Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Computing/2008 April 6

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April 6

python and sqlite

could anyone help me with sqlite and python. if no one like that is reading, I wont post my problem. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 79.122.24.203 (talk) 04:23, 6 April 2008 (UTC)

I'm sure there are people here who are acquainted with them. Post your problem here and we would be happy to help you. --antilived^{T | C | G} 09:57, 6 April 2008 (UTC)

How to upload php?

Where can I upload php files? --124.254.77.148 (talk) 05:19, 6 April 2008 (UTC)

I suppose that depends on what you want to do with them. Useight (talk) 07:19, 6 April 2008 (UTC)

Usually you'd upload PHP files to a server, where they produce dynamic web pages. D0762 (talk) 15:37, 6 April 2008 (UTC)

Specifically a web server :D\=< (talk) 12:37, 7 April 2008 (UTC)

Difference

What's the difference between Uncyclopedia and Encyclopedia Dramatica? Both of those sites are satiricial parodies of Wikipedia. —Preceding unsigned comment added by IntfictExpert (talk • contribs) 06:49, 6 April 2008 (UTC)

Uncyclopedia is a satirical version of Wikipedia. Encyclopedia Dramatica is "to create a full archive of dramatic internet happenings and all the things that relate to them", to quote them. Stuff like memes and subcultures come to mind. x42bn6 Talk Mess 15:41, 6 April 2008 (UTC)

And in general ED people (and by the properties of Wiki, ED itself) seem to think that site is some great thing that everyone should care about or that has ultimate power over large chunks of the interweb. Similar to 4chan itself. -- Consumed Crustacean (talk) 21:29, 6 April 2008 (UTC)

It seems that there is an approval or at least a greater acceptance of Uncyclopedia when compared with Encyclopedia Dramatica (ED seems to be non-notable according to Wikipedia:Deletion_review/Log/2008_January_10). Kushal 00:12, 7 April 2008 (UTC)

the pirate bay

how do you download a file from pirate bay i managed to download a pdf file {ebook} but i could not open it . is it something wrong wrong with my comp . i have adobe acrobat and have opened pdf files with it .it was surprising that i managed to download a 3 mb file in just 30 secs eventhough i have a dialup connectionSsinner67 (talk) 09:09, 6 April 2008 (UTC)

Are you sure you didn't just download the torrent file for it? You will have to use something like uTorrent to actually download the book. --antilived^{T | C | G} 09:56, 6 April 2008 (UTC)

You must have downloaded the torrent file if it only took 30 seconds on dialup. Torrent files are usually about 30KB and only contain information about peers currently transferring pieces of the file you want. You have to use a client like uTorrent to connect to those peers and obtain the various pieces. D0762 (talk) 15:34, 6 April 2008 (UTC)

Wrong, torrents contain checksums and addresses for trackers that can hopefully supply you with peers :D\=< (talk) 06:26, 7 April 2008 (UTC)

Inkscape

Does anybody know of a tutorial on inkscape that shows you how to draw the RMS Titanic or could i be cheeky and request 1?--Hadseys Chat_Contribs 12:54, 6 April 2008 (UTC)

Well, you aren't going to find a tutorial to show you how to draw something that specific. There are lots of tutorials though. In this case, if you are not exceptionally artistically talented already, I would recommend looking up tutorials on vectorization, that is, how to make a new SVG file based on an existing photograph. --Captain Ref Desk (talk) 14:05, 6 April 2008 (UTC)

You could try making a request at the Graphics Lab. --Dave the Rave (DTR)talk 23:28, 9 April 2008 (UTC)

Overloaded servers damaged?

From the home page of an iGoogle widget application thing:

Sorry, guys. We had hardware problems at the start of 2008. Heavy loads (we are almost at 80,000 notepads) plus burnt out hardware meant nightly crashes. We've replaced the entire server. Brand new, dedicated hardware. We should be reliable from here on out until we hit about 50 times the current load... Again, sorry for anyone who feels like they were burned by recent server outtages. This is an independent project that has destroyed two servers already and generates a gig of log files for a week of activity, and we never promised it would be smooth... Until now.

How can server overloading lead to damage? I'd have imagined that a properly cooled system (even an improperly cooled one should shut down to spare itself from damage, right?) would yield poor service but not burn out. ----Seans Potato Business 13:59, 6 April 2008 (UTC)

You're right to be suspicious, but the story's not completely implausible. Overheating could certainly lead to the described nightly crashes, if not to irreversible "burnout". Long-term overheating will certainly lead to premature ageing. Even if the processor shuts itself down due to overheating, if it's operating in an improperly-cooled environment full of other heat sources, it could stay overheated. Finally, there are almost certainly cheap systems out there that don't even try to shut themselves down. —Steve Summit (talk) 17:07, 6 April 2008 (UTC)

It does sound a little suspicious, but it's not totally out of the realm of possibility. One thing I can imagine happening is that they used cheap hard-drives and put a LOT of load on them. Then they'd burn out pretty quickly; on the other hand, hard-drives are trivial to replace (and if you RAID them properly, they shouldn't give to much downtime). I would say that it's equal parts the fault of the hardware and incompetent management. --Oskar 17:28, 6 April 2008 (UTC)

how to operate two Netware servers simultaneously

I have a Novell netware network consisting of 25 nodes. The Netware version is 4.12. The network has been established some 15 years ago. Since the server harddisk shows some problem I have decided to install a second server. My hardware vendor supplied a computer with pentium 4 processor and IDE hard disk(My first server is also a pentium 4 processor and SCSI hard disk. But there is little variance in processor speed) and installed Novell netware 4.12. But now the hardware vendor and software installer is of the opinion that the two servers cannot start simultaneously. We have to start the second server after logouting all the clients from the first server and then using a DOS BATCH program updating all the files in the second server from the first. My question is Is it not possible to start the two servers simultaneously and through a node we can ATTACH to either of the servers as desired.

You are asking which of two solutions -to two different problems- is "better". If you have a network with one server and a bunch of untrainable non-geeks, then minimising the amount of independent thought you force your users to do is best --> do the fail-over thing. Set up a 2nd server as similar to the first as you can, and, when the "old only server" crashes, have the users stand around doing nothing until you do the manual switchover as you described above. When the switchover is done, you bring up your "new only server" and have the users log in. Their universe has not changed, and they are happy. More work for the techs, but NO stress for the [l]users.

If, on the other hand, you have users who can accept new things, you can certainly add a second server, and make a PA announcement periodically that "SERVER ONE IS DOWN. YOUR FILES WILL BE ON DRIVE LETTER Q UNTIL WE FIX SERVER ONE." Easier for the techs, harder for the users. Of course, this assumes that you have a second license for Novell Netware 4.12 for your second server so that they will play nicely together..... -SandyJax (talk) 21:52, 7 April 2008 (UTC), an old CNA (Certified Novell Administrator)

which MMOGs have free priavate servers

Which MMOGs have free private servers? I know WoW, L2, and Ragnarok, but are there any others? --hello, i'm a member | talk to me! 19:52, 6 April 2008 (UTC)

Guild Wars and MapleStory have free real servers.. :D\=< (talk) 20:10, 6 April 2008 (UTC)

Yeah, but that wasn't my question. BTW please don't lead me to Knight Online or Flyff or any other free MMO--they're awful. --hello, i'm a member | talk to me! 20:56, 6 April 2008 (UTC)

You're basically out of luck. As a case in point, using a private WoW server is explicitly against their ToC and can get your account banned. -- Kesh (talk) 00:25, 7 April 2008 (UTC)

Snicker, what. The point is that it's not associated with your account. It's a private server. :D\=< (talk) 00:58, 7 April 2008 (UTC)

It's my understanding that the WoW client has some pretty heavy, arguably privacy infringing, self-monitoring capabilities. If you ever logged into their legit servers after using a privately run server they could know. Even if they're not collecting (or collecting and not using) this data today, they could begin to do so at any moment. APL (talk) 02:03, 7 April 2008 (UTC)

Large Files question

I wanted to send a friend an 84mb file, but all the email accounts I have won't let me do it. I've used gmail, operamail, and cox email (with outlook express). What can I do????? Thanks!Andrew Kanode (talk) 20:48, 6 April 2008 (UTC)
PS, Also I read a story about some kids setting up a proxy server at their house so they could bypass the collage's internet filters, so do you know how to do that too? Andrew Kanode (talk) 20:56, 6 April 2008 (UTC)

Compress your files using 7zip or WinRAR
Use online services like SendThisFile or DDL (RapidShare etc..)
FTP
--68.108.249.191 (talk) 22:32, 6 April 2008 (UTC)

Two ideas: (1) split the file into smaller pieces and send the pieces separately. If you don't already have a tool that can do the splitting (& re-combining), you can try 7-Zip. (2) Use the file transfer function of your favorite instant messaging client instead of email. --71.162.241.83 (talk) 22:38, 6 April 2008 (UTC)

E-mail isn't meant for transferring large files. There are many free online services that let you store files for others to download, however, so you could sign up for one of them. rspeer / ɹəədsɹ 20:18, 7 April 2008 (UTC)

I second the use of one of these storage sites - RapidShare, MegaUpload and YouSendIt are the three I can think of off the top of my head that do this kind of thing. I certainly wouldn't want to have an 80 MB file in my mail queue to download, and would much prefer a 5 KB (or whatever) email with a link that I could click at my leisure. Confusing Manifestation(Say hi!) 04:04, 8 April 2008 (UTC)

Counter Strike for Mac

Does it exist? --Yamanbaiia^{(free hugs!)} 21:07, 6 April 2008 (UTC)

No. Unless you run it in Windows via Boot Camp or on a VM machine like Parallels Desktop or VMware. I've gotten HL2 to run in a very stripped down mode in Parallels on a MacBook, so Counter Strike should be possible, though I've never tried it personally. --Captain Ref Desk (talk) 23:12, 6 April 2008 (UTC)

If it does not exist, might I suggest Wine (software) or CrossOver Games^[1]? Kushal 23:56, 6 April 2008 (UTC)

I've honestly never been able to get Wine to work correctly for something like this. Setup is a real pain, documentation is scarce, none of it is intuitive at all, to say the least. I think whatever the option one picks is, paying a little money for it is a better use of one's resources than trying to get Wine to work on OS X. Counter Strike isn't too intensive but it requires good 3D rendering and good networking, two things I would be suspicious of being able to easily get working on Wine, but again, I don't have experience with it. --Captain Ref Desk (talk) 17:33, 8 April 2008 (UTC)

Certificate Issuing

I just received a free X.509 certificate for my emails from Thawte. And I was wondering if Thawte got my private key during the process or if the NSS service who was at some time activated during the certificate request just saved the private RSA key that it generated and sent the public one, waiting for the certificate to be issued before using it. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 70.50.183.215 (talk) 22:15, 6 April 2008 (UTC)

A certificate authority does not need to know your private key. Any certificate authority that requires it is not suitable as a general-purpose CA. --71.162.241.83 (talk) 22:46, 6 April 2008 (UTC)