From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Computing desk
< December 5	<< Nov | December | Jan >>	December 7 >

Welcome to the Wikipedia Computing Reference Desk Archives
The page you are currently viewing is an archive page. While you can leave answers for any questions shown below, please ask new questions on one of the current reference desk pages.

Contents 1 December 6 1.1 Computer Drive Full? 1.2 Athlon 64 X2 65W 1.3 RA-OLSR 1.4 Torrents with multiple trackers 1.5 Trogan Horse (Problimatic) 1.6 Windows Media Player inverted color playback 1.7 Flash/AVI 1.8 Multiple Sheets to PDF (Macro) 1.9 A switch in another switch? 1.10 Remote desktop. 1.11 xml 1.12 Google crawling 1.13 How do I Block Programs 1.14 Overheating Computer Cabinets 1.15 sudo 1.16 lightsaber 1.17 cell phone service

[edit] December 6

[edit] Computer Drive Full?

I am attempting to save a lab that I am typing up, and when i try to save, it is coming up with an error that says that my drive is too full. This is about 48 KB large. My drive has about 47 GB left.

Whats going on?

--Omnipotence407 01:29, 6 December 2006 (UTC)

Are you trying to save it somewhere which is read only? Check the destination folder's properties for a read-only (r) or system (s) attributes (windows); or for rwx access for the directory for your username or group (*nix). --h2g2bob 01:46, 6 December 2006 (UTC)

Good advice, you might also want to tell us what program exactly you are trying to save with - it may be incompatible with larger hard drives and/or more recent filesystems, and misread the large amount of free drive space as an aberrant value (negative or just 0). Can you save other files, such as a blank one, or a previously saved lab, if you have one? dreddnott 06:29, 6 December 2006 (UTC)

A wild idea. Mabye the computer lost track of how much empty space there really is and thus says you have 47 GB when it's actually full. Running some sort of check on the disk or filesystem could perhaps resolve this. —Bromskloss 12:17, 6 December 2006 (UTC)

That shouldn't be possible with a journaled filesystem, although it's not unheard of with FAT if important metadata (like the FAT itself) is corrupted --froth^{T C} 21:45, 6 December 2006 (UTC)

What O/S do you have and what software are you using to "save the lab" ? StuRat 12:39, 6 December 2006 (UTC)

Im Running XP, and trying to save using MS Word 97. I also couldnt save it to my Thumb drive, which also had plenty of room.

Which Check should i run? 24.39.182.101 12:43, 6 December 2006 (UTC)

Sounds like Word has lost some object information. Try "save as" an .RTF file, and then one can often resave as a .DOC file again. Microsoft describes the issue at knowledge base article q137918, with different fixes. --Seejyb 20:22, 6 December 2006 (UTC)

Here's a suggestion: Highlight ALL the text that you're trying to save and copy it to the clipboard. Quit Word. Reload word. Past everything back in, and then try and save. If Word did louse out for some reason, restarting it may clear it up. Keep in mind on XP, you may be logged in under an account that does not have permission to write to the hard disk. I don't know what the contents of the file is/are, but if they embed anything, that could lead to space problems. 68.39.174.238 07:12, 15 December 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Athlon 64 X2 65W

What's the difference between the 65W version of the X2 and the non-65W version? I'm assuming they use different electricity amounts, but does this affect performance or compatability? 128.187.0.165 03:39, 6 December 2006 (UTC)

It does not affect performance or compatibility, hence the increased cost over the less energy-efficient model. Some people say that their lower-energy-using AMD CPUs overclock better than the electricity guzzlers do, and I wouldn't doubt them. Your mileage may vary. dreddnott 06:27, 6 December 2006 (UTC)

At NewEgg, at least, the price difference between some models is less than $2. Hardly breaks the bank to upgrade, then. Thanks for the response. 128.187.0.165 10:19, 6 December 2006 (UTC)

[edit] RA-OLSR

Hello all, I was going through 802.11s draft and found this topic "RA-OLSR" Radio Aware- Optimized Link State Routing Protocol. I wonder how it is going to be different from OLSR (which has got good documentation in the web). Can anybody provide me with some links/references to RA-OLSR, I would be very greatful. I am open for any kind of discussion with respect to OLSR and RA-OLSR. Anticipating replies.

Cheers, Sanjiv

Radio-aware means that the OLSR algorithm is optimized for:

• Radio broadcast efficiency: Data must physically go as far as possible in one hop, to maximize speed and efficiency while minimizing latency.
• Removal of duplicates: Nodes physically between communicating nodes need to discard packets not intended for them, and possibly provide error correction.
• Minimal frequency overlap: Stations use different frequencies while minimizing overlap and crosstalk in order to maximize cross-section bandwidth.

I'm not aware of anything but research on systems like this. Droud 15:55, 9 December 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Torrents with multiple trackers

Where a BitTorrent torrent has multiple trackers, is there a way to tell Azureus which tracker to use -- or, better yet, to use all of them at once? NeonMerlin 05:22, 6 December 2006 (UTC)

If you double click on the torrent to open its tab on the General page it has the url of the tracker. If you right click on it then look in the "Select" menu you're able to change the tracker. Annoyingly you can't use them all at once or even automatically change them frequently with Azureus as far as I've seen. End result is it taking even longer to download Public Torrents. uTorrent is able to search through all the trackers, one at a time, over and over. The result of this seems to be faster downloads compared to Azureus when it's a large Public Torrent. --Kiltman67 13:24, 6 December 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Trogan Horse (Problimatic)

My computer recently contracted a trogan horse virus, and my firewall recognised it, but i cannot delete it until i can verify that the trogan horse is not "write-Protected". How can i verify this seeing as how there is no obvious verification method?

Many Thanks 142.161.239.227 05:24, 6 December 2006 (UTC)

I'm not familiar with requirements like that for virus erasure, you may want to tell us specifically what anti-virus/anti-malware/spyware/etc. software package you're using: Spy Sweeper, Spybot Search & Destroy, AdAware, AVG, or ewido are good ones (the last two are my personal favourites). Without further information, I'd say there's a good chance you have software impersonating a legitimate firewall or antivirus solution as well as a trojan or other virus. Let us know! dreddnott 06:32, 6 December 2006 (UTC)

Boot into safe mode (tap f8 at startup) and run your anti-spyware program from there. --Wooty Woot? contribs 07:16, 6 December 2006 (UTC)

I use a McAfee firewall, do you know anything about how that software works?

Thanks

Is this "write protection" thing something that McAfee sprung on you? I've had this problem in the past when I had a firewall and antivirus both recognize the same thing. They'd both try and delete it (A program has to "write protect" a file to delete it) and one would succeed and the other complain because it couldn't do it. I recommend closing all programs and doing a complete system scan with your antivirus. Since we don't know anything more specific, it's the best advice I can think of and isn't likely to do any harm. 68.39.174.238 07:07, 15 December 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Windows Media Player inverted color playback

A number of my .wmv videos that I've acquired from around the net get played back in what appears to be inverted colors. I have WMP 9 and WMP classic, and it's the same for both. Do I have a borked up codec or something? Would installing WMP 10 help? — Jonathan Kovaciny (talk|contribs) 06:04, 6 December 2006 (UTC)

Probably. Try this link. --Russoc4 12:57, 6 December 2006 (UTC)

Link In WMP click on Tools/Options/Performance/Advanced and then in the Video Acceleration section uncheck Use Video Mixing Renderer and all three Legacy Video Renderers. Then click OK and click Apply in the Options window.

[edit] Flash/AVI

Hello, I am in need of two things preferably available for download if possible:

1) A Flash movie --> AVI converter that preserves the sound, and
2) An AVI editor that lets me cut frames and preserve the sound at the same time.

I'm choosing AVI because I need it to be playable on a computer I do not own that runs Microsoft PowerPoint 2002 (yuck). I plan to imbed the videos into the presentation file, and I'm fairly certain that the computer in question does not run Flash videos. So, can anyone help me with this problem? A lot of the converters I've searched for haven't worked, for some reason... lvlarx 07:34, 6 December 2006 (UTC)

I can't think of anything in particular for #1, although you could use a generic screen-capture program if your PC is fast enough. You would probably want to choose a screen-capture-to-video program that can select only a particular window for recording. For #2 I heartily recommend the free VirtualDub software package. It's one of the handiest and most flexible AVI editing programs out there, and would allow you to cut frames, import and export audio, and crop the video, if you were using a desktop capture program. Adobe Premiere would also work but I'd only suggest using it if you happen to already have it, as it's fairly expensive software. dreddnott 08:06, 6 December 2006 (UTC)

The latest VLC is able to play and change the format of most .flv files (file->wizard, transcode), and allows you to select a start and end time. Alternatively, use ffmpeg (eg: this guide). Both are Free software. --h2g2bob 10:11, 6 December 2006 (UTC)

ffmpeg will do #1 easily. #2... Virtualdub will work though I've found it to have strange quirks. I know this is not a "free" solution but Quicktime Pro actually allows you do to basically what you want in #2 and without much hassle. Just a thought. --24.147.86.187 14:23, 6 December 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Multiple Sheets to PDF (Macro)

I have a series of reports that I regularly produce that are each 10 excel sheets, to write them to PDF I must PDF each page individually and then combine them in Adobe Acrobat. I have selected multiple-pages and tried to print to PDF but every single time (without fail) Excel crashes. I have tried writing a macro to loop through selecting the sheet then printing to PDF then selecting the next etc. etc. I couldn't get this working and having searched the net looking for help but without luck.

In an ideal world I want a macro/process to take my 10 sheets and turn them into 1 PDF file. In a nice world it would PDF my 10 sheets as 10 seperate sheets but I wouldn't have to manually select, print, save as (and repeat 10 times)...I could then open the documents in Adobe Acrobat and create one PDF from multiple-files. Any help greatly appreciated...please note i am not able to download programs that do this for me, but can copy a macro's code. (NY156UK - not signed...at work)

OpenOffice Calc seems to do what you request when you press the PDF button. If you can't install new programs, this won't help your current problem, but it could be useful to know in the future. —Bromskloss 12:14, 6 December 2006 (UTC)

Are you on a PC or a Mac? --24.147.86.187 14:22, 6 December 2006 (UTC)

I do this myself for 20+ pages by selecting File->Print then making sure 'Entire Workbook' is selected under 'Print What' --Worm 12:33, 7 December 2006 (UTC)

[edit] A switch in another switch?

My router also functions as a 4-port switch. Can I plug a 5-port switch into one of my router's ethernet ports and have it work? Or do I need to have the 5-port switch plugged into my PC, and my router plugged into that?

Yes? You're a bit unclear, I don't really see the difference between the two alternatives. TERdON 13:35, 6 December 2006 (UTC)

Basically, I'm asking if I can plug multiple devices into a 5-port-switch, then plug that 5-port-switch into my router (which is also a 4-port-switch) and have it work (ie, all devices can access the internet and each other, and all devices will be assigned an IP by the router).

Yes, you will be able to do that. :) You were just confusing me in your original description. TERdON 14:59, 6 December 2006 (UTC)

If your devices are not the automatically uplink sensing type, then you have to make sure to connect the "uplink" port on the switch to the router. --Spoon! 08:17, 13 December 2006 (UTC)

I've done this with two routers. The only real problem I'd forsee is, as User:Spoon! mentioned, you have to make sure the cabling between the router and switch is correct. The method I used was to get a "crossover cable" to connect them. 68.39.174.238 07:03, 15 December 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Remote desktop.

Can I use remote desktop between a Windows XP machine and a Linux one? I'm trying to use the Linux one to control and view the Windows XP one, if that matters. Also, how much processing power and RAM would the machines need? I'm using WinXP on a Pentium 4 with 512MB of RAM, and Damn Small Linux (Debian-based) on a Pentium 3 with 128MB of RAM.

rdesktop. TERdON 13:35, 6 December 2006 (UTC)

In my experience, if you rdesktop from Linux (or anything) to Windows XP, you cannot log into the Windows XP machine at the keyboard. It only allows one person to be logged in - either at the keyboard or remotely. So, it doesn't require much extra processing power at all. It is just like a person logging in at the keyboard and running a program. --Kainaw ^(talk) 14:21, 6 December 2006 (UTC)

Older versions of XP allowed two users to be logged in simultaneously. I guess they removed it, because that way, two people could use XP with one license. You can remove the restriction by replacing the remote desktop dll with an older version (at your own risk, of course). Instructions can be found with Google. It should be noted that even when two users are allowed to log in, one user can only have one session, so if you're logged in at the keyboard as user A and you do remote login as A, you take over the session from user A that is already running, and anybody sitting behind the machine itself will be returned to the login screen. --risk 13:42, 8 December 2006 (UTC)

Really? I was really looking for the ability to log in remotely whilst logged in at the keyboard... oh well. Does this explain the error "Unable to log on due to account restrictions"?

You do have to go into Windows and grant permission for rdesktop to login (Allow others to log in remotely). I've set it a couple times, but not enough to remember exactly how to do it. --Kainaw ^(talk) 15:18, 6 December 2006 (UTC)

Quoth the rdesktop manpage: -0 Attach to the console of the server (requires Windows Server 2003 or newer). Attaching to the console implies that it will occupy the same session as the local user. Otherwise, the session will be created as an addition to anyone local, unless the computer's licensing does not allow for this (as is often the case in XP). This command is synonymous with the /console option for mstsc.exe (the windows remote desktop application). --Jmeden2000 16:14, 6 December 2006 (UTC)

I appreciate the advice, but I found it too odd to set up, so I'm running UltraVNC and a VNC viewer instead. Thanks all the same!

[edit] xml

can XML replace databases? how to search XML efficiently? —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 202.141.29.34 (talk • contribs).

XML isn't very efficient to search through. Each record in the database can be of any size, and you can't find what the size is very easily (ie, there's no record header which says what the size in bytes is of the current record). This makes life very difficult for reading the data (you can't skip to the end of the record easiy). The XML syntax can also waste quite a bit of space.

A better solution is to use an SQL database program (Wikipedia uses an MySQL database, though I prefer PostgreSQL). OpenOffice.org Base (among others) can use XML (.odb) for databases.

The main advantage of XML is it's flexibility. It's easy to generate XML files (or edit them by hand). So it could be used for printing the output of a search from a larger database.

XML will work for small databases, because there are well supported libraries to read data in XML format. Also XML is a well established standard. For small databases, you could load the whole database into memory, and use any standard search method.

EBML is a binary version of XML (XML is text based), which may be slightly more efficeint.

As for a replacement, as I mentioned SQL is the standard now and is not likely to be replaced any time soon. --h2g2bob 15:48, 6 December 2006 (UTC)

SQL is a query language, like XQuery, and XML is a file format or data representation language; comparing them directly isn't useful. The important thing is that most standard database programs (that is, RDMSes) use a packed binary fixed-length record format on disk, possibly combined with optimizations like the B+ tree for quick access. That's the format that corresponds to XML, but I don't know that it even has a name, as it probably varies from program to program and even from table to table since the records are set to be whatever length is needed to hold the fields of a record. This has its disadvantages, like having to deal with BLOBs and such as external references. In short, XML is meant for (and is good for) largely-unstructured (but hierarchical if structured), mostly-textual data, like formatted books and source code. Other databases are typically designed for completely-structured (that is, with no structural variation whatsoever), non-hierarchical data, typically a collection of short strings, numbers, and references to other records. They have no problem with pure binary data, but much binary data (like pictures, audio, compressed files) is also variable-length and so poses problems for that system as well. The fact that binary data is troublesome (in different ways) to most systems is part of the rationale for developing EMBL and other similar constructs. --Tardis 17:50, 6 December 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Google crawling

Hi,

I've understood that the frequency with which the Googlebot crawls a site, and/or the page rank it assigns, is related, among other things, to how frequently your site is updated. My question is: I have a rather static home page (http://www.ai-tools.org), and then a bunch of other pages that get frequently updated, like the forums. Will having an unchanging home page harm my page rank? Thanks! —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 128.197.120.78 (talk • contribs).

http://www.google.com/webmasters/ has complete details for webmasters. --h2g2bob 17:32, 6 December 2006 (UTC)

[edit] How do I Block Programs

I manage my computers in my classroom here at school, and someone keeps installing instant messengers on these computers. Is there anyway, besides restricting access, that i can block the installation of the programs?

I'm running 98SE

Thankee Omnipotence407

If you use a firewall (and you should be!), disable the ports needed for IM. MSN uses TCP port 1863, I think. That won't stop the installation, but will stop them connecting to the internet. --h2g2bob 18:23, 6 December 2006 (UTC)

If you don't, or even if you do, you can use a HOSTS File. Navigate to C:/Windows and find a file called HOSTS(no extension) open it using notepad, or if it doesn't exist create it using notepad, make sure that the first line is

127.0.0.1 localhost

and then add each IM program's website to the list:

127.0.0.1 aim.com

127.0.0.1 aol.com

This will tell the computer to look for "www.aol.com/index.html" on your computer, which ofcourse it won't find. Make sure that when you save it there is no extension, and rejoice in your IM-free system. ST47Talk 20:40, 6 December 2006 (UTC)

They could still bring it from home on a flash drive, or get it from download.com, or use gaim/trillian, or any other instant messenger (icq, msn, yahoo, etc). IRC is harder to block, especially if it's encrypted and over a randomized port to a private server (which isn't necessarily unremarkable, in a high school especially). --froth^{T C} 21:52, 6 December 2006 (UTC)

What would be a good firewall, with little or no cost, that wont affect printer sharing? Omnipotence407 03:10, 7 December 2006 (UTC)

Whats the directory for the Hosts file that Firefox uses?24.39.182.101 17:49, 7 December 2006 (UTC)

All programs on a machine use the same host file. In WinXP, it's in C:\Windows\system32\drivers\etc. Hostnames that are NOT in the host file are resolved through the normal DNS route. howcheng {chat} 19:16, 7 December 2006 (UTC)

I put some websites into the host file with a 127.0.0.1, but they still work through firefox. Im using 98SE. any ideas on a good firewall thats free?24.39.182.101 17:47, 8 December 2006 (UTC)

A box running Snort can detect and block a wide variety of traffic (including AIM) when used in inline mode. This box would be placed between your LAN and the Internet, where it monitors for instant messaging packets. When it finds such a packet, it disconnects the instant messaging session and logs the intrusion for your later review. Droud 16:03, 9 December 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Overheating Computer Cabinets

I just got a new computer desk, that includes cabinet doors on the computer compartment, to hide it from view (since it's in our main family room area). Since putting the computer in there, I've noticed that it's obviously gotten quite hot having the computer in an enclosed space like that. I've actually noticed the same thing in my tv cabinet where I've got 4-5 components running at a time, with the doors closed most of the time (since that one is glass fronted doors).

I've been thinking on ideas how to fix this. My current plan is to buy a bunch of cheap case fans (they go for about $5 each these days), cut out some holes in the back of each cabinet, and run 4 fans in the back of each (two pulling cool air in, two blowing hot air out) to try to get some good air circulation going and prevent the cabinets from overheating. My problem with this is that case fans tend to only run off of a 4-pin molex connector, like that found inside a computer. So I'm thinking I might have to pick up a couple cheap power supplies as well to power the fans.

My questions:

1/ Why do they even bother to make all these nice looking cabinets and stuff, when they obviously don't have enough air circulation to contain the components they're designed to contain?

2/ Has anybody come up with any better solutions to this kind of thing?

3/ Is there any way to hook up a power supply to run without a motherboard plugged into it? Normally I believe the power supply gets the "on" command from the motherboard, so how can I make it run without one?

4/ Assuming there is a way to run that power supply without a motherboard, is there any other issues that could arise from having the power supply running while sitting on a shelf, instead of installed into a computer case? Especially since most of the connectors wouldn't be plugged into anything. I'd have the unused ones capped of course, but still wonder how it would react.

Let me know what you think, thanks. --Maelwys 18:27, 6 December 2006 (UTC)

I don't think you'd need whole Power supply units, only some splitters for the Molexs (or those 3-pin things the fans use), as the fans won't draw too much power. You could try taking the front door off and putting big holes in the back and trying to get cold air in the front and out the back - especially if you have a fan on the side of the case. As for why they make the cabinets like that, I have no idea :D --h2g2bob 19:30, 6 December 2006 (UTC)

I suppose you could just stick one of these fans in front of it to see if that helps. --h2g2bob 19:34, 6 December 2006 (UTC)

The problem with the splitter idea is that while that would work for the computer cabinet (just running a power cable outside of the box into the splitter) it wouldn't work for the TV cabinet (where there is no power cable there to start with). The problem with yanking off the front door or sitting a desk fan on the floor in front of it is that this is in the family room, a fan on the floor is butt ugly, and the doors are there because my wife wants it to look pretty, I'm just trying to keep it functional as well (hence the fans being at the back, not the front, of the cabinet). --Maelwys 19:44, 6 December 2006 (UTC)

Any one of these giant fans should do the job --froth^{T C} 21:38, 6 December 2006 (UTC)

If you can find a transformer that outputs the right voltage DC you could just wire up the fans to that. You'd just need to splice a few wires, but since it would be in the back of your cabinets it doesn't have to be pretty. Then you'd just plug the fans into the wall socket. -anonymous6494 21:33, 6 December 2006 (UTC)

One hint: Cheap case fans are quite loud, and that might be rather annoying in your living room. Fans with good ball bearings are not so much more expensive but much more silent. Simon A. 08:29, 7 December 2006 (UTC)

Another point: Remember to follow the direction of convection (warm air goes up). Hence, I would put a fan blowing outwards somewhere at or near the top, and some holes at different places in or at the bottom so that fresh cool air can get in easily. With such an arrangemet, I could imagine that a single fan is sufficient. Simon A. 08:37, 7 December 2006 (UTC)

Yep, already had that in mind. My problem was that initially I wanted to put a pair of output fans near the top of the back, and a pair of input near the bottom (since it's a large unit, I figured two is better than one), but then I started wondering about the internal air circulation (since there's a shelf in the middle, it might block most of the circulation from bottom to top). So now I'm thinking instead I might just have to put an in and out on each shelf, and create my own horizontal air currents by the power of the fans. --Maelwys 13:32, 7 December 2006 (UTC)

If you want to use a cheap power supply to run your cabinet fans, I don't think that will be a problem - they can be turned on by shorting two wires (take a look at this, someone built a cabinet for games consoles and put fans in. Not what you're looking for, but can give you some tips). I don't see any problem running a power supply 'by itself', just make sure it's not too noisy and that it doesn't vacuum up huge amounts of lint from the carpet. It sounds to me like your solution is a good one, just make sure your fans are reasonably quiet, and perhaps a transformer rather than a PSU might be a better solution for powering them. — QuantumEleven 08:51, 7 December 2006 (UTC)

Wow, that's exactly what I was planning! Very cool, thanks for the wiring info. And also the transformer tip, I hadn't even considered that there might be such a thing as a transformer with a molex output cable until you suggested it, but now I see that they do exist, and are even slightly cheaper than the $20 power supply I was looking to grab. Thanks for all the info. --Maelwys 13:32, 7 December 2006 (UTC)

You don't even need the Molex connector on the transformer, just cut and splice the wires. Either solder them or use twist caps (which you can buy at any hardware store). -anonymous6494 22:28, 7 December 2006 (UTC)

I suspect that the computer desk was made by a furniture manufacturer who has no clue about the cooling requirements of electronic equipment. Decent computer desks frequently have no back at all, to allow for proper air circulation. You might want to remove the back, as long as it doesn't serve a structural purpose. You can also leave the front doors open when in use. Hopefully, these two changes alone would be sufficient, and no additional fans will be required. Also, you didn't mention the material, but computer desks should really be metal, as that acts as a heat sink to conduct heat away from electronic components, while wood and plastic act as a thermal insulators. If you do go with fans (a minimum of one blowing into the cabinet and one out), one counterintuitive aspect is that the air holes should only be as large as the fans, since larger air holes actually reduce the effectiveness of the fans. StuRat 11:29, 8 December 2006 (UTC)

[edit] sudo

How does sudo have permission to execute things as root? Is this something hardcoded into the filesystem, that if sudo wants to do something then let it? --froth^{T C} 21:14, 6 December 2006 (UTC)

See setuid; it is in fact a bit in the filesystem, but it's not specific to sudo. Certain programs run with superuser permissions regardless of who runs them; obviously those programs must then be very careful to do on behalf of a user only things that the user is legitimately authorized to do (as opposed to, say, running arbitrary shell commands for them). sudo achieves this by having a set of rules that allow users to run only certain commands as root; other programs (like, say, passwd) allow the user to do only one specific, approved thing. This allows for a more flexible security system: here, users can't be allowed to arbitrarily write to the password file, but passwd lets them write well-formed data to their record in it. Obviously, it's important to make such blessed programs' internal security policies and code bulletproof, so they tend to be few in number. Such things as Perl's "taint mode" are designed to help in this regard. --Tardis 22:10, 6 December 2006 (UTC)

All right thanks, the bit (as in part, not as in data) about passwd in relation to sudo helped a lot --froth^{T C} 20:09, 8 December 2006 (UTC)

[edit] lightsaber

how do people do the lightsaber effects? what exactly would i need (programs,cameras,etc.)? —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 68.18.46.78 (talk • contribs).

I would do it with GIMP and the lightsabre plugin. It's usually done frame-by-frame. There are some tutorials to do it in Adobe Premiere as well. --Wooty Woot? contribs 00:06, 7 December 2006 (UTC)

There is also this possibility. Simon A. 08:40, 7 December 2006 (UTC)

theforce.net has some tutorial links. –mysid☎ 21:59, 7 December 2006 (UTC)

[edit] cell phone service

which cell phone company gets the best signal? i have t-mobile, but i always lose the signal inside the house. Also, what is a really good and cheap phone? —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 68.18.46.78 (talk • contribs).

Assuming you live in Orlando, check out MetroPCS. It's very cheap and has unlimited minutes; However, it may not have the best coverage in your area (it's decent in mine), and is rather local. So, if you travel a lot, a national-covered service may be better suited for you.

Where do you live? There is no 'one company that gets the best signal', it highly depends on where you live, and where the closest repeater towers are. The construction of your house also makes a huge difference. — QuantumEleven 08:45, 7 December 2006 (UTC)

Yes it's highly dependent on your area. There's a Verizon repeater tower only a couple of miles from my university so verizon has by far the best reception. Also many computer speakers will interfere with Nextel phones, so there are some other environmental effects to watch out for too --froth^{T C} 20:22, 8 December 2006 (UTC)