Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Computing/2008 November 25

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November 25

Spybot is blocking me from connecting to my wireless router

I have a wireless router, but I can't connect to it. I know the problem isn't the router, because my other computers can connect to it without any problems. I can also connect to other wireless connections without any problems. The problem only occurred after installing Spybot. 98.221.84.235 (talk) 00:14, 25 November 2008 (UTC)

Spybot does have the feature of blocking registry changes (it prompts you to deny or accept each change), so, if the wireless router for some reason requires a registry change, this could, indeed, be the prob. StuRat (talk) 01:31, 25 November 2008 (UTC)

So if you turn off all of Spybot's features, can you connect? --128.97.245.27 (talk) 03:35, 25 November 2008 (UTC)

I uninstalled spybot, but I still can't connect. Can there still be protections active that prevent me from connecting? 98.221.84.235 (talk) 14:36, 25 November 2008 (UTC)

You did reboot after uninstalling, right? Assuming the answer is yes: I have often found it helpful to first connect to the router's web-based administrative interface when there is trouble connecting to the web. If you type "ipconfig" from the command line on one of the computers that are connected, you'll get some lines of information, in which the IP address of the router is presented as the default gateway. If you type that address in the address bar of your browser, you will either see the login window of the router's administrative interface, or get a message that the connection is not working. I have several times experienced that first connecting to the router, gets the connection to the web working, for some reason. Typing "ipconfig /renew" from the command line might also help (if you are using DHCP, which is the default). If you are able connect to the router, but not to the web, there is probably a DNS problem. You can diagnose that by typing the IP address of a website directly into the address bar of your browser. You can find the IP address of a website (say, en.wikipedia.org) by using the command nslookup en.wikipedia.org on one of the computers that are connected. Comparing the network settings in the control panel of the computers that are working with the one that isn't, might also be helpful. As might checking whether a wired connection works. --NorwegianBlue ^talk 21:07, 25 November 2008 (UTC)

Laptop Overheating

Lately my laptop has been overheating. After an hour or so it shuts down. The green battery lot [LED?] blacks out and doesn't reappear for several hours. I need to pull in and out the AC cord to get the battery light back. The battery was used up a month ago and I've been using electric power since. But I only had this problem recently. --Gary123 (talk) 02:22, 25 November 2008 (UTC)

Some suggestions to prevent laptop overheating:

1) Don't use it on your lap, put it on a metal table (which conducts heat) or on "rails" so air can circulate underneath it.

2) Point a fan at it.

3) Keep the room temperature low. Wear a sweater. StuRat (talk) 03:14, 25 November 2008 (UTC)

I've learned about #1 the hard way. --Crackthewhip775 (talk) 03:20, 25 November 2008 (UTC)

The fan may be locked with dust or may have failed. There may be a BIOS update that better. manages the power. --—— Gadget850 (Ed) ^talk - 14:51, 25 November 2008 (UTC)

Wow, StuRat, where do you live? :o) I'd almost think that late in November most Wikipedians either 1.) live where it's getting so cold outside that you do have to wear a sweater inside anyways (unless you're overheating your room, which is a waste of energy anyways), or 2.) live somewhere where it's so warm outside that you can't cool it down without using an AC (and I sure hope you don't suggest that for the sake of a computer--that'd be a bit too much of a carbon footprint for any thinking person in the 21st century)... but well, 3.) = who knows... :o) --Thanks for answering (talk) 04:25, 26 November 2008 (UTC)

I'm a man for all seasons, and so is my advice. I can further customize it for winter (if the Aussies and Kiwis will forgive me) by saying they should use the laptop in a cooler room, such as one with lots of windows, as opposed to an interior room with a roaring fire (hopefully in the fireplace). Using the laptop near an exterior wall within such a room will also help keep it cool, especially if their home insulation is as pathetic as mine (I think my new windows are actually better insulated than the old walls). StuRat (talk) 01:28, 27 November 2008 (UTC)

I agree with StuRat - but I'd add that there are several companies that sell laptop coolers that sit under the laptop and get rid of the heat by one means or another. My laptop sits on a leather-topped writing desk for much of the time - and because leather is a pretty good insulator, it had terrible overheating problems until I made a little aluminium stand to put it on that allows air to flow underneath - and has a big black bit sticking up behind the screen that acts as a radiator.

Oh and incidentally: In Texas we are in the brief time each year between air conditioning on full and heating on full - when you can turn off the thermostat and even sit out in the back yard in shorts and a T-shirt and not die from some climate-related disaster. This season started about 10am this morning and is scheduled to end in the next hour or so. :-)

SteveBaker (talk) 18:26, 26 November 2008 (UTC)

I thought such temps were viewed as an open invitation by tornadoes and/or hurricanes. :-) StuRat (talk) 01:20, 27 November 2008 (UTC)

Google results being redirected

About 1/4 of the time I click on a Google result it redirects me to different ad or filler sites tangentially or not at all related to my search. If I hit the back button my browser then I am able to click the link again to get to the actual site. This only happens for Google results. I have tried deleting the cookies of the site I get redirected to, but that does not help at all. I ran my anti-virus (AVG free) and it found nothing. Is this just one cookie wrecking havoc or something more serious? Any help is appreciated. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 75.84.49.100 (talk) 03:23, 25 November 2008 (UTC)

One of the many problems by brother-in-law has had with his PC sounds almost exactly like this. Something had hijacked his network settings, replacing the DNS IP address with a different DNS based in Ukraine and began taking him to sites that had a keyword in common with the site he expected. IIRC, this one was particularly resistant to removal because it was protected by a rootkit which hid two programs working in tandem to ensure the DNS was always the ukrainian one.

Test the IP addresses of each DNS with a whois service - DNS's usually belong to your ISP or a bigger ISP company in your country. If you use Windows XP, I would then recommend you run one or more of these rootkit detectors which should show what is being hidden, then halt and destroy all trace of the malicious programs from your disk, the registry, the list of services, etc. Unfortuntely, I'm yet to find a detector that works with Vista. BIG, BIG WARNING: there is a high risk of seriously messing up your PC so, before you start, back up anything you can't replace.

Astronaut (talk) 05:14, 25 November 2008 (UTC)

You probably have some sort of spyware or adware. I would get adaware or spyspot search and destroy software ASAP and run them (google them).

Windows 9x on logical partitions?

Dear Wikipedians:

Much to my delight I was able to successfully install Windows NT 5.0-based operating systems (2000 advanced server and XP to be specific) into logical partitions and have them boot off of a neat little DOS primary partition I created at the start of the hard drive (which actually contains an instance of genuine MS-DOS 6.22, yes, I'm still somewhat of a DOS afficionado). I think Microsoft really did a great job designing the booting mechanisms of NT 5.0 operating systems.

However, I'm not so sure if they have done as good a job with Windows 9x. So my question is: could I install Windows 9x into logical partitions and still have them boot properly, or do I have to install each instance of a Windows 9x operating system into its own primary partition (which is a scarce resource, since I'm allowed only 4, whereas logical partitions are unlimited). Or is there some tricks that I can employ to fool Windows 9x into installing and booting off of logical partitions?

Thanks,

70.52.151.100 (talk) 04:11, 25 November 2008 (UTC)

With some boot loaders like GRUB you can swap partitions around so the operating system thinks that what should be the F: drive (for example) is actually the C: drive. --wj32 ^t/c 06:00, 25 November 2008 (UTC)

Irritating animated ad that won't go away

I hate being distracted by animations (usually ads) when I try to read something on a site. So I manage flash with Flashblock. and since other animated ads usually come from a different site, I can just block images from that site (a Firefox option that the msWindows version doesn't seem to have, by the way), without missing the images I want to see. Thus I have happily led an almost ad-free surf life for quite some time now. But now there is an ad that often appears at the top of the IMDB site, which Firefox doesn't seem to recognise as an image. Right-clicking on it doesn't give me a list of options. Can anyone tell me how to get rid of this? Note that I don't mind the ad itself quite so much as the animated bit. Here's the section of the source code that appears to be responsible (yes, it's from the old fiend doubleclick).

<script language="JavaScript" type="text/javascript">
//<![CDATA[
document.write('<iframe src="/images/a/ifb/doubleclick/expand.html#imdb.consumer.title/maindetails;tile=2;sz=468x60,728x90,1008x150;p=t;coo=za;g=dr;m=R;tt=f;coo=uk;id=tt0388364;ord=' + ord + '?" id="top_ad" name="top_ad" width="0" height="80" marginwidth="0" marginheight="0" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" allowtransparency="true" onload="ad_utils.resize_iframe(this)">');
if (navigator.userAgent.indexOf("Gecko")==-1)
{document.write('<script language="JavaScript" src="http://ad.doubleclick.net/adj/imdb.consumer.title/maindetails;tile=2;sz=468x60,728x90,1008x150;abr=!ie;p=t;coo=za;g=dr;m=R;tt=f;coo=uk;id=tt0388364;ord=' + ord + '?" type="text/javascript"><\/script>');
}
document.write('</iframe>');
//]]>
</script>
<noscript><a href="http://ad.doubleclick.net/jump/imdb.consumer.title/maindetails;tile=2;sz=468x60,728x90,1008x150;p=t;coo=za;g=dr;m=R;tt=f;coo=uk;id=tt0388364;ord=914168639324?" target="_blank"><img src="http://ad.doubleclick.net/ad/imdb.consumer.title/maindetails;tile=2;sz=468x60,728x90,1008x150;p=t;coo=za;g=dr;m=R;tt=f;coo=uk;id=tt0388364;ord=914168639324?"  border="0" alt="advertisement" /></a></noscript>

DirkvdM (talk) 08:45, 25 November 2008 (UTC)

Add the following to your chrome/userContent.css:

*[src*="doubleclick"], *[href*="doubleclick"] { display: none !important; }

Leave a word on my talkpage if you need more. -- Fullstop (talk) 12:02, 25 November 2008 (UTC)

I have an extremely low-tech solution to banner ads which I can't otherwise block, I turn the dial on my monitor to increase the vertical size of the display until it no longer fits on the screen, then I turn the other dial to push the display upward until the banner is off the screen. StuRat (talk) 15:07, 25 November 2008 (UTC)

StuRat, I find your unique solutions to computer problems endlessly amusing. --98.217.8.46 (talk) 17:48, 25 November 2008 (UTC)

Thanks. I have an even lower-tech solution to an analog TV displaying digital TV (from a converter box that puts random blinking crap on the top 8 lines) ... a piece of black electrical tape over that part of the screen. Perhaps duct tape would have been even more apropo ? :-) StuRat (talk) 01:07, 27 November 2008 (UTC)

At work, where they force me to use msbloodyWindows and I can't install anything, I use something similar for ads at the sides: I 'minimise' the window, but make it screen-wide, move it sideways so the ad disappears off-screen and then when I want to see the whole page I maximise. Thus, I can toggle between full-page and ad-free. Alas, this doesn't work for ads at the top. Or can one grab a window without using the top bar with msbloodyWindows as well? Haven't bothered to find that out actually. What's that called anyway? DirkvdM (talk) 18:45, 25 November 2008 (UTC)

What, a title bar? You can move windows on Windows with the keyboard: select Move from the control menu, and then use the arrow keys. I think that will let you move them at least partially off the screen. (Also, the usual terminology is to "restore" or "unmaximize" a window; "minimize" means to reduce to an icon or other small object (a button, commonly) that isn't a window at all.) --Tardis (talk) 18:18, 26 November 2008 (UTC)

Thanks for correcting me. I should learn to remember the words for things. That makes it a lot easier to look things up. :) But what I meant is, what does one call that 'grabbing' of the window? You mention a method to move it with the arrow keys, but I once stumbled upon a way to grab it (anywhere on the window) with the mouse while holding down certain keys, and then moving it about. DirkvdM (talk) 08:34, 27 November 2008 (UTC)

I don't know a name for it (except something obvious and cumbersome like "drag anywhere in the window"); what keys (if any) enable it depend on your window manager (or version of Windows) and can probably be customized. --Tardis (talk) 15:59, 2 December 2008 (UTC)

Fullstop, thanks. Took a while, but I found /home/Dirk/.mozilla/firefox/bk2jnqo3.default/chrome/userChrome-example.css. Good thing they put an example there, because else I wouldn't have found it. So I made a new file, with the name userChrome.css, with just your line in it, in the same location. Is that the right place? I ask because at the top of the example it says: "Edit this file and copy it as userChrome.css into your profile-directory/chrome/". Annoying that they never say what 'your user profile' means. Anyway, I've tested it, but the ad is not always there, so only time will tell if it works. Btw, when I studied html some years ago, I wanted to play with the browser's css because users should always decide themselves how sites are presented. So now I know where to do that. Too bad my knowledge is a bit rusty. The first thing I would like to do is stop ads from taking up (blank) space on my screen. Any idea how to do that? DirkvdM (talk) 18:45, 25 November 2008 (UTC)

Damn, no it didn't work (completely). The ad is there again. Now the TOP_AD section in the source has changed a bit:

<iframe src="/images/a/ifb/doubleclick/expand.html#imdb.consumer.title/;tile=2;sz=468x60,728x90,1008x150;p=t;g=th;m=R;g=co;tt=f;id=tt0362526;g=cr;g=brc;g=dr;coo=usa;ord=[CLIENT_SIDE_ORD]?" id="top_ad" name="top_ad" class="yesScript" width="0" height="80" marginwidth="0" marginheight="0" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" allowtransparency="true" onload="ad_utils.resize_iframe(this)"></iframe>
<noscript><a href="http://ad.doubleclick.net/jump/imdb.consumer.title/;tile=2;sz=468x60,728x90,1008x150;p=t;g=th;m=R;g=co;tt=f;id=tt0362526;g=cr;g=brc;g=dr;coo=usa;ord=590984622936?" target="_blank"><img src="http://ad.doubleclick.net/ad/imdb.consumer.title/;tile=2;sz=468x60,728x90,1008x150;p=t;g=th;m=R;g=co;tt=f;id=tt0362526;g=cr;g=brc;g=dr;coo=usa;ord=590984622936?"  border="0" alt="advertisement" /></a></noscript>

Oh, I now notice the comment and the div section are only visible in the source. How do I stop it from rendering? I thought that would work with the <nohtml> tag, but apparently not. Anyway....
The last lines are the same, with the <noscript> section. But the script above it has been replaced with an <iframe> section. Can't I make Firefox ignore any lines with the string 'doubleclick' in it? Or, since I only have the problem here, any div with id="top_ad_wrapper"? I believe that is possible in css, but it's been many years sice I looked into that and I barely worked with it, so I remember very little. Googling things like ' css id "not render" ' did not help. DirkvdM (talk) 08:34, 27 November 2008 (UTC)

Install Adblock Plus and Adblock Plus: Element Hiding Helper. When you next browse to the offending screen hit Ctrl+Shift+K, highlight the ad or frame you want blocked with your mouse (it will show a red rectangle around the element) and press "s". You can also play around with "w" and "n" to enlarge or reduce your selection. I find ABP:EHH extremely powerful, it can block literally ANYTHING with you having to know regexp or examining the page source code. It successfuly blocks evrything that I don't want, including TEXT ads. I now search Google and use Gmail complately ad-free :) Zunaid 10:56, 27 November 2008 (UTC)

DirkvdM: ~/.mozilla/firefox/<somehash>.default/chrome/userContent.css (not "userChrome.css"). For your continuing enjoyment ;), I've pasted all the ad-blocking bits of my userContent.css to User talk:Fullstop/Sandbox/T2. There is also some stuff at http://www.floppymoose.com/userContent.css you may wish to take a look at.

SigmaEpsilon: *= is CSS 3, see "6.3.2. Substring matching attribute selectors" of the CSS 3 spec. -- Fullstop (talk) 18:03, 27 November 2008 (UTC)

-- Fullstop (talk) 17:26, 27 November 2008 (UTC)

Ah, silly me, I should learn how to read. :) And thanks for the links, it's getting me interrested again. But I have installed Adblock Plus and that appears to do the trick. Zunaid, thanks for that. I surfed around the imdb site for a bit, noticed an empty space at the top of one page, looked at the source, and indeed, there's the doubleclick top_ad section. Which doesn't bother me anymore now. Thanks a lot, guys!

Now, all that is left I could wish for (well, concerning this anyway :) ) is for me to get my screen space back again. The ad still takes up space. Imdb has recently forced itself into a frame straight jacket that leaves half of my (wide) screen unused (anything I can do about that?). As a result, vertical space has become essential. For example, when I look at a 'user ratings' page I sometimes have to scroll down. If the ad space weren't there that would not be necessary. Btw, in Firefox I have already put the menus, location bar and buttons on one bar. Now if I could only integrate the status bar at the bottom into the title bar .... :) DirkvdM (talk) 10:34, 28 November 2008 (UTC)

Update: it turns out I had to do a little more, namely put it on the blacklist (through 'open blockable items'), where I found the frame in which the ad resides. Removing that (not just the image, but the frame) gave me back my screen space. Second problem solved too. Brilliant! DirkvdM (talk) 09:03, 29 November 2008 (UTC)

Web-hosting with Perl and PHP, program in C++

If I have a web-hosting plan with Perl and PHP (like many out there) and a program written in C++ that generates html (like doxygen), could I run this C++ program so that users can generate docs dynamically? Mr.K. (talk) 10:02, 25 November 2008 (UTC)

With Doxygen it is simpler to generate HTML and upload it to the server where it would be served statically. If a web-hosting plan allows running custom CGI scripts, and gives access to a C++ compiler, it may be possible to run a C++ program designed for CGI. MTM (talk) 19:04, 25 November 2008 (UTC)

Could you do it? Depends on the CGI settings of the server. Should you do it? Depends on the situation, but in most cases I'd say, "stick with Perl or PHP, they're a lot more straightforward for this sort of thing." If you're using it to generate something that doesn't change that often, definitely don't have it render everything from scratch each time, that's a huge waste of server resources. (Even a site as dynamic as Wikipedia uses a huge amount of caching.) Generate the page in a database and then just make a database call. --98.217.8.46 (talk) 19:58, 25 November 2008 (UTC)

Many web hosting services simply don't allow you to run CGI programs (that's anything that compiles down to machine-code basically) because of the risk of you doing something horrible to their server. That's not universally true (my web hoster allows it) - but you shouldn't be surprised if they say "No". If you are allowed to do that - then it's a matter of sticking the binary in the appropriate CGI directory (where Apache looks for it) and making sure that it provides a web interface. Basically, your C++ code has to read the data the user entered either on the standard input or through the commmand-line parameters (depending on the method you selected in the HTML form through which your user launched the program) - and anything that comes out of the standard output ends up being sent to your end-user as if it were an HTML document - but you have to be very careful to provide EXACTLY the right header stuff. SteveBaker (talk) 18:06, 26 November 2008 (UTC)

PDF built-in font set

I'm creating some PDF reports through code. I'm using the built-in fonts (Times, Helvetica, and Symbol). I need to print a lowercase alpha and beta. I can't find those characters in any of the built--on font sets. They also don't appear to support high ASCII, just 0-255. Can someone point me to some information on the built-in PDF fonts? -- kainaw™ 12:56, 25 November 2008 (UTC)

Nevermind. I just made jpegs of the characters and pasted them in. -- kainaw™ 14:38, 25 November 2008 (UTC)

Wouldn't they be in the Symbol font without any difficulty? --98.217.8.46 (talk) 14:45, 25 November 2008 (UTC)

I printed every character in the Symbol font. It didn't have any symbols that I'd ever use. -- kainaw™ 18:38, 25 November 2008 (UTC)

I discovered that since I'm using PDFlib-lite, it is extremely lacking in symbol support and has no unicode support. -- kainaw™ 23:55, 26 November 2008 (UTC)

Networking for Dummies?

I've tried to resist this, but I think the time is near when I have to have a second Internet-connected computer in my house. (Technology-wise, I've only been on DSL for a couple of years, and this upgrade will certainly take me beyond my comfort level.)

So, can the experienced home-network-builders gently point me toward "Routers for Dummies" or some such very basic reference? Questions I have start with: I have one ActionTec DSL modem; do I still use it, or does it get replaced? What's the minimum amount of hardware I have to buy, and install, and maintain? Same for software. I'm on WinXP, and don't plan to upgrade that yet. Also keep in mind that I was perfectly happy for many years writing letters on a typewriter; that should give you a good measure of my tech savvyness! --DaHorsesMouth (talk) 21:44, 25 November 2008 (UTC)

You just need a router. The modem will plug into the router, and the router will split the connection so multiple machines can use it. The only other hardware you'll need is ethernet wiring if you are going to make it a wired connection. (None of if you are doing wireless, unless your computers don't have wireless cards.) You don't need any software other than the software that comes with the router.

Basically what will happen is that you will plug the modem into the router, and plug a computer into the router. The router will come with very basic instructions as to how to find the router setup screen from the computer. Then depending on your internet service provider, you may or may not have to input settings so that your router can use the internet. In some cases the router can figure it out automatically, but sometimes you have to put in account information. Once you have that in there your router should be ready to go. If it is a wireless router there are issues relating to setting up the wireless signal (whether to use encryption or not), but other than that it's basically the same thing.

Does that make sense? It's not too hard. The most difficult part is sometimes the router will have inexplicable problems connecting through your existing internet connection, due to settings your DSL people won't have necessarily told you about, and you might have to get them on the phone. But that's really it, usually.--98.217.8.46 (talk) 22:41, 25 November 2008 (UTC)

If all you need is WIRED ethernet (ie no laptops - no wireless) - then go to anywhere that sells computer stuff (WalMart for example) and buy a router. Don't pay more than $25....if you do then you're probably getting more than you need. You'll need two more Ethernet cables - and you're done for probably under $30. The router has one cable that goes to the modem (where your computer is plugged in now - and probably between four and six outlets for you to plug your computers into. It's that easy. No software...nothing. Think of these things as being like a dumb multiway power outlet - but with the Internet instead of 110volts!

If you think you might want to provide a wireless access point (probably because you have a laptop with WiFi) - then you need more expensive router. I'd buy a LinkSys box - I believe they are around $100 - but other brands may be OK too (I have four of these beasts right now - and they all work GREAT). These function just like your regular router (as described above) - but also put out Wireless internet signals for maybe a hundred yards around the box itself. If you are in anyway concerned about other people 'stealing' your bandwidth ("Yes Steve, I'm VERY concerned" is the only correct answer here!) then you'll need to turn on wireless encryption. This is actually very easy - and still doesn't need any software. Just connect up your PC to the wireless router by plugging it into the back - open up your web browser - and somewhere in the manual it'll tell you the URL of the wireless router itself. Type that into Firefox (or whatever you use) and you'll arrive at a little web site that's served from inside the router itself (that's *SO* cool!) - and from there you can turn on the security stuff really easily. The Linksys manual explains this better than I can. If you want to save money - you could probably pick one up on eBay for less than new - if it doesn't come with a manual - don't worry - you can download it from the Linksys web site.

SteveBaker (talk) 17:53, 26 November 2008 (UTC)

Caution: The "router" Steve is talking about is not the "router" you have for DSL (aka your DSL "modem"). A router is a thing that routes data from one network to another. What you have for DSL is such a router, in the case of DSL, routing between WAN and LAN. What Steve refers to in the second paragraph is another kind of router that routes between wireless-LAN and wired-LAN. What Steve is referring to in the first paragraph is actually a "switch" (it "switches" the data packets back and forth), not a router.

There are devices that have multiple functions in one unit. For example, a single unit could be both a DSL router and a wireless-LAN router in one. What you need to buy depends on what you already have, and how you intend to connect the second PC to the net. If you had nothing at all, and you were connecting via a network cable, you would need a DLS router and a switch. If you had nothing at all, and you were connecting via wireless, you would need a DLS router and a WLAN router.

So, depending on how you want to connect the second PC, and what functions your DSL router already has, you may either need to buy a new DSL router, or add missing features with other thingies, or buy nothing. A new DSL router with integrated WLAN and switch costs $50+. Just a WLAN access point costs about $30, and a switch about $10. You didn't say which ActionTec model you have, so we can't tell you what you need. -- Fullstop (talk) 01:01, 28 November 2008 (UTC)

Blackberry Storm/YouTube

I recently purchased a Verizon Blackberry Storm. Along with it I have a $30 basic data plan (e-mail and web). The upgrade to that plan is the unlimited data plan for $45 a month. The sales rep did not recommend this plan for me. However, I cannot find how much data I am eligible for. Truth be told, I dunno even know what they mean by data. During train rides to work, I would like to watch YouTube video. But if I access m.youtube.com too much will I go over my data plan??? Is there any way to calculate how much data I have use? Thank you in advance --209.183.190.77 (talk) 21:52, 25 November 2008 (UTC)

I believe YouTube uses flash video which can have pretty large file sizes (several MB) - though maybe the .3GP format files used by the mobile version of YouTube are smaller (I'm not sure how much smaller for the typical files you might watch). All the same, I suggest you get back to Verizon to clarify how much data is included in your plan, and upgrade to the $45 plan if downloading a few MB every day will cost more than $15 a month in extra data charges. Astronaut (talk) 12:19, 26 November 2008 (UTC)

Sorry to say but the sales rep was probably not looking after your best interests. I second Astronaut. You should go back and clarify with VZW what the exact terms of your contract are. <speculation> It is most likely well below 5 GB per month. </speculation> Kushal (talk) 15:31, 26 November 2008 (UTC)

X11 in minimal Debian installation

I'm experimenting with a really minimal Debian installation. I installed from a net-installation CD, and unchecked absolutely everything. Then installed openssh client and server, sudo and xorg. When running startx, I got the default background, and an xterm window in the upper left corner, no border, no possibility to move windows around. So far, everything as expected. Next, I installed metacity, and voila, the xterm window gets a border, and I can move it around, and spawn other xterm windows. However, when I now exit and re-run startx, I only get the background and the mouse pointer, no possibility to start a program (without switching virtual screens). So obviously, the behaviour of startx has changed, it now starts metacity instead of xterm. So my question is: what configuration file has been modified? I've looked unsuccessfully in various /etc subdirectories. The behaviour is the same whether I run as root or normal user.

I need two virtual displays, so what I would like to do is something like this:

startx -- :0
export DISPLAY=:0
xsetroot -solid "one_color"
xterm
startx -- :1
export DISPLAY=:1
xsetroot -solid "another_color"
xterm -e ssh -l myname 192.168.31.16

(Correction after posting: corrected "setxroot" to "xsetroot") NorwegianBlue ^talk 22:11, 26 November 2008 (UTC)

Except that I would like the X session to terminate when I exit the last active application. The code above works (when I switch between a console screen and the X11 virtual screens and type ctrl-Z and bg as needed), but is rather awkward, and I suspect there is a "right" place to put such code. And I would very much like each X session to terminate when its last active application terminates. I definitely do not want to install a desktop environment like gnome. Any suggestions? --NorwegianBlue ^talk 22:31, 25 November 2008 (UTC)

You should look into using a ~/.xinitrc with whatever applications running that you'll like. -- JSBillings 02:56, 26 November 2008 (UTC)

Thanks. I read the man page of xinit after posting this. There were no .xinitrc files in the /root or /home/myname directories, but I could of course create them. I also tried to locate the system-wide xinitrc file, but didn't find it. I was looking in /etc and /usr/lib/X11. Googling now took me to this page (Slackware's implementation), which says that the global xinitrc is under /var. Since the behaviour changed after installing metacity, there's got to be a global xinitrc file somewhere, so I'll have a look there (or else search the whole filesystem). The page I linked to also says that exec is the way to go to make the X-session terminate when the xterm exits. --NorwegianBlue ^talk 09:19, 26 November 2008 (UTC)

Solved

Just for the record, here's what I ended up with. I called xinit directly instead of startx, to bypass the xauth security mechanism, which I don't need (I'm on a small home network behind a firewall), and which makes remote X a lot more difficult. Wrote these scripts, the last one is run as root:

start1:

xinit /usr/bin/sudo -u myname xterm -- :0 &
export DISPLAY=:0
xsetroot -solid "#ee9966"
metacity &

start2:

xinit /usr/bin/sudo xterm -e ssh -l myname servername -- :1 &
export DISPLAY=:1
xsetroot -solid "#66aaff"
metacity &
xhost +

Yes, I'll change that xhost + to an xhost +(ip-address).

gui:

/home/myname/bin/start1 &
sleep 1
/home/myname/bin/start2 &

Switching between the two virtual screens by ctrl-alt-F7 and ctrl-alt-F8 works like a charm, and remote X works beautifully, the only manual step is to set the DISPLAY variable:

myname@servername:~$export DISPLAY=localmachinename:1

--NorwegianBlue ^talk 12:39, 30 November 2008 (UTC)

Powering down HDDs

Hi, if you power down a spinning (but idle) hard drive, does it have any effect on the lifespan of the drive? My guess is no, but I've seen people claim otherwise. Some insights will be very welcome. :) --Kjoonlee 22:33, 25 November 2008 (UTC)

I'm not talking about drives that are on 24/7, but external USB drives. --Kjoonlee 22:34, 25 November 2008 (UTC)

Should matter little as long as the Disk read-and-write head is parked. Kushal (talk) 15:28, 26 November 2008 (UTC)

There are theories that say that the stress on the bearings when spinning the drive up to speed - or slowing it down to a stop - cause it to wear out more rapidly than simply leaving it spinning all the time. However, almost all hard drives spin down when idle nowadays - and I haven't seen any abrupt worsening of drive life. If you care about the life of your hard drive - This amazing Google survey of 100,000(!) of their hard drives is by far the most careful survey done to date. They found that the failure rate doesn't depend on the amount of use a drive gets - except in very young (<3 month) and very old (>4 years) drives. SteveBaker (talk) 17:36, 26 November 2008 (UTC)

One thing that survey doesn't cover is the impact of spinning a drive up and down: as it says in section 2.2 of the report, all the drives studied were always on and spinning. --Carnildo (talk) 22:08, 26 November 2008 (UTC)

Microsoft Word

Hello guys, I am having a little problem handling my microsoft word. I added a custom watermark and chose it to be a picture, with wash out. Now whenever I type text on the page, my text replaces the watermark line by line. What I mean is, as I type, the watermark keeps getting overwritten and invisible, but isnt a watermark supposed to be there completely? Like now i write half a page and it looks as if half my page is filled with letters and words and the rest half with the watermark. What do I do? Please advise. I have microsoft office 2007. Thanks a lot. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 134.117.188.79 (talk) 23:02, 25 November 2008 (UTC)

Are you sure that isn't just how it's displaying it to you? Try saving it as a PDF and see if the watermark comes through. My bet is that it is just erasing the watermark as it redraws the screen with the text on it, but when you print it, it won't look like that. --98.217.8.46 (talk) 00:44, 26 November 2008 (UTC)

I agree. I also suggest printing a page to see what that looks like. StuRat (talk) 01:00, 27 November 2008 (UTC)