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February 23

Eclipse pdt javascript support

Hi,
I opend a php project in eclipse pdt.
When I tried to add it a Javascript support I discovered that there is no option to add javadcript support.
What can I do? Exx8 (talk) 05:14, 23 February 2013 (UTC)[reply]

About administrator authorization in Vista/Win7

Is the only way to get through the administrator authorization dialog box that I type in the password by myself? Do malicious softwares have other ways to get through(e.g. record my typing and repeat it when they are asked for authorization)?--Inspector (talk) 14:51, 23 February 2013 (UTC)[reply]

No, software that doesn't already have administrative privileges can't observe or affect anything that happens while the authorization box is visible (with dimmed background). But it could put up a dialog box of its own that mimics the standard one and record those keystrokes, then use the password to gain administrative privileges (which can be done without any UI, I think). It could also exploit some Windows bug to get administrative privileges, then sniff your keystrokes and try to use the same password to compromise an email/banking account, for example. -- BenRG (talk) 20:33, 23 February 2013 (UTC)[reply]

How do Windows judge whether a program or a specific step requires administrator authorization? I see in some executable files a shield icon indicates that; is it a tag embedded in the executable?--Inspector (talk) 01:33, 24 February 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Yes that's correct, see User_Account_Control#Requesting_elevation, though there are some additional heuristics to provide backwards compatibility with executables created for earlier versions of windows, for example any program named setup.exe or install.exe is assumed to need administrator privileges as explained in [1] (search for setup). Kram (talk) 15:07, 25 February 2013 (UTC)[reply]

StarCraft VOD restriction

Why some StarCraft VODs got restricted (such as this one: http://www.teamliquid.net/tlpd/korean/games/55849_Hydra_vs_Jaedong/vod , although they were backed up by versions with English commentaries)? The message says they are videos with limited access. --93.174.25.12 (talk) 21:39, 23 February 2013 (UTC)[reply]

February 24

Wikipedia via text.

Hello

Would you please let me know when "Wikipedia via text" service is going to be availed in India and from when?

And please shed a little light on details on how the article is “delivered”.

Is the plan to send them the entire article, broken up into 160-character chunks? Pre-iPhone, I remember having motorola and nokia phones whose SMS clients made you back out of each message in your SMS inbox to read the next one, so if someone sent you a text while you were reading the current one, you had to hit back, down, center to read the next one.

So imagine doing that about a million times for each article.

Regards Bhushan — Preceding unsigned comment added by 116.202.5.87 (talk) 06:33, 24 February 2013 (UTC)[reply]

You might be better asking on the Village Pump, technical section for questions about Wikipedia (and mediawiki software that it runs on).

For the second part of your question, SMS have a 160 character limit (if in US-English, 140 in other European languages, and less in non-Latin languages), however most mobile phones will send larger messages as multiple texts, and the receiving phone will reassemble them back into one message for display. CS Miller (talk) 17:05, 24 February 2013 (UTC)[reply]

For the moment, if your mobile-phone is WAP capable, you can access Wikipedia via WAP on http://wapedia.mobi/; it will split articles into smaller WAP pages. This site is provided by a third-party, our page about their service is Wapedia. Or if you have a smart-phone then there is our mobile page, http://en.m.wikipedia. There are other access methods listed on Wikipedia:Mobile_access. Both these main services are read-only, and don't provided direct links to the talk: pages. CS Miller (talk) 17:14, 24 February 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Considering this is basically related to the Wikipedia Zero project [2] and there are still no wikipedia zero partners in India [3] I don't know if I'd get my hopes up about it coming to India any time soon. It's true this system would probably cost less for the telco to run then providing access to wikipedia for free via the telco's data network but I'm not sure this is the primary reason it has not been offered yet. Nil Einne (talk) 04:29, 27 February 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Default browsers

I am using Win7 with Windows Live Mail and Dropbox (service). I prefer IE9 as my browser. When I click a hotlink in an email or 'goto website' in Dropbox they open Google Chrome though. I have looked everywhere to change these to IE9 though. Are they in an .ini or .cfg file somewhere? I hate messing with those.--Canoe1967 (talk) 15:56, 24 February 2013 (UTC)[reply]

See http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/internet-explorer/make-ie-default-browser#ie=ie-9. PrimeHunter (talk) 16:22, 24 February 2013 (UTC)[reply]

That almost worked until I re-booted and Google took over again. I finally found it in control panel from the Windows start menu. I couldn't untick Google as defaults but when I ticked IE9 boxes it removed the ticks from the Google boxes. Couldn't be done from within the browsers it seems.--Canoe1967 (talk) 19:56, 24 February 2013 (UTC)[reply]

File

Physically, what is a file? If you save a file on your computer, how is that reflected in physical terms? 203.112.82.1 (talk) 16:52, 24 February 2013 (UTC)[reply]

It is saved in binary in memory. Groups of 'mark, no mark'. Most hard drives have some fragmentation so many files are stored in pieces and kept track of with file allocation sections of the memory. They are also marked with other data such as file type, date, access, security, etc.--Canoe1967 (talk) 17:06, 24 February 2013 (UTC)[reply]

"Memory" normally refers to the temporary storage space on a computer (RAM). A file is there until it is saved, at which point it is copied to the hard disk, flash drive, CD, DVD, etc. When you "read a file" or start a program, this copies it from the hard disk (or other permanent storage media) into RAM (except for some large file, where only a portion is kept in RAM at a time). StuRat (talk) 17:08, 24 February 2013 (UTC)[reply]

(ec) There are lots of bits set for the file itself. Normally these will all be in a row somewhere on the hard disk, but, due to file fragmentation, it may be necessary to break the file up into different physical segments of bits on the hard drive. Since the hard drive doesn't allow you to have just one bit here and a couple there, you end up with one disk sector here, and a couple there, instead.

Then there's an index stored elsewhere on the disk which makes it all work. This lists some basic info on the file, like it's name, creation date, modification date, etc., along with the physical location(s) on the disk. When you delete a file, you really only delete the index entry, without which, the file becomes inaccessible, and the space on the disk will be written over at some future time, when a new file is stored there. StuRat (talk) 17:07, 24 February 2013 (UTC)[reply]

At an abstract level, a file is generally a sequence of bits (0 or 1 values), usually organized in bytes (8 bits together). The bytes may be physically in a row or spread out in pieces called sectors, with information somewhere about which sectors belong to a file. File storage media usually contain something which can be in two states, interpreted as a 0 or 1 value of a bit. For physical details of the two states in some common file storage media, see Magnetic storage (hard disks), Optical disc (CD's and DVD's), Flash memory (USB flash drives). PrimeHunter (talk) 17:26, 24 February 2013 (UTC)[reply]

One way to imagine how it works, the disc is a a ring-binder with rewritable plastic sheets. Each sheet can only hold the contents of one file; larger files need multiple sheets. The sheets can't be reordered. You can open the binder directly at any numbered sheet. The sheets correspond to disk sectors. Ideally, when writing out a file, you'd choose a contiguous block of sheets; however if you don't know what size of the file is, then you either have to pick too large a empty block of sheets (leaving a small number of empties at the end), or pick a too-small block, then pick another block when that one is filled. Either way, this leads to disk fragmentation; the first is free-space, the second is file. Each folder (directory) is just a special file, which lists all the file names, and other meta-information. There are also other special files indicating all the sheets that belong to each file, and the unused sheets. When you delete a file, the sheet is marked as being unused, however it is not wiped clean; this is how undelete programs work. CS Miller (talk) 17:37, 24 February 2013 (UTC)[reply]

The answer to this question also depends on the definition of "file." For example, the C standard library has a FILE API, and that specification defines a well-documented contractual obligation between the hardware and the program. The Windows CreateFile API specifies a different well-documented contractual obligation between the hardware and the program. Device programmers who work with low-level details of file-systems have very well-documented specifications that explain what a "file" is, and so on. Ordinary users, who interact with files through user-interfaces at the application layer are actually working with a less-well-specified, less-well-documented definition of "File." For example, if you create a document in a modern word-processing suite, you are actually creating several files. Many users treat the document - which is an application-layer abstraction - as if it is interchangeable with the file, which is a reasonably good approximation for many cases. But if we want to discuss how that file translates down to the hardware representation, we need to proceed very carefully: we need to describe all the application behaviors, fully; and we need to define the file-system, and the way that the operating system and disk drivers will commit the file-system to physical storage, and so forth. Nimur (talk) 19:37, 24 February 2013 (UTC)[reply]

I think the above explanations, while correct, may be a bit too technical.

Physically, your "file" is a series of magnetic charges on a disc. A charge one way counts as a 1, while the other counts as a zero: this is binary counting. Computers can sense the magnetic changes on the disc and, through some complicated processes, translate that from the 1s and 0s of your file into something you can see & understand on your screen.

So, your file physically exists as a magnetic field on the disc inside your hard drive. — The Hand That Feeds You:^Bite 19:02, 27 February 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Using email client with free email accounts

If you use an email client you won't be seeing any ads. So, free email account will be free of income for the provider. But, why do some companies still allow you to connect this way? Where is the business? OsmanRF34 (talk) 21:52, 24 February 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Ignoring that they can read all your email, you still depend on them, and they can force any number of things (including ads) on you at any time in the future (but might be happy with just having you alter your prefs on their website for now). ¦ Reisio (talk) 22:23, 24 February 2013 (UTC)[reply]

For many providers, especially big ones like Google, Yahoo or Microsoft, free email accounts are just one part of a much broader strategy. They are willing to accept that they won't make money on all use cases. It means that they can offer a better user experience and makes you more likely to use their other services. Some of those other services or features make money, either through ads or through fees, or at least they will do so in the future. KarlLohmann (talk) 05:35, 26 February 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Some of them add adverts into the emails itself, on both incoming and outgoing messages. 92.233.64.26 (talk) 18:03, 25 February 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Sony Li ion battery terminal descriptions

What are the 'C' and 'T' terminals in the four-terminal Sony Type K Lithium Ion camera battery? 67.163.109.173 (talk) 23:32, 24 February 2013 (UTC)[reply]

This datasheet identifies the four terminals of a "standard" Li-ion battery: GND, B+, B-, and T. T is a termistor connector, allowing the charge circuit to monitor the battery temperature. I don't know about C; it may be Sony's name for B- Finlay McWalterჷTalk 00:04, 25 February 2013 (UTC)[reply]

On thinking about it more, are you sure the terminals aren't labelled + - T and G (G for ground, rather than C) ? -- Finlay McWalterჷTalk 12:01, 25 February 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Here's a picture from the Internet that looks just like mine. It's definitely a 'C'. 67.163.109.173 (talk) 12:16, 25 February 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Sometimes, the term "common" is used to refer to "ground" - especially if "ground" is actually the chassis, and not actually the ground. C may stand for "case", or "chassis," or "common." Nimur (talk) 16:41, 25 February 2013 (UTC)[reply]

February 25

Bug in Google

I think I have found a bug in Google. When my system's UI uses DMY dates but Google's language preferences tell its UI to use MDY dates, when I try to delimit the time range in Google Image Search, clicking on for example "1 February 2013" makes Google read a DMY date from the UI and interpret it as an MDY date, thinking I selected "2 January 2013". This happens even when clicking on the first date of the month when February 2013 is shown on the pop-up calendar. Where can I go report this? JIP | Talk 17:10, 25 February 2013 (UTC)[reply]

I reckon [4] would be a good start, but you must remember never to search for google on google search as it creates a feedback loop which will take down the internet and stuff --_nonsense ferret 17:25, 25 February 2013 (UTC)[reply]

February 26

Changing memory timings in windows

I got some new RAM. 8 Gigs DDR3 at 1600Mhz. I have CPUID CPU-Z and it seems my comp recognizes all 8 gigs, but the clock speed is recognized at only 1066MHz. My friend told me I can edit the CPU timings to certain values that CPUID gives me to get it up to 1600MHz, but I tried to look in my BIOS and I can't seem to edit memory timings there. How can I change them??? ScienceApe (talk) 02:32, 26 February 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Do they still do them with jumpers on the motherboard or is that clockspeed?--Canoe1967 (talk) 03:23, 26 February 2013 (UTC)[reply]

I'm not entirely sure I understand, but this is the computer I have, Computer ScienceApe (talk) 15:12, 26 February 2013 (UTC)[reply]

If you have more than one DDR board in there, it may default to he speed of the slowest one. Is that the case ? StuRat (talk) 03:45, 26 February 2013 (UTC)[reply]

I have two slots for ram. 4 gigs in each slot. This is what I bought, RAM ScienceApe (talk) 15:10, 26 February 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Did you inspect them to ensure that you really got what you ordered ? StuRat (talk) 16:41, 26 February 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Yes it is. ScienceApe (talk) 04:32, 27 February 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Your motherboard may only allow 1066MHz max judging by the numbers in the upgrade options. "PC3-10600 (DDR3-1333)" in the memory upgrade section. If you can adjust in the bios or jumpers then you make break something and void the warranty. You could try emailing the techs at HP to check though.--Canoe1967 (talk) 15:48, 26 February 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Since your motherboard is for an AMD AM3 system, you should be able to adjust frequencies, multipliers and timings via software however this would complicate testing. Nil Einne (talk) 04:26, 27 February 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Where can I get this software? ScienceApe (talk) 04:32, 27 February 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Various places, they aren't hard to find and aren't that hard to use but I wouldn't suggest them unless you have some idea what you're doing. Particularly considering that for your system I doubt the higher bandwidth will make a significant difference for most applications. Nil Einne (talk) 04:34, 27 February 2013 (UTC)[reply]

I pretty much know what to do. I know what to change the timings to, I just need something that allows me to change them in the first place. ScienceApe (talk) 03:22, 28 February 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Multiple registrations from one email account

What is the reason that many websites don't allow registering multiple user accounts from one email? I understand if the login consists of the user's email that this gives trouble, but what about those cases where one can only log in with a user name and not an email address? bamse (talk) 09:03, 26 February 2013 (UTC)[reply]

It could be several things. The most likely is that they index accounts using the email address and there is one field for username. Another could be they are trying to minimise sockpuppets. -- SGBailey (talk) 10:24, 26 February 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks for the reply. Basically I am trying to figure out for my own site (which is a buyer only auction site) whether there is any danger of allowing accounts with identical emails. I can exclude the first point you mention and as for sockpuppets I can't imagine why somebody would create such. bamse (talk) 20:34, 26 February 2013 (UTC)[reply]

allowing multiples might have some unintended complications - if you send email to a user, do you send duplicates? also, how do you want to handle password recovery, if they type in email address, do you reset passwords for all those accounts? worth thinking through some use cases that involve emails if not already done --_nonsense ferret 21:26, 26 February 2013 (UTC)[reply]

How many legitimate uses are there for allowing more than one username per email address? On an auction site, I can only think of one. If the human wants to keep track of what they purchase and sort those purchases by username. For instance, if they're buying for different third party clients or if they want to keep their painting purchases separate from their fine china purchases. On the other hand, I can think of several illegitimate reasons for having multiple usernames. Probably the worst of which for an auction site would be price manipulation. Dismas|^(talk) 06:17, 27 February 2013 (UTC)[reply]

The only other legitimate use I can think of would be for people who share an email account, but that only leads one to wonder what good reason people would have for doing this nowadays. I've only known a handful of people who shared an email address, and that was back in the mid-late 90s when Internet and email were still relative novelties. AJ Cham 01:50, 28 February 2013 (UTC)[reply]

I know a couple who share a Facebook account. I've always found it rather odd and don't know how they handle the logistics of it. If they both only ever went on FB occasionally, I might be able to understand it better but they both post a few times a week. (They sign their posts, if you're wondering) I don't know if they share an e-mail address though since I've never had a reason to e-mail them. Dismas|^(talk) 02:13, 28 February 2013 (UTC)[reply]

chkdsk - WinXP 32 160GB SATA

When I run chkdsk I get an error message along the lines of "errors in the volume bitmap blah blah..." So I run chkdsk /f from the command line and chkdsk runs at the next restart. I then run it again from the command line and the same error comes up. I run chkdsk /r and restart. Chkdsk runs at startup. Run it again from the command line - error still there. By this time I'm pulling my hair out. I removed the drive from the laptop and put it in a standard USB2 hdd enclosure (mains powered). I run chkdsk and NO ERRORS! I run chkdsk /r and although it takes a while (because it's checking the whole disk) it completes with NO ERRORS. I put the drive back in the laptop and run chkdsk - the volume bitmap error is back. I've even run Spinrite at Level 4 (takes several hours) and no problems. Any ideas? 196.214.78.114 (talk) 10:11, 26 February 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Chkdsk is quite outdated, so I'm not surprised it may be making a few mistakes. Did you run Spinrite on the drive when it was in the laptop, the enclosure, or both? If it wasn't run on the laptop, try it. The issue looks, at present, to be the laptop, and not the HDD. Lukeno94 (talk) 11:13, 26 February 2013 (UTC)[reply]

I ran Spinrite on the laptop. Any suggestions for a newer (free) alternative to chkdsk? 196.214.78.114 (talk) 11:50, 26 February 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Your hard drive's manufacturer should have a free disk checking utility on their website. Lukeno94 (talk) 14:31, 26 February 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Chkdsk is not outdated; it is the right tool for this job. The reason it reported errors is that the volume being checked was modified while chkdsk was reading it, so what it read later was inconsistent with what it read earlier. You can ignore these errors. NTFS volumes normally don't need to be repaired at all (because of journaling). If you have some reason to suspect a problem and you want to avoid the spurious errors, you can run chkdsk at boot (as you did) or on a shadow copy of the volume. -- BenRG (talk) 02:59, 27 February 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks. Your answer makes perfect sense. I booted the laptop in safe mode and ran chkdsk - no problems detected. This would seem to support what you said since there are almost no programs running that may affect or alter the volume during the check. Resolved! 196.214.78.114 (talk) 06:22, 27 February 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Inkscape align/group question

I was just playing around with Inkscape (version 0.48.2 under X on MacOS) and I noticed something odd. I was creating some rectangles and some text fragments, then using the alignment tool to center the text on the rectangles. Although this worked, it seems to have had the side effect of cementing the text and the rectangle inseparably together. I can't ungroup them, and I can't edit the text. Anybody know what happened, or how to undo it?

(And if there's a good way to manipulate text-on-rectangles -- or rectangles-around-text -- as a built-in object type, that'd be good to know, too.) —Steve Summit (talk) 12:00, 26 February 2013 (UTC)[reply]

I don't understand how you got that inseparable fusion; have you perhaps, at some point, turned the text into a path? To put centred text into a box I'd:

draw the box
create the text - by clicking the text button, clicking (not dragging) where I wanted the text to go, and typing the text
select both, then align-and-distribute -> centre

If the text isn't editable, it's because it's not a text object any more - it's become a path (you can manually achieve this by selecting a text object, then path->object_to_path); once it's a path it's irrevocably a bunch of splines, and not editable text any more. You can tell it's a path because you can use the point editor to manipulate its individual vertices, which you can't if it's a real text object. You can implicitly path-ify a text object by doing an operation like path->difference, so perhaps you did that? The alignment operation itself doesn't group and doesn't path-ify. -- Finlay McWalterჷTalk 12:14, 26 February 2013 (UTC)[reply]

We are on exactly the same page. I had, in fact, followed more or less exactly the three steps you outlined (and no more). I don't understand how I ended up with inseparable fusion, either. —Steve Summit (talk) 16:58, 26 February 2013 (UTC) Ah, addendum: I did do one extra thing: I region-selected both the rectangle and the (now-centered) text, copied to the clipboard, and pasted. That's where the cementing seems to occur. 17:03, 26 February 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Yes! It is the pasting! You can either paste between OSX apps, or have copy/paste retain Inkscape object structure. But (AFAIK) not both! Open your X11 preferences (command-comma) and go to the "pasteboard" tab. You want "enable syncing" to be UNchecked. Otherwise, when you cut and paste within inkscape, everything gets rasterized, losing all vector info. SemanticMantis (talk) 17:37, 26 February 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Oh! Thanks. I'll look at that. (Although if what you say is true, and if leaving "enable syncing" unchecked has as many other undesirable side effects as that dialog box suggests, this is gonna be one more big reason to loathe X-apps-on-Mac, as if I needed any more...) —Steve Summit (talk) 18:25, 26 February 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Okay, I tried it, and it did work. Thank you!

(Although, just as you said, it's evidently not possible to both paste between OS X apps and have copy/paste retain Inkscape object structure -- but of course I do need to be able to do both, so I've already find myself checking "enable syncing" on and off, just as if it were some even-less-convenient variation on "paste special". What a nuisance! There has got to be a better way. But this is not the place for a gratuitous diatribe, so I'll thank you again for your advice, and leave it at that.) —Steve Summit (talk) 04:11, 27 February 2013 (UTC) [reply]

Resolved

Rewiring halogen torchieres for CFLs

I have several nice floor lamps which are currently wired for 300 watt/120 volt halogen lights. They have dimmer switches on them. I'd like to rewire them for CFLs, to save on electricity. Some issues I've already thought of:

1) You need special CFLs to handle use on a dimmer switch. My plan is to leave the dimmer switches in the circuit, but fully on, and add a simple toggle switch to the circuit, just using that. (The dimmer switches are rather inaccessible, so not easy to remove.)

2) Getting the equivalent amount of light to a 300 watt halogen bulb would either require a quite expensive high-wattage CFL, or multiple sockets. I choose the multiple sockets route. With 4 sockets, I only need 75 watt equivalent bulbs, although I'll probably put 100 watt equivalent bulbs in, giving me the equivalent of 400 watts of light, for less than 100 actual watts.

So, does this sound like a practical solution ? Are there any other considerations I need to make ? StuRat (talk) 17:42, 26 February 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Still trying to get light for your camera? The dimmer left on high should work. CFLs are high inductive loads so they may fry the dimmer if you adjust it. Light output is measured in lumens now, I think. It used to be candle power, foot candles etc. If you compare the lumen output that may be easier than the wattage input. You may also wish to put fresh batteries in your smoke detector.--Canoe1967 (talk) 19:35, 26 February 2013 (UTC)[reply]

In the US, the "incandescent light watt equivalent" is so widely used, that CFL bulbs have that listed in large letters, like "100", with the actual wattage in smaller print below (like "23").

This isn't for my camera, as these floor lamps point at the ceiling, and I need bright light pointing downward, for using the camera on small objects on a table. StuRat (talk) 21:40, 26 February 2013 (UTC)[reply]

PDF previews instead of opening online docs

It very well may be that it's some setting I clicked by accident (in Adobe Acrobat 8 Professional or Firefox or whatever), but as of a few days ago, every pdf I open does not download but opens up in a preview. I can then download it if I want, but I'd much prefer if it just automatically downloaded, as it always did before. Anyone have any idea of what I did or if it's some new default in Firefox or something, and how to go back to the status quo? Many thanks in advance.--108.27.62.131 (talk) 21:36, 26 February 2013 (UTC)[reply]

I've noticed this, too, and just assumed it came with some update of Firefox. StuRat (talk) 21:41, 26 February 2013 (UTC)[reply]

For a while Firefox has had a PDF renderer (as does Chrome) which translates a PDF document into HTML5 (so it works a lot like an HTML or SVG document, rather than a blob in a plugin). This wasn't enabled by default until Firefox 19, which was pushed last week. Info about this feature is described here, which also explains how to disable this feature and return to using a plugin based on an external PDF reader like Adobe's. -- Finlay McWalterჷTalk 21:58, 26 February 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks to both of you. Unfortunately, following the instructions on the Mozilla page this takes one to does not resolve the issue. Specifically, in the plugin panel in the Add-ons manager, there is no "PDF reader plugin" that can be disabled. In fact, I checked and each plug-in listed was last modified months ago, long before this "feature" was enabled. So Mozilla's own instructions for disabling this are not working:-(--108.27.62.131 (talk) 16:40, 27 February 2013 (UTC)[reply]

I think you are misreading the instructions. They tell you how to disable third-party PDF plugins so as to enable the built-in PDF reader. As far as I can see, the page contains no instructions how to disable the built-in reader without replacing it with another PDF plugin.—Emil J. 17:11, 27 February 2013 (UTC)[reply]

I don’t have the new Firefox to test it, but I suppose you could try asking PDFs to be saved using http://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/set-how-firefox-handles-different-file-types .—Emil J. 17:15, 27 February 2013 (UTC)[reply]

I haven't tried it myself, but I believe you need to actually install Adobe's plugin to get this functionality back. The plugin should override Firefox's own system. Like I say, though, I've not tried it, so no promises! — The Hand That Feeds You:^Bite 19:22, 27 February 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Aha! EmilJ has the answer. Worked perfectly; just go to preferences, applications tab, scroll to "Portable Document Format (PDF)", and get a drop down menu where you can choose to open using adobe.--108.27.62.131 (talk) 21:24, 27 February 2013 (UTC)[reply]

February 27

Security in Windows 7

Recently I saw a friend of mine start her computer. When she got to the log in screen she entered her password and, after booting into Windows, opened up her browser. When the browser opened with multiple tabs I noticed that several were already logged into various sites. I mentioned to here that it probably wasn't a great idea. She said that it was more secure that way. The reasoning being is that if there is a problem with her computer then her passwords won't be compromised as she doesn't enter them. Is there any truth in that or is it just a false sense of security? CambridgeBayWeather (talk) 01:33, 27 February 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Meh. If someone installed a keylogger then it could read typed passwords, so that's probably what she's thinking. But the password stores that browsers use aren't super-secure, so if clever malware were running on her computer then it could probably harvest the credentials that way. And while browsers aren't supposed to send credentials for site A to site B, a modern browser is such a vasty complex beast (with such a large attack surface) that one must worry about malware managing to do that anyway. Really, if malware is already in your computer then your goose is cooked, one way or another. Having the logins stored means she has lower risk of a password being shoulder surfed, but increases the risk that she'll walk away and leave the machine unlocked and her credentials misused by someone physically present. Another risk is backup - if it's a work computer then the password store (locations detailed here) will probably be backed up and/or replicated across the network, again affording an opportunity for the backup medium to be stolen and passwords recovered from it. -- Finlay McWalterჷTalk 01:47, 27 February 2013 (UTC)[reply]

I may have misunderstood but I presume the friend means the passwords are not stored on the computer. Rather she uses the option to stay logged in to sites when possible, in other words a cookie with authorisation is the only thing stored on the computer. This does have some risks, notably the Yahoo cross site flaw [5] has had a lot of media attention. And in addition if the cookie is backed up, people could use that to access the account. But they couldn't recover passwords except for passwords stored in email accounts or other places (they could also reset passwords) they have access to or for stupid sites which enable the password to be recovered. I do agree it's a bit silly to rely on this to protect from malware, unless the malware developer is particularly dumb they could just kill the cookie forcing a relogin if they want to get the password. Nil Einne (talk) 04:43, 27 February 2013 (UTC)[reply]

I'm looking at this from a physical access point of view. If she's using Firefox and has FF store her passwords in order to autofill them when needed, this is rather insecure. There are a number of programs that can crack a Windows password. Once that's done, the user can then open FF and go to Options > Security > Saved Passwords > Show Passwords. They then have all the sites that she's stored and their login info with passwords. Dismas|^(talk) 06:12, 27 February 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks all. I probably should have said that it's here home desktop and she has little worries about someone in the same room as her. I suspect that she was thinking more about keyloggers. CambridgeBayWeather (talk) 10:43, 27 February 2013 (UTC)[reply]

One good bit of security advice is to maintain two different web browsers. Using one for 'trusted sites' only where you are likely to want to stay logged in for long periods of time. The other browser to use for sites that you do not know or trust. This means that rogue code from an untrusted site cannot effect a Cross-site request forgery type attack --_nonsense ferret 13:35, 27 February 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Statistics from Department for Vehicles don't sync up

If someone has the time to download VEH0124 here you get two excel tables of UK vehicle registrations. My question is why the 2010 sales for the C3 Picasso aren't the same on both and if the 2011 table is likely to be more reliable just for being newer? I work out C3 Picasso sales as 10,025 units on the >2010 list and 10,002 on the >2011 list. If someone can answer that query i would appreciate it. Thanks ツ Jenova20 ^(email) 11:43, 27 February 2013 (UTC)[reply]

I disagree slightly on the numbers (I get 9855 registered in 2010 from the 2010 table and 9798 from the 2011 table), but I agree that they don't match up. Having worked in vehicle registration, I think the answer is that neither table can be considered the 'most accurate', rather that each was an accurate reflection of the situation on the date the information was published.

Put simply, the reason is that the database is inaccurate. As the DVLA say in their guidance to the data, "The DVLA database can be regarded as being completely accurate in terms of the number of licensed vehicles and vehicles with a SORN. However, there will be some errors in some of the specific details of individual vehicles." In other words, they know the total number of cars currently registered in Britain, but anything else (how many red cars, how many cars with a 1.6l engine, how many Citroen Picassos) is subject to a certain amount of error. They suggests that 11% of vehicles currently registered have an error somewhere on the registration document. This might be in the keeper's details, or in the details of the car. It would seem that the ~1% discrepancy noted above could quite easily derive wholly from such errors.

Most vehicles registered in the UK are not registered directly by the DVLA, but by 3rd parties - either the manufacturer in the case of cars sold directly from main dealers, or by the retailer in the case of car supermarkets. If the manufacturer registers the car, it is likely a mostly automatic process. When the car is made it has a 'Certificate of conformity' detailing the car's body and engine type, along with the description it is to be registered under. A number from the certificate can be used to automatically populate the registration details (i.e. the DVLA system 'knows' that a car with certificate number 0347594d34 is a Citroen C3 Picasso 1.6HDI SX in blue). However, sometimes the system doesn't work properly and details have to be entered manually, or in the case of car supermarkets, cars are imported that don't match up with UK specifications. In these cases, details are entered manually. This can be a source of error. (I know - I've made those errors!)

Another source of discrepancy could be that cars can be imported from other EU countries after their first registration, but keep their original registration date. For instance, the car supermarket in which I used to work purchased vast numbers (often 100s each month) of ex-rental cars from the Channel Islands. These cars would be about 6 months old when we received them, and would require re-registering onto UK plates. We filled in a V55/5 form (by hand - one for each vehicle!) and delivered the form to our local DVLA office, who would sit on it for about 2 weeks before producing a registration document (V5). The V5 would state the registration date as the date when the car was first registered in Jersey or Guernsey - thus, a vehicle registered on 01/07/2010 in Jersey and re-registered in the UK by me on 01/02/2011 would be noted by the DVLA as a 2010-registered car, and receive a XX10XXX plate. Therefore, if you were to collect statistics on the number of registrations in 2010 on 31/12/2010, you would not see this vehicle on the list. However, re-run the list on 2/2/2010 and suddenly there is an extra vehicle which was registered in 2010. I'm not definitely sure that the DVLA are picking up this discrepancy - it could be that they can filter it out based on 'UK registration date' (another field on the V5), but it's a possibility.

I hope this helps to show why the numbers are not particularly accurate, even if it doesn't help to get an 'official' figure. As far as I'm aware, the figures that are often reported in newspapers and magazines are taken from the SMMT, but I can't reach their website right now, and I seem to recall that you need to be a member to view detailed statistics. - Cucumber Mike (talk) 12:58, 27 February 2013 (UTC)[reply]

I should have mentioned - when I spoke about errors in the 3rd paragraph, the point is that there are ways to correct errors that have been made. So, if a C3 Picasso had been registered as a C3, once the mistake is spotted it can be changed. This would have the effect of reducing the number of C3s registered in that year by one, and increasing the number of Picassos by one. If the change was made after the end of the year, it would presumably show up in the statistics.

Such errors are surprisingly easy to make - I can still clearly remember the phone call I had from a distressed customer who'd been pulled over by the police and accused of stealing his newly purchased car. It turned out that when I registered his vehicle I'd made an error by picking up the wrong certificate of conformity, and hence typing in the VIN number, meaning that I'd actually registered a completely different vehicle. When he drove past a police ANPR, it scanned his plate and came up with no tax or insurance on the vehicle - correctly, since the car that should have borne those plates was sitting, unsold and untaxed, outside my office! The police pulled him over, and got his car's details up on their system. That showed that the plates he was using on his car were for a completely different car, and that the VIN number on his car was for one that was not yet registered. In short, it looked to the police like this gentleman had got some plates made up, and then pinched an unregistered car from a dealership. Possibly the only thing that saved him from a very quick trip to the police station was that he was 75 and didn't really look like a car thief! I can tell you, that simple mistake of picking up the wrong piece of paper one day caused me a whole load of extra form filling, letters of sincere apology and trips to the DVLA office to sort it out and promise it wouldn't happen again! - Cucumber Mike (talk) 13:18, 27 February 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Thank you very much for the speedy reply Mike. Should i be using only the newest version of the figures in this case (as mistakes may have been fixed) and preceded by a ≥ symbol?

Also i just re-added the figures for 2010 from the >2011 sheet to get 10,002 again. I know it's beside the point but the numbers are: 30, 1301, 27, 203, 3635, 140, 109, 492, 2622, 1269, 34, 140. Thanks ツ Jenova20 ^(email) 14:01, 27 February 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Fair enough. I didn't spend long enough adding them up, so I'm sure you're right.

As to which figures you should use, they are both accurate in their own way, but I guess the 2011 figures are the most up-to-date, so they are probably the best ones to use. Having said that, I don't know if they really should be added, for two reasons. Firstly the discrepancies noted above mean that these really are only figures that estimate the number of vehicles registered as Picassos during 2010. That's not the same as the number produced or sold - which would seem to be more useful figures when discussing the success or otherwise of a particular make of car. Secondly, I don't see why particular importance is placed on the UK sales - why single out the UK and not France, the EU, or some other market? Personally, I would show worldwide production and sales figures and leave it at that. Maybe this discussion would be best at the article talk page - I'd be happy to weigh in there if needed. - Cucumber Mike (talk) 15:45, 27 February 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Sure! If you create a new header on the talk page we can go through it. Thanks for the assistance ツ Jenova20 ^(email) 16:02, 27 February 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Done. - Cucumber Mike (talk) 16:13, 27 February 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Problems down loading Wikipedia pages

I am having trouble down loading Wikipedia pages. This has been happening for the several days running. They usually load but only after 5 to 10 minutes this is very unusual. Is this occurring with other users? Do you know what may be going on? Can you help me resolve this problem, or explain what is causing it? I don't believe this is unique to me, and it does not happen with any other pages. I have been having trouble reporting this problem as there does not seem to be a category for problems like this. I would assume others are having this same issue and could use some clarification as well.Inquisitive River Otter (talk) 17:30, 27 February 2013 (UTC)[reply]

No, it seems fine for me. Also, I think we'd have heard if substantial numbers of others were having the same issue.

Let's start with the basics. Have you tried using a different browser? Do you have the same issue with any other sites? What about other WMF sites (e.g. [6] or [7])? Have you recently scanned your computer for viruses and/or malware?

For more detailed advice, please post back with: a) Your operating system (e.g. Windows XP, Windows 7, Ubuntu); b) your browser (e.g. Firefox, Internet Explorer, Chrome); c) any patterns you have noticed in this behaviour (e.g. only at certain times of day, started since installing a certain piece of software, happens after visiting a certain site, etc). - Cucumber Mike (talk) 17:52, 27 February 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Touch screens

Do you think everything will have a touch screen in the future? Fridges, cookers, mirrors, walls, cars, tables. Clover345 (talk) 19:10, 27 February 2013 (UTC) And why are phone touchscreens so good? Ticket machine touch screens are really unresponsive. Clover345 (talk) 19:19, 27 February 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Probably no. It would be easier to wirelessly access any device from a single computer.

Ticket machines are not upgraded every x months, and they need a thicker protective plastic screen. OsmanRF34 (talk) 20:21, 27 February 2013 (UTC)[reply]

No we'll be too fat and float around on hover boards, how would we touch the surfaces? We'll have radio control implanted in our heads instead. In other words this reference desk is not for eliciting our speculation or opinions, see the advice at the top of the page. Dmcq (talk) 21:17, 27 February 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Modern touchscreens are frequently capacitive, whereas older touchscreens tended to be resistive. Older machines may also use CRT screens which may not be as flat or distortion free as LCD monitors. With CRT screens, the transparent pane which users touch may be a greater distance away from the monitor, and the monitor behind it may be curved, making it more difficult to judge what one is touching. Besides that, older machines (which is what you'll often find used for ticket on public transit, etc.) are obviously going to be using older technology, and the state of the art has changed. — daranz [ t ] 21:59, 27 February 2013 (UTC)[reply]

I'm not a fan. My screens get filthy enough when I go out of my way to avoid touching them. With touch screens, they'd be disgusting. When they are self-cleaning, give me a call. StuRat (talk) 22:14, 27 February 2013 (UTC)[reply]

These days, some touchscreens receive lipophobic coatings to reduce the amount of residue left behind by fingers. Not exactly self-cleaning, but a step in that direction. — daranz [ t ] 22:28, 27 February 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Hopefully not! While I appreciate touchscreen in places where I need to access many different functions (e.g. in a smartphone), I really don't see the point of using touchscreens to replace functions of simple buttons as for instance in cooktops which are much slower to operate with touch buttons. Also, at least a couple of years ago, I remember that ticket machines in busy Japanese train stations were non-touchscreen, but had dedicated buttons, presumably because they were faster to operate as less busy stations did have touchscreens (warning: WP:OR). bamse (talk) 23:14, 27 February 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Touchscreens could be faster, if done right. Take volume controls. The oldest method was a dial, which you could quickly turn to whatever volume you wanted. Then they came out with dreadful up and down buttons, which are much slower to get to the proper level. Then they added acceleration to the up/down buttons, which can make you fly past the setting you want. Now, if the touchscreen has just up/down buttons or up/down buttons with accel, it will be just as bad. But, if they just let you pick right on the volume level meter to go to that volume, then it should be almost as good as the dial we started with. StuRat (talk) 02:21, 28 February 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Clearing my Firefox cache

I'm trying to clear my Firefox cache, and everything I see that tells me how to do it starts off with "Click the Firefox button at the top of the screen"... and then proceeds from there. I don't have a Firefox button at the top of my screen. I'm using Window 8 and Firefox 18. Help? RNealK (talk) 22:57, 27 February 2013 (UTC)[reply]

If there is no big orange button on the top-left of your screen, try using the keyboard shortcut Ctrl+Shift+Del, then make sure "Cache" is the only one checked (select "Everything" on the time range to delete, if applicable). -- 143.85.199.242 (talk) 23:09, 27 February 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Thank you, that did it. Do you know how I can get the big orange button to appear? RNealK (talk) 23:15, 27 February 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Go to View → Toolbars and click on Menu Bar. Chamal ^T•C 05:20, 28 February 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Multiple logins to same site in one browser

If login information is stored in a cookie, is there a way to browse a site with a single browser using two different logins (in separate tabs or windows)? Perhaps using a browser add-on or something!? (For testing purposes I sometimes log in using two different browsers, one for a user login and one for an administrator login. I'd rather do this with a single browser if possible.) bamse (talk) 23:25, 27 February 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Something like this? Henry ^Flower 05:10, 28 February 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Browser caching, SSL and http authentication

I am reading conflicting things about how SSL and simple http authentication affect browser caching of static content (css, js, images,...). Is it possible to enforce (if user's browser supports caching) caching over SSL for a password (http authentication) protected site? bamse (talk) 23:27, 27 February 2013 (UTC)[reply]

February 28

Loopback interface

I have two questions about the implementation of the loopback interface:

I think (almost) all 127.x.x.x addresses are mapped to the loopback interface. If I create a socket, bind it to a particular loopback address 127.a.b.c, and listen for incoming connections, will I get only connections to the particular 127.a.b.c address, or will I get connections for all 127.x.x.x addresses?
For IPC that occurs through the loopback interface, how far down the protocol stack does processing of packets go? Does processing terminate at the IP layer, implying that knowledge about the 127.x.x.x addresses is built into the IP layer handling module? Or does processing terminate one layer down, with some module implementing a virtual network interface?

If either question is not formulated quite right, feel free to turn it into a better formulated one and answer that instead. Thanks. --173.49.13.59 (talk) 05:40, 28 February 2013 (UTC)[reply]