Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Computing/2009 February 20

= February 20 =

Screencasting software
Which free screencasting software do you recommend for Windows? (Which one for Linux in case I should finally switch in the near future?) Criteria are ... am I forgetting something? I have never used one before. Thanks! --Thanks for answering (talk) 03:13, 20 February 2009 (UTC)
 * not slowing down my computer
 * size of output files (I'm talking about recordings of approx. 2 hours each!)
 * audio quality (video quality is secondary)
 * probably doesn't exist, though it'd be sweet: recording different parts of the screen with different resolution (most of it, I don't need at all; other stuff I need only with very low resolution; etc.)
 * Do you use firefox? If so there is a ff addon that does screencasting . You may also want to view Wikipedia's category page and you might find something good. Category:Screencasting software. -- penubag  (talk) 05:24, 20 February 2009 (UTC)


 * Yes, I'm using Firefox. And I'm familiar with Wikipedia's category page (I linked to the list, which is even more comprehensive because it also includes programs for whom we don't have articles yet), but I'd prefer specific recommendations rather than randomly trying what's out there. --Thanks for answering (talk) 10:41, 20 February 2009 (UTC)

Anyone any ideas? --Thanks for answering (talk) 21:36, 26 February 2009 (UTC)

free virus scan
Which free virus scan program do you recommend? Criteria are Thanks! --Thanks for answering (talk) 03:13, 20 February 2009 (UTC)
 * finding viruses etc. !!! (well, obviously!)
 * not slowing down my computer
 * What operating system to you use? Algebraist 03:16, 20 February 2009 (UTC)


 * Well, I can tell you one I don't recommend: AVG Free. It comes with the added bonus of making one's browser unstable when one does a Google search. (Or maybe I'm just an idiot, but I prefer the first option). Avast! is okay. IIRC, though, its interface is a little confusing. I haven't encountered an antivirus program that slows down my computer since I quit using Norton. Hermione1980 03:27, 20 February 2009 (UTC)


 * Are you looking to download antivirus software or just interested in a scan that doesn't remove viruses? If you just want the scan, Kaspersky Labs, as most other antivirus companies have free scans on their website. Kaspersky Labs was rated the best antivirus program so I might try them  http://usa.kaspersky.com/products_services/free-virus-scanner.php -- penubag  (talk) 05:30, 20 February 2009 (UTC)
 * I would highly recommend the NOD32 anitvirus software. Works wonders for me! La   Al qu im  is ta  07:09, 20 February 2009 (UTC)
 * Are all of these free like how the OP wanted? Jay (talk) 10:24, 20 February 2009 (UTC)


 * I've just started to use Avast! On the plus side, it can do a boot-time scan which other free anti-viri cannot. On the negative, it is very irritating that it hogs the computer and makes it unusable for several minutes everytime you start the computer. There seems to be no way of turning this off. As a result I have been thinking of returning to AVG or some other program. 89.241.159.155 (talk) 10:24, 20 February 2009 (UTC)

Sorry, I forgot: Yes, I'm using Windows. (To some extent, I'm also interested in Linux--I'm still hoping to switch oen of these days...) I've been using AVG for quite a while now, and it really slows down my computer and eats a lot of power. I've also heard rumors that it isn't the most reliable... - And yes, I want to remove the viruses/spyware/etc.--I'm not a zoo. ("And here we have a beautiful specimen of a xy virus!") ... But that's probably not what you meant? - And what's the advantage of doing online checks/scans? I generally prefer to be able to do everything offline for a multitude of reasons (incl. simply being able to switch off my modem and save a bit power)... but maybe there's an advantage that I'm not aware of? - Thanks, thanks, Thanks for answering (talk) 10:41, 20 February 2009 (UTC)

Well, most of the above mentioned software, if not free, can be easily downloaded via torrent, along with their cracks and patches. That's what I did, and my anti-virus can now update itself regularly from the original website without having to worry about neat little labels stuck to their side claiming that I've been a victim of software counterfeiting!! 117.194.227.135 (talk) 12:13, 20 February 2009 (UTC)


 * I've been using AVG on my Windows Vista laptop with no problems at all. Astronaut (talk) 12:50, 20 February 2009 (UTC)
 * I tend to find AVG can slow down a PC, but only when doing its automated scans. If you time them right, you shouldn't notice a thing. - Jarry1250 (t, c) 22:24, 20 February 2009 (UTC)


 * OK, my 2-cents. The big 3 in the free market right now seem to be: AVG, Avast!, and Avira.  There's good and bad in all.  Avira lately has placed higher in virus detection rates - but I don't like the popup ads (and as of yet haven't been able to turn them off)  Avast! places very high in overall ratings - but the user interface is a little different, and some folks have complained about their difficulty in understanding it.  AVG does well in the overall - but may miss a few of the newer viruses in it's attempt to find the spyware.  PC-Tools also has a package, but it seems to be a hit-and-miss package at the moment. .  On the torrent / P2P packages - we're probably not supposed to advocate such things.  Anytime you go the route of downloading "cracked" software, you run a real risk of picking up a trojan dropper.  While one might risk that if they had total faith in their AV program - I'm not sure I'd want to pick up the actual AV program through that route.  All IMHO. — Ched (talk) 13:33, 21 February 2009 (UTC)


 * Oh ... almost forgot. You may want to look through this page List of antivirus software.  It'll give you an idea of the feature sets of each. — Ched (talk) 13:37, 21 February 2009 (UTC)

Video Editing Software
I want a nice and clean little video-editing software, which is better than the crap Windows MovieMaker is.(It drastically reduces the quality of the original clips I provide.) Any ideas where I might find one?? I've got this handful of clips that I want to paste together, add a bit of background music, and do all that's neccessary to convert it into a lovely little music video for my friends. La  Al qu im  is ta  07:39, 20 February 2009 (UTC)
 * Nero is pretty nice and you can get a free 15-day trial at their website. An online solution is OneTrueMedia, which has decent editing capabilities and will help you to either stream it online for free (or pay for higher def) or purchase a custom DVD. --Eustress (talk) 09:02, 20 February 2009 (UTC)
 * Sony's Vegas Video is powerful and easy to use. I strongly recommend it. There's also Avid, but it's used mostly by production studios.--K;;m5m k;;m5m (talk) 09:07, 20 February 2009 (UTC)
 * Avidemux works well for me. Simple interface, lots of features and supports most formats. To join lots of clips, open the first one and then go File -> Append and select the next and so on. For the music go Audio -> Main track and change the source to external mp3 or WAV. SN0WKITT3N  13:36, 20 February 2009 (UTC)
 * I agree with K;;m5m, Sony Vegas is fantastic software. You might also try the 15-day trial of Adobe Premiere CS4 (since the trial's only time limited). miquonranger03 (talk) 14:55, 20 February 2009 (UTC)

VBScripting and HTML
In an HTML document when you put the scripts in the head tags how do you access them in the body tags. For instance when the Submit button for a form is pressed how do you make it so that it doesn't display a message box but rather a math result is displayed in a textbox. And do you have to use a Function statement to write the process and a Sub statement to use it. And are the syntaxes for VBScripting in an HTML document and for a normal program-like script the same. --Melab±1 &#9742; 18:28, 20 February 2009 (UTC)


 * Rather than try to explain all the ins and outs of scripting here, I will instead recommend that you check out the W3Schools VBScript tutorial. There's a lot of great information there.  -- LarryMac  | Talk  18:37, 20 February 2009 (UTC)

JavaScript
What's wrong with this code? I'm not getting any output. Thanks -Magic.Wiki (talk) 18:42, 20 February 2009 (UTC)
 * Is it better now? - Jarry1250 (t, c) 18:47, 20 February 2009 (UTC)
 * I think the thing you have to do is put a "+" between two strings you want to concatenate together. You're not doing that in 'document.write("y="y);'.  Also, if you're using Firefox, install the Firebug extension; it'll let you see error messages that your JavaScript produces.  (Normally, when an error occurs in JavaScript code, it stops executing and it doesn't do whatever it was supposed to do.) -- Why Not A Duck 18:52, 20 February 2009 (UTC)
 * I didn't realise pastebin wouldn't show my correction automatically. In short, WNAD is right, I think. - Jarry1250 (t, c) 18:57, 20 February 2009 (UTC)

Ah,thanks a lot. Installing Firebug now Magic.Wiki (talk) 19:19, 20 February 2009 (UTC)

onclick
Javascript noob here, for img_ex.setAttribute("onclick", "expandImagesPartial"); how can I instead make it automatically "onclick" rather than requiring user input? Many thanks —Preceding unsigned comment added by 82.43.88.87 (talk) 22:11, 20 February 2009 (UTC)


 * Javascript's 'onload', perhaps? –  7 4   23:32, 20 February 2009 (UTC)
 * Thanks

Troubleshooting old software
Okay, here's the story. I have an ancient Windows 98 computer (First edition) that I was using way back when I was very young. My parents had loaded the computer with Juno Online Services (at that time version 5 I think?) in order to establish a dial-up connection to gain access to the Internet. That worked fine, until one day it just stopped working. I don't know if was my fault (as the only interest in computers for me at that time was games) or some glitch/bug or whatever. Now that I'm older and wiser (maybe), I'd like to see what could have possibly caused the error. After that day, everytime someone tried to run the Juno program to connect to the Internet, it would result in an "invalid page fault". Uninstalling/reinstalling did not help, as it would result in the same error. JUNO caused an invalid page fault in module VARONAY.DLL at 0167:035d624c. Registers: (a bunch of register stuff} Bytes at CS:EIP: (a bunch of byte stuff} Stack dump: (a bunch of stack dump stuff) After that a similar error would appear, except with "module ". I searched high and low for what varonay.dll could possibly be, but no luck. All I know now is that it's some form of adware (clkoptimizer) as tagged by my antivirus on my laptop (I nor my parents had known much about antiviruses back in the day, so we just used a preinstalled trial version of McAfee which has long since expired). So, I'm asking any of you who are much more intimate with these types of errors to offer any suggestions, help, advice, etc. Perhaps then maybe internet access would then again be possible... Thanks.  V ic93 (t/c) 23:45, 20 February 2009 (UTC)


 * Get Process Explorer and see where varonay.dll is. You can then see the description for the DLL. --wj32 t/c 04:31, 21 February 2009 (UTC)


 * Using Process Explorer v11.11 (seeing as how later versions do not work on Win98), it shows varonay.dll being located in C:\WINDOWS (I had already known this), but the description, company name, and version number are all blank.  V ic93 (t/c) 16:56, 21 February 2009 (UTC)
 * A guess I could make is that something (a game install?) replaced that VARONAY.DLL. Graeme Bartlett (talk) 21:01, 21 February 2009 (UTC)

Okay well I downloaded and installed BitDefender Free Edition to my Windows 98. It detected quite a few viruses, trojans, and adware, but was unable to remove them. I booted up into Safe Mode to try and run a scan, but I wasn't able to open the BitDefender interface to initiate it. So can anyone recommend a free good antivirus compatible with Windows 98 that can be run under safe mode? I guess the first step is to get rid of all the malware present before trying to diagnose the error (it may even be related).  V ic93 (t/c) 22:13, 22 February 2009 (UTC)