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December 17

PayPal problem

In PayPal, after I had mistyped the amount of deposit needed to confirm my bank account to remove limit on withdrawals, my linked bank account suddenly disappeared. When I try to re-attach my bank account, I repeatedly receive "Sorry, we are not able to process your request. Please try again later" after I fill the "Link bank account" form. I've already emailed PayPal, but received an unhelpful automated reply. Any ideas how to fix that? Thanks. 93.174.25.12 (talk) 12:08, 17 December 2015 (UTC)[reply]

I don't want a to alarm you unnecessarily, but the first thing that I would do is to run a good anti-virus and anti-malware scanner on the computer where the problem occurred. Alternatively, see if you can carry through the process on another computer. I'm not too familiar with PayPal so perhaps someone else here has other suggestions? Dbfirs 18:47, 17 December 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Maybe PayPal anti-fraud algorithm concluded that someone was testing the system. Somehow they have to exclude people who cannot verify their bank account. --Scicurious (talk) 19:07, 17 December 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Yes, perhaps they've locked the account, but shouldn't they have sent an e-mail to inform the OP of this? Dbfirs 08:48, 18 December 2015 (UTC)[reply]

I have so many phishing emails attempting to get into my PayPal account that I have closed it completely.92.26.97.12 (talk) 08:17, 20 December 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Reading e-books on Linux

I recently bought an e-book about ASP.NET MVC to read at home so I could learn how it differs from ASP.NET Web Forms. It turned out that the download link didn't give me the actual e-book but instead a proprietary urllink.acsm file that Adobe Digital Editions could use to download the actual e-book. Well, Adobe Digital Editions isn't available for Linux. I had to install Wine and use Winetricks to download and install Adobe Digital Editions 1.7. This version must be hopelessly obsolete by modern standards but none of the newer versions would even start up under Wine.

Adobe Digital Editions 1.7 started up nicely under Wine, and I dragged and dropped the urllink.acsm file to its window. It downloaded the actual e-book, which I could read at my leisure.

Can I somehow read this e-book without Adobe Digital Editions, for example under Calibre, a native Linux e-book reader? I didn't find an EPUB file that the e-book would be stored in (as the webstore claimed), but I found a password-protected PDF several megabytes in size. Is this the e-book? Evince couldn't open it without the correct password, which I don't even know. Is there a way to get rid of this DRM nonsense so I could read the e-book freely?

I am of course not going to redistribute this e-book, that would be software piracy. This is only so that I could freely use the content I bought fully legally and paid good money for, for my own use. JIP | Talk 18:41, 17 December 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Use Windows.--Scicurious (talk) 19:06, 17 December 2015 (UTC)[reply]

I suggest you give feedback to the book publisher, and to the website you purchased the book from, saying that you find the limitations on reading the book a problem, and if these conditions were not made clear up front, you may be able to ask for a refund.-gadfium 21:09, 17 December 2015 (UTC)[reply]

What publishing house is this, if I might ask? I know DRMs just from library books. I even got the impression that publishers had abandoned completely the idea, since lots of users (also Windows based) have problems with it.--Denidi (talk) 22:57, 17 December 2015 (UTC)[reply]

The e-book was published by Wrox, and the distributor I downloaded it from was a Finnish e-book store called AdLibris. JIP | Talk 15:24, 18 December 2015 (UTC)[reply]

A couple of thoughts, in no particular order. Your friend when it comes to DRM is apprentice alf, whose tools can deal with the "Adobe Adept, Barnes & Noble, Amazon and eReader DRM schemes". Otherwise you're probably stuffed. If at all possible, I'd follow gadfium's policy, then give this store a very wide berth in future. On the other hand (while I'm not at all defending the bone-headed store and/or publisher), it seems that all you are intended to be able to do with this document is read it on a computer, rather than transferring it to an ereader, or whatever else you might want to do with it. You can read it on your computer, so you have all they intended to give you; the question then is whether you were led to believe that you would get more. Henry ^Flower 17:02, 18 December 2015 (UTC)[reply]

if your books are using Adobe Digital Editions then you should be able to remove the DRM. At least on Windows, one you've set up Calibre with the appropriate plugins the presuming you can open the book, you just have to import it in to Calibre, everything else should happen automatically. Nil Einne (talk) 07:13, 19 December 2015 (UTC)[reply]

I am not sure this is legal everywhere.--Denidi (talk) 18:54, 19 December 2015 (UTC)[reply]

But assuming it is legal, how would I go about importing the e-book from ADE to Calibre? JIP | Talk 08:28, 22 December 2015 (UTC)[reply]

On the contrary, the vast majority of fiction ebooks from most major distributors & publishers still have DRM. There are some specialist distributors who promise all their books are without DRM [1], as well as stuff like Humble. Similarly there are some specialist publishers who may promise their books have no DRM and some of those self publish who likewise may choose not to use DRM [2]. (I think pretty much all the major distributors like Amazon, Kobo, Google, Apple, Microsoft, Barnes & Noble, do allow people to publish without DRM, so it's dependent mostly on the publisher or author except for those distributors which promise their books have no DRM.)

Note that I suspect most people are reading them on non-Windows tablets or ereaders, so problems on Windows get much less attention then they used. For tablets at least, most people probably just use the distributor provided app and don't notice they DRM. Ereaders can be a little more complicated (particularly when old versions of the DRM are killed and there are no more firmware updates).

Funnily enough, as much as it means anything, Adobe's ADEPT DRM is actually one of the better ones here. In the sense that it's open for anyone willing to comply with the requirements to use it. Unlike Amazon or Apple's DRM where you're basically completely locked in to their ecosystem. (Kobo, Barnes & Noble and Google are somewhat inbetween. They provide Adobe DRM ebooks but their apps and devices use their own DRM.)

I'm not so sure about text books but my impression is it's often the same.

The only area where DRM has been mostly abandoned is music files. (Although the move now is to subscription based music services which still have it in some ways.)

Nil Einne (talk) 07:06, 19 December 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Yes, you are right. I hastened to the conclusion of a world with DRM-free books just based on my own experience. --Denidi (talk) 18:52, 19 December 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Errors: Relative, mixed or absolute cell reference in spreadsheets

What leads to more errors: referring to cells with an absolute location ($B$3), mixed ($B3 or B$3) or relative? That is in a spreadsheet that's being working on, data is being added, it's being processed.--Scicurious (talk) 19:03, 17 December 2015 (UTC)[reply]

The distinctions between "absolute" and "relative" references (are those even the right terms?) are complicated. I don't know if I've ever seen the distinctions described completely and understandably; I've kind of worked them out for myself.

About all I can say is that if you've got a spreadsheet where the distinctions matter, you're going to have lots of problems if you ever use an "absolute" reference when you needed a relative one, or vice versa. I can't imagine distilling out a simple rule saying that one or the other form is somehow more (or less) error-prone; that sounds like it would inevitably end up being endlessly misleading advice.

If you or your users are having trouble with this, I would suggest either (a) learning more about the distinctions so that you can remember and use them reliably, or (b) restricting yourself to the simple, regular, homogeneous spreadsheet layouts which don't end up needing "absolute" references at all, meaning that you can always and safely use the "relative" ones. —Steve Summit (talk) 19:34, 17 December 2015 (UTC) [tweaked 13:57, 18 December 2015 (UTC)][reply]

Those are indeed the correct terms, and they have been in use at least since the early days of Lotus 1-2-3. Example here. --LarryMac | Talk 18:08, 18 December 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks! I was skeptical because when you create them and when they're sitting there working, both styles are pretty "absolute" in my book. The difference shows up only -- and as the nicely vintage reference you cited clearly explains -- when formulas containing references are copied to new locations. —Steve Summit (talk) 18:39, 18 December 2015 (UTC)[reply]

My experience is that absolute and relative references have more to do with copy/paste operations than anything else. If it is a relative reference, it changes as you paste. If it is an absolute reference, it doesn't change. So, you choose the one that does what you want. 209.149.113.52 (talk) 15:46, 18 December 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Yes, from my (now vague) memory of early spreadsheets, one used to ask "absolute of relative?" when asked to copy, and another used "duplicate" for an absolute copy and "replicate" for a relative copy. These days the default is relative, and you only need to use absolute for special situations of data that appears only once in the sheet but is used many times. Dbfirs 08:39, 21 December 2015 (UTC)[reply]

How to deal with wired.meraki.com

On a library computer with Firefox, I have been told the problem is one of updating the version of Firefox. The problem seems to have been at least partly solved.

But on those sites where it hasn't, the screen is white with the words "Connecting to wired.meraki.com" or something similar (probably ads, since the various sites are almost never related to the content I want) for the longest time before the actual content finally shows up. On a library computer with only Internet Explorer, on one of the same sites, there is no such explanation but the screen stays white for a long time.— Vchimpanzee • talk • contributions • 19:46, 17 December 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Update: it was happening today with Firefox. I kept seeing the circle go round and round, stop, and then start up again, with "not responding" at the top of the screen. I was trying to do other stuff too, but nothing would happen. I clicked on the red X in the upper right corner, and when I restarted, all was well, but that's not always an option.— Vchimpanzee • talk • contributions • 19:29, 18 December 2015 (UTC)[reply]

That website is designed only for Cisco Meraki appliances. Any DNS request addressed to that website gets intercepted, and redirected via a local network. It sounds as if your library computers are not set up properly, or fail to use the correct routing, or perhaps there is just extreme local congestion. Dbfirs 23:39, 19 December 2015 (UTC)[reply]

The meraki site is only one example, of course. But why can't the correct content come first and then the ads later, if there's going to be a problem?— Vchimpanzee • talk • contributions • 19:21, 20 December 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Some of it is probably just low bandwidth on a public machine. However, third-party ads often use scripts to set cookies (or for other targeting purposes): these are executed early in the loading sequence, and the browser won't continue parsing the HTML until all the scripts are finished. Here is a good overview of the general sequence of web page loading (scroll down about 2 pages): http://stackoverflow.com/questions/28635141/sequence-in-which-html-page-loads. OldTimeNESter (talk) 13:20, 22 December 2015 (UTC)[reply]

December 18

Windows 10 drivers

If you have Windows 10 drivers for a device, does that mean that you will never need new drivers as Windows 10 is updated? Bubba73 ^{You talkin' to me?} 04:37, 18 December 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Usually not, but it is not possible to 100% sure. Ruslik_Zero 13:47, 18 December 2015 (UTC)[reply]

The hardware might need or might get a new driver released. This has nothing to do with Windows 10. A new Windows version could break the backwards compatibility with drivers of version pasts, I doubt this could happen with updates within the same version. So, even when Windows moves to Windows 13, your drivers will probably run OK. Windows has also “compatibility mode” options that make the applications believe tehy are running on the old Windows still. --3dcaddy (talk) 18:41, 18 December 2015 (UTC)[reply]

I thought all versions of Windows were to be W10 from now on. I had a good Canon scanner, but when one of the new versions of Windows came out several years ago, there were no drivers for it, so it wouldn't work. Bubba73 ^{You talkin' to me?} 01:37, 19 December 2015 (UTC)[reply]

It's impossible to know what the future will bring, but I think "Windows 10 is the last version of Windows" is essentially a branding statement, not a technical one. It's unlikely that Microsoft will suddenly become more averse to major incompatible kernel changes just because they said (some years ago at that point) that every future version of Windows would be called "Windows 10". Most likely they'll change their minds and announce Windows Frobnitz, or effectively fork Windows 10 by not distributing the breaking change to incompatible systems, or something like that. -- BenRG (talk) 04:00, 19 December 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Can't see my 5GHz network

I have a laptop running Windows 7 with a wireless-N adapter (Intel Wireless-N 7260) and a dual-band wireless-N router. The 5GHz network is enabled on the router and set to broadcast SSID. Why can't I see it in the list of networks available for connection? Do all wirelsss-N adapters support the 5GHz band? ―Mandruss ☎ 14:05, 18 December 2015 (UTC)[reply]

No. All wireless N adapters do not support 5GHZ. Many do not. I have five different adapters in my house. Three do support 5ghz and use it. Two do not and don't even see it. 209.149.113.52 (talk) 14:32, 18 December 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Yeah, after a little more online digging, it appears I probably have the single-band version of 7260. Nuts. Stuck with 2.4 for now. ―Mandruss ☎ 14:54, 18 December 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Check to enable the 5 GHz. Some use different SSID. If there are walls between, You might be out of range for connecting the 5 GHz accesspoint. --Hans Haase (有问题吗) 14:39, 19 December 2015 (UTC)[reply]

One wireless adapter, two networks

Could one run-of-the-mill wireless adapter connect to two wifi networks at the same time? Mine does not support this, but I wonder where the limitation comes from. --3dcaddy (talk) 18:33, 18 December 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Both Linux and Windows have virtual WiFi projects that claim to allow you to connect to multiple wifi networks with one wireless device. I haven't used either one. The Windows one is here. 209.149.113.52 (talk) 19:03, 18 December 2015 (UTC)[reply]

That's from 23 August 2005. It seems kind of a big deal. But, from a technical perspective, what makes multiple connections so difficult in 802.11 wireless networking?--3dcaddy (talk) 19:45, 18 December 2015 (UTC)[reply]

It could be that nobody sees a market for it and therefore nobody produces one. I'm just one person but I can't think of a reason that you'd need to be able to do this. At least not on a scale that would make it profitable to produce the software/devices. Dismas|^(talk) 20:54, 18 December 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Perhaps the most difficult part is that any two "wifi networks" are actually separated at the physical layer (not the network layer). Most modern wifi hardware can not simultaneously transmit- and- receive- on multiple channels - the radio circuits that you can actually build and buy at reasonable price-points simply are not designed that way. This is because wireless radio PHYs are tuned circuits and have frequency-selectivity. To support multiple channels, you'd need redundant hardware transceiver circuits; or, a single wide-band transceiver with significantly higher-performance. If you want a truly simultaneous network connection, you need a simultaneous physical connection.

If you had unlimited engineering time and money, you could design an ultra-wide-band receiver/transmitter, and attach it to an ultra-wide-band digitizer; and attach it to an ultra-fast specialized controller or computer that could manage multiple instances of the network layer incarnated in these multiple physical instances of the physical layer. This work is not easy or cheap. A handful of the better recent WiFi hardware can do simultaneous dual-band (at 2.4GHz and 5 GHz); and perhaps there are some commercial systems that can manage simultaneous full duplex on multiple channels within a single band; but these features are not common. These features are more likely to be found on commercial-grade access points - like a Cisco AeroNet - than on consumer-grade end-points.

Because the hardware support for this kind of feature is rare, the software to support it is even more rare; and free software incarnations are essentially non-existent. The end result is that you can't easily get simultaneous WiFi network connections.

Nimur (talk) 21:03, 18 December 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Dual boot?

Can I put an XP partition on my computer fitted with windows 7 and boot into it when required?. There are some programs that dont work in W7. Help.--178.110.28.209 (talk) 23:16, 18 December 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Maybe you could see if the Windows XP Mode is what you need instead.--Denidi (talk) 00:13, 19 December 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Instructables to the rescue! This is instructions to do exactly what you want! SteveBaker (talk) 02:24, 19 December 2015 (UTC)[reply]

When Your computer is fast enough, thing to install and run Windows in a virtual machine. You will be able to recover, restore and backup completely and easly. --Hans Haase (有问题吗) 14:36, 19 December 2015 (UTC)[reply]

December 19

Word font change

I was working on a Word document for a client using tracked changes. When they sent it back with their responses to my comments/changes, the font got too small for me to read clearly for some reason. I can select the main document and increase the font, but that doesn't help with their comments. Clarityfiend (talk) 05:36, 19 December 2015 (UTC)[reply]

If you can't find a way to change the font size at which their changes are displayed, you might try enlarging the entire screen. On Windows, try WINDOWS++ to increase zoom level. (Note that the Windows key is typically marked with the flying Windows logo, not the word, and that you must press both together.) There are also options to just enlarge the document, if you prefer that. StuRat (talk) 06:32, 19 December 2015 (UTC)[reply]

See if any of this helps. ―Mandruss ☎ 10:11, 19 December 2015 (UTC)[reply]

From one of the linked suggestions: ctrl-alt-shift-S, then changing the balloon text font worked. So obvious! Thanks. Clarityfiend (talk) 01:23, 20 December 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Making Ubuntu-Firefox interface to be more Windows-Firefox like?

The reason I need this is when I use Ubuntu's Firefox's Bookmarks' menu everything looks very compressed (it's especially uncomfortable in my case as I have many folders and bookmarks).

Anything you could suggest me of doing about it? Ben-Yeudith (talk) 11:55, 19 December 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Change the theme and fonts. Ubuntu might be able to apper very similar to Windows. --Hans Haase (有问题吗) 14:33, 19 December 2015 (UTC)[reply]

The only difference I noted was Settings moved form Extras to Edit in the conventional menu. Also the user profile can be migrated by copying the files and folders of the Firefox user settings to the new computer or user. --Hans Haase (有问题吗) 20:14, 19 December 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Linux

Why does Linux have such a tiny market share on desktop pcs despite literally being given away for free? Supposedly it's the best OS around but in 30+ years it still can't hold a candle to Bill Gates. Why is that? Why has the year of the Linux desktop ever come? Is Linux just a bad OS for common folk? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 62.37.237.15 (talk) 18:36, 19 December 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Depending on the license, further changes and contributions to the source needs to returned to or published and making it avail for the community. Many bugs were fixed by interests, many develtopment is done as well. It would take a huge investment to revinvent the whole operating system. --Hans Haase (有问题吗) 20:01, 19 December 2015 (UTC)[reply]

The common folk never install an OS; they buy a computer with an OS preinstalled. So your question boils down to why so few consumer PCs come with Linux preinstalled. I don't know the answer, but I suspect it has to do with support costs. Inevitably some fraction of buyers will try to install a third-party printer or game or office suite that doesn't support Linux and will complain to the computer vendor about it. The cost of handling that sort of thing might exceed the cost of OEM Windows licenses. -- BenRG (talk) 21:28, 19 December 2015 (UTC)[reply]

I'd believe it. Dell has been known to sell laptops with Ubuntu preinstalled, but they're marketed more towards developers than the average consumer. ([3]) clpo13_(talk) 21:56, 19 December 2015 (UTC)[reply]

As of November 2015, when I last called, Dell is not selling any computers that do not have Windows. Every offering must come with Windows. I escalated by request and pestered sales people on the phone, through email, and through chat. There was absolutely no way around it. Even when going to their Linux offerings site which includes a number to sales, the sales people claimed that those offerings are not active and the page is there to allow historical purchases easy access to Dell support. So, I think it is important to emphasize the "has been known" part of "has been known to sell laptops". 209.149.113.52 (talk) 14:03, 21 December 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Yeah, I wasn't sure if that was something they were still doing. Although now that I think about it, Chrome OS (on Chromebooks) is Linux-based, though it's heavily-modified and locked-down, so not quite the same as getting Ubuntu on a laptop (though Crouton (computing) looks interesting). clpo13_(talk) 16:15, 21 December 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Vendor lock-in and first mover advantage. Also Linux hasn't quite hit 30 yet; it dates back to 1991. (The GNU Project was founded in 1983 and insert here long discussion about the difference between GNU and Linux and what name you should use for a system using the Linux kernel and GNU userspace.) --71.119.131.184 (talk) 04:28, 20 December 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Our article, Usage share of operating systems, provides much discussion on the topic.

Purchase price of software is only one of many factors that drive market-share. Linux distributions are frequently available at zero cost, but consumers may value other important details, and may be willing to spend well above the zero price point. Among these factors are perceived and actual software quality; compatibility with hardware and application software; estimated maintenance and other total cost of ownership considerations; and so on. Nimur (talk) 04:43, 21 December 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Don't forget that Linux is at the heart of Android - and Android runs on 80% of the 6.8 billion cellphones in the world. Also, Apple's computers run software based on BSD Unix - which, these days, is mostly rehashed Linux and GNU stuff. Linux also dominates cloud computers, IoT devices, televisions (you probably didn't even notice that your smart-TV is running Linux - but I bet it is!) pretty much anywhere beyond desktop/laptop computing is now dominated by Linux. What you don't see is Linux penguin logos all over everything - because each vendor changes it to make it their own...which is actually what is intended to happen.

Linux "computers" outnumber Windows "computers" by an enormous factor - but just not in the narrow area of laptops and desktops.

So clearly the problem isn't with Linux itself. It is with vendor lock-in. SteveBaker (talk) 16:05, 21 December 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Add to this the fact that ever since MS-DOS debuted in the late 1970s to early 1980s, people have thought of "PC" and "Microsoft" as synonymous. To this day, major software vendors market their software as being compatible with "PC, Mac and Linux", meaning "Windows" when they say "PC". I have heard that when people have trouble using Windows, they say "This computer is shit!", but when they have trouble using Linux, they say "Linux is shit!". I myself only heard about Linux when I started studying at university, but once I heard about it and tried it out, I was fully enamoured with it, and for the past decade and a half, have only used Windows at work or when helping relatives. JIP | Talk 22:50, 21 December 2015 (UTC)[reply]

traceroute

when u do a trace route u see many different companies in the hops. can they see your internet traffic? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 62.37.237.15 (talk) 18:37, 19 December 2015 (UTC)[reply]

If they have to route your traffic, they can "see" it somehow. However, if your traffic is encrypted, they will only make sense of the metadata. That is, where it comes from, where is going to. Notice, however, that most emails are not encrypted, so, they can see and read them, in the same way a postman can read a postcard. --Denidi (talk) 19:00, 19 December 2015 (UTC)[reply]

They need to capture cyper key exchanges or brute force decode or recalculate the key in another way. When the route changes to other providers, they see Your computers packets no longer. But YOur ISP sees all Your internet fraffic. He can not change the route to You. --Hans Haase (有问题吗) 19:57, 19 December 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Most emails are not themselves encrypted, but they are usually sent over encrypted (SSL/TLS) connections these days, so they are only visible to whoever runs the mail servers, not other network providers like Level 3 that may show up in traceroute. -- BenRG (talk) 21:41, 19 December 2015 (UTC)[reply]

How to stop Twitter sending me messages on my iPhone?

Please how to stop Twitter to send me messages on my iPhone? These messages sound like I receive a text message, it looks like I receive a text message, so I slide the message just like I do when I receive a text message in order to read it, but it doesn't open the Messages app. It opens the Twitter app and it appears to be a tweet from some journal or some company or some political party or such. I don't want them to use my text message warning sounds or my iPhone ringtones for their tweets. I don't want Twitter to use my iPhone's sounds and ringtones in any way. Twitter didn't get intrusive for years, it was just silent and invisible except when I did open the Twitter app myself. Why has it become so intrusive since a few weeks? Have I changed a setting by mistake? Or is it that Twitter got themselves such new intrusive behavior? Thanks in advance for your answers. Akseli9 (talk) 20:11, 19 December 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Disable notifications for the Twitter app. (The Twitter app has supported notifications for a very long time. Possibly since it was first introduced.) Nil Einne (talk) 08:04, 20 December 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks. I did that, from the Notifications Center within iPhone's Settings (didn't find anything to change in Twitter's Preferences anyway). Akseli9 (talk) 08:48, 20 December 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Games for learning leadership skills

In Superbetter, Jane McGonigal writes on p. 112ff: "Multiplayer and massively multiplayer video games can teach important skills [...] People who frequently play games that require them to organize groups and lead others in like-minded efforts, such as Guild Wars and World of Warcraft, are rated by others as • better leaders • more effective motivators [...]". Do people here share that impression, and which games would you recommmend other than the two mentioned? I am particularly interested in knowing if there are some that are less fantasy war themed, but focus more on construction, economic simulation and real world issues. I-just-ask-questions-at-Wikipedia (talk) 23:12, 19 December 2015 (UTC)[reply]

I play Electronic Arts' Tiberium Alliances, which has alliances of up to 50 people, in coalitions of several alliances, each battling other coalitions to get to the center and take down the Fortress first. To be in the leadership requires lots of organizational skills, diplomacy, and flexibility, as old enemies frequently become allies. The leaders also need to learn to delegate authority, as personally controlling every action in a coalition of hundreds of players isn't possible. Thus, each alliance has a Commander-in-Chief, Second-in-Command, officers, etc., each assigned different roles and tasks. I can go into more detail, if you are interested. (One very specific thing I've learned there is that it's best to put a person's name in the title of e-mails if you expect a response from them. Otherwise, they might just assume it's a general message that doesn't concern them and never open it.) Note that this is a "freemium" game, and I pay about $5 a month to stay competitive (some others spend far more). StuRat (talk) 04:35, 20 December 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Thank you for the tip and the good explanation of the organizational structure. I found the article Command & Conquer: Tiberium Alliances, which already has more detail, but thank you for the offer. This isn't quite the genre I've been looking for, but it's interesting. I also just asked two questions about that game on its talk page; if you have the time, it would be nice if you could answer them. I-just-ask-questions-at-Wikipedia (talk) 06:29, 20 December 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Answered there. StuRat (talk) 08:22, 21 December 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Eve Online is probably the most well known MMO with a strong focus on "construction [and] economic simulation"; one of the standard jokes among the player base is that it's really a spreadsheet simulator, and the company that runs it has an economist on staff. I don't play it myself so I can't vouch personally for it. --71.119.131.184 (talk) 16:26, 21 December 2015 (UTC)[reply]

"syntaxicity"

hello, is there any objective measure of how much syntax a language has. I mean that thing of which Lisp obviously has pretty little, C just the right amount and Perl too much. Asmrulz (talk) 23:22, 19 December 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Well, one could form syntax descriptions of each candidate language using a meta-language like Backus–Naur Form - then compare the number of rules - or the number of tokens used in writing the rules. I'm not aware of any studies that did that - but it is at least possible in principle. SteveBaker (talk) 06:50, 20 December 2015 (UTC)[reply]

December 20

Finger print open source software

Hello,

I hope you all are well.

I'm searching for a reliable software that I can use via a touchscreen laptop monitor. A phone to PC, PC to phone synchronization facility/functionality is advantageous/desirable. Can someone help me please?

Space Ghost (talk) 07:38, 20 December 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Your question is fairly confusion. I don't think any touch screen monitors have the ability to read fingerprints as part of the touch function. They may have a seperate fingerprint sensor but that doesn't mean the touchscreen itself can read fingerprints. It's also fairly unclear what you want the finger print detection function for and how this related to the synchronization facility/functionality. Actually it's fairly unclear what you want the software to do point blank. Nil Einne (talk) 08:02, 20 December 2015 (UTC)[reply]

I saw it on television.

I was actually thinking of a system for MS Office login, and or, say for a customer's ID purpose. So far to date I've come across a 'Blood pressure checker' for diabetes on a smart phone. The sync I'm talking about is for 'read only' and or 'editing' purpose while you are on the go in a phone, under a present customer's permission, then of course you sync the data from phone to PC with the computer thereafter whenever... I don't know what I'll use, could be a Laptop or could be a phone.

Space Ghost (talk) 18:42, 20 December 2015 (UTC)[reply]

To be clear - it's not a matter of software. The physical hardware of the touch-screen sensor isn't capable of reading fingerprints. You could possibly do it by taking a photo of your fingertip with one of the on-board cameras - but I doubt the resolution is high enough without you holding your finger so close to the lens that the picture would be too blurry to resolve.

IMHO, fingerprint scanning is a really stupid idea for security or personal identification. The "gummy bear" hack makes it easy for anyone with a sample of your fingerprint to reproduce it perfectly and fool these devices. Finding one of your fingerprints to use is really easy because your fingerprints are all over the very phone you're trying to protect! But the worst thing of all is that if your password is compromised, you can at least change it so security violations won't continue - but good luck with changing your fingerprints! You can also limit the scope of a password exposure by using different passwords on different systems - but you only have ten fingers to get prints from!

This flaw makes fingerprint scanners (and many/most other biometric approaches) not just bad security - but potential disasters for their users. It's beyond belief that companies are still promoting these terrible techniques to the public.

SteveBaker (talk) 15:44, 21 December 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Lol.

The best thing I've seen so far to date is the 'three option security system' i.e. eye scan, fingerprint scan and a pin code. I could be wrong however...

Anyway, I'm not going to get into the fingerprint thing anymore, cause I recalled the existing issues; as you stated. It's just, its one of those "I want it for myself too" thing for me.

Thanks guys. Regards. -- Space Ghost (talk) 19:33, 21 December 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Open source AI

I'm searching for a reliable software, something like Jarvis from Iron Man movie. Can you help me please?

Regards.

Space Ghost (talk) 07:38, 20 December 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Such things to not yet exist - Iron Man is a work of fiction. SteveBaker (talk) 16:10, 20 December 2015 (UTC)[reply]

How lame. This world is boring...

Btw, thank you all (Wikipedians) for making my life interesting and a smart one... Regards.

Space Ghost (talk) 18:44, 20 December 2015 (UTC)[reply]

There is Siri, which is real, or take a look at another fictional AI program like Her (film) or Ex Machina (film). --Jubilujj 2015 (talk) 19:30, 20 December 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Saw Ex Machina - now I know why the world is boring... -- Space Ghost (talk) 19:39, 21 December 2015 (UTC)[reply]

There are things like Siri and home automation is gaining ground lately but the communication between the two technologies isn't there yet. So, currently, there are a lot of the pieces that you might be after but those pieces don't all work together like Jarvis. Dismas|^(talk) 03:33, 21 December 2015 (UTC)[reply]

I've added what you stated to my "If I ever have enough money to swim on" list. And thank you, I get the idea of what you are saying... -- Space Ghost (talk) 19:39, 21 December 2015 (UTC)[reply]

...and there are no services like Siri or Google-voice that are open-sourced. Note that Siri doesn't run inside your phone - the phone sends your voice to Apple's cloud servers. To have something even as good as Siri for yourself would require you to invest millions in server equipment and billions in search engine technology.

It's unclear whether the fictional "Jarvis" runs in small devices - but I think the implication is that Iron Man has enough money to own gigantic cloud compute systems that he can use for his private purposes.

SteveBaker (talk) 15:34, 21 December 2015 (UTC)[reply]

In the most recent film that I saw (and I have no idea which one it was), Jarvis was depicted as a worm that replicated itself across devices. That is how it was able to move from device to device to avoid being destroyed. Of course, it also implied that Jarvis felt pain and had the intelligence to change how it operated to hide and protect itself from pain. 209.149.113.52 (talk) 18:12, 21 December 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Giving full power to 'an AI' then letting it roam on the Earth will inevitably be the most stupidest thing to do in the Universe. -- Space Ghost (talk) 19:39, 21 December 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Are less people using laptops due to smartphones?

In the same way that laptops took away market share of desktops, could it be that smartphones/tablets are doing the same with laptops?--Jubilujj 2015 (talk) 19:26, 20 December 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Define use. Do you define use as physically touching a laptop at least once in a 365 day period? The answer is no, the amount of people who use a laptop has not drop. If you ask instead "Have the usage of laptops dropped because of smartphones" then the answer is yes because usage is defined as the number of seconds in a 365 days period in which a laptop is utilized for the purpose it was designed for. 175.45.116.66 (talk) 22:43, 20 December 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Do you have a source for any of those assertions? 82.44.55.214 (talk) 01:25, 21 December 2015 (UTC)[reply]

smartphone-more-popular-than-laptop-ofcom-2015 175.45.116.66 (talk) 02:24, 21 December 2015 (UTC)[reply]

desktop-suffers-drastic-decline-mobile-soars 175.45.116.66 (talk) 02:29, 21 December 2015 (UTC)[reply]

People are using their laptops less because of smartphones and tablets, but it's not true that fewer people are using laptops. Apologies for the pedantry. I know this isn't the language desk. Dbfirs 08:02, 21 December 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Yes, I resisted the urge to correct the title to say "fewer people", despite "less people" sounding like some kind of insult (something like "I'd like to thank all the little people"). StuRat (talk) 08:15, 21 December 2015 (UTC) [reply]

We have to be careful about this question.

The OP didn't ask whether there are fewer laptops in use than previously - we are being asked about the market share - meaning "Did the percentage of people using laptops versus phones shift?"

Since cellphones have penetrated markets where computers were never used in the past and laptops continue to be sold - the number of people using laptops can still increase while the market share of laptops could decline when compared to cellphones.

Let's look at some numbers:

This QZ source says that in 2013 there were an astounding 6.8 billion active cellphone subscriptions - and only 7 billion people in the world. We're pretty close to 100% market penetration - evidently some people own more than one cellphone - but even in places like Africa, 85% of people own one.
This Statistia source shows that the number of laptops sold in the world started to decline from 210 million/year in 2011 down to 174 million/year in 2014 but predicts slow growth from 2015 onwards. :* Since the sales of laptops has been fairly flat for at least the last 5 years - and 5 to 8 years is the typical lifespan of most electronic devices - we may estimate that the total number of them that are still in use cannot exceed around a billion to a billion and a half.
If around 200 million laptops are sold each year - then each one would have to last for an average of 34 years for there to be as many in use as there are cellphones - and since the first laptops were first sold in the early 1980's, even if every laptop every made were still working and in active use - there could not possibly be as many as there are cellphones.

So - we can conclude that there are perhaps four to five times as many cellphone users as there are laptop users. So the market share for cellphones is vastly larger than laptops.

In terms of absolute numbers - the number of cellphone users has pretty much reached as high as it can reasonably get - 6.8 billion phones for 7 billion people (many of whom are babies and would not be expected to own one)...but the number of laptop sales seems to be fairly flat...and predictions for the future seems to offer only very modest growth. My guess is that the market is only for people replacing broken or outdated machines - so the number of laptop users is probably stuck at 1 to 1.5 billion...but it's hard to say for sure.

Interestingly, the decline of desktop PC sales is very slow - it could easily reflect improving reliability - and the fact that the shift to cloud-computing means that people aren't needing faster machines anymore - so they are replacing them less frequently.

The really interesting figures are the growth of tablet computers - which are rocketting up - and outselling laptops and desktops combined.

Conclusion: Market share of cellphones is as near to 100% as it can reasonably get. Market share of laptops is around 20% and will probably stay that way for a considerable time - whether they'll gradually become more popular as tablet users feel the need to have a keyboard - or whether tablets will gradually replace them - that's hard to say. Honestly, these days, it's hard to say whether a device is a true laptop or a tablet-with-detachable-keyboard anyway.

SteveBaker (talk) 15:22, 21 December 2015 (UTC)[reply]

I think I should point out that not all cellphones are smartphones (excuse me while I pet my flip phone lovingly). This is particularly the case in less-developed countries. The OP specifically asked about smartphones. --71.119.131.184 (talk) 16:11, 21 December 2015 (UTC)[reply]

December 21

Battery charging issue

I bought a new battery for PC today. The shopkeeper said to charge the battery for 4-5 hours, but did not say/I forgot to ask 'before use' or 'if it can be done while I'm using my PC'. What do you guys recommend? Also, why 4-5 hours when the battery becomes full after 1.5 hours? -- Space Ghost (talk) 19:59, 21 December 2015 (UTC)[reply]

1) They tend to say they are full when they are not. This makes them seem like a better product if they fill up more quickly. You might find that it drops faster after 1.5 hours of charging than after 5 hours, despite being shown to be full in both cases.

2) I don't understand your use of the term "PC". To me that means a desktop computer, which is always plugged in. The only batteries they typically have is one to keep the clock going, when unplugged. Do you mean a laptop ? StuRat (talk) 21:18, 21 December 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Do not put too much weight on what the shopkeeper said. Read the documentation of the PC. --Abaget (talk) 21:21, 21 December 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Excel help

	A	B	C
1	Item	Type	Number
2	apple	fruit	3
3	dog	animal	1
4	orange	fruit	1
5	rose	flower	2
6	chrysanthemum	flower	3
7	mango	fruit	2
8	zebra	animal	2
9	snake	animal	3
10	daisy	flower	1

Each Item in Column A is uniquely identifiable by a Type in Column B and a Number in Column C. None of the Items, Types or Numbers follow any particular order within their columns. What formula will, by a given Type and a given Number, display the relevant Item? --Theurgist (talk) 00:47, 22 December 2015 (UTC)[reply]

The DGET function looks like it can do what you want, but you have to use another group of cells to specify the criteria. --Bavi H (talk) 01:58, 22 December 2015 (UTC)[reply]

I'm not familiar with DGET, so it might well be the best option, but I would CONCATENATE the B&C columns and then use a VLOOKUP function. 99.235.223.170 (talk) 02:35, 22 December 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Not specific to Excel, but if you can sort by column C, and then by column B, without resetting after the initial sort, that should do what you want. In programs that have up and down arrows at the top of each column, this can be a convenient way to do such a sort. (This might not work for certain types of internal sorting methods, which don't attempt to conserve the initial order.) StuRat (talk) 18:30, 22 December 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Spreadsheet article might need attention

The bit "Each cell of the array is a model–view–controller element^{[dubious – discuss]} that may contain either numeric or text data, or the results of formulas that automatically calculate and display a value based on the contents of other cells." might need expansion. I, personally, would be interested in the consequences of dealing processing data this way (that is, mixing the data/logic/action in the same cell).--Scicurious (talk) 16:02, 22 December 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Adding two numbers in Java, without declaring variables in advance

I'm trying to figure out how to write code that understands a message

add(x, y);

where x and y are two integers, adds them, and returns the result. Seems like I can't just declare two variables, because the message won't provide any. If I don't though, my code doesn't compile. I have a vague idea about using a String argument, but I don't understand how to do that and suspect I've already failed to recognise an easier way. 2.98.138.155 (talk) 19:21, 22 December 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Are you trying to operate with uninitialized variables? Java actually does not have those. You declare them and they get assigned a default value for their type. --Scicurious (talk) 19:32, 22 December 2015 (UTC)[reply]

What I hoped someone might point out is a way to have the variables automatically declared as they are provided, I guess based on a keyword. In the same way as

this

works as a placeholder for an object whose variable name isn't known yet. 2.98.138.155 (talk) 19:38, 22 December 2015 (UTC)[reply]

@@ Line 346: / Line 346: @@
 :Are you trying to operate with uninitialized variables? Java actually does not have those. You declare them and they get assigned a default value for their type. --[[User:Scicurious|Scicurious]] ([[User talk:Scicurious|talk]]) 19:32, 22 December 2015 (UTC)
+::What I hoped someone might point out is a way to have the variables automatically declared as they are provided, I guess based on a keyword. In the same way as
+ this
+works as a placeholder for an object whose variable name isn't known yet. [[Special:Contributions/2.98.138.155|2.98.138.155]] ([[User talk:2.98.138.155|talk]]) 19:38, 22 December 2015 (UTC)