Revision as of 22:29, 14 January 2014

• Computing
• Entertainment
• Humanities
• Language
• Mathematics
• Science
• Miscellaneous
• Archives

• WP:RD/C

Main page: Help searching Misplaced Pages

How can I get my question answered?

• Select the section of the desk that best fits the general topic of your question (see the navigation column to the right).
• Post your question to only one section, providing a short header that gives the topic of your question.
• Type '~~~~' (that is, four tilde characters) at the end – this signs and dates your contribution so we know who wrote what and when.
• Don't post personal contact information – it will be removed. Any answers will be provided here.
• Please be as specific as possible, and include all relevant context – the usefulness of answers may depend on the context.
• Note:
  • We don't answer (and may remove) questions that require medical diagnosis or legal advice.
  • We don't answer requests for opinions, predictions or debate.
  • We don't do your homework for you, though we'll help you past the stuck point.
  • We don't conduct original research or provide a free source of ideas, but we'll help you find information you need.

How do I answer a question?

Main page: Misplaced Pages:Reference desk/Guidelines

• The best answers address the question directly, and back up facts with wikilinks and links to sources. Do not edit others' comments and do not give any medical or legal advice.

• Teahouse
• Help desk
• Village pump
• Help manual

January 9

Java assignments?

I've found a number of sites that teach C, JavaScript, Python, etc but haven't found anything that does the same for Java. Does anyone know of such a site? Or one that has maybe just some projects or assignments that move up in difficulty? Thanks, Dismas| 02:34, 9 January 2014 (UTC)

There are many books on Amazon under $20 each. --AboutFace 22 (talk) 03:31, 9 January 2014 (UTC)

There are a number of courses on iTunesU, though I can't see to find the one I did a while ago (I should be able to check when I get home and I'm on my personal iTunes account rather than my work one) MChesterMC (talk) 09:52, 9 January 2014 (UTC)

The Java Tutorials are the official training courses. They were written under the supervision of the original Java team at Sun (the folks who invented the language), and are now hosted by Oracle. They are free to use and share; they have good code examples, and they cover the language fundamentals as well as the vast standard libraries like Java Swing and the various utility frameworks. Nimur (talk) 15:09, 9 January 2014 (UTC)

WinZip

I am wondering if someone knows if I can purchase the WinZip as a DVD, not as a web download. The Amazon lists a few offers, some of them marked as "Download," others as "PC," then there is "PC Download," then "More Buying Choices - PC," etc. First I thought that those good looking boxes costing 60 bucks should entail a DVD arriving to your mailbox. Then I read one of user feedbacks and the man complained that he got one of such "expensive" boxes which amounted to "nothing more than a handshake" as he put it. He had to download the software via the Internet and he has a dial up connection with 56K per second speed. I do have high speed but I prefer a DVD nonetheless. Thanks, --AboutFace 22 (talk) 03:29, 9 January 2014 (UTC)

Have you looked at the WinZip page? It offers a backup CD, which should provide what you want. --Phil Holmes (talk) 09:31, 9 January 2014 (UTC)

Newer versions of Windows already have the ability to read and create zip files. Why would you want to buy an additional product that does what Windows can already do? Astronaut (talk) 12:26, 9 January 2014 (UTC)

7-Zip is an open-source tool that does all the same things as WinZip and is free. I think I remember you asking about some .tar.gz archives or something similar recently, and it will be able to open them. I know in the past I've seen sites that offer to sell open-source software on CD, but a quick search didn't find anything and I don't remember them seeming all that trustworthy anyways... Katie R (talk) 13:42, 9 January 2014 (UTC)

And actually, didn't you install MingW? That comes with tar, gzip and bzip so you should be able to use those to open up anything packaged in that format. Running "man tar" will bring up the help file for it, but I think "tar -xvzf filename.tar.gz" is what you want. That will unzip and unpack the tar file into the directory it is sitting in, and it probably is all contained within a folder in the archive, so it won't mess up the directory you run it from. Hopefully I'm remembering your situation right, otherwise that was a bunch of useless information. :-) Katie R (talk) 14:05, 9 January 2014 (UTC)

You, fellows, have excellent memory. All comments seem to be right on target. Many thanks. Cannot think about implementing what you are suggesting now: I am at work. The actual deeds may wait until Saturday. Thanks again. --AboutFace 22 (talk) 16:20, 9 January 2014 (UTC)

Answering Phil Holmes: No I don't see what he saw anywhere. The WinZip offers CD burning but that is different. I think they kept the issue ambiguous deliberately. Anyhow, I am going to order it now and will report to you in a couple of days. Thanks, --AboutFace 22 (talk) 01:22, 10 January 2014 (UTC)

I think I figured it out completely. They do not provide a CD. It is all "Delivery: electronic download." It is disgusting! I will punish them :-) by getting something else. --AboutFace 22 (talk) 01:32, 10 January 2014 (UTC)

Hooking up a treadmill/exercise bike for use in a MMO?

I have seen this done by some World of Warcraft players in around 2008 but it seems nothing more came of it. They hooked up a treadmill to a wheel that was then attached to a mouse to control the forward movement of their character in game. I play Guild Wars 2 and the forward movement is controlled by the 'W' key. Does anyone know of a way I can set up a treadmill (or better yet, an exercise bike as I already have one) to trigger the W key on a PC? 63.95.64.254 (talk) 17:04, 9 January 2014 (UTC)

I suppose there's some way to set it up electronically, but I'd be tempted to set up a Rube Goldberg device to actually press the W key on the keyboard. A pen could be used as the final piece, since it already has a spring in it to return to the normal position, once pressed. You'd just need to disable the part that holds it down until you hit the release (or, if you don't, then it would hit the key once every 2 wheel rotations). Then an extension from the exercise bike's wheel with an eccentric cam could push the pen down with each rotation (hopefully one key press per wheel rotation is good, so no gears are needed). You would also need a frame to hold the pen in place. StuRat (talk) 17:37, 9 January 2014 (UTC)

As you state the question, it's not too hard:

I could imagine finding an old PC keyboard with broken keys (but with a working 'W' key!) - butchering it to the point where only the important electronics are left and wiring a magnetic switch in place of the keyswitch for the 'W' key...then fixing a magnet onto the part of the exercise bike that spins as you pedal. You could then use the keyboard as an external keyboard with most computers - and you should get a "W" typed by it once for every revolution of the wheel. If that results in you having to pedal too hard, you could place two magnets 180 degrees apart and you'd get two "W" keystrokes for every revolution.

HOWEVER games that use the "WASD" keys don't work by you typing a 'W' for every step you take forward...they rely on you HOLDING DOWN the W key all the time you want to move - and for that, you need to know that the exercise bike is being pedalled continuously. I can imagine ways to detect that - but it would take a knowledge of electronics that I suspect you don't have (or you wouldn't be asking this question!)

SteveBaker (talk) 18:51, 9 January 2014 (UTC)

Steve, you are correct that my electronic knowledge is minimal but my husband is a computer tech so might be able to handle a more tech based answer. I was hoping there was a simple way to hook up the bike to give off a 'signal' of some kind which I could then map to the W key in the same way that he currently uses a PS2 controller mapped to the keys. As the movement of the pedals activates the dash board we have on our bike that indicates time, speed, program etc. I was hoping some smart person out there had figured out a way to read that impulse and plug it into a PC instead of the on board one. 63.95.64.254 (talk) 21:43, 9 January 2014 (UTC)

There's possibly some way to hook up a dynamo to the bike, and when the generated voltage exceeds a threshold, send a signal to the computer. Just throwing out ideas in the hope that someone more techicaly able can suggest a way of implementing them. Various gamepad-to-keyboard solutions (such as Joy2Key, at work, so can't provide a link) would let you map the incoming signal to the w key if you could generate a standard gamepad output from the dynamo voltage. MChesterMC (talk) 10:21, 10 January 2014 (UTC)

What's wrong with using the exercise bike while you rest the keyboard and mouse on the top? Is it necessary to link the cycling to moving on your game? I once contemplated cycling while gaming but changed my mind since i don't have the space for an exercise bike. Would a dance matt work? There are some that can plug into USB ports, and this has four directional buttons. This has the bonus of allowing you to move in more directions as though you are actually in the game. Good luck ツ Jenova20 19:01, 9 January 2014 (UTC)

I suppose I could just get on the bike while I play but lazy and unmotivated as I am I figure having it linked to my character in game would keep me pedaling! I'm not thinking about immersion really here (although can't wait for the day when the oculus rift and partnered tread mill becomes common place). I'm thinking more of a way to get me exercising when I would rather just sit and game all day ;) 63.95.64.254 (talk) 21:43, 9 January 2014 (UTC)

And what if something were to chase you while your legs are tired from cycling? Aha, then you would be easy prey! Thanks ツ Jenova20 13:00, 10 January 2014 (UTC)

You don't need an Oculus Rift to do what you want - all you need is some kind of sensor that knows that you're doing some kind of exercise and uses that to drive the game. I recently tried to Kickstart a device that I have invented that uses pressure sensors that slide into your shoes that lets you exercise (by jogging in place) in order to play games like this - but sadly it was a total failure. See: ShoeHaiku.

If you have a tame tech-geek on hand, then the appropriate technobabble that you need to impart is: "Steve says: It's easy...take a $30 Arduino Leonardo (it's got to be a Leonardo because it can easily emulate a HID keyboard) and use it to monitor the pulses from the rotation sensor on the exercise bike - different bikes have different sensors - but by prodding around with an oscilloscope, I'm sure you can find either a once-per-revolution, 3 to 5 volt pulse - or perhaps an analog velocity signal - somewhere on the connector between wheel and electronics module that you can easily tap into. It's easy to write software in the Arduino to read that signal using either the digital or analog pins on the Arduino. Then it's easy to calculate how fast the wheel is rotating and there are plenty of online examples telling you how to generate the appropriate key-up/key-down signals that correspond to "walk", "run" and "sprint" depending on the frequency of the signal...you can probably do it in 20 lines of code."...but you do need a tame geek to decode that message and turn it into what you want! SteveBaker (talk) 14:05, 10 January 2014 (UTC)

We naturally have an article on these PCGamerBike (the product link site in the article is dead but I've found a couple of places that list them; whether they actually have them in stock is unknown) --TrogWoolley (talk) 15:48, 10 January 2014 (UTC)

January 10

sap online training

hello,I want to attend the sap online classes.what are the tools that i need to install. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Nickray.nanni (talk • contribs) 06:25, 10 January 2014 (UTC)

how to know,which is best?

I am looking for a career booster in sap.recently I was shifted to Hyderabad.While I'm asking my friends about online training for sap classes,they are recommending (http://techiestraining.com/) this institute.They are telling that this is the only institute which is cost effective,having best faculty and most importantly they are assigning live projects for their students to improve the skills.These many +ves attracting me to join with techies.Before deciding I need your suggestion also.Please help me.

Thanks & regards nick — Preceding unsigned comment added by Nickray.nanni (talk • contribs) 06:38, 10 January 2014 (UTC)

Online Training packages - software

I have project for my foundation degree in logistics. My project will involve moving new entrants training and induction from classroom/office based to an online environment.

I am struggling to find articles that will help me write a literature review for my project. I think I may be looking in the wrong areas of wikipedia or I may just be typing in the wrong keywords etc.

I am looking for any help in terms of links and wikipedia pages that could help me complete my literature review.

Thanks

Martin

Martin Mowatt (talk) 12:56, 10 January 2014 (UTC)

Not a direct answer, but edX does an excellent job of providing free online training, and they may be willing to share their software, experiences, etc., with you. StuRat (talk) 15:55, 10 January 2014 (UTC)

Laptop black startup screen

Hello Guys, I need a help from you for solving my laptop problem.

MY LAPTOP Toshiba satellite A215 s4697 AMD turion mobile technology 1.6 Ghz processor 1 GB RAM ATI Radeon X1200 Integrated graphics Windows XP Bought on 2007,Used monthly once/twice upto 2011(5 years) Constant usage for past two years(2012,2013)

PROBLEM Black screen on start up (NOT ALWAYS)

THINGS I HAVE DONE BUT FAILED: Hard Reset Many times New 2 GB RAM Installed(Tried on both slots) Installed New battery Glowed Bright light on screen Nothing appears Updated BIOS to latest version Updated Display driver and Catalyst software to latest version

sTRANGE THINGS Mostly Laptop display works in morning (After 8 hours of rest to laptop) After Updating BIOS it showed improvement but deteriorated

WHAT I HAVENT DONE Exploring /Cleaning Motherboard Opening Display panel & Checking connectivity Reballing GPU

Guys if you need extra details i ll give you.But please help me in solving this problem.Its really frustrating to fight with laptop to make it show the screen. Please dont tell REPLACE THE MOTHERBOAD/REPLACE THE LAPTOP — Preceding unsigned comment added by 117.201.16.198 (talk) 13:17, 10 January 2014 (UTC)

So what you have is an "intermittent" problem which makes the screen go black. Intermittent problems are almost always hardware-related, so re-installing drivers/BIOS/OS is pointless. The difficulty in diagnosing it is that there are a huge range of hardware problems that could cause that - and any of them could potentially be intermittent. For example:

• The CPU could be faulty.
• The memory could be faulty.
• The power supply could be faulty.
• The GPU could be faulty.
• The video circuitry could be faulty.
• The on/off or reset buttons could be faulty.
• The display itself could be faulty.
• Any of the wiring between any of the things above could be faulty.
• Any one of several external connectors could be faulty.

It's essentially impossible for us to diagnose which of those things it is because any of them could cause the symptoms that you're seeing here if the fault is intermittent. Intermittent faults can come about for several reasons - bad solder joints, cracked circuit board traces, bent connectors, broken wires, static-shocked components....again, it's very hard to pin down which of those it is.

The only other symptom you've given us is that the problem happens mostly after the machine has been on for a while - but since all of the causes of intermittent faults can be temperature-dependent, that doesn't narrow the problem down very much.

Sadly, I think you need to get a professional involved. Someone who repairs these kinds of laptop frequently can try swapping out components until the thing that's broken is swapped out...that's expensive for you to do yourself because you could have to replace every part in the machine until the very last thing you try cures it...but for a professional with shelves full of spare parts, it's not so hard.

The problem with going to an expert is that your problem is intermittent. So (s)he might change (say) the motherboard - and the computer works when they reboot it. But how do you know that this fixes it? Maybe you have to reboot the machine 20 times with just the right set of temperatures for it to fail - so you might very well think you've fixed it when you haven't.

Worse still is that when you look at the set of things that I listed as possible causes, at least half of them are "Replace the motherboard" things - and doing that is something you've forbidden us to advise. Well, sorry, but "REPLACE THE MOTHERBOARD" is by far the most likely thing that'll cure your laptop. Just because you don't like this answer doesn't make it the wrong answer! Sadly, replacing the motherboard is expensive - and it still only has maybe a 70% chance of curing the problem.

May I suggest that you watch and listen very carefully when you boot it up and the screen stays black. Things that will help immensely in the diagnosis are:

• Do any LED's or other lights come on?
• Do you feel the hard drive spinning up?
• Do you feel/hear the heads on the hard drive moving?
• Do you feel/hear the fans whirring?
• Does the machine emit any beeps?
• Do you see any flicker of any kind from the display?
• If the machine boots with a blank screen, can you press the caps-lock/num-lock keys and see LED's or other indicators toggling on and off?

If the machine fails most when it's hot, go out and buy a can of "freezer spray" - it's made especially for electronics diagnosis. Squirting a shot of spray on various parts of the machine *MAY* let it boot correctly again - by carefully figuring out which part fails when it's hot but works when it's cold may tell you something.

You could try gently pressing down on various parts of the motherboard or other components and rebooting to see if some subtly cracked track or bad joint is the cause - try bending wires slightly one way or another - and, again, that'll help you narrow the problem down a little.

The trouble is that if one of these things does seem to help, you don't know for sure until you've done it dozens of times and the thing reliably works with pressure or freezer spray and reliably fails without it...but this is a slow and painstaking process...which may still not lead to an answer.

Finding problems like this yourself is very tough...especially with a laptop where so few of the parts can easily be swapped out. I'm sorry that I can't be more helpful here - but this is one of the hardest things to diagnose and chatting with someone online is the hardest way to track down problems.

SteveBaker (talk) 13:45, 10 January 2014 (UTC)

• I don't disagree with anything Steve said, but if you don't hear unusual beeps on startup, then there's a decent chance that the problem is in the LCD display. I would try connecting an external monitor to the laptop, to see whether it shows anything when your screen is black. Looie496 (talk) 16:51, 10 January 2014 (UTC)

• I agree. Specifically, the wires that connect the top of the laptop with the bottom move each time you open and close the laptop, leading to eventual failure. I have a laptop with the same problem. Most likely it's the backlight which is only getting intermittant power. If you shine a bright light at it when it goes black, you may still be able to see a faint image of what's supposed to be on the screen. Of course, you can't actually use it like this, so setting up an external monitor is the way to go. This does make your laptop no longer particularly portable, but fixing a laptop of that age the right way would be a waste of money, you'd do better to just buy a new one. StuRat (talk) 17:11, 10 January 2014 (UTC)

I think the OP said that the bright-light-shone-at-the-screen test didn't produce anything useful - so it's not the backlight (or at least, not *JUST* the backlight) - and we're also told that the problem happens more later in the day (presumably when the laptop is hotter) - which suggests that the broken-wire-at-the-hinge problem isn't the issue here. I agree that setting up an external monitor would be a good test...but (as I said) a simpler test is to see whether the hard drive whirrs and the caps-lock LED toggles - which would both indicate that the computer has actually booted successfully but you just can't see the results. The CPU and memory both have to work for the hard drive to whirr - so that information would tell us a lot. But if there is no LED activity and no mechanical noises - then we have a much harder-to-diagnose problem.

Another interesting question for our OP is to ask whether the screen ever blanks out while the machine is in use. If not, then that's another massive clue. SteveBaker (talk) 18:17, 10 January 2014 (UTC)

If the backlight is out, and you shine a bright light at it to verify that something is displayed, I wouldn't exactly say that the bright light produces anything useful, it's just a debugging method. StuRat (talk) 00:28, 11 January 2014 (UTC)

Sorry - I wasn't being clear. In the original question, our OP says "Glowed Bright light on screen Nothing appears" - which I take to mean that (s)he already tried that test and there was still nothing visible on the screen. Which suggests that it's not the backlight that's faulty here. SteveBaker (talk) 15:55, 11 January 2014 (UTC)

January 11

Can't find my desktop

No, nobody took an ax and chopped off the top of my desk, I'm talking about booting my Windows 7 32-bit PC. I get the error message:

C:\Windows\system32\config\systemprofile\Desktop could not be located. 

It lets me log on, but all my customization and desktop icons are gone. When I look for that file, the entire directory structure is there except the Desktop part at the end.

1) Is "Desktop" a single file or a directory ?

2) What might have caused this ?

3) I haven't stored a system restore point for quite a while, so would prefer not to go back to that. What other options do I have here ? How can I create a new Desktop ? Should I create a new user ?

Thanks, StuRat (talk) 00:35, 11 January 2014 (UTC)

Hi, StuRat. The desktop, of course, is a directory. Go to C:\Users\StuRat\Desktop. See what is in there. How did it happen? There must have been an event that led to it. Could have been a malicious virus or something. Try to put your cursor on the directory, right click, find Restore previous versions. See if there is a restore point in there. Good luck. Thanks, --AboutFace 22 (talk) 03:05, 11 January 2014 (UTC)

That directory exists (except that where you have "StuRat", my path has my PC's name), and it's fully populated. So, is the problem just that it seems to be looking in the wrong place ? Should I just copy everything from this directory to the one it seems to be looking for in the error message ? StuRat (talk) 03:17, 11 January 2014 (UTC)

Honestly, my expertise may be at an end here. Sure I did not mean that you have a directory name "StuRat." StuRat is a user name for Misplaced Pages. Instead that directory should have your first and last name if you set the OS correctly while signing in the first time. An example might be "John Doe" or something like this. I don't think you should copy the directory to anything. Perhaps you should wait for someone with more experience in this area. I will keep thinking about it also. --AboutFace 22 (talk) 03:58, 11 January 2014 (UTC)

This is what I would do. Download and install Microsoft Security Essentials. It is charge free. Run a full scan. See if it ferrets out any malware. Then you can download and install "Spybot Search and Destroy" and run it. It is also free for individuals. I think Spybot has bogus websites, so be careful. Perhaps there is a sucker in there somewhere in your registers. --AboutFace 22 (talk) 04:11, 11 January 2014 (UTC)

For your information in one of my machines (Windows 7 64 bit) systemprofile does not have subdirectory "Desktop" but the desktop is available. --AboutFace 22 (talk) 04:29, 11 January 2014 (UTC)

I think Windows was looking there because it couldn't find your personalised desktop. Mine is located in C:\Users\(myname)\, but yours might be elsewhere depending on how your user system is set up. Just search the C drive for the desktop folder. It is unlikely to have been deleted (unless you have malware as suggested above). More likely (from my experience of Windows) is that the system has created a new user identity for some reason that no-one can explain. Is there more than one "you" in the Users folder? If you have a valid desktop folder somewhere, then there is no harm in copying it to the location where it is looking. Dbfirs 10:59, 11 January 2014 (UTC)

Copying it seemed to mostly fix the problems, but there still seem to be some left. For example, the icons down on the bottom, left (next to the Start button) are still there, but they aren't rendered correctly (they all default to the piece of paper with the corner turned down icon). StuRat (talk) 14:54, 11 January 2014 (UTC)

Somewhere on your C drive will be the missing icons, possibly not in an icons folder, but in separate applications folders; and somewhere in the registry will be pointers to the locations of those missing icons, but I don't know enough about the registry to know where to find them or where to copy them to. I can't explain how the registry becomes corrupted, but it used to happen frequently on some earlier versions of Windows. Perhaps someone else can help, or suggest a simpler solution? Dbfirs 17:08, 11 January 2014 (UTC)

Thanks. One other thing I'd like back is the contents of my sticky note. It's blank now. StuRat (talk) 19:02, 11 January 2014 (UTC)

I don't use sticky notes, so I don't know where it stores its files, but you could try copying those if you find them in your C:\Users\(myname)\ folder. The copying fix is not an ideal solution. What we should really be doing is mending the registry to tell it to look in C:\Users\(myname)\ instead of C:\Windows\system32\config\systemprofile\ which is really just a default for new users. Long ago, under earlier versions of windows, I used to create new users and copy across the desktop folder from one user to another, but I can't remember all the details now, and they will probably have changed anyway. Have we any registry experts here who know which key holds the default location for users? It ought to be somewhere in HKEY_USERS? ... though editing the registry can have drastic results! Dbfirs 08:43, 12 January 2014 (UTC)

You already tried the remedies that you find when you search the web for the path name, right? 88.112.50.121 (talk) 17:49, 11 January 2014 (UTC)

It looks somebody asked how to create new users. It is elementary. START==>Control Panel==>User Accounts and Family Safety==>Add or Remove User Accounts. --AboutFace 22 (talk) 02:47, 13 January 2014 (UTC)

Note that this depends on which version and how Control Panel is set up. Mine for instance is just under "User Accounts" because I have it just set up to show me the icons, not the categories. Nevertheless, I think the question posed was actually where in the registry user account location information is kept, unless you're talking about somewhere else. - Purplewowies (talk) 08:03, 13 January 2014 (UTC)

Yes, StuRat's problem is that all the files are there in the old user folder, but there is a corruption somewhere in the registry entries so that the system doesn't look in the correct location to load them. The suggestion of creating a new user and copying desktop and other folders across from the old identity might work. The ideal solution is to find the corrupted entry in the registry, but this is much easier to suggest than to carry out unless someone knows exactly where to look. Windows usually succeeds in repairing a corrupted registry from the log files (ntuser.log etc) but for some reason it occasionally fails with the user file locations. (If there was a full backup (including system files) just before the problem, then it might be possible to manually restore the user registry file (ntuser.dat) but there could be unpredictable consequences, and this is not ever recommended by Microsoft, so I wouldn't advise trying it because it could crash the whole system. The registry would possibly get wrongly updated again from the log file to recreate the problem. Anyway if there was a full backup, then a full restore would be the correct procedure, and there wasn't a recent backup in this case. ) Dbfirs 09:29, 13 January 2014 (UTC)

Just a small thing to note. With Windows, I find it is relatively easy to inadvertently click and drag an essential directory/file to another location. Especially if you are administrator, you could have dropped it anywhere in the filesystem; and the move dialog can come and go real quick on a new PC. Astronaut (talk) 15:52, 13 January 2014 (UTC)

This doesn't seem likely, in my case, since I haven't been doing anything with systems folders. StuRat (talk) 15:59, 13 January 2014 (UTC)

Object error

When I roam the Internet some pages appear fine, I can read the content and switch to another web address. However, some of the pages give me a peculiar error. I have another machine (my wife's) which I also use frequently and over there I've never run into it. Also on my other OS here: Windows Server 2008 I don't have it either. The error presents itself as a small white window with the message: "Object Error" on the top there is another message: "A message from the website." There is a single OK button. If I click on it the devil disappears for three seconds and comes up again. Everything gets frozen. I cannot move the page. The only way to resolve it is to sign off and sign in back again. Before I updated the IE to v 11 I had this error very often, perhaps on every page. It was almost impossible to roam the web. Now it is rather infrequent but still bothers me. What is this? Thanks --AboutFace 22 (talk) 02:58, 11 January 2014 (UTC)

While I don't know anything about that specific error, the pattern of an error message that comes right back up after you click OK is annoyingly common. Every error should have a counter and if it comes up more than twice in a minute it should then offer to kill the process instead of staying in an infinite loop. StuRat (talk) 03:08, 11 January 2014 (UTC)

It is funny. I should have googled first instead of posting in here. There is a mountain of web stuff on this error but most ask to download so many megabytes of malware. One sensible post says that it must be Adobe flash. Quite possible. I am wondering if anyone had this nuisance and how they coped with it. --AboutFace 22 (talk) 04:04, 11 January 2014 (UTC)

If you suspect that Flash is the problem, you could try uninstalling Flash and then reinstalling it. StuRat (talk) 10:28, 11 January 2014 (UTC)

The problem with that theory is that most web pages don't use flash...so if this were the cause, you shouldn't have problems with more than a few specific pages, even prior to IE 11. You could try disabling flash altogether and see if that makes a difference with problematic pages - but I suspect it won't. You could also go to www.checkflashversion.com and see what version of Flash you're using on the machine that has problems and what version on the machines that work OK. That might also reveal some interesting possibilities. (You don't need to download their tool to do that BTW - just look at the first half dozen lines at the top of that page).

Unless you're forced to use IE for some reason, I'd strongly recommend switching to either Firefox or Chrome - and even if you don't want to make that switch for some reason - it would be a good test to see if you get the same problems with either of those browsers...and if you do, perhaps they'll come up with a more informative error message. SteveBaker (talk) 15:48, 11 January 2014 (UTC)

• You have a malfunctioning plugin for your browser. There are several that could cause this problem, including one called Privacy Guard and another called Unfriend Checker. See this Microsoft page for ideas on how to find the culprit and remove it. (But like Steve, I think switching to Firefox is a better solution.) Looie496 (talk) 17:13, 11 January 2014 (UTC)

Thank you, guys. I guess I will have to switch to FireFox. I do have it here in my computer. It is what I have also at work anyway. What is Privacy Safeguard? I do have it installed in my system. There is no Misplaced Pages article on it. It does not seem to be Microsoft Software. What kind of bug is it? --AboutFace 22 (talk) 17:43, 11 January 2014 (UTC)

OK, the Privacy Safeguard is gone (hopefully). I uninstalled it. I'll see how it works now. It is terrible that none of my anti-virus software detected it. The world of malicious intent is enormous :-) --AboutFace 22 (talk) 17:59, 11 January 2014 (UTC)

Re-installing W7 on my HP laptop

Hello, I just got a Win7 Home Premium 64-bit DVD and was thinking of re-installing Win7 on my laptop. However, it's an HP and has all their crap installed, and I was never given a Win7 DVD, rather I was given HP's recovery disk. I was just wondering: would installing from the Win7 DVD severely affect my laptop (e.g. the function key stuff)? I hate HP's stuff and I never use them anyway.Bananasomg (talk) 22:41, 11 January 2014 (UTC)

I know how you feel about this "overhead." Some of this is really nasty although I've never dealt with HP. You can install the OS though and then uninstall the parts you love to hate. Go to Control Panel/uninstall programs and find what you want. --AboutFace 22 (talk) 23:55, 11 January 2014 (UTC)

I have no experience with HP, but you can almost certainly get all of the drivers and utility software that you care about from here, including the function key software (HP Quick Launch?). The third-party pre-installed software (DVD players, etc.) is probably not available for download. -- BenRG (talk) 04:47, 12 January 2014 (UTC)

Why not create a Win 7 recovery disk before you start? I believe HP adds a utility somewhere in the menu to let you do that. Anything else you should be able to get from the HP support website (start with the links provided by Ben). Alternatively, go to Control Panel/uninstall programs and uninstall the crapware you don't want. Astronaut (talk) 15:44, 13 January 2014 (UTC)

January 12

4K and Remote desktop

I'm thinking of getting a 4K computer monitor, perhaps this one from Lenovo or this one from Dell. I'm currently running Windows 8 and will probably upgrade to 8.1 since Windows 8.1 has better support for 4K monitors. My question is what will happen when I Remote desktop from my 4K machine to my work laptop which is only 1080p and running Windows 7? Will there be any upscaling? I'd love for my remote desktop session to be full screen. I'd rather not have my remote desktop window only take up a quarter of the screen. I'm not sure I'd be able to read text on anything that small. Does anyone have any ideas what will happen? A Quest For Knowledge (talk) 14:08, 12 January 2014 (UTC)

I'm not sure what the answer is - but I know what you can do to find out for sure. Set your laptop to run in (say) 640x480 resolution and remote-desktop into it and you'll see what happens when there is a resolution mismatch. SteveBaker (talk) 15:47, 12 January 2014 (UTC)

Try this (which I found with a web search for "remote desktop scaling"). -- BenRG (talk) 21:37, 12 January 2014 (UTC)

That Dell monitor drops to 30Hz at 4k. That would give me an immediate flickering migraine. I'd avoid that, personally. 217.158.236.14 (talk) 11:28, 13 January 2014 (UTC)

I'm not sure it would actually 'flicker'. I think the backlight would remain on, but the pixels would only change at 30hz. Which is not great, but I imagine you wouldn't be playing games at 4k, anyway. APL (talk) 18:00, 13 January 2014 (UTC)

@SteveBaker:@BenRG: Thanks, Steve, for the suggestion and BenRG for the link. I tried Steve's experiment coupled with BenRG "smart scaling" article, and while I can get the window to scale, it only scales down. It does not scale up, which is what I want. I'm not sure if that's a limitation with my hardware or with RDP. I'll Google around see what I can find. A Quest For Knowledge (talk) 22:29, 14 January 2014 (UTC)

GFortran III

This post is, essentially, addressed to StuRat although anyone else with experience may also contribute. I downloaded mingw-64-v3.0.0.tar.bz2; unzipped it (twice) with 7-zip, all files are now in a separate folder but I cannot find any executables. There are many text files, some C++ headers, etc. How do I get started? I do have Visual Studio 2010 installed if it is a prerequisite, I don't know. Thanks. --AboutFace 22 (talk) 15:44, 12 January 2014 (UTC)

Did you look in the "bin" sub-folder ? There should be a gfortran.exe file there (note that Windows often annoyingly suppresses file type display, in which case it will look like just "gfortran"; maybe somebody else can tell you how to fix that problem).

At any rate, that's your compiler/linker. On my last post on this topic, I discussed ways to test it out, with my hello.f test program. You will have a problem, though, that the bin directory needs to be in your search path in order to compile from anywhere else. We discussed all this there, too.

Misplaced Pages:Reference_desk/Archives/Computing/2013_December_30#Gfortran_download_.282nd_attempt.29 is the previous discussion. Note that the Youtube video I linked to there walks you through setting up the $PATH. StuRat (talk) 16:42, 12 January 2014 (UTC)

StuRat thank you. You are always ready to help. I did not look into bin subdirectory because I don't have one, believe it or not. I know how bin works, I would have checked it first had I had it. I went through all subdirectories just to make sure and, NO BIN found. As a matter of fact, I don't remember if I saw a single .exe file. What shall I do next? --AboutFace 22 (talk) 18:22, 12 January 2014 (UTC)

Sorry for stating the obvious, but, not knowing you personally, I couldn't be certain that you knew about bin directories. StuRat (talk) 19:29, 12 January 2014 (UTC)

Speaking of file extensions. Click on START, enter "extensions" in the search box and then click on "Show or hide file extensions." A wizard will show up, click on View tab, make sure that "Hide extension for known file types" is UNCHECKED. --AboutFace 22 (talk) 18:29, 12 January 2014 (UTC)

Thanks, that worked. StuRat (talk) 19:18, 12 January 2014 (UTC)

StuRat, I just followed your link to my previous post which I also saved. It should be the way to go. Thanks. --AboutFace 22 (talk) 18:39, 12 January 2014 (UTC)

You're welcome. StuRat (talk) 16:00, 13 January 2014 (UTC)

Which flavor of linux?

This is for my WinServ 2008. I installed Oracle VirtualBox, set up one Virtual machine with linux. The setup offers a few varieties. I chose Ubuntu but I wonder if others might be better: Linux 2.2, linux 2.4, linux 2.6/3.x, Arch linux, Debian, etc. Any opinions based on experience? Thanks, --AboutFace 22 (talk) 22:12, 12 January 2014 (UTC)

On VirtualBox, the VM creation wizard doesn't actually determine the OS; it just uses your selection to determine the default settings for the VM (amount of RAM, hard drive space, graphic memory, devices, etc). You could install Ubuntu onto a VM marked as MS-DOS provided that you changed the settings to properly accommodate it. Since the settings can be altered at any time through the VM settings menu, there's no irreversible detriment/benefit to be gained from selecting a certain OS.

By the wording of your question I'm guessing that you're new to virtual machines. If this is your first time using a virtual machine, I should also point out that the VM doesn't automatically install the OS for you. You still have to use some sort of installation medium as if it was an actual computer - VirtualBox accepts real OS CD/DVDs or virtual CD/DVD images (typically an .iso file). You can download a disc image for Ubuntu at Ubuntu's website, and images for other Linux distros at their respective sites. The VM will ask you to browse for this medium on first run, and you can always change it out by right-clicking the CD icon at the bottom right of the window and clicking "Choose virtual CD/DVD disk file." ProtossPylon 22:34, 12 January 2014 (UTC)

You are correct. I am green on that. I appreciate the tips and pointers for sure. I chose Ubuntu yesterday (from a drop-down box) because a friend of mine recommented it and demonstrated it on his laptop. It looked very impressive. Perhaps that was a good choice. Thanks again. --AboutFace 22 (talk) 23:22, 12 January 2014 (UTC)

I checked your link. What shall I download: Ubuntu Server/Ubuntu Desktop/Ubuntu Cloud? My goals are very limited. To set up a web server which just a few people might use with a password (acquantances/business associates, etc), checking various software thru safe downloads, etc. Actually I need a Ubuntu Client. --AboutFace 22 (talk) 23:29, 12 January 2014 (UTC)

I have several versions of Ubuntu running in VitualBox with no problem. Also, I don't update them – I just let them be. Ubuntu is based on Debian. Mint is a good stable beginners flavour of Ubuntu and I think you will waist time looking for the perfect flavour – I have given up long ago. So now you have Ubuntu, I suggest you stick with that and don't update it. --Aspro (talk) 23:34, 12 January 2014 (UTC)

Mint has been suggested by my friend but the VirtualBox does not have Mint. I appreciate your assesment. I will stick with Ubuntu. It has been around for a long time. --AboutFace 22 (talk) 01:26, 13 January 2014 (UTC)

As I stated earlier, the OS drop-down menu doesn't have any bearing on what OS you have to use on it. Either way, Mint is based on Ubuntu. ProtossPylon 01:43, 13 January 2014 (UTC)

Since Mint is based heavily on Ubuntu, choosing Ubuntu in VirtualBox would be a good place to start. Then you can tweak the configuration as you need it before you install Mint. Astronaut (talk) 15:39, 13 January 2014 (UTC)

Also, Ubnutu has newbie friendly forums. Some contributors are also power-uses and so can address other power-users queries. --Aspro (talk) 21:08, 13 January 2014 (UTC)

January 13

Target security breach

In regards to the Target security breach, does anyone know what OS their POS terminals are using? A Quest For Knowledge (talk) 19:37, 13 January 2014 (UTC)

Apparently they were infected by Dexter (malware), an MS Windows malware. OsmanRF34 (talk) 12:56, 14 January 2014 (UTC)

I don't know if Target uses it, but Microsoft heavily pushes Windows Embedded 8.1 Industry, and Embedded 7 Industry before that, for the POS market. They are heavily componentized versions of Windows that allow the system to be built with only the bits and pieces of the operating system needed to do the job. They also throw in features designed for centralized management and deployment. If was designing a Windows-based POS system I would definitely lean heavily towards those products, and the vendors I know would as well, although Wimdows Embedded Standard wouldn't be a bad choice either. I would be surpirsed to hear a desktop version of Windows was used because it is so much harder to lock down and control. Katie R (talk) 13:24, 14 January 2014 (UTC)

Nvidia Kepler K40 IC spec, pinout where

sorry bad my english. maybe this not right place for such query, but.

background i am small shop (7 people) in Taipei now doing PCB for embedded with Intel Xeon E3-1268Lv3 to marry through PCIe 3.0 to Nvidia Tesla Kepler K40 chip for image processing purpose.

my question is where can find K40 chip specification, pinout data? call the nvidia corporate, call the nvidia consumer, all cannot know to give answer, Nvidia rep also tell to see again the website!

previous we also use Matrox chips, all the spec and pinout available to find ready.

tanx 119.56.116.246 (talk) 23:49, 13 January 2014 (UTC)

For these kind of things I'd usually expect you'd join a company's hardware partner programme, and probably sign a non disclosure agreement. The nearest thing I can find is their registered developer program, which will at least give you access to nVidia forums. That FAQ has a section "I am in a company that wants to engage NVIDIA more deeply, what should I do?" (which sounds just like you), which points to to their web contact page. As with approaching other large companies, you can often have the "shibboleet" problem, where you can't get past the barrier intended to keep out all the consumer-level inquiries - the developer forums should be able to help you negotiate that. -- Finlay McWalterჷTalk 00:11, 14 January 2014 (UTC)

January 14

Sorting threads in a Facebook secret group

In my normal view of Facebook there's a little "SORT" button I can click to see my threads in two different orders, Top Stories, or Most Recent. I'm a member (admin actually) of a Facebook Secret Group, and there appears to be no such option when I have that Group's page open. Facebook displays threads in a quite inconvenient (to me) order. Currently the top thread is one that has had no activity since 1 November. I want to be able to have the most recently active thread on top.

Anyone got any ideas? HiLo48 (talk) 07:16, 14 January 2014 (UTC)

Is the top thread pinned? In my experience, group threads have always been ordered by most recent unless someone pins a thread to the top. It's not always entirely obvious on the desktop site (though I'm at work and can't check), but viewing on mobile will collapse the pinned threads and show "View (X) pinned post(s)", making it reasonably clear that there is one. MChesterMC (talk) 09:56, 14 January 2014 (UTC)

Hey, thanks for that tip. It wasn't pinned, but now I've pinned the one I want at the top. Excellent. (Still no idea how Facebook was deciding on the previous order.) HiLo48 (talk) 11:09, 14 January 2014 (UTC)

"lisp macro" "lisp script" ?

Why do they call "Lisp macros" not "Lisp scripts"? Is there any difference? Couldn't we also say "Python macros" instead of "Python scripts? Or in the same way, Perl macros/scripts?OsmanRF34 (talk) 12:47, 14 January 2014 (UTC)

I believe it's mainly for historical reasons. Lisp was around very early in the history of programming languages when the idea of a "scripting language" hadn't really developed. Lisp did come to be very popular as a scripting language for EMACS - which was an exceedingly popular tool of the time - but back then, you'd think of these as "editor macros" where the effect of a single keystroke command is converted via a "macro" into a larger set of commands. (Macro (computer science) defines the term as "a rule or pattern that specifies how a certain input sequence (often a sequence of characters) should be mapped to a replacement output sequence (also often a sequence of characters) according to a defined procedure." - which is exactly the role of Lisp in EMACS). So calling them "Lisp macros" made some kind of sense to distinguish them from "Lisp programs" which were full-up stand-alone programs (typically in AI applications). Nowadays, we think more of tools like EMACS as having scripting capabilities - so the nomenclature has changed over time. I guess Lisp is just a little behind the times. SteveBaker (talk) 13:46, 14 January 2014 (UTC)

Samsung Galaxy S4 / Android warning messages

I recently bought a new Samsung Galaxy S4 phone. Mostly I really like it but there's one bit of functionality I find annoying. I'm not sure whether this is S4 specific - I suspect it may be standard Android functionality.

I don't tend to keep Mobile Data switched on unless I'm actually using it for something, which means I might turn it on and off several times I day. Whenever I switch it on, I get a warning message: "Connecting via packet data may incur additional charges. Continue?" When I switch it off I get another message: "Disable mobile data connection?" It's only one extra tap on "OK" each time, but it seems unnecessary to prompt me always as to whether I want to do the thing I've just said I want to do. Is there any way to turn off these messages? --OpenToppedBus - Talk to the driver 13:48, 14 January 2014 (UTC)

Tried it on my Galaxy Core (Android 4.2.1); the first time it asked me 'Are you sure', and there was a checkbox 'Always ask me', which I uncheked. It never nagged me again. — Edokter (talk) — 14:03, 14 January 2014 (UTC)

Tried it on my Samsung Stellar (Android 4.1.2). I get the same message after turning data off (with no check box) and I don't get any message turning it on. Dismas| 14:27, 14 January 2014 (UTC)

Are you going through your Settings screen? I turn mine off/on by dragging down the top bar and then tapping the Mobile Data icon. — Edokter (talk) — 15:48, 14 January 2014 (UTC)

Computer--Router--Cable Modem--Internet; Whose DNS settings get used?

I was reading about using Google Public DNS here and was wondering, if the machine I were using were configured to use Google's DNS at 8.8.8.8 (anycast to the nearest Google DNS, of course), and if the machine were connecting to a router configured to use an ISP DNS like Comcast, like 68.87.73.246, and if that router were connected to the Internet, if I typed 'http://www.example.com' into a browser on the machine, which DNS would my request for that page go through? 20.137.2.50 (talk) 18:40, 14 January 2014 (UTC)

Most computer operating systems will attempt to perform name-resolution using the host's configuration. If it fails, they will cascade, recursively, until a name resolution works.

For example, hosts (file) explains how this works in general; we also have articles on resolvconf, which is found on many common Unix-like operating systems. It is, ultimately, up to your operating system's implementation choice to decide whether a recursion should proceed up the host's DNS tree or to search the DNS tree provided by the DHCP server. Most systems will exclusively use the host's configuration (if the host overrides the DHCP settings); and fail on error without consulting the DHCP-provided DNS server. Nimur (talk) 20:04, 14 January 2014 (UTC)

• Pages automatically checked for accidental language links
• Misplaced Pages help forums
• Misplaced Pages reference desk