Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Computing/2009 August 5

= August 5 =

Adobe Flash
I use Firefox, and whenever I go to a page with Flash material (Youtube, Facebook,, etc.), that material does not show up, instead displaying a Lego-like brick with "Click here to download plugin." A toolbar also appears at the top saying "Additional plugins are required to display all the media on this page" with an "Install missing plugins..." link. Clicking on either brings up an "Available Plugin Downloads" window displaying Adobe Flash Player. I click Next, and it tells me nothing was installed, but I can manually install, which takes me to the Adobe Flash Player download page. Nothing I do there works. When clicking to download and install it brings up "install_flash_player.exe", which I can save but nothing happens. According to the directions a window should ask me where to have it to.

The odd thing is that I also have Internet Explorer and all of these websites and their media using Flash work perfectly fine. This leads me to assume I already have Flash, but then why would everything on Firefox say I don't? Might it be because it isn't the most recent version? Why then can I still not even re-download it? Thanks!! Reywas92 Talk 01:24, 5 August 2009 (UTC)


 * The trick may be as easy as to find the downloaded install_flash_player.exe somewhere on your machine, and run it. Double-clicking it when it is in the download window is one way of doing this. Let us know how you get on. --Tagishsimon (talk) 01:28, 5 August 2009 (UTC)
 * But I can't find it. It did not create a desktop shortcut, and using the search function doesn't yield it. The funny thing it that when I click "save file" for that, the box just closes. It doesn't take any time to download or ask me where it goes at all. The troubleshooting doesn't help. But I know I do have Flash already, it just won't work on Firefox.
 * So I went back to IE and downloaded it, and it worked fine. Until it automatically opened this page on Firefox. "When you see the installation completion movie above and text below, your installation was successful." I can't see the movie. I copied the url back to IE, and it works! I'm completely lost. Thanks. Reywas92 Talk  01:46, 5 August 2009 (UTC)
 * IE plugins (which I believe are ActiveX plugins) are completely separate from plugins for other browsers. You have the Flash for IE plugin, but not the Flash for Firefox plugin. You need to run the installer for the Flash plugin for non-IE browsers to install it. You say you have trouble finding the file you downloaded. Well what happens when you usually download things? In Firefox, there is a setting for where things are downloaded to (Tools -> Options -> Main -> Downloads: Save files to...); maybe you should check there first. --131.179.160.144 (talk) 01:59, 5 August 2009 (UTC)
 * Or just double click the file from the Downloads window. --antilivedT 10:05, 5 August 2009 (UTC)


 * Go here http://get.adobe.com/flashplayer/ make sure you select the right browser and os. Click download. Yoy should then be here http://get.adobe.com/flashplayer/thankyou/?installer=Flash_Player_10_for_Windows_-_Other_Browsers
 * Ignore the save dialog box (close it). —Preceding unsigned comment added by 83.100.250.79 (talk) 12:28, 5 August 2009 (UTC)
 * Find the part that says "Your download will start automatically. If it does not start, click here to download"
 * Right click on the part "click here to download" and select "save as" - save it somewhere you can easily find it, eg the desktop. (ie click on desktop in the save dialog box).
 * Once it has downloaded, look on the desktop for a red box. Double click, and install.
 * Hopefully nothing can go wrong.83.100.250.79 (talk) 12:26, 5 August 2009 (UTC)

Importing fonts
Once you have a TrueType font file saved to your Fonts folder, can you get GIMP or Paint to interact with them, do they need to be imported? etc.  • S • C  • A • R  • C • E •   02:25, 5 August 2009 (UTC)


 * What do you mean by "interact"? Do you want to edit a font? That requires a different program, like FontForge. I don't know about GIMP, but you can also type some text into Adobe Illustrator (even a single character), convert that text into vector shapes (Type --> Create Outlines), and then modify the shapes of the letters. If you just want to type text in the font without modification, then why don't you try it yourself? What a strange choice of words.--WinRAR anodeeven (talk) 05:15, 5 August 2009 (UTC)
 * It's generally not a good idea on here to get on people's cases about incorrect technical language — the reason that many are asking here is because they don't know the proper name of what they are inquiring about, and thus can't Google it or do other obvious modes of investigation. It's also not a great idea to compare apples-and-oranges programs (Illustrator is a vector graphics program; GIMP and Paint are bitmap graphic programs, and they don't have a whole lot to do with one another). --98.217.14.211 (talk) 14:02, 5 August 2009 (UTC)
 * Yeah, I know the difference between vectors and bitmaps. We still don't know whether he wants to edit a font or type some text. And that's why I mentioned Illustrator.--WinRAR anodeeven (talk) 18:18, 5 August 2009 (UTC)
 * Gimp automatically imports any new fonts during start-up, if this is what you are asking. --KageTora - (영호 (影虎)) (talk) 13:44, 5 August 2009 (UTC)


 * If you put it in the Fonts folder, it should show up in the programs once you restart them. --98.217.14.211 (talk) 13:51, 5 August 2009 (UTC)


 * Yay! Look what I created! Thank you everyone  • S • C  • A • R  • C • E •   20:32, 5 August 2009 (UTC)



which filter
hi friends, i am using image processing in matlab for analyzing flames(flickering study).i would be goin for some further processing.kindly let me know which matlab filter to use for the data obtained.for your information ,no filters were used(in front of camera) for taking images. SCI-hunter (talk) —Preceding undated comment added 03:39, 5 August 2009 (UTC).

avg 8.5
how do I go about putting avg 8.5 on my computer, when it does nothing whenever I try to download it, and the one I already have refuses to work either or to uninstal from my computer?

I've tried deleting all of it and putting it back, but then I searched for avg and there are thousands of programs with those letters in and I don't know which ones to remove.

88.108.18.179 (talk) 09:50, 5 August 2009 (UTC)


 * The 8.5 installation removes all prior versions, so you should concentrate on understanding either why the download of 8.5 is failing, or why you are unable to run the downloaded installer. --Tagishsimon (talk) 12:30, 5 August 2009 (UTC)


 * Avg8 is one of an increasing number of anti-virus programs (following on from Norton and McAfee) which need a separate removal tool for successful removal. This is because uninstalling them does not remove Registry entries, which will interfere with later versions and/or other brands of AV programs. So first use this free uninstaller. - KoolerStill (talk) 14:28, 5 August 2009 (UTC)

Half the programs on my Mac can't seem to find the web
Hi All,

I have a Mac OS X 10.5.6. My browser (Firefox) and my email clients (Thunderbird and FirstClass) all work fine.

However, several programs have trouble either accessing the web or authenticating or something. If I run my Software Update, I get the message "Software Update can’t connect to the update server. Make sure you’re connected to the Internet, then try again. Software Update can't check for updates because of a network problem." I then click the Network Diagnostics button and the Network Diagnostics report nothing wrong -- it says I can connect to the web (which I can). Further, my RSS reader, Vienna, doesn't work, my Twitter application, Nambu, doesn't work, my new social application, EventBox, can't log into any of my services or read RSS, and every website that allows you to upload photos (Facebook, Flickr) fails when I try to do so.

This has been happening for about two weeks. Prior to this everything worked.

The fact that all these programs that fails seem to require some kind of authentication (except I guess the RSS readers...) makes me wonder if that could be the problem, but I really don't know.

Anyone have any clues as to what the problem could be?

Thanks! &mdash; Sam 76.24.222.22 (talk) 15:01, 5 August 2009 (UTC)

How do you access the web? Is there any settings in the router you use that may be causing a conflict? If the router you have has a built in firewall it may be a setting in the firewall that is prevent the apps connecting. 194.221.133.226 (talk) 15:43, 5 August 2009 (UTC)


 * Try checking out your OS X firewall settings. System Preferences > Sharing > Firewall. You may want to try toggling it off temporarily to see if that changes anything. If it does, it may mean making some kind of exceptions for those programs. Though it is still very odd. --98.217.14.211 (talk) 15:58, 5 August 2009 (UTC)


 * Another thing: you say these issues began happening about two weeks ago. Did you install a new program then? Make a change in your system or program preferences? Install a new router? Install a VOIP system (such a Vonage device) between the internet and your router/computer? ··· 日本穣 ? · 投稿  · Talk to Nihonjoe 20:13, 5 August 2009 (UTC)

Browser plug-ins and HTTP referrer
Under what circumstances, if any, will a link opened from within a browser plugin (e.g. Flash, Java, Adobe Reader, word processor) generate an HTTP referrer? Neon Merlin  19:19, 5 August 2009 (UTC)
 * Referrer headers are optional, so it's up to the browser and/or plugin. For what it's worth, I just tried it with a Java applet, and it did indeed send the referrer header.  --Sean 20:07, 5 August 2009 (UTC)
 * You can also disable referrer headers in Firefox: instructions here. Nimur (talk) 20:31, 5 August 2009 (UTC)

I couldn't get on the Internet
My computer information is here:

It may have been a problem so minor I didn't need to call tech support.

I couldn't get a straight answer on whether this was connected, but I'll ask anyway.

Instead of a dial tone, I heard the sound I get when I misdial and get a fax machine number. I hung up and there was a dial tone. So I was all right.

Three hours later I turned on the computer and clicked on the blue E. The screen was blank and the circle kept rotating. I tried clicking on the Yahoo button. Same thing. I just got Internet Explorer 8 and I couldn't figute out how to diagnose connection problems. It won't let me click there. At one point there was a screen with the number of emails I have (I must not have deleted that Monday, but there waa no history showing that it should be there). I clicked and was told I needed to be on the Internet so I clicked where it said to. Still nothing. I kept going back and forth from online to offline. At one point I unplugged the modem and plugged it back in, but that didn't seem to change anything. The modem lights were normal, and the light on the back of the computer was normal.

I finally made the phone call. I never really did anything different that I know of, but it finally just came up.

When I asked about the noise that I heard instead of the dial tone, the girl said something about changing something in my computer. But despite the box that comes up saying I am using dial-up, it is actually not. There is a splitter at each phone jack. Vchimpanzee ·  talk  ·  contributions  · 21:22, 5 August 2009 (UTC)


 * It is not a permanent problem. You appear to have an excellent computer, and I believe you do use dial-up Internet service, which just means you use a modem to connect to the Internet over a phone line.  The "fax machine sound" you heard is called a carrier tone and it's just the sound of the computer on the other end of the phone line, picking up the phone and starting to communicate with your computer.  (If you want to hear this ruckus "live", connect to the Internet, start downloading a Wikipedia page, pick up the phone, and enjoy the computers' screaming at each other.  Picking up the phone, by the way, will disrupt your connection and you'll have to make the computer hang up and call again.)  That time you heard it, your computer for some reason did not start doing any communicating.  Nothing is broken in your computer; this happens occasionally.  By the way, if you frequently get connection problems, I would recommend finding out about getting "always-on" broadband service, either via a cable modem from your cable TV company, via DSL from your phone company, or via FiOS if Verizon services your neighborhood with it.  It's faster, and problems with disconnected signals are much rarer when connecting via broadband.  Tempshill (talk) 21:53, 5 August 2009 (UTC)


 * Did you change your modem or its drivers recently? Try going to modem settings, and where it says "listen for dial tone" or similar, untick it. That way it will try to put your request onto the line whether it recognises a dial tone or not. If the line is available, the number will go through. But if it's available, but for some reason making unusual sounds, it won't refuse to try on the grounds that it's "not a dial tone". (This was always necessary with cheap imported modems that were set up for the dial tones of some other country). Of course it the line is truly occupied, you still won't get a connection. So make sure the splitters are properly tightly plugged in and no real phone is off the hook. -KoolerStill (talk) 07:02, 6 August 2009 (UTC)


 * I do have DSL. I haven't had a problem in months. The last time the modem lights even blinked was during a thunderstorm. My last call to tech support was in January. Vchimpanzee ·  talk  ·  contributions  · 17:42, 6 August 2009 (UTC)