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September 16

How can computer convert software to hardware ?

How? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 37.238.39.250 (talk) 09:29, 16 September 2013 (UTC)

Perhaps by 3D printing? The question doesn't really give enough information to gain a reasonable answer. You can put software onto a computer chip, which is hardware. Is this what you were asking? 217.158.236.14 (talk) 09:46, 16 September 2013 (UTC)

Our articles on machine code, microcode, instruction set and microarchitecture may help you. Gandalf61 (talk) 13:54, 16 September 2013 (UTC)

That’s not possible… software is information and hardware is matter!!
Iskánder Vigoa Pérez (talk) 17:33, 16 September 2013 (UTC)

Iskander sums it up pretty nicely... when taken literally, no - software can't be "converted" to hardware. --.Yellow1996.^(ЬMИED¡) 23:39, 16 September 2013 (UTC)

Do hardware description languages (VHDL/Verilog) count? --Wirbelwind(ヴィルヴェルヴィント) 23:41, 16 September 2013 (UTC)

Not really because it's still not the software itself being "converted to hardware"; though I guess that's about as close as you'd get. --.Yellow1996.^(ЬMИED¡) 02:39, 17 September 2013 (UTC)

I think the most close computers are on transforming software into anything else is in transforming the software into another kind of software, but I guess we are more in the stage of transforming the original software into “just the same software” but with very little code variations due to data readouts, that maybe… maybe, after a lot of hard work and a lot of god luck, some of this variations improve the original software.
But hey! Be careful, my school teachers always claimed: “do NOT mess the code with the data!” so do it at your own risk
Iskánder Vigoa Pérez (talk) 06:06, 17 September 2013 (UTC)

How can a computer that shows us digital information on hardware on form images and other programs?

How can a computer that shows us digital information on hardware on form images and other programs? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 37.238.39.250 (talk) 10:20, 16 September 2013 (UTC)

I'm sorry, but this doesn't mean anything in English.217.158.236.14 (talk) 11:07, 16 September 2013 (UTC)

You might want to post questions in your native language, and we can translate them for you. But, in case you are asking how digital information can form pictures, I can describe that. The digital info describes a series of dots (pixels) which are drawn on the screen. If you look closely, perhaps using a magnifying glass, you can see the individual dots. For a black and white image, the dots are only two colors, black and white (although they could really be any two colors). If we draw extra large "pixels" here, say using the "O" symbol, you can see how they run together to form letters and pictures, if you stand back a bit:

O   O   O O O  
O   O     O    
O O O     O     
O   O     O  
O   O   O O O 

For color images, the pixels can be be many colors, and there is a digital code which describes the color of each pixel. For example, 00000000 11111111 00000000 might describe the color green, for one pixel. I can go into more detail here, if you are curious about how we get from the codes to the color. StuRat (talk) 12:20, 16 September 2013 (UTC)

Are you believe general relativity theory ?

Are you believe general relativity theory ? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 37.238.39.250 (talk) 10:24, 16 September 2013 (UTC)

A) Wrong desk B) As I'm not smart enough to know otherwise, yes, I believe it. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 217.158.236.14 (talk) 10:57, 16 September 2013 (UTC)

General relativity is the best theory we have to explain a number of observed phenomena, but then, a hundred years ago, Newtonian mechanics held that honour. Perhaps sometime in the future, we will have a grand Theory of everything that includes both relativity and quantum mechanics, but don't hold your breath. I expect that, at least for the rest of my lifetime, general relativity will be "believed" by nearly all scientists because it provides the best explanation. I'm not sure that I'd elevate my confidence in it to a "belief", but I know that it works, and gives correct predictions. What more can you expect? Dbfirs 15:41, 16 September 2013 (UTC)

This question would be better suited to the science desk. --.Yellow1996.^(ЬMИED¡) 23:40, 16 September 2013 (UTC)

Automation in arranging and labelling pictures

I have to print out pictures to stick into a logbook for work/PhD project. I've been having to arrange this pictures in MS PowerPoint along with text boxes to say what each image represents. The pictures all have descriptive file names in the form 'Exp.SS.4.4.193 - DF1 - pRHS-98 - Without Antibiotic - Replicate 3 - 15x - Field 2 - Merged B-R - 2013-05-11'. Is there some way I could automate the abhorrent chore, fitting about six images from a specified folder onto each page, with the file name serving to identify each image? To make things harder, the folder also contains images titled as follows 'Exp.SS.4.4.193 - DF1 - pRHS-98 - Without Antibiotic - Replicate 3 - 15x - Field 2 - Brightfield - 2013-05-11' and 'Exp.SS.4.4.193 - DF1 - pRHS-98 - Without Antibiotic - Replicate 3 - 15x - Field 2 - UV red - 2013-05-11' which I don't want to be included in the print outs. Thanks a lot for any help you can offer! --129.215.47.59 (talk) 14:12, 16 September 2013 (UTC)

I had to do huge amounts of that sort of thing for my own data analysis, but I was working in the Unix environment and handled it by writing writing shell scripts and a couple of small helper programs. If you are willing to accept PDF output rather than PPT, you might be able to do this using a program called "montage" that comes with ImageMagick -- it's not clear how hard you would have to work to exclude images you don't want, though. Looie496 (talk) 15:22, 16 September 2013 (UTC)

Hi. Thanks. I have used Linux in the past and have access to UNIX at university (though I'm not sure in what form) though I don't know how to script and may or may not be able to interpret a prewritten script. Do you still have the script(s) you used? 129.215.47.59 (talk) 15:43, 16 September 2013 (UTC)

For renaming the pictures there are a handful of programs out there that will let you do basic pattern recognition on renaming files. I would investigate those for the simplest fix of that. As for putting them into powerpoint, that will take a little more doing. There may be some visual basic plugins that you could macro, or there may be a module for whatever programming language you choose. But short of learning some scripting language (perhaps find a CS person who'd do it for a fee?) I can't think of an easy way to put them into powerpoints. If there was a good powerpoint creation module, that would work. Maybe someone more familiar with Office macros could help. Shadowjams (talk) 23:32, 16 September 2013 (UTC)

Bing

How do I make Bing my search engine? — Preceding unsigned comment added by Crescentiaws (talk • contribs) 14:35, 16 September 2013 (UTC)

- Said no-one, ever... — Preceding unsigned comment added by 78.150.23.174 (talk) 20:28, 16 September 2013 (UTC)

That depends, what is your Operating System and browser, with versions if you know them ? StuRat (talk) 23:37, 16 September 2013 (UTC)

Go here, then set that page to your homepage. --.Yellow1996.^(ЬMИED¡) 23:42, 16 September 2013 (UTC)

The instructions for making Bing your default search engine vary depending on which browser you are using. Fortunately, Bing has a guide set up at www.bing.com/customizeBrowser that explains the various methods. Navigate to that page, select your browser by clicking on the drop-down menu, and follow the directions that appear to the right. If you are a Chrome user and would prefer to follow their directions, you may find Chrome specific instructions here. For yet another method, check wikiHow's "3 Ways to Change Your Default Search Engine" article. Utahpolis (talk) 01:15, 20 September 2013 (UTC)

ALT+0157

What is this character called? It got deleted several years ago (perhaps because it was created by Grawp?), and since all I know is the ALT+4 code, my searches only reveal lists of ALT+4 codes. 2001:18E8:2:1020:34BE:9914:31CB:EBF9 (talk) 14:43, 16 September 2013 (UTC)

Search for 157 in the table at C0 and C1 control codes, which explains, somewhat. -- Finlay McWalterჷTalk 14:58, 16 September 2013 (UTC)

BIOS problem

A friend has this really old pc with an Intel DG965SS, all was working fine but due to a power failure (the power cable got unplugged from the wall) the BIOS lost its information.

A technician checked the board and tested all the components, and everything is OK, including the BIOS chip. When he tried to replace the BIOS from the one in the Intel site, it still didn’t work.

What could the problem be?

Iskánder Vigoa Pérez (talk) 16:12, 16 September 2013 (UTC)

Maybe the CMOS battery died coincidentally near to the same time the cable got unplugged. "Nonvolatile BIOS memory refers to a small memory on PC motherboards that is used to store BIOS settings. It was traditionally called CMOS RAM because it used a volatile, low-power complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) SRAM (such as the Motorola MC146818 or similar) powered by a small battery when system power was off."20.137.2.50 (talk) 16:28, 16 September 2013 (UTC)

so... in that case how could it be fixed?

any other idea?

thanks

Iskánder Vigoa Pérez (talk) 16:49, 16 September 2013 (UTC)

"so... in that case how could it be fixed?" That's just a button battery, probably CR2032, that you can buy at most supermarkets for a couple dollars and replace. It's the shiny silver circle in the image shown at Nonvolatile BIOS memory. 75.75.42.89 (talk) 21:58, 16 September 2013 (UTC)

Yes; I'm looking at a pack I have on hand right now. Price tag isn't on it anymore, but IIRC it was about CAD$2 or less for a pack of three. --.Yellow1996.^(ЬMИED¡) 23:46, 16 September 2013 (UTC)

Ah, now I see… you are pointing to the battery, earlier today I was thinking something about RAM, it seems I jumped some lines…
But no, that was the first thing that got discarded… we proved the battery even before taking the whole system to the technician.
Iskánder Vigoa Pérez (talk) 06:02, 17 September 2013 (UTC)

That motherboard has an onboard beeper, and has a code (3 beeps) for RAM problems. Try disconnecting everything from the board except for the processor and power supply. If it can't even get to the point of beeping at you then there is a problem in one of those three components. If you can borrow a power supply from another computer you could see if that is where the problem is. Katie R (talk) 12:06, 17 September 2013 (UTC)

September 17

Can I make my PC beep when reboot is complete ?

That is, at the login panel. I realize that the speakers may not be available at that point, so a beep from the motherboard would be fine. I have two Windows 7 PCs, one 32-bit and the other 64-bit. This beep would alert me that the reboot is complete, and I may now log in. That way I wouldn't need to stare at it to know when it's ready. StuRat (talk) 11:45, 17 September 2013 (UTC)

Your question has been driving me crazy - I know I read an article explaining that 7 plays a sound once the logon screen is ready, and it compared it to Vista where the sound could play before the user could actually login. Searches bring up nothing but pages on how to change the sound, but I finally found it: [1]. If your speakers are on, then Windows should play a sound once the logon prompt appears. Is yours not playing the sound, or is there a delay before it does? Or by "speakers may not be available" do you mean you're like me and often have them off, so you need it to use the motherboard speaker? Katie R (talk) 12:39, 17 September 2013 (UTC)

Here's some pages about getting Windows 7 to beep using the motherboard speaker: [2], [3]; I searched around and it doesn't look like anyone has written a program to do this. As Katie mentions above, 7 plays a sound at the login screen, as opposed to Vista where it was before; the reasoning is explained in the link above: "You may also be wondering what happened to the startup sound. In Vista, the sound had to be synchronized with the pearl animation to produce the highest quality experience. This has potential performance impact on some hardware, as we require the system’s sound stack to be loaded to complete the pearl sequence. In the cases when we are waiting for the system’s sound playback to be ready, a delay can occur in getting to the desktop. As such, we changed the sound to now play asynchronously, anytime after the logon screen loads. On most hardware that we tested, this is right when the logon screen displays. We heard customer feedback in Vista that the sound played and caught your attention, but boot was not yet complete. So in addition to performance benefits, this change also improves the user experience by letting users know when their machine is ready for use." Though I rarely hear it on the Win7 desktop I use or my Vista laptop because I rarely have my external speakers on; you'd have to leave them on all the time in order for that startup sound to be of any use. Though I guess a workaround could be turning your speakers up when you leave the computer after choosing "reboot"; then, when you return after hearing the notification sound you can turn it back down. --.Yellow1996.^(ЬMИED¡) 03:26, 18 September 2013 (UTC)

I currently get a motherboard beep near the start of the boot process, and no sound when it's ready to boot. I have it hooked up to headphones, which are turned on but not on my head at the time. Still, I'd expect to hear sound from them, since they are about a foot from my ears, and I hear other sounds from them. Is the volume quite low on this "ready" sound ? Could it be disabled on my PC ? If so, how do I turn it back on ? Is it one type of sound, which might be currently disabled, while other sounds continue to play ? StuRat (talk) 03:38, 18 September 2013 (UTC)

If it is disabled, see this page to turn it back on. --.Yellow1996.^(ЬMИED¡) 03:44, 18 September 2013 (UTC)

"Play Windows Startup sound" was already checked. However, I suspect that this means the flourish played after logon is complete and Windows is running. What I am looking for is a sound to tell me the reboot is complete and it's waiting for my PW. StuRat (talk) 03:50, 18 September 2013 (UTC)

UPDATE: I turned off all other sounds in the room and put the headphones on during a reboot, and found it does make a sound where I want, but the volume level is quite low, relative to other sounds the PC makes, say when I play music. Is there any way to crank up the volume on this particular sound ? I tried switching to some other desktop sound themes, and Savannah seemed slightly louder, but still not loud enough. StuRat (talk) 04:33, 18 September 2013 (UTC)

Could you modify the sound file used in Audacity? 129.215.47.59 (talk) 10:40, 18 September 2013 (UTC)

Alternatively just find an alternative file, or even make your own perhaps of you yelling 'MY COMPUTER IS ON'. However I wonder if there is a wider problem here. I'm pretty sure the login sound is counted a system sound. The example given 'relative to other sounds the PC makes, say when I play music' is clearly not a system sound. Is it possible you've turned down the volume on 'system sounds' which is why the logon sound is so soft? I believe 'system sounds' should show up in the mixer pretty much all the time so it should be easy to check. Of course you could turn up system sounds and turn everything else down but this is likely to be annoying particularly since I'm not aware there's a way to make the default for new apps low (although it's not something I've ever needed to look in to). Nil Einne (talk) 12:48, 18 September 2013 (UTC)

The "System sounds" volume was set to max. I think the system sound recordings just aren't very loud. To substitute my own sound, what formats can I use ? StuRat (talk) 12:54, 18 September 2013 (UTC)

Whoops reading more carefully I just realised the problem is in Windows 7 (and Vista and 8) the startup sound isn't actually easily changeable unlike with other sounds as it's just the 'play Windows startup sound' thing rather than letting you select. It seems it is possible in 7 by modifying a file [4] but not that easy, well unless you want to risk tools I can't vouch for [5] [http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/63398-startup-sound-change-windows-7-a.html. On the other hand, if it changes with a theme, there must be someway to customise it without having to modify system files, at worst creating your own theme or modding an existing one. Nil Einne (talk) 13:02, 18 September 2013 (UTC)

Of course the other alternative is to just give up on the Windows 7 system sounds to do what you want. It seems to me from experience and also other comments [6] that there's no reason you can do this with scheduled task although I haven't tried this particular task. That way you could even make it us th PC speaker (or both) if you really want, just find or write a program that plays to the speaker. Nil Einne (talk) 13:21, 18 September 2013 (UTC)

OK, thanks. StuRat (talk) 02:22, 21 September 2013 (UTC)

Changing the HD serial number (of the hardware, rather than of the volume). Possible?

HOOTmag (talk) 14:08, 17 September 2013 (UTC)

Changing the serial number is something you'll probably want to try asking the manufacturer about. Most drives will have a disk signature that is often used much like a serial number to uniquely identify a drive, and it is a filesystem feature that can be changed. Format routines are designed to preserve the signature, but in Windows you can use diskpart to change it: [7] Katie R (talk) 13:46, 18 September 2013 (UTC)

I suspect the hardware serial number is held on the drive's firmware (as well as probably being printed on the label stuck to the drive casing). Searching for HD firmware flash suggests tools exist, but usually only to update a particular manufacturer's firmware. I haven't yet found if anything will let you change the serial number. But why would you want to do that anyway? Astronaut (talk) 16:03, 18 September 2013 (UTC)

(Re why one would want to do this:) There is a number (possibly more than one) uniquely identifying each disk on a Windows 7 machine. It's more than a year ago that I changing tried changing this, unsuccessfully, and eventually gave up. As far as I can remember, this is not the same thing as the UUID. The scenario where this would have made sense is the following: I bought a new machine, with an empty disk of the same size as the system disk. I reserved space on the system disk for installing Linux. I then cloned the first disk onto the second disk, installed Linux and Grub. At that point, each disk holds identical installations of Windows. With Xp, it was easy to configure grub to boot the Windows disk of my choice. This allowed me to maintain a "virgin", clean install of the OS as it originally was delivered, and to keep it updated with only the necessary, security updates. The second disk was my main disk, where I installed the programs I use, etc (there were data disks as well, but that's beside the point). If something bad happened to my main OS disk, I could erase it, dd it back from the virgin disk, and reinstall my programs. With Win 7, this was no longer possible. My interpretation of symptoms and error messages was that the reason had something to do with a disk-identifying signature of some sort. It's a long time ago that I struggled with this, so I can't provide details. But this is a scenario in which an answer to the OP's question would have provided a solution to a problem. Anyway, I ended up installing grub on both disks, and using the BIOS boot device select options to achieve the functionality I wanted, in a rather more cumbersome way than I was used to. --NorwegianBlue ^talk 20:05, 19 September 2013 (UTC)

Windows 7 is using the disk signature that I mentioned in my first response - that's why I posted it, your sort of problem seemed like the most likely reason someone would be asking the question. The fact that disk formatting and imaging tools tend preserve it rather than rewrite it unless told not to can lead to all sorts of annoying boot problems when switching disks. Katie R (talk) 12:51, 20 September 2013 (UTC)

blanking drop-down fields menu items in fillable PDFs, once invoked

Hey all. I often have to fill out PDF forms at work that have drop-down menu items, such as a date, a State and so on. When you start such a form those sections that have a field are blank. You fill out preset items by clicking on an arrow and then choosing from a list. This would not be a problem, except that sometimes I want to revert it back to a blank. The issue is that once I've invoked a field, and chosen an item, I can't figure out how to blank the field again. I can go back to the drop-down menu and choose a different item from the list, but there is no entry for blanking it – there is no "no answer" you can choose. Anyone know a way to blank such a field once invoked? What I end up doing is printing then using white out ribbon. By the way, I am using Adobe Acrobat 8 Professional.--108.27.62.131 (talk) 15:42, 17 September 2013 (UTC)

What happens if you press the delete key? Astronaut (talk) 20:51, 17 September 2013 (UTC)

Laptop serving a network?

Can a laptop without an external router host a wireless network? A plain laptop with wireless do it? Are there internal routers? Bubba73 ^{You talkin' to me?} 21:38, 17 September 2013 (UTC)

Some 802.11 adapters allow this; some don't. The key part is enabling the hostednetwork option (sometimes called "AP mode" or "access point mode") on the adapter. A howto (which I haven't personally tried) for doing this on Windows 7 is here. -- Finlay McWalterჷTalk 21:48, 17 September 2013 (UTC)

Today at work my wife saw a wifi network for a business that is several miles away - way too far for a signal. When a person left early, the wifi network went away. We don't understand what is going on. Bubba73 ^{You talkin' to me?} 22:00, 17 September 2013 (UTC)

That's probably due to a weird misfeature of some version of Windows ad-hoc wireless network - see the first sentence the "how it works" section in this article. That says the bug was fixed in XP's SP3; thus it shouldn't be present at all in Vista/7/8. -- Finlay McWalterჷTalk 22:11, 17 September 2013 (UTC)

That sounds like what is happening because my wife says that the person does have XP. Also, it is reasonable that they have logged into the wifi that it was showing today. Bubba73 ^{You talkin' to me?} 23:20, 17 September 2013 (UTC)

I've used Windows 7 ap mode with a Ralink 3072 device without major issue. Nil Einne (talk) 13:24, 18 September 2013 (UTC)

Today a different WiFi network showed up that way. My wife went to the person who's laptop she suspected, and sure enough, the person had been logged into the WiFis that were showing up. She is using XP SP3 though, and SP3 was supposed to fix the problem (ref). My wife had her install 15-20 security updates. Perhaps she got it before she had SP3, and SP3 prevents it from happening, but doesn't get rid of it. I suggested that they run Microsoft Security Scan, but they haven't yet. Bubba73 ^{You talkin' to me?} 00:49, 20 September 2013 (UTC)

September 18

Folder Overwrite upon Installation

I had a folder dedicated to saved in-game files copied to my new computer before I installed this game onto the new computer. I think the folder may have been replaced with a new one because they had the same name. Is that possible that all my old custom files were deleted upon installation of the game and replaced with an empty folder? 128.101.184.181 (talk) 00:07, 18 September 2013 (UTC)

Yes, quite possible. Better install programs will prompt you to either "replace all old files from previous installs", or "install a new version, preserving the old version". However, many install programs don't bother. StuRat (talk) 03:30, 18 September 2013 (UTC)

Yeah; it's always a good idea to make backups of important files like this. Though it wouldn't be a problem if all installers took into account the fact that the game/program/etc may have been installed before by the user, or some old files may be present on that computer. Strangely, a really interesting glitch in the AVG antivirus program caused the files of the older version to be retained when the user updated to the latest version. This caused the two sets of files to conflict, and made the AV go haywire and identify every single incoming file as a virus. --.Yellow1996.^(ЬMИED¡) 03:39, 18 September 2013 (UTC)

Turing thesis

Does Turing thesis entail that every algorithm must have a "starting point", i.e. a first step starting that algorithm? 84.229.81.123 (talk) 06:39, 18 September 2013 (UTC)

The definition of algorithm already implies that. --Stephan Schulz (talk) 06:50, 18 September 2013 (UTC)

When & Why does Win 7 Re-arrange Desktop Icons?

Recently I booted up my Toshiba Satellite L750 (PSK2YA-05210) laptop PC from sleep mode and found that my desktop Icons had all been re-arranged. They were previously spread out in groups across the desktop as I wanted. Now they are in a row of 3 down right across the top, and 3 across on the left side of the desktop. Even a few desktop gadgets (weather, clock & calendar were pushed up on top of each other into the top right hand corner. The icons don't seem to be in any particular order i.e. not alphabetically, or by file type. Thus about half the screen on the centre & lower right is now completely clear.

I occasionally have to force a re-boot by powering down without shutting windows first, and might have expected strange results, but the icons always seem to stay where I left them.

Is there a set of conditions where Win 7 will automatically re-arrange the desktop? € 220 of ^Borg 12:35, 18 September 2013 (UTC)

I've experienced something similar when gaming occasionally. If the screen resolution is changed then things do get moved like this. Could that explain what you experienced? Thanks ツ Jenova20 ^(email) 12:39, 18 September 2013 (UTC)

Actually, while I had that problem in previous Windows, that changing the screen resolution, then changing it back, would leave your icons all messed up, they seem to have fixed that in Windows 7. Presumably it now stores the icon layout at each screen res and restores the layout when you return to that res. However, if you change the icon layout at the new resolution, it might no longer return to the original layout when you return to the original screen res. StuRat (talk) 12:58, 18 September 2013 (UTC)

(edit conflict) I know what you mean Jenova20 & StuRat, but I haven't changed the resolution and haven't been playing any games for a while. I Just un-slept the PC. ю 220 of ^Borg 13:08, 18 September 2013 (UTC)

I've experienced this kind of behavoir, certainly on Windows Vista and maybe on Windows 7 as well. As far as I can tell, it gradually collects various icon layouts (and a few other parameters too) per user, per screen resolution. I think it sometimes has a hidden default, one that might not be owned by the currently active user, when it is unable to find one that it already knows about, eg. when in sleep mode for the first time. The good news is that as it collects more, the problems will eventually go away. Astronaut (talk) 14:09, 18 September 2013 (UTC)

I've had this happen with several versions of Windows and it happened to me yesterday with Windows 8 when I restarted. I don't know why it happens. But it moved only ones that had been recently added to the desktop. Bubba73 ^{You talkin' to me?} 15:04, 18 September 2013 (UTC)

I had this problem until I installed Fences (software).--Shantavira|^{feed me} 18:41, 18 September 2013 (UTC)

I've seen this on XP and 7, but not Vista. More specifically, I have a switch which allows me to go back and forth between an XP computer and a 7 one, with one monitor. Sometimes, whenever I'd switch back to 7 from XP, this would happen. There was pretty much two variations to this; the first being that all the icons would be rearranged (as you saw.) Or, the resolution would be drastically altered so that the icons were about four times their normal size; and - once I had fixed the resolution back to it's normal ratio - the desktop icons would be rearranged due to "shrinking" from the overlarge incorrect size back to their usual "smaller" size. Then I would have to manually rearrange them. --.Yellow1996.^(ЬMИED¡) 01:11, 19 September 2013 (UTC)

Eureka!

Now I remember that the only odd thing I did recently was activate the "Tablet PC Input Panel". (Right click on "Taskbar/Toolbars/Tablet PC Input Panel", in Win'7). Wonder if that may have moved my icons? Yes it seems so, all the icon were moved up ↑ above the On-screen keyboard, when I docked it at the top, they moved down ↓. So another example of Microsoft Genius. A 'feature' that stuffs up my desktop, but isn't smart enough to restore it! >:-( Maybe if I re-boot my PC?-∑-220 of ^Borg 06:52, 20 September 2013 (UTC)

No such luck !

Well I seem to have found out the trigger event for the desktop icon re-arrangement. Unfortunately when I eventually re-booted (after a few days[5?], I use hibernate a lot) the icons did not return to their 'correct' positions. :-(
• So I am still at a loss for the 'exact' set of conditions that trigger a desktop re-arrangement.
• In fact they moved again later, into ≈7 columns of 8 icons on the left hand side of the desktop. 220 of ^Borg 05:01, 26 September 2013 (UTC)

September 19

Bad Javascript extension?

I posted the following request for help at WP:VPT, but it got archived without any suggestions on how to resolve it.

IE8, Windows 7, Monobook. In the last few days, occasional pages have started not to appear: I go to a page, the elements appear as they're downloaded, but as soon as everything's downloaded, the screen goes white. Completely white, as if the page had no code on it at all! At the same time, I know that things are downloading and not simply cached, since the little bar at the bottom right of the browser says "Downloading imagenamehere.png", "Accessing http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/pagenamehere", etc., until it displays "Done" once completed. I can view the history page and the edit page fine (although I have to go directly to the URLs, since the tabs don't appear), but if I preview an edit, the screen goes completely white. I have no clue what's causing this, because it's rare — I've only encountered this on four pages, and all of them are just in the last few days:

• Commons:COM:ADMIN
• Commons:COM:VP
• Norway
• CAT:CSD
• Japanese yen Added at 02:26, 10 September 2013 (UTC)

At first, I thought it was something weird at Commons, so I asked for help at their VP (using Firefox, which didn't have a problem with either Commons page) but was given a snarky response and nothing that helped to resolve the problem. Now that I've encountered it on two vastly different pages here, I have no clue at all what's happening. Nyttend (talk) 23:57, 9 September 2013 (UTC)

These are the typical effects of a document.write statement being used somewhere in an async executed Javascript. You hardly have any JS installed on this wiki as far as I can tell, so my suspicion is a broken browser extension (which are also JS normally). —TheDJ (talk • contribs) 08:48, 10 September 2013 (UTC)

Other pages have started not appearing, such as mouse (computing), train station, and France. Whenever I try to load one of these three pages, I get a long message at the bottom (where the browser tells me what it's loading) immediately before the screen goes blank. With France, I first get Downloading picture data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAA4AAAAgCAMAAAAVMLmlAAAAA3NCSVQICAjb4U/gAAAACXBIWXMAAA3X [the string is longer, but it gets truncated here because it's too long to fit in the bar], and after that I get Downloading picture https://bits.wikimedia.org/static-1.22wmf16/extensions/TimedMediaHandler/MwEmbedModules/EmbedPlayer/resources/skins/kskin/i [again, truncated for length]. Any idea what I should do to fix the situation? Changing to a later edition of IE isn't possible for various reasons. As far as I know, since this started happening, I've not upgraded my browser in any way, except for installing any routine updates from Microsoft that might have come along. Nyttend (talk) 06:25, 19 September 2013 (UTC)

Have you had a look at the javascript console. You might see the javascript errors there? (You might need to get hold of the developer toolbar to inspect the javascript).--User:Salix alba (talk): 09:08, 19 September 2013 (UTC)

Your comments are meaningless: not because you've said gibberish, but because I don't know enough to be able to follow your advice. I'm sorry for my ignorance! Could you please give a For Dummies-style explanation that I could follow? Nyttend (talk) 05:56, 20 September 2013 (UTC)

To see the javascript errors you will need to use the F12 developer tools. These come ready loaded in IE8 and can be accessed by pressing F12. You can read the full instructions here go to the debugging javascript section. Hopefully when you run the javascript debugger you will see which extension is causing problems.--User:Salix alba (talk): 06:38, 20 September 2013 (UTC)

Thanks for the simple instructions. I decided to follow them on a page that was exhibiting problems — but to my surprise, all of these pages load without problems! I'm completely unable to explain why they seem to be working without problem now; I've made absolutely no changes today. They still display weirdness when downloading (other pages don't give the complete upload.wikimedia.org/etc.etc.etc. link for every image that gets downloaded, but they're still doing this), but the pages all end up loading properly. Nyttend (talk) 21:55, 20 September 2013 (UTC)

What might have happened is by using the developer tools you are using a debugger version of javascript which does not have the bug which caused the problem in the first place. The alternative is that some code has changed on wikipedia. Anyway glad its working.--User:Salix alba (talk): 22:31, 20 September 2013 (UTC)

Windows Vista Media Player

It used to display the time, but I've lost it somehow. How can I get it back? Clarityfiend (talk) 08:42, 19 September 2013 (UTC)

For clarity ;-) do you mean the 'time left'/ 'time played' display to the left of the controls? (in 'Now Playing' view: Ctrl + 3). I'm using Media Player Ver.12 under Win.7. -Λ-220 of ^Borg 19:21, 19 September 2013 (UTC)

Hmmm... I'm in Vista and I'm not seeing that (Ctrl+3 doesn't do anything) though I may be using WMP11 (I use VLC, so don't update media player anymore.) Is the display time completely vanished (ie. is there a blank space next to the "turn shuffle on/off" button)? Try clicking in the blank space... that might work. Generally you click there to switch between displaying the time:elapsed, the time:left-over, or the time:elapsed/overall:time. --.Yellow1996.^(ЬMИED¡) 22:22, 19 September 2013 (UTC)

I'm looking to restore the elapsed time. When I click where it used to display, it toggles between a line of about 8 dots, two musical notes tied together, and a button. Clarityfiend (talk) 01:00, 20 September 2013 (UTC)

Sounds like something weird is going on here. 8 dots, musical notes tied together and a button... seems to me like maybe something's been corrupt. Which version of WMP are you using? --.Yellow1996.^(ЬMИED¡) 02:56, 20 September 2013 (UTC)

11.0.6002.18311. Clarityfiend (talk) 07:54, 20 September 2013 (UTC)

@ Yellow, yes I'm not surprised that shortcut doesn't do anything on Vista. They made a lot of changes in Media Player when they went to Win7. The sequence of times you give seems right. Though in my case time:left-over precedes time:elapsed.-π-220 of ^Borg 06:21, 20 September 2013 (UTC)

Concur with Yellow. Suggest that ClarityFiend download and re-install the entire Media Player again.
• Second thought 'CF', you haven't installed a new skin have you? Or just had an OS 'update'?-Θ-220 of ^Borg 06:21, 20 September 2013 (UTC)

MS tech support says that "reinstalling" would entail doing a system restore. I haven't done anything manually out of the ordinary; there have been the usual automatic patches of course. Clarityfiend (talk) 07:54, 20 September 2013 (UTC)

A 'system restore' would be bitch to have to do. Is there a Media Player entry in the 'install' or "Uninstall or change program" utility or Vista equivalent. If so does it have a 'repair' or 'Change' selection when you right click on it. You might be able to fix it using 'repair'.
I assume you don't have original Windows Vista discs from where you could possiblt extract the exe file/s, and have to restore from a HDD partition, or a 'Restore' disc?-∞-220 of ^Borg 09:25, 20 September 2013 (UTC)

Well this is interesting. When I widened the window, the time showed up, along with some other information I didn't have before. Thanks, everybody. Clarityfiend (talk) 15:41, 20 September 2013 (UTC)

Ah - I see! (I just got access to my Win7 desktop earlier, I see the differences.) Glad to hear it all worked out in the end, though! :) --.Yellow1996.^(ЬMИED¡) 03:12, 21 September 2013 (UTC)

Resolved

DVD write problem

when i try to write a new dvd it fails and shows Invalid block address F: HL-DT-ST DVDRAM GSA-T20L. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 14.99.144.221 (talk) 08:42, 19 September 2013 (UTC)

The possibilities:

1) Bad DVD. Try a new one to see if that's the problem.

2) Bad DVD burner. Try another one with that type of DVD, if you have spares.

3) Incompatible DVD and DVD burner. It's possible you may be able to use that burner to read from that DVD type, but not to write to it.

4) Bad driver for DVD burner. If it's a DVD burner in your PC, versus a standalone DVD burner, then this is more likely.

5) Bad cable/connection. If the DVD burner is getting the data to write via cable, then that could be the problem, too.

So, please describe your setup for us, so we can eliminate some of the possibilities. StuRat (talk) 02:14, 21 September 2013 (UTC)

Could not connect to system event notification service

I have a PC running Vista Home Premium, with 1 admin login and 2 user login accounts. Today it refused to allow users to logins, reporting "Windows could not connect to the system event notification service service". The admin login still works, but without Aero. How can I fix this? I googled this error and found sites that tell you to use netsh via a command line to winsock reset. However this returns "This command requires elevation", whatever that means. Looking in the event log shows no errors that are unique to today. 121.215.151.4 (talk) 10:10, 19 September 2013 (UTC)

UPDATE: I have since realised that "elevation" means elevate in privilege level, ie requires admin level. I forgot that when you invoke the command line when logged in as admin does not automatically mean the command line has admin rights. You have to explicitly tell it (right click). I fixed the problem by running sfc /scannow. Thanks. 121.215.151.4 (talk) 12:51, 19 September 2013 (UTC)

Color reduction of a pic with one just one pixel to every color on 24bit pallete

RGB color cube

I was reading about http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Color_quantization.

Anyway, lets imagine someone made a big picture with every colour from 24-bit pallete, each colour having just one pixel and then reduced it to a 256 colours pallete how this pallete would be? And the 16 colours one? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 201.78.138.193 (talk) 14:07, 19 September 2013 (UTC)

Well, it depends on the quantization algorithm that is used, but basically you end up with colors distributed more or less evenly throughout the color cube. Looie496 (talk) 14:56, 19 September 2013 (UTC)

Android Chrome browser history

How can you access browser history on Chrome in Android (4.1.2)? Entering "chrome:history" or "chrome://history" in the address box as suggested by various websites just opens a page of Google search for the term which is essentially identical to the search results that told me to do so in the first place. And yes I am being very careful to type it into the address box not the search box. 70.91.135.89 (talk) 16:09, 19 September 2013 (UTC)

I have an Acer Iconia A1-810 tablet running Android 4.2.2. The settings are similar to Chrome V29 on Win' 7 except there are 3 'dots' (not 3 bars) in the top right hand of the window. Select that and the fifth item is "History". --220 of ^Borg 17:06, 19 September 2013 (UTC)

I should have said under the X (The "Close" window 'button') or just right of the Bookmark 'star', so not at the very top of the browser window! --220 of ^Borg 17:33, 19 September 2013 (UTC)

I also tried both your suggested methods and both worked for me. The first one seemed to trigger 'auto-complete' so that it ended up the same as your second 'code'. Check that you are not accidentally entering a semicolon ";" rather than a colon ":". Probably easy to do on a small screen. :-/ --220 of ^Borg 17:31, 19 September 2013 (UTC)

Tabs open automatically in Firefox?

FF23 here. Basically there's a few sites that I check every time I'm on my laptop. I'd like it so that as soon as I start up Firefox, these sites open in separate tabs automatically. I'm sure I used to know how to do this but now I can't remember. Thanks! --.Yellow1996.^(ЬMИED¡) 22:30, 19 September 2013 (UTC)

1. Open the tabs you want.

2. Go to Tools, Options, General.

3. Under the Home Page field, click Use Current Pages. (It fills in the Home Page field with the addresses of each tab seperated by |.)

--Bavi H (talk) 23:26, 19 September 2013 (UTC)

Worked perfectly! Thanks again! :) --.Yellow1996.^(ЬMИED¡) 03:01, 20 September 2013 (UTC)

September 20

KEY BOARD FUNCTION KEYS

One of my friend bought an 'HP PAVILION 15 Notebook PC 15-E016TU' model laptop recently. There some additional keys (such as 'fn') and he wants to know the meaning(functions) of those keys. Where can he find the details of the keys and functions? Thank you.175.157.16.32 (talk) 01:56, 20 September 2013 (UTC)

User guide here. [8] Fn key usage is on page 26. AndyTheGrump (talk) 02:11, 20 September 2013 (UTC)

Microsoft office need to close message comming of office 2007

Dear

Iam using microsoft office 2007

every time i am getting Microsoft office need to close message sorry for the inconvenience message

i ready i uninstall and install several times please post the solution — Preceding unsigned comment added by 27.251.31.210 (talk) 09:17, 20 September 2013 (UTC)

More details are probably needed. What version of windows for example, and the circumstances under which it is happening. "every time i am getting Microsoft office need to close message" is not particularly clear. Is this during install, or when you first try to open an office program? ◅ 220 of ^Borg 09:36, 20 September 2013 (UTC)

They're probably getting it when editing/writing documents, as that's the only time I've ever seen that. Suprising though that uninstalling and reinstalling did nothing... but without further information, we can only speculate. --.Yellow1996.^(ЬMИED¡) 03:31, 21 September 2013 (UTC)

Using an inkjet printhead.

If I were to buy and old (working) inkjet printer and remove the print head - how hard would it be to drive it from (say) an Arduino. I have plenty of software coding skills and I can wire up simple logic gates and such.

What I guess I'm wondering is how much "black magic" goes on in the software/firmware of a printer to make the ink come out of the nozzles? Do they just set a logic level for each color and each nozzle to tell it to shoot a splotch of ink - or is there some complicated sequence of operations needed?

SteveBaker (talk) 19:18, 20 September 2013 (UTC)

I have no direct experience, but Thingiverse and Make have articles on DIY inkjet printers that may have some useful information. There is a kickstarter project for interfacing an Arduino with a print head. --Mark viking (talk) 19:37, 20 September 2013 (UTC)

You may need to look into the various 'squirting' technologies used. I worked on Siemens PT80i2 inkjets that used piezo-electric principles. This required rather high voltages from a driver board, so I think that type of print-head would be to be avoided. I would think that your "level for each color and each nozzle to tell it to shoot a splotch of ink" would be about right. I would be surprised if the print-head was any smarter than that, but it it possible. The ones I worked on also included a heater in the head to keep them at a constant temperature. This seemed unnecessary as we still used ones where the heater had gone open circuit, though I had to bypass the temperature level alarm. The printing result seemed much the same, but these were just B&W text logging printers, not high-res colour.÷ 220 of ^Borg 04:15, 21 September 2013 (UTC)

Well, after perusing Inkjet printing I withdraw my comment about avoiding piezo type heads as they are fairly common: "Most commercial and industrial inkjet printers and some consumer printers (those produced by Epson and Brother Industries ... )", use piezo printheads.
Steve, I presume you have a more interesting application planned that printing text? :-) œ 220 of ^Borg 05:41, 21 September 2013 (UTC)

September 21

iOS 7

Has anyone had good or bad experience of ios 7 please?85.211.135.199 (talk) 08:08, 21 September 2013 (UTC)