Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Computing/2006 December 23

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Computing desk
< December 21 << Nov | December | Jan >> December 24 >
Welcome to the Wikipedia Computing Reference Desk Archives
The page you are currently viewing is a transcluded 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


[edit] December 23

[edit] Decompile Microsoft Code For Interoperability

I read that the way NTFS works is a guarded trade secret of microsoft, preventing reliable read/write access to NTFS-formatted partitions. Why can decompiling microsoft code not be used to make Linux read and write to NTFS partitions? --Username132 (talk) 00:35, 23 December 2006 (UTC)

Linux can do what you ask. See linux-ntfs.org for use, features and problems. --Seejyb 01:51, 23 December 2006 (UTC)
Decompilation is very difficult. It takes a lot of analysis from computers and humans to figure out the structure of the source code. The NTFS driver is very large and complex, and there isn't enough people working on an open-source NTFS driver to do that. Also, decompilation is of questionable legality. --Spoon! 02:51, 23 December 2006 (UTC)
Yes , I was referring to disk read and write, not decompiling. Sorry about the lack of clarity. --Seejyb 09:33, 23 December 2006 (UTC)

[edit] FTP website

I'm using IE 7. Whenever I use a FTP website, IE keeps prompting me for the password even though I have repeatedly entered it. It says "Could not login to the FTP server with the user name and password specified". I enter the correct user name and password and it still prompts me with the same message and asks for me to reenter the information. Why is this? --The Dark Side 03:36, 23 December 2006 (UTC)

the probablity is the user name or password is wrong.probably you can can try the site with firefox or opera or any other browser... but i dont think it has to do anything with browser. Iamsandeep 03:58, 23 December 2006 (UTC)
Try going to the site using the following syntax:
ftp://username:password@address:port/
username = FTP username
password = FTP password
address = URL or IP address of FTP server (e.g. ftp.example.com or 65.50.240.3)
port = FTP server's access port (usually 21)
For example: ftp://bob:mypassword@ftp.example.com:21/
RevenDS 14:18, 23 December 2006 (UTC)
I thought windows did FTP through Network Places, not Internet Explorer. But try using a real FTP client like FireFTP --frothT C 18:42, 23 December 2006 (UTC)
Or FileZilla (which does not require Firefox) or countless others. They'll likely give you a more useful message than IE is. It's possible that there is a different reason that the FTP server is denying you access, but IE won't display it. -- Consumed Crustacean (talk) 02:18, 24 December 2006 (UTC)

Command Line Trouble Shooting: Try using the text based command ftp. To execute, open a command window

START->Run (a dialog window should open, titled 'Run')
type ftp in the 'Open' dialog box, press the OK button
an ftp.exe window should open with the 'ftp>' prompt displayed
   In the ftp window, type: open ftp.domainname.com ,then press enter
   you should be prompted to enter your username, type it and press enter
   then you should be prompted to enter your password, type it and press enter.
   It should display any errors (like login failed, etc)

An Example follows

ftp> open ftp.microsoft.com

Connected to ftp.microsoft.com.

220 Microsoft FTP Service

User (ftp.microsoft.com:(none)): test

331 Password required for test.

Password:

530 User test cannot log in.

Login failed.

ftp>

There is always the chance that the FTP server deliberately tries to thwart IE clients. I don't know about IE 7, but I remember back in the 6SP1 days IE was a really poor FTP client in many ways. Anyway, I suggest using the basic commandline FTP to see if that works. 68.39.174.238 19:47, 29 December 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Countdown Circuit

I would like a circuit that when switched on, randomly chooses a time between 20 minutes and an hour and then counts down that time before triggering an "event". How can I achueve this? --Username132 (talk) 05:41, 23 December 2006 (UTC)

Well, how do you want to program it. I'm OK in Python, so if you wanted it in that language, I could give it a shot for you. But otherwise, I don't understand what you're asking for. → JARED (t)  04:06, 24 December 2006 (UTC)
Since he said circuit, I suspect programming isn't the answer. - CHAIRBOY (☎) 21:12, 24 December 2006 (UTC)
It depends. If you plan on building many of these and or have space constraints, then a new circuit would be appropriate, but if you have a specific or one time use, you may be able to use something pre-made from the store, like an appliance timer. - CHAIRBOY (☎) 21:12, 24 December 2006 (UTC)
I see several easy approaches to this problem. Depending upon how your circuit is going to be used, you might try:
  1. (No one suggested this, but let me mention it if only to discard it.) Flip-flops of a given family, while they theoretically power up in a random condition, tend to all fall one way or the other, so that isn't a sufficient solution.
  2. Have a high speed timer that is continuously counting. When the user presses the "Start" button, the current value of the counter (which is relatively random) is transferred to the slow-speed counter that does the actual timing. This would be simple to build and very reliable. For extra credit, make the "preload" logic not an ordinary counter but a pseudorandom binary sequence generator.
  3. Implement the main counter as a two-speed counter. While the "start" button is depressed, count extremely fast (so that it cycles through several times during even a brief press of the button). When the button is released, count normally. This would also be simpler to implement than alternative (1) but wouldn't be quite as random.
  4. Implement a white noise source. When the user presses the start button, count really fast until the white noise source reaches some threshold voltage, then switch to ordinary counting. This would be really random, but technically the most challenging as it would requires some analog stuff as well as the digital electronics.
Obviously, all these approaches need some slight adaptation to meet your "20-to-60 minutes" constraint.
Atlant 16:44, 26 December 2006 (UTC)
You could implement a simple solid state counter by charging a capacitor through a resistor, where you could change the delay by varying the resistance, possible with the flip flop idea above. The idea would be to continuously cycle the flip-flops (using a very small amount of power) so that the randomness comes from which resistor is active when you trigger the timing circuit. I remember seeing binary flip-flops used in an educational circuit that answered yes/no to questions (sort of a magic eight ball), but I can't find a reference. 68.15.208.73 15:29, 27 December 2006 (UTC)
I forgot to mention the switching part of the circuit is implemented with a zener diode switching a triac (which is switching the load). This circuit would not work with AC due to how a triac works. 68.15.208.73 15:33, 27 December 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Final Fantasy VII Linux

Hi. I wonder if other people have successfully run the PC version of Final Fantasy VII on Linux using Wine. If so, are there any tips/secrets to doing so? Or am I not the only have a difficult time with this. (The installer works fine, but when I try to run the game itself it can't find the disk even though it is there, either in the drive or mounted on the loop back) Thanks! Duomillia 18:30, 23 December 2006 (UTC)

This page seems to be what you're looking for. I had enough trouble getting FF7 to work in windows, good luck! :) --frothT C 20:14, 23 December 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Dreamweaver/HTML help

Hi, I'm using Macromedia Dreamweaver and I have a picture in a layer. Is there anyway I can get the text in my body to wrap around the layer, the same way text can wrap around Textboxes in Microsoft Word? Currently, my layer is sitting on top of my text and block the text.

Secondly, I insert a 1 Megabyte 800 x 600 px image into Dreamweaver. I drag the corners and scale it down to 100 x 200 px. But the image is still 1MB (in Photoshop terms, this image is called Smart Object). Is there anyway I can make the file size of the image shrink proportionally as I scale down the image (in photoshop terms, to make it a "Non-Smart Object"). Thanks. Jamesino 00:59, 24 December 2006 (UTC)

Regarding your first problem: Try adding the CSS tag float to the layer, e.g. float: left. That should fix the problem with text not wrapping around the layer. On the second problem, if you talk about Photoshop, why don't you just resize the image in it beforehand? Dreamweaver and other webediting tools don't have the advanced algorythms that a highend graphic editing program like Photoshop has, so a image resized in Photoshop will always look a tad better than one resized in a webeditor or even browser. Hope that solves at least half your problem :D -- Aetherfukz 01:36, 24 December 2006 (UTC)
Oh and I forgot the tutorial that I wanted to link for you further floating pleasure here: [1]. -- Aetherfukz 01:37, 24 December 2006 (UTC)

How do i go about adding the tag float? Do i click my layer and choose float? I tried that, but I didnt seem to work, although i think I may be doing it wrong. My knowledge of HTML/CSS is limited. Jamesino 01:54, 24 December 2006 (UTC)

I don't have too much experience editing in dreamweaver as I prefer coding my sited by hand, and I don't have it installed on my current system so I cannot give you detailed instructions. If there is a float option in the layer box, it should work. Float has 3 different options itself: left, right and none (default). So maybe the float option in dreamweaver, when clicked, just added the default (which is no text-wrap) - is there any option besides the float entry marked left/right or something?
If that doesn't work, try switching to the code viewer in dreamweaver, and search for the title of your layer (it should look akin to <div id="your-layer-name"> or <div name="your-layer-name">), there will already be entries like position:absolute; top:50px; left:10px; or something like that. Just add the float:left; or float:right; manually to those layer options.
But as dreamweaver is a relativly highend webdesign application, you shouldn't have to use coding for such a simply entry, and the float option you tried should work usually (if you specify left or right that is). Aetherfukz 02:08, 24 December 2006 (UTC)
Oh ok, thank you very much =) Jamesino 02:58, 24 December 2006 (UTC)
The problem with the image is that Dreamweaver is not re-sampling it. After you know the size of the thumbnail image (in Dreamweaver) that you want, go into Photoshop, go to Image > Size, and have it re-sample it to that smaller size, and save it as a new file and link to that from Dreamweaver instead. It will be much smaller. --24.147.86.187 14:41, 27 December 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Ripping video from NASA

Here is located a video which I would like to view. Seems good, but it's in a HD format that my computer doesn't like too much (i.e. the video plays slowly and is segmented). What I would like to do is somehow get the 1080i launch video of STS-116 from the website to a CD and be able to play it on my DVD player connected to the TV. Now, I know that there is probably format converting issues I'd have to deal with, but I'll deal with that later.... If someone could give me all the steps to doing the whole process, I'd really appreciate it! → JARED (t)  04:04, 24 December 2006 (UTC)

READFAG (Read ErMaC and AbsoluteDestiny's Friendly Amv Guides) - the most complete and comprehensive guide to all things video and audio I have ever seen (for free) on the internet: [2]. -- Aetherfukz 05:09, 24 December 2006 (UTC)
doom9 is excellent as well. 68.15.208.73 15:34, 27 December 2006 (UTC)
The biggest issue at the moment is what sort of files your DVD player will play from a CD. Once you know that, it would be pretty easy to convert the file and just burn it to a CD-R. The steps are: 1. figure out what format it should be in, 2. download the file and convert it, 3. burn it to a CD-R, 4. insert into DVD player, 5. enjoy. If your DVD player does not play files from a CD, you will have to burn it to a DVD, which will require DVD burning/ripping software (and I don't know if it will do the HD stuff correctly). --24.147.86.187 14:37, 27 December 2006 (UTC)


All right, great, but how do I get the file from the computer to my hard drive? It's just a link at the moment. → JARED (t)  21:02, 27 December 2006 (UTC)