Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Computing/2007 February 15

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February 15

Embedding Flash into Powerpoint

Is there anyway that I can embed a Macromedia/Adobe Flash animation into a Microsoft Powerpoint presentation? Jamesino 00:07, 15 February 2007 (UTC)

Yessir, there are instructions here. If that fails (haven't tried it myself), there's plenty more on Google. — Matt Eason ^{(Talk • Contribs)} 00:38, 15 February 2007 (UTC)

Thank you =). Jamesino 01:10, 15 February 2007 (UTC)

Sending Folders

Is there anyway I can email a folder and all it's contents to someone either through e-mail or MSN Messenger? I have over 100 seperates files in the folder, which makes sending them one by one extremely cumbersome. Thanks. Jamesino 01:10, 15 February 2007 (UTC)

The easiest way is to zip the folder and send the compressed file. --cesarb 01:17, 15 February 2007 (UTC)

Yes zip is good but BE CAREFUL! A lot of people don't realise that email still requires bandwidth. It's generally not a great idea to send more then 5MB in email especially over the internet, unless you know both the dispatch and receiver can handle it. Many email providers outright block attachments that are bigger. Unfortunately saying "100 files" doesn't mean anything, if they are small it may still mean mean <1MB, but if they are bigger it could mean >50MB, in which case it is a bad idea to send it in one shot. You could consider sending a CD. Vespine 04:24, 15 February 2007 (UTC)

Really? Many? I've never encountered one. But on another note, you can send large files via ICQ and YahooIM, and undoubtedly other chat programs also. Anchoress 04:27, 15 February 2007 (UTC)

Gmail rejects attachments over 10mb. And my ISP still only provides a measly 5mb account limit (altho I think they don't reject email past the limit however they might complain if you keep going way over the limit). I use MSN to send files, unfortunately it's a bit crappy in that it requires UPNP if you want to be directly accesible and if both? (or one) or the parties it's not it goes through the MSN server so can be a bit slow. Personally I use FTP when I need to send fair number of large files if both the sender and receiver are online 203.109.240.93 13:54, 15 February 2007 (UTC)

For even very large files, there are many free (ad-funded) transfer sites, such as rapidshare.com, yousendit.com, and mediafire.com. --TotoBaggins 15:32, 15 February 2007 (UTC)

For the record, emailing binary data (including zipped text) imposes a constant-factor overhead on your bandwidth; I believe that the ratio is 4/3 (see base64), but it's approximate anyway since you have text and constant overhead (like headers). --Tardis 02:06, 16 February 2007 (UTC)

IE 7.0 -- PLEASE HELP!

In IE 7.0, can you zoom in then, move to a different area? 68.193.147.179 02:45, 15 February 2007 (UTC)

? You can click on the zoom area in the righthand part of the bottom bar, and control how much zoom. It does seem that everytime you change the zoom you move back to the top of a page. I have to move back down to what I wanted to see larger. Shenme 02:55, 15 February 2007 (UTC)

Can I zoom in, then, change the area that it zoomed in?? 68.193.147.179 02:57, 15 February 2007 (UTC)

I'm not really an IE user (Ubuntu FTW!), but I think zooming merely increases the text and image sizes, rather than actually "zooming". If not, I'm sure you can just use the horizonatal and vertical scroll bars to move around. --saxsux 20:12, 20 February 2007 (UTC)

RE: Printing Problem (QUESTION)

Duplicate of a section above, merged both sections. Please answer here instead. --cesarb 15:11, 15 February 2007 (UTC)

Ti84+ programming

Hi! Is there a windows based program where I can write a program to load into a Ti84+ calculator? I mean I can do it on the calculator but it's a lot more fiddly. Thank You! --203.54.74.70 09:01, 15 February 2007 (UTC)

Offhand, I would suggest you go to TiCalc, a website for information about programming. Splintercellguy 16:01, 15 February 2007 (UTC)

It's a lot easier to do it on the calculator once you get used to it --froth^T 21:43, 15 February 2007 (UTC)

If the anon is planning on writing complex assembly programs, a computer is probably necessary. Splintercellguy 06:51, 16 February 2007 (UTC)

cingular vm access numbers

explain what this means, access numbers, my vm access number is out of MN and i'm in IA

-- You should call Cingular to find the voicemail access number for the area where you are located. They may have an 800 number by which you can access your voicemail if you are outside of your regular calling area, or if you call the MN access number, they may consider it a local call. 12.174.151.111

Codecs?

I sometimes i download videos and it says i dont have a codec or something, i watch divx videos fine but how do i find out what codec i need for videos what dont say? Thanks... 58.160.221.11 12:58, 15 February 2007 (UTC)

The codec pack ffdshow can be installed and supplies most of the codecs needed. If this doesn't work then you can download a program called g-spot which will identify the codec needed. The_Man_Stephen^talk 15:09, 15 February 2007 (UTC)

Use the VLC media player. I will play pretty much anything. I haven't worried about codecs in years because of it. Oskar 16:20, 16 February 2007 (UTC)

A reliable ADSL modem/router?

I manage the IT for a company with several branch offices. Each office gets its internet connectivity via (BT) ADSL through a Netgear DG834G firewall/router box. Randomly, but very roughly once a month, one office or other loses its connection (the box generally reports everything is okay, but no traffic gets through); power-cycling the Netgear generally fixes things. I'd really like to replace these with a more robust solution, one that can be relied upon to work for months on end without the occasional reboot. Can y'all recommend a more reliable solution (but still only for a small office of 4-8 people with a 2Mb ADSL connection and not really much traffic)? We don't mind paying more than the very modest cost of consumer grade Linksys/Netgear equipment, if we'd get better reliability as a result. We're in the UK, incidentally. -- Freduardo Bolivar 14:35, 15 February 2007 (UTC)

One option would be to use a m0n0wall box or something similar for the firewall/router and just use the 'router' as a modem. 203.109.240.93 14:55, 15 February 2007 (UTC)

You can pick up these to avoid the crappy telco-provided modems. Droud 02:18, 16 February 2007 (UTC)

Ahh, another m0n0wall fan, I second the recommendation. I have it running on an old PII box handling all the routing/firewall functions, as well as traffic shaping/QoS for a medium-sized home network, and could not be happier. As for robustness/reliability, my current record is 56 days straight of 100% uptime (I've only been using it since Oct 06-ish), and the only reason I had to end that, or ever restart for that matter is when I change a setting that requires it. I've never had it actually crash on me Cyraan 21:15, 16 February 2007 (UTC)

Depleted Uranium

In your references for Depleted Uranium you failed to include my article: I will try to enclose it. Dr. Rosalie Bertell216.178.94.19 15:37, 15 February 2007 (UTC)

International Journal of Health Services, Volume 36, Number 3, Pages 503–520, 2006 © 2006, Baywood Publishing Co., Inc.

Occupational Hazards of War DEPLETED URANIUM: ALL THE QUESTIONS ABOUT DU AND GULF WAR SYNDROME ARE NOT YET ANSWERED by Rosalie Bertell

There were some errors in the printing and I would be glad to provide errata (they can also be found in the next printing of the journal)

Does said Wikipedia article actually quote from or otherwise use material from your article? -- mattb @ 2007-02-15T18:17Z

Well there's nothing stopping you from including it and editing the page

Mix Lord 01:00, 16 February 2007 (UTC)

lost password

I have a problem on mac 10.2.3 jaguar as adimistrator I have mac,s password that was installed in the computer when I bourt it , need help to change password of find the mac passwora

Don't post the same question twice. If you have a Mac OS X install CD, you can boot from that (by putting it in and holding down C) and there is an option in the installer to reset password. Alternately, you might be able to boot into single-user mode and change it from there, but that's more complicated. --Spoon! 21:18, 15 February 2007 (UTC)

Computer keyboard -> Midi

What's the easier way to record a midi file using a computer keyboard? I'm not doing anythign fancy, just a simple little jingle, nothing worth buying a special midi keyboard for. I have access to Cakewalk Sonar 4 Producer edition, but haven't had any luck finding such a "virtual keyboard" in there. --Alecmconroy 19:25, 15 February 2007 (UTC)

I use Bome's Mouse Keyboard tool for the keyboard, and MidiYoke for the 'virtual' midi devices. Install MidiYoke first, then Bome's Mouse Keyboard. Johnnykimble 19:59, 15 February 2007 (UTC)

There are also many free trackers out there which you might look into. --24.147.86.187 03:27, 16 February 2007 (UTC)

lost password

I have a problem on mac10.2.3 jaguar. As the Adimistrator I have lost Mac.s password that Mac installed in the computer when I bought it Ineed help to change password or find the mac password

This article on the apple site (http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=151815) may be of use. You need the installation CD to be able to change the administrator password though. I've had to do this before and it's easy enough. ny156uk 22:04, 15 February 2007 (UTC)

Hmmm so does that mean that if I have the Mac OS X installation CD I can potentially acquire admin account on any Mac using OS X? Or does it have some sort of special key that makes it only work with the system that was installed from that particular CD? --antilived^{T | C | G} 05:00, 16 February 2007 (UTC)

Of course. Similarly, you can trivially change passwords on Windows and Linux and most other OSs, if you have the ability to boot to a floppy or CD of your choice. (This is because when you boot an OS, it gets control over all the hardware in the computer, including the hard drive containing your passwords, so it can easily overwrite it.) There are ways to change settings in the Open Firmware of the Mac (equivalent of the BIOS in PCs) so it requires a password to boot to CDs or something, but there are ways around that too. In general, for any OS or system, it is almost always true that if you have complete physical access to a machine, you have complete control over it. --Spoon! 21:25, 16 February 2007 (UTC)