Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Computing/2007 May 11

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May 11

keylogger...

I have an inactive keylogger (two months) in my computer but it hasn't hijack my computer or my account password (i.e. my PrestonH account). Is the keylogger dead or has the keylogger not been used?--69.228.148.219 01:35, 11 May 2007 (UTC)

How do you know it hasn't hijacked any of your accounts? Someone could have been (for example) reading your private mail all along...

One of the reasons security compromises are such a pain is that it is such a pain to clean up after them. Theoretically, you should wipe your machine clean and reinstall the operating system and all your applications from scratch; that's the only way to make absolutely sure that no infectious remnants remain. Barring that, a good antivirus program can (I gather) do a decent job of eradicating malware (as long as it's known malware). But living with that shit on your computer, hoping it doesn't cause too much damage, that sounds like (sorry to be blunt here) a pretty foolhardy strategy to me... —Steve Summit (talk) 01:44, 11 May 2007 (UTC)

I have an antivirus program, a firewall, and an anti-spyware program but I'm unable to remove the keylogger (Also I have parental conteols on so I don't get email). What should I do?--69.228.148.219 01:56, 11 May 2007 (UTC)

How do you know that there's a keylogger there in the first place? -- Consumed Crustacean (talk) 02:14, 11 May 2007 (UTC)

I ran an anti-spyware program and I found a keylogger.--69.228.148.219 02:20, 11 May 2007 (UTC)

Remove it ASAP, and reformat if you have to. Splintercellguy 02:29, 11 May 2007 (UTC)

Got it.--PrestonH^{(Review Me!) • (Sign Here!)} 02:32, 11 May 2007 (UTC)

If you cannot remove the offending software through a complete re-install of the system, your other alternative may be to boot from a LiveCD such as Knoppix (provided, of course, it comes from a source you trust). dr.ef.tymac 16:22, 11 May 2007 (UTC)

Database query (MS SQL 2000).

How do I frame the query/ script to select a value from a database table if the value contains an apostrophe character (')? For example, a database entry which goes like this: MARCIE'S RESTAURANT MANHATTAN. I do not wish to use the LIKE filter when formulating the query. --203.199.21.58 08:35, 11 May 2007 (UTC)

Try using double quotes around the words, so the where clause would look like this:

WHERE BUSINESS.NAME = "MARCIE'S RESTAURANT MANHATTAN"

StuRat 08:50, 11 May 2007 (UTC)

Nope. Doesn't work. --203.199.21.58 09:20, 11 May 2007 (UTC)

You use quotes to escape quotes, so your WHERE clause would be

WHERE business.name = 'MARCIE''S RESTAURANT MANHATTAN'

— Matt Eason ^{(Talk • Contribs)} 10:55, 11 May 2007 (UTC)

Nope. Doesn't work. Only MARCIE will be read (if at all) since the single quotation mark ends after MARCIE. --203.199.21.58 11:29, 11 May 2007 (UTC)

What error message do you get when you run the query with that WHERE clause? It's definitely syntactically correct (I double-checked). SQL Server sees the two single quotes and interprets them as one single quote within the string, so it shouldn't only read 'MARCIE'. I agree with Steve Summit below - if it's a user providing the input you should probably be using parameterized queries. — Matt Eason ^{(Talk • Contribs)} 13:03, 11 May 2007 (UTC)

Try this...

WHERE BUSINESS.NAME = "MARCIE" + Chr(39) + "S RESTAURANT MANHATTAN"

- X201 12:06, 11 May 2007 (UTC)

Are these individual queries you're interactively invoking, or are you constructing them on-the-fly based on requests your users are submitting? That is, are your users typing things like "marcie's restaurant manhattan" into a search box, and you're constructing the SQL query into your database?

If the latter, you must learn about parameterized SQL queries (also known as "prepared statements" and sometimes referred to as "bind variables"). These are a little more abstract and require a little more work to set up at first, but they're less work than trying to reliably quote apostrophes and other special characters yourself. More importantly, though, they insulate you from code injection attacks.

If you construct regular (non-prepared) queries on-the-fly based on arbitrary user input, and unless you're fantastically careful, a canny attacker will figure out a way to construct goofy search strings which subvert your ad-hoc quoting scheme in order to execute arbitrary SQL code on your database! Not a pleasant thought. —Steve Summit (talk) 12:39, 11 May 2007 (UTC)

I don't know if you've managed to get a successful search string yet, but one thing to watch out for is that there are many things that look like single-quotes but really aren't. Users will routinely enter in backticks and double-quotes and smart quotes and weird MS-Word specific things that they've cut-and-pasted. It can be challenging to cover them all. Users are dum. :( --TotoBaggins 13:48, 11 May 2007 (UTC)

No, users aren't 'dum'. Database designers who fail to set up sufficient input masks to protect against good-faith data entry errors are 'dum'. Anchoress 14:40, 11 May 2007 (UTC)

It is a combination of both. How do you mask the entry field for "What city were you born in?" so the user cannot enter "A-Town Biatch"? Do you suggest a drop list of every city in the country? --Kainaw ^(talk) 16:42, 11 May 2007 (UTC)

"A-Town Biatch" isn't a good-faith data entry error. Anchoress 17:09, 11 May 2007 (UTC)

While I was being somewhat tongue in cheek, I have observed over many years of engineering work that Murphy's Law is trebly in effect when there is a computer involved. --TotoBaggins 17:46, 11 May 2007 (UTC)

I agree with Anchoress, any good programmer should check for likely inputs during the input validation phase. This would include using characters like "`" instead of "'". I would do so by remapping such characters, using a "code page", wherever they are found, before running the query, rather than have each query contain multiple cases. StuRat 17:54, 11 May 2007 (UTC)

You could just use the ` symbol as an apostrophe. 71.34.246.188 00:21, 16 May 2007 (UTC)

World wind error

File:World Wind Error.JPG

error message

I downloaded NASA's World Wind, but I keep getting this error message and I don't trust myself to pick through my computer and fix it. Help? - AMP'd 18:03, 11 May 2007 (UTC)

World Wind needs an additional windows component, .NET, to run. Run Windows Update and it'll let you download .NET v2. -- Finlay McWalter | Talk 18:09, 11 May 2007 (UTC)

Go to microsoft's website and download the latest version of the .NET framework. -- Phoeba Wright^OBJECTION! 18:23, 11 May 2007 (UTC)

Actually IIRC .net frameworks across top level versions are not backwards compatible. If it ask for .net framework 2, you need the latest net framework 2. 3 by itself is no use. If it asks for 1, 2 or 3 are no use... Nil Einne 11:30, 13 May 2007 (UTC)

.NET 3.0 is a superset of 2.0, so 2.0 applications are compatible with 3.0. Our article on .NET 3.0 says that its installer will install 2.0 first if it's not present. Amp'd - you need to install this. — Matt Eason ^{(Talk • Contribs)} 16:35, 13 May 2007 (UTC)

OK, thanks a lot everyone, World Wind is working, albeit taking up the collassal amount of memory that it does. - AMP'd 22:00, 13 May 2007 (UTC)

Fastest copy method

What is the fastest way to copy drive "C" onto another drive so that I can replace drive "C" with the other drive without having to reinstall Windows? 71.100.2.43 18:08, 11 May 2007 (UTC)

Personally if I had to do this task I'd:

• boot into a live cd like knoppix or ubuntu linux
• dd the old disk to the new one
• (assuming the new disk is bigger than the old one) resize the partition with gparted

-- Finlay McWalter | Talk 18:13, 11 May 2007 (UTC)

But frankly I'd try hard to avoid having to do this. It's a much better idea to keep your data (files you've created, photos you've taken, music and video you've made or downloaded) on a seperate disk to the operating system. That way you can safely upgrade the operating system without worrying about what'll happen to the data. You can even transplant the data disk into a new computer (even one with a different operating system) and everything should just work. So in your circumstance I'd really recommend:

• unplug the old disk, plug in the new one
• install windows fresh on it (although I'd worth pointing out that for many people that recent Linux distributions like the aforementioned Ubuntu linux really are quite a credible platform)
• plug in the old disk (with things set up so the new one is the one that boots) Lets say it gets the drive letter E:
• delete e:/windows and e:/Program_files
• now that e: is your data drive (and there's lots of space now, because you've removed windows and your applications)

This process is complicated somewhat by so many programs putting important stuff (like email) in the atrocity that is the "application data" folder. -- Finlay McWalter | Talk 18:19, 11 May 2007 (UTC)

LAN and Intranet.

What the difference, there doesn't seem to be one. Ken 18:56, 11 May 2007 (UTC)

The chief difference is captured in the first sentence of Intranet - An intranet is a private computer network that uses Internet protocols (emphasis added). You can have a LAN that uses another protocol. Additionally, an Intranet can exist on a WAN. --LarryMac | Talk 18:59, 11 May 2007 (UTC)

Consider a university campus. Each building has a LAN, and these are interconnected to form the University's intranet. Say the University has a second campus in another city - the two networks of each campus will be connected (by a leased line or a VPN connection) forming a single intranet. They're still distinct from The Internet as a whole because the intranet is still behind the university's firewall, and there will typically be lots of stuff that machines in the intranet will make available only to their intranet comrades. -- Finlay McWalter | Talk 19:01, 11 May 2007 (UTC)

That helped until you mentioned the Campus in another city, I was under the impression that was an extranet. Completely unrelated is why an accountancy student (ie me), needs to know all this. Ken 19:07, 11 May 2007 (UTC)

Please read extranet. It states that an extranet is used to provide connectivity to organizations outside the intranet's organization. So, if a university (as a single organization) is in two cities, the combined network that each uses may be connected as an intranet. If the government wants access to certain things to monitor what is going on, the government would be using an extranet -- part of the intranet designed specifically for use by an outside organization. --Kainaw ^(talk) 19:13, 11 May 2007 (UTC)

"extranet" seems to be a marketing word that means little. If anything, I'd take it's first meaning, as you say (the university allowing limited access to its outsourced payroll contractor is a rather less sinister example). The 2nd and 4th paragraphs of that article suggest the word extranet means whatever the guy trying to sell you one says it means :) -- Finlay McWalter | Talk 19:16, 11 May 2007 (UTC)

As to why an accountant might care (I'm goofing off here a bit...): Governments these days like to give grants and tax breaks to businesses and educational institutions for "Internet" things (because someone persuaded them that the internet was somehow a good thing). Does an intranet transmitted over an encrypted internet connection qualify for these breaks? Does an extranet (which allows the company to outsource functions to cheap workers in Ulan Bator? Persuade the revenue service or the tax court that it does and make your client happy. -- Finlay McWalter | Talk 19:26, 11 May 2007 (UTC)

In the computing industry, any time some commercial outfit can successfully assign a new name to an old concept, there is a lot of money to be made in selling the old package in a new name. This is why you find a lot of stuff in cyber space that sounds like it is the same thing.

As an accountacy student you must be familiar with outside auditors. They have data on multiple clients, each with an Intranet, LAN WAN, whatever, they might not even be calling it by correct names. The auditors need to connect to the data bases on each client system to get whatever data they need, they need to keep it all confidential, they do not want one client to see another client's data. We have the same thing with all sorts of consultants and supply chain business partners.

Check out current C-Span hearings into Va tech & guns for people with mental health problems. The number of police data bases is staggering, along with the legal complexities of who may access which ones, for what purposes, and risks of errors in each.

You running some business. You want customers to see data on what you doing for them, but you don't want one customer to see your data on another customer. Good security is practical if any Internet connection is over something encrypted using reliable hosts. What if ma bell is breached? What if you using some other 3rd party in your communications and they are breached? This means that as soon as VPN or any other connection system becomes very popular, ti also becomes a hacker magnet, and there is temptation by some customers to buy into marketing claims of some alternative that is more secure. User:AlMac|^(talk) 20:39, 12 May 2007 (UTC)

Changing movie format

Hello

Is there any way or program (free) that will allow you to change a movie from one format (particually .MOV) into one which is accepted by Windows Movie Maker?

(I have Windows XP professional edition)

Thanks, --84.64.34.174 19:30, 11 May 2007 (UTC)

This page and several others suggest that "RAD Video Tools" will work to convert MOV to AVI, which should work with Movie Maker. --LarryMac | Talk 20:31, 11 May 2007 (UTC)

VLC might be able to do the trick. Splintercellguy 20:55, 11 May 2007 (UTC)

VLC can - use File, Wizard, Transcode to file and follow the instructions. Might save the result in it's Program Files folder, just to be annoying. FFMPEG will also do it. --h2g2bob (talk) 19:12, 12 May 2007 (UTC)

Computer going haywire

This sucks. So now, every time I turn on my laptop, it works fine for about a minute or two, and then an error board comes up telling me that svchost.exe has failed or something to that effect, and I can only press OK to close it or cancel to debug it. After I do either, an End Process message pops up to tell me that Generic Host Manager (I think) is not operating correctly and needs to close. Once this happens, my computer becomes nonfunctional in any variety of ways. The first is simply that it wont connect to the internet (when I ask it to connect it says it's connecting for an infinite amount of time)and the speakers wont work. When I click on the volume icon in the system tray, it says some garbage about the mechanism not being attached (these are laptop speakers we're talking about), and when I try to install them, it goes nowhere. The other thing that can happen is the computer will become a nonresponsive bunch of icons. If I click on, say, Mozilla, the cursor will turn to the loading hourglass for three or four seconds, but nothing will happen. I can double click indefinitely, and nothing will happen. This is the same with all my media players, the volume icon, Word, etc (though I can still open folders.) So then I have nothing I can do with my computer but shut it down or use already opened programs (my current situtation--I got on the internet before the svchost warning.) What the hell is the problem here, and how might I fix it? Is this something I should go see a computer specialist about, or can I handel it on my own? Thanks, 70.108.216.222 22:02, 11 May 2007 (UTC)

Use windows system restore to wind the computer back to a time when you remember it being okay. -- Finlay McWalter | Talk 22:08, 11 May 2007 (UTC)

Oh yeah. It's a Dell Inspiron with Windows XP on it. Only about a year old. And there are all sorts of things I could have done to screw something up. I download a lot of programs and music and various other things. A virus (AVG) search and two spyware searches (Spybot and Adaware) didn't help anything, though. 70.108.216.222 22:04, 11 May 2007 (UTC)

You might want to wipe your system. The most reliable way to do this would be to install another (linux) OS that will import your windows files, I believe Ubuntu can do this. Install it, MAKE SURE you tell it to import your windows files. Once you're on the other OS, back up all your files (don't back them up from windows, because you'll probably just corrupt your storage when the PC stops working. Once you have all the data safely backed up, reinstall windows if you still want to use it instead of Ubuntu/Linux, and replace your data. Sounds like a corruption problem to me... possibly DLL/driver problems, which can be hard to solve -- Phoeba Wright^OBJECTION! 22:30, 11 May 2007 (UTC)

Actually, I believe that Ubuntu will offer to save and work with a Windows partition, which is good if you have extra space on the disk, but if the machine is from Dell, I guarantee you it didn't ship that way. Without that extra space, there'd be no place to install Ubuntu (or anything else).

My personal advice would be to get a LiveCD, like Knoppix or (if you know someone who'll make you one) BartPE. Use the cd to boot and see if you get any errors and if the computer is usable. If it isn't, then you're probably looking at broken hardware. If it is, then you can use the stable environment the LiveCD provides to copy off any files you want to keep, and then nuke the thing from orbit with the Dell restore CD (it's the only way to be sure...)--Ptelder 03:02, 13 May 2007 (UTC)

Am I correct in reading into this that it is complicated enough for a semi-amateur to fix that I ought to just had it over to a computer guy? Does it change anything if I found a funny way around it? The trick is that when the errors pop up, I just ignore them and drag the error windows out of the way (into the corner of the screen). Not choosing to close or debug actually allows my computer to keep running exactly as usual, which seems pretty strange to me, as if there isn't really a problem, but my computer's just tricking itself into making one. Thanks, 70.108.216.222 05:41, 12 May 2007 (UTC)

maps.google.com updates

When I last looked at the satellite photos on maps.google.com of where I work, the photo was about 3 years old and my car was visible. Today I looked and the photo is still of similar age but it is a different picture and my car isn't visible. Strangely, it is visible at my house, where as it wasn't before. Also, the centre of Birmingham had photos about 4 years old, but now they are upto date. Two questions. How often are the photos changed? Is there a way to see the previous pictures? Thanks! --TrogWoolley 22:47, 11 May 2007 (UTC)

1. How often are they changed: not on a regular basis, but as often as they get new imagery from their many sources.

2. Can you see previous pictures: I'm pretty sure you can't; though some image servers (TerraServer) do allow you to sample from multiple time periods, Google doesn't. --24.147.86.187 00:28, 12 May 2007 (UTC)

Converting Flash Drive to Mp3 player

Is there any accessory that can convert my normal usb flash pen drive into an mp3 player with headphones? I know there is one from Sandisk but I think it only works with their flash drives. Thanks. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 70.156.155.206 (talk) 22:54, 11 May 2007 (UTC).

There are some Chinese MP3 controllers that support USB OTG around, just don't expect too much of it. --antilived^{T | C | G} 09:17, 12 May 2007 (UTC)