User:NorwegianBlue/refdesk/computing

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[edit] Ability to Self-Update to New Versions in Linux Distributions (Computer science)

I run Ubuntu in a virtual machine, and was happy to note that the updater that Ubuntu uses to patch, update, etc. is capable of downloading and installing new versions of Ubuntu (right now upgrading from 5.10 to 6.06 LTS) into itself, essentially an in place upgrade. Are any other Linux distributions capable of this? I have previously used SuSE, but via YaST, I was only able to update or upgrade components, I could never upgrade the entire operating system. Thanks. MSTCrow 04:39, 3 June 2006 (UTC)

On Debian, one can type apt-get update; apt-get upgrade and it downloads and installs new versions of all components, including the kernel. (Which is not surprising, since Ubuntu is based on the Debian architecture.) –Mysid(t) 05:34, 3 June 2006 (UTC)
Are the upgrade mechanisms of Ubuntu and Debian identical, apt-get, synaptic etc.? --NorwegianBlue 09:28, 3 June 2006 (UTC)
In many ways. Ubuntu uses apt-get/aptitude/synaptic to upgrade and dist-upgrade, but uses its own repositories for packages. ?Sverdrup? 01:38, 6 June 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Help with MASM32 (Computer science)

I need to create an array that can hold 10 million integer numbers and fill it with random numbers ranging from 1 million to 10 million (minus one), When it is filled I need to write the index and contents to a file. I know how to generate random numbers in MASM and how to write from memory to a file using debug but I need to put them together in a MASM program. Anyone have a demo or example? ...IMHO (Talk) 00:52, 11 June 2006 (UTC)

It would be helpful if you rephrased the question to pinpoint the problem more exactly. Do you need help with the memory management/indexing, or with making your "random" numbers fall in that particular range, with writing from memory to a disk file from outside of debug, or with writing a self-contained MASM program? I see from your user page that you program in C. You might try to first write a C-program that does the job, with as few outside dependencies as possible, and then compile the C-program to assembly and study the output. --NorwegianBlue talk 10:13, 11 June 2006 (UTC)
Yes, that is quite easy to do with C (or C++) with a few "for" loops and the rand() function (see here for help using that), and then using fstream to write to files (see here). Hope this helps. —Mets501 (talk) 13:57, 11 June 2006 (UTC)
With the range of pseudorandom numbers that IMHO needs, rand() will not be sufficient, since RAND_MAX typically is quite small (32767). You might of course combine the results of several calls to rand() by bit-shifting. If you do so, I would recommend checking the output with a tool such as ent, to make sure that the result still fits basic requirements to pseudorandom numbers. If you want to write your own pseudorandom number generator, you can find a thorough treatment of the subject in D. E. Knuth. The Art of Computer Programming, Volume 2: Seminumerical Algorithms, Third Edition. Addison-Wesley, 1997. --NorwegianBlue talk 15:00, 11 June 2006 (UTC)

Yes this information helps. Thanks. However, my goal in part here is to learn (or relearn) MASM. Back in the late '60's and early '70's assembly language was quit straight forward (and can still be that straight forward using the command line DEBUG command). Where I am having trouble currently is with INCLUDEs. Irvine32.inc in particular so I am trying to avoid even the use of INCLUDEs and do this (if possible) using only a DEBUG script. Don't get me wrong I have spent ALL of my programming career writing in high level language simply so that I could get far more work done but now my goal is to go back through some of the programs I have written in a high level language like Visual Basic and convert what ever I can to concise assembler or machine code which might help bridge the gap between Windows and Linux whereas a program written in C++ for Linux (source code) may otherwise find difficulty (after it is compiled under any version of Window's C++) to run. What I need specifically is to 1.) know how to create and expand a single dimension integer array with the above size. Therefore I need help with both the memory management and indexing, 2.) Although I can make random numbers fall into any range in Visual Basic I'm not sure about doing this in assembler, 3.) I also need help in writing the array contents and index to a file since even though I know how to write something at a particular location in memory to a file using DEBUG and how to write an array to a file using Visual Basic it has been a long, long time since I used assembler way back in the early '70's. Your suggestion to try writing in C and then doing a compile to study the output is a good and logical one but my thinking is that by the time I get back into C so that I can write such a snippet of a program that I could have already learned how to do it using MASM. Even still it is not an unreasonable or bad idea. Any code examples would lend to my effort and be appreciated. Thanks. ...IMHO (Talk) 14:58, 11 June 2006 (UTC)

I followed your suggestion to look at the disassembled output of the following C++ code and was shocked to find that while the .exe file was only 155,000 bytes the disassembled listing is over 3 million bytes long.

#include <stdio.h> 
#include <stdlib.h> 
main() 
{ 
   printf("RAND_MAX = %u\n", RAND_MAX); 
}

I think I need to stick with the original plan. ...IMHO (Talk) 15:43, 11 June 2006 (UTC)

Wow! You must have disassembled the entire standard library! What I meant was to generate an assembly listing of your program, such as in this example. You will see that in the example, I have scaled down the size of the array by a factor of 100 compared to your original description of the problem. This is because the compiler was unable to generate sensible code for stack-allocated arrays this size (the code compiled, but gave runtime stack overflow errors).
To bridge the gap between Windows and Linux, I think that this is definitely not the way to go. If you are writing C or C++ and avoid platform-specific calls, your code should easily compile on both platforms. For platform specific stuff, write an abstraction layer, and use makefiles to select the correct .C file for the platform. If you want gui stuff, you can achieve portability by using a widget toolkit that supports both platforms, such as WxWidgets. I have no experience in porting Visual basic to Linux, but I suppose you could do it using Wine. --NorwegianBlue talk 17:53, 11 June 2006 (UTC)
Looks like I need to learn more about the VC++ disassembler. I was using it to created the execute file and then using another program to do a disassembly (or reassembly) of the execute file. I'll study the VC++ disassembler help references for at least long enough to recover some working knowledge of MASM and then perhaps do the VB rewrites in VC++ if it looks like I can't improve the code. Thanks ...IMHO (Talk) 23:05, 11 June 2006 (UTC)
You don't need to use a disassembler. In Visual C++ 6.0, you'll find this under project settings, select the C/C++ tab, in the "category" combo select "Listing files", and chose the appropriate one. The .asm file will be generated in the same directory as the .exe. Presumably it works similarly in more recent versions of VC++. --NorwegianBlue talk 04:58, 12 June 2006 (UTC)
All of the menu items appear to be there but no .asm file can be found in either the main folder or in the debug folder. With the C++ version of the program now up and running as it is supposed to with all of the little details given attention (like appending type designators to literals) the next step is to take a look at that .asm file ...if only it will rear its ugly head. ...IMHO (Talk) 01:21, 13 June 2006 (UTC)
Strange. You could try calling the compiler (cl.exe) from the command line, when the current directory is the directory where your source file lives. The /Fa option forces generation of a listing, the /c option skips the linker, and you might need to use the /I option to specify the directory for your include files, if the INCLUDE environment variable is not set properly. On my system that would be:
E:\src\wikipedia\masm_test>cl /Fa /c /I "c:\Programfiler\Microsoft Visual Studio\VC98\Include" main.c
Microsoft (R) 32-bit C/C++ Optimizing Compiler Version 12.00.8804 for 80x86
Copyright (C) Microsoft Corp 1984-1998. All rights reserved.
 
main.c
 
E:\src\wikipedia\masm_test>dir *.asm
  Volumet i stasjon E er ARBEID
  Volumserienummeret er 4293-94FF
  
 Innhold i E:\src\wikipedia\masm_test
  
 13.06.2006  19:23             2 292 main.asm
which, as you can see, works fine. The problem may be related to the fact that you have the free version, maybe assembly generation is disabled? Would that be the case if it only compiles to .net bytecode? If so, just about any other C compiler will have an option to generate an assembly listing, try using another compiler instead. --NorwegianBlue talk 17:38, 13 June 2006 (UTC)
There must be something seriously wrong with my installation. Even after multiple reinstallations of VC C++ v6 Introductory I keep getting command line errors like it can't find the include files, etc. I'll keep working on it. Thanks. ...IMHO (Talk) 00:01, 14 June 2006 (UTC)

Okay, finally got it! The thing that was messing up the command line compile under VC++ v6 Intro seems to have been a "using namespace std;" line (although oddly enough it has to be removed when the contents of an array variable are incremented but required when the same variable is only assigned a value). It looks like VC++ Express 2005 has the same settings function in the GUI but I have not yet been able to figure out and follow the procedure to get it to work. Its command line .asm intruction might also work now but I do not have time right now to test it. Thanks for all of the detailed suggestions and for helping to make the Wikipedia more than I ever dreamed it would be. Thanks. ...IMHO (Talk) 21:35, 15 June 2006 (UTC)

I'd add a caution here re the random business. It is remarkably hard to generate random sequences deterministically. See hardware random number generator for some observations. If you have to do it in software, you might consider Blum Blum Shub whose output is provably random in a strong sense if a certain problem is in fact intractable computationally. It's just slow in comparison to most other approaches. ISAAC and the Mersenne twister are other possibilites adn rather faster. On a practical basis, you might consult the design of Schneier and Ferguson's Fortuna (see Practical Cryptography). The problem is one of entropy in the information theory sense, and it may be that this doesn't apply to your use in which case the techniques described by Knuth will likley be helpful. Anything which passes his various tests will likely be satisfactory for any none security related purpose. However, for security related issues (eg, cryptography, etc) they won't as the entropy will be too low. Consider Schneier and Ferguson's comentson the issue in Practical Cryptography.
And with reapect to using libraries, I suggest that you either roll your own routines or install a crypto library from such projects as OpenBSD or the equivalent in the Linux world. Peter Gutmann's cryptlib is in C and has such routines. There are several other crypto libraries, most in C. Check them very carefully against the algorithm claimed before you use them for any security related purpose. G luck. ww 04:56, 16 June 2006 (UTC)


[edit] R licence question (Computing)

R (programming language) is distributed under the GPL Version 2, June 1991. If I develop an application that (among various other things) writes R scripts, in order to use R as a graphing engine, do I have to distribute this application as open source, under the GPL 2.0, or can I distribute it commercially under a different licence? --NorwegianBlue talk 08:04, 16 November 2006 (UTC)

The GNU GPL requires that programs based on the source code of another program that is GPLed must be also licensed under the GNU GPL. It does not say the output (in your case, the program) must be licensed under the GNU GPL. In short, your program can be distributed commercially. --wj32 talk | contribs 08:32, 16 November 2006 (UTC)
See [1], especially the section on "Combining work with code released under the GPL". There may be situations where your program will (according to the FSF) become covered by the GPL, such as linking with GPL'd libraries (calling runtime functions may be harmful) or subclassing GPL'd classes. As far as I know FSF's assertions on this subject have not been tested in court. Consider consulting a lawyer, or getting a programming language that has no such worries. Weregerbil 10:37, 16 November 2006 (UTC)
Languages are not distributed (how would you distribute German?); compilers and interpreters and libraries are distributed. Similarly, languages are not licensed. As such, merely writing an R script can have no impact on anything; it's just text that you output. (An exception would be if there were trademark considerations in your output or so, but typically interoperability has trumped trademark law. See the Sega case.) The trick is actually if/when you run an R interpreter or so; consult both the FSF and a lawyer, as the details of how you invoke R programs, how your program would behave in the absense of R support, and how closely your program works with the graphing code may affect the issue. --Tardis 16:22, 16 November 2006 (UTC)
  • Let's see if I get this right... The graphics is an important component of the application that I am considering writing. If the program writes the R code, and R is started separately to produce the pdf's, it would be OK. However, if the program calls R in batch mode via a system call, it would be a violation of the GPL. Is this a correct interpretation? --NorwegianBlue talk 16:54, 16 November 2006 (UTC)
If your program never interacts with any other programs (e.g., R interpreters), it's irrelevant what you produce. If you do interact with an R program (via system() or otherwise), you may count as associated. That's when you have to talk to someone in a legal capacity and/or discuss it with the FSF (although I'm sure they'd be none too happy to hear you were trying to avoid writing free software). --Tardis 17:38, 16 November 2006 (UTC)
Thanks. Actually, I'm not trying to avoid writing free software, but I may not be in a position to make the decision myself. Furthermore, the application in question would need to interact more or less tightly with closed-source commercial software, so if we were to release it under the GPL, the same kind of considerations would apply to that interaction. --NorwegianBlue talk 10:33, 18 November 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Generating permutations

I refer to this section of the Permutation article:

BEGIN

Algorithm to generate permutations

For every number k (0 \le k < n!) this following algorithm generates the corresponding permutation of the initial sequence \left( s_j \right)_{j=1}^n:

 function permutation(k, s) {
     var int factorial:= 1;
     for j = 2  to length(s) {
        factorial := factorial* (j-1);
        swap( s[j - ((k / factorial) mod j)], s[j]);
     }
     return s;
 }

Notation

  • k / j denotes integer division of k by j without rest, and
  • k mod j is the remaining rest of the integer division of k by j.

END

The algorithm is supposed to generate every different permutation of the integers 1 to n, but when I coded it there were repetitions - could someone else check this, please?

Also, the bit following "Notation" seems to be written very clumsily, omitting the generally-understood word "remainder".81.153.219.51 16:42, 9 January 2007 (UTC)

I don't claim I understand why the algorithm does what it does, but I've checked all n! outputs for sequence length n up to and including 9, and it is working just fine for me. Are you perhaps using the permuted s as input to a next call?
As to the clumsiness, I'd say: {{sofixit}}. If you don't feel comfortable doing that (but why wouldn't you?), consider leaving a comment on the article's talk page.  --LambiamTalk 21:47, 9 January 2007 (UTC)

Yes, I was using successive sequences - when I reset to 123...n order before each use, everything worked fine, thanks. With this apparently not working I searched for alternative algorithms - this one seems by far the shortest. It's a pity there is no attribution of source.

Re. the text, yes I'll change it - I hadn't fully appreciated how things were here.

With a dynamic IP address it may not look as if I'm the same person as before, but I am.81.153.220.80 18:27, 10 January 2007 (UTC)

[edit] CD28 gif 3d rotating structure (Jmol, PDB files)

I really enjoyed the rotating 3d image of CD28 on your CD28 page.My question is simply that I would like to know if I could use your .gif format software (code) to portray the 3d structure of another protein molecule for which I have the .pdb file (3d coordinates)on my website?Can you please help me with how to do this if it is indeed legal?Thanks again for another terrific Wikipedia page, as always!

Don Kaiser <Rm email to reduce spam>

  • If you click on the image, you will find yourself on a page that indicates who created it...ask him how he did it. I've used the free Jmol program to make 3D molecular models from PDB files. I think it can export animated gif images, but not sure. DMacks 20:48, 2 February 2007 (UTC)

[edit] AVI files that can't fast foward

I've noticed that certain video files me and my friends have encountered cannot be fast forwarded, you can't skip to any other point in the clip. The only thing you can do is just play it forward, and to get to a certain point you have to sit and watch everything preceding it. Is there any way that this can be avoided? I try taking it into Windows Movie Maker and it's unable to import. What's going on here? NIRVANA2764 21:36, 31 January 2007 (UTC)

These files are lacking indexes, which tell a program which position in the file corresponds to what time in the movie. virtualdub may be able to help. Droud 01:44, 1 February 2007 (UTC)
Try it in VLC. I haven't heard of problems playing avi files, but if there are still problems seeking, then use ffmpeg to re-encode the file's container. This guide explains fixing flv files using ffmpeg - it is the same procedure for fixing (broken) avi to (fixed) avi. --h2g2bob 02:06, 1 February 2007 (UTC)
Indexes? That would be a huge waste of storage space and computation. Think about it: a 32-bit pointer for each frame. --wj32 talk | contribs 06:30, 1 February 2007 (UTC)
Even with the 64b timestamps and 64b pointers, it still comes out to less than 4MB to index every frame in a 2 hour movie. In any case, most AVIs can only be played from keyframes, so the index would only contain those. Droud 12:48, 1 February 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Automated Google searches: length distribution of written growls

How would I go about writing a C++ or JavaScript program that would create a table (CSV is fine for C++) of the number of Google hits for G followed by n R's, as n increases from 2 to 100? NeonMerlin 03:28, 24 May 2007 (UTC)

Here it is in Perl, which should give you the general idea. --TotoBaggins 13:52, 24 May 2007 (UTC)
#!/usr/bin/perl -w

use strict;
use LWP::UserAgent;

# we have to set the user-agent to pretend to be a
# browser, since google doesn't accept robots
my $web_client = LWP::UserAgent->new(agent => "mozilla");

# Google allows query words up to 128 chars long
for my $n (2 .. 127)
{
    # make a string of 'r's, of length $n
    my $arrs = "r" x $n;

    my $url = "http://www.google.com/search?q=g$arrs";

    my $response = $web_client->get($url);
    $response->is_success() or die $web_client->status_line() . ": $url";
    my $page = $response->content();

    my $hits;
    if ($page =~ m#Results.*([\d,]+) for #)
    {
        # we captured the hits in the first parens
        $hits = $1;
        # remove the commas from the hits count
        $hits =~ s/,//g;
    }
    elsif ($page =~ /did not match any documents/)
    {
        $hits = 0;
    }
    else
    {
        warn "Could not parse url: $url\n";
        $hits = -1;
    }

    print "$hits hits for 'g$arrs'\n";

    # be a polite robot
    sleep 1;
}

[edit] Text-only browsing

For the summer vacations, I bought a mobile internet card for my laptop. I'm paying by the megabyte, and would like to minimize expenses. I'm using Firefox 2.0.0.4, Windows Xp. So I unchecked "Load images automatically" and "Enable java" it the "Tools|Options|Content" dialog. However, Flash animations (and images) are still downloaded. There is a "Manage file types" button in the same dialog, but the button that I would like to press for SPL and SWF objects, "Remove action", is grayed and inacessible; I only have the options of specifying which program to open the file in, or to save it to disk, which implies that it will be downloaded whichever alternative I chose. So my questions are:

  1. How can I convince Firefox to ignore Flash animations?
  2. Does anyone have additional advice about minimizing the amount of data transferred?
  3. Is anyone aware of a utility program that I can install, to monitor how much data that is transferred? There is a tool in the software that came with the card, but I would like to experiment using my broadband connection, before starting to spend $$$ on the mobile card.

I have installed the Adblock-plus plugin, which alleviates the Flash problem somewhat, but far from totally. And yes, I have tried Lynx, but found the user interface too limited for my needs. Thanks for any advice. --NorwegianBlue talk 18:00, 20 June 2007 (UTC)

You can use the flashblock or NoScript extension to configure when and where to load flash objects. -- JSBillings 18:08, 20 June 2007 (UTC)
There are some text-only browsers, made for either people with visual impairments who use screen readers or for those with low-end computers. However, only a portion of sites support this. Many require that you have Flash or ActiveX or Java enabled to use the site properly. Also, a few sites have a "Text only" interface you can select. For example, here's a text-only, ad-free weather forecast site: [2] (Except for a few icons, such as for the Moon phase). I suggest you build a Favorites/Bookmark list of these text-only sites and use them exclusively. StuRat 18:31, 20 June 2007 (UTC)
There is a plugin to Firefox that allows you to totally disable flash or any other plugin (not addon, MR Tech is good for that), I can't remember its name. It even will report to the server that your browser does not have flash capabilities, but a single click will re-enable flash functionality. (it disables flash everywhere in the firefox executable instance). I've mentioned it on here before and am running it currently but I can't remember its name. Root4(one) 19:37, 20 June 2007 (UTC)
You could try Opera Mini (you'd only need a J2ME runtime for your computer). It's designed to be used in slow metered connections like that, and uses Opera's proxy to compress/optimize/etc. the page before it's sent to your computer. --cesarb 22:48, 20 June 2007 (UTC)
(Now writing from mobile connection): Thank you all for your advice. I ended up with turning off images and java as stated, plus using Adblock plus and Flashblock. I also found an applet at http://delphi.about.com, called Network Traffic Monitor, written by Zarko Gajic, which allowed me to do some testing before leaving. I'll check out Opera Mini when I'm back. Thanks again. --NorwegianBlue talk 21:41, 21 June 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Graphics cards

I want to upgrade the graphics card on my desktop computer. What kind of compatibility issues do I need to think about. How can I work out what type of graphics card it right for me? MHDIV ɪŋglɪʃnɜː(r)d(Suggestion?|wanna chat?) 16:02, 3 November 2007 (UTC)

I think it's just a matter of the kind of slot you have open on your motherboard. If you have a PCI-E x16 slot, that fits modern video cards. If you have 2 free slots, you can use dual cards to render the same display, with SLI or Crossfire (If you want this, make sure you buy cards specifically made for SLI/crossfire). Oh, there's the additional consideration of power- you need a very solid PSU to run newer cards (and a monster to run dual cards). Not only that but some of the beastier cards actually require a separate power connector- they trail a wire and you have to have a little power connector next to the PCI-E slot. --ffroth 17:02, 3 November 2007 (UTC)
You didn't say what OS you are running. If Linux, get a card with an nVidia chip - the drivers are much better than ATI on that platform. SteveBaker 17:31, 3 November 2007 (UTC)
Second that ... also consider a graphics card with nVidia chip if you think you might be migrating or dual-booting with GNU/Linux as one (or more) of the options. --Kushalt 00:11, 4 November 2007 (UTC)
It's sort of a non-issue since linux is terrible for gaming anyway :) --ffroth 01:14, 4 November 2007 (UTC)

I don't mean to be rude but who is talking about video games? --Kushalt 01:57, 4 November 2007 (UTC)

Yeah graphics card isn't only for gaming, you can use it for flashy, shiny effects is well! --antilivedT | C | G 05:27, 4 November 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Uninstalling GRUB bootloader

I used to dual boot my laptop with linux and windows. The bootloader I had was Grub. I recently deleted the entire linux partition. Now the trouble is, when the computer starts, I get the GRUB comand prompt and I have to type the following to load from my windows partition:

grub> rootnoverify (hd0,0)
grub> makeactive
grub> chainloader +1
grub> boot

I'd like to know if there is some way by which I can make GRUB execute this code automatically each time my computer boots? Or even better, can I completely unistall Grub and get my windows partition to load by default? Thanks for the help!--Seraphiel (talk) 13:11, 12 December 2007 (UTC)

Hi .. Insert your windows xp cd, boot from it. Select to go into the "Recovery console". After you get into it, type "fixboot" followed by "fixmbr". That should do it. --RohanDhruva (talk) 13:46, 12 December 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Freeware solution for accepting 48-bit scans from an image scanner? (Computing)

I have a scanner capable of outputting 48-bit (i.e. 16 bits/channel) color scans. However, none of the several image editing programs I have seem to be able to accept 48-bit scans directly from the scanner (including two that have limited support for 16-bit-per-channel images). Images imported into the editors via TWAIN would appear as 8-bit-per-channel.

Is there a freeware solution for accepting 48-bit scans from a scanner and saving the scans in a format that preserve the bit depth?

(Update) The problem is solved. Turns out that my set-up was already capable of transferring 48-bit images, just that additional configuration was needed. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.175.23.249 (talk) 13:47, 20 December 2007 (UTC)

There is a version of GIMP called CinePaint that was forked off of the main GIMP branch several years ago specifically in order to add deep-pixel editing. It's been used in a bunch of movies (Harry Potter for example!) so it's pretty reliable. It's free - but it's missing quite a few of the newer GIMP features. It's maintained by a bunch of movie studios. SteveBaker (talk) 17:14, 20 December 2007 (UTC)

[edit] GIMP question

In the GIMP, is it possible to have a layer with a transparent background, and add a fully opaque layer (for example, a JPG photograph) on top of that so that the transparent pixels stay transparent, but the non-transparent pixels get their colours from the new layer? Or is it possible to "substract" a layer with a transparent background from a layer with an opaque background, so that the "substracted" pixels would become transparent? JIP | Talk 18:28, 9 January 2007 (UTC)

Yes I'm sure it's possible as I've done it before, but I haven't used it in ages and haven't the slightest idea of how to do it now --frothT C 20:05, 9 January 2007 (UTC)
If I understood your intention correctly, this is something that can be done with masks. Go to the layer with the transparent background and choose Layer → Mask → Add mask... and then select Layer alpha and click OK. Now activate the opaque layer, choose Layer → Mask → Add mask... and proceed with whatever settings there are. Go to the transparent layer's mask (by clicking it in the layer list), Ctrl+A Ctrl+C, then go to the opaque layer's mask, Ctrl+V. Anchor the mask, and you're done. –mysid☎ 21:01, 9 January 2007 (UTC)
Yes, this works. Thank you! JIP | Talk 10:11, 10 January 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Creating duplicate hard links, then making them independent

Under Windows XP, I have a large library of PDFs that I need to edit down by deletion, and I want to keep both the edited and unedited versions on my hard drive. There will be room for both, but there isn't room to store the unedited version a second time. So what I want to do is make a copy of the folder with an identical tree, but where each file is a second hardlink to the same file in the original folder. I know this can be done with

fsutil hardlink create C:\oldfolder\subfolder\file.pdf C:\newfolder\subfolder\file.pdf

The problem is that fsutil only handles one file at a time, and the destination folder must already exist. How can I write a batch file that will find all the subfolders and files of the original folder, create corresponding subfolders in the duplicate folder and then fsutil hardlink all the files? NeonMerlin 00:35, 23 January 2007 (UTC)

Why would you store the unedited versions a second time? And why would you want to use multiple hardlinks, they're almost never useful. --frothT 01:01, 23 January 2007 (UTC)
Well, can you think of a better way to make two copies of a folder, with the ability to delete files from one and keep them in the other, but without taking up twice as much space as a single copy? I don't intend to edit the files themselves, only to delete some and keep others (and maybe rename and move a few). NeonMerlin 01:10, 23 January 2007 (UTC)
Nope. How many directories are we talking about? I'm not sure if you'd be able to preserve directory structure, but maybe you could change the file handler from acrobat reader or whatever to fsutil, and mass-open all of the pdfs. It would be a lot of Ctrl-A and Enter, but it might work. --frothT 01:15, 23 January 2007 (UTC)
From a command prompt, do "dir /s /b >file.txt" then use a text editor to convert each line in file.txt into two lines of the form "md C:\newfolder\subfolder\file.pdf\.." and then your " fsutil hardlink create C:\oldfolder\subfolder\file.pdf C:\newfolder\subfolder\file.pdf" (yes it appears possible to make a new folder structure by simply adding \.. to a file which doesn't yet exist). Tested on Win2000. -- SGBailey 11:18, 23 January 2007 (UTC)

[edit] MS Excel formula help (SOLVED)

Hi folks, I need some advice with Microsoft Excel. I've got a table with various entries in which will be added to all the time, each entry will have a category assigned to it as well as a cost. What I want to do and can't for the life of me figure out how is add up the total cost for each category. I know I could sort the table by category and manually sum it but I want the entries in chronological order, not category order. I'm sure there must be a formula that will do this easily.

I have attached a screenshot containing an example of what I am trying to do, basically if you look at the example I want another table next to the main one with a list of all the categories and next to it, a cell containing the total cost of all the cells in the main table that have that category next to them.GaryReggae (talk) 20:00, 4 January 2008 (UTC)

Cheers! Image:Excelscreenshot.jpg

If I understand you correctly, you need to use the SUMIF function. For example =SUMIF(B1:B20,"Red",C1:C20) gives the total of values in column C that have "Red" in the same row in column B. (Adjust the cell references to suit your exact needs.) AndrewWTaylor (talk) 20:07, 4 January 2008 (UTC)
Ah thanks, that's it, I looked at SUMIF but couldn't quite understand how to use it as the help is a bit vague. Your example has solved the problem! GaryReggae (talk) 20:17, 4 January 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Connecting a computer, a Playstation 3 and a television set

I'm trying to assist my son in connecting an old PC (Windows 2000), a modern television set, and a Sony Playstation 3. He has connected the video signal from the PC to the television via a VGA cable, and the video signal from the PS3 to the television set via a HDMI cable. This works excellently, and he can switch between the video inputs using the remote control of the television. However, two problems remain:

  1. He wants to buy a wireless mouse and keyboard for the PC, which he also intends to use for controlling the PS3.
  2. He wants to send the audio from all three devices to a set of loudspeakers, which up until now has been connected to the audio output of the PC.

I'd be grateful for advice about an optimal setup, where one could achive this, with as easy switching between the devices as possible, without spending a fortune. I'm also a bit confused about the keyboard and mouse setup. Since the PC and the PS3 are not aware of each other, how does one avoid that both devices respond to the signals from the keyboard and mouse? --NorwegianBlue talk 20:18, 5 January 2008 (UTC)

For the audio, connect all the audio devices to audio inputs on the TV. Then connect the loudspeakers to the TV's audio-out. This way, whichever device you're switched to on the TV will output its audio through the loudspeakers. For keyboard/mouse, I'm afraid you're out of luck -- you'll either need two separate sets, or you'll need to switch a single set between the PC and Playstation depending on which you want to use. There's no way, as far as I know, for them to "share". Equazcion •✗/C • 23:19, 5 Jan 2008 (UTC)
For the keyboard/mouse, you can use a KVM. I use an Avocent model. It allows me to change the computer from the keyboard itself. Technically, you are asking for a KM, not a KVM. But, you may want to consider running both the computer and PS3 into the KVM and running the KVM to the TV. Then, when you switch, you switch keyboard, video, and mouse all at once. You don't have to switch video with the TV remote and KM with the KVM. -- kainaw™ 02:48, 6 January 2008 (UTC)
I thought of that after posting my answer, but that would add a lot of extra wiring and complication. You'd need to get 2 more wires for the keyboard and another 2 for the mouse, along with the KVM box itself, and every time you wanted to switch you'd need to go over to the KVM and switch it -- it wouldn't be automatic. It's not worth the money, the hassle, or the added wire entanglement, if you ask me. Equazcion •✗/C • 02:54, 6 Jan 2008 (UTC)
My KVM came with 4 connections for 4 computers. It plugged in a wireless keyboard and mouse. To switch, I press "Print Screen" and then 1, 2, 3, or 4 to switch computers. There is no mess of extra wires and no hassle of going over to the KVM to switch things. -- kainaw™ 03:00, 6 January 2008 (UTC)
Thanks, Equazcion, and Kainaw. Connecting the audio from the PC to the TV was the way to go (something we would have found out if we had RTFM a bit more carefully...); it worked beautifully. Regarding the audio from the PS3, this turned out not to be a problem. I wasn't aware when posting that the HDMI cable took care of that. I did suspect that such a thing as a KVM switch had to exist, however I had no idea of what it was called. We'll check it out. Thanks again! --NorwegianBlue talk 16:46, 6 January 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Excel help required

Hi

In MS Excel I want to select all cells that have a particular value. I'm sure this must be really straightforward but I can't work it out from the help file.

Thanks a lot --195.167.178.194 (talk) 12:39, 8 January 2008 (UTC)

If you are looking to change the values in these cells you can use Ctrl-H to replace and Excel will search the document for you. Or, CTRL-F and then enter your value and hit Find All. You can then Ctrl left click all the cells you need. Lanfear's Bane | t 13:12, 8 January 2008 (UTC)
(ec) I think you would need a macro to do this:
Sub SelectByValue()

   Const VALUE_TO_FIND = "test" ' <<< set this to the value you want to find

   Dim ValueCells As Range, c As Range
   For Each c In ActiveSheet.UsedRange
       If Not IsError(c.Value) Then
           If c.Value = VALUE_TO_FIND Then
               If ValueCells Is Nothing Then
                   Set ValueCells = c
               Else
                   Set ValueCells = Application.Union(ValueCells, c)
               End If
           End If
       End If
   Next
   
   If ValueCells Is Nothing Then
       MsgBox "Value not found"
   Else
       ValueCells.Select
   End If
End Sub
AndrewWTaylor (talk) 13:14, 8 January 2008 (UTC)

[edit] SVG files

Two part question:

  • Is there anyone on Wikipedia that can convert a PNG image to SVG?
  • If so, can anyone convert this image from PNG to SVG? TomStar81 (Talk) 06:34, 15 January 2008 (UTC)
There are plenty of people who can vectorise on here, but I doubt your request can be fulfilled. The original is a scan of a real object, not a diagram or drawing, and thus unsuitable for SVG. --antilivedT | C | G 08:11, 15 January 2008 (UTC)
Actually, that looks like an drawing to me, not a scan. Notice how all lines and stars are identical. But the resolution is frightfully low. --24.147.69.31 (talk) 16:26, 15 January 2008 (UTC)
If you bribed or threatened someone they could probably redraw it from scratch in SVG, but it's tedious work, mate. Cheers, Ouro (blah blah) 09:37, 15 January 2008 (UTC)
If you're looking for a quicky way to vectorize something, Vector Magic works better than most, and is free and runs out of your browser. --24.147.69.31 (talk) 16:26, 15 January 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Inverse color

How do I calculate the inverse color for a color? i.e. if I'm given a color, I want the color best suited for the background color, i.e. most readable.

I have seen many many online inverse color tools that simply assume it's the 256 complement (if I am using that term correctly), so (to use decimal), 10's inverse is 245. But of course then you get the color #808080 (i.e. 128 128 128), and the inverse is not correct at all.

Does anyone have a better formula? I'm thinking perhaps the color such that new minus old color has the maximum absolute magnitude. Any ideas? Ariel. (talk) 10:48, 22 January 2008 (UTC)

I'm not sure how exactly you're calculating the inverse, but you want to be breaking the colour down into its red green and blue components. For a given colour (R,G,B), your inverse will be ((255 − R),(255 − G),(255 − B)). Readro (talk) 11:21, 22 January 2008 (UTC)
The answer depends on definition of 'inverse' , that is what color model you use. It's quite safe to assume that black and white should be 'inverse' to each other. But what do you mean by inverse of, say, bright yellow? Should it be dark brown (light–dark inversion, i.e. lightness inversion in HSL color space) or rather intense blue (RGB inversion, proposed by Readro above)? --CiaPan (talk) 12:30, 22 January 2008 (UTC)
If what you're after is a color which is as different as possible from the given color, then yes, you want each of the RGB components to have the maximum distance between them. This will always be a color with RGB components of 0 or 255. So for (192, 140, 60), for example, the most distant color will be (0, 0, 255). Of course, I am assuming here that in terms of perception, the components are completely unrelated and 128 is midway between 0 and 255. Also, this will not be bijective - the same color will be the "inverse" of many colors. If you want a bijection which guarantees that the colors will be quite different, you can take each RGB component and add 128 modulo 256. -- Meni Rosenfeld (talk) 12:39, 22 January 2008 (UTC)
Readro's inversion, and 128 modulo 256 both don't handle gray - they produce gray as the result. Meni's idea - is I guess, for each component - if it's greater than 127 make it 0, if it's less or equal, make it 255. I think that should work. CiaPan: you ask which type of inversion - I would answer: both. Because otherwise you don't handle gray (the opposite color to gray is still gray), so you need lightness change, but light yellow on dark yellow is also hard to read, so you also want a color inversion. Would Meni's idea do that? Ariel. (talk) 13:30, 22 January 2008 (UTC)
Ok, now I understand (I hope). :) Well, yes, Meni's idea is best for you: it will give most contrast color possible, approximately inversing the hue of a given color and choosing its maximum or minimum value. For example for yellow and similar colors you'll get intense blue; for any bright gray color, including white, you'll get black; for all very dark colors you'll get white, an so on. --CiaPan (talk) 13:41, 22 January 2008 (UTC)
[ec] Adding 128 modulo 256 does handle gray - it produces black or white for the result (for dark grey it will give light grey, which works but is perhaps suboptimal). My other suggestion will turn light yellow to light blue and dark yellow to white. -- Meni Rosenfeld (talk) 13:56, 22 January 2008 (UTC)
Sorry, I miss-understood what you wrote (misread the modulo). I tried it - it handles some colors better then others. It doesn't produce the opposite color (from a color wheel) for all colors like this color for example, on the other hand this seems OK. The other method you posted works nicely, except cyan is not a very easy color to read. Ariel. (talk) 15:38, 22 January 2008 (UTC)
You've asked two completely different questions here. A perceptually "opposite" color is not generally a good background color for maximum readability. The most-distant-in-RGB strategy will get you cyan on red, which is a terrible combination for readability even though these are perceptually very different colors. The add-128-modulo-256 strategy will give you such horrors as red on grey. In these cases cyan on black and red on white would have been far better. You should also take into account that you may have colorblind users, and what looks good to you may be unreadable to some of them. I think your best bet is to use a black background for all bright colors and a white background for all dark colors. To judge the brightness of an RGB color you could use the sRGB formula in the Luminance (relative) article. If it isn't obvious by now, your question really belongs on the science desk; human color perception is complicated and weird, and there's no simple mathematical answer to the questions of what looks most different or best. -- BenRG (talk) 15:24, 22 January 2008 (UTC)
The color is actually the background color, and I just want something readable for the text label on top of the color (the color blind person would read that - I think contrasting colors and brightness simultaneously should be readable to a color blind person, just changing the color would not be). I tried making all the text either black or white, it worked for many colors, but not for all of them. The ones that were mid-way in luminosity were hard to read. So far the most-distant method worked best, but some colors look terrible, as you mentioned. There has to be a better way - your cyan on red are both full luminosity colors, I want to also invert the luminosity. So solid red should become black (the cyan at 0 darkness). (Well, I think I want that - I don't really know what I want :) Ariel. (talk) 15:49, 22 January 2008 (UTC)
Can you give examples of colours for which neither a white nor a black label worked well?  --Lambiam 18:02, 22 January 2008 (UTC)
For example: this color in white and this one and in white. I mean it's not terrible, but a color instead of black or white would be better. Ariel. (talk) 15:47, 23 January 2008 (UTC)
Note that properly converting RGB colors to grayscale isn't quite as simple as just adding the components together. In fact, the precise conversion formula will depend on the specific RGB color space used, but a quick and dirty rule is to weigh the red channel by 30%, the green by 60% and the blue by 10%. Thus, to pick the maximally contrasting color from the set {black, white}, given the background color (r, g, b) ∈ [0,1]3, one might use the formula:
\mbox{color } = \begin{cases} \mbox{black,} & \mbox{if } 3r + 6g + b \ge 5 \\ \mbox{white,} & \mbox{otherwise}. \end{cases}
—Ilmari Karonen (talk) 04:31, 23 January 2008 (UTC)
I particular, the rule I give above produces, for extremal backgrounds choices, black on green, yellow, cyan and white, and white on black, red, blue and magenta. Simply using the unweighted mean would yield the opposite choice on green and magenta, which I think you'll agree would not look optimal. —Ilmari Karonen (talk) 04:38, 23 January 2008 (UTC)
You could also perhaps experiment with lowering the threshold a bit, say from 5 to 4.5, since the human eye seems to be somewhat more comfortable with black on a dark background than with white on a bright one. But the 50% threshold ought to work well enough. —Ilmari Karonen (talk) 04:48, 23 January 2008 (UTC)

Is the Ariel asking about complimentary colors as in art and design? Complimentary are the exact opposite of each other and shows the best contrast. It is based on RYB not RGB. 2 complimentary colored paints when mixed will always be black. See http://www.faceters.com/askjeff/answer52.shtml NYCDA (talk) 23:58, 22 January 2008 (UTC)

Two complimentary colors, as it says in the article you linked, usually mix to a muddy brownish color. Black and white have to be produced separately, essentially as two more primary colors. Black Carrot (talk) 04:16, 23 January 2008 (UTC)
That would be Complementary colors. AndrewWTaylor (talk) —Preceding comment was added at 08:45, 23 January 2008 (UTC)
I know what they are, I was asking how to calculate them. And if they are a good choice. Ariel. (talk) 15:47, 23 January 2008 (UTC)

(See above for 2 colors that didn't work great with black or white.) All the ideas posted worked pretty well, but I think it can be better. I like the most distant color rule, but I'd like to remove cyan, magenta, and yellow from the options, since those colors aren't the easiest to read. Any ideas? Ariel. (talk) 15:54, 23 January 2008 (UTC)

Mathmatically the opposite of "all" is "some", not "none". Opposite of gray is white or black depending on your prespective. You might be better of if you add 128 to the component if the value is less then 128, substract 128 if the value is greater then 128. For 128 itself, you can set it to 0 or 255. Using this rule, you get
sample sample sample sample

NYCDA (talk) 19:11, 23 January 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Removing email addresses

Whenever someone posts their email address here, some well-meaning soul will remove it and say "I'm helping you not get spammed". My question is: how would that help? Presumably spambots are pointed at en.wikipedia.org and spider down from there. If they make it from the Main Page to Wikipedia:Reference_desk to Wikipedia:Reference_desk/Computing, surely they'll take the next step to the page history and harvest the addy from there. Is this just a WP superstition, or is there evidence that spiders are programmed to ignore the history pages? Bonus question: why isn't WP:RD/C linked in my post? Thanks! --Sean 23:55, 29 January 2008 (UTC)

I don't know about webcrawlers and the page histories, but your WP:RD/C link doesn't link because you can't link to the page you're on. Useight (talk) 00:30, 30 January 2008 (UTC)

Good question. When I remove e-mail addresses, I am not thinking about automated scripts. I am thinking about humans. I assume it would be possible for administrators to remove the edit from page history but I am not sure if automated scripts will be able to pick up the traces after the deletion (I presume that traces of undoable actions of administrators are logged). Kushalt 01:10, 30 January 2008 (UTC)

I mostly just remove with a comment saying "see the rules up top." It's more of an educational "no that's not how we reply here" kind of thing. Of course, if somebody posts and then just waits around for an email and never comes back, then they'll never see the message. C'est la vie. --LarryMac | Talk 01:15, 30 January 2008 (UTC)
If you post your email address here, it can be harvested, either via a web spider or via downloading the database. If you don't post your email address, it can't figure it out from the history. The history shows your Wikipedia username. This is not your email address. Marnanel (talk) 01:48, 30 January 2008 (UTC)
The point is that the history will show the email of the person whose email was removed by a helpful editor - as in this diff. --LarryMac | Talk 02:09, 30 January 2008 (UTC)
Oh, I see, sorry. Marnanel (talk) 02:16, 30 January 2008 (UTC)
I am fairly certain that administrators can only delete pages, not edits. For pages, the record of the deletion taking place is publicly available, but the deleted content (such as an email address) is not. -- Meni Rosenfeld (talk) 13:09, 30 January 2008 (UTC)
They can (and do) delete edits by the cumbersome procedure of deleting the page and undeleting some but not all of the edits. The deleted material is then available to all admins. Since this is still fairly public, serious problems (such as libel) are dealt with via oversight. Algebraist 16:38, 30 January 2008 (UTC)

Can users with oversight see what other users with oversight have deleted? Kushalt 20:21, 30 January 2008 (UTC)

yeah --:D\=< (talk) 21:22, 30 January 2008 (UTC)
Not if they do the delete-then-undelete-a-limited-number-of-edits trick. That makes it so that even admins can't see it. --24.147.69.31 (talk) 23:31, 30 January 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Security on Linux

Real amateur question here.... I'm primarily a Windows user, but I have Ubuntu installed on one computer. Do I need to get myself some sort of anti-virus software to run under Ubuntu? If so, can you recommend a package that will work for me? ike9898 (talk) 15:56, 10 February 2008 (UTC)

It's unlikely you'll need anti-virus software for Linux, but if you do need one, there's ClamAV, which is the only one I've heard of. x42bn6 Talk Mess 16:12, 10 February 2008 (UTC)
All you really need is to keep up to date with the security patches. This can be set to install automatically, but I think the default is to alert you like this. A quick google shows this page on psychocats.net, which has a very good set of pointers. You generally don't need to worry about a firewall, the Linux one is called iptables. --h2g2bob (talk) 18:36, 10 February 2008 (UTC)
This link was VERY helpful; exactly what I wanted to learn about. Thx! ike9898 (talk) 23:30, 10 February 2008 (UTC)
If you want to configure the firewall on Ubuntu, install the program Firestarter using Synaptic. —BradV 21:16, 10 February 2008 (UTC)
I really hate firestarter, if you know what you're doing then you don't need a gui, and if you don't then firestarter just completely screws everything up :D\=< (talk) 04:48, 11 February 2008 (UTC)
Avast runs on Ubuntu, if you want to try that.--ChokinBako (talk) 08:16, 11 February 2008 (UTC)

[edit] mp3 music collection

What programme would the wikipedians recommend i use to organize my music collection automatically? Ie. organize the folders into artist/album/track and also rename all the tags to their correct names. A bonus would be for it to download album art. Does such a programme exist, or do i have to do it myself? thanks RobertsZ (talk) 10:54, 9 February 2008 (UTC)

I'd recommend WhereIsit for the cataloguing and Tag&Rename for the tagging and accessing/inserting album art from Amazon. --WebHamster 11:10, 9 February 2008 (UTC)
iTunes. —Nricardo (talk) 16:21, 9 February 2008 (UTC)
You don't say what operating system you use. Anyway, I use Rhythmbox and love it. —Keenan Pepper 22:08, 9 February 2008 (UTC)
For Linux, I would use either Rhythmbox or Amarok. For either Windows or Mac, iTunes is the way to go. —BradV 03:25, 10 February 2008 (UTC)

[edit] PDF Files

Does anyone know how to do this ... or even if it can be done at all? Say that I have 10 pages in a report ... Pages 1 through 9 are in a single PDF file ... and Page 10 is a single page in M.S. Word. Can I somehow bring that lone Page 10 from M.S. Word into the PDF file ... so that all 10 pages are all included in one single document? If so, how do I do that? Or is this something that can't even be done? The long story short is ... the first 9 pages are coming from one source ... and they (all 9) can be converted into a PDF file as a whole unit. And that last page (page 10) is coming from a different source ... and it can also (separately) be converted into a PDF file. But, the ten pages as a whole unit cannot be converted into a PDF file as a whole --- since they are coming from different sources before PDF conversion. So is there a way to join together somehow the two separate PDF files into one file, with all ten pages together? Thanks. (Joseph A. Spadaro (talk) 20:19, 9 February 2008 (UTC))

There's [Pdftk] which is free software, and of course the commercial Adobe Acrobat if you want a user-friendly interface. 84.239.133.86 (talk) 20:34, 9 February 2008 (UTC)
What about printing off the pdf and the word, and then shoving the 10 pages back through the scanner. Or is that just way too analogue? Joesydney (talk) 02:11, 10 February 2008 (UTC)
Yeah, that's pretty analogue, especially when there is PDF merging software available for free. --98.217.18.109 (talk) 16:34, 10 February 2008 (UTC)

Thanks for all the replies. Number 1 ... I never knew that there even was free software available to do PDF merges. Good to now know. Number 2 ... No, I would never even consider the "analogue" re-scanning of 10 pages. It's a much longer document, and the 10 pages was just a hypothetical example for the purposes of this question. Thanks to all for the input. Much appreciated. (Joseph A. Spadaro (talk) 22:59, 10 February 2008 (UTC))

Thanks to 84.239.133.86 for the link to Pdftk. Exactly what I've been looking for myself. --NorwegianBlue talk 20:22, 11 February 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Windows Vista, suitable directory for standalone command line utility

I'm trying to help my father-in-law, who bought a new PC with Windows Vista, to get a command line utility working. I've never touched Vista. His hearing isn't too good, and he lives in a different city, so this is (a rather difficult case of) telephone support. So far, he has managed to copy the .exe file to a usb-stick. The question is, where to put it. On XP, I'd simply drop it in C:\Windows or C:\Windows\System32. Is the directory setup the same on Vista, and if so, would copying it there work as it would in xp? Otherwise, what would be the easiest solution? Having him create a directory for it, modify the PATH environment variable etc. to make Vista aware of the program would be *very* difficult. --NorwegianBlue talk 19:52, 11 March 2008 (UTC)

I believe command line support was removed from Vista. ArcAngel (talk) 21:17, 11 March 2008 (UTC)
It's still there, just less obvious. Either hit start and search for 'cmd' or go to all programs->accessories->command prompt. Anyway, I just checked the directory structure on my Vista box, it's the same as XP - those paths are still good. Not sure if UAC would take too kindly to it, but unless it does really wierd stuff, it should be fine. What does this program do? CaptainVindaloo t c e 21:29, 11 March 2008 (UTC)
It's good old grep, which he uses for searching his genealogy data base (a huge collection of huge text files). Unfortunately, the fact that he's working from the command line does not imply that he's computer savvy, just that he started doing this on a CP/M machine... On Vista, we had a hard time even launching a shell, but this site came to the rescue. Will we be able to copy the .exe to c:\windows from an ordinary dos shell, or will we need a shell with special privileges? If special privileges are needed, can these be acquired once the shell is launched (like su in unix)? --NorwegianBlue talk 22:04, 11 March 2008 (UTC)
I think maybe I found the answer to my preceding question in a subpage of the site I linked to, but I'd be grateful if someone would check it out and confirm:
  1. Logon to Vista using your normal username and password.
  2. Click on the Start button
  3. Click on Start Search.
  4. Type, cmd.
  5. Right-click cmd, select 'Run as administrator' from the shortcut menu.
In the last step, what exactly is meant by right-clicking? Clicking on the blank background of the shell, on the icon at the top left of the window frame (system menu) or something else? If you're thinking, "well why don't you try?", remember: I cannot see the machine, the gentleman I'm trying to help does not communicate very clearly what he is doing, and has problems in hearing what I am saying. --NorwegianBlue talk 22:20, 11 March 2008 (UTC)
That's right, I was just typing up a response to say the same thing. You need to close the command prompt, right click the command prompt icon and select run as admin from the menu. Provided the text files are in his workspace (C:\Users\username), there shouldn't be any more problems from here. CaptainVindaloo t c e 23:04, 11 March 2008 (UTC)
You definitely should not need elevated privileges to grep. :D\=< (talk) 01:49, 12 March 2008 (UTC)
Clearly not, the question was whether you need elevated privileges to copy grep.exe from the usb-stick to C:\windows. CaptainVindaloo, you're saying that you need to right-click the cmd-icon in the start-menu, right? Is there no way to elevate the privileges of a shell that is already running? --NorwegianBlue talk 12:54, 12 March 2008 (UTC)
Yep, it's the start menu icon you're after. I don't think there is a way of elevating cmd's permissions while it's still running. Sorry Froth, I didn't mean to imply you needed elevated permissions to use grep, I just meant you just need it once to install it in system32 without aggroing UAC. CaptainVindaloo t c e 18:27, 12 March 2008 (UTC)
Resolved.
Thanks a lot! --NorwegianBlue talk 19:22, 12 March 2008 (UTC)

Another way to do it: Browse to the desired folder. Hold down shift and right click on the folder. Select "Open Command Window Here". --— Gadget850 (Ed) talk - 19:49, 12 March 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Administrator Rights in Windows XP

I just inherited a laptop from my company. They are very security conscious and I only have "user" rights on the laptop. I can't even change the time! Anyway, is there any way to change my access to "administrator" rights so I can actually use the computer? It has Windows XP Professional. Any suggestions? Tex (talk) 19:47, 28 March 2008 (UTC)

If you could do that easily, wouldn't that defeat the purpose of having "user" rights? If you're having a problem with it, I'd bring it to your company and state your case to them... Someletters<Talk> 20:27, 28 March 2008 (UTC)
It is very easy to do. Google for "windows administrator password change knoppix". What you will find is a lot of instructions for using Knoppix to boot into linux, then mount the Windows drive, then change the administrator password, then reboot into Windows. All operating systems which keep the passwords on the disk are prone to this sort of hack. -- kainaw™ 20:30, 28 March 2008 (UTC)
This free tool also lets you easily reset the administrator password for XP. I've used it many times when working with machines that were once locked up but nobody who had done the locking was still around. (As for whether you should do it, it's your judgment call, not mine.) --Captain Ref Desk (talk) 20:35, 28 March 2008 (UTC)