Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Computing/2007 July 24

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[edit] July 24

[edit] Linux software

Does Linux have a program similar to Microsoft office? If so, what's it called and how similer are they? —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Randoman412 (talk • contribs) 00:11, 24 July 2007 (UTC)

I believe that you're looking for OpenOffice.org. That's the closest you can get; it's not perfect, but it works pretty well. The Evil Spartan 00:11, 24 July 2007 (UTC)
Actually, if you are running it on x86, you can also use CodeWeavers CrossOver Office to run Microsoft Office itself on Linux. --cesarb 01:58, 24 July 2007 (UTC)
How about KOffice or GNOME Office? --antilivedT | C | G 06:48, 24 July 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Aim account

I think a friend might have my account password and is pranking me. I don't want to spoil it by changing my password, I just want to turn it on him. Is there a way I can see his (my) chats even though he's using a different computer? —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 70.100.142.80 (talk • contribs) 02:17, 24 July 2007 (UTC)

I don't use AIM but I can tell you that though it's likely AOL spies on you by keeping extensive converstation logs, it's unlikely that they let you access them. So unless his client has client-side logging enabled and you have access to his computer, no dice --frotht 16:24, 24 July 2007 (UTC)
If you were logged in at the same time, AIM would send you a message telling you to log out one of them (it might also kick one off, can't remember), so don't worry about that. --Laugh! 00:13, 25 July 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Does DDR2 memory need a different motherboard slot from DDR?

Pretty much all in the heading - if they do, I've wasted some shipping costs as I bought some DDR2 modules thinking they'd fit into my motherboard, which they didn't. The hole in the connecting side was about 2mm different from my old modules (probably DDR1) and from the corresponding tooth in the motherboard. Just so I'm certain before I send them back, does DDR2 definitely need a motherboard with DDR2 slots?

They are different. Look at DDR SDRAM and DDR2 SDRAM. The little slot is in a different position. -- Kainaw(what?) 13:27, 24 July 2007 (UTC)

[edit] VMWare vs KVM

I have WinXP running in VMWare. I've been told that I can run it in KVM also. I'm trying to find a comparison between the two, but by using "KVM", all I can find are notes about using VMWare with a KVM switch. Anyone know about comparison pages anywhere? -- Kainaw(what?) 14:10, 24 July 2007 (UTC)

Wikipedia has a comparison of virtual machines, but not as detailed as you may like. Splintercellguy 17:15, 24 July 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Ink colour

If I instruct my printer to print text in a shade of grey, instead of the default black, will I be saving on the cost of ink?--88.109.245.205 15:46, 24 July 2007 (UTC)

Yes, a little. Some print drivers have a "draft" option which does essentially this for you. -- Finlay McWalter | Talk 15:49, 24 July 2007 (UTC)
Not necessarily, grey in some printers is "faked" by printing all three colour inks by the same proportion and therefore you may be wasting colour ink instead of black ink which may be more expensive. --antilivedT | C | G 08:07, 25 July 2007 (UTC)
If your printer is a colour printer, i.e. it has 4 inks: cyan magenta yellow and black, then the answer to your question can vary as Antilived mentioned above. Oftentimes it comes down to whether your printer has been asked to print in colour or print in black-and-white. In your case, if you set it to print in black-and-what that will guarantee that it only uses the black ink cartridge and therefore the gray uses less black ink then black text. However if you set your printer to print that document in color then depending on your printer it may decide to print the gray text using your cyan-magenta-yellow which I think is not very economical. Fiddle around with your printer settings. Rfwoolf 17:03, 29 July 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Access/VBA question relating to Collection objects

In Microsoft Access VBA, how do I tell if a given Collection object contains an entry with a specific Key? I know that VB.NET Collection objects have a Contains method that allows you to easily check, but VBA doesn't seem to have one. I have tried iterating over the Collection with a For Each/Next loop, but it only references values, not keys.

This seems like a rather basic need, so I must be missing something obvious? --65.112.10.242 16:26, 24 July 2007 (UTC)

You can access the key by value or index...
Sub CollectionCode()

Dim aCollection As New Collection

aCollection.Add Item:="A", Key:="One"
aCollection.Add Item:="B", Key:="Two"

Debug.Print aCollection.Item("One")
Debug.Print aCollection.Item(2)

End Sub
Hopefully you can take it from there. You could, of course, loop over each item by index using a for..next --Worm 23:57, 24 July 2007 (UTC)
I don't think you understand; what I want is a list of keys — not values (which is what the Item method returns). I want to be able to see if a given key is in the Collection at all. At the moment the only way I can do this is by seeing if accessing that key triggers an error, which is a bad approach. I think I am wanting Collection objects to behave more like Dictionary objects (with its .Key and .Keys properties), which probably means I should be using Dictionary objects (though they require the Scripting runtime). --24.147.86.187 00:21, 25 July 2007 (UTC)


I think error-trapping is the only way to do what you want with a Collection in VBA - use "On Error Resume Next", try to access the key, then check if Err = 0. (And reset error-handling afterwards, of course.) I don't know how this would perform relative to a Scripting.Dictionary, but if the Collection isn't too large it might not matter. AndrewWTaylor 07:37, 25 July 2007 (UTC)
You could write a custom function to retrieve a list of the keys (loop on the index) and then check if your test key is in that list, but it's a long way round if you've got a large collection No you can't - I was thinking in perl. ;) --Worm 18:14, 25 July 2007 (UTC)
Thanks guys! I ended up using the Dictionary object, it is much more flexible. --24.147.86.187 11:44, 26 July 2007 (UTC)

[edit] System tray in Windows XP

Windows XP seems to feel the need to "hide" a portion of the icons in the system tray, even when there is plenty of room for them all. I find this annoying in two ways:

1) It's an extra click to pick any of the hidden icons.

2) You can no longer tell if the icons are there simply by looking for them, you now have to expand the system tray first. Some icons, like the one showing Internet connectivity, display differently to indicate status, so this "at a glance" check is quite useful, or would be, if I didn't have to click to expand the system tray first.

I would like to either eliminate this "system tray hiding" behavior altogether or, better yet, only have it happen when there isn't room to display them all. How do I do this ? Alternatively, can I specify which icons stay in the non-hidden part of the system tray ? StuRat 17:18, 24 July 2007 (UTC)

  1. Right-click on the taskbar, pick "Properties"
  2. In the lower half of the "Taskbar" pane, uncheck "Hide inactive icons".
Atlant 17:29, 24 July 2007 (UTC)
As simple as that ? Thanks ! StuRat 18:11, 24 July 2007 (UTC)
It's also possible to mark specific icons so that they're never hidden. I'm not using XP (or Windows at all) right now, and I don't recall precisely how to do it, but I seem to remember it could be done somehow via the taskbar properties dialog. —Ilmari Karonen (talk) 19:39, 24 July 2007 (UTC)
Next to the "Hide inactive icons" option there's a "Customize" button that lets you do this. --jh51681 00:24, 25 July 2007 (UTC)