Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Computing/2008 March 12

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March 12

Distributed Computing

I searched wikipedia on the topic "Large archive sharing and rights management " but couldnt find any article about it, can anyone please give me detail info about this topic? --58.65.203.8 (talk) 08:32, 12 March 2008 (UTC)

Of note - the search tool in Wikipedia is terrible. You are better off going to Google and seraching "large archive sharing and rights management site:wikipedia.org". As for the topic, I am confused. The name of the section here is distributed computing, which is a method of running a program such that different parts of the program run on different processors, all running with a common goal for the overall program. Then, your question appears to be about large archive sharing, which I use a NAS for. Also, you mention what appears to be file system permissions. None of those topics really have a lot to do with one another. So, I'm not sure what you are asking about. -- kainaw™ 12:06, 12 March 2008 (UTC)

I've always been mystified why our search tool doesn't just use Google itself. --Sean 20:11, 12 March 2008 (UTC)

Because a good built-in search would be able to take into account assumptions about the structure of Wikipedia that Google can't. --Carnildo (talk) 20:59, 12 March 2008 (UTC)

Plus all the legal issues of licensing Google search, the intrusive ads, etc. It's more trouble than it's worth for the way Wikipedia is structured. -- Kesh (talk) 21:25, 12 March 2008 (UTC)

And there is no reason to assume Google is anything more than the flavor of the moment. The number 1 search engine comes and goes. It won't be long before some new search engine supplants Google as #1. Why should Wikipedia blindly show support for Google over the others? Instead, it makes it very easy to choose to search with google after you click the "search" button. -- kainaw™ 00:06, 13 March 2008 (UTC)

Wireless broadband

Hi, I live in the uk and have Virgin media home phone tv and internet, my internet modem is in one room and my ps3 in the other, this makes it hard to use an ethernet cable to link my ps3 to the internet, can anyone suggest a way to get around this problem (i cant move the tv nearer) —Preceding unsigned comment added by 193.115.175.247 (talk) 09:48, 12 March 2008 (UTC)

Get a wireless router? -- Consumed Crustacean (talk) 14:36, 12 March 2008 (UTC)

Yes - your PS3 has WiFi, so a wireless router would solve it. Alternately, get a longer ethernet cable. You can buy ones up to 50m in length from a big Comet store or somewhere like that (although they are expensive - I'd look online at dabs.com or somewhere like that). Neıl ☎ 17:52, 12 March 2008 (UTC)

There's also power over ethernet, PCWorld stock them, they're not cheap though Silent52 (talk) 03:49, 13 March 2008 (UTC)

How to find USB port speed using visual basic 6.0

Hai,

  I am working in visual basic 6.0.Using Cypress driver i will communicate with the Device

using USB Cable. But I have the Problem is wtether I will communicate at High Speed or Full Speed.But I want to Communicate in Both Version USB 1.1 to USB 2.0.So Please Help me How to Find the Speed of Port.

    Details:
          Cyusb.sys       ------>  USB Driver
          Visual Basic 6.0---------> Platform(Language)
  Please any one send the code to communicate or Give me guidence to Me.

Advance thanks

By R.Rajesh Kumar —Preceding unsigned comment added by 122.164.59.117 (talk) 11:18, 12 March 2008 (UTC)

Watching pages?

How much memory it would take on Wikipedia's servers if single user clicked "Watch" on the top of all >2 million articles? Yes I'm not planning to try. --212.149.216.233 (talk) 13:56, 12 March 2008 (UTC)

It would probably take a lot of memory to execute all of that php, but to actually store the user's watchlist wouldn't take more than 100mb :D\=< (talk) 15:36, 12 March 2008 (UTC)

That would be a monster watchlist. Useight (talk) 16:12, 12 March 2008 (UTC)

That would be a "Recent changes", I should say :)  ARTYOM  16:52, 12 March 2008 (UTC)

You had to remind me of that page. And so I dove head-first into the muck after I swore I wouldn't - and cleared up enough vandalism to somehow earn a barnstar. Now I wish I had the courage to log in. 206.252.74.48 (talk) 14:03, 13 March 2008 (UTC)

Haha, wow! That's the first time I see a barnstar on an IP's page! Lol :)  ARTYOM  16:31, 13 March 2008 (UTC)

It sometimes happens. (I liked my IP more when it started with 24.147, but alas!) --98.217.18.109 (talk) 04:00, 14 March 2008 (UTC)

Several (three or more) years ago lengthy watchlists were a real issue, with occasional database slowdowns getting so bad that the developers had to institute severe limits on the "view my watchlist" query (not on the watchlist you actually have, but on the maximum number of watchlist changes you could see), down as few as 20 one time. Subsequent (software and DB structure) improvements seem to have mostly fixed this problem. A few times the devs have complained that people running semi-automated queries with URLs manipulated to request very large datasets have made the servers slow, but I've not seen that lately either. Most large database-backed websites eventually institude mechanisms to cull any user-generated query that's taking more than a reasonable one should (say a second or two), to limit the asymmetric leverage available to DoS-ers; I don't know of WikiMedia has done this on their MediaWiki/PHP/MySQL setup. -- Finlay McWalter | Talk 17:57, 13 March 2008 (UTC)

The Evils of Geek Squad

A few weeks ago I asked about what was wrong with my ThinkPad and from the answers I've decided to hand my laptop over for repairs. Since I have no warrenty or anything of the sort (and I'm lazy and impatient), I'm thinking of going over to Geek Squad (which I can literally hit with a stone throw from my home) and entrusting it to their care. However, my friend told me he hates Geek Squad because they just send it back to the manufacturer - who replaces the components with cheaper ones. I really don't want to go to the local mom and pop computer repair shop (although normally I would, but this particular one charges ridiculous prices), so I'm wondering if this is true. 206.252.74.48 (talk) 14:39, 12 March 2008 (UTC)

This and the various slashdot stores (and their comments) may be somewhat enlightening. And there's this and this... and so on. They're not all like this, but it's all YMMV. -- Consumed Crustacean (talk) 14:51, 12 March 2008 (UTC)

Do not give your money to geek squad- seriously. :D\=< (talk) 15:29, 12 March 2008 (UTC)

Circuit City's Firedog is better than Geek Squad. Personally, I'd fix my computer myself and take the opportunity to throw that stone you speak of at Geek Squad. But, being that it's a laptop, instead of a desktop, which was your first mistake, I guess take it to Circuit City. Useight (talk) 16:12, 12 March 2008 (UTC)

Every time someone asks me to repair a laptop, my solution is to send in all the guts and replace them. I'm not going to waste time poking around in those mini-components. Now, if it was a real computer, I'd happily open up the case and try to figure out specifically what is wrong and replace it with possibly better parts. So, I would expect any repair shop to do the same thing. Just swap out the guts for whatever they can find. -- kainaw™ 16:23, 12 March 2008 (UTC)

Why are some of you complaining that I have a laptop? I have a desktop, and I do repair it myself. I have a laptop because it is very useful when I'm running my D&D campaigns. Like Kainaw said, everything is too damn small to mess around with. As for Firedog - the Circuit City that I could throw a stone at has turned into a restaurant, and the nearest one is 20 minutes away. But if I get enough support for Firedog then I'll risk the engine failure gladly. 206.252.74.48 (talk) 16:29, 12 March 2008 (UTC)

I definitely wouldn't take it to a restaurant. Are you saying you aren't sure if your car can make a 20 minute drive? You may have more pressing things to fix, especially if your desktop is working fine. Useight (talk) 21:23, 12 March 2008 (UTC)

Given current gasoline prices, a 20 minute drive can be a major consideration depending on your income and vehicle involved. -- Kesh (talk) 21:28, 12 March 2008 (UTC)

I love the anti-laptop sentiment. Nothing more entertaining that irrational discounting of an entire category of machines on the sole basis that their compact nature makes them harder to repair, as if that were the sole deciding factor in purchasing a computer. (But not impossible. You can often find very wonderful and detailed instructions online about what order to remove things and then it's just a case of keeping track of all the screws. I've taken apart iBooks, Powerbooks, and Macbooks multiple times. It's not that hard once you've done it once and have a general idea of where everything goes. You just have to be more organized than a desktop, which you can rip into without paying much attention to what you are doing.) --98.217.18.109 (talk) 22:47, 12 March 2008 (UTC)

The anti-laptop sentiment is understandable. It comes from dealing with people who do not take their needs into account when purchasing a computer. They spend twice the money on a laptop with half the capabilities of a desktop and then never, under any circumstances, move the laptop off their desk. It isn't just limited to computers. A coworker just purchased a blackberry pearl. I asked if she liked the email reader. She said didn't get email service with her plan. I asked if she liked the web browser. She said she didn't get internet service with her plan. I asked what she had. Just telephone. So why, I wondered, did she buy a blackberry? Because it is the cool thing to do. -- kainaw™ 00:03, 13 March 2008 (UTC)

It's ridiculous to assume that just because someone has a laptop they aren't using it as a laptop. If you've been around a university in the past four years, for example, you'll see that laptops greatly outnumber desktops because the latter force you to be bolted in one location to get any work done. In any case, berating someone for buying a laptop when they are asking about where to get it repaired is a bit like, well, something terribly unproductive, and the sort of smarmy thing that tech-savvy people do that makes the non-tech-savvy think they are all pricks. --98.217.18.109 (talk) 00:51, 13 March 2008 (UTC)

I didn't voice any anti-laptop ownership rhetoric in my reply. I only mentioned that they are too small to easily work on and then explained why others have an anti-laptop sentimentality. Also, I never claimed that all the tech-savvy people weren't pricks. -- kainaw™ 01:26, 13 March 2008 (UTC)

Personal story time: I bought a laptop once, and I used it roughly as many times. There's no doubt there are people to whom laptops are invaluable, but I think that too many misidentify themselves as such. For me, having a reliable, comfortable, powerful and affordable bolted-in station for serious work & play, and a book for when I'm on the go, is a wonderful arrangement - and I think it should be satisfactory for most. -- Meni Rosenfeld (talk) 11:29, 13 March 2008 (UTC)

9600gt and compatible motherboards

Hello

I would like to purchase the graphics card here:

http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/specpage.html?NOV-96GTS

But was wondering whether it will work on the motherboard here:

http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/specpage.html?ASU-P5N32E

And if not whether you lovely guys and girls could find:

a) A motherboard it will work on for no more than £200 and sli-ready b) Whether this motherboard:

http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/specpage.html?ASU-P5KC

Would be a better selection.

Thank you ever so much, I look forward to your replies.

89.241.203.130 (talk) 19:56, 12 March 2008 (UTC)

I see no reason the card shouldn't work on either of the boards. The P5KC doesn't support SLI, though. Its main advantage is that it supports both DDR2 and DDR3, but I don't think this is all that beneficial. -- Meni Rosenfeld (talk) 21:10, 12 March 2008 (UTC)

The 9600GT requires an extra power connector that you should make sure your PSU has. It needs a 6 pin molex connector but depending on the brand of graphics card you have it should come with an adaptor for a standard 4 pin molex connector of the sort you'd use to power an IDE hard drive. The motherboards you have posted are fine by the way, and will work with the 9600GT TheGreatZorko (talk) 13:56, 13 March 2008 (UTC)

Download Wikipedia

Hello,

On an unrelated subject I've always wondered if it were possible to download the entire of wikipedia (for arguments sake lets say I have a computer that is capable of holding and running this download of wikipedia). I would imagine that the process would save the entire of wikipedia as it is in that state and then transfer the data.

Just Wondering

89.241.203.130 (talk) 20:01, 12 March 2008 (UTC)

Yes, you can - see m:Database dumps. Hut 8.5 20:06, 12 March 2008 (UTC)

It takes a lot of computer these days, though. The last time I did it (a year and a half ago), the current versions of pages in the English Wikipedia took 100GB of disk space and ten days to import the database. --Carnildo (talk) 21:05, 12 March 2008 (UTC)

100GB! That's a lot of space to dedicate. Even though my PC's capacity is 1.1TB, I can't imagine a need to have Wikipedia offline that merits the use of 100GB. Useight (talk) 21:20, 12 March 2008 (UTC)

Compressed article pages (excluding talk pages, history, pictures, photos, user pages and so on) will take considerably less than 100 GB, though. --Kjoonlee 21:59, 12 March 2008 (UTC)

For example, the latest pages-articles.xml.bz2 file is 3.2 G.

• http://users.softlab.ece.ntua.gr/~ttsiod/buildWikipediaOffline.html
• http://download.wikimedia.org/enwiki/ --Kjoonlee 22:03, 12 March 2008 (UTC)

I used to have wikipedia on my pocket pc with the tomeraider files that wikimedia puts up on this page, http://download.wikimedia.org/tomeraider/, It does require the tomeraider application which i dont think is free, but you might find it useful to know. The files are not complete, eg some wikipedia files are missing, but the size is less than a Gb, you can also find tr3 files that contain pictures. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Iownatv (talk • contribs) 01:28, 13 March 2008 (UTC)