Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Computing/2012 December 13

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December 13

PostScript Printer Prints "Insufficient Memory" Error Messagse

We are trying to convert pagemaker .p65 files to pdf files. For some of the files the converter fails. When we try to first convert .p65 to .ps file we get "Insufficient Memory" error message. Increasing RAM does not seem to help. Which "memory" is being referred in the message? Please note we do not need any physical printer for our task. Thanks. Vineet Chaitanya 14.139.82.7 (talk) 07:57, 13 December 2012 (UTC)

I suspect it's trying to convert a vector image to pixels. That can dramatically increase the size/memory requirement, especially at high resolutions. That would be the memory (RAM) on the computer, but they may have a hard limit on how much can be allocated in the converter program you are using. Some suggestions:

1) Use another converter program. (Which one are you using now ?)

2) If possible, convert it to a PostScript vector format, rather than pixels.

3) If it must be pixels, lower the resolution.

4) Can you break the .p65 file into individual pages, then convert each of those to PostScript separately ? StuRat (talk) 08:53, 13 December 2012 (UTC)

We are using export facility in PageMaker 6.5 plus and acrobat distiller. The content of the files are mostly Hindi text.

We could solve the problem by changing the option "Subset fonts below" value from 25% to 100%.

But I still do not understand about the "hard limit on how much can be allocated in the converter program". pdf995 driver shows the maximum value 32MB only! Whereas the machine has actually 8 GB RAM.

Is there no way of increasing this memory? Are better converters available which can allocate more memory? Thank you very much. Vineet Chaitanya 14.139.82.7 (talk) 12:23, 13 December 2012 (UTC)

This type of limit imposed by a program is usually the result of poor programming. When the program was first written, 32 MB was probably more than the RAM on any computer, so it seemed fine. In the years since then, the RAM on PC's has steadily increased, but the program was never changed to support the increased RAM. Not setting any limit at all could cause the PC to freeze up when all the RAM is used up, so that's not a good approach, either. A proper program would set the memory limit at the current available RAM, or perhaps slightly less. However, this takes longer to code.

What does the "Subset fonts below" setting do ? What happens differently when you set this value to 100% ? StuRat (talk) 18:05, 14 December 2012 (UTC)

Thank you very much for the detailed explanation about programming considerations.

"Subset fonts below" setting specifies when only a subset of the fonts should be stored. It apparently controls the tradeoff between memory usage and processing time. Suppose a document actually uses only 80% of the glyphs in the font-set then is it worthwhile to take time in order to save memory? The answer would be determined by the value of the "Subset fonts below" setting. Vineet Chaitanya 14.139.82.7 (talk) 06:10, 15 December 2012 (UTC)

Set Top Box (STB) connection to CRT monitor. Possible?

I have a Set top box with VGA output and an old Samsung CRT monitor. Can I connect the STB directly to CRT monitor using VGA connection link to watch TV or I may need a TV Tuner to do so. Please reply if one has successfully tried it.

PS: I dont have HDMI slot on my STB box or Monitor !

Thanks !Rikisupriyo (talk) 10:34, 13 December 2012 (UTC)

It shouldn’t do any harm to try it, and then you'll know. A VGA out on a set-top box that doesn’t send a signal a TV can handle would be absurd in my opinion, but stranger things have happened. ¦ Reisio (talk) 13:37, 13 December 2012 (UTC)

It should work without a new TV tuner card. However, note that the entire screen will be filled with the image from the set-top box. If you intend to use the computer while a video shows in a window, you can't normally do that with this setup. For that you would need a tuner card. Also, if your monitor doesn't have an option to switch between inputs, then you would have to unplug the set-top box and/or plug in the computer output, to switch, would could get annoying fast. A switch box or KVM switch could make this easier. StuRat (talk) 18:35, 13 December 2012 (UTC)

Quantum computing

I always wanted to be one of these computer nerds knowing all about the different processors and whatever, writing my own programs and so on, but I never got around to making any serious study of it all. Now everyone seems to be so far ahead of me, with so many other people around that know so much more than I do, I'm wondering if it's even worth trying to catch up.

So, of course I decided to get a head start on quantum computing instead, ready for when that starts becoming more common. Anyone point me towards where I can read more about it, any good quantum programming languages to learn or information on new hardware being developed and companies working on such things?

86.15.83.223 (talk) 14:21, 13 December 2012 (UTC)

It's not clear that quantum computing will become "more common" or that it will be useful for anything other than certain specific classes of computational problems. I really think you're approaching this whole thing wrong — computing is no more difficult now than it was 10 years ago, it just focuses on different problems. In some areas it is actually much easier than it was, because you don't have to reinvent the wheel anymore on certain programs. It isn't a race, there isn't a finish line. It isn't a case of people having a "head start" on you — they know how to do this and are using it to solve their problems; when you come to it yourself, you'll have your own problems to solve with the same sort of skills. Quantum computing is not really a "thing" yet — they can set a few qubits here and there, but there aren't "quantum programming languages." Any actual programming is probably going to be in the same old languages used for regular computing, because those same microprocessors are going to have to control the quantum setup as well.

Look, it takes about 10 years to learn anything deep in your bones to the point where you can easily generalize it and push the envelope. If you want to get into computing, start with the basics. You'll need to do that for whatever kinds of computers are around in the future. It isn't the specific languages that you need to learn, it's the whole mindset, and while that might change a slight bit when quantum computing becomes a "thing", if it ever really does, the basics are probably going to be pretty much the same. --Mr.98 (talk) 14:29, 13 December 2012 (UTC)

Obligatory: quantum computer. ¦ Reisio (talk) 14:30, 13 December 2012 (UTC)

It may not be definite that it'll become anything important, but just in case it does, I want to be ready for it, guess I'll have to follow the process as it develops, since there isn't much around just yet. Just thought it might be an interesting thing to study in more depth. But your point on having to understand the generalities of how classical computers work first makes sense. 86.15.83.223 (talk) 15:19, 13 December 2012 (UTC)

One can't predict the future but the odds are a quantum computer is going to be a regular computer with some kind of quantum adapter on it. So learning to program a regular computer will probably be necessary anyway. I really wouldn't worry about quantum stuff for awhile unless you are really interested in cryptography or complicated physics. --Mr.98 (talk) 02:24, 14 December 2012 (UTC)

For an area of computer with more short-term promise, I suggest parallel computing. We are already seeing processors with 2 or more cores, and soon they may have hundreds. New programs are needed to take advantage of this. However, parallel computer programming is not so fundamentally different as to make traditional programming languages obsolete. They just need to be tweaked to allow for parallelism. StuRat (talk) 18:42, 13 December 2012 (UTC)

Security: Is it necessary to set HTTPOnly if you're using SSL and the values inside the cookie are encrypted?

I've got a web site that I am securing. The site uses SSL and we are encrypting the values inside the cookie. I've done a security check and one of the issues I uncovered was that our cookies aren't setting HTPPOnly. I want to fix it, but one of the other developers on the team objected explaining that they don't see the point, since the values are encrpted anyway. So, here's my question. Is there any point to setting HTTPOnly if you're using SSL and the values inside the cookie are encrypted?
More information: https://www.owasp.org/index.php/HTTPOnly.
AnonComputerGuy (talk) 21:03, 13 December 2012 (UTC)

I hope you meant HTTPSonly, or I think you pure "secure" inside the cookie. And yes, you want to only send the cookies under SSL, to stop someone from intercepting them and copying them into another session. 66.127.54.40 (talk) 03:47, 14 December 2012 (UTC)

Adjusting cursor blink rate Mac OS X

Hi all, I've been googling madly trying to find out how to adjust the cursor blink rate in Mac OS, using Xcode. I want to turn off cursor blink for everything, but I most desperately need it off for Xcode. I can't find anything, and the stuff I have found is for previous versions of Mac OS. They all direct me to System Preferences, and the most specific one directs to the "General" panel of System Preferences. I can find nothing there that would help. It rather looks like they have changed it. I can't find anything more annoying about my Mac at the moment, not even the idiotic lack of independence between the scroll direction of the mouse and the touchpad. IBE (talk) 23:40, 13 December 2012 (UTC)

Googling around for "cursor blink rate OS X" turns up a few places where the OS stores that value, e.g. this thread or this thread or this post. I've really no idea whether any of those work, or what version of OS X you are using (or whether that matters) but that is the sort of solution I would be looking for. --Mr.98 (talk) 02:22, 14 December 2012 (UTC)

I've been trying those ones, or at least much that is similar, but to no avail. Do I need to be a superuser? Because I don't know the admin password (university computer, so I can prob find out, although the uni is going into shutdown over Christmas). When I try those at the command prompt, I don't get an error message. IBE (talk) 06:29, 14 December 2012 (UTC)

Strange, but now it's working, for some things and not others. I shut the system down a while back and restarted, and that may have kicked some things into action. At any rate, it now works for Xcode, which is definitely everything I was dreaming of. It's blinking here in front of me as I type, so I haven't a clue what's going on. Any more hints appreciated, because I would love to totally get rid of it. If a genie gave me three wishes, I would use two of them up on this. IBE (talk) 06:44, 14 December 2012 (UTC)

Great. Yeah, you often have to reboot to get changes to system defaults working — they are not loaded in realtime much of the time. --Mr.98 (talk) 14:30, 14 December 2012 (UTC)