Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Computing/2010 March 16

= March 16 =

Open office draw fit text to curve
Is it possible to fit text to a bezier curve using open office draw - eg such as having "M1 motorway" on the edge of a 45degree turn.. (like on maps)

Is inkscape good at doing this? Or maybe something else?87.102.67.84 (talk) 04:24, 16 March 2010 (UTC)
 * I don't know about openoffice, but inkscape can definitely do this, see .131.111.185.69 (talk) 04:59, 16 March 2010 (UTC)
 * Thanks.87.102.67.84 (talk) 11:03, 16 March 2010 (UTC)

business
what is the relation between MRP,ROT%,RATE,E.D,D%,AMOUNT AND HOW THEY ARE CALCULATED?Supriyochowdhury (talk) 05:29, 16 March 2010 (UTC)
 * This is not a very well-asked question; please give more information, on context, etc. Is this an assignment for homework/coursework?
 * Manufacturer's Recommended Price isn't calculated, it's chosen (see the similar suggested retail price); ROT%=Return on turnover is profit divided by turnover. No idea what ED stands for (Excise duty or exempt from (excise) duty?), or D%; RATE or AMOUNT if they're not acronyms could be anything. --Normansmithy (talk) 12:04, 16 March 2010 (UTC)

Are any of the MS Windows 22 BrowserChoice options written in pure Java?
The BrowserChoice screen was designed in accordance with a competition law decision issued by the European Commission in December 2009. These days it is shown to all Microsoft Windows users,in Europe, who currently have Internet Explorer as their default browser.Q: Are any of those 22 suggested web-browsers written in pure (no native code) Java? --Seren-dipper (talk) 06:25, 16 March 2010 (UTC)


 * No. If you look at Template:Web browsers, under Java-based browsers, it looks like Lobo, Teashark, and X-Smiles are the only current browsers that *might* be entirely written in Java, and they are not on the BrowserChoice.eu list. The vast majority of browsers are written in C++. Indeterminate (talk) 09:56, 16 March 2010 (UTC)


 * Thank you!  :-) --Seren-dipper (talk) 21:53, 16 March 2010 (UTC)

anonymous
Can anyone recommend a free download for a Mac to keep my IP address anonymous please. Thanks in anticipation.--Artjo (talk) 07:17, 16 March 2010 (UTC)


 * Well, there's no perfect solution. Tor (anonymity network) is probably your best choice for anonymity, but it can be a bit slow. Free web proxies are much easier to setup and use, and there's usually nothing to download. Indeterminate (talk) 09:32, 16 March 2010 (UTC)


 * It's also not going to be 100% anonymous, because afaik, that doesn't exist. --Wirbelwind ヴィルヴェルヴィント (talk) 21:35, 17 March 2010 (UTC)


 * You should provide more information... TOR only is a poor solution. Most plugins will leak your real IP address, especially flash. I should use vidalia TOR (its a version of TOR - with the firefox plugin) AND proxifier. Set it up correctly though.

Get the installation bundle for TOR here: http://www.torproject.org/easy-download.html.en And the guide here: http://www.proxifier.com/mac/documentation/pgs2/tor.html Proxifier is not free though, but it does have a free trial on the same web site as the guide. There are alternatives though —Preceding unsigned comment added by 76.169.33.234 (talk) 05:01, 18 March 2010 (UTC)

Software for synchronising separately recorded sound to HD video?
I recorded three great new bands in Brighton on my HD camcorder, but Radio Reverb had loads of professional microphones and direct lines to the instruments leading to a mixing/CD recording desk, which would presumably exceed even the Dolby 5.1 internal microphones on my camera (which seem to give studio quality sound) and I agreed with them to share the media in the hope of synchronising the audio (presumably to arrive ready mixed on a CD) to my video and then on to blu-ray disk. What software can I purchase, preferably at a reasonable price, to do thus? My computer is a modern dual Pentium dual core 2.4 ghz machine with a reasonable hard drive capacity, which I might upgrade to 2 terabytes. I am running windows XP and would prefer not to upgrade to Vista in case it breaks certain applications I have written in visual basic. My existing Sony software plays the HD video quite well, though the motion is smoother on a proper HD set and blu ray player, or (when down-converted for DVD) a standard DVD and wide-screen cathode ray set, which I do not want to get rid of due to better colour contrast than flat screen HD televisions. Would it be cheaper to get this done by audio-visual professionals instead? filming (great) bands (with their permission) is my hobby and they use their copies as a free promotional tool, I do it to get the footage. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 80.1.80.16 (talk) 13:29, 15 March 2010 (UTC)
 * In your shoes the way I would do it would be to download some free video editing software, and do a trial and error of matching the audio track to the video, moving the audio forward and back relative to the video, until I got the best match. 92.24.123.30 (talk) 20:08, 16 March 2010 (UTC)

Message is driving me around the bend


Every five minutes this pops up and then goes away. Been doing this for some time now. Windows XP, Dell Dimension 2400, 8 gigs, 700+ ram, Firefox. There are no dead ended connections to my computer. Obviously I'm online without problem. Two questions: Does this refer to anything real? And how do I turn it off?--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 12:40, 16 March 2010 (UTC)


 * There's an option in Powertoys for Windows XP to turn the bubbles off; but you need to download powertoys in order to do so. --Tagishsimon (talk) 12:43, 16 March 2010 (UTC)


 * Thanks for the tip Simon. I'm a bit wary of downloading yet another program. Any direct way; some change in my settings; something direct?--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 13:05, 16 March 2010 (UTC)


 * It's a microsoft program; and as far as I know, is the only way to do it. (Okay, there's probably a registry hack, but I don't know what it would be.) I'd positively advise you to get it installed, since it gives you more control over your XP environment, which is exactly what you're after. --Tagishsimon (talk) 13:20, 16 March 2010 (UTC)


 * I'd go into your network hardware display and make sure you've disabled anything that you're not using - it's unlikely to be actual hardware, probably a driver thing or something. A le_Jrb talk  13:34, 16 March 2010 (UTC)


 * Although you could turn off the bubbles, I've never heard of this happening unless it IS a hardware issue and if so you're really just hiding the problem instead of fixing it. Because you're not getting kicked off the net it sounds like a very tiny disconnection which might be driver related, but I'd try changing your network cable as well as checking that the switch/router you're plugged into isn't the one that disconnecting/reconnecting. ZX81  talk  13:54, 16 March 2010 (UTC)


 * (ec) As for why you might be getting that message, perhaps there is a tenth of a second interruption periodically, which causes the bubble to pop up, but which isn't long enough to cause any noticeable disruption in whatever you're doing. The ideal solution would be to turn down the sensitivity so that it only reports a disconnect after maybe 5 seconds, but I don't know if you can do that. StuRat (talk) 13:57, 16 March 2010 (UTC)

Probably you have two network connections; the one you use and an extra one you don't use. The unplugged messages are correct because one of the connections your are not using. To turn them off go to network connections in control panel, right click the one that shows it's unplugged and click disable. That'll turn the messages off —Preceding unsigned comment added by Fire2010 (talk • contribs) 13:59, 16 March 2010 (UTC)


 * Agree with with Fire2010 above, there always seem to be weird "extra" network ports somehow installed. Another thing you can try is to go into your network connection's "Properties" dialog and untick "Notify me when this connection has limited or no connectivity". However I found that Windows sometimes ignore that setting and annoyingly notifies you anyway. As for Tagishimon's advice, I will heartily recommend installing TweakUI (the part of Power Toys that deals with this setting). I've just tested it NOW and it works. You need to go to the "Taskbar and Start Menu" setting and untick "Enable balloon tips". Note this will disable ALL balloon tips that you normally get in your taskbar. Zunaid 15:05, 16 March 2010 (UTC)
 * Am monitoring from work. I will try try solutions offered once I get home. Thanks for all the responses.--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 17:24, 16 March 2010 (UTC)
 * Go to Start --> Run and type ncpa.cpl. Then, right-click on your connection and select "Properties." Then try unchecking the box at the bottom of this dialog: .--Chmod 777 (talk) 23:57, 16 March 2010 (UTC)

Shortcuts for Special Characters On a Mac
Can anyone give me a list of shortcuts on a mac so that I can type foreign characters? Specifically language-related characters in French and German (éàçü etc....)

Many thanks Lucas 83 14:27, 16 March 2010 (UTC) —Preceding unsigned comment added by Lukerees83 (talk • contribs)


 * here you go. Found by just Googling "special characters mac". --Mr.98 (talk) 15:13, 16 March 2010 (UTC)

find total number of results for a Google search string
How can I make Google display the total number of results for a particular search? Formerly it used to be displayed as x-xxx of total xxx. Now it is not seen. --Virbanu (talk) 15:36, 16 March 2010 (UTC)
 * I don't understand. Google works just as before: Here is my test which shows "Results 1 - 100 of about 161,000,000 for "this is a test". (0.38 seconds)" near the top of the screen.  Astronaut (talk) 16:02, 16 March 2010 (UTC)

yest, got it. thank you. --Virbanu (talk) 17:17, 16 March 2010 (UTC)

Blocking all incoming external email for certain addresses in Postfix
Hey guys. I have a serious spam problem going on here where I work. We have several internal aliases to facilitate internal communication (each area has its own alias, there's an alias for the entire company, etc.)

The problem is, those emails leaked, and we're getting lots of spam through them. The spam comes from local companies, so it's not really blocked by the usual spam systems we have in place. Either way, a quick solution would be blocking all external incoming email addressed to some specific aliases, but not all of them (some need to receive external mail). Is this possible in Postfix?

Thanks in advance! -- Lucas —Preceding unsigned comment added by 189.112.59.185 (talk) 18:33, 16 March 2010 (UTC)

Inkscape: import PDF
Hi. I'm trying to import a PDF to Inkscape. It gives me an "option" Import text as..., though the only possible answer is text. Does anyone know of a way to vectorise the text/font into a path and import the page like that? ╟─TreasuryTag► Africa, Asia and the UN ─╢ 19:39, 16 March 2010 (UTC)


 * Open, don't import. -- Finlay McWalter • Talk 20:03, 16 March 2010 (UTC)
 * Precisely the same effect... ╟─TreasuryTag► Not-content ─╢ 20:10, 16 March 2010 (UTC)


 * Try the sample PDF from samplepdf.com; it opens and is editable fine in Inkscape v0.47 (Inkscape 0.47pre4 r22446, built Oct 14 2009) on Ubuntu Linux x86. -- Finlay McWalter • Talk 20:28, 16 March 2010 (UTC)
 * Nope, no good. Using 0.47 on Windows 7... ╟─TreasuryTag► voice vote ─╢ 21:14, 16 March 2010 (UTC)


 * Works fine for me in Windows 7 (I tried two versions - Inkscape 0.46, built Apr 1 2008 and Inkscape 0.47 r22583, built Nov 21 2009) on these two PDFs: http://samplepdf.com/sample.pdf and http://www.mda.mil/global/images/system/thaad/38112.pdf   If you can't open either, that error message would suggest that the PDFs are getting mangled in transit.  md5sums for these two files are as follows:
 * 8CCC6CC514BD3A50A33FCA72569B36F6 sample.pdf
 * 91A1B8987251CD0A3A169FD8C8195850 38112.pdf
 * If not, maybe you have a bad Inkscape installation, and should do a thorough remove and reinstall. -- Finlay McWalter • Talk 22:31, 16 March 2010 (UTC)


 * Before Inkscape added their (sometimes iffy) PDF reader, I used texterity to convert a PDF to SVG whick Inkscape liked (e.g. File:Wfm thaad diagram.svg). -- Finlay McWalter • Talk 20:34, 16 March 2010 (UTC)

Typing special characters on Windows?
When using Linux, I'm used to being able to type special characters by holding down the AltGr or AltGr+Shift keys and typing numbers or letters. For example: əbcð€fghıjĸŋœrßþuvw×yʒ. That was what happened when I held down the AltGr key and typed the letters from a to z. And what's even more special, I can use the caret (^) to type superscript numbers, for example ²³ can be typed as caret, 2, caret, 3.

But when I tried the same on Windows, pretty much nothing worked. If I want a special character, I have two choices: Neither of these is as easy as it is with Linux. I find it surprising Microsoft hasn't come up with such a simple idea as this is. Is there some hidden configuration option on Windows I need to enable to have this? Or is there some sort of third-party application to do this? J I P | Talk 19:54, 16 March 2010 (UTC)
 * 1) Try to remember the numeric character code and type it on the numeric keypad while holding down the AltGr key.
 * 2) Call up the Character Map application and copy&paste the character with the mouse.


 * Another option is to set up the Language Toolbar to easily swap between multiple keyboard layouts. Typically, the first step is to make sure that alternate language input is installed and enabled.  See How To Add and Enable Additional Languages in Windows; depending on where and how you got your Windows system, "foreign languages" may already be installed and enabled; or installed, but not enabled yet.  (In some rare cases, you may need your original Windows installer CD to install language support).  Then, see HOW TO: Use the Language Bar in Windows XP, Windows Keyboard Layouts, and this set of language bar keyboard shortcuts once you have multiple layouts set up.  With this arrangement, one or two keystrokes can put you into a Greek, Cyrillic, Arabic, or indeed any other supported language / alternate glyph mode in Windows.  Nimur (talk) 21:25, 16 March 2010 (UTC)
 * The thing is, I use an exactly same labeled keyboard layout ("Finnish/Swedish", as Finnish and Swedish keyboards have identical layouts) in both Linux and Windows. In Linux, the AltGr-key combinations I described above work. In Windows, they don't. I don't want to use an entirely foreign keyboard layout just to be able to type some special characters. Heck, I can't even type "²" or "³" in Windows without calling up the Character Map application. In Linux, I can do it in two keystrokes, like I just did a minute ago, in much less than one second. I want to know how I can do that in Windows. J I <font color="#0000CC">P | Talk 21:32, 16 March 2010 (UTC)


 * Some versions of Windows use CTRL+ALT to represent ALT GR - so you can try to see if this works for you. On many Windows systems, CTRL+ALT is automatically aliased to the non-existent "AltGr" key.  For example, see Why Ctrl+Alt shouldn't be used as a shortcut modifier.  As you can see from our AltGr key article, though, the concept of an AltGR is sort of limited.  Windows, with variations among different internationalized versions, does have support for the emulated CTRL+ALT or RIGHT ALT to correspond to the AltGr concept.  However, Windows takes the view that alternate inputs really should not be chorded key inputs like this - because it is confusing and results in unexpected behaviors for most users.  That is why the alternate keyboard input scheme was invented, and it's really a preferred method for Windows internationalized character input, because it is totally unicode compliant and supports arbitrarily many different alternative glyph input schemes.  Ultimately, with the keyboard shortcuts, you can still do this in as few as two or three key-presses (exactly as many keypresses as the AltGr method on Mac or Linux or Solaris - but with a different shortcut combination for any particular glyph). Nimur (talk) 21:40, 16 March 2010 (UTC)


 * See also, this MSDN blog about AltGr on Windows, discussing technical and usability issues. Nimur (talk) 21:45, 16 March 2010 (UTC)


 * If you don't like any of the keyboard layouts that come with Windows, you can make your own with the Microsoft Keyboard Layout Creator. —Bkell (talk) 21:54, 16 March 2010 (UTC)

This is all very nice when it comes to letters used in foreign languages, as a specialised keyboard layout does indeed serve them better. But some of the special characters, indeed the ones I need to use the most, are typographical and mathematical symbols, not letters. For example, "²" and "³" like I mentioned above. The image File:KB Sweden AltGr.svg contains many characters I'm used to be able to type in Linux without thinking twice about it, and whenever I use Windows, I end up thinking "damn, this is Windows, I need to use the Character Map". Even if the AltGr key and the Ctrl-Alt combinations should not be used anywhere because they will only confuse the user, I can still type "²" and "³" in Linux as caret, 2 and caret, 3 without ever needing to touch the Alt or AltGr keys. In Windows, I can't. Is this because Microsoft has an official policy that shortcuts for typing special characters directly on the keyboard must be discouraged or has no one at Microsoft just thought about it? <font color="#CC0000">J <font color="#00CC00">I <font color="#0000CC">P | Talk 21:59, 16 March 2010 (UTC)
 * It is because Microsoft Windows is a general purpose computing operating system, and the engineers at Microsoft (or indeed, anywhere) can not possibly know which of the 300,000 valid unicode glyphs you are going to need commonly. See Unicode and Unicode input.  It is actually very complex - and I think you're expecting a lot for the operating system to magically know which characters you want hotkeys for.  Windows (and the other major operating systems) allow you to customize keyboard layouts and shortcuts - and Windows does this with the methods I have linked to above; but it's really impossible for the operating system to come pre-loaded knowing that you are a Finnish / Swedish / English user with occasional need for mathematical symbols (as opposed to, say, a German / English / Japanese user with occasional need for Greek alpha/beta/gamma characters).  More than likely, your Windows was localized based on the "lowest common denominator" keyboard needs for some semi-arbitrarily chosen "marketing region".  And if you want more customized key inputs, you can configure additional keyboard layouts and easily swap between them with a single keypress, or using the mouse, or using the control panel, as I described above; and if you want more customization than that, and you are going to need to design a custom keypad with thousands of buttons.  Nimur (talk) 22:17, 16 March 2010 (UTC)


 * I will suggest again that you try the Microsoft Keyboard Layout Creator. If you want lots of typographical and mathematical symbols available, make a keyboard layout that has them. If you want the caret to be a so-called "dead key" for producing superscripts, make a keyboard layout that does that. —Bkell (talk) 01:24, 17 March 2010 (UTC)


 * It seems that the specific issues JIP wanted (Right Alt acts as AltGr, and easy-to-use superscript 2 and 3, for example) are supported in the Windows "German IBM Keyboard Layout", as well as many other European layouts (Finnish, Swedish, Sami, etc). If JIP sets this to be the default keyboard layout, it may solve all of their problems.  Nimur (talk) 01:36, 17 March 2010 (UTC)


 * Perhaps I'm mistaken but wasn't JIP's complaint that he/she was using the Swedish/Finnish layout in Windows but it wasn't doing what he/she was used to from Linux, which included this superscript thing? Nil Einne (talk) 16:25, 19 March 2010 (UTC)