Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Computing/2010 December 14

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December 14

"Web site interactor" sample code

There's a browser-based game that I play — simple HTTP GET and POST commands, no Flash stuff — and I'd like to write a simple bot to get some data every once in a while from the website and react appropriately. Surely there's sample code for such a thing out there which I can grab and modify for my own use? I'd like to find something in C# but wouldn't complain at having to learn Python, if anyone has any source to point at. Thanks in advance — Comet Tuttle (talk) 07:18, 14 December 2010 (UTC)

See this knowledge base article. 118.96.163.249 (talk) 08:11, 14 December 2010 (UTC)

sound cards

This is a bit of a random thought, but could it be possible to convert a computers sound card to transmit and receive data? Then connect two computers via their sound cards to form some kind of network and share files and stuff over the link? What would be the bandwidth of standard audio connectors transmitting binary data? 82.44.55.25 (talk) 10:26, 14 December 2010 (UTC)

Yes, it's entirely possible. What kind of audio connections are you talking about? A narrow band phone connection could, at best, historically squeeze out about 53kbps... I don't know what the full band width of the cards you're talking about can manage, but given the right programming they can theoretically come close to the physical maximum of that connection. Shadowjams (talk) 10:52, 14 December 2010 (UTC)

It isn't theoretical. It is real - if you want to use a very very very old computer. Before the popularity of disk drives, most home computers used cassette drives. You could (and I did) cross connect the cassette connectors between two computers so when one saved a file, the other could read it. To do it in modern times, you will probably just hunt for some nut who decided to write a cassette adapter for a modern sound card. Then, run that on both computers, connecting the ins to the outs. -- kainaw™ 15:56, 14 December 2010 (UTC)

A good example of the old hardware would be the Commodore Datasette, which used audio cassettes. The page said you could store around 100k per side, which I remember being quite a lot, although it was also SO SLOW. Of course, I think most hardware of that era had custom hardware to convert digital data into the sound encodings on the tape, instead of a generic sound card. The Softmodem#Software_.26_Soundcard_projects page mentions using a sound card to act as a modem, which is somewhat similar to what the OP is asking. -- JSBillings 20:44, 14 December 2010 (UTC)

Changing keyboard shortcuts in Firefox

How would I change the keyboard shortcuts for 'Next Tab' and 'Previous Tab' in Firefox? If it matters, it's on a Mac with an up to date version of Firefox. I think "cmd-shift-]" is awkward and would like to change it to maybe "cmd-left/right arrow". I know it's somewhere in about:config but I don't know where or how to change it. Dismas|^(talk) 14:11, 14 December 2010 (UTC)

webupon.com/browsers/changing-firefox-3-5-and-onwards-keyboard-shortcuts-on-mac/ claims to contain the answer. Algebraist 14:39, 14 December 2010 (UTC)

Speed of my new Wi Fi

My apartment building was just wired for Wi Fi. Before this I was subscribing to an internet service with an 8 GB bandwidth. How can I tell what my effective bandwidth is now with this new Wi Fi service I am now using? Ping off a website that will tell me this?--Doug Coldwell ^talk 16:17, 14 December 2010 (UTC)

Find a DSL test page - there are many. --Tagishsimon (talk) 16:22, 14 December 2010 (UTC)

One such test says it is "Excellent", however they all give me numbers like this that I don't understand (probably because I am NOT a computer expert): Download of 4823 KBit/s and Upload of 674 KBit/s. Result of Ping was 50 ms. What is that compared to my previous land line connection of an 8 GB bandwidth I had?--Doug Coldwell ^talk 16:58, 14 December 2010 (UTC)

That 4823 is a bit more than half of the 8192 that the old one nominally had. But some caveats: firstly, if you didn't test the old connection like this, you can't be sure that it really was 8192 (most broadband connections say you get "up to" some number, with the actual performance a function of a number of technical parameters, particularly the character of the wires between your home and the broadband provider's office). A second issue is how a shared network connection like your new one doles out the finite bandwidth it has. If some of your neighbours, at a future time, decide to engage in a high-usage activity like file sharing, the networking equipment will have to decide how much of that shared bandwidth they'll be allowed to consume. Simple systems would allow one greedy user to consume the whole thing, starving the rest of you. More sophisticated system employ traffic shaping strategies and quality of service guarantees to allocate the shared resource. You'd have to enquire of the operator of the equipment how much the total bandwidth is, and how it's distributed when it's oversubscribed. TL;DR: half as fast, but you probably don't really know how fast the old one really was; it might get slower if your neighbours do some Bittorrent. -- Finlay McWalter ☻ Talk 17:18, 14 December 2010 (UTC)

Woah. Doug, the OP, said he had an 8 Gigabyte bandwidth. That's a pretty spectacular bandwidth and is probably actually a download limit. Doug - 4.8 MegaBit/s download is about OK for a DSL connection - the original type of DSL went up to 8 MBit/s and later versions go quite a bit higher, but 4 is probalby OK. 674 kBit/s upload is better than many DSL upload speeds, and, again, is probable OK for most people. --Phil Holmes (talk) 17:58, 14 December 2010 (UTC)

He just said "GB", he could have easily meant "Gb"(Gigabit). They're easily mistaken and often confused, even in literature provided by the cable company! If true, then Finlay's answer is correct. It's a reasonable guess, since, as you say, GB would be unusual, but Gb would be common. 72.10.110.109 (talk) 20:51, 14 December 2010 (UTC)

8 GBit/s broadband would be common? Where? --Phil Holmes (talk) 22:11, 14 December 2010 (UTC)

They've barely finished rolling out the Next Generation National Broadband Network, which promises internet bandwidth of up to 1Gbps, in mainland Singapore. My current internet connection has just 7.2Mbps bandwidth. Where on Earth is 8Gbps (that's 8,000Mbps) broadband common? Rocketshiporion♫ 21:00, 15 December 2010 (UTC)

I agree with Phil Holmes that the 8GB is probably a data download limit, in which case it has no relationship to the bandwidth of the connection. Rocketshiporion♫ 21:06, 15 December 2010 (UTC)

Google-fu help

Hi guys! This may seem like a strange question to ask, but I do not think I can resolve it myself in reasonable time, and people here are likely to know a way out. Basically, I want to know how the staffing or employement profile (how many people at which level) of a company - any company - has changed between two years. So I am asking you for some search terms for a Google search that might help me get what I want. I have tried staffing profile, employment profile, "staffing profile changed", "changes in staffing," etc. without much luck, so I suspect I'm missing the right terminology.

I need this for raw data to demonstrate application of Operations Research to Manpower forecasting. The data we were in possession of before turned out to be not useful at all - so we are in a pinch. Any and all help will be sincerely appreciated. Thanks -- ReluctantPhilosopher (talk) 17:19, 14 December 2010 (UTC)

I really doubt that Google is going to help you here at all, because very few corporations (my assumption is actually "no corporations") publish their entire organization chart, let alone publishing it in a way that Google could parse in the way you want. The main reason companies don't publish their org chart is, in my experience, for fear that recruiters will just go down the list and ring up every person with a job description that sounds something like the position they're looking to fill at another company. One exception might be particularly open/transparent nonprofits, but even those probably don't want to lose their employees to recruited positions elsewhere, so those probably don't publish their org charts, either. Comet Tuttle (talk) 17:33, 14 December 2010 (UTC)

Thanks very much! That's a very valid point you raise ... and part of the reason for the difficulty I'm facing. However, I just found this page: [1], and I'm thinking it might containt what I want. I'll look at it in detail now, hoping to find something useful! -- ReluctantPhilosopher (talk) 17:38, 14 December 2010 (UTC)

Freezing computer

I have a computer running Windows XP Home edition that used to freeze about every five minutes on a hot day and up to twenty minutes on a cold day. It was taken into the shop, and they basically erased all our programs without fixing it. The problem is partially solved by taking off the side and putting a fan next to it and a bucket of ice water behind the fan, to keep it cold. Still, this problem is getting worse. The fan in the computer works fine. I know this a hardware issue. Is this the CPU's problem, or the hard drive's? --T H F S W (T · C · E) 19:11, 14 December 2010 (UTC)

Have you looked to see if the CPU heat sink is full of fluff?--Aspro (talk) 19:14, 14 December 2010 (UTC)

It's not that surprising that it freezes more easily on a cold day... ╟─TreasuryTag►pikuach nefesh─╢ 19:22, 14 December 2010 (UTC)

No, it freezes more quickly on hot days. Computers are strange things, aren't they? But I have no idea what a heat sink would look like. And is it certain this is a CPU problem? --T H F S W (T · C · E) 19:29, 14 December 2010 (UTC)

Heat sink Mo ainm~Talk 19:34, 14 December 2010 (UTC)

The finned aluminium block underneath the fan is the heat sink. Just a nice coat of fluff can be enough to trip the thermal cut out. Not a definite diagnosis but most probable. By cleaning, you will be able to discount it as a cause or prove it. --Aspro (talk) 19:41, 14 December 2010 (UTC)

It's also critical that the contact between the CPU chip and the heat sink be made properly. A problem such as yours could easily be caused by carelessness in installing the CPU, especially if a processor upgrade was made at home after the computer was purchased. Looie496 (talk) 19:51, 14 December 2010 (UTC)

Remove any tie or necklace etc you might be wearing. Turn the computer off, place on its right hand side, and remove the left hand panel. You can then see inside the computer. Make sure all the fans turn freely. Turn it on an carefully place the back your hand near the fans and check that they are producing air-flow. CS Miller (talk) 21:12, 14 December 2010 (UTC)

I used to had a laptop with exactly the same problem. After ~10 times going to the repair place and returning unfixed, and with the insurance whatever about to run out I got angry and deliberately dripped water into it to truly **** it up because either way I was going to end up with a laptop that didn't work. It went to be repaired again and finally this time (probably because of what I did to it) they said they couldn't fix it and gave me £800 to buy a new computer. I'm not recommending you do that, I'm just sharing my experience. 82.44.55.25 (talk) 20:05, 14 December 2010 (UTC)

You-tube have some videos that walk you through the basic motions. Just picked this one at random as I don't really like most of them, but its better than nothing.How to Clean your Computer--Aspro (talk) 20:34, 14 December 2010 (UTC)

I'd like to second Looie's comment. I had a problem with my PC overheating (the one I'm writing from right now). When I unfastened the fan and heat sink over the CPU, I saw that the paste that was supposed to transfer heat had gone all dry, and that the thermal contact was poor. I bought some stuff in a computer shop (it's a couple of years ago, so the details may be incorrect), I think it was a cleaning liquid and a paste. I followed the instructions that came with the package, and the problem disappeared. --NorwegianBlue ^talk 20:37, 14 December 2010 (UTC)

For some abstruse reason that it is unfathomable, it is call by a name you will never guess, so I'd better tell you that it can be bought as as heat sink compound.--Aspro (talk) 20:49, 14 December 2010 (UTC)

You're probably experiencing some form of thermal shutdown. I'd second Aspro's suggestion to replace the heat-transfer grease between the heat-sink and processor. Also check to make sure your graphics card isn't overheating. It could also be that you have a defective processor.Smallman12q (talk) 22:50, 14 December 2010 (UTC)

You mentioned "the fan", but many computers have at least two, one that blows air into the box and one that cools the CPU. Does your computer only have a single fan ?

Also, you said you took off "the side" of the box, but I suggest you take off both sides, or as much of the case that can be removed, including the plastic covers in the front that cover unused CD bays, etc. You also might want two big box fans, one blowing in on one side and the other blowing out on the other side. Moving the computer to a colder room (basement ?) might also help a bit. All this is in case the other suggestions don't work. StuRat (talk) 02:51, 15 December 2010 (UTC)

Fans die. I inherited my previous computer because the CPU fan died. It was like $12 at Radio Shack, including the heat sink I didn't need. You might also be interested in installing "Speedfan", a shareware or freeware (i forget) which reads the temperature sensors inside the machine, plus other neat stuff like adjusting the fan speed as the name suggests, on machines with adjustable fan speed. seems to work without undesirable side effects. Gzuckier (talk) 14:57, 15 December 2010 (UTC)

Word 2003 line spacing

I'm editing a document originally created in some Japanese version of Word in my English version of Word 2003. Japanese Word seems to have a strange spacing problem within lines (after periods particularly), so I copied the entire original document and pasted it into an English Word document, and then cleared the formatting. This has worked for me previously, but this time I have a strange problem with line spacing. I can select single or double-spacing, but it doesn't appear to be the right size: single looks more like 1.5, and double is more like 2.5. Clearing the formatting, setting it to "nomal," and setting the Before and After values to 0 (a suggestion I found online) doesn't seem to work. Any suggestions? Exploding Boy (talk) 20:51, 14 December 2010 (UTC)

Also, "clear formatting" has resulted in all the in-text footnote numbers being turned into normal numbers rather than small superscript numbers. Any easy way to change this back? Exploding Boy (talk) 20:59, 14 December 2010 (UTC)

Windows Remote Desktop crashes server on loss of connection

I've been using Remote Desktop Connection on Windows 7 (both server and client) for work related purposes. I've noticed that if the server-client connection is severed unexpectedly (for example, by an unplugged network cable or dropped WiFi connection) then there is a substantial risk that the server will completely crash and reboot. This is annoying since it can lead to the loss of data on the server side. It doesn't happen every time the connection is lost, but it does happen often enough to be reproducible within a few tries. I've done some searching, but haven't been able to locate complaints of similar crashes. Most of the complaints I see online are associated with RDC crashing without ever working correctly, but my system works normally unless the connection is broken. The Event Log doesn't show anything obvious to me, other than the messages one gets if the system reboots without proper shutdown, so presumably whatever is crashing occurs abruptly enough that the system doesn't have a chance to report any errors.

Any suggestions and insights would be appreciated. Dragons flight (talk) 22:38, 14 December 2010 (UTC)

Do you mean Windows Server 2008 and Windows 7 or both host and client are Windows 7? Smallman12q (talk) 22:52, 14 December 2010 (UTC)

Both host and client are Windows 7, as I said. Both are the 64-bit Ultimate edition, should it matter. Dragons flight (talk) 22:56, 14 December 2010 (UTC)

This might not be the answer you want but as Microsoft software becomes increasingly more difficult to maintain, you might like to try some other operating system (like Ubuntu) which is less of a hassle and does not require you to jump through lots and lots of hoops...--Aspro (talk) 22:53, 14 December 2010 (UTC)

Yes, yes, Linux is great. I use Linux routinely, but I don't have that option in this context. Dragons flight (talk) 22:56, 14 December 2010 (UTC)

Do you get a Blue Screen on the "server" when it crashes? If so the actual STOP message on that screen (and any driver files if shown) may be helpful in diagnosing why it's rebooting. If the blue screen vanishes too fast to read you can disable automatic restart by following the instructions here.  ZX81  ^talk 04:53, 15 December 2010 (UTC)