Content deleted Content added

Inline

Revision as of 11:32, 17 December 2018

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.

December 10

Multiprocess webview

So yeah, I found multiprocess webview in settings.What can I do with it? Should I enable or disable it?Ajax-x86 (talk) 16:22, 10 December 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Finding a CentOS7 repo with an updated package

I installed the X Server package on my server running CentOS7, and now my server won't boot to the Gnome desktop (it does boot to the terminal). After looking at bug reports, it looks like I can fix this by installing a newer version of the X Server. The problem is that, while there is a newer version for other Linux distributions, I can't find it in any of the repos that CentOS7 pulls from. I'm not very experienced searching for packages, though, so I suspect it is out there somewhere; can someone please help me find and install it? The package is the X Server environment, and I need to install at least version 1.20.3. Thanks OldTimeNESter (talk) 18:14, 10 December 2018 (UTC)[reply]

I don't use centos, but just to clarify: I assume it was the xorg-server package which you installed? Did gnome work before? Assuming some version of xorg-server was installed before, which version was it? What happens when you downgrade to that version? You would probably be better of answering all these questions at the centos forum, though. As a general principle, it would be better to get the packages provided by your distro working, rather than trying to obtain others from elsewhere. Henry ^Flower 16:57, 11 December 2018 (UTC)[reply]

I upgraded xorg-x11-server-Xorg from 1.19 to 1.20 so that it would work with remote desktop. Gnome was working before that, but now it won't load, and the Xorg log indicates an error that looks like an instance of a known bug. I can't downgrade because version 1.19 is no longer available (at least, this is what yum tells me when I try and roll back the update). So I'm stuck with 1.20 unless I can find a way to upgrade to 1.20.3. OldTimeNESter (talk) 19:39, 11 December 2018 (UTC)[reply]

I found some info on RPMfind here. I don't know if the Fedora version will work or not but it's there if you want to try it. You could also try manually removing the 1.20 rpm and installing the CentOS 1.19 rpm off the RPMfind site.

Just out of curiosity, what's the error/bug you're seeing with 1.20? I'm running a couple of CentOS 7 VMs with 1.20.1-5.1.el7.x86_64 and while I haven't seen any problems, it'd be nice to know what to look out for if they do break. Random character sequence (talk) 20:23, 11 December 2018 (UTC)[reply]

December 11

Deleted hiberfil.sys, then HD runs continuously

The file hibrtfil.sys was taking up 23GB of my SSD (C: drive). I don't use hibernation or sleep, so I deleted it with powervfg -h off. Now one of my secondary HDDs has been running continuously for hours. Is this normal? Is there a way to delete that file without having a HDD run continuously? Bubba73 ^{You talkin' to me?} 09:12, 11 December 2018 (UTC)[reply]

What version of Windows OS do you have? Ruslik_Zero 20:15, 11 December 2018 (UTC)[reply]

It is Windows 10 home, build 17134. Bubba73 ^{You talkin' to me?} 02:55, 12 December 2018 (UTC)[reply]

I find it doubtful these are connected. BTW the file should be called hiberfil.sys, I assume hibrtfil.sys was a typo. If it wasn't, you may want to check for malware with urgency. Nil Einne (talk) 09:24, 12 December 2018 (UTC)[reply]

@Bubba73 and Nil Einne: Also, 'powervfg' should probably read 'powercfg' – and this, similarly to 'hibrtfil', is a result of shifting the finger hit one key rightwards. :) CiaPan (talk) 11:13, 12 December 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Yes I noticed that it could occur by shifting rightwards, but missed the powervfg. Nil Einne (talk) 14:54, 12 December 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Sorry, my typos (it was late at night). The HD running for hours started right after I deleted the file. I can try again - I just did that and so far the HD hasn't started up. Since I don't use sleep or hibernate mode, are there any adverse results from deleting that file? Bubba73 ^{You talkin' to me?} 17:44, 12 December 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Well, it is still running OK. When I deleted this file once before, it seemed to cause it to take a long time to boot, IIRC. I haven't rebooted yet, though. Bubba73 ^{You talkin' to me?} 00:18, 13 December 2018 (UTC)[reply]

I believe if you disable hibernation, fast startup will also generally be disabled as it basically boots up Windows half way and stores the memory contents in the hibernation file as normal [1] [2] [3] [4] [5]. It may be possible to disable hibernation but keep a smaller hibernation file to preserve fast startup (since you don't need so much) but it's not something I've done myself. But other than disabling hibernation (for everything such as a UPS) and possibly fast startup, I'm pretty sure there's no disadvantage to disabling hibernation and removing the hibernation file. Nil Einne (talk) 10:58, 13 December 2018 (UTC)[reply]

I've turned the file back on for now. Slow bootups bother me more. Bubba73 ^{You talkin' to me?} 22:59, 14 December 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Looking for third-party tool to test user's browser.

We want to create a web page (to be hosted on our web servers) to test our users' browsers. We want to know all sorts of diagnostic information - anything from what browser they are using to how many websockets their browser supports. For example, something roughly like this http://html5test.com. The idea is that when a user calls our help desk and says something isn't working, we can ask them to go to our diagnostic test page and hopefully help us determine if something is wrong. For example, if a user says that our website isn't working, we can direct them to this test page and if it says that web sockets (for example) aren't working, we know what the problem is. Rather than attempt to roll our own from scratch, are there any third-party tools that we can use? AnonComputerGuy (talk) 18:48, 11 December 2018 (UTC)[reply]

December 13

Data wiping: what if attacker knows the PRNG seed?

Does data recovery after apparent data erasure actually become easier if the attacker can reconstruct the stream of pseudorandom bytes used to overwrite the data (e.g. the attacker knows what wiping program and what PRNG seeds were used)? Neon Merlin 03:13, 13 December 2018 (UTC)[reply]

If you overwrite the data with pseudorandom data, I don't think so (unless you get into the disk physically like I've heard can be done). Now if you did something like XOR the existing data with pseudorandom data, and someone knew the details of the random number generator, then yes. (but why would you do that?) Bubba73 ^{You talkin' to me?} 04:13, 13 December 2018 (UTC)[reply]

If you mean for something like a hard drive, by all indications just overwriting with zeros is enough to wipe everything, unless data can be recovered from remapped failing sectors or stuff like that. In ancient times (1990s) it might have been possible to read through a layer of overwrite,[6] so various silly multiple-overwrite schemes were deployed, but these days drive data is too dense and too intricately encoded for that to have any hope. See notes at secure erasure. But, a secure PRNG should generally try to implement forward secrecy. Fortuna (PRNG) is a well kmown method for that. 173.228.123.166 (talk) 05:23, 13 December 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Troubles with Windows 10 multi-desktops

It happens that by some erroneous key combination (I never quite figured which, I think it involves the WinKey) Windows 10 separates each application to its own desktop. I can switch desktops with WinKey+Tab, but I can no longer use drag-and-drop between windows. Also, switching apps become a keyboard action instead using mouse on the taskbar. Annoying.

I tried to find a solution to merge back all the desktops to a single one. I found three suggestions that simply do not work: After WinKey+Tab dragging on desktop to another (doesn't do anything), right-click a desktop, hover over "move to" and send it to another desktop (again, doesn't work: the only option that pops out is "new desktop") and closing a desktop using the top-right X that simply close the desktop with the app.

The multi-desktops icon on the taskbar is missing.

Any solution? It seems the multi-desktop on my system is buggy. How can I disable it, or combine back all the desktops to a single one?

אילן שמעוני (talk) 11:23, 13 December 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Microsoft has switched out the multi-desktops icon with the "Task View" button; next to Cortana. To move apps into another desktop, press the Task View button (or WinKey+Tab), and hover your cursor over your desktop. When it switches to view your apps on that desktop, you should be able to click and drag to move the app over to the other desktop. Hope this helps. Slapblackjack (talk) 01:00, 14 December 2018 (UTC)[reply]

As I stated, this method is broken in my Win 10 - it simply doesn't work (as well as the other documented methods), so I'm looking for a way to disable multi-desktops altogether. אילן שמעוני (talk) 13:37, 14 December 2018 (UTC)[reply]

December 14

Run Windows 10 with only cmd; cpu, ram, vram, all dedicated to cmd

Is there any way for me to run cmd without any other system process taking up cpu or ram? And using drive C, not drive X. I'm trying to run a program that will use a lot of resources. I'm not that experienced with Windows, so it'd be great if I know how. Thanks! Slapblackjack (talk) 00:46, 14 December 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Do you expect anything to display on the screen, or the keyboard to be able to interrupt? I am pretty sure you will not be able to run anything under Windows 10, without giving Windows some RAM to use. Graeme Bartlett (talk) 06:35, 14 December 2018 (UTC)[reply]

The "DOS" procedures in cmd mode are emulated by Windows. There is no underlying DOS (since Millennium Edition). I suppose you could avoid Windows and just boot an old DOS system if one is available. Try here? A compromise might be running in "Safe Mode" where only some of the Windows system is loaded. Instructions here for HP computers. Dbfirs 07:38, 14 December 2018 (UTC)[reply]

You may install windows server core which does what you want. Regards, Comte0 (talk) 23:47, 16 December 2018 (UTC)[reply]

R help

Hello, I am currently trying to add some data points to a graph I created in the CHNOSZ package of R. This is for a master's thesis project. I have an excel file I am trying to reference here which contains the data points I need to add to my graph (it is a csv file). I have not yet been able to add the data points to the graph. I want to know how to do this.

Whenever I try to reference the data table, I get a message that says: "cannot open file 'DATASHEET.csv': No such file or directory". What does this error mean? This file is clearly in the data folder for the package CHNOSZ. Also, why does it say "invalid type" for variable O2?

Here is what I tried to do to add the points to the excel file:


> a=read.csv2("DATASHEET.csv")
Error in file(file, "rt") : cannot open the connection
In addition: Warning messages:
1: unable to open printer 
2: opening device failed 
3: In file(file, "rt") :
  cannot open file 'DATASHEET.csv': No such file or directory

> plot(a$O2~a$Ph)
Error in (function (formula, data = NULL, subset = NULL, na.action = na.fail,  : 
  invalid type (NULL) for variable 'a$O2'

Below is the code used to create the graph in the first place (with no points added). the graph is supposed to be like a pourbaix diagram:

basis(c("HAsO4", "H+", "O2", "H2O"))
species(c("H2AsO4-", "H2AsO3-", "AsH3", "HAsO4-2", "H3AsO4", "AsO4-3"))
a <- affinity(pH=c(0,14), "O2"=c(-100,-0,400), T=20)
diagram(a, fill="heat")
title(main=paste("Aqueous arsenic species, T= 20C, P=Psat/n"))

Thanks for helping me with this problem. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 63.153.96.222 (talk) 04:40, 14 December 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Is your working directory the same as the CHNOSZ data folder the CSV file is in (use getwd to check)? You can either change the working directory to the data folder using setwd, or if you are reading or writing other files, maybe just call an explicit file path:

a=read.csv2("data/DATASHEET.csv")

The reason you get the invalid type error is because R failed to read the file, the a variable is a NULL type so the plot function won't work until it is populated with the CSV data table. --Canley (talk) 23:21, 14 December 2018 (UTC)[reply]

December 16

Third Party Widget on Wix Website

I am trying to insert a third party widget to my Wix site (doeity.com). The widget stays in the fixed position. How can I change its position? The default position of widget is on left-hand side as shown in the "Widget Position image". How can I shift it to the right-hand side? Sunnynitb (talk) 04:35, 16 December 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Optical character recognition

Does anyone know if the state of the art in OCR has advanced much in the past 5 years or so, given all the seemingly related advances in image recognition through machine learning? Our OCR article doesn't say much about this. Accurate OCR used to require expensive commercial software that had been carefully tuned (FOSS stuff like Tesseract was nowhere near as good). But now I wonder if it's possible to just slam a pile of scanned books through a Tensorflow script and train a good recognizer pretty much automatically. Thanks for any wisdom. 173.228.123.166 (talk) 05:14, 16 December 2018 (UTC)[reply]

December 17

Need help with Python and a Firefox plugin

So I've come upon this helpful thread[7] on how to download entire playlists from YouTube. However, all this Python coding and programming BS is just beyond me. What does the guy mean by "adding" VLC and youtube-dl, and how do I do this? I've barely managed to install Python and youtube-dl (though I'm not even sure if I've even managed to install the latter), and when I use the "add" button, I can only paste something into two boxes which looks like a.) custom program name, and b.) required program path.

However no matter what I do, I don't seem to get VLC and youtube-dl "added", all I've managed is to make self-titled entries show in the addon options page that (unlike in that guy's screenshot of how it's supposed to look) seem to be pointing nowhere and where not even a logo shows up next to the self-titled name that I gave it. I can now right-click on any link and go "Open with...youtube-dl" or "Open with...VLC", but neither of them does anything at all. --46.93.158.170 (talk) 11:32, 17 December 2018 (UTC)[reply]

@@ Line 135: / Line 135: @@
 = December 17 =
+== Need help with Python and a Firefox plugin ==
+So I've come upon this helpful thread[https://www.reddit.com/r/firefox/comments/34cuqx/tip_how_to_download_entire_youtube_playlist/] on how to download entire playlists from YouTube. However, all this Python coding and programming BS is just beyond me. What does the guy mean by "adding" VLC and youtube-dl, and how do I do this? I've barely managed to install Python and youtube-dl (though I'm not even sure if I've even managed to install the latter), and when I use the "add" button, I can only paste something into two boxes which looks like a.) custom program name, and b.) required program path.
+However no matter what I do, I don't seem to get VLC and youtube-dl "added", all I've managed is to make self-titled entries show in the addon options page that (unlike in that guy's screenshot of how it's supposed to look) seem to be pointing nowhere and where not even a logo shows up next to the self-titled name that I gave it. I can now right-click on any link and go "Open with...youtube-dl" or "Open with...VLC", but neither of them does anything at all. --[[Special:Contributions/46.93.158.170|46.93.158.170]] ([[User talk:46.93.158.170|talk]]) 11:32, 17 December 2018 (UTC)