Wikipedia:Reference desk archive/Computing/2006 August 26

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[edit] reinstalling windows

Hi guys... sorry I am asking a bunch of questions... if i reinstall windows... (because mine is screwed) ... do I have to save all my information somewhere else?! also, does reinstalling windows = formating it?... gosh , my pc is completely screwed...--Cosmic girl 01:52, 26 August 2006 (UTC)

yes it is. but if your cd burner still works youre in luck. first burn all of your documents/crap to a cd. any pictures in your computer. most files that youll need will be saved to your desktop, my documents and its subdirectories. other such things you need will be any mp3s you have on your computer, and file sharing directories. i dont know what you use your comptuer for but think of all the things you use it for. next find the cds that came with your computer. restart it with the cds in your computer. you may have to change the boot order for it to load from the cd instead of your hard drive. im not going to get into all of that htough. yes this is called reformating your computer or reinstalling windows and will completely reformat your harddrive and install windows on it, fresh as the day you got your computer 24.193.235.5 03:22, 26 August 2006 (UTC)

However, if the prob is a virus, it might come back when you copy your old crap back into windows. So, if a virus is in your critical files, you may not be able to restore them. StuRat 09:52, 26 August 2006 (UTC)
Also, while it is possible to reload Windows without reformatting the hard disk, I see no reason to do so. You might as well do both. StuRat 09:54, 26 August 2006 (UTC)


I have ABSOLUTELY no clue what is 'reformating the hard disk' much less, how to do it =( . --Cosmic girl 17:28, 26 August 2006 (UTC)

reformating the hard disk is a way to erase everything and start over (removing, along with everything else, the virus). First back up all the files you need, you can upload them to your email account, copy them to a usb key, or burn them on a CD whatever. Do not copy any programs, they may be contaminated by the virus; you can redownload them if you need them. The most inportant information often takes up the least amount of space. After you back up what you need, put in the windows CD that came with your computer and restart. The computer should boot off the CD. There you should have a menu that says something like "would you like to install windows". and there will be a point where it says "Stop, this will erase all your information, are you sure you want to do this!" and "are you really really sure?" and maybe even a "are you 100% certain about this?". Just keep clicking yes. When it is done your computer should be as good as new. If you have any question feel free to ask back over here. Jon513 18:22, 26 August 2006 (UTC)

Also, if you go to a DOS window, you can type in FDISK to bring up the disk format utility. The same warning applies, however, as this will wipe the disk clean, so be sure you've saved anything you want, first. Be sure to view the current format first so you can use the same format (such as FAT32), when you reformat. StuRat 20:42, 26 August 2006 (UTC)

Thank you guys =), I think I'll just go with the windows cd procedure, because I don't know how to open a DOS window... yeah...pathetic, I know. =) :p --Cosmic girl 01:25, 27 August 2006 (UTC)

On my Windows 98 comp, it's "Start" + "Programs" + "MS-DOS Prompt". StuRat 10:16, 27 August 2006 (UTC)

thanks a lot!!! =). I'll let u guys know how it all goes.--Cosmic girl 19:15, 27 August 2006 (UTC)

  • I've said it before and I will say it again. Try fixing the issue and using virus scanners before you wipe your hard drive. If you don't do that, reinstalling windows won't solve your problem. -- Mgm|(talk) 09:54, 29 August 2006 (UTC)

If you format all disks and then reload Windows, no virus should be able to survive that. StuRat 06:21, 30 August 2006 (UTC)

[edit] using a Laptop

Upto how many degrees do laptop users open and keep their laptop and use (on an average)? For example, you may say most of the users use their laptops having opened 135 degrees (distance between keyboard and monitor). Or you may say that the distance between monitor and keyboard is 120 degrees. like that.

I have no idea and I don't think any studies have been carried out. I would guess 90 degrees though, that's how I keep mine.
It depends on the height of the screen relative to your eyes. If it's much lower than your eyes, 135 degrees might be right. But, if it's the same height as your eyes, 90 degrees would be better. Ideally, you want a line perpendicular to the center of the screen to bisect your eyes. StuRat 09:47, 26 August 2006 (UTC)

[edit] study abroad information science

hello, i apologize in advance for this question, as i know it will probably get no responses and is pretty long. i am a senior IS&T student at temple university, and i am regretting that i never studied abroad. my last semester is the coming spring and i only ahve 3 classes left. i am looking for a university that i could study abroad at that has classes that may be similar to these so i could try to sell it to the computer science department. i need these 3 classes:

330. network architectures: This course covers the operation of computer networks and internets. It provides the background to enable students to evaluate alternative approaches to client-server computing and n-tier software development. To accomplish this the course includes communications technology, computer network technology internetworking using the TCP/IP protocol suite, client-server protocols, client-server computing, network program component models as well as issues involving security, privacy, authentication, intellectual property rights, and social changes related to computer networking.

342 net app systems: The objective of this course is to provide further depth, beyond CIS 0309, into the development of network deployed systems. Its emphasis is on distributed, multi-tier architectures. The course is divided into 3 parts. First is the theory associated with protocols, architectures, middleware, and database transactions. These include such topics as HTTP, SOAP, DNA, Multi-tiered architecture, Web Services, .NET Framework, .NET Remoting ADO.NET and COM+. The second part is a deeper knowledge of the ASP.NET and VB.NET languages beyond CIS 0309. This would include (1) application system design, construction and packaging via .NET assemblies, server controls, and custom controls, (2) component and data distribution via COM+, XML, SOAP, Web Services and .NET Remoting, (3) database transactions via ADO.NET, and (4) report generation via Crystal Reports. The third part of the course is a project that the student will perform in the design and programming of a distributed application.

w381 information systems implimentation: This is a capstone course where teams of students implement the information system for which they developed specifications in CIS W281. The teams create the database, programs, procedures and documentations necessary for their project. Techniques of modular design, program development, testing and integration are employed. Emphasis is placed on writing documentations, oral presentations and project management.

i know these courses are very specific but perhaps any university with a wide variety of computer classes could find a match that is somewhat close. i know this is a pretty specific question, so even if you have a lead or know any good schools id be interested. some of the places id like to visit would be london, melbourne/sydney, rome, spain, japan. but i can only speak english : \ thanks 24.193.235.5 03:18, 26 August 2006 (UTC)

I was going to toot my own horn at first, welcoming you to Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm, Sweden, but I realize that starting already this spring might not be possible. Since I'm not very knowledgeable in the American education system, I am not quite sure on what level you are studying right now. If, by any chance, you are about to get a Bachelor's degree I can perhaps interest you in coming for a Master's program in English, starting next autumn. It takes one and a half year to complete, and is free of charge. The courses might, on average, be more theoretical than the ones you mention. It's not you wishlist of locations but in any case I can't really imagine that you would experience much of communication problems. Save for some older people, you will be able to speak with pretty much a anyone and among youths, it can be tricky to find a person that is not fluent in your language. Swedish students at said university are for example expected to accept courses being held in English. Oh well, enough advertising. —Bromskloss 13:37, 26 August 2006 (UTC)

[edit] How long would it take to download a movie?

I was just trying to figure out what kind of bandwidth speeds would be required to make downloading movies as easy as downloading music is today. I could use some help.

My internet connection today is ~2.5Mbps. I know from experience that it takes me about a week or more to download an 8GB file (about the same size a dual layer DVD). To try to verify this I calculated that 2.5Mbps = 0.3MBps and 8GB = 8000MB. After simple division I get that it should take 7.5 hours to download that 8GB file with a 2.5Mbps connection. That's not what real world experience indicates.

What am I doing wrong?

I know right off the bat that I didn't take into consideration the upload speeds of the servers I'm tapping. How would I go about that?

- Pyro19 08:37, 26 August 2006 (UTC)

Then the sender isn't sending as fast as you can receive. You didn't say from where you're trying to download these movies - if it's a peer-to-peer service, then the sender is probably using an ADSL line - the "A" in ADSL stands for asymmetric - which means they have much less upstream bandwidth than downstream. If that's the case, you're limited not by your down speed, but by the other guy's up. Moreover, he may be sending to multiple people, meaning you only get a share of what he's sending. Bittorrent helps that, as you're potentially getting lots of people's downstream (which is why on bittorrent you might, sometimes, approach your max download speed) - but very often people sharing movies or whatever on Bittorrent will be downloading to multiple people, so again their upstream becomes saturated. -- Finlay McWalter | Talk 08:49, 26 August 2006 (UTC)
Yeah, I was talking about a p2p service. So it doesn't really matter how fast the down speed is as long as the other guy's up speed doesn't at least match it? I guess a corporation like Apple would probably have plenty of bandwidth allowing for the down speed to be the only effective limit while joe shmoe would have a regular consumer line where the up speed is seriously hindered thereby making the down speed effectivly irrelevant. Well, that sucks. - Pyro19 09:10, 26 August 2006 (UTC)
Yes, that's generally true. The asymmetry in ADSL is deliberate, and it's an artifact of how telcos (and, to be fair, everyone else) thought the internet would develop - you'd issue relatively small requests for web pages and the like, and receive relatively large replies (from professional providers with beefy connections). The modest number of home/small-business users who needed significant upstream (largely for VPN) would either buy SDSL or bonded ISDN. P2P turns that right on its head. And given how the telcos are already complaining they have to carry too much stuff already, I doubt they'll be keen to provide better upstream in the near future. -- Finlay McWalter | Talk 09:40, 26 August 2006 (UTC)
If you're talking about bittorrent, the more you upload, the more people will send you, but only until you're uploading at about 2/3 of your upload capacity... if you upload more at more than that, the usual behaviour is that upload is saturated and it strongly affects download, negativelly, because of some trouble with the workings of internet protocols (basically, the "received" confirmation that is send to acknownedge received data is queued in the upload queue after lots of big packages from the upload, forming a bottleneck). Serious operating systems like Linux have sophisticated package schedulers to avoid that sort of problem; Users of lesser systems can, alternativelly, just set up their bittorrent clients to limit upload to about 2/3 it's (previously tested without that limitation) capacity.-- Roc VallèsTalk|Hist - 15:02, 30 August 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Sony VEGAS -- WHAT do I RENDER as if I want to BURN to a DVD?

I have my video in Vegas. Up until now, I've been rendering as .avi-Pal DV-"good" render quality... then I have been using Nero to burn this avi file as a DVD with their "make DVD-video" option.

I was just wondering, is .avi-Pal DV-"good" quality the best one to use if I want to burn as a DVD?

gelo 11:00, 26 August 2006 (UTC)

I would think .avi-anyhting is your best choice, but then I don't have Vegas, but for outputting to DVD you're probably always best off with .avi-PAL or .avi-NTSC. I would think the difference would be unnoticeable, especially considering that television is inherintely low-res, and that TV usually works as people's baseline for video quality--71.247.243.173 14:37, 28 August 2006 (UTC)
I don't know vegas, but I know DVDs store video in MPEG2 format, at a range of bitrate that goes from about 6mbit/s to about 10mbit/s depending on the vendor. In any case, storing the video in any other (lossy) format as an intermediate means losing quality twice: Once at each reencoding. In any case, there are good Free Software solutions both for video edition/encoding/etc and for DVD recording; looking at them cannot do any harm.-- Roc VallèsTalk|Hist - 15:07, 30 August 2006 (UTC)

[edit] IDE channel

Good Morning,

I have a few questions,

1. How much peripheral can you connnect on one IDE channel?

2. In windows XP, when you view some pictures in the thumbnail view, windows creats a hidden file, my question is what is the extension of this hidden file.

3. What is OS X and on what type of computer is it used on?

4. What is the difference between a password protected file and a password encrypted file?

Thank you,

4. An encrypted file has every bit of the file scrambled (encrypted). To decrypt the file, you must provide a password. The password may be used directly to decrypt the file, or it may give you access to the actual decryption key, which is then used to decrypt the file.
An encrypted file could also be called a "password protected file" but that phrase could also mean a weaker form of protection. The file may be sitting on your disk drive in a readable form, but when the program that is usually used to read it (a word processor for example) opens the file, it sees that it is protected so asks for the password. But a different brand of word processor might read the same file without the password, or the file could be altered to remove the password protection.
If you want to know how well protected a certain file is, tell us what operating system you are using, how the file was protected, and what kind of file it is. --Gerry Ashton 15:23, 26 August 2006 (UTC)
3. OS X is an operating system and is installed on the latest apple computers
1. Two
2. .db -83.129.36.234 21:51, 26 August 2006 (UTC)
Also, very often a "password protected" just has restricted access. For instance, a website with a members section has "password protected" the webpages in that section. Password protection could refer to encryption, but in a lot of cass, it just means you need a password to get to the file, and the file isn't actually encrypted. - Rainwarrior 00:33, 28 August 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Sound Recording Software!!!!!!!!

Hi, is there any software that I can use as an alternative to using Windows' Sound Recorder? If so, where can I download it from the net? THANKS Jon

Audacity. -- Finlay McWalter | Talk 12:06, 26 August 2006 (UTC)
Yep, Audacity is good, plus it's hard to go wrong with free, open source, software. Not to mention it reads Vorbis--71.247.243.173 14:33, 28 August 2006 (UTC)

[edit] fixed wireless Vs fully mobile

(Im writing from India) In today's world, is offering fixed wireless service any cheaper than offering fully mobile service? If there are no differences between costs incurred by the operator offering these two technologies, why are still fixed wireless been marketed in India even today? Companies playing gimmicks here? Thanks

[edit] Printing

I have an error dialogue when I try to print. It mentions not being able to print to LPT1 port. Help me and thanks Debbie-----------

More information please;
  • Operating System? If using Linux/Unix, CUPS?
  • Printer Type
  • Printer connection; USB, Parallel?
  • Is your printer turned on?
Benbread 19:19, 26 August 2006 (UTC)

We also need to know if this printer and the corresponding printer driver software were previously installed and working on that computer. StuRat 19:55, 26 August 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Unix environment variables question

If I SSH into a Unix computer and set an environment variable, and then export it, the variable only lasts for the duration of the SSH session. If I disconnect and connect again, the variable is gone. How can I set an environment variable that remains even after the SSH connection is closed? JIP | Talk 17:32, 26 August 2006 (UTC)

Environment variables are a property of the process they're set on; in your case, they're a property of the shell you're setting them in (and, if you export, of that shell's child processes). If you want a process created later (and not a child of your original shell) to get those settings, you need to put them into your .profile or .bashrc. If you specifically want later ssh sessions (when you reconnect at some later time) to have those same settings, the smartest idea is to use GNU Screen - the first time create a screen session, set your environment variables, and when you're done you detatch from the session (ctrl-a d). Then you log out of ssh. Next time you ssh in, reattach to that same session (which has been persistently hanging around waiting for you) with screen -r. -- Finlay McWalter | Talk 17:40, 26 August 2006 (UTC)
The computer in question is a database server, which reads some of its configuration from environment variables. I need to change one of those variables. From what I understand of the above, this is impossible with only SSH, because the variables set there don't affect processes started earlier. Do I need to restart the whole database? JIP | Talk 17:47, 26 August 2006 (UTC)
Anticipating this issue, most well-written server processes have a "reread your config file" command, which allows the configuration to be changed without stopping and restarting the process. A common choice is sending the server process a SIGHUP. But how that's implemented is entirely up to the server author - and while it'll pick up a change in a config file, it won't pick up anything from your environment. -- Finlay McWalter | Talk 17:55, 26 August 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Computer colours

I have a simple problem I'd feel stupid asking a real-life IT expert whom I'd have to pay to fix. I have Windows 98 on my computer, and recently installed ArcSoft PhotoStudio. Upon doing this, the colors on my screen have been lousy, and I fiddled around in the "display properties" settings, and now I have only a choice between 2 colors and 16 colors. Where can I get the 256-colour display back from? It doesn't give me that choice. Thanks, kind IT folks. --Dangherous 20:13, 26 August 2006 (UTC)

You (or the program's installer) may have increased your screen resolution. Older PCs have very limited graphics memory - so they can either display lots if pixels in only a few colours, or rather fewer pixels but with more colours. So try to reduce your graphics resolution. -- Finlay McWalter | Talk 20:16, 26 August 2006 (UTC)
How does one reduce one's graphics resolution? --Dangherous 20:45, 26 August 2006 (UTC)
In that same "display properties" screen there should be an option (it's been so long since I used '98 that I can't remember precisely what they call it). -- Finlay McWalter | Talk 20:46, 26 August 2006 (UTC)
"Start" + "Settings" + "Control Panel" + "Display" + "Settings" tab. StuRat 01:34, 28 August 2006 (UTC)
Another option is that you might have booted up in "safe mode" - you can tell this because the text "safe mode" appears in each of the four corners of the screen background (when you close all other programs). Safe mode frequently runs your computer hardware in a very rudimentary, conservative way, and you'll often get chunkier graphics and fewer colours. If you see "safe more", try rebooting. -- Finlay McWalter | Talk 21:59, 26 August 2006 (UTC)
If you fiddled with Windows display properties, it should be on the same screen, to the right of where you select the colour depth. (e.g. 800x600, et al - smaller numbers = less resolution). If you can't change it in display properties you probably have to re-install the display driver - cross your fingers you have that disk somewhere (or download a new driver). Then start again, taking note of what "fiddle" caused the problem. I see Photostudio requires a 16-bit graphics card, one assumes you're ok there. If you fiddled with display properties in some Photostudio setup, you get to the Windows one by rightclick on desktop, select properties and select the appropriate tab (usually the far right one, or second from right). --Seejyb 15:46, 27 August 2006 (UTC)
It looks like I'll have to reinstall a display driver. From where can I download one? There's no chance I'll find the disk of it. Thanks again. --Dangherous 18:23, 27 August 2006 (UTC)
I can't see where you've told us what graphics card (or on-board chip) you have. Although some sites provide all kinds of drivers, it's probably better to go directly to nVidia or ATi or whatever. You may even need a driver, not from the graphics chip maker, but from the graphics card maker. Anyway, if you want more specifics from us we'll need more from you. --KSmrqT 20:45, 27 August 2006 (UTC)