Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Computing/2006 September 8

=September 8=

AOL IM
A couple of quick questions about AOL Instant Messenger, google did not return the answers I was searching for, and of course aol's faqs didn't help. I'm using Trillian over the Aim protocol. 1. Is there a way to know who's buddy list your account is on? 2. If you remove a person from your buddy list, is there a way for that person to know? 3. If you are on somebody's buddy list, but they are not on your's, can they still know your status (i.e. 'brb', 'offline', etc)? Thanks in advance. 70.16.141.217 02:22, 8 September 2006 (UTC)


 * 1. no

2. not usually, but if someone has an away message up, and you message them, they by default will ahve a "blah has sent you a message. display it?" dialogue, and not send their away message back to you. so you would know you are not on someones buddly list if you message them and dont get their away message. but if you disable that dialogue (its not even there in trillian i dont think) theres no way. short answer: no 3. yes Modesty84 02:56, 8 September 2006 (UTC)


 * 1. No 2. No 3. Depends on your settings. You have the option of either allowing those not on your buddy list to see your away messages and profile, or only allowing those on your buddy list to see such things. Do you know how to change the settings on AIM? &mdash;  Ed Gl  18:22, 9 September 2006 (UTC)

Ook
I hope this is the right forum for this question; if it's not, I'm sorry, and would appreciate a pointer to the right place!

At the end of March this year there was a Vote for Deletion for the article on the Ook programming language. I voted to keep, and the decision, I thought, was "no consensus to delete, so keep". Stupidly, I thought that was the end of it, so I didn't keep watching the page. Now I need the article and it's gone. Has there been another VfD while I wasn't paying attention? Any information on what's going on would be much appreciated. Thank you. WMMartin 06:19, 8 September 2006 (UTC)


 * Looking at the deletion log there was this AfD. Ook! was one of the four or five of those languages I'd had heard of... Weregerbil 07:57, 8 September 2006 (UTC)

Yes there were a large number of AFDs on esoteric programming languages recently, one of which was on Ook! Personally I don't think it should have been deleted, and will probably take it to Deletion review. Meanwhile I posted the content of the article at User:The wub/Ook! for you to look at if you need it. the wub "?!"  11:38, 8 September 2006 (UTC)


 * Thanks to all for their kind help. WMMartin 15:43, 15 September 2006 (UTC)

VNCviewer
Hi, I use real VNC to monitor computers on my local network. Its only problem is it makes it obvious to the person that am monitoring that i am monitoring them......is there any way i can make it annonymus...... example.. get rid of it from the all programs section and in the taskbar... and make it run a server whenever they log on etc...

If not does anyone know of a better software i can use that doesent require me to install anything on the computer i am monitoring???????

Thankyou


 * It would probably be possible, if not in the program than with an external app, to hide the software. To remove it from all programs, just delete it. There's probably an option in the program to disable to tray icon. To frustrate tech-savvy users, run it as a service with firedaemon so it doesn't show up in processes (you can set services to start on startup). And no it's not possible to monitor an external computer without installing something on it ... you can monitor its network traffic (which can tell you a lot about whats running) if you control the network server but as for direct client "spying" you'll have to find an unpatched hole somewhere in windows.. it's been done --Froth 22:42, 8 September 2006 (UTC)

origional poster: what program can i use to monitor network traffic??


 * Ethereal is a freeware application useable on all major operating systems. It may suit your needs. However, keep in mind that you need a network card that can operate in promiscuous mode otherwise you will not be able to monitor any traffic except what is directly sent to or from the monitoring machine (rather than between other computers or another computer and the internet). -- LastExyle

Downloading Music
Ok - bottom line...is it legal to download mp3s from sites such as Ares or Kaza? Am I breaking any laws? If so which ones? Is it legal (or different) in Canada vs the U.S.? I had heard that the U.S. had such laws on record and that Canada did not. I am being transferred to Colorado for 2-3 years and would like to understand the ramifications (if any) of such a practice.


 * seriously dude..... even if it is illigal WHO CARES


 * Why worry? If you like a band, don't buy the CD.  Just steal the music.  That's what keeps them in the studio writing more music. --Kainaw (talk) 14:43, 8 September 2006 (UTC)


 * Yes it's technically illegal. No you won't ever get caught- especially if you're not uploading like 500GB a day or something --Froth 22:48, 8 September 2006 (UTC)


 * Most songs on Ares or Kazza (although I highly recommend using neither, because of malware), are there illegally. Copyright laws are in place so as to encourage artists to create. Immoral? Possibly. — [ Mac Davis ] (talk) ( Desk | Help me improve )


 * It's illegal, but "everyone does it." --Proficient 04:26, 11 September 2006 (UTC)


 * Mac davis, what do you reccomend using then?... limewire... torrents?


 * If the copyright holder does not give explicit permission for the song to be downloaded for free, then it is technically illegal. Bottom line. --Jrothwell 19:14, 14 September 2006 (UTC)

a product like wikipedia
Does anyone know if there are software products like wikipedia that you can put information on line and then search for key topics? Thank you. egd
 * Are you talking about software encyclopedias like Microsoft Encarta or are you talking about knowledge bases? Or maybe you're talking about wikis?  ColourBurst 20:09, 8 September 2006 (UTC)


 * Click on the "Powered by WikiMedia" icon at the bottom of the page. WikiMedia is free.  You can make your own Wiki.  Personally, I wrote my own webpad to store information online. --Kainaw (talk) 20:23, 8 September 2006 (UTC)

Reducing PCI-E video card shared mem usage to nothing
I have an Asus M2N-SLI Deluxe motherboard with a PCI-E Sapphire ATI Radeon X300SE with 64MB onboard VRAM. On the video card's box it says "256MB HyperMemory", which means it grabs it from system memory. This is a server machine, so I'd like to have that memory back. I run Ubuntu Dapper (Server) 6.06 and the reported memory in Linux is about 256MB less than it should be (I have 4G of RAM). Even the BIOS reports two numbers for RAM, 4G installed, and 3.8G (or so) "available". Is there any way I can reclaim this memory through jumpers/BIOS settings/software (without taking out the video card, just in case), since this is going to be a mostly headless machine? --Silvaran 21:28, 8 September 2006 (UTC)
 * You're probably going to have to go through your card drivers - I think windows integrates this seamlessly for some vendors, but ubuntu won't. I've never had an shared memory graphics card. It could be messy - just unplug the card and leave it in the box "just in case". I think you can also configure it through the BIOS, especially if it's an on-mobo card (which yours isn't but you never know). Could save you a few cents in power too --Froth 22:51, 8 September 2006 (UTC)
 * OK I'll give it a shot. I'm not a hardware guy.  Software I can do. :)  I'll take the video card out and boot.  Thanks for the tip. --Silvaran 23:47, 8 September 2006 (UTC)

This is rather strange. I took the video card out completely, but the amount of RAM hasn't changed: MemTotal:     3866852 kB Any ideas? --Silvaran 17:16, 11 September 2006 (UTC)
 * AW: A BIOS update did the trick (0202 to 0307). All 4 gigs are now available.  Of course, it broke the APIC under Linux (noapic) and generally caused other frustrations, but everything's running fine now.  Had nothing to do with the video card. --Silvaran 21:56, 11 September 2006 (UTC)

Compressing a filesystem?
I've heard bad things about compressed filesystems back in the days of DOS and Windows 3.1 (DriveSpace and that sort of thing), but are they really that bad nowadays? I would like to compress my file system (or portions of it) to give myself more space. --Zemylat 21:45, 8 September 2006 (UTC)


 * Disk space is so cheap these days that compressing seems like a questionable choice to me, since additional CPU time is incurred during both compression and decompression. StuRat 21:48, 8 September 2006 (UTC)


 * Don't use some $20 shareware solution.. if you do go for compression (and you're on windows) just play it safe and use ntfs compression (right click a folder > properties > advanced > Compress contents to save disk space) --Froth 22:55, 8 September 2006 (UTC)


 * StuRat is right, compression is outdated nowadays with the advent of cheap hard drive storage. The danger is an increased risk of loss of data in cases of corruption.  ColourBurst 00:49, 9 September 2006 (UTC)


 * There are places in the world where a new HD represents a week's honest work, so there is still plenty place for "old" machines and small HDs. Zemyla, the old rules for "safe" compression are as follows: 1. Don't compress the boot drive. 2. Compress data, not programs. 3. Backup. 4. Check / maintain HD function regularly. 5. Expect a mild reduction in data read and write, i.e. it won't affect internet or while you are working in Open Office. If you have only the one HD, then using file compression as opposed to disk compression is the way to go. The "badness" of compression was, afaik, never confirmed by reliable statistics, so we may be talking urban legendary "everyone knows" here. There are file compression utilities that are transparent, or integrate with your OS shell, and these may the most convenient to use. Think of it this way: if file compression is that bad, why is the internet in the time of broadband still so ZIPpy? I cannot give 1st hand advice on easy programs, but friends have reported good results with 7-zip and Quickzip - there are probably other usable freeware programs that you can find. --Seejyb 14:14, 9 September 2006 (UTC)


 * The reason for the badness of disk compression is the cascade effect it has on errors. A single bit flip in a uncompressed file will affect only that single bit; a single bit flip in a compressed file can make the rest of the file (or sometimes the whole file) unreadable (or, in case of disk compression, several files, depending on how it is implemented. And recall that DOS had no memory protection; a bug on any program you were running could corrupt the in-memory structures of the disk compression code, leading to loss of the whole compressed volume. --cesarb 15:04, 9 September 2006 (UTC)

Chemical, Molecular, and DNA Computers
Are chemical computers and molecular computers the same thing? If not, then what's the difference between them? Are all molecular computers DNA computers? If not, then apart from DNA computers, what other types of molecular computers are there (or will there be)?

(I've read the articles on them but I still don't understand.)