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February 8

What should I do with my Eee PC netbook that has Windows XP?

Hello, everyone. I have an ASUS Eee PC 904HA netbook (Intel Atom N270 1.6 GHz, 1 GB RAM expandable to 2 GB, 160 GB HDD, 8.9" 1024×600 LCD) with Windows XP Home, which is the OS the manufacturer installed on it. With the display on my primary computer (an HP Pavilion dv1049cl that I bought new around U.S. Thanksgiving in 2004) having recently quit (I'm now using it with an external display) and Microsoft ending support for Windows XP in 14 months, I'm wondering what to do with it. Currently, I use it to surf the Web (occasionally watching videos hosted on YouTube and the like). The only other things I do with other computers are keeping my calendar using Mozilla Sunbird and, once in a blue moon, word processing. (I've been using Microsoft Works for the latter but I'm trying to learn LibreOffice Writer.) I may also start using either QuickBooks Online or GnuCash (depending on which of the two we adopt at work).

Some people are still using Windows 2000, right? Will I be able to continue to use XP securely beyond April 2014? Will the netbook run Windows 7 well if I add RAM? I'm wary of learning Linux.

Thanks in advance. --anon. 71.183.136.48 (talk) 02:51, 8 February 2013 (UTC)

Well, according to Microsoft it will no longer be secure, but I've used Windows 98 for years past when they dropped support for it. If you don't have critical data on it or do things like online banking, how much security do you really need ? Worst case scenario, your O/S gets hopelessly messed up and you reinstall it.

However, if you want to upgrade to Windows 7, you seem to have the basic reqs there. Of course, you could also put that money towards a new laptop, then use this one as a backup. One other comment: 14 months is forever in the field of computers, so you probably shouldn't decide now. For one thing, the cost of a Windows 7 upgrade will probably drop in half by then. StuRat (talk) 03:47, 8 February 2013 (UTC)

No doubt I will use my netbook to use my email accounts and I wouldn't want the password for any of them to be stolen. As for the price of Windows 7, with seemingly plenty of users not happy with the new-fangled ways of doing things in Windows 8, I figure Windows 7 won't see a drop in sales. Also note that when Microsoft puts a new version of Windows on sale, it stops issuing copies of the previous version one year later (or so I've read).

(I will consider Linux, though — maybe even Ubuntu, as Ubuntu Netbook Edition has been merged into Ubuntu proper.) --anon. 71.183.136.48 (talk) 20:46, 9 February 2013 (UTC)

Install a lightweight Linux distribution instead. It will do everything you do now, run faster, and be more secure. Henry^Flower 00:28, 9 February 2013 (UTC)

I don’t think Unix is hard to learn (indeed, I would say a person inexperienced with both operating systems would prefer Unix over Windows), but aside from that, you might consider that if you do have to put forth a considerable effort to learn it, you may well never have to learn anything again. The software is virtually all open source, so things aren’t discontinued as with Windows XP, at least not unless they truly are almost universally recognized as inferior to something new (and even then, you can maintain things yourself if you want). ¦ Reisio (talk) 00:33, 9 February 2013 (UTC)

It depends on your Linux distro, but I've definitely had some that are hard to use, especially when doing things like downloading and installing programs. Some distros lack a single downloader which will do it all in one step. I've also had trouble getting Linux web browsers to work with Java, Flash, etc. StuRat (talk) 00:49, 9 February 2013 (UTC)

Sounds like you’ve been using Slackware. :p In general I’d say it’s hard to argue that Unix-style package management is not superior to random executable hunting online; but you were of course being specific. ¦ Reisio (talk) 05:41, 9 February 2013 (UTC)

NetAssistant/Freeze.Com

How can I remove NetAssistant/Freeze.COM from my Windows 8 PC? It doesn't show up in the list of installed programs in the Control Panel. RNealK (talk) 06:53, 8 February 2013 (UTC)

You can download, for instance, ad-aware and scan you computer. Ruslik_Zero 09:02, 8 February 2013 (UTC)

Well, that didn't do anything, so I went into regedit and removed Freeze.com from the registry, and now ad-aware's blekko.com page pops up. Guess I'll uninstall that and see what happens.  :) RNealK (talk) 00:37, 9 February 2013 (UTC)

Is a Sapphire RADEON HD 7970 Graphics card suitable for calculating Dho-Nha geometry curves in real time?

Is a Sapphire RADEON HD 7970 Graphics card suitable for calculating Dho-Nha geometry curves in real time? If so what precautions should I take, I was thinking an extra cooling fan would be sufficient.

I would isolate the baseboard and set pi to four just to be on the safe side. Dmcq (talk) 09:20, 8 February 2013 (UTC)

don't do it - you fool!

is facebookmail.com a real address?

I get messages from facebook from "facebookmail.com", for example this recent one on "Getting back onto Facebook"... called

“ Hi ********,

Sorry you’ve been having trouble logging into your Facebook account.

Get back on Facebook now

You can also get password help or login help on Facebook.

Thanks,

The Facebook Team

”

I'm confused...if this is a phishing thing that's always from the same address, why on Earth would Google actually deliver mail from "facebookmail.com" right into my inbox? I don't get much spam, but Google always puts it into my spam folder.... I can't beleive that this is both obvious, confirmed phishing, and Google's gmail is very happy to deliver it. So...which is it? 91.120.48.242 (talk) 11:14, 8 February 2013 (UTC)

What does WHOIS say about facebookmail.com? --jpgordon^{::==( o )} 15:22, 8 February 2013 (UTC)

Google is far from perfect (and the way they hide the spam folder is a terrible idea). ¦ Reisio (talk) 00:36, 9 February 2013 (UTC)

Have you really been having trouble logging in to Facebook? If not, then it sounds as if someone else has been trying to log in to your account. Make sure your password is secure. I assume you have checked the headers to see if the e-mail really came from facebookmail.com. Phishing e-mails often fill in a false "From" entry. Does it have a link to a fake Facebook login page? Dbfirs 11:21, 9 February 2013 (UTC)

After signing into Facebook, click on the top-right gear icon, go to Help, and search for facebookmail.com. You'll find this help document confirms you should add @facebookmail.com to your account's safe list to make sure you get notifications from Facebook.

When I sign in to Facebook, I occasionally mistype my password, and so I just re-enter it more carefully on the next screen and get in with no problems. However, when this happens to me, Facebook always sends me the "Getting back onto Facebook" e-mail you describe. If you remember mistyping your password and having to re-enter it to sign in, then you can just delete the e-mail. If you don't remember doing this, then someone else may be trying sign in as you. If your password is something someone else might be able to guess, you might want to change your password to protect your account. --Bavi H (talk) 20:03, 9 February 2013 (UTC)

Windows 8 laptop start, desktop and touchpad problem

When using a laptop which has Windows 8 installed is there any way to stop the screen switching to the Start tab i.e. only bring up the menu or move the the mouse left, when you swipe from the right on a touchpad? Simply south...... walking into bells for just 6 years 16:08, 26 January 2013 (UTC)

Could you rephrase? I don’t think I quite parsed that as you intended. ¦ Reisio (talk) 20:20, 27 January 2013 (UTC)

It sounds like you are using the "Windows Classic" display, which includes the Start button. Switching to the new display, which lacks the Start button, would be one option, although obviously that has a major impact on usability. StuRat (talk) 14:52, 29 January 2013 (UTC)

http://classicshell.sf.net/ could help with that. ¦ Reisio (talk) 00:22, 30 January 2013 (UTC)

 Reopened Sorry, the menu I was having trouble with I have learnt is called the Charms bar. Difficultly north (talk) - Simply south alt. 11:58, 8 February 2013 (UTC)

I’m afraid that doesn’t make it any clearer, the problem (with your wording or my understanding of it) is more fundamental than that. ¦ Reisio (talk) 22:36, 12 February 2013 (UTC)

A (hopefully) simple question about MS Word

A few weeks ago I noticed that when I save files in MS Word 2007, the next time they are opened, the following message pops up: "xxx.docx should be opened as read-only unless changes to it need to be saved. Open as read-only?". Now, I realize that when saving a file in the first place I can go to the Tools button in the Save As dialog box, select General Options, and uncheck the "read-only recommended" box in order for that message to not show up when the file is opened later, but how in the world did that box ended up to be checked by default in the first place? Now it has to be unchecked for every single file I save, which gets old very quickly. Any suggestions about how to fix this would be greatly appreciated. I didn't find anything applicable in the Word Options, but perhaps I'm not looking in the right place?—Ëzhiki (Igels Hérissonovich Ïzhakoff-Amursky) • (yo?); February 8, 2013; 15:18 (UTC)

I can't answer as to how to prevent it, but I can see why they might make this the default. This is the safest choice, and they often err on the side of safety. They don't seem to realize that having warning messages pop-up right and left, for trivial things, leads to people ignoring them all, and this causes the very problems they are trying to avoid. StuRat (talk) 22:39, 8 February 2013 (UTC)

Yeah, but who are they? :) This is an old installation; suddenly a few weeks ago it started doing it. As far as I remember, there have been no updates to trigger this (and I have this exact same version of Word at home, and it's not doing it), no one else has access to this computer, and while I can entertain the possibility that I myself changed something in the settings which I didn't realize would result in this behavior, I don't believe I was doing anything with any kind of Office settings in this time frame! I'm saving the files for my own use; surely I can decide when it is and when it is not safe to edit them? What am I missing?—Ëzhiki (Igels Hérissonovich Ïzhakoff-Amursky) • (yo?); February 8, 2013; 23:31 (UTC)

I've had programs suddenly change behavior like this, and don't know why, either. Perhaps a customization file that told it not to do this happened to get corrupted, and it thus it reverted to it's default behavior. StuRat (talk) 00:45, 9 February 2013 (UTC)

This article [1] says that by defining a macro called FileSaveAs you can change the default action (in versions of word from 97 - 2003) - it may be worth looking to see if such a macro exists. Cheers, davidprior ^t/_c 13:08, 9 February 2013 (UTC)

No, there was no such macro in place, but thanks for the idea! I wrote one that does the opposite of what's in that example and while it does not resolve the root of the problem, it is a workable temporary measure until a more permanent solution can be found. Much appreciated!—Ëzhiki (Igels Hérissonovich Ïzhakoff-Amursky) • (yo?); February 11, 2013; 19:01 (UTC)

DVI and VGA cable

Using a DVI cable instead of a VGA cable makes any difference in quality, performance or anything?

…using the same monitor(this monitor)

thanks Iskánder Vigoa Pérez (talk) 22:52, 8 February 2013 (UTC)

Originally, VGA meant 640×480 resolution, but the term has come to mean a variety of resolutions, up to 7680×4800, apparently: [2]. A single DVI signal seems to be limited to 1920×1200, but dual-signal can be much greater. So, we can't really say which is better, it depends on the type of signal you are trying to send, and whether that signal is well supported by DVI or VGA standards. StuRat (talk) 00:31, 9 February 2013 (UTC)

DVI connections altogether are preferred for good reason over VGA ones, but it’s entirely possible your eyes will not notice any difference at all. ¦ Reisio (talk) 00:40, 9 February 2013 (UTC)

My personal experience is that analogue VGA cables, particularly longer ones, particularly the cheaper variety can be quite susceptible to interference. I haven't seen this problem with DVI on the same equipment. My personal preference is for HDMI or DVI where at all possible ---- _nonsense ferret 01:36, 9 February 2013 (UTC)

Thank you all, I was asking because the included cable is a VGA and some reviewers said that for obtain the best result you most buy a spare DVI cable… but why??

I now today a DVI cable don’t cost that much but in the case of buying more than one it would be another charge, and an unnecessary one, I even could start seeing another monitors, a shame because I really liked this dell

And in any case the cable would be the same long of the Dell included one, I guess the standard for a tower to monitor connection

any reference for any real difference or is just marketing?

Iskánder Vigoa Pérez (talk) 03:03, 9 February 2013 (UTC)

There’s a real difference; as nonsense mentioned, VGA is analog, and DVI is digital. But again, you truly may not notice the difference in the least. Also you can probably find someone / an office / dumpster that has DVI cables for free; I got one with each of two computers a year or two ago, and the computers didn’t even have DVI ports. :p I’d offer to have you pay postage to get you one, but it’d probably cost more than just getting one yourself. :p ¦ Reisio (talk) 05:33, 9 February 2013 (UTC)

A couple more thoughts:

1) If there's no visible problem with the current arrangement, I wouldn't worry about changing it.

2) However, if you do want to try out a DVI, I suggest buying it from a local store which will allow you to return it without restocking charges (beware packaging that has to be destroyed to get it open). Then, if the DVI cable is no better, just return it. StuRat (talk) 03:19, 9 February 2013 (UTC)

Thanks again… any anothe ranswer, preferably a more categorical one? Or a reference please?

In theory, there is any perceptible difference at all, or who say “a dvi cable is way better than a vga one” or “to enjoy all the potential of your monitor you need a blabla cable” is somewhat the same as who say “intel cpu sockets are pentagonal… not four sided”

I have ask in other places but here is the only place I feel the people don’t start writing useless garbage, man… one can really lear n pretty interesting stuff in here!!

The fact that everyone in anywhere tell me that “dvi/hdmi are better” in a so unconditionally way and no one can tell me why, really bothers me, I mean, even the service guys from my current ASUS, and I switch all its cables and the picture is just the same!

Iskánder Vigoa Pérez (talk) 00:42, 13 February 2013 (UTC)

Let me add some thoughts on digital versus analog. Digital can produce a better image when there is a nice strong signal with no interference. It can be perfect, while some small imperfections are visible in an analog signal. However, when there's lots of noise, an analog signal can still be usable, while a digital signal is not (they could fix this if they resend the signal, using an error-correction system, but they generally don't do this). So, which is better ? It all depends on how good your signal is. StuRat (talk) 03:28, 13 February 2013 (UTC)

February 9

using two antivirus programs

Is it advisable to use two anti-virus programs on the same computer? In particular, avast! along with Malwarebytes? Bubba73 ^{You talkin' to me?} 01:19, 9 February 2013 (UTC)

For two actual anti-virus programs, probably not, since a process lurking in the background moving files around and changing computer settings is both what a virus does and what an anti-virus program does, so they tend to treat each other as viruses. However, the second one you listed is a more general anti-malware program, and those tend to be more tolerant of each other. Specifically, programs you run periodically to clean things up play better together than those which run constantly. StuRat (talk) 01:27, 9 February 2013 (UTC)

Probably depends strongly on which operating system is used, and what purposes the computer is used for. Anti virus programs help a bit - but I've seen a few viruses out there that were not caught by these programs - so they are no substitute for safe behaviour and a securely designed OS. Years ago viruses used to be highly public and quickly captured by the AntiV companies - I think there has been a bit of a change where viruses now tend to be much more focussed and commercial - in these cases I guess you are relying on the heuristic analysis capabilities of antiV software which by their nature seem to be a bit more hit and miss. ---- _nonsense ferret 01:43, 9 February 2013 (UTC)

Last week the computer at my bridge club (it gets light, limited use) picked up a Trojan. They got someone who seemed knowledgeable to fix it. He removed the AV software that had been in use and added Malwarebytes and avast. That computer gets limited use. But a few months ago I got rid of Norton and started using Malwarebytes only. I thought that it covered viruses, but I guess not. So now I'm adding avast. Bubba73 ^{You talkin' to me?} 02:51, 9 February 2013 (UTC)

Likely to be more effective to consider proper user account control. People using the computer are unlikely to require administrator access, so if you make sure the system is only logged into an account that can't do any harm - this would be quite helpful in avoiding viruses. No AV program will give you 100% coverage. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Nonsenseferret (talk • contribs) 03:18, 9 February 2013 (UTC)

A policy statement to that effect went out this week. Bubba73 ^{You talkin' to me?} 03:31, 9 February 2013 (UTC)

If it picked up a trojan (which needn’t be a virus, but which antivirus software would still likely detect), most likely the definitions for the existing software were out of date, or it had otherwise expired (so many new computers come with trialware antivirus software). Additionally not all antivirus software can or necessarily will (if configured in a certain way) scan every file downloaded by a browser automatically; particularly with older software. ¦ Reisio (talk) 05:38, 9 February 2013 (UTC)

The packaging of Malwarebytes Anti-Malware Pro says, "Compatible with leading antivirus software Visit www.malwarebytes.org [not .com] for more details." --anon 71.183.136.48 (talk) 15:04, 9 February 2013 (UTC)

Using two anti-virus programs at the same time is not a good idea. They might well go to war against each other, each accusing their rival of being infested with every virus under the sun. That said, Malwarebytes is not an anti-virus program but an anti-malware program with a different purpose and different targets. Astronaut (talk) 20:57, 11 February 2013 (UTC)

Resolved

Bubba73 ^{You talkin' to me?} 06:18, 12 February 2013 (UTC)

iOS 6.1 Safari issues with Wikipedia-en

Ever since I upgraded to 6.1, I have to click most Wikipedia links twice in order to open the page. This happens on at least two of my devices. This behavior happens on my watch pages and article histories for the most part. Any idea on how to fix this?  little green rosetta(talk)
central scrutinizer  01:40, 9 February 2013 (UTC)

Sure you don’t just need to clean off your touchscreen? That’s exactly what happens with “dirty” screens. ¦ Reisio (talk) 22:31, 12 February 2013 (UTC)

Window controls

On the Windows O/S's, the higher my screen resolution, the harder it is to hit things like the minimize and maximize buttons on the title bar of a window, or grab an edge to resize. How do I make those features larger ? I'm on Windows 7. StuRat (talk) 04:28, 9 February 2013 (UTC)

If you use the Windows Classic theme, you can do it by clicking the cleverly named "Window Color" link at the bottom of the Personalization control panel. I don't know about Aero. -- BenRG (talk) 05:23, 9 February 2013 (UTC)

Thanks. "Window Color", LOL, they keep working hard to make things even harder to find, don't they ? Then when I changed the settings, my windows expanded so all the controls were off the screen. I had to reboot. Oh well, all is good now, except that it didn't seem to change all the windows, like my Google Chrome browser window. Any ideas ? StuRat (talk) 06:18, 9 February 2013 (UTC)

I've had similar problems, ctrl-+ to zoom in on browser pages - or ctrl-mousescrollwheel ---- _nonsense ferret 23:34, 9 February 2013 (UTC)

That only zooms in on the content of the web pages. What I need to do now is increase the size of the windows controls, like the minimize and maximize buttons. StuRat (talk) 23:41, 9 February 2013 (UTC)

I assume this process didn't help [3] ---- _nonsense ferret 19:12, 10 February 2013 (UTC)

I think it did (hard to tell since it required a reboot and only promised to increase size by 50%). Unfortunately, as in previous Windows versions, this setting seems to cause problems, like text no longer fitting in the window on selection items. StuRat (talk) 07:48, 11 February 2013 (UTC)

Here's how I did it in Win7 using Aero. Open Control Panel, click 'Appearance and Personalization' then 'Change window glass colors', then 'Advanced appearance settings' (logical, huh?), which should bring up the 'Windows Color and Appearance' dialog. From here you can increase and decrease the size of individual aspects of the desktop furniture. I think you want 'Active Window Border' - try changing the size to 10 points. Note that although it says 'Colors and sizes selected here apply only if you have selected the Windows 7 Basic theme or an Ease of Access theme' it worked fine for me with Aero enabled. - Cucumber Mike (talk) 14:07, 11 February 2013 (UTC)

Its not the Window Border but the Title Bar that you want to resize. The 'advanced appearence settings...' in Windows 7 has a "Active Title Bar" and "Inactive Title Bar" which you can change the size and and font. The little trial window they show and the text immediately below it, suggests to me than such personalization only works on Windows Basic theme, but like Mike above, I found the Title Bar size and font setting also worked in Aero. Astronaut (talk) 20:53, 11 February 2013 (UTC)

Actually, I needed to change both to change the minimize & maximize button sizes, and also allow me to more easily grab an edge to do a window resize. StuRat (talk) 16:19, 12 February 2013 (UTC)

What votes are currently going on Wikipedia?

Is there a place that lists all current votes going on Wikipedia? I know there are many (RfAs, AfDs, and others), but I wonder if there is a page that either lists them all (a category?) or at list offers a table of contents? --_{Piotr Konieczny aka Prokonsul Piotrus| reply here} 17:13, 9 February 2013 (UTC)

Very few "votes" or "polls" on Wikipedia have any substantive or official impact, because Wikipedia:Polling is not a substitute for discussion. So, it's unlikely that you will find any "official" repository listing all votes - since almost all such polls are impromptu, unofficial, and carry no actual weight in determining outcome of a policy decision. Nimur (talk) 21:01, 9 February 2013 (UTC)

That's a bit of an overstatement, but there's a weird political-correctness on wikipedia about not using the term "vote", which is why it's a trait of a savy editor to put "!vote" instead of "vote". It's one of those dumb social rules we've come up with, and it's much easier to play along, even though everyone knows it's a convenient fiction. You might be interested in the WP:Village Pump for ongoing discussions of interest. Shadowjams (talk) 23:18, 9 February 2013 (UTC)

See Category:Wikipedia surveys and polls.—Wavelength (talk) 22:15, 9 February 2013 (UTC)

Ah, that's the one I was looking for, thanks! --_{Piotr Konieczny aka Prokonsul Piotrus| reply here} 14:04, 10 February 2013 (UTC)

See also Wikipedia:Dashboard, which centralizes links to some of the most important discussions at any given time. -- Ypnypn (talk) 03:15, 11 February 2013 (UTC)

python

how do i use gui in python to input a name, display it on button click and the program should be ".EXE".--EatIcecream2 (talk) 18:46, 9 February 2013 (UTC)

You haven't given many details, but you may want to look at Tkinter and py2exe. -- BenRG (talk) 19:00, 9 February 2013 (UTC)

Tkinter is too hard, how do I get a text box?--EatIcecream2 (talk) 19:53, 9 February 2013 (UTC)

EasyGUI. OsmanRF34 (talk) 20:00, 9 February 2013 (UTC)

Laser printers and compatible toner

What manufacturers are more successful at imposing a lock-in to their toner refill cartridges? And what allow compatible toner explicitly (if any at all)? OsmanRF34 (talk) 19:56, 9 February 2013 (UTC)

In general, those which use "ink", in small quantities, follow the "sell the printer cheap then rip them off on ink" model of business, while those which use "toner", in large quantities, sell the printer for more, but then offer the toner at a more reasonable cost (although the actual price may be higher, just because they sell toner in such large quantities). Since they are no longer reliant on follow-up sales to make a profit, they would seem to have less need to prevent third party refills. StuRat (talk) 16:26, 12 February 2013 (UTC)

February 10

Printing from an iPad

My wife needs to have techs go out into the field and print forms. She already has a Canon ip100 printer. She would idealy like to have the techs carry an iPad to enter data into a form and then print that form. The only hurdle left in this is the printing. She does not have the iPads yet but since they're cheaper than laptops, that's what she'd like to go with. Another reason for the iPads is that they can use FileMaker's app to enter data into a database which can be uploaded once they're back at the office.

I've tried to get an app called PrintCentral Pro to do it but that requires software on a laptop to be installed. If the techs need a laptop, there's no point in them having iPads. I've also seen where AirPrint doesn't cover the ip100 but that's the printer that she already has, so my hands are tied as far as getting another printer. I've seen old posts that say it can't be done but I'm hoping that there's been some advance since then.

I have a wireless router that I thought we might be able to use as an access point to create an ad hoc network but even if I were to get that to work, I still have the problem of needing software on a laptop to print.

Thanks for any help you can provide, Dismas|^(talk) 11:15, 10 February 2013 (UTC)

Can't help but think that ipad is a very poor solution for this sort of problem - if all the user is doing is entering data and printing forms - a netbook type laptop would be much cheaper and faster for data entry, as well as being compatible instantly with any printer you cared to throw at it. The ipad strong points are purely stylistic imho - if a tablet is required (and I'm not sure that I see why this would be so), surely an android tablet would be just as good for a lot cheaper? ---- _nonsense ferret 15:15, 10 February 2013 (UTC)

I also fail to see why choose iPads instead of other tablets or even an Android phone. Those solutions will allow you to print with a wireless connection to the printer or send the data over the internet to be printed from a PC. OsmanRF34 (talk) 15:37, 10 February 2013 (UTC)

I don't understand the desire either. And the forms have to be printed there. There is no guarantee that there will be a wireless connection at the site and there will not be a desktop PC to work with. Dismas|^(talk) 16:36, 10 February 2013 (UTC)

I suspect you hit the nail on the head though. All sorts of devices are wanted for their utility value. Items like ipads are 'desired' - they seem to be valued in emotional terms. Who said advertising doesn't work!? ---- _nonsense ferret 19:09, 10 February 2013 (UTC)

If she wants to commit the funds buying an iPad, she could also buy some sort of portable A6 printer. These printers are much cheaper and portable than the Canon Ip 100. Maybe they don't have any connectivity problems with the iPad. Anyway, it's difficult to help without knowing exactly what she need sand wants. OsmanRF34 (talk) 20:06, 10 February 2013 (UTC)

As far as buying a printer, she already has a printer. And I was reminded of why she wants to use an iPad. If she gets a netbook or something of that sort, she'd have to buy more licenses of FileMaker. If she uses an iPad, she can download multiple free copies of FileMaker Go. FM is what she has the database built in and it's what the techs will be putting data into. Dismas|^(talk) 00:15, 11 February 2013 (UTC)

Unreliable DVD drive

The DVD drive in my Toshibal laptop has become unreliable. I am trying to play commercial movies. The drive light is continually flashing when the drive is not working, and Win. Media Player says to "Insert a disc" when there is already one in the drive. I have already checked the RD/C archives without finding useful answers. The laptop is only about 18 months old and the drive has not seen extensive use. Lense etc. in drive seem clean.

1. Short of replacing the drive, any suggestions on getting it to work reliably?
2. If replacement is needed, then will I need to buy an 'original' (expensive?) Toshiba drive, or,
3. Are laptop DVD drives available in a 'generic' form such as desktop/tower PCs use? - 220 of ^Borg 12:01, 10 February 2013 (UTC)

depending on how you use it, and if no cheap direct replacement for the laptop drive is available, a USB dvd drive might be a cheap alternative. ---- _nonsense ferret 15:46, 10 February 2013 (UTC)

Possibility of course, though rather not have to pay for another drive if I can get my internal one working! I'd probably go for a USB Blu-ray drive if I did though. - 220 of ^Borg 08:56, 11 February 2013 (UTC)

First thing I’d do is boot a Unix system from USB and see if the drive works from there. This could rule out a simple Windows bungle (which are common). ¦ Reisio (talk) 18:03, 10 February 2013 (UTC)

Alvays somevone vith the Unix! . I am pretty certain that the problem is not 'Windows related' i.e. drivers or similar.(Could be wrong of course!)
• As soon as I posted the original question it started working again! (Watched some of The Longest Day. Hibernated overnight, (the laptop that is) now DVD again not working!)
• I have a strong feeling that it's hardware related. I've tried 'tapping' the drive whiles it's running for example. Perhaps the flat 'ribbon cable' between the drive assembly and the output connector is loose? Is this a known problem with 'tray-loading' type cd drives?
The really annoying thing is it seems to be totally random whether the DVD drive works or not. - 220 of ^Borg 08:56, 11 February 2013 (UTC)

I might agree, except for having personally witnessed on multiple Windows installs the simple deletion of a registry entry making CD/DVD drives work again. ¦ Reisio (talk) 18:40, 12 February 2013 (UTC)

Usually laptop cd drives are consistent across PCs. Macs can be a different story though and require their superdrive I think. You may need to check the precise model to make sure before you buy it, but replacement drives, especially used, shouldn't be very expensive. I doubt you'd need to buy a toshiba specific one, but again, you may want to double check your precise model before ordering. If its a standard sata interface though, it probably will work if it fits (of course laptop size and interface). Dell used to make modular slot drives that had a unique format, but I don't see those much anymore. Now... opening up the laptop to get to it may have varying degrees of difficulty... opening up a Macbook is an extensive undertaking, while some other machines have nice slide in slots. Shadowjams (talk) 07:49, 11 February 2013 (UTC)

Ok, good to know. I have a lot of experience with desktop PC hardware & building Wintel PCs, but not laptops!- 220 of ^Borg 08:56, 11 February 2013 (UTC)

is it possible to sell an iPad with built-in apps?

I would like to bundle an iPad with built-in Free apps already downloaded, so that the selection + download process is part of what the user gets from me. I imagine doing this by creating a free account and downloading apps (or downloading without an account if this is possible).

the question is, if the user then adds their own account, can they still see and use all the free apps that I downloaded to create the "bundle-able" iPad? Or would they have to start over with 0 apps the moment they add their own account? \\

Secondly, could I do the same thing by creating special one-off accounts meant to purchase apps that will then be stored on each iPad sold. Meaning, if I sell 10 upgraded iPad's, I do so by creating 10 accounts, each one makes the legitimate app purchases then has payment deauthorized so the user can't make any more. The accounts do not further use the apps in any way - the only copy ever used is on the one iPad that is to be bundled. In this way can I resell apps as well as the iPad? Or, is only free app resale possible in this way? Or, is no app resale possible for some technical reason (apps disappear when user adds own account).

Thank you for your answers. 86.101.32.82 (talk) 22:58, 10 February 2013 (UTC)

This question was asked a few years back at StackExchange (so it's only the opinions of Some-Random-Guys-On-The-Internet, and may be out of date). A few ideas were suggested, from the DIY (including jailbreaking) to hooking up directly with Apple. The best idea seems to be to contact an Apple store and speak to a 'Business Consultant'. You might also find this useful. - Cucumber Mike (talk) 13:55, 11 February 2013 (UTC)

February 11

Downloading Maven

I want to download Apache Maven, but their website has 18 download links, just for the latest version! Which one do I click? -- Ypnypn (talk) 01:35, 11 February 2013 (UTC)

At http://maven.apache.org/download.cgi#Mirror? You want 3.0.4, because it’s the latest version. You want a binary, because if you wanted to build it from source you wouldn’t be asking such questions. You probably want a ZIP rather than a gzip’d TAR, as ZIP is more likely supported by the OS you’re using. So you want apache-maven-3.0.4-bin.zip. The .md5 and .asc files are for helping you to feel assured that the mirror (server) you’re downloading from has given you the authentic file and not something else, but if you’re on Microsoft Windows, it’s (comparatively) absurdly involved to utilize either of those, so you may as well just ask how to in another question if you are interested (after all, if you’re on Microsoft Windows, you’re clearly already content downloading random executables with little idea of their authenticity and running them :/ :p). ¦ Reisio (talk) 02:56, 11 February 2013 (UTC)

Thanks! -- Ypnypn (talk) 03:11, 11 February 2013 (UTC)

Why do ADSL2+ modems often use AC to AC power supplies?

I was reminded of this while looking for my spare modem recently. A few years back, I noticed all 3 modems I had used a transformer with an AC output, 2 with 9V and one with 18V. It's easy to find ones using similar AC PSUs from a quick search e.g. [4] 15 VAC, [5] 24 VAC, [6] another 9 VAC, [7] unclear VAC.

While many of these are old, and I'm not suggesting all or even most ADSL modems use AC (I'm not sure what does with built in wireless routers use, and obviously ones which supplies solely by USB as well as PCI, PCI express and ones built in to laptops must use DC), it does seem quite a lot to me. Beyond those used by ADSL modems, all the other devices I've used, e.g. network switches, (standalone) wireless routers, USB DVB-S receivers (which generally used an external PSU), DECT bases with digital answering machines, laptops, (also external HDDs, battery chargers, mobile phones but these are even less surprising), always seem to use a DC output PSU. Of hand, the only other device I know of which use an AC adapter are 12V halogens, although the reason here is more that the halogens don't care (and the supplies are usually internally to the device); although I'm sure there are a lot of other devices that do use AC adapters (probably some music equipment?).

When I first noticed after a long time searching I think I found someone suggesting that some component works best with AC but can't find it again and it may have just been a forum. Most of the chips must use DC as with every other electronic component.

So does anyone know a reason why ADSL modems seem to be one of the few devices using an AC-AC power supply? Just the preference of some reference design? To discourage the use of crappy switching power supplies with low switching frequencies application-notes. digchip.com/003/3-4102.pdf ? Or was what I read before right and there's some component that uses or works better with AC (and if so what?)?

Nil Einne (talk) 02:44, 11 February 2013 (UTC)

Accessing Android phone's internal/memory card storage

How to use a PC/laptop to read, write to, and delete data stored in an Android phone's internal (and memory card) storage {just like a USB flash drive}? Czech is Cyrillized (talk) 03:45, 11 February 2013 (UTC)

Does this model have a USB port ? If so, you can likely connect that to your PC and access files on the memory card. The internal memory may not be directly accessible, forcing you to move the data to the memory card first. StuRat (talk) 06:18, 11 February 2013 (UTC)

Note that newer version of Android will not mount their internal memory or SD card partitions as USB mass storage, but instead will use MTP. This means that you may have to jump through additional hoops to mount the storages on something like Linux, but Windows should work natively.  — daranz [ t ] 06:52, 11 February 2013 (UTC)

Those hoops are described here. -- Finlay McWalterჷTalk 19:42, 11 February 2013 (UTC)

Operating System

which is the first computer operating system and developed by whom? — Preceding unsigned comment added by Anil Golakiya (talk • contribs) 07:06, 11 February 2013 (UTC)

See History of operating systems. Though there isn't really a clear answer... Dismas|^(talk) 07:10, 11 February 2013 (UTC)

Timeline of operating systems shows you the road map. OsmanRF34 (talk) 14:44, 12 February 2013 (UTC)

Size of WM data

How large is all the data held by Wikimedia? Are we talking terabytes, petabytes, or exabytes? -- Ypnypn (talk) 18:32, 11 February 2013 (UTC)

Not sure but you can see the specs of their dump servers at Dumps/Dump servers. The actual dumps are described in Data dumps. Dmcq (talk) 18:55, 11 February 2013 (UTC)

If you're just talking about the current text of the articles on the English Wikipedia excluding the pictures or talk pages but including the markup my estimate would be that would come to in the order of a hundred gigabytes but that's just a guess. Dmcq (talk) 19:19, 11 February 2013 (UTC)

The uncompressed size of current revisions (without images) of all English Wikipedia articles is about 10 Gb. With thumbnail images ≈ 100 Gb. You can read about the full size in 2010 here. It is 5.6 Tb uncompressed. Ruslik_Zero 19:22, 11 February 2013 (UTC)

I looked there and it has various statistics but I can't see where the 10GB is mentioned, I think you probably meant compressed instead. At Wikipedia:Database download it says "pages-articles.xml.bz2 – Current revisions only, no talk or user pages. (This is probably the one you want. The size of the 3 January 2013 dump is approximately 9.0 GB compressed)." Dmcq (talk) 20:39, 11 February 2013 (UTC)

Overclock

Is it possible with the right cooling setup to over clock my Intel Xeon Processor to 10 GHZ? I currently have it at close to 6 GHZ but is 10 possible? Andrew Wiggin (talk) 21:47, 11 February 2013 (UTC)

A question very closely related to this one received many answers on the Science desk, until you deleted the entire section. To directly answer the question: no, this is not feasible. Even if you have a large budget, a large team of engineers, unlimited time, unlimited coolant, and unlimited funds, you will not be able to make a current-generation off-the-shelf Intel microprocessor run at 10 gigahertz. You might find Intel's documentation interesting; here is a white-paper, Using enhanced Intel SpeedStep features in High Performance Computing clusters. As you will read, managing the existing clock-frequency configurations became too large a task for a "small support staff" of high-performance computing experts, so (read between the lines: after shelling out a lot of time and money), Intel released documentation and some software tools to help make the job a little easier. You are asking to extend the performance beyond the design specification, so it will require a little more work and time and talent and money. If you are very interested and want to know why this will not work, you can read about digital timing closure. Large circuits like CPUs are not designed to work at any possible frequency. Even if you solve all the thermal issues, and if you manage to speed up all your peripherals, and you simply disregard any actual performance gains while you are questing for higher core frequencies, you will eventually reach some frequency at which the individual clock skews between circuit elements are so random that the logic elements no longer function as coherent units. Above this frequency, the digital error-rate will render the processor useless. This frequency tends to be close to the maximum commercially-available frequency. Nimur (talk) 05:35, 12 February 2013 (UTC)

Also, if your goal is to render computer graphics, and you have a large budget, then multiple processors set up to do parallel processing is the way to go, not overclocking (at least not to the extent you want to push it). You're spending resources on your coolant system which would be better spent on additional processors. StuRat (talk) 06:15, 12 February 2013 (UTC)

Simple answer - No. See [8] for frequency records for standard chips. A simpler chip may be better since it wouldn't build up heat so fast. Not got to 10GHz yet but closing in on it slowly - give it another few years. Dmcq (talk) 11:04, 12 February 2013 (UTC)

What would be nice is to get a anynchronous cpu that went fast, see Asynchronous circuit. then all you'd need to do to get it faster would be to pour on the liquid nitrogen and adjust the voltage to get the maximum speed without having to mess with a clock. Dmcq (talk) 16:08, 12 February 2013 (UTC)

It is not difficult to get very high frequency electronics - digital or otherwise. X band and higher-frequency microwave electronics for communications satellites (and occasionally for ground-based communication) regularly use digital electronics that switch at 10, 20, 80 gigahertz. These circuits are not large-scale modern-generation CPUs. They clock very fast, but they do very little "general purpose computing" at those speeds. Again, let me re-iterate; the throughput of instructions is not usually CPU bound. So a faster CPU core is not able to execute programs faster. That's called the megahertz myth. This fact becomes more and more and painfully more true as you make the CPU faster and faster and faster - because you're spending less total time using the CPU. This fact is called Amdahl's law. So: what's the objective? To get a very fast clock? Then use a high-frequency clock circuit. You can make something tick at hundreds of gigahertz! If the objective is to maximize computer performance, then a faster clock will get you nowhere fast. Nimur (talk) 19:14, 12 February 2013 (UTC)

Straight sequential processing speed still counts for a lot in commercial applications. If you really want that the IBM zEC12 (microprocessor) is what you want. Otherwise one can often use an array to do the work. Dmcq (talk) 09:45, 13 February 2013 (UTC)

Object oriented design

Hi all, I'm working on a simple app (or at least it started out that way) and I am having trouble working out the "right" relationship among classes. File management will be simple enough (at least for the user) but I now have different classes for: "User Account", "Textbook", "File". The File class manages the filesystem, while the others have an obvious meaning. The current setup (not too late to change) has File doing the real work, since the plan is to use it to store/ retrieve. The others are basically data classes, but no file will exist outside of a user account, and there will basically be no sharing between different users. How should these classes interact, and also, can anyone point me to good websites that discuss OO design by example, showing do's and don'ts?? I don't have time to read textbooks on this sort of thing, since I'm only solving a relatively small-scale problem, and no one else is likely to use these classes, but I do want to read some guidance. Something like this would be ideal, but with actual examples that walk you through the things people have done wrong. IBE (talk) 22:24, 11 February 2013 (UTC)

Please tell us exactly what this app is supposed to do. Also, isn't a(n online) textbook a type of file ? StuRat (talk) 22:33, 11 February 2013 (UTC)

That sounds like very good advice. It says there 'To design good objects you must think like an object, not a programmer' whereas you sound like you are thinking about the program. However for a simple personal project I wouldn't worry overmuch about that and really classes and overloading are probably pushed a bit too much. Just get something that does the basic work and then try redesigning it if you want to learn about object programming better. For object programming you go from the entities and the data then the methods to the programming rather than starting from the programming. Dmcq (talk) 10:46, 12 February 2013 (UTC)

Thanks to you both. Briefly, the app involves a few trendy extras, but is mostly a souped-up practice journal. You don't load any textbooks (this could change later); you enter the summary details of a textbook, and mark the problems you have done etc. The most complex class (in terms of features) is the "problem/ subproblem" class, but that goes in an obvious enough place, and I'm not exactly confused about it. Yes, a textbook counts as a file, but my point is that a file object seems to make sense for handling loading and saving functions. The reason for having a separate class is to manage Apple's Model–view–controller architecture.

Explanation of MVC

The Controller, called eg. IBE_ViewController, has member data

IBE_View * thisIsTheDisplay; // and 
IBE_Data * thisIsAllMyData 

(the last object is more like several similar objects, but the View is one object). For the Data to talk to the View, you define a protocol, which confused me for the longest time. Some particular class of IBE_Data will name itself as the data source of the View. The View, in turn, declares a "protocol" called IBE_ViewDataSource. The protocol is just a list of methods, nothing more, and they are named (declared) but not defined by the View. The View also declares a member variable which is of type "<IBE_ViewDataSource>", ie. essentially a made up pseudo-type of variable. The declaration goes like this:

@property (some compiler instructions) id <IBE_ViewDataSource> theDataSourceForTheDisplay;

Anything you assign to this must be of a class that implements the protocol, or in other words, that defines the methods declared by the protocol. Example methods would be "returnTheWholeDataArray" or "returnJustTheNumberOfObjectsInTheDataArray". Now the last thing is that the View Controller will assign a Data object to the variable "theDataSourceForTheDisplay", ie. something like

self->thisIsTheDisplay->theDataSourceForTheDisplay = thisIsAllMyData;

This is typically done at startup, since the View Controller is close enough (in spirit) to the "main" function. The trick is that "theDataSourceForTheDisplay" knows about "thisIsAllMyData" but doesn't know much about it - it can only access it via the protocol (I think - I'm new to this stuff).

Back to the question

But I don't want a "thisIsAllMyData" - that's too much in one hit. I just want "thisIsMyMainDataObjectForDisplayingStuff". That must include textbook and account information. So I could go defining different classes as all being data sources (there is no limit, I think) but that seems complex, and I think these things are usually kept pretty tight - very few protocols and data classes. Hence the belief that I need a separate file class - I'm trying to think like an object in that the file class is part of a filing system, which handles the records and stuff - like a kind of bureau, rather than the stuff it contains. Dmcq's choice for best advice was in fact what I was thinking of when I posted the question - it is definitely my main concern that I have no real object orientation. Any thoughts? Also, again, if anyone comes across it, if you have a link that goes into the same advice but that gives examples of actual problems and stuffups, that would be fantastic. IBE (talk) 18:35, 12 February 2013 (UTC)

Actually I've found a good start, Circle-ellipse problem, and also Object-oriented programming#Criticism. IBE (talk) 19:04, 12 February 2013 (UTC)

February 12

Screencast

can anybody tell me that if I use screen-cast or record online videos with help of a software .... does the web site owner get any information about this I mean can he access that who is recording(not downloading) videos from his website in any kind through this independent software. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 14.140.93.146 (talk) 08:15, 12 February 2013 (UTC)

Not unless the software chooses to tell them. StuRat (talk) 16:15, 12 February 2013 (UTC)

Digital rights management is supposed to try and stop you intercepting the signal and only display it on the screen. As well or instead of that they may encode your ip and the time in the signal every so often in a way that doesn't show so if what you download is distributed it can be traced back to you. Dmcq (talk) 16:19, 12 February 2013 (UTC)

Arduino / Raspberry Pi lapsop

Is there any DIY resource to convert any of these into full-fledged laptop with screen and keyboard? (something that could be used by someone in a poor country to learn programming and read pdfs for less than $100. OsmanRF34 (talk) 14:43, 12 February 2013 (UTC)

There's a number of guides like [9]. For your application you'd need to think a bit more about an internet connection via wireless and you might have to pay for a display device. I think really though for general use you want something a bit more integrated and rugged. There's some Android based systems being developed in India and China which may be more suitable for this purpose, I'm note sure what stage they are at though though I know some older schemes have had problems. Dmcq (talk) 15:45, 12 February 2013 (UTC)

The One Laptop per Child project is a different approach to what you are asking. Astronaut (talk) 16:55, 12 February 2013 (UTC)

Using URLs to Illustrate Functional v4.0 Cross-Browser Compatible Iframes

Have many resources but also have many original works which clearly illustrate what a dynamic iframe functions like in a working environment. In essence, these are works from my past, but are there for show and tell, not for business purposes. Yet, if they can be used in conjunction with Wikipedia, I know for sure they will bring a point home as to how it is possible to develop for old, say version 4.0 browsers, and still have that work on future browsers. Meaning full cross-browser and client compatibility as well as forward-looking compatibility based on tried and tested development techniques.

For instance: Dynamic HTML interface using Javascript, CSS, HTML 4.0 and the Document Object Model as well as simulates an iframe, complete with scroll bars for browsers incapable, at the time, of parsing an iframe, for instance Netscape 4.0:

http://www.louierd.com/

Wondering how I would go about doing such a thing, what are the rules and regulations in relation to doing such a thing. It's all for learning purposes. I am the sole developer and owner of this site.

Louie Rd aka drlouie — Preceding unsigned comment added by Drlouie (talk • contribs) 15:36, 12 February 2013 (UTC)

Are you asking where on Wikipedia a link or links to your website might be acceptable? Since your site is clearly commercially oriented, probably nowhere. ¦ Reisio (talk) 18:36, 12 February 2013 (UTC)

Why the science reference desk page didn't get updated?

Resolved

I recently made this edit[10] to the archives but it didn't display as it should on the science desk. To make sure there wasn't a problem with my browser I hit control F5 to force the page to reload. Why? PS its now showing. Why the delay? -Modocc (talk) 16:27, 12 February 2013 (UTC)

Possibly the archival system tripping you up. Also F5 isn’t always effective — CTRL+F5 is usually more reliable. ¦ Reisio (talk) 22:40, 12 February 2013 (UTC)

You often have to purge a page to quickly see changes caused by a transcluded page. PrimeHunter (talk) 22:54, 12 February 2013 (UTC)

Thank you guys. -Modocc (talk) 17:25, 13 February 2013 (UTC)

February 13

Two things

1. My laptop is a Dell Inspiron 5250 running Windows 7. This morning, I booted it up and I got "A disk read error occurred. Press Ctrl+Alt+Delete to enter recovery.". Unfortunately, my laptop did nothing when I pressed Ctrl+Alt+Delete, as in nothing happened. This happened once before, maybe a month and a half ago, and after I let it sit powered off for a while and booted it back, it worked. How do I fix this?
2. I want to keep my schoolwork under revision control, but I need a version control system that handle binary files and versions each file's modification times, preferably one at stores all of a file's metadata. What system fits these requirements?

— Melab±1 ☎ 01:17, 13 February 2013 (UTC)

1) Do you mean the hard disk ? Did you try just a reboot ? (If holding down the on/off button doesn't do it, try pulling the battery and unplugging it.) However, assuming you mean the hard disk, this is a bad sign. I suggest immediately backing up everything of importance to flash drives, etc., in case that hard disk fails. You might also want to have a USB hard disk with an operating system on it, ready to go, in case the hard drive fails. StuRat (talk) 16:19, 13 February 2013 (UTC)

Yes, the error message means the hard disk and I've tried a few reboots. How do I ack it up if I cannot boot into it? This has happened before, and it worked after like a day or two, strangely enough. — Melab±1 ☎ 18:40, 13 February 2013 (UTC)

You can pull the hard drive out of the laptop, connect it to a desktop computer, and see if it can be accessed. If it is accessible, you can do a backup and run all sorts of tests on it to check whether it's nearing its expiration or if it's in perfect health (in which case something other than the hard drive is causing you problems).—Ëzhiki (Igels Hérissonovich Ïzhakoff-Amursky) • (yo?); February 13, 2013; 18:50 (UTC)

Software delays

I've noticed that Wikidata seems to be continually running behind schedule. (They've pushed off deployment on en.wp three times already.) VisualEditor was supposed to be developed by last year. Are most software like this, always taking much longer than expected? -- Ypnypn (talk) 04:12, 13 February 2013 (UTC)

Yup. http://www.google.com/search?q=bad%20programming%20estimates ¦ Reisio (talk) 04:32, 13 February 2013 (UTC)

As a programmer myself, it amazed me that they expected me to come up with accurate estimates before they figured out the specs. They then continued to change the specs all through the development process, and didn't seem to understand that me rewriting all that code would delay the schedule. StuRat (talk) 04:43, 13 February 2013 (UTC)

And why not? When was the last time a manager was punished for demanding too short a deadline from his people, vs the last time a programmer was punished for not hitting a deadline set with no regard whatsoever to the realities of what a human being can do? Gzuckier (talk) 05:01, 13 February 2013 (UTC)

Estimate = guess - most people guess too low ---- _nonsense ferret 20:44, 13 February 2013 (UTC)

3d cropping

Hi!
Cropping (image) refers to a special type of cutting of (2d) images. Is there an English term for the same action in 3D, i.e., for voxel-based data? Or is that just called cropping, too? -- 129.247.247.238 (talk) 14:37, 13 February 2013 (UTC)

Clipping (computer graphics), although that applies to data in any dimension. -- Finlay McWalterჷTalk 15:04, 13 February 2013 (UTC)

And clipping in the direction in and out of the screen is sometimes called Z-clipping, although this refers to just the display of the object, rather than actually removing part of the object permanently (cropping). StuRat (talk) 15:44, 13 February 2013 (UTC)

StuRat is right. Clipping actually refers to the depiction rather than to the data itself. So clipping is not the term I'm looking for. However, a google search indicates that many people use the term cropping in three-dimensional cases. I guess, I'll just do the same. -- 129.247.247.238 (talk) 15:58, 13 February 2013 (UTC)

Culling - as in backface culling or z-culling - is used to refer to algorithms that selectively do not render some data because it is not in the final view. Nimur (talk) 16:21, 13 February 2013 (UTC)

PI IP camera

My housemate has challenged me to make something called an IP camera out of my raspberry pi computer, but I'm not entirely sure how to actually set one up or what extra parts I will need to buy. Can anyone help point me in the direction of instructions? 86.15.83.223 (talk) 18:03, 13 February 2013 (UTC)

The hardware side is simple, you need a network cable (ethernet or probably even USB), and a camera with a network cable port (an “IP camera”. The software side will possibly take a little more effort. Almost certainly there are many tutorials for doing just this with a Raspberry Pi all over the internet. ¦ Reisio (talk) 18:48, 13 February 2013 (UTC)

If I use Motion (surveillance software) can I create a live feed to a particular web address rather than just save files on the hard drive to access later, and if so, how do I determine what address they would be visible on? something on our internal network, possibly? 86.15.83.223 (talk) 21:27, 13 February 2013 (UTC)

Basic podcast launching questions:

I'd like to narrate interesting articles to the wide web via podcasts now. I used to storytell to strangers via Chatroulette, Omegle, ChatRandom and various other similar sites but restrictions, skippings et al. made storytelling to strangers too tedious to continue. (But I still gained plenty of ground with some of them!)

However, if I do it by podcast, I wouldn't have to put up with such restrictions and hardships.

Therefore,

1. Where's a great podcasting service that beginners ought to trust?

2. Are podcasts going to be seen by the wide web as easily as Twitter Tweets and Blogger.com blogs?

3. How easiy can I "embed" a podcast story of mine on any of my blog postings so that it can play immediately when a blog reader presses a play button directly on my blog, and not have to open links first to get to them?

4. Will using different accents for different articles gain more interest than keeping to the same, ordinary Midwestern accent for all of them?

5. How much more effective will podcasting be than attempting to storytell articles to strangers on 1-on-1 video chatting sites? (Some will skip in a few seconds, others stay for a few minutes, and I've had a precious few stay for 30 minutes plus.)

6. Is there a learning curve to podcasting?

7. What are the very best examples of very effective, engaging podcasts?

Thanks you! --70.179.161.230 (talk) 18:27, 13 February 2013 (UTC)

Podcasts are just glorified news feeds with audio instead of text (and some of them are just bare web pages with plain links to audio files :p). It’s all very easy to setup with the exception of things like getting them onto iTunes, which is kind of a pain, but has its pluses. 2¢ ¦ Reisio (talk) 18:54, 13 February 2013 (UTC)

Yes, which podcast service sites would you recommend? And would anyone please answer the questions line-by-line? Thanks. --70.179.161.230 (talk) 19:30, 13 February 2013 (UTC)

A podcast is simply an RSS feed which serves audio files (e.g. mp3 files) rather than text. While there are various setups which make the process simpler, all you need is a webhost which will allow you to publicly post mp3 files and the XML file which serves as the feed/index. (Note that the RSS feed is nothing more than a text file. If you download your favorite podcast as a text file, rather than with a podcast program, you can see what it's like.) To add episodes to your podcast, all you need to do is upload the corresponding mp3 to the publicly-availible server and update the XML file with the new entry. If you want the podcast listed on iTunes, things are a little more involved, but not by much: [11] As to your points: 1) As mentioned, all you need is a webhost that can serve both mp3 and XML files. Beyond that, I don't have any recommendations. Doing a websearch for something like "podcast hosting service" may give you other options. 2) Depends on your podcast. If you do it right, you can have comparable visibility to a blog. Getting listed on iTunes probably will help, but don't expect to be anything but niche. (Most podcasts/blogs/twitter feeds tend to stay obscure.) 3) As mentioned, a podcast episode is simply an mp3. All you would need is a way to play a web-accessible mp3 from within the blog post. Check your blogging software to see if that's an easy option. 4) Storytellers typically use different voices (within reason) for different characters, to better create a mood. If you do it right it might help, but if you do it wrong it'll detract. 5) They're completely different things. Podcasts are pre-recorded, so you lose the interactivity, but they can be served multiple times, so a single recording could be viewed multiple times for multiple people, as well as allowing pausing playback for any given person. 6) There's a learning curve to everything. My guess is after you figure out how to add the first episode to the podcast, most of your learning will be regarding how best to record and edit your mp3s. 7) Most of the podcasts I listen to are actually radio stories that are made computer-accessible. Practically, being a good podcast isn't any different from being a good radio show - though what makes a good podcast/radio show depends on what you're trying to accomplish. I like This American Life, but that's a completely different style than a current events show, which is a completely different style than a music show. - The big recommendation I'd make is to learn how to edit. Too many amateurs think they can do a single take and then post the raw recording. You need to learn how to cut out the pauses and digressions, how to re-record things you messed up and splice together multiple takes. Learning how best to layer in sound effects and music wouldn't hurt, either. -- 205.175.124.30 (talk) 22:10, 13 February 2013 (UTC)

Custom built android app

I have three questions, but feel free to give partial answers.

1) Where would I go to hire a freelance programmer to build me an android app/widget for personal use?

2) Given the requirements below would someone be able to give me a very rough idea of how much this would cost (can be broad ranges e.g. "less than $400" or "more than $1000")?

3) How likely would a simple timer/tally app with a widget and one or two settings be to break on an android update. If it is likely to break, and the original author isn't around/isn't interested, would another programmer probably be able to fix it?

Background

I use a "time management system" (overly grand title for what it is) loosely inspired by the pomodoro technique but tweaked to my particular work (I'm a lab based biology grad student). It currently takes a bit too much of my attention to manage this with ordinary timers/tally counters on my android phone, hence the desire for a custom app.

My requirements

1) A countdown timer (the "work" timer) that counts down from 25 minutes (this time ideally adjustable in settings) and automatically restarts when it reaches zero.

2) When the work timer reaches zero the phone vibrates briefly, a tally counter increments and 5 minutes is added to the inital time of a second timer (the "break" timer). Every fourth time the work counter reaches zero, 15 minutes, rather than 5 is added to the break timer.

3) When the work timer is stopped it resets to 25 minutes, doesn't add any break time and doesn't increment the tally. This action should have a confirm dialog

4) The break timer is a normal countdown timer which can be started independently as long as the work timer isn't running. It doesn't restart, but does vibrate (ideally with a different pattern) when it reaches zero.

5) A reset button that resets the work timer to 25, the tally to 0 and the break counter to 0. This should also have a confirm dialog.

6) A home-screen widget that shows and allows control of all of the above. In fact, if it works fine, the whole thing can be a widget.

I would be happy to provide UI mockups, and probably even pseudo-code (couldn't guarantee that I could come up with good pseudo-code though, my programming skills are very basic indeed). Also, if anyone is interested, just ask and I'll explain the technique that this app would keep track of. Many thanks, and apologies for the rather long question.

Equisetum (talk | contributions) 20:12, 13 February 2013 (UTC)