Computing desk | ||
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< November 7 | << Oct | November | Dec >> | November 9 > |
Welcome to the Wikipedia Computing Reference Desk Archives |
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The page you are currently viewing is an archive page. While you can leave answers for any questions shown below, please ask new questions on one of the current reference desk pages. |
Can you please tell me what the difference is? —The preceding unsigned comment was added by JenyP ( talk • contribs) .
The G++ compiler is usually considered the standard; most other compilers have serious differences. For example, Visual Studio doesn't correctly handle variable scope within loops. Also some code will only compile under borland, for various reasons. -- froth T C 19:57, 8 November 2006 (UTC)
I need an adaptor for connecting a guitar cable to my desktop computer. I don't know what the price range is, but I don't need any modeling software or anything. Thanks. Someoneinmyheadbutit'snotme 03:14, 8 November 2006 (UTC)
Why the concept of “file” is such a big success? What made UNIX based operating system to consider everything as a file?
Was/Is there any competitive entity for “file”? Do you see, any such entity will emerge?
Why can’t we store data into a relational data base table? Like,
|Filename | user | content|
|- - - - -+- - - +- - - --|
|x.y | me | nothin |
I'm running NT4.0. If I want to search for media files - specifically MP3s - and I want to resrict the search just to that type, what do I tell the search to look for? Anchoress 05:12, 8 November 2006 (UTC)
I've been searching all over, and i can't find a way to break the itunes drm thing so i can play music my friend gave me from her ipod. I understand it's illegal (and moralist responses are NOT appreciated; the musician in question is dead, so i don't really care about providing him money), but can anybody sign an anonymous response or something? is there some program you guys know? i've tried that hymn thing but it needs her itunes password. i want to find a solution i can use in the future without burning and re-ripping cds. i just want to be able to listen to my friend's cd. thanks ~ —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Sashafklein ( talk • contribs) .
thanks a lot
I don't know if my computer is too fast or my eyes are too slow. Pictures like this always move much too fast for me. Is there any way to slow them down on my computer? (I'm using Win XP and IE 6.0) — Sebastian (talk) 06:13, 8 November 2006 (UTC)
You could also slow down the whole computer, but that's not a very good option. StuRat 22:18, 8 November 2006 (UTC)
Hello, I am a Nigerian med student very much interested in learning programming. What I really need is a tutorial that introduces the elementary aspects of Programming and works all the way through to the stony parts. Thanks to all who reply.
Avaman. Avaman 08:17, 8 November 2006 (UTC)
When i tried to transfer videos i took with my phone onto my laptop real-player wouldn't play them so i had to download VLC player. Now they play but without sound, They have sound when played on the phone. they are in 3gpp format, can anyone help? 136.206.1.17 12:10, 8 November 2006 (UTC)
Wikipedia's article about file systems explains how Microsoft Windows maps drive letters onto devices. This raises a question - does anyone really have drives A and B any more? I'm mostly a Linux user, but I (like every computer user in the world) have to use Windows every now and then. I encounter drives such as C, D, etc., some times even up to H, many times, but I can't remember using the drives A or B in several years. This must be a by-product of the disapperance of floppy disks. So will people start wondering why Windows drive letters start from C when it would be more logical for them to start from A? JIP | Talk 12:33, 8 November 2006 (UTC)
I'm using a dual boot computer right now with a floppy drive. I even use the floppy (it contains a diskette that boots under Linux, I just pop it out to boot under Windows). StuRat 22:00, 8 November 2006 (UTC)
This is a DOS legacy "issue". Not only is this built in to countless BIOS's and legacy software, but IBM-PC compatible machines and as a result DOS/Windows software that run off them have to abide by the original API, even though kernels have been rewritten. Even the disk "interrupt $13" routines remain to this very day, and similar calls are used by everything from hardware monitoring software to your windows drive list, directly or indirectly. That being said, unix does not care about drive letters but uses /dev (devices) instead. Sandman30s 14:46, 10 November 2006 (UTC)
If I'm doing some binary operations on a couple of variables in C++, how can I print the individual bits of that variable to the screen? This would help a lot, thanks --froth
a
is your byte, and b
is the number of the bit you want to investigate. Then the expression (a>>b)&1
gives you either 0
or 1
depending on the bit's value. Bit numbers are assigned so that 0 is the least significant bit and 7 is the most significant bit.
JIP |
Talk 14:06, 8 November 2006 (UTC)
&
, |
, ^
, and ~
are binary (
bitwise) and, or, xor, and not, respectively. It's actually the >>
that's selecting the bth bit; the &
here is a somewhat idiomatic way of getting that bit's value (commonly called "testing" it). --
Tardis 23:09, 8 November 2006 (UTC)&
operator gives you a bitwise AND operation, that is, it compares all the values of the bits in the left hand number with those in the right hand, bit by bit. When one of the two numbers is a constant (i.e. 1), it is sometimes called a "mask", as by the nature of a boolean AND, only those bits that are 1 in the mask number will pass through (masking out the others). -
Rainwarrior 22:58, 8 November 2006 (UTC)hey am a wannabe com expert.am still a rookie and i needed some tips on
1.how can i create n send someone a virus.head knowledge only.i only have the net to my disposal
2.am doing user support.course does anyone know if the exams r tough n what do they entail.i have done hardwre n we r now doin software.
3.how can i send around 40 emails to one person using different email accounts which i already have without doin it one by one,as i open n close the email address.
For number 1, writing viruses is a complex problem (though it's becoming easier with the advent of
polymorphism). Suffice it say that if you can't write computer programs, you can't write viruses (since that's what they are). To send a virus is a lot easier, when you get an extremely suspicious attachment just forward it. Of course you don't have any idea what it does...
For number 2, the difficulty of your exam would depend on the course of course. How would we know?
For number 3, install an
SMTP server (I think one comes with IIS if you're working on Windows) and send them from there. Though they would almost certainly be blocked and services might be terminated by your ISP. Not a good thing if it's the only broadband ISP in the area, as is usually the case. If you want to send them from email addresses that you've registered on some email provider, you can't do it.
In case it's not clear, this is obviously 1) Not the place for you to ask, and 2) Far above you. If you're in a course that covers software for the first half and hardware for the second half that's not a good sign of you being in a position to be writing viruses.. anyway I would encourage you to stop pursuing this unless you want to get into the field of computer security (ie not just to annoy your friends) --
froth
T
C 22:48, 8 November 2006 (UTC)
My parents said i could get a laptop for x-mas, only it has to be below US:$1,500. i was wondering what i should look for in the area of graphics, and procssecing. oh, its supposed to be a media style laptop. (i was looking for a mac, but no, to exspensive.) Xiaden 16:04, 8 November 2006 (UTC)
Firstly, tell us what kind of dollars. 87% of Americans don't have a passport, and from my experience, expect everyone else to assume everything is American. Is it USD?-- martianlostinspace 18:02, 8 November 2006 (UTC)
Intel's new Meroms use less power and are quite inexpensive for the lower-end models. Get that. -- froth T C 22:16, 8 November 2006 (UTC)
wow, i'm kinda lost in all this... but i get what i should be looking for:2.6 GHz of processor speed, at least 1 GB of memory, Most probbally a Memron(is this graphics card or a proccessor?) and dvd-rom read/write drive(16X?)... oh, i'm using the computer most definitly for games(halo2 fer computer is coming out!!!!) and secondarilly for movies/ homework(i-net?) so what sould i get for i-net connection? Xiaden, 15:03, 9 November 2006 (UTC)
Thanks for teh help, i get it now =P
Is it Steak?(Xiaden's Homepage) 19:35, 9 November 2006 (UTC)
I have a problem with my computer which is I cannot install Windows XP SP 2 on my computer. The install goes very well until the appearance of the black screen which has the Windows logo then it freezes. These are the specifications of my computer:
When I bought my computer, I installed Windows XP without Service Pack 2. It worked and is working very good. What is the solution to this problem? Is the cause that my BIOS needs updating?
-- 196.218.105.70 17:20, 8 November 2006 (UTC)
I suspect that you have a bad copy. Try to get a clean copy of SP2 and try the install again. StuRat 21:51, 8 November 2006 (UTC)
Every time I open Outlook, it takes ages to load, I think because it loads about 1k messages. How do I get it to only show the last few, thereby being quicker, without deleting the remainder from my account? martianlostinspace 18:00, 8 November 2006 (UTC)
I don't use Outlook (Express) and have no emails or anything, but the program takes 20+ seconds to load. -- WikiSlasher 12:03, 14 November 2006 (UTC)
i have 2 wrt54g model linksys routers. i've talked to linksys on the phone, and they said this isn't possible, but it seems to me much more likely that they simply don't support this feature. is it possible to extend a wireless network using 2 wireless routers? for example, have one router (connected to dsl modem) in one location, and a cat5 cable running from a port on this router to the internet port on the other router, thus having 2 wireless networks?
will these networks encounter ip conflicts? should the dhcp server be disabled on the second auxiliary router?
thanks in advance for your help. i'm useless when it comes to networking. 130.207.180.59 18:57, 8 November 2006 (UTC)
Make sure you set them both to the same SSID -- froth T C 22:20, 8 November 2006 (UTC)
I once read about a computer designed to solve one problem only, instead of a general computing system that runs software. The computer was used to simulate solar systems (celestial mechanics) and the input was the start parameters of the systems and the output was the positions and speed of all the objects and after a certain time interval. I remember the article stating that this specially designed computer was performing much better than faster computer solving the problem with software.
I am interested in any information about this system, at least the name so I can search more effectively for it. -- DelftUser 20:18, 8 November 2006 (UTC)
Embedded systems can be thousands of times faster than hundreds of times more expensive hardware in a general PC. Consider the differences just between CPUs- Intel has historically been better for servers (especially game servers) while AMD has historically been better for gaming or rendering. The difference is because the chip architecture is better suited for handing different types of operations (specific reasons are extremely technical so I'll spare you). Now imagine instead of running operations through a array of NAND gates to end up with the logic you want, and managing the overhead of tending to all the various subsystems (and God help you if you have other processes running at the time), not to mention the overhead that's inevitable with any compiled programming language (for example the call stack and activation record that's hard coded into any program compiled from C++). Compare that with an embedded system that has had its entire "program" codified into incredibly fast logic (a few nanoseconds per operation!) that's made specifically for that implementation, so no loading code from memory or device drivers or any of that. Your clock lines don't have to weave through unneeded components. All of your memory is local, and depending on your problem you might not even need the slowdown of a cache. See Embedded system -- froth T C 22:31, 8 November 2006 (UTC)
Hi,
I just downloaded Flash Gordon Conquers the Universe for my dad to burn to DVD for him. However, I have no video burning software (I uninstalled it a while ago!). Does anyone here know of a program I could use to burn these file formats so they will work on a standard DVD player? -- Wooty Woot? | contribs 21:42, 8 November 2006 (UTC)
Computing desk | ||
---|---|---|
< November 7 | << Oct | November | Dec >> | November 9 > |
Welcome to the Wikipedia Computing Reference Desk Archives |
---|
The page you are currently viewing is an archive page. While you can leave answers for any questions shown below, please ask new questions on one of the current reference desk pages. |
Can you please tell me what the difference is? —The preceding unsigned comment was added by JenyP ( talk • contribs) .
The G++ compiler is usually considered the standard; most other compilers have serious differences. For example, Visual Studio doesn't correctly handle variable scope within loops. Also some code will only compile under borland, for various reasons. -- froth T C 19:57, 8 November 2006 (UTC)
I need an adaptor for connecting a guitar cable to my desktop computer. I don't know what the price range is, but I don't need any modeling software or anything. Thanks. Someoneinmyheadbutit'snotme 03:14, 8 November 2006 (UTC)
Why the concept of “file” is such a big success? What made UNIX based operating system to consider everything as a file?
Was/Is there any competitive entity for “file”? Do you see, any such entity will emerge?
Why can’t we store data into a relational data base table? Like,
|Filename | user | content|
|- - - - -+- - - +- - - --|
|x.y | me | nothin |
I'm running NT4.0. If I want to search for media files - specifically MP3s - and I want to resrict the search just to that type, what do I tell the search to look for? Anchoress 05:12, 8 November 2006 (UTC)
I've been searching all over, and i can't find a way to break the itunes drm thing so i can play music my friend gave me from her ipod. I understand it's illegal (and moralist responses are NOT appreciated; the musician in question is dead, so i don't really care about providing him money), but can anybody sign an anonymous response or something? is there some program you guys know? i've tried that hymn thing but it needs her itunes password. i want to find a solution i can use in the future without burning and re-ripping cds. i just want to be able to listen to my friend's cd. thanks ~ —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Sashafklein ( talk • contribs) .
thanks a lot
I don't know if my computer is too fast or my eyes are too slow. Pictures like this always move much too fast for me. Is there any way to slow them down on my computer? (I'm using Win XP and IE 6.0) — Sebastian (talk) 06:13, 8 November 2006 (UTC)
You could also slow down the whole computer, but that's not a very good option. StuRat 22:18, 8 November 2006 (UTC)
Hello, I am a Nigerian med student very much interested in learning programming. What I really need is a tutorial that introduces the elementary aspects of Programming and works all the way through to the stony parts. Thanks to all who reply.
Avaman. Avaman 08:17, 8 November 2006 (UTC)
When i tried to transfer videos i took with my phone onto my laptop real-player wouldn't play them so i had to download VLC player. Now they play but without sound, They have sound when played on the phone. they are in 3gpp format, can anyone help? 136.206.1.17 12:10, 8 November 2006 (UTC)
Wikipedia's article about file systems explains how Microsoft Windows maps drive letters onto devices. This raises a question - does anyone really have drives A and B any more? I'm mostly a Linux user, but I (like every computer user in the world) have to use Windows every now and then. I encounter drives such as C, D, etc., some times even up to H, many times, but I can't remember using the drives A or B in several years. This must be a by-product of the disapperance of floppy disks. So will people start wondering why Windows drive letters start from C when it would be more logical for them to start from A? JIP | Talk 12:33, 8 November 2006 (UTC)
I'm using a dual boot computer right now with a floppy drive. I even use the floppy (it contains a diskette that boots under Linux, I just pop it out to boot under Windows). StuRat 22:00, 8 November 2006 (UTC)
This is a DOS legacy "issue". Not only is this built in to countless BIOS's and legacy software, but IBM-PC compatible machines and as a result DOS/Windows software that run off them have to abide by the original API, even though kernels have been rewritten. Even the disk "interrupt $13" routines remain to this very day, and similar calls are used by everything from hardware monitoring software to your windows drive list, directly or indirectly. That being said, unix does not care about drive letters but uses /dev (devices) instead. Sandman30s 14:46, 10 November 2006 (UTC)
If I'm doing some binary operations on a couple of variables in C++, how can I print the individual bits of that variable to the screen? This would help a lot, thanks --froth
a
is your byte, and b
is the number of the bit you want to investigate. Then the expression (a>>b)&1
gives you either 0
or 1
depending on the bit's value. Bit numbers are assigned so that 0 is the least significant bit and 7 is the most significant bit.
JIP |
Talk 14:06, 8 November 2006 (UTC)
&
, |
, ^
, and ~
are binary (
bitwise) and, or, xor, and not, respectively. It's actually the >>
that's selecting the bth bit; the &
here is a somewhat idiomatic way of getting that bit's value (commonly called "testing" it). --
Tardis 23:09, 8 November 2006 (UTC)&
operator gives you a bitwise AND operation, that is, it compares all the values of the bits in the left hand number with those in the right hand, bit by bit. When one of the two numbers is a constant (i.e. 1), it is sometimes called a "mask", as by the nature of a boolean AND, only those bits that are 1 in the mask number will pass through (masking out the others). -
Rainwarrior 22:58, 8 November 2006 (UTC)hey am a wannabe com expert.am still a rookie and i needed some tips on
1.how can i create n send someone a virus.head knowledge only.i only have the net to my disposal
2.am doing user support.course does anyone know if the exams r tough n what do they entail.i have done hardwre n we r now doin software.
3.how can i send around 40 emails to one person using different email accounts which i already have without doin it one by one,as i open n close the email address.
For number 1, writing viruses is a complex problem (though it's becoming easier with the advent of
polymorphism). Suffice it say that if you can't write computer programs, you can't write viruses (since that's what they are). To send a virus is a lot easier, when you get an extremely suspicious attachment just forward it. Of course you don't have any idea what it does...
For number 2, the difficulty of your exam would depend on the course of course. How would we know?
For number 3, install an
SMTP server (I think one comes with IIS if you're working on Windows) and send them from there. Though they would almost certainly be blocked and services might be terminated by your ISP. Not a good thing if it's the only broadband ISP in the area, as is usually the case. If you want to send them from email addresses that you've registered on some email provider, you can't do it.
In case it's not clear, this is obviously 1) Not the place for you to ask, and 2) Far above you. If you're in a course that covers software for the first half and hardware for the second half that's not a good sign of you being in a position to be writing viruses.. anyway I would encourage you to stop pursuing this unless you want to get into the field of computer security (ie not just to annoy your friends) --
froth
T
C 22:48, 8 November 2006 (UTC)
My parents said i could get a laptop for x-mas, only it has to be below US:$1,500. i was wondering what i should look for in the area of graphics, and procssecing. oh, its supposed to be a media style laptop. (i was looking for a mac, but no, to exspensive.) Xiaden 16:04, 8 November 2006 (UTC)
Firstly, tell us what kind of dollars. 87% of Americans don't have a passport, and from my experience, expect everyone else to assume everything is American. Is it USD?-- martianlostinspace 18:02, 8 November 2006 (UTC)
Intel's new Meroms use less power and are quite inexpensive for the lower-end models. Get that. -- froth T C 22:16, 8 November 2006 (UTC)
wow, i'm kinda lost in all this... but i get what i should be looking for:2.6 GHz of processor speed, at least 1 GB of memory, Most probbally a Memron(is this graphics card or a proccessor?) and dvd-rom read/write drive(16X?)... oh, i'm using the computer most definitly for games(halo2 fer computer is coming out!!!!) and secondarilly for movies/ homework(i-net?) so what sould i get for i-net connection? Xiaden, 15:03, 9 November 2006 (UTC)
Thanks for teh help, i get it now =P
Is it Steak?(Xiaden's Homepage) 19:35, 9 November 2006 (UTC)
I have a problem with my computer which is I cannot install Windows XP SP 2 on my computer. The install goes very well until the appearance of the black screen which has the Windows logo then it freezes. These are the specifications of my computer:
When I bought my computer, I installed Windows XP without Service Pack 2. It worked and is working very good. What is the solution to this problem? Is the cause that my BIOS needs updating?
-- 196.218.105.70 17:20, 8 November 2006 (UTC)
I suspect that you have a bad copy. Try to get a clean copy of SP2 and try the install again. StuRat 21:51, 8 November 2006 (UTC)
Every time I open Outlook, it takes ages to load, I think because it loads about 1k messages. How do I get it to only show the last few, thereby being quicker, without deleting the remainder from my account? martianlostinspace 18:00, 8 November 2006 (UTC)
I don't use Outlook (Express) and have no emails or anything, but the program takes 20+ seconds to load. -- WikiSlasher 12:03, 14 November 2006 (UTC)
i have 2 wrt54g model linksys routers. i've talked to linksys on the phone, and they said this isn't possible, but it seems to me much more likely that they simply don't support this feature. is it possible to extend a wireless network using 2 wireless routers? for example, have one router (connected to dsl modem) in one location, and a cat5 cable running from a port on this router to the internet port on the other router, thus having 2 wireless networks?
will these networks encounter ip conflicts? should the dhcp server be disabled on the second auxiliary router?
thanks in advance for your help. i'm useless when it comes to networking. 130.207.180.59 18:57, 8 November 2006 (UTC)
Make sure you set them both to the same SSID -- froth T C 22:20, 8 November 2006 (UTC)
I once read about a computer designed to solve one problem only, instead of a general computing system that runs software. The computer was used to simulate solar systems (celestial mechanics) and the input was the start parameters of the systems and the output was the positions and speed of all the objects and after a certain time interval. I remember the article stating that this specially designed computer was performing much better than faster computer solving the problem with software.
I am interested in any information about this system, at least the name so I can search more effectively for it. -- DelftUser 20:18, 8 November 2006 (UTC)
Embedded systems can be thousands of times faster than hundreds of times more expensive hardware in a general PC. Consider the differences just between CPUs- Intel has historically been better for servers (especially game servers) while AMD has historically been better for gaming or rendering. The difference is because the chip architecture is better suited for handing different types of operations (specific reasons are extremely technical so I'll spare you). Now imagine instead of running operations through a array of NAND gates to end up with the logic you want, and managing the overhead of tending to all the various subsystems (and God help you if you have other processes running at the time), not to mention the overhead that's inevitable with any compiled programming language (for example the call stack and activation record that's hard coded into any program compiled from C++). Compare that with an embedded system that has had its entire "program" codified into incredibly fast logic (a few nanoseconds per operation!) that's made specifically for that implementation, so no loading code from memory or device drivers or any of that. Your clock lines don't have to weave through unneeded components. All of your memory is local, and depending on your problem you might not even need the slowdown of a cache. See Embedded system -- froth T C 22:31, 8 November 2006 (UTC)
Hi,
I just downloaded Flash Gordon Conquers the Universe for my dad to burn to DVD for him. However, I have no video burning software (I uninstalled it a while ago!). Does anyone here know of a program I could use to burn these file formats so they will work on a standard DVD player? -- Wooty Woot? | contribs 21:42, 8 November 2006 (UTC)