Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Computing/2008 August 7

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August 7

k3b can't find files to copy

I'm running k3b 0.12.14 under Kubuntu DD. Both are old, I know, but k3b was working well till yesterday. Because Kubuntu DD is old, I want to replace it, and before doing so I want to copy lots of stuff onto DVD. k3b seems to work well at the start, allowing me to copy (or seem to copy) stuff from various directories to its list of stuff to be burned. But when I tell it to go ahead and burn, nothing happens for some time, whereupon there's a long list of files that can't be found, whereupon k3b either burns the remainder or announces failure (penguin on red background).

There seems to be nothing wrong with those files that can't be found: I've looked at several (at their original locations), and there they are as expected. And if there's some intermittent problem with the hard drive, it's not a problem that has manifested itself in any other way.

I can't quote (or google for) the exact error message in the normal way as I'm using a Japanese interface. But it's close to "[filename] can't be found. Skipping". If it does crap out (penguin on red), it does so with an additional message close to "the size of the resulting image file cannot be determined".

I tried breaking the process into two: first creating the DVD image, then burning the DVD. For the first disc (of a series of three or four), this worked well. For the first stage (creating the DVD image) of the second disc, I'm getting the same file-not-found messages.

Tips? -- Hoary (talk) 07:06, 7 August 2008 (UTC)

PS since it worked the first time, I decided to keep doing it the first time, as it were: close down all other applications, reboot, and start afresh. The second time, writing to the image worked like a charm; but when it came time to write, the DVD drive didn't believe that there was a disc inside it -- a problem I used to have years ago with another drive/system but that's new to me here. This talks of trouble with automounting; I suppose I should rack my brains and work out how to disable that. -- Hoary (talk) 11:08, 7 August 2008 (UTC)

k3b has trouble displaying accurate error messages: for example, I had it tell me that I didn't have permission to access the CD burner when the actual problem was a corrupted disk image. There should be a button somewhere called "diagnostic log" or similar that displays a list of the commands k3b is running and the results they produce. Clicking that will tell you what's really going on. --Carnildo (talk) 20:07, 7 August 2008 (UTC)

ANTISPYWARE 2008 Help!?

Alright, this has gotten out of hand. Just today, I discovered that I had Antispyware 2008 installed on my computer, and I get constant reminders of it. I didn't install it myself, nor do I know how exactly it was installed. Ever since I discovered it, I tried to remove it. At first, I thought that removing it would be easy, but I can't seem to be able to delete it. I've tried Spybot, Adaware, Malwarebytes, and other programs to try to delete it. I searched on google on advice to delete it, but couldn't find an answer.

It is a scam as an antispyware program, and I can't even delete it. I didn't even download or install it. It keeps on flashing up pop-ups all the time, creates trojans, and spyware/malware/adware, as well as creates a pop-up on the internet browser every 3 pages. It's really annoying, and I have to find out how to delete it. Please help me.76.201.22.87 (talk) 07:10, 7 August 2008 (UTC)

Googling brings up loads of hits; this is just one of them. -- Hoary (talk) 07:40, 7 August 2008 (UTC)

I've searched this topic on google, and it didn't give me the information i wanted.

I don't understand. Google for it and you get oodles of tips. I imagine that some or perhaps all of those at Youtube are humorous rather than informative, but what's missing with the others?

See also this, above. -- Hoary (talk) 09:21, 7 August 2008 (UTC)

What time to domain registrations usually drop?

Just because I am curious, when do domains whose status is pendingDelete usually drop from their registrations? I did research, and found out that it is on the sixth day after being in that status, though I have not found any sources that specify the time at which the drop actually occurs.

I would greatly appreciate any information that is provided. ~Sarah~ \\// 137.155.2.17 (talk) 08:48, 7 August 2008 (UTC)

".com domains get deleted around 1-2PM EST on its 6th day after 5 days of pending" (http://www.webmasterworld.com/forum25/2409.htm) - Sorf^ane 08:57, 7 August 2008 (UTC)

Windows, Wikipedia pic of the day as wallpaper

Does anyone know of an app that will let me set Wikipedia's picture of the day, or Commons' picture of the day, or any similar repeatedly updating picture as a wallpaper in Windows? Am I going to just have to get off my ass and cook one up for myself? 24.76.161.28 (talk) 10:00, 7 August 2008 (UTC)

I've created a almagamation of a few apps that takes the latest commons pic of the day at 1280x1024 resolution from here and then sets it as the desktop background. Just run run.cmd whenever you want to update your wallpaper, it will always take the latest one. Download You can choose out of these resolutions: 200x150, 400x300, 800x600, 1024x768, 1280x1024, 1600x1200 - just edit run.cmd in notepad and change "1280x1024" to one of those. Hope that helps! - Sorf^ane 10:32, 7 August 2008 (UTC)

Similarly, I'm looking through the whole front page, and the picture of the day, and it looks to me like it updates as 12AM UTC, which is currently 7PM or 8PM EST (it changes for daylight savings time). You could have a task automatically run the command at that time of the day. But, if you're a programmer, you probably already knew that. Magog the Ogre (talk) 19:04, 7 August 2008 (UTC)

Sounds like what I was going to do. Use a batch file to: wget the picture, and then feed to a third to apply it as a wallpaper (uh, and now, looking at your download, you did exactly that 0_o). That works. I'm going to have to mess around a bit though, because I want to get APOD working too, and the current app to do that with is closed source and 16-bit (I'm using x64 vista). APOD's image URL changes. Not particularly difficult though; I could probably just do a bit of greping or something to extract that. 24.76.161.28 (talk) 05:09, 8 August 2008 (UTC)

Problem displaying non-roman character in svg file

Hi. I've got an svg file with a capital omega ($\Omega$) in it, which I added using Inkscape. In Inkscape it displays fine, but in Firefox (2) or IE (6, SP2) the omega shows up as a black box. Do I need to tell Inkscape to save the font with the file, or convert it from a character to a shape - or something? A copy of the image is here (but the problem's definitely nothing to do with my having uploaded it to Commons).

Many thanks in advance! Olaf Davis | Talk 15:48, 7 August 2008 (UTC)

Flowed text shows up as black boxes on mediawiki. Click the object and select "convert to text" from the text menu. It's nothing to do with the fact that it's a non-roman character; just the way you added it. --Random832 (contribs) 16:38, 7 August 2008 (UTC)

Thanks! Olaf Davis | Talk 16:44, 7 August 2008 (UTC)

OLE Drag and Drop Failure on VB6, but only with Vista

I have a custom control which makes use of OLE drag and drop. In Vista or not, it works properly when placed or dynamically generated on a simple form. When placed inside a specific program's context, the resultant compiled exe file does not support drag and drop in Vista but does on XP. Note that the compiled exe file is willing to accept drag and drop if the source is text dragged from a VB6 IDE window. The first intuition with such a behavior that something is wrong within the custom control seems to be less likely both because testing shows that the drag/drop events are not firing at all and also because the control works fine except in the specific context I am dynamically generating it in (which is not so easily explained without providing scads of source code). Any advice is appreciated. Thank you. --72.85.235.162 (talk) 17:01, 7 August 2008 (UTC)

I've had this problem for days, but suddenly realized it was actually merely a conflict of privileges.

--72.85.235.162 (talk) 20:34, 7 August 2008 (UTC)

Windows XP and CD-ROMs

All of the CD-Roms I an using that still work under WIN 98 SE and worked under Win XP at one time no longer work under XP. The name and properties of the drives show up correctly and XP says they are working and the eject function works but XP simply can not read any disk they contain. What is going on here? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.100.162.249 (talk) 17:31, 7 August 2008 (UTC)

If they read before on your machine, and are no longer reading properly, I would have two guesses:

1) Your CD-ROM drive is not working properly. Try reading other CD's on the drive.

2) The CD's are busted. This might happen if they were all stored in the wrong place, though it doesn't seem as likely.

It seems pretty unlikely the XP would stop being able to read any CD formatted in 98SE; I may be mistaken, but I believe they use the same file allocation system. Try out reading other CD's on the drive, and if that works, then could you tell us if it's able to read the file system at all on the disks, or if it just can't run the program? Magog the Ogre (talk) 19:00, 7 August 2008 (UTC)

The drives are shown to be working by every possible means of configuration or status except for the "This device is not ready" message. On other devices years ago I found the problems to be the switch of sensor for closing the drive to be dirty or not working. If I could disable this in software then the drive might work. When any CD is inserted the green led flashes quickly for the CD Roms and the red led flashes quickly for th CD RW drives so it looks like the drive knows it has a CD but XP does not. What about diagnostic software? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.100.162.249 (talk) 11:35, 8 August 2008 (UTC)

Yes, the problem might be in the software or in the BIOS (I would suggest messing around in the BIOS if you know how). I would normally suggest starting up the computer in DOS, though this is a fairly complicated operation in XP, and I don't remember how now that I'm using Vista. If you have a startup disk, you might try putting it in the drive, though you'd have to check the BIOS to make sure it's looking for startup disks on the CD drive before the hard disk. Has the CD worked before on this machine? You might even have a slave/master problem on the drive. Magog the Ogre (talk) 22:28, 8 August 2008 (UTC)

It's a BenQ drive and all of the sudden every BenQ site world wide no longer has the drivers, applications, firmware updates loaded on any sites, even though the sites and pages for the downloads are still there. Will try accessing in DOS but DOS prompt returns "This device is not ready" as in door opened or no CD. If I could turn this off in the registry...

IRC

When I try to go to this address ([1]) on FF3, it tells me that it cannot open the page because the protocol (irc) is not associated with any program. Therefore, I tried to open it in IE7. Every time I try to open it in IE7, though, the browser crashes and it prompts me to send error reports. What should I do to access this page? Also, why is it crashing IE? Thanks in advance, Ζρς ι'β' ^¡hábleme! 20:59, 7 August 2008 (UTC)

Well, it looks like by installing the add-on ChatZilla in FF3, I am now able to use irc. However, I would still like to know why it is crashing my IE7. I would also like to know how it gives me the correct name. Does it go on what profile FF is registered to or what? Ζρς ι'β' ^¡hábleme! 21:28, 7 August 2008 (UTC)

IE doesn't appear to recognize the extension on my machine; apparently IE recognizes it on yours for some reason. Perhaps a poor piece of software associated it with IE, but never properly installed. Magog the Ogre (talk) 22:31, 8 August 2008 (UTC)

Free SMS-email gateways?

Are there any free services that will allow me to receive e-mail by SMS or send e-mail from SMS? My mobile carrier is Primus Canada, if it makes a difference. NeonMerlin 21:14, 7 August 2008 (UTC)

I checked SMS Gateway, but your carrier was not listed. A Google search didn't turn up anything either. It is possbile that your carrier doesn't offer the e-mail service. But that's just your carrier. You could try [2] though. WikiY ^Talk 21:49, 7 August 2008 (UTC)

Schematic Editor

Can anybody identify what program or schematic editor was used to draw this? It doesn't look like Eagle. I think Eagle shows VDD and GND pin separately. WikiY ^Talk 21:54, 7 August 2008 (UTC)

My educated guess is OrCAD, Bunthorne (talk) 00:42, 8 August 2008 (UTC)

ps3 sound issues running ps2 games with hdmi audio

I have an older model 60 gb ps3 with the hardware emulation for ps2 games. I use the hdmi cable for both audio and video, which works fine for ps3 games, but when i run a ps2 game on it i receive a terrible crackly bastardized sound output. When i use my component cable to run ps2 games, however, the audio and video work perfectly. My only gripe is my tv, an olevia 227v, is an unholy pain in the ass to cycle between component and hdmi, and i was wondering if anyone had come across these sound issues in the past and had any ideas about fixing it.

Thank you so much!

24.88.103.234 (talk) 21:59, 7 August 2008 (UTC)Tim

AVI file playable by Quicktime player only

I have been using Mathematica to make visualizations and recently figured out how to export a series of images as an .avi file. However when I go to play the file in VLC, it comes out all scrambled. But it turns out that Quicktime player can play the file just fine. I send the file to GSpot and it tells me the codec name is "BI_RGB Raw Bitmap" and that I do not need to download any codec.

Is the file actually an .avi or is it a .mov in disguise? How can I get VLC to play the file (I am pretty prejudiced against quicktime personally and would rather not use it)? Thanks for your help. (EDIT: I would upload the file here but wiki doesn't allow that file type - if anyone can suggest a place to host the file that doesn't require an account I'm all ears)Man It's So Loud In Here (talk) 23:02, 7 August 2008 (UTC)

RapidShare --mboverload@ 00:54, 8 August 2008 (UTC)

Thanks, here is the file: [3]. Man It's So Loud In Here (talk) 01:43, 8 August 2008 (UTC)

It's a proper AVI file. You've probably found a bug in VLC's handling of raw RGB (uncompressed) video. --tcsetattr (talk / contribs) 02:19, 8 August 2008 (UTC)

The file is actually broken; its fourcc is zero instead of the correct 'DIB '. I changed the fourcc to 'DIB ' and it worked in VLC. So this is partially Mathematica's fault, but that's no excuse for VLC failing to handle it. Regardless, uncompressed AVI is not the format you want to use—it's very inefficient. (Zipping your file reduces it from 15+ megabytes to half a megabyte.) I recommend converting it to an animated GIF, which is the best widely-supported format for this kind of animation. It looks like Mathematica can export animated GIFs directly: [4]. -- BenRG (talk) 02:34, 8 August 2008 (UTC)

Broken? fourcc.org lists 0x00000000 as the correct code for raw RGB. I don't see "DIB " anywhere in the list. MPlayer and ffplay played it correctly with the all-zero fourcc; they don't recognize "DIB ". Do you have any supporting documentation for your idea that "DIB " is correct?

Regardless of what went wrong there, it is definitely a good idea to compress that video before asking anyone else to look at it... unless you're going to ask someone to fix that VLC bug --tcsetattr (talk / contribs) 02:57, 8 August 2008 (UTC)

Considering there are about 10 billion basic VLC bugs, I doubt it's even worth mentioning... VLC is some pretty lousy (free) software IMO. --98.217.8.46 (talk) 18:31, 8 August 2008 (UTC)

I would love to hear any suggestions for better ones. I'm in charge of the laptop images and right now we include VLC on all the systems. --mboverload@ 23:29, 8 August 2008 (UTC)

There are plenty that perform better but don't cover as many filetypes or are "free software". Personally I'd rather deal with codec hell that a player which crashes almost constantly on every system I've used it on doing such simple operations as "seek". --98.217.8.46 (talk) 01:33, 9 August 2008 (UTC)

Eh, our goal is to make them stop complaining they can't view something, which is why I choose VLC. It's simple to support and although the interface sucks, it remains basic enough to be useable without any training. Mostly because it avoids codec hell. --mboverload@ 01:41, 9 August 2008 (UTC)

If you are interested in alternatives to VLC, you might want to check out GOM Player. --Kjoonlee 13:07, 9 August 2008 (UTC)