Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Computing/2006 July 25

How much space would wikipedia take up?
How much space does wikipedia take up (including all the history and discussion files)? —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 141.149.236.64 (talk • contribs) 06:26, July 25, 2006 (UTC).
 * See Database_download and http://download.wikimedia.org/. As of September 2005, a compressed full database dump (text only), including old page versions, is about 40GB. The compressed dump with only current revisions is about 1.2GB (900MB excluding talk and user pages). -- Koffieyahoo 07:09, 25 July 2006 (UTC)


 * Uncompressed, the full database dump (text only) is about 20 times the size of it compressed. This means that it's about 800 GB. Note this does not include images because of legal reasons. To download the images is about 76 GB compressed. Harryboyles 07:21, 25 July 2006 (UTC)


 * Are the images truly compressed? IIRC they are archived but not compressed (since all the image formats already have their own compression, doing any extra compression wouldn't gain much). --cesarb 15:47, 25 July 2006 (UTC)


 * On the page Database_download it says under "Dealing with compressed files" that "Approximate file sizes are given for the compressed dumps; uncompressed they'll be significantly larger." Just remember that with the revisions and previous images that have been reverted, that many are similar or the same, meaning that you'd save space because of the sameness of the files, if that makes senseHarryboyles 03:21, 26 July 2006 (UTC)

Need help in senior project
hi all, as mentioned in the heading,could anyone suggest me a topic for my senior project which is necassary for the graduation,as i am a final year student doing BSc. in Computer Engineering,Im willing to implement a networking software(or something related to networking). Any idea or suggestion will be appreciated. You can send me on my yahoo account: [removed to prevent spam]--  FOZ 


 * don't post your email here. It is a sure way of getting spam. Jon513 11:21, 25 July 2006 (UTC)


 * Shouldn't you ask your professor on what kinds of projects are appropriate? --ColourBurst 23:18, 25 July 2006 (UTC)

Regarding asking my professor abt the project,the semester is going to start after two months from now,and i wanted to begin working on the project from now, so by the time the semester begins i will be done with the preparation part(finding good material for the project).--  FOZ 

Word macro keyboard shortcuts
How does one get a list of keyboard shortcuts assigned to macros in Word? There is an option to do this for built-in commands, but I can't find out how to do it for macros - not even one macro at a time. Help gratefully received, thanks. -- SGBailey 11:22, 25 July 2006 (UTC)


 * does this help?Jon513 12:24, 25 July 2006 (UTC)


 * Thanks, but no it doesn't help. That is a list of standrad commands - and I know how to get that list anyway. What I am after is a list of the keycodes that have been assigned to assorted macros. -- SGBailey 13:59, 25 July 2006 (UTC)


 * If you are happy with running VBA code - this may help

Dim i as integer For i = 1 To KeyBindings.Count Selection.TypeText KeyBindings.Item(i).KeyString & vbCr Selection.TypeText KeyBindings.Item(i).Command & " " & KeyBindings.Item(i).CommandParameter & vbCr & vbCr Next

I've not done any real testing - but it should point you in the right direction

--Worm 14:14, 25 July 2006 (UTC)


 * Looks good. Thanks -- SGBailey 15:27, 25 July 2006 (UTC)

copy into first partition
I've got several hd's on my computer. On one I've got my 'main' OS, Suse 9.1, on the second partition. Now I wish to have Win98 on the first partition, which is now formatted as ntfs, which I would have to change to fat first. Installing it would screw up Suse (right?), but I've got an old version of Win98 that I could copy there. This works with copies - I've done that loads of times. I'm not sure if copying an OS to a different drive will work, but it's the exact same type, so it might just work. Anyway, what I want to know is if doing this will affect the boot process. This will leave Suse itself alone, but it might affect the boot sector and/or the boot manager (grub). I know a bit about computers, but I'm no expert, especially when it comes to practicalities. So I don't want anything to get in the way of starting my main OS. So is it safe to do this? And does it matter if I do this from the Suse installation itself or from another OS (Ubuntu) on another hd? And will the reformating from ntfs to fat have an effect? DirkvdM 11:22, 25 July 2006 (UTC)
 * Installing Windows doesn't "screw up" SUSE. It simply overwrites the bootloader with its own. You don't have to restore it from SUSE, since you won't be able to boot from it anyway. This guide should help you out. Try the Using the LiveCD and Overwriting the Windows bootloader section. I'm not sure what would happen if you tried to convert NTFS to FAT32, though. --Optichan 19:17, 25 July 2006 (UTC)
 * There is no way to 'convert' an NTFS to FAT disk, you have to wipe it and reformat that disk. &mdash; QuantumEleven 06:57, 26 July 2006 (UTC)


 * Well, it is possible to convert ntfs to fat with Partition Magic. But I want to format it anyway. The question was if that affects the boot sector. And I understand it does. DirkvdM 10:03, 26 July 2006 (UTC)

Kodak camera with movies
My Kodak DX4530 takes .mov movies which I have to play back through Quicktime. How can I determine what version of .mov they are? What software is recommended to convert a .mov to a .avi or .mpg - (I'd like to play it back on windows media player)? -- SGBailey 12:03, 25 July 2006 (UTC)


 * .mov, like .avi, is a container format: it's a way of organizing data without saying anything about what format of data is inside. The most likely format for the movie data is motion JPEG, which Windows Media Player can play.  Since they're both container formats, it's possible to convert between them without loss of data.  I've used a freeware program called "trmoov" to do this in the past: search Google for it. --Serie 22:17, 26 July 2006 (UTC)


 * Thanks. I tried that one, and many others. They all seem to hang. There must be something wacky about Kodak .MOVs. I'll just have to keep using QT. -- SGBailey 22:57, 30 July 2006 (UTC)

DCC Networking
I just bought a laptop and I need to transfer files from my PC. I looked around a little bit and got the impression that all I needed to do was buy a cat5 crossover patch cable and connect both computers by their ethernet ports. So, I bought a cat5 cable and an adapter that makes it a crossover cable, plugged the two computers together... and nothing. The machine knew something was in the network cable (ethernet) port, because it usually says "a network cable is unplugged" and it was no longer doing that, but it said "limited or no connectivity" and I am stuck there. Both machines are running Windows XP (planned host computer is running xp home, and guest is running professional). I tried going through the network setup wizards, to no avail. I might have done them wrong somehow. I'm asking here because I can't find any decent tutorials, I know no one who knows anything about networking, and wikipedia hasn't failed me yet...

Any help is GREATLY appreciated!


 * your computers are probably looking for a DHCP service to give them an address, and likely neither has one, so they both end up with useless autoconfig addresses. Hardwire one to 192.168.0.20, the other to 192.168.0.21, set the netmask to 255.255.255.0 and you're off. -- Finlay McWalter | Talk 14:39, 25 July 2006 (UTC)

Wow, that was quick, thanks much... but where do I make those changes? I'm not computer illiterate, but I have never had to mess with networking in any way. Thanks again!


 * On Windows XP: "start" button at bottom left of screen -&gt; settings -&gt; network connections -&gt; double click on the network adapter -&gt; properties -&gt; double click "Internet Protocol (TCP/IP)" in the scrolldown list -&gt; select "Use the following IP address", type in ip address and subnet mask as mentioned above; ok/ok/ok to close everything. To restore DHCP (which you'll probably need to get to the Internet) select "obtain an IP address automatically" and "obtain DNS server automatically". Good luck! Weregerbil 15:49, 25 July 2006 (UTC)

Thank you, thank you-- I'm still wary, though. I'm away from the two computers in question now, but looking at the one I'm using here at work, also using XP, (just to see the path, of couse, not to change anything) I try and follow the path. Start -> no "settings"; use control panel, get to network connections. Double click on the net adapter, go to properties and all I have is one tab that says "general" and no scroll down menus... Again, any and all help is greatly appreciated!


 * There should be a box with the title "This connection uses the following items:". It's there that you want to double click "Internet Protocol (TCP/IP)". If it isn't listed, click the Install... button, select Protocol and click Add... then you should find TCP/IP in there. From there you can follow the above instructions on setting the IP and subnet mask. 128.197.81.223 17:23, 25 July 2006 (UTC)

Hmm... I still cannot find it. I checked the list on "Add/Remove windows components" and there is nothing about TCP/IP... does that indicate something? Do I need some other piece of hardware or software to do this? If there are any good web tutorials, let me know! For as simple as it's been explained, this is driving me nuts... I also realize that this is not the tech support helpline, so I really do appreciate the help I'm getting!


 * Here is one tutorial. One thing to note is that, since you're at work, you may not be logged in as an administrator (as the link mentions) and so some options may not be available. Oh, also you don't have to do all the steps in that link, you should be ok stopping after step 9. Digfarenough 19:24, 25 July 2006 (UTC)

All right! I got home and connected the two, apparently; the "limited or no connectivity" message is gone... but now how do I actually do something with that? Can some one point me to a tutorial for setting up a network...? thanks much, again.


 * You ought to be able to share a folder or harddrive from the PC on a network and access it from the laptop using network neighborhood. Just right click on whatever you want to share, go to "Sharing and security" on the PC, click the radio button for "Share this folder", then click OK and see if you can find it somewhere in network neighborhood on the laptop. That's probably the easiest way. Digfarenough 21:01, 25 July 2006 (UTC)
 * Oh, I realized earlier that folder sharing might not actually work for you. What I personally use to do this sort of thing is sftp. You can download free software, openssh for the PC and, say, winscp for the laptop and run an sftp server on the PC using openssh (you can find instructons on setting this up online). Then you can connect to that sftp server using winscp (or your favorite sftp program) and download all your files. Digfarenough 17:09, 26 July 2006 (UTC)


 * If you need to transfer files, you can use other means, such as a CD/DVD/Flash Drive/etc. Or if you have a router, just share files or transfer them. This may not answer your question, but it's just a though. --Proficient 11:58, 26 July 2006 (UTC)

Wrong Driver for BT Keyboard
I have a pocket PC running Windows Mobile 5.0, and a bluetooth keyboard, but the keyboard only comes with a driver for Pocket PC 2003, and I am told by the PDA that the keyboard may not work because the driver was 'designed for a different version.' They keyboard is a Cygnet Bluetooth Keyboard. Where can I get an appropriate driver from/how can I make the keyboard work? Many thanks, --86.139.122.229 18:19, 25 July 2006 (UTC)


 * Did you check for updates at the manufacturer's website? --LarryMac 18:38, 25 July 2006 (UTC)

Computers and ITAR
Are new computers, intended to be used by a military contractor abroad, considered an export that is subject to the regulations of ITAR?


 * You need to define "used". As you state it, the computers will be owned by the U.S. military and therefore not be "exported" because the action of moving items to and from military bases and deployments is not referred to as an export or import. --Kainaw (talk) 20:10, 25 July 2006 (UTC)