Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Computing/2010 April 30

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April 30

How do I connect my PC to both my monitor and TV: particularly with a splitter?

Like many people I have a desktop, including CPI and monitor, running on Windows XP.
I also have a television: specifically a Samsung flat screen.
My CPI seems to have only one VGA port, though I have a splitter as well.
When I connect both TV and monitor to the splitter, the monitor darkens a little and the TV says “PC” and “Mode Not Supported”.
Even when I just plug directly into the TV–-without the splitter--I get the same problem (“PC” and “Mode Not Supported”).
How can I get video on both TV and monitor, via splitter?
Thanks
76.68.23.9 (talk) 00:49, 30 April 2010 (UTC)

Sounds like your splitter goes from one VGA port to two. It appears that connecting to video devices in that manner is loading the VGA signals to where they won't drive either device. You need another video card in your PC or one that has two outputs. ---— Gadget850 (Ed) ^talk 00:59, 30 April 2010 (UTC)

So it would seem. The thing is, as I'm typing this response, the monitor works decently well. Also, when one boots it all up and sees things like the cursor in the black background, the Windows logo on the black background, etc, for a minute or so, it also shows up on the TV as well, then it reverts (on the TV only) to the "Mode Not Supported" again.76.68.23.9 (talk) 01:15, 30 April 2010 (UTC)

I seemed to have had some progress here.76.68.23.9 (talk) 02:06, 30 April 2010 (UTC)

Since your TV doesn't display anything when you hook it up directly, we can rule out the splitter cable as the problem. Your resolution is probably set to something higher than the maximum resolution your TV can display, which is probably either 720p or 1080p. Try setting your display resolution to 640x480 or 800x600, then shutting down the computer, then plugging it into the TV directly, then turning on the computer. The TV will probably display everything fine. Then play with the display resolution until it's the maximum your TV will display. Then try the splitter cable contraption. Comet Tuttle (talk) 03:07, 30 April 2010 (UTC)

What is a CPI in this context - presumably not Consumer Price Index?

Anyway, I sometimes use my flat screen TV as a monitor and connect using a HDMI cable for 1920x1080 resolution. The reason for my choosing that connection is that the TV's PC/VGA port will only support up to 1366x768 resolution, although the PC is capable of outputting more through VGA. Astronaut (talk) 16:20, 30 April 2010 (UTC)

CPI is most likely a typo or incorrectly remembered spelling for CPU Nil Einne (talk) 10:08, 1 May 2010 (UTC)

Shallow Depth of Field - optimum focal length

This question is being answered on the Miscellaneous Reference desk, Here --220.101.28.25 (talk) 08:52, 30 April 2010 (UTC)

Using Janusvm on Mac OS

How do you use Janusvm (http://www.janusvm.com/) on a Mac notebook or other system running MacOS? There is a lot of information explaining how to set up on Windows (using VmWare), but I could not see any information or HOWTOs on setting up on a Mac. JanusVM launches without any problems using VMWare Fusion, but I'm not able to get the VPN connection to work. Upon launch, there is a message saying that the Tor directory was being renewed but this does not seem to complete even over several hours. Many thanks in advance! —Preceding unsigned comment added by Alsopen (talk • contribs) 08:37, 30 April 2010 (UTC)

It appears that you need Tor to be installed and functional on the Mac. Have you installed Tor, per these instructions for Mac ? Nimur (talk) 15:54, 30 April 2010 (UTC)

Should firefox have 5 vesions of Java Console installed

The add-ons page for my firefox lists 5 versions of Java Console. Is it supposed to be that way? Should I uninstall the older versions? ike9898 (talk) 13:41, 30 April 2010 (UTC)

Firefox is merely reporting that there are multiple versions of Java installed on your machine (probably by external software). It is not a problem to have multiple Java installations, but is also usually unnecessary, because most (new) Java versions are completely back-compatible. However, other software outside of Firefox may have stringent JVM requirements or hard-code a required Java version/location. You should consider why the various versions were installed - determine which software depends on them, and whether all those software can switch to using a single Java version. Firefox does not need Java for anything, so you can safely remove as many as you like, leaving the most recent one intact. Nimur (talk) 15:59, 30 April 2010 (UTC)

schedule web crawler

I need a web crawler that can be scheduled to downloaded a site every 2 hours. I've tried using windows task scheduler for web crawlers I know of, namely HTTrack, but all it does it open the program and I can't find a way to make it actually start downloading automatically. Does anyone here know of a (preferably free/open source) web crawler that runs on Windows and can be scheduled? Thanks for your help 82.43.89.71 (talk) 16:14, 30 April 2010 (UTC)

wget should do it nicely (you may have to wrap it in a script). The wget article lists a number of versions that run on Windows. -- Finlay McWalter • Talk 16:17, 30 April 2010 (UTC)

Google "httrack command line" for command-line arguments, so HTTrack doesn't merely open. Comet Tuttle (talk) 17:29, 30 April 2010 (UTC)

TightVNC, Ubuntu, and the Shift key

I've just set up an Ubuntu machine with VNC; I would like to log into it with my Windows XP machine on the same network. I follow the steps here, with PuTTY and TightVNC running on my Windows machine, to log in. Everything seems to work great as I use TightVNC to control my Ubuntu machine's desktop; except that the Shift keys do not seem to work. Typing Shift-K into a terminal window just produces a lowercase "k". However, if I hold down the "k" key in a terminal window so that autorepeat starts, and then I press either Shift key, uppercase "K"s are produced for as long as I hold the Shift key. Holding the Shift key first does not produce an uppercase character. Any hints? Not being able to type * or _ or " is driving me nuts. Comet Tuttle (talk) 23:58, 30 April 2010 (UTC)