Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Computing/2007 April 20

= April 20 =

PID
Hi. So for whoever can help me answer this question would be great. I noticed this process of PID on my virus protection summary, after the scan. I was just wondering if the PID can leave me vulnerable for third-party hackers. I looked up the meaning of a PID here, but I do not understand if it is just a process that my software runs or if it is from a hacker. I am just very nervous that someone will crack into my computer and I have much information on my computer. Any help would be sooo greatly appreciated. Thanks Bunches, Confused in MD. 6798.


 * I formatted your inquiry first, second off can you tell us what Antivirus you are using. This can help us know if its part of the process or if it's something that shouldn't be there.   200.12.231.42 01:03, 20 April 2007 (UTC)    Ag for MemTech


 * I'm guessing that you're seeing the Process IDentifier. It's just a unique ID assigned to processes; each process has its own PID. Nothing to worry about.    -Nwhitehair 01:31, 20 April 2007 (UTC)


 * Don't guess...assess He might have to worry about something because certain Virus scanners point to this as possible processes that are questionable. For example a dormat virus that loads as a Process everyday until it's triggered. The virus program is letting you know it's not a normal part of windows, it could be anything from its own process to a google toolbar to an actual virus. So again i ask if you could please state which antivirus program you are using and what the process is called or if you can put up a log of the PID's that the antivirus shows as questionable.   200.35.168.129 18:52, 20 April 2007 (UTC)   Ag for MemTech


 * If there is a virus, there shouldn't be any question; the AV program would give a clear notification. I'm almost certain that he was indeed seeing the process ID (most likely a list of processes and their respective IDs). I only said "guess" as a figure of speech.    -Nwhitehair 01:45, 22 April 2007 (UTC)

Grand Theft Auto Vice City
what would be the keys to show the bar or text box that allows you to enter cheats for the PC version of the game.--logger 05:40, 20 April 2007 (UTC)


 * You just type them in game, no text box or bar required. --antilivedT 06:18, 20 April 2007 (UTC)

Oh thats how its done. to tell the truth i have not played that game in months and i totally forget how to get the cheats.--logger 06:22, 20 April 2007 (UTC)

Transfering all blog entries & best blog hosting for design
Is it possible to easily take all your blog entries and transfer them to a different blog hosting service (from Live Spaces to Wordpress.com for example)?

Also, what is the best blog hosting service, especially in terms of aestethics, of well designed and customizable blog looks?

Thanks a lot! --Liberlogos 06:30, 20 April 2007 (UTC)

parttime_job
I have completed M.Sc(I.T). I want to earn from home itself.can u enlist such jobs? Are jobs on net trustworthy? doguideme.


 * online jobs are great for the most part, just make sure the person that hires you either is backed up by a solid company or you do a 50 now and 50 later kind of thing. This way you will not come out loosing as bad. I have not had a bad customer yet, and i'm in web design. but most of the people i've worked with are just people working for other companies trying to get cheap labor or something along those lines.  200.12.231.42 16:39, 20 April 2007 (UTC)   Ag for MemTech

Resize Jpeg
I am trying to write a web app that allows the user to upload a pic directly from her camera and then resizes it to a thumbnail. The app works fine with test images, but not with the huge 5+ megapixel images that cameras produce. The server simply runs out of memory trying to open the original image so it can be turned into a thumbnail. I've tried PHP and Perl (using GD). Both run out of memory. I tried to install ImageMagick, but it simply won't install on my FreeBSD server. What other options are there besides GD and ImageMagick? --Kainaw (talk) 17:00, 20 April 2007 (UTC)
 * For php, check the maximum upload size (in php.ini) as that could be the problem. --h2g2bob 18:23, 20 April 2007 (UTC)


 * How are you reading in the upload? You must be sure that you configure CGI.pm or whatever to spool it to disk, and not read it into memory.  --TotoBaggins 19:13, 20 April 2007 (UTC)


 * I finally got ImageMagick to install and I'm using convert. I knew it would meet my needs (if it would install).  The problem with GD is that I didn't want to allow a web process to allocate over 5 megs of memory.  The server normally has around 100 concurrent hits, so that is around 500 megs of memory just for handling server side scripts.  Add sessions to that and the web server really eats up memory.  I experimented with GD's createImageFromJpeg function.  It was a basic image from a 5.1 megapixel camera.  5 megs wasn't enough to open it.  10 megs wasn't enough to open it. 20 megs wasn't enough to open it.  50 megs would open some of the pictures but not others.  I don't know what GD is doing, but it sure is a memory hog.  However, as I mentioned, ImageMagick is installed and it resizes the pictures without trouble.  I even got it to crop 100x100 thumbnails out of the middle of the pictures nicely. --Kainaw (talk) 00:36, 21 April 2007 (UTC)

Computer Programming
--70.53.127.93 20:21, 20 April 2007 (UTC)Hello  is it hard to program a new computer system.


 * New to you, or new to the world? If you mean new to you, then no, just grab an easy-to-use language environment and go.  If you mean a whole new kind of CPU, then yes, you'll have to do a lot of hairy assembler programming to bring it up, which is not for beginners.  --TotoBaggins 20:31, 20 April 2007 (UTC)


 * What exactly are you tring to program? There are so many things you could make, from the classical Hello World in C++ to Games, to web based apps, etc. The list is very big, and also please specify which Programming language you are going to be working in. Before i start i usually make a list of certain things. 1) What is the Target Operating System 2) What language would it run best in 3) Is this for personal use or do I have to make it user friendly for other users. 4) Is there already an existing program that is similar? If so is there an Open Source available to take a look at for reference, or should I just modify and rebuild the existing program...all of these questions will help out when starting a new program. If you let us know which language you are going to work in I can suggest some books for you to read or online sites with tutorials,walkthroughs,etc. Or if you do not know much about programming languages, you can let us know what kind of program you want to make in order for us to suggest a programming language.    200.35.168.129 20:37, 20 April 2007 (UTC)    Ag for MemTech


 * Programs are made by feeding source code into a compiler to produce an executable. There are many, many tutorials on programming. I suggest messing about with JavaScript for a bit (which does not even need a compiler), then trying some C, which is faster and allows you to use libraries.
 * On modern computer systems, a lot of the work has been done already, and you just ask different libraries to do it all for you! For example, if you want to display an alert box, you could ask the Windows API to display an alert box for you (or the GTK or wxWidgets libraries for Linux and friends). To access a compressed file you could ask the Zlib library to uncompress it for you.
 * As always, I will recommend the Allegro library which has loads of examples to mess with, and allows you to make fun little games. --h2g2bob 15:01, 21 April 2007 (UTC)


 * Source code to byte code isn't the only path... There are all kinds of interpretation and dynamic (re-)compilation methods as well.  I realize you probably know this, but I'm just mentioning this for posterity as it's not clear exactly what the OP is after and this could turn into such a broad discussion that nobody's response is going to cover everything. -- mattb 04:10, 22 April 2007 (UTC)

Windows Genuine Advantage
So I discover the Windows XP article is wrong.... (see screenshots added)

Anyone know how to get Windows Update to work without downloading "Windows Genuine Advantage"? SakotGrimshine 21:56, 20 April 2007 (UTC)


 * I'm not trying to get fubar'd here but there is a WGA Killer, also you can download the updates from their website. Just copy the update # you need...for example Q123456 and then in the search box type in KB123456 or vice versa, switch those around and you should get something. There is a way to remove the WGA notification and leave the actual WGA working if that's what you don't like about it. Just google for that though. Hope this helps.  200.12.231.42 22:27, 20 April 2007 (UTC)   Ag for MemTech


 * Use with Firefox Cyraan 22:58, 20 April 2007 (UTC)


 * My Windows Update works fine without Windows Genuine Advantage, and it's a legal version and I didn't do anything special. I just tell my machine to not download it every time I update. After a threat of a class action suit, I believe they made it where it's no longer required to be installed for future updates, which was the way it was done when it came out. --Wirbelwind ヴィルヴェルヴィント (talk) 23:20, 21 April 2007 (UTC)


 * There's no way to use Windows Update without it. Update says I need the Genuine Disadvantage to run and gives me nothing else I can ever download.

See:

and
 * http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Windows_Genuine_Advantage_is_a_forced_download.png


 * http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:No_Option_to_Disable_it.png

SakotGrimshine 07:42, 22 April 2007 (UTC)

switched power supply
What is the reason for the +5 volt circuit of a PC switched power supply requiring a 50 watt load before it will operate? (If you really don't know please don't speculate.) 71.100.8.252 22:23, 20 April 2007 (UTC)


 * There are several possibilities. The principal likelihood is that the pulse width modulator that switches the 300V DC down to 5V has a minimum pulse width at which it can stably operate, and that minimum pulse period works out to transfer 50 watts (10 amps@+5V) to the load. Another likelihood is that only the main output (+5 in your case, but more and more often, +3.3 or an even lower voltage) is directly regulated and the other voltages "track" (or are just step-down regulators from the various "tracking" voltages). In this case, when the main output is running at a very light load, the other outputs may not receive enough power to achieve regulation.


 * I know you don't want speculation, but without knowing the specific design of your PSU, no one can tell you with absolute certainty. Got an electronic load and an oscilloscope handy? You could find out for yourself.


 * Atlant 00:06, 21 April 2007 (UTC)

OpenSSH VPN in Windows?
OpenSSH 4.3 and later support the making of a real VPN through SSH in Linux using the tun(4) interface, without any additional software. Is there any way to do this using free tools on Windows? Does tun(4) work under Cygwin? And if so, would the VPN work for other Windows apps? --131.215.159.11 23:51, 20 April 2007 (UTC)