Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Computing/2011 March 14

= March 14 =

Time synchronization
My computer (running Windows XP Professional Service Pack 2) fails to synchronize to Daylight Savings Time. I live in the Central Time Zone (Americas), and when the DST shift from Central Standard Time to Central Daylight Time occurred, my computer did not update my time zone to reflect this. It still says my time zone is CST and in the menu to change time zone it does not offer a CDT (I think it predetermines whether or not the DST shift has occurred). I tried manually having it synchronize to an internet time server, which it said was successful, but this did not change it to DST. How do I get it to reflect the DST shift automatically? Ks0stm (T•C•G) 03:57, 14 March 2011 (UTC)
 * Perhaps Windows is just being annoying? Go to Windows Update using IE and see if Windows can find any updates to install. General Rommel (talk) 07:55, 14 March 2011 (UTC)
 * I think there is a checkbox that says something similar to "This location observes Daylight Saving Time". You can find it in the Control Panel in the Date and Time settings window for Windows XP.  Make sure that is checked. --Thomprod (talk) 15:20, 14 March 2011 (UTC)
 * That checkbox was my first thought too. One other possibility is that there was a legislative change to the CDT start date and you didn't install the corresponding update to Windows. The most recent such change mentioned in the article was in 2007. Synchronizing with the time server didn't help because the server tells you the current time in UTC, but not the correct offset from that to local time. -- BenRG (talk) 21:37, 14 March 2011 (UTC)
 * I should add, maybe going to Service Pack 3 may help? General Rommel (talk) 00:48, 15 March 2011 (UTC)
 * I think that's a good idea because Microsoft has stopped releasing patches (including security fixes) for SP2. It's unlikely to solve the time zone problem, though. -- BenRG (talk) 08:30, 15 March 2011 (UTC)


 * As General Rommel said, update (for free) to Service Pack 3. SP3 is still being maintained and updated. http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows/downloads/service-packs If you have uninstalled Internet Explorer you may need to re-install it (also free) to allow the update. 92.24.180.239 (talk) 14:20, 17 March 2011 (UTC)

QVOD player
My mother uses a Chinese program called QVOD player to download movies from the internet. There are three tabs labeled Net Tasks, Playlists and Channels. However, after a period of time, the items in the Net Tasks tab - downloads completed or paused - disappear. This is a recurring problem which I am unaware of a solution. What should I do? --Blue387 (talk) 04:15, 14 March 2011 (UTC)

Garageband playback help
My mother needs help with Garageband. She's doing a very long mix and wants to play back the track starting from a section, but every time she presses Space or Play it starts again from the beginning. So, how do we play back the track without starting from the very beginning? Avnas Ishtaroth drop me a line  04:32, 14 March 2011 (UTC)
 * Is the playhead (The triangle on top with a line coming down off it) positioned where she want's to start? It should always play from where the playhead is. --Thekmc (talk) 20:30, 14 March 2011 (UTC)

google books problem
Hi. [macosx 10.5.8, firefox 3.6.15]. If I google for "google books" and click on the first link, firefox takes me to "Raven login", which is my former employer's login page. Typing "http://books.google.com" in the address bar takes me to raven as well. What do I have to do to get rid of this behaviour and go straight to google books? Robinh (talk) 08:02, 14 March 2011 (UTC)


 * You need to delete the cookie for that site. How depends on your browser, but you can Google that. ---— Gadget850 (Ed)  talk 19:50, 14 March 2011 (UTC)


 * It is also very possible that Firefox was configured to use your employer's network proxy server. Disable that by checking your Firefox network connection settings and choosing the correct option (usually, select "No Proxy" unless you know you need one).  Nimur (talk) 20:06, 14 March 2011 (UTC)


 * Perhaps you could uninstall Firefox, clean up any garbage if possible, restart the computer, and then reinstall Firefox. 92.15.1.235 (talk) 21:53, 14 March 2011 (UTC)

(OP) Thanks guys. Removing all cookies had no effect. I can't quite believe that The University of Cambridge would install malware, but it sure looks (and feels) like it. Any other suggestions before I reinstall? Robinh (talk) 09:19, 15 March 2011 (UTC)
 * (OP again): uninstalled firefox, reinstalled, no effect. WTF? Robinh (talk) 09:49, 15 March 2011 (UTC)
 * Have you tried checking the proxy, as suggested above? --Phil Holmes (talk) 12:11, 15 March 2011 (UTC)
 * (OP) Thanks Phil. Yes, just done that.  I set the radio button to "no proxy".  And restarted firefox.  Still no effect.  I'm getting more worried that I've got other malware installed.  Help!  Robinh (talk) 18:17, 15 March 2011 (UTC)
 * A couple of other things you might try. If you ping Google, what address does it try?  And can you try an alternative browser? --Phil Holmes (talk) 18:34, 15 March 2011 (UTC)
 * (OP) Phil, thanks for this. If I understand correctly,

ping google.co.uk PING google.co.uk (74.125.224.82): 56 data bytes 64 bytes from 74.125.224.82: icmp_seq=0 ttl=51 time=165.217 ms 64 bytes from 74.125.224.82: icmp_seq=1 ttl=51 time=164.329 ms  64 bytes from 74.125.224.82: icmp_seq=2 ttl=51 time=166.332 ms ^C But I'm unsure whether this is the "correct" thing to ping. I live in NZ but firefox still takes me to google.co.uk. Safari works fine, from the same machine. Thanks again, Robinh (talk) 07:30, 16 March 2011 (UTC)
 * Hmm. I get 74.125.230.112, which is close but not the same, so we're not much closer.  I'm just trying to work out whether your DNS is working OK, so could you try ping philholmes.net, please?  Pretty certain there's only one of those.--Phil Holmes (talk) 15:20, 16 March 2011 (UTC)
 * OK, here goes:

LE110:~ rksh$ ping philholmes.net PING philholmes.net (213.175.198.12): 56 data bytes 64 bytes from 213.175.198.12: icmp_seq=0 ttl=108 time=322.366 ms 64 bytes from 213.175.198.12: icmp_seq=1 ttl=108 time=323.851 ms 64 bytes from 213.175.198.12: icmp_seq=2 ttl=108 time=320.639 ms ^C
 * Best wishes, Robinh (talk) 18:46, 16 March 2011 (UTC)
 * So that's OK. And the fact that Safari is OK, which I missed earlier, implies that it's an issue with Firefox, not the computer generally. Do you have any Firefox add-ins installed?--Phil Holmes (talk) 09:42, 17 March 2011 (UTC)
 * OK: Favicon picker, Firefox showcase, firemacs, greasemonkey, igoogle tab remover, it's all text!, zotero.   Any ideas? Robinh (talk) 05:51, 18 March 2011 (UTC)
 * Nope. Just wondered whether your employer had installed a redirect add-on. I'm stumped, I'm afraid.--Phil Holmes (talk) 10:11, 18 March 2011 (UTC)

Group Policy settings
Asking this one again (didn't get much help last time):

I'm helping someone manage a few Windows XP + 7 machines for family. I've modified quite a few GP settings. (These aren't security related - several features are most easily changed via Group Policy settings).

I'm sure there is a way to effectively save these GP settings so they can be applied to other PCs, but I can't figure out from documentation how it's done. Some GP settings have well-known registry equivalents which makes it easy (.reg file) but others don't. As a home user, what's the quickest simplest way to save a number of GP settings so they can be easily applied to future installations? FT2 (Talk 12:19, 14 March 2011 (UTC)


 * Check this link, if it doesn't work try the cached version. ---— Gadget850 (Ed)  talk 19:47, 14 March 2011 (UTC)
 * OK, here goes:

LE110:~ rksh$ ping philholmes.net PING philholmes.net (213.175.198.12): 56 data bytes 64 bytes from 213.175.198.12: icmp_seq=0 ttl=108 time=322.366 ms 64 bytes from 213.175.198.12: icmp_seq=1 ttl=108 time=323.851 ms 64 bytes from 213.175.198.12: icmp_seq=2 ttl=108 time=320.639 ms ^C
 * Best wishes, Robinh (talk) 18:46, 16 March 2011 (UTC)

ASP.NET problem with dynamically populated DropDownList
After discussing the problem I had with  with my coworkers, we decided to scrap it and write our own custom-built control instead, so we can control everything that happens in the control and tune it to best fit our specific problem. This took me about one working day to write. But I've run into a problem: Our custom-built control includes a standard ASP.NET  which is used as the actual select control in the user's browser. The custom-built control then uses JavaScript to create options directly into the resulting HTML  element, without modifying the server-side control. Now this works fine, but when the user submits the form and makes a postback to the ASP.NET page, the server-side  is utterly oblivious of the dynamically created options and has no idea what the user selected. I have worked around the problem by fetching the selection directly from the HTTP request, but I would like to know if there is a better way to do this. J I P &#124; Talk 18:40, 14 March 2011 (UTC)

Wikipedia edit conflict recovery
It used to be that, if I got an edit conflict, I could hit the back button, "cut" my edit, then pick "Project page" at the top to refresh the page, then re-edit the individual section and "paste" my edit back in. However, when I try that now, the back button takes me to the state of the section before my edit, not after. I've recently changed browsers from Firefox to Opera. Is this a fundamental difference in the browsers, or is there some way I can change this behavior ? (The obvious workaround is to do a "copy" right before I attempt a save, but I can't seem to remember to always do that.) StuRat (talk) 23:22, 14 March 2011 (UTC)


 * I think that this is a browser difference and I don't know how to fix it, but note (if you didn't know already) that the edit conflict page has a second edit box, way down at the bottom, with your changes in it. It took me a long time to notice that. -- BenRG (talk) 00:10, 15 March 2011 (UTC)


 * Yes, but finding my contribution in that box, which contains not just the section I was editing, but the entire Ref Desk page, is painful. StuRat (talk) 07:02, 15 March 2011 (UTC)


 * Shouldn't be on a talk page or similar like the RD. Just do a search for ~ presuming you signed. Nil Einne (talk) 08:41, 15 March 2011 (UTC)


 * In Opera, the Find function doesn't include the edit box. This is a secondary question, then: Is there a way to fix that ? StuRat (talk) 09:07, 15 March 2011 (UTC)


 * What version of Opera are you using with what OS? I use Opera for all my editing, and the find option works for me in the edit box. (Opera 11.01, Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit.) Avic ennasis  @ 22:12, 11 Adar II 5771 / 17 March 2011 (UTC)


 * Opera 11.01, Build = 1190, Platform = Win32, O/S = Windows XP, Service Pack = 3. StuRat (talk) 01:03, 18 March 2011 (UTC)


 * I know IE7 used to have the same behaviour, one of the reasons I eventually abandoned it. While ECs are fine as per BenRG as are database locks and most other posting errors where you get a message from the WMF servers, blacklisted URLs are not. There is a bug report I filed about this a long while back and while the people agreed it would be best resolved last I encountered it, it had not. Feel free to offer feedback if you agree it's a problem. Nil Einne (talk) 08:41, 15 March 2011 (UTC)


 * FWIW, I always triple-click my contribution and CTRL-C to copy it to the clipboard before saving. This seems to be the quickest way to recover it in the event of an edit conflict.--Shantavira|feed me 09:43, 15 March 2011 (UTC)


 * Yes, but, as I said, I can't remember to always do that. For now, I've switched back to Firefox. StuRat (talk) 19:12, 18 March 2011 (UTC)