Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Computing/2008 December 19

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December 19

How to download video from Adobe Flash Player 10

I've never been able to actually download the video playing in Flash, and it seems to be no different for the current version. I want to download videos from Flickr so that I can convert them to .ogg and upload. Can someone offer some advice for how one might do this? With the addition and expansion of videos on Flickr, there's much potential for expanding Wikimedia's video collection, but copying files to the Commons for video seems impossible relative to the ease of pictures, which can be done in a few seconds on the toolserver.

I can't install my own programs on the computers I'm currently using. I can perhaps get around this by using a friend's, but is there any option for those without the ability to download and install a program to do it? Would it ever be possible to make the process as simple as pictures, perhaps by having an automatic process do the conversion for us when we upload? Richard001 (talk) 00:56, 19 December 2008 (UTC)

There are both programs you can download, and places on the web that will convert these types of files to .avi, .mpg, etc. http://www.savevideodownload.com/ is one of the sites which will convert the flash files (swf) to a more user friendly movie type file. If you are in a situation where you can't 'install' software, your best bet may be to do a Google or Yahoo search for convert flash to movie file and look at some of those sites. Ched Davis (talk) 01:38, 19 December 2008 (UTC)

The site you have recommended only seems to be for YouTube. Can anyone provide me with a site that actually works? (I have tried a few). Richard001 (talk) 02:47, 19 December 2008 (UTC)

I don't know that wiki editors usually do searches for others, but maybe http://vixy.net/ would help you. Ched Davis (talk) 03:54, 19 December 2008 (UTC)

vixy doesn't handle Flickr either - it turned out the Firefox extension DownloadHelper was best for me. Richard001 (talk) 23:52, 27 January 2009 (UTC)

BIOS

I cannot find the BIOS on this MOBO [1]. Will someone please point it out? Ζρς ι'β' ^¡hábleme! 03:29, 19 December 2008 (UTC)

Perhaps you are looking for the CMOS (the battery that remembers your BIOS settings). It's the round circle (battery) in the upper right corner. If it's a jumper (such as what you would use to reset a password), I'm sorry the picture isn't large enough for my old out of focus eyes to detect. Ched Davis (talk) 03:50, 19 December 2008 (UTC)

I know where the CMOS is, but I am trying to upgrade the BIOS on one of my old computers, so I need to find out what BIOS chip it has, or where it would be located. Ζρς ι'β' ^¡hábleme! 04:00, 19 December 2008 (UTC)

I've flashed a BIOS before to upgrade, but I guess you want to replace the chip eh? ... what's the model number of the mobo? Ched Davis (talk) 04:25, 19 December 2008 (UTC)

Well, I am planning to flash it, but I have to know what BIOS I have to flash it correctly, right? The mobo is a CUW-AM rev 1.02. Ζρς ι'β' ^¡hábleme! 05:08, 19 December 2008 (UTC)

Perhaps this is what you are looking for: http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/document?lc=en&cc=us&docname=bph07170&product=81921&dlc=en&lang=en

As far as current version of BIOS, I would think by booting (even from floppy or CD) you could keystroke into the BIOS to tell you what the current version is. I am NO mobo expert, but looked around a bit for ya. I guess it is a: Asus CUW-AM/MEW-AM, but get the impression you won't find much at the Asus site. HP used them and called them: CUW-AM (Tortuga). Are you trying to get it to accept more RAM by any chance? Well, sorry I couldn't be more help ... hope what little I looked for has helped at least point you in the right direction. You'll probably have more luck with Google than Wikipedia on this type of issue. Ched Davis (talk) 06:39, 19 December 2008 (UTC)

The device in the brown socket is the Firmware Hub, which contains the flash memory where the BIOS resides. Rilak (talk) 09:58, 19 December 2008 (UTC)

The chip that says "TEST1" to be specific. *facepalms@Ched Davis's answer* --EvilEdDead (talk) 14:57, 19 December 2008 (UTC)

I am needing to flash it so it will boot from USB. All of the RAM ports are full on the mobo anyway. Ζρς ι'β' ^¡hábleme! 15:12, 19 December 2008 (UTC)

sorryChed Davis (talk) 20:05, 19 December 2008 (UTC)

Speech recognition software

I need would like to use one of the free speech recognition programs. Unfortunately, I have no experience with speech recognition software. Browsing the articles, I read about engines, language and accoustic models... and don't really have a clue what they're talking about. (Yeah, the articles are not very accessible for people like me.) I'd sooo much appreciate if someone could give me an easy explanation (or link to one) as to how I install and get one (or more) of those programs going. And yes, I'd prefer to try out more than one program (if possible) because the recordings are of rather poor quality, so it might help to find out which program does the best. (And the rest I'll have to do by hand, I know.) Thanks a million for your help!! --Ibn Battuta (talk) 05:00, 19 December 2008 (UTC) PS: In case you wonder--yes, I'm pretty stressed out at the moment, so please excuse that I'm not taking the time to "work through" our articles... 'cause yes, I've seen enough to realize that for me, it'd be a very long way.

Wikipedia is not intended as a how-to guide. But if you go to the websites of the speech recognition software products in question, you'll find documents on what they do and how to use them. However, none of these speach-to-text enginees seems to be aimed at the end consumer, and not to beginners. (For example, the Sphinx Tutorial will require some familiarity with Linux.)

Speech-To-Text technology is in a suprisingly primitive state, and these open source projects seem to be more research than anything else, so the documentation about them is aimed at researchers, not the layman.

In any case, I don't think you'll find any package, free or otherwise, that can effectively decode some pre-existing, poor quality, samples of natural language. Speach-to-text programs typically require a "training" period where the voice they will be working with reads a bunch of known text. (They usually force you to read a page from an old novel or something.) Even after the software has been trained to work with a particular voice, using speech-to-text software takes practice. They require you to speak in a very clear fashion with unnatural spaces between the words.

I'm sorry, but I don't think you'll find software that will do what you seem to want to do, even if you're willing to pay for it. You're going to have to transcribe your tapes the old fashioned way. APL (talk) 06:01, 19 December 2008 (UTC)

I have to agree with the previous poster, as I have in the past wrestled with various commercial and non-commercial speech recognition applications. Speech recognition is an incredibly complex field, and while companies have struggled to package easy-to-use commercial solutions, the free versions available are much more primitive. If you really can't afford commercial software, then either HTK or Sphinx is probably your best bet (HTK is free for private use I believe, and will work in Windows or unix, but despite numerous tutorials and advice online it is complex to set up), but don't have unrealistic expectations. If you get it to work at all, you will have to do a lot of checking, correction, and editing on even the best recogniser output. If you buy something like Nuance's Dragon NaturallySpeaking Professional edition[2], it will be able to do transcriptions from file - how well it works will depend on many factors, and the output is likely to require substantial checking/correction even on noise-free speech. It may be cheaper to pay a professional typist, depending on the quantity of speech, and it will certainly be far quicker and more accurate; there is no simple, cash-free, and effort-free solution to your problem. --Maltelauridsbrigge (talk) 13:44, 19 December 2008 (UTC)

I agree with the above posters and would also add that speech recognition only works well when you have a severely restricted vocabulary. For example, if it only tries to recognize the words "one" through "ten". StuRat (talk) 15:46, 19 December 2008 (UTC)

Just a big thanks!!! to all of you! That helped enormously! Yes, I had expected to have to do a lot of re-checking, but still save some time... but if I won't, I'm really grateful to know this before investing time to understand the software. BTW, I guess the information you provided would also be helpful in the articles... though the problem on Wikipedia is that someone would probably claim that's "NPOV"... Anyways, thanks so much, Ibn Battuta (talk) 22:24, 19 December 2008 (UTC)

The usual problem is that technical articles are written by people with a PhD in that field, and, as a result, are utterly incomprehensible to anyone who lacks a PhD in that field. Anyone attempting to add any content for a general audience will then be immediately reverted by the PhDs. StuRat (talk) 01:32, 20 December 2008 (UTC)

Yes... though computer geeks seem to be rather good at being incomprehensible as well! :o) Anyways, yes, I see it as one of Wikipedia's biggest problems, especially in the sciences. ... --Ibn Battuta (talk) 17:57, 20 December 2008 (UTC)

One approach I've used successfully, after doing battle with the PhDs, is to create a separate "introduction level" article. A few of them won't even stand for that, but the majority of PhDs are satisfied with one article per topic which they can keep utterly incomprehensible to everyone but themselves. StuRat (talk) 20:30, 23 December 2008 (UTC)

Resolved

How to password protect a folder in Windows

Hi, several file formats like word, excel etc. provide option of password protect, but is there a way to password protect a whole folder in Windows? 59.165.151.149 (talk) 05:22, 19 December 2008 (UTC)

This has some suggestions as does Google. CambridgeBayWeather Have a gorilla 05:32, 19 December 2008 (UTC)

dB to V or mV conversion

Hi, I have a spec that mentions a value of "700mV +/- 0.5dB". How to convert it to V or mV tolerance instead of dB tolerance? 59.165.151.149 (talk) 05:32, 19 December 2008 (UTC)

 <math>\beta _1-\beta_2=10\log\left(\dfrac{V_1}{V_2}\right)
  \textrm{Where }\:  \beta \:\textrm{ is measured in dB
  and }\: V\: \textrm{ measured in volts.}</math>  —Preceding unsigned comment added by 99.244.11.222 (talk) 12:36, 19 December 2008 (UTC) 

If that's an answer it's pretty hard to read. Try writing it without the attempted fancy graphics. StuRat (talk) 15:41, 19 December 2008 (UTC)

I was trying to write it into LaTeX, so if u have a LaTeX editor just copy paste the code. or visit this site[3] —Preceding unsigned comment added by 99.244.11.222 (talk) 18:31, 19 December 2008 (UTC)

What is the spec for Inter component level inequality

What is the spec for Inter component level inequality while measuring a PAL-B/G component video signal. Thanks. 59.165.151.149 (talk) 05:34, 19 December 2008 (UTC)

Question about XP popularity

If Windows XP is one of the more disliked versions of Windows, why is it the most used one anyway? 124.180.116.201 (talk) 07:03, 19 December 2008 (UTC)

It isn't one of the more disliked versions. Just that simple. Magog the Ogre (talk) 08:49, 19 December 2008 (UTC)

And liked-ness isn't a major factor in things like this. It is a sales decision. Once the new operating system comes out then the shops (and business to business sales) all start pushing the new-version, they slowly stop selling configurations with the old version (by and large) and so the consumer isn't really offered the choice in the big-stores - they buy their DELL with the newest operating system and that's that. The vast majority of consumers won't have any opinion on better/worse because they aren't that technically interested in the system - so after an initial 'getting used to it' period they'll probably find whichever operating system Microsoft serve up is fine. 194.221.133.226 (talk) 11:50, 19 December 2008 (UTC)

Googling suggests XP is one of the more popular (not just on sales)[4][5][6]; in user ratings it is challenged mainly by 2000. --Maltelauridsbrigge (talk) 13:50, 19 December 2008 (UTC)

• Democracy is the most disliked form of government, but also the most used. Just that simple. 194.99.216.135 (talk) 12:42, 20 December 2008 (UTC)

Linux problem, Ubuntu x86_64

~/Desktop/install_flash_player_10_linux$ nspluginwrapper -i libflashplayer.so

nspluginwrapper: no appropriate viewer found for libflashplayer.so

Please diagnose. The x86_64 version of Flashplayer is so buggy it's breathtaking (i.e., not worth using, willing to switch back to Windows over this issue). :) Magog the Ogre (talk) 08:46, 19 December 2008 (UTC)

Nvm, I have Flash working: it's just a really lousy version of it (e.g., crashes upon trying to run blogtv, which really bums me out). Magog the Ogre (talk) 10:53, 19 December 2008 (UTC)

Flash worked for me after I installed flashplugin-nonfree (or something like that). I am not an active user so can't tell if it's buggy, but it only works properly in Firefox (ie not in Opera). This suggest you don't have some 32-bit libs installed. --93.106.15.216 (talk) 13:21, 19 December 2008 (UTC)

Navigation Columns in Dreamweaver CS3

Hello Wikipedia,

I'm cuurently building a website and I'd like it to have a navigation column on the left hand side, to make it easier to get around. I'm using one of the dreamweaver templates but, when i go to change the background colour for example, it only changes the area outside of where the text is -not WHERE the text is. Is there some way around this? Perhaps there is a better way orf creating what I have in mind..

Thanks,82.22.4.63 (talk) 11:11, 19 December 2008 (UTC)

It's been a while since I used Dreamweaver and I didn't use the templates, so take this as probationary advice until someone who actually knows what they're doing comes along. My first thought was that the text area is being kept in a table of some sort. If altering the page properties doesn't work, you may want to try changing the table properties, one of which should be to make the background transparent (or you can just give it the colour you want). Matt Deres (talk) 14:45, 19 December 2008 (UTC)

• Try using CSS - all of the style-properties (like background colors) of Dreamweaver templates are stored there. Have a brief look at the selectors and you'll understand what you should change. 194.99.216.135 (talk) 12:35, 20 December 2008 (UTC)

How Big is a BIT on a Hard Drive Platter?

Imagine a modern hard drive with a capacity of, say, 1 TB. (SI or binary, doesn't really matter.) The drive has 5 platters of 200 GB each. How much space does a single binary digit take up? 82.2.15.100 (talk) 11:12, 19 December 2008 (UTC)

Discrete Track Recording disks have 516 megabits per square millimeter (333 gigabits per square inch). -- Fullstop (talk) 11:18, 19 December 2008 (UTC)

That's 1.85x10^-9 mm² or 1.84800 x 10^-15 m² or 1848 square nanometers per bit. If my math is right. --Maltelauridsbrigge (talk) 13:57, 19 December 2008 (UTC)

You can figure it out yourself by noting that the typical platter is about 3.5 inches in diameter, with about a 1-inch hole for the axle, and data on both sides, so we get:

 diameter_outer = 3.5
 radius_outer = 3.5 / 2
 area_outer = pi() * radius_outer ** 2
 
 diameter_inner = 1
 radius_inner = diameter_inner / 2
 area_inner = pi() * radius_inner ** 2
 
 total_area_per_side = area_outer - area_inner
 sides_per_platter = 2
 total_area_per_platter = total_area_per_side * sides_per_platter
 
 bytes_per_platter = 10 ** 12
 bits_per_byte = 8
 bits_per_platter = bytes_per_platter * bits_per_byte
 area_per_bit = total_area_per_platter / bits_per_platter

 print area_per_bit
       ~0.00000000000220893233

which is about 1425 square nanometers, which is quite close to Maltelauridsbrigge's numbers. At that rate, you could fit the following data on the dust mote pictured at right:

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolo

--Sean 16:09, 19 December 2008 (UTC)

One can't use an algorithm like that to determine 'bit' size. First, platters include a quite a bit more than just storage area. Secondly, the algo above assumes a constant 1,000,000,000,000 bytes_per_platter, i.e. 1 TB per platter, which is of course not the case. Third, the algo above assumes that -- as tracks grew longer -- there would also be proportionally more sectors per track (i.e. the outermost track would have about 3 times as many sectors as the innermost track). The number does increase but not proportionally, because otherwise seek times would be proportionally greater too. -- Fullstop (talk) 21:40, 19 December 2008 (UTC)

Well, you're right that I put in 1000 GB instead of 200 GB per platter, but after correcting for that I still get within an order of magnitude of M's number above, which is good enough for a Fermi calculation like this (I mean, I eyeballed the 1" hole in the platter, so let's not split bits here). Also, I don't see how tracks and sectors have anything to do with it when we've already arrived at 200 GB per platter, no matter what the layout. I stand by my envelope! --Sean 23:46, 19 December 2008 (UTC)

Virgin ISP

Anyone know an email address for their customer services? They tell me that they cannot be contacted by email (but they manage to send them out all right). I suspect that they do have an email address, but are simply trying to prevent customers contacting them. DuncanHill (talk) 14:39, 19 December 2008 (UTC)

support at virgin dot net (from http://www.virgin.net/customers/contactus/ ), or support at virginmedia dot com (from newsgroup postings). They also regularly respond to queries in their newsgroups - for instance I get occasional billing/fault help via virginmedia.support.broadband.cable .Nanonic (talk) 14:55, 19 December 2008 (UTC)

OK, I'll try that, thanks. DuncanHill (talk) 15:00, 19 December 2008 (UTC)

Nope. The "support AT" addresses don't take incoming email. DuncanHill (talk) 15:03, 19 December 2008 (UTC)

• Well, after further digging by me, it appears that it is indeed impossible to email Virgin.com, however, because in my latest complaint to them I asked them to reply by email rather than phone, they are now apparently sending me an email response by first class post. DuncanHill (talk) 19:00, 19 December 2008 (UTC)

Inuktitut

Is it possible to correctly view syllabics in IE7? IE6 shows them fine as does FF but IE7 dropped support for them. Here's a page that has both the fonts and examples to let you know if you can see them correctly. CambridgeBayWeather Have a gorilla 15:37, 19 December 2008 (UTC)

Since IE6 is threaded into ur windows installation, installing the fonts provided on the Government of Nunavut's website (I thought that i may never say Nunavut on the internet :P) using control panal. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 99.244.11.222 (talk) 18:53, 19 December 2008 (UTC)

Seems to be a bit of a mix up here. On my home computer I have IE6 and I also have the Pigiarniq fonts installed and I can see the syllabics fine. At work I have IE7 and I also have the Pigiarniq fonts installed but I can't see them. CambridgeBayWeather Have a gorilla 20:09, 19 December 2008 (UTC)

Hibernation Option Absent

When I click Start->Turn Off Computer and then hold down the Shift key to activate the hibernate option, nothing happens. The Standby option simply remains as it is. Please help. (Windows XP sp2) —Preceding unsigned comment added by 117.194.228.29 (talk) 17:29, 19 December 2008 (UTC)

The first thing to check is if hibernation is enabled: Go into Start > Settings > Control Panel > Power Options. Click on the Hibernate tab, then check the Enable Hibernation check box to enable it.

If it is, then a driver problem might prevent XP from hibernating; see Microsoft's knowledge base article:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/907477 —Preceding unsigned comment added by 76.11.230.33 (talk) 18:37, 19 December 2008 (UTC)

Thank you! That worked perfectly! 117.194.226.34 (talk) 03:02, 20 December 2008 (UTC)

Resolved

Learning

Does anyone know any quality, effective, free Java and or Web design learning courses online?--98.243.98.202 (talk) 17:37, 19 December 2008 (UTC)

W3Schools is pretty good for web stuff; no Java though. --LarryMac | Talk 17:52, 19 December 2008 (UTC)

The last few weeks of cs50.net deal with javascript, html, php, mysql, css, ajax, etc. --VectorField (talk) 19:55, 19 December 2008 (UTC)

VLC Christmas hat

Is it just me or does VLC have a Christmas hat on? When did this happen, will it go away after the new year? http://lh5.ggpht.com/_SLMraXaQ8jY/SUqrGFOC52I/AAAAAAAABMg/CNia0ngUmZ4/image%5B4%5D.png?imgmax=800 —Preceding unsigned comment added by 66.63.184.3 (talk) 18:22, 19 December 2008 (UTC)

It's an easter egg that activated at midnight Dec 19th [7] [8] It only appears on the 0.9+ versions, will probably go away after Christmas. SN0WKITT3N 18:53, 19 December 2008 (UTC)

Nice to know I'm not alone :P i tried editting the icons,pngs and xpm in the installation folder to get rid of the christmas hats, but it doesn't work. Seems that Ubuntu is caching the icons somewhere where i can't find them. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 99.244.11.222 (talk) 18:56, 19 December 2008 (UTC)

jpeg

how can i get the extra data from the jpgs like wut you see on image pages the metadata, how can i gets this to show when i select a jpgs file on my computer. wat progroms do i need to install? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 194.80.240.66 (talk) 18:37, 19 December 2008 (UTC)

If you're on Windows XP or Vista, right-click the image and choose Properties' -> Summary and click Advanced >>.

For more information, read EXIF. --grawity 18:39, 19 December 2008 (UTC)

PhotoME will show you an incredible amount of information from the EXIF. -- Coneslayer (talk) 20:04, 19 December 2008 (UTC)

what's the name of this computer part?

http://www.parts-people.com/index.php?action=item&id=3257

What's the name of the part that attaches to this hinge? Specifically, the part of the hinge with three holes is screwed onto this part. Thanks. --VectorField (talk) 19:52, 19 December 2008 (UTC)

Been a bit since I had a Dell laptop apart, but I think the hinge plate with the three holes attaches to the LCD display and the part with the square post goes into the back of the laptop. --—— Gadget850 (Ed) ^talk - 21:35, 19 December 2008 (UTC)

Right, it attaches to the LCD display. But it's a specific part of the LCD display, a small 1.5cm x 1.5cm bracket that (in my case) has fallen off of the LCD display. Do you know what it's called? I'm trying to figure out where I can order it. Thanks. --VectorField (talk) 22:09, 19 December 2008 (UTC)

Sounds like an OEM-only part. I don't know that you'd be able to find one without the attached LCD laptop lid. But, best guess, try "LCD bracket" and the model name/number. --EvilEdDead (talk) 15:56, 21 December 2008 (UTC)

Firefox broken downloads notify??

Hi. Is there any way to make Firefox notice a broken/incomplete download and notify it as such, instead of notifying a broken download as "complete"? Thanks in advance, Kreachure (talk) 20:45, 19 December 2008 (UTC)

What do you mean "broken?" If you mean a link to something that's not there - Firefox 3 recognizes this and gives a notice. flaminglawyer^c 21:52, 19 December 2008 (UTC)

No it doesn't, especially from sites like rapidshare it often reports the download complete even though it has only downloaded some of the file. Use an external download manager like Free Download Manager for troublesome links. And also compare the size of the downloaded file to what it really should be, especially for RARs as it will fuck you up to download 90 or so RARs only to find one of the damn files is broken and you don't know which one.

I can't figure why it should be hard to figure out which one is broken, if you read your operation log for the unrar/unzip program. (WinRAR it great for this, since it pops up for you with the specific problems, particularly if a certain file is broken.) As for the OP, the only thing you can do, within Firefox, is to check your download sizes. You *might* find an addon/plugin that will handle them differently, but I have doubts, since the one I use (Download StatusBar) can't tell a broken d/l anymore than FF can. --EvilEdDead (talk) 16:02, 21 December 2008 (UTC)

Download Them All will alert you if a download is broken and allows you to resume downloads on sites that support resume. SN0WKITT3N 11:46, 22 December 2008 (UTC)

nameservers

Resolved

I already looked at the article nameserver. I signed up for a site at Godaddy, but want to host my files elsewhere. It tells me to enter 2 nameservers. I signed up for "free" hosting at a free hosting site, (example).com (please, no comments on that). They gave me 2 nameservers - ns1.(example).com and ns2.(example).com. What do I do now? And in case this plan fails miserably - how would I get the domain to point to my IP address? flaminglawyer^c 21:49, 19 December 2008 (UTC)

Getting a domain name to point at your ip address will require you to 'buy' a domain and set it at to your ip. When you signed up for a free site they generally don't give you access to the rights that will enable you to point that domain to your ip address. But, you can upload a HTM file with a redirect code in it to send anyone trying to look at it to your ip address, but you will need to have a HTTP (and/or a ftp) server running under your ip address. here is a redirect code: <meta HTTP-EQUIV="REFRESH" content="0; url=http://www.yourdomain.com/index.html">

The above information is not correct. If the free hosting site has supplied you with nameservers, you just have to go set those up with the domain registrar. It's pretty easy, as these things go. Even if you didn't have the nameservers it is easy enough to have a GoDaddy domain name point wherever you want as a simple redirect (like (example).com/~yoursite/). --98.217.8.46 (talk) 22:55, 19 December 2008 (UTC)

Nevermind, I figured it out. flaminglawyer^c 22:33, 19 December 2008 (UTC)

Extra (multimedia) keys on Acer Aspire 6530G

I have an Acer Aspire 6530G laptop, and I'm trying to create a keyboard driver for it using keyTouch, but I can't identify some of the key symbols, so I was wondering if someone recognised those symbols or could give me some ideas as to what keycode to assign to them. The keys:

• stylised lowercase e at the top right that looks like the "e" in the Acer logo - triangular button
• something that could either be a satellite dish or a thumbtack - in the multimedia row, to the right of the "next song" button
• one that looks like a planet with rings (keytouch-editor recognised it as WWW-Home) - immediately to the right of the above
• a small humanoid with his arms raised, seemingly constructed out of the pound-symbol (#) or an H with 2 horizontal bars, and a small curl for a head - directly below the e-logo-button, at the far right of the multimedia button row, diagonally above the KP-minus key
• a sort of sector diagram - a circle with the top part lifted out (Fn-F2)
• a tapered line forming the outline of an almost-complete circle, with a small bar perpendicular to the broad top end, and a check mark in the centre of the circle (Fn-F3)
• the outline of a rectangle, a vertical separation bar, and then a rectangle outline with a pincushioned fill (Fn-F5)

Apart from the planetoid button which was identified by keytouch-editor and the Fn-F5 key, which I'm pretty sure has something to do with the screen, I have no idea what any of these symbols are.

Thanks in advance. --Link ^(t•c•m) 23:12, 19 December 2008 (UTC)

These keys and their functions are defined in the user guide or manual that came with the notebook. If you don't have the paper copy, Acer probably has one available online. I couldn't find the 6530G user guide, but here's an Acer manual for the 6920 series describing what seem to be the same keys. Look under "Easy-launch buttons" and "Hotkeys". --Martinship (talk) 06:51, 20 December 2008 (UTC)

Thanks. I hadn't been able to find a suitable manual, but this one clarified a lot. The only symbol I still haven't identified is the human-like figure I mentioned. Your link definitely helped a lot, though! --Link ^(t•c•m) 11:07, 20 December 2008 (UTC)

If your Acer is like mine (they seem to be pretty consistent) then the little satellite-dish thing is a sliding toggle that turns on and off the 802.11 wireless function. This appears not be function like a key, but to be directly wired to the wireless lan chip. On my Ubuntu linux setup on a recent Acer laptop, toggling this off makes nm-applet notice that the wireless has been disconnected (in much the way it notices when the wired ethernet cable is pulled). The only deficiency I see is that when one toggles it back on nm-applet doesn't see the physical interface come up and restore the network connection on it - you have to tell nm-applet to disable networking and then reenable - this is unlike its counterpart on Windows, which does restore the network connection. 87.114.130.249 (talk) 14:18, 20 December 2008 (UTC)