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May 28

Single bad disk sector on a HD

I have a relatively new laptop harddrive that has what looks like a single bad sector (8 x 512 blocks = 4KB, which coincidentally lies on a sector boundary (divisible by 32) and our article mentions is the modern size of a sector). This particular sector's unable to be read or written to, and that includes using low level OS utilities like dd (unix). It lies inside an NTFS formatted partition. I tried to use the Windows 7 disk check utility to repair it, but it would, I think, randomly restart when it hit that sector. The process takes quite a while too so it's not something I could test all the possibilities for easily.

My question is, shouldn't the checkdisk utility mark the file in NTFS' bad block list, and move on? (data recovery is not an issue here)

Second, I've tried writing to this sector a number of times with low level utilities. Isn't this all it should take for the drive to reallocate the sector? That hasn't seemed to prompt that. I ran some SMART utilities on it (smartctl) and if testing the particular region it did find the errors, but still no reallocation.

Any insight on this issue would be helpful. Thanks. Shadowjams (talk) 01:37, 28 May 2011 (UTC)

I don't have any experience with Windows 7, but in earlier Windows versions I would do a ScanDisk, and not just the "surface scan" but the more detailed one. This typically fixed the problem, for a while. However, I also found that once one sector goes bad, more are soon to follow, so you need to consider getting a replacement. StuRat (talk) 06:51, 28 May 2011 (UTC)

(ec) Some (not all) current hard drives have 4KB sectors. More importantly, though, modern hard drives should not have any bad sectors that are visible to dd or the NTFS driver or any other ordinary software. Bad sectors (of which there are always many, on modern drives) are supposed to be detected and transparently remapped by the drive firmware. The block device that dd sees is pretty high level these days.

If the drive is under warranty, I'd call tech support; they will probably suggest you download and run a diagnostic utility provided by the manufacturer. If it's not under warranty, the diagnostic utility may tell you if this is a sign of impending doom or a fluke, and in the latter case, the manufacturer's low-level format utility will erase all data on the drive and probably eliminate the bad sector. If you don't want to wipe the drive, NTFS does support bad block management, but I don't know how it works since I've never had a bad block on an NTFS drive. You could try chkdsk /B, if you haven't already. -- BenRG (talk) 06:59, 28 May 2011 (UTC)

External Hardrive not Recognized by Vista

I have recently acquired an external HDD (1 TB). Everything was all lovely-jubbly until I used UNetBootIn to install Ubuntu 11.04 on a 100GB partition I had placed on the HDD. Now, it is not recognized at all by Vista. The entire HDD. What should I do to make it recognize the drive, and, can I get my data back..... ? --KägeTorä - (影虎) (TALK) 01:25, 28 May 2011 (UTC)

You are asking about losing access to the pre-existing partition from before you created the Ubunto partition ? What kind was it ? Was it bootable ?StuRat (talk) 04:43, 28 May 2011 (UTC)

'Pre-existing partition before I created the Ubuntu partition'? No, there wasn't one. It's an external HDD, and I created a 100GB partition on that drive. Before doing this, I was able to access the drive from Windows (via a USB cable), but now, the drive does not even show up - all of it, and not just the Ubuntu partition, which I expected not to show up, because Ubuntu does stuff like that. --KägeTorä - (影虎) (TALK) 08:07, 28 May 2011 (UTC)

There are a bunch of things that you might mean by "not recognized by Vista". Does the drive spin up at all? If not, then my guess would be that this is a hardware failure (new hardware, left edge of the bathtub curve) and the fact that it happened just after the installation was essentially a coincidence.

If it spins up, then you could try running Disk Administrator to see if you can find the partitions. If not, maybe your partition table has been munged.

If the drive spins up at all, you'll probably find you have a lot more flexibility by looking at it in Linux rather than Windows. Do "sudo blkid" to see if the partitions show up as block devices, "sudo /sbin/cfdisk /dev/sdc" (I'm guessing it'll be sdc -- that depends on what you see in the blkid output) to see the partitions. Maybe you can mount the partition that has the data you want to save from Linux, even if you can't from Windows; that would let you copy it somewhere.. If the partition table is hosed, you might be able to recover it with low-level manipulations in Linux, though you'd want to read up on it carefully and plan it out, to avoid doing further damage. --Trovatore (talk) 05:08, 28 May 2011 (UTC)

Well, I managed to boot from Ubuntu on the new disk.

/dev/sda1: UUID="3A704EB7704E7A21" TYPE="ntfs" /dev/sda2: LABEL="HP_RECOVERY" UUID="D28E5A388E5A14F7" TYPE="ntfs" /dev/sda5: UUID="fdfa46a7-0252-4b2f-bf95-c3e95c110fec" SEC_TYPE="ext2" TYPE="ext3" /dev/sda6: UUID="63bb042c-32c5-4c33-b74b-75e6b1b6aada" TYPE="swap" /dev/sdb1: UUID="e0c623f9-bd91-4757-ac4f-56058e8e666d" TYPE="ext2"

ext2 is the partition I made with the Ubuntu installation (which I am writing from now). What I am wanting is that the other 900GB on the HDD (complete with 100GB of stuff I have put on it) show up in Vista, so I can access it from Vista. I am not bothered about not being able to access the Ubuntu partition from Vista. I would be able to do that in my own way, if the drive were visible in Vista, which it isn't. KägeTorä - (影虎) (TALK) 07:42, 28 May 2011 (UTC)

OK, I'm not liking the fact that the ext2 partition is showing up as /dev/sdb1, suggesting that it's the first block device on /dev/sdb. That probably means you put the new partition at the beginning of the disk, which probably means that you nuked whatever was there before. I hope your data were not too valuable. If they were, you could try taking the disk to a data-recovery expert; when you made the ext2 filesystem it would have destroyed some data but maybe not everything. --Trovatore (talk) 08:38, 28 May 2011 (UTC)

Ah, yes, in hindsight, it was at the beginning of the disk. So.... I need to reformat. All the info that's on the disk itself is stuff I still have on windows, so it's no big deal. Just means I have to reformat the disk. Now.... how do I do that when Vista is not even recognizing its existence? --KägeTorä - (影虎) (TALK) 08:44, 28 May 2011 (UTC)

Actually, Ubuntu is unable to access the other 900GB on the disk, either. --KägeTorä - (影虎) (TALK) 08:54, 28 May 2011 (UTC)

Well, that may just be unpartitioned (free) space. Try /sbin/cfdisk /dev/sdb and see what it says. --Trovatore (talk) 08:57, 28 May 2011 (UTC)

You could also use /sbin/cfdisk to create an NTFS partition in the second 100GB on the disk (it'll be /dev/sdb2). Then you can go into Disk Administrator in Windows and format that for NTFS. That way you don't lose your Ubuntu partition. --Trovatore (talk) 08:59, 28 May 2011 (UTC)

That sounded like the idea I needed. However, all I get is:

FATAL ERROR: Cannot open disk drive
                         Press any key to exit cfdisk

I'm lost. --KägeTorä - (影虎) (TALK) 09:04, 28 May 2011 (UTC)

I have seen that error before. If I recall correctly, it's usually when I accidentally try to invoke cfdisk on a partition rather than the whole drive — something like /sbin/cfdisk /dev/sdb2 when what I should have typed is /sbin/cfdisk /dev/sdb. If that's not it, then I'm afraid I don't know. --Trovatore (talk) 09:12, 28 May 2011 (UTC)

Oh oh oh — or maybe you're not root? Try putting sudo in front of it. --Trovatore (talk) 09:13, 28 May 2011 (UTC)

You will never believe this. Looks like I formatted the entire drive when I put Linux on it........

cfdisk (util-linux-ng 2.17.2)

                             Disk Drive: /dev/sdb
                     Size: 1000204886016 bytes, 1000.2 GB
            Heads: 255   Sectors per Track: 63   Cylinders: 121601

   Name        Flags      Part Type  FS Type                  Size (MB)
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                           Pri/Log   Free Space                           1.05*
   sdb1        Boot        Primary   Linux ext2                      100000.00*
   sdb2        Boot        Primary   Linux                           900201.23*

            
                         Delete the current partition

--KägeTorä - (影虎) (TALK) 09:27, 28 May 2011 (UTC)

Well, this only tells us that you have a /dev/sdb2 partition; you may not have "formatted" it (created a filesystem). You can find out with the following sequence:

sudo mkdir /media/sdb2

sudo mount /dev/sdb2 /media/sdb2

If there's a filesystem on /dev/sdb2, this will mount it; otherwise it will fail. If it mounts, look to see if there's anything important in it, then UNMOUNT IT AND THEN delete it in cfdisk. Then make yourself an NTFS partition, starting at the beginning of the free space (i.e. the end of /dev/sdb1) and write the partition table to disk. You might have to reboot after that. Then (if you have NTFS stuff in your Linux installation) you can use sudo mkntfs /dev/sdb2 to make an NTFS filesystem (="format" in Windows terminology), which should then show up in Windows. Or, after writing the partition table, you could reboot into Windows and open up Disk Administrator (it's in the control panel -- you might have to install it), look for the second partition on the disk, and format it from there. --Trovatore (talk) 09:41, 28 May 2011 (UTC)

Slight correction — the Windows version isn't called Disk Administrator anymore. I think that's what it was called in NT 4.0 or something. Now it's in Control Panel->System and Maintenance->Administrative Tools->Computer Management->Storage->Disk Management. Boy, they really hide it well :-/.

Also, I didn't quite explain everything you have to do in cfdisk to do what I suggested. The step that might not be obvious is, after you go to New and say what size partition you want and where, you have to go to Type and tell it that it's an NTFS partition. Then you have to go to Write, and when it asks you yes or no, type out the word "yes" (not "y"). cfdisk is a little balky, which is probably good given how much power it has to mess things up if you do it wrong. But it's possible you'd find gparted more intuitive, especially if you're used to Windows. --Trovatore (talk) 10:15, 28 May 2011 (UTC)

Right, I have partitioned the disk again (in Ubuntu, using the steps you suggested), and now I am able to see the existence of the disk from Vista, but am unable to make the partition (now 800GB) available for use from Vista, because I am now having the perennial problem of Windows loving to tell people who have Admin rights like me, that they don't have admin rights. How Microsoft continues to even exist is beyond me. --KägeTorä - (影虎) (TALK) 10:22, 28 May 2011 (UTC)

Thanks, Trovatore, you've been a star! All fixed now! --KägeTorä - (影虎) (TALK) 10:28, 28 May 2011 (UTC)

Data matrix "bar codes"

A co-worker of mine on another shift has taped a data matrix type bar code onto the cabinet over his desk. Is there a way to find out what it is the code for? Can I scan it with my smartphone somehow? If not for curiosity, I'd like to know so that I can let a little air out of his smugness. Dismas| 01:39, 28 May 2011 (UTC)

If you mean a QR code then yes, your smartphone should decipher it for you. It may or may not decipher other Data Matrix patterns, though. Try it ! StuRat (talk) 07:00, 28 May 2011 (UTC)

That's the link I was looking for but figured I was misremembering the name of it and gave the link for data matrix. Now... to figure out how to do that on my phone. I have an Android phone and an iPhone available to me. Thanks! Dismas| 07:07, 28 May 2011 (UTC)

Got it! Thanks again! Dismas| 07:11, 28 May 2011 (UTC)

You're welcome. I will mark this Q resolved. StuRat (talk) 07:48, 28 May 2011 (UTC)

Regex gurus needed

Hi there folks, I'm a neophyte with regular expressions and need some pointers. What I'm trying to get is a regex expression that matches {{Extra album cover}} when there is no cover displayed (either the field has no data or the image name is commented out). I've tried

{{Extra album cover+|\s+Cover\s+=\s+|*}}

And this broke my brain to create this version. I want it to match a string that starts "{{Extra album cover" has "| Cover = " in it (variable number of spaces) had has no uncommented image name between the = and the }} closing the template. Even a version that matches the case when there is only whitespace between the Cover = and a following | or }} would be good. I'd love help if possible thanks - Peripitus (Talk) 11:15, 28 May 2011 (UTC)

Many different regular expression syntaxes exist, but I assume this is a Perl (compatible) regex. In that case { and | are special characters, so you need to escape them.

The simple-case expression you requested would be something like \{\{Extra album cover+\|\s+Cover\s+=\s+(?:\|*)?}} (untested). I can't do the general case because I don't know the full grammar of MediaWiki articles. My impression is that it's a horrible mess, and mw:Markup_spec/BNF seems to bear that out. Perl regex syntax is also a nightmare. In theory, a completely correct regex probably exists, but good luck finding it. -- BenRG (talk) 19:39, 28 May 2011 (UTC)

This regex, in Javascript,

\{\{xtra album cover*\|\s*over\s*=\s*(<!--.*-->)?\s*

matches all of the following:

{{Extra album cover | cover = }}
{{Extra album cover | asdfasdf | cover = | foo = bar}}
{{Extra album cover | asdfasdf | cover = <!-- myfile.jpg --> }}
{{Extra album cover | asdfasdf | cover = <!-- myfile.jpg --> | foo = bar}}
{{extra album cover|cover=}}
{{extra album cover|cover=<!--myfile.jpg-->|foo=}}

and does not match

{{Extra album cover | asdfasdf | cover = myfile.jpg | foo = bar}}

You may need to use a multi-line flag like "m" since the templates are often written on multiple lines. Note that the above does not match the empty template {{Extra album cover}} or cases where the "cover" attribute is not already there. IANE. Riggr Mortis (talk) 23:49, 28 May 2011 (UTC)

Wow, thank you both. I think I understand them as written but would not have got there for a very very long time, if at all. Thanks again - Peripitus (Talk) 23:58, 28 May 2011 (UTC)

Hope it helps. Um, the regex I gave above did not display correctly; the HTML "comment" part was treated literally, so it didn't show. I've added "nowiki" around it this time. Riggr Mortis (talk) 00:23, 29 May 2011 (UTC)

Half-life 2/Steam question

I've been re-organising my home office and found a copy of Half-life 2 that my Father in Law gave to me - I fancy a quick blast but remembered that steam games can only be registered once? If I tried to install it, it will fail right? --Cameron Scott (talk) 11:39, 28 May 2011 (UTC)

Yes and no? I believe they CD-key can only be registered once to a steam account, yes, but I believe you can install it and play it on a new/different PC, provided you use the same steam account. I think the activation of the game follows the steam account, not the computer. (You might not even need to use the disc - if you have download the steam client and login, it may allow you to download the game directly. I know Blizzard has this for some of their games :-D ) _ennasis @ 11:56, 24 Iyar 5771 / 28 May 2011 (UTC)

Yes indeed. At least for Valve's own games you don't need the disk, and you can install them on multiple machines with the same steam account (Steam doesn't let you use the same licence concurrently, naturally). This may not be the case for non-Valve games on Steam, like Arkham Asylum, which have additional copy protection schemes. -- Finlay McWalter ☻ Talk 13:15, 28 May 2011 (UTC)

The above is all correct. If you remember your Steam account name and password, you don't need the HL2 discs or registration code at all; just install Steam on any machine in the world, log in, and choose to install HL2, and after a long download, you're in business. Comet Tuttle (talk) 17:20, 29 May 2011 (UTC)

Making copy of windows 7 disc

More adventures in my home office (see above) - I have found my Windows 7 Disc - I want to make a copy of it so that if the original gets scratched I have a copy - what's the easiest way to do it? --Cameron Scott (talk) 11:43, 28 May 2011 (UTC)

A program like ImgBurn (free) will allow you to make a copy in ISO format, then burn that to a new disc - a simple process and gives you an exact duplicate, both on disc and in the ISO file. I haven't used the newer versions - you might be able to burn straight from disc to disc now. _ennasis @ 12:00, 24 Iyar 5771 / 28 May 2011 (UTC)

Wouldnt the Win7 disk be likely to have uncopyable track(s) so that the software can verify its an original disk and not a copy? So it wouldnt be identical? 92.28.249.30 (talk) 20:40, 31 May 2011 (UTC)

Incorrect 'Password is Incorrect' Message in Thunderbird

I'm having trouble checking my email using Thunderbird. My email is a Yahoo BT account (you know, the one that BT says they will give you for free, even though Yahoo accounts are free anyway). Thunderbird is suddenly telling me that my password is wrong. So, using the browser to login to my free BT Yahoo account, using the password I have been using for two years, I am able to change the password to a new passoword - and then inputting this brand new password into Thunderbird, I get the same message telling me the password is wrong. Can anyone help out here? --KägeTorä - (影虎) (TALK) 13:24, 28 May 2011 (UTC)

-- Edit - doesn't matter. Sorted it out. --KägeTorä - (影虎) (TALK) 14:08, 28 May 2011 (UTC)

PC Game Dust Tale of the wired west

This question was originally posted on the help desk - I moved it over here.  Chzz  ►  15:55, 28 May 2011 (UTC)

I Love the game, I am hooked but now I have Windows XP and cannot play the Game. My question is there an up to date version of the game or a patch so I can play the version I have? If I have to purchase the game again, so be it, unless there is a down load that would be to quote Tony the Tiger GREAT!!!!! So I hope you can help or steer me to the right Phone # or E-Mail to get the mission accomplished. Please hurry because again I Love the game....Terry — Preceding unsigned comment added by 69.129.254.212 (talk) 15:52, 28 May 2011 (UTC)

Our article on this is Dust: A Tale of the Wired West. Can you describe what exactly happens when you try to play the game under Windows XP? (If you have access to a PC that has Windows 7, its Windows 95 compatibility mode might fix whatever problems you are encountering.) Comet Tuttle (talk) 17:42, 28 May 2011 (UTC)

After writing that, I googled Dust: A Tale of the Wired West "windows xp" and the first google hit is this forum thread in which one poster advises how to, under Windows XP, set the DUST application to run in 256 colors only and run as administrator, which supposedly gets it working. Comet Tuttle (talk) 17:45, 28 May 2011 (UTC)

Supressing output to the Windows XP Command Prompt

I issue the following PyWikipedia command:

C:/pywikipedia/add_text.py -page:User:StuRat/X_MOVE -text:"\n MOVE_X1=1\n" -always

Which works, but also produces this messy screen output:

unicode test: triggers problem #3081100
Loading User:StuRat/X MOVE...

>>> User:StuRat/X MOVE <<<
+
+  MOVE_X1=1

WARNING: Your account on wikipedia:en does not have a bot flag. Its edits will be visible in the recent changes and it may get blocked.
Sleeping for 7.6 seconds, 2011-05-28 17:17:43
Updating page User:StuRat/X MOVE via API
Pausing 9 seconds due to database server lag.
Updating page User:StuRat/X MOVE via API

Sleeping for 7.6 seconds, 2011-05-28 17:17:43
Pausing 9 seconds due to database server lag.

So, I tried redirecting the output to a file, like so:

C:/pywikipedia/add_text.py -page:User:StuRat/X_MOVE -text:"\n MOVE_X1=1\n" -always > junk.txt

But this was the result:

Loading User:StuRat/X MOVE...

>>> ♥{lightpurple}User:StuRat/X MOVE♥{default} <<<
♥{lightgreen}+♥{default}
♥{lightgreen}+♥{default}  MOVE_X1=1

WARNING: Your account on wikipedia:en does not have a bot flag. Its edits will be visible in the recent changes and it may get blocked.
Sleeping for 7.5 seconds, 2011-05-28 18:38:44
Updating page User:StuRat/X MOVE via API
Pausing 9 seconds due to database server lag.
Updating page User:StuRat/X MOVE via API

Other than somehow messing up the color changes, this didn't seem to do anything beyond suppressing the first print line. So:

1) How can I suppress all the screen prints ?

2) How can I suppress all the prints except those containing (or better yet, starting with) the words "Sleeping" or "Pausing" ? StuRat (talk) 22:48, 28 May 2011 (UTC)

You can suppress the output by appending > nul (if you're using cmd.exe or 4NT) or > /dev/null (if you're using a Cygwin shell such as bash).

You can display only the lines that start with "Sleeping" or "Pausing" by appending | grep -P "^Sleeping|^Pausing" (if you have GNU grep installed). Unfortunately, the output lines may be delayed significantly, because most programs will buffer their output in large chunks if they aren't writing to a TTY/console, and the pipe to grep is not a TTY/console.

This assumes that the script writes logging messages to standard output. If it uses standard error, you can add 2>&1 to redirect stderr to stdout. This has to go before the pipe symbol (|). -- BenRG (talk) 00:18, 29 May 2011 (UTC)

I tried adding "> nul", like so:

C:/pywikipedia/add_text.py -page:User:StuRat/X_MOVE -text:"\n MOVE_X1=1\n" -always > nul

I got this result:

Loading User:StuRat/X MOVE...

>>> User:StuRat/X MOVE <<<
+
+  MOVE_X1=1

WARNING: Your account on wikipedia:en does not have a bot flag. Its edits will be visible in the recent changes and it may get blocked.
Sleeping for 7.7 seconds, 2011-05-28 23:05:11
Updating page User:StuRat/X MOVE via API
Pausing 9 seconds due to database server lag.
Updating page User:StuRat/X MOVE via API

I tried adding in "2>&1", like this:

C:/pywikipedia/add_text.py -page:User:StuRat/X_MOVE -text:"\n MOVE_X1=1\n" -always 2>&1

This was the screen output:

unicode test: triggers problem #3081100
Loading User:StuRat/X MOVE...

>>> User:StuRat/X MOVE <<<
+
+  MOVE_X1=1

WARNING: Your account on wikipedia:en does not have a bot flag. Its edits will be visible in the recent changes and it may get blocked.
Sleeping for 7.7 seconds, 2011-05-28 23:10:11
Updating page User:StuRat/X MOVE via API

So neither one of those worked. I seem to have grep, but it's not working for me. First I tried this grep:

C:/pywikipedia/add_text.py -page:User:StuRat/X_MOVE -text:"\n MOVE_X1=1\n" -always | grep -P "^Sleeping|^Pausing"

Which produced this error:

'C:' is not recognized as an internal or external command,
operable program or batch file.

I then tried the grep along with "2>&1":

C:/pywikipedia/add_text.py -page:User:StuRat/X_MOVE -text:"\n MOVE_X1=1\n" -always 2>&1 | grep -P "^Sleeping|^Pausing"

This produced no output at all, and, judging from how quickly the prompt came back, the command didn't execute. So, it looks like that got the same error, but suppressed it. What am I doing wrong ? StuRat (talk) 03:22, 29 May 2011 (UTC)

The failure of the first one probably means output is going to stderr. The second one failed because you left out >nul; you need to write 2>&1 >nul. The third and fourth failed because you used forward slashes in the executable path, which are being interpreted as command-line options. Use backslashes. I don't know why the forward slashes work when you don't pipe to grep, but generally they won't work. -- BenRG (talk) 06:27, 29 May 2011 (UTC)

OK, I changed the slashes as follows:

C:\pywikipedia\add_text.py -page:User:StuRat/X_MOVE -text:"\n MOVE_X1=1\n" -always 2>&1 | grep -P "^Sleeping|^Pausing"

It then complained "Error: Invalid option -P", so I took out the "-P" (but left in the rest of the grep). That worked ! What was the "-P" supposed to do, anyway ? StuRat (talk) 10:33, 29 May 2011 (UTC)

-P means to use Perl regex syntax. I added it because Perl uses | for alternatives, some other syntaxes use \| instead, and I didn't want to deal with differences in backslash handling in different shells. You have an older or off-brand grep with fewer options. I don't know why | alone still worked. Maybe I'm wrong about the default grep syntax, which I never use. -- BenRG (talk) 17:06, 29 May 2011 (UTC)

OK, thanks. StuRat (talk) 06:10, 30 May 2011 (UTC)

May 29

Global SIM card but also email

For years I've only used a CDMA phone in Japan (with email, but useless outside Japan) and a prepaid antique during occasional short stays within Britain. Elsewhere I've not used a phone (or computer) and haven't missed it. But as I look at the low prices both of basic GSM 900 phones and of "global" SIM cards (working through Estonia, I believe), as well as the worldwide shriveling of the alternative, payphone service, I start to think that I might equip Mrs Hoary and myself with a pair, for phoning ahead to hotels and restaurants, phoning each other when we're lost, etc. But then of course I start to hanker after "features". After all, every cellphone here in Japan that's marketed to people between the ages of 10 and 80 has email, and it would be so much easier to email a simple question about hotel vacancy than to have a shouted, half-understood multilingual "conversation".

Even if the marginal price of sending a message were ½€ or more, I could stomach it for occasional use. But renting doesn't appeal, and I don't want to buy anything expensive, or carry around an all-singing, all-dancing Japanese-market phone (even if "roaming" allowed email and cost a lot less than I expect) let alone a computer. My guess is that there's no way, but I'm so ignorant of cellphone use that I think I may be overlooking some obvious option. Any tips? -- Hoary (talk) 03:33, 29 May 2011 (UTC)

Sorry but what is the question? Do you want a cheap GSM phone that does e-mail? Nil Einne (talk) 07:49, 29 May 2011 (UTC)

That's a reasonable counter-question! A cheap GSM900 phone that does email and a moderately cheap way of having it receive email and send a small amount of mail, just about anywhere that GSM900 is usable; analogous to (or as some kind of accessory to) a "Global SIM" card that lets one phone cheaply from just about anywhere. ¶ I have a hunch that the answer will be that of course it's impossible or that of course I should google this or that (I'm below averagely informed about these matters). -- Hoary (talk) 12:08, 29 May 2011 (UTC)

low resolution image of Lincoln

I've tried the Google, and failed.

I remember a photograph of Abraham Lincoln at the Boston Museum of Science. It was a low-resolution image -- 16 x 16 maybe -- that demonstrated that faces are recognizable with a minimum of detail or information. I'm fairly certain the image is just of his face, and he's wearing a top hat; the image shows the hat, his face, and his goatee.

Anyone know where I can find a copy of this image (short of going to the MOS and snapping a picture)?

Thanks in advance, 70.116.11.171 (talk) 03:48, 29 May 2011 (UTC)

Try this and this. -- Hoary (talk) 05:42, 29 May 2011 (UTC)

Thanks for the tip. I saw the Harmon and Julsez image in my search, but I'm almost 100 percent sure that's not the one in the MOS. The one I remember has his signature top hat. It's also a straight on view to his face, not from the side. Any others? TIA, 70.116.11.171 (talk) 14:09, 29 May 2011 (UTC)

Sorry, I don't know. Incidentally, he's not "Julsez" but Julesz. (I say this not to nitpick but to facilitate further googling.) There are very many references to the Lincoln simplification by Harmon and Julesz. Although of course one or both of them, or somebody else, may also have used another image of Lincoln, is it possible that your memory has got two things conflated, e.g. this sideways portrait of Lincoln and a head-on portrait of somebody else? -- Hoary (talk) 14:49, 29 May 2011 (UTC)

Naw, it's definitely an image of Lincoln. And I think the Harmon/Julesz image is all over the web because it's an early example of computer art. It may be the image I'm thinking of someone way back when took that portrait from the LOC, hand-drew in a top hat, and rescaled it. I think I'll try contacting the museum, but they may not get back to me in time to do what I need to do. Oh well.  :( 70.116.11.171 (talk) 15:25, 29 May 2011 (UTC)

Sorry, when I read the initial request I also jumped to the Leon Harmon image and also wanted to challenge your memory! It's a pretty famous image. Comet Tuttle (talk) 15:26, 29 May 2011 (UTC)

hiiiiiiiiii sir

Aeronautical Engineering career

i want to become aerounatical engineer sir.for that what rank must iget in iit.now that i am entering inter 1st year sir.please tell me about aerounatical engineering sir — Preceding unsigned comment added by Nehapriya (talk • contribs) 08:04, 29 May 2011 (UTC)

I added a more useful (sub)title. StuRat (talk) 10:21, 29 May 2011 (UTC)

This is the Computing RefDesk - perhaps the Science RefDesk might be more appropriate for this question. (But don't cross-post on different sections of the RefDesk.) Someone more knowledgeable is bound to come along and answer your question, but in the meantime you may wish to read Aerospace engineering. Rocketshiporion♫ 11:00, 29 May 2011 (UTC)

Recovering Lost Windows Password

I have windows vista business edition installed in my computer with 160GB of hard disk, 1GB of ram and dual core CPU in a working condition.

Now my question goes here:

1) I have forgotten my windows startup password and I want to change or delete password but problem is that I does not have password reset disk or any other administrator account which can do it for me. Its my home computer containing my important office files. I don't want to change my operating system or format it. Please help me. Thanks Gopal Mishra Gopalmishra77 (talk) 03:59, 1 June 2011 (UTC)

If it's your home computer then it's unlikely that the CMOS too will be "password protected" against you. You can then boot off a CD-R. So, you find somebody with a working computer -- running any operating system -- to download some flavor of Linux and burn it to a CD-R (don't worry, this does not involve Linux at all; it's just like downloading and burning anything else), you get your computer to boot off a CD-R, you boot off this CD-R, you use Linux to read or rewrite the Windows password (but make no other change to the hard drive), you take out the CD and boot off Windows. I did this myself once for Windows XP, but because Vista is not XP and conceivably the process is slightly different I'm not going to rack my memory for the name of the particular distro -- but I can say that it was extraordinarily compact and designed for jobs such as this. Googling "windows vista" password linux will bring specifics. -- Hoary (talk) 12:39, 29 May 2011 (UTC)

Ah, of course, it's SystemRescueCD. (Which tells us: The topic of this article may not meet the general notability guideline — yet another illustration of how the Misplaced Pages sense and the normal sense of "notability" are utterly different.) See also this about SystemRescueCD. -- Hoary (talk) 11:04, 1 June 2011 (UTC)

See here. I've used the first two tools on the list with success (on Xp). Ophcrack recovers your forgotten password, provided it's less than 14 characters, and only consists of alphanumeric characters. It's very easy to use - just boot from the CD, the program searches for a minute or so, and the accounts and passwords are listed. The second tool, Offline NT Password & Registry Editor, is not quite as user-friendly, and should be used only to blank the password. According to the article, both work with Vista. --NorwegianBlue 13:52, 29 May 2011 (UTC)

Windows 7 - Recursive Printing of Directory Hierarchy

Hello Everyone,

  I want to print a complete hierarchy of all directories, sub-directories, and files to a text file. As there is no built-in function in Windows to do this, I've so far come up with the following batch script, which I then simply copy the .bat file to the root of a volume and run. However, it only outputs the list of files and directories in the root volume. How do I get it to output the entire hierarchy?

dir > "G:\Lists\VHL.txt"
start notepad "G:\Lists\VHL.txt"
exit

  Thanks as always. Rocketshiporion♫ 11:22, 29 May 2011 (UTC)

tree /F /A > "G:\Lists\VHL.txt"

AvrillirvA (talk) 11:58, 29 May 2011 (UTC)

(edit conflict)

dir /s c:\start\directory\file*wildcard.*

will search in the directory

c:\start\directory

and list all files and directories which match the wild card "file*wildcard.*". It will also recursively search ALL directories within the start directory (they don't need to match the wildcard). If you only want the full filenames, use

dir /s/b c:\start\directory\file*wildcard.*

CS Miller (talk) 12:02, 29 May 2011 (UTC)

I don't understand any of the complexity suggested above. The command dir /s does print a complete hierarchy of all directories, subdirectories, and files, so dir /s >c:\mytextfile.txt should do just what you want. Comet Tuttle (talk) 15:21, 29 May 2011 (UTC)

You'd want to include /a if you also want to list hidden and system files (). Note that this still won't list content in directories you don't have access to but that shouldn't be a surprise. BTW, I don't think either of the earlier examples are complex. They just give different options. tree is useful if you prefer that output. If you only want to list some content or you want a bare output then the suggestions by Csmiller may be useful. Nil Einne (talk) 15:44, 29 May 2011 (UTC)

Thank you to everyone. I've changed it to the following script, and it works flawlessly.

@echo off
dir /s /b > "G:\Lists\VHL.txt"
start notepad "G:\Lists\VHL.txt"
exit

Rocketshiporion♫ 05:32, 31 May 2011 (UTC)

VBScript gurus

Hello! I currently have a VBScript I run on my PC once a day via cron job. It basically goes into my Temp directory, checks all the files last-modified date, and if it's older than a week, it deletes it. I am wondering, however, how much data I actually go through. Since I'm not too handy at VBScript myself, I am reaching out. :-) Is there any way to have this script log the total amount of data that was deleted each day? I've provided my current script below.

Option Explicit
On Error Resume Next
Dim fso, PathToClean, numberOfDays, folder, rootFolder, objFolder, objSubfolders, objFiles, folderToClean, folderToCheck
Set fso = CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject")
''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''
'ENTER THE PATH THAT CONTAINS THE FILES YOU WANT TO CLEAN UP
''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''
'Path to the root directory that you're cleaning up
PathToClean = "M:\TEMP"
'^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''
'ENTER THE NUMBER OF DAYS SINCE THE FILE WAS LAST MODIFIED
'
'ANY FILE WITH A DATE LAST MODIFIED THAT IS GREATER OR EQUAL TO 
'THIS NUMBER WILL BE DELETED.
''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''
'Specify the how many days old a file must be in order to be deleted.
numberOfDays = 7
'^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
'Check to make sure path is not a drive root
If Right(PathToClean, 2) = ":\" or Right(PathToClean, 1) = ":" Then
	msgbox "Whoa Nelly!  Its best not to run this on a drive root.", vbOkOnly, "Don't Do That!"
End If
''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''
'Start at the folder specified and walk down the directory tree
''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''
Set rootFolder = fso.GetFolder(PathToClean)
If Err.Number > 0 Then
	msgbox "It appears that you have not entered a valid directory path.  Please correct the path and run the script again.", vbOkOnly, "Path Not Found"
	Wscript.Quit
End If
GetSubfolders(rootFolder)
CleanupFiles(rootFolder)
'Let person know when the cleanup is complete
MsgBox "Files have self-destructed.", vbOkOnly, "File Destruction Complete"
'Clean up
Set fso = Nothing
Wscript.Quit
''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''
Sub GetSubfolders(folder)
	Dim oSubfolder
	Set objFolder = fso.GetFolder(folder)
	Set objSubfolders = objFolder.Subfolders
	Set objFiles = objFolder.Files
	For Each oSubfolder in objSubfolders
		'Recursively go down the directory tree
		GetSubfolders(oSubfolder.Path)
		'Cleanup any files that meet the criteria
		CleanupFiles(oSubfolder.Path)
		'Delete the folder if its empty
		CleanupFolder(oSubfolder.Path)
	Next
End Sub
Sub CleanupFiles(folderToClean)
	dim objFile
	set objFolder = fso.GetFolder(folderToClean)
	set objSubfolders = objFolder.SubFolders
	set objFiles = objFolder.Files
	For Each objFile in objFiles
		If DateDiff("d", objFile.DateLastModified, Now) > numberOfDays Then
			objFile.Delete
		End If
	Next
	Set objFolder = Nothing
	Set objSubfolders = Nothing
	Set objFiles = Nothing
End Sub
Sub CleanupFolder(folderToCheck)
	Set objFolder = fso.GetFolder(folderToCheck)
	Set objSubfolders = objFolder.Subfolders
	Set objFiles = objFolder.Files
	If objFiles.Count = 0 and objSubfolders.Count = 0 Then
		objFolder.Delete
	End If
	Set objFolder = Nothing
	Set objSubfolders = Nothing
	Set objFiles = Nothing
End Sub

Thanks. _ennasis @ 14:24, 25 Iyar 5771 / 29 May 2011 (UTC)

This is untested:

Option Explicit
On Error Resume Next
Dim fso, PathToClean, numberOfDays, folder, rootFolder, objFolder, objSubfolders, objFiles, folderToClean, folderToCheck
Set fso = CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject")
''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''
'ENTER THE PATH THAT CONTAINS THE FILES YOU WANT TO CLEAN UP
''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''
'Path to the root directory that you're cleaning up
PathToClean = "M:\TEMP"
'^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''
'ENTER THE NUMBER OF DAYS SINCE THE FILE WAS LAST MODIFIED
'
'ANY FILE WITH A DATE LAST MODIFIED THAT IS GREATER OR EQUAL TO 
'THIS NUMBER WILL BE DELETED.
''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''
'Specify the how many days old a file must be in order to be deleted.
numberOfDays = 7
'^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Dim FilesDeleted as Single
Dim BytesDeleted as Double
'Check to make sure path is not a drive root
If Right(PathToClean, 2) = ":\" or Right(PathToClean, 1) = ":" Then
	msgbox "Whoa Nelly!  Its best not to run this on a drive root.", vbOkOnly, "Don't Do That!"
End If
''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''
'Start at the folder specified and walk down the directory tree
''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''
Set rootFolder = fso.GetFolder(PathToClean)
If Err.Number > 0 Then
	msgbox "It appears that you have not entered a valid directory path.  Please correct the path and run the script again.", vbOkOnly, "Path Not Found"
	Wscript.Quit
End If
GetSubfolders(rootFolder)
CleanupFiles(rootFolder)
'Let person know when the cleanup is complete
MsgBox FilesDeleted & " files (" & BytesDeleted & " bytes) have been deleted.", vbOkOnly, "File Destruction Complete"
'Clean up
Set fso = Nothing
Wscript.Quit
''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''
Sub GetSubfolders(folder)
	Dim oSubfolder
	Set objFolder = fso.GetFolder(folder)
	Set objSubfolders = objFolder.Subfolders
	Set objFiles = objFolder.Files
	For Each oSubfolder in objSubfolders
		'Recursively go down the directory tree
		GetSubfolders(oSubfolder.Path)
		'Cleanup any files that meet the criteria
		CleanupFiles(oSubfolder.Path)
		'Delete the folder if its empty
		CleanupFolder(oSubfolder.Path)
	Next
End Sub
Sub CleanupFiles(folderToClean)
	dim objFile
	set objFolder = fso.GetFolder(folderToClean)
	set objSubfolders = objFolder.SubFolders
	set objFiles = objFolder.Files
	For Each objFile in objFiles
		If DateDiff("d", objFile.DateLastModified, Now) > numberOfDays Then
			FilesDeleted = FilesDeleted + 1
			BytesDeleted = BytesDeleted + objFile.Size
			objFile.Delete
		End If
	Next
	Set objFolder = Nothing
	Set objSubfolders = Nothing
	Set objFiles = Nothing
End Sub
Sub CleanupFolder(folderToCheck)
	Set objFolder = fso.GetFolder(folderToCheck)
	Set objSubfolders = objFolder.Subfolders
	Set objFiles = objFolder.Files
	If objFiles.Count = 0 and objSubfolders.Count = 0 Then
		objFolder.Delete
	End If
	Set objFolder = Nothing
	Set objSubfolders = Nothing
	Set objFiles = Nothing
End Sub

...but it ought to work? All I did was create two new global variables (FilesDeleted and BytesDeleted), and before a file is deleted, FilesDeleted is incremented, and BytesDeleted has the file's size added to it. Then the two variables are displayed in the final "completion" message box. --Mr.98 (talk) 16:17, 29 May 2011 (UTC)

Thanks for the attempt! :-) But I'm getting a error with that.

• Windows Script Host
• Line: 23
• Char: 18
• Error: Expected end of statement
• Code: 800A0401
• Source: Mircosoft VBScript compilation error

And I have no idea on how to fix that. _ennasis @ 17:24, 25 Iyar 5771 / 29 May 2011 (UTC)

Try it now. --Mr.98 (talk) 21:30, 29 May 2011 (UTC)

Same thing. hmm. _ennasis @ 04:18, 26 Iyar 5771 / 30 May 2011 (UTC)

Line 23, char 18 is the "as" keyword. I don't think VBScript's got one of those. Try deleting the "as single" and "as double" parts.  Card Zero  (talk) 04:29, 30 May 2011 (UTC)

That did it! Awesome. :-) Thanks to both of you. _ennasis @ 04:35, 26 Iyar 5771 / 30 May 2011 (UTC)

How odd. How do you tell VBScript that the variable should be a Double, rather than a Single? I'd be worried that it would overflow if the number of bytes was very large, if it wasn't a Double. (I usually program VBA, which is obviously very similar, but differs in small ways.) Poking around, I guess it will re-dimension it if it needs to, which seems odd to me, but that's VBScript for you... --Mr.98 (talk) 15:36, 30 May 2011 (UTC)

Older Korean encodings

Hi! Internet Explorer tries to use the Korean EUC encoding to read:

• http://www.ntsb.gov/events/KAL801/default_kor.htm

The Korean text does not show up with Korean EUC How do I use older Korean encodings (ISO? UTF-8? ASMO? DOS? Unicode?) with this? The page seems to be the same since it was first posted in the late 1990s WhisperToMe (talk) 15:25, 29 May 2011 (UTC)

You asked this question before. Did you see the answers? -- BenRG (talk) 17:30, 29 May 2011 (UTC)

Lag when updating Misplaced Pages using PyWikipedia bots ?

When I do such an update, I always get this message (with the tenths of a second varying a bit):

Sleeping for 7.5 seconds, 2011-05-28 18:38:44

I also sometimes get one or more of these message (with the time varying, and going up if I get more than one):

Pausing 9 seconds due to database server lag.

So:

1) What's the cause of the (first) sleep ? Is it needed to wait for some sub-process to catch up, or is it just "throttling", to prevent bots from taking up too many resources ?

2) How are the time increments calculated ? StuRat (talk) 16:59, 29 May 2011 (UTC)

I'm not sure how the sleep timers are figured out - believe that's buried somewhere in the wikipedia.py file. I know that it is done to limit the server strain on the wiki it's operating on. (If you were using it on your own wiki and wanted to speed it up, you'd have to set low values for get_throttle and put_throttle in your config.py, I believe.) _ennasis @ 17:32, 25 Iyar 5771 / 29 May 2011 (UTC)

OK, thanks, changing the params in config.py seemed to do the trick. StuRat (talk) 06:07, 30 May 2011 (UTC)

What XML document processor software and methodology would you use for home use?

I'd like to make Misplaced Pages-like pages for personal use, i.e. I'd like to edit in a wiki-like xml language, with the features of Misplaced Pages XML, such as <ref> ] etc. to document family genealogy.

What software and methodology would you use? — Preceding unsigned comment added by BobFloyd (talk • contribs) 21:39, 29 May 2011 (UTC)

I would actually just set up a Linux box with MediaWiki so it'd be almost exactly like editing Misplaced Pages. This is probably overkill for most people, but, hey, it's the same experience. Comet Tuttle (talk) 03:16, 30 May 2011 (UTC)

Downloading all the images in a commons category

Is there a way to do this? I'm after the 99 illustrations to Journey to the Center of the Earth, here: . I've been trying using wget: with some difficulty I used regular expressions to turn the category page into a raw list of links to the image pages. I can put those in a file and tell wget to download them all, but that isn't any use: I just end up with all the pages that contain the images, not the images themselves. Recursive mode doesn't seem to work, possibly because wget doesn't think those pages are HTML. Even if it did work, there's a danger of downloading all of wikimedia commons, or many multiple copies of various logos and icons. I considered trying to turn my list of image pages into a list of direct links to the images, but I can't do that because the actual locations of the images don't seem to follow any pattern - they are in directories such as /9/93/ and /b/b2/ - and each image is prefixed with its pixel size, which is data I don't have (it's not in the links to the pages). I've been trying for two and a half hours, I could have done it quicker by hand, grr.

edit: I think I've nearly done it - I downloaded all the pages, and got the direct links out of them and concatenated into another file, with a python script. Once I've cleaned them up I can give the file back to wget. For my future reference, though, was there a less insanely time-consuming way to do this?  Card Zero  (talk) 23:54, 29 May 2011 (UTC)

You could use httrack to do this. Add the category page as the starting url, then under Set options -> Scan rules use the follow filters;

-*
+http://commons.wikimedia.org/File:*
+http://upload.wikimedia.org/*
-*?*=*
-*px-*

Make sure to select "html in web" as the folder structure under the Build tab otherwise you'll end up with each image in a separate folder according to wikimedias site structure, rather than all together in the same folder. You might need to disable robots.txt rules under the Spider tab and set a different user agent under the Browser ID tab, something like "Mozilla/5.0 Firefox 3.6" should be good enough. AvrillirvA (talk) 10:34, 30 May 2011 (UTC)

Doesn't seem to work for me, but I dunno why not. I was thinking you could do this from the API, but it seems I can only get it to pull the URL for the file page on wiki, not the full path. You could pull a list of all the files in a smaller category with an API query like this to get all the filenames.

My first thought then was to "brute force" the directory, since all commons URLs are something like:

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/*/**/Filename

where * is either 0-9 or 1-z. However, if my math is right, you have 46,656 variations there. If you tried every combination and skipped the 404's, you'd eventually have all the files. However, This would take a *very* long time - at 2 tries a minute for a category with 100 entries would take you exactly 27 days. (Not to mention that the Sysadmins might get a little ticked about such crude methods.)

Further research led me to Wikix, which may or may not be useful. You could also try asking at the Commons:Help desk. Good luck! (And let me know if you find a solution - I've been curious about this myself for some time.) _ennasis @ 11:19, 26 Iyar 5771 / 30 May 2011 (UTC)

Simple python+mwclient program:

#!/usr/bin/python 
# -*- coding: utf-8 -*-
catname=u'Illustrations from Journey to the Center of the Earth by Édouard Riou'
import time,mwclient # http://pypi.python.org/pypi/mwclient/0.6.5
site = mwclient.Site('commons.wikimedia.org')
for entry in site.categories:
    filename = entry.name.split(':',1) # trim off "file:" (or equivalent)
    print filename,
    data = entry.download().read()
    f = open(filename, 'wb')
    f.write(data)
    print len(data),'bytes'
    time.sleep(2) # don't be a wikihog

I've not tried to sanitise the imagename into a valid filename (but this shouldn't be an issue with a modern Linux or Windows filesystem) and I've not cleared slashes from it either. -- Finlay McWalter ☻ Talk 17:18, 30 May 2011 (UTC)

MWclient, you say. Most interesting. Thanks everybody, I now have a nice armoury of tools for next time. I also found this script: which seems to know how to predict the directories (/f/f6, /0/0c, /1/12) - something to do with md5 based on the filename. I know nothing about md5, but I'll leave this information here for the benefit of future searchers.  Card Zero  (talk) 17:40, 30 May 2011 (UTC)

May 30

Legally downloading System Shock 2

Having played newer games by Ken Levine, I'm interested in his older work. Are the 1994 game System Shock or its 1999 sequel System Shock 2 available for legal download (I'm totally not interested in Piratebay or anything of that nature)? I've looked on Good Old Games, Steam, and Impulse, but none have either. Used physical copies are available at online retailers, but at some very hefty prices. Incidentally I live in the UK, so services like GameTap aren't available to me. Are there other online distribution channels I should search? TinyLittleRobot (talk) 00:12, 30 May 2011 (UTC)

I've boxed the above sidetrack. The question was for a legal way to download the System Shock games. The System Shock games are not abandoned works. They were published by EA, who seems to still be doing quite well. APL (talk) 06:16, 30 May 2011 (UTC)

"Abandonware" is software that is no longer sold, not software whose original publisher has gone out of business. And being abandoned works in your sense (publisher out of business) would not affect the legality of downloading them, as Mr.98 explained. But I agree that the discussion of abandonware is probably useless to the original poster. -- BenRG (talk) 17:45, 30 May 2011 (UTC)

We'd better stop discussing it, then. :) I don't know, I thought it might qualify as ethical (and safe), which might be what the OP really had in mind. Oh, and I agree with Mr.98's last remarks, entirely.  Card Zero  (talk) 18:03, 30 May 2011 (UTC)

I googled "system shock" purchase and found that it's listed as a used item through amazon.com for about US$35. Comet Tuttle (talk) 16:39, 31 May 2011 (UTC)

He clearly asked for a download purchase option. I don't blame him, physical media is a pain in the neck to manage. i kan reed (talk) 18:44, 2 June 2011 (UTC)

Actual data! This gamasutra article from today quotes a guy from "Good Old Games" as saying with regard to System Shock and Syndicate, "the rights to those games are scattered between a lot of people, so it's quite a huge legal puzzle." System Shock 2 was not mentioned, but it seems likely that its rights situation is going to be similar or identical, so to me it sounds like it's not going to happen soon. Comet Tuttle (talk) 21:18, 2 June 2011 (UTC)

Making Add-Ons for Firefox

Would it be possible to write my own add-ons for Firefox? For my own use principly. What language should I use? Are there any guides available for doing this? Thanks 2.101.10.190 (talk) 10:19, 30 May 2011 (UTC)

There are some guides and tools available on the developer section of the addons site AvrillirvA (talk) 10:44, 30 May 2011 (UTC)

Date and time format in Numbers

Is there a way to set the default date and time format in Numbers on my iPad? I have tried selecting a block of cells and formatting it to 5/29/11 and 7:00PM but each time I reopen the spreadsheet it goes back to May 29 2011 and 19:00:00. I love my iPad but this is pissing me off to the point that I want to throw it out the Windows, ha ha. I have looked through the 200 plus page Numbers guide but it is less than helpful. If this is an example of the ease of use and switching to Apple from MS, I'm not convinced. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 64.234.6.175 (talk) 14:30, 30 May 2011 (UTC)

Computer related post on Misc Desk

See Misplaced Pages:Reference_desk/Miscellaneous#Please_help_-_how_to_stop_pornographic_content_and_popups_on_a_computer. Exxolon (talk) 15:59, 30 May 2011 (UTC)

Chrome / Firefox plugins For Poor Connections?

Are there any plugins for Firefox or Chome that can help with Internet connections that are sporadic? Something that would automatically keep refreshing a page until it loads? --CGPGrey (talk) 16:48, 30 May 2011 (UTC)

I'm not sure if you need plugins or just to adjust some of their base settings, such as the number of times to retry. StuRat (talk) 02:53, 31 May 2011 (UTC)

you can also set the timeout I'm fairly sure, setting it longer may help it not display a "this page cannot be displayed" when it takes more than some arbitrary length of time to load. Of course it can make disconnects harder to detect in the process HominidMachinae (talk) 07:52, 2 June 2011 (UTC)

How to get max memory bandwidth throughput on a Tyan S4985-E

I have a quad socket S4985 MB from Tyan (link:http://www.tyan.com/product_board_detail.aspx?pid=554)

All sockets are populated with Opteron 8384 cpus (2.7GHz).

I have 24 GB of ram divided into

16GB = 8 x KVR800D2D8P6 x 2GB (Kingston 800mhz 2 GB DDR2 ECC registered Dual rank x8 DIMM's) Chips on both sides of DIMM

8GB = 8 x KVR667D2S8P5 x 1 GB (Kingston 667 1 GB DDR2 ECC registered single rank x8 DIMM's) Only chips on one side (SPD modified to run 800 MHz)

So all RAMM is running and identified as 800 MHz ram.

How should I populate the DIMM sockets to get the best Windows Gaming performance out of my selection of DIMM's?

I run a Dreamspark version of Windows Server 2008 R2 and various Linus distro's.

I was thinking to run cpu 0 and 1 with 8GB each (4 Dimm's dual rank) and cpu 2 and 3 with only 4 GB each (4 Dimm's single rank), but would I benefit, and in what ways, if I gave each CPU 6 GB ?

That would then be a two KVR800D2D8P6 (4 GB) in one memchannel and two KVR667D2S8P5 (2 GB) in the other memchannel pr. cpu

I've read about memory ranks and x4 vs x8 configs but I'm wondering what would be the most optimal configuration with this 24 GB.

Suggestions with explanations are welcomed :-) 85.81.121.107 (talk) 16:58, 30 May 2011 (UTC)

To add to the question - I'm not supposing to edit any chipset DARM / NB registers to optimize throughput, I just want to know if it makes sense to have the Opteron use 2 dual rank + 2 single rank dimms (6 GB distributed among all cpus). Or if I'd be better of populating cpu 0 and 1 with only dual rank ram ((GB each) and let the two other cpu's run just single rank (4 GB each). 85.81.121.107 (talk) 18:25, 31 May 2011 (UTC)

Reading here : LINK: http://www.nor-tech.com/solutions/intel/dox/DDR2%20advantages%20for%20dual%20processor%20servers.pdf page 3

1. Utilization of all four ranks per channel is always preferred for optimal performance; performance should not differ based on whether four ranks are spread over four DIMMs or four ranks are consolidated onto two DIMMs. 2. Identical DIMMs—Dual Rank (DR) or Single Rank (SR)—in one system are preferred because the system’s chipset can equally distribute memory addresses. Configuration with DIMMs of different ranks (i.e., mix of SR and DR DIMMs per channel) will offer sub-optimal performance versus identical DIMM configurations. If a memory upgrade is required, then the upgrade of all DIMMs is preferred over partial upgrade.

The above (1.) suggest that best performance is obtained by running dual ranks per channel (four ranks), so I would never get optimal performance on the cpu's in which I populate the DIMM sockets with single rank memory, because the opteron can take four ranks of memory per memchannel (8384 is capable of running dual channel = 8 ranks) ? 85.81.121.107 (talk) 18:38, 31 May 2011 (UTC)

Get toner levels on laser printer

I have an HP CP1215 color laser printer. I recently got a warning that the yellow toner was getting low. I want to check the toner levels (it must have that information), but I can't figure out how to do it. I go to "devices and printers" on the control panel (Windows 7), but I don't see anything there that shows the toner levels. I downloaded a diagnostics program from HP, but it doesn't show the toner levels either. The printer is out of warranty, so there is no free tech support from HP. Surely there must be a way to check the toner levels, but I can't find it. How can it be done? Bubba73 18:27, 30 May 2011 (UTC)

See HP Color LaserJet CP1215 and CP1217 Printers - Checking Toner Levels. ---— Gadget850 (Ed)  18:29, 30 May 2011 (UTC)

Thank you - I should have googled on those words. Bubba73 22:13, 30 May 2011 (UTC)

Mac Cocoa Multitouch

I've been trying to add a swipe event to my application, and I have implemented my swipeWithEvent: method, as seen below. My question is, now how do I make it do anything? Should I connect it to something in Interface Builder, or something else? I Appreciate your help.

- (void)swipeWithEvent:(NSEvent *)event {
   CGFloat x = ;
   if (x == 1) {
       //do something;
   }
}

--Thekmc (Leave me a message) 18:46, 30 May 2011 (UTC)

I figured it out, so I will answer my own question, just in case anyone else needs it later:

1. Subclass NSWindowController
2. Put the code I listed above into the subclass
3. Put the subclass in Interface Builder
4. Finally, control drag from the blue box to your main window, and select "window" from the little menu that pops up

I hope this is helpful to somebody. --Thekmc (Leave me a message) 01:45, 31 May 2011 (UTC)

The documentation included with XCode provides tutorials in the proper use of Interface Builder, including how to properly design Controller classes and link them to subclasses of standard GUI classes. Online, you can also use Interface Builder Help for Mac from http://developer.apple.com. Nimur (talk) 23:43, 31 May 2011 (UTC)

software that will fix things in video

I am looking for software that will fix certain things in a video file. I transferred family 8mm film to DVD. Much of it is underexposed. A lot of it needs color correction. About half of it needs speed correction. And taking out camera shake would be good too. The needs (in order) are:

1. automatically adjust the brightness (this is most important, much of it is underexposed)
2. correct the color
3. adjust the speed
4. stabilize the image

Yesterday I spent 85 minutes on the Adobe Photoshop page and Pinnacle Systems page. I know Pinnacle can adjust speed and probably both can stabilize the image (reduce camera shake, but I'm not sure). I can't find anything about adjusting for underexposure and correcting color. Neither will give technical support unless you own the product. Roxio and Nero also might have software that does need.

Does anyone know of software that will do these things? Bubba73 18:49, 30 May 2011 (UTC)

You are looking for a full-featured video editing suite. You have some free/open source options: Virtualdub and Avidemux, but you probably will be best suited with the commercial options: Adobe Premier, Apple Final Cut Pro

Will those last two adjust the brightness and correct the color? I spent quite a bit of time on the Adobe website, and it didn't say. Bubba73 03:37, 3 June 2011 (UTC)

I'd rather pay a few dollars and get commercial product with documentation and support, but the Adobe product is probably too expensive. Bubba73 20:55, 3 June 2011 (UTC)

Firefox problems

Hello. I am using Firefox 3.0 on a computer that hasn't been used for a while. It works OK for the most part, but some websites (notably Facebook) don't operate properly with it. I also have IE installed on my computer, but when I try to use it, it says it can't connect to anything. And when I installed the newest version of Firefox, it also said it couldn't connect to anything. What am I doing wrong? — Michael J 19:43, 30 May 2011 (UTC)

Are you running any kind of firewall? If so is it configured to let Firefox/IE correctly connect to the internet? Exxolon (talk) 20:20, 30 May 2011 (UTC)

I don't know. I never turned on or installed a firewall, but it may be. How do I check this? — Michael J 20:45, 30 May 2011 (UTC)

What operating system are you using? Exxolon (talk) 22:03, 30 May 2011 (UTC)

Windows xp. — Michael J 23:48, 30 May 2011 (UTC)

Some versions of Windows XP have a built in Firewall - check your control panel, look for the Windows Firewall icon and open it. Turn the firewall off and see if that fixes the issue. If it does you have a misconfigured firewall, try turning down the security settings one step at a time and see if it works. If this doesn't work, your problem is something else. Exxolon (talk) 23:55, 2 June 2011 (UTC)

Speech recording

Which of these formats is the best one to record teacher's speech in a classroom?

1. WAV PCM 8 bit
2. WAV a-Law 8 bit
3. WAV u-Law 8 bit
4. WAV PCM 16 bit
5. MP3 96kbps
6. AMR

Slijk (talk) 20:56, 30 May 2011 (UTC)

Is this homework? Did you read the articles on pulse-code modulation, A-law algorithm, μ-law algorithm, MP3, and Adaptive Multi-Rate audio codec? -- BenRG (talk) 00:34, 31 May 2011 (UTC)

Depends on device. This list looks like smartphone application supported formats. I have tried AMR, MP3 and unknown type of WAV on nokia N70. AMR ir heavily compressed and loses some information (maye can be fixed wit good external microphone), MP3 would be good, if CPU could keep up (CPU in N70 could not), wav would be OK, but file sizes will be large (although 8bit 8kHz would be only 64kbps). -Yyy (talk) 07:34, 31 May 2011 (UTC)

Yes, these are formats from ALON dictaphone. Strange thing is Yyy, that I can't play those WAV files on both my phone and PC. Also, like you said, AMR is heavily compressed, however I don't think it differs much from mp3 96kbps... Slijk (talk) 23:16, 1 June 2011 (UTC)

AMR is only 16kbps. Well, i have not tried anything besides AMR, much, because back then mp3 did not work well and i cannot remember, why i did not try wav. If MP3 works for you, then probably it is the best choice (if it works). Maybe problems with amr was caused by noise (phones microphone is not designed for picking up sound from 10m away).

These wav files cannot be played even by application, which recorded them? All variants does not work? (pcm 8bit, a-Law 8bit, etc.) Does these works in vlc? (vlc supports many formats, but not amr, maybe it could open wav files with nonstandart/missing headers). -Yyy (talk) 11:36, 2 June 2011 (UTC)

typing foreign characters

Im using Windows XP, how can I be able to type foreign characters using my keyboard? The response I usually get is by using Unicode, but I don't really know how to imput those either. 72.235.230.227 (talk) 21:43, 30 May 2011 (UTC)

Some thoughts:

1) Unicode typically involves entering escape characters (somebody else can supply the details). So, it might be a good option if you only want to occasionally enter foreign language characters.

2) Cut and paste can also work (if you tell us what language you want, we can probably find you their alphabet for cut and paste purposes). Again, only good for occasional use.

3) An on screen keyboard, in the other language, might be an option if you need to type a few more foreign characters than in the above cases.

4) Another option is to change your keyboard mapping to give you different characters. This would work if you want a language with about the same number of characters as English, but not for oriental languages that have thousands of symbols. Of course, this option means you lose your ability to type with English characters, until you switch back. So, this would be a good choice only if you need to do extensive writing in the other language. You might also want to buy a new keyboard in that language, or at least get stickers, so the letters on the keyboard match what you get on the screen.

Please let us know the language you want and give us some idea of how much writing you need to do in that language, so we can help further. Also, what's your intent with this foreign writing, do you want to print it out, send it in emails, etc ? StuRat (talk) 02:45, 31 May 2011 (UTC)

I just want to be able to type foreign characters with ease without having to copypaste every individual character, such as Japanese, Korean, or Russian characters. Copypasting every individual character takes a bit too long for me 72.235.230.227 (talk) 08:27, 31 May 2011 (UTC)

Install the correct Input method editor (IME). I have the Japanese IME installed on my laptop and can type Japanese phonetically. Astronaut (talk) 10:03, 31 May 2011 (UTC)

Here's the official "how-to" from Microsoft: How to change your keyboard layout. Following these instructions, you can set up and swap between multiple keyboard layouts, including keyboards for different languages and character-sets. Nimur (talk) 23:52, 31 May 2011 (UTC)

This is the easiest way to do it with Russian. There is usually a keyboard called "Russian phonetic" as well, which is a lot easier for someone who knows how to type on QWERTY (it maps Russian letters onto their approximate English homophone match — so zap becomes зап. --Mr.98 (talk) 15:59, 3 June 2011 (UTC)

Input method editors and the like are completely unecessary for languages that are mostly roman alphabet characters. Chances are all you need to do is google "alt codes" and hold down the alt key while entering the code on your numpad. Simple, easy, and works no matter your PC (for instance if you're on a school computer they won't let you add software to) HominidMachinae (talk) 07:54, 2 June 2011 (UTC)

Which doesn't help with any of the languages the OP mentioned specifically. --Mr.98 (talk) 15:59, 3 June 2011 (UTC)

.aspx?

A webpage offers a PDF to download from a link, but all that is actually downloaded is myfile.pdf.aspx instead of the myfile.pdf. Is there anyway to obtain the pdf itself? Or has the website just made a programming error? I'm using the lastest version of Firefox and WinXP. Thanks. 92.24.191.98 (talk) 22:54, 30 May 2011 (UTC)

Try opening the .aspx file in a text editor. It may contain a link to the PDF in question. You could also, of course, just change its extension to "PDF" and see if that fixes it. In any case, it sounds like a definite problem with the site's coding — it is sending (or failing to send) a PDF with the correct encoding. --Mr.98 (talk) 23:02, 30 May 2011 (UTC)

I had this exact same problem (with FF and IE on XP) whilst trying to complete my tax returns on SARS's website. It kept downloading .aspx text files instead of opening the PDF's in the browser. The problem was only solved when I downloaded and installed Adobe Reader and set my browser to open pdf's in the browser with Adobe instead of attempting to download them. Previously I was using Foxit reader; I now run both, with Foxit set by default to open and read pdf's on my hard drive whilst Adobe "catches" all my browser clicks and opens pdf's in-browser, including those referenced by .aspx files. No other combination of browser setting and pdf software worked for me, so I'd say just installed Adobe Reader 10 and get on with it. Zunaid 16:37, 1 June 2011 (UTC)

This is common with improperly MIME-typed file outputs from web applications. It IS a working file (most probably), just has the wrong extension. Change the file extension to .pdf and it will work. --rocketrye12 20:14, 2 June 2011 (UTC)

May 31

Extraction of Audio from .wmv Video File

Hello Everyone,

  I have a .wmv video file, and I want to extract just the audio from the the file, and save it preferably as an .mp3 audio file. Does anyone here know which freeware or free software can do this?

  Thanks as always. Rocketshiporion♫ 05:46, 31 May 2011 (UTC)

MediaCoder should do this; and Handbrake might (haven't tried it with WMA files). I don't think this works if the source is protected by DRM, however. --Kateshortforbob _talk 10:53, 31 May 2011 (UTC)

MEncoder and Avidemux are two more. I just tested the freeware version of AoA Audio Extractor and it also works very well, and with an easy to use GUI AvrillirvA (talk) 11:16, 31 May 2011 (UTC)

I've downloaded and installed AoA Audio Extractor, and it works well. Thank you, AvrillirvA! Rocketshiporion♫ 13:01, 31 May 2011 (UTC)

AKME FFmpeg has worked well for me.... Kingsfold (Quack quack!) 18:53, 31 May 2011 (UTC)

vst plug-in

Does anyone know of a vst plugin (free) capable of real-time boosting a range of frequencies by a given amount of db? Say 0-90hz by 6db.

Can't seem to find any that do this.

Thanks. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 77.35.19.235 (talk) 07:23, 31 May 2011 (UTC)

If by "vst" you mean Virtual Studio Technology then I guess you need a graphic equaliser plugin. Searching Google for that finds Voxengo's MarvelEQ, which is free. -- Finlay McWalter ☻ Talk 20:37, 31 May 2011 (UTC)

how to remove old mobo/processor information from a WinXP installation?

I changed my mobo and processor from a very old Intel 845GLLY + P4 to an Asus board + Dual Core. I keep my old hard disk. Can I run the old installation on this newly configured system? When I switch on the system the blue screen of death only comes. Can I remove some information from the old installation using Puppy Linux or some other tool so that the windows XP would run on the new system? --117.253.191.4 (talk) 08:32, 31 May 2011 (UTC)

If you have your XP installation disk, boot from that and try doing a repair installation. I will warn you if it is going to wipe your hard drive - in which case, abort the install and use Puppy Linux to back up your stuff to another disk/USB stick/memory card/etc. You can then try the repair again. Having changed the motherboard, it is likely you will have to re-activate your XP installation. That process is fraught with difficulties if your XP install disk is an OEM version. Astronaut (talk) 09:58, 31 May 2011 (UTC)

Specific URL problem

If I browse to The Advertiser newspaper site (http://theadvertiser.com.au) , using Linux and Firefox, the website generally refuses to display anything, with the browser saying "Waiting for resources2.news.com.au....", however if I use Windows XP and Firefox (the same version as Linux) the site immediately displays correctly. Very occasionally the site will display correctly under Linux or more frequently, it will display badly formatted, and with most of the images missing. Does anybody know why this might be the case? Is it my Linux configuration? Other browsers running under Linux display similar results. Other newspaper sites work fine. Thanks! --TrogWoolley (talk) 11:05, 31 May 2011 (UTC)

I only have Linux and it looks fine to me. It is probably some ad that is Windows-only. Add an ad blocker to Firefox to take care of that. I have to say that after looking at the page, I'm now rather upset that the American media hasn't said much of anything about the Australians killed in Afghanistan. -- kainaw™ 12:29, 31 May 2011 (UTC)

Displays fine on Unbuntu/Firefox. Some other websites though... Astronaut (talk) 16:01, 31 May 2011 (UTC)

I have Fedora 12 Linux and FireFox 3.5. The link directs me to http://www.adelaidenow.com.au/, which displays all OK. I only looked at the front page and didn't actually try to read any articles though. JIP | Talk 19:00, 31 May 2011 (UTC)

Automatic mounting on Linux triggered by device being already mounted?

I think I might have found a reason why the automatic mounting on my Fedora 12 Linux system keeps turning on and off. I just backed up my hard drive to my external hard drive, with the automatic mounting having turned on, and when it had finished and had unmounted the drive, I ran mount with no parameters and it said that /lacie2 (a common mount point I use for the external hard drives and the camera, although the camera is an Olympus and not a LaCie) was still mounted. I unmounted it manually, and the automatic mounting turned off. I then plugged the camera in, and Linux didn't automatically mount it. I mounted it manually, and unplugged it without unmounting it. (This can cause problems if the file system has been changed, but I remembered this and didn't change it.) Sure enough, when I later plugged it back in with /lacie2 still mounted, the automatic mounting had turned on. What could be causing this? JIP | Talk 18:50, 31 May 2011 (UTC)

June 1

Reconnecting a bash session

Currently I am using PuTTY on a Windows box to log into an Ubuntu box via ssh. The bash shell is what's running. I used that bash shell to start a very lengthy job on the Ubuntu box. What will happen if I close PuTTY? Will the lengthy job be terminated? If not, is it possible to subsequently re-connect to that bash shell so I can continue to view the output of the job? Comet Tuttle (talk) 00:09, 1 June 2011 (UTC)

Normally, on a Unix or Linux computer, when your login session terminates, all your jobs end. This is part of the general "contract" for a user-account, as compared to a root-privileged login-account or a daemon login-account; you are a user, and your programs belong to your login. (The fact that your login-session is remote, over an SSH connection, is just a "detail" - the same rules apply even if you're sitting at the console). Some methods exist to circumvent this contract: nohup, and/or disown, in BASH, allows you (or your BASH shell) to request the operating system to allow a job to persist even after you hang up (log-out). This will either persist your job after your login-session terminates; or change ownership of the process to a system daemon, or some other POSIX-approved method to persist your job. On some systems, some user-accounts are not permitted to disown processes; if your system-administrator forbids nohup or disown, you may have to ask permission for them to enable it. (Our nohup article is in somewhat abysmal shape; but you can run the manual page for your ubuntu box, man nohup, and read up-to-date information specific to your computer system. For disown, read the manual for BASH by typing man bash and searching for disown. (Use the key sequence :/disown). The two commands have subtle differences in behaviors. (For clarity and to appease the POSIX-pedants who frequent this desk: on Ubuntu, Debian, and most other Linux, disown does not change the uid for the process; it simply de-registers it from the shell job-list without affecting anything in the kernel process control block. This additional step is necessary on other POSIX kernels that will auto-kill user-jobs who are not owned by terminals or pseudoterminals). Nimur (talk) 03:09, 1 June 2011 (UTC)

I don't think you should say "This is part of the general "contract" for a user-account". Many multiuser *nix systems have policies against leaving processes running when you log out, and the administrators may take measures to enforce the policy, but it's not part of the standard Unix security model any more than, say, a "no profanity" policy. -- BenRG (talk) 18:14, 1 June 2011 (UTC)

The usual solution for this is a tool such as GNU screen. --FOo (talk) 03:31, 1 June 2011 (UTC)

I've used GNU screen before and would definitely recommend it for the OP's task, if they have the privileges to install it.--el Aprel (-_facienda) 03:44, 1 June 2011 (UTC)

Thank you Nimur for the complete and precise answer! And I'll take a look at GNU Screen at some point. Thanks! Comet Tuttle (talk) 06:11, 1 June 2011 (UTC)

Just a note that I strongly support use of screen. I have some servers that I maintain regularly. I set up my bashrc to see if I have an active screen and, if so, connect to it. Otherwise, start a new screen. So, if I ever get cut off for some reason, when I SSH back in, I go right back to where I was. If I exit (which I have to do twice, once for screen and once to get out of SSH), it stops the complete session so I'm not using resources. -- kainaw™ 14:28, 1 June 2011 (UTC)

Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6

Hello Everyone,

  I'm trying to obtain a copy of Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6, but for what's supposed to be FOSS software, it's mighty difficult to obtain. access.redhat.com won't let you access the evaluation download unless you have a corporate email address (which I don't), and resellers will not sell the media kits on their own without a bundled subscription. Does anyone here know of any website from which i can download the .iso files?

  Thanks as always. Rocketshiporion♫ 11:02, 1 June 2011 (UTC)

Odd. This page seems to let me create a personal login at Red Hat, without supplying a corporate email address. I assume I could then go on to download the free evaluation version of RHEL6 from here. Alternatively, have you considered Centos? It is a free, 100% binary compatible, copy of Red Hat, with no fussy restrictions on downloading... download and burn .iso file(s) then install without (IIRC) signing up first. It is currently at v5.6 but v6.0 is coming soon. Astronaut (talk) 11:13, 1 June 2011 (UTC)

There's no problem in creating a personal account, but one can only download subscribed software with the personal account. A corporate account is required to download evaluation software. I've uploaded the screenshot flickr here. Rocketshiporion♫ 13:02, 1 June 2011 (UTC)

Redhat is not marketed as free. It is a subscription service. If you don't pay for the subscription, you don't get the service. Due to the licensing of Linux, they are required to make the source code available - but that doesn't mean that they have to put a big "download me" link on their website. It only means that if you walk in their office and ask, someone will be able to burn a copy of Redhat on a disk for you - if you pay for the disk and the person's time. To get around all of that, Redhat heavily supports (with money, time, and other resources) Fedora. You can download Fedora very easily by going to http://getfedora.com (which does have a very friendly "Download Now!" button). -- kainaw™ 14:26, 1 June 2011 (UTC)

The GPL is very specific. It requires that if a binary is distributed, its source-code must also be available from the distributor. That is not legally equivalent to "Red Hat must give anything to anybody who asks for it." If Red Hat doesn't give you free access to a particular binary, even one covered by GPL, Red Hat is not obligated to provide source for that binary, either. See this item on the official FAQ from Free Software Foundation: Does the GPL require that source code of modified versions be posted to the public?

This stipulation (or rather, the legalese in the license that enforces it) is essentially the critical line-item that makes free software viable for commercial purposes; it is the reason why it can be very profitable to sell free software for a fee. Customers who purchase GPL-licensed software are under no obligation to hand it out to the rest of the world; but if they choose to do so, they must also provide source-code. Nimur (talk) 15:38, 1 June 2011 (UTC)

RHEL being the way it is, I think I might go with the unencumbered CentOS. Rocketshiporion♫ 19:39, 1 June 2011 (UTC)

You might also want to take a look at Scientific Linux, which also is a recompiled Red Hat Enterprise Linux. --NorwegianBlue 22:52, 1 June 2011 (UTC)

Recover images from formatted SD card

I've got an SD card that was accidentally formatted and not used since. Is there any free software for Mac that would allow me to recover the images on it? doomgaze (talk) 18:11, 1 June 2011 (UTC)

PhotoRec, maybe. ¦ Reisio (talk) 18:58, 1 June 2011 (UTC)

If the file areas haven't been overwritten then you'll likely be able to recover from it. If photorec doesn't work the type of tool you want is called a file carver, and image files are particularly easy to carve. There are many free and open source solutions available. Shadowjams (talk) 21:56, 1 June 2011 (UTC)

If these images are highly valuable to you, I would recommend that you tread carefully with recovery tools as the act of attempted recovery can thwart more advanced recovery techniques. I have heard many many positive things about companies like Drive savers that do removable media recovery in clean-rooms with very advanced microscopic-level techniques. They are expensive though -- it's going to depend on how valuable the images are to you -- but they are highly effective. --rocketrye12 20:09, 2 June 2011 (UTC)

Clean room recovery is for Winchester hard drives that have suffered some kind of mechanical failure. This drive works fine, and it's not a Winchester drive, so a clean room isn't going to help.

Reading from an SD card will not alter it in any way. The Mac OS might write a small amount of data to the card when it's inserted into the computer, but you can prevent that by write-protecting the card (if it has a write-protect tab—they all do, don't they?). Data recovery software, like PhotoRec, never writes to the device it's trying to recover data from.

It's possible that professionals would be able to recover some overwritten data from a flash drive by reading from the flash chip directly, because of wear leveling. Other than that, there's nothing the professionals can do that you can't easily do yourself. -- BenRG (talk) 21:58, 2 June 2011 (UTC)

"To protect drives and data from contaminant damage, DriveSavers performs all data recoveries in an ISO-certified cleanroom environment." ref I guess I was referring more broadly to Drivesavers' techniques as far as cleanrooms.

And I've experienced a case where I've used the aforementioned tools to no success but drivesavers was able to recover the data.--rocketrye12 00:14, 3 June 2011 (UTC)

Can a multi-monitor rig be achieved with different output modes?

Hi, I've got a graphics card with two output ports, one VGA and one DVI. If I get a DVI to VGA adapter, can I set up a dual monitor rig? I'm thinking of buying another graphics card, this one with VGA, DVI, and HDMI. If I get a DVI to VGA adapter and an HDMI to VGA, can I set up a tri-monitor rig? --T H F S W (T · C · E) 18:55, 1 June 2011 (UTC)

The manufacturers often aren't clear on whether you can use multiple outputs at once. So, that leaves you with trial and error. If it does work, you will probably just have a clone of the same image on each output. (You aren't likely to get a different part of the screen shown on each image.) StuRat (talk) 19:02, 1 June 2011 (UTC)

How about one of the ATI Radeon series? --T H F S W (T · C · E) 19:33, 1 June 2011 (UTC)

If you aresking if you can use a single video card for a tri-monitor set-up then the answer is you can. You need one of the AMD/ATI cards which support Eyefinity. In theory you need a card with a DisplayPort and two other outputs. If your display has anything other then a DisplayPort you need an active adapter. However according to some sources, as discussed in our article, if you card supports Eyefinity (basically most or all cards in the 5xxx and 6xxx lines) you may be able to use one or two HDMI/DVI-D (in a simplistic fashion they can be considered the same thing) combined with two or one analog/VGAs. It is unlikely you will be able to use 3 analogs since only 2 RAMDACs are included as part of the GPU and it is unlikely the manufacturer included a standalone. I also discussed this in more detail a few weeks back, check the archives. I suggest you ask in more depth for experiences, probably outside the RD, if you can't return the card. I tried but got no response. Nil Einne (talk) 20:38, 1 June 2011 (UTC)

Re the first question, FWIW: I'm using an NVIDIA GeForce FX 5500 card with a DVI and a VGA port on my home PC. I'm using two monitors, one connected with a VGA cable, the other with a DVI cable (most monitors come with connections for both types of cables these days). Works flawlessly, both with Xp and Ubuntu (using the proprietary drivers). --NorwegianBlue 21:35, 1 June 2011 (UTC)

Looking more carefully there seems to be a question embedded in the title as well. Generally speaking, the card doesn't care if you are using DVI-D and VGA or HDMI and VGA or whatever. Although I should clarify some cards may be limited to only one analog or only one digital output. However I believe most standalone cards still support a minimum of 2 analogs. And 2 digitals has also been supported by many cards for the past perhaps 4+ years either with two DVI-Is or nowadays perhaps a DVI-I and HDMI. (I think there have been at least 2 TDMS on the GPU for quite a long time, however many manufacturers may have thought it better to include one VGA and one DVI-D so people with a single monitor wouldn't need a converter and also some may have preferred one dual link DVI-D rather then a single link DVI-D.) IGPs may be different.

However as per the archived discussion, nowadays some cards come with HDMI, DVI and VGA. In that case while I suspect you can use 2 VGA (using an adapter for the DVI-I), VGA+HDMI, VGA+DVI-D or DVI-D+HDMI (or with a converter DVI-D+DVI-D) it's not something I have experience with. (I would guess the most likely thing not to work is VGA+HDMI.) As per above, other then EyeFinity or professional cards (or the ancient Matrox cards), you are unlikely to get 3 simultaneous outputs.

Also I disagree with StuRat. For the past 8+ years, most cards from ATI/AMD and Nvidia have supported dual output (meaning independent outputs not cloning). ( and Radeon R100) As I said, there may be some variance in/confusion over what sort of outputs you can use, but not in the support of dual output in some manner. (Can't speak of driver support in *nux.)

Nil Einne (talk) 23:44, 1 June 2011 (UTC)

There are graphics cards available, such as the nVidia Quadro NVS450, which support up to four monitors simultaneously. Rocketshiporion♫ 05:41, 2 June 2011 (UTC)

One of those cards are great, for those who aren't financially challenged. So basically with the proper drivers, using HDMI > VGA and DVI > VGA adapters, I can set up a tri-monitor? --T H F S W (T · C · E) 19:15, 2 June 2011 (UTC)

Network Printer

At my work, we have an HP Laserjet color printer HP4000 that has a Netgear PS101 small printer server attached directly to the back, which is then plugged into an ethernet port in the wall. It is currently not installed to any computer. In order to install the printer, I need to figure out the IP address it is currently using. I've tried several options I found through web searches, and none of them have worked, so I thought I'd ask here for fun. To summarize, how can I find the IP address for that networked printer? --Mephisto275 (talk) 19:06, 1 June 2011 (UTC)

You can use nmap to scan the local subnet. For example, nmap 192.168.0.0-255 The print server should report that it has printing-relevant ports (like 631 IPP) open. Make sure to tell your local network admin you're going to do this (if you are not he) as nmap scans can sometimes trigger internal security software (as they're often used by intruders). -- Finlay McWalter ☻ Talk 19:44, 1 June 2011 (UTC)

In addition, the -O option to nmap will try to identify the host type. For a Netgear ADSL modem I tried it on, it reports the MAC address as being in a range registed to Netgear and the OS as being "MontaVista embedded Linux". -- Finlay McWalter ☻ Talk 19:50, 1 June 2011 (UTC)

A NetGear print server should have a name printed on the label in the format PSnnnnnn. You should be able to use that name to open the built-in web server. ---— Gadget850 (Ed)  19:56, 1 June 2011 (UTC)

Nmap is a great program, which did exactly what I was looking for as far as scanning the entire network for the printer. Thanks so much for brining it to my attention! Unfortunately, it didn't find the printer. Maybe there is something else going on that's keeping the printer from even accessing the network. We recently redid our main network switch, and it might be possible that the wall port for that particular office didn't get plugged back in. Is there anything else that would keep that printer from obtaining an IP address?

Also, the printer server does have a "device name" that matches the format PSnnnnnn. I believe that it becomes the port name once that print server is installed. How exactly do you mean that I can use it to open the built-in web server?--Mephisto275 (talk) 16:17, 2 June 2011 (UTC)

With regard to nmap: unplug your print server, run nmap (storing its output in a file), plug the print server in (make sure it's on, give it a couple of minutes to get all set up) run nmap again, and take the diff of the two runs. If there is no difference, something is wrong indeed. I think the PSxxx name to which Gadget850 refers is a Windows Internet Name Service name, and if its registration on the network works okay you should be able to point a browser to http://PSxxx and get the print server's web control panel. The manual for the PS101 is here (I'll have a read through that just now...). If this is one of those "look what we found in the cupboard" cases for you, it may be that the PS101 is in a specific configuration (for a network setup that no longer exists). In that case you can restore it to factory default condition with a recessed button on the back (#4 on their diagram, beside the 12V DC receptacle). -- Finlay McWalter ☻ Talk 16:34, 2 June 2011 (UTC)

HTML/CSS Table help

Hello! Here's an example of a table layout that I'm trying to make for my personal website. As you can see, basically I want a two-cell, one-row borderless table, with an image in the right cell and text in the left. I'd like both cells to be the same width, but the (wrong) way I've been doing this is by adding <br /> to control the width of the text cell, otherwise the width extends all the way to the edges of the browser window. This is especially annoying to deal with this way when I take out and add parts to the text.

1. How can I force both cells to be the same width, or set my own width for both cells (obviously, the right cell isn't a problem, since I can control the size of the image)?
2. Also, as the table stands now, the text is centered vertically. How can I force the text to begin at the top of the cell and push unused space to the bottom, instead of distributing it to the top and bottom?
3. How can I justify the text in the cell?

Thank you for your help.--el Aprel (-_facienda) 19:20, 1 June 2011 (UTC)

Never mind on 1 and 3. One can specify a height and width in <td>, and use style="justify". I'm still interested in 2, though.--el Aprel (-_facienda) 19:34, 1 June 2011 (UTC)

For #2, use <td valign="top">. Rocketshiporion♫ 19:47, 1 June 2011 (UTC)

Great, thanks!--el Aprel (-_facienda) 20:06, 1 June 2011 (UTC)

ftfy ¦ Reisio (talk) 00:13, 3 June 2011 (UTC)

Change from Gnome to LXDE

Hello again! I have a ≈10-year-old computer running Debian lenny and Gnome. Although I have it boot up to the console, I occasionally use startx and run Gnome, which is really slow because of low RAM. I'd like to change to something more lightweight, like LXDE. What configuration files do I need to change after I #apt-get install lxde so that I when I run $startx it brings me to LXDE instead? Thank you!--el Aprel (-_facienda) 22:15, 1 June 2011 (UTC)

It's a while since I used Debian, but I'm pretty sure there's a selection somewhere on the login screen where you choose which window manager you want to use. So after you install LXDE, I think that all you have to do is to boot it into graphical mode once, and then select LXDE from the login screen when you log in. Later, if you start up in console mode, it should be your default window manager when you run startx. --NorwegianBlue 22:46, 1 June 2011 (UTC)

startx is a frontend to xinit, which is typically configured through either ~/.xinitrc or ~/.xsession. These files are simple shell scripts that are run as-is by xinit (and thus by startx). Some links on how to edit those files: . --Link  08:17, 2 June 2011 (UTC)

June 2

how to hack a web or blog

I want to create my own blog and website — Preceding unsigned comment added by Gerrymain (talk • contribs) 14:59, 2 June 2011 (UTC)

You don't need to "hack" to make a blog and website. Why not start with something like WordPress.com or Blogger or LiveJournal and see where that takes you? --Mr.98 (talk) 15:30, 2 June 2011 (UTC)

On the other hand if you're wanting to do this as a programming experiment, then "hacking" in the old fashioned sense of putting together code rapidly might be the right word, and the tools 98 mentions aren't going to work for you. Then it becomes a matter of how "deep" you want to go. Anywhere from using customizable blog software, to using a LAMP_(software_bundle) server to build a new blog application, to writing your own webserver. It's not clear where on that scale of possibilities you'd want. i kan reed (talk) 18:43, 2 June 2011 (UTC)

You might also consider Google sites but as ikanreed points out we need to know a little more info to make a better recommendation--rocketrye12 20:01, 2 June 2011 (UTC)

I thought google sites was closed a couple years ago... i kan reed (talk) 20:08, 2 June 2011 (UTC)

'Google Page Creator' AKA 'Google Pages' was closed, but Google sites is still going strong--rocketrye12 20:11, 2 June 2011 (UTC)

Sync program that works between Win 7 and XP and works with networked drives

Can anyone recommend a program which I can use to sync files between my personal laptop and desktop and my work computer which uses networked drives (apparently networked drives are a problem for many sync softwares)? --129.215.47.59 (talk) 15:40, 2 June 2011 (UTC)

FastCopy AvrillirvA (talk) 15:45, 2 June 2011 (UTC)

You might consider Delta Copy, a rsync implementation on Windows. From a little bit of preliminary searching it looks like SMB {\\HOST....) connections should be fine. But I must ask, if both drives are networked, why must you sync them? Why not just point both to the same drive, i.e. one or the other? You also might consider an external RAID array or other SMB/NFS filesharing solution, depending.--rocketrye12 20:05, 2 June 2011 (UTC)

June 3

128 bit gaming

I've seen video games progress from 8 bit -> 16 bit -> 32 bit -> 64 bit. Why is it that the PS3 and XBOX360 remained at 64 bit, and the Wii regressed to 32 bit, instead of any of them moving to 128 bit and (later) 256 bit? Ballchef (talk) 02:58, 3 June 2011 (UTC)

I suspect that the answer is that the benefits aren't worth the effort, or the hardware costs. Extra bits only really amount to extra precision in games - i.e. you can model things more accurately. What is needed most is usually to model things faster - so you can model more of them. AndyTheGrump (talk) 03:09, 3 June 2011 (UTC)

I see! And by "more accurate" do you mean, for example, more life like animation? That would explain why the Wii has gone back to 32 bit. Ballchef (talk) 03:29, 3 June 2011 (UTC)

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