Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Computing/2007 April 4

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April 4

Screenshot

How do I get a screenshot of a window in Microsoft Windows XP Home without using Alt+Print Screen? 68.193.147.179 00:11, 4 April 2007 (UTC) Press the prnt scrn button on your computer it will take a screen shot of your computer.keyboard Staffwaterboy 03:23, 8 April 2007 (UTC)

Why don't you want to use it? --TeckWiz ^ParlateContribs_@(Lets go Yankees!) 02:12, 4 April 2007 (UTC)

From Windows Help...

To copy the window or screen contents

To make a copy of the active window, press ALT+PRINT SCREEN. To copy the entire screen as it appears on your monitor, press PRINT SCREEN. Note

To paste the image into a document, click the Edit menu in the document window, and then click Paste.

Hope that helps...72.28.56.83 02:47, 4 April 2007 (UTC)

There are many free programs you can use where you can set the screen capture key to your liking. Also most graphics editors (eg. Photoshop or GIMP) have built-in screen capture functionality. You can start with Google or Screenshot#External_links. --Nitku 09:51, 4 April 2007 (UTC)

Webcam video

I'm looking for a program that can stream a video, say a home made video through a webcam feed when using my webcam in msn or something. A similair feature appears in manycam but i can't use my own videos, can anyone help me out?

89.242.151.217 09:51, 4 April 2007 (UTC)

VLC media player is able to stream videos. Aetherfukz 15:40, 4 April 2007 (UTC)

DVD capacity

I've had a look at the DVD page but capacity is only given in bytes or GB. I've tried to work it out but frankly its beyond me, so could someone please say how much capacity a 4.7GB DVD has in MB? Thanks! Think outside the box 13:42, 4 April 2007 (UTC)

it may be around 4796 MB expecting....just converted into mb on the basis of 1gb=1024mb 1MB=1024KB 1KB=1024BYTES 1BYTE = 8BITS

Thank you! Think outside the box 14:24, 4 April 2007 (UTC)

That answer above might not be right, according to DVD#DVD_disc_capacity "GB here means gigabyte, equal to 10^9 (or 1,000,000,000) bytes" so a 4.7G disc has 4,482 megabytes (if a megabyte is 1024KB) -- Diletante 15:07, 4 April 2007 (UTC)

Yea, it's never quite clear if they are using decimal values or binary values:

Term   Decimal Value        Binary Value
====   =============        ==============
 KB    1,000                1,024
 MB    1,000,000            1,048,576
 GB    1,000,000,000        1,073,741,824

So, depending on the combo you are using, there could be 1,000 MB per GB or 1,024 or around 1,074 or around 954 (the last two requiring that one term is decimal and the other binary). StuRat 15:25, 4 April 2007 (UTC)

And we can all sit and wonder why we allowed marketing people to call 1,000 bytes a KB, leading to calling 1,000KB a MB and 1,000MB a GB. --Kainaw ^(talk) 16:39, 4 April 2007 (UTC)

This is the sort of thing the IEC binary prefixes were created for. The reason the "marketing people" call 10⁶ bytes a "megabyte" is because this utilizes the proper SI definition of the prefix "mega" (a megawatt isn't 2²⁰ watts!), and this works to their advantage if they sell digital storage media. -- mattb @ 2007-04-04T18:33Z

I just always remember that a DVD is approximately 4.38 GB in units that we're used to in the computer world. Anything under will always fit. --Wirbelwindヴィルヴェルヴィント (talk) 03:33, 5 April 2007 (UTC)

rounding calculations to decimal places

Dear Helpers, I am unable to find out the correct html/java code for rounding calculations to a given number of decimal places. If I multiply , say, "2.33 by 6.2", I get "14.446". How do I round that to two decimal places to get the answer "14.45"? Kind regards,

Stuart Sanderson

HTML is not a programming language. It cannot round. Java is a programming language. You use rounded_number = Math.round(100*unrounded_number)/100;. Are you actually asking for JavaScript and not Java? --Kainaw ^(talk) 14:40, 4 April 2007 (UTC)

Use printf. --Wirbelwindヴィルヴェルヴィント (talk) 03:31, 5 April 2007 (UTC)

Thank you Kainaw, Either Java or Javascript - whichever works, but I need to know what computer code tags have to surround the calculations

You are mixing HTML (a markup language) with Java/JavaScript (programming languages). They have nothing in common. There are no "tags" in programming languages. In the example above, the variable "rounded_number" will contain the number rounded off to the nearest hundredth place. If you want that on your web page, you just stick it in there. I am assuming you know how to dynamically produce HTML. If not, you are asking the wrong question. Before asking how to round a number, you should be asking how to dynamically produce HTML - then ask how to round a number. --Kainaw ^(talk) 12:48, 10 April 2007 (UTC)

Thanks once again for your time. I will try to work from the info you have kindly given - SS

A Windows muffler

Microsoft Windows is stupid and noisy. I only have a collective volume control. I cannot turn down the system noises only.

Most system beeps and ta-da's are stored in Windows/Media folder as WAV files. Is there a free-software solution for batch level reduction? I want to make these noises much less noisier. -- Toytoy 15:01, 4 April 2007 (UTC)

You might want to experiment with the various sound schemes, you may find some quieter, or at least less annoying, than others. You select them from Settings + Control Panel + Sounds (at least in Windows 98). Also, be sure all applications with volume controls have them on max, so you can reduce the general volume setting as much as possible. StuRat 15:07, 4 April 2007 (UTC)

You could do some Windows equivalent of the below. sox is free and available for Windows. --~~

 for i in *.wav; do
     # reduce volume to 25% of original value
     sox -v .25 $i quiet-$i
 done

Can I add bluetooth remote function to my mobile

I have a java ready phone and of course bluetooth. So can I change my phone to a bluetooth remote control, for example to control my notebook? If it can, how? If it can't, why? roscoe_x 16:20, 4 April 2007 (UTC)

You may write a program on the mobile and a program on the notebook so they can talk to one another (sending commands from the mobile to the notebook). As for can you, it depends on your coding ability. Personally, if you aren't currently a programmer, it will take a while to get to the level where you can write a program on the notebook to listen for commands (securely) on bluetooth and then forward commands on to other programs. --Kainaw ^(talk) 16:37, 4 April 2007 (UTC)

Do you have any web resources on these topics? Thank you. roscoe_x 09:19, 5 April 2007 (UTC)

If you have Mac OS X, check out Salling Clicker -- it's been available for four years. Use any Bluetooth cell phone or PDA to control your Mac. There also "Bluetooth Remote Control" made specifically for Sony Ericsson phones. Sony makes that for both Mac and Windows. --24.249.108.133 17:09, 5 April 2007 (UTC)

Yes, I've checked their website. And you can get it for windows for $23.95. And not just for sony ericsson phones. Well, I don't think any open-source program available yet. roscoe_x 22:26, 6 April 2007 (UTC)

download

how to download a particular page —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 122.164.146.70 (talk) 16:26, 4 April 2007 (UTC).

Which page in particular? One here on Wikipedia? --Kainaw ^(talk) 16:35, 4 April 2007 (UTC)

Right click on any page and select save page as or equivalent thingy on the menu. Coolotter88 17:15, 4 April 2007 (UTC)

File, Save As --h2g2bob 20:18, 4 April 2007 (UTC)

file>save as >webpage (html only) Staffwaterboy 03:26, 8 April 2007 (UTC)

Help! Microsoft Pinyin IME version 3.0

Can a nice knowledgable Wikipedian help with this problem? I have Microsoft Pinyin IME 3.0 pre-installed on my PC. But it's ruining my MS Word experience. It automatically starts up when MS Word starts and there doesn't seem to be any way to switch it off (there's no exit option or off button I can see, and the program help doesn;t tell me anything about this). I can switch it to English characters mode, but this is not good, as it does not let me type in ordinary English fonts. It uses Chinese-style English fonts instead. I can try to switch to regular fonts but it just default switches back to the Chinese-style English font. This is annoying. Suggestions about what to do (up to and including removing Pinyin IME altogether - I can't see it listed on the Control Panel add/remove programs/components list though) would be most appreciated. Thanks! —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 88.109.222.27 (talk) 17:46, 4 April 2007 (UTC).

Uh never mind, I just worked it out myself... —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 88.109.222.27 (talk) 17:52, 4 April 2007 (UTC).

Photoshop

In Adobe Photoshop Elements 5.0, how do you capture a screenshot using that program? —68.193.147.179 (talk) 17:50, 4 April 2007 (UTC).

I am pretty sure that Photoshop Elements can not do a screen capture itself (cf. this page about version 3]), but you can, of course, use the standard Windows PrintScreen or Alt-PrintScreen keystrokes and then paste the contents of the clipboard into a new file. --LarryMac 18:00, 4 April 2007 (UTC)

Video Capture

How do I use video capture using Windows Media Player? Can I do Video Capture in Photoshop? 68.193.147.179 21:43, 4 April 2007 (UTC)

What kind of video do you mean? Video you input from a digital camcorder? Videos from YouTube? In any event, Photoshop is meant for working with single images; Adobe makes other software for working with video. --LarryMac 22:19, 4 April 2007 (UTC)

Do you mean something like this? - Akamad 23:26, 4 April 2007 (UTC)

I don't know if Windows Media Player able to capture videos. But in Vista you could use Windows Media Center. roscoe_x 09:24, 5 April 2007 (UTC)

Drivecleaner on my Mac?

I've read the wiki security page, but couldnt find any answers.

I use a Macbook Pro running OSX 10.4.8 and I received a pop up when visiting a website, which had the applemac Safari browser logo and warned me to download drivecleaner. I clicked cancel, but after some research, am worried that it could have still worked its way onto my laptop. I've searched for the file types using spotlight, and have run ClamXav through most of my computer, and it hasnt found any viruses.

Am I safe? Can Drivecleaner even affect macs?

And JUST HOW SAFE am I using a mac in relation to getting malware and viruses? Are we really immune, or is that an old myth?

Like any software, there is no such thing as 100% perfect immunity. I believe there are indeed exploits out there, though I can't think of what they are top of my head. Drivercleaner, whatever that is, probably doesn't even run on Mac OS X. Splintercellguy 00:15, 5 April 2007 (UTC)

You are much, much safer using a Mac. (Disclaimer: I'm a Mac user, so I suppose I'm biased.) But Splintercellguy's right: you're not automatically 100.000% safe. Maybe 99.99% safe.

If you're using a Mac, and you practice good computer security habits, you're probably as close to being 100% safe as makes no difference. (But if you practice good computer security habits, even Windows machines are almost reasonably safe these days.)

It's also worth looking at the kinds of things that make you safe or unsafe. For example, I was just reading this explanation of a recent Windows security problem:

Users are being infected after visiting a malicious Web page that has embedded malware designed to take advantage of the flaw. They also can be infected if they open a specially crafted e-mail message or if they open a malicious e-mail attachment sent by a hacker. [1]

Now, I would say that if all it takes to get infected is to visit a malicious web page, or to open a malicious e-mail, then your computer unambiguously has an egregious, nearly fatal bug. That is, I would say that "good computer security habits" should not even be necessary to protect against those two particular threats; protecting you against those two should be 100% your computer's responsibility. But of course not everyone agrees with me -- there are plenty of people who believe that a computer "can't be expected" to protect against all of those threats, and that "user education" is a vital and inescapable part of the computer security equation, that people are ultimately responsible for making decisions about which web pages are safe to visit, which emails are safe to open, and which attachments are safe to click on.

At any rate, the fact that no operating system is perfect, that even well-intentioned ones (such as Apple's) do occasionally have bugs, means that user vigilance is still at least an important part of the equation. If something looks fishy, don't open it. If an unexpected dialog box is asking a suspicious question, don't automatically click "OK".

(One nice thing abut Macs is that the dangerous operations -- but only the truly dangerous operations -- do almost invariably end up involving confirmatory prompts. That is, you won't get pwned just by visiting a website or opening an email. Even if some malicious content does figure out a way to try to install itself, you'll almost certainly get a prompt, which if you're smart you'll say "no" to. Furthermore, if you're using a Mac, you won't be getting those infamous "Confirm or Deny?" prompts for all sorts of other, unimportant reasons, so you won't be conditioned to reflexively say "yes" to all of them, without thinking.)

—Steve Summit (talk) 00:49, 5 April 2007 (UTC)