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July 6

Separate clients for singleplayer and multiplayer

I've noticed that several games have done this practice, most especially first-person shooters. They would market the title as a single game, but it has separate executables for the SP and MP portions of it, while others, such as Max Payne 3, would just incorporate both in a single .exe, or just separate portions of it in two dynamic-link library files. Are there any real benefits to this, besides development, as separate teams could just do both portions at the same time?

Having multiple teams wouldn't be a good reason to have multiple executables, as both modes share so much code. And even single player modes are often built in a client-server way; single player has a local server where the game logic, physics, AI, etc. work (this division is evident in games like Quake and Half Life 2, where messages about, and variables to configure, the server are evident throughout the single player console). Not having the game/server logic in the multi-player binary makes for a smaller binary, but a modern OS demand-pages binaries anyway, so really that shouldn't be an issue. Perhaps single player Max Payne /isn't/ coded with a clear client-server divide, meaning the multiplayer version would either have lots of "if multiplayer foo else bar" checks or compile those out (which would mean a distinct binary); I don't know why they'd do things that way (the local server for single player seems like a simple, clever architecture to me) but maybe they do. Or it may all be an artefact of whatever anti-cheating technology they're using (PunkBuster or whatever), as such things check in the client binary for illicit patches (Blizzard's Warden does that kind of thing), and giving it the smallest simplest binary to check, with simply no exploitable game logic present at all, might make that a more tractable process. -- Finlay McWalterჷTalk 11:25, 6 July 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Permission to open Outlook file.

My computer recently broke so I bought a new one and downloaded the latest version of Outlook on it, and successfully added all my email accounts. So far so good.

But I have a copy of the .pst file from my old computer and for obvious reasons I want to be able to view it. But when I attempt to open it, it says "File access is denied. You do not have the permission required to open the file..." etc.

So can anyone tell me:

WTF? Who should need permission to access a file on their own computer?
More importantly, how to work around this?

Best, AndyJones (talk) 13:16, 6 July 2013 (UTC)[reply]

You may need to "take ownership" of the file in question. Instructions: XP, Win7. -- Finlay McWalterჷTalk 13:20, 6 July 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Excellent, that worked. Many thanks for your help. AndyJones (talk) 16:53, 6 July 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Wikipedia Dumps to import them to SQL

Dear Sir/ Madam

From website http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Database_download, I have downloaded dumps from http://dumps.wikimedia.org/. How do I import these huge files to My SQL table format. I tried whats written in the website but it didn't work out.

Is there any easier and alternate solution. Its very urgent as I need to mine some data from the huge files for my journal paper.

Waiting for your reply.

Regards

Most of the dumps are XML, not MySQL-dump format, and need to be imported by a functional MediaWiki install, not MySQL's own tools. The process is described here -- Finlay McWalterჷTalk 20:05, 6 July 2013 (UTC)[reply]

USB 2 card (int. hub), power output

Useless w/o follow up. Board seems to be pro's for pro's only in my personal experience

If I replace a 2 slot USB 2 module with a 4 slot USB 2, do I get at least the same power on each slot like I had on my old card or will it be divided, like initial power divided by four? Was it divided by two with the 2 slot card? It actually comes down to the basic question on how much power I can get from a USB slot so I don't have to use something like a powered external USB multiple port devise? Think simple and you'll understand my question as I might not used the proper technical terms ;)
Thanks in advance for any help, TMCk (talk) 23:55, 6 July 2013 (UTC)[reply]

I assume you mean you're replacing a PCI usb card with a bigger one. Looking at Universal Serial Bus#Power, a USB2 device can draw 500mA from 5V, which is 2.5W. If we look at Conventional PCI, we see that a PCI card can pull 25W off the backplane. Obviously some of that is used to run the card itself (the UHCI/EHCI), but its unlikely that it's remotely close to using all of that 25W (only graphics adapters use serious amounts of power). So (as best as I can say without reading the datasheet for your proposed PCI adapter) it should have plenty of power to run all its ports (indeed, it would be defective if it had more ports than it could supply max power to). 87.112.233.132 (talk) 00:32, 7 July 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks for your input. My old USB (PCI) card is about 10 years old (yes, 10 years) and working fine but the other day I connected my GPS for power only and although it worked, my system told me there is not enough power to run the devise. Maybe it meant the devise + other devises connected to it, like an ext. hard drive on one slot and an ext. USB hub (with external power unplugged) with a printer connected. The latter is where I connected my GPS. I would love to install the 4 slot internal (PCI?) USB hub, run the (new) external drive + an older one and a printer one 3 of them while having 1 slot left for other temporary devises. Maybe I should mention that I have a couple of USB 1 slots in use on my PC too. Don't know if they could cut down the amps available at other hubs but if so, I can retire those. Can they [cut down the amps available]? What solutions are there for my system and which one would most likely work the best? And of course, which one would work with what I have? Any idea or do I need to post more information? Please stay on it, thanks, TMCk (talk) 01:58, 7 July 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Also, I have no datasheet for my new 4 slot USB(PCI) card as it came "plain". All I can say is that is has 4 slots externally and one internally. If there is some info printed on the circuit board that might be of help please let me know and I'll provide anything printed on it.TMCk (talk) 02:10, 7 July 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Add on: And if I need more power, do I have another option besides an external hub? And if not, is there something I should look out for when buying a new ext. hub? The one I have is not recognized by my system unless I unplug the power cord while starting up my system or coming out of hibernation.TMCk (talk) 00:06, 7 July 2013 (UTC)[reply]

July 7

Purpose of transformer component in USB charger/adapter

I have this USB charger/adapter. To use it, you connect either the wall or car transformer to the desired output plug through an extendable cable. The wall transformer's output is given as "5V(DC symbol)400mA±5%", and the car transformer's output is "DC 5V±5% max: 500mA". My question is about the cable, which itself is attached to a small transformer. It's labelled "input: DC5.0V 500mA, output: DC5.5V 350mA MAX". What is the purpose this transformer? --118.174.206.134 (talk) 05:17, 7 July 2013 (UTC)[reply]

I guess some devices need a 5.5V input, for example some Panasonic phones take 5.5V. So you need a small transformer to step up from the 5V from USB to the 5.5.--Salix (talk): 16:16, 7 July 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Dhaka Lahan, East Champaran, Biahr

Dhaka Lahan is small and peaceful village of Dhaka constituency. It is situated one km west from Gandhi Chowk Dhaka,There are Two wards in this village ward no 19 and 20,the total Population of this village is around 4600 of civilian,if voter concerns in ward no 20 is 1334 and ward no 19 is 900 by 2013.

This is the computing reference desk - do you need help finding information related to a computer topic? If you need help editing Wikipedia, start with WP:HELP or Wikipedia:Tutorial/Editing. You might also consider asking for help at the talk pages of Bihar constituencies, or East Champaran district. Nimur (talk) 08:09, 7 July 2013 (UTC)[reply]

iPhone needs Apple car charger?

OK, I have a generic car cigarette lighter to USB adapter I got probably out of the bin next to the cashier at Walgreen Drugs (i.e., it's really generic), which works on my old LG dumbphone and on my new Samsung smartphone, but won't work when my friend's iPhone 5 is plugged in to it; it's not the iPhone cable, since that works with the wall charger. Is there some handshake official Apple car chargers need to do to the cable? The phone doesn't come up with one of those "not the right cable" messages like my old Motorola used to do (even when the cable worked), it just doesn't acknowledge the existence of the car power supply in any way. Gzuckier (talk) 07:13, 7 July 2013 (UTC)[reply]

iPhones do recognise (some?) Apple chargers, and charge faster though them. But I've also charged them with generic USB chargers, and regularly charge mine via a computer USB port. In my experience, car USB chargers often supply marginal or below spec voltage (and current), so not all devices accept them. --Stephan Schulz (talk) 08:16, 7 July 2013 (UTC)[reply]

The iPhone 5 will only work with chargers licensed by Apple. It looks for a signal telling it that the charger is Apple licensed (or manufactured). They don't want other people to profit from making components.Zzubnik (talk) 14:11, 10 July 2013 (UTC)[reply]

I seriously doubt that. You need a cable with the proprietary Lightning connector, but, at least according to e.g. this shop you can then connect it to an ordinary USB port or a USB wall charger. --Stephan Schulz (talk) 07:01, 11 July 2013 (UTC)[reply]

I think the cable itself needs to be licensed (and if I recall correctly there is some kind of chip inside it that does a handshake with the device) but the brick itself doesn't need to be licensed. Neo12345292 (talk) 09:01, 14 July 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Remote administration: different OSs

Can you remote administer a group of users using different OSs (Windowses, Linuxes and Macs) from just one computer (running whatever is more convenient, but preferably Linux)? Or is it only possible when the OSs match (Windows - Windows, and so on)? OsmanRF34 (talk) 10:39, 7 July 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Remote administration might be of help. It sounds like it would be a hassle, but I would say it is possible. 64.201.173.145 (talk) 18:22, 7 July 2013 (UTC)[reply]

No, it's not. Maybe with a virtual-machine running the other OSs, but then you'll have to buy a license for them, I suppose. I was just wondering if there is a kind of universal interface for that (this is a vague hope). OsmanRF34 (talk) 20:36, 7 July 2013 (UTC)[reply]

RDP is available for MAC but not properly supported. You can get remote control software, and X-windows or SSH with command line may be available for the three main platforms. For user management I don't know if active directory can be integrated with any of the other OSs. Graeme Bartlett (talk) 21:18, 7 July 2013 (UTC)[reply]

What are you trying to accomplish with this "remote administration"? You have a few different ways of going about all this, depending on your needs. If you just need to perform some tasks on remote computers and feel comfortable with the CLI, SSH is very good for this and works regardless of the OS. If you need a GUI or are trying to show a remote user how to do something on their workstation, VNC will accomplish this and is also multiplatform. In either case, if you are not on the same network as the remote machine, you will need to ~~forward some ports on the remote router's firewall~~ (edit - on second thought do not forward ports for VNC to the internet, it would be a gaping security hazard) or create a VPN tunnel.

Please give us more detailed information about what you are specifically trying to accomplish so we can better help you. -Amordea (talk) 21:47, 7 July 2013 (UTC)[reply]

It's for a small company, sometimes it's about admin tasks like configuring your wireless connection to a new printer, how to configure the email client, or how to solve some problems in MS-Excel. The Mac inclusion is not very important. A perfect solution would be were a less utterly lost guy, preferentially using Linux, solve those problems. OsmanRF34 (talk) 22:09, 8 July 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Sounds like you do need a GUI then. A simpler solution might be LogMeIn or TeamViewer (the latter is not free for commercial use unfortunately). Both are easy to set up and very effective, though I am uncertain if LogMeIn works on a non-Windows computer. TeamViewer does function on Linux via Wine. VNC is free and multiplatform on the other hand, but non-trivial to set up and manage.

SSVNC is a great VNC client for Linux which you can get through apt-get (if you're using Ubuntu). For a VNC server for Linux, I use X11VNC (also available through apt-get). TightVNC client/server is my preference for Windows. I don't know what VNC options exist for Mac but I'm sure there are some out there. There are even VNC clients for Android.

Note that if you choose to go with VNC, there is NO encryption in the VNC protocol, if that is any issue for you. If you need to manage a client over the internet, it would be strongly recommended to start a session through a VPN or SSH tunnel. -Amordea (talk) 01:35, 11 July 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Try using Chrome Remote Desktop, link is https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/chrome-remote-desktop/gbchcmhmhahfdphkhkmpfmihenigjmpp?hl=en. 68.115.195.222 (talk) 15:42, 12 July 2013 (UTC)[reply]

AC transofrmer markings

greetings everyone

When an AC transformer says on its label that its secondary winding is as follows 0.....15 white white i.e. two wires of white coloring are designated as ground (0) and 15volts. but because it is ac I take it doesn't really matter which of these wires is exactly at one point in time is 0v or 15v.. so can I connect them to my pcb where it says 0 volts and 15 volts terminals interchangeably ? right? THAnks!!

Warning: I'm no electrician, so someone please correct me if I'm wrong!! But, I don't see why not. --Yellow1996 (talk) 17:53, 7 July 2013 (UTC)[reply]

I think you are correct for this, the polarity does no matter if neither side is earthed. For higher voltages, you should check the isolation, as the windings should be well insulted from the mains winding, and preferably near the neutral end. Graeme Bartlett (talk) 10:53, 8 July 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Broadband Reports - user names & PW hacked

I tried to log into my account at Broadband Reports but it wouldn't take my user name and password. I told it to email me the way to reset the password, but the email address it had on file for me is nothing like my email address. Broadband Reports talks about user names and PWs being hacked in 2011. I may be a victim of that. I used that password only on that site. So someone can log in and see my broadband test results - big deal - is there any other way that could hurt me? Bubba73 ^{You talkin' to me?} 23:26, 7 July 2013 (UTC)[reply]

The biggest concern when your account on a doesn't-matter-anyway site being hacked is if you used the same password on other sites. It's only pragmatic for a black hat, having obtained the password for Bubba73@broadbandreports.com to try to use it on Bubba73@gmail.com, Bubba73@yahoo.com. And maybe one of those is the registered password recovery address for DNS hosting, banking, etc. - something you've forgotten even exists. -- Finlay McWalterჷTalk 23:40, 7 July 2013 (UTC)[reply]

I checked and I didn't use that password anywhere else. Could they link my name to my URL or something? Bubba73 ^{You talkin' to me?} 23:48, 7 July 2013 (UTC)[reply]

If you are positive you never used that password anywhere else, then you have nothing to worry about; other than the creation of a new account if you wish to continue using that site. --Yellow1996 (talk) 01:12, 8 July 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Yes, I have a long list of the usernames and passwords I use, and I searched it. I have created a new user account there. Bubba73 ^{You talkin' to me?} 02:31, 8 July 2013 (UTC)[reply]

I trust that your "long list" is securely password protected. Dbfirs 16:04, 8 July 2013 (UTC)[reply]

No, it is not password protected. It is a file on my computer with a non-obvious name. Bubba73 ^{You talkin' to me?} 16:42, 8 July 2013 (UTC)[reply]

You would be much better off using a password storage program like KeePass. Have it generate cryptographically hard passwords per account, and you only remember the one password which gets you into everything, but which never goes over the wire. -- Finlay McWalterჷTalk 18:22, 8 July 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Yes, I would. I started this list long ago, probably over 15 years ago. That was the way back then. Bubba73 ^{You talkin' to me?} 19:07, 8 July 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Is there anything built into Windows 8 or Firefox or an add-on to Firefox that does what KeyPass does? Bubba73 ^{You talkin' to me?} 22:51, 8 July 2013 (UTC)[reply]

LastPass Password Manager. --Yellow1996 (talk) 00:58, 9 July 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Resolved

July 8

Installing Apache Tomcat for Eclipse on a Mac

Hi. I am currently trying to install Tomcat on my Mac using these instructions [1] but have quite quickly hit a stumbling block and need help. When executing the first line of step three, the shell returns to me the error message

The BASEDIR environment variable is not defined

This environment variable is needed to run this program

Then, when trying to execute the second line of step three, I see the output given on the webpage but also

Using CLASSPATH: /Users/Conor/apache-tomcat-6.0.37-src/bin/bootstrap.jar

touch: /Users/Conor/apache-tomcat-6.0.37-src/logs/catalina.out: No such file or directory

/Users/Conor/apache-tomcat-6.0.37-src/bin/catalina.sh: line 373: /Users/Conor/apache-tomcat-6.0.37-src/logs/catalina.out: No such file or directory

What do I need to do to make this work? I take it it's just a case of setting BASEDIR to the appropriate value (though I don't know what that value is) and creating the file catalina.out (thought I don't know where or what information it should contain by default). Thanks. meromorphic [talk to me] 11:47, 8 July 2013 (UTC)[reply]

This seems to be a fairly common problem for example see [2]. You might be able to just set use export BASEDIR=/Users/Conor/apache-tomcat-6.0.37-src. --Salix (talk): 12:24, 8 July 2013 (UTC)[reply]

why is memory so expensive in phones?

Why does Apple charge you $100 extra dollars if you want 32 gigs of space instead of 16 and $200 more if you want 64 gigs. What is so expensive about putting extra memory inside the phone?--Jerk of Thrones (talk) 17:46, 8 July 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Price discrimination Hcobb (talk) 17:51, 8 July 2013 (UTC)[reply]

I don't think that's shockingly expensive. I typed "price 32g dram" into Google and it seems to cost more than $200 at current rates, whereas "price 32g ssd" came up with things in the neighborhood of $100, but looked too big to stick in a phone. Are you maybe comparing against HDDs? That's not the right thing to compare; you can't really put an HDD in a phone. --Trovatore (talk) 17:57, 8 July 2013 (UTC)[reply]

The string to search for is "32gb sd". Which is well under $30 these days, if only Apple allowed SD cards to plug in... Hcobb (talk) 18:30, 8 July 2013 (UTC)[reply]

SD cards are slow. I don't know whether that's an issue for the phone in question or not. --Trovatore (talk) 18:38, 8 July 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Our OP asks why memory is expensive. The expensive part is making the whole thing work.

Nobody stops you from building a silicon fab in your back yard, designing your own digital logic to implement nonvolatile memory; worrying about all the troubles of electronic design automation and design for manufacturability; supplying high-quality silicon wafers that are not full of defects; acquiring the necessary photolithography machinery; spinning the photoresist, etching the wafers, dicing the wafers, packaging the wafers, gluing them to the phone in a way that does not break, snap, crack, or otherwise fail in any condition; making sure that the electronic connectivity is all working correctly...

...and of course, market pressure dictates that you must do all these things at a cost lower than anyone else who could supply an equivalent product.

But, despite much very uninformed propaganda designed with very nice bold-face fonts angrily declaring that this stuff ought to be easy for some reason, almost nobody wants to expend this sort of effort. Instead, most consumers willingly pay someone else to do it, and because there is a healthy market demand, the final retail supplier can charge $100, more or less, for 32 GB of memory. Nimur (talk) 19:06, 8 July 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Actually I expect a good class 10 microSD card is faster than the flash memory in the iPhone or at least the same (let alone a UHS class I) and you can buy one for under US$30 retail. To be fair, some of these probably have rather poor small file performance which you likely don't want in a phone, but not all and I think that's usually more related to the controller than the flash chip. Remember SD and to a lesser extent microSD (but the standards are basically the same) are used in devices far more demanding of speed, like some cameras and video cameras, than the iPhone or any phone.

In any case it's a moot point, SSDs cost under $1 per GB retail in the most bang per buck capacities which I think is currently around the 250GB mark. (A 32 GB SSD will probably cost more for various reasons in retail channels including the fact it's too small to be considered useful for anything but a cache drive but you should be able to buy one for under US$50. There may be reasons to pay slightly more depending on what you want from your drive but if you're paying $100 in the US for such a drive, I strongly expect you're paying way too much.) These are definitely faster than the flash memory in the iPhone (and while the sizes I'm referring to are obviously bigger and may use more chips and may use SLC rather than MLC, they also have more capacity, the size is as much about form factors and the faster speeds expected as anything).

I don't get why you are comparing the price of DRAM when the OP was clearly referring to flash memory in the question even if the title was unclear. The iPhone 5 only has 1GB of RAM whichever model you buy. And while there is surely some correlation between the prices of flash memory and DRAM since they're both part of related industries with similar manufacturers, the DRAM industry seems a bit insane with frequent lows due to gluts followed by manufacturers all cutting production to increase prices. I actually expect there's more correlation between HDD prices and flash memory since they still compete to some extent in the SSD market. It's a moot point though since HDDs are still far cheaper per GB while flash has cheaper per GB for a while now according to our SSD article it was in 2004 so it's little use taking in to account either.

Nil Einne (talk) 21:56, 8 July 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Trovatore, comparing DRAM to flash memory is a giant red herring distraction from the original question. You must know that comparison is shockingly misleading. As for the reason, it's simple price discrimination. If there was a product out there identical in every way to the current iphone, but one charged $30 and one charged $100 more for the extra storage, it's obvious. But there's not an identical one, so Apple maintains pricing power. Shadowjams (talk) 01:06, 9 July 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Well, whatever — I don't have a smartphone, never liked the idea much (I like large, convenient user interfaces for computing, and small, easily pocketable telephones), so I didn't know what sort of memory was being discussed. I'm not particularly a fan of Apple, their closed ecosystem and non-DYI-friendly attitude being prime reasons; I just didn't think this particular comparison was especially outrageous. --Trovatore (talk) 02:48, 9 July 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Whatever whatever. You don't need to be an apple fanboy to recognize that volatile memory is quite different from flash memory. Either you are much more ignorant than I expected given your history here, or you're being misleading in your comparison. Your concerns about Apple's closed infrastructure are quite valid, but I'm not sure why that requires the responses you've given here. Shadowjams (talk) 05:26, 9 July 2013 (UTC)[reply]

You're not making any sense, SJ. My response on the memory was if anything pro-Apple, in spite of my predilections; I was saying I didn't see their behavior as particularly out of line, at least this one time.

Of course I know volatile memory is different from flash memory, but I didn't know which kind the OP was comparing -- my bad, I suppose I could have figured it out if I'd wanted to go to the trouble. What I don't understand is why this upsets you so much. --Trovatore (talk) 07:56, 9 July 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Desktop remains black except task bar and mouse pointer

Hello there. Yesterday evening, I suddenly encountered this irritating problem. I don't know what exactly caused this problem. When I start my desktop (Windows 7, 64 bit), it appears completely black except the task bar which contains only start menu icon. Other icons in task bar don't show up at all. I can move my mouse pointer anywhere, but when I move mouse pointer on task bar it shows that it is processing something (I mean a "O" circling). I tried bringing task manager by pressing ctrl+alt+del, but even it did not show up at all. All I have to do is, reboot the system and run it either "Safe mode" or "Safe mode with networking". I can't run any software or applications that requires high graphic intensity (I am not talking about video game). Even I can't run office 2010, let alone video and audio. I checked the hardware but all seems working fine. My specs are:

Core 2 Quade 9400
Nvidia Geforce 9800 GT
Ram 4 GB
Motherboard Gigabyte UD3L
Thermaltake power supply (750 watt)

What's the problem? What am I missing here? I shall be grateful if anyone help me out on this regard. Thanks in advance.--180.234.228.132 (talk) 19:38, 8 July 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Sure sounds like malware to me. If you have an antivirus program I would suggest you run a scan with it; and if not, then you should definitely get one (popular free ones include AVG, Avast!, and Ad Aware.) The malicious program is probably blocking task manager from appearing so you can't terminate it's processes. --Yellow1996 (talk) 00:52, 9 July 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Another possibility is that it's some piece of software which loads at boot time, and is caught in an infinite loop. Did you add any software or do any downloads/upgrades recently ? If so, you might want to disable those apps. StuRat (talk) 06:27, 9 July 2013 (UTC)[reply]

I have the same or similar occasionally happening with windows 7.x and Safari. The only solution has been close and reopen, sometimes after reboot too--but I cannot say reboot's necessary. μηδείς (talk) 06:30, 9 July 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Well, I partially solved the problems. Some loopholes still persist. So what I did is:

I have Malwarebyte antimalware pro and Norton internet security. There is no Malware found in my system. NIS only detected two tracking cookies which have been successfully removed from the system.

I still had that nagging problem, so I suspected it is related to my Graphics card. I then updated driver from Nvidia website. But alas! whenever I tried to install the driver it says, "Nvidia Installer failed". Hence, I disabled display driver from device manager, restarted PC and able to run a clean installation. I used driver cleaner pro to clean any leftover before clean installation.

This evening, when I started my PC, it took longer than usual time to load system. I restarted it again see what's going on. And again that "black screen with mouse pointer and taskber appears". I shut down the PC and started it up again (as usual it takes longer than usual time to load the system) and it seemed to Okay. I mean desktop appears normally. But each time I shut down and restart system, this problem appears and then disappears. It still persists. I have not downloaded/upgraded software recently. Everything seems Okay and then problem comes back. I don't know what causing this problem. What to do?--180.234.23.166 (talk) 17:29, 9 July 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Trying doing a System Restore, which winds the computer back to an earlier time. You can get to this via the start menu, actual location vary with windows version. It will let you choose a time you want to restore to, choose one before you had problems and start it running. This can fix a lot of messed up software problems.--Salix (talk): 20:13, 9 July 2013 (UTC)[reply]

I could have easily restored the system if I knew the exact time when this problem started. Changes in registry or unexpected removal of them cannot be undone by system restore. It's obsolete now. I have disabled malwarebyte Pro from system startup and it seems work fine. But I am not sure whether it solves this nagging problem. Still experiencing longer loading time in system startup.--180.234.62.200 (talk) 14:21, 10 July 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Android Tablet Help

I have a Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 7.0, and I have the option of making a folder on one of the screens. This would be handy, but I can't seem to find out how to put anything in it. I have 6 files, downloaded from email I sent to a client, and would like those files sitting in the folder I made. However, when I go to the 'Download' folder, the only options I have are to either share by various means or to delete them. Is there any way I can get them into this folder? I really would like to have them there. KägeTorä - (影虎) (TALK) 21:41, 8 July 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Some intense Googling and I turned up this page (among many others); and it looks as though folders are only meant for app shortcuts, not your own files... --Yellow1996 (talk) 01:07, 9 July 2013 (UTC)[reply]

For some reason I have never been able to fathom Google doesn't consider working with files and folders in this way a core feature of android, so the only way to do this is using a third party app such as ES file explorer (this is just the one I use, there are many file managers available for android). This has the ability to add shortcutsto the android home screens by long pressing on the file/folder and selecting "more" then "add to desktop". Equisetum (talk | contributions) 14:33, 9 July 2013 (UTC)[reply]

July 9

66 years old and going soft in the head - I should have asked my 13 years old Grandson.

I recently signed a 3 year contract with T-Mobile/EE for an Android Smartphone (Samsung S3 Galaxy). It's brilliant - no complaints. I then went and bought for cash, an Apple iPad4. And now all the new info is coming home to roost and I have discovered that my 2 new toys are incompatible when it comes to putting all my PC Music in the iCloud because they operate on different platforms, plus I can't swap Bluetooth stuff without a cable instead of back to back. I don't want to let go of either piece of kit for at least a couple of years if at all possible, but don't want to wake up at 70 years of age and find once again I am an even older dinosaur than presently. Any advice will be gratefully received. Thanks in anticipation.80.6.13.178 (talk) 14:57, 9 July 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Is there a question in there? 64.201.173.145 (talk) 15:53, 9 July 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Yes. OsmanRF34 (talk) 17:52, 9 July 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Backup your files with iTunes on the PC, then transfer them from the PC to the android via Bluetooth. Bluetooth for Apple devices only works between Apple devices. Alternatively, you could use something like Dropbox. I use this for work, because for most of my work I need to travel around (I'm an interpreter). KägeTorä - (影虎) (TALK) 16:08, 9 July 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Lisp is a programmable programming language

What does it mean when people say that? Aren't all languages like that? (in the sense that they can be expanded. OsmanRF34 (talk) 17:41, 9 July 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Lisp typically relies much more on metaprogramming and macros than other languages do. So a lot of the things that are fixed by the language designer in other programing languages are available to the lisp programmer to modify and manipulate. -- 205.175.116.72 (talk) 17:56, 9 July 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Indeed. The classical view of LISP development is "extending the interpreter", not writing a separate program that runs on the interpreter. --Stephan Schulz (talk) 18:16, 9 July 2013 (UTC)[reply]

It has been a long time, but I think a LISP program can change itself. LISP works on lists, where a list is a list of objects enclosed by parentheses. A LISP program itself is a list. Bubba73 ^{You talkin' to me?} 03:37, 10 July 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Yes, LISP programs can modify themselves. LISP is not unique in that way -- see Reflection (computer programming). But LISP makes it very easy to do (because the structure of a program is so simple, and because of eval). Among current languages, Python comes close (indeed, if you look under the hood, Python is very much an OO LISP dialect with beginner-friendly syntax). --Stephan Schulz (talk) 06:40, 10 July 2013 (UTC)[reply]

RAM for 2006 first-gen Mac Pro

I'm still trying to upgrade my 2006 first-generation Mac Pro to Win7, and seeing that not even Apple Support can tell me (insisting that no such thing as a "2006 first-generation Mac Pro" would be even known to them, see my original odyssee), I'd like to ask here what type of RAM I need to expand it. I've been told that even just a slight alteration in the specs either wouldn't fit mechanically or due to electronical incompatibility would roast my whole machine once I'd turn it on.

An IT tech told me something of "DDR2", and the specs in the article Mac Pro say that what I originally got this machine with are 667 MHz DDR2 ECC DIMMs and they require heat sinks each. Googling and using Amazon, what I often see are 800MHz rather than 667MHz RAM stacks of that type, would they be compatible or even recommendable? What else do I need to look out for? --37.80.190.4 (talk) 19:04, 9 July 2013 (UTC)[reply]

I don't know what type of machine you actually have - because I'm not there looking at it - but assuming that you have correctly identified your device as a 2006 device, you have a seven-year-old Vintage or Obsolete Product. Special service providers may be able to help you with service, but Apple has "discontinued hardware service for vintage products." For the most part, this means that nobody makes compatible parts; you won't even be able to order such parts. There is no reason you should assume that the upgrade you are looking for is even possible; but the product is probably no longer covered by Apple Support. Most probably, you will have to pay a third party for any help you need with that device. If you get very lucky, some small shop may have a cache of old, compatible hardware parts.

Regarding installation of Windows 7: it seems self-evident - your machine does not satisfy the minimum system requirements to run Windows 7. Microsoft asserts: "Product functionality ...may vary based on your system configuration." You could talk to Microsoft Support if you have any questions about their minimum system requirements. Nimur (talk) 21:08, 9 July 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Uhhh...I can't see anything from that table which says that my Mac Pro wouldn't qualify.

1GHz or faster 32-bit processor: Check! It's actually a 2.66GHZ 64-bit QuadCore.
2GB RAM: Check! It's exactly what's in there right now, but in order to run Adobe Creative Cloud on it, I wanna upgrade to at least 8GB.
20GB system HDD: Check!

The rest I either don't need or (in the case of drivers) is supplied by BootCamp. Must be why Microsoft's own compatibility checking tool tells me my machine is fit for it, as does the article Mac Pro.

As for the RAM, I never expected Apple to sell me the pieces by now. All I'm trying to find out is what to buy from Amazon or any other place. There's plenty of RAM on Amazon which reads "667 MHz DDR2 ECC DIMM" (still sealed, some ads even saying that it's "Mac Pro-compatible", but I'd rather make sure somehow), as does the Wikipedia article Mac Pro for the 2006 version.

Also, it can't be "vintage", as it can't have been discontinued any earlier than 2008 at the earliest (which was when the second-generation Mac Pro was first introduced). In order to be defined as "vintage" by Apple, it must be discontinued for more than five years. --37.80.190.4 (talk) 01:08, 10 July 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Further proof: This[3] Windows7 update, right from Apple, for the NVIDIA GeForce 7300 GT or Quadro FX 4500 graphics card on the Mac Pro, that were *EXCLUSIVELY* shipped with the original 2006 first-generation Mac Pro, as you can see at Mac Pro. The only reason why Apple does not "officially" support Windows7 on the original 2006 first-gen Mac Pro is because the minimum RAM that it was shipped with was only 512MB, and Win7 64-bit requires 2GB RAM, a RAM size easily supported by this machine which could be shipped with up to 16GB RAM from Apple directly, and can *STILL* be expanded up to 32GB RAM. --37.80.190.4 (talk) 02:34, 10 July 2013 (UTC)[reply]

It's quite doubtful that you need RAM with heatsinks or heatspreaders, this depends entirely on the manufacturer of the RAM. That said, you should stick with ECC RAM if that is what's used, there's no guarantee non ECC is supported and if you are using the computer for professional purposes you may want ECC anyway. 800mhz RAM would probably work presuming it has SPD settings for 667mhz which it probably does, but there are no guarantees. (I'm presuming your mobo/chipset isn't capable of using 800mhz RAM which I don't lnow for sure.) But there are no guarantees particularly with such old hardware, sometimes weird stuff happens, e.g. I know of someone who had major problems getting single sided (well single ranked) 4GB DDR3 sticks to work even though double sided ones alleged work fine. And random compatibility problems can happen even with stuff which you would expect to work. And it may or may not be worse with ECC, I have insufficient exprience to say. Both computer or mobo manufacturers and RAM manufacturers generally publish RAM-mobo compatibility lists, but such lists are often very limited. Nil Einne (talk) 10:34, 10 July 2013 (UTC)[reply]

BTW, I'm pretty sure the 7300GT is not exclusive to the Mac Pro though the update you linked to appears to be for one which was. Also all cards listed as options for the Mac Pro are very weak, they will likely be sufficient for Aero but if you are using Creative Studio tools or other tools capable of using the GPU, you may want to consider a GPU upgrade as well, although I don't know what will work with Mac OS X. (I presume your mobo just has a standard 16x PCI express port.) Also you may want to make sure you can actually use Windows 7 x64, while your CPU is x64, the linked article suggests it has EFI32 and uses a 32 bit Mac OS X kernel and I don't know how Boot Camp works. Windows 7 x32 doesn't support more than 4GB, actually it doesn't support 4GB entirely either. And even if you uses 32 bit version of Windows with PAE, I'm pretty sure the 32 bit versions of the apps can't use more than 4GB. Nil Einne (talk) 12:45, 10 July 2013 (UTC)[reply]

I would expect the 800MHz ECC memory you found to work. If you want something known to work, try this: [4]. It is a link to Crucial's RAM finder tool. I have a feeling the stuff on Amazon is much cheaper than what Crucial wants to sell you. 209.131.76.183 (talk) 11:50, 10 July 2013 (UTC)[reply]

July 10

Using SSL with a Server without a DNS Domain Name

Is there a standard way of using SSL with a server on a private network that has no real DNS domain name? The clients in this case are software systems that know the server by a private IP address. I can think of some ways to make SSL work but I wonder what the standard practice is, or if there is one. 173.49.12.2 (talk) 04:25, 10 July 2013 (UTC)[reply]

You can use self signed certificate, or run your won certificate authority and sign your own certificates. Import your authority certificate into your web browsers. Graeme Bartlett (talk) 10:04, 10 July 2013 (UTC)[reply]

But what do you use as the subject (the CN in particular) in the cert for the server? The name should be one by which the clients know the server. I guess you can use the server's (private) IP address, but it feels "wrong" and it's not clear whether the (non-browser) clients will support it. Another possibility is to give the server some private domain name (perhaps a .local one) and make the clients use that instead of an IP address. The name can be resolved using a local DNS service or hosts files. What is the standard practice, if there's one? --173.49.12.2 (talk) 12:33, 10 July 2013 (UTC)[reply]

I don't know about "standard" but many larger companies use a local DNS (or sometimes WINS) for secure sites within their organisations. They often don't use self-signed certificates directly, but a self-signed signing certificate. That way the one certificate can be added to the organisation's browsers and it can then verify multiple internal sites. In effect it is a local Certificate Authority. -- Q Chris (talk) 07:53, 11 July 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Coding and Minecraft

I have tried to view webpages and watch videos about learning to use Java, but it appears to be too difficult to remember and use. How can I learn Java online without forgetting or finding it too difficult?

Also, how do create new mobs and blocks for Minecraft, again the stuff I looked at appears to be too difficult for me?

Please assist. 92.0.111.155 (talk) 05:13, 10 July 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Don't expect to learn programming by reading and viewing only. You need to actually do it. I would suggest to start with a friendlier language than Java - check out Python and in particular, try to work your way through the Python tutorial. Once you got the knack of programming in general, moving to another language in the same paradigm is fairly easy. Learning a new paradigm is not, but is very satisfying ;-). Good luck! --Stephan Schulz (talk) 14:16, 10 July 2013 (UTC)[reply]

For your Minecraft question here's a tutorial which claims to be easy for beginners - I can't verify though because I don't play Minecraft... --Yellow1996 (talk) 16:04, 10 July 2013 (UTC)[reply]

I cannot get that to download 92.0.111.155 (talk) 21:47, 10 July 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Oh - sorry about that, the page must be old because one of the links is to Megaupload, a service which ceased to exist over a year and a half ago. This is the Minecraft wiki's page for mod creating, though it says it requires some knowledge of Java. I guess you'll need to learn the basics of that language before you do any modding. Good luck! --Yellow1996 (talk) 00:53, 11 July 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Why do computers have such a hard time when it comes down to simple tasks?

Why exactly can computers make beds? Or change diapers and such? The less intelligent humans that I know can do it without any mental effort. If we let the computer extra time, like some hours, would it manage to make a bed? OsmanRF34 (talk) 16:30, 10 July 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Why do we continue to let Osman ask questions like this? Shadowjams (talk) 06:56, 11 July 2013 (UTC)[reply]

It's not the computers' fault, it's the people's :) A less intelligent human may indeed make beds easily, but it takes lots and lots of intelligence to be able to write a set of instructions on how exactly to do it (step by step, outlining every step in meticulous detail). And don't forget the instructions on how to deal with various situations that may arise in the process. Try creating a list of all the things that can go wrong when you are making the bed and you'll appreciate the enormity of the task! All computers do is follow the instructions, and if the instructions are lousy, so is the outcome.—Ëzhiki (Igels Hérissonovich Ïzhakoff-Amursky) • (yo?); July 10, 2013; 16:39 (UTC)

Well, do computers need to know exactly? Machine learning and such can deal with many not well-defined cases, and the bed is a 'closed' system (in the sense that you know how many sheet are there, it's not like driving, when lots of things can happen). Add to it that you could put RFID tags to help the computer know where the sheets are. OsmanRF34 (talk) 16:44, 10 July 2013 (UTC)[reply]

But they do need to know exactly; that's the nature of computers. Everything they do boils down to zeroes and ones, choices between on and off. Any operation a computer/robot perform is the result of following a set of instructions in an applicable situation. If the situation is not ideal (say, a pillow fell on the floor, and the robot can't see it), then the fall-back instructions are followed to rectify it, but, of course, someone needs to anticipate this kind of problem and to write a set of instructions to deal with it. Machine learning can deal with many ill-defined cases, but once again, someone needs to tell the machine how to deal with them (and to anticipate the problems in the first place).—Ëzhiki (Igels Hérissonovich Ïzhakoff-Amursky) • (yo?); July 10, 2013; 16:51 (UTC)

(edit conflict) It's because the computers have no understanding of the real world - save that which we tell them. You couldn't just throw a computer into a situation and expect it to figure it out without some prior information. The closest to real learning is machine learning but that still takes human intervention. We could program a computer to operate a robot which could make a bed; but as for a computer which learns the method of how to make one itself from nowhere, I don't think that's possible (yet...) Also, something I found when I searched "computer that makes your bed" on Google: [5] --Yellow1996 (talk) 16:42, 10 July 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Yes, computers have no understanding of the real world, but what makes it so difficult to deal with a sheet? You could model it as a mesh of points (distance about half an inch each). There are not many variables there. OsmanRF34 (talk) 16:46, 10 July 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Well as long as you tell it what to do with the sheet, it shouldn't be a problem. However, as Ëzhiki points out above, you need to account for many variables so that the computer knows what to do when there's a problem. I assume that nobody has really taken the time to do this (besides a few models of beds which can make themselves - but that's a little different) because making the bed is not a very complicated and time consuming task. --Yellow1996 (talk) 17:02, 10 July 2013 (UTC)[reply]

While there are many tasks that are genuinely hard for a computer, making a bed should not be among them. The reason they cannot do it is that there is no demand for it. And there is no demand because even in highly developed countries it is cheaper to do it yourself or hire human help than to have a complex robot specialized for just one or a few tasks. The major problem with making a bed is not the algorithmic part - take 10 grad students, give them enough gear, food, caffeine, 1 year of time and a price of a million dollars per person if they figure it out, and they will figure it out. The hard part is to provide the mechanical parts within a reasonable budget (and "the mechanical parts" would probably include making the room larger so that the robot can vanish into a discrete locker when not in use).--Stephan Schulz (talk) 17:21, 10 July 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Computers can't make beds or change diapers because they don't have arms and hands -- or eyes, for that matter. Looie496 (talk) 03:10, 11 July 2013 (UTC)[reply]

You could design a computer that makes a bed or change a diaper. I'm sure we will someday. It's just too expensive to design and build one at the moment and the price of obtaining one would outweigh the cost of hiring someone to do it. Electronic parts are getting cheaper and more powerful all the time, though. Also, as mentioned, computers are actually quite stupid. Our programming languages are very inadequate for anything other than telling them to do low-level functions like addition and data transfer. So, the language we use to interact with computers needs to evolve, as well. We need to abstract more functions away from the programmer with more libraries that do the dirty work in the background. So, the workers you mention that make beds for a living are actually much more intelligent than any computer. They can program themselves, regulate their heartbeat and breathing without effort, process super high-definition 74-megapixel video at 12 FPS with their eyes, and process touch and very high-definition audio simultaneously. They can make the bed without any effort after training and simultaneously daydream about other things while doing so. They store 2.5 petabytes of information in their brains and that far exceeds most computers made today. Computers are slowly getting smarter. It will happen, eventually.—Best Dog Ever (talk) 04:34, 11 July 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Problems with FireFox on Linux

Have a look at this picture I took of an on-line dating site: http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b552/foobar16/Deitti_zpsbd7b73f6.png

Both screenshots are from the same computer, running Fedora 17 Linux. The screenshot above is from FireFox 22.0, the screenshot below is from Midori 0.4.6.

Notice the problem? FireFox displays weird characters in the place of universally recognisable symbols, whereas Midori displays them all OK. Even better than that! At work, where I am forced to use Windows 7, FireFox has no problem displaying the symbols all correctly.

Actually, even getting to upload the picture was a hassle. FireFox wouldn't let me go past entering my sign-up information. With Midori, signing up was a doddle. Does all this mean FireFox 22.0 is hopelessly broken on Linux and I should switch to Midori instead? JIP | Talk 18:21, 10 July 2013 (UTC)[reply]

The top one appears to be displaying unknown unicode characters, the bottom one is displaying an image. Is the top one a 2x2 grid of the numbers 0-9 and A-F? I suspect that, instead of using an actual image, the website is using a custom font with the images in it. Midori is respecting this, but Firefox isn't. As how to fix it, I don't know… CS Miller (talk) 18:43, 10 July 2013 (UTC)[reply]

The Facebook and Twitter icons are characters in the unicode private use area (U+f098 and U+f099), rendered in the good version with the Font-Awesome icon font. In the bad case, for whatever reason, the browser has failed to load FontAwesome and is defaulting to its default sans font, which doesn't have glyphs for those codepoints (hence the hex-box fallback glyphs). I don't know why your Firefox 22 does that; on my Ubuntu box, Firefox 22 loads and renders the font icons fine. As with all problems Firefox, run in safe mode to see if one of your extensions is breaking it. -- Finlay McWalterჷTalk 18:55, 10 July 2013 (UTC)[reply]

No, running in safe mode didn't help. JIP | Talk 04:29, 11 July 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Filling the inside of a polygon defined by vertex coordinates in Java.

I am looking at a problem i have in Java. There is a command i believe, whereby one can fill the area of any polygon with some color on an image buffer. The shape is defined by an array of coordinate pairs defining the vertexes of the shape. This is one of the fairly common graphics commands, i think its something like fillPoly.

My problem is thus:

I wish to make an algorithm so that two different polygons are filled with yellow. If any pixel is part of both polygons, that pixel will be orange instead of yellow when the second polygon is filled in. Furthermore, drawing a third polygon, if a pixel inside the area of this third polygon was yellow prior, it would be orange. If it was orange prior, it will now be red. The idea is to lay down consecutive polygons, with an algorithm in mind for however many shapes overlapping a pixel determining that pixel's color.

I do have a general idea for this, as i have done something similar. I can keep track of every pixel of the X*Y image buffer, with an X*Y two-dimensional array. The value of the location in the array shows how many polygons overlap there, and consequently tells what color the pixel should be when drawing a new polygon. The PROBLEM with this approach is, i would have to know given the definition of the shape as a vertex list, whether every pixel in the image is inside or outside the shape. If it is inside the shape, read that pixels current value in the array and modify the color and array as appropriate.

However, i have NO IDEA how to tell if a pixel is in a shape or not! I also fear that there may be a more elegant solution than what i am thinking of.... i was taught in programming classes to look for those elegant solutions.

Does anyone know the solution to this issue? PLEASE let me know if there is a more simple way to think of this as well, as id rather not bang my head against the wall if a better answer could stare me in the face. :)

Thank you very much in advance! 216.173.145.47 (talk) 21:20, 10 July 2013 (UTC)[reply]

The general article about determining whether a point is in a polygon is point in polygon. You might find it easier to transform the way you store polygons to a list of triangles (see polygon triangulation) as the test for "is this point in this triangle" is straightforward. To avoid keeping a track per-pixel, you may find algorithms like the Weiler–Atherton clipping algorithm useful, where you can track the results of polygon intersections mathematically rather than brute-forcing per-pixel. As you're using Java, you can try JTS Topology Suite (but I'd encourage you to give doing it yourself a go first). Most generally, this falls within the ambit of the general topic of computational geometry. -- Finlay McWalterჷTalk 21:37, 10 July 2013 (UTC)[reply]

It wouldn't be efficient or elegant, but if you want a simple to implement (and understand) solution, you could use the built in fillpoly method you mentioned. If it supports transparency, then you can just layer all the polygons with transparency. Anywhere that overlaps will have a different intensity than where they don't overlap. Then you can go through the pixels and remap the colors to match what you want. A geometric solution would certainly be faster and more elegant, and implemented well it would just as easy to read and understand (keeping the math abstracted away). 209.131.76.183 (talk) 14:13, 11 July 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Mail on Darwin Unix

I am a Unix novice (trying valiantly to learn on Mac OS X though) and one thing I would like is the ability to use the mail command in the shell. I can't readily find any information about setting it properly on the web though (or, at least, not any that is readily recognisable or intelligible to me), so I wondered if anyone here might know where I could find a suitable set of instructions, or, if it's not too demanding, even walk me through it? Thanks. meromorphic [talk to me] 22:59, 10 July 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Does this thread help? If not, one of our Unix masters will probably be able to assist you better! --Yellow1996 (talk) 01:00, 11 July 2013 (UTC)[reply]

You probably want a full-blown mail client - like Alpine. Alpine is free software but it's not easy to set up if you're a total novice. Instructions are available for Building and Installation.

If you really are on a Mac, you can also use mail - the mail utility: x-man-page://mail (You can copy that URL to your browser!) It's the official man page that's built in to your system, documenting the command-line mail command. Nimur (talk) 02:29, 11 July 2013 (UTC)[reply]

July 11

How to delete floppy disk stuff from BIOS (http://www.gigabyte.com/products/product-page.aspx?pid=3610)

I have searched around inside the BIOS, I have flashed them to the newest version, but it seems I cannot find the command to disable floppy disk anywhere. I need to do this so I could use GParted to partition my drive so I could dual boot linux into that — Preceding unsigned comment added by 140.0.229.26 (talk) 00:01, 11 July 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Mouse scrolling making BROWSER problems...

I have this EXTREMELY annoying bug... I CAN'T get rid of.

It started a while ago, I don't even know how, just started, one day.

when I scroll on pages, mostly UP, it turns into the normal scroll-up icon and when I press other tabs in google chrome it CLOSES them... and the START BAR won't work either... it's like frosen and when I press back on pages after having SCROLLED, it creates a new with the same page... WTF is going on.. why is MOUSE SCROLLING causing computer problems AND browser problems? This comp is 3 months old............. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 212.30.207.211 (talk) 02:50, 11 July 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Point and shoot cameras

Does the amount of megapixels significantly affect image quality in a point and shoot camera? I ask as I find that a 4 megapixel point and shoot camera can take photos with better image quality than an 8 megapixel smartphone camera. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Clover345 (talk • contribs) 12:01, 11 July 2013 (UTC)[reply]

That's the usual situation. Megapixel is often mistakenly used as a figure of merit. See Digital_camera#Image_sensors. Pixel count can make a difference, but I often get better results from an old 2 Megapixel camera than a new 14 Mpx one. Jim.henderson (talk) 12:22, 11 July 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Megapixels will make a difference on print quality, and more megapixels lets you print on larger surfaces. About 8 megapixels allows you to print at a good quality level on a 8.5" per 11" sheet of paper (~300 Dots per inch), so more megapixels than that will generally not be very useful. Digital displays need even fewer megapixels - 1080 HD is only about 2.1 megapixels. More megapixels reputedly allow for more flexibility in post-processing. 64.201.173.145 (talk) 14:24, 11 July 2013 (UTC)[reply]

It depends. All other things being equal, a higher number of pixels allows a better depiction of fine details. On the other hand, for any given camera design, a higher resolution on a sensor of the same size means that the ccd elements are smaller, and thus more susceptible to (thermal) noise, so that the image often looks more washed out. Also, for most applications there is a useful limit to the number of pixels - your pixel resolution does not need to be better than your optical resolution, or your print/display resolution. Finally, all other things usually aren't equal. Better optics, image stabilization, and even such a trivial thing as ergonomic shape of the camera body will have an influence on the quality of the image. Not to mention the skill of the photographer in picking and arranging motives and knowing about good and bad lighting conditions. I've seen Japanese tourists trying to light up St. Peter's Basilica with the Flashcubes of their Instamatics. Small negative size was not the major problem with those photos ;-).--Stephan Schulz (talk) 14:43, 11 July 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Yeah. For smart photographers with high end hardware, Megapixels can make a difference. When the rest of us point our little P&S, the part that spoils the picture we put in Wikipedia is under our hat. Jim.henderson (talk) 15:05, 11 July 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Sometimes turning down the resolution on a camera can help get better shots. The camera will still capture at the full resolution, but combine adjacent pixels. This can help smooth out noise or let you get away with a shorter shutter time in low light situations. Your point-and-shoot also probably has a much better lens than your phone. 209.131.76.183 (talk) 15:29, 11 July 2013 (UTC)[reply]

@@ Line 167: / Line 167: @@
 ::It depends. All other things being equal, a higher number of pixels allows a better depiction of fine details. On the other hand, for any given camera design, a higher resolution on a sensor of the same size means that the ccd elements are smaller, and thus more susceptible to (thermal) noise, so that the image often looks more washed out. Also, for most applications there is a useful limit to the number of pixels - your pixel resolution does not need to be better than your optical resolution, or your print/display resolution. Finally, all other things usually aren't equal. Better optics, image stabilization, and even such a trivial thing as ergonomic shape of the camera body will have an influence on the quality of the image. Not to mention the skill of the photographer in picking and arranging motives and knowing about good and bad lighting conditions. I've seen Japanese tourists trying to light up [[St. Peter's Basilica]] with the [[Flashcubes]] of their [[Instamatic]]s. Small negative size was not the major problem with those photos ;-).--[[User:Stephan Schulz|Stephan Schulz]] ([[User talk:Stephan Schulz|talk]]) 14:43, 11 July 2013 (UTC)
 :Yeah. For smart photographers with high end hardware, Megapixels can make a difference. When the rest of us point our little P&S, the part that spoils the picture we put in Wikipedia is under our hat.  [[User:Jim.henderson|Jim.henderson]] ([[User talk:Jim.henderson|talk]]) 15:05, 11 July 2013 (UTC)
+:Sometimes turning down the resolution on a camera can help get better shots. The camera will still capture at the full resolution, but combine adjacent pixels. This can help smooth out noise or let you get away with a shorter shutter time in low light situations. Your point-and-shoot also probably has a much better lens than your phone. [[Special:Contributions/209.131.76.183|209.131.76.183]] ([[User talk:209.131.76.183|talk]]) 15:29, 11 July 2013 (UTC)