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January 3

Is there an app that allows you to photograph without showing the live view on your screen?

I tried searching and didn't find any relevant hits... Is there an app that allows you to photograph without showing the live view on your screen? 166.171.185.166 (talk) 12:57, 3 January 2016 (UTC)

You can simply not look at screen :) --Edgars2007 (talk/contribs) 19:43, 3 January 2016 (UTC)

What exactly is it you're trying to accomplish? clpo13_(talk) 19:54, 3 January 2016 (UTC)

Well clearly to take photos without getting caught. I can think of some legitimate reasons you might want to do this, and I can also think of many illegitimate reasons you might want to do this. Like taking photos anywhere where you are not permitted recording devices. I'm not aware of any authorized apps that let you do this, but there are several unauthorized apps, however you need to jailbreak your iPhone to install unauthorized apps. As far as I am aware while jailbreaking is not "illegal" in the US, it does void your warranty and forfeit your rights to apple support, so go down that road at your own risk. Vespine (talk) 22:42, 3 January 2016 (UTC)

How about for Android phones? And truly do assume good faith here, I'm just uncomfortable taking photos in public, especially when using a cell phone and not a real camera. As well it could speed up taking photos if there was a widget accessible from the launch screen that doesn't change the window, like the flashlight operates. 216.9.110.9 (talk) 01:13, 4 January 2016 (UTC)

I don't have an android but a quick google search turned up: "Quick Camera - Hidden Camera", play.google.com . Vespine (talk) 03:58, 4 January 2016 (UTC)

I don't think it's totally clear jailbreaking voids your warranty. Apple may say it does, but AFAIK it's never been tested in court whether this is allowed under the Magnuson–Moss Warranty Act which forbid warranties which require "tie-in sales" (including services) [1]. On iOS, as you basically can't use an alternative app stores without jailbreaking and given that while you don't have to pay to use the app store, not everything on it is free and Apple does take a cut of that, Apple may have a problem disclaiming warranties for jailbreaks in certain cases. I'm not aware that Apple has been granted a waiver by the FTC preventing you from jail breaking. Of course if you break something by jail breaking you're SOL for whatever you broke. Just as if you open up the iPhone to fix something which Apple will charge you for and in the process break something, whatever you broke isn't going to be covered under the warranty. Or if you use third party ink and it clogs the heads of your printer you shouldn't expect the heads to be covered under warranty (unless it would have happened with manufacturer ink). Nil Einne (talk) 16:38, 5 January 2016 (UTC)

NOTE: Magnuson-Moss is a US law - so (a) Please don't assume our OP is necessarily from the USA and (b) We're not allowed to give legal advice here - and that's what that was. SteveBaker (talk) 18:53, 5 January 2016 (UTC)

Collapsing since it's fairly OT to the original question. Nil Einne (talk) 16:27, 6 January 2016 (UTC)

In case there is some confusion, I was replying to Vespine who specifically said that jailbreak voids you warranty in the US, hence the clear cut indenting. I admit, I neglected to include the US part, but I thought it was obvious in the context of the thread. Since I don't live in the US, my only interest in the situation in the US is when people make claims which may not be correct, or have questions about the situation in the US. There was no comment on any other country so I didn't comment on any other country. (If I did want to mention other countries I may have mentioned how in NZ, warranties aside, many products are covered by the Consumer Guarantees Act which require products are of acceptable quality [2] and other things. These rights are in addition to any warranty. So regardless of whether or not jailbreaking voids you warranty, Apple will need to be able to explain how their products are of acceptable quality if the home button breaks under normal usage for reasons unrelated to the jail break or alternatively fulfill their obligations. I could have also mentioned how Australia as well as the UK and many other countries in the EU have similar laws.) And there was no intention of legal advice. I didn't say that jail breaking doesn't void your warranty. (Although as said above, the comment I was replying to you did say the opposite, albeit only as far as the commentator knew.) All I said was that the idea jail breaking voids you warranty in the US is a legally untested claim made by Apple, which would need to be considered in light of laws which may forbid such practices, as other commentators in other places have pointed out. Actually even our article mentions it albeit it's unsourced, see iOS jailbreaking. If you want to know I geolocated the OP when I first saw the question, so an assumption they may be in the US would have been fair. But in the end I didn't make the assumption in my eventual reply anyway because it was irrelevant. I was not replying to the OP, but to a comment made here by someone else. In fact, by the time I replied, the OP had already commented suggesting they probably didn't even care about iOS. The geolocation was primarily because if the OP was in South Korea or Japan, or somewhere else with a legal requirement for an audible noise for when taking photos, I would have mentioned that. Not because I wanted to offer legal advice, but because the OP may want to consider taking legal advice if they are going to use apps where it may be required. This was before anyone had replied, but I didn't reply because it didn't seem relevant to the OP as they don't appear to live there, and it's also not relevant to anything said in the thread thus far so I didn't end up mentioning. (And if I had said this, it would be an even greater case of expecting the OP to take on competent legal advice if needed, since I have no idea if there's any chance these laws forbid end users from removing the sounds, or simply require manufacturers to try and ensure there is a sound. I've only barely read up on these laws myself, and it's difficult since of course many of the sources are in Korean or Japanese, neither of which I understand.) And in case there's an further controversy, if I had mentioned something like this, I consider it the same way I (and others) do occasionally mention the DMCA and similar laws when replying about stuff relating to deDRMing. DMCA is of course a US law, but it's the iconic example of a law which forbids DRM circumvention and was, thanks to US pressure, the primary inspiration for such laws in other countries. There's IMO an obvious problem if we are allowed to give advice on something which may break the law like deDRMing, but not allowed to even mention that the people may want to investigate this aspect before proceeding. Or back to the main point, if we're allowed to say doing X voids you warranty, but not allowed to point out it's untested and unclear if it does void you warranty. 'May void you warrant' would avoid such confusion, and if this was what was stated I wouldn't have commented but it wasn't. And similar to my earlier point, it's problematic if we're going to offer advice on doing stuff which may indeed void you warranty, but not at least allowed to mention it does so. Yes I could have just said something like "I think you mean 'may void you warranty'". But while that's sometimes fine, it's also the kind of thing which often leads to dispute when people then say it definitely does void the warranty. So we either have to shut down that discussion because of the risk it will cross in to legal advice, or mention why sources say it's unclear. And IMO particularly since it doesn't sound like anyone here is actually planning to jail break it was fair to mention why sources say it was unclear. I also prefer to say all I feel needs to be said to avoid questions coming up rather than engaging in long back and forths.) Nil Einne (talk) 14:41, 6 January 2016 (UTC) As a final comment, I admit my sourcing for the original claims wasn't that great although I do feel the FTC website which I provided above [3] does address most of what I said, even if it doesn't specifically mention jailbreaking. (I also found [4] which provides some more info.) One of the problems is while I can find decent forum discussions and comments on article, it's difficult to find actual RS. What I do find from the RS is decent sources which either say "the warranty is void because Apple says it is" (without any comment on state or federal law that affects such limitations) e.g. [5]. Or "the warranty isn't void because they have to prove jailbreaking damaged the phone, under the Magnuson-Moss Act" (but more informed sources discussing related issues, or even the FTC and reading the law makes it clear the Magnuson-Moss Act isn't so simple) [6]. So we get contradictory claims in RS which don't really seem to have properly considered the issues. I expect in the past, you would have gotten the same thing if you looked in to generic ink/toner catridges, thankfully there's now enough interest, including commercial interest you can easily find discussion surrounding how the Magnuson-Moss Act affects them. E.g. [7] [8]. Likewise for replacing computer components [9] [10]. AAll of these are generally small fry compared to stuff like cars which is one area the Magnuson-Moss Act was definitely designed to cover [11] [12] and probably one of the most common areas of discussion [13] [14]. In fact even the FTC discusses and has been actively involved in it [15] [16]. The cost involved in car cases may also be high enough to allow a federal court case, which is probably impossible for iOS devices given the need for individual claims to be $25,000. (It's also clearer when a company says any use of third party parts or service voids your warranty, that it's a problem.) Jail breaking is for better or worse still fairly esoteric and in particular of little commercial interest. So there seems to be very limited RS discussion surrounding this particular warranty aspect. The best I could find beyond reading the earlier FTC links are [17] (which is decent, but unfortunately doesn't mention warranties when it comes to jail breaking) and [18] (which partially replicates the FTC but has some useful fresh info). It possible another reason why this isn't discussed much is a number of state laws are clearer on the jail breaking aspect, so are more likely to be used (but that would vary from jurisdiction to jurisdiction). And I have no real idea how much Apple actually denies warranty claims when it's unlikely jailbreaking was the cause, so it's also possible it's largely theoretical. (Notably, if the product just isn't working or even if there's clearly a physical defect unlikely to have been cause by mis-used, my impression is many companies just repair or replace. Testing to check if it was jailbroken or the firmware was modified just wastes time. At most, they may re-flash firmware, probably without checking what was on it. Particularly since they probably don't want their staff checking in case they start viewing private data.) And yes I am very passionate about this. The way many companies mislead consumers about their rights (in countries with strong such protections which actually isn't the US in a lot of cases) is a strongly held pet peeve of mine. Particularly extended warranties which in a number of countries are close to scams, providing no more rights than the consumer already has. Stronger laws and enforcement can sometimes help, but so does educating consumers. Education also works both ways, it means knowing what rights you do have but also knowing what rights you don't have (e.g. a recent case here revealed some people think companies are required to sell you a product at an advertised price if they make a genuine mistake). Thankfully the internet has often made things a lot better. This doesn't mean I always agree with consumer advocate organisations. For example a number here have made a big deal about physical bill charges, something I feel is fine if the price is resonable. And to be clear, I'm not suggesting using wikipedia or the RD for advocacy. But rather simply pointing out again that it should be acceptable to challenge a claim which I feel is wrong or misleading and given the possibility of disputes, explain why it may be wrong or misleading. And in this particular case, there is a good reason why I was so concerned, even if not everyone feels the same way. Nil Einne (talk) 16:26, 6 January 2016 (UTC) The above was supposed to be a final comment, but I forgot to check one more thing I uncovered while researching the above answer. I believe I made an error in my original statement. In particular, I incorrectly thought it may have been significant whether or not the service Apple was providing was free. However from more reading e.g. [19] and some of the earlier sources and careful consideration, I believe the free service bit is only related to the actual warranty. So for example, it's still difficult for a car company to say "you didn't use our oil which we would have provided free, so your warranty is void even though the problem is with your brakes and clearly unrelated to the oil you used". All that part does is make it difficult for a consumer to say "since my engine is defective and you're replacing my oil, use oil Y, and pay for it yourself". Or "my car is defective and needs to be fixed, my sister's garage is going to do it, and you're goign to pay for it". It's intended to allow the company to say "we will fix the problem, but you have to use Z". This emphasises the complexity and the need for caution when dealing with the law. But that applies both ways. It shows why we shouldn't take legal advice given by random stranges, but as said above it was never my intention to provide legal advice. But it also shows why it's foolish to assume just because Apple (and sources quoting Apple) say the warranty is void, automatically means it's void. Nil Einne (talk) 17:07, 6 January 2016 (UTC)

I definitely don't want to restart the discussion, I would just like to add, in my defense, I was just repeating what appears to be the consensus on apple.com support forums. Vespine (talk) 22:00, 6 January 2016 (UTC)

Viewing Facebook pages

I'm not a member of Facebook and have absolutely no wish to become one, but I do look at some pages on it, such as those of local shops or sports clubs that I regularly visit. However every time I got to a page now after a few seconds a box pops up prompting me to log in in order to continue and no matter what I do I can't get rid of it. SO is there any way for me to dismiss this without taking out membership or am I snookered? Keresaspa (talk) 19:02, 3 January 2016 (UTC)

You can try clicking the close button on the bottom right of the box or pushing the escape key. Anyway, presuming you mean the desktop site, unless Facebook is carrying out some sort of beta test in your area, you shouldn't get a box unless you're trying to do something which requires login like commenting on a page. Are you sure this box is actually coming from Facebook? (I'm presuming you don't mean the box which shows up at the top right of the profile picture but which doesn't move with the page and otherwise doesn't affect the page.) Nil Einne (talk) 19:59, 3 January 2016 (UTC)

The pressing escape thing worked perfectly - as you can probably guess I'm a bit rubbish at computers :D. Thanks very much. Keresaspa (talk) 20:30, 3 January 2016 (UTC)

January 4

Game development

Out of the following genres of computer games: real-time strategy, first-person shooter, fighting game, flight simulator, medical simulation, puzzle game, platform game -- which are the easiest to develop, and which are the hardest? 2601:646:8E01:9089:5D45:D5AF:855B:E677 (talk) 07:50, 4 January 2016 (UTC)

Obviously there will be lots of overlap, but puzzle games can be quite simple to program, as they don't require animation. Indeed, it may be possible to make many without any graphics at all, just using ASCII text. Some real-time strategy games are like this too (I remember an early ASCII text one called IMHOTEP where you were trying to build a pyramid in ancient Egypt). StuRat (talk) 09:39, 4 January 2016 (UTC)

I second this: even with animation, puzzle game like Tetris are generally simpler to program, all else equal (e.g. sophistication, level of technology, etc.). Our article even notes that "Because of its popularity and the relatively simple code required to produce the game, a game with nearly the same rules as Tetris is often used as a hello world project for programmers coding for a new system or programming language." I also remember (many years ago) a competition to code a working Tetris clone in under 24 hours.OldTimeNESter (talk) 12:15, 4 January 2016 (UTC)

My job is a principal engineer at a large video game company (Wargaming - we make World of Tanks and World of Warships and a bunch of other great stuff) - and I've worked in most of those game styles.

Generally, puzzle games are the easiest. They don't usually need complicated graphics, they typically don't need AI or physics and they typically have simple requirements for sound and graphical assets. That's not always the case - but 99% of the time it's true. I wrote SameGame to run in a browser window in about a day. However, some puzzle games need hundreds of cleverly designed 'levels' with graduated degrees of difficulty to solve - and getting those right can make some considerable effort. The main problem with puzzle games is to think of a good puzzle in the first place - and to make it "fun". Making games fun is the hardest thing we do...there is no method to guarantee that your game will be fun - except to copy an existing game that you know is fun. So, I could make a Tetris varient with pieces made from hexagons instead of squares maybe...I'd know that it would almost certainly be fun. But if I decided to make a puzzle game around...I dunno...building houses from parts that get dropped off from a truck at random...then maybe it wouldn't be fun. Hard to know in advance. So with puzzle games, you tend to spend a lot of time trying out ideas that fail.

Platform games are generally (but not always) 2D with simple controls and simple enemy actions - so they are also fairly simple to program...but again, designing the levels may take longer. You probably need to get a bunch of animated sprites designed - and that can be a time-consuming activity. Programming the game could probably be done in a matter of weeks...but a lot depends on the complexity. But players don't expect realistic graphics or physics. Enemy characters can behave incredibly stupidly, and nobody much cares...this makes life much easier! I've written a simple platform game in a week - and a decently playable/cute one in a month.

Real-time strategy games are really just like puzzle games - I'm not sure I'd want to put a dividing line in there - but perhaps there is an element of deeper game balance that's hard to maintain. If you imagine a game like SimCity - it's tough to ensure that there isn't an obvious/simple winning strategy and that the various subsystems of the game (roads, rail, buildings, power, water, etc) are balanced such that one doesn't always pose the main challenge.

Medical simulation...hmmm...this is a category that I'm not too familiar with. Probably no harder than a puzzle game since this is probably just a puzzle of a different kind. But I suppose if you wanted a super-realistic surgery simulator in 3D - with squishy organs that you can cut open anywhere and have various fluids squirting around - then it could be a significantly hard game to make...but if you just wanted a video-game analog of the classic Operation game - then I could write that in a day, easily. If you have a specific example in mind of this "medical simulation" genre - I could comment on how hard something like that would be.

Flight simulators, first (and third) person shooters tend to be complicated - both from a coding and an art perspective. Adding that third dimension to the action - adding realistic graphics and sound rather than cartoon stuff - adding realistic physics - and adding "intelligent" enemies all builds horrendous complexity. These days people expect online multi-player play and that pushes the complexity off the charts! A 1st person shooter that I worked on had a dozen programmers and close to a hundred 3D artists, musicians, voice talents, AI scripters, designers and so on. When games grow to that degree of complexity - you add HR people, lawyers, multiple layers of management and so forth. It was expected to take close to three years to write...and the company (Midway Games) went bust a year before it was finished!

SteveBaker (talk) 15:09, 4 January 2016 (UTC)

That's funny. I have around 25k games on WoT since 2011. Small world. Justin15w (talk) 20:52, 6 January 2016 (UTC)

I used to develop medical simulation programs. They were rather simple to do. Once the web matured, I began slapping things together with JavaScript, using the web browser as the user interface. Then, luckily, I got out of that entire business. For medical simulation, you are mainly showing some graphics and the user needs to perform specific actions. So, it is more like one of those puzzle room games than a strategy game. There is very little game intelligence. For example, I might be given 20 pictures of kidneys (yes, the photos are usually rather gross). The student needs to perform a certain action based on the appearance of the photo. My interface might let them select between three tools and then then click on the kidney where to use the tool. So, I register a tool click and a usage click. Each photo has a proper tool/usage value. Then, it moves to the next set of photos. I did work on far more graphically complicated VR simulations, but the logic didn't change. They just clicked on the tool and the photo while looking through a 3D visor. 199.15.144.250 (talk) 16:29, 4 January 2016 (UTC)

Were you calling Sim City an RTS? If so, I don't think it's commonly considered one, even if it's real time and involves strategy. RTS is generally restricted to games which mostly involve gathering resources, constructing structures and units and then using these to kill any competitors or at least gain control over most of the map. The archetype is of course Dune II and then most of the Command and Conquer games (but probably not C&C 4), but other famous examples would include the Age of Empires series, Warcraft and Starcraft, Total Annihilation and Supreme Commander and perhaps most Warhammer games.

There's obviously no clearly defining line between RTS and other genres and even some of these examples are lacking in some of the earlier mentioned expectations (in particular resource gathering in Warhammer); still wherever that line falls it doesn't normally fall on the side of Sim City being an RTS. Programming-wise the line may not make sense, but that's the way it is.

Balance however can still be a big issue, particularly when it comes to balance for competitive play. Although while AI in RTSes can still be quite bad, it's normally not the case that no one cares if it's bad particularly for the single player component. (But even in multiplayer, and despite extreme competitive play usually being a click fest of micromanagement, I think nowadays a game will get still get a fairly bad rep if your $*&$%$@$&%^@ units decide to go the long way around just because some of your other units were blocking the way. Or there's no way to tell your units they shouldn't stand there while they slowly get blown to hell by an enemy one square out of their fire range.)

Of course the RTS genre is not like it once was, and there aren't that many AAA titles and expectations from something like Planetary Annihilation (even if it perhaps didn't meet them) or even Grey Goo probably aren't as high as they would be for an AAA title by a major studio.

Nil Einne (talk) 16:19, 5 January 2016 (UTC)

Since this is the computing desk, the respondents above have (probably correctly) focused on the programming aspect, but there is more to it than that. Tetris, in retrospect, is a very easy game to develop because the hard part was coming up with the idea for it. Now that it's out there, the programming side is straightforward. Sudoku is another example of a game that would today be simple to program just because the hard part was coming up with the idea. Do not underestimate the difficulty of this step. Matt Deres (talk) 00:02, 5 January 2016 (UTC)

You didn't include roguelike games in your list, but these are often a good introduction to game programming because most use either no graphics or public domain tiles (so the development effort is concentrated on gameplay rather than special effects) and there are lots of open-source examples and tutorials in very many programming languages.-gadfium 00:28, 5 January 2016 (UTC)

Thanks, everyone! So which is harder to program -- flight simulation or first-person shooter? 2601:646:8E01:9089:5D45:D5AF:855B:E677 (talk) 01:08, 5 January 2016 (UTC)

That's going to depend on how detailed you want to make the physics replication. In many ways, your questions are of the "How long is a piece of string?" variety. Consider this: is it easier to make a paper airplane or an elastic band gun? Both things could be made arbitrarily easy or difficult depending on how much effort you want to expend. Matt Deres (talk) 02:09, 5 January 2016 (UTC)

I mean high-end, realistic physics replication -- like Microsoft Flight Simulator in the first case, and Delta Force: Black Hawk Down in the second. 2601:646:8E01:9089:5918:223C:38E1:8BA9 (talk) 06:41, 5 January 2016 (UTC)

Well...it's still kinda tricky. Take for example FlightGear - it's a flight simulator and it was essentially written by one guy and released in under a year. However, 20 years later, and it's still being actively developed by a group of perhaps a couple of dozen part-time enthusiasts. So did it take 1 man-year or 100 man-years to develop? Kinda hard to tell! As for flight sim versus 1st person shooter...well, if networking is required for a multi-player game, then I'd put my money on the 1st person shooter. The complexity of server-side management of latency and physics and such is ugly - and you also need AI and a TON of 3D artwork and skeletal mesh animation work. Flight simulators can be networked rather trivially because the physics involved is mostly limited to the aircraft itself - and it's generally the case that most of your 3D modeling effort involves converting existing GIS data. If you have any computer controlled aircraft in the game then their behaviors are generally pretty simple (get in range and shoot...get behind, in range and shoot...fly out of the sun and shoot...fly formation)...but in a 1st person shooter, you generally demand that the AI's are a bit more intelligent and have a wider repertoire of behaviors.

But this is definitely one of those "how long is a piece of string?" questions - I'm 100% sure that there are some 1st person shooters that took less time to make than some flight simulators...but in my personal experience, most 1st person shooters took longer to make than most flight simulators...mainly because of the volume and quality of hand-crafted 3D artwork needed for the former. SteveBaker (talk) 18:51, 5 January 2016 (UTC)

I don't know what it's the OP's starting point. In a real case scenario, you and anyone else would start developing onto the shoulders of others and build the game starting by a game engine. There are several of these on the market, with several degrees of difficulty, capabilities, prices and image rendering. That's a radical game changer when you ask about possible efforts needed. A first-person shooter would be impossible to build in one lifetime for a single developer otherwise. Scicurious (talk) 17:04, 5 January 2016 (UTC)

Indeed - but there are game engines for all of those game types - so the ranking of difficulty doesn't change much. If you are planning to start out in this - grab a (free!) copy of Unity (game engine) and start from there. Having made a simple 1st person shooter (and written the game engine beneath it) - I'd dispute the fact that it takes more than one human lifetime to do it! But a typical AAA title from the last 5 years...yeah...definitely more than one human lifetime! SteveBaker (talk) 18:51, 5 January 2016 (UTC)

In my experience, the development has a lot to do with modeling (including animations). If you want to make it truly realistic, you will spend a lot more time. You will likely need to do a lot of motion capture. However, if you are happy making everything a square block, then you can develop quicker - but can a game made of blocks be popular? 209.149.114.138 (talk) 19:05, 5 January 2016 (UTC)

I think so. --71.119.131.184 (talk) 19:42, 5 January 2016 (UTC)

Thanks, everyone! 2601:646:8E01:9089:F88D:DE34:7772:8E5B (talk) 06:01, 7 January 2016 (UTC)

Remember it isn't just the raw engine that's generally available. Unity and other engines often have stock models that you can use. Or you can use or buy asset packs with suitable licences. However if it's a paid game, and perhaps sometimes even if it's free, you may find it's not very popular. (Unity asset pack "games" on Steam generally get poor reviews.) It does depend on what you're trying to achieve. If it's something you're trying to get others interested in rather than simply for personal experimentation and learning, you obviously you have to do something that interests people. AAA titles are not going to use many stock models from anywhere. Indie games, even paid ones, may be able to get away with it for some purposes. Other then depending significantly on your audience and game, there's also an overuse factor. E.g. RPGmaker games often have that problem because people are sick of seeing the same stuff over and over again. Still if your game had a brilliant story or something else to make it very interesting and wasn't too high price I think enough people would forgive it even if it used a resonable amount of stock assets. But generic story, generic jRPGs are dime a dozen. Nil Einne (talk) 16:53, 7 January 2016 (UTC)

Is this the end for my computer?

Following up on this question and others that preceded it, this morning I had a blue screen with IRQL_NOT_LESS_THAN_OR_EQUAL, or something similar, and then something like SYSTEM_EXCEPTION. I did a startup repair which included system restore and left the computer to do a virus scan, not that there's any point at this stage. I thought I'd have to go right to the store to get the new computer, but it might work. Today. I'm at a library.— Vchimpanzee • talk • contributions • 18:00, 4 January 2016 (UTC)

That usually comes up when you have installed software (usually a device driver) that is not compatible with your operating system. From your previous posts, you are running an old and unsupported operating system. It is very possible that you have updated a device driver or installed a program that is not compatible with the operating system. The best solution is to update the operating system to one that is supported. Further, because of many years of similar problems, I would assume that the computer has a virus and I would do a complete fdisk-format-reinstall to eradicate everything that I could possible remove from the hard drive and start over. 199.15.144.250 (talk) 20:02, 4 January 2016 (UTC)

The computer is seven years old, but I get updates. I just haven't been able to install any since December 11, according to the list of Installed Updates I was told to go by on a Microsoft site (and there, I was told to pay for help because apparently in the person's view who told me that, the problems are beyond his ability). The suspected problems have been a hard disk partition and Norton software that wasn't removed. No software that I have used has encountered a virus that wasn't dealt with. McAfee says 6 viruses have been quarantined since 2011 but it never finds any new problems. Windows Defender did a scan and, while I haven't been able to update it since Decmeber 11, it didn't find anything.

I certainly don't intend to install a new operating system if I don't expect the computer to last. As for starting over, the same logic applies.

When I go to the store where I bought the computer next Thursday, it looks like I'll have a new one.— Vchimpanzee • talk • contributions • 20:11, 4 January 2016 (UTC)

By coincidence, I'm typing this on a computer that is more than seven years old and running Vista, and I spent this morning running various anti-malware searches because it was behaving oddly. It now seems OK, and I didn't find any serious malware, but I'm seriously thinking of scrapping it. I'm reluctant to do so because I have software on it that I can't copy to a new one.

It's very difficult to diagnose intermittent problems, and people have suggested all the possibilities that I can think of (though I still think you might have marginal sectors on your hard drive -- did you run CHKDSK with the repair option?). If you still have your Vista installation CD and serial number, you could try the format and reinstall suggested above, but at some stage, I think you might need to get a new computer, as will I. Sorry I can't be more helpful. A friend has a computer twice as old that is running happily under Linux, but that's not to everyone's taste. Dbfirs 21:48, 4 January 2016 (UTC)

I don't know if I have an installation CD, much less a serial number. I waited too long, because Internet Explorer is no longer on new computers and I like it (or how it would be if it really worked), and Windows 10 promises to be too confusing. But if I wait longer what new computers have might be worse. I couldn't figure out how to get back to that method of checking the hard disk but I can try CHKDSK.— Vchimpanzee • talk • contributions • 21:59, 4 January 2016 (UTC)

Weird. A little black box comes up but then goes away quickly. I am defragmenting and don't know whether that will help any.— Vchimpanzee • talk • contributions • 00:46, 5 January 2016 (UTC)

Forgot to mention. Defragmenting completed fine.— Vchimpanzee • talk • contributions • 15:06, 5 January 2016 (UTC)

Defragmenting moves files around. It doesn't fix them. As an analogy, it is like saying that my alarm clock is broken, so I moved it from my side table to my dresser. Your problem is that there is at least one file that does not work with your operating system. It is most likely a device driver. It is most likely a device driver installed by malware. It is most likely malware that is not detected by whatever antivirus you are running. It is most likely that the antivirus you are running is in fact infected with malware. You can defrag all you want. It won't fix malware. You can restore all you want. It won't fix malware. You can run virus scans all you want. It won't fix malware. You can add/remove updates all you want. It won't fix malware. That is why I strongly advise deleting everything and starting over. 209.149.114.138 (talk) 15:35, 5 January 2016 (UTC)

The point is I've been told there is a hard drive problem, but in this case, the hard drive problem did not affect defragmenting. Whether the moving around of files will help the hard drive problem I don't know.

And I'm not going to delete everything and start over. Rather, I'll get a new computer and start over if that's what it takes.— Vchimpanzee • talk • contributions • 18:43, 5 January 2016 (UTC)

Defrag just moves files around to tidy up the unused sectors. It's different from CHKDSK. If 209.149.114.138 is correct about malware then it might be worth getting a professional malware clean-up, but if the problem is marginal sectors then that expense will be wasted. Low-level format and re-installing everything will remove malware, but not cure a faulty hard drive. Buying a new computer is a good solution if you can afford it, but you will need to be very careful when you copy any files from your old machine because if the problem is malware then it might be hiding in some file. Dbfirs 22:00, 5 January 2016 (UTC)

I see nothing to suggest it's a hard drive problem. A failing disk surface would cause read/write errors, not random other failures. -- BenRG (talk) 07:03, 6 January 2016 (UTC)

If you include the last two years of complaints, it is even more difficult to see this as a hardware problem. The software is not behaving properly. DNS lookups resolve to known malware sites. Programs open for no reason. There is software present that was not knowingly installed. Add-ons to IE appeared without being installed. etc... Through all of this, the user has repeatedly stated that it simply cannot be malware. It is not possible it is malware. There is absolutely no way it can be malware. 209.149.114.138 (talk) 13:41, 6 January 2016 (UTC)

You could run the computer from a live CD (or live USB stick) for a while. If it still crashes, it's probably a hardware problem. If it doesn't, you at least have a semi-usable computer, and you have some evidence that it doesn't need to be scrapped. You can also run various hardware tests from a live CD, and even virus/malware scans, though I have no experience doing it. -- BenRG (talk) 07:03, 6 January 2016 (UTC)

For live CD and Live USB stick tests, I highly recommend Tails on a CD/DVD and Tiny Core on a 4GB or larger USB stick. Tails in particular has a really nice setup for testing disks that support S.M.A.R.T.. With a bit of work understanding the system, Tiny Core is more than good enough to become your main OS. You can access any file on your Windows disk, and Windows itself will always be there waiting -- just pull the USB stick and boot.

For a low-cost yet quite capable replacement system, Dell sells a lot of desktop PCs to businesses, and many of them upgrade regularly, flooding the used market with the (slightly) older models. Right now the sweet spot for low price and high performance is the Optiplex 780. It works fine as is, and you can upgrade it to quad core with 16GB of RAM and a SDD and have a very high performance system for word processing, surfing the web, etc. It runs Windows 7, Windows 10, and all Linux distributions just fine with no special drivers needed. $100-$200 on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/s/?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=optiplex+780 --Guy Macon (talk) 12:16, 6 January 2016 (UTC)

I only use this computer for the Internet. I use email for word processing and also to store those items others might actually have in a computer. So if I get a new computer, I'm starting fresh. Nothing gets moved over, so that worry is gone. I can afford to get a brand new computer (but shouldn't) and I know they have one like this one at the store where I got it, with Windows 10 and Microsoft Edge instead. This computer did so well for so many years I think that's a good choice.

And I have done no downloads from sources that do not appear trustworthy.

I didn't do the hard disk check yet (it says I can't if I'm using the disk) but it's scheduled for the next time I turn on the computer (which is also when everything happens). This morning, it got to the screen where I can go to the Internet and I left it to go do something else, and then I heard that hard disk noise I described as being like a pencil sharpener though it has been a normal noise since the day I bought the computer. It was going through startup again and I had to tell it to start Windows normally (or it will do that anyway), and no problems since then. If there was an error message when the problem happened, I don't know it. Anyway, it's been fine since.— Vchimpanzee • talk • contributions • 17:48, 6 January 2016 (UTC)

January 5

Is there any other way to get great news than search engines?

Is there any other way to get great news than search engines? It seems that all people AND Wikipedia give to me is search engines & stuff like BBC. --SamBrown98121 (talk) 17:33, 5 January 2016 (UTC)

News about what? There are many meta-news websites, but they are focused on a specific type of news. For example, slashdot focuses on technology and science. 209.149.114.138 (talk) 17:53, 5 January 2016 (UTC)

I'm not quite sure what you're expecting if you want a news site that not "stuff like BBC"? How do you want this hypothetical news site to work that's different to http://www.bbc.com ?

My suggestions are very own WikiNews - which you can contribute to as well as read! I don't like it - but http://www.msnbc.com is a large news-only site that a ton of people visit. I like http://www.npr.org

Perhaps you could be a little more specific about what you want other than the BBC style of news website. SteveBaker (talk) 18:29, 5 January 2016 (UTC)

I suppose you want to avoid getting your news after they have been filtered by someone else. The solution to this is to navigate directly to the pages of the institutions you might be interested. Nowadays it's rare for any institution (be it the police, government, educational) for not having some sort of information release. In many countries you can also ask many governmental agencies to release some information based on a Freedom of information regulation. Denidi (talk) 20:45, 5 January 2016 (UTC)

Another method would be to choose and buy one or more decent daily Broadsheet newspapers (in the editorial sense of the term). Unless one wants to devote one's own life to pursuing comprehensive and balanced news, one will always have to rely on the efforts of intermediary filters: the trick is to find one/some combination which is sufficiently congruent with one's own worldview without shielding one from other viewpoints and facts. {The poster formerly known as 87.81.230.195} 185.74.232.130 (talk) 12:55, 6 January 2016 (UTC)

"sufficiently congruent with one's own worldview"? Can't you read something totally opposed to your worldview? Denidi (talk) 16:54, 6 January 2016 (UTC)

Yes, you can. (eg: I know many hard-core liberals who primarily watch Fox News so they will have something to rant about.) 209.149.114.138 (talk) 17:31, 6 January 2016 (UTC)

(edit conflict) Why would you make a source you think is wrong your main source? Sources range from communist to probably Nazi. People who have to read through the lines of everything they see because it's too far from what they are and still might miss something are going to get annoyed. One way to see what others are thinking though would be to read the same story in something left for your country (like HuffPo or the Guardian), something right (like Fox News or Forbes) and something centrist (like a national news show) and maybe something from the British left (like the Guardian) if you're American or American right (like Fox News) if you're not American (since the American center is further right than any other major nation in the world with the possible exception of immigration (and that's getting closer since Trump)). I do this sometimes though not always all four because I'm lazy). Of course one might have uncommon mixtures of left and right like legalize cannabis, kill violent rapists, don't jail nonviolent addicts, make the death penalty more humane, economically liberal so the best single source would only be "it's good enough". If the OP wants lack of filter Google isn't it either because it personalizes it's results to some degree. For perfect unfilteredness you'd have to Google anonymously to a degree I'm not sure of that might just be privacy mode or extend to clearing cookies, using a Tor or even using a special anonymous non-Google search engine that doesn't track you but probably doesn't have as good search technology as Google. I think there's a setting or search prefix that depersonalizes Google results without anything else but you'd have to trust Google (Facebook experimented on users by making their news happier or sadder without telling them and seeing their responses didn't they?). Reuters or AP are the source for thousands of smaller newspapers so should probably be one of the most neutral for when you're too lazy to read a story more than once but those who call everything besides Fox News liberal "lamestream media" or someone lefter than me would probably turned be off by Reuters/AP. Sagittarian Milky Way (talk) 18:31, 6 January 2016 (UTC)

One possible interpretation is that you want more positive news stories and fewer negative. Is that what you meant ? StuRat (talk) 18:41, 6 January 2016 (UTC)

Then just watch the nightly national news on ABC. If it's still anything like when Diane Sawyer was anchor then you'll see mushy optimistic stories about one (1!) average Joe family and American manufacturing (lol) for half the program removing time for bad news by definition. Sagittarian Milky Way (talk) 18:55, 6 January 2016 (UTC)

Positive news stories don't have to be total fluff. There are lots of good things that happen that don't get reported, because they are less sensational than, say, murders. One that comes to mind is that the spread of killer bees, which at one time seemed to pose a major threat to the US, seems to have stopped, since they don't do as well in colder climates. StuRat (talk) 19:11, 6 January 2016 (UTC)

Yes that's true. Fluff is only one of the two ways to have positive news. Did you have a source of more balanced (positive and negative) news in mind? I'd like to check it out. Sagittarian Milky Way (talk) 19:43, 6 January 2016 (UTC)

No, but I had heard about a site which exclusively reported positive stories, figuring people get enough negative stories from other sources. I don't recall the web address. StuRat (talk) 19:57, 6 January 2016 (UTC)

http://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/ ? Ghmyrtle (talk) 14:13, 7 January 2016 (UTC)

Yep, that's it. Glad to see the US Congress finally formally legalized medical marijuana: [20].

Speaking of medical matters, exposure to the negative news we typically get may have a negative psychological effect on people, and this news may have a positive effect. StuRat (talk) 17:32, 7 January 2016 (UTC)

January 6

How many watchlist items are possible before it stops working?

Sagittarian Milky Way (talk) 00:07, 6 January 2016 (UTC)

I have seen nothing in the source code that places a limit on the watchlist size. It can work with every page in your watchlist. That is what you get when you click the "Recent changes" link. 209.149.114.138 (talk) 13:43, 6 January 2016 (UTC)

That's a question better asked at Wikipedia:Village_pump_(technical).--Denidi (talk) 15:51, 6 January 2016 (UTC)

Invasion of privacy: My cable television usage is somehow known through my internet connection

This makes me livid. I was wondering if anyone knows how this works. I switched about two weeks ago to Time Warner – a bundle package for cable TV, Internet and phone. I programmed my DVR to record certain shows. And it just occurred to me that this might be important: I do have an HDMI cord coming from my computer (a mac) from the mini display port to the TV (not the cable box) that I sometimes connect, so that I can play videos I download on the TV. A few moments ago I went to YouTube and, lo and behold, their suggestions for videos for me to watch are very obviously based on my DVR programming and/or what I watch on TV. It's not some minor coincidence I'm blowing out of proportion. I have about 15 programs programmed to record and they all match up to the YouTube suggestions and not other TV-related videos so I know the source but not the mechanism. Any idea how this is being done, and what I might do. It feels like an incredible invasion of privacy to me; a "big brother is watching" moment.--67.244.114.239 (talk) 05:29, 7 January 2016 (UTC)

I'm not sure, but this looks to me like a case of targeted advertising, which is completely routine in this day and age. As for what you might do, there's not much (short of ceasing to use the internet altogether). 2601:646:8E01:9089:F88D:DE34:7772:8E5B (talk) 06:04, 7 January 2016 (UTC)

Your DVR is a computer. It probably phones home to Time Warner to tell it what you're recording. This is how they do things like provide "suggestions" on what to watch. Since Time Warner controls both your TV service and Internet connection, they also assign your IP address, which identifies you on the Internet. They probably sell this information to ad networks. You probably agreed to this in the terms and conditions that you didn't read. --71.119.131.184 (talk) 06:39, 7 January 2016 (UTC)

Your cable company (and all cable companies and internet providers and telephone services) record every bit of data they can about you. Then, they package your information with other customers and sell it. That is how the world works today. If you don't like it, you don't have any good options. Every alternative is far worse than having your information being sold so other people can try to get you to buy junk you don't need. 209.149.114.138 (talk) 13:13, 7 January 2016 (UTC)

I feel that I should have mentioned that this is not unique to cable services. It is also being done by everyone else. Grocery stores package and sell your information. Your health providers package and sell your information. The government packages up all your information and then, well, it's the government. They put it on an poorly secured server and let anyone with a little computer knowledge "hack" into the open system and take it for free. 209.149.114.138 (talk) 15:57, 7 January 2016 (UTC)

Are you sure your Youtube recommendations are related to what you watched on your DVR? If you have a Google account and haven't disabled it, your Youtube recommendations will definitely be based on what you've watched and searched for before, and probably based on your Google searches too as well as other factors (e.g. what's popular in your area, perhaps the sites you visit even without Google being involved given their vast advertising network). And not just on your computer but on any device with the same Google account. E.g. Any smart phone or tablet. If you're not logged in to a Google account these factors will come in to play too although it's more complicated between devices and I think unclear how much they rely on cookies, how much they rely on IPs etc.

BTW this will apply to anyone else using these devices. (E.g. even if you're sure you didn't search or watch anything related on Youtube, how sure you are that no one else using your computer did?)

People often forget that when they like something they tend to give a way a lot of clues in their general internet habits. I'm not saying it's impossible, but I'm not convinced Google is doing this. (Not because they are good, but because while they do get data from others, they are quite successful at collecting their own.)

Nil Einne (talk) 17:31, 7 January 2016 (UTC)

Invasion of your privacy? Lol, there has never been such thing as "private" on the internet. Vespine (talk) 22:11, 7 January 2016 (UTC)

So I assume you'll be posting your credit card numbers and bank account information shortly? --71.119.131.184 (talk) 23:49, 7 January 2016 (UTC)

January 7

Are collections only available on mobile?

I have a group of collections saved on the mobile website, and I can't find any related feature on the desktop site.

Is this beta feature that is only available for use on the mobile site? If so, when will it be available on the desktop site? If not, can someone direct me to where I can locate my collections?

Thank you for your time. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Belac82 (talk • contribs) 16:17, 7 January 2016‎

This question is better asked at the WP:Help desk. Anyway your collections should be here Special:Gather/by/Belac82 (Edit: Special:Gather should take you to your collections whoever you are). This is a beta feature on the mobile site (it's only available if you enable the beta). Whether there's a way to get a link and easily add to your collections on the desktop site, I don't know. Nil Einne (talk) 17:38, 7 January 2016 (UTC)

From Wikipedia:Collections, Mediawikiwiki:Gather and Mediawikiwiki:Extension:Gather/FAQ, it sounds like this feature is only on the mobile site. There were possible plans to extend it to the desktop site, but since development has been on hold since June 2015, it's hard to say if that will ever happen, or whether collections will survive as a feature long term. Edit: While there will probably be some warning, you probably want to save a personal copy of your collections just in case.) BTW, you should be able to access the mobile site on any modern graphical desktop browser. Try [21]. Nil Einne (talk) 17:53, 7 January 2016 (UTC)

USB CD Re-writer

What would be a good, durable and a reliable 'USB CD Re-writer' to buy, that I can keep with me forever? -- Mr. Zoot Cig Bunner (talk) 18:40, 7 January 2016 (UTC)

I don't have a specific recommendation - but do check that the machine you choose can do all of the CDRW/CDRW+/DVDRW/...etc types (there is a horrifyingly long list HERE). The names are confusing and sometimes two very different disk types have very, very similar names. (eg DVD-R, DVD+R, DVD-RW and DVD+RW are quite different - and some disk writers can't write to all of them!) SteveBaker (talk) 21:04, 7 January 2016 (UTC)

MATLAB Tool

Hi, I want to increase the number of digits used during the calculations in MATLAB, so I googled it and found this: http://www.mathworks.com/matlabcentral/fileexchange/36534-hpf-a-big-decimal-class However, I can't understand how to use it...

It's written there that I need to write "DefaultNumberOfDigits 30 2" at the command prompt, so downloaded the zip file, extracted it to my working directory, and wrote the above mentioned command at the command prompt. However, this threw an error "Undefined function or variable 'DefaultNumberOfDigits' ".

So, how should I do this? 213.8.204.4 (talk) 19:09, 7 January 2016 (UTC)

January 8

How to check Linux mailbox with Windows software

Dear Wikipedians:

The Linux mailx program seems to be able to directly check the

/var/spool/mail/[username]

mailbox. However, Thunderbird for Windows requires either a POP3 or an IMAP server to work (only the SMTP server is setup on my Linux box).

I am wondering if there is any Windows equivalent of mailx that can check Linux mailboxes directly remotely, using just the IP address of the remote Linux box and its SMTP port (port 25)?

Thanks,

69.158.78.39 (talk) 02:36, 8 January 2016 (UTC)

SMTP is not used to retrieve messages like POP3 or IMAP are. It is used to send them. So, if you had to use SMTP on both ends, you would need to set up a mail server on the Windows computer that would listen for messages sent to it from the Linux machine. You seem to think that the Windows machine would connect remotely to the Linux machine using port 25 and then request the messages, but the process happens in the opposite direction.

So, you could install an SMTP server on the Windows machine like xmailserve or hMailServer, to receive the messages.

However, you should instead install a POP3 or IMAP server on the Linux box, like Dovecot. The Windows client could then use a normal e-mail client like Thunderbird or Outlook to download the messages using POP3 or IMAP and display them in an easy-to-read format. I can't think of any reason you would use SMTP to receive messages other than some weird firewall rules that block POP3 but not SMTP.—Best Dog Ever (talk) 06:11, 8 January 2016 (UTC)