Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Computing/2011 September 2

= September 2 =

XPS to Text
Hi, is it possible to convert an XPS file to TXT? I know that I can open it as zip file in winrar, what would I need, roughly, From in there to do it? The xps files I'm looking at are a print out of a screen of text. Thanks :-) 209.252.235.206 (talk) 10:13, 2 September 2011 (UTC)
 * Ideally, I'd like to be able to automate the whole process in Ruby, or any other language.


 * You can use ghostscript tools:
 * It shouldn't be difficult to automate the process with a little scripting. -- k a i n a w &trade; 12:49, 2 September 2011 (UTC)
 * It shouldn't be difficult to automate the process with a little scripting. -- k a i n a w &trade; 12:49, 2 September 2011 (UTC)
 * It shouldn't be difficult to automate the process with a little scripting. -- k a i n a w &trade; 12:49, 2 September 2011 (UTC)

Thank you:-) This is just what I was looking for209.252.235.206 (talk) 07:58, 3 September 2011 (UTC)

Twitter widget search tweets from specific account
Hi, I need create a twitter widget to search tweets from a specific account that carry a specific hashtag. I seem to remember that I was able to do this 4-6 weeks ago by visiting the twitter resources page here: https://twitter.com/about/resources/widgets/widget_search and clicking on the 'advanced' options - This no longer seems to work though (The advanced options page won't load for me). From what I can remember, it required the addition of some code to the standard widget code (pasted below). The widget code below returns tweets that mention the word rainbow. Does anybody know what I need to add to that code to return tweets from a specific account that mention the word 'rainbow' (for example only tweets from the account @justinbieber that mention the term 'rainbow')?

Thanks in advance ;) Darigan (talk) 11:25, 2 September 2011 (UTC)

Recent Activity on Your Facebook Wall
I'm trying to unhide recent activity on my Facebook wall. I changed the settings before the move to a more 'circle' type privacy update. However I have a different privacy page to everyone (ie my friends) and to the one that the Facebook help points you to - it seems like I'm on a beta version (though I don't know why).

Do you know how to change hide/unhide recent activity on this new Facebook privacy page:

Thanks, — Preceding unsigned comment added by 195.171.182.18 (talk) 12:32, 2 September 2011 (UTC)

please help (frame capture from video)
i have a video which i captured from my cell phone and now in my pc. i want to take a picture of a person within the moving video and put it on a frame. is it possible, and if yes can you suggest me how. all i understand is puse the video when the person appears than take a screen shot of the screen and finally zoom it somehow and print it out. do you think i am going right,but because the image is not very clear when i do that.. please suggest.. thanks in advance — Preceding unsigned comment added by 117.199.76.170 (talk) 13:28, 2 September 2011 (UTC)


 * Despite what CSI might have you believe, you cannot create detail from nothing. You can make blown up imagery look "better" however, with programs such as Noise Ninja et al..  There are better ways to get a frame out of a video, but the way you're doing it is fine. ¦ Reisio (talk) 14:53, 2 September 2011 (UTC)


 * (I added to the title to make it useful.) I agree that the quality of video is insufficient to extract a quality still.  Specifically:


 * 1) There may be motion blur.


 * 2) The resolution will be too low. Even the highest HD video will typically only be 1920×1080 pixels.  At 300 dots per inch, that would be 6.5 inches by 3.5 inches.  That's about the bare minimum you'd want.  However, cell phone video will be much lower resolution than that.


 * 3) Interlacing may be an issue. I'm not sure if cell phone video is done in this way.  It's a technique to make video with low frame rates look less jumpy.  Basically, every other line shows alternating frames, so you are looking at two frames at once on top of each other.  This allows your brain to think it sees twice as many frames as it really does, but the still looks like a double image during motion sequences. StuRat (talk) 16:18, 2 September 2011 (UTC)

formatted mistaken
i did format my acer laptop by mistake and had my old pictures on them gone. is there a way i can get my old memories back..thank you — Preceding unsigned comment added by 117.199.76.170 (talk) 13:33, 2 September 2011 (UTC)


 * Formatted with what? A Microsoft Windows install/repair image?  If it was a "quick" (not "full") format, the data is probably still there. ¦ Reisio (talk) 14:49, 2 September 2011 (UTC)

formatted normally with a cd and installed a new os. is it still posibble? if yes can u suggest me how. thanks — Preceding unsigned comment added by 117.199.76.170 (talk) 16:32, 2 September 2011 (UTC)

Any data that was where the newly installed OS files are now will be lost, but there's a decent chance much personal data you actually care about would not have been at that point in the filesystem. ¦ Reisio (talk) 04:49, 3 September 2011 (UTC)
 * The question is whether you did a quick or full format. Whereas a quick format merely says "be this filesystem" without actually deleting data, a full format also says "void all existing data".


 * There is virtually no chance. The only possibility would be to send it to a very sophisticated computer repair company, who would have to work on this for many hours and would charge you thousands of dollars.  Folks, back up your important data!  There are a dozen easy ways to lose the contents of a hard disk. Looie496 (talk) 16:44, 2 September 2011 (UTC)


 * A little less hyperbole, please. To the original poster:  There are undelete utilities that you can run to see whether there is anything left.  Our List of data recovery software article lists some.  If they fail then you can contact a company like "DriveSavers"; you ship them your hard disk, they do fancy stuff to the drive, and they do charge around US$1000 or US$1600 or so to send you back all the stuff they are able to salvage.  Comet Tuttle (talk) 21:29, 2 September 2011 (UTC)


 * Save your money, if you can't get it back yourself with software from Comet's links, it's likely nobody else will be able to, either. ¦ Reisio (talk) 04:49, 3 September 2011 (UTC)


 * To the best of my knowledge, those undelete utilities are useless on a disk that has been reformatted. Looie496 (talk) 05:03, 3 September 2011 (UTC)


 * As Comet already suggested, your knowledge is spotty. ¦ Reisio (talk) 05:14, 3 September 2011 (UTC)


 * "PC Inspector" free software from CONVAR is very good at recovering lost pictures from a formatted SD card, but I haven't tried it on a hard drive.    D b f i r s   08:46, 3 September 2011 (UTC)


 * A key point which no one seems to have mentioned. If you are still using the laptop which contained your photos turn it off right now and do nothing with the drive except try to recover the content until you've decided you've recovered all you can and are not going to do anything further. Any further writes to the disk means you risk losing more data which may still be recoverable. (In fact for this reason a hard off if it's possible is likely to be better but that's perhaps too complicated.) It's often recommended you read the entire disk to an image but if the drive itself isn't having problems and you're careful not to do anything which will write to the disk it isn't really necessary.
 * Anyway, there appears to be some confusion on both sides here. As has been mentioned, there is plenty of software which can attempt to recover JPEGs from a formatted drive which is similar to what recovery companies use. The companies may be able to do a slightly better job in manually analysing the content and what happened in the format (although I don't know if they ever do that or just use either commercial or home grown tools). However they won't be doing anything 'fancy' to the hard disk as there is no point in this case. If your drive is not working, not spinning properly, has bad sectors or whatever they can try to recover data using a variety of fancy techniques including opening the drive in a clean room, but such a service is pretty pointless here so no decent company is likely to suggest it. Instead they will simply read the entire drive and try to recover what they can (which as I mentioned will use similar tools and techniques). It will still be expensive and as with Reisio, I question the point, but is generally from what I've read (and simple common sense) significantly less then what they will charge if they need to do anything to the drive particularly anything involving a clean room.
 * BTW, AFAIK most tools look for any remnants of the old file system, which if you're very lucky may still be there, and also look for files by signature. Note that the reason this works is because Windows as with many OSes and tools performs a quick format by default. While some of the content has obviously been overwritten by the reinstall (and a minute amount by the quick format) depending on how full your drive was before, what you've done to it since etc it's likely some will still be there. As we've discussed at least twice on the RD, if all the content has been overwritten, there's no evidence anyone, and definitely not recovery companies, is going to be able to recover anything. (With the caveats of reallocated sectors etc.)
 * Nil Einne (talk) 14:35, 3 September 2011 (UTC)
 * If you've got any chance, it's for someone to chuck your laptop disk into a standard Linux desktop and run forensic recovery software, like PhotoRec, on the harddrive. Maybe try searching 'linux user group' and your local area, you may find someone eager to help. Nevard (talk) 23:44, 7 September 2011 (UTC)

Is there a way to give a program administrator privillages in Windows (like sudo)
I am working on Windows Vista and I am looking for a way to launch programs from a batch file / command line with administrative permissions without having to enter an administrator password. Some background: I am working on a Python script that is launched as part of an overnight scheduled task. The Python script launch other applications and even launches some setup programs that require administrator rights. In Windows XP this works fine but in Windows Vista and later there needs to be user interaction. I would rather not just run the whole Python script as administrator because most of what it does does not require administrator privileges. Similarly I would rather not just turn off UAC.

On Linux I am able to use the sudo command to achieve what I am doing. I tried to use the runas command in Windows but it still needs to have me enter the password and there is no obvious way (to me at least) to save that password and the script to just use it. It is fine with me if I can have the password stored in a text file and have Windows use that to provide the authentication but how to do it is eluding me. Does anyone know any solutions to this quagmire? I have looked around msdn and the internet to no avail.

Thanks for reading, meshach (talk) 21:15, 2 September 2011 (UTC)


 * I hate to sound really negative, but that's exactly the point of UAC, an administrator action can't be automated, it has to be specifically confirmed (or started) by the user.  ZX81    talk  02:16, 3 September 2011 (UTC)


 * PsExec lets you specify a password on the command line. I'm not sure how it interacts with UAC. -- BenRG (talk) 03:34, 3 September 2011 (UTC)


 * Thanks for the heads up with PsExcel BenRG, that looks promising. I will try it in the next day or so. meshach (talk) 17:02, 6 September 2011 (UTC)