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March 18

.odt viewer for Windows

Hi, I got this email that has an attachment that's .odt file from a mac. Unfortunately, I have Windows. Can someone point me to a place I can download an .odt reader or something? It's kinda important. PPLEASE? Thanks... --Jeevies (talk) 04:28, 18 March 2008 (UTC)

Pick from OpenDocument software --Spoon! (talk) 05:41, 18 March 2008 (UTC)

OpenDocument is an ISO standard, it's not some weird 'mac thing'. OpenOffice.org is probably the most used ODF app, and there are plugins to allow Microsoft Office to read OpenDocument as well [1]. -- Consumed Crustacean (talk) 06:11, 18 March 2008 (UTC)

AbiWord is also an option. Kushal 12:59, 22 March 2008 (UTC)

problems with filenames using ext2 in windows

I have a USB removable hard disk that I is formatted for linux (ext3) and I'm using Ext2Fsd (I think) to read/write to it in vista (which I think makes it act as if it's ext2) and everything works perfectly fine.

Everything except for a couple of file names that contain colons, which I guess is a character that vista doesn't like (I seem to remember testing the colons in linux, and there were no problems). The files display and the information (file sizes etc.) are all correct, but I can't move, copy, or access the files. I don't have a linux system on me right now (I bought a new computer and I'm sticking with vista for a short while at least), but I really want to open these files. Is there anything I can do to force vista to let me access them? I can't rename the files or anything either.

Thanks in advance!  freshofftheufoΓΛĿЌ  07:34, 18 March 2008 (UTC)

Windows kernel doesn't allow these characters in file names:

/ \ ? * : < > | "

--grawity ^{talk / PGP} 08:10, 18 March 2008 (UTC)

Yes, I know that now, but that wasn't really what I was asking. Is there anything I can do to get around that? vista knows it's there, it knows how big the file is and what kind of file it is. Is there any way I can rename it, or link to it, or something?  freshofftheufoΓΛĿЌ  08:13, 18 March 2008 (UTC)

Two ways:

a) from Linux, hardlink the file to a "valid" filename

b) hex-edit the file system ([2])

--grawity ^{talk / PGP} 09:51, 18 March 2008 (UTC)

Just curious... why would you use a colon in a file name anyway? Just because you can use a colon doesn't make it a good idea. For compatibility reasons, like you have found out, it is probably best to stick to only using numbers, letters and underscores in file names. Astronaut (talk) 16:52, 18 March 2008 (UTC)

Maildir mailbox format uses colons as separators. 78.56.68.25 (talk) 19:56, 18 March 2008 (UTC)

I used to be an underscore fan; now I love hyphens :D\=< (talk) 21:48, 18 March 2008 (UTC)

functions of the major internal components of a computer

functions of the major internal components of a computer —Preceding unsigned comment added by 196.202.199.1 (talk) 11:45, 18 March 2008 (UTC)

We won't do your homework. --grawity ^{talk / PGP} 12:52, 18 March 2008 (UTC)

The basic answers can be found at computer, if you have more specific questions, then ask again.87.102.47.176 (talk) 18:31, 18 March 2008 (UTC)

How to activate Acrobat 7

Hello, I've got a serial number (perfectly legit) for Acrobat 7 Professional. However when I download the software from Adobe, it appears to be a trial-only version with no way of activating it. Anyone come across this? Does anyone know where I can get a copy of a version which will accept a serial number? I don't want to resort to torrenting the damn thing seeing as it's on the level. Thanks 195.60.20.81 (talk) 13:26, 18 March 2008 (UTC)

Often when you click the Help Menu there is an option to "register" your software. Click that and it should bring up a screen to enter your serial number. Think outside the box 14:02, 18 March 2008 (UTC)

In any case, you can be sure that once the trial runs out, it'll give you that option. --Captain Ref Desk (talk) 15:49, 18 March 2008 (UTC)

If it's on the level and legit, why not ask Adobe tech support for assistance? They would probably verify the serial number is in fact legit, and send you a link to download it from. Astronaut (talk) 16:44, 18 March 2008 (UTC)

Thanks. I too would expect an 'activate' option in the help menu but with this trial, nothing. I will get in touch with Adobe. 195.60.20.81 (talk) 09:58, 19 March 2008 (UTC)

Vista "freeze"

Hi, I have a new laptop with Windows Vista. I plug in my Compaq iPaq PDA. Then I click "Connect without setting up device" in the Windows Mobile Device Center. Then, every time, the WMDC freezes up for about a minute. I can still do other things on the computer, but I have to wait for the WMDC (or Windows Explorer - sometimes I can click into Explorer and double-click on the PDA icon before it freezes) to unfreeze before I can use the device. Is this something that I can fix, or do I have to wait for SP1, or is it related to my using "Connect without setting up device"? This behavior didn't occur with Windows 98 and Activesync. I have the latest patches applied (but not SP1 'cuz it's still in beta and I'm not a tester). Thank you. 4.242.108.89 (talk) 15:39, 18 March 2008 (UTC)

Well, about the beta thing, and you not being a tester; unless it says that the beta may have kinks that destroy your hard drive, I would take it. Example, Mozilla Firefox 3 pre-beta 5: use that, then compare to Firefox 2. Big difference. flaminglawyer^c 16:59, 18 March 2008 (UTC)

I am using Firefox 3 beta 4 to write this, actually. I agree, it is great. (I didn't know that pre-beta 5 was usable yet.) Maybe I'll try the beta of SP1. Thanks for the response. If anyone has any other suggestions, please write. I tried it now with the other option (set up device to sync) and it still has the same problem. It seems to be taking all that time to install a device driver (!). I noticed that Vista takes a long time to install drivers, so I either need to speed that up some way (if it's even possible) or get it to keep the driver loaded all the time somehow. WMDC doesn't remember my password, either, so it's kind of "special" in a way. 4.242.147.174 (talk) 17:54, 18 March 2008 (UTC)

Actually, I see that Microsoft appears to have just released SP1 out of beta. Interesting. I guess I'll try it now and see if it works. 4.242.147.174 (talk) 18:02, 18 March 2008 (UTC)

Bad idea, wait a few weeks :D\=< (talk) 22:08, 18 March 2008 (UTC)

Too late. Actually, I didn't see your message until I had SP1 50% downloaded, so I proceeded on to download it. Why did you suggest to wait a few weeks? Anyway, I'm using SP1 now. It seems to work OK, only one glitch so far - the audio didn't work until I reinstalled the driver. But the PDA behavior is exactly the same! So this is still an open issue. Maybe I'll pester some Microsoft support forums about this. Unless someone here has another idea... 4.242.147.153 (talk) 05:00, 19 March 2008 (UTC)

See my note a few questions down about being an early adopter. Can be precarious. --Captain Ref Desk (talk) 16:46, 19 March 2008 (UTC)

OK, thanks for the warning. I think I found the answer to my question: according to the Windows Mobile Device Center article here on WP, PocketPC 2002 device (mine) support is "effectively phased out". No wonder it doesn't work quite right. Bummer. At least it works partially. 4.242.147.209 (talk) 19:21, 19 March 2008 (UTC)

website, anyone?

Can someone send me a link to a page with instructions on creating a website? Preferably not something like this, but something that would require a fancy server or something. Thanks. flaminglawyer^c 16:56, 18 March 2008 (UTC)

Could you be more specific - do you want to learn how to write the code, or find something that automates its contruction.

Also can you be more specific about the server side of things - do you want to know about website hosting perhaps.87.102.47.176 (talk) 18:33, 18 March 2008 (UTC)

Instructions:

1. Figure out what website is supposed to do
2. Implement using a series of client-side and server-side tagging, coding, and so forth, as needed
3. Put website onto server space (acquired previously)
4. ...
5. Profit

But really. Your question is a little indistinct. If you want to know about websites in general, and how they are created, you might try perusing the "Computing" section of your local book store, there are bound to be dozens of volumes. To create one from scratch requires first knowing what, specifically, the site is meant to do, and then learning a number of component skills/technologies to bring it into existence. It isn't ALL that hard—in the sense that lots of people can do it, and you need not be a computer engineer to do it well—but it's not the sort of thing that has simple instructions. --Captain Ref Desk (talk) 22:09, 18 March 2008 (UTC)

Slashdot username please. Or has it leaked? :D\=< (talk) 04:05, 19 March 2008 (UTC)

If you mean the "... profit" line, that comes from, I believe, South Park. I don't have the slightest idea where I first heard it, probably on the Something Awful forum boards ca. 2002-2003. --Captain Ref Desk (talk) 14:22, 19 March 2008 (UTC)

Yeah it came from south park, but slashdot made it popular. Never mind :D\=< (talk) 17:55, 19 March 2008 (UTC)

--Captain Ref Desk (talk) 19:21, 19 March 2008 (UTC)

Uhhh I'm not.. lying.. :D\=< (talk) 03:39, 20 March 2008 (UTC)

Can anyone tell me if there is something better than GagaLive for an embedded, minimal Flash chat client? Without ads, cost free and supporting IRC.

(moved from Wikipedia:Reference desk/Miscellaneous)

Can anyone tell me if there is something better than GagaLive for an embedded, minimal Flash chat client? Without ads, cost free and supporting IRC. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 85.225.48.193 (talk) 14:44, 18 March 2008 (UTC)

What about java applets? Neal (talk) 14:50, 18 March 2008 (UTC).

Theoretically you could do the whole thing with Javascript and AJAX (and some sort of server-side backend, like PHP). I'm sure someone has implemented this... --Captain Ref Desk (talk) 15:54, 18 March 2008 (UTC)

What does this exe do?

Hello all, it's me again...

what exactly does the file here do? I guess it moves some files around, yet I am not geekish enough to speak assembler. Can someone please tell me the basic structure of the program or how I could find out how to correctly invoke it?

Thanks! 84.56.22.36 (talk) 22:12, 18 March 2008 (UTC)

PS: I already know that this file selects and install the localizations for EarthSiege, yet the interesting thing is how it achieves this... —Preceding unsigned comment added by 84.56.22.36 (talk) 22:15, 18 March 2008 (UTC)

It was written in C++, built with a Borland compiler, and dynamically linked with the Microsoft Foundation Classes. To figure out how to correctly invoke it, you'll probably need to learn a bit about assembly language, Windows and C standard library functions, and play around with the code in a debugger. For starters, it looks like you need to pass at least four arguments on the command line.—eric 00:31, 19 March 2008 (UTC)

OK, thanks for that...as it was linked with debug info: Can I decompile it? 88.64.71.72 (talk) 13:21, 19 March 2008 (UTC)

If it is in assembly language, it is already decompiled. --Captain Ref Desk (talk) 14:18, 19 March 2008 (UTC)

What. Decompilation aims to convert object code to a higher level language. Disassembly only takes it up to the ASM level :D\=< (talk) 15:03, 19 March 2008 (UTC)

Oh, I got confused in my terminology, didn't realize there was a separate term for disassembler. Ma bad. --Captain Ref Desk (talk) 19:17, 19 March 2008 (UTC)

Digital photo frame

Anyone ever used a digital photo frame as an ebook reader or a device to display several frequently used data sheets, cheat sheets? -- Toytoy (talk) 22:18, 18 March 2008 (UTC)

Not me. If I were you, I would look for one that supports PNG images, though. Kushal 15:37, 19 March 2008 (UTC)

Slow PC (unusually slow video)

Hi there,

My PC has been running very slow for ages and I've been trying to figure out the problem to no avail, even reinstalling Windows has not fixed it. I have downloaded and ran some perfornace testing software and also tried an online testing facility which both suggested the problem is with 2D graphics. Certainly it often seems that the PC is unable to keep up with what I am trying to do, ie if I minimise a window, it flashes a couple of times and takes a few seconds for the desktop icons to appear. I also use the BBC IPlayer and Channel 4 On Demand online TV services which let you dowload TV programmes and play them, when I try and watch these, the video stops and starts and freezes all the time while the audio is fine.

Can anyone please suggest how to fix this? My graphics card is an NVidia FX5500 which is getting a bit old but not too old unless I want to play the latest games (which I am not trying to do) and used to work fine. You can see the full spec and performance test results here:

PC Pitstop Test Results

PS: I know it mentioned a defrag which I will leave to run overnight but I'm not in the slightest bit convinced this will fix it as it has never made any difference to me before. —Preceding unsigned comment added by GaryReggae (talk • contribs) 23:37, 18 March 2008 (UTC)

It seems you graphics card is unable to reproduce the video. I presume you have been updating your software and as it improves, it pushes the limits of your graphics card. If the problems mostly arise or enlarge when you have multiple windows open, I'd suggest getting a better graphics card, as this one is slowing down your system. Admiral Norton ^(talk) 23:44, 18 March 2008 (UTC)

I'm not sure the GFX card itself is the issue as it worked fine when I got it and I'm not using any different software. Granted, some games run slow but that's not the issue. It's just generally using Windows, particularly playing back videos and I'm still using the same version of XP. Looking at an online computer parts store, the graphics card I've got is still available and the most of the new ones for general use are hardly more expensive or higher spec. I don't see why I should have to upgrade to an expensive card dedicated high-end gaming just for general use.GaryReggae (talk) 11:55, 19 March 2008 (UTC)

If you want to make sure it is the graphics card, then which to the motherboard's video memory if there is any. I see this problem on computers that either have low RAM or are overheating (much like my own). 206.252.74.48 (talk) 15:30, 19 March 2008 (UTC)

Thanks for the suggestion, good idea. I am now running off the motherboard's on board 'Intel Extreme Graphics 2' and I have installed the latest drivers although to be honest it doesn't make much difference, I'm still getting a lot of go-slow. I have re-ran the same diagnostic test and interestingly, the video performance is better than it was yesterday but it has now flagged up a 'major' problem with 'unusually low memory performance' (I presume the on board graphics uses general RAM rather than having its own dedicated RAM?), my memory is performing 86% slower than the best comparable system. The way the graphics problems occur, ie all is fine at first and it gets worse and worse after a few minutes would suggest memory problems to me. Any ideas for conducting further tests or other things I can try to eliminate this problem?

BTW, when you mentioned overheating, I thought I'd better check the GFX card in case the fan on it wasn't working or something, the fan outlet was partially obscured by a PCI modem (this motherboard is rediculously crowded but I have now removed this and blown a load of dust out of the fan again with no success. The fan appears to be working fine.GaryReggae (talk) 22:51, 19 March 2008 (UTC)

March 19

Margin text

How does one place text in the margin of a document in Word 2007 or OOo 2.3? --hello, i'm a member | talk to me! 05:51, 19 March 2008 (UTC)

In Word 2007, go to Insert>Text Box>Simple Text Box. Type away, reposition in margin, and rotate if necessary. Mac Davis (talk) 08:24, 19 March 2008 (UTC)

Top or bottom margins you can use headers. In Word 07 you can just double click in the top/bottom margin to open the header/footer editing view.. I forget how in previous Offices :D\=< (talk) 18:12, 19 March 2008 (UTC)

View>Header and Footer. Once it's inserted, you can double click to edit it. --jjron (talk) 15:00, 21 March 2008 (UTC)

Windows Vista

I don't know much about computers, just as an FYI. So, I read today an article with the headline "Major Windows Vista Update Available Today". This is the article: http://www.switched.com/2008/03/18/major-vista-update-available-today/ [3]. So, is this something that I have to actually go out and purchase? Or is this one of those downloads that I get for free on the Microsoft web site? I assumed it was the latter. And there was nothing on the Microsoft web site that seemed in any way relevant to this. Does anyone know what this is all about? The article that I referenced above also says "If you're a Vista user and are ready to take the plunge, you can head on over to Microsoft's site to start your downloading." And when you click the link, it just brings you to an Amazon.com web page where, I guess, they are selling (and I can buy) this product. What's up? Any one know? Thanks. PS --- I already have Vista on my computer. Which I guess is (now) the "old Vista"? (Joseph A. Spadaro (talk) 07:27, 19 March 2008 (UTC))

You do not have to purchase service packs. They figure if you bought Vista, then you deserve to be able to get patches and servicing for free. If you activate Vista's automatic updating, it should ask you pretty soon if you want to updated Vista. Mac Davis (talk) 08:08, 19 March 2008 (UTC)

SP1 won't be rolled out via automatic update until next month. This page contains some links to the Service Pack on the Windows Download and Windows Update sites. Our Windows Vista article contains some information about what is contained in this update. --LarryMac | Talk 13:41, 19 March 2008 (UTC)

Note that there is some danger is being an early-adopter of major updates. Typically Service Packs that upgrade the entire Windows OS have required a few rounds of bug patching before they worked smoothly on all configurations. Usually it is good to wait a week or two before upgrading to them, so that the really awful and really obvious bugs get squashed, which is probably why they aren't rolled out automatically for a month or so. This is the issue behind the "ready to take the plunge" rhetoric—it's not always a great idea to be first in line for a major overhaul. --Captain Ref Desk (talk) 14:17, 19 March 2008 (UTC)

Amen, Captain Red Desk. Kushal 15:36, 19 March 2008 (UTC)

OK. Just so I understand. This product has been created to patch / fix bugs / improve the Vista that is already in my computer. If I want to spend money and buy it at a store, I can do so right now. If I want to get it free at the Microsoft web site (which I am entitled to a free update), then I have to wait a month or so until M.S. decides to post the free download. Is this the long and short of the matter? Thanks. Furthermore, why would M.S. make it available (for purchase) at a store ... yet wait a month for free downloads to its already established users? I mean, if "bugs" exist in the purchase product - they don't care? But - they do care about those same bugs showing up in the free download? I'm confused. Thanks. (Joseph A. Spadaro (talk) 17:20, 19 March 2008 (UTC))

You don't have to buy a service pack - you can update to it from the website for free; this is, however, usually a bad idea until it has gone through testing and fixing (more so than when it's very new). When the linked article discusses retail versions of it, it means that if someone went to a shop and bought Vista (to upgrade XP, for example), it would already have SP1 installed. Of course, if you really do want it, just download it. But I'd advise that you simply wait until Vista wants to update itself - they do have a reason for not doing it automatically straight away. Ale_Jrb^talk 18:04, 19 March 2008 (UTC)

Yes, you are confused, so some of your questions don't apply. You can't buy SP1 by itself at a store*. What you can buy is a full Vista installation that is built with all the SP1 fixes included. You don't need that. You can get SP1 yourself right this very instant at the Microsoft website (as noted in my previous reply), but it won't be "pushed" via Automatic Update until next month. The recommendation of the good Captain, as well as many others, is to wait a few days or a week so that any major problems and/or incompatibilities (that for some reason were not uncovered during the extensive beta test period) can be uncovered by some other sucker lucky user. --LarryMac | Talk 18:09, 19 March 2008 (UTC)

OK. Makes sense now. Thanks for the input. LarryMac was especially helpful --- thank you. (Joseph A. Spadaro (talk) 22:22, 19 March 2008 (UTC))

ipod

what is the basic principle of working of ipods (i.e. storage princple,coversion of digital data in sound wave etc.)? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 202.159.240.23 (talk) 14:49, 19 March 2008 (UTC)

Have you looked at iPod? I see some technical details in there. Friday (talk) 14:51, 19 March 2008 (UTC)

They're certainly not worth as much as they cost. ipods are no more than small hard hard drives with a little processor (running some proprietary interface code, which can be replaced with a free alternative) and a tiny low-res screen. Shuffles are even less- little flash drives with little enough storage to convince you it's still 2000, with a little integrated controller and an embedded mp3/mpeg4 decoder chip. I could build my own Shuffle with 10 times the Flash storage for a quarter of the price. But yeah that's basically how music players work- songs are stored in Flash memory and read either through an embedded chip or software running on a processor, then sent to the headphone jack through another integrated circuit just like the integrated sound card on a mainboard. :D\=< (talk) 15:14, 19 March 2008 (UTC)

Well, somebody hates Apple. Well warrented, in my opinion. But they have some merits. I can't name any, but I'm sure they are there somewhere. 206.252.74.48 (talk) 15:28, 19 March 2008 (UTC)

I know there is a lesson to be learned here somewhere, but I don't know what it is.[4] :)

On a side note, I'd be much happier if it was still 2000. On a not-side note, I don't know much about iPods, because I would own one over my dead body, but here is my understanding. When you hook up the thing it uses "iTunes" to transfer music over to it. "iTunes" converts all the song files names into 4-letter filenames and puts them into hidden folders named in an FXX convention (where XX is any 2 digit number, starting with 00). The iPod storage is just a regular hard drive formatted the way the operating system is. Playing the files is straight-forward, it does it just like a PC, in fact it is a small PC of sorts. As for how digital data is converted to sound, see Digital-to-analog_conversion.206.252.74.48 (talk) 17:23, 19 March 2008 (UTC)

Yah, also this is what it looks like right before that final analog conversion step :D\=< (talk) 17:53, 19 March 2008 (UTC)

Process Sniping Program

My friend is crazy for TF2 after I bought her Orange Box, and never stops playing it. But what angers her all the time is the fact that she has to close 30 different running processes in order for the game to run smoothly. I was wondering if there was perhaps some sort of program that lets you select what processes you want to be left running and then smites all the others. Naturally, I'm talking about Windows XP here. I've already done everything I could with msconfig and the Start-up folder, but stuff just pops up naturally while using the PC. I just want to automate the process of closing processes, which is something I do once in a while as well. 206.252.74.48 (talk) 15:37, 19 March 2008 (UTC)

What processes specifically are the problem, and why? Simply by being active on the system a process consumes very little resource (most of its memory gets swapped out, and if it's not actually running then it's not consuming CPU time and thus not slowing anything down. Windows (and other full-featured OSes) typically run dozens of processes for their own purposes (most of which are idle most of the time) and can run hundreds of well behaved processes if need be. If you have specific concerns about specific processes demonstrably (over)using resources, that's someting to address on a per-process (or per-application) basis; mass slaying of processes won't be productive. -- Finlay McWalter | Talk 16:20, 19 March 2008 (UTC)

Yeah, this is really the question. What's popping up? Why? The answer is not to try and shut down processes that start up (which could lead to system instability by itself), but to figure out why they're popping up in the first place and disabling them. Sounds like malware to me, or at least over-active taskbar processes. --Captain Ref Desk (talk) 16:43, 19 March 2008 (UTC)

I've found that a lot of Windows processes are superfluous, and I can have a stable system with only 5 processes running. As for my friend's computer, she has an iPod, a graphics tablet, a printer, and other things that add background processes which aren't needed at the moment, as well as 20 icons in her system tray for various programs and other crap. When someone else is using the PC these icons are needed (apparently) and so I didn't remove them. The whole family shares one account for some bizarre reason as well. Mainly the reason I am asking about such a program's existance is out of curiousity, but also to address this problem more easily solved by formatting and re-installing Windows (I even donated an extra hard-drive for back-up proposes, which is yet to be used). Not to be condesending, but their computer is a lot like their home - there is junk everywhere but they are too used to it (and it is too far gone) for them to do anything about it. 206.252.74.48 (talk) 17:22, 19 March 2008 (UTC)

5 user processes, yes. But check "Show processes from all users" and remove your foot from your mouth. Anyway I don't see what the big deal is. Windows isn't doing anything and is stripped to the bone, but I have dozens of user processes running. I have the memory and the cores to run them. utorrent, winamp, Steam, ati drivers, sound card drivers, the UltraMon taskbar process, my thinkpad hard drive shock detection driver, google talk, winRAR, firefox.. these are things I do want running right now and I'm not going to kill them just to have a snappier machine that's doing nothing. :D\=< (talk) 18:39, 19 March 2008 (UTC)

A girl playing tf2? <coma> :D\=< (talk) 17:50, 19 March 2008 (UTC)

You are not cracking everybody up. --Captain Ref Desk (talk) 19:15, 19 March 2008 (UTC)

I stopped reading xkcd because of that comic. This is the internet, I can say what I want and I don't have to be terrified of some guy breaking down my door. That's the point. Randall can say what he wants too I guess but I don't have to read. :D\=< (talk) 20:49, 19 March 2008 (UTC)

If you thought the point of the comic was that there would literally be someone breaking down your door, you missed the entire point of the comic. Which is kind of sad. The point is, to put it bluntly, you're acting like a fool (I'd use stronger language, but I know how touchy people get on here). If that's not really what you like coming across as, then you might think about amending your behavior. If you don't mind being thought of as a fool, then just keep going ahead in your boring sexist nerd-geek fashion. Lord knows you'll fit in just fine with the mediocre majority. --Captain Ref Desk (talk) 17:01, 20 March 2008 (UTC)

I think you should reread the comic. Some guy breaks down his door, forbids him from using the internet for a year, threatens him, then has his computer destroyed, just for something he said. The kid in the comic can say whatever he wants on his IRC server and seems to get along fine until some guy is offended and resorts to violence. If I want to titsorgtfo then I can, I have nothing to prove to you. Think I'm a fool or whatever if you want, it's none of your business :D\=< (talk) 02:47, 21 March 2008 (UTC)

A.) Her computer ain't as powerful as yours.

B.) My foot is perpetually in my mouth.

C.) There's more gals playing TF2 than most people realize.

Anywho, here is a better explanation. There is only one user account on the computer in question. This computer is used by five people and perhaps a cat. Each person has their own processes that they like to always keep running, but my friend doesn't want to close them all manually. Instead, she wants to kill them all in one shot and just restart the PC when someone else wants it (thus restoring the processes). Her sister would like the same (she plays WoW). I'd rather not get into an arguement over whether this would improve performance or not, I'm just asking if there is a program that will do such a task. Just giving everyone a user account if out of the question because everyone's files are intermingled in the most chaotic system I've ever seen - it would take hours to separate it all and allocate it to the proper accounts. 206.252.74.48 (talk) 19:00, 19 March 2008 (UTC)206.252.74.48 (talk) 18:58, 19 March 2008 (UTC)

Yes, there is a program that does this for WinXP, and it's very easy to use. It's reached from the main "Start button", at the very bottom where it says "Log off". Using this program takes a little bit of set up, but your friend can have her very own account that only runs the processes she wants. To quote another editor's tag, think outside your box. -SandyJax (talk) 19:02, 19 March 2008 (UTC)

Well, or said in a non-sarcastic bent: if it's a question of multiple people having too many processes, create a new account used JUST for gaming. Then log out of everything else and log into that when you want the stripped down account. That's a lot safer than trying to have a program go through and kill processes at will. --Captain Ref Desk (talk) 19:15, 19 March 2008 (UTC)

The point here, OP, is that you are asking for a program that manages your computer and the programs installed for you. Uh, that's what the Operating System is for. As several here have tried to point out, WinXP has a very powerful tool for doing what you want. Use it. As the good Captain says, if it's too hard to give everyone their own account, then simply create ONE clean account, and use it for gaming. -SandyJax (talk) 19:29, 19 March 2008 (UTC)

Now that is a good idea, Captain. I always seem to unconsiously go for the most drawn-out and difficult solutions to problems. I'll tell her about this the first chance I get. 206.252.74.48 (talk) 19:30, 19 March 2008 (UTC)

computer power (cpu)

Clearly there will always be someone who needs more processing power, but in terms of desktops surely there must be a point at which no more is needed. Q. Are we there yet? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 83.100.183.180 (talk) 21:11, 19 March 2008 (UTC)

"What Intel giveth, Microsoft taketh away", which is to say that as processing power increases, software developers will be comfortable writing more and more demanding applications. An example of this is the growth in the amount of higher-level functionality that is interpreted on the fly rather than compiled into a machine-friendly format. --Sean 21:23, 19 March 2008 (UTC)

A great example is the memory-hogging, CPU-draining Windows Vista. Useight (talk) 21:33, 19 March 2008 (UTC)

That's a terrible example, it doesn't use much more memory (except for Aero, which consumes less memory than other compositing window managers like Compiz, but is of course still a hog) and if you disable search indexing and other garbage, performance is much improved over XP. The only real criticism that can be levelled against vista is its bloat- the install is huge. A better example would be the black hole of CPU power that is Java :D\=< (talk) 22:48, 19 March 2008 (UTC)

You're always defending Vista. If I disable all those things you mention, it turns into XP. So I might as well use XP since it takes up less space. Yes, space is very important to me. One of the reasons I don't have Firefox is because it would take up more space than just having IE6. (Another reason is that I hate tabbed browsing). It's kind of weird that I be a space saver, because my PC has 1.1TB of storage, but I like it as empty as possible. Useight (talk) 23:51, 19 March 2008 (UTC)

That's ridiculous. It's not doing you any good at all if it's sitting there empty. :D\=< (talk) 01:27, 20 March 2008 (UTC)

I've noticed that you like to make sure a computer is using all of its potential. That is a very interesting philosophy. But that makes sense. Useight's situation is like buying a bunch of warehouses so you can store nothing in them but marvel at their emptiness. 206.252.74.48 (talk) 13:48, 20 March 2008 (UTC)

If you're not running Windows Vista, we've been there for a few years now. --Carnildo (talk) 22:46, 19 March 2008 (UTC)

I don't think we'll ever truly be there (except in the sense that we don't really need any processing power at all -- we got along for centuries without computers). How much processing power (or other computing resource) you want depends on what you're going to do with it. And peoples' expectation for that changes with time. Various features of the system (graphical user interface, internet) were not considered "necessary" once upon a time (and the demands they put on a system were once pretty serious) but now they are. Who knows what will be discovered invented next? I will note that CPU power is not the most important aspect of performance for common tasks. I doubt it has been in a long, long time (pretty much since the mainframe era). Disk drive latency and network bandwidth are probably bigger deals. -- Why Not A Duck 23:42, 19 March 2008 (UTC)

Depends on the application, obviously. You don't need much CPU power to download your next data set, and you don't need any network bandwidth or much drive latency to do processing on chunks of it. Rich AJAX applications require everything except low drive latency. Video games require raw CPU power as well as a performance drive. :D\=< (talk) 01:38, 20 March 2008 (UTC)

There will always be a need for more computing power. Looking at the very expensive time being overbooked in supercomputing centres all over the world should give you a hint. The world doesn't need another shortsighted statement "640K should be enough for anybody" courtesy a certain Mr Bill Gates. Looking ahead, the need for miniturization in CPU's is almost as important - for example in nanotechnology you would want as powerful a CPU as you can get if nanites are injected into your bloodstream to kill mutating viruses - you would not want these nanites to zap the wrong organisms. Looking forward to space travel and eventually starships, the faster the computers in these things the better. Look at all the Star Trek technology - these would not be possible without superfast parallel CPU's. I would imagine teleporting a human would take an immense amount of CPU and memory. A lot of this technology is becoming reality because of advancements in computing. Hail to the scientists of the world! Sandman30s (talk) 07:42, 20 March 2008 (UTC)

My favorite shortsighted statement is Einstein's "What will that tiny country do with an electric computer?".

To be fair, the question was specifically about desktop computers. However, in today's world people use their "desktop" computers for many different things - I do mathematical computations, some volunteer it for scientific projects like Folding@Home, some do audio and video processing, some play bleeding-edge games, and so on. I doubt it will be easy to find anyone that can't benefit from more processing power.

However, I don't think this kind of "heavy" computations is where desktop computers have the greatest need to improve. My main concern is that mundane everyday operations you do with your computer don't happen instantaneously. Whether it is waiting for a program or web page to load, or even shorter waits working within a program, the seconds add up to consume a significant amount of the user's time. Sometimes more CPU can help, but the most pressing issues in this regard is the speeds of hard drives and network connections. -- Meni Rosenfeld (talk) 11:47, 20 March 2008 (UTC)

Thanks for all your replies, yes I was specifically talking about CPU's : network and storage connections are the big ones that need improvement. Just to give some context to my question - I was wondering if 'the home computer' would ever evolve into a known fixed tech spec piece of elec goods, and be sold in a way similar to CD players or TV's - it's getting there - but not quite yet.83.100.183.180 (talk) 13:15, 20 March 2008 (UTC)

If Apple had it their way, there would be just one configuration of computers, and everyone would use the same computer, until Apple would release a newer product. Horror of horrors, would Apple even release a newer product at all? Kushal 05:53, 21 March 2008 (UTC) My prediction is no, we are not there yet. I doubt we will ever be there. Take a look at a particular website. CAUTION: May have traces of politics. Manufactured in a facility that also makes ... Kushal 05:57, 21 March 2008 (UTC)

Can you check that link - it didn't seem to make sense - seemed to be some generic useless webpage? Did I miss something.

Personally I think it's partly to do with having separate companies producing software and hardware - combine the businesses of both of these and stagnation would soon follow. Hurray!87.102.16.238 (talk) 11:59, 21 March 2008 (UTC)

I lold at her prattling. First blatant factual error is around 2:00, see Military budget of the United States and note that it's definitely not 50% of 2.90 trillion USD. :D\=< (talk) 05:31, 22 March 2008 (UTC)

She probably meant to say 15%. I see this went over some heads - anyone who thinks this eye-opener is "useless" needs to do some serious reflection. (Okay, maybe she exaggerated a little, but the point remains).

I'll dumb the connection to this discussion down a little bit - microprocessor developers will continue to create more and more powerful processors, and people will continue to consume them, not necessarily because we objectively need it, but because the economy is designed to promote consumerism. -- Meni Rosenfeld (talk) 13:25, 23 March 2008 (UTC)

It must be me (sorry Kushal) - I already knew we were throwing stuff away. That page is just more opium for the masses. Pass the blame - apparently some 'fat guy with a cigar and a dollar on his t-shirt' is to blame.. No - you get what you want - this woman is directly responsible for this, she can't pass the buck. That's my rant.87.102.16.238 (talk) 15:25, 23 March 2008 (UTC)

Exactly. That is her message. The sad state of affairs we are in is a direct result of the decisions each and every one of us little guys makes when we vote with our wallets. You can't blame evil for being evil, we can only blame ourselves for giving them such power. If you think she was trying to "pass the buck" then you completely didn't get it. The difference is that she (apparently, I don't know her personally) is trying to correct her wrong ways and to convince others to do the same.

Knowing that we throw stuff away is one thing, understanding the dynamics creating and created by consumerism is another. -- Meni Rosenfeld (talk) 15:58, 23 March 2008 (UTC)

Hopefully she might change her views on incinerators. Trying to get a recycling plant for my city has proved difficult Thermal depolymerization Gasification etc were all rejected, leaving waste to heat as the only viable option (cost). Where were the 'greens' when all this was happening - they are very vocal on 'consume less' but try to put forward a solution that includes building a very big factory that most likely won't win any beauty prizes, and will cost a bit to build and they dissapear like mice. Waste exists and will continue to do so in large quantities as long as we live in cities. I found her incinerator=bad argument most annoying. 87.102.16.238 (talk) 19:36, 23 March 2008 (UTC)

I'm struggling to make heads or tails of your argument. She was pretty clear about recycling not being the ultimate answer, so what's with the fuss about them not fighting for a recycling plant in your city?

She wasn't comparing incinerators with other waste management methods, but rather with having less waste to manage in the first place as a result of changed consumption habits.

The "our planet and our society are going down the drain and there's nothing we can do about it" argument is especially annoying. Yes, there will be waste, but there's also a lot we can do to significantly reduce it - for example, here are that site's suggestions. -- Meni Rosenfeld (talk) 20:33, 23 March 2008 (UTC)

I will be dead before it's a serious problem. Hope for some miracle technology to solve all our problems and when nothing appears, what are they going to do dig me up and yell at me? :D\=< (talk) 21:19, 23 March 2008 (UTC)

There was a story about how European companies collect electronic waste in their countries and then "export" it to some small African country where most of it would be burned off in open fires... untreated! I don't know if computers manufactured today got rid of the poisons but those computers being burned right now have mercury and lead and phosphorus and what not in them.

I wish to stay away from the politics in this issue but some people. including me, believe that pollution that happens in one country does affect other countries as well.^{[original research]} Therefore, the dump that gets burned in an African country will, in the long (or maybe loooooong) run affect the countries that exported it in the first place. Kushal 03:38, 24 March 2008 (UTC)

Yes EEC directives require certain methods of disposal of electronic waste -unscrupulous companies dealt with the problem by shipping the waste to places without that legislation (ie do it cheaply). I suppose this relates the the linked articles point about people should be paying for disposal of waste not just production. Please start a new discussion. This page is almost falling off the edge of the world.!87.102.16.238 (talk) 11:09, 24 March 2008 (UTC)

Why

I think computers are awesome do you J713 (talk) 21:53, 19 March 2008 (UTC)

Well yes, and i'm sure pretty much everyone who is answering you will say they are impressive - they must (at the least) like them enough to A) use them and B) Use them enough to become a person who helps others on a somewhat low-visited series of reference desks. Oh and they are awesome because of the amazing power they provide for computation, transfer of information, organisation, automation of repetitive actions etc. etc. 22:49, 19 March 2008 (UTC)

IMO the most awesome aspect of computing is the precision and control you have.. anything that goes wrong is a direct consequence of what you programmed it to do. Also it's amazing how complex computing problems can become, and if you can juggle them in your head, it's fun! :D\=< (talk) 22:53, 19 March 2008 (UTC)

ITT: The Hacker Manifesto. Mac Davis (talk) 23:04, 19 March 2008 (UTC)

I like them for the gaming. Useight (talk) 23:46, 19 March 2008 (UTC)

Aren't you ashamed replying to the hacker manifesto with lol vidya? There are better criticisms- that it's technocratic or elitist for one, that it's riddled with unneccessary threats and unrealistic ideals. But it's undeniably a powerful piece of literature that a lot of people adore. :D\=< (talk) 01:26, 20 March 2008 (UTC)

Me too, I like.83.100.183.180 (talk) 18:15, 20 March 2008 (UTC)

Mac>Linux

Hi, how can I get Linux to run on my mac? – i123Pie _bio^contribs 21:57, 19 March 2008 (UTC)

What kind of Mac is it? --Spoon! (talk) 22:15, 19 March 2008 (UTC)

Open up Disk Utility in Applications>Utilities, click on your boot drive, and add a partition. It's a good idea to back up your important data as a precaution. After you create a second partition, take a Linux install disk, shut down your computer, and turn it on holding down the option key on your keyboard, select the Linux install disk to boot from. Make sure you install Linux into the Linux partition, not the Mac OS X one. Mac Davis (talk) 23:04, 19 March 2008 (UTC)

OK, err. Where can I find one for PowerPC? I can hardly find any in google. – i123Pie

_bio^contribs 08:05, 20 March 2008 (UTC)

Take a look at this page[5]. What type of computer do you have? If you are running anything under Leopard, you won't be able to use Disk Utility to repartition your hard drive without erasing it. Mac Davis (talk) 11:44, 20 March 2008 (UTC)

Well, I already have a spare portion as I had Mac classic support. – i123Pie _bio^contribs 17:08, 20 March 2008 (UTC)

Good! Download and burn the disk image to a CD. In disk utility, you can click on the CD, and then the restore tab, and browse for the source image, and then the destination. Burn! Mac Davis (talk) 20:39, 20 March 2008 (UTC)

Problemo, I don't have a cd wrighter, that works. – i123Pie _bio^contribs 08:02, 21 March 2008 (UTC)

I used my windows pc to write it onto a dvd but my mac won't detect the dvd. – i123Pie _bio^contribs 11:28, 21 March 2008 (UTC)

Find a Linux distribution you would like to use, and that will work on your Mac. If you have an Intel based Mac you probably have a lot more choices than if you have a PowerPC based Mac. Whatever Linux distribution you pick, their website should probably have instructions for installing it. Read through those instructions make sure you understand them, and make sure they're something you're willing to do. (If you want your Mac to still be able to run Mac OS, the install process has to take care of this.) (Please note: None of the four Linux systems I've had was a Mac, and none of the three Macs I've had has run Linux.) -- Why Not A Duck 23:54, 19 March 2008 (UTC)

March 20

How would I get this on my iPod?

It was pointed out to me by a friend. Anyways, I managed to wrestle out the .swf, but iTunes rejects that format. What do I do? Thnx! Yamakiri ^T_C § 03-20-2008 • 10:59:22 PS I'm NOT a furry.

Search google for "swf to m4v" which returns this program: Flash to Video Encoder. That program isn't free but if you play with those search terms you may come up with something that works (like converting the flash file to mpeg or whatnot then to iPod's preferred format).--droptone (talk) 11:50, 20 March 2008 (UTC)

There's a program called iSquint that you can use to convert FLV files to MP4 for the iPod. It is free and wonderful. --Captain Ref Desk (talk) 12:53, 20 March 2008 (UTC)

SUPER will convert between most file formats, including swf and iPod video. --jjron (talk) 14:51, 21 March 2008 (UTC)

Rendering swf shows to rasterized video is re dic u lous ly sticky business and I seriously doubt SUPER can do it. I've done it once to convert this to a stupid mpeg 1 or whatever DreamScene requires.. it was 2 hours of grueling ffmpeg/mencoder chaining, and I had to try half a dozen shareware swf renderer/capturers before I found one that works. And I can't help but notice that the filename is caramelldansen.. you can get a higher quality version here. It's the speedycake remix (the original is molasses slow and cake is a cool guy) and you'll have to hack around with the web page to find a di did it for you. :D\=< (talk) 05:40, 22 March 2008 (UTC)

JPEG "fool you" screen

I'm looking for a simple Windows program that can load a JPG image to fullscreen when double-clicked, similar to a boss key.

Here's one. --grawity ^{talk / PGP} 17:01, 20 March 2008 (UTC)

Power point-losing narration

I have many slides with narration embedded in the presentation. When I went into some slides to change the narration I deleted each by highliting the small speaker on the slide and put new narration on the slide. When I go to the very next slide that follows the slide with the changed narration the narration on that slide is gone. This has happened with every slide that follows a slide that I changed narration on. I have searched everywhere for an answer. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks. 76.188.26.251 (talk) 13:09, 20 March 2008 (UTC)

I don't suppose it's possible you had narrations spanning more than one slide, and when you deleted the narration from the first slide, it consequently deleted it from those following as well? --jjron (talk) 14:54, 21 March 2008 (UTC)

Wikipedia error message

I am, as of yesterday, getting a Wikipedia generated error message every time I go to my watchlist: "You seem to be using the javascript-enhanced watchlist, which is incompatible with the category watchlist script at present; please uninstall it." What changed that this is happening, is there anything I can do to stop getting the error message short of uninstalling and what happens if I keep both, i.e., one or both won't function? Something else? --Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 13:19, 20 March 2008 (UTC)

You might want to ask the help desk or the village pump technical, they might have a better idea of what's specifically the problem with those scripts :D\=< (talk) 16:37, 20 March 2008 (UTC)

CSS question

I have some text that I'd like to be in a box that will resize to contain the text no matter what the user does to resize or shrink the text. Basic stuff, a table could do it in a second. But I can't seem to get the CSS to work out.

Here's the relevant CSS: #menus { width: 150px; padding: 0px; margin: 0px; margin-top: 20px; margin-left: 180px; padding-left: 10px; padding-top: 10px; padding-bottom: 10px; }

"menus" is just a div with some text in it. My problem is that if I don't set the "width" property, it'll go all the way over the right edge of the screen. If I do the set the "width" property, it'll only fit when the text is a specific size—if I use "enlarge text size" or "decrease text size" in the browser then it won't fit.

What should I do here to make it behave properly? Ideally I'd like it to act like a table cell—with the borders expanding only as needed to fit the contents, and resizing with the content automatically. --Captain Ref Desk (talk) 14:38, 20 March 2008 (UTC)

A partial solution (not as precise as the table solution you describe) is to specify the width in ems rather than px (e.g. width: 10em;) as that varies with the text size (you'll have to experiment a bit to find a reasonable baseline, depending on the font you're using, and indeed if the browser has do to font-substitution to render the page then this will throw your calculation off a bit). -- Finlay McWalter | Talk 14:45, 20 March 2008 (UTC)

That works pretty well. Thanks! --Captain Ref Desk (talk) 14:58, 20 March 2008 (UTC)

syscalls from assembly PARTIE DEUX

I asked this at the bottom of the last question, but it was archived away off the page. The answer to his question was that to do a syscall you have to load up values into EAX and EBX and trigger an interrupt to trap into the kernel. My question is.. if the kernel is reading those values out, part of it must be written in assembly / machine language since AFAIK it's impossible to read values off registers from C. Wouldn't that spawnkill all chance of easy portability? How does the ultimate of portables NetBSD handle this problem? Also, I thought most of the Linux kernel was written in C.. how does that assembly part of the kernel call C functions? Is there some entry point function that's specially compiled to always be in the same location in memory? :D\=< (talk) 16:36, 20 March 2008 (UTC)

1) yes, all kernels have at least a little bit of assembly language to glue things together, 2) it doesn't kill portability because it's only a small portion of the kernel, 3) I dunno, 4) Linux is indeed mostly written in C. You can call C functions from assembly as long as you use the right calling conventions, 5) I'm not sure what you mean, but you do set up interrupt vectors to tell the CPU where to trap to when the syscall implementation does the "int 80" or whatever. See [6]. FYI:

# cd /usr/src/linux
# find -name '*.[ch]' | xargs cat | wc -l
6181926
# find -name '*.[sS]' | xargs cat | wc -l
250175
# find arch/ppc/ -name '*.[sS]' | xargs cat | wc -l
13240

--Sean 16:50, 20 March 2008 (UTC)

(edit conflict) It's up to a given operating system how it handles syscalls, and even within a single operating system, the method can vary from hardware architecture to hardware architecture. Typically, in modern operating systems, a syscall looks just like an ordinary subroutine call (for that architecture) except that somewhere along the way, the processor switches from "User" mode to "Kernel"/"Supervisor"/"Executive" mode. Within that more-protected "inner" mode, the executive then validates all the user's parameters to make sure they're consistent and not trying to cheat the various system protections, and it then executes the call.

Atlant (talk) 16:54, 20 March 2008 (UTC)

That perfectly answered my questions, thanks :D\=< (talk) 16:54, 20 March 2008 (UTC)

• part of it must be written in assembly / machine language - yes, the part of it that catches and dispatches the syscall is - see http://www.win.tue.nl/~aeb/linux/lk/lk-4.html
• it's impossible to read values off registers from C - impossible in normal C (but then systems programmers never write in normal C, they're always messing with platform and environment specific stuff) - the Linux kernel could have done this with asm embedded in C (which gcc allows) or with compiler extensions that do allow C to refer to a specific register. I'm more familiar with MIPS, where most C compilers allow you to refer to special variables like __r1 which refers to CPU register 1 (MIPS registers have much saner names than Intel)
• Wouldn't that spawnkill all chance of easy portability? - indeed, the file in question is architecture specific. But then the SYSCALL mechanism itself is architecture specific. While on x86 you call INT x80, on other architectures you call BRK, or just deliberately exectute an instruction you know you're not allowed to (they're all the same - they force a CPU fault which dumps execution into a kernel-space handler).
• Also, I thought most of the Linux kernel was written in C - most of it is, but it's impossible to do absolutely everything in C. In addition to syscalls you generally have to have the first few instructions in ASM (to set the CPU up, as CPUs start with everything either undefined or downright turned off). And there's often stuff to do with handling CPU exceptions, coprocessor conditions, and manipulating the registers (and stack) of user-mode programs (both when spawning and when doing a context switch)
• How does the ultimate of portables NetBSD handle - the same way everyone else does, they have an architecture (and platform, and board) specific module which does all the non-portable stuff. Calling a kernel "portable" really just means there's very little in this, with most code in the platform-independent section
• how does that assembly part of the kernel call C functions - assembly and C can call one another easily - both compile down to object modules (ELF or whatever) with unresolved external symbols - symbols that are then resolved (in a manner almost identical to that in an application's compile) by the linker. The only real complexity is that you need to specifically worry about calling convention (how parameters are passed).
• Is there some entry point function that's specially compiled to always be in the same location in memory - depending on the architecture interrupts are handled via a hardware table (I think this is how Intel works), which is initialised by the OS (it fills it with hooks for each of the prevailing event handlers). The same is true for other non-interrupt event handlers (like memory exception etc.). The only thing that is absolutely fixed in memory is the address to which a booting CPU jumps (which for your desktop computer is a real-mode address inside the flash BIOS). In practice BIOSes enforce a fixed memory map on the (real mode) code that they load from disk (or whatever) - that's generally GRUB or LILO or OBP or whatever. If you want to know "how do I get a piece of code to be located at a specific numbered address" then you have the compiler put it in a special section and then tell the linker (and often a bespoke locator to resolve outstanding fixups) to put it at a special address. And all that is architecture specific (and board-specific, although in the case of PCs all boards work the same).

-- Finlay McWalter | Talk 17:07, 20 March 2008 (UTC)

Make document open when I visit a page

Is it possible to make a word file I have saved on my computer open automatically every time I visit a certain webpage or open firefox (the former is preferred) and, if so, how is it done? Thanks in advance, George D. Watson (Dendodge).Talk^Help 18:01, 20 March 2008 (UTC)

I'm not sure I quite understand your question. Do you want a local file to open (in MS Word), whenever you visit www.example.com? --LarryMac | Talk 19:43, 20 March 2008 (UTC)

Yes please, sorry if i wasn't clear enough. George D. Watson (Dendodge).Talk^Help 19:47, 20 March 2008 (UTC)

OK, well one way I can think of to do this is make a small HTML/Javascipt file that you keep locally and make a bookmark. I'll have to work out the details, but basically instead of typing in www.example.com in the address bar, you'd use the bookmark to load the local file, which would have an "window.onload" action to open the Word doc and then link to example.com. Hmmmmm. There might be better options, but I'll work on the javascript until somebody smarter comes along. --LarryMac | Talk 19:55, 20 March 2008 (UTC)

Do you have control of the content of that website? x42bn6 Talk Mess 05:10, 21 March 2008 (UTC)

No, I know how to do it on sites I have control over but I need someting to open when I visit the Wikipedia main page. George D. Watson (Dendodge).Talk^Help 11:55, 21 March 2008 (UTC)

You'd probably need a Firefox Addon because I don't believe it's possible to capture that event by default. I can't think of an addon that does this job but I'll look for one. x42bn6 Talk Mess 17:47, 21 March 2008 (UTC)

You could probably do it using Greasemonkey, if you can do it with JS.

If you can do it with remotely loaded JS on sites you have control over, and you're after having it on Wikipedia, then you might be able to do it using MediaWiki's user JS support as well - see meta:Help:User_style#JavaScript or Wikipedia:WikiProject User scripts for some starting points to how that works. - IMSoP (talk) 21:13, 23 March 2008 (UTC)

World of Warcrack

Do the people in the World of Warcraft adverts really play it? Vitriol (talk) 19:27, 20 March 2008 (UTC)

You mean the celebrities like Mr. T, William Shatner, and Verne Troyer?--droptone (talk) 20:00, 20 March 2008 (UTC)

Yeah. Vitriol (talk) 00:44, 21 March 2008 (UTC)

Are you kidding? No way :D\=< (talk) 04:40, 21 March 2008 (UTC)

How can we know? How can you say for certain whether someone you don't personally know plays it or not? Does WoW have a public list of players? Uh, no. It's possible, though. Certainly, if I had a product that I wanted Mr. T or Captain Kirk to help advertise, I'd give him a free toaster/plant/whateverIsell. It wouldn't cost me very much, and it may help. "Gee, not only does he do their ads, but he really does keep that stupid plant in his kitchen. I guess it really does help with warts!" -SandyJax (talk) 13:39, 21 March 2008 (UTC)

Play suggests an ongoing action, not something they tried once. And sorry, there's no way William Shatner and Mr. T play wow. :D\=< (talk) 16:05, 21 March 2008 (UTC)

(and was the title misspelt on purpose?) -SandyJax (talk) 13:39, 21 March 2008 (UTC)

Probably. :D\=< (talk) 17:11, 21 March 2008 (UTC)

SIMULATION IN COMPUTER GRAPHICS

I wanna know that what is simulation graphics. I have searched on internet and found that simulation means virtuality but how it is concerned with computer Graphics.117.99.6.238 (talk) 20:42, 20 March 2008 (UTC)

Simulation is making something look like it's there when it's not. It's hard to explain really. A roller-coaster simulator makes it look (to you) like you're riding a roller-coaster when you're really sat in an arcade somewhere. George D. Watson (Dendodge).Talk^Help 20:45, 20 March 2008 (UTC)

(simple)Virtual reality. – i123Pie _bio^contribs 07:57, 21 March 2008 (UTC)

Data type as parameter in C#

Can the functions below be replaced by a single function that takes uint or double (or any other type or class with the Parse function and < > operators) as a fourth parameter? NeonMerlin 21:56, 20 March 2008 (UTC)

static uint PromptUInteger(uint minimum, uint maximum, string prompt)
        {
            uint input;
            while (true)
            {
                Console.Out.Write(prompt);
                try {
                    input = uint.Parse(Console.In.ReadLine()); // will throw an exception if the input can't be parsed as a uint
                    if (input < minimum || input > maximum)
                        throw new Exception(); // also throw an exception if it's out of range
                    break; // if we've gotten this far, we can exit the loop
                } catch (Exception e) { // but if we did throw an exception...
                    Console.Out.WriteLine("Please enter an integer between {0} and {1}.", minimum, maximum); // report incorrect input
                }
            }
            return input;
        }
static double PromptDouble(double minimum, double maximum, string prompt)
        {
            double input;
            while (true)
            {
                Console.Out.Write(prompt);
                try
                {
                    input = double.Parse(Console.In.ReadLine()); // will throw an exception if the input can't be parsed as a double
                    if (input < minimum || input > maximum)
                        throw new Exception(); // also throw an exception if it's out of range
                    break; // if we've gotten this far, we can exit the loop
                }
                catch (Exception e)
                { // but if we did throw an exception...
                    Console.Out.WriteLine("Please enter a decimal number between {0} and {1}.", minimum, maximum); // report incorrect input
                }
            }
            return input;
        }

irritating IE6 css problem

Here's my CSS:

body {
	background-color: black;
}

#main-content {
	background: url("images/myimage.jpg") no-repeat;
	background-attachment: fixed;
}

And here's my HTML:

<body id="main-content" leftmargin="0" topmargin="0" bottommargin="0" rightmargin="0" marginwidth="0" marginheight="0">
	<div id="content">
	Blah blah
	</div>
</body>

Goal is to display a fixed background image as part of the BODY attribute but have it be flexible so that I can just use one stylesheet with different IDs assigned to the body tag.

In Firefox and Safari, it works fine. But in IE6, it only works fine with the div with the id of "content" is totally empty. Does not work at all when there is something in it — just displays as a black background.

Any thoughts? I know IE6 is deprecated but sadly it is still a major player on the browser market. I'd rather not do some sort of browser-specific workaround but if there is a better way to do it that IE6 will like...? --Captain Ref Desk (talk) 23:05, 20 March 2008 (UTC)

Did you try explicitly doing

#content { background-color: transparent; }

in the CSS? Also, I don't design websites for a living or anything, but I can't stand the idea of websites being redesigned around Internet Explorer. If perfectly legal CSS doesn't work on non-standards-compliant browsers, then that is their problem for using a browser that incorrectly displays webpages. It'll be no surprise to them when everything looks like crap because IE incorrectly renders pages and they're doing it to themselves. Dump the stupid users still using IE and make the internet a better place :D\=< (talk) 02:40, 21 March 2008 (UTC)

I can't stand to redesign around IE either, and deeply resent Microsoft's apathy towards adhering to web standards, but unfortunately we do not always have the luxury to look lousy to 25% of all web clients. This isn't an instance where we have the ability to set the terms—in fact, the concerns of the designer are only paramount in the smallest and most insignificant sorts of sites. Unfortunately the bottom line—in this case, "will it render adequately on most machines?"—matters more than the technical considerations, though I'm eager to accomplish this with fewest hacks as possible (because a page littered with hacks and workarounds often ends up being rather unstable as well). "That is their problem" is pretty inconsistent with "the customer is always right," and depending on the purpose at hand, it's my job to mitigate their problem as much as possible (at the very least by making things fail gracefully).

But I'll give the transparent bit a try, thanks for the suggestion. --Captain Ref Desk (talk) 16:08, 21 March 2008 (UTC)

Update: Whattaja know—that little fix seems to have made it work out fine. Thanks for the suggestion! --Captain Ref Desk (talk) 16:19, 21 March 2008 (UTC)

By the way, anyone read this? Kushal 22:32, 23 March 2008 (UTC)

good article. the thing is, as observed before, most folks don't buy a computer for the hardware, that's just to run the OS; and they don't buy it for the OS, that's just to run the apps; and nowadays they don't buy it for the browser app, that's just to see the webpage. so, if somebody's crappy buggy myspace page breaks the perfectly functional browser in the perfectly functional OS on the perfectly functional hardware, they'll still take it back. Gzuckier (talk) 19:31, 24 March 2008 (UTC)

March 21

Sneaky phishing email

I recently received an email, supposedly from my dental insurance company, telling me that my recently processed claim was ready for review. The links were all obvious phishing sites and I would usually just ignore these sorts of things, but what worries me is that they got my insurance company correct and they timed it impeccably with me filing an actual dental claim. Now for the former, that's probably easy to find out or possibly just guess. As for the latter, it could just be entirely coincidental; however, if it weren't, what point in the chain would someone be able to find that out and get a spoof email out that quickly? Makes me really doubt these companies' security policies... -- MacAddct  1984 ^{(talk &#149; contribs)} 02:53, 21 March 2008 (UTC)

I know what you mean. BTW, the  symbol don't work on windows. – i123Pie _bio^contribs 07:54, 21 March 2008 (UTC)

Interesting. Happened to me as well, now at my dorm, I can see the apple logo. I could not see it on Windows XP SP2. I wonder if Ubuntu can see it. Kushal 12:55, 22 March 2008 (UTC)

Back in the windows computer, all I get is a question mark like "?" Kushal 22:36, 23 March 2008 (UTC)

Could just be an example of synchronicity, or not - maybe your dentists computer records are infected - maybe you should mention this to them.87.102.16.238 (talk) 12:31, 21 March 2008 (UTC)

Of course, when most companies do have a data spill, they just cover it up and deny, unless they are publicly exposed. They're not stupid.Gzuckier (talk) 19:21, 24 March 2008 (UTC)

Private torrents (not trackers)

I'm very annoyed at how utorrent honors the "Private" flag on torrents.. if I want to use peer exchange and DHT, how dare my client tell me I can't? But I love everything else about utorrent.. is there some tool to remove that flag from .torrent files, or a patch for utorrent.exe? Preferably the latter since I assume that messing with the torrent file would mess with hashes and whatnot. :D\=< (talk) 05:13, 21 March 2008 (UTC)

A summary google search shows that a certain client might be a makeshift solution. Kushal 19:36, 22 March 2008 (UTC)

BitComet is banned on any good tracker because it sucks bandwidth, lies about ratios, and maximizes its own download speeds at the expense of the rest of the swarm :D\=< (talk) 03:18, 23 March 2008 (UTC)

I remember a certain tracker (that used to be named EasyTree) saying they would ban clients for which such hacks were known to exist. I haven't followed this controversy, but would be surprised this has not happened yet. (And, since it came up, BitComet, BitLord, and whatever uses that code base, should be hacked to erase user client drives. Hopefully someone will get on that right away.) / edg ☺ ☭ 03:25, 23 March 2008 (UTC)

2-way file pointer

Is there any way to create a 'FILE *' in C so that you can both read and write from that file? I need to use string data with a library that gets all its data with file pointers, all within a single process. I want to write the string data to the file and then have the library read it to process it. I understand there might be a chance of 'deadlock' with this - nonetheless, is there a way to do it?

I think you're thinking of a race condition rather than deadlock. But yes, you can open a file for reading and writing with fopen. -- BenRG (talk) 11:45, 21 March 2008 (UTC)

Within a single-threaded process, of course you can open a file for reading and writing. Open() it in mode O_RDWR then use lseek() to move around in the file. With multiple threads, it gets more complex because you may need to use something like record locking to manage multiple writers to the file.

Atlant (talk) 12:26, 21 March 2008 (UTC)

Is there any way to then elide the 'physical' file associated with the file pointer and just use the pointer as a kind of two-way pipe? I understand that that might be OS-dependent, but something like the inverse of mmap? That is, uses fwrite and fread automatically use memory instead of disk. Hmm, the more I write the more unlikely it seems, but I ask anyway.

Couldn't you just use a named pipe? You can fopen it twice - once for write for your own code to write to, and again for read (that's the FILE* you pass to the library functions). Make sure the writing code calls fflush on the handle (otherwisen data you write won't necessarily end up at the reader). -- Solidview (talk) 16:02, 21 March 2008 (UTC)

Barring that, it's time to get heavy. fopen, fread, fwrite etc. are all library calls that are imported from the C rtl. If you define them in your own code then code present at link time will resolve to your versions not the library versions (if the library is a DLL/SO then you'll need to create your own DLL/SO that defines these functions and make sure its in the LD_LIBRARY_PATH before the libc.so). With that done you can get fread, fwrite etc. to do anything you want. -- Solidview (talk) 16:06, 21 March 2008 (UTC)

...and if the rest of your code needs to use the real fread etc. functions, then you can get pointers to them with dlopen/dlsym and call them yourself. -- Solidview (talk) (user:Finlay McWalter, on an untrusted computer) 16:09, 21 March 2008 (UTC)

migrate e-mail

Anyone know about migrating an e-mail account from outlook express (XP) to 'windows mail' (Vista) - typed in the account name on vista and pressed 'add' but something seems amiss - no email - doesn't seem to be taking any notice? any clues?87.102.16.238 (talk) 12:25, 21 March 2008 (UTC)

If its POP, you need to have Mail point to the required file in which Outlook Express saves emails. Windows Mail is the article we have about Windows Mail. It seems it is not developed anymore as it "has been succeeded by Windows Live Mail".

If it were an Internet Message Access Protocol (IMAP) email account, you would not have to do that.

If you are interested in free software, Mozilla (the makers of Mozilla Firefox) also make a an email client called Mozilla Thunderbird. Mozilla Thunderbird can import emails from Outlook XP too.

Cheers, Kushal 17:11, 21 March 2008 (UTC)

Ho! free software only gets tiny adverts. Buy me I'm free! Thanks.87.102.16.238 (talk) 17:52, 21 March 2008 (UTC)

CorrectionI meant 'windows live mail' when I wrote 'windows mail'. What's the migration proceedure here?87.102.16.238 (talk) 17:52, 21 March 2008 (UTC)

OBJECTION! :D\=< (talk) 19:20, 21 March 2008 (UTC)

Kippers.87.102.16.238 (talk) 20:24, 21 March 2008 (UTC)

When you are in the program "Windows Live Mail," there should be an option under file or tools or something for Import/Export. Give it a shot. Kushal 04:34, 22 March 2008 (UTC)

By the way, can you still use Outlook Express to see all your previous emails? is outlook express on the same computer as windows live mail? I think it is funny why windows live mail would not prompt you to import your previous emails and settings at first startup. Kushal 19:26, 22 March 2008 (UTC)

Yes. Windows live is on a new computer - no prompt..87.102.16.238 (talk) 14:58, 23 March 2008 (UTC)

You need to locate the specific files on the old computer (if after reading this, you still don't know how AND are unable to Google how, please leave a note here).

If you backed up your emails regularly, I think you can just use the latest back up file you have.

then copy them to the new computer. point Windows live mail or Mozilla Thunderbird to the file by selecting 'import' (may be labeled differently).

or you can go to this website Background sound says, "Say thank you to Google, Kushal!" :P and give that a try.

and by the way, it is a good habit to back up your emails. Maybe you would yearn for the good old days of spam and bac'n one day when the world gets rid of the spam problem. (just kidding) Kushal 22:28, 23 March 2008 (UTC)

cheap Vista laptop

Hello i want to buy a laptop for personal use ,as windows vista compatible under $700.Please dont tell me to seach. thanx

So you want us to search for you? This is one editor who won't bother with that .... --LarryMac | Talk 16:32, 21 March 2008 (UTC)

They could be asking for reccomendations? I got a good Dell one with Home Premium for 1000€ in August. I'd say by now the US equivalent would be below 700$. So you could try there. - ^Estoy_Aquí^{(t • c • e)} 16:43, 21 March 2008 (UTC)

If you want a Vista "capable" machine, make sure you do not install Windows Vista on it. Just my USD 0.02 Kushal 17:00, 21 March 2008 (UTC)

Very good advice. :D\=< (talk) 17:10, 21 March 2008 (UTC)

Hopefully, I can be more helpful than some. I would recommend checking BestBuy.com or OfficeDepot.com. They usually have computers good enough to run Vista. crassic!^[talk] 23:35, 21 March 2008 (UTC)

I forgot Newegg.com, as well. crassic!^[talk] 01:01, 22 March 2008 (UTC)

You want a laptop with 1 gigabyte of RAM, and a processor speed over 1.8 GHz. That should last you a while, and is pretty general purpose. What do you have in mind on what you want to use the laptop for? Take your pick of screen size. I've purchased several laptops at Tiger Direct and government warehouses. Mac Davis (talk) 00:42, 22 March 2008 (UTC)

best method, if you can wait a few months; go to the nearest law school and post a notice before graduation. lots of law students are graduating to fancy well paying jobs and aren't interested in moving their old stuff. friends of mine have retrieved things like brand new HP inkjets in the sealed box, never opened, from the trash outside the law school after graduation, so there's a good chance somebody wouldn't mind selling their equipment to you rather than shlep it across country.Gzuckier (talk) 19:19, 24 March 2008 (UTC)

SVG colour matrix

Does anyone know where I can get an simple-ish explanation of how to use the "colour matrix" filter on SVGs (or even just give one here)? (Specifically the mode called "matrix"). If anyone could point me to one speifically for the Inkscape use of it that would be ideal (though I suspect all programs lay it out in the same way). Thanks in advance. - ^Estoy_Aquí^{(t • c • e)} 16:32, 21 March 2008 (UTC)

Does this help? It has some examples. Personally I don't think this is the sort of thing one should try to do by hand; Inkscape will do this sort of this automatically when rendering gradients and things like that, I imagine. --Captain Ref Desk (talk) 18:35, 21 March 2008 (UTC)

Excel formula problem

I often use a lot of formulas in excel workbooks.These formulas use references to formulas on other workbooks.The problem is when i copy my workbooks to other computers or other locations the formulas still refer to the same locations.Is not there any way so that the formulas refer to the same relative location in relation to the original workbook? Thank You

Could you give us an example of one of the formula? And could you specify what version of Excel you are using, and on what Operating System (Windows or Mac)? --Captain Ref Desk (talk) 19:19, 21 March 2008 (UTC)

I don't think so. You could always take the other books with you, that should work. George D. Watson (Dendodge).Talk^Help 20:36, 21 March 2008 (UTC)

They've got to be in the exact same filepath though.. maybe keep all your workbooks in C:\excel so you can easily recreate the path on your destination machines. I suspect they've made the behavior smarter in newer versions of Excel; you should upgrade :D\=< (talk) 05:10, 22 March 2008 (UTC)

One more goofy CSS question

Imagine I have the following HTML:

<ul>
	<li>Item 1</li>
	<li>Item 2</li>
	<li>Item 3</li>
	<li>Item 4</li>
</ul>

Is there a way, using CSS, that could make the output render like so:

• Item 1 • Item 2 • Item 3 • Item 4 •

The only way I can think of takes advantage of the :before and :after pseudoclasses which, from what I can tell, aren't understood by IE at all. Which in this case would be a negative. Any other ideas? I doubt it can be done but thought I'd ask anyway. I'm not opposed to altering the HTML a bit to make it work, though my current method involves inserting a lot of bullets manually, and that looks really bad when the page is rendered without stylesheets. Thanks! --Captain Ref Desk (talk) 20:33, 21 March 2008 (UTC)

Put this style on the ul:

white-space: nowrap;

..seems like you've been working on quite a project; link us when you're done! :D\=< (talk) 22:23, 21 March 2008 (UTC)

I don't think that'll work, since the break between list items isn't caused by wrapping. You'll need apply display: inline to the list items and the bullet will need to be a background-image, since changing display on list items gets rid of their marker. You'll also need to set the padding-left on the list items so they don't collide with your image. I think the only way to get your end-of-line bullet to show reliably in all browsers is to add an empty list item at the end (<li></li>). The upside is it'll get rid of your double bullets when rendered without stylesheets; the downside is you get a semantically useless bullet point hanging around at the end of your list. — Matt Eason ^{(Talk &#149; Contribs)} 01:24, 22 March 2008 (UTC)

It seems you need a combination of the two.. white-space: nowrap; on the list tag, display:inline; on the <li>s. You can also display:table-cell; on the <li>s and display:table; on the <ul> to make it an inline level element instead of block-level so you can position it more easily if your containers are screwy :D\=< (talk) 02:27, 22 March 2008 (UTC)

Thanks, I will give those a shot! (I'm actually working on about three projects right now, which is why I've been asking so many apparently unrelated questions!) --Captain Ref Desk (talk) 19:50, 22 March 2008 (UTC)

Start up

How can I change my computer to not load the Welcome Center dialog box everytime I start up my computer that just slows down when I start and messes things up sometimes?

:Not entirely sure how to remove the Welcome screen, but I know how you can speed up your start up.

1. Start menu -> "Run" -> type msconfig

2. Click the "Startup" tab. Underneath, you will find any process or program that loads during your startup.

3. Disable any startup items you deem unnecessary at startup.

4. Restart your computer.

Hope this helps some. crassic!^[talk] 22:47, 21 March 2008 (UTC)

I'm fairly sure there is a tick box (in the bottom left corner?) of the Welcome Centre window that says "Open Welcome Centre every time Windows starts" or something similar. If you have this, try unchecking it.

...Or, go to Control Panel >Welcome Centre and untick the "Run at startup" (ah - that's what it says) in the bottom left corner. --Kateshortforbob 00:24, 22 March 2008 (UTC)

Oh, wow. I was thinking of a completely wrong thing. Scratch that! crassic!^[talk] 01:02, 22 March 2008 (UTC)

March 22

Printing only the first 1000 characters/bytes in PHP

Hello! I'm trying to build a website, wherein a MySQL query would return me a really large text field. I need to print only the first few lines of this text. Is there some function in PHP that will select only the first 1000 characters or bytes from the text and display them? Any help would be appreciated. Thanks!--Seraphiel (talk) 06:00, 22 March 2008 (UTC)

You want substr(). Try

substr($the_string, 0, 1000); //that's characters 0 to 999, the first 1000 characters

:D\=< (talk) 06:03, 22 March 2008 (UTC)

Splendid! Exactly what I needed. Thank you!--Seraphiel (talk) 06:12, 22 March 2008 (UTC)

about hacking

i am using internet since last month,from last two days a messsage splash on my screen that your computer has been hacked and aal your vital information are sent though emails to other,it ask me to download that particular spyware tuo remove that virus hat can i do?

DO NOT DOWNLOAD IT! It's just an advertisement to trick you into downloading a spyware program. --grawity ^{talk / PGP} 09:51, 22 March 2008 (UTC)

If the OP is very distracted by the splash messages, maybe (s)he should get Adblock? What do you think, Grawity? Kushal 12:49, 22 March 2008 (UTC)

And Firefox. --grawity ^{talk / PGP} 14:30, 22 March 2008 (UTC)

No website is ever going to tell you, without you asking it to, whether you have a virus. (There are some online virus scanners, but that's the exception. They cannot run without you explicitly authorizing them to.) Pop-up ads of all sorts should be ignored, especially if they are of the "you have a virus/you are a winner/click here for a free gizmo" variety. Most up-to-date browsers have pop-up ads disabled by default for this reason. --Captain Ref Desk (talk) 16:45, 22 March 2008 (UTC)

I believe Captain meant "enabled" when he said "disabled". Kushal 19:18, 22 March 2008 (UTC)

No, I meant "disabled", as in, "most modern browsers block pop-ups by default." At least, I don't remember having to explicitly block them, but that might be my bad memory. Anyway, point being, on most up-to-date browsers you can block them very easily. :-) --Captain Ref Desk (talk) 19:38, 22 March 2008 (UTC)

If the messages appearing are in the form of a grey box with an "OK" button, you can switch them off entirely by following the instructions on this page--Kateshortforbob 17:23, 22 March 2008 (UTC).

If the internet can get directly to your computer on the windows messenger port, then you have much bigger problems.. buy a router :D\=< (talk) 21:04, 22 March 2008 (UTC)

After fixing this problem about 18 times for family/friends using elderly machines still on dial-up, it's kind of a Pavlovian response for me! --Kateshortforbob 00:07, 23 March 2008 (UTC)

The messenger service is disabled by default on XP SP2. If he's still operating pre-SP2 XP, *and* he doesn't have a router/firewall so messages can get through, he does have pretty serious problems. I'd kind of doubt that's it nowadays though, because of SP2. -- Consumed Crustacean (talk) 20:15, 23 March 2008 (UTC)

Hold on, I understand that we need to ask the OP if he has SP2. However, the way I see it, the message could just be a banner ad on myspace or something. Kushal 22:10, 23 March 2008 (UTC)

Yes, that sounds like a more likely explanation. It's also possible that he is infected with spyware; a common tactic for spyware is to redirect users to or a pop up a windows saying something along the lines of: "Your computer is infected; pay us $49.99 for SuperAntiSpywarePlusPlus and we'll get rid of it, guaranteed!". I have actually spoken to someone who bought into one of these scams. -- Consumed Crustacean (talk) 22:18, 23 March 2008 (UTC)

I do accept that having SP2 will help a lot. Kushal 13:00, 24 March 2008 (UTC)

Problems with connecting digital camera USB cable

I have problems connecting a USB cable to my Canon PowerShot S3 IS digital camera. I have the standard-sized USB plug end of the cable plugged in to my computer's USB port and the mini-sized USB plug end hanging free, ready to be plugged into the camera. When I plug the cable into the camera, the camera notices it by powering up. However, the computer does not recognise the camera. I have to twist the mini-sized plug toward the back of the camera to make the computer recognise it. If I let go of the plug, so that it moves back to its natural position, the computer stops recognising the camera. This is very annoying, as it usually means I have to keep twisting the plug with one hand when I transfer pictures from the camera. What is causing this, and how can I fix it? JIP | Talk 15:28, 22 March 2008 (UTC)

Loose connector on camera (fixable via Canon Service) or faulty USB cable (fixable by purchasing a new one). I think. --Ouro (blah blah) 17:06, 22 March 2008 (UTC)

I had the same problem with my cellphone charger. Moisture and dust are not good for cable connectors. I think I took my cellphone too many times into the bathroom. I cleaned the metal connectors with a toothpick (!) and hey presto it seems to work fine now. Sandman30s (talk) 12:20, 23 March 2008 (UTC)

I have an S3 IS too, though I've never had an issue like this. They are just standard 'mini-USB' cables, and nothing too proprietary, so they're easy to replace if need be, or if you've got any from other devices laying around. -- Consumed Crustacean (talk) 20:12, 23 March 2008 (UTC)

working physics problems using an artboard?

I want to collaborate with someone on some physics review problems, but scanning and emailing diagrams back and forth would be unweildy and time consuming. I know about oekaki and pictochat boards which let two people simulatanteously update the same picture in realtime which would be ideal; however I do not know where to go to find one of these oekaki or pictochat boards. The ideal board would have basic graphical functions like a straight line tool, the picture can be printed, and have an invite only section or something so that I can let in only the people who want to work on the physics problems. Does anyone have any idea where I can find an artboard like I described? Thanks in advance. 64.134.81.84 (talk) 16:09, 22 March 2008 (UTC)

Great idea, but I've never seen one. You might want to ask at the Miscellaneous desk for greater exposure. :D\=< (talk) 21:05, 22 March 2008 (UTC)

You can Sketchcast[7] or another thing I can't think of that lets you simultaneously have two people draw online for free. Mac Davis (talk) 00:54, 23 March 2008 (UTC)

Oh lord, he's got another CSS question

OK. Last one for awhile. I promise. I've tried to figure this one out but it's not coming to me.

I've been setting up this little menu:

	<div id="menus">
		<ul>
		<li id="opt.0" class="unselected"><a href="about.html" target="content" onclick="javascript:select(0);">About</a></li>
		<li id="opt.1" class="unselected"><a href="research.html" target="content" onclick="javascript:select(1);">Research</a></li>
		<li id="opt.2" class="unselected"><a href="teaching.html" target="content" onclick="javascript:select(2);">Teaching</a></li>
		<li id="opt.3" class="unselected"><a href="contact.html" target="content" onclick="javascript:select(3);">Contact</a></li>
		</ul>
	</div>

Never mind that it uses frames at the moment (this is temporary, maybe. We'll see how it works out. I don't like 'em, but it might make life a lot easier in this case). The Javascript is just a simple little function — entirely aesthetic, just for kicks and giggles — that changes the class of the selected li from "unselected" to "selected" when you click on it.

The problem is, I can't seem to change the color of the link inside the list. I can change its background color no problem. But not the link color itself. WHY NOT?

Here's the CSS:

#menus a:hover, #menus li:hover, .selected {
	color: black;
	background-color: gold;
}

But the link color never changes to black. It stays its original color, white. I've tried using .selected a, .selected a:link, selected a.visited, .selected a:active, EVERYTHING I can think of, but it stubbornly stays white. I can change all sorts of other things (I can give .selected a a different background color, for example), but I can't change the text/link color. Note that it turns black when it is being hovered over, but it won't STAY black when it is "selected". The second that mouse isn't hovering over it anymore, it becomes white again. Even though the background color stays set as gold like it is supposed to.

I'm doing something wrong... but what is it? --Captain Ref Desk (talk) 19:58, 22 March 2008 (UTC)

You shouldn't need to use :link :visited or :active since the color would apply regardless of these conditions. I'd use the DOM inspector and the tools in the Web Developer addon to see what your javascript is actually doing and what styles are being applied :D\=< (talk) 20:38, 22 March 2008 (UTC)

I got it to work fine.. you can always work off my code if you can't figure out what's wrong with yours.

a {
	color: blue;
}
a.unselected { 
	color: black;
}

a.selected {
        color: white;
}

function selectLink(theid) {
	document.getElementById(theid).className = "selected";
}

<div id="menus">
                <ul>
                <li><a id="opt0" class="unselected" href="#" onclick="selectLink('opt0')">About</a></li>
                <li><a id="opt1" class="unselected" href="#" onclick="selectLink('opt1')">Research</a></li>
                <li><a id="opt2" class="unselected" href="#" onclick="selectLink('opt2')">Teaching</a></li>
                <li><a id="opt3" class="unselected" href="#" onclick="selectLink('opt3')">Contact</a></li>
                </ul>
</div>

Some problems that I had getting mine to work that you might want to watch out for... in your select() function are you concatenating "opt" to the argument you passed in? Notice that you're calling selectLink with just a number, and nothing has that ID. Remember to use single quotes like I did if you want to just pass in the full ID in string form. I moved the id and class over to the link tag but you shouldn't have to, it should be fine in the li tag. Also you probably want something in the selectLink function to deselect the other items when one is selected. Also if users are going to be able to navigate between About Research Teaching and Contact through in-text links in the other frame, it would probably be better to have the subpages report to the other frame (perhaps through the parent frameset; javascript and frames and security make a messy situation) that they've been opened instead of switching the styles on the actual click of the nav, since they might not have clicked the nav to get the that page. :D\=< (talk) 21:01, 22 March 2008 (UTC)

(after e.c.)Adding

#menus .selected a
{
	color: black;
}

worked when I tried your code. — Matt Eason ^{(Talk &#149; Contribs)} 21:14, 22 March 2008 (UTC)

God, that's sooo simple and yet it works. Sigh. Thank you both! --Captain Ref Desk (talk) 21:35, 22 March 2008 (UTC)

As a small side note, I sometimes find setting the color of a elements to color: inherit is handy for this sort of thing. Also, if you're not already using it, Firebug is really good at sorting out CSS problems. Just my 2 cents. --h2g2bob (talk) 00:40, 23 March 2008 (UTC)

Well that would make it always black.. and you know you're setting both all links and everything with the class "selected" to be black.. I think you're trying to do a.selected :D\=< (talk) 03:16, 23 March 2008 (UTC)

Uh... no I'm not. It's a contextual selector so I'm targeting the last child of a hierarchy, not those elements individually, and the class is on li, not a. I'm talking about the original code, not yours, by the way. — Matt Eason ^{(Talk &#149; Contribs)} 12:11, 23 March 2008 (UTC)

March 23

QWERTY, Dvorak, Chorded...

What kind of keyboards do world record typists use ( I think I read dvorak ) and how do chorded keyboards compare in speed? What speed can the top 5% fastest typists hope to achieve in each of the three?

Secondly, is there an international dvorak keyboard, for e.g. french accents or a german version thank you!!!!— Preceding unsigned comment added by 79.122.61.150 (talk • contribs)

Further information: Keyboard (computing)

This study, which I presume only tested QWERTY typing, rates the top 5% as capable of 70wpm. I found this using Google Scholar; perhaps further down they includes a study directly comparing QWERTY with another keyboard.

"Barbara Blackburn, the world's fastest typist" (as linked from the Dvorak article) is a Dvorak user; that link (to what appears to be a Dvorak advocacy site) sources the 1985 Guinness Book of World Records, so later keyboard schemes (like the Colemak) weren't in the running when that record was set.

The Dvorak article also mentions non-english configurations, including French and German. It also says these keyboards leave the Roman characters in the same position as the English, which may be not optimized for other languages. (A note from a Norwegian user complains that version has issues.) No standard "international" version is mentioned.

Colemak's pool of users is very small, perhaps only a couple thousand, but speeds are said to be similar to Dvorak or QWERTY. A thread on Colemak forum laments the lack of studies.

According to the article Words per minute, Stephen Hawking peaked at 15wpm. I have tested at 65wpm; however, it took me several seconds to type QWERTY each time above, and again just now. Weird.

The variety of schemes for chorded keyboards, and their uncommonness, makes it hard to find comparative speed studies. Steno typists routinely exceed 200wpm, albeit in an abbreviated, not generally intelligible style that omits much detail. Chorded keyboards (especially if one-handed) are usually much slower because requiring multiple fingers for each character makes it difficult to type short strings of characters in quick combination, a common muscle memory optimization learned in regular (non-chordal) typing; however, many chording schemes support programmable macros for frequently-typed words, which speeds things up a bit. (Macros are also possible on non-chording keyboards.) Few comparative studies seem to exist for chording keyboards; "wearable" computer guru Thad Starner publishes some anecdotal-looking figures here. I have not heard of chording keyboards designed to be faster than QWERTY or Dvorak typing. / edg ☺ ☭ 01:25, 23 March 2008 (UTC)

thank you!!! Very useful answers :) I wonder how much of stenographers' speed isn't JUST the abbreviations. For example, have any of them who are typists too just tried typing on QWERTY using their abbreviated style?

I made a few changes to the above before I realized it had been replied to. My guess on steno methods in touch typing: theoretically there should be an improvement, but I wouldn't count on steno skills being routinely leveraged to enhance touch typing speed. Typing fluently relies heavily on muscle memory, and I doubt steno methods translate automatically to touch; the mind knows the abbreviations, but the tendons are ignorant.

It was fun reading up on this stuff. Now I want to learn Colemak. / edg ☺ ☭ 05:22, 23 March 2008 (UTC)

I tried until it gave me a headache o_o :D\=< (talk) 21:00, 23 March 2008 (UTC)

I believe Dvorak keyboard was developed just to overcome the hammer jamming problem on mechanical typewriters. Since mechanical typewriters are not used any more, Dworak keyboard is no better than QWERTY keyboard. And Dworak keyboard was improvement only with some languages. With some other languages, it might have been worse. -- PauliKL (talk) 01:15, 24 March 2008 (UTC)

No, the opposite is true. QWERTY was developed because of typwriters jamming. Dvorak then came about because of the inefficiency of the QWERTY keyboard. --Voyaging ^(talk) 01:19, 24 March 2008 (UTC)

Yeah, I used to be a semi-nerd on this stuff back when "word processor" meant IBM Selectric and 1) all the serious contenders for typing speed used Dvorak because 2) Dvorak is designed so as much as possible can be typed without ever moving your fingers from the home keys. (added two seconds later: would this mean that Dvorak would not be optimal for other languages then, with different letter frequencies?) Gzuckier (talk) 19:12, 24 March 2008 (UTC)

Search Providers

Hello. What is the difference between the Wikipedia (English) and Wikipedia (en) search providers in Internet Explorer 7? Thanks in advance. --Mayfare (talk) 00:36, 23 March 2008 (UTC)

They are probably just made by different people. Mac Davis (talk) 00:50, 23 March 2008 (UTC)

Any free audio output pitch shifter?

I'm looking for a free audio output pitch shifter for Windows or Mac OS X which can shift the pitch of the output audio just like the one used by Realtek. Funny Voice doesn't work so well because if I select Stereo Mix, the speaker output becomes the input and a feedback occurs. The other software that turned up are shareware. Do you know any free program that can do the above? --KLLvr283 (talk) 06:32, 23 March 2008 (UTC)

digital kicks

When producing tracks with a lot of digital sythesizers, and trying for a strong bass kick, I often notice a quiet high-pitched whine that accompanies the low-frequency waves, and I've begun noticing the whine present in proper commercial tracks as well (here is an old track from the orb and you can hear the high-pitched whine really clearly). It seems to be most noticeable on warmer, deeper, more pure sounding kicks, as opposed to rough or fat ones. What is this whine? Do all synthesizers produce this wine? Can it be avoided?? And why is it so prominent even in commercial music... do people not really not notice it? Thanks.  freshofftheufoΓΛĿЌ  08:48, 23 March 2008 (UTC)

I didn't really notice it (on the computer speakers..)

First of all you say it accompinanies the base - you mean the beat (thud,thud) all the way through or some particular low frequency bit eg 1.58s in etc

Secondly yes - I'm familiar with this song and seem to remember that when player on a better system it contained a lot of whine - almost like interference noise like when you de tune very slightly a FM radio in addition to all the birdy clicks and whistles.

Q. Is it possible that the noise (whine) is simply electronic noise , and unintentional, - note it would only be audible on low frequency notes because it would be drowned out when synthesising high frequency notes?87.102.16.238 (talk) 10:55, 23 March 2008 (UTC)

You might not be able to tell with little computer speakers that don't pick up quiet frequencies, but I can hear it alright on my laptop. I know what I'm looking for though, and that might be a factor. It accompanies the "thudding" yes, the kick. It doesn't seem to be anything to do with the deepness of the note, rather the amount of punch of the note, hence it doesn't come up anywhere else. It very well could be some kind of "electronic noise", and that's what I assume it is. It's nothing to do with the song really; as long as you can hear the kick clearly (this gave me an idea: NIN - closer has a really clear kick, and I can hear the whiney thing even clearer on that track). I'm starting to wonder if it's some kind of feedback from the speaker coils; I don't have any large speakers to test it on, but I get the same effect when listening on my laptop, with my cheap earbuds, and with my sony monitor headphones that I use for recording. It would make sense because the thud of the kick might cause some excess vibration in the speakers, but what doesn't make sense is that it doesn't seem to matter what volume level you use, and I can actually hear the whine more on my cheap buds, although it's just as obvious with my high quality headphones. One last note is that I can still hear the sound when creating kicks with high quality instruments like Sylenth, so I don't think it has anything to do with audio encoding. Hmm...  freshofftheufoΓΛĿЌ  11:17, 23 March 2008 (UTC)

ok I don't think I can hear it on that - second thud is more buzzy eg (thud, bzthud, repeat) - Maybe I'm too old to hear it (is it very high pitched). I recognise the sort of thing you're talking about - but can't hear it right now.)87.102.16.238 (talk) 11:28, 23 March 2008 (UTC)

Maybe you can find a similar sound here http://www.synthmania.com/Famous%20Sounds.htm 87.102.16.238 (talk) 11:24, 23 March 2008 (UTC)

Well the closest would obviously be the 808 drum kick, but the sample on that site doesn't produce the whine for some reason; I don't think it's quite as sharp enough. Funny thing is, on Youtube again there's a video of a guy with his TR-808 and it's really noticeable on the kicks (link) but now it's starting to sound like it's the compression on Youtube that is causing it, but that wouldn't explain why I can get it on my computer from the instruments directly. It's pretty high, and I thought to myself if it would become invisible with age but I don't think it's quite that high (it's kind of hard to tell), and I'm 25 anyways so there shouldn't be that much of a difference. No big deal I guess, just when I'm trying to get really low sine-wave style bass lines (think of old jungle/dnb) it can take up nearly as much audible space as the bass itself and it bugs me. I'll have to try it out on some full-size speakers to see if it doesn't just disappear.  freshofftheufoΓΛĿЌ  12:28, 23 March 2008 (UTC)

My hearing may have gone, all I can hear is a 'breathy' sound following the 'hits'. Wait for someone a bit younger and less deaf to answer..87.102.16.238 (talk) 14:21, 23 March 2008 (UTC)

i cant check on this yet until I get home, but is it possible it's just your PC? Something to do with the D to A hardware? Gzuckier (talk) 19:10, 24 March 2008 (UTC)

C programming

I'm doing a problem in C http://projecteuler.net/index.php?section=problems&id=56 Do I have a problem with this line:

seperate_and_add_digits( Digit[][100],100,100);

I'm getting a syntax error:']'

seperate_and_add_digits is a function with prototype:

seperate_and_add_digits(long double digits[][100],int rows,int columns);

What do you think you're doing with that syntax? You can never have an empty pair of brackets in regular statement like that. In the prototype, they're declaring a pointer. (C function parameters are never actually arrays. The digits parameter is a pointer to an array of 100 long doubles.) Making up syntax that doesn't exist is a sign that you've probably got major conceptual problems that can't be solved by looking at a couple of lines in isolation. --tcsetattr (talk / contribs) 09:35, 23 March 2008 (UTC)

I wanted to initiate a function that takes a two dimensional array, rows and columns as parameters88.203.106.28 (talk) 10:04, 23 March 2008 (UTC)

You can't initialize a variable while calling a function - put the two on separate lines:

long double Digit[][100];
seperate_and_add_digits(Digit, 100, 100);

It's generally a good idea to use a #define to declare the size of an array - this makes it much, much easier if you want to change the size of the array. I generally avoid data[] too, preferring to explicitly say the size of the array (eg data[100]):

#DEFINE SIZE_WHATEVER 100
void foo( long double data[SIZE_WHATEVER][SIZE_WHATEVER] ) { /* ... */ }
void main() {
   long double data[SIZE_WHATEVER][SIZE_WHATEVER];
   foo( data );
}

--h2g2bob (talk) 13:49, 23 March 2008 (UTC)

WHOIS

I know I can use WHOIS to find out the registrant of a domain name, but is there a way of then finding out all other domain names registered by that individual? --Richardrj ^{talk email} 10:37, 23 March 2008 (UTC)

news site

Hi. Can someone recommend a great site for the latest computer tech news. I don't want somewhere that mostly covers the latest intel/amd cpus and ati/nvidia graphics cards - more something that covers all 'computer tech' - processors (of all types), manufacturing processes and research, maybe other science related stuff. No 'linux'/'windows'/'apple' biased sites please. Not slashdot.. something sensible.

Any ideas?87.102.16.238 (talk) 12:38, 23 March 2008 (UTC)

slashdot :D:D or Ars Technica :D\=< (talk) 13:22, 23 March 2008 (UTC)

Most news sites have a tech section: Guardian Times BBC. --h2g2bob (talk) 13:25, 23 March 2008 (UTC)

I Don't rely on BBC/Guardian/Times etc - find they get stuff just wrong too often.

Arstechnica is ok, I suppose, anything like that - but better, more complicated, and more exciting?87.102.16.238 (talk) 14:02, 23 March 2008 (UTC)

Ars is the professional journalism face of tech news. If you're willing to sacrifice professionalism and accuracy for something that moves faster, just read slashdot.. :D\=< (talk) 16:32, 23 March 2008 (UTC)

The discussion is part of the appeal of Slashdot too; 100 comments for a story is on the lower end, though it's just about unheard of for other news sites. How much of the appeal it is depends on how much you enjoy trolling, wild guesses and speculation from people who don't read the article, and half the comments being about how Slashdot and its users/editors/moderation system are broken. :D -- Consumed Crustacean (talk) 19:57, 23 March 2008 (UTC)

We should have a moderation system here. If only those slashdotters could stay vaguely on topic, and too many shills there as well...

What about process and microarchitectural improvements, lithography, and more general electronic news (eg high frequency amplifiers etc) as well ... etc ... I find 'ars' to be quite PC centric - something a bit more 'physickey' any one know a good one.87.102.16.238 (talk) 16:50, 23 March 2008 (UTC)

Wired (magazine) had an article called Mother Earth Motherboard, which was very good. Kushal 03:45, 24 March 2008 (UTC)

I'm in the wrong country for that - though I'll read it if it's online? (link?)87.102.16.238 (talk) 11:12, 24 March 2008 (UTC) Scrub that - found it - please no more jetsetting cyber tourists please.87.102.16.238 (talk) 12:00, 24 March 2008 (UTC)

Yes! it is available online. I read it online. The full 56 pages of information and excitement is in this printable html copy here.

Another venue would be New York Times at [8] Cheers,

Kushal 12:59, 24 March 2008 (UTC)

Storing large numbers in VB 2005

Resolved

Hello! I'm doing problem 16 from Project Euler, and I wanted to know if it was possible to store the precise value of $2^{1000}$ in any of Visual Basic 2005 data types. I wrote a program for that question that divides $2^{1000}$ (stored as double) by $10^{302}$ (because there seem to be 302 digits in that number) truncates the integer value, and then subtracts the result*$10^{302}$ from $2^{1000}$. I made it a loop so that the power of 10 decreases each time the loop is run. Anyway, I keep getting the wrong result for the sum of the digits of $2^{1000}$ (to be exact, 1353). I read on the internet that double does not store the precise value, and I realized that was the reason I keep getting the wrong answer. Any suggestions on this?  ARTYOM  12:56, 23 March 2008 (UTC)

2^1000 is going to need 1000bits to store it to integer accuracy, a double is probably only 64 bits...

Two options here - write your own arithmatic programs (use strings or something to store the data)

Or - get a language that supports any length integer (or very long integers) - python can do this, most likely many others, Someone else can advise you better on this subject.87.102.16.238 (talk) 14:06, 23 March 2008 (UTC)

Visual Basic doesn't seem to have what you want see http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/47zceaw7(VS.80).aspx maybe you can make a user defined data type or use string as a binary representation.87.102.16.238 (talk) 14:10, 23 March 2008 (UTC)

Ask if you want advise on how to use a string to store a binary number.87.102.16.238 (talk) 14:12, 23 March 2008 (UTC)

Okay, that would be helpful. Please explain if you have time!  ARTYOM  15:48, 23 March 2008 (UTC)

I once wrote VB4 functions to do calculations on arbitrarily long numbers represented as strings. They were written a bit naively but they get the job done. They should work on VB8 as well, and I can copy the code if you want.

Alternatively, if all you want is this particular problem, you can implement it rather easily. It's simple to add two integers represented as strings. So you can start with 1 and add the number to itself 1000 times. Then you just go over the string and add the digits. The result should be 1366. -- Meni Rosenfeld (talk) 14:35, 23 March 2008 (UTC)

Well, I tried to store the number as a string, but VB converts it to string in scientific notation. So far I couldn't make the string display the number itself rather than the *helpless* 1.07150860718626E+301. The answer you gave is correct, though, I would appreciate it if you could explain how you figured it :)  ARTYOM  15:48, 23 March 2008 (UTC)

Well if you're just going to use a string, then you can just do the math out long, the same way you would on paper. That way you'd have many intermediate results and it won't give you scientific notation. It's probably the slowest possible solution, and it might take a few seconds to calculate 2^1000, but it will work and it's easy to program.  freshofftheufoΓΛĿЌ  16:10, 23 March 2008 (UTC)

[ec] I used Mathematica. We didn't mean that you let VB calculate the power in floating point and then convert it to a string, but rather that you do the entire calculation from the ground up using strings. -- Meni Rosenfeld (talk) 16:12, 23 March 2008 (UTC)

HINT first you would need to write a function that adds two strings eg function_addstring(a$,b$) result=c$ (or whatever the equivalent VB syntax) is

So if a$="123" and b$="901" you will be adding 1+3, 2+0, and 9+1

Don't forget to included any carries eg 9+1=0 carry 1

It might help if you use fixed length strings (for simplicity) eg 2^1000 ~ 1000^100 ~ 10^300 so more than 300 digits should do. Therefor use "0000" + about 300 zeros +"002" for two.

Once you've got an 'add function' you can construct a multiply function from the add functions.

eg "1234" x "78" = 0 + "1234" (eight times) + "12340" (seven times)

Remember that multiply times 10 means shift the string one step left and add a zero "0" at the right hand side.

Then starting with 2 just multply by 2 ninehundred and ninety nine times. and sum the digits87.102.16.238 (talk) 16:43, 23 March 2008 (UTC)

Did that make sense?87.102.16.238 (talk) 16:37, 23 March 2008 (UTC)

(To go the whole hog you'd represent binary numbers using an array of booleans eg using true =1 false =0 so that eg an array of ten booleans would mean "0000000010" (binary) - of course you'd need an array of size 1000+ DONT go down this route here it's not neccessary and complicates the decimal sum at the end)87.102.16.238 (talk) 16:43, 23 March 2008 (UTC)

Wow! I made it finally! I'll paste the code of the string here; it's unoptimized, though :)

Dim i, j, m As Short, two1000, endstr As String, p As Byte, sum As Integer
two1000 = "000...01" '302 characters
For i = 1 To 1000
    For j = 1 To 302
        m = CInt(two1000.Substring(302 - j, 1))
        endstr = two1000.Substring(303 - j, j - 1)
        If m < 5 Then
            two1000 = two1000.Substring(0, 302 - j) + CStr(m * 2 + p).Substring(0, 1) + endstr
            p = 0
        Else
            two1000 = two1000.Substring(0, 302 - j) + CStr(m * 2 + p).Substring(1, 1) + endstr
            p = 1
        End If
    Next j
Next i

Then summing the digits of the string is easy. Thank you all very much who helped me implement this!  ARTYOM  16:36, 24 March 2008 (UTC)

How to program something like Netlimiter

How does one program a network traffic limiter like Netlimiter in Visual C++ (you can limit the bandwidth for each program as well as your whole computer)? I have no idea about how I would do that. --Taraborn (talk) 13:47, 23 March 2008 (UTC)

See Visual C++. This article might be able to help you. Nothing444 19:57, 23 March 2008 (UTC)

You'd replace the networking device driver with something that chainloads the original and throttles traffic while it's at it. :D\=< (talk) 04:44, 24 March 2008 (UTC)

Connecting two computers with network cables

I have two computers, one with an internet connection. I wish to share that connection with the second computer through a network cable. The computer with the internet is windows NT 2000 and the other XP. How can I do this? I have tried to simply connect them via a network cable but both give the error "a network cable is unplugged". I can confirm that both computers network cards work with other devices such as routers etc. Thank you for any help you can provide. Sincerely, John.

I believe you'll have to bridge the connection. However you go about doing that, I don't know. Useight (talk) 15:26, 23 March 2008 (UTC)

Firstly, to directly connect the 2 computers you'll need a crossover cable rather than the standard one you'd use to patch into a switch or router. As the name suggests, this is simply a matter of swapping some of the wires over en route, so adapters are readily available to stick on the end of "normal" Ethernet cables.

Secondly, you'll need to set the computers up to talk to each other, and specifically to share the Internet connection hosted by the Windows 2000 box. I've never used it, but I think what you need is Windows Internet Connection Sharing - the external links at the bottom of that article look promising...

Good luck! - IMSoP (talk) 15:34, 23 March 2008 (UTC)

Just FYI: Many modern Ethernet interfaces can be interconnected without needing a specific "crossover" cable. That is, they figure out that they're talking to another end interface and not a bridge and negotiate the required "crossover" action automatically.

Atlant (talk) 20:34, 23 March 2008 (UTC)

Well, you learn something every day! :) - IMSoP (talk) 21:00, 23 March 2008 (UTC)

With a router you can plug one into one port using ethernet and the other into another (also using ethernet). George D. Watson (Dendodge).Talk^Help 22:36, 23 March 2008 (UTC)

i can confirm this; last time i had to upgrade, i just unplugged the ethernet cable from the cable modem and plugged it into the new computer, then shared folders on the old computer and pulled them over from the new computer. And that was a pretty old couple of Dells. Gzuckier (talk) 19:07, 24 March 2008 (UTC)

What is DHE for torrent clients?

In my torrent client (bitcomet) i saw in the peers list some of the client types Bitcomet 0.93*DHEv2*,utorrent*DHE*. what exactly is this DHE? Does it help in increasing download speed? if so where can i get it?what exactly is the difference between bitcomet 0.93 & bitcomet 0.93*DHEv2*?

A quick look at the diambiguation page for DHE, and then at BitTorrent suggests this may refer to support for (or switching on the option of?) BitTorrent protocol encryption - DHE being an acronym for Diffie-Hellman key exchange, the first stage of many network encryption protocols.

But I could be completely wrong, of course. - IMSoP (talk) 15:20, 23 March 2008 (UTC)

I believe it stands for Data Header Encryption.. utorrent doesn't support DHEv2 but Bitcomet does. It's just one of many many client-specific protocol tack-ons like DHT (and Azureus's separate DHT network), PEX, UDP trackers, and secure announces :D\=< (talk) 16:29, 23 March 2008 (UTC)

.rar

hi,

as simply as you can tell me; if i downloaded a '.rar' torrent (music) how do i change it to normal .mp3 format, (using windows XP)......thanks--81.76.2.87 (talk) 20:46, 23 March 2008 (UTC)

A RAR file is a type of compressed archive, like a ZIP file (that is, files are stored within it and compressed to save space). You have to extract the files from it first. There are many programs to do this; I'm partial to 7-Zip on Windows. -- Consumed Crustacean (talk) 20:54, 23 March 2008 (UTC)

And if you didn't know that chances are that you didn't actually download the rar, you just downloaded the .torrent.. you need a bittorrent client and peers to actually download the archive :D\=< (talk) 20:59, 23 March 2008 (UTC)

Creators and/or owners of an HDTV logo

I have seen many places and things, including a TV Guide insert (years ago), the Samsung SIR-T151, and tek.advancedmn.com, show this logo or variants thereof. (It shows a white H on a blue circle, next to DTV with a checkmark-styled "V" in black.)

I was thinking it was made or owned by ATSC or some US company/ies; fontblog.de says it's from "RCA" (which would imply Thomson, or maybe even Audiovox). Can anyone confirm that (or otherwise) for sure? --an odd name 23:00, 23 March 2008 (UTC)

March 24

What programming languages to learn?

I am interested in learning some computer programming, but I'm not sure where to start. I can currently only write XHTML (not a programming language, I know). I'm thinking maybe I should start with easier, more web based markup languages such as JavaScript and CSS and move on to maybe BASIC or C? Well, any help would be appreciated, because I'm lost; I really have no idea what I'm doing! :P --Voyaging ^(talk) 01:09, 24 March 2008 (UTC)

Start with something easy like php and powerful not like javascript. Actually Ruby is probably a great place to start.. it's a terrifyingly powerful and flexible scripting language with a rather large following. Try the interactive tutorials.. the application is slick so check it out even if you don't care to try Ruby :D\=< (talk) 02:13, 24 March 2008 (UTC)

There are enough programming languages out there to spend a lifetime learning. First ask yourself the question: what do I actually want to do? That said, I think something like Python is nice, on a readability level.--Fangz (talk) 02:18, 24 March 2008 (UTC)

If you learn python you'll never return to the land of the sane :D\=< (talk) 04:43, 24 March 2008 (UTC)

As far as what I want to do, I simply want to attain knowledge. I just want to have the knowledge of knowing different programming languages. I'm not sure of specifics because of my limited knowledge of the subject, but I'd like to be able to code a variety of programs, so nothing that is limited to a certain type of program would be ideal. In addition, something that could maybe build a foundation for learning other languages, or maybe lead up to learning them would be optimal. Thanks for the help so far! --Voyaging ^(talk) 05:03, 24 March 2008 (UTC)

IMO, you won't learn anything worth while unless you actually try to do it. So you need to set yourself a project (eg be the first person to produce a KenKen solver). Probably the easiest to learn, but of least use commercially, is non-visual Basic. Did you know that Excel includes a Basic as a macro language? I wrote my (yet another) sudoku solver in Excel VB. -- SGBailey (talk) 09:15, 24 March 2008 (UTC)

Aren't you talking about VBA?

I think Java is a good language to learn. -- Meni Rosenfeld (talk) 11:39, 24 March 2008 (UTC)

VB and Java are both terrible languages to learn for a beginner. You think you're learning a low level language and then miss out entirely on pointers, which makes for absolute fail. Learn an easy, powerful, and slow scripting language first then go for hardcore C so you learn the full spectrum, then you can learn the wussie languages like VB and Java :) :D\=< (talk) 18:58, 24 March 2008 (UTC)

Why would anyone learning VB or Java think he's learning a low level language? -- Meni Rosenfeld (talk) 23:14, 24 March 2008 (UTC)

I'm of the opinion that if you learn any of the C-like languages (C, C++, C#, Java, Perl, PHP, Python, etc.), you can then very rapidly pick up any of the others. Me, I think Perl is a nice language for a beginner; C (or any of the other compiled languages) has a high "minimum required activation energy" for a rank beginner.

I'm also of the opinion that Visual Basic will destroy your mind, polluting it with many ridiculous ideas that will block you from leaning about how programming really works. (NB: I don't have any problems with people learning non-Visual BASIC, though. But BASIC is a language that's quite different from any of the C-like languages that dominate the business nowadays; it owes its basic forms to much older languags and now less-used like Fortran.)

Atlant (talk) 14:12, 24 March 2008 (UTC)

We learnt Cobol and Pascal as starter languages, then moved onto C and C++. If you are learning purely for interest I would say you want to learn one that is logically structured rather than powerful. You want one that is easy to read rather than flexible. I recall having to spend about 30 minutes talking to an old non-IT based manager explaining how coding is like hand-writing - everyone does it slightly differently. There are 100s of ways to achieve the same goals in most languages, so your best bet is not to try get into understanding the syntax/language in depth but to get a basic understanding of programming as a structure. Things vary from language to language but a good basis in one of the early-years languages (I believe) would bode well for you ever having to learn a more advanced/current language. I still do a bit of programming in FOCUS, which is actually a remarkably easy language to understand (at least at the depth of detail I use it). ny156uk (talk) 14:20, 24 March 2008 (UTC)

If you are planning on doing things with the web in the future (and really, who ain't?), PHP is a great place to start—it's relatively powerful and you can get very satisfying results quickly, in part because you use HTML to build up your interfaces (you aren't stuck with just a console, like most of the other languages given, or building up an interface in a clunky IDE, as with VB and VB.NET). And in my opinion, when we're in the realm of self-teaching, quick, satisfying results are important, lest one find it too much trouble! (I tried to teach myself C++ years ago. After hours of playing with it I could make a console program that could do some basic math. I was not impressed with the result. Never went back.) But as has been said, it doesn't matter so much which one you start with—what matters more is that you have a driving project. Trying to learn a programming language without setting out a goal is like trying to learn a spoken language by using just a dictionary. If you have a goal in mind and are having fun with it the learning will be quite easy and enjoyable. PHP has the added benefit of being widely used on the web so there are LOTS of sites of sample code, examples, other people's implementations, etc., to benefit from. --Captain Ref Desk (talk) 14:22, 24 March 2008 (UTC)

Python or Ruby. The interactive interpreters are great for beginners experimenting. The way most of us learnt programming went something like Statements --> Routines --> Classes and I still think this is the best way. Python and Ruby will let you write a program that does something without defining a class, but will continue to support you as you write something more structured. Good luck.

I learnt C as my first (programming) language and never felt it was hard or something.. Going Visual might be harder, but that's why world is full of guides and documentation. Though I must admit I'm just a * person-with-no-life, so I haven't bothered to find out what kind of heaven there is behind those Pythons and Perls. If you are planning to learn "just to learn", not to get something done right now, then I would recommend C/C++. --82.141.93.96 (talk) 15:10, 24 March 2008 (UTC)

Thanks so much for all the help! After reading all your responses, I think I'm going to start with C, then move on to some other languages. From what I've read, many of the current popular languages are based off of C (Perl, PHP, C++) so I think that'd be a good starting place. Now my next question. What resources would you recommend to me for learning the language? Thanks again! --Voyaging ^(talk) 15:54, 24 March 2008 (UTC)

They're loosely based on C (if in Perl's case you consider the Kuiper belt to be merely "loose" around the Sun's waist) but C's a tough nut to crack.. if you have windows I strongly advise you to download Visual C++ 2008 (NOT c#) and use that IDE, it's much more beginner friendly than console compilers like ming or gcc. Or just learn php and ruby and use notepad and your web browser. Seriously you're going to be very disappointed with your progress in C, scripting languages are far more powerful and you can do some actually useful things even while learning :D\=< (talk) 19:03, 24 March 2008 (UTC)

K&R is a good one. Would definitely recommend something printed anyway. Google is indispensible but it really helps to be following a printed course as well.

You also need a project. How about: Write a program to decipher text that has been encoded by a Caesar cipher. The program should use frequency analysis to decode the text (ie without any clues from the user).

but, note that C is a very "special" kind of language, not for everybody or everything.. if i had had to get through C first, i'd never have gotten past it. like learning assembler in the old days. Depends what you want to program. Heck, you might find programming in SQL to be your path to greatness. Gzuckier (talk) 19:05, 24 March 2008 (UTC)

You want to see the weirdish wikibooks:C Programming/Using a Compiler to get quickly started. That Crimson Editor isn't necessary, I have survived for a long time with just MS Notepad. Otherways Wikibooks isn't (probably) the optimal thing to read. As a general tip I would say you should just dig around and try many guides/tutorials to find the one that suits you best. --212.149.216.233 (talk) 19:18, 24 March 2008 (UTC)

I'd recommend focusing on learning programming rather than on learning a particular language. Once you know how to program, learning a new language won't be that hard. But just learning a language doesn't automatically mean learning how to program. Learning the language means jumping through the hoops the language puts in your way. Learning to program means being able to see the relationship between the program code and what it does (a relationship that works both ways -- "why is this code doing what it's doing" and "what code would do what I want"). As for choice of language to start with -- I'd say, find a teacher, or text, or whatever, that you're comfortable learning from, and use whatever language they use. (Even if it's a "useless" language -- because (a) it's about learning to program, not just about learning that one language; and (b) you might be surprised what turns out to be "useful;" one obscure language, that I considered even leaving out of my resume, is used extensively where I work now) If you were learning from me, I'd choose C, because that's what I'm most comfortable with. Also, it's a good idea to learn more than one language. Not only because you'd then have one more tool available to you, but because you learn different things from each one. (Many years ago, I "sort of" knew C. Then I tried to learn x86 assembly language. I mostly failed... but at the end I understood "C" a lot better.) -- Why Not A Duck 23:41, 24 March 2008 (UTC)

Sound Problems

I'm on an HP Compaq tc4400 laptop computer (well, tablet pc). All of a sudden when I try to play a video from the internet or a song from iTunes, I hear the video/song for 4 seconds and then silence from then on. Can someone tell me what's causing this problem, and what I can do to fix it? Thanks in advance. ~EdGl 02:07, 24 March 2008 (UTC)

Just to make things clear, is it the Windows XP tablet edition Windows XP Tablet PC Edition? Kushal 11:54, 24 March 2008 (UTC) Kushal 12:55, 24 March 2008 (UTC)

Sorry, forgot to mention it's using windows vista, I believe enterprise edition. ~EdGl 13:08, 24 March 2008 (UTC)

Yay, it seems to be working now! Weird, as I didn't do anyting, not even restart. Well, sorry for taking up RD space.. carry on.. ~EdGl 13:37, 24 March 2008 (UTC)

Don't worry about it. I wonder what went wrong in the first place. Glad it is working. Kushal 19:17, 24 March 2008 (UTC)

Periodic patterns in bittorrent download rates

I'm not sure if it happens in general as well, but I notice that often, the download speed curve of a bittorrent transfer shows a strong periodic pattern. The download rate goes down, and then comes back up, and then goes down again, with a period of about 30 seconds.

Is there any explanation for this behaviour? Or is it just me?--Fangz (talk) 02:21, 24 March 2008 (UTC)

What client do you use? I use Azureus, and I see that a lot. I'd would guess it's a swarm behavior—one client disconnects from me (down), a new one connects optimistically uploading (up), then decides I don't deserve that rate (down again)—but I notice my upload rate often changes in the same way, matching my download rate for the entire cycle. Can't imagine one most likely cause. Might be just the way the client calculates rates. / edg ☺ ☭ 03:25, 24 March 2008 (UTC)

This happens when the following two conditions are met:

1. the torrent has only one seeder
2. the seeder uses superseeding

See Super-seeding for a basic explanation. Morana (talk) 08:27, 24 March 2008 (UTC)

I can definitely confirm that this is happening when there is more than one seed.--84.71.41.235 (talk) 14:50, 24 March 2008 (UTC)

You're probably not making enough connections.. I typically connect to 50 or so peers per torrent, and don't get most of my pieces from any one peer in particular so except for fascinating swarm-wide fluctuations due to weird seeder behavior or something which is always possible I guess, I have mostly stable down speeds. Make more connections and make sure something upstream isn't load balancing you :D\=< (talk) 18:55, 24 March 2008 (UTC)

javascript help

I don't know Javascript but would like to do something very simple.

I want to present a block of text with some words in red, and when you click a red word you can change it with a dialog that pops up. At the end you submit the whole thing via post.

Is this possible? could I get some help writing it? Thank you.79.122.35.198 (talk) 14:49, 24 March 2008 (UTC)

Here's a very simple implementation of such a thing:

<html>
<head>
<script language="javascript">
function get_word(id) {
	var existing = document.getElementById("word"+id).innerHTML;
	var newword = prompt('Replace "'+existing+'" with:');
	if(newword.length>0) {
		document.getElementById("word"+id).innerHTML = newword;
		var nextword = document.getElementById("word"+(id+1));
		if(nextword != null) get_word(id+1);
	}
}

function submit_text() {
	document.submit_form.submit_data.value = ReplaceTags(document.getElementById("text_to_submit").innerHTML);
	document.submit_form.submit();
}

var regExp = /<\/?[^>]+>/gi;
function ReplaceTags(xStr){
	xStr = xStr.replace(regExp,"");
	return xStr;
}
     
</script>
<style> 
<!--
.word { 
	color: red;
}
a.button {
	border: 1px solid gray;
	padding: 5px;
	text-decoration: none;
	color: black;
	background-color: silver;
}
a.button:hover {
	background-color: gray;
	color: white;
}

--/>
</style>
</head>
<body>
<form method="POST" name="submit_form">
<input type="hidden" name="submit_data" value="">
<p id="text_to_submit">
This is my <a href="#" onclick="get_word(0); return false;" id="word0" class="word">sample text</a>. You can <a href="#" onclick="get_word(1); return false;" id="word1" class="word">replace words</a> by clicking on them. It is <a href="#" onclick="get_word(2); return false;" id="word2" class="word">wonderful</a>.
</p>
<a href="#" onclick="submit_text();" class="button">SUBMIT</a>
</form>
</body>
</html>

The javascript handles the changing of the words and the submission of the final data. The CSS stylesheet handles the red links (and making the last A HREF look like a box. You don't need to do it that way, but I find them easier to deal with than actual submit buttons, which are hard to style). The HTML sets up the whole form. It should be pretty straightforward how it works but feel free to ask if you want it spelled out more clearly.

This doesn't filter out the A HREF tags when you submit it. You can do that in Javascript though personally I'd do it on the server-side, and how you are going to want to do that depends on what you are specifically using the result data for. But otherwise it should work in a way like you want it to. --Captain Ref Desk (talk) 14:16, 24 March 2008 (UTC)

If you want your form to actually do something when you post it, you'll need to do something on the server side also. So far this is all on the client. Friday (talk) 14:17, 24 March 2008 (UTC)

That's right. My little example above presupposes you'll have a destination script read to make sense of that data. That will need to be written in another language (like PHP, for example). (As you can see, even a simple web interface requires a lot of different languages and technologies dancing in sync -- in your little example we've got a markup language, a scripting language, and a stylesheet, and we'll still need a server-side script to top it off!) --Captain Ref Desk (talk) 14:25, 24 March 2008 (UTC)

Thank you SOOOOOOOO much!!!!! It's wonderful, and much more than I could have done :)

One thing though... It works in Opera, which is what I use, but NEITHER firefox NOR internet explorer? How come?

Additionally, how could I change the javascript so that I don't land on a new page (in this case "false") every time I change a word, having to click back? I'd like the current page to be rewritten each time a change is made, and finally, the submit should submit the raw data, without special regard to where markup had been (though I could filter that out server side like you mentioned)... Thank you again!!! 79.122.35.198 (talk) 14:49, 24 March 2008 (UTC)

Oh, I had done it slightly wrong (worked fine in Safari, didn't test it in anything else!). Now it should work fine no matter what (at least, it does in Firefox). The false bit was an artifact of that. I've updated the code above. --Captain Ref Desk (talk) 15:45, 24 March 2008 (UTC)

Update: I added a little function (borrowed from here) that strips out the HTML tags before submitting the text. Enjoy. --Captain Ref Desk (talk) 15:49, 24 March 2008 (UTC)

Wow, thanks man!!! Works like a charm now -- in all browsers :)... 1 quick question though... is there a way to save time by having the next one automatically selected (with the default text being whatever it is currently set to) until the first time I press escape (or cancel) instead of ok (or changing the text)? Thank you!!!  :)

Not sure I understand how that one would work with the current implementation. Maybe you could spell out a little more how it might work? --Captain Ref Desk (talk) 16:42, 24 March 2008 (UTC)

Well, if I understand your code correctly (and it's hit and miss, because as I mentioned I don't know javascript :) ) then each word in your markup has a number, 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 so if you've just clicked on 2, then you will proceed to 3 and 4 and 5 unless you stop the process by cancelling the dialog box at some point. If you just press enter you go on to the next one. In order for this to work maybe instead of "undefined" being the default texts it could be the actual text to replace? so it looks like " if(newword.length>0) document.getElementById("word"+id).innerHTML = newword;" could be changecd to have another effect: calling the same function on "word"+id+1 ... though I could get it wrong. Looking at your code, I also don't understand why there is a hidden input field that is blank. What's the purpose of that?

p.s. Thank you again!!! :)

Oh, OK, yes, that's easy enough. I've updated it above -- it will now by default go to the next word (unless there is no next word) and prompt you to replace that as well, unless you hit cancel.

The hidden input field is what passes on the results to the server -- the value gets filled in from the paragraph with the id "text_to_submit" with the function "submit_text" before it is submitted. To submit FORM data it has to be in an INPUT field; the easiest way to do that in this case is to use a hidden INPUT field. --Captain Ref Desk (talk) 21:54, 24 March 2008 (UTC)

ENUM: order vs preference

In ENUM (.e164.arpa) DNS entries, which should be incremented - order or preference? For example, if I have one record:

IN NAPTR  100 10 "u" "E2U+email:mailto" "!^.*$!mailto:[removed]!" .

with order=100 / priority=10, and want to add record for my website (E2U+web:http), which one should I change? The website where I manage my .e164.arpa entry auto-suggests [order=100 priority=11] for new entry. Should I use that or [order=101 priority=10]? --grawity ^{talk / PGP} 14:21, 24 March 2008 (UTC)

ENUM providers

As far as I know, there are four main ENUM domains: e164.arpa, e164.org, e164.info and enum.org. Which one is best to use? (I have an .e164.arpa) --grawity ^{talk / PGP} 14:25, 24 March 2008 (UTC)

Texting through AIM 6

Here's the deal: I would like to be able to text a person through the text function in AIM 6. Both I and this person have an AIM account; I currently live in Italy and he lives in England. I added his phone number where it says so {add phone number}, using +44 before his number and I tried to send the text.

Two messages from AIM appeared. The first one: </insert phone number here> is currently offline.Your buddy may be able to receive offline IMs the next time they sign on. Do you still want to send this IM?

When I pressed yes, the second one: </insert phone number here> is unable to receive offline IMs.

I tried when he was offline, and then when he was online too, with the same messages appearing. I asked him to check, and it says he can accept offline IMs from buddies on his list.

Help, please?

By the way, it seems that when this person from England tries to call my mobile, even if he adds the 0039 to my number, it still says I'm unavailable. But he managed to send me a text to that same number, adding +39.

Again, help, please?

My guess would be that the SMS service in AIM uses a gateway rented from a particular network in each country to deliver the messages, and that the combination of this gateway and the international delivery is not covered by their agreement (I don't know about Italy, but in the UK SMS is big business, so I'm sure there's money involved somewhere here...)

Not sure what the deal is with being able to text but not call, although you imply that he used different numbers (0039... vs +39...); as far as I know, the +39... form is the correct one for both calls and texts from a mobile, although I would expect the 0039... to work just as well. - IMSoP (talk) 19:33, 24 March 2008 (UTC)

Can someone explain memory allocation in c?

Gurbinder Singh

The details depend on the implementation, but the general idea is that each process gets a certain amount of memory (it can ask for more if necessary), which it usually divides up into two pieces: a "stack" which it will use to remember things that are only needed for the current computation, and a "heap" which it will use to remember things that need a longer lifetime, or that need to change ownership, etc. The stack is generally nicer to use, since it's very fast to allocate and deallocate and the programmer doesn't have to remember to free things from it, but it can't be used in cases where the memory must outlive the current routine. Programs that can do more than one thing at a time will typically have more than one stack. Using stack memory is "automatic" in that just the right amount gets allocated when you call a function, and magically freed when that function returns. Using heap memory is done manually with malloc() and free(). As you might expect, it's a lot easier to get stack memory management right than it is to get heap memory management right. --Sean 19:49, 24 March 2008 (UTC)

There's quite a bit of information on the malloc page, and at wikibooks:C Programming/Memory management. --h2g2bob (talk) 20:26, 24 March 2008 (UTC)

Sensor networks

what are sensor networks? <spam removed>

Don't advertise on wikipedia. And if you're really concerned, just wear a tinfoil hat :D\=< (talk) 20:05, 24 March 2008 (UTC)

Try looking at sensor network. Your spam link removed. --h2g2bob (talk) 20:09, 24 March 2008 (UTC)

open office and Dragon NaturallySpeaking compatible ?

is it possible to use open office and the sofware Dragon Naturally Speaking (speach recogniton) and if yes, what have I to do.

picture help

How do I get a picture out of this seemingly random mess of letters:

<a href="http://icanhascheezburger.com/2007/12/31/funny-pictures-here-in-england-we-speak-the-queens-english/"><img src="http://icanhascheezburger.wordpress.com/files/2007/12/funny-pictures-british-cat.jpg" alt="funny pictures" /></a>
see more <a href="http://icanhascheezburger.com">crazy cat pics</a>

the place I want to put it uses [IMG] codes, but nothing I've tried with them and this has worked so far.

The actual image location is written between the quotes of <img src="[location]">, but here I guess you'll have to put

[img]http://icanhascheezburger.files.wordpress.com/2007/12/funny-pictures-british-cat.jpg[/img]

because the actual image file redirects there.  ARTYOM  20:44, 24 March 2008 (UTC)

The image isn't redirecting anywhere for me what :D\=< (talk) 22:06, 24 March 2008 (UTC)

If you want to get the image URL the easiest thing to do is the right click on the image and click "open image in new window" or "open image in new tab." 216.120.217.233 (talk) 23:35, 24 March 2008 (UTC)

Or Copy image location :D\=< (talk) 00:11, 25 March 2008 (UTC)

power in programming languages?

In the excellent discussion above about programming languages for beginners, editors make several references to the relative power of different programming languages. What does this mean? I have basic familiarity with several languages, but this power concept is alien to me. --Allen (talk) 23:42, 24 March 2008 (UTC)

Scripting languages are powerful in the sense that you can do a lot with little code. The characteristic of higher-level languages is that you have to write less code to perform the same task. There are advantages to different languages for different tasks, but there are also clear comparisons. Ruby is higher level than C, and both are much higher level than assembly, which takes half a dozen lines just to perform arithmetic on something in memory. However, with assembly code you exercise a far finer level of control over your program. Asm can be some of the most optimized code you'll ever see. There are a few different aspects of "power".. some languages are extremely concise but ridiculously difficult to code in.. Ruby is object-oriented overkill and is terrrrrrifyingly powerful, especially with strings and arrays/dictionaries.. symbols are nice too :D\=< (talk) 00:00, 25 March 2008 (UTC)

Photoshop help urgently needed.

I'm trying to edit this .psd image with the horizontal type tool in RGB color mode (8 bits/channel) and I can't seem to make the text show up. Every time I type something, no matter the color or the character font I use, the text doesn't show up; only the name of the layer changes. In example: I type "hello", and the name of the layer changes to "hello", but the image remains seemingly unmodified. I have tried almost everything, it's driving me crazy. Here's a screenshot of what I'm trying to do. As you can probably tell, I'm pretty much a newbie in Photoshop. Could anyone of you guys help me on this one please? Any ideas or tips? —Coat of Arms (talk) 23:57, 24 March 2008 (UTC)