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January 29

Problem with joining chat rooms

I'm having trouble with joining the chat rooms that are available. When I try to connect to one, it doesn't connect right away and there's a spinning circle followed by a message saying We couldn't connect to the server :( Closing Link. (Connection timed out).

The only chat room that connects right away is #wikipedia-en-help and that's it.

--MikaelaArsenault (talk) 19:54, 29 January 2020 (UTC)MikaelaArsenault[reply]

Chat rooms where? Ruslik_Zero 20:30, 29 January 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Ruslik0, Freenode IRC presumably moonythedwarf (Braden N.) 20:47, 29 January 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Google Chrome Won't Load PDF

My Google Chrome on Mac OS X recently decided to stop loading PDF pages for some unknown reason and now those pages are just gray when they finish loading. It is up to date and I did not set it to automatically download PDF files in the settings. None of my Chrome plugins is related to PDF. I would really appreciate any advice on how to fix this as I personally dislike downloading unnecessary files. Thank you. 70.95.44.93 (talk) 12:27, 30 January 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Have you tried to remove and re-install it? Ruslik_Zero 20:17, 30 January 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Hit CTRL+SHIFT+DEL or clear the browsers cache the other way and retry. Is it really a PDF file? --Hans Haase (有问题吗) 17:47, 3 February 2020 (UTC)[reply]

On macOS more likely command+shift+delete. --Lambiam 10:10, 4 February 2020 (UTC)[reply]

February 4

Cable TV ads how do they work?

Are the broadcast to all the subscribers on at least a fairly large segment of the cable? Or can they be targeted to individual viewers? This is about Comcast in an apartment complex. My mom was recently treated for a medical issue, and suddenly we're seeing lots of cable ads about drugs and stuff related to that very issue. So much for HIPAA if these events are related. Thanks. 73.93.155.110 (talk) 00:38, 4 February 2020 (UTC)[reply]

The commercials are either nation-wide or local to your area. They are not individually tailored. RudolfRed (talk) 03:25, 4 February 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Most likely the medical incident caused you to notice references to the same condition that previously would have passed by your attention. See priming (psychology). --142.112.159.101 (talk) 07:20, 4 February 2020 (UTC)[reply]

If you are referring to cable television service, you receive the exact same signal as everyone around you. It isn't customized for you. If you are watching programs on an on-demand service (like Hulu or YouTube), the ads can be customed just for you. They probably aren't, but they can be. 135.84.167.41 (talk) 15:35, 5 February 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Force Quit doesn't show all open applications

iMac11,3, Intel Core i5, 2.8 GHz, macOS 10.13.6

When I go to Force Quit it shows some open applications but by no means all. As examples, I have MagicPrefs and uTorrent open right now, both of which are not (and are never) shown in Force Quit. Why is this? Is there a remedy? My Google search on the issue was not helpful. Thanks--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 23:49, 4 February 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Mac OS hides system tasks and things that it thinks are background tasks from the Force Quit dialog. However it is it determines what are 'background tasks' (I've never seen it documented), it sometimes has false positives/negatives. You can still force quit them from the Activity Monitor app, or from a Terminal with kill or killall. 100.2.177.74 (talk) 00:19, 5 February 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks, I explored Activity Monitor – very useful.--Fuhghettaboutit (talk) 04:31, 5 February 2020 (UTC)[reply]

February 5

Server or PC?

I need to setup a simple Internet server. I have an option to purchase, or even take from my old storage a computer and install MS Server software, or on the other hand I can purchase a new Dell entry level server like this one: [1]. I hope it will have server software installed on it. What would be the difference?

Thanks, - AboutFace 22 (talk) 15:34, 5 February 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Hardware:

A server is optimized for reliable, fault tolerant 24-hour operation while using as little power and physical space as possible. In particular, the video will be fine for static 2D (Windows or Lixux desktop, web browsing...) but will absolutely suck at gaming.

For your application, I suggest a used Dell PowerEdge R610.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07QJ6WTV7/

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00HDAGDLK/

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07R7XMKK5

At these prices you can afford to buy one, set it up and see if you are happy with it, then buy a spare.

There a are a huge number of perfectly fine R610s on the used market because for someone running a server farm it makes financial sense to replace multiple R610s with a single high-end virtualization server. These servers typically spent their previous lives in a climate controlled server room and are in like new condition.

Software:

You do not want to use Microsoft server software with IIS. If you get it with the server, put it on the shelf. Instead, you really want to run a Linux server and Apache.

Here are some good choices:[2] If in doubt, try Ubuntu first.

Here is a good page about setting up the web server:[3]

Questions

Is this going to be on the Internet, or will it be a private server on your LAN?

How many users at once? And what will they be doing? browsing a static website? Minecraft server? Uploading and downloading large files? I can give you better advice if I know more about the load. --Guy Macon (talk) 17:09, 5 February 2020 (UTC)[reply]

BTW, the R610 draws 15W at idle and 260W with all twelve cores running a heavy load. I would guess that in your application it would spend most of its time under 30W with peaks of maybe 100W when a bunch of users are hammering on the web server.

Review:[4][5]

--Guy Macon (talk) 18:44, 5 February 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Guy Macon, thank you for a comprehensive advice. I kind of thought along the same lines, except for the Linux server. I do have considerable experience with Linux applications, C++ etc. The purpose of the server is a possible fundraising. I have 4 US patents on a particular invention. They are on the Internet, of course. I plan to collect them all in some pages, write a business plan, post some computational results, etc and limit the access to the website to people whom I consider potential investors and whom I have contacted and offered to check it out with passwords. That's it. I've never done gaming or anything of that nature.

Thank you, - AboutFace 22 (talk) 19:57, 5 February 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Given the above new information, I would change my advice. Get a domain from Gandi.net, hosting from pair.com and email from Tuffmail.com. There are other good vendors, but I have personally tested these three. Prices are OK (not the cheapest, but not bad) reliability is very good, and all three have a reputation for protecting your privacy and not being idiots who keep getting hacked.

I do not advise buying the above three services from a single vendor.

With the above setup, if Pair goes belly up you can buy web hosting somewhere else and have Gandi point to the new web server. If Tuffmail dies you can buy email hosting somewhere else and have Gandi point to the new web server. If Gandi dies you can still access Tuffmail and Pair through their web interfaces even though the domain doesn't resolve, and you can hire a new domain name provider who will go through the special hoops you have to jump through to take over for a dead domain name provider.

Consider what happens when everything is provided by dodgydomains.ru: One day your website disappears. Is it the hosting? You call but the dodgydomains phone is disconnected, the dodgydomains email bounces and the dodgydomains website no longer exists. So you decide to call your domain name service and have them point to a new host. You call but the dodgydomains phone is disconnected, the dodgydomains email bounces and the dodgydomains website no longer exists. Same problem with the email server. This can be a real pain to recover from. --Guy Macon (talk) 21:04, 5 February 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Guy's given you some good advice re server hardware (and OS), although I'd disagree on two broad points.

- I'm not a fan of this type of deep rack-mount when they're on their own. Great when you have a whole rack of them, but as an individual it's an awkward shape.

- More importantly, I don't think anyone should be running a single internet server. Either run a whole farm, or rent server space from someone who is. There's a lot more to this than just the server and it's nearly as awkward to run one (competently and protected) as it is to run a rackful. For another thing, your staging environment (dev, test and live servers) probably need two or three boxes (only one externally-facing) more than just one.

On the whole, I'd rent space from somewhere that's already hosting stuff. There's a plethora of such places, from Amazon AWS downwards. AWS isn't a bad way to go either, as it's much more flexible than simple server rental. But just buying a server and plugging it into the interweb is just asking for trouble. Andy Dingley (talk) 20:26, 5 February 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Many thanks everyone for incredibly useful comments. AboutFace 22 (talk) 03:15, 6 February 2020 (UTC)[reply]

I would say that not many hardcore systems geeks run server-class hardware at home. Especially in the age of virtualization, you could easily go get a Digital Ocean droplet and have a nice, well-configured and usable server "out there" on the Internet to do what you want.

Besides the power requirements and exotic hardware of a server, there is another reason you do not want it in your home. Your Internet Service Provider has a Terms of Service that designates your connection for consumer use only. You can negotiate a business-class account with them, and pay lots more, but a consumer Internet connection does not have suitable technical characteristics for handling server-load and their Terms of Use may indeed specifically prohibit the "running of servers" over the connection. Elizium23 (talk) 03:23, 6 February 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Is this an antipattern?

I found some strange code at work in the ASP.NET Core application I'm developing.

When a controller needs to report an error situation, it calls a method in another class, giving itself as a parameter. This other class then calls methods in the controller, through the parameter it got, to write the error message in the reply. I changed it so the other class is not needed, the controller calls its own methods directly.

Is the former situation an example of some antipattern? JIP | Talk 21:48, 5 February 2020 (UTC)[reply]

That's a type of callback and sometimes it is the right thing. Other times it's an additional and unneeded moving part. It's not inherently an antipattern. 2601:648:8202:96B0:0:0:0:E118 (talk) 04:08, 6 February 2020 (UTC)[reply]

February 6