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February 14

Windows 1.0 logo

The logo is FAKE! It cannot be found on windows 1.x/2.x boxes, nor it is available inside the windows 1.x/2.x versions themselves. Moreover, even "Microsoft" word was written there in another way! Here is what the logo page at BrandsOfTheWorld says: Designer: unkown Contributor: unknown Updated on: Mon, 09/15/2008 - 08:32 Just wondering, how could this logo made by someone just for lulz about 4-5 years ago come now an official logo for 25-years-old product... — Preceding unsigned comment added by 212.34.248.162 (talk) 05:57, 14 February 2013 (UTC)

If you mean File:Windows logo and watermark - 1985.svg then yes it does look iffy. I'll put a tag on it requesting deletion if there isn't some citation showing it isn't wrong. Dmcq (talk) 12:57, 14 February 2013 (UTC)

I looked in to this before anyone commented and it seems to be a problematic case. Yes it wasn't on any boxes or in Windows itself that I can find. Nor on any advertising that I found (but to be fair, it was largely a couple of lame videos and some magazine adverts). And the actual Microsoft logo before 1987 seems to have been different (but Microsoft doesn't have always been to be consistent, e.g. the Microsoft in some of the accepted Windows logos is not written in the same way as the way Microsoft was written then). However there are an abundant number of sources that say it is the Windows 1.0 logo including some from Microsoft themselves and some quoting Microsoft themselves originating from the Windows 8 logo unveiling. It could easily be that most of these sources including Microsoft are wrong, relying on us and other sources quoting us. Unfortunately this self-reenforcing spread of ideas isn't unheard of and it's something very difficult to deal with given our normal reliance on reliable sources. Even more so in the case of images where we don't have any normal sourcing standards. The general preference is to find sources from before it appeared on wikipedia where possible but given our general reliance on reliable sources, you need to convince people there is a genuine problem first which can be difficult when there are plenty of reliable sources opposing your view and none supporting. Nil Einne (talk) 12:58, 15 February 2013 (UTC)

here are some images of the original boxart for Windows 1 and 2. And here is a clip that includes all the boot logo's. — Edokter (talk) — 15:27, 15 February 2013 (UTC)

And commons:Category:Microsoft Windows 1.0 gives some magazine advertisments. A logo is something that a manufacturer shows not hides but nothing shows that logo. It is a fake and I have nothing showing that 1985 logo before 2012. How unlikely has something got to be? Dmcq (talk) 21:58, 15 February 2013 (UTC)

I've done some more careful searching and found it from September 7 2010 in Logopedia which seems to have been when it was created. Dmcq (talk) 08:38, 16 February 2013 (UTC)

Thanks for the research. I, too, was convinced that it was a later creation, either a retrospective one by Microsoft or a fake. Have you contacted THE GMoD aka Chris on Logopedia to ask if he created it? Dbfirs 12:30, 16 February 2013 (UTC)

I hadn't because their last contribution there was six months ago, but looking again I see they say they are on a number of other sites so I'll see if I can get a message through. Dmcq (talk) 17:54, 16 February 2013 (UTC)

Penyulap on commons has found an earlier one from Microsoft in November 2009. A person could misunderstand that as indicating it was the Windows 1.0 logo but it doesn't actually say that. Dmcq (talk) 01:02, 17 February 2013 (UTC)

But let's not forget someone in brands of the world was already saying it was the Windows 1.0 logo in 2008. And it was uploaded to wikipedia as the Windows 1.0 logo on 2010-02-19 from brands of the world. So it seems unlikely misunderstanding the 2009 Microsoft post is a significant factor in the later possible confusion. Nil Einne (talk) 04:23, 18 February 2013 (UTC)

I'm confused here. Why would you first say there was nothing from before 2012 when it was apparently appearing on brands of the world in 2008 and we know it was uploaded to wikipedia on 2010-02-19. And why would you later say it was created in September 7 2010 when as said, we already knew it was apparently appearing on brands of the world in 2008 and uploaded to wikipedia on 2010-02-19? The 2010 does require you to check out the image description page but the 2008 is right in this thread in the post that started it all. BTW, in case there is a suspicion the IP is lying I found an archive link demonstrating brandsoftheworld did say in their upload log it was uploaded in 2008 [1]. P.S. The magazine adverts look what I've already seen and as I mentioned, I've already seen Windows 1.0 screens. Nil Einne (talk) 04:19, 18 February 2013 (UTC)

Just stupidity and not reading properly on my part. Dmcq (talk) 11:42, 18 February 2013 (UTC)

As it turns out, I was right to be cautious about the limited number of results I came across. While researching the history of the files on wikipedia, I came across a big clue (check out the file discussion page for more). This lead me to [2] stuff for a developer conference in 1986 where the logo is used, apparently to identify Windows. From there, it's also apparent it wasn't just intended for developers but to identify applications designed for Windows to the public. While doing a quick search for such applications, I came across [3] a press release for Windows 1.0 from 1985 which shows the logo albeit without colour and with Microsoft Windows overlaying the logo rather then at the sidee. My guess is it was probably used in some other advertising material (but clearly not all). Funnily enough the clue was on wikipedia all along. For example, a look at the Windows 1.0 article history would have found it. (It was what lead me to here, albeit indirectly. I found the file log by a guess from the later file log which I did find via the article history. This was before I found it had been used in our article since 2005.) I guess I should have taken my own advice to a greater level earlier on. (As I mentioned elsewhere, in my earlier searches I did come across mention of the Windows SDK and had a quick search but didn't find anything useful. I was also thinking of press releases but for whatever reason never actually searched for one which was very easy as it turns out. If I had, I would have found all this before the mess blew up. I still haven't found any advertising brochures. And for that matter I think I've only seen two or so magazine adverts albeit multi page ones.) Nil Einne (talk) 06:17, 18 February 2013 (UTC)

Resolved: As Nil Einne has found out with a sterling effort - Not a fake. Dmcq (talk) 11:46, 18 February 2013 (UTC)

+- 3db floorstanders

Just out of curiosity- are there at all any loudspeakers (high end-upper high fi- pro studio monitors ) that have an anechoic response 20hz-20khz in within plus- minus 3db tolerance? there seem to be quite a lot of them that go far beyond 20KHZ up to 30khz but not that many that go below 30Hz at +-3db or less.

I'm only interested in "standalone" ones ie - without any added separate subwoofers to extend LF. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 77.35.49.64 (talk) 07:21, 14 February 2013 (UTC)

SAS command for estimating the parameters of a censored distribution

Suppose you hypothesize that your data on a single variable are drawn from, say, a lognormal distribution or a gamma distribution. Your data are right-censored. That is, for each observation either you have the exact value or you know that the value exceeds some particular value.

Is there a command in SAS that will estimate the parameters of the hypothesized distribution? Duoduoduo (talk) 14:30, 14 February 2013 (UTC)

Oh, for the love of Pete, how do I clear off the background hiss on my first podcast?

This may sound pretty serious. Go here and listen. I want to start podcasting, and before I narrate / storytell my favorite articles I find online (and sometimes off), I need to know how to clean up the sounds I don't need.

I used Audacity, if that helps you any. I need to know what to do in Audacity in order to clean away the hiss so that my podcast recording sounds more flawless. So please, how do I clean off that hiss and retain my voice? (By the way, what other sounds / things did the hiss remind you of?)

Moreover, what else could I do to improve the podcast? This is a newbie-cast, so you know as well as I do that there's some help to be needed here. FYI: I spoke directly to my laptop; no fancy equipment besides the 'top itself. The microphone is embedded, about 1" - 1.5" to the left of my webcam.

And finally, please link a prime example of a professionally done podcast. I'd like to know what it takes (whilst on a limited budget) to match their sound quality. Thanks aplenty. --70.179.161.230 (talk) 15:14, 14 February 2013 (UTC)

You should use a standalone microphone — preferably a condensor mic. You should also be using a pre-amp between your PC and the mic (unless the mic has a built-in preamp). Without one, you have to turn up the volume and by doing so amplify whatever static you have. And to improve quality even more, you can use a digital audio interface (which is a standalone box) to handle the analog-to-digital conversion. Ideally, you want to keep as much of the processing away from your PC as possible since there is so much electromagnetic noise inside your computer. The pros also use XLR inputs wherever they can instead of the standard phone jacks.—Best Dog Ever (talk) 16:19, 14 February 2013 (UTC)

Postscript

PS: How do I prevent the overlap of the word "at" over "ENG" where it says "Posted by ENG at 8:36:00 AM?" If anyone knows their way around a Blogger blog layout, a play-by-play to getting that fixed would be wonderful. Thanks again. --70.179.161.230 (talk) 15:32, 14 February 2013 (UTC)

When I pick that link, I don't get any sound. However, you really need a better microphone. The cheapest solution might be a headset with mic. There are far better microphones, but they are also more expensive. And, of course, make sure there is no background noise when you record. After the fact, you can maybe drop out the treble to reduce hiss, but that also impacts high frequencies in the voice, so it's not a perfect solution. As for avoiding overlapping words, leaving longer gaps when you record might help. StuRat (talk) 16:08, 14 February 2013 (UTC)

No, no, StuRat, when you say "As for avoiding overlapping words, leaving longer gaps when you record might help.", you're not gettin' it. The date-stamp is what's referred to: http://imgur.com/812pIAL <-- There. Do you spot it now? How would that get corrected on the blog layout? --129.130.18.100 (talk) 18:25, 14 February 2013 (UTC)

Follow-ups

So everyone is asking to re-record? No one knows how to edit the existing file so that the noise gets removed and only the voice remains? --129.130.18.98 (talk) 19:51, 14 February 2013 (UTC)

Most fully-featured audio editing programs will allow you to apply various audio filters (such as low-pass filters, high-pass filters and band-pass filters) to your recordings. Often this takes the form of a virtual equalizer. If the noise is confined to a narrow frequency range, or a frequency range which is well separated from the frequency range of the parts you want to keep, these tools will allow you to drop out those frequencies which contain the noise, but not those which have the signal. - The results probably won't be as good as if you re-recorded it with equipment that avoided the hiss in the first place, though. -- 205.175.124.30 (talk) 20:24, 14 February 2013 (UTC)

P.S. I have no experience with Audacity, but Googling audacity noise removal tutorial provides a number of links that might get you started. -- 205.175.124.30 (talk) 20:26, 14 February 2013 (UTC)

There are some tools let you try to remove the noise by getting a profile of it from a period of silence. Again you should not expect perfection even if your noise is fairly constant and you have good periods of silence. Nil Einne (talk) 04:48, 15 February 2013 (UTC)

3½-inch floppy disk long term storage

If stored in ideal conditions, is there a limit to how long a 3½-inch floppy disk will retain its data for? For example, flash drives apparently discharge over time so after ~10 years would likely have lost the data stored on them. 92.233.64.26 (talk) 16:09, 14 February 2013 (UTC)

Don't know, but you also should consider how long a floppy disk drive will be available to retrieve the data. That technology is already obsolete, and these days it's hard to find a new computer which has one. So, over time, those remaining floppy drives will break down and/or be thrown out. StuRat (talk) 16:13, 14 February 2013 (UTC)

I'm only interested in the disk itself from a technical standpoint, not the hypothetical availability of drives 92.233.64.26 (talk) 16:25, 14 February 2013 (UTC)

I have some 3½'s from 1997 which I can still read. I actually have all the data on them on the hard drive, but I've got the disks and a working drive and so I just gave it a go. I also have some 5¼'s from about 1990 and some 8" of unknown vintage (I guess from the mid 1980's when I worked on IBM System/34's) but I have no drives to read these or indeed any idea as to what is on them; I forgot to label them! I think with careful storage and infrequent or no readings (so that they don't physically wear), floppys would last almost forever. Of course, if you don't read them, then you have no idea as to whether or not they actually work. --TrogWoolley (talk) 16:59, 14 February 2013 (UTC)

So, as an optimist, that means that as far as we know, if the disk isn't ever put into a drive, there is no evidence that it ever wears out! Gzuckier (talk) 17:07, 14 February 2013 (UTC)

As an anecdotal piece of evidence, I recently read a floppy that I think was made/written in the early 1990s. Shadowjams (talk) 19:21, 14 February 2013 (UTC)

Of course you need to store them in ideal conditions. I've had floppies go mouldy within a couple of years or so when stored under normal room conditions. You may be able to clean these, but you may also damage them in the process. Nil Einne (talk) 04:46, 15 February 2013 (UTC)

Yes, storage conditions are important. I've had them go bad within hours by putting them in the pocket of my business shirt. HiLo48 (talk) 04:55, 15 February 2013 (UTC)

N.B. I should mention I'm primarily thinking of 5¼ disks. I'm reasonaly certain I've had 3½ go mouldy too and you can definitely easily find results discussing it but I think they may be slightly more resistant. Nil Einne (talk) 05:02, 15 February 2013 (UTC)

Do you mean real mould? I've seen it on VHS cassettes. I've been copying my old VHS tapes to DVD and I had one that I recorded in 1986, and there was some white gunk clearly visible on the side of the tape reel. My machine wouldn't track it, so I tried it on one at work. This tracked it fine, but the sound was out of sync on the DVD. Having been played the tape once through, my machine did play it fine to I was able to record it to DVD without problem. --TrogWoolley (talk) 13:02, 15 February 2013 (UTC)

Yes, I don't know what species of mould it is, but it grows on my old VHS tapes, camera tapes, 5¼ disks and even 3½ disks especially if the protective window cover is faulty and doesn't close. I blame the damp atmosphere here (more than a hundred inches of rain last year). When I tried recently to reformat some 3½ disks manufactured around 1990, I found that they were unreliable so decided to throw them out and buy some newer ones. Dbfirs 13:53, 15 February 2013 (UTC)

I should perhaps mention this experience was in Malaysia, a tropical country. (Although I wonder whether things would actually be better here in NZ.) I never actually identified it as mould but it sure looked like it and it seemed to be growing so it seems the most likely candidate. It definitely wasn't some random dirt. Storing the disks in sealed plastic bags helped of course. Speaking of VHS tapes, you could buy tape cleaners which lightly rubbed the tape with a cotton thing soaked in alcohol (well you didn't have to put alcohol) to clean off dust and mould like this [4] in Malaysia. I'm not sure but I don't think the price was quite so bad when VHS tapes were more common. My father made something similar for 5¼ disks by removing the cover and making it spin at a low speed when connected to an external power supply so you could carefully clean the surface with a cotton bud or similar although as it was manual you had to be careful not to push to hard and scratch the disk. Of course head cleaners for both floppy disk drives and VHS players were also common. BTW, even CDs can experience fungal growth. I think I mentioned before on the RD I experience this myself, I didn't realise it was a fungal growth until I came across info on someone from South America I think it was who identified it. Nil Einne (talk) 13:08, 16 February 2013 (UTC)

I've got a 5¼ disk from 1983 that's still readable, but all my oldest 3½ disks are in a format my PC won't recognise (MFS, probably). The oldest one I have that I can confirm as readable is from 1991. Wikipedia's article on digital permanence says the maximum lifespan for perfectly-stored magnetic disks is about 50 years. Horselover Frost (talk · edits) 02:40, 16 February 2013 (UTC)

I wonder whether there is a form of refreshing magnetic media. If you read USB memory every 5 years, would this upper limit of 50 years still apply? OsmanRF34 (talk) 13:53, 16 February 2013 (UTC)

DDR3 and paired modules

I'm replacing some bad DDR3 ram in a laptop (DDR3-1333). My question is the consequence of installing mismatched pairs. So, if I put in a 2GB in one slot, and a 4 in the other, what kind of performance hit does that mean in practice? I've read that matched modules trigger dual channel, however I also read that if it's mismatched like this, 4GB of it would be dual channel, and the remaining 2 would be single channel ("flex mode"?). Can anyone with experience fill me in on this?

Two side questions. What's the practical performance difference between single and double channel, and what would happen if I were to put in only 1 dimm. Would that be worse than putting in mismatched ones (as far as memory speed goes)? Thanks for the help. Shadowjams (talk) 19:19, 14 February 2013 (UTC)

According to Multi-channel memory architecture#Performance there's not much difference, at least on the benchmarks they ran in 2007, and I suspect the benefit has decreased in the mean time since RAM is still getting faster while CPUs aren't. "Flex mode", aka "dual channel asymmetric" is supported by some motherboards but not others. -- BenRG (talk) 01:35, 15 February 2013 (UTC)

Thank you. That seems to be the conclusion I've come to as well. As it goes, turns out I have more serious issues with this machine, but this is useful advice for the future. Shadowjams (talk) 07:37, 15 February 2013 (UTC)

Actually with the modern SOC style CPUs where the GPU is integrated with the CPU ala Intel's Sandy and Ivy Bridge and AMD's Fusion, multi channel can make a reasonable difference for the GPU. See [5] [6] for Intel. For AMD's Trinity line, I haven't seen any dual vs single channel comparisons but it's well known that it likes memory bandwidth [7] [8]. AMD's memory controller isn't that great particularly compared to Intel's one but it's hard to imagine it's that bad that single channel vs dual channel doesn't make a significant difference but 1600 vs 1866 does. In terms of the CPU, it depends significantly on the app, in particularly now that CPUs are moving in the multicore direction (although there has been a reasonable IPC gain) if your app isn't sufficiently multithreaded you may not see a difference and similarly some apps are simply not demanding of the memory subsystem. But some apps may see a difference of 10% or more [9] particularly on a CPU with lots of threads (which is less likely on a laptop) comparing single vs dual channel. And I don't get why the motherboard matters so much, it could be a limiting factor, but remember with modern CPUs and integrated memory controllers, the CPU is far more likely to me a limiting factor. From what I can tell, most or all Intels IMC's support asynchronous dual channel (AKA Intel's Flex Memory Access [10]), it's possible it's limited intentionally as Intel likes to do, but probably not since even Pentium class ones seem to have it [11]. It originated back in the old days before they integrated their IMCs. AMD IMCs have never supported that AFAIK. BTW, there has actually been significant concern for a while that memory speeds will become a limiting factor as memory speeds while increasing aren't increasing as fast as CPU speeds. See e.g. [12] which is old but [13] is new. Architectural changes (e.g. better and smarter use of caches), the integration of memory controllers and other factors appears to have reduced the effect. It's probably less of a concern for home users since it seems system performance is becoming less important for many over the past few years as systems are simply good enough and combined with the move to laptops and now mobiles and tablets power usage and size have also become very important. But as the recent article shows, it's still a concern to some, particularly now with the move to GPU integration. Nil Einne (talk) 11:57, 15 February 2013 (UTC)

Resolved

February 15

Firefox Aurora and Mozilla Thunderbird

i had the browser, Aurora, for quite a few weeks and everything was running well. then i downloaded the email client, Thunderbird. after the installation, it asked me to restart my computer, so i did. but on restarting, i found out that Aurora is gone, i couldn't find any file of it anywhere. there were just the shortcut icons left on my start menu and desktop which said on double-clicking "file not found. delete shortcut?". i, obviously, clicked on ok and deleted those pathless shortcuts. but where did Aurora go???? and another thing. when i tried to add an email account to Thunderbird, it asked me my name, email id and password. i entered everything correctly, i established the incoming connection as IMAP and outgoing connection as SMTP, i even went to my gmail account and turned on the IMAP settings. but, Thunderbird says that there's an error in server sign-up connection or something like that. simply put, it can't be connected. same thing happening with chat account (i've tried with both facebook chat and gtalk)

WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH MY COMPUTER??? :(

THANK YOU!! :/ — Preceding unsigned comment added by 117.201.146.126 (talk) 06:56, 15 February 2013 (UTC)

Just a guess, but perhaps the email client required an updated version of the browser, and the update process involved removing the old version first, but the process died before the new version was installed. I'd look on your desktop for an install icon, as many download managers leave one of those, especially if the install is aborted. If not, then just start the process over. If it still doesn't work, try a different browser and/or e-mail client. StuRat (talk) 14:25, 15 February 2013 (UTC)

self-coupling

Hello I just need an explanation about self-coupling. Best Regards

faliakbari — Preceding unsigned comment added by Faliakbari (talk • contribs) 08:06, 15 February 2013 (UTC)

I don't understand. In what context ? Do you mean train cars which join together automatically when pushed together, or something else ? StuRat (talk) 14:02, 15 February 2013 (UTC)

A Google search shows that all the results are about Higgs Boson. Wrong RD, perhaps? Kayau (talk · contribs) 10:48, 16 February 2013 (UTC)

[Ubuntu Question] "target is not a directory"

I am attempting to follow this man's instructions: http://steamcommunity.com/app/221410/discussions/0/846939854078934188/#c846940248596940111

Sadly, I am stuck on step 5; after making the new directory (I also used/Steam_Files) it informs me that 'target `/Steam_Files/' is not a directory."

But I just made that directory. Where is my mistake? --Ye Olde Luke (talk) 08:42, 15 February 2013 (UTC)

What syntax did you use to make the directory? What happens if you try cd Steam_Files ? --Phil Holmes (talk) 11:15, 15 February 2013 (UTC)

Did you use mkdir to create the directory ? StuRat (talk) 14:21, 15 February 2013 (UTC)

SVG export from MathJax

Is there any way to copy an SVG render from MathJax to a separate file, and declare or remove the external dependencies, that's ever easier than rendering via TeX? I've tried copying the <svg> tag using Chrome's Developer Tools, pasting into a text editor, and adding the usual <?xml> and <!DOCTYPE>. But then the fonts are missing, and for the expanded-form example at Hessian matrix that makes everything but the fraction lines disappear. NeonMerlin 09:56, 15 February 2013 (UTC)

I tried a simple example and got it working if I added xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" to the SVG tag. -- Finlay McWalterჷTalk 19:32, 15 February 2013 (UTC)

No, never mind that; it wasn't the MathJax part of the example I was working on that I got rendering, but another SVG overlaid on it. -- Finlay McWalterჷTalk 19:53, 15 February 2013 (UTC)

February 16

downloading the songs

How to download or buy the songs ? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 197.173.97.237 (talk) 08:00, 16 February 2013 (UTC)

With a downloader, or money (or credit). ¦ Reisio (talk) 09:38, 17 February 2013 (UTC)

File splitter for mac

Anyone have a suggestion for a completely free file splitter for a mac? I want to cut an mp4 movie in half and have each half playable. I am not computer great so it needs to be a pretty easy program. I have no idea how to compile or use terminal or any of that stuff.--108.54.26.164 (talk) 12:44, 16 February 2013 (UTC)

Use iMovie and import the video. You can then make it in two, three or four parts and export them back out! Andrew Wiggin (talk) 14:25, 16 February 2013 (UTC)

You could use MP4Box from GPAC. MP4Box -split timeInSeconds foo.mp4 ¦ Reisio (talk) 09:47, 17 February 2013 (UTC)

Good practices for facilitating open-source collaborative software development

I've seen many open-source software projects that ask for developer participation. When I looked at the source code of a few of them, I got the impression that it would take quite a bit of effort to set up a development environment (e.g. downloading tools from multiple sources, reading the documentation to configure and troubleshoot the set-up.) It also struck me that a new contributor would need to study a lot of code (and documentation, if available) before he or she can begin to contribute.

I came to the conclusion that, to tap into a large pool of volunteer developers, a software project should be structured in a way that the minimum required effort for meaningful participation is quite low.

My question is: what are some good practices tha make it easy for volunteers to contribute to an open source software project?

I have a few ideas of my own, but would like to learn from the wisdom of others. Thanks. --108.2.210.178 (talk) 16:31, 16 February 2013 (UTC)

Maybe its an obvious point but following principles such as SOLID (object-oriented design) is probably good to help people play nice together --_nonsense ferret 19:30, 16 February 2013 (UTC)

I don't think you necessarily need object-oriented design. On the contrary, since that requires knowledge of the exact definition of every object you need to use, that does have a high learning curve. But modular design, where each separate task is performed in a different module, is important. For example, if we have a graphing program, the main module could be maintained by the core team, while individual tasks, like making a pie chart, could be farmed out to others. They would only need to know the parameters to be passed to and from their function/subroutine, and wouldn't need to know the bigger picture. The core programmers might have provided a stub function, which passes the variables, but just returns "This function not currently available". StuRat (talk) 19:48, 16 February 2013 (UTC)

1) Have a project that is useful or interesting 2) Don’t use an awful/obscure language or coding style 3) Be nice ¦ Reisio (talk) 09:49, 17 February 2013 (UTC)

Installing gcc on android?

Hi all, having a bit a problem here. I've downloaded gcc's tar.bz2 "release" file onto my android and unpacked it into it's own directory, but I'm not exactly sure what to do next - the gcc docs are horrible! Looks like I have a bunch of source files that need to be compiled to make the compiler?! I just want a binary I can run from bash. Any ideas? Thanks! 12.14.132.2 (talk) 17:14, 16 February 2013 (UTC)

Good quality headphones.

What are some headphones or earphones (that aren't too bad for your hearing) of good sound quality that is reasonably priced. I often find budget headphones have very poor sound quality. Clover345 (talk) 19:41, 16 February 2013 (UTC)

The "aren't too bad for your hearing" constraint is an odd one. Any headphones, if turned loud enough, are bad for your hearing. Do you want headphones that can't possibly produce enough volume to cause hearing damage ? StuRat (talk) 19:52, 16 February 2013 (UTC)

What type of headphones did you have in mind ? There are ear buds, which go inside the ear canal, then there are the type of earphones which sit outside the ear, but make no attempt to block background noise, then there are some with padding, and even some with active noise reduction. Also, what do you want them for ? Listening to music requires better sound than, say, the spoken word. StuRat (talk) 19:55, 16 February 2013 (UTC)

Basically listening to music. My current ones have terrible quality and also it picks up too much outside noise so that I have to turn it up too loud. So basically I want a reasonably priced headphone or earphone for listening to music in good quality and without having to turn it up so loud. Clover345 (talk) 20:21, 16 February 2013 (UTC)

By "picks up" you mean "doesn't block" ? If so, I suggest padded headphones. I'd skip active noise reduction, as it can mess up music and is more expensive. Go to a brick-and-mortar store that lets you try them out, so you can find the best pair. Classical music is the best test, as it has periods of silence and pure tones. Also, I suggest headphones with built-in volume control, as that gives you quicker control over it. StuRat (talk) 20:49, 16 February 2013 (UTC)

I personally like these "Apple EarPods with Remote and Mic" for $29 and I unfortunately don't own any Apple stock. You can read a review of them here. Compatibility with an intended device is another important consideration. Bus stop (talk) 01:47, 17 February 2013 (UTC)

If you said what your “current ones” were, this forum would be able to better serve you in finding an alternative. ¦ Reisio (talk) 09:29, 17 February 2013 (UTC)

Also, what sort of music do you generally listen to? For some, extra bass is a good thing, but for classical music it can sound like the bassists and bassoonists are staging a coup. If you want to block outside noise without the bulk of padded headphones you can try the "in-ear" earphones that Sturat suggested above. If you have ever worn earplugs these feel similar, and block most outside noise (when I am wearing mine I am oblivious to people behind me calling my name, and can hardly hear traffic at all). For general headphones I like sennheisers (I have never tried their in-ear ones). Some people consider them not "punchy" enough and too "flat", but for the acoustic and classical music I listen to they are just right. One thing to consider with headphones it whether you get open back or closed back. Open back sound, well, more open but tend to block much less noise and annoy everyone around you with sound leakage. Closed back headphones don't sound quite as nice (they can still be great) but don't have these problems. I second the idea of trying them out in person (you probably won't be able to do this with in ear though, for hygiene reasons). Oh, and please, when you try them out, take them off, cover the inside with your hands and see whether you can hear any sound leaking out. If everyone did this test public transport would be a much more pleasant experience. Equisetum (talk | contributions) 12:39, 17 February 2013 (UTC)

You mention the desire to block out external noise, so closed-back 'phones may be best. I got a pair of Panasonic RP-HTX7s from Santa - after dropping hints to Santa based on them being judged best budget (<£50) headphones from What Hi-Fi. Their review is here but be aware that the set I got which I think came from Amazon don't have the 2m extension cable or 6.3mm extension mentioned in the review - though this won't be a problem for portable use.

I also have some Sennheiser open-back headphones - these are good, but only for where noise leaking in or out is not a problem.

If you specifically want in-ears, perhaps so they're visually unobtrusive, I've only got experience at the cheap'n'cheerful end of the market, where I find JVC's "Gummy" model comfortable enough.

Thanks, davidprior ^t/_c 23:58, 17 February 2013 (UTC)

Secret sharing with public standing-committee vote

Are there any Web-based applications that will allow me to put my master password under secret sharing such that I can add and revoke users, change the secret, get a warning if someone votes to unlock while I have access to e-mail, and use a weaker layer of encryption to enforce a time lock? NeonMerlin 21:21, 16 February 2013 (UTC)

You're asking for a permission based system, which could do everything you ask I guess, except there's nothing "secret sharing" about it, or any true encryption based around it. There are no true encryption timelocks, at least not right now... so long as I can turn back my computer's clock to whatever I want, or if you have to rely on some external server for time, or whatever... it's not "cryptographically" secure. You can get a lot of security out of systems like that, but their strength is not in their math like true cryptography is. Shadowjams (talk) 11:19, 19 February 2013 (UTC)

Help

What does this mean Ads related to http://cingular-oac.qpass.com/oac/xhtml/mobile.do;jsessionid-fECLIDI8EC3CF3402F7A57AD400B64D5.UindcmAppserver.mime type text/html;charset=Iso=8859-1 — Preceding unsigned comment added by 174.235.3.18 (talk) 23:43, 16 February 2013 (UTC)

Pardon? ¦ Reisio (talk) 09:26, 17 February 2013 (UTC)

February 17

PC graphics cards with scrollable screen

I have a feature on my laptop I've never seen on a PC, but would like. It allows a larger display than the screen can show at once, and when you try to move the mouse off the edges, the display scrolls to show the hidden portion. What is the name for this feature, so I can search for it online ? StuRat (talk) 07:50, 17 February 2013 (UTC)

VNC people call it “bump scrolling” (as in when you bump into a window’s side, scrolling happens if it can). I couldn’t tell you how widespread or standardized this term is. No doubt many projects have independently implemented it just thinking it to be sensible; I know several Unix window managers manage it as well. ¦ Reisio (talk) 09:21, 17 February 2013 (UTC)

This is a feature often found in packages meant to help people with bad vision. That way they can keep the magnification maxed on everything they see and then the mouse moves the portion of the screen that is displayed. Sorry, I don't know the general name of it. On the Mac that I'm using right now, it's under the Universal Access control panel. Dismas|^(talk) 14:46, 17 February 2013 (UTC)

Thanks so far. It might help if I explain why I want it. I find it to be very quick on my laptop, presumably since this operation only involves the graphics card, not the CPU. On the other hand, I find scrolling using a window scroll bar to lag badly on my PC (it apparently must reload every image each time I scroll). So, my hope is that I could have a much higher resolution, which could display the entire page at once, eliminating scroll bars, but I would still only look at, say, 1920×1280 of that image at a time (the native resolution of my current monitor). One downside might be that it would then take longer to load the page, initially, since all the pics must be loaded, not just a portion of them. However, I would find this preferable to a lag with every scroll. I could take a coffee break, then come back to a fast page. StuRat (talk) 18:12, 17 February 2013 (UTC)

Interface to wiki-style editing Offline

There is a recommendation for someone? 188.64.204.76 (talk) 14:06, 17 February 2013 (UTC)

TiddlyWiki? -- BenRG (talk) 19:40, 17 February 2013 (UTC)

Need help fixing my computer

I'm not sure what's wrong, I was running my computer like usual, but the moment I opened the internet browser, it all just froze, and since then refused to load up fully. I managed to get it working in 'safe mode' and was able to back up all my files and set a system restore to an earlier point, which got it working ok, but with the same result, as soon as I went to open an internet browser, it stops working. Except now, it doesn't load in safe mode either, just comes up with a black screen with a mouse pointer and nothing else. So, is there any way of resetting the whole thing without having to go through anything on screen? And would that even fix the problem?

As well, I note that it crashed both times on trying to access the internet, and only worked on the version of safe mode with no network access, wondering if this is anything to do with the cause of the problem?

86.15.83.223 (talk) 15:05, 17 February 2013 (UTC)

Some questions:

1) What operating system ? Windows 7 ?

2) Can you boot it now, in safe mode with the network disabled ?

3) Which internet browser ? Internet Explorer ? If so, I suggest reinstalling it or running another internet browser, like Firefox, Opera, Google Chrome, etc. Of course, if you don't already have it downloaded, getting it on your PC with no internet browser is a problem. Do you have access to another PC you could use to download it and burn it to a CD ?

4) Do you have a way to restore the system to it's state prior to the trouble ?

5) Might be a virus. Do you have an anti-virus program ? StuRat (talk) 15:17, 17 February 2013 (UTC)

1) Yep, windows 7

2) not any more, but it used to.

3) Originally chrome, then IE, both with the same effect.

4) I've already restored it to well before the trouble (hence why I needed to use IE), and it still crashed.

5) I have AVG, it hasn't found anything, if there is a virus, though, how would I remove it now?

86.15.83.223 (talk) 15:22, 17 February 2013 (UTC)

6) Do you have your original disks, so you can reinstall the O/S ?

7) It might be a problem with the network, are you able to run anything else over the network ? (Another PC, etc.) StuRat (talk) 15:30, 17 February 2013 (UTC)

6) No, although my housemate says he can get some for me soon, and I have a friend dropping off a shiny new Mint 14 installation disk tomorrow, though chances are that's not going to help any more.

7) Everything else works fine, on wired or wireless internet, even using the same ethernet cable on my laptop.

86.15.83.223 (talk) 15:36, 17 February 2013 (UTC)

8) How old is this PC ? If it's about due for replacement anyway, this might be a good time. I just did this when my old PC refused to boot. StuRat (talk) 15:58, 17 February 2013 (UTC)

8) about five or six years, I was thinking of getting a new one, but I would need to wait a couple of months before I can afford an actualy decent one. I guess I can talk to my housemate, in theory he can salvage those parts that still work and reuse them to make a new computer, but if we don't know what's wrong, how can we know what parts to recycle? 86.15.83.223 (talk) 16:02, 17 February 2013 (UTC)

I suggest you buy a refurb PC. I did, and got quite a decent computer for $99 at Micro Center. You can then swap out each component from the old PC to the new, until it refuses to boot, too, then you know that's the problem, so toss out that component and keep the rest. Incidentally, the most expensive part of a computer these days is the monitor, and that can't possibly be the problem, so you know you can reuse that. (The graphics card could possibly be the problem, but that's in the PC, not in the monitor.)

If you want to get the old PC working, for now, you might try a bootable USB thumb drive (assuming your PC can boot from USB) or a CD/DVD with an O/S on it. A Linux variant is one option, and a Windows version is the other. Of course, if you don't already have a bootable USB or CD/DVD, making one without access to a working PC is problematic. StuRat (talk) 16:43, 17 February 2013 (UTC)

I noticed that when I tried to set up my raspberry pi as a mini computer, the cheapest monitor I could find cost twice as much as everything else together. And I can see if anyone wants the left over parts. And I don't know if it would load from the CD or not, but it might be worth a try, at least, when I get it tomorrow. 86.15.83.223 (talk) 16:52, 17 February 2013 (UTC)

Those installation disks are worth a try, too, although installing on your hard disk requires that it be working properly. Incidentally, how are you editing here, without a working PC ? Using the Raspberry Pi ? BTW, if you do need a monitor on a tight budget, a used CRT can be had for free or very little, as people are dumping those to get flat screen monitors. StuRat (talk) 16:53, 17 February 2013 (UTC)

You could use the RasPi to create a boot USB drive. Dismas|^(talk) 16:59, 17 February 2013 (UTC)

on my old laptop, which if I remember rightly did pretty much the same thing, one of the times it crashed. And it works sort of ok now. the raspberry pi doesn't work, because that cheap screen turned out to be so small I can't actually see anything on it, need some way of changing the resolution, but I can't do that unless I can see what I'm doing... 86.15.83.223 (talk) 17:01, 17 February 2013 (UTC)

Can you hook the Raspberry Pi up to the PC monitor ? StuRat (talk) 17:04, 17 February 2013 (UTC)

I'm not sure if it has the right socket, I expect if it did we would have done that before, and the shops will be closed by now, so no chance of getting an adaptor. We tried it on the tv, but that couldn't pick up the signal for some reason. 86.15.83.223 (talk) 17:20, 17 February 2013 (UTC)

OK, let us know how it works out. StuRat (talk) 19:54, 17 February 2013 (UTC)

Well, I got the new OS booting from the CD ok, after a couple of tries, then formatted the harddrive, installed it properly and it all seems to work well, no problems at all, no idea what was wrong before, but whatever it was seems to have gone now. Just need to get the computer set up ready for everyday use again now. Thank you all for your help :) 86.15.83.223 (talk) 16:34, 18 February 2013 (UTC)

OK, glad to hear it. I'll mark this Q resolved (remove tag if you need more help, or add a new Q). StuRat (talk) 18:42, 18 February 2013 (UTC)

Resolved

functional computing with only folds?

Consider a strict functional programming language (say Haskell), but with explicit recursion disallowed. If we do allow Folds and unfolds, is this enough to make the language Turing complete? I'm not an expert in Lambda calculus. I see at our fold article that a fixed point combinator can be implemented as a fold. Is that enough to implement any recursive function? Staecker (talk) 17:22, 17 February 2013 (UTC)

Yes, it's enough. In place of f args = ... f modifiedArgs ... you can write f = fix (\self args -> ... self modifiedArgs ...). -- BenRG (talk) 19:47, 17 February 2013 (UTC)

WiFi networks

How do wifi networks send the data each device on it wants especially in public wifi networks where in busy places, there could be up to 100 devices on it at once. Does it just send everything to every device and let the devices sort out which one it wants or does it get sorted by frequency? Clover345 (talk) 18:52, 17 February 2013 (UTC)

Wireless networks that are unencrypted, or using WEP are the functional equivalent of hubs. They send to everyone on their network. And they don't distinguish by frequency. The frequency for a given AP is always the same.

Individual clients on the network disregard packets that are not addressed to their mac address (although there are ways they can instead collect them, which is part of why wireless networks are less secure). In a WPA network the networks are separated because each client negotiates an individual key that's unique for that session. There's actually 2 keys negotiated... one for 1 on 1 communication, and another for broadcast packets, that is shared. However WPA networks that share a common password are vulnerable because everyone can watch that initial handshake that establishes the key, so if you see the beginning of the conversation you can decipher the rest. Shadowjams (talk) 02:43, 18 February 2013 (UTC)

As an aside, like all Ethernet networks (which 802.11 is), there's a jam signal which is registered when two clients try to transmit at the same time. There's a random exponential backoff algorithm that allows them, statistically speaking, wait until they both talk at the same time. Same thing used to happen on hub switched networks all the time. Now because switches are ubiquitous that's unique for wired networks. Shadowjams (talk) 02:46, 18 February 2013 (UTC)

So in WPA, are the different networks on different frequencies? If they're on the same frequency, surely everyone receives every packet. 176.250.136.158 (talk) 11:21, 18 February 2013 (UTC)

No, they're all on the same frequency. The individual packets are encrypted though. Shadowjams (talk) 11:32, 18 February 2013 (UTC)

But isn't that insecure then? Surely people could hack this easily or release viruses on public wifi networks? Clover345 (talk) 18:27, 18 February 2013 (UTC)

Yes, and they do. The virus issue isn't a problem because of the architecture because computers ignore messages not intended for them. Any normal network has a flurry of broadcast packets that go to everyone anyway, there's nothing about that unique to wireless. It is insecure though in the sense that everyone can see everyone else's packets, which is why encryption is important for anything requiring any security. Shadowjams (talk) 20:23, 18 February 2013 (UTC)

It's also worth pointing out that all cellular/mobile 'phone networks broadcast all their communications, so everyone with a suitable wireless receiver can listen to them. However, they, like WiFi, are encrypted communications, so listening to them is not the same as understanding them. So far, the encryption has proved robust, and so mobile phone networks remain secure, despite their broadcast nature.--Phil Holmes (talk) 09:25, 19 February 2013 (UTC)

The A5/1 encryption used on most GSM networks is not at all robust by any technical sense of the phrase. It's fairly obvious that GSM traffic is not secure against any serious attack. However, most cellphone traffic is secure because it's harder to intercept cellphone traffic practically, and then breaking the encryption is another impediment. Phil's also confounding a little bit of the issue. Yes, anything broadcast is "broadcast to all", but the OP was asking about logical (i.e. ethernet level 2) broadcasts... which 802.11 is... but GSM is not. Shadowjams (talk) 11:13, 19 February 2013 (UTC)

It will help to answer the question if we properly use terminology, e.g., from the OSI model. At the physical layer, most WiFi traffic is broadcasted to everyone; this is because most WiFi antennas are omnidirectional antennas for convenience. So, every device receives every radio-wave. At the next level of abstraction, a "link" is established between a router and a client; that link contains physical information (like channel frequency and modulation methods). As before, any client can receive this data, so an eavesdropper could maliciously intercept this data. But as we go farther up the network stack, we reach the first protocols that govern security and integrity: WEP and WPA. These protocols affect the network and the link layer (though dfferent explanations sometimes disagree on the detail, the canonical answer is "read the OSI standard and the IEEE spec"; because these publications do not use the same terminology, there's room for debate. Assuming the WPA-like protocols have no flaw, any data at a higher level of abstraction than this link-layer is "scrambled" for everybody except the intended recipient. A secure application will also encrypt at the transport- and application-layers. (For example, using SSL and additionally encrypting sensitive user-data). And a truly secure communication platform will exercise the maximum caution at all layers. In general, if a wireless network is set up properly, and uses modern technology that is not known to have defects, it is effectively impossible to intercept useful (application-layer) data. It is trivial to intercept useless (link-layer) data. This same rule of thumb also applies to cellular phones. In the United States, cellular networks are additionally protected by government control - it is not practically possible to purchase radios on the consumer market that are capable of operating at mobile telephone frequencies. Acquiring such a radio that could intercept mobile telephony data, or acquiring the parts to build such devices in any volume, attracts regulatory oversight from the FCC. So, from that perspective, mobile telephony has all the security protection of proper cryptographic algorithm design, plus the extra imposed hassle of making the interceptor rely on difficult-to-acquire, difficult-to-operate equipment. Even HAM equipment is sold with blackout frequencies at mobile telephone bands; much skill and effort is required to circumvent the protection (and violating regulations may expose the operator to license violations and legal liability). This closes the loop; the network integrity is protected by both technical and by political methods. Nimur (talk) 16:13, 19 February 2013 (UTC)

Regarding "it is not practically possible to purchase radios on the consumer market that are capable of operating at mobile telephone frequencies": I can't find any evidence that a Universal Software Radio Peripheral, with the relevant daughter cards, is either restricted for sale or has cellular bands blacked out. As OpenBTS notes, it has been used to implement live GSM base stations in the usual US GSM bands. A NI/Ettus USRP certainly isn't cheap (they $1300 and up), but I don't see anywhere that they're restricted in sale, or only sold to people with relevant radio licences. Their FAQ says here puts all the licensing obligations on the user. Still, as you've said, being able to receive the raw signal is a long long way from being able to intercept the data it carries. -- Finlay McWalterჷTalk 17:08, 19 February 2013 (UTC)

How to go to a bookmarked page in Google Chrome ?

I know this is a rather basic Q, but my Google Chrome install lacks the command line on the top I'm used to from other browsers with options like File, Tools, Bookmarks, and Help. Does Google Chrome not have this at all, or is it just disabled in my case ? If so, how do I enable it ? If not, how do I go to my bookmarks without it ? StuRat (talk) 21:06, 17 February 2013 (UTC)

I believe by default they’d prefer you to use the location bar, which also matches against bookmarks. There is no doubt an extension to get the more traditional approach you’re after, however. ¦ Reisio (talk) 21:36, 17 February 2013 (UTC)

Click on the Tools icon (the three horizontal bars in the top right corner). The fourth item in the menu is a subsidiary Bookmarks menu. Top of that is "Show bookmarks bar". Shortcut is Ctrl+Shift+B. Rojomoke (talk) 22:12, 17 February 2013 (UTC)

Thanks !

Resolved

February 18

Keyboard wiring

According to this (in the section labeled "The Keyboard's Connector"), four of the six pins on a PS/2 keyboard plug have functions. A fifth used to. So why was there ever a sixth? Thanks, Dismas|^(talk) 11:25, 18 February 2013 (UTC)

Our article says Sometimes the port also allows one of the devices to be connected to the two normally unused pins in the connector to allow both to be connected at once through a special splitter cable. This is referenced to here, giving a table of the pin connections when used in such a way. - Cucumber Mike (talk) 15:17, 18 February 2013 (UTC)

sql; any dummy tables?

not sure if dummy is the right word; but..

create table foo as select 1 as x;

doesn't work because it wants a from clause.

create table foo as select 1 as x from _null_;

doesn't work because _null_ doesn't have any columns. So is there some similar kind of preexisting dummy table defined in sql (hoping for something universal, not limited to any particular dialect) I can use for situations like this where I don't care about the table, I just need it to make the from clause happy? thanks. Gzuckier (talk) 14:37, 18 February 2013 (UTC)

any reason not to do something like CREATE TABLE newTableName (column1 int,column2 varchar(255)) --_nonsense ferret 16:15, 18 February 2013 (UTC)

What exactly are you trying to do ? You're creating a new table, right ? What's the "Select 1 as X" supposed to do ? StuRat (talk) 16:21, 18 February 2013 (UTC)

You can (in MS SQL server, any) say SELECT 1 as x INTO foo to create the table 'foo' with column 'x' defined as an int. AndrewWTaylor (talk) 16:34, 18 February 2013 (UTC)

.. and in a stored procedure you can make it a temporary table (which is local to the SProc and disappears when it finishes) by prefixing the name with '#': SELECT 1 as x INTO #foo.AndrewWTaylor (talk) 16:41, 18 February 2013 (UTC)

video file compression

I've been filming things for a hobby of mine and uploading them to the internet to share with other interested people. However, I recently got a new, more expensive camera, resulting in higher quality images, and larger file sizes. I have a selection of video files to upload now, ranging from 350MB to 1.3GB, and the site I want to post them on has a maximum file size of 500MB, so some of these are going to need to be reduced in size, but without too much damaging the image quality. I was recommended by a friend something called a H.264 encoder, which pretty much just reduced the file to random bright colours, though it was only 25MB, so that's something.

So, any other ideas of programs I could use to get these videos down to a size that I can upload properly? To make some of them less than half the original size isn't going to be easy, I'm sure...

86.15.83.223 (talk) 20:52, 18 February 2013 (UTC)

Note that the web site needs to know how to uncompress them, too. Another option is to break them up into "chapters", each of which is small enough to upload. Or, you could reduce the frames per second, color depth, or resolution (what are your current settings ?). StuRat (talk) 21:03, 18 February 2013 (UTC)

yea, that's what I meant, just make the files themselves smaller, would have to reduce quality a little bit, but hoping for something not overly noticeable. currently 720p and I think 24fps, that's normal isn't it? I don't know all the technical details. 86.15.83.223 (talk) 21:10, 18 February 2013 (UTC)

If this isn't normally going to play in full screen mode, you can probably get by with less than 720p, and people trying to stream 720p may find it lags. So, many web sites use less than that. Note that 360p wouldn't just be half the size, but 1/4th, which should be enough. Reducing much below 24fps would make it look jerky, though. Do you know the color depth ? (32 bit, 24 bit ?). StuRat (talk) 21:23, 18 February 2013 (UTC)

No idea of the colour depth, maybe I could check, but I suppose you're right about it playing on small screens and embedded in the website and such, it's not going to need to be really high resolution, is it. How do I change that, though? 86.15.83.223 (talk) 21:28, 18 February 2013 (UTC)

What video editing software do you use ? If you just upload it directly from your camera to the website, then you may need to change the resolution on the camera before you record. StuRat (talk) 22:08, 18 February 2013 (UTC)

That's the thing, I don't have any decent video editing software, so I figure I would need to get some, so I can sort these files out 86.15.83.223 (talk) 01:07, 19 February 2013 (UTC)

Are you looking for something free ? StuRat (talk) 01:26, 19 February 2013 (UTC)

http://ffmpeg.org/trac/ffmpeg/wiki/x264EncodingGuide#twopass Easiest way to get (a decent copy of) FFmpeg on Windows is via http://sourceware.org/cygwinports/. ¦ Reisio (talk) 02:02, 19 February 2013 (UTC)

What Operating System are you using right now (Windows, Mac OSX, Linux?) and what format is your camera saving these files (and if you don't know that, which camera model is it?). Don't adjust the framerate... there are 2 primary framerates in use, NTSC and PAL... you don't adjust that, you adjust the encoding and the bitrate if you want to change the size. Shadowjams (talk) 04:33, 19 February 2013 (UTC)

And the dimensions, if it’s much over 720p and of fairly long duration. ¦ Reisio (talk) 05:43, 19 February 2013 (UTC)

FYI, many new expensive cameras have options to compress video on the camera. Some default to "uncompressed" or "very lightly compressed" on the premise that you want to control this parameter yourself in postprocessing. So, you may find that simply running the H.264 compression defaults (using FFMPEG, already recommended above), is all you need to do. Nimur (talk) 15:56, 19 February 2013 (UTC)

Free would be nice, as it's something I would only use maybe a dozen times, not worth spending lots of money on. Running Linux Mint at the moment, and the camera is a Panasonic Lumix, 720p and between five and ten minutes each. Trouble is, I've already filmed everything, so changing camera settings is going to be of no help any more, I need something to change the files already saved on my computer. 86.15.83.223 (talk) 16:59, 19 February 2013 (UTC)

http://ffmpeg.org/trac/ffmpeg/wiki/x264EncodingGuide#twopass with sudo apt-get install ffmpeg, then. ¦ Reisio (talk) 02:02, 19 February 2013 (UTC)

February 19

Twitter question

I don't know anything about Twitter, as will be apparent. Increasingly on TV shows the audience is asked to contact the presenters/producers via Twitter (via an address given like @ABC). Firstly, is there a way to make those messages private to the recipient, or are they always visible to everyone? Secondly, asssuming they are visible at all, is there a way for people other than the recipient to view a stream of messages directed to @ABC, or would they only be able to find them "accidentally", e.g., by happening to be a follower of the sender, or by happening to search on a term relevant to the content? 86.160.221.80 (talk) 18:40, 19 February 2013 (UTC)