Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Computing/2007 February 28

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February 28

Does this type of user interface have a name?

IDE-style_interface is what the article calls it, but not much can be found by way of links. So is this a made-up concept? What say the GUI experts out there, anyone? dr.ef.tymac 01:41, 28 February 2007 (UTC)

Forgetful computer

Two questions about memory. I have a 2 x 3GHz Dual-Core Intel Xeon ("quad-core") Mac Pro which uses 667MHz DDR2 Fully Buffered DIMM memory units/connectors. I purchased the computer with bare bones memory, two 512MB units. My questions are thus: Other than taking up more DIMMs per unit memory is there any difference between using two 512MB units; and using a single 1MB unit? Also, if I were to purchase heterogeneous memory units (different capacities and manufacturers), is there any importance to the order in which the units are installed in the machine? That is, if there are eight DIMMs all in a line, is there a difference between alternating 512MB and 1GB; or putting all 1GB units together, then all 512MB units. Thank you for any help, these Buffered DDR2 units are not cheap! ^tucker/_rekcut 03:30, 28 February 2007 (UTC)

It's Come to my attention that the memory must be installed in risers in groups of two, so to modify the second question, is there any difference between putting four units on one riser, or splitting it up into two risers? And does having homogenous memory units change the answer to this? Sorry if I'm confusing, there are just a lot of permutations... ^tucker/_rekcut 03:41, 28 February 2007 (UTC)

I'm not sure if I can answer your question because I don't use Macs and I don't know what risers you're talking about. But here's what I do know. Intel CPUs use different modules for odd and even memory addresses, since the beginning. This is why on modern Intel-based motherboards, it's best to put matched RAM, one for the odd and the other for the even. They recommend not only the same brand when you're matching two chips (they have to be identical sizes when you match them), you get chips from the same batch. The same batch means that the CMOS devices are doped (they're made) under the same conditions, leading to a greater compatibility between the two. This is why you find companies selling matched sticks of RAM, and that's what that means.

When you matched the RAM, you match them by size. A 1GB with a 1GB, a 512MB with a 512MB, etc. There isn't really any difference in putting the 1GBs first then the the 512MBs, or vice versa, except for when it seeps over to the next chip. For example, say you're using 1GBs in the first slot, then the 512s, it won't use the second chip till you fill up the 1GB chip. If you use the 512s then the 1GBs, it seeps to the 1GBs faster. But as for benefits, there really isn't any that I know of.

As for putting them on different risers, if I'm thinking of the right things (where you connect two RAM chips to an adaptor that then connects to the motherboard), it's generally slower because there's more address decoders the system has to go through (the extra one to choose which chip on the riser), thus it's better to spread it out over as many risers as you can. Hope something in here helped. --Wirbelwindヴィルヴェルヴィント (talk) 05:48, 28 February 2007 (UTC)

A MacWorld report says that performance significantly rises (+25% or +50%) when there are 4 DIMMs installed compared to two, with no significant performance increases between four and more. So as long as four or more chips are installed, you should be able to milk the most from your Mac Pro. kelvSYC 22:13, 28 February 2007 (UTC)

Distributed medical research programming via the Internet...?

Are there any distributed medical programs which can use the power of thousands of personal computers over the Internet to do medial research like the SETI program that uses distributed programming to search for life in outer space? 71.100.171.80 11:30, 28 February 2007 (UTC)

Take a look at Folding@home. Cheers, Davidprior 11:44, 28 February 2007 (UTC)

Also see List of distributed computing projects. Davidprior 13:08, 28 February 2007 (UTC)

Add page with new significance to existing page

How do we have to behave in the following situation, in order to operate in line with the wikipedia behaviour guidlines. E.g. the page which explains Tendency exists already, now a company named Tendency would like to add their company description in an objective way to this page. What should they do? tx 62.101.100.5 12:06, 28 February 2007 (UTC)

If (and only if) the company meets the requirements of Wikipedia:Notability (organizations and companies), you could create a page called Tendency (company) and create a link to it on Tendency. Cheers, Davidprior 13:02, 28 February 2007 (UTC)

If you're involved with this company in some way, please also read Wikipedia:Autobiography and Wikipedia:Conflict of interest. — Matt Eason ^{(Talk • Contribs)} 14:45, 28 February 2007 (UTC)

In general, the Wikipedia:Disambiguation for guidelines covers this issue. - Akamad 16:56, 28 February 2007 (UTC)

media player

why does windows media player suck so much at being on random? - i.e. always wanting to play a song that has just already been played. (i have the new version - 11 i think it is)

is there any way to get it working better? this is really starting to annoy me, it have thousands upon thousand of songs to pick from why must it pick the one that was on a minute ago, to me that doesnt seem all that random Rickystrapp 16:59, 28 February 2007 (UTC)

• Have you tried turning on shuffle?--VectorPotential^Talk 16:59, 28 February 2007 (UTC)

yeah its on shuffle Rickystrapp 17:08, 28 February 2007 (UTC)

• And it's repeating the same songs? I guess whatever algorithm they use isn't very effective--VectorPotential^Talk 17:13, 28 February 2007 (UTC)

The problem with 'random' is that we humans find patterns/sequences in anything. For instance you might want to 'note' the random-order for say 100 songs and see what occurs. You probably won't find 100 unique songs even if your library has 10,000 songs. I know in iTunes they now have a 'songs by same artist to appear less/more often' slider because users complained. The random-generator is correctly random, you just remember the 'hits'. This selective-memory is one reason why psychics etc. are believed in by so many. ny156uk 17:17, 28 February 2007 (UTC)

Rather than being truly random, it should randomly select songs, then randomly pick again if the selection was played recently (say it's in the last 50% of songs in the library). So, if you had 10,000 songs in the library, it should keep randomly selecting until it finds one that isn't one of the last 5,000 songs played. Or, better still, they could only randomly pick from the 5,000 songs which haven't been played recently. StuRat 17:30, 28 February 2007 (UTC)

At the moment i would say at at least one in 8 songs is one that has been played in the very recent past(a lot of the time though it may be that a song is played then it will move to a random song then back to the one it just played i.e song A -> song Q -> back to song A). This definately occurs more frequently if i skip the song because i didnt want to hear that one, and of course that winds me up even more becasue it one i don't want to hear. Over a period of time it becomes increasbly noticable and rather annoying. There has to be some sort of solution to this, bar dragging and dropping the songs into a playlist (as this somewhat defeats the object of 'random'). Maybe it serves me right for using a microsoft product. Rickystrapp 17:50, 28 February 2007 (UTC)

In the playlist pane, you can tell it to randomize the order of the items. I'm not on a Windows computer right now so I can't detail exactly where you click to do that, but it shouldn't be hard to find. If you do that, you certainly won't hear the same song twice until everything has played (unless you have duplicates, of course). -- Consumed Crustacean (talk) 18:06, 28 February 2007 (UTC)

python import: avoiding naming collisions

Having a little trouble finding documentation or help on a particular naming collision problem. I am dealing with the following situation:

   c:/foo/alpha/mymodule.py
   c:/foo/bravo/mymodule.py
   c:/foo/charlie/mymodule.py

   c:/baz/caller.py

Someone horribly saw fit to name all the modules "mymodule.py" and now I cannot figure out how to get the import statements to work unambiguously. Assume renaming the files is unfortunately not an option.

   sys.path.insert(0,'c:/foo/alpha')
   import mymodule as ModAlpha

   sys.path.insert(0,'c:/foo/bravo')
   import mymodule as ModBravo

This-a no-worky! In the "other" language perl, you could do

   require"c:/foo/bravo/mymodule.pl"; ### python have an equivalent?

I know this is bad "programming form" but just assume for this case I am stuck with this layout and situation beyond my willing. Anyone care to shed some light? NoClutter 17:36, 28 February 2007 (UTC)

Insert a blank file named __init__.py into C:/foo/(alpha|bravo|charlie) (if there isn't one already), and add C:/foo to sys.path. Then, your code looks like this:

 from alpha import mymodule as alphamodule
 from bravo import mymodule as bravomodule
 from charlie import mymodule as charliemodule

By the way, comp.lang.python (linky to it in mailing list form) is a good place to ask Python questions, and you'll likely get a real veteran or two responding, instead of rather mediocre anonymous users. 88.111.161.53 19:03, 28 February 2007 (UTC)

Java static keyword

Could anyone tell me the difference between a static variable and a non-static variable, in dumbed-down language? Does static allow a variable to be referenced through all instances of a class (so say variable is a static variable in a class TestClass, to reference the "global" variable will be TestClass.variable, but for an instance, test.variable?). x42bn6 Talk 17:51, 28 February 2007 (UTC)

TestClass.variable and test.variable point to the same thing; if one is changed, the other is changed. 'static' means that the variable is attached to the class, rather than instance variables which are attached to the particular object. [1] is a nice, brief overview. -- Consumed Crustacean (talk) 18:04, 28 February 2007 (UTC)

Ah, so static variables are like a variable that points to the same reference for each instantiated class, while non-static gives each class its own reference to its own variable? x42bn6 Talk 01:46, 1 March 2007 (UTC)

Yes, and with classes which are static, you don't have to create instances of them to use them. --wj32 ^{talk | contribs} 09:39, 1 March 2007 (UTC)

computer to stereo

Is it possible for me to listen to music from my computer, on a stereo, which is located in a seperate room?

Assuming you have a long enough speaker cable and a headphone jack on your computer, I don't see why not. Of course you'd probably have to run the thing through an amp--VectorPotential^Talk 18:31, 28 February 2007 (UTC)

If it's a stereo, it would probably do that itself, wouldn't it? (And the computer needs to do some sort of amplification before feeding its speakers...) You may need to get an adapter to go from the 3.5mm ("1/8 inch") jack on your computer to the two 1/4" (or "RCA") plugs that your stereo probably accepts. That is, unless your sound card and stereo support some form of digital audio cable thingie. -- Consumed Crustacean (talk) 18:41, 28 February 2007 (UTC)

Airport Express does this, I have one - it works very well. I guess there is a pc-specific product somewhere. ny156uk 19:12, 28 February 2007 (UTC)

A Mac is a PC :/. If you mean Windows or Linux, the article has links to Airtunes implementations for both. There are other devices that do the same thing but with more features, better controls, a display, etc. Squeezebox (network music player) is a good example of that. -- Consumed Crustacean (talk) 19:19, 28 February 2007 (UTC)

Most computers have 3 audio jacks in the back. One is a microphone/line-in jack (rather poor since line-in and microphone signals are very different). One is line-out. The other is a headphone jack. The line-out is intended to be run into the line-in of a receiver. Once it is on the receiver, you run it to an amp and speakers as you do with any other line-in source. --Kainaw ^(talk) 19:46, 28 February 2007 (UTC)

Personally, I would run a mini-to-1/4-inch cable from the line out on the computer. Connect it to an input on you mixer, so you use the mixer as an amp. This should amplify the signal sufficiently so you can use a stripped XLR to run to your stereo system Freedomlinux 04:29, 3 March 2007 (UTC)

Just realized that my setup may be unreasonable for many users... I was just making it out of things sitting around the studio. I also have a device (well, a set of devices) that accept standard RCA audio, and transmit over your home's electrical wiring. Handy for shoving audio to obscure places without running wire. I must shamefacedly admit that I have used them in an event venue to run a remote monitor (instead of a professional setup). Ask about them at a store such as Radio Shack Freedomlinux 04:29, 3 March 2007 (UTC)

Flight Sim X

I have a new copy of the flight simulator. I installed it. All the computer requirements are good, however when i attempt to play it says i do not have enough disk space. I have a 250GB Hard drive so i have no idea why it won't work. Any Tips would be nice.--logger 19:32, 28 February 2007 (UTC)

How much of your 250GB hard drive is not being used? --Kainaw ^(talk) 19:43, 28 February 2007 (UTC)

206GB are free--logger 20:26, 28 February 2007 (UTC)

Is the drive partitioned. How much is free on C. Lots of programs assume they are being installed to C only.

Drive is not partitioned.--logger 08:11, 1 March 2007 (UTC)

Of course the drive is partitioned! You must use partition to use a modern file system!!!! ggrrr --wj32 ^{talk | contribs} 09:40, 1 March 2007 (UTC)

Pardon me, I don't see why? It is possible with modern operating systems to address above 130G. Namely XP with SP2 which can see my whole secondary 250G drive. Of course it is impractical as you would want to partition C to something between 10G and 50G, but technically there is nothing wrong with a 250G C drive. Logger what OS/patch are you using? Sandman30s 10:56, 1 March 2007 (UTC)

Because, even if you have only one partition covering the whole drive, the drive is partitioned. I don't think anybody uses a raw unpartitioned drive on a PC, as the loss of disk space is minimal, and it avoids confused operating systems accidentally overwriting your data. --cesarb 15:48, 1 March 2007 (UTC)

I am Using Windows Vista Home Premium.--logger 19:16, 1 March 2007 (UTC)

WinXP system font name?

I know Vista uses a new font called Segoe. But what did XP use? --Navstar 20:02, 28 February 2007 (UTC)

Tahoma — Matt Eason ^{(Talk • Contribs)} 21:45, 28 February 2007 (UTC)

Any moderns flight sims have A-10 Warhogs?

I'm looking for a flight sim that has a realistic cockpit and HUD of an A-10 Warthog. Are any available for Microsoft Flight Sim X? --Navstar 20:05, 28 February 2007 (UTC)

Lock On: Modern Air Combat maybe?--antilived^{T | C | G} 03:27, 1 March 2007 (UTC)

I can confirm LO:MAC does have A-10s as a flyable vehicle (and it is quite fun). I really wish rigid sims weren't such a niche market, I would kill for a new AH-64 Apache sim. Cyraan 05:19, 1 March 2007 (UTC)

2 IP address

My Internet connection tab shows My IP is 10.0.7.101. BUT Wikipedia shows different IP 202.79.18.2. Why this is happening?? Will it creat any problem?? Which IP should I mention in Infobox?--NAHID 22:16, 28 February 2007 (UTC)

Hello. 10.0.7.101 is your internal IP address, whereas 202.79.18.2 is your external one. 202.79.18.2 should be used in your infobox. 10.0.7.101 is used for your home network, and no one on the internet will ever know this. See Private network and IP Address for more information. JoshHolloway 22:28, 28 February 2007 (UTC)

The article which best explaing what you are seeing is Network Address Translation. --cesarb 22:34, 28 February 2007 (UTC)

InDesign

Where can one find a free InDesign tutorial online that gives instructions on how to create a book (with TOC, index, etc.), rather than how to create a flyer or a magazine? Do any such exist? --Siva 23:35, 28 February 2007 (UTC)