quote:

Originally posted by ɯʇ ʎoq ǝɥʇ:
Question for web developers out there:

This site has the Java slideshow that my supervisor is so enamored of.

The script itself is stupid simple:

 <div class="timedSlideshow jdSlideshow" id="mySlideshow">
                        <script type="text/javascript">
								countArticle = 0;
								var mySlideData = new Array();
								mySlideData[countArticle++] = new Array(
								'photos/slideshow01.jpg',
								'#',
								'Half of all children with DS go to school in a mainstreamed class.<sup>1</sup>',
								''
								);

etc. for each picture.

PROBLEM:
We need the site to be handicapped accessible. This means that images need to all have <alt> tags so that blind users with audio screenreaders or braille output can tell what everyone else sees. What do you know about Java's ability to do that?

How hard is it in HTML to just display a random picture that is appropriately alt-tagged along with its caption rather than this Java thing?

It's actually using Javascript instead of Java. It looks like they're using someone else's code -- JonDesign's SmoothSlideshow v2.0., the logic of which is in timed.js. (Called by creating new TimedSlideShow.)

Theoretically, I think it's possible to set alt tags in javascript. However, this particular script doesn't use image elements to display the images. Instead it creates uses the backgroundImage attribute of a div to display each one. So the script would probably need some significant changes to support the alt attribute.

The other thing is that I'm not sure how javascript interacts with accessibility devices. It wouldn't be hard to write a simple script to show and hide the appropriate images with alt tags on them, but I'm not sure if the accessibility devices would register the changing of the images. You'd need to ask a developer with a lot more experience creating handicapped accessible sites than I have.

Does anyone know what the screen refresh rate is on a Macbook Pro? I'm usually pretty good at googling information, but I can't seem to find what I want this morning.

ETA: Pappy and I are contemplating switching over to notebooks - Mac notebooks - and we have astigmatism, so a higher refresh rate seems to help lessen eyestrain.

The Llama suggests you try apple.com

*nods*

yeah, I'm there, but if it tells me what I wanna know, then I'm just totally missing that info.

Question:

My laptop has died. And when i say "died" i not only mean she won't start up, but the lights (power hdd etc.) don't go on. Nothing.
She's a four year old Sony vaio.
I took her off the power (and removed the battery) and tried again. Nothing.
She was fine one day, the next day she wouldn't do anything.
The computer-repair shop was brutal. "That probably means the power supply to the otherboard is broken, or the motherboard itself is broken. She'll have to be sent back to the factory, and that'll cost about as much as a new laptop. If you want my advice: buy a new one."
Obviously i can't afford a new one. So if anyone has any idea if there's any way i could try to fix her, it would be appreciated.

Thanks for the info Royko.

My job was to "investigate the feasibility" of doing certain things so that should be enough for now.

My supervisor doesn't know enough to even ask the right questions so anything she says to a developer is likely to result in a post to DailyWTF eventually.

fins

as discussed

1) drop it...6 inches onto a flat surface - it *could* be a dry connection.

2) if it turns out to be defiantly dead, pull it to bits and ebay it, people always want laptop bits, memory, screen etc - i myself paid £2.50 for a key that was missing and also a got a replacement harddrive (but that depends on what you've got on there! )

How much would it cost me to build a decent PC, if I had assistance from someone who knew how to build one?

Not saying I wanna run Crysis, but things like Team Fortress 2.

quote:

Originally posted by Alex Freeman:
How much would it cost me to build a decent PC, if I had assistance from someone who knew how to build one?

Not saying I wanna run Crysis, but things like Team Fortress 2.

I've never done it, but the times I've looked into it, it looked like it would probably run $500-800 depending on components. Definitely under $1000, assuming you don't go crazy. To be honest, the price savings didn't seem to be that great over buying a prebuilt system from a major vendor, but where the advantage came in was that you could get better value by choosing better components and focusing on the pieces that are important to your needs.

quote:

Originally posted by Alex Freeman:
How much would it cost me to build a decent PC, if I had assistance from someone who knew how to build one?

Not saying I wanna run Crysis, but things like Team Fortress 2.

It depends on what you already have and what you want to replace. You'll make-out, if its just 'the box'.

If you need a monitor, keyboard, etc its better to get a bundled deal from Dell.

The Ars Technica System Guide: May 2008 Edition remains the best place to start. This contains the latest in a Tech heavy forum's group-think on what's good? Your system may be similar to the Hot Rod.

You should do a review of the Ars System Guide: June 2008: Gaming Boxes thread to see what recent riffs might apply. This will inform you on late breaking changes in parts.

In addition, you might want to review the recommendations of other 'serious' hardware sites such as Tech Report's System Guide, and a few others.

Finally, a browsing of the Ars forum is always recommended. There are several current and recent threads of people looking for help. This is a current example. (This thread is an example of what a Search will turn up. (9800 GTX w/ Wolfdale 8400 CPU.)

Also, every "Help Me" thread *needs* to start with the MONEY. Knowing exactly how much do you have to spend on this project, will save you a lot of time and effort in scoping it.

You can start a PM if you have questions.

To everyone who ever wants me on IM - Nothing seems to stay connected for me - I don't know why. I suspect it's my crappy DSL connection. I have a Mac, Verizon DSL, the iChat thingy that comes with Mac and MSN for Mac, version 6.0.3

If anyone can remedy this, tell me another program to use, help would be appreciated. I tried the Meebo thingy and also got frequently logged out. Have not yet tried Trillian.

I don't think Trillian exists for Mac. Best substitute for it would be Adium, which I've never had any trouble with. It supports Google, Yahoo, AIM, MSN and others (simultaneously).

Okay, so I've decided to reinstall the operating system on my laptop. I ran the recovery disc that came with the computer and did everything I needed to do to get XP up and running (currently installing SP3).

The problem is all the freaking bloatware that comes with XP. I was going to use nLite to build a new recovery disc that doesn't have all the crap I don't want, but unfortunately my installation CD is from Toshiba, not Microsoft, so I can't direct nLite to the files it needs. I suspect there's a hidden partition on my machine that has the installation files on it, but I can't get to it. So nLite is out.

So I'm left uninstalling all the bloatware by hand, and of course it includes AOL 9.0, which is evil. And when I go to uninstall it from Add/Remove Programs, it says (even though it comes up as being nearly 70 MB on the list) that it can't find any installed versions.

I've done some searching online and it seems a lot of people have this problem. I was able to remove the associated crap that came with it, but its uninstall function just doesn't recognize that the software is there.

How can I get rid of this useless PoS???

Has anyone else here had this problem? Do I need a new copy of aolunins_us.exe? If so, can someone send me one? GAAAH!

Will something like this help you at all?

Unfortunately, no. It works great for everything else, but it just accesses all the internal uninstallers that come with the software -- which, in this case, isn't working.

I think my uninstaller for AOL might be corrupted.

Drat. Sorry, C.
Unless I come across the tech stuff, and can just pass it along, I'm afraid I'm not much use in the tech support.

I think my hard drive on my main computer may be fried.
I am posting this from my laptop.

Everything was running fine. I was rebooting the thing. A screen came up saying:
"A disk read error occurred
Press Ctrl+Alt+Del to restart"
I have been doing some research on this error and it does not sound good. At best I would like to fix the problem but I would be happy to be able to recover my data.

I am friends with the head IT guy at work and I am going to see what he think but I thought I would pose it to the board in case any of you have experienced this.

Any ideas?

Lan,

That doesn't sound good. Basically, your computer can't read from a part of the disk that it needs to read to boot up. It could just be a few bad sectors, or it could be more serious. In any case, if you are able to recover it and get it into a working state, I'd recommend you get your data off of it (onto an external hard drive, or CDRW or floppy if you have to) and then replace the drive, rather than try to keep using it.

You probably should talk to your IT friend about this, as he might be able to help you safely recover your data, and I'd hate you to do anything that would cause more problems.

The Windows Recovery Console has some utilities that may be able to repair your disk and get it working (at least for the moment) again. However, any attempts to repair the disk with these utilities could cause data loss. Personally, I'd try them, because the safe alternative is to ship the drive to a data recovery service and have them try to safely extract the data, and that's usually really expensive (probably more than $1000.)

I'm assuming you haven't changed any of the drive cabling or anything in your system BIOS.

If you can boot from your Windows CD, you'll get to a "Welcome to Setup" screen (I'm assuming you have XP), and if you press R for repair, and then select the installation for recovery (#1), it will take you to the recovery console. Then you type "chkdsk /p /r" and enter, and it will scan the disk and try to recover any bad sectors. This might repair the disk enough so that it's bootable. If not, you may need to go back to the Recovery Console and run "fixmbr" and "fixboot c:", although I'd only try these as last resort.

Some other options are: 1) get third party recovery software. I haven't used any in ages and ages, so I couldn't really recommend anything. 2) Put the hard drive into a working computer as a second hard drive (you'd probably have to adjust the master/slave settings), boot up the working computer, and try to access the drive through the operating system. 3) Boot up with a Knoppix CD (it's a version of Linux that runs off the CD-Rom) and try to mount the hard drive to get files off.

Thanks for the advice Royko.

First off I would never blame you if I tried something you suggested and the results were negative. I can't access the hard drive now so I can't see it getting much worse. I have dealt with a few computer problems and the road to computer hell is paved with good intentions.
What you have suggested is similar to what I have seen on other websites but I trust you as a source more. I have not tried to do a repair yet. I almost did but I wanted to hear what the Board might have to say and my IT friend.
I do have a external drive enclosure that I was using for an old 80gb hard drive. Maybe I can try and make this failed drive an external drive? All I really want off of it is some photos and some music.

Again thanks for your help. I'll yet you know what happens.

quote:

Maybe I can try and make this failed drive an external drive?

Not a good idea. If the drive has entered a questionable state--throw it out.

How old is the drive?

You can download manufacturer diagnostics that will give you a health status. If the drive is in warranty, and with the Diagnostic Code produced, you can get a replacement for the cost of shipping.