Posts by rubberman

Not sure what the milage is, between building and buying a machine these days.
For example http://www.pcworld.co.uk/gbuk/hp-pavilion-p6793uk-desktop-pc-09885837-pdt.html and http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=FS-226-OK is not too far off what you trying to build.

There can be a case (sic) made for either build or buy. If you just want a computer, buy one. There are lots for $500 USD and less these days. However, remember that the computer manufacturers/resellers are still trying to make a profit at those prices, so they will cut corners wherever they can. Yes, they get much better prices on components (drives, memory, CPU, mobos, et al), but that's not the entire picture.

Building/assembling your own has some tangible benefits, cost notwithstanding. First, you get to know what's in your system. Second, the warranties on failure-likely components (mobo, cpu, RAM, discs, power supply, etc) that you purchase directly are generally better than the 1 year most consumer systems give you. Example: Seagate and WD provide at least 3 years on drives; Kingston, Crucial, et al provide 2-5 years or better (lifetime) on RAM; etc. That can be important. I've had two Seagate drives fail on me over the past year or so. Because I purchased them directly from an authorized reseller, they were still under warranty, and as such replaced for free. Ditto with a RAM stick that was failing (overheating) after 3+ years. If it was a Dell or other system that I had not paid a lot extra for additional warranty time, …

Given the power requirements for DVD drives, especially burners, I would think it had an external power adapter to plug into a wall socket or power strip. If you are trying to power it directly from USB, then that may simply mean that there is insufficient power available for the drive to initialize and link to the system.

What does it mean when we select a RAM by assigning

select = 1

?

Thanks.

Where do you do this? Please explain.

Static IP addresses are configured at the operating system level, usually when you install the system. The board itself has nothing to do with the IP address the network ports will use. As mentioned, you need to see what address range your router is configured to use for dynamic addresses, and then select one in its subnet that is not in the dhcp pool. Example, on my network, which is 192.168.1.1 to 192.168.1.254 (254 being the router address), addresses 192.168.1.100 thru 192.168.1.253 are reserved for dhcp (dynamic) addresses, so my workstation and other static devices are given addresses under 192.168.1.100, such as 192.168.1.20, 192.168.1.90, etc.

Actually, modern 32-bit operating systems (Linux and BSD at least) can utilize the PAE memory extensions of new CPU's, allowing an OS to utilize more than 4GB or RAM (limiting applications to 4GB). In any case, a 64-bit OS would be advisable for this hardware. The specs seem OK for me, for the price point you have indicated. My 8-core workstation cost me about $5000 USD about 3 1/2 years ago, but it was a high-end system w/ Intel mobo, 1KW power supply, 8GB RAM, dual gigabit ethernet ports, high-end nVidia graphics, dual 24" HD flat-panel monitors, 2.5TB of disc, and a removable (hot-swap) system drive w/ backup system drive and carrier.

Anyway, your specified hardware is all quality. One bit of advice is to not skimp on the CPU cooling fan/heat-sink, and make sure your case has good heat control. RAM runs hot, and then gets flaky. I had a RAM overheating problem recently, which I was able to fix by adjusting the location of the SIMMS and making sure that the system was drawing enough air flow over the memory modules. I was able to reduce the RAM temperature by about 30 degrees, which stopped the intermittent problems due to overheating. Most of the time it wasn't a problem, until I pushed the system performance, such as building a kernel, or running other memory/CPU intensive applications.

Just because the card is recognized by the OS as installed hardware, doesn't mean that a driver has been loaded for it. What is the output of the command "lsmod"? In any case, most modern cards support the vesa driver specs, so you should be able to specify vesa as your hardware driver when you install Ubuntu, or run the X configuration tool. It will only provide a maximum of 1600x1200 resolution, and performance is not adequate for full-screen, full-motion video, but for most stuff it works ok.

Google...

Two sites to check out:

www.kernel.org
www.tldp.org

USB or eSata? In any case, this device should be supported. What version of Arch are you running? What kernel?

Keyboards are really cheap now normally £15 upto £30 for the rarer versions, Often when keyboards play up its the keyboard itself, probably 1 in 500 it is the keyboard controller i have been working in laptop/pc repair shop for over 10 years now and honestly only seen this about twice, But it does happen, I would suggest buying a new keyboard as for the sake of approx £20-£30 could be end of problem and youre confidence in your laptop could be restored, We sell many laptop keyboards for compaq and hp at our website shop, feel free to have a look and price up [removed]

Unfortunately, this is for a laptop. Unless the poster want's to lug around another keyboard, this advice isn't so helpful... :-(

Sorry. I'm out of ideas. Perhaps your system BIOS doesn't support it? The CPU should, so have you tried to update the BIOS? Also, you might try the 3.2.12 (latest 3.2 version), which may work for you. I personally use that.

It seems you know the names, but not the uses/purposes of these compression algorithms. The title implies that you need lossless compression for multimedia files, but your text indicates that you are looking for text compression. What is it? These are two very different purposes.

Ok. Back from vacation now. Yes, Sorting & Searching is volume 3... :-)

Ok. We will help you with your homework, but only if you make a start on it first. So, propose some answers to these questions, and we can critique them, and perhaps point you in a direction to answer them yourself, or help you consider things that have not occurred to you. Example, your first question - programming constructs that are in one language but not the other:

C++ supports multiple inheritance, java does not.
Java supports interface classes, C++ does not directly (but does with pure virtual base classes).

Until you make some effort to answer these on your own, that is as much as you will get from me.

First, understand how recursive-descent parsers work. That is the fundamental method to build a calculator or numerical/mathematical expression evaluator.

A recursive descent parser is usually used for this, building up a binary tree structure where the root of each node is the operation, and each leaf of a node is either a value, or a link to another computational node. The Wikipedia has a lot on this stuff: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Recursive_descent_parser

If it is still under warranty, get it fixed. If not, then whether or not you fix it, or replace the system, depends upon what is wrong and what it will cost to fix. My suspicion is that the keyboard controller is fubar, and you are going to need a new motherboard for the system. That is effectively replacing the system except for disc drive, RAM, and display. If out of warranty, that will probably cost more than replacing the system entirely with a more modern unit.

You basically have two options - wired or wireless. For desktop workstations and servers that are going to stay put all the time, wired is better. For mobile applications and devices, wireless (WiFi) is obvious (I hope), and for some systems that are mostly fixed, but are inconveniently located for wired connections (cost to run cable between system and switch/router) then wireless there also makes sense. For wireless these days, go with 802.11n since it is faster, has better distance specs, and is generally more reliable that 802.11b/g.

Linux is a free, and open source operating system, used by millions of people all over the work, including myself and my wife. With that, you can install a virtual machine manager, such as Oracle's VirtualBox (free for personal use), and run ME in a virtual machine, because you can configure the virtual machine (a virtual PC) to look like what ME would expect to run on.

Sorry i seem to have caused some confusion, i ment a c++ function that checks the compiled source code (exe, dll) for a signature, hope this helps to explain this better.

Yes, that makes more sense. No, I'm not aware of that, for Linux anyway. For Windows? Possibly. As I said in my previous post, most folks use some sort of checksum to validate a dll (shared library), executable, or installable package.

Several issues will arise if you try to do this.

1. ME probably doesn't support Sata drives, which is what most new computers use. You may be able to set the BIOS to make the drives look like ata drives (setting them as PATA devices), but that is no guarantee they will work.
2. Newer network stuff probably won't work since ME won't have drivers for newer devices, especially wireless network gear.
3. Video will be a problem since ME won't likely have driver support for newer hardware either. Basic video functionality may be ok, since I think ME can use VESA drivers, but you won't get all the resolution your hardware is capable of, and performance will be pathetic - no full-motion video for sure.

So, don't waste your time with ME, but better to install Linux if you don't want to pay for a new Windows 7 license.

Please! You should have access to the information you need in your class materials to fulfill this assignment. At least make an effort to solve the problem before you ask us to do your work for you... :-(

A straight cable is just that. Each pin (contact) on one end is connected to the same pin on the other end. A cross-over cable is wired so that this is not the case, so the transmit pin on one end is connected to the receive pin on the other, and vice-versa. Before computers and switches had smart connectors that can adjust to the cable type, it was necessary to use a cross-over cable to connect one computer directly to another - what may be called DTE (Data Terminal Equipment) to DTE. If connecting a DTE (computer or terminal) to a DCE (Data Communication Equipment) such as modem, switch, etc, then a straight cable is used. However, as I mentioned, most modern equipment doesn't care any more since the electronics are "smart" enough to adapt to whatever cable is being used.

Need more information.

1. Make+model of computer
2. Make+model of 3g card
3. 3g service provider
4. Operating system + version
5. Driver(s) you installed to run 3g card.

RTFM. You need to install the Xorg server, tools, and window manager such as KDE or Gnome in order to have a GUI front-end for your server. As for telnet, it is HIGHLY recommended that you do NOT enable telnet on todays' systems as it is very insecure. Use SSH instead. In either case, usually it is the xinetd daemon that starts these tools (including ftp, and such), which requires editing some configuration files in /etc. Read the man pages for xinetd for information on what to do for that.

1. Download and install the sources for your kernel.
2. Go to the kernel source code directory and run the command: make menuconfig
3. Running the configuration tool that is started with #2 above, configure your kernel with the options and drivers you need.
4. Save the configuration and exit tool - this generates the file .config in the kernel source directory.
5. Edit the Makefile to set the kernel name information. For some kernels, this would be the EXTRA_VERSION make variable.
6. Build the kernel with the 'make' command.
7. Install the headers, modules, and kernel with the commands: make headers_install modules_install install

In #7, you have to install either logged in as root, or with sudo.

This was the 30 second kernel build tutorial. Have fun, and good luck... :-)

What is the make+model of your computer? We need to see if you can get a hardware diagnostic program for it. A lot of manufacturers, such as HP, Dell, etc. have them that you can download and run from CD, floppy, USB thumb drive, etc.

Donald Knuth's volume on Sorting and Searching has some superb explanations of this stuff. Donald Knuth, The Art of Computer Programming. I think S&S is volume 3, but since I am on vacation this weekend, I'm not at home to look at the book and tell you precisely.

I've never heard of "signed" C or C++ source code files. You can compute a checksum (CRC, MD5, SHA1, etc) of the file, or compiled library and/or executable, and publish that, so if the file(s) are changed, the checksum will not agree. This is a common practice, and I suppose it could be considered a sort of "signature".

The transport layer deals with errors caused during transmission. The data (application) layer deals with errors caused by application errors, such as data format errors. Two different things, dealt with by the layer responsible for them.

There is Skype (proprietary, but free for the most part), and then there are SIP software packages (open source) such as Ekiga that provide VOIP capabilities to other SIP-capable systems.

Use SSL (https) connections in your browser as much as possible, run a Windows firewall, and turn off sharing on your system when you connect to the network over an unsecured public WiFi access point.

You can use a VPN tunnel (which is encrypted) to your home network, and access the internet using your home router, but that requires configuring your VPN server correctly to do the appropriate routing. I don't use Windows for this (Linux only), so that's about as far as I can take you. I'm sure some googling will help you find information how to do this for Windows systems.

This sort of symptom is often caused by component (CPU and/or memory) overheating. Make sure the system is clean of dust, and that all the fans are working properly.

The link is in the download section of the VBox web site. Here is a link to it for your convenience: http://download.virtualbox.org/virtualbox/4.0.8/Oracle_VM_VirtualBox_Extension_Pack-4.0.8-71778.vbox-extpack

Did you install the add-ons? I think that's what provides you with the hardware virtualization support.

What version of VBox do you have installed?

If the battery is dying, then just pulling and putting it back is not likely to help. You need to replace it with a new one, and then do whatever the manufacturer says to reset the BIOS to its default settings.

How are you trying to enable hardware virtualization in VBox? You need to do that on a VM by VM basis. Click on the VM entry, go to the System->Acceleration configuration page, and click on the VT-x/AMD-V check box. Then, click on the OK button.

Have you tried to download and install an updated BIOS? Also, it may be that the CMOS backup battery has died - that's one of those round wafer batteries, that should be on the motherboard somewhere. You will lose your CMOS settings if the battery has run down, which will happen after a few years.

The three beeps are a code, which you need to check with the manufacturer for what they may mean. It's possible that one of the slots has a problem. Check for anything like detritus that may be sitting in the bottom of the slot that may be either interfering with the card making full contact, or if metal may be shorting out a couple of pins. Sometimes, blowing out the slot with compressed air can remove such, but sometimes they get lodged there in the process of seating the SIMM. If such is the case, then you may need to get a pick or something to prise it out. Anyway, it's possibly worth a check.

So, are you using Visual Studio then for your Windows programming? I thought VC and VC++ both supported in-line assembly code, just as GCC G++ do. And then there is the Microsoft macro assembler (MASM) which should be part of Visual Studio, or at least some versions (Professional or Enterprise).

How many RAM slots does your system have? If 4 or more, in which slots did you install the RAM sticks?

Even if you don't have the Autodesk debugging tools, you should be able to use Visual Studio's debugger in order to look at the call stack, variable values, and such.

Most all of this sort of reference documentation is online at Intel's web site. As for a macro assembler, is this for Windows or Linux? There is the yasm assembler for Linux. From the man page:

The Yasm Modular Assembler is a portable, retargetable assembler written under the “new” (2 or 3 clause) BSD
license. Yasm currently supports the x86 and AMD64 instruction sets, accepts NASM and GAS assembler syntaxes,
outputs binary, ELF32, ELF64, COFF, Win32, and Win64 object formats, and generates source debugging information
in STABS, DWARF 2, and CodeView 8 formats.

Also, here is a link to the latest Intel processor instruction set: http://download.intel.com/design/processor/datashts/324642.pdf

If you did that to me, you would quickly become "not a friend"... :-(
It would be better that if you are off-line and someone sends a message, that the system auto-reply that you are not available, and then cache their message for you to reply to when you return. IM tools like Pidgin do that.

Please show the definition of the contact structure, and where and how you are allocating and initializing the newContact instance the you show in your code snippet.

Well, if you can't run it in the debugger, then add some print statements to the code to help isolate where your are crashing. BTW, where are the variables MyTextField and MyEventTrigger declared and instantiated? Please show. Also, do indent your code so it is easier to read.

Looking at the documentation for these units, your problem has likely been using (or not using) the "Manually Configuring your Internet Connection" setup option. Did you try to use the DHCP (No data is required) option? That should keep your router from trying to overrule the modem. It's either that, or you need to reconfigure your modem to just be a modem and not a gateway. We had a similar problem a long time ago with the modem that Earthlink provided for our network when we added a router/firewall as well. It was so much cruft to deal with, that we just purchased a new modem of our own, and configured the router to be the proper network gateway.

The IP address you gave it is a non-routable (outside of your LAN) address. You can either poke a hole in your router/firewall to allow FTP requests to be routed to that system, or you can configure the router put it in a DMZ (open to the world). Does your company have an IT department that handles such things? You might also need to get executive approval to breach the firewall this way. Finally, make sure you have a a fully patched and up-to-date ftp server, and keep it patched, as these are prime infection vectors for malware and hackers.

Does it boot as far as to get into the POST (power-on self test) so you can access the BIOS settings when you have either 2gb or 2x1gb sticks installed (when you get the BSOD)? If so, then go into the BIOS and set it for full self-test, and verbose mode so you can see if there are any errors. If that works OK and you get no errors, then boot a memtest86 disc and run a full scan of the memory. If that succeeds, then there is something wrong with Windows and this memory. If not, then you will at least get some diagnostics as to what is wrong with the memory (hopefully).

Here is a link to memtest86 if it isn't already on your system: http://www.memtest86.com/

It may be possible that if the CPU does support hardware virtualization that there may be a BIOS update/upgrade available for your computer that will allow you to enable those features. Have you checked on the system manufacturer's web site for BIOS updates?