Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Computing/2010 January 10

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January 10

Slow uploads

Hello! My internet plan with my ISP is 20mbps download/2mbps upload. I want to stream high-quality video over this internet connection to my other computer, so I want to have as fast an upload speed as possible. Is there anyway to increase it without calling up my ISP and getting some really expensive business-like plan? This is as fast a connection they offer to personal-use computers. I'd also be willing to convert some of that super-fast download speed into upload, if that's possible. A quick look at some forums suggested by Google had a lot of opinions, but most recommended sketchy programs I wouldn't think would work. What advice do Wikipedians have? (And out of curiousity, why are upload and download speeds different, if they both involve data transfer over the internet?) Thank you in advance!--el Aprel (^facta-_facienda) 04:11, 10 January 2010 (UTC)

ADSL gives some explanation why download and upload speeds are different. Do you really need to stream it? Why not copy it to your other computer, maybe over night, and view it later. Alternatively, could you compress it in some way or reduce the definition if that's acceptable. Why not seek out a different ISP which lets you upload faster, then challenge your current ISP to come up wth a better deal "...or you might take your business elsewhere". How about finding a (free?) hosting company that supports HD video streaming - you could then upload it slowly to the hosting company's server and stream it later. Astronaut (talk) 05:42, 10 January 2010 (UTC)

You cannot change the upload speed on your end. No program will work. No settings on your computer will work. The ISP has put a cap on the speed on their end. Unless you get a job for your ISP, get in a position to change their system, and then increase your cap, you are stuck with what they give you. The whole point is that your ISP is giving you access to retrieve the Internet, not host a server on the Internet. If you want to host a server, you need to get an appropriate account for that. -- kainaw™ 07:38, 10 January 2010 (UTC)

These two computers are at different physical locations, right? If they're not, then the stream could just go through your home network and not involve the internet, and thus your ISP, at all. Dismas|^(talk) 09:04, 10 January 2010 (UTC)

Lowering the upload speed increases your download speed. That's why the speeds are different. There's an audio frequency range for phone lines that is divvied up into 247 channels of 4 KHz each for DSL. Humans voices don't exceed 4 KHz, so the rest of the channels can be used for data. The maximum frequency is 1.5 MHz, so they would have to decrese your download speed, although I don't know if their equipment can do that. Have you asked them?

Also, I agree with the above statement. I can transfer data from my desktop to my laptop in my house over an ethernet cable at about 11 MBps (88 Mbps). If you buy a special switch that supports gigabit ethernet and some Cat 5e cable, then you can transfer data at about 125 MBps (1 Gbps).--Drknkn (talk) 09:20, 10 January 2010 (UTC)

From the upload speed the OP has right now it is obvious that it's not a version of ADSL but something like a Cable connection. 2mbps upload is quite fast for a personal connection and should be plenty for H.264-encoded DVD quality video, maybe even 720p if you are willing to lose quite a bit of detail. There was a way to hack cable modems a while ago that gave hackers higher speeds than what they've paid for but it definitely violates your ISP's terms of service and is probably patched by now. If that's unsatisfactory, you have 2 routes: Ethernet or Wifi. Ethernet would be the cheapest, just hook the two computer up with an Ethernet cable (the NICs should do cross-over automatically if they are gigabit NICs). This will work up to a cable length of 100m and maybe a bit more. Wifi and visible-light would eliminate the need for cables and can be used for longer distances. With properly constructed cantennas or wokfis (or special directional antennae) on both end wifi should give you a range of around 2km LOS. For a more adventurous route, you can try RONJA with the benefit of the ability to look at the beam of light that carries your data. --antilived^{T | C | G} 10:48, 10 January 2010 (UTC)

Actually, it depends on how close you are to the DSLAM in the telco's central office. My telco offers 20 Mbps DSL, but not in my area. I use cable internet, instead, also at 20 Mbps. But the principle is the same, no matter what technology you use. With DOCSIS, 6 MHz is allocated for each TV station. A cable-internet connection takes up one of these channels, and a 2 MHz channel is allocated for uploading.--Drknkn (talk) 11:19, 10 January 2010 (UTC)

Please enlighten me on where you can get ADSL with 2mbps upload. --antilived^{T | C | G} 02:08, 11 January 2010 (UTC)

Thank you all for the information! Yes, the two computers are in different locations, too far away for my own network, and I preferably wanted to stream the video in real-time, not uploaded and downloaded at different times. Guess I'm out of luck, but all your comments were very interesting and informative.--el Aprel (^facta-_facienda) 22:03, 10 January 2010 (UTC)

How to open Linpus Linux source code?

Right, first off, you should know that I am using an Acer Aspire one. I have heard that this version of Linux is basically like a free trial so I can't edit it. I just want to know, if I can open it, how to open it.--Editor510 ^{drop us a line, mate} 10:13, 10 January 2010 (UTC)

"The" source code is a mighty tall request, as Linux consists of very many different packages. I don't know if Acer ships the source code (I doubt it, if yes, it's probably on some CD or DVD that came with the system) or just offers it for download or even on request. If you did not get the sources, you should have received "a written offer, valid for at least three years, to give any third party, for a charge no more than your cost of physically performing source distribution, a complete machine-readable copy of the corresponding source code" (per the GPL section 3). If you are interested in any particular part, it's probably easier to download it from the original site (the kernel from kernel.org, the GNU utils from fsf.org, X11 from X.org). --Stephan Schulz (talk) 13:18, 10 January 2010 (UTC)

The website linked to from the Linpus Linux page does not seem to have a source code link, which sounds to me like a GPL violation. It also uses the verbiage that you're downloading a "free trial", whereas of course Linux is free software. Comet Tuttle (talk) 17:23, 10 January 2010 (UTC)

I've had Linpus on two Acer laptops. Those were pure alibi installations - they booted directly into a plain root shell and left the user with nothing but a blinking cursor. I put Ubuntu onto them, and they both work very nicely now. --Stephan Schulz (talk) 17:31, 10 January 2010 (UTC)

Bell's theorem and computability

How does Bell's theorem affect the computational complexity of models of closed quantum-mechanical systems? If I'm interpreting it correctly, it implies a lower bound of O(n²) time, since every particle's interaction with every other particle needs to be computed separately, but there may be some complication I don't know about. NeonMerlin 11:21, 10 January 2010 (UTC)

IP address

I looked on IP address but couldn't find an answer. How many different IP addresses are there? And is there any way of finding out how many (or what percentage, or ratio) of them have Wikipedia history? i.e. have made at least one edit? For the second question, it would also be interesting to know how many have history on any of Wikimedia's projects. Thanks 81.157.54.253 (talk) 12:07, 10 January 2010 (UTC)

There are a little over 4 billion possible IP addresses using IP version 4. They're running out of them, though. (See IPv4 address exhaustion, for details.) I don't know about the second question, but I'm sure someone else will be able to answer it.--Drknkn (talk) 12:19, 10 January 2010 (UTC)

Wow, thanks, 4.3 billion! Is it known how many are reserved for special uses? 81.157.54.253 (talk) 15:43, 10 January 2010 (UTC)

Surprisingly IPv4 address exhaustion doesn't mention this but you can roughly work it out from the info in IP address and/or IPv4. Alternatively [1] has some simpler info. It says 35.0782 or 36.086 blocks of /8 are reserved. I'm not sure why the contradiction, however the text mentions 14.0.0.0 /8 is reserved even thought it's been mostly recovered now [2] so perhaps the figures in the graph are more accurate. In any case, if we take the lower figure of 35.0782, and calculaute it 35.0782*256*256*256 we get 588,514,538 as reserved. This figure could be off by a few million but is probably close enough for now.

The biggest reserved blocks by far of course are the 224.0.0.0 - 239.255.255.255 reserved for multicast and the 240.0.0.0 - 255.255.255.254 reserved for other/unspecified purposes, i.e. 32 blocks of /8 (well -1 address except that 255.255.255.255 is the broadcast address so also reserved so it is 32 blocks). Adding the 10.0.0.0/8 reserved for private LANs and we have 33 and 127.0.0.0/8 for loopback we have 34 and 0.0.0.0/8 for local/current network identification we have 35 so we can see the figure is likely fairly close and definitely a good enough lower bound. Nil Einne (talk) 17:20, 10 January 2010 (UTC)

Sorry, you lost me there. Which figure's the lower bound? Thanks 81.157.54.253 (talk) 19:13, 10 January 2010 (UTC)

588,514,538 is a resonable lower bound since by choosing the low hanging fruit we can easily see there are at a minimum 35 blocks of /8 that are reserved, i.e. 35*256*256*256 or 587,202,560. In fact after actually picking the low hanging fruit and considering the number of other reserved addresses is relatively small, I strongly suspect the 588,514,538 figure is fairly accurate. I perhaps should have made clearer that I only added the second paragraph later so the first paragraph was largely written before I wrote the second one and once I had written the second one and looked at the sources, it became more obvious the initial figure was likely close to being correct. Nil Einne (talk) 04:52, 11 January 2010 (UTC)

Automatic email and web page downloading

I am on cheap but slow Tesco dial-up internet.Is there any free or other software that could automatically enter all passwords, download all my emails and new posts from my favourite forums, leaving them on separate pages ready for reply, without being a security risk? I could cobble a program together myself, but apart from not wanting to re-invent the wheel (assuming such software already exists) from a security point of view would there be any risks? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 80.2.202.67 (talk) 12:20, 10 January 2010 (UTC)

wget can be set to download specific pages or trees of pages. The only security issue I can see (over and above doing it yourself with a web browser) is that, for the password protected things, you'd end up having the passwords in plain text on your computer, where someone could find them. As to downloading emails (and other complex things like posts on a facebook page or the like) wget isn't smart enough to do stuff like that itself - you'd end up having to screen scrape and parse the pages you get, which is a major pain. For email, most web-based email services allow access to emails using traditional email protocols like POP3 and IMAP, so you can get these using a properly configured mail client like Thunderbird or Outlook. Scraping is equally a pain for things like Twitter, Facebook, Myspace, etc., but these all have an API which allows programatic access (it's still a bit of work, but easier than screenscraping). -- Finlay McWalter • Talk 12:27, 10 January 2010 (UTC)

For email check out fetchmail or getmail. However, they won't work for pure webmail systems. --Stephan Schulz (talk) 13:22, 10 January 2010 (UTC)

Try Firefox browser with its iMacro add-on. Proberly easier to use than command-driven things. Don't know about security. Also see Autoit and Autohotkey. 89.242.112.19 (talk) 15:51, 10 January 2010 (UTC)

how do i put my name on a new flashdrive

how do i put my name on a new flashdrive —Preceding unsigned comment added by 196.32.39.26 (talk) 14:39, 10 January 2010 (UTC)

Local shops that do trophies, signs etc. can generally do engraving (so they'll engrave your name on) and some can do silk-screening (so they'll write your name in robust plastic-printing). -- Finlay McWalter • Talk 14:44, 10 January 2010 (UTC)

Unless you mean software wise, in which case its just My Computer>Right Click on the Drive>Properties>General, choose the name in the box at the top--Jac16888^Talk 14:51, 10 January 2010 (UTC)

Of course, if you just want a simple thing to more easily identify it and don't mind so much if it may come off or you may have to reapply it over time, using a sticker or depending on the flashdrive covering and size, using some sort of marker pen might be sufficient Nil Einne (talk) 17:01, 10 January 2010 (UTC)

I created a file in the root directory of mine called This disk belongs to.txt, with contents listing my name, phone numbers, e-mail address and request to contact me if someone finds it. It won't prevent theft, but it should help if I lose it and it's found by someone honest. Mitch Ames (talk) 02:40, 11 January 2010 (UTC)

Make Firefox display temporarily narrower?

I have just moved to Firefox from Internet Explorer. When I read solid pages of text in IE I used to make it easier to follow by making the page temporarily narrower by showing the column on the left for History or Favorites. But Firefox does not do things in the same way. How can I make the Firefox page display temporarily narrower please? It does not seem possible to drag the side of the browser either. Thanks 89.242.112.19 (talk) 15:57, 10 January 2010 (UTC)

Which OS are you running? I do this by simply narrowing the window by dragging the right edge of the window, as you'd do with the windows of any other application. This works in Windows and GNOME, at least. Comet Tuttle (talk) 16:41, 10 January 2010 (UTC)

I am using Firebox with Windows XP. Dragging the side does not work for me - nothings happens, including the cursor not changing in any way. Update - I have found it is possible to change the sides if I click on the symbol between the "_" and the "X" at the top right. But is there any less troublesome way of temporarily narrowing its display? Update2 - it seems Firefox remembers its previous shape when not in full-screen, so I suppose that is a solution. Thanks 89.242.112.19 (talk) 17:39, 10 January 2010 (UTC)

That's the only way to do it as far as I know. ╟─TreasuryTag►stannary parliament─╢ 17:52, 10 January 2010 (UTC)

This is the standard way of changing the size or shape of windows. You press the "restore down" button so that it is no longer maximized, then you can freely drag the edges or corners of the window. (You can move the window by dragging the title bar.) APL (talk) 23:29, 10 January 2010 (UTC)

You could open the Firefox sidebar (View > Sidebar) and show either your bookmarks or the browser history. The size of the sidebar is customisable by dragging, and it should retain the size you last dragged it to. --Elen of the Roads (talk) 11:39, 15 January 2010 (UTC)

Want to write short sections of text, and/or outlines, then organise them into essay or report

The freeware Semantik program would do exactly what I want, but it will not work with Windows. http://freehackers.org/~tnagy/kdissert.html Are there any no-charge programs that can do the same thing, but which can work with windows please? 89.242.112.19 (talk) 16:01, 10 January 2010 (UTC)

We have a list of free and commercial software at Mindmapping programs. I seem to recall using FreeMind on Windows without any technical problems. Nimur (talk) 16:37, 10 January 2010 (UTC)

I had already seen the mindmapping software article and the Freemind article. They do not do what I described above. 89.242.112.19 (talk) 17:42, 10 January 2010 (UTC)

Relevant links could include Outliner, Personal wiki, WYSIWYM. 92.24.99.15 (talk) 12:15, 11 January 2010 (UTC)

PDF

Please explain .PDF —Preceding unsigned comment added by 69.254.42.41 (talk) 16:52, 10 January 2010 (UTC)

See Portable Document Format -- Finlay McWalter • Talk 16:58, 10 January 2010 (UTC)

Windows Registry problem

I am working through this: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/265194 I have reached Method 2, step 4: "Select the UserData DWORD value for the above key". The problem is that there is nothing called "UserData". There is a sub-folder called "UserInfo", but that does not contain any "dword", but just one "REG_SZ" and a few "REG_BINARY"s. What should I do next please? I have WindowsXP with Office 2000 Premium. I do not have an installation disk. Thanks 89.242.112.19 (talk) 18:01, 10 January 2010 (UTC)

Since the next step is to effectively remove that key (by renaming it to something that is likely ignored), I'd suggest skipping to step 7 and continuing. Modifying the registry is always risky, but if you are careful only to modify those keys in the HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\9.0\Common branch of the registry, you should be OK. The fallback if this procedure doesn't work, is to uninstall/reinstall Office 2000 (as noted in the KB article). -- Tom N (tcncv) talk/contrib 00:52, 11 January 2010 (UTC)

Tip: before you modify anything, use File, Export to export the key/branch that you will edit. This allows easy roll-back (or comparision with what was there before) if anything goes wrong. Mitch Ames (talk) 02:32, 11 January 2010 (UTC)

How do I track an email error?

I own domain 123.com and address 123.123@gmail.com and address 123@123.orange.com. 123.com is set within cpanel to forward everything by default to 123.123@gmail.com. 123.123@gmail.com is set to forward everything by default to 123@123.orange.com. If I email from 123.123@gmail.com to 123@123.orange.com, it arrives quite happily. If I email from any other email to 123.com, nothing arrives at 123.123@gmail.com or at 123@123.orange.com. Where is it and how can I track it? I have looked in gmail spam box. Kittybrewster ☎ 20:28, 10 January 2010 (UTC)

What I would do is disable the forwarding from gmail to orange and see what happens. The question is, is 123.com actually forwarding it to gmail at all? If the answer is "yes" then you know it is a problem with gmail then forwarding it to orange. If the answer is "no" then you know the problem is with 123.com's forwarding. Once you know where the problem is, you should be able to find the mail and what is going on—process of elimination and all that. --Mr.98 (talk) 20:42, 10 January 2010 (UTC)

Thank you. It is "yes". How? Kittybrewster ☎ 20:58, 10 January 2010 (UTC)

OK, so now you need to figure out what's going on with Gmail. I would check the forwarding settings -- maybe try having it forward to a different, reliable address (another gmail address, for example), just to test if it is forwarding it. If it does forward to other addresses, then you know the problem is something to do with orange specifically -- in which case you get in touch with orange and ask what is up, or make sure orange.com isn't putting it into spam, etc. --Mr.98 (talk) 22:57, 10 January 2010 (UTC)

Or just change 123.com to forward to orange.com directly, at this wiki we would call it "fixing double redirect". That way you can just avoid the problem altogether and you will never have to learn about the politics of inter-provider acceptance of mail-forwarders, i.e. spam-fighting. Franamax (talk) 03:45, 11 January 2010 (UTC)

Simple floor plan drawing package

I'm looking for a freeware drawing package capable of producing simple 2D floor plans suitable for a student project. Something capable for drawing and manipulating 2D walls, doors, and windows; a small library of drag and drop furnishings; and basic text annotations. Ease of use is preferred over fancy features. I'm a bit wary of free-trial software, because I would like to avoid an overly complex package and the risk that the finished project cannot be saved or exported (until you pay). I tried some searches, but it seems that every commercial site out there is designed to attract hits from searches with the word "free". I'd appreciate any suggestions for specific downloadable packages or commercial-free directories of such software. Thanks. -- Tom N (tcncv) talk/contrib 20:29, 10 January 2010 (UTC)

The obvious choice, Dia (software), doesn't seem to have a floorplan library (other than that it's just what you need). I did find this tutorial about using Google Sketchup - Sketchup doesn't have floorplan objects either, but it does have a very active modelling community, which has the following stuff at least. -- Finlay McWalter • Talk 20:50, 10 January 2010 (UTC)

Thanks for the suggestions. I'll take a look. Google Sketchup seems like a promising alternative. I would still appreciate any suggestions that include a furnishing library, if anyone else has suggestions. -- Tom N (tcncv) talk/contrib 21:08, 10 January 2010 (UTC)

To make a suggestion on the "too simple" side, you have the IKEA Home planner (easily found on google). It has furnishings, doors etc, but is mainly designed for one room only. And only IKEA furniture, of course... :-) Jørgen (talk) 08:13, 11 January 2010 (UTC)

You may want to take a look at Sweet Home 3D. --173.49.12.168 (talk) 13:26, 12 January 2010 (UTC)

Product Reccomendations for hooking a coaxial cable (television cable) to a projector, ie a tv tuner?

Hi all.

I'm looking to connect a coaxial cable (for television) directly to a projector. From previous questions I've asked here, I beleive this means some sort of a tv tuner. I'm looking for something not too expensive but good quality.

The projector can connect to equipment in several ways including: IMPUT A connector (HD D-sub 15-pin female), USB connector (USB plug for upstream, 4-pin), AUDIO (stereo minijack) connector, Video (phono type) and S Video (mini DIN 4-pin).

Any product reccomendations?

Thanks. Smaug 22:11, 10 January 2010 (UTC)

Since projectors (by which I assume you mean a light projector of the type normally connected to a laptop pc for Powerpoint presentations), cannot decode tv signals, it is entirely unclear why you would want to plug a coaxial cable into a projector. These small portable projectors may not be able handle the PAL signal from a TV. I would expect a projector that could do so to have a SCART connection (the kind you connect your tv to a cable or freeview decoder with).

If what you are trying to do is project a tv programme onto a wall, and your projector has no SCART input, the only way I can think of doing this is to view the programme over the internet, and connect the output of the computer to the projector (USB is normally used these days). If you full screen the media player (eg the bbc iPlayer), this should give you a clearer result that full screening on a laptop screen.

Bear in mind that you may be BREAKING THE LAW by doing this (as projecting it may be considered as broadcasting) - check the terms of the internet tv station first.--Elen of the Roads (talk) 12:02, 15 January 2010 (UTC)

Want to shorten (front and rear) a .flv video file

Is there any simple way to do this? There is a few seconds in this file I want to keep, the rest I want to throw away. I have tried downloading VirtualDub, plus the plugin that's required to get that to work, plus the codec that is required to get the plugin to work, and of course it does not work - it just gives an error message "does not have a video stream." 78.151.110.26 (talk) 23:59, 10 January 2010 (UTC)

The newest version of Adobe Premiere Pro (CS4) can import .flv files. Sorenson Squeeze can do it, too. I use an older version of Premiere Pro (2.0) along with the AviSynth plug in to import them. I then use the razor tool (keyboard shortcut: C) to cut out the parts I don't want, click on the clip, and then go to File --> Export --> Adobe Media Encoder.--Drknkn (talk) 11:58, 11 January 2010 (UTC)

avidemux --kv7sW9bIr8 (talk) 18:16, 11 January 2010 (UTC)