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October 16

Cheapest pocket 'computer'

What would be the cheapest pocket-sized or less self-contained computing device? Some constraints: it must 1) have some kind of alpha-numeric keyboard - a touch-screen keyboard might do. 2) have a display that can at least show text and numbers. 3) have some high level programming language 4) be able to save data or programs 5) be able to trabsfer data and programs to and from a computer. Thanks. (As paper LCDs are now possible, I hope that one day soon it will soon be possible to buy a pocket computer for a few pounds or dollars.) 78.151.92.101 (talk) 00:25, 16 October 2009 (UTC)

Off the shelf - a used PDA would probably fit the bill. A high-end graphing calculator. An Android-based cellphone maybe. SteveBaker (talk) 01:35, 16 October 2009 (UTC)

Personally, I'm still waiting for my OpenPandora. Graphing calculators like the TI-92 sell used for under $40 on ebay. They've got a weird form factor, though. You might go for an older PalmOS machine. They don't come native with built-in programming tools, but you can get C compilers and stuff. APL (talk) 23:54, 16 October 2009 (UTC)

wget and cURL - can the links they follow be specified?

I would like to use one of the these to download a series of pages connected by "next page" links only, and not to follow any other of the links on the pages. Is there any way of getting them to do this please? 78.151.92.101 (talk) 00:34, 16 October 2009 (UTC)

Looking to build a budget gaming computer, are these parts OK?

I'm OK with software, but I know nothing at all about hardware, so when I decided to build a computer I was forced to turn to the Internet. Off a suggested parts list for a budget gaming computer, I got most of the following parts, although a few were no longer available so I had to try to find an alternative. Again, I freely admit that I know very little about the finer points of hardware (although I'm trying to pick up a few things!), so any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Case: COOLER MASTER Centurion 534 RC-534-KKRK-GP Black Aluminum & Mesh bezel / SECC Chassis ATX Mid Tower Computer Case 460W Power Supply - Retail

Motherboard: Foxconn A7DA-S AM2+/AM2 AMD 790GX HDMI ATX AMD Motherboard - Retail

Processor: AMD Athlon X2 7850 Black Edition Kuma 2.8GHz 2 x 512KB L2 Cache 2MB L3 Cache Socket AM2+ 95W Dual-Core Processor - Retail

Memory: Patriot Extreme Performance 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model PDC24G6400ELK - Retail

Video card: EVGA 01G-P3-N959-TR GeForce 9500 GT 1GB 128-bit GDDR2 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Supported Video Card - Retail

Hard drive: Western Digital Caviar Black WD5001AALS 500GB 7200 RPM 32MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive

Optical drive: SAMSUNG SH-S223Q LIGHTSCRIBE DVD±RW DVD-MULTI 22x S-ATA

If I've missed anything vital (I already have speakers, a mouse, keyboard, etc.), please mention it as well, as this is the first computer I've ever seriously considered building. Any advice or explanation about the building process would also be appreciated. Also, I'm planning on getting Windows 7 when it comes out- what version of it will I need to get? Oh, and the budget I was trying to stay within was about $700, although I could stretch farther if absolutely necessary. Thanks for the help! 24.247.163.175 (talk) 01:20, 16 October 2009 (UTC)

Parts look OK, except that you should get a minimum of a 9600GT for a 'gaming' computer. This will need a slightly better power supply - about 600W should be OK. Memory is fine (4G) and I can't comment on the AMD components as I prefer Intel... but they should be fine (dual core). Sandman30s (talk) 09:19, 16 October 2009 (UTC)

A good 460W power supply would give more then enough headroom for that computer, even with the 9600GT. [1] [2] [3] Nil Einne (talk) 11:49, 16 October 2009 (UTC)

(this is the OP, just on a different computer now!) So if I were to switch out that card for this one, it should be good? 204.38.47.171 (talk) 17:50, 16 October 2009 (UTC)

Perfectly fine. Also, make sure you motherboard supports PCI Express v2.0 (not version 1) so that you can get full benefit out of that card. I have a similar setup and all modern games right perfectly well on 1280x1024 resolution. Of course a 9800GT is better but that could blow your budget! Sandman30s (talk) 19:27, 18 October 2009 (UTC)

TI Basic vs. Python

I'm translating a TI-89 Basic program into Python, and I'm wondering... is there a Python equivalent of TI-Basic's "cycle" command? --Lucas Brown 42 03:38, 16 October 2009 (UTC) —Preceding unsigned comment added by Lucas Brown 42 (talk • contribs)

"continue" Rckrone (talk) 04:49, 16 October 2009 (UTC)

Consequences of opening a port

Hello, tech-savvy Wikipedians! I wanted to open a port through my laptop's firewall so that the parents' computer in another city can establish a connection over the Internet to my laptop and send data back and forth. However, I am not aware of the security risks of opening a port. So my questions are 1. How does opening a port affect the security of my system? and 2. What steps can I take to let my parents' computer in while keeping the "bad guys" out? Thank you!--el Aprel (^facta-_facienda) 04:54, 16 October 2009 (UTC)

It depends entirely on (1) what port you're talking about, (2) what program will listen on the port, and (3) the settings for the program.--Drknkn (talk) 07:58, 16 October 2009 (UTC)

I will make a Java program that listens on the port. Does that mean I can explicitly control what computers can establish a connection with mine by using a password, for instance, or a long that holds an identification value in the program? Then, does that mean as long as my Java program isn't running, the port is essentially "closed" and won't permit a connection because there's no program listening on it? Also, I didn't know the port number mattered. I had a look at the List of TCP and UDP port numbers article and thought I could pick any of the private ports between 49152–65535. Is that a bad idea?--el Aprel (^facta-_facienda) 19:31, 16 October 2009 (UTC)

Oh, and I did just take a look at my netstat and will make sure to pick a private port that isn't already being used by internal processes on my system.--el Aprel (^facta-_facienda) 19:36, 16 October 2009 (UTC)

Specific ports are not inherently "more risky" - but if you pick a port which is commonly used to host another widespread software service, you might find statistically more random "probes" by random drive-by portscanners. Your Java program can verify the IP of who is connecting - so you can use specific-host-only connections (if you trust a specific IP, e.g. your parents' PC); the IP connecting to you can not be spoofed (unless your parents' PC is a "man in the middle" proxying somebody else's attack). You can use a Secure Socket in Java, and you can implement any of a variety of custom authorization verification handshaking protocols. It's very unlikely that an automated port scanner would guess a particular long authentication byte sequence "password" - which you could send in plain-text, or hash against the current UTC time and host IP, to make it more secure. Nimur (talk) 20:56, 16 October 2009 (UTC)

Home-brewing your own network protocol generally isn't necessary, and may open up security problems you haven't considered. I'd generally recommend running a secure-shell server like OpenSSH (on a non-standard port, so you don't have to look at so much port-knocking noise in the logs). With that you can tunnel anything you want, from windows and unix networking protocols to remote screen protocols link VNC; and if you really need to write your own protocol, it's probably easier to write a non-secured version of it, and tunnel that through SSH too. -- Finlay McWalter • Talk 21:13, 16 October 2009 (UTC)

In Java, wrapping the protocol in SSL would be possible using Security, e.g. the SSLSocket (with SSL implemented by Sun, not by OpenSSH). (Or you could tunnel through an OpenSSH session). I was under the impression that el Aprel specifically wanted to write his/her own network protocol; but as Finlay rightly points out, much can be accomplished with standard tools like scp. Nimur (talk) 21:54, 16 October 2009 (UTC)

Thanks, everyone! Yes, my original intention was to construct it all by myself using Java, but I was reluctant because I didn't understand the security factors involved. Your responses really helped clear it up for me. Thank you!--el Aprel (^facta-_facienda) 20:00, 18 October 2009 (UTC)

3-Sat

I was wondering, are the complexity classes of algorithms used to solve the 3-Sat descion problem determined based upon the number of actual variables or the number of expressions? For example, would the input size of (a + !a + b) AND (b + !b + a) AND (a + a + a) be 2 since {a,b} has 2 elements or 3 since 3 expressions are being conjuncted? (Obvbiously, this example can be very easily reduced down to fewer expressions, etc.) 66.202.66.78 (talk) 07:37, 16 October 2009 (UTC)

Well, I would say it is 9, the number of literals you have to write to write out the expression. --Spoon! (talk) 07:41, 16 October 2009 (UTC)

So, essentially, it is the number of expressions since this is just 3 times the number of literals? In short, input size is related to the number of literals, not the number of variables used in those literals? Thanks:) 66.202.66.78 (talk) 07:45, 16 October 2009 (UTC)

It's NP complete in either case. Because worst case behaivor will occur when the number of different literals are within a polynomial factor of the size of the expression. Taemyr (talk) 08:51, 16 October 2009 (UTC)

Final Fantasy Tactics

- While I'm here, I have another question. I always liked the battle system in FFT and was wondering if there was a program that would let you set up the characters, conditions, and terrains and have a multiplayer battle in a similair fashion; namely, could one get something like the FFT battle engine, but set it up so that it is two players without computer controlled characters? If this is not possible, how hard would it be to program something like this? What would be a good language to do it in? (I've often tossed around the idea of making my own, I just don't have that much experience with game programming; though I do have experience with other areas. Note: I really don't care about the quality of the graphics, just the system.) Actually, while here, I would like to ask the same question, only with regards to FF7 Chocobo racing portion from the Golden Saucer. (Again, this doesn't need to be an exact duplicate, just something related that I could customize and, possibly, mess around with the actual code) Thanks:) 66.202.66.78 (talk) 07:45, 16 October 2009 (UTC)

I searched for existing implementations; I don't know what "SuperTact" is unless it's the C64 game. I also found FFT Realm; I don't know how close it is to what you want.

As for implementing it yourself, it shouldn't be very hard if you're willing to forego (sophisticated) graphics and network play (so all players must be at the same computer). The rules are well-known. However, expect that reimplementing every character class and spell from FFT to take as long as to write that guide (at least).

If you already know any general-purpose programming languages (you said you "do have experience with other areas"), you'll probably be most effective with what you know. Otherwise, I'd suggest Java or Python, because they're well supported, widely used, have extensive standard libraries for graphics and (if you try it) networking, and are said to be easy to learn. (I'm afraid I don't know anything about Chocobo racing.) --Tardis (talk) 01:00, 18 October 2009 (UTC)

Choice of Motherboard

There is two mobo of Gigabyte in my choice

• GIGABYTE GA-EP45-UD3R

• GIGABYTE GA-EP45T-UD3R

Which one i should choose? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 119.30.36.51 (talk) 11:40, 16 October 2009 (UTC)

The big difference between these two motherboards is one supports DDR3 and the other DDR2. As DDR2 is still significantly cheaper then DDR3 I would recommend you stick with it. You're unlikely to see any performance difference in the vast majority of real world applications e.g. [4] [5] so the only real benefit would be being able to use the RAM in a future DDR3 computer but given the price that's not likely to be a big advantage and the advantage is the ability to upgrade the RAM in the future for a reasonable price (since DDR3 will eventually overtake DDR2 in price and then will get cheaper) but again if you get 4GB now (and given the price there's little reason not to) there's not likely to be any real reason to upgrade in the future I would expect. Nil Einne (talk) 11:58, 16 October 2009 (UTC)

DDR3 2GB modules are now at price parity with DDR2, and DDR2 prices appear to be going UP not down. DDR3 4gb modules are still much more expensive than ddr2 though. 66.127.54.181 (talk) 21:56, 16 October 2009 (UTC)

I guess this depends where you live. It's not the case here in New Zealand where DDR3 is at least 25% more. Obviously I'm only considering 2x2gb, anything else isn't worth considering unless the OP has specific needs IMHO. If DDR3 is at price parity then I would agree DDR3 is probably the better bet. Nil Einne (talk) 11:05, 17 October 2009 (UTC)

Even in cases where DDR3 are a little more expensive, it's worth something to future-proof. If it were me and the two boards were priced the same I would get the DDR3 version. ---J.S (T/C/WRE) 00:48, 18 October 2009 (UTC)

It depends on your budget but I would regard 25% (actually probably more then that from what I've seen) as significantly more expensive that you have to ask yourself what for? In this case, a big question is future proof against what? As I've mentioned, given the current price of RAM, the advantage of being able to use your RAM in a future computer is IMHO pretty much worthless (particularly since in most places you could easily sell your DDR2 RAM for a fair amount if it comes down to that). So the only real advantage which I also mentioned would be being able to upgrade RAM in the future (any decent RAM should have a lifetime warranty so having to replace broken RAM is not an issue) at a more decent price and with larger sticks (since it is unlikely we will see 4gb DDR2 sticks but I would expect 4gb DDR3 sticks to eventually take hold and become a recent price). If you are a gamer, simulatenous edit very large photos, do CAD or 3D work, edit HDTV, run a database or otherwise may really need such a large amount of RAM in the future then it may be worth considering. But in reality, the average user doesn't really need even 4gb nowadays, the only reason I recommend it is because it's the only sensible option (well unless you're looking at triple channel) given the pricing unless on a very, very tight budget (which is unlikely given the motherboards being considered). I'm usually a big fan of and there are clearly cases when future proofing clearly makes sense. For example, if in 2005 you were choosing between an AGP or PCI-express motherboard, you'd likely be rather miffed if you choose the AGP particularly if you are a gamer and in other cases like if you want a card for hte h264 etc bitstreaming. It's perhaps worth remembering we're talking about a dying platform. The socket 775 platform is being phased out. If you are considering a dual core now you may want to upgrade to a quad core in 2 years or less if you're likely to need it. Beyond that, it's likely to make less sense since even if socket 775 processors are still available, there's a good chance they'll be rather expensive for what you get particularly for the quad cores (as someone with a socket 939 processor I know this). You'll never see more then a quadcore. And, there are only going to be very few circumstances where you're likely to want 8gb with a dual core processor. So unless you're seriously considering a quad core now or in the future, another reason to ask yourself if you really need it? It's also worth considering it in an all round sense. The money may not be much, but it's still something. Where else could you spend the money? In fact if you think there's a slight possibility you may want to upgrade to 8gb you should consider some sort of cost/benefit. History with DDR and SDRAM would suggest the price for DDR2 ram is probably not going to get super expensive. RAM prices fluctate quite a lot but it's resonable to expect in 2 to 3 years time DDR2 ram will be a similar relative price then as it is now. DDR3 will have come down a lot so that it will seem expensive, however even so the amount you save now may mean the price difference you're paying isn't actually as big as it seems. You will be stuck using 4 sticks (whereas with DDR3 you can sell or do something else with your RAM and probably use 2x4gb if you want albeit this will add cost and your 2x2gb sticks DDR3 won't be worth much unlike your DDR2 sticks) and have little chance of using 16gb. Maybe even saving it and upgrading sooner may make sense. Incidentally, as someone who's used Windows x64 (first XP now Vista) for 3 years+ I can say the number of Windows x64 applications is still rather low. Many professional apps are finally coming around to this but unless you use them, there's a good chance most of your applications will be x32. This is a key point since if your apps are x32 they themselves are never going to be able to use more then 4gb so you'll only gain an advantage with multitasking of extensively memory hungry apps. I'm pretty sure quite a few aren't even large bit aware so can't even use more then 2gb. I used to think people skimped way to much on RAM. But as I've said, it seems to me we're starting to reach a level where the demands have slowed* so even 4gb is not really necessary even if IMHO the only sensible option. Even most Vista users don't really need 4gb and Windows 7 and netbooks have seemingly improved the situation. If this switch to cloud computing really happens well there will be even less need. I'm sure in 3-5 years there will be quite a few more people that need more that need more then 4gb but I also think you have to ask yourself whether it's resonable you'll be one of them and if not what you're futureproofing against? *It isn't just RAM of course, many people have argued the same thing with processors. Nil Einne (talk) 11:35, 18 October 2009 (UTC)

Visual Studio 6 & Crystal Report 2008

I have installed Visual Basic 6 and Crystal Report 2008 in my computer. But I cannot run Crystal Report from within Visual Basic as the Report Designer option is not shown in the Add-Ins Menu . What I should do to solve this problem. Please help me. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 59.161.97.110 (talk) 15:26, 16 October 2009 (UTC)

Excel question

This is such a simple question but I have a problem that's driving me BONKERS.

When I am using excel, very frequently when I click on a cell or a line, it will select 2, 3, or 4 cells/lines below it. I can't get it to stop doing this. It seems to happen at random and has nothing to do with the doc itself, the formatting, previous actions, or anything else. It will keep happening for 2-3 minutes and then suddenly it will stop and I can select 1 cell/line again. My colleagues report this issue all the time and no one has a clue why it happens or how to stop it.

I'm sure there is a MS Office savvy person who knows exactly why this happens and how to fix it. Please advise! Gohome00 (talk) 16:23, 16 October 2009 (UTC)

There must be some error that occured during installation. Has this always happened? if yes, buy and reinstall it. if not, Your computer must have some sort of bug...Accdude92 (talk) (sign) 16:26, 16 October 2009 (UTC)

"Your computer must have some sort of bug"? Please do not guess. Comet Tuttle (talk) 17:51, 16 October 2009 (UTC)

To be clear, does this happen on multiple computers when working only with a particular Excel doc, or is it any Excel doc? What version of Excel? I'm wondering if you have one particular doc in which a bunch of cells have been merged, so the behavior when clicking on one of the merged cells is not what you'd expect not knowing they had been merged. Comet Tuttle (talk) 17:51, 16 October 2009 (UTC)

It happens with any and all docs, including those created by other sources and other offices. It happens on multiple computers. Definitely has nothing to do with merges. I could create a document right now thats just a list of my friend's names, and it might happen. Or it might not. No clear pattern. It seems that many of my colleagues just deal with it and treat it like "one of those things". Excel is always trying to "help" you by doing frustrating things automatically, such as creating formulas where you don't want them. I am assuming that's what's happening here.

We use whatever the newest version of MS office is. It has happened to me before on other computers in other jobs - I've just never had to work so much with excel, so now it's driving me crazy. Gohome00 (talk) 17:59, 16 October 2009 (UTC)

Would it be possible to take a screenshot of the screen (Print Scrn key, then open Accessories>Paint, then Paste, then save as a jpeg) immediately upon its occurrence, and post it (to a photobucket or Flickr account perhaps) and post a link to it? I have used Excel for many years and I don't recognize the symptom you're describing. Comet Tuttle (talk) 20:24, 16 October 2009 (UTC)

• Gohome00, I would bet that this has something to do with your typing or clicking habits. If you are holding down SHIFT or CTRL when you click it will select more then one cell at a time. SHIFT selects every sell between the initial cell and the finial cell in a square shape, CTRL selects the initial cell and the clicked cell. If the mouse is moving when you click it's possible to select two or more cells at a time. If you dial down the mouse sensitivity (speed) it might prevent this. I hope that helps, -----J.S (T/C/WRE) 00:53, 18 October 2009 (UTC)

Blender physical objects

I know that there is some company that you can send Blender files to, and then they will somehow "print" these, so a (plastic?) physical model is created, and then they send back the model to the customer. But I seem to have forgotten the name (and website URL) of the company. Any ideas? --81.227.64.69 (talk) 19:56, 16 October 2009 (UTC)

We have an article on 3D printing - there are a lot of companies that can do this. I think we sent .dwg files to our 3D printer when we prototyped things - there are probably hundred of companies that can contract small 3D print jobs these days. A web search for 3D Printing turns up many contract shops you can choose from to match your price and technical needs. Nimur (talk) 20:24, 16 October 2009 (UTC)

These services certainly exist - but are really expensive. For a one-off, they are the cheapest (and only) route. But if you need to do this a lot, you might also like to look at the "RepRap" project and also things like the MakerBot. These small machines can be built for relatively low cost ($750 in kit-form - about $400 if you make it yourself from scratch) and it will do exactly what you're asking. The RepRap machine can even make all of the plastic parts you need to make another RepRap machine! The business end looks like a hot-melt glue gun (although it's hotter and a little more sophisticated) and a pair of motors drives that around in two axes to 'draw' a thin layer of plastic representing a cross-section of your object. A third motor moves the plastic depositor up and down vertically so that the model can be built up layer by layer. It's slow - it could take an hour or more to make even a pretty small object - and there are rather severe restrictions on the size of objects that you can make with it - but compared to the commercial services, it would probably pay for itself after making maybe just a dozen objects.

Alternatively if your objects don't have under-cuts - and if you're at all good with tools, you could do as I did and build a three Axis milling machine for about $200. I built mine over several weekends using MDF for the major structural parts, aluminium channels and roller-blade bearings as the guide-rails and three stepper motors with long lead-screws to drive a 2hp router motor in the X, Y and Z directions. I used a couple of Arduino computers to control it using instructions written to an SD memory card - so it doesn't tie up my PC for hours at time. Mine will carve wood and some sorts of plastic pretty efficiently at sizes up to 4'x3'x9" - and with precision of about a millimeter or so. It can also cut metal - but you have to go very slowly and lubricate the cutting surface - which is a major pain. You can drive it from all sorts of 3D file formats from existing OpenSourced software. It doesn't have the versatility of the plastic deposition machines like RepRap - but it's cheap to make and can produce much larger and more robust work-pieces than those plastic deposition machines. My longer term plan is to use the CNC milling machine to make the parts for my own design of 3D printer...and to make a smaller five-axis CNC machine with a Dremel as the cutting tool. That machine would be able to make under-cuts and such like.

SteveBaker (talk) 04:25, 17 October 2009 (UTC)

Steve, that machine is amazing. Now all you have to do is program it to build a duplicate CNC machine.... Nimur (talk) 14:54, 21 October 2009 (UTC)

slow file copying speed

I have a Thinkpad T61 laptop running Ubuntu 8.04. The laptop has an internal SATA hard drive and also a plug-in bay with a second hard drive (you can put an optical drive there instead if you want). The second HD is also SATA but I'm pretty sure the plug-in bay has a SATA-PATA bridge inside. Both drives have ext3 file systems. Anyway, I tried copying a 4gb .iso file from the internal drive to the plug-in drive and after a while, the transfer slowed to around 5MB/sec, which just seems pathetic. Copying from the internal drive to an external USB drive gets around 5x that speed (though much more cpu load). It's not the speed of the PATA bus either. I unmounted and remounted the plug-in drive, then catted the copied file to /dev/null and got about 60MB/sec transfer. So why was the original copying so slow? It was slow whether I used cp, dd, or rsync. The computer has tons of ram and was not heavily loaded at the time of the tests. Any ideas? 66.127.54.181 (talk) 21:21, 16 October 2009 (UTC)

Those rates (5MB/sec and 60 MB/sec) very closely match the transfer speeds for USB 1.1 and 2.0. Probably, for whatever reason, the plug-in drive was originally only recognized as a USB 1.x compliant device; on reconnecting, the correct driver was detected and loaded, and the device functioned with full USB 2.0 speed. Nimur (talk) 21:24, 16 October 2009 (UTC)

Erm, now I'm confused - which drive was the slow one - the bay drive (which should not have been a USB device); or the external drive? Nimur (talk) 21:26, 16 October 2009 (UTC)

I think I got it - it was slow between the internal SATA drive and the bay-drive - probably because these devices share the same southbridge/peripheral controller; but the data can not go directly from disk-drive-1 to disk-drive-2 (it must go to main memory, at least - and may have to actually use the CPU). Thus the memory-northbridge-southbridge bandwidth is split in half. The case of an external USB drive does not share the PCI bus - so this bandwidth is not bottlenecked, and the full USB transfer speed is possible. There are still a few curious issues with the numbers; you could benchmark a lot more to really narrow down where the real worst-case performance happens to locate what the bottleneck is (but it may not be worthwhile, depending on how often you need high performance data transfer). Nimur (talk) 21:35, 16 October 2009 (UTC)

Whoa, something weird is going on, catting the file from the INTERNAL drive to /dev/null just took 16 minutes (4 MB/sec). I wonder if something is wrong with the internal drive. I'm trying another copy with a different large file. Just last night I backed up the drive to an external USB 2.0 drive and got 20+ MB/sec transfer. But I see no error messages in "dmesg" or syslog. Anyway, there are 3 drives: 1) internal SATA, should be directly on PCI bus and fast. 2) Plug-in bay drive, on SATA-PATA bridge that should be on the bus; 3) external USB 2.0 drive. There is also a 4th possibility, which is that I have an ExpressCard eSATA adapter (plugs into internal PCIe if I understand properly) that I can connect an external drive to, but I haven't tried that yet. Right now, something seems flat-out wrong with the internal drive, like maybe it has gotten in some weird DMA mode. I wonder how to diagnose this. 66.127.54.181 (talk) 21:53, 16 October 2009 (UTC)

It occurs to me, I have a lot of browser tabs and other windows open though quiet, and the system is not thrashing, but it's sort of possible that some javascript or something is doing steady disk i/o causing head contention on the main drive. I will reboot the computer and try repeating the copy with nothing else running. 66.127.54.181 (talk) 22:05, 16 October 2009 (UTC)

OK, I haven't rebooted, but found that copying other files from the internal SATA drive goes fairly fast, like 30MB/sec. It's only THESE PARTICULAR FILES (two .iso's that I downloaded last night) that transfer slowly, including cp or cat'ing them to /dev/null. This is weird. File system fragmentation? Bad spots on the disk? I don't see any syslog messages. 66.127.54.181 (talk) 22:52, 16 October 2009 (UTC)

Rebol v Python - which is better?

I've only programmed with basic and logo previously, and I want to learn a more up to date language that will allow me to interact with the web and with Windows or Linux. Although the Wikipedia article about Rebol is a very dry formal description (*) that does not do the language justice and makes it appear totally unsuitable for the casual user or beginner, the tutorials here http://www.musiclessonz.com/rebol_tutorial.html make the language very alluring. (* Its as if the Motorcycle article was like this: "A /motorcycle/ is an electro-mechanical device which transforms the chemical energy of hydrocarbons into kinetic energy....").

Can anyone put the case for Python and say why I should learn Python rather than Rebol? I am only going to learn to use one language. Speed of learning and quick programming (not program speed) are what is important to me. It would only be for ocassional casual use. It looks like Rebol can do things in a single line of code (see http://www.rebol.com/oneliners.html for example) that would take pages in other languages, and also that I can do web things with it that would be too complicated for me to attempt in other languages. Thanks 78.149.130.188 (talk) 21:33, 16 October 2009 (UTC)

Rebol is far less common, so you will have a harder time tracking down references, resources, and fellow humans who can help you with conceptual and technical issues. Python has an enormous user-base. Nimur (talk) 21:37, 16 October 2009 (UTC)

With great user base come great many quality libraries. From 3d game engines to symbolic math to interfaces for most databases in existence, and this is only scratching the surface. In strict contrast to rebol, python can do everything. However, many languages exist because a single one cannot fit all tasks, right tool for the right problem, and other hippie stories apply. --194.197.235.240 (talk) 23:22, 16 October 2009 (UTC)

Thanks for your replies but sorry I think that is less than convincing evidence for the superiority of Python. Python may have a big-user base prescence on the web because getting it to do some things are difficult/complicated, while with Rebol these same thing may only require one or two command words. Some of the appeal of Rebol to me is that it has some of the features of Forth, a language whose simplicity of structure appeals to me. Gosh, I think I'm falling in love. 78.147.27.136 (talk) 10:41, 17 October 2009 (UTC)

It seems you have already made your decision, but I can't resist saying python isn't difficult. Below is a python program that brings up a quit button that does what it says. It's quite readable even if you don't know python and the details can be learnt in less than a day from a pygtk tutorial.

pygtk sample

#!/usr/bin/python
import gtk

w = gtk.Window (gtk.WINDOW_TOPLEVEL)
b = gtk.Button ('QUIT')
b.connect ('pressed', gtk.main_quit)
w.connect ('delete-event', gtk.main_quit)
w.add (b)
w.show_all ()

gtk.main ()

A simple command line movie player using the gstreamer framework

gstreamer sample

#!/usr/bin/python
import sys
import gobject
import gst

loop = gobject.MainLoop ()
player = gst.element_factory_make ('playbin2', 'player')
player.set_property ('uri', sys.argv[1])

bus = player.get_bus ()
bus.add_signal_watch ()
bus.connect ('message::eos', lambda dummy, d2: loop.quit ())

player.set_state (gst.STATE_PLAYING)
loop.run ()

player.set_state (gst.STATE_NULL)

Finally a simple web browser with webkit, without an address bar because I'm feeling lazy

webkit sample

#!/usr/bin/python
import gobject
import gtk
import webkit

gobject.threads_init ()

window = gtk.Window (gtk.WINDOW_TOPLEVEL)

scrolled = gtk.ScrolledWindow (None)
scrolled.set_policy (gtk.POLICY_AUTOMATIC, gtk.POLICY_AUTOMATIC)

webview = webkit.WebView ()
frame = webview.get_main_frame ()
frame.load_uri ('http://www.google.com/')

scrolled.add (webview)
window.add (scrolled)

window.connect ('delete-event', gtk.main_quit)
window.show_all ()

gtk.main ()

These are best taken as examples of not so good programming practise, but hopefully they show python isn't "difficult". --194.197.235.240 (talk) 17:15, 17 October 2009 (UTC)

Sorry again I'm less than convinced. This is a complete Rebol program for a GUI to send an email:

view layout [e: field "Email" s: field "Subject" m: area "Body" btn "Send"[send/subject to-email e/text m/text s/text alert "ok"]]

A web site editor:

view layout[f: field btn"Edit"[editor to-url f/text]]

Taken from the 'one liners' link above. The program examples previously given by 194.197 may only require a few words in Rebol. The Python script for a button seems very elaborate: in Rebol I think it would just be two or three words. Could any Python programmer have a look at the one-liners link above, and the Cookbook external link at the Rebol article, and tell me if things with equal conciseness can be done with Python? 78.151.108.233 (talk) 10:17, 18 October 2009 (UTC)

Conciseness is not the only goal, readability is important too. People think slower than they type. As for the button example, any larger program would use a gui designer which would cut down the source lines a lot and make future layout changes easier. It looks to me that rebol has a lot of complex built-in functionality bind to short commands, but it should also be considered how much control you are given over the details. For example in sh it's trivial to make an multi-featured image manipulation program, you just type gimp<enter>. Below is a python program that creates a window with a bunch of chinese characters spinning in it and terminates when the window is closed. I don't know if rebol can do the same.

chinese chars

#!/usr/bin/python
# -*- coding: utf-8 -*-

import gobject
import gtk

def spin_cb (label):
    label.set_angle (label.get_angle () + 5)
    return True

w = gtk.Window (gtk.WINDOW_TOPLEVEL)
l = gtk.Label ('中國')
w.add (l)
gobject.timeout_add (50, spin_cb, l)
w.connect ('delete-event', gtk.main_quit)
w.show_all ()

gtk.main ()

quicksort in python (normally you would just the .sort method of course), not quite as short as rebol's but short enough

quicksort

q = lambda l: l if l == [] else q ([x for x in l[1:] if x < l[0]]) + [l[0]] + q ([x for x in l[1:] if x >= l[0]])

this one returns all primes less than n

primes

s = lambda n: [p for p in range (2, n) if all ([p % x != 0 for x in range (2, p)])]

--194.197.235.240 (talk) 14:02, 18 October 2009 (UTC)

How to install cURL?

When I download cURL for Windows XP, I get a zip file. In the zip file are curl.exe, some dills, and some text files. When I click on curl.exe a black window openms up and then immediately closes. How should I install cURL? Its irritating that the information that people would obviously need is completely omitted from the instructions, similarly with wget. Thanks. 78.149.130.188 (talk) 21:43, 16 October 2009 (UTC)

Extract all the files in the .ZIP into a folder you've made (say c:/Program Files/curl). cURL is a command-line program, so you need to open the windows command line (run->cmd.exe), cd into the folder you made for cURL, and run curl.exe with options that make it do what you want. -- Finlay McWalter • Talk 21:48, 16 October 2009 (UTC)

Further, wget is also a command line program. That "black box" is the console. I don't know why Windows makes it die instantly. If it stayed open, you'd see some console output. To use either curl or wget, you need to type (ignore the mouse). If you want a click and view program that shows web pages, there are many: IE, Firefox, Opera, Chrome... -- kainaw™ 21:55, 16 October 2009 (UTC)

Thanks. Would it be sensible to copy the contents of the zip file into c:\ or c:\windows, so that I do not have to change directories after opening the console window? What I would like to do with either of them is to download the text from a series of pages by only following the "next page" links and not following any other link. Anyone got any idea how I could do that please? 78.149.130.188 (talk) 22:05, 16 October 2009 (UTC)

You can put those files on your Path (variable) by either adding them to a system directory (c:\windows\system32, for example); or placing them somewhere and adding that directory to your path. Or, you can put them in a folder somewhere, and manually type the full location of that program from any other current working directory; eg. "c:\programs\wget\wget.exe (arguments)" . Nimur (talk) 22:08, 16 October 2009 (UTC)

When I was using Windows I'd put command programs in a single directory (e.g. e:\utils) and put that directory in the path. Command-line programs are very useful and the great majority of them have few files that are really needed, so it's easy for a dozen or more programs to coexist in the same directory. Wget (which I happen to make great use of outside Windows) is a particularly excellent (if limited) program but do read the instructions about recursive downloading carefully before use, or else you may have one or other kind of surprise. Sorry I don't know the answer to your specific question but I imagine that these "next page" links have an easily identifiable set of filenames, and if you can't easily get wget to get these filenames and little more, then simply get the whole of the relevant section of the site and then delete the stuff that's of no interest to you. -- Hoary (talk) 02:19, 17 October 2009 (UTC)

Thanks. I've just realised I could do what I want, regarding following the "next page" link only, by combining lines 6 and 42 from the Rebol language one-line programs here http://www.rebol.com/oneliners.html 78.151.108.233 (talk) 11:14, 18 October 2009 (UTC)

Converting WAV to MIDI

I have several WAV sound files that I need to convert into MIDI format. What's a free program that will do this? Mediaconverter.org doesn't convert to or from MIDIs for some reason. --75.10.49.150 (talk) 22:11, 16 October 2009 (UTC)

A WAV file contains samples of the sound wave, several thousands per second. Consequently, any sound may be represented as a WAV data file. A MIDI file, however, is merely a sequence of instrument names, notes, and velocities, and thus only (relatively) simple music may be represented as a MIDI file. Among other things, song and general sound effects cannot be represented as a sequence of notes. In fact, you can compare WAV files to bitmap images, and MIDI files to vector images. A bitmap image contains the colour value at each pixel (millions of them per image), and a vector image file contains only a list of objects (circle, line, etc.) and their attributes (colour, line width, etc.). Thus it is easy to convert a MIDI file to a WAV file, and a vector image to a bitmap image, but it is extremely difficult to do it in the other direction. --Andreas Rejbrand (talk) 22:16, 16 October 2009 (UTC)

Then is there any way to play a WAV file in JAVA without freezing the rest of the program? The only method I could find for playing WAV files in JAVA froze the program until the sound file was done playing. --75.10.49.150 (talk) 22:19, 16 October 2009 (UTC)

Yes, you might want to consider learning about Asynchronous I/O for some background theory, and creating a separate thread for the audio I/O. Java Threads are basically built into the language, and are fairly straightforward - you will need to instantiate a thread and and provide it with a run() function that performs the audio playback. If you are using the newest Sampled Sound in javax.sound.sampled, then the default start() and stop() methods are already asynchronous (threaded), so you don't have to do this manually. Depending what your audio needs are, this may be the best audio package. Nimur (talk) 22:59, 16 October 2009 (UTC)

WAV to MIDI is essentially impossible. WAV is like the recording of an orchestra playing - MIDI is like the printed score sheets that the musicians were reading from at the time. There is software (and hardware) that can extract note information from the pitch of the music - but it's really patchy and doesn't work for anything but simplest single-instrument recordings. SteveBaker (talk) 03:53, 17 October 2009 (UTC)

There is some software that does this, although its a long time since I last considered it. I recall there was some pay-for software, not sure if there were any free versions. Update: A simple search for wav midi in Google produces several results regarding conversion. http://www.google.co.uk/search?hl=en&safe=off&newwindow=1&q=wav+midi&meta= 78.147.27.136 (talk) 10:58, 17 October 2009 (UTC)

Internet trouble

• I have windows xp professional.
• I am using a lynksys wireless usb adapter to access my wireless connection
• I have at&t u verse as my isp
• My internet is really slow, and it frequently disconnects
• This has been happening for a while now.
• If you need any more info, ask.Accdude92 (talk) (sign) 22:30, 16 October 2009 (UTC)

The obvious first thing to try is to connect to your router with an ethernet cable; this will tell you whether the problem is a local wireless problem, or a problem with the internet connection as a whole. Diagnosis and fixes for these two kinds of error are often very difficultedit: different. In the meantime, stop all peer-to-peer programs like Bittorrent; in my experience consumer DSL routers can inexplicably exhaust some internal resource, and become fatally horked when confronted with the torrent (sic) of traffic such programs throw at them. -- Finlay McWalter • Talk 22:42, 16 October 2009 (UTC)

(e/c) Thanks for providing a useful amount of information. If the problem turns out to be with the WiFi, there are several fixes you can try. Obviously, you need to be within range for it to work. What is the signal strength as reported by Windows? A recently purchased wireless router should have the strength to cover a two- or three-storey house. Piggybacking on the neighbour's WiFi does not usually get the speed or stability that you want. Do you know the brand and model number of your router? Other quick fixes: if there are many other wireless networks in the area, then you might want to change the broadcast channel. Most routers default to channel 6 - try changing to channel 1 or 11. Some cordless phones and microwaves also emit the same frequency (~2.4 GHz). For me, changing to channel 11 solved an interference problem with a neighbour's router. It's all trial-and-error. If possible, you can move your router to a better location, away from the computer and in the centre of the range of which you wish to connect to the network. Xenon54 / talk / 22:46, 16 October 2009 (UTC)

Another thing to look at is possible over-heating of your router. I recall having a similar problem a while back. - Akamad (talk) 23:52, 16 October 2009 (UTC)

I used that AT&T service on my wife's machine for a while - it was awful. As you say - poor bandwidth, patchy connections, generally a total disaster. I carefully documented the problems - worked with them patiently for a month while they tried to fix it, making all sorts of ridiculous claims that it was my computer (I used three different one - they couldn't all be at fault) - they claimed that "Windows needs to be rebooted once a day to keep the networking reliable" (possibly reasonable advice - but I was using Linux!), etc, etc. Then I demanded (and got) all of my money back for the whole 60 days I'd been using it and the refunded the price of my network adapter too. I switched to RoadRunner - things have been working just fine since then. So I don't think you should blame XP or the wireless adapter until you've hassled the AT&T helpline a bunch of times. It's very likely to be the AT&T service. SteveBaker (talk) 03:48, 17 October 2009 (UTC)

One diagnostic thing you might try out is to see how the connection works when "wired" (you should probably be able to connect to your wireless router with an ethernet cable). Is it faster? More stable? The same? This can at least let you rule out that wireless has anything to do with it. --Mr.98 (talk) 20:13, 17 October 2009 (UTC)

Using Outlook on 2 Computers

I have Outlook 2007 installed on two computers. They are set up the exact same way (same account). However the mail only appears on the first computer I installed it on. Is there anyway i can get around this or do I need to delete it form the first machine I installed it from? 66.133.196.152 (talk) 23:04, 16 October 2009 (UTC)

I'll guess that your are accessing your email account using the POP3 protocol (it's in the account settings screen in Outlook). Very often people's POP3 clients (that's Outlook in your case) are configured to download emails and remove them from the mail server. You can configure the client to download and not remove the mail server's copy. That way Both machines can see it (I don't have outlook to hand so I don't know the precise option you'll use). A downside of this is that mail will then build up in your mail server, so you may need to be more diligent about tidying it up yourself (so you don't exceed any quota your ISP may apply). As an alternative to POP3, you may be able to use the IMAP protocol instead, which is better suited for sharing one email account between multiple machines (you can, for example, create subfolders on the mail server and then file mail as appropriate - and all the email clients see the change almost instantly). -- Finlay McWalter • Talk 23:14, 16 October 2009 (UTC)

I wonder if our OP could configure his main machine to download and delete his messages, and configure his secondary machine to only download them — and keep them marked "un-downloaded" so that when he logs in on his main machine, they'll be downloaded to that machine (for the first time on that machine, and for the 2nd time total) and deleted from the POP3 server. One downside to this juggling act is that the secondary computer won't have access to any e-mails the first computer has downloaded. One alternative, OP, is to set up Windows Remote Desktop or VNC so your 2nd computer merely logs into the 1st computer and sees whatever you'd see on the screen of the first computer. Tempshill (talk) 01:31, 17 October 2009 (UTC)

The least complex way of sharing mail between two computers may be using a webmail interface like what Gmail provides. Gmail will also work with some local mail clients via IMAP but it is less intuitive to keep things synchronized that way. (Is that a new mail that I see, where did I save the sent mail, and so forth). EdJohnston (talk) 21:18, 17 October 2009 (UTC)

Make use of IMAP as suggested - or if this is for business purposes, get an microsoft exchange account and charge it as an expense. --Cameron Scott (talk) 21:21, 17 October 2009 (UTC)

I suggest choosing IMAP over Exchange, as IMAP is more widely supported. (In fact, I don't know any mail client other than Outlook with Exchange support.) --grawity 19:46, 19 October 2009 (UTC)

Evolution (software) does, kinda, but it does it by webscraping OWA rather than talking the Exchange protocol. -- Finlay McWalter • Talk 19:51, 19 October 2009 (UTC)

October 17

Computer/HD video

What processing speed (in GHZ), what amount of RAM (in MB), and what sort of video output mechanism would be required to view a film on a computer at the following specifications: Format:MKV Subtitles stream:SSA encoding Audio stream:DTS encoding, 6 channels, sampling rate in 48000 HZ Video stream:1920x1080, frame rate 976215 Duration:1 hour, 40 minutes, 58 seconds Operating system used:Windows XP Size on disk of the file:7.87 GB I am considering the purchase of a new computer and want to ensure that it is capable of running this film. I am also somewhat limited in my budget and want to minimize the cost of this computer, while still viewing the aforementioned film without the player lagging and therefore rendering the film unwatchable.

97.125.80.88 (talk) 02:27, 17 October 2009 (UTC)

First off, the requirements are:

• A DVD viewing software
• A DVD drive, CD drives won't work
• A pretty fast computer.

At least a 1.4 GHZ processor and about 1 GB of RAM are the requirements I personally would go with. And if you wanna go Blu-Ray, then you're gonna need a Sony Vaio for that. As long as you are playing it back via a DVD drive, it will not affect hard drive space. Hope this helps. ConCompS (talk) 04:03, 17 October 2009 (UTC)

No, the OP isn't asking about viewing video off a DVD disc, it's pretty clear. Tempshill (talk) 05:35, 17 October 2009 (UTC)

You didn't mention the key point, what video codec is the video? For 1080 this would commonly be h264 but doesn't have to be. Also you didn't mention what your current specs are in particular the current processor and motherboard (or at least whether it has a PCIe16 slot available). Most dual core processors, should be able to handle even fairly complicated h264 especially with an efficient codec like h264. However if you already have a decent processor and your computer has a PCIe16 slot available then simply getting a modern ATI or Nvidia card which supports full h264 (and preferably VC-1) bitstreaming would be enough for most files (although a few aren't supported but most nowadays are 'DXVA compatible') and likely to be cheaper, however getting it to work on Windows XP may be a little more difficult then Windows Vista. mHz is an exceptionally poor measure, see mHz myth. If you are set on getting a new computer, I would suggest a decent dual core (say an E5200/5300 or any Athlon II X2 or Athlon X2 7xxx) and a GPU supporting bitstreaming would sufficiently cover whatever you need Nil Einne (talk) 11:01, 17 October 2009 (UTC)

Codec is SSA, present computer has Pentium 4 CPU (2.66 Ghz), 1GB RAM. Current video card is an NVIDIA GeForce4 MX 420. Currently using VLC Media Player but unable to run properly. 97.125.86.121 (talk) 02:50, 26 October 2009 (UTC)

Sun javaws on Fedora without SELinux

I have Sun (not openjre) javaws on Fedora 11 without SELinux enabled. When I run a jnlp app, my keyboard is disabled on the app. Googling hasn't turned up anything useful. I assume it is a pathetic security issue and I have to jump through hoops to enable the keyboard. I don't mind if they hoops are easy to see. Anyone know where Sun has hidden these? -- kainaw™ 04:23, 17 October 2009 (UTC)

I can only say that Sun JavaWS on Ubuntu 9.04 properly opens and displays JNLP apps and delivers keyboard events to them normally. It doesn't make sense for a security property to allow AWT/Swing objects to appear on screen, but to not deliver keyboard events to them, so I really doubt there's a security property that is so granular. If I were to guess, I'd hazard that it's a bad interaction between the window manager and the toplevel window, in that somehow the java app doesn't get focus properly, or doesn't think it does. Try, as a first instance, running the SwingSet2 demo from Sun's demo page and changing the Look-and-feel (that really shouldn't matter, but clearly something is wrong). -- Finlay McWalter • Talk 15:22, 17 October 2009 (UTC)

Thanks, but it is a non-issue now. The one time in the last 3 or 4 years that I needed to run Java and it failed. I borrowed a Windows laptop and did the job. Now, I'm trying to figure out how to completely remove Java from my system. It is time for another fdisk-format-reinstall, so I might go that path. -- kainaw™ 15:31, 17 October 2009 (UTC)

iPhone v Thomson router

Has anyone had problems in making the iPhone recognise the router please, if so how did you resolve the matter? Thanks in anticipation.--85.210.90.215 (talk) 08:29, 17 October 2009 (UTC)

What's the actual model of the router and what's the actual problem you're having please? i.e. Can your iPhone see the wireless access point at all or but it's unable to connect, or does it see it, but it can't access the Internet? ZX81 ^talk 10:17, 17 October 2009 (UTC)

Thanks for your interest; the router is a Thomson TG585 v7. The iPhone can 'see' the router but does not recognise my password nor the WPA code, which my supplier, Tiscali, say that I should input as the password. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 85.210.90.215 (talk) 20:20, 17 October 2009 (UTC)

Here is the manual for that model of router. Section 4 talks about how to set up the WiFi, I think section 4.2 might be the specific information your after. The paragraph titled "Forgot your wireless settings?" will give you the instructions on how to get your SSID, encryption key and security type. -----J.S (T/C/WRE) 01:49, 18 October 2009 (UTC)

Thanks for all this, unfortunately you are dealing with a non-technophobe and I don't understand the manual's language, but I will persist.--85.210.90.215 (talk) 07:54, 18 October 2009 (UTC)

PUK code for samsung E-250

Hey! I forgot my PUK code and now I'm getting error ' PIN blocked'.I've left with 6 more attempts otherwise I think I'll have to buy a new SIM. How could I resolve this problem?Any suggestions please.Cheers.--59.103.11.55 (talk) 09:51, 17 October 2009 (UTC)

Just ring up your service provider and tell them you need a PUK code and after their verification checks they'll give it to you (most likely without charge). Don't keep guessing, because you are right and after 10 times the SIM card will be permanently locked/need replacing (at cost). ZX81 ^talk 10:15, 17 October 2009 (UTC)

Microsoft excel cells non negative?

My aim is to have some cells never be negative. I have a function where, e.g. cell A = cell B - 100. If A < 0, I'd like the final value to be 0 instead of the actual negative value. Is there a way to do this? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 128.163.243.51 (talk) 11:26, 17 October 2009 (UTC)

Check out the MAX worksheet function. –RHolton≡– 11:31, 17 October 2009 (UTC)

Thanks, and I also figured out another way just now, after looking around. I used A = (B-100)*IF(B-100<0,0). I had no idea I could use if statement in a cell like this. 128.163.243.51 (talk) 11:35, 17 October 2009 (UTC)

Yeah, there are all sorts of logical arguments for excel. -----J.S (T/C/WRE) 00:37, 18 October 2009 (UTC)

OpenOffice string functions?

Documentation I've seen (for both Excel and OpenOffice) suggests there's a str(A1) function one can call to convert a number to a string. But it doesn't seem to work; it prints "#NAME?" in the cell instead. (OpenOffice version 2.4.0 on a Mac, if it matters.). Am I missing some step necessary to load or enable the string functions, or something? —Steve Summit (talk) 14:36, 17 October 2009 (UTC)

There is no STR() function for cells in Excel (there is in VBA, but that's different). You use T() instead. (Or TEXT() if you want it to be formatted in a particular way.) --Mr.98 (talk) 14:58, 17 October 2009 (UTC)

Thanks! T() doesn't seem to do anything, and TEXT() doesn't seem to work in OpenOffice, but it's just the trick for Excel, which'll be fine in this case. —Steve Summit (talk) 22:43, 17 October 2009 (UTC)

Switching Off A Process

Is it possible to switch off a process (without rebooting) and without using the Task Manager on Vista? I have Firefox still running even though I closed it earlier on (by clicking the 'x' on top-right) and am now unable to re-open Firefox as the machine tells me Firefox is already open and has to be closed. Task Manager shows the process as running (250+K) but doesn't do anything to close it when I click 'End Process'. Is there another way to close it so I can reopen it again (without rebooting)? TIA! --KageTora - SPQW - (影虎) (talk) 15:04, 17 October 2009 (UTC)

There are rather more sophisticated task-manager-like programs, like Process Explorer, but they kill processes in fundamentally the same way that Task Manager does (and so really shouldn't do anything better). The only thing I can suggest is that you're actually killing a subprocess of firefox, and leaving the parent intact. If that's the case, Process Explorer is better, because it shows processes in a tree structure, so you know you're killing the whole family and not just a single child. -- Finlay McWalter • Talk 15:12, 17 October 2009 (UTC)

Depending on your version of Windows you may have the utilities taskkill and tasklist which can be used to kill and list running processes from the command prompt. They will give help information on the command line parameters. --82.41.11.134 (talk) 16:16, 17 October 2009 (UTC)

Thanks. However, I don't feel comfortable with cmd.exe, so I will leave that alone. Process Explorer had the same effect as Task Manager, too, so I just rebooted. However, one reason I asked this question is because it has happened before on numerous occasions - primarily with Firefox. A Google search came up with a number of results of the same (or similar) question/problem that other users have had. A quick look through gave me no helpful information, though, as a number of the answerers were proposing uninstalling certain extensions or whatever - an action which basically needs Firefox to be open and running more or less smoothly. Thanks anyway. --KageTora - SPQW - (影虎) (talk) 16:59, 17 October 2009 (UTC)

I find that Firefox.exe often takes a long time to actually terminate even if the browser window has closed. I presume it's doing things like saving profile data or clearing the cache, so it doesn't seem wise to force it to close early. —Preceding unsigned comment added by .isika (talk • contribs) 19:58, 17 October 2009 (UTC)

I've never needed it, but you might consider SuperF4. I recommend turning off their update checking though, they nag about tiny updates. Indeterminate (talk) 11:43, 18 October 2009 (UTC)

Cheers, I've looked at that, but it says it kills the foreground process. Firefox is not in the foreground, just locked up in my system processes box. It has happened three times since I sent the original post, so I have looked on Google, and there seem to be a number of people who believe that this is a problem with a FF extension conflicting with ZoneAlarm (which I recently downloaded). I don't know if this is the case, as I have experienced the problem even without ZoneAlarm installed, but it does seem to be happening more now. Apparently the only way to find out which extension is causing this problem (if indeed that is what the cause is) is by rebooting the machine and restarting Firefox with all addons disabled, then switching them on one by one and waiting to see which one causes the problem, which is, to say the least, quite an improbable way of finding the cause. I've tried logging out, which kills all other programs, but when I log back in again and try to run Firefox, I am informed that it is still running (actually, it's not even showing up in Task Manager now). --KageTora - SPQW - (影虎) (talk) 13:08, 18 October 2009 (UTC)

And, in fact, just for reference, here is some information about it from Mozillazine. Apparently, Firefox+ZoneAlarm+Vista is not a very good combination. --KageTora - SPQW - (影虎) (talk) 14:39, 18 October 2009 (UTC)

Start Menu and Icons missing

My start menu and desktop icons are completely missing. Looking through the C:/Windows folder reveals that my explorer.exe was deleted during a computer update. Any ideas on how I can resolve this? Thanks.--Giants27(c|s) 15:55, 17 October 2009 (UTC)

Also, my computer runs on Windows 2003, if that helps.--Giants27(c|s) 15:57, 17 October 2009 (UTC)

Why on earth would explorer.exe get deleted during an update? It sounds like the actions of malware to me. Also, do you mean Windows Server 2003, or some other version of Windows for the consumer market? Astronaut (talk) 16:23, 17 October 2009 (UTC)

I have an XP. And not sure but my computer recently installed 10 updates during shut down and this morning I turn on my computer and it starts deleting corrupted things. Explorer.exe being one of them.--Giants27(c|s) 16:25, 17 October 2009 (UTC)

I'm confused, you said your computer was Windows 2003, now it's Windows XP?

Maybe the OP is confusing it with Office 2003, a very common mistake. --KageTora - SPQW - (影虎) (talk) 20:04, 17 October 2009 (UTC)

It is a Windows XP, didn't realize Windows 2003 and the XP were different.--Giants27(c|s) 20:59, 17 October 2009 (UTC)

explorer.exe should never be deleted during a (valid) computer update. (Please also note that the directory separator character is "\" in Windows, not "/" as on the Internet for instance.) You could try to repair your Windows installation, by booting from the installation DVD. --Andreas Rejbrand (talk) 19:41, 17 October 2009 (UTC)

It was deleted as "corrupted", not sure if I have the DVD. I'll have to look around for it. Cheers,--Giants27(c|s) 20:59, 17 October 2009 (UTC)

Windows XP comes on a CD, not a DVD. PCHS-NJROTC ^(Messages) 22:30, 17 October 2009 (UTC)

Might be if it's a wierd OEM version of XP. Yes, do as Andreas Rejbrand said... run the repair. Either that, or pay a professional to take a look. -----J.S (T/C/WRE) 00:36, 18 October 2009 (UTC)

(ec) It seems that the OP is not very certain what operating system he/she is running. (Note the ambiguity between "Windows 2003", "Windows Server 2003," and "I have an XP"). I think the OP has since clarified that it is Windows XP, but he/she should really carefully and correctly verify - they can check against List of Microsoft Windows versions to be absolutely certain. It will help the rest of us diagnose this issue if there is zero ambiguity about the Windows version. Nimur (talk) 00:38, 18 October 2009 (UTC)

Regardless of the OS version, the fix is to re-install the file. Funny OEM versions of XP aside, I think all modern versions of Windows (2000, XP, 2003, 2008, Vista, 7) have a repair installation option of some kind. ---J.S (T/C/WRE) 01:43, 18 October 2009 (UTC)

It's 100% an XP (not being that knowledgeable about computers I thought Windows 2003 and the XP are the same thing, clearly I'm mistaken) but due to a virus in my computer about a year ago, a professional recovered my system and now for some reason the original CD doesn't work anymore. Is there any way to avoid calling a professional at this point?--Giants27(c|s) 02:12, 18 October 2009 (UTC)

Assuming you have found your XP install CD, pop it in the drive and start your PC. It should show a blue screen offering the chance to "Install Windows XP" or "Repair your installation". Choose the repair option. This link shows the steps in better detail. Unless the CD is physically damaged, I can think of no reason why this would not work. Astronaut (talk) 05:30, 18 October 2009 (UTC)

Considering this was, as you say, caused by an update removing corrupted files, why not perform a system restore? Make the system go back to its state previous to the update. If you are able to look in your c:\windows folder then I presume you will still be able to run the System Restore program. The details of how to do so from the Command box are here. --KageTora - SPQW - (影虎) (talk) 11:36, 18 October 2009 (UTC)

Python

In the Python interpreter, is it possible to edit a specific line of a function if that function has already been defined? If so, how? --Lucas Brown 42 21:43, 17 October 2009 (UTC) —Preceding unsigned comment added by Lucas Brown 42 (talk • contribs)

I think it isn't possible but I'm not sure. It is better to have the functions in a file, and then import them. A proper editor will let you run an inferior python shell inside an editor buffer and directly load python functions to it from other buffers, eg emacs does this with C-M-x. Emacs or any other decent editor would also give you syntax highlighting and autoindenting and more. (Please forgive the clutter if you already knew this.) --194.197.235.240 (talk) 22:18, 17 October 2009 (UTC)

There is also a tool called "ipython" which makes the interactive mode much richer for doing things like editing and reimporting files. --FOo (talk) 04:29, 18 October 2009 (UTC)

Are Blu Ray players compatible with DVDs and/or CDs?

I know DVD players can play CDs, but what about Blu Ray? Can Blu Ray play DVDs or CDs, or is it entirely different? PCHS-NJROTC ^(Messages) 22:27, 17 October 2009 (UTC)

See Blu-ray Backward compatibility. A Quest For Knowledge (talk) 22:32, 17 October 2009 (UTC)

Thanks, I looked in the article a few minutes ago, but apparently not closely enough. PCHS-NJROTC ^(Messages) 22:36, 17 October 2009 (UTC)

Resolved

October 18

Making a binary file from hex data in the command line...

If I have a binary file that I want to print it out as hex data in a terminal, you can just use the "od -h" command. Is there any way you can do the reverse, that is, have a bunch of hex data and assemble it into a binary file? 83.250.228.169 (talk) 00:44, 18 October 2009 (UTC)

xxd can do hexdumps and reverse. --194.197.235.240 (talk) 00:49, 18 October 2009 (UTC)

Just echo -e '\x##\x##' >file should work, if it's not a problem to put the data on the command line in that format. If you'd rather, perl -e 'while(read STDIN,$_,2) {print chr hex;}' will read a solid block of hex from stdin (no spaces or newlines) and write the corresponding data on stdout. Variations could easily be made to handle different input formats. --Tardis (talk) 01:08, 18 October 2009 (UTC)

Similarly in Python, strings have .encode and .decode methods for translating them into specific encodings, one of which is hex. So "foo".encode("hex") returns "666f6f", and "666f6f".decode("hex") returns "foo". --FOo (talk) 04:28, 18 October 2009 (UTC)

ref tag in html?

Is there such a thing similar to the ref tag in wikipedia? I know that you can use an anchor to duplicate it, but when you add an anchor link in between two others, you have to change the ones after it and if you have like 100 references, you have to do a ton of work. So does anyone know if there is a way similar to the ref tag in wikipedia in html or something else (cascading style sheets etc). —Preceding unsigned comment added by Renassault (talk • contribs) 04:05, 18 October 2009 (UTC)

We have this - Template:Anchor. Nimur (talk) 04:40, 18 October 2009 (UTC)

sorry, I don't understand what that says (I think it talks about how to do it on a template). Is it saying you can't do it with <a name="x">? (also, sorry, I dont know how to sign my name). —Preceding unsigned comment added by Renassault (talk • contribs) 04:53, 18 October 2009 (UTC)

Here you go. I just made one up for you:

<html>
	<head>
		<script type='text/javascript'>
			function setRefs()
			{
				for (i=0; i < document.getElementsByTagName("span").length; i++)
				{
					document.getElementsByTagName("span")[i].innerHTML = '<sup><a href="#references">' + (i+1) + '</a></sup>';
				}
			}
		</script>
	</head>
	<body onload="setRefs()">
		Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet,<span></span> consectetur adipisicing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et 
		dolore magna aliqua.<span></span> Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex
		ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat
		nulla pariatur. Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim
		id est laborum
	</body>
</html>

Once the page is loaded, the "setRefs" JavaScript function runs. All of the generated links point to a section called 'references'. Feel free to rename either the function or the section name. You could also do it using the document.getElementsByName method, if you wanted to. The body above is just boilerplate text. You add a span tag wherever you want a citation. I don't know how Wikipedia does it, but I like to keep my code as simple as possible.--Drknkn (talk) 06:43, 18 October 2009 (UTC)

Thanks a lot man, you're the best--renassault

Google search has changed

I just noticed, when I go to use Google to search for something, the "search" and "I feel lucky" buttons have disappeared. Is it just me, or has Google made their front page like this for everyone? Astronaut (talk) 05:51, 18 October 2009 (UTC)

They're there, no doubt about it. Wanna screenshot? --Ouro (blah blah) 06:32, 18 October 2009 (UTC)

No, I believe you. Does Google now have a fade-in effect? Astronaut (talk) 06:40, 18 October 2009 (UTC)

It's a feature they've been testing out. Indeterminate (talk) 08:31, 18 October 2009 (UTC)

Looking around, I came across this forum page and I agree with many others - the fade effect and missing buttons is something that Google should ditch (or at least make it a selectable option in their preferences page). Astronaut (talk) 10:30, 18 October 2009 (UTC)

Either Google's experiment has finished, or my deleting all cookies has fixed it. Google's now back to how it was, with both buttons and no annoying fade effect. Astronaut (talk) 04:24, 19 October 2009 (UTC)

hdmi monitor

Hello there. I have an hp 15.4" laptop to which i would like to connect an LCD monitor. It's gonna be a 22-23 inches one with an hdmi input and my lap too has an hdmi output, so I thought would there be no problem trying to hook it up throu hdmi to a monitor that has that input? I just supposed that an hdmi output on laps is usually used for projecting the signal to a big HD tv or something similar , do you think itd be okay if i do that? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 77.35.46.140 (talk) 14:39, 18 October 2009 (UTC)

For your purposes, there really isn't a difference between a modern LCD TV and a modern LCD monitor, so I don't believe you'll have any problems. -- Finlay McWalter • Talk 14:51, 18 October 2009 (UTC)

The only consideration is whether the graphics card on your laptop can handle your monitor's native resolution. Any other resolution could look fuzzy if either your monitor or laptop doesn't come with auto-correcting software. Sandman30s (talk) 19:31, 18 October 2009 (UTC)

Sandman30s is correct. (I would go further and forget about auto-correcting software; you must get a graphics card that can support the native resolution of the monitor.) See our article native resolution for details. Tempshill (talk) 20:52, 18 October 2009 (UTC)

Based on my experience, you should not have big problems - if your laptop manufacturer fitted a HDMI port, I would be very surprised if the laptop's graphics card didn't support it at a range of resolutions to suit your new monitor. All the same, I wouldn't invest many $ in a HDMI cable until you are sure it works well.

That said, my TV has a feature which crops the image by some pixels all round, so I don't see odd things flickering at the screen edge such as Teletext, closed captioning etc. I can switch this feature off on my TV and get all 1920x1080 pixels displayed, but I'm unsure about other TVs (eg. I don't think my sister's Philips TV can switch off this feature). A few pixels is not important with TV, but when I tested it at my sister's house I could only see the top half of Vista's start button and with maximised program windows the "Window close" button had almost disappeared. Astronaut (talk) 01:12, 19 October 2009 (UTC)

Not that you shouldn't really have to invest many $ in a HDMI cable period. Most cables particularly from retail stores are way overpriced. If you live in the US I believe monoprice.com are great. Also in the US, in the unlikely event your cable really does cause problems at the current time you can even send it to the HDMI organisation for a replacement [6]. Outside of the US, either check local auction sites or just buy it from something like dealextreme.com (which ships from China so you will have to wait). If it really does cause problems, you should be able to RMA it. Nil Einne (talk) 13:22, 20 October 2009 (UTC)

Error message @ 6pm every day

Hi! Every evening, at 6pm precisely (by my Windows XP computer clock), I get this error-message. I once installed a trial version of that program, and then uninstalled it very soon afterwards, and the folder listed (Pareto.....) doesn't exist. Does anybody know what I can do about this? Thanks! ╟─TreasuryTag►sheriff─╢ 17:14, 18 October 2009 (UTC)

I would guess that the software set up a Windows Scheduled Task to run at 6pm every day, and it didn't bother tidying up that loose end in the uninstallation process. There are instructions here for removing it which might be helpful to get rid of it. --Kateshortforbob _talk 17:24, 18 October 2009 (UTC)

The trial program may have installed a task-schedule event (to run some routine task, like updating itself) at 6pm. Its uninstaller should have removed that too, but it maybe it hasn't. The program to manage these tasks is called "Scheduled Tasks" - on XP it's in start->accessories->system tools; I think it's in the control panel on Vista. It shows a list of tasks and when they run; I think you'll find a 6pm listing that tries to do something with Pareto; if you delete that, it should fix your problem. But be careful in there deleting stuff you don't recognise, as some important (if routine) system functions may be listed too. -- Finlay McWalter • Talk 17:23, 18 October 2009 (UTC)

Brilliant. Thank-you very much indeed! ╟─TreasuryTag►Captain-Regent─╢ 17:26, 18 October 2009 (UTC)

Hard disk problem?

I've just installed a new graphics card (Sapphire Radeon HD4670), motherboard (ECS GeForce 6100pm-m2) and processor (AMD Athlon II x4 620) on a 3 year-old computer. The hard drives (SATA, one with Vista installed, one for data) remained the same. When starting up, I'm getting a STOP 0x0000007b (0x80399BB0, 0xC0000034, 0x00000000, 0x00000000) every time I switch on, either after a few seconds of the progress bar (when I start Windows normally), or after loading a couple of screens of drivers (in safe mode). Running startup repair from the DVD reports all tests completed successfully, and suggests an unidentified change to the system configuration (!). System restore doesn't make a difference. I suspect the problem could be driver-related or possibly disk corruption, as the machine kept shutting itself off before I put in the new parts. Is it worthwhile re-installing Vista, or is there another option I'm missing here (very possibly)? I've already tried chkdsk. Something slightly odd, which may be unrelated: the BIOS, American Trends (which seems a little quirky) shows my hard drives as 3rd and 4th master when booting, instead of 1st and 2nd, as I would expect. Of course, possibly that's completely normal. --Kateshortforbob _talk 17:16, 18 October 2009 (UTC)

Making a change of this magnitude normally means that Windows will no longer run - it won't have the drivers for the motherboard, the processor or the graphics card. Unless anyone else can suggest a magic cure, installing Vista from scratch may be the best option.--Phil Holmes (talk) 18:20, 18 October 2009 (UTC)

Thanks, Phil Holmes. I thought that might be the case, but I was hoping I would get away with it! I should have curbed my amibiton and stopped with the graphics card. Of course, the really annoying part is that if I'd been patient and waited a week, I'd have had Windows 7 and a new HDD, and would have avoided this whole problem :-/ --Kateshortforbob _talk 20:30, 18 October 2009 (UTC)

It has been my experience that unless you are installing the EXACT same make & model of motherboard, you will always need to reinstall Windows. 218.25.32.210 (talk) 05:40, 19 October 2009 (UTC)

I've had this problem before with XP. Haven't had it since I upgrade to Vista. However unless things have changed there are various ways to fix it particularly if you considered this before upgrading. Now that you have upgraded the simplest thing is probably a repair install. There should be many guides on the internet if you need further help. (E.g. from MS themselves although for XP [7]) Also you don't need the exact same make & model simply the same chipset & it will usually be fine Nil Einne (talk) 13:27, 20 October 2009 (UTC)

218.25, I had generally thought that to be the case, certainly up to XP, but I thought Vista might be a bit more flexible about these things.

Thanks for the interesting link, Nil Enne - i didn't realise that would work. Sadly, I didn't put much forethought into the process, so I've resigned myself to waiting a few days and going straight to the new OS when it arrives (possibly early). Still, it's given me the chance to upgrade a few other bits and pieces while I'm at it (including a new chipset!) --Kateshortforbob _talk 11:00, 21 October 2009 (UTC)

How do I install Rebol/view on Win XP?

The website for Rebol says that installing it is very easy, but does not actually tell you how to do it. I've downloaded it, run the program, filled in some details, clicked the Console icon and got a Rebol window to appear. But when I close this window, Rebol appears to disapear completely - in other words it has not been installed. What is the proceedure to follow to get a Rebol shortcut on the Programs menu and hopefully an icon on the desktop as well please? I'm also wondering where the user programs would be stored - I thought it was supposed to ask me where I wanted them, but has not done so. By bitter experience I know that its a point of honour among language creators to Never Never Never tell the public the most obviously needed information, but could someone break the code of silence please? 78.151.108.233 (talk) 17:56, 18 October 2009 (UTC)

Have you followed the quick start instructions from their website? -- kainaw™ 20:21, 18 October 2009 (UTC)

I feel that it is appropriate to restate my earlier comment about this (since this appears to be a question by the same OP). "Rebol is far less common (than python), so you will have a harder time tracking down references, resources, and fellow humans who can help you with conceptual and technical issues. Python has an enormous user-base." You might want to keep this in mind as you begin to invest time learning the language. It looks like the official Rebol Documentation is available online, but in my opinion it looks like there's a few orders of magnitude less information available than other common languages. ~ 70,000 Rebol Tutorial web hits vs. ~ ~ 5 Million Python tutorials vs. ~ 70 million C tutorials. By sheer statistical likelihood, your best bet of finding help with a specific problem goes up if you use a more common language. Nimur (talk) 00:38, 19 October 2009 (UTC)

I had not seen the Quick Start page linked to above, but it still does not say anything about getting Rebol on your start/programs menu. I shall run though it when I have more time.

If with Rebol I can program more quickly and (as a beginner/casual user/dilletante) do more things than with Python because they are not too difficult for me, then I'm for Rebol. That is all that matters. If everyone stuck with programs having the largest amount of users then we'd still all be using GWBasic, or assembler. 78.151.114.229 (talk) 09:41, 19 October 2009 (UTC)

I feel you are underestimating yourself with the "too difficult for me". Scripting (with python) isn't black magic in 2009, everything becomes easy once you read the documentation. But of course _the best_ is a matter of opinion. --194.197.235.240 (talk) 11:46, 19 October 2009 (UTC)

The Windows start menu belongs to Windows. It does not belong to Rebol. Therefore, I find it a bit silly to demand Rebol to explain how to use the Windows start menu. That is something that Microsoft should do. And, not surprisingly, it isn't hard to do. -- kainaw™ 12:12, 19 October 2009 (UTC)

System32 corrupt/missing

The other day I saw this message:

“Windows could not start because the following file is missing or corrupt: \WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\CONFIG\SYSTEM – You can attempt to repair this file by starting Windows Setup using the original Setup CD-ROM. Select "r" at the first screen to start repair."

The computer was perfectly fine in the morning; there was construction being done in the house during the day, and the power had to be shut off briefly, and when it was turned back on, that's the message that came up on the computer. I don't know if that has anything to do with it, but nothing else changed. Why would system32 just suddenly become corrupt? (This is in XP Professional, by the way).

The CD-ROM doesn't do anything, since Windows can't load up in order to read it. Is there another way to fix this? More importantly, is there a way to fix this without losing all the files on the computer? And should I not attempt to do so myself, since I know nothing, but rather have a professional do it? Adam Bishop (talk) 18:27, 18 October 2009 (UTC)

They want to you to boot with the install CD (rather than the broken windows install); you may need to change the boot-device-order in the BIOS to get this to work. -- Finlay McWalter • Talk 18:30, 18 October 2009 (UTC)

Ah...how do I do that? And if I manage to repair the file, what will happen to everything on the computer? Adam Bishop (talk) 18:39, 18 October 2009 (UTC)

When your computer starts up, there should be a screen that tells you what key to press to access setup (i.e., BIOS) or a boot menu. It's the first screen that appears when your computer starts. The key you press depends entirely on the model of your computer.--Drknkn (talk) 19:11, 18 October 2009 (UTC)

Maybe normally, but the first screen that appears now is this "missing or corrupt" message... Adam Bishop (talk) 15:49, 19 October 2009 (UTC)

Before that screen appears, there should be a quick flash of a blue (or black) screen which gives you the opportunity to go into BIOS setup. (I assume you have already tried switching on with the original CD-ROM in place.) If this screen has been suppressed, you need to try holding down the different possible keys as you switch on. Do you know anyone with the same model of computer? The key to use varies according to manufacturer. It is usually F1, F2, or DEL, but sometimes ESC or F10. Dbfirs 17:16, 19 October 2009 (UTC)

Aha, thanks, it was F1, so I was able to change the boot order and now I can access the recovery system on the CD-Rom. I'm still reluctant to do anything though...this will just repair the corrupt file and leave everything else alone? It won't delete everything else on my computer? For some reason I'm paranoid that this is akin to formatting the hard drive. Adam Bishop (talk) 02:14, 20 October 2009 (UTC)

I'm still wondering what brand of computer you have. It'd save us a lot of typing if we knew. Also, is this CD made by the manufacturer? I've seen those format hard drives. If it's from Microsoft (without any mention of the manufacturer), it won't do anything of the sort (unless you select the option to format).--Drknkn (talk) 02:19, 20 October 2009 (UTC)

I don't remember what brand; it's made in Canada so probably MDG, but I'll check (I'm not at home at the moment). Otherwise it's just a regular PC. The CD is from Microsoft. Adam Bishop (talk) 02:25, 20 October 2009 (UTC)

Here are the instructions: [8]. If the screen you see upon booting from the CD doesn't look like the screen in the video, then the CD is not from Microsoft.--Drknkn (talk) 03:39, 20 October 2009 (UTC)

Same screen. The computer (at least the shell of it) predates XP anyway, so we couldn't have got it from the manufacturer. Adam Bishop (talk) 04:22, 20 October 2009 (UTC)

IE8 tab colours?

Our machines at work have just been upgraded to IE8, and I've noticed that the tabs now change colour - sometimes they're yellow, sometimes they're blue, sometimes they're green, sometimes they're the standard plain grey. This may be an obvious question, but what do the colours mean? There doesn't appear to be any correlation between the colour and the nature of the page being displayed, that I can deduce, at least. Tevildo (talk) 20:05, 18 October 2009 (UTC)

Tabs of the same color are in a "group". What can you do with a group? All I know is close all tabs of a group at once. As for individual tabs, you can add them to a group or remove them from a group if you like. -- kainaw™ 20:18, 18 October 2009 (UTC)

I think they just indicate that one page opened the other page. For example, if you click a link on one page and a tab opens, the color indicates this happened.--Drknkn (talk) 20:20, 18 October 2009 (UTC)

See IE8 Tab Grouping from Microsoft's MSDN blogs page. Nimur (talk) 00:41, 19 October 2009 (UTC)

Thanks for the info. Tevildo (talk) 18:11, 19 October 2009 (UTC)

Screen flicker

I was reading the article Life Story on Firefox when I realized that the Firefox window was flickering. It only flickered when my mouse pointer was in the actual article, not when it was pointing at a tab or the address bar. It also didn't flicker in any other tab. I couldn't reproduce the phenomenon upon closing and reopening Firefox.

What's responsible for this glitch? I realize that I'll probably never know, but I'm asking just in case anybody here experienced something similar. --99.237.234.104 (talk) 20:56, 18 October 2009 (UTC)

Sounds like typical Firefox flakiness. If it happens again try turning off Javascript. 66.127.54.181 (talk) 23:26, 18 October 2009 (UTC)

I use Firefox, and I've never had that sort of problem. If this was the only time it has happened, and it never happens again, it's tough (and perhaps unnecessary) to figure out and cause. If it recurs, you might want to think about the add-ons you have installed and enabled. And it always makes sense to use the latest stable release (for Windows, 3.5.3 if I'm not mistaken). By the way, when you post this kind of issue, it's good to mention things like the version you're running, what OS, etc. –RHolton≡– 00:37, 19 October 2009 (UTC)

DNS problems

For some reason I've been having persistent DNS trouble, heavily for the past few days, but intermittently over a much longer period. Basically my existing connections will stay active, but DNS lookups will go very slowly or time out, with the outages lasting for a minute or so at a time. My ISP is AT&T; is this a familiar problem? Is it likely to be a configuration problem at my end? I'm thinking of installing a caching DNS proxy like Pdnsd -- does that sound like a good countermeasure? I'm mostly just web surfing and mostly just a handful of sites. 66.127.54.181 (talk) 23:24, 18 October 2009 (UTC)

The very first thing I'd try is to start using OpenDNS. If you really are having problems with your ISPs DNS server, that should solve it. It's very easy to configure your computer to use it (you don't have to install anything), and their website have very good guides on how to do it. 83.250.228.169 (talk) 00:29, 19 October 2009 (UTC)

I second OpenDNS —Preceding unsigned comment added by .isika (talk • contribs) 14:13, 19 October 2009 (UTC)

Both the above suggestions are shockingly bad advice. You should contact your ISP's help-desk if you believe this is a service issue (as it could be affecting other users). More likely this will be due to some issue with your computer (or local area network), which your ISP's help-desk may be in a better position to assist you with. The first questions which spring to mind are: Have you replicated this problem on another computer? What firewall / anti-virus software are you using? Do you use a router, and if so what make, model and firmware version? On an unrelated note: make sure to check out the Privacy and Terms of Service documents for OpenDNS if you consider using it.

October 19

Way to Shorten Load Times (Java)

In a program that I am currently working on, I am loading a lot of data from text files. Is there something I can do in Java so that I do not have to load the data from the text files every time I run the program? Nkot (talk) 04:47, 19 October 2009 (UTC)

I don't know anything about Java, but I know how to ask programming questions, and you haven't provided enough information. Please post the actual code used to load the text files, and give us some idea of how big each text file is. If you're loading the Bible it's probably gonna be slow regardless...218.25.32.210 (talk) 07:29, 19 October 2009 (UTC)

That's really unnecessary in this case. Please don't bite the questioners - and if you don't know the answer - then don't answer. SteveBaker (talk) 12:28, 19 October 2009 (UTC)

Depending on the type of your data you could put it into a caching database, convert it into binary, or compress it. It might also be acceptable to keep it on a memory-based filesystem, eg tmpfs (this is very fast, with obvious drawbacks). --194.197.235.240 (talk) 08:28, 19 October 2009 (UTC)

One trick is to write an offline program that reads your data and writes it out as Java source code - eg into a pre-initialised array. You run that program just once (or whenever your data changes). Then you take the output of that program and compile it into your final Java program and voila! The data is already loaded when your program starts up. However, this may not save you a lot of time because the data still has to be pulled off disk before your program can start running...but it may save you time in looking up filenames and parsing the data. SteveBaker (talk) 12:28, 19 October 2009 (UTC)

Another thing to consider is whether you need all the data all the time. If you just need chunks of it, it may make sense to put it in a database.--Phil Holmes (talk) 13:38, 19 October 2009 (UTC)

If the data in the text file were some sort of structured data, I'd create a class with appropriate fields and then read the data into some container of objects of that class. If the objects were related to each other, some container like a tree or linked list might be useful, but if it were unrelated data, an array of some sort would probably do. If the data in the text file was not structured, but rather just like a big paragraph of text that you wanted to search, I'd probably read it into something like a StringBuffer, which is a class that already comes with Java. Good luck!20.137.18.50 (talk) 14:55, 19 October 2009 (UTC)

Make sure you are using Java's BufferedReader to read files from disk - this can save orders of magnitude by allowing the JVM to dynamically buffer (pre-load) the file in the fastest way possible while you use it. The Sun Java Tutorial has a good example of how to do this. Adding the single piece of code to wrap your FileReader with a BufferedReader can easily speed file access times by a factor of 1000x. (See Data buffer for conceptual explanation about why, and Java's IO documentation for details of Java's implementation). If your files are extremely large, consider a Memory Mapped File. I have used this to read binary files up to 9 terabytes; large files require some special buffer management. Nimur (talk) 15:17, 19 October 2009 (UTC)

I did something similar in the past. I sped up the process by writing a program that loaded all the data into array structures. Then, I serialized those array structures into strings and saved them to a file. Loading the serialized text back into arrays in the main program was MUCH faster than loading the data from the original data files. -- kainaw™ 17:47, 19 October 2009 (UTC)

Thanks, for the great answers! Nkot (talk) 04:55, 21 October 2009 (UTC)

How to search Google Scholar filtering out articles that are subscription blocked?

Is there any keyword-colon-keyword (like filetype:pdf) in Google Scholar to only give result links that are not articles that require any membership or payment to read? I realize that this would filter out a large portion of the results. 20.137.18.50 (talk) 11:46, 19 October 2009 (UTC)

Filetype:pdf seems to give you only things you can access without subscription. It's probably not comprehensive (there are probably things you can access that aren't PDF, and are thus screened out), but it does probably give you a good number of them. --Mr.98 (talk) 12:46, 19 October 2009 (UTC)

You might consider searching the databases directly - for example, Elsevier (who publish many many journals and scholarly works) has an advanced product browser and advanced search features. I find that this is much faster than Google if I already know the publication I'm seeking. This will let you categorically exclude journals which are pay-subscription (etc.) Nimur (talk) 15:20, 19 October 2009 (UTC)

use http://arxiv.org/ 71.161.59.133 (talk) 22:31, 19 October 2009 (UTC)

Yahoo! account

I have a Yahoo! account and I use an e-mail address ending in "@yahoo.com". Here's what I want to ask. How can I change the secret questions I have to answer in case I forget my password? I haven't forgotten the password or how to answer those questions, but I want to select new questions, or at least select new answers to the current ones. Thank you. --88.203.248.162 (talk) 12:11, 19 October 2009 (UTC)

Google google. Though, truth be told, you ought to just fill in the secret question with random characters, or some sort of standard response that is NOT related to the question. The info in them is usually pretty easy for people who know you to find (where you went to elementary school, what town you were born, etc.), and those are often the people you'd rather are NOT going through your e-mail accounts. Take a tip from Sarah Palin on that one! --Mr.98 (talk) 14:09, 19 October 2009 (UTC)

System freezes at Hardware Test stability (PC Wizard)

Hello there, I have PC Wizard running on my system to check health of my system. But I noticed there's problem with Hardware test compatibility in PC Wizard. Whenever I press Hardware Test Compatibility (both hardware or processor) button, system freezes. I can't move mouse or keyboard. Screen just freezes. But it's not happening all the time. Sometimes there's no freezing during this test (I can move mouse or keyboard). I thought it was software. So I reinstall it but nothing happened. No overheating at all. Why this is happening? My specs are: C2Q 9400, XFX 750i SLI, PSU 750W, Ram ddr2 800MHz 4GB, Samsung Sata HD 320 GB, OS XP SP2. Thank you--119.30.36.42 (talk) 13:14, 19 October 2009 (UTC)

• No answer :(--119.30.36.40 (talk) 18:33, 19 October 2009 (UTC)

It's software with a percentage of low-level code that interrogates your hardware directly. It's entirely possible that it has a bug or did something unexpected that froze your computer. I wouldn't worry about it unless you are getting random freezes in other software all the time - then it's time to do some not-so-fun troubleshooting. Sandman30s (talk) 19:33, 19 October 2009 (UTC)

Download WP to cellphone?

I know someone who has the top million(or 10,000 or something) WP articles downloaded onto his phone. What kind of phone do you need for this and how do you do it? Thanks. Aaadddaaammm (talk) 13:41, 19 October 2009 (UTC)

Are you sure it is actually "downloaded"? Wikipedia has/had a mobile version so perhaps our friend is using that version with their phone's internet browser? I don't know the mobile version's URL, but perhaps someone familiar with that version knows. Astronaut (talk) 14:27, 19 October 2009 (UTC)

The official English Wikipedia mobile version can be found at http://mobile.wikipedia.org/ - though many phones can just as well display the main wikipedia version. Nimur (talk) 15:09, 19 October 2009 (UTC)

There is a DVD version Wikipedia:Wikipedia CD Selection. With the right phone I guess you could adapt this. I would understand why someone may want to use that if you have high data charges. Edit: Ah nevermind. I would guess your friend has this [9]. Note it isn't free. I see the foundation also has some interest in this, see m:Offline readers. From that and Wikipedia talk:Version 1.0 Editorial Team I'm guessing there is currently no easy way to do something like that free due to the lack of any good readers amongst other things Nil Einne (talk) 13:34, 20 October 2009 (UTC)

Please help me with some html scripts?

I am trying to impliment some scripts on an html page to make an advanced menu system. However, i'm quite new to these things. I went to a website which describes how to impliment the behavior i want, but my modifications to this scripting seem not to work. Can someone please help me either fix the code i have or help to write new code? it would be much appreciated!

The site where i got the code is: http://www.dhtmlgoodies.com/index.html?whichScript=show_hide_content_slide

With how it operates shown here: http://www.dhtmlgoodies.com/scripts/show-hide-content-slide/show-hide-content-slide.html

My website code, with this script implimented how i THINK it should work is here: http://pastebin.com/m30e59528

Basically what i want is to have it so that when the user clicks "Emote-Icons", the table marked as class "dhtml goodies answer" would show up. In a more advanced fashion, i will have two other tables, and if somehow it could be so that when the user clicks another one of the links in the top table, any other tables shown are hidden and the appropriate one shows up, this would be fantastic!

Thank you all for your time!

137.81.112.223 (talk) 14:38, 19 October 2009 (UTC)

Place it in a html file on your computer, and open it in your web browser. I advise testing it with firefox with Firebug installed, as that has lots of tools to help you debug the page if there's something wrong with the script. Don't use Internet Explorer for that as it's impossible, or at least very hard and annoying. The initShowHideDivs function will be slow as it searches every <div> on the page - it's not an issue for small pages, but complex pages may be slow. You could give the table an id attribute and use getElementById, which would be faster as it will get that one item directly. You might also like JQuery for javascript shineyness. --h2g2bob (talk) 22:12, 19 October 2009 (UTC)

Outlook drag & drop into Windows Explorer

Outlook enables the user to drag & drop into an email into a Windows Explorer folder, and creates a .MSG file with a filename based on the subject line. Is there anywhere where the rules of this behaviour can be tweaked - for instance, to create a .HTML file instead, or to change the basis of the filenaming? (In my case, Outlook 11 under Vista, apparantly.) thanks --Tagishsimon (talk) 16:06, 19 October 2009 (UTC)

Fan noise in Xaser VI (Full tower case)

I suddenly noticed, my xaser vi's top exhaust fan is making noise during boot up. It stays for 2 to 3 minutes then everything becomes normal. I checked the fan. No dust or other things that's causing this problem. I also checked system temperature.

No overheating at all.

Why this is happening?

My specs are:

C2D 9400 XFX 750i SLI PSU 750W Ram 4 GB 800 MHz

Thanks in advance--119.30.36.40 (talk) 18:37, 19 October 2009 (UTC)

Does it spin faster when everything becomes normal? This is normal behaviour from better quality fans; they auto-adjust their speed depending on heat generated or amount of sustained CPU activity. Sandman30s (talk) 19:37, 19 October 2009 (UTC)

That's right. Normally those smart power-managment features don't kick in immediately (they're mediated by OS/driver services) so many machines boot insanely loud (hello Dell server) and mostly run pretty quietly. But of Sandman30s is getting unusual buzzing sounds, that may be noise from the fan bearing. Blowing out the fan (with a can of compressed gas) may fix it, but often the cheapo bearing is dying and one has to replace the fan (and if it's a PSU fan, that means replacing the whole PSU). This seems to be the only PC component that ever fails for me; perhaps I shed an unusual volume of skin. -- Finlay McWalter • Talk 19:45, 19 October 2009 (UTC)

Old PDAs

I'm unfamiliar with PDAs, and rather old-fashioned. I do not like rechargeable batteries, and I do not like Wireless. Which old PDA models have the best spec (the most memory, best screen etc) while still having a USB and not a Wireless connection please, and still having replaceable (in other words ordinary) batteries? Note that early PDA models have only serial connectors and not USB - its only USB I want. I am not sure which is the best operating system to try to get, with the idea of using some freeware programs and languages on it. Thanks very much for all help. 78.144.243.47 (talk) 19:47, 19 October 2009 (UTC)

I have an old Palm III that does all that. Pros: It has USB communications through the optional cradle, and runs forever on 2 AAA batteries. Cons: Black & white screen and only 2 MB of memory. It doesn't sound like a high spec, but if all you are doing is storing contacts, diary, appointments and running apps like a calculator and some games like checkers, backgammon it is perfectly adaquate for the job. Astronaut (talk) 22:35, 19 October 2009 (UTC)

Hah. I was also going to mention the PalmIII. I had one and it's great. I only recently stopped using it. However, I think my cradle was serial. (There exist serial->USB adapters if that becomes an issue.)

OS is a matter of preference, really. I enjoy the PalmOS devices, I find the user-interface intuitive in the sense that while it's not like Windows, it somehow makes perfect sense to me as a pen-and-paper replacement.

If you mean programming languages, I don't know what the on-device development is like on WinCE machines, I know that it was a pain finding a good C compiler for my palm device. APL (talk) 02:12, 20 October 2009 (UTC)

Sage Accpac ERP Systems

I am considering taking a position to install and support SAGE ERP systems (CRM etc.)

I was wondering what kind of market share Sage has in this area. Is it a market leader that has stayed on the cutting edge of the technology? Or is it more of a floundering behemoth that stays in business because it's too costly to switch systems.

I ask because I'd like to know how valuable this installation/support experience is going to be. Am I likely to become more employable in the five to ten year time frame because of it?NByz (talk) 20:08, 19 October 2009 (UTC)

Searching Google for phrases that have been posted here

I noticed that Google cannot search the current version of Wikipedia's Reference desk, but can search archived versions. For example, there are (as of Oct 19, 2009) no Google hits for a random phrase from the above question here. The exact phrase I searched for was "is it more of a floundering behemoth that stays in business because it's too costly". (I chose such a long combination of words to be sure that it would not appear on other sites.) However, if I search for a phrase taken, say, from here: Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Computing/2009 September 12#Producing an optimal route on Google Maps, I get exactly one Google hit - from the very same archived page of the Reference desk. This time the phrase I searched for was "implementations of optimisation algorithms are a lot more expensive and rare than many other applications". Why is that so? That means if I ask something here, initially nobody will be able to find any answers I get, unless they know exactly where to look for, but seven days later everybody will find them by using Google (this may have been a stupid example, sorry for that). Why? 88.203.248.161 (talk) 20:46, 19 October 2009 (UTC)

Google's search index is stored on Google servers and is updated by spidering bots. Depending on the site in question, it doesn't monitor every page on a day-to-day basis. So it probably takes around a week on average for Google to update its index for the Ref Desk, which is pretty much what I would expect for something that is not a "news" site but changes on a pretty regular basis (as Wikipedia does). --98.217.71.237 (talk) 21:14, 19 October 2009 (UTC)

If you want to find out when the page was last indexed, you can click on the "cached" link that appears just below the search result of a page, and it will tell you. This page, for instance, was last indexed on October 11, so Google will not be able to find anything that appeared here since then. 83.250.228.169 (talk) 02:32, 20 October 2009 (UTC)

How to disable AT&T media net

I have voice and text but I don't have data in my plan. The media net key on the LG CU575 like all other phones on Cingular/ATT is the central key that I am bound to push by accident sooner or later. I have to frantically push cancel to make sure no data goes through. Isn't there a way to tell AT&T to disable data completely so that I don't get the "service" of per KB download? Thank you. Kushal (talk) 21:29, 19 October 2009 (UTC)

Yes, go to your local ATT store and tell them you want to "opt out" of a data plan. That's what I did. Now whenever I try to get to the Internet, it tells me I'm "in an area that cannot handle data."--el Aprel (^facta-_facienda) 00:25, 20 October 2009 (UTC)

Thanks. Although my prompt says "Connection failed!" but same difference. :) Kushal (talk) 01:12, 20 October 2009 (UTC)

AT&T a-list terms: just legalese or should I be worried?

At http://www.wireless.att.com/cell-phone-service/legal/plan-terms.jsp AT&T mentions that "AT&T reserves the right to block any A-List number and to reduce the amount of telephone numbers that can be used for A-List without notice." Is it standard legalese or should I be worried to not talk on this number too much? Should I ask AT&T if Google Voice numbers are excluded? Or is it just to make sure that the rural networks don't profit out of the new "unlimited" plan? Kushal (talk) 21:29, 19 October 2009 (UTC)

Anyone? Kushal (talk) 15:01, 20 October 2009 (UTC)

I would say yes, you should clarify any doubts you have with AT&T. I wouldn't say you have to be worried but it's always wise to clarify doubts Nil Einne (talk) 18:33, 22 October 2009 (UTC)

October 20

What Can I Use to Convert .VOB Files to .MOV files?

I have some .VOB files on my hard drive but I want to be able to edit the video. What program can I use to convert the .VOB files to .MOV or .AVI files? Can I use VLC Media Player? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 76.30.218.228 (talk) 01:40, 20 October 2009 (UTC)

VLC can transcode VOB files to a number of formats. So can ffmpeg and Handbrake. I'm not sure they can all do MOV (ffmpeg probably can), but they can make lots of other formats (like MP4). --Mr.98 (talk) 01:50, 20 October 2009 (UTC)

For just converting to .avi, avidemux and AutoGK are good. Avidemux can even edit the vob files directly without need to convert —Preceding unsigned comment added by .isika (talk • contribs) 17:13, 20 October 2009 (UTC)

I personally use SUPER to encode my VOB files into MP4 (iPod) files. It can do a TON of other formats including AVI. I'm pretty sure it can do MOVs as well, but I haven't used it in a while, so I'm not sure.  Buffered Input Output 18:14, 20 October 2009 (UTC)

Also check out DVDREmaster... i love it! --70.167.58.6 (talk) 19:25, 22 October 2009 (UTC)

computer sound effects

I noticed that newer computers can still make their sound effects OUT LOUD even when I've plugged an earphone jack in! (One example is the stickykeys freaky sound effect.) How do I stop that? Is there a separate speaker that needs to be disabled? --198.163.150.5 (talk) 02:35, 20 October 2009 (UTC)

Some computers have a speaker inside the tower. You can easily open the computer and unplug it if you don't like it. -- kainaw™ 03:02, 20 October 2009 (UTC)

Sorry, but I'm not very good at this. How do I do that? --198.163.150.5 (talk) 03:13, 20 October 2009 (UTC)

Inside there must be 2 wires going from motherboard to small speaker (usually smaller than 1cm). You can unplug them from motherboard. This however might not solve the problem, because there usually is another speaker directly on the motherboard. It is hard to disable. -Yyy (talk) 08:54, 20 October 2009 (UTC)

If you're using XP, give this a try: Open the Control Panel, then System. On the Hardware tab, click on Device Manager. In Device Manager, under the View menu, click "Show hidden devices". You should now get a category in the list called "Non-Plug and Play Drivers". Open that, and find the Beep device. Disable that device and restart your computer. Credit: [10]. I hope that helps. –RHolton≡– 09:35, 20 October 2009 (UTC)

Another method that should do the trick (both in Vista and XP) is to go to the run command (in the start menu) type cmd and hit enter. then type net stop beep. In Vista, you will probably have to open the command line as the administrator. To do that, type cmd into the search bar that pops up when you click on the stark menu, and when cmd.exe comes up as a result right click on that and choose to run it as the admin. - Akamad (talk) 04:08, 22 October 2009 (UTC)

What's the URL for this webcam image?

I want to use images from this webcam as a wallpaper on my HTC Magic mobile. I have an app "WorldTour" that allows you to specify a custom URL instead of their listed ones, but I can't work out what the required URL is for the images. The URL http://195.235.198.107:3344/view/index.shtml doesn't work, and the app says it expects it to end with .jpg, .png or .gif. I've hunted around in the page source but I can't see what I should use.--A bit iffy (talk) 06:48, 20 October 2009 (UTC)

The the image appears to be just http://195.235.198.107:3344/mjpg/video.mjpg. It appears to be the rare and elusive Motion JPEG. --Mr.98 (talk) 12:09, 20 October 2009 (UTC)

Many thanks for that, Mr.98.--A bit iffy (talk) 06:35, 21 October 2009 (UTC)

Help the disabled

Hey. I am a differently abled administrator. My disabilities are two: I am colorblind, and I am clueless in CSS. Can someone pretty please help me modify my monobook? For years now I've been editing and not being able to find the bold red text on diffs (but only now realized that you don't have to suffer, dumbass). Can someone please help me fix my monobook? I'd like to change the background coloring on both sides of the diff from yellow and green (? whatever.) to light blue on both sides, and to add yellow highlighting to the bold red text (like in some other skins). This should be really simple, right? -- Y not? 19:53, 20 October 2009 (UTC)

Huh, I didn't know WP had user-customizable css, but it's a nice feature. Try this:

td.diff-deletedline td.diff-addedline {
background:#CCCCFF;
}

.diffchange {
background-color: #FFFFAA;
}

The first one should change both the diff backgrounds to a light blue color, and the second one adds a yellow background to the bold red text. I haven't tried it, so let me know how that works. Indeterminate (talk) 21:20, 20 October 2009 (UTC)

Cool! Thanks! Do I add it to the regular stuff in my monobook.css, or put it into my monobook on its own? -- Y not? 22:02, 20 October 2009 (UTC)

Yep, the second thing worked, I am now playing around with it. Thanks. -- Y not? 22:21, 20 October 2009 (UTC)

I've posted a note at the Village Pump, which is the first step in fixing this for everyone. --h2g2bob (talk) 23:51, 20 October 2009 (UTC)

Game CDs as audio CDs

Hi all,

I had a few (old) game CDs back in the days which were oddly enough playable on CD players except that one track couldn't be listened to (presumably the rest of the data was on that "track"). Indeed they could also be ripped too. They were music tracks in the game. Sometimes the format was different - sometimes I got each individual track as a single song from the game; sometimes I got all the tracks joined together as one long song.

Does anyone know how these are manufactured/burnt to do so, and whether it was likely unintentional? Bear in mind I'm talking about games in the early-1990s to the early-2000s. x42bn6 Talk Mess 22:36, 20 October 2009 (UTC)

It was most likely done on purpose as only a very few games that allowed this, if it were something they had done by accident (something that is unlikely) you would not get the songs or you'd get like two or three then you'd probably get a locked CD player as it tried to read the game's data. In addition the music for a PSX game is usually stored in a .bin file or something similar and not in any CD playable format. So they had to intentionally burn the music into it's own little area in the CD in some music format. 72.224.127.117 (talk) 23:45, 20 October 2009 (UTC)

I imagine the reason this was done in days of yore is that the data for the games was not all that much compared to the volume of the CD, and that the ability to play back CD audio was probably easier and less process intensive than playing back compressed audio. As for how to do so, I believe the data is kept in track one, the audio in the other tracks. There are, if I recall, ways you can tell a CD player to skip the first track. --Mr.98 (talk) 23:53, 20 October 2009 (UTC)

Mr.98 is almost entirely correct. Audio CDs use a data format known as the Red Book. The standard for CD-ROMs is known as the Yellow Book. The discs you're referring to are Yellow Book discs with Red Book audio tracks. Any audio CD player can play them; track 1 is all of the Yellow Book data (which was High Sierra or ISO 9660 data), and tracks 2+ are audio tracks. As Mr.98 says, it was easier back in the day to just send a "play redbook track 2" command to the driver, because Windows 3.0 with Multimedia Extensions and Windows 3.1 didn't have a nice debugged reliable streaming audio solution that worked on all the sound cards that were out there, even those that were allegedly MPC compatible. It would have been nice to have such a thing because redbook audio is uncompressed 44.1KHz and really eats up disc space. Anyway, no it was not by accident that you could play the tracks. Comet Tuttle (talk) 00:22, 21 October 2009 (UTC)

So how easy would it be for me to perhaps make one of these of my own? I haven't seen anything on, say, Nero, which would allow me to do it although I'm happy to be proved wrong. x42bn6 Talk Mess 01:44, 21 October 2009 (UTC)

I just found the Enhanced CD article, which appears to be the relevant term. If you Google for it with that name, you can find some how-tos. (Mixed Mode CD is also relevant, and even lists a bunch of the games in question!) I haven't tried to make Mixed-Mode CDs myself, but Mixed-Mode DVDs (that play DVDs and have data files) are very easy to make with, say, iDVD. --Mr.98 (talk) 02:08, 21 October 2009 (UTC)

Any version of Roxio Toast made in the last ten years allow creation of mixed mode CDs. It's hidden under the 'legacy formats' in the latest version. You basically dragged data files to the track 1 and music files to the other tracks. Pretty easy. Most DVD authoring software (iDVD, Encore, DVD Studio Pro) allows the same thing -- the ability to add computer data to the video disc directory. --70.167.58.6 (talk) 16:05, 23 October 2009 (UTC)

Quake was one of the games that had this feature. The game installation software plus 10 music tracks by Trent Reznor were on the CD (track 1 is the data track). The installation CD will also play in any CD player just like a regular audio CD, and the CD players I've tried are sensible enough to ignore the data track.

Reznor's music was ideal for the game's atmosphere, but once installed, the game could be played with any audio CD playing in the background. Astronaut (talk) 15:18, 21 October 2009 (UTC)

Attaching a process to screen

This is beyond the screen documentation, so I'm not surprised that it isn't there. Here's the situation... I run a process on a server. It is taking forever. I would like to attach it screen so I can disconnect from the server and come back later. I tried sleeping the process, starting screen, and then waking the process. That wouldn't work. You can only wake processes put to sleep inside the screen. Is there some trick I can use to sleep a process and then grab control of it inside screen? -- kainaw™ 22:53, 20 October 2009 (UTC)

There's no easy way to change stdout of a running process, but this article is a good read on the subject if you're interested in how it all works. --h2g2bob (talk) 23:39, 20 October 2009 (UTC)

(edit conflict)I don't believe so. When a process is created its stdin/stout/stderr file descriptors are filled using data from the process-creation-block. A process itself can change what these (often by calling freopen) but changing another process' (p)ttys isn't easy; there isn't a kernel call to do this (but more later). GNU screen generally doesn't need to; it starts new processes with ptys of its own invention, and joining and unjoining them is done by it (not by the kernel, or by the managed process) - it just streams one managed pty into another. Now it is possible (but haaaard) to change another process' ptys - this is what the retty program does. Retty does it by attaching to the victim process with ptrace and then messing around in the victim process' memory and injecting binary code into the victim's process and running it, to do the necessary ioctl's (etc.) to neatly close the old descriptors and open the new ones; it's pretty much an apt lesson in unix badassery. A check of the screen code doesn't find any call to ptrace(), so while someone could chose to implement a "screen -hijack" function, I don't think anyone has. -- Finlay McWalter • Talk 23:48, 20 October 2009 (UTC)

Thanks. I was already fiddling with retty. No luck. I did get a fix though. I added screen to my bashrc. So, when I connect to that specific server, I get shoved into screen. Then, I know I can close it and leave without losing any query I started running. -- kainaw™ 16:23, 21 October 2009 (UTC)

October 21

Affiliate links or codes?

The "Affiliate links" section of Wikipedia:Spam reads as follows:

Even if they are related to the subject or is an official page for the subject, external links containing affiliate or referral codes are considered spam.

What is affiliate code or referral code? Or perhaps this means affiliate links or referral links; but what are these? It would be helpful if (1) articles could be written on these subjects and the terms linked, (2) someone inserts an explanation at that page, or (3) the text at that page could be reworded. In the meantime, what are they? Nyttend (talk) 02:14, 21 October 2009 (UTC)

They are codes that credit a certain account with having sent the user to that web site. Say that I have a web site. I want users to come to my site, so I set up a system whereby people can be paid for sending users there. So, you create an account with my site and I give you a special URL, www.foo.com/code. Now, every time that someone goes to www.foo.com/code, you get a couple cents and they get redirected to my site, foo.com. Dismas|^(talk) 05:54, 21 October 2009 (UTC)

Something like AJAX across sites

Hi All,

Here's our situation: we have an online store in Host A (which uses a proprietary CMS). This host is IIS / ASP based, and I can create ASP pages but they have SQL functions disabled. Now we also have a Godaddy hosting plan (linux/php/mysql -- lets call it Host B), and I was wondering if there was an easy way for me to query the database I created on MySQL on Host B.

I have been able to work around it to some extent by doing the following, but I feel it is very awkward:

I have caller.asp in host a which takes parameters passed to it, it then creates an iframe embedding and passing the arguments to a query.php which does the appropriate query to MySQL.

One of my problems with this (aside from security concerns etc) is that the formatting is done by the php file, and its a hassle to have to update the php file everytime a new layout is desired.

Surely there has got to be a better way around this. It would be great if I could just get the results in a string/array using something like server-side AJAX that I can parse according to my needs. (Oh, and yes, I understand that AJAX is intentionally limited to the same domain to prevent xss hacks/attacks)

If anyone can point me to a good article / concept it would be much appreciated.

Thanks in Advance PrinzPH (talk) 02:21, 21 October 2009 (UTC)

Resolved

Why can't you just return the data from the PHP file in a parsable format? That seems to be what you are getting at, and it's what I would have suggested doing. It is not hard to write up a PHP function that converts an array to, say, XML, or to an HTTP GET request, and it's equally not hard to find code to parse such data. --Mr.98 (talk) 13:22, 21 October 2009 (UTC)

Thanks for the tip! :) I have gone ahead and made an 'api' on php returnin xml, then parsing that using asp. Man I love the refdesk! PrinzPH (talk) 00:08, 22 October 2009 (UTC)

Youtube

What's the longest time a Youtube video has been on the site without a single view? jc iindyysgvxc (my contributions) 10:16, 21 October 2009 (UTC)

I suspect you'd need to have access to Youtube logs for that... I don't know how one could go about finding that out without them. --Mr.98 (talk) 13:13, 21 October 2009 (UTC)

Do you include private videos in your description? Kushal (talk) 14:44, 21 October 2009 (UTC)

macbook display problem

Hi guys, I have a 2006 Intel Macbook and it has run into a weird problem lately. It randomly messes up and turns into something like http://img41.imageshack.us/img41/20/102009051200.jpg I think the situation is getting worse as this has been happening for a few days and it seems to like to go to that pre-VGA stage more often and stay there more often. Sometimes it corrects without me consciously acting to correct it and sometimes I move the lid as if I was opening or closing the macbook lid. Any ideas guys? I am so confused by this. Kushal (talk) 12:14, 21 October 2009 (UTC)

The looks inverted... pressing ctrl+option+apple+8 inverts the screen. Maybe you have done this accidentally? Though that would be a very optimistic assessment (since it doesn't look totally consistent)... more worst case would probably be some cable coming loose, which might produce that kind of weirdness. --Mr.98 (talk) 13:08, 21 October 2009 (UTC)

It was worth a shot though. However, no, it is not the normal "inverted" look. The loose cable idea is what I thought too. that or a cable caught somewhere ... how can I fix this? any ideas? Kushal (talk) 14:43, 21 October 2009 (UTC)

Well, if it were me, and I were comfortable taking apart a MacBook (which I am—they're not too bad, not compared to, say, iBooks, which have ten million more screws than are necessary), I would probably take it apart and give it a gander. My guess, based on taking them apart before, is that the problem will be in the wires on the hinge of the screen. There are wires that go into the LCD from the motherboard and they have to cross at the hinge. As you can imagine, this is a potential high-wear area because opening and closing the hinge, if it catches the wire, can cut into them. My guess is that there is some kind of cable damage in that area, and that you are getting analog weirdness as a result. (Which can be very weird. I had a VGA cable once that went bad on the inside, somehow, and it was warping all the colors when it was being output to a projector. Took forever to diagnose that it was the cable that was the problem, not the projector or the Mac.) ifixit.com has a lot of good tutorials as to how to take them apart and replace pieces; unfortunately, if it is one of those cables, I'm not sure you can replace those by themselves (they appear to only be sold with the entire display assembly). Anyway... that's my uneducated guess, based on previous experience inside Macbooks and your description! --Mr.98 (talk) 15:04, 21 October 2009 (UTC)

I will look into it. I am also thinking about the other macbook that is running into (an unrelated) problem... http://hadakushal.blogspot.com/2009/09/messed-up-screen.html

If I do have wire damage, where will I find cheap but durable wire and parts? eBay? I guess some of it is for another question here at the reference disk but I want to make sure that it is worth it to open the computer. ... I have replaced the hard disk drive on the computer before but I have not really opened it up upto now. Kushal (talk) 22:17, 21 October 2009 (UTC)

Well, if it is one of the cables you can't buy separately, the nice thing is that if you bought a broken display (e.g. a cracked one) used, the cables would probably work. I don't know how feasible it would be to transplant them from one to the other, though. If it is a problem of wire damaging, you don't need "durable" parts so much as to position them in the case correctly. I have in the past used a small bit of card stock (e.g. cut from an index card) to add an extra layer to keep the wire from slipping into a high-wear area. --Mr.98 (talk) 01:20, 22 October 2009 (UTC)

is there a way

I got an nvidia geforce 8400m gs in my laptop, which max(the default) resolution is 1280 by 800pixels. But i do know that this card can go up as much as 1920×1080. i know that becouse i hooked up an HDTV tv to it by the hdmi output built in my laptop, and so it can produce it with no problem, but there seems to be no way to set it higher then the default (1280 by 800) if no hdmi output is provided. any one know of any way to make it set to higher than 1280 x 800? Maby some register tweaks, or external drivers that might help.. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 77.35.38.154 (talk) 13:21, 21 October 2009 (UTC)

Does your problem occur with another external monitor? Are you trying to use a VGA interface instead of HDMI? The laptop's integrated screen most likely has no more than 1280x800 pixels. 130.188.8.9 (talk) 13:26, 21 October 2009 (UTC)

Your screen only has 1280×800 pixels; even if it somehow accepted a 1080p signal there are still only 1280×800 pixels, it's a physical limit that's pointless to overcome through software. --antilived^{T | C | G} 07:02, 22 October 2009 (UTC)

Rendering problem of reference

Why is the hyperlink of references 24, 29, 32 in List of National Treasures of Japan (paintings) not properly formatted? Can it be fixed? bamse (talk) 13:36, 21 October 2009 (UTC)

I fixed ref 24 - the problem was square bracket characters in the URL being misinterpreted when MediaWiki was rendering the page. So I replaced [ with %5b and ] with %5d and all is well. You're right that refs 29 and 32 (which refer to the same site) have the same problem - but I've not fixed them, as both appear to be bad (that is, they just resolve to the homepage of the museum, rather than to the specific page about a given artwork that the accompanying text would suggest). If someone can fix these URLs to point to the actual artworks, I'll escape these too. -- Finlay McWalter • Talk 13:59, 21 October 2009 (UTC)

Thanks. I fixed the other references in the same way as you did with 24. For me, both links were pointing to the page about the respective artwork. bamse (talk) 14:23, 21 October 2009 (UTC)

I can confirm that all three are work properly now that you've applied the escapes. -- Finlay McWalter • Talk 14:33, 21 October 2009 (UTC)

Screen capture of VisualBoyAdvance on Mac

May I know what buttons must I press to make screen capture of VisualBoyAdvance games on my Mac?--121.7.226.146 (talk) 13:51, 21 October 2009 (UTC)

Preview (software) is the Mac OSX component that allows you to grab screenshots. It has options to grab the whole screen, specific windows, or manually-specified screen areas. Nimur (talk) 14:48, 21 October 2009 (UTC)

To take a full-screen capture in OS X, press Apple-Shift-3. It will save it as a PNG on your desktop. --Mr.98 (talk) 14:55, 21 October 2009 (UTC)

In Snow Leopard, Quicktime Player can capture your screen to a movie. --70.167.58.6 (talk) 18:52, 22 October 2009 (UTC)

How buy the correct memory off eBay?

I'd like to upgrade the memory of my current computer, but I'm confused about how I can tell if the memory for sale on eBay will be suitable for my computer. Most of the memory for sale includes two letters followed by some numbers - I think its PC1234 for example - do not know if this is relevant. What is the correct proceedure to follow please? Using the Everest software, it tells me that the memory in this computer is DDR DIMM SDRAM, that the Motherboard Name is ASRock P4VM8 and the Motherboard ID is 63-100-0000010-00101111-120204-VIA$P4VM8000_P4VM8 BIOS P1.00 I do not know what the model of the computer is, I think it is some old obscure model. I also have two other old computers I would like to improve the memory of before converting to Linux. Thanks 92.29.141.85 (talk) 14:20, 21 October 2009 (UTC)

Here is your motherboard vendor's official product website. This has a lot of technical information, and a downloadable manual for more detailed information. The documentation states about the P4VM8 motherboard:

• Supports DDR400/333 non-ECC, un-buffered memory
• DIMM slots: 2
• Max. capacity of system memory: 2GB

You should be compatible with any memory that is DDR400 (PC-3200), DDR333 (PC-2700), or DDR266 (PC-2100). Nimur (talk) 14:40, 21 October 2009 (UTC)

Thank you. What is the significance of the PC-XXXX? These PC numbers seem to be included in most eBay descriptions - what actually do they mean? Does the standard involved have a name? 89.240.199.100 (talk) 19:33, 21 October 2009 (UTC)

We have a nice table in the article on DIMMs. "PC" specifies that the technology is either Single Data Rate or Double Data Rate 1 (DDR1). "2700" is a standard "version" of the DDR1 technology; it approximately represents the data transfer speed (it is approximately 8x the clock rate, indicating an 8-bit data signal; but note also that this is "double data rate", so it's really 8x 2x the clock rate...). Actual data transfer speed may vary based on many other factors. The technical term for this is "peak transfer speed", measured in Megabytes per second, but again note that this is approximate. You can more safely consider it a "model number", which is loosely based on a technical specification. Nimur (talk) 21:34, 21 October 2009 (UTC)

Go to the PNY, Crucial and Kingston web sites, find their part number for your product and searc for the number on eBay. ---— Gadget850 (Ed) ^talk 22:00, 21 October 2009 (UTC)

Its a pity that it is so difficult to identify what compatible memory would be. I wish the standard 'model number' was so designed to make it easy to see if it would be compatible with existing memory, but there are so many parameters: pins, speeds, and several other things that are difficult to identify or figure out. Is there anywhere online I could learn how to identify compatible memory - which of the variouis parameters are critical, which are less important - please? 78.151.83.175 (talk) 23:24, 21 October 2009 (UTC)

Re: compatibility, almost all memory manufacturers have tools on their website that let you plug in your make/model of computer and will tell you what chips are compatible. I don't know though about which parameters are critical... usually there aren't too many options, though (at least in my experience). --Mr.98 (talk) 15:01, 22 October 2009 (UTC)

Upgrading from integrated graphics

Hi, I'm thinking of getting a new PC but I could only afford it with integrated graphics. Would I be able to take my old graphics out and put it in the new system, or would the integrated graphics stop me doing that? Thanks a lot in advance. Mikerooney (talk) 15:35, 21 October 2009 (UTC)

A cautious yes. When I put a graphics card in a PC with integrated graphics, the graphics card took precedence over the integrated graphics. If it doesn't do so, the BIOS will almost certainly have a means to inhibit the integrated graphics. Just make sure the motherboard in the new PC has the type of connector required for the old graphics card. Astronaut (talk) 15:44, 21 October 2009 (UTC)

(ec) It depends on the motherboard(s). Some (most) desktop size (ATX) motherboards with integrated graphics adapters still have a PCIe slot, and if you put a compatible card into that, they typically use that rather than the integrated controller (you very very rarely can operate both). So for this to work you'd need to know what kind of graphics card your current system has, and make sure that your new system's motherboard has the same, or a downward compatible, slot. -- Finlay McWalter • Talk 15:47, 21 October 2009 (UTC)

Thanks to both of you. A NVIDIA or an ATI is offered instead of the integrated, so I presume my old ATI would work then. Thanks. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Mikerooney (talk • contribs) 15:54, 21 October 2009 (UTC)

Consider getting the cheapest modern card you can find; it will almost always be better than your old, presumably AGP card. Maybe substitute the extra cost with a smaller hard drive, for example. Sandman30s (talk) 19:24, 21 October 2009 (UTC)

The single biggest question is whether the new computer has an AGP slot (assuming your old graphics card is AGP). If it does then it's 99% certain it'll work - if it's a PCI-express slot and your graphics card isn't - then you're in trouble. You might want to consider that though - are you sure your aging graphics card is actually going to be faster than the integrated graphics on your new motherboard? If the integrated graphics are based on an nVidia or ATI chip - then maybe you're better off using it 'as-is'. If it's based on an Intel graphics chip then probably your old nVidia/ATI card will do better. SteveBaker (talk) 01:36, 22 October 2009 (UTC)

Perfect Performance in Windows 95

I just reinstalled Windows 95 on my old HP Vectra VE 200 MHz PC from 1997, and as always (I do it maybe once a year for nostalgic reasons), the performance is perfect. The system boots fast, and while in Windows, the performance is almost out of this world: Browsing the Start Menu, opening a new explorer window (as is done every time you open a new folder, using the default settings), opening Notepad or Paint with a *.txt or *.bmp file, opening the control panel, etc, is performed with no noticable delay whatsoever (it must take less than 1/30 of a second), and you even cannot hear anything from the HDD when you do any of these things, and there is never any flickering. You can shut the computer down in less than two seconds. Of course, Windows 9x has no security at all, and is not stable, the set of features is highly limited, and the GUI is very simplistic, but still – is it not possible to write quick (in this extreme sense) software today? My Windows Vista PC has a clock frequency of almost 3 GHz, has gigabyes more RAM, is much newer and so on, but still you have to wait perhaps a half second to open an explorer window, or a simple application. Even browsing to a new directory in an existing explorer window takes perhaps 1/5 of a second. --Andreas Rejbrand (talk) 19:21, 21 October 2009 (UTC)

Those old HP's were brilliant machines. Even back to around 1990, the 486 HP's were highly optimized machines and for some reason worked faster than all the rest. Maybe they worked out the caching optimizations and lost the art today; who knows? However, current operating systems are filled with bloatware (support for older hardware and compatibility code) so I can imagine why Vista would work a bit slower. Windows 7 (64) I must admit is pretty fast for what it does (better than Vista anyhow). Also remember that there is more and more globalization code now, so everything you open must go and lookup libraries and perform pass-through conversions just to display correctly (talk about multibyte UTF8 etc. here, not the best for performance). When the world (let's call it the Microsoft world and forget about clouds, shall we) goes completely 64-bit and Microsoft finally pulls the plug on legacy 8/16/32 bit code - then you'll see vastly improved performance and less bloated operating systems. I don't see why they don't do this anyway - people can always dual-boot if they want to run old apps? Or run a 32-bit virtual machine on their fully 64-bit computer.

BTW, if you want to go back to 1985, there was this brilliant computer called the Amiga. Apart from its state of the art hardware for the time, its entire GUI O/S fitted into 1 meg. Yes, ONE MEG. And it worked super-fast and had no bugs to speak of. Now that was tight, optimized code. Now you find people can't write printer drivers in 1 meg... sigh. Thanks for the walk down memory lane. Sandman30s (talk) 19:41, 21 October 2009 (UTC)

To expand on this point, modern operating systems also include tons of features that were simply not available in Windows 95. Programs load more and more libraries that aren't always needed to read that simple text file, and the OS will index files on your hard drive for "instant" searches. As the hardware gets faster, Operating Systems have moved further away from the basic file and window manager that come with them to including intensive usability features (such as the previously mentioned search improvements) as well as automating and performing matainence tasks in the background that you were expected to perform yourself in the past. This has bloated the software significantly, but modern hardware can handle this bloat. Yes, it would be nice if it was faster, but with the points mentioned by Sandman as well as taking into account the extra services loading and bundled with the OS, software is likely to keep the same "speed" while allowing for more advanced features to easily be included as hardware becomes faster. 206.131.39.6 (talk) 20:03, 21 October 2009 (UTC)

Yes, well put, 206. To add another point - if you're online, there are lots of sometimes hidden checks going on, which can add to slowdowns obviously. Just to give you an example, I found svchost.exe recently doing a sequential port scan on my router - harmless but irritating. Also, there are tons more viruses that virus checkers have to scan for nowadays. There are agents of all sorts that compete with each other for file associations. There are annoying resident 'features' that check your local network and refreshes everything with the slightest change. Windows 7 has 'gadgets' that check time and weather and currency conversions. With all of that running in the background, it's no wonder that there are slowdowns of all sorts, even with the hugely faster hardware we have nowadays. I would imagine a new install of Windows 7, completely offline, would work almost as fast as that HP the OP mentioned.

As our global online world invents and reinvents itself, we will hopefully reach a point of standardization in the computing world that can only help with more optimized computers. Maybe cloud computing is really the way to go, as bandwidth gets faster and cheaper by the month; then all the problems spoken about here can remain in the domain of super-fast servers. Sandman30s (talk) 20:27, 21 October 2009 (UTC)

Um... None of the x86-64 versions of Windows have ever had support for 16 bit code (including DOS), let alone 8 bit due to the removal of NTVDM. Well it's possible some of the early betas did, I don't know that far although it's my understanding as mentioned in the articles that in long mode certain options on the processor making it not possible but in any case since Windows XP x64 RTM they definitely haven't. They do include WOW for 32 bit code. Also I'm somewhat doubtful the overhead for WOW32 is actually as much as you think but am welcome to be proven wrong by some citations. BTW, I don't know how long you've been using Windows x64. I've been using it since 2005 and the Windows XP days. While I've never found it as bad as some people suggest the ability to run x86-32 apps remains an absolute necessity even in these Windows 7 days. While most of the core Windows apps are now 64 bit native there is still a hell of a lot of stuff that isn't. For example for a variety of reasons very few open source apps are. There's no official x64 Firefox for example. And even some MS apps remain x86-32 only. Microsoft Office 2010 will finally bring a 64 bit version but that's still a while away. Checking my running apps Windows Live Messenger remains 32 bit. Adobe have brought 64 bit versions of many of their apps with CS4 I believe. However I'm still waiting for a 64 bit Flash plugin and a 64 bit Java plugin. Then there's codecs (true with x64 FFDshow you have most of the important stuff). And I'm not even mentioning gaming... True if Microsoft had simply excluded WOW32 things would be different. I don't think they would be better. There's a reason why Itanium failed badly... Nil Einne (talk) 17:53, 22 October 2009 (UTC)

You can make Vista that fast if you upgrade the hard drive. I've seen Vista PCs with RAIDs or SSDs that are very, very, snappy. Programs are much larger than in the past and they have more modules (DLLs) that are often spread across the hard drive. Solid-state drives do not have read-write heads, which should mitigate the issue of collecting modules spread across a disk. Vista also introduced transactional NTFS, which means more journaling, and thus, more hard-drive activity.--Drknkn (talk) 20:59, 21 October 2009 (UTC)

Apples new OS Snow Leopard received a bit of interest because it was significantly smaller (install size) than its predecessor. In a world where hard-drive space costs (essentially) nothing that kind of working to make it smaller is quite refreshing. I can't track it down (i'm at work) but there was some weird site I found once that was all about making incredible software with a file size under a set limit - something stupid like 50KB, the stuff these people could produce was insane. 194.221.133.226 (talk) 08:54, 22 October 2009 (UTC)

First Computer in a Home

I normally hear that Mary Wilkes is the first person to have a computer in the home. Other times, I see it listed as "ostensibly" or "usually" or "as far as I can tell" she is the first person to have a home computer. This should be something rather discrete. If someone else was using a computer in his or her home before Wilkes, who was it? -- kainaw™ 19:24, 21 October 2009 (UTC)

It's going to depend entirely on what you consider a computer, right? How about a non-programmable digital electronic calculator, e.g. Sumlock ANITA calculator, c. 1961? Nimur (talk) 21:02, 21 October 2009 (UTC)

This article [11] quotes Mary Wilkes as saying that she believes she was the first person to work on a computer at home.

If we take the modern definition of "computer" (something that's equivalent to a Turing machine in terms of the Church-Turing thesis) - then non-programmable calculators definitely don't count - if they did then the abacus would win, and I'm pretty sure that I could argue that a pile of rocks used as 'tally sticks' would take the first home 'calculator' back to the stone age! If you're prepared to accept older meanings of the term "computer" in order to squeak that calculator past the modern definition - then I'd have to point out that a "computer" was originally a person who performed calculations for a living - and I imagine that many people had one of those at home back in 1613 when the word was first used!

However - I think the definitive answer is that Konrad Zuse developed the worlds first "Turing Complete" machine - that makes it indisputably a "computer" by all modern definitions. We're told that he built the machine in his parent's apartment in 1936 - which makes him by far the first person to have a computer at home.

Just in case anyone attempts to claim that Babbage did it first - well no - his analytical engine was never built and the small part of his difference engine that did get built (and which he undoubtedly showed to interested visitors at his home) - was nothing more than a calculator - and an unfinished one at that.

So - Konrad Zuse wins by a solid 25 years! SteveBaker (talk) 01:24, 22 October 2009 (UTC)

Choise of motherboard

Hello there, I have come up new motherboard of Gigabyte GA-EP45T-UD3R and want to have it soon. But after reading this thread I'm bit worried about this board. As I had bitter experience with XFX 770i SLI board which froze my entire system numerous time. So I want a stable board which will be stable in long run. And I don't have the same experience again. Thank you --119.30.36.40 (talk) 21:19, 21 October 2009 (UTC)

P.S. Is it possible to get further review of GA-EP45T-UD3R? The google shows few or no review on this board.

I would expect one of the reasons for the lack of reviews is because not many people were interested in DDR3 at the time the board was launched so most reviews were for the DDR2 variant. Further the UD3R can probably be said to be a mid end motherboard, I would expect most people who were interested in DDR3 were at the high end particularly with X48. However the reliability and performance of the DDR2 variant is no guarantee of the reliability and performance of the DDR3 one. From my experience I can say Gigabyte tends to make good motherboards for the price. In fact they are currently my preferred motherboard vendor (not that I buy motherboards much and that's partially influence by the what's available here in NZ and the price). I can't specifically comment on this motherboard but I will say one single anecdotal problem report, is basically useless. Even more so when the cause of this problem is unclear. It's possible for example the problem is completely unrelated to the motherboard or the user damaged it (as its claimed the problem only occured after a new HSF was installed and someone who needs to be told to try memtest doesn't exactly strike me as the sort of person who knows what they're doing). In fact even multiple reports of problems are not necessarily as useful as they may seem there are a lot of complicating factors like the number of users. Nil Einne (talk) 17:47, 22 October 2009 (UTC)

Regular expressions and AWB

Hey, I figured this out once before, but I didn't save it, so now I've forgotten what I did the first time around. I need a regular expression that can find a dated template, and replace it with another template. However, the catch is the date on the template is variable so it's not a simple replacement. I've used a regular expression once before to get this to work in AWB, but yeah, didn't save it. For example, let's say I want to replace {{OTRS pending|year=2009|month=October|day=11}} with {{PermissionOTRS|id=###########}}, but I also have maybe a dozen more images that need the same ticket ID number, but were uploaded on different days so it could be September 29, or October 9, or October 20, etc. What is a regular expression that can selection the beginning of the template, but ignore the stuff in the middle? Does that make sense what I'm trying to accomplish? -Andrew c ^[talk] 22:37, 21 October 2009 (UTC)

So let me get this straight: you want a regex that matches the entire "OTRS pending" template, no matter what the arguments are? Well, that's easy, this should work:

{{OTRS pending[^}]*}}

First, it matches the beginning of the template ("{{OTRS pending"), then everything that isn't a closing curly bracket ("[^}]*") and then finally the end of the template ("}}"). I'm not sure about AWBs regex-handling, but that's pretty much the standard syntax. Was that what you wanted? 90.233.134.223 (talk) 01:48, 22 October 2009 (UTC)

Oh, wait, i forgot that curly brackets are a control character, so that might mess it up (though I just tried it in Python, and there it worked fine). Maybe it's best just to escape those, like this:

\{\{OTRS pending[^\}]*\}\}

There. That's it 90.233.134.223 (talk) 02:16, 22 October 2009 (UTC)

Yeah, you got the idea. I'll test it out soon. Thanks a bunch. Since I was messing with it today, you don't have to backslash the curly brackets, but you do have to backslash the | (though that doesn't seem to matter as your 'regex' is ignoring everything after "pending", which is great!). Anyway, I'll test it out when I'm back on a computer with AWB installed on it, thanks again. -Andrew c ^[talk] 03:35, 22 October 2009 (UTC)

Bi-directional HDMI and DisplayPort signal compatibility.

The new iMac introduced yesterday has a new feature. The mini DisplayPort accept video *input* so you can use the iMac display as a second monitor for your laptop or what have you. Now I've seen $20 Mini DisplayPort-to-HDMI connectors are also available. So would I be able to connect an HDMI device (like Blu-Ray player or DVR) into the iMac to use as a monitor? Are both HDMI and DisplayPort bidirectional? Would the adaptor be bi-directional by design? --70.167.58.6 (talk) 22:37, 21 October 2009 (UTC)

HDMI and DisplayPort have different electrical properties, different signaling methods and different protocols. Therefore a chip is needed in the adapters to translate the signals, and I highly doubt it'd be bi-directional. Pure mechanical adapters though, such as mini-DisplayPort <-> DisplayPort adapters, are fully bidirectional as they are merely a cable. --antilived^{T | C | G} 06:57, 22 October 2009 (UTC)

Thanks for the info. I contacted the manufacturer and they confirmed their adapters are not bi-directional. Drat! --70.167.58.6 (talk) 18:50, 22 October 2009 (UTC)

October 22

chinese input support configuration question

I'm using a CHN Win XP and we use the language bar for input. Chinese is the default and tapping SHIFT will switch you to English. However, hitting SHIFT+SPACE enables ｃｏｍｐｌｅｔｅｌｙ　ｕｓｅｌｅｓｓ　ｍｅｇａｔｙｐｅ　ｍｏｄｅ which is incredibly annoying, especially since I often activate it at the end of an all-capital word, such as "I" -- I only ever needed to released SHIFT before striking the next letter, not striking the space, and the timing of my typing reflects that. It's a real pain in the ass to correct for something that I really don't want to have to correct for. Can this be disabled/adjusted to use a different key combination?218.25.32.210 (talk) 02:42, 22 October 2009 (UTC)

I have no answer for you here, but I would like to add that you are not the only one - it happens to me, too, and is incredibly annoying, especially when you are in the middle of something that needs fast typing, such as on online meeting, or whatever, or even just chatting. If anyone can find a way to fix this, it would be a Godsend. --KageTora - SPQW - (影虎) (talk) 09:15, 22 October 2009 (UTC)

[12]F (talk) 12:11, 22 October 2009 (UTC)

Youtube (2)

On Youtube, why do many users lie about their age? jc iindyysgvxc (my contributions) 07:15, 22 October 2009 (UTC)

If you say you're 18, 27 or 64 I have no ability to verify if it is true or not. Yes I could compare my Stereotype of what to expect of someone of that age with your actions, but beyond that (and searching your username in google for other site-registration/usage) i'm not sure how i'd be able to reliably verify you. Ultimately people have no reason to disbelieve a person's claim - it makes no difference to YouTube since age is irrelevant from my experience using the site. As for 'why' - well people often like to be seen as what they desire to be - younger / older, more popular / more intelligent and so on. It's easy enough to 'hide' your identity online. 194.221.133.226 (talk) 08:42, 22 October 2009 (UTC)

Why do people lie about their age in real life?? Same principle —Preceding unsigned comment added by 82.44.55.2 (talk) 10:06, 22 October 2009 (UTC)

I know one reason: Children's Online Privacy Protection Act. A child produces a video at age 10 and doesn't want to wait until his thirteenth birthday before publishing it. --Damian Yerrick (talk | stalk) 10:53, 22 October 2009 (UTC)

In a similar vein people who want to see content restricted to 18 year olds who are not yet 18 Nil Einne (talk) 18:31, 22 October 2009 (UTC)

You could also ask, why tell the truth about your age on such a site? Does it really matter? I usually choose an age at random when I am told I need to specify it. I'm over the age of any applicable laws—isn't that all anyone really needs to know? --Mr.98 (talk) 14:51, 22 October 2009 (UTC)

Who Links To This...?

Is there a way to find out if an image, say on Flickr, is being linked to by another site? I have recently just added a bunch of pics to Flickr (mostly screenshots of games) and have found my 'views' surge somewhat drastically. I am wondering if I can find out if these pics are being used elsewhere (I don't mind, so long as they are used appropriately). Flickr does not seem to offer such a service, but is there another way to find out? --KageTora - SPQW - (影虎) (talk) 09:10, 22 October 2009 (UTC)

Yes, Google offers such a service. Preface the URL of your photo with "link:" (so search for, for instance, "link:http://flickr.com/x123456"). You can also get there by clicking the "Advanced Search" link on the Google home page, and expanding "date, usage rights...". Hope that helps! — QuantumEleven 09:18, 22 October 2009 (UTC)

http://bighugelabs.com/dna.php - Flickr DNA. It's a great little site - for instance my flickr photos throuh there are...http://bighugelabs.com/dna.php?username=ny156uk. The bottom section shows 'Ego Surf' where you can search popular places to find out - I have found the google one to be 'ok' but it doesn't pick them all up. 194.221.133.226 (talk) 14:42, 22 October 2009 (UTC)

Excellent! Cheers! Loads of stuff there! --KageTora - SPQW - (影虎) (talk) 15:02, 22 October 2009 (UTC)

You can also try tineye -- penubag  (talk) 05:29, 23 October 2009 (UTC)

PostScript fonts on XP trouble

Hi. I've been emailed a zip-file containing a font-family, which I understand is in PostScript format. However, the files are simply named ._DeviaStrReg (presumably Deviant Strain Regular) and ._DeviaStrVer (Deviant Strain Oblique) etc., and don't have a PostScript icon. There's also a DS-store file. How do I go about installing them? Thanks! ╟─TreasuryTag►assemblyman─╢ 15:12, 22 October 2009 (UTC)

sounds like these have been copied from a mac, presumably they cost money also, so I'm not sure if this is legal.

The DS-store file is just meta information (garbage) that Macs tend to keep everywhere. "install" them by putting them where your PS font aware application expects to find them. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 203.158.49.249 (talk) 21:35, 22 October 2009 (UTC)

Yes, I tried that, didn't work, obviously... ╟─TreasuryTag►Not-content─╢ 22:58, 22 October 2009 (UTC)

You can't install Mac PostScript fonts in Windows XP, or vice-versa. It's as simple as that. You can share OpenType fonts and, sometimes, TrueType fonts, but PostScript fonts are customized for each operating system.--Drknkn (talk) 00:14, 23 October 2009 (UTC)

Oh. Then why's there an article (several articles, in fact) called: Install PostScript Type 1 Fonts in Windows 2000 or Windows XP? ╟─TreasuryTag►constabulary─╢ 05:54, 23 October 2009 (UTC)

I told you that you can only install Windows PostScript Type 1 fonts in Windows XP. There are Windows Type 1 fonts and there are Mac Type 1 fonts. Windows Type 1 fonts have a .PFB, .PFM, and--sometimes--a .AFM extension. You can install Type 1 fonts in Windows XP, but they have to be Type 1 fonts for Windows. Does that make sense?--Drknkn (talk) 06:02, 23 October 2009 (UTC)

Do you think that using a program such as CrossFont would work, then? ╟─TreasuryTag►inspectorate─╢ 07:22, 23 October 2009 (UTC)

I did not know about that program. I just researched it and it appears to work well.--Drknkn (talk) 07:49, 23 October 2009 (UTC)

fonts

How to make my own fonts, software etc (hopefully free) —Preceding unsigned comment added by 82.44.55.2 (talk) 15:45, 22 October 2009 (UTC)

FontForge is the main free one. --Sean 16:13, 22 October 2009 (UTC)

Keyboard and possibly spyware problems

I have 2 different problems which I think may be related. Firstly for a while now I've been having problems with my keyboard. It has become very slow to respond to my keystrokes. When typing some letters won't come out etc. It's quite random: sometimes this happens, sometimes it doesn't and its not tied to any specific keys so I think we can rule out it being dirty etc.

My second problem is with spyware and I think maybe related to the keyboard problem. I might sound a bit paranoid saying this but some of my "friends" keep working certain things into conversations, as if they wanted me to realise, that they could only know if they were spying on my PC. For example, the other night they managed to mention 2 songs which Ive been listening to recently yet the songs aren't new and I havn't mentioned them to them so I dont think its a coincidence that they are listening to such songs jst when I am. Also, one of them doesn't even listen to the same kind of music as me. So to summarise, I unfortunately can't trust my own friends.

Any advice on how to go about sorting out these problems? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 212.120.246.229 (talk) 16:42, 22 October 2009 (UTC)

As far as the spyware, and assuming that you are running Windows - I'd download and install Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware and run a full scan, then do the same with Spybot. Those should give you a good idea of what bad stuff is lurking on your system, if any. Depending on the results, you might decide that your friends are trustworthy after all. --LarryMac | Talk 17:29, 22 October 2009 (UTC)

Incidentally, a non-technical way to see if someone is spying on you is to put out false information and see if they alter their behavior. So if you loop a song chosen truly at random, maybe something that would get a rise out of your friends (something vastly out of character or potentially embarrassing), and they mention it, you'd consider that pretty good evidence that they know what you are listening to. (Which could be caused by a variety of things other than spyware—depending on your arrangements, they could just be able to hear what you listen to, or ask a roommate, or whatever.) --Mr.98 (talk) 17:37, 22 October 2009 (UTC)

Firefox and IETab

Where does FF/IETab keep its list of "URLs to always open with IE"? One of our vendors has recently changed to IE ONLY (they actually BLOCK the site for other browsers, but that's not the subject of this thread please). Consequently, FF needs to forget its previous behaviour, and "relearn" to always open this bookmarked site with IE. How can I force that?

I know that I can right-click on the bookmark, but that opens in a new tab, and also doesn't remember for next time. Is there a setting someplace, or a file I can edit?

Secondary question: I'm unable to locate any "formal" documentation on IETab in general, in which answers to questions like this might be found. If someone can point me to such a site -- NOT the mozilla bulletin board -- that would be an acceptable answer. --DaHorsesMouth (talk) 16:55, 22 October 2009 (UTC)

It looks like there's an options dialog with a "Site Filter" tab. --LarryMac | Talk 17:24, 22 October 2009 (UTC)

OK, that's what that tab is for! Yep, problem solved, 29 minutes. Thanks!

Resolved

electrical connector

There is a type of electrical connector commonly seen on laptop batteries, where the battery has a bunch of little slots with contacts inside, and the laptop battery compartment has some blades sticking out, that friction-fit into the slots. What is that type of connector called, and what do the different contacts do? Thanks. 69.228.171.150 (talk) 17:57, 22 October 2009 (UTC)

Memory On Disk

Recently, the 'memory available' on my C: drive has been going up and down erratically. It was 39GB yesterday morning, and had gone down to 31GB by the end of the night. Then this morning it was 36GB and has gone up to 44GB in the space of a few hours. What's happening? I haven't downloaded anything or deleted anything in the last couple of days (actually, it was 80+GB about two weeks ago). --KageTora - SPQW - (影虎) (talk) 18:11, 22 October 2009 (UTC)

How much RAM do you have? Sounds like virtual memory or perhaps large caches from the Internet or Quicktime. Do you use p2p software like BitTorrent? --70.167.58.6 (talk) 18:53, 22 October 2009 (UTC)

It's possibly something going on with system restore, but it's hard to say the exact cause without more information. A spatial file management tool such as windirstat may help you identify the cause of the ever decreasing amount of space. Look for unusually large files or directories. Often a google search will bring up the use and importance of system created files. 206.131.39.6 (talk) 18:54, 23 October 2009 (UTC)

Ps/2 keyboard - loose connector

I killed my keyboard with a cup of tea yesterday and bought a cheap replacement. However, the computer does not register the keyboard at start-up, and the ps/2 connector falls out at the slightest touch. Is there anything I can do? Visually the connector's pins seem fine. Fribbler (talk) 18:14, 22 October 2009 (UTC)

Your old keyboard was also a ps/2 keyboard that you plugged into the same socket? If you're talking about a laptop keyboard that you're now substituting an external keyboard for, laptop keyboard PS2 ports are usually set up for a mouse, while the pinout for a keyboard is different. There are "Y" adapters you can buy for a couple bucks, that split the port into a keyboard port and a mouse port. 69.228.171.150 (talk) 22:11, 22 October 2009 (UTC)

It's a desktop, ps/2 in the correct keyboard slot both times. I reckon I will take it back to the shop, but was hoping for a workaround. Fribbler (talk) 22:18, 22 October 2009 (UTC)

Gently, gently, gently, bend the pins and outer ground connector on the plug very slightly until you get a tighter fit. Failing that buy a new keyboard. Astronaut (talk) 22:20, 22 October 2009 (UTC)

It cost me €5, so I'm not too worried, but using the "on-screen keyboard" feature in vista is pissing me off tonight; hate waiting till tomorrow :-) Fribbler (talk) 22:29, 22 October 2009 (UTC)

Postscript: Astronaut, you might just be an Ancient astronaut! Tinkering with the pins worked, seems they were TOO perfectly aligned, a bit of chaos made them work. :-) Fribbler (talk) 23:19, 22 October 2009 (UTC)

Optimized (gaming)performance on on dual(+quad) socket MB

Hi

I have a Quad Opteron socket MB (TYAN S4985)now running Windows 7, in which currently only two sockets are populated with cpu's...anyway....

This MB has two nvidia nforce4 derivate chips (Nforce pro 2200 + 2050) which each handles a pair of PCI-E slots (in a 16+4 electrical) lane config) total 4 PCI-E x16 slots

The BSP (cpu socket 0) is connnected to the Nvidia pro 2200 chipset and the APP (cpu socket 1) to the companion chip 2050

If I 'isolated' one application by changing it's affinity (Using up to the amount of cores in one cpu) to the socket that was not designated as the Boot Strap Processor (BSP) would I then get more performance out of the app (FPS?) and the OS? by doing this?

How would I go about optimizing game performance on a multi socket computer system?

And in my case would game (FPS) performance degrade if I was using cpu socket 1 to run the game (the 2050) and my graphics card was connected to the 2200 and affinity for all other processes was set to socket 0. (Changeable by me)

Thanks in advance, DB —Preceding unsigned comment added by 85.81.121.107 (talk) 18:24, 22 October 2009 (UTC)

That setup is a server system and is a weird choice for gaming. It needs ferociously expensive 8000-series 8-way MPU's that aren't any faster than comparable 2000 series cpu's. It burns tons of power. The Nvidia chipset is not a graphics accelerator. Setting cpu affinity does sound likely to help because the NUMA memory system will be relatively slow transferring data between cpu's. But the only way to know for sure is try it both ways. Did you scavenge that box from a dotcom collapse or something? Sell it on craigslist and buy a more conventional gaming machine. 69.228.171.150 (talk) 22:19, 22 October 2009 (UTC)

Intel i5 vs i7 real world performance

The new iMacs were introduced yesterday. The stock quad core ships with a 2.6GHz i5, but for $200 more, you can order a 2.8GHz i7. (I'm assuming they are both Lynnfield_(microprocessor) based because neither are available until November)

I know the basic differences between the two (hypertheading, dual vs triple channel memory). What's the real world performance delta between the two for media dense operations (encoding h264, editing video, rendering 3D, Photoshop, etc)? --70.167.58.6 (talk) 20:50, 22 October 2009 (UTC)

I googled "i5 i7 benchmark" and the first link, to Tom's Hardware, runs various PC benchmarks, including a "TV and movies suite", between one i5 and two i7 processors. The most interesting results to me were the i5 and i7 running at the same clock speed. The fact you're talking about a Mac instead of a PC is probably inconsequential; these benchmarks will serve you. Comet Tuttle (talk) 22:08, 22 October 2009 (UTC)

Thanks for the info. It seems i7 is slightly faster, but it seems hyperthreading and triple-channel RAM aren't a huge performance booster. --70.167.58.6 (talk) 16:01, 23 October 2009 (UTC)

AT&T ad, revisited

This [13] is the original question. The computer has Firefox and is at a library, so they won't necessarily do the needed upgrades. When I signed on yesterday a page came up saying it was 3.0.14, which is strange since it was 3.5.something the other day. But it said Flash needed to be updated, whatever that means.Vchimpanzee · talk · contributions · 22:15, 22 October 2009 (UTC)

AFAIK, libraries tend to reset their computers periodically so they can be sure of eliminating viruses and malware. If the reset position is one where some programs need updates, then that could easily explain why versions seem to go backwards, or why the same message seems to come up time and time again. As for "Flash needs updating", Adobe Flash is browser plugin to display rich content in the browser window. It is used by many things including YouTube, and also lots of adverts. If you are not offered a "click here to update", you can visit Adobe's download site - watch out for the sneaky "Google toolbar" install already ticked for you. Of course, you might not have any privilege to update the library's computers. Astronaut (talk) 22:43, 22 October 2009 (UTC)

Flash may not need to be updated, either; the Flash plugin may just be alerting you that there is a newer version available; but it may be that all of the sites you visit work just fine with the old version of Flash that is currently on the library computer. Comet Tuttle (talk) 23:37, 22 October 2009 (UTC)

Well, something's wrong. This ad didn't cause me any problems today, but as I said before I just sit there and sit there until a new address comes up at the top of the screen, and then at least I can hit "enter" and the screen will go blank, even if the results of that aren't immediate. One thing I did notice about one of the AT&T ads: it has a place to click to "restart". I don't know if that means anything. Sometimes this ad has a washing machine and bubbles and it's moving really fast, but usually when I see it and I'm having the problems, it's stationary.Vchimpanzee · talk · contributions · 17:09, 23 October 2009 (UTC)

Youtube

You may have noticed that a huge percentage of videos on Youtube receive 5 out of 5 stars. Has anyone in the computing world pointed out this an over-inflation bias ("grade inflation") or proposed viable solutions? --Dpr —Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.111.194.50 (talk) 23:26, 22 October 2009 (UTC)

Yes. On the Internet, Everyone's a Critic But They're Not Very Critical, Wall Street Journal, October 5 of this year. Comet Tuttle (talk) 23:35, 22 October 2009 (UTC)

Nice. Thanks so much for the rapid response. --Dpr 23:41, 22 October 2009 (UTC) —Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.111.194.50 (talk)

Youtube, at least, is reportedly looking at changing their rating system. --Kateshortforbob _talk 10:11, 23 October 2009 (UTC)

Sharing folder in Ubuntu

I'm one of those people who is awkward in Linux, and I'm struggling with permissions in Ubuntu. I installed the latest Ubuntu using all the defaults, and created my user, "Comet". Then I created another user called "Sham". My intent is to create a shared folder in Sham's home directory that anybody on the network can access. (Edit: The other machines on the network are Windows and Mac machines.) While logged in as Comet, I couldn't create a new directory in Sham's home directory; I didn't have permissions. OK, whatever, I used sudo mkdir to create the directory. Now from GNOME, I tried sharing this new directory, by right-clicking the directory and configuring "Sharing Options". It told me to add the line "usershare owner only = false" to smb.conf. I tried editing it by double-clicking it, which invoked gedit; but then I lacked permission to save. OK, I used sudo vi to add the line to the file. Now I could share the folder via the "Folder Sharing" window in GNOME; but when I try to check the checkbox next to "Allow other people to write in this folder", and approve the dialog box telling me that Nautilus has to add some permissions to the folder in order to share it, I get an unhelpful dialog saying "Could not change the permissions of folder "big"". At this point I don't know what to do from the command line with "sudo" in order to share the folder.

What am I missing? Why do I keep having to do what I want from the command line with sudo? I tried "su Comet" from a terminal window but that didn't seem to have any effect. Comet Tuttle (talk) 23:55, 22 October 2009 (UTC)

Instead of running everything else as root, you could just run nautilus as root. idk if this is good practise, but it should give nautilus permissions to do whatever it needs to. Eg alt-f2 (or whatever you have bind it to) gksudo nautilus. --194.197.235.240 (talk) 10:08, 23 October 2009 (UTC)

And before you start to think that Linux is hard, you should reconsider what you're doing. WHY are you sharing a folder from another user's home directory when the whole point of having users is to stop users from messing up others' profiles? The main reason why you had to keep going back to the console and sudo is because you shouldn't be tinkering with it unless you know what you are doing. --antilived^{T | C | G} 11:38, 23 October 2009 (UTC)

Nice answer! Linux is hard because I don't know what I'm doing! This must be why 2009 isn't TYOLOTD. You see, I thought my "Comet" account was created with most or all of the permissions that root has. Can I just log in as root? Or, let me rephrase the question. How should I be doing this? Comet Tuttle (talk) 14:27, 23 October 2009 (UTC)

You get to know by reading the documentation. It is a healthy thing to read, many will assume you know chmod and chown or some equivalent gui trick. Home is meant to be private, non-root isn't supposed to directly or through creating a share to be able to access others homes. Why not create a one big share for all users? Check out the system-config-samba package, it is a better solution than nautilus for sharing files and folders not owned by your user. Also, are you sure "needs some permissions" was the only thing nautilus said? You might want to see again what was the exact problem. --194.197.235.240 (talk) 15:30, 23 October 2009 (UTC)

I would suggest resetting the permissions of both user's home directory and starting from scratch. It not a recommended practice to deviate from the standard permissions in a user's home directory. Next, create a folder in /home (you will need root to do this) called share. /home will now have three folders, /Comet, /Sham, and /share. Believe me, doing it this way will solve about 90% of your problems. Taggart.BBS (talk) 18:59, 23 October 2009 (UTC)

October 23

Win 7 on old computer?

A Pentium 4 1.7Ghz with 2GB ram and an ATI Radeon 9550. It meets the minimum requirements for Windows 7, but would it run well? Better than XP in terms of responsiveness? F (talk) 00:42, 23 October 2009 (UTC)

It would run well, but not as fast as XP. Windows 7 uses multi-core processors better than XP or Vista, but your P4 just has one core. The best results have been obtained running the 64-bit version of Windows 7 with more than 4 GB of RAM. For example, if you had two machines each with quad-core CPUs and with 8 GB of RAM running Windows XP and Windows 7 side by side, the Windows 7 machine would be faster. But, if you had two machines with your specs running Windows XP and Windows 7 side-by-side, then the XP machine would be faster.--Drknkn (talk) 02:03, 23 October 2009 (UTC)

I wouldn't. A Pentium 4 1.7Ghz is surprisingly old (1.6Ghz came out not long after Athlon broke the 1Ghz barrier, around 2001) and is really around the speed of a modern atom (perhaps even slower). --antilived^{T | C | G} 11:31, 23 October 2009 (UTC)

Part of it would also depend on your video card (if you have one). Windows Vista and Windows 7 have more graphic effects than Windows XP -- although the effects can be disabled.--Drknkn (talk) 12:05, 23 October 2009 (UTC)

Need urgent help

Can u give me a simple definition for SOFT-SOFTER HANDOFF

email me at (email removed) —Preceding unsigned comment added by 66.25.38.224 (talk) 07:38, 23 October 2009 (UTC)

First, I've removed your email; we only reply here. Second, you'll need to provide some context. Or you might want to look at Soft handover as a start. Google also looks like it has some results. --LarryMac | Talk 11:28, 23 October 2009 (UTC)

Nero Cover Designer

Is there any way to insert or import CD cover designs made by Nero Cover Designer into a blank Word document? The version installed in my PC is Nero 7. Thanks in advance! 117.194.229.183 (talk) 10:41, 23 October 2009 (UTC)

may i know about computer software —Preceding unsigned comment added by 122.162.160.125 (talk) 12:20, 23 October 2009 (UTC)

You mean my PC configurations? It's Windows XP, SP 2... 117.194.226.193 (talk) 12:27, 23 October 2009 (UTC)

I think the previous question was an ineptly added new section, not a response to the Nero question. I've created a separate section for it below, but left it here as well so that we don't lose context. --LarryMac | Talk 12:36, 23 October 2009 (UTC)

Computer Software

may i know about computer software —Preceding unsigned comment added by 122.162.160.125 (talk) 12:20, 23 October 2009 (UTC)

Please check our article software and feel free to post more specific questions. --LarryMac | Talk 12:36, 23 October 2009 (UTC)

program of c

i want to make a program for calculator in c code simply for working with very basic concepts,for that i made a code for simple calculator which perform only +,-./,*and%,which takes two operands and one operator as input. now i want to extend this code for sciencetific calculator, which perform all mathematical task,then how can i code for this please help.220.225.244.114 (talk) 17:02, 23 October 2009 (UTC)

(question moved from RD/L) --LarryMac | Talk 17:08, 23 October 2009 (UTC)

Writing a four-function calculator is easy, but writing an algebra-parsing, scientific calculator requires a lot more work (if you want to do it all by yourself). I did this for the first time when I was 16 and again this year. It is not at all impossible, but requires quite some effort. --Andreas Rejbrand (talk) 17:26, 23 October 2009 (UTC)

Finally an answer from Yahoo

This [14] is where I asked a follow-up question.

I asked for more help and updated the situation, but the aboe question came up first.

The answer from Yahoo was simple: you can't do this.

Well, I used to be able to do it. And it still seems to work on Firefox, but I'm not changing browsers.

Anyway, I've figured out how to work around it. If I have sent an email or put an email in a folder, I had better not use the back button, and I had better never want to go back to any particular email I sent myself. Actually, with my own computer, I suppose I could start text files with what I sent myself from other computers, but then I'd have an even harder time finding anything. It was always so simple: go to Yahoo (or whatever other email service I go to on other computers), click on what email contains what I want, or if I don't see it, do a search for it. My mind just doesn't work any other way.Vchimpanzee · talk · contributions · 17:17, 23 October 2009 (UTC)

I still recommend that you try another free web-based e-mail service, like GMail. Another alternative that just occurred to me: Are you aware of the use of browser tabs, or multiple browser windows? If you control-click on any link in Firefox, you'll notice a new "tab" open up at the top of the browser. You can now click the tabs to go back and forth. This is much more stable than relying on the "back" button; it is basically the same as having several Firefox browsers open, each aimed at a different web page. (A new tab normally starts up with no history remembered, but you can create it with a complete copy of the "parent tab"'s history if you have installed and choose to use the "Duplicate Tab" Firefox addon.) Anyway, keeping many tabs or new Firefox windows open may be a way for you to juggle the many e-mail windows that you seem to want to juggle. Jerry Pournelle says he routinely keeps several hundred tabs open — though he has taken it to an extreme and I wouldn't recommend more than 20 or 30 or 40. PS: The claim "My mind doesn't work any other way" is a feeble excuse; obviously you can learn new things in this life. Comet Tuttle (talk) 17:46, 23 October 2009 (UTC)

Tabbing is available in Internet Explorer as well as Firefox. —Akrabbim^talk 17:49, 23 October 2009 (UTC)

I'm not saying I couldn't, but Yahoo could make this work since it did work at one time. I also don't like tabs, or Firefox. I also don't like Gmail. What I normally do is open a new window, but at some point that can cause problems too, because there will be too many. The solution for this Yahoo problem, when I need to look up something new, will obviously be to open a new window as I won't have the ability to go back within the one I am already in. To prevent the problem, I will have to close it when I'm through. When I don't have to go back in Yahoo email, I will have to go forward with whatever buttons I can see.

If I learn too much new stuff, I start forgetting other stuff. Obviously I had to go through a lot of learning when I got a computer. But I can only take in so much, and once I've learned a way to do things, that's how I do them.Vchimpanzee · talk · contributions · 18:03, 23 October 2009 (UTC)

Which I, personally, think is fine. The machine is a tool—use it in the way it works for you. Not everybody wants to re-learn everything every six months, and frankly, they shouldn't have to in order to do basic things.

Anyway, it does sound like something weird on Yahoo's end, not yours. There are a lot of ways to break the "back" button implementation with either Javascript or forms (data) submission. Ideally a web developer would make it so that these browser functions are preserved nonetheless (because we expect the "back" button to take us "back", sensibly enough), but many do not, especially with complicated web applications like e-mail. --98.217.71.237 (talk) 18:11, 23 October 2009 (UTC)

How to display list of files on a web server?

How can I know which files are stored in a domain xy.com/? Quest09 (talk) 17:53, 23 October 2009 (UTC)

Generally, no. The only conditions you can are: 1. if you have FTP access to the domain (which you probably don't, since you are asking), or 2. if the site owner has made the file listing available to you (which they probably haven't, since you are asking). You could brute-force it—run a script that looked for xy.com/a, xy.com/b, etc. But otherwise... if a file isn't linked to from somewhere else, it is essentially hidden by obscurity, which is bad security (it doesn't really limit access by anything other than being seemingly unknown, and there are a lot of ways that something thus "hidden" can become known) but a generally effective deterrent against casual browsing. (It is part of the Deep Web—out there, but not indexed or easy to find.) --98.217.71.237 (talk) 18:04, 23 October 2009 (UTC)

I use sitemaps with my sites. The robots.txt also sometimes gives information about a site. Resource directors may just display their contents as an index. But yes in general a site is not a collection of files that you can download. A large number have a database behind them or generate content in response to cookies or even the characteristics of your browser. You wouldn't like Wikipedia to give out all the user passwords for instance would you? Dmcq (talk) 18:54, 23 October 2009 (UTC)