Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Computing/2007 July 14

= July 14 =

Trojan.Vundo
Hello, everyone. I'm not sure if this is a good place to ask, but I don't have time to read through the new posts at the fora I frequent. I am LuigiManiac, and I have been infected with Trojan.Vundo. I use Firefox. I have since uninstalled Java. I have disabled Vundo from running in msconfig. For protection, I have SpyHunter (detected it), Ad-Aware SE Personal Edition, and the Symantec FixVundo Tool (won't detect it). When I disabled Trojan.Vundo in msconfig, SpyHunter stopped finding it. I have not seen a single popup. Does this mean I am A)Cured? B)Protected by Firefox [and AdBlock Plus]? C)About to murdered by a trojan in dormancy? Once again, I'm sorry for asking this here. I just have very little time right now to be on the internet. --74.105.94.99 00:29, 14 July 2007 (UTC)


 * Are you sure you were ever infected? Commercial antispyware tools tend to be fairly sleazy themselves; some of them generate false positives to entice people to upgrade to the registered version and/or to create the impression that they're paying for themselves. According to Symantec, Trojan.Vundo exploits an old flaw in Internet Explorer, so Firefox is immune, as is Internet Explorer if you've updated it in the last couple of years. -- BenRG 03:13, 14 July 2007 (UTC)


 * The only way to be completely clear of a virus is to boot from unwritable media (CD, DVD) and reinstall. I'd recommend you install to a fresh hard drive and then copy any data files you need from the old one, *making very sure* to run no programs from the original hard drive. Antivirus programs are all well and good, but you can never be sure they undid all the damage.  Sneaky virus-writers spin off decoy viruses to give you the illusion that the viruses have been cleaned off but subtle ones can remain.  --Treekids 18:47, 20 July 2007 (UTC)


 * There is really not much choice in terms of Windows live boot disks, but I reccomend BartPE. Just build it from a a different (hopefully malware-free) PC. --WhiteDragon 20:15, 20 July 2007 (UTC)

Wireless Network Connection Problems...
Hi, I am using the wireless for internet connection. Now I am using the wired network connection. I am able to see the available computers in the network but when i attempt to connect them it fails. So, please tell me how to get the default setting restored for the network connections? Hope to get the help soon. --Nirajrm Δ | [sign plz] 03:01, 14 July 2007 (UTC)


 * Can you explain that in more detail? IE. What steps exactly are you following and what the problem then is? 68.39.174.238 15:28, 14 July 2007 (UTC)


 * Nirajrm- sounds like a Microsoft issue. Please describe your operating system and procedures in more detail as 68.39.174.238 suggests. --Treekids 18:50, 20 July 2007 (UTC)
 * 68.39.174.238- I assume you mean i.e. (from the latin, meaning "in other words") rather than IE ("Internet Explorer") --Treekids 18:50, 20 July 2007 (UTC)

Freeware OS
Any idea if any opensource OS can take advantage of todays processors like dual core, 64bit, 4mb cache etc etc?59.92.245.18


 * Of course. In fact, last I checked, Linux supported AMD64 long before anyone else. Linux has been made to run on just about anything. See Linux -- L augh! 04:20, 14 July 2007 (UTC)


 * Yup you name it, your Mac, Mobile, Boat, Microwave! Anything! --Chr i s  g 10:04, 14 July 2007 (UTC)


 * Xbox, iPod, if it has a microchip, it runs linux. I've got xubuntu on my iMac for Pete's sake. -- L augh! 10:13, 14 July 2007 (UTC)


 * As mentioned before, Linux runs great on these chips, in fact, we use Linux exclusively for running High Performance Computing Supercomputers with the latest and greatest Intel and AMD chips. The new TACC supercomputer is going to be running the latest AMD multicore chips before they're available to the public, and they're all Linux (and maybe some OpenSolaris too, not sure). --  JSBillings  20:24, 14 July 2007 (UTC)


 * Check out X86-64. Also, given the importance of SMP to servers, most open source OSes used in servers have had some form of SMP (and therefore dual core) support for a long time. Nil Einne 21:07, 15 July 2007 (UTC)

Oh, did no one mention Blue Gene yet? Runs linux.-- L augh! 21:17, 15 July 2007 (UTC)

Wikipedia user compare
Is there a script available to find the list of common/similar articles edited by two users? Let's say I have a user X and a user Y, and I want to compare their contributions to get a list of articles that have been edited by both of them. Regards, deeptrivia (talk) 05:10, 14 July 2007 (UTC)


 * I am not sure if there is an API that allows user contribs to be represented as .net collections, but I suppose AWB has the necessary parsers. If so, then supposing the contribs are represented as:

then using C# 3.0 the common entries can be found using

--soum talk 08:01, 14 July 2007 (UTC)


 * Its quite simple in AWB. Just run List Comparer, load both lists, compare, and you get a report on differences and similarities between both lists. Considering you have quite a lot of edits it shouldnt be a problem for you to get the approval for it. &mdash; Shinhan  &lt;&thinsp; talk &thinsp;&gt; 22:20, 14 July 2007 (UTC)

emergency calls
how can a mobile phone make an emergency call when there is no sim card in it. what kind of frequency does it uses ?


 * The same as the phone would otherwise do. The SIM just gives the cell network an identifier it uses to tie a phone to an account, which is used for billing purposes and to direct incoming calls. As neither of these is necessary for an emergency call, a SIM isn't either. -- Finlay McWalter | Talk 09:25, 14 July 2007 (UTC)


 * Mention here that a phone can use any available station regardless of who is providing it. racergr 23:07, 14 July 2007 (UTC)

Content advisor
Is there a way to get around the content advisor on Internet Explorer. I was fiddling around with it on my computer a long, long time ago and I no longer have the password, and now I cannot get onto sites like msn.com or youtube, which has become a real nuisance. Any help? And No I am not some 14-year old kid trying to get to websites that the parents have blocked, haha. CroCan   "Short answer 'yes' with an 'if'...long answer 'no' with a 'but'"   18:21, 14 July 2007 (UTC)
 * Reinstall IE? Use a different browser? There's probably some registry hack but it's probably more difficult than those. -Wooty [Woot?] [Spam! Spam! Wonderful spam!] 18:46, 14 July 2007 (UTC)


 * Reinstalling IE is probably pretty hard (it don't generally uninstall very easily), though switching browsers is not. In any case, if you google "Content Advisor disable" you'll see lots of ways to do it via the registry, which isn't all that hard (just do what the instructions say — don't improvise!!). --24.147.86.187 21:46, 14 July 2007 (UTC)

Keyring?
A person recently asked me to send them a photo of my keyring. It was posted on my blog.

Here's the message:

Your blog is excellent! Please, send me the photo of your keyring or a picture and the link of your blog, I'll publish in my blog! Thank you

What does this mean?

Thanks,

Kevinwong913 Speak out loud! 18:46, 14 July 2007 (UTC)


 * Did it also come with a link to their blog? If so then it is probably spam pretending to be a post, with the hope that being linked to from your blog will increase their Google PageRank. --24.147.86.187 21:44, 14 July 2007 (UTC)

Just a bit of advice, don't take photos of your keys, and especially don't distribute them. Turning a key blank into a working copy is fairly trivial for anyone with a bit of knowledge on the subject and an IQ above room temperature. -- L augh! 22:43, 14 July 2007 (UTC)

Weird graphics problem in FF
Yesterday I started noticing my icons in Firefox 2 are looking kinda strange. No idea what could be the problem as I didnt install any extension in last couple days. Here is the example from WP:RFCU -> example. Restarting Windows didnt help. &mdash; Shinhan  &lt;&thinsp; talk &thinsp;&gt; 22:15, 14 July 2007 (UTC)


 * Tried clearing cache? It seems like it's resizing pictures from its native size and producing artefacts. If you can go on the site normally before (ie. it's not caused by sloppy web designer) then try clearing the cache and if it still doesn't work try creating a new profile. Also, do you have extensions like Imagezoom and accidentally changed the size of the images? --antilivedT 04:44, 16 July 2007 (UTC)


 * Cant be cache, I havent been on Flickr in months and it was still happening. Why didnt I think of Imagezoom earlier :( I didnt even know there is a page zoom option, I was using imagezoom only on selected pictures. Now that I checked Imagezoom help I found out I changed default zoom to 120% ~_~
 * Thanks for the help :) &mdash; Shinhan  &lt;&thinsp; talk &thinsp;&gt; 05:20, 16 July 2007 (UTC)

windows 98 and Linux-again-
two things: 1) what happened to the archives for the reference desk?

2) does anyone out there know of any good reliable windows 98 upgrades (not official from Microsoft), specifically ones that would let me use some windows XP programs such as Itunes? help would be greatly appreciated.

3) same question, for linux. using either the debian or ubuntu releases.

Xiad e  n  23:39, 14 July 2007 (UTC)


 * Amarok is very good, if not better than iTunes so you could use that instead of running it through wine. Can you list the programmes that you want to use under Linux and see if there are native alternatives or how good it runs through wine? --antilivedT 23:54, 14 July 2007 (UTC)


 * REd alert 2, halo CE, Firefox, installing a cable modem(on the 98 computer) and torrent software thnks for the help. Xiad  e  n  00:14, 15 July 2007 (UTC)
 * RA2 should run fine. Firefox should run great natively. Cable modem doesn't need software. I believe utorrent runs natively. Halo might be a problem. -Wooty [Woot?] [Spam! Spam! Wonderful spam!] 02:19, 15 July 2007 (UTC)


 * As for 1, Archives are at their usual place: Reference desk/Archives. If, on the other hand, your question was why is ref desk only sporadically archived and dates are not added automatically, thats because RefDeskBot is on hiatus and its owner is MIA. But I archived all 7 refdesks yesterday. And btw, you cant use XP programs on 98, better switch to linux. &mdash; Shinhan  &lt;&thinsp; talk &thinsp;&gt; 06:08, 15 July 2007 (UTC)

Just a small note about iTunes- while linux does have plenty of great programs for managing an iPod and listening to music, we DO NOT have a way to access iTMS. That said, given you're using 98 anyway, I doubt that will be hard for you. other than that, RA2 should run fine in WINE, and there are a few free RTS programs you might like too. Firefox runs natively, and there's good chances it's preinstalled in your distro- Ubuntu has it by default, and given Ubuntu is the most popular and easiest to use, and a debian variant, that is probably what you will use. Cable modem shouldn't need any software on your PC at all, my iMac, Ubuntu, WinXP, and a number of other distros have used my router and modem without trouble- I believe that's all handled with standardized network protocols. Linux has plenty of torrent clients. uTorrent is NOT native, but a lot of people run it in WINE. I personally recommend BitTornado, a native client that I like, but there's so many different torrent clients out there, you don't need to worry about it- in short, your torrents will work. I didn't see you make a comment about Halo, so I'll assume the above person was joking, but just in case, it runs for most people, Halo2 will be a different story because MS did a lot of crap with it for Vista. Either way, you won't be playing it on 98 either. And just a question, how old is your computer? if it came with 98, it probably won't be able to handle new games anyway, although other things should be fine. I have a Mac from 99-00ish, and it's still putting along, but it would never play a modern 3D game. You can get a brand new computer that would be a large improvements for only a few hundred dollars, and have it come with Ubuntu built in, so you should have no config problems with the desktop itself -- L augh! 06:35, 15 July 2007 (UTC)


 * thank you alot for all the help. it is greatly appreciated. and on a side note, i was looking at distributions of linux yesterday, and i came across one called Ark Linux, which seemed to fit my needs better. is swiching from a mainstream style linux (like ubuntu) to something a little less on the beaten path going to have any adverse effects on my computer? like will it operate at the same level of efficiency? and thanks again for the advise on games on linux. i was kind of worried about installing them, but i guess i'll be installing all my computer games on my linux. Xiad e  n  13:47, 15 July 2007 (UTC)


 * Why do you think Ark Linux will work better? I haven't tried it, but the problems you usually run into with various distros are driver troubles. Ubuntu 7.04 simplifies the matter greatly with it's Restricted Drivers Manager, but again, I can't really help you if you don't tell me more about your computer. As far as adverse effects- no. You could erase your data installing or removing a distro, but it can't physically damage your hardware. Level of efficiency, I can't help you with- this again is very reliant on your PC, so I need you to tell me that. Most distros other than Mini Linux will probably run significantly slower than Windows 98, given that they aren't a decade old. I can't promise that all of your games will work on linux, if you want more help, you can leave a note on my talk page, and I'll look into it for you, but if you have a fairly modern PC (At least 2GHz P4, 6200LE, 512MB RAM) there are free games for linux or that will run fine in WINE that I can show you, like Nexuiz. -- L augh! 13:48, 15 July 2007 (UTC)


 * Well Ark Linux claims to be completely open source and free software so it will not provide things like audio/video codecs and Flash and binary drivers for graphics and wireless LAN and things like that. --antilivedT 04:41, 16 July 2007 (UTC)