Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Computing/2009 October 22

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October 22

chinese input support configuration question

I'm using a CHN Win XP and we use the language bar for input. Chinese is the default and tapping SHIFT will switch you to English. However, hitting SHIFT+SPACE enables ｃｏｍｐｌｅｔｅｌｙ　ｕｓｅｌｅｓｓ　ｍｅｇａｔｙｐｅ　ｍｏｄｅ which is incredibly annoying, especially since I often activate it at the end of an all-capital word, such as "I" -- I only ever needed to released SHIFT before striking the next letter, not striking the space, and the timing of my typing reflects that. It's a real pain in the ass to correct for something that I really don't want to have to correct for. Can this be disabled/adjusted to use a different key combination?218.25.32.210 (talk) 02:42, 22 October 2009 (UTC)

I have no answer for you here, but I would like to add that you are not the only one - it happens to me, too, and is incredibly annoying, especially when you are in the middle of something that needs fast typing, such as on online meeting, or whatever, or even just chatting. If anyone can find a way to fix this, it would be a Godsend. --KageTora - SPQW - (影虎) (talk) 09:15, 22 October 2009 (UTC)

[1]F (talk) 12:11, 22 October 2009 (UTC)

Youtube (2)

On Youtube, why do many users lie about their age? jc iindyysgvxc (my contributions) 07:15, 22 October 2009 (UTC)

If you say you're 18, 27 or 64 I have no ability to verify if it is true or not. Yes I could compare my Stereotype of what to expect of someone of that age with your actions, but beyond that (and searching your username in google for other site-registration/usage) i'm not sure how i'd be able to reliably verify you. Ultimately people have no reason to disbelieve a person's claim - it makes no difference to YouTube since age is irrelevant from my experience using the site. As for 'why' - well people often like to be seen as what they desire to be - younger / older, more popular / more intelligent and so on. It's easy enough to 'hide' your identity online. 194.221.133.226 (talk) 08:42, 22 October 2009 (UTC)

Why do people lie about their age in real life?? Same principle —Preceding unsigned comment added by 82.44.55.2 (talk) 10:06, 22 October 2009 (UTC)

I know one reason: Children's Online Privacy Protection Act. A child produces a video at age 10 and doesn't want to wait until his thirteenth birthday before publishing it. --Damian Yerrick (talk | stalk) 10:53, 22 October 2009 (UTC)

In a similar vein people who want to see content restricted to 18 year olds who are not yet 18 Nil Einne (talk) 18:31, 22 October 2009 (UTC)

You could also ask, why tell the truth about your age on such a site? Does it really matter? I usually choose an age at random when I am told I need to specify it. I'm over the age of any applicable laws—isn't that all anyone really needs to know? --Mr.98 (talk) 14:51, 22 October 2009 (UTC)

It depends. If the site asks your age then you have a point. If the site simply asks if you are over 18 then that's a different matter. As far as I can remember most sites are of the later variety. Or they ask your birthdate. In that case many people likely also effectively lie about their age for privacy reasons (particularly given the rise of identity theft and the common importance of birthdate as one of the means of identification). I personally choose a date and year that is different although still relatively close to my real age. Of course in that case the primary purpose may be to not reveal the actual birthdate rather then necessarily lying about their age. And in either birthdate or age case some may not bother to select the right thing effectively lying about their age even if lying isn't really their intention Nil Einne (talk) 22:28, 24 October 2009 (UTC)

Who Links To This...?

Is there a way to find out if an image, say on Flickr, is being linked to by another site? I have recently just added a bunch of pics to Flickr (mostly screenshots of games) and have found my 'views' surge somewhat drastically. I am wondering if I can find out if these pics are being used elsewhere (I don't mind, so long as they are used appropriately). Flickr does not seem to offer such a service, but is there another way to find out? --KageTora - SPQW - (影虎) (talk) 09:10, 22 October 2009 (UTC)

Yes, Google offers such a service. Preface the URL of your photo with "link:" (so search for, for instance, "link:http://flickr.com/x123456"). You can also get there by clicking the "Advanced Search" link on the Google home page, and expanding "date, usage rights...". Hope that helps! — QuantumEleven 09:18, 22 October 2009 (UTC)

http://bighugelabs.com/dna.php - Flickr DNA. It's a great little site - for instance my flickr photos throuh there are...http://bighugelabs.com/dna.php?username=ny156uk. The bottom section shows 'Ego Surf' where you can search popular places to find out - I have found the google one to be 'ok' but it doesn't pick them all up. 194.221.133.226 (talk) 14:42, 22 October 2009 (UTC)

Excellent! Cheers! Loads of stuff there! --KageTora - SPQW - (影虎) (talk) 15:02, 22 October 2009 (UTC)

You can also try tineye -- penubag  (talk) 05:29, 23 October 2009 (UTC)

PostScript fonts on XP trouble

Hi. I've been emailed a zip-file containing a font-family, which I understand is in PostScript format. However, the files are simply named ._DeviaStrReg (presumably Deviant Strain Regular) and ._DeviaStrVer (Deviant Strain Oblique) etc., and don't have a PostScript icon. There's also a DS-store file. How do I go about installing them? Thanks! ╟─TreasuryTag►assemblyman─╢ 15:12, 22 October 2009 (UTC)

sounds like these have been copied from a mac, presumably they cost money also, so I'm not sure if this is legal.

The DS-store file is just meta information (garbage) that Macs tend to keep everywhere. "install" them by putting them where your PS font aware application expects to find them. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 203.158.49.249 (talk) 21:35, 22 October 2009 (UTC)

Yes, I tried that, didn't work, obviously... ╟─TreasuryTag►Not-content─╢ 22:58, 22 October 2009 (UTC)

You can't install Mac PostScript fonts in Windows XP, or vice-versa. It's as simple as that. You can share OpenType fonts and, sometimes, TrueType fonts, but PostScript fonts are customized for each operating system.--Drknkn (talk) 00:14, 23 October 2009 (UTC)

Oh. Then why's there an article (several articles, in fact) called: Install PostScript Type 1 Fonts in Windows 2000 or Windows XP? ╟─TreasuryTag►constabulary─╢ 05:54, 23 October 2009 (UTC)

I told you that you can only install Windows PostScript Type 1 fonts in Windows XP. There are Windows Type 1 fonts and there are Mac Type 1 fonts. Windows Type 1 fonts have a .PFB, .PFM, and--sometimes--a .AFM extension. You can install Type 1 fonts in Windows XP, but they have to be Type 1 fonts for Windows. Does that make sense?--Drknkn (talk) 06:02, 23 October 2009 (UTC)

Do you think that using a program such as CrossFont would work, then? ╟─TreasuryTag►inspectorate─╢ 07:22, 23 October 2009 (UTC)

I did not know about that program. I just researched it and it appears to work well.--Drknkn (talk) 07:49, 23 October 2009 (UTC)

fonts

How to make my own fonts, software etc (hopefully free) —Preceding unsigned comment added by 82.44.55.2 (talk) 15:45, 22 October 2009 (UTC)

FontForge is the main free one. --Sean 16:13, 22 October 2009 (UTC)

for windows please —Preceding unsigned comment added by 82.44.55.2 (talk) 22:31, 23 October 2009 (UTC)

http://fontforge.sourceforge.net/ms-install.html ¦ Reisio (talk) 10:44, 25 October 2009 (UTC)

Keyboard and possibly spyware problems

I have 2 different problems which I think may be related. Firstly for a while now I've been having problems with my keyboard. It has become very slow to respond to my keystrokes. When typing some letters won't come out etc. It's quite random: sometimes this happens, sometimes it doesn't and its not tied to any specific keys so I think we can rule out it being dirty etc.

My second problem is with spyware and I think maybe related to the keyboard problem. I might sound a bit paranoid saying this but some of my "friends" keep working certain things into conversations, as if they wanted me to realise, that they could only know if they were spying on my PC. For example, the other night they managed to mention 2 songs which Ive been listening to recently yet the songs aren't new and I havn't mentioned them to them so I dont think its a coincidence that they are listening to such songs jst when I am. Also, one of them doesn't even listen to the same kind of music as me. So to summarise, I unfortunately can't trust my own friends.

Any advice on how to go about sorting out these problems? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 212.120.246.229 (talk) 16:42, 22 October 2009 (UTC)

As far as the spyware, and assuming that you are running Windows - I'd download and install Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware and run a full scan, then do the same with Spybot. Those should give you a good idea of what bad stuff is lurking on your system, if any. Depending on the results, you might decide that your friends are trustworthy after all. --LarryMac | Talk 17:29, 22 October 2009 (UTC)

Incidentally, a non-technical way to see if someone is spying on you is to put out false information and see if they alter their behavior. So if you loop a song chosen truly at random, maybe something that would get a rise out of your friends (something vastly out of character or potentially embarrassing), and they mention it, you'd consider that pretty good evidence that they know what you are listening to. (Which could be caused by a variety of things other than spyware—depending on your arrangements, they could just be able to hear what you listen to, or ask a roommate, or whatever.) --Mr.98 (talk) 17:37, 22 October 2009 (UTC)

Firefox and IETab

Where does FF/IETab keep its list of "URLs to always open with IE"? One of our vendors has recently changed to IE ONLY (they actually BLOCK the site for other browsers, but that's not the subject of this thread please). Consequently, FF needs to forget its previous behaviour, and "relearn" to always open this bookmarked site with IE. How can I force that?

I know that I can right-click on the bookmark, but that opens in a new tab, and also doesn't remember for next time. Is there a setting someplace, or a file I can edit?

Secondary question: I'm unable to locate any "formal" documentation on IETab in general, in which answers to questions like this might be found. If someone can point me to such a site -- NOT the mozilla bulletin board -- that would be an acceptable answer. --DaHorsesMouth (talk) 16:55, 22 October 2009 (UTC)

It looks like there's an options dialog with a "Site Filter" tab. --LarryMac | Talk 17:24, 22 October 2009 (UTC)

OK, that's what that tab is for! Yep, problem solved, 29 minutes. Thanks!

Resolved

electrical connector

There is a type of electrical connector commonly seen on laptop batteries, where the battery has a bunch of little slots with contacts inside, and the laptop battery compartment has some blades sticking out, that friction-fit into the slots. What is that type of connector called, and what do the different contacts do? Thanks. 69.228.171.150 (talk) 17:57, 22 October 2009 (UTC)

Memory On Disk

Recently, the 'memory available' on my C: drive has been going up and down erratically. It was 39GB yesterday morning, and had gone down to 31GB by the end of the night. Then this morning it was 36GB and has gone up to 44GB in the space of a few hours. What's happening? I haven't downloaded anything or deleted anything in the last couple of days (actually, it was 80+GB about two weeks ago). --KageTora - SPQW - (影虎) (talk) 18:11, 22 October 2009 (UTC)

How much RAM do you have? Sounds like virtual memory or perhaps large caches from the Internet or Quicktime. Do you use p2p software like BitTorrent? --70.167.58.6 (talk) 18:53, 22 October 2009 (UTC)

It's possibly something going on with system restore, but it's hard to say the exact cause without more information. A spatial file management tool such as windirstat may help you identify the cause of the ever decreasing amount of space. Look for unusually large files or directories. Often a google search will bring up the use and importance of system created files. 206.131.39.6 (talk) 18:54, 23 October 2009 (UTC)

Download and install "FolderSize for Windows". In Explorer switch to "Details" view. Add the column Folder Size (and optionally remove the Size column). Now you'll have a column that shows you the size of all your folders so it may be easier to track down where the big size changes are occurring.

Alternatively install WinDirStat or SequoiaView which are programs that graphically depict folder sizes (but do not seamlessly integrate into Windows Explorer like FolderSize does).

Another option would be to Search all files after a certain date then sort the results by date to check which files have been recently created/changed. Zunaid 14:35, 26 October 2009 (UTC)

Ps/2 keyboard - loose connector

I killed my keyboard with a cup of tea yesterday and bought a cheap replacement. However, the computer does not register the keyboard at start-up, and the ps/2 connector falls out at the slightest touch. Is there anything I can do? Visually the connector's pins seem fine. Fribbler (talk) 18:14, 22 October 2009 (UTC)

Your old keyboard was also a ps/2 keyboard that you plugged into the same socket? If you're talking about a laptop keyboard that you're now substituting an external keyboard for, laptop keyboard PS2 ports are usually set up for a mouse, while the pinout for a keyboard is different. There are "Y" adapters you can buy for a couple bucks, that split the port into a keyboard port and a mouse port. 69.228.171.150 (talk) 22:11, 22 October 2009 (UTC)

It's a desktop, ps/2 in the correct keyboard slot both times. I reckon I will take it back to the shop, but was hoping for a workaround. Fribbler (talk) 22:18, 22 October 2009 (UTC)

Gently, gently, gently, bend the pins and outer ground connector on the plug very slightly until you get a tighter fit. Failing that buy a new keyboard. Astronaut (talk) 22:20, 22 October 2009 (UTC)

It cost me €5, so I'm not too worried, but using the "on-screen keyboard" feature in vista is pissing me off tonight; hate waiting till tomorrow :-) Fribbler (talk) 22:29, 22 October 2009 (UTC)

Postscript: Astronaut, you might just be an Ancient astronaut! Tinkering with the pins worked, seems they were TOO perfectly aligned, a bit of chaos made them work. :-) Fribbler (talk) 23:19, 22 October 2009 (UTC)

Optimized (gaming)performance on on dual(+quad) socket MB

Hi

I have a Quad Opteron socket MB (TYAN S4985)now running Windows 7, in which currently only two sockets are populated with cpu's...anyway....

This MB has two nvidia nforce4 derivate chips (Nforce pro 2200 + 2050) which each handles a pair of PCI-E slots (in a 16+4 electrical) lane config) total 4 PCI-E x16 slots

The BSP (cpu socket 0) is connnected to the Nvidia pro 2200 chipset and the APP (cpu socket 1) to the companion chip 2050

If I 'isolated' one application by changing it's affinity (Using up to the amount of cores in one cpu) to the socket that was not designated as the Boot Strap Processor (BSP) would I then get more performance out of the app (FPS?) and the OS? by doing this?

How would I go about optimizing game performance on a multi socket computer system?

And in my case would game (FPS) performance degrade if I was using cpu socket 1 to run the game (the 2050) and my graphics card was connected to the 2200 and affinity for all other processes was set to socket 0. (Changeable by me)

Thanks in advance, DB —Preceding unsigned comment added by 85.81.121.107 (talk) 18:24, 22 October 2009 (UTC)

That setup is a server system and is a weird choice for gaming. It needs ferociously expensive 8000-series 8-way MPU's that aren't any faster than comparable 2000 series cpu's. It burns tons of power. The Nvidia chipset is not a graphics accelerator. Setting cpu affinity does sound likely to help because the NUMA memory system will be relatively slow transferring data between cpu's. But the only way to know for sure is try it both ways. Did you scavenge that box from a dotcom collapse or something? Sell it on craigslist and buy a more conventional gaming machine. 69.228.171.150 (talk) 22:19, 22 October 2009 (UTC)

I got the MB by pure chance I think. Running it with the rather old 8218 Opterons... As mentioned newer generations of opterons are out of my economical reach.

Anyway...just bought a Radion 4890 graphics card and it gives the MB major fits. So yes...should probably just try to sell the MB again. Cant test if it gives better fps in one or ther other PCI-E slots because TYANs bios for this MB is really not that developed...actually it blows major cow nipple...

But its kinda a super cool to have a server MB and use it for gaming..got it for something like 230 dollars...speccing it up haven then sucked about triple that amount...RAM...$200 CPUs..got it off ebay for $12.50 cheap enough...PSU 1200W.. $200

Getting expensive...

But the case... around $300 plus shipping....I scavenged the net for two months to get hold of a tower case that would fit this MB...and then Water cooling..

Damn.... thats like also $200 for two cpus... —Preceding unsigned comment added by 85.81.121.107 (talk) 17:00, 25 October 2009 (UTC)

Intel i5 vs i7 real world performance

The new iMacs were introduced yesterday. The stock quad core ships with a 2.6GHz i5, but for $200 more, you can order a 2.8GHz i7. (I'm assuming they are both Lynnfield_(microprocessor) based because neither are available until November)

I know the basic differences between the two (hypertheading, dual vs triple channel memory). What's the real world performance delta between the two for media dense operations (encoding h264, editing video, rendering 3D, Photoshop, etc)? --70.167.58.6 (talk) 20:50, 22 October 2009 (UTC)

I googled "i5 i7 benchmark" and the first link, to Tom's Hardware, runs various PC benchmarks, including a "TV and movies suite", between one i5 and two i7 processors. The most interesting results to me were the i5 and i7 running at the same clock speed. The fact you're talking about a Mac instead of a PC is probably inconsequential; these benchmarks will serve you. Comet Tuttle (talk) 22:08, 22 October 2009 (UTC)

Thanks for the info. It seems i7 is slightly faster, but it seems hyperthreading and triple-channel RAM aren't a huge performance booster. --70.167.58.6 (talk) 16:01, 23 October 2009 (UTC)

AT&T ad, revisited

This [2] is the original question. The computer has Firefox and is at a library, so they won't necessarily do the needed upgrades. When I signed on yesterday a page came up saying it was 3.0.14, which is strange since it was 3.5.something the other day. But it said Flash needed to be updated, whatever that means.Vchimpanzee · talk · contributions · 22:15, 22 October 2009 (UTC)

AFAIK, libraries tend to reset their computers periodically so they can be sure of eliminating viruses and malware. If the reset position is one where some programs need updates, then that could easily explain why versions seem to go backwards, or why the same message seems to come up time and time again. As for "Flash needs updating", Adobe Flash is browser plugin to display rich content in the browser window. It is used by many things including YouTube, and also lots of adverts. If you are not offered a "click here to update", you can visit Adobe's download site - watch out for the sneaky "Google toolbar" install already ticked for you. Of course, you might not have any privilege to update the library's computers. Astronaut (talk) 22:43, 22 October 2009 (UTC)

Flash may not need to be updated, either; the Flash plugin may just be alerting you that there is a newer version available; but it may be that all of the sites you visit work just fine with the old version of Flash that is currently on the library computer. Comet Tuttle (talk) 23:37, 22 October 2009 (UTC)

Well, something's wrong. This ad didn't cause me any problems today, but as I said before I just sit there and sit there until a new address comes up at the top of the screen, and then at least I can hit "enter" and the screen will go blank, even if the results of that aren't immediate. One thing I did notice about one of the AT&T ads: it has a place to click to "restart". I don't know if that means anything. Sometimes this ad has a washing machine and bubbles and it's moving really fast, but usually when I see it and I'm having the problems, it's stationary.Vchimpanzee · talk · contributions · 17:09, 23 October 2009 (UTC)

I should point out that "Flash needs updating" is a common ploy used by Malware to persuade the hapless user to run a hazardous .EXE file. If you get that message, it's best to go to the Adobe site and download the real thing. Tevildo (talk) 20:17, 23 October 2009 (UTC)

Youtube

You may have noticed that a huge percentage of videos on Youtube receive 5 out of 5 stars. Has anyone in the computing world pointed out this an over-inflation bias ("grade inflation") or proposed viable solutions? --Dpr —Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.111.194.50 (talk) 23:26, 22 October 2009 (UTC)

Yes. On the Internet, Everyone's a Critic But They're Not Very Critical, Wall Street Journal, October 5 of this year. Comet Tuttle (talk) 23:35, 22 October 2009 (UTC)

Nice. Thanks so much for the rapid response. --Dpr 23:41, 22 October 2009 (UTC) —Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.111.194.50 (talk)

Youtube, at least, is reportedly looking at changing their rating system. --Kateshortforbob _talk 10:11, 23 October 2009 (UTC)

Sharing folder in Ubuntu

I'm one of those people who is awkward in Linux, and I'm struggling with permissions in Ubuntu. I installed the latest Ubuntu using all the defaults, and created my user, "Comet". Then I created another user called "Sham". My intent is to create a shared folder in Sham's home directory that anybody on the network can access. (Edit: The other machines on the network are Windows and Mac machines.) While logged in as Comet, I couldn't create a new directory in Sham's home directory; I didn't have permissions. OK, whatever, I used sudo mkdir to create the directory. Now from GNOME, I tried sharing this new directory, by right-clicking the directory and configuring "Sharing Options". It told me to add the line "usershare owner only = false" to smb.conf. I tried editing it by double-clicking it, which invoked gedit; but then I lacked permission to save. OK, I used sudo vi to add the line to the file. Now I could share the folder via the "Folder Sharing" window in GNOME; but when I try to check the checkbox next to "Allow other people to write in this folder", and approve the dialog box telling me that Nautilus has to add some permissions to the folder in order to share it, I get an unhelpful dialog saying "Could not change the permissions of folder "big"". At this point I don't know what to do from the command line with "sudo" in order to share the folder.

What am I missing? Why do I keep having to do what I want from the command line with sudo? I tried "su Comet" from a terminal window but that didn't seem to have any effect. Comet Tuttle (talk) 23:55, 22 October 2009 (UTC)

Instead of running everything else as root, you could just run nautilus as root. idk if this is good practise, but it should give nautilus permissions to do whatever it needs to. Eg alt-f2 (or whatever you have bind it to) gksudo nautilus. --194.197.235.240 (talk) 10:08, 23 October 2009 (UTC)

And before you start to think that Linux is hard, you should reconsider what you're doing. WHY are you sharing a folder from another user's home directory when the whole point of having users is to stop users from messing up others' profiles? The main reason why you had to keep going back to the console and sudo is because you shouldn't be tinkering with it unless you know what you are doing. --antilived^{T | C | G} 11:38, 23 October 2009 (UTC)

Nice answer! Linux is hard because I don't know what I'm doing! This must be why 2009 isn't TYOLOTD. You see, I thought my "Comet" account was created with most or all of the permissions that root has. Can I just log in as root? Or, let me rephrase the question. How should I be doing this? Comet Tuttle (talk) 14:27, 23 October 2009 (UTC)

You get to know by reading the documentation. It is a healthy thing to read, many will assume you know chmod and chown or some equivalent gui trick. Home is meant to be private, non-root isn't supposed to directly or through creating a share to be able to access others homes. Why not create a one big share for all users? Check out the system-config-samba package, it is a better solution than nautilus for sharing files and folders not owned by your user. Also, are you sure "needs some permissions" was the only thing nautilus said? You might want to see again what was the exact problem. --194.197.235.240 (talk) 15:30, 23 October 2009 (UTC)

I would suggest resetting the permissions of both user's home directory and starting from scratch. It is not a recommended practice to deviate from the standard permissions in a user's home directory. Next, create a folder in /home (you will need root to do this) called share. /home will now have three folders, /Comet, /Sham, and /share. Believe me, doing it this way will solve about 90% of your problems. Taggart.BBS (talk) 18:59, 23 October 2009 (UTC)

Thank you, Taggart.BBS, for the helpful answer, it's exactly the sort of thing I'm looking for. My first stumbling block when trying to do this is actually whether "Comet", the user I created when I installed Ubuntu, has root permissions or not. When I log in as Comet, GNOME and the command prompt don't let me, say, create directories in \home; but from the command prompt, "sudo mkdir sharefolder" asks me for Comet's password, and then successfully creates the directory. This baffles me. Can someone explain why Comet seems to have some root privileges but not all the time? Comet Tuttle (talk) 19:27, 23 October 2009 (UTC)

Comet is not root, but it (as the initial user you created) is an "admin", which means that it can use sudo. In other words, Comet can run things as root if it asks, but it is not root otherwise. sudo asks for your password to prevent someone else from immediately becoming root with a moment's access to your keyboard. This arrangement is thought by many (though not all) to be superior to having truly separate root and (unpriveleged) user accounts, partly because it discourages running as root all the time for "convenience". --Tardis (talk) 20:07, 23 October 2009 (UTC)

Ubuntu handles su, sudo, etc., a bit differently from other Linux distros, Debian included. Comet does not have root permissions (no user does,) but Comet is in the sudoers file, which means it is authorized to act as root on its own password. If you look at the hidden files in Comet's home directory, you will notice a file .sudo_as_admin_successful. Taggart.BBS (talk) 20:04, 23 October 2009 (UTC)

Excellent responses, thanks, very understandable. Now is there a way to sudo a GNOME action? Specifically, right-clicking a folder and choosing "Sharing Options", I don't have enough permissions to do what needs to be done, so I assume that as an admin the correct thing to do is to somehow sudo the dialog box. Comet Tuttle (talk) 20:50, 23 October 2009 (UTC)

The nautilus-gksu package provides an "Open as administrator" right-click menu item to nautilus. Otherwise there's nothing, at least per http://brainstorm.ubuntu.com/idea/21666/. If you really want to avoid keyboard, you need to run nautilus as root, eg by using the previous to open the parent directory as root. Note that ubuntu comes with a shares-admin program, which will prompt for your password. It has no menu entry by default but you can trivially add one with some right-clicking. --194.197.235.240 (talk) 21:43, 23 October 2009 (UTC)

This did (I think) what I want, thank you. I installed nautilus-gksu but then went up one folder from home, then opened home as administrator, then after right-clicking the 'share' folder and choosing "Sharing Options", I was able to configure it to be writable by anyone. I'm glad to see >100 people voted for item 21666 which you linked to, which would have fixed my problem. Thank you! Comet Tuttle (talk) 22:48, 23 October 2009 (UTC)