Computing desk
< April 5	<< Mar \| April \| May >>	April 7 >

Welcome to the Wikipedia Computing Reference Desk Archives
The page you are currently viewing is an archive page. While you can leave answers for any questions shown below, please ask new questions on one of the current reference desk pages.

April 6

Screenshot in Adobe Photoshop CS2?

How do I take a screenshot in Adobe Photoshop CS2? 68.193.147.179 01:07, 6 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Press PrintScreen, open a new document in Photoshop (or any other image editor for that matter, even Paint), paste. --antilived^{T | C | G} 01:38, 6 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Disable ClearType if you capture text. Cacycle 13:08, 6 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Grub menu

how do you delete or rename items in the Grub menu at startup? Thanks!--71.195.124.101 01:33, 6 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Edit /boot/grub/menu.lst as root. --antilived^{T | C | G} 01:37, 6 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]

bit torrents

hello, im new to bit torrents and im wondering what steps to take in order to put a dvd torrent on a dvd disc to play it on my home dvd player? —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 60.230.51.250 (talk) 08:02, 6 April 2007 (UTC).[reply]

I'm assuming you've already downloaded the files? If the files are > 4.5 GB and you don't have a DVD-9 blank, you should recompress. Else, just burn using Nero or any appropriate burning software. Splintercellguy 08:15, 6 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Excellent thanks for that.Well I was kind of also thinking that I might of had to download a burning program or something special for dvd's, as you can see I am a novice at this, may I say thank god for wikipedia. I downloaded the linux torrent the other night and all i have are some useless files that I dont know what to do with. It was the Linux Light version. Having never used linux before I thought it might be fun to have a look. Once again thanks. ; )

Superior notepad

Hi - I'm looking for a program like notepad (on Windows), but which has greater features. The specific feature that I'm looking for is the ability to alphabetise lists (with one item per line). If anyone know of such a program (on Windows), I'll be most grateful! Thanks, Mart inp23 10:48, 6 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Try Notepad++ or UltraEdit32. The first is free and opensource and the second available on trial for 30 days. I don't know if they have the specific feature you're asking for, but if they haven't it, that I'm quite sure that no other notepad has it. Snowolf ^(talk) _CON ^COI - 10:52, 6 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Excel can alphabeticise lists, as can Word! JoshHolloway 12:16, 6 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Or just use the good old sort and some bash scripting. --antilived^{T | C | G} 12:38, 6 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Ask for the addition of this feature into the Wikipedia in-browser editor wikEd. If implemented, this could allow you to sort lists of wiki links after the displayed link titles. :-) Cacycle 13:06, 6 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]

TextPad can do it. If you are just working with lists, try Raptor (surf around here). x42bn6 Talk 17:57, 6 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Although TextPad will fall down if you try to work with unicode. dr.ef.tymac 18:17, 6 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Yeah, shame about that... I have rendered so many articles useless because of that, unknowingly. I guess Raptor is best, then, although it can only work with lists. x42bn6 Talk 18:19, 6 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]

How about emacs? You can get it for Windows too, you know. And yes, it does sort lists (and does pretty much everything else you could think of, too). —Ilmari Karonen (talk) 02:08, 8 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]

You might also want to take a look at Comparison of text editors. —Ilmari Karonen (talk) 02:12, 8 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Country-specific internet search

The advanced Google search features don't include a country field. How can I restrict a web search to sites specific to one country (specifically Australia)? (Including "Australia" in the seach terms doesn't work.) Thanks.Shantavira 11:50, 6 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]

It won't be perfect, but if you ask it to search the .au domain. Anchoress 11:55, 6 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Go to the country specific site (in the case of Austrailia its - http://www.google.com.au) type your advanced search, when the global results come up just check the "pages from Austrialia" checkbox and click search again. Google remembers your search terms between searches and anything accessible from the advanced search can be expressed in a standard search request.

Elaverick 13:30, 6 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Type "site:au" in the Google search field in addition to your search terms. E.g.:

site:au hotel cheap

(Anonymous)

Excel: Calculating average of a product of two columns

I am trying to calculate the total average time to complete a case where I have two columns Column A is number of cases and Column B is the Average duration.

I can't just average column b, because if on day 1 there was 1 case solved in 60 min and on day 2 there were two cases solved in an average of 120 min If you strictly average the durations you get 90 min (60 + 120) / 2. If you multiply by the # of cases first you get 100 minutes (1*60 + 2*120) / 3.

the excel formula would look something like this, but this does not work. sum(a1*b1:a2*b2)/sum(a1:a2)

I could create an extra column to contain the product, but I was wondering if I could do somthing that looks like this.

Excel gives an error and automaticlly convets the formula to sum(a1*a1:b2*b2)/sum(a1:a2)

thanks, Czmtzc 13:38, 6 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Solved it myself. Needed to use Sumproduct: sumproduct((a1:a2)*(b1:b2))/sum(a1:a2)-Czmtzc 13:47, 6 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Character Palette

Image:Character Palette.png Does Windows have anything similar to Character Palette for a Mac? Nebraska bob 14:12, 6 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]

I'm not familiar with Mac OS, but all versions of Windows have included the Character Map utility. --LarryMac 14:20, 6 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]

I've linkfied the picture. Please, no "fair use" images outside of the article namespace. --cesarb 20:57, 6 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Loophole in blocking IP adresses

I have noticed that everytime I switch my ROUTER on my IP changes, but always in a range 52........... Also while I checked my latest USER: contributions I saw some contribs tht were not done by me. My friend explained something like "IPs in my network providers' range are DYNAMIC and they change everytime I log on. And they pass frm one person to another in the network. So your IP is never constant!"

So this implies That if an IP address is 'blocked' the real culprit can never be penalised as he does not hv a fixed IP. On the other hand it is a headache passed to someone else in the network.

Isn't this a loophole in blocking of IPs. Can anyone explain? Please!!!

Also how can I check my contribs. which are solely mine. As it is hurting to see someone who got my 'once' IP vandalizing and giving me a bad name.

I know making a UserID may help. Can anyone explain please. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 59.182.27.59 (talk) 15:13, 6 April 2007 (UTC).[reply]

Just go here, fill out the form, and press "Create Account". --TotoBaggins 15:51, 6 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Yes, it is a problem. But so far, no one has come up with a better solution to limit vandalism. If you have one, please speak up! There are even more ambiguous cases such as large institutions (high school, college campus, megacorporation) with large internal networks connecting outside through a carefully controlled firewall. All those zillions of users appear outside to be at the same IP address, or one of a few. If only there were a unique identifier for the particular PC—or, better yet—for the biometric fingerprint/retina scan of the logged in user to key off of.

Despite the ambiguity, this scheme does work for many users. This computer is connected through the local cable ISP, but my public IP address remains the same for many months at a time (maybe over a year?), even though the broadband modem is power cycled from time to time. —EncMstr 17:32, 6 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]

The fact is that it takes less time to block a given IP than it does to switch it — especially when more than one admin is on the case. So even if you are very dedicated you are quickly going to run out of available IPs, and in any case it is easy to revert vandalism. So in the end the vandal has to be pretty committed to causing trouble to make it more than a momentary thing, and even then their trouble will be quickly erased. --140.247.251.165 17:42, 6 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Of course it's a loophole. It's the reason you see IP talk pages with lines and lines of warnings and yet when you go through the contributions, you find loads of good faith edits (as well as mindless vandalism). Creating an account is always a good idea. Even if vandals create accounts too, they waste their time validating and registering emails, when sysops ban in 1 or 2 keystrokes. In other words, vandals can't win. If vandalism becomes widespread, there are things that Wikipedia can do such as range blocks, or in serious cases, a lockdown of the database. x42bn6 Talk 17:55, 6 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Um, I agree, but you don't have to enter an email/validate it for an account on WP. -Wo o ty Woot? contribs 00:49, 7 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Wireless internet problem

I have a weird problem with wireless internet on my IBM thinkpad T60. Every now and then, the wireless internet stops working. I have pasted on the right what I observe on my desktop tray. The wireless internet icon shows green waves permanently, and completely stops responding. It shows "excellent" signal strength, and the status is "connected", but it stops showing the name of the network. Everything related to networks connections, even in Control Panel stops responding. This can happen any time, and the only solution I have found till now is to switch off and restart again (shut down doesn't work.) I have even tried reinstalling my network driver. Any ideas what the problem might be? deeptrivia (talk) 17:47, 6 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]

I've been having the same problem - when I try to repair the connection (in XP), I'm told that it cannot retrieve DNS settings. The way that I've fixed this in the past is to restart the router, though this is being successful less often, leaving me wondering whether my use of WPA encryption is cauing issue on old hardware. (Note that I'm desciribng the problem here on 2 other systems, neither of which are thinkpads)Mart inp23 17:52, 6 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]

PS: This problem doesn't happen on other laptops, including T60s on the same wireless router. deeptrivia (talk) 18:16, 6 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Wild guess here, but since it's "connection 2", could it possibly be trying to connect to the same network twice with two separate adapters? -Wo o ty Woot? contribs 00:47, 7 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Might be a DHCP sever error, take a look in your router setting and make sure that the DHCP sever option is enabled, then go into the TCP/IP properties on your laptop and set them to obtain an IP address automaticly. --Lwarf 09:44, 7 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]

"connection 2" is because I reinstalled network driver in an attempt to solve the problem. All other laptops work fine on the same router, so I don't think there's a problem with the router. And with my laptop, the same problem happens on different router at different locations. Thanks for the suggestions, and I'm still looking for the solution. deeptrivia (talk) 15:48, 7 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Your firewall or router's firewall could be the cause. You might experiment by disabling your firewall(s) temporarily to see if that still happens. If you try repair a connection for example - once again the firewall(s) can either prevent it completely or make it take ages. If you do notice a major difference with the firewalls disabled, try looking into that. Rfwoolf 19:45, 7 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]

If I were you, I would get the IP addresses of all of your network infastructure (Router, DHCP server etc.) when your network connection is working. When it goes down (but still indicates that the connection is up with the green bars.), try pinging (by typing "ping x.x.x.x -t" into the "run" dialog, or a command prompt) them from inside to outside. The problem lays between the last one you can get to and the first one you can't. It could be physical hardware or software (network authentication / DHCP) though. Also, I sometimes have trouble when people turn on the microwave... 24.68.64.122 05:13, 10 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]

LG DVD firmware update

I need to update the firware of my LG GSA-4167 which is currently on my primary IDE, but the "read me" file of the update software says I should place the device on the secondary IDE controller before running the firmware update. At the moment it's impractical for me to do so, so do you think I could do the update as it is anyway? Or would it cause problems? --Sn0wflake 18:43, 6 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]

This also happened to me...and unfortunately it did not let me Update the firmware in this configuration...there someway to bypass this? Maybe a command line / shortcut command? Although I don't think an update will help my burner because I cannot burn double layer discs and I've read recently on forums that LG drives are known for their 2nd laser which burns the other Layer failing. Anyone know if this is true?

200.12.231.42 22:51, 6 April 2007 (UTC) Ag for MemTech[reply]

You may have to take out the burner and attach it to another computer to perform the upgrade. I did an LG upgrade recently, and it asked me to take off the slave disk that was on the same cable. I was able to follow the instructions, and the firmware upgrade did work. I had a lot of trouble finding a genuine firmware however. The firmware upgrade is very sensitive and if it screws up will damage the drive. GB 05:52, 10 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Internet browser windows

What's it called when an inactive internet broswer window forces itself to become active once it's finished loading, hence "snatching" away your attention? I've often had this happen with webmail programs; I open the webmail, then a new window, begin typing an address, and find the windows "switch" in the middle of my writing, sometimes resulting in a text input I never intended. It seems like this might be related to the way some popup ads can hide by sticking themselves behind other windows. Any word for this "feature"? $\sim$ Lenoxus " * " 20:06, 6 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]

It is called Focus stealing --LarryMac 20:14, 6 April 2007 (UTC) (oops, fixed my wikilink).[reply]

There is a hidden feature in Windows called "prevent focus stealing" or something along those lines. Don't remember much about it, though, and it could be related to open windows only. --Sn0wflake 20:23, 6 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]

I'd like to know how to prevent that myself. I often start loading a page in one browser window, then start typing in another, only to be interrupted when the first window loads and insists on stealing the focus back. StuRat 01:45, 7 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Got it... here it is: [1] --Sn0wflake 01:56, 7 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks. StuRat 05:25, 7 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Photoshop's weak text support

With Photoshop CS and CS2 (haven't tested CS3), everytime i type some text with the Text Tool, I noticed that the quality of the text is not as good as text editors. For example, when I print using optimal DPI and printer settings, the text shows up quite visibly pixelated when compared to text printed with Microsoft Word. This could be perhaps that the text is turned into pixels when you type in PS, but regardless, is there any way to change the quality of the text in photoshop so that it matches the quality in text editors such as Microsoft Word? Jamesino 23:25, 6 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Go to the place where you rezie images (forgot the exact name), increase the dpi to at least 300, and that will make your text look better. --antilived^{T | C | G} 00:24, 7 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Yeah, you need to set the overall DPI higher, because your printer is using a higher DPI than your file is supporting. Text in a program like Word automatically takes advantage of how much DPI your printer can operate at (as it stores it as vector directions, not a bitmap), but a bitmap editor like Photoshop will not automatically do that. If your laser printer prints at 600 DPI then you'll need to make your image at 600 DPI as well. --24.147.86.187 17:23, 8 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Also turn off anti-aliasing. Anti-aliased print looks mushy when printed. You want sharp cheap lines at 300 dpi or better. (Most inkjets can output at least 400 dpi for hard edges) For best results (and to keep file sizes down), import your 200 dpi Photoshop image and compose your text in Illustrator or InDesign. Your image will output at the optimal 200 lpi density while text will output at the printer's maximum resolution. It's what the pros do! ;) --24.249.108.133 20:53, 10 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Snipping Tool in Windows Vista

Is there a way to download the snipping tool in Windows Vista to my Windows XP Home laptop? 68.193.147.179 23:27, 6 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Linux and graphics cards

Hi, does anyone have suggestions for a cheap and well supported graphics card for openSUSE linux? Thanks!--Ryan 23:47, 6 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]

NV cards have good proprietary driver support, internal intel graphics card have great built in open source drivers, radeons can use the opensource r200 driver for the 9x00 series (I think) or install the proprietary fglrx driver. --antilived^{T | C | G} 00:18, 7 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]

As far as cheap cards go, you could try the reasonable GeForce 5700 (packs a fair punch and is very cheap nowadays) or the 6200, which is basically the same thing, but slightly more powerful and slightly more expensive. I have used the 6200 for a while and can attest that it holds very well, despite not being amazingly powerful. --Sn0wflake 01:32, 7 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Computing/2007 April 6

Contents