Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Computing/2009 May 6

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May 6

Computer programming comics

I'm looking for some comics based on computer programming (and I'm rather surprised at the sparsity of them on XKCD). Any references to computer programming comics (even just one comic in a collection) would be appreciated. -- kainaw™ 03:08, 6 May 2009 (UTC)

Here's a few from Dilbert: http://www.globalnerdy.com/2007/11/28/dilbert-on-extreme-and-agile-programming/ http://www.s-anand.net/dilbert.html#20050823 http://www.s-anand.net/dilbert.html#20050824 http://www.s-anand.net/dilbert.html#20051116 — Matt Eason ^{(Talk • Contribs)} 12:19, 6 May 2009 (UTC)

There were also lots of programming comics and longer storylines in Userfriendly, too many to list them all here. One more thing that instantly came to mind are the old Topolino comics (the mass-produced Italian Disney comics), especially those from the late 60s/early 70s. Depictions of computers, programming and the effects of changing programs were as stupid and unrealistic as you can probably imagine in early 70s kids' stories, but there was the occasional gem. In one memorable story, Scrooge McDuck has bought a new computer that nobody understands how to program, then they discover by accident that a savage from Polynesia is the only person in the world who can talk to the computer. The savage has an extremely long, scruffy beard and talks in a peculiar dialect that consists entirely of phrases like "grrrk awk sed". I don't know if it was intentional (I have no idea how probable it is that mid-70s Italian comics artists would even have heard of Unix), but it always makes me think of Richard Stallman. If you want, I can try and dig up the story - this would take a couple of days, though, as I have several hundreds of these comics to dig through :P -- Ferkelparade π 12:41, 6 May 2009 (UTC)

Abstruse Goose often has computer programming comics, along with science & math ones. -- MacAddct1984 ^{(talk • contribs)} 01:03, 7 May 2009 (UTC)

I had created Category:Workplace webcomics long back, unfortunately it has not grown enough to have a sub-cat for Computing webcomics. What is XKCD? Jay (talk) 08:41, 7 May 2009 (UTC)

XKCD F (talk) 10:37, 7 May 2009 (UTC)

Thanks. I've added these to my list of searches. I am trying to build a database of them so when it is relevant, I can locate a comic on a specific computer topic. Of course, there are some topics that I'm sure won't be covered. How much humor can you extract from the ternary operator? -- kainaw™ 19:41, 7 May 2009 (UTC)

MySpace

For anyone who knows a lot about MySpace. I just created a MySpace account but I meant to create it as a musician account. First, is it possible to change the account to a musician account? Second, if I cancel (close) an account, can another one be opened with the same name? Tezkag72 (talk) 03:12, 6 May 2009 (UTC)

I don't know anything about MySpace, but I really doubt you can create a new account with the exact same name if the names are limited (that is, if you can't make one with the same name right at this moment with the other one). It would not be very intelligent to set up a system where once someone retired a name, it could be created again (it would create all sorts of impersonation problems). --98.217.14.211 (talk) 20:21, 6 May 2009 (UTC)

IP slash notation

Hello, I am studying for a networking course, and I am trying to familiarize myself with IP slash notation. The instructor expects us to interpret an IP address and its slash notation (x.x.x.x/x) to provide the IP address range, the network address, the subnet mask, and the broadcast address. I tried to Google for specific guides but cannot seem to find any results. Can it be explained more thoroughly here or a link provided to elsewhere? For example, with 216.9.137.100/24, how do I find out that 1-254 are usable addresses, that the network address is 216.9.137.0, that the subnet mask is 255.255.255.0, and that the broadcast address is 255.255.255.255? 98.228.34.62 (talk) 03:29, 6 May 2009 (UTC)

This is a good reference. -- kainaw™ 03:53, 6 May 2009 (UTC)

See also CIDR notation. --Spoon! (talk) 07:48, 6 May 2009 (UTC)

The WP CIDR notation article isn't very accessible. Here's my quick attempt at an explanation (please point out if I'm wrong).

An IP (IPv4 at least) is 32 bits, some of which will be the "network" part and some of which will be the "host" part. So 192.168.1.1 has a network part (192.168.*.*) and a host part (*.*.1.1). In the old days, we knew which part was host and which part was network because they were predefined (Class networking). So you had Class A, Class B, and Class C addresses. The "slash", or CIDR notation, is a better way of defining which part is network and which part is host. So, whatever number's behind the slash (/24, /16, /28, whatever), that's how many bits of the IP are part of the network. Whatever is left is part of the host.

Keep in mind that an IP address like 192.168.1.1 is written in decimal octets. That same address could also be written 11000000 10101000 00000001 00000001 (or 3,232,235,777 (decimal), or C0A80101 (hex)). If you've got 192.168.0.0/24, then the first 24 of those bits will be the network, and the next 8 will be the host.

That tcipguide is good. Shadowjams (talk) 02:00, 7 May 2009 (UTC)

Note: Shadowjams is referring to Kainaw's link. Thanks, gENIUS101 20:40, 8 May 2009 (UTC)

PostgreSQL: Adding columns to a view that other views depend on

I have a view in my PostgreSQL database that I need to add a column to. Other views are based on this view. PostgreSQL refuses to create-or-replace the old view with the new one; it also won't drop the old view and create the new one, even in the same transaction block. Is there any way to automate one of the following approaches, or any other approach that I haven't thought of?

1. Find and drop the dependent views, but keep their definitions stored in the main database, and add them back once the view update is done.
2. Create a copy of the view being updated, perform the update, change all references to the original to point to the copy, delete the original, and rename the copy to the original name.

NeonMerlin 08:31, 6 May 2009 (UTC)

You cannot automate it in Postgres, but you can dump the database, run a search/replace (regex would be better) on the text file, and restore the database. I've done that many times when the work required was too difficult inside the database itself. As a benefit, you can restore on a different machine first to ensure it works. -- kainaw™ 17:05, 6 May 2009 (UTC)

PC to XBOX

Is it possible to convert a PC game to an XBOX 360 compatible one ? What software do i need to use ?Rkr1991 (talk) 12:55, 6 May 2009 (UTC)

No. APL (talk) 13:29, 6 May 2009 (UTC)

In practical terms, APL is right, of course - there's no simple converter you can use to play PC games on the XBOX (unless you count installing linux on your XBOX and then trying to run your PC games in Wine). But it is possible - it happens all the time when games developed for the PC are ported to the XBOX. You'd need the complete source code of the game, the XBOX development tools and a pretty good idea of what you were doing programming-wise, of course -- Ferkelparade π 14:12, 6 May 2009 (UTC)

It might also be worth pointing out that you are entering a legally gray area here. Although you technically own the game, I seriously doubt that it would be legal to port it to another platform unless it is open-source or if you have permission from the game developer Dougofborg^(talk) 14:20, 6 May 2009 (UTC)

You also need 8 to 10 months with two coders, some art, and some producer-type work. Tempshill (talk) 16:15, 6 May 2009 (UTC)

Ferkelparade's Wine solution would not work. Wine does not emulate the CPU. Pre-existing Windows programs are all compiled to work on x86 CPUs, and would therefore not run on the 360's PowerPC chip. APL (talk) 17:55, 6 May 2009 (UTC)

If you have to ask, you won't be able to do it. --140.247.4.172 (talk) 15:41, 6 May 2009 (UTC)

Ok so that's something for all you software geeks out there.... See of you can code a software which does...Rkr1991 (talk) 15:55, 6 May 2009 (UTC)

Nope. Like every other console, the Xbox is a closed platform that is controlled by the console manufacturer (Microsoft, in this case). The only way to port a PC game to the Xbox without getting a title ID (basically, without cooperation from Microsoft) would be to somehow write a PC emulator in XNA Game Studio and then come up with a way to move the PC data over to the Xbox in some sneaky manner. It shall not happen. Tempshill (talk) 16:15, 6 May 2009 (UTC)

I'm a game programmer - I've written software for the Xbox-360, PS-3 and PC. The consoles (all of them) are really very limited machines compared to a PC. The only reason people can make games that look so good on them is that because every Xbox-360 is identical to every other Xbox-360, you can use every quirk, every trick in the book. On PC's you never really know whether you can use this shortcut or that shortcut because it might not work with one particular graphics card or one particular RAM configuration - so you have to program extremely defensively - always assuming the worst. On a console, you can also program "on the bare metal" - you can talk directly to the graphics chip - no drivers - no nothing! But that advantage vanishes when you try to run PC software on it - and the relatively slow CPU, GPU, lack of RAM, etc become painfully obvious. Sure - with enormous effort, you could maybe port really simple games - tetris and such - but nothing with any degree of sophistication. Hardly any modern PC games will run in the tiny memory footprint of an Xbox. SteveBaker (talk) 01:36, 8 May 2009 (UTC)

Which free GTD tool on windows would you recommend?

For people who are chaotic, tools for organizing things would be of immense help. A software that uses David Allen's principals would be an ideal one. I cannot evaluate which of the http://www.abstractspoon.com/tdl_resources.html or http://www.fusiondesk.com/products/starter.html or http://www.mylifeorganized.net/downloads/index.htm is good since iam too chaotic. Has anybody tried any of these?. If you have other recommendation, I would be more than happy to hear that too. 131.220.46.26 (talk) 14:22, 6 May 2009 (UTC)

I always kept a "todo.xls" file around and used Microsoft Excel. Tempshill (talk) 16:17, 6 May 2009 (UTC)

There is a lot of discussion of such tools at the Lifehacker blog; including topics such as which tool is best for specific tasks. --LarryMac | Talk 17:16, 6 May 2009 (UTC)

3 year old Windows XP computer

has an annoying habit of switching itself on in the middle of the night, when nobody is using it. Sometimes this happens during the day as well. Am I doing something to cause this? When I shut it down I usually use the Hibernate command. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 75.36.217.250 (talk) 17:07, 6 May 2009 (UTC)

Try looking in your BIOS screens and see if the BIOS has been set up to start your computer at a particular time every day. Tempshill (talk) 17:14, 6 May 2009 (UTC)

I knew someone with a computer that would spontaneously turn itself on. If would also sometimes turn itself off, or refuse to turn on when the power button was pressed. Our theory was that it was a dodgy connection in the power switch. Could it be the same issue with yours? --Tango (talk) 17:18, 6 May 2009 (UTC)

unplug it from the mains when not in use. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 82.44.54.169 (talk) 20:04, 6 May 2009 (UTC)

Check the Wake on LAN settings on the card as I believe this is what is causing it to turn back on. You can find these settings by going to Device Manager and selecting Properties and then the advanced tab. WoL can either be activated via a "Magic Packet" or more simply by the network card receiving traffic or simply having the network connection plugged in, one of those last two is probably what is happening in your case (the router/switch is forwarding packets to it which in turn wakes the machine for example). Hope this helps! ZX81 ^talk 03:15, 7 May 2009 (UTC)

Don't use hibernate; use shutdown instead. Astronaut (talk) 13:52, 7 May 2009 (UTC)

That shouldn't be causing the issue, should it? Technically when you hibernate, the RAM state is saved and then the computer shuts itself off. Unlike the Standby mode, there is no difference in state between a computer that's been shut down and a computer that's been hibernated. I am betting ZX81 is correct here. Tempshill (talk) 20:46, 7 May 2009 (UTC)

Setting up Belkin G (Wireless router) with a Edimax AR-7084gA modem-router

ill preface this with...I'm a technical person - I understand computers and have had no trouble in the past setting up networks, nor adding a router to an existing network (though to be fair it was wireless-to-wireless). Anyhoo i've tried about a million times now to get these two devices to share my ADSL connection - I want the modem to do its job and be a modem and I want the Belkin G to be a router and let my laptop connect to the net wirelessly. I've used the install cds, i've tried configuring in the router and the modem and so far i've got nowhere. Does anybody have idea of what you need to do to get a wired-router-modem to work with a wireless-router that hasn't got a modem. I've tried putting in the wireless router to A) use a dynamic connection B) use a PPPoA connection with same details as modem (i.e. username password etc.) and C) I've tried setting the router up as a 'wireless access point' under an IP within the main modem's DHCP range (is that right?). Any help would be hugely appreciated - at the moment my laptop is tethered to the world by wires (admittedly a very long network cable). ny156uk (talk) 20:40, 6 May 2009 (UTC)

Scratch that i've figured it out. ny156uk (talk) 20:44, 6 May 2009 (UTC)

Resolved