Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Computing/2011 March 9

= March 9 =

Windows XP Error Message
I have an hp pavilion laptop with Windows XP. Whenever I start my computer an error message pops up. The title bar says RUNDLL and it says "Error in C:\PROGRA~1\toolbar\1.bin\p3bar.dll" and "Missing entry:S". Is there any way to fix this. Thanks in advance. 173.118.72.51 (talk) 00:11, 9 March 2011 (UTC)


 * P3bar.dll is some kind of browser plugin (the "PureDef Music Toolbar"). Try going into Control Panel > Add/Remove Programs, and uninstalling this toolbar. --Mr.98 (talk) 01:20, 9 March 2011 (UTC)


 * It may be that the toolbar was uninstalled, but not completely. A program like CCleaner may help remove the leftovers.  -- LarryMac  | Talk  14:12, 9 March 2011 (UTC)

Thanks, I unistalled it and everything works fine again. 173.159.65.45 (talk) 23:16, 9 March 2011 (UTC)

Serialise/deserialise a dictionary in JavaScript
In my job, I have a situation where I need to serialise a dictionary (a collection of key-value pairs) into a string, and also deseralise the string back into the dictionary. For example, suppose the dictionary was something like this: then the string would be something like. This was rather easy to do in C#. But I need to do it in JavaScript so it can run directly on the user's browser without going through the web server. Is there an easy way to do this, possibly already implemented in the language or via a freely available library? J I P &#124; Talk 18:15, 9 March 2011 (UTC)
 * Does JSON work for you? --Tardis (talk) 18:21, 9 March 2011 (UTC)
 * Having briefly looked at the article, I think JSON might be overkill. The situation is that I have a string already serialised from a dictionary by my C# code, but I need to modify some key-value pairs in it in JavaScript. All this happens on one single page, in one single JavaScript function. The original reason is that the data needs to go to a CascadingDropDown to make it aware of the context it's being used in, but the CascadingDropDown's interface only accepts one single scalar string as context. J I P  &#124; Talk 18:29, 9 March 2011 (UTC)


 * Javascript does not have a serialize/unserialize function. You must write (or copy) your own. If you are strictly using hash tables in which you have keys and values, you can write a more simple serializer which uses some delimiter known not to exist in the data. For example, you can go through your table and store "|Nationality|Finnish|Sex|Male|Occupation|Programmer|". Then, unserializing is a simple matter of splitting the string on the | character and going through the resulting array using index 0 for a key and index 1 for its value, then index 2 for a key and index 3 for its value. -- k a i n a w &trade; 18:38, 9 March 2011 (UTC)
 * In most cases, using JSON is preferable to that, since it'll handle escaping, whereas this hand-rolled solution will usually break if a pipe ever shows up in the data. Paul (Stansifer) 02:18, 10 March 2011 (UTC)


 * To do cross-platform, cross-language data exchange you need a data serialisation format, of which there are many. But, for someone to have bothered standardising these, they of necessity solve a fairly general problem - the neutral and unambiguous expression of general typed, structured, binary data. Some formats deal purely with the physical expression of data (e.g. XDR), some its structure (like JSON and YAML) and some encapsulate the type environment of the programming language involved (like Java's serialize and Python's pickle). But all of these solve a general, complicated case, and so all are major overkill if your application is as simple as the example you describe. So doing the work yourself is the path of least resistance. You can either split it yourself, as Kainaw suggests (with string.split) or you can (I think) pass a javascript array static initialiser and "load" it clientside with eval. [ I say "I think" because I'm not 100% that some browsers won't barf on eval for security reasons, and it's a risky thing to use to save something as simple as a bit of parsing.] So tl;dr - if it's as simple as your example, parse it yourself; if it's more complex, use JSON. -- Finlay McWalter ☻ Talk 19:50, 9 March 2011 (UTC)

Ancient Egyptian game on the Amiga
I remember having played a platform game based on ancient Egypt on the Amiga, it was probably a remake of a Commodore 64 game. It featured walking mummies which could also climb on ladders. I got it from a coverdisk on some Amiga magazine. I seem to remember that the programmer was actually Egyptian himself, which struck me as particularly noteworthy, but I'm not sure about that. I don't think it's Pharaoh's Curse, as the linked site shows the Amiga remake retains the old-fashioned Commodore 64 graphics, whereas the game I'm thinking of had modern Amiga graphics. Can anyone identify this game? J I P &#124; Talk 19:45, 9 March 2011 (UTC)


 * Could it possibly be Tutankham? Our article on this game, Tutankham, mentions a C-64 version but no Amiga version.  Perhaps the version on your cover disc was a playalike clone.  Comet Tuttle (talk) 21:09, 9 March 2011 (UTC)
 * No, it's most probably not Tutankham. Having looked at the screenshots of native versions (i.e. not remakes) of it on MobyGames, it appears that Tutankham is a more arcade adventure -like game whereas the game I'm thinking of is more of a pure platformer, with the main idea of the game being walking on the ground and climbing on ladders. I seem to remember that the game also only had things like mummies and pharaohs as enemies, not animals. It even had something like "Pharaoh" in the title but it's not the game the Wikipedia article Pharaoh's Curse (video game) is about. J I P  &#124; Talk 19:11, 10 March 2011 (UTC)

What is software?
This edit to the article Amiga makes a point that not all data contributed to Aminet is programs, hence not "software". But what is software? Does it only mean programs, or is it a more general term meaning anything non-tangible stored inside a computer? J I P &#124; Talk 19:49, 9 March 2011 (UTC)


 * As stated in our computer software article, "software" refers to a program and its associated data. A .JPG picture file uploaded alone would not be considered software, for example.  Comet Tuttle (talk) 20:57, 9 March 2011 (UTC)

Firefox told me to stop scripts; is there an IE solution?
I was at a library yesterday and something similar to this happened. If the library's computer's have IE, there's nothing I can do short of finding IE solutions. But here's what happened on a Firefox computer today.

One page froze--I couldn't do anything--and all the other pages turned white except for a blue border. I got several popup ads with a URL and used those to go to other sites if what I was working on was slow. At the top of the white pages the blue border was wider, with the name of the site and the minimize, maximize and X buttons. Eventually, I was told a script was causing problems--Videoegg, specifically, was mentioned somewhere--and that I had the option to stop the script, which I did. Everything cleared up.

On IE yesterday, one page froze and the other turned white with that blue border and both pages stayed that way until I quit. Other pages worked fine. I had no intention of shutting down the entire Internet (clicking on the red X in the upper right on either page just gave me "not responding") as I had stuff saved that I wanted to send (rather than carry a disk, I emailed the stuff to myself). Vchimpanzee ·  talk  ·  contributions  · 19:56, 9 March 2011 (UTC)


 * Sorry to sound blunt/rude, but as it's been repeatedly suggested, you need to talk to the IT Staff at the library. These aren't your computers and as such will have restrictions/policies placed on them that you won't be aware of (and we certainly won't know!). Likewise you don't have access to make software changes to the machine so the only people who can really help are the library IT staff...  ZX81    talk  20:23, 9 March 2011 (UTC)


 * I'm not asking to make software changes. I'm asking if there's something that can be done to stop scripts with IE using the existing software. Vchimpanzee ·  talk  ·  contributions  · 20:39, 9 March 2011 (UTC)

According to this, IE has this feature. I have not used IE for a long time so I don't know why it didn't work for you. The article talks about modifying a registry entry to change the amount of time IE will wait until displaying the message, which might be helpful. You could also disable javascript entirely in IE, to prevent the scripts from running at all. This explains how to do that. However as the above editor notes library computers are almost always restricted so you probably won't be able to change these settings, and from my experience of libraries I doubt the staff will have any technological knowledge of the computers to help you with. 82.43.92.41 (talk) 20:46, 9 March 2011 (UTC)
 * No, I defintely don't want to disable Javascript. I've had too many problems with that. I didn't ask to get the IT staff to fix anything because yesterday, I was at a library which is many miles from headquarters. By the time anyone arrived there, I had to be gone to get everything done that I had planned to do. And it wasn't a serious emergency. I do have a chance to talk to IT people about a similar problem I experienced in January at a college, except the specific people may not be working on Good Friday, the next time I plan to be there. Maybe they can give me more information. In a similar situation where everything froze I was able to call up a task manager and amazingly, I was not restricted from using it. It solved the problem. Since not everything was frozen, I didn't resort to that. Vchimpanzee ·  talk  ·  contributions  · 20:54, 9 March 2011 (UTC)
 * I forgot about this. When I finally quit, there was an option to send an error report. There was a link when I finished doing that. Maybe this link would have told me what happened, but I had lots to do in the "real world". Vchimpanzee ·  talk  ·  contributions  · 14:03, 10 March 2011 (UTC)

&lt;DOLPHINTEXT&gt;
Can anyone tell me about the origin of this template. I've never typed this in, but sometimes it appears when I save edits here on Wikipedia. I also get it when sending emails sometimes and was forced to switch to plain text to stop it happening. But I have absolutely no idea where it comes from. Can anyone shed some light on it? Cheers TheRetroGuy (talk) 20:41, 9 March 2011 (UTC)


 * http://www.google.com/search?q=%22dolphintext%22 Welcome to the internet. ¦ Reisio (talk) 20:45, 9 March 2011 (UTC)


 * I was hoping for a concise explanation rather than a homework project, but thanks anyway. :) I seem to have found the problem. I find it difficult to read standard sized text so use a screen magnifier to enlarge it a little, and it is that which seems to be the problem according to this discussion. Apparently, the software is inserting its own tags, something I don't think it should be doing. I've been using it for a couple of years, but this problem is only recent so perhaps I'll have to contact the software provider. Incidentally, I wonder if it's worth mentioning this somewhere within Wikipedia as there are bound to be others who use the software. I wouldn't like myself - or any other users - to be accused of vandalism when that wasn't the case. Where might be the best place to do that? Cheers TheRetroGuy (talk) 21:10, 9 March 2011 (UTC)
 * You could ask at the WP:Village Pump about the best way to file a technical report. I see two possibilities: 1) MediaWiki (the software that runs Wikipedia) mis-interpreted some command; or 2) this text is intentionally added by your third-party software, which is an undesirable feature.  I think #2 is more likely - you should investigate if that addition is a documented (or undocumented) "feature" of your screen magnifier / accessibility software.  Personally,  I would recommend using the Windows Magnifier instead of third-party software (see here for instructions).  If, however, it is determined that MediaWiki is at fault, then we can file a Bugzilla Report here.  Nimur (talk) 21:55, 9 March 2011 (UTC)
 * Thanks for the advice. I think it is probably the second possibility as it happens with my email sometimes, but I'll definitely investigate it and file a report just in case it is MediaWiki that's clashing with some aspect of the software. I'll also check out Windows Magnifier as that might solve the problem. I've opened a discussion here to find out if anybody else is experiencing this. Chees TheRetroGuy (talk) 22:09, 9 March 2011 (UTC)
 * See here for further discussion on this.


 * Comparison of screen readers lists several "Dolphin"s so it might be mentioned on the articles about those particular screen readers; but I doubt that a mention of this weird software behavior qualifies as sufficiently notable to mention in those articles. By the way, Reisio, your last sentence was needlessly rude.  I had never heard of this, either.  Comet Tuttle (talk) 21:16, 9 March 2011 (UTC)
 * welcome. I hadn't heard of it either, but being an old hand at internetland, I knew exactly how to find out about it, and shared that knowledge. ¦ Reisio (talk) 21:31, 9 March 2011 (UTC)
 * If you would like to continue this meta-discussion, please take it to the talk-page. Nimur (talk) 21:33, 9 March 2011 (UTC)
 * Agree with Comet Tuttle. If you don't know the answer, Reisio, please refrain from posting one. --Mr.98 (talk) 00:08, 10 March 2011 (UTC)