Computing desk
< March 1	<< Feb \| March \| Apr >>	March 3 >

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.

March 2

uncle sam is watching you?

To what extent can the government track your internet activity?

Like, for instance, i know they need a warrant to do so, so they obviously cant base the warrant on your internet activity, right? Thanks —Preceding unsigned comment added by 75.23.79.223 (talk) 00:23, 2 March 2008 (UTC)[reply]

The NSA does not always need a warrent, see the NSA warrantless surveillance controversy. Wired News reported that the NSA watches all the network traffic going through AT&T's peering points. The EFF thinks this may be illegal and has filed a lawsuit, Hepting v. AT&T. --h2g2bob (talk) 00:47, 2 March 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Specifically see Room 641A. It's probably linked from that article; I got it the long way around :D\=< (talk) 02:23, 2 March 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Keep in mind as well that if your traffic goes out of the country at any time that puts it in an entirely different legal category. --98.217.18.109 (talk) 17:22, 2 March 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Another thing to keep in mind is how the government can perform the monitoring tasks that conspiracy theorists claim it does. Where are the millions of peons that listen to every phone call, read every email, monitor every web hit, scan all the P2P traffic, look up every book checked out of the library... A much more believable scenario is that the government monitors very specific "high profile" traffic patterns. For example, if you are posting rants on HezbollahWiki.org, the chance that your web traffic will be monitored goes up. If you buy chocolates from SwissChocolates.com, the chance that your web traffic will be monitored shouldn't really go up. Of course, there could be a weird terrorist group called the Swiss Chocolates and the computer could mistakenly flag your IP address as questionable. -- kainaw ™ 21:50, 2 March 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Haha, good one Kainaw; I thought HezbollahWiki.org existed... It doesn't. Acceptable (talk) 02:34, 4 March 2008 (UTC)[reply]

even more youtube problems

this is my reply to your answer in my previous question.

i can't watch any video on youtube because it never ends buffering, it does not effect any other videos from other sites, and my internet connection is wireless. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 124.104.189.221 (talk) 01:11, 2 March 2008 (UTC)[reply]

As a quick fix, you could try refreshing your browser while you're on the YouTube page, or bypass your web cache as you refresh your browser (for Internet Explorer: Ctrl-F5, Firefox (Windows): Ctrl-Shift-R, Firefox (Mac): Cmd-Shift-R). As a possibly more permanent fix, you could try expanding your cache size. Also, although this may not be the problem, are you up-to-date on Flash and Java? --JamieS93 14:01, 2 March 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Maybe your ISP is biased against Youtube, I mean, maybe they restrict access or whatever, huh? --Ouro (blah blah) 16:26, 2 March 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Even if they do filter content, they most likely will give you an option to override the filters. Anyways, since in this case, the OP can go to the website and it is just the video that never buffers, I doubt it is the ISP's fault. By the way, OP do you use NoScript or any script blocking software? If you do, be sure to allow ytimg (Youtube image). Kushal 18:50, 2 March 2008 (UTC)[reply]

What is "diminished searchability of folders"?

When I was reading Windows Explorer, I came up to the sentence:

Windows Explorer includes significant changes from previous versions of Windows such as improved filtering, sorting, grouping and stacking, as well as diminished searchability of folders.

What is diminished searchability? At least at face value, it seems to be a bad thing. Is it a feature of Windows Vista? or an error in writing the article? Kushal 02:58, 2 March 2008 (UTC)[reply]

A vague complaint added by an anonymous editor, who also added "It is no longer possible to see an overview of folders in Windows Explorer which can make it difficult to find the folder you are looking for". One of the additions was reverted within a few hours, with edit summary which strongly suggests the intent was to revert the other one, or probably both. Diffs: [1] [2] [3]

Apparently someone with great love for winfile.exe was disappointed by the new interface, held a grudge for about 12 years, and then unleashed revenge by inserting a weak criticism into a wikipedia article. That'll teach 'em.

P.S. See find (Unix) if you wanna know what searchability really is --tcsetattr (talk / contribs) 09:34, 2 March 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Revenge is a dish best served cold. -- Sean —Preceding unsigned comment added by 69.134.115.242 (talk) 22:51, 2 March 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks. Kushal 18:48, 2 March 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Observers note: I'm expecting someone who cares more than I do about that article to make the correction, if I've guessed correctly --tcsetattr (talk / contribs) 20:51, 2 March 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Wiki?

How can i start my own? --Carpenter182 (talk) 04:28, 2 March 2008 (UTC)[reply]

If it's just for personal use, you can download one of the Personal Wikis and run it on your computer. Otherwise, if you want to run the same software that Wikipedia is running on (MediaWiki), you will need to download Apache, PHP, and MySQL first, configure them, before downloading and installing MediaWiki itself. See [4] for more details. --antilived^{T | C | G} 08:03, 2 March 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Or register one from Wikia and the like. --antilived^{T | C | G} 08:04, 2 March 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Nah, don't do that. Wikia is a commercial operation that profits off of your work. Guroadrunner (talk) 07:46, 3 March 2008 (UTC)[reply]

But, please, mr. Carpenter182, do not crosspost. --Taraborn (talk) 13:28, 2 March 2008 (UTC)[reply]

I quite like DokuWiki - it only needs Apache and PHP. --grawity ^{talk / PGP} 14:17, 2 March 2008 (UTC)[reply]

One of the easiest is Bluwiki. Guroadrunner (talk) 07:46, 3 March 2008 (UTC)[reply]

The Easiest I have found is Tiddlywiki which doesn't require anything except a single HTML file TheGreatZorko (talk) 13:22, 5 March 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Storage life of flash memory

What's the shelf life of data stored on flash memory? --67.185.172.158 (talk) 07:17, 2 March 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Assuming you are strictly referring to "how long can I keep flash memory sitting on the shelf and have it retain data", it is measured in years. The exact length of time depends on the device itself. If you dig around in the specs for the many models of flash memory available, you'll find guarantees of 5 years all the way to 100 years. -- kainaw ™ 21:45, 2 March 2008 (UTC)[reply]

If that "5 to 100 years" range is anything like the "20 to 100 years" guarantees for CD-Rs, I probably shouldn't be considering thumb drives for long-term storage. --67.185.172.158 (talk) 08:28, 3 March 2008 (UTC)[reply]

I thought CD-Rs only lasted 10 years because of disc rot. 206.252.74.48 (talk) 17:38, 4 March 2008 (UTC)[reply]

"10 years" is a very common datasheet spec for FLASH data-retention time. For me, some of the embedded computing subsystems I maintain are starting to get up in that area so I guess I'll let you know in a few years...

Atlant (talk) 18:07, 4 March 2008 (UTC)[reply]

PMR446 Laws

hello, I've recently bough a lovely Motorola XTN446 radio. I've found a few shops where their security use PMR radios.

If i hang around outside the shop, interfering with their comments, making noises, and generally being a total radio a-hole, will I get in trouble?

Its an unlicensed frequency, and if they don't have interference codes set, its their own fault, right? Radiofred (talk) 12:33, 2 March 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Not if they don't find you ;) —Preceding unsigned comment added by 75.31.170.32 (talk) 18:33, 2 March 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Not being in any way a legal expert, my hunch would be that you would fall foul of laws on nuisance - ignoring the technology in use, you would not expect to stand around in the shop deliberately irritating staff without being challenged. You would probably be turned off the premises, and if you continued (say, by making faces through the window) the staff would likely involve the police.

Like I say, I've no idea about the detailed legality of it, but I don't see, morally, the difference between being a "radio a-hole" and any other type of "a-hole", so no, it's not their own fault, and yes, you likely will (and definitely should, IMHO) get in trouble. - IMSoP (talk) 18:49, 2 March 2008 (UTC)[reply]

If it's an unlicensed spectrum - it's their problem, that doesn't however stop the shops banning you. --Fredrick day (talk) 13:34, 5 March 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Home networking (II)

Okay, now I have another problem. I have my old ADSL Wi-Fi router, a USB Wi-Fi adapter for my desktop and a laptop computer. I'd like to setup a wireless LAN, using the ADSL router as access point and my two computers. Unfortunately, I can only have one of them properly connected to the router at a time, the other one gets the annoying 169.254.x.x address. Any ideas? --Taraborn (talk) 14:20, 2 March 2008 (UTC)[reply]

So what IP is computer that does work getting? Is it a 10.x.x.x, or a 192.168.x.x? If not, the router may not be doing Network address translation, and is just passing along whatever IP it gets from the modem. If it is within one of the two ranges, the router is doing something screwy with DHCP. In that case you can try just setting static IPs within the same range that the router working computer gets. -- Consumed Crustacean (talk) 21:36, 2 March 2008 (UTC)[reply]

It's getting a 192.168.x.x one, setting static IPs won't work. --Taraborn (talk) 17:24, 3 March 2008 (UTC)[reply]

If it's getting a 192, usually you can set a static IP to the same subnet (just change the last octet), make sure the DNS server is set correctly and the default gateway is set to the router's IP, and the router should be cool with that. If that doesn't work, the router is borked. Either try to hard reset it (on some, hold the reset button for 30 seconds), upgrade the firmware, or trash it. Or maybe call their tech support line if they've got one and they still support it. -- Consumed Crustacean (talk) 21:31, 4 March 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Volume problems

Okay. So... here's the deal. I put my DVD in my DVDrom and it played well.I was able to hear the sounds, but not the dialogs. The voice of the actors were extremely low, as if they were whispering, and turning up the volume didn't help much. I heard this might be caused by a too low volume of the central channel in relation to the other two. Is it so? And if it is, how can I adjust this? I use Windows Vista, by the way. HS7 (talk) 17:09, 2 March 2008 (UTC)[reply]

I found DVD Genie had an option that could adjust the way the sound was processed by the DVD playback software I was using, which I think had to do with quality versus "loudness", and the way sound was mixed down from 5.1 Surround to 2 or ("2.1") speakers. - IMSoP (talk) 19:34, 2 March 2008 (UTC)[reply]

It is very common for DVDs to be distributed in 5.1 stereo surround. Playing it in stereo (or worse, mono) will result in overly loud music and sound effects and almost no dialog. One of the big problems with mono is that they often reverse the dialog on left and right. If you simply splice them together into a single line, the two signals nearly cancel each other out. Since I have an old mono-tv in my bedroom, I corrected it very cheaply by sending the right channel into the Y adapter directly and the left channel in with a 20' extension cable. The slight delay keeps it from canceling out the dialog without enough delay to hear it. Luckily, my DVD player has a setting to force 5.1 to 2-channel stereo, so I can hear through the surround sound. -- kainaw ™ 21:33, 2 March 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Some dvds also have surround sound options. My dvd player has a party, music and movie mode. If your DVD has the same thing, make sure it is in movie mode or you won't be able to hear the people talk at all--Dlo2012 (talk) 15:41, 3 March 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Firefox

why is Mozilla Firefox behaving funny? It's swapped the keys " and @ keys around and it's not putting in the apostrophes or quotation marks in until I press the next key. How can I fix it? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 86.128.193.142 (talk) 20:34, 2 March 2008 (UTC)[reply]

It sounds like you've accidentally switched your keyboard layout. Are you sure it's just happening in Firefox? This suggests hitting left Alt+Shift. (If that doesn't work, try digging around in the same settings screens that link directs you to). — Matt Eason ^{(Talk  Contribs)} 21:43, 2 March 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Nope, it's not a Windows problem. I've got it set to UK English & UK keyboard. It works fine in MS Word, notepad, etc, but not Firefox. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 86.128.193.142 (talk) 22:52, 2 March 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Odd. My dad's laptop (Thinkpad, running Vista) did the exact same thing yesterday. Rebooting seemed to fix it, but the language settings were all definitely correct. 'twas just Firefox. -- Consumed Crustacean (talk) 23:02, 2 March 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Happened to me a few months ago. The ~ was replaced with an odd character and needless to say it made being a Wikipedian very difficult. I only needed to restart Firefox to fix the problem. Xenon⁵⁴ 23:08, 2 March 2008 (UTC)[reply]

I'm not that sure myself that it is not a Windows problem (or rather, a feature that was turned on by mistake), as Windows stores per-application language preferences. To check, go to your language preferences in the Control Panel, and check which languages are installed; then, select to have the language being currently used shown in the Taskbar. Open Firefox; if the two-letter language code shown in the Taskbar changes, then press Ctrl+Shift (or whatever combination is selected as the language switch in the preferences panel) to switch back to your preferred language. If it doesn't, then it indeed is a Firefox problem. Titoxd^{(?!? - cool stuff)} 01:01, 3 March 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Hard drive misreporting space

Hi. I'm trying to fix up a hard drive that ran out of space. I was able to take off several gigs, but I'm fairly sure the hard drive will fill up again in some time. My problem is this: I have a 40GB hard drive, and it's reporting 31.3GB of space is used on the hard drive; however, when I search the hard drive, the combined total of all the files is only 14-15GB (confirmed by clicking on every file and folder in c:, clicking properties, and looking at the sum total). The hard drive is in no way partitioned. What is this extra data, and how can I get rid of it? Thanks all. The Evil Spartan (talk) 21:47, 2 March 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Check your System Restore settings (in System in the Control Panel) to see how much it's using. You might also want to try something like SequoiaView to help visualize currently used space. -- Consumed Crustacean (talk) 21:55, 2 March 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Thank you very much. I was able to knock out around 5-6GB off the bat, which helps a lot when you only have 9 left. The Evil Spartan (talk) 22:36, 2 March 2008 (UTC)[reply]

I had this a while ago, on an FAT32 system, and running a scan on the disk fixed it (right click on the disk in my computer, go to properties, tools, error checking). Turns out the file table had got messed up or something, but the scan fixed it TheGreatZorko (talk) 13:16, 5 March 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Ugaritic font

I am using Firefox and Windows XP. I downloaded the Andagii font, unzipped it, and put it into my fonts folder. Andagii is the default font for Firefox. Before I installed the font, all I saw was ????. Now this is what I see. What do I need to do to get the font to display correctly? 70.162.25.53 (talk) 22:11, 2 March 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Try using a different code page (View -> Character Encoding for Firefox 2). I'd try the Unicode ones first since the screenshot mentions Unicode. Otherwise see if you can get some information from the place you got the font from. AJHW (talk) 21:45, 12 March 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Side question

Andagii is the default font in Firefox? Is that only if you have the font installed? Guroadrunner (talk) 07:44, 3 March 2008 (UTC)[reply]

I set it as the default font after I installed it. 70.162.25.53 (talk) 23:11, 3 March 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Any such thing as "too much" graphic card?

I've got a 4-year-old Dell 8300, OS=WinXP, with a really puny GeForce graphics card by today's standards; willing to spring for something newer and faster. Is it possible to get something "too good" for the rest of the system (considering its age) -- i.e., might there be features that are unusable because other parts of the OS doesn't/can't call them? Any specific recommendations?

Also, my recollection from years ago has been, "always use AGP if you got it, use PCI only if you don't have an AGP slot". It that still true (or true enough) today, or completely irrelevant?

63.226.131.108 (talk) 22:34, 2 March 2008 (UTC) Dan, a old fart in the computing industry.[reply]

I'm pretty ignorant myself, but have you heard about PCI Express? --Kjoonlee 22:48, 2 March 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Believe it or not, that nearly answers my whole question. Since the Dell in question predates the PCIe standard, I must be careful *not* to buy a PCIe card! 63.226.131.108 (talk) 23:06, 2 March 2008 (UTC) Dan[reply]

You should keep in mind the other two potential issues, which are that a graphics card too powerful can overload your PSU and overheat your system. -- Meni Rosenfeld (talk) 12:52, 3 March 2008 (UTC)[reply]

It depends what you want to do. There comes a time when even the fastest available AGP card for your system just does not cut it anymore due to limitations with old CPU. For example, a modern dual core CPU is far superior to the single core I presume you have in your 4-year old. RAM and bus technologies have also improved in leaps and bounds. Also you are going to spend a fair bit of cash for a top end AGP card, which are getting harder to get and therefore don't drop much in price. You might be better off spending two to three times that AGP upgrade cost and get a new PC with PCI-express. Even a 2 GHz dual core with midrange 8600GT blows away any AGP PC. If you can afford an 8800GT then go for it. Sandman30s (talk) 14:24, 4 March 2008 (UTC)[reply]

OK. Thanks much! I've found a 7600GT at a local store, <$150 w/rebate (they must be trying to unload their stock). It's got four times the amount of onboard memory as my current card, which was the "initial goal" of the project. Now all I have to do is worry the power supply and heating issues, but since there's only one other card in the rack (?), I'm hoping airflow is a nonissue. Oh, and thanx from my kid, too! 66.47.7.76 (talk) 16:28, 4 March 2008 (UTC) Dan[reply]

Here, AJ probably has "too much graphic card". ;-)

Atlant (talk) 18:03, 4 March 2008 (UTC)[reply]

I suggest the OP not to bother with that, a computer can only perform as fast as the slowest part. Your AGP card will be useless when you get a new computer, and in the long run it would be cheaper just getting a new computer than upgrading and having 2 useless cards instead of 1. --antilived^{T | C | G} 08:34, 7 March 2008 (UTC)[reply]

NetBeans IDE using too much ram

How can I reduce the amount of ram NetBeans IDE uses. During its operation ram usage goes to 200+MB. Before loading netbeans I usually have 140mb free ram available. Is there a way to reduce the ram usage of netbeans. I did not have this problem with the previous version (that version used max 130mb) Can I keep some un-necessary modules from loading or something? 24.250.129.216 (talk) 22:41, 2 March 2008 (UTC)NetBeanUser[reply]