Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Computing/2007 March 23

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March 23

MySpace viewmorepics taking me to main page?

Hi. I'm sure this is a really basic question to many people who watch this forum but-- A friend wanted me to check out their blog on Myspace. So, I look at it and the main page and the blog come up OK. But when I clicked on the "viewmorepics" link, it keeps redirecting me to Myspace's main page.

Do I have to join MySpace and log in just to see the pictures, even though AFAIK they are "public"? Or is there an issue with cookies or scripting or something I might have disabled in my browser which could be interfering? Squidfryerchef 01:36, 23 March 2007 (UTC)

Yes, you have to join and log in. — Matt Eason ^{(Talk • Contribs)} 02:29, 23 March 2007 (UTC)

How to Refill an HP 27 Black Cartridge?

I purchased an inkjet refill kit. For the first time, I successfully refilled my HP 27 Black Ink Cartridge. After all the ink was consumed, I tried to refill the same cartridge for a second time. I cleaned my cartridge 5 times. The printing quality was poor. It barely printed anything. Does anybody know how to successfully refill an HP 27 Black Ink Cartridge for a second time? Thanks very much. 208.72.125.112 02:28, 23 March 2007 (UTC)

If it's not being heavily used, some of the ink might have dried and is gumming up the works. I've seen the refill guys (in the mall kiosks) soak it and run hot water through to get it going again. —EncMstr 02:37, 23 March 2007 (UTC)

Water will damage most print heads, try alcohol to clean it out. The print head is probably worn out, as they are fairly low quality and are supposed to be replaced with each ink refill. Droud 13:00, 23 March 2007 (UTC)

By the way, the ink cartridge is remanufactured to begin with. 208.72.125.78 03:55, 23 March 2007 (UTC)

FITS file

Hey guys, I'm trying to use VBA to get some data out of a FITS file and into an excel spreadsheet, but its been a loooong time since i've used VB, i've got the filename and opened it for input, but I cant work out how to actually get the data out into an array. Help? :) Capuchin 13:09, 23 March 2007 (UTC)

Woo I got Input working finally, I guess I need the info about the file to go further. Pity the guy who knows that isn't here. :/. When i read it in, It comes up in all weird characters (just like when i open the image in notepad), the data will be there if i convert to hex or whatever right? —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Capuchin (talk • contribs) 14:36, 23 March 2007 (UTC).

This might not be the answer you are looking for, but you might find this task easier using the IRAF software, specifically the hedit command. I'm fairly certain you can output from this into a text file. →Ollie (talk • contribs) 00:53, 24 March 2007 (UTC)

Windows Media Player

I have downloaded Windows Media player from the Microsoft website, but everytime i try to use it, my computer asks me to Validate the software. When i do, it says i have a counterfiet copy. How can this be, if i got it staight from the microsoft website, and is there anything i can do. Is there another way to download it> —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 75.54.61.158 (talk) 13:30, 23 March 2007 (UTC).

Check your Windows install; that's what the genuine checker is complaining about. Splintercellguy 15:01, 23 March 2007 (UTC)

It's a genuine pain, all right. I'd use another media player, although you might have trouble playing WMV and WMP files on other players, as Microsoft won't let anybody else play their proprietary formats. This is all a good reason to avoid Microsoft altogether. StuRat 15:24, 23 March 2007 (UTC)

Once you go VLC you never go back, baby! Aetherfukz 14:52, 28 March 2007 (UTC)

Video Downloads

Is it possible to download videos from sites such as Youtube and put them into iTunes and in turn an iPod? Is it even legal to do so? Ipmin 13:46, 23 March 2007 (UTC)

Vixy.net Splintercellguy 15:00, 23 March 2007 (UTC)

vixy.net never seems to work for me. how is it that you guys get it to work?

I use the firefox extension "Download Video". Search for it at firefox.com! It's great. You just click the icon, and it automatically downloads embedded video.--Ryan 17:11, 24 March 2007 (UTC)

http://javimoya.com/blog/youtube_en.php lets you download the raw .flv files, and has a Firefox extension you can use as well. Then all you have to do is convert to iPod's format. Somehow. Good luck! --Transfinite (Talk / Contribs) 22:40, 28 March 2007 (UTC)

Doubling up the size of an e-mail attachment?

I have just been electronically chastised by my sister because I sent her a very funny attachment showing various video recordings of church ceremony mishaps. She took umbrage that I had caused her mailbox to overload and said in future I should not send her large attachments because each time they get forwarded, the size of any attachment doubles say from 3Mb to 6Mb. I have been using e-mail both professionally at work and privately at home for over 10 years and no-one else has ever pointed that out to me. So my question is, quite simply, is she correct? And if so, has anyone any suggestions as to how I can still send the e-mail and it's attachment without it having that effect? Thanks in anticipation. CasualWikiUser 13:58, 23 March 2007 (UTC)

I think when attachments are encoded in Base64, they take up more space. Splintercellguy 15:00, 23 March 2007 (UTC)

The only way I think this is true is if you have a copy in your Inbox and one in your Outbox. You aren't doubling the size of the copy that was sent, however. But, if someone doesn't want your huge e-mails, then stop sending them. An exception might be where you send an e-mail with a link to the content on a web page. Then they can't object to the size (although they might object to the content at the link). StuRat 15:18, 23 March 2007 (UTC)

No the size of the attachment will not double - she is incorrect. What is true is that if the file was say 3mb, then you SENDING the email used 3mb of upload data between you and your service provider, and when she RECEIVED the email she used another 3mb of download data to receive it. If she had to then forward it again it would use another 3mb to send it again. But that's where it would end. From that point on your service provider doesn't count any further data usage from your account for those transactions - even if your sister has forwarded it all around the world, it still only took 1 upload session of 3mb. (Note that this is only of concern to you if you have a limited amount of data you can use per month with your service provider OR if you have a really slow connection and you are concerned that large files take a long time to download). So the only way your sister can be correct is if she takes into account the data that the mail servers themselves use to propagate the 3mb file across the net to any of the people in her email. It does not however affect you.

From the straight-forward point of view, if I receive an email, hit forward, type in some addresses, and hit send, this does NOT double the size of the file, but you will be sending one copy of the file back to your service provider (who will forward it to a mail server) which will use another 3mb. That's all. Rfwoolf 16:13, 23 March 2007 (UTC)

Actually, just thinking about this, your sister might believe that for every RECIPIENT in your email, you are sending that 3mb each time to each recipient. Well that's not the case. It would only be true if you personally generate a fresh email for every person you wanted to forward the email to. And even then, it would not be 'doubling', it would simply be an extra 3mb each time. So if you hit 'forward', and type in 20 names in your 'To' box, and hit send, this will upload the email and the 3mb attachment to your mail service via your Service Provider (which would use 3mb of data on your account) and then your mail server will have the headache of forwarding your email to 20 different recipients, but will be using the data of your mail server and not from your data usage. Note however that your mail service provider (which is sometimes your internet service provider) may have mailbox limits on things like how many Megabytes of data can sit on the server in your 'inbox' before you log in to download it off the server. Similarly, your mail service provider may have limits on outgoing data for your mail box. Many service providers also limit email attachment size to 10mb (but usally higher than that). Anyways, in the case of forwarding to 20 people using 1 email, this would use 3mb of upload data, and your mail server would be forwarding the email 20 times using 3mb each, which is really no big deal. Rfwoolf 16:31, 23 March 2007 (UTC)

When person A sends mail containing a photo or video attachment to person B, and when person B forwards it to person C, and depending on the vagaries of the mail software used by A and B, I have definitely seen two distinct copies of the (encoded) attachment occasionally present in the copy received by person C (i.e., me). But I don't know if this process could geometrically increase in a 4,8,16,... pattern. —Steve Summit (talk) 13:41, 24 March 2007 (UTC)

There is another point. Assume she has a 5MB limit. You send a 3MB file. When she tries to delete it, it will first copy to her "trah" folder in many IMAP email clients. That copy will fail because it goes to 6MB. So, she will have a lot of trouble getting rid of the email. --Kainaw ^(talk) 15:37, 24 March 2007 (UTC)

Playstation 3 Networking

I went to a friend's house and he has an original Xbox. We played Halo 2 multiplayer, and I remarked that it would be a lot of fun if you could hook more than 4 controllers to the console. He said that you can "network" up to four Xboxes and play with 16 people without using the Internet. Is it possible to do this with the PS3? If so, if they are all the 60GB ones, can you use the wireless capabilities?J.delanoy 15:16, 23 March 2007 (UTC)

It should be possible, as it was available on the Playstation 2, but the implementation depends on the individual games. From a simple, non-exhaustive Google search, it looks like there aren't any PS3 games that can do LAN play right now. -- Consumed Crustacean (talk) 15:37, 23 March 2007 (UTC)

Playstation 2 Controllers

Do the old PS2 controllers work on the PS3? Thanks, Asics talk ^{Editor review!} 17:35, 23 March 2007 (UTC)

From our article on PlayStation 3:

"The PlayStation 3 does not include interfaces for legacy PlayStation peripherals, though IGN.com tested a legacy controller using a PS2-to-USB adapter, finding that it is compatible, though most other devices (such as the Guitar Hero controller) may not be compatible. Nyko Technologies have started production on the "Play Adaptor", a PS3-to-USB adapter allowing for guitars and other PlayStation 2 peripherals to be used on the PlayStation 3 and is scheduled for release in Q2/2007. The PS3 supports both the USB EyeToy camera/webcam and SOCOM Headset for video and voice chat. A memory card adapter is available so users can save their PS/PS2 data to a virtual memory card on the hard drive. The PlayStation 3 can also use Memory Sticks to store save data for PlayStation and PlayStation 2 software."

--Lumina83 20:36, 23 March 2007 (UTC)

Wireless connection, an MMO, and Windows Vista2

When I'm running Voyage Century Online, I often have trouble maintaining connection to the server when I'm on my home wireless connection. I never lose connection to the internet, I am merely booted from the game server, and the problem is only on my home wireless connection; other wireless networks and broadband give me no problem. This mainly happens if I stop playing for a few minutes to browse the internet or grab something to eat, and I leave the game running. If I maintain activity, however, I rarely have a problem. Could there be some sort of feature, either for Vista, my for my wireless card, for my router, or for my modem, that blocks connection when there is a lack of activity? If not, what could be causing this problem? —Akrabbim^talk 19:50, 23 March 2007 (UTC)

You may want to try updating your router's frimware, I had a similar problem with WoW and the firmware update fixed it. 161.222.160.8 23:38, 26 March 2007 (UTC)

Fastest

What is the exact brand of the fastest wireless router? What is the fastest internet service in the US? 68.193.147.179 20:59, 23 March 2007 (UTC)

well i dont know about the fastest, but one that is cheap and fast is bellsouth, and the best brand of wireless router would have to be linksys.

repaint();

I FINALLY got keyboard input in an applet in Java to work. I came across a program in my comuter science book that utilizes the ActionEvent abstract method, so I tweaked and came up with a KeyEvent and that worked. I made the program where there are buttons and you have to click the button that says left to go left and the nhold the spacebar. Yes, I know it's wierd. The only thing is is that I can't get it to get rid of the old character once you have had it move, so it's more liek an etch-a-sketch than anything. THe code is kind of long, so sorry

/**
* Move
*
* Schyler *****
*
* March 23, 2007
*
*(C) Schyler *****, 2007
*/

    import java.awt.*;
    import java.awt.event.*;
    import java.applet.*;
    import javax.swing.*;
    
    public class Move extends JApplet 
    {
    	
    	private int APPLET_WIDTH = 1000, APPLET_HEIGHT = 600;
    	private JButton left;
    	private JButton right;
    	private JButton up;
    	private JButton down;
    	public int x = 500, y = 300;
    	public String a = "O";
    	     
    	          
    	     public void init() 
    	     {
    	     	
    	     	
    	     	
    	     	left = new JButton ("left");
    	     	left.addKeyListener(new leftListener());
    	     	
    	     	right = new JButton ("right");
    	     	right.addKeyListener(new rightListener());
    	     	
    	     	up = new JButton ("up");
    	     	up.addKeyListener(new upListener());
    	     	
    	     	down = new JButton ("down");
    	     	down.addKeyListener(new downListener());
         	     	
    	          	
    	     	
    	     	
    	     	Container cp = getContentPane();
    	     	cp.setBackground(Color.cyan);
    	     	cp.setLayout (new FlowLayout());		
    	     	cp.add (left);
    	     	cp.add (right);
    	     	cp.add (up);
    	     	cp.add (down);
    	     	
         		
         		
    		setSize (APPLET_WIDTH, APPLET_HEIGHT);
    		
    	}
    		
    	public class leftListener implements KeyListener
    	{
    	     	
    	     	public void keyPressed (KeyEvent event)
    	     	{
    	     		
    	     		x -= 10;
    	     		repaint();
         			
    		}
    		
    		public void keyReleased (KeyEvent event)
    		{	
    		}
    		
    		public void keyTyped (KeyEvent event)
    		{	
    		}		
    	}
    	
    	public class rightListener implements KeyListener
    	{
    		
    		public void keyPressed (KeyEvent event)
    		{
    			
    			x += 10;
    			repaint();
    			
    		}
    		
    		public void keyReleased (KeyEvent event)
    		{	
    		}
    		
    		public void keyTyped (KeyEvent event)
    		{	
    		}		
    	}
    	
    	public class upListener implements KeyListener
    	{
    		
    		public void keyPressed (KeyEvent event)
    		{
    			
    			y -= 10;
    			repaint();
    	     		
    	     	}
    	     	
              	public void keyReleased (KeyEvent event)
    	     	{	
    	     	}
    	     	
    		public void keyTyped (KeyEvent event)
    		{	
    		}		
    	}
    	
    	public class downListener implements KeyListener
    	{
    		
    	     	public void keyPressed (KeyEvent event)
    	     	{
    			
    			y += 10;
    			repaint();
    			
      		}
    		
    		public void keyReleased (KeyEvent event)
    		{	
    		}
    		
    		public void keyTyped (KeyEvent event)
    		{			
    		}		
    	}
    
    	public void paint(Graphics p) 
    	{
    		
    		p.drawString(a, x, y);		
    		repaint();
    				
    	}	
    }

I figured that the line that says repaint(); would make it redraw the string at he new x and/or y coordinates, but it doesn't. It draws the the new O but leaves the old one. If anyone has an enviroment they plug this into, they can see whta I'm tlakign about and see if they can help me fix it. Also, when I first ru nthe program the 4 buttons at he top don't appear until I roll over them with the mouse. Thnak you for any help. Thanks, schyler 22:00, 23 March 2007 (UTC)

I think you need to override update() so it calls paint() always

   public void update(Graphics g) {
       paint(g);
   }

--Spoon! 02:59, 24 March 2007 (UTC)

Okay. So wher do I put this method? Do i replace the

    public void paint(Graphics p) 
    	{
    		
    		p.drawString(a, x, y);		
    		repaint();
    				
    	}

totally with the method you said? Or is it a totally seperate method to be put undrneath the paint method? Thanks schyler 18:42, 24 March 2007 (UTC)

You shouldn't be drawing directly to that container. For a cleaner solution, that also works, you should have your own Canvas to draw on, that has all the functions you need. I've written a basic one to get you started:

import java.awt.*;

class DrawingArea extends Canvas {
	
	private int x, y, distance;
	private String a;

	public DrawingArea() {
		super();
		this.x = 150;
		this.y = 150;
		this.a = new String("0");
		this.distance = 10;
		this.setSize(300, 300);
	}

	public void moveLeft() {
		x -= distance;
		repaint();
	}

	public void moveRight() {
		x += distance;
		repaint();
	}

	public void moveUp() {
		y -= distance;
		repaint();
	}

	public void moveDown() {
		y += distance;
		repaint();
	}

       public void paint(Graphics p) 
       {
               p.drawString(a, x, y);                   
       }
}

Your code then becomes:

public class Move extends JApplet 
{
       ...
       private DrawingArea drawingArea;             
                 
       public void init() 
       {
		...
        	drawingArea = new DrawingArea();
		cp.add(drawingArea);
		...                
       }
               
       public class leftListener implements KeyListener
       {
               public void keyPressed (KeyEvent event)
               {
                       drawingArea.moveLeft();
               }             
       }

       ...
}

That's obviously not your whole class, but just the significant parts. That should give you enough to go on. Hope that helps, Johnnykimble 00:10, 25 March 2007 (UTC)

Oh and don't forget to get rid of your now redundant paint method from your Move.java file... Johnnykimble 00:11, 25 March 2007 (UTC)

I know this is veering off the topic, but there is also a neater way to catch the key presses instead of using those inner classes:

public class Move extends JApplet implements KeyListener
{
       private int APPLET_WIDTH = 1000, APPLET_HEIGHT = 600;
	private DrawingArea drawingArea;
                  
	public void init() 
	{
		drawingArea = new DrawingArea();
		drawingArea.addKeyListener(this);

		Container cp = getContentPane();
		cp.setBackground(Color.cyan);
		cp.setLayout (new FlowLayout());
		cp.add(drawingArea);

		setSize (APPLET_WIDTH, APPLET_HEIGHT);
		setFocusable(true);	        
        }
                
	public void keyPressed (KeyEvent e)
	{
		switch (e.getKeyCode()) {
			case KeyEvent.VK_UP:
				drawingArea.moveUp();
				break;
			case KeyEvent.VK_DOWN:
				drawingArea.moveDown();
				break;
			case KeyEvent.VK_LEFT:
				drawingArea.moveLeft();
				break;
			case KeyEvent.VK_RIGHT:
				drawingArea.moveRight();
				break;
		}
	}

	public void keyReleased(KeyEvent e) {}
	public void keyTyped(KeyEvent e) {}
}

That code does the same thing as the previous Move.java, but uses the arrow keys on the keyboard instead of the buttons (you will need to click once in the 'DrawingArea' to give it give it focus before you start pressing keys though). Notice the implements keyword. This means the actual applet will be implementing key presses. The only component that is listening to the key presses is the DrawingArea. There are no changes required to that code though. The main applet takes care of the key presses and calls the relevant method on the DrawingArea object. For more info on those key codes, check out the Sun documentation on them. Johnnykimble 01:02, 25 March 2007 (UTC)

Reducing Network Speed To Increase Reliability?

Is there a way that I can force the connection between my wireless card and the wireless router to decrease in speed and thereby reduce the frequency with which the connection is lost? I don't need anything above 2 MBit/s since it's only used for the internet. --Seans Potato Business 23:58, 23 March 2007 (UTC)

Probably, though the exact method is going to be OS and possibly radio dependent. Most radio firmware adjusts transfer speed automagically anyway. -- mattb @ 2007-03-24T03:24Z