Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Computing/2006 August 20

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Playing DVDs on computer problem

For some reason, DVDs will not play on our laptop. When we try to play it (in RealPlayer), we get the error message:

 DVD error
 
 The DVD cannot be played.  Key exchange for DVD copy protection failed.

What is the problem? Mo-Al 00:38, 20 August 2006 (UTC)

Sounds like a problem with DVD region code. Use VLC media player for all your media playing needs. VLC should solve the region code problem and play almost anything. Jon513 01:13, 20 August 2006 (UTC)

Do you know how to use Photoshop?! Then help me out! PLS!

Ok, here's the deal you photoshop buffs. I'm making a movie poster, I have drawn out the layout of the poster for all ya'll. It's here: http://urban.filo.googlepages.com/100_1676.JPG

The "Pic #" are different screenshots from the movie that I will insert into these "slots". Here's a poster that kinda resembles the layout of mine: http://www.thezreview.co.uk/posters/posterimages/t/20463.jpg

So, HOW can I achieve this??? Sorry if this sounds dumb, but i have not much experience with PS.

THANKS!!!

gelo 04:55, 20 August 2006 (UTC)

Put each picture in a separate layer, and arrange them like you have indicated in your drawing. --N·Blue ^talk 13:16, 20 August 2006 (UTC)

I'd create your movie poster file first, whatever those dimensions maybe, then open each jpeg cut your jpeg to your heart's desire using the laso tool (shortcut:L), cut your selection out, and paste into the the movie poster file.

Also you might want to learn about how layer masks work in Photoshop—it could save you some time (it makes this sort of editing very easy, flexible, and reversible). If you google "layer masks photoshop" you'll get a lot of tutorials. --Fastfission 16:14, 20 August 2006 (UTC)

Right-click menu

I recently downloaded VLC media player and I selected the option to add "Add to VLC media player's Playlist", and "Open with VLC media player" to the right-click menu. But now, the default action it does if I double click on a folder (namely my documents folders) it automatically opens the folder with VLC instead of just opening the folder (like exploring it). How do I set the right-click menu's default action to "Open"? Thanks for the help. --71.117.35.76 05:17, 20 August 2006 (UTC)

In the explorer window go to tools -->Folder Options...-->File Types. Once there click on Folder (it should be near the top). click Advanced. Now click either open or explore and "set Default". Open means that it opens a new window, explore mean that it goes into the folder in the same window. Tell me if that works. Jon513 07:18, 20 August 2006 (UTC)

I did what you told me, but for the "File Foler" advanced settings the only actions that were available and that you can set as default are the "Add to VLC media player's Playlist", and "Open with VLC media player". There was no "Open" or "Explore" actions. But in the folder under that, entitled "Folder" those were the only available actions. I set "Open" and "Explore" as the defaults, but that didn't affect anything. So, with my brilliant powers of deduction, I have deduced that I need to change the "File Folder" defaults, but "Open" and "Explore" are not there. I tried to add them by pressing the "New..." option, but that didn't pan out. --71.98.18.179 17:35, 20 August 2006 (UTC)

Yes, I see know that you are right. After accidently messing up my own computer I found this] and it worked for me. Be careful, it calls for editing the registry, but if you follow the instructions carefully you should be ok. Jon513 07:38, 21 August 2006 (UTC)

Thanks for the help, Jon! I really appreciate it. Everything works fine now. Thanks again --71.117.37.239 18:28, 21 August 2006 (UTC)

Disk cleanup

My PC has picked up a stealth virus, I formated it, but the virus is still there, just wondering if hard disk cleanup will do any good, and what might I loose if I did so. Thank you in advance for any assistance.

You formated the computer, reistalled the OS and the virus is still there? Am I missing something? Perhaps it would help if you tell us what exactly you did, what anti-virus system(s) you have in place already, and how you know you have a virus at all. Jon513 10:16, 20 August 2006 (UTC)

well, Im not able to open registry editor,which indicates that I have picked up some stealth virus, Im running Norton anti-virus software, as I know the stealth virus hides itself from anti-virus softwares. My PC is running Windows XP 2003.

Are your sure that you have adminstrator control ? And did you really blank the entire hard drive and reinstall windows, or did you just delete some of your data ? Robmods 14:13, 20 August 2006 (UTC)

ya Robmods, I logged in as Administrator, but still couldnt access registry editor, and I did blank the hard drive and reinstalled Windows. Please help me, my PC is getting worse day after day...

Well, if you really did format your hard drive and wiped out all data...there should be no virus. Splintercellguy 11:54, 21 August 2006 (UTC)

I gave you a few pointers about this before, a week or so ago, didn't I? I take it it didn't work. I'm sorry. I can only think of two things that might be causing this: your computer may be part of a network, where the network administrator is disabling the registry editor (I was previously assuming you were using a standalone PC) or, if you are restoring your data from backups, the virus might be infecting the backups aswell. Apart from that, the only issues I can imagine will persist after a reformat is a hardware failure of some kind. Sorry my previous hints didn't help. :-( CaptainVindaloo ^{t c e} 15:21, 21 August 2006 (UTC)

hi again CaptainVindaloo,I was about to post this question on that previous one, but then I thought it wasnt a good thing to do. Well back to the problem my PC is not connected to any network, its a standalone PC, and I havent restored any backups yet. So are you suggesting me to change the hard drive, and does that mean that the virus is located on that drive, and it will be destroyed as soon as I get a new hard drive. Sorry for bothering you again.

I'm stumped now. Sorry. I can't think of any hardware failure that could do this. If you fully reformatted the drive, no virus can possibly survive. CaptainVindaloo ^{t c e} 17:27, 22 August 2006 (UTC)

Also, make sure no other media is attached, no floppies in the floppy drive, CDs or DVD in those drives, memory stick connected to a USB port, external hard drive connected to a USB port, etc. It could possibly boot from one of those and reinstall the virus. Also, have you tried booting in Safe Mode ? Does the virus still show up when you do ? StuRat 18:22, 22 August 2006 (UTC)

Could you please tell me how would I boot in Safe Mode? And whats the difference between booting and formating?

"Booting" just means starting the computer, while "formatting" means blanking out the hard drive or a disk, including the format sector, which describes how the hard drive or disk is to be used, then putting that info back on. Here are some instructions of starting a Windows 98 machine in Safe Mode (hopefully it's similar for you operating system):

After turning computer on, immediately press and hold the CTRL key until the Microsoft Windows 98 Startup Menu appears. (For some machines, you can use F8 instead of CTRL to bring up the Microsoft Windows 98 Startup Menu.)

Enter the number for Safe mode, and then press ENTER.

Notes:

In safe mode, Windows uses default settings (VGA monitor, no network, Microsoft mouse driver, and the minimum device drivers required to start Windows). You will not have access to CD-ROM drives, printers, or other devices.

StuRat 07:46, 23 August 2006 (UTC)

My PC is running Windows XP.

• Did you run anti-virus software to see what the virus was (if any) to begin with? Only wipe your hard drive as a final resort. - Mgm|^(talk) 11:38, 23 August 2006 (UTC)

Ive installed Norton anti-virus software, but it is not delecting any virus, and what do you mean by Wipe your hard drive?? do you mean Disk Cleanup from System Tools.

'Formating' or 'Wipe your hard drive' means deleting all the contents of the disk, forcing you to reinstall Windows. Did you actually do this to your disk, or did you just 'restart' the computer instead ? Robmods 21:06, 23 August 2006 (UTC)

Some proffessional formated the PC for me, and reinstalled Windows. Can anyone please tell me what would happen if I run Disk Cleanup from System Tools???

I doubt it would do much good, as I don't see how a virus can survive a full disk format. Robmods 15:07, 24 August 2006 (UTC)

Wipe Master Boot Record

I currently have GRUB installed on my computers MBR but as part of a big reinstall (in which windows'll be installed first), i need to totally erase everything on the MBR. I used to use a very handy free application that could be put on disk and booted so to erase the MBR, partition table etc, but having lost the disk and after about 1 hour of google searching i can't find it! Does anyone know of this/a similar program to do this? (ps. Can't use FDISK) Thanks  :) Benbread 12:06, 20 August 2006 (UTC)

If you really want to erase the MBR, boot knoppix, open a root shell, and type

# dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/hda bs=512 count=1

However, if what you want to do is to reinstall windows, I can't see why this should be necessary.

Anyway, before erasing the MBR, i would strongly reccommend backing it up (knoppix, root shell, with a memory stick mounted):

# dd if=/dev/hda of=/mnt/YOUR_MEMORY_STICK/mbr.bin bs=512 count=1

You can check that the file is valid by doing a hex dump: the two last bytes should be 55 AA

To restore the MBR, without restoring the partition table:

# dd if=/mnt/YOUR_MEMORY_STICK/mbr.bin of=/dev/hda bs=446 count=1

If you want to restore the MBR, including the partition table:

# dd if=/mnt/YOUR_MEMORY_STICK/mbr.bin of=/dev/hda bs=512 count=1

-N·Blue ^talk 13:08, 20 August 2006 (UTC)

"However, if what you want to do is to reinstall windows, I can't see why this should be necessary." - you'd think that should be true, but in my experience it isn't always so. I once installed Ubuntu on a factory-fresh HD, and then later installed XP over it (telling XP's installer to zap the existing partitions it found and have the disk to itself). All was well until XP rebooted, and its boot failed (with some error message that seemed to have little to do with bootloaders or MBRs). It seems that XP had overwritten only parts of the MBR (and had certainly written a new partition table) but the MBR it produced was some mangled mongrel, from which XP could not boot. Only the ever-the-white-knight knoppix (and dd) could fix it. -- Finlay McWalter | Talk 14:46, 20 August 2006 (UTC)

Well, i've managed to do this in a rather bodgy way. Used a command line program to wipe the MBR, which on reboot killed the MBR properly and gave me a very nasty looking error message. I then went to install Windows first (I find it easier as then i can set up GRUB properly during my Debian install), and the severely low par partitioner didn't even try to make anything work, just died. I then booted up my Debian install and used parted to clear the partition table and format it to FAT32, running windows set-up it got confused as hell in only what i can assume is a situation in which the installer thought it was performing a non-destructive install, and thus wouldn't even boot. I then went back to Debian installer, created my linux partitions, installed and set up GRUB, GRUB saw the windows partition and set it all up. I then, once again started windows install, it correctly saw the partition, performed format to NTFS and installed the Windows. Restarted, GRUB saw everything fine and was able to boot windows for me. This experience has certainly confirmed without a shadow of a doubt that if you want something done, do it the Open Source way. Benbread 22:42, 21 August 2006 (UTC)

Inkscape

I'm using Inkscape to create diagrams for Wikipedia, but some the diagrams include non-latin characters, which display correctly in Inkscape, but not when uploaded (See Meta:Image:Wiktclassy.svg for example). How do I convert a text object into a shape? smurrayinchester^{(User), (Talk)} 13:47, 20 August 2006 (UTC)

I think that using 'Path -> Object to Path' might do the trick. Robmods 14:17, 20 August 2006 (UTC)

Many thanks! smurrayinchester^{(User), (Talk)} 14:34, 20 August 2006 (UTC)

Beware, though, that doing so essentially embeds the font information in the SVG itself, and thus makes the SVG a derivative work of the font. So try to find a wikipedia-licence-compatible font; if you can't, a few glyphs embedded in this manner is probably okay (although it's really hard to write a fair-use justification, other than for articles about the font itself) but you should certainly make as little use of licence-incompatible glyphs as possible, if at all. -- Finlay McWalter | Talk 14:39, 20 August 2006 (UTC)

Technically you can't copyright a font face (in the US anyway), and I have never heard of a font company claiming copyright over sometimes because the font was embedded in it. Font companies don't even claim to demand derivative work status to things created with their fonts, do they? In my book that makes this a case of copyright paranoia—worrying about potential copyright issues that have never manifested themselves and seem only half-plausible anyway. --Fastfission 16:12, 20 August 2006 (UTC)

There's a huge (if rather Victor-Meldrew-ish) resource for font-and-copyright law at this page. It does discuss (although I don't immediately see a conclusion to) the lawsuits between Agfa and Adobe (over Acrobat embedding Agfa fonts in PDF documents). A better discussion here says Agfa relied on claiming (under the DMCA) that a font was "software", thus getting out of the earlier law you mention which says fonts aren't copyrightable. I can't find whether the Agfa/Adobe cases came to a conclusion or were settled somehow. One case that was settled was Agfa v Redhat, where Redhat paid Agfa $500,000 for font licencing in 2004. So, as with so much in the DMCA miasma, much that was clear is now less so. -- Finlay McWalter | Talk 18:36, 20 August 2006 (UTC)

That's quite a step up from converting a font to outlines in a specific graphic. If converting a font to outlines constituted a copyright violation then there would be almost no printing of fonts that would be useful. The embedding issue is somewhat different from the font maker's perspective: the documents are potentially distributing the font files to people who don't have them. But converting them to outlines hardly does that. --Fastfission 19:33, 20 August 2006 (UTC)

Heroes of might and magic V map editor

Is the HOMM V map editor available for download or it hasn't been released yet? thanks.

Our page on Heroes of Might and Magic V answers your question, believe it or not. Searching: it's fun and easy. digfarenough (talk) 16:45, 20 August 2006 (UTC)

whats the best way to approach linux?

im a fairly seasoned computer user, but could never grasp something like linux once i really started getting interested in computers when i was 12 or so. so, here i am at 22 ready to go at it all over again. i should note that i have always been pretty terrible at math, which caused a lot of anxiety before attempting any computer classes in college. thus, i made a futile effort at math and eventually dropped out of college. i eventually started studying math at my own pace on my own time starting with what else, but Euclid's Elements. My general approach to math somehow catalyzed an interest in computers again, and i found myself once again reading obessively about linux and different programming languages all over again. so, i regressed to 12, yet, am a little bit wiser and a whole lot more patient; plus, the interent proved to self-organize itself to the point where its possible to learn almost anything.

enough of my story though, im wondering things like is mandrake or slackware the best place to start?

• learn python before C?
• how my mobo and hardware configuration affects different OS's?
• should i learn more math before i delve any deeper into programming?
• what are some good programming experiments to with linux?
• is there a good site/book/person that explains the general structure of how and why operating systems work the way they do? (which is obvioubsly rooted in the progression of mathematics)
• whats a good site/book which can explain how the windows operating system works?

&

• and is there any site/book/person that can explain how, if computer electronics, programming, and the role of mathematics are all pieces of a puzzle in time..?. how these three things managed to piece themselves into their present exsistence...?

i know this is all a mouthful; i guess, im really just looking for a very general way to approach an open ended operating system.

Probably Ubuntu linux or Knoppix are the best places to start - both do an excellent job of detecting your hardware. It really doesn't matter (IMO) whether you learn C or python first - so learn both. If your linux installed okay (which these days it generally does) then you don't need to think about hardware issues for now. For most programming you need only know fairly basic arithmetic and the very basic bits of boolean algebra. Books: Operating System Concepts by Silberschatz & Galvin, or Modern Operating Systems by Andrew S. Tanenbaum; mainstream operating systems really aren't that unlike one another ('cos they all do much the same job) so if you understand how windows really works, you'll mostly understand how linux works too. Projects: just do what interests you - if you're into collecting plates, write a little database to store information about them; if you're into astronomy, write a little program that predicts eclipses; if you're into pr0n, write a little program that downloads it efficiently from the net. -- Finlay McWalter | Talk 15:11, 20 August 2006 (UTC)

That is a lot to bite off. But congratulations on your new determination and confidence.

If you're going to delve deeply into operating systems you will eventually need to learn C (or C++). However, learning programming concepts is much more important than learning any specific programming language, and C is probably not the most helpful place to start. A forgiving interactive environment is enormously helpful; ToonTalk is one example. You'll also want a quality book on algorithms, such as Introduction to Algorithms or those of Sedgewick.

The essence of operating systems is resource allocation. A computer, even with only one user, is busy with many things at once. So the operating system must manage the space on the disks and access to them, which means (among other things) a file system. It must manage the main memory, using some for the operating system, some for device drivers, some for this program, some for that service, and so on. And it must manage the CPU itself, making sure every task gets its fair share of time, with critical tasks given priority. The list goes on. Furthermore, it must do these things efficiently and effectively, so that it doesn't consume too many resources itself and so the user has a satisfactory experience.

Layered on top of these essential services are all the user interface facilities, which involve reams of code and complexity.

Don't start trying to understand Windows. No one does, not even Microsoft. --KSmrq^T 08:37, 21 August 2006 (UTC)

My 2 favourite linuxes are Suse and Knoppix. Dunno about Mandrake and Slackware.

Mobo and other hardware should be pretty transparent to your OS.

My advice is steer well clear of C and C++ unless you think its absolutely essential - I found them hideous, bug-ridden and un-mathematical (although other mathematicians have disagreed). If I was in your position (for programming) I would be looking at Fortran (for speed, ignore worries about old age), maybe Python and Matlab (expensive if you can't get it through work/college).

Jump into programming now, but keep learning math - as you learn new math things it'll give you more ideas for programs.

For info on low-level stuff about OS try TLDP (the linux documentation project) - some good info eg 'from power up to bash prompt', write your own OS and much other good stuff. Also have a look at LFS (linux from scratch).

Windows works? Rentwa 13:20, 27 August 2006 (UTC)

Mp3 not .wma on WMP

Is there any way to rip a music file using WMP and, when ripped, will be in mp3 format? WMP automatically rips it in .wma file type, but I don't like this. Thanks, Iolakana•T 15:18, 20 August 2006 (UTC)

Press Ctrl+M to open the menu bar on WMP, go to Tools->Options and click the Rip Music tab. Change the format drop down to Mp3 and below that, set the slider to the quality you'd like to use. Hope that helps! M@$+@ Ju ~ ♠ 15:39, 20 August 2006 (UTC)

Yes! Thanks a lot! Iolakana•T 17:03, 20 August 2006 (UTC)

Or rip CDs with Exact Audio Copy instead. -- Finlay McWalter | Talk 18:14, 20 August 2006 (UTC)

How do you see other languages in Firefox.

I just got a new computer, and all the foreign character sets (ie. Chinese and Japanese), come out as question marks. What fonts do I need to download, and how to I activate them to make them work in Firefox? M@$+@ Ju ~ ♠ 15:36, 20 August 2006 (UTC)

See Wikipedia:Enabling East Asian characters for where to find the fonts. There's no activation needed; once installed, Firefox will be able to use them (you might just need to close and reopen Firefox). --cesarb 16:31, 20 August 2006 (UTC)

Try changing your character encoding to UTF-8. It's under View. --Yanwen 23:51, 20 August 2006 (UTC)

Thanks, I got it to work. M@$+@ Ju ~ ♠ 18:08, 23 August 2006 (UTC)

Chipset, Pentium 4 mATX Mainboard............... help!!!!

Hi....i want to change my graphic card and put a better one in can u plz tell me if it is possible with my motherboard, i think my Graphics card is built in i am not sure.

My system configuration:

Operating system: Windows XP Home Edition Service Pack 2

Ram: 1024 Mb

Processor: Intel(R) Pentium (4) CPU 2.81GHz

Graphic Card: SiS 661FX_760_741_M661FX_M760_M741 (this is what i want to replace)

Motherboard : ABIT SG-72 M/B, SIS 661FX/964L Chipset, Pentium 4 mATX Mainboard, supports CeleronD and Prescott, FSB 800/533/400, 2 x DDR 400/333/266 - supports up to 2GB DDR RAM, Supports Intel Hyper-Threading Technology, Integrated SIS Real256E high performance 256-bit GPU, AGP 8X/4X, ATA133/100/66/33, 10/100 LAN, 4 x USB2.0, 6-Channel AC97 Audio, Hardware Monitoring - Including Fan speed, Voltages, CPU and System temperature, Micro ATX ([1])

Hardisk: Maxtor 120GB

Thanks in advance Sangeeth 15:49, 20 August 2006 (UTC)

AGP 8X/4X means you have a slot for a graphics card. digfarenough (talk) 16:47, 20 August 2006 (UTC)

thanx you u r right it does mean i have a slot for a graphicsSangeeth 17:29, 20 August 2006 (UTC)

I have an SiS 661FX; you are correct, it is built in. It might be a good idea to disable that using Device Manager after you have installed the new card, just to prevent any interesting problems, such as device conflicts. Good luck! CaptainVindaloo ^{t c e} 15:10, 21 August 2006 (UTC)

Hi Sangeeth, I just noticed your new question. Congratulations on finding out all the details about your machine, and posting them. You have a pretty usable machine, but I can imagine that for the latest games you may need more capable graphics. It may seem like an excessive amount of information that you posted, but for anyone trying to help you it makes their job a pleasure (instead of wild guesswork) - in these cases too much is much better than too little. Remember that you have an AGP slot, not a PCI Express slot, so that you don't get home with a card that doesn't fit. --Seejyb 18:46, 22 August 2006 (UTC)

Typing game

Does anyone know a game in the way Quiz Quiz (the typing part of this game) was? You know, it's a game about people competing real-time to see who types a series of sentences the fastest. Thanks.

The only (relatively) recent typing game I can remember is the (rather well regarded) The Typing of the Dead. Older, and somewhat less grisly, is Mario Teaches Typing 2. I've not played either (although I'm sure I'd be good, as Im a realy god typisd), so I can't say if they're fun or not. -- Finlay McWalter | Talk 18:13, 20 August 2006 (UTC)

Yes, I play The Typing of the Dead quite often, and I get S marks. But I actually meant for something rarer... some kind of browser-enabled game like jippii.com and so feature. Thanks for the response.

Typer Shark is a single player online typing game with a nautical theme. StuRat 20:09, 20 August 2006 (UTC)

Dracula

I remember playing a game on a friend's computer a few years ago, called Dracula. It was a realtime strategy game, made at least four or five years ago, for at least Windows. It wasn't just Dracula, it was like "Vlad Tepes Dracula" (not sure about the Vlad Tepes part, could've been a different name. I couldn't find it on the Dracula (disambiguation) page. It's main premise was some eastern european war, where you are some rebels taking over the oppressing fortresses, and then holding and upgrading the territories you capture. I found it on eBay a while ago, but didn't buy it at the time. I haven't since come across it. Does anybody else know what I'm talking about, and where I could find it? —Akrabbim^talk 21:10, 20 August 2006 (UTC)

Is it the game that you can download? (hyperlink removed) "Dracula: Reign of Terror (a.k.a. Vlad Tepes Dracula)" digfarenough (talk) 22:49, 20 August 2006 (UTC)

Yeah, that's it. Woah, it really is old, if you can d-load it. Thanks. —Akrabbim^talk 20:08, 21 August 2006 (UTC)