Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Computing/2009 December 27

= December 27 =

Old Computer/s
Is there any possible way to donate it/them?--Jessica A Bruno (talk) 02:05, 28 December 2009 (UTC)

Have been thinking about donating my current computer and my dad's old computer. Rather switch from Microsoft Windows based to Apple Mac altogether. As for the computers that I want to donate. Both of them are Dell and are almost 3 1/2 years old and one has Microsoft Windows Vista Business on it. At the same time one of them is in good shape. Expect some what messed because of security and etc. Another one is messed up big time because it has Ubuntu and no longer has Windows on it.

Believe this is it for now. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Jessicaabruno (talk • contribs) 17:56, 26 December 2009 (UTC)
 * Do you have a question? I'm not sure what your saying-- Jac 16888 Talk 17:59, 26 December 2009 (UTC)

My question is in the subject line of here.--Jessica A Bruno 18:07, 26 December 2009 (UTC)
 * Well who do you want to donate the computers to? -- Jac 16888 Talk 18:09, 26 December 2009 (UTC)

Have no clue whom to donate them to. Expect Apple Mac if I do indeed get a new one and which is a mac.--Jessica A Bruno 19:10, 26 December 2009 (UTC)


 * May I suggest that you advertise them on Freecycle?.    D b f i r s   18:37, 26 December 2009 (UTC)

Interesting, but no thank you. Please see above your answer to my question concerning whom I would prefer to donate them to. --Jessica A Bruno 19:10, 26 December 2009 (UTC)
 * sorry but you're making no sense at all. Do you want to know who to donate them too? How to donate them?-- Jac 16888 Talk 19:13, 26 December 2009 (UTC)


 * Questions in the reference desk should consist of a title plus a question plus optionally some explanation. You have a title okay but no question. Questions in general start with something like 'What', 'Why', 'Where', 'Who', 'When', 'Is there', or 'How' and end with a question mark '?'. The following is both an example of a question and a question: Have you got a question? Dmcq (talk) 23:56, 26 December 2009 (UTC)
 * This being Wikipedia, we have a whole article devoted to what a question is! Mitch Ames (talk) 00:37, 27 December 2009 (UTC)
 * +1, Dmcq. Comet Tuttle (talk) 08:19, 27 December 2009 (UTC)


 * I'm going to assume you are thinking of donating these two computers to some charitable concern but are unsure how to go about this. There are small charities which will accept computers as donations, for example googling "computers for the disabled" quickly led to this UK based charity.  I'm sure you could come up with some search terms to find something to suit your location and favourite charitable cause.  That said, some charities are reluctant to accept any electrical appliance for resale out of fear of the potential liability should that appliance electrocute someone.
 * As an aside, giving away two relatively new computers simply because you think you have messed up the operating systems or you just don't get on with that operating system, is a pretty expensive and drastic solution.  In my experience, Dell always supplies the necessary disks to let you reinstall the operating system, and there are plenty of free alternatives out there.  Astronaut (talk) 02:02, 27 December 2009 (UTC)


 * I don't understand the question either, but would echo Astronaut and my own previous response to one of your threads: Your computer with Ubuntu is not "messed up big time" because it has Ubuntu on it and not Windows; all you have to do is reinstall the operating system.  If you're insistent on getting rid of them, then I'd also echo Astronaut and recommend you make some phone calls before driving over to a charity; some US charities specifically say they don't want PCs &mdash; I have assumed this is because of the high likelihood that they are misconfigured in some way, and the end user will be unhappy with the computer; and no charity has enough donated volunteer time from skilled IT workers to configure computers for this purpose.  Comet Tuttle (talk) 08:17, 27 December 2009 (UTC)

Sorry, for all of the trouble that I caused and fixed everything that needed to be fixed.--Jessica A Bruno (talk) 02:05, 28 December 2009 (UTC)


 * Don't worry about any trouble - you didn't cause any - and you don't need to delete your questions (out of embarassment?) as you have previously - just ask very clear questions in the future, and you're likely to get good answers here. Comet Tuttle (talk) 04:25, 28 December 2009 (UTC)

Router ports in stealth mode
Hi. I need to open a bunch of TCP and UDP ports on my router due to the requirements of a PS3 game. I believe that I have opened the ports, but a scan on ShieldsUp! indicates that all the ports are in stealth mode. I think that a port can be open, but be in stealth mode, so that it receives data but does not give a response, and I assume that is what is happening in this case. Is that right? Also, I am forwarding the ports onto the static IP of my PS3. By doing this am I reducing (or removing) the ability of an intruder to connect to the other machines on the network? BTW I have a Netgear DG834G router. Thanks in advance for any help. AnyPortInAStorm (talk) 02:57, 27 December 2009 (UTC)
 * No. "Open" means the router sent a SYN/ACK flag to the scanner. "Closed" means it sent a RST flag. "Stealth" means the connection timed out, and the router is dropping the packets without responding. So, the router did not accept those connections. By the way, TCP connections will not work without a response. UDP is connectionless, but not TCP.--Drknkn (talk) 03:23, 27 December 2009 (UTC)
 * Well, the router could be forwarding the packets to the PS3, but the PS3 might be the one dropping the packets. I think that's what the OP was asking, although their terminology wasn't quite right. OP, see our article on port forwarding if you haven't already. Indeterminate (talk) 05:35, 27 December 2009 (UTC)

Wireless connection on Xubuntu
Ok, so I just installed Xubuntu on my (sister's) laptop, because her laptop was fubar and the only way I could see to fix it was to reinstall Windows (which I don't have a CD for) so I installed Xubuntu instead. Since this is pretty much the first time I've ever used Linux, I'm having some trouble figuring somethings out. Namely, how to connect to my wireless router. It connects automatically when I plug it into the router with just an ethernet cable, but since it's a laptop I'd like it to be able to work wireless. On Windows there's that list of available wireless networks, but I can't seem to find anything like that on Xubuntu. Could someone give me a hint, please?

Extra info: The laptop is a dell, and the router is Netgear. Digger3000 (talk) 05:31, 27 December 2009 (UTC)


 * Did you install the latest (9.10 aka karmic koala) version? See here for everything else, especially for troubleshooting. . --88.194.194.181 (talk) 18:12, 27 December 2009 (UTC)
 * If you connect the laptop to the router with an ethernet cable then you can use that internet long enough to get the necessary driver software. If you play around enough, a window will come up that mentions drivers to install. If that doesn't work, ask here: http://ubuntuforums.org/forumdisplay.php?f=336 Lolita chan (talk) 19:20, 29 December 2009 (UTC)

Using a TV to hook up to a Projector - TV requirments for resolution, quality, size, etc?
There is a room in which I want to watch TV. It has a cable out and a projector, but no TV. I want to use a TV primarily as a means so that I can watch TV with my group of people using the projector. So I plan on buying a TV, hooking the cable up to the TV, and then hooking up the TV video-out to the projector.

I assume, and correct me if I'm wrong, that a lower size and lower resolution TV will result in a worse projected picture.

So what minimum size (in inches) and resolution do people reccomend I get? The projector is nothing special but it will blow the picture up. The TV will serve no other immediate purpose than to be this conduit.

Thanks for any advice you can give.  S m a u g  05:43, 27 December 2009 (UTC)


 * I'm not sure whether I am understanding your question correctly, but are you just wishing to project cable TV? If so, then you don't actually need a TV, just a cable decoder with suitable output (which might be contained in a TV).  The quality of the projected image depends on the output of the decoder (and on the projector of course).  This output might or might not correlate with the picture quality of the TV.  I would first determine what resolution your projector can achieve (should be stated in the specifications), then make sure you can match this from your chosen video-output.  I assume that your projector has only Composite video input (where you lose quality because of analogue modulation of an RF signal).  If your projector has a modern digital input, then using this will avoid loss of quality.    D b f i r s   08:14, 27 December 2009 (UTC)


 * I do this at home. I have no conventional television, but I have a DVR from Verizon, that contains a television tuner, connected to an overhead projector. You may be interested in a TiVo or a TV tuner card or a Cable card.  Samsung makes HDTV Tuners including the DTB-H260F, SMT-H3090, and SMT-H3050.  You do not want a conventional television for this purpose because, if I understand your question, you will not be using the very expensive screen that is a part of the television.  You simply want to make use of the television tuner inside the television.  From here there are a few choices.  You should decide whether you want to pay for cable television, or use an HD antenna to receive TV signals.  That decision will help you narrow your choices.   The projector's capabilities will determine whether you can display HD content.  You want a television tuner that can make full use of your projector.  If you want to display premium cable television HDTV content you'll need a projector and a television tuner that can handle at least 720p and the two should be connected via an HDMI cable. Jasondburkert (talk) 21:48, 28 December 2009 (UTC)

USB mouse stops working when new camera is plugged into alternate USB port
I'm not sure why this is happening, but whenever I plug my Nikon Coolpix S570 into my computer via the provided USB cable, my mouse stops working. This problem only happens when I plug in the camera. I've tried countless configurations (mouse in port 1, camera port 2, etc...) any suggestions or thoughts? Thank you.161.165.196.84 (talk) 05:45, 27 December 2009 (UTC)
 * There is a limit to how much power can be drawn from USB. Do you have many other things also plugged in to the USB? ... for example a USB hub, card reader, external disk, etc. Astronaut (talk) 10:18, 27 December 2009 (UTC)
 * Nope, when I am experiencing this problem the only things plugged in are the mouse, keyboard, and camera. At times I may have the aforementioned components (excluding camera) plus an iPod and a flash-drive plugged in, and everything works fine.  the problem only exists when the camera is plugged in.161.165.196.84 (talk) 11:23, 27 December 2009 (UTC)
 * Have you installed any drivers that may have come with the camera? Have you looked at the "Device Manager" utility when the camera is plugged in to see if there is any 'conflict' with the mouse? May help to say what operating system you are using ie. Widow XP/Vista other?. --220.101.28.25 (talk) 14:54, 27 December 2009 (UTC)
 * What make/model of mouse do you have? I ask because I think Astronaut has the right idea and that it's a power issue and some mice (especially "gaming grade" ones are rather power hungry. I used to have a Razer mouse that was very insistent (in the product literature) about where you had to plug it in because they said about needed lots of power. It could be that your mouse and camera combined want more power than your computer can supply (is this a laptop or a desktop?). If it's a desktop you could try one port round the back and one round the front (sorry I know you said tried lots of configurations). If it is a power issue then you would need to buy a powered USB hub which should be able to provide for the camera without an issue. ZX81  talk  23:00, 27 December 2009 (UTC)
 * There are numerous USB-related issues discussed on the http://www.nikon.com tech support forum. I suggest you first download and install their latest drivers - and if that doesn't help, call their tech support.  Obviously, what you're doing SHOULD work seamlessly. SteveBaker (talk) 18:16, 27 December 2009 (UTC)

Absurd calculation error?
While copying a large number of files to an external hard drive, I noticed an absurd calculation error: although I had less than 4GB to go, and although the transfer was going at about 15MB/second, the computer said that completing the transfer would take nearly fifty minutes. Since 4GB/15MB yields a time of less than 300 seconds, why does the computer think that it will take so much longer? Nyttend (talk) 18:39, 27 December 2009 (UTC)


 * I've noticed similar glitches in estimated time. I assume that the estimate is recalculated based on the files being copied at that time, and if there is some glitch in the copying process (possibly a large number of very small files, or the processor slowing because it is doing something else?), then the calculation assumes that the problem will continue for the remainder of the batch.    D b f i r s   19:02, 27 December 2009 (UTC)


 * You are not the only one. This is the relevant xkcd cartoon.  Comet Tuttle (talk) 01:06, 28 December 2009 (UTC)


 * Haha, I too was reminded of the xkcd comic :) &mdash; Deontalk 08:41, 28 December 2009 (UTC)

Maximizing a window
I want the main window of my Win32 application to enter fullscreen mode when the user maximizes it. To this end I read the WM_SYSCOMMAND message and scan for the SC_MAXIMIZE parameter. When found, I perform my own code to enter fullscreen mode. This works perfectly when the user maximizes the window by pressing the button at the top-right corner of the window, or when he selects the Maximize system (or taskbar) menu item. But if the user double-clicks the title bar, the window is maximized the normal way instead. How do I capture this event as well? NC_HITTEST? --Andreas Rejbrand (talk) 19:45, 27 December 2009 (UTC)


 * Would this be of any use to you? I hope this helps. JW.. &#91; T .. C  &#93;  23:12, 27 December 2009 (UTC)


 * That solved it! Thank you very, very much! --Andreas Rejbrand (talk) 23:19, 27 December 2009 (UTC)


 * Please consider making this behaviour a user selectable option in your program. Some users (myself included) prefer our software to follow the standard Windows conventions, ie "maximize" means maximize, not full screen. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Mitch Ames (talk • contribs)