Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Computing/2008 August 6

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August 6

computing medicine

information on the topic computing medicine —Preceding unsigned comment added by 123.237.155.17 (talk) 02:16, 6 August 2008 (UTC) the use of computers and IT in manufacture of medicines —Preceding unsigned comment added by 123.237.155.17 (talk) 02:21, 6 August 2008 (UTC)

You fail to understand how college courses work. Your teacher is looking for the answer and its wording from the book. In addition, your question is so insanely far reaching as to make it meaningless. Thats like me asking "Information on fish in the ocean". --mboverload@ 02:30, 6 August 2008 (UTC)

Try computing & medicine and get back to us when you can narrow the scope of your question. Thanks, ---J.S (T/C/WRE) 03:49, 6 August 2008 (UTC)

This google search returns some seemingly useful links. Zain Ebrahim (talk) 12:24, 6 August 2008 (UTC)

Swf file?

I recently downloaded a game and the computer was unable to play it. The game is a " .swf" file. What kind of program do I need to play this game? (Keyboard387 (talk) 04:46, 6 August 2008 (UTC))

The file extension ".swf" is usually associated with Flash. To play the game, open the file using your a browser. If you have the flash plugin installed (most computers), it should work, otherwise you will be confronted with a blank page. Rilak (talk) 06:30, 6 August 2008 (UTC)

If you don't have flash installed you could try this - a portable swf player that doesn't need installing. - Sorf^ane 08:41, 6 August 2008 (UTC)

Media Player Classic can play SWF files, though for the full effect play them in your browser. Turbotanker (talk) 10:25, 6 August 2008 (UTC)

For what it's worth, the predecessor to Flash was Shockwave, so "swf" was taken to mean "Shockwave Flash." OtherDave (talk) 11:42, 7 August 2008 (UTC)

What is this chatroom layout type?

I need someone to know what this chatroom layout type I seen on a website is. Here is a picture what the chat layout type is like: http://i66.photobucket.com/albums/h241/sirdrink13309622/Eucromozz/000k.jpg?t=1218000933

Can you tell me what this chat layout type is? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Sirdrink13309622 (talk • contribs) 05:41, 6 August 2008 (UTC)

As far as I know there isn't any classification system for chartrooms. I'm not really sure how to answer your question. Perhapses if you can explain kind of information your actually looking for or what your trying to accomplish we can help you more? ---J.S (T/C/WRE) 19:21, 8 August 2008 (UTC)

Maybe that's a certain type of chat room software, and they want to know what it is. Unfortunately, I do not. JeremyMcCracken (talk) (contribs) 03:38, 11 August 2008 (UTC)

Transferring audio from tape to mp3

i want to transfer some audio cassette songs to computer(mp3 format). (in otherwards to copy a radio program in computer?). Could you recommend any free software and how to do it. Thank you 124.43.33.70 (talk) 08:42, 6 August 2008 (UTC)

You need one of these a 3.5mm patch cable. (You probably already have one.) Just plug one end to the line out of your cassette player, and the other end into the line in of your computer and that's all the hardware setup you need to do. The best software for this would be Audacity. This tutorial will explain how to record tapes in Audacity. - Sorf^ane 08:50, 6 August 2008 (UTC)

If "free" wasn't a concern, this might be useful. JeremyMcCracken (talk) (contribs) 03:40, 11 August 2008 (UTC)

Wikipedia Search Field with Autocompletion

I would like to include the Wikipedia search field with autocompletion for Wikipedia article names into a website. How can I do that? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 195.37.70.39 (talk) 09:31, 6 August 2008 (UTC)

It requires some coding on the backend. See AJAX or use the MediaWiki source as guidance. --Sean 14:06, 6 August 2008 (UTC)

I found out that a query should look like this:
http://en.wikipedia.org/w/api.php?action=opensearch&search=a&namespace=0
Some example solutions are offered by Jim Roos, Javascript Examples, and BrandSpankingNew. I will try their solutions... —Preceding unsigned comment added by 195.37.70.39 (talk) 13:04, 8 August 2008 (UTC)

Gadgets

I ask this question at the help desk yesterday here, this is what I asked:

“ Hi there, I'm not too sure if I should ask this here or at the Computing Reference Desk, so if I've picked the wrong place people feel free to move my question over. My question is about the Gadgets in My preferences; is it possible to run the scripts under Greasemonkey? I have a local Wiki and I'd like to use the scripts without installing, because I regularly erase it and start a new installation. It would be enormously helpful if I could run them from my Firefox browser using Greasemonkey to avoid having to reinstall the scripts each time. Thank you for your help. ZapThunderstrike (talk) 18:29, 5 August 2008 (UTC)

If you know how to write JavaScript, all you have to do is find the relevant page with the source of the gadget (not sure where they are though) and copy-paste it into a Greasemonkey file, telling Greasemonkey to execute it on your wiki's URLs. The only problem I could see is that the JavaScript is written for this installation of Mediawiki, so it might reference some things specific to this wiki. Calvin 1998 (t-c) 18:33, 5 August 2008 (UTC)

I did try a simple copy and past with the Live Clock, Twinkle and Navigation popups but none worked. I'm quite new to Greasemonkey and I know nothing of javascript, so it would be great if someone could provide a link to a site to explain how to do this; I don't expect anyone here to write an entire script for me, though I'd be eternally grateful if someone did :) ZapThunderstrike (talk) 18:38, 5 August 2008 (UTC)

”

Nobody at the help desk seemed to know so I'm hoping someone here will be able to help. Many thanks for taking the time to read and for (hopefully!) responding. ZapThunderstrike (talk) 09:54, 6 August 2008 (UTC)

Hotmail Contact List

Hello, The thing is, when i send mails from Windows Live Hotmail, the Contact List i get on the right side of the page, includes all my Contacts(entitled Everyone). So my question is, How can i change it to Favorite only. Thank You.82.194.62.220 (talk) 09:54, 6 August 2008 (UTC)

refresh

I'm looking for a way to refresh the page I'm viewing every five seconds or so. How can I do this? Turbotanker (talk) 10:24, 6 August 2008 (UTC)

You don't say which browser you're using but this extension will do it in Firefox — Matt Eason ^{(Talk • Contribs)} 11:07, 6 August 2008 (UTC)

Thanks but it's not compatible with FF 3.1 I've looked over the other addons but none seem to be great. Is there some HTML code I can add that would make a page reload upon viewing regardless of the browser? Thanks a lot everyone :) Turbotanker (talk) 11:19, 6 August 2008 (UTC)

This HTML will make Google.com reload every 15 seconds:

<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/loose.dtd">

<html>

<head>

<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1">

<META HTTP-EQUIV="refresh" CONTENT="15;URL=http://www.google.com" />

</head>

Just change www.google.com to whatever page you like, and 15 to the amount of seconds you want. Save it as reload.html, then open in your browser. - Sorf^ane 11:59, 6 August 2008 (UTC)

One comment, though: Trying to read a page that's constantly reloading could be quite annoying, as they tend to blank out the entire page, then redraw it one item at a time. If they used a more intelligent redraw, and only replaced items which have changed, then a reload wouldn't be nearly as disruptive. StuRat (talk) 13:20, 6 August 2008 (UTC)

Thanks guys, unfortunately that code only loads google once after 15 seconds and doesn't load it again. Turbotanker (talk) 13:51, 6 August 2008 (UTC)

The reason is actually that it's reloading www.google.com, which itself does not have the extra "refresh" meta tag. As soon as the first reload is completed then you won't ever see another reload. Tempshill (talk) 03:43, 7 August 2008 (UTC)

Assuming you have access to the source of the page you want to auto-refresh, just put the second-to-last line in the head of the page and change http://www.google.com to the URL of the page itself. I agree with StuRat though - if this is a public-facing page, this can get very annoying. — Matt Eason ^{(Talk &#149; Contribs)} 15:27, 6 August 2008 (UTC)

Firefox has its own timelapse reload built right in. Just right click the page, go to reload every, and then choose the amount of time that you need. hope this helps. Sish (talk) 14:14, 6 August 2008 (UTC)

I don't have such an entry on my right-click menu (Firefox 3.0.1, Windows). Perhaps you have an extension like ReloadEvery installed? -- Coneslayer (talk) 14:26, 6 August 2008 (UTC)

Yeah you are right, I never realized it, but that feature is part of TabMixPlus. Sorry for the confusion. Sish (talk) 14:29, 6 August 2008 (UTC)

One other option, download XuMouse: [1] which can click or move the mouse every 5 secs or more, set it to click every 5 secs, then position it on the refresh/reload button. This assumes you don't need to use the mouse or scroll the page between reloads, but has the advantage of working in any browser. StuRat (talk) 16:14, 6 August 2008 (UTC)

Here's a simple replacement to the code above that will load and auto-refresh an external site:

<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/loose.dtd">

<html>

<head>

<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1">

<META HTTP-EQUIV="refresh" CONTENT="5;"/>

</head>

<body leftmargin="0" topmargin="0" bottommargin="0" rightmargin="0" marginwidth="0" marginheight="0">

<iframe src="http://google.com" width="100%" height="100%" border=0></iframe>

</body>

</html>

It's not perfect at all—it doesn't quite fit the window (for no good reason the "100%" height is calculated based on a size other than the inner window dimension, which is dumb), and it's in an iframe meaning that there is an internal scrollbar, but if what you're looking for is just a quick way to have a page get refreshed regularly, it'll work in a pinch. There are other ways to do it. --98.217.8.46 (talk) 17:30, 6 August 2008 (UTC)

Which Apple was the first to have 3D graphics?

The last time I asked this question, someone with this IP address: 87.102.5.5 removed my question and rudely left a message on my user talk. Before you blindly remove my question again, please take the time to look at the following: my user page and my contributions before assuming that I am some primary school student who wants someone to do my homework.

I'm asking because I want to know without all the seriousness of the more formal research that I do for other computers. So, once again what Apple computer was the first to have 3D graphics? Was it made by Apple or by a third party? What was it capable of? Thanks. Rilak (talk) 11:05, 6 August 2008 (UTC)

(1) What do you mean by "have 3D graphics"? There were demo programs for my Atari 400 that showed 3D-looking balls bouncing around on a checkerboard with 3D perspective, but the computer and operating system did not have any features to specifically support such graphics (e.g. 3D acceleration). (2) If you're asking about "Apple computers", then how could it be made by someone other than Apple? -- Coneslayer (talk) 11:50, 6 August 2008 (UTC)

"3D graphics" means that the computer should be capable of generating 3D images through hardware assisted acceleration - eg. an option board with a geometry engine. As for "If you're asking about "Apple computers", then how could it be made by someone other than Apple?", I was referring to whether there were option boards that were made by a third party (if Apple didn't make any themselves) that could have given an Apple computer 3D graphics capability. Rilak (talk) 12:17, 6 August 2008 (UTC)

Once again - please define "3D." It is clear that you know what you mean. So, let me explain why your terminology is vague... I can go watch a movie. I see one person standing close to the camera and one standing farther away. It looks 3D since I can see depth, even though it is on a flat movie screen. However, if I say that I went to a 3D movie, you will assume that I am talking about a movie where I have to wear special glasses that trick my eyes into believing that the images are closer to me than the screen itself. So, 3D has two completely different meanings - even in computers. It can mean that something has an apparent depth (like a driving video game that makes the road get smaller, giving the impression of distance) or it can mean 3D through optics that trick the eyes into seeing images in front of the screen. Which 3D are you referring to? -- kainaw™ 17:28, 6 August 2008 (UTC)

Surely the question is about the sort of 3D acceleration hardware we all have in our graphics cards nowadays. I don't know the answer, but almost certainly the first cards were very expensive add-ons which only worked with a small number of very expensive software products (probably for Macs, but I wouldn't rule out an Apple II card). This article says that the first Mac to ship with 3D hardware was the Power Macintosh G3 (beige), and that the first hardware-accelerated 3D games for the Mac came out in 1996-7. Apple has never developed its own 3D acceleration hardware to my knowledge—they get it from third parties like ATI. -- BenRG (talk) 19:41, 6 August 2008 (UTC)

Rilak explained the question - he's asking what was the first GPU of some sort that was on a Mac. My memory is very hazy on this point and I ran out of time doing a couple of quick Google searches, but I'm pretty sure it was on a NuBus board and it was probably a Rage chip or even a ViRGE chip. As a Nubus card it would have physically fit into many Macs starting with the Macintosh II, but you'd want to look at the required-minimum-hardware list once you locate the card. I think it came out before the Power Macs, and I think it was intended for CAD programs. Side note, the first Mac with "accelerated video hardware" of any sort was the 8*24GC (the asterisk in the name was actually a big circle, impossible to type, unfortunately) video board, but this had to do with bit blitting and not polygons. Tempshill (talk) 19:48, 6 August 2008 (UTC)

Thanks for the replies... So it seems that Apple only really started to have 3D graphics capabilities in the mid 1990s, and there were third party addons that existed before that. I'll check out the external links now. As for the definition of 3D graphics, I don't understand how there can be two definitions of the term 3D... its like calling a drawing of a person a statue because it has shading and depth... Rilak (talk) 06:43, 7 August 2008 (UTC)

Now you are being even more confusing. It appears you are referring to a two-dimensional display with advanced shading to create the illusion of depth as "3D" which means "three dimensions". There are three dimensional displays for computers - ones that display images in front of and behind the screen - so they are displaying in three dimensions, not two dimensions with some fancy shading. So, you are using 3D to refer to a drawing on a screen as a statue because it has shading and depth. -- kainaw™ 12:13, 7 August 2008 (UTC)

Umm... Did I say that a drawing on a screen is a statue because it has shading and depth? And I don't think I'm being confusing. In fact, you have all confused me for the past day or so with, "My 8-bit microcomputer is capable of displaying a picture with shading, thus giving the illusion of depth, therefore it has 3D graphics." But its just displaying a bunch of differently colored pixels from a framebuffer! As for 3D displays, does StereoGraphics not refer to such display technologies as stereoscopic, not 3D? Rilak (talk) 07:50, 8 August 2008 (UTC)

PHOTO RESOLUTION

i received some photos by e-mail. Those are too small(dimension is 150x113). and not clear. How can I convert them to normal size(1280x960)? Thank you.124.43.33.70 (talk) 12:07, 6 August 2008 (UTC)

If they have come to you at 150x113, you will not be able to get anywhere near viewable pictures at 1280x960. (See Raster graphics) Have you tried click on the pictures? They may currently be a thumbnail of the full version. - Sorf^ane 12:13, 6 August 2008 (UTC)

You'll need to ask your friend to e-mail you the original versions of the pictures before they were shrunk down to a 150x113 resolution. It won't work to use Photoshop (or some other image editing program) to increase the resolution to 1280x960, for the same reason that if you take a little photo out of a magazine and make a copy that's the size of a whole wall, you won't get to see extra detail in the photo - it'll just look blurry and blocky. Tempshill (talk) 19:53, 6 August 2008 (UTC)

wii power saves problem

I have a wii power save thing and ive downloaded cheats for some games. But for some of my games like need for speed prostreet and mario kart wii when i go to SD memory and try copying the cheats to wii memory it say i have to play it before i can download but i have play them bought alot. Second some games like need for speed carbon if i try to download cheats for the SD to the wii memory it says i cant because i alredy have the data. Is there a way that i can download the cheat without having to deliet my game (i know you can have more then one file on it so could i make the new data with the cheats on it in file 2)?

thank you --76.235.210.66 (talk) 15:58, 6 August 2008 (UTC)

Wii menu update 3.03 rendered those useless. Rgoodermote^{Not an admin}  23:33, 6 August 2008 (UTC)

Tabby question

Is there a way to reposition the tab bar in Opera so that it's below the address bar ? StuRat (talk) 16:06, 6 August 2008 (UTC)

Yes - Sorf^ane 17:32, 6 August 2008 (UTC)

Thanks, I'll give that a shot. StuRat (talk) 19:18, 7 August 2008 (UTC)

PATCH PANEL AND SWITCH

WHY NETWORK CARDS (PATCH CARDS) ARE CONNECTED TO A PATCH PANEL INSTEAD OF TO THE NETWORK SWITCH DIRECTLY. WILL IT HARM THE NETWORK SPEED? WHY SUCH A METHOD IS FOLLOWED ? IF NETWORK PATCH CARDS ARE CONNECTED DIRECTLY TO NETWORK SWITCH COST ON PATCH PANEL COULD BE SAVED KNOW ? WHAT IS THE NECESSITY TO HAVE A PATCH PANEL IN BETWEEN?123.201.56.67 (talk) 16:11, 6 August 2008 (UTC)G.CHANDRASEKAR.

A patch panel is just a place where one cable meets another, like an extension. It has no active components and has negligible effect on the signal. So it does no harm to the network performance. Patch panels are a convenience - they allow you to control how all the building's wiring is done, in one place. Remember that not all the cabling goes to the same switch - you can have multiple switches (to implement separate domains or networks, or for failover reasons). And the same cat-5e cabling can carry things other than ethernet - it can carry proprietary digital telephony, analog telephony, and hookups for security systems and security cameras. -- Finlay McWalter | Talk 16:45, 6 August 2008 (UTC)

Also if I have cat-5 cables coming right out of the trunking and connecting straight into the switch, and I accidentally snap the tine on the modular plug, I either have to re-pull a full length of cable (which is a lot of bother) or cut the plug off and manually crimp another one on (which is a pain to do on a well-lit bench; it's downright horrid in a cramped cable closet). If, on the other hand, I break the tine on a patch cable I can just bin that cable and replace it with another, at little cost and in no time at all. -- Finlay McWalter | Talk 16:48, 6 August 2008 (UTC)

Plus patch panels are easy to label (there's a little flat area above each socket); labelling cables isn't nearly as nice. And the patch panel keeps like connections together (assuming it was wired sensibly), so (say) all the connections on the first floor are in one area, all those on the second in another. With just bundles of cables you've a much tougher job keeping everything neat and all like things together. -- Finlay McWalter | Talk 16:51, 6 August 2008 (UTC)

I can attest to how important the labelling is... I once spent a week crawling round on my hands and knees, looking under the floor panels with a torch, and all because the fool who slung the network together in such a hurry had done a sloppy job. Even though they had used a patch panel in the rack, they hadn't labelled anything!! Perhaps the worst work task I've done in the last 10 years.

I took the liberty of removing your email address. This page is highly visible across the internet and regularly swept by spam-bots. Astronaut (talk) 17:33, 6 August 2008 (UTC)

This is really the key point - the patch panel is, strictly, unnecessary. But having it makes for easy, smart, and safe maintenance into the future. When setting things up people so often concentrate on the initial capital cost of something, but forget that the cost of downtime in the future, or of someone's time in figuring out what's what, greatly outlays almost every possible capital cost. -- Finlay McWalter | Talk 18:44, 6 August 2008 (UTC)

DNS reverse lookup

This particular address, 193.219.61.11, reverses to cache.dns.lt (yes, it is a DNS server), but when I use gethostbyaddr("193.219.61.11") in PHP or Python (on the same machine), it returns "litnet-p". Why? (I'm using the OpenDNS servers.) —Preceding unsigned comment added by Grawity (talk • contribs) 18:06, 6 August 2008 (UTC)

Is it in /etc/hosts? --tcsetattr (talk / contribs) 18:44, 6 August 2008 (UTC)

Yeah, actually it was there... sorry. --grawity 15:29, 8 August 2008 (UTC)

Dev-C++ Compiler

Why for a console apllication, does the Dev-C++ compiler automatically set the parameters for the int main function to int argc, char *argv[]. Why is it not just int main() instead of int main(int argc, char *argv[])? Thanks, Ζρς ι'β' ^¡hábleme! 18:23, 6 August 2008 (UTC)

Because you get your command-line arguments with those parameters. The first argument is in argv[1], the second in argv[2] and so on. argc-1 tells you how many arguments in all. argv[0] what the current program was called as. --Sean 18:34, 6 August 2008 (UTC)

You have to be careful with terms here - Dev-C++ is an Integrated development environment; a typical install uses gcc as the compiler. With that in mind, your question is a bit unclear - are you asking about the automatic "fill in the function signature" thing some IDEs do, or about how the compiler (gcc) behaves? I'm guessing the latter (?). gcc lets you to declare any function with any type you think best, and if that's not the correct one it's a problem for you. main() is typically declared with argc and argv to carry the command line arguments given to the program (see Argc#C and C++), but if you declare the function just as main() then nothing bad will happen. If, however, you decided to declare main() to have some other arguments (ones different to argc/argv, the format used by the process setup code) then you'll get nonsensical results. -- Finlay McWalter | Talk 18:38, 6 August 2008 (UTC)

Yes, the latter. I was asking about why those parameters are used. Ζρς ι'β' ^¡hábleme! 19:05, 6 August 2008 (UTC)

Setting up Linux router / web server on home network

I'm going to have the following network setup:

Linux box with two ethernet cards, one connected to DSL modem on bridge (eth0), PPPoE authentication, and the other connected to a hub which has my home wireless router connected to it (eth1).

Now I'd like to put up a simple firewall and I've read a simple way to do this is to only forward packets from eth0 to eth1 that originate from eth1. How do I do this on linux? Is this an effective enough firewall? (keep in mind that my linksys router will also have a firewall, so I don't need anything all too fancy on the linux box)

Second, I hope to have a sip server, streaming music server, and web server on the linux box. So for packets heading to eth0 I would enable all those applicable ports, in addition to any packets originating from eth0 or originating from eth1. Is this correct? Again, just a simple firewall to make it a little harder for folks to get on my linux box.

Third, what is the best distribution for what I'm trying to do here? Looking here I was thinking Red Hat but I can't find it for download...

Maybe slackware or ubuntu?

Thanks, -Wikindeling (talk) 20:15, 6 August 2008 (UTC)

My computer has Gentoo Linux and uses iptables and dnsmasq for this. The Gentoo Wiki describes how to configure something like that at [2]. MTM (talk) 20:42, 6 August 2008 (UTC)

It may be too fancy, but Smoothwall is brilliant at this task, and you get loads more features. But if not, I would suggest Debian. - sorfane 18:46, 7 August 2008 (UTC)

Problem defining a boolean operation

Resolved

I need to define a boolean operation, using NOT, AND, OR, and XOR operators, on ten variables, such that the operation returns TRUE if and only if one of the variables is true, and FALSE in all other cases (including more than one variable being TRUE). Using OR between all variables makes the operation TRUE if at least one of the variables is true, and using XOR makes the operation TRUE for all cases where an odd number of the variables are true, while that's not what I need. Is there any way of doing it? Thanks,  ARTYOM  20:43, 6 August 2008 (UTC)

Yes, of course. One way is to use disjunctive normal form: '(the first is true and the rest are false) OR (the second is true and the rest are false) OR ... OR (the tenth is true and the rest are false)'. It can probably be done more efficiently if you want to minimize the number of operators for some reason. Algebraist 20:47, 6 August 2008 (UTC)

For example, you can cut that down from 189 operators (above) to 100 with '(one is true) AND (NOT (two are true))' where 'two are true' is a disjunction of 45 pairwise conjunctions, one for each pair of variables. Algebraist 20:50, 6 August 2008 (UTC)

The best I can do is 39 operators. -- BenRG (talk) 21:45, 6 August 2008 (UTC)

Yes, minimizing the number of operators would be preferable. BenRG, could you explain how you were able to do it with 39 operators?  ARTYOM  22:02, 6 August 2008 (UTC)

The general form is

$((x_{0}\vee x_{2}\vee x_{4}\vee x_{6}\vee \cdots )\oplus (x_{1}\vee x_{3}\vee x_{5}\vee x_{7}\vee \cdots ))\ \wedge \ ((x_{0}\vee x_{1}\vee x_{4}\vee x_{5}\vee \cdots )\oplus (x_{2}\vee x_{3}\vee x_{6}\vee x_{7}\vee \cdots ))\ \wedge \ \cdots$

or in other words "(the indices of the TRUE variables all have the same least-significant bit) AND (the indices of the TRUE variables all have the same next-to-least-significant bit) AND ...". I don't know if this is optimal, but the gate count ($n\lceil \log _{2}n\rceil -1$) does look kind of lower-boundish. -- BenRG (talk) 22:29, 6 August 2008 (UTC)

Does this absolutely need to be written as a boolean operation ? It seems much better suited to traditional programming:

COUNT = 0

DO I = 1 TO 10

IF (VARIABLE(I) = .true.) COUNT = COUNT + 1

END DO

IF (COUNT = 1) THEN RESULT = .true. ELSE RESULT = .false.

StuRat (talk) 07:11, 7 August 2008 (UTC)

Thanks StuRat! I didn't think about loops before, because I was trying to do this in a PHP script, and I am just a beginner in it. But it turned out to be pretty easy to implement. Thanks again!  ARTYOM  14:04, 7 August 2008 (UTC)

You're quite welcome, glad I could help. StuRat (talk) 19:14, 7 August 2008 (UTC)

A neutral name for a XP user account?

I do not like having to use user accounts in XP. So I am going to set up a new account (with admin status) and delete the rest of them. Even after setting up the computer so that I do not have to log on, I will still see this name frequently. Ideally I would have no name, just "". I do not like the word "user" for example as it has negative connotations. What neutral names could people suggest that I will not start to dislike in a few years time? Thanks. 78.147.11.61 (talk) 22:56, 6 August 2008 (UTC)

"Account", "Computer", "Default", "Root", "Me", "Myself", "I", your first name, your last name, a random first name (who cares if no one named Rudolph ever uses the machine?), "Blank", "_" (an underscore), "XP", "This_username_intentionally_left_blank". (No guarantees that any of those will be accepted as valid XP user names). What you're not going to dislike is a few years time is an intensely personal matter. What I sometimes do in these situations is just string together arbitrary letters and numbers: "myp234", "kno6", etc. -- 128.104.112.147 (talk) 23:21, 6 August 2008 (UTC)

"Admin" and "Administrator" as well. -- 128.104.112.147 (talk) 23:23, 6 August 2008 (UTC)

Obligatory "running full time as administrator especially in XP can be a major security risk" comment. --98.217.8.46 (talk) 01:05, 7 August 2008 (UTC)

As an aside, I named one of my hard drives "Moloko" (Milk) and another one "Korova" (Cow) in a witty little Clockwork Orange reference. Why not do something like that—pick a book you like, pick something out of it, name it after that. Your next computer you can name something else in a similar theme. It'll be fun. --98.217.8.46 (talk) 01:08, 7 August 2008 (UTC)

IMO, you should get accustomed to utilizing a user account to reduce the security risk. Tempshill (talk) 03:16, 7 August 2008 (UTC)

Guys, its windows xp we are talking about. whatever microsoft may say, it is still not designed to work like Unix. Kushal (talk) 05:48, 7 August 2008 (UTC)

Largely due to lazy programmers, but yeah, I wouldn't run Windows on a non-admin account. 24.76.161.28 (talk) 10:01, 7 August 2008 (UTC)

I always set the account and computer name to "Windows", or if that is unavailable "Owner", so that when you log onto open Wireless networks you don't raise suspicion by having "John Doe" or whatever pop up on their computer. Besides, if you start to dislike your account name you can always change it, can't you? 20I.170.20 (talk) 13:11, 7 August 2008 (UTC)

I'm wondering how "user" has negative connotations. It's a standard term in the computing word, so how could it be taken offensively or anything? Dismas|^(talk) 17:32, 7 August 2008 (UTC)

Drug user? Using someone selfishly or unethically? 20I.170.20 (talk) 18:41, 7 August 2008 (UTC)

There are a lot of standard terms used in the computing world that aren't all that hot. Master and slave jumpers? I mean, it's pretty clear that a bunch of nerdy white guys came up with terms like that. --98.217.8.46 (talk) 18:28, 8 August 2008 (UTC)

Yes, but we are talking about "user" - this isn't just a techno-nerd phrase any more. "Username" is an extremely common term, even in regular parlance. ---J.S (T/C/WRE) 19:17, 8 August 2008 (UTC)

Restart indent. Guys, all he is asking for is a random name for his user account. Not what kind of crack he prefers. Just use the Administrator account and delete all the other accounts EXCEPT Guest (disable) and HelpAssistant (Disable). --mboverload@ 19:49, 8 August 2008 (UTC)

Must be an excessively broad interpretation of what McGruff said --tcsetattr (talk / contribs) 19:53, 8 August 2008 (UTC)

Maybe "backslash", as a throwback to it referring to the root directory in DOS. If you want to sound techy, maybe "sysadmin", "root", "administrator", etc. If not, try "Default" or your first name. JeremyMcCracken (talk) (contribs) 03:49, 11 August 2008 (UTC)

Malware Transfer

Sorry to ask two questions in one day, but my friend is having a serious security issue. He was on MSN messenger trying to help someone get rid of bloodhound.exe (a keylogger). He sent them hijackthis.exe and they ran it and saved a log file. They tried to send him the log file via MSN messenger. It would almost get done transfering and then say "Error: Cannot read from source file or disk.". This would abort the transfer. The icon would show up on his desktop but it was not a log file, it was a .lnk. When he tried to open it, Norton would pop up and say, "Name: bloodhound.exe, Count: 2, location: (somewhere in temp)". Then they tried just copying and pasting the text from the log file to MSN messenger and sending it that way. He copied and pasted the pieces of the log file into a .txt file and then tried to save it. Norton again said "Name: bloodhound.exe, Count: 2, location: (somewhere in temp)". How could this copy and paste of text send a program. Remember, this is just the text of the file, not the file. This has us stumped. Thanks in advance, Ζρς ι'β' ^¡hábleme! 23:00, 6 August 2008 (UTC)

I can't tell you how that happened but I can tell you how to remove the spyware. Download the software here to remove it. A simple google search would have shown you how to. Rgoodermote^{Not an admin}  23:44, 6 August 2008 (UTC)

Well, getting rid of it is not the problem. I did google it. I just want to know how it happens. Ζρς ι'β' ^¡hábleme! 01:13, 7 August 2008 (UTC)

Bloodhound is Symantec's heuristic virus/malware detection technology. No program is being sent. The HiJack this log probably has some string in it that is known by Norton and is thus blocked just to be safe. Also, it could be that the virus is some how piggy-backing on the file transfer, however unlikely. In my opinion your friend is confused about what is causing the alerts or you are missing an important detail. --mboverload@ 01:24, 7 August 2008 (UTC)