Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Computing/2007 April 1

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[edit] April 1

[edit] Clear browser cache from JavaScript

For the Wikipedia in-browser editor wikEd I am looking for a an automatic updating mechanism. Since MediaWiki user scrips are updated by flushing the browser cache, my question is: Is it possible to clear the browser's cache from within a JavaScript (this is different from clearing the Wikipedia server page cache). Cacycle 03:18, 1 April 2007 (UTC)

I highly doubt it, since it would be a potential security risk. Even if it wasn't, people would probably not appreciate if any web page could clear their browser cache at will. One solution could be writing a browser extension to do it. --Nitku 12:25, 1 April 2007 (UTC)
(Re-)loading a script while bypassing the browser's cache would do the same - this does not look like a security risk. Cacycle 13:30, 1 April 2007 (UTC)
I have figured it out: window.location.reload(true); does the job, it is fully equivalent to Shift-Reload. Cacycle 02:02, 4 April 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Looking for a GIF animator

A lot of times I try to make stop motion videos with my digital camera. I was wondering if anyone knows of an GIF animator I could use that will automatically process each JPEG, instead of most programs I find where I have to select them one by one. Thanks in advance.

QWERTY | Dvorak 05:33, 1 April 2007 (UTC)

mplayer/MEncoder accepts lists of images as input. -- Diletante 16:51, 1 April 2007 (UTC)
Commercial programs like Adobe Fireworks or Adobe Imageready do this too. --24.249.108.133 17:10, 5 April 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Multicolor Fill Effects Gone in Powerpoint 2007

I'm using Powerpoint 2007 for the first time, and unless it's just me, I can't seem to find how to use more than one color for a slide background. The fill box only seems to accept one color. --TeckWiz ParlateContribs@ 17:36, 1 April 2007 (UTC)


I'm using PowerPoint 2000. I would right-click on the slide. Click Background. A window should appear. Click on the arrow below the "background-fill box". Click "Fill Effects." In the "Colors" section, check the circle that says "Two Colors". Then, select the shading style you wish. Once you've selected the shading style you want, click OK. You should be back to your original Background window. Click the "Apply" or "Apply to All" button. Now, you should have a multicolor fill effect slide. I hope this helps. Mayfare 19:16, 1 April 2007 (UTC)

Office 2007 though is highly different (apparently) from earlier versions (at least according to the press). I'm not sure that will apply. (The 2007 "improvements" sound awful to me.) --24.147.86.187 23:23, 1 April 2007 (UTC)
Yes. I know how to do it in previous versions. I think in 2007 it was replaced by "gradients". I thought the previous way was easier but the rest of Powerpoint is actually good compared to older versions (no new custom animations though). --TeckWiz ParlateContribs@ 00:05, 2 April 2007 (UTC)

[edit] HP Deskjet 3420 Printer

Whenever I print an image, the printer is unusually slow. Eventually, it stops printing. My printer connections are correctly and securely connected. This hasn't been the first time it happened. It's been a week. Thanks very much for responding. Mayfare 19:09, 1 April 2007 (UTC)

Is your computer fairly old? If you are running on a older computer, or are using a older connection (serial, USB 1.0, etc.) you may not have proper data flow. Scepia 23:33, 1 April 2007 (UTC)
Thanks for your advice. However, a couple of years ago, I had the same printer and the same "old" computer; it printed images fine. Mayfare 02:00, 2 April 2007 (UTC)
You might need to check the drivers. Splintercellguy 04:11, 2 April 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Task manager

Is there a way to configure the Windows XP task manager not to run certain programs? —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 71.100.167.232 (talk) 19:34, 1 April 2007 (UTC).

Can you clarify? Are you talking about disabling programs from automatically starting on when Windows is booted, or are you talking about preventing a program from ever running (even if a user gives the command to run it)? If it is the later, you can use msconfig to disable autostart programs and window services. —Mitaphane ?|! 19:49, 1 April 2007 (UTC)
I'm talking about application programs whether the attempt to run them is manual or automatic at startup or later on - similar to the way you can block access to any web site by placing its URL in the restricted site list. Nebraska bob 20:10, 1 April 2007 (UTC)
You can change the programs which run when windows starts up with MSConfig. Go to Start -> run -> msconfig -> Click the "Startup" tab at the top -> Untick everything you don't want to run. You can also change services that run in the Services tab. Do not change anything in SYSTEM.INI, BOOT.INI or WIN.INI unless you know what you're doing. JoshHolloway 12:02, 2 April 2007 (UTC)

[edit] ATA-48 / Solaris 10 / Sun Blade 100

Do I need hardware support for (P)ATA-48 (> 137 GB) hard drives. And more specifically can I install such drives in my Sun Blade 100 running Solaris 10? —Ruud 22:45, 1 April 2007 (UTC)

You need software support, both in the firmware and on the operating system. --cesarb 00:57, 2 April 2007 (UTC)

[edit] life's little frustrations

Who thought it was a good idea for commands like more, emacs, and less to clear the screen when they exit, so that you can't make any use of anything you might just have been looking at (such as a man page)? What do other people do about this insane annoyance? (I do know how to fix it -- create a custom termcap entry without the "reset terminal" sequence in the "exit visual mode" string -- but it's a nuisance and somewhat problematic.) —Steve Summit (talk) 23:10, 1 April 2007 (UTC)

The first part of your question (who thought it was a good idea) is too hard for me. If you're using xterm, there is another way to get rid of the effect without editing termcap and terminfo by hand. Add "XTerm*titeInhibit: true" to your .Xresources or .Xdefaults to make it do the termcap/terminfo mangling automatically. If you use a different terminal emulator and it doesn't have an equivalent option, you can at least get less to behave properly by putting LESS=-X in your environment. --tcsetattr (talk / contribs) 06:58, 2 April 2007 (UTC)
Curious. On Solaris, more/less doesn't clear the screen upon either a "q" exit or upon its exit after displaying the entire file. (And no, I have no alias covering either command.) Nor does vi (and I don't recall what emacs does).
Atlant 11:46, 2 April 2007 (UTC)
Yes that behavior is very annoying. Since these days I am always in X I usually just open a new terminal window. Would there be other, unwanted side-effects with the termcap solution? -- Diletante 14:34, 2 April 2007 (UTC)
I open a new terminal window if I'm in X, or just switch sessions if I'm in the terminal (alt and they f-keys I believe)
Koriar 17:30, 2 April 2007 (UTC)

And a different behaviour again from an old version of Linux - more does not clear the screen at the end, and less does.

There is an option -d, to make less dumb, so it does not clear the screen. Do less -d filename. Or you can do

LESS="-d";export LESS

to set the default option to dumb for use in less or man outputs. Then you do not have to add in -d on each use of less. GB 00:48, 3 April 2007 (UTC)

  • Thanks for the tips. I didn't know about that titeInhibit attribute. (I was going to launch into a long rant on the folly of redefining the effect of an annoying escape sequence, as opposed to just not using the annoying escape sequence in the first place, but the time has passed...) —Steve Summit (talk) 22:23, 6 April 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Proxies

Is there any program or setup that will prevent proxy servers from being used on forum sites? I know there's hundreds of thousands of them, but I would imagine that there's a way to block a lot of them. --69.144.234.146 00:19, 2 April 2007 (UTC)

You could find a list of open proxies (there is one on Wikipedia - which does not allow open proxy editing - see Category:Open proxies blocked on Wikipedia - but a little bit of Googling shouldn't be too hard) but open proxies are being created all the time, and you do have to remember that for large forums, you risk a lot of collateral damage. When I run my forum, I just block the problematic ones when they appear. As for blocking them, vBulletin I know for sure offers IP blocking. If you own a server, you can block the IPs at the server-level via iptables or a firewall. x42bn6 Talk 02:47, 2 April 2007 (UTC)