Much obliged.

quote:

Originally posted by Oniichan:
Much obliged.

And once you've got your local acct pwd'd, don't forget the WindowsKey+L to lock it quick.

Which brings up a vaguely related question. I've got all Mac keyboards.

Is there a way to emulate the Windows key if you don't actually have one on your kbd? (I am pretty sure that's the one I'm missing--it's the one that appears only on the right side of the kbd?)

Okay, you crazy pirates. I've got the Oingo Boingo Farewell concert DVD, which has something like 32 songs on it, all as separate chapters under Title 1. I've intended to rip the audio off as mp3s for the longest time, and am just now trying to do so.

Emphasis on 'trying.' And 'failing'. I'd been led to believe vlc would do it, but I'm having zero luck there. Anybody out there done this? I'd like to listen to this in my car, etc., but I lack the proper gangsta cred to have a dvd player in my dashboard.

There are various "DVD Decrypter" and "DeCSS" type solutions out there (make sure you include 'freeware' when googling) that will rip the DVD to the hard drive. I'm fairly sure some of them split the video and audio tracks, or there are other (freeware) tools to do that. Sorry it's not explicit and detailed, but I do this seldom enough that I never do it the same way or with the same tools, just hit google and swear until it works.

quote:

Originally posted by Splitcoil:
Okay, you crazy pirates.

Why, good sir, I have not the foggiest notion of what you're talking about.

All these DVDs - why, simple familial snapshots of our trips to the Azores, and cousin Timmy's christening. Things of that nature.

I would certainly not be able to recommend a site like Doom9, and I wouldn't know a thing about a pack full of ripping tools like Gordian Knot. And I certainly would not be able to direct you to the Wikipedia articles that have more information on them and where to download them.

Hey split, you've got incoming tech support mail which may be of assistance.

OK Excel formula gurus.

Part of Alex's probability (not Excel) assignment involves generating probabilities. The lotek way is making a cardboard spinner, and we always have that as a backup. But Excel *should* be simpler and quicker.

There are two spinners. The first has an equal probability of getting 0 and 1, so we went with =if(rand()<0.5,0,1) or something to that effect. [rand[) yields a random number between 0 and 1)

The second has a 25% probability of getting either 3 or 7 and a 50% probability of getting 5.

Kinda struggling to put together multiple conditionals in a way that yields that result.

It doesn't have to be an elegant, one-cell solution: multicolumn kludges welcome, if they work.

Hmmm... I wrote an answer based on my lack of knowledge of Excel and my knowledge of MUMPS, but then I realised that if my answer was anywhere near possible in Excel then you wouldn't have needed to ask the question.

So, my lack of Excel knowledge taken for granted... This relies on the fact that you can put the random number into a variable before doing the IFs, which I'm going to assume is possible.

X=rand() if(X<0.25,3,5) ElseIf[X>0.75,7,5)

So, put the random number in a variable X. If X less than 0.25 then output 3, else 5, but if X>0.75 then output 7.

I'm sure you can translate that in to real Excel.

(Don't know why eve insists on turning ( into [ )

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Kradlum,

Not quite computer, but:

I've just bought a cheapie Region 2 DVD player, with the intention of hacking it to be multi-region with codes off the internet. I'm reasonably confident of being able to do this, but I've never done it before. So, please, does anyone have any tips on "Stupid Mistakes To Avoid When Hacking One's DVD Player" before I start?

Don't turn the power off to the player while you're 'burning the PROM'.

don't update firmware when it's not sunny....

to generate the second probability set i would set up the formula using this pseudo code pattern:

flip a coin
if heads -> output 5
else
flip a coin
if heads ->output 3
else
output 7

I tried that, but the problem with Excel is in dealing with ELSE logic.

Here's something I came up with:

=IF(RAND()<0.5,5,[IF[RAND[)>0.75,7,3)))

The IF statement has the logic (logical test, result if true, result if false). So the first IF checks if RAND() is less than 0.5. If that's true it produces 5 as a result. If it's false it then moves into the second IF statement. That is, if and only if RAND() is over 0.5, it then checks whether it is over 0.75. If it is it returns 7, if it's not it returns 3.

This will work, as long as Excel uses the same value of RAND() for both statements in the same cell, but I don't know if it does. I think I can make it better by generating the random number in another cell and using a reference to it in the formula rather than the RAND() function.

So in Column A we just have =RAND()

In column B we have something like:

=IF(A1<0.5,5,[IF[A1>0.75,7,3)))

Now to do a bit of an empirical test with a thousand lines or so to check that the probabilities are about right.

Edit: Kick eve square in the nuts for adding square brackets

3 = 215, 5 = 513, 7 = 271 - close enough (and it keeps changing as the random autoupdates, but it's in the right rough proportions)

Thanks for your help, Krad and ed

If Excel produces a different, random, number each time you use RAND, the correct implementation of ED's algorithm would be:

=IF((RAND()<0.5),5,[IF[[RAND[)<0.5),3,7)))

I think.

Half the time, you would get 5, one quarter of the time 3, and one quarter of the time 7, as requested.

Isn't it fun how BBcode fucks up parenthesis for no obvious reason?

Yeah, I think you're right... but I can't find anywhere exactly how Excel handles multiple RAND() statements in one cell. My way seems to work.

heavyboots be da man. much respect.

I assumed each time you use rand() it would create a new random number, which is why I had to use a variable, but Colin's way is a more elegant solution anyway.