Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Computing/2012 February 26

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February 26

Need router

I want to replace my old Netgear router with one that can run FOSS firmware like Tomato/DD-WRT/OpenWRT. It should have wifi since I occasionally have visitors who want wireless internet access, but most of the time I'd want to run it in wired mode with the radios turned off. It would be very useful if I can activate and de-activate the wifi without resetting the router and dropping all the existing ethernet sessions. Is that a standard feature these days? My existing router reboots itself after any configuration change.

I see Newegg has the classic Netgear WRT-54GL and the newer WNR3500L-100NAS on sale for just a bit more $$$. I think I don't really care about super-fast wireless modes because for my purposes, wifi is for web surfing and therefore the wifi's useful speed is bounded by the WAN. But the WNR3500L's gigabit ethernet capability would be useful (the 54GL just has 100Mbit) and it's a more powerful box in general. OTOH, the 54GL is quite old yet still extremely popular, and I'm a bit suspicious of newer stuff due to a perception of declining build quality as costs have been reduced, so I'm not sure what to do.

Any advice? I suppose what I really want is something like a Soekris box but I don't want to spend that much or spend a lot of time configuring it. I also don't want to use any PC-like devices with cooling fans. I'm basically left with this Netgear stuff.

Thanks.

67.117.145.9 (talk) 10:01, 26 February 2012 (UTC)

Graphics card

This is kind of related to this question I asked previously about factors limiting .svg animation speed. I've got a file that has a lot of lines in and appears jerky. It runs at about 1.5 frames/second in chrome which is not ideal. Checking my system stats - the CPU (2 cores of 2Ghz each) is only ~60% used and RAM (2Gb) is only ~50% used. My graphics card is one of these, which our article describes as "basic" and almost 5 years old. Considering this, is it likely that my graphics card is responsible for the jerkiness? Is there anyway in ubuntu I can check to see how hard my graphics card is working? Assuming it is my graphics card being crap, what might make a good upgrade (in terms of a good price:performance ratio? Finally, if anyone has a super fast graphics computer, any chance you could email me and I will send you the file to see if it runs more quickly? Cheers SmartSE (talk) 17:18, 26 February 2012 (UTC)

A likely villain is the graphics driver. ATI has a poor track record of delivering Linux video drivers for their cards that are remotely comparable with their Windows equivalents. NVidia, in contrast, releases very good Linux drivers, which perform very similarly to their Window counterparts. I've heard that ATI's proprietary drivers are better than they used to be, but I don't know how you'd install that, as ATI lost me as a customer several years ago on this basis. My first advice would be to visit the Ubuntu forums and someone there should help you get the best ATI driver you can. If that isn't sufficient, a mid-range Nvidia card may be better. In either case, try using the Chromium browser rather than Firefox, as its SVG support has been a bit better. You might try Opera too, although I've not tested SVGs much on it. 94.5.190.65 (talk) 17:31, 26 February 2012 (UTC)

I'm not sure how true this is anymore, I've not had an issue with their drivers recently (FirePro V7800) but I had a terrible time with NVIDIA "optimus" based systems . IRWolfie- (talk) 17:38, 26 February 2012 (UTC)

Some other suggestions:

1) Reboot computer and ensure nothing else is running when you watch a video.

2) Reduce the screen resolution.

3) Reduce the movie resolution, if you have that option.

4) Reduce the frame rate, if you have that option (this is a last resort, though, as it may actually cause jerkiness on fast motion scenes, if reduced too much). StuRat (talk) 22:23, 26 February 2012 (UTC)

Circuit symbol for a solar panel

I am trying to do my GCSE coursework and I need to know what the circuit symbol for a solar panel is. If it helps, I am connecting a resistor to an ammeter and voltmeter and then connecting the voltmeter in parallel and the ammeter in series to the solar panel. I need to know what the circuit symbol for a solar panel is so I can draw my circuit diagram. I need the UK version of the symbol. Puffin ^{Let's talk!} 21:07, 26 February 2012 (UTC)

Maybe this? [1] RudolfRed (talk) 21:12, 26 February 2012 (UTC)

I don't know, it would be good if someone knew for definite, but it looks like it. If no one else knows then I will just have to use that one. Puffin ^{Let's talk!} 21:25, 26 February 2012 (UTC)

Ask your instructor or advisor. Or maybe one of your classmates. RudolfRed (talk) 21:33, 26 February 2012 (UTC)

Yes, that looks like it. However, as this is an uncommon symbol, I also suggest writing SOLAR PANEL next to the symbol, to make it clear to all who read it. StuRat (talk) 22:17, 26 February 2012 (UTC)

Googling solar panel circuit diagram returns quite a lot of results. The symbol linked above (and a variation with 2 cells) seems most common[2], but there are also some sites using a rectangle hatched with a grid pattern that looks something like an actual solar cell - this page has both. --Colapeninsula (talk) 10:08, 28 February 2012 (UTC)

Downloading MMS/SMS from Motorola phone

I haven't had much luck googling this because I can't seem to filter out the hits for downloading stuff to my phone. I'm trying to copy my Inbox and Sent Items from a Motorola i335 to a computer. I'm willing to do it in either Linux or Windows (Vista).

The closest I've gotten is KMobileTools, which (after some fiddling) manages to detect the phone well enough to show me signal strength and battery charge. But if I ask it to show me my SMS, it appears that in its opinion, there aren't any. Maybe I have the "initialization string" wrong or something? How can I find out what it's supposed to be? Thanks for any help. --Trovatore (talk) 21:20, 26 February 2012 (UTC)

Most phones these days come with a load of software for synchronising with your PC (less so with Linux). Check out Motorola's software downloads page and the i335's support options page to see if something useful is there. Astronaut (talk) 22:01, 26 February 2012 (UTC)

Appreciate it, but no, I can't find anything there. I was able to use the phonebook manager, so at least I could back up my contacts (although annoyingly it downloads it in Microsoft Access format and has no provision for exporting it to a more useful format, so I had to find a Linux tool for that step). But I don't see anything about synching up messages. Question is still open if anyone can help.... --Trovatore (talk) 22:41, 26 February 2012 (UTC)

Just curious... is this for a one-off backup or an ongoing need to copy SMS/MMS to a computer? You see, if it is a one-off backup, then perhaps you could forward the messages to a phone (a friend's phone?) that does have the software to do this? Astronaut (talk) 23:15, 26 February 2012 (UTC)

There doesn't seem to be any convenient way to do a batch-forward, so that doesn't strike me as a good solution for 100+ messages. Also I want to know how to do this if I'm going to continue with this carrier. --Trovatore (talk) 03:53, 27 February 2012 (UTC)