Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Computing/2007 August 27

= August 27 =

Top websites
Where can I find a frequently-updated list of the top 100 most-vistited websites? I've found lists of best-rated websites, but no list that merely counts site hits and is up to date. Thank you for your help.RavenLuna 03:09, 27 August 2007 (UTC)


 * Alexa? --Wirbelwind ヴィルヴェルヴィント (talk) 04:42, 27 August 2007 (UTC)

Is this a good computer?
I'm looking for a mid-level laptop that I would like to be able to do graphic editing (Photoshop CS3), web design and some mild gaming. The following laptop caught my attention: I have a few questions:
 * 1. Is this a good laptop for the price? (NB: it's in Canadian dollars)
 * 2. Will I be able to run Photoshop CS3 smoothly? (I do a lot of 8.5 X 11 300 DPI print work)
 * 3. How is the Acer brand?
 * 4. Is there a large difference between a Intel Core duo and Intel Core 2 duo?

Thanks a lot =) Acceptable 03:21, 27 August 2007 (UTC)
 * 4 is really the deal-breaker here. When buying a laptop, you need to get the best you can possibly get because it's nearly impossible to upgrade anything but RAM. The Core Duo is an outdated processor and will bog you down in PS work. Settle for nothing less than a Core 2 Duo. Mild gaming will not work on an integrated graphics card and I imagine that will also slow you down in Photoshop as well. In short - no, you need a C2D and possibly a low-end video card. -Wooty [Woot?] [Spam! Spam! Wonderful spam!] 06:15, 27 August 2007 (UTC)


 * Core Duo may be "outdated" but it's still a beast... Core 2 is only a year old, it's not the lowest common denominator yet. --⁪frotht 18:53, 28 August 2007 (UTC)

What about an AMD equivalent? How do the Turion chips compare to the Core duo's and the Core 2 duos? They usually seem a lot cheaper. Acceptable 15:26, 27 August 2007 (UTC)

Personally I'll be much more worried about the RAM here then the CD. The CD is somewhat outdated but it isn't that bad. Nil Einne 23:23, 27 August 2007 (UTC)
 * Actually I just remember the CD AFAIK isn't x64 so with any more then 2gb it's going to have problems with Windows XP (you can increase the limit to 3gb but that adds other potential problems). Since you really should have 4gb with your demands I would recommend against anything other then a x64 computer and a x64 OS. Nil Einne 23:26, 27 August 2007 (UTC)


 * If this concerns you, Acer acquired Gateway, Inc. I overheard a stranger say that he detests Acer because of startup problems. Perhaps, if you do not mind using a Gateway PC, an Acer may be okay. However, I had many problems with refurbished Gateways. --Mayfare 21:51, 3 September 2007 (UTC)

Erdős number in computing?
Is there anything like this in the computing industry? And if not, who are some likely candidates for it to start with? -- lucid 06:56, 27 August 2007 (UTC)


 * Maybe a Knuth number? At least one guy has calculated his own. As for the equivalent in terms of collaboration on, say, open-source software projects, rather than academic papers, there might be more interesting results. iames 14:23, 27 August 2007 (UTC)

Keymap
I am using Cygwin and just realised that the Swedish characters on my keyboard aren't with me any longer (I think they have been before). I what way should I rub it to get it working? —Bromskloss 07:55, 27 August 2007 (UTC)
 * Can you run  in cygwin to check your locale settings? Also, do you have the same problem in cmd.exe? --h2g2bob (talk) 13:29, 27 August 2007 (UTC)


 * The  command doesn't seem to exist. Everything is fine in  . —Bromskloss 14:36, 27 August 2007 (UTC)

Vista "Audio Mixer" for xp?
Is there an app that will give me the same amount of control over the volume of my applications as vista does? —Drexalot

Try Power Mixer Lurker (said · done) 13:37, 28 August 2007 (UTC)

Thanks —Drexalot

Free flash video player?
Anyone know of a good Free Software flash video player? I used to use flowplayer but the author has started including syndicated ads in it. I am talking about a flash movie that is embeddable in a web page, not a standalone desktop player. Thanks. -- Diletante 15:02, 27 August 2007 (UTC)


 * Look at Flash Video. VLC and MPlayer are among the free software ones. --Spoon! 12:27, 28 August 2007 (UTC)


 * Thanks, I already use mplayer, but I need something I can embed in a webpage, not a desktop app. -- Diletante 15:29, 28 August 2007 (UTC)


 * You know that Flash is a proprietary format, why do you need a free software player?  Are you looking for a browser plug-in? Why not use the Adobe Flash plug-in? --24.249.108.133 16:38, 28 August 2007 (UTC)


 * Okay I understand. You need a Flash applet that plays Flash Videos.


 * First, let me mention that, since FlowPlayer is open-source, if there is something you don't like in there, you can just change the source. I doubt that an open-source player would put ads in it. Perhaps you can inquire about this in the forums.


 * Searching on the internet returns a ton of other possible players. Here are some of them:  --131.215.159.4 20:24, 28 August 2007 (UTC)


 * Technically flash applets are called flash movies. Yeah I thought the same thing. The author introduced ads in the program with almost no warning, I was working on a webpage for a client and then these ads popped up after the video which makes ME look bad. I went digging thorugh flowplayers website and found that indeed it does run ads and the author is asking for $50 to get a version with no ads. I know I could just modify the source, but then I'd have to install multiple tools learn the flash compile chain and all that. It would also be hard to keep it up to date if i had to continually modify it. Bottom line is that I no longer trust the developer. Hopefully someone will fork flowplayer. AFAIK it is the only flash video player that supports lighttpd-style streaming.
 * That first link looks good, I see its realeased under Creative Commons, but I can't discern the license for the player on the second link. Thanks! -- Diletante 15:26, 29 August 2007 (UTC)

Emulating a computer that's useless.
I've been fooling around with the registry crashonctrlscrll for a while now, although I was wanting to do a bit more with my PC. Basically, render it "useless" (but not actually, just emulated). Is there a way to make insane error messages show up at mind boggling intervals (every minute maybe?), programs except the antivirus (and tasks that windows requires to run) to continuously quit out unexpectedly, with or without error messages, Windows display that window that it has to shut down messages, CD and DVD drives malfunction (like discs won't spin every other time they're inserted, drive bays won't open/close), and of course, Bsods. Please, no .bat files.

As unusual as this sounds, I'm trying to help my dad out with a computer seminar he's making. He works at the local community college and is giving a class on this kind of stuff. Thanks. --TV - VCR  watch  17:14, 27 August 2007 (UTC)
 * Hmmm, if you are using a Windows XP-based system, I would suggest to disconnect/take away a ram module; say, you have 1 GB of memory, just cut it at 128 MB. It's the only way that I am aware of an that will not damage anything for sure. With Windows Vista, I don't know what can be done, I'm no longer a Windows user, I use Linux, forever Linux.Doktor Who 17:27, 27 August 2007 (UTC)
 * This is my old personal computer, I don't have any others to fool with (My mother's computer? Yeah right...). I meant by just adding things to the registry, or error creators, and that stuff. Just anything but getting into the computer's guts. --TV - VCR  watch  17:43, 27 August 2007 (UTC)


 * Well, not that I necessarily think the above will work, but it is super easy to deal with RAM, it is not a difficult hardware operation. Usually you can just open up the case and see it sitting there, and it snaps right out. In this case you'd probably need to buy a replacement RAM chip, and make sure it is the right kind, because your existing RAM is probably in very large amounts per chip. Anyway, all I am saying is that RAM is really, really easy to deal with, and as far as playing around with the registry goes, playing around with the RAM is far less likely to create a serious problem for the computer. --24.147.86.187 18:36, 27 August 2007 (UTC)


 * Whatever you do, if you are planning to play with the registry, I recommend installing a virtual machine and using that, instead of your actual registry. Too many "experiments" and your OS will need to be reinstalled. Something like Parallels Workstation or VMWare or whatever would allow you to install a "sandboxed" OS that you could do whatever you wanted to and instantly roll it back to some sort of "safe", working state, without any danger whatsoever of damaing your primary OS. --24.147.86.187 18:36, 27 August 2007 (UTC)
 * what OS are you using? What is your system's configuration?Doktor Who 18:50, 27 August 2007 (UTC)
 * I am using Windows XP Home edition. Well, to be honest, I have a brand new Vista PC, but I'm not in the mood to screw it up. This is my old computer. I don't mind if it gets destroyed from incorrect use of regedit or anything. --TV - VCR  watch  19:44, 27 August 2007 (UTC)


 * Just do a fresh install of windows, disable security updates, then start surfing questionable sites and opening spam email attachments, your computer will be bogged down with malware in no time. -- Diletante 20:17, 27 August 2007 (UTC)


 * Overclock your RAM too heavily and you'll get lots of errors within seconds until your comp crashes. Beware you're also liable to lose data on your hard disks or at least have partition table corruptions and in Vista maybe even with ones that the stupid OS shouldn't really be accessing (maybe it's the indexing I don't know). Yes I know this from personal experience when I accidently forgot to underclock my RAM while overclocking my CPU Nil Einne 23:21, 27 August 2007 (UTC)

You're not getting the point. In a nutshell, I just want something i.e. a registry edit that generates errors, Bsods, etc. on it's own. I am not messing with this computer's internal parts, because it is sell-able. Who would want to buy a fried computer anyway? --TV - VCR  watch  00:38, 28 August 2007 (UTC)


 * Just go into the registry then and delete random stuff from it, if you want. You'll get unpredictable results and odds are it won't restart. Why not just delete some random system files while you are at it. --24.147.86.187 03:45, 28 August 2007 (UTC)
 * You didn't tell your system's specifications, anw, I agree with the last advice; also, disabling virtual memory (provided that you have not more than 512 mb) should give out some error messages, depending on the application that you are running.Doktor Who 09:49, 28 August 2007 (UTC)


 * If you want to make a computer useless and full of error messages, you're already running Windows! *rimshot*
 * On a serious note, just close the three or four security programs you have running in the background and go to a few "wipikedia.org"s and maybe click a few of those "YOU NEED ANTIVIRUS NOWZ!!!" ads and such until you have enough spyware to get crap like this wonderful screenshot, and then if you can try to teach people to remove all of it (good luck). Unless you're much more specific, we can't really do anything to help though, just saying that you want to show error messages is far too generic. This could be anything from rigging a shell script or a webpage to just create a bunch of error boxes, to intentionally screwing up your system files. -- lucid 10:04, 28 August 2007 (UTC)


 * If you have a programme that random changes the memory at a random location then it will freeze eventually... --antilivedT 10:07, 28 August 2007 (UTC)


 * Ooh, that's a good one! Will windows even let a userspace program do that though? If it's a low-power CPU I'd suggest totally taking off the heatsink. It should be able to survive for awhile if you don't do much but as soon as the students start doing things, it will crash without the slighest hesitation.. confusing them into thinking that whatever they were doing was causing the problem :) --⁪frotht 18:56, 28 August 2007 (UTC)


 * That technique worked in the 9x era when there's hardly any memory protection, but in NT it should at least throw a BSOD of memory violation or something? --antilivedT 08:26, 29 August 2007 (UTC)

OpenGL command
Does anyone no what the command for waiting until the screen refreshes in OpenGL (or GLUT)? I'm using gcc on FreeBSD if either of those matter (or if they don't, for that matter). — Daniel 22:43, 27 August 2007 (UTC)


 * The screen refresh is actually outside of the scope of OpenGL, so yes, it matters. On FreeBSD you are probably using GLX. Any call to glXSwapBuffers should automatically block until the screen refreshes. If it does not, look for some configuration options to set when you create the gl context. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 84.187.22.254 (talk) 00:50, August 28, 2007 (UTC)