Wikipedia:Reference desk/Computing

Reference Desk

Science Mathematics Computing/IT Humanities Language Entertainment Miscellaneous Archives
How to ask a question Search first. It's quicker, because you can find the answer in our online encyclopedia instead of waiting for a volunteer to respond. Search Wikipedia using the searchbox. A web search could help too. Common questions about Wikipedia itself, such as how to cite Wikipedia and who owns Wikipedia, are answered in Wikipedia:FAQ.
Sign your question. Type ~~~~ at its end. Be specific. Explain your question in detail if necessary, addressing exactly what you'd like answered. For information that changes from country to country (or from state to state), such as legal, fiscal or institutional matters, please specify the jurisdiction you're interested in. Include both a title and a question. The title (top box) should specify the topic of your question. The complete details should be in the bottom box. Do your own homework. If you need help with a specific part or concept of your homework, feel free to ask, but please don't post entire homework questions and expect us to give you the answers. Be patient. Questions are answered by other users, and a user who can answer may not be reading the page immediately. A complete answer to your question may be developed over a period of up to seven days.	Do not include your e-mail address. Questions aren't normally answered by e-mail. Be aware that the content on Wikipedia is extensively copied to many websites; making your e-mail address public here may make it very public throughout the Internet. Edit your question for more discussion. Click the [edit] link on right side of its header line. Please do not start multiple sections about the same topic. Archived questions If you cannot find your question on the reference desks, please see the Archives. Unanswered questions If you find that your question has been archived before being answered, you may copy your question from the Archives into a new section on the reference desk. Do not request medical or legal advice. Ask a doctor or lawyer instead.
After reading the above, you may ask a new question by clicking here. Your question will be added at the bottom of the page.
How to answer a question Be thorough. Please provide as much of the answer as you are able to. Be concise, not terse. Please write in a clear and easily understood manner. Keep your answer within the scope of the question as stated.	Link to articles which may have further information relevant to the question. Be polite to users, especially ones new to Wikipedia. A little fun is fine, but don't be rude. The reference desk is not a soapbox. Please avoid debating about politics, religion, or other sensitive issues.

November 24

Bypassing Australian Blocking Programs

Hiya all. I was reading the question that The Ayatollah asked, about bypassing a blocked website. I tried it out on our school computers and it doesnt work. Does anyone know how to bypass the blocking program used by the Australian Education Queensland? They use some sort of SecureComputing software. I would really appreciate it if someone knew. Cheers. Lenadi 00:01, 24 November 2006 (UTC)

You can try anonymous proxy server, mind you if the IT department know what they are doing that will be blocked as well. Do this at your own risk, don't think your activities will go unnoticed or that your usage isn't easily tracked. Even if you use an anonymous proxy to by pass a block it would be a simple matter for the admins to go through logs of what you have been looking at, using a anonymous proxy to by pass a block will get you into more trouble then viewing a prohibited site. Vespine 00:40, 24 November 2006 (UTC)

You could try using the Tor network or the myriad number of free proxy sites. Of course, do so at your own risk. Splintercellguy 09:51, 24 November 2006 (UTC)

Never tried this, but couldn't you just boot in Safe Mode with Networking? That would prevent the software from starting. --Wooty Woot? contribs 10:01, 24 November 2006 (UTC)

That would depend on whether the software is installed on the local computer, on the local server or further upstream. Harryboyles 12:33, 24 November 2006 (UTC)

You're right - the blocking software for these things is not even in the school. It's centralised in the education departments in most places, or hosted at the ISP who get it from the Ed Dept. This is the case in Victoria, and Queensland is undoubtedly the same. And as Vespine said, you'll get in more trouble for using these anonymous proxies than most other things. --jjron 13:15, 24 November 2006 (UTC)

Probably the best way to get around such filters is using a cache site that isn't filtered, such as Google. The main limitation is that caches are read-only, you won't be able to interact with the site. Droud 15:39, 24 November 2006 (UTC)

Yea, it really does depend if the filter is server-side or local. Either way, I'd find a proxy IP address (search Google for: Fresh Proxies) and the "port" number. When you have these two numbers, get a copy of Portable Firefox (http://www.portableapps.com), put it on a flash drive (if possible) and configure Firefox to use this proxy. (Look around in Tools -> Options -> Connections). If you don't have a flash drive, I recommend using https://flyproxy.com (always seems to work at my school). Another option is to boot the computer via a LiveCD (if the filtering is local) into something like Knoppix. This is a last resort, however, and wont work with server side blocking. It also might require some BIOS modfication (so don't worry about it if you don't know what you're doing). Finally, Google Cache work well, too, but some schools block this as well. - I WISH I KNEW THE CODE TO PUT MY NAME HERE AUTOMATICALLY.

It's ~~~~. My suggestion is to not tell anybody about the specific proxy that you use, or at least not people with big mouths. You'll be astounded at how quickly the site will be blocked if you tell other people. If you are the only user, you're pretty much safe. Grab a list at home off Google of free proxies and remember them for school. X [Mac Davis] (DESK|How's my driving?) 21:39, 24 November 2006 (UTC)

Remember that it's still possible to get caught. If I was the guy responsible for sorting through your school's logs I'd catch you in a day or two. It's awful suspicious when you never query a DNS server and all of your traffic is to one single server --froth^{T C} 17:13, 28 November 2006 (UTC)

DVD Drive

Hi. I bought an Acer Aspire in February and it has always had problems reading DVDs, but I think it's only those with DVD-video. Now it won't even read them and when I put a disc in it makes a spinning noise and then doesn't read the disc. Is this a hardware or software problem, and does anyone have any suggestions about how I can fix it? The warranty is voided because the seal on the side is broken.Mix Lord 01:50, 24 November 2006 (UTC)

I'm pretty sure it's a hardware problem, most likely a defective drive. Hmm... I'm not sure how to fix it, but try bringing it to a professional. Or if you don't mind spending the money, I'd buy a new DVD drive.--Res2216firestar 03:42, 24 November 2006 (UTC)

New DVD+/-RW drives can be had for $40 at online retailers. If you're looking for a fix instead, you can try lubricating the positioning tracks inside the drive as described here. Droud 15:44, 24 November 2006 (UTC)

But the drive seems to read DVD-ROM and CD-R without any problems. It's just DVD Video it isn't reading. Would this still be caused by faulty positioning tracks? Mix Lord 05:43, 26 November 2006 (UTC)

why do google and valueclick send only cheque and not thru paypal

We are starting a website in which we must pay bloggers who enter their articles and get paid. I just want to know is it possible for us to pay by paypal? Or should we do it only by cheque? Is there any government rules that say these kinds of payments must be done only thru checque? I assume we must collect tax number. Cant we collect tax number and at the same time do it by paypal?

From the spelling of cheque we have narrowed your location down to 'not the USA'. Help us narrow it down further. --12:41, 24 November 2006 (UTC)

PayPal offers many pay-out services that you can integrate into your website called [Mass Pay]. I'm fairly sure this works across country boundaries, but you should definitely consult a tax professional in your area to determine any tax liabilities. Droud 15:47, 24 November 2006 (UTC)

IDE SATA

Is there any difference between the two? as I guess my motherboard has only IDE ports and i want to buy a new hard drive.

Yes, AT Attachment (IDE) is different from Serial ATA. If you're unsure about your motherboard, you can always look inside your computer. The articles include photos of the relevant cables used, and they're very different. --Kjoonlee 09:51, 24 November 2006 (UTC)

See also Serial ATA#Backward compatibility; you might be able to buy a SATA HDD and use it with an old motherboard. --Kjoonlee 09:53, 24 November 2006 (UTC)

Web-based IRC client?

Do you know any web-based clients, where I can just go to the website and connect to IRC, without having to download anything?

The PJIRC Java client comes to mind. Splintercellguy 09:48, 24 November 2006 (UTC)

And http://webchat.xs4all.nl/. –mysid☎ 13:24, 24 November 2006 (UTC)

Another (java based) http://www.jwirc.com/chat.html - Guest who doesen't know the code to sign their name/IP

it's --~~~~ --froth^{T C} 17:09, 28 November 2006 (UTC)

16-way system

Hello, what is 16-way computer system? I can't find it on the wiki anywhere. Thanks 130.119.248.12 09:11, 24 November 2006 (UTC)

In the context of large enterprise computer systems (like Suns or NUMA-Qs) it (generally) means "16 processors". -- Finlay McWalter | Talk 13:41, 24 November 2006 (UTC)

pci express 16

Hi, I've just purchased an XFX GeForce 7300LE graphics card which is PCI express 16. My Motherboard has PCI express 4. can I put the card in the board? will it work?

thanks for any advice. Spiggy 13:06, 24 November 2006 (UTC)

No, an x16 PCI Express card will not fit into an x4 slot. Fitting an x4 card into an x16 slot would be possible, however, and would work correctly. See PCI express#Physical Layer for more. –mysid☎ 13:31, 24 November 2006 (UTC)

ok thanks. I was on the phone to Asrock (mobo people) when your reply came in. They seem to think that the card will fit on the slot and will just run a little bit slower than a 16 card. Any thoughts anyone? spiggy 13:56, 24 November 2006 (UTC)

It depends on the physical size of the PCI slot on your motherboard. If it's physically an x16 slot but just running at the speed of x4, the card will fit into it and run slower. –mysid☎ 14:02, 24 November 2006 (UTC)

Optical disc authoring 2

I know this is unusual, but this question will never be answered unless I move it down here, so... Someoneinmyheadbutit'snotme 17:14, 24 November 2006 (UTC)

I'm releasing an album soon (independently), and I was wondering if anybody here knew the best options for CD-Rs, that is, the best brands, the best software for writing, the best software for reading. Many thanks. Someoneinmyheadbutit'snotme 03:27, 22 November 2006 (UTC)

What kind of run are you looking at? If you want more then 50 you are definitely better off looking at having it pressed. Get a few local music magazines and you should find heaps of places advertising that master and press CDs. This used to be quite expensive but these days prices are very reasonable and places have deals, like package artwork, sleeve printing and the like. You'll get pro looking results and trust me, there are things you would rather be doing then manually burning 100 CDs, even if you get a 'system' going. Vespine 22:00, 22 November 2006 (UTC)

Well, regardless, I'd still like to know for mastering at least the first few. Someoneinmyheadbutit'snotme 18:16, 23 November 2006 (UTC)

Pretty much any old software should work fine for reading and writing (i.e. iTunes). As for the CDs themselves, for audio CDs it shouldn't matter too much what brands you use if they are standard CD-Rs. I don't think there is any real advantage to trying to get the highest quality anything for this — the odds are even the low quality stuff will work fine for your purpose, which I imagine is just making a bunch of CDs to give away or sell. --140.247.240.219 19:45, 24 November 2006 (UTC)

I probably should have said this: Yeah, I'm going for quality on this one. Someoneinmyheadbutit'snotme 21:59, 24 November 2006 (UTC)

There do seem to be some brands that generate fewer complaint on usenet groups: Mitsui, Kodak, Taiyo Yuden, TDK, Pioneer Ricoh, HP, Philips, Sony, Yamaha, Fuji and the higher quality Verbatim. Quite a few "fundi" have told me that recording at slower speeds (16x or less) gives better general compatibility between players, but I do not know the statistics for this. I do not think that there is any proven "best software" for burning the disks, it seems to be more a matter of the recorder capability. As for "best software for reading", the software would be not under your control, that is up you the customer's equipment. The Media Science site may interest you. Seejyb 23:48, 24 November 2006 (UTC)

By software for reading I meant for ripping tracks onto a hard drive from an optical disc. But thanks for the tips, I heard good things about Verbatim. Someoneinmyheadbutit'snotme 14:55, 25 November 2006 (UTC)

The above point (Seejyb's) is incorrect in implying that all the software for writing is about the same. "Professional" mastering software lets you select the gap between tracks, on a track-by-track basis: so there could be a 2 second silent gap after tracks 1, 2, 3, and 4; but tracks 5, 6, and 7 all run together with no audio gap. It also lets you include "index" points within a redbook track, probably an overly technical and useless point; but my point is that all software isn't the same. There are probably other differences from the basic consumer-level CD writing software that gets bundled when you buy a CD-R drive. If you just need to burn your tracks with the same gap between them, then Seejyb is probably right and the burning software isn't very important. Sorry that I can't name any software, though; my knowledge is dated by 10 years. Tempshill 06:53, 25 November 2006 (UTC)

Yeah, that's what I was wondering about; what would be the most feature-y. Someoneinmyheadbutit'snotme 14:55, 25 November 2006 (UTC)

Hmm, I assumed you were asking about the physical burning, having done the recording, mixing and all before on your harddrive. If all you need is to make a compilation for yourself, from different CDs, with a proper gap between tracks, then something like CDBurner XP should be adequate. Anything adding fading, varying gaps and video would mean commercial software. As an independent releaser of an album, you have hopefully sorted out all the copyright issues. Seejyb 17:17, 25 November 2006 (UTC)

All right, thanks, everyone. Someoneinmyheadbutit'snotme 03:28, 26 November 2006 (UTC)

Bill Gates in the years 1975-80

I am trying to find information on Bill Gates and his mother Mary Maxwell Gates from his early years of 1975 to 1980, and in specific, how his mother was instrumental in him becoming a millionaire in those years. I have searched seriously for information and today my local library is closed. I am going to my school library on tomorrow, but I would like some information as soon as someone can answer my question. In particular, did he borrow money from his mother and reinvest it, or did she give him money or did he earn money to start his business?

Thank you for your time. I appreciate it.

Signed Nina

Have you tried looking at our article Bill Gates and some of the external links at the bottom of the article first? Harryboyles 02:58, 25 November 2006 (UTC)

Running multiple operating systems

Say I wanted Mac OS X, Windows, and Linux on my Macintosh—is it possible without a Live CD? Because that would be the best thing ever. X [Mac Davis] (DESK|How's my driving?) 21:35, 24 November 2006 (UTC)

If you have an Intel Mac, try installing GRUB. I don't know how because I don't have a Mac, though. --wj32 ^{talk | contribs} 05:34, 25 November 2006 (UTC)

GRUB won't work on EFI interface. Yao Ziyuan

With the right patches, you could unDRM OS X and run these three on a generic PC. I've also heard that Vista doesn't like being dual-booted, so you might want to backup if you're planning on trying that.--Frenchman113 on wheels! 16:20, 25 November 2006 (UTC)

I heard that Vista will refuse to run at all on an EFI. But then again MS said they wouldn't let vista home be run in a virtual machine.. and that won't last a week before the VM software adapts :) Also I'd watch out with running OSX on a normal PC - apple's hardware is notoriously monocultured and the hardware abstraction layer probably wouldn't play well with most "unsupported" devices --froth^{T C} 17:06, 28 November 2006 (UTC)

Dc620

In attempting to empty the recycle bin on my Windows XP computer, I get an error message saying it can't delete Dc620 because it is being used. No applications are running except Windows Explorer, which allows me access to empty the recycle bin.

Anybody know what's going on?

What is Dc620 and what programs use it? How do I stop the program(s) so as to be able to empty the recycle bin?

Thanks, --Halcatalyst 23:57, 24 November 2006 (UTC)

Boot into safe mode (I believe it's F8 at startup), then delete it. --Wooty Woot? contribs 00:23, 25 November 2006 (UTC)

• When I searched for *dc620*.* (not in safe mode), I found nothing of that name, but the doggie turned up archive.pst in the recycle bin. Two copies actually. "Properties" told me the origin of the two files was CD burning.
• (A couple of months ago I tried to copy the Outlook .pst files to a CD as a backup, since they weren't getting backed up in my routine "My Documents" backup. Recently, I bought an external hard drive and now just back up all of C: to it.)
• These two files are causing the error message; it pops up when I try to delete them individually. I can't delete them, and so I can't empty the recycle bin. Is there anything I can undo? Like try to copy the two files to a CD? I have no idea how they got into the recycle bin. --Halcatalyst 05:30, 25 November 2006 (UTC)

In the recycle bin, files are actually stored as weird file names such as Dc*. So, try what Wooty said. Or, you can open a DOS prompt, cd to C:\RECYCLER, and there should be several folders in there. Find out what your SID (not going to explain) is and delete the folder which is named using your SID. For example, if my SID is S-1234-1234-1234, delete C:\RECYCLER\S-1234-1234-1234. A little complicated though. --wj32 ^{talk | contribs} 05:33, 25 November 2006 (UTC)

This is weird, and I would proceed cautiously, in case the file actually is being used, e.g. if the .pst file that is now in use actually resides in the recycle bin (unlikely, but something strange is going on here). I would suggest that you open the recycle bin, and delete files (or groups of files) individually, until you are left with the file causing the problem. You will then be able to see the name that the file used to have, and by right-clicking it you will also see the name of its parent folder (unfortunately not the whole path). Knowing what file is or was, you will be able to make an intelligent decision. One decision might be to restore the file (after having made note of its name and parent folder). It should then disappear from the recycle bin. Afterwards, you should locate it, examine it, and decide wether you want to keep it or delete it again. If you want to delete a file completely, i.e. without sending it to the recycle bin, you can mark the file, and then type shift-delete. --Norwegian Blue ^talk 12:44, 25 November 2006 (UTC)

I manually deleted recycle bin files and ended up with thesse 7, which all produced different error messages, saying it couldn't delete a certrain Dc* file:

• Dc620 archive.pst (copy 1) date deleted: Sept-Oct; date modified: today
• Dc623 archive.pst (copy 2) date deleted: Sept-Oct; date modified: today
• Dc621 mailbox.pab (copy 1) date deleted: Sept-Oct; date modified: today
• Dc709 mailbox.pab (copy 2) date deleted: Sept-Oct; date modified: today
• Dc624 outlook.pst (copy 1) date deleted: Sept-Oct; date modified: today
• Dc625 outlook.pst (copy 2) date deleted: Sept-Oct; date modified: today
• Dc710 outlook.pst (copy 3) date deleted: Sept-Oct; date modified: today

So what does date modified this date (today) mean?

The original location for all was C:\Documents and Settings\Hal\Local Settings\Application Data\Microsoft\CD Burning. This folder is empty.

The normal storage place for the Outlook files is C:\Documents and Settings\Hal\Local Settings\Application Data\Microsoft\Outlook. This folder contains one copy each of archive.pst, mailbox.pab, and outlook.pst, each with today's date. There is in addition a binary file called extend.dat dated 2006-11-18. Readable text in this file is "Google Desk Top" and "msspc32.dll". Outlook is curently working fine, nor have I had any problems with it.

I tried to restore the seven files to the empty folder but got the same error messages.

Yes, this is weird! --Halcatalyst 14:45, 25 November 2006 (UTC)

At this point, I would suggest that you follow the advice of wooty and wj32, and try deleting the files after booting into safe mode. --Norwegian Blue ^talk 19:20, 25 November 2006 (UTC)

I literally just had this problem a few hours ago, along with another problem that I'm still having (see below). Try right-clicking in the Recycle Bin and refreshing it, then trying to delete the files again—try one at a time. If that doesn't work, close the Bin, reopen it, and try again. Otherwise, follow the sensible advice above. --zenohockey 06:47, 26 November 2006 (UTC)

• More weird. I decided to take the advice offered above and to do it immediately after a full backup of C:. After the backup, I looked at the recycle bin. It contained a few files I had deleted plus the .pst files... but this time there were only two, rather that three, copies of outlook.pst (still two each of archive.pst and mailbox.pab). I clicked "empty the recycle bin" and everything disappeared. OK, that's the way it's supposed to work, but it's always a little disconcerting if one can't explain why something works now that didn't work before. (It wasn't the simple panacea of rebooting, since several reboots took place between the first manifestation and the apparent resolution of the problem.) Thanks to all who responded. --Halcatalyst 17:56, 26 November 2006 (UTC)

November 25

Mp3 player

Theres an Mp3 player going for 50$ canadian at walmart, it is a Diamond Vision or something, it says it has 2gb flash memory. Is this worth it? Is there anything bad about Flash memory on a mp3 player

Flash memory is more reliable than a hard disk because of the lack of moving parts. The disadvantage is the smaller memory size (2gig vs 60gig?). You found a 2gig for $50? I bought a Creative Zen V 1gig for about $100can. (I am quite happy with it.) - Rainwarrior 06:41, 25 November 2006 (UTC)

It's a big sale today at walmart, I'm just wondering if the sound quality and everything would be any good.

Well, sound quality probably won't have anything to do with whether it's flash or hard-disk. - Rainwarrior 06:47, 26 November 2006 (UTC)

You need to Google for reviews of the specific model. Flash memory has nothing to do with audio quality, it's the type of device the music is stored on (flash memory is good, it won't skip and will last longer than the alternative, which is a hard drive.) Pesapluvo 13:28, 26 November 2006 (UTC)

MyTunes Redux: Library not Registered?

In myTunes redux (NOT Itunes), I am purportedly able to download the songs, but then cannot move them to my Itunes. Help?

You can just go to File -> Add file to Library in iTunes, adding the file from whereever myTunes downloaded it, and it will make it in to iTunes. zafiroblue05 | Talk 20:14, 26 November 2006 (UTC)

area code

Where is the area code (required in order to set up the modem for Microsoft dialup connection) stored in the registry? Adaptron 04:15, 25 November 2006 (UTC)

I see mine in HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Telephony\Locations. Within that key, it appears there are 0 to N keys representing each of the locations. If you set up just one location, the key will be Location1. The area code itself is in a String value titled, appropriately, AreaCode within the location key. So, in my example, the full path to the area code is HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Telephony\Locations\Location1\AreaCode. HTH - (Nuggetboy) (talk) (contribs) 05:21, 25 November 2006 (UTC)

Is any other local location information avialable such as city or zip code? Adaptron 05:34, 25 November 2006 (UTC)

In this key, it does not appear so. I do not know if geographical/address information is stored elsewhere in the registry. - (Nuggetboy) (talk) (contribs) 06:01, 25 November 2006 (UTC)

windows movie maker (version 5.1)

hi!!

i have a duo core processor and a RAM of 1GB, even then the movie maker gets hung every time i use it gets hung, is it a some fault in the setting, or is it a prgraming bug, please answer quickly because i am in deep trouble. thank you

Hung programs are difficult to advise about. The general info would be:

1. Make sure the file you are working with is readable and intact. Check whether this happens with all files you try to edit with WMM (does your machine hang no matter what the file is?). If it always hangs, then your WMM setup is likely corrupted. If it happens only with the "deep trouble" file, you are indeed there-in.
2. If WMM always hangs, then the only reasonable suggestion is to uninstall and then re-install WMM, and hope that it picks up all the correct settings.

Incidentally, your WMM should be 2.1. The 5.1 probably refers to your Windows version. Seejyb 15:06, 25 November 2006 (UTC)

GOOGLE EARTH :)

just wondering about google earth (non "plus" version). I imagain that new satellite imageing is taking place all the time and google earth is getting it for the program, so how, if you can, can you update your google earth on your computer to 'get' this new imaging???

thx, --84.69.109.35 11:15, 25 November 2006 (UTC)

The Google Earth download itself is just playback software, receiving the actual image data from Google when you look at an area. The program also checks each time you're looking at that area to see if it should download a new version of the image data, so you do not need to worry about it. You can disable the local data cache in Google Earth to force continual updates, but that will slow down Google Earth and abuses Google's free service. Droud 14:19, 25 November 2006 (UTC)

My case fan is dead..

..in the BIOS configurator I read Chassis Fan: N/A and.. when I shut down, sometimes the PC switches to stand-by instead!! The CPU fan works and the MOBO thermosensors don't throw any 'exception'.. It's an Athlon XP 2000 on an Asus A7N266-VM. Incredibly, sometimes when I restart the PC the fan is reborn! Other times, when I switch to Stand-by, the power LED doesn't blink as usual but it remains steadily lit and I hear a strange buzz.. Besides..my hd free space has suddenly decreased in a few days with no explicaion.. it's the virtual mem. swap? does exist a virus which cause sudden lack of space on a HD? Pre-thanks! --Ulisse0 13:31, 25 November 2006 (UTC)

The thing you should be worrying about is the chassis fan not showing up (it's usually not the same as the cpu fan)... --Frenchman113 on wheels! 16:28, 25 November 2006 (UTC)

Yes, I didn't make myself understood, the very chassis fan doesn't work, whilw the pcu fan works. But the maybe the cause is in the MOBO, since it behaves in a strange way with power controls and leds (ie the keyboard leds sometimes blink after the PC has completely shut down!) --Ulisse0 18:12, 25 November 2006 (UTC)

Internet Business

What is the difference between the Internet Business and the e-business?

Nothing. They are two different ways of saying the same thing. The 'e' of 'e-business' stands for 'electronic', which tells us that it is Internet-based. RevenDS 15:34, 25 November 2006 (UTC)

Well, there might be a difference, because an Internet Business might be a business that uh, provides services about the Internet, while an e-business might sell physical items using the Internet. --wj32 ^{talk | contribs} 08:15, 26 November 2006 (UTC)

Dvorak translation

I'm looking to understand this Bash quote. The gibberish seems like either it would be Qwerty letter positions on a Dvorak keyboard, or Dvorak letter positions on a Qwerty keyboard, but I'm not sure either way. There were some things when I searched on Google but they're to help people who learnt to use Dvorak type in Qwerty... I think. Either that or I wasn't understadning how to use them. Can anybody help? Vitriol 17:08, 25 November 2006 (UTC)

The Dvorak Simplified Keyboard article has a picture of the keyboard. I am sure you can use it along with your own QWERTY keyboard to figure out what the message says, if you really care about what the message says. (Hint: the first line starts "I did hnot ask for that...") Look at the letters in the message, find where they are on the Dvorak keyboard, find out what that key would be on the QWERTY keyboard. --24.147.86.187 17:39, 25 November 2006 (UTC)

I'm sure my keyboard is in a different layout, because I did not get the N in 'hnot'. I think it's because I have a backslash next to the shift, which [1] doesn't have. While this will be bugging me, I don't think I can make the effort to do it myself. Question's closed, has apathy. Vitriol 21:47, 25 November 2006 (UTC)

UK keyboards have the /| key next to the left shift. I discovered last week that US keyboards have \ above the Enter. --ColinFine 13:05, 26 November 2006 (UTC)

Australian keyboards seem to use the US design. Pesapluvo 13:26, 26 November 2006 (UTC)

Flippant Request for a pointer towards a Windows XP Desktop Theme Repository

I feel a little guilty asking such a banal question, but I've only just recently upgraded to Windows XP and now that I've installed a Firefox theme it's drawn attention to how ugly my OS is looking.

I'd rather look beyond Microsoft's homegrown ones, but a site I found in Google wanted to install lots of adware along with the themes.

Anyone know of a nice, charitable, hassle free site of gorgeous visuals? Any help much appreciated. --bodnotbod 19:48, 25 November 2006 (UTC)

Try http://www.wincustomize.com Harryboyles 03:10, 26 November 2006 (UTC)

To not use any other programs and to use themes, you will have to patch the uxtheme.dll file in Windows. The DLL has a security check to make sure themes come from Microsoft, so search Google for "Neowin UX theme" or something to find the patch. --wj32 ^{talk | contribs} 08:13, 26 November 2006 (UTC)

One-way BitTorrent?

Is it possible to turn off uploading in BitTorrent and keep downloading, in order to stay within Canadian copyright law? NeonMerlin 22:33, 25 November 2006 (UTC)

The BitTorrent protocol is designed to "starve" such leechers, and in ordinary circumstances if you manage to block the outgoing traffic you get little incoming traffic. There are some programs, I believe, which fake outgoing traffic (presumably with simulated errors or something). -- Finlay McWalter | Talk 22:44, 25 November 2006 (UTC)

Try setting your max upload to 0kb/s. It'll download quite a bit slower but it works. Hope I don't see you on any torrents I'm downloading. --froth^{T C} 02:02, 26 November 2006 (UTC)

What clients will do this? Mainline will only go down to 4kB/s. NeonMerlin 02:06, 26 November 2006 (UTC)

What are you downloading that you can't upload according to Canadian copyright law? If you think downloading copyrighted material is not against the law in Canada I think you've misinterpreted the law. Vespine 22:29, 26 November 2006 (UTC)

From File_sharing_in_Canada#2003:_Copyright_Board_of_Canada_and_P2P_filesharing: "In its decision, the Copyright Board ruled that downloading of copyrighted material online was legal irrespective of the source of that material." NeonMerlin 19:47, 27 November 2006 (UTC)

That's correct, in most places it's serious uploaders who are prosecuted, and downloaders are generally left alone. Unfortunately as has been pointed out, Bittorrent only really works if you upload as much as you download. Otherwise you get starved out. Sockatume 16:24, 28 November 2006 (UTC)

Right, but I still think I could be enough of a contributor to get a half-decent download speed, uploading just the legal parts of the two torrents I'm running now. NeonMerlin 03:53, 29 November 2006 (UTC)

I don't know about Bittorrent, not using that particular app/protocol, but could you "fool" it. I'm thinking about having 2 PCs (each with bittorrent application), with a router using NAT for outbound traffic, and port forwarding so any incomming bittorrent connections went to the PC with the "safe" content on (could even do this with one PC running 3 instances of an operating system using virtualisation - one doing the routing, one for each Bittorrent application)? This would only work if the bittorrent apps on other computers only identify you by IP address though. Davidprior 23:35, 30 November 2006 (UTC)

Linux: OpenSSL command to add/remove passwords from private keys

Is there a simple set of parameters I can pass to openssl to add/remove passwords from private keys? I'd like to copy all my keypairs (with empty passphrases) on a keychain USB drive and have them password protected while they're there. Then if I need them, I can copy them back to the original server and remove the passphrase for convenience. Thanks. --Silvaran 23:30, 25 November 2006 (UTC)

November 26

screen resolution

Since I've been taking a lot of Beta Carotene my eyes have been playing strange tricks. Whenever I look at my monitor and move my head real quick or say slap a mosquito on my forehead the monitor resolution seems for an split second to be real course. Does this mean my eyes are able to operate faster than the monitor can create the next screen or what? Seems to only happen with my 60 hz LCD monitor. Adaptron 00:55, 26 November 2006 (UTC)

If I wave my hand in front of my computer screen I get "still images" of my hand. I don't think it takes much speed (or a particularly low refresh to be able to do that trick). I'm no expert but my instinct is that 60hz sounds quite a low figure. My memnory may be playing tricks on me but I seem to recall you want to be - at least - up in the 70s. Can anyone confirm please? --bodnotbod 01:05, 26 November 2006 (UTC)

It's normal; a lot of LCDs are around 60Hz. enochlau (talk) 01:33, 26 November 2006 (UTC)

LCDs don't operate the same way as CRTs, 60hz isn't bad at all for an LCD --froth^{T C} 02:01, 26 November 2006 (UTC)

Most likely this "coarse resolution" is caused by your head moving too quickly for your eyes to lock on such small targets (screen items). Droud 01:51, 26 November 2006 (UTC)

Its like the grapic that loads at real course resolution and then as more data is received the resolution is improved until finally there is a good picture. The effect of this is the pretty much the same. Screen areas made up of say 2 pixels appear as as if made up of only one larger pixel instead of two smaller pixels. Adaptron 02:34, 26 November 2006 (UTC)

60Hz is the bare minimum for a CRT display but should be OK for an LCD. StuRat 01:00, 29 November 2006 (UTC)

Convert area code to longitude and latitude

Is there a freeware program to convert area code to latitude and longitude? 71.100.6.152 01:16, 26 November 2006 (UTC)

I was unable to find any software to do this, but the data is readily available here along with links to other resources. Droud 01:54, 26 November 2006 (UTC)

You will have to manually find the latitude and longitude of each city and area code listed. Droud 01:56, 26 November 2006 (UTC)

Note that area codes cover many combos of latitude and longitude. You can't just specify a range for each, either, as that would only work if the area code covered a rectangular region with boundaries parallel to the equator and prime meridian. StuRat 00:56, 29 November 2006 (UTC)

Note also that if the city you seek is large enough, it most likely has an article on Wikipedia, which will likely contain the latitude and longitude. --Doubleplusungood 03:42, 30 November 2006 (UTC)

Macs and Gaming

I really really like Macs, but the thing is, I like gaming more. Is a new Intel-Mac that can dual-boot to windows truly the best of both worlds? Or is dual-booting somehow not all its cracked up to be and are there other barriers to gaming on a Mac?

Thanks!

--Wedgeoli 03:05, 26 November 2006 (UTC)

It depends on how much money you wanna spend. A high-end gaming Mac will be at least $1000 more than the same PC system. And even that system won't be as great as the best gaming PC (note: I only use Macs, but I don't game). --Cody.Pope 06:22, 26 November 2006 (UTC)

I'll admit my biases first: I'm an avid PC gamer, I have a windows box for gaming and a iBook for everything else. That being said, it really depends on what games you want to play. The biggest hold-back is that most developers opt to use DirectX (which is Windows only). I'll just get to my point: if you want a system just for PC gaming, a Windows box is cheaper. If you're cool with console gaming, pick up a Wii and get yourself a MacBook for everything else. 'Course, this is obviously just my opinion. --Brad Beattie ^(talk) 06:40, 26 November 2006 (UTC)

You have two choices: (1) Boot Camp, to boot into Windows, and (2) Parallels Desktop, for Windows within Mac OS. For serious gaming, go with Boot Camp, which is currently available in beta and will come with the OS soon. The two major hardware factors affecting game play are the processor performance and the video performance. Macs compete well with off-the-shelf PCs as far as processor power, but only the high-end models come with high-performance video cards. Here are three links for more info:

• Shootouts
• Intel MacPro review
• Mac Mini review

Hard-core gamers build custom PC systems to get the features they want at a good price; building a Mac is not an option. --KSmrq^T 07:08, 26 November 2006 (UTC)

Just note that dual booting is, frankly, a pain. I tried doing something similar with Linux and Windows, but eventually gave it up. -- Consumed Crustacean (talk) 08:10, 26 November 2006 (UTC)

Linux is very good in a VM because it's so lightweight --froth^{T C} 03:01, 1 December 2006 (UTC)

BibTex help

I have never used BibTex before and I'm trying to. In the body of my document, I have the commands

\bibliographystyle{h-physrev3.bst}
\bibliography{references}

and I have the file h-physref3.bst and references.bib in the folder along with my document, which is creatively named "document." At command line, I type:

latex document
bibtex document

and get back the error message: I couldn't open filename `document.aux'

Anyone know why it could be having this trouble? I never actually installed BibTex; I vaguely recall something when I upgraded to LaTex2e about a year ago, but I'm assuming by the fact that it recognized the command "bibtex" that it must be installed at least. Thanks. Registrar 04:48, 26 November 2006 (UTC)

How about trying latex document.tex or something? And from which program does the error message come from? --wj32 ^{talk | contribs} 08:10, 26 November 2006 (UTC)

Normally using bibtex, you'll need to run latex once, bibtex once, and then latex twice more. Sometimes you need to run bibtex twice. The .aux file is one created when you run latex, as I recall, and it is one that won't always be present. Try running latex and bibtex in the order I suggested. J-Deeks 11:24, 4 December 2006 (UTC)

Realplayer and Letterboxed Widescreen Video

Is there anyway to zoom a Realplayer window in such away that it crops out part of the video? Specifically, I’m using the latest free version (10) of Realplayer for a G5 Mac. When I watch a 4:3 letterboxed video clip (like videos from CBS’s innertube), my widescreen screen can never take advantage of the wide video (unless, of course I force my screen resolution to stretch everything, which isn’t what I want to do at all). So, in full screen mode I get black boxes on all sides (like when you watch and a widescreen HD ready TV with a non-enhanced 4:3 letterboxed video). Also, manually resizing the window doesn’t work, since Realplayer adjusts to the limiting dimension (in this case height). Any suggestions? Any setting I can mess with? --Cody.Pope 06:18, 26 November 2006 (UTC)

Program won't close

Lately I've been having a problem with my relatively new laptop (running Windows XP Media Center). The pattern: A program freezes or acts strangely, I press ctr-alt-del, send the error report, the program closes. I reopen the program, it freezes/acts funny again... So I do the same thing, then press ctr-alt-del again. It's not in the Applications tab, but under the Processes tab...sure enough, two (e.g.) GoogleVideoPlayer.exe's, neither of which closes when I press "End Process" (or "End Process Tree").

I just tried opening Google Video Player again, then going to the Applications tab and trying to close one of the past copies of it. The program closed, but nothing in the Applications list disappeared. What's going on? --zenohockey 06:52, 26 November 2006 (UTC)

I think Google Video Player was waiting on some resource that wasn't responding, because some programs that try to, for example, access a CD-ROM drive that can't be accessed, freeze. When you try to end the program, it just refuses because it's still waiting on that CD drive. --wj32 ^{talk | contribs} 08:08, 26 November 2006 (UTC)

The insight that Wj32 gives may be worthwhile looking into: somewere in the setting/setup/options of the specific program there may by something like :"use efg as default", "look for xyz automatically", or "run abc at start-up", which causes the futile search or program hang-up. You would then need to change that setting. Then again, it may be something you are running as a service, or in your startup group (both loading what you boot Windows). This you can see by clicking Start>Run>type "msconfig" - no quotation marks>OK>click on Startup or Services tab. You can disable each individual startup item or service to try to pinpoint the offending program, and then try to find out what the culprit is doing wrong. Any answer would be easier if it were possible to describe exactly what you were doing, and more so if you can predictably reproduce the error. It is also the sort of problem you could trace using Process Explorer. It may take some getting used to what you are looking at, and what it means. Fortunately documentation is good. You can shut down ("kill") a running program using the same tool, more effectively than with the native Windows application (Unlocker is an simpler way of just killing a stubborn program). Seejyb 19:46, 26 November 2006 (UTC)

You Tube

Is there any way to download videos from YouTube? Battle Ape 07:01, 26 November 2006 (UTC)

See the November 22 question with the same title (i.e. scroll-up). --Cody.Pope 07:05, 26 November 2006 (UTC)

Or to save you that scrolling, Computing#YouTube. A quick answer that works with YouTube and others is [2]. -- Consumed Crustacean (talk) 07:11, 26 November 2006 (UTC)

Err, Wikipedia:Reference_desk/Computing#YouTube -- Consumed Crustacean (talk) 08:03, 26 November 2006 (UTC)

Doesn't #YouTube also work? --Kjoonlee 12:57, 26 November 2006 (UTC)

You can also try http://www.youtubex.com

Ronaldh 12:54, 26 November 2006 (UTC)

Video Downloader does that thing for firefox, and for almost every streaming video site. Aetherfukz 17:52, 28 November 2006 (UTC)

If that doesn't work, UnPlug/Download Embedded/Amazing Media Browser from the firefox extension site also do the same thing. Aetherfukz 17:53, 28 November 2006 (UTC)

A Less Terrible Convert to Curve in Open Office?

I was wondering if there is any good way to convert text in Open Office draw to vector format. I'm producting a bunch of physics notes for my classes and having text that can scale with my diagrams would be very handy. Currently though, if I select a block of text and do Modify -> Convert to Curve, the result look awful. Any suggestions?

Origional text on left, converted on right.

Thanks,

--CGP 11:18, 26 November 2006 (UTC)

I would bypass doing this in OO altogether and use the vector trace function in Inkscape, save as SVG and import back into OO. Sp0ng 13:55, 26 November 2006 (UTC)

Don't use vector trace in Inkscape; just write the text and then Path > Object to Path. It'll do a perfect conversion of the text to a path. --24.147.86.187 03:49, 28 November 2006 (UTC)

NetFront CSS support

Does anybody have access to a specification of just what parts of CSS2 NetFront V 3.3 supports?

I am trying to tailor a website for handheld browsers, and had naively assumed that the browser on my Sony Ericsson phone - which is NetFront 3.3 - would implement the 'handheld' media, but it seems that it doesn't. This doesn't affect my using 'handheld' in my CSS of course, but it means I can't test it on my phone.

Does anybody know if the browser uses a different media type, or whether it just ignores media? And what else in CSS2 it doesn't implement?

The Access website http://www.access-company.com/products/netfrontmobile/browser/33_symbian.html (which is the only one I can find on 3.3) says 'CSS2 (partial)' but gives no more detail.

Alternatively, is it possible to upgrade the browser on a K510i to 3.4? (and does 3.4 support media - the website says it supports CSS2 without mention of 'partial')?

--ColinFine 13:55, 26 November 2006 (UTC)

The specifications for NetFront 3.3 CSS2 can be downloaded in pdf from http://developer.sonyericsson.com/site/global/docstools/browsing/p_browsing.jsp, or directly http://developer.sonyericsson.com/getDocument.do?docId=88004 Seejyb 22:03, 26 November 2006 (UTC)

Thanks, that's very much what I was looking for. However... it doesn't actually say anywhere (that I can find) which media types it actually implements. It does say 'Paged media - not supported', and the same for 'Aural media', but apart from classifying the CSS properties by 'media group' (almost all 'visual') it doesn't discuss the specific media types it implements. Given that it has that support, I would have expected it to match '@media handheld', but there's no reference to that in the document. --ColinFine 23:03, 26 November 2006 (UTC)

map of thailand

Ive been unable to find a map of Thailand I can download for use on my pocketpc. i had no trouble finding similar maps for europe. can anyone help?

Google is your friend [3]. x42bn6 Talk 18:01, 26 November 2006 (UTC)

How did these Macros ....?

I'm a writer, I've used Microsoft Word '97 since it came out, and this morning I went to edit a simple file and I get this Macro warning. Beyond ordinary text, the file contains some hypertext, but I've been doing this for a long time and have never encountered this warning. When I try to save the file, I'm told it's read-only, so I do a "save as" and the whole thing starts over again. How on earth could these Macros have gotten into this document? I haven't opened the document without disabling the Macros. Should I be worried about this? Can it somehow infect other docs, or the whole computer? I read Wikipedia's Macro page and learned -- culled at least -- nothing.Wolfgangus 16:38, 26 November 2006 (UTC)

If no one has a better suggestion: Office documents can get funny macro problems, even if they aren't that complex and even if macros have never even been anywhere near them, it's like a corruption or something, I work in IT Support and I have seen it several times. The easiest way around it is not to worry about how or why, simply open the document, do a 'control a', open another new blank document and do a 'control c', the macro prolems (with a little luck) most of the time will not copy paste into the blank document, just save the 2nd one as the authoritative version. Vespine 05:48, 27 November 2006 (UTC)

Done, and problem solved. Thank you very much; I'm grateful.Wolfgangus 16:34, 27 November 2006 (UTC)

For the record, though, viruses can be written as Word macros, and they can infect other files. You might want to be sure that your virus scanner can scan .doc and .dot files. --24.147.86.187 03:47, 28 November 2006 (UTC)

And also for the record, it's ctrl a then ctrl c, open a new document and then ctrl v, glad you worked it out because I don't know what I was on when I wrote the above. :) Vespine 05:25, 28 November 2006 (UTC)

I'm always the guy with the chassis fan dead..

now the pc doesn't turn off by itself, I gotta switch off manually! Besides xp doesn't find xmnt2002 at the boot.. xp always starts the checkdisk but it hangs when it find a file with crossed references and I gotta reboot skipping checkdisk.. Can you help me? --Ulisse0 18:02, 26 November 2006 (UTC)

Some ideas: Your problem seems to be hardware related, so if you can get to Windows, backup or save the important info you have on your harddrive(s). The original post about the BIOS not detecting the chassis fan, and erratic shutdown seems to indicate a hardware or Bios failure, not a Windows problem to start with. It may be prudent to first clean the inside of the machine, and make sure all connections are good. Thereafter you are into flashing BIOSes and the like, and that may be better done in a technical forum, by email, or on chat using a different machine, since this help desk is not suited to the to and fro information needed. The xmnt2002 bit means someone has used Partition Magic on the machine, and that likely takes some registry editing to fix. Seejyb 20:53, 26 November 2006 (UTC)

Yes, I partitioned with Partition Magic, but I did 3 years ago and these problems had never shown up before. I can get to windows, but I have to skip the checkdisk at every boot, otherwise the PC hangs.. --Ulisse0 13:06, 27 November 2006 (UTC)

Sharing only part of a torrent, while downloading the whole thing

(Separating from my above question) I live in Canada, where it is legal to download but not upload most copyrighted material. I'm trying to download two torrents that include both free and unfree material. Are there any clients I can set to download the full torrents, but share only the free material (which I can manually identify)? It seems to me this somewhat resembles superseeding in the sense that you're only sharing specific parts of what you've got, so there should be a way to do it. NeonMerlin 18:03, 26 November 2006 (UTC)

Downloading copyrighted material is piracy, I don't think Canada has an exemption. I think you may be misinterpreting something if you think it is legal 'to download most copyrighted material', what makes you think it's legal? Vespine 00:34, 27 November 2006 (UTC)

Perhaps it would be wise to have legal knowledge before dispensing legal advice. Meanwhile, read the following news article refuting your claim. And consider the fact that most libraries have copy machines; is all that copying piracy? --KSmrq^T 08:00, 27 November 2006 (UTC)

Yeah ok, I read that article, that matter isn't settled yet and it specifically refers to downloading music, not all copyrighted material. Also, currently the courts don’t deem a difference between upload and download: "the mere fact of placing a copy on a shared directory in a computer where that copy can be accessed via a P2P service does not amount to distribution." So really the question is moot anyway. As for your photocopier remark, what does that have to do with anything?? A lot of material in a library is academic, I dare you to use photocopies of copyrighted material in a university study or thesis, see how liberal the institution is then. Just because it's rife doesn't make it legal. Vespine 22:42, 27 November 2006 (UTC)

The article states that although RIAA and friends object, a Canadian legal body has ruled that there is a difference between uploading and downloading, and that downloading is legal. The relevance of photocopiers in libraries (even public libraries) is that (U.S.) copyright law has provisions for fair use. (Wikipedia itself makes extensive use of this.) De minimis applies even more broadly. Many attempts at Digital Rights Management enforce restrictions not supported in the law. The facts do not support soundbites like "piracy is theft" and "all copying is illegal". Copyright protection makes sense; prohibition of all copying does not. --KSmrq^T 01:42, 28 November 2006 (UTC)

Digital copyright protection makes no sense and prohibition of any copying doesn't either. Copyright starts to break down when you look at little TCP/IP packets of different-voltage electrical signals zooming around through copper. There are an absurd number of ways to encode data that make an innocuous combination of bits illegal, like for example the illegal prime. It would be a simple matter to encode some copyrighted work as every single binary combination up to thousands of bits in length depending on the encoding key. Then what? --froth^{T C} 17:35, 28 November 2006 (UTC)

I think I can wait for the courts to uphold or overturn the Copyright Board ruling. (I don't think there's much risk of my being the test case, since I'm not particularly high-volume or high-profile. I didn't ask about the legalities of this plan, I asked whether it was technically feasible. NeonMerlin 04:17, 30 November 2006 (UTC)

(Replied above earlier, didn't know thread had been split, so copying here now Davidprior 20:40, 1 December 2006 (UTC)) I don't know about Bittorrent, not using that particular app/protocol, but could you "fool" it. I'm thinking about having 2 PCs (each with bittorrent application), with a router using NAT for outbound traffic, and port forwarding so any incomming bittorrent connections went to the PC with the "safe" content on (could even do this with one PC running 3 instances of an operating system using virtualisation - one doing the routing, one for each Bittorrent application)? This would only work if the bittorrent apps on other computers only identify you by IP address though. Davidprior 23:35, 30 November 2006 (UTC)

installing ubuntu

I want to install ubuntu on an old computer. Does the ubuntu install cd lack anything, such as drivers that I will need to install the OS? I am asking because in its current state, the computer which is running windows is terribly buggy. I'd like to wipe the hard drive clean before installing ubuntu, but I don't know if I'll be wiping out something the new OS needs. ike9898 18:15, 26 November 2006 (UTC)

Ubuntu will partition and reformat the disk anyway. Wireless drivers can be an issue for most Linuxes, and you'll have to jump through some hoops to get graphics drivers which support your video chip's 3d acceleration features, but (unless your hardware is particularly exotic) you'll get a nice working system straight from the install CD. -- Finlay McWalter | Talk 18:28, 26 November 2006 (UTC)

Ubuntu sets up madwifi automatically. You'll get VESA drivers on installation but if you want something more efficient you have to download proprietary drivers. ATI is real good about this, nvidia is -NOT- --froth^{T C} 07:53, 27 November 2006 (UTC)

Unwanted web sites list

When I open the internet explorer and start typing a certain website name, the list of previous visited pages starting with the letters already typed appears. Is there a way I can stop this list from appearing ??

Thx in advance

Try Tools → Internet Options → Content → AutoComplete. If you uncheck the "Web addresses" box, the feature should be disabled. –mysid☎ 19:18, 26 November 2006 (UTC)

thx mysid, it worked

Recording computer sounds

Are there any (Windows) programs that will record the sound that your computer makes, i.e. that come out of your speakers? By which I mean, say there was a game playing on your computer that had some background noise - are there any programs that would "tape record" the sounds the game makes? zafiroblue05 | Talk 20:09, 26 November 2006 (UTC)

Google found FastRecorder. I've also done it the hard way, by attaching a cord from the soundcard output to its input and recording the input. –mysid☎ 20:15, 26 November 2006 (UTC)

Depending on your sound card, it might have the ability built in. Look at the sound recording options (double click the volume icon, Options->Properties, etc.) and try to find something like Stereo Mixer, What U Hear, or maybe Wave/MP3. -- Consumed Crustacean (talk) 20:44, 26 November 2006 (UTC)

To clarify what CC said, you can often use just Sound Recorder; look at the menus for the Volume Control application and switch it to recording mode. You might be able to mark "Wave" or "Line Out" or so for recording (look at the checkboxes below the sliders). --Tardis 16:34, 27 November 2006 (UTC)

Audacity will do it; just set your recording device to your speakers in the preferences. NeonMerlin 22:29, 26 November 2006 (UTC)

Total Recorder comes to mind. Splintercellguy 04:34, 27 November 2006 (UTC)

I've had good results with OpD2d. Superm401 - Talk 06:21, 30 November 2006 (UTC)

Amplifier

Morning everyone(it's morning here). I asked a question on RD:Misc. about a faulty amplifier and it's not there anymore, so I'll try here. I had a 4-channel Realistic amplifier from about the 80's, running with all 4 audio channels bridged into a subwoofer. It worked perfectly until I adjusted the balance control, which blew the fuse. I replaced the fuse but now it's not working at all. Does anyone know what would be wrong with it and if I would be able to fix it? Thanks Mix Lord 23:30, 26 November 2006 (UTC)

Adjusting the balance would cause one of the channels to be louder than the other - therefore it would tend to 'drive' or 'overload' the other channel - it's possible that one of your main amplifier modules has been damaged.. These can be replaced - but this is a soldering job. I'd guess a price for a new part of 10-40? An electrical service shop will easily be able to mend this for you (provided they can still get the parts)87.102.36.159 23:40, 26 November 2006 (UTC)

November 27

a question about Dedicated servers

(question moved from Wikipedia talk:Reference desk by hydnjo talk 01:58, 27 November 2006 (UTC)
Hello , Im a Counter-Strike 1.6 player , i wanted to run a Dedicated server , which will be online 24 hr , i dont want to use my computer . could anyone tell me what should i do ? should I buy hosting ? buy dedicated server ? (If yes , How ?) or if not so what should I do , becauce i saw milions of servers on the internet , im waiting for your answers , please tell me if you know anything about cs servers or you know someone who knows about cs servers thanks a lot. ;)

I would say get a dedicated server. Splintercellguy 04:33, 27 November 2006 (UTC)

These guys look decently priced, and they offer Counter-Strike server rental. Droud 12:23, 28 November 2006 (UTC)

If you have a decent connection just rummage around for a beige box and run it from your closet --froth^{T C} 17:56, 28 November 2006 (UTC)

Firefox tabs and the mouse wheel

I've been using Firefox for a few months now, and one of my favorite features is the ability to open a new tab by clicking the mouse wheel. A few days ago, however, my old mouse's scroll wheel mysteriously stopped working, and I purchased a new mouse (the Microsoft Comfort Optical Mouse 3000). The scroll wheel performs normally for every function except opening a new tab in Firefox. Any ideas? I'm using Firefox 2.0. Thanks! --McMillin24 _contribs^talk 02:54, 27 November 2006 (UTC)

Hi, can you tell us if you use Windows or X.Org Server or something else? If you use xorg, you might need to use xmodmap to remap your buttons. Link: HOWTO Advanced Mouse at the Gentoo-Wiki --Kjoonlee 04:58, 27 November 2006 (UTC)

(I assumed you clicked on links with the middle button.) --Kjoonlee 05:08, 27 November 2006 (UTC)

Ah, yes. I'm running Windows XP, SP2.

First of all, have you installed the software for your mouse (probably some version of IntelliPoint, download here)? I know that your mouse will probably run without it, but may be missing some functionality. If you have installed the software, check your mouse configuration (Control Panel -> Mouse, or Control Panel -> Printers and other hardware -> Mouse), under the "Buttons" tab, what is the "wheel button" set to? If it's set to something like "double-click" or "next window" it may cause problems, try setting it AutoScroll to see if that fixes the problem. Hope this helps! — QuantumEleven 06:09, 27 November 2006 (UTC)

Hmm. The mouse software was installed (and the setting on AutoScroll), but I tried reinstalling, and that seemed to work. Thanks for the help! --McMillin24 _contribs^talk 22:17, 27 November 2006 (UTC)

Developing Wikipedia Bot on Mac OS X

Is there any libraries for bot developing on Macs? I know a Python library out there, but if any Mac-friendly library such as Automator or AppleScript extensions, Safari helpers... available? Yao Ziyuan 09:51, 27 November 2006 (UTC)

How about apache? IIRC osx comes with it preinstalled. Get php up and working then do it in php - or just run php from the command line with php.exe --froth^{T C} 17:55, 28 November 2006 (UTC)

Low level Network Programming

Hi, I was wondering if anyone knows how to do network programming at a low level? That is to say, WITHOUT berkeley sockets or winsock etc. I've searched around and almost all books/sites use some higher-level sockets library. I've looked into NetBios but that's only for LANs. I also tried looking up the IRQ number for the network card via the device manager and calling it, but all to no avail (the only interesting thing it seemed to do is constantly set the AH register to 0)...the last thing I can think of doing is reading the libraries themselves, but I'm pretty sure those would use compiler definitions (as in just the function declerations).

So is there any way to do it - preferably in C or ASM? And if so, how much work would it be? Thanks 202.37.62.126 10:33, 27 November 2006 (UTC)

Berkeley sockets is an API, not a networking protocol. For Unix, it is the networking API; there is nothing lower level. Now what "low level" features do you really want? If you want to send raw ethernet packets (that is, you don't want IP) you use PF_PACKET and SOCK_RAW; if you want to send raw IP packets (and not have the kernel do TCP on top) use PF_PACKET and SOCK_DGRAM. I don't know how you'd send raw packets on a non-ethernet device (like Bluetooth); in some cases PF_NETLINK appears to be used instead, but in general it seems a bit nonstandard. -- Finlay McWalter | Talk 10:48, 27 November 2006 (UTC)

Incidentally, you can learn a lot about unix system-level programming by running strace on a program that does something like what you want, and seeing what syscalls (and their args) it makes. -- Finlay McWalter | Talk 10:51, 27 November 2006 (UTC)

Now if you wanted to actually program the hardware of the network adapter yourself, you'd:

• need to be writing kernel space code (or a microkernel process with IO privity), as you'd need direct access to phyical memory, IO space, and the ability to set, unset, and handle interrupts
• need documentation for the programming interface of that specific network adapter, generally from the manufacturer. With the exception of a few cards that pretend to be old DEC cards, each card is different

But really I can't imagine why anyone would want to do this, other that to write a device driver. There's nothing the card can do that you can't do from the berkeley socket layer (exception for the occasional obscure ioctl to set a few config parameters like the MAC). -- Finlay McWalter | Talk 14:38, 27 November 2006 (UTC)

Well when I say "low level" I really just mean implementable in ASM, which is what you addressed there; but I imagine that getting specifications for the cards would be tedious, and as you say each card would be different so any program would be incompatible with most other cards (like with any hardware specific program)...as to why I would want to do it - partly out of interest, partly out of neccessity. Anyway though thank you for shedding some light on the situation :) 202.37.62.126 21:22, 27 November 2006 (UTC)

ASM isn't much good for working with anything except the "core system" of cpu/memory. Many network devices have complicated, proprietary drivers. And good luck working with other devices like -god forbid- graphics cards --froth^{T C} 16:51, 28 November 2006 (UTC)

Licensing primitive and evolving idea

How one can license primitive and evolving ideas, which is not yet crystallized? Is it possible for one (moderator/creator of the group) to say that discussions under this forum (say, Google group) is free/open and licensed under GPL? V4vijayakumar 12:14, 27 November 2006 (UTC)

Most of the time that wouldn't make sense in most jurisdictions. A license is a permission to use. If you express an idea here everyone is free to use that idea. Whether you give permission or not is irrelevant because you don't own ideas (unless you have e.g. patent protection). However, in contrast to an idea, the expression of an idea can be covered by intellectual property laws. For example, if you were to publish a recipe for rosemary grilled seagull, that recipe would be covered by copyright, and you could license that recipe. But the idea of stuffing a seagull and grilling it would be for anyone to use, whether you try to license it or not, because copyright does not cover ideas. See intellectual property for other types of restrictions that may apply. Weregerbil 13:31, 27 November 2006 (UTC)

Thank you for your thoughts. I am trying to build the cheapest useful laptop (?) possible. I personally think OLPC is not cheaper enough for everyone. Just now started a Google group TLPC to discuss about this. This group will try to come up with the possible solution(s), if at all possible.

Can anyone help me in defining appropriate discloser message that I have to add to that group? What the discloser message should contain? V4vijayakumar 14:25, 27 November 2006 (UTC)

You don't need any such message. Disclosing an idea (outside the context of a prior legal agreement which limits disclosure) destroys your change of filing for patent protection on the invention, and establishes prior art which should prevent anyone from patenting the same idea in the future. This makes the invention essentially public domain. But note that anyone can then use the idea for anything they want, including commercial, closed-source things; if you want to prevent that, you need to file for patent protection (which means you must't disclose the invention until your high-priced patent attorney tells you it's okay to do so), after which you can licence the patent to whomever you like under whatever terms you want. It sounds like the patent process isn't what you want, so just publish. -- Finlay McWalter | Talk 14:55, 27 November 2006 (UTC)

As a service to your contributors you might want to make it clear that anything they say may be shamelessly stolen by you :) --froth^{T C} 17:27, 28 November 2006 (UTC)

This group will try to come up with the specification that any one (not only me) can use. I don't think "stolen" is the right word to describe. If you can use the same word with wikipedia, or oper source, or free software contributors/users, then I have no problem with that word using with tlpc google group. V4vijayakumar 13:20, 29 November 2006 (UTC)

Sorry, That is not discloser, but disclaimer. What disclaimer should say? Thanks. V4vijayakumar 13:24, 29 November 2006 (UTC)

Certification For Assembly Language and Computer Graphics Design.

Dear sir, I am a Sri Lankan citizen aspiring to begin a career in the computer industry.

1.)I am searching for internationally recognized certificates for proficiency in assembly language and popular computer graphics design tools such as Maya, Adobe Illustrator and Adobe Photoshop. What I am looking for is the equivalent of 'sun certified java programmer' for java and 'microsoft certified solutions developer' for visual studio, in the above mentioned areas.

2.)Does 'A+ certification' cover assembly language?

Some employers take note of Brainbench scores. But really these certifications are no substitute for an academic qualification in a relevant field, and a CV with relevant professional experience working on real products. -- Finlay McWalter | Talk 15:04, 27 November 2006 (UTC)

Installing Mac OS X

I have a hp computer and I was wondering if it is possible to remove windows and install mac instead. I have the Mac OS X disk. Thanks Andrew

The regular release of OS X won't run on PC, but there is a hacked version of OS X that will. Rumour is that it can be found on Bit Torrent but I can't confirm or deny that. Vespine 21:24, 27 November 2006 (UTC)

A Google search for "os x pc" gives relevant results. Seejyb 08:27, 28 November 2006 (UTC)

The OSX disc won't help you. Like I said elsewhere on this desk, watch out for unsupported hardware. I'd recommend downloading the vmware image of the installed intel version of tiger from here and the edgy livecd. To install it look at the archive.org copies of xplodenet (registration is no longer free) or try to follow this guy's guide. Good luck. --froth^{T C} 17:47, 28 November 2006 (UTC)

3D Graphics/video card

My graphics cardit is not 3D and so it is not compatible with many software. Is there anything I can download for free to upgrade it (I use Windows XP)? Thanks, *Max* 22:13, 27 November 2006 (UTC)

No, generally the "3D" component of a video card is hardware not software, so a software download will not upgrade it. You need to upgrade your actual video card, depending on what kind of computer you have, that may or may not be practical or possible. Vespine 22:57, 27 November 2006 (UTC)

Are you sure that your graphics card does not support 3d acceleration? Your computer would likely have to be very old or very cheap. There is a chance that you have a 3d-enabled card and simply do not have the proper drivers installed for it. For example, the ATI driver that comes with Windows XP does not support 3d and one must update their ATI driver to the one issued by ATI in order for 3d acceleration to function correctly. Drivers are free. --Sish 02:46, 28 November 2006 (UTC)

But if you got your computer OEM then certainly catalyst came preinstalled --froth^{T C} 04:41, 28 November 2006 (UTC)

Where can I download a free driver? *Max* 00:05, 29 November 2006 (UTC)

DirectX supports software emulation of 3d calls, but your applications would be so painfully slow on your card that it would not be worth it. If your system can run XP it can't be ancient, so IMO make the effort to search for a cheap 3d card if affordability is the problem. Don't forget to run dxdiag to see what your current card is capable of, first. Sandman30s 11:24, 29 November 2006 (UTC)

Thanks *Max* 20:17, 29 November 2006 (UTC)

Wii Demos

(This was wrongly placed on Talk, so I'm moving it here and informing the questioner... Cheers, Sam Clark 22:27, 27 November 2006 (UTC))

Is the wii playable anywere? No stores have them playable except gamestop, where you need a drivers licence to play the wii Waluigi300 20:16, 27 November 2006 (UTC)

I haven't seen any. It's not exactly easy to secure the wiimote, especially if it's using the nunchuk thing --froth^{T C} 17:37, 28 November 2006 (UTC)

I've heard that Gamestop has an exclusive deal with Nintendo to be the only store with playable Wii demos. You need to give them the license so you dont run off the the controller. (I've been told Nintendo forbids them to chain it down) - Ridge Racer 00:44, 29 November 2006 (UTC)

Try a gamestop. They'll ask for your keys or maybe a license. Sometimes a credit card. They'll give you the controller and then you can play for as long as you want. Also, on wii.nintendo.com, they give directions to malls that have wiis to play with until january.

November 28

Free software licenses

This might sound dumb, but if software is really completely free and open source (like Linux), what is the purpose of even including a statement about the legalities of reproducing/editing/selling etc the software?

Robin

The father says to the young man dating his daughter, "You may take her to the concert, but I expect her home by midnight." (Having been a young man himself once, he knows the other limits he would like to set would be futile.)

As metaphor, this is the job of a software licence. If, for example, an unethical company renames the software and sells it as its own creation, there is a legal remedy to make them stop. --KSmrq^T 01:20, 28 November 2006 (UTC)

Pretty much. Look at the definition of free software. "Free" has a very specific meaning here in respects to copyright. It does not mean "public domain". --24.147.86.187 03:41, 28 November 2006 (UTC)

Totally free as in freedom licenses do let you just take the product and sell it outright - but you'd have to be pretty dull witted to buy a free-of-charge product. Isn't that what linspire did? --froth^{T C} 04:40, 28 November 2006 (UTC)

It's free software, not open-source. Open-source is more like a business strategy which goes, "Trust us! We release our source code! We benefit because everyone likes the term 'open-source'!", while free software is more like, "We give our source code away for your benefit, not ours." --wj32 ^{talk | contribs} 09:31, 28 November 2006 (UTC)

Open-source isn't that negative- for many companies profitability is a big concern and they can't afford just to give away their code. All the same, they don't mind it being worked on by the OSS community --froth^{T C} 16:49, 28 November 2006 (UTC)

If we are going to delve into finer distinctions, consider a novel. It is completely open; anyone can read any page. In fact, that is the intent! However, that does not give others the right to plagiarize chapters, nor to print and sell copies, nor to post a copy on the Web.

Or, consider an iPod shuffle. Apple Computer might be willing to give one away as a promotion. However, if you "borrow" its technological innovations or try to sell an identical product, be prepared to meet some stern lawyers.

The same considerations apply to software. It can be open-source (like a novel), and/or it can be free-of-charge (like the promotional iPod). But that does not mean the creators wish to relinquish all rights. A license is a standard way to state what rights are granted, and what rights are reserved. Here is an analysis that goes into more detail. --KSmrq^T 22:59, 28 November 2006 (UTC)

Most licenses for open source software, notably the GNU GPL, stipulate that you may charge for the transfer of your software, but that you must have access to all source. Further, derivatives of the software must also be under the GPL, as well. This protects developers from having companies commercialize their open-source ventures. 134.129.60.126 03:40, 30 November 2006 (UTC)

FTP program

How do you setup a bat file to run an FTP script, with username and passwords, getting the files and changing directories

wget for Win32 will fetch files from the command line, and will work in batch scripts. Droud 12:30, 28 November 2006 (UTC)

I believe the user is asking for a scriptable FTP client. Unfortunetly, I know none. ☢ Ҡi∊ff⌇↯ 23:50, 29 November 2006 (UTC)

On Unix, ftp itself is, kinda, scriptable - http://www.mcwalter.org/technology/shell/ftp.html I don't think the cmd.exe is flexible enough to allow this, but perhaps Monad is? -- Finlay McWalter | Talk 10:07, 30 November 2006 (UTC)

The Windows command-line ftp is scriptable. You use ftp -s:filename where filename is a text file with commands you would normally enter at the ftp prompts. Bavi H 05:57, 3 December 2006 (UTC)

Problem with my mouse

I'm using Windows XP Pro, 2002. My mouse has a wheel, but when I turn it, nothing happens. When I go to the Mouse properties in Control Panel, there is no Wheel tab, although the documentation suggests there ought to be. Any ideas as to how I might get my wheel to operate? Many thanks. --Richardrj ^{talk email} 13:29, 28 November 2006 (UTC)

You probably have to install the software (drivers, that is) for your mouse so that all of its functions would be supported. They most probably came with the mouse, or can be found online if you know the model of the mouse. –mysid☎ 14:07, 28 November 2006 (UTC)

Agreed; the generic mouse driver you are using supports the mouse buttons, but not the wheel. StuRat 00:48, 29 November 2006 (UTC)

Javascript help

I am working on an in site Search engine for a global project. i uploaded the script, and being of slight nowlage of javascript, added some code to it. only now the part i added doesn't work... help?

please don't copy long blocks of code to the reference desk. by the way, javascript isn't the best choice for a search engine. And it would be nice to know which part you added --froth^{T C} 16:47, 28 November 2006 (UTC)

"nowlage" = "knowledge", in case anyone needs a translation. StuRat 00:42, 29 November 2006 (UTC)

Haha very funny. you know what i ment.Is it Steak?<Xiaden's Homepage> 14:44, 29 November 2006 (UTC)

oh, and srry. won't do it again...

Direct memory access

DMA seems like a bad idea to me. How would the CPU know when the memory is being updated so it doesn't try to read off that range until it's done? Why not just have a dedicated component on the CPU for data throughput that shares the CPU clock and makes the appropriate information available to memory protection in the OS? --froth^{T C} 17:25, 28 November 2006 (UTC)

Read simultaneous with write is prevented by an interlock in the memory controller. The memory controller is a dedicated device which does the job - clocking it with the CPU would be stupid, as memory is clocked hundreds of times slower than the CPU. Remember that in a modern computer the CPU core isn't directly connected to the memory (only to the cache): it's the memory controller which does the heavy lifting (mostly reading and writing cache pages between the cache and the main memory). A DMA writes to system memory, and the CPU core will know nothing about it unless it asks the memory controller to fetch that section of RAM. Now you'll probably ask "what happens if the DMAed page is in the cache?" - the answer is that the processor's TLB/GDT has a "noncachable" flag, which means the memory controller will always fetch the RAM page fresh when the core asks to read from that page (which, unsurprisingly, is exceptionally slow). Device drivers which manage a DMA capable device are responsible for establishing a noncached TLB entry which corresponds with the DMA settings with which they've just configured the DMA capable device. Now you'll ask "what happens if the CPU is having the memory controller fetch from the DMA space" - the answer is that the DMA capable device must wait (and yes, this risks dropping data if the DMA doesn't complete promptly, but the system is designed so that doesn't happen). And now you'll ask "what if the CPU reads some data, and then decides it wants more - won't the data have been overwritten by another DMA in the meantime - the answer is that the DMA-capable device (and the device driver) between them maintain a circular buffer in the DMA space. -- Finlay McWalter | Talk 18:21, 28 November 2006 (UTC)

Wow, believe it or not I thought exactly those objections to your initial statement heh thanks --froth^{T C} 20:17, 28 November 2006 (UTC)

XP error reports

Is there any point in "sending" them? With vista done, is anyone still sorting through all that data? What was ever done with it? --froth^{T C} 17:53, 28 November 2006 (UTC)

Well officially Microsoft uses the data from the error reports to further develop their software and find bugs and such things. Inofficially some people might say that they use the data for Data Mining, because usually the error message includes detailed stuff about your hardware, etc. What really happens to the data, only the Devil knows... Aetherfukz 17:59, 28 November 2006 (UTC)

Way to boost graphics and resolution?

In working on this computer I have yet to get the resolution to be bearable. It is at 640*480 with 16 colors. In the settings box, I can choose all the way up to 16bit High Color, and up to 1024*768. However, upon application of these settings, oth revert down to the lowest possible for this computer. Is there any way I can boost graphics on this thing? Im running 98SE, my graphics card is a Matrox MGA-G100 AGP, the driver is version 4.11.01.1520.

Omnipotence407 18:12, 28 November 2006 (UTC)

Sorry, what does 'oth revert' mean? It seems like such a small component of your post but it has me stumped. Does it revert straight away, without even seeming to attempt the higher resolution? Or does it go higher for a moment and then revert? It sounds like a driver problem, have you tried setting it to 800x600 first to see if that works? Vespine 22:07, 28 November 2006 (UTC)

I speak RefDeskia, so allow me to translate: "oth" = "both", in English. StuRat 00:33, 29 November 2006 (UTC)

Also, with such a dated system, verify that your monitor can support the intended resolutions and refresh rates. Some older monitors will only do 1024x768 at 60hz. Droud 22:48, 28 November 2006 (UTC)

From what I can find, your card will support max 256 colour (8 bit) graphics, at resolutions of 640x480, 1024x768, 800x600, and 1280x1024. So you should be able to get better resolution, but not more colours. It is strange that you are given the higher colour options. The latest driver for win98 at the Matrox site seems to be 5.52.015, dated 25feb2000, while Soft32 has version 5.0.2144.1 (1999). Those cards were >$110 when they came out! Hope this helps. Seejyb 23:29, 28 November 2006 (UTC)

Some older drivers don't restrict that - I was able to stretch my old 14" monitor to, I think, 1280x1024x16. Windows then crashed and I had to find my old floppy disks for my drivers to reset it.  :( I do suspect you do have a driver problem: Windows 98 defaults itself to 640x480x256 if it has a problem and 640x480x16 if the problem is more serious... x42bn6 Talk 00:07, 29 November 2006 (UTC)

I think spending a few bucks on literally the cheapest AGP graphics card you can find will solve all of your problems. Sockatume 22:14, 30 November 2006 (UTC)

SAM policy change

I read that in order to dump SAM hashes, the hive file has to be modified. Is this true and how is it modified? The wikipedia article on SAM is awful --froth^{T C} 23:04, 28 November 2006 (UTC)

November 29

SMART error message

Alright, I'm gonna try and keep this as relevant as possible. Here's the deal, lately I've been getting messages on boot about a SMART error on one of my hard drives. The drive in question is my slave drive, a 100 gb western digital that came with the computer in about 2002. I use it currently as a storage drive. My primary drive is a newer 120 gb western digital i bought in 2004. Unfortunately I don't back-up my data (foolish i know), because I never have more than one place to store the data due to the fact that i keep the 100 gb drive nearly filled with data. The 100 gb drive still reads/writes perfectly except that i had to run chkdsk yesterday to fix a file system error. However there has been some talk about this drive failing in the past. (this computer actually came from my dad who said it had crashed, but a reformatting of the hard drive made it work without confict so i'd bet it was just windows acting up.) I simply want to know if anyone has had any experience with SMART/hard disk failure and could tell me if i should start planning for the worst or tell me if there is anything i could do that might help me fix it. (besides opening it) If anyone cares to know, the specific tests my drive is failing are the (01) raw read error rate test and the (c8) write error rate test. - Ridge Racer 00:39, 29 November 2006 (UTC)

I would say it's a very good idea to back up your data as soon as possible, as the drive may in the early stages of failure. Splintercellguy 00:41, 29 November 2006 (UTC)

I already assumed that and I'm currently attempting to compress my data into a manageable size so that i can store it on my main drive. Thanks anyways. - Ridge Racer 00:46, 29 November 2006 (UTC)

Disconnecting the drive entirely will avoid data loss until you're ready to back up. I suggest a DVD-R drive, which can be had for $40 these days. Droud 03:41, 29 November 2006 (UTC)

Custom MSN color

Is there anyway I can get custom colours for my MSN Windows Live Messenger text font colours, other than the default colours, without having to download anything? Jamesino 01:58, 29 November 2006 (UTC) (moved from Misc. Desk -THB 02:01, 29 November 2006 (UTC))

iPods and mp3s

My band and are I are interested in releasing some of our music to be used in a podcast. I'm a little concerned, however, as to the difference between having your music released in a podcast and just distributing it as an mp3? Aren't there programs that can just extract out an MP3 out of a podcast? — Preceding unsigned comment added by wedgeoli (talk • contribs)

If you are just starting out, I think you probably have bigger things to worry about then people ripping your music off podcast. If multi million dollar bands like Metallica couldn't stop people pirating their stuff then I doubt you have much hope. Besides, you should look at it this way: if people DO actually bother to rip your songs it actually means someone likes it and you are getting FREE publicity! That's a good thing. I guess my message is make music because you love it and want to share it, not because you want to be rich and famous. ;) Vespine 05:21, 29 November 2006 (UTC)

Umm, Podcast is just a name for certain audio (like shows and stuff). The name 'Podcast' doesn't mean the audio is in a different format, because Podcasts are usually distributed in MP3 or AAC files. So, releasing your music in a podcast and releasing your music in an MP3 file is basically the same thing. --wj32 ^{talk | contribs} 07:02, 29 November 2006 (UTC)

Optimizing system performance

During the installation of the security update to my Mac, it spent some time "optimizing system performance" near the end of the process. What was it actually doing? Does whatever it did actually optimize performance? Thanks. -THB 05:16, 29 November 2006 (UTC)

Maybe cleaning up temporary files used in the installation? --froth^{T C} 05:20, 29 November 2006 (UTC)

Or maybe the program used some kind of JIT compilation like .NET and it was pre-compiling it? Or maybe it was tweaking some program settings according to your Mac's specifications? --wj32 ^{talk | contribs} 07:04, 29 November 2006 (UTC)

Someone on this planet must have asked this before[4]... here we are: [5], which suggests the keyword prebinding. Weregerbil 10:55, 29 November 2006 (UTC)

Thanks, guys. Okay, so what is a memory offset of a symbol? The article on prebinding says that the process has been deprecated/phased out in OS X 10.4, which I have, so I think it shouldn't be doing it. -THB 18:10, 29 November 2006 (UTC)

Blocker or cleaner etc

"When i use the internet after some time interval the advertisement or ads are automaticaly appear on screen, which disturb my work and have porn seens. I want to completely block or clean it i.e neither advertisement nor any seen. So, what should i do?what are the steps or which program i download for this purpose,Explain PLZ"--82.148.97.69 17:57, 29 November 2006 (UTC)

First off, I recommend using Mozilla Firefox instead of Internet Explorer. You can download that from here. Then, after you install Firefox, install these extensions: AdBlock and the Filterset.G Updater. These will work together to block most of your internet ads to start off. I also recommend installing, and running Adaware to remove any spyware you might have. Check back if you have any questions or concerns. --Russoc4 18:10, 29 November 2006 (UTC)

"So, how i completely remove Internet Explorer from system?so that all the users are using firefox"--82.148.97.69 18:16, 29 November 2006 (UTC)

Internet Explorer cannot be removed from Windows. Partly because Microsoft wants you to use their products whenever possible, and partly because the integrated Windows file explorer and Internet Explorer work hand-in-hand, and without IE, then the file browser wouldn't work, to give the simpilest explaination. --Russoc4 18:21, 29 November 2006 (UTC)

Firefox will, however, ask you if you want to make it the default browser when you first use it. If you set it to the default, Firefox will be used whenever a browser is needed, but it will not completely prevent Internet Explorer from being used. --Russoc4 18:29, 29 November 2006 (UTC)

It is not true that IE cannot be removed (from Windows XP). More correctly, it is difficult to remove completely, and doing so can have undesired side effects. XPlite is one way to do the job if you really want. Most users will be satisfied to set Mozilla Firefox or Opera as their default browser, and follow these instructions to remove IE's desktop icon and increase its security. --KSmrq^T 09:57, 30 November 2006 (UTC)

Linux Swap

When installing ubuntu, you can have it automatically set up the main partition and swap partitions. When I let it do this, it makes the main ext3 partition, plus 2 interesting partitions that are both approximately 75% of my RAM size, but neither are labeled as swap. When I manually build the partitions, I build a main one, and then a 1.5*RAM sized "swap" partition, meant to be used for swap and actually formatted to linux-swap. Which is the right file system format to use and what is a recommended size for a Linux swap partition? I know Windows automatically uses a 1.5*RAM size area of the hdd, but we all know that Linux != Windows. --Russoc4 18:16, 29 November 2006 (UTC)

The swap partition has its own partition type - I believe you make the partition with the partitioning tool, and then run mkswap to set it as a swap partition. You later use swapon to tell the kernel to start using that as a swapspace. Usually the partitioning software for modern linux installs will run mkswap itself, and the init scripts will likewise run swapon automatically. -- Finlay McWalter | Talk 18:48, 29 November 2006 (UTC)

Umm...so how do I know if my swap is being used or not? --Russoc4 19:25, 29 November 2006 (UTC)

Off the top of my head (no linux box to hand) you look in /proc/swap or /proc/swaps or something like that. -- Finlay McWalter | Talk 19:33, 29 November 2006 (UTC)

The other partition may be for your /home partition. It's good to have a /home that's formatted FAT so you can share it with windows --froth^{T C} 20:27, 29 November 2006 (UTC)

Pull up a terminal or "Run Application" box and type "gnome-system-monitor" without the quotes, and hit enter, that will tell you if your swap is being utilized. When you installed it, it should have given you a list of partitions, and what you wanted to format/mount them as, the swap one should've been formated as linux-swap. If its an option, I'd recommend carving out your own partitions with GParted prior to installing Ubuntu, that way, you can have /home in a separate partition, which is handy for updates/major errors (I was kicking myself for not doing so when an Edgy upgrade went south, and I had to mount the volumes in windows to pull my files out) Cyraan 20:29, 29 November 2006 (UTC)

My swap is working. I just need to know now what is a decent size for it to be, with 1GB RAM. My /home does not have its own partition. I have the whole installation on an 15GB ext3, XP Pro on a 25GB NTFS, and I also have a 100GB external FAT32 drive where I keep all my multimedia so that I can take a recover from a meltdown with relative ease.--Russoc4 20:40, 29 November 2006 (UTC)

Thats what I get for not reading thoroughly, id always heard rule of thumb was 1.5-2 times your RAM so you're probably okay. Check every once and a while when you're doing a bunch of stuff to see if its being utilized, if it seems to fill up quickly, you can always increase it. Sorry I cant be of more help, current Kubuntu box has 2gb of ram, so its been a non-issue for the most part. Cyraan 20:51, 29 November 2006 (UTC)

Ic. I'll keep an eye on it. I don't expect to be doing any extreme gaming like on Windows under Linux, so, I may eventually lower it. Thanks. --Russoc4 21:03, 29 November 2006 (UTC)

/proc/meminfo shows the current utilisation of the swap. You can keep tabs on it manually, or you can use one of any number of system monitor applications which collect info from it periodically. -- Finlay McWalter | Talk

Publishing a Web Page

Hello, what would I need to do to publish a web page or web site so it caqn be found on places like google and how much approximately would it cost?

Thank you.

does this website exsist on the internet already? if so, then i do belive already in google(you just need more visitors, probbally meta tags too, could you link the page?)... oh, and please sign your posts with four tildes(~). or however you spell that word. Is it Steak?<Xiaden's Homepage> 23:06, 29 November 2006 (UTC)

You need a host. There are lots of cheap web hosts. (http://bluehost.com is a pretty good one, if you want a really cheap and easy one. They host a lot of sites. No, I don't have any affiliation with them.) Once you have a site, you have to find a way to get other people to link to your site if you want Google to rank it in their search results (see PageRank). (You don't really need meta tags, most search engines ignore them.) You can also buy sponsored ranking at Google, Yahoo, etc., or buy ads through their ad networks. --24.147.86.187 01:52, 30 November 2006 (UTC)

I don't have a web page up already. But how would I find sponsors if I were to create this website?~

You'd probably just run advertising, right? There are lots of ways to do that. Google AdSense is a popular one. But you need a site before you can really start talking about getting advertising for it. --140.247.240.213 18:57, 30 November 2006 (UTC)

IE7 and tabs?

Is IE pretending that it's firefox, or does it really think that the IE interface needed to look even more cluttered, and pointless? --172.145.135.155 23:03, 29 November 2006 (UTC)

Tabbed browsing is a must-have feature nowdays. So, blame the users. ☢ Ҡi∊ff⌇↯ 23:46, 29 November 2006 (UTC)

That's only because they don't know about child-window browsing where you can have multiple windows positioned inside of the browser's container. Then, you can move, resize, open, close child-windows at will, but only have one massive address bar/button/bookmark interface for all of them. --Kainaw ^(talk) 18:19, 30 November 2006 (UTC)

MDIs and TDIs serve different functions. Almost all browsers today are MDIs and have been for a long time (you can open up multiple windows in Firefox, too), so I don't think that's something that users "don't know about." Tabbed browsing is a very popular alternative to MDIs for a variety of reasons. --140.247.240.213 18:56, 30 November 2006 (UTC)

Please, tell me how to turn Firefox, IE, Konqueror, or Opera into an MDI? All I can do is make tabs. Apparently this is a feature that everyone knows about except me. --Kainaw ^(talk) 20:15, 30 November 2006 (UTC)

• To the contrary, I have nothing against tabbed browsing, it just seems like putting tabs in an IE window makes about as much sense as putting a spoiler on a shopping cart--172.168.74.33 20:07, 30 November 2006 (UTC)

November 30

Web analytics mystery: why is my website's #1 page /nojavascript?

I'm using WebTrends On Demand to crunch my website's server logs, and recently, the most accessed page hasn't been our home page as usual, but instead "www.ourdomain.com/nojavascript/" which throws a 404 error. We're talking thousands of requests on that per day, whereas before it was never on the radar screen in the analytics reports. I haven't changed any WebTrends configuration options recently.

I cannot figure out if this is bot activity, an artifact, or what. If anyone knows what might be generating http requests for that URL, I'd greatly appreciate a heads-up.

--WikkiTikkiTavi 03:26, 30 November 2006 (UTC)

Is it there in the actual logs themselves? -- Consumed Crustacean (talk) 03:30, 30 November 2006 (UTC)

Document on ISO/IEC 6592:2000 Guideline

Document required giving details on this standard ISO/IEC 6592:2000

Information technology - Guidelines for the documentation of computer-based application systems

You can buy the standard here. –mysid☎ 06:46, 30 November 2006 (UTC)

Germanium

how much germanium is typically in one computer

• About 0.0016% by weight[6]. How to find stuff like that: some web page somewhere must have a breakdown of materials in a computer. So google for a list of some of the materials that a computer probably contains: germanium gold tin copper computer. Weregerbil 15:52, 30 November 2006 (UTC)

howto allocate the power of cpu and memory of ram to do job

Hi,

howto allocate the power of cpu and memory of ram to do a job?

thank you!

Do you mean electrical power requirements for the CPU ? If not, I don't really understand the question. What "job" needs to be done ? Memory and CPU time are normally allocated automatically by the programs you use, so you don't need to do anything. StuRat 10:26, 30 November 2006 (UTC)

In some programming languages, you do need to allocate ram (memory), but not the CPU. You can set a priority for a jobs of a job so it will be considered more important (or less important) than other jobs. But, you are not specifically allocating CPU time as other high priority jobs may cut in front of your job. I often set unimportant jobs that take a long time (such as database queries) to extremely low priority so they won't bother me while I do my work. --Kainaw ^(talk) 14:22, 30 November 2006 (UTC)

Mounting shared network drive on Linux

Is there any way to mount a shared network drive on a Windows server, to a linux box, such that the drive is accessed through something like '/media/zeus/music/'? I don't need specific instructions on how to do so yet, as the installation doesn't yet exist. But I do need general confirmation on can this work on not. 70.88.111.65 13:20, 30 November 2006 (UTC)

Sure, Samba will do that. -- Finlay McWalter | Talk 13:59, 30 November 2006 (UTC)

Ah, aren't such things lovely that let you migrate away from those quirky headaches to what you always wanted to have. At the electronics club at my university, the old, fragile (very unstable) Windows server that hosted files and user accounts for the Windows worstations we couldn't get rid of now runs FreeBSD! :-) As a great side effect, home directories and user account are now the same on both Windows and UNIX stations. Sweet. —Bromskloss 20:02, 30 November 2006 (UTC)

How can I parse this JSON?

for example: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/api.php?action=query&prop=revisions&rvprop=content&format=jsonfm&titles=Wikipedia:Sandbox

How can I extract the real content of the page? I can read out until <pages>, but how can I read the sub field of pages? Which name is a number and not definite. I use JavaScript. Yao Ziyuan 14:41, 30 November 2006 (UTC)

Software for mailing newsletters?

What would be a good (preferably free) software or method for sending great amounts of email to people who signed a newsletter? I understand it could be the same software used for spam, but that's not really my goal. It's been a bit tricky to look for this stuff because I keep finding spam software and they're full of crap I don't need or want (tracking, obfuscation, email capturing\generation, etc)

The situation is this: we have a deal with several unrelated websites where hundreds of people will sign up for their newsletters (which we maintain), and we need to send them each an email when needed. It must support simple HTML emails with image attachments, and most important of all, it needs to separate several emails inside categories (since each website will have it's own particular newsletter)

Is there a free software out there that can do this? I guess I could do something like that in PHP, but I'd rather not. Thanks for your help! 200.233.224.44 15:07, 30 November 2006 (UTC)

MailerMailer provides that service. I have no idea what the cost is. If you attempt it yourself, you should expect to have your email servers blocked rather quickly - requiring you to purchase spammer software to subvert the spam blockers. --Kainaw ^(talk) 18:15, 30 November 2006 (UTC)

PhpList is good for this. howcheng {chat} 18:26, 30 November 2006 (UTC)

apple macbook - please help.

Apple's website says-- "Display 13.3-inch (diagonal) glossy widescreen. TFT display with support for millions of colors Supported resolutions: 1280 by 800 (native), 1152 by 720, 1024 by 768, 1024 by 640, 800 by 600, 800 by 500, 720 by 480, and 640 by 480 at 16:10 aspect ratio; 1024 by 768, 800 by 600, and 640 by 480 pixels at 4:3 aspect ratio; 720 by 480 at 3:2 aspect ratio"

I just want to know two things 2) when we keep the screen at 720 by 480 at 3:2 aspect ratio, will a part of screen go black and only the rest of the screen show up? 1) LCDs dont work well in more than 1 resolution. Will macbook screens work well in all above said resolutions or does it work well in only 1280 by 800 which is native?

Thanks.

I'm not sure what happen on MacBook, but on my iMac, each resolution has two options, stretched or not. Yao Ziyuan 17:59, 30 November 2006 (UTC)

How does it work on such displays when you select a resolution that does not perfectly match the physical pixels on the display? —Bromskloss 20:05, 30 November 2006 (UTC)

See Native resolution --froth^{T C} 20:07, 30 November 2006 (UTC)

It will be forced to scale. That it's a mac is irrelevant- it will look bad. But with very low resolutions like 720x480 you probably won't be able to tell --froth^{T C} 20:07, 30 November 2006 (UTC)

Dirt on a mousepad

I've got an optical mouse and every few days it seems these little round spots of dirt show up on the mousepad. Does anyone know what causes this? A co-worker says that they are colonies of microscopic critters that feed on dead skin cells and that the light from the mouse helps them grow, but I'm a bit skeptical. howcheng {chat} 18:24, 30 November 2006 (UTC)

It's probably just dirt and oil from your hands and the ambient area. I doubt the light of the optical mouse plays any role here—it has too little exposure to any given spot to promote any sort of growing function. --140.247.240.213 18:49, 30 November 2006 (UTC)

its def just ur standard gook, since ur making the same small circularish movements with your hands all day your just balling up dust and oil and crap Modesty84 22:26, 30 November 2006 (UTC)

does anybody know a good distrobution of linux for ethical (and non-ethical) hacking?

Cheers a lot Andiman

Uh any of them? --froth^{T C} 20:19, 30 November 2006 (UTC)

List of Linux distributions? --Russoc4 20:56, 30 November 2006 (UTC)

Slackware is a popular one for hackers. Vespine 21:31, 30 November 2006 (UTC)

SQL query

I'm trying to figure out how to write an SQL query for a given situaiton. Any help would be appreciated.

I have two tables which we can call info and attribs. The info table has a primary key of the name id, and some text fields (title, author, etc.). The attribs table contains attributes for the records in the info table. It has its own primary key (id), a field which corresponds to the id field of the info table (info_id), and two text fields, one which is the name and the other is the value of a given name/value pair.

So sample data in the two tables might look like this:

info
id | title   | author
-------------------------
01   Hello     Nobody
02   Great     Somebody
03   Cheers    Everybody

attribs
id | info_id | name   | value
----------------------------
01   02        quality  5
02   02        size     10
03   01        quality  6
04   01        size     30
05   03        size     45

So record #01 in the info table has a record referring to something called "Hello" by "Nobody" has a "quality" of 6 and and a "size" of 30). This arrangement allows me to have a functionally unlimited number of different attributes for any given record, which is what I need for this application.

Basically I want to be able to do a SELECT query which will give me information like this:

id | title | quality 
------------------
01   Hello   6
02   Great   5
03   Cheers

Now the hard part of this, that I can see, is that I am not just trying to JOIN based on the name of a field in the attribs table but the value of a field. And notice I want it to also work even if a given record doesn't have a similar correspondence in the other table.

I'm not really sure if this is possible with SQL or not, but it would be great if it was. (If it isn't, well, I'll just have to figure out something else which won't be as quick.) Any thoughts? --140.247.240.213 18:47, 30 November 2006 (UTC)

select id, title, value as quality from info join attribs on info.id=attribs.info_id where attribs.name='quality' - will give you the id, title, and value for all items, limiting value to those named quality. If you have more than one quality set for an item in info, you'll get two rows. --Kainaw ^(talk) 19:19, 30 November 2006 (UTC)

kainaw is the sql prince --22:25, 30 November 2006 (UTC)

Wii Q#2

Does Wii come with the Wifi built in or do you have to buy an expansion? Also (tell me if I am wrong) you have to buy a wifi extension to attach to the Wii for the DS to recieve "patches". --Darkest Hour 19:33, 30 November 2006 (UTC)

The Wii has built-in 802.11g/b wifi. Since the DS also communicates via 802.11b, there's nothing you have to buy to connect the two. The Wii's software doesn't currently support such a connection (companies these days rush products out and patch the remaining features/fixes in later), but once it does it'll work without any extra hardware. -- Consumed Crustacean (talk) 20:25, 30 November 2006 (UTC)

It's not so much that the Wii software doesn't support it for technical reasons or because it was rushed, it's that there's simply no content which uses the functionality yet. A Pokemon game out next January will be the first title to use the link. Sockatume 21:07, 30 November 2006 (UTC)

That's not exactly what I meant. Nintendo has said the the Wii will act as a DS Download Station, allowing the download of demos and the like. This has not yet been implemented. -- Consumed Crustacean (talk) 21:12, 30 November 2006 (UTC)

Ah, right. Well I personally wasn't expecting that at launch (they'd only mentioned it once and it was omitted the official statements on the machine so it was more of a "some day") but I get the point. Sockatume 21:22, 30 November 2006 (UTC)

But do you have to buy a WI-FI (put proper word here)Transmitter to get the Wii to work with the internet? Or does the Wii come with something to help reduce the cost of the buying Wi-Fi? --Your friend, Darkest Hour 21:30, 30 November 2006 (UTC)

No, I'm not sure what that means exactly, but there is nothing like that packaged with it. You need to buy your own wireless router, or a USB Wi-Fi access point such as the one Nintendo sells (a router is 100x better though, and wouldn't cost very much more). -- Consumed Crustacean (talk) 21:34, 30 November 2006 (UTC)

So how much would it cost me for one of those? --Your friend, Darkest Hour 21:42, 30 November 2006 (UTC)

Alternatively you could get the USB to Ethernet adaptor and hook it up to your existing wired router/modem. That won't be around until next year though. Sockatume 22:11, 30 November 2006 (UTC)

Ken Kutaragi trivia

Looking here: http://www.1up.com/do/feature?pager.offset=2&cId=3155393 I find this quote "..The PS3 will instill discipline in our children and adults alike. Everyone will know discipline." Sorry for wasting your time with such a minor question, but can anyone confirm this and please give a link to the original speech. I express admiration for this guy, no sarcasm intended. I'd just like to read more. Thank you.83.100.138.110 20:59, 30 November 2006 (UTC)

Bittorrent. Halp!

My Bittorrent gets stuck on 'Checking for firewall' which means nothing will download... how can I fix it? Please explain this to me in really simple terms and not too many complicated questions, I'm bad with things. Vitriol 21:24, 30 November 2006 (UTC)

You need to configure your firewall/router to port forward the appropriate port for the BitTorrent client. Splintercellguy 22:12, 30 November 2006 (UTC)

Too complicated. Vitriol 22:16, 30 November 2006 (UTC)

first, is your computer connected to a router? easy way to check-> does your computer plug into your cable modem/dsl modem, or into some weird box with flashing lights that plugs into your cable modem/dsl modem and other computers?

second, go into start, my network connections, right click local area network... click firewalls or advanced or something, and check turn off windows firewall. if you are running norton firewalls or somethin else you have to turn them off too.

this is the simplest fix, it can potentially open you up to hackers though, especially if your windows isnt updated. if you do have a router the fix is a lil bit more complicated Modesty84 22:22, 30 November 2006 (UTC)