Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Computing/2007 January 26

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January 26

Erase harddrive...?

--inks^T 23:57, 26 January 2007 (UTC)

I have a harddrive from which I recovered all readable data aftr a crash in raw format and saved to another harddrive. Now I want to completely erase everything on the hardrive and/or write zeros to every location so as to be sure no security breach will occur. How can this be done? -- 71.100.10.48 21:23, 25 January 2007 (UTC)

If you can still access the drive from a computer, you might want to use Darik's Boot and Nuke. Otherwise, open it, run a strong magnet over the platter a few times, and smash it with a hammer? -- Consumed Crustacean (talk) 21:27, 25 January 2007 (UTC)

Do I have to disconnect all other drives before running the program and will this overwrite deleted partition and volume info as well? -- 71.100.10.48 22:29, 25 January 2007 (UTC)

Doesn't say specifically on the site, but it does say "DBAN will automatically and completely delete the contents of any hard disk that it can detect...", so probably best to disconnect the drives you don't want touched. Cyraan 22:43, 25 January 2007 (UTC)

I think the README.txt says that it has both an "autonuke" feature, which does do that, and an editable config file. It's easier and safer to just disconnect the other drives. Always read the readme on anything you run :P -- Consumed Crustacean (talk) 22:52, 25 January 2007 (UTC)

The partition information is stored on the hard disk... So, yes it will overwrite partition info. You could use dd... --wj32 ^{talk | contribs} 23:10, 25 January 2007 (UTC)

One word: Thermite.--inks^T 22:04, 25 January 2007 (UTC)

Physical destruction is the absolute best way. Thermite it, microwave it, sledge hammer it, throw it off a speedboat, something like that. X [Mac Davis] (How's my driving?) 23:37, 25 January 2007 (UTC)

Yep, physical destruction is probably the only way to guarantee data erasure. Grinding it into dust and blowing that dust through highly ionized superheated plasma is probably the best way to wipe those magnetic fields --froth^T 18:29, 26 January 2007 (UTC)

That may not be practical. DBAN and wipe are good if you're only up against minor/medium players. If you're afraid of say, the NSA, you'll have to really whack it. Remember, the platters and their coating is what really needs to be gotten. 68.39.174.238 21:57, 26 January 2007 (UTC)

If you overwrite a hard disk with zeroes once, the data is beyond the practical reach of the NSA. Anything beyond that is simply additional paranoia. -- mattb @ 2007-01-26T23:07Z

That's what they want you to think. :D --inks^T 23:57, 26 January 2007 (UTC)

I'm not totally convinced, however if you have the time (EG. you can get it running and then just let it for go for a few days), just set it up to screw the drive and then take it apart and give it to a local gradeschool for their intro to computers class. 68.39.174.238 23:04, 27 January 2007 (UTC)

Not with sector remapping. Some data might be left over in older partially defective sectors. --cesarb 01:38, 28 January 2007 (UTC)

True, but I'd call this a nearly trivial case as it wouldn't preserve significant contiguous blocks of data. However, you're right, physical destruction is the end-all to getting rid of the data. -- mattb @ 2007-01-28T22:15Z

Computer keyboard as an instrument

Are any programs devoted to taking input from every key on the keyboard and converting it to a musical note? X [Mac Davis] (How's my driving?) 23:38, 25 January 2007 (UTC)

Well, do you mean converting it randomly, or what? There are definitely programs that will treat computer keyboards as analogs to piano keyboards, if that is what you are asking. Most rudimentary synthesizer programs have things of that nature (i.e. Cakewalk Pro does, I know). --24.147.86.187 00:28, 26 January 2007 (UTC)

An old DOS program that came with Creative Soundblaster card drivers did this with MIDI. Virtual MIDI Keyboard does this. You are typically limited by the keyboard electronics only sending 2 or 3 keys at once, so it's not for a maestro. Droud 00:31, 26 January 2007 (UTC)

Garageband for Macs can do this for free (if you have a mac). After you record it you can edit it, add more instruments and export it.—Preceding unsigned comment added by Rgrasell (talk • contribs) 02:13, January 26, 2007

I was hoping some application could use more than two or three keys. Garageband only uses 2-3 as well. I want a masestro program!! :) X [Mαc Δαvιs] (How's my driving?) ❖ 11:45, 26 January 2007 (UTC)

The problem isn't the program, it's the keyboard. Most keyboards can't register more than two-three key presses at once on account of their wiring. It's a strict hardware limitation. Now if you got a really high-end keyboard then it wouldn't matter much, I don't think. But if you are willing to do that you might as well just get a cheap piano MIDI controller, as they are probably cheaper than that (circa $50 or so). --24.147.86.187 13:47, 26 January 2007 (UTC)

Yep, key jamming is the problem. --Kjoonlee 13:51, 26 January 2007 (UTC)

I don't think it's a hardware limitation so much as it's a limitation of old keyboard protocols. Last semester in my digital design class we had a lab where we had to process raw keyboard input and there was something about only certain scancodes being resolvable when multiple scancodes were sent --froth^T 04:34, 27 January 2007 (UTC)

It is a hardware limitation, and it doesn't occur with some ancient keyboards. Keyboard Matrix Help has some info on masking and ghosting which can also be a problem. --Kjoonlee 06:42, 27 January 2007 (UTC)

Tracker software has done exactly this for ages. As long as only inputting normal chords (at most 3-4 keys at once) it usually works just fine. TERdON 14:13, 29 January 2007 (UTC)

IT Communication

Would like a document on the above subject

Wikipedia Reference Desk is not there for us to do your homework. Also if you really would like an answer you could at least try to form a legitimate question. Aetherfukz 14:05, 26 January 2007 (UTC)

They call each other on the telephones. And sometimes use the tubes. Trident523 15:02, 7 February 2007 (UTC)

Memory card hub

Hi there. I've got over 2.5 gigabytes in memory cards, but wherever I go, it seems I can't use them. They only go on my laptop. I'm aware that there are plenty of USB-to-memory card adapters, but I'm finding it difficult to find just the right one. Could you point me to a hub that will take SD cards, Memory Sticks (doesn't matter if Duo is included, I have an adapter), and some other common memory card, in case I ever buy it? Thanks so much.--the ninth bright shiner ^talk 16:40, 26 January 2007 (UTC)

Take your pick, these all at least support SD/MemStick, I can probably narrow it down more if you let me know whether you'd prefer internal or external, price range, etc. Cyraan 16:57, 26 January 2007 (UTC)

Internal? Howzat?! Ah, never mind. I'm looking for something portable and external so I can for once take advantage of all these useless-feeling chips sitting around being overshadowed by a puny 256MB USB flash drive. Under $30 is okay, but the cheaper the better. I also saw something on Sony's website about a 17-in-1 adapter, that listed compatibility with "Memory Stick, Memory Stick with MagicGate, MagicGate Memory Stick," etc., going on to list nine different Memory Stick formats. Memory Stick/SD is all I need for now, but would you recommend compatibility with some other common memory card? xD, perhaps?--the ninth bright shiner ^talk 17:11, 26 January 2007 (UTC)

Internal mounts into a floppy or CD-ROM bay, and connects straight into one of your motherboard's USB connectors. Well this seems to meet your needs, and has good reviews. However, it seems the company that makes it is doing a promotion for Superman Returns, and it has a corny Superman "S" logo on the top, other than that, seems like a good unit for the most part. May want to shop around a little more first, but if you do buy this one, you can probably rest assured knowing you're using the same reader that the Man of Steel uses for all his flash-reading needs. :) Cyraan 17:27, 26 January 2007 (UTC)

Wow, that's great! Having Superman's approval of my computer hardware is good to know :-), but I'm going to check around and see if I can't find a similar model without the logo. Thanks a bundle! You should be paid for this. Or put it on your resume.--the ninth bright shiner ^talk 17:41, 26 January 2007 (UTC)

Personally I wouldn't get anything external that's going to take up desk space, and you might want a more portable solution than an internal mount. Try a PCMCIA card like this one (but don't buy it from that store, it doesn't seem reputable). You might not have that slot on a desktop computer, but basically all laptops have them --froth^T 18:37, 26 January 2007 (UTC)

It's a good suggestion, but I'm seeking compatibility with all computers.--the ninth bright shiner ^talk 19:35, 26 January 2007 (UTC)

Would you recommend this? It seems to have all the capabilities of the Superman Returns one...--the ninth bright shiner ^talk 03:35, 29 January 2007 (UTC)

I don't see anything wrong with it --froth^T 01:08, 1 February 2007 (UTC)

Suggestion for a backup software

Hello everyone. Im looking for a backup solution for my network, and I would appreciate some suggestions.

Here is what I have:

• Six computers connected to each other through a router
• There is no DHCP in place, so all the machines have a fixed IP
• They all run WindowsXP Pro
• I have complete access to all the machines' and router's settings
• I would be capable of assigning a machine to be the backup server (for storage and schedulling of backup jobs)

Here is what I need:

• Preferably a free software
• Preferably capable of creating fixed size volumes (to make burning the backups into DVDs easier)
• Preferably it would have a client/server structure (maybe the client could run as a service and backup during idle time)
• It must have incremental backups (the ability to backup only the files that changed since the last backup)

Here is what I can't do:

• Install any Linux,BSD or similar, it has to be a Windows based app.

I have tried Bacula, but it only runs the client module on Windows, the other modules must run on a NIX flavor, so that is no help (unless you could recommend a way of working around this)

Thank you very much for your suggestions! Quase 19:29, 26 January 2007 (UTC)

You'll probably not like my answer, but I'll give it anyway, just in case... :) You said it's impossible to install a *nix flavour, but what about knoppix ? This is a linuxdistribution than runs from a cd or dvd so you don't install anything on your harddrive (for more info follow the link). If you use knoppix you can use "tar" or "dd" for you backups, "gzip" or "bzip2" to compress them and a version of "cron" for scheduling the backups. Most likely knoppix also contains software with a nice GUI that you can use for backups, but I try to use the commandline for things like backups so I don't have any extra information about that. I don't visit this page often, so feel free to contact me on my userpage for more info Garo 09:54, 27 January 2007 (UTC)

Can you just have Windows backup run, backup incrementally at stated times, then dump the backups to a shared folder on the backup server? 68.39.174.238 23:06, 27 January 2007 (UTC)

Thanks guys. I actually pushed for some budget on this (just scare the big wigs with predictions of catastrophical HD failures, and they'll shower you with monies), and I opted for an online backup service (Mozy). Quase 14:31, 29 January 2007 (UTC)

Online services shouldn't be your only backup for your data as they have a higher chance of going bad than harddrive backups (at least in my experience). I would suggest something like rdiff-backup on cygwin on windows and crontab (or the Windows scheduler? Haven't poked around with it). The thing it doesn't do is the fixed size volumes but you can of course tar/rar/wotever and do that at archive level. --antilived^{T | C | G} 10:38, 2 February 2007 (UTC)

Dual core CPU speed description???

In the new dual core CPUs there are two processors working on one chip? So when a description says 3.2ghz dual core does, that mean two 3.2 ghz equaling 6.4 ghz of combined computing speed, or two 1.5ghz processors equaling 3.2? Thank you.

The speed description refers to the speed of a single core. However, that doesn't mean that a 3.2GHz Dual-core chip will run twice as fast as a 3.2GHz single-core chip. That's only true for software that's actually capable of recognizing and using the dual-core chipset. For example, most games these days don't recognize that possibility and so will only use half the power. --Maelwys 20:06, 26 January 2007 (UTC)

Not to mention how effective the software is at splitting up computation into multiple threads. One common method of multithreading is to create an I/O thread and a "compute" thread, but this is usually imbalanced and will still leave one microprocessor doing the brunt of the work. The effectiveness of multi-core and multi-chip multiprocessing is extremely reliant on the software component, even more so than other parallelism schemes like superscalar execution (which is mostly accomplished by hardware, usually needing little software assistance). -- mattb @ 2007-01-26T20:14Z

Thank you for the prompt responses :) 20:22, 26 January 2007 (UTC)

RSS aggregator

I am looking for a rss aggregator so that I could aggregate many rss feeds from different sources into one for my news website. Example of this is google news which showed aggregated news feeds.

thank you

These links might help. Droud 03:24, 27 January 2007 (UTC)

WinXP - Making the "Guest" account unable to access my folders

I'm going to a LAN party tonight and I'm bringing this computer. However, I have some very important folders on my Administrator account relating to .wavs that my band has recorded and I don't want any partiers getting into them. I'm using WinXP Pro with SP2. I plan on logging it in on the Guest account so they can access programs like Firefox and Soulseek, but I don't want them getting into the My Documents folder. How do I do this? NIRVANA2764 20:27, 26 January 2007 (UTC)

By default, no account can access files in the 'My Documents' folder of another account without the password, so you should be OK. Just to check, when logged in on your main account:

RClick My Documents -> Properties -> Sharing tab

Make sure that 'Make this folder private' is checked, and 'Share this folder on the network'/'Allow network users to change my files' are unchecked. (I'm using XP Home SP2, so this may not be completely accurate.) Have fun. CaptainVindaloo ^{t c e} 20:49, 26 January 2007 (UTC)

Deny Read/Execute/List/Read Attributes/Read * rights. --wj32 ^{talk | contribs} 01:40, 27 January 2007 (UTC)

auto deletions while editing Wikipedia

I'm trying to help User:Skookum1 discover the reason why his edits sometimes automatically delete the accessdate and ISBN numbers from the references. I'm guessing he's typing fast and accidentally hitting some combination of keys. Here's an example, where all he did was correct a typo. Any ideas? thanks, Bobanny 21:48, 26 January 2007 (UTC)

Probably some specialized software on his end. Think adblockers or censorware. 68.39.174.238 21:58, 26 January 2007 (UTC)

Both the accessdate and ISBN numbers have a thing in common: they are strings of numbers separated by hyphens, or in PCRE notation, \d+(-\d)+ — something I might expect someone could write when trying to match a common notation for phone numbers. It's highly probable something is changing what he is submitting after he hits "Save page", instead of him hitting some combination of keys. It might be something on his computer or in a proxy he uses (which could be a transparent proxy). It should easy enough to have him reproduce the problem (just write a few access-date-looking and ISBN-looking strings on a sandbox page and ask him to edit the page); if he manages to reproduce it at will, he could first try the (much slower) secure server to bypass any proxy which could be mangling his edits (if the secure server doesn't show the problem, it's probably something on his computer). He could also try temporarily disabling the web scanning part of his antivirus (if he has one), any ad blocker/script blocker/censorware (as suggested above), any browser extensions (or, in MSIE, any browser helper objects), and checking for spyware and other forms of malware (some malware add things to the text you post in web forms). --cesarb 01:17, 28 January 2007 (UTC)

Thanks, I'll pass this along and hopefully get it resolved. Bobanny 02:33, 28 January 2007 (UTC)

Chalkboard drawing animation

It would be really cool if a program is available that could generate animations of chalkboard drawings being drawn based on user-inputs. In the event that one does not exist or cannot be found, how can this be done in Flash? I would really like to do this some way. Just unicode characters are okay too. Any way this could be done (especially if on Mac OS X :) ) would be much appreciated! X [Mαc Δαvιs] (How's my driving?) ❖ 23:35, 26 January 2007 (UTC)

Meaning encode the chalk position and movements? I know such things exist for erasable marker boards. 68.39.174.238 18:57, 28 January 2007 (UTC)

I'm not certain what you are after, but there's something called Art Pad that might you might find interesting. Although, it doesn't seem to animate in the traditional sense, it can replay a user's inputs see http://artpad.art.com/artpad/painter/ 84.12.143.75 15:02, 5 February 2007 (UTC)