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February 5

Code Obfuscation in C++

I was recently practicing code obfuscation in C++ and was writing an obfuscated "Hello world" prgram. However, instead of outputting "Hello world." my program outputs "H << ello world." except with << as the single character meaning much less than (ASCII 0xAE). The code is as follows. Please let me know what's going on. Thanks! Ζρς ιβ' 00:09, 5 February 2011 (UTC)

#include <cstdlib>
#include <iostream>

using namespace std;

int main(){int vvvq = 0x316,qqvvq;int qvq = 0x39a;char __________; int vvq = 0x7a;int vqv=0x327;int vqqvq;char ______________=0xa,__=0x65,____=0x6f, ______= 0x72,___=0x6c,________=0x2e,_______=0x64,_=0x48,_________=0x20,_____=0x77; int vqvq=vqv^vqv;int qqv=0x1b;vqqvq=0xd;vvvq=(vvvq^vqv)>>5;int q=vqvq; __________=__;__________=___;__________=___;__________=_______; __________=____;__________=______________;__________=______; __________=____;__________=_________;__________=___; __________=_;__________=_____;__________=________; while(q<vqqvq) {cout << __________;q += vvvq;}cin.get();return 0x0;}

Isn't it obvious? You never initialized __________ to (char) 'e' in any way. Uninitialized array elements have unspecified values in C++. Perhaps you meant __________=__; - your left-shift by a value of 5 assigns the value 'e' to an out-of-bounds array element (which is dangerous and unproductive). Nimur (talk) 00:15, 5 February 2011 (UTC)

What Nimur meant to write was, "Vfa'g vg boivbhf? Lbh arire vavgvnyvmrq <gg>__________</gg> gb <gg>(pune) 'r'</gg> va nal jnl. Havavgvnyvmrq neenl ryrzragf unir hafcrpvsvrq inyhrf va P++. Creuncf lbh zrnag <gg>__________=__;</gg> - lbhe yrsg-fuvsg ol n inyhr bs 5 nffvtaf gur inyhr 'r' gb na bhg-bs-obhaqf neenl ryrzrag (juvpu vf qnatrebhf naq hacebqhpgvir).". Comet Tuttle (talk) 00:40, 5 February 2011 (UTC)

Thanks Nimur. I'm not sure how I missed that bitshift, but I was looking at different aspects of the program. It never occurred to me to check that. Ζρς ιβ' 00:46, 5 February 2011 (UTC)

You're practicing code obfuscation in C++? This is no way to learn how to obfuscate. You need to start with some other, simpler language and learn how to really obfuscate before moving to a language with a lot of cheap obfuscation tools. Paul (Stansifer) 00:58, 5 February 2011 (UTC)

It wasn't really that obfuscated. Cosmetic things, like missing line-breaks, were fixed in one click in my IDE; the control flow is actually trivial: declaration of numerous constants with silly names; creation of a stack array, assignment of characters into the array elements, in no particular order; and then a "for-loop" that writes the array out to console. With a debugger, you can probe the values of the variables and the array at runtime to see what is amiss. The obfuscated C++ code I have to work with on a daily basis is far more challenging, and most of it accesses proprietary hardware whose values and statuses can't be read out. Nimur (talk) 01:06, 5 February 2011 (UTC)

The article International Obfuscated C Code Contest should give a few pointers at how to improve the code. Unfortunately that contest is now finished but it is well worth looking at some of the code that has been entered over the years. Dmcq (talk) 13:20, 5 February 2011 (UTC)

By the way you might also like the 'opposite' contest, the Underhanded C Contest. Dmcq (talk) 13:29, 5 February 2011 (UTC)

Your code isn't strictly portable, because it assumes that the underlying character set is ASCII or something similar. In fairness, most of the IOCCC entries also does this. In addition to the techniques used there, C++ adds a couple of features that are (ab)useful for obfuscation, such as recursive instantiation. Regards, #include <iostream>
template<int n,int i=(0140325160>>(n+n+n))&7>struct S:S<n-1>{template<class c>S(c&s):S<n-1>(s){s<<(i);}};template<>struct S<0>{S(std::ostream&){}};S<8>s((std::cout));int main(){} (talk) 14:53, 5 February 2011 (UTC)

Shrink an ntfsclone image file to restore to a smaller partition

I'm installing Ubuntu alongside Windows 7 on my laptop. Resizing the NTFS partition and adding an ext4 partition wasn't an option in this case, because the hard drive already had 4 partitions and all of them were primary. I made the mistake of not resizing my NTFS partition before I used ntfsclone --save-image to copy it to my slow external hard drive. Now I need to copy the contents of the image back to a smaller NTFS partition. What I'm doing at the moment is using ntfsclone --restore-image to create a mountable version of the image file; I figure that if ntfsresize doesn't work on the mountable image, I can always just mount it and copy the files.

The problem is that because the mountable image has to go on the same external hard drive as the unmountable one, the process is taking way too long. Is there a way to directly resize the image file instead? NeonMerlin 00:28, 5 February 2011 (UTC)

Images and videos are invisible

On my home computer, a old Dell machine running some version of MS Windows, probably about 20% of youtube videos are invisible to me---I just see a black screen where the video should be---although I can see them on other machines. In Misplaced Pages's article titled trigonometric functions, I can see the image whose caption begins with "The sine, tangent, and secant functions of an angle constructed geometrically in terms of a unit circle." but I can't see the one below it. I can see its caption. On all other machines I can see it. Same for various other images in Misplaced Pages articles; I haven't kept a list. Now I look at this page on facebook, and see a blank space where, with a machine in a library, I saw things I could click on and hear song excerpts. There's also a blog where I posted a comment more than a year ago, where I can't reload the page (but can on other machines) and see only the page as it existed when I posted there.

What's going on? Michael Hardy (talk) 04:13, 5 February 2011 (UTC)

Sounds like maybe you need a new graphics driver or a new graphics device (or just a new computer). ¦ Reisio (talk) 10:51, 5 February 2011 (UTC)

By why would things that I formerly could see be invisible? If images or videos require a graphics device that I don't have, then I would think I wouldn't have been able to see them earlier. Michael Hardy (talk) 17:30, 5 February 2011 (UTC)

It's possible that the sources that you are trying to reach have not remained static, although you have. Companies providing content try to keep their systems as up to date as possible, even though that may mean abandoning some users along the way. For example, I have an old version of Internet Explorer still working on my old PC, but many commercial and govt websites don't bother to support its features; some just outright say "update your browser." You may need to update your drivers to keep up with everyone else.--Romantic Mollusk (talk) 18:22, 5 February 2011 (UTC)

Beyond that, I would suggest telling us 'what browser', 'what OS', 'have you updated Flash recently', 'are the other computers where you don't get the problem operate on the same network/off the same router' etc would probably help. Nil Einne (talk) 02:10, 6 February 2011 (UTC)

The browser is firefox; the OS is some version of MS Windows; I just downloaded a new version of adobe flash. The problem persists. I've also had the same problem with internet explorer and google chrome. Would "flash" have an effect on the illustrations in Misplaced Pages's trigonometric functions article? Why would this problem afflict one of two illustrations in that article that I created with the same software and the same time and uploaded at the same time, and have no effect on the other one? Michael Hardy (talk) 03:54, 8 February 2011 (UTC)

Windows Aero does not work even when I select it

The problem is I try select a Aero theme. It will let me, but the effects (transparency, peek, and window shadows etc) will not work. Alt+Tab brings up only 2D and the Orb+Tab 3D preview does not work. Only I can change the background. At the personalization screen, when I try to change the Window colour, It takes me to the Window Colour and Appearance window, not the window to change the transparency. I tried to run the troubleshoot but it couldn't detect anything wrong. Please help! (I'm running Windows 7 Ultimate)General Rommel (talk) 06:24, 5 February 2011 (UTC)

There are possible causes I can think of: (1) your computer's graphics card (if it has one) is not powerful enough for Windows Aero; or (2) your graphics card is powerful enough, but you don't have the right drivers installed. What kind of graphics card do you have? To check, go to the Start Menu, right-click on Computer, select Manage, then Device Manager → Display Adapter. Also, right click on Computer in the Start Menu and select Properties, then, click on the Windows Experience Index. You need at least a 3.0 in the graphics section to use Aero. If you have a good graphics card, then I would recommend visiting your manufacturer's web site and downloading the latest drivers for your graphics card.--Best Dog Ever (talk) 07:36, 5 February 2011 (UTC)

In addition to the above recommendations, I also recommend that you run this automated troubleshooting tool: .--Best Dog Ever (talk) 08:59, 5 February 2011 (UTC)

My drivers were suddenly out of date, despite when pressing update driver in the device dialog box it coudn't find a suitable update. Now it works with a new catalyst version. Thanks! (now how do you put the resolved dialog box?) General Rommel (talk) 09:45, 5 February 2011 (UTC)

You add {{resolved}} to display the Resolved box.CS Miller (talk) 12:41, 5 February 2011 (UTC)

Thanks! General Rommel (talk) 00:08, 6 February 2011 (UTC)

Microsoft Windows Storage Server 2008 R2 Editions

Hello.

  I'm trying to find out what the technical differences between the three editions of Microsoft Windows Storage Server 2008 R2, the three editions being Standard, Enterprise and Workgroup. I've tried asking at the Microsoft TechNet Forums, but I'm usually told that "as Microsoft Windows Storage Server 2008 R2 is an OEM product, please check with your hardware vendor for details and specifications." The hardware vendor isn't of course interested in answering questions to someone who doesn't intend to buy anything from them - I've tried HP, IBM and Dell.

  Thanks to all RefDesk volunteers. Rocketshiporion♫ 11:28, 5 February 2011 (UTC)

See this article. 118.96.155.180 (talk) 09:29, 6 February 2011 (UTC)

Thank you, 118.96.155.180, that was just the information which I was looking for! Rocketshiporion♫ 15:12, 6 February 2011 (UTC)

Clash of the antivirus programs

I have F-Secure as my main program, but installed and ran Antivir when an F-Secure scan showed I'd been infected. Antivir detected two other nasties (but not the one F-Secure found). I read that antivirus programs can interfere with each other, so my question is, if I deactivate Antivir Guard, is that enough? It's Windows Vista. Clarityfiend (talk) 12:00, 5 February 2011 (UTC)

Update: the two problems Antivir detected (and quarantined) were apparently from F-Secure's database, so it appears I've screwed that up. Clarityfiend (talk) 01:18, 6 February 2011 (UTC)

Office 2007

Hello. I lost my Office 2007 CD but have the serial key recorded on my email. Where can I download the software if I need to reinstall it? Thanks in advance. --Mayfare (talk) 15:56, 5 February 2011 (UTC)

It seems that Microsoft does not supply a copy. I'd advise on you to email Microsoft Support about it, and they may help you get 2007 running and activated. If you want to try a different tack,you can try downloading a trial version and entering your product code ( If you don't have a product code you will need to request one through Microsoft for a product key with your serial number) General Rommel (talk) 00:18, 6 February 2011 (UTC)

Lightweight browser for Windows

Can anyone recommend a graphical freeware (i.e. doesn't have to be opensource) lightweight browser for Windows 7? Other then being graphical (i.e. no Lynx) I don't really need much. Something like Dillo will work fine. In particular Flash etc support isn't needed. I'm already using Chrome for other stuff but I'm looking for something else. K-meleon seems to a common recommendation and perhaps it's a decent browser but I found it incredibly frustrating so gave up on it. In case you're wondering, unless I'm missing something there's no way to disable third party plugins without either using another plugin (which I couldn't seem to get to work) or some complicated setup work even though it seems the browser must be aware they're there to use them (after all they're shown in about:plugins). I'm just as mystified why they recommend Flashblock (which I'm sure is great if you want Flash on some sites but seems pointless when you don't want Flash at all and the browser could simply not call it). Cheers Nil Einne (talk) 17:48, 5 February 2011 (UTC)

Are you talking about Firefox in the last part? I went to Tools -> addons and under the plugins tab disabled "shockwave flash" and then tested on youtube and the videos don't play. 82.43.92.41 (talk) 00:28, 6 February 2011 (UTC)

No I'm referring to K-meleon, you're right it's easy to disable plugins in Firefox as well as Chrome and even IE which is why I'm even more mystefied by the absence of any such feature in K-meleon. I've actually decided to use K-meleon with Flashblock (which is built in) which works okay and doesn't have the problem Chrome was giving me although I'm still mystified why it's so hard to disable 3rd party plugins in K-meleon and would still be intersted in any suggestions. Nil Einne (talk) 02:06, 6 February 2011 (UTC)

How about Internet Explorer shells? They are quite lightweight, as they don't need to supply their own rendering components. Many of them also support disabling scripting, ActiveX, plugins (like Flash), BHOs (toolbars and extensions), etc. 118.96.155.180 (talk) 09:10, 6 February 2011 (UTC)

computer updates

Is it possible to delete an update that has not yet been installed on my computer? You see, every time I try to turn it off, it comes up saying it is installing updates, but then it just does nothing, spending sometimes hours pretending to load just the first one, before I get bored and switch it off. I worry that something will go wrong if I keep turning it off like that, so how to I get that particular update gone?

148.197.121.205 (talk) 21:03, 5 February 2011 (UTC)

Noone? I guess it is impossible, then. Might have to take it to the mechanics instead. 148.197.121.205 (talk) 18:24, 6 February 2011 (UTC)

I'm not an expert, but I think it is sometimes possible. You need to tell the experts here what operating system or software is running the hanging update. Most software will allow you to view update history, and Windows will sometimes allow you to undo updates (e.g. in Vista: Start -> Windows update -> View update history or "Installed updates" under "See also"). Dbfirs 23:26, 6 February 2011 (UTC)

February 6

Is there any way to do these two tasks in Microsoft Word using the mouse instead of the keyboard?

I used to do everything in Microsoft Word just by holding down the mouse button or copying and pasting. I recently found out about mouse and keyboard shortcuts that take less time and are easier on the hands. I was wondering about two shortcuts that I found for the keyboard:

1) selecting text from the cursor to the beginning of the paragraph (Ctrl+Shift+Up Arrow)

This first one might be difficult to see, so I will use this paragraph as an example: Foghorns are a navigation aid for mariners. In foggy conditions, when visual navigation aids such as lighthouses are obscured by the weather, foghorns provide an audible warning of rocks, headlands, or other dangers to shipping. The first automated steam-powered foghorn was invented by Robert Foulis, a Scotsman who emigrated to Saint John, New Brunswick, Canada. The first model was installed on Partridge Island in 1859, replacing the less effective bell and cannon which had been formerly used as warnings to ships in fog.

If the cursor is placed at the word “shipping,” for instance, and I press Ctrl+Shift+Up Arrow, a portion of the paragraph (from the word “shipping” to the beginning of the paragraph) is selected like this (represented by boldface):

Foghorns are a navigation aid for mariners. In foggy conditions, when visual navigation aids such as lighthouses are obscured by the weather, foghorns provide an audible warning of rocks, headlands, or other dangers to shipping. The first automated steam-powered foghorn was invented by Robert Foulis, a Scotsman who emigrated to Saint John, New Brunswick, Canada. The first model was installed on Partridge Island in 1859, replacing the less effective bell and cannon which had been formerly used as warnings to ships in fog.

2) selecting the whole document except the last paragraph (Ctrl+A and then hold down Ctrl and Shift+Up)

Are there any shortcuts for the mouse (besides just dragging) that will accomplish the same things? I have tried to look for mouse shortcuts in online computer tutorials, but I can find only ones for the keyboard.174.131.43.140 (talk) 03:28, 6 February 2011 (UTC)

The only mouse shortcuts I know offhand are that clicking in the left margin selects a line, and double-clicking selects a paragraph, and possibly triple-click selects the whole document. (I don't know if this is still true in Word 2007/2010.) Word's online help should have a section on "mouse shortcuts" or similar. AndrewWTaylor (talk) 12:03, 6 February 2011 (UTC)

FWIW I never touch the mouse while I'm doing any word processing. It's worth learning all the common shortcuts, creating more shortcuts as necessary, and customizing the silly 3-key shortcuts so that they are all 2-key shortcuts.--Shantavira| 15:05, 6 February 2011 (UTC)

I was wondering, since I know how to select the whole document, is there any way to simply deselect the last paragraph? Is it possible to deselect text using the mouse?174.131.58.121 (talk) 00:00, 7 February 2011 (UTC)

free poker online with real players but no real money?

is there an online poker system (texas hold'em) that includes no payment of any kind from players, it's completely "fake" (just points)? Thanks... 109.128.155.164 (talk) 13:36, 6 February 2011 (UTC)

Googling "free online poker" returns lots of results, including sites such as games.com, Poker Stars, and Free Poker. Try one of them. --Colapeninsula (talk) 13:05, 7 February 2011 (UTC)

Normally, all online poker sites offer you the possibility of playing with play money. 80.58.205.34 (talk) 18:01, 7 February 2011 (UTC)

macros application in excel

how can i learn macros application in excel? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 220.225.96.217 (talk) 14:12, 6 February 2011 (UTC)

Excel macros are programmed in VBScript. There are many tutorials, guides, books, and examples on the internet. Personally I find the best approach is to just dive in with a specific problem: what do you want the macro to do? Once you know that, you can start to figure out what you need to know to do that, and will learn a bit about how the macros work in general. Personally I find VB scripting for Office products to be very idiosyncratic: they are not very "orderly," like a "regular" programming language, and you end up having to learn a lot of specific ways to do very specific tasks. In other words, it is very hard to get a "general" idea of how they work, because so many of the functions and classes are specific to the particular application (e.g. Excel, or Word).

One "easy" way to learn how to do something in Excel macros is to "record" yourself doing it manually and then look at the code generated. It's often not the most ideal way to do whatever it is you want, but it can serve as a basis for further modification, generalization, hacking, etc. Sorry this is so vague: I'm not sure there's an obvious answer. --Mr.98 (talk) 15:13, 6 February 2011 (UTC)

Actually Visual Basic for Applications, not VBScript. Similar but not identical. (Though VBScript can be used, for example in web applications or command-line scripts) to drive Excel via the Component Object Model interface.) Apart from that Mr 98's advice is good: recording macros is a good way to find your way around the object model, but beyond that it depends what you want to do, and the original question is so vague that it's difficult to give advice. AndrewWTaylor (talk) 19:58, 6 February 2011 (UTC)

Indeed, VBA! Not exactly the same thing as VBS, but pretty similar. True, true. --Mr.98 (talk) 20:21, 6 February 2011 (UTC)

usb

Random question; if you plugged a usb flash drive into this and then plugged that into this, then into a computers usb port, would the flash drive be accessible? 82.43.92.41 (talk) 15:20, 6 February 2011 (UTC)

No. Those are connectors for mice. Why?--Best Dog Ever (talk) 18:05, 6 February 2011 (UTC)

Let's not dismiss it so quickly. USB has four wires. If (if!) those two connectors just pass the four wires in a 1:1 mapping it could well work. As to why, it probably has no practical value other than satisfying general curiosity, but curiosity is reason enough. 88.112.59.31 (talk) 18:35, 6 February 2011 (UTC)

how much does a short optical audio cable cost?

both my thx certified computer speakers (5.1) and lcd tv have an optical audio connection (the tv is out, obviously, the control center's for the thx sound system is in). I don't have a cable for it -- how much should I expect to pay? 109.128.155.164 (talk) 18:31, 6 February 2011 (UTC)

Between £5 and £25, depending on length and how much shopping around you do. I'd grab 1.5m from my local store for £10.99 (US, $17.77). (I'm sure there are cheaper online, but meh)  Chzz  ►  12:19, 7 February 2011 (UTC)

IP address

Hello. I recently switched my router to a newer one. I noticed that even though my IP used to be fairly static, it changed just when I changed my router. It even looks different - before it began with 24 but now it begins with 72. Is this just a coincidence, or did my changing the router have something to do with it? Thanks. 72.128.95.0 (talk) 19:10, 6 February 2011 (UTC)

It can easily be related to changing the router. Your ISP's router sees your router's MAC address. Then the ISP's router uses DHCP to give your router an IP address. I find that usually my ISP gives me the same IP address month after month - their router has an algorithm: prefer to give the same IP address to the same MAC address. They aren't required to do that, but why not, that's the easy thing to do.

When you get a new router it will have a different MAC address, and the ISP's router randomly assigns you a new IP address - there is no history of what IP address preferentially belongs to that MAC address. That you got a totally different first byte of the address is just luck of the draw; your ISP has been assigned a pool of IP addresses and what you get is what their router software pulls out of the pool. 88.112.59.31 (talk) 20:30, 6 February 2011 (UTC)

Audio backmasking software

Hi. What is a free and relatively small (low KB or MB) software available online for download that can take a recorded audio file and reverse it to produce sound in reverse such as is the case given reverse speech? Thanks. ~AH1 19:46, 6 February 2011 (UTC)

I'm not sure about its size, but Audacity is useful for manipulating audio files. KyuubiSeal (talk) 22:25, 6 February 2011 (UTC)

February 7

Cannot access printer

I have a network set up in my home and I can see the other computers on my network. I have a main computer connected directly to my router and printer and two computers wirelessly connected. Unfortunately I can't use or even detect the printer from the two wirelessly connected computers, despite having enabled printer sharing and 'private network' on all the computers. Might this be related to my computers all running different versions of Windows? (one is a netbook with Windows 7, another is an old XP, and my main computer is a Vista). If not, what is causing this problem? Thanks. 72.128.95.0 (talk) 03:37, 7 February 2011 (UTC)

The fact of different versions of Windows shouldn't be the problem. You didn't mention whether computers B and C could see computer A at all (for file sharing, for example). What I would do first is to first double-check whether you have Windows Firewall (or some other firewall) running on any of the computers, especially on the main computer, disable it if so, and test again. If that didn't work, I would get computers B and C connected to the router via Ethernet cables rather than wirelessly, and see if I could then see the printer from B and C. What type of router do you have? Comet Tuttle (talk) 19:46, 7 February 2011 (UTC)

Check that whatever network you have set up has the same network name. Different versions of Windows use different default names for their networks. Exxolon (talk) 20:27, 7 February 2011 (UTC)

Interoperability, between operating systems, of GIF and PDF files on FAT32 flash drives

I think I remember reading, on the packing of a USB flash drive with a FAT32 file system, that this storage medium could be used both in Windows, MacOS and Linux.
Do I remember correctly?
If so, then If I were to buy three (identical) of those flash drives and save a pair of GIF and PDF files (found on the internet) from Windows to one of them, from MacOS to the other and from Linux to the third.
Would those three flash drives and their files be usable by the two other operating systems?
Would the content of the three USB flash drives somehow be different from each other?
--Seren-dipper (talk) 04:23, 7 February 2011 (UTC)

They should all be usable; FAT32 should be completely compatible. The only difference in the content of the drives, I believe, is that Mac in particular will save resource forks on the drive as well, which will be invisible for the Mac users but show up as funny little filenames with periods in front of them for the others. --Mr.98 (talk) 12:02, 7 February 2011 (UTC)

Thank you! :-)
--Seren-dipper (talk) 23:41, 7 February 2011 (UTC)

When will WiFi overtake wired ethernet in terms of speed?

If we were to regress the development and advances of WiFi and wired high-speed internet, when, if ever, will WiFi surpass wired ethernet in terms of bandwidth and speed? Acceptable (talk) 04:51, 7 February 2011 (UTC)

You're discounting a critical metric: range. Over a five or six foot distance, in ideal conditions, wireless 802.11n yields about 600 Mbits/s; consumer-grade ethernet goes up to about 1000 Mbits/s; so for purposes of comparison, wired- and wireless are almost equal in speed. But that same wireless protocol won't work over a 100 foot distance; let alone a 1 km distance. For those ranges, there's no contest: hands down, a wired connection (ethernet, fibre-optic, or some other long-range wired signal like modulated UHF on a coaxial cable) is a clear winner for signal integrity and bandwidth. Throw in the shared-channel problem that is inherent to wireless, and it becomes evident why our current internet uses wired connection for the last mile. Nimur (talk) 05:15, 7 February 2011 (UTC)

It never will. I've never heard of an 802.11n connection going over 140 mbps outside of a lab, first off. Second, there are already 10 gbps ethernet cables out there. (See Category 7 and Category 6a.) In Japan, you can get a 1 gbps fiber-optic connection for your home, and I foresee Verizon offering something like that in the near future on the east coast of the U.S. I foresee us replacing all our twisted-pair cable with fiber optics, which has a theoretical maximum speed in excess of several terabits per second, and is more reliable. I also predict that it will become cheaper than ethernet cable once a certain economy of scale is achieved.--Best Dog Ever (talk) 06:04, 7 February 2011 (UTC)

Agreed. I am replying over WiFi + a six-mile microwave link, and the speed is very unreliable. Fibre to the premises is the only reliable modern option for fast broadband. Dbfirs 10:27, 7 February 2011 (UTC)

Never, regardless of metrics considered. Even if you considered using beams of light to transmit information, a dedicated wire for transmitting that light would almost certainly perform better. ¦ Reisio (talk) 10:36, 7 February 2011 (UTC)

I wouldn't say "never", because who knows what we'll invent. But sure; +50 years or something. Some form of satellite hook-ups might be a long-term improvement, à la William Gibson.  Chzz  ►  12:26, 7 February 2011 (UTC)

Even if you used satellites, if you could use wires between them (I'm not saying this would make sense :p just theoretically) they'd almost certainly yield better performance. I don't think anyone is questioning the convenience of wireless. ¦ Reisio (talk) 02:30, 8 February 2011 (UTC)

I would say definitely "never" as there are fundameltal physical limitations to the information density of modulated radio waves in free space that do not apply to varios "cable" based communications systems. Optical fibre is inherently (by the fundamental laws of physics) capable of carry much more information than any radio frequency signal. Roger (talk) 12:35, 7 February 2011 (UTC)

While largely agreeing with the above answers i.e. cable will always be capable of providing more bandwidth a more relevant point which is not really what the OP asked is whether whether ever have enough bandwidth via wireless that you don't need cable. My belief is probably not for some purposes but it does seem to be the cases that wireless is increasingly becoming enough for a number of uses. In terms of the satellite thing, it may work for some things but particularly if we're talking about geostationary satellites given the latency issues may or may not be the best bet for real time communication. For example it seems a flawed way to communicate with someone 50 km away. Nil Einne (talk) 04:41, 8 February 2011 (UTC)

I think we had a good set of answers to a similar question in the archives. Ah, here we go, from December 27 of 2010: a question about wired vs. wireless phones, where I linked to this insightful whitepaper, LTE Heterogeneous Networks. "Since radio link performance is approaching theoretical limits with 3G Enhancements and LTE, the next performance leap in wireless networks will come from the network topology." To re-quote my own summary of the paper, "In laymans' terms, the wireless part of the radio connection can't get any better - but we can connect up the radio-links in a more intelligent, efficient way." Nimur (talk) 19:10, 10 February 2011 (UTC)

Will a basic dongle be OK?

Have installed a new D-link router supplied by Virgin Media and although a newish Macbook can find it without any difficulty, two desktop computers don't seem to be able to. I.e. when refreshing the list of wireless networks available the new network that I gave a name to doesn't appear. I set it up with WPA security, would ideally like to use the more secure options, but main priority is to get it running. I'm guessing that this is because the dongles being used are rather old? I confirmed with Virgin that it is an N-router, and have found Belkin F6D4050ed Wireless N150 USB Adapter at Argos for £17.99. Should that do the trick? Should I be paying more for the dongles? Or less? Wireless connections are to run within the house, up to about 10m. Thanks very much for any help. Itsmejudith (talk) 14:43, 7 February 2011 (UTC)

What type of dongles do you have? 802.11 B, G . . . ? Is your router configured to work with all of the wireless formats? Are you sure you are broadcasting the SSID? There are many places in the configuration of both the router and your desktops that might be affecting your network, more details are always useful. --LarryMac | Talk 15:03, 7 February 2011 (UTC)

Depending on how old they are, they may not even support WPA. Some of mine don't.--Phil Holmes (talk) 15:38, 7 February 2011 (UTC)

I haven't retained any info about the old ones, so they probably aren't coping with the WPA if Phil says that is a common problem. I was going to replace them with the Argos one mentioned above, just buying one, will see if it works, then if it does will buy another. Itsmejudith (talk) 16:37, 7 February 2011 (UTC)

troubleshooting with start up errors in computers,laptops etc..

we know that upon restarting the system(computer),the program counter is reset.most of the problems are solved.But sometimes if the system fails in terminating properly due any problem such as improper shutting down,power failure etc.,then there will a start up error which fails the system in stating up the next time. why does this happen and why cant restating the system fails in solving this problem?? is there any option to solve this? please suggest. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Girishkakalwar (talk • contribs) 15:42, 7 February 2011 (UTC)

Usually if a computer won't restart properly, it is because an important file on the hard disk has been damaged. Usually the problem can be solved by fixing the file system, but it is impossible to give a general method for doing that. If you give more information such as what operating system you are using and exactly what error messages you are seeing, it might be possible to give a more useful answer. Looie496 (talk) 19:05, 7 February 2011 (UTC)

Can't Install Visual Studio

Ok so I'm trying to install Visual Studio 2010 on Windows 7, but the problem is it insists on being installed to the C: drive. My C: partition is very small (25 GB total, with only about 1.3 GB free). Even if I try to change Visual Studio's install destination to E: it still says it requires 2.2 GB free space on C: So, anything I can do, besides get a new computer with a bigger C: drive? Digger3000 (talk) 15:53, 7 February 2011 (UTC)

This page suggests that (most of) the space on C: is only needed during the installation itself and is released afterwards, so if you could temporarily find a gig or so on C: (e.g. delete some temporary files) you might be able to do it. AndrewWTaylor (talk) 19:00, 7 February 2011 (UTC)

It is possible that temporary space required is not so much on the C (system) drive per se, but in the temporary folder - which is usually on C drive by default (eg "C:\Documents and Settings\Mitch\Local Settings\Temp" on my current XP box). One solution may be to change the temporary folder to be on a drive with more space, then try again (possibly after a reboot). You should be able to change the temp folder back again after installation is complete. Mitch Ames (talk) 03:12, 12 February 2011 (UTC)

My history with development tools is that you should accept whatever the installer suggests as the default directory and even the hard disk letter. Personally I would enlarge that C: drive's partition and install into the default directory. Comet Tuttle (talk) 19:25, 7 February 2011 (UTC)

Run something like crap cleaner to remove unnecessary files — Preceding unsigned comment added by General Rommel (talk • contribs) 06:44, 8 February 2011 (UTC)

Why would someone want an iPod touch?

If you can have an iPhone? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 80.58.205.34 (talk) 17:58, 7 February 2011 (UTC)

I have an iPod touch, and enjoy it for many uses. The cost of iPhone ownership over a few years' time is quite large. SemanticMantis (talk) 18:39, 7 February 2011 (UTC)

Why would anyone need any of both? Android or Symbian phones are much cheaper and provide you the same capacity. Quest09 (talk) 18:42, 7 February 2011 (UTC)

The iPod Touch is way less expensive. It's about one-third the price of an iPhone. You could buy three iPod Touches instead of a single iPhone, if you wanted. Comet Tuttle (talk) 19:24, 7 February 2011 (UTC)

And why would anyone want three iPod Touch? Quest09 (talk) 23:56, 7 February 2011 (UTC)

For a Beowulf cluster, no doubt. --Tardis (talk) 00:05, 8 February 2011 (UTC)

I think you're somewhat missing the point of the comment. In any case there are reasons why you may want to buy 3 iPod Touches, e.g. if you have a family. Nil Einne (talk) 04:35, 8 February 2011 (UTC)

I have an iPhone which was a hand-me-down (my in-laws have AT&T and gave it to me when they upgraded) which I use for everything else except the phone portion. I have Verizon as a carrier. I use it all the time as an iPod, play some games, check my email, check Facebook, listen to NPR while cooking, etc. It's a lot lighter and smaller than my laptop. For quick reference of all those things, it's handy. So yeah, I can see why someone would buy an iPod Touch but not an iPhone. Dismas| 02:14, 8 February 2011 (UTC)

You should just jailbreak and unlock it (you have the legal right), and use it as your phone as well, so you can be cooler. 109.128.127.87 (talk) 09:01, 8 February 2011 (UTC)

(you have the legal right): That depends on what country you live in. -- Q Chris (talk) 09:23, 8 February 2011 (UTC)

Other than cost, as covered above, one problem with convergence devices is that you share the same battery for multiple jobs. In my case, my phone might run low on power because I've been accessing the web or watching videos. One option, therefore, is to get a rugged phone with good battery life just to be a phone, and an iPod to manage non-phone things, so it won't matter so much if you flatten the battery. - Bilby (talk) 09:28, 8 February 2011 (UTC)

The question means Apple is doing a good job: pointing a HUGE up arrow when you are considering a product (iPod) that does only a fraction of what another product does (iPhone). It's the same with McDonald's: Why would you pay $3.99 when for just a few cents you can have a much bigger drink and fries, the number of extra calories and the very little extra cost means, why would anyone ever get a "small" of anything, instead of at least the medium?? Yet, small is on the menu, and yet Apple does sell a lot of iPods. When you realize that people have all sorts of choices as to how they spend their money, it starts to make sense. Why would I buy a BMW 3-series, when the 5-series is really not that much more expensive and does so much more? Well, maybe that's my budget, and that's what I need... 217.136.92.148 13:45, 8 February 2011 (UTC) —Preceding unsigned comment added by 217.136.92.148 (talk)

Of course as several people have pointed out, the iPhone is not just a few cents more but in fact about 3x more... Nil Einne (talk) 14:57, 8 February 2011 (UTC)

And, if you want it to really do anymore more than the iPod Touch, you need to purchase a rather expensive monthly phone plan as well. --Mr.98 (talk) 21:39, 8 February 2011 (UTC)

That depends, if you just want the phone part, the ability to send SMS and with a new iPhone since whenever they decided to support it the ability to send MMS not really a prepay plan will do in many countries. Similarly if you have good wifi access and aren't really that hogtied to having continous internet access on your phone so you'll only need mobile packet data occassionally again a prepay plan may be fine in some countries. Considering the price of the iPhone it's unlikely many will want to only do that but if it wer say only 20% more then an iPod touch I could see it being worthwhile (well personally I don't consider even an iPod touch worthwhile but that's a different matter). Nil Einne (talk) 14:40, 9 February 2011 (UTC)

Some people still don't want a smart phone. Some people don't want to be tied into a contract. Having no data plan is way cheaper in the long run. Some people have an android smartphone and want an iOS device as well. Some people are younger and their parents won't let them have a phone yet. Some people are obsessive gadget collectors. Some people have an iPod touch as a "backup" for their iPhone... I personally bought an iPhone because I got an iPod touch and I loved it, so when my contract was up I sold the iPod touch and bought an iPhone (and due to subsidized costs of the phone, I even made a small profit on the initial purchase). 206.131.39.6 (talk) 15:39, 8 February 2011 (UTC)

There's no reason why you have to be tied to a contract to own an iPhone in a number of countries. Nil Einne (talk) 14:40, 9 February 2011 (UTC)

It's the only way to get a new iPhone in the US, so it's a reason for some people. 206.131.39.6 (talk) 15:57, 9 February 2011 (UTC)

Are you sure? suggests you are mistaken although things could have changed since August 2010. Also in most countries where the iPhone is officially sold I'm pretty sure parallel importation is allowed and the iPhone is popular enough seems unlikely there are many countries where you really can't get an iPhone without contract... Nil Einne (talk) 10:34, 12 February 2011 (UTC)

February 8

IPv6 for XP

After reading the recent Lifehacker article on the switch to IPv6, I checked to see if my computer supported it. As far as I can tell, it doesn't. (ipconfig only shows an IPv4 address). So, I tried googling for an answer. I found a site saying, put "netsh interface ipv6 install" into command prompt, then lots of other things. http://ipv6int.net/systems/windows_xp-ipv6.html One, how safe is that, two, what else would I need to do for ensure compatibility with IPv6? KyuubiSeal (talk) 01:51, 8 February 2011 (UTC)

This seems to be all to allow compatibility with IPv6. However, I don't understand what you mean about the safety. Can you explain? General Rommel (talk) 06:12, 8 February 2011 (UTC)

Since I'd never seen or heard of that site, I just wanted to know if that command did what it said. After learning about rm -rf... kinda has me on edge. :P KyuubiSeal (talk) 16:33, 8 February 2011 (UTC)

Scam, spam, or wrong number?

So I've gotten three text messages over the past few days that I've found puzzling.

The first said that the IRS had accepted my federal tax return.

The second and third said that they had rejected it.

All said that for more information I should go to efile.taxact.com.

Now I have not, in fact, filed my federal tax return yet. Nor do I file them through taxact.com anyway — I use a completely different website (turbotax).

So what's going on here? Taxact seems to be a legit website. On the other hand, it's a text message, maybe there's some way that they've obfuscated the URL that I can't tell on my phone, and if I clicked through (which I won't do since I don't have a digital plan anyway), it would go to some kind of phishing site.

Or maybe it is just very crude spam. Or maybe someone else put my phone number in as theirs. Or maybe their system is bugging out.

Anybody have any guesses? --Mr.98 (talk) 12:58, 8 February 2011 (UTC)

Get to a real computer and look at the email as plain text in e.g. emacs. In my experience, there usually is an obfuscated URL at work - anything from clever to obvious. --Stephan Schulz 13:54, 8 February 2011 (UTC)

By text messages, do you mean SMS, MMS, email or some sort of instant messaging? Nil Einne (talk) 14:55, 8 February 2011 (UTC)

SMS, I believe — not e-mail, unfortunately. I can't seem to find a way to view the source on my phone. --Mr.98 (talk) 21:19, 8 February 2011 (UTC)

If it's SMS then I'm pretty sure WYSIWYG. There's no way you can hide URLs in SMS AFAIK at least not unless your phone has an incredibly silly implementation where it, for example interprets HTML in SMSes. Other then your proposals, it's possibly they're hoping you'll call or reply back to them where they can try an do something dodgy. It may even be possible (not sure about this but I know SMS has a concept of a reply path) that the reply won't end up back at the phone number which appears to have sent the SMS. Nil Einne (talk) 08:00, 9 February 2011 (UTC)

Perhaps the message actually said something with a different domain like efile-taxact.com (though that example is owned by TaxAct, so it wouldn't work), and you read it as a legitimate URL, completely defeating the deception? Paul (Stansifer) 14:48, 9 February 2011 (UTC)

Well, I e-mailed the Taxact.com people and they told me that it must be that someone just put my phone number in as theirs on accident. (Which is a little disturbing.) They've said they'll discontinue texting me about it. So I guess the answer was "wrong number". --Mr.98 (talk) 23:42, 9 February 2011 (UTC)

Ubuntu, showing thing bigger, how to disable

I am on a Ubuntu PC right now, and everything looks much bigger than normal. It seems like something for people with disabilities. How do you disable it? Hint: re-boot doesn't work... 212.169.191.85 (talk) 13:05, 8 February 2011 (UTC)

Have you checked to see whether it is set to the right screen display resolution.--Aspro (talk) 15:00, 8 February 2011 (UTC)

You got the magnifier turned on. To disable it: Install "simple-ccsm" from Synaptic. Then go to: System -> Preferences -> Simple CompizConfig Configuration Manager. And on the Accessibility tab, uncheck "Screen Zoom."

And yes, you have to install that package to turn the magnifier off. Quest09 (talk) 15:45, 8 February 2011 (UTC)

I found the screen magnifier option in System - Preferences - Assistive Technology without installing simple-ccsm (being Linux, there is certainly a lot of variation from version to version). Also, with no windows selected, pressing F5 opened that panel with checkboxes for a lot of things. However, turning on the screen magnifier didn't make it look as the questioner explained. It sounds more like he got bumped from his favorite resolution to something like 800x600. For me, that it is System - Adjustments - Screen Resolution. -- kainaw™ 15:59, 8 February 2011 (UTC)

Having a large default font set in the 'Fonts' tab in Preferences - Appearance could also fit the OP's description. Compiz has a full-screen zoom option, also, but it presumably wouldn't persist over reboot. Paul (Stansifer) 20:23, 8 February 2011 (UTC)

Can high Internet traffic cause my browsing to slow down?

I understand that the more people logged into a given site, the slower it may be to receive packets from that site's server, and with very high traffic, I may not even be able to connect at all.

What I'm wondering is whether this effect also works in a different direction: if a lot of people in the United States (where I am) are online at a given time, will that affect the speed of pages loading in my browser, even if I'm looking at an obscure site that's hardly getting any other traffic? If not, what about high traffic specifically in my county? ± Lenoxus (" *** ") 16:31, 8 February 2011 (UTC)

Almost all ISP use shared resource models. For example 100 users, each with a 100 Mbit/sec connection, will be connected to a cable with less than 10,000Mbit/sec capacity. The ratio of the cable's capacity to what all the users' maximum is the contention ratio. As long as all users don't try to download large files at the same time this works fine. For normal web browsing, the browser downloads the current page's contents, and then does not download anything whilst you read the page. However, streaming audio/video, gaming, and downloading large programs/videos does use your connections full capacity for long periods of times. The ISP tries to make the contented cable's capacity as low as possible (for cost reasons), without making it noticeable to users. CS Miller (talk) 17:27, 8 February 2011 (UTC)

Thanks for answering! So basically, it comes down to whether people are putting a lot of strain on the ISP? ± Lenoxus (" *** ") 18:08, 8 February 2011 (UTC)

In many areas you can easily spot this effect by measuring your speed during the week, measuring it again during the weekend, and then measuring it a third time on a weekday when school has been canceled for bad weather. APL (talk) 15:40, 9 February 2011 (UTC)

Lil icons in the "List" or "Details" format directory listings

In Windows XP, under "My Computer" and using either the "List" or "Details" type of directory listing, there are tiny pictures to the left of each file. Most of them are standard little icons depending on which application is associated with it (e.g. a little page with the Firefox symbol in it for HTML files, or a little picture of a spiral-bound notebook for text files). I have a favicon.ico file that shows a tinier version of the favicon. Are there files cached somewhere that hold these tiny pictures? Where can I find them? TresÁrboles (talk) 18:05, 8 February 2011 (UTC)

An .ico file itself contains that image you see. --Tardis (talk) 19:00, 8 February 2011 (UTC)

Yes, I know that; in fact, I said the same thing above ("tinier version"). However, a text file, for example, certainly does not contain a little image of a spiral-bound notebook. Is that image stored anywhere in the system, or is it made up on the fly? TresÁrboles (talk) 08:06, 9 February 2011 (UTC)

Oh, sorry; I thought you wanted to know where the tinier version was stored on disk. The "standard" icons are stored in a few DLLs: I think shell.dll holds the most common ones (or at least used to). --Tardis (talk) 18:01, 9 February 2011 (UTC)

Windows can also extract embedded icon image data from certain types of special files - particularly, .exe and .dll files. See Resource (Windows) for information on how Windows works with those files. Otherwise, you can inform Windows Explorer to use an external .ico (or other image) as the icon for a specific file, using the "file properties" interface. Nimur (talk) 19:41, 8 February 2011 (UTC)

I think this is a slightly-different topic. See my response to the other user above. What I'm trying to find out is if the little tiny pictures that appear on the directory listings are held somewhere on the system to be used by Windows XP, or are they just generated when needed and thus do not exist as actual files? TresÁrboles (talk) 08:06, 9 February 2011 (UTC)

They are usually stored in one of the folders associated with each application. If you click on Start > Search and look for all *.ico files you will see where they are.--Shantavira| 10:20, 9 February 2011 (UTC)

It sounds like you aren't getting the answer you want, so let's break this down as far as possible. At any given instant, if you have a Windows Explorer window open and viewing a folder full of files, you see a bunch of file icons. Some of those icons are "on disk" and some are "in memory;" originally, everything came from disk in one of three possible locations: (1) from an embedded resource in the file; (2) from a linked .ico or other resource file that Windows is aware of because the folder saves metadata; or (3) if no other resource is available, Windows will select a "default" icon from a Windows shell file, such as shell32.dll, based on meta-data parameters like the file-extension. So, for example, a text file that ends in ".txt" is a "known file type" and Windows uses an icon from (something like) c:\windows\system32\shell32.dll that contains thousands of "known file type" and other types of icons. (The explanation may get very technical from this point forward). (Make sure you understand paging and the meaning of Pagefile.sys before reading any further). Depending on the little "picture" in question, the actual "icon" may be located in different places, including on disk, in a separate .ico file or inside the file that it refers to; it may also be dynamically generated; and it may be stored in the Thumbs.db file (if the folder is identified as a "Pictures folder" based on Explorer.exe's heuristic); any of these data may be resident in memory or loaded from disk. Explorer.exe resides in main memory at all times (it is one of the few processes that will never be paged to disk in most Windows operating systems). It contains a bunch of internals that are proprietary, so we don't really have access to how they work, but it's reasonable to assume that for every open folder, explorer.exe it contains a data structure to represent the folder on-screen (depending on your version of Windows, that would be one or more HWNDs that point to container content, managed by explorer shell processes). Those data elements may be resident in the data area of RAM that is owned by explorer.exe or its associated shell extension DLLs, (which might resident in RAM or paged to disk). Depending on whether you rebooted, hibernated, or suspended your computer, and whether the files are "new" (Windows has never seen them before), Explorer.exe may already have pre-cached the resources for the folder; this will determine whether the following metadata that I describe is resident in memory or must be pulled from disk; so these resources may be in the file or in the page file, or in RAM, depending on when you last rebooted (relative to the file creation). Depending on what folder is being loaded, shell services may choose to reload file contents from disk and regenerate in-memory representations of the compiled resources (the icons), by analyzing the individual file and folder metadata. Then those resources are rendered to a frame buffer; depending on your graphics driver and other system details, that "little picture" will be rendered (usually as a bitmap) to a special memory location, and then drawn on screen at your display device (your monitor, your plotter-printer, your network-attached display-emulator, your debug-dump signal analyzer, or whatever else Windows thinks is a "Display Device" attached to your "Display Adaptor". Nimur (talk) 19:45, 9 February 2011 (UTC)

Launching a Website.....

Hi.. I have just planned to start a website... I have not developed it yet. I know I will have to go to a website hosting company. I am confused that will I have to register my website with government also or not? actually I want to develop a website in which users will be able to change the content of it ... for example as on wikipedia.. so will my web hoster provide me this service or not.? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 220.225.96.217 (talk) 20:09, 8 February 2011 (UTC)

You'll need a wiki software to host a wiki. You can have your page hosted for free at Wikia (check: Wikia).Quest09 (talk) 20:26, 8 February 2011 (UTC)

If you want a domain name of your own, (like wikipedia.org or myexcellentwebsite.com), you need to get it through a domain name registrar. Registrars report to ICANN, a nonprofit that is considered the final authority on domain names. I don't know of any countries that require their citizens to register websites with their governments, but places that censor their Internet might. Paul (Stansifer) 20:32, 8 February 2011 (UTC)

1. Registering a website. You should not need to register it with the government. You buy a domain name from a registrar, and you can "point" it at your hosting company's servers. It is not very hard. I recommend getting a hosting company first because they will often give you a free domain name as part of the deal, or at a discounted price.

2. Getting a hosting company. The hosting company should not charge you any differently based on whether users are able to change the content, but you will need a company that supports the server-side scripting and database architecture that such capability usually involves. So if you were hosting MediaWiki, your hosting company would need to give you access to a MySQL or PostSQL database, and would need to support the scripting language PHP. On some hosts, these kinds of "perks" cost a bit more money than the more basic options. Depending on how much bandwidth you expect the site to have, you may need to purchase a plan which accommodates for that as well (if you are just editing text, that is very low bandwidth; if users are uploading photos and movies, that is very high bandwidth). --Mr.98 (talk) 21:35, 8 February 2011 (UTC)

Got a problem with my mouse pointer-arrow

I am having problem with my mouse pointer since last one month. normally it runs very well and then suddenly it stucks at a point and it stucks so badly that nothing can move it from it's place and I have to restart my PC to make it working again I don't understand that I have problem with my mouse hardware or it is due to some kind of software problem in my OS. I am using logitech mouse and keyboard and windows 7 ultimate OS. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 220.225.96.217 (talk) 20:23, 8 February 2011 (UTC)

If I were debugging your computer, I would try to narrow down where the problem is. Start by borrowing another mouse (any mouse) and see if the problem goes away immediately. If it does, it's an obvious mouse problem (maybe hardware, maybe drivers, but definitely related to that mouse). If it doesn't, then it doesn't have anything to do with the mouse at all and you can start trying other things. (For example, does it happen when the computer is in Safe Mode? If not, then it's something to do with software that loads after the computer starts up. If so, then it might be something more fundamental with the operating system or computer itself.) The whole trick of diagnosing the problem (and thus fixing it) requires systematically going through and eliminating all of the obvious possibilities. It's going to be hard for us on this end to know what the problem is unless you do these kinds of things. --Mr.98 (talk) 21:31, 8 February 2011 (UTC)

One common cause is another pointing device which interferes with the mouse. Do you have another mouse, digitizing pad, touch pad, etc. ? If not, you can try reloading the mouse driver. StuRat (talk) 23:04, 8 February 2011 (UTC)

Interactive guides

Hi, id like to make interactive guides such as the ones on http://va.zensupport.co.uk/ but im not sure where to start, can anyone tell me which program i should use for it? Or any other help. Joneleth (talk) 20:28, 8 February 2011 (UTC)

Is there a way to disable F5 in Firefox?

I'm using Firebug to debug my JavaScript and I keep accidentally hitting F5 to resume execution because that's what F5 does in Visual Studio. I'm wondering if there's any easy way to disable F5? A Quest For Knowledge (talk) 22:11, 8 February 2011 (UTC)

One way is to pry the key off. StuRat (talk) 23:01, 8 February 2011 (UTC)

I don't know of a way to do it directly (I checked about:config and didn't find anything promising), but if I had your problem I would just create a little widget for my task bar which would turn F5 on and off globally. I'm sure Windows has some similar key-mapping facility. --Sean 16:16, 9 February 2011 (UTC)

iPhone, Blackberry, bought in one country, used in another

If I purchase an iPhone or Blackberry or iPad or Kindle (or anything similar) in the U.S. and take it back to Canada (all properly declared), can I purchase a plan for it in Canada, or does such a gadget have to be purchased in the country of principal use? Bielle (talk) 23:19, 8 February 2011 (UTC)

Most fancy GSM phones these days are multi-band for voice and will work in multiple countries. Data service can be rather badly fragmented, so a 3G phone set up for AT&T in the US won't work on T-Mobile and so forth. US and Canada use mostly similar band setups, but see UMTS frequency bands for a table. 71.141.88.54 (talk) 03:13, 9 February 2011 (UTC)

Youtube password

Is it possible to retrieve a Youtube user's password? If it is, how would I be able to do it? B-Machine (talk) 23:28, 8 February 2011 (UTC)

This page will let you retrieve the password for the account if you know your username or email address, and still have access to the email account you used to sign up. Youtube seems to be moving towards unifying usernames with the individual's Google Account, so you may find you can log in with your gmail details if you've previously associated the two. --Kateshortforbob _talk 00:30, 9 February 2011 (UTC)

This is probably irrelevant, but they allow you to reset your password, not retrieve it. Responsible websites (sadly, many websites aren't) store a hash of the password, rather than the password itself, preventing malefactors who steal the database from figuring out what the user's password is. (Many users, after all, reuse their passwords elsewhere.) This means that they can't tell you your password, because they have no idea; they just know what it looks like after it's been hashed. Paul (Stansifer) 02:00, 9 February 2011 (UTC)

Ideally a responsible website shouldn't just store the hash but using some salt (cryptography) to reduce the risk posed by rainbow tables. Sadly many don't. Of course if you have a weak password it won't help. Nil Einne (talk) 07:52, 9 February 2011 (UTC)

Theoretically, even a responsible website could tell you what your password was, because they know the hash function and salt. They choose not to, which is smart, since people re-use the same passwords pretty regularly. --Mr.98 (talk) 13:42, 9 February 2011 (UTC)

If you use a weak password perhaps... Or if they use a totally crap hash. Or if there's a rainbow table for that hash+salt with your password. But I would argue both the later call in to question the 'responsible website' part. Otherwise I don't think it's just a matter of choosing not to, no website is going to spend months or years trying to brute force your password so they can tell you what it is, particularly since depending on a number of things, there's a far chance you could be dead before they work it out and in any case you very likely wouldn't care by that time. They could of course tell you the hash function and salt and let you try to brute force it yourself. Nil Einne (talk) 14:06, 9 February 2011 (UTC)

How? There are an infinite number of passwords for a given hash value. --Sean 16:18, 9 February 2011 (UTC)

Good point, yes. I should have remembered that. It's a bit worrying, actually, that some websites will quite happily send you your password in plain text and says bad things about their general attitude to security and privacy. Google isn't one of these, though.--Kateshortforbob _talk 16:12, 9 February 2011 (UTC)

Pre-installed Windows without CD

When you start a computer for the first time, it starts the installer of Windows 7 (which is in the HDD). No CD is shipped. My questions are: where was this Windows version? In a separate partition or in the same of the installation? And what if you want to re-install this pre-installed version? Can you complete wipe the old installation and re-do the pre-installation? Quest09 (talk) 23:31, 8 February 2011 (UTC)

The last two laptops I bought both had Vista pre-installed, and on a separate partition (usually a <10GB partition). When reinstalling Windows I have just booted from that partition. I put Windows 7 on one of these laptops recently, and as far as I can see it has wiped the old Vista pre-install partition. --KägeTorä - (影虎) (TALK) 01:30, 9 February 2011 (UTC)

Aside from an actual reinstallation image on a separate partition, some computers ship with a basically installed version of Windows that has a small amount of remaining auto-configuration left to do, which may appear like an installation to some. ¦ Reisio (talk) 01:36, 9 February 2011 (UTC)

February 9

I think I am dating myself

I am trying to do research right now on early Misplaced Pages. So I am doing asking:

• Is there anyway to search through old Usenet posts? or Some search engine that will help with this?

• Is there any sources that link the old usenet community with the early Misplaced Pages Community?

I am honestly not sure how use net used to work. So be easy one me. The Resident Anthropologist (talk) 04:47, 9 February 2011 (UTC)

For question 1, try Google Groups Nil Einne (talk) 07:41, 9 February 2011 (UTC)

Free direct Usenet access is available - I use eternal-september.org but there are others too. Google groups is for kiddies and wannabes who have never even heard of Usenet.

If you want to try dating someone else, there are websites for that too. <joke> Roger (talk) 07:56, 9 February 2011 (UTC)

Kindly explain how 'free direct usenet access' allows you to search old usenet posts, from the ops question we can presume around 2001-2002 or earlier, when you haven't been keeping archives yourself, and retention of these servers is around 2 years at best .

And if you want to go further, I don't actually know if there are even commercial servers with 10 year text group retention, but it's not clear why the OP would need such things when in all likelihood Google Groups warts and all provides a far better search experience then anything off the shelf the OP can find even if they did get commercial direct usenet access particularly since if they want to search a diverse set of groups and a diverse range of dates we're talking many, many gigabytes of data probably in to the terabyte range or higher and we can presume from the fact they asked such a simple question setting up some sort of customised searching solution is probably beyond their means. Not to mention Google Groups completion isn't that bad from what I've seen, nor from memory was DejaNews they inherited their archives from (and I believe they may have made efforts to improve their completion after they took over anyway or may be I'm remembering wrong and it was in fact DejaNews that was trying to improve their completion at one stage) so even if you do find this 10 year+ retention commercial service and then have enough space, bandwidth, computing power and software to manage/search these 10 year+ of text groups I'm far from convinced your completion would be anywhere near as good for those old years so it's still highly questionable how this would be better. Of course GG does respect those not wanting their posts archived whereas a 10+ year retention server if it exists probably still keeps those posts after 10+ years so I guess that's one minor advantage. (Well I suspect GG does as well, it just doesn't allow access to them.)

Oh and not to mention Google Groups does at least stop people replying to very old posts (at least I know they used to) whereas with your 'free direct usenet access' I suspect a lot of software isn't going to make noise if you try to post a follow up to a 10 year old post, but you can bet other people in whatever newsgroup/s you cross/post to aren't going to be happy. The OP didn't indicate any intention to do so, on the other hand given their plans this may have been a risk if they aren't careful.

So all in all, I don't see any particular reason to recommend 'free direct usenet access' or anything other then some existing service which allows you to search archives of usenet posts directly (of which GG is the most prominent and in fact possibly only service nowadays, I seem to recall there was something else in the DN days but they weren't anywhere near as good and they don't seem to be mention in any relevant article which suggests to me even if they still exist they aren't worth considering).

Of course if you want to get in to usenet now, 'free direct usenet' may be worth considering, however this doesn't seem to be what the OP wants and considering your post, I'm sure I don't have to say it's always wise to read the question or follow the thread before responding rather the picking up a key word and hoping what you say is on topic.

Nil Einne (talk) 13:44, 9 February 2011 (UTC)

I was unsure of Google groups if it was google created to fill the void but I am learning very fast now that usenet is alive and well.

You should definitely read the Usenet article to get a better fix on this. Because Usenet was (and is) a distributed system with no central repository, there actually is no definite list of posts for an archive to contain -- each Usenet server would get a different sequence of posts. I believe that some of the more important and scholarly groups were archived in an informal way, but many certainly were not. Archiving Usenet would in some ways be like archiving BitTorrent, if that comparison means anything to you. Looie496 (talk) 18:10, 9 February 2011 (UTC)

Ah that is indeed helpful, I read the article but failed to fully grasp the concept. The analogy of bit torrent makes alot of sense. I guess alt.religion.scientology would be archived some where most likely? The Resident Anthropologist (talk) 19:50, 9 February 2011 (UTC)

Alt groups would be the least likely to be archived, comp groups probably the most likely. Looie496 (talk) 05:19, 10 February 2011 (UTC)

What charities will send my 1998 Tiger K6 to the 3rd world?

I would hope for my antique that Dad got us in 8th grade to be re-purposed as a school computer somewhere in the 3rd world. (Or some highly useful cause, if other than education.)

However, even though I since moved to a newer desktop in 2005, and this laptop in 2007, I still have that old 1998 beater that still works. That is because for over the past 5 years, I still haven't figured out what charity to donate it to, and how to send it to them cheaply.

I also must know which charity will send the computer to where and what cause.

Would you please put this issue to rest? Thanks. --70.179.181.251 (talk) 07:43, 9 February 2011 (UTC)

It's far too old even for a charity, unless it's a charity that does hazardous waste recycling. There is considerable controversy about wealthy countries dumping their hazardous waste, under the disguise of "charity", in third world countries that don't have the facilities to safely dispose of it. Please dispose of it at a proper hazardous waste facility in your area - don't export it. Roger (talk) 08:16, 9 February 2011 (UTC)

It still works, so I'd rather do ANYTHING other than dispose of it.

Tiger PC is now defuct IIRC, so couldn't at least a computing museum take it? I don't exactly believe in throwing anything away that's still in working condition. Besides Roger Dodger, there are still many African schools that still don't even have one SINGLE computer. What's the matter with donating it to them instead? One is far better than zero, isn't it?

Moreover, beggars can't be choosers, can they? I'm sure there's an extra-desperate country somewhere that'll be willing to take my 12 1/2 year old computer off my hands. --70.179.181.251 (talk) 04:39, 10 February 2011 (UTC)

I just happen to actually be an African - your assumptions about the "extra-desparation" of "beggars" is quite frankly very offensive. Nobody wants the crap. The cellphones that most of us have are superior to that pile of junk. PLEASE read the articles I cited in my previous post. Oh and try to educate yourself about the reality of Africa - not the BS propaganda the domestic US media feeds you. Roger (talk) 09:34, 10 February 2011 (UTC)

Conversion

whats the hexadecimal equivalant of the Binary Coded Decimal number 011111000? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 117.195.68.162 (talk) 12:22, 9 February 2011 (UTC)

Google is your friend. Binary to Decimal, Decimal to Hex. Lots of free tools out there to do this. Your default calculator on your computer (e.g. Calc.exe) can probably do this as well. --Mr.98 (talk) 13:45, 9 February 2011 (UTC)

Binary Coded Decimal is a little less straightforward than simple binary-to-hex conversion. A BCD number should be a multiple of four bits long, so I'm not sure how to interpret the 9-bit string the OP gives. Also, if we ignore the leading 0 and use 1111 1000, then it's not a valid BCD number, as only values 0000 - 0101 are used. Rojomoke (talk) 14:35, 9 February 2011 (UTC)

Yes, there must be some sort of transcription error, the string as written cannot be BCD. Alternately, if the last 0 is omitted, we have 0111 1100, which could be +7 if the last string is the sign convention 1100=C=positive. SemanticMantis (talk) 19:07, 9 February 2011 (UTC)

Batch convert .bmp (only) to .png

Is there are free Windows software that I can point at a directory, and it goes through it and converts all the .bmp files (but not anything else) into .png files, preferably including deleting the original .bmp files also please? Searching on Google, I have only been able to find things that require you to mark every file you want converted. Thanks 92.24.185.155 (talk) 14:07, 9 February 2011 (UTC)

http://www.etrusoft.com/graphic-converter/ 82.43.92.41 (talk) 14:16, 9 February 2011 (UTC)

ImageMagick could probably do it easy enough, if you don't mind using command line tools. Once image magic was installed, I think the command you want would be "mogrify -format png *.bmp". That should modify every .bmp in the current directory into a .png file. APL (talk) 15:32, 9 February 2011 (UTC)

I'd use ImageMagick, but I think irfanview does conversion, too — might be more Windowsy. ¦ Reisio (talk) 05:48, 10 February 2011 (UTC)

photo from telephone to computer

how do I transfer using bluetooth? Kittybrewster ☎ 14:12, 9 February 2011 (UTC)

It depends on the make of phone. What kind is it? Marnanel (talk) 14:19, 9 February 2011 (UTC)

Samsung Monte slider. Kittybrewster ☎ 14:43, 9 February 2011 (UTC)

On my computer (a MacBook), in the Bluetooth settings, I tell the MacBook to let me browse the files on my Bluetooth device. This sends a request to the phone, which then says, "Are you sure you want to let this computer browse me?" and I say "yes" on the phone, at which point I can then, from the computer, force the phone to send me the photos. (In my case, it makes me to it one photo at a time, and I have to confirm each time on the phone, but oh well). Not sure how that translates into your computer and phone. It requires the phone's Bluetooth mode to be set to "findable," I believe. --Mr.98 (talk) 14:51, 9 February 2011 (UTC)

It will most likely be much easier to do a photo message (text message with photo attached) to the email account you use on the computer. Instead of a phone number, just put in an email address. Then, open your email and save the attachment. This avoids security blockades on both the computer and phone. For example, I just found out, after two days of searching, that to view the files on my phone through a USB connection, I have to do a slide-down motion on the USB icon, select security, select file system, and then press the "turn on file sharing" option. I didn't even know I could do a slide-down motion on the USB icon, so I would have never figured it out on my own. -- kainaw™ 19:33, 9 February 2011 (UTC)

Though of course if you don't have a data plan, it can cost you quite a bit to send photos that way. --Mr.98 (talk) 23:28, 9 February 2011 (UTC)

alt-codes in Firefox

There are certain alt-codes I use for special characters that work in Word Processors and other places, but not in my internet browser. For example, alt-0601 should give me ə but in Firefox it gives me "Y". I assume this is some kind of character encoding issue with my browser, but I don't know how to rectify it. How can I get those codes to work in Firefox? Cevlakohn (talk) 15:07, 9 February 2011 (UTC)

It works for me if I use num-lock. Kittybrewster ☎ 15:57, 9 February 2011 (UTC)

It will depend entirely on what font you are using. Take a look at your character map (run charmap.exe) and you will find that alt-0601 produces various characters depending on the font.--Shantavira| 16:59, 9 February 2011 (UTC)

Is there a way to restrict a Google search to an absolutely exact phrase?

By that I mean it must search only for the absolutely perfectly identical match. No variation in punctuation or any other "close matches" allowed. It's must be an absolutely perfect match in all respects. (Ok maybe the font is allowed to be different but that is all!) I am looking for a specific idiosyncratically punctuated variant of a very common phrase. If any variations would be included in the search result it would return so many hits as to be completely useless. The normal Google advanced search option of "exact phrase" isn't even in the same galaxy as the meaning of "exact" that I require because Google doesn't seem to care if a comma or a capital is different from the "exact phrase" entered in the search. Roger (talk) 17:46, 9 February 2011 (UTC)

Maybe there is another search engine that does allow restriction to such genuinely exact matches? Roger (talk) 17:47, 9 February 2011 (UTC)

It seems, on cursory inspection, that Bing (http://www.bing.com) respects exact "quoted text" strings more than Google, but with some exceptions (in some cases, you may have to scroll past 1 or 2 non-literal string-search results to see the "exact matches" results). And, it seems that punctuation is still discounted in the definition of "exact match." In general, modern search indexes are much more complicated databases of meta-information and "signals"; it may not even be possible to use a modern search engine to perform a "strcmp" style string search. Of course, small indexes of web-data can be locally cached using wget, and you can use your operating system's file search tools to scan for exact matches... Nimur (talk) 18:29, 9 February 2011 (UTC)

After more testing, I'm going to rescind my earlier claim that Bing respected quoted text strings. Nimur (talk) 18:32, 9 February 2011 (UTC)

Down with heuristics!!! This sucks, I was hoping to use a wacky quote I once read, but need to cite, in an article I'm writing (not on WP). Thanks for your efforts Nimur, but it seems I'll have to do without it. Down with heuristics!!! <sulk> Roger (talk) 18:50, 9 February 2011 (UTC)

Search engines almost never respect capitalization and punctuation in their indices because people don't generally want those things distinguished in the results they get (though the recent arrival of automatic synonym search has made that less of a problem). If you add a plus sign in front of each word in a phrase search, Google will turn off synonymization for that word, at least. Google's code search almost certainly hasn't indexed what you want, but it is the only search engine that I know of that respects punctuation exactly. You can even search it for regexps; I'm not sure how they manage that.

What is the phrase that you're looking for? Maybe there's some other approach. Paul (Stansifer) 22:13, 9 February 2011 (UTC)

I's a line from a sterotypical Mafia movie where the boss says "Speak with I" while interrogating one of his minions who has double-crossed him. The meaning of the phrase being "Talk or else..."

I need to find out which movie it comes from. Googling "Speak with I" just delivers a whole lot of variations. Roger (talk) 09:56, 10 February 2011 (UTC)

Script to save/restore Firefox settings (Linux)

Does anyone know of a script to save and restore selected Firefox settings like bookmarks, stored usernames/passwords, add-ons, etc.?

It seems that some profiles on one of my Linux multi-user systems became unstable; so far, the only thing that helped was exporting the bookmarks, making a list of the installed add-ons, deleting "~/.mozilla", then restoring the saved bookmarks and re-installing all the add-ons by hand.

This is time-consuming and error-prone.

Does anyone know of a script that could handle this? Simply copying all the files from the old "~/.mozilla" directory will copy all the bugs causing the malfunction as well, so that doesn't help - I need to load the contents of the old configuration into pristine configuration files, so to speak.

NB: I could not find anything in common between the profiles that got damaged (no single add-on that was used by all of them, etc.). :-(

-- 78.43.71.225 (talk) 20:21, 9 February 2011 (UTC)

Do you have extensions/add-ons? If you open a Terminal Window, and then enter "firefox -safe-mode &" (sans quotes), then firefox will start with all your extensions and greasemonkey scripts etc disabled. You can then choose to permanently disable all of them. They can be re-enabled via Tools/Add-Ons. CS Miller (talk) 21:35, 9 February 2011 (UTC)

Yes, these users have extensions/add-ons, however, I haven't been able to figure out if - and if yes, which - add-ons cause the trouble (it might be something totally unrelated). So the question remains - how can I extract bookmarks, add-ons, etc. from a botched profile and reinsert them in a newly created one, without doing it by hand for every affected profile? -- 78.43.71.225 (talk) 21:43, 9 February 2011 (UTC)

For addons you will have to make backups before there is trouble, or save a list of which you've installed, and their XPIs. For bookmarks, you should almost always be able to dump them from sqlite/etc., but redundant backups are the only full proof solution. There's no silver bullet short of proper backups, sorry. ¦ Reisio (talk) 05:57, 10 February 2011 (UTC)

Java: Main vs Run Methods

Hi, Could someone explain the difference between the static public void main() function (which seems to be what a class loads no matter what)

vs

public void main()

and

public void run()

thanks! — Preceding unsigned comment added by Legolas52 (talk • contribs) 20:26, 9 February 2011 (UTC)

public static void main(String args) is the signature of the method that the JVM will invoke when you start a Java program: java com.example.frobozz.Frotz to invoke Frotz.main(). Your second example has no particular meaning (and is likely to confuse). The third is the method in java.lang.Runnable (which is implemented by java.lang.Thread among others) that is invoked in a new thread (other than the main thread already discussed). --Tardis (talk) 20:34, 9 February 2011 (UTC)

To expand a bit more on the third one, run is part of the interface of Runnable, so classes that implement Runnable have one in order that they can, well, be run. A name that has a special meaning to an interface doesn't have any special meaning in classes that don't implement that interface. Paul (Stansifer) 22:23, 9 February 2011 (UTC)

iOS SDK on older macs

I've seen online that the iOS 2.0 SDK can be made to run on powerpc macs, even though apple said it needed intel macs. Does anyone know if the iOS 3 or 4 sdks can be similarly made to work on these older macs? --Thekmc (talk) 20:46, 9 February 2011 (UTC)

MS Access 2007 question. How do I record a keyboard shortcut to tell the DBPIX plug-in to rotate the view of the image?

Hi, this question is kinda vague because I'm just getting to know MS Access now. Because I have a data entry job.

So, I'm using MS Access runtime 2007 plus the DBPix plug-in to view records. Each record has an image containing data I need to enter into the database.

The problem is some images need to be rotated. I can do this using the mouse. Right-click, select rotate from the pop-up menu, and that's it.

What I want is a keyboard key (fex, F1 or something) to do the image rotate. What are the basic steps I'm looking to do?

Thanks, --71.198.219.31 (talk) 21:10, 9 February 2011 (UTC)

You can almost surely do this with Access's own VBA, but to my knowledge you can't program that like recording a macro in other programs. (Annoying? Welcome to Access.) Are you comfortable with VBA? The basic instructions are that you modify the Form's OnKeyPress function, have it check for the key in question (e.g. that it is F1 or whatever), then tell the DBPix control to perform the rotation. It is not a very hard bit of scripting, but if you are new to scripting, it will require a bit of explanation more than what I've just given. --Mr.98 (talk) 21:17, 9 February 2011 (UTC)

Ok - Thanks. That's really helpful information. I'll download VBA and try it. I'm a java (eclipse) fan. I understand Visual Basic ui builder kinda deal though. Do you think I'll have to buy DBPix though? Right now, I'm using the free 'runtime' plugin that DBPix provides. (For that matter, I'm also using the MS Access Runtime as well.) I might have to buy the DBpix plug-in ($139) to program the keyboard shortcut in VBA, right? Thanks,

--71.198.219.31 (talk) 01:14, 10 February 2011 (UTC)

The VBA is already inside Access — no downloading needed. It's not really Visual Basic, it's Access's own form editing UI. --Mr.98 (talk) 02:29, 10 February 2011 (UTC)

Oh - that helps. Thanks. — Preceding unsigned comment added by InverseSubstance (talk • contribs) 03:12, 10 February 2011 (UTC)

Why are 2 Amp USB rechargers faster?

I have a 1 amp and a 2 amp USB charger for a smartphone. Even when using the same USB cable, the 2 amp is always faster to recharge my device. Why is this? --68.102.163.104 (talk) 23:06, 9 February 2011 (UTC)

Well, to be perfectly straightforward, the 2 amp charger provides twice as much electrical current as the 1 amp charger.

The wire itself doesn't really matter as long as it's reasonable quality, and you're not trying to use it for something that's way out of it's rating. APL (talk) 23:18, 9 February 2011 (UTC)

APL is correct, but to be more specific: power is equal to amperage multiplied by voltage, but also equal to work divided by time. leaving voltage the same and doubling the amperage will also mean if the amount of work is the same, the time halves. 65.29.47.55 (talk) 03:39, 10 February 2011 (UTC)

You should also be aware that, in nearly all circumstances, the 2 amp charger will operate less efficiently than the 1 amp charger because of the charge characteristics of the battery in the phone. This means that it will take more than half as long to charge with the 2 amp charger, the phone will get hotter, battery life will be slightly shortened and some energy will be wasted. If the phone is designed for a 2 amp charger, then this is not a serious problem. Dbfirs 08:31, 10 February 2011 (UTC)

February 10

Are there any schools in Africa that'll take my antique computer?

It was made a couple of years before y2k, and since it works, I would much rather see an African school receive and use my old computer than watch it get disposed of.

You see, there may be some school districts in Somalia that are so Überly-desperate that they would be ecstatic to receive just an Apple IIe.

Therefore, couldn't HUNDREDS of African school districts be coveting my PC if they became aware that I was hoping to donate one?

In case you think a 1.25-decade-old computer is "too old" even for African schools, you've got to imagine that many of their schools don't have even but a SINGLE computer, so my jalopy of one would be a considerable boon for them.

Now, how do I get this started? What charities do I contact to get them to send my antique to Africa? --70.179.173.95 (talk) 08:45, 10 February 2011 (UTC)

There would be barely any use for it if it cannot connect to the Internet. General Rommel (talk) 09:14, 10 February 2011 (UTC)

Herr Rommel, it started me onto my first Dial-Up connection. It can also get rigged to connect to DSL or Cable. Internet won't be a problem with this one. --70.179.173.95 (talk) 09:22, 10 February 2011 (UTC)

Please don't repeat the same question - see my reply above Misplaced Pages:Reference_desk/Computing#What charities will send my 1998 Tiger K6 to the 3rd world?. Roger (talk) 09:40, 10 February 2011 (UTC)

WHOA, somebody is in a similar life-situation that I'm in! And just a few hours apart. That is so cool! Anyway, there are many African schools who'd be more than happy to take an Apple iiE or a Commodore 64; much more so with that other IP's Tiger K6, and my old PC, which is, incidentally, about the same age as he reports for his. --70.179.173.95 (talk) 09:55, 10 February 2011 (UTC)

The problem is that the schools that is most likely to take your old computer would be ones that would be hard to reach. And the ones in which you can reach probably have a computer. General Rommel (talk) 09:58, 10 February 2011 (UTC)

djvu viewer

HI! I know VuDroid but I have to install it on sort of IPad and I cannot use QR or direct download, I have to download an apk and move it to a micro SD in order to install it. Can you help me? --83.103.117.254 (talk) 09:36, 10 February 2011 (UTC)

• Misplaced Pages resources for researchers
• Misplaced Pages help forums