Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Computing/2006 October 28

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Computing desk
< October 27 << Sep | October | Nov >> October 29 >
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


[edit] October 28

[edit] ASP date function

I have a site where I need to put a weekly date range in, IE prices effective Oct. 25 - Oct. 31, 2006 (Wednesday through Tuesday of each week). The site is a .asp extension, anyone know of an easy way to pull this off? either in ASP or JavaScript would be great. Hadiz 04:54, 28 October 2006 (UTC)

I'm not sure exactly what do you mean. Here are the ASP date functions. That should help you with anything involving the need to get a current date. If you need any help with programming logic try to clarify the question. —Mitaphane talk 18:09, 28 October 2006 (UTC)
Simple, don't use asp, ever --frothT C 19:06, 28 October 2006 (UTC)
Sorry, let me try to clarify. Picture a weekly store ad, where prices are good from one week, usually a Thursday through the following Wednesday. So every week, I need it to change to say "Prices effective (current month) (Wednesday's date) - (current month) (the following Tuesday's date)" or in the case of this week, it would read "Prices effective Nov. 1 - Nov. 7" Hopefully that make more sense. And froth: unfortunately the pages I'm working with are done in ASP, and I can't change them. However if it would be easier to accomplish in JavaScript, then I'm all ears because I can certainly squeeze that in there.Hadiz 14:51, 30 October 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Labtec Wireless Keyboard

I recently acquired a Labtec Wireless Keyboard and am having a great deal of trouble with it.

It works fine in word-processing software, but when I try to use it on the internet strange things start happening. The longer the computer is on the worse the problem becomes. I can’t reach tech support on the telephone, so I was hoping someone on Wikipedia’s reference desk could help me. Some of what it’s doing include:

  1. Launching Windows Media Player at random intervals
  2. When I push Shift to type a capital letter it inserts a d or a j or a d and a j before and after the letter I want capital
  3. It likes the number 7. A lot. Whenever I try to type any number it puts a 7. It also inserts 7s in random places in words when my fingers aren’t anywhere near the number keys.
  4. It jumps from one line to another randomly. I’ll be typing and all of a sudden I’m on the line below or above.

I’m running Windows 98 and Internet Explorer 6.0 66.72.65.164 01:53, 28 October 2006 (UTC)

Does it happen every time? I'd think the keyboard was broken or dirty, but you say it works elsewhere. I've had some random keyboard issues too (Firefox though) where it would put my letters in a random sequence order no matter what order I typed them in. Hmm... I probably should tell you to download Mozilla Firefox since we're on the computing reference desk. In this case it will maybe solve your symptoms, although IE will still be broken. =/ Hyenaste (tell) 02:46, 28 October 2006 (UTC)
Two ideas spring to mind: interference from other sources, or your keyboard may be too far away from the receiving device. Do the problems persist if you move the keyboard close to the receiving device? Dysprosia 06:40, 28 October 2006 (UTC)
Actually, it seems to be worse when it is closer to the receiving device. If I take it off the keyboard tray and go to the couch (about 2 feet away) it's a little better. But if I go further away then the couch it doesn't work at all (presumably because it's then too far away). The instructions say that the recieving device should be at least 20 centimeters from any electronic devices including the keyboard and mouse. It might be too close to the monitor; there's just not room on the desk to get it much further away from the monitor then 15 centimeters. But if that's the problem then why does it work fine in word processing programs? That may be it though... I just moved it (the recieving device) to the floor, and as long as the desk doesn't break the line of sight between it and the keyboard it's working now... don't want to step on it though... Maybe it is interference from the monitor. We'll see if it keeps working. Thank you! 66.72.65.164 15:25, 28 October 2006 (UTC)

Hi I also have an issue with labtec wireless keyboard, this happens sometimes though, the keyboard omits letters when im typing, and I have to go back and insert the letters.

Things I tried to fix this is:-

-move the receiver/transmitter cables away from any power cords -click on the connect button on the rec/tran to try and synch it properly

So far I'm not sure what causes it, It seems like interference from RF somewhere.

[edit] Mouse slowdown/speedup problem

Whenever I want to move files to a new folder in Windows XP after installing a wireless optical mouse at certain times the cursor begins to slow down and then overshoot making it very difficult to use. I assume this is due to the amount or location of memory Windows uses to handle the list of files to be moved such that it reduces the memory available for the mouse buffer. How can I allocate more memory for both the mouse and for the list of files Windows is about to copy or otherwise keep this slowdown/speedup response from happening? Adaptron 04:41, 28 October 2006 (UTC)

I don't think this is a memory issue. When you're moving your mouse around you are causing interrupts to happen in the computer. The OS then handles the interrupt and goes back to what it is doing. In this case, the mouse interrupt sends information about the position change and the OS updates the cursor position based on that change. When you're moving files around you're performing disk operations. Reading and writing information to and from the hard disk and memory also cause interrupts. These interrupts are also more time consuming because disk accessing is in the order of milliseconds(as opposed to nanoseconds for memory).I'm guessing that because disk operations/memory operation interrupts have priority over peripheral interrupts, that the OS polls your mouse less when disk intensive operations are being performed. Whether there's a way to put a higher priority on mouse interrupts I am not sure of. Are these tasks performed so often that it's a hinderance to you? On the few times it happens to me, it doesn't last that long and isn't much of an issue. —Mitaphane talk 17:59, 28 October 2006 (UTC)
This only happens with a wireless mouse. A wire mouse is fine. Since it is probably taking longer to send the changes in position by wireless the transfer could be getting interupted by Windows file routines. The thing is that it only happens when I select the files to be cut, copied or pasted. It is after selection and then going for the next action when the mouse pointer woun't move and will then jump. Highlighting the files seems to cause the problem - not the actual transfer or copying. It is in trying to move the pointer to the action selection tag that the mouse pointer slows down and then trys to catch up but goes way past the action selection location you are seeking. To overcome this you have to move the pointer in very few and tiny increments or you will overshoot go outside and loose the box. Adaptron 03:07, 29 October 2006 (UTC)

[edit] My PC rejects my new HDD

I have a HP Pavilion 743a, and I recently bought a Seagate 250GB IDE HDD. I installed it tonight with no problems... but it's not showing up in POST or in Windows. My main 80GB HDD is the Master, which WinXP is installed on. My new HDD is on the same IDE ribbon as Slave. The jumper is set to Cable Select. Does anyone know what could be wrong? Lavalys says my motherboard is MSI 845GEM / 845GLMS / 845GVM / 845GVM-V / MS-6526G(L) (3 PCI, 2 DIMM, Audio, Video). Thanks. (EDIT: After rebooting, Windows displays the hard drive, but only as 4800MB.)

A 250GB IDE HDD needs 48-bit LBA (see Integrated Drive Electronics for the reason). A 80GB IDE HDD doesn't. That is probably the relevant difference between both HDDs. --cesarb 15:46, 28 October 2006 (UTC)

So how can I give it a 48-bit LBA? I hope it doesn't require a floppy disk, as I removed it to fit the HDD in!

First, your computer must support 48-bit addressing. If not, I believe Seagate has software (which probably came with the hard disk) which will allow you to use the first 132 Mb or so, which is the best it can do without 48-bit addressing. If this is the case, you might want to return it, if you still can, and buy a cheaper, smaller hard disk. StuRat 04:49, 29 October 2006 (UTC)
I would say, make sure either both jumpers are on Cable Select, or explicitly set one to master and one to slave. Also, if you are using a newer hard drive, make sure you are using a 40 pin 80 wire connector. --WhiteDragon 21:14, 3 November 2006 (UTC)

[edit] JavaScript - processing long scripts

If you run a script written in JavaScript that takes "too long" to load in Internet Explorer or Mozilla Firefox, you get an error complaining that the script is taking too long to load, and gives you an option to terminate. I also think that this message appears several times if you choose no (to make sure, perhaps?) after a certain amount of time.

Is there a way to disable this? I want to let JavaScript run a very long script (of the order of 100,000 repetitions) and display the contents, perhaps overnight. And I don't want to wake up and hit "No" every few minutes.

In case you are wondering why I am using JavaScript to do this, it's because I don't have access to any other languages that I know of, and their compilers/writers/etc. x42bn6 Talk 16:45, 28 October 2006 (UTC)

You don't have notepad and internet access? You do? Oh, then you have access to other languages. You can use gcc for C, and you can go to Sun Java and get JDK 6 beta 2, the file "jdk-6-beta2-windows-i586.exe". Edit the code in notepad, or any simple text editor that doesn't add a bunch of stuff (don't use Word). There are free editors too, I'm sure, but I don't use them, so I can't point you to those unless you specifically wanted it. However, if you're adamant on using JScript, there might be options to turn off all debugging for javascript, but I personally never ran a script that long. --Wirbelwindヴィルヴェルヴィント (talk) 17:05, 28 October 2006 (UTC)
Apparently he doesn't know how to program in those languages. I would recommend that you install apache and php on your machine (php isn't too hard to integrate into apache, though you'll probably run into trouble setting up mysql if you've never done it). Learn php, it's not too hard. I once had a similar problem, with very long execution time. My script ended up taking more than a week to finish (100000 page requests, and process each one). You have to set a line in httpd.conf to make the max execution time longer than the 15 minutes or so it's set as. --frothT C 19:05, 28 October 2006 (UTC)
Yes, I don't know how to program in C (or C++), and my Java knowledge is limited to defining classes and nothing else. But it seems like an awful lot of work to install Apache and PHP just for this task... Is there anything in Firefox (in about:config) or Internet Explorer (a registry entry, perhaps?) or even a new browser that can process this? x42bn6 Talk 22:01, 28 October 2006 (UTC)
I hesitate to provide this, because I think it's a bit like showing kids how to stuff beans in their ears — not a wise thing to do. The option you want is called "dom.max_script_run_time", and this mozillaZine article describes it. What I would recommend instead is that you tell us something about the nature of the task, and we suggest an appropriate free programming language that is easy to use. --KSmrqT 22:35, 28 October 2006 (UTC)
I would have to agree. It's not very hard to get javascript code running in C or Java, since they are all similar languages, unless you're doing something specifically designed to be done by javascript. --Wirbelwindヴィルヴェルヴィント (talk) 22:43, 28 October 2006 (UTC)
It's a football game. I don't have a licensed copy of C (or C++) anyway and I am hesitant to install the J2SDK on my computer because my former working partner had blue screen issues with it. I am willing to install it, though, if I can be guaranteed it has no issues, for I learn Java later during my University year. I am planning to have 8 countries, with 6 tiers within each tier, and 20 teams in each. I plan to have on average 55 players per team (16 for 1st team, 16 for reserves, and 16 for youth squads), giving me about 6600 players for a single country alone. I then have to put the players into teams. I have lists of first and last names already, and a list of major towns and cities of this country (England). All this will be random, partially because I don't have the type of money EA has. x42bn6 Talk 12:50, 29 October 2006 (UTC)
GCC is a free command-line compiler for C++ (which I linked above). I can't guarantee you that anything wont bluescreen, but if you aren't going to learn Java for awhile and know C, I would look into GCC.
Beyond the compiler, you also don't know how to use C++ or Java? I can help you there too, since I know javascript, C/C++, and Java. --Wirbelwindヴィルヴェルヴィント (talk) 15:40, 29 October 2006 (UTC)
It's alright, I can learn in my own time. I'll do the dom.max_script_run_time "unfix", I think, and I will change it back later. Perhaps you might see this game somewhere later, floating around aimlessly on the Internet... But anyway, my C++ knowledge is restricted to importing stuff, and my Java knowledge mostly based off JavaScript. x42bn6 Talk 20:41, 30 October 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Meebo

I have a Meebo account and belong to another wiki as well as wikipedia at [armchairgm.com] and have posted meebo on my user page there at [armchairgm.com/User:False Prophet]. I tried both meebo's code and the code I've used on the other wiki, and neither work. My question is can I post Meebo on my talk page, and if so how? Wikipedia's False Prophet holla at me Improve Me 23:28, 28 October 2006 (UTC)

You mean, the actual client? No, the Wikipedia doesn't support embedding of scripts or plugin objects or whatnot. -- Consumed Crustacean (talk) 04:58, 29 October 2006 (UTC)
Hi :-)

I had a look at your user page on ArmchairGM ([[1]], isn't it?) and you've used HTML to add the Meebo Me box. Wikipedia doesn't support using HTML in pages, so you can't really do it. Sorry! Perhaps you could put a link on your Wikipedia userpage, to a webpage where you've got the Meebo Me code embedded? --Saxsux 18:46, 30 October 2006 (UTC)