Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Computing/2008 January 5

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January 5

help

how do i change the explorer icon to a picture of my choice.the icon that revovles when u are surfing. 2.how do i change the boot screen on my win xp?i dont want the xp default picture. 3.are torrents legal,downloading free songs free movies and all.coz one gets a dvd for free without using any cash. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 212.22.166.182 (talk) 08:49, 5 January 2008 (UTC)

1. Use Firefox or at least IE7, IE6 is insecure, obsolete, and horrible for web developers (OK less horrible than previous versions, but still bad).
2. Use something like BootSkin.
3. No, they're copyright infringement. I would be intrigued to know where you would get a legit copy of DVD's for free. --antilived^{T | C | G} 10:44, 5 January 2008 (UTC)

Torrents and PtP is in at itself not illegal. However downloading copyrighted media when a lisence is lacking is illegal. Note however that I am not a lawyer. See the legal disclaimer. Taemyr (talk) 12:14, 5 January 2008 (UTC)

It depends on the jurisdiction and current whims of the courts as to whether the software itself is illegal for enabling mass infringment. See MGM Studios, Inc. v. Grokster, Ltd. --24.147.86.187 (talk) 17:15, 5 January 2008 (UTC)

Bad answer.. BitTorrent is definitely not in that category. Linux isos + http://www.bittorrent.com/nowplaying + wow patches + BitTorrent DNA.. --f f r o t h 20:38, 5 January 2008 (UTC)

Even DVD movie torrents aren't necessarily illegal: this one, for example, is perfectly free and legal to download and share. —Ilmari Karonen (talk) 13:40, 6 January 2008 (UTC)

Linking directly to the torrent is not all that helpfull, since the only way to see what it is would be to download the entire thing. Taemyr (talk) 14:29, 6 January 2008 (UTC)

Fair enough, though looking at the URL would probably suggest a place to find more details, as might opening the .torrent file itself in any software that can display the metadata in them. I just added it mostly for the sake of demonstrating a link to a legal torrent of a DVD image. Anyway, if it's information you want (rather than random mysterious links ;-), we do have an article on the film in question. —Ilmari Karonen (talk) 00:25, 7 January 2008 (UTC)

As to Antilived's question, I got two DVD's for free just a couple of weeks ago. They were wrapped in colorful paper under a tree in the living room, with my name on them. (And of course, not all DVD's are commercially made for profit -- some are designed to be given away, and homemade ones are almost always given away.) —Steve Summit (talk) 13:48, 5 January 2008 (UTC)

Disaster

Yestdary i installed Linux and when it was done it overwrited my vista MBR24.237.223.131 (talk) 09:45, 5 January 2008 (UTC)

You may want to try installing a boot loader onto your computer. what it does is offers a menu so you can boot into either system. When you installed it, did you pay attention to how much space on your drive was to be used on your drive? -w^{L<speak·check>} 10:25, 5 January 2008 (UTC)

Which Linux distribution did you try? Usually it will create a boot menu allowing to select which operating system to boot into. --antilived^{T | C | G} 10:46, 5 January 2008 (UTC)

The master boot record is only 512 bytes long, and easily replaced, so this shouldn't be a disaster at all. --Sean 13:00, 5 January 2008 (UTC)

The "startup repair" option off the vista dvd will restore it easily --f f r o t h 20:39, 5 January 2008 (UTC)

Be aware that this will make your Linux partition unbootable. If you plan on using both you'll need a boot loader like Lilo. APL (talk) 13:40, 7 January 2008 (UTC)

MP3 player help

I have a Sandisk Sansa c250. One day I was playing with Rockbox when accidentally I ended up moving everything on the disk to trash (in the computer). I tried recovery mode and all but all I get is the backlight to the navigation buttons (which also means the battery is not faulty?). There is no display at all.

Did I brick my mp3 player? Can this be reverted to the initial mode? Please help. (I need to do a lot of catching up to do on iTunesU.) :-( Kushal^t 13:38, 5 January 2008 (UTC)

Does the USB link work while in the black-screen recovery mode? --f f r o t h 20:37, 5 January 2008 (UTC)

It does not show up at all in Mac OS X. It does show up in Windows XP but Windows cannot install drivers for it. Kushal^t 23:49, 5 January 2008 (UTC)

Does the Sansa only have the 2 GB of memory and if I delete every file and folder on the Sansa, is there any way to make the computer recognize the hardware again? Kushal^t 19:51, 6 January 2008 (UTC)

Please reply. Kushal^t 21:34, 7 January 2008 (UTC)

I'd try booting normally, holding the left arrow at boot to boot into the old sansa firmware (I don't know if it's stored in .rockbox or in the firmware blocks, better hope it's the 2nd). If the sansa firmware comes up, use it to copy the folders back to the drive since your usb link will work --f f r o t h 17:02, 10 January 2008 (UTC)

Connecting a computer, a Playstation 3 and a television set

I'm trying to assist my son in connecting an old PC (Windows 2000), a modern television set, and a Sony Playstation 3. He has connected the video signal from the PC to the television via a VGA cable, and the video signal from the PS3 to the television set via a HDMI cable. This works excellently, and he can switch between the video inputs using the remote control of the television. However, two problems remain:

1. He wants to buy a wireless mouse and keyboard for the PC, which he also intends to use for controlling the PS3.
2. He wants to send the audio from all three devices to a set of loudspeakers, which up until now has been connected to the audio output of the PC.

I'd be grateful for advice about an optimal setup, where one could achive this, with as easy switching between the devices as possible, without spending a fortune. I'm also a bit confused about the keyboard and mouse setup. Since the PC and the PS3 are not aware of each other, how does one avoid that both devices respond to the signals from the keyboard and mouse? --NorwegianBlue ^talk 20:18, 5 January 2008 (UTC)

For the audio, connect all the audio devices to audio inputs on the TV. Then connect the loudspeakers to the TV's audio-out. This way, whichever device you're switched to on the TV will output its audio through the loudspeakers. For keyboard/mouse, I'm afraid you're out of luck -- you'll either need two separate sets, or you'll need to switch a single set between the PC and Playstation depending on which you want to use. There's no way, as far as I know, for them to "share". Equazcion •✗/C • 23:19, 5 Jan 2008 (UTC)

For the keyboard/mouse, you can use a KVM. I use an Avocent model. It allows me to change the computer from the keyboard itself. Technically, you are asking for a KM, not a KVM. But, you may want to consider running both the computer and PS3 into the KVM and running the KVM to the TV. Then, when you switch, you switch keyboard, video, and mouse all at once. You don't have to switch video with the TV remote and KM with the KVM. -- kainaw™ 02:48, 6 January 2008 (UTC)

I thought of that after posting my answer, but that would add a lot of extra wiring and complication. You'd need to get 2 more wires for the keyboard and another 2 for the mouse, along with the KVM box itself, and every time you wanted to switch you'd need to go over to the KVM and switch it -- it wouldn't be automatic. It's not worth the money, the hassle, or the added wire entanglement, if you ask me. Equazcion •✗/C • 02:54, 6 Jan 2008 (UTC)

My KVM came with 4 connections for 4 computers. It plugged in a wireless keyboard and mouse. To switch, I press "Print Screen" and then 1, 2, 3, or 4 to switch computers. There is no mess of extra wires and no hassle of going over to the KVM to switch things. -- kainaw™ 03:00, 6 January 2008 (UTC)

Thanks, Equazcion, and Kainaw. Connecting the audio from the PC to the TV was the way to go (something we would have found out if we had RTFM a bit more carefully...); it worked beautifully. Regarding the audio from the PS3, this turned out not to be a problem. I wasn't aware when posting that the HDMI cable took care of that. I did suspect that such a thing as a KVM switch had to exist, however I had no idea of what it was called. We'll check it out. Thanks again! --NorwegianBlue ^talk 16:46, 6 January 2008 (UTC)

More in memory > More electricity usage?

If I have more stuff open on my PC that I'm not using, does that equate to electricity wastage or is it written to the HD (WinXP) after a certain time and therefore not a problem? Are there certain application which wont write their stuff to the HD despite not being used for however-long and therefore will waste electricity when not in use? --Seans Potato Business 23:28, 5 January 2008 (UTC)

I don't know if having stuff in memory equates to more electricity usage but I am pretty sure that the cooling fans use much more electricity than the memory. and the fans never turn off when the computer is on, do they?

on another note, I know that at least the operating system likes to keep some of its stuff in volatile memory. Kushal^t 23:45, 5 January 2008 (UTC)

If you have autosave enabled, programs like Office 2003 will save the changes to a new location in the hard disk, but the main point is it saves it in the Hard disk itself. Kushal^t 23:48, 5 January 2008 (UTC)

The number of programs you leave open will have almost no bearing on electricity usage. Equazcion •✗/C • 23:52, 5 Jan 2008 (UTC)

DRAM will use the same amount of electricity refreshing its cells whether it's being used or not. Whether a memory cell is being used or not only means whether the data in the cell is useful or not, but it still take electricity to refresh the capacitors regardless. --antilived^{T | C | G} 02:44, 6 January 2008 (UTC)

Thanks, guys --Seans Potato Business 13:00, 6 January 2008 (UTC)