Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Computing/2011 January 19

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.

January 19

Where i can find tutorials for Bing App Development?

I just download the Bing API 2.0 SDK yesterday but i can't find any tutorials or videos on how to develop with it, does anyone know where i can find them? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 76.79.129.82 (talk) 01:25, 19 January 2011 (UTC)

Bing API on MSDN. What you downloaded also contained a compiled HTML help-file that you can use as a reference when you are working "offline" (though how you could develop web application code offline that interfaces to Bing is a mystery to me...) Nimur (talk) 02:11, 19 January 2011 (UTC)

Swapping functions of F keys

I just got a new laptop, and, in contrast to every other one I've owned, the default behavior of pressing the F keys is NOT to input F1, F2, etc, but rather to activate the key's OTHER function - raising/lowering the brightness/volume, pressing play/stop on the DVD drive, etc. To actually use them as F keys, I have to hold down the Fn button. Having to press Alt+Fn+F4 to close programs and stuff like that is very irritating and contrary to what I'm used to. Is there some way I can just reverse these keys, and make it so the Fn button has to be held down for the OTHER functions? The computer is a Dell Inspiron running 64-bit Windows 7. I'm open to even fairly complicated solutions - I really don't like this setup. Thanks in advance. -Elmer Clark (talk) 01:50, 19 January 2011 (UTC)

Chances are, your computer has a pre-installed custom keyboard driver designed by your system vendor. Can you check if that tool provides configuration options? (It will usually show up in your start menu or control panel under Keyboard Configuration). If it doesn't provide configurable options, you can try to uninstall it - Windows will fall back to the default Microsoft keyboard drivers, which usually work with minimal problems (and provide no "special features"). Nimur (talk) 02:09, 19 January 2011 (UTC)

The hardware just shows up as a standard PS/2 keyboard, and no configuration options are given. I'd prefer a solution where I don't completely lose the alternative functions of those keys...they certainly make changing the brightness and volume more convenient. I just want to invert the Fn toggle, if that's possible. -Elmer Clark (talk) 02:23, 19 January 2011 (UTC)

Try going into the BIOS before Windows starts to load. There's probably an option in there to choose the default state of the F keys (at least that's where I'd put the option!)  ZX81  ^talk 02:27, 19 January 2011 (UTC)

Seconding this - I had an identical problem with my Dell, going into the BIOS and looking for F-key related setting will fix this the vast majority of the time. 110.175.208.144 (talk) 04:18, 19 January 2011 (UTC)

"Because the operating system has no notion of the Fn key, the key can not be remapped in software, unlike all other standard keyboard keys." Sorry about that. Wait, does that mean that "raise brightness", etc., send keycodes, and these keycodes could be remapped to swap them with the function key keycodes? ...Which is as ZX81 says probably a BIOS option. 213.122.48.63 (talk) 03:11, 19 January 2011 (UTC)

The Fn key on Thinkpad keyboards can be remapped in software; I've done it. This may not be true of all laptop models' Fn keys, though. -- BenRG (talk) 08:00, 19 January 2011 (UTC)

I've seen laptops with a "FN Lock" key, similar to a "Caps Lock" or a "Num Lock". Very annoying. If that's accidentally on that could cause this problem. APL (talk) 04:02, 19 January 2011 (UTC)

Nope, this is intended behavior for some reason. But there was indeed an option in BIOS - thanks so much! I never would have thought to look there. Much better! -Elmer Clark (talk) 04:31, 19 January 2011 (UTC)

Resolved

Quick question

Does this signature render properly for users who don't have the Wikipedia release of Linux Libertine O installed? Thanks in advance!

B  N ^{(talk • contribs)} 04:04, 19 January 2011 (UTC)

I'm on WindowsXP, and cannot see your signature. I see a B, then a bunch of unicode blocks, then an N. APL (talk) 04:07, 19 January 2011 (UTC)

Running Chrome 8 on Windows 7 x64, this doesn't render properly. 110.175.208.144 (talk) 04:20, 19 January 2011 (UTC)

Thanks, asking here was quicker and easier than uninstalling the font, rebooting, and checking back again. Bob the Wikipedian ^{(talk • contribs)} 04:22, 19 January 2011 (UTC)

Resolved

All of the non-ASCII code points in that signature are in the Unicode private use area, meaning that the Unicode consortium promises never to assign them any meaning. How they render is entirely up to the font designer. -- BenRG (talk) 07:57, 19 January 2011 (UTC)

The two spaces render nicely though. (IE, Vista Home Premium). Cuddlyable3 (talk) 10:56, 19 January 2011 (UTC)

Just to pile on, they don't render in KDE 4's default U.S. English install under firefox. Shadowjams (talk) 11:10, 19 January 2011 (UTC)

Nothing but the initials and squares in Safari 5.0.3.--Romantic Mollusk (talk) 17:22, 19 January 2011 (UTC)

It would be a handy little web service to be able to type in some unicode and see it rendered by a number of commonly-configured platforms. --Sean 17:37, 19 January 2011 (UTC)

Google.com now offers a "preview image" if you hover your mouse before you click on a search query result. If you look very closely at those images, you will notice that they are not browser screenshots. (I haven't identified what is rendering them except that I know it isn't any HTML renderer I've ever seen before). Among other neat "glitches" I have seen while experimenting with the "preview popups," you can see incorrectly-rendered dynamic HTML pages; pages with scripts; and pages with unusual or multiple character encodings. (Apparently even Google can't figure out character-encoding!) Interestingly, despite the feature's advertised capability, the web preview is not what your browser will show. (Try quick-preview on the ACID3 test! It uses its own character-encoding that I believe is not UTF-8. I get a 69/100). Nimur (talk) 21:15, 19 January 2011 (UTC)

Presumably they are using an in-house HTML renderer. They couldn't use your browser's renderer without cooperation from your browser, and I don't think there would be much point to it anyway. I can't figure out what you're saying about character encoding problems. When you say "It uses its own character-encoding that I believe is not UTF-8", are you referring to Google's renderer, the ACID3 test, or what? -- BenRG (talk) 08:37, 20 January 2011 (UTC)

Google's in-house renderer fails to render text for foreign-language website previews. Nimur (talk) 19:27, 20 January 2011 (UTC)

I checked a few Japanese, Russian and Hindi webpages and they looked fine. Possibly you are seeing a web page that misreports its own character encoding? -- BenRG (talk) 03:43, 21 January 2011 (UTC)

Note that in this case I would suggests there's no need. If you are using characters in the Unicode private use area, as BenRG says there is no Unicode defined meaning so you should expect they will not work for many users Nil Einne (talk) 01:08, 20 January 2011 (UTC)

To illustrate the problem, here's what Linux Libertine assigns to U+E05F, the first character after the B in Bob's signature attempt. Here's what the DFSongStd font assigns to the same code point. Here's Linux Libertine's U+E000. The ConScript Unicode Registry assigns Tengwar characters to the same code points. The Unicode standard allows you to interpret these code points however you want, and people have done so in many incompatible ways. -- BenRG (talk) 08:37, 20 January 2011 (UTC)

Woah. Looks like a party started since I left, lol. That is rather intriguing. The series of Unicode characters was actually the same as what I have displaying right now, except instead of using the

<small>

tag, I was using special small caps characters as well as the specialized "W" which appears in the Wikipedia logo. BOB THE WIKIPEDIAN ^{(talk • contribs)} 00:58, 21 January 2011 (UTC)

You can get small caps with <span style="font-variant:small-caps">Bob the WikipediaN</span>.—Emil J. 11:23, 21 January 2011 (UTC)

Paper jam and cheap scanners

Which is the cheaper scanner with automatic document feeder that won't get jammed (or won't get easily jammed)? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 80.58.205.34 (talk) 11:33, 19 January 2011 (UTC)

The cheapest descent scanner that I've ever used had a price of about 4500,-€. Needless to say that those cheap ones 3 in 1 packages, for 100,-€ are only for the occasional users. A first step towards buying a descent scanner is to buy a specialized machine (that means, without printer). 212.169.188.187 (talk) 11:05, 20 January 2011 (UTC)

I don't have a lot of experience with cheap digital feeders, but I will say that I've used many an expensive one that still got jammed... --Mr.98 (talk) 19:06, 23 January 2011 (UTC)

Lexmark has good scanners you can get on for $59 USD.--Cjc811 (talk) 19:01, 24 January 2011 (UTC)

From my experience, it depends more on the state of the paper than on the scanner. Quest09 (talk) 02:23, 25 January 2011 (UTC)

Installing hard drive -- does it matter which way is up!

I think I've always installed hard drives with the metal cover on the top but wondered if it actually matters? Thanks —Preceding unsigned comment added by 87.112.180.148 (talk) 14:30, 19 January 2011 (UTC)

The slot where the hard drives is mounted usually will prevent the hard drive from being mounted more than one way. Hard drives are commonly mounted sideways, so I don't believe mounting a hard drive with the label side down would matter. I haven't seen anything saying otherwise on the information sheets that come with new hard drives either. The biggest concerns are with vibration, shock, and excessive movement while the drive is running. 206.131.39.6 (talk) 17:05, 19 January 2011 (UTC)

It doesn't really matter, but they are normally mounted PCB-side down. With PATA drives this matters if you also have a CD-ROM drive on the same cable, as the CD-ROM forces the orientation of the cables, and they don't twist enough to fit into an upside-down hard drive. CS Miller (talk) 23:00, 19 January 2011 (UTC)

(OP here) Thanks for the replies :-) --BlackberryPicking (talk) 03:25, 20 January 2011 (UTC)

Verifying Windows XP copied files

I have installed a new drive (I'm the bloke who asked 'which way is up' just above) and wondered if there's some way to verify files as I copy them from one drive to another in Windows XP? Thanks --BlackberryPicking (talk) 14:55, 19 January 2011 (UTC)

If you use xcopy on a command line, the /v switch is what you want. http://support.microsoft.com/kb/289483. Strike that, it seems that switch doesn't work with XP. Stand by... --LarryMac | Talk 15:14, 19 January 2011 (UTC)

There may be some third-party tools that can do this, but although I can find them using Google, I can't check them in any detail because of the firewall I'm currently behind. "XXCOPY" sounds promising; hopefully somebody else will come along with a better reply. --LarryMac | Talk 19:21, 19 January 2011 (UTC)

I'm (still) on XP, and copy /? shows a /v flag. Yes, you have to use the command-line and full paths, as LarryMac mentioned. DaHorsesMouth (talk) 22:38, 19 January 2011 (UTC)

Thanks for the help, I'll try 'XXCOPY' and see if it works. BTW, from the Microsoft website "The /V switch verifies that the destination file, once written, can be read. No comparison of the files occurs." (link here). Thought I'd better mention that in case anybody else in relying on that command for verifying data. --BlackberryPicking (talk) 03:33, 20 January 2011 (UTC)

My preferred way of doing it: Copy the files normally (using copy and paste, drag and drop, Xcopy, Robocopy, etc.), then hash both the original and the copy (using tools like FCIV), then compare the hashes and store them in a safe place. This way, not only can you be sure the copied files are readable, you can also be sure both are exact matches. Additionally, you can use the saved hashes to re-verify your files at a later date if you suspect corruption. 118.96.159.107 (talk) 05:51, 20 January 2011 (UTC)

The problem with verifying as you copy is that the file is likely to be hanging around in a cache somewhere, meaning that you are not comparing the actual bits written to the disk. The best way to do this is to copy all the files, then do something that's guaranteed to clear all the caches (such as rebooting or, in the case of an external drive, ejecting and reattaching it), then compare the files. WinMerge is a free Windows program that can do the comparison. Comparing hashes, as 118.* suggested, will also work. -- BenRG (talk) 07:53, 20 January 2011 (UTC)

Are there any file managers that can do this, including making sure that the file has been written to disk rather than sitting in a cache? i seem to recall reading that the 7-zip file manager can do this, even for ordinary files. 92.15.25.92 (talk) 12:00, 21 January 2011 (UTC)

There's Sync from Sysinternals/Microsoft that will flush the Windows file system cache. 118.96.157.166 (talk) 00:51, 22 January 2011 (UTC)

Or you can try Microsoft Synctoy [1]- it allows you to synchronise newer files (copying changed files from X to Y overwriting them), keep them matching (deletions of X will be deleted off Y and deletions off Y will be deleted on X) etc. Chaosdruid (talk) 14:39, 23 January 2011 (UTC)

Retrieve data from old Macintosh and floopy disks

Came across an 2 old computers in work and I have been tasked with getting data from them one onto an external hard drive one is a Macintosh SE and the other is an Amstrad PCW8256. The Amstrad data is all stored on Amsoft CF2 floopy disks. I can access the data on the Macintosh but I'm unsure how to transfer it and on the Amstrad I am unable to get past the green screen that appears on the Amstrad any suggestions on what I can do. I have never used either of these type of machines before. 178.167.236.54 (talk) 17:22, 19 January 2011 (UTC)

Do either/both have a modem? That's a technology that hasn't changed much. You could dial into a more modern machine and upload the files. The Mac's floppy drives might work, too. --Sean 17:48, 19 January 2011 (UTC)

No neither have a modem. 178.167.155.248 (talk) 18:44, 19 January 2011 (UTC)

Some ideas

• You might be able to use a serial null-modem cable to allow the Mac to talk to your PC. You'll need software to get them to talk to each other - one (slightly drastic) method is to install SLIP on the MacSE - see here. This will allow your Mac to talk to a webserver, either on your PC, or on the 'net.
• Or, as Sean suggested, if its floppy drive is working, then install a DOS emulator on it, and copy the software onto floppys - Apple made one called SoftPC, but I haven't found an official download for it.
• As for the PCW, it sounds like it is not booting. Do you have a boot floppy for it? They used proprietary 3" drives, so you need to do it via a serial connection.

CS Miller (talk) 23:09, 19 January 2011 (UTC)

Here's an idea for the Mac: get a USB to SCSI converter cable. Take the back off the Mac, unplug its internal hard drive's SCSI cable (but leave the power connection), connect the converter cable instead and put the USB end in a modern Mac. (This idea is based largely on optimism.) Not sure how the OP could install anything on the Mac, without a net connection. There's a suggestion here [2] for connecting an SE to another Mac (presumably also a relatively old one). So if you can find a Mac from around 1999 (with some means of getting the data off that computer), and the serial cable, that might work. I also wonder if the emulator Basilisk II might help in some way - it has drivers for talking to a classic mac over ethernet, among other things. 81.131.13.218 (talk) 23:32, 19 January 2011 (UTC)

Check out Apple Legacy Products Support. Bus stop (talk) 00:54, 20 January 2011 (UTC)

You can post a question here at Support > Discussions > Older Hardware Products. Bus stop (talk) 01:03, 20 January 2011 (UTC)

Regarding the PCW, just google "pcw disk transfer" and you'll find various people who can take your disks and copy them to CD. Some of them will also convert any word processor files from Locoscript format. The PCW has no hard drive so you will only be able to start it if you have the original boot disk. This will then enable you to read the data disks - if the disk drive is still working; they were never very reliable.--Shantavira|^{feed me} 07:30, 20 January 2011 (UTC)

I also have lots of Amstrad PCW8256 wordprocessing disks that I want to transfer the contents of to a PC, and it is uneconomic to pay the £10 per disk transfer charge. The Amstrad disks are 3" and do not fit PC floppy drives. I'd be interested to hear of any means of getting an external 3" drive that can be plugged directly into a PC. I'm aware that the CP/M disk format, and the file formats, will be different. I think the same disks were used in Amstrad CPC etc computers, which were usually used for games. Thanks 92.28.255.115 (talk) 12:49, 20 January 2011 (UTC)

Does the Macintosh SE say "FDHD" on the front? If so, you are in luck because it is a version of the SE that includes a 1.4MB SuperDrive. You will want to find a PC that has a 3.5" floppy drive, buy some regular 1.4MB floppy disks, format one of them on the PC, then just boot up the Mac SE and insert the PC-formatted floppy disk. It should just appear on the Mac SE's desktop and you will be able to copy files to the floppy, which will be readable by the PC. If your Mac SE does not say "FDHD", what I would do would be, as suggested above, to hook up a null modem cable between the Mac SE's modem port and an old PC's serial port, and find some terminal software (intended for use with a modem) on the Mac side and also on the PC side that implements one of the old file transfer modes like XMODEM or YMODEM or ZMODEM. Comet Tuttle (talk) 19:17, 21 January 2011 (UTC)

Just want to comment that I love the spelling "floopy disks". It's not how they were actually spelled, but I now realize it should have been. --Trovatore (talk) 19:20, 21 January 2011 (UTC)

I haven't seen that typo in ages...=DSmallman12q (talk) 00:19, 22 January 2011 (UTC)

Some of us are old enough to remember when they were floopy floppy:

AndyTheGrump (talk) 00:27, 22 January 2011 (UTC)

stylesheet

I enjoy watching videos at thedailyshow.com, but since about a month my computer no longer loads them. I just get messages like "Error loading stylesheet. RSL http://media.mtvnservices.com/global/flex/rsl/framework_3.2.0.3958.swz failed to load. Error #2046". I have tried to update flash player, and I have no problem watching videos at youtube, vimeo, etc.. What to do? --Soman (talk) 19:35, 19 January 2011 (UTC)

After a quick Bing search of that error message, I found numerous other reports of the same problem. Many forum posts seem to contain spurious (incorrect) guesses about the root cause. However, this forum seems to be the most likely answer (I have confirmed the symptom): the server is misconfigured, and is delivering some or all SWZ files as plain-text. (For example, http://media.mtvnservices.com/global/flex/rsl/framework_3.2.0.3958.swz - clicking this may hang your browser for a while, as the binary SWZ resource file, which is actually a compressed Flash Runtime Library, gets parsed by your browser as text/html. The result - garbled binary data that is uninterpretable by the Flash environment. The long and short of it is, the owner of the website at thedailyshow.com has incorrectly configured an obscure detail in the server setup, resulting in an incorrectly reported HTML content-type; and in some cases, this causes your browser's flash video-player program to break. The administrator of the server at thedailyshow.com is the only person who can fix this: and they need to edit their Apache server configuration's MIME-types by adding this line to /etc/httpd/conf/mime.types (or similar):

application/x-swz      swz rsl 

to report the correct binary format for SWZ files they deliver. (I checked, they are running Apache). We can only hope that server-admin hangs around the Reference Desk... advertising money is being lost as we speak! Nimur (talk) 21:00, 19 January 2011 (UTC)

You may be able to configure your browser to trust the file extension instead of the server's mime-type. For example, this Firefox extension might work (I haven't tried it). Switching browsers might also "solve" the problem. -- BenRG (talk) 10:47, 20 January 2011 (UTC)

Considering this problem has apparently been ongoing for many months (from the forum post it's apparent it has been going on since August last year but if I understand a post in that forum it's had already been 6 months then) I'm not holding my breath on the server side error being solved any time soon although I did try contacting them via their website contact page including a link to the above forum post and this discussion. Nil Einne (talk) 05:42, 21 January 2011 (UTC)

thanks! I unchecked the bottom box at http://www.macromedia.com/support/documentation/en/flashplayer/help/settings_manager03.html (as suggested in the forum link above) and it worked right away. I can now again enjoy political satire whilst working, :). --Soman (talk) 15:35, 20 January 2011 (UTC)