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August 6

Pokémon Go not working on my phone

So Pokémon Go just became available in my country today, and I downloaded it. My phone is an Android phone (Samsung J1) running Android 4.4.4 and is not rooted and has 500 MB of RAM. Unfortunately for me, it keeps crashing on me after the load screen. I've tried various tricks mentioned online but none have worked. Apparently the game requires at least 2 GB RAM in order to work, but some phones with just 1 GB RAM can play the game. Is there nothing I can do to make it run? Narutolovehinata5 ^tccsdnew 03:49, 6 August 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Probably not. It's possible a newer version of Android may help as Android 5 was supposed to help with low end devices but there are no guarantees. Similarly performance on low end devices (or if the crashing is simply a bug unrelated to the memory) may be improved with future versions of the app but no guarantees. Nil Einne (talk) 09:05, 6 August 2016 (UTC)[reply]

It probably does not matter, but what are the crash symptoms exactly? (Device freezes for a few seconds then stops the application...?) If the problem is a lack of RAM there is not much to be done, but it could be some version compatibility with the OS or whatnot.

On a side note, 1GB (let alone 2) of RAM sounds enormous to me. From what I have seen, that game includes neither overly detailed graphics nor huge computations... Tigraan^{Click here to contact me} 15:20, 6 August 2016 (UTC)[reply]

@Tigraan: It shows the Niantic/TPCi screen for a few seconds, then shows a black screen, then crashes to the home screen. Something is telling me the problem is phone-related since I tested the game on an iPad mini and it works on it. Narutolovehinata5 ^tccsdnew 22:19, 6 August 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Did it ever do anything other then that? Well anyway, you could uninstall the app and reinstall. There's always a slight chance something has gone wrong, possibly in cache or stored data only but you might as well just start afresh. BTW you do have some free storage space (in main flash not SD) right? I'd recommend always having at least 1GB if possible. If it isn't I'd at least clear 200-300MB if you're having problems. Anyway for the problem you're having I'd say there's a greater probability a newer Android version may help, but still far from guaranteed. Nil Einne (talk) 17:40, 7 August 2016 (UTC)[reply]

One font style not working in Word for Mac

Hi, I'm using Word on a Mac running El Capitan.

I have ITC Bookman installed. It has eight variants:

ITC Bookman Std Light
ITC Bookman Std Light Italic
ITC Bookman Std Medium
ITC Bookman Std Medium Italic
ITC Bookman Std Demi
ITC Bookman Std Demi Italic
ITC Bookman Std Bold
ITC Bookman Std Bold Italic

On my Windows 7 PC, all of these styles show up and work perfectly. But on my Mac, although they all show up, it's impossible to select ITC Bookman Std Light. If you select it, it jumps straight to Medium. A document already written in Light will show up in Medium.

All the other styles work OK.

The problem doesn't happen in Excel on Mac but it does happen in PowerPoint on Mac.

I've tried restarting, clearing the font cache, uninstalling and re-installing, etc.

Any ideas? Thanks! — Preceding unsigned comment added by Amisom (talk • contribs) 13:23, 6 August 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Did you install it using "Add Fonts" or Font Book?

Have you tried clearing the font cache with Font NUke?

Have you read Microsoft's troubleshooting? Apparently, the problem might not have a solution. Hofhof (talk) 18:36, 6 August 2016 (UTC)[reply]

August 7

PCIe WiFi adapter with full 5Ghz 802.11ac support under Linux.

Subject says it all. Which ones fit this requirement? 100.2.252.204 (talk) 00:18, 7 August 2016 (UTC)[reply]

We apparently have a big list of FLOSS wireless drivers. This is the more "official" list for Linux. It helps to know what chip a given adapter uses. Sometimes this is listed in the product information, but if not, a Web search for "<name of adapter> linux" often will give you some information. --71.110.8.102 (talk) 23:00, 7 August 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Why is a = 2*b wrong?

In Python, a = 2*b is wrong.

If I have not assigned a value to 'b' yet, but already know that 'b' is half as big as 'a', shouldn't a language like Python allow for expressing this relationship? At some later point, the 'b' would have a value assigned to it, and therefore, 'a' would have gotten also a value. Llaanngg (talk) 13:19, 7 August 2016 (UTC)[reply]

No, Python is eager. Your reasoning might well hold in a language that is lazy. -- Finlay McWalter··–·Talk 14:37, 7 August 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Our article is mostly about other related meanings, but note that you can use delayed evaluation in many languages, although you have to request it explicitly (presumably because of the increased cost). In Python, it would look like

def a(): return 2*b
# b=...
# ... and use "a()" instead of "a" forever after

In Wolfram Language (i.e., Mathematica), which is one of very few languages where ordinary variable lookup can be delayed:

a:=2*b      (* the colon delays evaluation of the RHS *)
(* b=... *) (* optional! *)
(* use plain "a" *)

However, in that language the distinction is not very important in simple cases of arithmetic because b may be used symbolically before it has a value anyway. --Tardis (talk) 16:19, 7 August 2016 (UTC)[reply]

August 8

Thunderbird inbox won't show

Lately, Thunderbird (on current OSX) won't show me the contents of my 'main' inbox except by searching. The "Read messages" button, which formerly showed me the list of messages, is now a synonym for the "Get messages" button, i.e., download from the server. So every day now I "Search messages" such that "Age in Days is less than 1".

I hoped that the next update would correct this, but no luck.

Have I misconfigured something? —Tamfang (talk) 00:57, 8 August 2016 (UTC)[reply]

How do I close a window?

I have Windows 10 and Microsoft Edge. I clicked on the X in the upper right corner and was asked if I wanted to close all tabs. I said I did. One tab didn't quite close. The content was gone, but the URL remained at the top of the screen, along with a plus sign which gave me a new tab (~~which doesn't actually do anything once it appears~~Correction: there is a list of favorite sites and it will let me go to one if I click on it), the mimimize and maximize buttons which work, and the same X which now does nothing when I click on it. I can't change the URL because it changes back, and the window doesn't do anything. It just won't go away. When I click on the blue e at the bottom of the screen, there it is along with any other windows I might have open. I can close other windows and have done it by accident since this happened.— Vchimpanzee • talk • contributions • 21:24, 8 August 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Have you tried killing Edge from the Task Manager? If you're not having issues with any other programs, it sounds like you tripped over some bug in Edge. If you have repeated issues with Edge, I would install another browser. --71.110.8.102 (talk) 08:30, 10 August 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Yeah, looks like a one-time glitch, should not happen again if you restart.

How to kill programs: ctrl-alt-del, "task manager". If you can manage to "end task" via the "processes" tab, fine, otherwise, go to "details" (in W10) to find and kill the underlying process. Of course, the latter is a brutal solution; it will lose any unsaved data and the program might complain when you start it again. Tigraan^{Click here to contact me} 08:37, 10 August 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Okay, thanks. I'm not at home but I will be soon. I will not be installing another browser. That's too complicated. But I've had it long enough that I don't think this is a serious problem.— Vchimpanzee • talk • contributions • 15:45, 10 August 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Task manager never came up. However, this tab seems to be working fine.— Vchimpanzee • talk • contributions • 17:24, 10 August 2016 (UTC)[reply]

I will not be installing another browser. That's too complicated. - coming from someone who edited 10 years on Wikipedia (nerd!) and has a This user has a Bachelor of Arts degree in Computer Science userbox... Hmm, I should probably report your account as compromised.

Tigraan^{Click here to contact me} 16:06, 10 August 2016 (UTC)[reply]

You don't know me very well, do you? Seriously, not only do I have slow Internet, but I can't handle complicated stuff related to computers. My degree didn't do me any good.— Vchimpanzee • talk • contributions • 17:14, 10 August 2016 (UTC)[reply]

I'm in the same boat, degree-wise, but how hard is it to install a browser? —Tamfang (talk) 21:23, 10 August 2016 (UTC)[reply]

I don't want to find out.— Vchimpanzee • talk • contributions • 17:46, 11 August 2016 (UTC)[reply]

August 10

Succinct LISP implementation?

Is it true that LISP can be implemented or defined in two pages? If yes, where can I find these two pages?Hofhof (talk) 00:08, 10 August 2016 (UTC)[reply]

You can implement a tiny dialect with enough features to write nontrivial programs: here's one in a couple of pages of Python. You can't implement or define a standard dialect (Common Lisp or Scheme) in that space, except with very tiny type or maybe with a meta-circular evaluator that delegates most functionality to another implementation. -- BenRG (talk) 03:57, 10 August 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Little Schemer had a toy meta-circular evaluator. Actually, every lisp book discusses one, and this is what the "one or two pages" refers to. Lisp is very homoiconic, that is, a lisp program is just another sexp. A lisp evaluator just reads in lists, looks up atoms and applies functions (the car of the list) to arguments (the rest.) This doesn't mean a serious implementation, especially in something like C, can't be hundreds of thousands of lines of code. Whatsmore, due to stuff like reader macros where the program can actually re-program the reader itself, lisp is not context-free and only a full lisp implementation can parse arbitrary lisp. Asmrulz (talk) 05:24, 10 August 2016 (UTC)[reply]

August 11

Gateway NV78 running Windows 7 Home Premium "force powers off" by itself

Twice today, and once this weekend, my computer, 2009 model described in the headline, has simply turned itself off without warning as if I have force powered it off; no log off, just CLICK! I have no apprent problem on restart, and have checked for recently installed updates, none since 8/3. I would think this might just be pending mechanical failure, but it only seems to happen when I visit sites with complex video and html setup (assuming those are the right words). That is, WP, Craig's List, Drudge, and other such simplified sites do not cause this. Sites that auto-load videos and (almost) insist on disabling adblocker do.

Is there any diagnostic I should run, or update I should look for? It seems suspicious to me that it's only the most fancy new sites that I have been visiting when this happened.

BTW, this has happened only since I installed, then removed, Windows 10, and I do have both recovery disks and a recent (7/29) repair disk, and recent disk image. And I did run chkdsk/r, which fixed a few corrupted files on 7/29.

Security Update KB3170106 was the latest update, from 8/1. Other updates are from 7/19 or earlier.

Thanks. μηδείς (talk) 00:32, 11 August 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Try memory, cpu and gpu stress tests. There are several free options of each. Vespine (talk) 02:03, 11 August 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Also, by default windows 7 is configured to automatically restart after a critical failure. You can disable this which will show you if your computer is actually Blue screening which should have some useful clues. Vespine (talk) 03:41, 11 August 2016 (UTC)[reply]

This is a good idea, but my hunch is CPU overheating. "Complex video and html" will tax the CPU. Modern CPUs are designed to automatically shut off if they get too hot. Your BIOS or UEFI might record events such as thermal shutoff in an error log, but you'll have to consult the documentation or search around for how to access it. If you haven't lately, clean the dust out of the system with some gas duster, then try stress testing. If a CPU stress test causes a shutoff, check if the CPU heatsink has come loose. --71.110.8.102 (talk) 08:20, 11 August 2016 (UTC)[reply]

A good way to test for overheating in a desktop PC is to remove the case and point a powerful box fan on high at the innards. If that solves the problem, then overheating is the issue. You can then either continue to use this workaround, or try to identify and repair the cause of the overheating, such as if the heatsink has come loose. Incidentally, this happening in August, when it's hot outside in NJ and likely warm inside, is another good reason to suspect overheating. StuRat (talk) 11:50, 11 August 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks for all the help so far, especially Stu, to whom I apologize for a previous incident. The bizarre thing is, that I keep my apt at 68F, and my room at my parents (which is in NJ, and where I spend most weekends and holidays) and have a small desk fan blowing on back of the computer at all times. I check and clean the fans. I feel the case to see if it is getting overwarm, and that happens so rarely it's not worth mentioning. These last three times the computer has powered off by itself I checked for undue heat, and it was warmer than ambient, but too cool for a comfortable shower.

I have noticed inordinately high CPU usage at times. I'll run the stress tests mentioned above after dinner when I have time. Again, thanks. μηδείς (talk) 02:13, 12 August 2016 (UTC)[reply]

PS, is there some physical fault, like a bad power cord connection that might be an issue? I don't think that's the case, but I did have that with my powerbook back in 2006. μηδείς (talk) 19:47, 11 August 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Your small desk fan blowing on the back of the computer may be preventing the internal fan from doing its job. Try positioning the fan so it blows across the rear at an oblique angle that helps, rather than hinders, the internal fan. Akld guy (talk) 21:28, 11 August 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Interesting! What I actually do is have the fan blow down on the table (earthcoreward) in part to simply circulate the AIR downward in part since I have been fat since birth, and in part since its noise helps my anxiety and PTSD. (I do not want medical advice, I actually have good treatment, thanks...) but my point is that I really doubt that my prorcessor is overheating to cause this very recent problem, unless something over bodyheat is really problematic. I'd say it never gets over nodyheat, and rarely over 80F. I still have to do the stress tests. μηδείς (talk) 02:13, 12 August 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Keep in mind that any overheating problem may be extremely localized. The CPU, for example, may overheat, but when that heat is spread throughout the entire box, it's not all that much. Think of it like when you microwave some frozen food and a spot gets burnt while the rest remains frozen. StuRat (talk) 03:33, 12 August 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Check for hardware problems like blown capacitors, dust and dirt on board and cooling. See also the achive. We already had discussed similar problems. Btw. I am working on a self refurbished machine. And I know, the word "refurbished" in a sales offer means "we have removed dust and dirt, only". I did a little bit more. Note, the PSU still stores hazardous voltage, even when turned of and unplugged. The best chance to discarge ist sto power up the machine, wait until fans and inicators appers and the pull the plug from the wall to discharge the PSU itself as most as possible. If one of the discharge resistors fails, his is the best way to discharge. This way of discharing fails if the machine does not startup and the capacitors remain charged, see Power supply unit (computer). --Hans Haase (有问题吗) 09:36, 12 August 2016 (UTC)[reply]

A replacement PC that is faster than what you have now will cost you $40.[1] --10:12, 12 August 2016 (UTC)

How spooler error can be fix?

I have an canon printer and sometime spooler error occured and i can't fix it properly. Can you please suggest me how i fix it? — Preceding unsigned comment added by Wefix365 (talk • contribs) 10:36, 11 August 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Does any of this advice help ? [2] StuRat (talk) 11:44, 11 August 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Help finding numerical conversion

I have a raw file that appears to be encoding the values, and I have the output, so I can compare the two. I have found section of the file is using base64. But other sections I cannot figure out. I'm going to post the text and what the value actually represents to see if anyone can tell me how to make these conversions. The entire value contains a lot of "A"s both before and after the unique characters, so I have attempted to extract the relevant parts and could have made mistakes. For example, the full string would be ""AgAAACwBAAAAAAAA"" but only the CwB vs. OgD part changes between that and "AgAAAOgDAAAAAAAA".

ACACUU=2000 JqZBUI=33,6 JqZGT8=0,6 HsUrj0=0,060 D8=0,50 OgD=1000 CwB=300

DO any of these numbers make sense in the context of the character strings?

Thanks, -199.66.168.59 (talk) 18:30, 11 August 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Your attempt to extract "relevant" parts has made this much more difficult. It would be important to know in exactly what position within the string of A's your shorter strings appear. Are all the strings 16 characters as in your two full examples? Do they all start with "Ag" which you've also omitted? And what do the commas mean in the decimal values? Are those decimal points, so that "0,50" means 1/2? But then it's puzzling why two of the non-integral values have trailing zeros and the other two don't. The first obvious guess is these are some kind of floating point or fixed point format in some large base, where the A's represent zeros and the other characters represent other digits, but it's pretty hard to guess from the information you've provided. I'd suggest you post some examples without omitting anything, and explain more unambiguously what the "actual values" are. CodeTalker (talk) 00:18, 12 August 2016 (UTC)[reply]

OK. This is European so ,=. for you Americans.

"CAAAAACACUUAAAAA"=2000 (0...5000) or (0...100000)
"CAAAAJqZmT8AAAAA"=1.20 (0.00...2.00)
"CAAAAAAAAEAAAAAA"=2.00 (0.00...2.00)
"CAAAAHsUrj0AAAAA"=0.060 (0.000...1.000)
"CAAAAAAAAD8AAAAA"=0.50 (0.00...1.00)
"CAAAAAAAgD8AAAAA"=1.00 (0.00...1000.00)
"AgAAAOgDAAAAAAAA"=1000 (0...1000000)
"AgAAACwBAAAAAAAA"=300 (0...86400)

I've added the ranges the values are looking for, so perhaps there is some decimal point ignoring and that decimal is added after the fact. We also have values like "BgAAAAAAAAAAAAAA" that relate to a drop down menu choice and ""CgAAAAEAAAAAAAAA" that relate to a 1 bit binary value of 1 (all As equals 0). And finally the D prefix seems to indicate Base64 after the 16 character string. -199.66.168.59 (talk) 15:03, 12 August 2016 (UTC)[reply]

August 12

Steppping Up

What's the most practical and least-wastage way to convert the 1.5 or 3 volts D.C. from a small battery (say a button cell), to something between 100 and 200 A.C. volts, using only s.m.d. components. Kindly explain exactly what sort of parts be used, and in what order. 210.56.109.247 (talk) 04:51, 12 August 2016 (UTC)[reply]

The term for this sort of circuit is an inverter. This site has some suitable circuits, and a search on "inverter circuit" will come up with plenty of examples. Note that, by using SMD components, you're going to be limited in the amount of power you can deliver, but presumably this isn't a consideration if you're powering it with a button cell. Tevildo (talk) 07:09, 12 August 2016 (UTC)[reply]

A boost converter may have less parts due special designed integrated circuits are avail. Some can control a transistor for switching higher current. Propeprly designed and built, an efficiency about 95 % can be reached. Note LED flashlights use the boost converter for current limiting. If You want to generate 100 to 200 volts from a Battery, see how CCFL inverters and CRT monitors work. If You double the voltage output, You will have least half current, only. From an single battery, You will get a electric shocker, only due less current from battery at higher voltage. Redesigning a power supply for pracical use would be the solution for such applications. If You need 230 volts and there are 115 volts from the wall only, ask Your electrician if You have split-phase electric power, it is just a wire in a cable to change 115 to 230 volts. --Hans Haase (有问题吗) 09:30, 12 August 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Consolidating worksheets in Excel

I work for a housing authority. I have six spreadsheets, each of which tells me what date a specific action was taken at a specific address. Each sheet contains only those addresses at which the relevant action has been taken. Each address has a unique reference number. Is there a way in Excel of combining all six spreadsheets into one, which has a row for every address and a column for each of the six actions, other than copying and pasting one by one (there are rather too many addresses for that)? --Nicknack009 (talk) 10:42, 12 August 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Could you be more specific about which format your data is?

Going by the assumption that you have 6 files taskA, taskB etc. and each of taskX contains two colums (address reference number, date of the task), it sounds fairly straightforward. Just sort each of the files by reference number and copy-paste the second column of taskX into a new spreadsheet under the column "taskX".

This assumes that each file contains the same set of addresses, but if that is not the case, it should not be very hard to add the missing addresses (leaving the second column blank) before sorting in each of the files.

Of course, this kind of operation would be trivially done on csv files in a programming language such as Python, but I think I can assume you are not familiar with that kind of things. Tigraan^{Click here to contact me} 11:17, 12 August 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Presuming that the spreadsheet into which data is to be consolidated has the complete set of unique reference numbers (e.g. as column A) then columns B to G can use the vlookup formula to pull data from the six spreadsheets, and, for bonus points, wrapping vlookup within an if(iserror statement deals with instances where there is not an action in the subsidiary spreadsheet. The formula in each cell of a column would be along the lines of =if(iserror(vlookup(a2;[spreadsheet1.xls].$a$2:$b$999;2;false);"";(vlookup(a2;[spreadsheet1.xls].$a$2:$b$999;2;false)) ... my syntax will be dodgy as I only have openoffice to hand not Excel. In essence, a2 points to the URN being searched for; it is searched for in the A2 to B999 range in spreadsheet1.xls; the 2 value says 'if found, return the value from column B' (which in my conceptual model is the action taken on the property), and false ... I forget, probably something about an exact match. And more widely, if you find an error (i.e. there is no row for this URN in the subsid file) then make the value of the cell blank, else return the value found in the B column. And the $ symbols in the formula specify the range being searched in the subsidiary spreadsheets as absolute cell references, meaning you can cut and paste it down the column without suffering relative cell addressing problems. hth --Tagishsimon (talk) 11:40, 12 August 2016 (UTC)[reply]

The "4gb" (its note EXACTLY 4gb on some cases like windows 32bits) limit on 32bits, is per program or on the entire computer?

An question: The "4gb" (its note EXACTLY 4gb on some cases like windows 32bits) limit on 32bits, is per program or on the entire computer?
I am doing some research and some places say it per program, while some sort of imply being on the entire computer.177.92.128.26 (talk) 17:17, 12 August 2016 (UTC)[reply]