Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Computing/2009 July 19

= July 19 =

Power Supply Problem?
I just bought a new "computer" (really just the motherboard (Foxconn NF4UK8AA), processor (AMD Athlon 64 something), RAM and video card (GeForce 9600GT)) and I'm trying to set it up.

The system boots to my old hard disk (Win XP SP2), but as soon as it gets about 5 seconds into the "Windows" loading screen, it Blue Screen of Death's and restarts. The BSOD happens too quickly to read the error. It does this in Safe Mode as well.

I suspect the problem is that my power supply isn't sufficient to power the video card. The PSU is a Sparkle FPS300 (300-watt). Many forum posts and other online sources seem to suggest that 400-500 watts is needed for this card.

I was hoping someone else might be able to bang their head against this diagnosis. Is a BSOD-restart midway through the Windows loading screen consistent with insufficient power? Does the PC run the card at low power until some point during the Windows startup?

I'm probably going to buy a 500w power supply at some point soon, but it would be nice to save the money if this was not the issue. NByz (talk) 02:57, 19 July 2009 (UTC)


 * Did you just move the old hard drive over into the new computer, without formatting or reinstalling windows? If the new computer is a significantly different architecture, that could be causing your bsod. Also, if you want to test the video card power issue, you could always just take the video card out and try booting the computer that way. If it still restarts automatically, it's probably not a power supply problem. Indeterminate (talk) 03:16, 19 July 2009 (UTC)


 * Just as Windows XP starts to load press F8 and the boot menu will come up (you may need to press it a few times, but it will appear). There's an option on that menu to disable the automatic restart on system failure so when it blue screens again you'll be able to read the message. However, I agree with User:Indeterminate and it's likely it's caused by the configuration having radically changed and Windows simply doesn't have the drivers installed for the new hardware. Unfortunately the only workaround for this would be to boot from an XP CD and try a repair or "upgrade" over the existing installation, but personally I find this can leave the system quite unstable and a clean install would be better (wiping the existing drive). Please be sure to make backups of the data on the hard drive BEFORE trying and repair or upgrade options though! ZX81  talk  03:34, 19 July 2009 (UTC)


 * I tried booting without the video card, but I can't tell if it auto-restarts. The light just stays on.  The video card is my only output.
 * Thanks for the tip on the avoid Auto-restart. The error was 0x0000007B.  Could be configuration related.
 * So now, my problem is that I don't have any bootable media handy. My version of XP is... less than registered, and I don't have the windows CD for a repair.  I might be able to get my hands on a bootable USB tomorrow.  I'm sure there are some windows XP CDs around somewhere...
 * The fact that the system will stay on with the blue screen makes me lean away from blaming the power supply.NByz (talk) 04:10, 19 July 2009 (UTC)
 * Chances are it's a software problem (i've had the same problem before). If you still have your old motherboard, temporarily install it. Windows should load with the old hardware installed. If it does, back up your data right away. You may ultimately need to reinstall Windows. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Dursty (talk • contribs) 04:33, 19 July 2009 (UTC)


 * Have you read this: ? 0x0000007B is INACCESSIBLE_BOOT_DEVICE. --wj32 t/c 05:19, 19 July 2009 (UTC)

Java
I installed the Java JDK for a class I'm sitting in on (the teacher wants to use this as). I download this vers: JDK 6 Update 14 with JavaFX SDK- the first one and installed it correctly I think. I'm not really sure but when I run javafxc in cmd prompt it at least shows it's there. I'm a real beginner at programming in general so to test it I put a simple Hello World program into Notepad ++ and saved it as test.fx (for some reason unknown to me it uses Javafx, javafxc, and files at .fx not .java) and when I try to compile it I get an error me ssage. I tried copying and pasting the program from multiple sources and I get the same error every time. Heres my code: class HelloWorldApp { public static void main(String[] args) { System.out.println("Hello World!"); // Display the string. } } and heres my error:

C:\Users\MyName\Documents>javafxc test.fx test.fx:2: Sorry, I was trying to understand a 'class' decleration member but I got confused when I saw 'void' which is an  identifier public static void main(String[] args){

test.fx:4: Sorry, I was trying to understand the script contents but I got confused when I found an extra '}' that shouldnot be there.

To me its inexplicable- the code is right I'm sure. Anyway, any help is greatly appreciated. 66.133.202.209 (talk) 04:14, 19 July 2009 (UTC)
 * The code is right, but javafxc is used for JavaFX -- not Java. Try saving it as .java and using javac instead of javafxc. -- aktsu (t / c) 04:25, 19 July 2009 (UTC)
 * Also, since the class is called "HelloWorldApp" you need to save it as "HelloWorldApp.java". -- aktsu (t / c) 04:29, 19 July 2009 (UTC)


 * That is only partially correct. The file name does not need to match the class name because, in this case, the class is not public. However, the extension does need to be .java. Bendono (talk) 15:52, 19 July 2009 (UTC)


 * Unfortunatly for me the download I used didn't install javac. When I try to run it, cmd propmt tells me it's not a recognized command. Anything better that I could download? I'm not sure how to install the gnu compiler. Thanks though. 66.133.202.209 (talk) 05:02, 19 July 2009 (UTC)


 * I suggest you go back to the JavaSE download page and choose the "Java SE Development Kit - JDK 6 Update 14" a little further down the page (ie. not the one with JavaFX). Astronaut (talk) 15:36, 19 July 2009 (UTC)


 * Well I ran write and run normal programs in the NetBeans ide. Regarding not finding javac its my dumbness actually. What I have to do is change my dir in the cmd prompt to C:\Program Files\Java\jdk_1.6.0_14\bin. However every time I want to compile a program I need to come back here and then whereever my file is saved I have to include that in the command (i.e javac C:\Users\...myfile.java). I tried to to -sourcepath to where I'm saving the files but it say's I'm making an error and I'm not even sure if that is the right thing to do so any help here would be appreciated66.133.202.209 (talk) 20:28, 19 July 2009 (UTC)


 * It sounds like you need to add javac's directory to your PATH. For XP at least, to change this you can right-click My Computer, click Properties. Go to the Advanced tab, and click the Environment Variables button at the bottom. Find the "PATH" variable in the bottom panel, and edit it to add the folder that javac is in to the list of folders. That way the cmd prompt should be able to find javac from anywhere. Indeterminate (talk) 21:14, 19 July 2009 (UTC)


 * Thanks! That worked for me at least. btw any particular reason that it wasn't automatically installed there when I installed the jdk? I'm thinking it normally should be. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 66.133.202.209 (talk) 22:10, 19 July 2009 (UTC)


 * There doesn't seem to be a problem with the installation from what you have mentioned. Adding javac's directory to the PATH is not the installation's responsibility, but of the user who wants to use it. Jay (talk) 10:15, 22 July 2009 (UTC)

How can I increase My blog's Page Rank
I have a blog http://www.herbalgranny.com and it has pr 1 but I am trying to increase its pr but no results since last many days. Any Suggestion ? what to do ? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Sonaliindore (talk • contribs) 06:33, 19 July 2009 (UTC)
 * You should read PageRank - basically, at the most fundamental level it requires that other sites, link to you, the higher the page rank of the site linking to you the better.
 * I removed the link from the title, as it makes this post look like spam, and also makes it difficult to create a hyperlink to this section.83.100.250.79 (talk) 09:46, 19 July 2009 (UTC)


 * Rather than intentionally trying to manipulated the results - which is a way to ensure lng term total insignificance, I recommend trying to advertise any interesting articles you have written, try creating a list of sites that might be interested in your content, and you could e-mail them if you have an interesting story. Also may blogs link to each other - try to find blogs and sites that you like, and link to them. You could leave them a message saying that you likeed their blog, and suggest they look at yours. They might like it too, and link to you.


 * At the end there is no substitute for original content. And don't spam!83.100.250.79 (talk) 09:52, 19 July 2009 (UTC)


 * Best way to increase your PageRank is to put links of your blog in other sites with higher page rank, this is the more efficient / fastest way to increase your page rank

Setting up DNS server to allow access of stored files
I put files in the space allocated by my webhost via FTP. When I try to access them, I get a Server not found / 404 error.

My DNS records are:

NS 	ganymedes-lgbt.nl  	->  	ns3.firstfind.nl

NS 	ganymedes-lgbt.nl 	-> 	ns4.firstfind.nl

A 	*.ganymedes-lgbt.nl 	-> 	85.158.203.157

A 	ganymedes-lgbt.nl 	-> 	85.158.203.157

A 	localhost.ganymedes-lgbt.nl 	-> 	127.0.0.1

CNAME 	pop3.ganymedes-lgbt.nl 	-> 	ganymedes-lgbt.nl

CNAME 	mail.ganymedes-lgbt.nl 	-> 	ganymedes-lgbt.nl

CNAME 	www.ganymedes-lgbt.nl 	-> 	ganymedes-lgbt.nl

CNAME 	smtp.ganymedes-lgbt.nl 	-> 	ganymedes-lgbt.nl

CNAME 	ftp.ganymedes-lgbt.nl 	-> 	ganymedes-lgbt.nl

CNAME 	pop.ganymedes-lgbt.nl 	-> 	ganymedes-lgbt.nl

CNAME 	en.ganymedes-lgbt.nl 	-> 	ghs.google.com

CNAME 	nl.ganymedes-lgbt.nl 	-> 	ghs.google.com

I'm trying to access the files in question via http://www.ganymedes-lgbt.nl/filepath - shouldn't this be possible with the present DNS settings? My webhost is starthosting.nl and I have temporary websites set up at Google but hope to change that soon to a set set up at my webhost. Seans Potato Business 08:46, 19 July 2009 (UTC)


 * "Server not found" and 404 are different errors - HTTP 404 means the HTTP server exists but the resource you requested doesn't exist. You have the latter error (the server address is fine]). It depends on the setup, but probably the filepath you specify when uploading the content by FTP isn't the same as what you access it by in HTTP. AndrewWTaylor (talk) 10:29, 19 July 2009 (UTC)


 * Yeah, often there's a subdirectory that you'll be looking for. The folder might be named http_docs or yourdomain.com or something similar. Look for an index.php file - wherever it is will be your base web directory. Indeterminate (talk) 20:52, 19 July 2009 (UTC)

Free domain names
Probably a long shot, but is there any ways to get a free domain name? It doesn't have to be anything specific, just has to be a real domain name and not one given by the isp or a subdomain of another website. Thanks —Preceding unsigned comment added by 82.43.91.128 (talk) 09:09, 19 July 2009 (UTC)
 * .co.nr is one. http://freedomain.co.nr/ —SpaceFlight89 10:17, 19 July 2009 (UTC)


 * Well, the OP asked for "real" domain names, and freedomain.co.nr gives away subdomains of co.nr:

CO.NR provides free domain names like user.co.nr that are free subdomains of .co.nr free web domain name ... --wj32 t/c 11:36, 19 July 2009 (UTC)


 * Besides, CO.NR only seems to offer HTTP redirection, not true domains that could be configured with IP addresses and such. --grawity 08:28, 20 July 2009 (UTC)


 * Also, I don't know if this is what you're asking, but the majority of web hosting providers offer a free domain name registration with the purchase of a hosting package. Domain names are pretty cheap though, you know? They're like $10/year or less. :) Indeterminate (talk) 20:45, 19 July 2009 (UTC)

Anything that was truly free would be a paradise for domain squatters. There needs to be some sort of price just to stop people from registering everything from AAAAAAAAA to ZZZZZZZZZ. APL (talk) 12:55, 20 July 2009 (UTC)


 * Just as e-mail is currently a paradise for spammers. Tempshill (talk) 17:10, 20 July 2009 (UTC)

Ebook readers
What is the most popular free ebook reader on the web? 94.7.166.22 (talk) 20:47, 19 July 2009 (UTC)
 * Notepad, I should think. Our article Comparison of e-book formats has some more information. Algebraist 22:36, 19 July 2009 (UTC)

Can people convert notepad ebooks to any form of ebook viewer? 94.7.166.22 (talk) 22:47, 19 July 2009 (UTC)
 * A "Notepad e-book" means nothing but a plain-text file. You can convert it to any format, if you only have the means of converting to that particular format. There really is no such thing as "converting from plain-text". --Andreas Rejbrand (talk) 00:44, 20 July 2009 (UTC)
 * Oh? So, like, what happens when I save a plain-text file as, say, a rich text file? --jpgordon:==( o ) 05:59, 20 July 2009 (UTC)
 * Rich text differs from plain text by possibility to add formatting. If there were no formatting in first place (as in plain text file), result will be a big heap of plain text (it might have some sort of default font and similar default formatting applied to whole text). -Yyy (talk) 18:10, 20 July 2009 (UTC)
 * It might clarify to state that plain-text is the most basic representation of digital text and does not support things like pagination, styling or structure. 'Converting from' plain text to a format that does support these features will add information (like page breaks or the default formatting Yyy mentioned) that aren't in the original plain text.

Telnet over OpenVPN
I have an Ubuntu Server that I don't have space to set up on a desk, so I'm trying to set it up for remote administration (both LAN and Internet) with a VPN. The server has the fixed IP address 192.168.xxx.xxx. I've set up OpenVPN and had the router firewall configured to make 192.168.xxx.xxx a virtual server with public and private port 1194. I've set up telnetd on the server.

Although I can make the VPN connection just fine from my desktop computer on the LAN, I get "telnet: Unable to connect to remote host: Connection refused" whenever I try to telnet in from the same desktop, whether I type "telnet 192.168.xxx.xxx 1194" or just "telnet 192.168.xxx.xxx". I suspect the reason is that telnetd is listening on its default port 23. How can I set it to listen on port 1194?

If it makes a difference, the OpenVPN is using TCP instead of the usual UDP. Neon Merlin  20:49, 19 July 2009 (UTC)


 * Telnetd is set up by default with inetd. To change the port telnet listens on, edit /etc/inetd.conf as root. On the telnet line, the first word (probably "telnet") is actually a name corresponding to a port number in /etc/services. Just change "telnet" to the port number you want (1194). Then run /etc/init.d/openbsd-inetd restart.
 * If you're just using telnet to login remotely, though, ssh is a bit more standard these days. It's superior in almost every way. sudo apt-get install openssh-server to install it on the server. Indeterminate (talk) 21:06, 19 July 2009 (UTC)


 * Are u attempting to connect to openvpn port by telnet application? Although, this is weird, telnet should have been able to connect to TCP port (if as u say, openvpn goes over TCP)(telnet session wont open, but connection should be establishable). Other services over vpn link works? (openvpn implements a set of network interfaces, which has different IP adresses than main interface).


 * There are ssh clients for windows (or so they says (i have never used one)), but if vpn is used for other things as well, telnet might be good enough, because it is secured by vpn. -Yyy (talk) 18:25, 20 July 2009 (UTC)

Is perfect character encoding possible?
I use Firefox 3.0.10 set with Unicode (UTF-8) as character encoding. I thought every possible character on earth would work with Unicode, but still some pages have strange characters formed lika boxes with numbers in them. This List of Wikipedias is a good example. Chinese, Japanese and Arabic characters looks fine there, but some other characters don't work. Here's a screenshot of how it looks like on my screen. Is it possible to make all the different character encodings work at the same time? Mårten Berglund (talk) 23:20, 19 July 2009 (UTC)
 * Maybe you simply do not have a font with all these characters? --Andreas Rejbrand (talk) 00:04, 20 July 2009 (UTC)
 * That's right &mdash; encoding a character and having the right font are two separate matters. Tempshill (talk) 04:51, 20 July 2009 (UTC)
 * These might help:  Indeterminate (talk) 07:40, 20 July 2009 (UTC)
 * Thanks for the help. Using the Code2000, Code2001, and the GNU Unifont fonts helped a bit. All these three fonts were needed to display all the characters appearing at . I guess hardly noone displays that page without flaws. Still, many of the unusual characters there from the fonts I'm using now, are pretty dim, not so sharp. Another thing, is that Firefox cannot handle most Unicode, non-ASCII characters in the title bar of the browser window (or maybe that's a constraint in my Windows 2000?). Mårten Berglund (talk) 18:06, 20 July 2009 (UTC)
 * I'd guess the title bar is fixed to a system font - probably Tahoma (typeface) as default - you can change the font for the title bar in windows under appearance/themes if you want. I don't think it changes font when a character is not in the font set - which is a missing feature. The title bar might be a firefox problem - IE7 seems to cope.
 * Code 2000 catches most, though I seem to remember that it doesn't do something fairly obvious (burmese or something) - curiously I too used to have the 'box' problem, but I notice that all the characters on the above page are displaying fine now - I wonder if this is anything to do with me installing open office (more fonts) - the output looks fine to (unlike code2000 which looks awful isn't the best looking font - don't want to critcise such a gargantuan effort) Question - maybe you could install open office - copy the fonts, and then dump it - I'm not sure if any of the fonts have licensing issues - but I doubt it.83.100.250.79 (talk) 22:08, 20 July 2009 (UTC) Correction - still haven't got Khmer/Singalese - about 97% are ok)83.100.250.79 (talk) 22:10, 20 July 2009 (UTC)
 * Thanks for the hints. I'll maybe try to install Open Office then some time. I was able to change to Code2000 in Windows -> Control Panel -> Display -> Appearance, and then Firefox' titlebar managed to show some of the unusual WP language pages. But as mentionend, Code2000 is too blurry, so I switched back to Tahoma. Try Unifont, to fix those last 3 % - worked for me (oops, think I needed Code2001 also to show gothic though). Mårten Berglund (talk) 11:38, 21 July 2009 (UTC)