Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Computing/2012 August 2

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August 2

What does pvc does?

I've read the article but I don't get it, also what does pvc0, pvc1, pvc2, pvc3 .... pvc7 means? 190.158.212.204 (talk) 00:06, 2 August 2012 (UTC)

That's a remarkably bad article. I don't get it either. Looie496 (talk) 06:44, 2 August 2012 (UTC)

I've no clue what it's about, either. I tagged it as being overly technical, so someone who does know about it can help fix it. I also threw out some random bolding in the headers while I was at it.  dalahäst ^{(let's talk!)} 08:59, 2 August 2012 (UTC)

A PVC is a permanent virtual circuit. Normally, the path packets take from one end of a network to another vary. But if there is a PVC set up between two sites, the path never changes. For example, if you have a PVC set up between your office in LA and the office in NYC, any packets you send over the network to NYC will be the same. PVCs are commonly used in technologies like Frame Relay and ATM. PVCs are cheaper than a dedicated line between two sites because they are virtual. Your packets are really traveling over a network shared by others. Today, many companies are using VPNs in place of PVCs.—Best Dog Ever (talk) 14:29, 2 August 2012 (UTC)

The main difference between a circuit and a packet-switched network is that a circuit needs to be established before data is transferred between the 2 ends. This is like dialling someone else to make a phone call. In a packet switched network, each packet has full addressing details and so there is no prior set up. This is a bit like putting a load of envelopes in a post box - they all separately get to the right place, although not necessarily in the order they were posted. (As an aside,they would almost certainly follow the same route through the postal system - packets do the same through the packet network). So - a virtual circuit has to be set up before it can be used. At set up time, other things (like the circuit bandwidth) can be established. A virual circuit differs from a "real" circuit in that it's a shared resource - if you're not using your resources, others could use them instead. They're often set up over packet (internet) networks. --Phil Holmes (talk) 16:27, 2 August 2012 (UTC)

ASPNET Account password

Does anyone know what the default password to that account is? I never set it up myself, yet none of the easily guessed passwords (like "password", "admin", "aspnet") seem to work. Google seems to be of no help, surprisingly enough. 70.52.77.249 (talk) 05:18, 2 August 2012 (UTC)

If you're the machine administrator, you can configure the ASP.NET account's user password just like any other user. If you aren't the machine administrator, you need to ask the administrator to do this for you. Nimur (talk) 05:38, 2 August 2012 (UTC)

But it's my computer and mine alone. I'm pretty much the only machine administrator for it. I can't access my ordinary admin account, so I'm using system recovery options to get through what I hope is an accessible secret admin account. I don't have a recovery disc or any sort of backup with me at the moment. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 70.52.77.249 (talk) 06:02, 2 August 2012 (UTC)

You might get a quicker answer on the ASP.NET forums[1] or somewhere like Server Fault[2]. --Colapeninsula (talk) 12:00, 2 August 2012 (UTC)

Java in Xcode

Could someone please tell me how to change the file extension in Xcode from .cpp to .java? I want to write a java program whereas at the moment the file supports C++ programs, I think. Thanks. meromorphic [talk to me] 10:35, 2 August 2012 (UTC)

IIRC (and I'm not at my Mac at the moment), you select the project type when you create a new project. At that point, select "Java project" or equivalent. Note that the file name is mostly (but not completely ;-) a convention in UNIXes, so this is a secondary consideration. If you create a new Java project, XCode will (mostly, it's still software ;-) do the right thing. --Stephan Schulz (talk) 12:59, 2 August 2012 (UTC)

ArcGIS

Does anyone have a copy of ArcGIS, and a willingness to be my favourite person ever? I need to get the Irish Electoral Division boundary data into Tableau. I've spent 2 days trying to convert the shapefile into various forms, going through KML and all sorts, but it won't work. Here are the instructions for how you do it in ArcGIS - it looks extremely simple. Alternatively, if anyone has an idea for how I can do it myself with free software, please do chime in. Ta. - Cucumber Mike (talk) 11:52, 2 August 2012 (UTC)

ESRI offer a trial version of ArcGIS. It'll take time to download and install, but if you've already invested a couple days in this... 77.97.198.48 (talk) 18:55, 2 August 2012 (UTC)

Resolved

Ooh, so they do - thanks! I'll mark this resolved in order that no-one wastes time on it, but I'd still be interested to know if anyone knows of a free shapefile-to-geocode data converter. - Cucumber Mike (talk) 19:21, 2 August 2012 (UTC)

Maybe you will find an alternative that you like in the list at: alternativeto.net/software/arcgisdesktop
--Seren-dipper (talk) 23:43, 2 August 2012 (UTC)

Android tablet

I'm looking into buying an Android tablet, however I'm quite lost as there seems to be dozens of them, with extremely varying price ranges (some run in the thousands for some reason - ostentatious consumption I'm guessing). My budget is the price of the current iPad tops, with less being possibly better if the contrary is overkill to my needs.

Are there that many advantages to Android vs a jailbroken iPad 3? Which devices mostly resemble the aforementioned device in terms of specs? I know that the iPad seems to have an absolute advantage when it comes to screen resolution, not sure about quality. The number of apps seems considerably bigger, but considering that most on the Apple Store/Cydia are objectively garbage, the number per se isn't a very revealing indicator, as the % of free vs. paid apps. I'm not that much a gamer, mostly looking at using emulators rather than state-of-the-art resource intensive 3D games. The rest is going to be casual usage. Eisenikov (talk) 12:07, 2 August 2012 (UTC)

"...as there seems to be dozens of them, with extremely varying price ranges...": Congratulations. You have just identified one of the reasons for Apple's recent success ;-). --Stephan Schulz (talk) 16:48, 2 August 2012 (UTC)

Most tech writers I've seen would advise you to get an iPad, no matter what you want to use it for. In terms of usability (the 'user experience'), I believe that it's streets ahead of almost all Android tablets. Maybe some Android tablets will have a faster processor, more memory or a bigger screen, but often not all together, and the interface, broadly, sucks. Apparently Android is vastly improved as of Ice Cream Sandwich, and Jelly Bean is pretty close to being as good as iOS, but very few of them are up to that standard - most are running Gingerbread or Honeycomb. The only Android tablet that is generally mentioned in the same breath as an iPad is the Google Nexus 7 - a smaller tablet, but probably good for reading or watching videos.

If your budget is limited, and you're happy with the smaller form size, go for the Nexus 7. If not, save up for an iPad, or wait a little while - the release of the Nexus 7 and the upcoming Microsoft Surface might prompt other manufacturers to up their game. At the moment though, the iPad wins hands-down. - Cucumber Mike (talk) 17:27, 2 August 2012 (UTC)

As Mike said, if price is an important consideration, the Nexus 7 is probably your best bet. It's a bit smaller, but all the reviews say it's pretty darn good. If you want a larger tablet, the Asus Transformer Prime is probably the best. But that device is about 9 months old now. Why were you looking for an Android device in particular? Also in regards to your question about Android vs jailbroken iPad, the functionality will be about the same. The main difference is that the Android device may be more stable than a jailbroken iPad with a bunch of hacks done to it. - Akamad (talk) 22:17, 2 August 2012 (UTC)

I'm interested in an Android device because I now want a tablet with 3G (my iPad 2 and 3 are only WiFi) and all my tech buddies have been bragging how it is ten times better than iOS, though I suspect they hate Apple more than they like Google's platform. I'm also thinking that its quality apps are more plentiful, since techies usually dislike Apple, Android has more users, and there are no overly strict publishing standards. Eisenikov (talk) 11:26, 3 August 2012 (UTC)

You can buy an iPad 3 and install Android onto it. Write English in Cyrillic (talk) 08:17, 4 August 2012 (UTC)

I left a reply below which relates to the same issue Nil Einne (talk) 19:06, 6 August 2012 (UTC)

Create a website

I have booked my domain name as Jakecarlos.com .Now how to create a website? What's next process? GiantBluePanda (talk) 20:53, 2 August 2012 (UTC)

It really depends on the kind of website you are trying to make. But in short, you need content, and you need a server to host it. (Reserving the name, in and of itself, is not the same thing as getting hosting, though some name registrars also separately offer hosting.) There are a million ways to generate content, from writing it all in raw HTML in Notepad, to using a program like DreamWeaver or Microsoft FrontPage to generate it through a graphical interface, to using "web creator" software offered by many server hosts, to installing a content management system like WordPress, to hiring someone else to do it for you. There's no one answer here, and it would require a lot more information about your level of technical expertise, your goals for the website, and your budget to know what option was best for you. Once you have the content you can transfer it to the hosting server (exact method varies by what the content is, but a standard FTP program can do the trick), then point your domain name there (your server host will be able to tell you how to do this), and you're good to go. If all of the above sounds like it is written in Greek to you, you may just have to hire someone to do it for you, unless you have a lot of time to invest in this. --Mr.98 (talk) 22:02, 2 August 2012 (UTC)

You can also use something like SquareSpace, which hosts the site for you as well as providing tools for designing and setting it up (so you don't need to know HTML and the like). I'm sure there are lots of other companies that provide similar services too. - Akamad (talk) 22:22, 2 August 2012 (UTC)

I use the Google offerings: Blogger a free blog host and Google Sites a free website host. If you already have a Gmail account, you are about a click away from trying them out. If you don't have a Gmail account, it's easy to set one up. Vespine (talk) 01:08, 6 August 2012 (UTC)

Internet speeds

Hi, I am living in a residential house with a few other tenants. I want a fast internet. In each of our rooms, there is a coaxial input where we can either hook up a TV cable service or a high-speed internet modem. Do these axial cables all run into the same cable that leads out of the house? In other words, if each tenant gets their own high-speed internet modem, will they have to share a pipeline that leads out of the house? Hence, if everyone gets their own high-speed internet service, will everyone else's be slower? Thanks. Acceptable (talk) 23:18, 2 August 2012 (UTC)

EDIT: Actually, it's DSL.

Contention ratio is our article on this sort of thing. It is most likely that all of the cables merge into one in the house; if not, they surely do by the time they get to the kerb-side cabinet. But the relation between number of users, the nature of their connections, and the speed you get is not that straightforward; not least, we don't know the capacity of any elements of the network you describe, and so do not know if it has sufficient headroom for multiple users of an unspecified "high speed" internet. --Tagishsimon (talk) 23:47, 2 August 2012 (UTC)

It's depends a on the circumstances of your building. Most blocks of flats are just cabled as if they were ordinary separate houses on a street. In that circumstance, a (large) neighbourhood shares a DSLAM or CMTS which muxes the local loops into one (or several) shared trunk data connections. That is subject to contention, as Tagishsimon says, but if it's the usual neighbourhood configuration, it's unlikely you'll be able to notice (assuming a mixed demographic of users - if everyone in your building is torrenting TDKR then your mileage may very well vary). But some buildings (university dorms, managed apartments, managed office buildings, and some places where the building management or association thinks they can negotiate a good deal) there's a mini-DSLAM or mini-CMTS in the building, and you share its link only with the apartments in its ambit. Whether that's better or worse than the regular telco/cableco offering is, again, down to contention. If you're buying the service from Big Cable Co Inc. then it's probably the former, but if it's from the homeowners association or the like, probably the latter. Either can be approached to provide contractually limited contention ratios, but how that relates to real performance is, bluntly, a guess. You won't do better than asking a neighbour, who already has the same service you want and whose use resembles what you think yours will be, how they get on. -- Finlay McWalterჷTalk 00:03, 3 August 2012 (UTC)

Ah, it's being DSL puts a slightly different slant on things. If it's an ordinary house (one you'd expect a single family to live in) then typically all those phone ports (surely they're not coaxial if they're telephone connections?) would be common-wired together (so you could have an extension in each room, all on the same phone #). That single common connection would run off to a junction box somewhere and thence to the phone company's central office, where the DSLAM and voice switching equipment is located. If each of those people wanted their own dedicated connection, each would need a wire back to the phone company, then each would subscribe (getting their own phone #) and each could get a distinct DSL connection. Making those extra connections is always possible, but may require the phone company to run extra cables from their neighbourhood box, and for you (or they) to change how the cabling in side the house works. A dedicated local loop, modem, and phone and DSL subscription, per room is a pricey way of doing things. Assuming you're on reasonable terms with your housemates, it's much more common to simply have a single subscription, a single modem, and share the bandwidth of that - if you're worried about one file-sharer dominating the bandwidth, you can get a better-than-basic router which allows traffic shaping and quality of service, to prevent such hogging. -- Finlay McWalterჷTalk 15:16, 3 August 2012 (UTC)

There is a good chance (depending on the type of structure) that the service provider can install a dedicated run to where you want the modem installed if the existing wiring isn't appropriate. Although I've had issues with all sorts of cable and DSL providers, I've never met a field service person who wasn't friendly and helpful in trying to work out difficult installations. 209.131.76.183 (talk) 15:23, 3 August 2012 (UTC)

How to increase the contrast (color) of only the scroll bar "handle" in Windows7 ?

I use Windows7 Ultimate.
I have impaired vision.
How do I change the color of specifically the scrollbar handles? (to increase the contrast of the scroll bar handle against the scroll bar background)
(None of the ready made High Contrast Themes suits me)
--Seren-dipper (talk) 23:21, 2 August 2012 (UTC)

With Windows 7 Ultimate and "Windows Classic" theme, I experimented with Control Panel, Personalization, Window Color, and determined that the colour of the scrollbars is dictated by "3D Objects", Color 1. There doesn't appear to be a way of changing the contrast. The other "Color" you can set changes the colour of the "arrows" on the end of the scroll bar, not the thumb. There is a registry setting HKCU\Control Panel\Colors\Scrollbar which lists three values, but changing those values directly (and then logging off/on) didn't appear to make any difference for me. One possible alternative solution is to increase the width - which may or may not help, depending on the details of your vision problem - and in any case will cost screen real estate. Mitch Ames (talk) 08:24, 4 August 2012 (UTC)

Thanks for trying! You saved me a lot of further searching in vain! :-)
--Seren-dipper (talk) 02:14, 10 August 2012 (UTC)