Computing desk
< June 2	<< May \| June \| Jul >>	June 4 >

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.

June 3

Reformat?

Hi, I need help fixing my older laptop. It currently has two partitions, each running a Windows OS and each is completely screwed up; wont load, freezes, all kinds of messed up basically. There's no data on it I need to save and I want to just start over: no partitions and reload Windows from disk. So, how can I do this? Thanks -- 24.19.234.96 00:43, 3 June 2007 (UTC)[reply]

You should make sure you have a copy of your operating system installation disk before you reformat. Once you have this, reboot the system with the OS installation disk in the drive. Most of the process is user-friendly and will be guided through on-screen instructions, but if you have never done this before, you may want to get technical assistance from somebody experienced. Nimur 01:38, 3 June 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Followup. The disc drive on the laptop is broken. I have an external usb drive. Is there a way to boot from this external drive? The current OS's are so screwed up I cant even get the computer to recognize the new drive with the disc I want to boot from in it. Someway to get the computer to recognize the new drive on boot so I can reload from it? I'm starting to feel a strong desire to smash the laptop so any help would be appreciated. Oh, I can load up task manager and use it to run commands like msconfig, if that helps, but the cpu is running at 100% and everything is slow as hell at best. 24.18.215.108 02:46, 3 June 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Check if the laptop's BIOS allows booting from your USB drive. You could also try a bootable USB flash drive. If both fail, you could also try removing the CD/DVD drive from your laptop and borrowing a working one from a friend (on all laptops I've seen, it's not only removable, but it also seems to follow some standard; see [1] for instance). --cesarb 15:26, 3 June 2007 (UTC)[reply]

I have had a lot of success booting and installing operating systems from USB drives. Another possible approach is a network boot, but this often technically difficult. Nimur 21:29, 3 June 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Ok, thanks for the suggestions everyone. Final question: if I do manage to get it to recognize my external drive and boot from that, can I use a copy of Windows XP to wipe everything, unpartition it, and reinstall a clean OS? 38.112.225.84 22:42, 3 June 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Yes, unless your hard-drive partitions are very corrupted. Windows XP has a reasonably robust disk reformat / repartition utility. Nimur 21:52, 4 June 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Xbox 360 and Gaming Adapters

I've just got an Xbox 360 and I want to wireless but I'm not so keen on spending the £50-60 that I'm going to get charged for the official network adapter. I just want to verify though that most gaming adapters (that is, wireless adapters which don't require the installation of drivers) will work with the 360. --Kiltman67 02:58, 3 June 2007 (UTC)[reply]

This should be the case. Splintercellguy 06:47, 3 June 2007 (UTC)[reply]

should be true, but be aware that while the original Xbox was essentially an off the shelf PC, down to the pentium 3/celeron processor, tweaked geforce 2 and modified NT kernel, the 360 is an actual custom-built console, including a PowerPC chip (based upon the same chip marketed as the G5 earlier by Apple), so anything designed for the previous generation may have some issues to say the least with the 360. -M^ask? 07:53, 3 June 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Which doesn't have any effect on wireless adapters. Ethernet is ethernet (well, not exactly, but close enough). -- Consumed Crustacean (talk) 23:27, 3 June 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Most Wireless Game Adapters are essentially a wireless access point. They have a wired Ethernet connection to any game console (or anything with an Ethernet connection), and a wireless connection to a home network. -wizzard2k ^(C•T•D) 15:40, 3 June 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Javascript and SVG object creation

This is a follow-up of previous question and the animation works pretty well now. However in the original animation new circle objects are created as the cannon ball flies to better illustrate its path. I cannot get it, or any object-creation for that matter (compare this and my converted version) to work when I put the code inside the XHTML file instead of the SVG with inline SVG. Can anyone help? --antilived^{T | C | G} 10:52, 3 June 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Aw, Opera closed on me when I put 2 as the angle, and about a million for the speed. --Wirbelwindヴィルヴェルヴィント (talk) 21:12, 3 June 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Hmm so it works in Opera? --antilived^{T | C | G} 22:35, 3 June 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Why wouldn't it? However, I don't see what the canon is supposed to hit. I seem to randomly say it hit. --Wirbelwindヴィルヴェルヴィント (talk) 01:06, 4 June 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Yea I haven't drawn the target yet, so now it's just a floating invisible target at 100px x. --antilived^{T | C | G} 02:21, 4 June 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Digital Camera

Hello. I am planning to buy a digital camera. What other materials and software are needed (e.g. memory card, printer specialized in printing photos, etc.)? Thanks. --Mayfare 17:06, 3 June 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Some cameras come with storage space included, but it's never much: you'll need some kind of memory card. Look up the camera you want to buy and see what kind of cards it takes (SD, XD, MemorystickDuo, CF, etc) and buy one - they're not too expensive. If you want to access the photos you took without using the camera, you can use a card reader to copy what's on the memory card to your PC. 202.10.86.63 17:14, 3 June 2007 (UTC)[reply]

You don't need a card reader. If you have one, thats great (I do and I like it). If you don't use the USB cable that usually comes with the camera to connect it to your PC. It works just as good, but requires you to carry around another thing. --R ^ParlateContribs_@ (Let's Go Yankees!) 17:20, 3 June 2007 (UTC)[reply]

I'd suggest downloading the free app Picasa, too. Especially for its one-click retouching. Down M. 17:25, 3 June 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Memory card is a good idea (check what your camera supports - probably SD). You can take the SD card to some photo print places and they'll print them for you. Battery power is a problem - you'll want rechargeable batteries (may be included, otherwise perhaps UK£5) and a battery charger (about £10). --h2g2bob (talk) 18:08, 3 June 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Best low-overhead anti-malware software for kubuntu?

I currently use Windows XP with the Comodo firewall, Norton Anti-Virus and Spybot-S&D. I often feel like my security software (Norton in particular) steals more of my PC's performance than any piece of malware ever would (although it's apparently blocked a few DDoS worms, numerous port scans and one instance of Trojan.Wimad). I will soon be switching almost entirely to kubuntu (already have the dual boot set up) for my desktop, as well as a laptop I intend to buy. What is the best free anti-malware software I can get that is designed around Linux's different needs and won't interfere significantly with performance? Neon Merlin 20:01, 3 June 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Due to its different security mindset and its relatively low popularity on the desktop, Linux doesn't really have malware. There have been a couple of cases over the years, but none have ever really gotten any traction (to my knowledge). Any search for "linux antivirus" is likely to return products that run on Linux, but provide virus protection for Windows machines on the same network. --TotoBaggins 21:13, 3 June 2007 (UTC)[reply]

The firewall in linux is built in, just manage the Netfilter/iptables configuration to block everything except what you must have open, and for those ports, you probably want to limit it to certain known networks or number of connections. As for avoiding malware, you can avoid most if not all by sticking to using software distributed by ubuntu and using common sense. Windows Malware won't affect you at all, unless you're running windows software (with WINE), but then, why bother running linux? You're still going to be susceptible to XSS attacks and internet scamming, so keep an up-to-date firefox on the system and ignore those emails from Nigeria. --JSBillings 21:19, 3 June 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Yeah, linux's best security software is linux. The biggest threat is passing on an infected file to your friends, which you had no idea about, given that it didn't effect you -- Phoeba Wright^OBJECTION! 22:19, 3 June 2007 (UTC)[reply]

How does netfilter/iptables perform on firewall leak tests? Neon Merlin 00:19, 4 June 2007 (UTC)[reply]

It'll pretty much do what you tell it to do. If you're running a web server and decide to keep it open to the 'net, then it's open to the 'net. If you don't want it to be, it won't be. -- Consumed Crustacean (talk) 01:56, 4 June 2007 (UTC)[reply]

There are security software packages for linux but they are mostly intrusion detection systems or increased access control schemes, these probably won't be usefull to you unless you really know what you are doing. The best way to stay secure is follow the security mailing lists so you can know when vulnerabilities are found so you can take proactive steps. Most of your security comes from properly sequestering the services and programs by running them under differnt uids with the minimum file priveleges they need. So even if a vulnerbality is exploited, the hijacked process can't do much damage. As Consumed Crustacean has said, iptables is only as secure/leaky as you configure it to be. -- Diletante 02:25, 4 June 2007 (UTC)[reply]

A bit offtopic, but kind of related: [2] --cesarb 00:54, 5 June 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Linux does not have malware, but it can have bad/suboptimal hardware drivers, which can cause bad performance. It would not cause performance degradation over time, though. -Yyy 09:26, 5 June 2007 (UTC)[reply]

When you install software on Ubuntu, you get the choice between "supported ubuntu applications", "all free sofware applications" etc. -- for an application to be in that list already, you can be reasonably sure that it's not malware (not least because the source code has to be published). Unlike Windows, you don't generally need to download software from a website and run it -- most software you need has been checked and packaged for you by the (k)Ubuntu people. Ojw 19:16, 10 June 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Greasemonkey question

Hi, I have no idea how to code.. Using Greasemonkey, can someone tell me how to erase all links that contain the string "foo" in the URL, please? Thank you. :) --Kjoonlee 23:39, 3 June 2007 (UTC)[reply]

this isnt with greasemonkey, which i do use (but know very little about) but try this if you're on firefox get adblock plus, and then use this type of filter for it *foo*, and it should do the trick...sorry but it's all i can help with xD 200.35.168.129 16:50, 4 June 2007 (UTC) Ag for MemTech[reply]

The problem is, that way, the pesky links will still be there when I try to select a long block of text. (Linky's "open all links in tabs" still picks them up.) --Kjoonlee 19:39, 4 June 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Your specification is a bit vague, but something like the code below could do it:

var links = document.getElementsByTagName("a");
for (var i = 0; i < links.count; i++) {
    if (/foo/.test(links[i].href))
        links[i].parentNode.removeChild(links[i]);
}

I haven't tested that, so it's probably buggy (I seem to recall some issues with removing nodes while iterating over a nodeList). I also suspect it could be even easier to do with XPath, but I'm not too familiar with that. Still, it could be worth a try. —Ilmari Karonen (talk) 12:02, 7 June 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Oh yeah, you can use XPath to retrieve the tags as well, but frankly that seems overkill since you don't even need a parent child relationship (of course, if you want in the future to only remove the links in a particular portion of the page, well, the XPath solution may prove better) Root⁴(one) 20:40, 7 June 2007 (UTC)[reply]