Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Computing/2008 December 11

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December 11 edit

table borders edit

I am trying to get my website to have no borders (i.e., hug the sides of the screen instead of the usual 1 or 2px borders), but it's not really working. I can't figure out what I'm doing wrong. The header and footer have no border (yay) but all the other tables on the page (and every other page on my site) still have the 1 or 2px borders, which annoys me because it's not aesthetically pleasing at all. I have my body tag set to margin:0 and padding:0. I'm not going to post the entire source code here, so I'll link to it and assume you can press Ctrl-U or whatever the button is. flaminglawyercneverforget 00:55, 11 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

First, ensure you give a unit. For example, use margin:0px;, not just margin:0;. By setting your body tag to have no margin or padding, the content will be able to go all the way to the top and sides of the page. For content inside the page, such as a div, p, or table, there is a margin around those. You need to set the margin for those tags to 0px also if you don't want a margin around them. Look up info on the "box-model" for CSS for plenty of descriptions about how margin and padding are used. -- kainaw 02:28, 11 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

How to keep Command Prompt open? edit

On Windows, I'd like to stick a line of commands into the "Run..." dialog, have it execute them in the Command Prompt window, then stay open long enough to read the results. I don't seem to be having much luck :-) One example is systeminfo | find "Up Time".

I've tried piping that to "more", and tried prefixing the whole thing with "start", to no avail. The latter really surprises me, start systeminfo | find "Up Time" gives error message "Windows cannot find start. What am I missing? --DaHorsesMouth (talk) 02:52, 11 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

The simplest solution is to type "cmd" in the run dialog and paste the commands into the command prompt window. Another nasty solution is to end your series of commands with a batch file that just has pause in it - you can call it pause.bat. It window will freeze, waiting for keyboard input. -- kainaw 03:13, 11 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]
Typing cmd /C pause | systeminfo | find "Up Time" into the Run dialog worked for me, though the pause command may cause an error message at the end (but that's when the window closes anyway). Jørgen (talk) 09:44, 11 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]
You can also try opening a Command Prompt window yourself, then type the run command there. It's probably under Start + Programs or Start + Programs + Accessories, and labeled either Command Prompt or MS-DOS Prompt. StuRat (talk) 15:29, 11 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]
  Resolved

Did you count the keystrokes in some of those solutions? Anyway, Jørgen comes closest -- thanks! (1) Click Start (2) Click Run (3) Click previously entered string cmd /K systeminfo | find "Up Time" (4) Read screen and click X to close. No cutting, no pasting, no pause.

Thanks to all for the education; I thought cmd.exe was the program behind the Command Prompt, and didn't know you could actually call it directly. --DaHorsesMouth (talk) 23:46, 11 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Is there any way to make an Illustrator document's artboard size itself to fit to the content automatically? It seems like I either have to specify a print media size (e.g. letter, tabloid) or have to specify my own dimensions. Because I usually am exporting Illustrator images for use in other programs (e.g. InDesign), it'd be way more convenient if I could just automatically have the artboard crop itself to the minimum dimensions to fit the content, as can be easily done in Inkscape. Can this be done in Illustrator? --140.247.11.18 (talk) 03:16, 11 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

ProDesktop edit

Hi, I made a created a design on a piece of software called ProDesktop. I added components I had already made to create a table and saved the finished design, but did NOT let it save copies of all the referenced documents because I already had them saved on my desktop so I thought there was no point. I have now tried to open the finished design now and I have been told that ProDesktop can't find the file, so I browse myself and show it the file, but it says it "is not the correct file."

I tried to open this referenced file but it can't find it, so I have tried to replicate it (it was simple so I think I have everything correct) but that doesn't work either, it also says it is not the correct file.

I've just spent over 4 hours on this so I really can’t have it fail on me now!

Is there any way I can force it to think that the correct file is in fact the right file, or could I force it to use the replica instead (as it is the same)?

Also what makes it think that this is the wrong file, i.e. how does it know (or in this case falsely know)?

Thanks. 92.6.195.164 (talk) 03:40, 11 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

P.S. I think the origonal referenced file corrupted itself (somehow) and soit can't accept it. I can't see why it doesn't accept my replica.92.6.195.164 (talk) 03:47, 11 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

If I understand you, it has a feature to create a repeated object, like a table, save it once to a file and only save links to this file in the main drawing. However, this feature doesn't seem to be working. If so, there are two workarounds I can think of:
1) Still save the table as a separate file, but place a copy at each location on the main drawing instead of a reference.
2) If that doesn't work, don't create tables and such as separate files at all, just create them on the main drawing and copy them there.
Both approaches are not ideal, as any change to the table will now have to be made at every location where the table occurs in the drawing. However, if the references don't work, these are the options which you are left with. You might also upgrade to a newer version which hopefully has this problem fixed, or use different CAD software entirely. StuRat (talk) 15:21, 11 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

low bandwidth web-based email edit

My mom and sister have a very slow computer with a very slow connection to the internet. They use OE for their email, which, besides the usual problems, means they have to download an entire email to read it. I think they'd be better off using one of the many web-based free email services, but my guess is that something like GMail is going to be too slow to load due to flashy GUI, ads, etc. Can someone recommend a web-based email service that's a)free, b)simple to use, and c)targeted to folks with slow dial-up connections? It doesn't have to have any kewl options, it just needs to let them see an email before downloading all the attachments. Matt Deres (talk) 04:04, 11 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Gmail ads are just text so they are very low overhead. You can run it in non-cool-GUI mode as well (HTML only mode). I'd go with GMail configured for HTML only—it's basically text-only e-mail, which is better than all of the other services and their graphics and ads. --98.217.8.46 (talk) 04:10, 11 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]
Also, GMail has IMAP access. So you can view your emails in Microsoft Outlook or Mozilla Thunderbird (or another email client). - Akamad (talk) 12:03, 11 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]
Another good one is Fastmail (www.fastmail.fm) which is specifically designed to be quick-loading and not too laden down with features. The ads are text-only. I've used it for a year and have never had any problems getting at my mail or sending messages. AJHW (talk) 13:39, 11 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]
Thanks for the tips, guys. Matt Deres (talk) 04:42, 14 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

step and repeat - postscript, HPGL, or gerbers edit

My CAD software allows me create artwork for producing electronic circuits. Recently I have produced several designs that are very small. Single sided PCBs (printed circuit boards) can be produced at home with a little time and effort. The process that I use requires pre-sensitized circuit boards that are available in various sizes, but I frequently use single sided 4inch by 6inch boards like these: [http://www.circuitspecialists.com/level.itml/icOid/3802}.

Given that it is problematic and wasteful, but not impossible, to cut the boards into smaller size before the lithographic and wet chemical processing, and given that the size of the typical circuits that I have been producing are very small (many less than 2in^2), and given that (manual step and repeat) the process of printing many copies and manually and carefully taping the tiny pieces of fairly expensive vellum or onion skin paper while maintaining cleanliness and good UV transparency for the lithographic exposure is a pain and wastes a lot of paper,

So now the question...

Is there any FREE way to step and repeat the postscript file, the HPGL file, or the gerber file, which are the convenient output for me to generate, so that I can expose the whole board from one master and reduce the wasted time, effort and materials that I have had to expend to accomplish the seemingly simple task of making many copies of a circuit on one PCB.

Additionally, in the past (and without some resolution here, perhaps in the future) I have offset the design from center, in each of the 4 quadrants, and passed the same sheet through the printer 4 times, and found this does work; however, it is a lot of work, error prone, time consuming, and limited to 4 repeats.

One more thing, I have already looked at a shareware named ABviewer, but it showed a black page when I opened the HPGL output intended for my HPLJ5MP printer (generated via print to file).

Thanks in advance. U.S.Citizen (talk) 04:37, 11 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Try this: use ghostscript to convert the Postscript to PDF (Ghostscript compes with a script called ps2pdf that does this). Then open the PDF with Inkscape (which curiously doesn't seem to read PS or EPS files). Then duplicating your diagram should be a straightforward method of copy-and-paste; then you'd have to go back through that chain to generate a final PS (unless a print straight from Inkscape will be acceptable). Now how well this will work in practice depends on the details of the PDF that your CAD software emits (if you can persuade it to emit PDF or ideally SVG directly then all the better). There will also be a way just to hand-write a postscript file that does the whole thing - that just says "move to (100,100), emit file foo.ps, move to (200,100), emit file foo.ps, ...", but I'm afraid my postscript is too rusty to do that for you. 87.114.128.88 (talk) 14:59, 11 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]
I believe HPGL can use either absolute or relative coords. In the case of relative coords, only the first location needs be specified in absolute coords to provide a base for all the subsequent relative coords. If your design is implemented like that, you can repeat the instructions as many times as you like, and only change the locating absolute coord at the start of each sequence. StuRat (talk) 15:10, 11 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]
Sounds like you want to print multiple copies of the same image on one page; this is generally known as N-up. Check out PrintFile. --—— Gadget850 (Ed) talk - 15:27, 11 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Inheritance problem edit

I'm implementing a binary search tree in D with a Node class and a BinaryTree class. I've finished a basic unbalanced binary tree and I'm trying to implement an AVL tree. The Node class has several methods like depth, max, and min which are all non-modifying but make things a lot easier (depth calls other nodes' depth function). I want to have a new AVLNode class that inherits from the Node class (since AVL trees' nodes have an extra attribute - the balance factor). This makes the compiler go crazy:

  1. Since each node has references to its left and right nodes, all of type Node, the AVLNode's left and right node references (which are inherited from the Node class) will also be of type Node. I want them to be of type AVLNode.
  2. In the Node class I use this a lot, and since that will refer to the Node class instance instead of the (derived) AVLNode class instance, there are many compiler errors about types.

I've tried to fix (1) by using templates and aliases but they don't work for (2). Any suggestions? --wj32 t/c 07:29, 11 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Presuming class Node has pointers to the daughter nodes:
 class Node
 {
 protected:
   Node *left ;
   Node *right ;
 public:
   Node () {} ;
 } ;


 class AVLNode : protected Node
 {
 public:
   AVLNode ()
   {
      left  = new AVLNode ;   // This works just fine!
      right = new AVLNode ;
   }
 } ;
...because even though 'left' is a Node - we can assign an 'AVLNode' to it because an AVLNode is a kind of Node.
SteveBaker (talk) 18:20, 11 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]
That's true, but that's in C++. I'm using D, which for some reason, doesn't implicitly cast Node to AVLNode. That sucks. And I've still got problem (2). --wj32 t/c 22:38, 11 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Anyone know what's going on with all the new computer keyboards? edit

It's impossible to find a computer keyboard anymore that isn't messed up. It either has lots of extra unwanted buttons like "power management" that if you accidentally bump it, these buttons shut down your computer in a way worse than yanking out the plug and garble half your hard drive. If they don't have that, then they have the buttons all messed up. The insert button is moved far to the top right and the delete is double size with he home, end, and page up, page down buttons turned on their site. Also the arrow keys are moved all around so they are under the right shift.

Anyone know what's going on with all the new computer keyboards? Are you ready for IPv6? (talk) 09:29, 11 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

I can think of two reasons:
1) To conserve space. A compact keyboard has to do that type of thing to maintain all the keys while fitting them into less space.
2) There's an infamous marketing strategy which requires that everything be changed, for no apparent reason, just so the makers can claim it's "new and improved". You obviously can't make that claim if it's exactly like the old model. StuRat (talk) 15:04, 11 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]
There is usually a driver for these keyboards that allows you to remap or disable the power keys. --—— Gadget850 (Ed) talk - 15:18, 11 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]
(And there is always the 'superglue-under-the-keycap' approach.) SteveBaker (talk) 18:14, 11 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Enforcing whitespace edit

Is there any tag (like <br />, I'm imagining) that enforces whitespace? Transcluding a template and inserting a few spaces here doesn't work (and a colon, which does enforce some whitespace, is just displayed). -- Mentisock 11:03, 11 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Hi & nbsp ; does it, is that any use? For example I have one between these   words.
If i add three or four togehter I get more space between these      words.194.221.133.226 (talk) 11:57, 11 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]
    Also,      if you start the line with a blank, 
    then your spacing is               maintained. StuRat (talk) 14:58, 11 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]
Yep, it works. Thanks! -- Mentisock 15:10, 11 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]
But then you get the pre formatting; this is useful for code listings and the like, but not appropriate for articles. Here are a few ways to maintain spaces:
  • Use &nbsp;
  • Use {{pad}}
  • Wrap your text in <poem>...</poem>; this maintains both spacing and line breaks
--—— Gadget850 (Ed) talk - 15:16, 11 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]
Pad is nice though that's basically nbsp, no? -- Mentisock 16:35, 11 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]
Pad uses a CSS padding-left:; it can be set in px, em or ex. I use poem for formatted text as you don't have to add line breaks. --—— Gadget850 (Ed) talk - 21:10, 11 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

jobs for an engineer in the field of networking edit

i'm a engineering graduate in computer engg..i want to know if i can make my career in networking..i don't have any clue..how can i do so.i need ur help or can say i need your guidance in making my career in networking —Preceding unsigned comment added by Shubham 3112 (talkcontribs) 13:00, 11 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Look for networking jobs. Apply for them. If you aren't hired, ask why. If it is something you can fix (ie: lack of knowledge for a specific topic), fix it. Look for more networking jobs. Apply for them. Eventually, you'll be hired. Work hard. Get promoted. You have a career. -- kainaw 13:59, 11 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Laptop disaster. edit

I am having a little trouble with my laptop computer. As I am going to visit my parents over Christmas, and my larger computer is rather too big to take with me everywhere, I was hoping to get all my work done on my laptop, but now it seems that isn't going to be possible.

Sometimes my computer decides to install updates I don't want to things I'm not even sure I have without my permission. this is annoying in itself, but the real problem is that after doing this, my computer then sometimes comes up with a message saying it will restart in 5 minutes. I've managed to get it to stay on as long as I want it to, but with my new laptop, unlike any other computer I've had, when I turn it off afterward, even though I intend to turn it back on later, thereby restarting it, it instead decides to restart right then, leaving me to wait for it to load in again before i can turn it back off. Usually, especially when in a hurry, I simply push the on button, which turns the computer straight off, the only problem being that when I turn it back on I have to select 'start windows normally', after which it works properly again.

But this one time that isn't happening. Instead whenever I turn it on, whichever option I choose, it loads a little way, then after making a few strange whirring noises it stops and starts loading from the beginning again, after which it tells me something is wrong and asks me how I want it to load. I've tried safe mode, last setting that worked and normal, but the same thing always happens. I tried unplugging the internet, taking the CD out, then I tried unplugging it so it was running just on battery power, but the only difference then was that it made a slightly different whirring sound. I went into the setting menu, but I don't know what most of the stuff there does, and none of the options look like they would help at all anyway. I found a way to ask it to use a different boot driver, or something like that, I may not have remembered the name quite right, but whatever it was, I tried all three and nothing changed.

I've about run out of options now, and I need this computer to work, or I will have no access to any of my work on it, or to the internet for three weeks, and with my work due in another week after that, and this computer barely working either, I'll probably end up failing everything. I'm already behind in most of my work, and a lot of what I have done before hasn't worked out too well, so this is my last chance to prove that I can understand what I am told, can do the work and am not an idiot who should go back to school, or whatever it is they are planning now. That's enough ranting though, I don't suppose you really want to know all my trouble, apart from with my computer. I've completely run out of things to try, and I really need it working by saturday morning.

148.197.114.165 (talk) 14:28, 11 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

I have several suggestions:
1) Record the error you get when you boot the computer. If you have the common problem that the errors fly by so fast you can't read them, you might have to take a picture of the screen with a digital camera, load it onto your big computer, and zoom in. Report the errors here, so maybe we can solve the problem.
2) Certainly carrying a regular computer around with you isn't ideal, but it should at least be possible if you travel by car. If you fly, you could maybe take most of the computer, but leave the monitor at home, and plug into a TV or monitor at your parent's house (you would need to ask about inputs on their TV or monitor to make sure they are compatible with your PC's outputs). If it's not too far, but you normally fly, you could drive instead this time. (If you don't have a car, you could carpool with other students going home to the same area, most colleges have bulletin boards for this type of thing.)
3) You could put all your work on CD or a USB drive and take it with you, with the idea of renting a computer at your parent's home town. You could also rent a laptop where you are now, take it to your parent's home, then return it when you get home. That would be a bit more expensive, though, since you will have to rent a laptop, and for a longer period. You might even be able to rent a laptop from a fellow student who doesn't need it over the holidays (try a bulletin board post again). StuRat (talk) 14:49, 11 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]
I'd say it's very important to lose the habit of not shutting down properly. I'd imagine that you've now littered your hard drive with dozens of "recovered" bits of files that are now useless and taking up space. You might also want to change your settings for Windows Update so that it does not automatically download and install said updates. If, however, you are not able to get to a Windows desktop at all on the laptop, then it might be time to consult a nearby technician who can see exactly what is going on.
This happens to all of the computers at my school. It usually works if you select 'Start Windows in last good configuration' or something around those lines. Cheers, edMarkViolinistDrop me a line 16:30, 11 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]
It sounds to me like you have been interrupting the Windows update time and time again. Eventually it has got it self into such a state that you have several half-installed updates in conflict with one another. A half installed update is worse than no update at all. Windows update and anti-virus updates should be left to complete, no matter how inconvenient this is. No wonder your computer is sick.
As you have found out, messing around with mains or battery power, or the CD tray, the network, or the power switch is not the solution. One possible fix that might work is to boot from the original operating system disk and choose the "Repair" option. That usually fixes the computer enough so you can restart it.
If that is not possible, I'm afraid you might have to reinstall Windows (again using the original operating system disk). However, this will probably wipe the hard disk so the one thing that really must be done first is to try to backup all your work: Take the hard drive out of your laptop and put it in an external disk housing (you can get these from somewhere like PC World), then using another PC copy your work (and anything else you cannot afford to lose - emails, music, etc) to somewhere safe. You can then put the drive back in your laptop and do a proper repair without the fear of losing everything
In future, configure the Windows update to "download but don't install". Your PC will then tell you there's an update and you can choose to put it off to another time or do nothing and it will install before shutting down.
Astronaut (talk) 17:28, 11 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

I tried 'last good configuration', but it didn't help. And I haven't been interrupting the updates, only the restarting of the computer afterward. Though I suppose that's just as bad.

My dad spent a long time setting it to download and install updates when I first got the laptop, and it wouldn't have seemed right undoing all that work, even if I knew how, and he seemed sure it was important. I don't really mind the updates, except when they interrupt whatever else I'm trying to do. The only real problem I had was when the computer decided to restart itself either part of the way through my doing something else, or instead of turning off.

I had though about taking the hard drive out, but it seemed too much like those unusual and rather too practical schemes I sometimes come up with, that my parents have spent a lot of time persuading me not to do.

148.197.114.165 (talk) 12:55, 12 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Actually it's probably the same time. Usually if the update requires your computer to restart, it means it hasn't finished installing. In Vista and in memory in XP you can delay restarts due to updates indefinitely. Nor do you have to restart. If you want to turn off your computer, don't tell it to restart (either with the update or with the start menu or whatever). Instead just tell it to turn off as you normally would (this would usually be via the start menu but there are other ways). Also in most modern computers pushing the power button should tell the OS to start to turn off. In some cases this may send it to sleep instead but you should be able to modify this via the bios or Windows. If you turn off your computer instead of telling it restart that should be fine (although it may take a while on next startup as it completes the updates). But resetting it when it's in the middle of completing an update is an exceptionally bad idea. Nil Einne (talk) 08:51, 13 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]
If you have a normal WinXP CD handy (one that prompts you for actions when it loads, which can include Dell/OEM disks) and know the Administrator password, give the drive a good 'chkdsk /p' from the Recovery Console (press 'r' for 'Repair your computer' after the Windows Setup boot has loaded all its driver goodies). I work in a computer shop, and doing this fixes quite a few computers right off. Washii (talk) 07:17, 14 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Open file with Python edit

How do I tell Python to open file xy? (using the standard program in the OS, and not opening a file for reading its content). Mr.K. (talk) 15:52, 11 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

I don't know what you mean by "using the standard program in the OS", and if you're not reading, I have to assume you're writing. This bit of code comes from A Byte of Python -

f = file('poem.txt', 'w') # open for 'w'riting
f.write(poem) # write text to file
f.close() # close the file

--LarryMac | Talk 16:06, 11 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]
Thanks a lot for your answer, but I expressed myself poorly. I have files like xy.html, xy.txt, xy.pdf, etc and I want Python to open it with Firefox, gedit, Acrobat, etc. It's like a command that would double-click these files. Mr.K. (talk) 16:19, 11 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]
To do this on Linux (with Gnome installed):

 import gnomevfs
 gnomevfs.url_show("file:///home/myname/Examples/oo-trig.xls")  # it seems to require an absolute path

Equally there are (I think) KDE and DBUS equivalents, and presumably equivalents for OS-X and Windows. Surely there's a generic one (where the plaform figures this stuff out for you) but I can't immediately figure out what. 87.114.128.88 (talk) 17:35, 11 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]
A lot of Python programs I've found (¡viva Google Code Search!) exec out and call binaries - gnome-open (for gnome) and xdg-open (for KDE). 87.114.128.88 (talk) 17:48, 11 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]
If you're running under Windows, you can use the ShellExecute function from the Windows API. In Python terms, something like this should work:
import win32api

win32api.ShellExecute (
  0,          # window handle
  "open",     # action e.g. "edit", "print", or None for default action
  filename,   # file to open
  None,       # parameters to application
  ".",        # default directory
  0           # flags for showing application
  )
This is pretty much the same as right-clicking on a file and selecting "open", "print", etc. For more info on ShellExecute, see the MS website[1]. As far as I know, Unix/Linux doesn't have a generic method for associating file types with an application (other than "#!" in text files). --Maltelauridsbrigge (talk) 18:49, 11 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]
Linux doesn't have a generic method, as you say, but both Gnome and KDE do (in a manner that's much like how Windows does it). 87.114.128.88 (talk) 19:27, 11 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]
For Max OS X the terminal command is simply "open" followed by the filename, however I do not believe that "practical" Guido has omitted a generic way to do this in Python. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 84.187.77.141 (talk) 23:44, 11 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

changing windows xp boot screen edit

alright, i know how to use resource hacker and how to edit the resources of ntoskrnl.exe to change the boot screen. But i'd like to know whether or not i can use GIMP 2.6.3 to edit the boot screen, or if i'll have to get Paint Shop Pro or some other program. Don't suggest BootSkin; i like to hack and to me that program is cheating.  Buffered Input Output 17:26, 11 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

As long as you can save a bmp file with the correct size and number of colors, the Gimp should be fine. Don't forget to backup ntoskrnl.exe before you make any changes. --LarryMac | Talk 18:07, 11 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Ok, i tried it and it didn't work, the screen stayed the same. Is there a palette file i need to load or something?  Buffered Input Output 13:42, 12 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Quick Time 7 Pro--MPEG 1 Muxed???? edit

another question, i have several videos downloaded as an MPEG file. The audio and video tracks are in a "MPEG 1 Muxed" format that refuses to export sound to any other format. I want these videos on my iPod and would really like to have sound with them. Is there any way to "un-mux" this muxed track?  Buffered Input Output 17:34, 11 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

The term you are looking for is "demux", so search for "mpg demux" (and "mpeg demux"). There are plenty of them around. You won't need to convert the audio to anything. A player that can handle mp3's (correctly: mpeg 1 level 3) can also handle mpeg 1 level 2. -- Fullstop (talk) 20:28, 11 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]
Have you tried running them through iTunes? Advance>Convert Video to iPod format ? --70.167.58.6 (talk) 18:18, 13 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

iTunes won't import or even add .mpeg files to the library. My codec pack says i have 6 different demuxers, but all of them are in .dll files.  Buffered Input Output 14:29, 15 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

MSN: alternative webcam compatible clients for Windows/VMware Fusion edit

Does MSN/Windows Live Messenger have any alternative clients that can use webcams on Windows? Specifically, it's for use under VMware Fusion. My Mac OSX client (Adium) isn't (yet) compatible.81.143.61.181 (talk) 23:28, 11 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]