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January 1

software of this kind??

hey!! everybody plz help me with the name of a software that could produce sounds of various specified frequencies.. & also recognize them.. returning those frequencies ...actually im trying to transfer data files using .. sound ...i wanna generate sounds of frequencies.. corresponding to given specified ascii code... and doin the reverse to recognize them to reverse them..

Audacity can generate sounds of a specific frequency and length and amplitude, i think it will read them as well i dont know. its a completely free program but is pretty powerful, check it out and see if it's what you need.--PiTHON 02:14, 1 January 2007 (UTC)
Transfering data files using sound?? You mean you want to modulate and then demodulate an analogue carrier signal to encode digital data? ;) Maybe researching modem might be useful? Vespine 21:53, 1 January 2007 (UTC)

open source flash?

I'd love to own Macromedia flash but cannot afford it. Are there any alternatives that run on linux? A google search has turned up nothing :-( Theresa Knott | Taste the Korn 02:09, 1 January 2007 (UTC)

The Flash player runs on Linux, the development tools (bar perhaps under Wine) do not. One can get Actionscript tools (compiler et al) open source, but I think that's mostly it. SVG is intended (with JavaScript as the programmatic backup) to be the open source, open standards animated vector graphics solution, but the current state of browser support for SVG doesn't remotely match Flash. So, in short, no. -- Finlay McWalter | Talk 03:15, 1 January 2007 (UTC)
Oh well that's what I feared. Theresa Knott | Taste the Korn 18:08, 1 January 2007 (UTC)
I use this program to do flash - it is shareware rather than open source. It is for windows, but I have managed to get it to work on Linux using Wine.--Bjwebb (talk) 22:26, 3 January 2007 (UTC)
Thank you I'll give it a go. Theresa Knott | Taste the Korn 21:16, 5 January 2007 (UTC)
The OpenOffice.org office suite allows you to convert PowerPoint and similar files to flash (.swf). It's fairly basic, so it depends what you want to do with it. (OOo is free but it's a big download, so you'll need a broadband connection). On a side note, the specifications for .swf files are available from Adobe (with some conditions), so there are probably some programs available for creating swf files - SourceForce has some (here) but I don't know how good they are. --h2g2bob 17:17, 5 January 2007 (UTC)
Power point to flash doesn't really do it for me. What I want to do is create interactive animations. But thanks anyway Theresa Knott | Taste the Korn 21:16, 5 January 2007 (UTC)
kinetic fusion (used to have?) a free version on their site, apparently the product has been discontinued but you might still find the old free version. It allows you to generate flash from XML. Also OpenLaszlo lets you generate flash from XML, but it is greared toward GUI creation. That won't stop you from doing other things if you want though, and it is open source. NoClutter 17:54, 5 January 2007 (UTC)
Thank you I'll have a look at that too. Theresa Knott | Taste the Korn 21:16, 5 January 2007 (UTC)
Swftools includes a program called swfc "a tool for creating SWF files from simple script files." -- Bavi H 07:47, 8 January 2007 (UTC)
Well what would any law-abiding, patriotic citizen do when she needs software she can't afford? ^_^; --froth 19:51, 9 January 2007 (UTC)
As an alternative, free (as in libre) player, gnash also exists. skip (t / c) 14:58, 10 January 2007 (UTC)

Paypal for Ebay

I've never used eBay before, so a couple of stupid questions. Firstly, assuming I'll be doing at least a few buys a year, whats the best way to pay/recieve money? It is optimal to use Paypal, correct? Then, on Paypal, can I just open a personal account to buy and sell on eBay? It mentioned something on the Paypal site that you need the upgraded premier or business account for eBay, but I may have confused this with something about credit card/debit card paying. Thanks! 172.195.1.55 07:56, 1 January 2007 (UTC)

PayPal is a popular method of payment on eBay. PayPal offers protection for both buyers and sellers. You can buy and sell items on eBay using a PayPal personal account. PayPal do charge fees for their services, these are shown on their website. This can be significant when selling low value items. Adambro 15:34, 1 January 2007 (UTC)
Your first two questions require a subjective response. However, if you were to ask an array of eBay users, my gut feeling is that you'd probably hear that PayPal is the best option for an occasional buyer/seller (mainly for the convenience).
If all you are going to do is buy, all you need to worry about is a hard $10,000 limit until you become verified. This entails either attaching a bank account to your PayPal account or apply for their credit card. If you start to delve into selling and using PayPal to receive payments, keep these limitations in mind:
  • Monthly receiving limit of $500 until you upgrade to a Premier or Business account.
  • Receive a maximum of 5 credit card or debit card transactions per year until you upgrade to a Premier or Business account.
  • Withdraw maximum of $500 monthly unless you do 2 of the following 3 things:
    • Add and confirm a bank account
    • Confirm your Social Security Number
    • Complete your enrollment in the Expanded Use Program. The Expanded Use Program requires these steps:
  1. Authorize PayPal to charge a $1.95 USD Expanded Use Fee to your card. (You will receive a $1.95 USD bonus in your PayPal account after you complete enrollment.)
  2. On your next credit card statement, find the 4-digit Expanded Use Number that will be printed in the item description section of the charge.
  3. Log in to your PayPal account, click the Complete Expanded Use Enrollment link on your Account Overview, and enter your Expanded Use Number.
Keep in mind that the biggest limitation is on selling. You only mention buying, which is all that I do and I have been fine with the personal account for a few years now. - (Nuggetboy) (talk) (contribs) 16:38, 1 January 2007 (UTC)

General MIDI's "Charang"

In the General MIDI specification, program number 85 is reserved for instrument sound "charang", part of the synth lead category. what is the meaning of "charang"? Is it related to charango? - Because mine doesn't sound like it.

I think my question belongs here because it is about a technical specification. Congratulationsfriend 08:42, 1 January 2007 (UTC)

I believe they're the same, google image search shows identical looking instruments for both. - CHAIRBOY () 19:13, 1 January 2007 (UTC)
You're right, it does! But also a hodgepodge of other stuff, making me thing they might be misspelled filenames. What i'm most curious to know is: why it is grouped as a synth lead. Congratulationsfriend 09:40, 2 January 2007 (UTC)

Unicode input

I am using a laptop computer. I try to use the U+202E character with my virtual numpad by holding down a special key. But whenever I type the Alt+E, the "edit" menu pops up. Am I doing something wrong? Scienceman123 talk 09:18, 1 January 2007 (UTC)

Looking at Unicode#Input_methods, Alt codes and Windows Alt keycodes looks like Alt+ only does the first 256 characters, and in decimal. Then there's EnableHexNumpad. Weregerbil 16:54, 1 January 2007 (UTC)

linksys wireless rotor

I have a model WRT54G and wishes to prevent access from outside sources. The Linksys home page is blank. Where / how do I find the incripted code? Thank you. Remy R

Pull up a web browser, type "192.168.1.1" without the quotes, if you haven't changed it, the login and password should both be "admin" without the quotes. This should pull up a page with all sorts of settings/options, along the top, look for Wireless, once you click that, you should see a bunch of submenu options underneath the top row, one of them should be security, click that, from there, you can turn on wireless encryption. WPA-PSK or WPA2-PSK are your best choices for security and simplicity (but make sure your wireless card can support them, if its not really old, it shouldn't be a problem), you can set any password you want with WPA-PSK/WPA2-PSK. If your card cant support them, you may be stuck with WEP, which is still better than nothing, but you have to remember either a 10 or 26-digit long hex key, and WEP can be cracked by someone who knowledgeable/resourceful enough. Once you enable encryption, your wireless connection to the router will drop until you reconnect with the new password. Cyraan 17:33, 1 January 2007 (UTC)

The default username is not admin, it is just blank. The password is "admin" 70.18.228.121 05:24, 2 January 2007 (UTC)DAnyN

If 192.168.1.1 isn't your router's IP address go into DOS and type ipconfig /all The "DHCP Server" and "Default Gateway" will be your router's IP address --froth 06:59, 2 January 2007 (UTC)

You can get infos from this lame page. Note that if your router and network card(s) support WPA or WPA2 USE THEM! WEP is extremely insecure these days. 68.39.174.238 08:39, 2 January 2007 (UTC)

Programming help request

I have recently obtained a TI 89 Titanium calculator and am wondering: is there is any logic to the numbering of the keys (for the getkey() command)? Please post your reply on my user page. Alphabetagamma 22:29, 1 January 2007 (UTC) By the way... In the 1985 Boise, Idaho, mayoral election, there were four write-in votes for Mr. Potato Head.

Um thanks for the trivia about mr potato head. Did you know that in the 2001 UK census 390,000 englanders stated their religion as jedi? But to answer your actual question... I have a TI-83 and 84, and the pattern for those is that the first row straight across is the tens (11, 12, 13, 14, 15) the second row including the top arrow is the twenties (21, 22, 23, 24) the third row including the left and right arrows are the thirties (31, 32, 33, 34, 35) the fourth row including the bottom arrow is the forties (41, 42, 43, 44) and so on down the calculator. My numbers probably aren't right exactly since I haven't used it in awhile but that's the general idea. Try using this snippet (you'll have to change it to '89 BASIC)

I know the thing about the 83 numbers... It's the 89 numbers I'm wondering about.Alphabetagamma 03:01, 3 January 2007 (UTC)

Lbl A
Repeat Ans
getKey -> K
End
Disp K
Goto A
Just run that and hit whatever button you need the code for and it will display the code on the screen. This assumes that when there's nothing held down getKey returns 0, which might not be true for the 89 but you might as well try --froth 06:42, 2 January 2007 (UTC)

Google Calculator dead?

I've been trying to do equations/conversions with Google Calculator but it isn't working for me (I don't get the "calculator" screen as I ought to). Is it gone for good? Anyone know? Is it just me? --24.147.86.187 00:34, 2 January 2007 (UTC)

It's not just you because I've just given it a try and it's not working amymore for me either. Theresa Knott | Taste the Korn 00:37, 2 January 2007 (UTC)

Works fine now --froth 06:56, 2 January 2007 (UTC)

"9 * 10 + 32 / 3" works for me, both from FireFox search box and Google's main page. 68.15.208.73 13:52, 2 January 2007 (UTC)
OK, it works again for me too. Phew! Thanks for checking. --24.147.86.187 14:40, 2 January 2007 (UTC)

You can force google calculator to evaluate expressions it otherwise wouldn't by appending = to the end of google search queries.


January 2

kgb

what does kgb stand for

http://www.acronymfinder.com/af-query.asp?Acronym=kgb&Find=find&string=exact --PiTHON 03:43, 2 January 2007 (UTC)
The Russian one? Committee for State Security according to KGB. 68.39.174.238 08:39, 2 January 2007 (UTC)
Try here. - Patricknoddy 8:37am, January 2, 2007 (EST)

Unless this is a computer question, it would be better to place it on the Language Ref Desk. StuRat 00:28, 3 January 2007 (UTC)

I believe that there is a commercial keystroke logging program that goes by that name, and I believe that it refers to the russian organization. ST47Talk 21:27, 3 January 2007 (UTC)

For the keylogger, check out ReFog Software's product page. Ometecuhtli2001 10:27 , 8 January 2007 (UTC)

Windows BSD code

Apparently certain programs in Windows contain BSD licensed code. But the text of the license states: Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright notice, and this list of conditions in the documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution (emphasis added). Has Windows complied with the emboldened statement? I don't believe it has.

Only those programs would need to have the BSD license included with them, not Windows itself. Windows is proprietary and closed code, although it wouldn't surprise me if there were some variant of BSD licensed code somewhere in it. 68.15.208.73 13:54, 2 January 2007 (UTC)
None of the programs purported to have BSD licensed code has the license included with them, just the copyright strings. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 149.135.24.64 (talk) 00:00, 3 January 2007 (UTC).

Simcity problem

I've recently installed SimCity 3000 on my Windows XP system and (surprise, surprise) it's acting up. The CD-rom automatically reboots when I exit the game. Any ideas on how to fix this? - Mgm| 12:32, 2 January 2007 (UTC)

Have you tried ejecting the CD-ROM right before you exit the game ? StuRat 13:34, 2 January 2007 (UTC)
  • Well, a workaround is to use the Task Manager (CONTROL-ALT-DELETE) to kill the app, but this could cause other probs if it has open files, etc. Maybe someone else has a more elegant solution. StuRat 20:08, 3 January 2007 (UTC)

Try running it in compatability mode? --froth 03:57, 4 January 2007 (UTC)

Internet Wiki

Is there a wiki about the Internet? - Patricknoddy 8:38am, January 2, 2007 (EST)

Internet 68.15.208.73 13:55, 2 January 2007 (UTC)
Misplaced Pages? It definitely covers the Internet. Splintercellguy 00:27, 3 January 2007 (UTC)

wikia:internet. --h2g2bob 01:11, 6 January 2007 (UTC)

Is there another program like Skype?

So now it's 2007 and Skype no longer offers free calls to anywhere in the USA or Canada. Is there another free program that does the same thing? Or anything I can download that does that? Man I hope so. NIRVANA2764 14:28, 2 January 2007 (UTC)

Edit: Okay, I just called my own house and it looks like Skype is still offering free calls across the nation. Huh? NIRVANA2764 14:31, 2 January 2007 (UTC)

Skype will remain our lurvely freewarely P2P voice communicator of choice. You may be confused by their reported price structure changes for SkypeOut...? 81.93.102.185 17:56, 2 January 2007 (UTC)
I don't think he was confused. That's exactly what he was asking about. However, there's no way any company can support unlimited free outgoing calls to POTS, because they'll have to pay somewhere. Superm401 - Talk 05:10, 8 January 2007 (UTC)
Skype is only one of many VoIP services, although it's fairly unique in its ability to call into the phone system. --froth 21:26, 2 January 2007 (UTC)
Get a SIP client and use VoIP User. WP 10:22, 8 January 2007 (UTC)
Woah! Skype gives you Americans free calls? They've never done that here in the UK... If you want free calls to Britain, you have to buy Skype Credit first. --saxsux 07:56, 5 January 2007 (UTC)
It was a temporary gimmick. Superm401 - Talk 05:10, 8 January 2007 (UTC)

MSN Messenger display image problem

I can't see other people's display images and other people can't see mine when I change it. I am using ZoneAlarm, but it is configured to allow both client and server connections. I am not using that "firewall" by Microsoft in my Internet connection and think my router NAT is correctly configured, allowing the port 1863... I know with this information it is hard to answer but... maybe someone has had experience with this and has some idea. Thanks for any help ;) —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 85.58.9.82 (talk) 15:12, 2 January 2007 (UTC).

are you sure its related to a firewall? i'd check your program settings first. also theres like 3 versions of messenger. windows messenger, MSN messenger, and live messenger. live messenger is the new replacement apparently, but they keep the old ones around and i'm pretty sure they can open independently so you may even accidentally be using the wrong program. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by PiTHON (talkcontribs) 16:38, 2 January 2007 (UTC).
Ok some more research and it looks like it is your firewall, hope you're up to This fix. Or just stop using ZoneAlarm :p --PiTHON 03:03, 3 January 2007 (UTC)

Thank you (very very much).

Master edit versus other kinds of edits

What's a master edit, and what other kinds of edits are there? Thank you! 81.93.102.185 17:58, 2 January 2007 (UTC)

Can you give us the context, please ? StuRat 00:09, 3 January 2007 (UTC)
This might be intended for the Arts section, pertaining to music recordings. 68.15.208.73 01:21, 3 January 2007 (UTC)
Yes, MUSIC RECORDING, sorry. I thought it was the only context. :) 81.93.102.185 12:07, 3 January 2007 (UTC)

OK, now that I know the context I can hazard an answer. Using analog methods, the quality of a recording declines with each copy. Thus, it would be ideal to keep a single original recording and make all copies from it. However, this would make production quite slow, and there can also be a degradation of the original with each copy made from it, so it's best to make a small number of master copies directly from the original, and make all the final copies from those masters. Similar concerns arise from copying analog documents, photographs, and movies. This is all becoming rapidly obsolete, however, as digital recording methods now allow for perfect copies to be produced, with no damage to the original. For the time being analog methods do typically have a higher resolution than their digital equivalents, though, so an analog original may still be used with a digital master. However, once technology improves and the resolution is sufficient, I would expect all documents, photos, music, and movies to be recorded directly as digital, eliminating the need for a master. StuRat 19:52, 3 January 2007 (UTC)

Xine vs VLC

Now, I have an Ubuntu Edgy machine that runs Beryl (radeon driver, aiglx) and I've noticed that when comparing VLC (xvideo) and Xine in fullscreen mode, VLC is increadibly choppy but Xine plays perfectly. Out of curiosity, what's different about Xine? Does it use a crazy l33t video output module?--Frenchman113 on wheels! 18:44, 2 January 2007 (UTC)

Ah wait... I b0rked my settings and VLC was defaulting to X11, ignore this post.--207.74.179.29 17:21, 3 January 2007 (UTC)
And again, the problem with dual-booting.... forgot to log in.--Frenchman113 on wheels! 17:24, 3 January 2007 (UTC)

here goes nothing.(javascript/dom/Xhtml)(oh, and CSS)

Ok. i hope this will be the last time i have to bring these topics up. first off, i'd like to thank everyone who has given me prior help on this topic. ok, down to buisiness:

I am using XHtml to make a website, coupled with Javascript for user scripts. i am using DOM to locate three coloums of data, changing a row from "visibility:hidden;" to "visibility:visible;"(i might have spelt them wrong here, but not in the actual code.) I do this by getting their ID and then using the element.style operation. however, this doesn't work as i exspected, as i would like for the table to remain the same size, and would like for them to disapear when i call the function a second time. i tried using an if statement and element.style to figure out what the visibility is currently set to. needless to say, it didn't work.

can i dump some of the code here, in case i did something completely retarded(like misspeled something, forgot to capitilize where neccissary...)Xiaden 18:51, 2 January 2007 (UTC)

I understand what you want but I can't understand what is happening. Could you clarify again? --24.147.86.187 19:36, 2 January 2007 (UTC)
I use display: block and display: none instead of visibility - I think that might work. But I am useless at the DOM model so this might not be the best way. x42bn6 Talk 22:27, 2 January 2007 (UTC)
i'll try display, but i'm using a table... so that might not turn out as exspected... oh, and what Is happening, is that the visibility turns on, then never turns off. or it gives me a javascript error, that it can't edit visibility, because it isn't an attribute...Xiaden


Erg, it's really annoying. in Firefox, the table switches to three column display, where it only needs two. basically, i need some sort of code that will work, and make it Sexi. lol, i think i have it figured out, but help would be appreciated... Xiaden 14:59, 4 January 2007 (UTC)

Check the w3c specs for visibility and display. Using visibility:hidden sets opacity to none. To hide completely, use display:none. Actually, display is much better anyway, as you can use display:block for visibility:hidden. Also, don't forget non-javascript support or noscript tags for people with javascript disabled. --h2g2bob 01:07, 6 January 2007 (UTC)

well, there is a small glitch with using display:none to collapse the cells. it turns out, that the height has to be specified, or you return a javascript error. just to let you all know. and yes, i put noscript tags in before i started. Xiaden 14:39, 8 January 2007 (UTC)

Name this unknown app

About early 2003 someone showed me an application that looked almost identical to the classic app "WinAmp" (it hadm the traditional greyish-brownish classic skin look of winamp with identical looking buttons). This app was different however. It allowed you to play a file and then perform "tricks" with the output sound.

For example you could press play and then press another button, and the song position would skip around or repeat sections or go forward and reverse in varying speeds. These "tricks" were added to make the song sound "cool" for a performing DJ or something. Anyway he said it was a german-developed app (i seem to remember) but never gave me the name of it. Anyone have a hint of what it was? NoClutter 20:16, 2 January 2007 (UTC)

Are you sure it wasn't simply WinAmp with an output plugin for performing effects? --66.195.232.121 22:09, 2 January 2007 (UTC)
I am not completely certain, but the interface did look different enough to be a separate app, (almost like an early fork of the WinAmp codebase) and I had no basis to question the person's credibility or knowledge on the issue. Nevertheless, even if it was just a plugin I have no clue which plugin it could have been. It had entirely distinct buttons and windows for doing effects that Ive never seen from a plugin. NoClutter 22:36, 2 January 2007 (UTC)
Sonique, perhaps? — Kieff 03:14, 3 January 2007 (UTC)


Web Surfing on a non plasma/lcd TV

Hi, I am trying to get my media center in my living room to display nicely. I have used video out as well as an averkey and the picture is always fuzzy and it is hard to read the fonts. My TV is not plasma or LCD so I guess I should have known that it wouldnt of looked that good.

I have a 37 inch flatscreen tube TV with HD. My question is simple, if I get a video card that outputs HD and connect my computer with an HDMI cable should I be able to read simple font on this TV? Or do I have to go LCD/Plasma to be able to surf the Web in my living room?

216.211.3.61 22:00, 2 January 2007 (UTC)

While an LCD or plasma screen TV may be clearer than a CRT, or even worse, a projection TV, and while HDTV is clearer than the old PAL format in the US, none of those combos has the resolution of a good computer monitor, which is typically 1600×1200. Two typical HDTV resolutions are 1280×720 and 1920×1080. The better HDTV can manage to display a decent 1280×1024 computer resolution. However, the lower frame rate on the HDTV and the "nonsquare pixels" will make the quality significantly lower than a 1280×1024 computer monitor. See the HDTV link for a size comparison.
You might want to do the reverse of your plan; get a huge computer monitor and use it to display TV. Of course, to do this you should expect to pay major cash. The cheaper alternative is to use your current setup, and lower the resolution to the minimum, say to 800x600 or even 640x480, so the resolution is something the TV can handle. You might also want to increase the font size in your browser. This should make the text readable, but only a small amount of text will fit on the screen. StuRat 23:16, 2 January 2007 (UTC)

I cannot resize a partition with partition magic

I get an error 2002 ("there are invalid enties in FAT "),; there are 9 unullocated GB just after the part. i wanna extend.. maybe a virus? Do exist viruses that are invisible in the processes list of task manager? tia ----Ulisse0 22:11, 2 January 2007 (UTC)

Try running scandisk. Go to "My Computer" and right click the drive you're trying to partition. Go to Properties. On the Tools tab click "Check now". If it fixes your FAT then try partition magic again. But I highly discourage its use- it's infamous for ruining laptops and unusual drive setups. Try burning the GParted livecd and using that. --froth 22:20, 2 January 2007 (UTC)
But do scandisk first --froth 23:14, 2 January 2007 (UTC)
Be sure to check "Automatically fix file system errors" after you hit "Check now", then hit start. Checking "Scan for and attempt recovery of bad sectors" wouldn't be a bad idea either, but can take a few hours. How did you end up with 9gb of unallocated space? What file system is your first partition set to, Fat32, NTFS? I have used partition magic quite a few times without problems, but would still be very wary of using it like Froth is, make sure your data is backed up first. Also, if you are able to boot off a partition magic CD and do the work from there instead of from inside windows you should have better luck, so no other programs interfere with its work.--PiTHON 02:41, 3 January 2007 (UTC)
Formerly I had 2 partitions: one with Win98 followed by another one with XP (but on Fat32, not NTFS); then I installed Ubuntu BB at the bottom of the HD and Xp became unbootable, so I erased it to merge the freeed space in the 1st part. --Ulisse0 14:04, 3 January 2007 (UTC)


January 3

MySpace IM

anybody know how to set up Gaim, or some other multi-protocol IM client to function with MySpace IM?

thanks Omnipotence407 02:37, 3 January 2007 (UTC)

I don't think the protocol is currently supported by Gaim:
It is compatible with AIM and ICQ (Oscar protocol), MSN Messenger, Yahoo!, IRC, Jabber, Gadu-Gadu, SILC, Novell GroupWise Messenger, Lotus Sametime, and Zephyr networks.

Kieff 03:10, 3 January 2007 (UTC)

Running Linux on A Blackberry Handheld

Are their any open source projects for running linux (any distro) on a blackberry? Thanks! —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 67.181.165.150 (talk) 03:47, 3 January 2007 (UTC).


The only Linux distro I know that's made for portable devices is Familiar Linux. I'm not sure whether it supports Blackberries or not. Try having on their website. --saxsux 07:59, 5 January 2007 (UTC)

Free Ipod Converter (RM)

Hi is there a free converter that can convert real media format files to mp4 ipod format? Thanks —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 218.102.23.93 (talk) 06:16, 3 January 2007 (UTC).

#How can I put RM stream videos into my iPod? --h2g2bob 00:47, 6 January 2007 (UTC)

pacific county

What are the major cities of Pacific County? —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 71.35.124.41 (talk) 06:17, 3 January 2007 (UTC).

How is this a Computer question ? See Pacific_County#Census-recognized_communities (do a lot of hippies live in Tokeland ?). StuRat 19:29, 3 January 2007 (UTC)

Assignment Help Request

Hi All,

Can you please help me out finding answers for,

1) Why a positive correlation might exist between Round Trip Time(RTT) and Packet size with reference to the different components that contribute to RTT (propagation, transmission and queuing delays).

2) Explain why a positive correlation might exist between RTT and distance with reference to the different components that contribute to RTT (propagation, transmission and queuing delays)

Any guidance site information will also do the needed. I couldn't find the exact and appropriate answers. So was asking for your help.

Hope you will help me in this regard. Thank you.

Anticipating a positive reply from you.

Thanks and Regards, Prabhu.

ShallV Prabhu 07:05, 3 January 2007 (UTC)

Isn't the answer to 2 obvious? Longer distance = signal takes longer to travel = larger RTT? WP 10:36, 8 January 2007 (UTC)
Well, bigger packets do take longer to transmit on any network link for obvious reasons, but there may be more subtle things going on: 1) Queueing algorithms may give priority to small packets, as they are typically ACKs for other packets, and this helps things flow more smoothly, 2) Large packets may simply be discarded to ease congestion on a particular link, and retransmitting them takes extra time, 3) similarly, large packets are more likely to suffer from errors on a poor-quality link, 4) Large packets may be fragmented, and there's an overhead associated with collecting and reassembling them. --IanHarvey 14:00, 8 January 2007 (UTC)

Printing hidden pages in Excel

Hi. I'm using Excel 2003 and would like to make Excel print a page that is otherwise hidden (ie the user doesn't see the page unless they print the worksheet). Is this possible? --Dweller 09:17, 3 January 2007 (UTC)

Looks like you can do it with a macro, but theres no built in functionality from what i can see.--PiTHON 07:39, 5 January 2007 (UTC)

Looking for an old Half-Life mod

Hi everyone. Some years ago I used to play a Half-Life modification named "argh", "arg", "arrg" or something like this. It was a pirate mod, a pretty funny one. Search engines didn't come up with anything useful so I was hoping that someone here remembers the mod and could give a an adress to download it or at least the exact name. Thanks! 82.83.89.26 09:40, 3 January 2007 (UTC)

I don't know, but List of Half-Life mods may have something that jogs your memory. --Seejyb 21:55, 3 January 2007 (UTC)

How can I put RM stream videos into my iPod?

Hi I tried to put this .rm video into my ipod but no converters work! Is it because of this streaming thing or something? Pplease direct me into the right way..thanks!

If vlc will play it, you will be able to use the Transcode wizard (file->wizard, transcode) to change it's format to something that an iPod can handle (offhand I think it's h.263, but check that). However, it's very likely it will fail, as many .rm files use codecs which are not widely supported. More at videolan wiki. --h2g2bob 00:45, 6 January 2007 (UTC)

oops

what are the 56 types of oops concepts? "what are 56 types of oops concepts?"Swarupa 12:11, 3 January 2007 (UTC) "what are oops concepts?"Swarupa 12:13, 3 January 2007 (UTC)

Perhaps you are looking for object oriented programming system (I edited your posts to make them a little neater, by the way). NoClutter 16:14, 3 January 2007 (UTC)

Wii #3

How much does the console cost by it self?

How much does Wii sports cost?

How much does the Tv cable cost?

How much does the power cord cost?

Nunchuck=$20

Wii remote=$40

Is there is any thing I missed?

______________

$250
+ tax

______________

$270

Sorry if you feel interrogated, but please, these Qs have been bugging my since the thing came out.

Østerbrogade 20:57, 2 January 2007 (UTC)

Do you mean the cost of production? Wii sports would cost nintendo probably less than a cent to press. The cords are very cheap as well. The console and the wii remote would be the most expensive parts. I doubt the nunchuk costs nintendo $20 to make. --froth 21:28, 2 January 2007 (UTC)
What I need is the price of everything. I really want to know what the package prices are seprately to equal $250

So like I said the mote would be $40. what would every thing else be?

It's impossible to say, seeing as how the console is only sold with the accessories inside. You could try to start with the $250 and work your way backwards by subtracting (what I think you're doing here), but the fact is that when Nintendo sells accessories separately, they have to mark up the price due to the fact it's not being sold with a console and therefore is in less demand. In addition, Wii sports is afaik not being sold separately. I'd be willing to bet the power cord and tv cables are about $10 a piece, so that's $20. The Wiimote is $40, and it comes with two of them, right? As well as two nunchucks? That's $80 + $40= $120 for the controllers. Wii games are about $50, so assuming NT wouldn't mark down Wii sports for being such a simplistic title, that's $50 for the game, $120 for the controllers, and $20 for the cables. That adds up to an alarming $190, so the console is about $60 by itself. I'd be skeptical of that figure, but it's what I got. --Wooty Woot? contribs 01:29, 4 January 2007 (UTC)
only one wiimote and nunchuck, bringing the total for the system to $120, which is entirely possible. The tech isn't very expensive. I imagine at first they are taking a hit just like sony, so it probably actually costs them like $150 to make that, while it takes them <$100 to make a GC. Pretty reasonable since the system (w/o the wiimote) is basically 2x a gamecube (coming from a Wii owner). 66.159.174.217 03:05, 4 January 2007 (UTC)

This is a fundamentally flawed question. Games cost less than a penny to press in the factory, the $50 is paying for licensing to Nintendo and paying for advertising and game development. The controllers are probably marked up significantly as well to bring Nintendo some profit so you can't rely on market prices of the controllers. And since you can't buy the console by itself, you have absolutely nothing to work off of --froth 04:02, 4 January 2007 (UTC)

Why is the United States so far behind in cellphones?

The USA invented the cell phone, so why is it that it lags so far behind in cell phone technology? It seems the models for sale are at least two generations behind what Europe and Japan offer. --24.249.108.133 17:09, 3 January 2007 (UTC)

It's a combination of infrastructure requirements, market forces, and (I expect) government regulations. For example, the US is around 30 times the size of Japan but less than triple the population. That means a lot more infrastructure has to be replaced or upgraded to support new features, and that infrastructure must be funded on a much lower per-capita basis. Consequently, the mobile phone suppliers must pass along significantly higher costs to consumers if they're going to roll out upgrades at the same pace. There are, I expect, many other contributing factors. — Lomn 19:24, 3 January 2007 (UTC)
There is a common phenomenon where the leader in a new technology lags behind the rest in a few years. One reason is that the originators still have functioning old models, and people accustomed to that level of technology, so are reluctant to throw them all out and get new phones using new technology. I have to admit, I'm in that category. I don't need games on my phone, have no desire to download ringtones, don't need a camera in my phone (as I've got a real digital camera), and have no desire the sends IMs over the phone, I get enough carpal tunnel syndrome from my computer already. For some strange reason, I seem to think phones are to be used to talk with people. StuRat 19:23, 3 January 2007 (UTC)
You might change your mind when the cellphone becomes a computer, phone and watch all in one, the size of a typical wristwatch. Imagine carrying your PC around on your wrist; or heaven forbid, a little Star Trek device on your chest - remember the communicator Kirk used to tap to speak to Scotty? The tech already exists to project a laser keyboard, and the tech is fast emerging to project a holographic monitor (who needs LCD?), and nanotechnology is the next frontier. I think even technophobes might find that when tech is this useful, it cannot be passed up. Sandman30s 10:53, 4 January 2007 (UTC)
I agree that some day the technology might be ready (I personally would prefer voice recognition that really works rather than a projected keyboard, though). However, the technology doesn't appear to be here yet. I find trying to poke microscopic buttons while squinting over a tiny screen with a crappy low res pic to be a waste of time. I will wait to upgrade until they can do far better than that. StuRat 01:55, 5 January 2007 (UTC)
Also, the US does not have a single cell phone technology. There are competing cell phone companies all trying to get ahead of each other. If you go to someplace where there is basically one cell phone company, there is no need to ensure compatability with other carriers. For example, what if McDonalds wanted to put a phone number on every cash register. You go there, make your order, call the phone number on the register, and your order shows up on your phone bill. Can they do it in the US? Not really. They could do it with one or two phone companies, but it is not cost-effective to try it with all of them. But, if you hop over to a country that only has Nokia service, McDonalds can hook up with Nokia and even have a McDonalds button on every cell phone. --Kainaw 20:51, 3 January 2007 (UTC)
LOL, just what we need, a McDonald's button on our cell phones. How about a "super size that" button, to boot ? Just in case the burden of carrying a few bucks is preventing somebody from getting their fill of greasy food. StuRat 21:47, 3 January 2007 (UTC)
You think the US is bad? Come to Australia, where we are 25 times as large as Japan and only have a SIXTH of the population! :) Our internet and mobile technology is rubbish even compared to the States. Vespine 21:19, 3 January 2007 (UTC)
  • I've got a somewhat different POV on this. I think the US is behind because of unintended consequences of a marketing strategy: the coupling of the physical cellphones with the service. They were pretty much giving away the units so as to contract the customer for a long service agreement. As a result, Americans developed the expectation that a device that would cost $300 retail should be theirs for free, making the American market unwilling to absorb the cost of better technologies. Pisses me off; I really want my Samsung SPH-i550, but it's just not going to happen because Sprint doesn't want to. If I were in Mexico I could get one. Harumph. --jpgordon 21:28, 3 January 2007 (UTC)
My POV is that phones should call people. I have a laptop for email and and a camera for pictures, and "smart phones" aren't at all cost effective --froth 04:06, 4 January 2007 (UTC)
My POV is that tiny little web browsers should have phones. --jpgordon 07:12, 4 January 2007 (UTC)
In Europe, people often ask "why are we so far behind Japan ?" ;-) Jean-no 09:28, 4 January 2007 (UTC)
D'oh! It's because they wake up six hours before us! 213.161.190.228 10:55, 4 January 2007 (UTC)
Well that seems to explain everything. Jean-no 15:46, 4 January 2007 (UTC)
The problem is that nothing made in Europe works in Japan, or vice versa. At least with the US we have some level of compatibility. JIP | Talk 19:49, 9 January 2007 (UTC)
Is there no company in America offering free upgrades? I know from personal experience that in the UK you can sign a 12 or 18 month contract and at the end receive a new phone for free if you sign another contract. Then when that contract ends you get another free one etc. The result is I've not had to pay for my last 4 phones and they've all been pretty new models. --Kiltman67 17:58, 5 January 2007 (UTC)

Let me point out that the US is ahead of the rest of the world in one respect here, avoiding clogging landfills with old cellphones. By continuing to use the old ones, we prevent lots of toxic substances from ending up in the ground. StuRat 01:13, 8 January 2007 (UTC)

In my opinion, most people aren't motivated by conservation... Superm401 - Talk 05:06, 8 January 2007 (UTC)
I don't think so, either, but the result is good for the environment, nonetheless. StuRat 04:41, 10 January 2007 (UTC)

which do you think you would prefer for reading?

I am doing a survey and for that matter want to know your opinion. 1) Imagine that you use the PC only for reading news and ebooks. For that purpose, would you prefer a laptop or a tablet pc if you had given a choice between the two? —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 59.92.126.210 (talk) 17:11, 3 January 2007 (UTC).

Just for reading, the tablet, but the laptop is a better general purpose tool, overall. StuRat 19:18, 3 January 2007 (UTC)
A PDA with a frontlit monochrome screen. Too bad they don't make them anymore. --Carnildo 00:56, 4 January 2007 (UTC)
Tablet if it was a dedicated reading machine and not just Microsoft Reader running over Windows or something. --froth 01:24, 4 January 2007 (UTC)

TV as Monitor

This may not be the right reference desk to ask it on but it seems most suitable.

I've just bought a 23" widescreen LCD TV screen and if I wanted to connect a computer to it by DVI it will only support a resolution of 1024x768. Now compare this to my 19" LCD monitor which supports a resolution of 1280x1024. Why does what is a larger screen not have as high, if not higher, a resolution? --Kiltman67 17:17, 3 January 2007 (UTC)

All displays don't have equally big pixels. See for example display resolution TERdON 18:45, 3 January 2007 (UTC)

We had a very similar question a few posts ago: Misplaced Pages:Reference_desk/Computing#Web_Surfing_on_a_non_plasma.2Flcd_TV. Basically, it takes fewer pixels to see the things typically shown on TV than it does to be able to read lines of text, so TVs have a small number of large pixels, while computer monitors have a large number of small pixels. StuRat 18:58, 3 January 2007 (UTC)

You shouldn't use tv as computer monitor cause ive found out that its extremly unclear and fuzzy.--Taida 22:33, 3 January 2007 (UTC)

There are also issues with frame rates, especially as relates to interlacing --froth 04:08, 4 January 2007 (UTC)

Dear Sir

dear sir, i`m trying to find out information about my grandfather who served in the royal horse artillery during the second world war (ww2)his information is has follows.

mr james edward murphy 53,tudor street or road cardiff. his date of birth is 21/06/1909 if anyone knows anything or got information about him please let me know. thank you—Preceding unsigned comment added by Bart09 (talkcontribs)

What does this have to do with computing? Was he a "computer" during WWII when the term referred to people instead of machines? --Kainaw 20:44, 3 January 2007 (UTC)
I'm sure this user has simply posted in the wrong place. Bart09, I'd suggest you posting your question on the Humanities or Miscellaneous desk instead. Good luck! Anchoress 21:04, 3 January 2007 (UTC)


Logic, CMOS, and the like

Take a look at Image:Static CMOS Inverter.png. What does the circle in front of the top transistor signify? It can't be an inverter, like I thought, since the diagram is of one(you can't have an inverter in a diagram of an inverter, can you), and I can't think of anything else that would make sense? ST47Talk 21:22, 3 January 2007 (UTC)

Ah, you found my circuit diagram! :) The circle means it's a P-channel MOSFET, as opposed to a N-channel MOSFET, like the bottom one. This is only one of several different variants of this circuit symbol - four different ones are shown at MOSFET#Circuit_symbols and I've seen at least one variation not shown there. If you want to learn more about MOSFET transistors, the rest of the MOSFET article is really good to read as well. TERdON 21:54, 3 January 2007 (UTC)

posted by mistake

i am sorry for posting in the wrong place you must understand i`m new on this site i have now posted the question in it`s proper place thank you


January 4

mp3 solid state music players

Can mp3 players record music (via line in or digital), is this a common feature.., are there any players that do this, can anyone recommend one that does.. Thanks..87.102.19.50 01:59, 4 January 2007 (UTC)

Several mp3 players do this. However, if you want high quality recordings of live music, I suggest that you buy a recorder that has been designed for that purpose instead. I bought the Roland Edirol R09 , and am very happy with it. It works well as an mp3 player as well, but it is bulkier. --NorwegianBlue 03:35, 4 January 2007 (UTC)
Good choice.. but I was really thinking about time-shifting/ not carrying CD's, so perhaps a lesser player would do.. any suggestions (UK available please)87.102.23.89 04:19, 4 January 2007 (UTC)

Strange keyboard overload?

When I play certain games, I use the WASD format for updownleftright, and then I also have 0 and . (on the number keypad) as A and B. Everything is fine, except for some reason I cannot hold upleft and press another key at the same time. That is, I can hold down W and D (Up and right) at the same time while pressing 0, but if I hold down W and A while pressing 0, the computer makes a beep and the game does not register my keystrokes. No, this does not have to do with the games themselves, as even now as I type this, if I hold down W and D at the same time while pressing 0, this happens: wd0. But if I hold down W and A while pressing 0, this happens: aw. I mentioned the games because those are the only times where it is an inconvenience. Thanks. --ĶĩřβȳŤįɱéØ 09:15, 4 January 2007 (UTC)

This is a technical limitation of keyboards in general. I don't find the website anymore where I first read about this, but Google gave me this article, which explains the problems of the matrix circuits used in keyboards and partly confirms what I remember: It requires additional effort to allow many keys to be pressed at the same time, so normally, the circuits are only designed for standard combinations (like Ctrl-Shift-A or something). All other combinations may or may not work correctly.
I have an old keyboard with mechanical switches, which is capable of recognizing all keys at the same time (I've never actually tried, but it worked with about half of them, so I don't doubt my source on that). I had wondered what all the diodes on its circuit board are for; as I understand the article linked above, they allow all keys to be recognized at the same time. Speculating further I assume most keyboards don't support this because these diodes (a) make the keyboard more expansive and (b) probably can't be incorporated into the modern dome-switch keyboards because their circuit "boards" are flexible (and can't even hold diodes). --Dapeteばか 13:14, 4 January 2007 (UTC)
Yep. Key jamming can occur pretty easily if your keyboard is (1) not old, or (2) not expensive. --Kjoonlee 13:43, 4 January 2007 (UTC)

So is there a solution to this problem that doesn't involve going out and buying a new keyboard? If not, what should I look for in order to have a keyboard that prevents key jamming? --ĶĩřβȳŤįɱéØ 19:04, 4 January 2007 (UTC)

I'm afraid there isn't. The second best thing you can do, if you can find a program that lets you test all your keys, is to change your key config to something that doesn't jam. If you must buy a new keyboard, keyboard technology has some info, but I'm not sure which keyboards are free from key jamming. Mine doesn't have keyjamming; it's mechanical, heavy, expensive, and loud. (There are versions that are more quiet, but I didn't like their "feel," so to speak.) --Kjoonlee 00:53, 5 January 2007 (UTC)
AFAIK this is why many games use Shift, Ctrl, and Alt as buttons - you can hold down all of them AND another key, and the computer won't have any problems recognising it - as they are *designed* to be pressed alongside other keys. -- Chuq 05:16, 5 January 2007 (UTC)

an Apple 2 simulation game

Hi. I'm desperately trying to remember the name of a game I've seen back in 1980 or around that time. It was a game for the Apple II computer and I'm pretty sure that it had the name of an antique mesopotamian or persian king. It was a text-based game of management, some kind of a very rough sim city game. Did I dream that game ? Many thanks for any help, and please do excuse my quite lame english ! Jean-no 09:25, 4 January 2007 (UTC)

don't know the game but this link might be a good start... Sandman30s 12:59, 4 January 2007 (UTC)
I seem to recall a pyramid-building game named something like Imhotep, where you had to decide how much seed to plant so you could feed the workers, so they would build the pyramid and not revolt. StuRat 01:07, 5 January 2007 (UTC)
Thank you, I think it might be that (I remember that people had to be fed correctly). I'm not sure it was egyptian but I was quite young then. Jean-no
Sounds like Hamurabi to me. --jpgordon 16:45, 5 January 2007 (UTC)
Yep, that's definitely the one I was thinking of, although that's not the name I'm familiar with. Perhaps I was using a rip-off of the original. StuRat 20:36, 6 January 2007 (UTC)
Hamurabi !!! Thank you very much. It was a mesopotamian then, my memory is not that damaged. Jean-no 10:28, 10 January 2007 (UTC)

Digital Time Lapse Phography

I just received an Olympus FE-170 digital camera. Is there a way that I could use this camera to take time lapse photography? (Does there exist alternate firmware for this camera that would allow more detailed control of camera settings, or is there a remote control attachment that could be used in this capacity?)

If not, are there any cameras within the price range of this camera, that is under 200$, that would allow this kind of function.

Thanks in advance 74.64.90.125 09:58, 4 January 2007 (UTC)jk14

gPhoto supports remote camera control; if it's supported (it's not on the list, but it can't hurt to try), you can use a simple shell script while the camera is plugged into a laptop to sleep n {\displaystyle n} seconds, take a picture, sleep, take a picture, and so on. An incomplete list of cameras which gPhoto can remote-control is here; if you're looking for a camera which can do time-lapse, the ones on that page definitely can. (If you're using Windows, see what the software that came with the camera will let you do; sorry, but I haven't used anything but Linux in a while.) grendel|khan 21:58, 4 January 2007 (UTC)
The Kodak P880 has a time lapse mode, and with recent sales (Especially at Costco) you may be able to find one at that price range. However, you will also want to invest in a power supply to keep it running during a long time-lapse session, which will bring the costs up quite a bit. --Mdwyer 20:06, 11 January 2007 (UTC)

Putting wikipedia into iPod

Can u put wikipedia into the latest iPod(video, 5th gen)? If so where can I download the latest version? Thanks!

See here to get a big folder with all the html files in it. However, I'm not sure if the iPod can read html saved onto its hard drive. That would be nice, though (Douglas Adams would be happy). yandman 13:07, 4 January 2007 (UTC)
AFAIK, you can't read HTML files with the original firmware, but no one said that was a requirement. If there isn't any browser for iPodLinux yet, you'll only have to port one. :) TERdON 17:25, 4 January 2007 (UTC)

Many thanks :)74.64.90.125 23:14, 4 January 2007 (UTC)jk14

See Encyclopodia, since I'm almost positive iPods don't read HTML out of the box. Superm401 - Talk 05:26, 8 January 2007 (UTC)

iPod transferamation

Can music be taken off an iPod and put onto iTunes (i have my iPod and want to put some songs on it onto a friend's computer)?

Not with iTunes, there are 3rd party programs that can do this though, I've never used any personally however, so can't really recommend any program above another. This may be a good starting point. Cyraan 16:10, 4 January 2007 (UTC)
I'd recommend YamiPod. It works on Mac, Windows and Linux. Plug in your iPod, and choose to copy all your music to your hard drive, where iTunes can see it. Pesapluvo 13:45, 5 January 2007 (UTC)

Creating Wikis

I would like to see a wiki for non-profits, is this something wikipedia might create or that I could create on my own? Any direction would be much appreciated...

Kistine16:06, 4 January 2007 (UTC)16:06, 4 January 2007 (UTC)

There already is a wiki for Non-profit organization, you can feel free to edit it though if you think you can contribute something. Cyraan 16:18, 4 January 2007 (UTC)
Do you mean an article (as Cyraan mentioned above) or a full site specific to NPOs? - (Nuggetboy) (talk) (contribs) 16:33, 4 January 2007 (UTC)
If you want to do it on your own buy some web hosting with PHP and mySQL available and install the mediawiki software. Alternatively, convince Wikia to host it for you. --froth 01:51, 5 January 2007 (UTC)
Misplaced Pages founder Jimbo Wales started a wiki hosting service at Wikia (more here) which is free for free-content wikis. Alternatively, you can have a wiki on your website by using the free/libre MediaWiki software (more here) on your server. --h2g2bob 00:30, 6 January 2007 (UTC)

I'm at a loss.... (PC to Mac)

I got a Mac a week ago. (Its a Mac Mini with an Intel Dual Core processor and a super drive.) I've never used a Mac before, and would like to make it my primary computer. However, I have been completely unable to get my files from my Windows XP PC (a Dell Inspiron 1000 laptop with a CDR drive) to the Mac. I have tried burning CDs, but when I put them in the Mac, it thinks the discs are empty. I bought an Ethernet wire and tried networking them. Three hours and a dozen websites later and I can't get them hooked up to each other (though I think its my PC's fault). I got a new external hard drive for my Mac, and thought I could use that to store the files, but to do so is way outside of my abilities (namely partitioning and other stuff - and again, I don't think Windows is cooperating). I don't want to transfer much... my pictures, a couple of movies, and my documents... but it simply doesn't seem to be workable no matter what I try. Aside from emailing myself everything I want transfered (which will take... days), I am at a loss. Any suggestions? --Jeffrey O. Gustafson - Shazaam! - <*> 22:01, 4 January 2007 (UTC)

Try this It should help you,this might also help you and this link as well --67.68.25.159 22:33, 4 January 2007 (UTC)
Doesn't really help. No matter what I do, the "Local Area Connection" on my PC has "Limited or no Connectivity." I'm pretty sure its a problem on my PC's end. I just cant get them connected. This is rather frustrating. --Jeffrey O. Gustafson - Shazaam! - <*> 23:10, 4 January 2007 (UTC)
If the machines are not 1000Base-T, make sure you are using an Ethernet crossover cable to connect them. There is also nothing to provide you with an IP address, which will cause that error message. You will need to go add static IP addresses, like the ones in the example here (although gateway is not needed). Another mutant 00:09, 5 January 2007 (UTC)

Gah - too complicated. Can anyone here figure out why my Mac can't read the discs I've tried to burn? --Jeffrey O. Gustafson - Shazaam! - <*> 01:41, 5 January 2007 (UTC)

What did you burn them with? If you used some kind of third-party software you may not have closed the disk session --froth 01:48, 5 January 2007 (UTC)
By the way the ethernet crossover cable is probably the simplest option --froth 01:49, 5 January 2007 (UTC)
Damnit. Hmmm... would a USB Flash Drive work for Windows and a Mac? --Jeffrey O. Gustafson - Shazaam! - <*> 02:14, 5 January 2007 (UTC)
That's what I was going to suggest, I have a win based PC an my gf has a mac and I transfer files using my usb key. Vespine 05:29, 5 January 2007 (UTC)
On your PC how are you recording the cd's, are you dragging files directly to the cd-rom drive? If so you probably have packet writing software loaded, which would make it so your mac cannot read the cd's. Try opening up your cd-burning program and recording the files by creating a data cd, the mac should be able to read those. Or install a UDF reader to the mac to be able to read cd's written with packet writing software; although searching google i can't find any information on doing that thats free (sorry for my very limited Mac knowledge)--PiTHON 03:54, 6 January 2007 (UTC)

Resizing an SVG.

I have a pretty complicated SVG that I converted from a PDF file. (It's one of those airport diagrams that the FAA makes.) It's convinced that it's about 300 by 500 pixels. I want it to display at a higher resolution by default. How do I adjust the scaling factor? I changed the width and height properties in the <svg> element, but this just put the diagram in the middle of a lot of blank space. Isn't there a simple, straightforward way to change the default scaling factor? grendel|khan 22:06, 4 January 2007 (UTC)

Maybe an SVG editor like InkScape could scale the data points but you won't be able to do it by hand as you'd have to modify each point's coordinates --froth 01:46, 5 January 2007 (UTC)
The tiny scale is good enough; it'll be resized properly when it's displayed on the page anyway. grendel|khan 14:34, 5 January 2007 (UTC)

jpeg/bmp/whatever files to pdf files

i've been trying to figure out how to create a pdf file out of image files. am i just stupid? i can't seem to figure out how to do it. and i used to think i was fairly good with computers.  :( please help. thank you! Coolsnak3 23:59, 4 January 2007 (UTC)

Well you are talking about converting a bitmapped graphic into what is essentially a container for graphics (and text and whatnot). So the easiest way to "convert" a JPG into a PDF is to do something like inserting it into a Word document and then converting that to a PDF. --24.147.86.187 00:13, 5 January 2007 (UTC)
genius! i love you. thank you for not making fun of me for this. :D Coolsnak3 00:20, 5 January 2007 (UTC)
If you have Photoshop, that can save images in PDF. If you have Acrobat Professional, you can open the image in your favourite image viewer, and print to the PDF printer. For free software alternatives, I think ImageMagick can read and write PDFs as well. enochlau (talk) 04:26, 5 January 2007 (UTC)
Imagemagick needs Ghostscript to read PDF files. It can write PDFs without Ghostscript, though. --Transfinite 05:52, 7 January 2007 (UTC)
If you're using Windows, you might want to look at PDFCreator. It makes a sort of virtual printer; you print the image from whatever viewer you were using, and instead of making paper pages shoot out of a printer, it just adds pages to a PDF. Might be the all-around easiest method for you. (If you're using Mac OSX or relatively recent Linux, this ability is already included.) grendel|khan 14:24, 5 January 2007 (UTC)

If your using a mac, the Preview application bundled with OS X can do it easily. Open the image in preview, and "Save As". PDF is one of the options.


January 5

Fonts in Inkscape

For some reason, neither bold nor italic font styles work in Inkscape for me (it is a very recent version for Mac OS X). The fonts show up fine but selecting bold or italic does nothing. I've checked out the SVG and the style setting is there, but it does not display and it does not export. I have tried it with a variety of fonts, both common and exotic. No dice. I've Googled around but this doesn't seem like a common problem. Any thoughts? --24.147.86.187 00:19, 5 January 2007 (UTC)

I'm actually having a similar problem. Haven't got a clue why though... --saxsux 17:03, 5 January 2007 (UTC)
This may sound silly but I took a look at inkscape to see if worked for me and noticed it didn't seem to work either (ubuntu) but then my daughter noticed that I didn't click "apply". Could that possibly the problem or am I the only idiot in the room? Theresa Knott | Taste the Korn 17:08, 5 January 2007 (UTC)
Mine has definitely been applied. The raw XML says that the characters should be italic, but it doesn't apply it on screen. Maybe it's a bug I should report to them; I hadn't seen anyone else complain about it but if others are experiencing it, it is probably more about font handling than my specific machine... --24.147.86.187 23:05, 5 January 2007 (UTC)
We've had lots of problems with the SVG Inkscape generates, older versions seem to work better, you may find some help atWikiProject Maths/Graphics -SVG problems. --Salix alba (talk) 12:59, 8 January 2007 (UTC)

Pixel counter

Is there any (hopefully free) software that can count pixels? I am looking for one that allows me to counter the number of dark pixels and light pixels. --hello, i'm a member | talk to me! 00:26, 5 January 2007 (UTC)

It sounds like you want to be able to change the brightness of an image. Pretty much every picture edit program ever made has that ability. You might mean you want the average brightness of a series of images to match. That's a bit more difficult, I'm not sure which products offer such a function. StuRat 00:54, 5 January 2007 (UTC)

Oops...'count' not 'counter'. --hello, i'm a member | talk to me! 01:39, 5 January 2007 (UTC)

You could rig up a number of scripting programs to do this sort of thing for you. You would have to set parameters about what you considered "dark" and "light" though. PHP's GD image library would make this fairly easy using the imagecolorat function, though it would be time consuming to go over an entire image. --24.147.86.187 03:29, 5 January 2007 (UTC)
Using GIMP, you should be able to open an image, go to Dialogues->Histogram, and drag-select portions of the histogram containing "light" (to the right) or "dark" (on the left) pixels. This will show you the total number of pixels in the image, the number of pixels in the selection, and the percentage (mislabeled "percentile" in the version I have; I should file a bug about that) of pixels in the selection. This sounds like what you need; hope it helps! grendel|khan 14:31, 5 January 2007 (UTC)

Can I export .pst data from subfolder in Outlook Contacts to Excel?

I work on Outlook2003 and went to export sub-folder contacts to excel. I can get the contacts to a pst file but can't export to .csv or other format. At home I work on thunderbird or excel and would like to clean a database. Anyone help me?74.12.145.238 02:49, 5 January 2007 (UTC)

I just tried it and it worked.. you can map the fields how you want too. I went to File->Import/Export -> Export to another file -> Comma separated values -> selected "Contacts" -> File save location -> Map custom fields -> Finish. You'll want to map the fields, by default it does like 50.--PiTHON 03:47, 5 January 2007 (UTC)

External Hard Drive and OSX

So I've got a new Mac, and a new iPod. Both are the same size (80 GB). Clearly I would not be able to use the iPod's full capacity on the Mac alone, so I got an external hard drive (250 GB). I've got it hooked up without a problem. As a test, I copied iTunes into the external hard drive. How do I make sure when I start putting songs into iTunes that it goes into the external drive? Should I get rid of the iTunes in my main HD? Will that work with other applications? --Jeffrey O. Gustafson - Shazaam! - <*> 03:30, 5 January 2007 (UTC)

In the Windows version of iTunes, go to the "Edit" menu and select "Preferences...". Under the "Advanced" tab, there there is a textbox labeled "iTunes Music folder location" and a "Change..." button. Clicking the button shows a folder browser dialog where you can set the directory of your external drive. -WikiY 04:12, 5 January 2007 (UTC)
'Kay. But this is for my Mac. --Jeffrey O. Gustafson - Shazaam! - <*> 04:13, 5 January 2007 (UTC)
I don't use iTunes on my Mac, but I'd go to the "iTunes" menu, and select "Preferences...". Under the "Advanced" tab, there should be a textbox labeled "iTunes Music folder location", and a "Change..." button. Clicking the button should show a folder browser dialog where you can set the directory of your external drive. --Carnildo 20:39, 5 January 2007 (UTC)

Computer Help please

Lately my computer has been experiencing periods where many of my programs crash. I am currently running XP service pack 2, using up todate antivirus and overall, taking good care of my computer. any ideas why it is lagging and crashing its programs so much and how to fix it? —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 75.36.211.252 (talk) 03:51, 5 January 2007 (UTC).

Could really be anything, drivers, registry, software, RAM, any number of issues... I work in IT and after mucking around for a bit, the ultimate fix is reinstall windows, that fixes 90% of problems, but unfortunately can be a pain if you have a lot of drivers and software to reinstall after... Vespine 05:07, 5 January 2007 (UTC)
Agreed. The "easy" method is to reinstall Windows. Blame Windows. WP 10:29, 8 January 2007 (UTC)
Try downloading "Spybot - Search & Destroy" to remove spyware and adware. Also you could stop windows from running certain programs during startup by typing "msconfig" in "RUN" from the start menu and deselcting programs that u do not want to load during startup (It is done under "startup") But then as said by Vespine it can be any kind of issues.

Dead Laptop

One day my sister brought back her Acer laptop from a road trip. When I used it, I noticed that the keyboard and a USB flash drive would stop working sometimes. A couple days later, it would not boot WinXP. The POST screen does not appear. A Knoppix live CD would not boot either. Every time your put a cd in the tray the IDE light flashes for a bit, but otherwise the computer does nothing but sit there with a blank screen. It does not make any beeps. The laptop is a little over an year old.

  • Acer Aspire 3003LCi
  • AMD Sempron ~1.8ghz
  • 512 mb RAM

Does anyone know what happened to it? -WikiY 04:02, 5 January 2007 (UTC)

Educated guess here, but could something have happened with external trauma (dropped it, fell off or bumped around in the car, spilled something on it)? Some of it sounds like motherboard issues, but if any of the above happened, you'd get the generic "everything's falling apart" sort of issue you're having now, thanks to the fact everything is so close together in a laptop. --Wooty Woot? contribs 05:12, 5 January 2007 (UTC)
Yea it could be so many things its hard to tell you where to start. One thing I would try is to plug it into an external monitor, theres usually a function key you can hit to switch between the LCD and an external monitor, I've seen a few laptops where this doesn't work and it will only display on the external monitor. It could even be something like the button that detects if your monitor is closed or not is stuck in the down position (the same thing that makes your computer go to sleep when the monitor is closed). But the motherboard or something else thats major is probably messed up. When the "keyboard would stop working" would the touchpad still work, or was the computer actually locked up? If it was fully locked up its usually indicative of a hardware problem, which is now related to your no video/no POST problem. As for "a USB flash drive would stop working" thats not very specific. Were you transferring files off it and the computer locked up? Did it not even detect? Would it detect than disappear randomly? etc.. But also try taking out the battery for a few minutes and trying to boot it again, unplug the AC adapter when you try this as well. edit; Well plug in the batter and/or the AC adapter obviously first, but leave the laptop with zero power for a few mins :p--PiTHON 07:11, 5 January 2007 (UTC)
I hooked up a monitor and tried to switch, but the monitor was still blank. The backlight switch works (I can see the backlight go on/off). Before, the touchpad worked. I could see the WinXP login screen and move the pointer/click, but can't type my password. USB devices would not be detected (No power to usb devices and no XP 'device detected' sound). Now, nothing works (except the power lights). -WikiY 23:30, 5 January 2007 (UTC)
My IBM ThinkPad laptop screen goes out on occasion, but I've found I can barely make out what's on the screen if I shine a very bright light at it. It's like a very small portion of the needed power to illuminate the display makes it through. Try this on yours and see if there's any sign of life. I usually have to open and close the top until I find a point where it makes the connection properly, then the monitor starts to work again, until I bump it. StuRat 20:32, 6 January 2007 (UTC)

Another possibility is the power supply. It may no longer work off the batteries, or may now only work from batteries. Try it both way. StuRat 20:32, 6 January 2007 (UTC)

JVC LT-32X576 connected to Computer

I just got the JVC LT-32X576 and I want to connect it to my computer. I am not overly worried that it will be blurry or the text will be unreadable, I just want to know if it will work. I have DVI output on my computer and the TV has HDMI input. I assume that I should be able to just get a DVI to HDMI cable, but the TV's manual says that the input will not work with a computers output. I would like to know if that is true, and also if it is safe to plug the cable in and see if it works. Mah Freend Amee 04:18, 5 January 2007 (UTC)

Personal subst templates

Is it possible to use some own templates, like {{subst:welcome3}} client-side in wikipedia, or would you have to use some browser extension to do this? Like for example I would like some templates for myself for common occacions, could I write them in anyway into monobook.cs or such user files to make them work? Aetherfukz 04:32, 5 January 2007 (UTC)

You could create something like User:Aetherfukz/Welcome, and use {{User:Aetherfukz/Welcome}} to use it. Not sure if that's a problem, though. — Kieff 11:39, 5 January 2007 (UTC)

Vista requirements

I ran Windows Vista Upgrade Advisor on my computer. I have 508 MB of RAM, and the Home Premium edition requires a whole gigabyte. I'm not too internal component-savvy, so how exactly would I boost my RAM up? Could you point me to where I could find the solution? Thanks.--the ninth bright shiner 05:44, 5 January 2007 (UTC)

Crucial has a database of pretty much every computer, select your manufacturer and follow the rest of the links to figure out how much ram your computer can take, what type of ram etc... and choose to order from them or go to a local store. Looks like you'd want at least another 512mb to get to 1gb. Although, you have 508mb because your computer is probably sharing 4mb with an onboard video card, which wont handle the vista interface very well from what I've heard. May need a new vid card. edit; a new video card would be needed to use their Aero interface. Onboard video should be fine if you aren't wanting to use it. Also their site shows 512mb of ram should run it. But minimum requirements usually mean the program runs pretty slow.--PiTHON 06:04, 5 January 2007 (UTC)
With only 512mb you'll run into memory issues and will require a lot of hard drive swap / virtual memory usage with very little open. If you do anything that normally requires a lot of memory, such as photo or video editing or gaming, it will become very unpleasant (though even on XP you might have those issues). -- Consumed Crustacean (talk) 16:50, 5 January 2007 (UTC)
So, you'd recommend another 512 MB? Anything past that is ridiculously expensive...--the ninth bright shiner 22:33, 6 January 2007 (UTC)
Best thing is not to use Vista at all unless you really need it... --antilived 10:32, 8 January 2007 (UTC)

Can somebody play on-line using a PlayStation 2 emulator?

Thanks in advance. Taraborn 10:18, 5 January 2007 (UTC)

Try Kaillera --Russoc4 20:43, 5 January 2007 (UTC)

Thank you very much, buddy. **(This question has been successfully answered) ** --Taraborn 11:24, 7 January 2007 (UTC)

OH SHIT. Seems that no PS2 emulator is available for Kaillera... --Taraborn 11:42, 7 January 2007 (UTC)

Java Web Start dug out from cache

Suppose you install a simple app using "java web start" (like a little graph plotting tool). Is there a way to dig that app out from the cache (or wherever it is stored) so you can save it to a USB stick and install it on another computer that does not have internet access? NoClutter 17:59, 5 January 2007 (UTC)

If you got the file from a link, right click the link and choose "Save Target As..." or "Save Link As..." and save it on your USB stick. In Firefox there is a "Open Containing Folder" menu item when you right click the download item. That shows you the contents of the cache. For IE, I think in the "Internet Properties" dialog, there is a button somewhere that shows you the contents of the Temporary Internet Files folder. You can try searching in those folders for your app. However, some browsers empty the cache after they quit so you might have to download it again. -WikiY 23:12, 5 January 2007 (UTC)

war in mmorpg

there is mmo's like world war 2 online, and planetside that in the game you fight in a war, but those 2 games are FPS games, that is any war RPG MMORPG game??? (i don`t want games, like dark age of camelot that just some areas of the game are in war ). Exdeathbr 21:16, 5 January 2007 (UTC)


Sorry, I forgot that i posted this and asked again the same question, look here for updates. Exdeathbr (talk) 15:48, 14 February 2008 (UTC)

removal of aol demo

hi, when i boot up my new computer i get an annoying aol demo.

what is the safest way to remove it? it seems lodged in the registery etc,so i dont want to delete and have a crash! TIA.

Have you tried using the Add/Remove Programs option from the Control Panel? That's the "safest" place to start... --24.147.86.187 23:57, 5 January 2007 (UTC)

reply:YES!, it doesnt show up there!

go to start->run and type "msconfig" and hit enter. click on the "startup" tab in the upper right corner, sift through here and uncheck anything that looks aol related, and uncheck anything else you dont want to start with your computer (leave antispyware/virus programs). If you think you messed up you can always go back and re-check something, so don't worry about hurting something.--PiTHON 03:40, 6 January 2007 (UTC)


reply: perfect solution, thanks buddy!

Intel Centrino Duo vs Core 2

Which processor is best for laptops, the Intel Centrino Duo or Intel Core 2 Dual-core? Jamesino 23:50, 5 January 2007 (UTC)

centrino duo is not the processor, it is the chipset. Learn more about it here. Vespine 01:47, 6 January 2007 (UTC)
Centrino is a marketing platform. Our Misplaced Pages article on Centrino says it is "a platform-marketing initiative from Intel, covers a particular combination of CPU, mainboard chipset and wireless network interface in the design of a laptop personal computer." More recent Centrino Duo-branded laptops should have a Core 2 Duo processor. bCube(talk,contribs); 22:23, 6 January 2007 (UTC)

No numbers to load game to p.c

I recieved a game for christmas that has a code needed to download on to my pc. I wasnt given the box that has the numbers in it. Is there any way that i can be given the numbers so it be possible to load game on my pc. Game Info...... DELTA FORCE BLACK HAWK DOWN 72489-0414 Is the number given on the disk but that number does not work for loading the game. Thank you for your time Scott Miller

You said you weren't given the box that has the numbers in it, does that mean that whoever gave you the game has the box or did they not receive it either? It's possible the code may be somewhere else, like the CD or the manual. I got Galactic Civilizations II for Christmas which told me I needed a code that was located on the back of the box, after 10 minutes of examining every square inch of the box in vain I gave up and realised there was a code printed on the CD which worked. --Kiltman67 00:43, 6 January 2007 (UTC)
could that number right there be the code? --froth 07:05, 6 January 2007 (UTC)

January 6

wireless router

what exactly is a wireless router? How does it work and where do i hook it up? please help soon. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 70.152.207.44 (talk) 02:05, 6 January 2007 (UTC).

Wireless Router--Kiltman67 02:15, 6 January 2007 (UTC)

Music Mixer

I am looking for a program that lets me do two things. (It can be more than one type of software, doesn't matter to me) I need it to 1) take the background music out of a song and 2) take the lyrics out of a song. If you know of any software that I can get, that would be awesome!! Thanks!! --Zach 23:17, 6 January 2007 (UTC)

I'm afraid that can't be done, at least not by normal software. You'd need a complete professional sound analysis system, and even then it would be hard. —Vanderdeckenξφ 16:20, 7 January 2007 (UTC)
Ok, thanks!! Looks like maybe I should become a programmer and make a program that does that. I would probably become rich (maybe)... --Zach 18:25, 7 January 2007 (UTC)
Er, good luck: you probably want to become an applied mathematician working in audio signal processing rather than a programmer, though. The hard part isn't writing software, but rather understanding in a numerically precise way what, say, "background music" is. Somewhat easier is to (approximately) remove voices -- see karaoke. --Tardis 01:51, 8 January 2007 (UTC)
You can remove most vocals by chopping out frequencies using an equalizer. There are much better solutions, such as only applying the equalization to areas that have singing, but I am not aware of any commercial applications that do this automatically. Look for karaoke music processors. Droud 00:48, 9 January 2007 (UTC)
You can do karaoke-style vocal removal with Audacity using these instructions. I've done this before, with varying degrees of success. Things like stereo effects on the vocal track and other instruments panned dead centre will adversely affect the quality of the result. You may be able to get a vocal-only track by taking the vocal-less track, inverting it and merging it with the original, but the quality will probably be even worse (I've never tried it myself). Matt Eason 11:39, 12 January 2007 (UTC)

January 7

Bulk renaming of files

I have N jpg files. I want to arrange these alphabetically and then rename them so that the first file is 1.jpg, second is 2.jpg, etc., so that the last is N.jpg. Is there a simple way to do this ? deeptrivia (talk) 01:58, 7 January 2007 (UTC)

That would require some sort of script or software, I believe. If you email me your address I could send it to you, if you really, really need it (it's no bother, it would only take a couple of minutes to write). Oskar 02:08, 7 January 2007 (UTC)
I'm not sure if this will solve your specific problem, but I've used a freeware utility called Bulk Rename Utility. It has a somewhat technical interface, but you may be able to get it to work. --Uthbrian (talk) 03:58, 7 January 2007 (UTC)
I've done this a time or two. Option 1 is to write a Perl script or something (I've done that, but they've all been one-off sort of programs. It is absolutely unusable without rewriting to the specific situation.) Option 2 is this: (I'm assuming you are using Windows, here.) Using the command line, output the filenames to a text file(command is "dir -b > file.txt"). Open this file in your favorite spreadsheet program (I'm using Excel). You can use it to automatically create a batch file like this: Fill column 1 with "rename", put the original file names in column 2, and use this formula =CONCATENATE(TEXT(ROW(), "0"), ".jpg") to create the renamed files in the third column. You can change the number of zeros to give you leading zeros(i.e. change "0" to "00" if you want a zero in front of 01.jpg through 09.jpg). Save the file as a tab delimited text file, change the extension to .bat, and run it in the directory the files are in. Option 3 is doing it one. file. at. a. time. --Transfinite 06:39, 7 January 2007 (UTC)


If you use Linux, or if have Cygwin installed on MS Windows, then you can go to the directory you want, and copy-and-paste the following bash command:
N=1;
mkdir "out";
for A in *.jpg; do \
   echo "Renaming $A to $N.jpg"; \
   cp "$A" "out/$N.jpg"; \
   N=$(( $N+1 )); \
done;
Note: the sort is case sensitive - for case insensitive search use
rename y/A-Z/a-z/ *
to lowercase everything first (that command will lowercase non-jpg files too!!). From the command above, files are copied to "out" with the new names (not renamed). Nonetheless, please create a backup copy of the files before using this. For renaming as 01.jpg, 02.jpg, etc replace "out/$N.jpg" with "out/$(printf %02d $N).jpg" (or 001 as %03d, etc). --h2g2bob 11:42, 7 January 2007 (UTC)
Batching renaming in IrfanView will get the job done quickly. Robmods 12:45, 7 January 2007 (UTC)
Total Commander also has a batch renaming tool included. Aetherfukz 17:59, 7 January 2007 (UTC)
An elegant pipeline (may require bash):
paste <(ls *.jpg) <(seq 1 $(ls *.jpg | wc -l) | sed 's/$/.jpg/') | xargs -l1 mv
An all-sed pipeline:
ls *.jpg | sed = | sed -n 'h;n;G;s/\n\(.*\)/ \1.jpg/;p' | xargs -l1 mv
Any improvements? –EdC 23:04, 7 January 2007 (UTC)
Well, he did contact me via email, and I wrote a little java application (I use Linux too, and that whole "platform-independent" thing is really neat) that fixed it for him. I'm sorry to be the boring guy using Java when you can solve it with wierd Linux pipelines :) Oskar 23:14, 7 January 2007 (UTC)
That's beauty, man! --froth 04:08, 8 January 2007 (UTC)

Mainframe

Why are mainframe computers called "mainframe" computers? —The preceding unsigned comment was added by The Anonymous One (talkcontribs) 03:24, 7 January 2007 (UTC).

Did you try the article on Mainframe computers? --Transfinite 05:58, 7 January 2007 (UTC)

Well, it combines "main", meaning primary, with "frame", meaning a structure to which various components could be attached. So, it was the primary structural frame to which processors, disk drives, etc., were attached. Tape drives and other peripherals were often attached to secondary structural frames. StuRat 21:07, 7 January 2007 (UTC)

Neverwinter nights 2 questions

Its possible to make new classes for neverwinter nights 2? And new prestige clases? And new races? And new sub-races? Exdeathbr 03:55, 7 January 2007 (UTC)

I'm not exactly sure what you're asking (classes that didn't appear in Neverwinter Nights 1? Or making up your own classes and races?), but have you tried looking here? In particular, there's a "character development FAQ" that might answer your question. Dave6 02:59, 8 January 2007 (UTC)

Yes, i was talking about create my own classes, races, sub-races, or restige classes, with the toolset or another thing. Exdeathbr 22:26, 8 January 2007 (UTC)

Disk staging

I'm not an IT professional, but I ran across the article on disk staging while reading about backup. The article on disk staging seems to be about disk cloning instead. Is my interpretation correct? --Uthbrian (talk) 03:53, 7 January 2007 (UTC)

A Google search seems to suggest that the idea with disk staging is outputing backup data to a hard drive before pushing it out to tape. I'm reverting it back to an old copy that says that. --Transfinite 06:57, 7 January 2007 (UTC)

A common way to do backups in "highly available" systems is to have each disk volume replicated ("shadowed") across (say) three physical disk drives. For backup purposes, one of the disk drives is removed from the volume set and the contents of that removed disk is then backed-up to tape (etc.). This third disk is then re-joined to the volume set and its (now obsolete) data is "caught-up" to the current contents of the volume set.
Atlant 17:46, 8 January 2007 (UTC)

Database conversions

I was wondering, as I am not too greatly trained with computers, if there was a way to take a database list (it has over 350 items, so I don't feel like converting manually) and convert into a text file with added markings in between. Example: Take the following "database":

Field 1 Field 2
Row 1 info 1 Row 1 info 2
Row 2 info 1 Row 2 info 2

and convert to a text file similar to this:

] by ]
] by ]

Maybe some program that would create a list by: ] by ] (replacing <<Field #>> with each row in the database). If this is possible, what program/application could I use to do this? --WillMak050389 04:53, 7 January 2007 (UTC)

This can be done with just about any program, scripting language, or even a single database query. Because there are literally millions of ways (if not billions of ways) to do it, you need to be more specific about what kind of database you have and what programming languages you know. --Kainaw 04:57, 7 January 2007 (UTC)
I have Microsoft Database from Microsoft Works version 8.0. I meant to specify that before. Anyway, I hope that helps. --WillMak050389 05:01, 7 January 2007 (UTC)
In a SQL query you could use: SELECT " & "]] by & "]]" AS Expr1 FROM Table1; and then just export the query results as a text file. (I would assume Microsoft Database has the functionality to create a SQL query.) --Phydaux 14:35, 7 January 2007 (UTC)

My Recent Documents (Windows XP Start Menu)

In the “Customize Start Menu” dialog box I have checked “List my most recently opened documents”. My complaint is that they get listed in alphabetical order, but I would like to see them listed in order of recency. --Citefixer1965 05:30, 7 January 2007 (UTC)

Try clicking on the column heading for time created. Typically clicking again on the same column heading will reverse the order. StuRat 20:52, 7 January 2007 (UTC)
I think sturat is suggesting that you open "recent documents" in windows explorer (right click it and select Open) and then sort the entries by date by the method he suggested --froth 04:06, 8 January 2007 (UTC)
Yep, thanks for filling in the part I forgot to say. StuRat
Tried that; changing the order in which the files in the window are displayed makes no difference to the order in which they are displayed in the pop-out menu from the Start Menu. --Citefixer1965 04:25, 8 January 2007 (UTC)
Incidentally the Microsoft Knowledge Base article on My Recent Documents does not address my question. I find it peculiar that this does not come up more often; surely almost everyone that uses the ‘My Recent Documents’ would find it more convenient for the most recent documents to be listed first? --Citefixer1965 04:37, 8 January 2007 (UTC)

any way to make windows xp sound recorder record longer?

hi, just found this utility it works ok but seems to be set at 8 seconds. is it posible to set it for 1 hour etc?


Before recording what you want, record 10 seconds and keep making the sound slower, this will make the lenght of the sound bigger and you will have more time to record.

Just use Audacity --h2g2bob 13:36, 7 January 2007 (UTC)
Audacity is definitely the best option, but if for some reason you still want or need to use sound recorder, microsoft has a support page that shows you how to increase the recording time. it lists 95/98 but should work on xp.--PiTHON 05:06, 8 January 2007 (UTC)

problem downloading from camera

i use a Canon A75 and over a period was able to download photos from the camera to photo files with no problem. now when attempting to download, a notice appears reading 'unable to locate scanner or camera' the scanner however does work but allattempts to open the camera connection and download pictures fails.

all help will be appreciated217.132.93.151 15:07, 7 January 2007 (UTC)

Are you sure you've plugged the camera in correctly, turned it on and that it has had a chance to be recognised? —Vanderdeckenξφ 16:24, 7 January 2007 (UTC)

Did you install any software on the computer to enable the upload ? There is most likely a disk that came with the camera, and you need to reinstall that software. StuRat 20:43, 7 January 2007 (UTC)

Also try removing the driver if it exists. WP 10:32, 8 January 2007 (UTC)

Removing traces of another OS

I installed the test trial of Windows Vista a while back and decided to switch back to XP. Easy enough. Every time I turn my computer on now, though, it gives me options to boot XP and Vista. I know that there are no Vista startup files on my computer (and this is evident when I try to boot Vista, and it just goes to a black screen). I think it is because I "sectored" (for lack of the proper word) my hard drive to accept a different OS. But now I want it gone. How can I remove these last traces of Vista on my computer (safely!)? JARED   18:13, 7 January 2007 (UTC)

If I understand you correctly, you created a new hard disk partition and then partially installed Windows Vista in the new partition. If this is the case, try formatting the Windows Vista partition, which will delete everything on that partition. StuRat 20:30, 7 January 2007 (UTC)
The program that's offering the boot choices is called a boot loader; what you want is probably to re-install the single-OS boot loader that comes with XP rather than the multiple-option one you're using. (It's possible, though, that a simpler reconfiguration of the loader you have would cause it to invisibly load the one option it knows about so that it wouldn't matter.) As for how to do any of this, I'm afraid my only suggestion is to look at the NTLDR article and its links. --Tardis 01:20, 8 January 2007 (UTC)
It's in your boot.ini file, which is marked system, hidden, and read-only. You have to open up a command prompt, and type attrib -r -s -h C:\boot.ini. Back up boot.ini just in case you stuff up. Open boot.ini in Notepad and remove the line under that says multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows Vista" or something similar (I haven't/don't/will not use Windows Vista). That's about it (of course the default OS could be set to the Vista partition, if you created one). Sorry if my advice is too hard to understand. --wj32 06:46, 8 January 2007 (UTC)
That was very simple! I'll reboot to see how it goes. JARED   23:09, 8 January 2007 (UTC)
And we never heard from him again! Oskar 23:35, 8 January 2007 (UTC)
Because of failing to start Windows because it found that "boot.ini was corrupted"! --wj32 00:18, 9 January 2007 (UTC)

I'm not familiar with the Windows Vista bootloader, but it may be different from the NT bootloader that XP uses, and it may not even look at the XP partition's boot.ini. What I would do is fix the boot.ini file by taking out the vista entry. Then boot into the XP installation disk and choose "repair mode". Type fixmbr and hit enter. Then type fixboot and hit enter. This will restore the old NT bootloader used by XP, and vista shouldn't be an entry on the list. This is all assuming that Vista uses a different bootloader, I just don't know --froth 20:45, 9 January 2007 (UTC)

Haha, I'm back, and it worked, so everything is fine. Thank you much! JARED   00:06, 12 January 2007 (UTC)

.avi to dvd

how can I burn an .avi movie file onto a dvd so that I can play it on my dvd player, or playstation. I am in the UK if region makes a diffference. If i recquire software can I have some recomendations, and freeware if possible. Thank you. Philc TC 18:30, 7 January 2007 (UTC)

Here's one fact that might help you: the last three characters of the file's name tell you nothing about its contents. Even if you know the file is in Audio Video Interleave format, that tells you nothing about the actual audio and video data. First, you need to find out what kind of audio and video you're dealing with. The file command is good for this, or the online version if your OS doesn't have it. —Keenan Pepper 19:08, 7 January 2007 (UTC)
VLC Wiki has some information, but not all that much. I'd suggest finding a specialised program (try sourceforge). --h2g2bob 19:26, 7 January 2007 (UTC)
He's right- AVI isn't a video format (although it's often synonymous with uncompressed "full frame" video) it's a container format. A good way to find out what form of encoding it uses, try playing it in VLC player and viewing the video stream information- the decoder listed can often give you a hint as to what format the movie is. But this whole format thing is probably irrelevant, chances are your dvd burning software will take it just fine. To make a video DVD you need software like Nero.. chances are if you bought a mainstream DVD burner then it came with this software. Just point your burning software at the video and hope it can decode it (for re-encoding in MPEG-2). If it doesn't recognize the format, try using a utility like mencoder to encode it in a different format --froth 03:53, 8 January 2007 (UTC)
Arent there any programs that will let brun it onto a dvd though, do I have to know what format it is? Philc TC 12:49, 8 January 2007 (UTC)
I've used a program called Roxio Toast for this with good results, but it's not freeware and it's only for the Mac. It looks like Roxio make similar software for Windows, though - have a look at their website. --Richardrj 13:56, 8 January 2007 (UTC)
I would suggest VSO ConvertXtoDVD. It isn't freeware, but it's worth the price ($15, at least when I bought it) if you're going to be burning DVDs regularly. Pesapluvo 20:07, 9 January 2007 (UTC)

Calculator Progamming

How would i program my calculator to run a program i have developed, to operate on the individual elements of a variable sized matrix, while leaving it in matrix form?

Is this even possible?

Thanks Omnipotence407 19:28, 7 January 2007 (UTC)

What model calc do you have ? StuRat 20:25, 7 January 2007 (UTC)

Ti-84+ Omnipotence407 20:54, 7 January 2007 (UTC)

So, the equivalent of saying something like for(R,0,matrix row length)? As far as I know, you can't do this, although I may be wrong. TK-925 03:21, 8 January 2007 (UTC)
Sure. Your matrices are named through . To access an individual element, use (X,Y) where X and Y are the "coordinates" of the element you want. So here's some random example code..
Input "HOW BIG X? ",X
Input "HOW BIG Y? ",Y
Fill(,5)
Pause 
For(A,0,X-1,1)
For(B,0,Y-1,1)
1 -> (A,B)
End
End
Pause 
This will ask you how big you want your matrix A. It then uses the built-in TI-OS "fill" operation to fill that matrix with fives. Then it's printed out with the Pause command. (I'm not exactly sure if Pause works with matrices, you might also try Disp) Then it manually steps through each cell and fills it with ones (the -> means the STO> symbol) and prints out the matrix again. --froth 04:02, 8 January 2007 (UTC)
You forgot to dimension the matrix. Add:
{Y,X}->dim()
before the Fill command. Superm401 - Talk 05:42, 8 January 2007 (UTC)
Also, the fill commands backwards, switched X and Y, and TI-BASIC at least doesn't use 0 indexing. That's still better than I usually do without testing. :) The full program should be:
Input "HOW BIG X? ",X
Input "HOW BIG Y? ",Y
{Y,X}->dim()
Fill(5,)
Pause 
For(A,1,X,1)
For(B,1,Y,1)
1 -> (B,A)
End
End
Pause 
Superm401 - Talk 05:54, 8 January 2007 (UTC)
Without testing indeed, and also I haven't programmed in TI BASIC in almost a year. It took me at least 10 minutes to decide that it was (X,Y) and not because I didn't want to get up and actually check :D Good catch with the dim. But for the X and Y, I don't even try to keep them straight, it makes more sense to me to always have X and Y in order (X,Y) than X actually being the horizontal axis and Y actually being the vertical --froth 07:50, 8 January 2007 (UTC)
It doesn't really matter unless you're going to be displaying the matrix. Superm401 - Talk 08:39, 8 January 2007 (UTC)

I'm afraid I'm not following this. To be more exact, i want to be able to mod26 each element, i have the the program that allows me to do that manually, but i want to be able to do that to each element of the matrix individually. For the sake of writing, can you please put a mod26 or something where that program would go? Thanks Omnipotence407 00:28, 9 January 2007 (UTC)

That's understandable. The part that loops is below:
For(A,1,X,1)
For(B,1,Y,1)
1 -> (B,A)
End
End
Assuming contains only non-negative values, mod26 should work just like:
For(A,1,X,1)
For(B,1,Y,1)
(B,A)->C
C-int(C/26)*26->(B,A)
End
End
--Superm401 - Talk 05:08, 9 January 2007 (UTC)
Ah. I thought the question being asking was if you could get the length and width of the matrix without user input. TK-925 02:18, 12 January 2007 (UTC)

Thanks everyone, I was able to figure it out. By the way Superm407, with any integer X (any, including negatives), ((X/26)-int(X/26))*26 gets you the mod26.

Thanks again Omnipotence407 22:24, 12 January 2007 (UTC)

Electronic attendance counter

Attendance counter: you've seen one, those little metal things that fit in your palm with the little black dials with white numbers on them. I've been looking for the electronic equivalent of one of these, so I can get a yyyy-mm-dd-hh-mm-ss timestamp along with each count, and then upload the results to a spreadsheet. This seems like an obvious invention or product (to me), but I cannot find one. Anyone? NoClutter 22:27, 7 January 2007 (UTC)

Sports timing equipment might do what you want (an electric chronometer, like this: ) They typically have a display and space for a couple thousand timestamps, so probably won't fit in your palm, though. –EdC 22:35, 7 January 2007 (UTC)
Write a program that writes a record (with your desired data) each time you click the mouse. Use the mouse as your hand-held attendence counter.
Atlant 17:50, 8 January 2007 (UTC)

January 8

Expresscard graphics

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

3 monitors on a Radeon 9250 PCI 128 mb

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

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

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

I believe most cards only have two render engines and therefore can only draw on two screens. Most cards only have one accelerated render engine too, I used to use a cad program and rendering on my second screen in real time was awful! I had to render on the primary screen. In short, I don't think you can get 3 screens going at the same time, the reason it has 3 sockets is just so you get a choice which output you want to use for your 2nd screen. Vespine 06:29, 8 January 2007 (UTC)
I think you can have desktop across two screen plus a clone of one of the screens on your TV. It says that in my old Radeon 7500 card but I haven't tried. --antilived 05:38, 9 January 2007 (UTC)
I was coming round to agreeing with Vespine, since most information suggests that. But then there are a few places that suggest you can squeeze a third monitor from your card if its a mirror exist. Antilived, or anyone, do you know how? Aaron 13:10, 9 January 2007 (UTC)
I read that from the manual so I am pretty sure it works. But I neither have 2 computer monitors nor a TV that is close to my computer nor the Radeo 7500 itself so I can't possibly test it... --203.184.58.178 01:48, 11 January 2007 (UTC) antilived 01:49, 11 January 2007 (UTC)

Exit X Server in Kubuntu Edgy

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

Most likely, you are in runlevel 5 (X-window) and you want to be runlevel 3 (command prompt). Change it with "telinit 3" at the command prompt. --Kainaw 05:54, 8 January 2007 (UTC)
Just to clarify, I'm in the full KDE environment. I tried that under Konsole (an xterm), and it had no effect. Usually, it will crash then reload automatically but that did nothing. Thanks for the suggestion, though. Superm401 - Talk 05:56, 8 January 2007 (UTC)
Have you tried Ctr-Alt-Backspace, or failing that, kill -9'ing the X server? —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 149.135.97.128 (talk) 06:21, 8 January 2007 (UTC).
Ctrl+Alt+Backspace usually just restarts the X server in Ubuntu versions, so I'd recommend switching to another virtual terminal and killing the X server: sudo killall -9 X. --wj32 06:53, 8 January 2007 (UTC)
How do I do that? Is it Ctrl+Alt+F#? That just gives me a black screen. The virtual terminal doesn't load. Superm401 - Talk 08:51, 8 January 2007 (UTC)
Just do that from an xterm; who cares, you're killing the X server. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 149.135.97.128 (talk) 12:14, 8 January 2007 (UTC).
Well, sudo killall -9 Xorg still just restarts it. That's the issue. Superm401 - Talk 23:39, 8 January 2007 (UTC)
Have you tried finding out the parent process of the X server? Maybe the parent process is the process which keeps on restarting the server. --wj32 00:17, 9 January 2007 (UTC)
Could be. How do I do that? :) Superm401 - Talk 01:48, 9 January 2007 (UTC)
It's gdm that does the X restarting. Press Ctrl+Alt+F1 or something similar, and type sudo killall -9 gdm. Then try killing X. --wj32 03:13, 9 January 2007 (UTC)
Well, I'm using Kubuntu so, it's apparently kdm. As I said, Ctrl+Alt+F1 just gives me a black screen. I'll try sudo killall -9 kdm in Konsole. 04:42, 9 January 2007 (UTC)
That test worked. Then I tried two things. First, sudo killall -9 Xorg. This just freezes completely, still within X and KDE and everything. Then, I restarted, did sudo killall -9 Xorg again, then did Ctrl-Alt-Backspace. That exits X Server and doesn't restart, but it just gives me a black screen. There's no terminal. Superm401 - Talk 05:00, 9 January 2007 (UTC)
Then, I wouldn't know. Pretty weird that Ctrl+Alt+F1 gives a blank screen, though. --wj32 06:54, 9 January 2007 (UTC)
I take it you're not actually using Kubuntu Edgy? :) Superm401 - Talk 07:26, 9 January 2007 (UTC)
I'm using Ubuntu Edgy :):) --wj32 08:38, 9 January 2007 (UTC)
No problem. I'll try to remember to post here if I ever figure it out. Superm401 - Talk 08:40, 9 January 2007 (UTC)
Perhaps you should try the open(1) command to start something on one of your other VTs? --Tardis 17:46, 9 January 2007 (UTC)
I tried:
root@matthew-e1505:/data# openvt bash
It just beeps at me. Then I tried:
root@matthew-e1505:/data# openvt -c 3
It says:
VT 3 is in use; command aborted
use `openvt -f' to force
I tried it for all the other numbers, up to:
root@matthew-e1505:/data# openvt -f -c 20
It says they're all in use. Any idea what would cause this? When I try to force it, I just get the beep again. Superm401 - Talk 23:52, 9 January 2007 (UTC)
Good catch noticing that openvt is the modern version. My guess is that you have no VTs allocated; it appears that chvt can create them for you, but I don't know if that's precisely your problem. You could also try using lsof to see if something really has them open. --Tardis 15:50, 10 January 2007 (UTC)
The man page clued me in. I tried chvt 3, and I got only a black screen. Thanks for the suggestion. I've submitted a support request at https://answers.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+ticket/3119 , if anyone's interested. Superm401 - Talk 21:32, 10 January 2007 (UTC)

Files Not Accessible

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

Make sure you are logged on as an "administrator". --17:52, 8 January 2007 (UTC)
Aye. There is only one account, and it's considered the computer administrator, but do you want me to log on as the "Administrator" in Safe mode? --Russoc4 18:03, 8 January 2007 (UTC)
You can also hit CTRL+ALT+DEL once or twice at the welcome screen, and get a real login prompt. Administrator will be the user name, and the password will be the administrator password you (hopefully) set when you installed windows, if you didnt set one, you can try leaving it blank, but sometimes the security policy will not allow the admin to log in with a blank password. It could also be a bad sector or file system error, have you tried running chkdsk? Cyraan 19:05, 8 January 2007 (UTC)
this only works on windows xp-pro, windows xp home will not allow you to log into the administrator account in normal mode due to account restrictions. You can log into safe mode (hit F8 before windows boots, select safe mode). in safe mode you can log into administrator, and also have access to the security tab under any folder/file properties (right click a folder and go to properties, click on security). This tab allows you to change the security permissions on folders and files, the OP would want to add "administrators" (plural) to his ark folder, allowing him access to them with Full control selected, and no deny permissions. If for some reason he's using a limited "User" account, he'd want to add "Users" to the list (or go to control panel/users and make his account an admin account). To recursively change all permissions for all files/folders within that folder, under the security tab after adding "administrators" you need to click on "Advanced" then click on "Administrators" under the permissions tab, click edit, make sure it says "apply to: This folder, subfolders and files" and make sure full control is selected under allow, with no deny options checked. hit OK once, on this screen select "replace permission entries on all child objects within entires here that apply to child objects", hit apply and the computer will set the permissions to every subfolder/file (make take a few minutes). The security permissions denying you access to a folder is why its listed as 0 bytes 0 files, once you allow yourself access you can correctly see everything. As Wj32 said try not to program files or windows folders to store things--PiTHON 02:00, 9 January 2007 (UTC)
I ran chkdsk. It found and fixed errors at startup, but I didn't do the deep scan to fix bad sectors. Should I try that? How long might it take on an 80GB hdd that is 75% free space? --Russoc4 20:29, 8 January 2007 (UTC)
Forever :D Actually a few hours depending on your PC. The free space doesn't help as it mainly checks the physical drive rather than the files. --h2g2bob 20:38, 8 January 2007 (UTC)
Alright, I just ran it. Only took about 30 mins, and I still cannot access the folders. --Russoc4 21:10, 8 January 2007 (UTC)

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

You really shouldn't use system folders for storing your own personal data, because they are usually only writable by Administrators and SYSTEM. I think what happened was that somehow, the folder you created had everything-permission for Administrators, but the contents were nothing-permission for Administrators. --wj32 00:30, 9 January 2007 (UTC)
As a side note, there is a way to log on as SYSTEM. --Russoc4 15:56, 9 January 2007 (UTC)
Yep, psexec. --wj32 01:26, 11 January 2007 (UTC)

Boolean Algebra

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

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

Japanese character set for Mozilla Firefox

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

As far as I remember I didn't have question marks, instead they were empty rectangles, but it's possible it's the same problem. The solution I found was to go into Control Panel, then Regional and Language Options, then the Languages tab and then clicked the tick box for East Asian language packs. This does require the CD/DVD for your OS, and is of course presuming you're using Windows. --Kiltman67 22:50, 8 January 2007 (UTC)
I've sometimes found that installing the relevant font helps. If you're running Linux, I recently installed a Debian 4 beta, and found that all sorts of odd character sets worked; it apparently comes with all those fonts. But that's a lot of work just to get some languages working. Golwengaud 23:11, 8 January 2007 (UTC)
If you're using windows, you'll need your windows CD in the drive, go to Control Panel->Regional and Language Options, select the Languages tab, and check "Install files for East Asian Languages", and hit Apply/OK. I think you'll need to restart when its done, but this is how I do it, and have never had a problem with Japanese characters in Firefox. Cyraan 23:40, 8 January 2007 (UTC)
I turned on East Asian languages in the control panel, and now it's working! Thanks everyone for the helpful advice. -GTBacchus 23:44, 8 January 2007 (UTC)
What if you didn't get a Windows CD with your computer, but it came preloaded? User:Zoe|(talk) 00:15, 9 January 2007 (UTC)
You should be able to get the fonts from someone else who has them installed on there computer. I can't remember the exact names of them but you should be able to find the names somewhere. --Kiltman67 01:30, 9 January 2007 (UTC)
Windows came pre-loaded on my computer, and it still worked. When I ticked the East Asian languages box, it copied some files from somewhere to somewhere else, and after a restart, all was well. I don't understand what it did, but I don't understand Japanese either. -GTBacchus 01:55, 9 January 2007 (UTC)
Thanks Cyraan! I was having the same problem; I didn't know there was such an easy solution! (Mine also had it already loaded, strangely. Why have it on your hard drive if you're not using it? Is seeing ???? all the time an advantage?) - Rainwarrior 05:43, 9 January 2007 (UTC)
No problem, odd though, Ive always had to pop the CD in if i didn't choose to on install, it may just be something the OEM does if you have a Dell or some other pre-built PC. Cyraan 01:22, 10 January 2007 (UTC)

Advanced? API? programming

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

You would need some kind of API for web pages, so try Mozilla. If you're using Windows, you would need to hook (I think) something to do with keypresses (?) and mouse clicks (?). Then, get your program to download the page http://en.wikipedia.org/Special:Random 6 times. See if the HTML for a stub is in the code, and if it is, download another random page. Then, if it passes the test, open it up in your browser (find out the title of the page first). --wj32 00:25, 9 January 2007 (UTC)
Well, if you add the below to User:Taraborn/monobook.js, it should do about what you wanted. Then, in Mozilla Firefox, goto Preferences, Tabs, and choose "New pages should be opened in a new tab". Of course, this will make all new pages open in tabs, but to my knowledge there's no way to programmatically force Mozilla to open a particular link in a tab. I don't know what you mean E+left click, so I assumed that you meant the "e" key was actually down. If the "e" key is down, it will open 6 new tabs (provided you have new windows opening in tabs). If it isn't, the default single random page will load:
function checkRandomKey(e)
{
  var code = e.keyCode;
  var char = String.fromCharCode(code);
  if(char.toUpperCase() == "E")
    randomKeyDown = !randomKeyDown;
  return true;
}
function openRandomPages(e)
{
  if(randomKeyDown)
    {
      var fullPath = wgServer + wgArticlePath;
      var randomPage = fullPath.replace(/\$1/, "Special:Random");
      for(var i = 0; i < 6; i++)
        window.open(randomPage);
      e.preventDefault();
      randomKeyDown = false;
    }
}
var randomKeyDown;
function setupRandomPages()
{
  randomKeyDown = false;
  var randomLink = document.getElementById("n-randompage").firstChild;
  window.addEventListener("keydown", checkRandomKey, false);
  window.addEventListener("keyup", checkRandomKey, false);
  randomLink.addEventListener("click",openRandomPages,false); 
}
addOnloadHook(setupRandomPages);
Just fool around with this stuff and you'll learn it gradually. I think Greasemonkey will help you out with these types of problems. I use it all the time. Also, Quirksmode is very good. P.S. Your quote "I'm addicted to reading Misplaced Pages, it's the only encyclopedia that grows faster than you can read :D" has been added to my list. :) Superm401 - Talk 03:48, 9 January 2007 (UTC)
Thank you very much to you two. Your script, Superm401, works perfectly :D, although my browser's cache was a bit annoying at first... P.S. I'm very glad you liked that quote :D --Taraborn 12:44, 9 January 2007 (UTC)

upload text only format

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

You can open your text file and copy the contents into a wikipedia editing page, but the wikimedia software will not allow you upload text. Droud 00:54, 9 January 2007 (UTC)
See Help:Editing. Superm401 - Talk 03:49, 9 January 2007 (UTC)

What knowlage do i thirst for?

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

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

You would need a server-side language like PHP. To do that, you would need your own server software, like Apache. Then, you would need to install PHP support. You can install MediaWiki on your own server, too. --wj32 00:27, 9 January 2007 (UTC)
Sounds like you need storage and manipulation of data. PHP and MySQL are good technologies to start with. Droud 00:55, 9 January 2007 (UTC)
If you are just playing around, there are some free sites that have PHP/MySQL available. If you are building an application for a company of some sort, you will want a more respectable service. They can be dirt cheap ($5/month) to extremely expensive ($500/month). What you are paying for is the level of service. The most expensive ones have people on call 24 hours a day to answer any question you have about PHP, MySQL, or managing your server. --Kainaw 03:40, 9 January 2007 (UTC)
So, i should learn how to program with PHP, or MySQL. where would these sites be located? and where can i learn the coding for them? —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Xiaden (talkcontribs) 06:06, 9 January 2007 (UTC).
No use programming if you can't search the web! :) --wj32 06:59, 9 January 2007 (UTC)
The software which runs Misplaced Pages is available as free software. See MediaWiki (website). MediaWiki is written in PHP, and uses MySQL as a database.
A simpler alternative is to use Wikia and create a free wiki there - see wikia:www. --h2g2bob 13:15, 9 January 2007 (UTC)

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

PHP needs to run off of a web server, as someone mentioned. Just figure out how to install one (Apache HTTP Server is the most common free one) on your local machine and you can play around in PHP for free (and much quicker than you could uploading scripts to a server). If you know Javascript already it shouldn't be too hard — the syntax is fairly similar in most cases. Download the PHP manual to your hard drive as well — it is an invaluable resource since there are a million functions with their own special syntaxes and there is no reason to try and memorize them all. --24.147.86.187 15:35, 10 January 2007 (UTC)
hmm... is there anything that doesn't require downloading, as i am learning most of these languages in school and would not like to download anything to a local machine...Xiaden 14:42, 12 January 2007 (UTC)

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

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

They are just context-free languages, although they could be called transitional context-free languages due to their strict bounding between regular and context-free. Droud 01:14, 9 January 2007 (UTC)
No, DPDAs do not accept all context-free languages, although they accept some (for example, they accept all regular languages, which are also context-free). The proof isn't trivial, but the theorem is mentioned here. As you (User:Spoon!) correctly state, DPDAs are strictly less powerful than NPDAs (unlike the better-known case with NFAs, which although appearing much more complex, have the same power as DFAs). There's no actual name for the class of languages accepted by DPDAs, at least as far as I know (which surely doesn't mean one doesn't exist; my knowledge of CS theory, outside my actual area, is limited by a couple of grad classes and some out-of-interest reading). Note that it's not at all surprising that a particular class of languages has no name: there's an infinite number of language classes between two adjacent Chomsky types. For example, between type-2 and type-3 we have all a class containing all CF languages save for one (you get to choose that one, and this already gives you infinite number of classes); all CF languages save for two (same thing here), ..., all regular languages plus one CF language (that you also get to choose). All of these classes reside strictly between regular and CF languages, and there's "many" infinities of them. IgorSF 10:09, 10 January 2007 (UTC)

Overclock lock?

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


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

Irritating loading thing

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

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

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

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

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

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

Matlab figures to SVG

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

A quick google search turns up this page, which looks like what you want. The same google search actually also turned up this wikipedia image (damn we have a high PageRank, our images are on the first pages of a google search!). It was made by User:Nmnogueira, so a good idea would probably be to ask him/her. Oskar 22:44, 9 January 2007 (UTC)
Where did you think all that donation money went? :p --froth 03:10, 10 January 2007 (UTC)

January 9

Kubuntu - Disabling Switch User Option

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

You can do it by manually setting the GConf key "/apps/gnome-screensaver/user_switch_enabled" to false. Don't know of a more user-friendly way to do it. May I ask why? —Keenan Pepper 04:28, 10 January 2007 (UTC)
Try the Lockdown Editor. --wj32 01:17, 11 January 2007 (UTC)
Unfortunately, I have Kubuntu installed (KDE) so I couldn't find the KDE equivalent of the gconf file. To answer Keenan's question: The reason I was asking was that I know that in Windows you can go CTRL+ALT+DEL and then lock the screen, and there is no menu to log in as another user. I was wondering if that was possible in Kubuntu too. A quick google only finds gnome versions of the lockdown editor. I'll have a proper look around later for a KDE version. Thanks. - Akamad 05:10, 11 January 2007 (UTC)
Then, I don't know. --wj32 06:06, 11 January 2007 (UTC)

Transmission

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

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

Windows XP Background Graphics

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

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

Don't you mean Bliss (see the article), Windows XP default wallpaper? — Kieff 18:21, 9 January 2007 (UTC)
I believe he is referring to ascent.jpg, the image of a mountain at dawn/dusk with snow blowing right to left off its peak, and a partial moon to the left. Not being from the Northwest, I offer no expert knowledge on this, but as Microsoft is based in the Seattle area I would strongly suspect it is an image of Mt. Rainier, take a look at this for comparison... --66.195.232.121 19:44, 9 January 2007 (UTC)

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

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

GIMP question

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

Yes I'm sure it's possible as I've done it before, but I haven't used it in ages and haven't the slightest idea of how to do it now --froth 20:05, 9 January 2007 (UTC)
If I understood your intention correctly, this is something that can be done with masks. Go to the layer with the transparent background and choose Layer → Mask → Add mask... and then select Layer alpha and click OK. Now activate the opaque layer, choose Layer → Mask → Add mask... and proceed with whatever settings there are. Go to the transparent layer's mask (by clicking it in the layer list), Ctrl+A Ctrl+C, then go to the opaque layer's mask, Ctrl+V. Anchor the mask, and you're done. –mysid 21:01, 9 January 2007 (UTC)
Yes, this works. Thank you! JIP | Talk 10:11, 10 January 2007 (UTC)

could u please help

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

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

January 10

Buying a laptop without Windows

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

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

Hypersonic offers notebooks without an OS for a savings of $90 from XP. I wouldn't be surprised if some of the other gaming computer vendors do the same. kmccoy (talk) 04:25, 10 January 2007 (UTC)
You may be able to get a refund for windows after you buy it - but it takes some work. Dell is quite good for this - you can get about £50 or so. Google for "windows refund". --h2g2bob 09:54, 10 January 2007 (UTC)
Hopefully you are still going to check this...
System76 sells sells a range of systems preinstalled with Ubuntu. All hardware is guaranteed? to work with at least ubuntu. http://system76.com/ --Sish 07:16, 11 January 2007 (UTC)

Type 07

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

"Type 07" just means NTFS, for what it's worth --froth 06:28, 10 January 2007 (UTC)
Testdisk is the most powerful free utility I have found that can help you to recover lost partitions. Please use at your own risk. Sandman30s 09:47, 10 January 2007 (UTC)

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

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

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

Have you tried testdisk? Run the analyze and if it picks up your lost volume, that means it's quite safe to "Save" i.e. write the corrected partition info to disk. This program saved my life when Partition "Magic" crashed in the middle of resizing and nothing else could fix the broken partition. Sandman30s 21:36, 10 January 2007 (UTC)
Ah, when I tried installing Ubuntu 6.06, I resized a NTFS partition. Everything was lost on that partition (I thought). I used testdisk, and everything was restored! --wj32 01:30, 11 January 2007 (UTC)

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

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

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

programming language

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

ALGO is a programming language, not a pseudo code. If V is being required to program in ALGO, I feel sorry for him. If that doesn't answer your question, please try repeating it with proper grammar. --Kainaw 08:09, 10 January 2007 (UTC)
I'm guessing the question refers to an algorithm rather than ALGO. I cannot parse the question about "pseudo codes of algo" in a meaningful way, however. As for the second question, I'm guessing "v" stands for "we", a notable improvement to internet writing, since it's clearly much easier to type one letter than two. The question would then state, "if there is no use for algorithms to a programmer, then why are the programmers required (presumably, by the teachers) to write their programs as an algorithm first, as opposed to starting writing code from scratch?". The answer is in the false supposition; algorithms are indeed very useful, and in the context assumed here provide for abstraction, an extremely important software engineering concept. IgorSF 09:54, 10 January 2007 (UTC)
Perhaps the d00d is asking what is the pseudocode for writing algorithms. The answer is that there is no one specific pseudocode. As pseudocode is intended to be read only by humans, not by computers, there is much more freedom in defining your own pseudocode. JIP | Talk 10:46, 10 January 2007 (UTC)
God, who knows or cares what he is asking about? If he can't be bothered to at least try and be coherent then I don't think anybody should be bothered to guess at what he is asking about. --24.147.86.187 15:31, 10 January 2007 (UTC)
WP:BITE --froth 20:55, 10 January 2007 (UTC)
It'd be BITEing if it were making fun of their inability to use the Wiki or search or something like that. But I think we're allowed to say that someone is just being rude when they don't put any effort into making a coherent sentence. --24.147.86.187 16:45, 12 January 2007 (UTC)
There are various reasons for users not being able to write in sentences with perfect grammar. What if a user's first language is not English? Or they are not familiar with a keyboard? It's always good to assume good faith. x42bn6 Talk 21:32, 12 January 2007 (UTC)
Even basic stuff like "Put kettle on stove. Turn on heat. Wait for water to boil. Turn off heat. Pour water." is pseudocode - it doesn't have to take any sort of real structure. See pseudocode (surprised none of you linked to this yet!). x42bn6 Talk 22:57, 11 January 2007 (UTC)

System file backup...?

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

Perform the file copy outside of Windows, when the file is not locked. Splintercellguy 09:47, 10 January 2007 (UTC)
How do you get outside of XP? If you boot from a floppy you can not access the harddrive. If you boot from aCd XP will only allow you to access the harddrive under recovery console which keeps the file locked. 71.100.10.48 10:33, 10 January 2007 (UTC)
The file appears to be in use by Windows; I'd guess it's being used by the kernel, and as such, may remain in use so long as Windows is run. But you don't have to copy it under Windows! There are several ways to use your computer without Windows running; the easiest will likely involve creating a system boot disk if you don't already have one and booting your machine from that disk; or else using a bootable CD (the CD from which you installed Windows XP is a bootable CD by itself). You may need to modify BIOS setting to allow the machine to start from a floppy/CD; take care while doing that. IgorSF 09:49, 10 January 2007 (UTC)
As stated above. 71.100.10.48 10:33, 10 January 2007 (UTC)
Normally, you should be able to access the hard drive while booting from floppy. If your hard drive is formatted using NTFS rather than FAT32, there may be problems, although I'm not sure that they will arise. An additional possibility is restarting your machine in Safe mode with Command Prompt, though I can't be certain that this file won't remain locked. IgorSF 10:53, 10 January 2007 (UTC)
The file is still in use under safe mode and a floppy created under NTFS is formatted as FAT with no files for even accessing a CD much less being able to access an NRFS drive. -- 71.100.10.48 11:07, 10 January 2007 (UTC)
If you boot to the XP recovery console, the SYSTEM file won't be locked I think. Splintercellguy 13:14, 10 January 2007 (UTC)
You need a LiveDistro, something like Knoppix is a great solution, but would require a little bit of learning. ;)Vespine 21:58, 10 January 2007 (UTC)
I don't think you understand. Even if you can boot from a floppy or CD NTFS will not allow you to have access to the harddrive. 71.100.10.48 00:55, 11 January 2007 (UTC)
And why is that? Knoppix is not Windows (if you didn't know), so why would it not have access, even though it has NTFS support? --wj32 01:21, 11 January 2007 (UTC)
As stated, bootable cd's such as Knoppix, BartPE, etc.. allow you to view NTFS partitions and copy files off, most even support USB drives so you could just copy to a pen drive or an external hard drive. Another option is to physically unplug the drive and plug it into another computer. Booting to the recovery console WILL allow you to copy the system file off, it isn't locked in the recovery console as you stated before. However, I'm curious as to why you are trying to copy the SYSTEM file off, do you have another computer thats getting a "config/system file is missing or corrupt" error on booting? Copying the system file off another computer will not fix this error, the best way to fix this is to boot off a windows xp cd; on the first screen that says "hit R to repair, or hit enter to install" hit ENTER, not repair, the next screen is the license agreement, hit F8 to accept that, now the next screen should say "theres already a windows here, do you want to repair it? hit R to repair" on this SECOND repair screen you want to hit R, this will copy windows over the top of itself and repair it, fixing the error, and keeping all your existing programs. You will have to reinstall all updates after the repair. If the second repair screen doesn't show up, and you are instead looking at a partition screen, just turn off the computer. It doesn't always let you repair the windows depending on what caused the error. The other option is to do this.--PiTHON 03:12, 11 January 2007 (UTC)
Just for backup, why all these complications? Surely the simplest would be to use Windows' own backup program. It works in ordinary run mode: System tools > backup > advanced > select the files to backup and specify destination. An alternative is create a restore point, if you want a copy of the setting before changing them. -- —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Seejyb (talkcontribs) 09:31, 11 January 2007 (UTC). Oops --Seejyb 09:32, 11 January 2007 (UTC)
iirc the built in backup does not use VSS and wont backup files in use without a registry hack. however, i did just try your suggestion and the only backup location i can select is the a: drive, which isn't much use for a 5mb file. i believe its meant for old tape drives, i have seen this program used (with scripts) to backup to external HD's, however i don't know how and have no time to research it currently :p--PiTHON 16:56, 11 January 2007 (UTC)

Avi Mashup

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

I gather VirtualDub is pretty popular. Has an "Append AVI segment..." function. Weregerbil 14:53, 10 January 2007 (UTC)
Yeah, VirtualDub is what you are looking for. Though not free, Quicktime Pro can do this also, I think—it is not very expensive and I find it easier to use than VirtualDub, personally. --24.147.86.187 15:30, 10 January 2007 (UTC)
Well, I have AutoGK. I'll see what I can do with the VirtualDub that it comes with. Thanks. --Russoc4 16:05, 10 January 2007 (UTC)

Deleted file

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

Reliably, probably not. It sounds like you are on the right track with the undelete programs, I was trying to undelete some photos on a flash card and it wasn't until the third or fourth program that I was successful. Of course, if you want to pay an arm and a leg, you could seek professional help. Vespine 21:53, 10 January 2007 (UTC)
The best one I found thusfar is Handy Recovery - unfortunately it's not free. The evaluation version should allow you to undelete a few files per day. Sandman30s 22:01, 11 January 2007 (UTC)

Printing

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

Omnipotence407 16:40, 10 January 2007 (UTC)

How is your printer connected to the netowrk - though a Mac or directly? A print server may be your best bet for this kind of thing - unless there's some Mac software out there... 81.155.240.68 16:43, 10 January 2007 (UTC)
A network is a network, does the printer have an IP address? If it does, you should just be able to connect to it using that. Vespine 21:44, 10 January 2007 (UTC)
If the computer is connected directly to a MAC computer, this site looks like it has the info you need. If the printer has its own network card in it, or has a print server, then you'll need to get the software for the print server usually.--PiTHON 03:28, 11 January 2007 (UTC)

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

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

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

I will get that info as soon as I can, long weekend. 74.37.228.44 04:50, 13 January 2007 (UTC)

Class Methods

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

Is this a homework question? Well, it depends on the language. I would like the answer to be "never", but unfortunately, that's not correct. JIP | Talk 17:51, 10 January 2007 (UTC)
This is not a homework question. I was programing on Java and came across this problem.216.253.128.27 22:02, 10 January 2007 (UTC)nicholassayshi
How about creating a reference to that method? --wj32 01:24, 11 January 2007 (UTC)
When calling it from a method of the same class or a subclass, I believe. ~~ N (t/c) 21:49, 11 January 2007 (UTC)
True for Java, yes. However, that's not necessarily true in all OOP languages. For example, in python, if we have a module called foo with a method bar, this is valid code..
from foo import bar
bar()

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

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

How much would you pay for this Desktop PC?

How much do you think this computer is worth?


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

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

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

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

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

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

Slightly outdated gaming machine- I'd pay maybe 400 dollars for it max --froth 19:20, 10 January 2007 (UTC)

why the %28 %29 for secondary disambiguations?

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

%28 and %29 are HTML address code for left bracket '(' and right bracket ')'. HTML address code is NOT the correct term for it, I'm not sure what the proper name is, someone will no doubt find a link. Vespine 23:09, 10 January 2007 (UTC)
It's called percent-encoding or URL encoding, and it allows special characters on URLs. — Kieff 23:13, 10 January 2007 (UTC)
The naming conventions just try to make things easy and standardised. See Misplaced Pages:Disambiguation. x42bn6 Talk 22:53, 11 January 2007 (UTC)

January 11

On Rewritable CD's

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

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

If the CD-RW came with your computer, the software should be there. It's probably Nero Burning ROM. --h2g2bob 01:47, 11 January 2007 (UTC)
To clear the disk in Nero, there is an option called 'Erase Rewritable Disk' under the Recorder menu. Sandman30s 08:41, 11 January 2007 (UTC)
You can just put the CD in the drive and windows will mount it (chances are as drive D or E). Just delete files and drop files in like any other drive, but make sure you hit Burn in the left column before removing the disk (Windows XP only) --froth 02:37, 11 January 2007 (UTC)

Getting an iTunes library from PC to Mac

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

This page should have the info you are looking for. The itunes software is set to synch your computers with the ipod automatically, so they try to mirror your computers settings with the ipod; so a blank library on the mac would want to make your ipod the same. But you can override the automatic synching and manually do it as the site says--PiTHON 07:06, 11 January 2007 (UTC)
That's not really helping me. None of those responses are saying "this is how you do this." I've got music on my laptop. That same music is on synched on my iPod. I don't have music on my Mac, which is the machine I want synched with my iPod. I want the music on my laptop/iPod to be on my Mac, so I don't have to use my laptop anymore. How do I do this if iTunes won't let me? --Jeffrey O. Gustafson - Shazaam! - <*> 08:07, 11 January 2007 (UTC)
I appear to have found something... Hopefully this works. --Jeffrey O. Gustafson - Shazaam! - <*> 08:40, 11 January 2007 (UTC)
Yea your page is a lot more straightforward, the main thing i was looking for was telling itunes to let you manually control the music, so when you plug it into your mac, itunes wont try to synch the empty mac library with your ipod (erasing it), then you can copy the opposite way (ipod->mac)--PiTHON 02:30, 12 January 2007 (UTC)
Windows iPods are formatted with FAT32, while Macs use HFS+. Even though Macs support FAT32, iTunes tries to format your iPod. Copy your original music onto your iPod, say into a folder named "my_music". Then, on your Mac, manually mount your iPod and copy your music over. BTW: please don't ask me how to mount your iPod, I don't use a Mac, I use GNU/Linux. --wj32 07:08, 14 January 2007 (UTC)

Computer System Architecture - Memory Management

Dear Friend,

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

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

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

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

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

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

I think the answer is to do your own homework. If there is a specific detail you don't understand about your homework (e.g. how can you determine how many opcodes a 32-bit CPU can have), ask that. Don't expect people here to answer your entire homework. —Mitaphane talk 05:37, 13 January 2007 (UTC)
Mmm, question 3 would be bloody easy if you actually learned something from your course... Well, I'll give you some hints. Question 3.a: how many bits are needed to store the number 150? Question 3.b: How much space is left in the instruction after the opcode takes up space? --wj32 07:03, 14 January 2007 (UTC)

About pendrives.

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

No. 4GB appears to be the current maximum. Even 256GB were physically achievable, its astronomical cost would be entirely prohibitive. Adrian M. H. 17:52, 11 January 2007 (UTC)
For anything over 200 GB you might consider looking at an external hardrive--66.65.185.43 02:18, 13 January 2007 (UTC)
Sandisk released a 32GB flash drive at this year's CES. I believe it actually has an IDE interface, so isn't actually a pendrive. However, it is one of the largest flash drives I've seen. --Mdwyer 06:23, 13 January 2007 (UTC)

MySQL Data searched by Google & Co?

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

Yes, search engines index dynamic pages as well, as it's impossible to tell the difference in an accurate way. I've been told that Google ranks pages somewhat higher if the content appears to be static (that is, doesn't appear to use parameters - this could be done with some URL rewriting, rather than an actual caching system), but I don't have a source, and I'm not sure if it's really true, since I seem to get fine placements without doing anything special. --Pidgeot (t) (c) (e) 14:47, 11 January 2007 (UTC)
And no, google can't index your mysql database directly --froth 19:39, 11 January 2007 (UTC)
Thanks for the answers. -- Aetherfukz 09:32, 12 January 2007 (UTC)
They require hard links to the dynamic pages somewhere on the site — they will not enter terms into a search engine. Also, meta tags for keywords are not used very prominently by search engines these days, because they are obviously easy to abuse. --24.147.86.187 16:41, 12 January 2007 (UTC)

which is the best size for a tablet pc

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

I have a 15" laptop and a 21" desktop? I'm 184cm tall. This isn't really a question though is it? You're just asking for people's opinions, you'd probably have more luck at a computer forum rather then a reference desk. Good luck.Vespine 21:54, 11 January 2007 (UTC)
I would say it depends on the resolution. My Acer with XGA resolution (1024x786) is 10.4", and having a decent eyesight, I see no point in having a larger screen. It would only become rather heavy for holding comfortably e.g. while reading Zinio magazines. OlavN. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 84.236.215.1 (talk) 08:56, 12 January 2007 (UTC).
No doubt varies by user. Personally I am looking at 10.4" & 12" models. Smaller ones are a bit hard on the eyes, and the keyboard is too cramped. Larger ones are far too heavy to carry and use as a tablet. Another mutant 07:23, 13 January 2007 (UTC)

sshd for Windows using passwd file

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

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

82.39.6.25 16:45, 11 January 2007 (UTC)

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

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

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

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

For the first point, disabling password authentication etc., AFAIK there's no way for you to do it, since which authentication methods are allowed is set in the system-wide SSH server configuration (conventionally /etc/ssh/sshd_config) and the only user-writable files that sshd checks are things like authorized_keys and known_hosts. Short of coming up with a dirty hack in ~/.ssh/rc (if there is even a way to detect which authentication method has been used once legged in) I can't see any way of doing what you want without a helpful sysadmin. And as for them recommending telnet, get yourself a sharpened stick and poke whoever wrote that instructional sheet until they see the error of their ways. (There are, of course, more practical ways of making the point, but that would be naughty.) -- AJR | Talk 21:44, 11 January 2007 (UTC)
It's the instructor for a graduate-level library science course on setting up a website and so forth. Depressing, eh? grendel|khan 18:53, 12 January 2007 (UTC)

Newb-friendly music apps?

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

I don't know what the latest versions are like but I always found Fruity Loops pretty easy to use.--Kiltman67 23:30, 11 January 2007 (UTC)
MidiPiano Suite contains , a general midi keyboard controllable by your computer keyboard that can record and play .mid files. It also comes with MidiDrum, a rhythm generator using general midi's percussion channel. Get it directly from this link. Main website here. They are both freeware aps, I use them all the time. Besides a few minor glitches here and there, they are pretty reliable. --Russoc4 17:43, 12 January 2007 (UTC)

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

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

I googled your problem and got a bunch of responses from forums and the like (seems to be not an uncommon problem). Check out this thread, they seem to have a lot of suggestions. If nothing there works, go through the googl results. Hope this helps Oskar 06:38, 12 January 2007 (UTC)
Yeah, but no useful solutions are forthcoming despite the Google results. The HP forum thread jumps all over the place, but doesn't go anywhere useful. The "Hide UPNP Wizard" might help in a typically crazy Windows style; I'll try it out tomorrow. -- Consumed Crustacean (talk) 06:56, 12 January 2007 (UTC)
IIRC, WinXP has some sort of option somewhere (maybe under "Start Menu preferences") to hide unused systray icons. --Carnildo 22:05, 12 January 2007 (UTC)
Not it. That's one of the first things I disable ;) -- Consumed Crustacean (talk) 02:50, 13 January 2007 (UTC)

General-purpose GUI input to plain text output

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

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

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

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

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

The tools you mention are, of course, not at all generic; they're highly tailored to their problem domains (generating styled web pages, generating vector graphics, generating formatted documents, etc.). Not only their user interfaces but also their internal processing models are tightly bound to their particular problem domains. I'm a huge fan of generic tools, but I can't imaging a tool so generic that it could present to you and let you manipulate such disparate objects as text, graphics, and any other editable object you could think of.

For each of the editable objects you mention, the file formats which let you permanently store them are of course all different, too. In that light, what you're asking for is (if I'm understanding you correctly) really a generic object manipulator and data file writer, not a generic GUI and plain text file writer. The data file formats you mention (CSS, SVG, etc.) happen to use text rather than binary encodings and to be somewhat human readable, but they're otherwise pretty different from each other. In the context of trying to manipulate them generically, the fact that they're all textual doesn't buy you much. In particular, these data file formats are all highly structured; they are not "plain text".

If what you're interested in is structured text files, representing arbitrary different kinds of data, but with a structure that's always XML-based, there are any number of generic XML editors which are a boon for working with big, complicated XML files in a reasonable way. (But these merely aid in maintaining proper XML syntax, in presenting the nested structure in a consistent, easy-to-manage way, and letting you collapse levels you're not interested in. They don't give you any kind of higher-level model such as a vector graphics object; they all work right down at the level of the XML document.)

Steve Summit (talk) 21:41, 13 January 2007 (UTC)

Adding IR output device to a laptop

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

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

I'd probably recommend a usb to parallel adapter. From what i remember the IR transmitters have to be like 6 inches a part to work anyway, and directly facing eachother. But there appears to be usb to infrared adapters as well. These are just random google pages, but you should be able to find at least the usb to parallel adapter at a computer shop. Also I'm pretty sure your laptop just had a standard IR port, i dont think theres such a thing as a "IR printer port", so any IR adapter should work..--PiTHON 05:21, 12 January 2007 (UTC)
PiTHON is right about the adapters. I use a USB-IrDA adapter with a cable between the USB connection and the Ir module, so that I can aim the device. Fewer wires hanging around, and it is very small. --Seejyb 14:59, 12 January 2007 (UTC)

Latest IT trends

Hi

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

Thanks

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

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

January 12

Ubuntu in expert mode

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

With "F6", right? --151.42.224.199 12:09, 12 January 2007 (UTC)
What exactly you mean by "expert" mode? Live CD you just install, text based CD give you more options but not GUI and you don't really need them in normal install. --antilived 10:17, 14 January 2007 (UTC)

Software to write reports in style of Misplaced Pages?

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

Not sure about pre-made software, but you could use wikipedia itself. Simply edit whatever document you want using your own user space or a "sandbox page" and then save the resulting output as an HTML file on your local machine. Then open that file in a word processor. Most modern word processor software understands HTML. Obviously, this is not a good solution for routine use. If you know how to program in perl, python, java or other, writing the software yourself won't be difficult with many of the public domain libraries that process "wiki" markup already out there. dr.ef.tymac 15:10, 12 January 2007 (UTC)
You might try TeX (or one of its variants, like the popular LaTeX): it follows the same principles of automatic formatting and separation of content and style, but is designed for paper documents, especially technical ones. (It, notably, is the source of MediaWiki's mathematical formatting support.) It can, however, become relatively complicated depending on what you want to do with it. --Tardis 17:39, 12 January 2007 (UTC)
LaTeX is complicated no matter what you want to do with it :) --h2g2bob 19:37, 12 January 2007 (UTC)

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

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

which is the bigger program in mb of data recovery HD

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

-email removed by User:Froth-


ATT::

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

There's no way we can know what program is "bigger" based only on your question. What data recovery system are you talking about? Why do you need to know? Maybe we can provide alternative solutions --froth 18:35, 12 January 2007 (UTC)
You can look at the size of the installer download of each program to get a comparison of how large different programs are. If you're asking about compression ratios, most compression algorithms are created pretty equal these days. Droud 14:13, 13 January 2007 (UTC)

Change supply voltage

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

Try another plug on the power supply since there may be a bad connection or something else drawing current. There isn't really a way to increase the voltage on a single rail without modification of the PSU. Either replace the PSU, or if it were me, invest in another fan or two to keep your case cooler since that's probably making all the difference. --66.195.232.121 16:00, 12 January 2007 (UTC)
A bad connector is very unlikely to result in a low-voltage or unintended-current situation.
In answer to the original question, no, as far as I know, there's no (good, reliable) way to adjust the voltage of a typical computer power supply. If it's truly delivering inadequate voltage, replacement (perhaps with a higher-power and/or higher-quality supply) is really the only option.
With that said, I doubt that a 5% low-voltage condition on the 5V supply would cause a disk drive to overheat. So I would look for other causes, such as inadequate ventilation (as 66.195.232.121 suggested), or the possibility that something else (perhaps the power supply itself) is overheating and blowing so much hot air into the case that it's heating up the disk drive. —Steve Summit (talk) 21:22, 13 January 2007 (UTC)
Chips are generally designed to operate on a range of voltages. For example, a 0.7 V is still a logic 0, and a 4.2 V is still close enough to power a 5 V chip most times, because it's pretty much impossible to set the voltage exactly for all configurations because of different load resistances. So 12.68 and 4.75 really are both close enough that it's within the normal range, and shouldn't be anything you need to worry about. --Wirbelwindヴィルヴェルヴィント (talk) 02:23, 14 January 2007 (UTC)
Actually under-voltage will cool down stuff, not overheat stuff (well in ohmic things anyways, which are (roughly) most things). --antilived 10:19, 14 January 2007 (UTC)

Blogging

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

Have content in your blog that people want to read. --Kainaw 16:57, 12 January 2007 (UTC)
Lol. He's right, though. You could try advertising to those who are interested in whatever it is you are blogging.--Russoc4
Link to other popular blogs whose audience might be interested in your blog by using TrackBack or something similar. Leave interesting and relevant comments on blogs with active comment threads, entering your blog's address in the 'URL' field provided; if people like what you have to say, they're likely to check your blog. Note that these suggestions are just ways of doing what Kainaw and Russoc4 are talking about; if you don't write anything interesting, you're not going to get readers, no matter how many trackbacks you get. grendel|khan 19:10, 12 January 2007 (UTC)

question about file types on Firefox for Mac

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

I believe these are controlled by windows or the actual programs themselves. You would certainly need a plugin- the quicktime "browser plugin", for example, interacts with the quicktime player itself and unless the plugin comes with VLC itself (I'm not very familiar with VLC) you'll have to find one --froth 18:37, 12 January 2007 (UTC)
VLC has a Mozilla (Firefox) web browser plugin. It is probably installed when you installed VLC. Typing about:plugins in the location (address) bar will display your currently installed plug-ins. To change actions for file types, edit it in the preferences (Edit -> Preferences). On the content tab, look at "Configure how Firefox handles certain file types", and edit that. I'm afraid I'm not a plugin expert, as I hate plugins. --h2g2bob 19:15, 12 January 2007 (UTC)
Ooops, re-read your question. It sounds like the webpage is using a player embedded on a new webpage using <embed> tags. You can't turn this off in the options: if the plugin is available it will be used. Some extensions (like NoScript) will replace the player with a box so it doesn't load the player unless you ask it to. To open the video in something else, you can use any of a range of extensions (even my very own UnPlug). I'd check the extensions for a solution: https://addons.mozilla.org --h2g2bob 19:25, 12 January 2007 (UTC)

Syncing a PocketPC PDA with Mac OS X

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

video

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

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

video

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


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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

See Also

January 13

Magazine-style printing?

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

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

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

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

Cannot Empty Recycle Bin

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

Try rebooting and then immediately emptying the Recycle Bin --Kiltman67 03:29, 13 January 2007 (UTC)
Alternatively boot into safe mode and then empty the recycle bin --froth 03:56, 13 January 2007 (UTC)
Right click the recycle bin and go to properties, drag the "maximum size of recycle bin" to 0% and reboot, the recycle bin should be empty. restore it back to 10% and reboot. Taken from this site.--PiTHON 08:14, 13 January 2007 (UTC)
You can easily delete such files with Sysinternal's MoveTo. Oskar 20:18, 13 January 2007 (UTC)
Haven't we answered a really similar problem already? --wj32 06:51, 14 January 2007 (UTC)

Router

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

You could always run a cat-5 cable through the walls --froth 03:58, 13 January 2007 (UTC)
I strongly suggest running a network cable to the other computer and plugging both computers into the router (usually, you have a router plugged into the modem, but now some modems come with a router built in). 20m is nowhere near the max limit for basic cat5 network cable. If you opt for wireless, you will notice the wireless computer has a much slower network connection than the wired one. --Kainaw 03:59, 13 January 2007 (UTC)
So the router will still work? It just sounds easier than running cable and would allow me to use wi-fi on my PSP. Thanks anyway Mix Lord 04:58, 13 January 2007 (UTC)
Wireless routers still have wire ports so you could opt for the wireless router for your psp and run cables for your computers --froth 05:58, 13 January 2007 (UTC)
Max cable distance on Cat5 is 100m, so you are well within range for a cable run. Wireless will work as well, although you will want to secure your network , and the lower your signal strength, the lower your speed. If the signal will not reach through the walls, you have a number of options. 1) Put a repeater at a central location that both router & PC can reach. 2) connect a wireless access point to the router, and position it so that PC signal can reach it. 3) get directional or other extended range antennas on both PC and router (or PC and access point). Another mutant 07:20, 13 January 2007 (UTC)
Okay, thanks. Think I'll try the router

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

Converting ppc to intel

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

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

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

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

Display Problem

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

I assume you're talking about an LCD monitor, and I assume you are using a VGA cable to connect to it? I think the problem might be with timing. When you run an analog VGA signal to an LCD monitor, it has to sync up to the clock to get the picture right. If you switch out to a different timebase, the monitor loses clocking. Even if they have the same resolution, they are at different times. Does hitting the 'auto' button (or whatever passes for it) make the display clean again until you switch monitors? I think getting a better card -- one that offers DVI might help, but you'd need an DVI-capable KVM switch, too. --Mdwyer 06:15, 13 January 2007 (UTC)
If you boot with the monitor switched to the old pc does it look bad? Or does the old one look fine until you switch to the new one, then back to the old one? Have you tried plugging the monitor directly into the old computer and rebooting? First thing i would try is bypassing the KVM switch and reboot, if it still looks bad borrow the cable running to the new machine and use it to plug in the old one. I've seen cheaper VGA cables cause shadowing and other issues with the display, makes a good monitor look like crap. Also maybe the switch has a problem with the specific output you are using, bypassing the switch would fix that problem, or switching the KVM switch ports around. I think the reason you cannot change the refresh rate is windows usually detects the monitor and its display modes when you turn on the computer, nvidia drivers have a "force redetection of displays" in the driver, but rebooting works. And try auto-adjusting the monitor as mdwyer said, if you've ever manually adjusted an LCD to have the picture run off the edge of the screen even a few pixels it can cause the whole display to get weird, auto-adjusting will center everything. Actually I think your problem is the monitor is a 1920x1200 monitor, running in 1600x1200 is not optimal and is probably running into scaling issues on your old video card. Link. --PiTHON 08:33, 13 January 2007 (UTC)

Lexar USB Drive/PowerToGo Software

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

WORD 5.1

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

the 'New hw found ' dialog appears..

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

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

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

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

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

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

Removing Feature of Firefox 2.0

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

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

Well for me it goes immediately when I click the address --froth 20:40, 13 January 2007 (UTC)
Not for me (Iceweasel 2.0.0.1 on Debian). If I click, I need to click go (or press enter). But if I use up/down+enter to select it, it goes directly there. It may be a bug. --h2g2bob 22:32, 13 January 2007 (UTC)
For me, it does. Firefox 2.0.0.1 on Ubuntu Edgy. --wj32 06:55, 14 January 2007 (UTC)

windows xp

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

Your best bet is to find the original packaging, since the license sticker is on that. You could try calling MS but if you never gave them any personally identifiable information you might be out of luck. Many people (and this is a very well tested thing) simply disable Windows Genuine Advantage validation. You'll have to do your own research on this --froth 20:46, 13 January 2007 (UTC)
Have you checked the usual places for the product key - check for sticker on machine, see if it's printed on CD, look for the documentation, etc. --h2g2bob 22:35, 13 January 2007 (UTC)

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

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

how can digital radios auotmatically jump over noisy channels?

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

NFS Carbon graphics

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

Try the EA Support first? --Wirbelwindヴィルヴェルヴィント (talk) 02:10, 14 January 2007 (UTC)
Yea see if theres and update for the game on the site. Also you should update your video card drivers, with the make/model of your computer we can point you in the right direction, or if you know roughly what video card you have.--PiTHON 03:37, 14 January 2007 (UTC)

Fast tests for non-convex dynamic-mesh collision?

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

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

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

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

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

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

Google feature

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

I believe they're automatically found by the google bot --froth 10:09, 14 January 2007 (UTC)

How do you make a forum?

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

You need PHP support. Chances are more than likely that your free website provider doesn't do this. There are free forum providers, but the ones I've seen are horrifically ad and spyware laden. If really you don't want to shell out money for paid provider, you might want to look at community websites of the game you play; some tend to host forums for clans for free, though it may depend on the clan's size. -- Consumed Crustacean (talk) 05:14, 14 January 2007 (UTC)
forumer provides a resonable service, and not too many ads either. I recommend IPB over phpbb. --froth 05:51, 14 January 2007 (UTC)

PSOne Emulator

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

It's part of one of the newer firmware versions, and is intended for usage with games one buys with their PS3. There is hacked firmware that lets this work with any PSX ISO though. Try Googling for "Dark_AleX", first result. (Edit: Yeah, I should have said the ISOs don't run straight up; they require modification :/) -- Consumed Crustacean (talk) 05:11, 14 January 2007 (UTC)
You need to use a custom firmware to run games that aren't yet available from sony, and one of many programs out now that convert a PSOne ISO to the PSP EBOOT executable. 3.03 OE-B is the newest one that supports it, in order to flash it, you'll need a homebrew-able firmware/motherboard, what firmware is installed on your PSP? Cyraan 06:13, 14 January 2007 (UTC)

How do I set up my own website with MediaWiki?

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

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

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

If you want to set it up on your own computer (assuming that you have a broadband connection) and not register a dns-name, the set-up and running costs are nil (except your connection fee). All the software is free and open source, and there are comprehensive guides on the meta-wiki for installation, and you can use a service like No-IP to get a domain name (it would be something like "jguk.no-ip.org"). Your computer, obviously, would be the server. If it's just going to be a small site, for you and a couple of others, that would certainly suffice. Is that all, or are you launching something bigger? Oskar 12:17, 14 January 2007 (UTC)
Thanks. How can my computer be the server though. Surely, whenever I turn it off, my site would go offline? How would others be able to update it? Also, wouldn't I be putting my computer at greater threat of viruses? jguk 12:31, 14 January 2007 (UTC)
Try Wikia --froth 12:24, 14 January 2007 (UTC)
The reason why I might set up a site is so I don't have to use GFDL, so Wikia wouldn't be appropriate. jguk 12:31, 14 January 2007 (UTC)

Who entitled Jyve to violate human rights?

Who entitled Jyve to become BIG BROTHER? Jyve - a so called human knowledge database - is supposed to be the fulfillment of "the positive impact free voice "! However, the fact is that the management of Jyve violates the free voice every single day.

Jyve censor the answers given by the Jyve experts and thereby violate the users human rights (freedom of speech etc. etc.). Jyve have even made up a huge sheet of censorship rules that they continuously apply in on-line censorship ...

At Jyve one human is censoring other humans by means of total technological surveillance. That is censorship of the worst case (not a bit better than the censorship done by the late dictators and fascist rulers Hitler, Stalin, and Saddam Hussein etc. etc. - rather worse!).

Why does Jyve PREVENT the free knowledge sharing - that Jyve boast of being its purpose and AIM?

Do free citizens really need "BIG BROTHER Jyve" to watch their knowledge sharing?

Panterkys

What are you talking about? Jyve? Sounds like a nifty idea to me, like a live RD --froth 12:27, 14 January 2007 (UTC)

Intel vs Amd, ATI vs Nvidia

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

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