Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Computing/2009 April 23

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April 23

Permanent call tracing with a PBX

Does permanent call tracing, or at least a harder-to-forge version of call display, become easier to set up if one is using a private branch exchange? NeonMerlin 04:21, 23 April 2009 (UTC)

NeonMerlin, I dont know much about analog PBXs but I've worked with VOIP for a while now. If you wish to unmask the CID of any caller, regardless of they blocked their phone number or not, I would try a simple Asterisk setup to forward your calls. This idea is not my own; this is the way Kevin Mitnick handles his blocked callers. To make this work, you need a VSP that passes the P-Asserted-Identity to your Asterisk box. Have Asterisk forward the call to your mobile/landline using its own modified p-asserted-identity with a constant prefix/suffix to know the call originated from you VOIP line. AFAIK, this is the closest the consumer can get to directly reading ANI numbers and as such will not unmask an op-divert. Here is a vid of Mitnick explaining the solution: YouTube aszymanik speak! 05:42, 24 April 2009 (UTC)

Linking excel data with word documents

While preparing reports i have to prepare documents in microsoft word in which there are a lot of tables.The values come from the result of calculation in excel.Is there any way to link the values in both documents so that whenever something is changed in excel it is changed automatically in words. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 120.89.108.128 (talk) 07:45, 23 April 2009 (UTC)

Yes. I just tested this with Office 2007 so if you're using an earlier version of Office the procedure will be a little different.

1. In Excel, select the cells you want and hit ctrl-C to copy them to the clipboard.
2. In Word, click where you want to paste the Excel table, and hit ctrl-V to paste. (Don't hit any other keys yet.)
3. When the paste is complete, a little clipboard icon appears to the lower right of the pasted table. When you mouse over it, it turns into a dropdown menu. Choose "Keep Source Formatting and Link to Excel".

Now every time you make a change in the Excel sheet, it'll be updated in the Word doc. Tempshill (talk) 20:07, 23 April 2009 (UTC)

Just a quick note that I don't know if that option existed at all, but in older versions of Office, advanced copy-paste features like that were accessible via "Paste Special..." on the Edit menu. - IMSoP (talk) 17:54, 26 April 2009 (UTC)

Statically linking C++ Windows Forms Applications (CLR)

Hello. I don't have much experience with building Windows Forms Applications in Visual Studio, and I am not sure how to link the application statically. When I was writing Win32 console applications before, I always used to use the /MT switch instead of /MD to statically link the CRT library to make the executable work on all computers. However, when I do the same in a CLR project, I get an error saying that /clr and /MT switches are incompatible. Is there any way to statically link a Windows Forms Application? Or make it work on all computers in some other way? I would appreciate any feedback on this. Thanks in advance!  ARTYOM  09:20, 23 April 2009 (UTC)

Statically link the .NET runtime libraries? No, you can't do that unless you use some special linking software like Remotesoft's linker. --wj32 ^t/c 10:02, 23 April 2009 (UTC)

Hmm, I believe there must be a way of running the program on other computers. Maybe something besides static linking that might help?  ARTYOM  12:38, 23 April 2009 (UTC)

I don't know what you mean by "running the program on other computers". If you're using the CLR for your program, the target program must have the CLR (.NET Framework) installed. --wj32 ^t/c 00:33, 24 April 2009 (UTC)

Free software and non-commercial use

I'm trying to figure out whether Snes9X should be considered free software or not. It's an open source, free application, however it doesn't allow commercial use of its source code, therefore somebody recently added that it's not a free software (per Wikipedia's definition). However, as long as it's open source I think it is free software, even if there is a special clause for non-commercial use. What do you think? Laurent (talk) 09:51, 23 April 2009 (UTC)

Open source has a definition which clearly stated that any open source license must allow commercial use. There was a license which was open source but not free software, although in most cases these terms are equivalent from technical point of view. MTM (talk) 12:32, 23 April 2009 (UTC)

Thanks, I've updated the article and wrote that Snes9x is not a free software and that its license cannot be approved by the OSI. Laurent (talk) 13:00, 23 April 2009 (UTC)

FreeSoftware is supposed to mean 'free of restrictions' rather than 'free of cost' (although if there are no restrictions and you charge for it - someone will re-distribute it for free and there is nothing you can do about it). Arguably though, software under the GPL isn't strictly free of restrictions. So this is a very grey area. The term "OpenSource" is the one I'd prefer to use. SteveBaker (talk) 14:59, 24 April 2009 (UTC)

Difference: plugin and activex

Resolved

What is Adobe Flash player 10 plugin and what is adobe flash player 10 activeX? How are they different from each other? 117.0.60.206 (talk) 15:52, 23 April 2009 (UTC)

"ActiveX" would just be for use in Internet Explorer and the "Plugin" would be for every other browser - The end result is exactly the same though, it's the addon for your browser to allow you to see Flash content, it's just a difference in naming. ZX81 ^talk 17:23, 23 April 2009 (UTC)

Thank you very much! 117.0.60.206 (talk) 18:54, 23 April 2009 (UTC)

What is windows media format runtime?

What is windows media format runtime? 117.0.60.206 (talk) 15:56, 23 April 2009 (UTC)

I'd have to see the context to know for sure, but it could refer to a program which plays videos designed for Windows Media Player (as opposed to a more robust program that can create and edit them, too). StuRat (talk) 17:34, 23 April 2009 (UTC)

It is listed in the Add/Remove programs of my PC. And can Windows Media Player not play videos by itself? I see both windows media format runtime and Windows Media Player 10 in the installed programs list, and that got me confused. 117.0.60.206 (talk) 18:57, 23 April 2009 (UTC)

I think it's it's to enable you to play Media Player formats newer than you have installed. For example WMP 11 is now out and you've said you have 10 installed so possibly this is allowing you to play WMP 11 encoded files, but I'm just guessing and another user may have a better idea. ZX81 ^talk 19:44, 23 April 2009 (UTC)

Scenario

Computers A and B operate on Windows XP. Computers C and D operate on Windows Vista. Computers A and C have crashed while the other two are operational. No recovery discs. If I create a recovery disc from computer D, will I be able to use it (legally) on computer C using the Windows product key for computer C?

Same question for the XP computers. 90.216.35.141 (talk) 16:17, 23 April 2009 (UTC)

If you're using the product key for C that came with C, then yes that should be legal as the media kits are all the same. How are you creating the recovery disc though? I only ask because if it's recovery software made by the computer manufacturer, if the computer you try and install it is a different make it might not install even with the correct product code. ZX81 ^talk 17:29, 23 April 2009 (UTC)

I haven't decided that yet. Will it not just ask for the product key as you are installing the OS? 90.216.35.141 (talk) 17:46, 23 April 2009 (UTC)

Sorry, I need to add a correction to what I wrote above and I'm kicking myself for having not paid more attention when I wrote it, I was focusing more on the licencing part than the actual discs. If you have an OEM XP Licence code (i.e. the operating system came with the machine), then it'll need an OEM XP CD to install it from. If you using a retail version that you bought, you'll need a retail disc. If it's an upgrade version... you get the idea. With XP all the files on the disc are actually the same except one file which controls what type of disc it is, I'm not sure how media kits for Vista work though. If you don't have the original discs (of the right type) then you may just be able to contact the computer manufacturer to purchase new discs or Microsoft if it was retail/upgrade (since you don't need a code, just the discs). ZX81 ^talk 18:24, 23 April 2009 (UTC)

Got phished - what now?

Am I just overly concerned? I just got a phishy mail "from IRS", and stupidly clicked on the link. So far, nothing bad happened, it just gave me the message "The requested URL /~phil/index.html was not found on this server.". (The complete URL is http://members.boo.net/~phil/index.html.) Is there anything I should do to prevent any damage? The article on phishing seems to be only concerned with lofty concerns, not with what the individual user can do. Mary Moor (talk) 16:37, 23 April 2009 (UTC)

It sounds like the phishing site was already taken down so don't worry about it. It's only if you've actually typed in your personal details you should start worrying. ZX81 ^talk 17:15, 23 April 2009 (UTC)

(ec) You appear to be safe; the page has simply been taken down. Clicking on links generally won't do any damage (at least no more so than visiting any other webpage—a secure browser is important), but you should never provide any privileged information (including usernames, passwords, SSN, etc.). To prevent future attempts, you might want to upgrade to a browser that automatically identifies suspicious websites (the link you posted displayed a very obvious phishing warning in Opera). – 74  17:20, 23 April 2009 (UTC)

Clicking on the link would confirm to the spammer that your email address is real, and therefore you might get more spam. 130.216.222.184 (talk) 01:51, 24 April 2009 (UTC)

Agreed; never click on links in spam, scam, phishing e-mails, etc and never click unknown links in general!--Xp54321 ^{(Hello! • Contribs)} 02:24, 24 April 2009 (UTC)

Unless the "spammers" already know which email address associates with your IP or include a uniquely-identifying string in the URL there is no risk of them "confirming your email" (and both approaches take significantly more effort than most spammers are willing to invest). Spammers aren't the most discriminating collectors of email addresses either—continually failing to respond in any way has done nothing to reduce the amount of spam I receive. It isn't wise to go looking for trouble, sure, but clicking on an "unknown link" is practically one of the cornerstones of the internet. On the other hand, Never install or run programs or ActiveX content unless you fully trust the source. – 74  06:35, 24 April 2009 (UTC)

Spammers might not be the most discriminating collectors but it doesn't mean there's not going to be some who will prioritise email addresses where the person is known to click the links. Also just because failing to click doesn't reduce the amount of spam you get doesn't mean you wouldn't have gotten more if you did click. A true test would be to use randomly generated addresses and then with half of them you click (well more likely you'd just get a comp program to do it) and with half of them you don't click and compare the amount of spam Nil Einne (talk) 12:43, 27 April 2009 (UTC)

Phishing involves them asking you to enter account numbers and other personal info on what you think is an official bank or government web site. If you haven't done that, then you should be OK. StuRat (talk) 17:28, 23 April 2009 (UTC)

Thanks, everybody! Would it make sense to add that information to the phishing article? Mary Moor (talk) 17:45, 23 April 2009 (UTC)

The article already has that information. :-) "phishing is the criminally fraudulent process of attempting to acquire sensitive information such as usernames, passwords and credit card details by masquerading as a trustworthy entity in an electronic communication." In this case, the e-mail claimed to be from the IRS. ;) --Xp54321 ^{(Hello! • Contribs)} 23:10, 23 April 2009 (UTC)

Open-source vs. proprietary reward

Is there any case where an open source project is economically more rewarding than keeping things as proprietary? I know that most don't do it for the money. --80.58.205.37 (talk) 17:46, 23 April 2009 (UTC)

The obvious example is Linux. While there are more profitable operating systems (ie: Windows), there are many proprietary operating systems that are not anywhere near as profitable. -- kainaw™ 18:17, 23 April 2009 (UTC)

How about Wikipedia ? Had it been a proprietary system written by paid experts and sold just like a paper encyclopedia, it would likely have been a dismal failure. StuRat (talk) 18:58, 23 April 2009 (UTC)

A proprietary system would not allow so many people from around the world to collaborate on an encyclopedia. This is also true for Linux; it would take much, much longer for a small group of "professionals" to make something as big as the Linux (kernel). --wj32 ^t/c 00:38, 24 April 2009 (UTC)

Well, there are business models surrounding OpenSource where you give the software away for free and charge for providing helpline support and maintenance and such. In the case of many sorts of software, it would be quite hard to break into the market with a product that cost a lot of money - but giving it away for free and then charging for your expertise is a model that might earn you income. So there are certainly situations where it's economically viable. RedHat had revenue of $400 million in 2007 - and almost everything they do is OpenSourced. It's hard to imagine a closed-source operating system that would sell in enough volume today to make that kind of money from sales alone. A million copies a year at $400 a pop? Unlikely. 10 million copies a year at $40 a pop? Nope. But a ridiculous number of copies at $0 - WITH the offer of support and service at a reasonable price...that appears to be a viable business model that others (eg SuSE) have managed to emulate. Personally - I've written a lot of OpenSource software - and I think that in many cases, I've gotten jobs on the basis of that - so for me, even as an individual, I think OpenSource has been "profitable" - in a sense. SteveBaker (talk) 14:53, 24 April 2009 (UTC)

Screen resolutions by O/S

I have a Windows 98 computer with a RAGE PRO TURBO AGP 2X graphics card which has a 1600×1200 max screen resolution on my current monitor. I also have a Windows XP computer with NVIDIA GEForce4 MX 420 graphics card. What max resolution could I expect to get on each of these if I went out and bought a bigger monitor ? I would like a dual monitor setup, if possible. Also, new monitors are all wide-screen, while my current monitors are full-screen. Can those be mixed together with a dual-screen set-up ? StuRat (talk) 19:12, 23 April 2009 (UTC)

I may be wrong, but I think a larger monitor will not affect the max screen resolution that Windows's "Display" control panel shows. For example, if I take my old 14" CRT monitor and plug that into your Windows 98 machine, I would expect to be able to set the display to 1600x1200, and when I click "OK", the display will just go blank, because that old monitor doesn't support that resolution. The control panel doesn't - I think - remove screen resolutions that aren't supported by your monitor. So, the maximum resolution won't change if you get a new monitor. A dual-screen setup with an extended desktop can mix multiple monitor aspect ratios. GeForce 4 Series may be of interest. Tempshill (talk) 19:54, 23 April 2009 (UTC)

I'm pretty sure the default is to only list resolutions which are supported by the current monitor, although they do provide the option to list unsupported resolutions, along with a warning that they may damage the monitor. StuRat (talk) 07:21, 24 April 2009 (UTC)

I think that this is true if the monitor is plug-n-play. Older monitors that just show up as "Default Monitor" will work more like Tempshill described.APL (talk) 13:02, 24 April 2009 (UTC)

Sorry if I misunderstood, but I assume what you're saying is that you want to take both graphics cards and put them in the same machine (the XP one?) and have dual monitors, one on each card? Is the GeForce MX 420 is a PCI card? The only reason I ask is because I've personally never seen a motherboard with 2 AGP ports so if it's AGP then you wouldn't be able to fit them. Likewise I'd recommend reading our AGP article as you may have some voltage compatibility issues with putting the ATI card into the XP machine because of the differences in AGP versions. Also, you'd be mixing ATI drivers with NVIDIA drivers and whilst it can work, it's not ideal and can give you system stability issues. I'd recommend simply buying a new AGP graphics card (they're not that expensive anymore) with dual outputs and then connecting your monitors via that. It might be hard to find an AGP card these days though, but they do still exist. Speed wise it's going to be a lot faster than either of what you have now too. I can also confirm you can mix widescreen/non-widescreen monitors too, each with different resolutions (I'm using 3 monitors at the moment with 2 different sizes/resolutions). Hope this helped! ZX81 ^talk 20:00, 23 April 2009 (UTC)

No, I have no intention of moving any graphics cards around. I'm just wondering what my options are for bigger monitors on each computer with the current graphics cards. I believe that both currently support dual monitors with the current graphics cards. StuRat (talk) 07:21, 24 April 2009 (UTC)

As a side note may i suggest Synergy (software). Its a very userful program that will allow you to use one mouse, one keybored with 2 or more computers. 64.172.159.131 (talk) 21:58, 23 April 2009 (UTC)

Cell phone as microphone

Is there a way to use a cell phone as a computer microphone? Not for recording but for, say, Skype? Thanks.--Elatanatari (talk) 21:47, 23 April 2009 (UTC)

In theory, yes. You'd need a phone with a usb link to your computer. Then you'd need to write and install a new operating system for your cell phone that has a custom application for transmitting its microphone signal to your computer. Or you could spend 10 bucks and buy a mic.

edit: it also occurred to me that you can disassemble the phone, cut out the microphone, and wire it with an amplifier and a 3.5mm TRS connector. You can then plug it into the mic jack. Taggart.BBS (talk) 00:49, 24 April 2009 (UTC)

I wonder whether you can do this with bluetooth? SteveBaker (talk) 14:44, 24 April 2009 (UTC)

You can buy USB phones (terrible stub) fairly cheaply that are designed for just that purpose. I have one and it works really well with skype. It have a microphone and speaker like a normal phone and a keypad that allows me to control skype directly from the phone (it uses some software called "SkypeMate" that came with it). --Tango (talk) 15:02, 24 April 2009 (UTC)

Hmmm, cool, thanks!Elatanatari (talk) 00:04, 3 May 2009 (UTC)