Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Computing/2007 July 22

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Computing desk
< July 21 << Jun | July | Aug >> July 23 >
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] July 22

[edit] Excel copy and paste

Hi all:

I have a text file with value, formatted like the following:

0.0, 0.0, 0.0,

6.6, 0.0, 0.0,

1.9, 2.2, 0.0,

3.3, 6.9, 0.0,

I would like to do a simple dispersion graph on excel. I copied and pasted the whole thing onto excel. It recognized the line breaks as new rows, but it doesn't recognize the commas as new columns. Does anyone know how I can format text so excel puts one value per box? Thanks! --Waldsen 02:56, 22 July 2007 (UTC)

Use the Tab key instead of a comma. --jh51681 03:54, 22 July 2007 (UTC)
If your file is long, you can copy a tab, use Edit → Replace (or something similar) and then paste it into the Replace box to replace your commas, instead of replacing them manually. --jh51681 04:01, 22 July 2007 (UTC)
Copy and paste it into Excel. Select the column of data. Then go to Data -> Text to Columns. Select "Delimited", click Next. Select "Comma", click Finish. Ta-da. --24.147.86.187 04:05, 22 July 2007 (UTC)
Or just save the file as CSV? Excel should prompt for the correct formatting and voila.

Instead of copy-paste try openning the file from excel (using File -> Open menu). It will then ask you to provide information on how the content on the file is organised. --racergr 21:01, 22 July 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Halo Aimbot

Hello,

Does anyone know of where to get a working aimbot for Halo 1 (Combat Evolved)? I've got this one: http://www.haloaimbot.zoomshare.com/ but it only comes with the exe and not the info and it doesn't work at all. Perhaps I'm not running it correctly or something... --124.181.248.216 05:36, 22 July 2007 (UTC)

I have no idea, but if you're using one online, I would strongly advise against doing that. Splintercellguy 07:42, 22 July 2007 (UTC)
Nah just using on a school network were pretty much everyone has one... --124.181.248.216 08:33, 22 July 2007 (UTC)
Did you read the "Help" section of that page? It explains how to use it. --24.147.86.187 20:21, 22 July 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Making a fake Bsod (continued)

Many thanks for the Control + Scroll Lock (x2) command. I did it and it worked, but I found it to not be that scary and rather unrealistic ("dump generated by end-user", "0000000x00", and so forth). I'm looking for something that makes a Bsod that's a lot more realistic and scary. I'm not really sure what exactly is the worst kind of XP error, but I would like some kind of SOD that has something to do with a chipset, memory, or hard disk error. Once again, this is for educational purposes, and I am using XP. --4.226.138.198 06:41, 22 July 2007 (UTC)

Preferably DRIVER_POWER_STATE_FAILURE, UNEXPECTED_KERNEL_MODE_TRAP, UNMOUNTABLE_BOOT_VOLUME errors. But still some more ones though. --4.226.138.198 07:00, 22 July 2007 (UTC)
KERNEL_INPAGE_ERROR is pretty good.
The BSoD screensaver didn't work out for you? Splintercellguy 07:41, 22 July 2007 (UTC)
Maybe it could be done using virtual-machine software by deliberately misconfiguring some of the virtual hardware. NeonMerlin 21:11, 26 July 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Mounting partitions after the system has started

I have had some problems with Suse (10.2) not starting due to problems in fstab, for example when there is some problem with the filesystem on a partition, but also when I have simply installed a different hard disk. To avoid this, I am thinking about deleting these entries in fstab and writing a script that I can run after the system has started. But now I wonder why this is not the standard way of doing this. Or is there such an alternative, so I won't have to go through the trouble of writing it? Or is there a good reason it is not done this way and am I asking for trouble if I write such a script? DirkvdM 09:29, 22 July 2007 (UTC)

You can have disks in fstab that are not mounted automatically on boot. You can then mount them later, individually. And if you wanted to always mount two or three, with the same names, you could encapsulate the two or three mount commands in a little script, that would neither be hard to write, nor asking for trouble, nor inappropriate.
Some Linux distros have reasonably-functional "automount" schemes which automatically mount removeable media (CD-ROMS, USB thumb drives, etc.) as they are detected.
Steve Summit (talk) 12:52, 22 July 2007 (UTC)
Ok, I'll give that a go then. As I understand it, such a script would simply be a text file with #!/bin/bash at the top then a list of all the possible commands, one for each possible mount (turned on and off with a # in front), right?
I want to mount the partitions read/write for me (user 'dirk'). So the ownership should be for 'dirk' (of group 'users'), and permissions should be rwxrwxr-x (I don't really care about the last three because I am the only user). And all that for the entire tree under it (or is that automatic?). Also, does this differ for different file systems? I use reiser, ext3 and (v)fat (I've got about 30 partitions on 5 different drives). These are just some things I picked up while looking around on the internet. Do I have the complete story now, or is there more to it? I could also try for auto-detect of partitions and auto-run after boot, but only if that is simple enough for an absolute beginner. DirkvdM 13:32, 22 July 2007 (UTC)
Oh, and does it matter if I run this script as root or simply as 'dirk' (the latter being simpler and thus preferable). DirkvdM 13:46, 22 July 2007 (UTC)
For that last question, I would expect that you would need root access, which either means using "root" directly or another account with root access. StuRat 03:38, 23 July 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Another problem...

Well, the thing with the Sound Recorder worked, but now, it's back to no recording again. I followed the steps to look up the Recording Control, but there is nothing listed mute, nor is it turned down. What should I do? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Sirdrink13309622 (talkcontribs)

[edit] Help me transfer my Outlook Address Book to my new computer

I have bought a new computer and want to transfer or migrate my old outlook 2000 address book to my new computer, without having to input and re-type each entry...is there any way to do this? I can load the old version of outlook, but I wanted to use outlook 2007 now...can this be done? or must I type everything again? Thanks. replies to: <email address removed to protect editor from spam> Walker33333 10:53, 22 July 2007 (UTC)

Check in Outlook or Windows help for "Export address book" or a similar phrase. 68.39.174.238 18:29, 22 July 2007 (UTC)
Outlook 2007 can directly import old outlook folders and address books without even exporting. I did it before and it was very straight forward, however sorry I can't remember the exact things I clicked to make it happen. GB 00:31, 24 July 2007 (UTC)

[edit] bit torrent files from www.piratebay.com

i want to download an ebook from pirate bay but all the files are in a weird format which my acrobat reader cant read ,i have a win 98se is there any program which can read this format what are seekers and leachers --Angelofwrath 15:48, 22 July 2007 (UTC)

Have you looked at our Bittorrent article, which explains how the whole business works, and lists software you can use. I suspect you may have been downloading the "torrent" file and trying to use it as the final PDF file - but a torrent is just a description of a downloadable file (or files). You'd typically feed that into a BitTorrent Client program, which would actually download the file(s) you want. -- Finlay McWalter | Talk 15:56, 22 July 2007 (UTC)
Another possibility is that you have correctly downloaded the eBook file, but it is not in the PDF format that Adobe Acrobat Reader uses. It may be in a different format (see Comparison of e-book formats). You'll usually be able to tell the file format by looking at the file extention at the end of the file name, such as .pdf. Good luck. TreeKittens 23:42, 22 July 2007 (UTC)

[edit] System full (Suse 10.2)

Sometimes when I copy large amounts of data, I get a message that the system is full or there is no more hd space and the copy is aborted. But that refers to the root ( / ) and the copies are between partitions that I have mounted not on /home but on another directory ( /z/ so it's conveniently at the bottom in Konqueror). But when I copy data, that amount of data is also 'taken from' the system, which is on a partition that is 'only' 10GB in size. Of that, about half is taken up by the system itself. So I can only copy a few GB and then the 'system' is 'full'.
Another funny thing is that after a reboot with all the mount points in fstab 'commented out', the partition I have copied to is mounted. Which shouldn't happen afaik. How can a partition be automatically mounted other than through fstab? None of the other partitions are mounted. I have only just formatted this partition (as ext3 - it was fat). I'm not aware that I have given it a different treatment than other partitions during the formatting. What might cause these two things and are they related? DirkvdM 18:04, 22 July 2007 (UTC)

I don't understand your first problem. You have two devices (are they indeed separate partitions/devices?) mounted under /z (say /z/disk1 and /z/disk2). Copying from /z/disk1 to /z/disk2 between them fails complaining about disk space. Is there indeed enough free space on /z/disk2? How much can you copy, relative to the size of the partition? Don't forget that there is a chunk of space that is reserved for the root user, so while there may be physically some space remaining, the reduced amount may be all that you can use as a nonprivileged user.
Re the second problem, there are such things as automounters. fstab is not a list of filesystems to automatically mount, but a list of static information about filesystems, such as what filesystems to mount on boot, storing regularly-used mountpoints, that sort of thing.

[edit] Video Editing Program?

I was once told by a person that theres actually a really good free video editing program for windows that allows you to add in audio clips either on their own or mixed in with the already existing audio track and then export it back in its normal format....

Is there actually such a thing thats free?

Edit: I should mention that im using Windows 2kPro, so giving me names of brilliant apple applications wont help much! ;)

172.164.158.139 21:48, 22 July 2007 (UTC)


Windows Movie Maker? Virtual Dub @ www.sourceforgenet ? (<1MB Download!)

[edit] while im at it....

I was aloso looking for a good program to CAPTURE video on scrreen. i looked all over and found something like 'Windows Media Player Codec Series 9' or whatever it was called o.0..... nice program but it cant even capture all the colors, i need something that captures in high color, or preferably true color (32 bit) any ideas?

172.164.158.139 21:53, 22 July 2007 (UTC)

If the video is in a DirectX app, then Fraps is good. Splintercellguy 22:01, 22 July 2007 (UTC)


Im actually not sure how to distinguish directx applications, even though i kinda know what directx is. im mainly looking to capture a video thats on a webpage. :)

172.164.158.139 22:39, 22 July 2007 (UTC)

If the video on the web page is Flash, then I suppose one of the many FLV downloader sites or manually downloading it using Firefox and View Page Info -> Media -> Save As... could do. Splintercellguy 02:41, 23 July 2007 (UTC)

ill be quite specific. Im after the nelson mandela clips at http://www.cbs.com/cbs_cares/ :) ... the format is.... actually it seems to use a flash loader and the video itself is in i dont know what.... one of those things where it seems to use your currently existing program? o.0 well take a look if you dont mind? if you think i can actually pull the vid from the firefox plugin ill go download it. :) but atm i don even have firefox.... and my intuition tells me that this might not be flv.

Thanks for your help so far though! 172.164.158.139 04:10, 23 July 2007 (UTC)

If it's a flash loader and streams from the site it's 99% likely to be flv. -Wooty [Woot?] [Spam! Spam! Wonderful spam!] 01:33, 24 July 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Cancel the Bugzilla account

Can I cancel my Bugzilla account at bugzilla.wikimedia.org? It's giving me troubles. Can I do it? Jet (talk) 22:19, 22 July 2007 (UTC)