Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Computing/2008 December 26

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December 26

http://mydomainname to ghs.google.com

In order to make my Google Site display when someone enters www.mydomainname.nl, I had to make a CNAME record in the DNS records directing to ghs.google.com. When someone enters mydomainname.nl however, they are directed to a page from my webhost (the browser adds http:// to make http://mydomainname.nl) - what CNAME record should I make to enable direction to ghs.google.com? ----Seans Potato Business 00:48, 26 December 2008 (UTC)

The answer is you can't create a CNAME record for your root domain [1]. Technically it is possible [2] but this would require the set-up at .nl be different. You'd need to use a transparent redirector to achieve what you want to do. You might want to look and see if your DNS service provides it. Some do. (Mine does.) There are also free services, without ads, but as you're using their servers it may not be a good idea if you need high uptime/mission critical work. Also you could run the redirector yourself. If Google Apps was set up to allow you to use A records instead of CNAME you could do it but for the free one, I'm pretty sure your not (from memory). Nil Einne (talk) 10:18, 26 December 2008 (UTC)

My domain registrar is starthosting.nl - I found redirect settings in their domain management features and set "default" to redirect to the www. subdomain of my domain. This had the desired effect but I don't know if there are any unanticipated repercussions. I think it's particularly confusing that the address is given as "default" and not "mydomainname.nl". Anyway thanks; it's working now. ----Seans Potato Business 05:54, 28 December 2008 (UTC)

I can't say for sure but I suspect the only issue is that you are likely relying on their services to handle the redirection, in other words as mentioned above if their redirection service goes down, anyone trying to access your domain through mydomainname.nl will get a server 'not responding message'. Also default may include wildcards for that domain, in other words if you try somesubdomainthatdoesntexist.mydomain.nl you will also be redirected to www. You could look at the NS records for you domain to get an idea of whats they're doing. If you want you could e-mail me your domain name and I could take a look but I only know as much as I leartn when setting up my domain for personal use and that was a while ago. Nil Einne (talk) 11:39, 28 December 2008 (UTC)

Video Card RAM

I have an ancient computer with an 8MB video card. The comp has 224MB of ram. How powerful a video card can I put in this "computer"?--AtTheAbyss (talk) 05:28, 26 December 2008 (UTC)

moved from RD Misc Nil Einne (talk) 10:20, 26 December 2008 (UTC)

We don't have enough information to answer your question completely. Your video card could be AGP or it could be PCI. There's even a possibility it could be VESA Local Bus. It's even possible you don't have a discrete video card but onboard video (although this seems unlikely to me since a computer is far more likely to have 224MB ram then 232MB of ram which is what it is likely to have if you have onboard video and 8MB is dedicated to the card. But whatever the case, the answer is likely to be 'not very'. Nil Einne (talk) 10:28, 26 December 2008 (UTC)

Moreover, even if you could use a fairly powerful video card with the computer, the rest of your hardware would be bound to become the bottleneck for performance. -- Captain Disdain (talk) 14:16, 26 December 2008 (UTC)

It is an SR9 (AGP) video card. I understand I'm grasping at straws here, but I have a ton of games that ran on my old comp, but can't be run on this one, and if I could install just a 24 or 32mb or something that would be pretty cool.--AtTheAbyss (talk) 17:07, 26 December 2008 (UTC)

The memory capacity of the video card doesn't affect whether you can install and operate the card. It's possible that with so little main memory that games and such will drop down to poorer quality graphics than the card could otherwise handle - but that would be different for every application. The only real restriction is the graphics interface bus. If you have AGP then you should still be able to find compatible cards fairly easily (although the modern standard is PCI-Express - which you presumably don't have). I agree with Capt.Distain though - spending a lot of money on a graphics card for such an ancient machine is likely to be a waste. I would look for a used AGP graphics card on eBay - something with maybe 128Mb of graphics memory. Don't spend much! SteveBaker (talk) 00:51, 27 December 2008 (UTC)

Um if the computer is so old which it is, I highly doubt the computer has a AGP 4x port. Most likely it's 1x or 2x. Most/all modern AGP cards are only backwards compatible to 4x because of the difference in signalling voltages, take a look at Accelerated Graphics Port for details. It looks like you should be able to use (in theory) certain Radeon 9800 cards as well as all 9700 cards. These aren't actually too bad cards and you could probably play (if you don't have too high expectations in frame rate and quality) most games at least say 3 years old with these cards but as others have mentioned your computer is likely to be a bottleneck. Also if your AGP bus is only 1x that will be a bottleneck as well. Most importantly perhaps, finding one for a decent price is likely to be rather tricky. Particular the 9800 since you have to make sure you get the right one. All in all, as with others I wouldn't recommend you spend much money. Nil Einne (talk) 09:08, 27 December 2008 (UTC)

Thanks guys. I appreciate the advice. --AtTheAbyss (talk) 04:44, 27 December 2008 (UTC)

iPod and iTunes

If I plugged my iPod (second generation Shuffle) into a computer (Windows XP) that did not have iTunes, would the iPod still charge up? (sorry, can't find tilde button) —Preceding unsigned comment added by 212.183.134.209 (talk) 15:33, 26 December 2008 (UTC)

Yes it will. It'll charge when plugged into anything that has a USB port. Even something like a PS2. The only USB thing that I know of that won't charge when plugged into a computer (software or not) is a Motorola RAZR. flaminglawyer^c 15:37, 26 December 2008 (UTC)

Please don't take this personally but I believe the Fujifilm finepix zxx will not charge on a USB port either (you will need to carry the charger with you everywhere you go). :( Kushal (talk) 21:08, 26 December 2008 (UTC)

Concur on the Finepix, I had a S5600 that didn't, but I suppose it used AA batteries, so that's why - the camera couldn't always be sure that those are rechargeables. Also, by card reader doesn't charge when I connect it to my USB port. --Ouro (blah blah) 10:46, 28 December 2008 (UTC)

USB in XP within VirtualBox

Hello,

I have an Intel Macbook (10.4.11) with the latest version of VirtualBox. I have a running Windows XP installation within the VirtualBox and was wondering whether I would be able to use my piece-of-carp Lexmark X2470 printer/scanner.copier on Windows.

I have not been able to use the USB ports from within XP at all. Can anyone suggest what I should do? (The VirtualBox menu shows the USB device but the option is grayed out.) Please let me know. Thank you! Kushal (talk) 21:05, 26 December 2008 (UTC)

use lpd/lpr? lpd would run on the mac, lpr on win. Both systems come with all the tools you need.

for mac follow these instructions.

for win follow these.

-- Fullstop (talk) 22:17, 26 December 2008 (UTC)

I tried virtual box but couldn't get usb to work either. vimware worked with usb though —Preceding unsigned comment added by 82.43.88.87 (talk) 22:20, 26 December 2008 (UTC)

USB is a polling protocol. Try to avoid it in a virtual machine if you can (this doesn't apply to mouse/keyb which don't require a real hardware pass-through). -- Fullstop (talk) 22:48, 26 December 2008 (UTC)

Try installng "Guest Additions" inside the Virtual Machine, I think they are required for USB to work. SF007 (talk) 23:09, 26 December 2008 (UTC)

Thanks guys. While sadly, the USB still does not work under the guest OS thanks to @SF007, I now have the correct screen resulution in XP (and XP takes up the full screen in "full screen mode" unlike before. Kushal (talk) 15:28, 27 December 2008 (UTC)

Pronunciation of "punycode"

How do you pronounce "punycode"? 90.231.149.217 (talk) 21:39, 26 December 2008 (UTC)

rhymes with unicode. -- Fullstop (talk) 22:09, 26 December 2008 (UTC)

you-nee-code, pew-nee-code. Its "little" unicode, hence puny. -- Fullstop (talk) 22:12, 26 December 2008 (UTC)

Just concatenate the English pronunciations of "puny" and "code", with the stress on the "puny". --71.141.98.38 (talk) 00:31, 27 December 2008 (UTC)

I'd like to point out that I always have (and always will) pronounce "unicode" you-nih-code, not you-knee-code. I thought (and still think) that it rhymes with unicycle (which I pronounce you-nih-cycle, not you-knee-cycle). I'm speaking American English, if that matters. flaminglawyer^c 00:37, 27 December 2008 (UTC)

Unicycle and unicode don't rhyme, actually. In the interest of accuracy, I believe they alliterate. Saying those two words rhyme is like saying monkey and monastery rhyme, and that's just silly. Sorry to go off topic. DaRkAgE7_[Talk] 05:53, 27 December 2008 (UTC)

Oh dear. Did I really just say that... I meant to assert that the "uni" sections in the words rhymed. You knew what I meant. I hope. flaminglawyer^c 06:05, 27 December 2008 (UTC)

There ought to be a word for words that rhyme if played backward. —Tamfang (talk) 20:49, 28 December 2008 (UTC)

Setting up danted with proper auth

Hi all,

I try to set up danted with proper auth, so that people with a shell account on the box can access the socks5 proxy from everywhere. But somehow the client-pass-rule doesn't work and everyone is rejected at tcp/ip-level. danted.conf is here, and here is the debug output of a blocked connection.

can anyone help me, please?

thanks,HardDisk (talk) 23:47, 26 December 2008 (UTC)