The Matt Morrison Computer Corner

Discuss anything interesting but not remotely Countdown-related here.

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David Williams
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Re: The Matt Morrison Computer Corner

Post by David Williams »

Ryan Taylor wrote:
David Williams wrote:(And am I the only person on God's earth who's only owned one mobile phone?)
Both my nannas recently got a mobile phone. One of them can't use it and refuses to even try whilst the other gets all panicky using her and alos sounds surprised when somebody answers the phone from the number that she just dialled as if it's some minor miracle that it works.
This isn't really the sort of comparison I was hoping for . . .
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Re: The Matt Morrison Computer Corner

Post by Phil Reynolds »

David Williams wrote:So - what's wrong with an eight-year old computer?
In terms of functionality - nothing. I had to replace mine last year because it stopped working, probably due to overheating caused by eight years' worth of accumulated dust on the motherboard. Had I looked after it a bit better, it would probably still be running and doing everything I wanted it to.
(And am I the only person on God's earth who's only owned one mobile phone?)
No. I resented getting even one, so again, unless it stops working, I see no need to get another.
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Re: The Matt Morrison Computer Corner

Post by Ian Volante »

David Williams wrote:Bit behind at the moment, so I've been watching a few episodes on 4oD, which forces me to watch an advert scorning a woman whose computer is eight years old. She goes away delighted with her new one, although they don't actually tell you why it's so much better than the old one. The only feature they mention is the ability to be online with a single click, which is one more than my eight-year old computer takes. I bought it because my Windows 95 computer didn't have USB connections, and I wanted one for my new-fangled digital camera. It still works fine, but am I missing out on something?

I only do basic stuff - email, banking, shopping, photos, WP, spreadsheets, bit of TV and music downloads, but no movies or gaming. I've still only used 40% of the capacity of the hard drive. I've never had a problem finding a computer to do all I want to do when I'm away from home, and I've no desire to carry around anything that won't fit in my trouser pocket. What I've got may be bulky and inelegant, but I've got a big house. I like a decent-sized keyboard. My internet connection cuts out occasionally, but the green lights on my router suggest that's not a problem at my end.

So - what's wrong with an eight-year old computer? (And am I the only person on God's earth who's only owned one mobile phone?)
Fully agree with this. My comp is eight years old now, and I've upgraded the RAM, but nothing else really as it's on XP. Just bought my second ever mobile (for a tenner), and it's much less user-friendly than the last one, although it has many more features (none of which I use), as I have a good camera and excellent music player already.
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Re: The Matt Morrison Computer Corner

Post by Gavin Chipper »

David Williams wrote:(And am I the only person on God's earth who's only owned one mobile phone?)
I'm still on my first one. I got it in 2006 because someone gave it to me.

Also, there's nothing wrong with using an eight-year-old computer if it still does what you want it to. I got this laptop last year, having got annoyed with my previous one after just four years though.
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Re: The Matt Morrison Computer Corner

Post by Jon O'Neill »

Ryan Taylor wrote:
David Williams wrote:(And am I the only person on God's earth who's only owned one mobile phone?)
Both my nannas recently got a mobile phone. One of them can't use it and refuses to even try whilst the other gets all panicky using her and alos sounds surprised when somebody answers the phone from the number that she just dialled as if it's some minor miracle that it works.
:)
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Re: The Matt Morrison Computer Corner

Post by Ryan Taylor »

Just a quick one. When I'm watching Countdown on the computer and recapping it's annoying to have to keep clicking on the pop out window to show up when I start typing on the recap. How can I type on the recap writer page without the pop out window disappearing the moment I click on the recap page bit? Poorly explained but you'll probs know what I mean.
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Re: The Matt Morrison Computer Corner

Post by Lesley Hines »

Ryan Taylor wrote:J How can I type on the recap writer page without the pop out window disappearing the moment I click on the recap page bit?
Why not just resize your browser so you've got the pop-out window at the top and the recap writer at the bottom? Tile them nicely like Windows 3.x used to be :lol: That way you can see both at the same time. :)
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Re: The Matt Morrison Computer Corner

Post by Phil Reynolds »

Lesley Hines wrote:
Ryan Taylor wrote:How can I type on the recap writer page without the pop out window disappearing the moment I click on the recap page bit?
Why not just resize your browser so you've got the pop-out window at the top and the recap writer at the bottom?
If you're using Windows 7, drag one window to the left hand side of the screen - bingo, it expands to fill the left half of the desktop. Likewise, drag the other window to the right and it expands to fill the other half. When you've finished, just drag the two windows anywhere and they return to their original size.
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Re: The Matt Morrison Computer Corner

Post by John Gillies »

Matt, any idea why my laptop (vista) displays wrongly like this, and my desktop (Windows 7) displays correctly?

Image
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Re: The Matt Morrison Computer Corner

Post by Matt Morrison »

Imagine it's to do with browser differences John, not operating systems. If you're running Internet Explorer on both then one is probably older than the other?
Charlie has made some changes recently to the site's stylings cos I've been lame, I'll try and have a chat with him this week about such issues as these.
In the meantime, try updating Internet Explorer by running Windows Update, and also try a hard refresh with CTRL+F5. Also if anyone else has display issues let me know.
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Re: The Matt Morrison Computer Corner

Post by John Gillies »

Hi Matt,
Both are running IE9, and I instal all the Windows Updates weekly. Also tried CTRL+F5 to no avail.
Can't be more specific about dates, but the laptop was displaying like this before for quite a time, then about 3 or 4 months ago it was suddenly ok, then relatively recently returned to the dodgy display as seen above.
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Re: The Matt Morrison Computer Corner

Post by Matt Morrison »

That's bloody weird. I can see that on the pic you gave, you don't have the Compatibility View button on - it's a little icon that looks like a broken page that goes in between the down arrow and the refresh icon on the right-hand side of the address bar. Do you have that on on the Windows 7 machine perhaps? Otherwise it's pretty odd indeed.

However your timings possibly match up quite well with when I did the homepage redesign (which was originally broken on IE with those big wide boxes covering stuff) and then I fixed it, but then Charlie recently changed the stylings again and it might have broken in IE. I'll wait for him to comment slash return to my promise to speak to him about it this week! Best I can do, sorry.
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Re: The Matt Morrison Computer Corner

Post by Karen Pearson »

It's been like this for me for ages. I did the recommended fix and it sorted it for a short while. Then it reverted to this and I couldn't be bothered to do anything about it - I thought it was probably just me (as you know, I'm not very good at implementing upgrades etc!).
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Re: The Matt Morrison Computer Corner

Post by Matt Morrison »

I have work to be done by the sounds of it.
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Re: The Matt Morrison Computer Corner

Post by Rosemary Roberts »

Hi Matt,
I'm running Windows 7, and my sound has stopped working. This has happened before following a Windows update and was resolved by backtracking and installing updates in a different order. But that fix no longer works.
It's not the hardware, as we get sound if we boot Linux.
Windows claims that it cannot install the driver because it's not digitally signed. But when I look at the file properties (at C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\DRIVERS\hdaudbus.sys) they say it is digitally signed.
I found a couple of similar queries online but they all seem to be for XP and the suggested solutions don't travel.
Any idea how I can make Windows look sensibly at the file I have or get a reliably signed new one?
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Re: The Matt Morrison Computer Corner

Post by Matt Morrison »

Something similar has happened to me before - I just fixed it by going to Control Panel > Hardware > Device Manager (think that's the right Windows 7 route) and finding the troublesome audio device and just removing it. Then when you reboot Windows will either automatically find it again and start reinstalling the drivers, or you go back to Device Manager and ask it to scan for new hardware. That's always fixed stuff for me when drivers stop working - done similar things for a DVD drive and keyboards too. No promises though - I've not seen the "not digitally signed" thing before, or if I ever have it's been one of the situations where that is simply a warning and you can still ask Windows to ignore it and install anyway.

Another option would be remove the device from Device Manager and then use Windows Update to search for generic drivers. Or, even better, find out the manufacturer and model of the audio device used in your PC (it's likely to just be on-board sound with the motherboard rather than a separate audio card) and search for drivers on the web you can install over the top of the mess.
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Re: The Matt Morrison Computer Corner

Post by Rosemary Roberts »

I already tried removing the device and (on a separate occasion) deinstalling the driver, but both times I was then unable to persuade Windows to find the device or accept the driver.

It is onboard sound. There is a plausible looking DVD in the box it came in - is there any future in trying to reinstall the driver from there? And if so, how should I set about it so as not to ruin anything else?
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Re: The Matt Morrison Computer Corner

Post by Matt Morrison »

Rosemary Roberts wrote:It is onboard sound. There is a plausible looking DVD in the box it came in - is there any future in trying to reinstall the driver from there? And if so, how should I set about it so as not to ruin anything else?
Yeah, quite possible. Although the chances are, unless it's a particularly new PC (which would mean unlikely you have this trouble in the first place), the drivers are probably old and not-very-Windows 7-friendly anyway. And of course, as you say, you don't want to mess anything up. So it's worth popping the DVD in and seeing firstly if there is an option for installing motherboard drivers individually, obviously you only want to install audio drivers and absolutely nothing else for bits that are already working. If not, there may be a chance you can root through the DVD and find the audio drivers manually and see if Windows 7 believes these to be signed.

Still think the best bet is finding the manufacturer and model of the motherboard though - hopefully this shouldn't be too hard if you still have the DVD and stuff - and look for updated Windows 7 drivers on the manufacturer website.
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Re: The Matt Morrison Computer Corner

Post by Rosemary Roberts »

Thanks, Matt, I'll give it a whirl.
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Re: The Matt Morrison Computer Corner

Post by David Williams »

David Williams wrote:So - what's wrong with an eight-year old computer?
The other day I turned it off, and it turned itself on again. Google suggested this was some sort of attempt to rectify something serious going wrong when it turned off, so I took a copy of everything I could think of and turned it off by holding the switch down.

Rather to my surprise the following morning it started OK, but with a rather nasty "blue screen" message. Same thing the following morning, except that the message said they couldn't even detect the error, which was more serious. A day later their information on the undetectable error was corrupted, which was more serious still. I've tried System Restore, but that failed and I got a message saying I must undo the restoration. Undoing the restoration also failed.

Through all of this the computer carried on working normally, and the last two nights it's switched off normally as if there's never been a problem. But unless you can persuade me otherwise I think it's time for a replacement.
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Re: The Matt Morrison Computer Corner

Post by Jimmy Gough »

Hey Matthew. I need to send an enormous folder to my friend (like 150+ videos of 1 hour length each). I've tried email, websites and a memory stick but it's never big enough. Do I need to get a bigger memory stick or is it possible to make things smaller. Yeah I know I'm a total computer noob. ty

edit - 3:30am and there's 20 users online, 18 guests. wtf? that's a lot of late night lurking :o
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Re: The Matt Morrison Computer Corner

Post by Matt Morrison »

We all like porn Jimmy, but that's a lot of porn for anyone. (jokes, poker tv series I presume?)

Anyway, it's never easy or conveninent sending that much stuff - trouble is, if it's video you've already downloaded from the net it's almost definite that it will already be a compressed format (for example, AVI is always compressed and you'll find most videos are AVIs - MPGs are nearly always compressed, as are MKV and MP4) so you can't crush it down any smaller.

At a guess, an hour's video in a compressed format would be probably 500-700Mb depending on quality, if we call that a 600Mb average x150 that's 90Gb.
It will be quicker and cheaper, almost regardless of where your friend is, to pull out your hard drive, buy an external case for it, and rock round his/her house, plug it into their laptop and copy it all over and then go home again.
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Re: The Matt Morrison Computer Corner

Post by Jimmy Gough »

Haha yeah that did sound like porn. OK thanks. Yeah it is AVI.
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Re: The Matt Morrison Computer Corner

Post by Lesley Hines »

Jimmy Gough wrote:Haha yeah that did sound like porn. OK thanks. Yeah it is AVI.
I note you didn't confirm it's poker :lol:

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Re: The Matt Morrison Computer Corner

Post by Gavin Chipper »

I get a plain green screen when playing most (but not all) videos now. I don't know what's caused it, but I recently downloaded a Sega emulator and it allows you to record your games - at first they didn't play back properly and then I noticed it had a codec thing (whatever that is) which I installed and made it possible to watch back the videos. I disabled the codec using the instructions here, but it's not done anything to help. Help.
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Re: The Matt Morrison Computer Corner

Post by Gavin Chipper »

Gavin Chipper wrote:I get a plain green screen when playing most (but not all) videos now. I don't know what's caused it, but I recently downloaded a Sega emulator and it allows you to record your games - at first they didn't play back properly and then I noticed it had a codec thing (whatever that is) which I installed and made it possible to watch back the videos. I disabled the codec using the instructions here, but it's not done anything to help. Help.
Seems to work now. Maybe it needed to be restarted.
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Re: The Matt Morrison Computer Corner

Post by Rosemary Roberts »

Matt, I'm running Windows 7 Professional. I just ran its System File Check (in Administrator Command Prompt) and it scanned all my files and wrote a log file. Specifically, it said:
Verification 100% complete.
Windows Resource Protection found corrupt files but was unable to fix some of them.
Details are included in the CBS.Log windir\Logs\CBS\CBS.log. For example
C:\Windows\Logs\CBS\CBS.log
So I went there and double clicked on the file, but all I can get is "Access Denied". Even when I make myself the file owner it doesn't stick.
I know I have done this successfully before. What have I forgotten?
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Re: The Matt Morrison Computer Corner

Post by Matt Morrison »

Not something I've run into before but a quick Google shows:

Click Start > type cmd in the searchbox
Right-click cmd in the results above > click Run as administrator
At the prompt type notepad c:\windows\logs\cbs\cbs.log then press enter


More here: http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/wind ... b7b4a359b4
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Re: The Matt Morrison Computer Corner

Post by Rosemary Roberts »

Wow, it works. I had that very page open but didn't spot that nuance.
I guess it's a question of knowing where to stand.

Thanks very much, Matt.
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Re: The Matt Morrison Computer Corner

Post by Ryan Taylor »

Bit of a strange one.

When I start my laptop up it all starts up OK and then after about 30 seconds it sort of flashes off and the back in (like as if it's refreshed itself) but the graphics are like poor. As in it goes into the mode it would go if it was trying to save usage in some areas. So like the three buttons in the top right of windows go a bit different. That's not really the issue. But once it has done this it means I am unable to open folders such as Administrator or Computer. But yet I can still open Programs like iTunes and Firefox.

However, when I then shut down my laptop it sort of flashes off again and behind it I can see Administrator and Computer windows that I opened on. So when I click on them they do open but it's as if they are opening in a screen behind the one I am on. Sort of like the laptop is operating on like 2 layers.
Last edited by Ryan Taylor on Tue Feb 12, 2013 11:59 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: The Matt Morrison Computer Corner

Post by Ryan Taylor »

When I log on it also automatically opens up two Internet Explorer windows (I use Firefox) and they both have the url http://92.241.176.35/ entered in the URL bar already. I Googled these and it's some threat that is of low risk but has somehow changed some of my settings. And I also got a link that comes up with a generic Java script unpacker. Or something.
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Re: The Matt Morrison Computer Corner

Post by Matt Morrison »

Fucks sake. You and your dodgy sites. Have you tried System Restore? That will be the easiest option.
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Re: The Matt Morrison Computer Corner

Post by Ryan Taylor »

Matt Morrison wrote:Fucks sake. You and your dodgy sites. Have you tried System Restore? That will be the easiest option.
How do you do System Restore? Do you need to go in to Computer or Control Panel? Because I can't get into them because of the problem.
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Re: The Matt Morrison Computer Corner

Post by Matt Morrison »

I can't remember what OS you are on but it's generally the same - look for "Help" or "Help and Support" on the Start Menu and find it in there.
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Re: The Matt Morrison Computer Corner

Post by Ben Wilson »

Matt Morrison wrote:I can't remember what OS you are on but it's generally the same - look for "Help" or "Help and Support" on the Start Menu and find it in there.
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Re: The Matt Morrison Computer Corner

Post by Ryan Taylor »

Matt Morrison wrote:I can't remember what OS you are on but it's generally the same - look for "Help" or "Help and Support" on the Start Menu and find it in there.
Yeah. I can't open that either. It has presumably opened up behind the kind of 'layer' that I'm on.
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Re: The Matt Morrison Computer Corner

Post by Ryan Taylor »

Huzzah! I have managed to fix it. I went into safe mode on start up and this let me System Restore the fucker. I got a new laptop for Christmas so I'm going to transfer anything worthy on to that.
Last edited by Ryan Taylor on Tue Feb 12, 2013 12:00 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: The Matt Morrison Computer Corner

Post by Jon O'Neill »

Without going through about 20 different programs which claim to be free but only do about 5 minutes of footage on download.com, is there something free I can rip DVDs to AVIs with?

Alternatively, something below like a tenner that I can use PayPal for.

I know I'm not in a position to be choosy about features but if each chapter were individual AVI files that would make me :).
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Re: The Matt Morrison Computer Corner

Post by Philip Jarvis »

When replying to a post, one of the options is "img" to insert an image. There are several times in the past when I have wanted to do this but I haven't been able to work out how to do it.

Can someone please explain the "step by step" method of inserting a jpg?
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Re: The Matt Morrison Computer Corner

Post by Matt Morrison »

Philip Jarvis wrote:When replying to a post, one of the options is "img" to insert an image. There are several times in the past when I have wanted to do this but I haven't been able to work out how to do it.

Can someone please explain the "step by step" method of inserting a jpg?
Come on Phil, there's a fucking search feature!
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Re: The Matt Morrison Computer Corner

Post by Philip Jarvis »

Matt Morrison wrote:
Philip Jarvis wrote:When replying to a post, one of the options is "img" to insert an image. There are several times in the past when I have wanted to do this but I haven't been able to work out how to do it.

Can someone please explain the "step by step" method of inserting a jpg?
Come on Phil, there's a fucking search feature!
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Re: The Matt Morrison Computer Corner

Post by Rosemary Roberts »

I'm running WIndows 7, and I've just reinstalled my system and all my software. I installed the Office 2003 suite with no problems, it went online and registered / activated itself quite happily. But now, every time I start any of the Office programs it asks me to Accept its EULA all over again. Rebooting makes no difference, nor does Repair. Any idea what is wrong?
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Re: The Matt Morrison Computer Corner

Post by James Turner »

"But now, every time I start any of the Office programs it asks me to Accept its EULA all over again."

Maybe you're not logged in as administrator or an account with administrator privileges. I don't use Windows 7 myself so it's just a guess.
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Re: The Matt Morrison Computer Corner

Post by Rosemary Roberts »

It seems to be a "known issue". Word has to be run with admin privileges in order to put the registration into the registry. Then you can take them off again. I still don't know what caused the problem, but I have managed to clear it.
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Re: The Matt Morrison Computer Corner

Post by Phil Reynolds »

I've been asked by the owners of a website that I maintain if I can set up a simple poll on the site. It's just a straightforward question, where visitors are asked to express a preference for one of two possible choices. I can easily create a page with an HTML form where you specify your choice by clicking a radio button and then pressing submit, with a bit of PHP to count the votes for each choice and save the results somewhere. What I have no clue about is how to eliminate (or at least discourage) duplicate votes. Cookies obviously have the drawback that some people will have them disabled, or may delete them. Is using the visitor's IP address the way to go? If so, how do I obtain this? (I had a quick look through the PHP function reference for something that gets the client's IP address but couldn't see anything.) Is there another way?

All informed advice gratefully received.
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Re: The Matt Morrison Computer Corner

Post by Gavin Chipper »

Could you make them type in an e-mail address at the same time, and an e-mail is sent to them to confirm? That way you could presumably at least stop duplicates from the same e-mail.
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Re: The Matt Morrison Computer Corner

Post by Graeme Cole »

Phil Reynolds wrote:I've been asked by the owners of a website that I maintain if I can set up a simple poll on the site. It's just a straightforward question, where visitors are asked to express a preference for one of two possible choices. I can easily create a page with an HTML form where you specify your choice by clicking a radio button and then pressing submit, with a bit of PHP to count the votes for each choice and save the results somewhere. What I have no clue about is how to eliminate (or at least discourage) duplicate votes. Cookies obviously have the drawback that some people will have them disabled, or may delete them. Is using the visitor's IP address the way to go? If so, how do I obtain this? (I had a quick look through the PHP function reference for something that gets the client's IP address but couldn't see anything.) Is there another way?

All informed advice gratefully received.
Get your PHP script to look in the environment variable REMOTE_ADDR, the visitor's IP address is probably in there.

However, that's not a reliable way of guaranteeing uniqueness, and can lead to false positives. Someone could disconnect and reconnect their broadband to get a new IP address. Also, if many people are in the same house or office, they might all look like they come from one IP address depending on how their network is set up. Even worse, if you're on mobile broadband I believe they sometimes put you behind NAT themselves, so many subscribers appear with the same IP address.

There's no way of completely eliminating the possibility of duplicate votes given someone determined enough to cheat - this is one of the main reasons why online voting for general elections hasn't happened. You can make it difficult or inconvenient though, and hope that someone's desire to cheat the poll doesn't justify to them the inconvenience of doing whatever they need to do to get round it.

You could try a solution that requires people to sign up with their email address to answer the poll, but even that isn't infallible and in any case it's more likely to put people off answering the poll than to prevent ballot-stuffing.

I think cookies are the way to go. Display the poll form only if the user hasn't answered it, and check for the cookie when submitting the poll as well just in case someone accidentally refreshes after submitting. Granted, Cheaty McFraudpants can delete the cookie or not use cookies or whatever else, but there isn't a perfect solution and if all you need to do is make it inconvenient to cheat rather than impossible, that's what I'd do.
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Re: The Matt Morrison Computer Corner

Post by Andrew Feist »

Today's saga: My internet hates me.

So I usually can't get on http://www.apterous.org but maybe once a day at random times; the rest of the time it just gives me a "could not connect" error. (The "down for everyone or just me" sites always report that it's up.) For fun, here's some output:

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mini-genius:~ andrewf$ traceroute www.apterous.org
traceroute to www.apterous.org (217.36.210.230), 64 hops max, 52 byte packets
 1  wireless_broadband_router (192.168.1.1)  3.330 ms  1.036 ms  0.514 ms
 2  l100.nrflva-vfttp-26.verizon-gni.net (96.249.254.1)  14.017 ms  8.167 ms  17.168 ms
 3  * * *
 4  * * *
 5  * g0-3-3-3.nrflva-lcr-21.verizon-gni.net (130.81.183.97)  13.536 ms !N *
 6  * * *
 7  g0-3-3-3.nrflva-lcr-21.verizon-gni.net (130.81.183.97)  13.558 ms !N * *
 8  * * g0-3-3-3.nrflva-lcr-21.verizon-gni.net (130.81.183.97)  15.337 ms !N
It goes on a bit, but I think you get the flavor. (That's the Mac, obv; if I do it on Windows, it stops after step 3 and says "130.81.138.168 reports: Destination net unreachable.")

I can do wiki.apterous.org just fine:

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mini-genius:~ andrewf$ traceroute wiki.apterous.org
traceroute to webserver.srcf.societies.cam.ac.uk (131.111.179.82), 64 hops max, 52 byte packets
 1  wireless_broadband_router (192.168.1.1)  10.670 ms  0.880 ms  0.640 ms
 2  l100.nrflva-vfttp-26.verizon-gni.net (96.249.254.1)  6.204 ms  8.762 ms  10.036 ms
 3  g0-2-4-6.nrflva-lcr-21.verizon-gni.net (130.81.137.250)  10.848 ms  10.576 ms  17.365 ms
 4  so-0-0-0-0.lcc2-res-bb-rtr1-re1.verizon-gni.net (130.81.22.40)  29.947 ms  30.755 ms  27.939 ms
 5  0.so-6-0-3.xl3.iad8.alter.net (152.63.32.133)  29.671 ms  29.753 ms  28.139 ms
 6  gigabitethernet6-0-0.gw8.iad8.alter.net (152.63.33.13)  28.168 ms  28.951 ms
    gigabitethernet4-0-0.gw8.iad8.alter.net (152.63.33.93)  30.926 ms
 7  tinet-gw.customer.alter.net (152.179.50.30)  34.627 ms  27.736 ms  29.971 ms
 8  ge-0-3-0.lon12.ip4.tinet.net (89.149.187.18)  109.999 ms  107.623 ms
    ge-1-3-0.lon12.ip4.tinet.net (89.149.187.22)  113.172 ms
 9  the-jnt-gw.ip4.tinet.net (77.67.76.226)  112.761 ms  110.761 ms
    the-jnt-gw.ip4.tinet.net (77.67.76.222)  116.289 ms
10  ae0.lond-rbr1.ja.net (146.97.35.126)  114.194 ms  109.609 ms  112.507 ms
11  camb-rbr1.eastern.ja.net (146.97.65.34)  120.940 ms  118.020 ms  116.714 ms
12  university-of-cambridge.camb-rbr1.eastern.ja.net (146.97.130.2)  109.853 ms  117.556 ms  108.135 ms
13  route-enet.route-mill.net.cam.ac.uk (192.84.5.93)  113.004 ms  119.207 ms  117.245 ms
14  route-mill.route-nms.net.cam.ac.uk (192.84.5.114)  114.428 ms  116.910 ms  118.448 ms
15  webserver.srcf.societies.cam.ac.uk (131.111.179.82)  105.478 ms  111.527 ms  114.790 ms
but of course that's a different server. I thought maybe that somehow my internet provider doesn't like Charlie's internet provider, or vice versa, but I can get to their main page (apologies if I've somehow mangled what company this is supposed to be):

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mini-genius:~ andrewf$ traceroute www.1and1.co.uk
traceroute to www.1and1.co.uk (212.227.126.68), 64 hops max, 52 byte packets
 1  wireless_broadband_router (192.168.1.1)  10.031 ms  0.621 ms  1.465 ms
 2  * l100.nrflva-vfttp-26.verizon-gni.net (96.249.254.1)  13.540 ms  13.509 ms
 3  g0-3-3-3.nrflva-lcr-21.verizon-gni.net (130.81.183.97)  10.612 ms  8.979 ms  9.086 ms
 4  so-0-0-0-0.lcc2-res-bb-rtr1-re1.verizon-gni.net (130.81.22.40)  29.960 ms  28.134 ms  29.945 ms
 5  0.ae1.br2.iad8.alter.net (152.63.34.21)  29.670 ms  25.477 ms  69.103 ms
 6  te2-3.ar6.dca3.gblx.net (64.215.195.113)  96.590 ms  61.252 ms  40.669 ms
 7  xe6-1-0-10g.scr1.wdc2.gblx.net (67.16.136.193)  40.585 ms  50.558 ms  46.888 ms
 8  xe10-1-0-10g.scr3.lon3.gblx.net (67.16.167.33)  120.059 ms  107.547 ms  110.301 ms
 9  lag1.ar9.lon3.gblx.net (67.17.72.21)  107.413 ms  106.822 ms  110.202 ms
10  146.82.54.42 (146.82.54.42)  135.147 ms  128.001 ms  127.170 ms
11  te-1-3.bb-c.bap.rhr.de.oneandone.net (212.227.120.49)  123.796 ms  125.666 ms  121.149 ms
12  te-5-2.bb-c.tp.kae.de.oneandone.net (212.227.120.237)  129.722 ms  144.738 ms  129.662 ms
13  ae-4.gw-disti.bs.kae.de.oneandone.net (212.227.121.195)  126.206 ms  121.508 ms  120.999 ms
14  order.1and1.co.uk (212.227.126.68)  126.191 ms  125.437 ms  118.769 ms
So that seems okay, although if I pick an IP near the .230 one above I get nothing at all again. Maybe it's BT:

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mini-genius:~ andrewf$ traceroute btopenworld.com
traceroute to btopenworld.com (193.113.4.102), 64 hops max, 52 byte packets
 1  wireless_broadband_router (192.168.1.1)  3.116 ms  0.729 ms  1.563 ms
 2  l100.nrflva-vfttp-26.verizon-gni.net (96.249.254.1)  11.670 ms  14.023 ms  14.305 ms
 3  g0-2-4-6.nrflva-lcr-21.verizon-gni.net (130.81.137.250)  10.566 ms  9.078 ms  10.200 ms
 4  so-0-0-0-0.lcc2-res-bb-rtr1-re1.verizon-gni.net (130.81.22.40)  28.873 ms  29.925 ms  38.234 ms
 5  0.xe-3-0-2.xl3.iad8.alter.net (152.63.2.237)  54.505 ms  28.518 ms  30.834 ms
 6  0.ae3.br2.iad8.alter.net (152.63.41.229)  29.411 ms  31.429 ms  114.982 ms
 7  64.212.107.57 (64.212.107.57)  90.363 ms  37.131 ms  28.206 ms
 8  bt-group-plc.tengigabitethernet8-4.ar7.lon3.gblx.net (64.215.25.246)  104.474 ms  105.223 ms  108.104 ms
 9  166.49.168.14 (166.49.168.14)  107.293 ms  109.780 ms  107.485 ms
10  194.72.17.121 (194.72.17.121)  112.532 ms  108.214 ms  107.744 ms
11  62.172.103.85 (62.172.103.85)  157.067 ms  110.477 ms  108.228 ms
12  62.6.196.98 (62.6.196.98)  111.021 ms  118.992 ms  127.408 ms
13  62.172.57.218 (62.172.57.218)  116.345 ms  112.701 ms  118.601 ms
14  * * *
15  * * 62.172.57.218 (62.172.57.218)  105.495 ms
16  * * *
17  * * *
18  * * *
19  * * *
Any ideas? Anyone else having issues? (No, not that kind of issue.)

ETA: Verizon gave me a ticket number, anyway, and claim that a resolution will be forthcoming in 24 hours. I suspect I'll be going to work early to do the duel.

EDIT AGAIN: And Verizon appears to have fixed whatever it is that they broke, so all systems are now go.
Tom Barnes
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Re: The Matt Morrison Computer Corner

Post by Tom Barnes »

Hi Matt (or anyone else kind enough to help)

I've been having a load of problems with my internet being really slow recently. It is Virgn Broadband, wirless through a router. I phoned Virign and posted on their forum, but they weren't much help.

I decided to play around with a few things to see if it made any difference. Eventually I found that changing the encryption of my connection from AES to TKIP seemed to sort it out. I just wanted to check this is safe and isn't going to leave me vulnerable to cyber-bogeymen. Ta.
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Re: The Matt Morrison Computer Corner

Post by Matt Morrison »

Personally don't think anything about encryption Tom, sorry - first result on Google says TKIP is a very reasonable backup to AES though, and gets used because it's more compatible with more equipment. That all seems to make sense to your situation, so sure you'll be fine.
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Re: The Matt Morrison Computer Corner

Post by Tom Barnes »

Cool, thanks
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Re: The Matt Morrison Computer Corner

Post by Ian Volante »

Hi Matt,

We've got an old laptop which a while ago kept crashing. I diagnosed some corruption within Windows itself, but after hours of trying, I was unable to fix the problem.

I then decided to use the recovery partition to attempt a repair, this also failed.

I finally went for the complete drive format and reinstall - trouble is, this failed too. I did manage to get Windows (XP) installed, but it's not working properly, it seems from a few clues (such as missing or garbled icons) that it's not actually installed properly, and it indeed doesn't seem to be working correctly.

What do you reckon would be a way to go with this?

Possible problems:
1) Using a pirate copy of XP.
2) Optical drive not reading XP disk properly, causing corruption on reinstall?
3) Corrupt hard drive.
4) Can't think of owt else.

What is your sage advice?

Cheers!
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Ian Volante
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Re: The Matt Morrison Computer Corner

Post by Ian Volante »

Anyone got any ideas?
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Matt Morrison
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Re: The Matt Morrison Computer Corner

Post by Matt Morrison »

Sorry Ian missed this before.

1) The mere fact that it is pirated doesn't stop XP working properly. Obviously it's possible you might have a dodgy version. If you've used this version successfully before then it won't be dodgy. You could always grab another one.
2) Optical drive not working would usually lead to fail to install altogether, not an install that isn't complete but still successful.
3) Bang on, most likely.

Old laptops are old. It probably sucks. I've certainly never heard of an XP install completing 'successfully' but then looking fucked up. Sounds laptop-specific to me!
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Ian Volante
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Re: The Matt Morrison Computer Corner

Post by Ian Volante »

Cheers. I'll maybe try once more to install, then give it up as a bad job when it fails again!

Well, I'll dig out some drive fixing utilities too which may be more useful.
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Re: The Matt Morrison Computer Corner

Post by Mark James »

The bottom right toolbar where the clock is used to have a slide bar for volume control and it's gone now. Any idea where it's gone and how to get it back? I'm currently using headphones. There's still sound coming from them, I just can't adjust the volume. My uncle was over and he's pretty good with computers and he can't figure it out. Cheers.
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Re: The Matt Morrison Computer Corner

Post by Thomas Carey »

Mark James wrote:The bottom right toolbar where the clock is used to have a slide bar for volume control and it's gone now. Any idea where it's gone and how to get it back? I'm currently using headphones. There's still sound coming from them, I just can't adjust the volume. My uncle was over and he's pretty good with computers and he can't figure it out. Cheers.
Is there an arrow thing at the end of the toolbar, pointing up? If so, click it and it might have a sound icon on. Drag it to the toolbar. Sorry if that didn't help/work.
cheers maus
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Re: The Matt Morrison Computer Corner

Post by Mark James »

Thomas Carey wrote:
Mark James wrote:The bottom right toolbar where the clock is used to have a slide bar for volume control and it's gone now. Any idea where it's gone and how to get it back? I'm currently using headphones. There's still sound coming from them, I just can't adjust the volume. My uncle was over and he's pretty good with computers and he can't figure it out. Cheers.
Is there an arrow thing at the end of the toolbar, pointing up? If so, click it and it might have a sound icon on. Drag it to the toolbar. Sorry if that didn't help/work.
There's not one pointing up, there's one pointing left. It's not behind that though. We went to control panel and then sound but there was nothing there and we also tried task bar manager or something. No joy though.
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Re: The Matt Morrison Computer Corner

Post by David Williams »

http://www.ehow.com/windows-taskbar/
"This can be easily done through the Control Panel." Not so?
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Re: The Matt Morrison Computer Corner

Post by Ian Volante »

Ian Volante wrote:Cheers. I'll maybe try once more to install, then give it up as a bad job when it fails again!

Well, I'll dig out some drive fixing utilities too which may be more useful.
Latest is that it seems that there are large portions of the hard drive now unallocated. And running anything seems to often elicit 'corrupt file' errors which don't appear on further attempts. Have you come across unallocated space before?
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