Computing desk
< October 22	<< Sep \| October \| Nov >>	October 24 >

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.

October 23[edit]

Name of a space racing game[edit]

I remember playing a sci-fi style racing game, where you raced in space, not on the Earth. The important thing was that the area where you raced was not flat, instead it was like the interior surface of a torus. This meant you were able to do a full 360° rotation along the track, instead of just moving left or right. It was not Purple Saturn Day, as I have never played that game. Can anyone remember what this game was? JIP | Talk 20:07, 23 October 2011 (UTC)[reply]

What platform was this on? If it was a Nintendo platform, it might have been one of the F-Zero games, which had some torus type racetracks. Comet Tuttle (talk) 22:31, 23 October 2011 (UTC)[reply]

It was on the Amiga. JIP | Talk 04:26, 24 October 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Did you check out Amiga games?--Shantavira|^{feed me} 07:11, 24 October 2011 (UTC)[reply]

The article Amiga games does not specifically mention such a game, and I don't think I want to go through all the about one thousand articles in the category Category:Amiga games to see whether one of them matches the description. JIP | Talk 14:26, 24 October 2011 (UTC)[reply]

The list of Amiga racing games here [1] puts them all on one page, with thumbnail screenshots, so it shouldn't be too hard to go through. Powerdrome, Road Wars and Psyborg seem possible contenders. Psyborg in particular is described as "Sci-Fi space based racing game in which you race along a rotating track whereby you lose if you fall off." Card Zero (talk) 13:30, 26 October 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Psyborg was the game I was thinking of. Thanks for your help! JIP | Talk 15:00, 26 October 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Read an Amiga FFS hard disk on Linux?[edit]

Is it possible to read an Amiga FFS formatted hard disk on Linux, preferably without having to compile my own kernel? I don't need write access, just read access. JIP | Talk 20:09, 23 October 2011 (UTC)[reply]

The module is called "affs", so if you can modprobe affs then your kernel will support mounting with -t affs. 67.162.90.113 (talk) 20:58, 23 October 2011 (UTC)[reply]

I typed modprobe affs into a terminal window, and it said:

FATAL: Error inserting affs (/lib/modules/2.6.32.26-175.fc12.x86_64/kernel/fs/affs/affs.ko): Operation not permitted

So apparently I have the affs module, it just isn't installed yet. If I had typed modprobe affs as root, it would probably have installed the module. So now I just have to remove the hard disk from my Amiga and put it into my Linux PC, install the affs module, locate which device the physical hard drive is installed at, and then mount it with -t affs? Does it matter which connector in my Linux PC's IDE cable I plug it into? The PC itself only uses IDE for the CD-ROM drive, its own hard drives use SATA. Surely this won't be a problem? JIP | Talk 19:43, 24 October 2011 (UTC)[reply]

You've got it pretty much figured out. Plug it in to the empty IDE interface on the motherboard (don't try to chain it off the CD-ROM, then you'd have to deal with the master/slave jumpers), give it power, boot up and run cat /proc/partitions to see what disks and partitions have been detected. Pick one out and mount it. Or run file -s on all of them, which will tell you what format they're in. 67.162.90.113 (talk) 23:12, 24 October 2011 (UTC)[reply]

I just did exactly all this and everything went completely smoothly. I was actually amazed how well it went, I am sometimes a bit afraid to fiddle with hardware. Now I have my entire Amiga hard drive backed up on my Linux hard drive, and the physical drive is back inside the Amiga. I am amazed I was able to have the entire operating system, applications, games and my personal documents in just one gigabyte! But now I have found that Linux can't show any of my nice IFF ILBM pictures and animations. Is there some image viewer for Linux which can do this? JIP | Talk 17:05, 25 October 2011 (UTC)[reply]

ImageMagick should be able to display the ILBM subset of IFF or convert them to something newer (according to this). -- Finlay McWalterჷTalk 17:28, 25 October 2011 (UTC)[reply]

It turns out it can only display PPMs natively, it needs an external tool called ilbmtoppm to convert ILBMs to PPMs. It was rather hard to find this tool. Googling for it kept finding manpages that said it was part of "Netpbm". So I typed yum install netpbm, and it said it installed it, but I still didn't have the tool. I was finally able to locate the original SourceForge repository for Netbpm and compile it from the sources. The full compile failed because of some missing library header files, but I still got a working ilbmtoppm tool, which I had to copy to /usr/bin by hand. After I did this, ImageMagick is now able to show ILBM pictures. I still don't have any way to show the ANIM animations though, which is a pity, because I'm rather proud of them (considering my age back then). JIP | Talk 23:34, 25 October 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Getting in the Great Firewall of China[edit]

Hi guys. While it has been widely publicized on Wikipedia the myriad number of ways that one can get out of the Great Firewall of China, I'd like to ask the opposite: how does one get in the Great Firewall of China? I'll gladly appreciate all the responses! :D --Sky Harbor ^(talk) 22:02, 23 October 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Your question makes me believe you don't understand what the Great Firewall is... It's a web filter. It prevents you from visiting sites on a blacklist, or that contain banned keywords. That is all. You can "get in" , assuming you mean contact people inside the PRC, by using email, or Skype, or QQ, or mIRC, or a million other online communication methods. You can use PRC-approved websites like Weibo or Sina Blogs, or post videos to Youku, etc. You could even register with the authorities and open up your own .cn website hosted on a server within the PRC, though that process takes about a month and some fees must be paid. The Masked Booby (talk) 01:09, 24 October 2011 (UTC)[reply]

It's not a bad place to be. The windows are just a bit (systematically) dirty is all. ;-)

/me waves to you from within TGF. The Masked Booby (talk) 01:12, 24 October 2011 (UTC)[reply]

I know what the Great Firewall is. :| But hi from the outside regardless. :))

Anyway, inasmuch as it filters inbound, I asked the question because I'm presuming there's the possibility that websites in China are not as accessible as they are outside it, meaning that it also has a role in filtering outbound traffic. For example, I can't play songs on Baidu MP3 because of "copyright restrictions": restrictions which are addressed only when the website is opened in mainland China. Some channels on CNTV (China Network Television) are also inaccessible for the same reason. I don't think that solutions which work to go around the Great Firewall while in China necessarily work to allow someone from outside China to make the computer believe that it's "within" China, and I'm not skilled enough to even try using IP address spoofing. --Sky Harbor ^(talk) 05:42, 24 October 2011 (UTC)[reply]

It has been my experience that these sorts of blocks are based on simple IP geolocating. This satisfies whatever regulatory restriction they have been ordered to enforce with a minimum of trouble. It also is easily circumvented by using a VPN through a domestic server. To give you a reverse example, I have an account in good standing with Valve's STEAM service, which is tied to an American bank. Sitting at my desk in China, I cannot make any purchases through the STEAM store because Valve does not allow connections from Chinese IPs to use American cards. However, if I log out, use a VPN through Dallas, TX, and log back into STEAM not 20 seconds later Valve will happily take my money. The Masked Booby (talk) 07:04, 24 October 2011 (UTC)[reply]

The question now is whether or not there are VPN services which go through China. I understand going out, but why would one like to use the computer as if he/she is in China? :P --Sky Harbor ^(talk) 10:49, 28 October 2011 (UTC)[reply]

help[edit]

I want to build my own pc. What processor should I get, intel or amd? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 93.182.132.103 (talk) 22:12, 23 October 2011 (UTC)[reply]

It depends. AMD's processors tend to be cheaper than similar Intel processors, while Intel currently makes some processors that are faster than any AMD processors. If you want to spare no expense, you will buy a top of the line Intel CPU, while if you are on a budget, you may prefer an AMD CPU; but it all depends. There are websites like Tom's Hardware that run a lot of benchmarks of CPUs and graphics cards, in order to help people make this sort of decision. They host ongoing charts that show benchmark numbers and also regularly run features (more valuable IMO); for example, here is their September 2011 "Best Gaming CPUs for the Money" article. Comet Tuttle (talk) 22:34, 23 October 2011 (UTC)[reply]

That article opens with "AMD's Zambezi processor isn't here yet." That was last month. Unless I'm mistaken (Zambezi = Bulldozer, right?) now it is here: "Desktop products implementing the Bulldozer core were released on October 12, 2011". Card Zero (talk) 07:54, 24 October 2011 (UTC)[reply]

See http://i1002.photobucket.com/albums/af150/The_FalconO6/CurrentLogicalPCBuyingGuide/Guide.png Matthewedwards : Chat 16:01, 24 October 2011 (UTC)[reply]