Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Computing/2010 November 24

= November 24 =

Someone sent me an email with a .bat file attached. What should I do?
Is there a way I can safely examine it or should I just purge it outright? I don't recognize the person but it's not an advertisement or spam from what I can tell.--72.178.134.134 (talk) 04:07, 24 November 2010 (UTC)


 * A .bat or batch file on Windows/DOS is simply a plain text file, with a list of commands. They can be safely examined with a text editor. Be aware, though, that a malicious person may mislabel some other file type as .bat. For example, someone may make a Microsoft Word file with embedded macro viruses, and then rename it with the extension .bat. If someone were to open it with Microsoft Word, depending on configuration, there is a chance that Word would ignore the extension and execute the macro viruses as if it were a .doc file. Another trick is to stack extensions ("harmless.bat.exe" is not a batch file) or to alter the MIME type. Depending on the settings of your web browser/email client, it may ignore the extension, and treat it like some other file (e.g. a word file with macro viruses). - Bottom line, the only reason to look at a batch file is if you are interested in running it. If the file was unsolicited, you don't want to be running it. I'd purge it outright. (If it was solicited, e.g. you posted a question to an email help list that the batch file is supposed to help with, do look at it before running, and make sure it won't do anything harmful. When opening, use a bare-bones text editor to be safe. Notepad would be my suggestion.) -- 174.24.198.158 (talk) 06:21, 24 November 2010 (UTC)


 * Why even bother? BAT is not a format that is going to be used to send you something important from somebody you don't know. It's not like it contains a program that going to give you a thousand dollars or a new job or something. It's surely a virus. Just delete it and move on. --Mr.98 (talk) 14:37, 24 November 2010 (UTC)


 * I agree. Delete the e-mail.  Who's going to send you a batch file, other than a botnet?  Comet Tuttle (talk) 08:01, 25 November 2010 (UTC)

Does ANY smartphone app have facial recognition? (Or is the following on the video just made-up?)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4OSCjbru1Gk (Video from CollegeHumor: "If All Movies Had Smartphones")

On the "Usual Suspects" scene, the detective suddenly finds "Verbal Kint's" true Facebook profile. That otherwise felt so random, that the detective's Facebook smartphone app must've done facial recognition through the smartphone's camera, as soon as Keyser Söze showed up to his office.

Does Facebook's app really have a facial recognition feature that pulls up the profile of the user whose face it recognizes?

If not, what app does?

If no app at all, then what kind of programming would it take to make that method of facial recognition work?

Thanks, --70.179.178.5 (talk) 16:56, 23 November 2010 (UTC)


 * No. MORIS. N/A. -- k a i n a w &trade; 13:13, 24 November 2010 (UTC)


 * I don't think the video depicts facial recognition at all. In the actual movie, Verbal tells the detective a lot about Soze (whom the detective has never heard of before). In the clip above, the detective has just put Soze's name into Facebook and saw the photo. I don't think the clip, in other words, is supposed to be the minute Verbal shows up, but later in the interview. --Mr.98 (talk) 02:21, 25 November 2010 (UTC)
 * Yes, no facial recogn. implied. Very lame vid. Of course there would be neither a facebook acc, nor a photo of Soze on it. Missing the point of the movie, too. As usually collegehumor=humor fail. --92.202.85.101 (talk) 21:49, 28 November 2010 (UTC)


 * It's 3 weeks later and this question is in the archives, but I wanted to add a link to this article in which Facebook says it's going to introduce next week a facial recognition feature ... which runs on the server-side of Facebook, and attempts to use the tech to help you tag friends that are in your Facebook photos. It's not for facial recognition of people standing in front of your smart phone, though.  Comet Tuttle (talk) 19:20, 16 December 2010 (UTC)

a folder sharing over through a network limiting to some users in the work group
how to configure a folder sharing over through a network limiting to some users in the work group having administrator and user environment in the same computer. —Preceding unsigned comment added by RAIJOHN (talk • contribs) 11:56, 24 November 2010 (UTC)
 * Which operating system?Smallman12q (talk) 16:53, 24 November 2010 (UTC)

Microsoft Windows XP Professional Version2002 Servicepack2 --RAIJOHN (talk) 06:10, 25 November 2010 (UTC)