Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Computing/2007 April 2

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[edit] April 2

[edit] RAM

I know a guy with a laptop who claims he can use hard drive space as RAM, so he can get like 10GB of RAM. Does anyone know if this is possible? I don't believe him Mix Lord 00:40, 2 April 2007 (UTC)

See virtual memory. --cesarb 00:54, 2 April 2007 (UTC)
Any machine can do that, though physical memory is always better. Splintercellguy 03:19, 2 April 2007 (UTC)
Once upon a time, a quintessentially moronic newbie remark was, "Virtual memory? Coool! Now I can make me a really big RAM disk!" —Steve Summit (talk) 04:51, 2 April 2007 (UTC)
What steve is trying to say in a satirical way is that while you can make a large virtual memory for your computer, hard disks are limited in their speed compared to RAM. RAM has no moving parts, but hard drives require motion, and are therefore limited to the speed at which these parts can move. See the virtual memory article, and hard drive.--Russoc4 15:21, 2 April 2007 (UTC)
Uh, no it's not. Using VM (which uses hard disk space) to create a RAM disk is no different from using a regular hard disk, which is why it's stupid. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 129.78.208.4 (talk) 03:26, 4 April 2007 (UTC).

A DVD, CD, or even diskette can also be used as a "RAM disk", to provide extended memory. Of course, as with hard disks, this makes things run much slower. StuRat 20:37, 2 April 2007 (UTC)

Okay thanksMix Lord 00:12, 3 April 2007 (UTC)
You can't use VM on read-only media, of course, because it wouldn't work.
Yes, quite true. StuRat 15:29, 4 April 2007 (UTC)
Au contraire! You could do demand paging perfectly well out of a file on a read-only disk, and as far as I know this would be exactly what would happen if you were to exec an a.out file (i.e. a Unix executable) in a directory on a mounted CD-ROM filesystem. It's true you couldn't use the "virtual memory" so exposed to create a RAM disk, but hypothetically, you could make a ROM disk (i.e. a read-only filesystem) out of it... —Steve Summit (talk) 02:22, 6 April 2007 (UTC) [P.S. But yes, of course, building a "ROM disk" on top of read-only memory on top of a demand-paged file on a read-only disk would be precisely as pointless as building a RAM disk on top of virtual memory backed by a read/write disk.]

[edit] Allowing DVD player, Video game system, and cable box to run on same TV.

Anyone know how to? Currently the guys that put the cable box in, I didn't have a cable box before, made it so the DVD player would run on Video1, same as before. They set the cable box to component 1, so therefore right now, I can't record TV. Now, I believe that if I plugged out the video game system out of the DVD player (yellow white red jacks), I could allow my DVD/VHS recorder to record the TV, currently I can only play DVD's/VHS's. But then of course I couldn't run the video game system. Can anyone think of a solution? (This is the most accurate topic area I could find, thought it would be better than Miscellaneous.) 71.175.79.130 02:21, 2 April 2007 (UTC)

Does your TV have a TV-out or something like that? If you connect that to your VHS then it can record whatever that's on your TV. --antilivedT | C | G 08:01, 2 April 2007 (UTC)
OK I figured it out, but do you know if plugging in your cable box composite cables into your DVD player, then plugging av cables into your television distorts the HD picture? Also, before doing this my HD was coming in full screen, but now comes in wide screen. I mean I compared the HD and standard and the HD seems better, but do you know if it distorts it at all? 71.175.79.130 17:08, 2 April 2007 (UTC)
That is bad as you basically wasted your component connection, which means you now cannot get HD signals into your TV. I haven't tinker with the VHS/DVD combo players too much but I doubt any of them can relay component video without lost (assuming that you use component both from yoru cable box to your VHS/DVD and from there to your TV). --antilivedT | C | G 06:24, 3 April 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Cable Question

i am trying to get high speed cable internet in my home however i have two cables to the outside of my house. on the outside layer of one cable it says CATV on the other it says digital satellite which was iniatialy connected to a DISH network dish but was disconnected which one of the cables would work?--logger 03:37, 2 April 2007 (UTC)

Unless things are drastically different where you are as compared to every place that I've lived, you would not have to hook up your own cable internet. Your cable company or your ISP would normally do the outside work for you and then you would hook up the modem, router, etc. yourself from a cable jack inside your house. Or am I misunderstanding what you're doing? Dismas|(talk) 03:41, 2 April 2007 (UTC)

i am trying to use comcast to do the intenet they appear to have service in my area because i see CATV cables in my house. what i want to know is if the CATV cable would work without the need of a professional.--logger 03:46, 2 April 2007 (UTC)

Assuming you've already signed up for their services and it's all setup, all you have to do is hook the cable modem to the jack. Splintercellguy 04:11, 2 April 2007 (UTC)

should be getting the stuff this week has not yet shipped but should ship soon.--logger 04:34, 2 April 2007 (UTC)

Cable modems require a high-quality (broadband) coaxial cable line; when we had one installed, the Cable Guy pulled in a new line that extended from the pole to their splitter in our basement and thence on to the cable modem itself (that we provided). They also put in a trap, downstream of which we connected the rest of the house's older CATV wiring. They advised us that putting any clunky old (e.g., RG-59) cable in the way of the modem would probably cause it to not work so well.
Atlant 14:54, 2 April 2007 (UTC)
When ours was run, they also had to turn up the signal at the main line. It was too weak and we weren't getting synced on the cable modem. I helped it out further by removing the splitters in the crawlspace that were being used as end-to-end connectors and replacing it all with one long cable. --Kainaw (talk) 20:49, 2 April 2007 (UTC)

[edit] what is

that little image in the left hand side of the web address bar called? (on wikipedia it's a 'W')--HoneymaneHeghlu meH QaQ jajvam 04:34, 2 April 2007 (UTC)

I call it a favicon. —Steve Summit (talk) 04:49, 2 April 2007 (UTC)
That's because it is a favicon. --Russoc4 15:19, 2 April 2007 (UTC)
Aha! Good to know. :-) —Steve Summit (talk) 16:00, 2 April 2007 (UTC)

[edit] XP and available RAM

What is the miniumum actual ram (not recommended values etc) I would need to run XP home on my old computer? O yes, and why?--SlipperyHippo 15:24, 2 April 2007 (UTC)

Microsoft says 64 Mb. But even at 128 Mb, Windows XP is painfully slow, taking several minutes to start up and shut down with a few programs installed. x42bn6 Talk 15:44, 2 April 2007 (UTC)
OK Ive got 192M and I cant even get XP to install so it shouldnt be a memory problem? I should say that I have MagnaRAM running. Is this likely to cause a problem?--SlipperyHippo 20:46, 2 April 2007 (UTC)
XP should certainly install with 192M. Are you trying to upgrade? Why not just format and install from the cd? A clean install is always better IMO. If you want to keep your data, I would still suggest backing up your important files, then doing a clean install. Sandman30s 21:32, 2 April 2007 (UTC)
256M to get it running smoothly and 512M (minimum) if you want to play games that load large levels at a time such as first person shooters, or work with large pictures or videos. Of course it always depends what you want to do with your old computer. The moment you notice a lot of page swapping going on, it's a sign you need more RAM. RAM is cheap so why not just get 512M, you won't regret it. Modern PC's come standard with 1G; and 2G is not uncommon. Sandman30s 21:24, 2 April 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Hardware for reading PDF files

Hi. I read LOTS of electronic books and it's an annoyance having to sit in front of the computer to just read them. Printing them isn't a possibility, due to logistic problems. I was thinking in something like a PDA, but it apparently has much more features than I would need. What do you think? Do you know any hardware that would fit my needs? Thanks in advance. --Taraborn 16:34, 2 April 2007 (UTC)

Wouldn't an electronic book suffice? --Kainaw (talk) 16:54, 2 April 2007 (UTC)
Sounds fine... but is that hardware commonly available and allows information to be uploaded to it from the main computer? Thank you very much for your response. --Taraborn 09:00, 3 April 2007 (UTC)
Yes. The electronic book article even includes a list of available products, such as the Sony Reader which comes with software to move files from your computer to the book. --Kainaw (talk) 12:47, 3 April 2007 (UTC)
I've also heard that the iPhone will be able to read PDF files (it's running Quartz Extreme). -HuBmaN!!!! 15:53, 8 April 2007 (UTC)

[edit] SQL query

Using mySQL, I am trying to find a way to select both a random number and that random number multiplied by a column in my table. I have got as far as

SELECT RAND(),RAND();

which outputs

+------------------+--------------------+
| RAND()           | RAND()             |
+------------------+--------------------+
| 0.74826139095077 | 0.0067676957759705 | 
+------------------+--------------------+

which obviously isn't what I want. A different query,

SELECT RAND() as number,number;

would, I hope, select the same random number twice. However, it only gives

ERROR 1054 (42S22): Unknown column 'number' in 'field list'

Does anyone know how to do what I'm trying to do here?

Many thanks, Sam Korn (smoddy) 21:46, 2 April 2007 (UTC)

Did you try
   SELECT RAND() as mynumber, mytable.foo_number as tableval, (mynumber * tableval) as myresult
by chance? dr.ef.tymac 21:50, 2 April 2007 (UTC)
Same error, I'm afraid... Sam Korn (smoddy) 21:59, 2 April 2007 (UTC)
You can use a subquery.
select rand1.number,rand1.number from (select rand() as number ) as rand1;
look at the docs on the mysql website because i might be doing something silly for all i know. -- Diletante 22:09, 2 April 2007 (UTC)
Super, that's exactly what I was looking for. Many thanks! Sam Korn (smoddy) 10:11, 3 April 2007 (UTC)
Hmmm ... mySQL requires a subquery for that?! —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Dreftymac (talk • contribs) 16:16, 3 April 2007 (UTC).

[edit] Ask.com Service

Does Ask.com offer a paid service? 68.193.147.179 22:25, 2 April 2007 (UTC)

Do you mean like Google sell their search engine in a hardware box format?
http://www.google.com/enterprise/mini/#utm_medium=et&utm_source=bizsolssearch&utm_campaign=mini
Or like how Google sells advertising via Adwords?
Anyway I'm not sure if ask.com can come in a box, but this may help:
http://sponsoredlistings.ask.com/

Ronnystalker 05:31, 8 April 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Research Services

What are some paid research services? 68.193.147.179 22:26, 2 April 2007 (UTC)

Your question is too broad or general, please clarify by explaining what sort of information you are looking for
For example, certain companies may do market research, where they may interview their customers. There are telephone research companies that will telephone people and ask to do a survey. There's medical research. There's research for film where you need to come up with examples of ideas for things. There's research as in fact-finding, like Google Answers, where you might have to research certain facts of information from a series of data. Your question is far too non-specific. Rfwoolf 12:05, 3 April 2007 (UTC)

To research information about companies. 68.193.147.179 16:55, 3 April 2007 (UTC)
Paid financial research:
Free corporate profiles, SEC filings, annual statements, etc.:
Is this what you are looking for? —EncMstr 18:03, 3 April 2007 (UTC)
I am looking for something that is like Google Answers. -68.193.147.179 21:45, 3 April 2007 (UTC)

[edit] TiVo on iO cable

Can you run TiVo on iO cable? 68.193.147.179 22:28, 2 April 2007 (UTC)

They have their own DVR recievers. It's just like TiVo. --TeckWiz ParlateContribs@(Lets go Yankees!) 03:49, 3 April 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Text messaging

I know that it is possible to:

  • Send a text message from a phone number to another phone number.
  • Send a text message from a phone number to an e-mail address.

But how do I send a text message from an e-mail address to a phone number? Is it even possible? —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 155.43.52.21 (talk) 22:47, 2 April 2007 (UTC).

It is possible if the telephone service attaches an email address to the telephone's text messaging service. Most do not do this because nobody wants to pay for spam-text constantly clogging up their phones. --Kainaw (talk) 23:08, 2 April 2007 (UTC)

Well, first of all any phone that is web-enabled can send and receive email - but it does this quite literally through the internet, just as you would ordinarily send and receive an email on a PC - it simply connets to the internet to their email service, provides their account details (such as email address, username and password) and uses the relevant email protocol to connect and download the email.
But I think you are asking if it's possible to send an email to a phone and have it arrive as an SMS. It is certainly possible - but depends on your service provider. Some service providers will allow you to create an account like 0825557779@vodacom.co.za - and when an email gets sent to that address it would send an SMS to that number with the text of the email. But certainly not all service providers provide this service - in fact these days it would be pretty uncommon for them to do that because they want to encourage people to buy web-enabled phones and to subscribe to WAP and other cell-phone internet services.
Oh and one more possibility... SOME service providers will allow you to send a free SMS to one of their subscribers - and you'd do that through their website - but like I say, only if they offer this feature. Generally if they do offer that feature it's just a service that they offer to their existing subscribers, to be able to send a free SMS to another one of their subscribers.
Hope that all helps. Just by the way 'SMS' stands for Short Message Service - which is the standard TEXT message that people use to message eachother on phones - but certain western countries have corrupted this term by using the word "TEXT" instead, as in "Just text your mate" - which is fine, but the actual service was originally called SMS. Rfwoolf 12:01, 3 April 2007 (UTC)

The same way people improperly say "send an email to", which complete disregards the SMTP (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol) required to do so; or "receive email" which disguises what're they're really doing, which is using a client program to connect to an IMAP (Internet Message Access Protocol) or POP3 (Post Office Protocol 3) server. --64.0.112.54 19:32, 4 April 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Pandemonium 1 does not work

I just got the game Pandemonium. I tried to run it but it does not work. I searched online and I read something about using a Glide wrapper. So I downloaded dgVoodoo and I placed the DLL files in the Pandemonium directory. However, the game still does not work. Whenever I run it, it gets to the title screen but it quits a second later. Please help. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Metroman (talk • contribs) 23:44, 2 April 2007 (UTC).