Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Computing/2012 April 7

= April 7 =

Changing the wallpaper on Windows 7
My old computer (running XP) crashed so I purchased a new one. It is running Windows 7. I want to use the same wallpaper on my desktop as I had on the old computer. I can't figure out how to do this (I have saved the pic on my desktop).

Thanks. 99.250.103.117 (talk) 01:46, 7 April 2012 (UTC)


 * The easiest way is to right click the image where you should see a "Set as desktop background" option. Alternately, you can right click the desktop, select "personalize", click on "Desktop Background", and then navigate to the image you would like to use.  --  Tom N (tcncv) talk/contrib 02:02, 7 April 2012 (UTC)

Unfortunately, neither strategy worked! When I right click the pic (which is sitting on my desktop), I don't get the message. Same for the second strategy - the message noted in the post does not show up! Could it be a problem with my version of Win 7?99.250.103.117 (talk) 16:34, 7 April 2012 (UTC)
 * What if you right click on the image after opening it? Basically as you're viewing and enjoying the image, right click anywhere in the image itself.  Dismas |(talk) 18:20, 7 April 2012 (UTC)
 * This Microsoft help page runs you through a further way to change your wallpaper if the above ideas do not work. If you still have trouble, there is an article here which may help. One of the things noted at that link is that if "[you] are using Windows 7 Starter; this version of Windows 7 does not support changing the desktop background picture" - could this be the issue? - Cucumber Mike (talk) 18:47, 7 April 2012 (UTC)

Ahhh! In all liklihood, I am using the Windows Starter version - I know the Word, Excel, etc. programs that came with the computer are starter versions, so probably the Win 7 is as well. I will try the above suggestions just in case. Thanks everyone. 99.250.103.117 (talk) 21:50, 7 April 2012 (UTC)


 * It does sound like you might be on the Starter edition, yes. If you want to check, you can click Start then Computer then Properties. The version will be written at the top of the window. - Cucumber Mike (talk) 21:57, 7 April 2012 (UTC)

Searching in Chrome
How do I search a page while browsing with Chrome? I know how to do it in IE and Firefox, but I can't find a search option in my Chrome browser. 69.62.243.48 (talk) 05:17, 7 April 2012 (UTC)
 * In Windows, Ctrl-F works for me just like in all other browsers. Dismas |(talk) 05:29, 7 April 2012 (UTC)
 * Thanks. 69.62.243.48 (talk) 05:31, 7 April 2012 (UTC)

Title Tools in Premiere Pro CS5.
Can anyone help me with this? I've been trying to get the Titler applet in Premiere Pro CS5 to work, but no matter what I do it just gives me the beachball of death upon trying to spawn a new title. Clearing the font cache and removing duplicate fonts didn't help, and neither was reinstalling the application. I'm using Snow Leopard 10.5.8, btw. Blake Gripling (talk) 07:54, 7 April 2012 (UTC)

Today's featured picture
How could I get a list (in JPGs) of "Today's featured pictures" for all the pictures submitted to Wikipedia in the last few years? I want to use them as my screen saver pictures for Windows 7.--Doug Coldwell talk 13:54, 7 April 2012 (UTC)
 * They're available all the way back to May 2004. --  Zanimum (talk) 14:54, 7 April 2012 (UTC)
 * Now how do I get them as a series of JPG pictures so I can use for my screen saver as a slide show that changes the picture (of dozens) every 10 seconds? How do I download a series of dozens of pictures without having to download each one individually?--Doug Coldwell talk 15:55, 7 April 2012 (UTC)
 * One way would be to use a bulk downloader. There is a Firefox add-on, a Chrome extension and a standalone program (for Windows). There are more options out there - I found these through a Google search for 'download all images on a page'. One limitation is that these will only download the images from a single page at a time - you would have to click on each month's archive separately. There may be a solution out there that could use a regex or similar to match all the subpages in the archive, but I haven't found it yet. - Cucumber Mike (talk) 16:12, 7 April 2012 (UTC)
 * Thanks, I'll go to work on it.--Doug Coldwell talk 16:22, 7 April 2012 (UTC)

Cabling options
what cabling options can i use to connect 2 offices that are 2km apart.media,connectors,cost of cabling and data transfer rates — Preceding unsigned comment added by 83.143.30.91 (talk) 14:24, 7 April 2012 (UTC)


 * If you're running the cabling yourself, you're building what amounts to a campus area network or perhaps a metropolitan area network - those articles link to the various technologies used. This works okay if your organisation owns all the land between the two offices, or has rights to run cabling through ducts between them - but in many places the right of way (e.g. the right to run cabling under or over the public highway) is owned by a public authority like a city government, or by a licensed telecoms company (like the phone company) - in that case you might have to buy the long-distance interconnect with them, and use whatever communications technology they supply, Or you can avoid running cabling, but instead build a virtual private network using the existing connections your two offices have to the public internet, and tunnelling the interconnect between them virtually (that is, through an encrypted Internet connection, rather than an actual physical cable). Which is best depends for you depends on the communication needs of the offices and whether/how cabling can be run. -- Finlay McWalterჷTalk 15:36, 7 April 2012 (UTC)


 * if you have line-of-sight between the two buildings, you could use Microwave transmission between them instead of cables. RudolfRed (talk) 18:08, 7 April 2012 (UTC)


 * We've had questions like this before, though I can't find the last one at the moment. Our article on Category 6 cable says the maximum length is about 100 meters. Since you're trying to go 20 times that distance, that obviously won't work. Fiber is an option, as is dls, as are certain microwave technologies. This assumes too you can address the physical issues of having access to run cable/line of sight.


 * But really these are theoretical answers because if you're undertaking a project like this you couldn't possibly base your answer on what people on a forum told you. This is a rather major undertaking, and if you have 2 km worth of office space to span, you probably have a group in your organization that handles that sort of thing. What's more likely is that you have two locations you want to connect. It's probably better to use existing technologies, like a vpn to link separate locations like that. Shadowjams (talk) 00:08, 8 April 2012 (UTC)


 * Something else to consider is the reliability you require. That is, is it OK if you lose connectivity during bad storms, and such ?  Underground cable would be more resistant to this, but some idiot in a backhoe can always cut the cable. StuRat (talk) 01:34, 8 April 2012 (UTC)


 * OK some more concrete suggestion, put in single mode optic fibre, at least 12 cores. Terminate the ends with lc or SC terminations.  Transceivers to run 100 megabits will cost about $300 each, rising to $5000 for 10 gigabit per second.  Digging the trenches and supplying fibre may cost around $100000 as a one off cost.  Using a carrier you will have to pay around $5000 installation for each end and a similar amount in rent each year, and your speed will not be 10 gig. In a city this is likely to be an option, but out in the suburbs or country side it will be cheaper to install your own.  For the single mode fibre you can use 1310nm LED equipment. Graeme Bartlett (talk) 10:25, 8 April 2012 (UTC)

svn blame rate limit
In a typical repository, what's the typical server-side rate limit on anonymous svn blame requests? I've had "No response from server" errors when running 2,720 parallel blames (on a Core i7 2600k that takes more than 3,500 of them to fork-bomb). Neon Merlin  15:51, 7 April 2012 (UTC)
 * Remember that Subversion Server doesn't communicate to network clients. It requires a network layer server - typically httpd, or a webDAV Apache module, or sshd, to handle the client communication.  As the official SVN webpage indicates, "Rather than writing a bunch of proprietary security mechanisms for Subversion, we prefer instead to teach Subversion to interoperate with security libraries and protocols provided by those with knowledge of that space. For example, Subversion defers wire encryption to the likes of OpenSSL. It defers authentication and basic authorization to those mechanisms provided by Cyrus SASL or by the Apache HTTP Server and its rich collection of modules.". So, your answer is going to depend on what protections you have set up for, e.g., simultaneous HTTP requests in Apache, or whichever other mechanism you are sending the SVN transactions over.
 * If your transactions are to a local svn server, simultaneous transactions are probably limited by transaction locking; by Unix system resource limitations (maximum user processes, maximum open file handles, and so on); and ultimately by actual hardware performance limits
 * I've decided not to ask why you are simultaneously transacting thousands of log queries. I don't... want to know.  Nimur (talk) 16:08, 7 April 2012 (UTC)


 * @User:NeonMerlin Umm, why are you simultaneously transacting 2,720 queries? I'm curious... Vickreman.Chettiar  05:02, 9 April 2012 (UTC)


 * I need line-by-line edit dates for all the source code and header files in several builds, for a research paper on code's stability over time. If I knew a way to fetch a blame log for an entire tagged build at once, rather than file-by-file, that's what I'd do. Neon  Merlin  19:47, 11 April 2012 (UTC)