Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Computing/2010 November 26

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November 26

Java web start

Getting this pop-up error "microsoft jscript compilation error" "syntax error" - it seems to be associated with .jnlp files. Googling shows similar problems going back a few years. This appears to be a new version of the bug. eg I think I've fixed it by selecting 'direct connection' rather than 'use browser settings' in the java console>>network settings .. though to be honest I don't really know what I'm doing. (XP, chrome, java 1.6.22) Consistently happens with any web start, applets so far appear ok.

Can anyone expand on what's going on here.. I don't really know if it's a bug I should report to sun/oracle, or to microsoft. Thanks.213.249.248.176 (talk) 00:22, 26 November 2010 (UTC)

Where can I find a smartphone app for ChatRoulette?

Pretty often, popular web services port themselves to the mobile realm by releasing apps meant for smartphones.

Where can I find phone apps for ChatRoulette (or Omegle, or any other competitor of ChatRoulette?)

If those apps don't exist, why the heck not? You'd think their services are popular enough to make mobile apps out of, right? --70.254.193.68 (talk) 07:49, 26 November 2010 (UTC)

Considering what the ChatRoulette article you linked to says (which somewhat concurs with what I expected) I'm sceptical Apple would approve of a ChatRoulette app. Not sure about Android though. Nil Einne (talk) 11:20, 26 November 2010 (UTC)

Well a simple websearch for the most obvious term 'chatroulette app' easily found [1] and other things confirming my belief a chatroulette like app isn't going to last long with Apple. Nil Einne (talk) 11:22, 26 November 2010 (UTC)

In fact it's even specifically banned in the guidelines now [2] Nil Einne (talk) 12:01, 26 November 2010 (UTC)

Mac Wildcard Character

Hello, anyone know how to perfom a *.* search on MAc OS X? Ideally without resorting to the Terminal, but needs must. Thanks. FreeMorpheme (talk) 11:13, 26 November 2010 (UTC)

What do you want to search? List all files whose name contains a period ("ls *.*")? List all files in a directory ("ls")? List all files in a directory and its subdirectories ("find -print")? Search something inside files ("grep ..." for text files)? Something else? Captain Hindsight (talk) 11:27, 26 November 2010 (UTC)

I would like to list all of the files and folders in a folder in one window. *.* works on the PC as it shows everything with a filename and an extension. FreeMorpheme (talk) 13:46, 27 November 2010 (UTC)

Just view a folder's contents as a list? At the top of the folder's window, on the left there should be icons for different views - depending on what OS you are running. These are 'icon view', 'list view', 'column view' and 'cover flow'. Or you can choose View>as list from the Finder menu bar at the very top of your screen. Does the list view not do what you want?  pablo 15:09, 27 November 2010

Your confusion lies in the fact that (under DOS) the extension was seen as a necessary part of the filename: so to list all files with all names and all extensions, you would type "*.*". Under Unix, including OS X, the dot is just another character (in other words, the idea of a "filename extension" is an interpretation humans put on the filesystem, not something built into it). So under Unix, searching for "*.*" means searching for all files with a dot in their names. But the answer to your question is a simple "*". Marnanel (talk) 16:17, 27 November 2010 (UTC)

Well yes, but the OP states that they would prefer not use Terminal. All the files and folders within a particular folder should be visible in that folder's window in the Finder. pablo 21:48, 28 November 2010 (UTC)

I see I wasn;t quite clear enough, apologies - I need to see all of the files and folders, but all of the files in the subfolders also. So if I have a folder with three subfolders each containing 20 files, I want to perform a search on the top level folder which will reveal three folders and 60 files, all in one window 195.60.20.81 (talk) 11:34, 29 November 2010 (UTC)

STV iPlayer

I have just watched a fascinating series of programmes on the above and wonder if there is anyway I can download them to a DVD on my AppleMac laptop. Any ideas out there please? Thanks in anticipation.--85.211.132.205 (talk) 12:24, 26 November 2010 (UTC)

It may be helpful if you specify (perhaps a link) to what you mean. I don't live in the UK but AFAIK iPlayer is a exclusively BBC thing, probably trademarked. 'STV iplayer' also doesn't find any iPlayer for STV. Do you perhaps mean the STV player [3], BBC iPlayer or even the ITV Player [4]? Nil Einne (talk) 06:01, 27 November 2010 (UTC)

I mean STV Player, that is Scottish Television.--85.211.227.216 (talk) 08:06, 27 November 2010 (UTC)

Well in that case official it's not supported [5]. Unofficially if you can watch it there's obviously some way to record it. Worst case scenario you could probably use some sort of screen capture program or even a camera recording your monitor. However I suspect it's not necessary to go this far although using Mac OS X probably doesn't help. There's very little discussion of recording/downloading STV player I could find (much more of ITV of course). [6] is one of the only ones and it doesn't sound hopeful although it's somewhat old (while not Mac OS X per se, it's discussing open source tools which would could probably made to work with Mac OS X).

In Windows there are plenty of commercial and some free programs for this sort of thing. I normally use Orbit Downloader [7] which works for most things I do but I tried it with the STV news website (don't live in Scotland or even the UK nor do I have a proxy so can't try on the player website) which is linked from the player website. And it doesn't work (catches the URLs but downloads seem to fail) although I didn't really try that hard. I read some suggestions from [8] and other players that Replay Media Catcher [9] may work. It didn't work at all (didn't catch anything even Youtube) on one of my Windows installs I guess because it didn't manage to hook in to the network stack properly (from what I've read I think it does something like this) because of the odd stuff I had installed. On another Windows install it seemed to work for downloading from news.stv.tv (also youtube of course).

Once you have a stream, converting it for a DVD-video (if that's what you want) is relatively trivial.

I would note your message is somewhat ambigious on what you want to do with the content. Downloading it to keep indefinitely and watch as often as and whenever you want is likely of questionable legality (the same as recording a program off air) although as long as you can still watch the program online from where you live it perhaps doesn't make a difference when you downloaded it. But if you do want to keep it, you may want to see whether the documentaries are available in commercial DVD or other formats where it's intended for you to keep it (e.g. legal video download services like iTunes).

Nil Einne (talk) 14:11, 27 November 2010 (UTC)

Thanks all, have just noticed that STV player says it is not possible to download the programme; shame since they are only available on line for 30 days.85.211.136.83 (talk) 08:23, 28 November 2010 (UTC)

scanmem for Mac

Is there a program like similar to the linux scanmem utility available for Mac OS X (specifically 10.6)? If one doesn't specifically exist, could the linux tool be adapted for Macs? Horselover Frost (talk · edits) 13:21, 26 November 2010 (UTC)

• scanmem seems to rely on procfs, which macs don't use, so the answer second part of my question is probably "no". Horselover Frost (talk · edits) 13:31, 26 November 2010 (UTC)

Although the commonplace Unix method of viewing another process' memory via /proc isn't available on OS-X, that doesn't mean there isn't another mechanism to do so (otherwise things like debuggers and profilers couldn't work). On OS-X one can access memory piecemeal with ptrace or wholesale with mach_vm_read. The latter is substantively the same as opening a process' memory by calling read(2) on the relevant /proc/PID or /proc/PID/mem entry. So it surely could be written. Note, however, that (I think uniquely among Unix-like OSes) OS-X has a special option to ptrace, PT_DENY_ATTACH which allows a process to prevent itself from being ptraced, dtraced, and I think having its VM manipulated with the Mach calls - so memory of a process like iTunes that uses this mechanism won't (readily) be accessible (but that mechanism can be circumvented, I read). -- Finlay McWalter ☻ Talk 14:04, 26 November 2010 (UTC)

Google

Resolved

Is there a limit to how many google email accounts you are allowed to have? 82.44.55.25 (talk) 14:36, 26 November 2010 (UTC)

There seems to be some legalese about it here, however ,I believe that you will probably get the full terms in that box you have to tick to say that you have read the Ts&Cs to set up your initial account. The content I've linked to suggests that the creation of multiple accounts to do naughty accounts is a bad thing, but does not appear to mention anything about the innocent use of multiple accounts. Not quite a complete answer to your question I'm afraid. Darigan (talk) 14:42, 26 November 2010 (UTC)

edit - better link - seems to be ok to use multiple accounts as long as you don't violate the terms of use Darigan (talk) 14:45, 26 November 2010 (UTC)re

Thanks 82.44.55.25 (talk) 20:18, 26 November 2010 (UTC)

Although I would note Google does require some sort of verification in some countries (well I think the OP knows that). SMS to mobile phone is one in some. I'm pretty sure there's a limit to the number of accounts you can register using one number as verification (think I've read people complaining before) and I'm not sure how easy it would be to convince them to let you around the limit even if you've been doing nothing untoward with your accounts. Nil Einne (talk) 05:06, 27 November 2010 (UTC)

Semi supports that idea [10]. I realised I forgot to note there's of course nothing to stop you using some other number of some other method where available. Nil Einne (talk) 05:53, 27 November 2010 (UTC)

Microsoft Timershot

Microsoft have a "power toy" called Timershot for Windows XP, but it doesn't work on Vista. Is there any way to make it work on Vista, or any other free alternatives? Please don't tell me to google it, I already have and all I have found is pages and pages of other people asking the same question and being told to google it. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 86.192.175.138 (talk) 15:36, 26 November 2010 (UTC)

I've added a new section for you, to make your question stand out from the previous one CS Miller (talk) 16:09, 26 November 2010 (UTC)

Well a simple search for 'windows webcam software' finds [11] as the first result and [12] as the 4th. Really there's probably so much software I suggest you just choose one at random which seems to do what you want and try it. If it doesn't work the way you expect uninstall or rollback the install and use something else. I myself when looking for something of the sort a few months ago (not a timershot replacement as I never used timershot) found something at random and it seemed fine although ironically I can't find it again now Nil Einne (talk) 04:44, 27 November 2010 (UTC)

Found it via 'windows 7 webcam time lapse photo' at [13]. Avacam. Nil Einne (talk) 05:03, 27 November 2010 (UTC)