Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Computing/2007 December 21

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[edit] December 21

[edit] Which free MMORPG is the best?

Which free MMORPG is the best? (Superawesomgoat (talk) 01:59, 21 December 2007 (UTC))

drift city. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 216.45.237.42 (talk) 13:49, 21 December 2007 (UTC)

This is a matter of opinion, not a matter of fact. Wikipedia is not a message board for discussing which MMORPGs we think are best. If you have a specific question about MMORPGs, please feel free to ask. -- kainaw™ 13:55, 21 December 2007 (UTC)
Totally free? Maple Story. Free of monthly fees? Guild Wars. --ffroth 19:39, 21 December 2007 (UTC)
Oh, and don't download Maple Story unless you're already hardened to extreme MMO addiction by other games. --ffroth 19:40, 21 December 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Weird Website

I stumbled across this weird website called Crazy.com, I was just wondering what kind of website it was.

I Found a Cat in my Hat (talk) 02:03, 21 December 2007 (UTC)

It looks something like cybersquatting to me—a person registers a "popular" domain name, puts up a "placeholder" page, and then hopes that somebody will want to buy it from them for big bucks. The page has no content; all links just lead to search engine results. --24.147.86.187 (talk) 02:51, 21 December 2007 (UTC)
It's just a parked domain that has signed up to an related link generated service to get Pay per click revenue from viewers. It's affiliated with the Yahoo! Search Marketing advertising scheme. 86.21.74.40 (talk) 02:54, 21 December 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Help

IE7 says scripts are trying to run when I create an html file on my other computer. Just a normal HTML files with <html>,<head,<body>,<font>, <h1> tags. Does this mean I have a virus? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.28.254.203 (talk) 02:42, 21 December 2007 (UTC)

Or some other junk loaded on there. What happens if you disable 3rd party extensions (tools -> advanced -> enable third party browser extensions)? Are you sure it's just a plain script-less HTML file? -- Consumed Crustacean (talk) 05:10, 21 December 2007 (UTC)
Thanks. That really helped. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 75.117.201.163 (talk) 15:20, 21 December 2007 (UTC)
That's not a final solution, it just means that you have something else wrong --ffroth 19:38, 21 December 2007 (UTC)
Yes, it just narrows it down. You've got some sort of rogue or simply poorly coded extension running in there. Definitely try running a spyware scanner to see if it's that; you might also try uninstalling the toolbars and such that you know you have on there and reenable extensions to see if one of them was doing it. -- Consumed Crustacean (talk) 19:47, 21 December 2007 (UTC)
I was having a similar problem with a non-script html file on my computer sometimes showing the "restricted from running scripts or ActiveX" message, but only after viewing certain websites. After reading your problem, I spent several hours narrowing my problem down. (In my case, disabling every possible add-on didn't help.) I don't have a solution, but have discovered a cause as described below. Maybe your issue is similar.
The following description assumes that "Allow active content to run in files on My Computer" is unchecked. --Bavi H (talk) 17:00, 22 December 2007 (UTC)
Once Internet Explorer 7 encounters a style with an expression, content from My Computer loaded in the same tab will repeatedly trigger the following message in the Information Bar until it is allowed: "To help protect your security, Internet Explorer has restricted this webpage from running scripts or ActiveX controls that could access your computer."
For example, if I visit www.deviantart.com, then drag a text file into the same window, that message will be triggered.
Or, as another example, you can save the following html into a file, open it in Internet Explorer, then drag a text file into the same window to trigger the message.
<!-- saved from url=(0014)about:internet -->
<html>
<head>
<title>Style Test</title>
<style>
h1 { color: expression("red"); }
</style>
</head>
<body>
<h1>Test</h1>
</body>
</html>
You can suppress the message by going to Tools, Internet Options, Advanced, and checking "Allow active content to run in files on My Computer" in the Security section. But that would also prevent Internet Explorer from blocking real active content, so you might not want to do that. --Bavi H (talk) 08:08, 22 December 2007 (UTC)
What is this expression statement in CSS? I have never seen it and I don't think it's part of the standards. --antilivedT | C | G 11:25, 22 December 2007 (UTC)
Beats me if it's standard, I had to google "CSS expression" to learn about it during my debugging of this problem. It allows you to evaluate a javascript expression and use the return value as the value for the CSS property. My example above wasn't really a useful example of an expression, just a simple use to trigger the problem. For example, I found the problem on www.deviantart.com was triggered by a CSS file that contained an expression like the following
img { filter: expression(this.src.substr(this.src.length-4)==".png" ? /*...*/ : /*...*/ ); }
The problem is, when IE7 executes this javascript-in-CSS, it somehow causes it to think any other files from My Computer after that in the same tab are running scripts or ActiveX. --Bavi H (talk) 17:04, 22 December 2007 (UTC)
The problem was Google Toolbar, appearantly (sorry if that's mispelled). I uninstalled it and IE7 no longer does that. 75.117.201.163 (talk) 20:09, 22 December 2007 (UTC)

[edit] sim theme park patch for windows 2000

I've been trying to get the know ancient game sim theme park to work on my windows 2000 computer for a while now. I know a computer programmer made some kind of update to make the game work win. 2000 (which is what i have), but is it safe and how does it work? The guy who runs the website with the homemade update isn't very clear —Preceding unsigned comment added by 69.234.44.168 (talk) 05:44, 21 December 2007 (UTC)

You should probably give us the URL of the site you found. SteveBaker (talk) 17:22, 21 December 2007 (UTC)

the url is: http://www.adamhearn.co.uk/games/themeparkworld/tpwwin2kfix.html.

It's something to do with fonts. It looks plenty legit, don't worry. -Wooty [Woot?] [Spam! Spam! Wonderful spam!] 00:19, 22 December 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Can't see partitions

Resolved.

Hi. I have just partitionned an external HD/mp3 player in FAT32 in order to have 32 GB w/ a 32K cluster size for music and a 8GB partition with 4K clusters for a load of small text files. I used CompuApps Swissknife (free). I have 2 partitions but they don't show up on Windows explorer (the drive is there as E:). How do I know what I can copy where (ie music on big partition, txt on small)? Keria (talk) 13:17, 21 December 2007 (UTC)

Never mind I just had to unplug it and plug it back in and the partitions show as different drive letters. Keria (talk) 13:53, 21 December 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Is this possible with CSS?

Hello,

I've been running a website in old school HTML for a long time now (http://www.wellingtongrey.net/miscellanea/) and wanted to know if something is possible. I have a large archive of comics. Is it possible to use CSS so that if I change the advertisement layout on one page it will change all the other pages as well?

If so, could you provide me some pointers on where to get started?

Thank you,

--Grey1618 (talk) 14:49, 21 December 2007 (UTC)

Your question is a bit vague. By "advertisement layout", do you mean:
  • Change the advertisement from a picture for one company to a picture for another?
  • Change the advertisement from a picture and some optional text for one company to a picture and some optional text (and maybe even a link) for another company?
  • Change the location of the advertisement on the page?
All of these have a different answer. -- kainaw™ 15:02, 21 December 2007 (UTC)
Sorry for the vagueness, I'm running google adsense right now. I was wondering if I wanted to change the banner size or location if that would be possible. --Grey1618 (talk) 15:15, 21 December 2007 (UTC)
Place the ad in some div or span tag with an ID. Then, in CSS you can use the ID to define all kinds of layout options - including size and location. You will want a separate CSS file that each HTML file includes. Otherwise, you'll be editing the CSS in each file. -- kainaw™ 15:38, 21 December 2007 (UTC)
If you want to change the "style" of something, give it an id or class and then just change the style of that id or class in the css file. If you want to change the content, you might be better off holding that information in a separate file which is then included in your page using a server-side include (for example with php).
With Google AdSense, you can now save a "style" of advert and enter the code on your pages, but then change that advert's style via your adsense account and all adverts of that type will change to reflect your new settings. This is a new feature that they have recently introduced.
-=# Amos E Wolfe talk #=- 16:24, 21 December 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Raid 5 + 1 spare drive VS Raid 6

I ould like to discuss about the diference on the folowing two implementation on diferent drive numbers: 1. Raid 5 + 1 spare drive 2. Raid 6

Let's say for 12 drives:

Raid 5 for 11 drives and 1 spare drive. In a raid 5 there is 1 max disk failure in the same time. When it ocurs the spare drive take the place of that failed drive and rebuild it's data.

Raid 6 for 12 drives suport 2 max disk failure in the same time. When 1 disk fails you must replace it and the data will be rebuid.

1. For disk space will be the same: 10 * 1 disk space.

2. For read and write speed I will be needing some discussion and benchmarks.

3. For the price of controlers ???

4. Any other point that may came in... —Preceding unsigned comment added by Drealecs (talk • contribs) 15:30, 21 December 2007 (UTC)

I guess you are asking what's the difference between RAID 5 + 1 spare and RAID 6? But this is comparing apples to oranges. The spare drive does not help during recovery. It only makes sure that a replacement drive is available so that it can rebuild the RAID. RAID 5 + 1 spare will not recover if 2 drives fail at the same time (assuming one of the failed drive is not the spare). RAID 6 allows 2 drives to fail at the same time without losing data integrity. Since RAID 6 uses 2 parity drives, disk space will be lower then RAID 5. The spare is just an extra, RAID 5 array will not complaint if the spare fails. Read speed is the same for RAID 5 and 6. RAID 5 probably writes faster since RAID 6 needs to calculate 2 parity bits but there's no reason why both parity can't be calculated at the same time. The price of new technology is always more expensive at first. As RAID 6 becomes the norm, it will not be more expensive then RAID 5 controllers. For more info on recovery using parity see Parchive. NYCDA (talk) 17:48, 21 December 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Poser and daz 3d

Dear Friends,

I am looking for a user who is able to create some simple pictures (artficial rendering of humanlike figures) with Poser or daz 3d for using in WP. It may be not a difficult task. Any suggestions? rendering, artificial images, figures --Carl (talk) 16:45, 21 December 2007 (UTC)

You might ask my son, he does 3D work in Blender - but he can animate humans pretty well. His web page is http://oliverbaker.org - click on the 'About' link to find his email. You can see some of his work on his Portfolio page. You'd better describe what you want and what it's for if you want to attract his attention though! SteveBaker (talk) 17:20, 21 December 2007 (UTC)
What's that blender plugin where you can get a basic human form and use sliders to tweak it to your liking? That would be quite useful here. --antilivedT | C | G 00:21, 22 December 2007 (UTC)
Hm ... I thought about something like this [1] to explain morphological things, but in a sideview two and a image of the full body, realistic figure without any expression. --Carl (talk) 02:05, 22 December 2007 (UTC)
You may want to look into MakeHuman (see the Wikipedia article on same). Also the previously mentioned Daz 3D Studio is pretty easy to get started in-- much easier then Blender, but not as flexible. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 66.92.130.188 (talk) 03:09, 22 December 2007 (UTC)
Ah yes, MakeHuman, evolved considerably since when I first came across it. --antilivedT | C | G 03:21, 22 December 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Regarding Online Jobs

Is there anyone to make me clear about the online jobs by google AdWords. Without having a clear idea I had joined in some sites by paid some reasonable money.

Pl make me clear with the following doubts.

1. Wat is AdWord? 2. How can i get money from it. 3. I had got some tutorial book from Adsence (Paid seperately) (soft copy acrobat file). It is mentioned there that I was given a license to resell that material to the maximum cost that i can decide. So how can i sell it. 4. It is also mentioned that for every click on my add I have to pay the money. So how can i geting profited in it??

Pl ?? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 59.96.23.205 (talk) 21:51, 21 December 2007 (UTC)

Google AdWords are advertisements shown beside the search results. Google gets money each time they are clicked. Advertisers bid for places like in an auction: the person willing to pay most gets the top spot. You can get money by placing the advertisements on behalf of other people. If you're considering placing adwords for people, you should learn to automate the process, have good record keeping, and place adwords in an efficient way (ie minimising cost per click by changing what you bid most highly for). --h2g2bob (talk) 00:26, 22 December 2007 (UTC)