Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Computing/2008 December 23

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December 23

I have a bash script I distribute to

my clients every few months, to update their Debian OS, that script downloads .deb files, installs them, and also installs software from the repositories, is it possible to put this file inside a .deb? would it work properly? I'm not sure...   Thanks SF007 (talk) 01:56, 23 December 2008 (UTC)

Hmm... thats like trying to find the derivative of a derivative to find out how fast a function changes. Anyways, what you could do is to look at the source file for APT and see where to go from there. Im sure that your solution doesnt involve archiving .debs into a .deb, could be something like an atom feed or something. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 99.244.11.222 (talk) 06:36, 23 December 2008 (UTC)

Yes, deb is a package management program, so you could use it to package your files and even execute code post-installation. I use rpms while on Mandriva and a self-built package solution while on my Linux from Scratch box to do this same type of thing. If you need an introduction to the whys & hows of package management, without discussing any particular program, look here: http://www.linuxfromscratch.org/lfs/view/stable/chapter06/pkgmgt.html And of course, wikipedia has a good article, this time discussing some of the different programs: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Package_management_system —Preceding unsigned comment added by 67.8.2.190 (talk) 08:55, 31 December 2008 (UTC)

network traffic by process (Windows)

With Wireshark, I can see network packets. With tcpview, I can see connections established by process. Is there something that I can use to see network traffic filtered by process? Thanks, –Outriggr § 07:22, 23 December 2008 (UTC)

Microsoft Network Monitor. :) — neuro^(talk) 12:10, 23 December 2008 (UTC)

uwdg

Hi i am responsible for a web site and im trying to increase its rate in ranking, So I would like to know what are the main elements that i need to work on for a high ranked site?

To seee the site: http://www.kau.edu.sa/  —Preceding unsigned comment added by Uwdg (talk • contribs) 07:28, 23 December 2008 (UTC) 

Try using google...http://www.googleguide.com/improving_pagerank.html or try looking at Search engine optimization and its links/use those words in a google search for more tips/ideas. For many people it seems keeping high up the ranks is a near-full-time job. 194.221.133.226 (talk) 09:31, 23 December 2008 (UTC)

There are many tricks - and lots of books and services (all highly dubious) relating to boosting your Google page-rank...

...or you could resort to honestly trying to make your site more useful. Having content that people actually NEED is the way to get yourself up there in the rankings. If your site is a business - see if you can find some content that would be useful to other people in the business. If you sell mortgages - make a little JavaScript mortgage cost-over-time calculator - if you are a builder, put a house price estimator up there...little things like that (if done well) will cause other people to link to them - those links are what push up your page rank score. The other tricks people describe only work until Google manage to tweak their code to defeat them...and many of the tricks fail because they've already been defeated.

Case in point - the MINI (BMW) car company printed a one page advert on the back of a German car magazine. If you have a webcam and go to the German MINI web site and hold the magazine advert up to your camera - a 3 dimensional model of a MINI Cooper car pops up in the image coming from the camera - sitting on top of the advert!! As you turn the page around, the model car appears to 'stick' to it. This is an incredible thing. Will it sell more cars because people look at the car in the camera? Perhaps a few. But will it push up their page-rank? Hell yes!!! When every geek site on the planet finds out about this amazingly cool thing - there will be links from every high-valued car nut site on the planet! (One such linking site is here for example). It's only been out a few days and already, if you Google "webcam MINI Cooper advert" you get 51,000 hits (and you can bet that every single one of those links to it).

It's amazing the content that people will link to - so put up pages about the history of the city you're centered in - cake recipes 'donated' by your employees - make a "Keep your kids amused while you <do something with the product>" page as an excuse to put up word-search puzzles containing words related to your business - optical illusions - things kids can print out, cut up and fold into a 3D model. Put up anything that people will actually find INTERESTING and/or USEFUL. If this content is too costly for your team to produce - consider offering free web space and a free domain name on your server to your employees for them to put up interesting content (but obviously monitor it for inappropriate stuff) - have your IT department run free courses to teach them how to do that (web-savvy employees==a good thing!). Offer prizes to the employee who's website comes highest in the search listings when you type your company name into Google. Heck you're a university - let the students have pages - with competitions for best content, etc, etc.

Because every one of their web sites will link to your web site (and presumably host a FREE banner ad!) - your page rank will improve. If you believe in your product - put up an open forum system for people to discuss it...sure, they'll say bad things as well as good (but surely you should want to know that) - but good or bad, they'll make links - which is what you want. The growth in link-count will be slow but steady - your slow climb up the rankings will be permanent and not subject to the vagaries of exploiting 'loopholes' in the Google code.

Making the Internet a better place by providing more good stuff that people actually WANT to see is a vastly better and more ethical way than trying to trick the search engine into displaying a poor link (your site) ahead of one that should be considered a better place for people to go when they type in that particular set of search criteria.

SteveBaker (talk) 15:31, 23 December 2008 (UTC)

Curly brackets

Hello, could someone please tell me how to locate the curly brackets on my computer. I have a Windows Vista HP laptop and people have said the curly brackets are next to the P button, but on my keyboard é è [ are beside the P. Thank you.--jeanne (talk) 07:39, 23 December 2008 (UTC)

If you can't find them on your keyboard through use of shift/ctrl then you can always use Alt keycodes to get them. This site (http://code.knopok.net/alt-codes.html) shows them as ALT123 and ALT125 - seems to work if I do it {and } . Another thing i've done before when stuck in a similar situation (darn Apple with their weird keyboard layouts) is search online for the character, copy it and then place it in my document - not ideal but works fine if you've always got the internet on and ready to go. 194.221.133.226 (talk) 09:28, 23 December 2008 (UTC)

Is that an Italian laptop? At least that's the only keyboard layout that matches your description. According to this, you can create the curly brackets by pressing AltGr-Shift-é (the key labelled "é è [") and AltGr-Shift-* (the key labelled "* + ]"). --dapete 12:54, 23 December 2008 (UTC)

Thank you Dapete. It works! Yes it is an Italian laptop. Thanks again for your help.--jeanne (talk) 12:59, 23 December 2008 (UTC)

Yikes, so this is why you can't recruit decent c programmers from Italy... —Preceding unsigned comment added by 90.201.99.107 (talk) 16:08, 23 December 2008 (UTC)

Hmmm - I wonder if we could prove a correlation by looking at the number of Templates used in it.Wikipedia.org ?! SteveBaker (talk) 16:20, 23 December 2008 (UTC)

Another good option is to choose "wiki markup" from the drop down list in the box under the edit window, and click on the "{{}}" to insert it. Jake Wartenberg^Talk 18:40, 23 December 2008 (UTC)

Youtube

On Youtube, is there a way of "ignoring" users you dislike so that their videos don't show up in Recent Videos or Recommended for You? Because there is one particular user who is pestering me with his actions (he's not attacking me personally, but he is doing things that make me upset - if you know what I mean). 60.230.124.64 (talk) 08:41, 23 December 2008 (UTC)

Deleting a 'friend' on Facebook

If I delete one of my Facebook friends, will they be made aware of this through a message or anything? Or will we just disappear from each others lists? Thanks 91.111.99.97 (talk) 12:29, 23 December 2008 (UTC)

They won't get a notification or anything, though obviously they could notice on their own that you're no longer in their friend list. Matt Deres (talk) 12:40, 23 December 2008 (UTC)

The most obnoxious feature that I've noticed is that you show up on Facebook's "suggested" friends in the future. Boy would I have been in for a rude awakening had I not already deduced about the 3 people who unfriended me (yes, I'm that unpopular). Magog the Ogre (talk) 13:00, 23 December 2008 (UTC)

A clever way to do it, then, would be to delete them and then quickly put them on the list of people who could never see you. Oh, the joys of being passive aggressive. --98.217.8.46 (talk) 14:42, 23 December 2008 (UTC)

I agree with .46; by far the best option is to block a user. This automatically severs all connections you have to them (ie, friendship). From their perspective, you cease to exist. They don't see comments/wall posts you make, and even if they follow a direct link to your profile, they are redirected to the home page. Good Luck! --Jake Wartenberg^Talk 18:46, 23 December 2008 (UTC)

I've never had that problem myself (that I know about!), but my wife tells me the block feature is not as perfect as they'd have you believe. Hey, is there a group for WP on Facebook yet? Matt Deres (talk) 21:56, 23 December 2008 (UTC)

If you block you have to make sure you have your privacy settings set correctly. If your profile can be viewed by non-friends then blocking won't help at all if they are logged out, for example. --98.217.8.46 (talk) 02:30, 24 December 2008 (UTC)

Cheap media player for home theatre

Hi all. I'm looking for a cheap but decent media player for a home theatre setup. Mostly it would be used for watching TV series or movies from a central PC in a different room. To cut a long story short I'll most probably buy an Xbox 360, it seems to fit my needs quite well. I'm just asking out of curiosity in case there is something substantially cheaper out there. Basically it needs to have the following:

1. 1080p upscaling + full 1080p decoding capability
2. 5.1 or higher surround sound capability
3. HDMI interface
4. USB 2.0 support for plugging in an external drive or flash drive
5. DivX/Xvid (and all those other funny codecs optionally)
6. LAN but much more preferably wireless LAN
7. Easily (W)LANable with Windows XP without too much hassle
8. DVD drive (or Bluray)
9. (Optional) hard drive
10. Substantially cheaper than an Xbox 360 Arcade with WLAN attachment

I think points 2 and 3 rule out a cheap PC alternative. HDMI sound and graphics cards are not cheap. So we're looking at a dedicated all-in-one media player type solution. There are a plethora of them out there but I'd appreciate if you could link to something you've personally used or seen in action. I know what I'm getting with the Xbox (I've seen it in action at my friend's house, 2 Xbox 360's + Vista PC happily networked and sharing folders) so I want similar confidence of first-hand knowledge with any other system. Thanks! Zunaid 14:08, 23 December 2008 (UTC)

No, you have it right. The Xbox 360 and either the windows media tool, or the free TVersity tool can do what you want. Building a PC (even buying used parts) would easily cost more than the $199 you can get an entry level Xbox 360 for. Look for a 802.11g wi-fi bridge (usually around $25) instead of the official adapter and you will save a bunch. No other media device comes close, considering the relative difficulty of 1080p stream decoding. Oh, and 2 and 3 on your list are irrelevant on a PC, DVI is ubiquitous and easily adapts to HDMI with a $4 part, and 5.1 audio output from a PC is also standard even with all-in-one motherboards. Still, by the time you get enough CPU and GPU power into the box to do what you want you will have spent a lot more than $200. --66.195.232.121 (talk) 19:22, 23 December 2008 (UTC)

It's worth noting that the xbox won't allow you to plug big external drives in. I've had no problem with my 4gb thumb drive, but my 320gb external hdd isn't recognised by the xbox at all. Friends of mine (with different external hdd's) have confirmed this —Preceding unsigned comment added by 62.49.0.69 (talk) 05:06, 30 December 2008 (UTC)

Program to show how to fold a origami

I want to write an instruction sheet of how to fold a simple origami. I thought first about taking pics as the origami takes shape, however, I thought that a drawing would be more clear.

What program could I use to fold a (virtual) sheet of paper and take screen-shots of every step? Mr.K. (talk) 17:59, 23 December 2008 (UTC)

a) Any graphics program you use to fold your virtual sheet of paper can also save the resultant image.

b) Screen shots do not require a program. On Windoze, ctrl-"PrintScr" (or whatever the key to the immediate left of the scroll key is called) captures a screenshot to the clipboard, which you can then paste into your favorite graphics program. Use alt-"PrintScr" to capture only the foreground window. -- Fullstop (talk) 18:40, 23 December 2008 (UTC)

Certainly a 3D modeling program would let you do that - you could use Maya, 3DStudio (both of which are going to cost you $1000 or so) - or you could try using blender - which is free. However, when I've tried to do that exact thing - the results were less helpful than you might expect. The problem is the very mathematical perfection of the computer modeling process. For example - if your first step is to fold the paper in half...in a photo of the resulting folded sheet - you'd see two layers of paper sitting on top of each other - the top one slightly curved and the fold being a bit less than 180 degrees. When you do it in the computer - the resulting fold is a PERFECT 180 fold - so the resulting image is a flat rectangle that looks like you took your original paper square and cut it in half - rather than folding it. For such a simple case, you can instead tell your 3D modeler to fold the paper through 179 degrees...this works pretty well - you can now see that there are two layers of paper after folding it. But now, suppose you want to fold it again - at right angles to the first fold...well, the 179 degree trick doesn't work because the second fold pushes one sheet 'through' the other inside the computer - and the result is a mess. You can kinda fix that too by pushing vertices around in the modeler - but by the time you get to something of the complexity of a paper crane...it's beyond your manual ability to keep it under control.

So actually (and disappointingly because I'm a 3D computer graphics fanatic) - I have to recommend that you stick with photographing your work step-by-step. SteveBaker (talk) 21:46, 23 December 2008 (UTC)

You might be interested in treemaker. Saintrain (talk) 23:10, 23 December 2008 (UTC)

Bypassing IE Active X for Lightbox JS

When using Lightbox (JavaScript) javascript to create an online photo gallery, Internet Explorer will restrict the "script or Active X controls" and hence, not allow the photo gallery to work until the users clicks "Allow Blocked Content." As a result, the photo gallery will not display properly if the user does not click this. Is there someway around this? Could one automatically allow IE to not block the script? Acceptable (talk) 18:38, 23 December 2008 (UTC)

It might be inconvenient, but unfortunately there are some dishonourable scumbags out there who would exploit getting round the Active X script restrictions to drop viruses, malware, rootkits and all manner of other nasties on your PC without your consent or knowledge. However, the individual user can degrade the security settings of Internet Explorer through the internet options (security tab), but you would be hard pressed to find anybody daft enough to do that. Astronaut (talk) 02:27, 24 December 2008 (UTC)

1. Put one of these on your page
2. Mention why people shouldn't use IE, and the benefits of firefox
3. People use firefox, which is not only better on your site, but everywhere else, too
4. ?????
5. Profit!

— neuro^(talk) 02:55, 24 December 2008 (UTC)

But when I go on the Official Lightbox site [[1]] in IE, it does not prompt me for Active X permission. Acceptable (talk) 05:24, 24 December 2008 (UTC)

The official Lightbox site is on the Internet. You're probably testing your site directly from your own computer. --grawity 11:56, 24 December 2008 (UTC)

I think IE handles local and external files differently, yes, but the OP calls it an "online photo gallery". — neuro^(talk) 12:53, 24 December 2008 (UTC)

Oh yes, my apologies. I was testing the site offline on my local machine. After I have uploaded it online, the gallery works fine in IE. Thanks for all your help. Acceptable (talk) 17:26, 24 December 2008 (UTC)

Circumvent geoblocking

What's the simplest no-budget way to circumvent geoblocking for videos? I haven't seen any open proxies that provide enough bandwidth for videos. I live in Canada and use Kubuntu, if that makes a difference. NeonMerlin 20:33, 23 December 2008 (UTC)

If you're talking about stuff on popular websites (I assume you are talking about youtube) http://keepvid.com/ might help, as the source file itself is available to all. — neuro^(talk) 02:52, 24 December 2008 (UTC)

I'm pretty sure he's referring to Hulu.com. At the risk of patronizing you, this would of course be illegal. Magog the Ogre (talk) 07:34, 24 December 2008 (UTC)

If it is Hulu (or similar), the request is illegal, and we cannot help. — neuro^(talk) 12:51, 24 December 2008 (UTC)

And since it probably is illegal in any case, you might try to find that file in per-to-per networks (if enough metadata are available, to find it). -Yyy (talk) 14:43, 24 December 2008 (UTC)

You could pay for a VPN in the US. Or even a proxy. If you pay for it they're more likely to have enough bandwidth. There's no guaranteee this will work though. The geoblocking is often smart enough to know of IPs allocated to VPNs and the like. Your best bet is to find a friend with enough bandwidth who is willing to help Nil Einne (talk) 11:47, 28 December 2008 (UTC)

Dosbox

What is with Dosbox? There are a couple of games that work in XP and Vista without Dosbox, so why use Dosbox, even if there are many other games that will only work in Dosbox? Why can't we just get an old computer (if we can) and use it to play the games? Because, as one person said, "It's just not the same using Dosbox as it is the real thing." 60.230.124.64 (talk) 21:50, 23 December 2008 (UTC)

Because sometimes you don't have access to an old computer? If you don't need to use it, then don't use it (or am I missing something?) — Matt Eason ^{(Talk &#149; Contribs)} 22:35, 23 December 2008 (UTC)

You're not being very coherent. Most older games don't work correctly on modern pcs running XP or Vista. Why go to the trouble and possible expense of having a separate PC with older architecture running DOS 6.22 and Windows 3.11 when you can simply run Dosbox on your current PC? Exxolon (talk) 22:39, 23 December 2008 (UTC)

Oh my god, that's so funny! Windows 3.11, DOS 6.22! Get it? 6.22 is double 3.11!! 60.230.124.64 (talk) 23:16, 23 December 2008 (UTC)

(ec)DOSBox works for MacOS and Linux as well as Windows. (Also "Palm OS, PlayStation Portable, Internet Tablet OS 2008, and the GP2X, on various computing architectures including PowerPC, SPARC, MIPS and ARM") People using a computer with a Mac or Linux operating system can thus use DOSBox to run DOS programs without needing Windows. Even for Windows, the assumptions about how the system is set up (e.g. single-user versus multi-user, differences in peripheral hardware in 2008 versus 1993, etc.) mean that it is not always straightforward to map a DOS program onto Windows. While Windows does try to be backward compatible with DOS, modern (post Win98) Windows versions are based on the WinNT kernel, which, despite the name, is substantially different from the Win98 (basically DOS) kernel. Compatibility with DOS programs (especially those, like games, which expect to be able to monopolize the entire system) sometimes becomes difficult, and supporting them is frankly not a high priority for Microsoft, as running 10-year old games is not something most people do. Companies re-releasing old titles thus find it cheaper just to use the free emulation system provided by DOSBox, rather than spend the time and effort troubleshooting potential compatibility issues. Finally, it is not always possible or convenient for someone just to buy an older system. You're right that it's not the same using a emulator versus using the actual hardware, but for a number of people it is "close enough". -- 128.104.112.113 (talk) 22:44, 23 December 2008 (UTC)

You use DOSBox if you don't have an old computer around (and don't want to spend all the time getting its hardware working correctly with your game of choice), if the game you want doesn't run on your current computer, or if you don't have a PC. If you don't fall into those categories... don't use it! --98.217.8.46 (talk) 02:26, 24 December 2008 (UTC)