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May 29

Smartphone

what is the criteria for a phone to be a smartphone and is this phone a smartphone

• www.gsmarena.com/nokia_x2_01-3610.php 115.117.244.158 (talk) 07:49, 29 May 2012 (UTC)

See Smartphone and Nokia X2-01. From those, it is more properly called a feature phone. Dismas|^(talk) 08:07, 29 May 2012 (UTC)

kindle shopping

would it be possible for me to buy a kindle as a present for a friend, download a few books onto it and still have it so they can also buy books for it? would I need to create them a whole new amazon account for the purpose or something?

Kitutal (talk) 12:24, 29 May 2012 (UTC)

Yes you need to create an amazon account for them, or else learn their password if they have one already. You could always just buy them the kindle then let them set up and then buy some books for them--Jac16888 ^Talk 13:36, 29 May 2012 (UTC)

great. but can I upload stuff off my computer onto one? Kitutal (talk) 15:48, 29 May 2012 (UTC)

Yes, but for some odd reason you can't create "collections" unless it's connected to an account--Jac16888 ^Talk 15:51, 29 May 2012 (UTC)

so if I have an e-book downloaded to my computer, I can get it onto a kindle as well? how? Kitutal (talk) 15:59, 29 May 2012 (UTC)

Using the usb cable that comes with the kindle.--Jac16888 ^Talk 16:04, 29 May 2012 (UTC)

but I can't send stuff remotely in any way? :( Kitutal (talk) 16:09, 29 May 2012 (UTC)

Not until you have an account set up, you can an email address (xxx@kindle.com) for it which delivers content straight to it. (this is all the wi-fi version I'm talking about btw, don't know about the 3g one, but I would imagine you can't access the 3g without setting up the account first)--Jac16888 ^Talk 16:12, 29 May 2012 (UTC)

The Kindle User's Guide is available on-line here. Gandalf61 (talk) 16:15, 29 May 2012 (UTC)

While I can understand the frustration one might feel to not be able to arbitrarily put content on another person's device remotely without their participation, keep in mind that this is an obvious security feature. Imagine what mischief I could get up to if I could easily upload content to your Kindle remotely without your account information... people could stuff other people's devices with Janet Evanovich books, a fate worse than death... --Mr.98 (talk) 00:43, 30 May 2012 (UTC)

You can gift Kindle content to an email address [1] but it will be up to the user if they want to accept it as with most gifts of this sort. Nil Einne (talk) 01:58, 30 May 2012 (UTC)

Incidentally, Amazon's customer support is staggeringly good (original research). Simply calling them and explaining what you want to do might be the most fruitful option. Matt Deres (talk) 15:24, 30 May 2012 (UTC)

If you don't have any specific books in mind that your friend wants, you could download free (non-DRMmed) e-books from e.g.Project Gutenberg (mostly old stuff, for which the copyright has expired, no NYT bestsellers) and put them on the Kindle using the USB cable. Also, I think Amazon has gift cards that the person you give them to can redeem for paid e-books, so you wouldn't have to fumble around with their account (in case they have one already.) 92.226.94.8 (talk) 23:57, 3 June 2012 (UTC)Oops, didn't notice this was archived. But anyway, a gift card is probably the most elegant solution92.226.94.8 (talk) 00:04, 4 June 2012 (UTC)

Why learn those linux editors: emacs, vi, ex, vim

I'm new to Linux and want to know if you do have to know those Linux text-editors like emacs, vi, ex, vim and why. OsmanRF34 (talk) 22:04, 29 May 2012 (UTC)

No, it's possible to work without knowing any of those editors (although I personally am an emacs fan and think it's still the best editor around for many purposes). Looie496 (talk) 22:10, 29 May 2012 (UTC)

If you're coming from a Windows-ish or Mac-ish background, you may find kate easier to learn. --Trovatore (talk) 22:51, 29 May 2012 (UTC)

The question is if it's useful or even essential. But thanks for the tip. OsmanRF34 (talk)

It's not essential, but absolutely, it's useful. There are things you can do easily in vi that you can't do as easily in kate or emacs, things you can do easily in emacs that you can't do as easily in kate or vi, and things you can do easily in kate that are at least harder to learn in vi or emacs. So ideally, it's nice to know all three. But if you just want to do some text editing and don't want to spend a lot of time learning how, then kate is your friend. --Trovatore (talk) 23:26, 29 May 2012 (UTC)

If you're ever going to work on multiple systems, or systems that you don't own, learn vi -- it's the ONE option that is always available everywhere. Yes, it's relativly primitive compared to the others, and you don't have to use it as your primary editor by any means, but consider the credibility hit (and embarassment factor!) of the alternative -- walking into a site to assist them, and NOT being able to use the most common, widely-available editor, which happens to be the only one they have on their platform ...

-- DaHorsesMouth (talk) 23:04, 29 May 2012 (UTC)

What Da Horse said exactly. vi can be a pain, but it's on everything. Sputnik probably had vi running on it somewhere. It's a pain but for quick config changes, or whatever, vi is invaluable. I see less use for the full-featured word processors like emacs. Shadowjams (talk) 07:09, 30 May 2012 (UTC)

I certainly agree that it's worth learning vi; it's what I use much of the time. I'd like to know emacs but not enough to spend the time required (also, there's the witticism that emacs is a great operating system; too bad it doesn't come with a better text editor). But if the question is, do you have to know any of these to use Linux, the answer is, no, you don't have to. --Trovatore (talk) 08:28, 30 May 2012 (UTC)

From my own experience: I've been using Ubuntu for a year now on my laptop. I use it for web browsing, word processing and watching videos. I have never needed to use any of the text editors you mentioned, nor do I feel the need to learn about them. I occasionally use Gedit if I need to make a quick 'n' dirty note about something, or to fiddle around with a string before copying it into the terminal. But I suspect that if you're just using your computer, as opposed to programming it or editing HTML or something, that you'll get along fine without ever going anywhere near any of the programs you've listed. - Cucumber Mike (talk) 14:19, 30 May 2012 (UTC)

I always keep a terminal window open, partly because I use vim many times a day, largely to write quick shell scripts ad hoc for various tasks such as resizing a whole bunch of images or choosing at random from a list of webcomics. — You needn't count vi, ex, vim separately; vim is a version (or clone) of vi, and if I remember right vi was originally a 'visual' interface to ex; if you hit a colon in vi(m) you get the ex command-line. —Tamfang (talk) 18:16, 30 May 2012 (UTC)

It really depends on what you plan on using your Linux machine for. If it's just everyday use, you probably will not need to learn a text editor. It's only if you plan on doing a lot of heavy text editing (if you want to develop software, or write shell scripts and the like) that you'll find having a grasp of those text editors helpful. - Akamad (talk) 22:37, 30 May 2012 (UTC)

Honestly I would recommend knowing a text editor in any case; it's terribly useful. This is not limited to Linux — on any platform, you need to know a text editor. I get frustrated with people who insist on using Word for all their text, and then need to run Word when they use it, when (on Windows for example) they could just have used notepad or wordpad, and problem solved.

I thought the question was not "do I need to know a text editor", where the answer is "maybe you don't really have to but you really should, even if you use Windows", but rather "do I need to know a traditional Unix text editor if I'm going to use *nix", where the answer is "no, you don't really need to; other text editors will work too". --Trovatore (talk) 22:58, 30 May 2012 (UTC)

Out-of-date Firefox plugins.

Have been having this error with Ffx 12 for about 10 days now...

Yellow banner at top of page says "Some plugins used by this page are out of date", with a button to click labelled Update Plugins. Doing so opens a new tab, titled Firefox Web Browser -- Plugin Check & Updates.

Apart from a cute fox with a magnifying glass, the primary text on the page says Plugin Finding Service Error / We've encountered an error. Please try your request again later. I have been hoping that others would also have this problem, would report it, and thus that *I* wouldn't have to do anything; but apparently that ain't gonna happen.

Any suggestions? Might the Finding Service Error be related to another message on the page, "For your safety Firefox has disabled your outdated version of Java. Please upgrade to the latest version"? Which came first, the chicken or the egg; the java or the plugin?

Thanks in advance, -- DaHorsesMouth (talk) 22:57, 29 May 2012 (UTC)

http://www.mozilla.org/en-US/plugincheck/ -> http://www.java.com/en/download/inc/windows_new_xpi.jsp ¦ Reisio (talk) 01:24, 30 May 2012 (UTC)

Rather than point me to pages I have already visited, do you have an actual suggestion? -- DaHorsesMouth (talk) 02:18, 30 May 2012 (UTC)

Sure — did you try reading the pages? ¦ Reisio (talk) 02:37, 30 May 2012 (UTC)

Yes, smartass, exactly as I described it above. I'll describe it again just for you in case missed it: "Apart from a cute fox with a magnifying glass, the primary text on the page says Plugin Finding Service Error / We've encountered an error. Please try your request again later. "

Would you like me to post a screenshot?

I will admit to not knowing about the syntax [link] [arrow] [link]. If you could suggest exactly what that customarily means, I could learn something.

--DaHorsesMouth (talk) 01:35, 1 June 2012 (UTC)

There seem to be several different possible things which may cause this error; a self-signed ssl certificate from mozilla [2], disabled javascript or adblocker addons which interfere with the page javascript [3], or a very slow internet connection [4]. Most of those pages appear to be quite old though, so your problem may be something new. The java issue is most likely not related AvrillirvA (talk) 11:09, 30 May 2012 (UTC)

Thanks for your opinion on the java issue, I was wondering if one problem was causing the other. Thanks! DaHorsesMouth (talk) 01:35, 1 June 2012 (UTC)

May 30

Hovertext in Windows 7 taskbar

Whenever my cursor goes over a tab in my taskbar and moves away, some white hovertext pops up with the name of the program and other information. It is difficult to put into words my hatred of this; it's somewhere between "light myself on fire" and "planetary destruction". I would like very much to be rid of it. I've tried many times to google for a solution, but my task is made difficult by the fact that it's tough to describe what bothers me in a way that gets useful search results (and my issue is often confused with the thumbnail of the window that pops up as well). I found this post, which describes exactly what frustrates me, but I had the same problem the OP had: the solution provided worked briefly but then stopped, even though the box is still unchecked. This is a screenshot of the issue on my computer. If anyone knows how to get rid of this, or at least can tell me what its technically name is so that I can search for solutions more intelligently, I would be very much obliged. 67.164.156.42 (talk) 03:00, 30 May 2012 (UTC)

Ironically if you hover anywhere near the image at imageshack, a toolbar obscures the image! :p Oh the times! ¦ Reisio (talk) 03:05, 30 May 2012 (UTC)

If it works for a good long while after every time you uncheck/check it, you could maybe add a batch file to your startup folder to toggle it via the registry every time the OS loads. IME there isn't much you can do when Windows decides to ignore your preferences... except to constantly re-set them. :/ ¦ Reisio (talk) 03:10, 30 May 2012 (UTC)

I'm very confused by this because (a) I've never seen the popups you describe, and (b) the "show pop-up descriptions for folder and desktop items" setting that you unchecked controls something else that I do see (when it's checked): pop-up descriptions for folder and desktop items. Folder items are files in an Explorer window, and desktop items are files/shortcuts on the desktop (which is also an Explorer window, actually). Taskbar items are neither of those things, and the popup (tooltip) in your image doesn't look like the tooltips that I know are controlled by this option.

I wonder if this is simply a bug in Windows 7 (in which case you could try upgrading to Service Pack 1, if you haven't), or if it's caused by some third-party program that you have installed. -- BenRG (talk) 00:05, 31 May 2012 (UTC)

Video cassette player and analogue TV as viewing screen

Can one use ones video cassette with an analogue TV set. I do not have digital TV but still have my tv set, video recorder/player and many video cassette which I need to view. However I have not been able to get the video to work with the TV and wonder if it is because the TV MUST have a tv channel, which I cannot get, to work from. If this is the case then my TV set and video are useless and so too are my valued video recordings. Please advise if there is a way of using the video and tv when the tv is only going to operating as a screen. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 88.109.60.240 (talk) 10:26, 30 May 2012 (UTC)

My 20 years old hardware, set up the way you indicate, still shows my old tapes, long after digital broadcasting deprived it of the ability to record or show new content. Perhaps some little detail of your setup went wrong. Jim.henderson (talk) 10:34, 30 May 2012 (UTC)

(EC) There shouldn't be a problem in using your TV to view VCR cassettes. However, there are a number of variables that make it a little difficult to say exactly, or to comprehensively diagnose the issue.

You could try the following steps, and post back here letting us know which (if any) fail, in order that we can try to give you a solution:

1. Connect the VCR to the TV, ensure both are switched on, put a cassette in the video, and press 'play'. Now scan through all the channels on the TV, also checking any A/V channels you might have.
2. Check the tuning of your TV. Pick a blank channel (0 is good) and whilst playing a video access the tuning menu on the TV and search for a signal. If you need to know how to do that, try searching for your TV's user guide on Google - a search for "your TV make & model manual OR user guide", e.g. "sharp 42CDHGU20 manual OR user guide" (without the quotes) usually works.
3. Check the connections and cables between the VCR and the TV. You might have some spare cables lying in a drawer somewhere - swap them over and see what happens. If you're using a coax cable, switch to SCART or vice-versa. It might be worth a trip to an electrical retailer to pick up a cheap cable to rule that out as the source of the problem.

If all these steps fail, maybe you could give us some more information. The make and model of your TV and VCR, and a fuller description of the problem (e.g. black screen, static/'snow', not able to turn on the TV etc.) would be good places to start. As I said, there is no reason from what you've described why you shouldn't be able to view your tapes, but actually getting to that point may take a little time. Good luck! - Cucumber Mike (talk) 10:50, 30 May 2012 (UTC)

Most VCRs I've seen send the signal on either channel 3 or 4 (they usually have a dip switch to control which). Verify how it's set on your VCR, and make sure your TV is set to that channel. If that doesn't work, try switching both devices to the other channel. StuRat (talk) 22:23, 30 May 2012 (UTC)

As StuRat says, in the US, VCRs send an output signal on channel 3 or 4, typically selected by a small switch on the back panel. US analog TVs use channels with fixed frequencies, so you only need to try channel 3 or 4 on your TV to find the VCR picture. However, my understanding is that UK VCRs output on higher channel numbers, and have many channels to choose from as the output channel. My understanding is that UK analog TVs use programs that can be tuned to different channels (frequencies), so you may have to do more work at the TV to find the VCR picture. --Bavi H (talk) 01:59, 31 May 2012 (UTC)

Yes, absolutely. I've never seen a UK VCR tuned to 3 or 4 - those channels are nearly universally used for ITV 1 and Channel 4 respectively. When I was growing up our VCR was on channel 6, although at friends' houses I've seen them on channels 0, 9, 36 (quite common), 63 and 99. I think quite often people will tune it to either the lowest channel (0) or the highest - 9 if you only have 10 channels, 99 if you have 100 and so on. - Cucumber Mike (talk) 21:30, 31 May 2012 (UTC)

Ah. I also notice the difference in terminology. It seems that BrEng channel is equivalent to USEng program - that is the numbered button you press on the remote; 1 for BBC One, 2 for BBC Two and so on. I think we use the other sense as well - for a frequency band - but I'm no electrical engineer. - Cucumber Mike (talk) 21:35, 31 May 2012 (UTC)

UK and US people both use channel to refer to the digits you enter on the remote. But when I browsed some UK analog VCR and TV manuals, it looked like they used the more technical term program to refer to the number you entered, and channel to refer to what the program is actually tuned to behind the scenes.

If I understand correctly, when analog signals were broadcast, TVs across the UK were set up so that entering 1 always goes to BBC One. But in the TV's set up screens or control panel, that 1 could map to channel 21 in one area or channel 40 in another area.

In the US over-the-air analog system, channel numbers are always the same frequency on every TV. But the networks are on different channel numbers in different areas. In Dallas, ABC is on channel 8. In Houston, ABC is on channel 13. When a US person goes to another area in the US, they have to learn the channel numbers used in that area and get used to entering them on the remote control. Because a US over-the-air analog channel number is always on a specific frequency, there was no additional layer like program needed in US analog TV manuals. --Bavi H (talk) 02:53, 1 June 2012 (UTC)

Yes, and the funny thing is, now with digital TV, they have that extra layer in the US, too, so ABC could be the same channel in every area. However, they've opted to keep the old analog channel numbers, instead, so they're still different in every city. StuRat (talk) 04:03, 2 June 2012 (UTC)

How computers keep time

How come when you turn off a computer the turn it on, the time doesn't pause. It just continues even without battery. 190.60.93.218 (talk) 16:02, 30 May 2012 (UTC)

It runs off a small battery on the motherboard. Roger (talk) 16:06, 30 May 2012 (UTC)

Also what do you mean turn it off? With any ATX computer i.e. any computer for the past 15 years or so, the motherboard remains powered unless you turn off or disconnect the power supply from mains power (or disconnect it from the motherboard, but doing that while it remains on is likely a bad idea). Nil Einne (talk) 17:09, 30 May 2012 (UTC)

Back in the late 1990s and early 2000s, my family had a then-old computer that paused instead of continuing (for a while, before it stopped keeping time and started going back to 1900 every time we turned it off and turned it on again); we were glad, because it meant that we didn't have to worry about Y2K compliance. Was the pausing a sign that the battery was failing and the returning to 1900 a sign that it had died? Nyttend (talk) 20:06, 30 May 2012 (UTC)

Yes, but pausing is rather odd behavior. I'd expect it to either reset or keep time (although possibly poorly). StuRat (talk) 20:45, 30 May 2012 (UTC)

Perhaps I remembered wrongly then. I'm sure that it was keeping time (poorly) for a while before it got to the point of starting over every time we turned it on. Nyttend (talk) 01:22, 31 May 2012 (UTC)

We have a whole article on this: Nonvolatile BIOS memory. Comet Tuttle (talk) 05:55, 3 June 2012 (UTC)

Maxima to C converter

Hello Wikipedians, I use Maxima to derive complex symbolic math formulae. I want to integrate these into my software (written in C++). Do you know a convenient way to convert from maxima to a C/C++/Java like syntax? Maxima does have integrated converters to fortran and Latex, but changing the solutions to C++ is quite tedious if the formula is long enough. thanks a lot --192.124.26.252 (talk) 17:09, 30 May 2012 (UTC)

You can take the fortran and run it through f2c. -- Finlay McWalterჷTalk 17:16, 30 May 2012 (UTC)

Alternatively, you could look at symbolic algebra software designed to be used with C++ - GiNaC looks like it might be promising. 130.88.73.65 (talk) 10:12, 31 May 2012 (UTC)

firefox problem

Hi, mac os x 10.7.4, firefox 12.0. My wikipedia main page looks odd, the logo is missing and the text looks sucky. A few other websites are similarly affected. What's going on and how can I get the old appearance back? Robinh (talk) 21:12, 30 May 2012 (UTC)

That's not really much of a description to go on. "Looks odd... looks sucky" surely makes sense to you, but is hopeless vague for us. A screenshot would be far more helpful. My long-shot guesses: 1. your browser for whatever reason didn't download the stylesheets correctly. Empty the cache (Firefox > Preferences > Advanced > Cached Web Content > Clear Now) and try again. 2. maybe you set it not to use stylesheets — go to View > Page Style and make sure it is set to "Basic Page Style". --Mr.98 (talk) 22:09, 30 May 2012 (UTC)

I often see the wrong fonts appear and pics not load when my computer needs a reboot. Try that. StuRat (talk) 22:16, 30 May 2012 (UTC)

(OP) thanks guys. I get this problem intermittently and so presumed others would have seen it too, hence the short description. Emptying the cache worked, thanks

Resolved

Robinh (talk) 23:11, 30 May 2012 (UTC)

i´m connected but can not access the internet?

Hello, Windows XP Desktop (Dell Dimension 3000)is showing that its connected to the internet, but when I try to open Google Chrome it says: Cannot Find Server, Page can not be displayed. How do I get it to connect? I use a tp-link tl-wn722n to get my wi-fi signal, i use my aunt's wi-fi, even though it says i get good reception, I still can't access the internet.Does anyone know how to fix this? If so please let me know thanks. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 189.220.69.22 (talk) 22:10, 30 May 2012 (UTC)

Your problem seems to be down the line, not in the connection between your computer and the router. Try to connect with another computer, but over the same router to confirm this. Sometimes simply resetting the router solves the problem.OsmanRF34 (talk) 14:19, 31 May 2012 (UTC)

I had this very problem two weeks ago. It turns out the wireless driver in the computer was malfunctioning. If you can find out what driver your computer needs (not the easiest thing to determine without a connection), you can go to another computer, download it onto a CD or a flashstick, then load it onto your old computer. (Unfortunately, my computer was a really obscure brand, and I could not find what driver it used.)    → Michael J Ⓣ Ⓒ Ⓜ 15:40, 31 May 2012 (UTC)

May 31

HP notebook - broken left-hand hinge, AGAIN! and overheating

Gday. Anyone wth any experience with HP notebook left-hand hinge busting (in my case, a Pavilion DV6 3030TX) . The computer also overheats. The hinge failure happened during warranty and then the hinge as repaired failed, all in about 18 months from new. I believe the overheating is a factor in its failure, as well as the inherent weakness of the bottom casing at the corner where too many vent slots reduce structural continuity of the casing right near the hinge). From what I understand in reading HP forum comments, HP couldnt give a rats. But what of late? Any change in policy? Any remedy for me here in Aus for 'out of warranty' replacement/repair at no cost to me? (Certainly, no more HPs for me!) Any and all comments welcome, and thanks in advance. Benyoch ^{...Don't panic! Don't panic!...} (talk) 06:04, 31 May 2012 (UTC)

I doubt anyone can help you unless you mention where you live. In NZ, this would likely be covered under the Consumer Guarantees Act, although you'd have to either convince HP or your retailer of that, or you'd need to take them to the small claims court. Nil Einne (talk) 09:19, 31 May 2012 (UTC)Sorry missed the Aus part. Nil Einne (talk) 09:24, 31 May 2012 (UTC)

It sounds like Australian law has recently changed to be more friendly to consumers [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] however this only took effect in 2011 or 2012 so if you're item is older then 18 months you're probably only covered under the old law. Whether the old law protects you I can't say, my understanding was Australian consumer law was fairly weak when it came to product defects and out of warranty problem of this sort. Nil Einne (talk) 09:34, 31 May 2012 (UTC) Edit: Per [10] [11] [12], it sounds like you may have a case, I suggest you read more and then contact HP if you believe they failing their obligations. If that doesn't work, try contacting an appropriate consumer protection organisation or CAB for advice. Nil Einne (talk) 09:46, 31 May 2012 (UTC)

vi, vim and ex

Regarding the programs listed above, is it just coincidence that these three are all Latin words, and vi and vim are different forms of the same word vis? 67.164.156.42 (talk) 07:19, 31 May 2012 (UTC)

Please read the articles on the three editors. vi Vim (text editor) and ex (text editor) explain their naming. Come back if you need more. The langauge desk might provide better help since you need to dig into the antecedents of words like visual or extended or improved to understand the latin coincidence. --Tagishsimon (talk) 08:49, 31 May 2012 (UTC)

I know what specific cause gave rise to their names, but that doesn't necessarily tell me if the creators chose to name them this way deliberately to mimic Latin words. 67.164.156.42 (talk) 19:03, 1 June 2012 (UTC)

Overclocking Video Cards

WHAT IS THE best soft to overclock nvidia videocards i mean maybe that which is used most???? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 77.35.18.106 (talk) 11:06, 31 May 2012 (UTC)

This driver add-on is the "official" tool from nvidia for overclocking 206.131.39.6 (talk) 18:45, 31 May 2012 (UTC)

man thanks a bunch! didnt know something like this existed there. all those third party apps look too bulky and complicated to me while this one is realy neat and easy to get on with — Preceding unsigned comment added by 77.35.8.57 (talk) 00:39, 1 June 2012 (UTC)

browsers and standardisation

Hi all. I'm learning Javascript/jQuery/jQuery UI with a bit of css thrown in (not to become an expert, just for a web application I'm devising). Loading the same page in IE and Safari produces quite different results, possibly because of some bug in jQuery, possibly because of some error in my code causing non-standard behaviour. Wherever the problem lies, it seems as though standardisation across browsers, and basic functionality, are slow to emerge. Drag and drop interfaces using Javascript are still not easy or standardised, although jQuery is going a long way. Also there would seem to be quite a few bugs around getting in the way. Yet the web has been around for quite a while now. Why have these things taken so long to emerge? Is it because of the difficulty of getting different companies to agree on standardisation, or is the programming task inherently difficult?

On a different note, I'm looking for a way to get a webpage to show me, at the click of a button (or similar) all the classes (css etc) which each element has. One of the problems with my code is that somehow Safari and IE aren't even getting the same classes attached to each element, hence they are displaying very differently. I'm getting rounded corners in Safari, but sharp edges in IE, for various text boxes. I know it's something to do with classes not getting attached, because I've programmed it to print certain classes within each element, but this is laborious, so I'm looking for a universal way. Many thanks, IBE (talk) 18:14, 31 May 2012 (UTC)

As to your latter question, about inspecting the actual styles on a given object, there's a Firefox extension called Firebug which has a lot of useful features for web developers, including the "inspect" ability, which lets one see the specified styles on a given element (what applies to this element from each of the stylesheets that pertain) and the computed style (which is the net result of applying all the styles). Google Chrome has much the same functionality built in. I don't know about IE or Safari. -- Finlay McWalterჷTalk 18:53, 31 May 2012 (UTC)

As to your former, make sure the very first line of your source starts with, exactly, <!doctype html>, and then make sure your markup and CSS are valid. Your suspicions about different companies are correct. ¦ Reisio (talk) 21:34, 31 May 2012 (UTC)

(nb I altered your indenting) wtf..!!!!! it works! I don't know what that did, but somehow when I do that, then even change back (so the doctype message is later in the file) it still works! Totally awesome, and I was on the verge of chewing up hours trying to find where it was failing to link. Much appreciated, IBE (talk) 22:52, 31 May 2012 (UTC)

If it's truly still working after moving it back where it shouldn't be, I would assume some wonderful caching issue, hit CTRL+F5 a couple times. Not that there's any good reason for it to not be the first line... ¦ Reisio (talk) 23:51, 31 May 2012 (UTC)

Different browsers handle invalid markup differently. There's really no point in testing HTML (or CSS) that doesn't validate, as all you're doing is exploring those inconsistencies (which may differ subtly between even point releases of the same browser). I think HTML5 finally has a formal definition of what browsers should do with invalid markup, but I'd never want to rely on that. Part of a sensible automated build process for a nontrivial website includes running all the html through a validator like HTML Tidy; it can seem like a martinet quibbling over trivia, but it's always right and complying with its demands can be rather educational. -- Finlay McWalterჷTalk 23:26, 31 May 2012 (UTC)

Indeed. Although to be clear, ensuring code will trigger standards mode and not quirks mode is historically out of HTML Tidy's scope. In recent years the W3C validator has sometimes generated warnings about it, but it's one bit of information well worth lodging away and not relying on a validator to remind you of. ¦ Reisio (talk) 23:51, 31 May 2012 (UTC)

June 1

How can I embed a Wikipedia article into my website?

Hi,

I am updating some tourism pages about Monmouthshire and want to embed the pages from Wikipedia into the website.

We use Typo 3 which is an open source CMS.

My guess would be that I would need a widget to be able to embed the article and include any live updates?

Are you aware of anything that has already been produced to enable me to do this?

Kind regards

Joanna Goodwin — Preceding unsigned comment added by 195.194.75.226 (talk) 09:17, 1 June 2012 (UTC)

<div style="width: 639px; height: 600px;">
	<object data="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monmouthshire#top" style="width: 800px; height: 600px; margin: 0 0 0 -161px;"></object>
</div>

¦ Reisio (talk) 15:46, 1 June 2012 (UTC)

Computer build problem

At work a computer wouldnt start and we thought it could be the motherboard so I replaced it keeping all the other components the same. When I turned it on it would give no video signal and beeping three times, pause, beep three times... One by one I went changing the components and trying again but I get the same result. Ive changed the RAM, PSU, in addition to the motherboard which was new. Graphics were integrated on both motherboards. I havn't changed the HDD as I dont see how this could cause a problem at the POST/before booting the OS. Im thinking maybe its the CPU but since we dont have a spare I want to have a better idea before suggesting we get a new one. Also another thing it may be is that because the new motherboard has a different layout I had to cut the cables going from the cases power switch to the motherboard and extend them myself using "cable butts" (I think thats what they're called) and maybe even just one of them may not be done properly. I dont really see how this could cause a problem as it does "work" (i.e. when I push the power button the computer starts up) but maybe it is. Any suggestions? --195.244.210.38 (talk) 10:36, 1 June 2012 (UTC)

The motherboard manual will have an explanation of the different beep patterns, which will explain what system the motherboard controller thinks is defective. You should be able to find the motherboard's model number written on it somewhere, and you can find the manual online at its manufacturer's website. -- Finlay McWalterჷTalk 11:11, 1 June 2012 (UTC)

See also Power-on self-test --Tagishsimon (talk) 13:05, 1 June 2012 (UTC)

I cannot access Hot mail. but live is ok can I cancell hot mail or is it worth keeping ? I never use it — Preceding unsigned comment added by 94.12.253.28 (talk) 16:52, 1 June 2012 (UTC)

AOL proxies

• What are AOL proxies?
• Are they legal, in London?
• If yes, how do you access them?--Deathlaser :  Chat  17:53, 1 June 2012 (UTC)

If you use AOL to access the internet, you go through their proxies. You don't access them from outside their network. We don't give legal advice. RudolfRed (talk) 19:30, 1 June 2012 (UTC)

Re-read the question. He asked if they are legal. That's looking for info, not advice. Dismas|^(talk) 23:29, 1 June 2012 (UTC)

Exactly.--Deathlaser :  Chat  12:56, 2 June 2012 (UTC)

How do I use AOL to access the internet.--Deathlaser :  Chat  12:56, 2 June 2012 (UTC)

You sign up as a customer. 131.111.255.9 (talk) 18:35, 2 June 2012 (UTC)

Wikileaks

• Is wikileaks legal?
• Is it a part of wikimedia foundations?--Deathlaser :  Chat  17:54, 1 June 2012 (UTC)

We don't give legal advice. ¶ No. —Tamfang (talk) 18:29, 1 June 2012 (UTC)

WikiLeaks was never affiliated with the Wikimedia Foundation. For a brief time, WikiLeaks used the MediaWiki software, so it superficially appeared similar to Wikipedia and other MediaWiki-operated websites; but it was not organized or operated by anyone associated to Wikipedia or the Wikimedia Foundation. Nimur (talk) 18:46, 1 June 2012 (UTC)

Legal advice and info on law are different.--Deathlaser :  Chat  19:31, 1 June 2012 (UTC)

The legality of Wikileaks is going to vary greatly by jurisdiction. In the United States, the "legality" question breaks down into two different categories of issues: 1. Is the site itself legal? (Can it be shut down or censored?) and 2. Have those who operated it committed illegal acts? They are separate legal questions.

On #1, it is very hard to shut down publications of anything ("prior restraint"), even if they exist solely to give away secrets, because of the power of the First Amendment. (See Near v. Minnesota, Pentagon_Papers#Legal_case, United States v. The Progressive.) It's not impossible. But it would be very hard, especially since the information is already out there. (Censoring something after the fact in the name of preserving secrets that are already out there is not going to impress judges.)

On #2, did the individuals involved in creating WikiLeaks commit illegal acts? This is the really tough question, and, is totally unrelated to whether the US has the legal ability to censor the site. Bradley Manning, the guy who allegedly leaked all those State Department cables and Iraq videos to WikiLeaks, is currently on trial for violating the Espionage Act. It seems highly likely that he will be convicted if they can prove he did what they say he did; leaking secret cables is an obvious violation of the Act, and American whistleblower protections are not very strong in those sorts of cases. If he were extradited to the United States, it is plausible that Julian Assange could be tried under the Espionage Act as well, even though he wasn't the original leaker — the Act is very broad. Whether that would upheld in Appeal, nobody can say: Assange is in this role a publisher, and this could easily be a First Amendment issue. (There is a big legal distinction between Manning and Assange — Manning had a security clearance that gave him access to classified information, while Assange is a private individual who published stuff that someone else gave him.) I have no idea how the legal systems of other countries would handle this matter, and even with the United States, as I've pointed out, there is considerable ambiguity and nobody can really answer one way or another. I've just tried to outline the main legal issues that exist; this is not legal advice, obviously.

A separate question is whether using WikiLeaks is legal — e.g., can you and I look at the website legally? This is far more vague and also strays into the "legal advice" arena. The Espionage Act is very, very broad: I could imagine interpretations of it that said that even accessing the URL, knowing that it contains classified information and seeking it out, much less downloading it to your computer's cache (or god forbid, making a backup of it), could be construed as a violation of the section on "gathering" defense information.[13] In practice it is hard to imagine the US actually prosecuting someone for just looking at it, but that doesn't rule it out. The State Department and other government agencies have certainly said that they will discipline government employees that look at WikiLeaks (on the grounds that they are showing insufficient respect for classification guidelines), but that's not the same thing as illegality (you can be fired for things that aren't illegal). Short answer there: nobody has been tried for that, but that doesn't rule it out. (Did I emphasize how broad the Espionage Act is enough times? It's really broad. Just in case that didn't come across the first five times I said it.) --Mr.98 (talk) 19:46, 1 June 2012 (UTC)

Regarding using WikiLeaks, although I have no clue as to the general public, I do recall that when the leaks were in the news, it was mentioned that the Department of Defense and other Government agencies were warning people with security clearances that accessing the leaked documents could result in voiding their security clearances. The reason being that as far as the DoD was concerned, a significant portion of the the leaked information was still classified, and one of the things which can cause revocation of your security clearance is accessing or attempting to access classified information which you do not have clearance to access. [14] [15] [16] -- 140.142.20.101 (talk) 00:23, 2 June 2012 (UTC)

Right, that's what I mentioned about not respecting classified information and all that. It's not a legal thing, it's a "your security clearance is a privilege and not a right" sort of thing. It's a silly policy (our government workers can't read the webpage, but everyone else in the world can? who does that help?) but such is the nature of the American security regime ("Cutting off our noses to spite our faces since 1947"). --Mr.98 (talk) 00:33, 2 June 2012 (UTC)

The issue of a possible connection came up so often that a page was created to address it: Wikipedia:WikiLeaks is not part of Wikipedia. PrimeHunter (talk) 21:55, 1 June 2012 (UTC)

And heck, it isn't even a Wiki, anymore. --Mr.98 (talk) 00:33, 2 June 2012 (UTC)

Very American perspective so far here. Wikileaks "is an international...organisation" established by Julian Assange, an Australian. The USA has not been the only target. It has been hosted in many different countries, quite possibly never the US. So American law is of limited relevance to its legality. 118.209.79.191 (talk) 00:44, 2 June 2012 (UTC)

I never claimed to speak for more than the US situation, and indicated in my first sentence that it would vary by jurisdiction. Given that the majority (by volume) of the official secrets leaked thus far are American, though, and given that the US has been especially aggressive in prosecuting leaks, and given that there is strong suspicion (at least, this is what Assange believes) that the US wants to extradite Assange for prosecution, and given that one of the main alleged leakers (Manning) is currently being tried for leaking in a US court and under US laws, I can hardly see the US case as being of "limited" relevance. If you know the relevant legal aspects of other relevant nations, please feel free to contribute them, but until then, pointing out that I have only discussed the US situation is of, well, "limited relevance" to contributing to this thread. --Mr.98 (talk) 13:07, 2 June 2012 (UTC)

Wireless bandwidth limiting

Dear Wikipedians:

My tenants' kids seem to be abusing the wireless network I am providing them. My tenants are really good people so I don't want to upset them by bringing up this issue. I would like to stealthily limit the amount of wireless bandwidth my tenants can use. My old Bell DSL modem is capable to limiting incoming wireless connections to a total of 1 Mbps. However, I've recently upgraded to a different plan from Bell and the technician came and took away the old modem and replaced it with a new modem that does not have such capabilities. So I was wondering if there exists any alternative software or hardware solutions that allows me to realize the limiting of wireless bandwidth.

Thanks for all your help,

70.29.25.124 (talk) 23:18, 1 June 2012 (UTC)

Can you give us the name and model number of the router? (E.g. "NETGEAR WGR614v9") This will help us figure out what sort of hardware or software solution would be possible. It might also help to know your operating system (e.g. Windows 7, or whatever). --Mr.98 (talk) 00:36, 2 June 2012 (UTC)

Also please let us know what sort of ISP you have and the amount of bandwidth you're paying for. Residential Internet connections in the US are often under 10% of the speed of a Wireless-G network, so it's possible that throttling your tenants' wireless access may not have any effect on your network's connection to the Internet itself. Comet Tuttle (talk) 04:16, 2 June 2012 (UTC)

Right, you don't want to upset them by bringing up the issue. Because parents never get complaints about their kids, and landlords never do their best to get as much cash as possible out of their tenants. ¦ Reisio (talk) 05:23, 2 June 2012 (UTC)

pointlessness removed
The following discussion has been closed. Please do not modify it.
Who cares what the premise is. We're here to help give technical advice. If you don't want to participate, then don't. There's a wide variety of landlords, in any case. --Mr.98 (talk) 16:28, 2 June 2012 (UTC) Me, obviously? Drat, you mean I’m not required to participate‽ Are there really? :p ¦ Reisio (talk) 22:11, 2 June 2012 (UTC)

June 2

Delta network

What is 3²x4² delta network? 49.136.99.150 (talk) 13:08, 2 June 2012 (UTC)

Free software alternatives to Synthesia Game

Are there free software alternatives to Synthesia Game? I want to learn piano. 123.24.125.166 (talk) 15:37, 2 June 2012 (UTC)

http://pianobooster.sf.net/ Also you could find a human being to get you started. ¦ Reisio (talk) 19:26, 2 June 2012 (UTC)

How could someone determine that I am a sockpuppet?

This happened on another site. You wouldn't think that this would happen, but I was banned with the explanation that only one name is allowed. And it wasn't a temporary ban. I don't see how they could do this because it would be very difficult to prove. Yet I do know that at a library near my house, several years ago, I wanted to use a different name on that site to keep me from being connected to the topic. I don't remember exactly how it came up. Maybe I asked why I couldn't sign in with the other name. They had figured out it was me, appreciated my confession, and said because of my good record and my explanation that I wasn't familiar with a rule against the practice.

This time, I have no way of knowing what happened.— Vchimpanzee · talk · contributions · 15:39, 2 June 2012 (UTC)

Usually, by comparing the IP of different usernames (which are recorded when you enter the site logged in), they can find users using multiple accounts. You cannot log in with different usernames because your IP was banned. If you want more informations, see Wikipedia:Sock puppetry. 123.24.125.166 (talk) 16:23, 2 June 2012 (UTC)

I haven't tried logging in except with my "main" name since the ban took effect. I wasn't able to use the other name once they figured out it was me, but I'm unclear as to how they found out. I could have used the "main" name at that library but I don't know.— Vchimpanzee · talk · contributions · 16:32, 2 June 2012 (UTC)

Know?

Do you know any good legal proxy servers that don't cost money?--Deathlaser :  Chat  18:40, 2 June 2012 (UTC)

This presumably following from the AOL discussion above. I'm curious, what do you imagine is an illegal proxy server? Typically, free proxies (which are readily Google-able) are incredibly slow and unreliable. Paid services are available, precisely because it costs money to run the service - electricity, maintenance and bandwidth aren't free. In any case, it would help to know what your specific interest is. 131.111.255.9 (talk) 20:20, 2 June 2012 (UTC)

June 3

fast lexical scanner

I'm interested in writing a fast lexical scanner that recognizes 50 or so English words. The scanner also has to be able to say "this word is not on the list" if it sees a word that's not part of the fixed vocabularity. Two traditional ways to do it are:

1. Hash each incoming word (maybe with a perfect hash) generator, and if a hit is found, use strncmp or equivalent (maybe a SSE4 STTNI instruction) to make sure that it's a real hit. I think this is what gcc does.
2. Use a hard coded state machine to recognize incoming words character by character. Tinycc and lcc do this.

I would have expected the second approach to cause a lot of pipeline stalls because of all the conditional branches, but so far I haven't run benchmarks. Before I do a bunch of work making such measurements, does anyone know if this has already been studied? Thanks.

69.228.171.139 (talk) 00:19, 3 June 2012 (UTC)

Yes it's already been studied. ¦ Reisio (talk) 00:35, 3 June 2012 (UTC)

How?

Somebody has to tell me. I have been mystified all day. How is this done? KägeTorä - (影虎) (TALK) 04:47, 3 June 2012 (UTC)

Curse you for making me listen to that music! It's being projected onto a screen, I think. Looie496 (talk) 05:30, 3 June 2012 (UTC)

Sorry about that :) But if you look at some of the other videos, the characters are on a catwalk, with people behind them. KägeTorä - (影虎) (TALK) 05:39, 3 June 2012 (UTC)

Your answer is at about 5:15 of this video. Start at about 3:15 for a more complete answer. Dismas|^(talk) 06:28, 3 June 2012 (UTC)

Problem with MuseScore

Hey, seems like I cannot authorize MuseScore to interact with musescore.com. The website shows me the error message which is at http://musescore.com/oauth/authorize?oauth_token=null. What to do? 123.24.125.166 (talk) 08:42, 3 June 2012 (UTC)