Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Computing/2008 June 6

= June 6 =

Best website builder?
I'm disapointed that the article on website builders is so short and brief. Couldnt there be a comparison of website builder software, as with other software? I do not know how to do this myself. Website builders include: BlueVoda Piczo Moonfruit mobi Web Piston and others.

And what is the best free website builder that does not tie you in to a host please? 80.2.205.84 (talk) 00:04, 6 June 2008 (UTC)


 * It sounds like you know enough to improve that article. Please go ahead! But do make sure that everything you put in it is referenced, not original research. (Hint: if it makes any attempt to say what is the 'best', it's probably OR. If it quotes several published sources as saying that something is the best, then it is not OR) --ColinFine (talk) 21:40, 7 June 2008 (UTC)

Comment #2. I have been using Blue Voda Website Builder for over ten (10) years and it's amazing and simple software! I've tried many others but for professional results that's simple to learn and apply, Blue Voda is the answer. Yes, you must publish your webpages to their server but it's less than $10.00 a month and you get unlimited disk space and bandwidth. For the past three (3) years I have been an affiliate of VodaHost and I now make websites for extra income to supplement my retirement income. If you would like to see one of my websites please check out http://www.thebluetarget.net or my business website at http://www.newperceptiongraphics.com

Thank you, Dr. Rod Mitchell - 209-261-8389

USB flash drives
±—Can the average USB flash drive hold more than 80 billion characters?

63.3.12.2 (talk) 02:41, 6 June 2008 (UTC)


 * A character is easily stored in one byte. A gigabyte can easily store 1 billion bytes, regardless of if you are using the real definition or the marketing definition of "gigabyte".  To store 80 billion bytes (characters), you need 80 gigabytes.  There are many USB flash drives that are over 80 gigabytes.  They aren't those tiny ones you can slip in your pocket though. --  k a i n a w &trade; 02:54, 6 June 2008 (UTC)
 * Really? Where are there USB flash drives that can hold over 80 gigabytes? (Were you thinking about USB hard drives, most of which are not flash based.) And for nitpicking, 80 billion characters is technically 74.51 gigabytes cause of the whole 1024 thing, and that's only if you don't use multi-byte characters. But short answer is, no. (Addendum) Of course, this is not taking into consideration compression either. --Wirbelwind ヴィルヴェルヴィント (talk) 03:18, 6 June 2008 (UTC)
 * This one is about 10 GB short (using the above 74.51 number), but is actually a "USB flash drive". Chris M. (talk) 03:40, 6 June 2008 (UTC)
 * kainaw has already specifically addressed the 1024 issue. I don't really agree with the way he addressed it, though - Gigabyte is ambiguous in common usage, and according to this, $$10^9$$ (which I believe is the "marketing" definition) is the correct definition. -- Meni Rosenfeld (talk) 08:25, 6 June 2008 (UTC)
 * Technically, a Gigabyte in the sense of 230 Bytes would be called a Gibibyte. --Alx xlA (talk) 04:05, 10 June 2008 (UTC)


 * What kind of characters, and can we use compression? --Prestidigitator (talk) 19:54, 6 June 2008 (UTC)


 * Assuming standard English text and a decent compression algorithm, you should be able to store 80 billion characters on a 20-GB flash drive: Data compression. --Carnildo (talk) 20:20, 6 June 2008 (UTC)

PDMan98
I recently Came across this peculiar error while packaging a vb6 code. The packaging wizard doesnt respond after the step of including certain drivers and when i close it using a task manager, it says microsoft closed this program due to a recursive program PDMan98. What does this mean? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Lokthegreat (talk • contribs) 06:22, 6 June 2008 (UTC)

Importing MPEG files
Why does the error 'The file C:\Documents and Settings\Owner\My Documents\My Pictures\12-16-2007\20070630200825.mpg cannot be imported because the codec required to play the file is not installed on your computer. If you have already tried to download and install the codec, close and restart Windows Movie Maker, and then try to import the file again.' appear whenever I try to import mpeg files into Windows Movie Maker v2.1? What codec do i need to install? Where to install the codec? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Invisiblebug590 (talk • contribs) 06:55, 6 June 2008 (UTC)


 * One tool you can use to find out which codec was used for your MPG file is GSpot. Some others are mentioned in the Video codec article.    After you have determined what is missing, you can then search for and download it, or you can download and install a client such as VLC media player which comes with a large selection of codecs.  -- LarryMac  | Talk  20:37, 6 June 2008 (UTC)
 * If that didn't work, you can try these free codecs Sandman30s (talk) 21:22, 7 June 2008 (UTC)

Recovery from a CompactFlash card
Yes, I screwed up the content of a 1GB CF card.

Briefly, I plugged the CF card into a Mac (new version of OS X) and selected a pile of photos for copying into a directory on the desktop, but must have mistimed my mouseclicks or something as the swirly icon (Apple's Tibetan replacement for an hourglass?) started up and I waited and waited and waited and waited while I suppose the OS tried to display the whole lot simultaneously. After a very long wait I got a message saying that I shouldn't have unplugged the device (I hadn't unplugged it, and for that matter the access light of the any digicam-card-to-USB-adapter was still on) and a pile of messages each saying that file such-and-such wasn't displayable.

According to Mac OS X, the CF card has retained its previous directory structure but the directory that should have the goodies has a single, zero-byte file, with a gibberish name and dated 1904.

According to Winvista, the CF card has the directory structure and the directory that has the goodies has three files each named "P", two of which are zero-kilobyte and dated 1980, the third 1312KB and not dated at all.

I have access to a Linux machine but I don't suppose that KDE would work miracles. Clearly vital info has been scrambled.

Does either Winvista or Mac or your average Linux distro come with a utility that attempts to rebuild screwed up FAT32 (is it?) filesystems? Is there worthwhile free (speech/beer) software for the job? Whether or not I get anything off this card, should I then bother to reformat it and use it, or does the fact that the access light was on for ages imply that it has been thrashed beyond its reliable life?

Thanks for any tips. These might of course include links to a good discussion somewhere else. (Of course Google is my friend, but I find it hard to google for any practical computer info; there's so much promotion and chitchat and not much disinterested lucidity.)

Incidentally this card is branded "pqi" and was rather cheaper than other brands. Perhaps wrongly, I'd assumed that differences where merely in branding and marketing, and perhaps also in access speed (but only a matter for concern if I took lots of photos in quick succession). Did I make a false economy? Morenoodles (talk) 08:55, 6 June 2008 (UTC)


 * See PhotoRec. --212.149.217.163 (talk) 09:43, 6 June 2008 (UTC)


 * Yay! Got it, it's working right now on another machine. Thank you! (Can I award "barnstars" here?) Morenoodles (talk) 10:12, 6 June 2008 (UTC)


 * PS Perfection. The whole lot restored.


 * This is my kind of software: unpretentious, effective, and free. I vote Christophe Grenier for god. Morenoodles (talk) 10:32, 6 June 2008 (UTC)

Windows
Why is Windows 98 more successful than the later and more graphically improved Windows ME? Interactive Fiction Expert/Talk to me 09:23, 6 June 2008 (UTC)
 * Do you mean more commercially successful? If so, I'd guess that rumors of ME's bugginess had something to do with it. Morenoodles (talk) 09:31, 6 June 2008 (UTC)


 * Must admit I never understood this "Windows Me is crap" from everyone else. I used Me for a long while and had very few problems with it, though I do wish I hadn't upgraded to Internet Explorer 6 - now that really was a buggy pile of crap :-)  Astronaut (talk) 16:49, 6 June 2008 (UTC)


 * Windows 98 was a huge functional update to Windows 95. Many programs required you upgrade to Windows 98 very shortly after it came out (which is why I stopped using Windows.  I refused to buy Windows 98.)  Windows ME looked prettier, but I didn't see anyone being forced to upgrade in order to run the latest programs.  So, since the upgrade wasn't required, not many people did it.  It is kind of strange that the XP-Vista is going the opposite way.  People are being told to hold off on Vista because their programs won't run on it.  I'm not sure why Microsoft didn't do a "98" again and get all the software to be Vista-dependent, forcing everyone to upgrade. --  k a i n a w &trade; 18:12, 6 June 2008 (UTC)


 * Easy. Because, if they did that, everyone would switch to OS X or Ubuntu. It's not like the Windows 98 days, where all the non-geeks used Windows because there were no reasonable alternatives. « Aaron Rotenberg « Talk « 01:58, 7 June 2008 (UTC)


 * Yep. Wubi makes it so easy to get going with Ubuntu. I did not even update my backups before I went ahead and installed Ubuntu on top of XPSP2 the Wubi way. Kushal (talk) 05:02, 7 June 2008 (UTC)


 * I experienced the crappiness at first hand. Having pulled the secretary's brand new Windows Me laptop out of its expanded polyester packaging, tossed the "EULA" in the trash, etc., I turned the machine on and then went straight into "Sounds" in order to turn them all off. When I tried to save the new settings, Windows froze. Great start! Morenoodles (talk) 05:28, 7 June 2008 (UTC)

DLL
I am trying to use an emulator. Everytime I try to run the emulator, an error message pops up saying that a DLL file called "burutter" was not found. How can I fix this problem? Interactive Fiction Expert/Talk to me 09:23, 6 June 2008 (UTC)
 * forums.ngemu.com Morenoodles (talk) 09:37, 6 June 2008 (UTC)
 * I looked at that very site earlier today and it didn't help at all. Interactive Fiction Expert/Talk to me 09:53, 6 June 2008 (UTC)
 * Perhaps you could say how it didn't help. For a start, have you downloaded the file and put it wherever your particular version of Windows collects DLL files? Morenoodles (talk) 10:01, 6 June 2008 (UTC)
 * Where does it collect DLL files? Interactive Fiction Expert/Talk to me 10:41, 6 June 2008 (UTC)
 * I don't know. Isn't there some directory of C: called WINDOWS or WINNT or similar? (You might start by saying which version of Windows you're using) Morenoodles (talk) 10:47, 6 June 2008 (UTC)
 * What version am I using? Are you kidding? Ha! I am using XP! Why do you think I would be using, for instance, 95 or 98? Though I do have to admit I like those old Windows versions better... Interactive Fiction Expert/Talk to me 13:10, 6 June 2008 (UTC)


 * Well, you could be using Vista. The more information you give us, the more quickly we can answer your questions. In your original post, you don't even specify it is Windows—one has to figure that out from the fact that you are using DLLs at all—and you don't bother to tell us the name of the emulator (so we have to figure that one out too). If you put too many hurdles in front of answering the question, it won't get answered. Remember, we don't know you, or your computer, at all. The more information you can give us, the fewer assumptions we have to make. --98.217.8.46 (talk) 14:05, 6 June 2008 (UTC)
 * He could also still be using 2000,it still has some popularity and is still largely computable with current software. --APL (talk) 03:45, 7 June 2008 (UTC)
 * Have you tried just downloading the dll and putting it in the ePSXe directory (I'm assuming that's what you use, the anon above me really is correct, more information give the better answers you'll get)? You can find it here, for instance. Put it in the directory of the emulator executable, and see what happens 83.250.202.36 (talk) 16:34, 6 June 2008 (UTC)


 * You could always search your PC for other DLL files and see where the OS has put them. The error message might give a clue as to where the program is looking for the file.  Astronaut (talk) 07:47, 7 June 2008 (UTC)

Most DLLs in Windows XP are placed in the C:\WINDOWS\system32 directory. Sometimes application-specific DLLs are also placed in an application's folder (e.g., C:\Program Files\[Application]\[file.dll]).--Hello. I&#39;m new here, but I&#39;m sure I can help out. (talk) 07:54, 7 June 2008 (UTC)

Macros in Word documents
Hello all. I've been using a Word template (.dot) that someone created for me ages ago, that contains about fifteen complex macros. I want to start using it on a different project, which means I want to change the header, the footer, a few words on the document, and so on. However, when I change these headers, and save the template as a new template, the macros have all disappeared. How can I edit the template without losing the macros? This is on MS Word 2002. Thanks. Neıl 龱  13:09, 6 June 2008 (UTC)


 * If you've still got the old template with the macros, you can copy the macros from the old one to the new by doing this:


 * Open the old template in Word.
 * Press Alt+F11, and Visual Basic should start. There should be a list of the components of the project, which should include an entry something like TemplateProject and then whatever your template's called. Expand this entry if it isn't already (click the + by it) and you should see an entry labelled Modules. Expand this too, and you should see one or more "modules" - collections of macros.
 * For each module, right-click it then click Export File... which will save the module. (Pick a different name for each module.)
 * Now open the new template, start Visual Basic, click the TemplateProject entry for the new template, click the File menu then Import File... then click one of the modules you saved and click Open. Do this for all the modules you saved. Expand the Modules entry and check you've got all the modules you had on the old template. You should now be able to save the new template with the modules attached (I advise you to do this using the File menu, and to check it's going to save the right template!).


 * This doesn't actually answer your question, but I hope it'll do as a workaround! AJHW (talk) 12:28, 9 June 2008 (UTC)

Reparing damaged file: inserting DWORD
I know that I have to do the following (to repair a file):

In the first position a NULL DWORD(4 bytes) is needed. In the second position two NULL DWORDs are needed. After I inserted those values Flash 8 opens the file successfully.

But, how can it be done? I have UltraEdit Professional Hex Editor. Do I need other programs? GoingOnTracks (talk) 16:54, 6 June 2008 (UTC)


 * Any hex editor should work. The problem is the instructions: are they asking you to insert four 00 bytes at the first position, or overwrite four bytes at the first position with 00s?  Same with the second step: is it inserting eight 00 bytes, or overwriting eight 00 bytes? --Carnildo (talk) 20:29, 6 June 2008 (UTC)
 * Remember to create a backup first :) --h2g2bob (talk) 21:48, 6 June 2008 (UTC)

Thank you all so far. Well, when I open the file with a hex editor I get this:

00000000h: D0 CF 11 E0 A1 B1 1A (...); ÐÏ�à¡±�á 00000010h: 00 (...)

What is the DWORD? Just D? or the ÐÏ�à¡±�á at the end? Or something else? GoingOnTracks (talk) 13:37, 7 June 2008 (UTC)


 * In your initial post it was defined as four bytes (Intel and AMD also use this definition), so it is "D0 CF 11 E0". See Hexadecimal. MTM (talk) 15:05, 7 June 2008 (UTC)


 * To further clarify, a "NULL DWORD" would be a DWORD - 4 bytes - of NULLs, basically binary 0s. So if the "first position" in the instructions is the line you pasted from your Hex Editor, you need to either insert or overwrite 4 bytes with hexadecimal 00 - as Carnildo says, it's not clear which.
 * So you'd end up with either:

00000000h: 00 00 00 00 A1 B1 1A (...)
 * or:

00000000h: 00 00 00 00 D0 CF 11 (...) 00000010h: E0 A1 B1 1A 00 (...)
 * (The text representation on the right-hand side of your Hex Editor is just for reference - if this was a file intended to interpret as text, you'd be able to see it there; what you need to edit is the pairs of hexadecimal digits, each of which represents one byte of the file) - IMSoP (talk) 17:44, 7 June 2008 (UTC)

Thank you all!GoingOnTracks (talk) 20:02, 7 June 2008 (UTC)

what speed gear should i use for stick arena and what is the best browser to use for stick arena?
i have vista and i really need one that will work,thanks! —Preceding unsigned comment added by Gothmafia (talk • contribs) 17:40, 6 June 2008 (UTC)
 * Is this the XGen Stick Arena we're talking about? If it is, then have you thought about not cheating? As for the second question, If found IE works just fine, but anything else should be just as good. Paragon12321 (talk) 18:56, 6 June 2008 (UTC)

Bjarne Stroustrup' name in the list
Why the name of Bjarne Stroustrup was not included? 68.145.74.166 (talk) 18:16, 6 June 2008 (UTC)Raveendran


 * You're going to have to give us a clue about which list you're talking about. This is the Computing Reference Desk for all of Wikipedia (and beyond).  -- LarryMac  | Talk  18:31, 6 June 2008 (UTC)