Content deleted Content added

Inline

Revision as of 05:29, 5 April 2023

Welcome to the computing section
of the Wikipedia reference desk.

skip to bottom

Select a section:

Shortcut

WP:RD/C

Want a faster answer?

Main page: Help searching Wikipedia

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.

Ready? Ask a new question!

How do I answer a question?

Main page: Wikipedia: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.

March 29

U202E

Aside from trolling and malware, what purpose does This character: "‮" serve? If the Unicode Consortium had an ounce of common sense, they would retire this character as it is utterly pointless. Someone who's wrong on the internet (talk) 17:26, 29 March 2023 (UTC)[reply]

@Someone who's wrong on the internet: Assume you mean the Unicode character 202E it's a right-to-left override character. As to why it mirrors the text I have no clue. ― Blaze Wolf^Talk_{Blaze Wolf#6545} 19:48, 29 March 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Yes. Someone who's wrong on the internet (talk) 21:12, 29 March 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Suppose that I am writing a paper. In that paper in English. The text flow is left to right. In that text, I want to display text from another language that is supposed to be right to left (there are multiple examples of this). I could incorrectly display it left to right, but I should override the document's flow direction for that text block and then set it back to left to right when that example text is complete. 97.82.165.112 (talk) 20:21, 29 March 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Flip! Well that's what I'd like it to do but it doesn't. I would really like it if emojis could be turned to face the other direction - but unfortunately it just reverses the order in which characters are output. Then for instance I could have these 💃🕺 dancers face each other or these 🏃‍♀️🏃‍♂️ runners run to each other :-) NadVolum (talk) 20:51, 29 March 2023 (UTC)[reply]

So it enables malware and doesn't even do what it's supposed to? Someone who's wrong on the internet (talk) 21:11, 29 March 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Here is an example of the intended use. Suppose you want to include some Hebrew text in an English passage. Specifically, you want to write "Shalóm!" using the Hebrew alphabet. Hebrew is written right-to-left. The world "shalóm" is written with four letters: shin ש, lamed ל, vav ו, mem ם. If you enter these characters followed by an exclamation mark, you get this:

To greet someone in Hebrew, just say "שלום!" (Shalóm!).

This is wrong. While the renderer correctly renders the four Hebrew letters in the right-to-left direction, the exclamation mark is not recognized as being part of the Hebrew text and is put (for a reader of Hebrew) in front of the interjection, instead of at the end – that is, all the way to the left. To fix this, enclose the whole part that should be rendered right-to-left between the Unicode characters U+202E and U+202C, the latter of which restores the previous order, thus: "‮שלום!‬", resulting in

To greet someone in Hebrew, just say "‮שלום!‬" (Shalóm!).

--Lambiam 05:18, 30 March 2023 (UTC)[reply]

"doesn't even do what it's supposed to": It is supposed to flow text right to left. It is not supposed to flip characters. For example, if you have "hello", it changes it to "olleh". It does not flip the characters around. So, it does what it is supposed to do. It does not do what you apparently want it to do, which is not in any way what it is supposed to do. As for enabling malware, humans are the main enabler for malware. A Unicode character is not the main cause of malware. 97.82.165.112 (talk) 11:03, 30 March 2023 (UTC)[reply]

It is not supposed to flip characters but isn't that exactly what it's doing? ― Blaze Wolf^Talk_{Blaze Wolf#6545} 11:09, 30 March 2023 (UTC)[reply]

@Blaze Wolf: No. Flipping directionality is not the same as flipping the character itself. Say you have 4 cars setup in a line: 1, 2, 3 and 4 facing west. You can change their directionality (their order within the group) by positioning them as 4, 3, 2, 1 facing west. The cars are in the same order but a different position (you start counting form a different side) and the cars preserved their own direction. Flipping the cars however will maintain their position (1, 2, 3, 4) and causes them to be either on their roofs (flipped around the horizontal axis), or to face east (flipped around the vertical axis) instead of west. —TheDJ (talk • contribs) 12:23, 30 March 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Another example that I hope makes sense. It is supposed to change text flow direction. All of the examples above show this. 12345 becomes 54321. It does not flip characters. < does not become >. ◁ does not become ▷. ← does not become →. So, if you have <◁←, it is supposed to change the text flow to ←◁<. It does not flip the characters to >▷→ or do both to create →▷>. 97.82.165.112 (talk) 12:30, 30 March 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Oh ok. That makes sense now. ― Blaze Wolf^Talk_{Blaze Wolf#6545} 12:42, 30 March 2023 (UTC)[reply]

You can have the glyphs in other positions by using Cascading Style Sheets. MediaWiki wiki markup has templates that help such as Template:transform-rotate, Template:MirrorH, template:MirrorV: 💃🕺 🏃‍♀️🏃‍. Before you get wild with them, consider how they will render in screen reader and similar assistive technologies. --Error (talk) 18:21, 31 March 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Apart from trolling and malware, what purpose do any characters other than those in US-ASCII serve? Those savages should just speak American if they want to use computers. This response should be read tongue firmly planted in cheek (maybe we should have a character for that). --47.155.46.15 (talk) 08:26, 4 April 2023 (UTC)[reply]

March 30

Resource for understanding a network

What would be a good hands-on resource for understanding the details of a network: cables, PoE, submask, MAC, NAT, port forwarding. That is, all common used hardware and the settings someone finds in the admin interface of a router. It could be offline and paid, like literature for some certification program. Bumptump (talk) 15:25, 30 March 2023 (UTC)[reply]

One good resource for understanding the details of a network is the CompTIA Network+ certification program. The certification covers a wide range of networking topics, including cables, Power over Ethernet (PoE), subnet masks, MAC addresses, Network Address Translation (NAT), and port forwarding. Someone who's wrong on the internet (talk) 18:46, 30 March 2023 (UTC)[reply]

More information on the CompTIA Network+ certification program is available at: Wikibooks: Network Plus Certification and Wikiversity: Computer Networks.

Some of the other books on the Wikibooks:Category:Shelf:IT certifications may also be relevant. --DavidCary (talk) 19:44, 4 April 2023 (UTC)[reply]

March 31

Chromebooks

I need to stop sitting at the desktop computer quite as much for health reasons. Therefore I’m looking at a portable device to connect to the main PC (currently on Alma 8.7) that I can use in a recliner chair or in bed.

I was wondering about a laptop, but they all seem (1) expensive and (2) have Windows pre-installed. Chrome books seem much cheaper, but are they any use? Basically all I would need would be the browser, LibreOffice and multiple console windows to ssh onto the server. Can ChronOS do this, preferably without sending all my data to Google? Alternatively, has anyone installed Alma9 in a chromebook? Martin of Sheffield (talk) 21:28, 31 March 2023 (UTC)[reply]

"preferably without sending all my data to Google" Chromebooks are 'online' machines. While they can work offline, the integration of ChromeOS with Google services is very tight and it depends a lot on cloud services. These machines are cheap, because they are limited in what they can do/have to support. Installing Linux instead of ChromeOS on these is possible (I'd get an Intel based Chromebook if you want to do this). But... installing Linux on a Chromebook does require you to have some experience installing and supporting Linux. It is definetly more finnicky than a normal Linux install, so if you run into problems, you will need to know year way around the Terminal and have understanding of how Linux works (services/file system etc). What might be an idea is to find a DIY computershop that is willing to install Linux on the Chromebook FOR you (but those are hard to find in many areas).

My personal advice for ppl looking for cheaper laptops is always to scour 2nd hand market places and find a more high end machine of 1 to 2 years old. I find these have better longevity, better build quality, better screens (screen quality on low end machines is abysmal in my opinion), while shipping the same or sometimes even more powerful raw components than the current low end machines. —TheDJ (talk • contribs) 11:15, 3 April 2023 (UTC)[reply]

The last 20 years of my working life I was supporting UNIX and Linux machines in a supercomputing centre, so thanks for the warning but it's not an issue. I'm usually working at the terminal line, indeed I started my career with a VT125 as my "window" into a VAX system. Good point though about the second hand market. I've had problems in the past with second hand laptops which had sticky or non-functioning keys, but maybe I was just unlucky. I've just had a quick look on Ebay, and there seem to be lots of ThinkPads for £150-£250. Any other suggestions for a decent "high end machine of 1 to 2 years old"? I'll confess to being a bit of a novice in the small machine market. Thanks, Martin of Sheffield (talk) 11:50, 3 April 2023 (UTC)[reply]

At work I have a Stone Notebook 1210 15 running Fedora 29 from new (2018) - no problems at all. Obviously with second hand machines you take a risk. I think there are companies who sell refurbs on ebay, and if you can be sure you are buying from one, rather than Joe Blow, you will probably get a better machine. The laptop I mentioned came from Stone direct. They have a refurb arm https://www.stonerefurb.co.uk/laptops/refurbished-windows-laptops with a "help me choose" at the bottom of the page. I am in no way connected to Stone! --TrogWoolley (talk) 14:00, 3 April 2023 (UTC)[reply]

If you work for an organisation that has a substantial IT estate, see if they sell off 'old' laptops. A 3-4 year old laptop that may not run the latest version of Windows very well would run Linux with no problems. I equipped my whole family with s/h laptops from a previous employer when COVID closed the schools. I still use one as my personal computer. -- Verbarson ^talk_edits 15:48, 3 April 2023 (UTC)[reply]

April 4

Microsoft 365 subscription

Hello to Wikipedia community!

Is there someone that can kindly answer this question?

I have 1 Microsoft account configured in 2 pc both mine. Should I subscribe Microsoft 365 personal or Microsoft 365 family?

Many, many and many thanks in advance!!! 2001:B07:6442:8903:ED5C:BCCA:108D:3E6E (talk) 07:50, 4 April 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Personal is for a single human to use. It sounds like that's what you want. Have you looked at Microsoft's free Web-based Office to see whether that meets your needs, if it's available where you are? There are also other office suites if you wanted to look into those. --47.155.46.15 (talk) 08:42, 4 April 2023 (UTC)[reply]

I had a Microsoft 365 Email Essentials account grandfathered, but now I am looking for whole-domain email providers with catch-all capability, since GoDaddy forced Microsoft 365 Email on me, and Microsoft refuses to support the catch-all in my former GoDaddy Workspace Webmail email account and a substitute for the former inclusion of that account with my domain registration. Thanks in advance! 24.185.206.49 (talk) 17:15, 4 April 2023 (UTC)[reply]

There are so many that you're probably going to have to do some Web searching yourself. If you want more "complex" features you might wind up having to pay some money. If you really want to "go big", you can always host your own e-mail server on a domain you own, and then you can configure it to do whatever you want because it's your server. --47.155.46.15 (talk) 05:29, 5 April 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Microsoft 365 personal only includes a license for one PC. So, you should go to Microsoft 365 family (5 licenses). Ruslik_Zero 20:27, 4 April 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Are you getting this from somewhere? The website for Microsoft 365 states Personal lets you "Use up to five devices simultaneously". --47.155.46.15 (talk) 05:29, 5 April 2023 (UTC)[reply]

April 5

@@ Line 71: / Line 71: @@
 :Personal is for a single human to use. It sounds like that's what you want. Have you looked at [https://office.com Microsoft's free Web-based Office] to see whether that meets your needs, if it's available where you are? [[List of office suites|There are also other office suites]] if you wanted to look into those. --[[Special:Contributions/47.155.46.15|47.155.46.15]] ([[User talk:47.155.46.15|talk]]) 08:42, 4 April 2023 (UTC)
 :I had a Microsoft 365 Email Essentials account grandfathered, but now I am looking for whole-domain email providers with catch-all capability, since GoDaddy forced Microsoft 365 Email on me, and Microsoft refuses to support the catch-all in my former GoDaddy Workspace Webmail email account and a substitute for the former inclusion of that account with my domain registration. Thanks in advance! [[Special:Contributions/24.185.206.49|24.185.206.49]] ([[User talk:24.185.206.49|talk]]) 17:15, 4 April 2023 (UTC)
+::There are so many that you're probably going to have to do some Web searching yourself. If you want more "complex" features you might wind up having to pay some money. If you really want to "go big", you can always host your own e-mail server on a domain you own, and then you can configure it to do whatever you want because it's your server. --[[Special:Contributions/47.155.46.15|47.155.46.15]] ([[User talk:47.155.46.15|talk]]) 05:29, 5 April 2023 (UTC)
 :Microsoft 365 personal only includes a license for one PC. So, you should go to Microsoft 365 family (5 licenses). [[User:Ruslik0|Ruslik]]_[[User Talk:Ruslik0|<span style="color:red">Zero</span>]] 20:27, 4 April 2023 (UTC)
+::Are you getting this from somewhere? The website for Microsoft 365 states Personal lets you "Use up to five devices simultaneously". --[[Special:Contributions/47.155.46.15|47.155.46.15]] ([[User talk:47.155.46.15|talk]]) 05:29, 5 April 2023 (UTC)
 = April 5 =