Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Computing/2007 February 8

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[edit] February 8

[edit] Including RSS feeds on websites

This is probably way more involved (i.e., going to require some coding, etc., if even possible), in which case I'll understand, but any pointers to further reading material would be appreciated. I'm trying to figure out how to include (embed) certain elements of an RSS feed onto a website, e.g. as part of a forum signature, etc. Specifically, there is an RSS feed at http://qdb.us/qdb.xml. My idea is to use a random element of the feed as part of my forum signature, with the forum software allowing the use of BBCode and HTML as part of the signature... or, if that's not possible, just displaying one of the elements on a website. Furthermore, if possible, would it be possible to randomize which element is displayed, and perhaps limit displayed elements to those at or smaller than a certain size? —XhantarTalk 00:38, 8 February 2007 (UTC)

What you're trying to do is embed dynamic elements onto a webpage without access to any scripting. I don't think this is possible with HTML (it is certainly not possible with BBCode). —Mitaphane ?|! 01:58, 8 February 2007 (UTC)
The only way it would be possible is using, say, PHP on your own server to generate an image, and linking to that image from the forum. This would require you had access to a web server with PHP, and unless you can find a solution that's already coded it would also require some work of your own. I managed to locate three such scripts, [1] [2] [3]. The last one there doesn't require you have a web server or anything, but it is fairly hideous and has an advertisement on it. -- Consumed Crustacean (talk) 02:34, 8 February 2007 (UTC)
For the image, you could use SVG, which would make it easier. This seems the only way, unless you have admin access to the forum server. --h2g2bob 03:15, 8 February 2007 (UTC)
I suggested / meant to suggest using PHP to generate a standard image, such as a JPEG, which could be linked externally from the forum in question and would be dynamically changed by the PHP script. I'm not sure how SVGs could come into play; no forum software that I know of supports them, and few browsers do. -- Consumed Crustacean (talk) 03:20, 8 February 2007 (UTC)
You were clear, I probably wasn't :D I was suggesting that in PHP generating SVG is probably easier than generating JPEG. But you're right about lots of browsers not supporting it, so I guess it's not actually such a good thing --h2g2bob 04:13, 8 February 2007 (UTC)
Thanks for your replies. My web host is running PHP 5.0.4 as well as the GD extensions, so that and the links you provided gives me something to play around with. Thanks again. —XhantarTalk 05:51, 8 February 2007 (UTC)
I ended up getting this to work quite well. See [4] - refreshing the page will display a random quote from the http://qdb.us/qdb.xml RSS feed as a PNG graphic. The source code is available at my sandbox, if anyone is interested. Cheers. —XhantarTalk 17:38, 8 February 2007 (UTC)

[edit] unix mail app

How do you read mail with the unix command line mail app. I can send mail, and when I send to an external account, it comes from (myusername)@(myipaddress). When I send mail to this (from outside my network and from within), I type "mail" and it always says, "no mail for (myusername)". How to I configure it to receive mail from computers inside my network? THanks!--Ryan 04:00, 8 February 2007 (UTC)

The system needs to run a mail transfer agent of some kind. See list of mail servers. —EncMstr 20:05, 8 February 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Information technology

What is SAP? What are the courses offered by SAP? And which course is suitable for MBA student who has specialised in marketing? Which course is suitable for MBR[HR] student?

(Sigh) What is the meaning of "do your own homework!"? What are the reasons you must do your own homework? And which course is suitable for people who don't do their own homework? Which course??? Which!!!!! --Wj32 talk | contribs 09:22, 8 February 2007 (UTC)
(depcapitalised above Q & A) It doesn't look like a homework question. In the context of an MBA, SAP probably refers to a Standard Accounting Program. However, we have no idea what courses would be suitable, as we are not psychic, and do not know what country you are in, what kind of level of course you are interested in, and what you want to do. Proto::► 12:57, 8 February 2007 (UTC)
In the business world these days, I'd guess that SAP would be the giganormous eponymous software package sold by SAP AG. -- mattb @ 2007-02-09T03:49Z

[edit] AI Program

Hi Friends,I have been interested in observing and working with AI Programs.I heard many say that there are free AI programs in internet, but I can not find any such except for a trial demo versions. Could you guys get me the link for any free AI advanced utility program for eg like plain old ELIZA or ALICEBOT?..Thanks in very advance guys

SourceForge has many --h2g2bob 19:09, 8 February 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Batch and multiple replacement

Is there any Microsoft Windows software that does:

  • Read a number of text, HTML, CSV or any other text-based files.
  • Do multiple replacements to each file (e.g., Jan -> January, Feb ...).
  • Save the files.

It would be great if the software supports regular expression and numerical ASCII, Uncode expressions (&#20; ^p, ^n ...). Better be Free Software. -- Toytoy 12:49, 8 February 2007 (UTC)

Have a look at unxutils. gawk or sed can probably handle the editing. As far as how you specify the files, perhaps use a shell (e.g. bash, tcsh, etc.) where you can program a script easier, use the 'find' command (again, unxutils), or just use ls | gawk and generate a batch file (one command per filename) from the file names. --TRosenbaum 14:56, 8 February 2007 (UTC)

[edit] NetBeans IDE Help

Friends,I have just began using NetBeans IDE and I have a problem with passing command line arguments in the IDE.The catch is that the input window at runtime vanishes even before I move my cursor in the textarea and I get the output as 0 arguments for a simple print statement. Someone suggested using Scanner class which works really well, also I can pass the arguments at the System Prompt,so there is no problem with the logic.I need to make a lot of Projects using IDE and this KNOT is hampering my progress.<PLEASE HELP> JITHIN59.182.60.146 15:09, 8 February 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Script Manager

I sat for 2 HOURS here waiting for the page to "Retrieve my other scripts". Its not like I have 666 scripts or use dial-up Could you give me some type of information in the time length when dealing with this "script manager". GRRRRRRRRR --Darkest Hour • ¿? 03:13, 8 February 2007 (UTC)

It's an experimental tool. Ask at the talk page and see what they say. --h2g2bob 19:05, 8 February 2007 (UTC)
If it's not pretty much instant, then it's not finding the script it' strying to look for --frothT 22:51, 8 February 2007 (UTC)

[edit] printer control program

How do I close my printer control program on my LexmarkX63, so I can use my 4 in 1 machine

I can't work out what you mean by your question. A Lexmark x63 is a Multifunction printer and manuals are available online at the lexmark site here. Where is your printer control program running? Do you mean on your PC or on the printer it self? Closing the control program should not be difficult, perhaps it is waiting for you to configure something before it will let you close it. Vespine 21:24, 8 February 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Trail Version

Is there a way to continue running free software than only has a specific trial period? Thanks. 24.39.182.101 18:01, 8 February 2007 (UTC)

Most software like this allow you to purchase the product, enter an activation key and not have to uninstall/reinstall on purchase. I'm sure there are hacks out there but I would be surprised if that was not illegal in your country. ny156uk 18:25, 8 February 2007 (UTC)
Besides using a crack or keygen (or paying for it, for that matter), I've found out that in some cases if you set back your system clock a month it will allow you to continue using the free trial, but it doesn't work for all software. --Emery 22:45, 8 February 2007 (UTC)
Some Adobe trials immediately expire if you change the system clock. — Matt Eason (Talk • Contribs) 00:07, 9 February 2007 (UTC)
Over the top way would be to run within a virtual machine. Splintercellguy 16:23, 9 February 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Video Clips

Hello,

I have a digital camera that takes movies but when i put them on to my PC they are in .mov format and im having trouble playing them (i have managed to play them with windows media player (the latest one) but they dont have any sound). Any suggestions?

Also does Youtube take any format of video?

thanks, --84.71.9.155 20:10, 8 February 2007 (UTC)

.mov should play with Quick Time, and YouTube automatically converts films into the right form I think! Jackacon 20:30, 8 February 2007 (UTC)

Yes, you upload to youtube in any from a list of supported formats / codecs; and it gets converted to H.263 Flash Video by YouTube's servers. Try VLC to play the movs. --h2g2bob 22:10, 8 February 2007 (UTC)
Also you might want to make sure that your camera has the ability to record sound, as well as video. Some digital cameras simply can't record sound, and maybe that's why no sound is playing. Check the camera and look for a small hole, or just take a gander at the owner's manual to confirm whether your model can record sound or not. Hope this helps. --Emery 22:42, 8 February 2007 (UTC)

[edit] HKP server for Debian?

I'd like to run a private HKP server to gather PGP keys for people in my organization. I have a Debian server that can be used for this purpose. I only really need HKP support, but one of those neato web frontends wouldn't go amiss. It looks like "pks" hasn't been updated in about three years, and is no longer packaged for Debian. What do people running OpenPGP keyservers do? grendel|khan 21:44, 8 February 2007 (UTC)

And once again I should consult apt-cache search openpgp|grep -i server before checking in here. It's called onak, and I've got it up and running now. grendel|khan 01:34, 9 February 2007 (UTC)

[edit] PHP/Apache Include() Path Errors Not showing up

I have a php 4 script that is trying to include another script using the include() statement. I know that this script cannot find the script that i'm trying to include (because i have not uploaded it yet.)

However, when i view the page it doesn't tell me that it can't find it. I used to get an include path error when this happened. I suspect that my hosting company has altered some settings on my server/ini file.

I am seeing parse errors ok.

As i use included files alot, i'd like to see an error displayed when they are not being included properly.

So, which php/apache settings restrain such errors?

So far i have:

1. added this line into my .htaccess file "php_flag error_reporting on"

2. ensured that my custom error reporting script is not being used (commented out any set_error_handler() lines)

3. tested the script with the following line added to the top of my scripts: "error_reporting(E_USER_ERROR | E_USER_WARNING | E_USER_NOTICE);"

None of these seem to make php tell me it has had problems including the file that doesn't exist.

Any help and suggestions would be appreciated. Thanks in advance Ronnystalker 21:57, 8 February 2007 (UTC)

Hello Ronnystalker. I have somewhat limited experience when it comes to PHP, but have had instances before similar to what you described. A few suggestions that I'm hoping might help:
  • If the setting log_errors (boolean) is set to true in the server's php.ini file, have a look at the server's error log, if you have access yourself. Errors are usually logged to a file (defined by the error_log setting), or via syslog() if the special value syslog is set for the error_log setting. I realize this won't help with displaying runtime errors, which is what you're trying to achieve, but we'll get to that shortly and it might still be helpful to be aware of the info logged to the error_log file or syslog(), whichever the case might be.
  • As a way of troubleshooting, I'd suggest making the following changes to php.ini, if you have the access:
    • Set error_reporting to E_ALL. This can be set during runtime, using the error_reporting() function, as you attempted, but also see below. The available error level constants are listed here.
    • Set display_errors to true. This can also be set during runtime, using the ini_set() function - but again, see below.
Values in php.ini can or can not be changed for the duration of a script's execution, at runtime, as defined by the following constants (copied from here):
  • PHP_INI_USER: Entry can be set in user scripts or in Windows registry
  • PHP_INI_PERDIR: Entry can be set in php.ini, .htaccess or httpd.conf
  • PHP_INI_SYSTEM: Entry can be set in php.ini or httpd.conf
  • PHP_INI_ALL: Entry can be set anywhere
For the settings referred to above, they are changeable as follows:
  • error_reporting: Changeable PHP_INI_ALL
  • display_errors: Changeable PHP_INI_ALL
So it should be possible to define the level of reporting for runtime errors in your particular script(s) by using the ini_set() function (or using .htaccess), even if you do not have access to php.ini and your hosting provider has decided to set a more restrictive level for error_reporting there.
Note that when using .htaccess, you will need to add "Options" to your AllowOverride specifications for the directory or webserver, if it's not already allowed. See here.
Hope that helps. —XhantarTalk 07:15, 9 February 2007 (UTC)