Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Computing/2006 October 11

webmail problem
Ever since I started using Thunderbird (maybe as early as Outlook Express?), all the emails I get go through POP3 and for some reason doesn't appear in my webmail program (ISP provided; Cox Communications). I had no problems with that until I decided to view some of my new emails from a public computer through Thunderbird. Now the emails have disappeared. I can't access them from home, either through my client or webmail. Is there anyway I can view those 'lost' emails again? (By the way, the public computer I used is 'cleaned' every day)


 * Probably not &mdash; the nature of POP and IMAP is to collect mail from a server for local storage, although they each provide an operating mode where messages are copied instead of moved. (I tend to use webmail exclusively, despite its indirectness and clumsiness, precisely to avoid the problem of multiple computers with no way of knowing about each other's email caches.)  If you talk to your ISP, there's a (slim) chance that they may still be able to retrieve a copy for you; on your own there's an even slimmer chance that the messages are there but marked read in some way.  You can check this for POP by connecting to the server manually; see the article for how to impersonate Thunderbird.  You just want to see if the server states that any messages exist at all.  Good luck.  --Tardis 14:56, 11 October 2006 (UTC)

Transitioning from Win XP to Linux
I'm a high school student. I'm really good with computers and have a lot of experience with Windows, and am running XP Home, but only minimal exposure to Linux. I'd like to set up a Linux dual boot on the same hard drive as Windows (space is in abundance) on my home computer, and I'm trying to choose a distro.

My considerations are:
 * A free distro I can get online.
 * Ease of transition. (This includes minimal reliance on the command line. It also includes an installer program, preferably one that will set up the dual boot with little input. This doesn't necessarily mean overall ease of use.)
 * Stability.
 * Security from Internet threats.
 * Performance (one of my biggest complaints with Windows). This includes making the most of my AGP card during 3-D gaming.
 * Running the following cross-platform apps efficiently and reliably:
 * Mozilla Firefox, Thunderbird and eventually Sunbird
 * OpenOffice.org
 * Inkscape
 * The GIMP
 * NetBeans IDE for Java
 * LimeWire
 * BitTorrent
 * Battle for Wesnoth
 * Folding@Home
 * Finding FLOSS equivalents of Google Desktop (searching, desktop widgets, sidebar organizer) and iTunes (including iPod syncing and reading all my .aac files).
 * Finding FLOSS apps for 3-D modelling, Web design, bookkeeping, and chat on Google Talk.
 * Letting the two OS's open each other's files. (My Windows XP partition is NTFS.)
 * Accessing the Internet, a shared printer and files through a Windows 2000 PC on the LAN.
 * Being able to use TrueType fonts would also be good, since I have quite a collection.

Things that aren't really issues include disk space and local multi-user support.

Can anyone suggest distros? Should I go with KDE or GNOME? Neon   Merlin   03:23, 11 October 2006 (UTC)


 * Try suse. Its installer is great (and yast makes retrieving/updating packages a breeze) though it tends to go a little overboard giving linux way too much hard drive space (totally configurable with nice GUI if you know what everything means). Probably the least stable of any distro I've used, but it comes with openoffice, gimp, wesnoth. Not sure about limewire but there are certainly bt clients available. for ipod you should look at gtkpod. Keep in mind that basically any distro will support anything another distro will support.. program support isn't a question you should be asking. I know theres a new linux tool that lets you mount ntfs, and IIRC there are a few windows hacks that let you mount some of the various linux filesystems. BTW you shouldnt be afraid of a command line installer; it's often more intuitive than a gui especially if it explains options well or walks you through the install. As for 3d gaming.. if you have windows installed don't use linux to play your games (excepting those nifty linux games of course like wesnoth and kconquer or whatever that anacreon clone is called), besides it's a real bear to wrestle with 3d card drivers in linux. I actually haven't used gnome much but KDE seems much more windows like and pretty while gnome is utilitarian. If the main reason you want to "switch" is for performance then rethink your decision.. a lot of performance bottlenecks present in windows are also problems in linux and of course oss can be just as poorly designed as proprietary and a lot of geeks hate linux just as much as windows.. don't expect salvation from all your computer problems, it's just a different platform. good luck --⁪froth T C  06:09, 11 October 2006 (UTC)
 * I can strongly recommend Ubuntu. I know a freshman in high school with relatively little computer experience who was given a LiveCD, installed it, and has used it ever since.  Its far easier to use than Windows, but at the same time can be extremely powerful for experts, as its based off of Debian. &mdash;   Da rk Sh ik ar i   talk /contribs  13:30, 11 October 2006 (UTC)


 * As for KDE/Gnome, I have been using KDE for a very long time. For the last two weeks, I've been trying to get used to Gnome - just to have a feel for what it is like.  I have found very few reasons to prefer Gnome over KDE, but many reasons to prefer KDE over Gnome.  However, I am coming from the point of view: "KDE allows me to do xxxxxx.  How do I do that in Gnome?"  If I was a seasoned Gnome user going to KDE, I'm sure I'd have similar issues. --Kainaw (talk) 20:00, 11 October 2006 (UTC)


 * IMHO, I'd suggest Ubuntu or Kubutnu (the KDE equivalent), and to download Automatix (or Easy Ubuntu) to more easily install video drivers / codecs / some applications / etc. It's easy as pie. I personally prefer GNOME because it seems more slick, but you can give Live CDs of both a go to see which you prefer.
 * Down the list:
 * Most or all of the software should be easily installable in Ubutnu using the built-in GUI frontend for apt-get (Synaptic). You may have to add (or uncomment) the universe repository from your /etc/apt/sources.list in order to gain access to more applications, but that's easy.
 * An equivalent of Google Desktop's search would be Beagle. The widget stuff can be done with different things, depending on the desktop / window manager. I don't know much in that regard, except that the KDE thing for the job is SuperKaramba, and Gnome has GDesklets (GNOME's is built-in, KDE's is either built-in or will be).
 * Automatix has an insane number of iTunes equivalents builtin with stupid FLOSS names which I can't remember. It can also install GNUpod easily (part of its iPod collection), among things.
 * Modelling: Wings 3d or Blender. Web design: err, it depends on what you mean by that.; Bookkeeping: no idea, and it depends on your needs ; Google Talk: see GAIM or any other XMPP client
 * Accessing partitions: Captive NTFS is the most reliable on the Linux side (requires Windows' NTFS.sys, which is no issue as you obviously own it), though FLOSS drivers are being developed. On the Windows side, this driver.
 * Accessing the internet is pie. Printers may be another thing, and it really depends on the printer itself, as well as how easy the deskop you choose makes it.
 * To install truetype fonts, you need to follow these directions, specifically the ones at the top of the list. Yes, you need to use the command line. It doesn't hurt :P
 * Basically, Ubuntu + Automatix makes it easy. You're probably going to have to use the command line eventually with just about any distro, so it's nice to learn not to be afraid of it; however, Ubuntu is as minimal with it as you're going to get, so long as your computer configuration isn't particularily insane and you use Automatix to install any video drivers you need. -- Consumed Crustacean (talk) 21:01, 11 October 2006 (UTC)
 * Ubuntu all teh way. --Russoc4 21:16, 11 October 2006 (UTC)
 * I've been trying a similar thing. For some reason when i tried installing Ubuntu on my PC with a CD from it's distributor It has problems partitioning my harddrive(atleast i think so). I do not want to use partition magic or anyother software to do the partition. Can Ubuntu partition it from the installer it comes with on the CD? --Agester 01:14, 12 October 2006 (UTC)


 * I have tried Ubuntu and it doesn't seem to give the same flexibililty as other distro's do. In general, there seems to be a move towards the ms philosophy of "don't worry, we'll do it for you" which works very nice if that is what yoo want but leaves you in the cold when it isn't. There should be both the simple fast ms way and the 'down-to-basics' way that is more traditionally the Linux style. Suse does this fairly well. Also, I've read in a C'T test that Suse is better than Ubuntu and Fedora at virtualisation, even giving the option of running WinXP in a Linux window, with vanderpool / xen. I haven't tried it yet, but given your goals it might be worth checking out. Btw, you should be able to get any distro online (I downloaded Suse 10.1). The only reason to buy it is for the ease of use, the support and possibly books that come with it. DirkvdM 08:18, 12 October 2006 (UTC)
 * Oh, and I've tried both Gnome and KDE and I have a slight preference for KDE. But there are just too many little differences that might make a big difference to some, while being irrelevant to others. You'll just have to try them both yourself. If only there were a totally configurable desktop environment. What I dream of is every right click on a desktop feature giving me a link to a list of all the pieces of code that control that bit (possibly more user friendly than just the code, but it would be a start). DirkvdM 08:25, 12 October 2006 (UTC)

MS Word annoying me
OK, so I've got lots of customised auto-correct entries in Word to make typing easier. But some days, I'm typing away and I try to invoke one, but it doesn't make the correction I want it to. I look at the list and, what do you know, it's not there anymore. One day it was there, the next it's gone. Why does this happen, and is there anything I can do to stop it? Many thanks. --Richardrj talkemail 09:27, 11 October 2006 (UTC)
 * Are you sure you're always checking Auto Correct? Because there's also Auto Text, and they are similar in some ways. Auto Correct (and Auto Text) is one of the things that can be customised to individual templates, so is it possible that some of your entries are saved to custom templates and not to your universal template? Anchoress 09:34, 11 October 2006 (UTC)
 * Yes, it's definitely auto-correct I'm talking about. I think you're right about the templates being the problem, though.  I probably saved the entries on one template, then created a new document from another template and that is why they are not appearing.  Which seems kind of flaky to me - why don't they appear on all templates I use?  Doh!  Thanks for the help, anyway. --Richardrj talkemail 09:50, 11 October 2006 (UTC)
 * Yeah they do it that way because one of the points of templates is to be able to do that kind of customisation, but it would be nice to be given a choice, like you are given with AutoText. I think you can copy the data from one of the concordance files to another, but I don't remember what they're called. Anchoress 10:06, 11 October 2006 (UTC)

varying duty cycle or width of PWM using vc++ program
How to vary pwm(on or off period) or duty cycle using visual c++ program at the lpt port for controlling DC motor?
 * can anyone give the code for varying width of pwm using vc++ program
 * also give the code in c,c++.......... please!