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March 1

Deleting Software for Control Panel

A few softwares are not deleting from the Control Panel; Uninstalled Programs Window. A software is sought to abolish/diminish this problem… Can someone help me please? -- Apostle (talk) 18:24, 1 March 2016 (UTC)

See Category:Uninstallers for Windows. Tevildo (talk) 19:07, 1 March 2016 (UTC)

@Russell.mo: Which version of Windows are you using? Windows XP, Vista, 7, 8, 10? The Quixotic Potato (talk) 19:43, 1 March 2016 (UTC)

Sorry for the delay guys, ran out of internet 'kbs'.

The Quixotic Potato: Windows 7 Ultimate. Can you recommend something? A software that doesn't require installing would be of great help...the computer that I have needs to last me a long time... -- Apostle (talk) 22:08, 3 March 2016 (UTC)

@Russell.mo: You can use CrapCleaner (The Google toolbar may be bundled). You can uninstall CCleaner after using it. The Quixotic Potato (talk) 00:43, 4 March 2016 (UTC)

I already have that. I think I tried it before. I'll retry and let you know. Thanks... -- Apostle (talk) 18:12, 4 March 2016 (UTC)

The Quixotic Potato: Nope, it doesn't work. Any idea what else would/could? -- Apostle (talk) 20:32, 5 March 2016 (UTC)

The list you see is stored in the registry. You can remove them from the list manually [1]. The only software you will need is regedit.exe, which is already installed on your computer. Remember to make a backup. The Quixotic Potato (talk) 21:37, 5 March 2016 (UTC)

March 2

lastlog on raspberry pi (raspian)

Hello,

a server running raspian crashed, and I wanted to make sure nothing sketchy was going on. I noticed that lastlog showed root as having last logged in about 1 year ago, but I did not install the OS until about 3 months ago. Is this weird? Of my 3 pis running raspian, 2 of them have this while the third shows what I would expect, which is "Never logged in". Any tips? 216.15.23.2 (talk) 03:21, 2 March 2016 (UTC)

Some countries have consumer protection laws that allow consumers to return products (especially products they've ordered online). The manufacturer of those products may be allowed to sell them again. The Quixotic Potato (talk) 06:58, 2 March 2016 (UTC)

However, are you sure the RTC was set to the correct date every time you did log in? Nil Einne (talk)

Actually reading more carefully, it sounds like perhaps you believe you never logged in as root? Nil Einne (talk) 16:45, 2 March 2016 (UTC)

It is hard to login as root without some messing around because I don't think there is a root login/password. The default user is 'pi' - and it's one of those systems that's setup to work with 'sudo' instead of logging in as root. SteveBaker (talk) 18:15, 2 March 2016 (UTC)

Thats correct, its supposed to be sudo based. 216.15.23.2 (talk) 06:27, 3 March 2016 (UTC)

When I bought my most recent batch of Raspberry Pi 2's, they each needed a blank memory card that I had to load myself. I don't see where they sell them with pre-loaded OS's. So the idea that you somehow got a 'used' RPi that hadn't been erased seems v.unlikely and I don't think The Quixotic Potato is correct.

I suspect that the log trace comes from the person who put together the Raspian release bundle. Quite often you do this by setting up a machine with the right files - you test it - then you zip up the entire memory card and post the contents for online download. In that scenario, what you're seeing is probably the last login by the person who checked out the release prior to greenlighting it. It seems a little sloppy to do it that way, but we're not talking about big, organized businesses putting together these releases - so I'm not entirely surprised.

I'm guessing that the RPi that's different has a different history of operating system installs (eg had an older release than the other two - but was then upgraded with 'git upgrade' or something).

I love the RPi - it's an insanely good deal (esp. the Pi Zero!). But I've seen many, many instances of somewhat sloppy stuff going on in the RPi world. Items are often poorly described (I bought a case for one of my RPi-2's but there was no mention that it's designed for RPi-1's and doesn't fit the 2's...I bought a camera board and in the specification, there are contradictions between the vertical extent of the region is can see at some given range and the vertical field of view measured in degrees...the IR camera comes with a blue filter - no two people seem to agree on what it does, and the Amazon and AdaFruit descriptions of it disagree...when I asked both organizations about it - each one claims the other is incorrect!). Many things are undocumented (the camera API has a 'hello world' example program - but for anything other than that it's "here's the source code - you can read it!"). But if you want "cheap" and "capable" and "open-source" then you have to accept that these kinds of thing are going to happen - and contribute your findings back into the community so they can get fixed.

Most of the time, it's not a real problem - but if you're trying to do something very serious with them - and you really care about things like when the last root access was - then you're going to hit these kinds of things repeatedly.

SteveBaker (talk) 18:12, 2 March 2016 (UTC)

Thats what I was thinking, something like a oem type of install that was not cleaned up properly. The one that did not have the root account was a bit older, but it was also one where I flashed it myself, as opposed to just using one of those 'noobs' installs. I think there was one I did not flash myself, but the explanation above makes sense and I have not seen anything suspicious besides one of the pis crashing recently (under heavy load though). Thanks for the comments! 216.15.23.2 (talk) 06:27, 3 March 2016 (UTC)

can DB UUIDs used as PKs cause many page splits slowing down insertions?

I read so, but UUIDs are fix-length, aren't they? Thanks — Preceding unsigned comment added by 81.149.14.196 (talk) 12:00, 2 March 2016 (UTC)

I could easily give a very long historical answer, but it boils down to this: Fixed-width columns don't make a different in modern database engines. Everything is logically variable-width. UUIDs are nowhere near the block/extant/chunk size that is used to reserve space for tables. So, even with UUIDs, you can put many rows in a single block/extant/chunk. 209.149.114.145 (talk) 19:49, 2 March 2016 (UTC)

thank you --85.118.11.241 (talk) 07:54, 3 March 2016 (UTC)

thunderbird -remote "xfeDoCommand ...

[Moved from RD/L] Tevildo (talk) 22:12, 2 March 2016 (UTC)

I am trying to send an email from the command-line, using thunderbird. Following command:

 thunderbird -remote "xfeDoCommand(composeMessage,subject='the subject',to='me@somesite.com',body='message   \ body',attachment='~/somefile.txt')"

is able to create a new email with subject, body, to-field, and attachment. However, I still would have to press the 'send' button. How can I run a command that would send the message too?

--Scicurious (talk) 22:05, 2 March 2016 (UTC)

Do you really have to use Thunderbird? Thunderbird is designed as a GUI client. There are plenty of command-line e-mail clients out there. On Unix systems (including most Linux distributions and I think Mac OS X) there's often one already installed under /bin/mail or /usr/bin/mail. Plugging something like "command line email" into a search engine will give you a bunch of information. --71.119.131.184 (talk) 22:19, 2 March 2016 (UTC)

I'd prefer to keep using Thunderbird, which already has my credentials saved. Maybe there is an easy way of pressing that button. Otherwise, I'd try mail or sendmail.--Scicurious (talk) 22:30, 2 March 2016 (UTC)

I never solved that problem, but Thunderbird is open source. You might create Your own spam speading machine from the source. But, refereing the license, You need to publish You modifications! Using Windows, there are 3rd party commandline tools, creating and sending emails from text files. It might be an idea to save a composed draft from Thunderbird for use as a form. --Hans Haase (有问题吗) 12:02, 3 March 2016 (UTC)

There is no command line option to send a message. You can use -compose message_options to have it bring up the compose message window and fill in everything for you, but you still need to press the Send button to actually send the message. You can use a simple scripting language like AutoIt to press the button for you. The Quixotic Potato (talk) 18:21, 3 March 2016 (UTC)

@Scicurious: Here an example script. If you open Thunderbird and click on the New message button to send an email and type the word "test" as the subject line - then what is the title of that window? :For this example I have assumed that the title of the window starts with the words "New message" (case-sensitive), but maybe the title on your "New message"-window is different. This AutoIt script checks every second if a window with a title that starts with the words "New message" exists, and if it does it sends the keycombination Control+Enter to the window (which will send the email).

$title = "New message"
Do
	If WinExists($title,"") Then
		Sleep(3000)
		ControlSend($title,"","","^{ENTER}")
        Else
                Sleep(1000)
	Endif
Until 1 <> 1

The Quixotic Potato (talk) 23:01, 3 March 2016 (UTC)

Why does Wikipedia appear different on different computers?

I don't know all that much about computers (the technical stuff and what-have-you). So, pardon me if this sounds like a "dumb question". Why is it that when I am on different computers, Wikipedia looks completely different? Especially when an article has charts and tables. Sometimes, it looks (aesthetically) great. On other computers, it looks like a patchwork mess. Such a mess, it's even hard to read. Why is this? I don't think I've ever experienced this with any other websites. Thanks. Joseph A. Spadaro (talk) 23:38, 2 March 2016 (UTC)

Different browsers (not computers) will render the same page differently. They will also have different fonts installed, which contributes to the problem that you mention. I don't expect to find a mess using an updated browser, though. --Scicurious (talk) 01:46, 3 March 2016 (UTC)

What is a browser? Do you mean Mozilla Firefox? All of my computers use Mozilla Firefox. So, if all of my computers use Mozilla Firefox, how is it the browser -- but not the computer -- that is causing the problem? Also, my Mozilla Firefox is completely up-to-date, nothing outdated at all. And, also, why does this occur only with Wikipedia? I haven't noticed it with any other websites. Thanks. Joseph A. Spadaro (talk) 04:16, 3 March 2016 (UTC)

The most likely culprit is different screen or window size. Wikipedia, like most good websites, has a dynamic layout, i.e. the browser rearranges the different elements of the page to fit the browser window. Many other websites have a fixed layout, so that they can guarantee enough space for ads, or because they have a designer who does not understand the web, or because (like me sometimes ;-) they use lousy tools. In that case, the layout is always the same, but you get scroll bars or white space padding if the window is to small or too big. --Stephan Schulz (talk) 08:34, 3 March 2016 (UTC)

It's also surprisingly easy to have to seemingly identical instances of Firefox actually use slightly different settings. If OP wants to rule out differences in Firefox settings, here [2] are instructions on how to pass preferences and settings between the different instances. SemanticMantis (talk) 16:09, 3 March 2016 (UTC)

Well, all of my computers do have different sized screens (monitors). So, is that the issue here? Joseph A. Spadaro (talk) 18:34, 3 March 2016 (UTC)

It *could* be. It *could* be that you have plugins installed in some browsers and not others. It *could* be that you have custom settings in some browsers and not others. It *could* be that you have different font settings on some computers and not others. It *could* be many many many things. It is a bit silly to ask specifically what the problem could be. 209.149.114.145 (talk) 18:48, 3 March 2016 (UTC)

In the unlikely event that you unaware of this, your answer is very unhelpful. Anyway ... I install Firefox and then I do nothing further. So, it would seem to me that I have the same version of Firefox on all of my computers. I never go in and change preferences, fonts, plug-ins, etc. I wouldn't even know how to, even if I wanted to. Joseph A. Spadaro (talk) 02:04, 4 March 2016 (UTC)

It could be, but it's hard to be sure because all we've got to go on is that you say that it's a mess. Taking a few screen-caps might help us understand what you're seeing and we could work from that to better answer your question. You might also get better (or at least different) answers on the help desk. Matt Deres (talk) 18:51, 3 March 2016 (UTC)

I was thinking of screenshots. But, alas, I don't know how to do them. So, verbally, here is an example. They (the problems) typically show up in charts and tables. On a computer with a bigger screen, the charts look nice and neat. On a smaller screen, the tables have less aesthetic appearances. For example, let's say that a column heading is "Date of Birth". On a bigger monitor computer, that will look fine. On a smaller computer, maybe it will be "squeezed" to a skinnier column where it will say "Date" and then below that "of" and then below that "Birth". That's an example. Joseph A. Spadaro (talk) 02:15, 4 March 2016 (UTC)

Here's maybe a better example. Look at my Home Page here: User:Joseph A. Spadaro. On a bigger-screen computer, all of my "User Boxes" will appear in perhaps two rows of twelve boxes (columns) each (or some such). On a smaller-screen computer, all of my "User Boxes" will appear in perhaps eight rows of three boxes (columns) each (or some such). Maybe that's a better example. Help! Joseph A. Spadaro (talk) 02:32, 4 March 2016 (UTC)

Seriously? I see at most seven columns in 1920 pixels. —Tamfang (talk) 05:32, 4 March 2016 (UTC)

I just double-checked and counted. On my "big" computer, I see nine columns across. And two rows down. The first row starts with the box "I have been on Wikipedia for 9 years" and ends with the box "I am Roman Catholic". The second row starts with the "Mensa" box and ends with the "Classical Music" box. I have no idea to tell how many pixels my computer screen/monitor is. Joseph A. Spadaro (talk) 07:48, 4 March 2016 (UTC)

It's natural for a wider window to show more per line. You haven't said whether you see problems like excessive whitespace or bad font sizes. As NorwegianBlue says below, Firefox (and several other browsers) can zoom in with Ctrl++ and out with Ctrl+-. You can reset the size with Ctrl+0. Wikipedia likes informative tables with many columns so it's expected that some of the columns become very narrow on narrow screens and don't have room for "Date of Birth" on one line. I think it's better to wrap such lines than force the table to be wider than the screen so you have to use a a horizontal scroll bar to see the right part. PrimeHunter (talk) 14:56, 4 March 2016 (UTC)

I doubt the screen size is to blame. Even at 10 inch, the pages should be not be scrambled. The screenshot would help in the diagnostics. Otherwise, we could only put the blame on the butler for changing the settings. Scicurious (talk) 18:56, 3 March 2016 (UTC)

Try changing the browser resolution, and see what happens. You do this in Firefox by holding the ctrl-key, and typing plus or minus on the numeric keypad. --NorwegianBlue ^talk 14:24, 4 March 2016 (UTC)

Looking at the userboxes, I change the browser resolution by holding down the Contr- key while turning the scroll wheel of the mouse. This is with Windows 10 and both Opera and Firefox. This method can adjust the display of userboxes, which are in four columns in my most-used resolution, to make them anywhere from 19 columns down to a single column of boxes. These extremes are unpleasant to my eye, but they all work. Wikipedia tables often conflict with pictures, depending on the browser resolution and sometimes on the particular browser. Sometimes only an extreme resolution can look somewhat good. In those cases I assume many readers will have this problem. I go into "edit source" to adjust the picture's size and position so as to look good on more than one browser at several resolutions. When the table itself shows poorly, I don't bother as table adjusting is more difficult for me than picture adjusting. Jim.henderson (talk) 16:38, 4 March 2016 (UTC)

Thanks, all. Yes, I guess it must be the size of the monitor and the screen resolution. Thanks. Joseph A. Spadaro (talk) 17:40, 5 March 2016 (UTC)

March 3

Small caps

How can I know if a particular font on my computer has proper small caps?--Lüboslóv Yęzýkin (talk) 15:20, 3 March 2016 (UTC)

In what environment? THIS SMALLCAPS TEMPLATE can help you test fonts used by your browser, and here [3] are instructions on how to test for viable small caps with LaTeX. SemanticMantis (talk) 16:05, 3 March 2016 (UTC)

Here's [4] instructions on how to make a macro in Word to more easily small-capsify text. Maybe I'm missing the spirit of the question: do you need a way to automatically check a large number of fonts, or will you satisfied with a test to perform by hand now and then? SemanticMantis (talk) 16:13, 3 March 2016 (UTC)

Well, yes, I have some dozens of OpenType fonts, and I'd like to know which of them has the true small caps feature. In theory, I could do this manually by trying out every one, but if there is a tool that can show all available OpenType feature of a font. In fact, there are two types of small caps: they are either just exact smaller copies of actual caps or they are done independently and built into the font.[5] Unfortunately, most probably CSS/HTML and MS Word do not render OpenType small caps properly.--Lüboslóv Yęzýkin (talk) 17:30, 3 March 2016 (UTC)

MS Word 2013: displaying content from other files (fields?)... & header/footer

Word 2013:

1. How do I display content from another file in a Microsoft Word document?

I'm working with several Word documents. I'd like to insert text from one other file (let's call it the "meta-file") into some or all of these documents, so that if I want to change it later, I will only have to change it in the "meta-file", and it'll subsequently show in all of the linked documents. For example, if I'd like to change the heading or the footer, I won't have to change it for every single file, but would change it only once in that meta-file.

I imagine that using fields could be the solution, but I haven't yet found a field that works like a hyperlink... and I'm open to other approaches. Somewhere I read it might imply using Visual Basics, but I'd rather confirm that's what's required before putting in the work of learning how to use VB...

2. Is there an option to have a different header on the first page, but the same footer on all pages of the document? I know I can just have a different first page and then copy the footer from the second page onto the first one... but I'd like a more parsimonious solution...

Thanks, thanks, Thanks for answering (talk) 15:42, 3 March 2016 (UTC)

With Visual Basic for Applications you can do stuff like this. Microsoft InfoPath may also be useful. The Quixotic Potato (talk) 16:07, 3 March 2016 (UTC)

Word's master document feature might do what you want?--Phil Holmes (talk) 09:15, 4 March 2016 (UTC)

C# Monitor question

I know that the Monitor class in C# can be used to implement mutual exclusivity. Is it possible to somehow call code depending on whether Monitor.Enter() entered the monitor straight away or made us wait, but still keep waiting for the lock if it wasn't free? As an example of what I would want would be to be able to call logging code such to provide such output:

Entering monitor...
Resource busy, we have to wait

(after a couple of seconds or so)

Resource free, locking it and performing work...

(after a couple of minutes or so)

Done, freeing resource

or alternatively:

Entering monitor...
Resource free, locking it and performing work...

(after a couple of minutes or so)

Done, freeing resource

Is this somehow possible? JIP | Talk 19:48, 3 March 2016 (UTC)

You can call TryEnter(), then print a message and call Enter if it returned false. -- BenRG (talk) 20:30, 3 March 2016 (UTC)

I already thought about that, but was wondering if it was possible to do with a single method call. JIP | Talk 20:37, 3 March 2016 (UTC)

I don't see anything that could do that. Even if there is, it's equivalent to calling TryEnter and then Enter. Doing both atomically wouldn't observably change the program's behavior. -- BenRG (talk) 23:59, 3 March 2016 (UTC)

Software sought

Does anybody know what software do these companies use? [6] -- Apostle (talk) 22:28, 3 March 2016 (UTC)

Companies (even quite small ones) use dozens, perhaps hundreds or thousands of pieces of software. Often without even knowing that they're using them. You'll have to be much more specific if you want a good answer. For example, you might ask "What CMS software do these companies use on their websites?" or "What CAD software do these companies use?"...but something this general isn't answerable, even in principle. SteveBaker (talk) 21:26, 4 March 2016 (UTC)

Okay. When I was watching the news, one guy had a laptop with him, it was in a coding page, apparently the guy created a software that mixes the ingredients information than gives feedbacks about how you can create certain products... Of course, you have to insert the item (ingredient) first what you wish to create (e.g., milk) from the alternative products. -- Apostle (talk) 20:33, 5 March 2016 (UTC)

March 4

I have a question about auto-correct.

I have a question about auto-correct. But I am not even sure that that is the right term. I have noticed the following happening. I type an email. I am absolutely certain there are no typo's or errors in it. I hit "send". Whenever I send someone an email, I always send myself a copy of that email. Then, when I get my copy, the email has some incorrect words in it (which I am absolutely certain I did not type). I have noticed this time and time and time again. So, my questions are as follows. (1) Why exactly is this happening? I am not even sure if this is an "auto-correct" issue. (2) If it is, when exactly does the auto-correction take place? I assume after I hit "send"? (3) And how can I avoid this issue? I don't believe that my email system has a "setting" to enable/disable auto-correct. Here is an example of something I might encounter. I will type: The candles are red. When I read the email, it will say The crumbles are red (or something like that). The words are "close" but still "off". Thanks. Joseph A. Spadaro (talk) 07:40, 4 March 2016 (UTC)

I think it would be helpful if you were to say what program you are using to send the emails.--Phil Holmes (talk) 09:13, 4 March 2016 (UTC)

AOL. America Online. Yes, I know it's ancient. But that has the email address that I use and everyone has used for the past umpteen years. Joseph A. Spadaro (talk) 21:15, 4 March 2016 (UTC)

Do you have a "sent" folder where you can compare the original with the copy. This might indicate whether the false "correction" was happening on your computer or whilst the e-mail was in transit. Dbfirs 12:41, 4 March 2016 (UTC)

With IMAP, depending on how your mail client is set up this won't necessarily help if the server is truly modifying emails. P.S. As an example of a malapropism although possibly just a temporary memory failure as I'm tired, when thinking of this answer I initially thought "with IMDB" before realising that was wrong.... Nil Einne (talk) 17:27, 5 March 2016 (UTC)

I have never ever under any circumstances seen a mail server that performs auto-correction on emails that pass through it. I have seen email programs (the program on your computer/phone/laptop/tablet) that perform autocorrection when you click "send." So, what program are you using? What device are you using it on? I know it is hard to believe, but nobody that answers questions here is omnipotent. 209.149.114.145 (talk) 13:07, 4 March 2016 (UTC)

... or omniscient? I agree that it is most unlikely to be the mail server, but I made that suggestion to get Joseph to check this strange effect. Autocorrection that changes candles to crumbles seems very strange. It sounds more like malware to me, but we can't be sure until we see some more "corrections". Dbfirs 14:29, 4 March 2016 (UTC)

Did you put the apostrophe in "typo's" - or are you going to blame that on Wikipedia? :-) Matt Deres (talk) 14:47, 4 March 2016 (UTC)

Are you sure you're not the victim of a practical joke? Some email clients (like Outlook) will allow the user to manually add words to the auto replace list. So it's probably worth having a look in the settings to see if there are any odd entries.2.120.121.251 (talk) 17:51, 4 March 2016 (UTC)

No. No practical jokes. No one has any access to my computers except me. Joseph A. Spadaro (talk) 21:18, 4 March 2016 (UTC)

The NSA disagrees. The Quixotic Potato (talk) 22:20, 4 March 2016 (UTC)

Try this for a while: when you're sure your message is correct, take a screenshot of it (or if it's easier for you, photograph the screen with a digital camera). Later, when you find a word that you're absolutely certain you did not type, compare it to the screenshot. I'm betting you'll find that you did type it and just didn't notice. Proofreading something you just wrote is hard, And if I'm wrong, at least you'll now have the evidence to prove it! --69.159.61.172 (talk) 01:13, 5 March 2016 (UTC)

No, I disagree. Because the words are so nonsensical. They are not spelling errors or typo's. They are completely different words. Like the example I gave with "candles" or "crumbles". There is no way my fingers would type "crumbles" when my mind is thinking "candles". Joseph A. Spadaro (talk) 03:56, 5 March 2016 (UTC)

You might be right. Then again you might be surprised. No harm in trying my suggestion. --69.159.61.172 (talk) 07:26, 5 March 2016 (UTC)

I agree with 69 here. Perhaps JAS's mind which differently from mind but I definitely type a completely different word that sounds similar (not necessarily a complete homonym) on occasion. I'm pretty sure there's a name for this, but I'm lazy to search since it's off topic.

P.S. Of course from what I can tell you haven't completely ruled out local autocorrect being involved anyway. Taking a screenshot won't differentiate between the two except for local autocorrect happening after you take the photo (unlikely unless you type more or your auto correct really happens locally but after you click send). Admitedly if it's webmail then local/remote isn't really different although it's still unlikely to happen after you click send. As has been said, proofreading is hardly infalliable. In fact if you're the only one proof reading it's quite easy to miss obvious errors. Errors which once you see them you think how the heck did I miss that. (The reason is at least partially because you knew what it was supposed to be.) Having someone else proofreading is far better although obvious errors can still slip through. You should at least test simple autocorrect like that mentioned above e.g. candles always being changed to crumbles. Preferably soon after the problem is noticed in case your computer is not as secure as you thought. But even if that's a negative, it could still be where you did make a typo and autocorrect guessed the wrong word. I'm presuming you're not using a touchscreen keyboard since if you are, it's going to be very hard to say what could have happened although crumbles is quite far from computer on a standard keyboard.

Nil Einne (talk) 17:43, 5 March 2016 (UTC)

Ah I remember now, I was thinking of Malapropism Nil Einne (talk) 17:14, 5 March 2016 (UTC)

As a bonus question, is there a term for when you type an antonym or something similar? I can't remember any personal examples offhand, but an example I found while searching was typing answer instead of question or vice versa. Double bonus for when you type a word which isn't really an antonym nor does it sound similar but was simply something you were thinking of at the time. Not a perfect example since I was thinking of words which weren't necessarily related to what you were typing, but above I initially typed "your your" instead of "how your".Nil Einne (talk) 17:27, 5 March 2016 (UTC)

Thanks, all. Next time I see this occur, I will dig deeper -- looking in my sent box, etc. Thanks. Joseph A. Spadaro (talk) 17:42, 5 March 2016 (UTC)

Turn off horizontal scrolling (magic mouse)

I recently upgraded my OS to El Capitan, and my settings went back to default, so I have horizontal scrolling again with my magic mouse. As I did a few years back, I searched, found this and followed the instructions: I opened terminal entered

defaults write com.apple.driver.AppleBluetoothMultitouch.mouse MouseHorizontalScroll -bool NO

and then turned the mouse off and then back on. But it hasn't worked. Any suggestions? This "feature" is maddening.--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 13:42, 4 March 2016 (UTC)

For others: After further research it appears it is impossible to turn off in El Capitan and of course Apple cannot be bothered to fix this problem, turn it off as the default, or create a toggle to run it off on and off when, AFAICT, no one likes or would want horizontal scrolling and it has persisted for years with thousands of complaints. The solution I've found is the overkill program MagicPrefs, 99% of which I have no use for, but which allows you to turn off horizontal scrolling.--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 14:41, 5 March 2016 (UTC)

Calculating 11 "consecutive" colours

I'm trying to plot a population map of the world. I've divided each country's population into 11 classes, so now I just need to pick 11 "consecutive" colours (in hex color format) of the same hue. How do I go about doing this? Johnson&Johnson&Son (talk) 14:36, 4 March 2016 (UTC)

Use a tool like this one to design a gradient. The theory behind it is here. It will give much better results than naive RGB or HSV interpolation. -- BenRG (talk) 02:30, 5 March 2016 (UTC)

Looks interesting, but note that the "Correct lightness gradient" option doesn't work well with multiple color stops (more than 2). StuRat (talk) 04:03, 5 March 2016 (UTC)

I think it works with any number of stops, but they need to be in ascending/descending brightness order; it won't rearrange them. -- BenRG (talk) 04:01, 6 March 2016 (UTC)

Consecutive isn't a very well defined term in colours. However, one way of getting colours of a similar hue but different saturation would be to start with, say, red (255,0,0) and increase the amount of green and blue for the next colour along: (255, 20, 20); (255; 40, 40); etc. Increasing by 20 each time may end you up with red that's too light for your taste, but you can adjust the increment to get what you want.--Phil Holmes (talk) 16:05, 4 March 2016 (UTC)

Agreed. If you are using the RGB color scheme and have 256 levels of each, then you want to change one, two, or all 3. With 11 colors, there are 10 gaps between them, so 256/10 = 25 or 26. So, I would add 25 or 26 at each step. For particular colors, see chart:

COLOR            Start         End
=====            ===========   ===========
Black to white     0,  0,  0   255,255,255

Black to red       0,  0,  0   255,  0,  0
Blue to purple     0,  0,255   255,  0,255
Green to yellow    0,255,  0   255,255,  0
Cyan to white      0,255,255   255,255,255

Black to green     0,  0,  0     0,255,  0
Blue to cyan       0,  0,255     0,255,255
Red to yellow    255,  0,  0   255,255,  0
Purple to white  255,  0,255   255,255,255

Black to blue      0,  0,  0     0,  0,255
Green to cyan      0,255,  0     0,255,255
Red to purple    255,  0,  0   255,  0,255
Yellow to white  255,255,  0   255,255,255

Black to yellow    0,  0,  0   255,255,  0
Blue to white      0,  0,255   255,255,255

Black to purple    0,  0,  0   255,  0,255
Green to white     0,255,  0   255,255,255

Black to cyan      0,  0,  0     0,255,255
Red to white     255,  0,  0   255,255,255
     

You can, of course, reverse the order and decrease from the end value down to the starting value by the same step size. Also, anywhere I have an unchanging value, you can set it to anything you want (I only showed 0 and 255). For example, if you wanted shades of brown, you would need to do this. And the values you vary don't always have to vary from 0 to 256, but the less variation you have the less obvious the transitions between colors will be. You could also increase one or two of the RGB values, while decreasing one or two others. So, you have quite a wide range of options. If you can tell me what starting color and ending color you would like, I can be more specific.

Also, do you need help converting the decimal values I used in the chart to hex values ? StuRat (talk) 17:13, 4 March 2016 (UTC)

To illustrate further, let's take the last case of red to white and expand out all 11 colors:

Decimal RGB   HEX RGB
===========   ========
255,  0,  0   FF, 0, 0  red
255, 26, 26   FF,1A,1A
255, 51, 51   FF,33,33
255, 76, 76   FF,4C,4C
255,101,101   FF,65,65
255,127,127   FF,7F,7F  pinks
255,152,152   FF,98,98
255,178,178   FF,B2,B2
255,203,203   FF,CB,CB
255,229,229   FF,E5,E5
255,255,255   FF,FF,FF  white

After you display the colors, you might decide that you want more difference between some shades and less between others, so you can tweak it to get it just right. Note, however, that 11 shades of one color will make each one fairly close to it's neighbor. You might instead want to take a "rainbow" approach, and go from red to orange to yellow to green to cyan to blue to purple to violet. That's only 8, so some in between colors would also be needed. Let me know if you want more details on this approach. StuRat (talk) 17:55, 4 March 2016 (UTC)

Based on the previous comment, you can begin with a start color and an end color. Lets say you want to start with 190,23,255 and end with 10,90,100. You will have 10 divisions to get 11 numbers (draw 11 dots and look at how many divisions there are between the dots). So, divide the difference of each color by 10. 10-190=-180 and -180/10=-18. So, you start with read=190 and subtract 18 for each color until you to the last one, which will be 10. Similarly, for green we have 90-23=67 and 67/10-6.7. So, I begin with 23 and add 6.7 for each color. I will likely want to round the result to get an integer. For blue, I have 100-255=-155 and -155/10=-15.5. So, I subtract 15.5 for each color. I will get 11 "consecutive" colors from the start color to the end color. 209.149.114.145 (talk) 17:03, 4 March 2016 (UTC)

It's usually better to reason, and calculate, about colours in a space like HSV, even if one has to use an RGB system for the final output. For example, this Python3 program lerps the Value parameter, holding Hue and Saturation constant:

#!/usr/bin/python3

import colorsys

hue = 0.2
sat = 1.0

def frange(x, y, jump):
    # from http://stackoverflow.com/questions/7267226/range-for-floats
    while x < y:
        yield x
        x += jump
                  
for v in frange(0.0, 1.0, 0.1):
    r,g,b = map(lambda x: int(x*256),
                colorsys.hsv_to_rgb(hue, sat, v))

    print ('<div style="width:200px; height:30px; background-color:#{:02x}{:02x}{:02x};">&nbsp;</div>'.format(r,g,b))

which produces a range like:

colours
The following discussion has been closed. Please do not modify it.

Tweak the H and S values, and the parameters to frange for different results. -- Finlay McWalter··–·Talk 17:02, 4 March 2016 (UTC)

Thank you all for the great help, guys. Johnson&Johnson&Son (talk) 02:21, 5 March 2016 (UTC)

Resolved

Program automation tools in Linux

Does Linux have well-developed tools like AutoIt or AutoHotkey (for programmatically reaching the GUI as an API)? Does it need them? That is, are there main Linux tools that cannot be scripted, nor can be accessed through the command-line or an API? Some tools have a GUI version and a command-line version, some only have a command-line version. But are there programs with only a GUI version? --Scicurious (talk) 18:48, 4 March 2016 (UTC)

I'm sure there are GUI tools that don't have CLI or API interfaces - it's hard to prevent that in a world where anyone can write and publish a piece of software. I'd say that the need for those gadgets for forcing scripting onto GUI tools is much less important in a world where there are so many good CLI tools.

That said, I believe Sikuli is available for Linux and it should do what you need.

SteveBaker (talk) 21:19, 4 March 2016 (UTC)

Google Chrome tab closure behavior

Let's say I have windows 1, 2 and 3 open. On tab 1, I then click on something which causes a new tab to open. So, at this point I have tabs 1, 1A, 2 and 3 open. I then close tab 1A by clicking on the X in the upper, right corner. I would then like to return to the tab which spawned it (1), but instead tab 2 becomes active. Any way to change this ? StuRat (talk) 19:05, 4 March 2016 (UTC)

Ehm, yeah, quite a few ways to change that. Not sure if you can find a plugin that sends you back to the tab that spawned the tab that you've closed, but there are many plugins that allow you to change Google Chrome's tab closure behavior. If you Google those words you'll find quite a few. Here an example. The Quixotic Potato (talk) 23:42, 4 March 2016 (UTC)

Thanks. So there's no setting to do this then, without a plugin ? StuRat (talk) 22:22, 5 March 2016 (UTC)

March 6

Puzzling extras under HD notes in Disc Utility window

Hi, I tried repairing disk permissions using Disk Utility on my MacBook Pro (10.9.5) to sort an application permissions problem when I noticed some odd figures in the left hand col of Disk ute window. They sit under a partition line (which I didn't make); they look like this, and change every time I open this program (three times):

(disk icon) VgkvRe.dmg

(disk icon) Installer

(disk icon) QWOCx0.dmg

(disk icon) Installer

The first group had two variations of this: pfn llb.png The second included a variation and an uninstaller.

I don't know where these came from or why. They are unselectable. And of course I assumed they're sinister. I'm computer literate but not tech savvy by the way. What do they mean please? Thanks in advance Manytexts (talk) 03:11, 6 March 2016 (UTC)

self-erasing video clips

I have purchased video clips that I suspect were self-erasing (as I cannot locate them). My questions: 1) Can clips be easily programmed to self erase? 2) would that feature be disabled by conversation to a different format? 3) If not, is there another way to disable the self-erasing feature in such clips? Dmundt96 (talk) 03:48, 6 March 2016 (UTC)

Where did you purchase them from? The typical DRM schemes generally work by encrypting the media, and either having the decryption key(s) embedded in the "blessed" media players, or having the player grab the key(s) from a server. Although it's theoretically possible to stick a self-executing payload in files, it's tricky, and such a thing is a frequent malware technique. This means antivirus software and operating systems generally try to prevent such things from being executed. It's extremely unlikely any legitimate company would decide to use such a mechanism. More likely would be requiring you to install some "supervisor" program that monitors your computer to stop you from doing things with the media that the company doesn't want you to do. The coupon printing software used for a lot of online coupons for brick-and-mortar stores works like this, to prevent people from easily forging coupons. But even this I think is unlikely. Per Occam's razor, it's much more likely that you misplaced the files, deleted them (either unintentionally, or you forgot you did it), or a program on your computer, like some disk cleanup program, deleted them inadvertently. --71.119.131.184 (talk) 05:13, 6 March 2016 (UTC)