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April 12

Instant Messengers

I have grown somewhat frustrated with the use of instant messengers. I really thought they were good for instant communication, however, i have many people on various buddy lists, that are seemingly logged in all the time, and never say anything when you IM them. Why do some people log in to a messenger service and proceed to never say anything? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 69.210.140.222 (talk) 03:26, 12 April 2008 (UTC)

I can think of many reasons:

1) They are logged into the IM service automatically when they do something else. For example, whenever you go online on AOL, it starts AIM.

2) They stepped away from the computer.

3) They are busy talking with somebody else.

4) They don't know you're trying to contact them. On some IM systems, the notice that somebody is trying to IM them can pop up underneath another window or off the edge of the screen. There may be an audible sound, too, but they may have the speakers turned off or the sound from some other application may interfere with the IM beep.

5) They just don't want to talk with you now. StuRat (talk) 03:31, 12 April 2008 (UTC)

Those may be the case, however, it seems as if some people NEVER EVER say anything, So what would be the point to log on to a messenger and never say a thing? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 69.210.140.222 (talk) 03:46, 12 April 2008 (UTC)

Some people also forget to log out of clients or leave their computers on (as well as forget to log out of clients) overnight to do things. x42bn6 Talk Mess 04:38, 12 April 2008 (UTC)

Another thing I've noticed is that some IM clients are installed by default and set to login automatically every time the computer boots. For example, when I'm doing backups, maintenance, etc on my neice's PC, the messages start arriving pretty much as soon as I start her PC. Most of the time I ignore it but I'll eventually set the status to "busy" if there are too many. Unfortunately, some of her friends seem incapable of considering that "busy" really does mean busy. So, maybe the person on the other end is not who you think it is and is trying hard to ignore your incessant need to chat, or maybe they just don't know how to switch the damn thing off. Astronaut (talk) 11:39, 12 April 2008 (UTC)

A lot of people just leave it on all the time (since a lot of people leave the computer on all day) and update their away messages to let people know that they're busy doing work or watching tv, out at dinner, etc. This way people don't get lots of phone calls while they're busy doing something else. The next thing will be setting auto-responses when you get txt messages. Plus this is something more common to younger people which is akin to older people having a constant need to be connected by phone, e-mail, blackberry, etc. The world is getting much smaller. --MATTblah24 (talk) 03:39, 15 April 2008 (UTC)

Linux system requirements

In general, what are the system requirements for the Linux 2.4.* and 2.6.* kernels (in terms of, among other specs, hard drive space, RAM and clock speed)? I know that the size of the kernel can change considerably depending upon the configuration at compile-time, but a general estimate (if possible) would be appreciated nonetheless. Thanks, --Iamunknown 06:00, 12 April 2008 (UTC)

A CPU of one of the architectures listed here [1]. Other than that there is seriously no way at all to give you an estimate. There's a good reason people repeat that over and over. A Nintendo DS has a 67MHz ARM processor and can run Linux, and the current fastest supercomputer in the world [2] has something like 200,000 CPUs running SUSE Linux Enterprise Server. If you asked about the requirements of a particular distro we might be able to help out more, though many of them tend to be pretty flexible. -- Consumed Crustacean (talk) 06:33, 12 April 2008 (UTC)

Ok, thanks for the answer. I'm a bit of a Linux noob, so I guess I'll need more experience before I can ask a more focused question (and by then I might have answered it anyways :-)) Cheers, --Iamunknown 18:07, 12 April 2008 (UTC)

The Linux kernel can run on any computer that you can purchase. You are more likely asking for the system requirements of a window display manager such as GNOME or KDE. It is very common for people to confuse those with the kernel because in Windows there isn't much of a way to run the "Windows kernel" separate from the "Windows display manager". -- kainaw™ 01:09, 13 April 2008 (UTC)

Not true. Linux requires that the computer have a MMU. Every consumer-targeted system sold in the past 20 years or so has one, but many embedded systems don't. --Carnildo (talk) 20:08, 14 April 2008 (UTC)

Webcam Question

I have a webcam I bought recently for a new work project. The work project has taken a long time to get started, so I took the liberty of playing around with the webcam on MSN and putting stuff on YouTube, using certain effects. Unfortunately, I can't get it to go back to the default 'focus' setting. It is from "it.works". My girlfriend says all she can see is a blurred image. Does anyone know how to get the focus back? I've tried every setting I can find, so please only answer if you are familiar with this hardware. --ChokinBako (talk) 07:38, 12 April 2008 (UTC)

Does it have autofocus? If not try twisting the lens barrel (like you do back in the manual-focus camera days). --antilived^{T | C | G} 11:46, 12 April 2008 (UTC)

Typeable pdf.

i have a form on .doc format, i want to convert it to a type-able pdf format so that i can type on it!...can someone tell me how to do that???please! —Preceding unsigned comment added by 123.252.227.145 (talk) 09:02, 12 April 2008 (UTC)

As far as I know, it is not (yet) possible to create a fillable pdf form using Microsoft Office Word. You can use Adobe Acrobat standard/professional, Scribus or any Desktop publishing software. Sorry :( Kushal 10:57, 12 April 2008 (UTC)

I'm not sure I understand this - you have a .doc document (i.e., a Word document) and you want to convert it to PDF so you can type on it? Why can't you type on it in Word?
If you want to convert a Word document to PDF there are a number of options, one I use is called CutePDF Writer, which installs as a printer - when you 'print' to it it creates the output as a PDF. It's free and good. But then you need a program to type into the PDF with if that's your wont, which as I say I can't see why you wouldn't type into Word to start with. --jjron (talk) 16:12, 12 April 2008 (UTC)

squirrels

Is it safe to keep baby squirrel as a pet? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 59.95.245.179 (talk) 10:19, 12 April 2008 (UTC)

could we move this to the science desk? Kushal 10:59, 12 April 2008 (UTC)

Do you mind SQuirreL SQL Clients? Mr.K. (talk) 12:18, 12 April 2008 (UTC)

I don't think they are likely to kill anyone, but they don't seem to have the personality that makes for a proper pet. I'd expect to get bitten often. I also doubt if they can every be litter-box trained. StuRat (talk) 15:25, 12 April 2008 (UTC)

Right. It's generally not a good idea to keep wild animals as pets; there's a reason the number of animals used as pets as relatively small, and practically all of those have undergone years and years of artificial selection for better personalities (domestication). Additionally, you may want to consult local laws on owning animals—many places don't let you keep just any old animal on your property unless it is a farm or something like that. --Captain Ref Desk (talk) 15:28, 12 April 2008 (UTC)

I had a friend who had a pet squirrel of sorts. Their cat killed its mother and they looked after it, but over time it began to get aggressive and distant, until eventually it moved outdoors permanently and never let them get near it. It still occasionally taps on the back windows when it wants food. Think outside the box 17:55, 12 April 2008 (UTC)

Firefox 3 pretending to be Firefox 2

Hello, I have an issue with my recent upgrade to Firefox 3 - a certain secure website now refuses to let me log on. It was always fine with Firefox 2 which is listed on the "supported" list. Anyway I can get 3 to pretend to be 2? Like a "legacy" mode. Or any other workaround? Thanks. -90.203.189.60 (talk) 13:37, 12 April 2008 (UTC)

Well, one way is to change the user-agent to have it identify as Firefox 2 ("Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; es-ES; rv:1.8.1.13) Gecko/20080311 Firefox/2.0.0.13"). --Captain Ref Desk (talk) 15:40, 12 April 2008 (UTC)

Ah thank you - will give it a go! --90.203.189.60 (talk) 16:15, 12 April 2008 (UTC)

desperate

I desperately need to view a PDF on my iPod video, I would even stoop to taking screenshots of each page, cutting it up into one screenful of resolution each, and saving them as a stream of photos. How could I do this programmatically?

Ie, I'd like to go from

 _____
|1  2 |
|     |
|3  4 |
|     |
|_____|

  p1

to 4 photos. It could be 8 photos. Or 16. Or 32. As I said I'm DESPERATE.

Any help? THank you. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 79.122.53.15 (talk) 15:10, 12 April 2008 (UTC)

The way I would do this is with ImageMagick, convert the pdf into images. Then, you can convert the images into a video. --Rajah (talk) 20:11, 12 April 2008 (UTC)

I'm not sure if you still need help, but here's a quick run through.

1. Install ImageMagick
2. From the command line: convert originalPdf.pdf output.png (I'm using .png here for lossless compression, but .jpg or whatever is fine too.
   1. The resolution for this might not be the best at first, so you may want to try something like: convert -density 600x600 -resize 800x560 -quality 90 lc_pdf_overview_format.pdf lc_density.png
3. Now you will have one .png file for each page of the original .pdf

If you want to make out a movie out of those, please specify what type of movie you want to make. --Rajah (talk) 23:49, 12 April 2008 (UTC)

Hi, sorry about my late response. The problem is that your method gives one picture per page but iPod video is only like 320x230 or something so each page of the pdf should be "multiplexed" into several photos as I tried to illustrate with my crude ascii diagram above. any ideas? thank you. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 79.122.53.15 (talk) 02:01, 13 April 2008 (UTC)

A similar suggestion would be to use a JPG/PNG printer driver. Many printer drivers allow you to have less than one page per sheet, such as "one page on four sheets" (usually won't look at where the text is, but still). I use PDFCreator to "print" PDFs from any document (including PDFs from Acrobat sometimes), and that program also supports "print to JPG" or "print to PNG". Unfortunately I don't think that program has that functionality of splitting a page on multiple pages though. When you accomplish that I don't see why you would want to convert to video, doesn't most iPods support slide shows of pictures? Good luck! and let us know if you figured it out. Jørgen (talk) 08:34, 14 April 2008 (UTC)

CD DVD rom speed up

i have problem with the speed of my dvd rom. It takes my 1.30 hrs to write a dvd . Does any one know how to solve this problem. Please help. Please send your answer on (email removed). thankyou. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 220.224.69.192 (talk) 17:10, 12 April 2008 (UTC)

1. a DVD-ROM can't write to DVDs.
2. what is the speed written on the drive? (Example: 8X)
3. what software do you use? What programs are running when you write a DVD?
4. what speed is your computer's CPU?
5. how much data do you write?

--grawity ^{talk / PGP} 17:19, 12 April 2008 (UTC)

no it writes a dvd but it takes at least one and half hour although i use nero 7 and i have a dual core with 512 mb RAM.yes the speed is et to 8x. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 220.224.69.192 (talk) 17:22, 12 April 2008 (UTC) i have a laptop and no speed is written on the drive.When it was new it used to take 10 to 15 minutes but now it takes a lot of time —Preceding unsigned comment added by 220.224.69.192 (talk) 17:25, 12 April 2008 (UTC)

What programs are running when you write a DVD?

And please sign your replies with <nowiki>~~~~

--grawity ^{talk / PGP} 17:32, 12 April 2008 (UTC)

i dont run any programmes. I even disable sometimes norton to increase some speed.

What OS do you use? --grawity ^{talk / PGP} 17:52, 12 April 2008 (UTC)

i use windows xp media centre —Preceding unsigned comment added by 220.224.69.192 (talk) 17:54, 12 April 2008 (UTC)

Maybe the drive is still under warranty and you get it replaced? I can fill up a DVD in under 12 minutes with a (presumably 8x DVD-RW drive), AMD FX-60 (2.6GHz dual core), 3GB DDR RAM. If you only have 512MB RAM, you'll probably want to upgrade. Useight (talk) 18:02, 12 April 2008 (UTC)

na the warranty is over.I will update it. Thanks friend. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 220.224.69.192 (talk) 18:07, 12 April 2008 (UTC)

Are you writing DVD binary data or are you encoding video to the DVD? Encoding video to DV format from another format takes HOURS if the video is of any length. If you are just writing data it should go fast (15 minutes, tops). --Fastfission (talk) 20:06, 12 April 2008 (UTC)

Your software may allow you to change the write speed. Also, it may have options to perform a precheck before writing and verify data after writing, both of which will add to the time. StuRat (talk) 03:37, 13 April 2008 (UTC)

Most Windows PCs slow down after several months use. An accumulation of updates, spyware, viruses, and so on. More memory might help - it seems stupid to spend $700+ on a new computer for the sake of $100 of memory - but it might be better to first check you are free of malicious programs, you have the latest and greatest updates and service packs, and you have updated the necessary drivers. Delete the auto startup of unnecessary programs, services and those pesky update programs that hise in the system tray. Astronaut (talk) 09:35, 13 April 2008 (UTC)

That shouldn't affect how long it takes to burn a DVD, not on the scale he/she's talking about. My guess is that either 1. the DVD drive is broken, or 2. the OP doesn't really understand what it's doing (e.g. it is really encoding to DV video, not writing to DVD, that is slow). --Captain Ref Desk (talk) 16:41, 13 April 2008 (UTC)

It is likely that your drive is in PIO mode instead of DMA mode. This can happen almost at random (maybe because, just once, you put a scratched CD or DVD in the drive that it couldn't read). See these instructions for how to fix it, and a longer description of the problem. -- Coneslayer (talk) 14:26, 14 April 2008 (UTC)

What makes the hard disk tick?

What makes the ticking sound of a hard disk drive? Is it an intentional sound, to let you know it's accessing the disk, or just an inevitable mechanical noise? Is it the voice coil, the actuator, something else? Always wanted to know. Fritter (talk) 21:50, 12 April 2008 (UTC)

Hopefully it's just the sound of the header reading and/or writing. If it's making excessive sounds, you may want to back up your data. Useight (talk) 00:50, 13 April 2008 (UTC)

That's not quite an answer, as I implied I realize the sound occurs when "it's accessing the disk," i.e. reading or writing. I was wondering, physically, what causes the noise (and why some HDs are loud and others aren't). And I do back up my data; or I should say, a cron job does it for me -- I can't be trusted with something so important! Thanks for the feedback. Fritter (talk) 00:56, 13 April 2008 (UTC)

I think its the drive head's motor that makes the sound you describe when the computer is accessing the disk. The platter motor also makes sound, but its more of a constant hum. Rilak (talk) 06:23, 13 April 2008 (UTC)

An electromagnet moves the head rapidly in or out on the order of milliseconds. The quck twitch is the click as it jumps from track to track. Graeme Bartlett (talk) 12:48, 13 April 2008 (UTC)

Sound is a result of vibrating air molecules. My guess is that the arm is the most likely component to be disturbing enough air to make the tick sound. (Picture at Hard disk drive#Technology.) --- I just found this article which seems to agree it's the arm: What is the churning sound I hear from my hard drive whenever it is retrieving data? --Bavi H (talk) 00:58, 14 April 2008 (UTC)

April 13

famous sayings

01:09, 13 April 2008 (UTC)75.108.93.113 (talk)Who said"In the world theres a market for maybe five computers."

Thomas J. Watson allegedly made the statement in 1943. However, there is no actual proof that he was the one who said it. Stephenchou0722 (talk) 01:27, 13 April 2008 (UTC)

And he may very well have been correct, in that there was only a market for 5 computers at the size, expense, and limited functionality they had at the time. StuRat (talk) 03:26, 13 April 2008 (UTC)

Most of these purported sayings are likely apocryphal. At best they usually misunderstand the context of them being said, as StuRat implies. By the time Thomas Watson died there were, in fact, only a handful of computers around the world, and their uses were still fairly constrained. --Captain Ref Desk (talk) 04:58, 13 April 2008 (UTC)

Who knows. In 30 years, there may be no more than 5 mainframe computers left, with everyone else just a satellite. 222.159.65.56 (talk) 15:21, 13 April 2008 (UTC)

In 1950 or 1951, B.V. Bowden approached Douglas Hartree on behalf of Ferranti to discuss the market for a commercial computer, which they were working on. Hartree felt that there would be no market at all, as the three computer projects already underway in Britain would be able to handle the nation's computing needs for all time. Ferranti decided to go ahead anyway, of course. I have often wondered whether the Watson story is simply an Americanization of this, or whether the same type of mistake was made by both men.

(Source for the Bowden/Hartree story: Mathematics: People, Problems, Results, edited by Douglas M. Campbell and John C. Higgins, ISBN 0-534-03201-X, volume 3, item by Bowden. He adds that Hartree "used to tell the story against himself as long as he lived".)

--Anonymous, 23:35 UTC, April 16, 2008.

Excel 2007 chart labels

For a long time now I've been making charts in Excel 2003 in order to upload them here, but after upgrading to Excel 2007 I'm having a problem in putting labels on the horizontal axis. Here is an example of the charts I'm talking about, and you can see that the horizontal axis is labelled with the years 1994 to 2008. How I've set this up is to have these years in a column with precisely the right number of blank cells in between to put the labels in the right place. When I view this chart in Excel 2007 however, many of those labels are missing. Through a bit of investigation I've found that Excel is only displaying every second cell from my labelling column, so it's skipping many of the cells that contain the numbers. Try as I might I can't find a way to tell Excel to stop skipping labels like this. I've tried going Format Axis and setting 'specify interval unit' to 1, which should do what I want, but nothing changes. I've tried shrinking the font size and extending the horziontal size of the chart to truely rediculous proportions, but neither of these have worked. I've also tried installing this Microsoft hotfix which sounded like it might fix my problem, but it doesn't seem to have done anything. Excel seems to to be saying that if I have more than 'x' number of labels selected then it's only going to display every second one, dispite the fact that most of them are infact blank cells. Does anyone know a way to stop Excel from skipping labels like this? Raven4x4x (talk) 08:38, 13 April 2008 (UTC)

I'm guessing you selected a bar graph with the first column as a label - in this case it may be better to use an xy (scatter) graph to treat the first column as a number not a text label. --h2g2bob (talk) 15:16, 13 April 2008 (UTC)

I'm not quite sure what you mean by 'with the first column as a label'. I've got the axis labels in another column to the data, because as you can see from my example the axis is labeled with the years. I tried making a scatter graph and the same thing seems to happen. I really don't want to make major changes to the look of the charts anyway. Raven4x4x (talk) 12:34, 14 April 2008 (UTC)

I don't think the problem is very clear from your question. I assume the graph uploaded here is an Excel 2003 shot. Could you please upload the Excel 2007 shot somewhere so that we can see what it looks like? And if possible the .xls or .xlsx file too? --soum ^talk 13:22, 14 April 2008 (UTC)

Sorry if I haven't been clear. I did try to be as detailed as I could. Yes, my example was from Excel 2003. Here is the same chart viewed in Excel 2007. Notice the missing labels on the horizontal axis. I have a simple example chart to demonstrate the problem, but I cannot upload an Excel spreadsheet to Wikipedia. I'll work on uploading it somewhere else. Raven4x4x (talk) 10:19, 15 April 2008 (UTC)

Maybe it's a bug in your install of Excel 2007? I tried it with my Excel 2007 and had no problem setting 'specify interval unit' to 1 and getting all the years displayed. Astronaut (talk) 14:04, 15 April 2008 (UTC)

(de-indent). I'm afraid not; the same happens on both the computers in our house, which have different installs of Office on them (installed from different CDs). Have you tried making a chart with upwards of 200 data points on it? This only seems to happen to charts with lots of values. Raven4x4x (talk) 09:48, 17 April 2008 (UTC)

Ah... Maybe you're on to something here. I extended my example random data to 366 rows and most of the randomly placed years disappeared. Maybe it's time to report a bug to Microsoft? Astronaut (talk) 12:36, 17 April 2008 (UTC)

USB Webcam

I have a USB 2.0 Webcam installed on my laptop (Japanese made); it's one of the ones that's inside the casing at the top of the screen, and I can enable and disable it from the keyboard. In vista, it is listed simply as USB 2.0 Webcam, and the provider and manufacturer are listed as Microsoft. I wanted to see if I could find some drivers that allowed me to tweak it a little bit, improve the framerate perhaps, change the color settings, shutter speed, etc. Anything would be better than the default Microsoft drivers that come with it. Might it actually just be what it says, a Microsoft USB 2.0 Webcam, and nothing else? Is there anything I can do to improve its performance? Thanks. 222.159.65.56 (talk) 15:18, 13 April 2008 (UTC) - Forgot to mention that with the drivers I have now I can't control 'anything'. The camera only shows up in device manager and there is nothing other than a screen that tells me it's working properly, so if I want to change settings I'm doing it through a host program, after the picture has already been captured. 222.159.65.56 (talk) 15:27, 13 April 2008 (UTC)

After a little searching it seems likely that the generic 1.3 mpixel integrated camera on my laptop is by a company called Chicony, and the only name of any sort I can find is its USB address at 04f2:b022. After about an hour I could only find one site offering drivers for that model (or ANY model by Chicony for the last 3 years), here, but it's one of those pay-for-your-drivers sites and they might be lying about the existence of the driver in the first place. I dunno if it will improve the quality of my camera, but I'd like to get my hands on a specific driver, if possible. Anyone have any ideas? 222.158.163.48 (talk) 23:01, 13 April 2008 (UTC)

Did your webcam come with a driver disk? Or possibly on the laptop driver CD? There is an even chance the Windows XP drivers will work under Vista, if you're using 32bit vista and not 64bit. Otherwise try contacting the manufacturer? TheGreatZorko (talk) 08:14, 17 April 2008 (UTC)

paypal stuff

ok, paypal isnt being much help on this. I am trying to get something to change the price depending on the options selected. It was suggested that i use javascript, but i have little to no experience.

<script language="javascript">
function CalculateOrder(form)
{
<!--None-->
if (form.os2.value == "None" && form.os3.value == "No"
 {
 form.amount.value = 395.00;
   }
if (form.os2.value == "None" && form.os3.value == "Yes"
 {
 form.amount.value = 480.00;
   }
<!--Mag-Lock-->
if (form.os2.value == "Mag-Lock" && form.os3.value == "No"
 {
 form.amount.value = 475.00;
   }
if (form.os2.value == "Mag-Lock" && form.os3.value == "Yes"
 {
 form.amount.value = 560.00;
   }
<!--Pin-Lock-->
if (form.os2.value == "Pin-Lock" && form.os3.value == "No"
 {
 form.amount.value = 480.00;
   }
if (form.os2.value == "Pin-Lock" && form.os3.value == "Yes"
 {
 form.amount.value = 565.00;
 }
}
  </script>

This is what I have, but i dont see how it inputs into the form. The entires site can be found here. Thanks in advance, --Omnipotence407 (talk) 15:54, 13 April 2008 (UTC)

You've got a lot of problems here:

1. Each of your IF statements in the code above is missing a closed parathesis, so it won't work for that reason straight away. E.g. if (form.os2.value == "None" && form.os3.value == "No" should be if (form.os2.value == "None" && form.os3.value == "No"). Note the closing parentheses at the end.
2. The FORM tag on the page does not have a name attribute. Add name="myform" or something like that to the <FORM> tag.
3. You don't have anything that calls the function above. When do you want this function to run? When you click "Add to cart"? You need to set up a time for the event to trigger. For example, if you had a "add to cart" button and wanted it to run when you click on it, you'll need to add onclick="CalculateOrder(document.myform);" to the A HREF tag. Note that "myform" there is the name attribute of the FORM tag you need to put in in the previous step.
4. You're asking it to check if the SELECT tags have values exactly equal (==) to "Pin-Lock" or "Mag-Lock", but none of the OPTION tag values equal exactly that. They are "Locking Device Pin-Lock" and "Locking Device Mag-Lock". You need to modify the Javascript to what they actually equal, or change the values to match the Javascript, or else they will never return "true" when you compare them (and it won't work). Ditto with the Hose stuff; instead of the option being between "Yes" and "No" the VALUE attributes are set to things like "Extra 50 feet of Hose No". That's not the same thing as "No" and the Javascript will be very strict about that.
5. Since the Javascript isn't triggered, it's also not clear how the form will submit itself. You could add the line document.myform.submit(); to the end of the Javascript function to make it do that after running the function itself, if that's what you want it to do. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Captain Ref Desk (talk • contribs) 16:37, 13 April 2008 (UTC)
6. Bigger problem: what's to keep me from inserting some of my own javascript and changing the prices? Are you going to be maintaining a vigilance on this, so that if you get orders for irregular numbers it will tell you? Usually things like prices are handled server-side, not client-side, so I can't just insert any value I want and have it get processed correctly.
7. More abstract problem: it doesn't help that this page has been designed in MS Word, which generates horrible HTML. For such a simple page it is likely to be more of a detriment than it will be a benefit, since modifying things like the FORM's name attribute will already require you to be editing the source code directly, I believe. If that's the case, you might invest a little time into basic HTML. You could re-write the entire page into about 12 lines of code, which would be a lot easier.
8. Final question: How much is your time worth to you? This might be something you should consider paying someone else to work on for you. Time is money, after all. Someone experienced in HTML and Javascript could have this working perfectly in much less than an hour. Got any computer-whiz nephews or nieces? Is it worth $20 to you?

Hope that helps a little bit... --Captain Ref Desk (talk) 16:32, 13 April 2008 (UTC)

Captain Ref Desk gave a very good answer. To put it bluntly, you should probably hire someone to do this for you ... or better yet, hire a webhost with turnkey E-commerce solutions so you don't have to code this yourself. This is not the kind of project on which to learn Javascript for the first time. dr.ef.tymac (talk) 21:41, 14 April 2008 (UTC)

Well, I made the changes you suggested, and, heres the bad part, I'm actually the "computer-whiz" son, i just need to convince my dad to spend the money. I've got most of the html down, i just use the word as a jumpoff. Ive just never used javascript before. Thanks again --Omnipotence407 (talk) 01:48, 15 April 2008 (UTC)

Haha, well, if you're the computer-whiz, then you might consider working through one of the many "how to" tutorials on Javascript available on the internet. Any one of them is fine—just work through the examples, and you'll get the hang of the grammar of the language, it is pretty straightforward for the types of things you are doing. You'll probably pick it up very quickly. That's how I learned it originally, anyway, it is pretty simple as far as scripting languages go, but if you don't know it, of course it'll be a struggle. --Captain Ref Desk (talk) 13:12, 15 April 2008 (UTC)

Dual internet

Hi. Suppose my home is connected to two separate internet infrastructures (say, one ADSL and one cable), each with its own ISP. Is it possible to use both to double the connection speed for a single computer? Say, by connecting both to some router, or by connecting each via its own modem\router to a motherboard with dual ethernet ports? Thanks. -- Meni Rosenfeld (talk) 16:22, 13 April 2008 (UTC)

There are office routers that can take two internet connections and balance them out (like this one), but they aren't cheap. If there isn't existing software out there to try and do it, I doubt it would be easy to do or worth it. --Captain Ref Desk (talk) 16:44, 13 April 2008 (UTC)

Ok, thanks. -- Meni Rosenfeld (talk) 20:59, 13 April 2008 (UTC)

pfSense can do multi-WAN. --antilived^{T | C | G} 10:52, 14 April 2008 (UTC)

If you've got connections to two different systems, you can do load balancing to increase the total amount of data you can transfer, but you can't do line bonding to increase the speed of individual transfers. Downloading using BitTorrent will be faster because each connection to a different computer is a separate transfer, but downloading a large file off a website won't be any faster, because it's only one transfer. --Carnildo (talk) 20:16, 14 April 2008 (UTC)

If you manage to get it to work you can also try to log in to the same isp twice using 2 dsl routers, there are still some isps where this is possible.

1. Any reasonably priced Windows software that can do load balancing?
2. Will loading several webpages with the same Firefox instance count as separate transfers?
3. How smart are these things? Say, if I start downloads for two large files, will they use different connections or is there a chance that they will both be assigned the same connection?

Thanks. -- Meni Rosenfeld (talk) 07:43, 15 April 2008 (UTC)

[#2] should work

I do not know any windows software for this. But I found this [3] It has 2 WAN ports. I never used something like this so I dont know if it works well. Here is another product: [4]

I have taken the liberty of formatting your reply a little. -- Meni Rosenfeld (talk) 21:02, 15 April 2008 (UTC)

Here is another free software that allows this: Fli4l

"Folder" label appearing...

[5] Suddenly, all my computer folders when displayed in the tile mode have started having the word "folder" underneath them. Any way to remove it? Thanks, —TreasuryTag—t—c 16:36, 13 April 2008 (UTC)

non-wiki contributions

what website solutions, other than wikis, exist that enable users of a site to add content such as answer and post questions? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 79.76.165.47 (talk) 18:54, 13 April 2008 (UTC)

How about Yahoo Answers for posting and answering questions. Also, there are many message boards of various types. -- kainaw™ 19:40, 13 April 2008 (UTC)

How about a forum? I know of two VBulletin and ASPPlayground.NET Astronaut (talk) 23:24, 13 April 2008 (UTC)

There's http://www.allexperts.com/ --Wonderley (talk) 23:44, 13 April 2008 (UTC)

Online Courses

How do online courses provide laboratory work? Do the students have to go to an actual college or is the "laboratory work" really a series of simulations? 75.60.207.161 (talk) 23:01, 13 April 2008 (UTC)

From my experience, they try to offer courses that don't need real lab work. Otherwise, you have to visit the campus. Not a problem for online courses at local schools. 222.158.163.99 (talk) 11:00, 14 April 2008 (UTC)

That would depend on the type of lab work. If it's to write a computer program, you can certainly do that at home. Even some basic chemistry could be done at home, like determining the pH of a number of common household liquids. StuRat (talk) 17:33, 14 April 2008 (UTC)

April 14

USB vs. headphone jack computer speakers

It seems that some speakers that work with laptop computers go through the USB port while others plug into the headphone jack of the computer. Is there an advantage to one type or the other? -- Mwalcoff (talk) 03:10, 14 April 2008 (UTC)

Advantage of the headphone jack: you already have one, you're not taking up a USB port.

Advantage of the USB port... I guess you could use it at the same time as you used the headphone jack? Usually these have their own soundcard so if you have a lousy soundcard I guess this could be useful. But otherwise.... no.

But honestly—I don't think there is any advantage of USB speakers. There's certainly no quality advantage, if that's what you're asking. --98.217.8.46 (talk) 03:17, 14 April 2008 (UTC)

It's pretty much personal preference. I have used many different types/brands of speakers on my computer, and in the last year, two comparative models, one USB, one headphone jacked, on my laptop, and I haven't found a true division between the two. Now, this is just one case, and I can't by any means say that it will always be this case, but this is just what I've found. Mastrchf91 (^t/_c) 03:27, 14 April 2008 (UTC)

The reason why I use USB instead of the headphone jack is that my laptops jack isn't working real well anymore (you have to wiggle it around, and often it is impossible to get sound to both of your ears, I suspect some wire has gotten loose and some soldering will fix it, but using the USB-headphone is just easier). That's pretty much the only reason I know why someone would switch. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 83.250.207.154 (talk) 03:41, 14 April 2008 (UTC)

Thanks. I was more concerned that the inexpensive Logitech X-140 speakers I was going to buy wouldn't work with my laptop and that I would have to buy more expensive USB speakers. But it looks like the X-140s do work with laptops via the headphone jack. -- Mwalcoff (talk) 04:08, 14 April 2008 (UTC)

USB speakers are nice in that the speakers can have power via the USB port and turn off and on with the PC. Cheap slow USB hubs are dirt cheap if you are running low on ports and keyboards, mice and speakers can use it.--Wonderley (talk) 05:34, 14 April 2008 (UTC)

My tablet has some pretty irritating interference noise that shows up in the headphone jack. I use a USB -> audio adapter to get around this issue. I can't think of an advantage of that sort of device if your headphone jack works the way it's supposed to, but lots of older computers have really crumby sound cards. APL (talk) 14:14, 14 April 2008 (UTC)

I don't like USB ports for two reasons:

1) Unlike a headphone jack, the rotation of the plug must match exactly. A USB port is better than a PS2 port (which is round and requires a specific rotation, meaning you may have to try an infinite number of rotations until you find the right one). Since a USB port is rectangular, there are really only two orientations you are likely to try, but I am still forever trying to plug them in upside down, especially when the USB port is tucked behind the computer so I can't see it or pointed down, as in some Dells, so again I can't see it.

2) USBs can "sag" in the port, with the weight of the cord pulling it enough so that it loses the connection. StuRat (talk) 17:30, 14 April 2008 (UTC)

Never heard of sagging. Does it happen often? Kushal 20:25, 14 April 2008 (UTC)

It's more common with a USB pen drive since they are a bit heavier, but yes, it happens occasionally. The orientation of the slot also matters. It's more likely to happen if the USB slot is horizontal than vertical. StuRat (talk) 21:44, 14 April 2008 (UTC)

In theory, a USB connection is of higher quality, because the signal stays in the digital domain longer. It only becomes analog right at the amplifier. With the headphone jack (coaxial) connection, the signal becomes analog inside your computer, and can pick up interference on the way to the amplifier. In practice, however, it doesn't really seem to matter. --Mdwyer (talk) 04:49, 15 April 2008 (UTC)

But if the USB speaker is using bad DAC's and amplifiers... Bad DAC's and amps are much more noticeable than computer interference, though you probably wouldn't hear any of it with those speakers. Also, 3.5mm jack does not equal to coaxial. --antilived^{T | C | G} 08:36, 15 April 2008 (UTC)

Has anyone mentioned that USB offers more power for speakers and the like than just the standard headphone jack? Mix Lord (talk) 01:01, 17 April 2008 (UTC)

Yeah, the only difference is the ned for power. Headphone only speakers will be weaker. Headphone jack with additional power would sound better than just usb. 86.139.92.22 (talk) 11:19, 19 April 2008 (UTC)

MMORPG staff

(Copied from Entertainment desk) In a typical MMORPG's staff, does the lead programmer report to the lead sysadmin or vice-versa? NeonMerlin 16:27, 14 April 2008 (UTC)

Neither, I'd guess. The sysadmins are on the operations side of things, while the programmers are on the development side of things. They most likely both report to someone higher than themselves -- a VP or higher. --Mdwyer (talk) 04:45, 15 April 2008 (UTC)

This is from May 2004 Game Developer magazine :

SOE has established a separate operations department (about 30 people) who buy, set up, and maintain our game server hardware, push patches for all of our live games (including PlanetSide, Star Wars Galaxies, and EverQuest Online Adventures for PlayStation2) and monitor all the game servers 24 hours a day. The operations department does not report into the game development structure. They are totally separate and equal within the company. They have the power to say "no" to the game teams, and frequently do. This separation of power may seem extreme. For example, no game development team is allowed to push a patch to our customers. Instead we put in a request to Ops, who then push the files out to all servers after running their own checks, which includes checking with our QA group to make sure the patch has passed testing.

They go on to talk about how the programming and art departments have someone "on call" 24/7 in case there is a problem with the live servers. It's an interesting article. Worth looking up if MMORPGs are your thing. APL (talk) 13:03, 16 April 2008 (UTC)

black box on power cord

Dumb question, but I have wondered what the black box on the power cord for my laptop is.... the purpose. Thank you. Alicia —Preceding unsigned comment added by 24.113.8.103 (talk) 16:32, 14 April 2008 (UTC)

The article isn't great, but Wall wart covers some of this. I believe they generally are transformers. Friday (talk) 16:39, 14 April 2008 (UTC)

There are two possibilities. It could be an AC-to-DC power transformer. It could also be an interference filter. While they are not as common on power cords as signal cords, I have seen them on multiple laptop power cords. How do you know which is which? The transformer is wired into the power cord. It is either a big wall-wart that plugs into the outlet or a foot-heater than sits on the floor with the power cord stuck in both sides. An interference filter is usually a little donut shaped thing that slides over the power cord. Sometimes they snap a plastic box over it to keep it from sliding up and down the cord. -- kainaw™ 16:46, 14 April 2008 (UTC)

Mainly it does electric power conversion. A laptop will typically require low voltage (on the order of ones or tens of volts rather than hundreds) and a DC signal rather than AC. The wall output supplies a 50-60 Hz AC signal with RMS voltage of 110-240 V. The specifications for the output signal (laptop's input) and the allowed input signals (output of the wall socket) should be listed on the box itself. Some may also provide some additional surge protection. --Prestidigitator (talk) 17:00, 14 April 2008 (UTC)

Pictures of the intereference filter? See the ferrite bead article. --Mdwyer (talk) 04:43, 15 April 2008 (UTC)

Windows Vista posting a lot of nonexistant and double entries

See [6]. I consider this to be a sincere pain in the neck, and so I'm asking if anyone knows how to get rid of them. The empty files are a pain (clicking on them does nothing), and the duplicates are a pain (clicking on them shows they're the same folders) - there are documents only for the "my ..." objects. Is this a common error (I suspect it is), and how do I fix it? The computer did not always do this on Vista. At this point, I would prefer not to ignore it. Thanks.

PS. This might have something to do with an older user which I set up, and which is now removed from the computer, though, like I said, both links are to exactly the same folders on the hard disk. Chrissekely (talk) 16:50, 14 April 2008 (UTC)

Full harddisk backup - including operating system

Hi, my laptop is facing replacement of the wireless circuit for the second time in less than two years (I'm not buying a HP next time). They're replacing it for free, but I have to send in the computer and I guess they can't guarantee they won't wipe the hard drive. I'll back up the contents to DVDs and an external (USB) hard drive. However, it takes an evening to reinstall Windows XP including all the custom HP drivers that have to be installed in a specific order (and no, I don't want to use the HP recovery disk for various reasons). My question: Is there a backup utility, preferably run on a LiveCD, that will make a backup image of my harddisk on an external hard drive or DVDs? Then, if I get my computer back with a wiped drive, I could run the same LiveCD, restore my hard drive and operating system from the external backup and simply boot Windows from the hard drive after that. Any inconveniences encountered from replaced circuitry would be minor, I suppose, Windows usually handles that okay. Thanks! Jørgen (talk) 17:28, 14 April 2008 (UTC)

Symantec Ghost, Windows Home Server, Acronis True Image, ImageX and lot of others. --soum ^talk 17:31, 14 April 2008 (UTC)

I use Symantec Ghost and love it. If you also have a desktop, they make an adapter that allows you to connect a laptop hard drive to another computer and it makes all this even easier. The adpater is very inexpensive. I don't have one, but a friend of mine did and it worked great. I don't know where he got it, but it looked like this one:

http://www.cablestogo.com/product.asp?cat_id=906&sku=17705 --Wonderley (talk) 20:34, 14 April 2008 (UTC)

Don't send the hard drive to them at all. In general you should send in only the component that needs replacing and anything else that you can't detach from that component without voiding the warranty or risking damage. Hard disks and RAM are user replaceable on most laptops, and a reputable repair house will not need either one to replace your wireless card. Disreputable repair houses (which may contract with major vendors) have been known to, e.g., swap out expensive RAM with cheaper RAM and hope the user won't notice. Remove everything you can. -- BenRG (talk) 12:29, 15 April 2008 (UTC)

I imagine you could also use GParted for this sort of thing too, just copying partitions from one drive to another. --Captain Ref Desk (talk) 14:02, 15 April 2008 (UTC)

Thanks all! While reading the first answers I actually thought about the last two and I think I will try one of them (picking out the hard drive or using GParted, which as far as I understand is both free and CD-bootable) Jørgen (talk) 14:35, 15 April 2008 (UTC)

I cant go to Yahoo and Google,but I can still go to Wikipedia?!?!

I cant go to www.google.com or to www.yahoo.co.uk or to myspace,but I can still go to Wikipedia and some other sites?!?! Why is this happening? It started this morning! 79.175.80.90 (talk) 17:36, 14 April 2008 (UTC)

Any error messages? CaptainVindaloo ^{t c e} 17:56, 14 April 2008 (UTC)

Who (if anyone) has access to your computer besides you? What new software (if any) have you installed? What method do you use to log in and connect to the Internet? It could be any of several hundred different things, and without some background you're probably not going to get much in the way of useful help. It could be a late april fool's joke where someone modified your lmhosts file.

mac & pc

What is Mac, and how is it different from PC? Which one is better for professional users, and why? please post your best answer as soon as possible. i want the nswer for my assignment —Preceding unsigned comment added by 202.125.143.66 (talk) 17:58, 14 April 2008 (UTC)

We have articles on Apple Macintosh and Microsoft Windows.. those might get you started. Friday (talk) 18:03, 14 April 2008 (UTC)

It's my obligation to pop in and say that a Mac is technically a PC as well. I also hate those "Mac vs. PC" ads with an undying passion (Why haven't they made one about gaming? Oh, that's right, because it would go against them!). What do you mean by "professional" users? Offices, by and large, use Windows for both servers and workstations. Using Macs for these purposes would be ridiculous. Unix and Linux are used as well. So Macs are definately not for professionals, unless they are graphic designers or something. If you want even more professional, look at Unix and Linux. 206.252.74.48 (talk) 18:55, 14 April 2008 (UTC)

Businesses won't usually buy Macs in large quantities because Apple really doesn't gear its business model towards business purchasers right now. Dell and the like are better there, for prices, flexibility, and support. It's not unheard of to see 'professionals' with Apple laptops though. Server wise, Mac OS X Server isn't that bad (OS X being a Unix), and not completely unheard of; though again, companies like IBM primarily use Linux and are far more popular business-wise. -- Consumed Crustacean (talk) 21:16, 14 April 2008 (UTC)

A PC is a personal computer. It refers to any computer one would expect to see in a person's home as opposed to a server room at a large company. A Mac is a Macintosh computer, which is also a personal computer. A Mac is a subset of PC - it is a specific line of PCs made by Apple. It is far more likely that you are asking "What is the difference between Mac OS and Microsoft Windows?" They are both window-based operating systems. They run programs. Programs written for one rarely work on the other. So, the main deciding factor between the two is usually based on the software that you need to run. Another alternative (mentioned above) is Unix/Linux. There are many free variants of Unix/Linux. Of course, it is rare to get programs written for Windows or Max OS to run on Unix/Linux efficiently. So, again, the decision to use (or not use) Unix/Linux is based on the software you need to run. -- kainaw™ 19:13, 14 April 2008 (UTC)

You might consider reading [this] version of an essay, originally In the Beginning...was the Command Line by Neal Stephenson. Kushal 20:18, 14 April 2008 (UTC)

Just wanted to stick up for OP's use and understanding of the expression "PC". It's fine - in this context it's concise and unambiguous. Your teacher doesn't want to have to read "x86 based computer running a Microsoft OS, of the type often found in a home" every two lines or so. Good luck. --90.209.36.146 (talk) 21:21, 14 April 2008 (UTC)

There seems to be an urban myth that mac is better suited for graphic and video applications and so on. But that is not true as most programms used by professionals like photoshop etc.. are available for both windows and mac. Whats more important is a good profiled screen and a professional video interface.

Professionals can and do use both. At the moment they are functionally equivalent for most purposes and it is a matter of preference. Windows machines often have more trouble with malware than Macs, on the whole, and Macs, on the whole, are more expensive than PCs and harder to modify at a hardware level. There are lots of little trade-offs in either direction. --Captain Ref Desk (talk) 13:09, 15 April 2008 (UTC)

I don't think the original questioner wanted a debate over which is better, so let's return to the basic differences. The major difference between Macs and PCs is that they run different operating systems -- Macs typically run Mac OS X, while PCs typically run Microsoft Windows. (Some computers that would be called "PCs", which is a pretty vague term as discussed above, run other operating systems such as Linux. This is less common, but possible, on Mac computers.)

Because they run different operating systems, they have different software available to them. And perhaps the most immediately noticeable difference is that the graphical user interfaces of Mac OS X and Microsoft Windows are fairly different. I hope this helps. rspeer / ɹəədsɹ 18:10, 15 April 2008 (UTC)

Automated description of graph features

Does anyone know if any work has been done on having a program interpret a graph (or a dataset) and describe its features? For example, the software would be able to look at a noisy graph and say "The graph has a positive slope between here and here, and then plateaus here, and then starts curving back down to zero," or something. In other words, describing a graph much like a human would.

Anything like that already, or any research being done on this?

— Sam 20:01, 14 April 2008 (UTC)

Maybe someone has, but if not: any mathematically-aware programmer (or programming-aware mathematician) could come up with something like this in a couple of hours using existing software (Maple, Matlab, etc) to do the actual calculus (or modelling). —Preceding unsigned comment added by 90.209.36.146 (talk) 21:40, 14 April 2008 (UTC)

Well, I don't know that that's actually the case, which is why I was asking. I'm an AI researcher, and I can already see a large number of difficulties. The key problem is that the computer has to "chunk" the graph into the same set of features that we see when we look at the graph. It has to know whether a graph is bumpy because that's a "feature" or because of noise. It's certainly not impossible, but I don't believe it's a couple hours work. — Sam 13:23, 15 April 2008 (UTC) —Preceding unsigned comment added by 205.234.170.131 (talk)

Not an optimal solution, but you could preprocess it with some sort of filter (like a Hodrick-Prescott Filter, but something else would probably be more appropriate) , then try to fit a third (or higher)-degree polynomial onto this function and finally have your program interpret the result based on the resulting tops, bottoms and inflection points? Jørgen (talk) 14:34, 15 April 2008 (UTC)

Given that the HP filter is a cubic order filter anyway, you may as well just fit the polynomial to the original. You could try fitting polynomials of degree 1 to n-1 (where n is your number of points), and pick the one with an optimal combination of fit and low degree (e.g. try to minimise degree + some constant * amount of variation around polynomial fit). You would then be able to analyse everything in terms of the polynomial rather than the original series. Confusing Manifestation(Say hi!) 04:52, 16 April 2008 (UTC)

Computer on TV

I recently purchased a 'VGA to TV Converter S-Video+RCA out cable adapter' so I could put a PC on my TV, but I cant seem to get it to work!

I've tried everything including having the pc hooked up with just the S-video cable, with just the RCA video cable and both. Any suggestions would be great :)

Thanks!! --Zach (talk) 21:15, 14 April 2008 (UTC)

Do you have the TV on the right input? Useight (talk) 21:21, 14 April 2008 (UTC)

How exactly does it fail to work ? Does the TV only have static on it ? If so, there may be multiple input modes to select from, like "cable", "antenna", "S-video", etc., that you can toggle through using the remote control or directly on the TV. StuRat (talk) 21:34, 14 April 2008 (UTC)

DSL and my IP address

I have noticed that my IP address changes from time to time, but I as yet have not undertaken the research to determine exactly when or how often I get a new one. I'm using my phone company's offering, so I have a DSL Modem with 4 little green lights; I note that the LGLs stay on when the computer sleeps, but upon waking up it takes 10-15 seconds before mail, browsers, etc are able to communicate. One explanation might be, upon sleeping my IP address is released, and upon wakeup a new one must be acquired, which takes a few seconds.

Anyone with real insight as to how that process actually works? It's pretty clear that I get a new IP after rebooting; do they really get dropped and reassigned more often than that?

The other thing that surprises me (I'm old, so a lot of current technology does that) is that, today for example I seem to be 209.181.somethingelse, which might be a nice, traditional Class C address. Yesterday I was 89.61.something, a B address. I would have expected Qwest has a pool of IP addrs (all in the same domain, yes?) that it would draw from as needed, and therefore the first couple of octets would stay the same from assignment to assignment. Apparently not.

Sharing of wisdom appreciated!

--209.181.224.8 (talk) 22:14, 14 April 2008 (UTC) Danh

Well, I'd say see DHCP which what they're no doubt using to assign your IP address. I'm not sure under exactly what circumstances it will try to get a new address. But when it tries to get a "new" address, it doesn't necessarily change; if the "old" address hasn't been assigned to anyone else it will may be assigned back to you. (My machine here has had the same IP address for something like two years. But it might change anytime.) As for the address ranges... It's possible that they have more than one pool of IP addresses. Like they had one and needed more, or something. Also, the whole "Class C" address thing is mostly moot nowadays -- address blocks come in many more sizes independent of the "class" of the address; see CIDR about that. -- Why Not A Duck 23:21, 14 April 2008 (UTC)

As Why said, take a look at the DHCP article. The short version is that you are given a 'lease' on an IP address for an amount of time. That time is not standard, and is configured in the DHCP server. Usually, when your lease time expires, you can renew the lease, and you'll get the same IP back. However, if you're offline and your lease expires, the address will be given to someone else. When you log back in, the server will find a different address in the pool to give you.

Assuming a Windows machine, if you get to a DOS command window and type "ipconfig /all" it will show you information about your lease, include when you got it and when it expires.

About that pool: Yes, Qwest has a pool of IP addresses, but those pools could be from all over. Keep in mind that Qwest is the product of a lot of smaller companies merging together. Still, geographic regions typically stick to one octet. For example, out here, the addresses are all 71.208.x.x.

Finally finally, I hope your other address is a typo... 89.61.0.0 is in RIPE space -- that is, it is registered in Germany. You should NEVER have received that address from a Qwest DHCP server. I used the WHOIS tool to look up the IP owner. --Mdwyer (talk) 04:39, 15 April 2008 (UTC)

April 15

Unistalling Skype

I have been trying to re install Skype but I keep getting a message "the older version of Skype 3.6 cannot be removed. I have done the Add/Remove bit through the control panel and Skype no longer appears there, I have gone through the Documents & Settings / Application Data folder and removed all references there and I have searched for registry entries through Regseeker and removed all through there but the message keeps coming up. Any ideas, thanks. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Michaelerrington (talk • contribs) 09:40, 15 April 2008 (UTC)

Do you still have the Older version of Skype? If so, re-install it, then re-boot the pc in 'safe mode' and run the add/remove bit again. That should shift it. Incidentally, have you checked through the *.ini files, the config files and so on? Remove all references to Skype in these, and you might avoid the need to re-install Samilong (talk) 09:30, 16 April 2008 (UTC)

Simple method to get the filename out of a URL?

Hi all, I'm trying to work out a simple method that you can pass a URL and it will return the file name of the file. So, if you pass it "http://www.example.com/example/file.txt" it will return "file.txt."

Java would be best, but anything would be helpful. I assume I need a regular expression, but my knowledge of regex is very limited.

Thanks! — Alice 16:10, 15 April 2008 (UTC)

import java.net.*;
static String get_file(String url_string)
  throws MalformedURLException
{
        String filename = new URL(url_string).getPath();
        int slash = filename.lastIndexOf('/');
        if (slash >= 0)
            filename = filename.substring(slash + 1);
        return filename;
}

You want to look for everything after the last slash? To be pedantic, there's nothing in a URL that you can assume will always correspond to a filename. So, figuring out in English what you want to accomplish is probably where the real effort belongs on this problem. Translating that into code should be fairly trivial. Friday (talk) 16:41, 15 April 2008 (UTC)

The URI spec breaks it up into well-defined chunks. --Sean 16:48, 15 April 2008 (UTC)

But thanks to the rewrite engine, you can never really be sure (from outside the server, at least) what file will actually be invoked from any given URI. I think that's one thing that Friday was cautioning about.

Atlant (talk) 16:57, 15 April 2008 (UTC)

There's nothing that says there even has to be a file name. The server is free to handle that string any way it likes. For example : There's no filename in a TinyUrl.com url. There's just a unique ID that the server interprets. APL (talk) 17:00, 15 April 2008 (UTC)

You could probably use java.net.HttpUrlConnection to first do a GET request and check the 'Content-Disposition' HTTP header for a file name. If that fails you could, as in your example, try to infer a file name from the last path segment. The mime type identified by the 'Content-Type' HTTP header of your GET request might also be useful if you need to come up with some kind of file type/extension to make your file manager happy. If you are simply looking for something to help you parse the URL's path portion, you might take a look at the java.io.File class. --Prestidigitator (talk) 18:16, 15 April 2008 (UTC)

C#: remove \x00

<noob> I've just started using C#, and can't find a way to remove a null byte from the end of a string. My application is supposed to accept incoming files via Bluetooth (OBEX), and they for some reason get saved with a null byte after the filename. (Which I always thought isn't allowed by the filesystem.) TrimEnd(new char[] { '\0' }) doesn't work. (I'm really new to C#.) </noob> --grawity ^{talk / PGP} 17:21, 15 April 2008 (UTC) P.S. Prepare for a flood of C#-related questions.

In C, strings are null-terminated. I'm sure this has something to do with the strings you're receiving. I don't know the first thing about C-octothorpe. -- Coneslayer (talk) 17:28, 15 April 2008 (UTC)

Yes, but the null should be used only as a terminator, and not displayed to the user. Anyway, I've noticed that it's actually 0xFFFD, not null - something with the InTheHand library (which I use for Bluetooth). --grawity ^{talk / PGP} 17:57, 15 April 2008 (UTC)

0xFFFD is Unicode's way of representing a character that could not be translated into Unicode. Clearly some function that you're using is making a wrong assumption about what character set it is reading (like whether it's Unicode or single-byte characters). That's all I can say. --Anonymous, 23:14 UTC, link added 23:37, April 16, 2008.

Security of BitTorrent

Hi. How secure – data-wise – is BitTorrent? If I'm downloading a Linux distro CD set, can some seeders modify and inject rootkits or the like in the pieces they host? ›mysid (☎∆✎) 18:24, 15 April 2008 (UTC)

Downloading an OS via torrent sounds to me like an exceptionally bad idea. Darn right you could be getting something with a rootkit in it. Why not download directly from a domain you can trust, rather than a bunch of peers? You want to be able to trust your operating system. Really you do. I guess if you REALLY need to do this, at least make sure you are getting the torrent file itself from a trusted source, and verify checksums obtained from an official distribution site to give you some assurance that the files haven't been tampered with. --Prestidigitator (talk) 18:52, 15 April 2008 (UTC)

If you get a torrent from an official site, you can generally be assured that it's likely to be legitimate. Lots of distros have torrent (i.e. http://torrent.ubuntu.com/). x42bn6 Talk Mess 19:22, 15 April 2008 (UTC)

"Why not download directly from a domain you can trust, rather than a bunch of peers?" Easy. The project that creates the disk images is a not-for-profit, and they appreciate anything you can do to reduce the load on their servers. Especially since you, and everyone else, are probably downloading multiple CDs worth of stuff. APL (talk) 20:27, 15 April 2008 (UTC)

Many free software projects publish checksums of their packages on the official site. For example, halfway down the [OpenSUSE download page] there is a link to md5sums of the ISO disk images. The idea is that you can download the distribution off P2P or a local mirror site, then compute the checksum using a utility program such as md5sum and check the result against the checksums on the official site. If the checksums match, then you can be confident that what you got is the official distribution package and that it's safe to run it. 84.239.133.86 (talk) 20:00, 15 April 2008 (UTC)

I think the answer to the question of whether seeders could inject things is probably "no"—it would definitely throw off the seeder hashes and there'd be very little chance of it all working correctly. Modifying an individual torrent chunk would register as something very wrong to a tracker, I am fairly sure, and it'd be a very difficult thing to pull off in any case (since you wouldn't be sure what chunks would be requested at what time). (Of course, the original distro could be modified from the beginning, but that isn't what I took your question to be.) --Captain Ref Desk (talk) 20:12, 15 April 2008 (UTC)

You're talking about taking a .torrent file from a trusted source, and injecting bad data chunks into it by seeding tainted data? This is not realistically possible. To do this you would need to first crack the [[SHA hash functions|SHA1 hash.] It's relatively safe to say that this can't be done.

Note that it is possible to turn off hash checking on some torrent clients, but that's apparently just intended for debugging purposes and no one should actually be running like that. Even if only because bittorrent's somewhat large packets occasionally get mangled, particularly by home routers.

In any case if you wanted to feel even safer you could check against the checksums that are usually published by the creators of the disk images. APL (talk) 20:27, 15 April 2008 (UTC)

Thanks for all the answers. ›mysid (☎∆✎) 05:27, 16 April 2008 (UTC)

I'm pretty sure torrents come with a hash check built into them, so if someone attempted to modify the data being transfered the torrent client would notice the data doesn't match the hash and dispose of it. So as long as you got your torrent from a legit source the file should be safe, especially if its a Linux iso that you got from that distibutions official website. TheGreatZorko (talk) 08:08, 17 April 2008 (UTC)

April 16

what was that filesystem bit called? stupid bit?

I have a vague recollection of reading about this filesystem bit from bygone days of computing. It was a filesystem attribute which did something annoying. Keep the file from being copyable, or executable, or readable, or something, I forget. To bypass the restriction, anyone with the right know-how could simply toggle that bit. I believe it was for an old Macintosh or maybe even Apple II operating system, but I'm not sure. And it had some cute name like "the stupid bit" or "the dumb bit". I may have read about it in a recent John Siracuse Mac OS X review, but if so, I can no longer find it.

Does anyone know what the heck I'm talking about? Thanks -lethe ^{talk +} 02:36, 16 April 2008 (UTC)

I don't know my DOS has the Archive bit, which was supposed to be used to be cleared upon writing, so you can tell if the file needed to be backed up. Old Unix machines had a Sticky bit, which was used to tell the computer to try to keep the code in memory. It has different uses today. I don't see anything at Apple ProDOS, Apple DOS, or Hierarchical File System but you might look at Category:Disk_file_systems. Also, the old Zip disk didn't have a physical write-protect system, so you could unprotect a disk without the user's intervention. --Mdwyer (talk) 03:55, 16 April 2008 (UTC)

Check out this link. I guess this is what I was thinking of? "The Bozo bit".

"My first encounter with a Bozo bit was in the Mac Resource Fork contents, described in Inside Macintosh for the 128K Mac. The rumor then was that it identified MS code, although Multiplan (the first wysiwyg spreadsheet) was not yet out. I had always assumed that was its origin -- does it go back further?

The BOZO bit you're talking about was a rather lame attempt at copy protection. Utilities that copied files were supposed to check to see if this bit was set; if so, the utility should refuse to copy the file. It took nanoseconds for someone to write a utility that ignored the BOZO bit. This sounds like the same thing as the Broadcast Flag?."

I don't know where I would have heard of that though... -lethe ^{talk +} 08:05, 16 April 2008 (UTC)

non-wiki contributions (2)

Earlier I asked what website solutions, other than wikis, exist that enable users of a site to add content such as answer and post questions? Thanks to everyone who answered, but I think you get the wrong end of the stick. What I meant was software solutions, hopefully opened source, like the software behind yahoo answers etc or a clone of it. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Mr nibble (talk • contribs) 08:54, 16 April 2008 (UTC)

If you are into blogging, WordPress could be just right for you. There is also a good list of CMS at the English Wikipedia. If you have a bit of time, why not play around in List of content management systems? You should be able to set up blogs and anyone will be able to answer your questions via the comments feature. I hope it helps. Kushal 20:46, 16 April 2008 (UTC)

Skype problem

A friend of mine installed Skype (in Cambridge in the UK) but when I call her (from Birmingham in the UK) I often hear two rings followed by the engaged signal. When I do get through she says the phone didn't ring earlier and she wasn't using it. Now other people report the same problem and it also happens with someone else in her office who has a separate Skype number. Does anyone know if this is a common problem with Skype or might they have set it up wrong?--Shantavira|^{feed me} 10:37, 16 April 2008 (UTC)

Smart card questions

I have been researching and experimenting with PKI under Linux and I have a few questions about storing private keys and identity certificates on smart cards.

• I've read that some smart cards can perform RSA, etc., functions on the card. Does this mean they can store private keys encrypted on the card which are decrypted on the fly with the PIN when the private key is needed? This seems more secure than relying on tamper-resistant designs to try and secure a unencrypted key in memory.

• I've read that SIM cards and smart cards are basically the same thing, but different physical form factors. Can you buy blank SIM cards to store certs on like blank smart cards? Can they be read with a normal SIM card reader like a smart card reader? I really like the smaller form factor, which could be hole punched and put on a key ring instead of in a wallet.

Thanks for any input! 66.75.102.95 (talk) 11:00, 16 April 2008 (UTC)

Let's start with some generalities. A smartcard contains a so-called module (the chip with the metal contacts on top). There are a variety of card form factors but the modules follow the same spec. The module communicates with the reader using a serial link. ISO 7816 describes this interface. This includes the mechanical and electrical specifications, the properties of the serial link and the base communication protocol. What this means is that any reader can read any card and obtain basic info on the card.

What make them different is the high-level application protocol spoken by the card. Each application (GSM SIM, banking cards (EMV), telephone cards, etc...) defines such a protocol. To give an example a GSM operator will buy a module (see [7] for an example of a manufacturer) and write the custom software that runs on it. If the software speaks the GSM SIM protocol, you have a SIM card. Of course the same chip can support several protocols at the same time.

A card needs some software that speaks one of these protocols. In principle you can write this software yourself, thus giving you total flexibility. The most common languages for this are C, assembly and java. Of course devising a message protocol, writing the software on the card and on the reader is a huge undertaking and is rarely needed.

In the case of crypto applications, there already is a relevant application standard (ISO 7816-8). All you have to do is buy a card that follows this standard (it will include crypto hardware and the necessary software). See [8] for an example. You then use a standard API (PKCS11/PC/SC) on the computer linked to the reader to communicate with the card.

This API gives you access to the crypto primitives offered by the card (store key, generate key pair, encrypt, decrypt). You can also store arbitrary data on the card, although storage is usually severely limited. Using the API, you can build a variety of authentication schemes, including schemes using PINs. Although to come back to your particular example, I wouldn't worry about keys leaking from the card. They really are secure. This API allows you to give smartcard support to custom applications. Note that many apps (like firefox for example) already have this support.

On linux there is a project ([9]) that provides an implementation of PKCS11 along with drivers for a variety of cards and card readers. They also offer some ready-made applications built on top of it, like PAM integration for example. Morana (talk) 07:22, 17 April 2008 (UTC)

Wow, thanks for sharing your knowledge. They way you described the application and protocols finally answered what makes a smart card a SIM card, or a bank card, or whatever, which I've been wondering about for the last fews days. I have some more questions, if you would be so kind:

• I understand the some smart cards can perform cryptological functions on board, such as generating keys and using those keys to sign or encrypt data. Does that mean that to encrypt or sign a chunk of data, it must all pass through the card smart card? That seems secure, but if it's a large amount of data, wouldn't the speed and communication channel bandwidth depend entirely on the smart card's capabilities?

For encryption, a combination of symmetric and public key cryptography is usually used. i.e. to encrypt an email you first generate a random key ($k_{t}$), encrypt the email with $k_{t}$ using a symmetric cipher, encrypt $k_{t}$ with the public key and attach the encrypted key to the message. When decrypting, you first decrypt $k_{t}$ with the private key then decrypt the message with $k_{t}$ using the symmetric cipher. The smartcard is only used to decrypt the symmetric key, which is only a few bytes long.

Cool, that makes a lot more sense. Similar to how full drive encryption encrypts a secondary key with your private key/passphrase so if you want to change your key or passphrase, you don't have to decrypt and re-encrypt the entire drive, just the secondary key. -- Eric —Preceding unsigned comment added by 70.2.178.61 (talk) 20:16, 17 April 2008 (UTC)

For signing, a hash of the message is taken, encrypted with the private key and attached to the message. To check the signature, the encrypted hash is decrypted using the public key. A hash of the received message is computed and the two hashes are compared. If they match, the message has not been altered and the signature is valid. The smartcard only has to decrypt the hash (also only a few bytes long). Morana (talk) 10:02, 17 April 2008 (UTC)

• I know the smart card modules have a lot of tamper-resistant designs and engineering put in to them, but I've also read about many ways with enough motivation and resources (we're talking NSA level) how to defeat most of them. I don't want to seem paranoid, but that's why I was wondering if private keys are actually encrypted with a PIN-passphrase not stored anywhere on the card.

Thanks again! -- Eric 66.75.102.95 (talk) 08:11, 17 April 2008 (UTC)

Office transfer

When I bought a new DakTech computer in 2005, I also bought Microsoft Office 2003 Professional (student discount :-) and installed it, and have used it since; I still have the installation CDs. Since this computer is failing somewhat, I bought a new computer this month: an HP with Vista. My ideal is to install Office on the HP before uninstalling it on the DakTech, since I always have schoolwork that needs to be done in Office. What procedure do I have to follow? Say, do I have to get a new installation code or something like that? I don't remember anything of the process for installation from three years ago, except that I used the installation CDs. Nyttend (talk) 13:36, 16 April 2008 (UTC)

Install it using the instructions that came with it. Use the installation code that came with the disks. If it fails (license in use), you will get a phone number you can call. Call and explain that you are removing it from one PC and putting it on anther. You will be asked if you are definitely removing it from the old computer. Say yes and you'll get the license activated for the new computer. -- kainaw™ 15:17, 16 April 2008 (UTC)

Software Configuration Management Tools - A Matrex for Comparing Vendors' Products?

Can you find a 'Product Comparison Matrex' of major Software Configuration Management Tools so I can easily see strengths/weaknesses of the various products?Ckdavis (talk) 16:31, 16 April 2008 (UTC)Keith

See Comparison of revision control software. -- kainaw™ 19:19, 16 April 2008 (UTC)

And, in case you want to try a search engine, I should point out that it's spelled "matrix". Google, however, may very well fix your spelling for you. StuRat (talk) 15:43, 17 April 2008 (UTC)

Thanks for the terrific find, User:Kainaw. --Ckdavis (talk) 15:50, 17 April 2008 (UTC)

Virus activated by a phone call?

In the season three of the TV series 24, Nina Myers tricks Jack Bauer into dialing a phone number and entering a series of number after the ring tone (I think it was the busy signal, but she tells him not to hang up and keep entering the numbers). It activates a computer virus in the CTU system which Myers had secretly implanted. I wonder if such a thing is actually possible in the current technology or was just a sci-fi prop. --BorgQueen (talk) 17:06, 16 April 2008 (UTC)

Reproducing that effect is indeed technically possible. In fact, the virus has to be already in the system, activated (but lying benign) and running to monitor incoming calls. Once the call from a pre-defined number arrives, or an activation code entered, the virus starts its destructive behavior. --soum ^talk 17:30, 16 April 2008 (UTC)

That's very interesting. Thanks for the reply. --BorgQueen (talk) 19:25, 16 April 2008 (UTC)

Codasyl database

An academic database maintains different information about:students departments, courses, and tutors. Each student assigned to a particular course and has one tutor. A tutor for a number of students to tutees. Each course operates in one of the 5 departments within the college. And each department runs many courses. The system also records previous qualifications obtained by students. Question: a)Draw a Codasyl Schema to reflect the information held in the academic database. b)Draw a diagram to illustrate an owner and its member records in the academic database.Halaangel (talk) 19:54, 16 April 2008 (UTC)

Answer 1) Take the time to read the information at the top of the page which states that we will NOT do your homework for you, 2) Representation of this concept: RDeditors + Homework <> Success --LarryMac | Talk 20:16, 16 April 2008 (UTC)

Codasyl? Yikes your school is... old school. Good luck! --90.209.36.146 (talk) 20:25, 16 April 2008 (UTC)

Registry

Hi

I deleted some unuseful keys from the registry editor, I deleted them this way,by clicking on the key and from the edit menu I chose delete, but the next day they showed up again. Can someone please help me how to delete them temporary.

Thanks

T Cauchi —Preceding unsigned comment added by 195.158.126.187 (talk) 21:19, 16 April 2008 (UTC)

Deleting random keys from the Registry editor is a bad idea. As for how they came back, some program you use (or Windows itself) is putting them back. Which probably means they aren't as "unuseful" as you think they are. If you meddle with your registry enough, you can completely crash Windows. Don't do it! --Captain Ref Desk (talk) 00:19, 17 April 2008 (UTC)

If you absolutely, positively, at the penalty of death, need to find out what program is modifying the registry keys, you can use something like Process Monitor, but the Good Captain is correct, stay out of the registry! 83.250.207.154 (talk) 06:45, 17 April 2008 (UTC)

April 17

e-mail etiquette

As I am new at e-mailing, some friends have suggested I read up on e-mail etiquette. But I don't know where to find out about this subject. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 66.153.67.219 (talk) 02:25, 17 April 2008 (UTC)

You can find out by searching Google. Here's a good link: http://www.emailreplies.com/ ~EdGl (talk) 04:22, 17 April 2008 (UTC)

I had some guidelines about email when I joined my company. Basically, it came down to: Don't put anything in an email that you wouldn't put in a letter, and watch who you send it to. Just remember that an email can be easily forwarded to someone else without your knowledge or consent. However, that doesn't mean that you need to be very formal. Oh, and lastly, just because the email software lets you create sparkling letters and purple backgrounds, that doesn't mean it is a good idea to actually use it (unless you are an 8-year-old girl sending out birthday invites). Astronaut (talk) 12:07, 17 April 2008 (UTC)

There is an unresolved argument about the proper way to reply: Above or below the text. You MUST include the text sent to you. Otherwise, the person may have no idea what you are replying to. I feel that replying above the text is best. Most people don't want to scroll down to see your reply. They want your reply at the top - easily visible. Others feel it should be below the text because that is how it was done before email.

I second the argument against colors, pictures, animations, and sounds in email. Adding anything other than plain text to your email makes it look like you were typing it up at a pretend tea party on your Little Princess plastic table with help from your My Little Pony. When given the option, select "plain text" as the format for your email. You can add to this a few more rules:

• Never forward anything that people haven't asked for. That photo, joke, or animation is not really that funny. Bill Gates is not giving anything away. Disney will not send you free tickets. You are not going to win any lottery.
• Never attach more than one photo to an email (unless you know how to shrink the FILE SIZE of the images). Nobody cares enough about you to wait three days for the email to load.
• Never click on Reply to All when you are replying to one person - especially when your only message is "Why did I get this?"

OK. Don't get me started. I could be here all day harping about the idiocy of people in this workplace alone. -- kainaw™ 12:30, 17 April 2008 (UTC)

The Jargon File recommends bottom-posting, i.e. putting replies below quoted relevant parts of the original message. 89.76.165.87 (talk) 14:16, 17 April 2008 (UTC)

Where I work, people seem to have the mistaken idea that shipping around an Excel spreadsheet or a 13MB Word document is the equivalent of "communication". For myself (like other replies above), I prefer plain text in the common vernacular. And remember, "brevity is the soul of wit" so be terse, but not too terse. -- Atlant (talk) 13:31, 17 April 2008 (UTC)

What really annoys me is the opposite. If you need a document that is fine, but some people just send an attached word document containing a few lines of text. The usual culprits are secretaries sending messages on behalf of high-level managers, I suppose they just work in word all the time. I would also agree with the above comment about avoiding unnecessary colours.

That actually was my point. I frequently get mail messages that have an empty body, but have a Microsoft file attached to them. As if I want to open Word to read "Come to my very important meeting." or "Here, look at these three screen-shots of my Excel spreadsheet." The other situation is the Excel spreadsheet itself, where apparently I'm supposed to divine the meaning that the sender is trying to convey amidst all those rows and columns.

Atlant (talk) 16:50, 17 April 2008 (UTC)

I would also add make sure your email is relevant to everyone concerned. Recently in our organisation an email asking for the person who stole a chocolate bar to ensure it was replaced in the lunch break. This was sent to everyone. One of the many responses pointed out that people in London were unlikely to travel to Leeds (200 miles) to take a chocolate bar. -- Q Chris (talk) 14:37, 17 April 2008 (UTC)

Yes, but if the evil fiend is ever discovered he might well be sent to Coventry. StuRat (talk) 15:31, 17 April 2008 (UTC)

I also find people using e-mail like it's a bulletin board. Offers of free puppies, solicitations to buy girl scout cookies, etc., really don't belong on e-mail at work. I suppose I can stand some personal matters, though, like setting up a birthday party for a coworker. StuRat (talk) 15:31, 17 April 2008 (UTC)

And, while formality is not required, I'd avoid writing like you talk: "Are y'all comin to da confrance then ya gonna go ta da staff meetin ?". StuRat (talk) 15:35, 17 April 2008 (UTC)

Since I like work with like a lot of like doctors and stuff, you would like think that like there was a certain like word that they wouldn't like use over and like over when they like send a like email. I bet you like can't guess what that like word would like be - like can you? -- kainaw™ 17:06, 17 April 2008 (UTC)

Whatever that word is, I'm sure it's totally tubular. StuRat (talk) 03:48, 18 April 2008 (UTC)

Animated Pictures and Sounds

Hi, I've been playing around with imageready and I was wondering if I could get a picture (like a .gif) to react to mouse rollovers and clicks by animating, is it possible to also make it react by playing sounds? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 24.76.248.193 (talk) 05:09, 17 April 2008 (UTC)

I think you'd need some kind of script or html. You certainly can't do it with a *.gif. George D. Watson (Dendodge).Talk^Help 07:47, 17 April 2008 (UTC)

You need something like Adobe Flash to do the things you mentioned. Although it can probably be done using Java script and other software as well. - X201 (talk) 10:14, 17 April 2008 (UTC)

It is possible to do this with CSS. First, you have to make the image the background or border of a link (because IE is flaky when the :hover is applied to anything but the "a" tag). Now, for the a, set the static gif. For the a:hover, set the animated gif. You can do sounds in CSS on :hover. All in all, I think using JavaScript will be a better solution. -- kainaw™ 12:22, 17 April 2008 (UTC)

Javascript or CSS can do this. Don't know about getting ImageReady to export it automatically, though, but it's probably possible. I feel obliged to note that having sounds triggered on a mouse rollover on an image is a terrible idea in general, though. --140.247.248.34 (talk) 16:41, 17 April 2008 (UTC)

Linux related disk management

Suppose I have 4 disk partitions, and I'm going to fill the three partitions with different linux distros. Could I make the 4th partition into /home directory for the three distros? If it's possible could you gave me links to page on how to do that. Thanks in advance. roscoe_x (talk) 13:17, 17 April 2008 (UTC)

Yes. It is not complicated. First, you need to ensure that all three distros have a format they can use. Most likely, it will be ext3. Install the first one and set /home to be the 4th partition in ext3. Install the second one and do the same. It will probably format the /home partition again. Install the third one. It will likely format the 4th partition yet again. Now, when you boot, all three will see /home as expected. -- kainaw™ 13:21, 17 April 2008 (UTC)

There's the added complication of all three distros wanting to set up the boot sector for themselves. You'll have to be careful with that. If you're familiar enough with Linux to get the boot loader to do what you want, then you're probably able to work with the /etc/fstab file, too. I'd install the first one with a /home, the second and third without. Then I'd add a line to the /etc/fstab on the other two so that they're also using the same one. --Mdwyer (talk) 22:43, 17 April 2008 (UTC)

One thing to watch out for is user IDs — if you want to have the same username and home directory for all three distros, you'd better make sure that username maps to the same numeric user ID in all cases. Otherwise you may find that you're not allowed to access your own home directory. If the distros you're installing are similar enough, they just might all assign the same numeric UID to the first user account created, but you may not be that lucky — for example, Debian-based distros will number "real" user accounts starting from 1000, while Red Hat-based distros will apparently start from 500 and some others from 400 or even 100. Thus, while poking around /etc/fstab, you may also need to edit /etc/passwd, and possibly also /etc/shadow and /etc/group. (Hint: It's probably best to choose a user ID that exceeds UID_MIN for all the distros you're installing.) —Ilmari Karonen (talk) 23:57, 17 April 2008 (UTC)

webcam driver

Is there any webcam vendor that release their driver's source code? Or maybe a popular webcam brand that has open source driver. Thanks in advance. roscoe_x (talk) 13:19, 17 April 2008 (UTC)

There's a guy in France who has written Linux drivers that support over 200 webcams. I don't know of any open source Windows drivers. --LarryMac | Talk 14:00, 17 April 2008 (UTC)

Turning link color

After visiting a Wikipedia link, that link changes color from blue to purple on my computer screen. This is related to browsing history. Is there a way to change the colors of the links on Category:Non-article Agriculture pages as the appear on my computer screen without having to visit each of the links? Thanks. GregManninLB (talk) 15:10, 17 April 2008 (UTC)

You could set the "unvisited link color" preference in your web browser, or you could edit your personal wikipedia style settings to change just that page's colors. If you add the following text:

addOnloadHook(function () {
  if (document.title == "Category:Non-article Agriculture pages - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia")
      for (var i = 0; i < document.links.length; i++)
          document.links[i].style.color = "orange"
})

to the end of the following page: monobook.js, it will do what you want (assuming you want all links on only that page to be orange, which might not be the case). --Sean 16:09, 17 April 2008 (UTC)

Hi Sean. Here is a more detailed explaination of what I am looking for. After visiting a Wikipedia link, that link changes color from blue to purple on my computer screen. To tag pages with categories, I've been opening all the pages at Category:NA-Class articles, for example, to turn the links purple. Then I use the All pages with prefix. Those pages for which the link still is blue need a Category:NA-Class category tag. It takes a lot of time to initially open all the pages within a particular category to turn the link from blue to purple. Is there a way to change the colors of the links in Category:NA-Class articles as the appear on my computer screen without having to visit each of the links? I tried editing my temporary internet file (browser history) and tried using the 'Print all linked documents' option of windows print feature to printing to a file (that I then deleted). I wasn't able to edit my temporary internet file (browser history) and the 'Print all linked documents' option didn't result in making the category links purple. Can you create me a script that causes all the links on a page (e.g. Category:NA-Class articles) to change color to show that I visited the page (without actually opening the linked page)? I am open to other methods as well. Thanks. GregManninLB (talk) 16:30, 17 April 2008 (UTC)

Hmm. You're really getting into bot territory with those requirements. Perhaps if you asked at Wikipedia:Bot requests someone could write up an "add category-na tag to all articles starting with 'non-article ...'" bot. It could also just list the ones you want to remain blue in your scheme, for you to add them by hand. It shouldn't be difficult, and this kind of drudgery is definitely work for a machine. --Sean 19:06, 17 April 2008 (UTC)

Internet Explorer proxy scripts

Is there a script/boot options I can configure internet explorer with which will enter in a username and password automatically when internet explorer is opened each time? Ty. Tomayres (talk) 15:26, 17 April 2008 (UTC)

Downloading a file with Firefox

When I download a file, such as a Word document or Excel spreadsheet, with Firefox, the default behaviour seems to be to save the file to the desktop. The preferences allow me to change the location to which the file is saved, but don't seem to allow me to change the behaviour itself. I would prefer that the file be immediately opened in the relevant application. Is there a preference setting that allows this? Many thanks. --Richardrj ^{talk email} 15:40, 17 April 2008 (UTC)

When I click on a link to a word document in Firefox, I get a dialogue box asking me whether I want to open or save. If you don't get this dialogue, it might be because you've clicked through it before with the 'do this automatically for files like this' button checked. If so, your decision can be modified at tools/options/content/file types/manage. Algebraist 16:25, 17 April 2008 (UTC)

If you are using that fruity operating system, it is Firefox > Preferences >> Content >>> Manage There you can change the behavior for each filetype as Algebraist said. Kushal 18:47, 17 April 2008 (UTC)

is iBook's 'boot into "target" disk mode' possible only for firewire or USB too?

So I read iBooks have a "target" disk mode you can boot into where they just ack like a dumb hard drive and you can connect them with a cable to another ("host") computer which will just see it as a connected external hard-drive...

so, two questions....

1... could this work with USB too or only firewire?

2... could my windows pc be the host?

thank you.

1. No (only firewire), 2. No (only other Macs). I don't know exactly why but I do know that the Target Disk Mode is something that is hard-coded into the logic board of the Mac (it isn't software) and as such is pretty inflexible (which makes sense, given that its main purpose is to work even if the software components on the drive have totally failed). --Captain Ref Desk (talk) 20:30, 17 April 2008 (UTC)

I-Scream MP3 players

Hi; I saw one of these on the HMV website but I can't seem to trace either reviews of it, or the company's web-page. Am I missing something, and can anyone offer any advice? Thanks! —TreasuryTag—t—c 20:14, 17 April 2008 (UTC)

I was able to track down the company - SOSMP3. I can not much else at all, except this single mention on Yahoo Answers (Ireland & UK version). For what it's worth, the domain is registered to the FJRP Partnership in Sutton, GB. I get the impression that "I-Scream" is a house brand for HMV, but I have no direct knowledge of that, it's just a feeling. --LarryMac | Talk 00:54, 18 April 2008 (UTC)

H-809A MP4 Player

I have purchased an H-809A MP4 player, and it works well so far, but I want to know who makes it so I can update the firmware later if necessary.

Or, even better, I'd like to know how it works so I can create my own firmware, as there are several user-interface problems I'd like to fix.

Does anyone have any information of this kind? --Zemyla^t 20:55, 17 April 2008 (UTC)

Well, if you want to create something yourself, why not take a look at ... um ... Rockbox? Kushal 02:18, 18 April 2008 (UTC)

Averaging Dates in Excel

I have two columns, each with over 800 dates. Column B has a list of start dates, such as 4/17/06, and column C has a list of end dates, such as 5/20/08. I need find the average time taken between start dates and end dates. Ultimately, I need to say, "For all 800 entries, the avarage completion time is x months and x days."

131.194.79.108 (talk) 20:56, 17 April 2008 (UTC)

Typing the equation =B1-A1 into cell C1 should give the completion time in days. Select cell C1 and drag the blob on the bottom-right of the cell to copy the equation to all of column C. --h2g2bob (talk) 22:07, 17 April 2008 (UTC)

Note that you will probably need to specify that the final form is a "Number" (Cell > Format) not a Date (it'll otherwise assume the final number is a date code serial number, which is not the case!). --Captain Ref Desk (talk) 01:16, 18 April 2008 (UTC)

April 18

Is wireless encryption secure from other users?

Hi, I know that unsecured wi-fi traffic is unsecure because anyone with a wireless card can sniff all the data you are sending and receiving. If I am on a secured wi-fi network, but there are others who are allowed to use the same network (they know the shared encryption key needed to access the network), can they read my data? Thanks, --131.215.166.106 (talk) 00:05, 18 April 2008 (UTC)

Is there Orthodox Islam?

I'm a Shia Muslim that don't follow traditional Islam. I'm not Orthodox. I pray five times a day. Is there Orthodox Islam? Jet (talk) 01:35, 18 April 2008 (UTC)

Your question does not seem to be related to computing. Perhaps you should try here. Stephenchou0722 (talk) 01:56, 18 April 2008 (UTC)

My mistake. I wasn't looking. Jet (talk) 02:25, 18 April 2008 (UTC)