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July 10

How do I get out of this without losing everything?

http://mudkipz.ws --138.110.206.101 (talk) 00:46, 10 July 2010 (UTC)

Here is how to get out of the most common type of moving-window rickroll, kip roll, etc. on a PC with a minimum of effort:

• If you use the Mozilla Firefox web browser, which is sensible enough to not allow the window to move around by itself, select Tools → Options. Under the Content tab, uncheck "Enable JavaScript". Then you can leave the rickroll page, and after you do, turn JavaScript back on again.
• If you use Internet Explorer, select the window and press F12 to open the Developer Tools. Click on the Script tab, and in the small box above "Run Script" type self.alert=null;self.close() and press Enter, clicking OK to the pop-up window.
• If all else fails press Ctrl-Shift-Esc to open the Task Manager. Look for iexplore.exe (or firefox.exe if you use Firefox); select it and hit "End Task". At least you don't have to restart the computer. Repeat if the rickroll automatically opens again. Other browsers have their equivalents.

PleaseStand ^(talk) 02:53, 10 July 2010 (UTC)

GREAT answer PleaseStand - that's awesome information. You could also use Google Chrome. It's the fastest growing browser for a reason. I got out of it no problem.--mboverload@ 02:58, 10 July 2010 (UTC)

Er, it's the fastest growing browser because it's brand new and has nowhere to go but up. It's easy to triple a 2% market share., harder to triple a 20% market share, and a lot harder to triple a 60% market share.

It's also pretty cool, but it's status as "Fastest growing" has more to do with basic math than with its qualities as a browser. APL (talk) 03:00, 11 July 2010 (UTC)

And Opera is immune to that particular one — it doesn't support the onbeforeunload event used to trigger the alert boxes. PleaseStand ^(talk) 12:27, 11 July 2010 (UTC)

Sadly though, that doesn't make it a good browser - it makes a browser that doesn't work correctly with sites that use the 'onbeforeunload' event legitimately. SteveBaker (talk) 14:38, 11 July 2010 (UTC)

Here's a dopey follow-up question on a related topic. Let's say there is a webpage that contains Javascript like the following:

for(i=0; i<1000; i++) { alert("hello"); };

That is, either a long (or infinite) for loop that triggers a stream of alerts (or confirms). Is there any way out? I've been frustrated by this in the past because the alert window is usually application modal and thus turning off Javascript, or even closing the browser, seems impossible. I end up having to Force Quit which is a little annoying. Is there a better way? --Mr.98 (talk) 16:08, 11 July 2010 (UTC)

Well... my way out of all of these things is to use NoScript and only enable Javascript on web sites that don't work without it. It's surprising how many web sites' user interfaces are actually improved by disabling Javascript. -- BenRG (talk) 19:46, 11 July 2010 (UTC)

In Chrome and Opera, there will be a check box on the alert window itself to disable further alert windows. --Bavi H (talk) 02:07, 12 July 2010 (UTC)

trying a Wacom tablet

Does anybody know where can I try a Wacom tablet? In Europe, if possible. I'd like to try one before buying it. --Belchman (talk) 00:53, 10 July 2010 (UTC)

I would recommend just asking a salesperson at a local computer store. In the hope that it will secure them a sale, they may be willing assist. AJCham 02:58, 10 July 2010 (UTC)

A couple of months ago, the sales assistant in PC World let me try a new monitor before I bought it. I simply took my laptop to the store and asked if I could plug it in to the monitor on display. Despite their reputation for poor service, the monitor worked and I paid £20 less than the sticker price (not sure if that was a discount or an error on their part).

However, it might be different for something like a tablet which will probably require you to install some driver software. That said, PC World are usually pretty good about you returning stuff so long as you keep your receipt and bring it back in perfect condition within 7 days (so open the box and CD envelope very carefully :-). Astronaut (talk) 06:50, 10 July 2010 (UTC)

Thank you, guys. --Belchman (talk) 12:02, 10 July 2010 (UTC)

Refurbished laptops: websites? And Dell: "Grabs" gone? How else to search then?

I'm looking into refurbished laptops. Lower end of the spectrum, most computers can do what I'm looking for. Longer expected lifetime (= several years) would be highly appreciated. Any websites you'd suggest?

Years ago, Dell had a webpage where it listed all its refurbished computers, and you could very conveniently (and probably in real-time) search their offers, narrow down your search, etc. Every time you refreshed, you could find another offer--every customer could only put up to five items into his basket and keep them for 15 minutes, so items kept popping up and disappearing... In short, it was as exciting as it was useful. I suppose that's gone, or where did they move it?

If that search engine is gone... is there any other chance to search their offers "usefully"? I'm at this website (again, if there are alternatives, I'd love to know), and for most categories (on the left), I can only check one single option, e.g., one screen size, one model, etc. [I've tried both Firefox and IE.] If I want, for example, "an Inspiron or (!) a Studio laptop," I can't check both... same for all the categories, so I'd have to do multiple, multiple searches. Waste of time, which is a bit scarce for me right now. So... any alternatives?

Thanks to you all!! --Thanks for answering (talk) 02:51, 10 July 2010 (UTC)

I don't think it's a complete answer to your question, but in addition to the Dell Outlet that you linked to, there's Dell Financial Services, which sells equipment that was previously leased to businesses. -- Coneslayer (talk) 03:00, 10 July 2010 (UTC)

Assembling a PC

I am assembling a PC from scratch for the first time, and I'm finding it's not as easy as everyone tells me. I have a bundle of wires leading from the power switch area with connectors labeled "Power Switch", "Reset Switch", "Power LED", and "HDD LED". I found the region on the motherboard where they connect; however, the connectors are in-line, so I can install them two ways (one way or turn the connector 180 degrees). Is there a right way and wrong way to do this? If I get it wrong will the PC go poof when I power it up? The installation manuals are of little help in this area. Hemoroid Agastordoff (talk) 04:13, 10 July 2010 (UTC)

You can install the switches any way you like. (I generally install them label side out so I can read the labels.) The LEDs have to be installed correctly. You will know if they are not correctly installed if they don't light up. Don't worry, it wouldn't blow up. 121.72.173.157 (talk) 06:01, 10 July 2010 (UTC)

For completeness, the speaker cable can also be installed either way. 121.72.173.157 (talk) 06:03, 10 July 2010 (UTC)

If you are the type of person who likes things to work on the first try, a good guess is that the color of wire that is common to both of the LED cables is probably the negative side on both connectors. The case of the last computer I assembled had white-colored negative wires to the LEDs. PleaseStand ^(talk) 06:28, 10 July 2010 (UTC)

If it's any consultation, I've been building PCs for years and have just given up getting anything but the power button working! =) --mboverload@ 18:39, 10 July 2010 (UTC)

It is possible to get the LED wires backwards but generally they prevent this by using a connector with one of the holes blocked off - and the corresponding pin on the motherboard is missing so you physically can't plug it in backwards. But plugging an LED in backwards doesn't hurt either it or the motherboard - it just stops it from working. Nothing else cares which way it's plugged in, you're OK on those things. SteveBaker (talk) 14:34, 11 July 2010 (UTC)

Deleting rights in mediwiki

I have set the code in my LocalSettings.php to look like this:

$wgGroupPermissions['sysop']['delete']           = true;
$wgGroupPermissions['sysop']['bigdelete']        = true; // can be separately configured for pages with > $wgDeleteRevisionsLimit revs
$wgGroupPermissions['sysop']['deletedhistory']   = true; // can view deleted history entries, but not see or restore the text
$wgGroupPermissions['sysop']['deletedtext']   = true; // can view deleted revision text
$wgGroupPermissions['sysop']['undelete']     = false;

but I can't seem to view deleted revision text, the reverse should happen if I set it like this(able to undelete but not view deleted revision text):

$wgGroupPermissions['sysop']['delete']           = true;
$wgGroupPermissions['sysop']['bigdelete']        = true; // can be separately configured for pages with > $wgDeleteRevisionsLimit revs
$wgGroupPermissions['sysop']['deletedhistory']   = true; // can view deleted history entries, but not see or restore the text
$wgGroupPermissions['sysop']['deletedtext']   = false; // can view deleted revision text
$wgGroupPermissions['sysop']['undelete']     = true;

Is there anything I am not doing right, as it seems to not be working for me. Thanks Paul2387 10:25, 10 July 2010 (UTC)

By default, administrators (sysops) should be able to view deleted page text. Make sure you're logged into an administrator account (you can check this at "Special:ListUsers"). You can also try explicitly assigning the "browsearchive" user right, though really all of these should already be assigned to the sysop group by default. Other help is available at mw:Help:User rights and mw:Manual:Preventing access. Hope that helps. --MZMcBride (talk) 16:16, 10 July 2010 (UTC)

HARD DISK DRIVES

DIFFERENCE BETWEEN SATA AND DIMM HARD DISK DRIVES? HOW ARE BOTH OF THEM USEFUL FOR A LAPTOP? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 117.193.33.78 (talk) 10:54, 10 July 2010 (UTC)

See SATA—it's just a hard disk bus, which controls how the hard disk interacts with the overall computer. DIMM on the other hand is a way of grouping RAM memory, something quite different. Please don't type in all-caps. --Mr.98 (talk) 12:10, 10 July 2010 (UTC)

DIMMs can have a SATA interface in a DRAM based drive Unilynx (talk) 13:45, 11 July 2010 (UTC)

Effects of deleting boot.ini in XP?

What would happen if I deleted boot.ini in XP? Thanks 92.15.5.169 (talk) 16:03, 10 July 2010 (UTC)

Boot.ini is critical to the boot of Windows XP. [1] --mboverload@ 18:40, 10 July 2010 (UTC)

Would my computer explode for example? 92.15.3.130 (talk) 11:18, 11 July 2010 (UTC)

No, but next time you turn it on/restart it, it probably won't boot, and you'll need to go through the repair procedure in the article linked above to fix it. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Unilynx (talk • contribs) 13:41, 11 July 2010 (UTC)

Resolution: 1280×800 vs. 1440×900... or where do I find *no* widescreen?

I need to replace my laptop (which has 1440×900 resolution/14,1"), and what I find online are almost exclusively displays with 1280×800 or 1366×768. At least when I switch my current laptop to display in a 1280×768 resolution, it looks aweful--very blurred, and because everything is displayed bigger, the display shows considerably less (duh, it's fewer pixels :o)), and so on. I'm trying to find out if it's really possible that these new(er) laptops have such displays... or if they're using some different technology in order to display more stuff and have less blur? (Unfortunately I can't go to a store, where I could simply look at such displays.)

And/Or where do I find decently-priced laptops without widescreen with approximately 12.5" displays?

I really care about size, resolution (so that I can fit more onto the screen and still decipher it) and price (and some general specs, which seem to be fairly easy to find) because I don't game, I rarely watch movies on my laptop, and so on. Any place where you'd look, any manufacturer you'd suggest, etc.? Or even: Any internet/computer forum you'd go to to ask these questions? Heartfelt thanks (!): Thanks for answering (talk) 16:37, 10 July 2010 (UTC)

Well the laptop "native resolutions" you see will not be blurry. The "native resolution" of an LCD screen will be what looks like a perfect match pixel-to-pixel. It sounds like you are looking at netbooks, not laptops. LCDs generally need to run at their native resolutions if they are to look any good. Now as to why you are seeing the differences—I suspect it's just whatever models you're looking at. There is plenty of variety in laptop native resolutions, just as there is variety in the size of the laptops. --Mr.98 (talk) 17:41, 10 July 2010 (UTC)

It is very hard to find laptops with non-widescreen displays. Widescreens are cheaper to make, so that's what they use. --mboverload@ 18:44, 10 July 2010 (UTC)

It's also become rarer to find ordinary LCD monitors for desktops that aren't widescreens. I sympathize. Comet Tuttle (talk) 20:28, 10 July 2010 (UTC)

Free software re-licensing

I'm trying to create an image showing how software under one free software license can be re-released under a different license. My attempt at this is at File:Licenses colored by license type.svg. Are there mistakes? Have I missed any relationships or major licenses? --h2g2bob (talk) 18:46, 10 July 2010 (UTC)

Are you working from any particular listing or what? Because most of us don't know what off the top of our heads (even if we are pretty familiar with some of those licenses) and are not terribly interesting in looking up 15 of them or so and looking over their provisions quite closely. --Mr.98 (talk) 02:42, 11 July 2010 (UTC)

Been working from http://www.gnu.org/licenses/license-list.html mostly, which is obviously mostly about compatibility with the gpl licenses. --h2g2bob (talk) 05:19, 11 July 2010 (UTC)

Widescreen LCDs cheaper to make?

I have heard throughout the years that widescreen LCDs are so prominent because manufacturers can get more widescreen from a batch than normal 4:3. I've been trying various Google searches trying to prove this with no luck. Any help? --mboverload@ 20:23, 10 July 2010 (UTC)

I don't believe that it is especially true. Widescreen LCDs for TVs are that shape because that's the fashion, and because there are now practical sources of wide format content for that aspect ratio. As LCDs for computer monitors are the same as those built for TVs (bar some high-performance ones) the cost-effective sweet-spot is just to go with the TV market. The only thing I've ever seen about aspect ratios and price is that they prefer the finished screen dimensions to evenly divide the mother glass from which they are cut (that is, without any waste left over), and the sizes of the mother glass is determined by some other standard. That said, now that LCDs are made from plastic rather than glass, I don't know if that's still an issue. -- Finlay McWalter • Talk 20:32, 10 July 2010 (UTC)

In fact, if one is being particularly reductive, a wider aspect is probably slightly more expensive than squarer, as it requires marginally more row/column pins to address the pixels. A 1440x900 display addresses 1.3Mpixel with 2340 pins. A square 1140x1140 display addresses 1.3Mpixel with 2280 pins (woo, 2% more efficient). Clearly the cost of a few extra pins isn't a significant cost item, compared with the benefits of being in the same market space as all those TV displays. -- Finlay McWalter • Talk 20:53, 10 July 2010 (UTC)

It may be relevant that a 16:9 screen is about 12% smaller than a 4:3 screen with the same diagonal size, and the diagonal is the measurement used for advertising purposes. I have no evidence that that was a factor in the change, but it seems plausible. When I bought my old Thinkpad they had 14" and 15" models, and when I bought my new Thinkpad they had 14" and 15" models, but the aspect ratio had changed in the meantime. -- BenRG (talk) 00:52, 11 July 2010 (UTC)

(ec) Usually the "widescreen is cheaper" argument is based off of the total amount of screen for a given quoted (diagonal) size. For example, a 22" 16:9 widescreen would be 19.2" by 10.8", for a total area of 207.4 sq in. This is in contrast to the 22" 4:3 display, which is 17.6" by 13.2", with a total area of 232.32 sq in; a 12% greater area from the "equivalent" 16:9 version. If production costs are dominated by area of screen produced (either because of material costs, or because a given production line can only produce a fixed area per unit time), then the widescreen will be about 10% cheaper to produce. That assumption, however, (that production cost are the dominated by the cost per square inch) is rather nebulously justified - I haven't seen any references which would confirm it. -- 174.24.195.56 (talk) 01:02, 11 July 2010 (UTC)

For a given number of pixels, the more square the aspect ratio, the cheaper the display because you save on 'addressing' logic and wiring. But I agree that the traditional way of stating screen sizes using the diagonal means that if you're comparing only that diagonal distance then the wider aspect ratio screen - being much fewer pixels - would be cheaper. So it's not really true to say that widescreen is cheaper - it's more accurate to say that people are prepared to live with fewer pixels for the same price if the resulting screen has a wider aspect ratio. SteveBaker (talk) 14:21, 11 July 2010 (UTC)

(Ah! I just read the previous question about laptops.) In the case of a laptop - the screen needs to be wide enough to fill the width of a standard pitch keyboard. However, with 4:3 aspect ratio laptop screens, you end up with these wide areas of useless plastic above and below the keyboard that are needed to make the bottom half of the clamshell the same size as the top. The shape of a keyboard is more like the shape of a widescreen display - so I'm sure that's the driving force here. For a given number of pixels per inch - a widescreen laptop can be a lot cheaper than a 4:3 laptop because there are fewer pixels and less wasted case around the keyboard. Fewer pixels also means less power consumption - which means a smaller battery is needed. SteveBaker (talk) 14:29, 11 July 2010 (UTC)

My experience with the Thinkpads doesn't bear that out. There are large, useless plastic flanges around both the screen and the keyboard of the T400 that weren't there on the T40. See these pictures of the T40 and T400. The T40 makes good use of the available area, the T400 not so much. What you say is probably true of 13" and smaller netbooks where the screen is no wider than the keyboard, but the switch to 16:10 was clearly bad for the Thinkpad T series, and they did it anyway. -- BenRG (talk) 19:31, 11 July 2010 (UTC)

July 11

URL for a specific page in a PDF

Is it possible to link to a specific page in a pdf? I'm doing an article and I'm wondering if it would be better to link to a page... (that would be convenient for DYK checkers as well as readers). Kayau Voting IS evil 01:53, 11 July 2010 (UTC)

You can add #page=4 or whatever to the URL if you want. Not all readers recognize it, I don't think. If you are referencing a specific page, make sure you have it as, [the link], page 5. Better to have it clear and redundant than techie and potentially nonworking. --Mr.98 (talk) 02:41, 11 July 2010 (UTC)

I am using the shortened footnote system, but the really odd thing about the ref is, there is a 'main page' for the ebook, but different sections have a pdf of their own. So I though it would be helpful to link to the pdf in the inline citations. Kayau Voting IS evil 00:44, 12 July 2010 (UTC)

Ports

I want to run two instances of the same program on Windows, but unfortunately they both "bind" to the same port, and there are no settings to change that. The only way I've managed to do it so far is to run a virtual machine with the second program in it. But this takes up 150mb of RAM to run the VM which I really can't spare. Is there any other way to force programs to bind to different ports? 82.43.90.93 (talk) 13:21, 11 July 2010 (UTC)

That depends on your prowess and the program. There may be configuration options to the program that are not available via a settings dialogue, e.g. via command line switches or a configuration file. You can also try to make a copy of the binary, hunt out the port number in the code, and replace it with e.g. a hex editor (this is likely non-trivial unless you know the structure of Windows programs quite well). That said, what are you trying to achieve? If the port is hard-coded, clients are likely to try to connect to that port, too. --Stephan Schulz (talk) 13:36, 11 July 2010 (UTC)

Another option would be to use a Windows-equivalent of Unix's LD_PRELOAD feature. --Sean 17:20, 12 July 2010 (UTC)

how much more should I ask for to work for the mafia?

so a guy I did casual contracts for has asked me how much I would want for serious involvement, so he can freely share everything I need to do my IT job for him, but the problem is everyone knows he's mafia. so, there is a chance he could go to jail and not pay (I suppose even I could go to jail), all in all how much more should I ask for than my usual rate to cover these risks? (I am not asking for legal advice, just practical economic advice). I was thinking of 2.5x my normal rate but I wonder if there is a more standard recommendation? Thank you. 84.153.234.184 (talk) 18:04, 11 July 2010 (UTC)

Guys who work for the Mafia don't get paid well unless they are at the top. You'll not get squat unless you're well committed, and then you're liable to go to jail. Personally I think you should be committed but in another sense. Dmcq (talk) 18:23, 11 July 2010 (UTC)

So this sounds like he wants to reveal illegal activities to you so that you can construct a proper mafia website. That will put you in a position where you are a vulnerability to the organization without actually being a key figure in the organization. generally that will mean:

• broken kneecaps are as likely as a higher salary
• you go to jail if the organization gets busted (as an accessory after/before the fact)
• you get yourself beaten/killed if the organization thinks the police are interested in you

If a life in he mafia is what you want, this would be a good way to enter the system (though you'd have a long way to go to prove yourself). if a life in the mafia is not what you want, then this is not a good idea. Tell your guy you'll do the work at your normal rate, but that you don't want to know about any illegal activities because you'd have to report them to the police. If he really is mafia he'll go bug someone else to do the work. --Ludwigs2 18:36, 11 July 2010 (UTC)

I don't want to be a spoilsport here but it sounds like your ideas of what it would be like to work for the mafia are derived primarily from gangster movies. Do you have any more reputable source for these generalizations? --Mr.98 (talk) 21:02, 11 July 2010 (UTC)

not gangster movies. I have known a few people in organized gangs. They are generally normal people, but as a group they have very distinct ingroup/outgroup boundaries and are unpleasant about things that threaten their livelihoods. How unpleasant they get varies according to how much of a threat they perceive and how much of a violation of group loyalty it entails. --Ludwigs2 01:59, 12 July 2010 (UTC)

Just put a price on your life and ask for that. If your life is worth 2.5 times your normal rate, then ask for that. I say this because, eventually, I'm sure you would find some illegal material on their computers, whether you're looking for it or not. Then, you'd have to tell the police or you'd officially be an accomplice. But if you tell the police, then you're a mole, and you could become a target for retalliation. And you can't just play dumb when the cops start asking questions, because you're the IT guy, so you're always sending e-mails and talking on the phone with everyone. So, there's a huge trail of messages that have been intercepted leading back to you. I guess if you're smart, you could just do everything face-to-face, but that'd be pretty hard to do for an IT guy.--Best Dog Ever (talk) 03:58, 12 July 2010 (UTC)

Imaging an SSD - Easiest Imaging Software/Process

I'm planning to upgrade to a SSD to be "OS and program files" hard disk in the near future. I was wondering what the easiest (and preferably free) imaging process to transfer my OS and existing data to the new drive would be.

I might just do a clean re-install because that always feels good. But I wanted to keep my options open.NByz (talk) 19:29, 11 July 2010 (UTC)

I think you might need to tell us your OS.... --Stephan Schulz (talk) 19:37, 11 July 2010 (UTC)

Ah, I didn't realize that it would matter. I just wanted to do an exact image. Win7 Ultimate 64.NByz (talk) 19:47, 11 July 2010 (UTC)

Its being an SSD doesn't matter, for your purposes. We have a comprehensive list at Comparison of disk cloning software. -- Finlay McWalter • Talk 20:04, 11 July 2010 (UTC)

Thanks. I was hoping someone could provide a recommendation.NByz (talk) 20:10, 11 July 2010 (UTC)

"Easiest" depends on your skillset. If it were me, easiest is dd, as I've found it to be easy and reliable, without my having to learn the vagaries and quirks of gui programs that seek to "help" me. People speak highly of Clonezilla, but I've never used it. -- Finlay McWalter • Talk 20:25, 11 July 2010 (UTC)

I literally only have a minute before I have to run out the door, but I've read that for performance reasons, probably involving TRIM, you're not supposed to clone your HDD onto the SSD, but you're supposed to install everything from scratch. Sorry for lack of detail, I'll look it up tomorrow. Comet Tuttle (talk) 21:36, 11 July 2010 (UTC)

Hey thanks for the tip. I'm definitely getting a TRIM SSD. I have dug around a bit and found a few people who say similar things, but no definitive source for the reasoning. I like to re-install my OS every couple of years anyway, and think I may be leaning in that direction. If anyone has a good description of exactly why this might be the case, I'd love to read it.NByz (talk) 00:43, 12 July 2010 (UTC)

I can't imagine why it would be better to reinstall everything, but it is better to write only to used sectors instead of every sector on the drive (the reason, if you don't know it, is explained in the TRIM article). Smart disk cloning software can do this. dd isn't smart, gparted probably is (I'm not sure). Another way to do it is to format the destination drive as NTFS, boot to the Windows recovery console as described here and run robocopy /e /b /efsraw /dcopy:t /copyall x:\ y:\ where x and y are the source and destination drives. This should faithfully copy all of your files with security descriptors, alternate streams, etc. You could probably even clone a running system this way using the Shadow Copy service, but I'm not certain of the details. -- BenRG (talk) 08:52, 12 July 2010 (UTC)

This forum thread discusses how HDDs' partitions are "aligned on cylinder boundaries" and this is not optimal for an SSD; the thread is discussing how one particular piece of disk cloning software may be able to deal with this while backing up an HDD to an SSD. Comet Tuttle (talk) 17:14, 12 July 2010 (UTC)

HDD or SSD partitions can be aligned on 1-MiB (1M) boundaries or not. Alignment on 1M boundaries is better for (all?) SSDs and some newer HDDs. Some partitioning programs align partitions on 1M boundaries, some don't. Acronis TrueImage and XP's bundled partitioning software don't. Vista and Win7's bundled software and popular Linux disk utilities do. If you copy a raw image of the whole drive (rather than copying partition-by-partition), you will copy the alignment of the original drive, which may or may not be 1M-aligned. Copying the whole drive would only work if the two drives were exactly the same size. What the OP should do is partition the destination drive with software that will do the right thing alignmentwise, such as anything that ships with Win7, and copy each partition with software that's smart enough to copy only the clusters that are in use. I think robocopy is the best way to go. gparted will also work if it's smart enough to only copy used clusters. Irritatingly, the manual doesn't say anything about this. A web search turned up a random forum post suggesting that it isn't that smart. The manual also mentions that you would probably need to reset the partition UUID after the copy. I think robocopy is the easiest way since it sidesteps all of these issues. -- BenRG (talk) 19:05, 12 July 2010 (UTC)

Sounds like robocopy is the way to go. Thanks yo! NByz (talk) 01:24, 14 July 2010 (UTC)

Copy n' Paste

Does a computer store all screen shots and various other copied/cut and pasted texts/photos somewhere so that a log is formed and someone can later access the log to see what, for instance, items have been copied from the computer screen? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.183.76.14 (talk) 19:42, 11 July 2010 (UTC)

If you have Microsoft Office open it has a feature to store your clipboard. In addition, there are programs designed to save it for you. (See FileHippo and SnapFiles). There are also spyware programs that will keep a log of everything (Run a good antimalware like MalwareBytes or PrevX). Otherwise it's stored in RAM and not saved to the disk. --mboverload@ 20:07, 11 July 2010 (UTC)

In general, no. --Mr.98 (talk) 20:54, 11 July 2010 (UTC)

When installing KDE, many people install clipboard (even if they don't know it) and it stores all kinds of stuff you've copied - even stuff you just highlighted. I do not know how long it stores it. I always delete clipboard immediately after installing KDE. -- kainaw™ 11:57, 12 July 2010 (UTC)

Restarting iTunes

I'm an iTunes/iPod newbie. Until these dark days, I managed my mp3 player myself and had few complaints; now that I've basically been given an iPod, I find myself bewildered by the combination of extreme user-friendliness and extreme lack of control. There's probably a very basic answer to this I could find if I knew the right term... Anyway, my iTunes lists several files on my computer that are no longer there. It also lists many mp3s twice, with identical file names and locations (which Windows won't even allow). I get the feeling that what I really need to do is to get iTunes to kind of start over and re-scan my HD like it did at start-up and/or force it to double-check all the files it seems to think I have. There doesn't seem to be a "refresh" function, so I'm guessing this must be called something else in Apple-land. I can "show duplicates" and pick them off one by one, but that seems ridiculous. What do I need to do? I'm running ITunes 9 on WinXP. Matt Deres (talk) 22:51, 11 July 2010 (UTC)

Under My Music\iTunes RENAME all the iTunes Library files and "Previous iTunes Libraries" to something else. Launch iTunes again. This will reset the library to the default state. --mboverload@ 03:38, 12 July 2010 (UTC)

That did the trick. Thanks for the help! Matt Deres (talk) 02:56, 15 July 2010 (UTC)

.svg 50-state Location Map, DOT errors

(border PROBLEM on all maps, 1 CENTER point is accurate !)...Please help put this notice to the proper "HELP LOCATION". The locator DOTs used in the Geobox, end up in the wrong locations,...see: Talk:Four Corners Monument, Talk:Flaming Gorge Dam, Talk:Dendora Valley, etc. ..I discovered this trying to place the DOT on "USA Arizona location map.svg" for Aravaipa Creek... I was forced to use "Arizona Locator Map.PNG... the problem is also discussed with both maps on Talk:Aravaipa Creek.

The first USER, deflected my comments, and no others want or care to assist in this 50-state PROBLEM,... With adding all GEO coordinates, there must be 100's of articles in various states with this MISS-Located DOT....

Please just REPOST this, instead of telling me where to put this NOTICE. (If you can find ONE individual, administrator, "Map Expert, Geobox Expert", have that person contact ME)..Mmcannis (talk) 23:06, 11 July 2010 (UTC)

The location to place the pushpin is calculated from the edges of the map and the geo-location given in the {{coords}} template. If the map's edges are set to the wrong value or the geo-location is incorrect, the calculation drops the pushpin in the wrong place. I had problems with a pushpin on a map in March 2009. The answers I got to my help desk question were useful and enabled me to fix the problem. See also Talk:Waverly, Tioga County, New York and my own talk archive.

Just one thing: If you do make changes the same way I did, it is worth checking you haven't screwed up other articles that use the same map. Astronaut (talk) 12:06, 12 July 2010 (UTC)

July 12

Locked file

Is there any way to get into a file (such as a word document or a PPT presentation) if it's been password protected and the password has been forgotten? DRosenbach ^{(Talk | Contribs)} 01:45, 12 July 2010 (UTC)

We need the exact file type and the version of the program used to make it. It depends. --mboverload@ 03:35, 12 July 2010 (UTC)

Recent versions of Microsoft Office use very strong encryption. It is not feasible to break the passwords on such files. You can attempt a brute force attack, but it may take an arbitrarily extremely long time. Nimur (talk) 20:42, 12 July 2010 (UTC)

Very long, yes. Arbitrarily long, no. And before brute-forcing it, try a dictionary attack. Or rename it "boulder_nuke.ppt", address it to "bin Laden, Pakistan", and get it off the NSA in 50 years, when it becomes declassified ;-). --Stephan Schulz (talk) 21:09, 12 July 2010 (UTC)

Poor choice of words on my part. "Arbitrarily long" implies "infinite amount of time", which is not the case here. Nimur (talk) 21:27, 12 July 2010 (UTC)

Form

What did I do wrong with this? I followed all the instructions in the dreamweaver book. Thanks Kayau Voting IS evil 02:16, 12 July 2010 (UTC)

What is the issue on your end? Do you just not receive anything, or is it another issue altogether like garbled text? Does submitting it just not go through? (I'm not very fond of Dw myself, actually.) sonia^♫♪ 04:57, 12 July 2010 (UTC)

I've tried using the form myself multiple times (like, for a year already!) and it doesn't work. Try and see for yourself... I've tried Yahoo! Answers, but you know those people, it's an opportunity for them to advertise their web design packages. Kayau Voting IS evil 07:57, 12 July 2010 (UTC)

I know nothing about dreamweaver, but your page could do with running through a spell checker. Pseudonym. Anonymous. -- SGBailey (talk) 08:21, 12 July 2010 (UTC)

Ah, I see. Sorry for not trying it earlier, btw. So the form opens mailto:youraddy directly for the viewer instead of collecting input and sending it to you. From looking at the source, it appears to be because you've got <form id="form1" name="form1" method="post" action=""> with nothing in the action field. That's what tells the form what to do, and should link to a script afaik. I'm not sure if the omission is a Dw bug. Actually, I'm afraid I'm not going to be of much help here beyond that, sorry. I find that some of Dw's scripts are either overcomplex or not specific enough for my liking. It frustrates the director immensely since he went out and purchased CS5 for all five project teams which took him out of pocket a good deal. But that is, of course, irrelevant. sonia^♫♪ 08:28, 12 July 2010 (UTC)

This is how the mailto form works on many browsers. See this article. I don't think it's a Dreamweaver problem, I think it's an artifact of modern browsers not supporting the mailto method in the way you're expecting it to be supported, probably as a security issue. If you want an easy means of seamlessly getting form data, a PHP script is probably a better way to go. --Mr.98 (talk) 13:35, 12 July 2010 (UTC)

No... I think the problem is that you have 2 form elements on your page. The first one is empty, and does nothing. I think when you hit the submit button, it's submitting the first form and not the second. Just delete the first form from your code, and you should be fine. The offending form looks like this: <form id="form1" name="form1" method="post" action=""></form> Indeterminate (talk) 13:56, 12 July 2010 (UTC)

There is nothing wrong with two form elements on a single page. You have to make sure that things are going to the right form, to be sure, but I don't see that as being a problem here. --Mr.98 (talk) 14:17, 12 July 2010 (UTC)

Actually I'm rubbish at HTML (that's why I use Dreamweaver! :P). I'll try deleting that code, if I ever manage to find it. The only code-ish stuff that I know a little about are VB (because they make us learn it at school) and Actionscript (and I've forgotten most of the Actionscript that I've read about.) Kayau Voting IS evil 13:31, 13 July 2010 (UTC)

why youtube doesn't allow downloading and saving of videos

Youtube does not allow users to download and save videos in our computer. I am just wondering if that is a business decision or a legal decision. Business decision in the sense, if youtube allows to save, we will not go again and again to watch the same video. so, if they don't allow to save, youtube makes lot of money. Legal decision in the sense, there may be a law saying that video sites can not allow option of saving videos without verifying whether the poster is the copyright holder or something else in DMCA. Can anyone tell which is true? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 218.248.84.91 (talk) 05:50, 12 July 2010 (UTC)

It's never "allowed" it, but there are ways to do it. (E.g. using KeepVid or other similar sites, or various Firefox plugins.) As for why, it is almost certainly a combination of 1. YouTube wants you to keep visiting their site, because they get ad revenue; 2. Copyright holders probably want the same to happen, both because of the control and because they get some of ad revenue as well. I don't think there's any legal difference, in terms of DMCA, between serving content in a flash applet or letting users very easily click a "download" button. The content technically IS downloaded on the user's machine either way, and, again, as stated, it is pretty easy to download the videos if you know what you are doing. --Mr.98 (talk) 13:42, 12 July 2010 (UTC)

Certain videos on Youtube are delivered as raw FLV streams to a player embedded in a Flash applet in your browser. Such streams are delivered over HTTP or wrapped inside a similar protocol (RTMP). As Mr. 98 has correctly commented, these FLV streams can be easily intercepted (many third-party websites can help streamline this downloading process). However, more recently Youtube began to use Flash Media Server to deliver some content (especially the new commercial content that is not user-uploaded). It is not trivial to intercept the video because it is securely transferred over a TLS connection between a specialized server and a secure signed Flash applet inside your browser, and (because Adobe Flash 10 now supports "video hardware acceleration"), the video stream can be encrypted all the way down into your operating system to the video driver layer (i.e., unless you have written a custom video driver that spoofs a signature, your efforts to intercept those video streams and save-to-disk constitute a man in the middle attack, where your interception would lie between the secure server and the signed video driver. Such interceptions are infeasible). At the same time, Youtube has also begun to serve some video content using HTML5 video - a free and unencumbered open protocol that does not require Flash or any other specific video player. Saving these streams to disk is as simple as viewing the page source and grabbing the video link; the stream is an H.264 video delivered over HTTP. I can only opine that within Youtube, there must be an ongoing, intense internal debate that is flapping between the extrema of very strong efforts to provide digital rights management and very strong efforts to provide open, unencumbered access to content. Both models have business- and legal- justifications. Nimur (talk) 20:51, 12 July 2010 (UTC)

Just as a note, all of these DRM attempts still fall victim to the analog hole, or, without even bothering to be analog, any sophisticated screen capture software. --Mr.98 (talk) 23:43, 12 July 2010 (UTC)

Analog hole will always trump all DRM schemes. Screen capture, however, usually can not capture hardware overlay buffers. Nimur (talk) 00:00, 13 July 2010 (UTC)

Until direct neural connections to the brain. Then the RIAA will have won. --mboverload@ 07:04, 14 July 2010 (UTC)

GPU compatibility

Hi, I just bought an Asus motherboard (P7P55D-E) and a Gigabyte GeForce GTX 465, will the gpu be compatible with the asus board since it's a gigabyte version? The guy in the store got them both off the shelf for me knowing they were to be used together so I didn't think anything of it at the time, I'd rather make certain before I try it though. Thanks in advance Benjamint 06:29, 12 July 2010 (UTC)

You're fine. AFAIK, the only time you'd have to worry is if you were trying to set up Nvidia SLI or ATI CrossFire (with two video cards), and your board doesn't support that (since it only has 1 PCIe x16 slot). Almost any modern single video card will work fine with almost any modern motherboard. Indeterminate (talk) 13:43, 12 July 2010 (UTC)

Excellent, Thanks Benjamint 14:18, 12 July 2010 (UTC)

addressing

What the difference between physical address and logical address —Preceding unsigned comment added by MinaAli (talk • contribs) 06:53, 12 July 2010 (UTC)

• Physical address: MAC address
  
• logical address: IP address

Benjamint 07:39, 12 July 2010 (UTC)

Well a physical address will have the exact directions on how to use the device. This may include IO port or interrupt numbers. A logical address will be a more friendly name such as D: drive or /dev/cd. Graeme Bartlett (talk) 11:48, 12 July 2010 (UTC)

Note that the physical/logical distinction is relative. For example, from the point of view of a programmer, an array index might be a logical address and the memory address a physical address, but dip down into the point of view of the virtual memory system, and the memory address the program sees is logical, and the underlying location is the physical address. (There's probably at least one more layer down until you hit something that specifies a location on the RAM chip itself.) Paul (Stansifer) 03:12, 13 July 2010 (UTC)

Good point, I just automatically assumed a networking context which probably wasn't helpfull. Benjamint 13:05, 13 July 2010 (UTC)

Move "my" stuff to another partition

I have recently repaired/reinstalled Windows XP and I thought it might be a good idea to keep the personal stuff on a separate partition.

1. Is it better/easier to move all of "C:\Documents and Settings\<username>\..." or just the "C:\Documents and Settings\<username>\My Documents\..." to D drive?
2. Should the same be done for the other users (Administrator, All Users, Default User, LocalService, NetworkService, etc.)?
3. How do I convince XP to always recognise the new location as the default (I'm thinking a registry change is what's needed here)?
4. Is the process much the same on Vista and 7?

Astronaut (talk) 12:41, 12 July 2010 (UTC)

That whole assemblage of stuff is called the user profile. Inside that is a bunch of stuff, including configuration settings, various files you'd normally know about and lots you wouldn't, and the Application Data folder, which is normally hidden but which (on XP, and very vexingly) contains both borderline junk (web browser cache files) and vital stuff (that's where Thunderbird keeps all you email). So:

1. do the whole profile
2. see below
3. I haven't tried it lately, but this should do it.
4. Dunno. Vista introduces (at last) a decent segregation between roaming stuff (the important files you care about) and local (various caches and junk, that you don't). User profiles are stored in a slightly different location (see home directory).

But I have to ask - why do you think this is a good idea? A separate partition (particularly on the same disk) is no substitute at all for a decent backup. Personally I don't have enough personal configurations and settings to justify backing up the whole profile, so I just cherrypick MyDocuments and Thunderbird's profile. If you want an image with which to reconstruct the whole computer, I'd recommend you image the whole disk wholesale. -- Finlay McWalter • Talk 13:03, 12 July 2010 (UTC)

My company used to do this. It never made any difference in recovering data when the hard drive went bad. Just leave it on the default partition and make your life simple. --mboverload@ 03:59, 13 July 2010 (UTC)

One good reason in Linux for keeping /home on a separate partition is that this allows you to install a new version, or a new distro, and try it out without getting rid of your old one, but still having access to all your data and documents. (Admittedly there are a few gotchas, like if you're using different KDE versions and they're both hitting your .kde directory, but it works reasonably well if you have a good tolerance for fixing stuff like that.)

It strikes me as possible that you might be able to do the same sort of thing in the Windows world. It's probably not well-documented for the end-user, but I wouldn't be surprised if there's a way to coerce the install disks to do this if you know the right magic words. --Trovatore (talk) 04:52, 13 July 2010 (UTC)

The reason to do this is to experiment. However, the practical application I have in mind is when fixing my sister's kids' PCs. They regularly get all manner of things going wrong and I have had to reinstall Windows XP several times so far this year. One solution I've adopted is make a copy of the OS default setup in a hidden partition, but I still spend a long time backing up their extensive collection of music, images and video (and a little homework too!) before I can overwrite the corrupted system with the one I saved in the hidden partition. If their stuff was on a separate partition, I think it would make this a lot quicker. Astronaut (talk) 04:14, 14 July 2010 (UTC)

Considering how often many users (not just kids) manage to screw up XP, I always partition into C: for programs and D: for data. It's trivial to move My Documents for a user onto the D: drive. Just right-click My Documents and pick 'Properties'. Then click the [Move] button. Browse to the D: drive and [Make New Folder]; call it 'FredsDocs' or whatever. You then get asked if you want to move the present contents of My Documents there, so click [yes]. Job done. It's possible to relocate the mail folder on most mail clients similarly, although as webmail gets more popular, that is becoming less necessary. Anyway, as long as you can persuade them to organise their data within My Documents (and not the desktop!), there'll be a single point to backup from. More importantly, after a fresh install on C: it's easy to point My Documents back to D:\FredsDocs. In my experience, you'll do many windows re-installs well before any hard drive dies (apart from 20GB Hitachis), so it's worth doing. --RexxS (talk) 03:21, 16 July 2010 (UTC)

vista / 7 - orange program higlight

Hi. A recently installed program has the background colour highlighted an orange colour - what does this signify (I gave the program permission to change file associations etc), and how to get it to go away? (that's in the program list - not the taskbar - the program isn't running I think) 77.86.10.49 (talk) 15:42, 12 July 2010 (UTC)

Newly installed programs are highlighted yellow in the start menu (and its submenus) for a while (I don't know the criterion whereby the highlighting goes away). That's just so you know what's new. You can disable this by unchecking the "Highlight newly installed programs" item in the task bar's configuration screen. -- Finlay McWalter • Talk 15:48, 12 July 2010 (UTC)

ok thanks, I was worried it was something to do with permissions, security certificates etc.

Resolved

Templates...AGAIN!

Hi, I have another modding question for you...well, it's the same one. I've installed the Parser Functions extension on my wiki, but when I test it out, it still shows the syntax! HELP! Velociraptor888 15:56, 12 July 2010 (UTC)

Hello! It's been 3 hours since I've posted and still don't have a reply. Velociraptor888 17:57, 12 July 2010 (UTC)

Like it says at the top of this page (and like you were reminded last time): "When will I get an answer? It may take several days". Please be patient. If someone can help (and if they want to), then they will. But continuing to ignore the basic instructions at the top of the reference desk pages is a sure way to make sure people DON'T want to help you... (and sorry, but I don't know the answer to your question)ZX81 ^talk 18:26, 12 July 2010 (UTC)

Don't feel bad, I asked several questions that didn't get replies. --Chemicalinterest (talk) 00:52, 13 July 2010 (UTC)

well, I could answer his question, but I'm pretty sure if he follows the same link I gave him last time and looks around he could figure it out for himself. I mean, he's got a lot of anxious energy on the issue; let him put that impatience to good use. --Ludwigs2 01:31, 14 July 2010 (UTC)

Yes, well, how do you create safesubst? It's driving me crazy! Velociraptor888 18:26, 15 July 2010 (UTC)

videos konvertieren

hi, wie kann ich videos, die ich vom fernseher über einen festplattenrecorder von panasonic dmr-eh595 augenommen habe-auf dvd+rw gebrannt habe in ein format umwandeln, das der bresser mini-projector led-mp2 abspielen kann? er ist für videoformate rm, rmvb, avi(mpeg4),flv, dat, vob ausgelegt. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Achimb (talk • contribs) 16:38, 12 July 2010 (UTC)

Hi Achim. Wrong formatting (fixed now) and wrong language. However, I suspect you can use a program like HandBrake to recode the DVD. --Stephan Schulz (talk) 16:41, 12 July 2010 (UTC)

Also, HandBrake in German Wikipedia. Nimur (talk) 18:30, 12 July 2010 (UTC)

Any weighted widget to hold down keys at startup?

Anyone know of any thing to use to hold down a specific key or keys on a keyboard? --70.167.58.6 (talk) 17:05, 12 July 2010 (UTC)

A weight. They are used for scales - especially in chemistry and physics. -- kainaw™ 18:00, 12 July 2010 (UTC)

You may be able to use a software keyboard or a software program to achieve your objective without actually holding down physical keys. What are you trying to do? Nimur (talk) 18:31, 12 July 2010 (UTC)

I need to hold down a key at boot. And I need to do this to a lab full of computers. --70.167.58.6 (talk) 18:37, 12 July 2010 (UTC)

What would be the estimated weight to keep a key depressed? --70.167.58.6 (talk) 18:37, 12 July 2010 (UTC)

0.5 to 0.8 newtons, or around 50 grams or 2 ounces. It depends on your keyboard. Nimur (talk) 18:52, 12 July 2010 (UTC)

For an IBM model M, this says 60 to 70 gm (which is in the same range as Nimur's reference). -- Finlay McWalter • Talk 18:56, 12 July 2010 (UTC)

I've seen a screwdriver jammed into a keyboard for this purpose. It may damage some of the keys, of course. Comet Tuttle (talk) 20:01, 12 July 2010 (UTC)

I used to do this fairly often with games, however it doesn't sound like it would be the sort of thing I'd want to do with a lab full of computers Nil Einne (talk) 00:08, 13 July 2010 (UTC)

Instead of a screwdriver, you can use a plastic pen cap. We do this here at my work for the keyboard of one of the tools. To home the robot, you need to hold down the home key. Doing so starts to hurt in time. So, we stick a pen cap in the keyboard and go about doing other things. Dismas|^(talk) 00:16, 13 July 2010 (UTC)

For clarification I should mention I primarily used to use kitchen utensils Nil Einne (talk) 04:35, 14 July 2010 (UTC)

Before you proceed doing stuff with software or weights....why do you want to hold down certain keys on the keyboard? Are you trying to boot to PXE? There are BIOS options for that. There must be an easier solution here. --mboverload@ 01:53, 13 July 2010 (UTC)

You can just fold up a piece of paper about 8 times to make a thick stiff wad, that will fit between the keys and hold one down. Graeme Bartlett (talk) 02:21, 13 July 2010 (UTC)

I've heard that golf balls are the right size and weight for holding keys down. But I agree that a software solution is preferable, if possible. Paul (Stansifer) 03:06, 13 July 2010 (UTC)

A former co-worker of mine used his old-fashioned stapler (made entirely out of metal and with a rectangular shape, not one of these newfangled light-weight plastic thingies) to hold down the Ctrl key (which was enough to keep the screensaver from activating, much to the dismay of the IT Security staff). -- 78.43.71.155 (talk) 20:31, 14 July 2010 (UTC)

Virtual RAM

The computer I'm using only has 2GB of RAM. I can't afford / have the ability to buy additional RAM, and the computer only has two RAM slots, both occupied bu 1GB RAM each. However, it occurs to me that I have 200GB of hard drive space sitting here doing nothing. Could I somehow use the hard drive as "virtual RAM"? Obviously it would be extremely slow since RAM is designed to be super fast by comparison, but for RAM hungry programs that take up 200MB of RAM and then just idle with it until they're closed, it would work, right? Does any programs exist that can turn hard drive space into virtual RAM? The computer is Windows 7 82.43.90.93 (talk) 18:58, 12 July 2010 (UTC)

Windows will do that automatically. When you run out of memory, it will turn part of your harddrive into swap space. You will notice it if you have a light that shows harddrive usage because you will see it blinking a lot and the computer will run very slow. -- kainaw™ 19:01, 12 July 2010 (UTC)

This is called disk paging or disk swapping, and is enabled by default in all modern general-purpose operating systems. It is more of a "backup" system to make sure your system can run even if it completely runs out of RAM, rather than a "good idea", because all types of hard disk drives are orders of magnitude slower than all types of RAM. Consequently, disk swapping has very poor performance and will remarkably slow down your programs. It should not be used "intentionally" - you should make a best-effort to keep all your memory needs smaller than your available RAM, or upgrade your RAM. Nimur (talk) 19:36, 12 July 2010 (UTC)

I would say this is a bit simplistic. Definitely you should always try to ensure you have more then enough RAM for all in use programs, having more RAM can help a lot and excessive swapping causes major slowdowns (see Thrashing (computer science) for example), particularly of course if any actively in use programs run out of RAM (Photoshop which has it's own swap system is one where you can really notice this). However modern OSes will often swap things out of RAM if it hasn't been used in a while (and other factors) to make room for more disk cache even if you have way more then sufficient RAM for all running programs. You can control this to some extent on Linux as described in our article, I think on other OSes to to some extent. Some feel Vista arguably went a bit too far in this regard. (Although I don't know if Windows 7 is really that less aggressive.) While there can clearly be no such thing as a perfect balance and for each person there will be a better balance depending on their usage pattern and of course what works well sometimes will other times be an annoyance (the OS isn't a mind reader, it has no way of knowing if that program in the background that isn't doing anything and you haven't used for 5 hours is going to be something you open 2 minutes after it swaps out the RAM it's using to disk or you'll leave it there for the next 55 hours). A lot of people seem to get very worked out about OSes (particularly Windows) doing this some even go as far as to disable the page file but if you aren't actually noticing any slow downs or other things which you don't like there's really no need to worry. Note that even on a very light loaded system with lots of RAM, most modern OSes don't recommend you disable the swapping/paging and it isn't just for emergency situations, they are designed to have it there and to use it as necessary striking whatever balance the designers have decided is best with keeping things in RAM or swapping them out. Nil Einne (talk) 00:02, 13 July 2010 (UTC)

Look under your boot drive for pagefile.sys, the virtual memory file. --Chemicalinterest (talk) 00:50, 13 July 2010 (UTC)

Hi 82, I think you're worrying about something you don't need to worry about. Window 7 is designed to use a lot of RAM when it can. RAM that is not being used is wasted RAM. It will cut back drastically if your programs need it. I have Windows 7 on a P3 with 512MB. --mboverload@ 01:46, 13 July 2010 (UTC)

Well done, didn't think that was possible. I would have used XP or Linux. Sandman30s (talk) 13:26, 13 July 2010 (UTC)

Runs like total crap, but it's due to the 8MB off-brand graphics card. --mboverload@ 07:03, 14 July 2010 (UTC)

Identifying the song used in a Youtube video with a search engine?

Does anyone know if there's a search engine to identify songs used in a Youtube video? For example, this one. --Belchman (talk) 20:11, 12 July 2010 (UTC)

There are a variety of audio search engine options, such as Shazam (service) and Midomi. Some of these are pay-services. Nimur (talk) 20:22, 12 July 2010 (UTC)

Can I whistle a tune and have it search the web for it and identify it? This is the first I've ever heard of something like that being done, but I have thought at times that that must be on the way within a few years if not sooner. Michael Hardy (talk) 02:48, 13 July 2010 (UTC)

I have heard of a service that does that about a year ago. Don't know anything more. --mboverload@ 02:57, 13 July 2010 (UTC)

I have something on my Android phone called TrackID that you can record anything through the phone and upload it for identification. Not sure if there is a computer version though. Google Goggles is the equivalent for uploading pics although there are a few others that attempt to identify pics and logos etc. Sandman30s (talk) 13:24, 13 July 2010 (UTC)

Looking for a simple BASIC language that can copy or rename files

As I have never been able to find anything that can merge two folder trees while merging folders with the same name but renaming files with the same name, I will have to write something myself.

Are there any windows BASIC languages where there are simple commands to copy a file and read and change the file names please? I need a simple non-object BASIC dialect so that I don't need to spend long learning how to use it. Thanks 92.29.123.193 (talk) 22:53, 12 July 2010 (UTC)

Batch scripting, Perl, or Visual Basic? Each has advantages and disadvantages. Extra flexibility necessarily means extra complexity. Do you need help setting up the environments for any of these tools? Nimur (talk) 23:18, 12 July 2010 (UTC)

I'm looking for something (superficially) simple that can copy a file in one line, rename a file in one line, etc. I would use GWBasic but it cannot cope with long file names, and its DOS based. Is there a Windows clone of GWBasic? Thanks 92.24.189.3 (talk) 09:16, 13 July 2010 (UTC)

The VB inside excel can do this. -- SGBailey (talk) 09:48, 13 July 2010 (UTC)

The non-Microsoft SmallBasic and BCX Basic can do it, at least, with specific command for copying files. ThinBasic and ScriptBasic could also do it but seem to be more difficult to use. There may be others. Now I have to figure out how to get them to go through a folder tree. 92.24.184.61 (talk) 17:01, 13 July 2010 (UTC)

July 13

The earth rotates!

Imagine a map projection showing the whole surface of the earth on a flat screen, such as this image. That's a still picture. Is there software that can do the following? I supply in some form information specifying which map projection I want to use, and as output I see the rotating earth using that projection, say doing one full rotation every minute? I would want it to be scrupulously accurate and to look nice. And in a form that could be incorporated into a video that could then be uploaded to youtube. Michael Hardy (talk) 02:53, 13 July 2010 (UTC)

MATLAB Mapping Toolbox can perform arbitrarily complex standard or user-specified map projections, and can be configured to use gory details and precise geodetic information from various international standards (e.g. geoid references like NOAA NGS). You could easily write a simple MATLAB program to load and set up the earth data, configure your favorite globe projection, and using the standard plotting tools, render an animation in 2D or 3D. Unfortunately MATLAB and its Mapping Toolbox are expensive. Nimur (talk) 17:37, 13 July 2010 (UTC)

GNU Octave has a Mapping Toolbox as well; it is less well supported, but probably functional. These tools are free software. Nimur (talk) 17:44, 13 July 2010 (UTC)

Thank you, Nimur. I'll see if the department whose computers I'm using has those. Michael Hardy (talk) 18:54, 13 July 2010 (UTC)

What to do with .cbr files?

How do you see .cbr files, I mean with what application you open them ?  Jon Ascton  (talk) 06:55, 13 July 2010 (UTC)

google ".cbr extension". it seems to be a 'Comic Book RAR Archive', which can either be decompressed using a standard archiving utility, or opened in an assortment of apps designed for reading comic books. --Ludwigs2 07:00, 13 July 2010 (UTC)

It seems to be Comic Book Archive file which according to that page should be able to be opened with anything that can decompress .rar files. Dismas|^(talk) 07:02, 13 July 2010 (UTC)

CDisplay is the program you want. CBRs are just renamed RAR files, so literally all you have to do is change the extension to .RAR and open it however you normally would. Personally, I like using the CBR setup because it keeps things neat (one file, not fifty), takes up less space (due to compression), and can easily be switched back to individual files should the need arise. CDisplay is a good program which I've used for years, but the default settings may not match what you want - all the settings can be adjusted, however. Matt Deres (talk) 16:23, 14 July 2010 (UTC)

Creating a Firefox Persona

I'm trying to make my own persona, but when I select an image from my personal folders, the image only appears at the very right-hand corner of the header and at the left-hand of the footer. It never fills up the entire browser. Even with photo editing software (Paint.NET in case you're wondering), it never turns out right. Yet the sample pictures that are in the My Pictures folder have no problem looking as it should for a theme in the browser. How do I make my custom persona look right with my own pictures? 24.189.88.30 (talk) 07:35, 13 July 2010 (UTC)

Your persona will only ever occupy the header and footer, never the entire browser. If it is only appearing in the corners, I would guess that the images are not large enough – they should be 3000px wide and 200px or 100px tall for header and footer respectively. See How to Create Personas for more info. AJCham 08:58, 13 July 2010 (UTC)

Excentro or another guilloche generator for windows

Does anyone know of a Windows programme (free or open-source) with the same functionality as Excentro? ╟─TreasuryTag►CANUKUS─╢ 18:19, 13 July 2010 (UTC)

Searching for "harmonograph simulator" in Google produces some results, see also Spirograph. 92.24.177.162 (talk) 21:37, 13 July 2010 (UTC)

Strange image results in Google

In trying to help answer a question, I noticed a lot of my search results led to similar web pages. For example, on this result page, of the 21 results I can see: 9 are links to sites all named "tattoo<random 5-digit number>.info", 3 are links to sites all named "tattoos<random 5-digit number>.info", and 5 are links to sites all named "wallpaper<random 5-digit number>.info" - leaving just 4 that are links to other sites. If I click on any of the "tattoo" links, I am taken to a page advertising stuff related to body art and if I click on any of the "wallpaper" links, I am taken to a page advertising stuff related to desktop wallpapers; in any case the image I clicked on is not on that site. In fact, the site I end up on is the result of a redirect from the site with the image. It looks like somebody has registered hundreds (or thousands) of similar addresses and arranged for a huge effort in redirecting pages to their random sites. Is this the result of fancy Search Engine Optimisation? Are Google's results being corrupted in some way? Or do I have some malware that is intercepting my Google results and rewriting the page on the fly to push their sites? Currently running MalwareBytes, to see if it's my PC that is causing this, but I would be curious if others are seeing the sme thing I do. Astronaut (talk) 12:16, 13 July 2010 (UTC)

It looks like someone is gaming the system a bit. It's not just on your end of things; it happens on my Mac as well. --Mr.98 (talk) 12:33, 13 July 2010 (UTC)

Thanks. MalwareBytes found nothing after a thorough scan, so that's a relief. It is still odd though. Astronaut (talk) 18:38, 13 July 2010 (UTC)

This is an example of black hat search engine optimization called cloaking. The site detects when the search engine's indexing robot is requesting the page and shows it relevant content that will rank well in searches. But when other people visit, the page instead shows ads the site owner can profit from.

In this case, the images themselves come from other websites. If you right-click a image in the results page and copy the link address, you can find the direct image link between imgurl= and the following &. This is tedious to do manually, so if you decide to do this often, you can find web browser add-ons that will help you go directly to the image address embedded in Google image search result links. --Bavi H (talk) 02:45, 14 July 2010 (UTC)

Thanks. I've reported this problem to Google. I then found this discussion on Google's help forum - this kind of thing has been a problem with Google's image search for some weeks now. Astronaut (talk) 03:57, 14 July 2010 (UTC)

"CLICK CLICK CLICK WHIRRRRRR. CLICK CLICK CLICK WHIRRRRRR" - my laptop's hard drive

By now I'm pretty well aware of how badly I screwed the pooch on this one, and will be buying a new hard drive pretty soon. But I did have some stuff I liked on the other one, that I hadn't backed up yet. For purpose of these questions, it is an 80gb drive on an HP dv1000 (I think it came with the laptop), dual-partitioned to WinXP and Ubuntu although neither is able to boot because sectors 00-07 (i.e. all of them) are junk according to the BIOS integrity check.

1. I've heard of putting clicking drives in the freezer and having them work for a few minutes - assuming this works, how long would I have for the
2. Would I be able to, post-freezing, mount it as a secondary drive (with the newly-bought one as primary)?
3. If so, could I do it while the laptop was already booted, therefore giving myself more time to copy and less time to dick around with booting?
4. Will this whole rigamarole work if I install Linux on the new HD?

ZigSaw 13:14, 13 July 2010 (UTC)

Wow, it's you! I don't know the answer to your question, but welcome back to Wikipedia! I was very sad when you got banned last year 82.43.90.93 (talk) 13:45, 13 July 2010 (UTC)

Ziggy was actually banned from 2007 to 2009, in other words he was unbanned last year not banned last year. This particularly account was blocked for a short time last year after it was uncovered he was a banned user but was unblocked after about 1.5 months when he/she made a successful unban request. Nil Einne (talk) 00:39, 14 July 2010 (UTC)

No, you shouldn't freeze your electronics, including hard disks. They are not rated for freezing temperatures, and moisture will condense on your electronics, too, which could cause damage when you turn it on. Comet Tuttle (talk) 16:19, 13 July 2010 (UTC)

I've heard a lot of anecdotal success stories about freezing (such as this one). It's worth trying as a last resort. You should plug the drive into an already-running system to recover data, not boot from it as that guy did. -- BenRG (talk) 19:05, 13 July 2010 (UTC)

You can definitely try to mount your old drive as a secondary drive with the newly-bought one as primary. It might not work at all, or it might give lots of errors, so be prepared for the worst. The easiest way to do it with a laptop is a IDE/SATA USB adapter, which you can pick up online for ~$20. They're quite common. And yes, you'd probably want to plug it in after the laptop was booted, so you could get the most out of your limited time. And yes, installing Linux on the new HD shouldn't make a difference. Linux works quite well for hard disk recovery, especially since the ntfs-3g drivers became standard. Indeterminate (talk) 17:32, 13 July 2010 (UTC)

Name for padding function

I want to do a formatting in OpenOffice, but I don't know what it is called. I want to have a list that has a left-justified column and a right-justified column. The padding between the two columns is variable (depending on content per line) and I want the padding to be filled with periods (or dots). What is this type of justification and padding called so I can search for the method of setting up the paragraph style? -- kainaw™ 14:03, 13 July 2010 (UTC)

If you mean a line of periods like in a table of contents, they're apparently called "dot leaders". This page discusses them in OO. --Sean 14:54, 13 July 2010 (UTC)

Thanks. That works. -- kainaw™ 16:14, 13 July 2010 (UTC)

Combining images into a PDF

I have a folder containing images such as image01.jpg, image02.jpg, image03.jpg..... (or perhaps image01.png...). Is there any free software that could join them together in sequence as a PDF? Thanks. 92.24.184.61 (talk) 14:06, 13 July 2010 (UTC)

With ImageMagick:

convert -adjoin -page A4 image*.jpg output.pdf

--Sean 14:49, 13 July 2010 (UTC)

PDFTK (website) is also free; I don't think it accepts JPG as input files, but it can do many other useful operations on PDF. Nimur (talk) 17:39, 13 July 2010 (UTC)

Thanks. How would I do the ImageMagick command above please? I am used to GUIs. I have XP. Thanks 92.24.177.162 (talk) 21:20, 13 July 2010 (UTC)

Download the Windows version of ImageMagick and install it. Open a command prompt and run it using the command specified above. Nimur (talk) 21:39, 13 July 2010 (UTC)

Am I correct in thinking that I will need to navigate in the command prompt window to the folder where the ImageMagick software is? How can I do that? Thanks 92.29.127.224 (talk) 13:49, 14 July 2010 (UTC)

No, as the software should put the command in your PATH so you can use it from anywhere. You will have to navigate to where your images are (let's say they're in E:\my\pics), something like this:

E:
cd \my\pics
convert -adjoin -page A4 image01.jpg image02.jpg image03.jpg image04.png output.pdf

--Sean 16:16, 14 July 2010 (UTC)

IrfanView (free for personal use) is supposed to be able to do the job if you download and install the Plug-Ins in addition to the main program; the menu option is Options → Multipage Images → Create Multipage PDF. PleaseStand ^(talk) 04:07, 14 July 2010 (UTC)

Got a spam Facebook friend request from someone with similar name to one just mentioned in an email -- hacked account?

Hi all,

My mother just sent me some financial information, and cc'd her bank advisor -- let's call her "Roxanne Courn." This was the first time "Roxanne Courn's" name or email was ever sent to me email. Two hours later, I got a spammy-looking Facebook friend request from a (let's say) "Roxane Korn." It looked like spam because I've never heard of this person, and s/he has just five friends none of whom I know. This request, as you may have noticed, was from a person with an extremely similar, though slightly different, name from the one just mentioned.

Now, I get several spammy facebook friend requests a week, so this could easily just be coincidence. But do you think that there's any chance that either my, my mother's or (the original) Roxanne's emails are compromised? That some automated spam-bot said "let's send him a friend request from someone with a similar name to that just mentioned, just in case he clicks on it thinking it's the same person?" Is such a scheme a known strategy? Or am I being paranoid?

Thanks! — Sam 63.138.152.135 (talk) 21:01, 13 July 2010 (UTC)

It seems odd that they would misspell the name if they have the actual, correct version. I suppose one could imagine some sort of case where it was mechanically transliterated into Chinese or Russian and then back into English again, I guess, but that would be awfully inefficient... --Mr.98 (talk) 21:08, 13 July 2010 (UTC)

Could they have a farm of existing facebook accounts, and whenever they match to something similar send a request from one of them? Reaching a bit here, probably. — Sam 166.186.168.45 (talk) 21:24, 13 July 2010 (UTC)

Hundreds of identical files on Windows HD - thanks Bill.

I have XP and I've run a program that finds duplicates on the HD. a) It has found about a hundred identical copies of update.exe. They are 0.75MB each. Is there any sensible way of diminishing their number? b) Is Linux better designed than Windows - does Linux just keep one or two copies of system files in some central repository rather than having a hundred identical copies all over the place, as Windows does? c) I also have hundreds of different files that are exactly zero bytes long - would it probably be safe to delete them? Thanks 92.24.177.162 (talk) 21:28, 13 July 2010 (UTC)

What directories are your copies of update.exe in? As for the 0-byte files, I would not delete them; I know some people hate computer directories that they see as "junk drawers", but some applications may write a 0-byte file just to keep a note around that some situation or other has occurred, or not occurred. Since they presumably are not affecting your computer in any way, "if it ain't broke, don't fix it." Comet Tuttle (talk) 23:06, 13 July 2010 (UTC)

If the copies of update.exe are underneath a folder named Windows\$hf_mig$, then the standard advice is to not delete this folder, since it's needed for correct installation of later updates. You can safely delete folders with names starting with $NtUninstall, along with all of their contents; this can free up a lot of space, though you will lose the ability to uninstall the updates. Deleting zero-length files will not free a noticeable amount of space and can cause problems; don't do it. -- BenRG (talk) 03:10, 14 July 2010 (UTC)

If you want to clean your computer use CCleaner. I use it across 800 computers. --mboverload@ 05:31, 14 July 2010 (UTC)

As far as I recall the update.exe filers are in many different places. I already regularly use Ccleaner, CleanUp! and Window's own disk clean-up. Thanks 92.29.127.224 (talk) 13:41, 14 July 2010 (UTC)

Do you have the option to clean hotfix installers enabled? Doing things to clean the Windows system itself other than using proven safe programs like CCleaner I can't recommend unless you're familiar with the workings of the Windows operating system. --mboverload@ 01:23, 15 July 2010 (UTC)

Yes I do. 92.15.9.213 (talk) 08:02, 15 July 2010 (UTC)

Searching for and fixing corrupt zip files

I have a large number of corrupt zip files throughout my HD. Although I know of freeware that will attempt to fix a corrupt zip file if you tell it what the filename and path is, is there anything that will search for them itself without having to be explicitly told about every individual file? 92.24.182.102 (talk) 22:53, 13 July 2010 (UTC)

I'm curious how you ended up with a large number of corrupt zip files throughout your hard drive. Anyway, assuming you're running Windows, you could open a command prompt and run this:

for /r c:\ %i in (*.zip) do (zip -T "%i" || move "%i" "%i.broken" && zip -FF "%i.broken" --out "%i")

That will process all of drive C. Replace the "c:\" near the beginning with another folder name to process the subfolders of that folder. You will need zip.exe and unzip.exe (Info-ZIP). The original broken files are retained with ".broken" appended to the end. I take no responsibility if this makes matters worse instead of better. There's no magical way to repair zip archives perfectly. -- BenRG (talk) 08:11, 14 July 2010 (UTC)

Thank you greatly! Curious, what language is the line above written in please? The corrupt zip files were probably due to zipping up a lot of stuff from an old computer into a big zip file, copying it to a DVD, reading the DVD on my newer computer and unzipping the big zip drive.

I recall a file copier from Korea that was unusual in verifying what it had written, which would have been useful for that, but do not recall any more details. 92.29.127.224 (talk) 13:36, 14 July 2010 (UTC)

(Those are commands for Command Prompt, and although this set of commands are not a "complete" programming language, they are commonly used for batch scripting). Nimur (talk) 18:00, 14 July 2010 (UTC)

At what point in that process do you think the zip files got corrupted? The first thing I'd try is reextracting them from the DVD. Data loss during file copying would indicate a serious problem with your hardware. I'd advise against continuing to use a computer that occasionally corrupts your files. -- BenRG (talk) 20:04, 14 July 2010 (UTC)

July 14

Custom persona will not stick

I finally succeeded in creating my own Firefox persona (see several questions above), but now I have another problem. It won't stay. What I mean is that I keep clicking "apply" in the Persona menu, but it either never checks or it reverts right back to the previous persona I had after two seconds. How do I fix this? 24.189.88.30 (talk) 00:59, 14 July 2010 (UTC)

Using ogis2svg.pl

I'm trying to use the ogis2svg.pl class to convert the US Census shape file of the entire United States into svg format. I'm using Ubuntu 10.4 x86, and for compatibility I've installed libmath-round-perl, postgresql, postgresql-client, postgresql-contrib, pgadmin3, and postgresql-8.4-postgis. But I get the following error during compilation:

converting shapefile to a temporary sqlfile ...Shapefile type: Polygon
Postgis type: MULTIPOLYGON[2]
unknown error with conversion from shape to temporary sql file!

Mind you it still puts out a lot of valid sql before it aborts. What am I doing wrong? The postgis version is above what's required by the ogis2svg page (8.4 vs. 8.2). Note: I've also tried a workaround under Windows XP in Virtual Box, but I get an unrelated error there which appears to be related to poor compilation of the executable, so I've abandoned that route. Magog the Ogre (talk) 01:06, 14 July 2010 (UTC)

CPU cooling

I recently bought an i7-860 which came with a fan, but I wanted opinions on whether this standard fan is sufficient or if I should buy something else, and if so, what is a good choice? The reason I ask is that I think the fans fuse on after some use, and can't be taken off again. For context, it does get very hot in summer (Southern Australia) but it's a case with fairly good airflow. Benjamint 02:04, 14 July 2010 (UTC)

If it's an Intel stock cooler, it most definitely should be sufficient for normal usage (meaning no overclocking although even mild overclocking and overvolting is usually fine, the HSF should have sufficient headroom) since if not it would be defective/unsuitable and Intel shouldn't be providing such things. If it's not a stock cooler (if it came in a retail box it should be) then there's a chance it won't be although I doubt it. Also removing the HSF should be possible unless you plan to apply thermal glue. The thermal pad that comes with the HSF is a bit waxy and can stick somewhat but you should still be able to remove the HSF, particular if you do it while warm (in other words, if you ever want to do it consider turning on the computer and loading the processor for a while before you try to take it apart). If you are concerned, considering removing the stock thermal pad and applying some sort of thermal paste like Artic Céramique or Artic Silver which isn't sticky (bear in mind these are sometimes not officially supported by Intel) and then you should not have any problems removing the HSF if you ever need to. Nil Einne (talk) 04:29, 14 July 2010 (UTC)

Thanks Benjamint 07:50, 14 July 2010 (UTC)

TV Tuner Card/Signal Issue

Resolved

I have a TV Tuner Card in my PC. I'm not sure its name or how to check but it came default in my computer when i bought it. I used it for a year at college to watch/record shows from cable with windows media center, so it should work? When i came home for the summer i plugged in the antenna with a coaxial cable to watch public TV (air waves) I believe we have a digital antenna, but despite my going through auto detect on media center (cant find signal) and manual setup (tried every option available to choose from, still no signal) i cant get it set up!

My dad insists that the antenna is hooked up to the wall box up here, but since the place where i can supposedly check is dangerous (an unfloored attic space) i would like to see if i can look at the raw data from the coaxial cable before coming to the conclusion that we need to fix our hookup. (Bringing a huge flat screen TV up here, which is all we have, is also complicated)

Does anyone know of a program that would be able to show me raw data from the tuner card? i just want to see that i am in fact getting a picture, and figure whether its media center/my PC that's goofy or if it is in fact the coaxial hookup.

Thanks! 63.26.247.76 (talk) 03:30, 14 July 2010 (UTC)

ADDITIONAL: I did look on the back of my card and there is a "TV" and "ATSC" hole. i did look up some stuff on ATSC and found that that is a digital signal, however my coax cable doesnt fit there, i would think i could still grab my signal through coax?

63.26.247.76 (talk) 03:44, 14 July 2010 (UTC)

Which version of Windows are you using? What model is your TV tuner card? And what do you mean by your coax cable will not "fit" in the hole? You will need to connect to the ATSC input because the U.S. shut off analog broadcasting last year and is now exclusively broadcasting in digital. The tuner card worked at college because most cable TV systems still carry analog signals. Many TV tuner cards have separate inputs for analog and digital signals. PleaseStand ^(talk) 03:58, 14 July 2010 (UTC)

Wow! I feel dumb! What i mean i guess by doesn't fit is that i guess for whatever reason the hole for the pin was either really snug, or it felt like there was something blocking the hole or it was the wrong configuration on the inside. I came to this conclusion because the pin, like many coax pins after a while, was bent and i didn't want to accidentally break it. After reading your post i tried again (with a little more force!) and it went in and all works like a charm, silly me! Anyway you have my thanks for the help, this has been bugging me for a while!

63.26.247.76 (talk) 05:13, 14 July 2010 (UTC)

Hard Drive

If I reformat a hard drive will it erase all the sensitive information on it?75.185.120.28 (talk) 04:19, 14 July 2010 (UTC)

No. You need to write data over it. Formatting doesn't do that, it just rewrites key areas of a drive. Even after writing over data, it's possible (but not probable) that someone could continue to recover data. Others can provide the links to that (I know we have some). Writing zeros over all of the drive is a very good approach, and writing random data first, then zeros is even better. Shadowjams (talk) 05:16, 14 July 2010 (UTC)

(ec) To the casual observer, yes. To a determined forensic examination, no; see data remanence for more details. Of course, if you put that drive back into regular use, the new data will eventually erase all trace of the previous contents. There are specific software utilities that can erase data more thoroughly, usually by repeatedly writing zeros, then ones, then zeros, then ones, etc. to the drive; see Data erasure for more info. Astronaut (talk) 05:33, 14 July 2010 (UTC)

As mentioned in the data remanence article, there's no evidence that anyone in the world can recover data that's been overwritten just once. Unless you're such a dangerous criminal that the U.S. government is going to use classified NSA technology on you—in which case you're probably doomed anyway—don't bother with fancier overwriting schemes. A "quick format" will not overwrite the whole drive, but I think a "full format" will; but I'm not certain that that's true in 100% of cases. It's better to use a dedicated data-wiping tool, of which there are many. -- BenRG (talk) 20:00, 14 July 2010 (UTC)

Another non related hard drive question

Is it possible to make a create a new partition out of unused space on a existing partition? For example I have a 500 gb hard drive. It is split up into C and D. There is data on both drives already. I want to create a new partition out of the unused space on D and call it F. Is that possible without having to reformat D completely? 75.185.120.28 (talk) 04:29, 14 July 2010 (UTC)

Yes, but it's tricky and if it goes bad it can mess up your pre-existing data. Backup everything before you try anything. For windows there are a few programs, but Norton Ghost I think has that option. On *nix or mac, you can try (may need to install it) gparted, which is pretty good at these kinds of changes, but again, it's risky. Shadowjams (talk) 05:14, 14 July 2010 (UTC)

Yes. It is easy to do so long as you don't use Window's default disk partition utility. There are a number of other disk partition utilities that will do this without destroying the data on a partition. My choice would be to boot my PC from a Linux Live-CD and run GParted to shrink the second partition (probably called /dev/sda2). That would make space so GParted can make a new partition and format it. Once you go back to Windows, the new partition will just appear, probably as drive E (and the CD/DVD will become drive F). When messing with partitions, it is a good idea to take a backup in case something goes wrong. Astronaut (talk) 05:15, 14 July 2010 (UTC)

Stay away from Partition Magic! I agree with gparted, it seems to be the best and most stable. Just be very careful, it's really worth it to backup even though you might think you know what you're doing. Sandman30s (talk) 07:22, 14 July 2010 (UTC)

RAM buses

if buses is the right word, I'm just curious what kind of limit there is on "bandwidth" of transmission to and from a stick of RAM, i.e., what is the bandwidth of the connection accross the motherboard to the cpu. And, if forexample you used 2 4GB sticks, is it possible that you wouldn't get quite as good performance asif you used 4 2GB sticks because of this "bandwidth" limitation? (Corsair DDR3 C8 1600, and the motherboard is an Asus P7P55D-E) Thanks, Benjamint 07:54, 14 July 2010 (UTC)

Yes, but it depends on your motherboard configuration. Modern RAM uses a channeled system with one or more memory controllers, so depending how you connect RAM to these channels, your peak- and average- throughput will vary; and if you use a very modern computer, with QuickPath Interconnect, there is an entirely different memory architecture. Ultimately, the bandwidth limitation boils down to a very simple equation: how many wires connect Point A to Point B; and how fast can each wire transmit digital data without corruption. But this is a bit over-simplified, because modern computers do not have only bidirectional memory access - DMA devices, including multiple clients that are attached to the CPU and its cache, (and of course, multiple cores and muliple CPUs) may all be requesting simultaneous memory transactions. For these reasons, QPI (the newest memory connection architecture from Intel) functions more as a "network arbiter" than a simple memory bus. In terms of raw numbers: today's best systems will sustain on the order of 4 to 8 giga-transfers per second; each transfer would usually be a 64-bit or 128-bit cache-line (though it may be smaller for some processors). Here's "Weaving High Performance Multiprocessor Fabric", from Intel. Nimur (talk) 17:54, 14 July 2010 (UTC)

Microsoft

is IIS 6.0 & MDAC part of MS SQL Enterprise Server 2008 R2 license or do we have to purchase it seperately —Preceding unsigned comment added by 78.93.67.27 (talk) 09:58, 14 July 2010 (UTC)

IIS is usually bundled with the operating system and just needs to be enabled. Certain versions of Windows do not include IIS, but if you have Windows Server, it is probably already installed and just needs to be enabled (instructions). MDAC is available as a free download from Microsoft. Nimur (talk) 17:47, 14 July 2010 (UTC)

Hands-free (Bluetooth) for home phones

When shopping for a cordless phone, I see that some are Bluetooth-enabled. I don't understand how this works. Apparently, I must have a mobile phone in order to take advantage of the feature. I don't like buying things and bringing them home just to find out how they are to be used, and store employees don't know much. Can someone tell me the protocol for using Bluetooth for home phone use? I keep destroying expensive headsets, by catching the cord on things. Thanks! --Everything Else Is Taken (talk) 15:00, 14 July 2010 (UTC)

I don't have the answer but the obvious one is to shop somewhere where the assistants actually have decent product knowledge. Exxolon (talk) 16:41, 14 July 2010 (UTC)

I'd love to, but I live in a technological backwater. --Everything Else Is Taken (talk) 00:32, 15 July 2010 (UTC)

It looks like you pair your cellphone with the cordless phone system, just like you would with a Bluetooth wireless headset. That way, when somebody calls either your cell phone or your landline phone, the cordless phone would ring and you could just answer it. See this article for more info. Indeterminate (talk) 18:12, 14 July 2010 (UTC)

Ah. I did read the article; thank you. I think I'd misinterpreted the whole phenomenon. I'm looking for a way to talk on my home phone, on a headset, without dragging a cord around. It looks like what the market has demanded is something entirely different -- going from the convenience of hands-free and cordless to the need to hold the phone or use a corded headset. Oy. Definitely not what I'm trying to achieve.

It's just weird -- I can't understand why the market doesn't support what I'm looking for; don't other people want the convenience of a hands-free cordless phone at home? --Everything Else Is Taken (talk) 00:32, 15 July 2010 (UTC)

A quick online search for "hand free cordless phone" revealed a large number of results that seem to be exactly what you're looking for. --LarryMac | Talk 10:45, 15 July 2010 (UTC)

What is the best (free) tool to convert .avi to animated Graphics Interchange Format?

Please tell, and from where I can download it ? -- Jon Ascton  (talk) 18:31, 14 July 2010 (UTC)

There are many free programs that can make gifs, I'm not sure which is the best. GIMP is one option, here is a quick guide. You could also try iWisoft Free Video Converter which I've found to be very easy to use, but there isn't much advanced control over the gif settings so they sometimes end up choppy or very large. Other free programs you could try are mencoder, SUPER and FFmpeg, however in my experience these are slightly less intuitive to use, especially for a beginner. My personal method for making gifs is to take snapshots of the video with mplayer, then use 'Ulead gif Animator' to make the images into an animation. However, that program isn't free, but if you're just making a one off gif the trial version is fully functional for 15 days after install. 1230049-0012394-C (talk) 22:31, 14 July 2010 (UTC)

Bing Search products not found. Do they exist?

The Wikipedia article on the search engine Bing <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bing_%28search_engine%29> includes a table listing ″Search products", one of which is "University". When I open www.bing.com, I cannot see this service on offer. Clicking on "More" brings up a list of services *Web*, *Images*, *Videos*, *Shopping*, *News*, *Maps* and *xRank*, but nothing more. Searching (using Bing) for "Bing University", "Bing Services" (and other combinations) does not seem to bring up the right result. The bing website does not seem to elaborate or give any helpful information either. Does this service exist? Is it restricted to the usa only*? How do I get to this service?

• There are others in the world who use the internet, I am located in germany! Does that make a difference?

PS: I have not placed links for each step, as these may display differently depending on viewer location.84.130.121.37 (talk) 17:00, 14 July 2010 (UTC)

I couldn't find it either, and the cited reference for the entire section was to a bad URL; so I placed some "failed verification" tags next to each use of that reference in the Bing article, and I went ahead and removed the "University" line. There is a Bing site called "discoverbing.com" that does talk about a bunch of Bing features (though I didn't find the alleged "University" feature). Comet Tuttle (talk) 17:12, 14 July 2010 (UTC)

Renaming clashing files before copying in Windows batches

I would like to copy a file from folder A to folder B, but if a file of the same name already exists in folder B, then I would like to automatically rename it eg from myfile.exe to myfile01.exe before copying. Is that possible with a Windows batch file please? 92.28.246.39 (talk) 19:01, 14 July 2010 (UTC)

Yes, this is possible. You can check if a file exists (or does not exist) using the IF EXIST syntax. You can design logic to either increment a number or append a new tag until you have a unique file-name that does NOT exist. Here's the most trivial example, note that this will blindly overwrite any pre-existing backup file, so use with caution or add some additional logic to check:

IF NOT EXIST %destfile%    copy %srcfile% %destfile%
ELSE copy %srcfile% %destfile%.bak

Nimur (talk) 20:22, 14 July 2010 (UTC)

Thanks, is it possible to manipulate/edit the filename more? Thanks 92.28.246.39 (talk) 21:27, 14 July 2010 (UTC)

Yes, what more would you want to do to it? You could construct a "while loop" using the GOTO command:

 set srcfile=input1.dat
 set destfile=output1.dat

 SET num=0
 :renameLoop
 SET /a num=num+1
 SET newname=%destfile%.bak%num%
 IF EXIST %newname% (
  GOTO renameLoop
  ) ELSE (
  copy %srcfile% %newname%
  )

(Note, I haven't tested that much). You can perform arbitrary manipulations; if you want to get really fancy, you'll soon see that DOS BATCH is a really clunky toolkit and I recommend you consider a more suitable language like Perl or Python for advanced filename manipulations. Nimur (talk) 23:18, 14 July 2010 (UTC)

Thanks very much for that. I was thinking of something like myfile.jpg to myfile001.jpg, or if that is not possible then something like myfile.jpg.001.jpg Thanks 92.24.191.1 (talk) 11:51, 15 July 2010 (UTC)

That %num% substitution can be used anywhere in the file name, but you would have to split the extension away for it to work the way you intend. Simple windows scripting (without powershell) can get tricky on accomplishing this. I fould a fairly helpful document on Scribd but since Scribd makes me want to gouge my eyes out with how terrible their site works, I will have to pass on investigating this further. --144.191.148.3 (talk) 15:46, 15 July 2010 (UTC)

Exactly - such string-substitution of the %num% into the middle of the filename can be done, but it will be horrible. DOS batch doesn't make text-processing very friendly at all - you really want some tool that lets you directly manipulate the filename strings, or operate on regular expressions. BATCH has a limited capability to do some such string substitutions, and if you wanted to get really messy, you could roll your own text-processing routines, but it would be better to use a more powerful scripting tool. Nimur (talk) 18:40, 15 July 2010 (UTC)

Word Search

July 14 2010 To Whom

I was trying a recipe into my cookbook program & have used your site to look up a lot of words for food I did not know what they where. Today I was doing the same & came across this ingredient called Bijol powder I went to your site & there was nothing for this item. I am not sure what to do so that is why I am e-mailing you. If you are able to find out what this is, it would be a great help to me. Your site has helped me out in so many ways. I just wanted to let you know how happy I am that I found your site. Thanks for your time with this.

Again thanks Michael A. Velto <personal contact details removed> —Preceding unsigned comment added by 72.220.231.73 (talk) 19:03, 14 July 2010 (UTC)

See Bixa orellana which explains its uses and alternate names. Nanonic (talk) 19:25, 14 July 2010 (UTC)

Broadband availability

I'm going to start house hunting in London next week and, being an internet addict, one of the factors I would like to take into account is the availability of super-fast broadband connections. Is there an easy way to find out what places certain options are available (as opposed to finding out whether a particular option is available in a particular place)? --Tango (talk) 19:03, 14 July 2010 (UTC)

What do you consider Super-Fast broadband? 1.5 MBps should be available almost everywhere in an urban environment like London. 10MBps may be available for a higher rate. 100 MBps and above will require commercial-grade connections and might be prohibitively expensive anyway, even if available. Nimur (talk) 21:42, 14 July 2010 (UTC)

Well, what I'm really looking for is information about a range of options. It's only one of many factors involved in choosing somewhere to live. I don't have an absolute minimum speed I'll accept, I just want to know where has what speed in order to help me narrow down general areas to consider. --Tango (talk) 22:18, 14 July 2010 (UTC)

http://www.whitefence.com/ http://www.dslreports.com/ --mboverload@ 01:18, 15 July 2010 (UTC)

Neither of those sites seem to contain an answer to my question... --Tango (talk) 18:28, 15 July 2010 (UTC)

Quick help with a Joomla task

I am helping someone set up a site with Joomla. This is the first time either of us have used this management system. We are using the "rhuk_milkyway" template and want to delete the dropdown menu that changes how many news items are visible at a time, since we got rid of the news items idea all-together.

I have looked in "Edit HTML" and "Edit CSS" parts of the template manager, and it looks very cryptic. I JUST want to get rid of the dropdown menu that has "5, 10, 15, 20, ... , 100, ALL" in it. Any ideas what lines i should erase or where i should do this?

Thanks! 71.221.23.60 (talk) 19:27, 14 July 2010 (UTC)

Microsoft Excel

This question is about Microsoft Excel syntax. Let's say I have a spread sheet that records each employee's working hours throughout the week. Each employee had his own row on the spread sheet. I want to add up certain cells on a given row, so I type =sum(B1:H1:J1) for my employee on the first row and this will sum the entries in cells B1, H1 and J1. I want to do the same for the next employee on row two, so I have to type =sum(B2:H2:J2). Similarly for the third employee on the third row; I type =sum(B3:H3:J3). But what if I have 1,000 employees? Do I have to type 1,000 little formulas by hand? I want a command like =sum(B[row number],H[row number],J[row number]) so the spread sheet will substitute [row number] for the row number. So pasting into row one gives =sum(B1:H1:J1), pasting into row two gives =sum(B2:H2:J2), and pasting into row three gives =sum(B3:H3:J3). Any ideas? •• Fly by Night (talk) 20:49, 14 July 2010 (UTC)

Your formula looks a little odd. If you just want to add cells B1, H1 and J1 then the formula is "=B1+H1+J1". "=SUM(B1:H1)" means the sum of all the cells from B1 to H1 (so B1+C1+D1+E1+F1+G1+H1). I'm not sure what it would mean to have two colons in a formula like that. That doesn't answer your question, though. Repeating a formula while changing the cell references is easy: Type the formula in the first row and hit "enter", then select that cell. It will now have a black outline round it with a black square at the bottom right. Click that black square and drag it down to the last cell you want to have the formula in it. It will fill in the formula and change the cells references so they have the same position relative the the cell with the formula in it (so if your original formula refers to cells in the same row as the cell with the original formula in then the new formula will refer to cells in the same row as the cell with the new formula in). For future reference, if you are using this technique but want to keep some of the cells the same, you can write "&A&1" or, to keep the row the same by allow the column to change, "A&1" or, to keep the column the same and allow the row to change "&A1". --Tango (talk) 21:11, 14 July 2010 (UTC)

You're right, I should have used commas instead of colons. I used the right notation in my general formula: =sum(B[row number],H[row number],J[row number]). •• Fly by Night (talk) 18:19, 15 July 2010 (UTC)

(Actually it's $, not & for absolute references. You're some kinda C programmer or sumthin'.) Comet Tuttle (talk) 21:19, 14 July 2010 (UTC)

I was doubting myself as I wrote it. I blame the font in the textarea - both looked wrong and I ended up picking the wrong one. Sorry for the mistake and thanks for the correction! --Tango (talk) 22:30, 14 July 2010 (UTC)

(ec) 1. Actually you would use =b1+h1+j1 if it were 3 individual cells, rather than the colons; colons in an Excel formula mean "everything from this cell to this cell, including all cells in between." 2. You don't need to type 1,000 little formulas by hand, but you don't need a special formula. Here's how: (a) Put your =b1+h1+j1 statement on the same row as the employee's working hours — let's say it's in cell Z1 — and hit Enter. (b) Using the mouse, drag from Z1 down to Z1000. (c) Hit CTRL-D (for "down"). (d) Examine some of the cells manually. You'll notice that Excel has predicted what you want to do, and has filled in all the cells with "relative" (as opposed to "absolute") cell coordinates. Does that work? Comet Tuttle (talk) 21:18, 14 July 2010 (UTC)

Thanks Tango. I tried it, and it worked perfectly! •• Fly by Night (talk) 18:23, 15 July 2010 (UTC)

delete

how can i delete files without them going to the recycle bin? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 77.70.66.110 (talk) 22:11, 14 July 2010 (UTC)

Hold the shift key while deleting [2] 1230049-0012394-C (talk) 22:13, 14 July 2010 (UTC)

July 15

Double sided scanning on a Brother MFC-790CW

I have a Brother MFC-790CW and am trying to easily scan some double sided documents (to multipage .tiff or .pdf files would be great) so far I've had little luck. It has a document autofeeder so I definitely want to be able to use that. So far I have Microsoft Office Document Imaging, but when I use that document autofeeder acts strange. I would greatly appreciate any suggestions. Xor24 ^{talk to me} 00:30, 15 July 2010 (UTC)

This sounds more like a question for Brother's support line. I'd make sure you are using the latest drivers downloaded from Brother's website. The scanner itself should have come with scanning software from Brother. The Microsoft product may not know all the advanced features your scanner has. (Updated drivers might make it recognize the ability to double side scan). Then again, it might not. --70.167.58.6 (talk) 15:21, 15 July 2010 (UTC)

New softwares/programs automatically installed to computer

Whenever I turn on my computer, I find out that 3 or 4 softwares (antivirus programs) are installed to my computer. The softwares themselves seem viral because they don't do any virus removal for you but merely advertise their own softwares. I keep removing the programs but they are constantly reinstalled to my program. I scanned my computer and removed all the virus found by using a legit antivirus software, but it doesn't seem to be working. I'm tired of constantly having to remove the programs from my computer. Please help. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 70.68.120.162 (talk) 02:40, 15 July 2010 (UTC)

Can you let us know the names of the programs? Sorry, but without that we're shooting in the dark. ZX81 ^talk 04:28, 15 July 2010 (UTC)

(edit conflict) The surest way to get the malware off your computer is to do a clean reinstallation of Windows and all other programs. If you choose to perform this rather time-consuming task ("reinstall") rather than attempt to "clean" the malware off your existing installation, you will need to have the original CDs for Windows, hardware drivers, other software such as Microsoft Office, etc. and must copy all files you want to keep to CDs or an external drive (the computer's hard drive is erased in the process). Some computers may not come with reinstallation discs; you might have to use a program provided on the computer to make a set.

Regardless of which approach you take to remove the malware from your computer, be sure to regularly update not only Windows but also web browsers and plugins (particularly Adobe Reader and Flash) to defend against browser exploits (Secunia PSI, free for personal use, can help with this), and be cautious when downloading and installing software (including the software you had previously installed). PleaseStand ^(talk) 04:37, 15 July 2010 (UTC)

I've seen Malwarebytes recommended here; but see the virus FAQ for more recommendations. Comet Tuttle (talk) 05:47, 15 July 2010 (UTC)

I think the "virus FAQ" ought to be deleted as it is only about reinstalling your operating system, and while backing-up you are likely to copy the viruses to the backup. It says nothing about other better procedures for getting rid of viruses or other malware. 92.15.9.213 (talk) 08:15, 15 July 2010 (UTC)

There was a deletion vote in May and the vote was Keep. The rationale for its existence is mainly that since this question comes up a lot, it was judged useful to keep around one rather comprehensive answer that we can point to, rather than having the answerers repeat themselves a few times a month and miss some items. I totally agree that the page needs a lot of expansion on other procedures; please, do expand it; it's user-editable like anything else on Wikipedia. Comet Tuttle (talk) 15:22, 15 July 2010 (UTC)

I suggest Malwarebytes, followed with a free PrevX scan. --mboverload@ 05:50, 15 July 2010 (UTC)

You could try doing a virus scan in safe mode, so that the malware is defenceless. I assume you have already checked that the malware is not listed in Add Or Remove Programs. Avast! can do a boot-time scan. I would try scans with other legit anti-malware such as Superantispyware or Spybot Search And Destroy, since they do not all cover the same malware. Clean your computer with Ccleaner before doing a scan. 92.15.9.213 (talk) 08:09, 15 July 2010 (UTC)

Malware is not "defenceless" in safe mode! An infected copy of Windows is still infected in safe mode. Under Windows, "Safe mode" just means a bunch of components are disabled, in order to reduce the chance that they are contributing to system instability. Safe mode doesn't mean you're booting from some bulletproof original copy of the operating system or anything. Comet Tuttle (talk) 15:22, 15 July 2010 (UTC)

Agreed. Once a system is compromised, it is not safe to assume that any of its utilities are intact, including its bootloader, its "safe mode", its software-level antivirus / malware tools, etc. While many "light-weight" malware infections can be removed using anti-malware software, the most insidious infections always require a full reboot. And, it's possible that an insidious infection is pretending to have been totally removed. The only guaranteed solution is to reinstall/restore an uncompromised system with a clean start. Nimur (talk) 16:17, 15 July 2010 (UTC)

Keeping or changing an old password

I'd like to reset my router to its factory settings, which of course means my current password for accessing my wireless network will be erased. Once I go through the usual steps of setting up my network, would it be safe to use the same password I had before? Or would I be better off with a new one? 24.189.87.160 (talk) 07:01, 15 July 2010 (UTC)

Unless you feel the security of the old password has been compromised, there isn't any need to change it. But you should always change your passwords now and then anyway. I used my neighbors wireless internet for 2 years even though it had a password because they are relatively easy to break. If they'd changed their password even just once every two months I probably wouldn't have bothered spending another week each time cracking the key. 82.43.90.93 (talk) 10:41, 15 July 2010 (UTC)

If you live somewhere where you have lots of other people living nearby, such as an apartment block or flats, there is an increased risk of your password being cracked so if you lived somewhere like that I would recommend changing it, otherwise if you feel the security of the old password isn't good enough anymore, you don't really have to bother. Chevymontecarlo - alt 11:46, 15 July 2010 (UTC)

chain loading

Loadlin can chain load linux from DOS or win9x. Is there a program, which would allow chain loading some other OS from linux in similar way? (Or linux cannot be overwritten similarily to DOS). -Yyy (talk) 10:33, 15 July 2010 (UTC)

Never tried it with something else than another Linux kernel, but you might want to check out kexec. -- 78.43.71.155 (talk) 18:27, 15 July 2010 (UTC)

Trying to write a Windows batch file

I am trying to write a Windows batch file that will merge two similar folder trees, but I've never done this before and I am not a programmer. Same-name folders are merged, but same-name files are renamed before copying. It seems to be easiest to make a new copy of one of the folder-trees, and then merge the other folder-tree into it. This is the where I've got to so far:

C:\>FOR /R C:\mypath\ %%G IN (*.*) DO CALL :copyfile %%G

copyfile

IF NOT EXIST %destfile% copy %srcfile% %destfile% /V ELSE copy %srcfile% %destfile%.bak /V

1) What is the "%%G" for? What does it do? B) How do I get :copyfile to behave like a subroutine? 3) Most importantly, if it finds that there is a sub-folder in the source folder that is not in the destination folder, how do I get it to copy the subfolder (and all its files and subfolders) into the destination folder? Thanks 92.24.191.1 (talk) 12:47, 15 July 2010 (UTC)

On the command line, you can type "help for" (or "for /?") to get documentation about the syntax of the for command. In this case, you are assigning %%G as the temporary result of each element of the directory. The %% syntax is used in batch scripts, while %G would be suitable for a direct run on the command-line. This % vs. %% idiosyncrasy is a historic artifact of the way the command interpreter expands variable-names. As I've mentioned numerous times above, all of these requests can be done in DOS Batch, but the toolkit that it provides is both clunky and unintuitive.

DOS Batch does not have subroutines; you can use "GOTO" creatively or put features in separate script files and execute them as needed. In reference to your last question, you will need to construct some complicated logic to wrap your recursive search through the directory tree with a lot of "IF" and "GOTO" statements. These are limitations of DOS Batch scripting. Because you've chosen this toolkit, which is generally unsuitable for this task, you're going to end up with something that looks very complicated to do even a simple task. I really recommend you investigate some alternative tools, like Perl, which have built-in platform-independent file management, directory navigation, and are much better suited to manipulating the text names of your files. See File Copying, Find all files in a directory tree, and so on. It will make your life easier, and your code more re-usable. Nimur (talk) 14:10, 15 July 2010 (UTC)

Alternately, since ultimately I think you just want to synchronize directory trees (and not, presumably, to become the world expert on recursive programming with batch scripts), have you looked at the rsync tool? You should be able to get a Windows version, either using a command-line or a GUI, that can synchronize and merge your directory trees. I'm not sure if this totally satisfies your needs. You could also look at a full-blown content management system or version control system. These programs would be at the edge of their intended-use-cases, but they can store and manage various versions of document directories, and assist you in integrating divergent branches back together. Nimur (talk) 14:24, 15 July 2010 (UTC)

FOR /R traverses the directiory tree, I believe. Once I have solved 3) above then I should have a quick solution for my problem, apart from tinkering with 2). Perhaps it will do what I asked about in 3) without needed anything else. 92.29.115.235 (talk) 14:28, 15 July 2010 (UTC)

I do not believe that rsync or any of the other similar tools will do what is described above - none of them will rename a file with a clashing name. I've tried them and searched for a solution for a long time - none found. Thanks 92.29.115.235 (talk) 14:49, 15 July 2010 (UTC)

rsync --backup will preserve pre-existing files—by default by adding a ~ to the end of the filename, but you can use a different suffix (with the --suffix option), or move them to a different directory (with --backup-dir). —Korath (Talk) 14:56, 15 July 2010 (UTC)

4) Is it possible to find out if a directory in the current source folder does not exist in the current destination folder? Thanks 92.29.115.235 (talk) 14:51, 15 July 2010 (UTC)

Well, if you've got the path you need to test for, "IF NOT EXIST %dest% GOTO DESTNOTEXIST" would work in batch scripting. Unfortunately, it won't work quite right, since EXIST can't distinguish between files and directories, but on a Windows system, files usually have extensions and directories don't so you may be safe in practice. —ShadowRanger ^(talk|stalk) 15:22, 15 July 2010 (UTC)

Another helpful tool for copying subdirectories: xcopy /s will recursively copy an entire directory tree. Xcopy is the extended copy tool on Windows; type xcopy /? for documentation of its other features. It may be helpful inside your script at some point, providing features that regular Windows copy does not. Nimur (talk) 16:11, 15 July 2010 (UTC)

Here, you can use this. It will try "file.ext", "file (1).ext", "file (2).ext", etc. until it finds one that doesn't exist in the destination. Change the paths near the top to your source and destination directory names. Change "set op=echo" to "set op=" to make the changes live. If you don't change it, the script will just print the copy and mkdir operations without carrying them out. The script will fail if there's a source directory with the same name as a destination file. It's not clear what ought to be done in that case.

batch script

@echo off & setlocal enableextensions enabledelayedexpansion set srcroot=c:\src set dstroot=c:\dst set op=echo set srcrootlen=0 set x=%srcroot% :length_loop set x=%x:~1% set /a srcrootlen += 1 if defined x goto length_loop for /r "%srcroot%" %%i in (*) do ( set src=%%i set dst=%dstroot%!src:~%srcrootlen%! call :copysub "!src!" "!dst!" ) goto :end :copysub set dst=%~2 set n=0 :copyloop if not exist "%dst%" goto docopy set /a n += 1 set dst=%~dpn2 (%n%)%~x2 goto copyloop :docopy if not exist "%~dp2" %op% mkdir "%~dp2" %op% copy %1 "%dst%" :end

By the way, this isn't DOS batch. No version of MS-DOS ever had half the features I'm using here. It's still a clunky language, but call it "Windows batch" or something. -- BenRG (talk) 19:52, 15 July 2010 (UTC)

Using PCI Express 2.0 graphics card with 1.0 motherboard?

The graphics card to my first gen Mac Pro died. While the new retail options for Mac graphics card are pretty slim, they are all PCI Express 2.0. Wikipedia's entry on PCI Express says they are supposed to be backwards compatible with v1.1 and v1.0 motherboards (restricted bandwidth, of course). Has anyone tried this? --70.167.58.6 (talk) 15:14, 15 July 2010 (UTC)

Computer speeds 2010 vs 1995

I was reading in Wired that each frame in Toy Story 3 took seven hours to render (on average). But 15 years earlier, Toy Story 1 took 5 hours per frame. How would you compare computer speed then to now? Low MHz unicore RISC Sparc CPUs vs today's GHz multi-core designs. 100x faster? --70.167.58.6 (talk) 19:32, 15 July 2010 (UTC)

I find it hard to believe that a single frame of a cgi animation would take more than an hour to render, even on my crappy computer. Could you link to the page you read that on? 82.43.90.93 (talk) 19:40, 15 July 2010 (UTC)

1,084 days: How Toy Story 3 was made (04 June 2010), and The Toy Story Story (December 1995). Nimur (talk) 19:45, 15 July 2010 (UTC)

At face value, I would think that both articles use the term "render" in different ways. It is probable that in the 2010 edition, "rendering" includes a whole other host of 3D graphic processing, such as fabric physics, hair / fur, particle dynamics, fluid dynamics, character kinematics, and so on; whereas in the original article, "rendering" probably referred specifically to ray-tracing. From the 2010 article: "FINAL RENDER: Surfaces -- walls, clothing and faces -- are fed through rendering software that simulates light and shadow. It also adds texture to Lotso’s fur, Barbie’s leggings and the carpet. An average frame takes more than seven hours of computing time to render. A more complex frame such as this one required 11 hours. " Nimur (talk) 19:47, 15 July 2010 (UTC)

PHP Code

A number of times over the years, while browsing various sites (including Wikipedia) I've been presented with the actual php code of the page I requested. This has in at least one occasion, in this case a small forum, given me the moderators password which was in the php code. After another refresh, the site was back to normal displaying the correct page. My question is, why does this happen, and what can be done to prevent it if one were running their own server with php pages? 82.43.90.93 (talk) 19:38, 15 July 2010 (UTC)

This will occur when apache has not been properly configured to process PHP as php, but rather serve it directly as any other file. Apache must be set to send the php code through the interpreter first and then return the interpreter's output --- if not you will get the raw code as a file. Three things must be in place on the web server:(1) PHP must be installed, (2) The PHP module must be enabled and loaded by Apache, and (3) the .php extension must be routed through the interpeter with a configuration line (usually /////AddType application/x-httpd-php .php////). While I cannot speak for the small forums, I can say that it is highly unlikely that Wikipedia would ever temporarily experience a disabled php interpreter. Is it possible that maybe you were seeing something else? Can you replicate? Also, FYI on an interesting note, any file extension can be set to interpret as php by adding additional lines to the apache configuration (usually in local .htaccess files) .pphhpp, .ryan .tt, anything--rocketrye12 ^{talk/contribs} 19:54, 15 July 2010 (UTC)