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August 12

I have more free disk space than when I started?!

Okay, I noticed something really weird today. Here's what happened: the last time I checked how much free space I had left on my HDD was about (IIRC) a week ago. I'm pretty sure it had about 58GB left. Today, I checked it again; and now it has 60.3GB left! Between then and now, I had done the following:

• Installed the drivers and related software for a printer
• Downloaded some PDFs and similar files
• Updated AVG

So I'm puzzled. I have more free disk space after downloading things! The system is my laptop, a Toshiba Satellite running Vista Home Premium SP2. Does anyone know what could have happened here? I don't think I had uninstalled anything during this time... I half hope I'm imagining things. Thanks! --.Yellow1996. ^(ЬMИED¡) 01:22, 12 August 2013 (UTC)

Maybe you had some temporary files somewhere that got deleted automatically. Jackmcbarn (talk) 01:27, 12 August 2013 (UTC)

Hmmm never though of that. 2 Gigs though? Well I don't know much about those temp. files so I guess that could probably be it. As long as the cause is benign (no virus etc - haven't noticed a performance hit yet! ;))... thanks Jackmcbarn for putting my mind at ease! :) --.Yellow1996. ^(ЬMИED¡) 01:35, 12 August 2013 (UTC)

As well as temporary files (particularly the internet cache), defragmentation can cause a HDD to show slightly more free space, and the Page file will change size (though I'm not sure if this is included in free space calculations or not). MChesterMC (talk) 09:42, 12 August 2013 (UTC)

Could also be Hiberfil.sys: Basically when your laptop goes to Hibernation mode the system dumps the memory into that file and uses/loads it when the system is resumed. It would typically be around the same size as your installed memory 112.198.90.155 (talk) 09:52, 12 August 2013 (UTC)

Well I haven't done a defrag for a while, so it's unlikely that is the cause; also, wouldn't the hibernation file make it so I have less disk space rather than more? --.Yellow1996.^(ЬMИED¡) 17:27, 12 August 2013 (UTC)

Two possibilities come to mind (1) emptying the recycle bin could do that. (2) Did you check the size the same way? Some things give the actual number of bytes, some give it in the number of KB, where KB=1024 bytes, not 1000. Bubba73 ^{You talkin' to me?} 17:39, 12 August 2013 (UTC)

Unfortunately, it was in the same place (under "computer" on the start menu.) For the recycle bin, is it possible it emptied on its own? Though I don't think I sent anything there recently, and I'm pretty good about emptying as soon as I delete. --.Yellow1996.^(ЬMИED¡) 18:21, 12 August 2013 (UTC)

As far as I know, it never empties on its own, unless the HD gets nearly full. It is a good idea to leave deleted things in there a while, in case you need to get them back. Bubba73 ^{You talkin' to me?} 19:38, 12 August 2013 (UTC)

Generally, I only delete things that there would be no chance of me needing them (accidental copies, old outdated files, etc.) And I guess since it can't empty automatically then that rules that theory out! --.Yellow1996.^(ЬMИED¡) 01:16, 13 August 2013 (UTC)

It's also possible that AVG was using space inefficiently, say by storing things uncompressed, and the updated version fixes that, so now it takes up less room. StuRat (talk) 20:10, 12 August 2013 (UTC)

I had never thought of that. That's a good explanation, StuRat; thanks! :) --.Yellow1996.^(ЬMИED¡) 01:16, 13 August 2013 (UTC)

You're quite welcome. StuRat (talk) 10:20, 13 August 2013 (UTC)

iPod battery

My iPod is having problems. Recently it got discharged and I didn't pay much attention because I was't gonna use it. Yestarday I tried to charge it but the screen shows a message that reads: Please wait, Battery Level very Low or something like that. I waited 3 hours and it started charging-. When it was full, I disconnected it and I started listening to music. A couple of minutes later it turned off.

I don't know what happened, it'd never done that before. What seems to be the problem. And... if the battery is broken, can it be replaced or not? Miss Bono ^[zootalk] 13:14, 12 August 2013 (UTC)

Hey Miss Bono, I know that you can't follow links so I'll sum up all that I found: basically it looks like your battery is probably broken, or close to failure. Luckily, they can be replaced and aren't terribly expensive. If there's an Apple store nearby then you should probably take it in for them to have a look. Good luck! --.Yellow1996.^(ЬMИED¡) 17:33, 12 August 2013 (UTC)

Tnanks .Yellow1996., there are no Apple Stores here so, i am afraid I will have to ask my aunt for a new battery. She can buy it in the US. I'd hate losing my U2 iPod :'( Miss Bono ^[zootalk] 17:39, 12 August 2013 (UTC)

I looked a little deeper and found if she would get them right from Apple, then they probably cost about $80. But- they appear to be anywhere between $5-$30 (US) online, so that's probably the best place to get them. I hope your U2 iPod gets back to working soon! :) --.Yellow1996.^(ЬMИED¡) 18:18, 12 August 2013 (UTC)

Yellow1996 is almost certainly correct that you need a new battery, but I would try charging it a few more times, just in case it partially recovers its capacity. Be careful when buying a replacement because some of the fakes can be dangerous. Dbfirs 20:30, 12 August 2013 (UTC)

Oh, thanks for the info. I hope my baby recovers again... :'(... how many hours should I charge it? Miss Bono ^[zootalk] 20:38, 12 August 2013 (UTC)

Just keep recharging until "full" and using until "empty". There's no guarantee that it will recover, and it will never get back to its original capacity, but its worth trying. The battery probably has a weak cell that has been over-discharged when you left it "empty". (It could be replaced by an expert, but taking apart the battery is not recommended unless you know exactly what to do and can obtain a matching replacement cell.) Dbfirs 07:18, 13 August 2013 (UTC)

hi, today, Dbfirs. I did exactly what you told me, but again... it is dead.... Miss Bono ^[zootalk] 12:49, 13 August 2013 (UTC)

Sorry about that. You might try taking it to someone who has a charger designed to recondition such batteries (they apply a higher than normal voltage for a short time to persuade the safety circuitry to let some charging current through). Just sometimes, it's possible to persuade the circuitry to start charging again, but if one cell is truly dead then taking the battery apart and replacing that cell is the only option, and it will probably be cheaper and safer to buy a new battery if you can get a good one at a reasonable price. It's the fake chargers that are really dangerous, though if you buy a battery for £2.99 (UK pounds) (as advertised here) then it might not hold as much charge as the genuine Apple batteries, and it might get a bit hot. Dbfirs 17:17, 13 August 2013 (UTC)

Thanks. Miss Bono ^[zootalk] 20:35, 13 August 2013 (UTC)

wow!! You are cuban!!!! I was beginning to feel I was the only one in here!

Caution: And so… he don’t speak English quite well so he just take a license and start to write in cuban about her trouble…

oye ojalá y resuelvas con las indicaciones que te dicen de las baterías pero me parece que cuando eso llega a cierto límite no tiene vuelta atrás, en amazon hay baterías de esas muy baratas, una amistad compró una de marca newer… creo… la cuestión es que era la más barata que había en ese moemnto, le salió con el envío y todo en menos de 10 cuc y hasta ahora le dura más o menos lo mismo que la original. Igual yo tengo teléfonos de varia gente en la habana que se dedican a hacer reparaciones de ipod y esas cosas, lo que no sé ni cómo pudiera hacerte llegar esa información por aquí, por las políticas que tienen, si quieres ya me dirás que es lo que tengo que hacer, se ve que tienes tremenda experiencia aquí jeje… por cierto que página más linda tienes!

ha, algo como referencia no vaya a ser que se pongan bravos… link Pruebas seguirla?! :) salu2

Iskánder Vigoa Pérez (talk) 01:29, 16 August 2013 (UTC)

Help find the cursor

On my Windows 8 system, I often need to find the cursor and I can't find it. This is usually after a search that moves the cursor to the search string, but then I have a hard time finding the cursor. I can press and release the Ctrl key and circles will show me where the mouse pointer is. Is there something similar for the cursor key? (Most of the time I don't want to make the cursor more obtrusive.) Bubba73 ^{You talkin' to me?} 15:06, 12 August 2013 (UTC)

How does the cursor currently appear ? If it's thin and not set to blink, that might be the problem. I suggest a thick cursor, which inverts the color under it, blinking rapidly. StuRat (talk) 20:13, 12 August 2013 (UTC)

Normally it is a thin, blinking vertical line, but after I do a search on a webpage, it turns the background green. But many times I can't see it. Bubba73 ^{You talkin' to me?} 20:45, 12 August 2013 (UTC)

There doesn't seem to be a known way of doing this (at least that I could find); so I'd have to second StuRat's suggestion of making the cursor more prevalent, if your current green background isn't doing it for you. --.Yellow1996.^(ЬMИED¡) 01:18, 13 August 2013 (UTC)

I only have a problem after doing a search. I have some vision problems. Bubba73 ^{You talkin' to me?} 20:07, 13 August 2013 (UTC)

Then it's possible you could reconfigure it in the browser's settings. This page deals with changing the appearance of the cursor throughout Windows 8; the only pages I could find to do with browser-based solutions applied only to Ubuntu... --.Yellow1996.^(ЬMИED¡) 01:05, 14 August 2013 (UTC)

August 13

WhatsApp

If I saw that one of my WhatsApp contacts has disappeared, the person has generally deleted my phone number from their contacts, right?--95.116.217.118 (talk) 00:30, 13 August 2013 (UTC)

Yeah, either that or they've uninstalled WhatsApp altogether. Note: it doesn't mean they've blocked you though, as noted here. --.Yellow1996.^(ЬMИED¡) 01:24, 13 August 2013 (UTC)

Simultaneous copies to USB thumbdrive very slow

It's been my experience that when doing two or more simultaneous copy file operations to the same USB thumbdrive, the data transfer becomes very very slow. Why is this? Simultaneous copies to an SSD don't see any noticeable slow-down. (at least in my experience) --157.254.178.141 (talk) 01:06, 13 August 2013 (UTC)

USB connection is the bottleneck, it isn't as fast as SATA connection 140.0.229.26 (talk) 01:31, 13 August 2013 (UTC)

USB3 is almost as fast as the fastest SATA. But anytime I've had more than one input/output operation going on between drives, it is much slower than doing one and then the other. Bubba73 ^{You talkin' to me?} 01:43, 13 August 2013 (UTC)

Flash media likes to write in large blocks, because a block needs to be cleared and then rewritten when a change is made. This means it is very fast for large sequential writes, but much slower for several small writes. If you're copying to two locations on the drive at once, you're asking the drive to jump back and forth between two write locations. USB drives are usually marked as removable media, which means Windows tries to get data out to the drive as fast as possible just in case you decide to pull it out. With non-removable media such as an SSD, the OS knows it can take its time getting the data out, and send write requests as complete blocks. Jessica Ryan (talk) 12:14, 13 August 2013 (UTC)

Our various articles on buffers and caches don't really cover it very well. Just to clarify, in both cases Windows Explorer is sending out interleaved writes to both files. On a removable drive, the interleaved writes get pushed out to the drive as quickly as possible, causing the drive to issue repeated writes on the same few blocks, which is a very slow operation. On a non-removable drive, the writes are still requested by Explorer in the same order, but the disk driver knows there is no hurry. It uses system memory to buffer the writes until it can send it out as a few large whole-block writes rather than several partial writes. USB hard disks (with platters, non-SSD) are likely to use a drive with an onboard buffer, so even if Windows is pushing out writes in an inefficient order, the drive uses its onboard memory to get the same speed benefits that disk drivers give non-removable drives. Jessica Ryan (talk) 13:24, 13 August 2013 (UTC)

I noticed this too, sometimes i'd be copying one file that would take 1 minute, start copying another file of the same size to the same place and all of a sudden it's going to take 5 minutes. And it would, it wasn't just windows famous time estimate. So I started using teracopy. Vespine (talk) 00:38, 15 August 2013 (UTC)

Firefox and Software versioning

Do the authors of Firefox know about Software versioning? Every month or two there is a release with a new major version number but with only very minor changes. Bubba73 ^{You talkin' to me?} 02:18, 13 August 2013 (UTC)

Yes, haven't you been paying attention to software versioning? For over two years, Mozilla's been on a "rapid release schedule, and they manage their release versioning thusly. Because many parts of Firefox are open source or free software, and the final web browser is an agglomeration of numerous projects with independent schedules, Mozilla (the organization who brands and develops the final Firefox product) have found this versioning system to work more effectively. Don't get hung up on the magnitude of the version-numbers; there are no units for software-version; it is a nondimensional quantity. Nimur (talk) 04:27, 13 August 2013 (UTC)

With a "major" release every month or two, soon they will be at version 914.0, and from my end, there is essentially no difference from one version to the next. Bubba73 ^{You talkin' to me?} 04:30, 13 August 2013 (UTC)

Did you notice anything different from FF22 to FF23? All I've got so far is they changed the logo! --.Yellow1996.^(ЬMИED¡) 16:18, 13 August 2013 (UTC)

Why are you concerned? If you can't tell the difference between versions, then you're losing nothing by upgrading, and you won't notice or care if you don't upgrade. If you do not wish to upgrade, nobody requires you to do so. Mozilla does not bill you for software updates. Plenty of other people are taking advantage of new browser features, bug fixes, and the opportunity to select various levels of product stability. Those people benefit from a quick turnaround.

Some people upgrade their kernel every day; others are still living on Windows 98 or Linux 2.3. Part of the benefit of free software is that you may use it, modify it, and upgrade it (or not upgrade it) in any way you like. Nimur (talk) 04:49, 13 August 2013 (UTC)

Periodically, they break everyone's addons. It's hard to predict whether a given update will do that. Then of course they get swamped with addon updates, and it takes ages until the fixed versions appear in the Mozilla addon collection. So you have to go hunt down the homepages of your addons and update them manually. Whee! Bobmath (talk) 05:28, 13 August 2013 (UTC)

Every release can have security fixes and some bug fixes, but otherwise I don't see much that helps the average user. Bubba73 ^{You talkin' to me?} 13:38, 13 August 2013 (UTC)

I'm not as upset about FF as about Windows. Their versions do not come in monthly intervals, but still... XP was a bug fix to 2000, 7 was a fix to Vista, and neither was free of charge. And that doesn't even include the infamous pieces of software which refuse to install unless you have the Service Pack the programmers are in love with. Heck, (most) users pay for that kind of software!

Just my $0.02. - ¡Ouch! (^{hurt me} / _{more pain}) 06:45, 14 August 2013 (UTC)

Resolved

references to fiction versus non-fiction in search results

How can I quickly determine if the search result I am looking at refers to a fictional or non-fictional fact. Can an AI search process determine this for me? Is there a way that I can exclude all references to fiction, games, and other non-factual sources? 99.199.4.69 (talk) 17:37, 13 August 2013 (UTC)

I don't think there exists such a process. There are some search-engine tips here but I'm not sure if they're totally relevant. If you have a general idea of reputable sites for the query (ie. National Geographic for something on nature etc) then you can limit the search to such sites. Also using keywords like "news" and "journal" can help get factual information. --.Yellow1996.^(ЬMИED¡) 17:42, 13 August 2013 (UTC)

Point of clarification: consider the phrase "Mickey Mouse has two ears." Is this a fictional fact, or a non-fictional fact? SemanticMantis (talk) 18:15, 13 August 2013 (UTC)

SPSS v. 21: Python Will Not Run in Syntax Block

I installed the Python Essentials extension for SPSS v. 21, and I have been able to compile and run Python programs outside of SPSS. However, when I try to run a Python program within a BEGIN PROGRAM PYTHON syntax block, I get the following error:

The Integration Plug-in for Python is configured to work with a different version of SPSS Statistics. Please adjust the spss.pth and SpssClient.pth files so that the first line in each file specifies this version of SPSS Statistics. SpssClient.pth and spss.pth are located in the Python site-packages directory.

I've checked both of these files, and the version is set as 21. Does anyone know what might be causing this error?

Thanks! OldTimeNESter (talk) 19:50, 13 August 2013 (UTC)

LaTeX question

(moved from the maths desk) I want to force LaTeX to typeset each line at 0.99 the size of the previous one. Or maybe 0.95, haven't decided the precise value yet. So the lines get smaller and smaller. But I want the resulting document to "look right" locally, so the inter-line spacing must be right. I don't know the proper terms to use. Can anyone help? Or is there a better way than latex? Thanks, Robinh (talk) 19:59, 13 August 2013 (UTC)

You could try setting linespacing with \begin{spacing}{2.5} This paragraph has \\ huge gaps \\ between lines.\end{spacing} or insert a fixed-length space \vspace{length}. See b:LaTeX/Text_Formatting and b:LaTeX/Lengths.--Salix (talk): 05:44, 14 August 2013 (UTC)

Looking at b:LaTeX/Fonts#Arbitrary font size there is \fontsize{<size>}{<line space>}. So it looks like you can specify the font size and desired spacing in one go.--Salix (talk): 05:51, 14 August 2013 (UTC)

Thanks guys, but how do I synchronize text size change with newlines? I want right justified text if possible. Robinh (talk) 07:33, 14 August 2013 (UTC)

You can’t do that. Line breaks are chosen after the whole paragraph is typeset, so at that point, font sizes must be already fixed. (Which is perfectly reasonable: how could the computer determine where to break the lines if it didn’t know how wide are the words going to be?) You’ll have to break the text into lines manually.—Emil J. 11:19, 14 August 2013 (UTC)

Or at least, you can’t do that easily. What you could do in principle is to (1) typeset a whole paragraph (in normal size) inside a \vbox, using \parshape to make each line 100/99-times longer than the previous one, (2) peel off the lines one by one from the \vbox in a loop using \vsplit or \unvbox/\lastbox, and insert Postscript specials around each to scale it down to the desired size. This assumes you only have a relatively short piece of text with at least approximately known number of lines (because the \parshape has bounded length), it won’t work across pages. A similar (but easier) problem is solved on tex.stackexchange using such techniques, so you can take that as an inspiration. You can also try to ask there directly.—Emil J. 11:56, 14 August 2013 (UTC)

Thank you EmilJ for this. I guess it's harder than I thought. I was hoping for some argument along the lines of \setsequentialtypesettingsize{0.977} but this clearly does not exist. But it is now easier for me to use some clumsy wysiwyg system in the knowledge that TeX really isn't the correct tool. Best wishes, thanks everyone, Robinh (talk) 08:38, 15 August 2013 (UTC)

Agreed that it would be very difficult using only LaTeX. If it were only a few dozen lines or so, I'd link LaTeX source to an Inkscape plugin (depending on your OS and Inkscape version, there may be native TeX support). That way, you'd have high-quality vector output, that can be smoothly scaled and played with in an Inkscape svg. SemanticMantis (talk) 15:18, 15 August 2013 (UTC)

Thanks, SM. I do use inkscape (on all of windows/linux/macosx). Can you elaborate what you mean by 'link LaTeX source' please? Robinh (talk) 20:51, 15 August 2013 (UTC)

August 14

Samsung Galaxy Tab Storage

Why, with 500+mb remaining, does my tab say there is insufficient space to download and install a 5mb application? I am mystified. KägeTorä - (影虎) (TALK) 13:06, 14 August 2013 (UTC)

Is the free space on the device's internal storage or an SD memory card? Many apps can only be installed in system storage. Does the error occur with other apps of similar size? 88.112.41.6 (talk) 20:32, 14 August 2013 (UTC)

The free space I am talking about is the internal memory. I know about the issue with apps only being able to go on one or the other, which is annoying. KägeTorä - (影虎) (TALK) 11:20, 15 August 2013 (UTC)

Not very helpful but IIRC this was a problem with a certain model (models?) of the Samsung Galaxy; I believe it had something to do with there being a limit on the size of programs downloaded at once. However - the limit was 25MB or so, not as low as you are seeing (5MB); so I doubt this is your problem. --.Yellow1996.^(ЬMИED¡) 01:06, 15 August 2013 (UTC)

I did not know that but, I agree. I doubt that is the issue here. KägeTorä - (影虎) (TALK) 11:20, 15 August 2013 (UTC)

I've been having the same problem recently, and discovered that it doesn't matter how much total space you have in the internal memory (or on the SD card). The only free space that matters seems to be the system space (which is a subset of the internal memory). You can download an app called Storage Analyzer from the market (it is free) and tap the bottom left icon (which looks like a piechart) to see how much free space you have there. It'll also give you a nice overview of other important locations. Of course, to actually clean up system space, you'll either need to uninstall some apps, or to have a rooted system to be able to clean up the junk manually. Or the problem may be with something else, but for me at least this solved the problem. —Ëzhiki (Igels Hérissonovich Ïzhakoff-Amursky) • (yo?); August 15, 2013; 16:48 (UTC)

Firefox 23

I've just updated to Firefox 23, but Adobe Flash (also newest version) always crashes when I want to see for example videos. Before this, I've also had problems with Adobe Reader not displaying PDFs correctly. Is there any solution?--95.116.233.183 (talk) 19:12, 14 August 2013 (UTC)

Updates can sometimes glitch out Adobe Flash. Try uninstalling and then reinstalling; instructions: Windows, Mac. And of course - since this is Firefox - it could also be one of your addons/extensions acting up after the update. Hope this helps, --.Yellow1996.^(ЬMИED¡) 01:09, 15 August 2013 (UTC)

Reinstalling the first thing I did. It didn't work. I also removed useless addons.--77.1.136.155 (talk) 02:12, 15 August 2013 (UTC)

Upon further inspection this appears to be a very widespread problem. Restoring Firefox to default state works for some, but not all. You could also try using a different browser to make sure that the problem is with FF and not something else on your computer. --.Yellow1996.^(ЬMИED¡) 16:27, 15 August 2013 (UTC)

August 15

Smarter page breaks in Word

I'm using Microsoft Word to write a report. One section of the report includes a number of tables, each with a heading (using the heading format, outside the table itself). Is it possible to configure these in such a way that the heading and the table will always be on the same page, regardless of how much I add earlier in the section (each table is about half a page long, so page breaks would only work nicely if I added them as the last thing on the document).

Collapsing extended example
The following discussion has been closed. Please do not modify it.
Essentially what I have now is: ------ introduction title table title ------ table title table ------ And what I want is: ------ introduction title table ------ title table title table ------ in such a way that if I add notes in, it will automatically change to: ------ introduction title table ------ title table note ------ title table ------ without me having to fix the page breaks manually, and preferably not changing how page breaks work through the rest of the document.

MChesterMC (talk) 09:47, 15 August 2013 (UTC)

I don't know how do to that in Word, but it's very easy to do in LaTeX, which is actually designed to give publication-quality output. I understand this may not be helpful to you, but I like to spread LaTeX awareness :) SemanticMantis (talk) 13:08, 15 August 2013 (UTC)

I'm entirely aware of LaTeX, but it's massive overkill for 99% of the stuff I do, and trying to get it set up in a corporate environment (where I need to be able to send editable versions of the documents to people who aren't used to LaTeX) is likely to be impossible! MChesterMC (talk) 13:34, 15 August 2013 (UTC)

In LibreOffice, you can do Format -> Paragraph... -> Keep with next paragraph (check box) to make this work. Usually Microsoft Word is pretty similar, I think. Wnt (talk) 15:56, 15 August 2013 (UTC)

Thanks, a combination of that and "keep lines together" seems to do the job (though it looks like there may be some edge cases where the table is more than half a page long... Luckily, resizing a picure fixed that!) — Preceding unsigned comment added by MChesterMC (talk • contribs) 08:51, 16 August 2013 (UTC)

2-left hashing references

I decided I wanted to help out at Wikipedia:WikiProject_Computer_science, and started at the top of Wikipedia:Missing science topics/NIST Dictionary of Algorithms and Data Structures. I've barely got a stub so far, just using the NIST page as a reference: User:JessRyanA/2-left hashing‎

The problem that I'm running into is lack of sources, so I'm beginning to worry it isn't very notable. The reference it gives and the references cited by the few other places I can find it mentioned all use a balls-and-bins problem to discuss the problem - they expect that the reader will understand how to apply it to their own problems, such as hashing.

Can anyone help me track down other acceptable sources on the algorithm that discuss it directly as hashing? I'm worried using the balls-and-bins papers is synthesis. Here's the bit of discussion I've had on it already before deciding to look here for references: Wikipedia_talk:WikiProject_Computer_science#How.27s_my_first_attempt_at_a_new_article.3F Jessica Ryan (talk) 11:39, 15 August 2013 (UTC)

By the way, the NIST database also lists it as "always-go-left hashing" and "2-left scheme". I don't know if it goes by a more common name in other places. Jessica Ryan (talk) 12:00, 15 August 2013 (UTC)

Looking for a blu ray player for Vista laptop

Hi all, I've just bought an external (usb attached) blu-ray/dvd player (manufactured by Buffalo Inc.) for my Vaio laptop with Vista. I can play dvds, but somehow not blu-ray discs. Does anyone know a good free blu ray player for Windows? Also, if I want to attach it to my obsolete (2007) dvd player, what would that usually entail? The dvd player has hdmi slots among other things (but I think it's hdmi output only), and the digital tv (2011 or 2012) has all the usual stuff, but nothing onboard (ie. all sorts of attachments but no hard disk of its own etc). I can't find a usb slot on either the dvd or the tv. The blu ray player has only the usb connector. I've tried VLC, but it didn't play the blu ray, and kept giving me cryptic error messages. IBE (talk) 15:13, 15 August 2013 (UTC)

Even if they have USB ports, your TV and DVD player aren't going to be able to use the drive to play a blu-ray disc, because they won't have the software needed to actually interpret blu-ray data. Comparison of video player software#Optical media ability may be able to help you find PC software to play a blu-ray. I don't have experience with blu-rays on computers. Jessica Ryan (talk) 15:40, 15 August 2013 (UTC)

Thanks - because I'd found that article you linked, but couldn't find the bit on what plays blu-rays (it's abbreviated to "BD", hence the oversight, because control-f doesn't get you out of that one ;). No wonder my AVC etc doesn't work, because they don't do blu-ray. I'll try some other ones there - didn't know blu-ray was so finnicky. IBE (talk) 16:10, 15 August 2013 (UTC)

More on batteries...

Here's the next in my series of battery-related questions. Now that it's been firmly established that I cannot leave my electronic devices without a charge for too long, the next question is: how long is too long? For this thread I'd just like to focus on my Sony PSP; as it is important to me for its multimedia capabilities, but I can go months without using it (also it's easy to get at the battery! ;) So, on the battery it says: 3.6v and 1200mAh. I am wondering how long this battery can be left without a recharge? Not what its capacity is; I want to know how long I can not use it (have it in storage) without bringing it out for a recharge. I know that there is a variable as to how much charge it has when I stop using it, so I'd just like a rough estimate (or maybe one for full, half, and empty?) I don't know a lot about batteries so if I haven't given enough information, or I'm not making sense, then I'll provide more. Any information at all is greatly appreciated. Thanks! --.Yellow1996.^(ЬMИED¡) 16:37, 15 August 2013 (UTC)

Months should be no problem if you leave it with 40% to 60% charge. If you are leaving it for a year or more, then you might wish to try putting the battery in the fridge to reduce self-discharge. The age of the battery, and how many times it has previously been charged, are additional factors that will affect how long you can leave it without using it. I'd go for recharging every six months, but that's only an opinion. Perhaps someone else can point to some references? Dbfirs 07:41, 16 August 2013 (UTC)

I know I've had some devices with lithium-ion batteries come with charging and storage advice. Have you checked the manual for your PSP? Jessica Ryan (talk) 15:13, 16 August 2013 (UTC)

Thanks for the replies. Okay, Dbfirs, that's pretty much how it usually goes. I'd guess my PSP is usually around 40-60% charge (maybe sometimes even higher) when I store it. And - coincidentally - it always seems to be around 5 or 6 months when I take a break from it; and I very rarely go longer. To answer Jessica's question - unfortunately, I got my PSP second-hand several years ago, so without the box or manual. I didn't know that those manuals sometimes have that information in them; I'll try looking online to see if I can find a copy of the manual. Thanks, you two! :) --.Yellow1996.^(ЬMИED¡) 16:23, 16 August 2013 (UTC)

August 16

Windows Update (may have) messed up my display...

Hey guys. Today, when I was using my laptop in the morning, everything was fine; nothing out of the ordinary. When I logged off, windows had to install some "important updates" - this happens all the time. I believe it got to stage 2/3 then shut down. This is normal too - it would normally just do stage 3 at startup next time I booted. However, here's what happened... I logged on and it took a little while longer than usual to get to the login screen, and it never showed an update screen at all. Then, here's the scary part: when I got to the desktop, I noticed that the taskbar was windows 98-style, rather than the see-through (aero?) style that my Vista Home Premium (SP2) machine usually has. In fact, all my windows and stuff displays in "windows classic." Also, there was a popup message at startup (from the lower right corner of my desktop) saying that something had failed to connect (or something like that, the message went away too fast for me to see) and also something about since I'm an administrator I can see what went wrong. I tried to click the message but it just faded away and I could do nothing to bring it back. "Okay, I'll just go to preferences and switch back to aero!", I thought. Not so - aero's gone!!!! In preferences I only have the classic themes and high-contrast themes to choose from; none of the modern ones are there! I don't know what went wrong, the only logical explanation is that something happened with the Windows Update. The last time I downloaded something was a few days ago, and they were trusted files, and I noticed nothing until the update. My AV (AVG) is up to date and hasn't given me any warnings or anything. I don't think (or don't want to think!) that this is a virus - my computer is just as slow as it usually is. However, this removal of the newer themes has got me rattled, to say the least. Does anyone have any ideas? Sorry for writing so much. Thanks! --.Yellow1996.^(ЬMИED¡) 01:38, 16 August 2013 (UTC)

In the words of Maurice Moss: "What kind of operating system does it use?" "Vista" "We're going to die!". Anyway, on with the show: This isn't actually too much of an issue, but it catches many people out. It should be quite easy to resolve, as Microsoft have built a tool just for it. You can download if from their support site at this address. If that doesn't work, there a few manual options to try, so come back here and I'll explain them for you if you need them. I hope this helps.  drewmunn  talk  09:10, 16 August 2013 (UTC)

My recent experience might be relevant to the OP's situation. I recently reinstalled Vista on my laptop and had a lot of problems, including Aero disappearing from the themes. I found the reason was a) the video driver was the Microsoft default driver and b) it had not yet run the "Windows experience" tool. Once I had downloaded and installed the correct driver, Aero was still missing from the list of themes. Windows experience was still showing "1.0" (out of 5), so re-running the analysis resets the experience measure and that enabled Aero. Astronaut (talk) 14:17, 16 August 2013 (UTC)

This is very peculiar - when I logged on today, looks like everything is back to normal!!? Everything appears to be running just as it did before, aero's back; I didn't even have to go and re-select it, my laptop just booted as if nothing last night had happened at all. Unfortunately, I wasn't next to it when it was getting to the login screen, so it is possible it did some sort of update process which in turn fixed my problem. Maybe not. At least it's working... which is really something to be thankful for when you are working with a (supposedly!) buggy OS (I actually rarely have problems with Vista, to be honest.) I'll keep your advices in mind for if this ever happens again and it doesn't fix itself! ;) Thanks, guys! --.Yellow1996.^(ЬMИED¡) 16:32, 16 August 2013 (UTC)

reset firefox

i have version 8.0 and the mozilla support page on reseting firefox offers an inaccurate answer. also, does the probability of getting a captcha depend open how much one edits? thanks, 70.114.248.114 (talk) 01:53, 16 August 2013 (UTC)

I'm not really sure what you are asking about Firefox, but I will mention that you are a few updates out of date. Though it isn't required that you update, doing so may help you solve whatever problem you are having. Mingmingla (talk) 02:15, 16 August 2013 (UTC)

See Special:Captcha for when you can expect to get a captcha at Wikipedia RudolfRed (talk) 04:30, 16 August 2013 (UTC)

Coincidentally, I linked this a few questions above ("Firefox 23"); see this page to reset Firefox. Hope this helps, --.Yellow1996.^(ЬMИED¡) 16:34, 16 August 2013 (UTC)

sorry, i didnt phrase the questen well. i want to reset firefox (version 8.0), and this page does'nt have an acurate answer, posibly because i have an outdated version. 70.114.248.114 (talk) 19:46, 16 August 2013 (UTC)

Try the things listed here, which don't seem to specify requiring the latest release (as that other support page did); if that doesn't work then you'll have to upgrade to the latest release - which will probably fix the problems you are facing anyway. --.Yellow1996.^(ЬMИED¡) 01:22, 17 August 2013 (UTC)

Web server performance evaluation

I would like to evaluate a few hardware/software configurations for a web server, under different load profiles. The web server software I'm thinking of trying includes Apache HTTP Server, Nginx, and lighttpd. What are some good, free tools for the job? I'm looking for recommendations on both web server performance measurement tools and test load generation tools. Thanks. --173.49.10.42 (talk) 04:38, 16 August 2013 (UTC)

Audio not synched with video

I don't think it's just me that has an issue with this video on YouTube. What causes the audio and the video to be out of synch like this? Dismas|^(talk) 06:23, 16 August 2013 (UTC)

It's not just you, it's an encoding issue. The audio track is significantly misaligned, an issue that can be caused by dropped frames (if the video editor used was incorrectly set up), a bad original recording (it was from broadcast onto tape, by the looks of things, so that is most likely), or a mistaken click-and-drag by the editor (thereby progressing the video and not the audio) when they were trimming it for YouTube. The first cause is the least likely, as this will change the sync by a few milliseconds over a period of hours, rather than by around a second (by my quick estimate). The second is highly likely, as the timecode track on a VHS tape (the track that keeps everything lined up and running at the correct pace) is not to be relied on. Similarly, the hardware recording onto or off of the VHS may have been laggy, so transcoded it wrong. The final option is again unlikely, as the video and audio would probably have been ripped together from the VHS. As such, most consumer editors would link these together irrevocably. Only higher-end editors (i.e. Final Cut Pro or Premier Pro) would allow for the audio to be "unlinked" from the video, and even then, this requires a user action. It is still possible, however, as the user who created the recording may have collected audio from a different source than the VHS, or as a separate entity, and then not lined them up correctly in their editor to begin with.  drewmunn  talk  09:02, 16 August 2013 (UTC)

I don't think it can be a bad original recording. It was to videotape. Before digital video, the sound and image were never out of sync on videotape. With digital, just about everything is out of sync by at least fraction of a second. Bubba73 ^{You talkin' to me?} 14:13, 16 August 2013 (UTC)

I think it was probably an error that occured in the video editor. It's scary how easy these mistakes can happen. I used to work with those types of software quite a bit, and more than once was suprised to find a huge error in the final video just because I inadvertently dragged something a little to the right or hit a key when I was distracted. --.Yellow1996.^(ЬMИED¡) 16:40, 16 August 2013 (UTC)

Almost everything on TV now has the audio and video out of sync. At least on my cable TV. Bubba73 ^{You talkin' to me?} 17:08, 16 August 2013 (UTC)

Hmmm I don't notice that very often (except IIRC there was once a space documentary series I watched (it got canceled) that was always out of sync). Well, that may be because I have satellite rather than cable TV and don't watch overmuch of it! ;) --.Yellow1996.^(ЬMИED¡) 17:50, 16 August 2013 (UTC)

You are fortunate then. I don't know where in the process it gets out of sync, but it is probably because of all of the processing in the video. Bubba73 ^{You talkin' to me?} 20:04, 16 August 2013 (UTC)

I just checked a few channels and it isn't nearly as bad as it was a few years ago. Of the few I checked, the only one that was noticeably out of sync was CNN (both regular and HD). Bubba73 ^{You talkin' to me?} 20:46, 16 August 2013 (UTC)

Might have something to do with the satellite signal versus cable... though I am not an expert in that area by any means! ;) --.Yellow1996.^(ЬMИED¡) 01:24, 17 August 2013 (UTC)

Perhaps the cable company compresses it to send to me. On the other hand, CNN was the only out-of-sync channel of the several I checked today. Bubba73 ^{You talkin' to me?} 01:39, 17 August 2013 (UTC)

64 bit mobile

What are the pros/cons to having a 64-bit CPU in a mobile device as opposed to 32-bit? Mobile devices have much less than 4GB of RAM. I thought 64-bit was more complex and therefore less energy efficient than 32bit. --208.185.21.102 (talk) 16:46, 16 August 2013 (UTC)

Having 64-bit wide registers can, in theory, make certain operations more efficient, especially those involving large integers or double precision floating point numbers. In practice, I suspect the difference (for the average user not interested in specialised cryptographic applications) is likely to be unnoticeable. More practically, it'd let programmers make wider use of memory-mapped files. Horselover Frost (talk · edits) 19:00, 16 August 2013 (UTC)

People want to do all sorts of complicated things on mobile devices like take panorama pictures or translate languages. The difference in performance isn't very large. Having lots of room makes many things easier, e.g. garbage collection doesn't happen anywhere near so frequently.

I tell my friends that having lots of rooms in my mansion means I can organize and find things easier, far better than living in some suburban hovel where things have to be all stuffed together. ;-) Dmcq (talk) 20:58, 16 August 2013 (UTC)

What do you mean by 'Mobile devices have much less than 4GB of RAM'? Many of last years Christmas season and beyond, high end Android smartphones have 2GB of RAM, e.g. the HTC One, Nexus 4, Galaxy S4 and even many of those 1080 Chinese smartphones like the Umi X2, Oppo Find 5 and ZTE Grand S [1] and some of these are using MediaTek SoCs which sort of tells you they aren't intended to be extremely high end devices (and in fact i think some lower spec MTK phones have 2GB of RAM). The first 2GB Android device was said to be the LG Optimus LTE2 released mid last year. [2] [3]) Because of people not knowing how to read RAM specs, there was much hype about the second generation Nexus 7 having 4GB of RAM, said to be the first Android device [4], but it turned out to just be 2GB but there have been more credible suggestions a 3GB or 4GB device could show up this year [5] [6] [7] (although one of the rumoured devices, the LG G2 didn't pan out but the Note 3 is still up in the air AFAIK) which since 2GB ones showed up last year wouldn't be that surprising. This means 6GB or maybe 8GB could easily show up next year or 2015 so a lack of support for more than 32 bit addressing would be limiting. The Cortex-A15 has LPAE as do/will related CPUs I believe, but while this will enable the kernel/OS to address more than 4GB but apps will generally be limited to 4GB (how likely it is for an app to need more may be an open question but I'm sure so people will find a use). Even the Lumia 1020 has 2GB of RAM so high end Windows phones (the Lumia said to be the first) are not that far behind. [8] amd ai think some Blackberries have too altough whether Blackberry will survive to see more is anyone's guess (the Z30 was another rumoured 3GB device but that seems to have been confirmed to be wrong and I'm not that sure the rumours were particularly credible). Nil Einne (talk) 23:02, 16 August 2013 (UTC)

blocking faces from video

I know it can be done pretty easily and well now, there's plenty of programs out there to do it professionally, even automatically, but I'm wondering, does anyone know of programs that can do it free and yet still easy to use? it's only for a little bit of fun, so doesn't need to be the best quality, but I don't really want to have to pay for something I'll use once or twice then forget.

thank you,

213.104.128.16 (talk) 18:49, 16 August 2013 (UTC)

it's possible but doubtful. facial recognition software takes alot of time and effort to write, and very few programers have the skills to do so (knowing how the face works and such.) but some free software is written by many ppl who each put little effort into it, see github. 70.114.248.114 (talk) 19:41, 16 August 2013 (UTC)

It's possible, but due to the reasons for facial blurring, it's unlikely you'll get anything automatic. Free software may exist, but it would probably require frame-by-frame tracking, which is an exceedingly arduous process. Profession software like After Effects allows you to do this, but again, it's manual. Professional users cannot rely on automation, as a computer glitch may result in lawsuits or loss of licensing. If you don't want to have to spend the large amount of money required for such software and then learn how to use it, you may find it easier to hire someone if you ever find yourself in desperate need of facial blurring.  drewmunn  talk  21:56, 16 August 2013 (UTC)

Searching the web or video face blur suggests YouTube can do it automatically (with disclaimers that it isn't always perfect). Similar searches find software that help you do it - a program called "Wax" seems to come up (apparently you track the face manually at key frames.) 88.195.194.226 (talk) 09:32, 17 August 2013 (UTC)

youtube not working

when i went to a video, the video window said "plugin missing", and did nothing else. i uninstalled adobe flash player (did not reinstalled it). now when i go to a video, sometimes it plays fine, other times it says "plugin missing". i think it plays only when there are no ads (excluding the video links in yellow at the top.) i have Firefox 8.0, the only enabled plugin is Microsoft silverlight. i have windows 7 ultimate (unknown service pack). how might i fix this? thank you, 70.114.248.114 (talk) 21:03, 16 August 2013 (UTC)

Is there a reason that you have not updated Firefox? As someone else said before, you are several versions out of date. I would tend to think that your issue might have something to do with being so far behind. Dismas|^(talk) 22:12, 16 August 2013 (UTC)

I have no idea how the videos could be playing without the flash plugin; but besides that, Dismas is right: your issues probably all stem from the fact that you are many versions behind. If you really don't want to get the newer version of Firefox, you could try reinstalling flash and see if that works. --.Yellow1996.^(ЬMИED¡) 01:27, 17 August 2013 (UTC)

Extracting Google Books images

This book, page 146, has a PD-old image of the Hiram Bell Farmstead which I'd like to upload — but how? I can do a screenshot, but I'd like to use a better method if possible. Nyttend (talk) 21:44, 16 August 2013 (UTC)

This Safari extension claims to do just that; I've never used it, so I can't vouch for its usefulness. If that doesn't work, then the only other way is probably a screenshot. Hope this helps, --.Yellow1996.^(ЬMИED¡) 01:31, 17 August 2013 (UTC)

In Firefox, it can be done without an addon. Open Tools > Page Info > Media and hunt through the list of images until you find the right one. Bobmath (talk) 15:28, 17 August 2013 (UTC)

New PC...

My existing PC is in the process of dying, so I'll need to replace it.

I am really not very fond of Windows 7. It seems to make everything I want to do ether harder or impossible. Indeed I have several 16-bit applications that I like & use a lot.

Is it possible to get a new PC and then install old XP on it? If so, what constraints are there on the PC? I presume it would have to NOT be a 64-bit machine. Does XP support SATA disks? What else? -- SGBailey (talk) 22:10, 16 August 2013 (UTC)

This will not work (and to the extent that you can contort things to get it to work, doing so is folly):

• You can't buy Windows XP
• It is very unlikely that there will be XP drivers for key elements of the hardware of any new PC (crucially, the chipset drivers)
• In April of next year Microsoft will stop issuing any security patches for XP. Running it after that will be a dangerous business indeed. Here's what will happen - Microsoft will still continue to issue patches for Vista, 7, and 8 (at a rate of more than one a week); criminals will look at those patches and see what they fixed; then they'll try to exploit those same weaknesses on XP; they'll then write malware which exploits that, and Microsoft will never (they say) fix those holes.

-- Finlay McWalterჷTalk 22:43, 16 August 2013 (UTC)

I don't get the relevance of 16 bit software. 16 bit software should generally work fine on Windows 7 x32 or even I presume Windows 8. It won't work on Windows 7 x64 of course, just the same as it didn't work on Windows XP x64. Since it's unlikely 16 bit software is particularly demanding and thankfully even Intel is supporting VTx or whatever they call it on most of their CPUs now, a good option for compatibility is to run Windows XP or an even older version of Windows in a VM. Depending on your Windows licence, you may be able to do this legally for free, see XP mode. Nil Einne (talk) 00:47, 17 August 2013 (UTC)

The 16-bit software I still have won't run on 64-bit Windows 8. It might run on the 32-bit version. Bubba73 ^{You talkin' to me?} 00:52, 17 August 2013 (UTC)

Sorry I thought that was a given from my statement. P.S. [9] seems to confirm it's supported albeit disabled by default and they ask you to enable if you try to run a 16bit app. Nil Einne (talk) 00:52, 17 August 2013 (UTC)

So to clarify, if I bought a Win7 Pro PC, I could legitimately install XPMode and my antiquated program should run? -- SGBailey (talk) 12:25, 17 August 2013 (UTC)

Most likely yes although no one could guarantee all random programs will work, of course they may not work on any other PCs even if you could get Windows XP to run natively. Nil Einne (talk) 12:52, 17 August 2013 (UTC)

Thx -- SGBailey (talk) 13:11, 17 August 2013 (UTC)

August 17

terabyte thumb drives

When I look at thumb drives on ebay I see sizes up to 1 terabyte, but prices of the terabyte drives vary wildly. I see a Kingston drive for $3000 (http://www.ebay.com/itm/1TB-Kingston-Predator-HyperX-USB-3-0-Memory-Stick-Flash-Back-Up-Drive-/300860018410?pt=UK_Computing_FlashDrives_SM&hash=item460ca78eea#ht_2435wt_1164) and another drive (not sure of the brand) for $150 (http://www.ebay.com/itm/NEW-1-Terabyte-1000-GB-USB-2-0-Thumb-Drive-Flash-Drive-1-TB-2-0-USB-Memory-Drive-/130967942058?pt=US_USB_Flash_Drives&hash=item1e7e4c33aa#ht_683wt_1164). Why is there such a difference in price? — Preceding unsigned comment added by Daselectronics (talk • contribs) 04:58, 17 August 2013 (UTC)

Because the second one is probably a scam. Nothing is given to prove the claim that they are terabyte (never mind the fact that a terabyte is actually 1024GB), and nobody ever purchased one of the available sticks. If they had, the person would no doubt have had their product "lost in the post", and find that "no refunds are available". The Kingston one is more likely to be real, and the price looks right for that reason. The actual production cost would be cheaper, but there is no competition for this end of the market, so prices are seriously inflated.  drewmunn  talk  08:57, 17 August 2013 (UTC)

I'm not certain how they intend on selling one for $3K when they're available at Amazon for half that price. Dismas|^(talk) 09:29, 17 August 2013 (UTC)

Because it's not hyper-inflated by an eBay user. Rule 101: don't buy from eBay.  drewmunn  talk  10:28, 17 August 2013 (UTC)

Actually plenty of memory storage product suppliers use decimal bytes, I think because they devote the the rest for wear levelling (well this has been the only explaination I've ever seen offered). Kingston doesn't seem to explain what they mean by 1TB, their next lowest is 512GB which may suggest they mean binary bytes but not necessarily, they may be using some strange hybrid as some vendors use for example 1TB meaning 1024 decimal GB. However I do agree the product is obviously fake. Nil Einne (talk) 11:43, 17 August 2013 (UTC)

Just to be clear, you're saying that the $150 model is fake. Right? Because the device does exist. Dismas|^(talk) 12:08, 17 August 2013 (UTC)

Yes, the cheaper one's fake, the Kingston one on eBay is around 200% it's already-overinflated sales value.  drewmunn  talk  12:11, 17 August 2013 (UTC)

Yes sorry if I was unclear. My point about Kingston is that there's a fair chance they're using decimal bytes as well even if they are also most likely using 1024 decimal GB=1TB. So it's silly to assume the other product is fake just because they say 1TB=1000GB (there are plenty of reasons to think it is fake, this is hardly one of them). I presume one of the reasons why Kingston and other memory product vendors have started to use 1TB=1024 decimal GB is because there's no need to keep increasing percentage of the disk devoted to wear levelling which I presume is where the extra space is going and why they use decimal GB (and decimal MB before that, remember that any memory product would ultimately be in chips with binary bytes unlike with HDs). Nil Einne (talk) 12:50, 17 August 2013 (UTC)

(edit conflict) I know it's common to market it in that manner, but in those circumstances, it's never listed as 1000 bytes, that's hidden deep in legal print. It's usually done predominantly to make their storage look larger without actually adding in the extra storage required. My point was more that no right-minded seller would put foremost the fact that they're measuring in decimal rather than binary. It's a bit like saying "Car! Now with no wheels!"  drewmunn  talk  12:11, 17 August 2013 (UTC)

I don't think that's really true, plenty of HD retailers advertise 1TB HDs as 1000GB ones. Also as I indicated there' a fair chance the 1TB Kingston is neither binary nor decimal but some weird combination of both as happened with FDs etc. Nil Einne (talk) 12:41, 17 August 2013 (UTC)

(EC) BTW, it's generally not possible to sell on eBay with "lost in post" and "no refunds available". The vendor can say whatever they want, in most cases, if the item was purchased with PayPal (and in most countries eBay still requires PayPal to be offered) the seller needs proof of delivery, if they lack that they will find the money will be given back to the buyer if there are any complaints about the item not received (if they'e disappeared and withdrawn all their money, PayPal will take the hit) no matter what the item listing or negotiations with the buyer said (very occasionally PayPal may take the hit anyway if they believe the seller has acted in good faith but this is very rare). There are many complaints of sellers about the policy and most nonscam bulk HK/China sellers of cheap products no longer even bother to claim no refunds, in fact making it clear a refund will be offered after a certain time period if the item doesn't arrive. Any smart scam seller of small scale products doesn't bother with trying 'no delivery', that's only worth it when selling laptops and similar expensive stuff and preferably when you can convince the seller to bank in the money (or at least are planning to sell a bunch of high value items and quickly disappear). Instead as with most memory storage product scams, the 1TB USB stick will be delivered but won't be 1TB, in fact the listing says something strange about only 5GB at a time and feedback confirms it's fake. In reality a seller will probably still win an "item not as described" complaint, but such complaints are harder to win particularly since you're generally dealing with outsourced support who are mostly working from a script, still with preseverance and knowing what to say I think you'll win. (Again you can see the many complaints from legitimate sellers about such complaints.) Of course the seller is entitled to ask you to return the item (at your expense) and then it becomes your responsibility to provide proof of delivery if the seller claims they never received the item which they probably will if they don't think you have proof of delivery. More importantly, most people don't seem to bother to or don't know how to test the stick properly so when it says 1TB they think it is (some products will fail when you try to write but I think some will succeed, they just won't store the 1TB. Nil Einne (talk) 12:21, 17 August 2013 (UTC)

PayPal are getting better at resolving issues, but there are quite a lot of scammers who work to ensure you never get as far as reporting such an issue. If they play you around long enough, you'll either give up, or forget after a while. They also figure that you'll not know enough to claim against any incorrectly labelled goods, as you said.  drewmunn  talk  12:44, 17 August 2013 (UTC)

Drewmunn and others are probably right. The $150 drive seems to be a scam drive. I searched for "fake flash on ebay" and found all sorts of eye opening reports. One describes these drives as "low capacity flash drives (and memory cards) that have been "hacked" so that they appear to have much more capacity than is physically present on the drive". This seems confirmed by details in the ebay item description. Maximum transfer amount 5 (GB) gigabytes of data transfer at a time." This is a strange statement for a real drive, but would make sense as a disclaimer for a scam drive. So, it's not a question of 1024GB vs 1000GB, but perhaps 1000GB vs 8GB. This also seems to explain alot of other wild price variations for 256GB and 512GB thumb drives as well. Shouldn't ebay stop these scams or warn the buyers? Daselectronics (talk) 17:38, 17 August 2013 (UTC)

Steps using V - Look up and H - look up functions in MS Excel . Explain with example

Steps using V - Look up and H - look up functions in MS Excel . Explain with example — Preceding unsigned comment added by 203.91.215.55 (talk) 08:55, 17 August 2013 (UTC)

Laptop washing

My laptop is full of dust. I tried to clean it, but the latch to open it broke. Is there some other trick to get the dust out? The vents have become near airtight, just blowing air in there doesn't do anything. --11:16, 17 August 2013 (UTC) — Preceding unsigned comment added by 81.175.225.92 (talk)

Google Serach didn't help - word 2007/2010

What Hotkey uses to insert simple fraction boxes? (while or while not using Word Equation?) Much thanks. Ben-Natan (talk) 12:17, 17 August 2013 (UTC)