December 9

Something completely unbelievable just happened. I followed the link on this very page to the article Anonymous (group), and then clicked to the article Encyclopedia Dramatica. Then I felt like checking out the site Encyclipedia Dramatica, to see how it really looks, so I clicked the link to encyclopediadramatica.com in the Wikipedia article. I read a few pages on the site, and found it very unpleasant. But that was expected, of course. However, suddenly the Java tray icon appeared, as always when a Java applet is running in the browser. I did not like it (because I do not trust Encyclopedia Dramatica), so I closed the web page in Google Chrome, but strangely the tray icon did not disappear. A few seconds later, a full-screen application appeared, showing a raster picture of the Windows Vista security centre, and a (real!) dialog box appeared, and prompted me to remove viruses and trojans from the computer.

Of course this is not a real security software dialog, but somehow, completely without my permission, a foreign application has executed on my computer, as a result of my visiting Encyclopedia Dramatica (using the link from the Wikipedia article). Of course I have all Windows security updates installed, an anti-virus software (ClamWin, but anyway...), the firewall activated, Windows defender running, and, most impotantly, I am a very, very experienced computer and Internet user, and I know exactly how “real” security dialogs look like and behave. How could this happen? I though Google Chrome was a reasonably safe browser. As soon as I discovered the attack, I opened the task manager, and found a lot of strange applications. In addition, in the system tray, there was a UAC like icon (but not real, because the popup menu was wrong). So I removed the power from the computer, in order to stop the execution of the unwanted software. But when I restarted Windows, the program(s) was (were) still running (some sort of autorun – I will check msconfig etc.), but I used the task manager to kill all unknown processes.

I have used the Internet daily for more than ten years, but never experienced any sort of virus attack or anything (so I almost did not believe it could happen). But exactly how could this happen? Google Chrome cannot just run a foreign executable without the user’s permission, can it?

And: perhaps it would be a good idea to remove the link in the Encyclopedia Dramatica article? --Andreas Rejbrand (talk) 01:48, 9 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]

The software even created an icon in the "Quick Access" toolbar (or whatever it is called in English). Apparently it resides in

C:\ProgramData\0add093\WS0add.exe

--Andreas Rejbrand (talk) 01:53, 9 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]

...and it calls itself "Windows Enterprise Defender". --Andreas Rejbrand (talk) 01:54, 9 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]

And in the newly-created directory

C:\ProgramData\0add093\BackUp

I find a link to my Internet bank's security application. Should I be worried? --Andreas Rejbrand (talk) 01:55, 9 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]

By the way, the directory C:\ProgramData\0add093\ is well-hidden. You need not only to enable the "Show hidden files" options, but also disable the "Hide important system files" option... --Andreas Rejbrand (talk) 01:57, 9 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]

I just scanned the directory using ClamWin, but it did not report a problem. Shouldn't it? --Andreas Rejbrand (talk) 01:58, 9 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]

I'd google windows enterprise defender virus and go from there. --Tagishsimon (talk) 02:04, 9 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Fortunately, the real Windows Defender recognized the problem and removed it for me. Thank you, Microsoft. --Andreas Rejbrand (talk) 02:05, 9 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Mr Rejbrand, I suggest you nominate the Encyclopedia Dramatica site for inclusion on the Wikipedia:Spam blacklist. Also, you can remove the link from the article yourself. --Jc3s5h (talk) 02:10, 9 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Yes, I know. But I wanted to hear some comments on it. (After all, I cannot be 100 % sure that the attack originated from that site, although I would be extremely surprised if it did not.) --Andreas Rejbrand (talk) 02:26, 9 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Now that I think about it, I do not think it is fair to blame Google Chrome, because it appears like Chrome just told Java to run something, and then Java did something it should not. Or? --Andreas Rejbrand (talk) 02:50, 9 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Perhaps it was wrong of me to post it here on the Reference Desk. Indeed, "how could this happen?" is a question, but still... You can remove it if you want. I just got so surprised. I have never seen anything like this before, and almost did not believe it could happen (if you can tell fake ads and apps from the real ones, which I can, more than well). --Andreas Rejbrand (talk) 02:55, 9 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]

It didn't come from ED. I don't know what Chrome has for security settings with Java, but a JVM shouldn't be writing files to %programdata%. SchmuckyTheCat (talk)

How do you know? --Andreas Rejbrand (talk) 03:09, 9 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]

The Java tray icon appeared right when I entered the ED page, and the icon disappeared when I closed Chrome. (And the ED page contained a lot of ads (including pornographic), popup windows (but Chrome blocked it/them), some YouTube videos, JavaScripts, IFRAMEs, and also flash apps, JavaScripts etc linked from external sites (e.g. gigya.com), etc.) But I am not an expert on Internet security, so if you are one, then I trust you. If I were interested enough, I would look at the (HTML) code of some of the pages I visited, and I would in particular scan for any reference to a Java applet. --Andreas Rejbrand (talk) 03:15, 9 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Aren't all Java applets subject to Sun's written-in Security Manager? As I recall, you have to explicitly specify added privileges for the applets; the default significantly limits what the program is allowed to do, and I believe, no kind of I/O by default.--el Aprel (^facta-_facienda) 04:52, 9 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]

That's correct. If the java applet was running as a web browser plugin, it can not create or open files on the hard disk. If the Java program was even responsible at all, it must have been downloaded and manually executed as a standalone application. See What Applets Can and Cannot Do, "They cannot access client resources such as the local filesystem, executable files, system clipboard, and printers." I suspect the Java applet is just a red herring and that the infection was caused by some other method. Nimur (talk) 14:50, 9 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Yeah there are loads of these types of things on the net, and I highly doubt it came from ED. They're struggling to stay alive with what little money they get from ads as it is, they wouldn't drive people away by uploading java viruses. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 82.44.55.75 (talk) 18:47, 9 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]

While I agree there's a good chance it didn't come from ED and agree they're unlikely do it on purpose, I wouldn't say it's impossible it came from there. They're obviously less selective in their choice of ads (or ad hosting company) and therefore more likely to fall victim to a dubious ad. This doesn't have to be JS, it could be taking advantage of some flaw in Flash for example or even Google Chrome itself Nil Einne (talk) 16:03, 11 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Do Ubuntu package files, or any other machine-readable sources, specify what packages provide a given package's help files and debugging symbols, if they exist and aren't included? Can I configure aptitude to automatically download, install, update and remove them along with the main package, and to remove debugging symbols that are for the wrong version and can't be updated? NeonMerlin 03:49, 9 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Many packages have a -dbg package also which will install debugging symbols. It's not automatic, you need to choose to install the -dbg package. Only the more complicated packages usually will have a -dbg package. (Although I think it's an option in the build scripts which can make them for any package.) The dependencies on the packages will (should) prevent the wrong dbg package from being installed. Ariel. (talk) 07:31, 9 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Does anyone know of a programming language that will allow the developer to write/read files directly as binary? To be more prescise, suppose that I had a file that needed to store a sequence of terms each of which took one of four values, is there a language where I could write a file with a sequence of bits, each pair of bits representing a term? Or, on the other hand, that would let me read a file bit by bit; namely, if I could read a text file and modify each bit (for purposes of encryption/compression)? I've tried googling this and browising around, but have had a very hard time finding an answer. Finally, just to be clear, I do not want to write a string of ascii 1's and 0's, I want it to be the case that if I write 1100_0000_1100_0010 to the file, then the file will only be 2 bytes in size, not 16 bytes. Thank you for any help:) 66.202.66.78 (talk) 04:59, 9 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]

I'm reasonably certain that the operating system forces you to write in increments of whole bytes.

However, if you want to write in increments of whole bytes, you can easily define those bytes any way you like in most languages. For example, You can use C to manipulate individual bits in a byte and then save that entire byte. APL (talk) 06:08, 9 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Not only the operating system - most modern, mainstream CPU hardware does not have a capacity to write data anywhere in increments smaller than its minimum word length. The operating system probably enforces much coarser-grain access to IO devices, (transparently) accessing in page file size blocks, e.g. 4 kilobytes at a time, even if the programmer requests a single byte read or write. Nonetheless, a programmer can still use a routine to write single bits if they choose to write a binary-level scheme. Languages like C and Java provide bitwise operators, so via bitmasking and buffering, you can write whatever binary you want. Nimur (talk) 14:56, 9 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Thank you for the response. Do you know anywhere I could get more information on how to go about doing this? Could you do this in Ruby/Python? Thank you again:) 66.202.66.78 (talk) 06:59, 9 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]

The following will do what you want in Perl:

perl -e 'print pack("v*", 0b1100_0000_1100_0010)' > bits

I don't know of any operating system that would allow you to read/write files bit by bit, though you might find a library that fakes it. --Sean 12:47, 9 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]

It would be painful for the OS to have to do that - for starters, the hard drive's interface is byte-at-a-time. Also, you'd have to store the length of the file to the nearest bit. That kind of complexity and additional storage cost is completely unwarranted given that you are quite possibly the only person in the entire history of computing who has actually wanted to do this! (I'm kidding) SteveBaker (talk) 00:49, 10 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]

This (StackOverflow.com) could help you with python. Lukipuk (talk) 14:06, 9 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]

For the past couple of decades, the bit has been practically purely a mathematical abstraction. Even the processor itself deals in bytes (or words in the case of supercomputer-scale processors). There are only two ways you can deal with individual bits:

• Simulate it by doing bit-by-bit operations on integers, but bear in mind the processor will handle the whole bytes in one go nevertheless.
• Go beyond machine language and actually implement your own processor on actual silicon level.

I don't see there's any other way you can really natively deal with sub-byte units. JIP | Talk 20:53, 14 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]

i n my friend wanted to play lf2...through hamachi.first we started hamachi..thn started little fighters 2 thn went to network game n my frnd typed my ip address n i clicked on waiting for opponent ..the game started to load n after some time it says you and your friend have diffrent data files..???

can someone plz help me??? we did this using hamachi —Preceding unsigned comment added by 59.184.151.91 (talk) 06:31, 9 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]

I have no idea, but you might get a better response if you write in English. Astronaut (talk) 06:34, 9 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]

For those who don't want to bother looking it up, lf2 apparently stands for Little Fighter 2. Even though I now know what the subject of the question is, I still have no idea what's being asked. Dismas|^(talk) 07:00, 9 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]

It appears to me the OP is trying to play Little Fighter 2 using hamachi (I presume because behind a NAT). The OP appears to have largely done everything correctly, i.e. got hamchi working okay, started the game and then told the game wait for opponent while the friend entered the OP's hamachi IP address (well I hope so anyway) and asked the game to connect. The connection appears to have happened fine but then the OP got an error due to 'different data files'.

At a guess, this likely means you have different versions of the game, or one of you has modified your version. I suggest both of you go to the official website and download the game again. May be even use the same specific download site (i.e. 1 or 2). Then install again and try again and it should be fine. Alternatively, one of you can send your copy to the other one. If that doesn't help, as I hinted at, the OP should make sure their friend is entering their hamachi IP address not any other address. You might also want to make sure there's no issues connecting between the two of you via hamachi (I suggest you look at the hamachi help to find out how)

Nil Einne (talk) 11:32, 9 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Halp! I installed my new wireless router yesterday. My plucky little laptop recognises the router, and the router seems to be fine with creating a link to the internetz. But Internet Explorer doesn't work when it is launched. "Diagnose the problem" comes up with...."there is no problem". I am not very tech savyy (can you tell?!) so I did what I could on my own last night, but nothing seemed to work. What possible reasons, even "invisible" if you know what I mean, is there for IE not to recognise the fact that there appears to be a strong, installed, existing internet connection?

By way of context, in May/June this year, there was a technical error with the laptop, when with no warning it decided to stop working for a bit. On boot-up it would get to the stage of reading the DVD drive before giving up. If these two are connected, I cannot say.

Any help would be great! Why would IE not want to display any pages if there seems to be a internet connection and a fully recognised connection to the router?

doktorb _words^deeds 08:08, 9 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]

What make/model is your router? How do you know there is a working internet connection between the internet and the router? If you plug the network cable the router is using to connect to the internet directly into your laptop, can you access the internet? (if yes, your router is not properly configured) Connect to the router's setup page and check the Status - does it list an IP address or just DNS addresses? If you disconnect and refresh the connection, do you get a new address? I suspect the problem has nothing to do with IE but rather with a router that isn't talking properly with your modem/building LAN. 218.25.32.210 (talk) 08:32, 9 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Right, hold on here, because I'm not totally up to speed with things (or for that matter, is my internet connection :) ) If Vista is not lying to me, there is a working connection between the laptop and the router, and the router to the internet. But IE is just not displaying even when it appears a direct connection to the device (through an ethernet cable) or wirelessly (my laptop is wireless enabled) exists. I wonder if upgrading to IE8 would by chance remove what may be the issue with the current IE, or else I start faffing with settings that I don't understand and hpe for the best that way! I'd rather not though, hence asking here.... doktorb _words^deeds 08:44, 9 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]

It has nothing to do with the browser (unless you changed the advanced settings for the browser manually, which is unlikely). To repeat what 218 said above, look at the router and tell us the brand and (if possible) the model of the router. Also go to Start --> All Programs --> Accessories, right-click on the Command Prompt, choose Run as administrator, and then type ipconfig /all > ipconfig.txt and copy and paste the text from the ipconfig.txt file here.--Drknkn (talk) 09:57, 9 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]

I am at work, so can't do any of that at the moment. But if I cannot solve it when I get home, I will copy down all I can and get back to you. It could be the laptop, I suspect there's some kind of "Invisible" error that cannot be traced, as nothing else seemed to be wrong. doktorb _words^deeds 14:01, 9 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Update!

Internet STILL not working. Had 02 on the phone last night, looking at the Protocol settings and such (I had no idea what they were asking me to do). My mate tells me I should have the LAN settings in IE changed so "Automatically Detect Settings" is ticked, and "Use automatic configuration script" has something in it, but I don't know what that something would be, and in any case 02 told me last night they don't think it's that.

I wonder if it's just some "invisible" error with IE? I could spend some money buying IE8 (no, I can't download it) so the installation of that would perhaps "knock out" what it wrong with the current IE ?

Anyhoo, thanks for the help, any other info is welcome =/ doktorb _words^deeds 07:40, 10 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Normally I'd suggest downloading Firefox (or some other browser), and trying to use that with your laptop. If that works, you know the problem's with IE rather than the router or laptop - and what I'd try next in that case would be to update your security software (particularly the firewall). If you can't download Firefox, you could start Command Prompt (look in the Start menu) and type in ping www.google.co.uk . If you get a response each time, it looks as if you've connected OK and it's just that IE isn't working for some reason. AJHW (talk) 12:03, 10 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]

He won't do any of that. He's just telling us what he thinks is wrong.--Drknkn (talk) 12:22, 10 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks for the idea AJHW. And Drknkn, I did take what you suggested home last night, but given what happened with 02 I didn't think it neccesary. I will try the "ping" suggestion tonight. doktorb _words^deeds 14:10, 10 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Further update! I did ping google, it seemed to work fine. It's just IE that doesn't want to work, and I tried everything - LAN settings (thought I don't know what they are, really), protocol settings (ditto). My plan now is to buy the new IE, and hope its installation knocks out whatever is wrong with the current one. Thanks for the help, though, I'll get back to you if I need any more help! doktorb _words^deeds 07:02, 11 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Unless your ISP told you it's necessary I would untick "Use automatic configuration script" if it's ticked. Also make sure use a proxy server is unticked. Also the problem could still be something other then IE itself. What firewall do you have? Since you're apparently using Vista, install all the latest updates using Windows Update and then uninstall the firewall or if it's Vista's built in firewall, turn it off and see if that helps. BTW, you should be able to download IE8 from Windows Update as an optional update. No browser required. Nil Einne (talk) 15:54, 11 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]

I keep getting a NullPointerException error when executing this code:

public class Grid
{
    public String[][] gridarray;

    String e = "#";
    String s = " ";
    String b = "|";
    String c = "C";

public void PopulateGrid()
    {
        
        gridarray = new String[111][33];
        
        //create grid and track
        for (int q=0; q < gridarray.length; q++)
        {
            for (int w=0; w < gridarray[q].length; w++)

            gridarray[q][w] = s;
            gridarray[q][0] = e;
            gridarray[q][33] = e;
        }

    }

    public String toString ()
    {
        String result = "";

        
        // this is where the error occurs
        for (int row=0; row < gridarray.length; row++)
        {
        ...

In the populateGrid method i am creating a multidemnsional array and then filling it with values. The String toString method is supposed to take the array and convert it into a string.

Does anyone know what i can do to solve this problem? I think it is something to do with referencing an null pointer, but i didnt think this would happen if i have filled the array before calling the toString method.

Thanks —Preceding unsigned comment added by 144.124.16.28 (talk) 13:48, 9 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]

As i dont know the rest of your source code, i could only take a guess: you call method toStrging() before you call PopulateGrid()? Lukipuk (talk) 14:00, 9 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]

It looks like you cut off the line of code which is actually causing the NullPointerException. Alternately, if it's really where you say it is, my guess is that your code never called PopulateGrid() and therefore never initialized gridarray. Nimur (talk) 15:02, 9 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Because toString() is a standard method for all objects, it's possible that it might be getting called from somewhere that you don't expect, before PopulateGrid is called. In any case, you could add a constructor which creates the array to ensure it is allocated before it is referenced, or put a check in toString() to check if gridarray is null, and if it is null return a message rather than converting the array to a string. --Pleasantman (talk) 15:07, 9 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Your call to gridarray[q][33] = e; should cause an ArrayIndexOutOfBoundsException, because as Java arrays are zero-based, you're actually trying to access the 34th element of a 33-element array. But that's not the same thing as a NullPointerException. JIP | Talk 19:50, 13 December 2009 (UTC)0[reply]

Good catch, JIP! I think we must have spent more time analyzing this code than the OP, by this point... Nimur (talk) 21:47, 13 December 2009 (UTC) [reply]

Hi, I recently ran some speed tests. The first test was with my cable modem (on a "up to" 20 meg plan) directly attached to my PC, and the second had the Belkin router (F5D7231-4) in between, using ethernet on both sides (it does happen to be a wireless router but I wanted to elimate that source of latency from my enquiries). I noticed that the first test achieved in excess of 14 meg, whereas with the router in the picture I got less than 6. I think the reason relates to the WAN port, or the "WAN to LAN" throughput. So, my questions are: 1. Am I right? 2. If not, then what could the problem be? 3. Can I buy a router that is less of a bottleneck? --Rixxin (talk) 14:06, 9 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Well, that's not supposed to happen, but the first review for this product at Newegg says:

Pros: Good range.

Cons: Needs to be constantly reset to avoid slow down.

Other Thoughts: This router works well when it is working. Typically, however, it slows my internet speeds way down. It has only gotten worse since purchasing an iPod touch. Whenever I am doing something that requires large bandwidth, i.e. talking to a friend on skype, I have gotten to the point where I just plug directly into my cable modem.

So I guess I would try resetting it, to see if that helps. If it does, I would speculate that it has an inefficient network address translation implementation, that keeps too much translation information around and gets bogged down. -- Coneslayer (talk) 14:25, 9 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks Coneslayer. I have noticed that it does need to be reset often to just get it to work, much less work fast! I should probably add to my description of the tests I performed that I have power-cycled all the equipment (including the PC) to ensure that everything is working at the best it could be. I think the answer I'm looking for is for someone to tell me what technical spec to watch out for when browsing for a new router. --Rixxin (talk) 16:54, 9 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Here are two ideas that won't cost you money, but require some time and patience:

1) Contact Belkin and explain your problem. Since you don't seem to be the only one suffering from this problem, they may have an updated firmware or something that will fix it.

2) Try one of the free replacement firmwares. I use Tomato (firmware), but it does not appear to support your router. DD-WRT, which is probably the most famous and widely-used open source firmware, does claim to support it. This requires some time, technical skill, and ability to follow instructions. It is conceivable (though unlikely) that it could render your router inoperative.

If neither of those work out or appeal to you, I would say that from a standpoint of technical specs, the router you already have is perfectly fine. The problem is that it has some software flaw that's not reflected in the specifications. If you shop for a different model, I'd look for something similar from a different vendor (on the "fool me once" principle), and read the reviews on sites like Amazon and Newegg to make sure there's no widespread problems. (I happen to use a Buffalo WHR-G54S, but I have a 0.5 Mbps satellite Internet connection, so I'm the last person to comment on its peformance. It's served me well with both the original and Tomato firmware.) -- Coneslayer (talk) 19:39, 9 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]

I've looked into updating the firmware to a later edition but for some reason the latest firmware available for variants of that model is not available for my one, which seems to be a UK-specific variant. Annoying. I did try to use one of the other variant firmwares but it just rejected it. I have also looked into flashing it with an open source firmware, but have always chickened out in case it went wrong! I have no problem with buying another router if it did mess it up, but then I'm back to square one in respect of my original problem; I don't know if the new one would "cap" my throughput. --Rixxin (talk) 10:58, 10 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]

I have a spreadsheet with multiple columns and rows. I need a formula to check for the repeated occurrence (I mean, duplicate/exact match) of each cell value/selected cell values and return the cell reference ( i.e., row & column) of the cell(s) where repetition occurs. Can someone please suggest an OpenOffice (or Excel) formula?--117.204.82.3 (talk) 16:59, 9 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Do you mean this sort of situation?

So "Pink Flamingos" appears twice in the dataset. If this is not what you mean, it might be helpful to frame your question with a frame table.--Rixxin (talk) 17:14, 9 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Yes, supposing the table has a hundred columns and a few hundreds of rows, what formula can return details of the repeated values all over the spreadsheet? 117.204.82.3 (talk) 18:52, 9 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Okay. This isn't exactly what you asked for, but it'll start you off. The range A1:C4 needs to be named "Range1".

	A	B	C
1	Jam	Snooker	Bowl
2	Toast	Laptop	Pink Flamingos
3	Radiators	Sofa	Boots
4	Pink Flamingos	Cat	Light
5	=COUNTIF(Range1,A1)	=COUNTIF(Range1,B1)	=COUNTIF(Range1,C1)
6	=COUNTIF(Range1,A2)	=COUNTIF(Range1,B2)	=COUNTIF(Range1,C2)
7	=COUNTIF(Range1,A3)	=COUNTIF(Range1,B3)	=COUNTIF(Range1,C3)
8	=COUNTIF(Range1,A4)	=COUNTIF(Range1,B4)	=COUNTIF(Range1,C4)

Which will leave you with:

	A	B	C
1	Jam	Snooker	Bowl
2	Toast	Laptop	Pink Flamingos
3	Radiators	Sofa	Boots
4	Pink Flamingos	Cat	Light
5	1	1	1
6	1	1	2
7	1	1	1
8	2	1	1

Any instance of 2 or greater highlights a duplicate. Obviously for a hundred rows and columns each way, you will need to autofill this formula down and across. --Rixxin (talk) 11:18, 10 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]

My current HDD is starting to fill, and as I have two or three other old HDDs available I am thinking of installing one of them, or if cheap enough buying a new one.

Does this simply involve putting the HDD in the bay, attaching the other socket from the cable ribbon, and restarting the computer? I have WinXP. I seem to dimly recall that there are two different types of incompatible HDD - is this true? Is two the maximum number of HDD I could install?

Is there any limit to the size of HDD? My current old HDD is only 40GB. a Maxtor 2F040J0. My motherboard is an ASRock P4VM8. Are there any restrictions to the size or type of HDD I could use with it please? 84.13.190.195 (talk) 16:51, 9 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]

There are currently two standard internal hard disk types that PCs use: SATA drives, and the older type, now commonly called PATA drives or "IDE drives". According to the user manual I googled for, your motherboard does have two SATA connectors — look at that SATA article to see what the connectors look like on the motherboard, and double-check for yourself to make sure. (The BIOS screens should reference the SATA connectors, too.) Your Maxtor hard disk appears to be a PATA drive. In the US, one-terabyte SATA drives are wonderfully cheap — Newegg is selling a 1TB SATA hard disk this morning for US$85 with free shipping, or 1.5TB is US$110. To install a PATA drive, you would first look on the new drive for the little connector plugs you need to rearrange to tell the motherboard that the new drive is the so-called "slave" drive. (Your old drive is already set to be the "master".) Then you would indeed just turn off your computer, open the case, put the HDD in the bay, screw in the little screws that hold it in place, plug a Molex connector from your power supply (there are probably some unused ones in there currently) into the new HDD, plug the second connector on the cable ribbon into the HDD, close up the case, and then when you boot up, go into the BIOS to be sure it correctly autodetected the drive. Then format the drive and you're in business. For a SATA drive, you would connect a SATA ribbon cable to connect your motherboard to the new drive, and you would connect a SATA power cable from your hard disk to your power supply — there are adapter cables from Molex to SATA, and one may come with your drive if you buy the drive as a "retail kit" rather than as an "OEM" drive, which just means the bare drive with no cabling or software. I'd recommend the SATA drive, certainly, even if you have the PATA drive still connected, because for your next computer you won't want to use a PATA drive. Comet Tuttle (talk) 17:45, 9 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Newer HDDs (SATA drives) don't use ribbon cables, but it sounds like all the drives in question here are PATA (AKA IDE), which use ribbon cables. There can be four PATA devices attached to your mobo. That includes CD-ROM and DVD-ROM drives (if they are PATA). So, yes, you can connect at least one extra drive to one of the PATA cables in your case, but PATA drives use jumpers. Usually, one must be master, and the other slave (both in BIOS and with the jumpers). So, if the computer doesn't detect one or more of your drives after installation, the chances are that you will have to fiddle with the plastic jumpers on the back of the drive next to the ribbon cable.--Drknkn (talk) 17:47, 9 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]

(ec) Oh, you asked about the hard disk size limits for your computer. Assuming this manual is the manual for your computer, it doesn't actually say, but it supports "Ultra DMA-5". Unfortunately our PATA article doesn't have a corresponding entry in the table that just tells us what size is supported. Newegg this morning appears to be selling only 7 PATA drives, everything else is SATA; and the largest PATA drive is only 500GB and appears to be an ATA-6 drive, so I'm not sure what it'll do in your computer. I'd go with a SATA drive. Comet Tuttle (talk) 17:59, 9 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Buy an external hard drive —Preceding unsigned comment added by 82.44.55.75 (talk) 18:44, 9 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]

The Maxtor drive stated above is IDE only. Your mainboard has the capability for SATA and IDE, so I would get a SATA drive, you won't have to mess around with master/slave jumpers. Mattg82 (talk) 00:27, 10 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]

If only it were so easy! According to the manual, P4VM8 is based on the VIA VT8237R southbridge. VT8237R was one of the first ones to support SATA with a speed of 1.5 Gbps. The problem is that the chipset does not understand SATA speed negotiation and will not work with new 3 Gbps SATA drives out of the box. Some drives such as Western Digital, Maxtor, Seagate and older Samsung drives can be set to use 1.5 Gbps SATA without negotiation, by fiddling with a jumper at the back of the drive. Others such as Hitachi and newer Samsung drives require you to change a firmware setting through software, and without a physical jumper it's a Catch-22: you need to install the drive in a computer with a 3 Gbps capable SATA interface in order to disable the 3 Gbps SATA support in the drive...

In other words you'd better check the drive manual online before you buy a SATA drive. I found out all this AFTER buying a Samsung Spinpoint F1, only to end up returning it in exchange for a Western Digital Caviar Blue. Considering all this, it is probably easier to just buy a PATA drive. At least all those Ultra-DMA and ATA-xx variants are fully backwards compatible. 80.186.171.115 (talk) 06:52, 11 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Not really true since there were various size limits, although the last one was the LBA28 problem (already mentioned above) that hit a while ago. (These limits weren't intrisicly a part of the speed but were limits you ran into meaning 'fully backwards compatible' wasn't true.) Nil Einne (talk) 15:43, 11 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Where can I find statistics for "unique visitors"? I mean something like Alexa but I think that company doesn't provide that information (at least, for free). Thanks. --Belchman (talk) 17:26, 9 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Who's hosting your site? Hosting companies often have statistics in the hosting control panel. You can also write a hit counter, but the language you use for that would also vary by hosting company.--Drknkn (talk) 17:37, 9 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]

I've heard good things about Google Analytics. APL (talk) 18:03, 9 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Google Analytics is pretty easy to use and very pretty in general, though it is arranged primarily around aggregate information (which works nicely if you have a HUGE website but is less interesting for a small one). Personally I use a combination of Analytics and BBClone for websites I host (I find BBClone gives better individual information, if you want to track who is visiting at any given time of the day). But as Drknkn says, if you are just looking for raw numbers (especially on a site that is already up—BBClone and Analytics can't go back in time, obviously), your hosting company will almost surely have it in their logs for your site, which are usually accessible through the hosting control panel. --Mr.98 (talk) 18:31, 9 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks, but I'd like to check the unique visitors for a website that isn't mine :) --Belchman (talk) 21:04, 10 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]

My fairly recently bought 13" CRT TV made a popping sound while I was watching a broadcast, turned off, and does nothing now when I try to turn it on. I've tried unpluggin the power cord, etc., but nothing's happening. What'd you do? Imagine Reason (talk) 18:44, 9 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]

If the power cable of your TV is fused then I would first check that it is not the fuse that has blown (therefore protecting your TV). If you can verify that your TV still receives power but doesn't work, then I'd take it back to the shop. Rjwilmsi 21:15, 9 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]

If it's fairly recent - then checking the warranty is job #1. Failing that - the cost of repairing a small-ish TV is almost always more than the cost of a new TV...so sadly, if it's anything more complicated than a fuse then you're probably going to have to chuck it out and buy a new one. The fact that you heard an audible POP suggests that it could be a fuse - but it could equally be the power supply. SteveBaker (talk) 00:44, 10 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]

It's out of warranty, with a fused power cable, and I don't know how to check the fuse. Thanks. Imagine Reason (talk) 03:41, 10 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]

It would be handy to know which country you're in. What is the deal with fuses and US televisions? As far as I can see from our article on plugs, neither of the common US types have fuses. So how does that work? Is the fuse in the TV, or do you rely on ELCBs or what? --Tagishsimon (talk) 03:56, 10 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]

US plugs are almost never fused - they rely on the circuit breakers in the household fusebox. In the UK, there is usually an easy way to replace the fuse in the plug - it's sitting underneath the plug between the pins. ImagineReason: How do you know that the cable has a fuse - and yet not know how to replace it? We need to know which country you live in before we can figure out how to change the kinds of fuse you'd be likely to have. SteveBaker (talk) 04:19, 10 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Ugh, sorry for the confusion. I thought you meant that the power cable is undetachable from the TV set. The fuse is inside the TV, I guess. It's a typical US TV. Imagine Reason (talk) 16:53, 10 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]

The TV might have a fuse inside - but it's rather unlikely. You could take the back off to look - but please be very careful. Even though when TV isn't plugged in - and even though its power supply is probably hosed - there can still be highly charged capacitors in there that can zap you pretty seriously (maybe even kill you in the worst case scenario). Personally, I doubt there is an internal fuse. It's looking more and more likely that you need a new TV. Sorry. SteveBaker (talk) 22:08, 10 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Are you saying that TVs don't use fuses? Imagine Reason (talk) 17:09, 11 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]

My reference to a fuse was specifically relating to the fact that British plugs include a fuse in them to prevent damage to electrical goods from power surges, but this does mean that occasionally refuse will blow to to a slight power surge, but then the device will appear not to be working. In that case it is simply necessary to replace the fuse and not the device. However, since you are located in the United States I don't think this is applicable to your problem. Thanks Rjwilmsi 20:14, 11 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Let's put it this way: TVs have been "no user-serviceable parts inside" devices ever since they started using transistors instead of all the tubes (but one). There may very well be a fuse inside somewhere, but if so, it'll be in an area that only a TV repair technician is intended to access. In any case, if the fuse blew it blew for a reason, which needs to be fixed. --Anonymous, 01:50 UTC, December 13, 2009.

Are fuses like the elements inside a surge protector that wear out over time, or do they work differently? Thanks. Imagine Reason (talk) 17:39, 13 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Not sure if anyone can help me but I am looking for a site that will infect my PC with scareware, I intend to run it in VMWare so nothing will go wrong on my machine, I want to document the process that scareware goes through and how it infects your machine thanks. BigDunc 19:20, 9 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Not sure about direct linking here so putting in scareware list into google will find you something that you want. Mattg82 (talk) 00:34, 10 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]

This has been driving me up the wall for over an hour now. I have an old, spare Windows 2000 laptop I want to give someone to allow him to use the internet via free wifi in pubs.

I used to use that laptop myself and was able to find available wifi networks without a problem. However, trying it out now, I cannot seem to find the option to view available wifi networks. Looking at with my current XP laptop, I find I have a "Wireless Network Connection" option at the bottom right (the "system tray"?) that lets me view available wifi. I had a feeling there was something similar on the old Windows 2000 laptop, but for the life of me I cannot find it.

That old laptop has a wireless card in the appropriate slot, and it's working properly according to the hardware wizard. Am I just looking in the wrong place, or does something need fixing? --A bit iffy (talk) 22:31, 9 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Exactly which version of Windows 2000 are you using?

I read an article that said such a feature was added with Windows 2000 SP4. If you haven't installed that yet, connect yourself to a wired connection and install it. If that is not possible, it appears from some Googling that older versions of Windows 2000 require you to manually configure the wireless connection. I can't seem to find any instructions on how to do this; all I can recommend is to go to Control Panel -> Network, click on the card's entry in the list, hit Properties, and look around for the appropriate options.

If Windows 2000 is updated to SP4, go to Start -> Run, and type services.msc. Make sure the "Wireless Zero Configuration" service is running. If it is not, set it to start automatically. This should get you the Windows XP-style wifi configuration dialog. No guarantees, though. Xenon54 / talk / 22:50, 9 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks for that. It only has Windows 2000 SP2. But the very odd thing is that I was able to connect to wifi services very easily when I last used it a couple of years ago. I certainly didn't go through any complicated rigmarole to manually configure things - I wouldn't have known how. I think I'll try to get rid of it somehow - it can't be worth more than £20 now - probably I'll just leave it outside my front door to see if someone will take it off my hands! Thanks again. --A bit iffy (talk) 23:51, 9 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]

I guess it's possible that the physical wireless system on your laptop has been turned off? It's not uncommon for them to have an on-off physical switch - it may be worth checking for that before you throw it away. --Phil Holmes (talk) 09:16, 10 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]

I had a look but couldn't find a switch. However, my friend's now agreed to take it in spite of it being probably junk, so it's off my hands at least. Thanks, --A bit iffy (talk) 10:32, 10 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]