Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Miscellaneous/2007 July 19

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July 19

What does this flag mean?

I am trying to figure out what a particular flag represents. It has three large horizontal stripes. The top and bottom stripes are solid blue. The center stripe is solid black. I've seen it on everything from a minivan bumper to a motorcycle gas tank, but I can find nothing about it online. Any ideas anyone?

Thanks,

[...] Stafford VA —Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.114.106.22 (talk • contribs) 01:12, 19 July 2007

I'm going to take a wild guess that if you're in Virginia, you're not going to see many flags of Botswana. On a more serious note, are all three stripes the same size? How dark is the blue? (Pastel, baby, sky, royal, sapphire, navy)? TenOfAllTrades(talk) 01:21, 19 July 2007 (UTC)

You may want to check FotW as they have information on just about every flag. 68.39.174.238 01:42, 19 July 2007 (UTC)

The Thin Blue Line (emblem) should be the other way around, but EPoliceSupply.com offers "Law Enforcement Mourning" stickers looking like what you described. ---Sluzzelin talk 01:46, 19 July 2007 (UTC)

That's black/blue/black - not blue/black/blue. The Botswana flag has thin white stripes between the blue and black. SteveBaker 17:11, 19 July 2007 (UTC)

Indeed, the official Thin Blue Line emblem is (black/blue/black). Yet, the commercial site I linked to offers the "Thin Black Line" variety (blue/black/blue) as well. The article I linked to states:

"It is alleged that relatives of officers display the emblem not to show solidarity, but to get immunity from tickets. Because of these allegations the use of bootlegged Thin Blue Line emblems has been a problem. Additionally, real emblems have been bought and used by people only peripherally connected to a Law Enforcement Officer (nephews, cousins) causing some sellers to restrict sales to people giving their department phone number and badge number."

Perhaps the inverted stickers being incontestable, they are safer to sell and own; the original poster has observed this variety, so I guess they are sold and owned. ---Sluzzelin talk 21:09, 19 July 2007 (UTC)

SAT II Math 1 vs Math 2

Do colleges prefer the Math 2 over the Math 1? Thanks! Delta 02:56, 19 July 2007 (UTC)

If you're going to study something which involves math (so pretty much everything which isn't literature, philosophy or history), then Math 2 shows that you have been taking classes which lead towards college-level mathematics. If you're not, it shows that you don't shy away from difficult subjects. Math 1 tests you in the basic math that demonstrates that you have the basic skills to graduate high school. Donald Hosek 18:31, 19 July 2007 (UTC)

Car Scratches

Hi, recently some intertubes with wet sand on the bottoms were placed on the hood and trunk of my car, causing a bunch of scratches to the paint. Are there any cheap, non-professional methods of repairing this? Also, does anyone have even a ballpark estimate for what it might cost to have this professionally fixed? Thanks in advance for any help. 38.112.225.84 05:12, 19 July 2007 (UTC)

Simple video (good tip about how to find paint color) and Text (slightly more detailed process with pictures). 152.16.59.190 05:40, 19 July 2007 (UTC)

If the scratches didn't remove the paint, but only damaged the finish, you can just rewax the car to cover them up. If the paint is scraped off, then you need a colored wax of approximately the same hue to fill in the scratches. Nail polish can sometimes be used, as well, with wax on top. Those are the quick and dirty fixes, of course, and won't look quite as good as a professional job. To make it look perfect, you would likely need to repaint the entire car (to avoid a visible seam between the old paint and the new paint), at something like $500. I'd go with the cheap way, myself. StuRat 21:07, 24 July 2007 (UTC)

Browsing History

A friend of mine told me that even though I always delete internet browsing history, someone can still identify them because computers stores the history in a secret file. Is it true? if yes where does the computer stores them and how can I delete them.

Dercnat

The browser's history is AFAIK stored only in one place, and so once deleted, it's gone. However in addition [cookies]] placed on your machine may, if not deleted, provide an indication of the places you have been. More tenuously, if your internet connection uses a proxy server (e.g. corporate network and, in fact, most ISPs) then there's the possibility of a record being made at the proxy server. You have no access to this. In short, I think you;re being misinformed by your friend. -Tagishsimon (talk)

No - even that's not true. Whilst I doubt there is a "secret file" where this data is kept even after being deleted, there are lots of other possible places where the data could be. When data on a computer disk is "erased", all that typically happens is that the part of the disk drive where that information is stored is marked as "available for re-use" - nothing is actually erased. If someone really wanted to figure out what you'd been up to, they could almost certainly do so by using a program that looks through the "unused" parts of the disk drive looking for that information. There are software packages out there that will do a "true" erase of your drive by writing zeroes all over the unused bits. However, a determined forensics expert could still have a good chance of getting the "erased" data because each time your disk drive platter passes under the disk head, the head is in a very slightly different place from the previous time. So when you erase by overwriting with zeroes, it tends to be the case that a teeny-tiny sliver of the magnetic surface is not written to - and there are machines out there that can read that sliver and extract useful data from it. Moreover, when your system uses a 'disk cache' to keep copies of programs that are running but temporarily idle (better explanation needed!) whatever was in the RAM of your machine at the time ends up being written to the disk cache. This data could include whatever any program happens to be doing or working on at the time - and that data is also likely to sit around where it could potentially be found. So anything short of a degausser or a sledge hammer is not 100% certain to wipe the information. HOWEVER, it takes a very determined search and all sorts of highly specialised software and hardware to find these kinds of obscure thing - so unless you are trying to protect yourself against a major government shakedown - you're perfectly safe in deleting your browsing history + cookies + browser cache and then emptying the 'recycle bin'. SteveBaker 16:56, 19 July 2007 (UTC)

I think if you use Windows and Internet Explorer, the computer stores typed URLs in a file called index.dat. I dont know if any other sort of information is stored (except that mentioned above). We have an article index.dat which may help you. Best regards TreeKittens 21:53, 19 July 2007 (UTC)

I use a program called Evidence Eliminator, and before seeing this program in action I had no idea how many places Windows and IE store temporary information. If you're using a work computer, don't do anything on the computer that you wouldn't be comfortable for your boss to see while watching over your shoulder. 152.16.59.190 04:45, 20 July 2007 (UTC)

crack

am looking for a crack/licence key for a program.its tunebite platinum 2004 version4.1.0.22. my pal told me that u can get the licence key free from the net.am still finding trouble getting them from the net.can anyone get it for me or give me a link

No. We're not into theft. Please go and buy the product. --Tagishsimon (talk)

is it ilklegal?under what law?how come there sites still handing them out?

Gosh yes, it is illegal, at least under US and UK law, and probably the legal systems of most countries. In practise it is more likely that such matters would be dealt with as a civil case than a criminal case, but make no mistake: in general terms, if you take for-sale software and crack it, you are committing a crime. As to why cracks and keygens still exist ... it's an interesting question. One element of the answer may well be that it is not illegal (or, in some jurisdictions, it is only in recent times that it has become illegal) to supply information which enables licence conditions to be circumvented. A more likely element is that there are always those who are content to break laws. Our article Copyright infringement of software provides more info and pointers to some of the laws you might be breaking. --Tagishsimon (talk)

It's certainly illegal in pretty much any juristiction - however, if a site is set up someplace where laws like this are not strongly enforced, it can be very tough indeed for the company that owns the software to get the offending web site taken down. The fact that you can find the key or the crack online most certainly doesn't make it legal!! Anyway - Wikipedia isn't allowed to hand out legal advice - so we can't tell you what to do. However we're also not allowed to break the law in our juristiction - so we can't give you the answer you're looking for on this question. SteveBaker 16:43, 19 July 2007 (UTC)

As Tagih mentions, when it comes to providing, making or keeping cracks and keygens, in many other countries the legal status (in the US, definitely) and for that matter whether the copyright owners is even likely to win in a civil case is uncertain. Using said crack or keygen to enable you to use software you're not entitled to use may or may not be illegal (when it comes to someone using software for their private use, it's often not particularly clear cut) but it would usually be a violation of the copyright owner's rights so they would win in a civil suit. If on the other hand, you're simply using a crack so you don't need to keep the optical media in your drive all the time in many countries this won't be illegal nor will the the owner win a civil case. Nil Einne 14:14, 23 July 2007 (UTC)

They're also handing out crack at sites downtown, but that doesn't mean it's legal. --TotoBaggins 17:17, 19 July 2007 (UTC)

Needles for injecting crack/heroin were handed out for free in Canada. I think they stopped the program now. Acceptable 03:55, 20 July 2007 (UTC)

Needle-exchange programmes are actually not that uncommon. Somewhat OT but I know of someone who needed needles for a medical condition but felt awkward asking for them because when she did, she always go the feeling from the looks she received that the people there presumed she was a junkie Nil Einne 14:14, 23 July 2007 (UTC)

Just because it is possible to find something (or even if its easy to find something) that does not mean its legal. — Shinhan < talk > 17:51, 21 July 2007 (UTC)

alternator project

can someone explain to me where to search for the abstract and implementation of any electrical project? i need to do an electrical project for my final year in college and i have already searched countless webpages in vain. i did not find a suitable project. can someone say where to search for a good electrical project (projects as advanced as the projects one can find in IEEE magazines).

Umm, IEEE magazines? Do you mean "where on the web"? Are there not textbooks which might give you an idea? --Tagishsimon (talk)

I have been involved in many electrical projects, and they were done by companies with the goal of making money. The project documents may have been filed with a utility commission if for a public utility, but the majority of projects are something like "Develop an ipod" and all project documents are proprietary. Look in the IEEE magazine, or one of the many specialized IEEE magazines for popular accounts of electrical projects. An electrical project could be a new computer processor, a high voltage electric transmission line, a radio, a cel phone, an integrated circuit, a capacitor, an efficient electric light, a meter, or a thousand other types of things which are published in very different places. Figure out if you are interested in high voltage/high current (power engineering), in high frequency (radio engineering), in digital circuits (computer engineering) or in consumer products such as plasma displays. For some ideas you might look at "Nuts and Volts" [1]or "Make" magazine [2]. A project for school should show a sound grasp of engineering principles and not just be the construction of something from plans or a kit someone provided. One neat trick is that if you need a chip or a transducer, you can often get it free by writing to the company and explaining that you are a college junior or senior doing a design project. You can also look at manufacturers' product literature and books, which often have application notes, then build a working model of something that a new chip or component makes possible, which is not on the market yet at all, or which is better than what is on the market. You can also look at defunct electronics magazines such as "Popular Electronics" or "Electronics Illustrated" and build an updated version of something there, which is better because it uses the latest integrated circuits instead of discrete transistors. You could start a project with a build-it yourself device like a Sumo-bot [3], which has a breadboard for customization, which has a Stamp computer you can program, and you can add sensory features or a manipulator. It has cool capabilities when assembled, and you can learn a lot about motor control and robotics. But just building a kit would deserve a failing grade. You need to add some interesting capability or interface. Edison 15:50, 19 July 2007 (UTC)

Citation needed

Could someone be so kind as to give me the citation to a concept having to do with “the one who opposed the most” as being guilty . . . Some said it has to do with a writing by Shakespeare. Chailai 16:09, 19 July 2007 (UTC)

There is the passage 'the lady doth protest too much' which is often used to mean that your protesting shows that you are actually 'guilty' of doing whatever it is you protest about (often used in comedies when a man or women protest too strongly that they don't like another man/woman). It comes from Hamlet I think. ny156uk 16:59, 19 July 2007 (UTC)

Wasn't it Iago in Othello saying it about Desdemona? A vital point is, of course, that Iago was a Bad Guy trying to sow suspicion about an innocent woman; often overlooked when people use the phrase :) Skittle 18:56, 19 July 2007 (UTC) Nope, you're right! Silly me... Skittle 19:01, 19 July 2007 (UTC)

In modern language, of course, it becomes "You're in denial." —Tamfang 17:02, 19 July 2007 (UTC)

Or the more casual "Duh nile ain't just a river in Egypt!" --L^augh! 17:06, 19 July 2007 (UTC)

Thanks for your response. Reading Hamlet is very difficult for me, but at least I get this much. Thanks again. Chailai 20:03, 19 July 2007 (UTC)

As kids, we used to use "the one who denied it supplied it". This was the correct response to "the one who smelled it dealt it". Which was, in turn, the correct response to... um, I forget. --Dweller 20:35, 19 July 2007 (UTC)

The complete quotation is: "The lady doth protest too much, methinks." The citation is from Shakespeare's Hamlet (III, ii, 239). Queen Gertrude speaks these famous words to her son, Prince Hamlet, while watching a play at court. Gertrude does not realize that Hamlet has staged this play to trap her and her new husband, King Claudius, whom Hamlet suspects of having murdered his father. She also does not realize that the lady who "doth protest too much" is actually herself, as the Player King and Queen represent King Hamlet and Queen Gertrude. The former will be poisoned (in this play within the play) by the king's brother, as in reality (Hamlet suspects) Claudius killed King Hamlet. Gertrude's statement is in response to the play-Queen's repetitive statements of loyalty to and love of her first husband. See [[4]]. (JosephASpadaro 20:23, 20 July 2007 (UTC))

Copyright Protection - Policies

was reading a wikipedia article about misinformation/propaganda and a technique these use to uncover people who are 'leaking' information. I.e. they send out the 'same' letter to each person but every copy has minor alterations that help to identify the source of any leaks. I wondered whether there are any policies for Film-distribution firms to do this: A large portion of the 'dodgy' dvds my friends have show the classic "this is for promotional purposes" (or whatever) logo every 10/15 minutes. I wondered whether they might try to embed slightly different wordings for each association they send it out to. ALternatively they could alter the end-credit ordering/something like that. This could help them identify where the leaks are coming from. Does anybody know if such tactics are used by distribution firms to try combat piracy? ny156uk 17:05, 19 July 2007 (UTC)

I don't have a reference, but I remember an Academy Award judge getting in trouble for redistribution, where they had used just such a watermarking scheme. You might also be interested in cap codes, those dots that appear on bright parts of the screen in movies, which are used for similar purposes. --TotoBaggins 17:13, 19 July 2007 (UTC)

See Coded Anti-Piracy. dr.ef.tymac 17:15, 19 July 2007 (UTC)

Copyright Protection - Piracy countermeasures

I have a similar question. I vaguely remember reading somewhere that Encyclopedia Britannica used a technique for "watermarking" it's article text by randomly inserting statistically-infrequent letter sequences into its articles; sequences that either represented English mistakes, or represented correct English, but otherwise were sufficiently improbable as to suggest that any repetition of these sequences (in other sources or periodicals) represented an obvious case of plagiarism. Anyone have a reference for that? dr.ef.tymac 17:28, 19 July 2007 (UTC)

I've not heard of that, unless you mean fictitious entry.--Shantavira|^{feed me} 18:47, 19 July 2007 (UTC)

Traitor tracing + fictitious entry? 68.39.174.238 14:32, 20 July 2007 (UTC)

Vandalized roadside attraction

I remember reading about a roadside attraction that featured blocky, folksy sculptures of famous figures in history. It is now thoroughly vandalized. Does anybody know the name?—Preceding unsigned comment added by 129.118.7.22 (talk • contribs)

Any idea which country, for starters? There was a statue a little like that in Chamberlain Square, Birmingham UK, until four years ago when it was shown to be flammable. It was called "Forward".--Shantavira|^{feed me} 18:53, 19 July 2007 (UTC)

Sorry, it is in the USA.

Gene Therpay VS. Genetic Engineering

What is the difference between gene therapy and genetic engineering?

Gene Therapy would be a medical process (Please don't beat me this isn't medical advice!) used to treat a disease. For instance you could implant a diabetic pancreas with the proper gene to produce insulin. Genetic engineering is related, but would be used to create new genetic stock. For instance if you engineered an egg to produce a purple eyed person, they could potentially pass that trait along to their children. - --Czmtzc 20:03, 19 July 2007 (UTC)

Vegetarian cats and dogs

Can you keep cats or dogs on a vegetarian diet? 83.182.152.239 22:09, 19 July 2007 (UTC)

Dogs yes, with care. Cats no. Skittle 22:12, 19 July 2007 (UTC)

Wikipedia does not give veterinary advice - consult a professional. The cat article has a section on feeding here Cat#Feeding DuncanHill 22:15, 19 July 2007 (UTC)

There was some discussion of the veterinary advice question earlier. --TotoBaggins 22:25, 19 July 2007 (UTC)

Re:Veterinary advice - the How to use the desk section at the top of this page explicitly says that Wikipedia does not give veterinary advice, and to consult a professional. DuncanHill 22:51, 19 July 2007 (UTC)

It does now. It's not a long-established policy; see the archived discussion. It is good advice, though. --Anonymous, July 21, 02:56 (UTC).

Cats yes, with *extreme* care by absurdly dedicated owners. This FAQ gives a good treatment. --TotoBaggins 22:21, 19 July 2007 (UTC)

Is that place for real? It looks suspiciously like a troll/parody site to me. For one thing, they don't seem to actually have anything for sale... --Kurt Shaped Box 22:38, 19 July 2007 (UTC)

IT IS A TROLL SITE. Its one of those "Animal Rights Nuts" website. IF "you" hunt, own animals, these nuts consider "you" a ass, worse. Troll myself ? Hell no. Had some experiences with nuts like these. 205.240.146.58 22:43, 19 July 2007 (UTC)

BOTH Cats AND dogs are CARNIVORES, NOT HERBIVORES. 205.240.146.58 22:45, 19 July 2007 (UTC)

Those are not the only options. If you look at our article on dog, you will see that they are carnivora, but that this does not necessarily mean they are carnivores in terms of diet. There is some discussion as to their most appropriate classification, with people leaning towards omnivore, like humans. Cats, however, are obligate carnivores. That means they need to eat meat, as there are some nutrients they cannot get elsewhere. It is possible that you could feed them synthetic versions of these nutrients, but it would be tricky and risky. Skittle 22:53, 19 July 2007 (UTC)

I'm well aware that there are people like that around. I remember some rabid vegan wingnut on a birdkeeping forum I was a member of a few years ago who was trying to force a vegan diet upon his owls, which were (obviously) getting sick as a result. Yes, he would actually see his birds be malnourished and possibly die in order to make a political point. --Kurt Shaped Box 23:00, 19 July 2007 (UTC)

It appears to be a philosophically perplexing position to take. I would have thought if you believed in animal rights (as one presumes those who would feed carnivores a vegetarian diet does), then it would follow that one would give one's companion animal the right to choose which food it would rather eat (and anyone that has had a dog or a cat can tell your they prefer meat) rather than forcing an unnatural diet on them. Rockpocket 00:14, 20 July 2007 (UTC)

Well, if you follow the principle of minimizing suffering, you could, conceivably, weight the total suffering felt by all the individual animals of prey (mice, pigs, or whatever has to be killed to feed the carnivore) as higher than the total suffering experienced by the one carnivore forced into a vegetarian diet. (Even if the diet weakens or kills the carnivore, you could reach that conclusion.) This isn't my statement on the issue, just one way of applying utilitarian ethics to the dilemma. ---Sluzzelin talk 00:23, 20 July 2007 (UTC)

The solution to that is obvious: don't keep a frikkin' pet! Then neither it, nor its prey need suffer. Rockpocket 00:40, 20 July 2007 (UTC)

Or choose your pets carefully. ---Sluzzelin talk 01:01, 20 July 2007 (UTC)

Thank you for your answers especially skittle's. 83.182.152.239 01:48, 20 July 2007 (UTC)

The only way you can keep it and its prey from suffering is to kill one painlessly. If you let someone else keep the pet, they will either feed it meat, or not feed it meat. — Daniel 02:37, 20 July 2007 (UTC)

This is the poorest set of answers I have seen so far to a Reference Desk question: Unsourced answers and value judgments about what animals deserve to live. Pretty sad. Snakes should starve so mice can live. Edison 05:07, 20 July 2007 (UTC)

Please explain what makes that a troll site. They do, indeed, offer products for sale. I may disagree with their approach, but I don't see them as a troll or parody site. Corvus cornix 21:46, 20 July 2007 (UTC)

When I looked at the site yesterday, there wasn't anything listed for sale at all. Now there is. :) --Kurt Shaped Box 03:07, 21 July 2007 (UTC)

And your value judgment raises the bar considerably. Well done. Rockpocket 05:13, 20 July 2007 (UTC)

And mongooses should starve so snakes can live? --58.170.212.62 07:01, 20 July 2007 (UTC)

(In response to Edison's comment) Ok, it was a reference to Peter Singer , which Rockpocket, no doubt, recognized. Sorry about the negligence of wikilinkage. ---Sluzzelin talk 07:16, 20 July 2007 (UTC)

Canines and felines have canines and carnassials for ripping meat. They have these as meat is an integral part of their diet. If they were herbivores they would not have evolved with a set of teeth for a carniverous diet. Or if you wanted to look at it from the other side of the coin, why would a god have created them with mouths, teeth and digestive systems opposite to that which they required? Lanfear's Bane

Well, cats have a short digestive tract, as part of the carnivore adaptation; it makes them lighter and more efficient hunters, but on the other hand it's less efficient at digestion and requires a high protein diet. There are other adaptations, such as required amino acids, as well. You can put together an adequate synthetic diet, but as the guy said, it's absurdly hard and expensive; and quite likely a lot of the components will turn out to be animal-sourced.

Dogs, not so much; their digestive system is like ours, their protein requirements aren't greater than ours; a large part of the wild dogs' diet consists of intestinal contents of their prey. Like a human on a vegetarian diet, you do have to make sure it's complete. There are arguments over whether it's optimal or not, and whether vegetable proteins even if "complete" are as well tolerated as animal sources, and in special cases like running the Iditarod, a high protein intake has been shown to be better, but in general a dog can do pretty well on a quality vegetarian diet.

The flip side is that cats and dogs are not as prone to the cardiovascular problems people develop as a result of our relatively recently adopted carnivorous diets; they can eat cheeseburgers all day and put on weight but they won't have a heart attack and need a bypass. Gzuckier 15:05, 20 July 2007 (UTC)

I'm not sure that's necessarily an adaptation. Very few humans who ate meat 100% of the time and slept 20 hours a day would die of a heart condition before the age of ~15 when most dogs are reaching the ends of their natural lives. Dogs and cats simply don't live long enough to die of most of the things we die of...and certainly not in their natural state when they evolved their meat-mostly diets. SteveBaker 00:56, 21 July 2007 (UTC)

Dogs and cats do not commonly develop atherosclerosis, but they do live long enough to die from the things we die of, such as cancer, kidney failure, debilitating neurological diseases, and congestive heart failure. Dogs even get a form of senility known as cognitive dysfunction syndrome [5]. However, eating cheeseburgers all day is certainly going to lead to obesity, which in dogs will lead to worsened orthopedic diseases and in cats can lead to diabetes. --Joelmills 04:01, 21 July 2007 (UTC)

There was an episode of Animal Cops (on Animal Planet) where a vegetarian had been keeping her cats on a vegetarian diet, and they were all undernourished and blind. Corvus cornix 21:43, 20 July 2007 (UTC)