Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Computing/2012 February 13

= February 13 =

PDF question
Hi. (MacOSX/kubuntu; free softare only). I have two PDFs (one texty with a few images, one a light-coloured pattern, which I want to use as a background for the other PDF). How can I "merge" these two PDFs together so the background is 'behind' the texty PDF? Robinh (talk) 00:47, 13 February 2012 (UTC)


 * 1. Separate out the image from the background PDF (e.g. use the Gimp or something to convert it to a PNG or JPEG); 2. use pdftk to use the background image as a "background watermark" to the original PDF. --Mr.98 (talk) 01:06, 13 February 2012 (UTC)
 * Thanks for this. Currently trying to install pdftk and am in dependency hell.  Why do 90% of packages install (configure;make;make install) out of the box, and 10% involve some long complicated insane dependency list that makes the package impossible to install?  Is there a macosx binary out there? Robinh (talk) 02:05, 13 February 2012 (UTC)
 * It looks like there is an installer here:  Google turns up some other pages, but they all seem link back to that one.  RudolfRed (talk) 03:26, 13 February 2012 (UTC)


 * I entirely sympathize, but I don't have an answer. It's my biggest pet peeve about open source software on the Mac. Installing from complicated packages, installing from source... huge time sinks with no apparent benefit. There is a Mac installer linked to on the pdftk site, though, which might be easier than making it up through source or a package manager. --Mr.98 (talk) 03:25, 13 February 2012 (UTC)


 * Ironic that it's writ in Java™ and a pain to install. https://github.com/mxcl/homebrew/issues/6171 :p I'm a little curious how easy it'd be to use Gentoo prefix for this. ¦ Reisio (talk) 14:45, 13 February 2012 (UTC)

(OP) Well, there *was* a binary available, which worked. But its idea of "merge" wasn't what I wanted. I was advised (offline) to use inkscape, which worked perfectly. Robinh (talk) 20:07, 13 February 2012 (UTC)

pdftk just would've been a simple command is probably why it was suggested. :) Your OS is kind of bizarre. ¦ Reisio (talk) 14:18, 14 February 2012 (UTC)

dynamic url shortener
Hello uhmm I want to create an url shortener (because I'm constantly updating links) where you can modify the redirection page... There is one at ad.fly but that site has a bad reputation.. so do you know sites with that service? 190.158.184.192 (talk) 02:29, 13 February 2012 (UTC)

IT
1. Electronic jobmarketing and placement106.78.175.29 (talk)

2. Electronic option106.78.175.29 (talk)

3. Secure hypertext transfer protocol106.78.175.29 (talk)

4. Electronic fund tranfer106.78.175.29 (talk)

5. Encryption and decryption106.78.175.29 (talk)

6.Authentic Protocol106.78.175.29 (talk)

7.Electronic mail security106.78.175.29 (talk)

8. Difference between B2B And B2C106.78.175.29 (talk)

9. E payment And Esecurity threads106.78.175.29 (talk)

10. Digital Signation106.78.175.29 (talk) —Preceding undated comment added 02:42, 13 February 2012 (UTC).


 * None of those appear to be questions (except perhaps 8). Don't just list a bunch of topics here, look them up yourself and come back with any questions about them after. StuRat (talk) 02:48, 13 February 2012 (UTC)

Viability of playing video games on a non-gaming PC
I am in possession of a Personal computer which I wish to use for the purpose of gaming - specifically, I am interested in playing the games Deus ex, Super Meat Boy, and Braid. However, my PC is only a standard laptop computer, not specifically designed for gaming. Are any of these games playable on an ordinary PC with no extra gaming-oriented features, or do they all require special graphics/sound cards, etc.?--142.166.223.135 (talk) 02:51, 13 February 2012 (UTC)
 * No games require special graphics/sound cards specific to them. You have two options: 1) Check the specifications of each game, and see if your PC meets at least the minimum specifications. If it does, then you should be able to run them; or 2) Download the demo versions (Deus Ex here, Braid here, and the demo of Super Meat Boy is available somewhere) of those games and try the games out to see how they work on your machine. Good luck! KägeTorä - (影虎) (TALK) 04:07, 13 February 2012 (UTC)
 * What good choices of games! If you like SMB and Braid, you'll probably also like VVVVVV. To answer your question, none of those games are particularly demanding to the computer. I think that all three will probably work on integrated graphics card that your laptop is likely to have. Braid is the only one that I'd be worried about. To make a wild guess, any (non-netbook) laptop that was made in the last couple of years (maybe more) should be able to handle it. But I don't know much about graphics hardware. Can you tell us more about your machine? Paul (Stansifer) 13:23, 13 February 2012 (UTC)


 * Why worried about Braid, a 2D platformer? Comet Tuttle (talk) 16:58, 13 February 2012 (UTC)


 * Braid is a pretty heavy user of OpenGL for storing graphical elements in the video memory and uses Cg shaders for compositing, blurring, shadows, and lighting. Here they say "please ensure that you are using drivers that enable 3D acceleration". -- Finlay McWalterჷTalk 17:39, 13 February 2012 (UTC)
 * Even items that appear to be rendered in "2-D" may make heavy use of hardware-accelerated APIs. The on-screen image doesn't always provide any insight into the programmatic way that the pixel values were computed and placed on the screen.  Our article, Graphics processing unit, has a great overview: historically, the GPU accelerated matrix transform mathematics that was useful for calculating graphical projection and transforming and mapping textures onto polygons; these were most useful for 3D, but can equally-well be used to render two-dimensional shapes.  Modern GPUs do all kinds of extra work - and in the case of a GPGPU paradigm, function as a generic multiprocessor computer, perhaps not even used for graphics-related tasks.  The original question was about terminology: is a "gaming" computer any different than a regular computer?  No, it is not; it's just a computer that is generically described as "suitably powerful" for most common games.  You should check specs for each software package to ensure compatibility.
 * The ultimate point is, if a game's vendor says it requires certain hardware, you should probably believe the vendor, even if you don't understand the logic behind the requirement. Nimur (talk) 18:01, 13 February 2012 (UTC)


 * For example, the opening scene of Braid looks to have about 8 layers of objects, each scrolling at different rates and containing multiple independent animating objects, that all have to be smoothly composited with alpha blending over the full screen at 60fps. This post has someone complaining it doesn't work nicely on his EEEPC. The steam page for Braid says it needs DirectX 9 with pixel-shader 2.0 -- Finlay McWalterჷTalk 17:54, 13 February 2012 (UTC)

With regard to what Paul Stansifer said: I'm not especially computer savvy, so I'm afraid I can't tell you much about my machine, but it's a Sony Vaio laptop with 6 GB of system memory, an Intel i5 core, a CPU clock frequency of 2.30 GHz, and an Nvidia Geforce something-or-other.--142.166.223.135 (talk) 01:56, 14 February 2012 (UTC)
 * That will breeze it with those games, easily. Mine's an HP dv6, with 4GB RAM, Intel i5 core, 2.27GHz, and NVidia GForce 105M, and I can play a lot of higher end games on mine with no problem. You'll be fine. Have fun! KägeTorä - (影虎) (TALK) 02:20, 14 February 2012 (UTC)

Firefox as daemon
I use ChatZilla, and may also need the Firefox version of Zotero so I can use LyZ. However, I rarely use Firefox as a browser. Is there any way to install it as a lightweight daemon, so that it can run extensions with no browser windows open? Neon Merlin  02:55, 13 February 2012 (UTC)
 * XULRunner 82.45.62.107 (talk) 10:10, 13 February 2012 (UTC)

Windows 7 screen saver deactivation
Is there a way to make Windows 7 not ask for Ctrl-Alt-Del every time that the screen saver is deactivated? I want to just move my mouse or hit a key, get the login prompt, and start typing my password. I don't want to have to do the three finger salute every time. Thanks, Dismas |(talk) 03:44, 13 February 2012 (UTC)
 * In the control panel where you set your choice of screen saver, is there not a tick box saying "On resume, password protect". There is on Windows XP (and maybe Vista too).  (edit) See this image for an example of what I mean.  Astronaut (talk) 10:51, 13 February 2012 (UTC)
 * I think you misunderstood. I don't want to disable the password. The way it works in 7 is that to deactivate the screen saver, you have to 1) hit a key or move the mouse, 2) hit Ctrl-Alt-Del, 3) type in your password. I just want to take out the extra step of having to hit Ctrl-Alt-Del in order to get to the screen to put in my password. Dismas |(talk) 10:56, 13 February 2012 (UTC)
 * See this Microsoft article: How to enable or disable the CTRL+ALT+DELETE sequence for logging on to Windows XP, to Windows Vista, and to Windows 7. I don't know if this will apply to the screesaver as well though. — Edokter  ( talk ) — 12:02, 13 February 2012 (UTC)
 * Certainly on XP and Vista, if you remove the tick from "On resume, password protect", moving the mouse stops the screen saver and returns to your desktop without having to type CTRL+ALT+DEL or enter your password. Sorry, reread it again and you are right, I'm answering a different question from the one you asked. Astronaut (talk) 12:04, 13 February 2012 (UTC)
 * Yes, but the poster does not want to disable the password, just the ctrl-alt-del part. — Edokter  ( talk ) — 12:06, 13 February 2012 (UTC)

Ping Response
What is the opposite of a 'ping response'? Is it 'ping transmission'? 'Ping emission'? Something else? This is actually a language question but I thought I may get a better answer here. Just in case, the Japanese is 'PING発出'. KägeTorä - (影虎) (TALK) 14:58, 13 February 2012 (UTC)


 * Ping is a program; ICMP ECHO is the network packet type it uses. The transmission is an "echo request" and the reply is an "echo reply". ICMP ECHO is also used by traceroute and similar network tools. See Ping-- Finlay McWalterჷTalk 15:23, 13 February 2012 (UTC)
 * Yes. This is for a translation of a .ppt slide, though. I would rather keep to the original format as close as possible. Would 'ping transmission' sound wrong? KägeTorä - (影虎) (TALK) 15:53, 13 February 2012 (UTC)
 * I'd write "ping request", which gets a fair number of Bing results. "Ping transmission" gets two orders of magnitude fewer results. FWIW  --LarryMac  | Talk  16:22, 13 February 2012 (UTC)
 * I would write "ICMP packet", which is the technically correct term for "the data that is transmitted when you run the ping program." If I were being sensitive about terminology, I would also write, "a user started the ping program,"; "ping initiated a transmission of an ICMP packet" and "ping received an ICMP echo reply message."  If you want some more guidelines on the pedantic details of terminology, the canonical source is RFC 792, from the Internet Engineering Task Force, which is the official specification of the format and terminology.  I know that in practice, even I simply say "ping," or "the server had a 20 ms ping," which is very loosely conflating the program, the transmitted data, and the action of receiving a reply, into one word with ambiguous meaning. Nimur (talk) 18:07, 13 February 2012 (UTC)
 * You didn't give us the sentence or context but I would rarely or never use the term "ping transmission"; I would probably call it a "ping". What's the sentence?  Comet Tuttle (talk) 16:56, 13 February 2012 (UTC)
 * That is the sentence, unfortunately. It's just two words, in a diagram. The opposite end of the diagram has 'ping response/reply', again, just two words. I was thinking of 'ping request' as LarryMac suggests, but the Japanese doesn't say that here, and it does say 'ping request' elsewhere in the set of documents I am translating. KägeTorä - (影虎) (TALK) 19:07, 13 February 2012 (UTC)
 * In fact, in some cases, ping is used to refer to the transmission, and pong for the reply, List of Internet Relay Chat commands,, Nil Einne (talk) 18:39, 13 February 2012 (UTC)

Convert text to key presses
I am trying to enter a whole load of information (about a page of A4) into a web text form. I already have the text saved in a text file, but the site has disabled copy/paste. Since I don't really want to type it all out again (which might introduce errors), I would like to find some way that I can convert the text into key presses. My idea is that, if I copied the word 'Hello', I could then put the cursor in the text form, and fool it into thinking I was pressing 'shift+h-e-l-l-o', thus reproducing the word. Is this possible? Is there some (free) software to do it? I am using Ubuntu 11.10. - Cucumber Mike (talk) 15:54, 13 February 2012 (UTC)


 * You can probably just disable JavaScript, paste it in as you please, then re-enable JavaScript and submit it. If it's not a particularly badly coded form, you can probably disable JavaScript and not even be bothered re-enabling it before submission. ¦ Reisio (talk) 16:16, 13 February 2012 (UTC)
 * It's possible old bean that you can't right-click and paste the verbiage, but the old keyboard shortcut (CTRL-V) might still bally well work - worth a shot in my book! Quintessential British Gentleman (talk) 19:14, 13 February 2012 (UTC)
 * Already tried that dear boy. Ruddy thing put the kybosh on it. Jolly poor show, eh what? - Cucumber Mike (talk) 22:08, 13 February 2012 (UTC)


 * If the above doesn't work, you can use this program (which I almost entirely ripped off someone else), which uses the Xtest interface to type key events into another window. It works for normal characters, but not for non-ascii ones. You may need to install the python-xlib package from the Ubuntu repository. -- Finlay McWalterჷTalk 21:14, 13 February 2012 (UTC)


 * This looks perfect thank you! Now the problem is my complete lack of Ubuntu savvy. Can you explain how to use this, as if you were talking to someone partially brain-dead? I mean, I assume I have to do something in the terminal, and the file says at the top "# type file into the current X window", but I'm lost already. What's an X window when it's at home? - Cucumber Mike (talk) 22:08, 13 February 2012 (UTC)


 * I believe "X window" just means "window". StuRat (talk) 23:19, 13 February 2012 (UTC)


 * Yeah :) That line is just an explanation of what the program does, it's not an instruction for use.  Some instructions for use, then:
 * Save the file (it should be called sendkeys.py</tt>) to your computer
 * Make <tt>sendkeys.py</tt> executable (right-click on it, properties, permissions, make sure "allow executing file as program" is checked)
 * In synaptic (urgh, or probably Ubuntu Software Centre) install the package <tt>python-xlib</tt> (if it's not installed already)
 * With a plain text editor like gedit (not a word processor like LibreOffice Write) create the file <tt>foo.txt</tt> in the same directory as <tt>sendkeys.py</tt>, and save in there all the text you want typed in
 * Open a <tt>terminal</tt> and <tt>cd</tt> to the folder where <tt>sendkeys.py</tt> is stored
 * Type <tt>sleep 5 ; ./sendkeys.py</tt>, press return, and quickly click on the browser edit box you want stuff typed into
 * After 5 seconds it'll type stuff for you
 * The program only knows about basic characters, so stuff like currency symbols (even £) and non-ascii characters like ø and ü will cause it to fail - so experiment with simple stuff first. I'm off to bed. -- Finlay McWalterჷTalk 23:51, 13 February 2012 (UTC)


 * Yes, that works. Awesome! Thank you so much! - Cucumber Mike (talk) 08:47, 14 February 2012 (UTC)

Regex help requested
I'm trying to work with AWB's find and replace tool. I need to separate two parameter in an infobox into four parameters, but I'm having difficulty.

I need to convert:

To:
 * birth_date=January 1, 1900 Omaha, Nebraska
 * death_date= Lincoln, Nebraska


 * birth_date=January 1, 1900
 * birth_place=Omaha, Nebraska
 * death_date=
 * death_place=Lincoln, Nebraska

I have two rules (one for birth, one for death), and this is what I've got:

Find (for both birth and death parameters): \}\}<\/?br.*>\[\[

Replace with (same with death_place): }} |birth_place=[[

The problem is, I cannot seem to get the birth find-and-replace to only replace the birth parameters and not the death parameters. Any help would be appreciated. <font face="Verdana" color="003B48" size="2px">Eagles  <font face="Verdana" color="003B48" size="2px">24/7  <font color="003B48" size="1px">(C) 22:26, 13 February 2012 (UTC)


 * It'd be helpful if you post what happens when you run it... but that might not be necessary as I suspect I know your problem. If you're matching multiple lines (which has always been tricky in AWB for me) then the .*>\[\[ portion of your regex is greedy so it's grabbing everything between the first  and the last [[.


 * Try using .*? instead and see if that works. Shadowjams (talk) 00:24, 14 February 2012 (UTC)
 * Tried it, same result. I get this when I run it:


 * birth_date=January 1, 1900
 * birth_place=Omaha, Nebraska
 * death_date=
 * birth_place=Lincoln, Nebraska

"Regular expression" is ticked for both rules, if that helps. <font face="Verdana" color="003B48" size="2px">Eagles  <font face="Verdana" color="003B48" size="2px">24/7  <font color="003B48" size="1px">(C) 00:28, 14 February 2012 (UTC)

Use the following regex for finding the birth date.: \{\{birthdate([0-9\|]+)\}\} \[\[

The 'replace' field should be:


 * birth_place=[[

→ Σ  τ  c. 01:01, 14 February 2012 (UTC)
 * Didn't work, doesn't seem the "find" was correct. <font face="Verdana" color="003B48" size="2px">Eagles  <font face="Verdana" color="003B48" size="2px">24/7  <font color="003B48" size="1px">(C) 01:15, 14 February 2012 (UTC)
 * I should have clarified: this also include  templates as well. Otherwise, the regex works. <font face="Verdana" color="003B48" size="2px">Eagles  <font face="Verdana" color="003B48" size="2px">24/7  <font color="003B48" size="1px">(C)  03:54, 14 February 2012 (UTC)
 * I've got it to work, thanks. <font face="Verdana" color="003B48" size="2px">Eagles  <font face="Verdana" color="003B48" size="2px">24/7  <font color="003B48" size="1px">(C) 05:30, 14 February 2012 (UTC)