Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Computing/2009 May 2

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May 2

Inexplicably unable to log into my Hotmail account

I changed the password for it more than week ago, haven't logged in ever since but I wrote down the password. Yesterday, I tried logging in, and it kept turning me down because the password was "incorrect". This is really huge for me, because every account for other websites I have is registered to that address (including my account here) and since I've forgotten my passwords to them, the only way I can retrieve them is through email, but now I am unable to check my mail. I don't have an alternate account, and I made the mistake of not writing my answer to the secret question, so now it seems like I have no way of logging into my email account. Still, I wrote down the password and I wrote it down correctly, so I don't understand why I can't log in. Does that mean someone hacked into it and changed my password? I've been losing sleep over it. Whip it! ^{Now whip it good!} 01:16, 2 May 2009 (UTC)

The likelyhood of your hotmail account being hacked is quite low - unless you clicked the "invite all my contacts" option when signing up for MySpace/Facebook/etc. All the same, take a look at your info on these other websites to see if they show signs of being compromised (bogus messages sent to others is one thing to look for). However, I think it is more likely you either made the same mistake both times you entered the new password, so now the password is not what you think it is; or maybe it didn't get changed at all, so have you tried the old password?

As for the answer to the secret question, that should be obvious to you (for me, I know 'what high school I went to', but MS offers other examples like 'the name of your dog' and so on). You really should have chosen a question so easy you didn't need to write down the answer. Astronaut (talk) 02:17, 2 May 2009 (UTC)

The password change went through, because I tried my old one and it didn't work either (yes, I remember my old password very well). I seriously don't get it. Whip it! ^{Now whip it good!} 02:44, 2 May 2009 (UTC)

One common problem with entering a new password is having the CAPS LOCK key on. Thus, the PW is all uppercase. It's also all uppercase when you enter it a second time, because CAPS LOCK is still on. Of course, it's hidden both times, so you can't see that it's uppercase. The CAPS LOCK key is like a password land-mine. StuRat (talk) 13:24, 2 May 2009 (UTC)

STOP: 0x0000007E (0xC0000005, 0x805ADACC, 0XBACC349C, 0XBACC3198)

Hi,

Every week or so I get a Blue Screen of Death on my PC after using it for a while, but today,when I switched it on it immediatley went to a Blue Screen of Death, so I switched it off and on and it again went to a Blue Screen of Death. I switched it on again and it then went to a Green Screen of Death. The Green Screen of Death said this was the technical information: STOP: 0x0000007E (0xC0000005, 0x805ADACC, 0XBACC349C, 0XBACC3198). What does this mean? I then restarted the computer and it worked fine. I then ran an antivirus and removed a worm that I must have got within the last 12 hours. Could that be what the problem was? My system is: Windows XP Home Edition 2002 Service Pack 3, if that helps.

Thanks. 92.7.18.36 (talk) 05:36, 2 May 2009 (UTC)

Do you have a minidump file available? If so, please zip + password protect it and upload it to a file hosting site. 0x7E is SYSTEM_THREAD_EXCEPTION_NOT_HANDLED. It basically means some sort of driver created a system thread which then made an invalid access to memory (0xc0000005) and crashed your computer. Did you get the error code for the first BSOD? --wj32 ^t/c 07:22, 2 May 2009 (UTC)

I have no idea what a minidump file is, sorry. That was the only error code I took down; I just took a photo of the screen because I found it wierd there was a Green Screen of Death then after I thought of asking you guys why it was being wierd. 92.7.18.36 (talk) 07:32, 2 May 2009 (UTC)

Look in C:\Windows\Minidump. Is there a file named Mini[date of the crash].dmp? --wj32 ^t/c 07:34, 2 May 2009 (UTC)

I have a few, but none for today's date. 92.3.192.222 (talk) 09:03, 2 May 2009 (UTC)

radio 'loop' on laptop

hi all, just this morning, whilst downloading, my laptop has suddenly started playing a loop of a radio political sketch/skit show - someone pretending to be bush etc, between skits there is a silly voice saying 'heads up' then a poping noise, every now and again there is an advert for a BUPA care home, then another skit. It sounds like a radio show. There is no application open other than bitlord (and when that is closed it doesn't stop) i'm scanning using AVG 8.0 just now. Has anyone come across this before? Perry-mankster (talk) 12:24, 2 May 2009 (UTC)

When you say that there's no application open other than Bitlord, do you mean that it's the only one that shows up in the list of applications when you open Task Manager? Because that doesn't mean that there isn't a process running in the background. You want to click on the Processes tab and see what's actually cooking. You'll see a lot going on there, and one of those processes is probably running in the background and playing this stuff for you. One possibility is that you have a hung process there that doesn't show up on the Applications list, but is still kind of going on. A web browser that's still playing a stream from the internet could do this, for example. I doubt it's a virus. -- Captain Disdain (talk) 16:08, 2 May 2009 (UTC)

C++ help..

Hey!I'm basically a beginner in C++.I'm in search of a website where i can easily found problems and the coded programs as the solution of given problems, so that i may develop a program for that problems and check out my progress.I hope i'll be helped out soon!..cheers--59.103.12.242 (talk) 12:27, 2 May 2009 (UTC)

Project Euler, although you only get to see the solutions after you have completed a problem. And the solutions are given in multiple programing languages. Taemyr (talk) 12:39, 2 May 2009 (UTC)

The best thing to do is just look at life in terms of programming. You need to study for a final exam in English? Use string arrays to create a program that will quiz you on what you need to know. Mac Davis (talk) 18:46, 2 May 2009 (UTC)

Specification of Keys

While working on Microsoft Office Powerpoint, Is it possible to specify a key for specific function ? For example KEY Z to change the slide, KEY X to add something in the notes or KEY C to write something in the slide or KEY V to chanfe the size of figure on slide. Thanks —Preceding unsigned comment added by 200.55.135.211 (talk) 14:22, 2 May 2009 (UTC)

Help touching up an image

Can anyone help me touch up this image, which is of not-brilliant quality? I've only got a rubbish version of Photoshop, but anyone with anything more advanced... fancy a challenge? :-) A vectorised version would be brilliant, but I see that that might be hard due to the dot-printed scan - not mine, I was emailed it. Anyway, thanks! ╟─TreasuryTag►contribs─╢ 14:55, 2 May 2009 (UTC)

You can download "GIMP" - which is a free and fully-featured paint program. You can vectorize in programs like Inkscape which does a reasonable job with dithered-looking images like this one. SteveBaker (talk) 20:39, 3 May 2009 (UTC)

Targeted advertising

Nearly every time I use Facebook, I notice adverts targeted at what I have searched for recently during the last forty eight hours. I am sure that they are targeted. For example, I recently looked for new batteries on Google, and then data recovery software - Hence my earlier question from this IP address. Both of these topics have arisen in adverts.

Is there anything I can do to stop it? There are apparently no such settings within Facebook. Normally I use Firefox, but Safari for Facebook (reasons are complex). When I use Google, I always do so logged out.78.33.187.186 (talk) 16:46, 2 May 2009 (UTC)

The only things that come to mind are using a proxy server or never going to Facebook at all. I advocate using both at all times. Mac Davis (talk) 18:18, 2 May 2009 (UTC)

Phorm springs to mind. Either that or some other tracking cookie or adware program. What antivirus program are you running? Some of them (Kaspersky for one) do a good job getting rid of such things. If it's Phorm or tracking cookies, you can also nuke the cookies manually, and you should be able to set your browsers to decline cookies or ask you if you want to accept. CaptainVindaloo ^{t c e} 18:21, 2 May 2009 (UTC)

Perhaps this would be helpful then[1]. I do not know which one to recommend though. Mac Davis (talk) 18:24, 2 May 2009 (UTC)

I've just deleted all of my cookies from both Firefox and Safari, they refuse them in future, and Firefox deletes them all when I close it. But whatever it is, it it browser independent: do the browsing in Firefox, but the ads appear in Safari, where I use Facebook. I've also upgraded the Mac native firewall, to "essential services only," and "stealth mode" which ensures that uninvited traffic "is given no response.

Yes, I'm concerned about Phorm and privacy, but I understand it isn't yet operational. As for antivirus/security, I don't use any - which would be less necessary on a Mac anyway. I have a proxy, but a very slow one. Might it be useful if I changed my facebook tied email address away from what I normally use?78.33.187.170 (talk) 22:04, 2 May 2009 (UTC)

Google has AdSense, Yahoo has Web Beacons. They track your searching for the purpose of serving up "relevant" ads. Google was keeping search results for 3 months at one stage, and proposing to keep them longer. They are supposedly "de-personalised". But the day you search for batteries, they'd know at least for the rest of the day. These are not stored in the cookies that your browser can clear. Something like CCleaner will find them for you, disguised as Internet Temporary Files from several hidden locations (and it is an eye-opener to read down the list before deleting them).

Be aware refusing cookies, for many sites, will prevent the site from loading at all. If you have one of the newest versions of Firefox or Safari, try the "Private Browsing" setting, which records a lot less about your activities (but may or may not prevent the advertising cookies).KoolerStill (talk) 07:31, 3 May 2009 (UTC)

The best method I found for ridding ads is Adblock plus for firefox. Also, you can customize it with this helper [2]-- penubag  (talk) 09:19, 3 May 2009 (UTC)

I've noticed that I've had to except several sites from the cookie block - like the bank, for example. But I would rather do so manually and know what I'm doing. The Firefox version that I am using is v3.0.10, which wouldn't appear to have private mode yet - in any case, I would be concerned about missing an edit history (which I do use). CCleaner is Windows only, I'm using a Mac (which should actually help my security). As much as ridding ads would be great, I would rather mask the path of what I'm searching for - ads are OK, targeted ads aren't when they come from another source than the site that I'm on.

I'm less annoyed by Google/Gmail Adsense, because it scans your emails/search terms, and returns targeted ads on the same activity. I haven't a clue where Facebook is getting its sources from, but it definitely isn't itself.78.33.187.162 (talk) 09:46, 3 May 2009 (UTC)

Missing audio codec?

There's a video file I haven't played for some months, and it now seems to be missing the audio. I ran it through VideoInspector and got this result - how would I go about getting the sound? Thanks! ╟─TreasuryTag►contribs─╢ 17:33, 2 May 2009 (UTC)

Try installing VLC media player, and see if you can get sound on it. If that doesn't work, there's always the possibility that the sound may have become corrupted. Until It Sleeps 02:05, 3 May 2009 (UTC)

It won't play with sound on VLC either. How might it have become corrupted? ╟─TreasuryTag►contribs─╢ 07:27, 3 May 2009 (UTC)

File Downloading Protocols

Hi, I just downloaded a massive 154 MB file over a dial-up and the download's been corrupt. Is there some way by which a download manager will block-by-block check the checksum of the file downloaded with the server copy and downloaded only those blocks which are corrupt ? The server should send the checksum of a block and the client would compare that with the client side checksum, to be specific. 218.248.80.114 (talk) 18:55, 2 May 2009 (UTC)

Bit torrent does something similar to what you've described. That large of a file over a dial up is always going to be tricky. If you know someone with access to the noncorupt file, it is possible to figure out which sections are corrupt (check summing sections of the file and comparing) and then send just the bad sections, but I don't know of a program that will do this for you automatically. Shadowjams (talk) 20:06, 2 May 2009 (UTC)

rsync? --76.167.241.45 (talk) 22:22, 2 May 2009 (UTC)

Oh yeah, good point. I was thinking rdiff, which would be hard to create the deltas without the two together, but rsync should do it on its own. Shadowjams (talk) 23:00, 2 May 2009 (UTC)

I actually want that feature in a standard download manager over http or ftp. Do the protocols have this provision? Why not? 218.248.80.114 (talk) 05:27, 3 May 2009 (UTC)

FTP and HTTP weren't really designed for this sort of thing, they were quick and dirty hacks that became far more popular than their creators expected. HTTP does have an optional Content-MD5 header, but I think it would be hard to convince server administrators to enable it because of the cost in CPU time (especially when you add in the potential for denial-of-service attacks). On the other hand, if you can find a .torrent for the file you downloaded, many if not all torrent clients will scan your existing file for you and redownload only the parts that are broken, and there may even be hybrid HTTP-BitTorrent software that will download the broken parts via HTTP. It might be possible to convince server admins to provide .torrents for large files they distribute by HTTP, since it has the potential to save them money. -- BenRG (talk) 14:55, 3 May 2009 (UTC)

Page numbers in Word

After many hours of formatting numerous Word documents, each chapters in a longer work, I have outputted them to PDF and merged the PDFs only to find that despite having identical margins and settings in each file (as far as I can tell), the page numbers in some of the files are inexplicably a little off-center and some are even down half a line where they should be (something which is obvious when you merge them together and are turning from one page to the next). I've checked all the document margin settings, tab settings, etc., and found NO differences between the documents. What could be causing this?

I am using Word 2004 (sigh) on OS X 10. I generate the PDFs with the standard OS X Print > PDF > Save as PDF function. I merge them with Adobe Acrobat though it is clearly in the originals and not a function of the merging.

Thoughts? Things to check? God, I hate MS Word. --98.217.14.211 (talk) 22:35, 2 May 2009 (UTC)

Thought One: I concur with the sentiment, but you will hate it less if you automate it more.

Thought Two: double check the page numbers are in the same font and size. A wider left margin will move the figure to the right, and vice versa. If the margins are identical, check that your paper size is also identical.

Thought Three: did you go to all the trouble of formatting each document separately? Highlighted and selected fonts and sizes for every heading?

The only sure way to get them the same is to mark them as Head1 Head2 Para2 etc, without worrying about how they actually look. Then make up one sample-text page with the styles you want, marking them with the same labels (highlight, choose style from the drop-down). And make one set of headers and footers (which is where the page numbering happens). Then you delete the actual content and save it as a template (or just as a document with one word in it - empties won't save). Then you use the merge function to add in all the other documents, which will pick up the same style.

A shortcut.If the other formatting is all identical and 'done by hand',no need to worry about the heading and para styles. Just merge all the documents together, onto the first chapter. Once it is one document, it is easy to reset the margins, footers and page numbering globally. If it's too big for one file (I think Word 2004 does 2gb files) make a copy of the first file, delete all but the first line of it, merge the remaining documents onto it, then delete the place-holder line. The merged items will pick up the formatting of the base file, including the new margins and numbering.KoolerStill (talk) 08:33, 3 May 2009 (UTC)

Merging the documents is not really practical for this particular workflow -- it becomes unmanageable to edit a 300 page document from a human point of view (even if Word can technically manage it, which even then I'm doubtful of — seems like a recipe for crashing). Styles are done by hand just because at this point setting up and tagging them would be prohibitively difficult. Anyway, I figured out the centering problem—Word has two different ways to center footnotes. One involves a center tab stop in the center of the margins, the other involves the "center" paragraph alignment that apparently uses somewhat different margins (there is maybe a 1/12th of an inch difference in my case). I have converted them all to the same approach which fixes that problem; the random chapter with the vertical difference I will just try to manually fix by tweaking the footer margins. Thanks for your input, though. --98.217.14.211 (talk) 17:53, 3 May 2009 (UTC)

And the vertical thing appear to be caused by some of the footnotes being in Times and some in Times New Roman. arrhghghgg... but fixable. --98.217.14.211 (talk) 18:28, 3 May 2009 (UTC)