Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Computing/2010 June 17

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June 17

Using RealPlayer to download videos

According to their website, the new version of RealPlayer can download videos from the web. I have the new version, but can't seem to turn on the setting. I check the box and press OK, but when I come back, the box is unchecked again. I'm using Chrome if that matters. Simeon24601 (talk) 00:47, 17 June 2010 (UTC)

Typeface for identification

Resolved

This one :)

Can anyone help me identify the typeface used in this? It's a screenshot from the credits of The Thick of It... ╟─TreasuryTag►secretariat─╢ 11:52, 17 June 2010 (UTC)

For the light text on the left, WhatTheFont comes up with Quadraat OT Disp Italic. -- Finlay McWalter • Talk 12:15, 17 June 2010 (UTC)

It came up with that for me, too, but it doesn't quite match (eg. the lower-case g) so I'm guessing it's not right... :P ╟─TreasuryTag►estoppel─╢ 12:21, 17 June 2010 (UTC)

And for the heavy text on the left, its best guess (to my mind) is Maxime-Bold. The blurriness intrinsic to a TV/DVD capture hides some of the subtler details, making a perfect identification difficult. -- Finlay McWalter • Talk 12:22, 17 June 2010 (UTC)

It's true, but neither of those two really match (eg. the tail of the lower-case l and the curl of the bold a) ╟─TreasuryTag►inspectorate─╢ 12:25, 17 June 2010 (UTC)

• Aha, found it, it's Joana MT :D ╟─TreasuryTag►Regent─╢ 12:56, 17 June 2010 (UTC)

I tried identifont. For the text on the left there was no reasonable match (and in fact the suggestions it made didn't seem to fit with my answers, so maybe I hit a bug). But for the right-hand text, ITC Golden Cockerel looks like a perfect match to me. --Anonymous, 19:23 UTC, June 17, 2010.

OpenOffice Base & MS Office Access

If one has a database in Access 2010, is it possible to copy the data to Base simply? We've got a membership databaseup in set up in Access 2010, but most of the people who will need to use it don't have Access on their PCs. DuncanHill (talk) 13:51, 17 June 2010 (UTC)

OpenOffice will open all of the tables without much trouble. The forms and reports are not compatible. They must be recreated in OpenOffice. -- kainaw™ 14:01, 17 June 2010 (UTC)

OK, thanks. DuncanHill (talk) 09:42, 18 June 2010 (UTC)

PHP commas

I have a php file (probably written by someone here on the ref desk, thank you!) which reads some lines from a flat file. However it gets into problems with entries that aren't followed by a comma, for example

4,June17,hello
3
2,June16,hello
1,June15,hello

Number 3 is missed by the script. This is the code:

list($dnumber,) = explode(",", $line[$d]);

How can I make it read all the lines, even those without ending with commas? (I'm a complete novice at php so I'm sorry if this is a horrifically simple question I'm asking, or if it makes no sense) 82.43.90.93 (talk) 16:41, 17 June 2010 (UTC)

An extremely "quick and dirty" approach would be to count the number of commas in the line first, and then add the extra commas. This is assuming that the fields missing are always going to be blank. E.g.:

if(substr_count($line[$d],",") < 2) { //if the number of commas in the line are less than 2
  $line[$d].str_repeat(",",2-substr_count($line[$d],",")); //add to the string a number of commas (2 minus the number currently in the string)
}

Which ought to work. Note that there are all sorts of ways this could be more complicated (what if one of your values was the string "June 16, or 17th"?). When you start getting lots of complexity (so that you are essentially writing your own database input/output functions), that's about when one says, "I'm done using a primitive flat file" and starts thinking about looking into something more advanced. At the very least, one can find very nice CSV classes already on the internet that take care of all of the many situations when explode/implode aren't enough by themselves. --Mr.98 (talk) 17:08, 17 June 2010 (UTC)

No need to explode. PHP has a very nice fgetcsv function:

$fp = fopen("myfile.csv","r");
while($b = fgetcsv($fp, 1024))
{
  //$b is an array containing the fields from a line of the file
}
fclose($fp);

Using the built-in fgetcsv, you get the fields already parsed and it works on lines that contain no commas. Further, it understands that commas inside of quotes are not delimiters. -- kainaw™ 17:31, 17 June 2010 (UTC)

Strange Computer Problem

My computer has a problem where usually the first time I turn it on everyday, the monitor acts like it doesn't receive a signal (ie remains black as if the computer is off yet both are clearly on). Turning off the screen and turning it back on again seems to do nothing. I can hear the start-up sound through the speakers and I have even heard, on occasion, my anti-virus program tell me that it is now updated, suggesting that it is in fact booting to the desktop, but the screen remains unresponsive. I can get the screen to change by adjusting the settings on the screen, which causes and on-screen menu to appear, but the background behind the menu is still black (not the desktop). If I turn off the computer (by hitting the power button once, which causes the usual shutdown process on my computer), and then restart it, it seems to always work with the screen the second time. This appears to be the only way to fix this problem. Unfortunately, I have limited means to test the problem with different equipment. I am booting using Windows Vista Home Premium with a 17" Dell e173fpc monitor. The computer itself is using a Nvidia 9800GT graphics card on an Asus P5N-E motherboard with 2 gigs of off-brand RAM. Does anyone have any idea as to what could be causing this problem? Nkot (talk) 16:55, 17 June 2010 (UTC)

Hmm, it looks like your motherboard is made for SLI, and so has 2 full-speed PCI-E slots. Have you tried moving the video card to the other one? I'm not sure whether it makes a difference which slot a single card should be in. Also you could check the BIOS settings to make sure it's not trying to use SLI on boot. Actually.. hmm, it looks like the motherboard has a little red reversible card that determines whether it operates in SLI mode or not. Crazy! Check your manual, and make sure it's facing the right way. If this problem has just started happening recently though, hmm... could be a motherboard or video card problem. Hopefully not. Indeterminate (talk) 17:30, 17 June 2010 (UTC)

My theory:

1) Your computer boots up faster than the monitor, and when it does the check to see if a monitor is attached, it consequently doesn't find it. It therefore stops sending signals to the monitor, which then completes it's own boot process, but has nothing but a blank screen to display.

2) When you reboot the computer, you either don't turn off the monitor or, if you do, it reboots faster this time, being "warmed up", and the computer is able to detect it in time.

So, if this is the case, what's the cure ? How about if you turn the monitor on, get yourself a cup of coffee, then boot the computer. See if that works. Another option is to just leave the monitor on overnight. If it's an Energy Star certified monitor it will "hibernate" to save energy, but will hopefully wake up more quickly from that than from a full boot. StuRat (talk) 15:43, 18 June 2010 (UTC)

What is QNIX?

Resolved

 – but you can add more stuff if you like

I was talking to my grandparents about UNIX the other day, and they said they'd, quote, 'never heard of it, do you mean QNIX?' My nan worked at a solicitors', and they used what appeared to be in my youth, very simple, ASCII-based systems. It appeared to have no GUI. I think it may be UNIX-like or a UNIX-remake or clone. Can anyone tell me?--Editor510 ^{drop us a line, mate} 20:22, 17 June 2010 (UTC)

Well, QNX is a real time operating system (the forerunner of QNX Neutrino) which has a (fairly rudimentary, IMO) Posix compatibility API - but you'd expect to see that in a factory automation setting, not a solicitor's office. -- Finlay McWalter • Talk 20:29, 17 June 2010 (UTC)

Ah, but if you search Google for "QNIX solicitor" you get a bunch of pages like this one which suggest it's a client database program (that is, a database of solicitors' clients). -- Finlay McWalter • Talk 20:31, 17 June 2010 (UTC)

Thanks!--Editor510 ^{drop us a line, mate} 20:37, 17 June 2010 (UTC)

More: it's apparently "QNIX case management system" or the like, made by "Sanderson GA". -- Finlay McWalter • Talk 20:37, 17 June 2010 (UTC)

Force Shield in Yuri's Revenge

Dear Wikipedians:

In Command and Conquer Red Alert 2 Yuri's Revenge, is it possible to place your force shield on an enemy building to protect the enemy building from being destroyed? The reason I ask is I would like to use Soviet drednoughts to totally destroy a base save for the construction yard, so I would like to protect construction yard from being destroyed by splash damage from the V2 rockets on the elite drednoughts.

Thanks,

70.31.153.204 (talk) 21:16, 17 June 2010 (UTC)

I don't think so. If memory serves (it's been a loooong time since I played this) the force shield is for defending against super weapons like nukes and that weather thingy, and it only protects buildings you own. If you capture the construction yard with an engineer first, then that should do it (and you can have a repair run on it while you bombard). -- Finlay McWalter • Talk 21:52, 17 June 2010 (UTC)

Yeah, that appears about right, I couldn't even force-fire the forceshield on enemy buildings. Well, that was the last trick I was going to try and from this day forth I shall play no more Yuri's Revenge or any other computer/video games for that matter. 174.88.242.215 (talk) 19:26, 18 June 2010 (UTC)

Don't know whether I ever played that particular incarnation but I do remember placing an Iron Curtain on an enemy power station, not realising what it was actually intended for! :D Have you tried sending in Tanya? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 78.150.225.204 (talk) 22:34, 18 June 2010 (UTC)

Resolved