Computer Questions Not Worth Their Own Thread II

[aimeeandbeatles]

I know uncompressed bitmap is awful. That's why I compress it to PNG. I was thinking TIFF would be a better option.


Question: How do I run the "run" as administrator? I accidentally unregistered a component and when I put in "REGSVR32 MSCOMCTL.OCX" it comes up with "The module MSCOMCTL.OCX was loaded but the call to DllRegisterServer failed with error code 0x8002801c" and I think if I could do the regsvr32 thing as admin it'd work but I have no idea how.

 

[Quintillus]

Plutonian, the situation doesn't sound too great. I would've expected overheating to be the problem, and it sounds like it isn't power given that battery-only didn't work, unless it's a power issue on the motherboard or something like that. Could try with only the cord and no battery, but I doubt that'll work.

Reseating the RAM might possibly help. Although I think that even without RAM, it would stay on for more than a second - you just wouldn't be able to do anything.

Reseating the CPU might also help. That isn't possible on all laptop - some manufacturers such as Apple use CPUs that can't be removed. But it's possible on others. A CPU issue might cause this sort of issue.

But other than that, it sounds like motherboard.

If you ever need to replace the power cord, look it up by model number on eBay. I got an exact copy of mine for $10-$15 shipped that way - probably from someone whose old laptop had died.

Another question: What are the advantages of using TIFF when scanning document-files? I tried looking it up and got some overly-technical camera terms that I didn't understand.

Thirdly, can anyone point me to a program similiar to WinDirStat, but without that huge headache-inducing weird graph thingy?

I use JDiskReport. It has a few different views, none of which look like the WinDirStat image on Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. There's probably at least one of them that will prove satisfactory.

TIFF is more space-efficient than BMP, but generally less so than PNG or even high-image-quality JPG. I guess given the choice between TIFF and compressing BMP yourself, TIFF might make sense, but I wouldn't use it over automatically-converted PNG or JPG. I use JPG when scanning myself, with the DPI setting high enough that I don't care about any marginal loss in quality due to the compression.

TIFF does seem to be more popular in scanning and on Macs, but I'm not sure why. I tease at least one of my friends about sending inefficiently large images via e-mails in TIFFs; he realizes it's less efficient and less compatible with web browsers than PNG/JPG, but apparently it's the default in some proggie .

I thought "Run" was always run as an administrator. But you should be able to achieve the same effect via an administrators' command prompt and entering the command there.

I think general hating on the .NET framework and downvoting software only because of that is mainly by Linux and free/open source fanatics. It's by and large considered a first rate development platform, at least if your main target is Windows. To be sure, it has its flaws - it isn't as backwards compatible as Java, for instance, so if something uses .NET 1.1, potential users have to download that specific version, even if they already have 2.0, 3.0, or 3.5 (2.0 software will run with 3.5, however). But downvoting software solely because it uses .NET is silly.

 

[J-man]

I finally got an internet connection at my new home. Unfortunately I can't run an ethernet cable from my router to my pc. I'm thinking about buying a wireless PCI(-E) adapter or those adapters which you can plug in your wall socket.

I rather buy the wifi adapter because they tend to be cheaper but I'm worried wifi is too slow. My internet speed is 30MBps, or at least that's the theoretical max. What do you guys think.

PS. My pc isn't that far located from the router.

 

[hobbsyoyo]

I don't know what to say about it overall, but KSP recently switched to Mono/.NET framework for cross-platform use and it had an absurdly specific installation process. I think they've since ironed it out, though.

Did they release .19?

 

[Quintillus]

I finally got an internet connection at my new home. Unfortunately I can't run an ethernet cable from my router to my pc. I'm thinking about buying a wireless PCI(-E) adapter or those adapters which you can plug in your wall socket.

I rather buy the wifi adapter because they tend to be cheaper but I'm worried wifi is too slow. My internet speed is 30MBps, or at least that's the theoretical max. What do you guys think.

PS. My pc isn't that far located from the router.

Is your internet speed 30 MBps (megabytes per second), or 30 Mbps (megabits per second)? It's usually quoted in megabits per second, and 30 megabytes per second would be quite speedy, and would indeed require formidable WiFi to realize its potential. I'll assume for now it's megabits per second, or 1/8th what it would be in megabytes.

The wireless adapter in the PC (it's a desktop, right?) ought to work just fine in that case. Traditional WiFi (802.11g) can reach 54 Mbps theoretically, and while it'll never reach that in practice, it will likely come reasonably closer to 30. However, it looks like the cost to upgrade the adapter to the faster 802.11n, which can reach 150 Mbps in its slowest form and will certainly exceed 30 Mbps, is quite low. You'd also need a router that supported 802.11n, however, which would make it more costly if your current ones doesn't. I'd estimate 40 Euros for a baseline one. Though it may be a good idea to pay a little more for a well-reputed one, as routers aren't the most reliable hardware ever.

If the connection is 30 megabytes per second, you'd want a WiFi card with 802.11n that could do up to at least 300 Mbps, which looks to be only slightly more expensive than a 150 Mbps one. Again, however, the router would have to support that speed, although that too will be a fairly modest increase in price.

I'm not familiar with the type you plug into the wall socket. Do you mean like carring the Internet over the power lines so you can then just run a short Ethernet cable from the socket to your PC? I'm guessing the problem with Ethernet in the first place is obstacles/tripping hazards/aesthetics in the path to the PC, and not something a longer Ethernet cable would solve?

 

[J-man]

Is your internet speed 30 MBps (megabytes per second), or 30 Mbps (megabits per second)? It's usually quoted in megabits per second, and 30 megabytes per second would be quite speedy, and would indeed require formidable WiFi to realize its potential. I'll assume for now it's megabits per second, or 1/8th what it would be in megabytes.

The wireless adapter in the PC (it's a desktop, right?) ought to work just fine in that case. Traditional WiFi (802.11g) can reach 54 Mbps theoretically, and while it'll never reach that in practice, it will likely come reasonably closer to 30. However, it looks like the cost to upgrade the adapter to the faster 802.11n, which can reach 150 Mbps in its slowest form and will certainly exceed 30 Mbps, is quite low. You'd also need a router that supported 802.11n, however, which would make it more costly if your current ones doesn't. I'd estimate 40 Euros for a baseline one. Though it may be a good idea to pay a little more for a well-reputed one, as routers aren't the most reliable hardware ever.

If the connection is 30 megabytes per second, you'd want a WiFi card with 802.11n that could do up to at least 300 Mbps, which looks to be only slightly more expensive than a 150 Mbps one. Again, however, the router would have to support that speed, although that too will be a fairly modest increase in price.

I'm not familiar with the type you plug into the wall socket. Do you mean like carring the Internet over the power lines so you can then just run a short Ethernet cable from the socket to your PC? I'm guessing the problem with Ethernet in the first place is obstacles/tripping hazards/aesthetics in the path to the PC, and not something a longer Ethernet cable would solve?

My misstake, it's Megabits. I can't use a long ether net cable (I'm using one now as a temporary solution) because it I can't drill holes true wales everywhere (I rent).

Thanks for the explanation.

 

[hobbsyoyo]

There is no way to run an extra-extra long cable around the outside walls where you live? I was able to do this and this keeps it out of the middle of the floor.

 

[aimeeandbeatles]

My friend talked me into opening a freeware site as I mentioned in one of the other threads I was thinking about doing. So I decide to ask here:

What features would you guys like to see in your ideal software directory site?

We've already made a list to start out with but I won't post it in case it influences things.

 

[cardgame]

Well, since you're asking, uhh...

• Alphabetize
• Sort by: rating (pulled from CNET or other sites, if possible) - maybe add a possibility for users to rank as well
• Sort by: file size
• Categories (Utilities, art, entertainment, what have you)
• Comment section per file
• Above all else, make the site pretty with CSS

 

[Iranon]

A statement to the effect that there is no crapware attached to anything, and that the downloader is entitled to harvest an organ of their choice from the uploader if this turns out incorrect.

 

[aimeeandbeatles]

Well, one of the things my friend and I agreed on was therre being no guarantees -- there'd be warnings about toolbars (though unless it was aggressive it wouldn't be an automatic count-out) and links to VirusTotal. But you cant prove a negative -- you just have to go on good faith that the developers hadn't put a malicious piece of code in that was undetectable. See this: http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/2008/03/a-question-of-programming-ethics.html

Yes, the comments is something I was thinking of. Does anyone have any thoughts on Disqus? If whatever I use for the site doesnt have an inbuilt commenting system I was thinking about that.

 

[Quintillus]

The categories are a must IMO. And it'd probably be wise to allow one item to be under multiple categories - for instance I may well search for a video player/multimedia player under audio player if that's what I intend to use it for.

I'd also like a curated list within categories of what's highly-used/full-fledged/etc. The software directories I use most are probably Linux distro software directories. They're good about the categories. But they tend to have everything within the category. Chances are, I want a general-purpose, fairly polished piece of software to start with.

It'd also help to have a short description of why it's popular/what it does well/different/etc. Comments are helpful, but it takes awhile to get them, and they can be too specific, or too simple (ex. "this rocks"). A general overview is helpful. Ideally a bit better than their slogan from Google. Links to reviews would also be nice.

Sorting is OK, but filters are better. Sort by rating is cool, but not great if I get a bunch of 1-review 5 star stuff at the top. Add a filter to only show stuff with x reviews and more, and it's more helpful. Similarly, filtering by publisher might be nice - especially if I can filter out specific ones, not just filter in. Maybe I'm looking for city simulators, but I want to find one whose publisher isn't EA. Being able to filter so I get everyone except EA would be really nice, and that sort of functionality is difficult to find.

 

[aimeeandbeatles]

I can see what I can fit it, though I'm not writing any sort of website software from scratch (programming that is beyond my capabilities; I'm hardly able to create a working LUA file!)

 

[Samson]

I can see what I can fit it, though I'm not writing any sort of website software from scratch (programming that is beyond my capabilities; I'm hardly able to create a working LUA file!)

Somewhat following this, what web site software do you expect to use. I am fairly sure you could do everything requested so far with drupal and the free modules available.

 

[aimeeandbeatles]

Actually now that you look at it I'll take a look at drupal.

The other thing is webhosting. I'm in a tight spot financially; can't pay for a second website atop my own and I'd rather not put any more strain on my site by hosting it there. Anyone know of anyplace to host this? (I wouldn't be rehosting software except in limited circumstances.)

 

[Samson]

Actually now that you look at it I'll take a look at drupal.

The other thing is webhosting. I'm in a tight spot financially; can't pay for a second website atop my own and I'd rather not put any more strain on my site by hosting it there. Anyone know of anyplace to host this? (I wouldn't be rehosting software except in limited circumstances.)

I would have guessed the right answer would be to reuse your current hosting. Unless you bought a very specific set of resources which you have used almost all of another small site will not stress it any more (it is probably running on a machine with tens or hundreds of other sites anyway). All you need php and mysql for drupal, so any hosting would probably do.

 

[aimeeandbeatles]

Perhaps; I hadn't thought of that before. If I did host it, I'd be hosting it on a subdomain.

 

[aimeeandbeatles]

<wrong thread>

 

[warpus]

Does anyone know if it's possible to flip the left and the right channel in windows 7? My desk setup means that this is the only way I can set the speakers up - the "right" speaker has a short cable so it has to go on the left.

Any ideas? I have googled but so far nothing

 

[aimeeandbeatles]

Not that I'm aware of. I asked this a while ago and there wasnt. Luckily my desk setup has changed since I moved so theyre the right way now. Check program settings though, some programs have the option for this which helps.

Speaking of the freeware site: Working on it. Mostly trying to organize stuff into categories.