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April 7

Reprogramming a keyboard key

I am running a desktop PC with Win7 with Excel 2003.

I would like to be able to type "Alt-Enter" with a single key press, and would be happy if that could be assigned to the numeric enter key - either only within Excel or, FWIW, within all programs on the PC. I would like to keep the Alpha Return key as the normal Return key.

Is this possible, and if so HOW?

Thanks -- SGBailey (talk) 10:43, 7 April 2022 (UTC)[reply]

In general, I'd use Microsoft PowerToys for remapping the keys. In your case, since you are using Windows 7, which is not longer supported, I don't know if this would help. You could also consider upgrading from Win7 to Windows 10, if your PC can put up with it. It should be possible to do this for free, but I do not believe you can upgrade Office 2003 to a higher version for free. Bumptump (talk) 18:22, 7 April 2022 (UTC)[reply]

The other option is AutoHotkey, which lets you do all kinds of fancy stuff. Also re: Office, you can try Libreoffice as an alternative to paying for a current version of Microsoft Office. --47.147.118.55 (talk) 22:39, 7 April 2022 (UTC)[reply]

AutoHotKey appears to work. I created a script with NumpadEnter::!Enter (plus all their default stuff) and it seems to work. Thank you all. -- SGBailey (talk) 07:42, 8 April 2022 (UTC)[reply]

April 9

How can you attach a lanyard to a smartphone?

I remember old-ish phones had a notch with a bar where you could thread a loop and connect it to a lanyard. Then came the phones with a removable cover, where you inserted a kind of thin film inside the phone and closed the cover. This provided an attachment point for the loop for the lanyard.

Nowadays smartphone manufacturers somehow design their products in a way that you cannot easily attach a lanyard to them. It looks almost as if they wanted us to drop and break our phones.

Besides cumbersome solutions like putting the phone in a case or pouch, how can I add some sort of minimalist ring to hang the phone? Would some strap+glue be enough?--Bumptump (talk) 00:52, 9 April 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Not sure if it's less cumbersome than a case, but maybe a PopSocket with a lanyard wrapped around the knob part, or with a hole to thread a lanyard through?

There's also some lanyards that have an adhesive part to stick on the phone, like this one. I'd be a bit concerned about just how good that adhesive sticks though, won't pocket lint foul it up? Sunmist (talk) 23:40, 9 April 2022 (UTC)[reply]

If the surface on to which the pad is stuck is properly cleaned (and dry) beforehand, no lint (etc.) should then be able to make its way under the pad. However, I do not speak from actual user experience. {The poster formerly known as 87.81.230.195} 90.200.65.249 (talk) 17:41, 10 April 2022 (UTC)[reply]

I realize that you don’t like this solution, but if you want to use a lanyard with a smartphone, there are cases for that purpose. In 2022, most cases are extremely thin and minimalist, so it’s really the best way to do it. Viriditas (talk) 00:09, 12 April 2022 (UTC)[reply]

How to expose an entire category tree in MediaWiki?

In MediaWiki 1.36.1 I use Extension:CategoryTree to view all categories in a tree fashion.

I can expose the entire tree by clicking the vertical arrow button representing each collapsed entry but I seek an automatic way to show everything.

What would be a JavaScript way to do so?

Things I've tried and failed:

document.querySelectorAll(".CategoryTreeToggle").forEach( (element)=>{
    element.setAttribute('data-ct-state', 'expanded');
    element.style.display = "block";
});

document.querySelectorAll(".CategoryTreeToggle").forEach( (element)=>{
    if (element.hasAttribute('data-ct-state', 'collapsed') ) {
        element.click();
    }
});

Thanks, 79.180.118.152 (talk) 10:57, 9 April 2022 (UTC)[reply]

You can look into the mediawiki code that actually does this. Ruslik_Zero 18:04, 9 April 2022 (UTC)[reply]

I don't mean to change the JavaScript currently used by the community. Just to act on the output in the personal level. 79.180.118.152 (talk) 18:18, 9 April 2022 (UTC)[reply]

PAL and NTSC

Does PAL and NTSC have to do with the DVD/Blu-ray player or television? 86.143.101.46 (talk) 21:48, 9 April 2022 (UTC)[reply]

They are colour encoding systems that enable the player to send a signal to the television. Wikipedia has articles on PAL and NTSC which will give you more information.--Shantavira|^{feed me} 07:56, 10 April 2022 (UTC)[reply]

A video on a DVD disk or a Blu-ray disk will be recorded in either the PAL encoding or the NTSC encoding, which a player will convert into a video signal of the same kind. A television set will generally understand either PAL video signals or NTSC video signals, but not both. If there is a mismatch between the video encoding on the disk and the television, the television can only show the video if a video standards converter is used. --Lambiam 12:22, 10 April 2022 (UTC)[reply]

I would assume PAL and NTSC mean the exact same thing when referring to video games? ― Blaze Wolf^Talk_{Blaze Wolf#6545} 14:22, 11 April 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Why? --Lambiam 13:35, 12 April 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Just curious. I hear the words "PAL region" or "NTSC version" a lot when talking about older video games (Mainly Super Mario World in which the Athletic theme apparently differs between the 2) and would like to know if it's the same thing. ― Blaze Wolf^Talk_{Blaze Wolf#6545} 13:45, 12 April 2022 (UTC)[reply]

I think he means not "same as each other" but rather "same as they each do when referring to DVDs". And the answer is yes. PAL and NTSC (and SECAM) are audio/video encoding standards for old analog television systems. This kind of thing is largely obsolete since the widespread, often mandatory, conversion to digital television formats, though legacy systems still have to deal with this. As noted at that article, there are now 4 (rather than 3) such digital format standards, being now DVB-T (replacing some of the PAL and SECAM systems), DTMB (replacing other PAL and SECAM systems), ATSC (replacing some of NTSC), and ISDB (replacing NTSC where they didn't adopt ATSC standards). AFAIK, many TVs are now system neutral, as the adherence to the standards are now mostly firmware controlled, so each TV can recognize and adapt to any of the systems. Under the old PAL/NTSC/SECAM days this wasn't possible, as analog TVs were physically built to adhere to a broadcast standard, with different refresh rates and scanning systems, all of which were "hardwired" in the TVs, and thus cross-compatibility was not possible. --Jayron 32 13:51, 12 April 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Ah alright. That might explain why back in the day games were region locked. They were physically incapable of working on TVs in a different region. ― Blaze Wolf^Talk_{Blaze Wolf#6545} 14:06, 12 April 2022 (UTC)[reply]

If you want some good videos explaining analog TV encoding This one by math communicator Matt Parker does a good job of explaining the differences between NTSC and PAL encoding. This video by Technology Connections also explains how analog TV worked in general. That channel has an entire series on Analog video, if you have a few hours, it's quite detailed and good. --Jayron 32 14:39, 12 April 2022 (UTC)[reply]

The reason why it was critical with video games was the that games used to use the refresh rate of the TV as a timer and bad conversions from NTSC to PAL often (nearly bloody always) left PAL gamers with slower games. - X201 (talk) 14:53, 12 April 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Not a justification, but an explanation: the biggest video game developers were all in Japan and the U.S., both NTSC territories. Europe was often an afterthought as a market for these things. --Jayron 32 17:02, 12 April 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Good point. Didn't realize Japan and the US were both NTSC. Doesn't really explain why back then you couldn't play a Japanese game on an American console (ignoring the fact that for some video game developers, such as Nintendo, they made 2 different versions of the same console, so for example NES and FAMICOM, which had 2 different cartridge shapes). Maybe it just made it easier for localization? ― Blaze Wolf^Talk_{Blaze Wolf#6545} 17:06, 12 April 2022 (UTC)[reply]

On that I am not sure. I know that most system that were essentially different casings with the same guts (NES/Famicom or Sega Mark III/Sega Master System, etc.) were fully software compatible, and often used even the same ROM types and connectors, but used different size/shape cartridges. A quick google search turns up that some of these had after-market adapters which could allow cross-compatibility (ColecoVision for example, reverse-engineered the Atari 2600, and had an adapter to play actual Atari games), while most require some kind of home-brew adapter. Many tinkerers have come up with adapters to play, for example, Japanese cartridges on the American systems. As to why it wasn't standard; the designs were probably optimized for the local market, and in the mid 1980s, very few people probably thought that, say, English-speaking American customers would have thought it necessary to buy and play Japanese-language cartridges. Remember that the design of the NES was specifically done to appeal to the American market, including the initial packaging of a loss leader in the form of R.O.B., that was designed to convince customers that the NES was a toy that played some video games, basically to trick them into not being worried about another Atari-like crash in the market that occurred just prior to the NES's North American release. A lot of market research, even then, went into the form factor of the system, and it is very likely that negative reactions to existing Famicom-like designs (including the colors, shapes, and designs of the box, cartridges, and controllers) likely led to a different design for North America. While the software would have been likely fully compatible, the outer designs had to appeal to a North American market, and no one really cared that cartridges in Japan couldn't be played on the North American system. --Jayron 32 18:48, 12 April 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Huh. Interesting. I never really thought of it that way. I always just accepted the fact that a FamiCom cartridge wouldn't fit in an NES and vice versa. I never really thought that the NES was designed to appeal to the non-Japanese market (I say non-Japanese because it was released outside of the US). I usually just look at the design and just think "yep that's the design" and never thought anything of it. But it does make sense because of how much unnecessary material there is when compared to the actual components. Yes they probably could just sell the components or even just design it to that the casing fits around the components without too much excess material, but then it wouldn't look all that appealing. You've actually helped me understand the reasoning behind certain design choices a lot more now, mainly because I've always just accepted them as fact. ― Blaze Wolf^Talk_{Blaze Wolf#6545} 19:05, 12 April 2022 (UTC)[reply]

In one of the more famous stories of the 80's, the NES design with the cartridge inserted and pressed down, which eventually led to arguably the most famous hardware fault ever, was chosen to elicit comparisons to a VCR- a home entertainment device- and not the top loading Atari style. --50.234.188.27 (talk) 11:27, 14 April 2022 (UTC)[reply]

April 11

Hack

I use fully licensed Kaspersky Internet security. I thought that this will protect my laptop, whatever I do on net. Few days ago my mouse was moving on it's own and clicking folders, changing settings.

In Windows 10 and 11, Windows Defender is better than any antivirus nowadays. You probably have a RAT. If you disconnect from the Internet, the RATer can't hack you, while it's offline. Then scan with Defender and see if it finds anything. If not, look to see if you have any legitimate remote access software installed like TeamViewer or SupportNow. And uninstall it. Zorya's Leshak (talk) 06:30, 12 April 2022 (UTC)[reply]

I switched off the internet and it stopped. Is Internet security not 100% protection? — Preceding unsigned comment added by Cedrayi (talk • contribs) 03:41, 11 April 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Cursors moving on their own tends to be an issue with the mouse/trackpad and not malicious (I used to work a helpdesk, and there were plenty of "viruses" that were just bad mice), but this could also be an indicator of remote desktop software or a RAT installed on your computer. It would help if you told us more about what settings were being changed.

In any case, no anti-virus, including Kaspersky's products, is able to provide 100% protection. Sadly, nothing is unhackable. Personally, I've found Malwarebytes to be fairly decent at cleaning up infections; you can install the free version and run a scan without uninstalling Kaspersky. If you're still worried about malware, a factory reset may be helpful. As far as I know, malware isn't supposed to persist through these. PC Magazine has a good article on how to do this.

Just as a disclaimer, I'm not saying your problem is caused by malware. From experience, this tends not to be the case. Malware has much stealthier ways to do evil things to your computer, and doesn't need to move the cursor. Sunmist (talk) 04:31, 11 April 2022 (UTC)[reply]

I know about mouse problems. I visit restricted sites which every teen does. Anyway, what happened was that the mouse was clicking very fast and moving on its own. First, a dos window appeared and then closed by itself. I lost control of the mouse. It started clicking settings of windows, and then it seemed someone is doing it very fast. I realized this is intentional, and he has to practice doing so soon. I tried to disconnect net through the icon, but couldn't do it. I switched off my phone which was tethered. The mouse stopped. The wifi has a password, phone wifi, not public wifi. I contacted customer support but they couldn't find anything. I reset factory settings. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Cedrayi (talk • contribs) 06:04, 11 April 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Is it a school laptop, or other MDM locked device? If you're watching inappropriate content on a school laptop, they may be trying to block you from doing that. Zorya's Leshak (talk) 19:10, 12 April 2022 (UTC)[reply]

You could have a remote desktop application such as TeamViewer or AnyDesk installed; these give a remote user full access to your desktop. They have legitimate remote-adminstration purposes, but are also used by malicious actors. These will be listed in the Taskbar (icons beside the clock, you probably need to click on the up arrow to open the pop-up menu). Or open a Command Prompt with Run As Administer. In it run

netstat -a -b -o -n -p tcp | find "LISTENING" and netstat -a -b -o -n -p udp | find "LISTENING". This list all the servers running on your laptop, and the name of their process. There will be several legitimate Windows services there; if you post the list I can weed them out for you. TeamViewer's process starts tv_ and I can't remember what AnyDesk uses. LongHairedFop (talk) 20:33, 11 April 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Just to clarify, I think the poster meant that they were using a hotspot when they said "phone wifi, not public wifi". Rusty4321 ^{talk contributions log} 19:08, 13 April 2022 (UTC)[reply]

April 12

Flexible prepaid cell options in the us

Hi. I visit the US couple of times every year. I used to have an at&t prepaid sim. This way, I could use the same local number when in the US, and I have switched to the $2 every-day-you-use plan when I'm not there. I didn't use it out of the US, so I didn't have to pay for that. Recently at&t canceled the $2 per day option. Is there any other carrier that offers the same options? Or maybe there's another way to keep using my current US number without paying a monthly fee? I'm not there most of the time. I use an unlocked phone. Thanks! Questo1 (talk) 22:44, 12 April 2022 (UTC)[reply]

April 13

A Russian story

Well, I have a friend in Moscow, Russia and he got caught in Putin's war against mankind. The whole story is complex and I could not keep track of it, but I know that he found one day that his Windows computer did not work or he could not tap the Internet. Then he tried to install a VPN since some people had been saying that it works well, well in the sense that a person can bypass all the restrictions erected in Russian servers. That did not work, however his son and grandson installed the VPN in their computers, but they did it a week earlier and it worked for them. Then he tried to install the Ubuntu, - the same thing, the installation disk could not access the internet.

Well, the goal of this post for me is to find out if there is a possibility to bypass their servers. I've heard that Elon Musk, I think, wanted to send thousands of satellites in space. I think he does it to provide DIRECT access to the Internet in remote area around the globe like Africa, etc.I've also read that some of the satellites are there already, some of them serving people in Ukraine. I would appreciate any pointers to resolve this conundrum. AboutFace 22 (talk) 16:12, 13 April 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Starlink is the SpaceX initiative to provide satellite internet access to the world. International treaties and regulations do require that, in order for Starlink to provide access to a country, that country has to formally agree to allow access; it is a regulatory rather than technical detail. Ukraine was granted that access in February, 2022. Russia has never allowed such access, so Starlink is not a viable option for Russians. --Jayron 32 16:24, 13 April 2022 (UTC)[reply]

@Jayron32, thank you. Is it possible that the transmission to Ukraine might happen to be imprecise and part of the energy will be picked up elsewhere? How to access the Starlink? Thank you, AboutFace 22 (talk) 21:18, 13 April 2022 (UTC)[reply]

I found it, thank you. AboutFace 22 (talk) 21:21, 13 April 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Stop Itunes from opening on mac mini when plugging in my iphone charger

The headline captures the problem in a nutshell: Every time I plug in my iphone (8 plus) via a charger cord from my mac mini, itunes opens.

The annoyance factor is compounded by the fact that the charger intermittently (though often) stops charging and then comes back on (i.e., upon the slightest jostling), resulting in itunes reopening constantly.

Thank you.--100.2.221.101 (talk) 18:04, 13 April 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Clarifying a possible ambiguity I noticed in my post above: itunes opens on the mac mini, not on the iphone.--100.2.221.101 (talk) 18:07, 13 April 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Well I think your charger issue might indicate that you either need a new charger or you need to get the lightning port/charging port on your phone repaired (which makes sense considering the 8 plus is 5 years old and plugging and unplugging of the charger into the phone will slowly wear out what's holding the charger in there). As for iTunes opening when you plug in your iPhone I can't help since I have never used MacOS. I know on Windows when you plug a new device in it'll ask you what you want to do with said device. ― Blaze Wolf^Talk_{Blaze Wolf#6545} 18:08, 13 April 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Yes, the iphone charger port (not the lightning cord) is worn out! Still, I'm betting there's some way to stop itunes from opening through some setting on one or both of the devices.--100.2.221.101 (talk) 18:11, 13 April 2022 (UTC)[reply]

There probably is, however like I said I don't have any experience using any sort of Apple Device (other than a 5th gen iPod Classic and 2nd gen iPod Nano) ― Blaze Wolf^Talk_{Blaze Wolf#6545} 18:18, 13 April 2022 (UTC)[reply]

I suppose you do not want to sync automatically. Then you can find a solution here. --Lambiam 00:01, 14 April 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Older emoticons

Is there any name for older emoticons like these? I couldn't find exactly those at Emoticons (Unicode block), but suspect this has to do with older HTML design. Thanks. Brandmeister^talk 18:55, 13 April 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Unicode implementation is just a small part of the greater emoji universe. 97.82.165.112 (talk) 20:29, 13 April 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Here it is called a Kolobok smiley, to be used with ICQ. Our Kolobok article refers us to www.en.kolobok.us. That page does not have the exact same goofy kolobok, but some of the koloboks shown use the same style. --Lambiam 23:55, 13 April 2022 (UTC)[reply]

It is found, though, on this gallery, where it is an animated GIF named wacko1.gif.

April 14