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July 19

Dictionary !

Which is the best free English-English Dictionary application -that works offline- for Windows 7 64-bit? From where can I download it? Joseph 09:42, 19 July 2013 (UTC)

This page has a review of three such programs. Of them, WordWeb seems to be the most favoured one. Hope this helps, --Yellow1996 (talk) 16:22, 19 July 2013 (UTC)

Can different digital television broadcast formats, such as ATSC and DVB-T, be used indepdently and simultaneously for the same channel at the same place and time?

This is just a theoretical question. Is there any conflict between different formats? Czech is Cyrillized (talk) 10:55, 19 July 2013 (UTC)

As long as the analog bands (the sections of the radio spectrum) used by different services don't interfere with one another, you can broadcast in whatever form you want on one band and the other and there's no interaction. In practice you'll find the same kinds of services in different countries often use the same sections of the spectrum, because they have the same requirements (antenna configuration, terrain diffraction, ionospheric interaction, etc.). -- Finlay McWalterჷTalk 12:33, 19 July 2013 (UTC)

As a practical example, consider List of digital television deployments by country#Central America, where you see that Panama chose DVB-T (like its continental neighbour Columbia), and but Guatemala chose ISDB-T, unlike its continental neighbour Mexico (which uses ATSC). There's other ATSC and ISDB-T deployments in the area. So this means people living on e.g. the Mexico-Guatemala border are in range of both services. If they point their antenna at a Mexican tower, and use an ATSC-capable TV set, they can watch Mexican ATSC; if they point the antenna at a Guatemalan tower, and use a ISDB-T set, they can watch Guatemalan TV. The respective radio authorities of the two countries will already have gotten together to divide up the frequencies assigned to those border-adjacent towers, so they don't interfere with one another. -- Finlay McWalterჷTalk 13:06, 19 July 2013 (UTC)

In France we made the transition to DVB-T. In the begging DVD-T(called TNT) was launched: during years the fist 6/7 (the 5 channels was time sharing: from 7h to 19h it was FRance 5. It was arte during the remaining time) channels were available both in numerical and analog. When TNT was lunched, it bring many new channels and arte had it's own channel (the 7th). From 2011 to 2012 Analog antenna was progressively chuted down. Users who still hadn't bought a compatible receiver need to buy an adaptator.

For more information see Télévision Numérique Terrestre#DTT_transition 2A02:8422:1191:6E00:56E6:FCFF:FEDB:2BBA (talk) 15:56, 20 July 2013 (UTC)

Infrared cellphone remotes

One of my friends has a Galaxy S4 with which he is able to control the TV via infrared. I still have a old Nokia that has infrared, so I want to know is it possible to do something similar with this old phone? Romeo Kilo 14:41, 19 July 2013 (UTC) — Preceding unsigned comment added by Proudly RSA (talk • contribs)

Which model do you have? There appear to be methods for many of them. --Yellow1996 (talk) 16:24, 19 July 2013 (UTC)

July 20

External Hard Drive Issues

I've been asked to help a friend with an external hard drive that's having issues. Initially, when connected to a Mac or a PC, it would display that it was not initialized and that I should initialize it in Disk Management, even though it did not appear in My Computer. Knowing that this would wipe the drive, I waited to confirm that he was OK with that. Once he agreed, I connected it to my PC, except it does not appear at all, in My Computer or Disk Management. There is a light on it which is lit when plugged in. It is a Western Digital My Passport 2TB (sorry I don't have any more precise info). At this point, I'm just trying to get it back to a usable state, even if that means wiping it. Any ideas?

Thanks, 99.224.85.109 (talk) 17:28, 20 July 2013 (UTC)

Does the disk run correctly, Do you feel it is spinning in your hand.

Are you sure your friend own the disk? Certain hard drive are highly protected. Usually you add many encryption barrier when you want the data to remain private. In certain case, user modify the way HD run in more than encryption. In this case the disk doesn't work when plugged into another OS from which it is used. If you look at it, it seem work. When you try to access it with a computer, it look good for recycling. 2A02:8422:1191:6E00:56E6:FCFF:FEDB:2BBA (talk) 18:17, 20 July 2013 (UTC)

Was the PC you mentioned initially (the one it displayed on) the same PC you are trying to connect it to now? If not, are they running the same OS? - I think 2A02:* is on to something with the security idea. Oftentimes people don't want others to get at their data and it's rare to find an external HDD with no security precautions whatsoever. If you can get it to display on another computer I would reccomend a regular format (My Computer-->right click-->format.) Good luck! --Yellow1996 (talk) 18:54, 20 July 2013 (UTC)

I was talking of security. Usually, peoples simply encrypt the content HD. But some want to dive deeper in security, and use things which make look the hard drive broke for the OS. I am sorry if it is not true, but it is possible: Your friend may found it; took it; and when he/she saw it didn't worked he/she bring it too you, telling you he/she own the disk. 2A02:8422:1191:6E00:56E6:FCFF:FEDB:2BBA (talk) 19:58, 20 July 2013 (UTC)

Do you have any other external hard drives connected to the computer? For some reason, many of external hard drives, even ones from different vendors, share the same serial numbers and Windows will get confused by this and require you to "initialize" the disk. Removing all other drives from the computer and then reconnecting only the drive you want to use is the solution if you do not want to initialize the disk. Other than that, the only other thing I can think of is that the partition has been damaged. You can repartition a drive using this, this, or most OS install disks will have a partition manager that can delete and create partitions. Make sure you pick the correct drive or you won't be able to boot into your computer anymore 82.44.76.14 (talk) 21:27, 20 July 2013 (UTC)

It is a very common hardware failure were the disk spin and the led blink normaly. I am afraid their are no wikipedia articles about it and it is too long to be translated here. I found this. The page is written in my native language. 

Update: read this 2A02:8422:1191:6E00:56E6:FCFF:FEDB:2BBA (talk) 23:06, 20 July 2013 (UTC)

OP '99', are you using Western Digital 'SmartWare' HDD software? This comes already on the HDD, and is available for download here if your HDD is one of those displayed. See http://wwwDOTehowDOTcom/info_12037373_wd-smartware.html?ref=Track2 (remove the DOTS to use) at ehow.com for a simple explanation of it. Pay particular attention to the last section "Disabling". - 220 of ^Borg 15:42, 21 July 2013 (UTC)

Firewalls on networks

Most people now have firewalls and antivirus software on their pcs but these days many other devices such as tablets, tvs, blu ray players, digital cameras are also connected to home networks and media is also shared between them. Could these devices, many of which don't have as good antivirus and firewall software, create vulnerabilities in the network which could be exploited to access pcs or the media being streamed between them? What can people do to protect their home networks? Clover345 (talk) 19:31, 20 July 2013 (UTC)

Yes they could. Some devices can be better protected than others but this is a case where defence in depth works best (i.e. protecting each and every device the best way possible to create a reasonably secure whole). For Android based devices there are anti-viruses and firewalls available. Both AVG and Avast offer free antivirus products but I've never had a chance to test them out myself. iOS devices seem to be much more difficult to provide protection for because of the controls Apple place upon them. In some ways this is good because it makes them less susceptible to viruses or other malware but by no means immune (although I'm not aware of any in the wild viruses for iOS, that doesn't mean they don't exist). You should also keep all devices up to date with the latest software which will normally include security updates. Things like TVs and Blu-Ray players and the router/modem you use to connect to your ISP will likely have updates to their firmware made available if there's a security issue that comes to light so you should keep an eye out for these as well. Not all firmware updates are for security however and they can be a bit risky so unless its security related, I'd wouldn't bother with them if I were you. Finally, if your using Wifi, make sure you use a strong encryption algorithm with a good key. WPA2 is one of the better ones, WEP is bad, very bad. 94.193.242.43 (talk) 04:10, 21 July 2013 (UTC)

Yes there is still malware for iOS, just not as much other OSes. I've used AVG and haven't had problems with it (except for one time, but that had to do with a faulty update and was quickly fixed); I haven't used Avast. --Yellow1996 (talk) 16:42, 22 July 2013 (UTC)

computer does not recognize modem

I have install windows xp 2006 on my desktop computer using usb flash because my cd rom is not working properly. I have used win to flash software to copy xp files from cd. now my system does not recognize ptcl(pakistan telecommunication ) dsl modem .in fact their is no need to install drivers manually ,modem do it automatic.my computer recognize it as unknown device and unable to install modem.182.187.126.134 (talk) 22:05, 20 July 2013 (UTC)

are you talking of this kind of modem? What kind of port it use? 2A02:8422:1191:6E00:56E6:FCFF:FEDB:2BBA (talk) 08:03, 21 July 2013 (UTC)

The OP said "dsl modem" so he probably means DSL_modem. RudolfRed (talk) 17:23, 21 July 2013 (UTC)

Batch file (Windows 7)

So I want my PC to shut down after playing a playlist on VLC. Apparently the way to do this is using a batch file. But I can't get the batch file to open VLC. Here is what I'm doing:
START /WAIT C:\Program Files (x86)\VideoLAN\VLC\vlc.exe %1 vlc://quit
And I'm supposed to drag the playlist onto the batch file. But I get an error when I do this saying that it cannot find C:\Program. How can I fix this? Thanks. 105.236.218.126 (talk) 22:51, 20 July 2013 (UTC)

Try START /WAIT "C:\Program Files (x86)\VideoLAN\VLC\vlc.exe" "%1" vlc://quit -- Finlay McWalterჷTalk 23:40, 20 July 2013 (UTC)

Regenerating PDF file from Google HTML cache?

Is it possible to "regenerate" a PDF file from a Google HTML cache? Regarding http://www.nfisd.org/users/0001/docs/NForestISD2006.pdf I had archived a Google HTML cache here.

So it is possible to put together enough information to re-make the PDF file? It may sound like desperation, but I want to see if it's possible WhisperToMe (talk) 23:07, 20 July 2013 (UTC)

Not really. All the HTML page that Google Cache serves is a gazillion text labels that pretty much say at (13322,9433.3) put text "Foobar Heights" in green. Presumably this was originally a zone map, containing vectors for roads, borders, boundaries, etc. (they conserved some metadata that suggests the original document was authored on AutoCAD). But when Google cached it they seem just to have retained the text parts (which is why the text labels are roughly geographically located) but not the vectors (which is surely what you're after, as without them the "map" is useless). Maybe Google cached more, but they're not admitting to it. -- Finlay McWalterჷTalk 23:36, 20 July 2013 (UTC)

Yeah, I want to know if this map is a regular map or if it actually had attendance boundaries for elementary/middle schools. Such information would be helpful for articles about neighborhoods in North Forest and/or about North Forest High School. WhisperToMe (talk) 23:40, 20 July 2013 (UTC)

I don't see any way to know for sure. But: notice how it says "c key maps 2006" - and lo, there is http://www.keymap.com/ - a Houston area supplier of GIS products and maps! So I'll bet you one of two things is true: a) it's just a regular Houston map produced by Key Maps, or b) it's a custom job they've done in 2006 (taking their existing GIS database and map software and drawing on custom features, like school catchment areas); I'm betting b. And Google did cache metadata from the PDF which shows the PostScript file used to generate the PDF:     \\Corporate\abc jobs\Schools\NorthForest\NForestISD2006.ps    . Perhaps if you contact Key Maps, they'll still have the original file at that location. Looking at their website, I'm thinking Key Maps is just one guy, not some intractable corporation. -- Finlay McWalterჷTalk 23:55, 20 July 2013 (UTC)

I read your post at the beginning of the week. What you want is probably an another web archiver. 2A02:8422:1191:6E00:56E6:FCFF:FEDB:2BBA (talk) 09:13, 21 July 2013 (UTC)

July 21

Converting from an ages-old Video-for-Windows codec to "modern" h264

Hi all,

my CCTV software (GeoVision) supplies me with AVI videos with the GMP4 codec ("Geovision MP4"). The codec is supplied as a Video for Windows 32-bit driver only, so I had to set up a virtual machine to even be able to play the files with MPC-HC. What software can I use to convert the files into something more universal like h.264?

The "usual suspects" ffmpeg/VLC don't play the file at all because they are not able to use VfW codecs.

84.153.7.232 (talk) 02:31, 21 July 2013 (UTC)

Before I suggest any solutions, I'd like to test them out myself to make sure they work. Can you upload a sample video clip to the Internet and link to it here? I will download it and see what works.—Best Dog Ever (talk) 08:51, 21 July 2013 (UTC)

I am sorry, I'm not allowed to disclose the videos (I work in a casino, it's not allowed for privacy reasons). I just need some way to watch them at home because somewhen in my shift some idiot stole quite a sum of money from me. 84.153.7.232 (talk) 09:23, 21 July 2013 (UTC)

I'm thinking to a way which must work. Can you watch it in fullscreen? 2A02:8422:1191:6E00:56E6:FCFF:FEDB:2BBA (talk) 09:56, 21 July 2013 (UTC)

Sure, but I'd rather like something not involving screencapping =) 84.153.7.232 (talk) 10:32, 21 July 2013 (UTC)

The GeoVision website has a download section with the codecs and/or MultiView software to view the files. Can you use those? --Canley (talk) 13:05, 21 July 2013 (UTC)

He/she probably can since he/she write he/she wanted to view the video at home.

Your codec look enough old to not have any way to convert it. Your casino is using old camera which have their own codec. It is not open source, so you don't know how the format work. I've seen a database with million of entries working with a DOS only program. Over decades, they still need DOS because they can't convert it.

You will waste your time if you try something endless. Instead of asking a way to convert an old codec, you should ask for a screen video capture software which don't need installation. I was asking if you can watch the video in fullscreen, it may be not necessary. I remember picpick which allow capturing the output of a windows. You should look for something similar which do video. 2A02:8422:1191:6E00:56E6:FCFF:FEDB:2BBA (talk) 13:36, 21 July 2013 (UTC)

Hypercam (here) and Camstudio (here) - I can contest to both of them. I've tried others but these two are my favourites. --Yellow1996 (talk) 18:06, 21 July 2013 (UTC)

You could try the "usual suspect" of the old days, VirtualDub. KarlLohmann (talk) 15:37, 21 July 2013 (UTC)

MeGUI (ignore the article, it's not about what MeGUI usually refers to but I don't think there's currently a better redirect target so I can't change it) [1] is generally my favourite for these sort of things but really the above answers seem to be complicating things way too much, there must be hundreds of tools capable of this sort of thing and it's likely a large percentage of transcodes on Windows use such tools (the idea that you can open play a file in MPC-HC but it's too 'old' to 'convert' is just strange). As mentioned by KarlLohmann, VirtualDub is another option although in that case you'll need to make sure you have a suitable encoding codecs installed yourself. Presuming you're correct and GeoVision really only provides a VfW codec, this may complicate matters slightly but probably not much since many tools are still built around it, it would be more concerning if only a DirectShow filter was provided, let a Media Foundation filter, as support for these generally remains poorer in such tools. I mean worse case scenario, many tools will have the fall back option of AviSynth or something similar frame serving (some of course use it by default). I would recommend a more specialised forum like Doom9 if you have further problems. Nil Einne (talk) 18:42, 21 July 2013 (UTC)

Just a thought here; Are casino employees allowed to take security videos home with them for their own purposes, and wouldn't that in itself breach the very privacy rules the OP mentioned earlier? Astronaut (talk) 18:57, 22 July 2013 (UTC)

It may still be better for him/her to find a way to find the thieve rather than explainning to his boss he/she has been stolen so much money. 2A02:8422:1191:6E00:56E6:FCFF:FEDB:2BBA (talk) 19:42, 22 July 2013 (UTC)

Broken jpg/jpeg image

Remember earlier in the internet when there were broken jpeg images, such as this: http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_Ze5Xm5fW-4o/TUnUBt6ADUI/AAAAAAAABJA/2WGSLTNK1K4/s200/broken-link-image-gif.jpg. Is there an official image of the broken jpeg that Joint Photographic Experts Group may have used? I can't see too much info, even on the Wiki page. Thanks! Baseballfan (talk) 04:26, 21 July 2013 (UTC)

The JPEG file format specification explains what a file needs to contain in order to be valid, but does not say anything about how invalid files should be handled (or how valid files should be handled, for that matter). Looie496 (talk) 04:35, 21 July 2013 (UTC)

The original "broken image" icon was designed by Marsh Chamberlin of Netscape Communications for the Netscape browser—it's a function of the browser UI, not part of the JPEG specification. --Canley (talk) 12:58, 21 July 2013 (UTC)

VPN security

I am planning on using a VPN, but little do I know about networking. Basically all my incoming and outgoing data is passed through an intermediate server, and theoretically that data can be compromised. But from what I've heard, HTTPS protocol can encrypt the data, prevent the data from being compromised by a third party. The owner of the server I connected to may keep track of websites I visit, but can him acquire my password or any important information? -- Livy (talk) —Preceding undated comment added 14:39, 21 July 2013 (UTC)

VPNs are used for many different things, I assume you want to use a VPN to provide some anonimity and safety, and not to securely connect to your company's network. In this case, it is not much different from using Wifi at the house of a far-away friend. His router, and all routers between him and the places you visit, can see your traffic just like your own ISP would if you didn't use a VPN - they just have a harder time telling where it originally came from. You're best of still taking all the security precautions you would (like using HTTPS) just as if you were at home, and you need to realize that there are many more ways to leak (parts of) your identity than just hiding the IP address you're connecting from. If it's anonimity you're looking for, you might want to look into Tor (anonymity network). But if you want to encrypt your traffic from curious eyes, using a VPN will probably only prevent the first few routers in your connection from seeing your traffic. Unilynx (talk) 17:19, 21 July 2013 (UTC)

If you are planning to use tor, the secrurity you think having will be only effective if your domain is availaible in .onion.

Update: OpenVPN and other work at the SSL layer. You probably want a IPsec solution. 2A02:8422:1191:6E00:56E6:FCFF:FEDB:2BBA (talk) —Preceding undated comment added 20:40, 21 July 2013 (UTC)

Linux toolbox: what should beginners learn

I am new to Linux, coming from Windows (obviously) and would like to assemble a basic toolbox.

I find emacs incredible, I am learning some bash syntax and Perl one-liners.

I'd like to learn more of these things that previous Windows users don't even know that exist, but would profit from learning.

Jean — Preceding unsigned comment added by 34and34 (talk • contribs) 16:50, 21 July 2013 (UTC)

A bit of a broad question, but here are some webpages that might assist you: [2], [3] and (probably best of all) [4]. --Yellow1996 (talk) 17:57, 21 July 2013 (UTC)

I recommend learning Python for scripting. It's a lot better than Bash or Perl for anything longer than a few lines. -- BenRG (talk) 00:00, 22 July 2013 (UTC)

The word "better" is fraught with peril, but Python is arguably a much cleaner design. Bobmath (talk) 15:56, 22 July 2013 (UTC)

I don't know if you've got the basics under your belt yet, but if not, I'd start with learning:

• the command line at all
• pipes
• grep
• diff

There are some days (not every day) when I think to myself, "Man, grep is so useful, I don't know how I could live without it."

And on the days when I don't think that, I think, "Man, diff is so useful, I don't know how I could live without it."

(Now, with that said, I concede that diff, grep, and pipes are as useful to me as they are because I still manage to work mostly with text files, such that I can continue to make use of the "everything's a file" tenet of the Unix philosophy. If you're a more modern user of computers than I am, dabbling in images and music and video and whatnot, the tools of choice may be different.) —Steve Summit (talk) 22:49, 22 July 2013 (UTC)

Based on the questions people regularly ask here, some useful tools (that solve real problems people often have) include Imagemagick, Sox, FFmpeg, PDFtk, and ghostscript. The man command is your friend and find is immensely useful. cron and its cousin at make automating stuff practical. tar is very useful, and wget and cURL are immensely handy.. I'm personally fond of dd, nc, hexdump and its inverse xxd, and dpkg-query. But in my experience the "big two" utilities that save me the most time are ssh and rsync; used together they're remarkable. -- Finlay McWalterჷTalk 23:55, 22 July 2013 (UTC)

In addition to all of the above, I'd like to mention LaTeX for essentially anything a typical Windows user would use Microsoft Word for. LibreOffice Writer is similar to Word if you really want that, but LaTeX is incredibly powerful and useful if you take the time to learn it. It's just much more flexible than WYSIWYG word processors, although admittedly, it has a bit of a learning curve. (Fun fact: you can even make presentations with LaTeX! It has slightly fewer features than MS Powerpoint, but you probably don't need those features anyway.) --Link ^(t•c•m) 22:23, 23 July 2013 (UTC)

Definitly sed and find ... -exec cmd {}\; are indispensable. I now use Python for most scripting, but for some things gawk is hard to beat. And then there is cut, sort, uniq and, of course, backquotes. And who could forget the mighty ed! --Stephan Schulz (talk) 16:45, 24 July 2013 (UTC)

To answer your question, it would really help to know what you want to use linux for. Just as a desktop replacement, for programming, for...? Some more things I like about linux: Command-line completion with "Tab". Also exists to some extent in windows, but who would use command line in windows? As for editors, that's a personal thing, but I'd suggest to also try vi or its derivatives (I use vim) to see whether you might like it. It will be more difficult to do anything at first than in Emacs, so don't be discouraged. It has some advantages though like small size, exists on virtually any linux/unix, ... bamse (talk) 01:34, 27 July 2013 (UTC)

July 22

Excel 2010 MOD function

I have a spreadsheet that I'm using to record & total times (processed to the minute, data entered to 15 minutes).

I'm subtracting two timestamps to get a duration displayed as hh:mm. I can total the durations up. One day of 8 hours is 0.33333, so four days of this is 1.33333. Using the hh:mm display, this shows as 08:00 since it throws the 1 day away. I want it to display as 32:00.

Therefore I am using my own formula to display the answer:
=RIGHT(100+INT(24*SUM(O1102:O1147)),2)&":"&RIGHT("0"&INT(60*MOD(24*SUM(O1102:O1147),1)+1/24),2)

This worked fine on Excel 2002 on XP. I have now migrated to Win7 & Excel 2010. Instead of displaying 32:00, it often displays 32:60 Which means that MOD(a,b) is returning b as a valid answer. Surely it should return 0 <= return value < b

Anyway I've fixed it in a clunky fashion with:
=RIGHT(100+INT(24*SUM(O1102:O1147)),2)&":"&RIGHT("0"&IF(INT(60*MOD(24*SUM(O1102:O1147),1)+1/24)>=60,INT(60*MOD(24*SUM(O1102:O1147),1)+1/24)-60,INT(60*MOD(24*SUM(O1102:O1147),1)+1/24)),2)

But is there a better way? -- SGBailey (talk) 10:05, 22 July 2013 (UTC) (after the event)

If you use the custom format [hh]:mm it will display the correct number of hours. AndrewWTaylor (talk) 10:02, 22 July 2013 (UTC)

Great, thanks. Is that format documented anywhere? -- SGBailey (talk) 10:05, 22 July 2013 (UTC)

Yes, it's in the help for Custom Number Formats. AndrewWTaylor (talk) 10:13, 22 July 2013 (UTC)

I can find no help for custom number formats. Within the Format Cells | Number | Custom, there is no help button. Within Help, if I type Custom format or Format nothing relevant pops up. -- SGBailey (talk) 10:35, 22 July 2013 (UTC)

Also, why DOES the mod function (appear to) go wrong. -- SGBailey (talk) 10:35, 22 July 2013 (UTC)

I found the help by going to the Format Cells dialog and pressing F1 (the standard key for help); this gives a page with three links, one of which is "Create a custom number format". As for the problem with MOD, I also found some help saying "The MOD function now [i.e. in Excel 2007/2010] uses new algorithms to achieve both accuracy and speed", so you might expect differences. To debug it further you could break down the formula into its components to see where it's not doing what you expect. AndrewWTaylor (talk) 12:30, 22 July 2013 (UTC)

Are you sure the problem is in the MOD function ? In the second half of your original formula you have

INT(60*MOD(24*SUM(O1102:O1147),1)+1/24)

Walking through this step by step ...

1. If 24*SUM(O1102:O1147) is just less than an integer ...
2. ... then MOD(24*SUM(O1102:O1147),1) will be just less than 1...
3. ... so 60*MOD(24*SUM(O1102:O1147),1) will be just less than 60 ...
4. ... so 60*MOD(24*SUM(O1102:O1147),1)+1/24 may then be just greater than 60 ...
5. ... and INT(60*MOD(24*SUM(O1102:O1147),1)+1/24) will give the result 60.

Can you explain why you are adding 1/24 in step 4 ? Gandalf61 (talk) 13:04, 22 July 2013 (UTC)

Ah, no I can't - it seems strange to me now. Unless I find a simple example, let's call this closed. Cheers. -- SGBailey (talk) 13:09, 22 July 2013 (UTC)

Map Editor for In-car GPS navigation device

Does there exist a map editor to run on a Windows PC that

• is able to open the map files used in a common brand (TomTom, Garmin, Mio, TeleAtlas, etc.) of GPS device. I want to plan a future journey and see what roads will be displayed.
• allows me to add or edit information e.g. add a private access road or a local name.
• is cheap or free ? DreadRed (talk) 14:17, 22 July 2013 (UTC)

Off the top of my head, I can't think of something that will open the proprietary formats of the listed systems, nor give you complete control over writing to those files (I know of a couple that can read and perhaps convert, but not write), and it's unlikely that such an application would be free if it exists.  drewmunn  talk  14:57, 22 July 2013 (UTC)

OpenStreetMap allows you to export data in XML or raster-image format, and also provides a mechanism for extending and editing the data-set, using an in-browser interface, or using the programs Merkaartor or Potlatch 2. If you intend this data for personal use (and not for sharing and upload to the OpenStreetMap data project), then you can edit as much as you want, in as speculative a fashion as you desire.

Then you can export your new map data to a mobile device that is capable of interpreting the data. For example, here is a manual for installing an OSM data set on a Garmin-brand device. Nimur (talk) 15:13, 22 July 2013 (UTC)

I am trying to download base map in osm format and this HTTP request doesn't work: http://api.openstreetmap.fr/xapi?* [key=value][bbox=-70,12,62,84]. 2A02:8422:1191:6E00:56E6:FCFF:FEDB:2BBA (talk) 15:50, 23 July 2013 (UTC)

Why is China getting Class C subnets?

Why is China getting Class C subnets like say this one?

http://whois.arin.net/rest/net/NET-142-4-118-0-1/pft

I understand that China is a tiny little country with minute networking needs, but can't this all be swept under a single Class B so the rest of the world can just firewall that off? Hcobb (talk) 16:37, 22 July 2013 (UTC)

See IPv4 address exhaustion. Also Classless Inter-Domain Routing. Dmcq (talk) 10:30, 23 July 2013 (UTC)

Maps and ariel photos showing hotels

This past weekend I went on a trip to a meeting held at a convention center. I wanted to look at hotels near the convention center - close enough to walk. In the past, I've been able to go to websites that show maps or satellite photos and have it show me the location of all hotels. Last week I looked at four such websites and now I could not see how to have it show me all hotels - they would show me only ones from certain chains. (The chains were different on different websites.) I suspect that the only hotels a website would show are paid sponsors. Is there a good website that shows all hotels near a location? Bubba73 ^{You talkin' to me?} 16:44, 22 July 2013 (UTC)

This site claims to do just that, using your exact location. I haven't used it though so I can't gurantee it's usefulness. Hope this helps, --Yellow1996 (talk) 16:49, 22 July 2013 (UTC)

That website finds hotels near your current location. I don't see any way to specify the location. I want to check prices and make reservations for where I am going. Also, it is useful to have an aerial photo, for instance I would have been able to see that one hotel was just across the parking lot and two others wer just across the street. Bubba73 ^{You talkin' to me?} 18:24, 22 July 2013 (UTC)

I was in a sub-section of this site. The page I've just linked to allows you to specify a specific address. As for aerial pictures, I'm not sure. --Yellow1996 (talk) 01:15, 23 July 2013 (UTC)

That is better. There is an option to map up to 5 hotels, but it doesn't work, even if I have some selected. Bubba73 ^{You talkin' to me?} 01:23, 23 July 2013 (UTC)

Doesn't work for me, either. There must be a bug in the site that doesn't register when the radio buttons are checked off, so it always thinks you don't have any selected... --Yellow1996 (talk) 01:29, 23 July 2013 (UTC)

Your heading uses "ariel" instead of "aerial". Please see "Aerial" and wikt:aerial.

—Wavelength (talk) 17:06, 22 July 2013 (UTC)

You're right - I can't spell. Bubba73 ^{You talkin' to me?} 18:20, 22 July 2013 (UTC)

Google maps will do this. Zoom in to the right area (maybe just a few streets across), then type "hotel" into the search box. Google will place markers on hotels and even smaller motels and B&B places (and also the odd business supplying hotels with things). You can zoom out a little and pan around to find something to meet your requirements.

Similar features are available on other sites like tripadvisor.com, laterooms.com, hotels.com and so on. Of course, many are restricted to hotels that either have availability for the dates you select and/or are advertised on the specific site, but even for pretty obscure locations I can find plenty of places to stay. Astronaut (talk) 16:04, 23 July 2013 (UTC)

Thanks, Google Maps worked. I had tried TripAdvisor and Hotels.com last week, but they did not show me all of the hotels - only a few, IIRC. But perhaps there were no rooms available for the ones it didn't show. Bubba73 ^{You talkin' to me?} 03:43, 24 July 2013 (UTC)

Resolved

Help with map generator code

I am doing a map genedator with python.
User are able to select the map size (x and Y) and it generate a map.
The problem I can't find a way to create each pixel in the order I want.
A some example:
With my original idea if the user selected a 3x3 map it would create the map this way, selecting how each map pixel will be one after another
323
212
323
1=This pixel of the map is selected first.
2=All the pixels with this number are selected
3= All pixels with this number are selected

as some example, the same idea with 5x5 map
54445
43234
42124
43234
54445

but my map generator create the map like this:
as some example a 3x3 map
123
456
789

This is the actual code that produce it

   for row in range(len(object.tile_list)):
        
       for collumn in range(len(object.tile_list[row])):
              ALL THE MATH AND RULE STUFF THAT WILL SELECT WHAT THE PIXEL OF THE MAP WILL BE

How could I create a code that do as I said? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 201.78.179.109 (talk) 18:07, 22 July 2013 (UTC)

You haven't really described why a given point in the desired map takes its value. For example, I don't see why the 4 values in the middle of the edges of the 5x5 map aren't 3 instead (why is 4 right and 3 wrong?). What you're essentially doing is creating a function in two variables and then iterating over that, sampling it at integer intervals. There are many functions in two variables which can produce a symmetrical pattern somewhat like these; linear (arithmetic), geometric, distance, etc. To write code, you'll have to figure out a more formal definition of what the right answer is. -- Finlay McWalterჷTalk 20:05, 22 July 2013 (UTC)

This map generator would produce the map based on some statistics. It would select the first pixel(area) at random and continue from there. If some square you are generating is connected to a square that is already generated, it has 90% chance of being of the same time and 10% of being of a different type (what this different type will be is based on some rules).

Based on my rules diagonal squares are not connected to some square. So, witha 5x5 map it start map creation with square 1, and then continue by selecting all the closest connected squares (at the same time) to already generated squares (square 1), those squares are the squares 2. Then it continue by selecting all the closest connected squares (at the same time) to already generated squares (square 3).

Remember I said that a square connected to other have 90% of being the same. when creating multiple squares at the same time, you do all squares at the same time, on a board like this:

323

212

323

The 90% math would be make to each square 2 separated. As some example you would do the check one time to each 'square 2' (so do the check 4 times), as some example, if you get less than 10% on the first square, you will just change the type of this square, you will need to do the same test 3 more times(one to each other square)to know you will keep them with the same type of change them. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 201.78.179.109 (talk) 20:45, 22 July 2013 (UTC)

Your description of selecting the NSEW adjacent squares and processing them sounds a lot like a flood fill, only one where the "colour" mutates (by your 90% rule) rather than being constant. I have Python code for that (which handles recursion with a queue or stack) at File:Wfm floodfill animation queue.gif. If you used that, but changed a couple of lines:

 if img.getpixel((x,y)) == targetcolour:
   img.putpixel((x,y), newcolour)

to

 if img.getpixel((x,y)) == uninitialised:
  if random.randint(1,10) == 10:
    newcolour = randomise_new_colour()

  img.putpixel((x,y), newcolour)

that might make for a nice terrain -- Finlay McWalterჷTalk 21:23, 22 July 2013 (UTC)

Thanks will check that when I have, time. While vising some website I had the idea of a map generator based on world statistics, of course this data would be hard to get, this idea stuck into my head and I decided to try with chess statistics by hand, but then I discovered some rpg (rhand morningstar missions), that had some terrain statistics (dm can roll a d100 to check how the area (6 mile diameter hexagon) he will enter will (there is 5 main ground types) be, and if he is leaving this terrain he can roll again for the next terrain (because this is connected to the old one, there is 90% of the ground type being the same). I posted this idea last friday on a forum while we were discussing rpg settings (while also posting the rpg statistics) and some made a python code for me that generate a map in ascii text, but he gone and I decided to change it (never coded with python before) to better suit my original idea and fix some of his bugs, but the main part that was very diferent is the order that it generate the terrain.

Here is the wip code http://pastebin.com/vfXN79d3 201.78.179.109 (talk) 12:54, 23 July 2013 (UTC)

Censorship in Hong Kong

I've been asked why people in Hong Kong would not have access to the site HeartsSpeak.org. HS is a non-profit that helps connect photographers with animal shelters who could use their artistic assistance. I don't know exactly what they mean by "can't access" and I can think of no technical reason why they'd have any issues. Would this be blocked by the Great Firewall of China? Would users get a standard error page saying that the site they are trying to access is blocked? Is HK even affected by the Firewall? I didn't see any mention of HK specifically in the article on the Firewall. Dismas|^(talk) 19:06, 22 July 2013 (UTC)

It's apparently not blocked by the GFWoC. -- Finlay McWalterჷTalk 20:11, 22 July 2013 (UTC)

I call shenanigans on http://www.greatfirewallofchina.org - its "OK/FAIL" indicator does not provide enough meaningful information to determine anything. I suspect the pass-fail criteria is entirely based on whether a DNS lookup succeeds or fails, and nothing more. A domain name server that fails to resolve a lookup is not the same as a network firewall that is dropping or blocking network traffic - even if the superficial symptoms look similar to an average end-user. Nimur (talk) 22:49, 22 July 2013 (UTC)

GFWoC does not filter Hong Kong. So it will be irrelevant. Graeme Bartlett (talk) 10:19, 24 July 2013 (UTC)

Thanks, all! I guess I'll just have to find out what they mean by "can't access" and go from there. Dismas|^(talk) 10:53, 24 July 2013 (UTC)

July 23

Excel 2010

I'm building a spreadsheet and I need to keep adding "0805", which because it has a leading zero displays as "805", so I'm entering it as "'0805", the leading tick works fine.

However Excel now keeps telling me that "The number in this cell is formatted as text or is preceded by an apostrophe". I know that. To get rid of the obnoxious hovering diamond, I have to click it and select "Ignore Error" - every time.

Is there a way to turn this (and this sort of) feature off? Indeed, I'd like to turn 99% of Excel and Word "auto-help" functions off, can it be done? You spend more time fixing the auto-help than you do creating the document! -- SGBailey (talk) 08:12, 23 July 2013 (UTC)

Why not format the cells with a Custom Format of 0000? --Phil Holmes (talk) 08:56, 23 July 2013 (UTC)

(edit conflict) See here for how you can turn off the error checking. You are able to selectively turn off checking for different errors, so in your case you can deselect 'numbers formatted as text or preceded by an apostrophe', or just turn off the whole caboodle. - Cucumber Mike (talk) 08:57, 23 July 2013 (UTC)

Great. Thanks CM. -- SGBailey (talk) 10:03, 23 July 2013 (UTC)

June 22: How to download map too large for xapi

I didn't know it was possible to add card from openstreemap to a GPS using SDXC.

I want to chose a custom area and get city explorer functionalities.

I am trying to download base map in osm format for converting it and this HTTP request doesn't work: http://api.openstreetmap.fr/xapi?*[key=value][bbox=-70,12,62,84]. 2A02:8422:1191:6E00:56E6:FCFF:FEDB:2BBA (talk) 19:23, 23 July 2013 (UTC)

For some decent pointers, see OSM wiki-page on Garmin devices. Personally I tend to get my updated maps from openstreetmap.nl, which has instructions for installations here. WegianWarrior (talk) 20:33, 23 July 2013 (UTC)

The problem is not I can't transfer and convert map to my GPS. It is that I want to chose a custom region and I can't download it to .osm xml (see xapi hyperlink on precedent post).

Update: OpenStreetMap.nl doesn't work : "Selected map is too large!" 2A02:8422:1191:6E00:56E6:FCFF:FEDB:2BBA (talk) 21:22, 23 July 2013 (UTC)

Hyperlink times out for me (bad gateway). Try looking at the OSM Map on Garmin page at the OSM Wiki, which has instructions on how to create your own img-files for your Garmin. - including links to software that can apparently make the job easier. WegianWarrior (talk) 03:46, 24 July 2013 (UTC)

I understood the instructions given. I know how i can convert .osm files. The problem is they don't explain how to download a quarter of the planet in Openstreetmap format (I want to choose my own area). 2A02:8422:1191:6E00:56E6:FCFF:FEDB:2BBA (talk) 11:29, 24 July 2013 (UTC)

Best suggestion I can offer then is to ask on the OSM wiki. WegianWarrior (talk) 17:01, 24 July 2013 (UTC)

PC doenst show image. Time to change video card?

I have a pc at home that have a video card (motherboard doenst have intagrated video card), when I turn it on the monitor shows nothing and the power on of the monitor blinks.
But the pc really turns on, I am able to access some of his files by network if I turn it on and I am able to see his network enabled printer. I also tested the monitor with my notebook and it works
Tried to remove the video card, and put it back to see if this would work, but this doenst worked
Video card fan, is working.
PS: I was using the pc at night and on the next day, this problem happened.
With the pc really turning it on, and the monitor really working, the only fix is to buy a new video card?
201.78.161.229 (talk) 23:27, 23 July 2013 (UTC)

Try plugging a different monitor into your PC. If that one doesn't work, then it's surely a failed video card and you will have to replace it. --Yellow1996 (talk) 01:08, 24 July 2013 (UTC)

Not sure it can be the video card i've seen something similar: the video card didn't look to work. The Problem was caused by the AGP controller. It was a single chip on the motherboard and it was that thing which didn't worked anymore. If it is a similar case changing the screen don't mean it would be the video card. The best way to check if a component don't work is to replace it with an another one known for working. 2A02:8422:1191:6E00:56E6:FCFF:FEDB:2BBA (talk) 12:21, 24 July 2013 (UTC)

July 24

Intel's Tick-Tock and performance

Intel Tick-Tock says that a tick (e.g. Ivy Bridge) is a reduction in die size and a tock (e.g. Sandy Bridge) is a new microarchitecture. This says that Ivy Bridge should show about a 20% performance increase (per clock speed) over Ivy Bridge because if the larger number of transistors. Is that right? Do ticks or tocks represent the bigger performance gain? Bubba73 ^{You talkin' to me?} 04:32, 24 July 2013 (UTC)

Whoops - I read it wrong. The 20% increase is in transistors, not performance. But still the question is about performance in ticks vs. tocks, e.g. Ivy Bridge over Sandy Bridge.

My question is partially answered by Ivy Bridge (microarchitecture), but what can be said in general? Bubba73 ^{You talkin' to me?} 04:35, 24 July 2013 (UTC)

You need to understand that increasing transistor number is generally increasing the length electricity have to cross. Intel increase both performance and transistor. Certain RISC (ex:MIPS) architecture don't increase transistor number.

There is a simpler example : human brain/eye can process 24 fps. A fly can process hundreds. 2A02:8422:1191:6E00:56E6:FCFF:FEDB:2BBA (talk) 11:24, 24 July 2013 (UTC)

That is untrue. The human eye can easily tell the difference between a 50 and 70 FPS animation.Zzubnik (talk) 12:45, 24 July 2013 (UTC)

But generally more transistors means a faster CPU. Bubba73 ^{You talkin' to me?} 14:45, 24 July 2013 (UTC)

Can you cite a well-known CISC architecture (other than x86 based) were more transistor mean more powerful? 2A02:8422:1191:6E00:56E6:FCFF:FEDB:2BBA (talk) 16:55, 24 July 2013 (UTC)

To put it in more concrete terms, I was deciding between buying a computer with a Sandy Bridge i5-2320 and one with an Ivy Bridge i5-3330. (Last night I ordered the i5-3330 one.) Both run at 3GHz and have the same amount of L2 and L3 cache. The 2320 has one notch better TurboBoost with one or three cores running, and the same with two or four cores running. Despite that, might the 3330 outperform the 2320 by a small amount? Bubba73 ^{You talkin' to me?} 14:53, 24 July 2013 (UTC)

I didn't look here yet. 2A02:8422:1191:6E00:56E6:FCFF:FEDB:2BBA (talk) 16:55, 24 July 2013 (UTC)

memory performance

I'm going to be adding memory to a Windows desktop computer. I have three basic choices, at about the same price:

• DDR3-1333 PC3-10600 CL=9
• DDR3-1600 PC3-12800 CL=11
• DDR3-1333 PC3-10600 CL=7-7-7-24

Which should give the best performance? Bubba73 ^{You talkin' to me?} 05:24, 24 July 2013 (UTC)

DDR3-1600 sounds faster, but can your motherboard and CPU support it? Graeme Bartlett (talk) 10:16, 24 July 2013 (UTC)

I'm not sure about the speed of the motherboard. But Crucial says that all of these will work. So that probably means a 1333MHz bus instead of 1600. In that case, I doubt that there would be any advantage to the 1600 one.

Does CL=7-7-7-24 mean that the first three words read from memory would be relatively fast but the fourth one would be very slow? Bubba73 ^{You talkin' to me?} 14:09, 24 July 2013 (UTC)

That question is answered at SDRAM latency. Bubba73 ^{You talkin' to me?} 16:19, 24 July 2013 (UTC)

3d From 2d

For certain types of figures, it seems like given an image from front, back, and each side and the general dimensions of the object, that you could "extract" other angles of the figure by blending the appropriate parts together. While, obviously, this wouldn't work for every object, and lighting may be a problem, is there anything out there that looks into this? Honestly, I'm just curious; if nothing else, I'd love any suggestions on what might be a good way of doing this, then I could just try it myself. Thanks:-)Phoenixia1177 (talk) 07:27, 24 July 2013 (UTC)

3D reconstruction from multiple images is the general topic, although the article leads somthing to be desired. There is a lot of work in the topic and it is considered a hard Computer Vision problem. It does get a lot easier if you can label points so you don't have to worry about which points match with which.--Salix (talk): 09:18, 24 July 2013 (UTC)

Excel 2010 startup

Yet another Excel 2010 / Windows 7 question! Is there a way of making it startup without opening a new worksheet? On older versions I would add a "/e" option to the target, but I appear to have a write protected target that doesn't list the exe file anyway, so I can't add /e. -- SGBailey (talk) 08:44, 24 July 2013 (UTC)

Answered my own question. I made a NEW shortcut to the actual .exe file (rather than whatever shortcut it is that Windows creates when you install Office). That did have a target and I could add /e to it. So I'll use that and delete all the auto-magic Office created shortcuts. Cheers. -- SGBailey (talk) 08:49, 24 July 2013 (UTC)

RECORDING A VIDEO FILE

How can I record a video file (e.g. BBC news or some animation showing heart beat etc.)from internet to my computer? Is there any simple software? Thank you.175.157.149.54 (talk) 09:34, 24 July 2013 (UTC)

See Wikipedia:Reference_desk/Computing#Converting_from_an_ages-old_Video-for-Windows_codec_to_.22modern.22_h264. 2A02:8422:1191:6E00:56E6:FCFF:FEDB:2BBA (talk) 12:12, 24 July 2013 (UTC)

If using FireFox, then you can use the excellent addon VideoDownloadHelper - I love it. --Yellow1996 (talk) 16:19, 24 July 2013 (UTC)

unit step

is it unit step is energy or power? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 223.196.163.250 (talk) 15:10, 24 July 2013 (UTC)

is it unit step signal is energy or power signal? Mkrtwr (talk) 15:27, 24 July 2013 (UTC)

It's a power signal. From [5]

"The unit step signal is a Power signal. Since when we find the power it comes to 1/2 (i.e finite value). And when we find its energy, we got INFINITY. If a signal has energy as infinity and power as a finite non-zero value, then it is a power signal, not an energy signal." --Yellow1996 (talk) 16:49, 24 July 2013 (UTC)

When i use MS Word, I keep the calculator open, but

Anytime i come back to word, it disappears, and than i need to annoyingly go and start it all over again from the Taskbar. any way to shut it into there? Ben-Natan (talk) 16:03, 24 July 2013 (UTC)

Without knowing what OS you are running, I can suggest you try this 3rd party program. I haven't used it myself, though. Hope this helps! --Yellow1996 (talk) 16:59, 24 July 2013 (UTC)

Windows NT

What does NT mean? This applies to the whole world. Couldn't find the answer on Wikipedia, and I can't access other sites than YouTube, Wikipedia and Armor Games on my computer. Pubserv (talk) 18:49, 24 July 2013 (UTC)

Third sentence of out Windows NT article: "NT" was expanded to "New Technology" for marketing purposes but no longer carries any specific meaning. 209.131.76.183 (talk) 18:54, 24 July 2013 (UTC)