Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Computing/2008 December 30

Welcome to the Wikipedia Computing Reference Desk Archives
The page you are currently viewing is an archive page. While you can leave answers for any questions shown below, please ask new questions on one of the current reference desk pages.

December 30

Help with Picture of the Year? :(

Hello, I'm sorry if this is inappropriate, but I was wondering if there is anyone able to help with Wikimedia Commons Picture of the Year 2008. The project started in October but since November nothing has happened. I asked over at Commons and someone said that the users in charge of the project had retired and weren't going to continue with it. I was looking forward to the event, and now I'm sad that it's been abandoned. Nevertheless, they also said that it would be possible to do it for January. Once again: I'm hoping somebody here could help out. I don't have anything to do with the planning of the POTY (nor do I have the skills for it), but I would help with anything I could. Thanks in advance. (If there is a more appropriate place to ask, please tell me.) Kreachure (talk) 00:40, 30 December 2008 (UTC)

I would try WP:FPC. Sorry to hear the POTY might not happen this year. :( · AndonicO ^Engage. 04:21, 30 December 2008 (UTC)

What's this doing at google's site ?

I found this [1]. What's this, a pornographic image doing at google's site ? 117.201.113.95 (talk) 08:56, 30 December 2008 (UTC)

When I view that, I see a small Google logo with a white background, as its name would imply. 87.113.92.163 (talk) 11:41, 30 December 2008 (UTC)

Me too.--droptone (talk) 12:31, 30 December 2008 (UTC)

If you see something other than the Google logo you may want to do a virus scan on your computer post-haste. Or is this question a little joke perhaps...? 88.114.222.252 (talk) 14:02, 30 December 2008 (UTC)

I only see the Google logo with a white background, I would have to agree with the above comment, scan your computer with a virus scanner, you can find many free ones on the net, like AVG...

Xbox 360 Arcade HDMI cable...

I have a 360 Arcade and i'm just about to get a LCD tv with HDMI ports. My question is simple - will any HDMI cable work for my Xbox 360 or do I have to get the over-priced Microsoft one? 194.221.133.226 (talk) 11:12, 30 December 2008 (UTC)

I have a PS3 not an XBox 360 but I would say that as long as the XBox 360 has a standard HDMI output jack (and not some propriatary jack), any HDMI cable should work. I bought a third-party HDMI cable for my PS3 and it works fine. 216.239.234.196 (talk) 13:04, 30 December 2008 (UTC)

I have a Xbox360 arcade and you can use any HDMI cable, its a normal output on the back.— chandler — 13:14, 30 December 2008 (UTC)

Thanks peeps, good work. 194.221.133.226 (talk) 15:33, 30 December 2008 (UTC)

Crosstalk between audio and video

What are the visible and audible effects when there is crosstalk between an analog video signal and an analog audio signal? NeonMerlin 15:43, 30 December 2008 (UTC)

We may need some more information but i think that there would be static on both video and audio channels. —Preceding unsigned comment added by E smith2000 (talk • contribs) 16:41, 30 December 2008 (UTC)

I've noticed on several TVs that a bright image causes static on the audio channel. So much for hearing the Lawrence of Arabia (film) sound track. StuRat (talk) 17:00, 30 December 2008 (UTC)

that's because the whiter the image, the greater the current flowing through the wire, and so the stronger the electromagnetic field. This is heard as hum/buzz on the audio channel, which gets louder as the picture gets brighter, and softer as the picture gets dark. -- Fullstop (talk) 19:27, 30 December 2008 (UTC)

PAINT IN C++

hey all, Myself and my friend are currently working on our version of paint in c++ using turbo c++ graphics and dev c as the compiler. As of today we've already added many features to it, like changing colour, drawing lines,circles,rectangles,spray paint,writing text and the best one --> saving the drawn image and retrieving it at a later point in time.But these are the usual things which are already present in the microsoft paint and we were trying to think of atleast one feature that we can add to our paint which is like a unique feature if you know what i mean. So i'd love it if you guys could help us out with ideas on what that feature could be. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Vineeth h (talk • contribs) 16:25, 30 December 2008 (UTC)

There's an ASCII format bitmap that I wish Paint would support (read and write), as it would allow me to use a program to create the bitmaps, then use Paint to display them or change them to a more compact format. Yes, you can create the usual binary bitmap formats from a program, but it's rather difficult to debug such a program, whereas human readable ASCII output is quite easy. Unfortunately, I forgot the name of the format, but it had RGB codes for each pixel, as two digit HEX codes. StuRat (talk) 16:55, 30 December 2008 (UTC)

The Netpbm formats (including PPM) are fairly widespread and have a simple ASCII variant. The values are decimal, not hexadecimal, though. -- Coneslayer (talk) 16:59, 30 December 2008 (UTC)

The .xpm format uses hexadecimal. --NorwegianBlue ^talk 18:38, 30 December 2008 (UTC)

ok. Thats a good idea. But i wasn't exactly looking for a file saving kind of feature. I'm looking for an idea for a unique feature which i can use on the drawing screen which could be useful for making the image or doing something to it/on it.Vineeth h (talk —Preceding unsigned comment added by 122.162.70.166 (talk) 17:05, 30 December 2008 (UTC)

Plenty of people have already done the easy cool things,you'll have to be content with a gimmick or not so cool feature if it's not to be a copy of something already done. But that's what imagination is about. As a quickie how about something based on drawing with a line of different colours like a bunch of crayons tied together? Or making the line wider the slower you draw? Or changing the last bit of the colours so you have a secret message or drawing you can reveal? Dmcq (talk) 18:35, 30 December 2008 (UTC)

I'd like to be able to do a print screen, paste into Paint, then convert a text image into black and white. Sounds simple, right ? But I don't want red text to come out as stippled black and white, I want the red text to become solid black text. Basically the program should make every color either black or white; no grays with stippling. Determining which colors become black and which become white could take some work. Why do I want this feature ? So I can print to a black and white printer without having it look like crap. StuRat (talk) 03:49, 31 December 2008 (UTC)

I'd also like to be able to create geometry by keying in coords, like the center of a circle and it's radius, rather than with mouse clicks. StuRat (talk) 03:56, 31 December 2008 (UTC)

Sturat your first idea sounds useful and kind of easy ,i've come across the same problem you've just mentioned.But your second idea ,i disagree. You'd spend far more time trying to figure out the required coords and then trying to draw the circle by inputting those coords than if you just used mouse clicks because then it just makes its a whole lot easier that manually typing in the coordinates yourself.And Dmcq yeah the coloured line sounds easy and do-able.Well i'll give it a shot and see what i can do.Thanks for your ideas.Vineeth h (talk —Preceding unsigned comment added by 122.162.68.234 (talk) 04:20, 31 December 2008 (UTC)

There are definitely times when it would be useful to be able to type in those coordinates - but it shouldn't be the only way to draw things like circles and rectangles...it shouldn't even be the default or 'normal' way to do it. But there are certainly times when that would be really handy. SteveBaker (talk) 22:48, 31 December 2008 (UTC)

Agreed. One time I wished I had this feature was when I tried to create the Olympic Rings in Paint. StuRat (talk) 07:19, 2 January 2009 (UTC)

A feature I find really useful is 'clone paint' in GIMP. You have a normal kind of brush (an airbrush say) and you move the cursor over one place in the image and do a Ctrl-Click with the mouse to mark it. Then when you start painting, it copies the pixels from the place you marked into the place where you are laying down the paint. As you drag the mouse around doing your painting, the marked position moves in the same speed and direction as your cursor. This simple feature is amazingly useful for removing things from photos and such. You can download GIMP (it's free) and try it out for yourself. SteveBaker (talk) 22:48, 31 December 2008 (UTC)

07:12, 5 January 2009 (UTC)harshagg Hk why don't you do that you file show animation when you retrive file That will be awesome just use delay harshagg(talk)

RDP From windows to linux

I was just wondering if there was a way to use the RDP built in to windows to remote in to a Linux box. I am awear of several programs that work like RDP but those are not what i want. The reason is this: I switch computer often and most of the time i am unable to install new software on to these computers, and only very few of them am i able to stick a CD/Flash/any other type of memory device. In fact, most of the computers are very limited in what they allow me to do, but i have found a way to open RDP. So my queston is this: Is there some type of RDP server that i can run under Linux that would allow me to remote in to it? —Preceding unsigned comment added by E smith2000 (talk • contribs) 16:40, 30 December 2008 (UTC)

xrdp? --h2g2bob (talk) 18:52, 30 December 2008 (UTC)

Many of the standard VNC clients offer a Java-viewer, so you don't need to install software on the client-computer. You just open the browser to http://[addresstocomputer]:[someport] and a java-program starts and you can use that. Then you don't need to install any additional software, the computer only needs java (you can find the right port-number in the settings/documentation for the software). Look at Comparison of remote desktop software under the "Java Viewer" heading.

BTW, if you don't have a registered domain-name for your computer and don't want to be messing around with IP-numbers (they have an annoying tendency to change), you can use a free dynamic dns-service like No-IP. They work excellently, in my experience. Belisarius (talk) 18:59, 30 December 2008 (UTC)

xrdp is an RDP server for unixen. Also, several other remote desktop tools (including RealVNC, UltraVNC and x11vnc) also have Java clients, so all one needs at the client end is a Java-capable browser, and software installation is then unnecessary. -- Fullstop (talk) 19:00, 30 December 2008 (UTC)

Resolved

Light on new modem not working

The full details of my question are in a post I made last week.

I went back to using the old modem, because whenever I would describe the lights on that modem, the tech support people would get concerned and claim I needed a new one. Therefore, they shipped me one.

The first light is the power light. It starts out red and turns green. It's not supposed to blink, but shortly after I started using that modem it started blinking for a while.

I never did see the leftmost light blink. It's supposed to blink in an irregular pattern but it never did anything (though the Internet worked fine for a while and I suspect an outside problem; see last week). If it doesn't blink on the old modem, the middle light starts blinking. The middle light is supposed to be solid, and when it is out or blinkiing, the Internet doesn't work. If a page is solw to load and the left light is off, the page will often come up just as the leftmost light blinks on.

A separate post from yesterday describes this modem.Vchimpanzee · talk · contributions · 17:14, 30 December 2008 (UTC)

It sounds to me like those are indicator lights, if the internet is working then i would not be concerned.

The problem is described in last week's post here.

I assume the Internet quit working because of something external and not a problem with the new modem.

I'm still using the old modem and it seems fine.Vchimpanzee · talk · contributions · 18:46, 30 December 2008 (UTC)

idiot...64.172.159.131 (talk) 23:58, 31 December 2008 (UTC)

Well, what would you do if they wouldn't take the blame for their own Internet problems and told you the modem with the bad light was the problem? Fortunately, I haven't had to ask yet.Vchimpanzee · talk · contributions · 21:39, 1 January 2009 (UTC)

how to stop skype spam

I have a Skype account which I use infrequently, but sometimes have on standby while doing other things. Today I have received yet another porn spam chat message, of the genre: "Hi there!". I thought I'd better test my assumptions, so I responded blandly and immediately got, "I'm feeling lonely, do you have time for me?". A second bland response from me and then another reply so immediate that it shows it has all been automated long ago (and I thought the pornspam-meisters might use actual human beings to lure chatters into their lairs). This third line has the website, and a supposedly sexy temptation to visit it. Fat chance. So. My question is, what is Skype doing about this? And what should I do about this? I know the general rule is not to reply to spam, but in this one case I wanted to see what the procedure was. BrainyBabe (talk) 20:10, 30 December 2008 (UTC)

You could try closing Skype, only opening it when you need it. —Preceding unsigned comment added by E smith2000 (talk • contribs) 20:31, 30 December 2008 (UTC)

Thank you, I'll take the suggestion at face value. I had thought of that, but some days would prefer to have Skype available in the background. My questions remain: Do I have any other options? And, more broadly, what is Skype's response? BrainyBabe (talk) 16:17, 31 December 2008 (UTC)

making a download link

Anybody know how to render an HTML link so that the end user's browser will go into its special download dialog, rather than rendering the linked-to page as usual? —Steve Summit (talk) 20:45, 30 December 2008 (UTC)

Tell said end-user to go to file > save to download the page. —Preceding unsigned comment added by E smith2000 (talk • contribs) 21:12, 30 December 2008 (UTC)

Well, that's what *I* do when I'm the end-user, but I know there's a way to cater to the less-computer-savvy end users, 'cos all the other websites do it. —Steve Summit (talk) 21:31, 30 December 2008 (UTC)

I think download links will always open in the browser if they are things like jpg or mp3, which the browser is configured to render. Only way I see is to put the file in a .zip archive, then it will show the download box. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 82.43.88.87 (talk) 21:33, 30 December 2008 (UTC)

I can give the files a binary content-type, and that does force the browser to ask where to save it, but it's not the same dialog as you get with a download link. (I think that a true download link would also let you download something which is normally renderable, like HTML or plain text). —Steve Summit (talk) 22:08, 30 December 2008 (UTC)

I do this by sending all downloads to a php script in the form http://www.example.com/pdf.php/filename.ext where "filename.ext" is the file to be downloaded and "pdf.php" contains the following php script. This example only allows files with .pdf extension.

<?php
#if no file specified, redirect browser to error page
if ( substr($_SERVER['PATH_INFO'], 1) == "" ) {
	header("HTTP/1.1 301 Moved Permanently");
	header("Location: http://www.example.com/error.html");
	exit(); }
#retrieve specified file and send to browser
$pdf = substr($_SERVER['PATH_INFO'], 1); if(preg_match('#^[a-zA-Z0-9_\-]+.pdf$#', $pdf) == 0)
{ print "Illegal name:  $pdf"; return; }
header('Content-type: application/pdf');
header('Content-disposition: Attachment; filename=' . $pdf); readfile('path/' . $pdf);
?>

An example of that script in use: http://www.northantscamra.org.uk/pdf.php/overthebarrel-dec2008.pdf (link is a pdf version of a free beer magazine, 1,91MB). -=# Amos E Wolfe ^talk #=- 21:47, 30 December 2008 (UTC)

Aha. So is the key factor the Content-disposition header? —Steve Summit (talk) 22:08, 30 December 2008 (UTC)

Throwing said file in to a zip would be a good way to go. however, you could try replacing the letters 'pdf' with 'html' in the above script.. it could work, or it could not. E smith2000 (talk)

Amos Wolfe was right: the key is the Content-disposition header. With that clue to go on, I found this page, which confirmed it and suggested several other techniques. So, rather than messing around with a CGI script for downloading, I just put

<Files *.AHX>
    Header set Content-Disposition attachment
</Files>

in an .htaccess file, and that did the trick. (Well, after enabling .htaccess files, and mod_headers.) I also used ForceType application/octet-stream to force a binary file type, which (as others had suggested) tends to do the same thing. —Steve Summit (talk) 01:31, 2 January 2009 (UTC)

Resolved

archives

I've got 10,000+ PDF files and I'd like a good way to store them, ideally compressed, in a way that enables moderately easy retrieval and adding of new files. So far I've got them in a 7zip archive but adding to a 4GB files takes a long time. Any easier options? Inb4 use the OS file system, opening 10,000+ files in one folder crashes the pc. Thanks for the help. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 82.43.88.87 (talk) 21:10, 30 December 2008 (UTC)

Windows (or Explorer)/whatever you're using wouldn't crash even if you have that many files in one folder, but it would take a long time to load. Why not store your PDFs in categories, making them easier to find as well? If you're on Windows, you can use NTFS' native file compression. If you're on GNU/Linux, you can try FuseCompress. --wj32 ^t/c 21:45, 30 December 2008 (UTC)

There are one or maybe two reasons to put files into an archive format:

1. to make it easier to move the complete set of files around
2. for compression

But PDF files typically don't compress well; they contain a fair amount of internal compression already. And any archiving you do is going to make it incrementally (if not significantly) harder to retrieve and add files. (So depending on your definition of "moderately easy", it won't be, especially if the archive is huge.)

Wj32 is right: arrange your 10,000 files into some reasonable directory/subdirectory hierarchy, and they'll become much easier to work with. —Steve Summit (talk) 21:51, 30 December 2008 (UTC)

• The problem is that you're displaying a list of all of the files at once. I would store the files inside of a database. That way, you could query the database for the file you want, instead of displaying them all each time you want to retrieve them. Try Microsoft SQL Server, maybe with an Microsoft Access front end for ease of use.--Djnghfg (talk) 22:08, 30 December 2008 (UTC)

Thanks for the suggestions. The PDFs I'll probably put into categories as suggested, there doesn't seem any point compressing them. I've also got maybe 8,000 MHTML files with a similar problem. I know these compress really well but again adding to the archive is a problem. I like the database idea, is there a free alternative to Microsoft Access? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 82.43.88.87 (talk) 22:28, 30 December 2008 (UTC)

There is OpenOffice.org Base, but it's painfully slow and somewhat buggy. If it were me, I'd probably rig it up so that the "database" was just output in HTML and was either generated on the fly or could be updated with a simple script. --98.217.8.46 (talk) 15:06, 31 December 2008 (UTC)

There's always mySQL. --LarryMac | Talk 15:33, 31 December 2008 (UTC)

And Apache Derby[2]. --Maltelauridsbrigge (talk) 15:19, 1 January 2009 (UTC)

Or Microsoft SQL Server Express. That's what I'd use, since it comes with a GUI.--Djnghfg (talk) 16:02, 1 January 2009 (UTC)

Is it usable and fast? GUI alone is not useful... --87.78.32.82 (talk) 18:50, 2 January 2009 (UTC)

Virus Question

Changed heading to avoid conflict Astronaut (talk) 11:06, 31 December 2008 (UTC)

I think I've got a virus or something on my computer. It's affecting google, when I click the search results it goes to ad pages instead of the proper site. I've double checked that I'm on google.com, and I've tried this in firefox, opera and internet explorer. Another thing is my floppy disk drive seems to make noises every 2 minuets or so, for no apparent reason and it wasn't doing it two hours ago. I've run avira anti-virus, clamwin, avg, I've looked for odd things with process explorer, tried ComboFix, rebooted, and nothing works. I can't find any evidence at all that there is a virus but my computer is still acting weird. What can I do? 66.63.184.3 (talk) 22:15, 30 December 2008 (UTC)

Check your hosts file (Start --> Run... --> %SystemRoot%\system32\drivers\etc\) for malicious entries. Also check your C:\WINDOWS and C:\WINDOWS\system32 folders for newly-created files without a company listed.--Djnghfg (talk) 22:19, 30 December 2008 (UTC)

You could restart your computer in to safe mode and run virus scanners there, I have had a virus on my computer that did nothing but place it's self in the registry, only way i was able to remove it was to format my drive. E smith2000 (talk) 22:35, 30 December 2008 (UTC)

You sound like you have done a pretty thorough job, but keep looking. I would try running Spybot in case it's malware of the page redirecting type because some antiviruses don't look for it. (I am not familiar enough with your virus scanners to know if they catch that sort of malware). Spybot also lets you keep tabs on the programs that have entries in the registry to run at start up and will flag known bad ones which will help with what Djnghjg was talking about. 152.16.15.23 (talk) 06:25, 31 December 2008 (UTC)

You could also look at the DNS entries. I once cleaned up a virus which had modified the DNS settings from the ISP's DNS to a rogue DNS in Ukraine. View the setting in a DOS box using ipconfig/all, then track down where their IP addresses are based. The virus itself was particularly difficult to remove because it used a rootkit to hide itself from Windows and the virus scanner (it also disabled access to the Task Manager, but Process Explorer still worked). I used IceSword to disable the rootkit and then went on a hunt for the virus. Astronaut (talk) 08:48, 31 December 2008 (UTC)

You might have some luck doing a search for "Winsock Repair" or "Fix Winsock" ... there are tools out there that will repair the DNS and restore the hosts file. Ched (talk) 14:59, 31 December 2008 (UTC)

RSA Generator

I'm looking for a site that lets generate 1024 bit or 2048 bit keys online. --Melab±1 ☎ 22:44, 30 December 2008 (UTC)

A quick google search turned up this :www.cyotec.com/resources/cyogenerator/E smith2000 (talk) 22:48, 30 December 2008 (UTC)

Without downloading. I'm looking for one that is web-based.--Melab±1 ☎ 22:57, 30 December 2008 (UTC)

Internet watch

My company is thinking about installing some device or program to monitor and store internet activity. My question is this: What would be a good device or program to use to monitor the internet activities of a little over 50 people? E smith2000 (talk) 22:46, 30 December 2008 (UTC)

For 50 people, couldn't you just walk around the office and look at the screens? anyway I'm not a fan of spying on people computers, —Preceding unsigned comment added by 82.43.88.87 (talk) 23:08, 30 December 2008 (UTC)

sorry I wasn't particularity helpful in my above post. See Comparison of network monitoring systems for some solutions, also SpectorSoft makes lots of computer spying programs, worth a look. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 82.43.88.87 (talk) 23:43, 30 December 2008 (UTC)

It would be pretty hard to do that; most network monitoring programs are very low-level and probably not suitable for monitoring web traffic. A better idea would be to have a central proxy that records what websites are visited, etc. --wj32 ^t/c 23:40, 30 December 2008 (UTC)

This would be for a growing bushiness, we are trying to decide if we need a filter on web traffic or not, the monitoring would only be temporary. This would be for a domain with a local domain controller and a redundant controller. E smith2000 (talk) 00:39, 31 December 2008 (UTC)

GNU Apps

I don't really understand GNU apps. I have GnuPG How do I make RSA keys? Which one of the these commands?

$ gpg --gen-key
gpg --gen-key
--gen-key

And which one of the apps in the package? gpg.exe, gnupg.exe, gpg_curl.exe, or gpg_finger.exe, etc.?
--Melab±1 ☎ 23:27, 30 December 2008 (UTC)

At your command prompt (where all you see is text, no pretty buttons to click on), type "gpg --gen-key". -- kainaw™ 01:11, 31 December 2008 (UTC)

But I don't know which one of the EXE's (I downloaded it staight not compiled) gpg.exe, gpgkeys_curl.exe, gpgkeys_finger.exe, gpgkeys_hkp.exe, gpgkeys_ldap.exe, gpgsplit.exe, or gpgv.exe? --Melab±1 ☎ 16:54, 31 December 2008 (UTC)

Well the command line above impiles it is just gpg, which would mean gpg.exe. --98.217.8.46 (talk) 20:26, 31 December 2008 (UTC)

Windows is poor at letting you use command line applications. I suggest picking one of these graphical utilities for use on Windows and using that. The $ before the first example represents the command prompt for Unix/Linux/OS-X systems. How to use the text-based gpg.exe (quickly): (1) Open command prompt; (2) cd into the directory you downloaded gpg; (3) run gpg.exe --gen-key. --h2g2bob (talk) 22:25, 31 December 2008 (UTC)