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July 20

Help

I have a strange folder: \AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\digital locker\

It has one file inside, called Urls.bin

Is this malware or something? What is this?--71.175.123.61 (talk) 01:47, 20 July 2008 (UTC)

Have you done any business with Windows Marketplace? ---J.S (T/C/WRE) 02:50, 20 July 2008 (UTC)

Cue sheet syntax for multiple titles in a single FLAC file

I'm trying to create a FLAC file where the track information (title/artist) will change visibly in a media player display (XMMS or Winamp, for example) as index points are crossed. I've seen this done in streams, and I'm pretty sure I've seen this in single files, but I've not come across instructions for creating a file that works this way. (This page, for example, has 11 examples and none of them are what I'm looking for.)

I believe the metaflac command I want is this:

metaflac  --import-cuesheet-from=Doom_for_the_ADD_Generation.cue test.flac

The abovementioned cue sheet looks like this:

TITLE "Doom for the ADD Generation"
PERFORMER "Martha's 2008 WFMU Marathon Premium"
FILE "test.flac" FLAC
  TRACK 01 AUDIO
    TITLE "Jack Frost [excerpt]"
    PERFORMER "Saint Vitus"
    INDEX 01 00:00:00

    TITLE "The Still Lake"
    PERFORMER "Great American Desert"
    INDEX 02 05:13:00

    TITLE "Embittered Darkness [excerpt]"
    PERFORMER "Striborg"
    INDEX 03 10:43:00

What am I doing wrong here? I've tried a couple variations of the above, and none come close to what I want.

Bonus if someone can give me instructions for doing the same thing to an Ogg Vorbis file. I don't know the metaflac-equivalent tool for importing cue sheets into single .ogg files. / edg ☺ ☭ long-time listener, first time caller 02:25, 20 July 2008 (UTC)

the data types in c++ & JAVA

why do we see same data type having different number of bytes range in c++ and JAVA

e.g.-->>in c++ the datatype int uses 2bytes while in JAVA int uses 4bytes?Prachi 08 (talk) 05:14, 20 July 2008 (UTC)

Actually, the C++ standard does not specify the exact width of the "int" or the other integer datatypes. The width is implementation-dependent. So for example, on my computer (32-bit Linux x86 GCC; and I believe on most implementations out there today), an "int" is 4 bytes wide. The "int" type is guaranteed to be at least as wide as "short", and at most as wide as "long" (neither of which have precisely-defined widths wither). "short" and "long" are guaranteed to be at least 2 and 4 bytes long, respectively, but can be more. Java does define exact widths for its datatypes. But there is no consistency of naming between languages (why should Java or any other language have to name its types the C way, for example?). For example, "long" in Java is 8 bytes long; whereas in most 32-bit C implementations "long" is 4 bytes long; and "long" in Python is arbitrary-length. --Spoon! (talk) 06:50, 20 July 2008 (UTC)

What was wrong with the hidden form input?

<form action="<?php echo $_SERVER['PHP_SELF']; ?>" method="post">

<input TYPE=hidden NAME=A VALUE="0">
<input type="submit" value="A = 0" />

<input TYPE=hidden NAME=A VALUE="1">
<input type="submit" value="A = 1" />

<input TYPE=hidden NAME=A VALUE="2">
<input type="submit" value="A = 2" />
</form>

<?php
$A = $_POST['A'];
echo 'A = ' . $A;
?>

No matter which button I click, the post always assigns 2 to variable A. -- Toytoy (talk) 06:02, 20 July 2008 (UTC)

It doesn't work that way.

First, the "value" attribute works all the same for all inputs. For example, if you clicked <input type="submit" name="foo" value="hi" />, then it would assign "hi" to variable foo.

Second, because you have three inputs with the same name, they all get submitted, and the last one overrides the others. (You can use the get method to see how it works.)

I really can't explain this (my English is not good enough), so I'll just give the fixed code:

<form action="<?php echo $_SERVER['PHP_SELF']; ?>" method="post">
<input type="submit" name="A" value="0" />
<input type="submit" name="A" value="1" />
<input type="submit" name="A" value="2" />
</form>
<?php echo 'A = '.$_POST['A']; ?>

oh, and try writing VALID code. In your example, you're using XHTML's /> but you're using uppercase attributes and you don't quote their values, which isn't valid XHTML.

--grawity 13:52, 20 July 2008 (UTC)

(edit: frikkin wikiformatting fixed by removing a <p> from the question --grawity 13:54, 20 July 2008 (UTC))

keys jamming

these days how many concurrent keys can be pressed without problems? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 83.199.57.103 (talk) 06:26, 20 July 2008 (UTC)

As far as I know there isn't a standard for internal wiring of keyboards. In theory they could have a microcontroller with a GPIO pin for each key, which would mean each key would be completely independent. But people have gotten used to paying trivial sums for keyboards, so instead they generally are built around an ultra low cost keyboard matrix encoder. In this case depressing a key closes a connection between a "horizontal" and a "vertical" wire in a matrix - this arrangement is cheap (because the keyboard controller only needs about 30 input pins, rather than over 100) but means it can't properly distinguish keystrokes when multiple keys on the same row or column are depressed. The specifics vary by keyboard encoder chip: from some basic research it seems the Alcor AU9462 controller (info) has an 19x8 controller, the Philips Semiconductors ISP1130 an 18x8, and others up to a 20x8 ((info)). So in short "you'll need to experiment". See Rollover (key) too. -- Finlay McWalter | Talk 16:39, 20 July 2008 (UTC)

For regular run of the mill keyboards, I belive it is still quite low, something like 4 - 6. The reasoning would be unless you are gaming you rarely need to press more then 2 at a time. So even though technically these days it might be easy to make a keyboard with the capability to send a lot of simultaneous keystrokes, 99.9% of the time there is no need for it. Vespine (talk) 00:40, 21 July 2008 (UTC)

[1] A little expensive but SOOOOOO worth it if you do a lot of typing. You can hit every key at once. --mboverload@ 03:33, 21 July 2008 (UTC)

The site says "up to 12 keys to be pressed simultaneously", and given that combination keys like ctrl and alt are generally wired separately, that's not much better than the average. -- Finlay McWalter | Talk 08:41, 21 July 2008 (UTC)

(yes, I do realise that in practice you only have 10 or fewer fingers typing, but the devil is in the detail of how they wire keys - that "up to" and the details of which keys mean that, on the face of it, this doesn't guarantee that you'll be free to use a given configuration, particularly for gaming). -- Finlay McWalter | Talk 08:43, 21 July 2008 (UTC)

Thank you for pointing my error out. I know there IS a keyboard out there where you can hit every key at once. Obviously not that one though. --mboverload@ 15:38, 21 July 2008 (UTC)

And doubtless someone, somewhere has developed an Emacs key binding that depends upon that ability to hit every key at once ;-).

Atlant (talk) 16:23, 21 July 2008 (UTC)

I guess you're aware of Emacs pedals, for when there aren't enough fingers or enough keys. But really to fully utilise the power of emacs one must be Cthulhu. -- Finlay McWalter | Talk 16:29, 21 July 2008 (UTC)

What would this batch file do?

I recently reverted some dubious additions on our Batch file article, in which someone was repeatedly adding a section encouraging readers to "try this" and make a batch file containing: @echo
:1
start
goto :1


As I'm not familiar with batch files, I was just wondering what that would actually do - my guess is that it just creates an infinite loop as in the standard "20 GOTO 10" prank, but I'm assuming someone here knows. Cheers ~ mazca ^{t | c} 10:17, 20 July 2008 (UTC)

This would just repeatedly start the command prompt again and again. (A better one would be using start "%~dpnx0") --grawity 13:45, 20 July 2008 (UTC)

Careful with it though. If you just let it continue to run it would lag you out. Ζρς ι'β' ^¡hábleme! 21:09, 20 July 2008 (UTC)

Thanks. Evidently the person was malicious, but not very good at it. ;) ~ mazca ^{t | c} 13:01, 21 July 2008 (UTC)

Yes, it would have simply looped if it weren't for the start. Try this- open up a command prompt and run "start"- a new command prompt window will open. Now, imagine this looping. Yikes. JeremyMcCracken (talk) (contribs) 01:22, 25 July 2008 (UTC)

iptables question

Is it possible to use iptables to redirect incoming connections on one destination ip/port to different ips/ports depending on the connection's origin IP?

For instance, is it possible to do this:

if 2.2.2.2 connects to 1.1.1.1:443 then forward to 1.1.1.1:10443

if 3.3.3.3 connects to 1.1.1.1:443 then forward to 1.1.1.2:10022

etc.

I guess it's kinda like NAT. We are trying to provide several secure services on one common port (because of firewall rules). Each IP will only need to access one service, so it's logically no problem. I'm just new to iptables and wondering if it's the correct solution to this custom setup. Thanks 58.150.240.103 (talk) 16:14, 20 July 2008 (UTC)

Messed up my MBR

i was trying to redo my MBR, as i had grub installed from when i tried a Linux distro decided i didn't want Linux but couldn't get rid of grub. Now i tried to do FIXMBR from the repair option on a windows xp home cd but now all i get when i boot up is after POST screen "media is not a bootable floppy please insert bootable media and try again", how can i recover windows without reformatting everything? i have a backup image made with drive xml but i dont want to use it unless i have to cheers--90.207.78.105 (talk) 17:10, 20 July 2008 (UTC)

Do you have a floppy disk inserted? Remove it, if so, and try again. --Russoc4 (talk) 17:13, 20 July 2008 (UTC)

nope nothing in any of the drives--90.207.78.105 (talk) 18:04, 20 July 2008 (UTC)

Did you do a fixboot as well? Nil Einne (talk) 18:39, 20 July 2008 (UTC)

There's a good collection of rescue cds at http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/TestDisk_Livecd that will help, assuming that MBR is the problem. The GParted one has worked for me. --212.149.216.13 (talk) 18:51, 20 July 2008 (UTC)

I didn't know that GParted fixed MBRs but I can vouch for it. The GParted livecd is one of the best opensource projects in the world in my opinion. It just works. --mboverload@ 05:21, 21 July 2008 (UTC)

iTunes stores

So I go to the US iTunes store to buy a German song, but they don't have it. I switch to the Germany store, and there are about 5 versions of it. When I try to buy it, I have to create a new account. Why the hell are there completely different iTunes stores with different music to buy??? It's just as simple to universally purchase and sell a single set of all music. Reywas92^Talk 18:56, 20 July 2008 (UTC)

Apple have to negotiate rights to sell the music separately in different countries, so they need to try and restrict sales on each country's iTunes store to people within that country. It's a holdover from when all music was sold on physical discs, but it's still pretty much a fact. ~ mazca ^{t | c} 20:51, 20 July 2008 (UTC)

In this case copyright Jesus will not smite you for grabbing it off a P2P application. Hey, you wanted to buy it but they wouldn't let you. OR buy the cd from somewhere like SecondSpin.com. I have bought over 500 bucks of stuff from them and they are awesome. --mboverload@ 03:31, 21 July 2008 (UTC)

Open Office 2.4 and Word 2007

My trial version of word 2007 just locked up on me, so I downloaded Open Office 2.4. However, I am unable to access my word documents because my version of open office does not have the 'filter' for word 2007 (only word 2003 and back). Where can I find the filter I need? --Ghostexorcist (talk) 20:56, 20 July 2008 (UTC)

Would this be what you're looking for: odf-converter-integrator ? — QuantumEleven 10:57, 21 July 2008 (UTC)

That is exactly what I am looking for, but open office is still asking me to pick a filter when I try to read a word 2007 document. The instructions for the upgrade just say install and "that's it". --Ghostexorcist (talk) 18:01, 21 July 2008 (UTC)

Never mind, I figured it out. --Ghostexorcist (talk) 18:04, 21 July 2008 (UTC)

system("pause") function of C++

I read on a webpage that one should avoid using the system(*) command in C++ because it is taxing. For the system("pause") function it said it causes the program to:

1.suspend your program
2.call the operating system
3.open an operating system shell (relaunches the O/S in a sub-process)
4.the O/S must now find the PAUSE command
5.allocate the memory to execute the command
6.execute the command and wait for a keystroke
7.deallocate the memory
8.exit the OS
9.resume your program

It said to use the cin.get() function instead because it is a native command and works on all OS's (whereas system("pause") would only work on Windows). Well, I tried the cin.get() function to pause the program and it did not work. It did the same thing it would have done without either command. My questions are what are your thoughts on this and how else can I use a native command to pause the program (using Dev-C++ on Windows XP)? (The webpage is [2].) Thanks, Ζρς ι'β' ^¡hábleme! 22:23, 20 July 2008 (UTC)

I wouldn't think the overhead would be an issue, since you are trying to slow the program down anyway. Also, system calls are fine if you only call a few times. It's only if they are in a loop called hundreds of times that it will be an issue. StuRat (talk) 03:16, 21 July 2008 (UTC)

If you are writing a command-line program, then you should run it on the command-line in the first place. None of this oh I am writing a command-line program because I don't know how to make a GUI program in my OS; and yet I expect to be able to double-click on it in my GUI environment and have it magically work flawlessly nonsense. A command-line program is supposed to do what it does and exit. Adding some extra external command call inside the program because you don't like to run it correctly is completely the wrong thing to do, and fucks it up for other people. I get really pissed off every time I get some code only to find out that some Windows/DOS dimwit decided to call a "pause" command, especially when I don't even have a "pause" command on my system. --71.141.126.37 (talk) 05:03, 21 July 2008 (UTC)

Are you including iostream? Try std::cin.get();. A legacy way of waiting for keyboard input is to use getch(); from conio.h. 192.156.33.34 (talk) 05:08, 21 July 2008 (UTC)

Yes, I am including iostream. std::cin.get() doesn't keep the window open.

71.141.126.37, I am not writing a "command-line program". It's a console application. If I could do what I wanted with just the command-line interface, I would write a batch file. Furthermore, I am just starting C++ and can only find tutorials for console applications. I'm sure I will eventually write Windows applications, but seeing as how I am just starting, I think it's ok to try to learn syntax and get my barings by writing console applications. Ζρς ι'β' ^¡hábleme! 17:38, 21 July 2008 (UTC)

See command line interface. A command line program isn't the same thing as a shell script or a batch file; it doesn't generally consist of commands as a user would type them, in other words. Rather, it is meant to be invoked from the command line, or from a shell script, or from a graphical program (typically invisibly), etc. I think it's clear that making such a program wait for user input before terminating prevents the use of the program by other programs, or the use of the program in an unattended fashion (as to, say, process thousands of files overnight). This is 71's complaint, that — because it makes the one use case of running things from Explorer easier — people write their programs in a way that makes them less useful in all other circumstances. The simple answer is to run your program from a terminal (or a "Command Prompt" in some dialects of Windows); just change to its directory (with cd) and type the program's name. This additionally lets you use things like I/O redirection, pipelines, command-line arguments, etc. (Those articles are written with Unix in mind, but almost every example will work unaltered on modern DOS/CMD versions.) --Tardis (talk) 22:18, 21 July 2008 (UTC)

Oh, my bad. Well, I'm just starting C++ and it appears that Windows apps are much harder to write than console apps. That's why I'm starting with console apps. Also, I did not know that console applications should be invoked from the command prompt. In all the lessons I've seen, it's never specified so I just assumed you could run them from either the GUI or the command prompt. Thanks for the info, Ζρς ι'β' ^¡hábleme! 23:15, 21 July 2008 (UTC)

Need to figure out sizes of directories on my computer

I'd like to figure out which directories take up the most space I have a 30gb hd and it is full already and I'd like to know what is eating all the space. I can right click, view properties in windows explorer to see what each individual folder is, but I'd like to see a list of all folders and which are the largest. Any software out there that can do this?

71.164.100.174 (talk) 22:44, 20 July 2008 (UTC)

Try this. I use it, but it gets kinda slow with large folders. Admiral Norton ^(talk) 23:22, 20 July 2008 (UTC)

i have 2.5gb text file in C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Microsoft\Dr Watson ...do i need that? i could really use the space for something else. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.164.100.174 (talk) 00:15, 21 July 2008 (UTC)

Try WinDirStat. This provides a nice graphical overview of a complete disk. Trieste (talk) 00:24, 21 July 2008 (UTC)

(ec) If you want to find out where stuff is easily, try something like SequoiaView, which will visualize the whole drive. As for any specific file, tell us the file name, it will do more than just telling us the location. --98.217.8.46 (talk) 00:28, 21 July 2008 (UTC)

I agree that SequoiaView is a great piece of software. Very usefull for this sort of thing. APL (talk) 01:00, 21 July 2008 (UTC)

JDiskReport is a similar software. --71.141.126.37 (talk) 04:49, 21 July 2008 (UTC)

NOTE: Use CCleaner before you do this. It will get rid of the obvious junk. Although not needed you can check every option without harm. Yes, some things don't NEED to be cleaned out but there is no harm in doing it. --mboverload@ 03:28, 21 July 2008 (UTC)

July 21

auto scanner

I seek a device where I can put in a stack of papers and it will go through each paper in the stack and scan both sides —Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.147.40.7 (talk) 04:53, 21 July 2008 (UTC)

Look for a scanner with ADF. Duplex scanning is gonna cost you though. Keep in mind any copier worth its salt made in the last 5 years should have this ability. It doesn't cost any money to do so use one at work or have a friend do it for you if you're on the cheap. If you want to buy one see here [3]. Also, see how to do it oh-so-easy with Microsoft Office. [4] --mboverload@ 05:19, 21 July 2008 (UTC)

This has come up a few times in the last week or so. Your best bet is probably to go down to your local Kinkos and see if they can do it for you. It's a lot quicker and easier than buying your own. Duplexers also have a nasty tendency to break down, in my experience. Something about the amount of moving the paper required to duplex drastically increases the likelihood of paper jams and things just breaking on the inside. --98.217.8.46 (talk) 17:40, 21 July 2008 (UTC)

I think mboverload is referring to Automatic Document Feeder, as opposed to any of the other dozens of meanings of "ADF."89.240.185.90 (talk) 19:22, 21 July 2008 (UTC)

XKCD on an iPhone or iPod Touch

Since XKCD uses an alt tag on the comic image for part of the humor, it seems that iPhone and iPod Touch users may miss out. Is there a way to see those alt tags on those devices when you don't have a mouse to hover over the image? Dismas|^(talk) 10:51, 21 July 2008 (UTC)

A lot of web browsers let you right click on an image and get "image properties" or something similar. I'm not sure if that's possible on an iPhone, though.

One possible, but awkward, solution is to check the xkcd forums. Typically comics are reposted there with their alt-text. APL (talk) 12:52, 21 July 2008 (UTC)

Or does the iPhone let you view the page source and scroll through to find the appropriate tags? jeffjon (talk) 13:06, 21 July 2008 (UTC)

Point of information - XKCD actually (correctly) uses the "title" attribute on the image tag for the extra bit of humor, they also provide an alt attribute, but a proper browser shouldn't be showing that unless it's not showing images. --LarryMac | Talk 14:28, 21 July 2008 (UTC)

Comcast Voip  ?

I currently use a conventional phone service, and for long-distance, I use a prepaid card (I call a toll-free # and place the call through the prepaid service). I am considering a Comcast VOIP service that does not include long distance (you can call long distance, but it costs more). Do you think I can still use my prepaid long distance card with the comcast VOIP? (BTW, I asked Comcast this question and the person I talked to didn't know). ike9898 (talk) 14:04, 21 July 2008 (UTC)

Ah oh. I don't know how I can even recommend you to go ahead with Comcast if their people don't have answers to your questions. Although I must note that it is better than giving you convulated answers that meant nothing. AFAIK, if your prepaid long distance card has a local number to call or has a toll-free number, Comcast Digital Voice should work with it. Have you considered other options such as Skype if you just plan on calling North America or Western Europe? I assume you have access to high speed Internet. Kushal (talk) 16:15, 21 July 2008 (UTC)

Hard drive enclosure

Why do some hard drive enclosures advertise a maximum size of hard drive? How does it have any effect on the size of drive?78.151.50.55 (talk) 14:59, 21 July 2008 (UTC)

Some external enclosures do not directly connect the drive to the computer. The drive is connected to internal hardware and the internal hardware is connected to the computer. If the internal hardware is not capable of handling, say, more than 300G, then the enclosure cannot handle more than 300G. -- kainaw™ 17:30, 21 July 2008 (UTC)

Thank you. So these limits do actually mean something, you need to match the HD size to the right enclosure. Question answered.89.240.185.90 (talk) 19:19, 21 July 2008 (UTC)

I think this only applies to budget enclosures. I've never seen limitations on name-brand enclosures. --70.167.58.6 (talk) 19:55, 21 July 2008 (UTC)

The enclosure I've just bought wasn't a cheap one, it has consistently high reviews peppered all over the internet.78.148.115.223 (talk) 21:52, 21 July 2008 (UTC)

How is SMS texting so fast?

I'm always surprised just how little time it takes for a recipient to receive text messages. It seems far faster than the time it takes to connect a voice call. Just wondering how/why it's so speedy? --70.167.58.6 (talk) 19:17, 21 July 2008 (UTC)

I haven't found it any faster than phoning. Why, what country are you in, and what network are you on?89.240.185.90 (talk) 19:20, 21 July 2008 (UTC)

For me (on U.S. Verizon), the time it takes to send a text message is slower than the time to place a call. It normally takes a matter of seconds for the called phone to ring, but can take up to 5 minutes for a text message to go through. -- kainaw™ 20:13, 21 July 2008 (UTC)

Well, there is less data sent in a text message, measured in number of bytes, than a voice message. So, in theory it should be faster. However, the phone company may decide to put a lower priority on delivering text messages, which can make them slower. StuRat (talk) 22:33, 21 July 2008 (UTC)

Generally, when I send a plaintext SMS, it arrives to its recipient in a couple of seconds -- at times almost immediately. If I'm in the same room with the recipient, which isn't that uncommon, this can be easily observed. As StuRat says, it's a pretty tiny chunk of data, and it's travelling essentially at the speed of light -- minus processing speed, of course. If you're in the same cell with the recipient -- covered by the same base station -- that's pretty simple stuff. If the signal needs to be bounced off several satellites or something, then the delay is going to be a little greater simply because the transfer delays add up, but even then we're usually talking about seconds, unless the recipient's phone is out of range or one of the service providers involved sits on the message before passing it on for some reason, such as network congestion or limited processing power or whatever. -- Captain Disdain (talk) 08:32, 22 July 2008 (UTC)

Small data packets make sense. I use AT&T, US and it takes 2-3 seconds for someone to get my text. Or when my bank texts me a passcode. It takes 2 seconds from when I hit send on my web browse for my phone to receive a text. --70.167.58.6 (talk) 16:04, 22 July 2008 (UTC)

July 22

Installing .deb with dependencies

Hi people, I was trying to install a .deb file in ubuntu, with "dpkg- i somefile.deb" but it won't install because it has dependencies not installed, now my question is:
Are there any other parameters for dpkg that will automatically download and install all dependencies required for a deb file?
PS: Sure doing this the graphical way would be easy, but I need it to be in command line mode... SF007 (talk) 01:03, 22 July 2008 (UTC)

You can use the "gdebi" command on the command line, which is the text version of the graphical gdebi program that usually runs when you double-click on a .deb in the GUI. --Spoon! (talk) 02:05, 22 July 2008 (UTC)

Worked exactly like I wanted! many thanks! SF007 (talk) 04:17, 22 July 2008 (UTC)

linear and nonlinear Quantization?

I wat to know about the Linear and nonLinear Quantization in digital Audio?please give me the answer... —Preceding unsigned comment added by Lakshmanpagolu (talk • contribs) 03:53, 22 July 2008 (UTC)

see Digital audio, Quantization (sound processing) and dictionary definitions of 'linear' and 'non-linear' may be useful too.

An an example CD audio is linear quantised - if you can get an understanding of linear quantisation, it should be easy to work out what non-linear quantisation is. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 87.102.86.73 (talk) 08:49, 22 July 2008 (UTC)

Was there something very specific you wanted to know?87.102.86.73 (talk) 07:10, 22 July 2008 (UTC)

An example of non-linear quantization is the μ-law algorithm. -- Coneslayer (talk) 16:08, 22 July 2008 (UTC)

Graphical applications in chrooted terminal

I am trying to run Synaptic on a chrooted environment, in ubuntu (I am working with reconstructor), but I can't open any graphical application, I always get errors like: "(synaptic:6805): Gtk-WARNING **: cannot open display: :0.0", I tried running "xhost +" and lots of other stuff, but with no success. I am doing this in VMware Workstation with internet in NAT mode, (in case that matters...) Does anyone have any ideas? SF007 (talk) 07:17, 22 July 2008 (UTC)

The DISPLAY string ":0.0" refers to the UNIX-domain socket in /tmp/.X11-unix so you'll need to either make that available under the chroot (by bind-mounting /tmp, perhaps) or use TCP instead (DISPLAY=localhost:0.0 and make sure TCP is enabled on the server, not running with "-nolisten tcp"). --tcsetattr (talk / contribs) 07:58, 22 July 2008 (UTC)

Could you provide me que specific commands and tell me where to run them? (inside or outside the chroot), this is a bit complicated to me... I tried running DISPLAY=localhost:0.0 both inside and outside chroot, and with no success... also, "-nolisten tcp" does not work either... (command not found) SF007 (talk) 14:22, 22 July 2008 (UTC)

I seem to recall that after you define the DISPLAY variable you also need to export it. So, something like "export $DISPLAY", I think. StuRat (talk) 07:27, 23 July 2008 (UTC)

For the bind-mount solution, try "mount --bind /tmp /path/to/chroot/tmp". Obviously you need to be root and outside the chroot. —Ilmari Karonen (talk) 08:02, 23 July 2008 (UTC)

Nothing worked... also because I'm still kinda a noob is this matters... I quit for now... Anyway, thanks to you all who tried to help. SF007 (talk) 01:04, 24 July 2008 (UTC)

Automagically crop GIF files to remove blank pixels?

Is there a script or command I can use in Win XP or Ubuntu to automagically crop many .gif files, such that it only keeps where there are pixels? It will crop the top, sides and bottom as much as possible if they are only transparent pixels with no colour.--206.248.172.247 (talk) 13:22, 22 July 2008 (UTC)

As long as the corner pixels are transparent, Imagemagick's "trim" command should do it. Imagemagick is fairly easy to automate from a bash script or the like. -- Finlay McWalter | Talk 13:36, 22 July 2008 (UTC)

This worked!! for f in `ls -1 *.gif`; do convert $f -trim trimmed/$f; done

--206.248.172.247 (talk) 15:41, 22 July 2008 (UTC)

As a side note, you should put the $fs after the do in quotes. Otherwise filenames with spaces will cause problems. Morana (talk) 16:59, 22 July 2008 (UTC)

Creating an XML-driven flash website

A friend of mine asked me to create a website for his band. He said it doesn't need to be anything too fancy, although he'd like to have a flash site with it (I've already created an HTML alternative... or should it be XHTML?). My question is, how would I go about using XML files for the flash site? As in, how would I use a SWF "container" to display the content of various XML files? For example, if I had a button called "About" in flash, when clicked upon, it would call and parse the content from a corresponding external XML file, whereas it displays the members of the band, while clicking another button, say "Gigs", would load another XML file containing information about upcoming performances. How would I go about doing this? Thanks, Valens Impérial Császár 93 15:47, 22 July 2008 (UTC)

Do you have Adobe Flash Professional? If you have Adobe Flash CS3 Professional, then I can help you. The following code is in ActionScript 3.0, so it won't work in Macromedia Flash 8 since that only does ActionScript 2.0. ActionScript 3.0 is very different from version 2.0. I'm sure that you can do it in ActionScript 2.0, but I wouldn't know how. If you're not familiar with ActionScript, it's a lot like JavaScript. ActionScript is compiled into SWF files. First, create a new ActionScript 3.0 Flash file. Then create a text field and give it an instance name (external_txt in the example below). Then, create a new layer called actions. Then click on the first frame of actions and press F9. Then type this code:

var textLoader:URLLoader = new URLLoader();
var textReq:URLRequest = new URLRequest("html.txt");

function textLoaded(event:Event):void
{
	external_txt.htmlText = textLoader.data;
}
textLoader.load(textReq);
textLoader.addEventListener(Event.COMPLETE, textLoaded);

The HTML above is contained in the html.txt file. Also, HTML and XHTML are almost identical and both will look the same in a browser. XHTML is XML-based but use whichever you want since it doesn't matter at all.--Hello. I'm new here, but I'm sure I can help out. (talk) 08:27, 23 July 2008 (UTC)

Hi, thanks for the response. Yes, I have Flash CS3 Professional, but unfortunately I'm not very proficient at ActionScript. Your script works great, thank you! However, would there be a way to also include formatting such as colors, sizes, etc. from the text file, or would I have to manually do that in the text field? Also, I'm assuming that I'd be able to call a new file when a button is clicked? Thanks, Valens Impérial Császár 93 23:17, 23 July 2008 (UTC)

Hi. You're welcome. The text file you reference can contain HTML tags, but Flash will only render some of them (e.g., links, lists, etc.), and not others (e.g., text coloring). If you're using CSS for formatting, then you can reference a CSS file (style.css below) in addition to the HTML like so:

var textLoader:URLLoader = new URLLoader();
var textReq:URLRequest = new URLRequest("html.txt");
var cssLoader:URLLoader = new URLLoader();
var cssRequest:URLRequest = new URLRequest("style.css");
var style:StyleSheet = new StyleSheet();

function textLoaded(event:Event):void
{
	cssLoader.load(cssRequest);
	cssLoader.addEventListener(Event.COMPLETE, cssLoaded);
}

function cssLoaded(event:Event):void
{
	style.parseCSS(cssLoader.data);
	external_txt.styleSheet = style;
	external_txt.htmlText = textLoader.data;
}

textLoader.load(textReq);
textLoader.addEventListener(Event.COMPLETE, textLoaded);

Also, I forgot to mention that the text field has to be dynamic in order to be given an instance name.--Hello. I'm new here, but I'm sure I can help out. (talk) 04:36, 24 July 2008 (UTC)

July 23

Non-breaking tables in MS Word

Hello, I am writing a 300+ page work in MS Word. It is filled with various tables. It is very important that those tables would be presented as a whole in a single page and not split between two pages when there is not enough space on the first page. I have big issues tracking each table: I waste hours manually inserting blank lines and page breaks trying to preserve each of them as a whole on one page. And then I or my teammates add or delete something... and it's all over again... Is there some trick to prohibit Word from breaking tables in half between pages? Renata (talk) 01:30, 23 July 2008 (UTC)

One suggestion is to put each table in it's own Appendix. That way each will start at the top of that page. StuRat (talk) 07:24, 23 July 2008 (UTC)

Select the table by clicking on the square in its upper-left hand corner. Then go to Format --> Paragraph... --> Line and Page Breaks. If you click on Keep with next, it will move the table as a whole onto the next page.--Hello. I'm new here, but I'm sure I can help out. (talk) 08:13, 23 July 2008 (UTC)

I tried this one and it does exactly what I wanted. Awesome! I knew there has to be a checkbox somewhere... Thank you very much. Renata (talk) 19:51, 23 July 2008 (UTC)

Another trick, if you are accustomed to working with Word styles and if you use headings in the first row of a table:

• Format the headings with a specific paragraph style -- let's call it tablehead.
• Next, create a style based on tablehead, but with the added characteristic of 'page break before' -- let's call this style tablehead1.
• Now, apply tablehead to the headings of each new table. Then apply tablehead1 to the words in the first cell of the first row.

With this format, your table headings will automatically begin a new page. If you don't use headings in your tables, you can modify this trick; just create a style like tablehead1 and apply it to the text in the first cell of the table.

(You probably realize this already, but it's possible that an entire table will not fit on a single page.) OtherDave (talk) 16:04, 23 July 2008 (UTC)

I don't really want new table = new page. Much of my tables are supposed to be in between text. But I will keep this in mind for another report I will have to write in the fall... Should be very handy. Thank you, Renata (talk) 19:51, 23 July 2008 (UTC)

You're welcome. If you create the tablehead1 style, you can just apply it when necessary. The main point is to have the font and size and alignment identical to what the text would have anyway; tablehead1 just adds that page-break. OtherDave (talk) 21:28, 23 July 2008 (UTC)

Question I just thought of - is it possible to have table headings repeat if the table goes onto multiple pages in MS Word? --Random832 (contribs) 21:32, 23 July 2008 (UTC)

Yes. Select the row(s) of the table that you want to repeat (sometimes you want the first two rows to serve as your heading). From the Table menu, select Heading Rows Repeat. The rows will appear automatically if the table runs more than one page. Note: if you split the table, the rows will not repeat, because you've now got two tables. (You could copy the heading rows from the first one to the second one.) OtherDave (talk) 01:18, 24 July 2008 (UTC)

Just out of curiosity, have you thought of using LyX or LaTeX? I find them much better than Word for documents this big. Zunaid©® 12:09, 24 July 2008 (UTC)

Firefox hit count

How can I get Firefox 3.01 to show me the number of hits for a search? Clarityfiend (talk) 02:54, 23 July 2008 (UTC)

Hi Clarity. First we need to know what search engine you are using. --mboverload@ 04:40, 23 July 2008 (UTC)

Oops. The 900 lb. gorilla: Google. Clarityfiend (talk) 23:46, 23 July 2008 (UTC)

It is to the far right on the blue bar after your search something. Results 1 - 10 of about 23,000,000 for hippie [definition]. (0.06 seconds) --mboverload@ 14:54, 24 July 2008 (UTC)

Doh, how did I miss that? Thanks. Clarityfiend (talk) 20:10, 25 July 2008 (UTC)

USB keyboard doesn't work with bootloaders

For some reason when booting off of a CD or any non primary Hard disk, the system does not respond to any keyboard input. I know that the BIOS can see the keyboard, the boot loader can't, but any OS can see it again after booting. Examples: (1) When it opens GRUB, I can't boot into anything other than the default option when time runs out. (2) When the Knoppix 5.1 disk boots, I can't type any boot options ("cheats"), and have to wait for the timer to run out and boot the default configuration. (3) I can't use the Windows XP setup boot CD, it stops and says "Press any key to boot from CD" and ignores all input until the timer runs out and boots off the Hard disk. This is not a new machine, it has worked fine for years, but is failing now for no apparent reason. To reiterate, this is a USB (US-International layout) pluged into a USB 2.0 device built-into the mainboard. It doesn't work when any other USB keyboard either. I want to know what's going on and how I can fix it, permanently preferably. Please DO NOT SAY GET A NEW MOTHERBOARD, OR GET A <your favorite computer brand here> BECAUSE THAT ISN'T HELPFUL. ~Anonymous 04:29, 23 July 2008 (UTC)

Look in your BIOS for "USB Keyboard support". I have seen it hidden in a lot of places. It's the only thing I can think of with the circumstances you cite. How old is the machine exactly? --mboverload@ 04:40, 23 July 2008 (UTC)

I got this computer in October/November 2005, so it's a little more than 2.5 years old. I do apologize if my post sounded exaggerated, I am as you can tell under a lot of stress lately. ~Anonymous 05:06, 23 July 2008 (UTC) —Preceding unsigned comment added by 209.112.146.248 (talk)

In the BIOS configuration menu, there are 2 options, one says "USB Controller" and the other says "USB KB/Storage Support" and they are both set to "Enabled". Does the 'KB' stand for keyboard? The Keyboard is obviously working here, but as before it doesn't work until it boots into an OS. ~Anonymous 06:03, 23 July 2008 (UTC) —Preceding unsigned comment added by 209.112.146.248 (talk)

Try toggling off and on the USB KB support. You can also try to reset your CMOS - do you know how to do that? --mboverload@ 06:09, 23 July 2008 (UTC)

I had the same problem, and in the end, the only solution that worked, was plugging in a PS2 keyboard. USB keyboard worked in bios, worked in boot device selection (it is an extension of bios, anyway), but did not work in WinXP bootloader (where can be selected other operating systems or safe mode), it did not work in winxp installer either. After OS loading, keyboard worked just fine. It also worked firne, in windows vista installer. I suspect, this problem is caused by windows unloading bios drivers, after starting, but not being loaded far enough to have loaded OS drivers. -Yyy (talk) 09:30, 24 July 2008 (UTC)

comparing two software implementations

how would you compare two software implementations, where one is based on proper domain objects and abstractions, and another one hides complexity by just providing a way to generate code that you have to repeat through some kind of configuration files, etc.

many thanks in advance. --V4vijayakumar (talk) 10:26, 23 July 2008 (UTC)

Compare using what metrics? Hiding complexity is good, and proper abstractions are good, too. --Sean 16:40, 23 July 2008 (UTC)

Programming: Windows Vista API (Folder Redirection)

I'm attempting to figure out how to access the display name of a folder. Previously, my understanding was that folders (and files) had both short 8.3 filenames and long filenames. However, there seems to be a third, "display" filename on vista. For example, "C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Accessories\Accessibility" has the names:

• 8.3: ACCESS~1
• LFN: Accessibility
• display name: Ease of Access

So, I'm interested in some way to take an LFN (i.e. "Accessibility") and spit of the display name. (Also, I would want the ability to have it run on XP, in which case display name = LFN, presumeably). Ideally I'd like to do this in VB though in a pinch C++ would work. Similarly, I'd want the ability to change the display name.

I believe my issue relates to folder redirection.

Thank you --72.85.235.162 (talk) 14:55, 23 July 2008 (UTC)

Found an article called What the %$#&amp; is up with localized paths in Vista? for a starting point. --Random832 (contribs) 20:09, 23 July 2008 (UTC)

I guess I was wrong in predicting it related to folder redirection, since I am pretty sure this is what I needed. Thank you. --72.85.235.162 (talk) 13:49, 24 July 2008 (UTC)

Well, all of that stuff works fine for the localized names. However, I discovered that if a user renames (with the explorer) a folder which had a localized name, then the display name is still different from the LFN and 8.3 names yet is no longer a localized name (i.e. its name no longer resides in a resource file e.g. shell32.dll). Where is this new name? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 72.85.235.162 (talk) 14:30, 25 July 2008 (UTC)

Well, I figured it out. This information is stored in the desktop.ini files. --72.85.235.162 (talk) 18:25, 25 July 2008 (UTC)

Linux on a USB drive

I'd like to install Linux on my USB drive. (1 GB total, ~800 megs free.) Is it possible? What distribution should I choose? (Other than Fedora 9's LiveCD->USB tool.) --grawity 15:20, 23 July 2008 (UTC)

It's definitely possible, assuming your computer will boot from a USB drive. Here's a page on using Puppy Linux. --LarryMac | Talk 15:24, 23 July 2008 (UTC)

I know it's possible (I tried it with Fedora's tool mentioned above), but I want a real install - not something that runs off a read-only image with a few megs for user data. --grawity 16:25, 23 July 2008 (UTC)

I guess I was confused by your use of the phrase "Is it possible?" --LarryMac | Talk 17:39, 23 July 2008 (UTC)

[5] may help you. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Willnz0 (talk • contribs) 22:56, 23 July 2008 (UTC)

PendriveLinux. The min requirements are 1GB though; and you gotta have windows to install it :/ Abhishek (talk) 13:48, 24 July 2008 (UTC)

This also runs out of a squashfs image. --grawity 13:54, 24 July 2008 (UTC)

Unetbootin (http://unetbootin.sourceforge.net/) is a very good tool to create Live USBs, it works on Windows and Linux, and can install various distros... SF007 (talk) 14:34, 24 July 2008 (UTC)

HDRI in movie industry late 80`s

Hallo,

I have a question about the "High Dynamic Range Imaging article. Specifically about the part: "Probably the first practical application of HDRI was by the movie industry in late 1980s" Does anybody know which film or by whom?

Thanks --Xelabell (talk) 16:59, 23 July 2008 (UTC)

Sounds like that claim needs a citation tag. Just guessing here -- Willow (1988), The Abyss (1989), Indiana Jones 3 (1989), Back to the Future II (1989), Ghostbusters II (1989). Those were the major FX movies I can see on ILMs IMDB page [6] --70.167.58.6 (talk) 21:17, 23 July 2008 (UTC)

Safari web browser

I'm currently trying out Safari web browser after aeons of using internet explorer as default.(To be honest I didn't get much choice as apple media player constantly harassed me to download it and i-tunes and wouldn't give up till I said yes - but ignore this..)

I'd like to know what font Internet explorer uses as I'd like to try it with this font - currently the text looks blacker, and also blurred (I assumed this is 'quartz' font smoothing - but setting that to 'light' doesn't solve the problem..)

So also if someone could tell be about the safari font, and whether I can turn off the anti-aliasing/oversampling/whatever that would be helpful too. Thanks.87.102.86.73 (talk) 17:10, 23 July 2008 (UTC)

The different appearance isn't (or isn't only) because of different font(s), it is (as you say above) a different font rendering engine (even on Windows). So the same font will look (depending on your tastes) smoother or blurrier when viewed in Safari than on IE. -- Finlay McWalter | Talk 18:32, 23 July 2008 (UTC)

Are the internet explorer fonts in general bitmaps - and hence pixel perfect - avoiding having to use oversampling? or not?87.102.86.73 (talk) 22:07, 23 July 2008 (UTC)

No, they're both vector fonts. Indeed, they'll both render the same font, but differently. The difference is, in part at least, a philosophical difference between Apple's and Microsoft's view of how fonts should be rendered - see this and this. -- Finlay McWalter | Talk 22:16, 23 July 2008 (UTC)

Aaah!, very interesting - it seems that microsoft is actually rounding up/down the letter spacing to match pixel boundarys to get that 'hand made bitmap' look (the follow on article from your link http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/archives/000885.html)

I'd imagine that as monitor resolution increases the apple method becomes better (yes the article says that too)- but at 768x1024 (what I'm currently looking at) I can still see the pixels, and as a result the apple method looks inferior. So all I need is a 3000x2000 monitor with a pixel size smaller than I can possibly resolve! Good I say.

Curiously I've had clear type turned off as it looked s..t, but that's another question.

87.102.86.73 (talk) 22:37, 23 July 2008 (UTC)

Resolved

Hope you don't mind me responding after you've resolved the main issue... Cleartype as with most/all subpixel rendering techniques only really works well with screens with fixed pixels and subpixels (read the article). This applies to LCDs, but not generally CRTs. It sounds like you're using a CRT since there are few LCDs I know of with a native resolution of 1024x768 (I guess that's what you mean, or is your display really vertical instead of horizontal) which would explain why Cleartype looks crap. If you are using an LCD, are you sure you're running it at the native resolution? If not, then I strongly suggest you switch to the native resolution. LCDs because of the way their designed tend to look bad at non native resolutions particularly for the display of text and other sharp details and particularly without a good interpolation engine (which most LCDs seem to lack although Nvidia cards and drivers can do some decent downsampling). Cleartype definitely won't work well at any non-native resolution. If you do have an LCD, if necessary, increase the font size and run at the native resolution (although if you're running XP there can still be some issues even with a large font size). If you are running an LCD and at the native resolution, there are tools you can use to adjust your Cleartype which may be necessary if your LCD is non standard. Nil Einne (talk) 19:50, 25 July 2008 (UTC)

files renamed

Is there a simple 'wizard' that will take a user selected block of files (eg 1.jpg , 2.jpg , 3.jpg etc ) and rename them so that they read holiday1.jpg , holiday2.jpg , holiday3.jpg etc.. (in either windows or mac or something else ie built in)

If not then can someone recommend a scripting language (or general purpose language with scripting) that I could learn to be able to do this. (It would be good if the language was not OS specific but doesn't have to be. Thanks. 87.102.86.73 (talk) 17:38, 23 July 2008 (UTC)

Under Linux, there is the rename command that I think will do precisely what you want; I'm not sure this is available under Mac. Under Windows, searching for "Batch renaming" comes up with some results, but I haven't used any. Also, I suppose there may be a way to do it with a batch file, but I'm not sure - it's functionality seems limited to me (compared to linux's bash scripting). This might work on a Mac, but you (and me, too) might need to brush up on regular expressions. --Bennybp (talk) 18:01, 23 July 2008 (UTC)

Well, if you've got a modern Mac you'll have access to a Terminal, which you should be able to write scripts for. In this particular case, if you can get all the files into the same directory (folder), then you'll need something like:

#!/bin/sh

Prefix="Holiday"
for File in $(ls | grep .jpg$) ; do
    mv $File $Prefix$File
done

as a script to be run from the same directory. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 78.86.164.115 (talk) 22:03, 23 July 2008 (UTC)

Warning! The grep regular expression above will match any filename that has "jpg" anywhere in it, as long as it is preceded by at least one character. (The regular expression is not anchored, and "dot" has a special meaning in regular expressions.) So "foojpg.tiff", for example, will be renamed in addition to the files you intended. I expect the for loop will also break on filenames with spaces. Using the obvious solution (wildcards) instead of grep will produce the desired results. Note that you should also quote variable expansions, in case the filenames contain spaces:

#!/bin/sh

Prefix="Holiday"
for File in *.jpg ; do
    mv "$File" "$Prefix$File"
done

--Coneslayer (talk) 11:45, 24 July 2008 (UTC)

Well spotted, thanks.87.102.86.73 (talk) 17:57, 24 July 2008 (UTC)

Yes. what about if I would like to select files myself and then 'drag and drop' them to a 'program' for the above to happen.. Would I be able to work out what to do if I read a unix manual, or does the 'drag and drop' process involve stuff that is beyond unix's control -

I imagined that the selection and then drag and drop would simply make a list of files the inputs to a process/program. Does a linux/mac unix GUI make it that simple to convert 'drag and drop' to inputs and functions? (A simple answer appreciated)87.102.86.73 (talk) 22:21, 23 July 2008 (UTC)

Also to say that Microsoft have started offering something for Windows called Powershell, which promises easy scripting for stuff like this. --78.86.164.115 (talk) 22:14, 23 July 2008 (UTC)

Good thanks - I'm reassured to see it's free as well.87.102.86.73 (talk) 22:42, 23 July 2008 (UTC)

I swear by Lupas Rename for this sort of thing, I'm always batch renaming TV series episodes and the like. It can do Find..Replace text strings, Insert before/After filename (which is applicable in your case), Insert at position, left/right crop n characters and much more. To complement it I also use Oscar's Renamer which lists the file names in a directory like one big text file that you can freely edit. Useful for renaming all the files in a folder to different filenames quickly (e.g. putting the titles of the different episodes into the filenames. As you can tell I'm pretty anal when it comes to naming TV episode files). Zunaid©® 12:01, 24 July 2008 (UTC)

Thanks as well - at least I now have a back up plan. Thanks.87.102.86.73 (talk) 17:57, 24 July 2008 (UTC)

I have an e-mail problem...

I was trying to send an e-mail to one of my friends on AIM, but there was this error message:

The message was not sent because of an error with address "(e-mail address)"

We would love to send this email but your recipient never logged onto their free AIM Mail account.

Please contact them and let them know that they are missing out on all the super features offered by AIM Mail.

And by the way, they are also missing out on your email.

How can I fix this problem? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Sirdrink13309622 (talk • contribs) 17:55, 23 July 2008 (UTC)

How about doing what it says? Contact your friend by other means, and tell them to log into their free AIM mail. Algebraist 18:00, 23 July 2008 (UTC)

      How could I contact my friend?

Well, the obvious way that comes to mind is to send them an instant message. They probably already have another e-mail address they use, you could ask for that instead of insisting they sign up for AIM mail. --Random832 (contribs) 21:34, 23 July 2008 (UTC)

Google ranking

Dear Wikipedians:

I'm sure this is an old question on this board, but I was unable to find it in the archives. So here it goes again:

I have a newly created site: http://kingswaycomputertechsupport.googlepages.com/

that I would like people to find if they type in "kingswaycomputertechsupport" into Google search bar. But now when I do that Google turns up with nothing, so I'm wondering how to make the site appear in Google search.

If you know of any pointers to old documents in the Wikipedia archives please also point me to them.

Thanks.

74.12.199.151 (talk) 18:27, 23 July 2008 (UTC)

It should show up in a couple of days. Please consider adding your website to Google's index. Please also try "kingswaycomputertechsupport" googlepages in a few days. I am sure you know this already but if people find your website useful and link to it, it will have greater chances of being on Google's results. Kushal (talk) 18:35, 23 July 2008 (UTC)

http://www.google.com/addurl/ Google Spider (talk) 06:16, 24 July 2008 (UTC)

Best choice for a Laptop at college.

I'm going to start attending college from this fall onwards. I'm having a tough time choosing a suitable laptop. I'm taking up Computer Engineering major, so now you assist me through my choices. I was thinking of migrating from the windows platform to the Mac platform. This shouldnt be a problem cause i can run windows on a Mac notebook. so ma list is narrowed down to the Macs. so, i have a choice between the MacBook, MacBook-Black, MacBook pro. im not a very into gamer, nor am i interested in photo editing n stuff. I'm just a basic user. So kindly suggest me Accordingly about my choice, or shuld i stick to the windows platform?wat are the advantages if i do so?...thnks a lot! —Preceding unsigned comment added by 123.252.224.65 (talk) 18:45, 23 July 2008 (UTC)

The choice between Windows and MacOS will partly be determined by any software your course will require, or recommend, that you run. Surely almost everything they'd require you to know will run on both, but (particularly for a subject like yours) there may be some odd thing that they use (often that they've written themselves) that might not work on every platform you might wish. So I'd speak to the faculty. Also you might wish to wait until you've enrolled/matriculated, as some colleges can get you steep educational discounts on both computer hardware and software. Again, check with the college. -- Finlay McWalter | Talk 18:57, 23 July 2008 (UTC)

Consider getting a system with a decent docking station. Laptops are cool, but if you're going to be writing long papers and and longer programs you might be happier with a large screen and a fullsize keyboard. APL (talk) 01:18, 24 July 2008 (UTC)

desktop is not what im looking for, you were rite with your points, but portability is also what i have to keep in mind, desktop wouldn't be as convenient as a laptop would be to me. So plz temme the advantages n disadvantages of having a Mac platform laptop. should i go for it, or should i wait n give it a more educated thought?cheers —Preceding unsigned comment added by 123.252.224.65 (talk) 07:03, 24 July 2008 (UTC)

That's why I recommended a docking station. All the portability of a laptop, but the comfort of a desktop when it's actually on your desk. (You can plug in monitors and keyboards without the docking station, of course. But it's less convenient, which means you won't bother.)

But to answer your question, modern Mac OSs are not nearly as bad for engineers as they used to be. In fact, if you take the opportunity to familiarize yourself with Bash you may find yourself at an advantage over Windows users if the curriculum involves a lot of unix work. On the other hand A Mac machine tends to be more expensive than a similarly benchmarked PC. There are sometimes exceptions to this, but in general you're paying extra for the stylishness of the Apple brand name. (In addition, if you plan to use Boot Camp (And you may have to) you'll have to buy windows separately. )

However, the best advice here would probably be to ask your professors. If you can't wait until school starts try emailing them, or your adviser. They may even have a section on the Comp E. department's web page advising students on what type of computer to buy. APL (talk) 14:53, 24 July 2008 (UTC)

• Engineering major? =P Then be an engineer and install GNU/Linux. As you said you are not a gamer nor do you edit photos/videos, Linux can do all the basic stuff--programming, text editing, web browsing etc..Or you can just use windows. Don't spend money on a Mac when you really don't need it. Abhishek (talk) 12:56, 24 July 2008 (UTC)

Computer engineering major though. You'd likely need to be running Windows/Linux a lot, as almost all tools (Xilinx and Cadence softwares, for example) require Windows (some can run on Linux, but still). I'd also save the money and get a faster Windows based laptop or just save some money overall. --Wirbelwindヴィルヴェルヴィント (talk) 15:59, 24 July 2008 (UTC)

Linux is something to worry about with a Mac. Many linux tools can now work on Mac, but not all of them. And from what I understand running Linux via bootcamp is not an easy thing to do. APL (talk) 18:20, 24 July 2008 (UTC)

For Windows and Linux, consider VMware Fusion. When you do need another platform, it will probably only be for one program which you don't need want to do a complete reboot for - particularly as many mac laptop users rarely shut it down at all, only using the sleep function. (Close the lid and all but the RAM stops. Open the lid and it restores in three seconds.)89.242.166.148 (talk) 12:13, 25 July 2008 (UTC)

Onboard Video + AGP

I have an Optiplex GX260. I am currently using the AGP. I want to also make use of the onboard video. BIOS gives the option for Onboard (where AGP doesn't work) or auto (where onboard doesn't work). Does anyone know of any hack - even a BIOS hack - that will allow both to function? Is this just a motherboard limitation where it can use one or the other but not both? -- kainaw™ 19:21, 23 July 2008 (UTC)

It would seem (correct me if I'm wrong) that this machine has an Intel 845G chipset paired with an Intel 82845G graphics controller. Intel's page for this says you can do multi-monitor with a PCI card, but "Multi display is not possible with the onboard display and an AGP add-in card". -- Finlay McWalter | Talk 19:46, 23 July 2008 (UTC)

The datasheet for the 845/82845 similarly says "The BIOS will disable the [internal graphics device] if an external AGP device is detected." (this really is an instruction to BIOS authors). If this was just a bandwidth issue (the AGPx4 is more demanding than the PCI66 they do allow - List of device bandwidths) you'd think they'd just downscale your AGP to x2 (meaning you could use both for desktop work, but playing a game would force it to shut down the onboard controller) but they don't. I'm guessing (they don't say) that the issue is the way AGP uses the host memory interface directly (via the GART) conflicting with the 82845's own accesses to (UMA) "video" memory in the system memory (whereas PCI devices are more willing to be bossed around and do memory accesses when the PCI master tells them to). -- Finlay McWalter | Talk 20:17, 23 July 2008 (UTC)

That is what I figured - a memory access issue. I guess I have to hunt down a cheap PCI card since that can be activated after boot and used as a secondary device. -- kainaw™ 14:02, 24 July 2008 (UTC)

safely remove hardware... or just pull the plug?

Why is it neccesssary when using a flash drive or external hard drive to click on the "safely remove hardware" button and stop the device before removing it? I have always wondered why this is required...what damage could possibly occur if I just pull it out? I have actually done that many times and saw no noticeable problems. Thanks and cheers, 10draftsdeep (talk) 19:39, 23 July 2008 (UTC)

I must admit I have often just pulled it out and had no problems. If the computer's operating system was still writing data to the USB device it could cause corrupted or incomplete data. I usually "stop" the device just to be on the safe side. -=# Amos E Wolfe ^talk #=- 19:44, 23 July 2008 (UTC)

As long as the device is not currently operating it's almost certainly ok, if the device was working there's a chance of damage (or loss of data) especially with hardrives.

see Hot swapping.87.102.86.73 (talk) 19:58, 23 July 2008 (UTC)

Yeah, if I have a PowerPoint or something like that stored on it and I close it out, I just pull it. However, I sometimes run SAS and S&D off of it to scan my computer. Then, I stop the program and stop the USB device. Ζρς ι'β' ^¡hábleme! 20:01, 23 July 2008 (UTC)

Also, actual damage or loss of data other than what you were recently working with is quite a bit less likely than just losing the data you just edited/saved. --Random832 (contribs) 20:05, 23 July 2008 (UTC)

The basic problem is write-back caching. When a program modifies a file, the OS doesn't immediately write the changed data to the drive. One reason for waiting is that consecutive changes to the same sector can be pooled together and written just once. This can be a huge performance win in some cases (e.g. batch-renaming or batch-deleting files), and it will probably also extend the life of a flash drive since they can only tolerate a limited number of sector writes before they fail. Recent versions of Windows by default avoid delaying writes to removable drives to reduce the chance of data loss when people yank them out unceremoniously. You can change this on a drive-by-drive basis (in XP at least) by going to the device properties, "Policies" tab, and choosing "Optimize for performance" instead of "Optimize for quick removal". But you then need to be more careful about stopping the device before you remove it. -- BenRG (talk) 22:44, 23 July 2008 (UTC)

Musician "Jam-with-a-friend-on-the-internet" Software

I remember looking into this a couple of years ago. There were software packages that let you jam to constant beat, then proceeded to merge the audio data a few milliseconds later to deal with the latency.

I never really got into it.

So is there a software package, or an internet technology under development, that would allow musicians to jam over a regular cable internet connection? NByz (talk) 20:16, 23 July 2008 (UTC)

sound card color ports

I was recently given a sound card, and would like to put it on my pc (in which the onboard sound went bad) so I can hook it up to my stereo receiver and listen to my music collection. The box lists the card as "PCI multi-channel sound card", doesn't list a manufacturer of the card - just that it uses the sound blaster live chipset.

There are four mini jack ports on the back: with an icon of concentric circles and an arrow pointing to the center of the circles, red - with a microphone icon, green with an icon similar to the blue one but the arrow is pointing outwards and there is a "_1" next to it, and black with a icon just like the green one but it say "_2" instead.

Am i correct in thinking that the blue and red are both input and the green and black both output? And are the green and black just the left and right channels? what kind of adapter do I need to hook this up to my stereo which takes rca inputs?

Thanks for your help, I looked at Sound Card and didn't see exactly what I am looking for so I came here (and the documentation with the card is pretty minimal.Man It's So Loud In Here (talk) 20:41, 23 July 2008 (UTC)

Green and black are both stereo outputs (they'll each take a stereo 3.5mm minijack); green is generally the normal out you'd connect to your stereo system - black will either carry the same or a "rear stereo" or something, depending on what the driver sends it. Any electrical store should have cables that will allow you to connect the single green connector to both a red and white RCA. -- Finlay McWalter | Talk 20:47, 23 July 2008 (UTC)

(ec) Red/microphone would definitely be an input, normally the card will apply some gain to this input. You didn't actually say which is blue, but I'm guessing it's the first one, that would be line-in. Green is line out (speakers or headphones), Black is a new one to me, perhaps the rear channels, since the card is "multi-channel" as opposed to just "stereo". This Google books link seems to confirm that for the SB Live. --LarryMac | Talk 20:51, 23 July 2008 (UTC)

PC System Design Guide shows sound card colors, but they do not seem to match your description. It would be helpful if you knew the manufacturer and model, or the FCC ID. --—— Gadget850 (Ed) ^talk - 21:10, 23 July 2008 (UTC)

Thanks for your help, I think I've got it now. I was thinking that the black and the green were left and right channels but really they are both stereo channels, to which I could hook up four speakers if I had them. Man It's So Loud In Here (talk) 22:55, 23 July 2008 (UTC)

Indeed from my experience black is usually read. Orange is subwoofer+centre. Nil Einne (talk) 19:26, 25 July 2008 (UTC)

how to integrate tomcat 6.x and iplanet 6.x versions

hi can any one tell me how to integrate tomcat 6.x and iplanet 6.x. needed explanation in proper steps 21:53, 23 July 2008 (UTC)203.99.204.99 (talk) —Preceding unsigned comment added by 203.99.204.99 (talk) 21:51, 23 July 2008 (UTC)

Lyrics in iTunes

I've recently added a whole pile of song lyrics to iTunes (using [7] - very good). Now I'd like to add the ability to search (i.e. using the search box in the top right hand corner of iTunes) by song lyrics. On Windows. Is there any app out there which will do this? I've managed to locate a couple for OS, but none for Windows. Thanks in advance. Willnz0 (talk) 22:40, 23 July 2008 (UTC)

Multi-page pdf

Hi. I'm trying to create some pdf documents to upload to my employer's website, and I've hit a snag. Some of the documents started out in Open Office format, and those were easy to export as pdfs. The other documents, however, exist in paper form only, so I'm scanning them.

My question is, how can I take scanned images of 5 pages of text, and convert them into a single pdf file? I searched on the 'net a bit, and it seems there are programs that are entirely for making pdfs. Do I really need one of those, or can I use Open Office tools? If I need a program, can someone recommend a good, free one? Thanks in advance. -GTBacchus^(talk) 22:54, 23 July 2008 (UTC)

If you scan the pages one by one as PDF, #PDF from Scanner has the solution, by stitching PDFs together (yes, on this page). x42bn6 Talk Mess 22:59, 23 July 2008 (UTC)

Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Computing/2008 July 19#PDF from Scanner --Kjoonlee 01:44, 27 July 2008 (UTC)

Can I turn my PC into a universal remote?

I already have all of my audio and video on my computer, so I figured I would get a TV-out video card and hook it up to my stereo receiver and television. This is great but I think it would be great if I could get my PC to turn on the stereo and television, maybe put them on the proper channel without my having to use a remote. I am imagining a usb device (it could be a pci card also) which is attached by wire (or wifi?) to an IR transmitter placed where it can interact with the devices. then the software on my pc could determine what frequency to emit, the device receives said signal and turns on etc, etc.

Seems like this device would be pretty easy to make (easy for people that make things like this that is - I imagine I could do it if I just hooked an IR transmitter up to LabView and played around with it but I don't know for sure), but it seems like the demand for this piece of hardware might be pretty limited. Maybe I'm the only one who wants this device, but I do. Whenever I search for computer+remote+control I get back devices that allow you to control the PC with an IR signal, and I'm interested in the opposite.

Does anyone make something like this?Man It's So Loud In Here (talk) 23:22, 23 July 2008 (UTC)

My choice of search keywords would be: programmable infrared transmitter. Looks like what you're looking for should be among the results. --tcsetattr (talk / contribs) 05:20, 24 July 2008 (UTC)

Thanks, that got me on the right path. I found two devices that seem like they do exactly what I want them to, the USB-UIRT and the tira, and a (non-free) application to control them. Man It's So Loud In Here (talk) 17:10, 24 July 2008 (UTC)

Mozilla Firefox 2 + 3?

Can I have both Firefox 2 and Firefox 3 installed on the same machine? Vivio Testarossa^{Talk Who} 23:15, 23 July 2008 (UTC)

Yes you can. If you are using windows, then the default installation directory for Firefox is C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox. So if FF2 is already there then to install FF3 make a different directory, say C:\Program Files\Firefox3. Google Spider (talk) 06:08, 24 July 2008 (UTC)

I can run two different Windowses on the same partition, so I see no problem with Firefoxes. Admiral Norton ^(talk) 11:33, 24 July 2008 (UTC)

However, you normally can't run Firefox2 and Firefox3 at the same time. (You need to use separate profiles for that, and mention the profiles in the shortcuts for each program. If you don't understand what this means, ask a guru for help, or don't bother. :)) --Kjoonlee 01:37, 25 July 2008 (UTC)

One other thing. If you want to run them at the same time, you need to use the -no-default option with the shortcuts as well. (You're meant to use it with versions that aren't your default browser.) --Kjoonlee 01:42, 27 July 2008 (UTC)

Kjonlee is perfectly correct. However, you can easily set up profiles and have Firefox ask you which profile to load when Firefox starts. If you want to have the profiles synchronized (so both profiles behave more or less the same), there are add-ons available for you. And congratulations on your choice of one of the world's best web browser. Kushal (talk) 15:52, 26 July 2008 (UTC)

July 24

computer software

how does Wi Fi work ?? Is there a way to connect more than two computers simultaneously through bluetooth ??? nemesiskaka —Preceding unsigned comment added by Nemesiskaka (talk • contribs) 07:40, 24 July 2008 (UTC)

Start at Wi-fi and then Wireless communication and Wireless network. As for a bluetooth network i suspect that there will be some hack/program you can get that allows a network to connect via bluetooth. If you have a bluetooth internet connection and 2 networked computers I suspect it would be relatively simple to allow sharing of that connection - as for creating a network using bluetooth it's not something i've come across, but then i've never really found bluetooth to be very appealing. 194.221.133.226 (talk) 08:03, 24 July 2008 (UTC)

Microsoft native Bluetooth stack allows networking devices over Bluetooth. --grawity 13:51, 24 July 2008 (UTC)

Disk Defragmention (moved from Misc Desk)

I defragmented my F: drive recently, and it took over five hours to do so. Is there any way to speed up the process in the future?? Also, after defragmentation, some of the files got compressed (word documents, pictures and such) and now they are shown in blue (I use Windows XP Professional, SP2). What can I do to decompress them, or at least changthe colour to normal black? Thanks in advance. La Alquimista (talk) 11:36, 24 July 2008 (UTC) 11:04, 24 July 2008 (UTC)

As for the time, it's likely restarting because the disk contents have changed (because some application is still running which writes to the disk periodically). I suggest the following method:

1) Restart the computer.

2) Once you log in, use CONTROL-ALT-DELETE to bring up the Task Manager. Kill every process except Explorer.

3) Run Disk Defragmentation.

4) Once completed, restart the computer to restore the applications you killed.

Also, is the compression causing a problem ? StuRat (talk) 11:19, 24 July 2008 (UTC)

When running defragmenter, kill only processes marked as "Username", where "Username" stands for your username. Do not touch other processes. Compressed files don't take longer to load or defragment than normal files and you can change the color back in Windows Explorer: Tools > Folder Options: View > turn off Show encrpted or compressed NTFS files in color. They probably got compressed because you ran Disk Defragmenter on too low disk free space, which also results in much longer defragmentation. Since you defragmented your hard disk now, the defragmentation won't take as long on this disk as before, but you have to defragment it at least once or twice a month and free up at least 20-25% of disk space (not 15% as the program says) to make it run smoothly. Admiral Norton ^(talk) 11:31, 24 July 2008 (UTC)

    Normal   0               false   false   false      EN-US   JA   X-NONE                                                         MicrosoftInternetExplorer4

Ehh...edit conflict. Yes, that's exactly what I was going to say. If I kill a System Process like svchost.exe, the computer automatically shuts itself down. Thanks for telling me how to revert the colour back to normal. La Alquimista (talk) 11:36, 24 July 2008 (UTC)

I guess that must be a diff in Windows versions. On Windows 98, I can kill everything except Explorer, with no trouble. StuRat (talk) 03:24, 25 July 2008 (UTC)

Killing Explorer just kills the desktop and taskbar in XP, it doesn't do any other damage. Admiral Norton ^(talk) 13:27, 25 July 2008 (UTC)

The best bet is to not kill any process that the username "System" started. Kushal (talk) 15:49, 26 July 2008 (UTC)

But the culprit process could be one of those. For example, it may be doing an automatic backup periodically or could be going online to check for updates (and recording a log of this on the computer). Either of these could cause the defrag to restart, since the disk contents have changed. StuRat (talk) 05:11, 27 July 2008 (UTC)

A new device hampering our privacies

Please kindly answer my question:Recently I have heard that a person in my locality possesses a computer, which is even able to display the live video of a short-ranged area.It can even detect the sound voices of the area. The owner of it even claims that he can even view the interior of any house within the range by using X-Ray vision. But the most amazing feature is that the machine be used without even any Internet Connection. Can their be any such machine? If yes, then how can we check it from hampering our privacies? I'll be ever thankful to anyone who would like to answer me. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 117.201.97.83 (talk) 11:38, 24 July 2008 (UTC)

Umm... I think it's far from probable that someone has something like that, unless they come from Krypton. La Alquimista (talk) 11:41, 24 July 2008 (UTC)

X-rays do not work in the way you just described, so there isn't anything to be concerned about. However, terahertz rays can do this, but there isn't anything to be concerned about as this is very exclusive technology - you can't just go into any shop and buy one (actually, I don't think that anyone can buy one). As for a computer that can be used without an Internet connection, this is a normal feature applicable to most computers. With the video-capturing and sound-recording capabilities, these are also normal features of a many modern computers, useful for chatting with someone over the web, or recording movies and music. Absolutely nothing to be concerned about. Rilak (talk) 12:05, 24 July 2008 (UTC)

The respective person also claims that he can effectively use the machine so as to disrupt the normal flow of working of any electronic device.Several times did my familier persons in the locality did find that many devices such as PCs,Laptops and ACs get damaged.The owner of the device also is a master hacker as known by us.But the man challenges many times many people that he'll destroy their electronic appliances.Within a small span of time many a devices are totally blocked because of some unknown cause. We think that the person is able to send electrical signals in the form of bytecodes which then disturb the normal functioning of the machine. If our theory is right, then can it be considered to be a cybercrime? Please kindly explain to me if it is possible at all. It is to be made known that even our phones and computers have often been blocked and later we did find out that the OS in the system has been corrupted. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 117.201.97.83 (talk) 12:27, 24 July 2008 (UTC)

As has been said, it is very unlikely that a single individual could purchase or build a device with all of the capabilities that you describe. If the person concerned truly believes that they have such as device, then it is possible that they are delusional. However, if you feel genuinely worried and threatened by their behaviour, then you should discuss this with your local law enforcement officers. Gandalf61 (talk) 13:01, 24 July 2008 (UTC)

Most of what you describe doesn't even make any sense. Reading our article on bytecode may give you an idea why. Rilak (talk) 13:08, 24 July 2008 (UTC)

Your theory about 'bytecodes' is complete nonsense, (sorry) but there is a possibility that someone has put together a HERF gun [8]. However, please consider that electronic devices fail all the time, and computers with viruses behave badly on a regular basis. You may be blaming this person for unrelated coincidences. (This is how witch trials get started.) APL (talk) 13:30, 24 July 2008 (UTC)

Power supply noise (I may have gotten the terms wrong - I'm not a electronics person) can fry computers and electronic appliances. That is why manufacturers of expensive computers recommend a power line filter. There are more rational explainations for computer problems than a "mad scientist"-type guy who lives in an old mansion the hill bent on zapping everyone's PCs with electronic death rays. Rilak (talk) 06:16, 25 July 2008 (UTC)

Downloading & UK law

Now that the 6 largest ISPs in the UK have decided to act with the government in identifying and sending out warning letters (and then what, who knows) to file sharers and downloaders of music (& possibly film too) there is an awful lot in the press about "illegal downloading", but no actual information on how and by which statute law/common law precedent the act of sharing files in this way is illegal in the UK. I had always understood that the charicterisation of this as illegal was more the British Phonographic Institute & others point of view than a clearly accepted fact among lawyers/judges. I realise that computing question desk may not be the best area to raise this but I'd expect there are a few here who're aware of the legal issues involved. By the way there was no info at File sharing and the law other than in relation to EU law & no mention as to whether the EU law has been incorporated into UK law.

Copyright and Related Rights Regulations 2003 -- Finlay McWalter | Talk 12:59, 24 July 2008 (UTC)

But after much Googlage I've been unable to find evidence of anyone being convicted under this for filesharing; someone was convicted, then acquitted on appeal, under the anti-circumvention section (for selling modchips). Until there's a fair body of case law, it's not clear exactly what does (and doesn't) contravene the act. It appears that this act tries to close the "making available" defense used in some cases under the equivalent US law, although this covers making available to "the public", which surely covers some kinds of p2p filesharing but arguably might not for others (e.g. for private networks, encrypted networks with invitations needed). -- Finlay McWalter | Talk 13:15, 24 July 2008 (UTC)

I'm not sure how precise you want us to be.. But obviously file-sharing is not illegal in itself..

There are two obviously illegal activities

1. Filesharing illegal material (I'm fairly certain) that people have been prosecuted many times for this - though this may related to 'possesion and distribution' of illegal material generally.

1a. A special case nowadays is filesharing of material that may be used for illegal acts eg terrorism, etc - the material may not be illegal in itself but you may find yourself in trouble in relation to the perceived motive of sharing that material eg how to blow up things..

2. Copyright. File sharing of copyrighted material - probably what you were asking about. In the UK as far as I know the is no fair use (as such) or very little fair dealing allowed (see later)excuse - (copies for ones personal use are generally ok) - but allowing others (especially en masse) to have access to copyrighted material could get you into trouble. I'm sorry I can't give any legal precedents for this. see Copyright law of the United Kingdom - there is a small amount of 'fair use' allowed.

Basically common sense applies here (UK). Offer other people songs/videos etc to many others (for free) and it's away to prison with you... Charge for that and it's 'rough prison' as well. Obviously don't expect to be made an example of just because you and your 'brother' borrowed each others dvds.. Did any of that tell you more than you already new?87.102.86.73 (talk) 17:53, 24 July 2008 (UTC)

Using computer during a thunderstorm

Is it safe to use a computer during a thunderstorm? Are power surges protector enough to protect, well, a power surge caused by a thunderstorm? Also, what are the chances of this happening?--15:28, 24 July 2008 (UTC)

I see no threat of a computer getting zapped by a thunderstorm. Unless you have a metal mouse and keyboard, it won't conduct and surge protector's will sheild your computer. As for your house getting hit by lightning...don't count on it. --Randoman412 (talk) 16:56, 24 July 2008 (UTC)

Most computers have multiple issues with surge from lightning. There is the obvious - the power cord. Then, there is the network connection: (telephone line, network cable, usb cable, coax cable...) that could be directly connected to an outside line. Finally, there are the less probable but possible areas of weakness: all other devices. For example, your monitor may be plugged directly to the wall and get a strong surge from lightning. That surge could possibly be put on the ground line for the video cable and return to the computer, causing damage to the video device inside the computer. The same goes for a printer. So, you should have everything that is plugged into your computer going through a surge protector. Also, it must be a surge protector and not a power strip. -- kainaw™ 17:03, 24 July 2008 (UTC)

Surge protector vendors (at least the name brand ones) generally certify against surges induced by lightning, but not against absolutely all lightning strikes. A typical one is rated at around 15,000 amps - some strikes can be much higher than that. The incredible potential of a lightning strike is such that, if it gets into your house through one wire, it can jump around to other wires across a wide air gap - so it can hit a telephone pole outside your house, run into your house down the phone line, jump to the mains wiring in (or near) something like a DSL modem or a fax machine, and from there run to ground through your computer, toaster, etc. Now this is worst case - the chance of a line right next to your house (where your premises are the most attractive route to ground) is very low, and for that strike to be big enough to get past a half-decent surge protector (which protects the phone line as well as the mains power) is much lower still. -- Finlay McWalter | Talk 17:10, 24 July 2008 (UTC)

Hi. Well, if you want to be really safe during a thunderstorm, do not use, touch, or be near anything connected to the electric, water, telephone, or gas lines, or to the outdoors, roof, or windows. The chances of being struck by lightning are rather small, but people have been struck using the phone or while touching or near other electric devices, which of couse have an insulative casing (and telephones run on a rather very low voltage. It might help if you have a corldless keyboard and mouse, but there may be some problems if lightning strikes your computer's electrical system directly, which is far rarer than striking nearby and causing a temporary power outage. Thanks. ~AH1^(TCU) 18:12, 24 July 2008 (UTC)

Also note that just turning off the computer isn't likely to offer much additional protection beyond the surge protector, you'd have to unplug everything and move the plugs far from the outlets to protect the comp from a lightning strike. StuRat (talk) 03:21, 25 July 2008 (UTC)

About 5 years ago I was using my computer during a thunderstorm and an overhead discharge caused the lights to flicker and disconnected and blew my modem. It was under guarantee and the technician was very puzzled and suggested it had been subjected to some sort of power surge. No, I didn't mention the storm because I thought it was maybe irresponsible to have the machine connected during a storm and it may have affected the guarantee conditions. Richard Avery (talk) 08:08, 25 July 2008 (UTC)

Calling java from command line, want to run more commands

Hi all,

I am running a java app from the command line in Win XP. The java app starts up, and I then want to run more commands from the command line without shutting down the app.

Actually, I've created a batch script (.bat file), and the script calls a second script which just runs 'java -jar ...'. I want to get back into my first script and keep calling commands without shutting down the java app, but control never seems to return to the first script.

Any suggestions? Thanks! — Sam 16:17, 24 July 2008 (UTC)

Instead of saying java -jar foo say start java -jar foo. It will run it in another command-prompt-window, however. -- Finlay McWalter | Talk 16:22, 24 July 2008 (UTC)

Why aren't linear feedback shift registers' output the whole contents of the register?

Linear feedback shift registers' output bit seems always to be said to be the binary digit that is shifted out of the register, e.g. here, here and... just about everywhere else I've looked. I am wondering why the contents of the register couldn't be used as the random number?

At first, I thought that using the contents of the register may produce some kind of a pattern because of all the digits gradually drifting in one direction, but I tested it and the numbers seemed random enough in a decimal base. Moreover, there were the same number of positive changes as negative ones in a complete cycle as long as a the correct tap sequence is used, meaning that if you ignored the fact that you can see all the bits being shifted, you'd think that it was random (although if you seed the register with something like 00000000 00000001, the first few numbers look suspicious).

Does anyone know the reason why the contents of the register is never used? It seems an awful waste of computer power to use only the bit that is shifted out.78.146.52.105 (talk) 16:32, 24 July 2008 (UTC)

An LFSR is like a little production line; as it ratchets forward, each bit gets more mangled up by the state of other bits (cf Avalanche effect). The bit at the end of the process is the most mangled up, so that's the thing we've been making. The other bits are less mangled up, and so are less useful. More formally, if you express the value of each bit value for each position in the register, the one at the end has the most complex equation (that is, it's dependent on the largest number of preceding bits); that means that if an attacker knows or can guess some of the input bits, the value of the last (output) bit is the hardest for them to figure out. As you're trying to make the attacker's life as hard as possible, you only use the scariest mangliest bits you can, those being the ones that come off the end of the register. LFSRs are fairly efficient to code in software (and very easy to build in hardware), so performance isn't such a big concern for most applications. -- Finlay McWalter | Talk 16:52, 24 July 2008 (UTC)

Thanks - that answers my question. You said that LFSRs are easy to implement in hardware, which I would agree with, but normal PCs don't have any hardware implementations of LFSRs do they?78.151.120.231 (talk) 09:39, 25 July 2008 (UTC)

No, indeed not. Given the very limited amount of cryptography that the average user needs her PC to do (view the odd DVD, do a very limited amount of ssl it's not cost effective to build any crypto in hardware. -- Finlay McWalter | Talk 15:02, 25 July 2008 (UTC)

LC3 PROGRAMM IN COMPUTER

HOW TO FIND PAGE NO AND OFSET NO HOW TO DO SIMPLE PROGRAM IN ADDITION,SUBSTRACTION. SOLVED QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS FOR INTRODUCTION TO COMPUTER PROGRAM —Preceding unsigned comment added by 122.164.68.213 (talk) 16:40, 24 July 2008 (UTC)

We have an article about the LC-3 system, which includes a link to the related textbook. -- Finlay McWalter | Talk 16:53, 24 July 2008 (UTC)

The 2nd screen

I have an iMac running leopard and i just got this second monitor which my friend doesn't need anymore. I wanted to know if there was some kind of software that could operate this monitor as a second screen. I know how to plug it in to the iMac, i just want to know if there's software that lets me have 2 desktops like that. --Randoman412 (talk) 16:54, 24 July 2008 (UTC)

Google "dual monitors iMac" and it'll tell you how to do it. It isn't a basic function of the iMac but with some software it can probably be made to do it, depending on your video card. See this article for a nice discussion and links to software. --140.247.241.140 (talk) 18:16, 24 July 2008 (UTC)

That program doesn't work with Leopard or my new iMac. --Randoman412 (talk) 22:42, 24 July 2008 (UTC)

Well Google around some more (e.g.). I'm sure there's a way to do it—seems like others have gotten it to work. --98.217.8.46 (talk) 03:10, 25 July 2008 (UTC)

Can a virus infect the Linux OS?

Is there any virus which may infect the Linux OS? We all know it well that Linux can not generally run .exe files. But it can do so if the WINE' application is used. Apart from this, can a worm or trojan infect the Linux OS? If yes, how should we prevent it? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Asim Chatterjee (talk • contribs) 18:23, 24 July 2008 (UTC)

Every operating system has the capability of being infected. The only way to avoid any and all infections is to have an operating system that refuses to allow anybody to run software on it (which would be useless). The main defence is user intelligence. Teach them to avoid installing malware. The second defence is anti-virus software. If you are running WINE for Windows programs - your specific example - they commonly try to manipulate system files which do not exist in the Linux environment. -- kainaw™ 18:32, 24 July 2008 (UTC)

There are a small number of viruses that can live in a linux machine. The article on Linux malware has a list. APL (talk) 20:16, 24 July 2008 (UTC)

Creating audio cd's on Mac OS 10.4

Is it possible to burn audio content to a cd that can play in an average cd player on Mac OS 10.4 using either built in software or freeware. If so, how? 82.32.51.150 (talk) 19:17, 24 July 2008 (UTC)

iTunes will do it; if it works on OS-X like it does on Windows, you just put a blank CD in and iTunes lets you drag sound files from your iTunes collection over to it, then burn the disk. -- Finlay McWalter | Talk 19:27, 24 July 2008 (UTC)

Ok, thanks, I'll give that a try. 82.32.51.150 (talk) 19:39, 24 July 2008 (UTC)

Format

How do I format a CD? In Command Prompt I type:
format D: /FS:FAT32
It says the file system on the CD is RAW and the new one will be FAT32. (Or FAT, it won't let me format it to RAW.) I ok it and it says verifying 626M and then that it cannot format. Volume is write protected. So then I try to use the CACLS command and it says that that command can only be used on a volume using the NTFS file system. I can't delete any files off of the CD either. How do I get around this problem? Thanks, Ζρς ι'β' ^¡hábleme! 19:42, 24 July 2008 (UTC)

In general CDs and other optical media aren't written to like ordinary disks (floppies, hard-disks, flash drives), but must instead be written (generally in one big go) by speciall optical disc authoring software. In some cases it is possible to use additional packet writing software, which kinda lets you treat the optical disk like a normal disk (with some unfortunate limitations). -- Finlay McWalter | Talk 19:53, 24 July 2008 (UTC)

CDs are read-only file systems. You may be thinking of a CD-R disk, which is typically a write-once file system, or a CD-RW which can be written several times. If the disk is a comercialy produced CD or a homemade CD-R then you're probably out of luck, except in special cases data cannot normaly be removed from a CD or CD-R.

However, CDs are cheap. Just copy the files you want onto a new disk.

You can't easily do this at a dos prompt, however. You'll need some CD burning software. Hope this helps. APL (talk) 19:57, 24 July 2008 (UTC)

Alright, well this brings up another question. I have a .ISO Xubuntu file on my computer. If I put a blank CD-R in the CD tray and right-click the .ISO file and choose "Copy image to CD", will Xubuntu then be bootable from the CD to which the ISO file was copied? Thanks, Ζρς ι'β' ^¡hábleme! 20:33, 24 July 2008 (UTC)

No. An ISO is a special file that contains an image of the CD you want to burn. So rather than copying the ISO file to the blank CD, you need to use a special feature of your CD burning program to burn that ISO image to the disk. Most CD burning programs will have a "burn ISO to disk" or similar option. -- Finlay McWalter | Talk 20:39, 24 July 2008 (UTC)

Well, I have an ISO recorder. Do I need a CD burning program too? Ζρς ι'β' ^¡hábleme! 20:50, 24 July 2008 (UTC)

If [this http://isorecorder.alexfeinman.com/isorecorder.htm] is what you're talking about, then yes, that should work. APL (talk) 21:00, 24 July 2008 (UTC)

Yeah, that is what I have. Ζρς ι'β' ^¡hábleme! 21:03, 24 July 2008 (UTC)

So, I have 736 MB of RAM. Is this enough RAM to run Xubuntu 7.1 live? Ζρς ι'β' ^¡hábleme! 01:20, 25 July 2008 (UTC)

That's more than enough for Xubuntu.IIRC the minimum requirement is around 192 MB :) Abhishek (talk) 03:33, 25 July 2008 (UTC)

is it good

is this laptop good seems good to me i might buy it what do you guys think[9] i wont be playing games like crysis maybe spore and sims 3 so i think it is good what about you guys--Raisins9 (talk) 23:11, 24 July 2008 (UTC)

It seems like a pretty good laptop to me, but really, you're asking for opinions here, not facts. If you can tell what exactly you want to do with the computer, you can probably get better answers on whether this laptop will do the trick for you. Generally speaking, though, I'd say you're going to be fine with this. (You could probably run Crysis on this without any real problems, actually; I'm not that familiar with the laptop graphics adapters, but that's a very recent PCI-E model with half a gig of non-integrated memory, so I'd assume it wouldn't be a problem.) -- Captain Disdain (talk) 01:43, 25 July 2008 (UTC)

July 25

Limiting Internet Access on a Network

I am allowing my roomate a to use my wireless router, but I would like to limit his connectivity. Are there ways to limit the bandwidth alottment for specific IP or MAC addresses on a network? Is there a way for me to easily keep track of his internet activity (sites visited, bandwidth usage, etc)? I am using this router and Windows XP Pro. Thanks. --Russoc4 (talk) 01:54, 25 July 2008 (UTC)

It really depends on the router. The "Guest Access feature" listed on the page you linked suggests that yours might allow something like that, but for the details you really want to read the manual. —Ilmari Karonen (talk) 15:44, 25 July 2008 (UTC)

ATI SM BUS not working

In my PC, the direct 3D system is not working. Perhaps its drivers are corrupted. Can I download those drivers from the Internet? If so, which site should I connect to? (To be noted that my PC is of the Compaq Company)Asim Chatterjee (talk) 04:55, 25 July 2008 (UTC)

Look at the DirectX article and the links to the Microsoft pages there. If you're using Vista you can download DirectX 10, otherwise you need the latest version of DirectX 9. Also look at reinstalling your video card drivers with the latest version. Sandman30s (talk) 10:17, 25 July 2008 (UTC)

Did it work before? Have you added anything new to the computer (like a ethernet card or sound card?)? Sometimes if you add new hardware to a PC it can require some tweaking to get everything to work as the new hardware may be trying to use a similar port number to the graphics card..87.102.86.73 (talk) 12:20, 25 July 2008 (UTC)

how did I just copy a copy-protected DVD?

As a test, I tried to copy a few commercial DVDs onto my mac with Disk Utility. In one case, it didn't work: it said "permission denied" when I tried to create the disk image, which didn't surprise me. But then it worked in at least one other case: I now have a playable disk image on my hard drive, and I can copy around the individual .VOB files. So I figured "Hey, I guess I found a commercial DVD that's not copy-protected." But then I saw a tiny "Copy Protected" triangular icon on the back of the case. So is the disk not actually copy protected as claimed? Or have I not yet tried to do the thing that copy protection prevents? (The DVD that I copied was Be Here to Love Me, though I started to copy Castle in the Sky too and it seemed to be working fine, though I cancelled before it finished. One more detail that might be important: sometimes I got permission denied errors with Be Here to Love Me, but I avoided them by making the copy first thing after inserting the DVD and opening Disk Utility.) Thanks for any help in understanding this; I looked at Content Scramble System but if the answer is there I couldn't understand it. --Allen (talk) 05:32, 25 July 2008 (UTC)

Wow! Copy protection doesn't really work. News at 11, and congratulations on your newfound leet hacking skills. :-) —Ilmari Karonen (talk) 06:11, 25 July 2008 (UTC)

Added redirect for News at 11. (You thought wikipedia wouldn't have that covered?) --tcsetattr (talk / contribs) 08:11, 25 July 2008 (UTC)

Perhaps that CD is a counterfeit ? You didn't buy it out of some guy's trunk, did you ? StuRat (talk) 07:07, 25 July 2008 (UTC)

Some possibilities:

• The disc says it's copy protected but isn't. (Quite plausible, especially if it's a bootleg but even if it isn't.)
• You misinterpreted the triangle symbol. (I'm not familiar with the symbol you're talking about.)
• You simply copied the encrypted video to your hard drive, where it won't play. (Plausible in the case of Castle in the Sky.)
• You copied the encrypted video to your hard drive, and your DVD playing software is able to break the encryption directly instead of getting the key from the original disc. (VLC does this, for example, but commercial licensed players probably not.)
• You copied the encrypted video to your hard drive but left the DVD in the drive, and your DVD playing software gets the encryption key from any available DVD even when playing files from the hard drive. Unlikely.
• Disk Utility copies everything from the DVD including the hidden keys. Very unlikely (but technically possible).
• Only some of the video is encrypted, and you tried playing an unencrypted part.
• You have some kind of transparent CSS removal filter in place. (Such exist for Windows at least.)
• You made the whole thing up, or dreamed or hallucinated it.

That's all I can think of at the moment. -- BenRG (talk) 12:41, 25 July 2008 (UTC)

I'd go with the second-to-last option, especially if you, like me, have ten screens of programs listed under Add/Remove Programs (or whatever its equivalent is on a Mac). Admiral Norton ^(talk) 13:17, 25 July 2008 (UTC)

Thanks for the ideas! I think the answer was probably this one: Only some of the video is encrypted, and you tried playing an unencrypted part. I saw the intro and heard the music and assumed that meant the DVD was playing. I had already deleted the Be Here to Love Me image when I read that, but I finished copying Castle in the Sky, and it gave an error after the intro. --Allen (talk) 16:42, 25 July 2008 (UTC)

I'd recommend using Magic DVD Ripper. It's a really good program for ripping copy-protected DVDs. I believe it costs around $35. Useight (talk) 21:20, 25 July 2008 (UTC)

I don't recommend anything but you might want to look at HandBrake since you are on a mac. Just make sure to get the correct version, though. The latest version only works with Leopard. Kushal (talk) 15:41, 26 July 2008 (UTC)

Game studio

Resolved

Could someone please have a look at Maxum Games as I'm totally at a loss as to what to do with it. It clearly requires some 'tags' but which ones?87.102.86.73 (talk) 15:41, 25 July 2008 (UTC)

Thanks, somebody found a suitable 'tag'.87.102.86.73 (talk) 17:08, 25 July 2008 (UTC)

.spc to MIDI

Is there any kind of way to convert .spc files into MIDI files or something? It doesn't matter if the original instruments are lost. --99.175.74.84 (talk) 23:50, 25 July 2008 (UTC)

Google suggests yes. TSP (talk) 16:20, 26 July 2008 (UTC)

It is possible, you'll find some utilities on TSP's Google search. You will have to pick your own instruments for each patch. --Russoc4 (talk) 21:48, 26 July 2008 (UTC)

July 26

using a mobile Phone as a modem

Using Motorola Phone Tools in vmware Fusion, I managed to use a motorola 3G phone as a modem. As you might expect, it only works in Windows, not Mac OSX. I would have set it up System Prefs, but it asks for: telephone number, account name, password, APN and CID numbers. I don't have any of these things, and Motorola Phone Tools only needed to be paired with the phone. Is there any way you can learn from the setup in Phone Tools, and apply the same stuff to Mac OSX natively? I have tried myself, there is nothing technical on the surface of Phone Tools, and nor is there Motorola Phone Tools for Mac. It's Windows only. Are all of the above (account name, etc.) in fact relevant?78.148.164.133 (talk) 01:21, 26 July 2008 (UTC)

I'm in Scotland on the O2 network, and it's a Motorola v6 Maxx. Bluetooth Setup Assistant shows the model name as "Bitsurfer 56k."78.148.164.133 (talk) 02:00, 26 July 2008 (UTC)

I don't think you need Motorola software to do this. If you use Bluetooth, then there's no need for special drivers, and if your Mac shows the phone as a modem, then try creating a normal dialup connection (use *99# as a phone number). --grawity 14:12, 26 July 2008 (UTC)

Actually it works now. Thanks in part to you (for the phone number), the motorola stuff (which I ran in Windows, and borrowed some technical stuff from, when I looked further), more surfing, and trying it in USB before Bluetooth. (Trying in Bluetooth would be a bad idea, you don't know where your problems lie - with the modem connection, or with the bluetooth?) And then comes the letters from O2 telling me off. Do they even know that I have it connected to a laptop?89.240.129.112 (talk) 00:30, 27 July 2008 (UTC)

Quad-core question

Does Windows XP Home use multiple cores for its own purposes? Does Vista? It is rumored that it assigns separate tasks to separate cores when multitasking, but does it actually? Basically, my question is whether a quad-core CPU is good for anything but high-end games and CADs and the like. --Milkbreath (talk) 01:30, 26 July 2008 (UTC)

Any version of Windows that supports quad-core CPUs will schedule processes on all four cores. But it's uncommon for two processes to need the CPU at the same time on a typical single-user machine, and very uncommon for three or more, so most of the time you won't notice any benefit from this. -- BenRG (talk) 02:53, 26 July 2008 (UTC)

i got an hp quadcare (their multimedia baby) with vista and you can set up task manager to watch each core independently. i haven't thoroughly researched it, but just my curious watching shows it firing up two processors fairly frequently, but hardly ever more than that. this with no games and no multimedia either, so far, just pretty much dumb Internet Exploring and vista's internal housekeeping. Gzuckier (talk) 06:22, 27 July 2008 (UTC)

office productivity tool

íÉ≥ĵŲḶcan you pls.help me in my ass. about basic editing,how to use the keyboard & mouse,inserting & deleting text,overwriting 7 using the undo & redo command..thank you,,hoping for quick answers,. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 122.2.117.188 (talk) 02:40, 26 July 2008 (UTC)

........wut? --75.150.174.233 (talk) 04:31, 26 July 2008 (UTC)

I think I'll decline to "help you in your ass". However, I can help with basic editing. The following applies to most, but not all, Windows editors:

1) Use the arrow keys on the keyboard or use the mouse (and then left-click on it) to move to the area you want to edit.

2) To toggle between insert and replace/overstrike modes: Hit the Insert key (usually above the arrow keys on the keyboard).

3) To delete the character after the flashing text cursor: Hit the Delete key (usually above the arrow keys on the keyboard).

4) To delete the character before the flashing text cursor: Hit the Backspace key (usually above the Enter key on the keyboard).

5) To delete multiple words or lines: Highlight the text first by putting the mouse on one side of it, holding down the left mouse button, dragging the mouse to the other side, then releasing the mouse button. Once highlighted you can delete it all by hitting either the Delete or Backspace buttons.

6) To delete everything, hold down the Control key (the very leftmost, lower key on most keyboards), and hit A. This should select all. Then hit the delete or backspace button.

7) To undo an edit, hold down the Control key (the very leftmost, lower key on most keyboards), and hit Z.

8) To redo an undone edit, hold down the Control key (the very leftmost, lower key on most keyboards), and hit Y.

9) To move to the top of the page, hit the Home key (usually above the arrow keys on the keyboard).

10) To move to the bottom of the page, hit the End key (usually above the arrow keys on the keyboard). StuRat (talk) 05:05, 26 July 2008 (UTC)

We have an article on keyboard shortcut and a nice table of keyboard shortcuts for various operating systems. --—— Gadget850 (Ed) ^talk - 20:57, 26 July 2008 (UTC)

Seeking data compression code for short strings

I'm looking for a data compression library (callable from C or Python) suitable for compressing short English strings, i.e. the algorithm should be pre-initialized with the statistics of English (such as by loading in a big static text file at the beginning) so that it can compress a 30-100 byte input down to some small fraction of its original size (the decompressor would work by first loading the same static file). Using something like gzip or lzo the normal way doesn't give much compression for such small inputs, since they start with no statistical knowledge and have to build it up as they go. I guess I could hack up gzip or lzo in the obvious way but thought I'd ask here first if anyone knew of anything already available. Thanks. 207.241.238.217 (talk) 06:04, 26 July 2008 (UTC)

Why would you possibly want to compress strings of that size? If you lots of little strings you want to compress, you could string them together (pun not intended) and compress that using the standard methods. Otherwise, I can't imagine a situation in any modern computer - or even an embedded system - where it would be practical to compress strings of less than 100 bytes. Especially if you are using Python as your programming language... « Aaron Rotenberg « Talk « 07:07, 26 July 2008 (UTC)

Our algorithm on the LZW algorithm includes Python code. The article says it achieves compression ratios of around 50% on large blocks of text, but I doubt you will get anything close to this on 100 bytes of input. You could create a pre-built optimised coding for single letters and common bigrams in English text, but I think this will have to be a bespoke design - standard compression algorithms do not use built-in statistical assumptions, because they are deliberately not language specific (or even specific to ASCII text input). Gandalf61 (talk) 09:45, 26 July 2008 (UTC)

You could try Huffman coding with a pre-calculated and pre-shared tree. --antilived^{T | C | G} 09:51, 26 July 2008 (UTC)

Actually most compression algorithms can be tuned for English text pretty easily, since most of them (bzip2 is a notable exception) read the input from the beginning, spitting out compressed data and building a model as they go. If you feed them canned text followed by the string you want to compress, the output will start with the compressed canned text (always the same) followed by the compressed string of interest (which will benefit from the model built up at that point). Then you can strip off the invariant prefix. This is slow, of course, but it's just a proof of concept. zlib supports the same thing in a more direct way with the *flateSetDictionary functions. Coming up with optimal training data might be hard, but as a starting point you might make a histogram of words from your training set and let the dictionary be the most common ones separated by spaces. This is probably the easiest way to get decent compression, and it's future-proof since zlib is ubiquitous (as long as you don't forget the dictionary!). You could probably get better compression from something in the PAQ series, either training it as above or using one of the variants that ships with a dictionary, but PAQ is very slow (both compression and decompression) and uses a lot of RAM (on the order of a gigabyte). Huffman would also work well, but it would probably take more work than the zlib approach. -- BenRG (talk) 11:08, 26 July 2008 (UTC)

Relating to game development, what is a ‘.CCZ’ file?

Can anyone help me with this question please? All I know from a forum is that its a smaller version of a .cc file and I dont know what a .cc file is either. Thanks. 88.106.59.56 (talk) 13:47, 26 July 2008 (UTC)

I guess .ccz means it's a .cc compressed with gzip (.tar.gz -> .tgz and .svg.gz -> .svgz). FILExt lists many uses for .cc, and this says it's often used for C++ source code, but gzipping it would be a little unusual... --grawity 14:08, 26 July 2008 (UTC)

safety of phone line wiring

Hi, I've been having problems with my phone line, so I tried to fix it by tampering with the phone jack, then I rang Telstra (the phone company in Australia) and asked them whether this was in fact safe. They told me no, the lines were classified as dangerous. This struck me as strange, because I always thought phone lines were so low voltage there was nothing to fear. Can anyone tell me what the voltage/ current are in Australia, and how dangerous it is playing around with the lines? Could you get a shock from them? thanks in advance, 203.221.127.38 (talk) 17:25, 26 July 2008 (UTC)

See Tip and ring. —Ilmari Karonen (talk) 20:34, 26 July 2008 (UTC)

regular phoneline voltage is around 40? 50? which is pretty safe under normal working conditions, but if your skin is wet or if you jab the wires into yourself to reach the nice saline interior, can deliver a decent current, which in the right place or to the right person can have unfortunate cardiac effects. the ring votage is like 100 which will give you quite a buzz, and likewise for the danger. but i find that most people, including myself, don't disconnect it before working on it. if i had a pacemaker or some such, i probably would. Gzuckier (talk) 06:19, 27 July 2008 (UTC)

Virus Issue

I have Windows XP and what I've heard from my university's IT people is a really good school-distributed version of McAfee antivirus. But lately it's been doing something weird. Every time I try to explore my C drive (which is my laptop's only local disk) I get a popup "VirusScan Alert!" from my antivirus program telling me that in the temp folder in local settings (C:\Documents and Settings\(my name)\Local Settings\Temp) it has detected a Trojan ("dtkcsly.dll") and deleted it. After I get this message, I have no trouble exploring the C drive, with the notable exception that Local Settings appears to no longer exist (and it isn't just hidden; I made made sure that hidden folders were visible.) To see what was up, I did start, run, and entered the address (or whatever you call it, I forget the name) of the problem folder that seemed to no longer exist: C:\Documents and Settings\(my name)\Local Settings\Temp. Run opened it up. No problem. I didn't even get one of those virus alert messages. And an in-folder search of all files didn't turn up the dtkcsly.dll file I was warned about. The other thing is, if I get McAfee to do an on-demand full-computer virus scan, it doesn't report anything. Only when I open C. And every time I open C. With the exact same problem. (And every time, it says that the file has been deleted, giving the time of deletion as that instant.) I'm confused. Any idea what the problem could be? The solution? Thanks a lot for any help. 41.249.20.34 (talk) 17:37, 26 July 2008 (UTC)

Hmm., obviously a serious problem. But don't worry friend, just uninstall the antivirus software and install it again. If this does not solve the problem, then proceed as follows:- 1.From the control Panel, open User Accounts. 2.With the guest account turned off, create a new administrator account. 3.Switch to the new account and after transferring your personal settings and documents, delete your previous account. 4.Install the software again.I think it will obviously work properly. Thank you for asking questions. Best Wishes.117.201.96.242 (talk) 20:16, 26 July 2008 (UTC)

You could have a bad install of McAfee, but it is not necessary to create a new user to install it properly. Just uninstall McAfee and install it again.

However, a quick google for "dtkcsly.dll" suggests it really is malware. When I have a virus/malware detected by McAfee, then it mysteriously returns and then I can't find it using Explorer, I start to suspect I have a rootkit which is hiding a lot more than that one file.

Owner of ImageShack image

I noticed that many pictures posted on various forums are hosted by imageshack. Often, the poster is not the person who owns the imageshack account for the image. So, when I see an image I like and I want to see more of those images, is it possible to somehow backtrack through imageshack to find the owner? The urls are similar to img49.exs.cx/img48/18203/some_image.jpg. I can tell that the "img49" is random. The "18203" is not shared by a single user. I find multiple, very different, images under the image directories. The image name tends to appear to be the name the user uploaded. None of that appears to be related to the actual user's account. -- kainaw™ 18:53, 26 July 2008 (UTC)

Java

How can I insert a previously compiled Java program into any electronic device such as DVD Player?117.201.96.242 (talk) 20:08, 26 July 2008 (UTC)

Uh, I don't think you can. I mean, you could certainly put the program on a DVD, but the DVD player doesn't know how to execute it. -- Captain Disdain (talk) 21:26, 26 July 2008 (UTC)

Are you getting at the cross platform nature of Java? You can read about it in the Java (software platform) article. But a simple version of the "how?" is: your "previously compiled Java program" was compiled to be run by a Java Virtual Machine (which is itself a program) and not by any particular electronic device. This means that so as long as your electronic device has a JVM then it can run the Java program. And JVMs have been written for all sorts of things - nearly all major computer architectures and operating systems and stuff like mobile phones too. Note, if it's not clear from the above, that a JVM is written in some language or other but then compiled into device-specific code.

If you knew all this already and you're asking exactly how then I should think it depends on the device and is a right pain for an end user to figure out or do (since you wouldn't want people to be able to break their mobiles / DVD players / toasters easily or by accident - rather you'd want software installed in a factory and a backdoor available for updates). --78.86.164.115 (talk) 22:56, 26 July 2008 (UTC)

July 27

PDF files

Is there anyway to turn PDF files into something more like a book? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Tyler123459 (talk • contribs) 00:03, 27 July 2008 (UTC)

Yes, there is a device that was invented for this purpose. It is called called printer. --Juliano (T) 00:23, 27 July 2008 (UTC)

I believe most PDF viewers have the option to display a PDF in book format. That is, with two pages shown at once, and you flip the pages two at a time. However, be advised that you would need to have quite a small number of lines on each page or a rather large, high resolution screen, to be able to read it at that scale. For a typical PDF file and screen resolution, you could only read it if about half a page is shown at a time. StuRat (talk) 04:55, 27 July 2008 (UTC)

Challenge

Is there a Wikipedia article on a website which has a higher Google ranking than that website for a search of the websites name? Skomorokh 04:09, 27 July 2008 (UTC)