A thread for boring computer questions.

Apparently WinAmp will play PLS files. http://www.winamp.com

ok this is probably the dumbest question on this thread yet, but the internet has me scratching my head. with my nascent ability to actually download mp3s and even burn them (?!?!?!), i find myself in a dilemma.
i am using explorer 5.2 on mac os 10.3.1, and i dont get what happens when i click on a link for an mp3, and it sort of loads itself in the browser window, then plays in some weird little strip that oesnt seem to be related to any application except explorer. ok so when this happens it sucks. i dont seem to have properly downloaded and cant save it properly to my harddrive. so thats scenario a).
the reason i dont understand it is because most of the time (situation b), when i click on a link that ends .mp3, then it goes to the download manager and seems to properly download it and a can save it and listen to it on itunes. (this happened when i tryied to listen to an mp3 from 1471, and that mix that someone put on ilm)..so whats happening here?
why does situation a) arise, and how do i make sure situation b) prevails?

why am i so dense?

The strip is a Quicktime plugin. Make certain that iTunes are set as the default Internet music application. I think that setting is in the iTunes preferences, IIRC.

Or, to avoid situation a, hold down CTRL as you click on the link and choose to download link to disk (or just right click if you have a two-button mouse)

N., seems kinda unnecessary if he can set the computer to set everything to be diverted to iTunes automatically.

But yes, that would work. It was my initial suggestion, but I decided that changing preferences would (ideally) be the better route to go.

Sure.

check all the mime types for mpeg files and make sure they are set to save as the default action

I just bought a used PC from a friend. When I'm surfing the web, sometimes something will happen where, when I click a link or try to go to a new URL, IE will immediately go to the "This Page Cannot Be Displayed" page. It just goes there immediately, not after timing out or anything. This is true for all IE windows open at the time. I wait a few minutes, then things go back to normal. But even as I can't access any web pages, other applications are able to send/receive data through my internet connection, like normal.

My computer is an AMD running Windows 98, and I have cable internet through Comcast. Plenty of memory and processor speed. Any ideas? This scares me, as my home computer connection is crucial to my work/livelihood. It's been happening frequently (and I just bought this computer). Thanks for any help/ideas.

i'll bump this once because it keeps happening and it really sucks! btw, I just downloaded the latest version of IE (6.0), if that might have something to do with it.

Sometimes it does that when the computer can't find an Internet connection; I think that page also features a "detect proxy settings" link or something like that, so you may want to click on that to see if it can find your connection. It's kinda hard to say what it may be...could be a fubar'd network card, could be spotty service from your provider, or it could even be a virus. If you're getting data via your other apps though, it's more likely that you need to set your proxy or decontaminate the system.

I get this sometimes but 'Refresh' always cures it.

Ah, just pulled the Ethernet cable out of my other machine; it's "Detect Network Settings" and it's halfway down the page.

I just bought a new computer off a friend. AMD thunderbird processor 1.4 Ghz, 256 MB PC2700 RAM. My problem is, it feels like I have about 64 MB RAM. I keep a bunch of windows open and a few apps running, and my old computer with 128MB would tolerate my habits just fine. This 256MB machine can't seem to handle it. Is there such thing as bad memory, or could there be something else tying up all my resources that I'm not aware of? Thanks for any help.

oh, thanks Sean and N. for the help above -- I never saw it. That problem somehow magically resolved itself, though.

Ohhhh there's bad memory of it all right, and a lot of it. One question is whether or not you've switched operating systems: if you're with WinXP now, it takes up a lot more resources than, say, Win98. You can find out whether your resources are being used up (and by what) by right-clicking on the taskbar and selecting "Task Manager", then choosing the performance tab. It'll let you know how much memory your system is currently using, and whether it's actually just your CPU cycles being gobbled up by rogue apps.

Win 98 on both machines. Maybe it's just cheap memory. I downloaded a freeware Task Manager, and it indicates I'm using just over 100MB of memory with just one Explorer window open. I don't seem to be running any extra junk or spyware or anything. I think I'll just pull whatever memory's in there and invest in higher quality. Thanks.

Ok, now I have a question:

Does anyone know how to get around not-having-administrator status in Windows XP? I need to install AOLIM badly as well as turning on my animated images in IE that somehow got turned off. I cannot see Pee Wee dance. It makes me sad. HELP!

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100MB seems like a lot for Win98 with only one IE window open; does it break down what's taking up what portion of the memory?

Seeing as its a new computer it may be worth your while doing a clean install of windows. Who knows what nasties may lurk in the depths. BTW Win98 and Win98SE are no longer supported by M$, they may remove patches from their support area at some point so do it soon.

This may or may not be boring. But dselect. It's rubbish, right? You have to scroll through endless lists of craply described packages to try and find the one you want and if it's not there you take a wild guess as to which tarball you can download and then it doesn't work ANYWAY because debian is rubbish!

I mean, it's really really gay. I thought I was being dumb and not understanding, but NOW I DO and it's a load of RUBBISH.

apt-get may be better but WHAT IF YOU DO NOT KNOW WHERE YOU ARE SUPPOSED TO BE 'getting' FROM!

And source code! It never compiles! Or if it DOES it then doesn't WORK! Computers are GAY GAY GAY!

Ah, "reclaiming" the word 'gay' makes my ire a lot easier to express.

Hahaha I have just said this elsewhere on the interweb and it turns out I was talking to a friend of the bloke who WROTE dselect.

Hahhahahahahaha help.

apt-get rules, if you don't know what sources to use, get a generic sources.list from the debian website, or use dselect to set the sources then use apt-get. Use the debian package database, also on the debian website, to decide which package to install. (PS are you installing from cd or internet?)

As far as compiling goes, what's the debian equivalent of fink? Compiling straight seems to work OK for me but I think it very much depends on how well the ./configure script works for each source tarball. This depends on how one's compilers etc. are installed, I suppose, seeing as Apple set mine up I can't help you there.

what exactly IS fink?

apt-get is nice, but I LOVE gentoo's emerge.

Well the bloody C compiler was screwed when I first had it (gcc) but I think I've finally managed to prod it into working again. Vaguely. I got stuck in dependency hell. Dselect/apt-get tells you what you need but straight installs?! ARRRGGRHHH.

Installing from interweb - someone else did the install for me and I don't know which flavour of Debian I have blah blah... odd window manager as well.

When I first started the xterms wouldn't come up for some reason... ARGH!

Also ./configure isn't that hot. I was so gutted after spending all of Judge John Deed compiling mame and STILL it didn't want to work!

s1ocki, fink is debian's package management tools ported to mac os x plus a few extras to make compiling a doddle. It's also part of a wider project to port open source software to mac os x. see http://fink.sf.net for further details.

Sarah, why not install the woody version of debian? It's meant to be guaranteed to work, (well that's what they say, in their dreams I say).

Okay, I'm sorry to keep flogging the same old donkey, but can anyone point out a layman's guide to running VPC+Windows+Slsk on OSX? Does it eat up a lot of space/memory? Is it dangerous? How is it done?

Failing that, what is this "nicotine client" for slsk and how does one find/use it?

don't bother with the vpc shit, run nicotine, it's better in the long run.

see here

Thanks!

SHEESH. So I buy a 512MB PC2100 RAM module today, snap it in, and my computer seems to recognize it... So I test it by opening the same # of windows and apps that usually gives my computer problems and whaddya know, the same problems arise. I click on Show Desktop and get a 'not enough memory' error. So the memory made no difference! What could be the problem here?

adam the nicotine client install doesn't actually look too hard (it just seems to take a long time, most of which is spent waiting) and i think i'm going to give it a shot this week. will report back. also i have a good how-to bookmarked somewhere which i can send to you if you email me.

aaron: is the new memory showing up as 512M? have you tried memtest86 on it (comes as a bootable floppy image)? try mozilla firebird instead 8)

star: what errors are you getting from xmame? i've compiled it recently and it went ok (this was either mandrake or suse or both though)

andy

Okay, so...

I cannot access ANY webpages whatsoever WITH THE SOLE EXCEPTION OF ILX. WTF is going on here?

*sheepishly* me again...

I just installed Win XP on my D: drive (I have 2 HDDs). Win 98 is still on C:

I figured my old settings from Win 98 would be xferred automatically to XP, or it'd ask me if I wanted them xferred, but that wasn't the case.

So how can I transfer all my old settings from Win 98 (which is still on my C: drive) to the new OS?

Thanks again!

try the transfer files and settings wizard. if you can't find the shortcut for it, search in the help &support center

Is there a way to totally block internet access without a password on a computer? (This is to stop me using the internet, by the way, but not the other person who uses the computer). Just changing the password to the ISP account isn't any good. I really need to password protect access to both modems (dial up and broadband). Is that possible? (Old computer, Windows 98).

Firewall question:

Suddenly, and for no reason I can discern, my PC (Windows 98, IE6) has somehow grown itself a firewall preventing me from using MSN Messenger. I haven't downloaded anything for ages, although I do use slsk on a regular basis. Is there a possibility that I've inadvertently let something in?

All I want to do is lose the firewall, if indeed it exists, so I can use messenger again. I've tried the Help function but it doesn't even recognise the word "firewall", amazingly!

Anyone?

has your ISP blocked it?

AOL? I should fucking well hope not!

...and my Yahoo! messenger works fine, not that I ever really use it.

try running adaware

ok, so i've installed and run adaware, it's still not working. grrr. any other ideas?

My question is not only boring but stupid. Here goes.

I have 64 RAM on a G3 Powerbook from '99. I believe I should add some more memory? How much should I add and how do I go about this? (There were specs originally when I bought the computer about how much how I could add, but this was a while ago and Apple seems to have severed all ties to this nostalgia item.)

Charlie, other good anti-trojan/spyware/malware progs are Spybot Search and Destroy, and one called Hijack This. They've both helped me.

mary i can relate. my powerbook is also hopelessly out of date!

If your Messenger has gone out, good. It's an enormous security hole anyway.

Access it and Yahoo and whatever else through Trillian.

mary, ad a 256Mb or even better a 512Mb module. To install (do this all with the power cable out and the battery removed, also before you start touch some grounded metal, like an unpainted radiator, water pipe or tap, this removes any static charge from your body:

1) unlock the keyboard by twisting the screw between the F4 and F5 90 degrees, with a small flat bladed screwdriver.

2) Pull back the two catches between esc and F1 and F8 and F9 and fold back the keyboard over the track pad.

3) Remove the two cross head screws that are in the middle of the exposed areas and lift out the metal plate that they fixed in position.

4) Slot the memory module in, angling it at first then lowering it into position.

5) refit the metal plate and keyboard

done

this kb article has info on installing memory.

Thank you Ed.