Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Computing/2007 April 12

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April 12

VPN and gaming

If I have a fast server computer A and a slower client computer B connected by VPN, can I play a game using A's processor (or, better yet, both processors in parallel) off a CD that's in B's drive? NeonMerlin 03:13, 12 April 2007 (UTC)

Pretty sure the answer is no, at the very leasr VPN would not keep up with the framerate of any game, but there would probably be a multitude of other issues too. Vespine 04:02, 12 April 2007 (UTC)

Maybe the other way round if the disc is not frequently used, but I don't think that is what you want. Splintercellguy 06:02, 12 April 2007 (UTC)

You can set up B to share the CD over the network, and then play the game on A (with keyboard, monitor etc connected directly to A). Using a remote desktop client or something off of B is not possible. Redquark 21:57, 18 April 2007 (UTC)

Virus Isamini.exe

Dear sirs,

There appears to be adware on my computer, and there is a isamini.exe in my task bar which I cannot terminate. How do I get rid of this. Thank you very much. 70.48.255.209 04:18, 12 April 2007 (UTC)

Try doing a search for a file with that name, then rename it to something like Isamini.exe.disabled. This will keep it from running again, but won't stop the current copy from running. Hopefully a reboot will do that. (The rename instead of delete is in case it turns out that it's something you need.) StuRat 04:39, 12 April 2007 (UTC)

(edit conflict) Reboot in Safe Mode and run eradication apps. Splintercellguy 04:40, 12 April 2007 (UTC)

• Which you should get from a reliable anti-virus website like symantec.com or mcafee.com . - Mgm|^(talk) 12:11, 12 April 2007 (UTC)

According to this series of posts on the Lavasoft AdAware forums, AdAware with the most current definitions file will remove this particular piece of malware. The last post on that page also details some additional steps that can be taken if necessary. --LarryMac 12:47, 12 April 2007 (UTC)

HTML to wiki for use in MediaWiki-template

Hi all. I'm trying (on a wiki outside WMF) to make a template based on a template from Wikibooks. The problem is, however, that the HTML stuff (<table>, <td> etc.) doesn't seem to work, and as so I have to convert it to wiki-coding.

I used a HTMLtoWiki converter from the internets and the result became pretty weird. Now, the whole template seems screwed up and I don't know how to get it to work.

• The template
  • The HTMLtoWiki conversion edit
• An example page where the template is used

Can anyone help (btw, feel free to edit the template directly, I can learn from the history)? --Lhademmor 06:52, 12 April 2007 (UTC)

Install the full-featured MediaWiki-integrated editor wikEd on Wikibooks, convert html to wikicode, and copy to your other wiki. Cacycle 02:29, 16 April 2007 (UTC)

mp3 player file transfer

When I hook up my mp3 player to my XP PC, it recognizes it as an MP3 player and tries to use Windows Media Player to transfer files to it.

However, on a friend's XP PC, it recognizes the mp3 player as just a flash USB drive, making files transfers infinitely easier. How can I get my PC to recognize my mp3 player as just another USB flash drive? (without some overly complex solution e.g. installing new firmware or something) —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 76.199.8.98 (talk) 07:01, 12 April 2007 (UTC).

The problem is probably that it is auto-opening with Windows Media Player on your computer, not that it isn't being recognised as a USB drive. Go to "My Computer" and look for a drive which could be it - then open it and copy the music in where you see the current music. A bit vague, I know, but you haven't told us the make or model of your mp3 player :)! JoshHolloway 10:54, 12 April 2007 (UTC)

actually that's part of the problem, it doesn't show up at all in My Computer...It's a SanDisk Sansa.

My mp3 player (Archos GMini xs100) has an option in its setup to appear as a hard disk or Windows Media device

will look into that thanks.

Disk change detection

How do floppy disk drives (specifically, the 5.25 and 3.5-inch disk drives) detect disk changes? —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 61.94.148.218 (talk) 10:22, 12 April 2007 (UTC).

In simple terms, they don't. The system have no idea if a floppy is in or not when it's not accessing it (ie. when the green light is off), and it's when something like an I/O error occurs that the system realises that it's not there any more. --antilived^{T | C | G} 10:33, 12 April 2007 (UTC)

So it's continuously checking when it's empty? That doesn't seem very efficient? I know that when you put a floppy in it detects it and reads the name of it or whatever. Capuchin 12:18, 12 April 2007 (UTC)

I don't believe that's correct. Pressing the eject button or putting a disk in should cause the drive to send a Disk Change signal to the floppy controller, which the OS can then read. Here's an example from Linux (drivers/block/floppy.c):

           DPRINT("checking disk change line for drive %d\n", drive);
           DPRINT("jiffies=%lu\n", jiffies);
           DPRINT("disk change line=%x\n", fd_inb(FD_DIR) & 0x80);
           DPRINT("flags=%lx\n", UDRS->flags);

That "fd_inb(FD_DIR)" reads a byte from the controller's registers, and the "& 0x80" chooses the "Disk Change" bit. I think the green light is just for reads/writes. I don't know how the drives do it mechanically, but it's easy to imagine there being a little switch in there somewhere. --TotoBaggins 12:44, 12 April 2007 (UTC)

In DOS/Windows, I believe this is still handled using the old DOS disk services ($13 if I can remember correctly). The OS implements interrupt handlers for floppies, like when the drive door is closed or when a floppy is ejected. An interrupt is when some hardware event occurs and it is interrupted by software. I've even seen programs that created their own handlers to keep the drive spinning, as under certain conditions you could get a system hang or blue screen when the disk stopped spinning completely. CD's and DVD's are handled using similar methods. Sandman30s 13:00, 12 April 2007 (UTC)

On PCs, I'm pretty sure no interrupt is generated. On Macs, I'm pretty sure there is one based on its behavior. PCs do have a bit in the disk controller register indicating a disk change, but it's only checked whenever the operating system next accesses the drive. If the "disk changed" bit is set, the OS detects disk changes by a comparing the volume serial number of the expected volume (previously known to be in the drive) with what is actually in the drive. That was as far as vanilla MSDOS went, but I believe more sophisticated techniques are used in some OSs (NT 4 and above) which seem to compare root directory and/or FAT contents with the OS cache. They need be suspicious only when the disk changed bit is set, so it's pretty efficient without any need for ongoing polling. —EncMstr 14:07, 12 April 2007 (UTC)

See also the first piece of trivia in the Amiga 1200 article. Davidprior 16:24, 12 April 2007 (UTC)

A vivid definition of philosophy

What is philosophy? Identify the basic concept of idealism and state its contribution to educative process —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 41.204.224.10 (talk) 13:41, 12 April 2007 (UTC).

This looks a lot like homework, based on the way it is phrased. In addition, it is not a question for the Computing reference desk. Nonetheless, you might want to check the existing articles on philosophy and idealism. --LarryMac 13:55, 12 April 2007 (UTC)

Linux and USB volumes

How does Linux figure out which USB volume is mounted through which device descriptor? If I have a USB hard drive and an SD memory card connected through a USB card reader, and have both plugged in at the same time, how does Linux figure out which is /dev/sda and which is /dev/sdb? Does it have to do with the types of the devices, which physical USB ports they are plugged in, or the order in which they are plugged in? Is there a way to always give the same mount point to the same volume, regardless of which device descriptor it is mounted through? JIP | Talk 17:25, 12 April 2007 (UTC)

It varies across kernel versions and Linux distributions, but it generally happens through some combination of udev and HAL. Yes, some USB devices have unique identifiers which would allow you to always mount them in the same place. --TotoBaggins 17:50, 12 April 2007 (UTC)

Order it is plugged in, or there are device-specific features that order the drives.

rtorrent and screen

I happily run rtorrent with Screen by typing "screen rtorrent". I can then happily detach and reattach and everything in rtorrent works fine. I'd like to be able to start it by typing "screen -d -m rtorrent" so it immediately detaches without interaction. Currently when I do this, rtorrent will not respond to my "Ctrl-q" which I would normally use to quit, which is a pain. Any ideas? --87.194.21.177 18:05, 12 April 2007 (UTC)

Question about Shared network

ok well where i am at we have a shared network of course. me and some friends want to know if the websites we go to can be monitored by the techs. (of course we know they can do it by checking the main network) but we are asking if they can still find out if they use our computers to do so After we have deleted all cookies and files and everything. i know once it goes by the ISP it can be tracked but since its shared they only see 1 IP. now if they were to go computer by computer will they ever find out? thanks in advanceMaverick423 20:03, 12 April 2007 (UTC)

Any data that goes through the network can be monitored and logged. Imagine a straight road from A to B, and somewhere along the line someone looks what's travelling down it and writes down notes about it. That's essentially what they could do. Whether they do or not is another matter. I doubt it; however never be certain. Also, Wikipedia does not condone you looking at websites you shouldn't! JoshHolloway 20:33, 12 April 2007 (UTC)

no no no definatly not inappropiate sites just basicly sites like cnn and stuff like that. now on a second note though will they be able to tell which computer is sending that data and reciveing it? Maverick423 20:40, 12 April 2007 (UTC)

They'll be able to identify it by MAC address, Computer Name or description. The MAC address would only be identified as yours if they took your laptop and compared it, so if they don't do that you're alright. As for computer name/description, it can give you away. Go to Start -> Control Panel -> System -> Computer Name and change the description, and click "To rename this computer or join a workgroup, click Change". When I wanted to trick the techs I would find a computer name (such as LIBRARY-49") and add myself as a new one - LIBRARY-50. So much harder to find :). JoshHolloway 20:50, 12 April 2007 (UTC)

Where my wife works, every new young male employee starts surfing the porn sites. They are always 'shocked - shocked' when the report instantly comes back. If you can randomly plug into any jack, or you use wireless, you have a better chance, but any company with half a brain can deal with this. --Zeizmic 01:23, 13 April 2007 (UTC)

Converting torrent files

When I download torrent files it doesnt recognize file type. So i need to convert the same to Mp3 format type.... How do i do the same? Is it possible?

 Second question is regarding MS Excel How to remove automatic page breaks? 20:11, 12 April 2007 (UTC)

For your first question, what are the files in your torrent? Dunno about Excel. Splintercellguy 21:56, 12 April 2007 (UTC)

Torrent files contain metadata and cryptographic hashes that describe files as well as point to a BitTorrent tracker which can provide further information on where to find the actual files. I'd suggest reading the article on BitTorrent and peer-to-peer in general. Your second question was already answered both times you asked it previously. Page breaks are defined by print ranges; look at the Excel help files. -- mattb @-13T05:37Z

The .torrent file is just a pointer - you open that with BitTorrent tracker software like Azureus. The tracker then downloads the file from other users like yourself. See BitTorrent. --h2g2bob 13:43, 13 April 2007 (UTC)

For second question, first go to View -> Page Break Preview, then drag all blue lines to the top right corner (except the right-most and bottom lines, you cant drag those).

If that doesnt accomplish what you were trying to do, go View -> Normal, and then File -> Page Setup; On the Page tab you will have Scaling section, where you can make it print it to one page wide and one page tall. Shinhan 21:21, 13 April 2007 (UTC)

Problems with DualView with nVidia 8800 GTS

I've recently installed a BFG 8800 GTS 640MB and have been having problems setting up DualView.

My previous card was an ATI x550 and I ran a dualscreen set up with a 19" BENQ FP91G+ LCD monitor as my Primary Display and a 23" Phillips 23PF4321 LCD TV as my secondary. The monitor supported 1280x1024 while the TV only supports 1024x768.

After installing the new card I've been unable to get DualView to work on the TV. I've set it up using the same resolution and refresh rate as I used with my previous card and the TV displays a message about not supporting the video mode, the same message it would bring up if the resolution was increased beyond the level it could support with my previous card. I've tried to lower the resolution on the second screen down as low as 800x600 but it still is unable to display anything. As the TV is working fine otherwise and was able to function as a second screen with my previous card I can only assume that the problem is with the 8800 GTS.

I've connected each display individually and with the right resolution and refresh rate they were able to function as single displays and I've made sure that both ports are functioning properly but I've noticed that in addition to Dualview not working properly, if I have both displays connected and try to use the TV as a single display it doesn't work.

I've contacted BFG about this by E-Mail and after a couple of weeks of routine suggestions of upgrading drivers (now on 4th version and the problem remains) and asking me to check the ports are working properly they went silent and now four weeks later don't even respond to my E-Mails, which I'm taking as a sign that they've run out of ideas.

I've E-Mailed the shop who sold me the card and they focused on compatibility. I've contacted ASRock, who manufacture my motherboard and they've tested an ASUS 8800 GTS and that worked fine so it seems unlikely that's the problem.

After calling the shop's technical support line the guy on the phone seemed hesitant about taking the card in for testing and suggested I try and find a solution on the internet. Does anybody have any suggestions of how I may fix the problem? --Kiltman67 20:43, 12 April 2007 (UTC)

Do you have a third monitor you can try in place of the TV? If it works, that would point at the TV as the problem; if it doesn't that would seem to be a problem with the video card. —EncMstr 21:01, 12 April 2007 (UTC)

Unfortunately I don't because the card only has DVI outputs. But, I was attempting to do something similar by setting it up in DualView mode and then swapping the port it was connected to and following some fiddling with the settings I've managed to fix it. It would appear that even though the ports are identical and there is no suggestion that one should be primary and one secondary DualView will only work with the displays plugged in a particular configuration, which of course happens to be the most inconvenient and as a result the one I didn't use when I originally set it all up. Thanks for the push in the right direction. --Kiltman67 21:43, 12 April 2007 (UTC)

Correction... The problem seems to have returned. Does anybody have any suggestions of how to fix it or even where the problem may lie. I'm wondering now if it could be a problem with the drivers, but I don't know what to do about that since I've never encountered anyone else with the same problem and as I said, I've gone through 4 versions of the driver and they all had the same problem. --Kiltman67 23:40, 12 April 2007 (UTC)

Does anyone remember these Apple ][ games?

These were all green screen games for the Apple ][ or somethign from the Choplifter era. One was this game where you were on a boat in a side scrolling river and you had avoid obstacles and also pick up people and bonuses from islands (but you could lose a life by landing on an island with a lion say). I think the game was called "Congo" or something like that but am not sure. it was fun/ Another one was this maze game, sort of like pacman but with money symbols and these snapping monsters. this was also fun and i remember i liked it a lot better than pacman. If you someone knows where to look up these games like this (the green screen games, Im not that interested in teh colour games) and maybe play them online or download a emulated version or remake that would be great =)

1. All games for the Apple II were in color, unless they were text-mode games like Zork. You just remember seeing them on a green-colored monochrome monitor.

2. Neither of your game descriptions rings a bell with me, but there's a list of Apple II games at List of Apple II games. There were numerous Pac-Man clones, certainly. Tempshill 05:26, 13 April 2007 (UTC)

Hmmm. Maybe I'm thinking of an earlier Apple model?. I've never seen another game with the same gameplay as the congo game. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 88.111.43.11 (talk) 07:18, 13 April 2007 (UTC).

You probably didn't have an apple I. There were only about 200 produced, and they required assembly. The Apple II was the first production model. I agree with Tempshill. The Apple II was color capable, but I remember that I originally had a green screen, when my dad bought it, but we upgraded to a color monitor. I definately remember the Pac-man clone that used dollar signs though. You might find a version that is not in color, but it will probably be black and white rather than black and green.--Czmtzc 12:16, 13 April 2007 (UTC)

I'm pretty sure this is the pac man clone: Money_Munchers =) —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 88.109.101.4 (talk) 21:20, 13 April 2007 (UTC).

Ok so I found both games playable on an online emulator (worked ok in Internet Explorer - I had problems in Firefox though) at virtualapple.org... Congo worked perfectly (hurray! you have to turn caps lock on though); and Money Munchers worked ok except I can't figure the up key (Alt is down, left and right are cursor keys; the normal up cursor key does nothing). It was all in colour which was weird for me. i think they looked a lot better in all-green (i think the emulator should have an option for that)... =) —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 88.109.101.4 (talk) 21:47, 13 April 2007 (UTC).

btw Congo is just listed as Congo. Money Munchers is hidden under Pieman in the index.

Updater 5

I have Windows XP, and I keep getting this empty folder in "My Documents" called "Updater 5." Whenever I delete it, it always comes back in a week or so. Does anyone know what the purpose for this empty folder is? —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 71.107.163.64 (talk) 22:43, 12 April 2007 (UTC).

I have a list of possible solutions jeje xD: 1) do you have any device that synchronizes to your computer read(PDA,Phone,MP3 player,etc) this could be the cause. 2) IIS if you don't what this is or have it installed then ignore this option 3) are you on a network? could be something to do with network shares. 4) some software on your computer depends on this, you can probably search the registry for the name of the folder and find something on it 5) possible spyware? if there is no logical cause for this folder to exist it could be some spy/adware. Anyways...the reason i made the list is for other people to draw from this...im pointing more towards the sync with devices folder...i remember windows mobile 5 made a folder with the same name but in a different location. 200.35.168.129 23:11, 12 April 2007 (UTC) Ag for MemTech

From what I could find, it seems to be coming Adobe Reader 8.0 (previously "Adobe Acrobat Reader"). This page has some information on relocating the folder; this one (post #6) indicates you can turn off the automatic updating completely. --LarryMac 00:36, 13 April 2007 (UTC)