Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Computing/2009 February 10

= February 10 =

e-books - free download sources -
kindly indicate what are the free download sources for e-books on chemical engineering other than gigapdeia.com 05:27, 10 February 2009 (UTC)~  —Preceding unsigned comment added by Sathyanarayanan.d (talk • contribs)
 * Do you have any particular books in mind? --76.167.241.45 (talk) 06:07, 10 February 2009 (UTC)
 * Surely, the authors of specialist chemical engineering text books should be paid for their work. Why not go an buy the titles you want from a local bookshop or from an online seller.  Astronaut (talk) 12:28, 10 February 2009 (UTC)
 * The questioner may be in a third-world country where such books would be a) unavailable and b) fabulously expensive compared to the local incomes. 78.146.185.139 (talk) 12:36, 10 February 2009 (UTC)
 * wikibooks.org/wiki/Chemical_Engineering SN0WKITT3N  15:32, 10 February 2009 (UTC)
 * Legal or illegal? If legal, you probably won't have too much luck (though you could try Wikibooks). If illegal, any of the various major torrent trackers would get you what you want (see ) (this is not an endorsement of illegally downloading books - it is merely providing factual information). -- Aseld  talk  03:32, 14 February 2009 (UTC)

ADI Soundmax driver
Hi.

I work for a primary school, and I need to buy laptops with an uncomplicated sound-card driver. This is proving a challenge.

Most laptops come with a Realtek card, which has an almost unavoidable system tray application, with echo settings, pitch shift, etc - the kids change the settings, accidentally and mischievously, so that when it comes to a music lesson or a lesson using audio-books, by the time I've got all the computers back to normal the lesson has ended.

I've been recommended a machine with an ADI SoundMAX AD1984A card, but, frustratingly, no-one can tell me whether this comes with a system tray application or not, or if it does, whether it's optional. Does anyone have any experience with ADI high definition soundcards? --Hugh Charles Parker (talk - contribs) 14:44, 10 February 2009 (UTC)


 * Couldnt you just Disable the Tray icon —Preceding unsigned comment added by 83.70.133.226 (talk) 15:11, 10 February 2009 (UTC)


 * But not all system tray icons can be disabled. StuRat (talk) 15:19, 10 February 2009 (UTC)


 * One thought: The system tray is optional. I can kill it in Windows 98 with the Task Manager, by pressing, and picking "Systray".  Bill Gates seems to have "improved" this by making it much harder to find in Windows XP, and perhaps impossible in Windows Vista.  However, if you can kill it, this implies you could also stop it from launching during startup, by commenting out a line in a startup file.  Perhaps someone else can help you find that.  Doing so would not only stop the kids from messing with those settings, but would also protect other system settings, like the screen resolution.  Of course, they could get to them through the menu system, still, but that's more work.


 * Another thought is to get the kids themselves to check each setting at the end of each class. If they are set properly according to a page you have taped to the computer, they get a point towards their grade.  If the next student complains that something isn't set properly, the previous student loses their point for the day.  (You could check one computer's settings, the next time, if you suspect the second student of lying.) StuRat (talk) 15:19, 10 February 2009 (UTC)

Unsigned: Thanks, but there are other things in the system tray which I do need, and anyway the program launches itself sometimes without the systray icon being clicked on, for example when headphones are plugged in.

StuRat: Your "points" idea is good in principle, but impractical. It would a take five minutes at minimum from the end of each ICT lesson, and it isn't reasonable to expect the teachers to be keeping a note of which child was on which laptop.

Aside from both those points, I don't want to find mechanisms to cope with poorly designed software, I want to find good software. It's been suggested to me that the ADI Soundmax driver might not have the same problems - all I need is for someone with such a card running under windows to tell me whether it brings a system tray program with it. --Hugh Charles Parker (talk - contribs) 16:19, 10 February 2009 (UTC)


 * I certainly understand you wanting to find the answer to the original Q, and hopefully somebody else will help you with that. As for my points suggestion, I'd assign them automatically, unless the next kid who gets the laptop complains.  Thus, you don't need to write down anything for them getting the points, but only record if they don't get them.  You would need to keep track of who gets which laptop, though, and I suggest they sign them out at the start of each class.  Alternatively, if you have assigned seating and one laptop at each desk, no sign-out is needed.  I'd think you'd want to know which student used which laptop, in any event, in case they do something bad, like put dirty pics on the laptop or get food on it. StuRat (talk) 17:47, 10 February 2009 (UTC)
 * I would say the problem is not poorly designed software (imagine - soundcard software that let's you control the soundcard - oh no!) but a lack of discipline and responsibility from the students. However I do live in the real world and realise kids will be kids. What you need is a little utility that will restore the 'default' settings at a single click - suggest you ask your IT department to write a script to do this and have it on every PC - the first task of every student will be to quickly run this before starting work. Exxolon (talk) 22:29, 10 February 2009 (UTC)


 * The youngest children using these laptops are three years old. Yes, the fact that children are childish is part of my problem, but the software unequivocally is badly designed.  The driver has been conflated with an application, meaning that anyone who doesn't want the application can't get rid of it.  Yes, to be able to turn on the karaoke settings will be useful to some users, and they should be able to install the application, but those of us for whom that application is a fundamental show-stopper should be able to choose not to install it.  I have been explicitly informed by my one of my suppliers that the reason Realtek won't allow a vanilla version of the driver is that it would remove their advertising from all those system trays.


 * I am the IT department here, and as far as I can tell those settings aren't reliably scriptable - but even if they were, as I've said above, giving the teachers an extra thing to supervise at the end of the lesson isn't practical, as any primary school teacher will tell you.


 * Thanks to everyone who's given me advice on controlling children, but I'm not a teacher, and I'm really not interested in that - all I want to know is whether the ADI Soundmax driver comes with a built-in application, and if it does, whether it's optional. Does anyone have any experience with that soundcard?  --Hugh Charles Parker (talk - contribs) 09:43, 11 February 2009 (UTC)


 * As young as 3 years old ? That seems entirely too young to be using a laptop.  They have special "laptop-like" computers for young children that are made to survive the abuse they are likely to get, and also don't have settings that they can accidentally change. StuRat (talk) 15:14, 11 February 2009 (UTC)


 * Well, I can't speak specifically to that sound card, but it strikes me that a system tray icon is probably pretty far removed from the actual hardware driver. I suspect you could remove the icon by disabling the program running it (either by unhooking it from the operating system or just moving/deleting the system tray executable). If doing so causes the audio card to stop working, you can try using either a reference driver for that specific chipset or a generic Windows sound driver (you will lose the "enhanced" features, but simple audio should be possible). At the other extreme, if you are planning a large-scale purchase, write the desired behavior into the contract and let your supplier figure out how to make it happen. –  7 4   16:49, 11 February 2009 (UTC)

The original poster thanks everyone for their responses so far, but is still looking for an answer to the original Q. StuRat (talk) 15:14, 11 February 2009 (UTC)

WRT your request about SoundMax, this list should give you infos on the startup programs, which almost invariably result in systray icons. Also, this may not be practical either, but could you install something like "Deep Freeze" with the correct settings and then just have them restart the machine after the lesson? 150.250.43.254 (talk) 04:09, 12 February 2009 (UTC)

Internet Explorer 8
Hello, I was wondering if it is possible to install IE 8 without uninstalling IE 7. I just upgraded my friend's browser from IE 6 to 7, and noticed that it immediately uninstalled IE 6. Is there a way to prevent this from happening when I install IE *. Does it being still in semi-beta mode help? Thanks,  Genius  101 Guestbook  15:16, 10 February 2009 (UTC)
 * I don't know, but as a beta it may give you the option during setup to backup your previous version in case you wish to uninstall. You could also try one of the portable versions, see here or just search on google. SN0WKITT3N  16:20, 10 February 2009 (UTC)
 * A few months ago, I installed IE8 on one of my computers, but since my online bank did not work with it, I successfully uninstalled it (going back to IE7) using Windows Vista's usual control panel applet. However, the "uninstallability" might have been due to the fact that it was merely a beta version. --Andreas Rejbrand (talk) 16:42, 10 February 2009 (UTC)

Doing green screen in Blender
how do i do green screen stuff in Blender? i find plugins but no actual tutorials. can someone instruct me on how to green screen in blender (or at least a link to a tutorial). Thanks. Buffered Input Output 17:08, 10 February 2009 (UTC)


 * You do not use Blender for that. Blender is used to create 3D vector graphics, not to manipulate 2D raster graphics. --Andreas Rejbrand (talk) 17:25, 10 February 2009 (UTC)


 * I've never used it, but this tutorial is the first result when searching for — Matt Eason (Talk &#149; Contribs) 20:24, 10 February 2009 (UTC)


 * And another — Matt Eason (Talk &#149; Contribs)

More on Basic Linux / Ubuntu Administration
Greetings Wikipedians,

Hi, Me again. Have a couple more questions on basic administration with Ubuntu. We have around 10 systems on it now, with an 'Admin' account, and for normal users we have created 'Unprivileged' accounts.

1.) Back when we were still on XP, we used tightvnc for remote administration. It worked great. Now on Ubuntu, we've been doing ok with the built in vnc server, however, we came to 'discover' that we have to configure it with each account (that is, we login under each credential and setup the password and everything else). I was wondering if we could set it to run with our specified settings regardless of which user logs in. (Side note: the built in client on Ubuntu is awesome with its tabs/bookmarks)

2.) On a select few computers, we have to share a folder (on a second, partition, NTFS). We already have Samba installed, I made only 2 changes on /etc/samba/smb.conf (setting: usershare owner only = False, and the host description). Now same case as above, the share only becomes accessible when logged in as our admin account. Does it have anything to do with the fact that when the partition is mounted, admin/sudo privileges are required? We need it to be shared upon boot if possible. And how do we mount that share from other computers on login? How do we make mounts persistent across sessions?

3.) I realize that the menu items on the Panel are customizable, is a way to set the default menu items for unprivileged users (ie no System menu)?

Thank you ALL once again. Best Regards,

PrinzPH (talk) 17:12, 10 February 2009 (UTC)

4. (Edit, nearly forgot) When an unprivileged user tries to sudo, it says 'This incident will be reported', how do we check? PrinzPH (talk) 17:16, 10 February 2009 (UTC)


 * 4. By default, sudo logs to /var/log/syslog (search that for "sudo"); see man sudo for configuring it to log to its own log, or not at all. Mimetic Polyalloy (talk) 17:25, 10 February 2009 (UTC)

First mobile phone launched in india
Please let me know about the First mobile phone launched in India in full details Please. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 220.224.20.50 (talk) 18:28, 10 February 2009 (UTC)

MediaWiki look-alike
Is there a free wiki software that looks and acts like MediaWiki (if possible, using the same wiki-code), but is smaller and simpler to install and use? Thanks in advance, 99.224.117.66 (talk) 18:51, 10 February 2009 (UTC)


 * One of my uni tutors swears by DokuWiki. CaptainVindaloo t c e 19:01, 10 February 2009 (UTC)

JAMWiki is one of the the closest I've seen to a MediaWiki, don't know if it's easier to install. I'd stick with MediaWiki though as there is plenty of support and it's actively being developed. For a simple way to install it, try MoWeS portable (formally WOS) and see instructions here —Preceding unsigned comment added by 82.43.88.87 (talk) 20:25, 10 February 2009 (UTC)

Creating links in a channel design on YouTube
How can I create links in the header of my channel design like the ones on The Royal Channel? --217.227.97.200 (talk) 20:41, 10 February 2009 (UTC)


 * Become a youtube partner. --Hugh Charles Parker (talk - contribs) 09:30, 11 February 2009 (UTC)

Create a cross in 3ds max
Anyone any idea how I would create a cross shape in 3ds max? I remember SteveBaker mentioned modeling software tools a while back so tried this and Blender, dont like Blender steep learnig curve not many tutorials that I could find so have the trial version of 3ds max with plenty of tutorials. But I have been trying to create a cross and cant seem to get it right so any ideas or places I could find out thanks. BigDunc Talk 20:43, 10 February 2009 (UTC)


 * I don't know about that product, but can give some general techniques for building a cross:


 * A) Create a wire-frame cross and then extrude it to add depth. Add faces to make it a surface model.  From there you can create a skin/volume and solid.


 * B) Create a planar face in the shape of a cross and then extrude it to add depth. This should produce a solid.


 * C) Create two intersecting rectangular solids to represent the two pieces of the cross, then perform a Boolean union to combine them into a cross. StuRat (talk) 22:46, 10 February 2009 (UTC)


 * Did you say there were not many tutorials for blender?!? Nothing could be further from the truth!  I did a search for a friend of mine a few months ago and found LITERALLY thousands of them.  On YouTube alone, there are close to 3,000 videos that contain keywords "blender" and "tutorial".  On the blender.org site - under the education tab - there are hundreds and hundreds of text and video tutorials - plus those that are embedded right inside the modeller so you can work along with tutorial interactively.  SteveBaker (talk) 06:14, 12 February 2009 (UTC)

XP Install from USB
I'd like to install Windows XP on a laptop without a cd drive (I lost it) so is there a way to make a USB stick bootable install? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 82.43.88.87 (talk) 20:49, 10 February 2009 (UTC)
 * Never tried it myself, but a quick Google search results in plenty of results: . - Akamad (talk) 02:01, 11 February 2009 (UTC)

Make XP like Gnome/KDE
I haven't used Windows for anything much since Windows 3.1. Unfortunately, I have to do work for a few months on a managed PC that has Windows XP on it. What customizations are available in XP to make it function more like Gnome and/or KDE, such as window snapping, middle-click pasting, multiple desktops, etc... -- k a i n a w &trade; 21:21, 10 February 2009 (UTC)


 * Some of Microsoft's own Power Toys can give you some of what you want. -- LarryMac  | Talk  21:28, 10 February 2009 (UTC)


 * You might also want to have a look at Brico Packs for Theme Customization, and Deskspace for a compiz-like effect. HTH PrinzPH (talk) 22:08, 10 February 2009 (UTC)


 * This Google search may help. – El lio tt   22:46, 10 February 2009 (UTC)

Is there a way to make XP look and feel like Win 3.1? -- Toytoy (talk) 09:22, 11 February 2009 (UTC)

acer 1 wireless
hi i have just purchased acer 1 wireless,does anyone know the wireless site 'sitecom'. is it safe ?my acer is running linpus linux lite v1.0.7.e and i would like to add anti virus ,firewall,any body know of any good free ones.all replys greatly appreciated thanks. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Raggy*123 (talk • contribs) 22:28, 10 February 2009 (UTC)
 * Well hi there! From what i can tell sitecom is a safe site. As for you wanting an Anti Virus, generly with linux you dont need one, but if you want one i suggest that you download ClamAV(you may also want the GUI ClamTK). As for a firewall, i dont know of any for linux (then again, i never looked for one). I hope this helped. – El lio tt   22:44, 10 February 2009 (UTC)


 * Linux's firewall is iptables. As with the antivirus, you generally don't need it. --Carnildo (talk) 23:01, 11 February 2009 (UTC)

Photo Organizer
I heard recently of a picture organizer program with an unusual feature: you can search it by sketching the picture you can't find, and it will search for near-matches to your hapless scrawl. Has anyone else heard of this? Black Carrot (talk) 23:44, 10 February 2009 (UTC)


 * Wikipedia itself has: imgSeek. All the above, runs on most computers, and free as in speech and beer. Indeed, I installed it on one computer just yesterday, though I haven't tried the sketching function. -- Hoary (talk) 02:08, 11 February 2009 (UTC)
 * Is that something kind of like Grafitti on Palm OS? 76.5.24.16 (talk) 03:44, 11 February 2009 (UTC)

hi i 2 have just got the same system mozilla firefox should be allready on there let me look ok it should be in bookmarks on mine it says mozillafirefox with a right arrow there there is help and tutorials about and a few other things that will help my biggest prob is i cant run files that i downloaded im no expert im only learning all about this my self so i hope that helps yours catherine