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September 22

Itunes MP4

On itunes, every song I buy is in MP4 format. Should I trust any free download that says it can convert MP4 to MP3? The windows moviemaker version I have does not support MP4 format and I need a converter for free. If there is one converter I can trust, which one? Thanks The Reader who Writes (talk) 02:05, 22 September 2008 (UTC)

Use ffmpeg. Free, reliable, open source, etc. Should be able to convert from MP4 to MP3 if that's what you want. --98.217.8.46 (talk) 02:07, 22 September 2008 (UTC)

Are you buying iTunes Pro songs or standard iTunes songs? Encrypted standard iTunes songs aren't convertable using normal means. 212.219.8.231 (talk) 08:25, 22 September 2008 (UTC)

Are you sure it's MP4 and not .m4p, which is actually an encrypted FairPlay format? Stifle (talk) 14:51, 22 September 2008 (UTC)

They are .m4p, but what does fairplay mean? Does the encrypted part mean I cannot convert them? Is there any way to get them on windows moviemaker? They will burn to CDs, right? Thanks The Reader who Writes (talk) 22:42, 22 September 2008 (UTC)

You can burn them to CDs fine (using the internal iTunes function) but you won't be able to convert them to MP3 format. FairPlay is Apples DRM solution to make it difficult for people to share their songs and what have you. Gunrun (talk) 17:19, 23 September 2008 (UTC)

Well, you can burn them to CD, and THEN import them as MP3. I would suggest you either only buy iTunes Plus (which are non-encrypted higher quality files) or buy from Amazon MP3 store -- in which all songs are already MP3. --70.167.58.6 (talk) 22:12, 25 September 2008 (UTC)

An  question

(header titled so that this section may be more easily ignored)

Anyone know the filename(s) that contain(s) the URL icon/logo info? It's probably browser specific so getting both the Safari and Firefox filenames would be appreciated. Thanks, hydnjo talk 02:14, 22 September 2008 (UTC)

Are you referring to the favicon? -- kainaw™ 02:16, 22 September 2008 (UTC)

Yes. I need to null the files so that the actual favicons will be added when the URL is called. Something happenened that put the default favicon into every URL bookmark and I need to delete those so that the actual favicon can be stored when the URL is called. The presence of the default favicon inhibits the collection/storage of the URL's real favicon. -hydnjo talk 02:19, 22 September 2008 (UTC)

That is dependent on your browser/OS. What web browser/OS are you using? -- kainaw™ 18:10, 22 September 2008 (UTC)

I am pretty sure they are on a mac os x. Kushal (talk) 19:14, 22 September 2008 (UTC)

I'm using Safari and Firefox. I managed to find the files for Safari and nulling those files works as expected: the bookmarks show the default favicon until any given URL is called and then the null (default) favicon is replaced with the URL's real favicon. However, I can't seem to find the Firefox specific files. Any help/hints would be appreciated. -hydnjo talk 20:58, 22 September 2008 (UTC)

I had to ask because the common complaint with Macs and Firefox is that the favicons are missing. So, if he is seeing them and wants to delete them, it is a rather odd complaint. Regardless, I'm going to make an assumption about which Firefox you are using and suggest that you look in your home folder and see if you see a hidden folder called mozilla. If so, that will contain a firefox folder with all the firefox stuff. -- kainaw™ 00:20, 23 September 2008 (UTC)

Agreed, that would be an odd complaint. No, my situation was that all of the favicons were the same default one and I would of course prefer to have each favicon to be the unique one for any given URL. I now see what's happening; as each bookmarked URL is called, the default favicon is indeed being replaced by the proper favicon and is being stored as such. I was being confused by the fact that not all URLs have a favicon and so the default one stays as such - I didn't know that - no problem after all. Thanks y'all for your attention and help :) hydnjo talk 13:11, 23 September 2008 (UTC)

Blackberry service

What is that 'Blackberry service' all about? What are the services offered under the heading 'Blackberry service' for which we pay 40 $s a month

Wouldn't it be great if there was, like, some big encyclopedia you could look things up in, free? Tama1988 (talk) 04:25, 22 September 2008 (UTC)

Keepvidtubezoiding guardian.co.uk videos

If the videos on guardian.co.uk were on YouTube, I'd use keepvid.com to save one or two for the future. But they aren't. The "sauce" is a nightmare of Javascript that I don't relish working through in order to apply my own brain to the task. Does anyone know of a tool (Windows, Linux, OS X) or website that will let me extract and save the video? Thanks. Tama1988 (talk) 04:31, 22 September 2008 (UTC)

Check your cache. It's a Flash Video. Copy it to xxx.flv. IrfanView will play it. Saintrain (talk) 06:17, 22 September 2008 (UTC)

Well said! 133.25.54.53 (talk) 08:56, 22 September 2008 (UTC)

Thank you both for the reminder and encouragement. I didn't bother to attempt this with Safari, but it was easy with Firefox. Tama1988 (talk) 09:58, 23 September 2008 (UTC)

How to prevent router from getting computer name?

When I connect with my computer to my wireless router, I can look at the clients table in the router administration pages and see my computer's name, as set in Windows (and I think the same happens with the hostname on Ubuntu(?)). What is the mechanism by which the router gets this information, and how can I prevent this information from getting to the router? Because I think connecting to the wireless network should only involve layers 1-3 (physical, data link, network) of the OSI model, and thus the router shouldn't really need to get into computer names and stuff, which operates at a much higher level. Plus not all OS's have computer names, right? so there should be a way to disable it. --169.232.216.46 (talk) 05:57, 22 September 2008 (UTC)

Probably one of them boxes trying to be more smart than they should, what is your router ? Equendil Talk 10:06, 22 September 2008 (UTC)

It is part of DHCP. When your computer asks for an IP address, it says "Hi router! My name is JoesGameBox. Can I have an IP address?". In your network setup, where you set the computer's name, change it to something that isn't descriptive. That will be the name that the computer introduces itself as to the router. -- kainaw™ 18:16, 22 September 2008 (UTC)

Subnotebook

Good day! I am thinking about getting a new PC and maybe a portable machine. As for the PC I'm knowledgeable enough to get and set up a good system, my weakness is the mobile platform. I like the idea of a subnotebook like the Asus Eee, so here's my question - is it in general a good choice? Have any of you guys used it? Is there anything similar (memory card instead of hard drive, lack of cd drive, portability, silence, low price) that might be a better choice. Another must is that the machine has to support Linux in any form. Cheers and thanks for any input! --Ouro (blah blah) 08:26, 22 September 2008 (UTC)

I've seen the Eee in use although haven't used one myself. The screen is fairly tiny, but the Linux distro that comes with it is solid. Stifle (talk) 14:54, 22 September 2008 (UTC)

The old adage still holds true. It largely depends on what you want to do with it. Could you give us some examples of how you will and how you might use the computer? That information would be of much help as we try to assist you. Cheers, Kushal (talk) 19:13, 22 September 2008 (UTC)

Sure, Kushal! Most probably it would be used to work on (all sizes of) text files and some graphics, probably a little bit of photograph storage and probably some amount of web browsing. I think the specs on a 9xx series (the one with the 1,6 MHz CPU and 1 gig of ram) are enough, but I am not sure whether this hardware version comes with Linux. --Ouro (blah blah) 21:44, 22 September 2008 (UTC)

Thanks. If you are still shopping, please try to get something that is not a first generation (or version) of the model line. Unless it has been around for some time. I have nothing against smaller computers but if you are into free software, please look into this. If mobility is a concern, remember to get a larger battery. 2 GB of RAM and integrated graphics card should be good enough, depending on how much photoshopping photo editing (the generic term) you do. If I were getting an Intel processor, I would probably want to go with Intel Core 2 T5750, unless it was a subnotebook which probably come with an Intel Atom. Can I ask you what main reasons are for your wanting a subnotebook? Kushal (talk) 17:51, 23 September 2008 (UTC)

Yes, Kushal, I am still shopping. I noticed the Asus Eee is here and practically readily available, while Dells are harder to come by and thus more expensive. I am looking at the subnotebook formfactor because it's small and very portable, light, and offers the features that I need - editing power and long battery life. I do not need a large hard drive, and I don't expect to need to use a CD/DVD drive very often - an internet connection, Wifi or a USB flash drive should be enough. I will need to occasionally edit a drawing or two, however I now do it on a P3/850 with 512 megabytes of RAM, and I do fine on it (running Zenwalk Linux). I was looking at the model of Asus Eee that comes with an Atom processor clocked at 1,6 GHz - it's the Eee 901. It's enough for my needs. Of course, Linux is a must - I ain't switching back to xp. What would you say about this model? Cheers, Ouro (blah blah) 21:32, 23 September 2008 (UTC)

Googled it, found this. Looks pretty sweet. If it meets your needs, I have only one more question-timing. When would be the best time to buy it? Surely, you would not want to buy it and Asus refreshes its product line the next week selling upgraded hardware at the same price. Since it is not Apple, details/gossip should not be hard to get in time, if you want to go through the trouble. Kushal (talk) 00:12, 24 September 2008 (UTC)

It's perfect, it's exactly what I need. The price is similar to what I would have to pay over here. The time of purchase would be November at the earliest I think. Maybe I'll make it a Christmas gift for myself. Yes, I believe that if a new version was to come out, details will not be able to come by - and they are available on Wikipedia as well. We will see, if a new version comes out then the price of this one should drop - which is even better. --Ouro (blah blah) 06:10, 24 September 2008 (UTC)

I have just decided to buy a Dell Mini 9. It's being custom built now. --mboverload@ 05:17, 23 September 2008 (UTC)

I like it, but the downside it's that it's hard to obtain in Poland, and more expensive. --Ouro (blah blah) 05:42, 23 September 2008 (UTC)

Q(t+1) ?

Someone please tell me the meaning of Q(t+1) here. No one has written anything about it there, just plugged it into the article. Is it 1 more second than t or 1 cycle after time t or what? Thanks 59.95.99.218 (talk) 08:53, 22 September 2008 (UTC)

It just means "at the next instant", Up until time t the signals are as the Q(t) column. After time t they are as the Q(t+1) column. -- SGBailey (talk) 11:00, 22 September 2008 (UTC)

I think in that section of the article Q(t+1) means the value of Q at the next clock cycle. The simpler notation Q_next is used elsewhere in the article with the same meaning. Gandalf61 (talk) 11:23, 22 September 2008 (UTC)

My initial thought was as Gandalf's. However the SR latch under discussion doesn't have a clock. -- SGBailey (talk) 13:45, 22 September 2008 (UTC)

There are 2 events associated with the Set-Reset flip-flop. The first is the latch initially receiving an external input and the second is from the internal feedback loop which generates input as a result of the initial external input. The animation shows this well. 71.100.160.163 (talk) 22:48, 22 September 2008 (UTC)

Debian unstable packages in sources.list

What do I need to add or change in /etc/apt/sources.list so that I can install unstable and testing packages? I'm running Debian AMD64. NeonMerlin 15:40, 22 September 2008 (UTC)

Is this what you want? --antilived^{T | C | G} 08:39, 23 September 2008 (UTC)

Computer Hardware

If my BIOS does not support a large capacity drive that I want to install, what are five things I can do? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 66.213.106.78 (talk) 18:01, 22 September 2008 (UTC)

1> Your own homework? --LarryMac | Talk 18:08, 22 September 2008 (UTC)

http://www.justfuckinggoogleit.com/search.pl?query=BIOS+does+not+support+a+large+capacity+drive

Deeper blue

Why did IBM disassemble Deeper blue after it beat Kasparov instead of answering his questions and continuing to upgrade? -isor 18:14, 22 September 2008 (UTC) —Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.100.160.163 (talk)

(Kasparov, not Karpov) IBM funded the Deep Blue project for the publicity; I'm just speculating here, but I imagine they decided it was no longer worth the money. After all, beating Kasparov again wouldn't have added much to its fame, and losing to Kasparov in a rematch would have subtracted from it. -- BenRG (talk) 12:22, 23 September 2008 (UTC)

To quite the contrary... refusing to give Kasparov every assistance to beat the machine and then continuing the effort to make it win beyond the point he could ever win again would have been well worth the promotional dollars spent. As is most people are now rating IBM as a second or third rate business player.

Deap Blue was not cheap. They needed those parts for some other super computer. It was a cool publicity stunt, but I suspect that people who really purchase supercomputers have specifications they need to meet other than "Must be able to defeat chess grandmaster." APL (talk) 12:57, 24 September 2008 (UTC)

IBM doesn't build Super Computers in order to gain free promotion and recognition. Their Supercomputer designs, and the internal competition that goes towards creating the best design for each system is why the World's fastest Models are all IBM, and are all so far ahead of any competitor to the degree it's absurd. That improvement has moved computing ahead leaps and bounds, as the Top level computing equipment always has. Calling IBM anything but a first rate Player is laughable, I don't think I have to explain that to anyone who knows anything about the real Computing Market. - Jimmi Hugh (talk) 12:32, 25 September 2008 (UTC)

Chess used to be the touch-stone of computer sophistication - but these days it's become too easy, a big opening dictionary - mindless (but DEEP) game tree searching in the middle - and an end-game dictionary at the end. The logic is solved - it's just a matter of pushing more hardware at the problem. Anyone who needs a real challenge has to attack 'Go'...it's a serious AI challenge that mere mindless compute-power won't ever resolve. The rules of Go are just about the simplest of any serious board game - yet it's insanely difficult to play - and it's tough to write a computer version that'll beat even the most amateur human players.

IBM has come a long way - 20 years ago they were hated by most of the industry - nasty business practices, nasty machines, even nastier software - but they've completely turned that around. IBM are cool now. It's a good thing...I really hope we'll be able to say the same thing of Microsoft in 20 years - but I suspect not. It's been a long time since I last heard someone say: "An elephant is a mouse with an IBM operating system." SteveBaker (talk) 03:06, 26 September 2008 (UTC)

myspace

hi, ok i know this is just a stupid question but how does one change ones display pic on myspace????..........i just cant find out how to:( thanks, --90.241.174.237 (talk) 20:57, 22 September 2008 (UTC)

It's physically impossible, once your details are taken, the Mug Shot associates you with your profile for Life. You want I should get you a face lift? - Jimmi Hugh (talk) 23:23, 22 September 2008 (UTC)

FAQ answer here — Matt Eason ^{(Talk • Contribs)} 23:47, 22 September 2008 (UTC)

Go to the photo you want and click "Set as Default". JessicaThunderbolt 14:45, 23 September 2008 (UTC)

Align a mediawiki infobox to the right

I'm trying to align a mediawiki infobox to the right on a private wiki and I'm not sure how to do it. I have copied the Template:Infobox to my wiki and I have the Parser stuff set up so that it displays great, but I'd like to have it so that all Infoboxes align on the right. (like on Wikipedia). Is this a .css issue? or can I do it in the Template:Infobox itself? Can someone point me in the right direction? Thanks. --Rajah (talk) 23:27, 22 September 2008 (UTC)

There are doubtless many ways of doing this, but the way it's done here is as follows. {{Infobox}} creates a table with the class 'infobox'. MediaWiki:Common.css contains the code

.infobox {
    border: 1px solid #aaa;
    background-color: #f9f9f9;
    color: black;
    margin: 0.5em 0 0.5em 1em;
    padding: 0.2em;
    float: right;
    clear: right;
}

which right-aligns the infoboxes. Algebraist 23:35, 22 September 2008 (UTC)

awesome, thanks. that worked perfectly. --Rajah (talk) 02:47, 23 September 2008 (UTC)

September 23

Getting three installed OS's to boot correctly

Okay, so I have 4 partitions in my hard drive. I installed three operating systems in three different partitions (Ubuntu in one, a modded version of XP for gaming in another, and my regular Vista in the last one). Using KGRUBeditor I'm trying to get a menu to pop up before anything boots, where I can select the operating system I want to boot. Right now, with the current settings, it offers me 3 Ubuntu options (regular, safe mode, mem test) and it says under "other operating systems" I can boot windows vista.

When I try to boot Ubuntu, it works fine. When I try to boot Windows vista, it says "Error 22 -- No parition" or something similar to that. There is no third option on the menu to boot the XP. I'm so lost because I'm a noob at this stuff and I was wondering if you could please help me.

Any info you need I will provide, I'm not really sure what information is useful to solve this. Please be patient and thanks for helping me! --71.98.8.179 (talk) 00:43, 23 September 2008 (UTC)

Just try editing the /boot/grub/menu.lst file by hand if KGRUBeditor doesn't work. Make a backup by sudo cp /boot/grub/menu.lst /boot/grub/menu.lst.backup. Open the file with gksudo gedit /boot/grub/menu.lst and at the bottom of the file you'll see entries in the menu, similar to this one for Ubuntu (I'm using Intrepid Ibex) which is installed on the second partition of the first hard drive (numbers start with 0 in the world of computing):

title		Ubuntu intrepid (development branch), kernel 2.6.27-3-generic
root		(hd0,1)
kernel		/boot/vmlinuz-2.6.27-3-generic root=UUID=3c65e3ba-0507-4454-a1c6-556ba8fac134 ro quiet splash 
initrd		/boot/initrd.img-2.6.27-3-generic
quiet

and a few more entries like that, but for recovery mode and things like that. At the bottom you should see something like this for your Windows:

title		Microsoft Windows Vista
root		(hd0,0)
savedefault
makeactive
chainloader	+1

You want to make sure that the root for Vista is correct: correct partition and correct hard drive. You can view the mapping between /dev/sd* or /dev/hd* to (hd*) with this command in terminal: cat /boot/grub/device.map. Once you got that right you can copy and paste those 5 linees to make a new entry, adapting the first two lines for XP, and you should have a working GRUB. If you can't figure this out you could always post your whole menu.lst file, your device.map file and your system locations and we will change it for you. --antilived^{T | C | G} 08:23, 23 September 2008 (UTC)

Oh wow! Thank you so much antilived! This is really helpful...I'm gonna go give it a shot, and if I can't get it to work I'll post the necessary files. Thanks again! --71.98.24.10 (talk) 12:05, 23 September 2008 (UTC)

So using the instructions you gave me above, I figured out how to get Vista to boot fine. Thank you for that. But I still cannot get XP to boot. It always tells me "Error 22: No such Partition". Does anyone know how to fix that? Here is a picture (I missed one of the Max's :P) that has my menu.lst file, my device.map, and my parition locations. --71.98.24.10 (talk) 14:07, 23 September 2008 (UTC)

EDIT: I got the correct partition, but it says NTLDR is missing. From what I gathered with a quick lookup, its basically the XP bootloader...

So I've decided I'm gonna try to install a NEW and different version of XP. I know that it'll make it so it automatically boots up right away and doesn't allow Ubuntu to boot. How can I change that from Windows XP with my configuration as I have it now? --71.98.24.10 (talk) 20:47, 23 September 2008 (UTC)

Canonical has a good tutorial for that: [1]. You only need to do section 1 for most cases (you'll need a Ubuntu LiveCD). --antilived^{T | C | G} 09:11, 24 September 2008 (UTC)

Thanks antilived, you've been a big help. --71.98.3.250 (talk) 12:33, 24 September 2008 (UTC)

?

Hey y'all. I'm back! :P. Now I'm asking for some recommendations. I have used Windows XP for a very long time, so when Vista first came out, I was very skeptical. My brother decided he loved Vista and ultimately persuaded my dad to buy him a new computer with Vista Home Premium(That is so messed up, if anything, I deserve a new computer, but this was several months ago[Or last year, I forgot]). Over time, as I tried out Vista, I loved its user interface(same thing with Microsoft Office 2007) but I felt a lot of the CPU and RAM was being taken up by all this. As such it didn't "snap" to my command like XP did.:P But I love that interface(Flip 3D can be fun but is not really needed, unless you're one of those people who open up like 50 windows[Ever heard of tabs?] especially Windows Aero. IMO it's the best theme yet for Windows and is the only thing I decided was worth trading out speed for. So, I decided, "People tend to be very creative, I should just Google 'Aero for XP' or something like that". I did, with multiple key terms for all sorts of things but mostly in pursuit of that Aero look. (I already have the Vista-Aero theme addon for Firefox :P I ultimately found a few things that look promising but years with Windows had taught me caution.:P I then Googled 'problems with [program]' or 'how to uninstall [program], the results shocked me. I discovered that quite a few of these programs messed with system files(Very bad idea obviously, many of the errors reported required in some cases a complete reinstallation of Windows, I should note the latop I'm on is property of UCSB and it's best to not cause such problems :P) and were uninstallable except by manual search and destroy. So I decided to compromise. I got the cool Vista default wallpaper to help get part of the look and I decided to narrow my search to just the Vista start menu. I like the Vista start menu as it's much more compact than the XP menu but I often have trouble finding files(Thank goodness for that search feature). Again, Google searches revealed most of the programs available could cause serious problems and were not uninstallable. Ultimately Google searches eventually found this which claims to not mess with the system files and be easily uninstallable(By easily uninstallable I want to be able to uninstall something from the start menu or Add/Remove Programs in the Control Panel). Can anybody confirm this before I download it? Or are there other programs out there that meet the conditions I've mentioned? In addition if you know a program that can change the theme that I can reverse in 30 seconds without side-effects, feel free to mention it.:P--Xp54321 ^{(Hello! • Contribs)} 00:50, 23 September 2008 (UTC)

From what the website is saying, all that app does is makes the start menu on XP or Vista look horrible and cluttered, it doesn't do anything else. The route you'll probably want to take is to use either WindowBlinds or a Uxtheme.dll patcher (the former has far more options/features, but is commercial software), and couple that with a suitable theme from Deviantart or Wincustomize or one of a thousand other sites. -- Consumed Crustacean (talk) 01:11, 23 September 2008 (UTC)

Okay, now if I want to uninstall any themes I added or get rid of it all completely, how do I do that?--Xp54321 ^{(Hello! • Contribs)} 01:16, 23 September 2008 (UTC)

There's nothing complicated with either. With Windowblinds, you uninstall the app, or just delete the individual themes from within the configuration window (or the folder directly). With a Uxtheme patcher, just delete the themes from the Themes folder, and if desired replace the patched uxtheme.dll with a backed up unpatched one. -- Consumed Crustacean (talk) 01:18, 23 September 2008 (UTC)

Okay then, thank you.:D--Xp54321 ^{(Hello! • Contribs)} 01:53, 23 September 2008 (UTC)

OMG! I love WindowBlinds! It came with Diamond which looks quite like Aero!:D--Xp54321 ^{(Hello! • Contribs)} 02:07, 23 September 2008 (UTC)

Firefox download warning

By default, Firefox warns you when you try to close the program while a download is still in progress. Sometime after I updated to version 3, that warning was either lost or I accidentally turned it off without realizing it. I've gone through the options windows but can't seem to find a way to get that warning back. Any help? I'm on XP SP3, if that makes any difference. Matt Deres (talk) 16:39, 23 September 2008 (UTC)

Firefox 3 no longer defaults to this behaviour, and I'm not sure it can be turned on. The reason is that, while Firefox 2 abandoned downloads if you quit in the middle of them, FF3 just pauses the download and resumes when you next launch FF. Algebraist 16:51, 23 September 2008 (UTC)

...which is fine unless you're using rapidshare, which never resumes. What I do is I leave the download window open when I've got downloads going, so that even if you click close on the main browser the download window remains open and continues. JessicaThunderbolt 19:32, 23 September 2008 (UTC)

FWIW, for long downloads I always use 'wget' (a command-line tool that downloads HTTP and FTP files without a browser). It can retry and restart and is generally very determined to get your file EVENTUALLY! SteveBaker (talk) 02:35, 26 September 2008 (UTC)

PCs used only few days every month

If I use a PC only for 3 to 5 days a month and leave it switched off rest of the days, will it work normal? Is it okay to do that? or is it not recommended to do like that? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 59.92.122.61 (talk) 17:18, 23 September 2008 (UTC)

Yes. This will be perfectly fine and should have no adverse effects. Gunrun (talk) 17:20, 23 September 2008 (UTC)

??? Why on earth shouldn't it be fine? The crazy idea of leaving computers on forever wastes energy, and it should also decrease the life time of your computer. --Ibn Battuta (talk) 19:19, 23 September 2008 (UTC)

Computers wear out in two ways:

1. Turning the computer off and on causes thermal fatigue, leading to the growth of microscopic cracks in the chips. Eventually, a crack will cross something important and the chip will fail.
2. Leaving the computer on causes gradual erosion of the wiring inside the chips through electron wind. Eventually a wire will get too thin and the chip will fail.

A computer that's used normally and turned on and off once a day has about a 50% chance of failing from each, typically after five to ten years. --Carnildo (talk) 21:34, 23 September 2008 (UTC)

Your answer is too good for me not to ask for a source =) --mboverload@ 04:38, 24 September 2008 (UTC)

Um. If it's only about thermal factors, that should also be true for hibernation (instead of shutting down & booting). If that's true, my computer will very likely die from thermal fatigue one day. On the other hand, shouldn't also things like room-temperature/outdoor temperature (if you take a laptop with you) etc. matter? --Ibn Battuta (talk) 15:12, 24 September 2008 (UTC)

In the case of a laptop, it is not likely to die of either of these things, it is likely to die of *owner fatigue* ;-) --66.195.232.121 (talk) 15:39, 25 September 2008 (UTC)

I haven't heard of the "electron wind" thing - but there is no doubt that powering a machine on and off does impose more stress than leaving it turned on for some amount of time. However, the precise balance between the wear due to things running all the time versus the wear due to starting and stopping is hard to determine.

The effect I have personal experience with is called "thermal creep". It applies mostly to chips that are plugged into sockets. What happens is that when the computer powers up, the pins on the chip warm up and expand by a microscopic amount - this pushes the chip up a little bit. When the computer is turned off, the pins cool off and shrink - but depending on the geometry of the socket and the pins - the chip may not get pulled back down again - instead it may stay still and the pins pull a tiny distance out of the socket. Do this a thousand times and eventually the chip simply falls out of it's socket! (Well, more often, one pin starts to fail to make contact and the computer fails). Simply pushing the chip back in again usually works just fine - but most people don't know to try that. The same thing can happen with connectors incidentally. Keeping your computer at constant temperature avoids this problem.

Things like disk drives (with moving parts) used to suffer more from being powered up and down because the motor needs to apply more torque to accellerate the drive up and down than to spin it at uniform speed. That additional torque causes extra load on the bearings - so they wear out faster. However, these days, almost all computers stop the disk drive automatically after a few seconds whenever you're not using it - so this is a negligable effect compared to the speeding up and slowing down that the system does all the time anyway.

However, if you only use the computer quite rarely - you should certainly turn it off when it's not in use - you WILL cause a little more stress on it as you power it up and power it down - but that's unlikely to be as much as leaving it on for days at a time...and you really should try to use less electricity.

SteveBaker (talk) 02:30, 26 September 2008 (UTC)

Steve, check out electromigration. It's a real and major concern for chip designers (because it constrains how small they can make those incredibly small runs of aluminium metal and the like), but if they've done their work correctly, it's usually no concern for the end users. Ion migration is much more likely to cause the death of a hot (powered-on) chip, especially via the omnipresent sodium ions that contaminate everything touched by humans.

Atlant (talk) 12:09, 28 September 2008 (UTC)

Thermal creep isn't a problem with modern computers: the only chips that are socketed are the BIOS ROM (which stays cool) and the CPU (which is clamped solidly in place by the heatsink). --Carnildo (talk) 22:59, 26 September 2008 (UTC)

Firefox bookmarks

For years I've had my browser open with bookmarks.html — but now I notice that it hasn't changed since I got Firefox version 3. Evidently Ff3 stores its bookmarks somewhere else. Where? (I'm on MacOS.) —Tamfang (talk) 17:42, 23 September 2008 (UTC)

"Starting in Firefox 3, bookmarks are stored in the places.sqlite file and bookmarks*.html files are only used for importing and exporting. As of Firefox 3 Beta 5 bookmarkbackup files are stored in JSON format.) " This page might be useful in determining how to export your current bookmarks to an HTML file, which you could then use as a starting page. You'd have to re-export any time you want to update your list though. There is probably an extension out there to do this automatically. --LarryMac | Talk 18:04, 23 September 2008 (UTC)

Hotmail's secret question and answer

I'm wondering why Hotmail does not allow you to choose you own secret question and answer when you forgot your password. Most of their questions they give are not that hard to guess. The ones they presently offer can be answered by some people around or strangers, especially if you have a profile on a blog or a social networking profile. I mean 'Mother birthplace', 'Best childhood friend', 'Name of first pet', 'Favourite teacher', 'Favourite historical person' or 'Grandfather's occupation' are not that tough and strangers can easily find their answers through social engineering or on your profile. Why is Hotmail so dumb to put those kind of secret questions and don't allow you to choose a tough one? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 132.206.22.13 (talk) 18:33, 23 September 2008 (UTC)

I assume they're trying to use questions which everyone has an answer to (unlike, e.g., prefered college professor--not everyone attends college) and that are easy enough to answer so people don't always get stranded trying unsuccessfully to remember the answer (e.g., brand of first bike--uh, what was that again?). That being said, I do believe that many of their questions are too easy, and they (not just Hotmail) tend to expect that you have a typical US life, asking for pets, vacation homes (!), grandfathers, birthplaces, etc., some of which may either not apply or be self-evident if you go to other places. --Ibn Battuta (talk) 19:17, 23 September 2008 (UTC)

You know, there's no right answers for these questions :->. 'Grandfather's occupation'? Tellafonepole (sic). Hard to guess, dictionary search fails, etc. Just remember to remember it. Saintrain (talk) 19:26, 23 September 2008 (UTC)

I read a survey on Slashdot that stated that most people use the same answer for all those questions. Mother's maiden name? Chewbacca. Name of first pet? Chewbacca. Make of first car? Chewbacca. Grandfather's occupation? Chewbacca. Youth in Asia (talk) 02:57, 24 September 2008 (UTC)

Probably explains why that kid in Tennessee was able to hack his way through Sarah Palin's Yahoo mail account by answering her "secret questions". Anyone who knows you would be able to simply answer those questions and basically get full access to your web mail account. AreJay (talk) 03:18, 24 September 2008 (UTC)

People who use Hotmail (or Yahoo mail or Gmail) really shouldn't have much expectation of secrecy - you're using a service on a big anonymous company with who-knows-how-many employees with who-knows-what access to your data. It's hard to believe that someone like Sarah Palin doesn't have a decent email account in some kind of secure place - she shouldn't be in the slightest bit surprised that she'd get hacked. These security questions balance the quality of security against what your expectation of security should be. I don't believe a casual hacker would spend the effort to figure out your grandfather's occupation...the return on the effort is simply not worth their time...that's really not a trivial thing to find out. Go ahead - try to figure out my grandfather's occupation (and I'm not telling you which of my two grandfathers I'm thinking of - so you may need to figure out both of them)...I bet you $100 you can't figure it out within the next week. However - when the return on that investment of effort is large (Getting the dirt on the vice-presidential candidate could be worth a lot of money to the right buyer!), for sure those questions aren't secure enough...but who in their right mind (oh...wait) would believe that a Yahoo account would be secure against a few thousand determined hackers?! I have my own mail server - it's WAY more secure - and I get whatever email address I fancy (steve at sjbaker dot org)...it costs me $9 a month with (literally) terabytes of storage space, a web site, a wiki...you name it...I don't get gratuitous adverts tacked onto the ends of my messages. Anyone who really cares about the security of their mail can afford to do that rather than having to find a free email service. SteveBaker (talk) 02:18, 26 September 2008 (UTC)

Free video editing program

Which free video editing program would you recommend? While I'm still in my early days of editing, I appreciate the options I can get even if it takes a bit more time to learn to use the pgroam. All things being equal, I'd go for open-source; but if other free software is better, well, so be it. Thanks, Ibn Battuta (talk) 19:17, 23 September 2008 (UTC)

• On which system ? Equendil Talk 19:25, 23 September 2008 (UTC)

The choices are pretty sparse, last time I checked, for free non-linear editors, which I'm interpreting you to be asking about (e.g. more than just splicing together files in a linear way). It would help if you specified what your OS was, as some (e.g. Cinelerra) are only available on Linux/OS X (not Windows), many are Linux-only. Category:Free video software only has a couple NLEs in it. --140.247.253.44 (talk) 19:36, 23 September 2008 (UTC)

Sorry, yes, I forgot: I'm using Windows. And I looked at the category, but of course there's not a direct comparison (which wouldn't be very NPOV). --Ibn Battuta (talk) 15:10, 24 September 2008 (UTC)

You can have NPOV comparisons of features. The problem is here is that almost none of those in that category are actually NLEs. Most of them are not even the same kind of software (it's a pretty stupid category—having NLEs mixed in with media players mixed in with coding libraries? Totally useless if you don't already know the programs). Basically for Windows there is Jahshaka which doesn't sound like it even works and hasn't been updated in two years? Fact is most NLEs are not free. Some are relatively cheap (e.g. iMovie or Windows Movie Maker can do some basic stuff that is similar to a NLE) but if you want more power than that you're talking about very expensive software (e.g. Premiere or Final Cut Pro or etc.). Unless apparently you have Linux in which case there are maybe one or two options. Sucks, no? yes.--98.217.8.46 (talk) 00:30, 25 September 2008 (UTC)

How to add on wireless as an extra to an existing computer with an external modem

I have a computer that has an external broadband modem (ADSL I think). There is a red cable running from the modem to the computer. Only I use or have access to the computer. I personally am happy with this set up. (And note, there is only one telephone line to the flat).

However my flatmates want to get access to broadband somehow. Perhaps the easiest way of doing this would be to have a wireless modem in addition to the existing modem. How could I do this please? What would I need to buy? I want something that can be used even when my modem and computer are turned off. Does such a thing exist?

I do not want to use wireless myself as the security is not very good, and I don't want the next door teenagers or flatmates decoding my traffic for fun. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 89.243.82.72 (talk) 20:44, 23 September 2008 (UTC)

You want a wireless router. this will have 'wired' connections so you can still use the network on your non-wireless PC. Some come with a modem built in (in which case your current modem will be unneeded in the setup), some don't. A wireless-router modem will let you have the setup you want - your internet connection will be maintained (and kept secure if you enable security) by the router itself, your PC needn't be on at all. Most PC shops (independent on chain) will have staff adequately trained to explain the basic setup of these - they aren't overly difficult these days to be honest. ny156uk (talk) 22:38, 23 September 2008 (UTC)

Making MSN and Outlook contacts merge in WM6

Hi all,

how do I merge MSN and Outlook contacts in Windows Mobile 6's contact manager? I know about the delete-dupe option, but it's useless in my case, as my classmates think they have to show "funny" names as their display names and not their real names :(

Thanks, HardDisk (talk) 20:45, 23 September 2008 (UTC)

typing tabs in textareas?

In most graphical user interface dialog boxes or dialog-boxy-like things, the tab key jumps you from one input field to another. And indeed this pattern is followed in most web browsers when they're displaying an HTML form for you. But of course this leads to an annoying limitation: if the particular HTML form you're on has a text box into which you're trying to type significant test, what if you want a tab?

Me, I have to hunt down (or create) some other window in which I can type a tab, copy it to the clipboard, and paste it into the text area. But that's obviously a nuisance. Are there any standardish, supported techniques for typing tabs in textareas? Or more specifically, is there a good way in Firefox? —Steve Summit (talk) 22:05, 23 September 2008 (UTC)

There's [2] and the tabinta extension (which may not be maintained) and an eight year old mozilla bug. -- Finlay McWalter | Talk 22:14, 23 September 2008 (UTC)

Hey! Thanks for those! —Steve Summit (talk) 23:58, 23 September 2008 (UTC)

You usually don't type tabs into HTML forms. In media where tabs cannot easily be implement you separate paragraphs by two hard returned (so there is a space between them). This is nearly always perfectly acceptable in such situations. --98.217.8.46 (talk) 22:28, 23 September 2008 (UTC)

True, but "usually don't" isn't "never", and "nearly always" isn't "universally". :-) (In particular, the reason I was asking had nothing to do with separating paragraphs, but rather, indenting them in a plain-text web-accessed bug database, where a tab -- if you can manage to insert one -- ends up acting more or less like a left-margin ':' does in Wikitext.) —Steve Summit (talk) 23:58, 23 September 2008 (UTC)

Well, I sort of think that places where indentation is necessary should provide other ways to do it. Because not everyone is going to use your hacky method. E.g. Wikipedia has its nice : indents. If the forum supports HTML, use <blockquote>. etc. --98.217.8.46 (talk) 00:26, 25 September 2008 (UTC)

I shouldn't have said "in particular", because that was just one example.

The plain text stream is a lone bastion of near-universal, least-common-denominator compatibility and fungibility in a computing landscape of everincreasing specialization and Balkanization. Now, tabs are admittedly on the edge of what a plain text stream can legitimately contain, but to the extent that a web browser is a generic user interface, and an HTML textarea is a generic text editor, I'd certainly like to be able to manipulate tabs in one. —Steve Summit (talk) 02:31, 25 September 2008 (UTC)

In MS Excel if you want to 'add' a tab-space you hold control and then tab (ctrl+tab). This means that you don't move to the next cell but rather it adds a 'tab space' in the cell you are writing. The same is true for MS Word when working in the tables. I don't have a windows PC at home so can't test but i would suspect that on IE you'd probably get the same result - perhaps in Firefox it will work too? Having said all that in Safari my policy doesn't work... ny156uk (talk) 22:31, 23 September 2008 (UTC)

Nice suggestion, but no, it doesn't work in Firefox, either (at least, not on this Mac). —Steve Summit (talk) 23:58, 23 September 2008 (UTC)

I use the mozex extension to accomplish this. It basically allows you to right click the textarea to open it in a text-editor of your choice. It copies the content of the textarea in a temporary file and opens it in the editor. When you save that file in the editor, it copies the data back to the textarea, with tabs intact. Perhaps not exactly what you want though. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 129.241.133.176 (talk) 16:13, 24 September 2008 (UTC)

Ah yes. I was using a "view source with" extension (I forget its name) for a while, and that's certainly another option.

The good news is that the "tabinta" extension which Finlay McWalter mentioned seems to work perfectly (despite its age). Thanks again. —Steve Summit (talk) 02:31, 25 September 2008 (UTC)

September 24

Abuse contact

Does anybody know the abuse contact for uni-pr.edu? Tracert is showing that it resolves to ThePlanet.com, but something tells me there's a better contact to report abuse even if they do use ThePlanet.com. GO-PCHS-NJROTC ^(Messages) 01:46, 24 September 2008 (UTC)

The common practice is to email [email protected]. Don't expect much of a reply. There is no guarantee anyone will read your complaint. Youth in Asia (talk) 03:43, 24 September 2008 (UTC)

Here's what I found. Can't verify the authenticity of the information though. AreJay (talk) 04:29, 24 September 2008 (UTC)

I thought you have to be an educational institution to get .edu domain. Apparently not. Probably because it was grandfathered as explained in the link. Kushal (talk) 10:09, 24 September 2008 (UTC)

Don't expect much of a reply. There is no guarentee anyone will read your complaint. This is true, but to assume that because a small percentage of networks ignore all abuse reports that all networks are like this is like assuming that because a small percentage of vandalism survives Wikipedia's vandal fighters that Wikipedia cannot be trusted. There are many responsive abuse departments around. An example of a responsive abuse department would be Embarq ANS (I say that because blacklisted Embarq spammers who show up at trustedsource.org almost never show further activity after abuse reports are submitted). An example of one that does NOT repsond would probably be Comcast Network Security, but they do respond in some cases (an example would be a few of the fraud websites I've gotten Comcast to take down). GO-PCHS-NJROTC ^(Messages) 03:48, 25 September 2008 (UTC)

I imagine they'd be pretty upset when they find out that you're not a admin. or spokeman for Wikimedia. That's assuming they read your e-mail, though. Some major American ISPs don't even go after hackers. Those aren't 16-year-olds who added the word balls to an article anyone can edit. They're people running networks of hundreds of infected computers that take down entire web sites. They ignore them, or sometimes, send them warnings. Even if you get a response from a live person, I doubt the banned user will hear anything about it from the ISP.--Tree 'uns 5 (talk) 04:12, 25 September 2008 (UTC) —Preceding unsigned comment added by Tree 'uns 5 (talk • contribs)

Find and replace multiple files, but only between <title> tags (Mac OS X)

Hi -- thanks in advance if anyone can help me with this.

I have a folder full of HTML files, and I'd like to do a "Find and replace" on the text inside them, but only on the text inside the <title></title> tags. I'm using Mac OS X. What would be the easiest way for me to do this?

My ideas so far: I don't know regular expressions, but I was thinking along the lines of using grep to get the text I want, and then what? piping it into another program that'd actually do the find/replace/save? Alternatively, I have TextMate on here, which I use for other things, but it has a very complicated interface, I have a feeling perhaps the feature I want is buried in there somewhere?

As you can probably tell, I know very very little about UNIX things, I just know there should be a way for me to do this, I just don't know how.

If anyone can help, I really appreciate it. Thanks again. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 87.113.90.126 (talk) 03:19, 24 September 2008 (UTC)

Sed is used for that. You will want to use regular expressions, such as s/(<title>[^<]*)dog([^<]*</title>)/$1cat$2/. Hmm... haven't used placeholders in sed in a while. I don't think they are $1, $2, $3... Anyone remember? -- kainaw™ 03:23, 24 September 2008 (UTC)

Just remembered... I believe you use \1, \2, \3... -- kainaw™ 03:24, 24 September 2008 (UTC)

Thanks!! I now have something to work off, I'm reading a guide to sed as I type this, so I should be able to figure it out from here. Thanks again for the help. :) —Preceding unsigned comment added by 87.113.90.126 (talk) 03:36, 24 September 2008 (UTC)

data management

I'm working on an API that requires some basic databasing, and in trying to design my database I realized something that made me feel...well, ignorant: I'm not really sure what the difference is between a table and an array. Is the information in an array stored in a table, or does it need to be coded? Is an array a table that can only sustain one data type? What merits using one and not the other? I have a feeling that permanent storage requires use of a table and displaying information often merits use of an array, but I'm really not sure what the funcitonal difference is. Maybe more functions can be performed on a table than an array. Specifically, I'm thinking of a table in a MySQL database, and an array in PHP. Thanks. --Shaggorama (talk) 06:10, 24 September 2008 (UTC)

Different beasts really, both an "array" and a "table" are ultimately collections of data (but then so are lists, trees, etc), but "array" is (usually) used in the context of a programming language to refer to contiguous data where individual elements can be accessed (directly) through a numerical index, while "table" is used in the context of a database, tables are sets of structured data with relatively complex underlying mechanisms to store and retrieve individual entries. Equendil Talk 06:55, 24 September 2008 (UTC)

Note that my answer is not specific to PHP, the PHP manual says about arrays : "an array in PHP is actually an ordered map" (ie associative array). I'm not really familiar with PHP and its level of technical obfuscation, so it's probably best someone else answers specific questions. Equendil Talk 07:09, 24 September 2008 (UTC)

They have different dimensions, for one thing. A table is more like a Microsoft Excel worksheet—each individual row can contain multiple fields each of which have values. An array is something different—each item in an array can contain only one value, but you can make arrays multi-dimensional.

You can store the same data in either but you'd store it differently. If you were storing pixel information in a table you'd have each row contain fields like "x" and "y" and "color", and you'd say, "get me the data for row whatever" and it'd let you manipulate those values. For an array though what you'd probably do is have a multi-dimensional array like pixel_color[x,y] = your value.

You see the difference? You can store the same data but you'd do it differently. Of course if you wanted to save an array permanently you'd have to output it somehow, usually into a table but not necessarily. There are also very different ways to manipulate arrays and tables. With something like SQL you can very quickly sort huge amounts of data in a table by very complicated criteria, whereas with an array usually the best you can do is use regular expressions or just cycle through the data manually one piece at a time. --98.217.8.46 (talk) 13:23, 24 September 2008 (UTC)

I disagree with most of what comes before. Programmers universally use the term "array" for a very specific language feature - a contiguous block of data - accessed with a simple integer "index" - there can be one, two and three-dimensional and even N-dimensional arrays...same deal - contiguous data, N integer indices. Some languages (like PHP) might implement arrays some other way "under the hood" - but they are essentially simulating that same thing. There is really no other meaning for the word.

On the other hand, the term "table" is a pretty vague term - it's used much less formally for all sorts of different things. It doesn't have the solid connotations of words like "list", "array", "stack" or "tree". I might talk about speeding up the 'cosine' function by making a "lookup table" - this table is likely to be a simple array of floating point values. On the other hand, I might talk about a table of some kind of data that's stored associatively - or in a linked list or in almost any other kind of physical structure. So a table MIGHT be stored as an array - and an array MIGHT be used to implement a table - a table MIGHT NOT be implemented with an array and an array MIGHT be used for something that's not a table at all. SteveBaker (talk) 01:59, 26 September 2008 (UTC)

Microsoft office word - Text-type

Hey, i wondered if it is possible to somewhere get more various types of text-types.

You know, "times new roman" is the most standard one and then there comes many other types with it to choose from, but I still don't have some types that I had on my previous computer which I liked to use. So I was hoping it might be possible to somehwere find and install/download new types or something

And i want to say thank you beforehand for any answers :) —Preceding unsigned comment added by 85.164.177.171 (talk) 15:27, 24 September 2008 (UTC)

They are named fonts. Most fonts can be bought, some are available freely. Microsoft Windows stores available fonts in C:\Windows\Fonts directory, they can be installed by copying their files there. The Wikipedia article has some useful data on this topic. MTM (talk) 16:29, 24 September 2008 (UTC)

This page [3] tells you how to install them once you download them -- Mad031683 (talk) 16:31, 24 September 2008 (UTC)

Extreme content control

Hello, is it feasible to establish a www content control system on a computer by

1) stopping the computer talking to any name servers whatsoever 2) hard coding (20 or so) permitted hosts' addresses into the hosts file

How often would I need to edit the hosts file? Also can someone remind me how to achieve the first point on a Windows XP box? Thanks. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 62.49.27.114 (talk) 18:24, 24 September 2008 (UTC)

• Well, filtering network traffic is what a firewall does, so I would use that. Requires control on outbound connections though, which the Windows firewall doesn't really offer. A pretty good firewall on Windows is "Look'n'Stop" (20€). Does anything you expect from a firewall and hasn't grown into a bloated piece of software that checks your mail, scans your files for viruses, takes a memory stick for itself and goes into 100% CPU mode now and then like ZoneAlarm.
• If you want to try your method here though, you can disable your ISP's DNS by setting up the connection manually (no DHCP) and not giving it any DNS server. Won't have anything to talk to then. Edit the LMHOSTS file and make sure LMHOSTS lookup is activated (WINS tab in TCP/IP properties/advanced). Equendil Talk 18:58, 24 September 2008 (UTC)
• Oh and how often you would have to edit the hosts file depends on how often the hosts change their IP address, so can't really answer that one. Equendil Talk 19:02, 24 September 2008 (UTC)

Did you mean hosts or lmhosts? If I remember correctly, lmhosts is more for computers inside your network, whereas hosts works more for non-local addresses (i.e. - Internet) Washii (talk) 18:40, 25 September 2008 (UTC)

Can't get scroll wheel to work

I just bought a Microsoft Bluetooth Notebook Mouse 5000 and I can't get its scroll wheel or back button to work. The wheel button however, does work. There should be a simple solution to this, but I can't figure it out :/--SquareOuroboros (talk) 18:29, 24 September 2008 (UTC)

Which operating system are you using? It's quite ironic, but I've had quite a bit of problem trying to get my Microsoft keyboard and mouse combo working under Windows (only works in certain USB ports), so it's not unusual. Did you install intelliMouse (or whatever it's called) that came with your mouse? --antilived^{T | C | G} 06:17, 25 September 2008 (UTC)

History: The laptop I am using (a Gateway) is supposed to support Bluetooth naturally, but it doesn't act like it does. So instead, I stuck the Bluetooth USB radio receiver from my Logitech keyboard (which is not being used). That seemed to work, except for the scroll wheel and back button.

I am running Vista (32-bit). I've installed the program "Microsoft Mouse" and this specific mouse is oddly not in its drop-down list for devices. Also, message states "Some mouse settings might not work until you connect a Microsoft mouse to a USB port on your computer or set up a Microsoft mouse that uses Bluetooth technology." on startup. How, nowhere in my control panel is there anywhere to set Bluetooth settings.

So, help?--SquareOuroboros (talk) 07:33, 25 September 2008 (UTC)

Monitor clock/phase reset

Why hello. I changed out my graphics card the other day, and it all has worked fine, except when I turn my PC on my monitor's clock/phase settings have reset and the picture is blurred and vanishing off the screen, requiring me to manually fix it.

Anyone know how to fix this?

Thanks. 80.229.160.127 (talk) 18:45, 24 September 2008 (UTC)

Probably can't really answer that one, but you might want to indicate what graphic card and what monitor you have. Best always state what's your hardware and system (or any relevant info) when you require technical help. Equendil Talk 19:14, 24 September 2008 (UTC)

The new card is an ATI x1950, the monitor is an Ilyama. I didn't really see it as a fault in the hardware, more of a software issue. I do have the latest drivers for the card, too. 09:29, 25 September 2008 (UTC) talk)

The settings you are after are likely in the graphics driver, you may be driving the monitor at an inappropriate refresh rate for the given resolution. Try adjusting the settings in windows to the specifics of what the monitor is supposed to support. Also, if the monitor has an onboard "auto adjust" feature, give that a whirl. --66.195.232.121 (talk) 15:35, 25 September 2008 (UTC)

Dealing with a dead laptop

Hello, I am a graduate student whose HP Pavilion DV1000 laptop recently died. I turned it off a couple of days ago, and I was not able to turn it back in an hour or two later. No lights appear anywhere on the machine. The disk drive does not open. To my recollection, the battery was fully charged before I turned off the laptop (I had it plugged in). I've tried different techniques to bring it back to life -- ejecting the battery for a while, being plugged in with the battery inserted, being plugged in with the battery ejected, holding down the power button at all these different points, removing and reseating the memory, etc. Someone said it may be a "fried motherboard", though I'm not clear what this means.

With the laptop being a few years old, the warranty has expired. The laptop, running on Windows XP, had been holding up fairly well, though Office 2007 (necessary for my classes) was a little sluggish on it. I was wondering if there were any other fixes possible. If not, is it more fiscally reasonable to get this laptop fixed by HP or another place, or to get a new laptop altogether? Thanks, 140.182.135.28 (talk) 19:56, 24 September 2008 (UTC)

Do you feel comfortable removing the hard disk and placing it [as a slave, if needed] in another computer and then recovering your data? Kushal (talk) 21:24, 25 September 2008 (UTC)

It's not likely that it's the hard drive that's faulty - I doubt that it's the RAM of the graphics or the display - the machine would at least boot to the BIOS layer - lights would come on. It's possible you just have a dead battery. If you know someone with a similar machine - borrow the battery and see. Failing that - you have to take a chance and buy a battery...sadly, you might do that and find it's really something else. A "fried motherboard" is certainly possible - a totally dead machine could indeed have a faulty motherboard - or a dead battery - and there is really no easy way to know which. I guess I'm a little surprised that not a single LED anywhere would come on - even with a faulty motherboard - so again, the battery seems the most likely thing. But a new battery is (presumably) cheaper than getting the motherboard replaced - and replacing the cheapest thing first is really the only sane way to proceed. I'd try a computer repair place first...have them give you a cost estimate - only you can know whether the cost to repair is more cost-effective than cost to replace. When you do replace it - how much important data do you lose? Swapping the hard drive into a new laptop probably won't work...fixing this one does. Dunno - get as much information as you can and make an informed decision. SteveBaker (talk) 01:24, 26 September 2008 (UTC)

Steve, I did not mean hid hard disk was faulty. Actually, I was hoping that his hard disk was not faulty. I just wanted the OP to not lose data in case he proceeds to more exquisite steps. Kushal (talk) 20:06, 26 September 2008 (UTC)

Computer TV appliances on Linux?

As my TV recently broke down, my mother's husband suggested I get a USB appliance for my computer to receive TV signals and watch TV on my computer instead. The only problem is, unlike 99.999999% of Finland's population, I use Linux and not Windows. Will these appliances work on Linux just as well or would I be forced to finally succumb to Bill? JIP | Talk 20:01, 24 September 2008 (UTC)

I'm pretty sure the MythTV folks could point you in the right direction. --LarryMac | Talk 20:13, 24 September 2008 (UTC)

Look at the list of supported hardware at the Video4Linux-wiki 90.235.30.211 (talk) 15:05, 25 September 2008 (UTC)

MythTV works great - but I strongly recommend buying hardware that's well supported by them - search Linux user groups to find someone who has a really nicely working system - and copy it exactly! Once you get "off the beaten track" you can run into horrible installation problems. SteveBaker (talk) 01:02, 26 September 2008 (UTC)

Wikipedia template help on Template:User BRUIN ALUM

This template appears to transclude itself, revealed by the template's "What links here" special page. I am having trouble determining how the <include> and </noinclude> tags are allowing this. I would appreciate assistance! Newportm (talk) 20:49, 24 September 2008 (UTC)

The <noinclude>d parts of the template page transclude the template a few times, to illustrate the template's function. This is done on many template pages. What's the problem? Algebraist 20:57, 24 September 2008 (UTC)

Thanks for the reply. I guess there's no problem. That is my first experiment with <noinclude> tags. Newportm (talk) 02:43, 25 September 2008 (UTC)

Fedora - Keyboard - Noob

Hi,

I am using Fedora 9(KDE). Some keys on my keyboard don't work with Fedora, to be specific the Volume +/- keys, calculator key, the "Email" key (supposed to open the email client when pressed) and the key with MS Windows logo on it (I want to open kMenu with it). How do I get these keys to work? My keyboard is Compaq 5185 if that helps. Thanks for reading-Abhishek^Talk 23:26, 24 September 2008 (UTC)

Those keys are not magic. Compaq installed a program (that they didn't tell you about) in Windows when they shipped the computer. That program listened to those keys. You need to map them in Fedora. Click on the "f", then System Settings. In the settings, select Keyboard and Mouse. Choose Keyboard Shortcuts. You'll see KDE Components and the actions that you can map to a key. Select the component and action. Click on the > and press a key to map it to that action. I just noticed that I have shutdown without confirmation mapped to Ctrl+Shift+Alt+PgDown. I better make sure I don't accidentally press that. -- kainaw™ 01:53, 25 September 2008 (UTC)

It would also help that you got the right keyboard in System/Preferences/Keyboard (I thought Fedora uses GNOME?). You should have a few options under Compaq, try them all and see if they magically work. --antilived^{T | C | G} 06:14, 25 September 2008 (UTC)

Thanks for the response. I got the Volume +/- keys working following kainaw's advice, but I can't figure out how to map the other keys. The configuration utility provides a very few options to configure; and doesn't allow me to create custom shortcuts either. Someone pointed me to this wiki, but when I tried to open the file I was supposed to edit it said the file didn't exist!-Abhishek^Talk 15:29, 25 September 2008 (UTC)

Connecting to the Internet

I recently installed a modded version of Windows XP on one of my partitions, made specifically for gaming (it takes out most of the crap like movie maker, etc) and the full iso is only 92 mb for example. It says it came with most drivers removed EXCEPT networking drivers and drivers necessary to connect to the internet are supposedly with the setup. My problem is that I absolutely cannot connect to the internet! =[ and I fear it is because it didn't install the necessary drivers (the OS works flawlessly excepting that). What can I do? I don't even know where to start. Thanks for the help. --71.98.3.250 (talk) 23:30, 24 September 2008 (UTC)

You should probably get the full version on XP, and then disable all the stuff you don't need. Or, make your own version using NLite Mile92 (talk) 05:21, 27 September 2008 (UTC)

September 25

Temporarily disabling Spotlight

I use OS X 10.4. I've found that when I use some (actually very memory intensive) applications, specifically FinalCut Pro, my Mac decides that I'm not doing anything of consequence and starts to index things with Spotlight, sometimes hogging +90% of the CPU resources. Of course this drive me bananas since what I'm actually doing (watching video and figuring out where to cut it into little pieces) is quite intensive and having it occasionally be jerky on account of Spotlight is a little ridiculous.

Is there any way that I can selectively disable Spotlight? On Google most of the results I've found are about totally disabling it all the time and often about deleting your Spotlight cache. That's not what I want -- I just want to be able to turn it off for an hour here or there while I am doing something that I don't want disturbed by its little "mdimport" process.

Any thoughts? --98.217.8.46 (talk) 00:22, 25 September 2008 (UTC)

temporarily disable spotlight gave me this website. Does it help any? Kushal (talk) 19:59, 26 September 2008 (UTC)

Cat5 to fiber optic to cat5

Hello. I have difficult residential internet installation I’m struggling with. My wireless service provider only has cat5 cable installs and needs to have “line of sight” to get a signal. Well, in order for me to get “line of sight” I have to run the cat5 cable about 340 feet. I’m not only too far for cat5 to work but I have to run through woods full of wildlife that like to chew on it. Is it possible to start with cat5 at the antenna, switch to fiber optic for the long distance and the back to cat5 into the computer? Wiini (talk) 00:31, 25 September 2008 (UTC)

It appears you are mixing things up in your description. "Line of sight" is used in wireless connections. Cat5 is a cable. So, it sounds like you have a wireless connection about 340 feet from your house and there is a Cat5 cable running from the wireless tower to your house. If so, this is a terrible design. Cat5 begins to lose dependability beyond 300 feet. However, that are solutions. You can get a Cat5-to-fiber converter. They are common (and not extremely cheap). The catch is that fiber cable is prone to cracking if twisted, bend, stepped on, driven over, etc... It isn't as bad as it was back in the early 90s (when it would crack just because it didn't like the way you looked at it). But, it is still more fragile than a wire. Another solution is to use a repeater at the tower. Repeat the signal, wirelessly, to your house. At your house, begin the cat5. You will be using a short-range wireless signal, which can be blocked, but isn't truly line-of-sight. Best of all, the animals can't chew on the wireless signal. -- kainaw™ 01:48, 25 September 2008 (UTC)

To use fibre optic fibre, you need a pair of fiber optic transceivers. These will cost about $300 each, but at 100 meg you can have a range of 2000 meters. And of course you will need power to operate them. For the one out in the woods, this could cost more than the pricey transceiver. Graeme Bartlett (talk) 02:49, 25 September 2008 (UTC)

Why bother with such a complicated set up? Unless I'm mistaken (and supported by wikipedia articles) properly constructed ethernet cabling should work up to 100 metres total (given that you will usually add patch cables, the distance of the permanent cabling is often limited to 90 metres according to Category 5 but the total distance allowed should still be 100 metres). 340 feet is slightly over that but according to ethernet over twisted pair with high quality cabling you can generally get away with 150 metres particularly for 10BASE-T. So you could probably get away with keeping it completely passive particularly as I doubt your wireless internet connection is going to be faster then 10BASE-T so you can just limit it to that (although I suspect 100BASE-TX should be fine). Since this is a residential connection, I would say it doesn't really matter if you're breaking the spec if it works. If it doesn't work or you don't want to go this route, you could just install a ethernet repeater (or a switch) somewhere along the loop to ensure neither segment is longer then 100 metres (remember it could be something like 70+35). You will need to find a way to protect and power the repeater (which shouldn't be that hard, I'm sure I've heard of people putting switches [and APs] on rooftops and stuff before) but I personally suspect it'll be cheaper then adding fibre to the mix. If we were talking about over 200 metres say, looking at fibre may start to make sense. Nil Einne (talk) 09:51, 26 September 2008 (UTC)

One very good reason you might want to go optical is for lightning protection. In my area, if I were to run a copper cable 340 feet through my woods, I'd be just begging for a lightning strike to fry my equipment sometime over the course of maybe ten years or so. (Remember, the strike doesn't have to be close; lightning discharges can induce current over a wide area and also travel in the ground in rather willy-nilly, unpredictable ways.) But if I ran optical cable, I'd be relatively safe from that hazard. Outside, over that sort of distance, I'd definitely go optical or wireless.

Atlant (talk) 12:00, 28 September 2008 (UTC)

problem in running a software

whenever I try to run a software(newton) a message appear "msvcp71.dll is not found".also when I try to run an other software (springcharts) a message appear" msvcr71.dll is not found .please install java 1.5" .plz tell me what is java 1.5 and how i can istall it from internet. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Khubab (talk • contribs) 01:34, 25 September 2008 (UTC)

You need the Java Runtime Environment. You can download it from http://www.java.com . — QuantumEleven 09:01, 26 September 2008 (UTC)

Replacing long string of if/thens in VB.Net?

There's certainly a more elegant way to convert named-months to numbered-months than the following:

       Dim Number As String
       If Month.Text = "January" Then
           Number = "01"
       End If
       If Month.Text = "February" Then
           Number = "02"
       End If
       If Month.Text = "March" Then
           Number = "03"
       End If
       If Month.Text = "April" Then
           Number = "04"
       End If
       If Month.Text = "May" Then
           Number = "05"
       End If

(etc) What exactly would this more elegant manner be? ("Month" is a ComboBox control in DropDownList style) Badger Drink (talk) 05:11, 25 September 2008 (UTC)

Have you tried a DateTimePicker control? Drag one of those onto the form and try this code:

Dim monthName As Date = DateTimePicker1.Text
Dim monthNumber As String = monthName.ToString("MM")

--Tree 'uns 5 (talk) 06:01, 25 September 2008 (UTC) —Preceding unsigned comment added by Tree 'uns 5 (talk • contribs)

This would be perfect, but as far as I know, the DateTimePicker pops up that horrible shitty little calendar selector. Since most of the dates I'd require would be from the 1970s, the calendar selector would be a horrid mess of obnoxious clicking - and even setting the starting date wouldn't help too much, since the dates I'd need would fluctuate within a twenty-year period or so. =( Badger Drink (talk) 06:15, 25 September 2008 (UTC)

Doesnt' VB.Net have some kind of switch/case statement? --LarryMac | Talk 12:15, 25 September 2008 (UTC)

Select Case. --98.217.8.46 (talk) 01:19, 26 September 2008 (UTC)

You could replace it in numerous ways. For one, an using elseif statements for all but the first would make the Block more efficient. A "Select Case" statement would look prettier. The best way of course would be to use an associative array though, with the months being the Identifiers of their Values. - Jimmi Hugh (talk) 12:27, 25 September 2008 (UTC)

Check out the DateTime object, specifically the various Parse methods (probably TryParse is best for what you want). It lets you parse strings into DateTimes which can then have the month extracted as a string. --98.217.8.46 (talk) 12:31, 25 September 2008 (UTC)

I don't know how to do this specifically in VB, but to solve this problem generally (mapping a string to another string, or really mapping anything to anything else), you'd use a hashtable (see associative array for the general data-structure). In many languages hashtables are built in (like PHP or Python), but in many languages this is part of the standard library. I googled it, and found this nice article that helps you do this in Visual Basic 2005. There might be specific solutions that work better in this case (like using specialized Date-objects), but for the general problem, this is how you do it. 90.235.30.211 (talk) 14:46, 25 September 2008 (UTC)

That sounds way overkill. If there wasn't a specialized function to do this, I'd just use a SELECT CASE or something like that. It's a lot easier and a lot less overhead. I'm not sure I see the advantage of using a hashtable for something this simple. --98.217.8.46 (talk) 01:19, 26 September 2008 (UTC)

Here, incidentally, is how you'd do it with Select Case:

 Dim MonthText as String
 Dim MonthNumber as Integer
 MonthNumber = 0
 MonthText = Month.Text
 Select Case Ucase(Mid(MonthText,1,3)) 'make it case insensitive and only get the first three letters, to make it easy on the user
 Case "JAN": MonthNumber = 1
 Case "FEB": MonthNumber = 2
 Case "MAR": MonthNumber = 3
 (repeat)
 Case "DEC": MonthNumber = 12
 End Select
 If MonthNumber = 0 Then
     Msgbox("Your month name was not accurate, try again")
     Exit Sub
 End Select

Or something like that. It's still a little over a dozen lines of code but it's pretty straightforward. --98.217.8.46 (talk) 01:26, 26 September 2008 (UTC)

I'm not terribly familiar with VB, but there should be a "getSelectedIndex" or something similar for the combobox control. Also, why have a varible called number of type string. That's incredibly counter-intuitive... My guess would be it should be something like this:

 Dim monthNumberAsString as String
 If Month.getSelectedIndex() <= 9 and Month.getSelectedIndex() > 0 Then
   monthNumberAsString = "0" + Month.getSelectedIndex().toString()
 Else If Month.getSelectedIndex() > 0 'Implied >= 10 and <= 12
   monthNumberAsString = Month.getSelectedIndex().toString()
 Else
   MsgBox("Please select a valid Month value")
 End If

Note that it's been years since I've programmed in VB, I'm not sure the toStrings exist or are even necessary. Also, If I remember correctly, getSelectedIndex() returns a 1 based value, so the code above should be correct once you find the correct method to call, whether it be getSelectedIndex() or some other method. If you have to have the leading zero there, this is about as small as I can think of making the code. If you have a leftpad function that can pad your string, even better. It would reduce your code to the below, obviously switching out the left pad function with your own with it's own parameters

 Dim monthNumberAsString as String
 If Month.getSelectedIndex() > 0 Then
   monthNumberAsString = LeftPadToLengthOfTwoWithZeroes(Month.getSelectedIndex().toString())
 Else
   MsgBox("Please select a valid Month value")
 End If

As far as readability and clarity goes, the other solutions would be better. As far as number of lines, this is nearly optimal I think 98.209.96.165 (talk) 14:37, 27 September 2008 (UTC)

Well, I don't know about that specific implementation, but you are right that if possible, a ComboBox would be a better choice for something like this where there is a limited allowed vocabulary. --98.217.8.46 (talk) 19:58, 27 September 2008 (UTC)

xbox 360

will a normal xbox 360 hard drive work on a 360 elite? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Jwking (talk • contribs) 05:56, 25 September 2008 (UTC)

Sure. The Elite drive is just larger, but the interface is the same. -- Captain Disdain (talk) 07:14, 25 September 2008 (UTC)

I thought Microsoft discourages swapping hard disks. ?? Kushal (talk) 12:39, 25 September 2008 (UTC)

That may be, but that doesn't mean it doesn't work. I mean, am I offering a guarantee that absolutely nothing can go wrong? Nope. But have I ever experienced a problem when swapping Xbox 360 hard disks? Nope. -- Captain Disdain (talk) 20:37, 25 September 2008 (UTC)

Encryption on Windows XP

Is there any way of decrypting files with a signature algorithm of sha1RSA? I won't go into details but an encrypted file's certificate became deleted from on my Windows XP. -- penubag  (talk) 06:24, 25 September 2008 (UTC)

Uh what did you encrypt it with in the first place? --antilived^{T | C | G} 07:49, 25 September 2008 (UTC)

I just used MS's default encryption option. The right-click, file properties, encrypt contents. I hate Microsoft, they can't get anything right. -- penubag  (talk) 07:55, 25 September 2008 (UTC)

So you marked it as encrypted, then reinstalled your computer or otherwise lost your original profile/keys? This seems like a nice article on this subject. --antilived^{T | C | G} 08:35, 25 September 2008 (UTC)

Um... They seem to have got this right. You don't have the key to the files, therefor you can't get at them. I'd be more worried if you COULD get at your encrypted files without the key. Anyway unless you want to spend a few months brute forcing the key chances are your SOL 88.211.96.3 (talk) 09:12, 25 September 2008 (UTC)

Quoting from the article: "The Recovery Agent is a mechanism that allows the administrator to recover encrypted files when the user’s keys are lost." So depending on his situation, he might well be able to decrypt his files. --antilived^{T | C | G} 06:08, 26 September 2008 (UTC)

Laptop Issues

I am having problems with my laptop (A ThinkPad T23). Recently, it's taken to actually booting up at a time I'd prefer to call "two seconds left in the game" and BSoD'ing about 60-80% of the time it *does* boot, and this past weekend two curious things happened, a day apart:

• The laptop lost track of both date and time (Saturday)
• The laptop couldn't find a necessary file to boot up, but booted normally when I rolled the system back a few weeks (Sunday)

For clarity, I'm using Windows XP, the laptop (and its parts) is secondhand, and I have not added or removed any hardware (except for a mouse in order to play Diablo II without getting frustrated at the trackpoint; the mouse's addition or removal does not affect booting as far as I have observed). Any ideas as to the nature of the gremlins haunting the system? -Jéské ^{(v^_^v Kacheek!)} 09:00, 25 September 2008 (UTC)

Loss of ability to keep track of date and time suggests a failure of the motherboard battery. You mentioned that the laptop is second hand. Unless you never let your ThinkPad run out of batteries (the regular ones), you might want to replace the small button cell in your motherboard. But wait, lets see what others have to say on this issue.

It could be malicious code infecting your computer that is causing the problems. I do not have much faith in the system rollback feature in Windows XP. You might need to reinstall your operating system. Lets wait and see what other wikipedians have to say. Kushal (talk) 12:37, 25 September 2008 (UTC)

My first reaction was also "dead motherboard battery". For those who don't know - even when you disconnect your laptop from the charger AND pull out the battery pack, there is a teeny-tiny rechargable "lithium cell" on the motherboard that holds just enough charge to allow the on-board clock to keep good time until you replace/recharge the main battery. If that goes kaputt, your computer loses track of time when you turn it off. The battery usually lasts longer than the computer - but when it fails, this is exactly the kind of thing that happens. That certainly explains the first symptom - and could possibly explain the second. It's a general rule with computers that you should always "fix the bug you can find" before you worry too much about the others...very often, fixing the obvious problem also fixes the not-so-obvious ones. Sadly, this may mean dismantling your laptop - which is always a tricky and stressful thing. If you were born lucky, your computer may have a little plastic flap underneath somewhere - held down with a tiny screw or snap-connection - that's specifically designed to let you get at the battery. If so then PLEASE make a sketch or take a close-up photo of the battery BEFORE you take it out - so you'll be 100% sure how to put the replacement back into the machine! Then you can remove the old battery - and find a replacement (most decent computer stores will have them) and you'll be good-to-go. If you can't get at the battery easily - you might want to take the machine to a professional...it's really easy to yank off a flimsy ribbon cable or lose a screw inside or something. SteveBaker (talk) 00:53, 26 September 2008 (UTC)

IBM has always made the Thinkpad maintenance manuals freely available. The manuals contain step-by-step instructions for common maintenance procedures, with clear pictures. Searching for the exact model number (found on the bottom of the machine, it looks something like 2647 or 2628-FX1) should produce the most accurate information, but apparently Lenovo keeps a generic T-series maintenance manual available [here]. It is quite possible that Lenovo still sells all the replacement parts - you just need the FRU number which you can find the maintenance manual. 130.188.8.13 (talk) 13:06, 26 September 2008 (UTC)

Thanks, Steve. I've also been getting BSoDs from "Page Fault in Nonpaged Area" and "Memory Management"; could those also be related to a dead motherboard cell? Also, when I try and report the former BSoD's, I get corrupted error reports as a result. It's currently keeping track of the time and date; What I stated above was a one-off incident (i.e. it lost track once, and has not since). The manual I have here also suggests motherboard issues (a lot of beep errors: -, .., -., ..)-Jéské ^{(v^_^v Kacheek!)} 07:25, 27 September 2008 (UTC)

Using print screen to create screenshots

I've been practising using the print screen button to crop screenshots from online videos on Microsoft Word, but when I cut and paste these into My Pictures it comes up as "scrap". It will not allow me to just paste the screenshot of a webpage directly there either to enable me to crop it in paint. Any way to work around this? Alientraveller (talk) 10:30, 25 September 2008 (UTC)

Print Screen (copy) and then paste into a photo editor (even MS Paint will work) and save the screenshot as a standard jpg or gif. You can easily edit a standard jpg or gif in any photo editor (even MS Paint will work). -- kainaw™ 12:08, 25 September 2008 (UTC)

When you use print screen you are copying the image to the clipboard as an image. If you paste it into a folder, it will come up as a "scrap" because that's how Windows recognizes raw clipboard data. Rather, as suggested above, you will need to paste it into an intermediary image program (MS Paint, Paint.NET, GIMP, whatever) and then save it as the image file you want it to be. --98.217.8.46 (talk) 12:39, 25 September 2008 (UTC)

If you only need to crop and resize it, you could just as easily paste it straight into MS Word and do the editing there. In the picture properties under the Size tab there will be a Compress button which allows you to delete the cropped portions of images to keep teh size of the document manageable. Of course with this method you don't have the picture available to use in other programs. Zunaid 16:05, 25 September 2008 (UTC)

Firefox: Inheriting history in new tabs?

An example: Using the same tab, I browse to sites A, B and C in that order. On site C, I open a few links in new tabs, and later close the original tab with site C. Now there is no way for me to go "back" to sites B or A without creating a new tab and navigating there myself. Is there some way (extension/setting or such) that makes new tabs inherit the history of their parent tab, so that I can go back to sites visited in the previous tabs? -- Aeluwas (talk) 12:06, 25 September 2008 (UTC)

This isn't quite what you want, but you could just re-open the closed C tab, and all of its history should be there, allowing you to go back to B and A. --LarryMac | Talk 12:11, 25 September 2008 (UTC)

LarryMac is right. Go to History > Recently closed tab >> ... . Alternatively, if you just closed it, you can press Shift + Command (Control on non-Macs) + T to get to it. Cheers, Kushal (talk) 12:54, 25 September 2008 (UTC)

Hmm yes, thanks; unfortunately I already knew that (but hadn't really thought about it to be honest). Well, it's surely better than nothing. :) -- Aeluwas (talk) 18:04, 25 September 2008 (UTC)

Duplicate Tab JessicaThunderbolt 19:11, 25 September 2008 (UTC)

Perfect!! Thanks a lot! :) -- Aeluwas (talk) 12:05, 26 September 2008 (UTC)

MATLAB: Solving system with unknowns in multiple matrices

Hello,

I was wondering if anyone knows a clever way to solve a system Ax=b (using MATLAB) where:

A = some nxn matrix

x = some nx1 matrix where some amount (<= n) of the entries are unknown

b = some nx1 matrix where some amount (<= n) of the entries are unknown

Also, x and b are subject to the following condition:

If the entry in row i of x is unknown, the entry in row i of b must be known, and vice versa.

An example of this sort of system could be:

A = [1 2 3; 4 5 6; 7 8 9]

x = [2 y 5]'

b = [a 6 c]'

where y, a, and c are unknowns (this particular example may not actually have a solution, and I'm pretty sure this particular A is singular, but it demonstrates the general form of the problem).

For a normal case where all the entries in x are unknown and A and b contain only known elements, it's easy to just execute

x = A\b (or x = inv(A)*b, if you like)

but I'm not sure how to solve the type of system described above due to unknowns being in both x and b. I'm sure there's probably a way to solve it using the MATLAB symbolic toolkit, but I'd prefer not to use that since not all versions of MATLAB have it.

Any suggestions, ideas, or code would be much appreciated.

H. J. Hackenbacker (talk) 12:43, 25 September 2008 (UTC)

Partition A, x & y so that the known x's are in one partition and the unknowns in the other. It will be easier to tell what to do next and the partitions of A will probably no longer be singular. Saintrain (talk) 14:38, 25 September 2008 (UTC)

Download to Pdf

I noticed that on wikieducator.org in their toolbox, they have a "Download as Pdf" option which downloads the current wiki page to a pdf.

I have a wiki and wanted to see if I could perhaps add a tool similar to this. What I want to accomplish is for the user of the wiki based site to be able to download a pdf of any page they please. I don't necessarily want to "print to pdf" all my current pages one by one and post the link up since the page will be edited constantly. A tool such as the one wikieducator has, either in the toolbox or elsewhere, to download to pdf would be extremely useful.

How would I do this?

18:12, 25 September 2008 (UTC)18:12, 25 September 2008 (UTC)

It'll involve adding some custom PHP. This page seems to describe one MediaWiki plugin that can accomplish something very similar. There may be others as well—if you google "wiki2pdf" you'll find a lot of little code snippets. --98.217.8.46 (talk) 22:41, 25 September 2008 (UTC)

Wikipedia icon

How can I put a Wikipedia icon on my computer screen for faster access to search the files of Wikipedia? I though there was one on another computer I used some time ago, but I have been searching Wikipedia for over an hour and I cannot find anything about this.

If there is an icon available for download, Wikipedia should make this feature easier to find. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 4.245.15.66 (talk) 19:09, 25 September 2008 (UTC)

On Windows, you can simply drag the favicon (the one near the addressbar) onto your desktop.

If you use Firefox or Opera, you can use the integrated Search feature.

--grawity 19:20, 25 September 2008 (UTC)

You can also use the inegrated Search Function with Internet Explorer... in exactly the same way. But, you don't sound biased, at all. - Jimmi Hugh (talk) 10:48, 27 September 2008 (UTC)

I don't think he's referring to search toolbars, but rather the feature of searching using keywords in the address field. Wikipedia doesn't specify what Opera calls it, but Mozilla calls this feature smart keywords. If Internet Explorer has this feature, wikipedia fails to mention it... -- Reep (talk) 23:43, 27 September 2008 (UTC)

Oh, well that's not integrated search, so he's wrong, as well as biased. Integrated Search, is search, integrated into the browser, exactly as all Major browsers allow. Hey, I even had to use less words to be unbiased, it doesn't even take effort to not be childish and ignorant on a matter. - Jimmi Hugh (talk) 14:11, 28 September 2008 (UTC)

A site I can't remember

Hi Wikipedians:

I came across a site a while ago that let's you use this Java Applet, which turns out to be a Java-based Windows Server 2003 terminal software that gives you a complete Windows Server 2003 desktop (including a full Office 2003 suite) right inside the browser (I was using Firefox at the time) for free. A lot of other people used it and left some signature files behind. With this site, I can use Office 2003 on any platform provided it has a browser that can run Java.

I find the site to be sooooo cool. But now I can't find it any more. I think I stumbled across it while searching for "online office". But the site no longer seems to show up in Google.

Any ideas?

Thanks,

128.100.122.154 (talk) 20:17, 25 September 2008 (UTC)

There are a few web desktops listed here. Was it one of those? JessicaThunderbolt 20:41, 25 September 2008 (UTC)

No, I think .154 was talking about some kind of Java applet-based remote access on a public server - like Remote Desktop. --grawity 15:27, 26 September 2008 (UTC) —Preceding unsigned comment added by Grawity (talk • contribs)

Pro cons of java, c++ og assembly language

The question is simple. What is the pro and cons of java, c++ og assembly programming language? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 62.199.32.168 (talk) 21:09, 25 September 2008 (UTC)

Which language can you program in? This gives a great advantage to you! Does your platform have a compiler or interpreter for the language? gcc gives you c++ plus some more languages. Is this a homework question? Graeme Bartlett (talk) 22:01, 25 September 2008 (UTC)

If this a homework question, I should note, we do not answer such questions unless you have shown you have tried and need Help not Answers :P--Xp54321 ^{(Hello! • Contribs)} 22:54, 25 September 2008 (UTC)

og is the name of an object-relational database mapping library used in Nitro and written in Ruby. Ogg is a free, open standard container format. And or is Logical disjunction - do you mean any of these? Also see c++ assembly language or Java (programming language). Graeme Bartlett (talk) 03:27, 26 September 2008 (UTC)

Perhaps 62.199. mis-translated... "og" is Danish for "and". Astronaut (talk) 04:57, 27 September 2008 (UTC)

Fingerprint Reader

Hey y'all! The laptop I'm using has a fingerprint reader but there doesn't appear to be any software on it to make use of it...Is there any freely available software out there I can use? Thanks.--Xp54321 ^{(Hello! • Contribs)} 23:26, 25 September 2008 (UTC)

How about the UBEK driver: [4]. Worth a try. Fribbler (talk) 23:31, 25 September 2008 (UTC)

I'll see if it's any good.:)--Xp54321 ^{(Hello! • Contribs)} 23:51, 25 September 2008 (UTC)

Wait, I'm on Windows, the requirements say GNU/Linux...?--Xp54321 ^{(Hello! • Contribs)} 23:52, 25 September 2008 (UTC)

So it does. The same for "fprint" (another one I found). Back to the googleboard! Fribbler (talk) 11:43, 26 September 2008 (UTC)

Heh, for some reason I can no longer boot up Ubuntu as well! It gave me a system error message!:(--Xp54321 ^{(Hello! • Contribs)} 01:14, 27 September 2008 (UTC)

How to download FreeBSD?

I want to install and use FreeBSD because it is genetic Unix and it's BSD too. I'm currently using Ubuntu GNU/Linux but I want to dual-boot Ubuntu and FreeBSD. I'm having trouble downloading FreeBSD. The downloads on ftp://ftp.freebsd.org/pub/FreeBSD/releases/i386/ISO-IMAGES/7.0/ state this: 7.0-RELEASE-i386-bootonly.iso, 7.0-RELEASE-i386-disc1.iso, 7.0-RELEASE-i386-disc2.iso, 7.0-RELEASE-i386-disc3.iso, 7.0-RELEASE-i386-docs.iso, and 7.0-RELEASE-i386-livefs.iso. I'm so confuse what .iso should I download. Should I download all, 7.0-RELEASE-i386-disc2.iso, or the 7.0-RELEASE-i386-bootonly.iso? What is 7.0-RELEASE-i386-bootonly.iso? What .iso(s) of FreeBSD should I download? Jet (talk) 23:32, 25 September 2008 (UTC)

It certainly looks like you need to download them all and burn each one onto a separate disk. Then you should reboot your computer with the "bootonly" disk in the drive. Hopefully, it'll prompt you to insert the other disks as needed. SteveBaker (talk) 00:34, 26 September 2008 (UTC)

Actually, you don't need the livefs or the bootonly. LiveFS is mainly intended to be used as a rescue disc. Bootonly is if you only want a disc to bootup with and plan to install from e.g. the internet. And depending on what you plan to install, you may only need disc1. Docs may be useful, but of course you can also access documentation directly from the internet (I don't believe you need it for an install even a full install). There is some brief description of the various discs at [5]. And yes, you will be prompted to insert the discs as needed although at least last time I made a full install there was some extra disc swapping (putting CD1 back in and then CD2). You could of course combine the various discs into a single DVD, there are various guides for this available online and I did it myself without much problem or you could potentially I think only burn disc1 (to CD/DVD R/RW) and then mount the images stored on your computer (never tried this although I think it's possible). Nil Einne (talk) 09:02, 26 September 2008 (UTC)

September 26

Qbasic Programming Question

Alright, I suck at programing tests and quizzes, and the equation/math part of the programming, and flowcharts (this is Qbasic), so I need some help with this problem.

2. Reserved words are words that are used by Qbasic and we can not use them for variable names (True/False)____. Now give an example of a reserved word ____________

3. You are given an allowance of 20.00 dollars a week. Last week you spent it as follows : $3.50---Fast food, $8.00---Movies, $14.00---CD. You also won a wager with a friend for $5.00, and found another $5.00 in the parking lot of the Mall. Write a Qbasic program which displays your fund Balance on Sunday night (when you get your allowance), all of your transactions, and the amount you have left on next Sunday morning. DO A FLOWCHART!!!!!

Use this space for your work: —Preceding —Preceding unsigned comment added by 151.203.57.167 (talk) 00:19, 26 September 2008 (UTC)

Fixed this [6].) APL (talk) 01:20, 26 September 2008 (UTC)

Sadly, the Wikipedia reference desk has a rule - we aren't allowed to do people's homework. Sorry. SteveBaker (talk) 00:32, 26 September 2008 (UTC)

(fixed this [7].) APL (talk) 01:17, 26 September 2008 (UTC)

Use this space for your snarky refusal to do homework: --98.217.8.46 (talk) 01:11, 26 September 2008 (UTC)

16:9 monitor

I've recently switched to a 16:9 1920×1080 monitor. While I am really happy about this at first since now I don't have to watch my videos with letterbox anymore, I find it kind of annoying also, because when viewing certain websites, Wikipedia included, the text is just stretched across the whole screen, making the shorter paragraphs (Four or five lines when viewed in 1024×768) feels like proseline. I am wondering if there's a way to force my web browser (Firefox), or just the Monobook skin (That'll help editing greatly), to adjust the resolution to perhaps something with a lower horizontal resolution. As for some reason it really does makes me feel frustrated to see proseline. -- クラウド６６８ 04:16, 26 September 2008 (UTC)

One thing about using a widescreen monitor is that you really need to stop your habit of maximising windows. Just un-maximise your window and adjust it to a comfortable width, because even if such plugin exist it'd only fill up your page with blank space: why put your desktop space to waste? --antilived^{T | C | G} 06:04, 26 September 2008 (UTC)

I agree with Antilived. With my wide-screen monitor I simply have my browser set up taking up the normal width of a monitor then the spare desktop space is ideal for dragging/dropping files or getting fast access to my HD. Certainly that's the best policy - it does take a bit of getting used to but once you do you'll find switching between your screen and others more 'normal'. 194.221.133.226 (talk) 12:40, 26 September 2008 (UTC)

Telephones ringing

For the purposes of a theatrical production I need to have several normal telephones ringing on demand. Does anyone know of a method to send a signal to the phones to cause them to ring. My initial idea was to get a laptop and plug them in but I would have no idea what kind of software to use to send the signal. MHDIV ɪŋglɪʃnɜː(r)d(Suggestion?|wanna chat?) 11:31, 26 September 2008 (UTC)

Here's a rather technical discussion on doing just that. If it's too technical (it is for me) why not just use a sound effect? Fribbler (talk) 11:47, 26 September 2008 (UTC)

That page is essentially how to make a program that creates a WAV file that sounds like a phone ringing, which you'd then burn onto a CD and play using a (person operated) cd player. -- 84.45.132.96 (talk) 12:19, 26 September 2008 (UTC)

Are you sure? It seems to involve hooking up the phone to the cd player. I'll admit I don't understand all of it. Fribbler (talk) 12:27, 26 September 2008 (UTC)

You're indeed correct. The software creates a CD that produces the correct Voltages, so that when hooked up to a telephone a ringing sound is formed. It also provides information on hooking up the phone. - Jimmi Hugh (talk) 12:49, 26 September 2008 (UTC)

Ringing isn't really a "signal" so much as a "blooming great AC voltage" - the phone exchange sets enough juice to waggle a little iron hammer in a solenoid at a distance of several miles. So this is proper electricity, rather than wimpy-dimpy computer type electricity. Other than Fribbler's excellent sound effect suggestion (which is what most theatres seem to do, in my limited experience) you can have someone electrically competent build a ringer circuit (this has more info: http://www.tkk.fi/Misc/Electronics/circuits/telephone_ringer.html) - but as the voltages required are nontrivial, it should be someone skilled in the electrical arts. Alternatively you can buy (for cheap) a used analog PBX (aka PABX), the little analog phone exchanges small offices had a decade or two ago before they switched to digital. You can get these on eBay (and probably car boot sales and the like). Then you can plug in a coupleof regular BT phones and you just dial one to make it ring. The trouble with using a real phone (rather than a sound effect) is projection - in a large theatre that phone might seem quiet (the sound radiates in all directions, whereas the actors project into the audience). -- Finlay McWalter | Talk 12:08, 26 September 2008 (UTC)

Does your cell phone have a "old phone" ringtone? Play that through an off-stage mic to a speaker hidden on stage. Astronaut (talk) 05:05, 27 September 2008 (UTC)

Music metadata

Is there a free and easy way to update metadata on downloaded music files from P2P programs (ie not iTunes etc which already come with the correct metadata)? --RMFan1 (talk) 12:21, 26 September 2008 (UTC)

How about this? Fribbler (talk) 12:23, 26 September 2008 (UTC)

Thanks Ill try that. If anyone knows of anything that actually updates the metadata automatically please let me know. Also I have a question about metadata: Why is it that on WMP there are so many different types of metadata (for example, theres an "album artist", "artist", "composed by" etc) but the files themselves seem to have less (usually just "title", "artist" and other basic tags)? --RMFan1 (talk) 12:32, 26 September 2008 (UTC)

In MP3 files, the metadata is stored in ID3 tags. The current version, ID3v2, allows for 84 standard tags, plus an application can add its own tags. Windows media files such as WMA, have their own metadata format but can support ID3 tags, so WMP probably shows all the tags that Microsoft has defined. As far as automatic updates, it depends on what you want to happen. If your files have a very strict naming convention, e.g. (artist)-(tracknumber)-(album)-(trackname).mp3, then a program can determine which portions of that name to put into the tags. If you have a bunch of randomly named files, then it becomes a much more manual process. I've used MediaMonkey to assist in the process. --LarryMac | Talk 13:42, 26 September 2008 (UTC)

MusicBrainz Picard. --antilived^{T | C | G} 03:01, 28 September 2008 (UTC)

Can you block email via iGoogle

The iGoogle personalised homepage used to give a summary of the last half a dozen gmail emails (who sent it and start of title). Today it has been upgraded so that it gives full access to gmail. Our company has a strict policy of blocking webmail. This means that we will have to block google if there is no way to disable email access.

I know that google provided a [mechanism for disabling chat] on a network by blocking access to http://chatenabled.mail.google.com. Is there a similar way of disabling the access of gmail through iGoogle and the [google mail gadget]? I really hope so because we all find google search, etc. very useful -- Q Chris (talk) 13:53, 26 September 2008 (UTC)

Blocking access to mail.google.com should prevent access to their email service, though it may not prevent the previews from displaying, depending on how you choose to block it. Ale_Jrb^talk 16:15, 26 September 2008 (UTC)

It used to block google mail but now it is accessible from http://www.google.co.uk/ig and http://www.google.com/ig that won't work any more. Unless there is some way of disabling it we will have to block the whole of google. -- Q Chris (talk) 17:33, 26 September 2008 (UTC)

Question - even with the gadget, it is not possible to view, read, compose or send emails/attachments. It is only possible to view the first few words of the message. Is blocking access in the other way insufficient? If so, I think you would have to block iGoogle entirely (e.g. the google.com/ig folder). The ability to do that depends on your proxy/blocking software. Ale_Jrb^talk 17:38, 26 September 2008 (UTC)

Until this morning you were right, it only displayed the sender and beginning of the subject. Today that has changed (though possibly only for Firefox users, I have had conflicting reports), as Google has updated the iGoogle pages. You can read whole messages, send messages and generally do all the things that we want to prevent people doing from in work. -- Q Chris (talk) 18:11, 26 September 2008 (UTC)

Well, if you figure out how to let it do that, tell me. Sounds like a great feature that I can't find anywhere! I'd suggest blocking iGoogle, then - at l;east normal search would still be available. Ale_Jrb^talk 19:46, 26 September 2008 (UTC)

QChris, if you're still reading this question, I'll give you some advice that might help you out. Generally speaking, you fall into the category of enforcing policy via technical means. This is, unfortunately, a losing battle. Let's say in your example, you've blocked "gmail.com", and that works. The problem is that there are many many other webmail sites out there. Do you know all of them? What about yahoo.com in other countries? Someone could sign up for say, yahoo in new zealand and access it via yahoo.co.nz and your filters would not find it. So URL blocking is a no-win situation. And unfortunately this ends up being an "arms race". People banned IM at work, and then web sites like meebo became available. The answer is to *enforce* your policy via administrative means. If you make it your policy that people can't use gmail at your location, then you take administrative action (suspend them, etc) when they violate the policy. I refer you to the spirit of #1 and #2 at [8] . Blocking "that which is bad" will never work. People will always try to work the technical side of the system. Aaronw (talk) 19:57, 26 September 2008 (UTC)

Using webmail certainly is a serious offence at our company, all email has to be stored monitored and have an appropriate disclaimer. It is our legal department's interpretation of the relevant legislation that we should also make best efforts to avoid this possibility technically. If customer data loss was caused by someone making a deliberate search for an unblocked mail gateway, proxy, etc. then the company would of course still be responsible for the loss, but it is unlikely that the company would e found to have acted negligently. Also if a person had to make efforts to find an great unblocked email system we would have much stronger grounds for their dismissal - as it would obviously be blatant and deliberate infringement of the rules. This means that we will almost certainly have to block google entirely, which is a shame because the search is very useful in our day to day work. -- Q Chris (talk) 10:21, 27 September 2008 (UTC)

Holy crap. I'm in IT in a company that is fairly strict on webmail access and customer info. However, what you are proposing is utter madness going into the insane. If you do this there is going to be a total shitstorm and your IT department is going to have to take a bite. Security is NOT about closing all the holes. It is about closing all the holes that are most easily filled. There are a billion websites that offer webmail. By the same reasoning you should just block the entire internet. Talk to Google and your filtering company about this. All you need to do is find the string that iGoogle says when you have the gmail gadget loaded and block pages with that phrase. Blacklist it and you are done. --mboverload@ 20:17, 28 September 2008 (UTC)

Q Chris, I have a solution. ALL you need to do is block *mail.google*. That should block all languages. The gadget just displays a few words from your most recent emails - practically no information at all. You can not compose or read email in it without going to the *mail.google* domain. Solved. * --mboverload@ 20:19, 28 September 2008 (UTC)

I'm afraid not, the upgraded gmail gadget gives full email access from http://www.google.co.uk/ig. This means you have to block the whole of google. If you just see a summary of a few words you are still seeing the old gadget, not the upgraded one. -- Q Chris (talk) 21:15, 28 September 2008 (UTC)

Thank you for the additional information Chris. So we can better help you, are you at liberty to say what filtering products your company uses? As we do not know what company you work for it should be a fairly innocuous question but I understand if you are hesitant to answer.--mboverload@ 22:30, 28 September 2008 (UTC)

Couldn't you just block iGoogle? e.g. block google.com/ig but not google.com? Or does the blocking only take place on a domain/subdomain level? --98.217.8.46 (talk) 22:00, 28 September 2008 (UTC)

Ripping data off unfinalized disks

I have a CD that was not finalized. I want to rip the current data off it. I don't have the means of returning to the computer where it was made and finalizing the disk - or even figuring out what burner program was used to create it. Any suggestions? -- kainaw™ 15:04, 26 September 2008 (UTC)

What have you tried so far, and what happened? —Ilmari Karonen (talk) 15:45, 26 September 2008 (UTC)

Isobuster worked. Being a Linux user, I would prefer that there was a free non-Windows solution. -- kainaw™ 16:57, 26 September 2008 (UTC)

The first thing I would try is the dd command (which you'll find on virtually any unix system) to make an image of the CD. Don't know how it handles unfinalized CDs though, but in case you haven't tried.

dd if=/dev/cdrom of=cdimage.iso

-- Reep (talk) 23:55, 27 September 2008 (UTC)

I don't get it. Can't discs be read without finalizing them? I mean, I used to leave my discs unfinalized all the time. (Never burned additional data though. Hah.) --Kjoonlee 03:29, 28 September 2008 (UTC)

When unfinalized, the program that is creating the disk can read it. I don't know what version of Windows or what program the disk was created with. I don't want to hunt down a Windows box with various CD burning programs on it to figure out which I should use. Without finalizing, the disk comes up as 840MB of 720MB used - no files. Since the files I wanted were text files, I suppose I could cat the device - but I used isobuster and already got the data. -- kainaw™ 03:32, 28 September 2008 (UTC)

In my experience Nero usually asks if you want to finalize something: if you do finalize it, adding more data to the disc is impossible. If you don't, you can add another session. In either case, all my drives have supported reading from all the discs in all programs. If that's not what you're talking about, then sorry... --Kjoonlee 06:33, 28 September 2008 (UTC)

I suspect there may have been something else wrong with the disk other than just lack of finalization. Anyway, I'm glad you got the data off. —Ilmari Karonen (talk) 16:16, 28 September 2008 (UTC)

Using OpenID to post comments on WordPress blogs

Hi. I have a Blogger account but want to post comments on WordPress blogs. Both are supposed to allow OpenID but I can't seem to log on WordPress using the OpenID. I can do it easily on LiveJournal though. Anyone knows how to log on WordPress with an Open ID? Thanks. 132.216.22.140 (talk) 17:24, 26 September 2008 (UTC)

Adding text via css

Hi all,

I often see very cool things done through CSS, and it seems to me like it's possible to add html/text around text through CSS alone. Is that right?

I'm trying to create a CSS tag that would automatically wrap a word in a table with the words "Important notice!" at the top. Is that possible? So if you type in

<div class="notice">Here's a big warning</div>

You would get something like

Important notice!
Here's a big warning

Any suggestions on how to do this?

Thanks! — Sam 17:30, 26 September 2008 (UTC)

My bad, I didn't look quite far enough. I guess I was looking for Generated Content (:before and :after tags), which is part of CSS 2. Unfortunately, I'm using a java program that only supports CSS 1. I don't suppose there is any way to do the same thing in CSS 1, is there? Thanks! — Sam 17:39, 26 September 2008 (UTC)

Only with Javascript. With javascript you can grab the CSS elements (by tag or by id) and then modify the HTML code directly. --98.217.8.46 (talk) 18:23, 27 September 2008 (UTC)

Linux GUI -- Fragile? Anyway to uninstall updates?

Last night I saw some available updates in my fedora update manager. I said sweet, bug fixes, and installed all of them. Unfortunately there was an Xorg driver update that broke my system. The guys at Linux Forums tried to help but ultimately I gave up and reinstalled Fedora. So I want to know about safe updating. I have decided not to install kernel updates or X11 updates anymore because I don't want this to happen again.

Is there anyway to "rollback" or uninstall updates? I know in windows I can just go to control panel and remove updates there but in Fedora's (or any other Linux distribution's) update manager I didn't see any such option to downgrade. If there is a manual way of doing this from the terminal please tell me. When I used Ubuntu about an year ago, the GUI screwed itself often and took me into a command prompt, even without any updates -- this makes me wonder is the Linux GUI too fragile? How to avoid this? How do I know an update is safe or not? -Abhishek^Talk 17:57, 26 September 2008 (UTC)

Usually such bugs are corrected in later updates. It is a good idea to check if the bug was reported to the project and report if not. Some package managers support downgrading to a previous version which should help in most cases. MTM (talk) 19:41, 26 September 2008 (UTC)

Yes, they fix it later, but I don't see any option in my package manager to uninstall updates. Even if my update manager had such an option I wouldn't be able to use it anyway because broken updates just throw you into the command line..I guess I'll just turn off updates. -Abhishek^Talk 03:03, 27 September 2008 (UTC)

Many distribution (e.g. Debian, Gentoo, Ubuntu) support installing only updates which have been tested for some time (one month without bug reports in Gentoo). When I used Fedora several years ago, there were separate package repositories for less tested updates. They are designed for people who want and have enough free time to report bugs and use command line interface to fix them. MTM (talk) 11:45, 27 September 2008 (UTC)

You can remove packages, not updates. However, you can uninstall a package and reinstall it up to a specific version. The problem is dependency. If you try to remove xorg, you'll lose all your graphics and have to reinstall everything. Basically, Fedora is designed to move forwards, not backwards. -- kainaw™ 14:04, 27 September 2008 (UTC)

The rpm program supports removing packages without removing packages depending on it, so it can be done. In Gentoo and Debian-based distributions packages can be "updated" to any compatible version easily. MTM (talk) 15:44, 27 September 2008 (UTC)

google blogger

Hi, I am on the talktalk isp in the uk and constantly (50% of the time) cannot get access to my google blogger to update my posts....is there a quick fix I can do? 89.241.84.64 (talk) 18:08, 26 September 2008 (UTC)andy

Are you getting an error message? Did you check the google blogger help? Have you tried your ISP's tech support? Failing that, get a new ISP or blog site. Astronaut (talk) 05:26, 27 September 2008 (UTC)

thx....going down those lines now. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 78.148.73.105 (talk) 23:11, 27 September 2008 (UTC)

keep getting "Acquiring network access" on my laptop

I have a Dell Inspiron 6000 laptop and a Comp USA wireless router. Whenever I am accessing internet on my wireless, after every now and then I loose my connection and everytime I loose connection, I get a message "Acquiring network access" on bottom right corner of my laptop. Please note that it shows full strength of the wireless signal. Sometimes it is very frequent like every 5 mins or so and sometimes it goes on for 1-2 hours without this problem. Is this some internet connection or security settings issue? Please help.

Namit —Preceding unsigned comment added by 162.136.192.1 (talk) 21:32, 26 September 2008 (UTC)

Is it always with the same wireless router or does it happen on multiple, different connections? Are there any other computers using the same wireless router, do they have similar issues at all? Knowing this can determine whether it is an issue with your machine or the router. --98.217.8.46 (talk) 22:05, 26 September 2008 (UTC)

September 27

Windows XP: Keywords Column in Windows Explorer

While in Windows explorer I set the keywords in properties for a file. But when I look in the Keywords column, the keywords do not appear. What's going on? When I was searching the internet I noticed that these guys seem to be having the same problem http://forums.cnet.com/5208-7813_102-0.html?forumID=5&threadID=207046&messageID=2734156 124.171.206.126 (talk) 10:05, 27 September 2008 (UTC)

You are ahead of me, I can't even select the keywords metadata to add as a column in Explorer. I don't use Explorer though, seems to work fine in Directory Opus. Couldn't find anything on the knowledge base @ Microsoft. I doubt you can fix that. Equendil Talk 14:43, 27 September 2008 (UTC)

KbdEdit

With KbdEdit can you assign a string of letters to a chord of keys? Eg. By keying "TH" together, the word "the" might be displayed. —Preceding unsigned comment added by My name is anetta (talk • contribs) 18:16, 27 September 2008 (UTC)

Saving downloadings

Hi, everyone. I'm sure this is a stupid question but being an older man it's not easy for me to learn some computing issues.

Where or how do I have to save software downloaded? example: want to download a free antivirus. Thanks in advance for your help. --189.135.143.31 (talk) 19:45, 27 September 2008 (UTC)Mannix

Hello, sir! It does not matter where you download it. Some people prefer to download it to their desktop. Then, when they are done installing, they can just trash the installation file easily. Kushal (talk) 20:42, 27 September 2008 (UTC)

As Kushal says, it doesn't matter where you save it as long as you remember where you put it. For simplicity's sake, I created a directory (a folder) called Downloads, and that's where I put all the files I download. If you use an operating system like Windows XP, you could create a folder called something like My Downloads inside the My Documents or My Computer folders... wherever would be easiest for you. --- OtherDave (talk) 10:37, 28 September 2008 (UTC)

How do I compile Live USB system creator?

I am trying to compile Live USB system creator, with a modification posted here, so it would run on Super Ubuntu, does anyone knows how to compile it into a .deb file? (I tried some methods on the internet, but they did not worked) Thanks. SF007 (talk) 20:26, 27 September 2008 (UTC)

1. Making debian packages isn't the easiest thing in the world. There's a packaging guide at the ubuntu wiki, but it's a lot of reading.

2. You can simply do that change directly at the installed location

gksudo gedit /usr/share/python-support/liveusb/liveusb.py

The change will be reverted if you reinstall the package.

3. Regardless of whether "Remastered Super Ubuntu" is supported at launchpad or not, the patch proposed by Carles González Silva is valid. Parsing the output of du -sm is better than parsing the human readable output of du -sh. In my opinion, it should be considered a bug in the software as it will break things eventually.

-- Reep (talk) 00:48, 28 September 2008 (UTC)

Thanks for the tip, good idea, the only problem was that the workaround did not seem to work... :( Thanks anyway. SF007 (talk) 15:48, 28 September 2008 (UTC)

<embed>

Is there any way to change the default color of an <embed> (for an mp3) ? It looks a little weird on my webpage in its normal color.

or... is there a cooler alternative that looks great for a basic html/css page? 78.148.73.105 (talk) 23:14, 27 September 2008 (UTC)andy

My understanding of it, which might not be right, is that the EMBED tag can result in a number of different types of applications playing the embedded file depending on the setup of the individual machine (for me it might be QuickTime, for you Windows Media Player, for someone else Real Player). Whether the colors are customizable in such an approach would depend on the player but the answer is generally "no". If you want to have control over things you embed you need to use formats that give you that control, e.g. embedding the MP3 in a Flash movie and then embedding the Flash movie into your page (which will only play with the Flash player and lets you customize everything), for example. --98.217.8.46 (talk) 19:52, 28 September 2008 (UTC)

September 28

U3 Password Enable

Hello. How can I enable password protection on a U3 Launchpad? The Enable Security button is not on the Launchpad nor in the U3 Launchpad Settings. I unsuccessfully searched in the Help files. Thanks in advance. --Mayfare (talk) 02:18, 28 September 2008 (UTC)

Rails question

Somehow I am unable to create a database. Every time I do rake create:db the console gives me rake aborted!/uninitialized constant ActiveRecord. ActiveRecord and rubygems both seem to be fine. I have the latest version of Rails. --hello, i'm a member | talk to me! 02:56, 28 September 2008 (UTC)

PDF to HTML

Hello daer Wikipedians!i want to know about a free software which convert PDF files into HTML.i use it for the Ubuntu Full Circle Magzine ,Please help me.Thank You —Preceding unsigned comment added by 119.154.37.84 (talk) 04:44, 28 September 2008 (UTC)

You should elaborate a bit on what you want out of this. Do you want it to just grab the text out of the PDF, and put it into a text file and then you can stylize it into HTML? This is not hard (but not much better than just copy-paste of the text itself). Do you want to replicate the layout of the PDF as HTML? This is not only very very hard, but unwise -- PDF and HTML use very different graphical devices to render them and different types of layout elements. An exact-translation of a PDF to HTML would not be very good HTML, if it were even possible. HTML is a very different type of layout paradigm than desktop publishing. --98.217.8.46 (talk) 05:22, 28 September 2008 (UTC)

There are many ways. Adobe has an e-mail service for this: http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/access_onlinetools.html. You can also use GMail: http://labnol.blogspot.com/2005/12/convert-doc-xls-ppt-rtf-pdf-to-html.html. You could also download a free trial of Acrobat Professional and save the PDF as HTML. None of these methods work very well, though. You'll get the best results if you code the HTML yourself. You could also use pdftk to uncompress the PDF and do a find-and-replace in Notepad to generate the code (e.g., replacing \n with <br/>).--Tree 'uns 5 (talk) 06:52, 28 September 2008 (UTC)

The Gmail option will, most likely, strip your result of all images, which is bad news. However, your formatting [most likely] stays, which is good. Kushal (talk) 10:08, 28 September 2008 (UTC)

It depends on the complexity of the document. If it is just a Word file with a single column then yeah, that works fine, though really no better than just copying and pasting the text with Reader. But if it is a real layout (and has images and columns and variable fonts and sizes and etc) then usually it comes out a real muddle. --98.217.8.46 (talk) 21:55, 28 September 2008 (UTC)

where is winamp's media library database ?

Hi, my winamp's been crashing for sometime due to gen_ml.dll, and I believe that its due to corrupted media library databases. Deleting them might solve the problem as that would force the databases to be reconstructed. But can anybody please tell me where they are located? It used to be main.dat but the latest's version is using some other path. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 117.201.113.34 (talk) 08:24, 28 September 2008 (UTC)

two thrones

where can i get a picture or wallpaper that depicts both the princes sitting on two thrones?? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 122.50.128.79 (talk) 09:28, 28 September 2008 (UTC)

Which princes do you have in mind? --- OtherDave (talk) 10:38, 28 September 2008 (UTC)

My guess is that he means William and Harry. --Russoc4 (talk) 17:24, 28 September 2008 (UTC)

In which case the answer would be: you can't. Humanities would be better for this kind of question, hehe. --Cameron* 19:00, 28 September 2008 (UTC)

Why would William and Harry be sitting on thrones? —Tamfang (talk) 20:33, 28 September 2008 (UTC)

Upgrading Laptop RAM

Hello ref desk. I have a 4 year old Dell Inspiron 9300 and recently bought a new hard drive, upgrading my 40GB to 80GB. I did this because I thought it was going bad, but apparently one of my RAM sticks was bad. I started 4 years ago with 512MB of RAM and upgraded to 1GB of DDR2 533 (PC2 4200) CAS latency 4. This was about 3 years ago. About 1 year ago, I purchased a second 1GB stick, exactly the same item (and 1/3 the price). This stick I purchased a year ago is the one that failed. Now I am concerned that my older stick is going to go at some point, so here's my situation. Should I spend:

1. $17.49 for 1x G.SKILL 1GB 200-Pin DDR2 SO-DIMM DDR2 533 (PC2 4200) with a Cas Latency of 4
2. $36.99 for 2x G.SKILL 1GB 200-Pin DDR2 SO-DIMM DDR2 533 (PC2 4200) with a Cas Latency of 4
3. $34.99 for 2x G.SKILL 1GB 200-Pin DDR2 SO-DIMM DDR2 667 (PC2 5300) with a Cas Latency of 5
4. $44.99 for 2x G.SKILL 1GB 200-Pin DDR2 SO-DIMM DDR2 667 (PC2 5300) with a Cas Latency of 4

Option 1 would just replace my broken RAM with the exact same stick. Option 2 would replace both of them with the exact same sticks. Option 3 would replace both of them and upgrade the speed, but downgrade the Cas latency (whatever that is). Option 4 would upgrade the speed and keep the same Cas latency.

Now, will I really benefit from an upgrade in RAM speed if my processor is rated at 533MHz FSB, with apparently an actual Bus Speed of 133MHz.

Here is my CPU-Z report.

It says the memory frequency is actually 266MHz and the Bus Speed is 133MHz, giving me a RAM ratio of 1:2. Why is my bus speed only 133MHz and why is my RAM ratio not 1:1, as in, 533:533? And what is Cas Latency?

--Russoc4 (talk) 15:07, 28 September 2008 (UTC)

wifi turns itself off

I am not sure of the terminology so please bear with me. I have a quite battered but newish to me Acer Aspire 3680 laptop, with Windows XP and FireFox. It used to be fine with wifi. Now whenever I reboot, it refuses to recognise any networks. This caused no end of grief and a long wikibreak. Fortunately a nice passing techie (no longer around) showed me a lengthy trick to turn it on again -- I say lengthy, in that I have to remember my way through half a dozen menus. (Start --> My Computer --> Right click --> Manage --> Services and Applications --> Services --> Wireless Zero Configuration --> Start the service.) Is there a way to make the wifi stay on? Thank you. BrainyBabe (talk) 20:36, 28 September 2008 (UTC)

Instead of selecting "Start the service" at the last step, try selecting "Properties," then in the list box marked "Startup type" select "Automatic"—I assume it's currently set to "Manual." Then click okay. You may have to start the service one last time, but hopefully it will start automatically the next time you reboot. By the way, instead of Start --> My Computer --> Right click --> Manage --> Services and Applications --> Services, you can press Win+R, then type services.msc, then press Enter. -- BenRG (talk) 22:22, 28 September 2008 (UTC)

cookbook curve fit

I need something from a Numerical Methods book that I gave away twenty years ago! Given a set of points $x_{i},y_{i}$, what's a compact expression for the polynomial (of minimal degree) that fits exactly? —Tamfang (talk) 20:36, 28 September 2008 (UTC)

$\sum _{i}y_{i}\prod _{j\neq i}{\frac {x-x_{j}}{x_{i}-x_{j}}}$? -- BenRG (talk) 21:23, 28 September 2008 (UTC)

That's the one, thanks. —Tamfang (talk) 21:49, 28 September 2008 (UTC)

firefox/php/require statment

i've got a problem at the moment that i'm developing a web page and recently played around with the include/require statments loading up class documents, i decieded to go back to what i and before (not a backup just what i rememebred i had before)now all i get when i load the page is firefox saying

Redirect Loop Redirection limit for this URL exceeded. Unable to load the requested page. This may be caused by cookies that are blocked. The browser has stopped trying to retrieve the requested item. The site is redirecting the request in a way that will never complete. * Have you disabled or blocked cookies required by this site?

* NOTE: If accepting the site's cookies does not resolve the problem, it is probably a server configuration

issue and not your computer.

i cleared my cookies and cache with no effect, and hadnt done anythign with my cookies for ages

now when i comment out the require_once statment on my index page it works (untill it has problems with the class's no longer existing but thats a different problem)

a little about my code: index.php loads up session.php (my primary class document, session page handles all user log in/mangment stuff) which session then loads up other classes (database/process/error handling), all pages have require_once and it worked fine before i started tinkering with it

any suggestions to whats happening?--82.16.140.152 (talk) 20:42, 28 September 2008 (UTC)

Search your code for a header command that is redirecting the page. Wherever you find it, that is being called over and over. Why? It is not possible to say without seeing the code. -- kainaw™ 20:48, 28 September 2008 (UTC)

Somewhere you've got your client side stuff putting out HTTP headers in a way that has started a constant loop. Where? Can't say—you've got to find out by looking very closely at your code. Most likely one of your files is then for some reason calling another which calls the first one again. --98.217.8.46 (talk) 21:47, 28 September 2008 (UTC)