Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Computing/2008 January 1

= January 1 =

Derivative of a GPLd work
(Not exactly a legal advice question, just interested) I was searching for implementations of AES in JavaScript, and found this page: Its author has ported AES implementation from GnuPG, and put a notice: "Copyright 2005 Herbert Hanewinkel. Permission to use, modify, sell or distribute this software with or without fee is allowed, provided that etc, etc, etc." So my question is: shouldn't it be releas‫‬‭‮‪‫‬‭‮҉ed under the same GPL instead? (neither the page nor the code mentions GPL, so I suppose it isn't) -- grawity talk / PGP 00:05, 1 January 2008 (UTC)
 * GPG's AES implementation was itself based on a public domain implementation (see here), so it depends on whether a court considers the javascript version a derived work of the GPG version or the PD version. --Sean 01:11, 1 January 2008 (UTC)

MIDI and my PC
I have a Yamaha electric piano - a large-ish keyboard capable of producing a nice piano sound and many other instrument sounds as well, including drums. Unfortunately, I am not a musician, I cannot sight read music and I lack the patience to start piano lessons. To date I have relied on "decoding" the music bar by bar, and after many repeats I manage to remember enough to play a minute or two of a recognisable tune. The piano has a round DIN style socket on the back that I believe is a MIDI port. I also have a PC with a sound card with something described as a MIDI-port that looks like an old 9-pin serial port. My question... Is it possible to connect the piano to the PC so that I can either:


 * Record my rather poor efforts on the piano to build up several tracks which can be mixed together (ie. record the different instrument sounds separately, like a studio mixer).


 * Have the PC play a composition using the different instruments "in" the piano (ie. some musical composition software which drives the piano, either playing through the piano's built-in speakers or allowing it to be recorded on the PC).

Astronaut (talk) 02:33, 1 January 2008 (UTC)


 * Yes, and Yes. You can look at music notation software for starters - many have a "recording" functionality; you can connect the piano to your computer either through the MIDI port or directly through a Line-In audio connector, depending on how you intend to record the sound (as notated music or as raw audio).  As far as using the computer to control the device, I am not certain of the details but it is usually possible.  Nimur (talk) 03:35, 1 January 2008 (UTC)


 * It sounds like you have a sound card with a combination MIDI/joystick port. (It's actually 15 pins.)
 * To connect the PC to your piano, you can get an adapter cable that connects to the MIDI/joystick port on one end, and has MIDI in, MIDI out, and dedicated joystick connectors on the other ends. (Here's an example.) If you have proper sound card drivers installed, the MIDI port on the sound card will appear in any MIDI programs you use. The sound card's MIDI port will also appear in the Windows Control Panel. (Games or MIDI players that don't let you choose a MIDI device will use the default device set in the Control Panel.)
 * To record from your piano and build up several tracks, you need a MIDI sequencer.
 * To play a composition from the computer and have the sound coming out of your piano, you can use a MIDI sequencer or any other program that can play MIDI files (including Windows Media Player). If the player doesn't let you select a MIDI port, you would have to use the Control Panel to set the default MIDI port so that it sends it to your piano instead of some "internal" MIDI instrument. --Bavi H (talk) 07:17, 1 January 2008 (UTC)

How
How i get embed code of youtube video or google video?So i link in my windows live space blog for play in my space.82.148.96.68 (talk) 02:40, 1 January 2008 (UTC)
 * If you want to show the YouTube video within your Windows Live Space, then use the embed code on the right panel. It will look something like this:
 * I'm not sure how Windows Live Spaces works so you'll have to work that part out, or wait for someone else.
 * If you simply wish to give a link to the video, then copy and paste the URL of the video and then onto your Space. x42bn6 Talk Mess  02:43, 1 January 2008 (UTC)
 * If you simply wish to give a link to the video, then copy and paste the URL of the video and then onto your Space. x42bn6 Talk Mess  02:43, 1 January 2008 (UTC)

On Google pages, I have to go to edit html. Maybe it is the same for Live? Kushalt 21:32, 1 January 2008 (UTC)

Autocomplete in Internet Explorer 7.0
I used to have a password stored for a website login using Autocomplete. However, I erased the username and have since lost the automatic password entry. How do I set the autocomplete for the password entry? --Blue387 (talk) 06:19, 1 January 2008 (UTC)
 * Are you using IE's built in Autocomplete, or a toolbar's autocomplete i.e Google Toolbar? Perfect Proposal  Speak Out!  19:31, 1 January 2008 (UTC)
 * Internet Explorer. --Blue387 (talk) 02:26, 2 January 2008 (UTC)
 * It's easy. Just enter your user name and password and click on the submit button. You'll get a window asking you if you want the computer to remember your password. Click "yes". Next time you go to the login page, you'll have your user name and password already entered. Admiral Norton (talk) 23:54, 2 January 2008 (UTC)

SMS in UK
What site can I visit in UK to type in a message which goes to someone's mobile telephone? - CarbonLifeForm (talk) 12:18, 1 January 2008 (UTC)
 * Gizmo SMS, but it only allows 80 characters (I guess another 80 are for Gizmo SMS ad). -- grawity talk / PGP 12:31, 1 January 2008 (UTC)


 * TG SMS, I use TGsms.com and it works well, but you have to pay for it.

career counselling
I want to know that if there is any FREEcourse or degee in java from a recognized university/institution which could be completed totaly online to help in my future career —Preceding unsigned comment added by Hemant kumar bhardwaj (talk • contribs) 15:51, 1 January 2008 (UTC)

I know it does not directly help, but please look out for the Diploma mills. Kushalt 21:15, 1 January 2008 (UTC)


 * The key here is that you ask if it can help in your future career, which I assume is computer programming. Speaking as a person who has been a programmer for 30 years come next September and has been interviewing and hiring programmers for the last 10 years, anything that is free and online will be of no more help than just getting a book and learning to program.  I (unfortunately) have to attend a lot of meetings with other IT management people and I've found that the consensus is that interviewees are broken into four categories.  There are the unqualified people that we are amazed considered applying for the job.  There are the genius freaks who leaned to program when they were in the womb and have never had a need for classes or degrees.  There are the alphabet-soup certificate people who have every imaginable certificate and no knowledge of anything they are certified to know.  Finally, there are those who set a goal to spend four or five years in college, taking many hours of boring classes, blowing tons of money on overpriced books that they can't sell for a nickel now, and finally got a little diploma with B.S. on it.  Except for rare situations, having a real diploma from an accredited university will be the best way to help you in your future career.  It says a lot more than "I can program."  It says that you spent many years and a lot of money on a long-term goal and you eventually completed it. --  k a i n a w &trade; 03:12, 2 January 2008 (UTC)
 * What about the genius freaks who are forced to spend heaping piles of gold coins on a B.S. so that they can get a career, but never learned anything from it, and didn't do too well because they had to work through school? :[ -- ⁪ffroth 17:12, 2 January 2008 (UTC)


 * I worked through middle school, high school, undergrad, and grad school. I rarely learned anything in any class I've ever taken.  As I pointed out, the degree has nothing do with knowledge.  It is purely about setting a long-term goal and completing it.  If, as a genius programmer, you can show some other viable long-term goal, that would be beneficial.  For example, if you wrote a popular program that took 4 years to develop, test, and bring to market - you'd have demonstrated the ability to meet long-term goals.  Most (by which I mean all except one) of the genius programmers I've known find it easy to start projects but rarely finish anything that takes longer than a few days. --  k a i n a w &trade; 17:31, 2 January 2008 (UTC)
 * That's why you don't eat or sleep for a few days :D Also, does logging thousands of hours in an MMO count as a long term goal? -- ⁪ffroth 16:22, 3 January 2008 (UTC)
 * Also, holy crap worked through middle school? Commence quoting: A job? You're in elementary school! .. It's OK we won't get caught.. and Who's your dad, hitler? -- f f r o  t   h  04:06, 7 January 2008 (UTC)
 * The PEVE unit of the dept of Computer Science at University of Manchester runs a great distance learning course in Java. It's not free though. Easiest way is to buy a very good book. Ade1982 (talk) 20:53, 5 January 2008 (UTC)

Feasibility of customisable email reciept notification (e.g. in Thunderbird)
I often check every time I receive a new email, as indicated by a new email symbol in my Windows tasktray. Often, the email received isn't very important and wasn't worth being bothered about - I'd like to be able to right click on an email, and in just the same way that I can add it to a mail filter, I'd like to change it to a "notification filter". Conceivably, any given email address/domain could be assigned to unimportant = no notification, standard importance = normal notification (normal symbol in task tray), high importance (red-shaded symbol in task tray). Of course, when there are unread email of varying degrees of importance at the same time, the email of highest importance would determine the notification received. One could also choose to have a sound played for high priority email and not for regular email etc. Is this a feasible suggestion? --Seans Potato Business 20:57, 1 January 2008 (UTC)


 * I am sure it is feasible. Would you like to take a shot by adding it to feature request for the next build of Mozilla Thunderbird too? Kushalt 21:30, 1 January 2008 (UTC)


 * My preferred client -- Claws Mail -- is readily customized in this way. --Sean 22:47, 1 January 2008 (UTC)
 * Does it do it for Windows or only Linux? At this thread they say it's not possible for Windows. --Seans Potato Business 01:15, 2 January 2008 (UTC)
 * I only use Linux, so I dunno. Sorry.  --Sean 12:46, 2 January 2008 (UTC)


 * This is partially possible in Eudora for Windows. One of the actions of a filter you can set it so assign sounds so you just turn off general sounds and set up sounds per filter. If it's the same filter it only seems to play the sound once even with multiple emails but with multie filters and different sound I think it will play each in turn. You can also turn off notify users in general and there is a notify users option in filters it appears. Finally there is also a notify application although I'm not sure what this does. In conclusion, you can probably set up a binary notification option but more then that probably wouldn't work well Nil Einne (talk) 11:56, 2 January 2008 (UTC)