Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Computing/2008 December 10

= December 10 =

I need to see a comparison of Mobile Phones Operating Systems
I need to see a comparison of Mobile Phones Operating Systems and I couldn't find a page about that on wikipedia. Is there something that I can do to get that information? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Ahmedhesham3 (talk • contribs) 00:31, 10 December 2008 (UTC)
 * Wow. With the new Google Android, we need that article. I'm surprised we don't already. flaminglawyerc neverforget 06:02, 10 December 2008 (UTC)
 * On what qualities would you compare them? And how would you cite those measurements?  Is BREW a phone OS?  Is Java MIDP?  Simply a list would probably be a better place to start. --Mdwyer (talk) 02:24, 16 December 2008 (UTC)

Clipboard catastrophe
I tried to paste a single character into Microsoft Works Word Processor (namely "à", bold, Times New Roman, size 24 font, if it makes a difference), and it crashed. Is this possibly connected to my computer, or does "Works" Word Processor just fail at copy and paste? I'm not really looking for a suggestion to a different program at the moment...I already have OpenOffice.org Writer, but I don't know how to use its finer features.-- The Ninth Bright Shiner 01:35, 10 December 2008 (UTC)


 * Did you try it more than once? It could have just been a fluke. Try to Paste Special unformatted and see if that helps. --98.217.8.46 (talk) 01:41, 10 December 2008 (UTC)


 * I tried it several times in some sort of manic daze, as if seeking to lower the word processor's self-esteem by showing it how much it cost me and how badly it fails. O_o Just pasting that single character crashed it, regardless of what else was already in the window. Everything goes fine when pasted as unformatted, but I'd still like to know the source of MWWP's crash.-- The Ninth Bright Shiner 02:03, 10 December 2008 (UTC)


 * Well, Microsoft Works is a sad piece of programming, one that makes the naturally buggy Microsoft Word look good by comparison. My guess is that it has to do with trying to maintain formatting and language codes or something like that. --140.247.11.35 (talk) 23:02, 10 December 2008 (UTC)


 * Sounds about right. Curses! Oh well...it's really all I have right now, until I can put enough time aside to tinker with Writer. Thank you!-- The Ninth Bright Shiner 22:55, 11 December 2008 (UTC)

jpeg file format
I've been using the thumbnail image viewer built into Windows Explorer in XP (the one to the left that reads "details". I've noticed that images that cannot be opened in Windows Picture and Fax Viewer or MS Paint (ie, that are corrupted) can be viewed using this thumbnail viewer. I've also noticed that sometimes, jpegs that I've cropped in MS Paint can be viewed in their entirety using the thumbnail viewer. What is it about how jpegs are stored that allows this image viewer to find information that is inaccessible to MS Paint and Windows Fax and Picture Viewer? Thanks, --VectorField (talk) 08:00, 10 December 2008 (UTC)
 * I think the JPEG format stores the thumbnails at a separate place in the file - ie for the corrupted files the pictures are actually corrupted, and the thumbnail picture is just the thumbnail - there's no more information there to make the picture bigger. And some cropping programs don't change the thumbnail - there's a page on the Internet somewhere containing cropped pictures that people have put on their blogs, where the thumbnails contained more than the poster had intended. 129.240.49.10 (talk) 08:30, 10 December 2008 (UTC)

Windows starts in safe-mode, won't start from system restore or in normal-mode
I have a friend with a pc and it suddenly only began to start in safe mode. It just sits at the windows screen (you know with the kit from Knight-rider like rolling grey bars). Anyhoo while in safe mode we've managed to run McAfee scan disk on current updates and it shows no problems. The computer functions fine in 'safe-mode with networking' in the sense that you can work on docs, go online etc. but obviously it's not entirely the same. Have tried various windows-restore points and each time it completes that it restarts and stays at the above mentioned windows-screen, but when you turn it off and then boot up in safe-mode it claims to be successfully restored.

Have tried booting from most of the options in the menu (last known good, normal, safe mode with networking, safe mode etc.) and nothing we do seems to solve the problem. Anybody have any good ideas? Sorry I know this isn't quite the place but due to work-based internet can't get to many sites. 194.221.133.226 (talk) 10:12, 10 December 2008 (UTC)


 * Antivirus software won't find a lot of spyware/malware - d/load the latest versions of SpyBot and Adaware, update and run them - see what they find. Exxolon (talk) 00:59, 11 December 2008 (UTC)


 * Try Start -> Run, 'msconfig' (no quotes) and switch to the BOOT.INI tab. Make sure the '/SAFEBOOT' checkbox *isn't* checked. Washii (talk) 07:09, 14 December 2008 (UTC)

About worm in the coputer
wat do u mean by worm in the system?And how can we delete it? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 59.97.48.160 (talk) 12:00, 10 December 2008 (UTC)


 * Computer worm is a good place to start. -- LarryMac | Talk  13:24, 10 December 2008 (UTC)

most likely its you video adapter not working- try to use the onboard video adapter - AMAN

Daily Build for Ubuntu?
Anyone knows were to find a daily build for Ubuntu 8.10 Intrepid Ibex? I usually get if from http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/ but I have not found it there this time... SF007 (talk) 13:49, 10 December 2008 (UTC)


 * You're at the right place, but the development version is Jaunty Jackalope now. --Argav &#1758; 23:11, 16 December 2008 (UTC)

Internet speed + XNA Game studio
122.163.15.181 (talk) 15:01, 10 December 2008 (UTC)harshagg Hello, Question 1:- I often tackle increase internet speed.But when I try it doesn't work and one effect my window SP3 e.g 1. Go to Start-> Run-> and type gpedit.msc 2. Expand the Administrative Templates branch 3. Expand the Network tab 4. Highlight QoS Packet Scheduler 5. Click on Limit Reservable Bandwidth and check the enabled box 6. Then Change the Bandwidth limit % to 0 % this effect my XP when I run my computer next time Is there no way tricks to increase net speed without paying

Question No.2:- How sucessfull will XNA will be? Can it beat openGL?


 * 1 - the QoS thing won't help at all; except for people who run QoS aware apps all the time, you get all your network bandwidth all the time - so says microsoft.


 * 2 - XNA doesn't really compete with OGL, they're different things. XNA is a higher-level framework that relies on DirectX to do the underlying drawing. It's DirectX that compares with (and competes with) OpenGL.  DirectX is clearly competing very well against OpenGL.  Whether XNA will take depends on whether developers find the framework useful or restricting. 87.114.128.88 (talk) 00:09, 11 December 2008 (UTC)

Switch off "urgent updates/restarts" in Windows
Is it possible to switch off those urgent updates in Windows, which will make your computer restart in 5 minutes unless you click no (and then it'll keep asking every few minutes)? I hate not paying attention to my computer for a moment, and next thing I know is that whatever I worked on is gone. I don't mind if Windows asks, but I don't want my computer to restart without my permission. --Ibn Battuta (talk) 17:19, 10 December 2008 (UTC)
 * Yes, at least on XP. The settings are in the control panel under automatic updates. Algebraist 18:39, 10 December 2008 (UTC)
 * In XP Go to the start menu, go to run, the type "cmd" without the quotes, then use "c stop wuauserv" without the quotes. It will stop the automatic updates and the nag screen. This is tempoary you have to do it again. The updates will have been installed right. All this does is shut up the thing.  Rgood  erm  ote    08:12, 14 December 2008 (UTC)
 * I believe Rgood means "sc stop wuauserv". &mdash; neuro(talk) 23:39, 14 December 2008 (UTC)

Rapidshare auto download
IS there a program software available for free that can automate the downloading of Rapidshare links? It would be good if I could just batch enter maybe 10 links and it will download them, wait for the limits etc without human input. Thank you much. 66.63.184.3 (talk) 19:00, 10 December 2008 (UTC)
 * Try jDownloader. SN0WKITT3N  20:00, 10 December 2008 (UTC)

Amazon S3 as virtual disc
I'm using Cyberduck on Mac OSX 10.5 to connect to Amazon S3 for online backup storage. To send files, I can drag and drop to Cyberduck to send them to the archive. Is there any way I can use it to make them appear as a virtual/network drive?My name is anetta (talk) 20:34, 10 December 2008 (UTC)


 * From my Google results, it looks like JungleDisk has a Mac client, but I can't actually access the website. It might not be free.  -- LarryMac  | Talk  21:30, 10 December 2008 (UTC)

It would seem you're right - Jungle Disk is basically Amazon 3S rebranded, is it? It would appear to host it's stuff on Amazon, and use its own client.My name is anetta (talk) —Preceding undated comment was added at 21:47, 10 December 2008 (UTC).
 * If you're using SFTP to access S3, you might want to look into SSHFS. There's a Mac port. --  JSBillings  22:12, 10 December 2008 (UTC)

I'm using Amazon's own protocol to connect to it, largely because it "just works." Yes, I'll take a look into it - I'm sure a little Googling will tell me how.My name is anetta (talk) 22:47, 10 December 2008 (UTC)


 * Another option that I use... I have a directory called "backup". Every night, I s3-backup (a set of scripts that mimic rdiff-backup) runs on the directory and saves incremental backups of my backup directory.  The result is that I easily back up my files I want to back up (just drop them in the backup folder) and I can get back a file as it once was if it is something I change.  That has come in very handy a few times. --  k a i n a w &trade; 04:03, 11 December 2008 (UTC)

Would your scripts (whatever language they are in) work on Mac OSX, and if so, can you post them to your site?My name is anetta (talk) 18:12, 11 December 2008 (UTC)


 * I didn't write them. Google for "s3backup".  I downloaded them a looooong time ago and I don't remember where from. --  k a i n a w &trade; 18:20, 11 December 2008 (UTC)

[] This looks like it does the same job (autobackup). It doesn't mount as as drive, though.My name is anetta (talk) 18:44, 11 December 2008 (UTC)

LCS-type algorithm
I'm looking for an algorithm that is basically an longest-common-substring algorithm. The trick is that I want it to provide all substrings in order from longest to shortest. I assume Knuth or someone similar wrote a paper on this back in the 70s. To be clear, here's an example:
 * Input: "wikipedia reference desk", "use wikipedia as a reference"
 * Output: Array("a reference ", "wikipedi", "e", "s")

I can write this myself, but I'm writing a methods paper and I'll be asked to provide a reference for the algorithm from existing work. I've been stuck searching for one that returns ALL substrings, not just the longest (or shortest) one. -- k a i n a w &trade; 22:27, 10 December 2008 (UTC)


 * Wouldn't "wikiped", etc. also be a common substring ? Is there a rule that once a common substring is found you eliminate all of the letters in the substring from consideration in both strings ?  StuRat (talk) 15:43, 11 December 2008 (UTC)


 * Correct. I want the longest substring, then the next (or equally) longest, then the next.  I do not want any elements of the original strings to show up in two different substrings.  The purpose (in my paper) is to rate equivalence between two strings based on how many substrings they have in common and how long those substrings are.  My algorithm works just fine.  The problem with peer-review papers is that they nail you if you use an algorithm that someone wrote about and omit reference to the original author (even if you have never heard of the original author or paper). --  k a i n a w &trade; 18:16, 11 December 2008 (UTC)


 * Isn't there some way you can say "I wrote the following method, but make no representation that I am the first to do so" ? I remember when I "invented" the radix sort, only to be disappointed to find out somebody else had beaten me to it. StuRat (talk) 16:25, 12 December 2008 (UTC)


 * You can, but I think they demand references because they assume that if you don't somehow know who first referenced every algorithm ever made you are not qualified to be publishing papers. As it is, I included the entire algorithm I wrote in the appendix and noted that it was developed as a variation of a variation of the Needleman-Wunsch algorithm. --  k a i n a w &trade; 17:56, 12 December 2008 (UTC)


 * I don't have any answer to your question, I just wanted to say that I had a similar experience as StuRat with merge sort. I was so proud, and then so disappointed. 83.250.202.208 (talk) 21:31, 12 December 2008 (UTC)