Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Computing/2012 March 21

= March 21 =

Javascript crashing weird
Alright, I was learning some javascript recently, I was learning to use the "for" command. I understood it was something like (start,end,steps). so when there's a javascript snippet like this: it will display a list of numbers from 0 to 15 right, so I supposed this: Would give me a list of numbers from 0 to 15 in steps of 3.. But instead it crashes all browsers... (strangely did not crashed internet explorer) soo, can you explain me why all browsers crash?? And how I should do it?190.84.182.165 (talk) 05:10, 21 March 2012 (UTC)


 * You probably want  instead of  . http://webchat.freenode.net/?nick=colombiyuh&channels=##javascript ¦ Reisio (talk) 05:30, 21 March 2012 (UTC)
 * Worked..... lol Thanks 190.60.93.218 (talk) 12:19, 21 March 2012 (UTC)
 * Wait... How you do negative steps? 190.60.93.218 (talk) 12:48, 21 March 2012 (UTC)
 * a-=3        -- Finlay McWalterჷTalk 13:27, 21 March 2012 (UTC)
 * And then note that you have to reverse the polarity of your ending condition, for example . Otherwise you might find that your loop either completes as soon as it starts, or never completes.  J I P  &#124; Talk 21:06, 21 March 2012 (UTC)

computer turning itself off
Hello, what does it mean when your computer keeps turning itself off, it happens now and again, and then I can turn it back on again and it is fine. It is a PC and about 5 years old. Thank you. Anthony J Pintglass (talk) 14:34, 21 March 2012 (UTC)
 * If this is just an apparently random turning off, with no message or BSoD displayed, I think it is likely to be something environmental - most likely overheating. Check that the PC's cooling fans are operating and the internals of your PC are free from dust.  Astronaut (talk) 14:59, 21 March 2012 (UTC)
 * One of the computers at my dad's house had this problem. There was an issue with the power supply (there was also a major problem with the fans, but the power supply is what did it in for us). It's likely your fans, though, since we also had that problem before it ended up being the power supply. - Purplewowies (talk) 20:44, 21 March 2012 (UTC)
 * By default, windows will automatically restart the computer after a crash. If this is happening regularly and you want to see the BSoD, you have to change a setting. Right click "My Computer"> properties >Advanced Tab > startup and recovery settings > untick "automatically restart" under "system failure". Vespine (talk) 21:50, 21 March 2012 (UTC)

Getting URL of video
At http://www.ias.umn.edu/media/GranTorino.php

I'm trying to get the URLs of the videos posted on this page. How do I do this?

Thanks WhisperToMe (talk) 14:42, 21 March 2012 (UTC)
 * They seem to have a flash variable. 190.84.182.165 (talk) 20:43, 21 March 2012 (UTC)

http://downloadhelper.net/ ¦ Reisio (talk) 20:46, 21 March 2012 (UTC)
 * Thanks for the tip, Reisio! I'll see if I can get the extension installed WhisperToMe (talk) 01:21, 27 March 2012 (UTC)

computer restarts
my computer restarts when i play video games and sometimes when i watch movies it keeps restarting untill i turn it off for some time. and this error comes

fixed disk 0 : pm-hotachi hds721616pla380 (ultra dma mode atia/66) atapi cd-rom 4m-hl-dt-st dvdram g-s-a h42n

multiple bios post attempt have failed memory timing have been reset to atomatic setting press f4 to run setup — Preceding unsigned comment added by 49.249.240.95 (talk) 15:33, 21 March 2012 (UTC)


 * Your computer might be overheating. Make sure the fans are working and not obstructed by built-up dust. RudolfRed (talk) 19:14, 21 March 2012 (UTC)
 * Have you ever tried to overclock it or mess with the RAM settings in the BIOS? If it starts working after being turned off for a while, it sounds like it's overheating. I'm guessing you didn't build the computer? Have you ever opened it up to check the components? It might just be full of dust and not cooling properly, that's a very common problem when computers get a few years old, it might just need a good dust out. If its easy to open, just give it a bit of a gentle vacuuming, while it is off, of course. Or you possibly might have a faulty ram module. Vespine (talk) 21:46, 21 March 2012 (UTC)

Grabbing a frame from a video
Does anyone know of a good program that will allow me to grab a single frame from an MPEG video which can be saved as a JPEG image? I am looking for a free-to-use software so I can print a photo from a family home video. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Xduty (talk • contribs) 18:08, 21 March 2012 (UTC)


 * VLC media player video->snapshot -- Finlay McWalterჷTalk 18:16, 21 March 2012 (UTC)

Thanks - I'll give it a try :) — Preceding unsigned comment added by Xduty (talk • contribs) 18:32, 21 March 2012 (UTC)


 * GOM Player also has this (control panel->screen capture) with additional features like burst capture, enabling you to take screenshots of consecutive frames at a given interval. Useful for creating animated GIFs from movies.-- O BSIDIAN  †  S OUL  18:35, 21 March 2012 (UTC)

Media Player Classic is another one. File -> Save image for screenshots. 82.45.62.107 (talk) 20:50, 21 March 2012 (UTC)

Getting formatted output from a web page
I maintain a website, and also edit a monthly printed newsletter. The website contiains a list of future events (generated by Drupal). I want to grab the output from the website and put it straight into the newsletter (created using Microsoft Publisher) keeping the formatting, and avoiding the need to re-enter the data and possibly introduce errors. The only way I've found to do this so far is to display the web page on the screen, get a screen dump using the Windows Snipping Tool, and copy this as a graphic into the newsletter. Is there a better way to do this, which would avoid the fuzziness that arises when treating a screendump as a graphic and posting it into a different application, probably at a different resolution? --rossb (talk) 22:25, 21 March 2012 (UTC)


 * I haven't used Publisher much, but Googling around has led me to believe you can import either HTML files or PDF files directly into Publisher. So that means you can either save the output from the webpage as an HTML file, or use a PDF virtual printer to turn it into a PDF file, and then import that into Publisher. --Mr.98 (talk) 23:00, 21 March 2012 (UTC)


 * How do you save the output of a web page as HTML, as opposed to the source, with all those ugly HTML tags in it ? StuRat (talk) 23:11, 21 March 2012 (UTC)
 * The source and the html are one and the same. It's simply a matter of whether the program you're opening it with can properly interpret the tags.
 * I agree with with Mr.98, I haven't used Publisher in ages, but I suspect that you could open the html file in publisher (or perhaps word?) and copy/paste it from there, including the formatting data. APL (talk) 23:46, 21 March 2012 (UTC)


 * Some suggestions for improving screen grabs:


 * 1) Increase the screen res to max.


 * 2) Enlarge the text to fill as much of the screen as possible.


 * 3) Where possible, display the text as monochrome, with a large contrast between the foreground and background colors.


 * 4) Save it in a format with lossless compression.


 * 5) Paste it at the same size as the screen grab. This will probably be too large to add it as a pic in the middle of the text, so add it as an appendix instead. StuRat (talk) 23:15, 21 March 2012 (UTC)


 * That's still going to look weird. Print resolution is significantly higher than screen resolution. The sudden change to a lower resolution font will be noticeable. APL (talk) 23:48, 21 March 2012 (UTC)


 * But that contrast can be good, as a way to distinguish text typed in versus program output,

SIMILAR TO THIS.


 * Of course, if the output is unreadable, then that's no good. StuRat (talk) 04:17, 22 March 2012 (UTC)