Computing desk
< October 26	<< Sep \| October \| Nov >>	October 28 >

Welcome to the Wikipedia Computing Reference Desk Archives
The page you are currently viewing is an archive page. While you can leave answers for any questions shown below, please ask new questions on one of the current reference desk pages.

October 27

Free scince mags ?

If someone know about free science magzines and CDs ,please tell me .thanks in advance ............usman —Preceding unsigned comment added by Star33 2009 (talk • contribs) 08:16, 27 October 2007 (UTC) Please tell me if some one know about free science magzines and CDs shiptment website. i am asking this second time .........usman —Preceding unsigned comment added by Star33 2009 (talk • contribs) 08:07, 28 October 2007 (UTC)[reply]

I'd ask this on the Science Desk. One free mag is NASA Tech Briefs. StuRat 15:41, 28 October 2007 (UTC)[reply]

windows media virus?

Hi, I run xp and downloaded a video. However I cannot erase the vido now . I open the folder and it closes the window. I cannot erase the folder, it says the file is in use. I cannot erase using explorer.

can you help. I am running avast free edition. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 91.105.70.6 (talk) 12:29, 27 October 2007 (UTC)[reply]

What you should try first is starting the computer in safe mode and then try to delete it (just when the computer is starting up, before the loading screen of windows xp comes up, press F8 repeatedly and then select to start the computer in safe mode). This will probably work for most things. If the file is really stubborn, use MoveFile from sysinternals (located here), that will pretty much remove anything. But try starting the computer in Safe Mode first, and report back if that works. 217.174.81.227 19:50, 27 October 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Sounds like the folder created a thumbnail for the video that you had, the culprit is probably a file called thumbs.db, it stores thumbnails of images/videos. --VectorPotential^Talk 20:42, 27 October 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Just open a command prompt and cd to your file, use task manager to kill explorer.exe, then in the command prompt do "del filename", then it's deleted! To restart explorer create a new process with task manager (file->new task) and type explorer in the box and hit enter --⁪ffroth 04:05, 28 October 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Online chess frauds

How do the providers of online chess services discover that a user is using the help of a computer chess engine? 84.91.38.152 12:53, 27 October 2007 (UTC)[reply]

They.. don't? --⁪ffroth 16:44, 27 October 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Yes they do. At least the good ones, otherwise it would be too easy to become a master of online chess, don't you think? Internet Chess Club does that, I'm sure. 84.91.38.152 17:42, 27 October 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Well there you go, from the article on Internet Chess Club:

ICC provides the proprietary BlitzIn software, currently at version 2.6.2, and the Dasher program, released in 2006, currently at version 1.1.4. The software has functions to try to detect players using the assistance of chess programs. It does this, in part, by detecting changes in window input focus, and matching processes to known chess programs. It also detects if a non-FIDE titled player has a high percentage of its moves matching up with known computer programs. (The average player has great difficulty playing at a % greater than 60%.) Also, ICC have paid employees to detect computer cheating.

-- DatRoot 17:57, 27 October 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Psh, I would never (ever) run some little game applet that's poking around in my memory.. I'll change my window focus whenever I want thank you very much --⁪ffroth 21:14, 27 October 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Then I guess you won't play on their sites, eh! I mean, you either play by the rules, or you don't play, simple as that. Nobody's forcing you. --24.147.86.187 22:44, 27 October 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Can't people always use two physically separate computers? What is the point of this? "The good ones" sounds like sarcasm ... --Kushal^t 02:59, 28 October 2007 (UTC)[reply]

They apparently claim to check your moves against known chess programs.. yeah RIGHT. GNU Chess is fairly fast, but vista's chess takes like 45 seconds to compute a move (highest skill level) on my 2.16ghz core duo.. there is no way they have thousands of vista chesses running in the background to check all their users.. it would take such an absurd amount of computing power to keep up with checking human players in realtime.. multiple chess engines.. no way

You're making the ridiculous assumption that they need to check every move ever played through their system. I imagine they could use heuristics to rapidly screen players for likely-suspect moves and then check the likely suspects against some standard algorithms. If you match or come close to matching some standard, generic, chess algorithms then they could attempt to identify the program you were using. You also made the assumption that they would have to do this in real time. That is not the case. They could easily store the games to be processed offline. And of course, they don't have to bother with any of this unless you're doing quite well.

It might not catch you the first time you cheat, but it eventually would catch enough people to send a message to the users. A system like this would also provide a way to perform routine checks of people at the top of the standings. 69.95.50.15 15:28, 29 October 2007 (UTC)[reply]

--⁪ffroth 04:03, 28 October 2007 (UTC)[reply]

I never said I did that, I was just asking because I realized they did it after seeing someone being banned for that and I was curious about their procedures. Actually, if that matters, I don't play a game at ICC since 2003, I just got curious because I remembered the fact and, four years ago, Wikipedia's help desk was totally unknown to me and I didn't have a place to make this question. Unfortunately you guys are just trying to prove they don't do it by posting your grandma's style explanations. Thanks for the help. 84.91.38.152 11:40, 28 October 2007 (UTC)[reply]

"Grandma's style explanations" ? Not sure what that means. I notice that chess programs and human players spend different amounts of time on different situations. Humans will spend the most time when they are in trouble or see a way to win, typically near the end of the game, while computers take the most time when there are the most possible moves, typically in the middle of the game. StuRat 15:37, 28 October 2007 (UTC)[reply]

You're forgetting the obvious fact that there are potentially thousands of players on the system at once- hundreds of players will be at "the middle of the game" at the same time, and all the rest are still likely playing faster than their chess program counterparts. Even if not, there's no way you could feasibly muster the required computing power just to prevent cheating in a game --⁪ffroth 17:58, 28 October 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Actually, if you have the time to introduce your opponent's moves in a chess program you are probably not playing a blitz game, it would be difficult to lose 10 seconds after each move from your adversary by introducing his move in your chess program, waiting for the program to reply and introducing the computer's move in your game and not forfeiting on time on a 5/10 min match. In 1h or 2h matches it seems, to me, pretty easy to check the plays. Despite that fact, claiming that a chess program is slow is a bit strange. If you set up a time limit for a game, the computer will be aware of that and kick your ass with extremely fast playing, after all, we already reached the 65nm era. Of course, a smart cheater wouldn't use GNU chess and things alike, he would probably use Fritz. 84.91.38.152 19:35, 28 October 2007 (UTC)[reply]

win xp sp2

The "index" box of "Help and Support" is empty. How can I retrieve its content? Omidinist 16:08, 27 October 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Try going to this page: http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/top10faqs.htm (only works in IE) and then clicking on "Why doesn't Help and Support work?" and following the instructions there. -- DatRoot 16:39, 27 October 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Removing duplicates in MS Office

I have a very long Excel worksheet (200,000 rows!) with many duplicate entries in the same column. What's the quickest way to eliminate the duplicates? --12.47.208.50 16:54, 27 October 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Google google --24.147.86.187 18:08, 27 October 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Router speed

I`m trying to discover my router speed via an internet speed test but I keep getting a download speed of 1.9 Mbps. My internet is stabilised between 7.7 Mbps and 8.1 Mbps. So tell me this if I can download an 83MB file in 7 minutes am I getting my 7.7-8 Mbps speed? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 88.109.246.211 (talk) 18:00, 27 October 2007 (UTC)[reply]

83MB in 7 minutes is about 1.6Mbps. Algebraist 18:53, 27 October 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Well i`m confused then. When I connect tiscali via a Modem it says connected at "7.7Mbps". What does this mean in terms of download speed? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 88.109.246.211 (talk) 19:32, 27 October 2007 (UTC)[reply]

I'd like a little clarification: do you mean how fast your router is able to transfer data or how fast your internet connection is? Because however fast your internet connection is, your router will be faster. Your router is not the bottleneck, that is almost for certain.

If you want to test how fast your internet speed is, I recommend finding a well-seeded legal torrent and see what the max speed of that transfer is. Many of those "bandwidth test" sites will under-report it because there is a bottleneck somewhere, but torrents can achieve spectacular speeds anyway. 217.174.81.227 20:01, 27 October 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Basically I want a fast enough internet connection to be able to play games without any lag whatsoever. I`m not sure whether that constitutes download speed or just general internet speed. Can you link me to one of these torrent sites and direct me on how to use it, and what to look for to indicate that my speed is adequate for said online games.. e.g. Tiger Woods PS3. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 88.109.246.211 (talk) 20:23, 27 October 2007 (UTC)[reply]

For torrents you can go download one of the Linux CD's, like the new Ubuntu 7.10 LiveCD on here. Usually your speed and your ping is not really correlated unless your speed is ridiculously slow (like dial-up). If you live in a country like New Zealand which has the crappiest broadband in developed countries, you can request your ISP to switch off the interleaving on your line if you have a good phone line and that'll shave off around 20-50ms of ping for you, but otherwise I don't think there's much you can do about pings except finding a local server and the usual stuff. --antilived^{T | C | G} 20:34, 27 October 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Sigh, all this "online" (mega scare quotes) console gaming is confusing people. Running a full server list in Counter-Strike gives me 200 or so servers with a ping of under 40ms (good) but thousands of servers in the 100s or even 1000s.. it all depends on where you are geographically in comparison with the server --⁪ffroth 21:11, 27 October 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Come again:D. I have no idea how downloading this will help. It says it`ll take an hour for gods sake. Sorry. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 88.109.246.211 (talk) 20:38, 27 October 2007 (UTC)[reply]

The point is not download the whole image, but to see the speed you can download it. If it looks like it can't get any faster you can cancel the download (or not if you want to ditch Windows). --antilived^{T | C | G} 21:29, 27 October 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Right thanks very much. The fastest I got it was 279 Kb/ps which would have taken me 49 minutes to download the whole thing, is that a fast speed? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 88.109.246.211 (talk) 22:23, 27 October 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Yep. It's far lower than what ISPs promise but thems the breaks- ISPs are altogether evil, without exception, and they shamelessly lie to you about what you're paying for. Anyway that's a good, healthy download speed. I get similar speeds at like 4AM at school, and at home it's capped at 50KB/s so be thankful :| --⁪ffroth 03:59, 28 October 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Ahh, you poor saps with your anemic download speeds, I easily get about 2.3 MiB/s with a relatively standard broadband connection here :) --Oskar 20:21, 29 October 2007 (UTC)[reply]

What kind of monitor connector is this?

I have the following set-up on the back of a computer: http://i21.tinypic.com/zxkufa.jpg

The computer seems to boot fine but I get no image on the monitor. I'm guessing it's because the monitor jack is supposed to into the connector that's circled in the picture. Can anyone tell me what kind of connector that is? 72.189.138.226 19:58, 27 October 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Try Turning on the computer screen!!!! —Preceding unsigned comment added by Eddymania7 (talk • contribs) 20:21, 27 October 2007 (UTC)[reply]

It's a DMS-59 plug which contains 2 DVI-I links in 1 plug. You would have some trouble finding an adapter to DVI though, these things are quite rare. --antilived^{T | C | G} 20:30, 27 October 2007 (UTC)[reply]

They're not that rare. A simple Google search for DMS-59 to DVI came up with a bunch of hits, all relatively cheap (e.g. $15). --24.147.86.187 16:57, 28 October 2007 (UTC)[reply]

RuneScape:Internet Game

Q:Is it true that if you play Runescape it adds mto your download limit?

--Eddymania7 20:20, 27 October 2007 (UTC) AKA Eddymania7[reply]

Yes everything you do on the internet uses your cap. --antilived^{T | C | G} 20:22, 27 October 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Clearing my cache=frozen and another issue

Dell PC running Windows XP; Pentium 4; 2.40 ghz; 768 MB ram; I use IE6 most of the time. About three out of four times when I clear my cache (ctrl+F5), the screen freezes and I have to cntrl+alt+del out of IE. This happens often here when, for example, I am warning a user or IP and upon posting to their virgin talk page, it says "no messages have been posted yet...", so I attempt to clear my cache so the warning becomes visible. Same for when I'm checking a pages history I just edited, and my edit has not yet made it there. Any diagnosis/advice? A second issue: Sometimes a particular IE window seems "dominant"; other IE windows will not maximize from the bottom bar (the only way to access those other windows is to minimize the dominant window), and when I am in that dominant window, if I open up a new window, it opens minimized. This seems to happen randomly, without any correlation between the type of page opened, or the method of opening. Any thoughts?--Fuhghettaboutit 23:31, 27 October 2007 (UTC)[reply]

You know what's coming... -- DatRoot 23:39, 27 October 2007 (UTC)[reply]

That's right! --Kushal^t 02:52, 28 October 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Opera gets no love. Pacific Coast Highway ^{{Trick • or treat!}} 03:01, 28 October 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Oh, opera is a browser? I thought it was a ridiculously bloated internet suite akin to seamonkey --⁪ffroth 17:54, 28 October 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Have you scanned for viruses and spyware? 'Cause that's always a good first step if IE is acting up, given that it is a major disease vector. You might also want to make sure your video drivers are the latest versions offered by the manufacturer of your video card, since apparently that is often the cause of IE-related shakiness. (Though in my experience that's rarely the problem.) --24.147.86.187 03:01, 28 October 2007 (UTC)[reply]

I notice you're using a number of scripts in your monobook, a lot of the more common user scripts are less than fully compatible with IE6, and can cause periodic crashes. --VectorPotential^Talk 12:06, 28 October 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Okay, I had to expect the firefox recommendation! I just don't like it as much (I may be one of the few). Yes, I'm virus and spyware free—at least I have the latest antivirus running and its updated all the time, and I have a few different antspyware programs. The videocard and the monobook I could try, though I was hoping for someone to magically tell me "this is exactly what is wrong; this is exactly what you need to do"--a silly expectation, I know, when dealing with PCs and IE in almost all cases. Thanks Everyone.--Fuhghettaboutit 12:23, 28 October 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Yeah I'm afraid the symptoms are a bit "random" for a simple fix. If nothing else works I would try just reinstalling IE6 or maybe installing IE7. -- DatRoot 13:15, 28 October 2007 (UTC)[reply]

I may be blocked for this comment but I will go ahead anyway.

You know that Mozilla Firefox can be skinned to look much like Internet Explorer, right? Unless you are a web developer (or associated with a web development team) I see no reason why you should not migrate.

In any case, please do check your computer for spyware, virus etc problems. --Kushal^t 16:05, 28 October 2007 (UTC)[reply]

While I think you may have a spyware/virus issue, clearing your cache can take a long time if you haven't done so in a long time, more so over Internet Explorer. It's not hard to accumulate several gigabytes into your cache over several months or years, which can take a long time. x42bn6 Talk Mess 15:00, 30 October 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Gigabytes? I did not know that ... that is a lot, for sure. Do you have any suggestions on the best way to clear the cache? Is it just a matter of going to "Internet Options"? Thanks --Kushal^t 17:40, 30 October 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Computing/2007 October 27

Contents