Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Computing/2008 March 17

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[edit] March 17

[edit] google video ripper

i'm looking for a website or program that will rip video from Google video. The only catch is that this video is about 2 hours long! I need a converter that could handle that. It could be for any OS. --Randoman412 (talk) 03:03, 17 March 2008 (UTC)

[1] Mac Davis (talk) 04:37, 17 March 2008 (UTC)
Thats fine, but that site says "No Video Found". Why? --Randoman412 (talk) 19:22, 17 March 2008 (UTC)
Does KeepVid.com work for you?--droptone (talk) 19:26, 17 March 2008 (UTC)

[edit] endless buffer

youtube isn't working on my user(pls. note i said user, and not the computer or other users.)because it dosn't seem to stop buffering but it did work before. i did try clearing the cache —Preceding unsigned comment added by 119.95.132.73 (talk) 03:06, 17 March 2008 (UTC)

[edit] E-mail and the law

Moved from Humanities

It's a felony in the US to tamper with mail sent through the US Post Office, to open mail not addressed to you, to destroy mail, etc.

Is e-mail protected by any such legislation? I would assume not, other than standard data-loss/hacking types of things, but I'm curious. Say someone accidentally sends e-mail to me because I have a similar e-mail address as someone else. Am I required legally to respect their confidentiality or privacy? Do I have to report it to them? Do I have to delete it? Does it count as "unlawful access to stored communications" if it was sent to me accidentally? (Seems unlikely to me on that last one, since the law says you have to be doing things "intentionally".) What if I reprinted them elsewhere? (Do I have anything to worry about except, at most, copyright infringement?) Etc.

(No, this isn't a plea for legal advice. It's just a query about the law. There's a difference. I'm not doing this myself, I'm not taking any of your responses as being advice from a lawyer, etc.) --98.217.8.46 (talk) 19:12, 16 March 2008 (UTC)

Law offices like to copypaste warnings all over their emails claiming that they're copyrighted and that it's illegal to read the contents if you're not the person they're actually trying to contact. But you can't really legislate it- if you got an email intended for someone else, just be annoyed at the spam and send back a furious flame about lern-ing to type, or purse your lips and delete that crap, or if it's interesting forward it to all of your friends. This is the internet, it's not exactly serious business. :D\=< (talk) 05:28, 17 March 2008 (UTC)
Like at my work, there's a guy much higher up the "ladder" than me with the same name. I get e-mails intended for him on a regular basis, usually his travel itinerary or something. I just forward them to him and e-mail the sender informing them of the correct e-mail address. However, if it's just a random mistake, and you don't know who to forward it to, I'd just probably read it and delete it. But don't open any attachments! Useight (talk) 05:45, 17 March 2008 (UTC)
(Why was this moved from Humanities? This isn't really about computers per se, it's about law. Whatever.)
The back story is I know someone who has been on a regular basis now getting e-mail meant for someone else purely by accident (very similar e-mail addresses, automatically assigned by name), and I'm trying to find out whether she has any legal obligations in regards to this. It's not that she's annoyed -- the e-mails are actually quite interesting and shed a lot of light into an organization that is usually quite secretive... --98.217.8.46 (talk) 14:09, 17 March 2008 (UTC)
Don't screw around with the government or the military or some black ops corporation like Lockheed Martin.. these entities have wide powers and aren't afraid to ignore the law.. if you're getting emails intended for them, close the email account and never go back. If it's just some stupid retail chain or something you're fine. :D\=< (talk) 18:27, 17 March 2008 (UTC)
You could write to the person whose email you are accidentally getting and ask for their advice. This might lead to a good outcome! Otherwise you are entering the circle of confidentiality of somebody who you don't necessarily want to be that close to. You might be acquiring legal obligations for protecting the accidentally-disclosed information. If you *do* warn them of the situation, you are much safer. Then if you get no response, you can correctly testify that they didn't care. Use certified paper mail and keep the receipt if you think they are a bigshot who won't otherwise pay attention. (Disclaimer: I am not a lawyer).. EdJohnston (talk) 20:33, 17 March 2008 (UTC)
The information is not legally classified or anything if that is what you are wondering. It has nothing to do with the government or the military or security of any form; it doesn't even have to do with big money (it has to do with things like university admissions processes). In this case (and again, it's not me, per se), I think contacting the mistaken person wouldn't really work out for the best. I imagine that if one wanted to make it into a book the only things that would apply would again be copyright information and potentially privacy related things, but I think it wouldn't be too hard to get around those (by obscuring names, for example, and making sure any use of copyrighted material was within fair use requirements). --98.217.8.46 (talk) 21:07, 17 March 2008 (UTC)
There is no inherant right to privacy with regards to e-mail; unless encrypted, e-mails can be intercepted en route if they are sent on public (internet) lines. Using e-mail to defraud or anything illegal will get you. Using it to spy on coworkers may be bad form, but generally won't get you arrested. However, if the e-mail she is reading is intended for someone in her office and she knowingly prevents that person from getting the e-mail or reads it with intent to spy, depending on the company's rules about such, she could get fired. I've forgotten to log in.... --204.65.60.15 (talk) 22:03, 17 March 2008 (UTC)
That's pretty much what I thought. Thanks! It's not a situation in which anybody would have the authority to fire her. --98.217.8.46 (talk) 15:36, 18 March 2008 (UTC)
If she's getting internal emails then she could of course be fired for reading them and not reporting it. I can't imagine anyone would care if it has nothing to do with her work, unless she's getting something illegal through her work email. She shouldn't use her work email for things unrelated to work :D\=< (talk) 01:31, 20 March 2008 (UTC)

I quote the OP

It's a felony in the US to tamper with mail sent through the US Post Office, to open mail not addressed to you, to destroy mail, etc.

It specifically covers mail from USPS. If I write a letter to Froth and address the envelope as such, hand it over to LarryMac, who hands it over to Captain Ref Desk, who hands it over to the University Postal Service at Froth's university, it is just common sense that I cannot expect absolute privacy, unless Larry Mac, Captain Ref Desk, and the student worker at the University Postal Service are willing to take Scout's Honor :). In the same way, e-mail hops from place to place and does not travel direct via me to you. This is distinctly different from USPS mail where you can expect the mail to go from the sender to the receiver with only USPS as the intermediate agent. Kushal 16:16, 20 March 2008 (UTC) Has anyone read Breach of confidence? Kushal 06:31, 21 March 2008 (UTC)

[edit] softwear

      What you mean by softwear  —Preceding unsigned comment added by 202.88.239.94 (talk) 08:41, 17 March 2008 (UTC)
See cotton and software. -- Meni Rosenfeld (talk) 09:00, 17 March 2008 (UTC)
Hardware is the electronics of your computer. Software are the programs than run on it. Software is flexible; hardware, less so. --Captain Ref Desk (talk) 14:56, 17 March 2008 (UTC)
It's actually pretty complicated but for layman's use, anything that's a physical card or chip is hardware, instructions stored on a CD or downloaded over the internet is software. :D\=< (talk) 02:29, 18 March 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Weird question

Here's a weird question: What happened in January 2006? [2] Closer inspection also finds the Czech Republic to hold most of the responsibility. Mac Davis (talk) 09:04, 17 March 2008 (UTC)

Without knowing the scale of the vertical axis it's hard to know what order of magnitude of increase we're talking about, whether it is a significant statistical fluctuation or not, whether it is a big trend or some extremely avid Googler in Prague. It's also a little suspicious how close they correlate—that there might be some overlap is reasonable but the fact that these two terms without a whole lot of necessary overlap are correlating could just mean that their trends are piggy-backing on other more generalized trends (like an increase in popularity of Google in Czech Republic in general, etc.). But again, without knowing the scale, the graph is pretty meaningless—it could be something, it could be nothing, it's impossible to distinguish between the two options. Or, pretty AND meaningless. --Captain Ref Desk (talk) 15:00, 17 March 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Mac MSN 6.0.3

I'm having trouble and close to tears.

I use Mac MSN 6.0.3 on my macbook pro, OSX 10.4.11 I accidently moved the folder 'Microsoft user data' which freaked msn out, and I lost my smilies. Now, when I try to add smilies, it says I can only have 59 favorites, and must 'uncheck' one first.

Fine, but i have NO other smilies. It wont even let me select their standard ones, saying i must unselect some first!? I can get 20 out of 59, and it wont allow me any more. Why!?

I've deleted all Microsoft folders which might be interfering.

Please, restore my faith in Microsoft. Is there a .txt file somewhere that is causing trouble? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 86.139.91.153 (talk) 12:35, 17 March 2008 (UTC)

You really shouldn't have faith in Microsoft to begin with—they haven't earned it.
Your best bet is to uninstall and reinstall the software again. You've corrupted something in how it keeps track of things and now it is has probably overwritten its preferences with new information so you can't just roll is back. Keep your other smilies in a different folder and then re-enter them in again. And in the future try to avoid moving folders with names like that. --Captain Ref Desk (talk) 15:05, 17 March 2008 (UTC)

PROBLEM SOLVED: there were about 4 files in random places which contained plists for msn. I had to hunt them all down, delete them and re-instal the software again. Kinda annoying that software cannot handle one folder being moved -_-; 86.139.91.153 (talk) 18:48, 17 March 2008 (UTC)

Yeah, well, that's Microsoft for you. If it has random plists all over then it is not really following the OS X filesystem standards guidelines either. But again, that's Microsoft. I didn't realize you had already tried to uninstall and reinstall—often hiding plists are what makes a problem last even after you've done that. --Captain Ref Desk (talk) 21:03, 17 March 2008 (UTC)

What's wrong with Adium in the first place? Kushal 15:42, 19 March 2008 (UTC)

[edit] PowerMac G4 broken

Hi all,

my arts teacher accidentally put in a USB stick into the USB port of his PowerMac G4, but he forgot some kids damaged it, and so he shortcutted the two inner wires of the USB connector. Now the mac won't boot or give any life signs...any idea how to fix this?

84.56.63.3 (talk) 16:32, 17 March 2008 (UTC)

Well, he should first try resetting the PMU and zapping the PRAM and see if that helps, though it probably won't. It's hard to know with just that description what is wrong. You probably need someone to take it apart and look at it who knows what they are doing. I've never heard of that sort of problem before, personally. --Captain Ref Desk (talk) 17:02, 17 March 2008 (UTC)
Also remove the short if still present.87.102.13.144 (talk) 17:33, 17 March 2008 (UTC)

• The beauty of the G4 macs is the ability to open them up. If you are confident, open it up and remove the hard drive and put it in another G4. then you can check for software problems. Once you have eliminated the threat of any software issues, back up all your data from the hard disk. Then you can put the drive back ( safe in the knowledge your data is backed-up ) and then try to find a solution. 86.139.91.153 (talk) 18:51, 17 March 2008 (UTC)

Thank you all for your answers, hopefully he can solve this issue. Thanks! 84.56.63.3 (talk) 21:08, 17 March 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Computer Programming

Totals are normally initialized to ______ before a program is run. Jebake0264 (talk) 16:37, 17 March 2008 (UTC)

We don't really answer homework questions. Check your course materials. --Captain Ref Desk (talk) 17:03, 17 March 2008 (UTC)
What does totals mean? What does initialized mean? If you were going to etch tally marks on your prison wall for each year you spent there, how many should be there on the day you arrive? There's only one thing separating you from the animals and the dirt, Jebake0264; use it! --Sean 17:40, 17 March 2008 (UTC)
I think that last comment might seem offensive to some (inasmuch as it implies the OP hasn't used it so far). Not to mention that the idea that anything separates us from animals is debatable at best. -- Meni Rosenfeld (talk) 18:42, 17 March 2008 (UTC)
Well, humans are the only animal that can imply that a fellow animal who posts a homework question complete with a blank for the answer isn't thinking for itself.  :) --Sean 19:46, 17 March 2008 (UTC)
And we wear shoes - what other animal does that, except horses?87.102.13.144 (talk) 20:08, 17 March 2008 (UTC)
Aha, then "Totals are nomally initialized to shoes before a program is run". Excellent. --LarryMac | Talk 20:09, 17 March 2008 (UTC)
It's pretty unpleasant to run without shoes, after all. Like most problems, this is really just about thinking it through. --Captain Ref Desk (talk) 20:59, 17 March 2008 (UTC)
I once ran without any shoes, and nothing happened! Of course, I was indoors ... but that's another story. =P Kushal 16:05, 20 March 2008 (UTC)
A clue is that totals are created through addition, so you should use the appropriate Identity element
I guess, then, that empty sum is also relevant, although the empty product and empty intersection are more interesting. I didn't know that you could initialize anything before a program even runs — there's static memory allocation, but I wouldn't call that initialization... --Tardis (talk) 09:32, 18 March 2008 (UTC)

[edit] 80 GB PS3 in US

Is it just me or has the 80 GB PS3 stopped being sold in the US? I've searched multiple websites trying to find one to purchase but everyone only seems to be selling the 40 GB version. Our article on the PS3 still says they are being produced but I understand that may not be up to date. Can anyone find one new anywhere? Z28boy (talk) 17:04, 17 March 2008 (UTC)

http://www.sonystyle.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?catalogId=10551&langId=-1&productId=8198552921665225458&storeId=10151 (out of stock)
as far as I know sony hasn't officially 'killed' this model - it just happens to be very rare.
But if you wait to june 12th you can get this: http://gizmodo.com/361057/80gb-playstation-3-not-exactly-discontinued-just-bundled-with-metal-gear-solid-4

87.102.13.144 (talk) 17:54, 17 March 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Partitioning USB drive

I have a USB flash drive. Is it possible to create partitions in it? PC: Windows XP Pro (SP2) drive: Apacer, 1 GB, no software --grawity talk / PGP 18:47, 17 March 2008 (UTC)

Yes it is, but I don't know any good programs for XP. Probably it won't be too hard to find, just depends on what kind of partitions you want. At least you can always use format on command line: Run... cmd /k format /? for instructions. --212.149.216.233 (talk) 19:50, 17 March 2008 (UTC)

Fix: I quickly checked, and it seems you can't create multiple partitions with format. See instead [3] or anything similar. --212.149.216.233 (talk) 19:57, 17 March 2008 (UTC)

Fix of fix: In case you didn't know, you can use hard disk partitioners or whatever on USB too (afaik).> --212.149.216.233 (talk) 19:59, 17 March 2008 (UTC)

From the Windows command line, you can use fdisk, or from Control Panel/Admin Tools/Computer management you can get to Disk Management. However, always remember that the partitioning tools built into Windows are destructive, i.e. any data already on the drive will be lost. A LiveCD with GParted should do the job non-destructively. --LarryMac | Talk 20:06, 17 March 2008 (UTC)
Oops, no fdisk in XP. --LarryMac | Talk 20:07, 17 March 2008 (UTC)
I can't delete existing partition from Disk Management, so I can't create new. --grawity talk / PGP 20:12, 17 March 2008 (UTC)
I guess Windows won't allow you to partition a device that it identifies as removable. You can view how Windows identifies it in My computer, if you arrange icons by type and set the option "show icons in groups" on. Most flash drives appear under "Devices with removable storage", but I have used a flash drive before that was appearing under "hard disk drives". I don't know how Windows decides what is a removable storage device and what is a hard disk drive, though. If you are using a "hard disk drive", Computer management utility in Control panel works good - I had partitioned my external hard drive with it, and it's all fine.  ARTYOM  00:17, 18 March 2008 (UTC)
Yep, it shows as removable drive. (It is.) --grawity talk / PGP 08:14, 18 March 2008 (UTC)
Come on, no one knows about diskmgmt.msc? (hint: type that in Run) --antilivedT | C | G 09:21, 18 March 2008 (UTC)
You mean the utility that a) one can get to via control panel, as mentioned above; and b) has already been noted as not up to the task? --LarryMac | Talk 13:09, 18 March 2008 (UTC)

[edit] java program to compute Euler's constant using it's tailor series expansion By chips

82.206.143.13 (talk) 19:19, 17 March 2008 (UTC)

You should check out Java, Euler's constant and Taylor Series and let us know if you have any more specific questions. --Sean 19:39, 17 March 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Getting EarthSiege 2 to run under Windows XP

Hello all (again^^),

I recently dug out my CD of EarthSiege 2 and installed the game on my WinXP SP2 Home laptop (GF 8600M GT GPU). I can manage to start the main game screen, but as soon as I start a mission, DBSIM.EXE crashes. Can someone please give me a hint how to resolve this issue and maybe give me a copy of his dbsim.exe (I think it could be that the copy failed due to read errors)?

Thanks,84.56.63.3 (talk) 21:12, 17 March 2008 (UTC)

This may be of help. — Matt Eason (Talk • Contribs) 21:16, 17 March 2008 (UTC)
Yea, I know that one, but it didnt help :( 84.56.63.3 (talk) 21:48, 17 March 2008 (UTC)
Try right-clicking on the exe, go into properties, and run the program in compatibility mode for the operating system you know it worked on before. Also sometimes it helps to install the recommended directx version for an old game, as new directx releases don't always include all the old components. Sandman30s (talk) 14:37, 18 March 2008 (UTC)

[edit] earphones

Excuse me, but the earphones I use for my computer seem to have gone kooky. One of the earphones won't sound out anymore, but it just was working a few minutes ago. Can someone please point me to the right direction? Will the problem fix itself? I'm not very technical, so please explain it to me not very complex. Thank you.v--142.132.130.113 (talk) 21:24, 17 March 2008 (UTC)

Before you assume the earphones are bad, make sure they're plugged in firmly. Maybe try them with some other device also. Friday (talk) 21:28, 17 March 2008 (UTC)
Very good advice. Check whether the earphones work in another device and whether the computer works with a different set of earphones, then you will know where the problem is. I think the most likely cause is a loose connection in the cables for the earphone. You could try wiggling the wires where they go into the plug and where they join the headphones, and this might make it work again, though of course this won't be reliable. If this is the cause you could get someone to solder the connection, if it is at the plug end then you may well have a moulded plug that cannot be repaired and will need to be replaced. This is probably only worth doing commercially if they are expensive headphones, but if you know someone into electronics then they would probably do it for free, or the cost of a phone jack if needed. -- Q Chris (talk) 09:40, 18 March 2008 (UTC)
Agreeing with Chris. Headphone cables often start cutting out from being kinked too much. Some brands sell replacement cables online. My Sennheisers are on their 4th cord, and I have a 5th in the drawer for when this one goes bad. Not cheap, but cheaper than replacing expensive headphones. / edg ☺ ☭ 23:11, 18 March 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Spreadsheet hell

Googling around doesn't really solve this for me, so I turn to my fellow Wikipedians. I have a spreadsheet in the following format:

label1 valueA
label2 valueB
label3 valueC
label4 valueD
label1 valueE
label2 valueF
label3 valueG
label4 valueH
label1 valueI

...etc, with about 200 respondents, identified by label1. I want to have it in this format:

label1 label2 label3 label4
valueA valueB valueC valueD
valueE valueF valueG valueH
valueI  ...    ...     ...

I've got SPSS, OoO Calc and MS Excel, but I haven't been able to do this in an automated fashion in any of them. Specifically, using "transpose" in Excel will require me to type 200 transpose formulas, as it doesn't want to automatically adjust them. Any suggestions? User:Krator (t c) 21:49, 17 March 2008 (UTC)

Just to clarify, the formulas that are not transposing correctly refer to data oustide of the area you are trying to reformat? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Oliana (talk • contribs) 22:15, 17 March 2008 (UTC)
Not sure what you're asking, but maybe the following clarifies it. I tried to use the {=TRANSPOSE(stuff:stuff)} function, which did not work out, because it would mean I have to type 200 of such functions, which is just about as bad as doing the job by hand. User:Krator (t c) 22:47, 17 March 2008 (UTC)
I guess 200 is the number of values per label. Anyway, suppose you have 4 labels and 3 values each. Suppose they are start in cell A1. In Calc, go to cell D1 and type:
=INDEX($A$1:$B$12 ; (COLUMN(D1)-COLUMN($D$1)) + 1 ; 1)
Then drag the cell all the way to the right. Then go to cell D2 and type:
=INDEX($A$1:$B$12 ; 4*(ROW(D2)-ROW($D$2)) + (COLUMN(D2)-COLUMN($D$2)) + 1 ; 2)
And drag this cell all the way to the right and to the bottom. Of course, the 12 is the total number of values, and the 4 is the number of labels. The same works in Excel, but I think you need commas instead of semicolons. -- Meni Rosenfeld (talk) 07:13, 18 March 2008 (UTC)
What you're doing is in effect talking column 2 and re-folding it, and putting 1 set of labels at the top of the new table. You can do it quite easily using a word processor.
1. Copy 1 set of labels (i.e. label1, label2, label3, label4) into a blank text (i.e. word processor) document. (The copied cells will be a table in the destination document.)
2. Copy column 2 from the spreadsheet to the text document.
3. From the word processor, convert the table (or tables, depending on whether the word processor joins the two pasted tables together) into text. You will have the data you wanted as a series of lines, 1 item per line.
4. Select all the entries, then use the "convert text to table" function of the word processor to make a table from the selected text. Make sure that you specify a table width of 4.
--72.78.237.190 (talk) 00:10, 19 March 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Website design help - Donating to Wikipedia

Moved from Wikipedia:Help_desk

I am writing to you to ask for your help. I am an experienced website designer, and I have recently created a very popular gaming website which allows users to play games online for free. I noticed you have a donations webpage on your site (http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Donate) and I was wondering if you could tell me how to go about integrating something like this into my site.

Many thanks

W. Maguire (<email removed>) —Preceding unsigned comment added by 86.160.55.23 (talk) 19:56, 16 March 2008 (UTC)

We cannot offer help with that here. This page is for asking how to use Wikipedia. The reference desk might be able to help. George D. Watson (Dendodge).TalkHelp 20:02, 16 March 2008 (UTC)
Go to the computing desk by clicking here[4] and click on the + sign in the top most bar to start a new section and place your question there. Julia Rossi (talk) 00:27, 17 March 2008 (UTC)

You can easily set up a PayPal account and use their donation buttons. If you want to write something yourself you're going to have to figure out how credit card processing works, it's ugly. If you want to set something up yourself you're going to have to figure out how your tax laws work and probably work with your bank. Just use paypal. :D\=< (talk) 02:07, 18 March 2008 (UTC)

[edit] RSS

Does anyone know of a non-interactive command-line RSS reader? Thanks --90.203.189.180 (talk) 22:54, 17 March 2008 (UTC)

Well you can get the raw XML files with wget. :D\=< (talk) 02:04, 18 March 2008 (UTC)