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January 8

Expresscard graphics

Does anybody know of a graphics card that will plug right into a laptop expresscard/34 slot? I don't care how powerful it is, it only needs to support Mac OS X. And will the OS utilize the built in card and the new expresscard one at the same time? Thanks in advance. ryan 03:39, 9 January 2007 (UTC)

Bit late, but yes. -- Kesh 20:12, 14 January 2007 (UTC)

3 monitors on a Radeon 9250 PCI 128 mb

I want to run two monitors as an extended desktop aswell as a TV as a mirror of either of these screens. I have a 17" Relysis TE770 on my VGA output, a 19" Proview PX-986N on the DVA output (through a VGA converter) and a TV on the S-Video cable.

In the: Display properties - Settings - Advanced - "ATi" Displays: I find a screen with four panels, each of which have an on (green) off (red) switch. When I turn on the second monitor, the TV turns off and vice versa. So I'm confused?

Is there any way to use all three screens? Aaron 04:33, 8 January 2007 (UTC)

I believe most cards only have two render engines and therefore can only draw on two screens. Most cards only have one accelerated render engine too, I used to use a cad program and rendering on my second screen in real time was awful! I had to render on the primary screen. In short, I don't think you can get 3 screens going at the same time, the reason it has 3 sockets is just so you get a choice which output you want to use for your 2nd screen. Vespine 06:29, 8 January 2007 (UTC)

I think you can have desktop across two screen plus a clone of one of the screens on your TV. It says that in my old Radeon 7500 card but I haven't tried. --antilived^{T | C | G} 05:38, 9 January 2007 (UTC)

I was coming round to agreeing with Vespine, since most information suggests that. But then there are a few places that suggest you can squeeze a third monitor from your card if its a mirror exist. Antilived, or anyone, do you know how? Aaron 13:10, 9 January 2007 (UTC)

I read that from the manual so I am pretty sure it works. But I neither have 2 computer monitors nor a TV that is close to my computer nor the Radeo 7500 itself so I can't possibly test it... --203.184.58.178 01:48, 11 January 2007 (UTC) antilived^{T | C | G} 01:49, 11 January 2007 (UTC)

Exit X Server in Kubuntu Edgy

I've been unable to exit the X server in Kubuntu Edgy. It seems to have an over-zealous auto-recovery feature that prevents even manual exit. Does anyone know how I can do this? Superm401 - Talk 05:15, 8 January 2007 (UTC)

Most likely, you are in runlevel 5 (X-window) and you want to be runlevel 3 (command prompt). Change it with "telinit 3" at the command prompt. --Kainaw ^(talk) 05:54, 8 January 2007 (UTC)

Just to clarify, I'm in the full KDE environment. I tried that under Konsole (an xterm), and it had no effect. Usually, it will crash then reload automatically but that did nothing. Thanks for the suggestion, though. Superm401 - Talk 05:56, 8 January 2007 (UTC)

Have you tried Ctr-Alt-Backspace, or failing that, kill -9'ing the X server? —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 149.135.97.128 (talk) 06:21, 8 January 2007 (UTC).

Ctrl+Alt+Backspace usually just restarts the X server in Ubuntu versions, so I'd recommend switching to another virtual terminal and killing the X server: sudo killall -9 X. --wj32 ^{talk | contribs} 06:53, 8 January 2007 (UTC)

How do I do that? Is it Ctrl+Alt+F#? That just gives me a black screen. The virtual terminal doesn't load. Superm401 - Talk 08:51, 8 January 2007 (UTC)

Just do that from an xterm; who cares, you're killing the X server. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 149.135.97.128 (talk) 12:14, 8 January 2007 (UTC).

Well, sudo killall -9 Xorg still just restarts it. That's the issue. Superm401 - Talk 23:39, 8 January 2007 (UTC)

Have you tried finding out the parent process of the X server? Maybe the parent process is the process which keeps on restarting the server. --wj32 ^{talk | contribs} 00:17, 9 January 2007 (UTC)

Could be. How do I do that? :) Superm401 - Talk 01:48, 9 January 2007 (UTC)

It's gdm that does the X restarting. Press Ctrl+Alt+F1 or something similar, and type sudo killall -9 gdm. Then try killing X. --wj32 ^{talk | contribs} 03:13, 9 January 2007 (UTC)

Well, I'm using Kubuntu so, it's apparently kdm. As I said, Ctrl+Alt+F1 just gives me a black screen. I'll try sudo killall -9 kdm in Konsole. 04:42, 9 January 2007 (UTC)

That test worked. Then I tried two things. First, sudo killall -9 Xorg. This just freezes completely, still within X and KDE and everything. Then, I restarted, did sudo killall -9 Xorg again, then did Ctrl-Alt-Backspace. That exits X Server and doesn't restart, but it just gives me a black screen. There's no terminal. Superm401 - Talk 05:00, 9 January 2007 (UTC)

Then, I wouldn't know. Pretty weird that Ctrl+Alt+F1 gives a blank screen, though. --wj32 ^{talk | contribs} 06:54, 9 January 2007 (UTC)

I take it you're not actually using Kubuntu Edgy? :) Superm401 - Talk 07:26, 9 January 2007 (UTC)

I'm using Ubuntu Edgy :):) --wj32 ^{talk | contribs} 08:38, 9 January 2007 (UTC)

No problem. I'll try to remember to post here if I ever figure it out. Superm401 - Talk 08:40, 9 January 2007 (UTC)

Perhaps you should try the open(1) command to start something on one of your other VTs? --Tardis 17:46, 9 January 2007 (UTC)

I tried:

root@matthew-e1505:/data# openvt bash

It just beeps at me. Then I tried:

root@matthew-e1505:/data# openvt -c 3

It says:

VT 3 is in use; command aborted

use `openvt -f' to force

I tried it for all the other numbers, up to:

root@matthew-e1505:/data# openvt -f -c 20

It says they're all in use. Any idea what would cause this? When I try to force it, I just get the beep again. Superm401 - Talk 23:52, 9 January 2007 (UTC)

Good catch noticing that openvt is the modern version. My guess is that you have no VTs allocated; it appears that chvt can create them for you, but I don't know if that's precisely your problem. You could also try using lsof to see if something really has them open. --Tardis 15:50, 10 January 2007 (UTC)

The man page clued me in. I tried chvt 3, and I got only a black screen. Thanks for the suggestion. I've submitted a support request at https://answers.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+ticket/3119 , if anyone's interested. Superm401 - Talk 21:32, 10 January 2007 (UTC)

Files Not Accessible

I have a folder on my hdd named 'C:\Program Files\Ark'. I call is Ark because anything there gets moved to my laptop. When I put additional folders in there containing files, I am usually able to access them. Why shouldn't I? But, the problem is that sometimes, certain folders instantly stop working. Windows sees them as empty, 0 bytes, 0 files, yet I clearly have files in there. When I try to open these folders, I get an error "C:\Program Files\Ark\name" is not accessible. Access is denied. I cannot open them, I cannot delete them, I cannot copy them. It's very frustrating to know that there are files there, but I can't get to them. My computer is a year old this month, running Windows XP Home, and is therefore in need of a reformatting. I'd like to get these files out if possible --Russoc4 17:47, 8 January 2007 (UTC)

Make sure you are logged on as an "administrator". --17:52, 8 January 2007 (UTC)

Aye. There is only one account, and it's considered the computer administrator, but do you want me to log on as the "Administrator" in Safe mode? --Russoc4 18:03, 8 January 2007 (UTC)

You can also hit CTRL+ALT+DEL once or twice at the welcome screen, and get a real login prompt. Administrator will be the user name, and the password will be the administrator password you (hopefully) set when you installed windows, if you didnt set one, you can try leaving it blank, but sometimes the security policy will not allow the admin to log in with a blank password. It could also be a bad sector or file system error, have you tried running chkdsk? Cyraan 19:05, 8 January 2007 (UTC)

this only works on windows xp-pro, windows xp home will not allow you to log into the administrator account in normal mode due to account restrictions. You can log into safe mode (hit F8 before windows boots, select safe mode). in safe mode you can log into administrator, and also have access to the security tab under any folder/file properties (right click a folder and go to properties, click on security). This tab allows you to change the security permissions on folders and files, the OP would want to add "administrators" (plural) to his ark folder, allowing him access to them with Full control selected, and no deny permissions. If for some reason he's using a limited "User" account, he'd want to add "Users" to the list (or go to control panel/users and make his account an admin account). To recursively change all permissions for all files/folders within that folder, under the security tab after adding "administrators" you need to click on "Advanced" then click on "Administrators" under the permissions tab, click edit, make sure it says "apply to: This folder, subfolders and files" and make sure full control is selected under allow, with no deny options checked. hit OK once, on this screen select "replace permission entries on all child objects within entires here that apply to child objects", hit apply and the computer will set the permissions to every subfolder/file (make take a few minutes). The security permissions denying you access to a folder is why its listed as 0 bytes 0 files, once you allow yourself access you can correctly see everything. As Wj32 said try not to program files or windows folders to store things--PiTHON 02:00, 9 January 2007 (UTC)

I ran chkdsk. It found and fixed errors at startup, but I didn't do the deep scan to fix bad sectors. Should I try that? How long might it take on an 80GB hdd that is 75% free space? --Russoc4 20:29, 8 January 2007 (UTC)

Forever :D Actually a few hours depending on your PC. The free space doesn't help as it mainly checks the physical drive rather than the files. --h2g2bob 20:38, 8 January 2007 (UTC)

Alright, I just ran it. Only took about 30 mins, and I still cannot access the folders. --Russoc4 21:10, 8 January 2007 (UTC)

Problem solved! I was able to cut and paste the entire Ark folder to my desktop, where it works fine. Go figure. I'll be reformatting soon to prevent such a problem in the future. Thanks all. --Russoc4 21:56, 8 January 2007 (UTC)

You really shouldn't use system folders for storing your own personal data, because they are usually only writable by Administrators and SYSTEM. I think what happened was that somehow, the folder you created had everything-permission for Administrators, but the contents were nothing-permission for Administrators. --wj32 ^{talk | contribs} 00:30, 9 January 2007 (UTC)

As a side note, there is a way to log on as SYSTEM. --Russoc4 15:56, 9 January 2007 (UTC)

Yep, psexec. --wj32 ^{talk | contribs} 01:26, 11 January 2007 (UTC)

Boolean Algebra

I am curious how a slide show email I received contained snapshots of websites I visit...and new shap snots would be shown here and there while others repeated. What is going on here? I'm told Boolean algebra bla bla bla. Creepy-cool if you ask me. Jelizbeth 20:15, 8 January 2007 (UTC)

I assume this is an attachment to the email. What type of file is it (PowerPoint, Script, Screensaver, Program, etc?) It may be a bit late, but never open attachments from people you don't know, or if the message or attachment looks suspicious. Opening some email attachments can install viruses or other malware. I don't think boolean algebra has anything to do with websites or snapshots. --h2g2bob 20:35, 8 January 2007 (UTC)

I suspect it was a program and it just read your web cache/temporary internet files. You may wish to run disk cleanup (I'm assuming you're using Windows) and see how much space they take up. 68.39.174.238 14:42, 18 January 2007 (UTC)

Japanese character set for Mozilla Firefox

I'm using the Mozilla Firefox browser, and a lot of special characters show up on my screen as question marks (?). I've looked online for character set extensions, but everything I found was... Greek to me, as it were. Can anybody here help me modify my browser to see these special characters? -GTBacchus^(talk) 22:10, 8 January 2007 (UTC)

As far as I remember I didn't have question marks, instead they were empty rectangles, but it's possible it's the same problem. The solution I found was to go into Control Panel, then Regional and Language Options, then the Languages tab and then clicked the tick box for East Asian language packs. This does require the CD/DVD for your OS, and is of course presuming you're using Windows. --Kiltman67 22:50, 8 January 2007 (UTC)

I've sometimes found that installing the relevant font helps. If you're running Linux, I recently installed a Debian 4 beta, and found that all sorts of odd character sets worked; it apparently comes with all those fonts. But that's a lot of work just to get some languages working. Golwengaud 23:11, 8 January 2007 (UTC)

If you're using windows, you'll need your windows CD in the drive, go to Control Panel->Regional and Language Options, select the Languages tab, and check "Install files for East Asian Languages", and hit Apply/OK. I think you'll need to restart when its done, but this is how I do it, and have never had a problem with Japanese characters in Firefox. Cyraan 23:40, 8 January 2007 (UTC)

I turned on East Asian languages in the control panel, and now it's working! Thanks everyone for the helpful advice. -GTBacchus^(talk) 23:44, 8 January 2007 (UTC)

What if you didn't get a Windows CD with your computer, but it came preloaded? User:Zoe|(talk) 00:15, 9 January 2007 (UTC)

You should be able to get the fonts from someone else who has them installed on there computer. I can't remember the exact names of them but you should be able to find the names somewhere. --Kiltman67 01:30, 9 January 2007 (UTC)

Windows came pre-loaded on my computer, and it still worked. When I ticked the East Asian languages box, it copied some files from somewhere to somewhere else, and after a restart, all was well. I don't understand what it did, but I don't understand Japanese either. -GTBacchus^(talk) 01:55, 9 January 2007 (UTC)

Thanks Cyraan! I was having the same problem; I didn't know there was such an easy solution! (Mine also had it already loaded, strangely. Why have it on your hard drive if you're not using it? Is seeing ???? all the time an advantage?) - Rainwarrior 05:43, 9 January 2007 (UTC)

No problem, odd though, Ive always had to pop the CD in if i didn't choose to on install, it may just be something the OEM does if you have a Dell or some other pre-built PC. Cyraan 01:22, 10 January 2007 (UTC)

Some companies like Dell put what seems to be the main part of the Windows CD (the I386 folder) in the I386 folder on your hard drive, then set a registry entry to say that your hard drive is your CD. —AySz88\^-^ 03:59, 17 January 2007 (UTC)

Advanced? API? programming

Hi guys... I can program in several languages (self-taught) but after these years I still don't know how to program what I really would like to. What I would like to be able to program is something to automatize tasks and increase my productivity. This may sound somewhat weird, but my problem is that I haven't found any source about this topic. Actually, I mean something as simple but as hard to program for me such as a random article opener. For example, I'd like to have a process that, when I press E+left click in "Random article" say 5-6 windows will pop-up (in tabs if possible). A possible improvement for this would be to avoid stubs or articles about towns in the USA... How can I learn to do all this kind of things? Sorry but I couldn't be more specific for my question. Thanks in advance. --Taraborn 23:47, 8 January 2007 (UTC)

You would need some kind of API for web pages, so try Mozilla. If you're using Windows, you would need to hook (I think) something to do with keypresses (?) and mouse clicks (?). Then, get your program to download the page http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Random 6 times. See if the HTML for a stub is in the code, and if it is, download another random page. Then, if it passes the test, open it up in your browser (find out the title of the page first). --wj32 ^{talk | contribs} 00:25, 9 January 2007 (UTC)

Well, if you add the below to User:Taraborn/monobook.js, it should do about what you wanted. Then, in Mozilla Firefox, goto Preferences, Tabs, and choose "New pages should be opened in a new tab". Of course, this will make all new pages open in tabs, but to my knowledge there's no way to programmatically force Mozilla to open a particular link in a tab. I don't know what you mean E+left click, so I assumed that you meant the "e" key was actually down. If the "e" key is down, it will open 6 new tabs (provided you have new windows opening in tabs). If it isn't, the default single random page will load:

function checkRandomKey(e)
{
  var code = e.keyCode;
  var char = String.fromCharCode(code);
  if(char.toUpperCase() == "E")
    randomKeyDown = !randomKeyDown;
  return true;
}

function openRandomPages(e)
{
  if(randomKeyDown)
    {
      var fullPath = wgServer + wgArticlePath;
      var randomPage = fullPath.replace(/\$1/, "Special:Random");
      for(var i = 0; i < 6; i++)
        window.open(randomPage);
      e.preventDefault();
      randomKeyDown = false;
    }
}
var randomKeyDown;
function setupRandomPages()
{
  randomKeyDown = false;
  var randomLink = document.getElementById("n-randompage").firstChild;
  window.addEventListener("keydown", checkRandomKey, false);
  window.addEventListener("keyup", checkRandomKey, false);
  randomLink.addEventListener("click",openRandomPages,false); 
}

addOnloadHook(setupRandomPages);

Just fool around with this stuff and you'll learn it gradually. I think Greasemonkey will help you out with these types of problems. I use it all the time. Also, Quirksmode is very good. P.S. Your quote "I'm addicted to reading Wikipedia, it's the only encyclopedia that grows faster than you can read :D" has been added to my list. :) Superm401 - Talk 03:48, 9 January 2007 (UTC)

Thank you very much to you two. Your script, Superm401, works perfectly :D, although my browser's cache was a bit annoying at first... P.S. I'm very glad you liked that quote :D --Taraborn 12:44, 9 January 2007 (UTC)

upload text only format

I want to upluad text only and cannot find which format is acceptable beside JPEG —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Mrheine (talk • contribs) 23:50, 8 January 2007 (UTC).

You can open your text file and copy the contents into a wikipedia editing page, but the wikimedia software will not allow you upload text. Droud 00:54, 9 January 2007 (UTC)

See Help:Editing. Superm401 - Talk 03:49, 9 January 2007 (UTC)

What knowlage do i thirst for?

Well, recently, i have taken up the habit of learning web programing. i have Learned HTML, CSS, and JavaScript down pat, and working on learning DOM.

but I'm not satisfied with these. what i want to do is create a page that could be Wikied. Like have the client type something into an input form, and when submitted, affects the page for the rest of the world. it seems that i can't do that with the Languages i have learned thusfar, so... what language should i learn, and if possible, what would be a good site for learning it? —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Xiaden (talk • contribs) 23:52, 8 January 2007 (UTC).

You would need a server-side language like PHP. To do that, you would need your own server software, like Apache. Then, you would need to install PHP support. You can install MediaWiki on your own server, too. --wj32 ^{talk | contribs} 00:27, 9 January 2007 (UTC)

Sounds like you need storage and manipulation of data. PHP and MySQL are good technologies to start with. Droud 00:55, 9 January 2007 (UTC)

If you are just playing around, there are some free sites that have PHP/MySQL available. If you are building an application for a company of some sort, you will want a more respectable service. They can be dirt cheap ($5/month) to extremely expensive ($500/month). What you are paying for is the level of service. The most expensive ones have people on call 24 hours a day to answer any question you have about PHP, MySQL, or managing your server. --Kainaw ^(talk) 03:40, 9 January 2007 (UTC)

So, i should learn how to program with PHP, or MySQL. where would these sites be located? and where can i learn the coding for them? —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Xiaden (talk • contribs) 06:06, 9 January 2007 (UTC).

No use programming if you can't search the web! :) --wj32 ^{talk | contribs} 06:59, 9 January 2007 (UTC)

The software which runs Wikipedia is available as free software. See MediaWiki (website). MediaWiki is written in PHP, and uses MySQL as a database.

A simpler alternative is to use Wikia and create a free wiki there - see wikia:www. --h2g2bob 13:15, 9 January 2007 (UTC)

PHP can be learned from php.net, although you might want to consider buying a book on it. A beginner's book on PHP should also have a few chapters on MySQL; the online mysql docs tend to be highly technical, I don't recommend using them for learning --froth^{T C} 20:08, 9 January 2007 (UTC)

PHP needs to run off of a web server, as someone mentioned. Just figure out how to install one (Apache HTTP Server is the most common free one) on your local machine and you can play around in PHP for free (and much quicker than you could uploading scripts to a server). If you know Javascript already it shouldn't be too hard — the syntax is fairly similar in most cases. Download the PHP manual to your hard drive as well — it is an invaluable resource since there are a million functions with their own special syntaxes and there is no reason to try and memorize them all. --24.147.86.187 15:35, 10 January 2007 (UTC)

hmm... is there anything that doesn't require downloading, as i am learning most of these languages in school and would not like to download anything to a local machine...Xiaden 14:42, 12 January 2007 (UTC)

what languages are recognized by deterministic pushdown automata (DPDAs)?

Is there a name for the set of languages that are recognized by deterministic pushdown automata (DPDAs)? I know that DPDAs are strictly more powerful than finite automata (FAs), so the languages they recognize must be a strict superset of the regular languages. I also know that DPDAs are strictly less powerful than the nondeterministic pushdown automata (NPDAs), so the languages they recognize must be a strict subset of the context-free languages. But I haven't seen the name of any set of languages that fits between regular and context-free. --Spoon! 00:28, 9 January 2007 (UTC)

They are just context-free languages, although they could be called transitional context-free languages due to their strict bounding between regular and context-free. Droud 01:14, 9 January 2007 (UTC)

No, DPDAs do not accept all context-free languages, although they accept some (for example, they accept all regular languages, which are also context-free). The proof isn't trivial, but the theorem is mentioned here. As you (User:Spoon!) correctly state, DPDAs are strictly less powerful than NPDAs (unlike the better-known case with NFAs, which although appearing much more complex, have the same power as DFAs). There's no actual name for the class of languages accepted by DPDAs, at least as far as I know (which surely doesn't mean one doesn't exist; my knowledge of CS theory, outside my actual area, is limited by a couple of grad classes and some out-of-interest reading). Note that it's not at all surprising that a particular class of languages has no name: there's an infinite number of language classes between two adjacent Chomsky types. For example, between type-2 and type-3 we have all a class containing all CF languages save for one (you get to choose that one, and this already gives you infinite number of classes); all CF languages save for two (same thing here), ..., all regular languages plus one CF language (that you also get to choose). All of these classes reside strictly between regular and CF languages, and there's "many" infinities of them. IgorSF 10:09, 10 January 2007 (UTC)

Overclock lock?

I couldn't find any information on this. Is it possible to lock a graphics card from being overclocked, such as one can do to a cpu? —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 24.231.205.94 (talk) 03:08, 9 January 2007 (UTC).

Yes. To put it simply, a graphics card consists of a GPU, which is just a specialized CPU for processing graphics and dedicated RAM for storing that graphic information. If you added a component on that board that would only allow the card's GPU and memory to function at a certain clock rate, it would effectively lock the graphics card to a specified clock rate. —Mitaphane _talk 03:46, 10 January 2007 (UTC)

Irritating loading thing

This is new, I think. On firefox, whenever I used to click on a link to a music file, for instance on allmusic.com, it'd transfer me to a blank page (annoying but ok) and open the file. Now, it just transfers me to the blank page, and I can't figure out how to get the damn music clip to play. any suggestions? I tried messing around with my settings in this extension I've had for a while, Tab Mix Plus, because I thought that it might be responsible, but no setting seems to be anything that'd make a difference. This is annoying, because I'm trying to figure out whether to buy cds, and I can't here samples of the music. Only sites with their own players work (except amazon.com). If something needs wmp or realplayer, it just won't load. Thanks for any help, 70.108.219.115 05:10, 9 January 2007 (UTC)

Try uninstalling then reinstalling both those programs (Windows Media and Realplayer) first. Look for any options to enable "Netscape" plugins. Superm401 - Talk 05:59, 9 January 2007 (UTC)

Could it have something to do with having recently installed VLC media player? I'm trying to figure out when the change occured. I don't think it's a problem with either wmd or realplayer, but rather firefox trying to open them. Because when I click on one of these links, it opens the blank page quickly, says "done" in the bottom left quickly, and then doesn't have any sign that anything is loading at all. Maybe I should reinstall firefox or delete tab mix plus, which I think i downloaded around the time this stuff stopped working. Good ideas? Bad? Part of the trouble with uninstalling and reinstalling both players is that each new version comes with new professional spyware type crap I have to delete. Anything I could try before that is preferable, and I think might actually work better. 70.108.219.115 06:15, 9 January 2007 (UTC)

You can try uninstalling VLC first. Make sure firefox isn't running during the uninstallation. I doubt Tab Mix Plus has anything to do with it. Superm401 - Talk 07:00, 9 January 2007 (UTC)

Thanks. I'll give that a try. 70.108.219.115 07:14, 9 January 2007 (UTC)

Yaaaayy! Uninstalling VLC did it. Thanks for talking me through this. 70.108.219.115 07:17, 9 January 2007 (UTC)

Matlab figures to SVG

Is there an easy and free way to save matlab figures in the svg format? deeptrivia (talk) 05:50, 9 January 2007 (UTC)

A quick google search turns up this page, which looks like what you want. The same google search actually also turned up this wikipedia image (damn we have a high PageRank, our images are on the first pages of a google search!). It was made by User:Nmnogueira, so a good idea would probably be to ask him/her. Oskar 22:44, 9 January 2007 (UTC)

Where did you think all that donation money went? :p --froth^{T C} 03:10, 10 January 2007 (UTC)

January 9

Kubuntu - Disabling Switch User Option

Hi. I'm using Kubuntu 6.06 and I was wondering if there was some way to disable the "Switch User" button when you lock the session. Thanks - Akamad 14:46, 9 January 2007 (UTC)

You can do it by manually setting the GConf key "/apps/gnome-screensaver/user_switch_enabled" to false. Don't know of a more user-friendly way to do it. May I ask why? —Keenan Pepper 04:28, 10 January 2007 (UTC)

Try the Lockdown Editor. --wj32 ^{talk | contribs} 01:17, 11 January 2007 (UTC)

Unfortunately, I have Kubuntu installed (KDE) so I couldn't find the KDE equivalent of the gconf file. To answer Keenan's question: The reason I was asking was that I know that in Windows you can go CTRL+ALT+DEL and then lock the screen, and there is no menu to log in as another user. I was wondering if that was possible in Kubuntu too. A quick google only finds gnome versions of the lockdown editor. I'll have a proper look around later for a KDE version. Thanks. - Akamad 05:10, 11 January 2007 (UTC)

Then, I don't know. --wj32 ^{talk | contribs} 06:06, 11 January 2007 (UTC)

Transmission

Please how do i draw out a correlation between Baseband Transmission,Broadband Transmission,Asynchronous Transmission and synchronous Transmission. Thank you.196.200.115.132 15:36, 9 January 2007 (UTC)Dairo Adesola

Have you read the articles, Baseband, Broadband, Asynchronous communication, and Synchronization? —Keenan Pepper 04:22, 10 January 2007 (UTC)

Windows XP Background Graphics

View of Mount Rainier from the observation deck of the Space Needle.

Can anybody tell me what mountain is featured in the Windows XP desktop background known as "Ascent"? Many thanks, Mike Harris. 213.131.125.106 18:07, 9 January 2007 (UTC)

Don't you mean Bliss (see the article), Windows XP default wallpaper? — Kieff 18:21, 9 January 2007 (UTC)

I believe he is referring to ascent.jpg, the image of a mountain at dawn/dusk with snow blowing right to left off its peak, and a partial moon to the left. Not being from the Northwest, I offer no expert knowledge on this, but as Microsoft is based in the Seattle area I would strongly suspect it is an image of Mt. Rainier, take a look at this for comparison... --66.195.232.121 19:44, 9 January 2007 (UTC)

Excellent! Thanks guys - just what I needed to know. --- MikeyHaz 15:23, 14 January 2007 (UTC)

Why do the call it Mt. Rainier ? ...because, being near Seattle, it's rainier than the other mountains. :-) StuRat 04:36, 10 January 2007 (UTC)

But remember that it's pronounced like Mount Rain-ear.

Well, unless you have a hat that covers your ears, you will end up with "rain ear". :-) StuRat 17:50, 15 January 2007 (UTC)

Captain George Vancouver reached Puget Sound in 1792 and became the first European to see the mountain. He named it in honour of his friend, Rear Admiral Peter Rainier. Todd Armstrong 08:47 1 January 2008 (UTC)

I think it is actually Mount Baker, not Mount Rainier. The shape of Mount Rainier is very distinctive from any angle, and the ascent photo doesn't match. Plus, Mount Baker has some distinctive foothills (which you see in the lower left of the Ascent image). Frank Benson 22 July 2008.

GIMP question

In the GIMP, is it possible to have a layer with a transparent background, and add a fully opaque layer (for example, a JPG photograph) on top of that so that the transparent pixels stay transparent, but the non-transparent pixels get their colours from the new layer? Or is it possible to "substract" a layer with a transparent background from a layer with an opaque background, so that the "substracted" pixels would become transparent? JIP | Talk 18:28, 9 January 2007 (UTC)

Yes I'm sure it's possible as I've done it before, but I haven't used it in ages and haven't the slightest idea of how to do it now --froth^{T C} 20:05, 9 January 2007 (UTC)

If I understood your intention correctly, this is something that can be done with masks. Go to the layer with the transparent background and choose Layer → Mask → Add mask... and then select Layer alpha and click OK. Now activate the opaque layer, choose Layer → Mask → Add mask... and proceed with whatever settings there are. Go to the transparent layer's mask (by clicking it in the layer list), Ctrl+A Ctrl+C, then go to the opaque layer's mask, Ctrl+V. Anchor the mask, and you're done. –mysid☎ 21:01, 9 January 2007 (UTC)

Yes, this works. Thank you! JIP | Talk 10:11, 10 January 2007 (UTC)

could u please help

hi if some one could find this out for me it would be a great help could u please find out Joseph Delaney (who wrote the wardstone chronicles eg the spooks secret)email adress this is very important to me as he is one of my heros and i would like to get a email from him so please could some one spare some time to find this out please —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Ukpc5 (talk • contribs) 20:50, 9 January 2007 (UTC).

This should be on WP:RD/M. I also don't think a mailing address is available. However, you can write him by post. See http://www.harpercollinschildrens.com/HarperChildrens/Home/ContactUs.aspx?TCId=100. Superm401 - Talk 00:07, 10 January 2007 (UTC)

January 10

Buying a laptop without Windows

I need a new laptop and I haven't used Microsoft Windows in years, so I'm looking hard for any company that will let me buy a laptop without making me pay for a Windows license. I sent some emails, including one to HP, and they all replied "no, all our laptops come with Windows preinstalled and you have to pay for it", but then I stumbled across this page and did a double-take. The first option says you can save $100 by choosing FreeDOS instead of Windows XP Pro, which is honestly more than I expected to save. After some more searching I found that Dell offers something similar. Do any other companies offer laptops without Windows?

On a related note, do any current Apple laptops have Linux-friendly wireless chips (i.e. not Broadcom)? —Keenan Pepper 04:20, 10 January 2007 (UTC)

Hypersonic offers notebooks without an OS for a savings of $90 from XP. I wouldn't be surprised if some of the other gaming computer vendors do the same. kmccoy (talk) 04:25, 10 January 2007 (UTC)

You may be able to get a refund for windows after you buy it - but it takes some work. Dell is quite good for this - you can get about £50 or so. Google for "windows refund". --h2g2bob 09:54, 10 January 2007 (UTC)

Hopefully you are still going to check this...

System76 sells sells a range of systems preinstalled with Ubuntu. All hardware is guaranteed? to work with at least ubuntu. http://system76.com/ --Sish 07:16, 11 January 2007 (UTC)

Type 07

I have an external 200GB hard drive that was partitioned with NTFS. My friend connected it to his Linux box, which said it could not mount it. After this, I connected it to my Windows XP PC, which showed the volume as not partitioned. When i looked at the drive in Partitiononmagic, it showed the drive as having a "Type 07" file system. How do i get my files back? --Shanedidona 05:10, 10 January 2007 (UTC)

"Type 07" just means NTFS, for what it's worth --froth^{T C} 06:28, 10 January 2007 (UTC)

Testdisk is the most powerful free utility I have found that can help you to recover lost partitions. Please use at your own risk. Sandman30s 09:47, 10 January 2007 (UTC)

Is the disk's MBR broken or overwritten or something? --Shanedidona 14:55, 10 January 2007 (UTC)

The disk won't have a boot sector if it's not bootable. Was your external hard drive bootable? --froth^{T C} 19:22, 10 January 2007 (UTC)

It wasn't bootable. --Shanedidona 21:33, 10 January 2007 (UTC)

Have you tried testdisk? Run the analyze and if it picks up your lost volume, that means it's quite safe to "Save" i.e. write the corrected partition info to disk. This program saved my life when Partition "Magic" crashed in the middle of resizing and nothing else could fix the broken partition. Sandman30s 21:36, 10 January 2007 (UTC)

Ah, when I tried installing Ubuntu 6.06, I resized a NTFS partition. Everything was lost on that partition (I thought). I used testdisk, and everything was restored! --wj32 ^{talk | contribs} 01:30, 11 January 2007 (UTC)

I got testdisk. Is there a place in the program I go to to repair the disk? I don't know where to go in the program. --Shanedidona 14:48, 11 January 2007 (UTC)

You can use arrow keys and Enter key to select. Select your physical disk, then Intel partition, then Analyze, which analyzes for lost partitions. If it finds partitions it can restore it will display a list in green. Select the one you want to restore then Save. Good luck! Sandman30s 21:56, 11 January 2007 (UTC)

You might want to try two 100 GB partitions instead of a single 200 MB partition. Some Windows systems have trouble addressing a partition over around 137 MB, and perhaps some versions of Linux have the same restriction. StuRat 01:00, 14 January 2007 (UTC)

programming language

what r the psudo codes of algo? if there is no use of algo for a programmer than y v must write algo of a program? —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 203.170.71.58 (talk) 07:42, 10 January 2007 (UTC).

ALGO is a programming language, not a pseudo code. If V is being required to program in ALGO, I feel sorry for him. If that doesn't answer your question, please try repeating it with proper grammar. --Kainaw ^(talk) 08:09, 10 January 2007 (UTC)

I'm guessing the question refers to an algorithm rather than ALGO. I cannot parse the question about "pseudo codes of algo" in a meaningful way, however. As for the second question, I'm guessing "v" stands for "we", a notable improvement to internet writing, since it's clearly much easier to type one letter than two. The question would then state, "if there is no use for algorithms to a programmer, then why are the programmers required (presumably, by the teachers) to write their programs as an algorithm first, as opposed to starting writing code from scratch?". The answer is in the false supposition; algorithms are indeed very useful, and in the context assumed here provide for abstraction, an extremely important software engineering concept. IgorSF 09:54, 10 January 2007 (UTC)

Perhaps the d00d is asking what is the pseudocode for writing algorithms. The answer is that there is no one specific pseudocode. As pseudocode is intended to be read only by humans, not by computers, there is much more freedom in defining your own pseudocode. JIP | Talk 10:46, 10 January 2007 (UTC)

God, who knows or cares what he is asking about? If he can't be bothered to at least try and be coherent then I don't think anybody should be bothered to guess at what he is asking about. --24.147.86.187 15:31, 10 January 2007 (UTC)

WP:BITE --froth^{T C} 20:55, 10 January 2007 (UTC)

It'd be BITEing if it were making fun of their inability to use the Wiki or search or something like that. But I think we're allowed to say that someone is just being rude when they don't put any effort into making a coherent sentence. --24.147.86.187 16:45, 12 January 2007 (UTC)

There are various reasons for users not being able to write in sentences with perfect grammar. What if a user's first language is not English? Or they are not familiar with a keyboard? It's always good to assume good faith. x42bn6 Talk 21:32, 12 January 2007 (UTC)

Even basic stuff like "Put kettle on stove. Turn on heat. Wait for water to boil. Turn off heat. Pour water." is pseudocode - it doesn't have to take any sort of real structure. See pseudocode (surprised none of you linked to this yet!). x42bn6 Talk 22:57, 11 January 2007 (UTC)

System file backup...?

Is there a way to backup or copy the system file in the config folder in the system32 subdirectory of the system root directory (windows), i.e., c:\windows\system32\config\system ? -- 71.100.10.48 08:22, 10 January 2007 (UTC)

Perform the file copy outside of Windows, when the file is not locked. Splintercellguy 09:47, 10 January 2007 (UTC)

How do you get outside of XP? If you boot from a floppy you can not access the harddrive. If you boot from aCd XP will only allow you to access the harddrive under recovery console which keeps the file locked. 71.100.10.48 10:33, 10 January 2007 (UTC)

The file appears to be in use by Windows; I'd guess it's being used by the kernel, and as such, may remain in use so long as Windows is run. But you don't have to copy it under Windows! There are several ways to use your computer without Windows running; the easiest will likely involve creating a system boot disk if you don't already have one and booting your machine from that disk; or else using a bootable CD (the CD from which you installed Windows XP is a bootable CD by itself). You may need to modify BIOS setting to allow the machine to start from a floppy/CD; take care while doing that. IgorSF 09:49, 10 January 2007 (UTC)

As stated above. 71.100.10.48 10:33, 10 January 2007 (UTC)

Normally, you should be able to access the hard drive while booting from floppy. If your hard drive is formatted using NTFS rather than FAT32, there may be problems, although I'm not sure that they will arise. An additional possibility is restarting your machine in Safe mode with Command Prompt, though I can't be certain that this file won't remain locked. IgorSF 10:53, 10 January 2007 (UTC)

The file is still in use under safe mode and a floppy created under NTFS is formatted as FAT with no files for even accessing a CD much less being able to access an NRFS drive. -- 71.100.10.48 11:07, 10 January 2007 (UTC)

If you boot to the XP recovery console, the SYSTEM file won't be locked I think. Splintercellguy 13:14, 10 January 2007 (UTC)

You need a LiveDistro, something like Knoppix is a great solution, but would require a little bit of learning. ;)Vespine 21:58, 10 January 2007 (UTC)

I don't think you understand. Even if you can boot from a floppy or CD NTFS will not allow you to have access to the harddrive. 71.100.10.48 00:55, 11 January 2007 (UTC)

And why is that? Knoppix is not Windows (if you didn't know), so why would it not have access, even though it has NTFS support? --wj32 ^{talk | contribs} 01:21, 11 January 2007 (UTC)

As stated, bootable cd's such as Knoppix, BartPE, etc.. allow you to view NTFS partitions and copy files off, most even support USB drives so you could just copy to a pen drive or an external hard drive. Another option is to physically unplug the drive and plug it into another computer. Booting to the recovery console WILL allow you to copy the system file off, it isn't locked in the recovery console as you stated before. However, I'm curious as to why you are trying to copy the SYSTEM file off, do you have another computer thats getting a "config/system file is missing or corrupt" error on booting? Copying the system file off another computer will not fix this error, the best way to fix this is to boot off a windows xp cd; on the first screen that says "hit R to repair, or hit enter to install" hit ENTER, not repair, the next screen is the license agreement, hit F8 to accept that, now the next screen should say "theres already a windows here, do you want to repair it? hit R to repair" on this SECOND repair screen you want to hit R, this will copy windows over the top of itself and repair it, fixing the error, and keeping all your existing programs. You will have to reinstall all updates after the repair. If the second repair screen doesn't show up, and you are instead looking at a partition screen, just turn off the computer. It doesn't always let you repair the windows depending on what caused the error. The other option is to do this.--PiTHON 03:12, 11 January 2007 (UTC)

Just for backup, why all these complications? Surely the simplest would be to use Windows' own backup program. It works in ordinary run mode: System tools > backup > advanced > select the files to backup and specify destination. An alternative is create a restore point, if you want a copy of the setting before changing them. -- —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Seejyb (talk • contribs) 09:31, 11 January 2007 (UTC). Oops --Seejyb 09:32, 11 January 2007 (UTC)

iirc the built in backup does not use VSS and wont backup files in use without a registry hack. however, i did just try your suggestion and the only backup location i can select is the a: drive, which isn't much use for a 5mb file. i believe its meant for old tape drives, i have seen this program used (with scripts) to backup to external HD's, however i don't know how and have no time to research it currently :p--PiTHON 16:56, 11 January 2007 (UTC)

Avi Mashup

Any freeware programs that can take two .avi files and stitch them together into one, consecutive video? Thx. --Russoc4 14:48, 10 January 2007 (UTC)

I gather VirtualDub is pretty popular. Has an "Append AVI segment..." function. Weregerbil 14:53, 10 January 2007 (UTC)

Yeah, VirtualDub is what you are looking for. Though not free, Quicktime Pro can do this also, I think—it is not very expensive and I find it easier to use than VirtualDub, personally. --24.147.86.187 15:30, 10 January 2007 (UTC)

Well, I have AutoGK. I'll see what I can do with the VirtualDub that it comes with. Thanks. --Russoc4 16:05, 10 January 2007 (UTC)

Deleted file

i used to use MS word 2007 Beta 2 (not Tech Refresh) on my old Vista (build 53..) partition. it seems that some files which i need have been deleted (prob. by me, when I though I had them) - would there be any way to reliably recover them? They still appear in the Word recent docs list, but I get an error that the file doesn't exist when I try to open it. I've tried a few deleted file restoration programs, but non work (and I really need a free-ware one anyway). Does anyone have any ideas/an answer to my conundrum? 81.155.240.68 16:26, 10 January 2007 (UTC)

Reliably, probably not. It sounds like you are on the right track with the undelete programs, I was trying to undelete some photos on a flash card and it wasn't until the third or fourth program that I was successful. Of course, if you want to pay an arm and a leg, you could seek professional help. Vespine 21:53, 10 January 2007 (UTC)

The best one I found thusfar is Handy Recovery - unfortunately it's not free. The evaluation version should allow you to undelete a few files per day. Sandman30s 22:01, 11 January 2007 (UTC)

Printing

I am trying to set up my windows XP laptop to print over the network. The only catch is, the network is primarily Mac. How can I do this?

Omnipotence407 16:40, 10 January 2007 (UTC)

How is your printer connected to the netowrk - though a Mac or directly? A print server may be your best bet for this kind of thing - unless there's some Mac software out there... 81.155.240.68 16:43, 10 January 2007 (UTC)

A network is a network, does the printer have an IP address? If it does, you should just be able to connect to it using that. Vespine 21:44, 10 January 2007 (UTC)

If the computer is connected directly to a MAC computer, this site looks like it has the info you need. If the printer has its own network card in it, or has a print server, then you'll need to get the software for the print server usually.--PiTHON 03:28, 11 January 2007 (UTC)

The printers are connected directly to the network. How would I find their IP addresses? When i use the connect to a printer on the network, nothing shows up.

Thanks Omnipotence407 22:28, 12 January 2007 (UTC)\

I've seen high end printers with built in network cards, you can use the printer display/setup to go to network settings and manually enter an ip address (or even use DHCP), then you should be able to view/add it from the network. If you have a printer with just a parallel or usb port, then a print server plugged into that with a network port on it, then you have to get the software for the print server. Telling us the make/model of the printer and/or print server would help the most.--PiTHON 02:32, 13 January 2007 (UTC)

I will get that info as soon as I can, long weekend. [[[User:Omnipotence407|Omnipotence407]] 17:42, 14 January 2007 (UTC)] 04:50, 13 January 2007 (UTC)

Class Methods

If you are calling a class method, when is using the class identifier optional? 216.253.128.27 16:52, 10 January 2007 (UTC)nicholassayshi216.253.128.27 16:52, 10 January 2007 (UTC)

Is this a homework question? Well, it depends on the language. I would like the answer to be "never", but unfortunately, that's not correct. JIP | Talk 17:51, 10 January 2007 (UTC)

This is not a homework question. I was programing on Java and came across this problem.216.253.128.27 22:02, 10 January 2007 (UTC)nicholassayshi

How about creating a reference to that method? --wj32 ^{talk | contribs} 01:24, 11 January 2007 (UTC)

When calling it from a method of the same class or a subclass, I believe. ~~ N (t/c) 21:49, 11 January 2007 (UTC)

True for Java, yes. However, that's not necessarily true in all OOP languages. For example, in python, if we have a module called foo with a method bar, this is valid code..

from foo import bar
bar()

—The preceding unsigned comment was added by TK-925 (talk • contribs) 02:22, 12 January 2007 (UTC).

That's not a class method, because a module isn't a class. I suppose it might be considered a static-style method (sometimes called a "class method") of the module as if the module were a class, but then I don't know if the questioner meant to be discussing methods with or without an implied object parameter. --Tardis 15:43, 12 January 2007 (UTC)

How much would you pay for this Desktop PC?

How much do you think this computer is worth?

This is a computer purchased from ABS computers (ABSpc.com, owned by newegg) a couple years ago. These are the specs directly from my order history:
ANTEC LED LIGHT TUBES GREEN RET
CASE ANTEC|PLUSVIEW 1000AMG LE RET
ACCES FAN|8CMX25 TLF-82 LED CLR RT
MB i865PE|5P1A4D GA-8IPE1000Pro ATX
VGA EVGA|FX5900 128M DVI/TV 8X AGP
POWER SUPPLY 450W ALLIED ATX450P4 R
CPU P4/2.8CGHz 800M 478P/512K HT RT
DDRAM 512MB PC-3200 GL5123200B-G % (2 of these = 1GB)
MULTI-SLOT FLASH 3.5" USB2.0 BLK%
FD 1.44MB|MITSUMI #D359M3D BLACK %
HD 120GB|WD 72R WD1200JB 8MB-CACHE%
MODEM AOPEN PCI V.92 FM56-PLX OEM
CDRW LITEON|52X32X52X LTR-52327S BK
DVD|LITE ON 16X XJ-HD166/165H BK%
SB BLASTER AUDIGY|SB0092 (W/1394)%
S/W MS|WORKS 7.0 OEM BUNDLEVERSION%
S/W MS|WIN XP HOME SP1a BUNDLE ONLY
2NET 1YR ONSITE SV 888 983 9988
Awesome 4500B

So basically it's a P4 2.8GHz, with 1GB DDR ram, Geforce FX5900 128mb video card, 120gb Hard drive, very solid motherboard, very well built case (look up reviews on antec plusviews if you want, the case has a glass window on the left side so you can see all the components, which are illuminated by some blue LED's. Also has an extra fan inside.

It also includes 52x32x52 CD RW and 16X DVD player, sound blaster audigy sound card, floppy drive, 6 in 1 card reader on the front (memory stick, smartmedia, Compactflash, microdrive, SD, and multimediacard), 56k modem, ethernet card. I also added a firewire card (powered) about a year ago which I believe has 2 ports. On the front there is also a firewire port and usb port, and I believe the Soundblaster card has yet another firewire port. There are a bunch of USB ports (6 in total).

Comes with XP install disc, have not tried linux on it but it would definitely work. Have had absolutely no problems with it since I bought it. I also have the original instruction binder with manuals, CDs, etc.

I also may have a keyboard, mouse, and LCD display for extra if you're interested. It will be available starting Friday the 12th. Selling because I'm getting a laptop for college. It will come with a reformatted HD.

thanks 71.192.64.118 18:54, 10 January 2007 (UTC)Steve

Slightly outdated gaming machine- I'd pay maybe 400 dollars for it max --froth^{T C} 19:20, 10 January 2007 (UTC)

why the %28 %29 for secondary disambiguations?

For example, searching "Master Chief" leads me to the officer ranking page; if I click the disambiguation page at the top to lead me to the fictional Halo Star, I am sent to: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Master_Chief_%28Halo%29 I simply do not understand where/why it is in this format...why not just, say, wiki/Master_Chief_Halo or something? My overarching question is, such a method of disambiguation links seems arbitrary, any explanation? Thanks! 140.180.21.169 22:01, 10 January 2007 (UTC)

%28 and %29 are HTML address code for left bracket '(' and right bracket ')'. HTML address code is NOT the correct term for it, I'm not sure what the proper name is, someone will no doubt find a link. Vespine 23:09, 10 January 2007 (UTC)

It's called percent-encoding or URL encoding, and it allows special characters on URLs. — Kieff 23:13, 10 January 2007 (UTC)

The naming conventions just try to make things easy and standardised. See Wikipedia:Disambiguation. x42bn6 Talk 22:53, 11 January 2007 (UTC)

January 11

On Rewritable CD's

Hello, i was wondering what the best method to use to clear or rewrite a SONY CD-RW650HS (ReWritable 650 High Speed)is. is there any software that i need that doesn't come with the standard windows setup?

sorry this must sound very unintelligent. 142.161.227.58 01:37, 11 January 2007 (UTC)

If the CD-RW came with your computer, the software should be there. It's probably Nero Burning ROM. --h2g2bob 01:47, 11 January 2007 (UTC)

To clear the disk in Nero, there is an option called 'Erase Rewritable Disk' under the Recorder menu. Sandman30s 08:41, 11 January 2007 (UTC)

You can just put the CD in the drive and windows will mount it (chances are as drive D or E). Just delete files and drop files in like any other drive, but make sure you hit Burn in the left column before removing the disk (Windows XP only) --froth^{T C} 02:37, 11 January 2007 (UTC)

Getting an iTunes library from PC to Mac

So I have a new Mac, and would like to get the music from iTunes on my Windows PC to iTunes on my Mac. However, when I plug my iPod into my Mac, the only option I have is to erase my iPod. I'd imagine I'm not the only one who has ever had this problem, and I reckon this is some sort of intentional software roadblock. I'd also imagine that there is an easy way around this (without having to reload all my music CD by CD). Any suggestions? --Jeffrey O. Gustafson - Shazaam! - <*> 06:57, 11 January 2007 (UTC)

This page should have the info you are looking for. The itunes software is set to synch your computers with the ipod automatically, so they try to mirror your computers settings with the ipod; so a blank library on the mac would want to make your ipod the same. But you can override the automatic synching and manually do it as the site says--PiTHON 07:06, 11 January 2007 (UTC)

That's not really helping me. None of those responses are saying "this is how you do this." I've got music on my laptop. That same music is on synched on my iPod. I don't have music on my Mac, which is the machine I want synched with my iPod. I want the music on my laptop/iPod to be on my Mac, so I don't have to use my laptop anymore. How do I do this if iTunes won't let me? --Jeffrey O. Gustafson - Shazaam! - <*> 08:07, 11 January 2007 (UTC)

I appear to have found something... Hopefully this works. --Jeffrey O. Gustafson - Shazaam! - <*> 08:40, 11 January 2007 (UTC)

Yea your page is a lot more straightforward, the main thing i was looking for was telling itunes to let you manually control the music, so when you plug it into your mac, itunes wont try to synch the empty mac library with your ipod (erasing it), then you can copy the opposite way (ipod->mac)--PiTHON 02:30, 12 January 2007 (UTC)

Windows iPods are formatted with FAT32, while Macs use HFS+. Even though Macs support FAT32, iTunes tries to format your iPod. Copy your original music onto your iPod, say into a folder named "my_music". Then, on your Mac, manually mount your iPod and copy your music over. BTW: please don't ask me how to mount your iPod, I don't use a Mac, I use GNU/Linux. --wj32 ^{talk | contribs} 07:08, 14 January 2007 (UTC)

Computer System Architecture - Memory Management

Dear Friend,

i'm Sumathi and i'm doing my MCA. i'v the subject Computer System Architecture... i'v encountered the following questions ....pls answer me......

1. How many 128 X 8 memory chips are needed to provide the memory capacity of 4096 X 16?

2. Given a 32 X 8 ROM chip with an enable input. Show the external connection necessary to construct 128 X 8 ROM.

3. A digital computer has a memoty unit with 24-bits per word. The instruction sets consists of 150 different operations. All instructions have an opcode part and an address part. Each instruction is stored in one word of memory.

         [a]. How many bits are needed for the opcode?
         [b]. What is the maximum allowable size of memory?

if anybody know the answer kindly answer me or send me to sumi_jana2000 [at] yahoo.com —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 221.134.217.2 (talk) 07:33, 11 January 2007 (UTC).

I think the answer is to do your own homework. If there is a specific detail you don't understand about your homework (e.g. how can you determine how many opcodes a 32-bit CPU can have), ask that. Don't expect people here to answer your entire homework. —Mitaphane _talk 05:37, 13 January 2007 (UTC)

Mmm, question 3 would be bloody easy if you actually learned something from your course... Well, I'll give you some hints. Question 3.a: how many bits are needed to store the number 150? Question 3.b: How much space is left in the instruction after the opcode takes up space? --wj32 ^{talk | contribs} 07:03, 14 January 2007 (UTC)

About pendrives.

i want 2 kno if there are pendrives with a whopping capacity of about 256 GB. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Swagat4187 (talk • contribs) 12:27, 11 January 2007 (UTC).

No. 4GB appears to be the current maximum. Even 256GB were physically achievable, its astronomical cost would be entirely prohibitive. Adrian M. H. 17:52, 11 January 2007 (UTC)

For anything over 200 GB you might consider looking at an external hardrive--66.65.185.43 02:18, 13 January 2007 (UTC)

Sandisk released a 32GB flash drive at this year's CES. I believe it actually has an IDE interface, so isn't actually a pendrive. However, it is one of the largest flash drives I've seen. --Mdwyer 06:23, 13 January 2007 (UTC)

MySQL Data searched by Google & Co?

Greetings! At the time I program the website for the company I work for, particularly a Content Management System with PHP and an underlying MySQL database to store all the articles, news, etc. so even the ladies at the office can put some news on the frontpage without having to ask a software person how to do it all the time.
Well to cut to the point: Being a company website they want to be featured prominently in search engines on their product sector. Of course I will add <meta>-tags for keywords, etc, but my big question is: Do todays search engines search and index dynamic sites, and if they do, do I have to code anything specifically into the site so that google does find the information that is presented (for example) on our news site, where every article is fetched from the MySQL database? Or do I have to output all the MySQL data into a static HTML file every time something is changed in the articles, so that the search engines can index the information?
Any help would be greatly appreciated, and pardon any grammatical errors for I am not a native english speaker. -- Aetherfukz 12:42, 11 January 2007 (UTC)

Yes, search engines index dynamic pages as well, as it's impossible to tell the difference in an accurate way. I've been told that Google ranks pages somewhat higher if the content appears to be static (that is, doesn't appear to use parameters - this could be done with some URL rewriting, rather than an actual caching system), but I don't have a source, and I'm not sure if it's really true, since I seem to get fine placements without doing anything special. --Pidgeot (t) (c) (e) 14:47, 11 January 2007 (UTC)

And no, google can't index your mysql database directly --froth^{T C} 19:39, 11 January 2007 (UTC)

Thanks for the answers. -- Aetherfukz 09:32, 12 January 2007 (UTC)

They require hard links to the dynamic pages somewhere on the site — they will not enter terms into a search engine. Also, meta tags for keywords are not used very prominently by search engines these days, because they are obviously easy to abuse. --24.147.86.187 16:41, 12 January 2007 (UTC)

which is the best size for a tablet pc

we all would say that 15 inches is the best for desktops and 14 for laptops. But what is the best size for tablet pcs when you dont use it as a convertible but use only keeping it in your hands and reading? Would you go for 8.4" or 10.4" or 9.4" or 12.1" or 14.1" or 15.1"? —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 59.92.127.55 (talk) 15:32, 11 January 2007 (UTC).

I have a 15" laptop and a 21" desktop? I'm 184cm tall. This isn't really a question though is it? You're just asking for people's opinions, you'd probably have more luck at a computer forum rather then a reference desk. Good luck.Vespine 21:54, 11 January 2007 (UTC)

I would say it depends on the resolution. My Acer with XGA resolution (1024x786) is 10.4", and having a decent eyesight, I see no point in having a larger screen. It would only become rather heavy for holding comfortably e.g. while reading Zinio magazines. OlavN. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 84.236.215.1 (talk) 08:56, 12 January 2007 (UTC).

No doubt varies by user. Personally I am looking at 10.4" & 12" models. Smaller ones are a bit hard on the eyes, and the keyboard is too cramped. Larger ones are far too heavy to carry and use as a tablet. Another mutant 07:23, 13 January 2007 (UTC)

sshd for Windows using passwd file

Is there any port of sshd to Win32 that reads the user information from a passwd file or equivalent instead of using Windows authentication? I just want to install a simple server for port tunnelling on a Windows machine without bothering with changing the user settings, etc. ~~ N (t/c) 16:18, 11 January 2007 (UTC)

Can't remember off top of my head, but have you had a look at cygwin. It provides a unix-like layer on top of windows, so may allow this. Cheers, Davidprior 19:10, 16 January 2007 (UTC)

Is a PC mouse more likely to be controlled by Bios or a device driver?

82.39.6.25 16:45, 11 January 2007 (UTC)

It is always controlled by a driver, even if that driver is often incorporated into the OS. You may be thinking of the mouse/keyboard PS/2 interface, which can be controlled within BIOS. Adrian M. H. 17:48, 11 January 2007 (UTC)

Setting up passwordless (key-based) login on an ssh server I don't own.

I just got a UNIX account on a server I don't own or control. It's running SunOS and OpenSSH (ssh -V returns OpenSSH_4.4p1, OpenSSL 0.9.8d 28 Sep 2006). I set up passwordless login by writing to ~/.ssh/authorized_keys, but is there any way to disable password logins, SSH v1 logins, and so forth? I know about this sort of thing, but that's talking about global configuration, and I'm not the superuser over there.

As a side note, they tell users to login with telnet. telnet! The instructional sheet doesn't even mention using ssh, probably because it doesn't come with Windows. How horrifying. (And yet it's not mentioned for OSX users either, who do all have SSH.) grendel|khan 20:00, 11 January 2007 (UTC)

For the first point, disabling password authentication etc., AFAIK there's no way for you to do it, since which authentication methods are allowed is set in the system-wide SSH server configuration (conventionally /etc/ssh/sshd_config) and the only user-writable files that sshd checks are things like authorized_keys and known_hosts. Short of coming up with a dirty hack in ~/.ssh/rc (if there is even a way to detect which authentication method has been used once legged in) I can't see any way of doing what you want without a helpful sysadmin. And as for them recommending telnet, get yourself a sharpened stick and poke whoever wrote that instructional sheet until they see the error of their ways. (There are, of course, more practical ways of making the point, but that would be naughty.) -- AJR | Talk 21:44, 11 January 2007 (UTC)

It's the instructor for a graduate-level library science course on setting up a website and so forth. Depressing, eh? grendel|khan 18:53, 12 January 2007 (UTC)

It might run afoul of their policies, but you could always compile and run your own sshd on the server. Since you're not root, it would have to listen on a port higher than 1024, but other than that you could set it up however you liked.—Chowbok ☠ 20:49, 16 January 2007 (UTC)

Newb-friendly music apps?

Can anyone recommend a newb-friendly music creating application (software synth, software drum machine, etc) to me? I'm looking to mess around with some, preferably those that allow recording. The platforms available to me are Linux and Windows XP (though I prefer the latter, my Linux machine doesn't like my headphones). Thanks! 202.10.86.63 22:16, 11 January 2007 (UTC)

I don't know what the latest versions are like but I always found Fruity Loops pretty easy to use.--Kiltman67 23:30, 11 January 2007 (UTC)

MidiPiano Suite contains , a general midi keyboard controllable by your computer keyboard that can record and play .mid files. It also comes with MidiDrum, a rhythm generator using general midi's percussion channel. Get it directly from this link. Main website here. They are both freeware aps, I use them all the time. Besides a few minor glitches here and there, they are pretty reliable. --Russoc4 17:43, 12 January 2007 (UTC)

My system tray battery icon has vanished, and refuses to return

I'm using Windows XP on a Dell laptop (fresh install from the included disc, no crapware), and this problem has only surfaced very recently. The only thing I can recall changing recently was installing PowerStrip. I've tried to uncheck and recheck the option in the Control Panel to enable the icon, but it doesn't help. For now, I'm using another application to put a meter on my desktop, but it's not as convenient. Does anyone know of a solution? -- Consumed Crustacean (talk) 02:35, 12 January 2007 (UTC)

I googled your problem and got a bunch of responses from forums and the like (seems to be not an uncommon problem). Check out this thread, they seem to have a lot of suggestions. If nothing there works, go through the googl results. Hope this helps Oskar 06:38, 12 January 2007 (UTC)

Yeah, but no useful solutions are forthcoming despite the Google results. The HP forum thread jumps all over the place, but doesn't go anywhere useful. The "Hide UPNP Wizard" might help in a typically crazy Windows style; I'll try it out tomorrow. -- Consumed Crustacean (talk) 06:56, 12 January 2007 (UTC)

IIRC, WinXP has some sort of option somewhere (maybe under "Start Menu preferences") to hide unused systray icons. --Carnildo 22:05, 12 January 2007 (UTC)

Not it. That's one of the first things I disable ;) -- Consumed Crustacean (talk) 02:50, 13 January 2007 (UTC)

I'm not sure which option you mean by "the option in the Control Panel" and the forum link doesn't work, so: Display Properties -> Screen Saver tab -> Power... -> Advanced tab -> Always show icon in the taskbar? If that's the option you were talking about before, maybe restart between enabling and disabling? —AySz88\^-^ 03:55, 17 January 2007 (UTC)

That is the only control panel option I know of, and it failed. I reinstalled Windows, and all is fine again. -- Consumed Crustacean (talk) 07:50, 20 January 2007 (UTC)

General-purpose GUI input to plain text output

This request is a bit broad, so input from multiple people and backgrounds is extremely welcome. What I am looking for is a generic tool that allows me to generate arbitrary text from GUI controls. One way to describe what I mean is by reference to existing apps that *almost* do what I want:

• TopStyle (generate CSS by filling in a "property grid" GUI)
• Inkscape (generate SVG with many types of GUI stuff, including color picker, gradient drawer, bezier curve tools etc etc)
• Text editors and IDEs (generate things like source code and HTML tables using only a GUI that specifies how many rows and cols you want, or other parameters)

What I wonder is if there is a generic tool that allows you to generate *any* kind of text you want (not just SVG, CSS, HTML, source code) with the same methodology, filling in a GUI so as to abstract out parts of the text that are too tedious to do by hand. Any clues on whether this type of functionality exists in any form whatsoever? It seems like all the existing software assumes it will work with only one kind of language, and the GUIs are not extensible (you can't create your own dialogs). NoClutter 03:08, 12 January 2007 (UTC)

What you want is a scripting language with GUI support. It's possible to write a single application that allowed you to design forms, fill them in, and generate text from them in an arbitrary fashion, but such a system would come very close to being a scripting language with GUI support, so you might as well just do it directly. If you insist on it being a program rather than a language, Emacs can do what you want — that is, it has a programming language built in with good support for a variety of text output and it can generate GUIs specified at runtime. However, its controls (as in GUI components) are simple and not pretty; I don't know how much of a concern that is to you, and it is possible (albeit perhaps more trouble than it's worth) to add your own controls to its suite. --Tardis 15:37, 12 January 2007 (UTC)

Tardis Tardis, thank you for the answer, you understand exactly what I was getting at. I did not know EMACS had this feature, I wonder how many other text editors do. It is tricky to search on this, because "GUI generator" seems to assume the kind of stuff you do with VisualBasic-style form code generator, instead of during the runtime of the editor itself. Scripting is not out of the question though, so these are 2 good leads. NoClutter 02:44, 15 January 2007 (UTC)

I suspect the answer is "no", in two respects.

The tools you mention are, of course, not at all generic; *** content snipped off *** level of the XML document.) —Steve Summit (talk) 21:41, 13 January 2007 (UTC)

Steve, thank you, but if you will forgive the remove, but the answer you gave seemed to misunderstand my question, which Tardis already gave a great answer. The tools mentioned were only for analogy, the fact that they are not generic was the point. NoClutter 02:29, 15 January 2007 (UTC)

Adding IR output device to a laptop

I have a portable printer that can use IR (Infra Red) signal from a computer for input. My old (very very old) laptop did that. It had a IR output port so I could print with no wire connecting the computer and printer. The printer also had a parallel port.

My new laptop (actually two years old by now) does not have an IR port and does not have a parallel port. Is there any add on device I can plug into the laptop to give me a IR printer port?67.173.137.132 03:24, 12 January 2007 (UTC) Allen Matthews

I'd probably recommend a usb to parallel adapter. From what i remember the IR transmitters have to be like 6 inches a part to work anyway, and directly facing eachother. But there appears to be usb to infrared adapters as well. These are just random google pages, but you should be able to find at least the usb to parallel adapter at a computer shop. Also I'm pretty sure your laptop just had a standard IR port, i dont think theres such a thing as a "IR printer port", so any IR adapter should work..--PiTHON 05:21, 12 January 2007 (UTC)

PiTHON is right about the adapters. I use a USB-IrDA adapter with a cable between the USB connection and the Ir module, so that I can aim the device. Fewer wires hanging around, and it is very small. --Seejyb 14:59, 12 January 2007 (UTC)

Latest IT trends

Hi

How can I come to know about the latest trends using Wiki? How are the topics covered? for ex. if my search goes for programming, how would wiki help to me to access the latest developments goin on?

Thanks

Shekhar —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Cmalode (talk • contribs) 10:37, 12 January 2007 (UTC).

Wikipedia would probably be a bad source for tech news. Try slashdot. --froth^T 18:32, 12 January 2007 (UTC)

January 12

Ubuntu in expert mode

Help! How can I install Ubuntu (or Kubuntu) in "expert mode"? Thanks! --151.42.224.199 11:53, 12 January 2007 (UTC)

With "F6", right? --151.42.224.199 12:09, 12 January 2007 (UTC)

What exactly you mean by "expert" mode? Live CD you just install, text based CD give you more options but not GUI and you don't really need them in normal install. --antilived^{T | C | G} 10:17, 14 January 2007 (UTC)

Software to write reports in style of Wikipedia?

I have to write some long reports. I like the way Wikipedia offers a simple means of indenting paragraphs by using a colon, how it numbers sections automatically, and how it does automatic footnotes too. I use the wordprocessor StarOffice5.2 and doing those things within it would be very complicated and counter-intuitive. Is there any wordprocessor, text editor, or other software, that can format reports as Wikipedia does please? Preferably freeware or public domain. Thanks. 62.253.48.4 13:34, 12 January 2007 (UTC)

Not sure about pre-made software, but you could use wikipedia itself. Simply edit whatever document you want using your own user space or a "sandbox page" and then save the resulting output as an HTML file on your local machine. Then open that file in a word processor. Most modern word processor software understands HTML. Obviously, this is not a good solution for routine use. If you know how to program in perl, python, java or other, writing the software yourself won't be difficult with many of the public domain libraries that process "wiki" markup already out there. dr.ef.tymac 15:10, 12 January 2007 (UTC)

You might try TeX (or one of its variants, like the popular LaTeX): it follows the same principles of automatic formatting and separation of content and style, but is designed for paper documents, especially technical ones. (It, notably, is the source of MediaWiki's mathematical formatting support.) It can, however, become relatively complicated depending on what you want to do with it. --Tardis 17:39, 12 January 2007 (UTC)

LaTeX is complicated no matter what you want to do with it :) --h2g2bob 19:37, 12 January 2007 (UTC)

Thanks. I was excited by Lyx except I then found out it will not work with WinMe although it does work with some newer versions of Windows. I have written a number of crude WYSIWYM subroutines in gwbasic - the only language I know. They do things like sort paragraphs, create an index, allow remarks lines or hidden keywords lines at the beginning of paragraphs, and automatically place paragraphs at the appropriate place in a skeleton outline of contents headings (I like to write individual paragraphs on various topics as I feel like it, and have these automatically put in the right place in the text), plus numbering paragraphs in '8.3.1.2.1' style. I would be very interested to hear of any word processor or editor which can do these things.

What you wish to do is possible in OpenOffice.org's word processing component Writer. The recent versions are quite intuitive and easy to use, and it is easy to record macros for the tasks you most commonly do. It is a large download, but it is open source and free:-) --Seejyb 14:12, 13 January 2007 (UTC)

which is the bigger program in mb of data recovery HD

MY E-MAIL IS -email removed by User:Froth-

-email removed by User:Froth-

ATT::

RAFAEL FERNANDES —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 201.22.71.237 (talk) 13:47, 12 January 2007 (UTC).

There's no way we can know what program is "bigger" based only on your question. What data recovery system are you talking about? Why do you need to know? Maybe we can provide alternative solutions --froth^T 18:35, 12 January 2007 (UTC)

You can look at the size of the installer download of each program to get a comparison of how large different programs are. If you're asking about compression ratios, most compression algorithms are created pretty equal these days. Droud 14:13, 13 January 2007 (UTC)

Change supply voltage

My hard drive has been getting overheated but not when I install it in another computer. I checked the power supply voltages since I heard that low voltage will cause a motor to overheat. My 12 volts supply is 12.68 volts but my 5 volt supply is only 4.75. Is there a way to increase the voltage and bring it up to 5 volts? -- 71.100.10.48 13:54, 12 January 2007 (UTC)

Try another plug on the power supply since there may be a bad connection or something else drawing current. There isn't really a way to increase the voltage on a single rail without modification of the PSU. Either replace the PSU, or if it were me, invest in another fan or two to keep your case cooler since that's probably making all the difference. --66.195.232.121 16:00, 12 January 2007 (UTC)

A bad connector is very unlikely to result in a low-voltage or unintended-current situation.

In answer to the original question, no, as far as I know, there's no (good, reliable) way to adjust the voltage of a typical computer power supply. If it's truly delivering inadequate voltage, replacement (perhaps with a higher-power and/or higher-quality supply) is really the only option.

With that said, I doubt that a 5% low-voltage condition on the 5V supply would cause a disk drive to overheat. So I would look for other causes, such as inadequate ventilation (as 66.195.232.121 suggested), or the possibility that something else (perhaps the power supply itself) is overheating and blowing so much hot air into the case that it's heating up the disk drive. —Steve Summit (talk) 21:22, 13 January 2007 (UTC)

Chips are generally designed to operate on a range of voltages. For example, a 0.7 V is still a logic 0, and a 4.2 V is still close enough to power a 5 V chip most times, because it's pretty much impossible to set the voltage exactly for all configurations because of different load resistances. So 12.68 and 4.75 really are both close enough that it's within the normal range, and shouldn't be anything you need to worry about. --Wirbelwindヴィルヴェルヴィント (talk) 02:23, 14 January 2007 (UTC)

Actually under-voltage will cool down stuff, not overheat stuff (well in ohmic things anyways, which are (roughly) most things). --antilived^{T | C | G} 10:19, 14 January 2007 (UTC)

True, although one of the big exceptions is: motors. Some (not all) motors are based on a design that inherently tries to output a constant amount of power. If you decrease their voltage, they draw more current. If the voltage drops too far, they draw so much current that their windings overheat, and may even burn out. This can be a real problem when a region's electricity generation and transmission network is unable to keep up with high demand, such that the voltage is allowed to drop (a "brownout"). However, the motors that usually succumb to this problem are the ones used in refrigerator and air-conditioner compressors; I've never heard of it occurring in small motors such as are used in disk drives. —Steve Summit (talk) 14:02, 14 January 2007 (UTC)

On sidenote, doesn't the motor use 12V supply and the electronics use the 5V in the harddrive? And yes, in a brushless DC motor for harddrives the controller will try and maintain the same rpm regardless of the input voltage (to a degree) and thus takes more current in undervoltage to maintain the same power. But 5% increase in current shouldn't overheat and break the motor (hell I've doubled the marked voltage of a fan (same brushless motor) and it still ran fine, although very noisy). --antilived^{T | C | G} 23:14, 14 January 2007 (UTC)

Blogging

How can I get people to read my blog? 75.21.177.88 15:09, 12 January 2007 (UTC)

Have content in your blog that people want to read. --Kainaw ^(talk) 16:57, 12 January 2007 (UTC)

Lol. He's right, though. You could try advertising to those who are interested in whatever it is you are blogging.--Russoc4

Link to other popular blogs whose audience might be interested in your blog by using TrackBack or something similar. Leave interesting and relevant comments on blogs with active comment threads, entering your blog's address in the 'URL' field provided; if people like what you have to say, they're likely to check your blog. Note that these suggestions are just ways of doing what Kainaw and Russoc4 are talking about; if you don't write anything interesting, you're not going to get readers, no matter how many trackbacks you get. grendel|khan 19:10, 12 January 2007 (UTC)

question about file types on Firefox for Mac

I'm trying to get Firefox (on mac osx tiger) to open video files by default in VLC player (or even quicktime player). However, by default it opens them in a separate tab in an embedded quicktime format. If I go into preferences, then click manage (under the file types heading) it only gives me the option of managing .PNG and .TIFF files. Why can I not manage other file types like WMV, MOV, AVI, etc.? —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 71.192.64.118 (talk) 18:21, 12 January 2007 (UTC).

I believe these are controlled by windows or the actual programs themselves. You would certainly need a plugin- the quicktime "browser plugin", for example, interacts with the quicktime player itself and unless the plugin comes with VLC itself (I'm not very familiar with VLC) you'll have to find one --froth^T 18:37, 12 January 2007 (UTC)

VLC has a Mozilla (Firefox) web browser plugin. It is probably installed when you installed VLC. Typing about:plugins in the location (address) bar will display your currently installed plug-ins. To change actions for file types, edit it in the preferences (Edit -> Preferences). On the content tab, look at "Configure how Firefox handles certain file types", and edit that. I'm afraid I'm not a plugin expert, as I hate plugins. --h2g2bob 19:15, 12 January 2007 (UTC)

Ooops, re-read your question. It sounds like the webpage is using a player embedded on a new webpage using <embed> tags. You can't turn this off in the options: if the plugin is available it will be used. Some extensions (like NoScript) will replace the player with a box so it doesn't load the player unless you ask it to. To open the video in something else, you can use any of a range of extensions (even my very own UnPlug). I'd check the extensions for a solution: https://addons.mozilla.org --h2g2bob 19:25, 12 January 2007 (UTC)

Syncing a PocketPC PDA with Mac OS X

Is there any way you can sync a PocketPC PDA with Mac OS X? The page on iSync says that it does not work with windows PocketPC. Is there any way possibly to sync iCal with a PocketPC? Many thanks, --86.137.233.160 22:52, 12 January 2007 (UTC)

Check out The Missing Sync for Windows Mobile - Kesh 20:23, 14 January 2007 (UTC)

video

getting video straight off the internet to the computer, how?

Right click on the video link, then select "Download target as..." or "Save link as...". Sometimes it will be a stream so you might want to look into a stream ripper. Droud 14:18, 13 January 2007 (UTC)

video

How can i acheive the following goal: take a video that is featured on the internet and get it saved to my computer?

If you are using firefox, you can install an extension called Fast Video Download ryan 23:37, 12 January 2007 (UTC)

Use my firefox extension, UnPlug. --h2g2bob 01:12, 13 January 2007 (UTC)

Or, probably easier than either solution (especially if you don't use Firefox), just visit this site, and paste in the URL of the page. It will then give you a link to download from. Easy peasy. -- Consumed Crustacean (talk) 02:53, 13 January 2007 (UTC)

It depends on the video format. You need to be more specific. If it is something that is launched in RealPlayer, for example, it is not easy and not always possible to directly download it. --Fastfission 18:18, 14 January 2007 (UTC)

Blocking Open Proxies under the IPv6 network (which has 3.403*(10^38) unique addresses!)

It is Wikipedia's policy to block all open proxies as soon as they're discovered. Out of 4,294,967,296 IP addresses in the IPv4 system, an unknown percentage of them are open proxies. (If anyone knows of or can find the percentage of all IPs that are open proxies, please let us know.) Administrators or bots on administrators' accounts block open proxies as they find them on or off Wikipedia. Even though a great deal of them have been blocked by now, I have found some open proxies that the administrators haven't discovered yet. Even under the IPv4 system, not all open proxies can be found; it would take a lot of time, resources, and effort to possibly find them all. More than that, new IPs become open proxies every day, while other IPs become reassigned to non-open-proxy assignments.

As soon as the IPv6 system gains wide acceptance, a vast number of IPs out of all possible IPv6 IP addresses will become open proxies, and still remain a vanishingly infinitesimal slice of the 3.403*(10^38) possible IPs. More than that, the number of open proxy IPs will keep growing every day (and perhaps every minute, or even every second!) Even if one million bots were each given administrator privileges and assigned to find and block one open proxy IP per second, it's safe to say that it would still take over a million years to find and block every last open proxy IP in existence on the IPv6 network.

Faced with this dilemma, what could Wikipedia's administration possibly do about this issue? What do they plan to do about it? Moreover, since open proxy blocks only apply to the local Wikipedia, what about the foreign Wikipedias, other Wikimedia wikis as well as Wikia wikis? Blocking them one-by-one like it's been done to the IPv4 open proxy IPs will most certainly not work on the IPv6 open proxy IPs, so what do you say a new solution would be for when the day comes? --129.130.38.24 23:42, 12 January 2007 (UTC)

Just because there are a larger number of possible combinations doesn't mean the number of proxies will skyrocket. Proxies aren't a feature of the protocol, they're paid-for servers running to transfer content --froth^T 03:05, 13 January 2007 (UTC)

See Also

• Wikipedia:No Open Proxies
• Wikipedia:WikiProject on open proxies

January 13

Magazine-style printing?

I don't know what this kind of printing is really called, but I have a PDF of sheet music that is about 60 pages long. Usually sheet music comes printed in such a way that it resembles the binding of a magazine; that is, if you were to take out the staples in the middle, each 8x10 would seem sort of random in the placement of the four pages on them (two on front and two on back) unless they were in the right order and folded in the middle.

I made a graphic incase it's confusing what I'm saying. [1] only the pages on the right are in backwards order if you're looking at them as if they were completely flipped from the ones on the left.

Is there a way to do this with a PDF? That way it would only be 15 pages and easy to flip through. (The sheets look fine on half of a horizontal page though are technically full page ones). Thanks.EgyptianSushi 01:00, 13 January 2007 (UTC)

Layout software can usually do this — PageMaker had a "Build a Booklet" plug-in which would do this. Adobe Reader doesn't seem to have that option; I don't see any obvious candidates in Acrobat but I find it hard to believe it wouldn't be an option in there somewhere. Hmm... not sure. Googling "PDF booklet printing" comes up with some options, though — this one is an Automator script for Mac OS X 4; there are a few others floating around. Hopefully just knowing the name of it will help out... --24.147.86.187 02:03, 13 January 2007 (UTC)

Cannot Empty Recycle Bin

I'm running Windows XP and I have items in my Recycle Bin, but everytime i click to permanently delete them, they refuse to delete and a pop-up message pops up and says "Cannot delete Dc20: It is being used by another person or program". But I am sure that there is no program or person using the items in the recycle bin. I've terminated as many processes as I can and there are no applications running, but the message still pops up. How can I fix this? Thanks. Jamesino 03:08, 13 January 2007 (UTC)

Try rebooting and then immediately emptying the Recycle Bin --Kiltman67 03:29, 13 January 2007 (UTC)

Alternatively boot into safe mode and then empty the recycle bin --froth^T 03:56, 13 January 2007 (UTC)

Right click the recycle bin and go to properties, drag the "maximum size of recycle bin" to 0% and reboot, the recycle bin should be empty. restore it back to 10% and reboot. Taken from this site.--PiTHON 08:14, 13 January 2007 (UTC)

You can easily delete such files with Sysinternal's MoveTo. Oskar 20:18, 13 January 2007 (UTC)

Haven't we answered a really similar problem already? --wj32 ^{talk | contribs} 06:51, 14 January 2007 (UTC)

Router

I have two computers. one of which is running a 100mbps Broadband connection. The other computer is at the opposite end of the house about 20m away, and I've been told that it would be impossible to set up a network between the two due to distance and because there are 3 walls that separate them. Does anyone know if this would really cause problems and if so, what sort of router would be required to overcome them? Thanks,Mix Lord 03:49, 13 January 2007 (UTC)

You could always run a cat-5 cable through the walls --froth^T 03:58, 13 January 2007 (UTC)

I strongly suggest running a network cable to the other computer and plugging both computers into the router (usually, you have a router plugged into the modem, but now some modems come with a router built in). 20m is nowhere near the max limit for basic cat5 network cable. If you opt for wireless, you will notice the wireless computer has a much slower network connection than the wired one. --Kainaw ^(talk) 03:59, 13 January 2007 (UTC)

So the router will still work? It just sounds easier than running cable and would allow me to use wi-fi on my PSP. Thanks anyway Mix Lord 04:58, 13 January 2007 (UTC)

Wireless routers still have wire ports so you could opt for the wireless router for your psp and run cables for your computers --froth^T 05:58, 13 January 2007 (UTC)

Max cable distance on Cat5 is 100m, so you are well within range for a cable run. Wireless will work as well, although you will want to secure your network [2], and the lower your signal strength, the lower your speed. If the signal will not reach through the walls, you have a number of options. 1) Put a repeater [3] at a central location that both router & PC can reach. 2) connect a wireless access point [4] to the router, and position it so that PC signal can reach it. 3) get directional or other extended range antennas on both PC and router (or PC and access point). Another mutant 07:20, 13 January 2007 (UTC)

Okay, thanks. Think I'll try the router

Mix Lord 02:34, 14 January 2007 (UTC)

Converting ppc to intel

Using a lipo command on a mac, you can extract the Intel binary from a Universal program. Is there a way to convert ppc only programs to a universal binary, or to an Intel program? Thanks! ryan 04:25, 13 January 2007 (UTC)

No, you'd need the original code and recompile it for the different architecture. You could try stuff like dynamic recompilation but it's not as efficient as a straight compile --froth^T 05:56, 13 January 2007 (UTC)

Thanks, but how would I do that? I have a macbook pro Running Intel Core Duo, 2ghz. ryan 15:29, 13 January 2007 (UTC)

You might want to look at Rosetta (software). Apparent;y it came with your computer --froth^T 02:00, 14 January 2007 (UTC)

Rosetta runs it at about 80 percent speed. I want to be able to convert the entire program into an intel binary before it runs. The technology is in place(Rosetta), but how can i manipulate it to do what I want. ryan 15:26, 14 January 2007 (UTC)

Email the developer, and ask them to compile a Universal binary version. There's no way to take a pre-compiled PPC app and turn it into a Universal app yourself. If you have access to the source code, then you can load that up in Apple's developer software (included with the OS), and compile it Universal yourself. -- Kesh 20:29, 14 January 2007 (UTC)

Display Problem

I recently bought a new computer and 24 inch monitor from Dell. However, I still wanted to use my old computer, so I've set up a KVM switch to allow me to jump back and forth between the two computers by merely hitting scroll lock. The only problem is that when I'm switched over to the older PC the image on the monitor appears very jittery and unstable. I have all the drivers installed on both computers and have them operating at the same resolutions 1600x1200. I am, however, unable to change the refresh rate to anything other than 60 hz on the older PC. I'm not sure that this is the problem though, because the new computer displays just fine on the monitor at that refresh rate. I'm wondering if my old video card on the older PC is the culprit. Would upgrading to a slightly better AGP card make a diffrence? Just curious if anyone has any ideas on how to fix this. Thanks in advance. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 207.250.218.251 (talk)

I assume you're talking about an LCD monitor, and I assume you are using a VGA cable to connect to it? I think the problem might be with timing. When you run an analog VGA signal to an LCD monitor, it has to sync up to the clock to get the picture right. If you switch out to a different timebase, the monitor loses clocking. Even if they have the same resolution, they are at different times. Does hitting the 'auto' button (or whatever passes for it) make the display clean again until you switch monitors? I think getting a better card -- one that offers DVI might help, but you'd need an DVI-capable KVM switch, too. --Mdwyer 06:15, 13 January 2007 (UTC)

If you boot with the monitor switched to the old pc does it look bad? Or does the old one look fine until you switch to the new one, then back to the old one? Have you tried plugging the monitor directly into the old computer and rebooting? First thing i would try is bypassing the KVM switch and reboot, if it still looks bad borrow the cable running to the new machine and use it to plug in the old one. I've seen cheaper VGA cables cause shadowing and other issues with the display, makes a good monitor look like crap. Also maybe the switch has a problem with the specific output you are using, bypassing the switch would fix that problem, or switching the KVM switch ports around. I think the reason you cannot change the refresh rate is windows usually detects the monitor and its display modes when you turn on the computer, nvidia drivers have a "force redetection of displays" in the driver, but rebooting works. And try auto-adjusting the monitor as mdwyer said, if you've ever manually adjusted an LCD to have the picture run off the edge of the screen even a few pixels it can cause the whole display to get weird, auto-adjusting will center everything. Actually I think your problem is the monitor is a 1920x1200 monitor, running in 1600x1200 is not optimal and is probably running into scaling issues on your old video card. Link. --PiTHON 08:33, 13 January 2007 (UTC)

Lexar USB Drive/PowerToGo Software

This is really frustrating me. I just bought a Lexar 360 Jumpdrive that came preloaded with that PowerToGo software. I plug it in, the little window pops up asking me if i want to "start PowerToGo" or 'Explore my drive", ect.. Now, when ever I try and "Add a Program" or open up a program on that menu that pops up out of the Compact Bar, A. Nothing ever happens when I click "Add a Program" and B. the program that I open freezes, (EverNote is one example). Anyone have some good ideas? (P.S. Running Windows XP) Deltacom1515 07:00, 13 January 2007 (UTC)

WORD 5.1

Where can I obtain a copy of WORD 5.1 for the Mac on CD, please86.219.163.91 11:08, 13 January 2007 (UTC)drew

eBay. That's about it. -- Kesh 20:40, 14 January 2007 (UTC)

the 'New hw found ' dialog appears..

at every boot: but nothing uninstalled is connected to any bus (not even usb).. tia --Ulisse0 12:11, 13 January 2007 (UTC)

what hardware is it trying to install? did you just do a fresh install of windows, or did this just start coming up randomly? if you dont want it to show up again, you have to hit next a few times, not cancel. on the last screen of hitting next- next -next it'll say "could not install" at the bottom it has a check box that says "do not prompt me to install this again", hit finish. now when you reboot it will not pop up.. but depending on the device you'll want to get the drivers installed, which you can do by going to control panel -> system -> hardware -> device manager. anything in here with a yellow exclamation mark or question mark needs to be loaded.--PiTHON 16:38, 13 January 2007 (UTC)

this unknown hw is identified by a VID #### PID ###### string. I don't remember how it started.. maybe I had connected some usb device (pen or dvdr or tuner).. Thank U --Ulisse0 17:30, 13 January 2007 (UTC)

Mimic FireFox "about:config" dialog using wxPython (preferrably)

If you have firefox, try typing "about:config" in the address bar. You will notice a huge sortable and filterable list of various options that you can select individually. I would like to create a standalone control that behaves exactly like this one, using wxPython (preferrably). The sticking point is I cannot find out how to implement the "filter" functionality and the "filter-as-you-type" functionality offered by the firefox interface. Any help or tips on where to look are most appreciated. NoClutter 18:33, 13 January 2007 (UTC)

Would it be so hard just to not display items in the list that doesn't contain the text? Couldn't you do that yourself? Oskar 20:16, 13 January 2007 (UTC)

Removing Feature of Firefox 2.0

A small feature has appeared in 2.0 which hasn't been in any previous release. It is that if I begin to type in an address of a site I've visited before then click on it in the list which drops down it doesn't go there immediately as it used to Pre-2.0 and as it still does in IE, instead I have to hit Enter.

I have no idea why it was included as it seems to add nothing and instead just gives you another thing to do since your hand has to move backwards and forwards between the keyboard and mouse in order to browse. At first I suspected it was something to do with the Go Button which seemed new (or at least was easier to remove in the earlier releases), but after switching off the button in About:Config the problem still remains. I suspect the solution is somewhere within About:Config, but could anybody tell me what I should be looking for? --Kiltman67 18:53, 13 January 2007 (UTC)

Well for me it goes immediately when I click the address --froth^T 20:40, 13 January 2007 (UTC)

Not for me (Iceweasel 2.0.0.1 on Debian). If I click, I need to click go (or press enter). But if I use up/down+enter to select it, it goes directly there. It may be a bug. --h2g2bob 22:32, 13 January 2007 (UTC)

For me, it does. Firefox 2.0.0.1 on Ubuntu Edgy. --wj32 ^{talk | contribs} 06:55, 14 January 2007 (UTC)

windows xp

my friend wiped my computer and now i cant get on to windows xp because he has put in a forged one i had a genuine one on my computer but i dont have the product key for it can i phone microsoft and will they give me it. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 82.11.61.217 (talk) 20:06, 13 January 2007 (UTC).

Your best bet is to find the original packaging, since the license sticker is on that. You could try calling MS but if you never gave them any personally identifiable information you might be out of luck. Many people (and this is a very well tested thing) simply disable Windows Genuine Advantage validation. You'll have to do your own research on this --froth^T 20:46, 13 January 2007 (UTC)

Have you checked the usual places for the product key - check for sticker on machine, see if it's printed on CD, look for the documentation, etc. --h2g2bob 22:35, 13 January 2007 (UTC)

Another thought, if you bought the comp with Windows XP on it, perhaps the retailer has the records you would need, either in the form of the product keys or a serial number you could then use to get MicroSoft to fork over the info. Also, if you have a receipt from the purchase this might include the serial number. StuRat 23:39, 13 January 2007 (UTC)

Or just use the recovery CD that came along the computer. Although this way sometimes they will install junk too... --antilived^{T | C | G} 10:24, 14 January 2007 (UTC)

how can digital radios auotmatically jump over noisy channels?

Do they compute the spectrum width on the fly with some kinda DFT? tia --Ulisse0 22:54, 13 January 2007 (UTC)

January 14

NFS Carbon graphics

Hello, I just installed the new Need for speed Carbon game. Every time I run it, first it doesn't show the intro video, but i hear the sounds and then in the game everything is made up of blocks and nothing is understandable. My computer meets the system requirements for the game. What can I do? --(Aytakin) | Talk 00:06, 14 January 2007 (UTC)

Try the EA Support first? --Wirbelwindヴィルヴェルヴィント (talk) 02:10, 14 January 2007 (UTC)

Yea see if theres and update for the game on the site. Also you should update your video card drivers, with the make/model of your computer we can point you in the right direction, or if you know roughly what video card you have.--PiTHON 03:37, 14 January 2007 (UTC)

Fast tests for non-convex dynamic-mesh collision?

Well, here's my situation. I'm not sure if this belongs here in the Computer Science section, or in the Mathematics section... being an obstacle in a program, I'm posting this here. I'm working on a game and most of the collision in it is rather simple so far; it will be not unlike Warning Forever, in that it is a single-screen player-vs-computer bossfest shmup. The collision of the bullets and even the player ship itself will be simple -- hitboxes, circles, and lines for lasers. This is the kind of collision I can find tutorials on, and which is described in detail in a couple of books focused on videogame and simulator mathematics that I have.

However, unlike the bullets and the player ship, the bosses are large, skeletal-animated, deformed-skinned models that take up the entire screen. This is where everything I know about collision is lacking for this problem, because a giant boss that fills most of the screen cannot have realistic collision with merely spheres or hitboxes -- I need to know if there are any known collision test algorithms out there that efficiently handle arbitrary mesh collision.

I'm not exactly math-savvy, so that's been a bit of a handicap in trying to figure this out. I'm certain there have been some games that do this -- using collision tests that determine as to whether a ray intersects a mesh, or if a single 2D or 3D point (x, y, [z]) is within a mesh. For what it's worth, here are things about my in-progress shmup engine so far:

• The gameplay is on a XY plane, a two-dimensional board. Like in most shmups, realistic physics will probably never be a part of the game's model (no gravity, only simple bouncing, etc). The large enemy bosses are 3D models, as is the player ship. The only collision that takes place is with anything sitting on the XY plane.
• The only polygon types in these meshes are triangles. No quads or ngons. The meshes are also all sealed (no "holes" in the model), so they are guaranteed to be finite volumes of sorts (although the mesh deforming into itself during some animation frames can happen and is unavoidable).
• The models are not guaranteed (and even highly unlikely) to be convex. I already am familiar with collision tests for convex volumes derived from a set of intersecting planes, but these algorithms don't apply to this problem.
• I use .md5mesh models, with .md5anim animations (the same format used in Doom3-engine games). These are multi-mesh models, meaning I can hold a very-low-polygon mesh that's crudely in the same general shape as the boss's visible mesh for collision, rather than the visible, higher-polygon mesh itself being used for collision. In fact, I think Quake 4 does this, because each enemy model has a collision mesh that's less than 100 triangles that's shaped generally like the visible enemy model.
• Probably the only tests the game needs for boss ships will be "is this (x, y) point within the mesh?" and "does this line or ray intersect the mesh?". There is no need at all for "is this mesh A intersecting at all with mesh B?", which is probably even more complicated than this.

As I said, I'm not math-savvy, so the only solutions I've come up with so far are crude hacks, and all of them have their own glaring logical holes. The most recent crude hack I thought up is one that, each frame, builds a list of 2D lines which each represent the intersection of the XY plane into each of the model's faces that intersect the plane; any sphere or box that touches any of these lines has collided. However, that's not foolproof -- if an object moves a certain number of units more than the size of its own hitbox/hitsphere in a single frame, it's possible that it can pass over these lines and be able to survive inside the boss. Oops! Also it's merely a list of lines which are "de jure" a polygon, but not "de facto", for lack of a better way to say it; to relate an arbitrary number of unconnected lines where each one shares each of its vertices with two other lines into a 2D n-gon would be expensive, especially done every frame (even moreso to convert that polygon into a series of convex n-gons for testing if a point is inside them).

Anyway, that's one example of a failed approach at solving this problem. Again, I'm familiar with the basic collision tests out there and, if this was related at all to static geometry rather than arbitrarily-animated meshes, I'd have likely solved this by now... but alas this problem itself is a bit of a monstrous juggernaut standing in my path. Has this kind of collision problem been solved in computer science? Are there any recommended texts and references that go into detail which I should buy or borrow at the library? Is there one specific named algorithm specific to this very thing that has an article here? --67.161.84.158 03:53, 14 January 2007 (UTC)

I've never done any 3D game design so I don't know much about 3D collision detection algorithms, but... if your game is anything like warning forever, forget the 3D. Render everything in 3D of course, but have a separate layer for hitboxes. When a boss morphs, have the hitbox layer morph along the same vectors as the 3D model.. the hitboxes can be very simple and only roughly correspond to the 3D model and players won't be able to tell. And of course it should be trivial to detect if a ray goes through a square or something. By the way, I thought that even modern games like Counter-Strike: Source don't do actual mesh hit detection since it's so computationally expensive. I know that CS uses blocky hitboxes just inside the player model that morph with the animation "bone structure" along with the model. --froth^T 12:51, 14 January 2007 (UTC)

My first suggestion is to use "cubing" to exclude bullets which obviously haven't hit yet. This means you define a box for each boss from (Xmin,Ymin,Zmin) to (Xmax,Ymax,Zmax) and check each bullet to see if it lies within that range at each step. Now, once you've determined that a bullet is within a boss's cube, you need to do the actual collision detection. I'd check the distance with each node point on the boss's mesh which is within the mesh node distance of the XY plane (|z| <= D), and call it a "hit" if the bullet's distance to any mesh point is less than the distance between mesh node points. You can just have the bullet explode where it is, that should be close enough. There are more precise methods you could use, but the CPU cycle cost would likely be too high. One final hint, don't do the square root in the distance calcs, that's computationally intensive. Instead, compare the distance squared with the mesh node distance squared. StuRat 08:29, 15 January 2007 (UTC)

Google feature

Hi everyone... Sometimes when searching on Google, I come accross sites that have a "sub list" of pages besides the main page result, ie: when searching for "bank of america", I get a result to the Bank of America main page, but under that, there is a list which shows links to "Sign In", "Contact Us", "Credit Cards" etc. I was wondering where does the site admin informs Google about those "sub links". Any ideas? Thanks... Quase 04:34, 14 January 2007 (UTC)

I believe they're automatically found by the google bot --froth^T 10:09, 14 January 2007 (UTC)

Take a look at http://www.google.com/webmasters/ The titles probably come from the titles on the webpages. Which pages are chosen comes from ranking which are the most important pages on the website. If the website owner submitted a sitemap, then that's used, otherwise googlebot works it all out (mainly from page links). --h2g2bob 03:15, 15 January 2007 (UTC)

How do you make a forum?

I'm in a gaming clan and we want to make our own website. I searched online and found this place where you can get a free website. I have a website now, however, i barely know anything about editing a website and i also dont know how you can "turn" a website into a forum.--Taida 04:49, 14 January 2007 (UTC)

You need PHP support. Chances are more than likely that your free website provider doesn't do this. There are free forum providers, but the ones I've seen are horrifically ad and spyware laden. If really you don't want to shell out money for paid provider, you might want to look at community websites of the game you play; some tend to host forums for clans for free, though it may depend on the clan's size. -- Consumed Crustacean (talk) 05:14, 14 January 2007 (UTC)

forumer provides a resonable service, and not too many ads either. I recommend IPB over phpbb. --froth^T 05:51, 14 January 2007 (UTC)

I don't know much about this so don't laugh at me. From what i can understand, you basically just open up notepad then type in some html code into it and upload it into your website. I think its kinda like how you take a code and paste it into your myspace. Can someone just give me the code to make a forum?--Taida 03:02, 15 January 2007 (UTC)

PSOne Emulator

I've seen on the PSP Homebrew page something about a PSOne emulator which is made by Sony. I've looked on the Net for an official site or something but all I can find are forums about it and announcements. Does anyone know if there is an official site or where I could download it? Or does it just come standard with version 3.03 firmware? Mix Lord 05:02, 14 January 2007 (UTC)

It's part of one of the newer firmware versions, and is intended for usage with games one buys with their PS3. There is hacked firmware that lets this work with any PSX ISO though. Try Googling for "Dark_AleX", first result. (Edit: Yeah, I should have said the ISOs don't run straight up; they require modification :/) -- Consumed Crustacean (talk) 05:11, 14 January 2007 (UTC)

You need to use a custom firmware to run games that aren't yet available from sony, and one of many programs out now that convert a PSOne ISO to the PSP EBOOT executable. 3.03 OE-B is the newest one that supports it, in order to flash it, you'll need a homebrew-able firmware/motherboard, what firmware is installed on your PSP? Cyraan 06:13, 14 January 2007 (UTC)

How do I set up my own website with MediaWiki?

Could someone point me in the direction of information that would tell me how to set up a website, from scratch, and then have the MediaWiki software running on it?

Please bear in mind that I do not have my own website at present, nor do I have any experience of setting one up and running it.

Also, does anyone have an idea of costs, both set-up costs and running costs? jguk 10:48, 14 January 2007 (UTC)

If you want to set it up on your own computer (assuming that you have a broadband connection) and not register a dns-name, the set-up and running costs are nil (except your connection fee). All the software is free and open source, and there are comprehensive guides on the meta-wiki for installation, and you can use a service like No-IP to get a domain name (it would be something like "jguk.no-ip.org"). Your computer, obviously, would be the server. If it's just going to be a small site, for you and a couple of others, that would certainly suffice. Is that all, or are you launching something bigger? Oskar 12:17, 14 January 2007 (UTC)

Thanks. How can my computer be the server though. Surely, whenever I turn it off, my site would go offline? How would others be able to update it? Also, wouldn't I be putting my computer at greater threat of viruses? jguk 12:31, 14 January 2007 (UTC)

Yes, when you turned off your computer, the website would indeed go down. And your computer wouldn't be so much at risk for viruses and trojans, the only risk is that your site becomes too popular and bogs down your internet connection and fills your hard-drive (although that is perhaps not so likely ;). This is by far the cheapest and easiest way to do it, and it is the one that I recommend (although not without a few drawbacks). You can atleast make try it, set it up and see what you think. If you're unhappy with it, no harm done, just uninstall Apache and MySQL. It would help if you described the purpose of your wiki. Oskar 14:13, 14 January 2007 (UTC)

Try Wikia --froth^T 12:24, 14 January 2007 (UTC)

The reason why I might set up a site is so I don't have to use GFDL, so Wikia wouldn't be appropriate. jguk 12:31, 14 January 2007 (UTC)

There are two parts to the question, as it sounds like you already understand. (1) Set up a website, and (2) bring up mediawiki on it.

Step (2) is very, very easy -- my hat's off to the mediawiki folks for writing one of the hands-down easiest installation procedures I've ever seen. You basically press one button, and it does all the work. A few months ago, I installed mediawiki on my (Mac OS X) laptop in just a couple of minutes. (I did have the head-start in that Apple had already installed MySQL for me.) Even though it won't help you for stable, out-to-the-real-world hosting, I echo Oskar's suggestion that you go through the exercise of installing mediawiki on your own computer anyway, just to get more familiar with mediawiki and its administration side. (Just think: on your own wiki you can be an admin and a bureaucrat and a developer, without going through RfA or anything! :-) )

In terms of setting up a website, this too has two parts: (1a) set up a machine that's always on and visible to the rest of the world via a DNS entry and (usually) a fixed IP address, and (1b) install a web server (probably Apache) on it.

Needless to say, this is the more involved part of the problem. You can do it at home, but you'll probably want to dedicate a machine to it, and perhaps put it on a UPS. Depending on your internet connection, you may get into trouble with your provider, or be forced to pay more. (Many home broadband connection agreements specifically prohibit the operation of public servers.)

Other options are to rent space in a hosting center and install one of your machines there, or to rent a machine in a full-service hosting center. Some full-service hosting centers can rent you thin virtual slices of physical machines, so you can pay a relatively small amount, for just the usage you need.

One hosting center I know of, that would probably meet your needs, is Dreamhost. (I can't recommend or disrecommend them, as I don't really know how they stack up against their competition.)

In any case, you will need to register a domain name. There are a million domain name registrars out there, meeting a variety of needs. Your hosting center can probably help you with domain name registration and administration. (One registrar I've used, which again I can neither recommend nor disrecommend, is register.com.)

There are probably more options than the ones I've mentioned, but this should give you the outline of the problem. —Steve Summit (talk) 15:04, 14 January 2007 (UTC)

Intel vs Amd, ATI vs Nvidia

which are the pros and cons (assembler set, current absorbing, Joule efect,..) in both the tradeoffs ? tia --Ulisse0 11:39, 14 January 2007 (UTC)

Do your own homework. If you need help with a specific part or concept of your homework, feel free to ask, but please don't post entire homework questions and expect us to give you the answers. That being said, electrical phenomenon don't affect performance nearly as much as architecture does. And by assembler set do you mean instruction set? --froth^T 12:30, 14 January 2007 (UTC)

(It ain't a homework.) Yeah I mean instruction set; Intel is CISC, AMD masked-RISC, right? What's the tradeoff? Nvidia has a greater band, ATI a faster clock, rihgt? Again, hat's the tradeoff? --Ulisse0 17:16, 14 January 2007 (UTC)

Well the most obvious tradeoff would be that AMD can get more done in a single cycle but cycles take longer (this has nothing to do with the instruction set) and Intel takes a dozen stages to finish a given instruction but cycles are lightning fast. As for instruction sets, there are various optimizations like MMX and SSE that let more actions be associated with a single opcode (instruction). I don't know anything about GPU architecture --froth^T 20:14, 14 January 2007 (UTC)

You sure about that froth? Core 2 Duos are extremely fast, a 2.4ghz core 2 regularly beats a 2.6-2.8ghz athlon, doing more per cycle than an athlon. tomshardware anandtech. Read the full reviews, those are links to specific performance pages. Also the Core 2's have much better power consumption over the older pentium 4's, and even outpace newer athlons: hardocp. Not to mention the redonkulous overclockability of any core2: anandtech.

Yeah, while Intel is pushing to be more streamlined they're notorious for having ridiculously long piplelines and offsetting it with high clock speed. Core 2 might have changed that, but Intel's chips in the past have followed that rule --froth^T 22:20, 14 January 2007 (UTC)

Same goes with the latest and greatest nvidia has to offer. anandtech hardocp etc... etc... Basically, today, there is no better combination than an Intel core 2 duo with a 8800 video card in terms of real world performance. If you are looking at instruction sets, amount of transistors etc.. you'll be blinded by mostly meaningless numbers until you see the actual performance of a processor. Sure tomorrows applications may run X amount better on so and so's architecture, but by the time tomorrows applications are out, so will tomorrows cpu's.--PiTHON 21:05, 14 January 2007 (UTC)

Aplescript Variable Help

How would I take 2 variables(both strings), and "add" them together? For example:

set string1 to "Hello "

set string2 to "World!"

set string3 to string1 + string2

And here, I want string3 to equal "Hello World!" THe syntax doesn't have to be like this, I just need to be able to do it! Thank you in advanced!--ryan 15:30, 14 January 2007 (UTC)

• What you are trying to do is concatenation, not addition. In Applescript I believe you use the & operators (as in: string1 & " " & string2 — don't forget the space!). This page discusses Applescript text operations. --Fastfission

Thank you! Works just like I needed!--ryan 20:24, 14 January 2007 (UTC)

USB flash drive

pl tell me....... Can i connect USB flash drive to PIC 16F877A EDS Kit? If yes How? If no why?

Syncing Firefox

I have portable apps installed on my flashdrive, but how would i get the profile to sync with my home computer(XP) and the computers at school (Mac). In my head i envision something that would tell the program to look for the file in a different location. Is any of this possible without extensive reprogramming?

Omnipotence407 17:49, 14 January 2007 (UTC)

You want Portable Firefox. The profile will be stored on the flash drive with the program. -- Kesh 20:42, 14 January 2007 (UTC)

I have that, and it works great for windows, and i can get the mac program installed on my flash drive, but how can i get those two to work together? Omnipotence407 21:51, 14 January 2007 (UTC)

Tunneling X connection

hello!

i have got a server in the internet and i want to run graphical apps on them, just like on Image:X11_ssh_tunnelling.png. how do i do this (and any way to let the applications run even if my PC ain't connected to the server anymore)?

HardDisk 17:52, 14 January 2007 (UTC)

If you're running X (if you're on Linux, for instance), just ssh to your server using the -X option and execute the command. (For instance, to run gaim, just execute gaim from your ssh session. If you want to disconnect the app and reconnect to it later without exiting it (as you would do with GNU Screen), I think you're out of luck. There was a Google Summer of Code project on this topic, but I don't know if anything came of it. grendel|khan 06:22, 15 January 2007 (UTC)

C compilers

what are open source C compilers? — Preceding unsigned comment added by Chandan tiwari76leo (talk • contribs) 18:14, 14 January 2007 (UTC)

A C compiler whose code is also made public. Try open-source software. If you're asking for one, gcc is common. --Wirbelwindヴィルヴェルヴィント (talk) 20:37, 14 January 2007 (UTC)

See also the comp.lang.c FAQ list, question 18.3. —Steve Summit (talk) 21:00, 14 January 2007 (UTC)

GCC is the standard for Linux and Unix. However, for Windows MinGW is much better. --h2g2bob 03:00, 15 January 2007 (UTC)

Hacking into a Windows XP Home Laptop.

How do you hack into a "Windows XP Home Edition" Laptop (Acer 5000)?

THat would be illegal (unless you own the computer I guess...), so I don't think Wikipedia is the best place to look.--Ryan 20:51, 14 January 2007 (UTC)

It's called CRACKING, not HACKING. Please don't use the Good Word to describe cracking. --wj32 ^{talk | contribs} 22:33, 14 January 2007 (UTC)

Maybe he does mean remotely (which I guess is what you think it means). But hacking has many meanings, from hammering out quick code to "memory hacking" and the like (I guess what you call "cracking") to compromising systems --froth^T 23:57, 14 January 2007 (UTC)

Simple. Hacker make things, cracker break things. --antilived^{T | C | G} 01:10, 15 January 2007 (UTC)

I'll assume that you want to know about security in general terms, rather than wanting to actually compromise another machine. Computer security is the CompSci collaboration this week, and is worth a look.

Disclaimer: I am not a hacker

To get access to a computer, you can

• guess or discover the password (eg: by performing a man in the middle attack)
• take control of an already running program by giving it malformed data (a buffer overflow or code injection, etc). Some developers, like Mozilla Firefox will pay you a bounty if you find a new way to exploit their code.
• or get users to override their own security or provide their passwords (social engineering).

Once you have some control, you would try to take over the administrative account (privilege escalation). You would then do whatever you wanted, then cover your tracks.

A reminder that gaining access which you cannot reasonably expect to have on a computer is illegal. Owning tools which help you to do this (even if you only use them on your own computers) may also be illegal depending on where you live.

Plenty more information on the internet. --h2g2bob 02:48, 15 January 2007 (UTC)

Fastest ISP?

What is the fastest ISP for a home computer?

Depends on your location, if you're in the US (and you're lucky), FiOS may be available in your area, which is pretty fast (up to 50 Mbps Down/5 Mbps Up). Try calling your local cable/telephone companies, and see whats available. Also if you're in the US, cable modems tend to be faster than DSL, but this may not be so in your area. Cyraan 18:40, 14 January 2007 (UTC)

Getting image to look like this

I have Google's Picasa, and a photo. Is there any way that I can use Picasa to get my picture to have the same color/grain detail as this photo? Thanks, 81.131.8.246 18:33, 14 January 2007 (UTC)

Not sure how you would do it with Picassa, but you need a Hue/Saturation layer on colorize with red. To get the graininess, you need to add noise. Jamesino 22:38, 14 January 2007 (UTC)

I suggest the brightness/contrast has also been adjusted. Vespine 02:36, 15 January 2007 (UTC)

youtube

how can I download videos from youtube?

not just watch online, i want to save them to my hard drive.

I guess I have to hack the link? How do I work out the link in the html? —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 86.128.194.101 (talk) 19:25, 14 January 2007 (UTC).

Use this tool to get the URL of the FLV file. Download it to your computer and use VLC to play the file, or use mencoder or riva to convert it into a more widely-supported format --froth^T 20:11, 14 January 2007 (UTC)

Or, if you have a mac, you could use iSquint(It's free!) Just drag the FLV file on to it.--Ryan 20:52, 14 January 2007 (UTC)

Forgot Password to Window Xp

Is there anyway to log onto a Windows XP Home Edition if you forgot the password to all the accounts? Jamesino 22:42, 14 January 2007 (UTC)

You can boot to safe mode and log in as administrator, which is locked out in normal mode. You can get to safe mode by hitting the F8 key a few times, before windows loads. Instead of loading windows it will pop up an options screen, select safe mode and hit enter. Try to pick a more memorable password, or stop trying to log into a computer you shouldn't be :p--PiTHON 22:47, 14 January 2007 (UTC)

Burn the ophcrack livecd, pop it in the drive and turn on the computer, and wait 10 minutes and there's your passwords --froth^T 23:55, 14 January 2007 (UTC)

the sims 2

when i first tryed to play the sims 2 on my computer it gave me a message saying " could not find directx 9.0 compatible graphics adaptors". so what do i do? should i buy a new grapjics card? or what? ,thank you —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 69.234.40.122 (talk) 23:52, 14 January 2007 (UTC).

Short answer: Yes. --froth^T 23:55, 14 January 2007 (UTC)

AND, install DirectX 9 if you haven't already done so --wj32 ^{talk | contribs} 07:00, 15 January 2007 (UTC)

January 15

Dual Screen Wallpaper

I have a bunch of dual screen wallpapers but I dont know how to have those wallpapers stretch across both my monitors. Any ideas?? thanks!! --Zach 00:17, 15 January 2007 (UTC)

One method is to ensure that wallpaper is sized exactly to your combined resolution (crop/resize it with an image editor), then set it to Tile mode in the display properties. A much simpler way is to use a program like Ultramon, though it is commercial. -- Consumed Crustacean (talk) 00:26, 15 January 2007 (UTC)

Chip sets

I just tried installing a game on a new machine, and it crashed during loading. When i sent for help the hepdesk responded

The Intel 845/865 chipsets do not meet the minimum requirements to run the program. The program requires a card that supports hardware T&L (Transform and Lighting), and the Intel 845/865 chipsets do not have the required DirectX functionality necessary to run the game.

Is this Purely Hardware, or is there some way i can fix it without going out and buying a new graphics card. --Omnipotence407 05:05, 15 January 2007 (UTC)

It's purely hardware. The Intel onboard video chipsets are not made for 3D gaming, or really any 3D applications; they're primarily 2D, and fairly minimal. -- Consumed Crustacean (talk) 05:15, 15 January 2007 (UTC)

Cable TV on computer

Is it possible to watch cable TV on a computer? If so, what sort of adapter would be needed?

Thank you.

ChunkySoup 05:13, 15 January 2007 (UTC)

You need a TV tuner card. -- Consumed Crustacean (talk) 05:15, 15 January 2007 (UTC)

Why does publicfile hide files with spaces in them (in FTP)?

Why does publicfile, as described in [5], "skip names that contain tildes, spaces, or control characters"? There are plenty of useful filenames that contain spaces, and most FTP programs seem to handle them just fine. What is publicfile's reason for not serving them? grendel|khan 06:29, 15 January 2007 (UTC)

portable hard disk

somebody please help me. I bought a 40 GB portable hard disk. i am not very knowledgeable about computer science so please please bear with me if my question seems silly. I connected the drive to the computer usb port. and the light provided in the disk glowed. and also an icon appeared in the taskbar. this is the icon that appears when a pendrive is inserted. when i right clicked it there was an option available as "safely remove hardware". i left it as it is. and i opened "my computer". before this i installed all the softwares present in the cd that came with the portable. also i installed "USB 2.0 DRIVE" from another cd. but inside the my computer i do not see the hard disk. when i insert pendrive an icon appears named as "removable drive" right? but when i insert this portable hard disk no separate drive appears. what shall i do? how do i open the portable hard disk and use it? please somebody help me. thank you very much. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 59.89.21.92 (talk) 07:51, 15 January 2007 (UTC).

You will have to partition and format the disc before use. --antilived^{T | C | G} 09:51, 15 January 2007 (UTC)

ITANIUM PROCESSOR

1. WHAT ARE THE 7 ADVANTAGES OF ITANIUM PROCESSOR OVER PENTIUM 2. EXPLAIN IN ABOUT 10 LINES HOW SOFTWARE PIPELINING IS IMPLEMENTED IN ITANIUM PROCESSOR. 3. EXPLAIN IN ABOUT 5 LINES HOW PREDICATION AND SPECULATIVE LOADING IS CARRIED OUT IN THE I.A -64 PROCESSOR. 4.SCHEMATICS ON ITANIUM PROCESSOR