Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Computing/2006 November 25

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[edit] November 25

[edit] Mp3 player

Theres an Mp3 player going for 50$ canadian at walmart, it is a Diamond Vision or something, it says it has 2gb flash memory. Is this worth it? Is there anything bad about Flash memory on a mp3 player

Flash memory is more reliable than a hard disk because of the lack of moving parts. The disadvantage is the smaller memory size (2gig vs 60gig?). You found a 2gig for $50? I bought a Creative Zen V 1gig for about $100can. (I am quite happy with it.) - Rainwarrior 06:41, 25 November 2006 (UTC)

It's a big sale today at walmart, I'm just wondering if the sound quality and everything would be any good.

Well, sound quality probably won't have anything to do with whether it's flash or hard-disk. - Rainwarrior 06:47, 26 November 2006 (UTC)

You need to Google for reviews of the specific model. Flash memory has nothing to do with audio quality, it's the type of device the music is stored on (flash memory is good, it won't skip and will last longer than the alternative, which is a hard drive.) Pesapluvo 13:28, 26 November 2006 (UTC)

[edit] MyTunes Redux: Library not Registered?

In myTunes redux (NOT Itunes), I am purportedly able to download the songs, but then cannot move them to my Itunes. Help?

You can just go to File -> Add file to Library in iTunes, adding the file from whereever myTunes downloaded it, and it will make it in to iTunes. zafiroblue05 | Talk 20:14, 26 November 2006 (UTC)

[edit] area code

Where is the area code (required in order to set up the modem for Microsoft dialup connection) stored in the registry? Adaptron 04:15, 25 November 2006 (UTC)

I see mine in HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Telephony\Locations. Within that key, it appears there are 0 to N keys representing each of the locations. If you set up just one location, the key will be Location1. The area code itself is in a String value titled, appropriately, AreaCode within the location key. So, in my example, the full path to the area code is HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Telephony\Locations\Location1\AreaCode. HTH - (Nuggetboy) (talk) (contribs) 05:21, 25 November 2006 (UTC)
Is any other local location information avialable such as city or zip code? Adaptron 05:34, 25 November 2006 (UTC)
In this key, it does not appear so. I do not know if geographical/address information is stored elsewhere in the registry. - (Nuggetboy) (talk) (contribs) 06:01, 25 November 2006 (UTC)

[edit] windows movie maker (version 5.1)

hi!!

i have a duo core processor and a RAM of 1GB, even then the movie maker gets hung every time i use it gets hung, is it a some fault in the setting, or is it a prgraming bug, please answer quickly because i am in deep trouble. thank you

Hung programs are difficult to advise about. The general info would be:
  1. Make sure the file you are working with is readable and intact. Check whether this happens with all files you try to edit with WMM (does your machine hang no matter what the file is?). If it always hangs, then your WMM setup is likely corrupted. If it happens only with the "deep trouble" file, you are indeed there-in.
  2. If WMM always hangs, then the only reasonable suggestion is to uninstall and then re-install WMM, and hope that it picks up all the correct settings.
Incidentally, your WMM should be 2.1. The 5.1 probably refers to your Windows version. Seejyb 15:06, 25 November 2006 (UTC)

[edit] GOOGLE EARTH :)

just wondering about google earth (non "plus" version). I imagain that new satellite imageing is taking place all the time and google earth is getting it for the program, so how, if you can, can you update your google earth on your computer to 'get' this new imaging???

thx, --84.69.109.35 11:15, 25 November 2006 (UTC)

The Google Earth download itself is just playback software, receiving the actual image data from Google when you look at an area. The program also checks each time you're looking at that area to see if it should download a new version of the image data, so you do not need to worry about it. You can disable the local data cache in Google Earth to force continual updates, but that will slow down Google Earth and abuses Google's free service. Droud 14:19, 25 November 2006 (UTC)

[edit] My case fan is dead..

..in the BIOS configurator I read Chassis Fan: N/A and.. when I shut down, sometimes the PC switches to stand-by instead!! The CPU fan works and the MOBO thermosensors don't throw any 'exception'.. It's an Athlon XP 2000 on an Asus A7N266-VM. Incredibly, sometimes when I restart the PC the fan is reborn! Other times, when I switch to Stand-by, the power LED doesn't blink as usual but it remains steadily lit and I hear a strange buzz.. Besides..my hd free space has suddenly decreased in a few days with no explicaion.. it's the virtual mem. swap? does exist a virus which cause sudden lack of space on a HD? Pre-thanks! --Ulisse0 13:31, 25 November 2006 (UTC)

The thing you should be worrying about is the chassis fan not showing up (it's usually not the same as the cpu fan)... --Frenchman113 on wheels! 16:28, 25 November 2006 (UTC)
Yes, I didn't make myself understood, the very chassis fan doesn't work, whilw the pcu fan works. But the maybe the cause is in the MOBO, since it behaves in a strange way with power controls and leds (ie the keyboard leds sometimes blink after the PC has completely shut down!) --Ulisse0 18:12, 25 November 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Internet Business

What is the difference between the Internet Business and the e-business?

Nothing. They are two different ways of saying the same thing. The 'e' of 'e-business' stands for 'electronic', which tells us that it is Internet-based. RevenDS 15:34, 25 November 2006 (UTC)
Well, there might be a difference, because an Internet Business might be a business that uh, provides services about the Internet, while an e-business might sell physical items using the Internet. --wj32 talk | contribs 08:15, 26 November 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Dvorak translation

I'm looking to understand this Bash quote. The gibberish seems like either it would be Qwerty letter positions on a Dvorak keyboard, or Dvorak letter positions on a Qwerty keyboard, but I'm not sure either way. There were some things when I searched on Google but they're to help people who learnt to use Dvorak type in Qwerty... I think. Either that or I wasn't understadning how to use them. Can anybody help? Vitriol 17:08, 25 November 2006 (UTC)

The Dvorak Simplified Keyboard article has a picture of the keyboard. I am sure you can use it along with your own QWERTY keyboard to figure out what the message says, if you really care about what the message says. (Hint: the first line starts "I did hnot ask for that...") Look at the letters in the message, find where they are on the Dvorak keyboard, find out what that key would be on the QWERTY keyboard. --24.147.86.187 17:39, 25 November 2006 (UTC)
I'm sure my keyboard is in a different layout, because I did not get the N in 'hnot'. I think it's because I have a backslash next to the shift, which [1] doesn't have. While this will be bugging me, I don't think I can make the effort to do it myself. Question's closed, has apathy. Vitriol 21:47, 25 November 2006 (UTC)
UK keyboards have the /| key next to the left shift. I discovered last week that US keyboards have \ above the Enter. --ColinFine 13:05, 26 November 2006 (UTC)
Australian keyboards seem to use the US design. Pesapluvo 13:26, 26 November 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Flippant Request for a pointer towards a Windows XP Desktop Theme Repository

I feel a little guilty asking such a banal question, but I've only just recently upgraded to Windows XP and now that I've installed a Firefox theme it's drawn attention to how ugly my OS is looking.

I'd rather look beyond Microsoft's homegrown ones, but a site I found in Google wanted to install lots of adware along with the themes.

Anyone know of a nice, charitable, hassle free site of gorgeous visuals? Any help much appreciated. --bodnotbod 19:48, 25 November 2006 (UTC)

Try http://www.wincustomize.com Harryboyles 03:10, 26 November 2006 (UTC)
To not use any other programs and to use themes, you will have to patch the uxtheme.dll file in Windows. The DLL has a security check to make sure themes come from Microsoft, so search Google for "Neowin UX theme" or something to find the patch. --wj32 talk | contribs 08:13, 26 November 2006 (UTC)

[edit] One-way BitTorrent?

Is it possible to turn off uploading in BitTorrent and keep downloading, in order to stay within Canadian copyright law? NeonMerlin 22:33, 25 November 2006 (UTC)

The BitTorrent protocol is designed to "starve" such leechers, and in ordinary circumstances if you manage to block the outgoing traffic you get little incoming traffic. There are some programs, I believe, which fake outgoing traffic (presumably with simulated errors or something). -- Finlay McWalter | Talk 22:44, 25 November 2006 (UTC)

Try setting your max upload to 0kb/s. It'll download quite a bit slower but it works. Hope I don't see you on any torrents I'm downloading. --frothT C 02:02, 26 November 2006 (UTC)

What clients will do this? Mainline will only go down to 4kB/s. NeonMerlin 02:06, 26 November 2006 (UTC)
What are you downloading that you can't upload according to Canadian copyright law? If you think downloading copyrighted material is not against the law in Canada I think you've misinterpreted the law. Vespine 22:29, 26 November 2006 (UTC)
From File_sharing_in_Canada#2003:_Copyright_Board_of_Canada_and_P2P_filesharing: "In its decision, the Copyright Board ruled that downloading of copyrighted material online was legal irrespective of the source of that material." NeonMerlin 19:47, 27 November 2006 (UTC)
That's correct, in most places it's serious uploaders who are prosecuted, and downloaders are generally left alone. Unfortunately as has been pointed out, Bittorrent only really works if you upload as much as you download. Otherwise you get starved out. Sockatume 16:24, 28 November 2006 (UTC)
Right, but I still think I could be enough of a contributor to get a half-decent download speed, uploading just the legal parts of the two torrents I'm running now. NeonMerlin 03:53, 29 November 2006 (UTC)
I don't know about Bittorrent, not using that particular app/protocol, but could you "fool" it. I'm thinking about having 2 PCs (each with bittorrent application), with a router using NAT for outbound traffic, and port forwarding so any incomming bittorrent connections went to the PC with the "safe" content on (could even do this with one PC running 3 instances of an operating system using virtualisation - one doing the routing, one for each Bittorrent application)? This would only work if the bittorrent apps on other computers only identify you by IP address though. Davidprior 23:35, 30 November 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Linux: OpenSSL command to add/remove passwords from private keys

Is there a simple set of parameters I can pass to openssl to add/remove passwords from private keys? I'd like to copy all my keypairs (with empty passphrases) on a keychain USB drive and have them password protected while they're there. Then if I need them, I can copy them back to the original server and remove the passphrase for convenience. Thanks. --Silvaran 23:30, 25 November 2006 (UTC)