Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Computing/2008 January 8

= January 8 =

HTML table formatting
I'm working on a template I intend to use on a DVD review website. I've got the general layout figured out, but I am trouble with two embedded tables (which contain information pertaining to the audio and video tracks found on the disc). The HTML code for the page can be found on my sandbox. It doesn't display well on Wikipedia, but if you copy and past it into a standard word document, it should work. I set the main table's width too 1000, but I would like to discard absolute values and start using percentages. My question here is as follows: how can I make the small 'audio' and 'video' tables fit the whole cell they've been placed inside? Furthermore, is there a way for me to force the separation of the first and second colums to occur exactly at the middle of the cell? This would mean that, for instance, we'd have 'Length', a vertical line at the middle of the cell and then '0:23:10'. Finally, what is the width of the Wikipedia toolbar? -- Ishikawa Minoru (talk) 00:47, 8 January 2008 (UTC)


 * I edited the Length one for you on the sub-page to show you how to do it—it's easy to do with percentages. Add "width=100%" to the sub-table (to make it expand as far as it can within its cell), then "width=50%" to each of the TDs that you want to be 50%/50% (it'll try to make each column take up exactly half of the total space). --24.147.86.187 (talk) 00:59, 8 January 2008 (UTC)

Thank you very much for the help. -- Ishikawa Minoru (talk) 01:24, 8 January 2008 (UTC)

Psp video 9?
I have downloaded the newest versian of psp video 9.. ..and at the begining when it asks what "firmware" you have, and it gives you a list. My psp is 3.71 but I could'nt find it there. What should I do? (Superawesomgoat (talk) 02:45, 8 January 2008 (UTC))

please... .. .HELP!!!... . ..uh thanks for ur time. (Superawesomgoat (talk) 00:11, 9 January 2008 (UTC))

HD DVD or blue-ray?
Which has better audio and a better resolution? blu-ray or hd? (Superawesomgoat (talk) 02:50, 8 January 2008 (UTC))


 * See Comparison of high definition optical disc formats. I believe the short answer is that Blu-ray has a bit of a technical advantage in a couple areas. Friday (talk) 03:29, 8 January 2008 (UTC)

You still might want to get blu-ray since Warner Bros. has just agreed to make all their movies blu-ray and not HD DVD.--Dlo2012 (talk) 14:28, 9 January 2008 (UTC)

@HELLO first unstill that new version it sucks!! get the older version at download.com it's better.

Playing Wii on a laptop screen
Hi,

After researching for quite a while about how to play my Wii on my laptop computer screen, it seems I have to use a USB device as I haven't got any inputs I can use (I could also use an ExpressCard but it seems there aren't really many)

So could anyone recommend me a USB card that would allow me to play with minimum lag (and reasonably good image quality) ?

The device I've seen most is the Adaptec Gamebridge but the lag seems to be quite present (quite a few people complaining).

Thanks a lot. -- Xedi (talk) 03:39, 8 January 2008 (UTC)


 * I'm afraid lag is going to be an everpresent problem. To play a composite signal on a laptop (or any computer screen) you have to digitize the image and sound, push it across the bus, then display it to the screen.  This takes time, which you see as lag.  To avoid the lag, you need to talk directly to the monitor without any processing inbetween, and that's pretty much impossible.  The Gamebridge is about as close as you're going to get. :( --Mdwyer (talk) 18:10, 8 January 2008 (UTC)


 * Ok, thanks. I'll give the Gamebridge a try, as it only is about £10 around here. -- Xedi (talk) 19:04, 8 January 2008 (UTC)


 * I've got the Gamebridge, although I just use it to watch TV on my laptop. If another regular TV is on nearby, you can hear the lag as an echo between the sounds each one is outputting. The lag is only about half a second long, if it's even that much, but for games I can see it getting in the way.  Equazcion •✗/C • 11:50, 9 Jan 2008 (UTC)


 * I think you can get around the lag if you are willing to take both your laptop and Wii apart. See this link  for someone who did this to an Xbox. Taemyr (talk) 12:20, 9 January 2008 (UTC)

"Any-of-these-tables" foreign key
What database systems, if any, allow a foreign key where the referenced table can be any of several (which may have differences in structure)? Neon Merlin  06:33, 8 January 2008 (UTC)
 * AFAIK any true RDBMS should support this, Oracle certainly does - as long as all the child tables have matching primary keys to the parent foreign key, I don't think there is a limit. The rest of each child table's structure will differ. The question is, have you found one that doesn't? Sandman30s (talk) 09:07, 8 January 2008 (UTC)


 * The way I read the question, no popular database systems support this. It appears that the user wants to a have a column that is a foreign key pulled from one of a large set of tables.  For example, you have a table of cars with a unique model number, a table of highways with a unique name, and a table of workers with a unique employee number.  The user wants a fourth table that has a column that could hold a car's model number, a highway name, or a worker's employee number as a foreign key.  A foreign key cannot be mixed like that.  There may be a strange database system that supports it, but not anything I've worked with. --  k a i n a w &trade; 13:24, 8 January 2008 (UTC)


 * In principle, there's nothing stopping you from doing this; the only problem is that you won't be able to set up proper foreign key constraints to enforce referential integrity. The most common situation tempting one to do something like this seems to be when one would like to have a log of changes made to other tables, which naturally suggests a table containing something like the columns "log message", "timestamp", "type of change", "changed table" and "id in changed table".  I think the preferred solution in such a situation would be to set up separate log tables for each target table and then make the combined log a union view of the subtables.  If your RDBMS is smart enough, you might even be able to make the view updatable.  —Ilmari Karonen (talk) 14:45, 8 January 2008 (UTC)

sqlite gui.
I'd like to present a sqlite database like a spreadsheet, with colors, as you can in excel. what's the easiest way to do this (I'd hate to have to reinvent the wheel).

Thanks! —Preceding unsigned comment added by 212.51.122.1 (talk) 10:04, 8 January 2008 (UTC)

Excel help required
Hi

In MS Excel I want to select all cells that have a particular value. I'm sure this must be really straightforward but I can't work it out from the help file.

Thanks a lot --195.167.178.194 (talk) 12:39, 8 January 2008 (UTC)
 * If you are looking to change the values in these cells you can use Ctrl-H to replace and Excel will search the document for you. Or, CTRL-F and then enter your value and hit Find All. You can then Ctrl left click all the cells you need.  Lanfear's Bane |  t  13:12, 8 January 2008 (UTC)


 * (ec) I think you would need a macro to do this:

Sub SelectByValue Const VALUE_TO_FIND = "test" ' <<< set this to the value you want to find Dim ValueCells As Range, c As Range For Each c In ActiveSheet.UsedRange If Not IsError(c.Value) Then If c.Value = VALUE_TO_FIND Then If ValueCells Is Nothing Then Set ValueCells = c               Else Set ValueCells = Application.Union(ValueCells, c)               End If            End If        End If    Next If ValueCells Is Nothing Then MsgBox "Value not found" Else ValueCells.Select End If End Sub
 * AndrewWTaylor (talk) 13:14, 8 January 2008 (UTC)

IC recorder
Two questions. First, what does the "IC" in IC recorder stand for. This is a machine which I would refer to as a digital voice recorder, though it is marketed by sony, olympus, and panasonic as an "IC recorder". Second, is there a way to convert or listen to .msv (memory stick voice, a proprietary sony format) files on a macintosh. I realize that these files can be converted to .wav using PC software, but I don't have a PC with which to convert. Thanks! Tuckerekcut (talk) 18:14, 8 January 2008 (UTC)


 * The only thing I can think of for IC is Integrated Circuit, but that seems rather dated. For the conversion, maybe Switch?  I don't have any experience with it, but it came up first in a search.  -- LarryMac  | Talk  18:24, 8 January 2008 (UTC)


 * I have tried Switch, it tells me that it can't convert from .msv (though it does recognize it as a file, unlike other programs I've tried). It also prompts for me to download a plugin from a website it gives to play the file. Unfortunately the given website has a plugin which is only readable by the windows version of the switch program. Tuckerekcut (talk) 18:41, 8 January 2008 (UTC)


 * Argh, sorry 'bout that. Further digging does seem to indicate the msv functionality is Windows only.  There was another program I saw called SoundConverter, but I've gotten conflicting indications on its support of msv.  I suppose running Windows under Bootcamp or Parallels is out of the question?  -- LarryMac  | Talk  18:53, 8 January 2008 (UTC)


 * I also tried soundconverter (I apologize for not recounting my efforts thus far, it might have saved you the effort of finding them again). It's something I need to do often enough that I would need to be able to do it in OSX, so boot camp is not likely to work. It seems that I will have to choose between buying a Mac-compatible recorder, or parallels. In any case, thanks much for your quick responses, LarryMac.Tuckerekcut (talk) 19:15, 8 January 2008 (UTC)


 * Just as a note: if you do get totally stuck with needing to do it in Windows, a virtualizer (like Parallels) will let you run Windows without exiting OS X. I have a friend who had to get it for just such a thing, because some lousy proprietary sound format required a Windows-only player. --24.147.86.187 (talk) 23:16, 8 January 2008 (UTC)

I got a Disk Error?
help, there seems to be a problem with my computer. I first noticed this a few weeks ago. Some of my music files just simply won't play. They are also separated from the others (see screenshot). When I try to edit their properties tags, it gives me a "A disk error occured during a write process". All of the highlighted items are like that, but some of them like "Dream Theater - Never Enough" can actually be played - I just can't edit tags. So I thought "could it be I have a damaged hard disk?" So i did a disk error-check, but I fell asleep before it finishes. When I woke up, Windows is already on the welcome page, I think that means I don't have any errors, right?

Here is a screenshot: http://img297.imageshack.us/img297/1858/somethingwrongva9.png What could be the problem? Aurora sword (talk) 21:13, 8 January 2008 (UTC)


 * The image resolution of your screenshot is far to low. Theresa Knott | The otter sank 21:18, 8 January 2008 (UTC)


 * Sorry, forgot to turn off auto resize. Here it is http://img89.imageshack.us/img89/2/somethingwrongla9.png Aurora sword (talk) 21:23, 8 January 2008 (UTC)


 * This is only supposed to happen when you copy a music file from one computer to another. There is copy protection on the file.  When you copy it, the file will move, but it will not play. --  k a i n a w &trade; 21:38, 8 January 2008 (UTC)
 * You can DRM mp3s?? -- f f r o  t   h  21:42, 8 January 2008 (UTC)
 * I did download all of them from either Frostwire or Limewire. But they worked fine before. For example I've had that Bob Dylan song since 2006. This thing just happened recently, but it also effect the new files, like those Nightwish songs which I just downloaded 3 days ago. I think this started happening when I started to compile a music library. I bought a Creative ZEN V Plus last year and installed the software that came with it. Last month I started to "fix" my music collection. Adding new information, fixing wrong tags and deleting duplicates, etc. Then this started happenning. Aurora sword (talk) 21:51, 8 January 2008 (UTC)


 * When you say "Did a disk error check", do you mean you used the disk checking function in Windows itself? I don't think that that is supposed to restart the machine or log you off. 68.39.174.238 (talk) 13:28, 12 January 2008 (UTC)

PHP operator
I'm not a stellar programmer. In fact, I most likely am a horrible one. However, in trying to figure out how things work (including Wikipedia) I keep seeing the operator (I presume):, usually accompanied by amazingly nonspecifc variable names. I have not been able to figure out what it does specifically. So, my question is, what does it do? It does not appear in any of the references I have read, nor is it easily searchable because it's a special character. User:Krator (t c) 22:03, 8 January 2008 (UTC)


 * It is used with PHP classes and objects. It's somewhat complicated stuff; not the easiest thing to start with for a beginning PHP programmer, and almost always means that you are dealing with custom built classes to do specific functions. (Unless you really mean =>, which is used for array value assignment, but if you mean ->, then it's about classes/objects)--24.147.86.187 (talk) 23:08, 8 January 2008 (UTC)
 * In C it means to dereference the pointer and access a member property/method.. no idea about php -- f f r o  t   h  00:54, 9 January 2008 (UTC)


 * As *.187 said, the -&gt; is used in PHP for object operations. Assume you have an object named $obj.  To access the object's variable "var", you use $obj-&gt;var.  To run the object's function foo, you use $obj-&gt;foo.  The  indicates that it is a function and not a variable.  Another thing you will see often is the use of the variable $this with -&gt; following it.  Inside of a class definition, $this refers to the object itself, regardless of what the programmer named it. --  k a i n a w &trade; 03:06, 9 January 2008 (UTC)

Thanks, this is similar to something I'm familiar with. Follow up question: what about multiple uses, e.g.  User:Krator (t c) 19:07, 9 January 2008 (UTC)


 * Any variable may be assigned to an object. In your example, $this-&gt;Alpha is a variable in the $this object.  It is also an object.  So, you have an object which has one of its variables set to an object.  The "One" is a variable inside of the $this-&gtAlpha object.  You could call a function in the $this-&gt;Alpha object witih something like $this->&gt;Alpha-&gt;foo. --  k a i n a w &trade; 19:27, 9 January 2008 (UTC)

Securing your wireless internets :)
Can someone show me a website or tell me exactly how to secure it. Note that im not the best with computers and a step by step instructions would be nice. Bones Brigade 23:34, 8 January 2008 (UTC)
 * Don't try to do it on your own, it's too complex. -- f f r o  t   h  00:54, 9 January 2008 (UTC)
 * Oh wait, you're asking how to secure your wireless access, not how to secure a website, never mind ! -- f f r o  t   h  02:48, 9 January 2008 (UTC)

Did you really mean Interweb? 69.150.163.1 (talk) 01:04, 9 January 2008 (UTC)


 * So so so so sorry, i ussaly just use interwebs becuase its sounds more awesome. I changed the title to relect. Bones Brigade  02:50, 9 January 2008 (UTC)


 * The user is most likely asking how to secure a wireless router. It is not complicated at all. It is just different for nearly everyone so there's no possibility of having a single guide to show you. First, access your router. How? It came with instructions. Every router is different. For mine, I open a web browser and go to 192.168.0.1 and type in a password. I am 99% certain that yours will require something completely different. Then, open the wireless settings. How? It came with instructions. Every router is different. Mine has a series of tabs. I click on "wireless security". I am 99% certain that yours will be something completely different. Select a security method available. It may be WEP. It may be WPA. You may have both. You may have something else. Every router is different. Mine has WEP and WPA. I chose WPA because it is more secure than WEP. You will be required to enter a key/code/password/passphrase (or whatever your router wants to call it. You may be required to enter four of them. Every router is different. Then, save the wireless settings. You will suddenly lose wireless access because your computer does not have the secure key you just entered. Go into your computer's wireless security settings. How? Every operating system is different. I type "system-config-networking" and an interface comes up with networking settings. Set your computer's encryption type (WEP, WPA...) to the same type you used on the router. Set the key(s) to the same ones your router used. Save your settings. You may need to reboot (especially if you are using Windows). If all went well, you are now using a secure wireless network - but you won't magically get a secure "internets" out of it. -- k a i n a w &trade; 03:15, 9 January 2008 (UTC)
 * I have never had to restart my Windows PC when changing encryption to WPA or WEP or anything. Did your router come with a manual? There is a very good chance it will tell you what pages to access in there. Your routers IP will normally be 192.168.1.1 or 192.168.0.1, put this into your web browser of choice and then follow the instructions in your manual. I suggest going with WPA as well because it is far more secure. Basically anyone with a laptop and the right program can get into your network within an hour or less if you secure your network with WEP. However if you have a Nintendo DS (not such a strange idea seeing how well they sell) or an older PDA with wireless access you'll need to secure with WEP, as they may not be able to handle WPA (the DS doesn't for sure). TheGreatZorko (talk) 09:02, 10 January 2008 (UTC)

Wikibooks has a book on this. 68.39.174.238 (talk) 13:26, 12 January 2008 (UTC)