Content deleted Content added

Inline

Revision as of 02:56, 7 April 2014

Welcome to the computing section
of the Wikipedia reference desk.

skip to bottom

Select a section:

Shortcut

WP:RD/C

Want a faster answer?

Main page: Help searching Wikipedia

How can I get my question answered?

Select the section of the desk that best fits the general topic of your question (see the navigation column to the right).
Post your question to only one section, providing a short header that gives the topic of your question.
Type '~~~~' (that is, four tilde characters) at the end – this signs and dates your contribution so we know who wrote what and when.
Don't post personal contact information – it will be removed. Any answers will be provided here.
Please be as specific as possible, and include all relevant context – the usefulness of answers may depend on the context.
Note:
- We don't answer (and may remove) questions that require medical diagnosis or legal advice.
- We don't answer requests for opinions, predictions or debate.
- We don't do your homework for you, though we'll help you past the stuck point.
- We don't conduct original research or provide a free source of ideas, but we'll help you find information you need.

Ready? Ask a new question!

How do I answer a question?

Main page: Wikipedia:Reference desk/Guidelines

The best answers address the question directly, and back up facts with wikilinks and links to sources. Do not edit others' comments and do not give any medical or legal advice.

April 2

MOV with db as an operand

I saw some assembly that had a line like this:mov [name] db 'John Smith'Would this be preprocessed by the assembler into something like

mov name, 'J'

mov name + 1, 'o'

...

mov name + 9, 'h'

? 75.75.42.89 (talk) 00:09, 2 April 2014 (UTC)[reply]

This is just a guess - (what assembler do you refer to?). "db 'John Smith'" sounds to me as though data bytes J o h n space S m i t h are being stored in (code?) memory and the move command is copying then to [name]. So I would expect it to be processed into "move name, codelocn", "mov name+1, codelocn+1", ... -- SGBailey (talk) 10:35, 2 April 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Here's another uninformed guess: what goes into [name] is a pointer to the 'J' in the code itself. —Tamfang (talk) 07:37, 3 April 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Matlab function

Hello! Is there anybody who knows how can use Digital Filter in Matlab? I need an example of usage with it's Matlab code. Thanks in advance--Freshman404^Talk 06:55, 2 April 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Try starting here: [[1]]. Mathworks also has excellent support staff, so if you get to details that aren't documented well or using it in an unusual situation try contacting them. Katie R (talk) 11:46, 2 April 2014 (UTC)[reply]

If the Miscellaneous desk doesn't end up being able to help you, you should try asking the computing desk. 50.43.167.233 (talk) 15:43, 2 April 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks for your answer Katie, but I can't reach that link.(Access Denied, the full statement is: You don't have permission to access "http://www.mathworks.com/help/signal/digital-filter-design.html") --Freshman404^Talk 15:52, 2 April 2014 (UTC)[reply]

If you have a valid MATLAB license, then you should be able to log in with your Mathworks account to get access. If you're a student, then the only access to the documentation may be through the help files installed on the computers with MATLAB. Open up the help window and search for digital filter. It should be the first hit if you have the DSP System Toolbox. There is also an example called "Practical Introduction to Digital Filter Design." Katie R (talk) 17:21, 2 April 2014 (UTC)[reply]

@Katie Ryan A: Yes, I've seen the help before, but that was too long and of course unusable for me. I would be glad if you provide another example-different from the one in the help- or explain it shortly.--Freshman404^Talk 18:32, 2 April 2014 (UTC)[reply]

@Freshman404: I think you should be able to load that page. I have a copy of MATLAB that is only licensed when I use a VPN to connect to a university license server. I can load that page without any authentication. As for the help function: you need to learn how to use help functions if you ever want to learn any programming language. This is it's own separate skill from learning how to code, but arguably even more useful. You can't really break anything in MATLAB, even if you screw up your settings, you can always revert to factory defaults. So just play with it! I thought about pasting some sample code here, but you haven't really told us what you want to do. Digital filters are a huge topic, so feel free to ask a new question if you want help on a specific task. SemanticMantis (talk) 14:36, 3 April 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Oh, maybe you are not in the USA and Katie's link expects that? You can try to get into a support forum for your home country here [2]. SemanticMantis (talk) 15:10, 3 April 2014 (UTC)[reply]

The MATLAB and Simulink documentation is an incredible resource - I really don't think we can find a better reference. Mathworks also produces webinars, but I don't know if you will be able to access them. Without knowing more about your specific application, [[3]] and [[4]] seem like the best choices. If you're having trouble with the basics and you're a student, then I recommend speaking with your professor about it. If you're a professional, then contact your account manager (or general Mathworks support if you don't know yours) and they should be able to put you in touch with an app engineer or provide training materials. Katie R (talk) 15:55, 3 April 2014 (UTC)[reply]

@SemanticMantis:Thank you, I couldn't reach that page at that time ,but I saw that page later.

@Katie Ryan A:Thank you, but your links are about Digital Filter Design no Digital Filter. About asking Prof. or manager I should say that exactly he-my signal prof.- wants me to describe it with an example as an homework.

@Katie Ryan A and SemanticMantis: The exact question is: Study about Digital Filter and it's subtitles. Test all possible inputs and plot their graph. Describe the function and plot some possible conditions.--Freshman404^Talk 17:51, 3 April 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Nickname

What is the nickname of San Jose — Preceding unsigned comment added by 216.198.172.29 (talk) 15:58, 2 April 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Do you know the way to San Jose ? (Note that San Jose is the city name, located in the Santa Clara Valley.) StuRat (talk) 16:02, 2 April 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Not sure what this has to do with computing, but if you mean San Jose, California, according to the article its nicknames are S.J. and San Jo, but there are many other places called San José.--Shantavira|^{feed me} 16:06, 2 April 2014 (UTC)[reply]

"SJ" is not so much a nickname as just an abbreviation. "San Jo" is essentially nonexistent in my experience; I wouldn't be surprised if it were a bad-faith addition to the article. "Silicon Valley" is not just San Jose and is not really even the region per se; it's the region as identified with an industry (compare Hollywood, not in the sense of the defined neighborhood, but in the sense of the SoCal film industry).

The only thing I can come up with that I'd really call a nickname for San Jose is "Valley of Heart's Delight". But I won't claim it's used much. --Trovatore (talk) 01:59, 3 April 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Click on my first link above to find out what is has to do with computers. StuRat (talk) 16:11, 2 April 2014 (UTC) [reply]

I thought San Jose was Sharks Territory... but it seems that sharks are migratory. Nimur (talk) 17:23, 2 April 2014 (UTC)[reply]

April 3

Which is the best free Chess Game for Win 7 64-bit PC?

Hi, Can anyone point out best free chess games for Win 7 64-bit PC?--Joseph 10:03, 3 April 2014 (UTC)[reply]

I don;t know what you mean by "best" - easiest to use, prettiest graphics, strongest opponent, or something else? Anyway, Gnu_chess is a good place to start. It is free and fairly easy to use with strong AI. SemanticMantis (talk) 14:40, 3 April 2014 (UTC)[reply]

They've developed a strong AI, and all they're using it for is to play chess? It must get bored... MChesterMC (talk) 08:34, 4 April 2014 (UTC) [reply]

You might consider going to the Free Internet Chess Server (http://www.freechess.org/), from which you can download free client software to connect to their server and play online against other people (and some computers) with a range of different ratings. Mitch Ames (talk) 10:58, 4 April 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Text-to-speech options to listen while I wash the dishes.

Sometimes I want to read stuff, like a long blog or a conversation that has occurred in a forum but I just don't have the time. Are there any reasonably good text-to-speech options that I could use either on my computer or Android phone (or both)? I don't mind paying so long as it's not unreasonably expensive. --129.215.47.59 (talk) 10:40, 3 April 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Here is a review of 7 Android text-to-speech options [5]. SemanticMantis (talk) 14:44, 3 April 2014 (UTC)[reply]

I've even done this with pdf books that i've downloaded, it's great, I listen when I walk to and from the station and when I'm driving. ivona is a industry leading text to speech application. Single user license is $80, which might or might not be "unreasonably expensive". There is also a free trial. Vespine (talk) 23:43, 3 April 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks. I appreciate the advice. 78.148.110.69, formerly known as 129.215.47.59 (talk) 11:57, 5 April 2014 (UTC)[reply]

The noise from running water might tend to confuse speech recognition software. Some suggestions:

1) Get a headset with a microphone, to reduce background noise.

2) Fill the sink with sudsy water before you start talking, then wash the dishes with that, while talking. That will make less noise. You may need to rinse later (or fill the other side of the sink with rinse water, if you have a two tub sink). StuRat (talk) 04:04, 4 April 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Stu, this is for text-to-speech, not speech-to-text… CS Miller (talk) 09:01, 4 April 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Oops. StuRat (talk) 11:46, 4 April 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Ancient PC, vital data, broken mouse port

I have a company/business PC dating from 1999 running Windows NT which ran a Superbase database containing subscriber details (the data is stored on a central server). The PC died. In the room of other 'dead' PCs the company has, I've found an identical PC, same age and operating system which boots up and has the Superbase database on it and links to the data on the server. The reason this PC was relegated to the dead room is that the mouse port no longer works (you know, the circle of holes type that is marked in pale green!).

I can navigate to around the basics of the database using hotkey commands, but to run a vital report, there is a customised button that needs to be clicked with a mouse - I can't seem to be able to tab onto it.

I understand that Windows NT does not support USB bits and pieces. The PC does have USB ports though. Other than providing you with an hysterical insight into our company's IT policy and a nostalgic blast from the past, is there a way of getting to this button and, also, why can I not plug the green-ended mouse into the lilac coloured keyboard port which evidently still works. Thank you. 83.104.128.107 (talk) 11:15, 3 April 2014 (UTC)[reply]

The two PS/2 ports are wired to different circuitry (which almost always isn't smart enough to adapt); so they're not interchangeable. Things you can try:

try to transplant again to yet another PC; it doesn't need to be identical, and NT will (hopefully) default to a safe mode with basically working hardware
try to find a DB9 serial mouse (e.g. on eBay); that should probably work, and your current computer should have a working DB9 COM port
try to get superbase running on a modern computer and transfer the .SBF database file across to it.

I did try to see if modern desktop databases like MS Access or Libreoffice Base have .sbf import filters, but it doesn't seem they do. Recipes for moving old Superbase files to them all seem to involve exporting in Superbase to CSV first. See if you can do that. -- Finlay McWalterჷTalk 11:33, 3 April 2014 (UTC)[reply]

It might be possible to control the mouse cursor with your keyboard through Windows' accessibility options - this BBC article describes how to do it in Windows XP, I'm not sure if the same options exist in NT but it's worth checking. Organics^LRO 12:02, 3 April 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Thank you both very much indeed. I shall go off and see about the DB9 mouse and read about controlling the mouse cursor with keys in the first instance and then move on to the other options you suggest. 83.104.128.107 (talk) 12:18, 3 April 2014 (UTC)[reply]

If the computer has a USB port, why not try plugging in a USB mouse? You never know, magical things might happen. At worst you lose a few seconds for the experiment. Looie496 (talk) 12:29, 3 April 2014 (UTC)[reply]
- As the OP said, NT doesn't support USB. IIRC, for NT, Ctrl+numpad-arrows should move the mouse, Ctrl+NumIns & Ctrl+NumDel, are left and right click. Shft-F10 should be the same as a right-click in a standards-compliant programs. However, Finlay's instructions (for XP) might be correct. CS Miller (talk) 12:37, 3 April 2014 (UTC)[reply]
  - Looie, I am so desperate I did indeed try what you suggested! Something magical may have happened somewhere when I did it, but unfortunately not with my mouse port! I have ordered an adaptor for £1 so the mouse can be used in DB9 socket and we shall see if that works. In the meantime I shall have a go with CSMiller's commands. Again, thank you for all the advice. I am very grateful. 83.104.128.107 (talk) 15:50, 3 April 2014 (UTC)[reply]

I know WinNT didn't support USB - that was a deliberate decision by Microsoft to try to persuade people to migrate to Win2k, WinXP or whatever - but I kinda vaguely recall there being a piece of add-on software you could use to make it function. The discussion here: http://nt4ref.zcm.com.au/usb.htm seems to have what you need...but getting it working could be a bit of a challenge.

Another option is to go back yet one older generation of mouse - when there was no special port provided for them and they were plugged into a nine-pin RS-232 port. It's likely that a PC of this vintage has one of those ports - and it's pretty much certain that NT supports it. So maybe there is an ancient RS-232 mouse sitting amongst all that stuff in your "Dead PC" room, you can plug it in...maybe tell the BIOS about it or something...or maybe NT will auto-detect it.

If you can't find (or buy) an ancient 9-pin RS-232 mouse, then I used to own a plug that let you plug the circular mouse connector into an RS-232 port - and maybe you can find one of those.

Check out this image of an RS-232 mouse: http://haqiailahi95.mhs.narotama.ac.id/files/2013/10/new-microsoft-9-pin-serial-mouse-ibm-pc-xt-no-germs-nib-765e.jpg

Check out this eBay listing for the special connector gizmo: http://www.ebay.com/itm/PS-2-Mouse-to-DB9-Serial-Port-Adapter-Adaptor-F-F-/291108616041

But honestly, it's time for your company to move this data somewhere safer. Sure, you may be able to get this working and be the office hero for a week...but what happens when THIS PC fails? You probably won't be able to pull off that stunt again - and now, while you still have access to the database, is the time to pull all of the data out of it in some more basic file format (comma-separated-values or something) and get it into something like MySQL that's more widely supported...web-accessible and all of that good stuff. Fixing this so that they can continue to ignore the problem is doing them a massive disservice.

The PC you've found may have been junked just because the mouse port died...but they had access (much more easy access back then) to all three options I describe above. So what if it was junked for more serious reasons? Maybe it has an intermittent fault of some more major kind? You got lucky once - but you're just asking for trouble!

SteveBaker (talk) 18:07, 3 April 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Windows NT did not have native remote desktop, but you could try to install VNC without a mouse, this would let you remote control the computer from another terminal. Vespine (talk) 23:34, 3 April 2014 (UTC)[reply]

It was mentioned above but I'll say it again: Mouse Keys is almost certainly the easiest way to do this. Windows has supported it since forever. In NT 4.0 it should be an option in the Accessibility control panel. -- BenRG (talk) 01:11, 4 April 2014 (UTC)[reply]

We even have an article on Mouse keys. I occasionally have issues where a client's server has a dead mouse and I just need to do some simple task but don't feel like running back out to the car. -- Gadget850^talk 12:30, 4 April 2014 (UTC)[reply]

iPhone using too much data

Help, how do I stop my iphone from chewing up so much data? I've turned off push notifications for every app, and turned data off for almost every app, but it still keeps chewing data for "System Services". This is mostly made up of 2 things: "push notifications", even though they are off for everything, and "iTunes accounts" (both about 8mb). What can I do to cut it down? I often turn cellular data off altogether, but I get sick of doing it. Thanks, IBE (talk) 15:04, 3 April 2014 (UTC)[reply]

There are ways: How Can I Avoid Using Too Much Smartphone Data? But the real (or practical) solution is to trade your phone in for an Android and then you have full control.--Aspro (talk) 23:08, 3 April 2014 (UTC)[reply]

I dig that idea, and when I get around to buying my own phone (instead of using my boss's) I'll probably do just that. Until then, I'm going to have to try and circumvent Apple's obstructive, recalcitrant behaviour. IBE (talk) 05:18, 4 April 2014 (UTC)[reply]

April 4

What physical principle was used to differentiate a hole from no hole with IBM punched cards?

Was it a conductor and its contact surface the card was dragged between able to conduct on a hole but not able when there was no hole? Or some other principle? 75.75.42.89 (talk) 01:23, 4 April 2014 (UTC)[reply]

See Punched card. Various IBM (and other) card readers through the years used mechanical, electromechanical, optical, pure electrical (electrographic), and probably other methods of reading. --Carnildo (talk) 01:37, 4 April 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Maybe I'm blind, but I didn't see any even cursory descriptions of the inner workings of card readers of different technologies at Punched card. 75.75.42.89 (talk) 09:10, 4 April 2014 (UTC)[reply]

We have an article on Punched card input/output but that is also woefully inadequate.--Shantavira|^{feed me} 11:57, 4 April 2014 (UTC)[reply]

A bit in keypunch. I never did much with keypunch, but the missile system I started on in 1978 used punched tape. The tape reader had recently been upgraded from whisker contacts to optical (used the same light bulb as the VW dome light). -- Gadget850^talk 12:34, 4 April 2014 (UTC)[reply]

And for Tabulating machine. This shows a 19th century method, but thimbles of mercury soon passed out of style. Jim.henderson (talk) 12:31, 4 April 2014 (UTC)[reply]

For a electromechanical system, the hole is sensed by an angled conductive brush - if a hole is there, the brush end goes through it and contacts a conductive roller on the other side of the card, completing a circuit; if there's no hole, the card prevents the brush touching the roller. A diagram, for an IBM model 82 card sorter is here. Textbook on Management Information Systems By D P Nagpal (which I found on Google Books) has a schematic diagram for this, and for an optoelectric system, with a bulb on one side and a photocell on the other (fig 3.7 page 66). There's more info about the brush system in this page. A logical diagram of the electrical circuitry behind the brush sensor reader is at this page. Even Herman Hollerith's original systems (patent US395782) were electromechanical, unlike a purely mechanical system like a player piano. -- Finlay McWalterᚠTalk 13:18, 4 April 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Filtering Hindi characters in Unicode

I'm working on Hindi tweets (in Python) and have to scrape away every other language that appears in the each tweet other than Hindi. Is there any way I can specify a range of Unicode values which applies only for Hindi characters so that non-Hindi characters are removed automatically (excluding punctuation marks, which I want to keep)? La Alquim ista 06:03, 4 April 2014 (UTC)[reply]

You would probably want to use the Devanagari Unicode block which is in the range U+0900 to U+097F. --Canley (talk) 10:53, 4 April 2014 (UTC)[reply]

not responding

Firefox (latest version, 28.0) freezes 3-4 times a day, for about 10 seconds, with the message "not responding." Adobe Reader (v. 10.1.9) has also done so, and I believe other applications as well. What gives? Anything I can do about it? I have an HP 2000 laptop running Windows 7. --Halcatalyst (talk) 13:50, 4 April 2014 (UTC)[reply]

How to recover my bookmarks after a Windows 8 refresh?

I have used Windows 8’s “Refresh your PC without affecting your files” option, and I have lost in the process all my Firefox and Chrome bookmarks. No restore point had been created prior. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 69.123.17.140 (talk) 14:23, 4 April 2014 (UTC)[reply]

I fear that there's no way to recover it. In future consider using Firefox Sync. Hunsu (talk) 12:05, 5 April 2014 (UTC)[reply]

How do people get a hold on e-mail addresses?

A couple of times, I received e-mails of job offers. They usually make the job too good to be true (high salary, low requirements, no resume/CV, no company identification). Often, I get suspicious of these e-mails, so I never reply to them. What irks me is the fact that these people somehow know my academic e-mail address, which I never publish anywhere or even use to receive subscriptions on any website other than school-affiliated websites, except ClusterFlunk.com, which requires an .edu web address, because it's a website created for students. Even so, I received spammy job offers even before I knew of ClusterFlunk.com. 140.254.227.76 (talk) 15:01, 4 April 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Do you have friends (assuming that you email them using the address you're talking about) who just can't stop clicking on things, opening strange attachments or installing Banzai Buddy-type stuff that random banner ads told them to install? That's often the way that the contents of people's email address books end up in the hands of spammers and scammers. --Kurt Shaped Box (talk) 15:22, 4 April 2014 (UTC)[reply]

i.e. BonziBuddy —Tamfang (talk) 05:09, 5 April 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Email address harvesting is a way of obtaining large numbers of emails for illegal purposes. Getting yours swiped is hard to avoid if you spend any time at all with email. The best way not to get burned is to remember, as you're doing, that if it's too good to be true, it isn't true. --Halcatalyst (talk) 15:27, 4 April 2014 (UTC)[reply]

University emails are usually pretty easy to guess. If you had a list of students from somewhere, you could churn through combinations of first.last@[university name].edu (or whatever) and most of them would be correct. APL (talk) 15:33, 4 April 2014 (UTC)[reply]

It's the same with corporate email addresses as well. Most companies follow a pattern. So just being familiar with that pattern is enough to get most people's email address correct. And to follow up on what was said above, many people use their work email address for personal business. (I see quite a bit of it doing tech support.) It wouldn't be surprising if one of those people also clicked on a link for malware which scraped their contact list. And finally, you don't mention if you are a student at this school or faculty. If you're faculty, your email address is likely listed somewhere on the school's web pages. Dismas|^(talk) 15:53, 4 April 2014 (UTC)[reply]

It's also worth googling your email address (within quote marks) occasionally to see if it's being harvested from a website somewhere.--Shantavira|^{feed me} 10:33, 5 April 2014 (UTC)[reply]

April 5

Lock out bad area on HD?

I ran HDTune's error check on an old external HD and it showed a damaged spot. I ran chkdsk /f and then I ran a full format. I ran HDTune again, and it did not show the damaged area. The bad area has been locked out, right? Bubba73 ^{You talkin' to me?} 01:53, 5 April 2014 (UTC)[reply]

One comment: When one area goes bad, others often follow soon, so you might want to back up your critical data elsewhere. StuRat (talk) 15:32, 5 April 2014 (UTC)[reply]

This is my oldest external drive. But it is used for backups from the main drive, so if it dies, nothing will be lost. But it might be about time to retire it. Bubba73 ^{You talkin' to me?} 16:18, 5 April 2014 (UTC)[reply]

how to set "plugin container to firefox" to start only upon my permission

overwhelmingly, the problems with my PC's behavior are due to "plugin container to firefox" related to "Adobe Flash Player" (as shown in task manager) -- almost every site has some god damn ad in a small screen, ready to slow down my computer for things I don't want -- THANKS TO FREAKIN "plugin container to firefox" related to "Adobe Flash Player" -- WHICH, EFF YOU

what do I do? I open task manager and end "plugin container to firefox"

I want to be able to have an alert letting me choose whether or not I allow "plugin container to firefox" to activate

how? how can I make "plugin container to firefox" be something that EACH TIME IT WANTS TO ACTIVATE I can choose whether or not to allow?

[and to those of you who work for browser firms -- OH MY GOD DO I HATE THIS]76.218.9.50 (talk) 08:44, 5 April 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Flashblock -- Finlay McWalterᚠTalk 09:23, 5 April 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Broadband speed

I've recently changed ISP to BT (in the uk). I've just run two broadband speed tests. BT.com reckon download is 38.4 Mb/s, upload 1.82 Mb/s. Whilst http://www.broadbandspeedtest.co.uk/ reckon download is 8.663 Mb/s, upload 1.532 Mb/s. The uploads I can believe, but how can the downloads be so different? What are they measuring? -- SGBailey (talk) 09:16, 5 April 2014 (UTC)[reply]

It's possible that BT is telling you the ATM synch speed between your property and the DSLAM. This is the maximum theoretical speed that you would see if nobody else was using the internet. The speed test is showing you the speed you're achieving between your home and their server, and this will be restricted by other user's traffic at busy times. It's rather like the M25: the upper legal limit is 70 mph, but when there's a lot of other traffic, you can never achieve that.--Phil Holmes (talk) 09:55, 5 April 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Speed test sites work by downloading a large file to your computer and measuring the rate at which it is transferred. It would make sense that you could download things faster from your own ISP because you are directly connected to their network. Still, it's possible broadbandspeedtest.co.uk's connection is overloaded. I'm seeing a slow speed reported on that site, as well. So I would try downloading a large file from another site and observing the download speed in your browser's downloads window. For example, this file.—Best Dog Ever (talk) 10:06, 5 April 2014 (UTC)[reply]

You could try a broadband meter such as tbbMeter. It will record a graph of how your speed changes over time.--Aspro (talk) 14:44, 5 April 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Is there a way to do this?

I'm not looking for specific lines of code here -- I'm eager and excited to do that myself. But before I start writing code, I wanted to check if this would actually be possible.

What I want to have is a table for movies listing what films I have. There will be various columns for things such as "title" "director" "genre" etc. My question is,

Is it possible to make a sortable table (like, "click the column header to sort by that column") where one entry has more than one value in a given column.

Example: A movie like Alien I'd want to have two genre entries -- one for Science-Fiction and one for Horror. When sorting by title, I'd like it to appear once as: Alien Ridley Scott Dan O'Bannon Science-Fiction Horror

BUT

when sorting by genre, I'd want Alien to appear twice. Once under Horror, and once under Science-Fiction.

Thoughts?

My initial plan is to write all of this in XML and use XSLTs to do the viewing (I have no access to a database/server) Thanks! 199.94.70.36 (talk) 15:59, 5 April 2014 (UTC)[reply]

It certainly is possible, yes. Depending on the language, etc., it might be easier to put in two (or more) entries for each and filter out the duplicates where you don't want to see it repeated. Also, you might want to not list all the movies by all genres like that, as it will make for a rather long list. Instead you could select a theme, and list only movies that match that. StuRat (talk) 16:17, 5 April 2014 (UTC)[reply]

yeah I was planning to have each <movie> element have two <genre> child elements if I want to assign the movie to two genres, but I wasn't sure if I'd be able to still have that "clickable column" thingie under the conditions I set. This is actually intended to be viewed by OTHER people and I know many people want to be able to view by genre199.94.70.36 (talk) 16:25, 5 April 2014 (UTC)[reply]

We should also talk about the data structure. If you only have one field type with a variable number of entries, then you can put that last and not specify the number, just read until you hit the end of the line:

Alien, Sci-Fi, Horror

But, if you have more than one field type like that, (let's use main character's names) then we run into a problem:

Alien         , Ripley    , Sci-Fi, Horror
The Terminator, Terminator, Connor, Reese, Sci-Fi, Action

Here we can't tell where the character names end and the genre's begin. We'd need to add the number of character names to clarify things.

Alien         ,1, Ripley    , Sci-Fi, Horror
The Terminator,3, Terminator, Connor, Reese, Sci-Fi, Action

Of course, we can add in the number of genres, too, if we want:

Alien         ,1,2, Ripley    , Sci-Fi, Horror
The Terminator,3,2, Terminator, Connor, Reese, Sci-Fi, Action

Or we could skip the numbers and use a delimiter instead (let's say a vertical bar):

Alien         , Ripley                   ,|, Sci-Fi, Horror
The Terminator, Terminator, Connor, Reese,|, Sci-Fi, Action

(XML files may have their own way to handle this problem.) StuRat (talk) 16:34, 5 April 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Presumably the plan is to view this using a browser. Since browsers are generally not capable of handling arbitrary XML code, you'd have to use an XSLT to convert it to html. If you've figured out how to handle that, then you might find this page useful for an idea on how to make your table sortable. One way or another, it will require either writing or digging up some code in Javascript or some other language to do the sorting. Looie496 (talk) 19:15, 5 April 2014 (UTC)[reply]

You could do this really easily in Excel, if the XML stuff isn't all that important. Shadowjams (talk) 07:58, 6 April 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Wireless USB access, simplicity

I have a 2TB external USB drive I use for backup and storage of big files I need once in a while. What's the simplest standard for making access to it wireless, so my laptop backs up every hour plugged in or not? I have a wireless network, however I don't want others on the network to have access to its contents. I know Wireless USB does exist, but it didn't really take off and doesn't have the same recognition as Bluetooth, USB and so on. --89.243.7.60 (talk) 17:46, 5 April 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Strange flash problem

Resolved

– 71.20.250.51 (talk) 14:50, 6 April 2014 (UTC)[reply]

All of a sudden, all flash games are running at hyper-speed. This happened when playing a game when I was attempting to reset screen-size, and (presumably) unintentionally pressed some F-key that changed game speed, and I can't figure any way to restore this. The strange thing is, this hyper-fast speed applies to all games from any source. In addition, even videos on the flash player are fast. I've already tried deleting cookies, and clearing the caches for Firefox, Adobe player and Java. However, the problem persists. Is there some way to reset key-bindings to defaults? This is the only thing that I can think of to hopefully fix this. Other suggestions are also welcome. I'm using Firefox on Win7. ~Thanks in advance; this is quite annoying and puzzling. ~|71.20.250.51 (talk) 18:54, 5 April 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Sounds like it's using a lower frames per second rate. Can you try another browser to see if Flash games are affected there, too ? StuRat (talk) 02:29, 6 April 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Try restoring your computer to a date before the problem started.—Best Dog Ever (talk)

► I forgot the Windows' golden rule: "When in doubt, reboot." The problem went away, but I wish I understood what exactly the problems was. —71.20.250.51 (talk) 14:50, 6 April 2014 (UTC)[reply]

April 7

Searching Craigslist

When searching Craigslist, is there any option to have a "wild card" character in your search term? For example, in another program, if I use the search term "People Mag*" (with an asterisk at the end after the "g" as a "wild card") that will deliver in the search results any items that start with those letters (and end with anything else). So, that search would yield "People Magazine", "People Magazines", "People Mags", even "People Magic", and so forth. Is there a similar character (such as the asterisk) that works as a "wild card" for Craigslist searches? Thanks. Joseph A. Spadaro (talk) 20:40, 5 April 2014 (UTC)[reply]

The asterisk works for me. -- Gadget850^talk 20:58, 5 April 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Really? Does it work in this search ... Searchcraigslist.org ...? That is the search in which I am trying to employ a wild card. Thanks. Joseph A. Spadaro (talk) 21:07, 5 April 2014 (UTC)[reply]

You left that out. Odd. 'farscap*' gets hits for Farscape but 'farsca*' does not. Its a Google Search so it should conform to that standard. -- Gadget850^talk 19:13, 6 April 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Yes, it's odd. Any idea why that might be? I am trying to search for both People Magazine (singular) and People Magazines (plural "s" at the end). When I do a search for "People Magazine", it will not pick up the plural "People Magazines". And I also cannot get it to do the wild card asterisk, "People Mag * ". Any ideas? Thanks. Joseph A. Spadaro (talk) 22:29, 6 April 2014 (UTC)[reply]

April 6

Why would this store sell a Toshiba 10" 32GB tablet for only $2.70? And what dirt can you find about this store?

You see, I have a sinking feeling about this. Am I being lured into a trap? Or are they trying to liquidate their stock?

$2.70 for THAT kind of tablet makes me wonder about its legitimacy.

This is where I find the store's supposed contact information. The next link proves that Google Maps doesn't know about "Jerry Dove Drive."

Google Maps won't find Jerry Dove Drive anywhere in that town!

This WHOIS lookup doesn't provide this store site owner's info because some kind of infoguard keeps it hidden. Is this normal of any online store? Or would legit online stores allow their info to be made public on a WHOIS lookup?

I need help knowing more about this store before I enter sensitive details to buy this tablet for supposedly $2.70. Why do you think they'd price it THIS low? Hopefully you can help me figure out how genuine all this is. Thanks! --2602:30A:2EE6:8600:F9AF:6350:3C80:67FE (talk) 02:55, 7 April 2014 (UTC)[reply]

@@ Line 290: / Line 290: @@
 == Why would this store sell a Toshiba 10" 32GB tablet for only $2.70? And what dirt can you find about this store?  ==
+You see, I have a sinking feeling about this. Am I being lured into a trap? Or are they trying to liquidate their stock?
 [https://www.buydigitalproduct.com/toshiba-excite-at305t32-10-1-inch-32-gb-tablet-computer-wi-fi-nvidia-tegra-3-1-20-ghz?language=en&currency=USD $2.70 for THAT kind of tablet makes me wonder about its legitimacy.]