra criteria like comment lines without lots of grep pipes.

Note that on the Gentoo system I'm looking at checking for UID >= 100 does not eliminate all non-users. However, checking UID >= 1000 eliminates all but "nobody" (UID 65534); I don't know if this is what was meant, and is standard? - IMSoP (talk) 16:17, 12 April 2009 (UTC)

Sorry to keep talking to myself, but User identifier (Unix) says that the range of IDs reserved for system users, and the assignment for nobody, varies by Unix/Linux flavour/distribution. If you are specifically targeting Ubuntu systems, you might be able to find its conventions and write your script based on that (probably 0-999 are reserved, as that is mentioned in our article as being Debian's convention). - IMSoP (talk) 16:32, 12 April 2009 (UTC)

__________

Thanks for all the replies. I have found an easier way to find out it it is a real user: only real users have "/bin/bash" in the /etc/passwd (I tried it and works!!!)
But I have some more questions: Is it also possible to put this expression ( awk -F: '/^[^#]/ && $3 >= 100 {print $6}' /etc/passwd | while read homedir; do cp /var/myscript.sh $homedir; done )in a format like:

        while <condition>
           do
               <do some actions> 
           done

(samples appreciated...)
One more thing... I figured out that I can check if the user is in the group "users" (therefore, and easier way to see if it is a "real user"!):

• Read the file /etc/group
• Read the group ID (not user id!) of the group "users"
• in the script that reads the file /etc/passwd with awk, I could simply do an "if" to check if the group ID of the user matches the group ID of the group "users" <<--- This is the step I do not know how to do... any ideas?

But thanks, this was great help. Hacktolive (talk) 01:58, 13 April 2009 (UTC)

Yes, the "only real users have bash" was my thinking too - I just generalised it to "ending in sh" so that it wouldn't disadvantage anyone who'd set their default shell to, say, zsh or ksh. The awk equivalent would be:

</etc/passwd awk -F: '/^[^#]/ && /sh$/ {print $6}' | while read homedir;
do
	echo -n "Doing something with $homedir... ";
	echo OK;
done

To find out who's in the "users" group, you would need to look both at the default group for each user (which is in /etc/passwd) and in the list of users who are additionally in that group (which is the last field of /etc/group). Alternatively, there is a command groups which will give you the list of all groups a user is in. However, I'm not convinced this is any more portable than the UID ≥ 1000 check - the Gentoo system I've got to hand has no members in the "users" group at all.

As for the command structure, the only difference is that the word "while" isn't at the beginning of the line, because we're extracting the information from the file first, and then using the while loop to go through those results. I'm sure you could re-arrange things using a nested expression instead of a pipe if you really wanted to, but I don't see any advantage.

The key point is that the word after "while read" is the name of the variable the home directory is being read into; so if you say while read homedir, you need to refer to $homedir somewhere in the body of the loop. - IMSoP (talk) 18:31, 13 April 2009 (UTC)

___ Damn, this was hard for a person not expert in bash... But I finaly I was able to make it work! Thanks to all! Hacktolive (talk) 19:07, 19 April 2009 (UTC)

Connecting to dynamic ip

I have a computer with a dynamic ip address which I need to connect to from a remote location. How can I do this, preferably for free. Is DynDNS the way to go? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 82.43.88.87 (talk) 15:23, 12 April 2009 (UTC)

Yes, it is the "way to go". There is also "No-ip". For me the main problem is not the dynamic IP, it is the router/firewall/etc... I recommend you first try to connect using the dynamic IP (put it on paper, ask a friend to tell you that by phone, etc...), and if it works, only then try something like DynDNS or No-IP SF007 (talk) 15:53, 12 April 2009 (UTC)

ok, I think I'll need to configure the router, as even entering the ip address does not connect to the server running on the other computer. Any advice on how I do this? Thanks —Preceding unsigned comment added by 82.43.88.87 (talk) 16:15, 12 April 2009 (UTC)

What exactly are you trying to do? accessing files or running some server? (HTTP or something like that?). You can't just access the files on the PC, using the IP, you need some kind of server (VNC, or even built in tools of the OS: "remote desktop" on windows). And then what you need to do is something called "port forwarding": the way to do it depends on the router, you have to search for that in the interwebs... SF007 (talk) 16:34, 12 April 2009 (UTC)

I'm trying to set up a remote desktop on Windows Xp, from a previous question I asked here. I'm using TightVNC which is just awesome (I tested it on localhost). I've set a DynDNS account and have the updater software running on the pc, so I'm guessing it's just the router now which is the problem. I don't have direct access to it but I know the password —Preceding unsigned comment added by 82.43.88.87 (talk) 17:23, 12 April 2009 (UTC)

You need to enable port forwarding on your router for the two ports that TightVNC uses; see the TightVNC FAQ. – 74  20:15, 12 April 2009 (UTC)

If you have some kind of web site that your computer can get to then you can have it copy the IP address there either whenever the DHCP server changes it - or (say) once every 10 minutes regardless. I used to do this and had the computer write a file to my web site that said:

<HTML><BODY> <A HREF="http://xxx.xx.xx.xx">My Computer is at xxx.xx.xx.xx!</A></BODY></HTML>

...(where the 'x's were the current IP address) so I could just visit that page and click on the "My Computer!" link to get to it's local HTTP server or cut/paste the IP address for some other reason.

SteveBaker (talk) 18:43, 12 April 2009 (UTC)

To the OP: If you have Internet Explorer and don't mind using it, I would recommend LogMeIn Free. It doesn't require you to do any tinkering with the router or IP addresses; your computer automatically reports its address every time it boots up. In my experience, it's as fast as VNC but offers more features (like recording remote control sessions or emergency reboots). --Bowlhover (talk) 20:12, 12 April 2009 (UTC)

Weird computer video drawing thing

What is the name of the phenomenon seen here and what are the most frequent causes under Windows XP? ----Seans Potato Business 17:27, 12 April 2009 (UTC)

Don't know the name, but you've got a window open that's hung -- not refreshing itself -- so it can't fix the "damage" when you drag a window over it. --jpgordon^∇∆∇∆ 17:32, 12 April 2009 (UTC)

Aww man this happens so often with my computer. Sometimes it corrects itself but usually I have to end task it. Kinda reminds me of the old windows solitaire game when you win and all the cards jump out like that —Preceding unsigned comment added by 82.43.88.87 (talk) 17:41, 12 April 2009 (UTC)

The cause is that the window is not being redrawn by the application program - but the window frame is being updated by the OS. When you move or resize the window, you leave behind the previous window frame in the pixels inside the window. I don't know of any name for this phenomenon - but mostly it's caused by either a VERY slow computer that's not giving enough time to the application to get it's work redone - or by a buggy application that's locked up somehow without crashing out. This problem isn't specific to Windows XP - and you can even see it happen under (for example) Linux - although simple or slow Linux applications can minimize this by requesting that the windowing system 'retain' the image of the window contents and handle window motion without requiring the application to repaint the window. SteveBaker (talk) 18:37, 12 April 2009 (UTC)

The name I know for it is just what jpgordon called it — damage. That's the word used, for instance, in the AWT documentation. --Tardis (talk) 15:19, 13 April 2009 (UTC)

Visual artifact may fit the bill for a name. Nanonic (talk) 00:09, 13 April 2009 (UTC)

Sounds

Where can I download the Jungle, Musica, Robotz, and Utopia sound themes that came with Windows 9x? 58.165.25.29 (talk) 22:30, 12 April 2009 (UTC)

Hearts

I'm trying to play a network game of Hearts. Since XP and Vista don't have the network version, I downloaded a network version onto my XP computer and my Vista laptop. But I would like to know how I can get network play working. And another question: why did they even remove the network play? 58.165.25.29 (talk) 22:29, 12 April 2009 (UTC)

If you're talking about the Hearts games that comes with Windows, I was under the impression that the network play option was something they intended to some day offer but never fully implemented. Thus they eventually dropped it from the menu entirely. If you want to play Hearts with others over the Internet, I suggest you go to Pogo.com. StuRat (talk) 09:50, 13 April 2009 (UTC)

E-mail

I keep getting e-mails entitled "How to Get a Girl to Do Anything and Everything" or something of the sort. Though I cannot read the e-mails, I know I have them because of a message saying they were blocked. I can't find any news stories on this, so what is with these e-mails? Why am I even getting them? 58.165.25.29 (talk) 22:29, 12 April 2009 (UTC)

It's called spam and you're hardly alone in getting them. The article on Anti-spam techniques may help you in stopping them. --Whip it! ^{Now whip it good!} 23:02, 12 April 2009 (UTC)

DosBox

How can I avoid that "Mounting C:\ Is Not Recommended" message that DosBox gives when you mount your entire C:\ drive? And why don't they want you to mount your whole drive anyway? 58.165.25.29 (talk) 22:29, 12 April 2009 (UTC)

Any part of the drive that is mounted may be potentially altered by the program. You do not want your system files altered. They are on the C: drive. So, the program is attempting to protect your from yourself by warning you not to mount a drive containing your system files. -- kainaw™ 23:12, 12 April 2009 (UTC)

Youtube

Is there a way to view the country flags in Youtube users' profiles that used to be next to country names? For some reason, they removed those flags. Why? And, as I said before, is there a way to view them? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 58.165.25.29 (talk) 22:34, 12 April 2009 (UTC)

Windows

Whenever someone lists some versions of Windows, why is Windows 2000 sometimes left out? And why is it left out more often than Windows ME is? 58.165.25.29 (talk) 22:48, 12 April 2009 (UTC)

Windows 2000 was not a "personal" version of Windows. It was a server version (like Windows NT). When listing versions of Windows that people would have installed on their home PC, Windows ME is a possibility, but Windows 2000 is very rare. -- kainaw™ 23:11, 12 April 2009 (UTC)

Er, well, slightly. Back in 2001 or so I and most people I knew had 2000 installed on our home computers, and only two I can think of used it as a server. (ME was dismissed as a joke, with no advantage over 2000 and some major disadvantages.) Microsoft was marketing 2000 to companies and people wearing suits and going to conferences, ME to nuclear families gazing in awe and delight at their one CRT. (The cheapest version of 2000 was pompously called "Professional".) Perhaps elsewhere in the world people consumed these advertising cliches seriously. In reality, you could of course use 2000 for Tetris and the viewing of pr0n if you wished, but you'd have had to be perverse (or underinformed) to trust your biznis to ME. -- Hoary (talk) 23:42, 12 April 2009 (UTC)

Yes, I'd agree with this, and add that at the time I built my computer, Windows XP was just released, and viewed with suspicion just as Vista is (in terms of stability, compatibility, etc). There was no way Win98 or WinME were a better choice than XP, but 2000 was, at the time, a stable option.

Nonetheless, the idea that the Windows NT line was not "consumer ready" until Windows XP is probably the reason Windows 2000 would be left out of certain consumer-oriented version lists. - IMSoP (talk) 22:07, 13 April 2009 (UTC)

Malware

Why does most malware originate from poor countries? 58.165.25.29 (talk) 23:14, 12 April 2009 (UTC)

What makes you assume most malware originates from poor countries? It originates from criminals. As for the servers that the malware are launched from, they have a tendency to be from China, mainly due to lack of government/police control over the servers. -- kainaw™ 23:18, 12 April 2009 (UTC)

I thought most of it originated from Russia. Yakeyglee (talk) 00:32, 13 April 2009 (UTC)

Wordpad

How can I change WordPad's default font? 58.165.25.29 (talk) 23:35, 12 April 2009 (UTC)

You can't (unless you want to decompile the program to assembly and hack the assembly language to have it load a different font). -- kainaw™ 23:45, 12 April 2009 (UTC)

Well, I suppose you could copy another font file over the font file Windows uses for WordPad -- mine appears to default to Arial -- but this would also affect plenty of other things. It's most likely a bad idea. -- Captain Disdain (talk) 13:55, 13 April 2009 (UTC)

One workaround is to set up the font you want to use in the empty document when you first open it. A fancier workaround is to save a file called Blank or Template, containing only one full stop, formatted to the font and size you want to use. Put it on the Desktop or Task Bar, so you open Wordpad by clicking on the Template file. As soon as it opens, File Save As to the name you want for the new file. This will then use the Template file settings, while keeping your Template file clean, for endless re-use. (Backspacing over that one full stop will lose the format, so keep it for the end of the first sentence).The default is probably in the Registry somewhere, I'll come back with it if and when I find it. KoolerStill (talk) 05:44, 19 April 2009 (UTC)

Backup RAZR contacts to computer (preferably something involved with gmail/google)

So I'm worried about eventually losing/breaking my phone (like everyone seems to) and I can't afford to lose some of the numbers I have.

I'd like ot find a way to back them up, preferably to my gmail contacts. Also, if possible in a fashion I could transfer them back to some/most phones.

Is there any free way of doing this at all?

Thank you very much guys (and gals), I appreciate all of your help here.

Chris M. (talk) 23:41, 12 April 2009 (UTC)

Ask your cell phone provider. My Verizon account has a feature exactly like this. It backs up my contacts once a day. And when I got a new phone last year, I just had to go through a couple menus on the phone to download my contacts to the new phone. Dismas|^(talk) 00:39, 13 April 2009 (UTC)

If your computer has Bluetooth and your cell phone provider has not disabled it, you may be able to push transfer the contacts from your phone to your computer via OBEX. Also, some computers have software that will copy all of your contacts from the phone to the computer and viceversa (iSync comes to mind). You might want to give this a try. Titoxd^{(?!? - cool stuff)} 01:14, 13 April 2009 (UTC)

(Unicode query)

҉̵̞̟̠̖̗̘̙̜̝̞̟̠͇̊̋̌̍̎̏̐̑̒̓̔̊̋̌̍̎̏̐̑̒̓̔̿̿̿ ̕̚̕̚͡ ͡҉҉ ̵̡̢̛̗̘̙̜̝̞̟̠͇̊̋̌̍̎̏̿̿̿̚ ҉ ҉҉̡̢̡̢̛̛̖̗̘̙̜̝̞̟̠̖̗̘̙̜̝̞̟҉͡҉҉ ̵̡̢̛̗̘̙̜̝̞̟̠͇̊̋̌̍̎̏̿̿ 

Does anybody know what type of symbols those are and what they are used for and why when they are typed pressing backspace makes the cursor go both to the left and the right? The text also sometimes goes vertical. It's very weird. It's behavior is really hard to describe. My friend and I have been discussing it and haven't been able to figure anything out about them. And if this may help, I am using Firefox 3. Does anybody know anything?--Yakeyglee (talk) 00:14, 13 April 2009 (UTC)

҉̵̞̟̠̖̗̘̙̜̝̞̟̠͇̊̋̌̍̎̏̐̑̒̓̔̊̋̌̍̎̏̐̑̒̓̔̿̿̿ ̕̚̕̚͡ ͡҉҉ ̵̡̢̛̗̘̙̜̝̞̟̠͇̊̋̌̍̎̏̿̿̿̚ ҉ ҉҉̡̢̡̢̛̛̖̗̘̙̜̝̞̟̠̖̗̘̙̜̝̞̟҉͡҉҉ ̵̡̢̛̗̘̙̜̝̞̟̠͇̊̋̌̍̎̏̿̿̿̚ ҉ ҉҉̡̢̡̢̛̛̖̗̘̙̜̝̞̟̠̖̗̘̙̜̝̞̟҉҉҉҉̡̢̡̢̛̛̖̗̘̙̜ ̝̞̟̠̖̗̘̙̜̝̞̟҉ ̒̓̔̕̚ ̍̎̏̐̑̒̓̔̕̚̕̚ ҉҉̡̢̡̢̛̛̖̗̘̙̜̝̞̟̠̖̗̘̙̜̝̞̟҉ ̒̓̔̕̚ ̍̎̏̐̑̒̓̔̕̚̕̚ ̕̚̕̚ ̔̕̚̕̚҉ ҉̵̞̟̠̖̗̘̙̜̝̞̟̠͇̊̋̌̍̎̏̐̑̒̓̔̊̋̌̍̎̏̐̑̒̓̔̿̿̿ ̕̚̕̚͡ ͡҉҉ ̵̡̢̛̗̘̙̜̝̞̟̠͇̊̋̌̍̎̏̿̿̿̚ ҉ ҉҉̡̢̡̢̛̛̖̗̘̙̜̝̞̟̠̖̗̘̙̜̝̞̟҉͡҉҉ ̵̡̢̛̗̘̙̜̝̞̟̠͇̊̋̌̍̎̏̿̿̿̚ ҉ ҉҉̡̢̡̢̛̛̖̗̘̙̜̝̞̟̠̖̗̘̙

See this previous discussion. --wj32 ^t/c 01:52, 13 April 2009 (UTC)

If you ever want to examine a set of Unicode characters, one by one, you can try my simple Unicode editor Rejbrand Text Editor, which will display all Unicode characters (and tell you their codepoint, name, and block), but will treat all of them like normal characters, so that keyboard commands will still work as usual in such extreme cases like this one. By the way, the RD and even its history (due to the edit summary) is quite messed up by these characters! --Andreas Rejbrand (talk) 11:27, 13 April 2009 (UTC)

I don't understand, it displays perfectly well for me, no weird backspace stuff or anything. ‪‪‪ —Preceding unsigned comment added by 82.43.88.87 (talk) 17:16, 13 April 2009 (UTC)

April 13

Problem

My computer shows Verdana instead of Times New Roman on sites that use TNR. How can I fix this? 58.165.25.29 (talk) 02:49, 13 April 2009 (UTC)

Verdana is the default Windows font for sans-serif fonts. Are you absolutely positive that the website's css is not set to sans-serif? -- kainaw™ 03:00, 13 April 2009 (UTC)

A URL to such a website would be highly helpful. --Andreas Rejbrand (talk) 11:29, 13 April 2009 (UTC)

Never mind, I found out the problem. It is because I chose that font for viewing text on such pages. 58.165.25.29 (talk) 11:56, 13 April 2009 (UTC)

Website which follows correct legal practices

Hi everyone.I'm looking to creating a community website with a few community based sections. I am hoping to have a shopping section where I display various products from a number of online retailers. In relation to this -do I have to ask for permission of using a product image (i.e. like a dvd) from the online retailer (that does not own the copyright)? Can I simply just use the image and provide a link to the online retailer? If it is the case that I have to ask the copyright owner- would it be likely I even get a response (ie. From a big hollywood studio or a big publisher)? Would they care if I'm encouraging the purchase of their product? And secondnly do I have to ask for permission to link to someone else's website page? And just in case I WILL have google adsense on my website. Thanks for your help!

You do not need permission to link to websites on the internet. But beyond that, we cannot provide legal advice. — Twas Now ( talk • contribs • e-mail ) 11:36, 13 April 2009 (UTC)

Actually you may need permission to carry out deeplinking (as obvious from the legal section on that page) although it doesn't sound like this is what's being talked about here Nil Einne (talk) 18:34, 13 April 2009 (UTC)

Usually images of a product you are directing someone to buy are considered to be implicitly released for such purposes (for the obvious reasons—the copyright holder benefits directly when you are selling their product). In the US, the Copyright Act is pretty clear about this (17 U.S.C. 113(c), BUT that doesn't stop companies from trying to use legal muscle to keep you from undercutting their profits if they think that is what you are doing (here is a clear blog post about such practices). This is, of course, NOT legal advice—in particular, I am telling you that the issue appears in practice to be cloudy, though per the law it should be straightforward. --98.217.14.211 (talk) 12:58, 13 April 2009 (UTC)

Asterisk

Why is the asterisk (a pop-up dialog with an "i") so-called? 58.165.25.29 (talk) 09:43, 13 April 2009 (UTC)

I'm not sure what you mean by a "pop-up dialog with an 'i'". Typically, "asterisk" refers to the character "*", which is called an asterisk after the Latin word asteriscum, which means "little star". -- Captain Disdain (talk) 13:45, 13 April 2009 (UTC)

In Microsoft Windows, the Win32 API provides a standard message box, via the MessageBox function. The function takes a parameter "uType" of type cardinal, and some of the predefined constants for this parameter are MB_ICONHAND, MB_ICONQUESTION, MB_ICONEXCLAMATION, MB_ICONASTERISK, MB_ICONWARNING, MB_ICONERROR, MB_ICONINFORMATION, MB_ICONSTOP, and MB_ICONMASK. Depending on this parameter, the icon (and the corresponding sound!) will be a red circle with a white cross, a yellow triangle with an exclamation mark, a blue circle with a question mark and so on. MB_ICONASTERISK (and MB_ICONINFORMATION) gives a blue circle with a "i" (as in "information"). --Andreas Rejbrand (talk) 14:37, 13 April 2009 (UTC)

The asterisk character is often used in written text for footnotes and similar references. My guess is that some software has applied the name "asterisk" to an informational ("i") pop-up dialog used for a purpose analogous to a footnote. --Scray (talk) 14:05, 13 April 2009 (UTC)

Possibly even with an actual asterisk originally, which was eventually replaced with the 'i' when they discovered it was too close to the 'x' or that the footnote analogy was lost on the majority of users (or even the majority of users likely to call tech-support). The problem with giving constants descriptive names is that, if the usage ever does change, you are left with a confusingly mis-labeled constant. About all you can do (without removing the old name and breaking all prior code) is to add a new name (like MB_ICONINFORMATION) and list the old name as deprecated. – 74  16:13, 13 April 2009 (UTC)

Mac OS X Leopard using a non-Apple keyboard

Does anyone know of an easy way to remap and/or configure a non-Apple keyboard on OS X Leopard? Well, I know this isn't something that Steve Jobs and his Cupertino cohorts like to see, but I'm on an OSX86 install, using iDeneb. I could have burned a thousand bucks for a real Mac, but I tried on installing Hackintosh just for curiosity's sake. Blake Gripling (talk) 13:03, 13 April 2009 (UTC)

You can find them on the internet (e.g. here). Take the "*.keylayout" (e.g. "dellStandardUK.keylayout"), put it in Libraries/???/KeyboardLayout, restart, then choose them from the keyboard layout menu. yandman 09:53, 14 April 2009 (UTC)

I note that WebOfTrust says "This site has a poor reputation." —Tamfang (talk) 05:12, 15 April 2009 (UTC)

Is this a good computer?

Is [ Link to eBay Auction : "Compaq EvoN610c 512MB ram Pentium4-M 2GHz 40G Wifi" ] computer a good one? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 64.172.159.130 (talk) 07:15, 12 April 2009 (UTC)

The would-be seller would certainly like potential bidders to think so. (I wonder why you ask.) -- Hoary (talk) 07:52, 12 April 2009 (UTC)

No, it is not (by modern standards). A modern laptop would have a modern, faster CPU (with at least two cores), much more RAM (at least 2 GB = 2000 MB), much larger HDD (perhaps 200 GB), at least a DVD writer, and a newer OS (e.g. Windows Vista). But it is indeed cheaper than a new laptop, so if you think it would be sufficient for you, then it might be "good enough". --Andreas Rejbrand (talk) 13:07, 12 April 2009 (UTC)

It's more than adequate for most purposes. The kind of user who needs a huge hard drive or the latest graphics card is likely to know that already. There are some red flags, though, like "the battery and the wifi card has been recently replaced and has not been tested" (emphasis mine) and the bit about the hard drive needing to "warm up" (I'm not convinced this is the reason for the startup problem, but if it is then the hard drive is likely on the verge of failure, and if it isn't then it still points to some other hardware problem that might be serious). -- BenRG (talk) 16:30, 12 April 2009 (UTC)

It depends what you want it for and how much you have to spend. For the $112 the bidding had risen to when I wrote this, I'd say it was a pretty good deal. I wouldn't pay over $200 for it though. For doing email, surfing the web, word processing and such - it should be perfectly good. Don't expect to play state-of-the-art games on it though...for that, it would be useless. The worst problem (IMHO) is that it has a teeny-tiny hard drive...if you end up replacing it, you'll blow my $200-is-what-it's-worth limit...but if you already have a decent USB hard drive, then you'll be fine. SteveBaker (talk) 18:51, 12 April 2009 (UTC)

For my part of the world (eastern USA) - I'd say Steve has pretty much nailed this one dead on. Price, content, value, etc. — Ched :  ?  21:16, 12 April 2009 (UTC)

I wouldn't touch this. Why? The seller can't even manage correct english for a start :- "Buildin modem", "carfuly handled" "write papers for collage" "fantatic gift" - hardly inspires confidence. Exxolon (talk) 23:43, 12 April 2009 (UTC)

Besides the above mentioned spelling errors, I don't see anything wrong with that computer.. the only red flag that I notice is it's age, with old computers comes inexplicable problems. 69.62.193.42 (talk) 20:40, 13 April 2009 (UTC)

I did just notice something. The seller sais that all of the installed programs are trials or free, does this include windows? Can windows be installed as a trial?69.62.193.42 (talk) 20:46, 13 April 2009 (UTC)

You can, ie. [6]. -- Consumed Crustacean (talk) 05:29, 14 April 2009 (UTC)

Note : The IP of the questioner resolves to an ISP less than 15 miles from the location of this auction. I have removed the link. APL (talk) 23:00, 13 April 2009 (UTC)

How is Grass Valley 'lass than 15 miles' from Roseville? Link added as hidden comment at the top of this section. – VectorEng. Inc.&nbsp18:55, 14 April 2009 (UTC)

Link removed – Elliott(Talk|Cont)  15:39, 15 April 2009 (UTC)

After I said that, he edited his signature to obscure his IP address. His original IP resolved to McClellan. I'm not familiar with the area but I had looked them up on Google Maps. APL (talk) 14:12, 17 April 2009 (UTC)

That said, anyone who buys this should expect to replace the hard-drive. The seller admits that it's already starting to fail, but for some reason doesn't think this is a problem. APL (talk) 23:02, 13 April 2009 (UTC)

I didn't notice that. Then it's a bust - the cost to replace the hard drive means that it's going to wind up costing you more than $200 - and I don't think it's worth that much. Forget it. SteveBaker (talk) 02:49, 14 April 2009 (UTC)

I think the reason the seller does not recognize it as a failing hard drive might be because the seller does not know that much about computers. Or hes trying not to advertise that fact to try and get the most from his auction. An interesting note; He purchased 2 laptops of the same make / model a few weeks before. And at the time of this posting the Auction has sold for a little more than he bought it. This leads me to 2 conclusions. 1; he is lying about having used it for a long time to try and make it seem like it's in 'great shape' or 2; hes bought a replacement laptop and is now trying to get rid of the laptop being replaced, which i supose does not rule out conclusion number 1. I suspect that either way he will be getting a negative feedback or even a strike. If i were in the market for a laptop i would stay far from this one. – VectorEng. Inc.&nbsp18:55, 14 April 2009 (UTC)

YouTube limited amount of mail

Hi. Recently I have noticed that YouTube only allows me to send a certain number of mails at any one time. Usually the number is limited to 4 or 5 mails. Yet if I wait an hour I can send another 4/5 internal mails. I assume these measures were taken against spammers but is there anything that can be done against this. I would also be interested in any reports/blogs etc with any info about these limitations. Thanks for your help. --87.115.64.1 (talk) 17:52, 13 April 2009 (UTC)

Online list of upcoming movies

This is also posted on the Entertainment desk. Is there a website where I can see a list of all upcoming major movies? i.e. ones that would be shown at my local theatre. It would be nice to be able to plan ahead with that. Thanks, 99.240.227.108 (talk) 19:26, 13 April 2009 (UTC)

See answer on the Entertainment Desk... -- kainaw™ 19:34, 13 April 2009 (UTC)

"Add/Remove Programs" in Windows Vista & Dealio Toolbar

Is Dealio Toolbar spyware? How do I remove it when Microsoft has made it confusing and changed the name of what used to be 'Add/Remove Programs'?

I have Spybot Search and Destroy already, denying the changes.

--Sennheiser hd 433 (talk) 20:00, 13 April 2009 (UTC)

In Windows Vista, you open the "Uninstall an application" option under "Applications" in the Control Panel (or whatever the strings are in English). --Andreas Rejbrand (talk) 21:04, 13 April 2009 (UTC)

It's "Programs and Features". --LarryMac | Talk 13:51, 14 April 2009 (UTC)

Game

I remember playing a game when I was 5 years old. This game was a circus game. I think it was a DOS game. I remember there was a trapeze event, and an event where a car drives to the top of a hill with traffic lights (you lose if the car passes a traffic light when it turns red). But I don't remember this game's name. What is it? 58.165.25.29 (talk) 22:11, 13 April 2009 (UTC)

There are a number of circus games in the database of the resurrected Home of the Underdogs. (Or try the other resurrection of Home of the Underdogs. ) APL (talk) 22:54, 13 April 2009 (UTC)

Could you perhaps draw what the screen looked like and include the drawing here? That might ring a bell. Tempshill (talk) 23:01, 13 April 2009 (UTC)

Was it Fiendish Freddy or Freddie's Big Top Fun? -- Guroadrunner (talk) 04:53, 14 April 2009 (UTC)

Help with reformatting my PC

Resolved

Hello, I have a PC running Windows XP that has been sitting in my bedroom untouched the last few months. I dusted it off (literally, first time with a can of compressed air) and plan to put Linux Ubuntu on it. The PC has a 300 GB secondary hard drive that I added some time ago (though it shows up at 279 GB -- I know there's a reason for this, but can someone explain why?). I have old personal files on this drive and nothing too important on the primary drive. I was wondering how to best handle reformatting and still keep these personal files. Do I need to detach the secondary hard drive from the PC and reattach after reformatting? Or can I proceed with the reformatting and expect Ubuntu to recognize the drive (after installing the appropriate driver, I expect)? Let me know if I need to provide additional information. 98.228.34.62 (talk) 23:22, 13 April 2009 (UTC)

This may well be a 300 and nine zeros byte drive; when you divide this by 1024 three times, you'll get a number below 300. Further, some drives have chunks reserved for other purposes.

Ubuntu will point out that you have two drives and will ask what you want done with them. After having made trebly sure that you're not mixing the two up, you ask it to install itself on one and to ignore the other.

Oh, hang on -- I suppose the second drive would be NTFS; does Ubuntu handle that these days? Somebody else here is sure to answer that one for you. -- Hoary (talk) 00:16, 14 April 2009 (UTC)

There are several ways to do this. I would first suggest booting into XP to verify that all files you wish to keep are on the second hard drive, or better yet, burned to a disk(s). Then you run a live cd (your Ubuntu disk can do this) to browse around some more, to further verify that all files are accounted for. Running the live cd will also verify that all hardware is supported (it very likely will be, without additional drivers.) Install Ubuntu on the first drive (which should be labeled hda,) which will format the disk to a new filesystem (you will probably choose ext3.) Boot into your new operating system, and it should recognize your second drive (hdb.) Since this drive is formatted as NTFS, which is windows proprietary, you may want to move all of your files to hda, then reformat the second disk to either ext3 or fat32 (if you want it to be read easily by both windows and unix systems.) Or, if you've burned the data to disk first (which runs the cdfs filesystem,) format hdb and copy your files back there.

Regarding why your (and all) disks show up in your operating system with less space than advertised, it has to do with the difference in terminology, see Gigabyte, especially the section on consumer confusion. Taggart.BBS (talk) 00:20, 14 April 2009 (UTC)

Appreciate the explanation! I have checked and ensured that all my personal files are on the secondary hard drive. The primary hard drive has a C partition and unallocated space (used to be D partition, but it was deleted), so I'm wondering if I install Ubuntu on the first drive, will I be able to claim all space in the primary drive? Also, for moving files over, I would be able to move stuff like JPEG images to the primary drive? (I think I just did that successfully with a JPEG image with Ubuntu Live just now! Is it that easy?) Once I reformat the second drive, can I move back my files with no problem? For what it's worth, I'm not pursuing dual boot because I have Windows XP on the laptop I'm using now... feeling like making this a full Linux machine. 98.228.34.62 (talk) 00:35, 14 April 2009 (UTC)

If you want to see how your hard drive looks (and what it will look like during installation) you can run gparted during your ubuntu live session. Open up the terminal (applications-accessories-terminal) and type in gparted. This will give you a graphical look at your hard drives. In fact, you can pre-format your drive before the install, but i'd just wait and do it during the installation. You can delete the ntfs partition, and your disk should now be all unallocated space. You will need at least two partitions for your ubuntu install, one of which is called swap. Your swap space should be about twice as much as you have RAM, or probably between 2-4 Gb. And yes, moving the files back and forth really will be that easy, no matter what kind of file they are. Taggart.BBS (talk) 00:48, 14 April 2009 (UTC)

Thank you very much for your help! I am now running Linux Ubuntu on my PC and very happy about it. The OS recognized my local disk, so I will take care of my files. I have already been retrieving packages (VLC and Amarok, for example) and getting used to the whole thing. I have a book I'll use, and there seems to be supple documentation online to help with using it. Thanks, all! :) 98.228.34.62 (talk) 12:50, 14 April 2009 (UTC)

April 14

preventing windows from changing folder names

Windows exhibits some strange behavior when copying "My Videos" (or "My Music" and "My Pictures" for that matter) to an external hard drive, for example.

1. When I Ctrl+C and Ctrl+P, the folder is moved, its video icon remains intact, and the DeleteOnCopy stuff in the desktop.ini file is deleted.
2. When copy with a mirror backup program, its video icon disappears, but the desktop.ini is unchanged.
3. When I try to remedy this by setting the icon through folder properties, "My Videos"'s name changes to "Administrator's Videos" (where "Administrator" is my name).

Does anybody know how to undo this automatic name change? That is, I don't want the name of the folder to change, but I also want to keep the video icon. Where is the setting for the name change stored, anyway? Obviously, desktop.ini does not fully determine the state of the folder, and there appears to be some hysteresis.

Thank you, --VectorField (talk) 00:39, 14 April 2009 (UTC)

I don't the folder's name is actually being changed, it's just being displayed differently - it goes a bit like this:

Having joyfully scattered the word "My" around our filesystems, the Windows developers realised that this made things jolly confusing on multi-user systems because looking in another user's profile you can see their "My Documents" etc ["But they're not mine, they're my sister/mum/colleague/cat's!"] So, in a typical case of Windows trying almost too hard to be user-friendly, they put special code in the OS somewhere that means that if you look at someone else's "My Documents" folder, it replaces the word "My" with their name.

So, something in that folder's magic properties (in desktop.ini or elsewhere) is triggering this name translation. And since the folder is no longer in its normal place, it sees it as not "your" folder but the folder of someone else - in this case, someone with your username! - IMSoP (talk) 12:28, 14 April 2009 (UTC)

Video Editor

Kay, me and my amateur filmmaking group need an equivalent of Windows Movie Maker, but able to use .mov files. we need something either freeware or preferably under $30. i cant find anything, does anyone know of one? 71.35.25.93 (talk) 02:01, 14 April 2009 (UTC)

Unfortunately the options for freeware non-linear editors are pretty slim—there are a few in Category:Free_video_software but none of them are production-level to my knowledge. Of things that are unfree but pretty cheap, I think maybe iMovie is the only thing that comes to mind as immediately fitting the bill, but even it is pretty weak. --98.217.14.211 (talk) 11:07, 14 April 2009 (UTC)

You could convert the .mov files to .avi or .wmv with SUPER, which would then allow you to open and work with them in Windows Movie Maker. Once you'd completed editing you could then convert back .mov if need be. SN0WKITT3N 13:19, 14 April 2009 (UTC)

My home wireless network has DHCP disabled.

My laptop is set to use DHCP by default, and an Alternate Configuration (WinXP) if DHCP is unavailable. Whenever I turn it on it takes a couple of minutes to use the static IP settings from Alternate Configuration. Why? Thanks in advance. Imagine Reason (talk) 03:42, 14 April 2009 (UTC)

Sorry, but I'm unclear to what your question actually is? Why does it take a few minutes to realise there's no DHCP server? or why is DHCP turned off? I'm not sure whether you can actually reduce the DHCP timeout value (there's possibly a registry setting), but to turn DHCP, assume you use a router, you would need to login to that router (usually via a special webpage) and turn on DHCP and configure as needed. I hope this helps, but if you can give us more information we can try and assist further. ZX81 ^talk 14:32, 14 April 2009 (UTC)

Basically, it takes the laptop a long time to realize that it's not going to get a response from using DHCP. As you can tell from reading the DHCP article, the laptop client sends out a broadcast packet to the network asking for any dhcp server to respond. Then it waits a few seconds for a response. If it doesn't get one, it tries again. It does this several times, so it can take quite a long time if it doesn't get a response. I don't know why you have DHCP turned off on your home wireless network (it doesn't actually improve security or anything). If I were you, I'd turn DHCP back on but only use static assignment for the computers you wanted to use it. Indeterminate (talk) 20:25, 14 April 2009 (UTC)

So my problem is a "feature" then? I disabled DHCP on my router because the two wireless devices that connect to it require special ports to be opened, and that's easy to do with static addresses--DHCP is not used. I want my laptop to use DHCP by default, though, because away from home it mostly connects to free wi-fi. Imagine Reason (talk) 16:11, 16 April 2009 (UTC)

XBox 360 to LCD Monitor

I'm thinking of buying [7] this monitor. I'd like to use it for both my XBox 360 and my PC. It has a DVI, VGA and HDMI input. My XBox is the older one, with the regular composite HD out (no HDMI).

This monitor should accept 1080p, and is a 16:9 (TV and gaming, vs. the usual 16:10) ratio.

What method of connecting the XBox to the PC will yield me the best picture? I'd like to be able to use the DVI input for the PC, but that's not necessary. Is there an XBox 360 direct to VGA/DVI converter that works well? A component HD to HDMI converter?NByz (talk) 04:00, 14 April 2009 (UTC)

(edited after re-reading) You are thinking that you want to pipe your Xbox video into your PC somehow, and output the PC's video signal to this monitor? I would never choose to do that; I would choose an HD monitor with 2 sets of inputs, one for the PC (presumably a DVI connector) and one for the Xbox (in your case, component HD connectors). There is an Xbox AV pack that has an analog VGA connector on it, but that AV pack outputs 480p video, not the 16:9 HD video you want, so whether you pipe it through the PC is immaterial. There is no converter box I know of that inputs component HD and outputs an HDMI cable. I think your best bet is to not purchase this monitor, and instead purchase a monitor that has two sets of connectors, one of them being a set of component HD connectors for your Xbox. It's not going to cost much (or any) more money, and will be far, far less technical hassle to use. Tempshill (talk) 05:38, 14 April 2009 (UTC)

The Xbox 360 VGA cable will output HD. And there are devices to go from Component to HDMI, such as [8]. I own one of those suckers, and it works fine on anything except for 1080p, where it flickers horribly; there is flicker on lower resolutions however, even through unconverted component, so it may very well be that my console's GPU is wigging out. -- Consumed Crustacean (talk) 06:04, 14 April 2009 (UTC)

Hah, that first sentence of the last paragraph should be "...connecting the XBox to the MONITOR..." whoops. Can anyone suggest a monitor that actually has composite HD inputs? Or a HD composite -> HDMI converter that looks good @ 1080p? NByz (talk) 14:46, 14 April 2009 (UTC)

If Consumed Crustacean is correct, then I was mistaken about the Xbox VGA AV pack outputting 480p. I did it myself but only remember getting 480p output. If you can confirm that he's correct that the VGA AV pack outputs HD video, then a good solution might be, indeed, to get a monitor that has one DVI input (for your PC) and one VGA input (for your Xbox), and then hit the 'video' button on the monitor to switch back and forth. This link at xbox.com does claim that he's right. (I think you can get them for cheaper than US$39.99 if you shop around.) It will be much easier to find a monitor with this configuration than to find one that has composite HD inputs. Tempshill (talk) 15:37, 14 April 2009 (UTC)

I don't know exactly which resolutions it'll output, but I know it certainly goes past 480p. There are Google results suggesting that, with the latest patches, it'll do 1080p. And ya'll are thinking of component video, not composite video. -- Consumed Crustacean (talk) 01:40, 15 April 2009 (UTC)

[9] Hmmmmmm! Well thanks guys. VGA AV pack it is!NByz (talk) 03:29, 15 April 2009 (UTC)

By the way, I just confirmed what Confirmed Crustacean said; my initial claim above about 480p was wrong - the VGA adapter supports lots of video modes. I had not gone to the "System Settings" tab of the Xbox to configure what resolution I wanted. Tempshill (talk) 18:57, 16 April 2009 (UTC)

Mozilla Thunderbird: Putting downloaded mail back into online mailbox

I like Thunderbird but when I installed it on a new computer it downloaded my mail into a local folder. Apparently in doing a download of mail, it erases the mail that's on the server. This is bad, because I deleted everything in the local folder and restarted the new account set up process because I only wanted to use Thunderbird to manage an online mailbox. Now what's in that online mailbox is gone. How can I get my mal back INTO my online mail server after it downloaded it onto a local folder if I've permanently deleted what's in the local folder? Is there an undo? -- Guroadrunner (talk) 04:52, 14 April 2009 (UTC)

As far as I know, if you didn't make a backup, it's as gone as any other deleted data on your system - that is, you might be able to use data recovery techniques to find old versions of your profile on the disk, but I doubt Thunderbird will have retained the data after you hit delete. (The hint is in your own question "I've permanently deleted ... is there an undo?")

I could be wrong, though, so check your profile; assuming you are on Windows:

1. Click Start->Run... and type "shell:appdata\Thunderbird\Profiles"
2. There will probably be one folder, with a randomly generated name ending ".default"; this is your profile
3. Look inside that folder for a folder named "Mail", and then "Local Folders"
4. This is where your mail was stored - try opening some of the files in a text editor and see if any of your lost mail is in there.

The only other possibility is that your ISP (or whoever provides your mailbox) has a backup from before you deleted the mail from there. Worth asking, I guess...

As for why it happened, this is how POP3 mailboxes were designed to work - the remote server is just a holding pen for new mail, with the "real" inbox on a single local machine. Of course, this is no longer appropriate for many people's needs, which is why IMAP has grown in popularity. - IMSoP (talk) 12:40, 14 April 2009 (UTC)

Deleting Account from PC

I have just given my mother a small netbook computer, as I will not be using it any more. She has made an account for herself, and I will be using it periodically when I go to visit, so I have left my own account on it. However, in a number of weeks, I shall be moving away to a new area, and won't be using the PC at all. If I deleted my own account from the PC, would that get rid of all the files that were in that account? I have already backed them up, and this would be a good way to get rid of some files which have personal information in them (National Insurance No., etc.) I would like to do this in case sometime in the future she decides to sell it or something, and I don't want my personal data getting into the wrong hands. --KageTora (talk) 08:14, 14 April 2009 (UTC)

Windows will ask you if you want to delete the files or move them. --wj32 ^t/c 08:48, 14 April 2009 (UTC)

Simply deleting files from the operating system will not physically remove those files from disk. See data erasure. With enough effort, the data can be recovered. The question is what kind of adversary you want to protect yourself against; Some random person snooping around, or a federal agency. If you are running Windows XP, the Cipher utility should provide security against casual attackers. After deleting your account, go to start->run and type

"cipher /w:"C:\Documents and Settings" (this is the default path of the user accounts, could be different on your computer) 

This also assumes that the files you want to wipe were all stored in your account folder, like on the desktop or in "My Documents". Disclaimer: I am not taking responsibility for any damage caused to your computer by doing this, but it works like a charm for me. decltype (talk) 10:22, 14 April 2009 (UTC)

.lit files in Windows Vista without Microsoft Office

How do you read them? I have OpenOffice, but nothing else.--Over2u (talk) 14:50, 14 April 2009 (UTC)

Our Microsoft Reader article says that it's, well, Microsoft Reader, which is apparently a free download. Tempshill (talk) 15:39, 14 April 2009 (UTC)

You could also just try and open them from Notepad, That will show any clear text at least. VectorEng. Inc.19:12, 14 April 2009 (UTC)

.lit#Converting .LIT files into an open format says "Tools exist (calibre, Convert LIT, ABC Amber LIT Converter) to convert .LIT files into other formats for use with software or devices not directly compatible with Microsoft Reader." However, this may not work if your .lit file suffers from DRM. Certes (talk) 21:35, 14 April 2009 (UTC)

Delphi Absolute Address

In Delphi, you can declare a variable that points to an absolute memory address, given by the address of a previously declared variable.

var
  MyStr: ShortString;
  MyStrLen: byte absolute MyStr;

(Because the first byte of a short string is its length, MyStrLen will always equal the actual length of MyStr.)

What I want to do, is to declare a variable pointing not to the address of a certain variable, but to this address plus a few bytes. In theory, it could have been possible to write it like this:

var
  MyVar: cardinal;
  MyVarLowWord: word absolute MyVar;
  MyVarHiWord: word absolute MyVar + $2;

Is there any way of achieving this? --Andreas Rejbrand (talk) 19:57, 14 April 2009 (UTC)

Disclaimer: I've never written a single line of code in Delphi, but what you want to do is called pointer arithmetic. A Google search for "pointer arithmetic delphi" gets some hits that are probably useful. Unfortunately, I am too confused by the many dialects of Delphi, or Object Pascal, or whatever it's called to provide a definite code example. But from what I can see, you can use Inc and Dec to achieve what you want. But note that the increment scales by the number of bytes in the base type of the pointee. Hope that helps. decltype (talk) 10:46, 15 April 2009 (UTC)

You don't have to use inc or dec, but the scaling can be helpful. I think you'll find what you need in the third answer here. BTW, StackOverflow is a great resource for programming questions/answers (I searched for "[delphi] pointer math"). Also, this looks good. --Scray (talk) 11:40, 15 April 2009 (UTC)

Now I can't see why I didn't think of pointers myself! Thank you very much, both of you! --Andreas Rejbrand (talk) 16:39, 15 April 2009 (UTC)

Resolved

Problem network copying a >10GB file

I am trying to copy a 10.6GB file called "source.tar.gz" from a Windows XP machine to a Windows Vista machine on the same LAN. When I copy the file in the usual way with Explorer (just dragging the file from one window to the other), it sits and copies for a while, counting down from 81 minutes remaining … and after a few minutes, the XP machine displays an error message saying the path is too deep. This is nonsense, however; the source directory is L:\public_shared and the destination directory is \\COMP\public-shared. The path isn’t too deep. Unless Windows is somehow digging into the TAR file! Googling "The path is too deep" brings up a lot of forums with useless suggestions about shortening the path name length.

• I've also tried renaming the file to "source.g" just to make sure that it didn't have to do with Windows trying to parse the .tar.gz file. Same error.
• I've also tried mapping \\COMP\public-shared to Z: and dragging the file to the Z: window. Same error.
• After mapping the destination directory to Z:, I've also tried copying the file with xcopy from the command line. I didn't get that error dialog, but after a while Explorer did stop responding.

Any help is appreciated! Tempshill (talk) 21:08, 14 April 2009 (UTC)

Make sure the file system is NTFS —Preceding unsigned comment added by 82.43.88.87 (talk) 21:10, 14 April 2009 (UTC)

Both filesystems are NTFS. I'm pretty sure the error message actually being displayed is spurious. Tempshill (talk) 22:20, 14 April 2009 (UTC)

Although it shouldn't make a difference as you're only copying a single file, what's the real directory for \\COMP\public-shared ? Is that multiple levels deep? ZX81 ^talk 21:30, 14 April 2009 (UTC)

It's not; it's 1 or 2 levels deep from C:\. Tempshill (talk) 22:20, 14 April 2009 (UTC)

I'd suggest that you sit down at the computer that the file is going to be copied to, go though the network and grab the file that needs to be copied. 64.172.159.131 (talk) 21:42, 14 April 2009 (UTC)

Just tried this, thanks for the suggestion - the network connection fails at about the same point, and this is again fatal to the XP machine (see below). Tempshill (talk) 01:36, 15 April 2009 (UTC)

OP here. Here's an awesome symptom that I am seeing in addition. This has happened 3 or 4 times, twice when trying to copy my big file by using the command line. The source machine, running Windows XP, connects to the LAN via a Netgear 802.11g WiFi PCI adapter that claims it's got a "Very Good" signal at 54.0Mbps. When the copying of my big file stops (the Task Manager network activity graph shows network activity going to 0), Windows reports via the wireless networking icon in the tray that my "Very Good" signal is running at 1.0Mbps! In fact there is no more network activity; Firefox is never able to see or reload another website. (Additional info since last posted: This seems to be fatal to the OS. Explorer stops functioning, and the OS gets a forever-hang.) This has happened four times. I have never seen it happen before yesterday when I started these shenanigans. Tempshill (talk) 22:20, 14 April 2009 (UTC)

On wireless this happens all the time with mine, I have to unplug the card to get it back, no idea why. But if you have no luck copying the file, you could try RARing it into a split volume file (ie multiple smaller files) that should be easier to transfer to the target machine, maybe 2gb per volume, and you can join them together once transfer is complete. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 82.43.88.87 (talk) 23:53, 14 April 2009 (UTC)

As another option, you could try alternative copying methods, like Xcopy or Teracopy. They both work much better than the default Windows copy mechanism. Indeterminate (talk) 10:38, 15 April 2009 (UTC)

Site that tell what terms people use to find a site

Hello there -

I was wondering if there was a website (or websites) that can tell you what terms people use to find particular websites, in which you can type an address and be informed of the words people are using in search engines to find certain pages.

All the best, --Ae Fond Kiss (talk) 22:53, 14 April 2009 (UTC)

I don't know of a public way you can see search terms used to find any website. But if you are the maintainer of a website, you can use Google Webmaster Tools to see searches where your own website appears in the results and those that people actually clicked on. --Bavi H (talk) 02:14, 15 April 2009 (UTC)

Paradox

Suppose you had an actual drive named Z:. Since DosBox uses an imaginary Z: drive as its "default" drive, what would happen if you loaded it up and you had an actual Z: drive? 58.165.25.29 (talk) 23:20, 14 April 2009 (UTC)

Dosbox's default drive is virtual. I don't think it would matter at all if you had the same name for the drive. Dosbox wouldn't notice. Not a paradox. --98.217.14.211 (talk) 23:37, 14 April 2009 (UTC)

Just wanted to confirm the above is correct and it wouldn't matter. All mapping is performed via the dosbox.conf file and if you wanted you could even map Z: to the real Z: ZX81 ^talk 12:22, 15 April 2009 (UTC)

Program error

In XP and Vista, under what conditions does the sound marked as "Program Error" play? I know that it plays in Windows 9x if you get a general protection fault, but in XP and Vista, the sound doesn't play in their GPS's. So under what conditions does it play in those two? 58.165.25.29 (talk) 23:23, 14 April 2009 (UTC)

I think it's there's just for backwards compatibility so that if a program has a problem and specifically requests that Windows plays the "program error" sound then it won't cause an error of its own. I could be wrong though! ZX81 ^talk 19:35, 15 April 2009 (UTC)

April 15

2 questions about Ubuntu...

My first question is, how do I set up a dial-up connection on Ubuntu 8.10 Intrepid Ibex? I've tried all the ways on this site, none of which worked: http://www.ubuntugeek.com/setting-up-dial-up-connection-in-ubuntu.html. (The main problem is, there is no System > Administration > Networking option...)

The second question is, how do I get that GRUB thing to boot into Windows by default?

Thanks

144.138.21.27 (talk) 00:32, 15 April 2009 (UTC)Will

I have an answer to the second question. When you see the GRUB menu, you need to count the number of operating systems that are listed. The first OS is 0, the second one is 1, the third is 2, etc. Keep counting until you get to Windows, and stop. Remember this number. Boot into Ubuntu and open /boot/grub/menu.lst with the text editor of your choice. Gedit will do the trick. Somewhere in there, there should be a line that says default 0. Change 0 to the number of the Windows entry. Then, run sudo update-grub. Xenon54 (talk) 01:12, 15 April 2009 (UTC)

Hey Xenon54, while that might work, I strongly suggest an easier way: just install StartUp Manager ( http://web.telia.com/~u88005282/sum/index.html ). it is available at the ubuntu repositories SF007 (talk) 05:41, 15 April 2009 (UTC)

Thanks for solving that second one, works a treat now :) If only I could say the same for the dial-up, I've re-tried everything on the above page, to no avail... I think if I can somehow get the old System > Administrator > Networking dialogue back, or that GnomePPP installer working, I should be able to sort something out from there. Thanks! —Preceding unsigned comment added by 144.138.21.148 (talk) 08:20, 15 April 2009 (UTC)

That article is over 2 years old, so it's a bit inaccurate. The System->Admin->Networking dialogue was provided by NetworkAdmin, which they've apparently been trying to phase out in favor of NetworkManager, which... well... I don't care for it much, but it mostly works. However, it doesn't seem to do dial-up, and I'm frankly surprised that they didn't include dial-up configuration in 8.10 by default. Anyway, if you follow this guide, which seems up-to-date, you'll need to install either the gnome-network-admin or gnome-ppp package. Then you can follow the steps they outline there, and assuming there are drivers for your modem, it should work. Good luck! Indeterminate (talk) 10:33, 15 April 2009 (UTC)

I tried the link in that article, and it siad to try a wvdial thing, and I ended up finding out I have no driver for the modem installed... how can I fix this? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 144.138.21.129 (talk) 02:19, 16 April 2009 (UTC)

I've just realised, there is a "Network Configuration" option in System > Preferences, but it says never to dial the connection... as well as that, it should ask me for the number to dial, but it doesn't, so how can I get this dialogue box to work for dial-up? 144.138.21.36 (talk) 09:01, 16 April 2009 (UTC)

Ticketmaster PDF file - wrong characters printed

This question is mostly out of curiosity because I have already printed a fresh, correct copy of my document. So, I got a PDF file from Ticketmaster containing event tickets, along with 2/3rds page of advertisements (which I gladly paid $2.50 for the privilege of printing on my own printer with my toner... I guess that's another story...). The images printed fine, but everything that was text, like the venue name and event, as well as the date and time, printed what appeared to be random character strings. I didn't notice at first, but someone pointed out to me that the line "SAT APR 18 2009 3:30PM" was printed as "TBU!BQS!29!311:!4;41QN" . OK, so I looked at 311: and thought, "Isn't that 2009, but incremented by one?" Why yes, it is.

So, the real question is not WHAT happened, but WHY? Freedomlinux (talk) 00:52, 15 April 2009 (UTC)

I've had the same problem, try the "print as image" option under advanced options. Sealedinskin (talk) 08:57, 15 April 2009 (UTC)

Yeah, all those characters that were printed are just the correct Ascii value + 1. Interesting. No idea why. Indeterminate (talk) 10:21, 15 April 2009 (UTC)

Formating problem

I think I got some kind of virus on my PC. It doesn't let me do a system restore (it won't come up) and some normal files (mp3 etc) are also not opening. I tried to format the drive so I can clean up the thing. Now the problem is, when I tried to format it when booting using the windows XP CD, it does not boot from the CD but starts as normal. When I tried to go to the boot menu at startup, the keyboard doesn't work there (at the boot menu) so I can't select anything. Is there any way to format this drive? Any help would be appreciated202.124.190.174 (talk) 05:32, 15 April 2009 (UTC)

Can you get into BIOS (usually, there is a message at the very start of bootup saying something like Press F2 for BIOS). If so, set the CD to be the primary boot device, not the hard drive. -- kainaw™ 06:05, 15 April 2009 (UTC)

Are you using a USB keyboard? Try a PS/2 one.F (talk) 09:45, 15 April 2009 (UTC)

@Kainaw: As I said, when I go there my keyboard is disabled. So I can go there but can't change anything once I'm there. I should also add that the keyboard works fine everywhere else, but is disabled only when I access those BIOS menus. 202.124.190.45 (talk) 13:04, 15 April 2009 (UTC)

To be clear... The "boot menu" which you mentioned is a menu that comes up AFTER the BIOS loading sequence that usually lists the devices you have with number in front of them. You press the number you want to boot. The "BIOS menu" comes before the boot menu. You usually get to it using a keypress (ie: F8). It has a lot of settings about drives, graphics, etc... It is difficult to know if you can't access one, the other, both... Another option is to reset BIOS completely. There will be a jumper on your motherboard - two pins that stick up for no apparent reason. Usually, there is a little metal clip wrapping in black plastic to look like a tiny black plastic rectangle - it will be sitting on one of the pins, but not the other. Pull it off and place it on both pins for a few seconds. Then, return it to the way it was. Your BIOS will be reset. Of course, you have to ensure you are using the BIOS reset jumper and not one of many other possible jumpers on the motherboard. That usually means that you have to identify the make/model of your motherboard, go online to get the manual, and then read the manual to figure out which jumper is the BIOS reset. -- kainaw™ 13:12, 15 April 2009 (UTC)

Try a PS/2 keyboard instead of a USB keyboard. Also if the first BIOS screen says "Press F2 for boot options" or "Press F2 for configuration" or whatever, hit F2 repeatedly during this screen, not just once - some BIOSes I've worked with have a pretty narrow window of when you can hit the key. Tempshill (talk) 16:52, 15 April 2009 (UTC)

archive calendar in WordPress

For my blog (now seven years old), I'd like to have an archive calendar page like many webcomics have. Anybody know of such a thing done in WordPress? I don't grok the SQL anywhere near well enough to write it myself. —Tamfang (talk) 06:39, 15 April 2009 (UTC)

Don't worry, they're one step ahead of you. :) This guide [10] looks pretty easy to follow. They have some links at the bottom to other archive options if that isn't specifically what you want. Indeterminate (talk) 10:15, 15 April 2009 (UTC)

Thanks but I don't see anything there that even vaguely resembles what I have in mind (see the Sinfest link above): a series of monthly calendars with a link for each day that has >0 posts. (There is a function to show such a calendar for the current month.) This would work too. —Tamfang (talk) 18:45, 15 April 2009 (UTC)

Unformat

How can you unformat a drive that has been formatted? 58.165.25.29 (talk) 11:45, 15 April 2009 (UTC)

Do you want to restore a particular file? Then you can try some of the software available to "undelete" files (I believe that a simple "format" command in general will not destroy any data on the disk). I do not know of any simple way of simply "undoing" the command. --Andreas Rejbrand (talk) 12:54, 15 April 2009 (UTC)

But, whatever you do – do not write anything to the disk, for doing so may overwrite the data you want to restore. If you need to install a file recovery software, do so on another disk! --Andreas Rejbrand (talk) 13:04, 15 April 2009 (UTC)

See our article Disk formatting. As Andreas Rejbrand stated, your best bet is probably to try using undeletion software; I don't know of any way to undo a disk format. See Undeletion and Data recovery. Tempshill (talk) 16:34, 15 April 2009 (UTC)

Try testdisk. --wj32 ^t/c 02:24, 16 April 2009 (UTC)

DVD Decoder Location

Resolved

where is CLVSD.AX located in relation to my system? I LEGALLY PURCHASED this decoder and want to use it on my new computer (NOT IN VIOLATION OF EULA BTW it says for use on ONE computer so if i delete it off the old one i'm ok) but i can't seem to find the decoder. Where would it be?  Buffered Input Output 13:29, 15 April 2009 (UTC)

I googled CLVSD.AX and the first entry is how to install and uninstall AX files. Is there a reason you didn't just use the uninstaller and then use the installer on the new system? Tempshill (talk) 16:45, 15 April 2009 (UTC)

Sorry for wasting time...i resolved it on my own (after an e-mail to CyberLink later)  Buffered Input Output 22:21, 15 April 2009 (UTC)

Question

Explain ways to protect your computer against viruses and trojan horse programs. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 68.51.212.48 (talk) 16:29, 15 April 2009 (UTC)

See our article List of antivirus software, and for an explanation, see Antivirus software. Also, you should normally set up 2 accounts on your computer: one account with "administrator rights", which you use only to install software that comes from a trusted source; and one "user account" with no administrator rights, which you should use to surf the web, use e-mail, etc. This will make it harder for a trojan horse or virus to infect the system. Comparison of privilege authorization features talks a little about this principle, though it's full of jargon. Tempshill (talk) 16:45, 15 April 2009 (UTC)

Blender's game engine

What are the shortcomings of Game Blender? Can you create a multiplayer game with it? Can you create a game for any platform? Can you create an online game (like a Flash game)? Can you create a 3D online game? 80.58.205.37 (talk) 17:00, 15 April 2009 (UTC)

You can do all that except no browser plugin will run your game so no online game and "any platform" is a bit vague (it supports linux/windows afaik). It's possible to use python to script your game, so only the sky is limiting if you can be bothered to write some (eg networking) code of your own. Of course it can then be questioned if Blender scales for such large projects but let's not get into that. --194.197.235.70 (talk) 18:38, 15 April 2009 (UTC)

Linux/Xorg rich input

Is there an easy way to have a context sensitive keyboard layout, ie if the previous key typed was an vocal some button would be 'r' but after consonant it would be 'a'? --194.197.235.70 (talk) 18:52, 15 April 2009 (UTC)

Just to clarify what you mean. Say on a normal layout you would press 'Q' to have that letter appear on your screen. This would normally go for any letter that is on your keyboard. The layout you are asking about would do this; Pressing 'Q' would only type out 'Q' should the previous letter have been 'A', 'E', 'I', 'O' or 'U', maybe 'Y'. If i am correct this would be a very complex layout that would take some time to master. Only to provide little advances over the current QWERT layout. Depending on the layout it would be difficult to type out words such as 'Lie' and 'Lye', Or 'Bite' and 'Byte', How about the words 'Fart' and 'Fat'? There are a lot of words, maybe even sentences, out there that would be very hard to type out with your proposed layout... at least for the English language. – Elliott(Talk|Cont)  19:50, 15 April 2009 (UTC)

I realize that i have not answered your question. To the best of my Knowledge i dont know how you would define 'easy'. To an experienced programmer using Ubuntu, i supose this task would be easy. To a native of a lost tribe in Inda who has never seen a comoputer this would be a very hard task. The only way i could think of doing this task in away that would not matter what OS you used would be to do it in Flash. But it would take me weeks if nto months to achive this task. – Elliott(Talk|Cont)  19:55, 15 April 2009 (UTC)

Yes you understood correctly. Easy == existing. I use dvorak myself so I must say that even if the speed improvement to qwerty isn't huge, the "feel" of typing is more comfortable. Having layouts alternating would have better home row usage if the layouts are designed with some statistics of target languages in mind. Maybe more than ~200wpm is excess for anything but copying texts and even that's a bit obsolete nowadays, but hey we do what we must because we can. --194.197.235.70 (talk) 20:46, 15 April 2009 (UTC)

Your best bet is to look in to this keyboard.– Elliott(Talk|Cont)  20:55, 15 April 2009 (UTC)

You might also be interested in chorded keyboard. --Sean 21:34, 15 April 2009 (UTC)

On Windows XP, there is an utility that allows you to define your own keyboard layout (which you can then load like any other layout) - I'll assume something similar exists for Linux. By mapping "dead keys" you can have combinations like that on the Norwegian keyboard layout - for example, if I press the ¨ key on my keyboard, nothing happens. If I press space afterwards, I get just the dots (¨), if I press "o" afterwards I get ö. This is logical to people but of course what the computer does is just defining the ¨ key as an extra "shift-type" key, and conditioning the response of the next key on this. (If I want to type ¨ I have to press ¨ followed by a space). Now, similar things can be set up by the keyboard editor mentioned and you can of course have any combination you want - I think. The only disadvantage to the way I understand your request is that after pressing the first button nothing would happen until you press the next - to follow the example above, if you press A nothing will happen, then when you press Q you will get AQ. If you press Q directly you will get Z. That should be feasible. To press only A would then require two keystrokes, A and, say, space. This probably makes it not good enough for you but if you use this to create something, let me know, I'd be curious. Jørgen (talk) 23:31, 15 April 2009 (UTC)

OS - what's the point?

So far as I can tell, no operating system is different from any other. I don't see how I'd be doing anything differently if I was using Windows 95 right now instead of Vista. I used a Mac once (never again...two mouse buttons, plskthnx), and it didn't seem much different either, though I will admit I'm unfamiliar with anything non-Windows.

I use my computer seven hours a day.

Er...what are the differences between OS's? To me? Now that I come to think about it, this same question applies to internet browsers, too... =\ Vimescarrot (talk) 19:15, 15 April 2009 (UTC)

Perhaps I should clarify slightly; I use my copmuter for internet gaming and finding out new stuff. Oh, and watching videos. That's about it. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Vimescarrot (talk • contribs) 19:21, 15 April 2009 (UTC)

I would say that the graphical user interface (GUI) in Windows Vista is much more appealing than the GUI in Windows 95, but I believe that this argument is not very convincing to you. A more important thing is system stability and security. If one single application crashes in Windows 95, it is likely that the entire system will become unstable and unresponsive – likely, you have to perform a "hard" reboot (power cord out). In Windows Vista, this is very unlikely. Also, I have a lot of important data on my PC, and I do not want any other member of the family to be able to damage this data. In Windows Vista, they can't do that. In Windows 95, on the other hand, there is no protection at all (the password is just there for aesthetic reasons) – to access the data of another user, you only have to open the C:\WINDOWS\Profiles\<User Name>\ folder. Also, most new hardware (e.g. printers) will not work on Windows 95, because the system is too old. --Andreas Rejbrand (talk) 19:22, 15 April 2009 (UTC)

Stability. Check. Aesthetics. Check. Security. Check. This alone takes up the kajillion million rams that Vista requires? (Genuine question, I have no idea if it would or not) Vimescarrot (talk) 19:25, 15 April 2009 (UTC)

Yes, this is why vista failed as an operation system, And why windows 7 is coming out. But you seemed to have left out one type of operation systems; Linux. Linux is a unix OS, as is Mac. I know there is one thing that you can do in Mac and Linux that you cant in windows. And that is use Aircrack-ng to it's fullest. – Elliott(Talk|Cont)  19:35, 15 April 2009 (UTC)

Vista failed because it's superior? I didn't "leave them out"; I stated I didn't know them, you're more than welcome to comment on them. And I didn't think I'd have to point out that I don't know what Air-Cracks are. Vimescarrot (talk) 19:41, 15 April 2009 (UTC)

Vista failed because it was a memory hog. As for windows, there are some restrictions that disallow you to mess with the operating system. For instance you can access the Registry useing regedit, But your dont have access the the files that regedit uses. Have you ever tried to delete a file that is being used by a program? Windows wont let you. Linux will. Weather this is a good or bad thing really depends on the program (Virus? Excel?) and the file. From what i know (and i could be wrong) windows does now allow direct hardware controll. Now this is inportatnd to advanced users but not the someone who jsut uses the computer to surf the web and play games (as i do). Were as linux does allow direct hardware control. I hope this helped in some way. If you are intrested in the differences i'd this suggest link. —Preceding unsigned comment added by E smith2000 (talk • contribs) 20:08, 15 April 2009 (UTC)

Directionality of restrict

The restrict keyword in C99 is said to prohibit (for optimization) aliasing among pointers. It's pretty clear what this means when you have two restricted pointers; you're promising that they're unaliased (or else that you only read from them, in which case you needn't mark them with restrict in the first place). However, how they interact with normal pointers is less clear — even in the C99 standard draft that I have, I don't confidently understand the implications of the word "access". So: does the following code (compiled with or without RESTRICT_WRITE defined) violate the restrict rules if f() returns the same pointer twice?

int *f(void),g(void);
int h(void) {
  int *restrict p=f(),*q=f();
#ifdef RESTRICT_WRITE
  *q=g(); return *p; /* no write through p is visible via q */
#else
  *p=g(); return *q; /* no read through p depends on q */
#endif
}

In each case, one can argue that because q is unrestricted, it can do whatever it wants, and p must deal with it (and be less-well optimized). But one can also argue that p is restricted and that any use of q is automatically a mistake. --Tardis (talk) 19:36, 15 April 2009 (UTC)

A useful rule of thumb is that the compiler is allowed, for alias-analysis purposes, to pretend that any initialization or assignment to a restrict-qualified variable has a right hand side of malloc(something). In your code the compiler is allowed to pretend that the first call to f is a call to malloc; thus it's unsafe whether or not RESTRICT_WRITE is defined. -- BenRG (talk) 21:02, 15 April 2009 (UTC)

linux boot problem

when i boot my linux fedora laptop up i get three fedora 10 options from grub, know which ever option i choose i get this message:

ata2.00 ACPI cmd 00/00:00:00:00:00:b0 failed Emask=0x04 Stat=0x00 Err 0x01
ata2.00 ACPI cmd 00/00:00:00:00:00:b0 failed Emask=0x04 Stat=0x00 Err 0x01
ata2.00 revaildation error Errmo=-5

then some loading message that flashes before i can read it

now for the first two fedora boot options after this message i get the fedora loading bars and then the computer freezes with a flashing underscore in to the top left corner, but the third fedora boot option works and i can boot normally

googling round some people seem to say its a loose cable though i opened up my laptop and tried pushing the cable back in, no luck

some people seem to think its a problem with grub and they suggested :

$ cd /boot/grub
$ sudo cp menu.lst menu.lst.backup
(Type your own password when asked and go on.)
$ sudo vi menu.lst
-> You enter in vi editor to apply changes in the file menu.lst
-> Move forward until the first line begining with "kernel" (without any #)
-> Type i to begin inserting text
-> Delete "quiet splash" at the end of the line and replace it by "irqpoll all_generic_ide" as steph33560 said
-> Press Echap to finish insert mode
-> Type :wq and Enter to save and exit.

it threw up alot of text but it didnt stop the boot freezing problem

heres a copy of my grub

# grub.conf generated by anaconda
#
# Note that you do not have to rerun grub after making changes to this file
# NOTICE:  You have a /boot partition.  This means that
#          all kernel and initrd paths are relative to /boot/, eg.
#          root (hd0,2)
#          kernel /vmlinuz-version ro root=/dev/VolGroup00/LogVol00
#          initrd /initrd-version.img
#boot=/dev/sda
default=0
timeout=15
splashimage=(hd0,2)/grub/splash.xpm.gz
hiddenmenu
title Fedora (2.6.27.21-170.2.56.fc10.i686)
       root (hd0,2)
       kernel /vmlinuz-2.6.27.21-170.2.56.fc10.i686 ro
root=/dev/VolGroup00/LogVol00 rhgb quiet
       initrd /initrd-2.6.27.21-170.2.56.fc10.i686.img
title Fedora (2.6.27.19-170.2.35.fc10.i686)
       root (hd0,2)
       kernel /vmlinuz-2.6.27.19-170.2.35.fc10.i686 ro
root=/dev/VolGroup00/LogVol00 rhgb quiet
       initrd /initrd-2.6.27.19-170.2.35.fc10.i686.img
title Fedora (2.6.27.15-170.2.24.fc10.i686)
       root (hd0,2)
       kernel /vmlinuz-2.6.27.15-170.2.24.fc10.i686 ro
root=/dev/VolGroup00/LogVol00 rhgb quiet
       initrd /initrd-2.6.27.15-170.2.24.fc10.i686.img
title Other
       rootnoverify (hd0,0)
       chainloader +1

i have to say i'm a linux noob so please take pitty--80.4.77.200 (talk) 21:31, 15 April 2009 (UTC)

Please tell us what the 3rd boot option is, the one that works. – Elliott(Talk|Cont)  21:38, 15 April 2009 (UTC)

After some googling i think you might have a filing hard drive in your laptop. test this by trying to use a live CD. If the live CD works without any problems then you either do have a failing hard drive or your OS is bad. {i think}– Elliott(Talk|Cont)  21:42, 15 April 2009 (UTC)

the third boot option is this one:

title Fedora (2.6.27.15-170.2.24.fc10.i686)
      root (hd0,2)
      kernel /vmlinuz-2.6.27.15-170.2.24.fc10.i686 ro
root=/dev/VolGroup00/LogVol00 rhgb quiet
      initrd /initrd-2.6.27.15-170.2.24.fc10.i686.img

if it is the OS whats the best way to fix it while keeping my data? dont have any cds atm to test a live cd, i hope its not the hd as the laptops ~4months old --80.4.77.200 (talk) 22:09, 15 April 2009 (UTC)

Did you recently update your system? Install new hardware?– Elliott(Talk|Cont)  22:18, 15 April 2009 (UTC)

hardware no, i apply what ever updates linux says i need, did recently have to play and around to update my nvidia graphics card (change init? and boot into terminal like mode) —Preceding unsigned comment added by 80.4.77.200 (talk) 22:36, 15 April 2009 (UTC)

i tried a live cd and the error messages still appeared during boot up, and it froze with the loading bars completed (used fedora 10 live) though i had problems burning a live cd, problem therefore could be either with the drive or the cds (even using low speeds)--80.4.77.200 (talk) 20:02, 17 April 2009 (UTC)

second thoughts it has now got as far as showing the mouse, just took some time--80.4.77.200 (talk) 20:04, 17 April 2009 (UTC)

Browser Crash

OK. This is my first time asking a question here, after several months of referring people here from the help desk. Anyways, lately my Firefox browser has been crashing. I'm running 3.0.8 on Mac OSX (10.5.6). This only seems to happen when I'm trying to view some Flash content (but not all Flash content). For example, Zero Punctuation. It starts to load, but then hangs. It also happens when I try to play some flash games. I've checked to make sure that I'm running Flash 10 and can't figure out what's going on. Does anyone have any tips? TNXMan 22:06, 15 April 2009 (UTC)

I am not really sure what is wrong with your browser but i'd suggest you try removing all your cookies, cache, Offline website data and maybe even your browsing history. From firefox you can do this by holding down ctrl+shift then hitting Del (at least you can from Ubuntu and windows XP). Also try removing your flash player and re-installing it. Do these flash videos work in a different internet browser? – Elliott(Talk|Cont)  22:14, 15 April 2009 (UTC)

Hmm, clearing my cache worked. I don't why I didn't think of that first. :( Anyways, thanks Elliott! TNXMan 22:25, 15 April 2009 (UTC)

Resolved

Video issues

My Nvidia GeForce FX 5200 Ultra card (an older card) is having problems. When i play Halo on this card, odd, small, flickering boxes appear on certain texture maps. Do i have a driver issue? or is the card dying?  Buffered Input Output 22:20, 15 April 2009 (UTC)

It might be that the card is overheating which could be because of dust build up within the case clogging fans/airflow. The easiest way to test is to run it with the side of the case off and see if you have the same problem. ZX81 ^talk 23:33, 15 April 2009 (UTC)

Nope, still there. Although i turned off some options in the Nvidia control panel and SOME of the boxes went away, but not all of them. I'll try to clean out the fan on the card; it looked pretty dusty.  Buffered Input Output 12:54, 16 April 2009 (UTC)

Still there after cleaning the card and reseating it AND reinstalling it. But i tried Star Wars Republic Commando and no boxes at all. I changed a supposedly relevant setting in the Nvidia control panel (conformant texture clamp) and the boxes still appear IN HALO ONLY!!! WTF???  Buffered Input Output 16:30, 17 April 2009 (UTC)

This is just a guess and may be completely wrong, but possibly your Halo installation is corrupted or at the very least perhaps some of the texture maps are damaged. I don't know how much hassle it is to reinstall the game (or where the save game files are stored), but it's probably worth a try. You could also try lowering the resolution/graphics settings to their minimum and seeing if the problem is still there (and then work out what setting causes the problem). ZX81 ^talk 18:25, 17 April 2009 (UTC)

An instant messaging client for the CLI and icons in Awesome

I have two questions:

• Is there an (open source) IM client for Linux you can use with the command line interface (a bit like rTorrent only for IM). I just started messing around with Awesome and both Pidgin and Emesene look pretty bad. (amazing coincidence, while looking for a picture for question 2 I found a screenshot of Awesome using what 'seems' to be an IM client)
• This one is also related to Awesome, how come the theme looks so ugly? Like Firefox, the buttons to go back and forward look ugly and old fashioned and so does the 'stop' button. The general theme is also rather ugly, some light-brownish gray compared to the the default Firefox in Ubuntu. Is this because I'm using the wrong theme? How do I change it? --BiT (talk) 22:22, 15 April 2009 (UTC)

For question #1, Pidgin usually comes with a CLI called 'finch'. Have never really used it though. --Bennybp (talk) 01:14, 16 April 2009 (UTC)

Oh nice! This is exactly what I was looking for. Now can anyone answer question two? :) --BiT (talk) 02:37, 16 April 2009 (UTC)

I just want to mention again how great Finch is! The only thing you have to do is to read the man finch and then you're set, it's great! (why hadn't I heard anything about it before?) --BiT (talk) 19:54, 16 April 2009 (UTC)

Paper Animation software

I am looking forward to a career in animation, but don't know where to start in terms of software. I don't want to use a completely paperless animation suite because I won't get the results I want. I want to draw out the scenes and characters, scan them onto computers, and then put it all together. What software can I use to do this? I will use multiple suites and programs. Mac OS X is preferred. Please give suggestions and thanks in advance. --Randoman412 (talk) 23:21, 15 April 2009 (UTC)

In my experience i have come to like Flash, Some-what easy program to use, you can use it as a glorified flip book. Or if you want to get really advanced you can use it for some (limited) 3d animation. But if all your looking for is to scan photos in and throw them together then feel free to try Adobe Flash. – Elliott(Talk|Cont)  23:29, 15 April 2009 (UTC)

If you would like some help getting to know Flash, i suggest you try Tutorialized.com, This website really helped me when i was trying to further my knowledge in 2D/3D animation. I hope this helped. – Elliott(Talk|Cont)  23:35, 15 April 2009 (UTC)

Autodesk Maya is the usual piece of animation software. Not sure about the use of paper with it, though. Tempshill (talk) 06:04, 16 April 2009 (UTC)

For very simple animation, you could simply scan each drawing as a .gif and edit into a single multi-frame gif using a raster graphics editor. Check for the features you need in the comparison of raster graphics editors or just try GIMP. Certes (talk) 16:21, 16 April 2009 (UTC)

You can certainly use Maya to do that - but it costs over a thousand bucks and it's distinctly overkill. You can make movies from still frames with any number of $0 OpenSourced software packages. (I use mplayer/mencoder because I like command-line tools - but there are any number of alternatives). However, I've gotta say that I'm entirely skeptical of your ability to make a career with paper animation...you're going to need to know packages like Maya like the back of your hand and adapt your animation style to the digital world - like it or not - that's where the work is. SteveBaker (talk) 05:00, 17 April 2009 (UTC)

April 16

XP and Vista icon Flickering when shutting down

While in the process of shutting down, a desktop icon usually flickers a few times before the computer shuts down. Why does this happen and how does the computer determine which icon to flicker? Acceptable (talk) 02:36, 16 April 2009 (UTC)

The flickering is because as Windows shuts down it will keep changing the active window between each application as it closes it down and the desktop. Everytime the focus shifts back to the desktop it highlights the last icon you were on and when it goes to shut down the next application it will change the focus from the and unhighlighting the icon in the process. Because of this you get that flicker effect you're describing. Hope that helps to explain! ZX81 ^talk

Windows Vista Home Premium SP1 Trial

Anyone know where I can download a Windows Vista Home Premium 32-bit SP1 trial version --Melab±1 ☎ 03:30, 16 April 2009 (UTC)

Although an unactivated version of Vista (any edition) will effectively function as a "trial" for 30 days, as far as I know Microsoft don't offer it as a download. The only download versions they do offer are the versions on MSDN or Technet (I've just checked and Home Premium is available on both), but you'd need a current subscription to either of those services to be able to access the downloads. ZX81 ^talk 04:15, 16 April 2009 (UTC)

Use bittorrent to download a dell OME vista installation iso... that will install as a trail on any non-dell comp. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 64.30.106.235 (talk) 04:19, 16 April 2009 (UTC)

then look for serials or patches to make it non-trail. WIN! —Preceding unsigned comment added by 82.43.88.87 (talk) 07:48, 16 April 2009 (UTC)

If you are downloading, might as well get one from the Pirate Bay. F (talk) 10:17, 16 April 2009 (UTC)

Window (not screen) video capture

I think that a problem I'm having with a piece of software could be best described/illustrated to its support desk if I could capture 20-30 seconds of pseudo- (or maybe real) video of only its own window, not the whole screen. I know nothing about the available technology in this area, so -- where should I start? Don't omit the basics, like "what's the correct name of what I'm looking for?"

Thanks! --DaHorsesMouth (talk) 03:40, 16 April 2009 (UTC)

Apparently it's called "screencasting software". See List of screencasting software. I have personally found HyperCam intuitive and easy to use. It allows you to select an area of the screen or window to record. Hope this helps. decltype (talk) 05:19, 16 April 2009 (UTC)

Forwarding email

Hello,

I was just wondering; is there a way for people with aol.com email addresses to forward all their saved mail to another aol.com email address? I have a lot of saved mail, and don't want to have to go through all of it. Thanks. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 69.16.93.243 (talk) 05:02, 16 April 2009 (UTC)

Actually, I think this is what I want instead: I just made a new AIM screen name. But aol gave me a new email account too. I want to keep my old email account and delete the new one, while keeping the new screen name. How can I delete the new email account? 69.16.93.243 (talk) 05:09, 16 April 2009 (UTC)

Do you really need to delete anything? Can you simply use the old e-mail account (ignoring the new one) and use the new screen name (ignoring the old one)? Certes (talk) 16:26, 16 April 2009 (UTC)

Video Card problem

I was running a CHKDSK on a hard drive and I needed to use the monitor on another computer so I swapped the cable out.

When I plugged it back in I got no signal out. I then restarted (probably interrupting the CHKDSK). Still couldn't get signal to the monitor (even the BIOS screens).

I put the video card (X1950XT) in other computer, and it works fine.

I put another video card (HD3400) into the computer and I see the BIOS screens but when it boots Windows (XP and 7) the monitor says "out of range". I can boot Windows in safe mode. I think this may be a separate problem to the one with the X1950XT...

Thanks in advance --130.194.165.125 (talk) 06:54, 16 April 2009 (UTC)

Try uninstalling the X1950XT and reinstalling it. And by uninstalling i mean going into device manager and delete it from the system. Then reinstall the drivers and the card and try again. Hopefully, this helps.  ;)  Buffered Input Output 12:58, 16 April 2009 (UTC)

Is it possible in your testing that the fault was actually following the video cable? If you can - try another cable. SteveBaker (talk) 04:47, 17 April 2009 (UTC)

How to paste into Word without the font changing?

Hi there, everyone:

I've been using Word for as long as I can remember, but there's one thing that has always annoyed me that I haven't been able to solve: Using Word 2002, I have set a default font, but when I paste from other resources, it nearly always changes all Serif Fonts to Times New Roman and all Sans serif fonts to Ariel - neither of which is my default. Is there any way to avoid the irritating need to change the font back every time I paste something?

All the best --134.151.34.100 (talk) 14:31, 16 April 2009 (UTC)

I'm not sure about Word 2002, but in 2003, when you paste an icon representing the clipboard will pop-up. Click the icon and a menu will appear. Click Match Destination Formatting or Keep Text Only. Another way is to paste the text into a text editor (such as Notepad). This will lose the formatting. Then copy and paste the text from Notepad into Word. A Quest For Knowledge (talk) 14:43, 16 April 2009 (UTC)

If I understand correctly: "Edit .. Paste Special .. Unformatted text" (you could also create a keystroke combination, but that's a bit more involved) — Ched :  ?  17:37, 16 April 2009 (UTC)

Web-based game programming (not flash)

I am interested in developing gadgets (think widgets) for igoogle and similar sites, which use the common web stuff: html, css, javascript. Does anyone know of a good resource (tutorials, forum) geared toward game programming in javascript or other applicable language? (I know I could do it in flash, but I'm interested in the other alternatives.)

For examples, I'm thinking of:

• this crossword gadget
• and this color-shifting game (really, anything by LabPixies)

Bencejoful (talk) 17:07, 16 April 2009 (UTC)

You might be interested in some of the standards-based madness at chromeexperiments.com. --Sean 18:32, 16 April 2009 (UTC)

Well, there are two components here. One is general javascript programming. The other is game programming. You can do game programming in any language—the key things that are different are that Javascript sets some pretty hard constraints on how you deal with graphics, what kinds of operations can be performed efficiently, and a lot of other things relating to how Javascript specifically interacts both with HTML and CSS as well as with the browser.

So if it were me, I'd first focus on Javascript in general. Build a simple Tic-Tac-Toe game using HTML tables, for example. Get a feel for the syntax and etc. From there, pick a somewhat more complicated project (say, checkers). Keep working up. As you get more familiarity with the language and the logic of games, when you look at things on the labpixies site and elsewhere you will be able to somewhat easily figure out how it must be done (e.g. the Google gravity code on the chromeexperiments page probably carves up the page elements into individual objects, then has some nice physics-like coding to deal with falling bodies, then goes through a timer loop moving each element according to the physics model, etc. — it's no doubt a lot harder than that in practice, but in terms of structurally breaking down the logic into its components, it is easy once you have some small association with the various elements at play in such a model). --98.217.14.211 (talk) 21:23, 16 April 2009 (UTC)

For 2D graphics in JavaScript, you need to look at the "<canvas>" extension. It's supported natively on every browser on the planet...except Internet Explorer. There is a plugin (courtesy of Google) for IE that solves that - although it's kinda slow. I wrote http://www.fmbaker.com/samegame/ using canvas - and I've been working on a 'god-game' "The Foot of God" http://www.sjbaker.org/tfog/ (think "Populous") using it and although that's FAR from finished, the graphics are close to working (sometimes you have to hit "reload" after you reach the page - I have a problem with preloading images). You can find documentation on "<canvas>" here: https://developer.mozilla.org/En/HTML:Canvas

For 3D - there is work in progress on adding OpenGL graphics to JavaScript too (there are hints in the canvas document about how they'll add it)...that would be a wonderous and beautiful thing and could well be a Flash-killer.

SteveBaker (talk) 04:00, 17 April 2009 (UTC)

Outlook 2007 and too-big images

I seem to always have size problems in Outlook 2007 when pasting, or inserting, a small JPG or PNG file directly into a message — that is, as part of the message, visible in the window, and not simply a file attachment. Outlook always scales the picture larger. It appears to always scale it to 133% of its original size. Trouble is, the picture "Size" dialog box (reached at Picture Tools->Format->(Size button in the ribbon)) claims the scale is currently at 100%, and there is some text claiming an "Original Size:", measured in inches; both claims are shameless, bald-faced lies. If I order Outlook to scale the picture down to 75% then it appears to be pixel-perfect, as I want.

Does anyone know what the problem is here? Why does Outlook want my pictures to look larger? Tempshill (talk) 19:44, 16 April 2009 (UTC)

iPod Volume boosting

Heya all,

ages ago there was a way to boost the volume of a 5.5G 80GB iPod video by opening the firmware with a Hex editor and swap two bytes. Anyone remember this hack and if it'll run on recent firmware?

Thanks, HardDisk (talk) 22:27, 16 April 2009 (UTC)

PS: Yes, I know software solution exist, but they all simply set the "Amplify" flag in the iTunesDB to max. for each song...

reformatting vista on acer aspire 6920-6968 using backup dvds

i made backup factory defualt dvds for my acer aspire 6920-6968. it uses windows vista home premium edition. want to reformat it, so i was wondering if it is alright if i reformat in the normal way or if there is a special way i have to, though i would prefer doing it the normal way. i do not have a windows vista cd.--Extra101 (talk) 22:51, 16 April 2009 (UTC)

also, I see that my laptop has a seperate partition of 140 GB that isn't being used; i dont want that, i want all my hard drive space usable, so how would i merge that space with the 144 GB that i am currently using (my laptop has 320 GB space).--Extra101 (talk) 23:14, 16 April 2009 (UTC)

April 17

How do you raise you miniclip world ranking?

How do you raise your miniclip world ranking? i have a bunch of highscores and i have star ranking but it wont show my world ranking....why? you can add or challenge me if you want, my user name is dnemo28 —Preceding unsigned comment added by Dnemo28 (talk • contribs) 00:33, 17 April 2009 (UTC)

webroot Spy Sweeper

Is webroot Spy Sweeper vista compatible? I googled it and I got mixed results. Anyone with first hand experience?--AtTheAbyss (talk) 02:42, 17 April 2009 (UTC)

Why not check with the source? Their product page on their website says it is. Tempshill (talk) 21:02, 17 April 2009 (UTC)

Firefox Ridiculous Mem usage

For some reason when I'm using Firefox, the amount of memory it uses builds up to ridiculous amounts after a few hours use, often as much as 800K, slowing it down significantly and requiring to both shut it down and also end the process using task manager, If I don't do that too, it stays there, using the same amount of memory and I'm unable to reopen it. Any idea why? Its 3.0 running on Vista btw--Jac16888^Talk 02:45, 17 April 2009 (UTC)

800k? That's NOTHING! 0.8Mbytes - that's probably one tenth of one percent of your computer's RAM! SteveBaker (talk) 03:40, 17 April 2009 (UTC)

Heh, sorry my bad, I meant 800k as in 800,000, 800Mbyes, around a quarter of my RAM--Jac16888^Talk 04:06, 17 April 2009 (UTC)

Have you got any plugins installed? Possibly one of those is (very) leaky. Try disabling them and seeing if you have the same problem, if not then reenable them individually/batches to narrow down which one(s) are causing the problem. ZX81 ^talk 04:31, 17 April 2009 (UTC)

Thanks for the tip, will try that.--Jac16888^Talk 04:47, 17 April 2009 (UTC)

Just so I know, what kind of memory does firefox generally use?--Jac16888^Talk 16:41, 17 April 2009 (UTC)

That really depends on what webpage(s) you are visiting and how many tabs are open (as well as what plugins are active). I've just created a clean install of Firefox 3.0.8 on Vista x64 and on my computer visiting the main www.google.com page uses 47Mb. I then installed the Flash plugin and loaded around 15 tabs of YouTube videos and it shot to over 300Mb. Closing them all down returned to the 47Mb fairly quickly. Although whilst writing all that I've just noticed that the usage has increased to 58Mb and Firefox hasn't changed page or even had the focus so I don't know what's going on there.... In fact just as I hit save it jumped to 62Mb although it appears to be holding steady now. ZX81 ^talk 18:40, 17 April 2009 (UTC)

Well I have the Facebook page open in one window (I know i know) and two Wikipedia tabs in another and its saying 200mb--Jac16888^Talk 19:58, 17 April 2009 (UTC)

.Desktop files and relative paths

I am currently trying to make a .desktop file to launch portable Firefox (on Linux), but I just can't get it to work! Does anyone know if it is possible to use relative paths on .desktop files? Like this:

PATH=./

I have read the .desktop file specification ([11]/[12]), but that did not helped....... Hacktolive (talk) 03:16, 17 April 2009 (UTC)

Hardisk and Hotspot

1.My laptop is Acer with specs: 120Gb HDD, 2Gb RAM, And OS Windows XP SP3 Balck Edition. one mount ago I install my Laptop with Windows XP Sp 3 Black Edition. Now when I want change my OS with other OS, I Can't install the other OS because my laptop can't detect my HDD (HDD doesn't exis or install). I start install booting from CD and fail. I scan My Laptop With many antivirus, there is no virus. So until now i still use OS Windows XP SP3 Black Edition. My somebody can help me, Please? 2. My laptop can detect hotspot in my area, but that hotspot protected with password. I want to know, How can we input the corect password or we can see the password is? Thank Lott —Preceding unsigned comment added by Cah1126 (talk • contribs) 08:22, 17 April 2009 (UTC)

2. Ask the hotspot owner.F (talk) 12:03, 17 April 2009 (UTC)

1. Sounds like you need a driver disk so that when XP is starting to install you can press F6 and read the driver from the floppy drive (so it can detect the harddrive). However, because you're using an illegal version of Windows it's hard to say if that would fix the problem as expected (there is no official version called "Black edition" except the pirated version which also contains other pirated apps). Didn't your Acer come with an XP CD/Recovery CD? I'd recommend just using that and then installing Service Pack 3 afterwards, but make sure you've backed up all your files first! ZX81 ^talk 13:15, 17 April 2009 (UTC)

Browser Back button

Is the web browser Back button a legacy of the days of static HTML pages? Do current web designers frown upon it? Are there usability standards as to what an user experience must be when he hits the back button? Any links to articles or blogs would also be helpful. Jay (talk) 11:15, 17 April 2009 (UTC)

The Back button is supposed to do one thing: Take the user back - to the previous page (the one that was opened before clicking the link or button). (That's one reason why "META refresh" and JavaScript-based redirection are disliked by many - when you click Back, you get to the redirector page, which forwards you to the same page again.) --grawity 13:22, 17 April 2009 (UTC)

Current web designers that know what they are doing do not mind the back button at all. They plan for it. Current web designers who do not know what they are doing hate the back button because it exposes their limited ability to make dynamic websites. Instead of learning to do things properly, they attempt to break the back button. There are very rare cases in which breaking the back "function" (not really button) is necessary. Here is an example: You have a special web object that the user can type text into. It is not a text box, but acting very similar to one. You want the user to be able to backspace to delete text. However, the backspace is the keyboard shortcut for the back button. So, when the user has your little web object selected, you don't want the backspace to be a "back button click". In some browsers (ie: Opera) you cannot override the backspace key. -- kainaw™ 14:06, 17 April 2009 (UTC)

Things that matter if you do them twice - like clicking the "buy" button in an online shop - are submitted as a HTTP POST rather than the normal HTTP GET. The browser will warn you if you go back in that case. I guess the source for this is rfc2616 9.5. --h2g2bob (talk) 19:48, 17 April 2009 (UTC)

That is what I meant by programmers not knowing what they are doing. The server should recognize that the same user submitted a purchase (or clicked the buy button) twice. Going back shouldn't cause a problem. -- kainaw™ 21:25, 17 April 2009 (UTC)

MIME types for tracker modules

What are the standard (or most commonly used) MIME types for tracker modules such as .s3m (ScreamTracker), .xm (FastTracker) and .mod?

I have found some pages that list all of them as audio/x-mod, but others have audio/x-screamtracker-module and audio/x-protracker-module and so on. Which ones should I use? --grawity 13:19, 17 April 2009 (UTC)

Delete Key Launching Task Manager

Hi. Anyone heard of where the Delete key (one below 'insert' and 'Del' on the numpad) launches task manager screen on its own? Just pressing either of these keys brings up the task manager, and I don't know how to disable this so I can use the decimal point key on the numpad and the normal delete function. Oh, and it's in a remote desktop connection to another workstation that this happens, it opens the task manager or the computer i'm connected to. Any help is appreciated, thanks. 161.181.53.10 (talk) 15:05, 17 April 2009 (UTC)

I've had this exact thing happen in Remote Desktop a couple of times, for 2 different reasons. First, someone had created a macro on the local box binding DEL to CTRL-ALT-DEL due to a physical handicap. The second time someone had left a screwdriver on the local console's keyboard, and it was pressing on CTRL and ALT, so my DEL completed the trifecta! Both rather unlikely circumstances, but they also both did happen, so YMMV. :) Arakunem^Talk 16:31, 17 April 2009 (UTC)

Sound problem

My sound is fuzzy. It crackles, like a radio approaching the edge of its range.

It's not a sound card problem, because it happened before I got a sound card and the brand new, mid-range sound card had no effect at all.

It's cured by restoring factory settings, but I don't want a cure, I want prevention. Factorising every three months is annoying.

It's not the speakers; I've replaced them numerous times.

It happened on both my old and my new computer.

I think that's everything. Anyone got any ideas what's causing this, and how I could prevent it? Thanks in advance for anything you try. Vimescarrot (talk) 19:34, 17 April 2009 (UTC)

Do you live in an area that would have a lot of EM interference? Near an airport, or a radar array or something like that? 65.121.141.34 (talk) 19:55, 17 April 2009 (UTC)

EM interference would be my first guess as well, then I'd look to a driver issue. — Ched :  ?  19:58, 17 April 2009 (UTC)

Not that I know of. Would that explains the cumulative nature of this phenomenon - the fact that it just gets worse and worse as time goes on? Vimescarrot (talk) 20:00, 17 April 2009 (UTC)

Oh, and I've also moved house since it first happened. Twice. Vimescarrot (talk) 20:01, 17 April 2009 (UTC)

So it happened on two completely unrelated computers, on the second one with a number of speakers and soundcards, and at three different locations? That is highly unlikely. Perhaps the two computers were not completely unrelated, after all? Perhaps you used the same OS on them (an unusual OS)? (And, forgive me for asking, does other people also hear the distortion?) --Andreas Rejbrand (talk) 20:10, 17 April 2009 (UTC)

I completely understand your skepticism. Yes, other people hear it. The OS on the first computer (which, if it matters, was used in locations 1 and 2) was Windows XP; in the second computer, in locations 2 and 3, it was (and still is) Windows Vista. I tried multiple speakers (but only one soundcard...well, the built-in one) on the first computer. The second computer has tried different speakers as well as different soundcards. Vimescarrot (talk) 20:20, 17 April 2009 (UTC)

I agree it's highly unlikely, which is why I think something must have caused it - something which I'm doing. I use a webcam with a built-in microphone - someone suggested that could cause it, via feedback. Or something. Someone else suggested a virus, but no scan has found any trace. Vimescarrot (talk) 20:21, 17 April 2009 (UTC)

My radio crackles when I use a hair-dryer. Kittybrewster ☎ 20:26, 17 April 2009 (UTC)

Yes, the only common factor is the user, and the user-specific activities and applications. I do not believe it is a virus, for then a quite rare virus must have infected two different computers. I agree that all audio input devices, such as microphones, are "suspicious". Try to disable them (temporarily). Also, are there any application you have used on all three computers? (Of couse, the application have to be quite uncommon, e.g. Microsoft Word is not qualified.) Or did you experience the distortion when any computer was new and "clean" as well? --Andreas Rejbrand (talk) 20:37, 17 April 2009 (UTC)

The computers were fine when new. I use mostly Internet Explorer (started on 6, am now on 8), a lot of Java, Windows Live Messenger and...that's pretty much it. Common activities are RuneScape and watching videos. I've uninstalled my webcam (which contains the microphone) but did not hear any difference in the sound. Of course, it's possible that the sound stopped getting worse, but since it's over such a long time period (a few months) it's difficult to tell... Vimescarrot (talk) 20:41, 17 April 2009 (UTC)

(P.S. I have to go to bed now, will be back same time tomorrow) Vimescarrot (talk) 20:41, 17 April 2009 (UTC)

iPhone as spirit level

How can a phone become a spirit level using an "app"? Kittybrewster ☎ 20:23, 17 April 2009 (UTC)

From the sound of one reviewer, it doesn't. CTRL + F "Spirit level" here. Vimescarrot (talk) 20:33, 17 April 2009 (UTC)

Just to clarify if you don't want to read it, you calibrate it to zero first, using a perfectly flat surface. I imagine it detects its tiltiness the same way a Wii Remote does. Vimescarrot (talk) 20:35, 17 April 2009 (UTC)

accelerometer --Nricardo (talk) 01:55, 18 April 2009 (UTC)

PPTP VPN considerations

Hi All,

We use have 2 LANs with separate ISP's. On both of these LANs we have dhcp enabled and both of them assigns ip address in the form of 192.168.1.x.

I've recently been playing around trying to get pptp to work on these so I can be on both networks on the same time (so i can manage/monitor on both networks, so am not really trying to bridge both networks completely).

I have been able to enable pptp on the router (a dedicated computer running pfSense on the target network ill call Network A) and connect to it successfully from the network I'm currently on (Network B). on XP, I can do a ipconfig /all and it lists the pptp adapter showing the ip I assigned on the router of Network A. My problem is I dunno what I have to do to specify which network connection should be used when I issue some sort of command: ie how do I ping 192.168.1.1 on Network A? It always defaults to pinging the ip on my current physical connection (Network B).

Do I have to change one of the LANs to use a different mask (192.168.2.x) to get it to work?

TIA PrinzPH (talk) 22:35, 17 April 2009 (UTC)

Yes, you will need to renumber one of the networks, otherwise the local route will win. Gavint0 (talk) 12:37, 18 April 2009 (UTC)

Am I allowed to name ISP's here?

I have been a subscriber with AOL BROADBAND in Scotland Uk for many years and have no issues with that. But recently, I have noticed that the longer I stay online, the slower the service becomes ie., slower, erratic and at times unresponsive. BUT when I disconnect and reconnect Hey Presto, the service goes back to being fast and slicky. Can I be forgiven for suspecting that I am being penalised the longer I stay on? Secondly, AOL used to have a LIVEHELP button that connected me in realtime with a LIVE helper who would answer problematic queries and help me to solve them. But for several months now, whenever I click that button, I get a message telling me that AOL are in the process of improving that service????????????????? and offering instead a 48 hour e-mail question and answer service. My question? Oh yes. Can I believe the second part of that summary? And how can I decide which is the best all-round alternative ISP in my area given my scepticism about AOL. Thanks.92.9.138.136 (talk) 23:37, 17 April 2009 (UTC)

Selecting part of a raster object in Inkscape

I opened a scan in Inkscape because I am trying to autotrace part of it. Inkscape treats the entire scan as one object, which I expected, but unexpectedly, I cannot select part of the object, the part that I want to trace. Is there a way to do this on Inkscape or is this a lost cause? I have Version 0.45 —Preceding unsigned comment added by Elatanatari (talk • contribs) 23:42, 17 April 2009 (UTC)

April 18

SVG in Safari

When I try to view SVG images in Safari (version 3.2.1, Mac OS X 10.5.6) at full size, I can only see a part of the image, and there is no way to scroll around to see the rest. Is there any way to fix this, or is there another browser that works better? Lesgles (talk) 01:04, 18 April 2009 (UTC)

I ran into the same problem (with IE) yesterday when trying to study this image from a PC that had only IE installed. Back home, with Firefox, it works nicely at full resolution, with scrollbars on the bottom of the page and on the right edge. --NorwegianBlue ^talk 06:14, 18 April 2009 (UTC)

Try the Safari 4 Beta, or Opera, both of which have greater standards compliance. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_web_browsers might help also. 144.138.21.23 (talk) 06:19, 18 April 2009 (UTC)

Thanks, I'll try those! Lesgles (talk) 06:55, 18 April 2009 (UTC)

Getting Sick of This 'Administration Priveliges' Bollocks

How do I set my own account on my own PC to have administration priveliges? It's a real PITA that I keep getting denied access when I need to do stuff. I am using Vista.--KageTora (talk) 10:27, 18 April 2009 (UTC)

You mean the error messages or the continually being asked to confirm? - Jarry1250 ^{(t, c)} 10:43, 18 April 2009 (UTC)

Well, in this particular case (prompting me to post this question) I have been told by a game I have just installed that I need admin priv to get protection or whatever. So, how do I set my account to be the admin?--KageTora (talk) 10:46, 18 April 2009 (UTC)

Open the start menu, click on your picture at the very top of the menu, and then choose "Change account type" (or whatever the name of the option is in English). However, it is indeed very possible that you already are an administrator. Then, maybe it is UAC that annoys you, or you might need to run the game as administrator. To do so, right-click on the game's icon, select "Preferences", "Compatibility" and check "Run this program as an administrator". --Andreas Rejbrand (talk) 11:55, 18 April 2009 (UTC)

Trucrypt Question

How do I find out my password for the files I have encrypted on TruCrypt? Or are they all just gone forever? I'm not having a good day on this bloody PC. --KageTora (talk) 11:43, 18 April 2009 (UTC)

TrueCrypt does not contain any mechanism or facility that would allow partial or complete recovery of your encrypted data without knowing the correct password or the key used to encrypt the data. The only way to recover your files is to try to "crack" the password or the key, but it could take thousands or millions of years depending on the length and quality of the password/keyfiles, on software/hardware efficiency, and other factors. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 82.44.54.169 (talk) 11:47, 18 April 2009 (UTC)

Dim monitor

Are there ways to dim monitor screens further than the default buttons allow? I find it very hard to focus on a bright screen in an area without any lighting. The operating system I'm using is Windows vista on an LCD monitor. Thank you for your help. -- penubag  (talk) 12:18, 18 April 2009 (UTC)

PHP Hit Counter Help

Hi. I'm trying to create a PHP hit counter. I want it to display the number of unique visitors to the site. If the user has a cookie from the site, it does not increment the count. If he doesn't, it increments the count. In either case, it prints the number. Here's what I have so far. Right now, it isn't incrementing. If I get rid of the conditionals, it increments, but doesn't care if you've been to the site before. Thanks.

			<?PHP
				if (isset($_COOKIE['id']))
				{
					$filename= "counter.txt" ;
					$fd = fopen ($filename , "r") or die ("Can't open $filename") ;
					$fstring = fread ($fd , filesize ($filename)) ;
					echo "$fstring" ;
					fclose($fd) ;
				}
				else
				{
					setcookie( 'id', 'counter', time()+(60*60*24*7));
					$filename= "counter.txt" ;
					$fd = fopen ($filename , "r") or die ("Can't open $filename") ;
					$fstring = fread ($fd , filesize ($filename)) ;
					echo "$fstring" ;
					fclose($fd) ;
					$fd = fopen ($filename , "w") or die ("Can't open $filename") ;
					$fcounted = $fstring + 1 ;
					$fout= fwrite ($fd , $fcounted ) ;
					fclose($fd) ;
				}
			?>

—Preceding unsigned comment added by Tim james 5 (talk • contribs) 12:47, 18 April 2009 (UTC)