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October 21

Removing PDF passwords

I have some PDF files containing scans of out-of-copyright woks, but they are password protected. I have the passwords.

What's the best way to remove the passwords?

I use Windows 10 (I also have use of a Windows 11 machine), and do not wish to buy software for this task.

I have tried print-to-PDF, which works, but gives sub-optimal quality. Andy Mabbett (Pigsonthewing); Talk to Andy; Andy's edits 13:12, 21 October 2023 (UTC)

With PDFtk: pdftk in.pdf input_pw <password> output out.pdf -- Finlay McWalter··–·Talk 13:55, 21 October 2023 (UTC)

Alternately use the qpdf package (you can download it from this link) with a command-line like qpdf --decrypt --password=yoursecretpassword inputfilename.pdf outputfilename.pdf . – b_jonas 05:20, 25 October 2023 (UTC)

See also the same question asked elsewhere, with answers. – b_jonas 05:36, 25 October 2023 (UTC)

The Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) criminalizes the act of circumventing an access control, whether or not there is actual infringement of copyright.
Sleigh (talk) 18:49, 25 October 2023 (UTC)

It's a fair cop. I'll come quietly. Andy Mabbett (Pigsonthewing); Talk to Andy; Andy's edits 19:08, 25 October 2023 (UTC)

Keyboard issue

On Windows 10, on various web sites accessed through a chrome browser, including stackexchange and facebook and others, my keyboard has begun behaving strangely: First it's functioning normally and then for about 20 minutes if I press the "g" key I get "R" or some other letter, and pressing the "4" key I get "z" etc., and I thought this might be a hardware problem. But then I found that whenever this problem happens, if I just enter a few characters into R, version 4.2.2, the keyboard starts functioning normally again on chrome. So this seems like a software issue. Does that suggest to anyone what's going on and what can be done about it? Michael Hardy (talk) 23:05, 21 October 2023 (UTC)

Have you tried power cycling?  --Lambiam 23:02, 24 October 2023 (UTC)

@Lambian: If you mean turning the machine off and starting it again, I've done that probably a few dozen times since this problem started, and it still persists. Michael Hardy (talk) 19:09, 25 October 2023 (UTC)

And this is only when using Chrome browser, right? I would try a different browser for a while, to try to narrow down the problem. It could be with the keyboard. Bubba73 ^{You talkin' to me?} 19:51, 25 October 2023 (UTC)

When the keyboard starts misbehaving, do you get the wrong output for most digit and letter keys, or just a few of them (just "g" and "4" for example)? If the former, then I suspect that you've accidentally switched to a different keyboard layout.

Note that Windows has a setting (very useful IMO) that lets you switch between the configured keyboard layouts independently in different windows, because eg. I may be typing an email with the Hungarian layout in my email program but typing formulas with the US-English layout in R. That may explain why typing into R fixes the issue.

Here is how to diagnose this. Go to Settings (gear icon in Start menu) -> Time & Language -> Language -> Keyboard -> Language bar options -> Language Bar tab and set Language Bar to Docked in the taskbar. This should make a short language code text appear close to the clock in your taskbar. When your keyboard is working properly, and later when it's typing the wrong thing, click on that language code area to open the list of keyboard layouts, and see which keyboard layout is highlighted showing that it's currently active. Make sure that your Chrome browser window is still active because, as mentioned above, a different layout may be selected in different windows. Do not just read the short language code on the taskbar, because that can be identical between different keyboard layouts, you must open the list from it.

If it turns out that you're changing keyboard layouts by accident, first check Settings (gear icon in Start menu) -> Time & Language -> Language -> Keyboard -> Input language hot keys -> Advanced Key Settings tab to see what shortcut is enabled for switching between keyboard layouts. Usually this shortcut will be left-alt+shift or left-shift+right-shift. Note that in addition to the shortcuts shown there, windows+space switches between layouts. Some programs, such as MS Office, may also change keyboard layouts automatically depending on what language of text it believes you are editing. Perhaps Chrome does this too depending on the language of the webpage.

– b_jonas 13:29, 27 October 2023 (UTC)

October 23

Magenta Not Printing on Epson XP 2105

Hello. My printer, Epson XP 2105, cannot print magenta anymore. I tried cleaning the nozzle heads to no avail. I would be grateful for any piece of advice you can offer. Mayfare (talk) 15:46, 23 October 2023 (UTC)

It might have run out of magenta ink. Bubba73 ^{You talkin' to me?} 03:29, 24 October 2023 (UTC)

Or may sill be blocked despite cleaning. Graeme Bartlett (talk) 20:57, 24 October 2023 (UTC)

Clean the electrical contacts on the magenta ink cartridge, and the corresponding contacts on the printer. -- Verbarson  ^talk_edits 19:48, 25 October 2023 (UTC)

October 24

Scoring for LLM generated Wikipedia Style models.

I am part of a team at a University where we are building a LLM style model which will be given a topic and will generate different subtopics and then text in order to write an informative article. We are going to be using several different types of scoring mechanisms, but we would ideally like to have frequent wikipedia editors collaborate with scoring the articles.

Is there a specific location that I could reach out to those who are frequently editing on wikipedia? Terribilis11 (talk) 00:23, 24 October 2023 (UTC) Terribilis11 (talk) 00:22, 24 October 2023 (UTC)

Please dont use LLMs to write articles. See the guidance in the essay at Wikipedia:Large_language_models RudolfRed (talk) 01:15, 24 October 2023 (UTC)

We aren't intending to use the LLM to write articles that we will then try to publish either on Wikipedia or the wider internet. Rather we are doing research, where Wikipedia is the gold standard we are trying to reach with our LLM. Terribilis11 (talk) 00:10, 27 October 2023 (UTC)

New articles submitted as drafts are often reviewed by participants in the WikiProject Articles for creation. Perhaps some of them may be inclined in participating in your experiment, in which case the discussion page of the Wikiproject is a suitable location. I think that in any call for cooperation you should describe the objectives of the effort.  --Lambiam 11:40, 24 October 2023 (UTC)

I also wondered about the objectives. I get the feeling that the OP is looking for someone to do the grunt work to check the veracity of the LLM article. Every reference will have to be checked and vetted. LLMs are known to hallucinate. Very little - if anything - in an article like that can be taken at face value. 41.23.55.195 (talk) 05:51, 25 October 2023 (UTC)

It is not clear from the original request that the intention is to produce informative articles for publication. It is also not clear the texts will contain any references. Perhaps one of their aims is to compare the effectiveness of various methods for increasing reliability.  --Lambiam 12:23, 25 October 2023 (UTC)

In answer to the location question, there is Wikipedia:Village pump (miscellaneous). But as your project maybe educational, there is also Wikipedia:Education noticeboard. Graeme Bartlett (talk) 20:57, 24 October 2023 (UTC)

October 26

Open proxy checker for IPv6?

Hello, I'd like to try with some checkers against open proxy, especially against IPv6 addresses. Is there anything to recommend? ---Lemonaka‎ 17:28, 26 October 2023 (UTC)

October 27

Play an OGG file slower

The file File:Bob Minor, Synthesised Bell Sounds.ogg is used in a number of articles for a number of languages, bringing to life the point of these articles. However, it plays so fast that one needs to be a musical genius to comprehend it. How can a reader play it slower?

(I asked a different question about the same file at Commons:Help_desk#Downloading_an_OGG_file) ◅ Sebastian Helm 🗨 10:19, 27 October 2023 (UTC)

I've just listened to it and it seems to be about the right speed for lightish 6 (maybe 8 cwt tenor). Much slower and it would drag on the synthesised bells. There is a YouTube video that shows a course of PBM and at 1:57 goes through it at half speed which might help. See Educational: Plain Bob Doubles (plain course) on YouTube, but you will need to check out copyright before including it directly. The alternative would be to write out a score in either Lilypond or ABC which could then be set at a tempo that you find correct for the article. Martin of Sheffield (talk) 13:21, 27 October 2023 (UTC)