Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Computing/2006 November 29

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.

November 29

SMART error message

Alright, I'm gonna try and keep this as relevant as possible. Here's the deal, lately I've been getting messages on boot about a SMART error on one of my hard drives. The drive in question is my slave drive, a 100 gb western digital that came with the computer in about 2002. I use it currently as a storage drive. My primary drive is a newer 120 gb western digital i bought in 2004. Unfortunately I don't back-up my data (foolish i know), because I never have more than one place to store the data due to the fact that i keep the 100 gb drive nearly filled with data. The 100 gb drive still reads/writes perfectly except that i had to run chkdsk yesterday to fix a file system error. However there has been some talk about this drive failing in the past. (this computer actually came from my dad who said it had crashed, but a reformatting of the hard drive made it work without confict so i'd bet it was just windows acting up.) I simply want to know if anyone has had any experience with SMART/hard disk failure and could tell me if i should start planning for the worst or tell me if there is anything i could do that might help me fix it. (besides opening it) If anyone cares to know, the specific tests my drive is failing are the (01) raw read error rate test and the (c8) write error rate test. - Ridge Racer 00:39, 29 November 2006 (UTC)

I would say it's a very good idea to back up your data as soon as possible, as the drive may in the early stages of failure. Splintercellguy 00:41, 29 November 2006 (UTC)

I already assumed that and I'm currently attempting to compress my data into a manageable size so that i can store it on my main drive. Thanks anyways. - Ridge Racer 00:46, 29 November 2006 (UTC)

Disconnecting the drive entirely will avoid data loss until you're ready to back up. I suggest a DVD-R drive, which can be had for $40 these days. Droud 03:41, 29 November 2006 (UTC)

Custom MSN color

Is there anyway I can get custom colours for my MSN Windows Live Messenger text font colours, other than the default colours, without having to download anything? Jamesino 01:58, 29 November 2006 (UTC) (moved from Misc. Desk -THB 02:01, 29 November 2006 (UTC))

iPods and mp3s

My band and are I are interested in releasing some of our music to be used in a podcast. I'm a little concerned, however, as to the difference between having your music released in a podcast and just distributing it as an mp3? Aren't there programs that can just extract out an MP3 out of a podcast? —Preceding unsigned comment added by wedgeoli (talk • contribs)

If you are just starting out, I think you probably have bigger things to worry about then people ripping your music off podcast. If multi million dollar bands like Metallica couldn't stop people pirating their stuff then I doubt you have much hope. Besides, you should look at it this way: if people DO actually bother to rip your songs it actually means someone likes it and you are getting FREE publicity! That's a good thing. I guess my message is make music because you love it and want to share it, not because you want to be rich and famous. ;) Vespine 05:21, 29 November 2006 (UTC)

Umm, Podcast is just a name for certain audio (like shows and stuff). The name 'Podcast' doesn't mean the audio is in a different format, because Podcasts are usually distributed in MP3 or AAC files. So, releasing your music in a podcast and releasing your music in an MP3 file is basically the same thing. --wj32 ^{talk | contribs} 07:02, 29 November 2006 (UTC)

Optimizing system performance

During the installation of the security update to my Mac, it spent some time "optimizing system performance" near the end of the process. What was it actually doing? Does whatever it did actually optimize performance? Thanks. -THB 05:16, 29 November 2006 (UTC)

Maybe cleaning up temporary files used in the installation? --froth^{T C} 05:20, 29 November 2006 (UTC)

Or maybe the program used some kind of JIT compilation like .NET and it was pre-compiling it? Or maybe it was tweaking some program settings according to your Mac's specifications? --wj32 ^{talk | contribs} 07:04, 29 November 2006 (UTC)

Someone on this planet must have asked this before[1]... here we are: [2], which suggests the keyword prebinding. Weregerbil 10:55, 29 November 2006 (UTC)

Thanks, guys. Okay, so what is a memory offset of a symbol? The article on prebinding says that the process has been deprecated/phased out in OS X 10.4, which I have, so I think it shouldn't be doing it. -THB 18:10, 29 November 2006 (UTC)

Blocker or cleaner etc

"When i use the internet after some time interval the advertisement or ads are automaticaly appear on screen, which disturb my work and have porn seens. I want to completely block or clean it i.e neither advertisement nor any seen. So, what should i do?what are the steps or which program i download for this purpose,Explain PLZ"--82.148.97.69 17:57, 29 November 2006 (UTC)

First off, I recommend using Mozilla Firefox instead of Internet Explorer. You can download that from here. Then, after you install Firefox, install these extensions: AdBlock and the Filterset.G Updater. These will work together to block most of your internet ads to start off. I also recommend installing, and running Adaware to remove any spyware you might have. Check back if you have any questions or concerns. --Russoc4 18:10, 29 November 2006 (UTC)

"So, how i completely remove Internet Explorer from system?so that all the users are using firefox"--82.148.97.69 18:16, 29 November 2006 (UTC)

Internet Explorer cannot be removed from Windows. Partly because Microsoft wants you to use their products whenever possible, and partly because the integrated Windows file explorer and Internet Explorer work hand-in-hand, and without IE, then the file browser wouldn't work, to give the simpilest explaination. --Russoc4 18:21, 29 November 2006 (UTC)

Firefox will, however, ask you if you want to make it the default browser when you first use it. If you set it to the default, Firefox will be used whenever a browser is needed, but it will not completely prevent Internet Explorer from being used. --Russoc4 18:29, 29 November 2006 (UTC)

It is not true that IE cannot be removed (from Windows XP). More correctly, it is difficult to remove completely, and doing so can have undesired side effects. XPlite is one way to do the job if you really want. Most users will be satisfied to set Mozilla Firefox or Opera as their default browser, and follow these instructions to remove IE's desktop icon and increase its security. --KSmrq^T 09:57, 30 November 2006 (UTC)

Linux Swap

When installing ubuntu, you can have it automatically set up the main partition and swap partitions. When I let it do this, it makes the main ext3 partition, plus 2 interesting partitions that are both approximately 75% of my RAM size, but neither are labeled as swap. When I manually build the partitions, I build a main one, and then a 1.5*RAM sized "swap" partition, meant to be used for swap and actually formatted to linux-swap. Which is the right file system format to use and what is a recommended size for a Linux swap partition? I know Windows automatically uses a 1.5*RAM size area of the hdd, but we all know that Linux != Windows. --Russoc4 18:16, 29 November 2006 (UTC)

The swap partition has its own partition type - I believe you make the partition with the partitioning tool, and then run mkswap to set it as a swap partition. You later use swapon to tell the kernel to start using that as a swapspace. Usually the partitioning software for modern linux installs will run mkswap itself, and the init scripts will likewise run swapon automatically. -- Finlay McWalter | Talk 18:48, 29 November 2006 (UTC)

Umm...so how do I know if my swap is being used or not? --Russoc4 19:25, 29 November 2006 (UTC)

Off the top of my head (no linux box to hand) you look in /proc/swap or /proc/swaps or something like that. -- Finlay McWalter | Talk 19:33, 29 November 2006 (UTC)

The other partition may be for your /home partition. It's good to have a /home that's formatted FAT so you can share it with windows --froth^{T C} 20:27, 29 November 2006 (UTC)

Pull up a terminal or "Run Application" box and type "gnome-system-monitor" without the quotes, and hit enter, that will tell you if your swap is being utilized. When you installed it, it should have given you a list of partitions, and what you wanted to format/mount them as, the swap one should've been formated as linux-swap. If its an option, I'd recommend carving out your own partitions with GParted prior to installing Ubuntu, that way, you can have /home in a separate partition, which is handy for updates/major errors (I was kicking myself for not doing so when an Edgy upgrade went south, and I had to mount the volumes in windows to pull my files out) Cyraan 20:29, 29 November 2006 (UTC)

My swap is working. I just need to know now what is a decent size for it to be, with 1GB RAM. My /home does not have its own partition. I have the whole installation on an 15GB ext3, XP Pro on a 25GB NTFS, and I also have a 100GB external FAT32 drive where I keep all my multimedia so that I can take a recover from a meltdown with relative ease.--Russoc4 20:40, 29 November 2006 (UTC)

Thats what I get for not reading thoroughly, id always heard rule of thumb was 1.5-2 times your RAM so you're probably okay. Check every once and a while when you're doing a bunch of stuff to see if its being utilized, if it seems to fill up quickly, you can always increase it. Sorry I cant be of more help, current Kubuntu box has 2gb of ram, so its been a non-issue for the most part. Cyraan 20:51, 29 November 2006 (UTC)

Ic. I'll keep an eye on it. I don't expect to be doing any extreme gaming like on Windows under Linux, so, I may eventually lower it. Thanks. --Russoc4 21:03, 29 November 2006 (UTC)

/proc/meminfo shows the current utilisation of the swap. You can keep tabs on it manually, or you can use one of any number of system monitor applications which collect info from it periodically. -- Finlay McWalter | Talk

Publishing a Web Page

Hello, what would I need to do to publish a web page or web site so it caqn be found on places like google and how much approximately would it cost?

Thank you.

does this website exsist on the internet already? if so, then i do belive already in google(you just need more visitors, probbally meta tags too, could you link the page?)... oh, and please sign your posts with four tildes(~). or however you spell that word. Is it Steak?<Xiaden's Homepage> 23:06, 29 November 2006 (UTC)

You need a host. There are lots of cheap web hosts. (http://bluehost.com is a pretty good one, if you want a really cheap and easy one. They host a lot of sites. No, I don't have any affiliation with them.) Once you have a site, you have to find a way to get other people to link to your site if you want Google to rank it in their search results (see PageRank). (You don't really need meta tags, most search engines ignore them.) You can also buy sponsored ranking at Google, Yahoo, etc., or buy ads through their ad networks. --24.147.86.187 01:52, 30 November 2006 (UTC)

I don't have a web page up already. But how would I find sponsors if I were to create this website?~

You'd probably just run advertising, right? There are lots of ways to do that. Google AdSense is a popular one. But you need a site before you can really start talking about getting advertising for it. --140.247.240.213 18:57, 30 November 2006 (UTC)

IE7 and tabs?

Is IE pretending that it's firefox, or does it really think that the IE interface needed to look even more cluttered, and pointless? --172.145.135.155 23:03, 29 November 2006 (UTC)

Tabbed browsing is a must-have feature nowdays. So, blame the users. ☢ Ҡi∊ff⌇↯ 23:46, 29 November 2006 (UTC)

That's only because they don't know about child-window browsing where you can have multiple windows positioned inside of the browser's container. Then, you can move, resize, open, close child-windows at will, but only have one massive address bar/button/bookmark interface for all of them. --Kainaw ^(talk) 18:19, 30 November 2006 (UTC)

MDIs and TDIs serve different functions. Almost all browsers today are MDIs and have been for a long time (you can open up multiple windows in Firefox, too), so I don't think that's something that users "don't know about." Tabbed browsing is a very popular alternative to MDIs for a variety of reasons. --140.247.240.213 18:56, 30 November 2006 (UTC)

Please, tell me how to turn Firefox, IE, Konqueror, or Opera into an MDI? All I can do is make tabs. Apparently this is a feature that everyone knows about except me. --Kainaw ^(talk) 20:15, 30 November 2006 (UTC)

Opera is MDI by default. It's only that maximized windows show up as tabs, but you can restore any window and it will work as a mdi interface. ☢ Ҡi∊ff⌇↯ 15:30, 2 December 2006 (UTC)

Usually you just create a new window. Under the "File" tab. Pretty identical to MDI behavior, but without the all-encompassing window that obscures the desktop. On Windows IE is especially treated in this way, as multiple windows of it are treated as one item in the taskbar, usually. --24.147.86.187 00:05, 1 December 2006 (UTC)

That is not MDI. That creates a new window - not a new child window. I don't want a new window with a menu bar, button bar, address bar, and all that garbage. I don't want it to be separate from the main window. I want a child window that is encompassed inside the main browser window - as I originally explained. --Kainaw ^(talk) 14:52, 1 December 2006 (UTC)

• To the contrary, I have nothing against tabbed browsing, it just seems like putting tabs in an IE window makes about as much sense as putting a spoiler on a shopping cart--172.168.74.33 20:07, 30 November 2006 (UTC)

It's cleaner software design to put all the content as one item on the taskbar rather than flooding the taskbar with multiple apparent instances of the same application --froth^{T C} 02:58, 1 December 2006 (UTC)