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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)[reply]

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)[reply]

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)[reply]

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)[reply]

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)[reply]

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)[reply]

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)[reply]

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)[reply]

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

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)[reply]

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)[reply]

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)[reply]

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)[reply]

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

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)[reply]

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

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

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)[reply]

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)[reply]

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)[reply]

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)[reply]

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)[reply]

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)[reply]

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)[reply]

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

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)[reply]

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)[reply]

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)[reply]

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)[reply]

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)[reply]

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)[reply]

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)[reply]

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)[reply]

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)[reply]

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))[reply]

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)[reply]

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)[reply]

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)[reply]

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

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)[reply]

Someone on this planet must have asked this before[1]... here we are: [2], which suggests the keyword prebinding. Weregerbil 10:55, 29 November 2006 (UTC)[reply]

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)[reply]

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)[reply]

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)[reply]

"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)[reply]

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)[reply]

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)[reply]

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)[reply]

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)[reply]

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)[reply]

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

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)[reply]

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)[reply]

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)[reply]

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)[reply]

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)[reply]

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)[reply]

/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)[reply]

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)[reply]

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)[reply]

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)[reply]

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

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)[reply]

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)[reply]

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)[reply]

Opera is MDI by default. It's only that maximized windows show up as tabs, but you can restore any window and it will work as a mdi interface. ☢ Ҡi∊ff⌇↯ 15:30, 2 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Usually you just create a new window. Under the "File" tab. Pretty identical to MDI behavior, but without the all-encompassing window that obscures the desktop. On Windows IE is especially treated in this way, as multiple windows of it are treated as one item in the taskbar, usually. --24.147.86.187 00:05, 1 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

That is not MDI. That creates a new window - not a new child window. I don't want a new window with a menu bar, button bar, address bar, and all that garbage. I don't want it to be separate from the main window. I want a child window that is encompassed inside the main browser window - as I originally explained. --Kainaw ^(talk) 14:52, 1 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

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)[reply]

It's cleaner software design to put all the content as one item on the taskbar rather than flooding the taskbar with multiple apparent instances of the same application --⁪froth^{T C} 02:58, 1 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

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)[reply]

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

Thanks for the response. I checked the raw logs (duh - should've thought of that!), and it does appear, but only like 3 times on a day when WebTrends reports hundreds of page views on it. So that does suggest an analysis bug, which I'll take up with support. What I didn't say explicitly is that the "on demand" product I use doesn't actually analyze logs, (I misspoke) but instead is an ASP server-based model that works off a javascript beacon on each page. FWIW, the /nojavascript accesses in the actual log are all from a Firefox browser and for GIF image hits.--WikkiTikkiTavi 23:02, 30 November 2006 (UTC)[reply]

this is really a COMPLETE stab in the dark but possibly its search engine spiders, which may be set to automatically go to a nojavascript page? look to see if theres any files called robot.txt and see if they point to that file as well. Modesty84 22:29, 30 November 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Good idea. There certainly are a bunch of hits on robots.txt, but they look clean. Thanks, though - I appreciate the suggestion! --WikkiTikkiTavi 23:02, 30 November 2006 (UTC)[reply]

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)[reply]

Germanium

how much germanium is typically in one computer

About 0.0016% by weight[3]. 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)[reply]

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)[reply]

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)[reply]

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)[reply]

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

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)[reply]

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)[reply]

A good understanding of regular expressions would make parsing this file format trivial. This can be had here, and there is a lot of practical advice in the comments here. Droud 01:13, 1 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

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)[reply]

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)[reply]

PhpList is good for this. howch e ng {chat} 18:26, 30 November 2006 (UTC)[reply]

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)[reply]

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)[reply]

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

I'm not sure it added much. Where is the resampling done? On the graphics card? In the driver? —Bromskloss 13:29, 4 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

I believe it's done on the controller in the monitor itself. If it's a laptop it may be integrated, but it's still separate from the graphics API and drivers. --⁪froth^{T C} 21:47, 6 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

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)[reply]

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. howch e ng {chat} 18:24, 30 November 2006 (UTC)[reply]

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)[reply]

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)[reply]

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)[reply]

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

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

It's not the OS mate, it's how you use it! --Wo o ty Woot? contribs 03:02, 1 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Before my above reply I started writing a big post about the OS being a tool, similar to a paint brush or a guitar, but then I thought maybe the OP is researching for a story? If he wrote the main underground uber hacker protagonist configuring his redhat it might sound a bit sillier then hacking on his slackware box. ;) Vespine 03:33, 1 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

In that case, Neal Stephenson came up with Finux. --Kjoonlee 16:19, 1 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Perhaps one that includes the Metasploit framework. —Bromskloss 13:45, 4 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Don't bother, you aren't a hacker. I know this because:

A true hacker wouldn't come to the reference desk to ask such a question

Because a true hacker uses their own OS written in assembly

And true hacker would be using User:Jimbo Wales account to post anyway

:-P Nil Einne 18:23, 5 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

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)[reply]

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)[reply]

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

This SQL would fail to select the third row in his output example, however an OUTER JOIN would return null values for the missing records. Droud 01:30, 1 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

(edited) If you're looking for the field names to be dynamically generated, this would require a SQL scripting language such as T-SQL (MSSQL) that allows you to create, manipulate, and return dynamic recordsets. This would be very slow and cumbersome compared to processing the results on the client side. Is there any reason you want/need field names to be created dynamically from data? Droud 01:20, 1 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

If the tables are small, such that performance is not an issue, I'd just do the bulk of the work in a program module with embedded SQL (which could be as simple as SELECT ALLs from each table). Then, you can easily set column headers to whatever dynamic values you wish. I can provide a code example if you wish. StuRat 06:18, 1 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Try this:

SELECT info.id, info.title, attribs.quality
FROM info
LEFT JOIN attribs
ON (info.id = attribs.info_id)
GROUP BY attribs.info_id
HAVING attribs.quality

LEFT JOIN will still select data from the FROM table table even if the LEFT JOIN table has no matches. I've not tested the SQL, but I think this is what you're needing. It would be easier to do it with the code you're querying the data with, but if you're in no rush it will end up being more efficient if you can achieve this with SQL. If the HAVING attribs.quality bit generates an error, try HAVING attribs.quality > 0 (if you don't need values with 0 selected).RevenDS 21:56, 6 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

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)[reply]

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)[reply]

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)[reply]

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)[reply]

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)[reply]

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)[reply]

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)[reply]

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

The routers you can buy for varying prices online (newegg.com has some for as low as $30; I recommend making sure you get one with a good feedback rating, though. Paying less than $40 for a router is a risky proposition, usually). You need to have a broadband connection for it to connect to, of course, but if you have that already they are usually very easy to hook up. --24.147.86.187 01:50, 1 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

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)[reply]

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)[reply]

ok problem solved I found it myself - http://www.kotaku.com/gaming/media-criticism/ken-kutaragi-misunderstood-or-just-nuts-111634.php shame.87.102.8.53 16:33, 1 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

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)[reply]

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

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

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)[reply]

It fixed itself. Vitriol 22:48, 30 November 2006 (UTC)[reply]

No, now it's saying "launch_torrent failed UnboundLocalError: local variable 'do_launchdir' referenced before assignment". Vitriol 22:51, 30 November 2006 (UTC)[reply]

I would suggest using Azureus, an excellent BitTorrent client that can configure most routers automatically through UPnP. There's also Port Forward, which is an excellent resource. Droud 01:23, 1 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

utorrent does basically everything azureus does but it's more responsive and much smaller. No JRE overhead. --⁪froth^{T C} 02:54, 1 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

If your computer has the shoeld in it a red one in the bottom left corner double click it go to the one where it says not monitored and switch to i ahve a virusscanner/firewall i will monitor myself. It worked for me. Tremello22 15:59, 8 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

December 1

reseting admin password in xp

i need to reset the admin password on a computer, i have full accesss to it (cd, floppy, usb) but cant log in, does anybody know of any way to reset the admin password? preferably a downloadable iso or something thats freeware, thanks a lot --69.140.210.163 01:24, 1 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

This may not be legal due to DMCA restrictions on circumventing protection technology, but info can be found here. Use at your own risk! Droud 01:35, 1 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

That looks pretty dubious to me. They basically require you to send them information from your computer and then they will give you the password. Sounds a little sketchy. --24.147.86.187 02:03, 1 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

On second thought, DMCA has nothing to do with it as long as it is your computer. These methods are NOT failproof and will typically result in you losing any and all private files on your computer. Use at your own risk! Droud 01:40, 1 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

I've used this utility in the past with good effect. However if the user files are encrypted you will be out of luck even if you reset the password. But if you do all of the disk-image stuff there it should be able to reset the admin password to whatever you want. --24.147.86.187 01:59, 1 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

download the ophcrack livecd, pop in in and turn on your computer. Wait 25 minutes or so and it'll crack the password. Windows passwords pfft :) --⁪froth^{T C} 02:48, 1 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

I've used the one User:24.147.86.187 linked myself successfully. --Wirbelwindヴィルヴェルヴィント (talk) 16:46, 1 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

wikibooks:How to Crack Windows XP Passwords WP 07:45, 7 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

How to connect a doorbell to a laptop

I would like to write a "chess clock" for a game with more than 2 players. Because not everyone can reach the computer easily, I want to connect the computer with a number of doorbells, and place one in front of each player. Is this possible with USB? Maybe there's already an adapter for this? How do I adress it from the computer? (I've done something similar with a serial port, but that was many, many years ago.) — Sebastian (talk) 02:13, 1 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

It might be difficult to get it down to the right voltage so you don't fry the port.. --⁪froth^{T C} 02:50, 1 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Could you hack apart a USB keyboard and just use the space key or something? Fit it into a small switch box. That's the way I'd try to do it, I'm sure you can get some creappy keyboards for a couple of bucks if you don't already have some kicking around.. Vespine 03:27, 1 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks for both your tips. The idea with the keyboard feels like overkill and much more work - I would need 6 of them. But it is an interesting backup solution. Ideally, all I need is a simple (passive) switch - nothing that provides its own voltage. It doesn't feel so exotic to me, but apparently nobody does this sort of thing with a laptop. — Sebastian (talk) 05:32, 1 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

It would 100% be simpler to use the parallel port on your computer to do this. If you used USB you would likely have to create drivers for it? Not too sure.

Head to your local electronics store, grab a male parallel port and then get some parallel ribbon cable that has no ports on it, then you will need to put the port and cable together which is brutally easy.

I recommend parallel because it is easy to see and count the wires that you are using and makes troubleshooting easier.

To make things connect i'd use a breadboard which will allow you to just stick the wires in.

The doorbells will close the circuit from the parallel port, talk to the guy at the store and see if he knows if you need any resistors and or external power. This is where the breadboard would come in handy. If you don't need external power or resistors then you don't need a breadboard.

Then you will have to write a program to a signal through say pin 1? (not sure if this is reserved or not) and wait for a signal on pin 2. when you push the door bell the signal from pin 1 would be routed back to pin 2 signaling an event.

A simple way to program this is in MSBasic, but i know you can use Visual basic, it will just be a tad harder but you should be able to do more in the end.

Sorry my help is so vague, I did a similar project 4 years ago and I can't remember details. --Sish 05:58, 1 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Thank you! This isn't vague - it was very helpful. It led me on the right track: I just searched for "USB to Parallel", and there seem to be several products that I could use. Thanks a lot! — Sebastian (talk) 06:09, 1 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

On second thought: How do these adapters actually map the many parallel contacts to the 4 USB pins? I guess I have to do a bit more resarch. — Sebastian (talk) 06:13, 1 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

OK, I think I'll buy a DAQ device. I always wanted one, anyway, and one for about $100 should do for me. — Sebastian (talk) 06:27, 1 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Depends what kind of computer you're using :-) The easiest possible way i can think of would be if you had an Amiga / ST / Sinclair Spectrum as you could use the inbuilt (digital) joystick port - virtually all programming languages for these architectures have commands to read specific input pins. If this ain't the case, you could also use the non-data lines in Serial Port, such as CTS, DTR - [4] may be useful for this. On the subject of how a USB/Parallel converter maps the pins from one to another, it doesn't. It provides an interface from one interface standard to another (in the same way as your internal parallel port wil have an interface to the PC on one side (probably PCI) and to your parallel deveice on the other. Davidprior 06:45, 1 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Thank you! Unfortunately, it's a Sony!. It doesn't have any parallel or serial port. But don't worry, I think the DAQ device will solve the problem. Not the cheapest solution, but I can use it for other things, as well, and it'll remind me of my days in a physics lab, so it'll be worth it. — Sebastian (talk) 07:21, 1 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Vespine's keyboard idea seems like by far the easiest solution, and you really only need one keyboard. You just buy a cheap keyboard (£5 max), dismantle it and chuck away the key mechanisms. Then solder six pairs of bellwire to (any old) six contact pairs on the circuit board underneath, and have the bellpushes on the ends of those wires. This really seems the smartest idea, because:

the cost is negligible, and if you screw up you can always solder on different contact pairs (or get a new keyboard for next to nothing)
there's essentially no programming overhead - keyboard IO is the easiest of all in pretty much every OS/environment/language
the hardware part is very easy (the largest solder targets ever) and fast (maybe 30 mins work)

If you have to worry about simultaneous keystrikes (as you would if you were making a quiz-show buzzer-system) then you have to be careful about wiring keys that are disjoint in the keyboard matrix. -- Finlay McWalter | Talk 00:24, 2 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

But of course! You're right! It didn't occur to me that I don't need the keys mechanisms themselves. I'll try that. — Sebastian (talk) 00:36, 2 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Forgive the formatting http://www.flightlink.com/epic/epicusb.html this will give you the ability to wire buttons to do things via a USB interface.

Playstation2

I've got a Sony Playstation 2 (non-slimline) and the disk drive on it no longer opens. This was caused by the unit being stored upside-down once. Is there any way this can be fixed? Mix Lord 04:37, 1 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

All you have to do is unscrew your PS2 and find if anything is jammed, snapped or fried. Here is a guide. meltBanana 16:12, 1 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

that happened to me once, but i fixed it. all i did was soak it in warmish water for 3 to 4 hours and it should be as good as newSir Sagman 04:56, 3 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

If those solutions don't work, you can always call Sony and purchase a refurbished "fat" model for a discount if you send in your broken out-of-warranty model. (As I have done) Jmax- 03:11, 7 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

i wouldn't suggest soaking your PS2 in water, and would much less suggest taking it apart, unless it really is out of warranty, in which case, i'd do as Jmax hear tells you.in case of no money, do as Mr. banna tells ya to. Xiade n 22:34, 7 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Pci speed

How can a PCI card providing usb 2.0 ports offer full 480 mpbs?or does it??

According to Peripheral Component Interconnect PCI supports up to 133 MegaBYTES per second.

133 megabytes = 1 064 megabits

1064 mbps/480 mpbs = 2.21

So technically one could have two whole devices running at 480mbps on a PCI USB 2.0 Card --Sish 07:10, 1 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Open source Linux OS

Any idea which is the 1)fastest 2)most multimedia compatable(file formats) 3)smallest size 4)applications(open office,etc) among all the linux os??

Linux OS? never heard of it. I thought Linux was a kernel... unless you're looking for GNU/Linux [sarcastic] --wj32 ^{talk | contribs} 00:46, 2 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

What do you mean by smallest? Feather Linux is only 120 MB or so, but Ubuntu is more full-featured and is what I would recommend for you. It is freely available here -- it's only around 700 MB and includes OpenOffice. You may need to install some codecs or applications to deal with Windows Media files (WMA, WMV) and CSS-scrambled DVDs. Pesapluvo 15:57, 2 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Determining the character set of a file (created by cURLing wikipedia)

Alright, so there are two ways to solve the problem I have.

1) Tell me the character set of the file "foo" given that foo was created by the command

cURL -dump http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=dali&action=raw > foo

(except with the ? and & escaped so it works - the version presented above is unescaped for ease of your link following).

2) Tell me in general how to determine the character set of a file. Bonus points if it doesn't involve installing a utility (the system already has "recode", but it doesn't seem to do character set recognition, just recoding).

If you need or want more information on the context, read on.

That particular sample page is useful because it uses an 'í'. I have no problem seeing the í using for instance cat. The difficulty is that I want to process the file in Java, in particular using a Scanner. I've written a testing utility in Java that basically replicates the functionality of cat, just reading a file in and putting it directly to standard out. However, the Scanner constructor takes an argument of the character set used, and I don't know what to put. I've tried all the most common options (UTF-8, UTF-16, US-ASCII, ISO-whatever): the good ones tell me about "Salvador Dal?" while others don't even parse into words correctly.

I wouldn't mind a few missing characters, but when instead of dali I'm looking at http://ar.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D9%85%D8%B3%D9%8A%D8%AD%D9%8A%D8%A9, it becomes very problematic. Incidentally, I assume that dali and the above link to the Arabic Wikipedia use the same encoding - if not, please explain how and where Wikipedia uses various different encodings. ^L_Wizard @ 11:08, 1 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

When grabbing an HTML file (as you will with that ar link), the HTML often has a meta tag labelled "Content-Type" which mentions a character set. Otherwise, you probably need to grab the header of that name out of the HTTP conversation; I don't know if cURL can report that or not. In general, of course, there is no way to tell what character set an arbitrary file uses, because you don't know what the file is supposed to say. (You can often tell that a file is encoded with such things as UTF-8, but that's not a coded character set (though those two links point to the same place, read the "Modern encoding model" section there); I guess the Scannner constructor is using the term in the old MIME sense. Are you sure that the UTF-8 there is not Java's modified UTF-8? Fortunately, most uses of variable-length encodings like that use Unicode as the character set. As far as my limited knowledge of internationalization goes, it appears that that's what your cURL command retrieves.) --Tardis 16:08, 1 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

install windows 98

I have windows 98 in drive c: and xp(service pack 1) in drive d: (windows 98 to use mediaforte PV-951 TV card. XP does not support the tv card. Hence I need windows98). Now I could not run 98. When I boot 98, it says “Error starting program The shell32.DLL file cannot start. Check the file to determine the problem.” Another dialogue box says “Explorer This program has performed an illegal operation and will be shut down. Explorer caused an exception 6d007eH in module EXPLORER>EXE at 0167:0040a067” How can I solve this problem?

I tried to format drive c: to reinstall win 98. but I could not. It says “windows was unable to complete the format.” Why I could not format drive c? is it due some common files shared by 98 and XP? Can I format drive c after manually delete all the files in drive c:? I could not find update drivers for mediaforte PV-951 TV card in the web. Can you help? Can I reinstall 98 while Xp is already installed in drive d? What are precautions I have to take before formatting (FAT32)? Sorry for the troubles. Thank you very much for your help. 220.247.226.158 11:09, 1 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

software

Hi,

I need a software where i can store large amounts of data on.

If i was to type a trace number or an id number in, then all the information for that particular trace number will come up.

The information is for certs for our products. And the trace numbers are our references in completing the certifications.

Please can anyone help!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Maybe you're looking for a database? --Wirbelwindヴィルヴェルヴィント (talk) 16:44, 1 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

testing my own wlan

I want to know if my wlan is secure. Do you know any hacking software so I can test it?

The guidelines in Wi-Fi_Protected_Access#Security_in_pre-shared_key_mode are quite good. If you follow these, you should generally have no issues with security. If, however, you are determined to test your security, then take a look at AirSnort or Aircrack-ng Jmax- 03:17, 7 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Program in USB

If I install a program in a USB stick, can I use this program on any other computer (with the same OS)? Or will the installation of some files still put some information on my hard-disc?

It depends on the program. If it doesn't change registry values and install files in system folders, you can. For example, Mirc (the irc client) can run from a USB drive. --Wirbelwindヴィルヴェルヴィント (talk) 16:42, 1 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

I was thinking about something more professional, like ms-office, my own web-browser, a CAD program, etc.

MS Office requires registry and many libraries. So, the executable file is rather useless on its own. Most modern Windows programs work like that. You need to have all the libraries and registry settings installed to get it to even think about running. --Kainaw ^(talk) 18:01, 1 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

But, what if I configure the usb stick as the main storing devide, and install windows on it (hypothetically). Would I be able to use this usb stick on any computer?

Only in safe-mode. When you install windows, you install drivers for the computer it is on. Also, Windows (and Vista) validate themselves based on the CPU and other things in the computer. So, when you switch hardware, you'll have a hell of time getting the different video card, network card, etc... to work properly. --Kainaw ^(talk) 20:19, 1 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Another problem with javascript

Yhea... i would like to pass a javascript variable from a main body to an iframe. how would i do that? it doesn't seem to work at all... here are the declarations i used:
in the body - var name="Home";
In the Iframe- document.write("-" + name + "-");
Is it Steak?<Xiaden's Homepage> 15:20, 1 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Are both pages (the main one and the one in the IFrame) on the same server? If not, you will not be able to do it because of security protection. --Kainaw ^(talk) 18:00, 1 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Actually, they aren't even online yet, but they are in the same folder, and will be uploaded accordinglly. i like having things work before i try and upload anything =p. but on a serious note, i really need this information quick... it's part of a deadline(three days from now). Thnks,

Is it Steak?<Xiaden's Homepage> 18:57, 1 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Then, the iframe should be in the window.frames array. If it is the only iframe, I'd expect it to be window.frames[0]. You can use windows.frames[0].document.write... but keep in mind that this all changes based on exactly how you coded the web pages. It may be parent.frames or windows.frames[whatever_you_named_the_frame]... Firefox (Mozilla) is nice in that you have a DOM inspector that you can use to see exactly where every element on the page is at and what you need to reference it. --Kainaw ^(talk) 19:05, 1 December 2006 (UTC) <--- this is an example of a good anwer.[reply]

Ha... you helped me, but not in the way you exspected... turns out, whatever i name the IFrame, turns into the name for the variable name... i used a variable that isn't supposed to be used... i can define it in the tag now though, so it's all cool. Tell me if you want me to explain more...

Is it Steak?<Xiaden's Homepage> 19:11, 1 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks for the help, it's running fine, but i'm curious as to why it allows the tag to change a javascript variable. I'ts a trivial matter, but all the same, could someone answer it? 168.169.107.2 14:44, 4 December 2006 (UTC)aka[[user:XiadenXiade]]n 18:35, 5 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Bumping this question, so someone will see it(hopefully)[[user:XiadenXiade]]n 18:35, 5 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

rdesktop resize

I've been looking through the man file and I can't figure out if this is possible. With rdesktop (from linux to windows), I would like to be able to resize the window and have Windows change the resolution on the fly. Is that possible? I know I can close rdesktop and open it with a new geometry - which is not what I want. --Kainaw ^(talk) 18:02, 1 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Changing the desktop resolution on the remote windows system will change the rdesktop window size. My searching did not turn up any implementation of the reverse, but the protocols seem to support it. There are already feature requests for this. Droud 23:42, 1 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

making money

Does anyone know any easy and efficient ways of making £500 online quickly. any help would be appreciated. cheers ams

Make a website and sell (insert any item that is popular in spam these days here). You don't have to actually ship anything. You don't even need to accept credit cards. Send out spam to get people to visit your site. When the idiots flock in to give you their credit card info, copy it all to a file and sell the credit card information to some criminal for whatever he'll pay. Make a new site. Send out more spam. Do it again. By the time you get caught, you'll have made enough money to afford a high-priced lawyer and get, at most, probation and a small fine. --Kainaw ^(talk) 19:08, 1 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

dear god, i hope your joking Is it Steak?<Xiaden's Homepage> 19:12, 1 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Is the sense of wikipedia to provide criminal advice, to, err..., may I say potential criminals?Mr.K. 19:15, 1 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Yes, especially when you blatantly lie to them and tell them they won't be punished much when they are caught. One more idiot behind bars is good. --Kainaw ^(talk) 19:27, 1 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

And, why make a web site? Couldn't you just cheat people through ebay like many others have done before?Mr.K. 19:32, 1 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Too difficult to get volume. With spam, you can get thousands of valid credit card numbers in a matter of hours. I know that it is hard to believe, but many people actually click on those links and type in their credit card information. And they say that humans have evolved past the law of survival of the fittest... --Kainaw ^(talk) 19:36, 1 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

how much bits does a chip have?

I know the whole story of words of 32 and 64 bits, but how much bits does a microchip has in total?

There is no set amount. It depends entirely on the chip. Some have more. Some have less. --Kainaw ^(talk) 20:17, 1 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Er, wrong answer. Words are memory, not processing. You might be thinking of transistors. CPUs have hundreds of millions of transistors. --⁪froth^{T C} 21:30, 1 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Microchips come in many flavors, and the "bits" a certain chip has refers to either:

The numerical precision of the processor and its registers. This is how commercial CPUs are measured in 8, 16, 32 and 64 bits.
The bus width the chip uses to access memory. This is how consumer gaming products were measured in 64 and 128 bits.

It is rare for a modern chip to have a numerical precision that differs from its bus width. Droud 23:49, 1 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Maybe you mean how many total bits a processor has in its registers? That varies by chip as well; x86 chips are known for having few, and MIPS chips for having many. Of course, there are also the issues of CPU cache size... --Tardis 23:52, 1 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

eax, ebx, ecx, edx, edi, esi, eip, esp, ebp, floating-point registers... ... ... ... --wj32 ^{talk | contribs} 00:43, 2 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

To The Person who asked the question: you would get a sensible answer if you told us the context of what you are asking about, because bits in information/computing are not "things" that you can see (like bits of an engine or so), but rather a measure of the size of information groups that travel through the processor. So a chip does not "have bits". Click on Bit for more info. -- Seejyb 05:26, 2 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Memory chips come in sizes up to about 8 GB [5], which, at 8 bits per byte, would be around 64 billion bits. StuRat 09:24, 2 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

This is an intriguing, unansweable question. Theavatar3 18:06, 5 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Forums/Places to ask computer questions

I'm looking for other places to ask computer questions (and see answers, and perhaps contribute some of my own) or computer discussion forums. Can anyone recommend any good ones? I'm interested in sites for the following topics: programming, theoretical computer science, interesting software/website/technology, employment/business ideas. Robin

There are a number of technology related forums such as Ars Technica and Topix Science/Technology, and Topix has a Computer Science forum as well. Your best bet for programming forums would be choosing a language first. As far as employment, head over to Monster. Droud 23:57, 1 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Internet

How many trans-Atlantic internet links are there, and what type? Auximines 23:00, 1 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

I don't have a number, but look to List of international submarine communications cables and this category for help. - (Nuggetboy) (talk) (contribs) 00:14, 2 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

OK, try Category:Submarine communications cables in the Atlantic Ocean too. It's growing as I'm trying to sort them out myself. - (Nuggetboy) (talk) (contribs) 00:35, 2 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks very much! So, does all traffic go by submarine cable rather than by satellite? Auximines 17:32, 2 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

I can't say for sure, although I did see in one of the articles or references that the submarine cables are much preferred to satellite and the demand for satellite is vastly reduced when cable bandwidth is available. I would say there will always be demand for satellite communications, but probably only to remote areas where cables are unavailable or impossible. - (Nuggetboy) (talk) (contribs) 22:25, 2 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Here in South Africa, our sole telecomms operator Telkom monopolized the trans-atlantic link to At&T, so rival ISP's who were big enough, notably The Internet Solution, made sole use of satellite bandwidth. When their "lines" are down they have the added advantage of blaming weather and interference from sunspots etc. :) We are in an awkward geographic location so all ISP's charge exorbitant rates, but we all know it's nothing other than corporate greed and don't-care politicians who have vested interests. Sandman30s 11:58, 4 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

That's Bots' Work!

I was just wondering whether it's really necessary to check for and correct double-redirects if there are bots that do that anyway - how long is a double-redirect likely to be around before a bot fixes it? --Username132 (talk) 23:46, 1 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Where does it say it's necessary? You might want to change that. All I'm aware of is the statement " A double redirect does not work" in Help:Redirect; if you're sure that the bots do their job sufficiently you may want to add that there. — Sebastian (talk) 03:38, 2 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

When I moved a page, I was told to check for and fix double redirects that the move may have created. --Username132 (talk) 10:59, 2 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Want to download wikipedia

Hi is it possible to download a "database" of wikipedia, for use in a handheld device?(palm pilot) so that i can look anything that was included at that time when i am offline.. Thank you. Daniel.

You can download a dump of the Wikipedia database, but you'll have to code your own XML to text file converter. --wj32 ^{talk | contribs} 00:41, 2 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

There is one already made http://download.wikimedia.org/tomeraider/ if you have tomeraider. meltBanana 15:36, 2 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

If you're talking about the entire database, then that would likely be impossible - it is many terabytes in size. RevenDS 15:45, 3 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

December 2

Good Audio Players

Are there any good audio players for GNU/Linux that come in Deb packages with customizable effects like crossfade, stereo widening, or something like the Winamp SPS (you can program your own effect)? Every single audio player I've looked at only plays audio, no effects. Thanks --wj32 ^{talk | contribs} 00:51, 2 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Amarok supports crossfading and a bunch of nifty things, though I'm not sure it's exactly what you want. There's also the old standard, XMMS, which has plugins (i.e. Crossfade plugin); Audacious Media Player; and naturally several others. You might also have success running foobar2000 with WINE, though that obviously breaks your initial requirement that it comes in a Deb package. -- Consumed Crustacean (talk) 01:07, 2 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Mmm, I can't get the volume to change on XMMS-related players like Audacious and Beep... --wj32 ^{talk | contribs} 04:37, 2 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Similar Media Players to Windows Media Player

I'm considering moving to Linux but one thing that's bothering me is losing out on Windows Media Player. I've gone through a few other players (WinAmp, VLC etc.) and they all have their advantages but the one thing that keeps me with WMP is the Media Library. I know there's a few Linux media players which are similar to iTunes in this respect but does anybody know of any software that is similar to WMP 10, since it doesn't seem to work too well with Wine. --Kiltman67 04:12, 2 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

yep, for KDE Amarok is the player of choice. --⁪froth^{T C} 03:15, 3 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Amarok does seem to be the closest to WMP that I've seen but is there a GNOME version? I'm using Ubuntu --Kiltman67 06:27, 3 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Amarok will work under GNOME. It might take a little longer to load, as well as using more memory, and you'll have to install Qt if you don't have it already; probably not noticeable issues with a modern computer. There are alternatives though; Exaile, Rhythmbox, Banshee, and probably others. I haven't tried any of these, so I can't vouch for stability or anything. All of them seem to be in sub 1.0 releases. -- Consumed Crustacean (talk) 07:55, 3 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

GFX Card Upgrade

I am thinking about upgrading an older Nvidia PCX 5750 to another graphics card with more memory (currently 128MB) and a higher clock speed (475mhz Core 550mhz Memory). Will a new video card (possibly a 7600GS with 512MB mem) have any large effect on improved gameplay and graphics rendering, or does the CPU have more of an effect on this? In other words, would upgrading my processor have a larger effect on gameplay than upgrading my GFX card? Help would be much appreciated. Thank you Mango Sango 05:38, 2 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

It depends on what the CPU upgrade difference is but I think probably you'll get most for your money by buying a decent 3d card if you already have a modern CPU --⁪froth^{T C} 06:15, 2 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks for the advice, I think i'll probably upgrade the GFX card (it does seem cheaper than upgrading the CPU). One question still plagues me: does the graphics card have a larger effect on gameplay than the cpu? I heard somewhere that upgrading your cpu will result in improved game performance. How does this actually work? ("this" as in the CPU's job in the process of rendering a frame and having it appear on a monitor).--Mango Sango 06:43, 2 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

The CPU tracks the game engine, bullets flying (hit detection), often the sound rendering, user input, stuff like that. Basically the only thing that the graphics card is good for is holding the gigantic 3d representations of the level and the models in its memory, doing operations on them like transforms and stuff, and mostly rendering effects like shading and reflections and shadows and lighting. This takes titanic processing power (that's why it has its own dedicated hardware) so while it sounds like the CPU does the most practical work -and it does-, what work the graphics card does is extremely intensive. You'll be able to turn your graphics settings (texture quality, resolution, and AF/FSAA are the most noticable changes) way up and maybe play some more advanced games, though moving up in the game-generation bracket from a mediocre computer usually takes a full system overhaul (mostly a more powerful cpu, though it can also involve a memory upgrade - and of course the gpu upgrade) --⁪froth^{T C} 08:01, 2 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks alot, that made much more sense than the Wikipedia article on GPUs--Mango Sango 16:07, 2 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Depends what you mean by "gameplay" - some games are way more power hungry than others. If you're playing anything in real-time for example first-person shooters, you would certainly need a bump up. Don't forget than RAM makes a huge difference as well, just bumping your system up to say 512M or even better 1G would make a surprising difference. I've recently upgraded my card from a 5700 to a 6600 and found I could suddenly play games like Need for Speed at a higher resolution, native to my LCD monitor. A 7600GS would certainly bring you up to date with most games at a decent resolution, even with anti-aliasing and vsync turned on. Importantly, you don't need to upgrade your system to support PCI-x; I've even seen a 7800GT advertised for older AGP 8x systems. Sandman30s 12:12, 4 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

vsync isn't necessarily a performance hit; it's highly dependent on card architecture and especially the API (direct3d/opengl). --⁪froth^{T C} 04:55, 6 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

protecter

"Sir, when i use the internet and visit websites for different purpose or when i search something in search engines and select the most benefit website for me then in some of the websites there are porn seens or pictures or vedios that heated me, so what's the solution of stop the displaying of these things or enable me to use these things in any type of website that i visit?"--82.148.97.69 10:53, 2 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Filtering software like NetNanny might help to filter out the things that shouldn't be seen. x42bn6 Talk 17:32, 2 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

If some one user is using my system and he search some porn things etc(vedios,pictures etc), how to save totaly his works so that he is not able to do such type of things?--82.148.97.69 03:09, 3 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

To stop popups and ads try AdBlock. If you want to log internet access, buy a router that lets you do that --⁪froth^{T C} 03:16, 3 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Creative Labs Sound Cards

So, I'm putting together a computer, and I need to buy a soundcard, but I have absolutely no idea what to go with . . .

I know a fair amount about audio, but I'm having trouble wading through the differences of some of Creative's new sound cards.

Could someone explain to me the difference between these?:

Audigy 2 ZS Platinum
Audigy 4 Pro
X-Fi Platinum
X-Fi Xtreme
Audigy 4

Also, which of these is better (if any are demonstrably better)?

Also, would any (or all) of these would support listening to separate audio streams simultaneously via speakers and headphones (as required in many DJ applications)?

I've been scouring the web for hours, but I'm just not turning much up on this one. The Jade Knight 11:35, 2 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

If you are planning to DJ, Sound Blaster is probably not your best bet. Try M-Audio, a company that specializes in digital audio for DJs, musicians, and technicians. Droud 14:32, 2 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Unfortunately, their cards appear to be either/or as well; standard 1/8" + surround sound options, OR 4 I/O (as would be useful for DJing). I'm looking for a lower-scale solution; a card I can plug my headphones into and listen to audio through the headphones at the same time I can output audio to speakers (via any output type). Do any of the Creative cards do this? Do all of them? 128.187.0.165 23:42, 2 December 2006 (UTC) (jade knight)[reply]

I would suggest buying two inexpensive cards and not worrying about whether an expensive one supports discrete channel output. Droud 18:12, 3 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Can you use two separate soundcards without any sort of problems? I'll have an additional soundcard as well as the on-board audio, and if it's as simple as having two cards, I could do that. I thought I heard once that this doesn't work so well, though. The Jade Knight 08:26, 5 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Audigy is very good, I don't know much about the model numbers but it looks like the "highest" version is Audigy 4 Pro --⁪froth^{T C} 19:28, 2 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

The X-Fi is Creative's premier sound card, which has essentially replaced the Audigy. It's an excellent card for music listening and game sound, but I'm not sure how well it will work for DJing. Robmods 12:22, 3 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Oh, whoops. --⁪froth^{T C} 18:40, 3 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Mixing software like Virtual DJ supports any old card even the rubbish that comes on laptops so I would not spend too much money on high-end sound cards if DJ'ing is your sole purpose. Of course if you want the best sound quality possible and you want to experience 3d/environmental effects from games and surround sound, then by all means the Audigy range is superb. I have the Audigy 2 ZS Platinum and it supports all game effects and 5 channels surround. Sandman30s 12:25, 4 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

I managed to get a fantastic deal on that exact model, so it's what I went with. Can I use it with DJ apps to cue to headphones and send the mix out on another line, do you know? The Jade Knight 08:07, 5 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

x86 and x64

I know that both x86 and x64 refer to processor achitectures and that x64 refers to the number of bits used for either the address or the data bus but what does x86 stand for? 71.100.6.152 17:21, 2 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

x86 chips are called that because they're all ~~descended from~~ related to the Intel 8086. --Kjoonlee 18:03, 2 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

It's called x86 because the early i386 (aka IA-32) processors' names ended with "86". x64 is a different architecture than x86 by the way, absolutely rebuilt from the ground up. --⁪froth^{T C} 19:27, 2 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Actually, no. IA-64 is a completely new, incompatible architecture, but x64 usually (maybe always) refers to x86-64, which is based on and backward-compatible with IA-32. ~~ N (t/c) 22:49, 2 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

But what does the "86" stand for? 71.100.6.152 21:07, 2 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

I guess because it was after the Intel 8085 --⁪froth^TC 21:46, 2 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

The basis for the designation seems a bit (no pun intended) inconsistent.. From the 8085 article: "The "5" in the model number came from the fact that the 8085 required only a +5-volt (V) power supply rather than the +5V, -5V and +12V supplies the 8080 needed." Following this logic the "6" in the 8086 designation should stand for +6 volts.71.100.6.152 00:04, 3 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

It's not 6V. Possibly the 6 is simply the next after 5 since 8086 is an improvement on 8085 or it could refer to fuller 16 bit support. There is rarely total logic in trade names. I imagine it was called 8086 because it was an obvious choice for the name.83.100.253.140 13:54, 3 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Made a mistake below - I've bracketed it.83.100.253.140 13:44, 3 December 2006 (UTC)Correction - might not be a mistake. The 8086 apparently did have fuller 16 bit support.[reply]

there was a 8086 processor, then a 80386, then a 80486, the pentium was expected to be called 80586 - hence pent - pentagon:5 (geddit?). So x86 means a continuation of the type of instruction set architecture found in this series of microprocessors. {{The 8086 was a 16bit version of the 8080 (hence the 6)}}, the 8080 was a sucessor to the 8008 which was the 8 bit successor the the 4 bit 4004. And I guess that 4004 sounded like a great name for a cpu back in the 70's.

What? ... --⁪froth^{T C} 03:17, 3 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

What,what????(is there a mistake?)83.100.253.140 12:26, 3 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Well I don't think the part about the numbers being based on the word size is accurate --⁪froth^T

Ive double bracketed the bit that I think might not be right {[thus]} 83.100.253.140 17:57, 3 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

C 17:33, 3 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

So the '86' doesn't really stand for anything - but you can trace the origin of the name x86.(apologies for any obvious errors made in my timeline.)87.102.19.168 23:30, 2 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

x86 refers specifically to 32 bit processors with floating point abilities (edit: coprocessors were used for floating point, but are required for "x86" software) that implement the IA-32 instruction set. This excludes most of the processors mentioned above and starts at Intel 80386 class processors, which were the successors to the 16 bit Intel 80286 processors. Droud 18:19, 3 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

That article on IA-32 makes it clear that while IA-32 instructions will only run on a 32 bit processors (386 and up), previous 16 bit chips used the x86 architecture. So x86 doesn't refer specifically to 32 bit processors at all. --⁪froth^{T C} 18:39, 3 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks for the clarification, I was mistakenly defining "i386". :o/ Droud 01:47, 5 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Note that AFAIK, only Microsoft and Windows use the x86/x64 distinction. I personally use Windows but prefer x32/x64. Some others, especially open source software use i386/AMD64. x86-32 and x86-64 is also common... Nil Einne 18:18, 5 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

XML converter

What is the best XML to text file converter for windows XP 64 bit? Adaptron 17:28, 2 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

XML files are human readable text files, sometimes with binary data embedded. If you'd like to examine one, try an XML reader like FireFox. Droud 18:05, 2 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Should i be concerned?

I just bought a new PC and am very happy with it - thus far. It runs on Windows XP Home edition. I am not IT savvy, just a domestic user so would appreciate any advice here. When exploring the screen buttons, I pressed the Start Button and then SET PROGRAM ACCESS and DEFAULTS - and then pressed ADD/REMOVE WINDOWS COMPONENTS (just being curious-didn't intend adding or removing anything). I got a pop up message box that said "Setup Library ntoc.dll could not be loaded, or function NtOc Setup Procedure could not be found". My question is, is this something I should be concerned about or can I just forget it. If respondents tell me to I will reluctantly call the supplier (in Delhi) and spend an hour or two being guided by their help desk, but I would prefer not to if that can be avoided. Thanks.

You should have the file "ntoc.dll" on your hard drive. To locate it:

Click the "start" menu
Click "My Computer"
Double Click "Local Disk (C:)"
Click "Show the contents of this folder"
Right click the Windows folder
Click "Search..."
In the box labeled "All or part of the file name:" type "ntoc.dll" without quotes.
Click "Search"

Does it find the file?

If not, you need to get the dll from here.

Download the file to your desktop.
Click "My Computer"
Double Click "Local Disk (C:)"
Double click the "Windows" folder
Click "Show the contents of this folder"
Double click the "system32" folder
Click "Show the contents of this folder"
Double click the "setup" folder
Now move the "ntoc.dll" file from your desktop to this folder

Restart your computer and try opening the Add/Remove Windows Components window again. --Russoc4 19:52, 2 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks Russoc4. I did as you recommended, found the ntoc.dll file was already in the system32 setup folder, but the add remove windows components pop up message still keeps appearing. So I just did a system restore to the date I received the PC, the day before yesterday, in case I had inadvertently done something wrong, and got this message "the system cannot be restored to an earlier date as nothing on my system has changed". So I guess my system has been set up to disallow me from adding or removing windows components, though again, I have no express wish to do either? Maybe my PC has been configured to make it Foolproof, aka Meproof? But once again, thanks for your prompt and helpful advice.

Well you can always try going to Start, Run and typing

regsvr32 c:\windows\system32\ntoc.dll

--⁪froth^{T C} 21:43, 2 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks Froth - Tried that as you suggested but got "Failed - the specified module could not be found".

Thanks Russoc4 and also you Froth. I seem to have solved the problem. I checked the folders in Windows on my mother-in-law's PC (she is 82) and found that whilst she had a folder called System 32 that contained 16 dll files including the "reportedly missing" ntoc.dll file; my PC had an additional Setup folder under Windows itself that also contained the same 16 dll files. So I actually had the same Setup Folder and contents located twice in different places, one under Windows, and the other under System 32. So I just deleted the Setup folder and its contents from Windows, leaving only the Setup folder in System 32, and so far, all is well and I am now able to run "Add/Remove Windows Components" - not that I want to, you understand, but at least now I have solved the problem. So thanks yet again. It's good to have such willing and tolerant advice.

Does anyone know whether simply deleted dlls are automatically unregistered? Not that it matters but I'm curious from an efficiency standpoint --⁪froth^{T C} 18:36, 3 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

dead PSU fan: epilogue..

I replaced the PSU: everything is ok, but the PC does'nt turns off any longer the fans when I switch to stand-by mode.. --Ulisse0 20:22, 2 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Is this the case with all the fans (PSU, CPU, graphics card if it has one...) or just the PSU fan? I don't see how it could affect the CPU fan turning off (unless the system isn't actually going into standby anymore - again, hard to see how that could be possible), but the new PSU could easily not be designed to turn off the fan when suspending (in fact, I'm pretty sure my parents' desktop's doesn't). ~~ N (t/c) 22:46, 2 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Odds are that when you unplugged the machine off to change the fan it lost some BIOS settings. Make sure all the relevant APCI widgets are switched on. Sockatume 23:48, 2 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Wouldn't this only happen if the backup battery were dead? In fact, if it were dead, wouldn't it happen every time the computer was switched off? How old is the motherboard? ~~ N (t/c) 00:00, 3 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

The motherboard is 4 years old. The fan I'm speaking of are PSU and CPU one. (GPU has no one). --Ulisse0 21:48, 7 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

DVD Ripper

What can I use as a free or open source DVD decoder / ripper? I want to put DVDs into divx format. Thanks, Mike

use DVD Decrypter to rip the VOB files, and mencoder to encode in mpeg4. Unless you want to spend half an hour reading through the docs, the usage is

mencoder whatever.vob -o out.mpeg -oac mp3lame -ovc lavc -lavcencopts vcodec=mpeg4:vbr=600:vpass=1
mencoder whatever.vob -o out.mpeg -oac mp3lame -ovc lavc -lavcencopts vcodec=mpeg4:vbr=600:vpass=2

replace 600 with a different bitrate cap if you want, but 600kbps is a good number --⁪froth^{T C} 21:15, 2 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Does mencoder do windows? You can use AutoGK to do the same thing with a graphical interface. Downloading it from here. --Russoc4 00:31, 3 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Yeah there are mencoder binaries for windows. And I don't like how GK and autogk install all of their components all over the place. --⁪froth^{T C} 03:11, 3 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

I usually don't like that either, but it's not that bad if you take a good look at where it's going. Personal preference I guess. --Russoc4 04:20, 3 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Looking for automated way to define a list of words.

I own a windows computer and am looking for automated way to define a list of words. I have a list of about 650 words and need to define each of them. I was wondering if there was a program/website that could be used to do this automatically.

Outgoing UDP to port 0

When Azureus is downloading torrents, Norton Antivirus keeps telling me it's blocked "intrusion attempts" that amount to my computer trying to open a UDP connection to another address's port 0. Does this indicate a bug in Azureus or something wrong on the BitTorrent network? Is it a false alarm or is Norton right to block it? In the worst case scenario, what harm could an outgoing UDP connection to port 0 cause? Neon Merlin 21:30, 2 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

In *nix systems it can take on special meaning (see here for a basic explanation) but port 0 is traditionally reserved, meaning that it's not used at all for anything legitimate, though technically it's usable --⁪froth^{T C} 21:36, 2 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

It looks like this is the result of stupid people setting their BitTorrent clients to use port 0, and not something to be worried about. ~~ N (t/c) 22:22, 2 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

First dual-processor motherboard?

I'm writing a paper on parallel programming on personal computers, and I'm having a difficult time finding which manufacturer created the first PC that could use two processors. I've checked the dual processor and motherboard pages, to no avail. Where can I find it?

If it helps, according to Unisys, the Burroughs B5000 was the first dual-processor and dual-memory computer, introduced in 1961.--Folksong 03:37, 3 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

To be picky, that wouldn't really qualify as a PC though. Unfortunately, I have no idea who really made the first dual-processor PC, but I think the lowest odds are held by either Intel or possibly some university (as a research project). TERdON 16:28, 4 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

P2P optimized for LAN with churn

Are there any peer-to-peer file-sharing programs designed to operate on a LAN with no central server and heavy churn, e.g. a school wireless network with many people logging on and off frequently? ~~ N (t/c) 22:26, 2 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Sharing programs aside (try to find an old Nullsoft program called WASTE), a wireless network topology is horrible for P2P file sharing. Just a handful of users transferring files will bring a wireless network to its knees. Droud 01:50, 5 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

youtube video insertion

how can i insert a video on youtube? Which is the best camera for it?

You can create an account and upload a video at this link. I imagine the best camera would be anything that takes high-quality digital video, although you could also use an analog camcorder if you have video capture hardware. ~~ N (t/c) 23:58, 2 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

I've seen some pretty low-quality images uploaded from cell phones. User:Zoe|(talk) 02:48, 3 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

component/vga compatabilty

I've become aware of cables designed for a (HD15)VGA input that are terminated with 3 RCA plugs/sockets. So this must mean that the sync signal is in one of the 'rgb' signals, and there is no separate h-sync or v-sync. eg Sony SDM-E76D [[6] see 'supplied accessories']

My question is this - what uses or how common is a '3 wire' signal for connection to VGA, and could this be compatable with component signals ala DVD outputs etc.

I'll just be grateful if someone can explain the purpose of such a connector - as they are new to me.83.100.250.215 22:32, 2 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Hello, the cables you speak of are for using a device with a VGA output, such as a computer or a projector, with a display that is equipped with component video, as long as it supports RGB output in addition to YPbPr. It is not possible to use it in reverse though, since a VGA equipped computer monitor only accepts signals in RGB (unless the input explicitly supports YPbPr). If you have any further questions, feel free to contact me on my talk page. Regards, --Folksong 03:01, 3 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

So why is it (3RCA to HD15) supplied with a VGA monitor?83.100.253.140 12:18, 3 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Perhaps the monitor in question is designed to accept component inputs, does the VGA side of the connect match the monitor gender? Droud 01:52, 5 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

No idea what gender the rca plugs are - though female would work if I already had some composite leads.. There's a link to the specific monitor above - but I thought that if it had component video capability that would be a selling point and so clearly alluded to. I didn't spot any mention of component here [[7] Yours confused..87.102.32.250 18:42, 5 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Oh VGA side.. No idea though in my experience supplied leads are always directly usuable with the device so I say tentatively yes. (If it didn't that would be doubly useless yes?)87.102.32.250 18:45, 5 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

December 3

Freeware Audio Recording

I am looking for a freeware program that can record music playing in another program on the computer. I don't mean I want a program that records from a microphone. I am hoping there's a program out there that would record music playing in another program even if my computer was on mute. I plan to record, for instance, live concert songs from youtube or music blogs - stuff I couldn't buy anywhere but would like to have in my music library. Any suggestions? Thanks a lot, 71.252.11.5 02:59, 3 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Yep, try Audacity --⁪froth^{T C} 03:03, 3 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Oh. I (same person signed in now) just downloaded this. I can't figure out how to do that function, so I figured it wasn't included. What's that function called? How do i get it to work? Thanks a lot. Don't take forever on this. If i know what it's called i can just look it up in the help file. 71.252.11.5 03:20, 3 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Find a drop down box next to the volume sliders. Is there a Stereo Mix in it? Select that. --Russoc4 04:18, 3 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Hit the big red record button :) You might want to turn off the mic input for better quality --⁪froth^{T C} 04:57, 3 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

There isn't. The drop box next to the volume and mic sliders (on the same line) has Wave/MP3, Line In, CD Audio, Microphone, Auxiliary, and TAD in. There are two other drop boxes, which i don't think you're refering to, one next to a sound icon and the other next to a mic icon. They both have this drop-down list: Horizontal Stereo (I can't select this - it's gray), Vertical Stereo, linear, dB (can't select), Monitor Input, Disable. ThanksSashafklein 05:03, 3 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Wait. I think I figured it out. Wave/MP3 seems to work. That's so cool. Now I can get all those live Tom Waits songs/ramblings :) Sashafklein 05:07, 3 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

One more thing. This shouldn't record a bad quality song, should it? Sashafklein 05:08, 3 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

What do you mean by "shouldn't"? Do you want to know if it's recommended? No, I don't recommend it. Can it record anything though? Yes it can. If you can find an original mp3, that would be the best way to go. I doubt I'm supposed to do this, but maybe this link will help. --Russoc4 05:36, 3 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks. I've got another question. this seems to work on my pc but not on my laptop. On the laptop, the dragdown menu wont even give me the option of choosing wave/mp3, only mic or line in. Am i doing something wrong? Is there any way I can fix this, or am I doomed to have to record on only one computer? 71.252.11.5 06:22, 3 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Not sure. But I'd advise against re-recording content. Although it's possible, it won't be at nearly the same quality due to compression artifacs. Same with using modified directdraw/mp4 drivers. For non-DRMed content the best bet is to extract the audio stream with audacity (not sure if it's possible but it should be) or virtualdub. You may need to use this tool to download the flv if it's youtube and mencoder to convert it. You can either specify the audio as uncompressed (wav) in mencoder and then use virtualdub to compress it (mp3) when you rip the audio stream, or specify the audio as compressed (mp3) in mencoder and then use virtualdub to directly rip it ("direct stream copy"). Both ffmpeg (mencoder) and virtualdub use mp3lame so it's the same I guess. --⁪froth^{T C} 17:36, 3 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Yeah. The quality does seem low. Is there anything I should do to change this? Does higher or lower Hz mean anything in terms of quality? Higher or lower "bit float"? How about Sinc interpolation? And I want the most narrowband, right? Any other settings I should change for best recording quality? Sashafklein 19:57, 3 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

parallel processing

What processor chips are desinged exclusively to be wired together to form a parallel computer using minimum additional chips? 71.100.6.152 04:27, 3 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Dual core processors? Intel core duo, etc. --Wooty Woot? contribs 08:55, 3 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

I think he's trying to come up with something more scalable than just 2 --⁪froth^{T C} 18:34, 3 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Those processors can generally be used in far larger clusters than 2 CPUs. The most powerful (publicly known about) supercomputers are #1. an IBM Blue Gene system, which uses 131,000 PowerPC 440 processors (which each have comms, cache, memory controller etc built in - they are designed for system-on-a-chip, not exclusively for parallelisation) and #2 is a Cray Red Storm system using 26,544 AMD Opteron dual core processors. -- AJR | Talk 01:53, 4 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

3D Molecules

Are there any good free programs (Windows or Linux) for drawing molecules in 3D? ChemSketch is the de facto 2D program here, but it doesn't do 3D. At least not that I'm aware of.--Russoc4 04:27, 3 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

You'd probably actually have better luck with this on the science desk. I think. Sashafklein 05:04, 3 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

I thought so. But then I thought they would've pushed me off to here :/ Thanks. --Russoc4 05:38, 3 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Online Translations

Is there a good free online English to Vietnamese block text translator out there? Crisco_1492

Bittorrent question.

I paid for some webspace and FTP access to it. Is there any way I can use this space to seed a torrent file -- by pointing a torrent client at the space -- without it filtering through my home connection in any way? I'm trying to seed some torrents (legal ones of my own, not pirated stuff) but my home connection is horrible. Thanks.

Well, kind of. You can use your favorite bittorrent client (I think azureus and utorrent do this, and I know the official client does) to build a .torrent of the files you want to make available. Since you don't own the server and I highly doubt the host will let you run a tracker on his server, you'll have to use DHT so clients can find each other without a central server (DHT is an option when you create the torrent file). Host that torrent file in your FTP space and let people download it. They'll have to use BitComet, uTorrent, or the official client to download with DHT, so make that clear. Also you'll have to be running it (seeding it) for the content to be available --⁪froth^{T C} 18:09, 3 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Name of type of computer architecture

Is there a generic name for this type of computer architecture :

N processors share a main memory area (either using multiply ported RAM or just waiting), each processor has a separate (typically smaller) memory that it has exclusive access to. The Processor exclusive memories are paged at the most significant bit (eg 1xxxxxxxxx is a location in processor memory, 0xxxxxxxxx is a location in main memory) and there is a 'crossbar' or switch directing memory access to either main or processor exclusive memory. Typically programs are stored in the processor exclusive memory (to reduce main memory 'bandwidth' usage), but both types of memory can be used by the processor to store data or programs and both can be read/altered by the same instructions. (No 'L2 cache' is used. since it is not neccesary)

This seems to me to be different from Harvard architecture as described in the article since the program and data memories share the same data structure.. Or is it just a specific case of parallel processor harvard architecture? Thanks.83.100.253.140 14:23, 3 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Sounds like a very simplistic Non-Uniform Memory Access architecture to me, as implemented in most modern multiprocessor systems with processor caches. The Harvard Architecture is a hardware-level architecture that uses different pathways and stores for data and instructions, and would apply only to a processor where data and instruction caches are distinct (which is typical). Droud 18:37, 3 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks (I probably would have never found that) Is NUMA an extension of Symmetric Multiprocessing by definition or can a system use NUMA with out having SMP? The system I described has SMP.87.102.9.4 21:02, 3 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

HELP? Windows Movie Maker Question

Okay Okay Let's Make this simple. I decided to make a movie on my laptop, which runs XP Media Center Edition, it was not there, so I downloaded it via CNET/Downloads. It was done, I went on it. I couldnt be on it for more than five minutes, and if I was an error report would appear. I would either lose all my work or only be able to work on it 4 5 more minutes. What's Wrong? 72.193.100.178 15:32, 3 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Try here instead of here since the first link is a newer version that CNet apparently doesn't have yet. Droud 18:40, 3 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Accessing a Linux Network Remotely

I have a dedicated server which backs up its files to an FTP server within the same network at its datacentre. The IP address it uses to transfer files to this computer is an internal one (within the 10.x.x.x range), but I want to be able to see the FTP server using something like FileZilla and perhaps also be able to download/upload files to this FTP server from outside the network (i.e. my home). I've heard of methods such as VPN, but I have no idea how to go about implementing this.

I tried forwarding a certain port available to the outside world on my server to the internal FTP server to no avail - my server refused the protocol. I don't want to have to edit configuration files to accept the FTP protocol for that port if possible. RevenDS 15:53, 3 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

FTP isn't a safe protocol to be using over the internet, and its fondness for using a control socket and a data socket makes it complicated too. Open TCP port 22 and forward that to your server, and make sure its SSH server is running. SSH is, frankly, magic. You can run SCP or SFTP (which do your file transfer stuff - WinSCP is a nice client for windows), you can make in interactive SSH session (like telnet but better), and you can tunnel all kinds of things (VNC, X, rsync) over it. SSH is, surely, one of the most useful computer programs ever written. -- Finlay McWalter | Talk 16:28, 3 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

I am aware of SSH and SFTP (I use the former all the time), but will a normal FTP server support SFTP? Does the FTP server even get an incoming SSH connection, or does the OSI model ensure that it only ever gets FTP? Thanks. RevenDS 18:16, 3 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

No, an SSH server handles SFTP - see SSH file transfer protocol. Using FTP for the application you describe is an extremely bad idea: it's far too insecure. -- Finlay McWalter | Talk 18:43, 3 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Installing fonts with CMD

Is there anyway i can install custom fonts on a Windows XP without going into control panel and instead using CMD? Jamesino 18:17, 3 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Interesting question. Fonts are stored in c:\windows\fonts and registered in HKLM\software\microsoft\windows nt\currentversion\fonts. So just copy your font to that folder and add the entry to the registry with activex or a .reg script. In case you're not familiar with the format:

REGEDIT4
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Fonts] "Name of the font"="filename.ttf"

Save it as a .reg file, and run it from the command line with

regedit whatever.reg

And that should do it! If using the "Copy" command to move a font into the fonts folder causes the folder to lose its special status, then you might want to do:

attrib +S c:\windows\fonts

at the end of the batch file to make sure it's recognized as a system folder. good luck --⁪froth^{T C} 18:33, 3 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

I copied the fonts into the c:\windows/fonts folder. What do I do next? Do i make a .reg script in CMD or in Notepad? Jamesino 18:50, 3 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Notepad. copy those 2 lines and save it as a .reg --⁪froth^{T C} 20:35, 3 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Would this method work on school computers that removed my access to the installing fonts section of the control panel? Jamesino 21:13, 3 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Yes, but I'm surprised that it would give you access to the registry, the command line, and the windows directories if the control panel is restricted... can you open My Computer and browse to c:\windows\fonts? That's exactly the same as going to Control Panel > Fonts. If you can do that, open up the fonts folder and drag your font in; it'll take care of everything. If you can't... run cmd. Type

copy C:\path\to\font\blah.ttf c:\windows\fonts
regedit

If the registry editor opens fine, then browse to the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Fonts key and add a string value, following the pattern of the other entries there. And that's it. If the registry editor is restricted by insufficient windows user permissions, you can't do it at all with any method other than privilege escalation (granting yourself or getting a more-privileged program to grant you privileges you shouldn't have) or perhaps external registry editing with a linux livecd or something. And even then the school might have software running to restore it to the way it was. If regedit doesn't work you can go from mischeviously adding a font to serious trouble so don't pursue it any farther. Chance are you'll either find a way to do it and do it wrong or get caught doing it, or fruitlessly trying method after method before finally realizing that they're all blocked by the same lack of permissions. --⁪froth^{T C} 21:26, 3 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

lol, alright. Thanks a lot for your help =) Jamesino 01:30, 4 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

DHT

How does a node connect to a DHT network? I'm thinking of this specifically in relation to bittorrent. If there's no point of contact for connecting nodes, how do they get in the know of the location of other nodes at all? It seems to me that there has to be some static service connecting incoming nodes to at least one random existing node. --⁪froth^{T C} 18:22, 3 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Clients obtain addresses to connect to DHT networks in the following ways:

Remembering peers from previous runs of the software.
Monitoring peers and traffic on other protocols, such as BitTorrent.
Randomly trying addresses.

Droud 18:52, 3 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

OK so in the case of bittorrent the first and the third options don't really apply.. so how does a node go from just sitting there, no incoming or outgoing traffic of any kind, because it doesn't know the IP address of any other nodes, to finding a node? Apparently gnutella used a centralized directory so you could look up other nodes who are identified by the hash of the file they're sharing. Freenet uses a routing table that stores the contact information of "neighbor" nodes. But what about bittorrent- you're not necessarily going to always be seeding so it would be useless to put hard-code your IP address in the torrent file when "Use DHT" is selected in maketorrent. And without a point-of-contact IP how do you get any data at all? Since bittorrent (even with DHT) is an overlay network it has to use traditional internet routing schemes- it can't just say "hm who has this hash" without another node to ask. --⁪froth^{T C} 20:33, 3 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Running Multiple Anti-spyeware programs

Hi, I have windows defender on my computer. If, I instal additional programs, like sypeware blaster?, will I have moer protection, or will they initerfere and mess each other up? 896y 22:38, 3 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

You can, and you should. If you're not running a firewall, get one. Most users use a combination of Ad-Aware and Spybot Search And Destroy. These two programs, together, should catch anything, and they're both free. --Wooty Woot? contribs 01:08, 4 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Better yet, dump Internet Explorer and switch to Firefox. I haven't had to run Ad-Aware since I did. Clarityfiend 09:50, 4 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

December 4

Ext. hard drive question

If I install a program (e.g. a game) on an external USB 2.0 hard drive, will it load program assets slower than a hard drive? Will this cause any impact in performance? I have been debating moving my crammed-full hard drive's games and applications over to my huge 160GB external but I'm worried I'll have severe performance and loading issues. Photoshop seems to work fine, but I'm not sure about something like Flight Simulator or Battlefield 2142. --Wooty Woot? contribs 01:11, 4 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Most USB hard drives[8] are actually faster than internal hard drives[9] (look at the Mbits/sec number) ST47Talk 01:49, 4 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

How is 480 better than 3000? Serial ATA is much faster. USB 2.0 external hard drives would be comparable to an internal SCSI though. And of course with the old PATA you get an insane amount of bandwidth but it's impossible for the data to actually be read that fast. --⁪froth^{T C} 01:57, 4 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

When you buy an external USB hard drive, what you're getting is a standard (i.e. internal) drive in a box with a USB interface. Even if the USB interface could handle data faster than a normal HDD, it would still be constrained by the speed that the drive itself could handle. -- AJR | Talk 02:04, 4 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

The data rate of a USB hard drive is bottlenecked by the USB throughput (which isn't much). The data rate of an SATA hard drive is bottlenecked by the hard drive speed (and density?) since SATA has more than adequate bandwidth to handle anything a hard disk controller could push through it. --⁪froth^{T C} 02:22, 4 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Very very bad idea. Yes you'll notice extreme slowdown. --⁪froth^{T C} 01:57, 4 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

I agree with the above, bad idea. What you should do is archive as much stuff as you can and use the 160Gb as a data disk, save all your files and stuff onto it, but use your itnernal to run applications, especially games. Vespine 04:08, 4 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

That's what i thought, but I just ran Flight Simulator 2004 off my external for a test(a game using a LOT of textures/models/other stuff) on ultra-high with absolutely no slowdown. Just bad flying. :/ --Wooty Woot? contribs 04:19, 4 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

There won't be any gameplay slowdown, only loading time slowdown. And since (I believe) flight simulator loads dynamically (as you play, like most of nintendo's games for example) you might not even notice. But try battlefield then tell us your loading times ;) --⁪froth^{T C} 04:27, 4 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

How to know which video card I have?

I reinstalled Windows 98 on an old computer. The computer has a built-in video card. Now I have to get a driver, but for this, I have to know the brand and type of the video card. Is there any program which can help me to know this? I.e. I run a program and it writes which videocard I have. I would like not to install big & complicated packages like SiSoft Sandra, etc, as it's a frequent task and I need it on one computer one time only. Crocodealer 08:19, 4 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

DirectX comes with a utility called dxdiag. It is usually sufficient just to go Start | Run | dxdiag. Sandman30s 12:38, 4 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Dxdiag shows which video driver is installed, and now I have standard driver, as it is a fresh install of Windows. So it just says me that I have standard PCI video adapter. Crocodealer 13:27, 4 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Of course, my apologies. My only other suggestions would be to either check your BIOS, or download some sort of DOS program that can identify your video card, such as older versions of HWiNFO (not HWiNFO32) or Dr Hardware - or check out [10]. There is no guarantee that you would get an accurate identification though. You can also try the ultimate boot cd - this has diagnostics and detection tools built in and would mean booting your system up with this cd. Sandman30s 13:57, 4 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Monitor display

My monitor suddenly rotated the display 90 degrees. How do I get it back to normal? I'm using XP. Clarityfiend 08:50, 4 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Odds are that it's a graphics card setting. If it's an nVidia-based card, look for a little nVidia (green and black eye) logo in the system tray (bottom right), right-click and go to "Rotation Settings" and turn it back to zero degrees. If it's ATi there will be a similar thing but with a red ATi logo. If you don't see either of those in the system tray, right click on your desktop -> Properties -> Settings tab -> Advanced and dig around in there for a rotation option. Sockatume 08:57, 4 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Much better. Thanks. Clarityfiend 09:02, 4 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Dual Layer

Any idea how DUAL LAYER discs burn only selective layers??

I believe they change the focus point. When focusing on the top layer, they can burn a hole there, and when focused on the bottom layer, they can burn a hole there. StuRat 12:29, 4 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Though they don't exactly burn holes, just modify the color of the pigment. :) –mysid☎ 18:10, 4 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Spam dated in the future

Why is so much of the spam that I receive dated in the years 2036/2037/2038? I guess they do it to ensure the message is top of my inbox, but it's very helpful for finding and mass deleting it. Also, why those specific years? --Dweller 13:35, 4 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

And here I was thinking that spammers from the future, unable to circumvent SPAM controls in their time, were sending them back in time to us "easy marks". :-) StuRat 13:47, 4 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

I am surprised it is 2036-2038. I'd expect it to be dates after Jan 19, 2038 in a simplistic attempt to mess with some Unix-variant servers. See year 2039 problem. --Kainaw ^(talk) 15:47, 4 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

I get a lot of Spam dated 2002, like your ones from the future these are convenient too as the E-Mails I have begin in 2002 so it's always up near the top. --Kiltman67 17:30, 4 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Asking about processor

I wanna buy Desktop and I mainly use it for design graphic ,Landscape,and 3D.So what model processor(AMD or Intel pentium or Intel Duol Core) is suitable for me?

Isnt 256 mb graphic card is too slow for me? Please help me to resolve my problem coz I m confuse now! Thanks!@_@

For CAD work, you want anything that can handle a lot of math. Celerons lack a math coprocessor and extra heat shielding, so they lack the ability to do intensive math operations and will likely slow down as you overwork them. Anything else is fine. As for dual core, if your program isn't designed to use a dual core processor, you will get marginal benefit from it. As for AMD vs Intel, if you ask an AMD fanboy, he will show you a hundred links claiming AMD is superior. If you ask and Intel fanboy, he will show you a hundred links claiming Intel is superior. It is identical to Chevy vs Ford, Coke vs Pepsi, Simpsons vs Family Guy...

You threw in a question about the speed of a 256MB video card. MB is memory size, not speed. I would suggest getting a better video card. Chances are, Dell/Gateway won't provide a high-end video card. So, you are best off getting the cheapest video they supply and then buying a video card separately. The advantage you will get is that much of the 3D video work can be done by the video card - if and only if the program you are running makes use of this capability. As with dual core chips, if the program doesn't use the resource, you will get marginal benefit from it. --Kainaw ^(talk) 15:43, 4 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

It depends on which AMD and which Intel you're looking at. The mid to high-end Intel Core 2 Duos ("Conroe") are bloody fast, and have good power consumption/heat production. I'm not sure if AMD has simlarily priced equivalents yet; I haven't exactly kept up. Regardless, it depends on your particular budget and requirements. -- Consumed Crustacean (talk) 17:18, 4 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Performance "stutter" on PC

I'm having a performance problem on my PC that I can't figure out how to fix. The best way I know how to describe it is that it's like my computer is "stuttering". Every few seconds, the video and sound will freeze for about half a second. It's not a big deal for basic computer functions like business programs or web browsing, but it's very annoying when playing games (that half-second is just enough to get you killed when playing online...) and it makes listening to music or watching movies virtually impossible. It doesn't seem to be related to the programs I have running because it happens regardless of whether I've closed everything or I'm running a big resource-draining program. I also don't think that it's hardware-related, because I've had my computer for over five years, but this has just happened within the last year. Any ideas on what might fix this problem? If it helps, I'm running Windows XP Professional with a 1.4 GHz processor and 256 MB of RAM and I have more than 20 GB of free hard drive space. --209.64.172.130 15:48, 4 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Hit ctrl-alt-del and see what is running. Notice that you have two lists of programs: the ones you are running and the services running the background. Scan the services for one that is ranking 99 in the CPU column. Over the last month, I've "fixed" many computers that started doing this. The problem is an AOL service that eats up the CPU time. If you completely remove AOL and disable all AOL services, this background service still runs. The only way to stop it is to delete the actual executable file on the harddrive. --Kainaw ^(talk) 15:51, 4 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Hit ctrl-alt-delete, then click the 'processes' tab. Google each process in the list, if it is important, leave it. If it isn't important, kill it. If it is malware, burn it. You can also stop these processes from ever starting; Start -> run -> 'msconfig' -> OK. Go to the 'startup' tab, and do the googling process for these entries, unchecking the unimportant ones. Windows will sulk, and ask to be restarted, let it, and ignore the message on restart. Here's a clue; MS Messenger, which is not the same as the MSN Messenger IM program, is useless unless you are on a network. Go to C:\Program Files\Messenger, kill msmsgs.exe in task manager, and rename 'msmsgs.exe' in this folder to a nonsensical name of your choice. Voilà, 12Mb RAM saved. Defragment your hard drive aswell; Start -> All Programs -> Accessories -> System Tools -> Disk Defragmenter. This may take a while, so have a book on hand. Hope this helps, CaptainVindaloo ^{t c e} 16:58, 4 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

VB6 Object Expressions

I'm trying to use a simple loop to fill several labels from an array, something like this :

For Counter = 1 to 5
lbl(counter) = array(counter)
Next

However I cannot find a way to increment the label number upwards, from lbl0 to lbl4. Does anyone know how it is done ? Robmods 19:06, 4 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]