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December 18

Video Card

What it the best gaming video card on the market? This would be for a desktop computer running windows XP Service pack3. I am going to build a computer and the type of video card will help with selection the motherboard. Money is no issue. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 64.172.159.131 (talk) 00:12, 18 December 2008 (UTC)

Why just one card? You get a bunch of high-end nVidias with SLI and plug them into each other. Sure, it is expensive and overkill, but you said "best" and "money is no issue". -- kainaw™ 01:08, 18 December 2008 (UTC)

Actually, the best video card on the market at the moment, pretty much unanimously is the Radeon HD4870X2. If you can afford 2 of them you can go for intel chipset board with crossfire support. Vespine (talk) 02:49, 18 December 2008 (UTC)

If it were just about the hardware and benchmarks then maybe the Radeon would take the prize - but if you consider device driver issues - then get the latest thing nVidia are selling because ATI's drivers are really crap. The badge of "fastest" is a tricky thing to assess because there are so many aspects to performance and some cards do better at some things and worse at others. In any case, whoever is in the lead this week is unlikely to be in the lead when the next card comes out. If you're using XP and it's a DirectX game - then you aren't using half the stuff on the card because you're stuck on DX9 which doesn't provide support for a bunch of stuff that's in the very latest hardware. So get a motherboard with dual PCI-Express interfaces - both with a decent number of lanes. A pair of SLI'ed 9000-series nVidia cards will do just fine if you have quad-core CPU's driving them. SteveBaker (talk) 05:10, 18 December 2008 (UTC)

Why the 9000 series when you can SLI the GTX 280? This is what I would buy if money were no issue. You might as well investigate a modern PCI 2.0 motherboard for this if you're spending that much on a card. Oh, and lots of gaming RAM. And a monstrous LCD won't hurt. Ohhh it hurts, stop now! Sandman30s (talk) 09:43, 18 December 2008 (UTC)

If money is no object for buying video cards I'd buy a nVidia Tesla. I don't think there's many games written for it yet though so it may not be so good for your purposes ;-) Dmcq (talk) 13:21, 18 December 2008 (UTC)

domain register-ing

When I "register" a domain name through a domain name registrar (like GoDaddy), what am I actually doing? Am I "buying" it? Or am I just renting it for a while? Or am I "borrowing" it? Or shibbledy-goobauschenheimer with coffee and popsicles in a meadow on a warm summer day? I'm confused. When I do one of Godaddy's search thingies, it says "For sale! $14.99 per year/month! Buy now!" But that contradicts itself - how can I buy something and then pay for it monthly/yearly (excluding credit cards)? flaminglawyer^c 06:14, 18 December 2008 (UTC)

You would be renting it. The 'Buy now" thing is a marketing ploy, its much more attractive than 'Rent now!" —Preceding unsigned comment added by 69.229.127.26 (talk) 06:23, 18 December 2008 (UTC)

Agreed; the "x dollars/year" thing suggests that you are actually renting a domain, instead of buying one outright. This rental thing makes sense especially if you only made a site for, let's say a political campaign that's only going to last for a year or two. You rent a domain like "leonidasforpresident.com", and after you won the elections (or otherwise), you may have your domain cancelled and call it quits. Blake Gripling (talk) 10:11, 18 December 2008 (UTC)

Companies that are a bit more honest (like Network Solutions) clearly state that it is a lease, not an outright purchase. At worst, Network Solutions will say "annual purchase". -- kainaw™ 18:01, 18 December 2008 (UTC)

So... that discourages me. Is there any way to actually own (pay once, keep forever) a domain name, apart from making a country and making its own TLD? flaminglawyer^c 22:43, 18 December 2008 (UTC)

It's not quite "renting" - you do own the name - to the point where you can sell it to someone else if you want to. But you have to pay to have the name stored on the name server...and that's kinda like paying rent. When you let the payment lapse, the name is no longer registered to you on the world's server - so you lose it and someone else can register it. It's actually just like a phone number is in the USA. You have the right to take your phone number with you when you change providers or move to a new home - but if you stop service on your phone, they'll give the number to someone else. SteveBaker (talk) 00:14, 19 December 2008 (UTC)

Followup

OK, so I've decided to register a domain name. But I ran into another thingy - the price for a 1-year registration is $.99, so a 2-year should be $1.98 or less, right? It's not. It's $5.49 (link). Why such a price jump? I'm guessing it's something about re-registering when your domain expires, but I can't find anything to prove/disprove my theory on the Godaddy website (or anywhere else). flaminglawyer^c 02:06, 19 December 2008 (UTC)

First, no - you cannot permanently purchase a domain name for one price. But, you can get extremely long leases, such as a 10-year lease. Even if you start your own country and form your own TLD, you can still lose your TLD in the future. As for the price jump, my experience with GoDaddy for any remotely professional work has been terrible. They want your domain name. That's all. They will do whatever it takes to get you to sign up. I could fill the next three screens of text with nightmare stories that I've experienced with them, but others will come in and say GoDaddy is the greatest thing since pirated mp3 downloads. -- kainaw™ 13:36, 19 December 2008 (UTC)

They're not the greatest, but I don't think they're the worst at all. They're fine if you are just buying a domain name or two for private use. As with all things related to IT there are good experiences and bad ones, but I've used them for years and years with nary a complaint.

As for the price jump—GoDaddy charges more to renew a domain name (like $9) than it does to register them. It wants to lure you with short-term leases so that over time you'll pay more per domain name over time. It's a business model decision, not a technical one. Keep in mind that it is trivial to transfer control your domain name to a different registrar later, if you decide you don't like GoDaddy. --98.217.8.46 (talk) 23:05, 19 December 2008 (UTC)

Aw shizzle! Is it cheaper to transfer to a different registrar than to renew with Godaddy? flaminglawyer^c 01:45, 20 December 2008 (UTC)

Windows Explorer needs to close

Hi

About once a day my PC displays the message "windows explorer has encountered a problem and will now close" {approx} and then I get the pop-up about sending the data to MS blah blah. It's more of an irritation than anything else as explorer always starts again straight away. I was wondering what might be the likeliest cause. OS = XP Home Pentium D 4GB RAM Thanks for your time —Preceding unsigned comment added by 87.211.45.43 (talk) 10:12, 18 December 2008 (UTC)

Just out of curiosity - are you using Roxio media/burning software? I was having much the same trouble and that trouble went away when I removed my install of Roxio Media Creator Suite 9 (or whatever the heck it was called). Just a SWAG, there. Matt Deres (talk) 14:03, 18 December 2008 (UTC)

I get this sometimes too on my desktop. Yeah, it's annoyance. But my point of view is: "It's Windows, what do you expect?!" ("Windows" can also be replaced with "English", "Vista", etc) :P.--Xp54321 ^{(Hello! • Contribs)} 03:56, 19 December 2008 (UTC)

do new hard drives fit old cases (a Dell Dimension 4100 = Pentiun III 900 mhz)

Hi guys,

So I don't have much money right now and I'm using a Pentium III computer, but I bought a graphics card for it for 50 euros a couple of years back, it's a Radeon 9250 with 128 MB Ram, so actually the computer is really very good for everything I do, which is mostly on the web, nicely accelerated (solid scrolling etc). It has 512 MB or RAM and I don't have complaints. But the hard-drive is dying.

If I buy a new hard-drive, do I have to worry about what kind, or will all new hard drives be able to replace my current one?

Thanks! -Jenny. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 94.27.214.30 (talk) 14:01, 18 December 2008 (UTC)

The most common types of Hard-drive 'types' are SATA and IDE. The PC you describe will almost definitely be IDE so go with that. Even if it can take the SATA ones (which are a faster connection as I understand it) it'll probably be able to handle an IDE drive. 194.221.133.226 (talk) 14:07, 18 December 2008 (UTC)

(edit conflict)All desktop hard drives are a standard size which is 3.5" width. In terms of physically fitting into the PC case it should not be an issue. Your motherboard and old hard drive are almost certain to have PATA connectors (also known simply as IDE connectors, it is the flat grey "ribbon" cable connecting your HD to your motherboard). Most modern hard drives and motherboards use SATA connectors (which uses a much narrower cable and smaller plug/socket). Look at the articles for pictures. If you're buying a new hard drive make sure to buy an IDE/PATA type. Or else buy a SATA hard drive and a SATA/PATA converter which shouldn't cost more than a few dollars. Zunaid 14:16, 18 December 2008 (UTC)

Make sure too that your motherboard has IDE channels for the older hard drive and doesnt have only SATA channels. Even if the hard drive physically fits, it won't work if it can't connect to your motherboard. Livewireo (talk) 20:19, 18 December 2008 (UTC)

If I recall correctly, older motherboards won't allow for very large drives (ie more than 120 gb) limiting it so it only utilizes the first 120 gb of space on the drive... you might be able to upgrade your bios or something and get it to work... I don't know much about it, just that it might be a problem. DaRkAgE7_[Talk] 21:36, 19 December 2008 (UTC)

Mez screensaver?

Hi. Many years back (6-8) I had a screensaver application called Mez, Mev, or something like that. Three letters anyway. It had a really great road construction screensaver where lines of yellow machines would travel across your desktop laying down sand, gravel, tarmac, etc until your screen was a road, and then another machine would come and tear it all up again. Does anyone know if I can still get this today, or what it was even called? Thanks. -mattbuck (Talk) 14:14, 18 December 2008 (UTC)

I had something similar, also called Mez (or certainly 3 letters ending in z), but I had it a lot longer than 6-8 years ago - more like 13 years ago on Windows 95. If I remember rightly, it was an application which had lots of different screen savers. I'm at work now, so I can't do it but am sure it still exists and that google will help out. -- WORMMЯOW  14:38, 18 December 2008 (UTC)

Perhaps part of After Dark (software)? --—— Gadget850 (Ed) ^talk - 15:39, 18 December 2008 (UTC)

Changing directory on XP command line

I don't use windows much anymore, so forgive me if this is obvious, but how can I cd to a directory on another drive? I have tried "cd J:" and sticking different paths after that but nothing seems to help. --93.106.56.181 (talk) 15:06, 18 December 2008 (UTC)

You have to "go to" the drive first; at the command prompt just type "J:" (enter). Then you can use cd to move around on that drive. --LarryMac | Talk 15:12, 18 December 2008 (UTC)

Ok, thanks! --93.106.56.181 (talk) 15:24, 18 December 2008 (UTC)

I recommend Powertoys for XP. Open Command Window Here lets you right click on a folder and open the command prompt pointing at the selected folder. I use a lot of DOS utilities at work and this is very handy. --—— Gadget850 (Ed) ^talk - 15:32, 18 December 2008 (UTC)

You can also use cd /d J:\somefolder, the /d part will make it change both directory and drive. --grawity 19:38, 18 December 2008 (UTC)

If you are only an occasional (or unwilling) Windows user - you DEFINITELY need to install CygWin. The Cygwin shell is bash or tcsh (your choice) - and there is a /cygdrive/ directory with subdirectories c, d, e, f, whatever - so in Cygwin, you go to the J: drive by typing 'cd /cygdrive/j' - MUCH better than Window's own shell. Also, you can make symlinks in Cygwin so you can link your folder on the J: drive to a place that's more convenient. So under Cygwin's /home/steve - I have /home/steve/c which is the top of the C: drive...which is a symlink to /cygdrive/c...much, MUCH nicer! This has all sorts of other benefits for the commandliner - you can say things like "ls /cygdrive/*/*.doc" and do a wildcard search across multiple drives. I have no clue how you'd do that in Windows' shell because you can't wildcard the drive letter (DIR *:*\*.doc). SteveBaker (talk) 00:05, 19 December 2008 (UTC)

If you have any windows version of grep installed, you can get the "ls somedrive/*/*.doc" effect, without cygwin, as follows:

    cd somedrive
    dir /b /s | grep \.doc$

--NorwegianBlue ^talk 23:27, 19 December 2008 (UTC)

New laptop

I'm thinking of buying a new laptop soon, it will probably come with windows vista preinstalled. I don't like vista that much, no real reason I just don't. Will a modern laptop be able to work if I install Windows NT 2000 on it? Or is Win2k too old for new laptops? 66.63.184.3 (talk) 20:45, 18 December 2008 (UTC)

Old operating systems do quite well on modern computers. The only problem you're likely to have is that they may be too quick, so info will sometimes fly by too fast for you to see it. Also beware that many modern applications won't work on an old O/S, so you'd need to use older versions of those apps.StuRat (talk) 21:21, 18 December 2008 (UTC)

You may also run into issues of newer hardware not having drivers for the older OS's. I've found this to be true especially with 64-bit stuff. My suggestion would be to check with some of the major builders to see if you can get the model you want with the "downgrade" to XP. Companies like Dell and HP do have those options on a few select models. I have found this issue more with Vista than the previous versions of Microsoft. Meaning that if it will run XP then you most likely won't have problems with W2K. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Ched Davis (talk • contribs) 22:41, 18 December 2008 (UTC) oops .. sig: Ched Davis (talk) 22:44, 18 December 2008 (UTC)

Yeah - I strongly agree. By all means dump Vista - but going all the way back to Win2k is too far. If you can get a legit copy of XP, that's what I'd do. Of all of the OS varients Microsoft has produced, XP is by far the best. SteveBaker (talk) 23:53, 18 December 2008 (UTC)

Torrent woes

At my university I'm trying to download slackware linux via bittorent, but utorrent does not work. It starts up and everything seems fine but it doesn't find or connect to any peers or lechers. What can I do to bypass whatever restrictions have been placed on bittorent protocall connections? I can access everything else from the computer like normal web pages and nothing is blocked not even porn, but torrent does not work. 66.63.184.3 (talk) 20:45, 18 December 2008 (UTC)

Maybe try BitTorrent protocol encryption? Most clients support some kind of it. --71.141.138.102 (talk) 21:49, 18 December 2008 (UTC)

You said "At my university...." ... is it possible you are behind a firewall that is blocking the port for p2p data transfer? Ched Davis (talk) 22:44, 18 December 2008 (UTC)

Indeed, some/most universities have firewalls/proxies/blocks in place that block the port for p2p transfers (that includes torrents, LimeWire, etc.). Or, if you're behind a wireless router, you could have that configured to block that port. Or you could have your OS blocking that port, or even something else (virus? =0 <gasp!>). flaminglawyer^c 23:01, 18 December 2008 (UTC)

There is no "torrent port". There are only non-reserved ports. Any P2P program out there allows you to configure which port it uses. There is a high possibility that there is a protocol filter however. For the highest chance of success, used Forced Encryption, ensuring there's no 'allow incoming legacy/unencrypted' enabled. Additionally, either select a range in the 50000+ for your port, and/or have it auto-randomize. These together should defeat just about anything an ISP can do to stop your P2P activities. However, they can still aggressively throttle your connection, making it crawl quite slowly. Slow's better than none though. (The forced encryption will cause slower speeds regardless of your ISP, simply because of the far fewer connections you'll make, and slightly because of the packet overhead.) --EvilEdDead (talk) 14:53, 19 December 2008 (UTC)

Your Freedom always worked while I was at uni, though you do need to pay. -mattbuck (Talk) 00:00, 19 December 2008 (UTC)

December 19

How to download video from Adobe Flash Player 10

I've never been able to actually download the video playing in Flash, and it seems to be no different for the current version. I want to download videos from Flickr so that I can convert them to .ogg and upload. Can someone offer some advice for how one might do this? With the addition and expansion of videos on Flickr, there's much potential for expanding Wikimedia's video collection, but copying files to the Commons for video seems impossible relative to the ease of pictures, which can be done in a few seconds on the toolserver.

I can't install my own programs on the computers I'm currently using. I can perhaps get around this by using a friend's, but is there any option for those without the ability to download and install a program to do it? Would it ever be possible to make the process as simple as pictures, perhaps by having an automatic process do the conversion for us when we upload? Richard001 (talk) 00:56, 19 December 2008 (UTC)

There are both programs you can download, and places on the web that will convert these types of files to .avi, .mpg, etc. http://www.savevideodownload.com/ is one of the sites which will convert the flash files (swf) to a more user friendly movie type file. If you are in a situation where you can't 'install' software, your best bet may be to do a Google or Yahoo search for convert flash to movie file and look at some of those sites. Ched Davis (talk) 01:38, 19 December 2008 (UTC)

The site you have recommended only seems to be for YouTube. Can anyone provide me with a site that actually works? (I have tried a few). Richard001 (talk) 02:47, 19 December 2008 (UTC)

I don't know that wiki editors usually do searches for others, but maybe http://vixy.net/ would help you. Ched Davis (talk) 03:54, 19 December 2008 (UTC)

vixy doesn't handle Flickr either - it turned out the Firefox extension DownloadHelper was best for me. Richard001 (talk) 23:52, 27 January 2009 (UTC)

BIOS

I cannot find the BIOS on this MOBO [1]. Will someone please point it out? Ζρς ι'β' ^¡hábleme! 03:29, 19 December 2008 (UTC)

Perhaps you are looking for the CMOS (the battery that remembers your BIOS settings). It's the round circle (battery) in the upper right corner. If it's a jumper (such as what you would use to reset a password), I'm sorry the picture isn't large enough for my old out of focus eyes to detect. Ched Davis (talk) 03:50, 19 December 2008 (UTC)

I know where the CMOS is, but I am trying to upgrade the BIOS on one of my old computers, so I need to find out what BIOS chip it has, or where it would be located. Ζρς ι'β' ^¡hábleme! 04:00, 19 December 2008 (UTC)

I've flashed a BIOS before to upgrade, but I guess you want to replace the chip eh? ... what's the model number of the mobo? Ched Davis (talk) 04:25, 19 December 2008 (UTC)

Well, I am planning to flash it, but I have to know what BIOS I have to flash it correctly, right? The mobo is a CUW-AM rev 1.02. Ζρς ι'β' ^¡hábleme! 05:08, 19 December 2008 (UTC)

Perhaps this is what you are looking for: http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/document?lc=en&cc=us&docname=bph07170&product=81921&dlc=en&lang=en

As far as current version of BIOS, I would think by booting (even from floppy or CD) you could keystroke into the BIOS to tell you what the current version is. I am NO mobo expert, but looked around a bit for ya. I guess it is a: Asus CUW-AM/MEW-AM, but get the impression you won't find much at the Asus site. HP used them and called them: CUW-AM (Tortuga). Are you trying to get it to accept more RAM by any chance? Well, sorry I couldn't be more help ... hope what little I looked for has helped at least point you in the right direction. You'll probably have more luck with Google than Wikipedia on this type of issue. Ched Davis (talk) 06:39, 19 December 2008 (UTC)

The device in the brown socket is the Firmware Hub, which contains the flash memory where the BIOS resides. Rilak (talk) 09:58, 19 December 2008 (UTC)

The chip that says "TEST1" to be specific. *facepalms@Ched Davis's answer* --EvilEdDead (talk) 14:57, 19 December 2008 (UTC)

I am needing to flash it so it will boot from USB. All of the RAM ports are full on the mobo anyway. Ζρς ι'β' ^¡hábleme! 15:12, 19 December 2008 (UTC)

sorryChed Davis (talk) 20:05, 19 December 2008 (UTC)

Speech recognition software

I need would like to use one of the free speech recognition programs. Unfortunately, I have no experience with speech recognition software. Browsing the articles, I read about engines, language and accoustic models... and don't really have a clue what they're talking about. (Yeah, the articles are not very accessible for people like me.) I'd sooo much appreciate if someone could give me an easy explanation (or link to one) as to how I install and get one (or more) of those programs going. And yes, I'd prefer to try out more than one program (if possible) because the recordings are of rather poor quality, so it might help to find out which program does the best. (And the rest I'll have to do by hand, I know.) Thanks a million for your help!! --Ibn Battuta (talk) 05:00, 19 December 2008 (UTC) PS: In case you wonder--yes, I'm pretty stressed out at the moment, so please excuse that I'm not taking the time to "work through" our articles... 'cause yes, I've seen enough to realize that for me, it'd be a very long way.

Wikipedia is not intended as a how-to guide. But if you go to the websites of the speech recognition software products in question, you'll find documents on what they do and how to use them. However, none of these speach-to-text enginees seems to be aimed at the end consumer, and not to beginners. (For example, the Sphinx Tutorial will require some familiarity with Linux.)

Speech-To-Text technology is in a suprisingly primitive state, and these open source projects seem to be more research than anything else, so the documentation about them is aimed at researchers, not the layman.

In any case, I don't think you'll find any package, free or otherwise, that can effectively decode some pre-existing, poor quality, samples of natural language. Speach-to-text programs typically require a "training" period where the voice they will be working with reads a bunch of known text. (They usually force you to read a page from an old novel or something.) Even after the software has been trained to work with a particular voice, using speech-to-text software takes practice. They require you to speak in a very clear fashion with unnatural spaces between the words.

I'm sorry, but I don't think you'll find software that will do what you seem to want to do, even if you're willing to pay for it. You're going to have to transcribe your tapes the old fashioned way. APL (talk) 06:01, 19 December 2008 (UTC)

I have to agree with the previous poster, as I have in the past wrestled with various commercial and non-commercial speech recognition applications. Speech recognition is an incredibly complex field, and while companies have struggled to package easy-to-use commercial solutions, the free versions available are much more primitive. If you really can't afford commercial software, then either HTK or Sphinx is probably your best bet (HTK is free for private use I believe, and will work in Windows or unix, but despite numerous tutorials and advice online it is complex to set up), but don't have unrealistic expectations. If you get it to work at all, you will have to do a lot of checking, correction, and editing on even the best recogniser output. If you buy something like Nuance's Dragon NaturallySpeaking Professional edition[2], it will be able to do transcriptions from file - how well it works will depend on many factors, and the output is likely to require substantial checking/correction even on noise-free speech. It may be cheaper to pay a professional typist, depending on the quantity of speech, and it will certainly be far quicker and more accurate; there is no simple, cash-free, and effort-free solution to your problem. --Maltelauridsbrigge (talk) 13:44, 19 December 2008 (UTC)

I agree with the above posters and would also add that speech recognition only works well when you have a severely restricted vocabulary. For example, if it only tries to recognize the words "one" through "ten". StuRat (talk) 15:46, 19 December 2008 (UTC)

Just a big thanks!!! to all of you! That helped enormously! Yes, I had expected to have to do a lot of re-checking, but still save some time... but if I won't, I'm really grateful to know this before investing time to understand the software. BTW, I guess the information you provided would also be helpful in the articles... though the problem on Wikipedia is that someone would probably claim that's "NPOV"... Anyways, thanks so much, Ibn Battuta (talk) 22:24, 19 December 2008 (UTC)

The usual problem is that technical articles are written by people with a PhD in that field, and, as a result, are utterly incomprehensible to anyone who lacks a PhD in that field. Anyone attempting to add any content for a general audience will then be immediately reverted by the PhDs. StuRat (talk) 01:32, 20 December 2008 (UTC)

Yes... though computer geeks seem to be rather good at being incomprehensible as well! :o) Anyways, yes, I see it as one of Wikipedia's biggest problems, especially in the sciences. ... --Ibn Battuta (talk) 17:57, 20 December 2008 (UTC)

One approach I've used successfully, after doing battle with the PhDs, is to create a separate "introduction level" article. A few of them won't even stand for that, but the majority of PhDs are satisfied with one article per topic which they can keep utterly incomprehensible to everyone but themselves. StuRat (talk) 20:30, 23 December 2008 (UTC)

Resolved

How to password protect a folder in Windows

Hi, several file formats like word, excel etc. provide option of password protect, but is there a way to password protect a whole folder in Windows? 59.165.151.149 (talk) 05:22, 19 December 2008 (UTC)

This has some suggestions as does Google. CambridgeBayWeather Have a gorilla 05:32, 19 December 2008 (UTC)

dB to V or mV conversion

Hi, I have a spec that mentions a value of "700mV +/- 0.5dB". How to convert it to V or mV tolerance instead of dB tolerance? 59.165.151.149 (talk) 05:32, 19 December 2008 (UTC)

 <math>\beta _1-\beta_2=10\log\left(\dfrac{V_1}{V_2}\right)
  \textrm{Where }\:  \beta \:\textrm{ is measured in dB
  and }\: V\: \textrm{ measured in volts.}</math>  —Preceding unsigned comment added by 99.244.11.222 (talk) 12:36, 19 December 2008 (UTC) 

If that's an answer it's pretty hard to read. Try writing it without the attempted fancy graphics. StuRat (talk) 15:41, 19 December 2008 (UTC)

I was trying to write it into LaTeX, so if u have a LaTeX editor just copy paste the code. or visit this site[3] —Preceding unsigned comment added by 99.244.11.222 (talk) 18:31, 19 December 2008 (UTC)

What is the spec for Inter component level inequality

What is the spec for Inter component level inequality while measuring a PAL-B/G component video signal. Thanks. 59.165.151.149 (talk) 05:34, 19 December 2008 (UTC)

Question about XP popularity

If Windows XP is one of the more disliked versions of Windows, why is it the most used one anyway? 124.180.116.201 (talk) 07:03, 19 December 2008 (UTC)

It isn't one of the more disliked versions. Just that simple. Magog the Ogre (talk) 08:49, 19 December 2008 (UTC)

And liked-ness isn't a major factor in things like this. It is a sales decision. Once the new operating system comes out then the shops (and business to business sales) all start pushing the new-version, they slowly stop selling configurations with the old version (by and large) and so the consumer isn't really offered the choice in the big-stores - they buy their DELL with the newest operating system and that's that. The vast majority of consumers won't have any opinion on better/worse because they aren't that technically interested in the system - so after an initial 'getting used to it' period they'll probably find whichever operating system Microsoft serve up is fine. 194.221.133.226 (talk) 11:50, 19 December 2008 (UTC)

Googling suggests XP is one of the more popular (not just on sales)[4][5][6]; in user ratings it is challenged mainly by 2000. --Maltelauridsbrigge (talk) 13:50, 19 December 2008 (UTC)

• Democracy is the most disliked form of government, but also the most used. Just that simple. 194.99.216.135 (talk) 12:42, 20 December 2008 (UTC)

Linux problem, Ubuntu x86_64

~/Desktop/install_flash_player_10_linux$ nspluginwrapper -i libflashplayer.so

nspluginwrapper: no appropriate viewer found for libflashplayer.so

Please diagnose. The x86_64 version of Flashplayer is so buggy it's breathtaking (i.e., not worth using, willing to switch back to Windows over this issue). :) Magog the Ogre (talk) 08:46, 19 December 2008 (UTC)

Nvm, I have Flash working: it's just a really lousy version of it (e.g., crashes upon trying to run blogtv, which really bums me out). Magog the Ogre (talk) 10:53, 19 December 2008 (UTC)

Flash worked for me after I installed flashplugin-nonfree (or something like that). I am not an active user so can't tell if it's buggy, but it only works properly in Firefox (ie not in Opera). This suggest you don't have some 32-bit libs installed. --93.106.15.216 (talk) 13:21, 19 December 2008 (UTC)

Navigation Columns in Dreamweaver CS3

Hello Wikipedia,

I'm cuurently building a website and I'd like it to have a navigation column on the left hand side, to make it easier to get around. I'm using one of the dreamweaver templates but, when i go to change the background colour for example, it only changes the area outside of where the text is -not WHERE the text is. Is there some way around this? Perhaps there is a better way orf creating what I have in mind..

Thanks,82.22.4.63 (talk) 11:11, 19 December 2008 (UTC)

It's been a while since I used Dreamweaver and I didn't use the templates, so take this as probationary advice until someone who actually knows what they're doing comes along. My first thought was that the text area is being kept in a table of some sort. If altering the page properties doesn't work, you may want to try changing the table properties, one of which should be to make the background transparent (or you can just give it the colour you want). Matt Deres (talk) 14:45, 19 December 2008 (UTC)

• Try using CSS - all of the style-properties (like background colors) of Dreamweaver templates are stored there. Have a brief look at the selectors and you'll understand what you should change. 194.99.216.135 (talk) 12:35, 20 December 2008 (UTC)

How Big is a BIT on a Hard Drive Platter?

Imagine a modern hard drive with a capacity of, say, 1 TB. (SI or binary, doesn't really matter.) The drive has 5 platters of 200 GB each. How much space does a single binary digit take up? 82.2.15.100 (talk) 11:12, 19 December 2008 (UTC)

Discrete Track Recording disks have 516 megabits per square millimeter (333 gigabits per square inch). -- Fullstop (talk) 11:18, 19 December 2008 (UTC)

That's 1.85x10^-9 mm² or 1.84800 x 10^-15 m² or 1848 square nanometers per bit. If my math is right. --Maltelauridsbrigge (talk) 13:57, 19 December 2008 (UTC)

You can figure it out yourself by noting that the typical platter is about 3.5 inches in diameter, with about a 1-inch hole for the axle, and data on both sides, so we get:

 diameter_outer = 3.5
 radius_outer = 3.5 / 2
 area_outer = pi() * radius_outer ** 2
 
 diameter_inner = 1
 radius_inner = diameter_inner / 2
 area_inner = pi() * radius_inner ** 2
 
 total_area_per_side = area_outer - area_inner
 sides_per_platter = 2
 total_area_per_platter = total_area_per_side * sides_per_platter
 
 bytes_per_platter = 10 ** 12
 bits_per_byte = 8
 bits_per_platter = bytes_per_platter * bits_per_byte
 area_per_bit = total_area_per_platter / bits_per_platter

 print area_per_bit
       ~0.00000000000220893233

which is about 1425 square nanometers, which is quite close to Maltelauridsbrigge's numbers. At that rate, you could fit the following data on the dust mote pictured at right:

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolo

--Sean 16:09, 19 December 2008 (UTC)

One can't use an algorithm like that to determine 'bit' size. First, platters include a quite a bit more than just storage area. Secondly, the algo above assumes a constant 1,000,000,000,000 bytes_per_platter, i.e. 1 TB per platter, which is of course not the case. Third, the algo above assumes that -- as tracks grew longer -- there would also be proportionally more sectors per track (i.e. the outermost track would have about 3 times as many sectors as the innermost track). The number does increase but not proportionally, because otherwise seek times would be proportionally greater too. -- Fullstop (talk) 21:40, 19 December 2008 (UTC)

Well, you're right that I put in 1000 GB instead of 200 GB per platter, but after correcting for that I still get within an order of magnitude of M's number above, which is good enough for a Fermi calculation like this (I mean, I eyeballed the 1" hole in the platter, so let's not split bits here). Also, I don't see how tracks and sectors have anything to do with it when we've already arrived at 200 GB per platter, no matter what the layout. I stand by my envelope! --Sean 23:46, 19 December 2008 (UTC)

Virgin ISP

Anyone know an email address for their customer services? They tell me that they cannot be contacted by email (but they manage to send them out all right). I suspect that they do have an email address, but are simply trying to prevent customers contacting them. DuncanHill (talk) 14:39, 19 December 2008 (UTC)

support at virgin dot net (from http://www.virgin.net/customers/contactus/ ), or support at virginmedia dot com (from newsgroup postings). They also regularly respond to queries in their newsgroups - for instance I get occasional billing/fault help via virginmedia.support.broadband.cable .Nanonic (talk) 14:55, 19 December 2008 (UTC)

OK, I'll try that, thanks. DuncanHill (talk) 15:00, 19 December 2008 (UTC)

Nope. The "support AT" addresses don't take incoming email. DuncanHill (talk) 15:03, 19 December 2008 (UTC)

• Well, after further digging by me, it appears that it is indeed impossible to email Virgin.com, however, because in my latest complaint to them I asked them to reply by email rather than phone, they are now apparently sending me an email response by first class post. DuncanHill (talk) 19:00, 19 December 2008 (UTC)

Inuktitut

Is it possible to correctly view syllabics in IE7? IE6 shows them fine as does FF but IE7 dropped support for them. Here's a page that has both the fonts and examples to let you know if you can see them correctly. CambridgeBayWeather Have a gorilla 15:37, 19 December 2008 (UTC)

Since IE6 is threaded into ur windows installation, installing the fonts provided on the Government of Nunavut's website (I thought that i may never say Nunavut on the internet :P) using control panal. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 99.244.11.222 (talk) 18:53, 19 December 2008 (UTC)

Seems to be a bit of a mix up here. On my home computer I have IE6 and I also have the Pigiarniq fonts installed and I can see the syllabics fine. At work I have IE7 and I also have the Pigiarniq fonts installed but I can't see them. CambridgeBayWeather Have a gorilla 20:09, 19 December 2008 (UTC)

Hibernation Option Absent

When I click Start->Turn Off Computer and then hold down the Shift key to activate the hibernate option, nothing happens. The Standby option simply remains as it is. Please help. (Windows XP sp2) —Preceding unsigned comment added by 117.194.228.29 (talk) 17:29, 19 December 2008 (UTC)

The first thing to check is if hibernation is enabled: Go into Start > Settings > Control Panel > Power Options. Click on the Hibernate tab, then check the Enable Hibernation check box to enable it.

If it is, then a driver problem might prevent XP from hibernating; see Microsoft's knowledge base article:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/907477 —Preceding unsigned comment added by 76.11.230.33 (talk) 18:37, 19 December 2008 (UTC)

Thank you! That worked perfectly! 117.194.226.34 (talk) 03:02, 20 December 2008 (UTC)

Resolved

Learning

Does anyone know any quality, effective, free Java and or Web design learning courses online?--98.243.98.202 (talk) 17:37, 19 December 2008 (UTC)

W3Schools is pretty good for web stuff; no Java though. --LarryMac | Talk 17:52, 19 December 2008 (UTC)

The last few weeks of cs50.net deal with javascript, html, php, mysql, css, ajax, etc. --VectorField (talk) 19:55, 19 December 2008 (UTC)

VLC Christmas hat

Is it just me or does VLC have a Christmas hat on? When did this happen, will it go away after the new year? http://lh5.ggpht.com/_SLMraXaQ8jY/SUqrGFOC52I/AAAAAAAABMg/CNia0ngUmZ4/image%5B4%5D.png?imgmax=800 —Preceding unsigned comment added by 66.63.184.3 (talk) 18:22, 19 December 2008 (UTC)

It's an easter egg that activated at midnight Dec 19th [7] [8] It only appears on the 0.9+ versions, will probably go away after Christmas. SN0WKITT3N 18:53, 19 December 2008 (UTC)

Nice to know I'm not alone :P i tried editting the icons,pngs and xpm in the installation folder to get rid of the christmas hats, but it doesn't work. Seems that Ubuntu is caching the icons somewhere where i can't find them. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 99.244.11.222 (talk) 18:56, 19 December 2008 (UTC)

jpeg

how can i get the extra data from the jpgs like wut you see on image pages the metadata, how can i gets this to show when i select a jpgs file on my computer. wat progroms do i need to install? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 194.80.240.66 (talk) 18:37, 19 December 2008 (UTC)

If you're on Windows XP or Vista, right-click the image and choose Properties' -> Summary and click Advanced >>.

For more information, read EXIF. --grawity 18:39, 19 December 2008 (UTC)

PhotoME will show you an incredible amount of information from the EXIF. -- Coneslayer (talk) 20:04, 19 December 2008 (UTC)

what's the name of this computer part?

http://www.parts-people.com/index.php?action=item&id=3257

What's the name of the part that attaches to this hinge? Specifically, the part of the hinge with three holes is screwed onto this part. Thanks. --VectorField (talk) 19:52, 19 December 2008 (UTC)

Been a bit since I had a Dell laptop apart, but I think the hinge plate with the three holes attaches to the LCD display and the part with the square post goes into the back of the laptop. --—— Gadget850 (Ed) ^talk - 21:35, 19 December 2008 (UTC)

Right, it attaches to the LCD display. But it's a specific part of the LCD display, a small 1.5cm x 1.5cm bracket that (in my case) has fallen off of the LCD display. Do you know what it's called? I'm trying to figure out where I can order it. Thanks. --VectorField (talk) 22:09, 19 December 2008 (UTC)

Sounds like an OEM-only part. I don't know that you'd be able to find one without the attached LCD laptop lid. But, best guess, try "LCD bracket" and the model name/number. --EvilEdDead (talk) 15:56, 21 December 2008 (UTC)

Firefox broken downloads notify??

Hi. Is there any way to make Firefox notice a broken/incomplete download and notify it as such, instead of notifying a broken download as "complete"? Thanks in advance, Kreachure (talk) 20:45, 19 December 2008 (UTC)

What do you mean "broken?" If you mean a link to something that's not there - Firefox 3 recognizes this and gives a notice. flaminglawyer^c 21:52, 19 December 2008 (UTC)

No it doesn't, especially from sites like rapidshare it often reports the download complete even though it has only downloaded some of the file. Use an external download manager like Free Download Manager for troublesome links. And also compare the size of the downloaded file to what it really should be, especially for RARs as it will fuck you up to download 90 or so RARs only to find one of the damn files is broken and you don't know which one.

I can't figure why it should be hard to figure out which one is broken, if you read your operation log for the unrar/unzip program. (WinRAR it great for this, since it pops up for you with the specific problems, particularly if a certain file is broken.) As for the OP, the only thing you can do, within Firefox, is to check your download sizes. You *might* find an addon/plugin that will handle them differently, but I have doubts, since the one I use (Download StatusBar) can't tell a broken d/l anymore than FF can. --EvilEdDead (talk) 16:02, 21 December 2008 (UTC)

Download Them All will alert you if a download is broken and allows you to resume downloads on sites that support resume. SN0WKITT3N 11:46, 22 December 2008 (UTC)

nameservers

Resolved

I already looked at the article nameserver. I signed up for a site at Godaddy, but want to host my files elsewhere. It tells me to enter 2 nameservers. I signed up for "free" hosting at a free hosting site, (example).com (please, no comments on that). They gave me 2 nameservers - ns1.(example).com and ns2.(example).com. What do I do now? And in case this plan fails miserably - how would I get the domain to point to my IP address? flaminglawyer^c 21:49, 19 December 2008 (UTC)

Getting a domain name to point at your ip address will require you to 'buy' a domain and set it at to your ip. When you signed up for a free site they generally don't give you access to the rights that will enable you to point that domain to your ip address. But, you can upload a HTM file with a redirect code in it to send anyone trying to look at it to your ip address, but you will need to have a HTTP (and/or a ftp) server running under your ip address. here is a redirect code: <meta HTTP-EQUIV="REFRESH" content="0; url=http://www.yourdomain.com/index.html">

The above information is not correct. If the free hosting site has supplied you with nameservers, you just have to go set those up with the domain registrar. It's pretty easy, as these things go. Even if you didn't have the nameservers it is easy enough to have a GoDaddy domain name point wherever you want as a simple redirect (like (example).com/~yoursite/). --98.217.8.46 (talk) 22:55, 19 December 2008 (UTC)

Nevermind, I figured it out. flaminglawyer^c 22:33, 19 December 2008 (UTC)

Extra (multimedia) keys on Acer Aspire 6530G

I have an Acer Aspire 6530G laptop, and I'm trying to create a keyboard driver for it using keyTouch, but I can't identify some of the key symbols, so I was wondering if someone recognised those symbols or could give me some ideas as to what keycode to assign to them. The keys:

• stylised lowercase e at the top right that looks like the "e" in the Acer logo - triangular button
• something that could either be a satellite dish or a thumbtack - in the multimedia row, to the right of the "next song" button
• one that looks like a planet with rings (keytouch-editor recognised it as WWW-Home) - immediately to the right of the above
• a small humanoid with his arms raised, seemingly constructed out of the pound-symbol (#) or an H with 2 horizontal bars, and a small curl for a head - directly below the e-logo-button, at the far right of the multimedia button row, diagonally above the KP-minus key
• a sort of sector diagram - a circle with the top part lifted out (Fn-F2)
• a tapered line forming the outline of an almost-complete circle, with a small bar perpendicular to the broad top end, and a check mark in the centre of the circle (Fn-F3)
• the outline of a rectangle, a vertical separation bar, and then a rectangle outline with a pincushioned fill (Fn-F5)

Apart from the planetoid button which was identified by keytouch-editor and the Fn-F5 key, which I'm pretty sure has something to do with the screen, I have no idea what any of these symbols are.

Thanks in advance. --Link ^(t•c•m) 23:12, 19 December 2008 (UTC)

These keys and their functions are defined in the user guide or manual that came with the notebook. If you don't have the paper copy, Acer probably has one available online. I couldn't find the 6530G user guide, but here's an Acer manual for the 6920 series describing what seem to be the same keys. Look under "Easy-launch buttons" and "Hotkeys". --Martinship (talk) 06:51, 20 December 2008 (UTC)

Thanks. I hadn't been able to find a suitable manual, but this one clarified a lot. The only symbol I still haven't identified is the human-like figure I mentioned. Your link definitely helped a lot, though! --Link ^(t•c•m) 11:07, 20 December 2008 (UTC)

If your Acer is like mine (they seem to be pretty consistent) then the little satellite-dish thing is a sliding toggle that turns on and off the 802.11 wireless function. This appears not be function like a key, but to be directly wired to the wireless lan chip. On my Ubuntu linux setup on a recent Acer laptop, toggling this off makes nm-applet notice that the wireless has been disconnected (in much the way it notices when the wired ethernet cable is pulled). The only deficiency I see is that when one toggles it back on nm-applet doesn't see the physical interface come up and restore the network connection on it - you have to tell nm-applet to disable networking and then reenable - this is unlike its counterpart on Windows, which does restore the network connection. 87.114.130.249 (talk) 14:18, 20 December 2008 (UTC)

December 20

Remote camera

Here is what I would like to set up:

• 1) A camcorder filming constantly in one room
• 2) The picture being displayed on my TV in another room (via an RF or SCART input)
• 3) The signal being somehow encrypted

Can anybody tell me what technology I could use to implement this, please? WiFiSouls (talk) 00:56, 20 December 2008 (UTC)

To encrypt the signal, it will have to be digital. One of methods would be using computers at both ends and transfer video through computer network. (there probably exists dedicated solutions as well). At camcorder end, there will be necesary some means of getting video in computer (and probably transcoding)(although 100Mbit ethernet should be able to handle DV format video (wifi will not, so it will require transcoding)). Computer network could be encrypted by using VPN. At other end, omputer will have rto run some sort of media player and display video on TV. I am not aware of any video cards having direct RF or SCART outputs, but there are composite to SCART adapters, and dedicated (not built in) video cards with composite and s-video outputs are common. -Yyy (talk) 06:00, 20 December 2008 (UTC)

Not necessarily. Most cable headends were using systems that rearranged the video lines or inverted sync or something to like to 'scramble' pay-TV. You might be able to purchase this equipment used, now that everything else is going to digital. However, I don't think I can really recommend it. Ask yourself this: Does it need to be encrypted, or just difficult to intercept? I suspect the latter, in which case, have you considered just using a really long cable? Using something called a 'balun', you can even run your video over twisted pair cables. --Mdwyer (talk) 16:59, 21 December 2008 (UTC)

What we know is this: Camcorders' don't encrypt. So there has to be something connected to the camcorder to make it do that - and that something has to be a computer. Camcorders are a pain to connect to a computer - that says you should probably use a webcam instead of a camcorder (Webcams are amazingly cheap - so tying it up 24/7 doing this job is a better bet anyway). So the computer can grab the video and encrypt it. You don't say that there can't be a cable between the two rooms...but it's hard to imagine that you'd bother encrypting a signal that just goes between two rooms in one house - so perhaps you're talking about a room somewhere a long way off? In that case, pretty much the only way to get the data there is over the Internet. That means you need another computer at the TV set end (you need that anyway because you've got to decrypt the video and that's a job for a computer)...with a video output that's TV-compatible.

Unless you have REALLY strong reasons for wanting to do this EXACT thing - I think you should consider using the screen of the second computer to watch the video on instead of a TV set - and I severely doubt you really need encryption. That being the case, a simple Internet-capable webcam and a regular computer will do the job just fine. SteveBaker (talk) 00:05, 22 December 2008 (UTC)

Oh no

I tried entering the "format" command on my computer just to see what would happen, and I got a message saying "Paremeter line missing" or something of the sort. Does this mean the "format" command didn't work? Or does it mean it will work later on? Please. I don't want to damage my computer. 124.180.116.201 (talk) 05:08, 20 December 2008 (UTC)

You probably did not specify what to format, so command did nothing (and will not later on). To format a drive, use "format drive:", where drive is a drive letter for drive to be formatted. It will probably ask if ypu really want to format, when trying to format hard drive. -Yyy (talk) 05:48, 20 December 2008 (UTC)

If you don't know how the more dangerous commands work, please, please, spare yourself a lot of time and grief, and don't play with them. You can easily delete your entire hard disk with the Format command. Just don't mess with it unless you have a good idea of what you are trying to do with it. --98.217.8.46 (talk) 15:51, 20 December 2008 (UTC)

Yeah - that was INCREDIBLY dangerous. The FORMAT command's job is to erase everything on your hard drive...irrevocably...no "undelete". Rule #1 about "unknown" commands is that you don't run them until you understand them! As it happens, you got lucky - you've gotta tell it which drive to reformat by passing the drive name as a parameter on the command line. That's what it was complaining about - and it's what saved you. SteveBaker (talk) 23:47, 21 December 2008 (UTC)

I remember someone trying to make me run a .bat script that would automatically format the hard drive. Would it have worked? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 82.43.88.87 (talk) 23:51, 21 December 2008 (UTC)

Well yes, it is perfectly possible to write the commands in a batch script and tell it to do it silently, but it would only work when Windows was not active. — neuro^(talk) 02:32, 22 December 2008 (UTC)

I recall some years ago I was working with a marketting guy (this was back in the era of DOS) - he called me on the phone saying that his PC had run out of disk space and I jokingly said "Well, you could always try 'RMDIR/S *.*' - ha ha!" (or something like that) - then went on to explain how he could look for junk files he didn't need anymore. Anyway, while I was talking, he interrupted me to say "That command seems to be taking an awful long time?"... SteveBaker (talk) 16:16, 23 December 2008 (UTC)

Texture file in games

220.225.242.194 (talk) 06:19, 20 December 2008 (UTC)harshagg hello, how to make a 3D texture file of extension .fbx,which software can be used for making it can adobe photoshop will be able to do this or I have to use another method for 3D game modelling if present

You will probably need Adobe Photoshop Extended - that version has 3D support. Otherwise, you can use Autodesk's Maya. --wj32 ^t/c 09:52, 20 December 2008 (UTC)

Have you looked up fbx? It's more than just texture data. I don't know of any game engine that uses FBX files directly during runtime. --70.167.58.6 (talk) 16:53, 21 December 2008 (UTC)

It's not even texture data - it's motion-capture data - to do with animations. I can't imagine Photoshop could deal with it. Maya or 3DStudio probably can. SteveBaker (talk) 23:42, 21 December 2008 (UTC)

Internet

220.225.242.194 (talk) 06:22, 20 December 2008 (UTC)harshagg How can I increase my internet speed without changing my plan's speed which server usually offer

No. Unfortunately, if you ask this question at various places on the internet, you'll be told a bunch of fairy tales that say you can, and you'll be subject to some downright cons. For lots of people, their service is already as fast as the network to their home will support - the internet company isn't clamping it, and if they could offer you a faster service with the same equipment they already would be. For the rest, who are clamped, that's done on a router through which all their traffic flows. It isn't possible to somehow trick that router into allowing more traffic that it has been told to. Now people will tell you nonsense about changing your MTU size, but for an ordinary user that's pointless (and may make things slower). You'll hear the "Windows QoS myth", which claims XP (etc.) reserve a portion of bandwidth, and that you can reclaim that by turning of QoS (it doesn't, and you can't). Then come the cons - people will sell you (or let you download for "free") programs that claim to optimise your connection - some will just automatically apply the above nonsense "hacks"; some will do stupider things that break how the internet protocol works (like the silly "ack flood" things, that acknowledge packets you haven't received yet, in the vain belief this will chivvy up websites etc. into sending stuff faster); and some will just be trojans that take over your machine. To get the fastest internet you can, make sure your machine is free of viruses and trojans, make sure your wireless connection is secure (so you're not inadvertently sharing the connection with your freeloading neighbours), and only run p2p filesharing and telephony programs when you actually want to use them (they're particularly profligate with bandwidth, even when you think they're not). 87.114.130.249 (talk) 11:00, 20 December 2008 (UTC)

Ooh. Well said. If you want to monitor your connection speed, use WireShark or something similar. Notice that I said monitor, not make faster. flaminglawyer^c 15:45, 20 December 2008 (UTC)

You can change your expectations though. If you have a slow connection you could set your connection so you rejected flash or even javascript for most sites except ones you approved, it would improve your security too. Dmcq (talk) 12:49, 21 December 2008 (UTC)

Sadly, I agree. The speed of the connection isn't limited by your computer - it's dependent on your ISP's setup. So without them doing something - you're screwed. The best advice I could give would be to use something like http://www.speedtest.net/ to measure your ACTUAL network speed (both up and down-stream) - and check that you're actually getting the bandwidth that your ISP promised you in your contract. If your performance is significantly less than they contracted to deliver to you (and that's a surprisingly common thing) - you could complain and they might even do something about it. But if they are delivering all of the performance they promised you - then your only option is to upgrade to a faster service or learn to live with what you've got. SteveBaker (talk) 23:28, 21 December 2008 (UTC)

Hmm. Well there used to be a program called Google Web Accelerator. However, it is no longer available^link. Kushal (talk) 14:47, 28 December 2008 (UTC)

Speed Run Wiki

Renamed header to avoid duplicate Astronaut (talk) 11:02, 31 December 2008 (UTC)

Is the Speed Run Wiki (www.speedrunwiki.com) humorous or serious? 124.180.116.201 (talk) 12:01, 20 December 2008 (UTC)

It's serious. It's a real site about speed runs. (speed runs = trying to beat the game in the fastest time possible, even if it means ignoring any secrets/powerups/etc.) flaminglawyer^c 15:39, 20 December 2008 (UTC)

Many games give you an extra token for completing a stage fast so this is just an extension of that.Dmcq (talk) 12:39, 21 December 2008 (UTC)

Using a Sony Ericsson phone on Mac OSX

I use Mac OS X Leopard, and have a Sony Ericsson W595 phone. The software that comes with the phone is PC-only. How can I put songs onto the phone from my Mac?

Many thanks --Cash4alex (talk) 13:12, 20 December 2008 (UTC)

I've got the same phone, and I'm a windows (and linux) user. I never installed any of the software that came with the phone (among other reasons, because of this). You just need the usb-to-phone cable. When I plug it it, I get a menu on the phone display that allows me to chose between four different modes of operation. My menus are in Norwegian, so what follows is a translation which may not be exact:

 (Telephone icon)               Telephone mode
 (Usb icon)                     Media transfer
 (Icon with two drops of ink?)  Print out
 (Folder icon)                  Mass storage

Select the last one, with the folder icon. You'll be notified that you can't use your phone as a phone in this mode, and asked whether you want to continue. After responding "yes", the phone will appear as two new usb devices. Select the one that represents the memory card ("PHONE CARD"), not the one that represents built-in stuff ("PHONE"). Navigate to the folder called "music", and drag and drop your songs there. You can create sub-folders if you like, the phone will still find your songs, but the phone menus won't reflect your directory structure, but the ID3 tags of the songs. --NorwegianBlue ^talk 15:35, 20 December 2008 (UTC)

Does it have Bluetooth? If so, pair the phone with your computer and you can easily browse the contents using Bluetooth File Exchange in your Utilities folders. I had a 610 and s700 and I was able to easily drag and drop photos, voice memos, movies, ringtones and MP3 to and from the device over Bluetooth. I was also able to use iSync to sync Address Book contacts and Calendar events. --70.167.58.6 (talk) 03:25, 21 December 2008 (UTC)

Printing all possible k-subsets of a n-set

Hello. I want to write a program in C++ which given n and k, prints all possible combinations of k distinct numbers chosen out of 1,2...n. For example if n=4 and k=2 I want to print 12,13,14,23,24,34. (The order has to increasing as well, i.e. 32 is not permitted). I can't seem to get the looping done correctly to apply the brute force method for handling this program. Also, the brute force method would become infeasible to implement if n is big (something around 1000). What is the best approach to handle this problem? Thanks.--Shahab (talk) 14:16, 20 December 2008 (UTC)

It seems what you want to do is to generate permutations and then apply a trivial function to compose them (in your example, concatenation). If that's what you mean, then Permutation#Algorithms to generate permutations is for you. 87.114.130.249 (talk) 14:32, 20 December 2008 (UTC)

No I guess I don't want all permutations. I want a list of all possible k size subsets of a n size set. For example if n=10, k=2 then I want a list of ${\binom {10}{2}}=45$ numbers of the form 12,67,89 etc. That is all possible ways of selecting 2 numbers out of 1,2,...10. The should ideally be listed in increasing order, although that's not especially important. Thanks for the quick response though.--Shahab (talk) 14:41, 20 December 2008 (UTC)

You are going to want recursion. With for loops, you need a for loop for each iteration of k. If k=2, you need 2 for loops. If k=3, you need 3 for loops. It is rather difficult to write a program that magically increases or decreases the number of for loops it has. With recursion, you have 1 loop that calls itself as many times as needed. -- kainaw™ 14:57, 20 December 2008 (UTC)

Recursion is one approach, but a recursive loop 1000 steps deep is likely to break something. So, here's a non-recursive solution I wrote and tested in FORTRAN:

• Set this declaration as high as you like or use dynamic memory allocation:

    integer*2     ARY(29,100000)     ! Array of (digits,solutions).                                       
    integer*2     I,N,K,RECORD,DIGIT,VAL

• Initialization:

    RECORD = 1                       ! Current solution number.
    DIGIT  = 0                       ! Current digit.
    VAL    = 0                       ! Current value of digit.

• Make these user inputs to improve program:

    K = 2                            ! Number of digits.
    N = 4                            ! Number of values allowed for each digit.

• Body of program:

    IF (K .GT. N) GOTO 600           ! Abort if no solutions are possible.

200 DIGIT  = DIGIT + 1               ! Go to the next digit.

300 VAL = VAL + 1                    ! Go to, then store, the next value for the 
    ARY(DIGIT,RECORD) = VAL          !  current digit of the current solution.
    IF (DIGIT .LT. K) GOTO 200       ! Any more digits ?
400 IF (VAL   .LT. N) THEN           ! Any more values allowed for this digit ?
      RECORD = RECORD + 1            ! Go to the next solution.
      DO I = 1,DIGIT-1               ! Copy the old solution up to the previous digit.
        ARY(I,RECORD)= ARY(I,RECORD-1)
      ENDDO
      GOTO 300
    ENDIF

500 DIGIT  = DIGIT - 1               ! Go to the previous digit.
    IF (DIGIT .LT. 1) GOTO 600       ! If there's no previous digit, we're done.
    VAL = ARY(DIGIT,RECORD)          ! Get value of previous digit.
    IF (VAL+K-DIGIT .GE. N) GOTO 500 ! Digit's value already too high 
                                     !  to allow increasing values 
                                     !  to end of solution. 
    GOTO 400

• Program termination:

600 DO I =1,RECORD+1                 ! Add proper prints later.
      print *,ARY(1 ,I),ARY(2 ,I),ARY(3 ,I),ARY(4 ,I),ARY(5 ,I)
   +         ,ARY(6 ,I),ARY(7 ,I),ARY(8 ,I),ARY(9 ,I),ARY(10,I)
   +         ,ARY(11,I),ARY(12,I),ARY(13,I),ARY(14,I),ARY(15,I)
   +         ,ARY(16,I),ARY(17,I),ARY(18,I),ARY(19,I),ARY(20,I)
   +         ,ARY(21,I),ARY(22,I),ARY(23,I),ARY(24,I),ARY(25,I)
   +         ,ARY(26,I),ARY(27,I),ARY(28,I),ARY(29,I)
    ENDDO

You will have to convert to C++ (good luck !). StuRat (talk) 16:48, 20 December 2008 (UTC)

I am not sure that I understand the concept of the program. I converted it into C++. The code is given below. But the output is as follows: 1200000000000000000000000000424848013000000000000000000000000022895924199168140000000000000000000000000021472993282300000000000000000000000002291
3480240000000000000000000000000229070003400000000000000000000000001999046107229362400000000000000000000000000022901204198987. This makes no sense to me. Perhaps you can explain what I am doing wrong here. Thanks

#include <iostream>

using namespace std;

int main()
{
int ary[29][1000];
int i,n,k,record,digit,val;
record=1;
digit=0;
val=0;
k=2;
n=4;
if(k>n)exit(0);
NextDigit:
digit=digit+1;
NextValue:
val=val+1;
ary[digit][record]=val;
if(digit<k)goto NextDigit;
MoreValues:
if(val<n)
    {
        record=record+1;
        for(i=1;i<=digit-1;i++)
        ary[i][record]=ary[i][record-1];
        goto NextValue;
    }
PreviousDigit:
digit=digit-1;
if(digit<1)goto Print;
val=ary[digit][record];
if(val+k-digit>=n)goto PreviousDigit;
goto MoreValues;
Print:
for(i=1;i<=record+1;i++)
    {
        cout<<ary[1][i]<<ary[2][i]<<ary[3][i]<<ary[4][i]<<ary[5][i];
        cout<<ary[6][i]<<ary[7][i]<<ary[8][i]<<ary[9][i]<<ary[10][i];
        cout<<ary[11][i]<<ary[12][i]<<ary[13][i]<<ary[14][i]<<ary[15][i];
        cout<<ary[16][i]<<ary[17][i]<<ary[18][i]<<ary[19][i]<<ary[20][i];
        cout<<ary[21][i]<<ary[22][i]<<ary[23][i]<<ary[24][i]<<ary[25][i];
        cout<<ary[26][i]<<ary[27][i]<<ary[28][i]<<ary[29][i];
    }
}

Cheers--Shahab (talk) 10:23, 21 December 2008 (UTC)

Some things to add in C++ that FORTRAN does automatically:

1) Initialize the array to all zero values.

2) Include a space between each item printed.

3) Start each print on a new line.

Here's my output:

1 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
1 3 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
1 4 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
2 3 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
2 4 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
3 4 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

When I reformat your prints I get the following:

12000000000000000000000000004248480
13000000000000000000000000022895924199168
14000000000000000000000000002147299328
23000000000000000000000000022913480
24000000000000000000000000022907000
34000000000000000000000000019990461072293624
00000000000000000000000000022901204198987

So, you're getting the correct output, but with some garbage values at what should be the end of each line, which probably will be fixed by initialization of all array values to 0 and fixing the prints (just printing the first 3 array elements instead of 29 would hide the ugly random numbers and make the output nicer for your particular test case). Also, isn't there something in C++ called "flushing the (print) buffer" ? Once you get it working, you can fancy up the prints a bit more, say by suppressing any prints of zeros. StuRat (talk) 15:44, 21 December 2008 (UTC)

If you still don't get the concept of how the program works, try going through it manually. That is, write all the variable names down on a piece of paper and record how the values change as you step through the program. For the array, you could maybe make a 3×7 chart and fill in the values as they are assigned. This technique can be tremendously helpful in understanding how programs work. Some debuggers can do this all automatically, but you would likely have to reduce the size of the array to 3×7 (I only made it bigger to show that the same techniques would work with much larger values for N and K). StuRat (talk) 04:26, 22 December 2008 (UTC)

Here's one in Haskell:

comb :: Int -> [a] -> a
comb 0 _      = [[]]
comb _ []     = []
comb m (x:xs) = map (x:) (comb (m-1) xs) ++ comb m xs

*Main> comb 2 [1..4]
[[1,2],[1,3],[1,4],[2,3],[2,4],[3,4]]

--71.141.111.57 (talk) 12:12, 21 December 2008 (UTC)

The article Combinadic may be of use to you, pre-fascicle 3A by Knuth referenced at the end is particularly useful. Dmcq (talk) 12:35, 21 December 2008 (UTC)

One way to implement it is to make it like mechanical counters - a circle of numbers in unit place turns one circle and moves the next circle by one notch. The same as listing all the numbers sequentially in base k. Shyamal (talk) 12:09, 22 December 2008 (UTC)

Thanks for all ideas. Cheers--Shahab (talk) 07:31, 23 December 2008 (UTC)

Were you able to follow my suggestions to get the program to work and figure out the logic behind it ? StuRat (talk) 17:08, 23 December 2008 (UTC)

You might look at The Art of Computer Programming volume 4 fascicle 3. —Tamfang (talk) 17:59, 28 December 2008 (UTC)

Apple Script Script Editor

I have Mac OSX and I make tons of simple applications with Script Editor. I really enjoy some of them, but they stop working after 3 days precisely! I assume it is the same "Sweeper" that removes aliases saved to the desktop, but I would be very grateful if someone could tell me how to stop them from "dying"! THANK YOU 72.73.68.23 (talk) (I have an account, just too lazy to login this morning!) 14:59, 20 December 2008 (UTC)

portable disk corrupted

I was watching a video file from my portable disk when I accidentally disconnected the USB port, the media file stood still and after a few seconds the system warned me that the disk was corrupted. The data present inside it is of utmost importance and I can NEVER afford to lose it. So please tell me a way to repair my disk or recover that data. I even tried check disk on it but it wouldn't start. When I open that disk from "My Computer" I get the message "J: drive not accessible. Disk is corrupted and unreadable". I am not much knowledgeable about computers, thats why I am seeking help here in wiki. Thanks for the help. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 59.88.20.120 (talk) 16:43, 20 December 2008 (UTC)

Have you tried rebooting your computer and then trying again? It shouldn't have corrupted anything just to have it pulled out while it was watching a movie. (In the future, if you have something you CANNOT afford to lose, store it somewhere else as well as a USB drive. USB drives are very convenient but they are NOT necessarily reliable; when they fail, they often fail totally and without warning.) --98.217.8.46 (talk) 17:34, 20 December 2008 (UTC)

Rebooting the system didnt wrk out, still its corrupted. i just got that data so didnt have the chance to make a backup. thats why i am asking help here. before i could make a backup the accident happened. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 59.88.20.104 (talk) 18:19, 20 December 2008 (UTC)

Typing "usb flash drive corrupted" into Google reveals lots of pages that might be helpful, as well as this extremely technical description of what the problem could be. It features the line "...there is a bug with Windows 2000 (that MS never bothered to fix) and can corrupt the drive when it is removed without proper eject." ... Out of curiosity, what parameters did you run chkdsk with? It won't fix anything if you don't run it with /r. « Aaron Rotenberg « Talk « 19:06, 20 December 2008 (UTC)

You don't need /r. /f should be good enough. I doubt the device has developed bad sectors of course I could be wrong Nil Einne (talk) 09:26, 27 December 2008 (UTC)

PS3 controller for NXT mindstormers robot

Is it possible to use a PS3 Sixaxis controller for a NXT brick with FTC firmware on it. I am using Robot C to program the brick. If it is possible, how would i do it also. Thanks in advance. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.175.15.49 (talk) 16:44, 20 December 2008 (UTC)

I'd have thought it probably was possible but you probably have to do some programming unless somebody else has done this already. you might be interested in this link Using the PlayStation 3 controller in Bluetooth mode with Linux. I'd have thought one of the Lego Mindstorms or other robotics notice boards would be better help. Dmcq (talk) 12:15, 21 December 2008 (UTC)

I believe it's been done with the Wii remote (which is also BlueTooth) - so it's probably possible. SteveBaker (talk) 22:38, 21 December 2008 (UTC)

Spam solutions critique template author

There's a templated message that's been in use for a long time – since the age of Usenet – that is often used to critique new proposals to fight spam.

It starts off with

Your post advocates a
  ( ) technical
  ( ) legislative
  ( ) market-based
  ( ) vigilante
approach to fighting spam. Your idea will not work.
Here is why it won't work....

and then runs through several check-all-that-apply explanations and principles. A full copy is available here, and probably everywhere else on the 'Net.

Anyway, I was wondering — does anyone know the identity of the original author? As well, this document has been widely reproduced for many years; was it ever explicitly released into the public domain (or under any free license) by the copyright holder? TenOfAllTrades(talk) 17:31, 20 December 2008 (UTC)

I don't think it was ever copyrighted... it's the Internet. For the same reason I can say it's unlikely you'll ever find who wrote it. --grawity 09:25, 21 December 2008 (UTC)

Every creative work is copyrighted unless explicitly released. This applies on the internet as elsewhere. Algebraist 09:38, 21 December 2008 (UTC)

Well, if that person that OP linked to can post the full text without getting sued, and the fact that you said it's been used since the invention of Usenet, I believe that you could use it without any fear of legal repercussions or anything like that. flaminglawyer^c 14:52, 21 December 2008 (UTC)

There is often a broad gap between 'doing something that won't get you sued' and 'doing the right thing'. In any case, I'm not looking for (bad) legal advice — I'm genuinely interested in who the author is. TenOfAllTrades(talk) 20:37, 21 December 2008 (UTC)

Correct. You cannot use "they did it too" as a defense in court. As for the author, it is highly unlikely that the author will be possible to find. There are likely many people claiming to be the author. I've had a very similar experience. I pulled a hoax a long time ago (because I thought was going to get a book published and the hoax was a cool tie-in). Since then, I've found many people claim to have been the ones who created the hoax - and they have evidence to prove it. -- kainaw™ 21:08, 21 December 2008 (UTC)

I also suspect that the document has evolved over time; I wouldn't be surprised if there have been tweaks over the years (additional rationales have been added, etc.) and that there have been many contributions. Still, is there anyone who is strong in Google-fu who knows of the earliest Usenet mention? TenOfAllTrades(talk) 21:57, 21 December 2008 (UTC)

By now there will be dozens to hundreds of authors who contributed to the current version. Those things definitely evolve. A few years ago I got a funny email about "Top 10 things likely to be overheard if you had a Klingon on your software development team" - it was OK - but I added a bunch more ideas to it and put it up on my web site (here: http://www.sjbaker.org/humor/klingon_programmer.html) - now do a Google search on a phrase found only in my version and you'll find over fourteen THOUSAND web sites are "mirroring" my additions to the original post. Of the few I looked at, several have improved on my version - culling out some of the weaker jokes and adding new ones. Now this 'meme' has spread and the "latest" versions probably have dozens or even hundreds of separate authors. Even if you could track down the original author, you wouldn't be able to get him/her to grant you legal rights to use the current version because there are an unknowable (and definitely uncontactable) number of amenders. Fortunately, people don't usually expect to enforce copyright on humor posts like that...but that doesn't change the law. SteveBaker (talk) 23:06, 21 December 2008 (UTC)

I think google's usenet searching is badly broken. I can't find any example of this post on usenet previous to 2004. I would bet good money that it's appeared on usenet at least as far back as the 1990s. APL (talk) 15:53, 22 December 2008 (UTC)

battery life: monitor or sound output?

What costs more battery power of an offline laptop: Writing in Word or listening to sound files via headphones (with the monitor switched off)? If it's the latter: How big is the difference--enough to be able to sometimes switch on the monitor and take notes in Word and still save battery life? (I'm trying to figure out how to maximize battery life while working out of reach of an outlet.) Thanks, Ibn Battuta (talk) 17:55, 20 December 2008 (UTC)

The two are probably much the same. For normal operations, power is consumed (more than usual) when the hard disk spins or the GPU fires up properly. Absent either of these, the difference between the two actions you describe is likely to be minimal. 87.114.130.249 (talk) 00:45, 21 December 2008 (UTC)

Utorrent check

I use utorrent to download files, but because I use public computers each time I start utorrent to resume downloading a file from the previous session, it goes through an extremely long checking sequence which can take upto half an hour for 20GB. I realize this checking is a vital function, but on my home pc it remembers what it has checked from session to session and just resumes straight away. So my question is, on public computers how can I make utorrent remember what it has check and just start downloading? Is there some registry files it needs to work from different pc to pc? Thanks. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 66.63.184.3 (talk) 21:15, 20 December 2008 (UTC)

Utorrent usually saves the resume information in C:\Documents and Settings\Owner\Application Data\utorrent, but you can make a portable utorrent. To do this put a clean version of utorrent.exe into it's own folder on your portable drive, then make a new text file (File -> New -> Text Document) and call it "settings.dat" making sure the file extension has been changed from .txt to the .dat extension. Now start utorrent and it will save all it's settings in that folder. You will have to go through the check sequence only once and it will remember it for the next session. However, this only works if the drive letter of your flash drive or portable hard disk remains the same on the computers you use. If you're using the same public computers but they just wipe the session data when you log off it should be ok, but if the drive letter changes it will cause errors. SN0WKITT3N 19:19, 21 December 2008 (UTC)

Minefield → Shiretoko

Resolved

flaminglawyer^c 02:49, 21 December 2008 (UTC)

I use Minefield (the pre-pre-beta version Firefox) for my web browsing. It is updated nightly, so I get updates every day. One day, a couple weeks back, when it got updated, it changed names on me - it's now something calledShiretoko. It seems to be the same thing, but they have 2 seperate pages on the Mozilla website, so I assume there must be some subtle differences. Can someone tell me what the difference(s) is/are between these two programs? flaminglawyer^c 22:45, 20 December 2008 (UTC)

Minefield versions are all trunk builds - the latest versions of Firefox, irregardless of version. Shiretoko is the codename for Firefox 3.1; Shiretoko Alpha 2 has been released recently. --wj32 ^t/c 00:40, 21 December 2008 (UTC)

Actually what was recently released is Firefox 3.1 Beta 2, not Alpha 2. --dapete 09:45, 21 December 2008 (UTC)

My bad. --wj32 ^t/c 01:42, 22 December 2008 (UTC)

So Minefield is newer than Shiretoko, because Alphas are generally newer than Betas? flaminglawyer^c 14:50, 21 December 2008 (UTC)

Beta versions are newer than Alpha versions, and both are pre-release versions. Minefield builds are the latest version of Firefox (built nightly I think). On the Minefield page it says: "Warning: This is NOT A FINAL OR PRE-RELEASE VERSION." --wj32 ^t/c 05:16, 22 December 2008 (UTC)

Our article Software release life cycle explains what Alpha and Beta releases are - and what to expect from them! SteveBaker (talk) 15:59, 22 December 2008 (UTC)

Images in Safari, Firefox

I've noticed that in Safari and even in Firefox, often my computer decides to only try to load maybe 75% of the images on a page. Hitting reload usually gets the rest. This happens in particular with Google Images and Facebook, but often also happens with things like Google Maps (it'll load maybe half the tiles and then just give up, and just put a "loading" in place or sometimes a "can't load at this resolution" which is always incorrect here). What's the likely issue here? Any suggestions on fixing it? I have a MacBook, OS X 10.4.11, with the latest versions of both Safari and Firefox, with a usually pretty reliable internet connection. It's an irritating quirk. --98.217.8.46 (talk) 22:55, 20 December 2008 (UTC)

This is a common problem in Firefox, and one which there doesn't seem to be a fix for, but why Safari would also do it I don't know. Have you tried Opera to see if it also happens? The only thing I can think is you're getting a network timeout server closing the connection, especially if it's a very large image. There are some suggestions on a similar problem here which may help. SN0WKITT3N 19:44, 21 December 2008 (UTC)

Firefox doesn't do that under either Linux or Windows on dozens of machines I use regularly...if this is indeed Firefox-related and as common as that - then it must be associated with the Mac port of Firefox. Personally, I doubt it's Firefox's fault. If all Firefox/Mac installations did this on sites as common as GoogleMaps and Facebook, then the error reports would be all over the Firefox developer site at top importance levels - and they aren't. If you see it in Safari to then the problem certainly lies elsewhere. Something's screwy with your network setup - which is going to be tough to diagnose remotely. It certainly sounds like a network timeout though. SteveBaker (talk) 22:35, 21 December 2008 (UTC)

You're right, I was remembering Firefox used to do this all the time but since version 3 I've never had the problem. I found a few old bugzilla reports and questions about this but looks like if there was a problem they fixed it. SN0WKITT3N 22:54, 21 December 2008 (UTC)

OK. So what ought I do? --98.217.8.46 (talk) 19:01, 22 December 2008 (UTC)

December 21

Quantum GIS question

I'm trying to create a map for Virginia State Route 28. I've downloaded all the data I need, my map looks like the following: [9] My problem is with the colouring. How do I get, for example, the line representing 28 to become red, Interstate 66 to become blue, Virginia State Route 267 to become green, etc.? And how would I add the state border? Would I do all of this in Inkscape? Thanks in advance, a very confused Xenon54 (Frohe Feiertage!) 18:34, 21 December 2008 (UTC)

(it's good to know someone else uses Inkscape!) I assume you have it saved as an SVG. If you have the roads set to different objects, then you can change the colors easily by just selecting the object and clicking the color red on the color bar at the bottom. As for the state border - just use the bezier/straight line tool and draw it based on a real map. Or find an image of the state border (just a line), import it, and resize it to fit your map. flaminglawyer^c 20:01, 21 December 2008 (UTC)

FWIW: I use Inkscape a LOT!SteveBaker (talk) 22:21, 21 December 2008 (UTC)

That's what I thought I should do - except Quantum GIS' "Save As Image" function only saves as JPGs or PNGs. Any members of the maps task force around here? Xenon54 (Frohe Feiertage!) 20:07, 21 December 2008 (UTC)

Then this is something you'll have to do in something like Photoshop or GIMP (the latter is a free download). GIMP and Photoshop are 'raster' editors - Inkscape is for 'vector' images. You should tell your Quantum machine to save as PNG - NOT JPG. The artifacts caused by saving as JPEG will make your recoloring task VASTLY harder. SteveBaker (talk) 22:21, 21 December 2008 (UTC)

Thanks for the response. Xenon54 (Frohe Feiertage!) 22:33, 21 December 2008 (UTC)

Mass audio file data edit

I have many, many songs on my laptop. I now have 3 issues.

When I first uploaded them, I used the following file structure:

• Artist
  • Album
    • Disc no (for double albums)
      • Song name

Because I now also use an MP3 player, I would prefer the following file structure:

• Artist
  • Album
    • Disc no (for double albums)
      • Artist - Song name

I have already done this for my 'The Beatles' folder and my 'John Lennon' folder, but wondered if there is a quick and easy way to do it to all of them.

Secondly, I would like to edit the little pieces of info (what's it called - metadata or something?) like the song title, artist name, etc. Is there a quick way to do that?

Finally, some of my songs - seemingly at random - appear as 'Track 6' or something in Windows Media Player, despite the filename being different to that. Is there a way to fix that? Dendodge Talk^Contribs 21:46, 21 December 2008 (UTC)

Uploaded? To what? Is this itunes, cd rips? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 82.43.88.87 (talk) 21:53, 21 December 2008 (UTC)

It's just MP3 versions of music from CDs, which I imported using Roxio. Dendodge Talk^Contribs 22:31, 21 December 2008 (UTC)

ok, cause in itunes there should be an option to do what you want easily. For the "Track 6" problem you can use audacity to add a title to each track that will show in WMP. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 82.43.88.87 (talk) 22:36, 21 December 2008 (UTC)

Audacity isn't needed at all. On Windows (and probably other OS's) all you need to do it right click → Properties → Summary → Advanced. And you can just click to edit right there. flaminglawyer^c 22:46, 21 December 2008 (UTC)

I'm on Vista, and that doesn't seem to work. There's an 'ID tag' tab, which I guess is similar, but apparently I need a PowerPack to edit it. Plus it sounds like a long way - isn't there a way to automatically fill it in using the filename? Dendodge Talk^Contribs 23:13, 21 December 2008 (UTC)

(outdent) For the metadata editing problem, there is an "Advanced Tag Editor" (on XP) option that allowed me to edit every single tag associated with the file - not just artist and title but composer, genre, album, track no., even beats per minute. You can get there by right-clicking on a track in the WMP library and clicking Advanced Tag Editor. As for the filling-in of the data automatically, you will probably have to do that manually. You could always search download.com, etc. but it seems unlikely that such a program exists. Xenon54 (Frohe Feiertage!) 23:23, 21 December 2008 (UTC)

Try EasyTAG. It can fill in file metadata from filenames and rename files from their metadata. --wj32 ^t/c 01:44, 22 December 2008 (UTC)

foobar2000, whilst also being my absolute preferred audio player, has this feature as standard, and everything is done as simple tags (such as %album% %artist% %tracknumber%). — neuro^(talk) 02:28, 22 December 2008 (UTC)

December 22

Playstation emulation glitch

My copy of "The Misadventures of Tron Bonne" freezes whenever I get past the blue Reaverbot in the intro stage. The freeze is just the emulator's screen goes black. (Also, I ripped it to an IMG file to play it on the computer if the format makes any difference.) 71.220.220.198 (talk) 04:08, 22 December 2008 (UTC)

What emulator are you using? SN0WKITT3N 11:32, 22 December 2008 (UTC)

Both ePSXe and pSX. They both had the same failure. 71.220.223.101 (talk) 00:57, 23 December 2008 (UTC)

Emulators do this all the time because they are not exactly like the real console. There is no fix other than getting a real PlayStation or hoping the developer of the emulator addresses the problems. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 194.80.240.66 (talk) 14:50, 23 December 2008 (UTC)

Webcam/digital camera

I have a few questions: 1) Can webcams be bought for cheap, and how can I acquire a decent one for cheap? I'm tech savvy enough to know how to do things, so I don't need extra gadgets where I could accomplish something in software anyway. 2) Do digital cameras usually have webcams attached? And are the prices significantly higher? Thanks all. Magog the Ogre (talk) 04:31, 22 December 2008 (UTC)

Samsung is my favourite brand, I personally use an S730 which I find to be particularly good both value and quality wise (some of my pictures, for reference on how good it actually is, are here), and most medium quality or above cameras will not have webcam functionality. — neuro^(talk) 12:50, 22 December 2008 (UTC)

Both Logitech and Microsoft (and probably a bunch of others) have WebCam's that you can pick up for $25 new - or less on eBay. "Decent" is a relative term. Webcams (by definition) are intended to send video over the web - as such you don't need (and don't generally get) super high resolution. The $25 web cams produce reasonable images at poor resolution (640x480 maybe). Higher end digital cameras are not generally designed to 'stream' video. They capture it into memory locally. You might find a digital camera that can do it - but it's far from normal - and they'll generally cost you much more because they have to be built to consume very little battery power (a webcam can take as much as it needs), to produce super-high resolution (most digital cameras can do at least 3 megapixels - a webcam is typically only called upon to do half a megapixel), to store that in flash memory, to have a viewfinder and LCD viewer...a bunch of things that a basic webcam doesn't need and doesn't have. SteveBaker (talk) 15:53, 22 December 2008 (UTC)

Any suggestions on a specific webcam then? I'm willing to purchase over net or at Walmart/Target. Magog the Ogre (talk) 23:00, 22 December 2008 (UTC)

Actually when you talk about webcam, there's 2 different meanings, firstly something that will upload images regularly to a webpage every few seconds, and secondly something that can be used for video chat. Most digital cameras will support the former (my old Fuji FinePix could and I think most Canons can though I've not tried mine). However, streaming video for video chat is different, and they will not do that. --Maltelauridsbrigge (talk) 12:17, 23 December 2008 (UTC)

Digital camera 'hack'..........

I read somewhere that there was a 'hack' for those disposable camcorders. I`d like to know if there`s a somewhat related 'hack' for a digital camera. I have a "Concord Duo LCD" 1.3 megapixel camera and I`d like to be able to 'lock' the 'shutter' open to take long exposures, astrographs, through my telescope. If someone knows about such a hack, please let me know. I`d be very appreciative. Thank you ahead of time. Dave64.230.233.197 (talk) 04:38, 22 December 2008 (UTC)

.ogg files

Hi, I have a MacBook with OSX Leopard and I cannot play .ogg audio files. Whenever I click a link to a .ogg file on a Wikipedia page (or elsewhere) the browser asks me what program I want to use to play the file but I do not seem to have a program installed that can play the file. Also, shouldn't the file be able to play from within my browser? Cheers, Joe^Talk_Work 05:07, 22 December 2008 (UTC)

You can either download and install Xiph.Org's QuickTime Components, or you can install VLC. --wj32 ^t/c 05:44, 22 December 2008 (UTC)

Thanks, Wj32. I installed the QT components and I already had VLC (but didn't know I could use it with .oggs) so now I have programs I can open .oggs with. But is there any way I can get them to open within my browser (i.e. Firefox)? Cheers, Joe^Talk_Work 04:39, 23 December 2008 (UTC)

For now until Firefox 3.1 is released (supports .ogg natively without a need of other applications/plugins), do what I'm forced to do and download each .ogg file. Now I don't understand when you say that VLC can't open .ogg... of course it can! What version of VLC are you using? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 99.244.11.222 (talk) 06:23, 23 December 2008 (UTC)

Oh, no, 99, I meant that I already have VLC installed but only now (after Wj32's answer above) realise that I can use it to open .ogg files. But that is very good news about Firefox 3.1 having native support for .ogg files, I hadn't heard about that feature! Joe^Talk_Work 12:53, 23 December 2008 (UTC)

PSP EMULATOR

IS there any psp emulator available for pc.Actually I don't like playing through remotes and want to play GOW on my pc —Preceding unsigned comment added by 125.16.64.198 (talk) 06:27, 22 December 2008 (UTC)

Potemkin (emulator). SN0WKITT3N 11:33, 22 December 2008 (UTC)

Note that such emulators are still in early development, and still isn't capable of playing most, if not all PSP titles. Blake Gripling (talk) 01:35, 24 December 2008 (UTC)

XNA ignorace

220.225.242.194 (talk) 06:43, 22 December 2008 (UTC)harshagg Why XNA is ignored while it is good it works on xbox 360 even and using 2D texture file is also easy in that while in opengl even creating a small car will take much of coding.MY friend is studying on opengl basics and I XNA and he could make a 3D car and I had made 2D track game(not long trak though) or it is a way that handling 3D in openGL is easy than XNA

Hi! I'm a professional computer games programmer - I've been doing 3D graphics for close to 30 years. XNA is crap.

Use OpenGL (or, if you are absolutely, utterly certain that you never want to run on anything other than Windows or XBox - you might consider Direct3D). The 'ease' of XNA is a false lure - it's easy to do the easiest things - but when the going gets the slightest bit difficult, XNA becomes useless. If you start down the XNA path, you'll soon wish you hadn't - and then it'll be too late. Plus it doesn't work on Linux, Mac, iPhone, AndroidPhone, Nintendo DS, Wii, Playstation...OpenGL works on every platform that can do 3D graphics. SteveBaker (talk) 15:43, 22 December 2008 (UTC)

Getting rid of backdoor.tidserv

I have a virus on my computer called backdoor.tidserv. I need to know how to remove it. It makes some sites, such as Google, act strangely. I can't remove it with the anti-virus software because it shows up as "left alone". And I can't use System Restore because nothing happens when I click the "next" button on the third step. Is it safe to remove it manually by going to the directory it is in, right-clicking it, and choosing "delete"? If not, are there any free anti-virus programs that will remove this virus? Not those that require registration. Just the free ones. 60.230.124.64 (talk) 11:14, 22 December 2008 (UTC)

• Ubuntu, Kubuntu, Mepis, Debian, SuSE, etc. Each of them free, none of them requiring registration, all of them ensuring that you'll never again suffer from this kind of crap. -- Hoary (talk) 11:46, 22 December 2008 (UTC)

I don't want to switch operating system. All I'm interested in is getting rid of this treacherous virus. 60.230.124.64 (talk) 12:11, 22 December 2008 (UTC)

Ignore Hoary, there are plenty of viruses for *nix, and his answer doesn't even address the question. I'm going to write up some instructions now, which AV are you using? :) — neuro^(talk) 12:51, 22 December 2008 (UTC)

Symantec. 60.230.124.64 (talk) 13:04, 22 December 2008 (UTC)

Then this should help. — neuro^(talk) 13:06, 22 December 2008 (UTC) Turns out 'done' != 'solved'. — neuro^(talk) 13:08, 22 December 2008 (UTC)

(ec) Yeah it annoys me too when someone suggests changing your whole OS and migrating your stuff just to fix some minor Windows problem.

this link tells you a bit about your virus. It seems Norton Anti Virus can get rid of it for you and I suspect that other Anti Virus software can remove it as well (perhaps your Anti Virus has ben compromised in some way). If you don't want to splash AUS$60 or more, you can try a manual removal. The word "TDSS" seems to be an important clue. Search your system for all files with "TDSS" in the filename, and search the registry for "TDSS". Delete the obvious candidates and move/rename the less obvious ones (remembering their old name/location). Reboot your PC. You might have to go round this process several times to be sure you have got all of it. One last thing: messing with the registry and system files carries a high risk of breaking Windows so bad that you need to reinstall everything. Make sure you back up anything you cannot afford to lose (ie. documents, photos, emails, etc.) before you start. Astronaut (talk) 13:06, 22 December 2008 (UTC)

Well no there aren't "plenty of viruses for *nix", but I do agree that Hoary's comment was a bit pointless. Anyway, go ahead and delete the virus' file. If you can. You see, while the virus is running, Windows locks the file so you can't delete it. You'll have to terminate the process first. If Windows Task Manager can't terminate the process, try IceSword or gmer or something else. You can also try booting from a GNU/Linux LiveCD with NTFS support or a Windows Live CD (see BartPE) and delete it from there.

The first thing you'll have to do is locate the virus' file. This can be done using Process Explorer (google it). If the virus is some sort of DLL, then it's going to be much harder. If it's a rootkit, use IceSword or gmer. --wj32 ^t/c 21:30, 22 December 2008 (UTC)

Actually, it's not that simple. This does have a rootkit component (thanks for the link, Astronaut). You'll first have to use IceSword's registry editor to delete HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\TDSServ, HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\SafeBoot\Minimal\TDSServ.sys, HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\SafeBoot\Minimal\TDSServ.sys and HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\TDSS. Then use IceSword to move any files that start with TDSS in C:\Windows\system32 to a backup directory. --wj32 ^t/c 21:42, 22 December 2008 (UTC)

I've heard that this virus can stop you from getting anti-virus programs. I don't know if this has happened to my computer, but what if it does? What can I do then? 60.230.124.64 (talk) 23:58, 22 December 2008 (UTC)

Please, stop worrying about what might happen if you "get an anti-virus" program. Search Google for IceSword and download it. Run it, and follow the instructions I just gave you. Sorry, but... your computer will not blow up if the rootkit you have prevents you from running an anti-virus program! --wj32 ^t/c 00:11, 23 December 2008 (UTC)

Yes, hunt down and kill any running processes and services that start with "TDSS". Process Explorer is good for that, and/or a rootkit killer such as IceSword if a rootkit is involved (though if you're running Vista you might have difficulty finding a rootkit killer that works). The big problem though is thinking you've got rid of it all, only to find it comes back afer a reboot. In my experience, it is possible to have multiple copies of the same virus or many different virus infections all hidden by the same rootkit. Getting them all is a long job.

The best guide is to be familar with what your PC loads at boot time and then check up on any changes. Anything that starts at boot time should be checked out (googling file names is one simple method - eg. googling "TDSServ.sys" gets 9,000+ hits mostly about malware). Astronaut (talk) 01:33, 23 December 2008 (UTC)

I used this program ComboFix a while back to get rid of some spyware/virus on a friend's computer after all other antispyware programs failed and I think the files it got rid of did start with TDSS... So maybe give it a shot. Cheers, --71.141.107.171 (talk) 04:59, 23 December 2008 (UTC)

I'm puzzled. I read above:

• Astronaut: it annoys me too when someone suggests changing your whole OS and migrating your stuff just to fix some minor Windows problem [...] messing with the registry and system files carries a high risk of breaking Windows so bad that you need to reinstall everything
• Wj32: there aren't "plenty of viruses for *nix", but I do agree that Hoary's comment was a bit pointless

Its point was that installing GNU/Linux is about as simple as the procedure suggested above, that it avoids the risk of the recurrence of something similar, and that it's free and doesn't require registration. Of course you'd copy your work files off the computer first; if this "backdoor.tidserv" malware prevents this, then you could do it after booting off some portable, CD-based alternative to the damaged Windows installation. -- Hoary (talk) 14:04, 23 December 2008 (UTC)

Amazingly (well, it amazes me anyway) some people actually WANT to run Windows. Advising them to switch to Linux - while fundamentally sound advice - isn't helping them solve their immediate problem - and is therefore likely to be rejected, typically with some degree of hostility. So it's probably best not to suggest it until they are in a better mood! But there can be no doubt whatever that in practical terms, Linux is safe from viruses. neuro says there are 'nix virii - which it technically true - but nobody ever suffers from them - so this is at best a misleading statement. I've been using Linux since almost day #1 (I downloaded it from Linus himself soon after it was first announced) - I don't take any precautions whatever against virus attacks - I visit dubious websites, I download stuff with impunity, open attachments from complete strangers, I don't have a virus checker or even a hardware firewall and I leave my computers (many of them) turned on 24/7 on open Internet connections and sometimes, even wireless routers without encryption. All sorts of things that would be rapidly fatal to a Windows user. But in 17 years of intensely reckless Linux/Internet use - I've not had a single virus, malware, rootkit or other inconvenience of any kind - and neither has any of my friends or colleagues who use Linux. So - you shouldn't make the switch because you have one specific problem - but in terms of general freedom from grief over the long term, it's a strong reason to change. SteveBaker (talk) 16:05, 23 December 2008 (UTC)

I use Ubuntu myself, but telling Windows users to switch to GNU/Linux isn't going to be accepted by them - they are Windows users after all. --wj32 ^t/c 22:49, 23 December 2008 (UTC)

Just let me ask a question about this virus. The only bad things I know it does are 1) change the behaviour of search sites such as Google and 2) may stop you from getting anti-virus programs so you can delete it. Are there any other symptoms? 60.230.124.64 (talk) 05:52, 24 December 2008 (UTC)

Caches

I was logging in to an MMORPG when a glitch occured,the login button didnt work and the moderator asked me to "clear my cache",I don't understand —Preceding unsigned comment added by 121.245.31.100 (talk) 15:47, 22 December 2008 (UTC)

To give you the best answer, we need to know what game you're having trouble with. The process for deleting the cache for a browser-based game will be different than deleting the cache folder of a game with its own client. Laenir (talk) 16:27, 22 December 2008 (UTC)

Almost definitely browser based. In FX, Tools > Clear Private Data > Tick 'Cache', 'Clear Private Data Now'. — neuro^(talk) 16:42, 22 December 2008 (UTC)

And in IE, Tools > Internet Options > Delete... > Delete Files... & Delete Cookies... --wj32 ^t/c 21:34, 22 December 2008 (UTC)

Skpjack & the Clipper Chip

See Skipjack and Clipper chip for more info
If Skipjack was classified then how could companies use it to encrypt data? It seems paradoxical to me. Plus, is the weakness in that a key is included for each chip or that there's a weakness in the algorithm? Because, if the government were to use the unique cryptographic key on each chip to decrypt the message couldn't they just use the backdoor that was planted in it? --Melab±1 ☎ 16:39, 22 December 2008 (UTC)

"If Skipjack was classified then how could companies use it to encrypt data" They couldn't, but it isn't. I don't really comprehend the rest of your question, sorry! — neuro^(talk) 16:44, 22 December 2008 (UTC)

Classified doesnt mean "government only." If a company were given access to classified information (which many of them often are, see Lockheed Martin), then using it wouldnt be a problem. Livewireo (talk) 17:17, 22 December 2008 (UTC)

Here's how it was intended to work:

• The Skipjack cipher was indeed classified. This wasn't (they said) security through obscurity, but rather just to prevent the design secrets of how the NSA's theory-of-cipher-construction worked (and thus aid the growing civvy-street crypto community to design better ciphers).
• Government contractors (e.g. VLSI Inc.) would make hardware encryption chips (that's the clipper chip) which embodied the Skipjack algorithm, the key exchange protocol, keystorage, and rest of the cryptosystem (modes and stuff, signing)
• Computer manufacturers (IBM, Sun, Dell, etc.) would buy these chips from VLSI and would put them on their board. They'd probably also have a standard API for accessing the chip.
• When you set up your new computer, you'd input (or have it generate) your keys - but you didn't get to pick all of the key. Instead the key was split, with a portion of it (my memory says 22 bits out of 80, but I'm not sure) injected in the VLSI factory (a different fragment for each individual chip). This (the Law-enforcement access field) was kept in the government's key escrow - even you, as the owner of the chip, couldn't recover it.
• You'd pick the remaining bits, and the chip would use the elision of your key and the LEAF for encryption and decryption. Skipjack is a pretty good algorithm - contrary to people's fears at the time, NSA hadn't deliberately released a broken system. The system is secure as long as the government's escrow isn't compromised (you'd hope they'd look after that). Each chip was tamper resistant (which means it'd blow its little brains out if someone tried to get into it), and even if they succeeded (an expensive process) they'd only recover your specific key and the specific LEAF for that chip (no, the NSA weren't dumb enough to use the same LEAF for everyone).
• If the US government wanted to read your encrypted traffic, they'd identify your chip (I think from the exchange of unique chip serial number as part of the key exchange), and then apply to the relevant authority for the appropriate LEAF. That leaves them with 22 (say) bits known out of 80, so they'd have to brute force the rest - but they're the NSA, so they've got plenty of capacity to do that, and knowing the LEAF makes it a very tractable task.
• All in all the system was (if you trust the government) secure (there's no weak key, no trapdoor in the cryptosystem, and no backdoor in the chip). You're relying on the US government not to cock up and leak the LEAFs; say what you like about the NSA, they're not dumb enough to leave a USB stick with all the country's LEAFs on the train.

It's really a very nice system implemented well; the only problem with it was political (that they proposed to make it the only strong crypto that anyone could use). The same principles (secure central escrow, unique local key in tamper-resistent module) are used (and were before Clipper) by the banking industry (and you can bet in military systems too) - the need for a large organisation to be able to recover stuff encrypted by a key stored in a now lost device make some kind of escrow inevitable for them. In addition the British government's Rambutan system (which works much as described above, although still classified and I've no idea if it has a LEAF equivalent) is (supposedly) in use handling non-secret stuff British government departments (the tax office, the health service, etc.). -- AgentOfDoom (talk) 17:59, 22 December 2008 (UTC)

The british thing is Rambutan (cryptography). -- AgentOfDoom (talk) 18:06, 22 December 2008 (UTC)

AgentOfDoom is right on the money. And IIRC, 22 bits out of 80 is correct. -- Fullstop (talk) 18:20, 22 December 2008 (UTC)

DDR2 memory

If I place DDR2 1066 memory sticks into slots on motherboard that supports maximum DDR2 800(OC), will it work there? MB: [10] Or my only option is to buy DD2 800 and lower? Failed Google search, and DDR2 SDRAM article did not answered this question. Vitall (talk) 17:23, 22 December 2008 (UTC)

The DDR2 1066 will work in any DDR2 slot. They are backwards compatible within the DDR2 series. Your 1066 should work in the 800 slot, but only at the performance of DDR2 800. Freedomlinux (talk) 18:26, 22 December 2008 (UTC)

Upgrading Laptop Graphics Card

Hey guys, I guess this question has been asked a lot of times, but any help would be appreciated. I have a 64 mb nvidia dedicated graphics card on my hp laptop. I find it to be too slow for games and i just wanted to upgrade it to a 256 mb or a 128 mb dedicated graphics card. Is this possible in any possible way on a laptop or should I just consider buying a new laptop? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 69.159.65.57 (talk) 20:36, 22 December 2008 (UTC)

It's possible, but laptops aren't normally made to be user-serviceable, which means you'd have to pay someone to do it for you. Why use a laptop for games ? I suggest you get a less expensive regular PC for that, and keep the laptop for those occasions when you need a computer away from home. You can play some less graphics-intensive games on it on those occasions. Then, when the need arises in the future, you can upgrade the regular PC. StuRat (talk) 20:49, 22 December 2008 (UTC)

Laptops aren't standardized, so good luck finding something that fits. As for paying someone to do it, I have been in the freelance IT business working with various firms for years, and nobody has ever mentioned that they have a skill like that to me. Hm. — neuro^(talk) 00:26, 23 December 2008 (UTC)

I'd suggest returning it to the supplier for an upgrade. Tinkering around inside laptops requires specific skills and it would be safest at the supplier. Sure, you might find someone that claims to be a laptop technician, but if he breaks it, then sure you can sue, but do you want all that hassle? Gaming laptops are currently way overpriced, where you can get similar power for one-third the price in a desktop. So the route people generally go is - build a desktop gaming machine and buy a cheap laptop that can run internet and office applications - unless of course money is no objective. Sandman30s (talk) 11:54, 23 December 2008 (UTC)

I'd say it's highly unlikely that this is possible. When you buy a laptop you should realise that what you get on the day you buy it is what it'll have on the day you sell it. You can MAYBE upgrade RAM and PROBABLY upgrade the hard drive - but often, not even that. Changing things like CPU, audio and graphics is rarely (if ever) possible - and if one small part fails - the whole thing is likely to be junk. I'm seeing this question coming up more and more and the reason is that the 'laptop boom' of a couple of years ago is starting to show up as a bunch of aging laptops that people are ready to upgrade. Deskside computers are not as trendy - but they are the only way to go for upgradeabilty. I've had the same deskside box for 15 years now - yet it's a completely modern, fast, machine with great graphics. I've changed every single part of it at one time or another (either to repair or to upgrade it) - probably the only part that's original is the power cord (and probably not even that!) - but at no time in all those years have I thrown it all out and bought a new one. Laptops are 'all or nothing' things. They are an environmental nightmare because you tend to be tossing out a perfectly good screen/keyboard/CD-drive/battery/power-supply when all you really needed was a new graphics chip - but that's life. SteveBaker (talk) 15:46, 23 December 2008 (UTC)

Actually, if your laptop uses MXM GPUs, it's normally easy to replace them - provided you get a MXM card fitting in the socket =). If you have once in your life assembled a computer, you should get it done in an hour. CPU exchange depends on the laptop, but should normally be doable in half an hour (and five minutes if you own a Compal FL90 series). HardDisk (talk) 23:39, 23 December 2008 (UTC)

Auto forwarding past and future mail

Hey, I'd like to know if there are any free forwarding services out there that is able to forward email from my current inbox (Juno Online Services) to my GMail account. It has to be able to copy the messages from my Juno inbox and folders to GMail (with original headers), and it would greatly help if it supports incoming mail as well, but that's only second in priority. Does anyone know of any software or free service that can achieve this? Much appreciated, Vic93 (t/c) 22:29, 22 December 2008 (UTC)

This might be of assistance. — neuro^(talk) 00:24, 23 December 2008 (UTC)

Try just copying over IMAP in your mail client from one account to the other. --71.141.107.171 (talk) 04:53, 23 December 2008 (UTC)

I'd thought of doing that before, but unfortunately I don't think Juno supports IMAP and I don't use a mail client—it's pretty much all webmail. Vic93 (t/c) 18:37, 25 December 2008 (UTC)

Image search

Is there a tool online for which I can find an image if I have it on my hard drive (i.e., no keywords)? I imagine it would process by EXIF/metadata/checksums or something like that. I've had people send me awesome images, but I can't locate them online. Magog the Ogre (talk) 23:03, 22 December 2008 (UTC)

Try TinEye — Matt Eason ^{(Talk &#149; Contribs)} 23:07, 22 December 2008 (UTC)

Tineye won't help here, read more carefully. He/she is talking about searching images on the harddrive not the internet. Same reason why you cant open this link: [file:///C:\Users\WetBundy\PornPics\BOOBIES.png] :P —Preceding unsigned comment added by 99.244.11.222 (talk) 06:27, 23 December 2008 (UTC)

No, Tineye is exactly what I wanted, thank you ("... can't locate them online"). I didn't think anyone would find anything; thanks. Magog the Ogre (talk) 07:02, 23 December 2008 (UTC)

December 23

Gdebi inside Gdebi

I have a bash script I distribute to my clients every few months, to update their Debian OS, that script downloads .deb files, installs them, and also installs software from the repositories, is it possible to put this file inside a .deb? would it work properly? I'm not sure... Thanks SF007 (talk) 01:56, 23 December 2008 (UTC)

Hmm... thats like trying to find the derivative of a derivative to find out how fast a function changes. Anyways, what you could do is to look at the source file for APT and see where to go from there. Im sure that your solution doesnt involve archiving .debs into a .deb, could be something like an atom feed or something. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 99.244.11.222 (talk) 06:36, 23 December 2008 (UTC)

network traffic by process (Windows)

With Wireshark, I can see network packets. With tcpview, I can see connections established by process. Is there something that I can use to see network traffic filtered by process? Thanks, –Outriggr § 07:22, 23 December 2008 (UTC)

Microsoft Network Monitor. :) — neuro^(talk) 12:10, 23 December 2008 (UTC)

uwdg

Hi i am responsible for a web site and im trying to increase its rate in ranking, So I would like to know what are the main elements that i need to work on for a high ranked site?

To seee the site: http://www.kau.edu.sa/  —Preceding unsigned comment added by Uwdg (talk • contribs) 07:28, 23 December 2008 (UTC) 

Try using google...http://www.googleguide.com/improving_pagerank.html or try looking at Search engine optimization and its links/use those words in a google search for more tips/ideas. For many people it seems keeping high up the ranks is a near-full-time job. 194.221.133.226 (talk) 09:31, 23 December 2008 (UTC)

There are many tricks - and lots of books and services (all highly dubious) relating to boosting your Google page-rank...

...or you could resort to honestly trying to make your site more useful. Having content that people actually NEED is the way to get yourself up there in the rankings. If your site is a business - see if you can find some content that would be useful to other people in the business. If you sell mortgages - make a little JavaScript mortgage cost-over-time calculator - if you are a builder, put a house price estimator up there...little things like that (if done well) will cause other people to link to them - those links are what push up your page rank score. The other tricks people describe only work until Google manage to tweak their code to defeat them...and many of the tricks fail because they've already been defeated.

Case in point - the MINI (BMW) car company printed a one page advert on the back of a German car magazine. If you have a webcam and go to the German MINI web site and hold the magazine advert up to your camera - a 3 dimensional model of a MINI Cooper car pops up in the image coming from the camera - sitting on top of the advert!! As you turn the page around, the model car appears to 'stick' to it. This is an incredible thing. Will it sell more cars because people look at the car in the camera? Perhaps a few. But will it push up their page-rank? Hell yes!!! When every geek site on the planet finds out about this amazingly cool thing - there will be links from every high-valued car nut site on the planet! (One such linking site is here for example). It's only been out a few days and already, if you Google "webcam MINI Cooper advert" you get 51,000 hits (and you can bet that every single one of those links to it).

It's amazing the content that people will link to - so put up pages about the history of the city you're centered in - cake recipes 'donated' by your employees - make a "Keep your kids amused while you <do something with the product>" page as an excuse to put up word-search puzzles containing words related to your business - optical illusions - things kids can print out, cut up and fold into a 3D model. Put up anything that people will actually find INTERESTING and/or USEFUL. If this content is too costly for your team to produce - consider offering free web space and a free domain name on your server to your employees for them to put up interesting content (but obviously monitor it for inappropriate stuff) - have your IT department run free courses to teach them how to do that (web-savvy employees==a good thing!). Offer prizes to the employee who's website comes highest in the search listings when you type your company name into Google. Heck you're a university - let the students have pages - with competitions for best content, etc, etc.

Because every one of their web sites will link to your web site (and presumably host a FREE banner ad!) - your page rank will improve. If you believe in your product - put up an open forum system for people to discuss it...sure, they'll say bad things as well as good (but surely you should want to know that) - but good or bad, they'll make links - which is what you want. The growth in link-count will be slow but steady - your slow climb up the rankings will be permanent and not subject to the vagaries of exploiting 'loopholes' in the Google code.

Making the Internet a better place by providing more good stuff that people actually WANT to see is a vastly better and more ethical way than trying to trick the search engine into displaying a poor link (your site) ahead of one that should be considered a better place for people to go when they type in that particular set of search criteria.

SteveBaker (talk) 15:31, 23 December 2008 (UTC)

Curly brackets

Hello, could someone please tell me how to locate the curly brackets on my computer. I have a Windows Vista HP laptop and people have said the curly brackets are next to the P button, but on my keyboard é è [ are beside the P. Thank you.--jeanne (talk) 07:39, 23 December 2008 (UTC)

If you can't find them on your keyboard through use of shift/ctrl then you can always use Alt keycodes to get them. This site (http://code.knopok.net/alt-codes.html) shows them as ALT123 and ALT125 - seems to work if I do it {and } . Another thing i've done before when stuck in a similar situation (darn Apple with their weird keyboard layouts) is search online for the character, copy it and then place it in my document - not ideal but works fine if you've always got the internet on and ready to go. 194.221.133.226 (talk) 09:28, 23 December 2008 (UTC)

Is that an Italian laptop? At least that's the only keyboard layout that matches your description. According to this, you can create the curly brackets by pressing AltGr-Shift-é (the key labelled "é è [") and AltGr-Shift-* (the key labelled "* + ]"). --dapete 12:54, 23 December 2008 (UTC)

Thank you Dapete. It works! Yes it is an Italian laptop. Thanks again for your help.--jeanne (talk) 12:59, 23 December 2008 (UTC)

Yikes, so this is why you can't recruit decent c programmers from Italy... —Preceding unsigned comment added by 90.201.99.107 (talk) 16:08, 23 December 2008 (UTC)

Hmmm - I wonder if we could prove a correlation by looking at the number of Templates used in it.Wikipedia.org ?! SteveBaker (talk) 16:20, 23 December 2008 (UTC)

Another good option is to choose "wiki markup" from the drop down list in the box under the edit window, and click on the "{{}}" to insert it. Jake Wartenberg^Talk 18:40, 23 December 2008 (UTC)

Youtube

On Youtube, is there a way of "ignoring" users you dislike so that their videos don't show up in Recent Videos or Recommended for You? Because there is one particular user who is pestering me with his actions (he's not attacking me personally, but he is doing things that make me upset - if you know what I mean). 60.230.124.64 (talk) 08:41, 23 December 2008 (UTC)

Deleting a 'friend' on Facebook

If I delete one of my Facebook friends, will they be made aware of this through a message or anything? Or will we just disappear from each others lists? Thanks 91.111.99.97 (talk) 12:29, 23 December 2008 (UTC)

They won't get a notification or anything, though obviously they could notice on their own that you're no longer in their friend list. Matt Deres (talk) 12:40, 23 December 2008 (UTC)

The most obnoxious feature that I've noticed is that you show up on Facebook's "suggested" friends in the future. Boy would I have been in for a rude awakening had I not already deduced about the 3 people who unfriended me (yes, I'm that unpopular). Magog the Ogre (talk) 13:00, 23 December 2008 (UTC)

A clever way to do it, then, would be to delete them and then quickly put them on the list of people who could never see you. Oh, the joys of being passive aggressive. --98.217.8.46 (talk) 14:42, 23 December 2008 (UTC)

I agree with .46; by far the best option is to block a user. This automatically severs all connections you have to them (ie, friendship). From their perspective, you cease to exist. They don't see comments/wall posts you make, and even if they follow a direct link to your profile, they are redirected to the home page. Good Luck! --Jake Wartenberg^Talk 18:46, 23 December 2008 (UTC)

I've never had that problem myself (that I know about!), but my wife tells me the block feature is not as perfect as they'd have you believe. Hey, is there a group for WP on Facebook yet? Matt Deres (talk) 21:56, 23 December 2008 (UTC)

If you block you have to make sure you have your privacy settings set correctly. If your profile can be viewed by non-friends then blocking won't help at all if they are logged out, for example. --98.217.8.46 (talk) 02:30, 24 December 2008 (UTC)

Cheap media player for home theatre

Hi all. I'm looking for a cheap but decent media player for a home theatre setup. Mostly it would be used for watching TV series or movies from a central PC in a different room. To cut a long story short I'll most probably buy an Xbox 360, it seems to fit my needs quite well. I'm just asking out of curiosity in case there is something substantially cheaper out there. Basically it needs to have the following:

1. 1080p upscaling + full 1080p decoding capability
2. 5.1 or higher surround sound capability
3. HDMI interface
4. USB 2.0 support for plugging in an external drive or flash drive
5. DivX/Xvid (and all those other funny codecs optionally)
6. LAN but much more preferably wireless LAN
7. Easily (W)LANable with Windows XP without too much hassle
8. DVD drive (or Bluray)
9. (Optional) hard drive
10. Substantially cheaper than an Xbox 360 Arcade with WLAN attachment

I think points 2 and 3 rule out a cheap PC alternative. HDMI sound and graphics cards are not cheap. So we're looking at a dedicated all-in-one media player type solution. There are a plethora of them out there but I'd appreciate if you could link to something you've personally used or seen in action. I know what I'm getting with the Xbox (I've seen it in action at my friend's house, 2 Xbox 360's + Vista PC happily networked and sharing folders) so I want similar confidence of first-hand knowledge with any other system. Thanks! Zunaid 14:08, 23 December 2008 (UTC)

No, you have it right. The Xbox 360 and either the windows media tool, or the free TVersity tool can do what you want. Building a PC (even buying used parts) would easily cost more than the $199 you can get an entry level Xbox 360 for. Look for a 802.11g wi-fi bridge (usually around $25) instead of the official adapter and you will save a bunch. No other media device comes close, considering the relative difficulty of 1080p stream decoding. Oh, and 2 and 3 on your list are irrelevant on a PC, DVI is ubiquitous and easily adapts to HDMI with a $4 part, and 5.1 audio output from a PC is also standard even with all-in-one motherboards. Still, by the time you get enough CPU and GPU power into the box to do what you want you will have spent a lot more than $200. --66.195.232.121 (talk) 19:22, 23 December 2008 (UTC)

Program to show how to fold a origami

I want to write an instruction sheet of how to fold a simple origami. I thought first about taking pics as the origami takes shape, however, I thought that a drawing would be more clear.

What program could I use to fold a (virtual) sheet of paper and take screen-shots of every step? Mr.K. (talk) 17:59, 23 December 2008 (UTC)

a) Any graphics program you use to fold your virtual sheet of paper can also save the resultant image.

b) Screen shots do not require a program. On Windoze, ctrl-"PrintScr" (or whatever the key to the immediate left of the scroll key is called) captures a screenshot to the clipboard, which you can then paste into your favorite graphics program. Use alt-"PrintScr" to capture only the foreground window. -- Fullstop (talk) 18:40, 23 December 2008 (UTC)

Certainly a 3D modeling program would let you do that - you could use Maya, 3DStudio (both of which are going to cost you $1000 or so) - or you could try using blender - which is free. However, when I've tried to do that exact thing - the results were less helpful than you might expect. The problem is the very mathematical perfection of the computer modeling process. For example - if your first step is to fold the paper in half...in a photo of the resulting folded sheet - you'd see two layers of paper sitting on top of each other - the top one slightly curved and the fold being a bit less than 180 degrees. When you do it in the computer - the resulting fold is a PERFECT 180 fold - so the resulting image is a flat rectangle that looks like you took your original paper square and cut it in half - rather than folding it. For such a simple case, you can instead tell your 3D modeler to fold the paper through 179 degrees...this works pretty well - you can now see that there are two layers of paper after folding it. But now, suppose you want to fold it again - at right angles to the first fold...well, the 179 degree trick doesn't work because the second fold pushes one sheet 'through' the other inside the computer - and the result is a mess. You can kinda fix that too by pushing vertices around in the modeler - but by the time you get to something of the complexity of a paper crane...it's beyond your manual ability to keep it under control.

So actually (and disappointingly because I'm a 3D computer graphics fanatic) - I have to recommend that you stick with photographing your work step-by-step. SteveBaker (talk) 21:46, 23 December 2008 (UTC)

You might be interested in treemaker. Saintrain (talk) 23:10, 23 December 2008 (UTC)

Bypassing IE Active X for Lightbox JS

When using Lightbox (JavaScript) javascript to create an online photo gallery, Internet Explorer will restrict the "script or Active X controls" and hence, not allow the photo gallery to work until the users clicks "Allow Blocked Content." As a result, the photo gallery will not display properly if the user does not click this. Is there someway around this? Could one automatically allow IE to not block the script? Acceptable (talk) 18:38, 23 December 2008 (UTC)

It might be inconvenient, but unfortunately there are some dishonourable scumbags out there who would exploit getting round the Active X script restrictions to drop viruses, malware, rootkits and all manner of other nasties on your PC without your consent or knowledge. However, the individual user can degrade the security settings of Internet Explorer through the internet options (security tab), but you would be hard pressed to find anybody daft enough to do that. Astronaut (talk) 02:27, 24 December 2008 (UTC)

1. Put one of these on your page
2. Mention why people shouldn't use IE, and the benefits of firefox
3. People use firefox, which is not only better on your site, but everywhere else, too
4. ?????
5. Profit!

— neuro^(talk) 02:55, 24 December 2008 (UTC)

But when I go on the Official Lightbox site [[11]] in IE, it does not prompt me for Active X permission. Acceptable (talk) 05:24, 24 December 2008 (UTC)

The official Lightbox site is on the Internet. You're probably testing your site directly from your own computer. --grawity 11:56, 24 December 2008 (UTC)

I think IE handles local and external files differently, yes, but the OP calls it an "online photo gallery". — neuro^(talk) 12:53, 24 December 2008 (UTC)

Oh yes, my apologies. I was testing the site offline on my local machine. After I have uploaded it online, the gallery works fine in IE. Thanks for all your help. Acceptable (talk) 17:26, 24 December 2008 (UTC)

Circumvent geoblocking

What's the simplest no-budget way to circumvent geoblocking for videos? I haven't seen any open proxies that provide enough bandwidth for videos. I live in Canada and use Kubuntu, if that makes a difference. NeonMerlin 20:33, 23 December 2008 (UTC)

If you're talking about stuff on popular websites (I assume you are talking about youtube) http://keepvid.com/ might help, as the source file itself is available to all. — neuro^(talk) 02:52, 24 December 2008 (UTC)

I'm pretty sure he's referring to Hulu.com. At the risk of patronizing you, this would of course be illegal. Magog the Ogre (talk) 07:34, 24 December 2008 (UTC)

If it is Hulu (or similar), the request is illegal, and we cannot help. — neuro^(talk) 12:51, 24 December 2008 (UTC)

And since it probably is illegal in any case, you might try to find that file in per-to-per networks (if enough metadata are available, to find it). -Yyy (talk) 14:43, 24 December 2008 (UTC)

Dosbox

What is with Dosbox? There are a couple of games that work in XP and Vista without Dosbox, so why use Dosbox, even if there are many other games that will only work in Dosbox? Why can't we just get an old computer (if we can) and use it to play the games? Because, as one person said, "It's just not the same using Dosbox as it is the real thing." 60.230.124.64 (talk) 21:50, 23 December 2008 (UTC)

Because sometimes you don't have access to an old computer? If you don't need to use it, then don't use it (or am I missing something?) — Matt Eason ^{(Talk &#149; Contribs)} 22:35, 23 December 2008 (UTC)

You're not being very coherent. Most older games don't work correctly on modern pcs running XP or Vista. Why go to the trouble and possible expense of having a separate PC with older architecture running DOS 6.22 and Windows 3.11 when you can simply run Dosbox on your current PC? Exxolon (talk) 22:39, 23 December 2008 (UTC)

Oh my god, that's so funny! Windows 3.11, DOS 6.22! Get it? 6.22 is double 3.11!! 60.230.124.64 (talk) 23:16, 23 December 2008 (UTC)

(ec)DOSBox works for MacOS and Linux as well as Windows. (Also "Palm OS, PlayStation Portable, Internet Tablet OS 2008, and the GP2X, on various computing architectures including PowerPC, SPARC, MIPS and ARM") People using a computer with a Mac or Linux operating system can thus use DOSBox to run DOS programs without needing Windows. Even for Windows, the assumptions about how the system is set up (e.g. single-user versus multi-user, differences in peripheral hardware in 2008 versus 1993, etc.) mean that it is not always straightforward to map a DOS program onto Windows. While Windows does try to be backward compatible with DOS, modern (post Win98) Windows versions are based on the WinNT kernel, which, despite the name, is substantially different from the Win98 (basically DOS) kernel. Compatibility with DOS programs (especially those, like games, which expect to be able to monopolize the entire system) sometimes becomes difficult, and supporting them is frankly not a high priority for Microsoft, as running 10-year old games is not something most people do. Companies re-releasing old titles thus find it cheaper just to use the free emulation system provided by DOSBox, rather than spend the time and effort troubleshooting potential compatibility issues. Finally, it is not always possible or convenient for someone just to buy an older system. You're right that it's not the same using a emulator versus using the actual hardware, but for a number of people it is "close enough". -- 128.104.112.113 (talk) 22:44, 23 December 2008 (UTC)

You use DOSBox if you don't have an old computer around (and don't want to spend all the time getting its hardware working correctly with your game of choice), if the game you want doesn't run on your current computer, or if you don't have a PC. If you don't fall into those categories... don't use it! --98.217.8.46 (talk) 02:26, 24 December 2008 (UTC)

December 24

cross-browser display issues... :(

My website (link, and please no comments about the quality, it's still in progress) is having some issues displaying properly in various browsers. In Firefox it displays fine :) . But it Google Chrome, the rounded corners do not display properly. I use the -moz-border-radius-20px thing; any idea why this doesn't work in Chrome (and how can I get it to work)? And another thing - the ad(s) don't display in Firefox and Chrome, but in IE, that's all that loads. I see that ad, it loads... And then it just says "loading" on the bottom bar, but it never loads anything but the ad. This happens in IE6, 7, and 8. Any ideas? flaminglawyer^c 05:20, 24 December 2008 (UTC)

Addition: for the rounded corners thing, I'm not going to make a quarter-circle and put one in a cell in every corner. And forget I even said the IE thing. flaminglawyer^c 05:29, 24 December 2008 (UTC)

Two issues: first off, google chrome by default works off font types from Macintosh. I would be willing to bet your font doesn't look right on Firefox Macintosh either. Second off, good web programmers use good tools, like Dreamweaver/Yahoo PageBuilder/whatever. Those templates are vitally important. Otherwise, you will get nowhere (especially if design is not your absolute fortee); trust me. `Magog the Ogre (talk) 07:32, 24 December 2008 (UTC)

What? I wasn't talking about fonts... I was talking about my rounded corners... Anyway, my site is in Arial. That's simple. So simple, there's no way it could mess up. None. At all. And I did say (and I quote): "[...] and please no comments about the quality, [...]" because I realized that I had a crappy site on my hands, but I didn't want any suggestions about it (which I knew I would get - it's the Reference Desk, after all). And you spelled forte wrong. flaminglawyer^c 07:52, 24 December 2008 (UTC)

Alright, call me an idiot. Magog the Ogre (talk) 07:58, 24 December 2008 (UTC)

Nah, I'll stick a fork in an apple. It's just as satisfying and equally pointless. flaminglawyer^c 08:25, 24 December 2008 (UTC)

The -moz thing means exactly that - it's a Mozilla-only thing, and only works on the Gecko engine (which Mozilla and Firefox use). Chrome uses WebKit. --grawity 11:54, 24 December 2008 (UTC)

The WebKit equivalent is -webkit-border-radius. Include both of them for it to work in Firefox/Safari/Chrome; they won't interfere with each other. — Matt Eason ^{(Talk &#149; Contribs)} 12:29, 24 December 2008 (UTC)

That said, you should know none will work in Internet Explorer. — neuro^(talk) 14:04, 24 December 2008 (UTC)

Sucks for them. They should have better taste in web browsers :) . flaminglawyer^c 18:48, 24 December 2008 (UTC)

Fusk

What is the proper term (we don't have an article on fusking! So there is no way that is the correct term for it) for fusk, as per the first definition? Thanks! --71.98.7.22 (talk) 06:37, 24 December 2008 (UTC)

Nevermind, fusk doesn't redirect to fusker. --71.98.7.22 (talk) 07:17, 24 December 2008 (UTC)

Actually, fusk now does redirect to fusker (thanks to me). flaminglawyer^c 07:32, 24 December 2008 (UTC)

expansion of QED

What is the expansion of QED as in the QED text editor? Jay (talk) 08:48, 24 December 2008 (UTC)

I'm told that it isn't an acronym, that it is in fact just meant to indicate that the product is 'what it says on the tin' if you like. — neuro^(talk) 12:50, 24 December 2008 (UTC)

"quick editor" (presumably Qick EDitor") according to Darwin, Stallman, and Van Dam & Rice.

Does that answer trip a deja vu? ;) -- Fullstop (talk) 14:56, 24 December 2008 (UTC)

I'll go slap my dad. — neuro^(talk) 15:53, 24 December 2008 (UTC)

Why did Bell Labs quit Multics?

On the talk page of Ken Thompson, an anonymous user has threatened and warned, relating to the factuality of line in the article where it says that Ken Thompson and Dennis Ritchie left the Multics project as it had become too complex for them. Why did Bell Labs actually leave the project ? Jay (talk) 08:54, 24 December 2008 (UTC)

Bell labs says... "Over time, [Bell's] hope was replaced by frustration as the [Multics] group effort initially failed to produce an economically useful system. Bell Labs withdrew from the effort in 1969 ...

Thus, it seems, Bell withdrew in April 1969 because (at that stage) Multics was deemed a white elephant. i.e. the considerations for withdrawal were merely economical. -- Fullstop (talk) 18:46, 24 December 2008 (UTC)

Anti-spyware

I use Norton 360. My one year subscription is up for renewal in a few days. I only go to the regular, popular internet site (youtube, wikipedia, BBC, a few blogs, nothing too dangerous). I only download recommended software updates, and dont' use explorer I use firefox. As a result, in the last year,my Norton 360 has found nothing. No Viruses, no spyware, no intrusion attempts. It is working fine, I emailed norton a few months ago and said, 'I've had this thing for 10 months and it's not found anything!'. They replied, 'yes, its working fine - your just not visiting any dangerous sites.' (They didn't say those word exactly but that what they meant). So my question is, should I renew my subscription? Would I be wasting my money? Would I be better off with one of the free anti spywares? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 58.165.239.250 (talk) 10:07, 24 December 2008 (UTC)

Personally, I never use Anti-Virus software (I think they make my computer run more slowly), and it has always worked fine for me. Just make sure that you always download and install all security updates and use a firewall (e.g. Windows build-in firewall). --Andreas Rejbrand (talk) 12:07, 24 December 2008 (UTC)

As an IT specialist, I must say that that is an utterly irresponsible thing to do, not just for yourself, but for everyone potentially on your contact list. Windows Firewall is awful too. Best ideas - grab Avira and Comodo. — neuro^(talk) 14:06, 24 December 2008 (UTC)

Then, why have I never encountered any problems with any of my computers? Sheer luck? --Andreas Rejbrand (talk) 15:02, 24 December 2008 (UTC)

Yep. Eating well is the best way to keep sickness at bay. The cardinal rule is of course, ... don't run as admin. -- Fullstop (talk) 14:08, 24 December 2008 (UTC)

It's been my experience that if you get rid of Norton 360, you'll probably notice an increase in speed. Neuro is right that Avira is a fine free alternative, my personal choice is AVG, and Avast is fine as well (if not a little more confusing). Firewall? ... I don't think that the Windows firewall is as bad as it used to be (since xp-sp2), but I agree that Comodo is better, and Zone Alarm is also popular. I personally tend to use my router firewall for most settings, but you should also have a software one running. Another good tool can be found at malwarebytes, it's NOT a replacement for your AV, but can remove some stubborn bugs that most AV programs can't. Best to all, and happy holidays Ched (talk) 15:01, 24 December 2008 (UTC)

If you want tight security and a faster computer, try using HIPS software like COMODO Firewall (no Antivirus or any other crap). It will give you a lot of prompts at first, but once you define enough rules its not annoying at all. --wj32 ^t/c 20:22, 24 December 2008 (UTC)

Delphi 2009 Resources

Does not the new Resource Manager in Delphi 2009 work? I am writing a multiline text edit control, and want to use some own cursors (*.cur and *.ani). I have added the cursors to the component's project (as cursors) via Project/Resources. In the code, I have added constant declarations such as

const
  crBlock = TCursor(11);

and then, in the component's Create constructor, I try

Screen.Cursors[crBlock] := LoadCursor(hInstance, 'ARBLOCK');

where ARBLOCK is the resource identifier of the cursor. However, the cursor cannot be used, and Windows' GetLastError reports ERROR_RESOURCE_TYPE_NOT_FOUND = 1813. What have I done wrong? --Andreas Rejbrand (talk) 11:49, 24 December 2008 (UTC)

Loading custom cursors (and all sorts of resources) in a "normal" TForm works perfectly, but it does not work in my component. If I remeber correctly, in Delphi 7 one used to create a *.dcr (acronym for "Delphi Compiled/Component Resource"?) file and add {$R *.dcr} to the component's source code (right after implementation). The *.dcr file was probably created with the Image Editor shipped with the IDE. But in Delphi 2009 there is no Image Editor, only the Resource Manager. But I can't make it work... --Andreas Rejbrand (talk) 13:21, 25 December 2008 (UTC)

After having studied all files generated by Delphi, I realized that the line {$R ProjectName.dres} solved my problems. --Andreas Rejbrand (talk) 16:42, 25 December 2008 (UTC)

Resolved

Google word distance

Is there some way I can do the following Google searches ?

1) Find all pages containing "flagrant" and "foul" where the two words are in the same sentence.

2) ...where the two are within 10 words of each other.

I'd like to find both the phrase "flagrant foul" and sentences like "that foul was most the flagrant I've ever seen". However, I don't want to find a dictionary page with all the F words listed. This is just an example I pulled out of my head, but I often want to do this type of search. StuRat (talk) 15:46, 24 December 2008 (UTC)

http://www.google.com/advanced_search is as good as it gets. No 'near:10' keyword or anything like that.

But (in my experience), word proximity does carry weight in Google indices, so a search for fragrant +foul should give you decent hits after you've skipped all the dictionaries. (Indeed, when I tried that, no dictionaries appeared).

Have a good Christmas. -- Fullstop (talk) 16:10, 24 December 2008 (UTC)

You confused "flagrant" with "fragrant". But, using your example, I did find this match which lists both "fragrant" and "foul", but never in the same sentence: [12]. StuRat (talk) 16:20, 24 December 2008 (UTC)

Ah, foully fragrant flagrance. ;) Have you tried flagrantly +foul? While that might seem odd, Google is adverb savvy, so you might get better results that way. -- Fullstop (talk) 17:06, 24 December 2008 (UTC)

I know that the asterisk (*) does some level or proximity; but I don't know how far it allows or if there is any way to customize it. Try searching for (with quotes): "flagrant * foul" or "foul * flagrant". --71.141.107.171 (talk) 22:12, 24 December 2008 (UTC)

Google verification

Is there a way I can get Google to check to see that the pages it finds still contain the words I searched for ? The prob is that Google often returns pages that contained the search terms previously, but no longer do. StuRat (talk) 15:55, 24 December 2008 (UTC)

What you're asking for is a means to tell Google that the cache is stale. There is no such facility that I know of, but visiting a hit does cause Google to (slightly) increase the re-index priority of that page. -- Fullstop (talk) 16:14, 24 December 2008 (UTC)

Virus

AVG thinks a file on my computer is a virus but its not. Either way, how can I run my program? I selected to ignore the warning it gave and take no action but AVG has locked it and it wont run. What do I need to do to run the program? Thanks. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 82.43.88.87 (talk) 16:44, 24 December 2008 (UTC)

Well, ditch AVG for starters (due to incidents like this, and ones which it misses, too). Get Avira, install, and you're away. If avira throws up a false positive, you can simply choose to ignore it, it won't lock the file from access. — neuro^(talk) 17:30, 24 December 2008 (UTC)

Thanks I'll give it a go. Out of interest is there any way to run false positives under AVG? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 82.43.88.87 (talk) 17:46, 24 December 2008 (UTC)

I wouldn't know, I've not been running it for the past few years because I'm not silly enough ;) — neuro^(talk) 18:31, 24 December 2008 (UTC)

<- First let me say that I've found Neuro to be an EXTREMELY knowledgeable tech. And to be honest, I haven't run Avira for about 2 years. The questions about the false positive though. I've had to add some of my tools (password blankers, WGA removal tools, keyloggers, etc.) to the ignore list. Assuming that you are running the new version 8.x ... go to tools ... advanced settings and add your exception to the PUP's. One other note in defense of AVG: at one time (ver. 7.0) they did not have the best detection rate - that improved with 7.5, and improved GREATLY with 8.0. 8.0 also now detects spyware as well as viruses - a plus in my opinion. Either way .. you ARE using and AV, .. that's a good thing. Both Avira and AVG have pros and cons ... both are good ... free ... protection. Tools ... advanced settings ... add program to PUP Ched (talk) 22:06, 24 December 2008 (UTC)

Overheating laptop while encoding DVD

My laptop suddenly shuts off when I burning encoding AVI files to be burned onto a DVD. Will changing my power saving mode to a less-energy consuming mode and hence, lowering my CPU clockspeed prevent my computer from heating up as much? Obviously it will take longer to encode. Acceptable (talk) 19:52, 24 December 2008 (UTC)

no. get better heat sink fan, put in cool place. CPU will still get hot. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 82.43.88.87 (talk) 21:36, 24 December 2008 (UTC)

Since it's a laptop, make sure you've got good air circulation around it, and that you're not blocking any of the vents. Try propping it up on something so that air can circulate underneath it. --Carnildo (talk) 22:20, 24 December 2008 (UTC)

Also, if you can set the software to burn at a slower speed, this may cause the device to generate heat at a slower rate which can be dissipated without overheating. Even better yet, plug into to an external DVD burner. StuRat (talk) 04:31, 25 December 2008 (UTC)

I seem to be a Digg Popularity Jinx. Why?

I can't even get the viral video Here It Goes Again by OK Go to hit Digg's front page

I've submitted stories NUMEROUS times in hopes of making them popular on Digg. (Okay, some of them weren't so serious.) However, I knew something had to be really wrong when I tried to submit the original video of Here It Goes Again.

The viral video has over 42,000,000 hits on YouTube and yet, it does not achieve "popularity" (i.e. a front-page appearance) on Digg.com. Why? Was it because I submitted it? Whereas conversational delivery may depend on one's vocal intonation, body gestures, vocal pauses, eye contact, and other finer nuances of socializing, none of this applies when one submits a story on Digg.

I was surprised that no one submitted this viral treadmill dancing video long ago, so I decided to take the initiative.

Why does it only have four Diggs right now? Where did I go wrong? --Let Us Update Special:Ancientpages. 19:04, 24 December 2008 (UTC)

42,000,000 hits? It may be considered old and boring by now -- with that many hits, all of Digg has probably already seen it. --Carnildo (talk) 22:23, 24 December 2008 (UTC)

Now it's 42.5 million. The view-counter keeps climbing fast, and users still comment every 30 minutes on average. Moreover, I've watched it numerous times and still won't get bored by it. I'd say it's still very much as popular as it was when the vid first went viral. Perhaps the title and message summary needed to be made a certain way? If so, what way? --Let Us Update Special:Ancientpages. 11:16, 25 December 2008 (UTC)

Why did a new modem not fix the problem?

Monday I had been online only a few minutes when I couldn't get into some web sites, and then I couldn't get into any.

On one occasion when I lost the Internet, a call to tech support was answered with a message that the phone company had been having lots of problems. I didn't get the same message yesterday, but it had been quite windy.

The tech support person suggested my problem might be a 15-foot cord. I told the installer in August where I wanted to put the computer, and the nearest phone jack required a 15-foot cord, or however long it was. The tech support person said the modem could go anywhere and I could get a longer cord to connect it to the computer, but from the modem to the phone jack could only be 10 feet.

I decided to try this, since the installer gave me a bunch of extra stuff. In fact, due to my inability to effectively communicate, an earlier call to tech support resulted in my getting a new modem sent to me. The old modem was supposedly fine. But I decided to hook up the new one. The cord to the phone jack was shorter and sturdier. The cord from the modem to the computer turned out to be long enough. I also noticed what could have been a problem: the power cord for the old modem had a chair leg sitting on it! I used that one anyway because it never seemed to have any problems. Even though it was as flimsy as a twist-tie on a bread loaf.

The Internet came right back and worked fine for an hour or so! I had to sign up again for the Internet (or maybe I didn't). Somehow what I did may have brought the Internet back. And maybe it was something the phone company had fixed and then something else went wrong.

I did notice the power light on the modem blinking, which it wasn't supposed to. Not for long, though. Just in case, I later switched to the power cord that came with the new modem. When the Internet went out, I called tech support again and was told they were so busy they might not be able to get someone to come to my house until the next day (possibly another hint of outside trouble). I later tried switching back to the old modem, and that helped very briefly. Or it was a coincidence. I know I was seeing one or two brand new pages with updated information.

I have some evidence the problem was on the outside. There's a page I was sent to once where I'm supposed to see green if the Internet is working and red if it isn't. Under "USB" the long, complicated number was red. The other two numbers were green during the final hours, but one was red at one point.

One thing I forgot about was unplugging my modem, turning off the computer, turning on the computer, and plugging the modem back in (when weather was a problem before, people were told to do that even though the outside problem had supposedly been fixed) . They always tell you that when you call tech support, before a real person ever answers the phone. It worked! I had done all the various things that are supposed to help fix the problem earlier, but I feel certain the problem was on the outside. It can't all be coincidence.Vchimpanzee · talk · contributions · 22:30, 24 December 2008 (UTC)

I knew I'd forget something. The reason I returned to using the old modem. Although the Internet seemed to be working fine for that hour or so, the light which blinks in an irregular pattern never seemed to be on at all on the new one. The one which, if I see a page is slow to load, comes on at the precise time the page finally loads.Vchimpanzee · talk · contributions · 22:37, 24 December 2008 (UTC)

Drive letter

How can I change the drive letter of one of my portable hard drives? Currently it's K: and I want it F: Thanks for ur help. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 82.43.88.87 (talk) 22:34, 24 December 2008 (UTC)

My Computer > Manage > Disk Management > Select drive > Right click on bottom bar > Click "Change drive letter and paths". :) — neuro^(talk) 22:41, 24 December 2008 (UTC)

awesome! thanks. will the letter be remember on different computers or will i have to change it each time?

The drive letter is assigned locally, in other words each computer will assign it separately, so you will have to do it each time. — neuro^(talk) 22:46, 24 December 2008 (UTC)

ok. bit of a shame as some of the computers i'm on don't have admin rights, ah well. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 82.43.88.87 (talk) 22:57, 24 December 2008 (UTC)

Full form of PMT

What does PMT stands for in Microsoft excel? I mean the full form of PMT. —Preceding unsigned comment added by S shaanu (talk • contribs) 03:52, 25 December 2008 (UTC)

A Google search for excel pmt finds this — Matt Eason ^{(Talk &#149; Contribs)} 04:05, 25 December 2008 (UTC)

Laptop video driver problem

I have a Dell Inspiron 1501 with Microsoft Windows XP Media Center. I had to reinstall XP and then my screen was blurry and looked like it had been stretched horizontally. So I installed the video driver off of dell.com. The computer became super-slow. So I System Restored and tried again, only to gain the same result. Try a third time, only to get the same result. I am trying to keep this laptop until Windows 7 comes out, so should I replace my graphics card or what? mynameinc 15:40, 25 December 2008 (UTC)

The "blurry" horizontal stretch is likely a result of the software using a standard 4:3 aspect ratio while the display is widescreen. Since windows generally will not allow you to change these settings without a proper driver installed, you need to update the video/display drivers. Installing the correct driver should *not* cause the system to slow down. I would suggest searching for alternative drivers (such as the original driver CD, if available, older/alternate versions on dell.com, or more generic/specific video drivers). You might also check that you have hardware acceleration enabled (Start->Control Panel->Display->Troubleshoot). Finally, you can adjust some visual performance settings in windows to minimize the slow down (Start->Control Panel->System->Advanced->Performance->Settings->Visual Effects). —Preceding unsigned comment added by 76.11.230.33 (talk) 18:09, 25 December 2008 (UTC)