Jump to content

Wikipedia:Reference desk/Computing

Add links
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
< Wikipedia:Reference desk

This is an old revision of this page, as edited by 69.228.171.70 (talk) at 18:57, 24 September 2012 (→Guest account on private wiki). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

Welcome to the computing section
of the Wikipedia reference desk.
skip to bottom
Select a section:
Shortcut
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.
See also:


September 19

Trip planning software

I'm organising a trip to about 10 or so cities in one country. I'd like to use something like Google maps to show lines between each city to better visualise distances and surrounding places and sights. Most transfers between cities are by air, some are by road. Can Google maps do that? (I cant see how to draw as-the-crow-fly-lines between places, mixed with road lines). Is there something (free would be nice) that can do this? Moondyne (talk) 06:44, 19 September 2012 (UTC)[reply]

If you can't find anything, I suggest you print out Google maps with driving routes marked and just draw the airplane routes in with a marker. (You can also do this online, by doing a screen grab and using MS Paint, if on Windows.) I make this type of "mix and match" maps all the time. Also note that, while plane routes aren't always the shortest possible route (great circles), you can still simplify the routes as lines drawn directly between each pair of cities. StuRat (talk) 06:52, 19 September 2012 (UTC)[reply]
You can do this (at least, the measuring-distances-in-straight-lines bit) in Google Maps itself. In the bottom left corner of the map, next to the scale marker, there is a (rather small) picture of a ruler. Clicking it opens the 'Distance Measurement Tool'. You can click two or more points on the map to get a straight-line distance between them, and choose from a variety of more or less helpful units, from metres and miles to American Football pitches, Angstroms and Beard-seconds. - Cucumber Mike (talk) 09:31, 19 September 2012 (UTC)[reply]
Could you not use the "Directions" tab in Google Earth? Would Driving Directions for Google Maps be of any use? CambridgeBayWeather (talk) 14:06, 19 September 2012 (UTC)[reply]
Thanks for your help. I just figured out how to drive Google My Maps which is exactly what I wanted. Moondyne (talk) 15:23, 19 September 2012 (UTC)[reply]
Good, I'll mark this resolved. StuRat (talk) 02:05, 20 September 2012 (UTC)[reply]
Resolved

Laptop

Are any ultrabooks equivalent to the Macbook air?138.37.108.16 (talk) 09:50, 19 September 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Yes. Shadowjams (talk) 11:00, 19 September 2012 (UTC)[reply]
Obvious implied followup: which ones? --Mr.98 (talk) 11:52, 19 September 2012 (UTC)[reply]
I know Asus has one: http://usa.asus.com/Notebooks/Superior_Mobility/ASUS_ZENBOOK_UX31E/#specifications http://www.apple.com/macbookair/specs.html. Unfortunately the price isn't that different, as is usually the case with hardware equivalent to Apple computers but not actually sold by Apple. ¦ Reisio (talk) 19:19, 19 September 2012 (UTC)[reply]
Depends on what your equivalence function is. Check out the article on ultrabooks. And go nuts with your favorite web search engine: ultrabook editor's choice, ultrabook review, ultrabook comparison, etc. You want gaming/business/FullHD/what - ultrabook gaming, etc. Go to amazon.com and other retailers and look at their lists of best sellers, top rated, new and upcoming models. 88.112.47.131 (talk) 14:31, 19 September 2012 (UTC)[reply]
No non-Apple product is really equivalent to any Mac, because only Apple products run Apple's operating system. Looie496 (talk) 17:59, 19 September 2012 (UTC)[reply]
Stupid comments like that make me lose the will to live. --Tagishsimon (talk) 18:55, 19 September 2012 (UTC)[reply]
Why? Apart from pedantic quibbling (maybe a hacker can get a copy of MacOS-X illegally to run on an UltraBook, but that is unsupported and unlikely to appeal to most users), it is true. The ability to run a fully-supported UNIX on decent hardware is a major reason for the success of MacBooks among e.g. academic researchers. Similarly, the iLife/iWork suites may push many more mundane users to a Mac. A Windows platform is not equivalent, and Linux, sadly, still is a minority choice, and may be tricky to install on cutting-edge notebooks. --Stephan Schulz (talk) 19:03, 19 September 2012 (UTC)[reply]
No… possibly (in the extreme minority) the ability to run a fully supported Unix on incredibly trendy and expensive hardware is a major reason. :p ¦ Reisio (talk) 19:15, 19 September 2012 (UTC)[reply]
It's a reasonable assumption that the OP knows that IOS only runs on Macs. Ultrabooks that run other OS are equivalent in form factor and functionality. Do you really want an explanation of why fan-boi pedantry does not benefit the RD? --Tagishsimon (talk) 19:08, 19 September 2012 (UTC)[reply]
Fan-boi pedantry???!! I actually have a pretty intense dislike for Apple, dating back over twenty years. But it's simply a fact that the main reason people buy Macintoshes is the unity and simplicity of the gui, and no other system provides a comparable environment. Looie496 (talk) 20:22, 19 September 2012 (UTC)[reply]
And here I thought they bought them because they were shiny trendy status symbols. :p ¦ Reisio (talk) 06:25, 20 September 2012 (UTC)[reply]
maybe a hacker can get a copy of MacOS-X illegally to run on an UltraBook - it's not nearly as illegal (in the EU) as you might think. If you own an OS, you may run it on any hardware, as long as you don't run it on multiple machines at the same time. Customer rights go so far that if Apple tried to stop by their action any user, they would be committing a crime.
The only way to dictate more restrictive terms of usage is to print them on the package where the customer can read it before he buys the product - big enough to read it without a microscope, and in a wording of legal significance. If they fail that, there's no way they could stop anyone from running an Apple OS on non-Apple hardware.
217.251.160.73 (talk) 09:13, 24 September 2012 (UTC)[reply]

http://www.pca.state.mn.us/

At the moment in the German language Wikipedia there's an ongoing effort to repair broken links in some 300,000 articles. And pages on the website above pop up frequently. However, according to Google as well as according to http://mn.gov that is the valid location of the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency. But we cannot reach any page within this subdomain (though several other subdomains including http://dnr.state.ms.us we can connect to). Could one of you within the U.S. please check if the site does not reply also for IPs geolocated within the U.S.? TIA. --Matthiasb (talk) 11:29, 19 September 2012 (UTC)[reply]

It works here in the UK. HostTracker indicates the site is working from every country it tested from 92.233.64.26 (talk) 11:49, 19 September 2012 (UTC)[reply]
& here on the east coast of the USA; http://www.isup.me/www.pca.state.mn.us ¦ Reisio (talk) 19:21, 19 September 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Making columns uncopyable in Excel

I have Excel 2007 and I have to copy and paste certain rows to different spreadsheets, but some of the information is cosmetic on the workbook and I don't need it. So, I want to just be able to highlight Row C, copy it but not have the information beyond lets say Column V to be copied. Is that something I can do? I thought there was like a break function but I can't remember for the life of me what it is and I can't look for it because I don't know what its called. Thanks! Livewireo (talk) 16:47, 19 September 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Instead of selecting the row, you can select specific cells for copying. Click in one cell, hold down shift and click in another cell and Excel will highlight a range of cells to be copied. Click in one cell and while the mouse button is still held down, drag to another cell to select a range of cells. Or you can click in one cell, hold down ctrl and click in another cells to create a disconnected range of cells to be copied.
Alternatively, carry on copying the way you have and then delete or clear the things you don't want once you have pasted them in their destination. Astronaut (talk) 18:46, 19 September 2012 (UTC)[reply]
I am familiar with these ways to copy cells, I was just hoping there was something easier. I have a lot of hidden columns that have unneeded data for the spreadsheet I am copying things to, and trying to move things around is just a big hassle. I appreciate the help anyway. Livewireo (talk) 19:28, 19 September 2012 (UTC)[reply]
If there's no other way, you could put together a set of formulii in a second workbook to pull the data you want into it; and then copy and paste-special/values into the new spreadsheet. --Tagishsimon (talk) 20:00, 19 September 2012 (UTC)[reply]
I would put a blank cell at the point where I wanted to stop copying. Then go to column A, hit End then shift-RightArrow and you've highlighted the cells you want to copy. Copy and paste.--Phil Holmes (talk) 15:43, 20 September 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Is GNU an OS?

Isn't it a little bit forced to call it an OS like in the article linked above? Common packages like findutils, gzip, grep are simply applications and the most important thing, the kernel, is not part of it. OsmanRF34 (talk) 22:57, 19 September 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Actually, GNU has a kernel, namely GNU Hurd. It's more often used with Linux, of course. Anyways, all UNIXes are mostly bundles of applications, configuration files, and libraries. The kernel is a fairly small part. --Stephan Schulz (talk) 23:04, 19 September 2012 (UTC)[reply]
Yes, the kernel is quite small, but essential. I tend to think kernel = OS, and even if GNU Hurd is also = OS, GNU packages are apps. OsmanRF34 (talk) 23:09, 19 September 2012 (UTC)[reply]
Well, the standard definition of an OS is given in our article: "An operating system (OS) is a collection of software...". It's not just the kernel. Note that a normal UNIX system cannot really be used (or even booted) without a large collection of what you call "apps". The startup scripts require a Bourne shell to execute, and use all kinds of UNIX commands, nearly all of which are (or at least used to be) independent programs. And if you interact with the OS, you need shell, terminal emulator, passwd, and plenty of other programs. --Stephan Schulz (talk) 23:27, 19 September 2012 (UTC)[reply]
The original plan of the GNU project was to create an operating system, but they bogged down, and never managed to create a kernel that was good enough to be widely adopted. They created much of the rest of what is needed for an OS, though. Looie496 (talk) 00:16, 20 September 2012 (UTC)[reply]
What Stephan said. ¦ Reisio (talk) 06:31, 20 September 2012 (UTC)[reply]


September 20

Will iOS 5.1.1 -> iOS 6 upgrade strip all my apps and make me manually reinstall them?

That's my question. Thanks. 67.163.109.173 (talk) 03:19, 20 September 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Nope. Just did it myself. Hot Stop (Edits) 03:22, 20 September 2012 (UTC)[reply]
Although when carrying out any major upgrade such as this, you should assume that 'bad things will happen'(TM) and that all your documents, files, pictures, apps and settings will disappear into the black hole of computing misery. Do a backup just in case so you can restore them if/when it happens. But as Hot Stop says, you should be fine. - Cucumber Mike (talk) 09:51, 20 September 2012 (UTC)[reply]

I just asked because this happened when I upgraded to 5, and apparently to many others on that upgrade, judging by the number of articles giving instructions on how to recover them, which I did then. 67.163.109.173 (talk) 12:27, 20 September 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Interesting. It didn't happen to me (it remembered everything -- safari history, passwords, etc.) when I just updated to iOS 6. But when I updated my blackberry OS a few years back, it wiped out everything. So I guess it wouldn't be bad to backup everything, especially since iTunes does it automatically. Hot Stop (Edits) 12:47, 20 September 2012 (UTC)[reply]
I have heard that the upgrade in question makes the Apple-made YouTube app, the one with the retro TV icon, disappear, and replaces the maps app that is powered by Google Maps with a maps app that is receiving a majority of reviews that calls it inferior to the one that will get replaced if this upgrade is done. (for instance, Berlin being in the middle of Antarctica) 20.137.18.53 (talk) 12:55, 21 September 2012 (UTC)[reply]
Upgrading iOS normally does not strip your apps. Unless you skip at least one generation of the software, all of your apps will remain after the upgrade. Write English in Cyrillic (talk) 16:29, 21 September 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Learning Java

Hi all. I am currently working my way through my first book on Java and feel like seeing more code would be beneficial. Are there any resources on the web that provide examples of working programs that I could look at, just to help me get a better feel for Java? Thanks. 213.123.215.234 (talk) 12:58, 20 September 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Sure, lots of sites, search the web for things like java examples and java tutorial. If you want to take a peek at real applications, there are e.g. Apache projects in Java and sourceforge. 88.112.47.131 (talk) 13:21, 20 September 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Variable within a python loop

When I write a loop, like: 

for i in mylist:
...a += mylist[i]
...b *= mylist[i]
...print(a)
...print(b)

Do I always have to declare variables a and b beforehand? Or is there any more elegant form of doing that? OsmanRF34 (talk) 16:12, 20 September 2012 (UTC)[reply]

The accepted "pythonic" way of doing it is to declare the starting values of a and b beforehand, outside the loop. While you can have internal testing for the existance of a and b using try/except [1] [2], in no way would I classify it as "elegant". - By the way, if things like summing or multiplying a list of values is what you want to do, the more elegant way would likely be using something like list comprehensions [3] or various builtins like sum(), map(), reduce() and zip() functions [4]:
a_sum = sum(mylist)
b_prod = reduce(lambda x, y: x*y, mylist)
import operator
b_prod2 = reduce(operator.mul, mylist)
If you really need all the intermediate results, there are ways of doing it, but none really are more elegant than the loop with the starting values specified. -- 205.175.124.30 (talk) 18:35, 20 September 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Constructor Calls in Java

In my book on Java, it says "To call one constructor of a class from another of the same class, you can use the this keyword followed by parentheses containing the constructor arguments.". I am confused as to why you do not need to name the constructor you wish to call. Does this apply exclusively to overloaded constructors? Thanks. 213.123.215.234 (talk) 16:12, 20 September 2012 (UTC)[reply]

If you have a class Parent that has a constructor Parent(int n), in a subclass Child you can have a constructor that calls the Parent(int n) constructor. The syntax is simply "this(10);". You don't need to name the call because there is nothing to name - you can only call Parent's constructors from Child. I suppose they could have made the syntax "Parent(10);" instead of "this(10);" - but they didn't.
(By the way, if you want to discuss Java and ask about it, check out Oracle's Java forums. Lots of Java knowledge there. Now that Oracle owns Java, that's kind of the "official" forum.) 88.112.47.131 (talk) 16:55, 20 September 2012 (UTC)[reply]
Note also that the call to the overloaded constructor (in this case this(10);) must be the first thing you do in the constructor. If you do anything else before it, it will fail to compile. Don't ask me why, but that's the way the language is designed. JIP | Talk 17:44, 20 September 2012 (UTC)[reply]
So that it's safe to assume that you start with an completely uninitialies object when a constructor starts. Taemyr (talk) 13:28, 21 September 2012 (UTC)[reply]
No, it's not. The first code executed by any constructor (other than that for java.lang.Object, which is magic) must be to invoke one of its superclass' instance constructors. If you don't explicitly do this yourself with the super keyword, the compiler will automatically insert a call to the parent class' default constructor. (ref) -- Finlay McWalterჷTalk 14:32, 21 September 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Battery Voltage

I have an Asus Eee PC 1015PX netbook. The battery that came with it was a 3-cell 11.1V 2100mA battery. I bought a "genuine" Asus battery from a reputable dealer on eBay, it was a 6-cell 10.8V 4400mA battery. I tried it in my netbook and it seems to work fine, but is it a problem that the voltage is different? Thanks.Acceptable (talk) 18:42, 20 September 2012 (UTC)[reply]

A less than 3% voltage difference, and it works. The answer is a QED yes. IIRC battery voltages dip as they run out of spunk, and power regulators in consumer electronics handle this well (within limits). And you've got a whole lot more amp-hours. All looks good. --Tagishsimon (talk) 23:43, 20 September 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Powerpoint

I know very little about powerpoint - which I am using (ppt 2003 on XP) to generate some slides. I would like to make it so that the default text size is 20pt. It always inserts at 18pt. How do I change this please? -- SGBailey (talk) 22:16, 20 September 2012 (UTC)[reply]

View / Master / Slide Master ... set your format preferences, exit, done. --Tagishsimon (talk) 22:34, 20 September 2012 (UTC)[reply]
Thanks


September 21

What algorithm or method is used to split color and bw?

To pick just one example, there's a movie called Pleasantville where this happens a lot. There will be a scene where everything is black and white except for one person in color and they are moving around and the color edges of their body against the black and white everything-else are crisply defined. From that article, I saw "The black-and-white meets color world portrayed in the movie was filmed entirely in color and selectively desaturated and contrast adjusted digitally." I want to know the nitty-gritty details of that " selectively desaturated and contrast adjusted digitally." I read the Spirit DataCine article but didn't see an answer to my specific question there. What algorithm can keep track of all the edges of something like a human in a complex moving sequence of frames? 20.137.18.53 (talk) 13:06, 21 September 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Means for identifying objects in a scene and altering their colour (usually for adding rather than removing it) are discussed rather generally at Film colorization#Digital colorization. The processes involved are described rather more formally in video tracking and feature extraction. These will help automate the process, but aren't a general solution, so I think such a process will still require a human hinting for the system and repairing mistakes it makes. -- Finlay McWalterჷTalk 13:48, 21 September 2012 (UTC)[reply]
I have no clue as to what was used for Pleasantville, but don't dismiss completely the idea that someone (or probably multiple someones) went through things frame-by-frame to draw the edges between the color and the black and white sections. Keep in mind that prior to computer inbetweening, each and every frame for animated movies (such as Snow White, Cinderella, and Fantasia) were drawn by hand (although cel animation was used to reduce the workload). Even now, stop motion films (such as Wallace and Grommit and Coraline) are shot in a laborious frame-by-frame process. In comparison, going through each frame by hand to specify the edges of a human (and then letting the computer digitally desaturate and contrast adjust everything outside) is simple. -- 205.175.124.30 (talk) 02:32, 22 September 2012 (UTC)[reply]
  • This page describes the technology in considerable detail, but all it says about this specific question is, "One of the key tools they used was Shake, an open-system compositing software toolset created by the Venice, California, software film Nothing Real which formed the basis for their proprietary interactive color-correction software program." Looie496 (talk) 03:05, 22 September 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Selecting/clearing current cell's contents in Excel

Resolved

When typing formulas in Microsoft Excel, I often mess up somewhere along the way and find it easiest to clear up and start over. The problem is that there doesn't seem to be any relatively short series of actions to get there. If I click anywhere away from the cell, Excel helpfully warns me about the bad formula and forces me back into it. Ctrl-A does nothing whatsoever. Ultimately, I have to manually select the content of the cell and hit Backspace or Delete. Does anyone have a faster method? (I don't want to disable the warning because it is useful if I actually intend a given mal-formed formula.) 173.163.25.70 (talk) 15:56, 21 September 2012 (UTC)[reply]

There's the X to the left of the formula bar, but that means a single mouse movement rather than a keystroke solution. --Tagishsimon (talk) 16:07, 21 September 2012 (UTC)[reply]
Ah. <ESC> is your friend. --Tagishsimon (talk) 16:09, 21 September 2012 (UTC)[reply]
Thank you! (same person, different IP) 72.72.196.226 (talk) 21:55, 21 September 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Default program of same name won't stick

When I open a file in Microsoft Word on my mac it opens with version 14.0.0 by default. I want to change it so that all Word files open by default with version 12.1.0, which I also have. The problem comes in that they are both named the same thing. I know one way to change the default for all files, but it doesn't work in this case because of the name being the same. Specifically, if I highlight a Word file, then go to "Get info", then go to "open with" and choose version 14.0.0 to version 12.1.0 it will of course open the fie in that Word version, but when I click on "change all" just below after selecting 12.0.0, it doesn't recognize any difference between the Word versions; the "open with" resets before my eyes to the later version (as I can see from the Icon changing to 14.0.0's icon) and so there's no change for other Word Files. Any help?--108.27.102.226 (talk) 19:07, 21 September 2012 (UTC)[reply]

I don't know about Word specifically, but many programs don't support you having more than one version on your computer at once (they always use the most recent). If Word is like that, you'd need to uninstall version 14.0.0 (and possibly reinstall 12.1.0, if the uninstall takes too much). A dual-boot system with two different file partitions is one way to have two versions at once on the same computer, for software which doesn't inherently support this ability. StuRat (talk) 19:21, 21 September 2012 (UTC)[reply]
Ah, that just sucks, though I appreciate the information. Thank you. I really do like the earlier version for some things, and the later for others. I have no problem in switching between them using "open with", and haven't noticed any problem with them co-existing other than the default opening issue. Sigh.--108.27.102.226 (talk) 19:40, 21 September 2012 (UTC)[reply]
I work with several different (graphic & page-layout) application versions; all I have to suggest is the workaround I use, which is to keep the non-default versions in the Dock and drag documents onto the icon for the particular version I want to open them with. (You can also right-click and choose an application to “Open With”, unless the versions' mini-icons are also indistinguishable.)—Odysseus1479 (talk) 05:08, 23 September 2012 (UTC)[reply]
I've managed to keep two versions of Word on a Mac before. I don't know the ins and outs of how the file associations work, though. There's got to be some under-the-hood way to do it, but it's beyond me; I'm not sure what's changing it back before your eyes (is it Word? is it something else?). --Mr.98 (talk) 21:29, 21 September 2012 (UTC)[reply]
First of all, remember that OS X is a unix based operating system. Now, I don't have a Mac and don't know how Microsoft Office is installed on it, so the following might not be accurate, but it might give you a way to look for a solution.
Unix can use symbolic links to point to different version of the same package. So, one version of Word might be installed at /usr/msoffice-14.0.0/word while the other version might be installed at /usr/msoffice-12.1.0/word. Which one is actually run, depends on where the link /usr/msoffice points to. Of course, the actual names of things might be different, or the link might be at the level of the program itself, but it is possible to have multiple versions installed. Whether OS X lets you fiddle around with installed programs in this way, is a different question. Astronaut (talk) 10:26, 22 September 2012 (UTC)[reply]
Unfortunately, that's not at all how the majority of GUI applications on Mac OSX work. They tend to be installed in the /Applications/ folder (and each application is actually a folder itself). Office 2011 creates a subfolder 'Microsoft Office 20111' under /Applications/, and puts all of its applications there. To the OP, I wonder if it helps to rename the older version of 'Microsoft Word.app' to 'Microsoft Word old.app', if Mac indeed only links them by their name. Unfortunately I don't have 2 copies of Office here to test it myself, but Word 2011 itself doesn't seem to mind being renamed Unilynx (talk) 14:06, 22 September 2012 (UTC)[reply]
I poked around a bit under the hood. Warning: if you manipulate these files, things might break. Make backups.
Default file associations are kept in ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.LaunceServices.plist. You can open this file in a text editor; it is just XML. I actually open all of my Word files in Pages by default. Here's what mine looks like for MS Word files:
		<dict>
			<key>LSHandlerContentType</key>
			<string>com.microsoft.word.doc</string>
			<key>LSHandlerIgnoreCreator</key>
			<true/>
			<key>LSHandlerRoleAll</key>
			<string>com.apple.iwork.pages</string>
		</dict>
You can see what it's doing — when it finds a file that is of the type com.microsoft.word.doc, it basically says, "ignore what you know about MS Word files, and treat it like a Pages file instead." Kind of clever.
Separately, I also find this little bit of code:
		<dict>
			<key>LSHandlerContentTag</key>
			<string>mht</string>
			<key>LSHandlerContentTagClass</key>
			<string>public.filename-extension</string>
			<key>LSHandlerIgnoreCreator</key>
			<true/>
			<key>LSHandlerRoleAll</key>
			<string>com.microsoft.word</string>
		</dict>
This I interpret as saying, "if you find a file with a file extension of .mht, treat it like an MS Word file." Now I don't have something comparable for a .doc or .docx extension, so I don't know how it knows what those are. However it does have things like this:
		<dict>
			<key>LSHandlerContentType</key>
			<string>com.microsoft.word.openxml.document</string>
			<key>LSHandlerRoleAll</key>
			<string>com.microsoft.word</string>
		</dict>
Which makes it look like it somehow "just knows" what .docx files are and thereby knows to send them to Word.
Of course, your problem is, where does com.microsoft.word go to by default? I don't really know. When I look at the Info.plist file embedded inside the Word 2008 package, it has a line that identifies its CFBundleIdentifier as com.microsoft.Word. Is this what the OS is using to identify the program? I don't know. Word 2004 is not a package and probably runs through Rosetta or something like that. Could one change that Info.Plist file inside the one you don't want to be considered Word and thus "disassociate" it? I don't know. It might break things. I'm not so curious that I want to monkey with my install. The likely thing is that both of the Word versions are using the same CFBundleIdentifier, which is causing the problem with the default file associations.
Anyway, none of this is very conclusive, but I offer it up in case there are others who know a bit more about it. (Though from the responses above, I doubt it, since many of those who are trying to comment on this seem to be totally ignorant of how OS X does things like this.) --Mr.98 (talk) 23:19, 22 September 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Adding image file name in excel

Is the following possible in Excel?: 1. user selects a cell; 2. user clicks on "browse for images" (name is my invention); 3. a file or image browser appears; 4. user clicks on/selects an image; 5. file/image browser disappears and the image file name (perhaps including its directory name) appears in the cell selected in "1" above. This process needs to be fool proof, so I am not looking for a copy/paste solution using several programs. If this is not possible in Excel, are there any other possible solutions? bamse (talk) 19:33, 21 September 2012 (UTC)[reply]

This is about as far from the original purpose of Excel (a spreadsheet program) as you can get. I doubt if they support this, and, if they did, this would be a serious case of bloatware, IMHO. What is your actual goal, to have a two-dimensional array of file names arranged as you want, then you pick on them to see the full images ? If so, just using Windows Explorer (File Manager) to arrange links to those files may be the way to go. I believe there are options to use small icons, and you can arrange the links to file names as you like, in a folder. I think there's a way to make it use a snapping grid, too, so you will get a nice layout. StuRat (talk) 21:14, 21 September 2012 (UTC)[reply]
My guess (from my own doing the same thing) is that they have a large flat file database, and want to just add easy file-browsing/displaying capability to the cells. It's not a crazy thing to want. It's a nice compromise between making some sort of big Access database and just keeping a bunch of files separate on the hard drive. --Mr.98 (talk) 21:32, 21 September 2012 (UTC)[reply]
I've written some code that can do just this. It's long, though, and a bit complicated. Post an e-mail address to my talk page and I'll send it to you as a ZIP file. I haven't tested it on the latest versions of Excel (I've tested it on Excel 2003 and 2007 for Windows, and Excel 2004 for Mac; it definitely won't work on Excel 2008 for Mac because in that version Microsoft stripped out VBA support), though. --Mr.98 (talk) 21:42, 21 September 2012 (UTC)[reply]
Thanks will post an e-mail in a moment. You guessed right. It is basically a way to populate a database. Somebody (not actually near the mysql database) will create a spreadsheet or csv containing image file names in column 2 and image description (i.e. text) in column 1 (simplified view but it contains the essence). Said person needs to select the "best" image (which is to be entered to the DB) from a large number of images. That's why an image viewer would come in handy. This spreadsheet will then eventually be used to create the database. I don't know anything about VBA macros and only little about Excel at the moment, but hopefully this will improve. Alternatively I am considering to have some directory structure and/or file naming conventions and to create the csv with shell scripts, but I am concerned that this might be more error prone on the user side. bamse (talk) 21:51, 21 September 2012 (UTC)[reply]
I've sent the files; see if they help. --Mr.98 (talk) 22:59, 22 September 2012 (UTC)[reply]

You can easily turn the contents of a cell (or part of the contents) into a hyperlink. The link doesn't have to be to a page hosted on a website. The only thng is that the hyperlink will open in your web browser, not in the speadsheet cell. Alternatively, there is probably a way to do what you want with VBA (depending on your version of Excel), but that would require some programming knowledge. Astronaut (talk) 10:07, 22 September 2012 (UTC)[reply]

There are actually problems with making hyperlinks work in a friendly way with files, if I recall from my own struggles with this. I don't remember the specifics but it didn't work out well. My memory of this is that Excel's hyperlink handling functions are more brittle than you'd expect them to be. --Mr.98 (talk) 22:59, 22 September 2012 (UTC)[reply]
The basics of launching an arbitrary files in VBA for Windows is defining a Windows API call to ShellExecute and then another to fbShellout:
ShellExecute and fbShellout code
The following discussion has been closed. Please do not modify it. 
    'ShellExecute documentation:
    'http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=238245
    'http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/shellcc/platform/shell/reference/functions/shellexecute.asp
    Private Declare Function ShellExecute& Lib "shell32.dll" Alias "ShellExecuteA" _
    (ByVal hwnd As Long, _
    ByVal lpOperation As String, _
    ByVal lpFile As String, _
    ByVal lpParameters As String, _
    ByVal lpDirectory As String, _
    ByVal nShowCmd As Long)
    
    'Error value constants
    Private Const ERROR_SUCCESS = 32&
    Private Const ERROR_NO_ASSOC = 31&
    Private Const ERROR_OUT_OF_MEM = 0&
    Private Const ERROR_FILE_NOT_FOUND = 2&
    Private Const ERROR_PATH_NOT_FOUND = 3&
    Private Const ERROR_BAD_FORMAT = 11&
    
    'ShellExecute display flags
    Public Enum ShowType
    SW_HIDE = 0
    SW_SHOWNORMAL = 1
    SW_SHOWMINIMIZED = 2
    SW_MAXIMIZE = 3
    SW_SHOWNOACTIVATE = 4
    SW_SHOW = 5
    SW_MINIMIZE = 6
    SW_SHOWMINNOACTIVE = 7
    SW_SHOWNA = 8
    SW_RESTORE = 9
    End Enum
    
    'ShellExecute operation flags
    Public Enum ExploreType
    ExecuteExplore = 0
    ExecuteOpen = 1
    ExecutePrint = 2
    ExecuteFind = 3
    End Enum

    Public Function fbShellOut(ByRef lExecute As ExploreType, _
    ByRef szPath As String, _
    ByRef lDisplay As ShowType) As Boolean
    Dim lResp As Long
    Dim lHwnd As Long
    Dim vTask As Variant
    
    
    Dim szAction As String
    'How to execute
    Select Case lExecute
    Case 0
    szAction = "explore"
    Case 1
    szAction = "open"
    Case 2
    szAction = "print"
    Case 3
    szAction = "find"
    End Select
    
    'Find the handle to this excel window
    If Val(Application.Version) >= 10 Then
    lHwnd = Application.hwnd
    Else
    lHwnd = FindWindow("XLMAIN", vbNullString)
    End If
    
    'Try to shell first
    lResp = ShellExecute(lHwnd, _
    szAction & vbNullChar, _
    szPath & vbNullChar, _
    vbNull, vbNull, lDisplay)
    
    
    'We are greater than 32, good to go
    If lResp > ERROR_SUCCESS Then
    
    fbShellOut = True
    
    Else
    
    'Less than 32, figure out which error and return a message
    Select Case lResp
    Case ERROR_NO_ASSOC:
    vTask = Shell("rundll32.exe shell32.dll,OpenAs_RunDLL " _
    & szPath, lDisplay)
    lResp = (vTask <> 0)
    Case ERROR_OUT_OF_MEM:
    MsgBox "Error: Out of Memory/Resources. Couldn't Execute!", 16
    Case ERROR_FILE_NOT_FOUND:
    MsgBox "Error: File not found. Couldn't Execute!", 16
    Case ERROR_PATH_NOT_FOUND:
    MsgBox "Error: Path not found. Couldn't Execute!", 16
    Case ERROR_BAD_FORMAT:
    MsgBox "Error: Bad File Format. Couldn't Execute!", 16
    Case Else
    MsgBox "Error: Unknown. Couldn't Execute!", 16
    End Select
    
    End If
    End Function

    Public Sub ShellWindows(path As String)
        fbShellOut ExecuteOpen, path, SW_SHOWNORMAL
    End Sub
I know, totally fun. To launch a "select a file" dialog box, all you need to do is call filename = Application.GetOpenFilename(), which will populate the filename variable with whatever file is chosen, if one is chosen.
Trickier is making Excel do all this on command — e.g., turning a cell into a button. You do this by putting a function into the ThisWorkbook code:
Double click catching code
The following discussion has been closed. Please do not modify it. 
Private Sub Workbook_SheetBeforeDoubleClick(ByVal Sh As Object, _
ByVal Target As Range, Cancel As Boolean)
Cancel = YourFunctionThatHandlesClicks(Target)
End Sub
This will pass the reference of any cells that are double clicked to your function. Your function then has to figure out whether the cell in question is the one to treat as a button (I did it by having all "button" cells contain a formula, which itself was a function that would tell you if the filename in another cell could be found or not), and then decide what to do with it (in my case, if the filename was valid, it would launch the file in the default program, using the ShellWindows function above; if the filename cell was blank or missing, it would prompt the user to find the file they wanted, and then replace the filename cell with whatever they picked).
Anyway, all totally doable, but kind of a pain in the neck to do from scratch. But I did all this work two years ago for a project, so I had it all ready to go. There is not an easier solution that I could find, spending several days working on this back in 2010. --Mr.98 (talk) 22:59, 22 September 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Google News blanks my search terms out

1) I go to Google, type in a search term and see the results listed.

2) Now I want to know if there's any news about that topic. I pick the News tab, and Google blanks out my search terms.

3) So, either I have to retype them or hit the back button, cut the phrase, then hit the forward button, and paste it.

Is there a way to have Google maintain my search term when I switch to News ? StuRat (talk) 21:45, 21 September 2012 (UTC)[reply]

The behavior you describe happens when you click the "News" tab button at the top of the page. Alternatively, you should press the "News" button that appears to the left-side of the page: this will keep your search term once you switch pages. Hisham1987 (talk) 23:09, 21 September 2012 (UTC)[reply]
Thanks !
Resolved

Which part of the computer governs/instructs the monitor?

Resolved
 – ± Lenoxus (" *** ") 23:00, 21 September 2012 (UTC)[reply]

I'm in a class about hardware, learning all about the various parts of a motherboard. I understand that the CPU performs all (most?) of the calculations. What I'm wondering is this: which part "tells" the computer screen what to display? Or is that the wrng question because it's (somehow) no one part? ± Lenoxus (" *** ") 22:57, 21 September 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Ah, just figured it out myself: video card. ± Lenoxus (" *** ") 23:00, 21 September 2012 (UTC)[reply]
Also note that many PCs have a limited ability to display to the monitor without a graphics card/video card, by using the graphics capability of the motherboard. At the very minimum, this should be able to display enough to allow you to figure out that the video card isn't functional. StuRat (talk) 23:03, 21 September 2012 (UTC)[reply]
You don't even any video output to report non-functional video components. That's what the POST beep codes are for. Mitch Ames (talk) 07:06, 22 September 2012 (UTC)[reply]
And the processor chips have "good" integrated graphics handling nowadays. [5] Moberg (talk) 07:28, 22 September 2012 (UTC)[reply]

September 22

Apple maps

Why are they so wrong? Is there an article here at WK about thsat? OsmanRF34 (talk) 00:07, 22 September 2012 (UTC)[reply]

You talking about iOS 6? :p ¦ Reisio (talk) 00:28, 22 September 2012 (UTC)[reply]
The problem is mentioned at iOS 6#Reception but going into more details may be beyond the scope of a Wikipedia article (this reference desk doesn't have such limitations). 01:05, 22 September 2012 (UTC) — Preceding unsigned comment added by PrimeHunter (talk • contribs)
Apple hasn't said much (yet) but apparently said something about this situation here. Not much help, I'm afraid, and I doubt they'll ever give a full story. Mingmingla (talk) 01:36, 22 September 2012 (UTC)[reply]
It's pretty obvious: they're wrong because they were cobbled together in a hurry and Apple hasn't yet had time to filter out the errors. I could tell you stories about some of the errors I've found in Google Maps too, but Google has now had several years to play whack-a-mole with them. Looie496 (talk) 02:39, 22 September 2012 (UTC)[reply]
I don't know what was technically wrong there, but Looie is very probably right. They couldn't delay the release iOS 6 due to the maps, and the maps were obviously not ready. And there is also the fact that Steve Jobs, a notorious control freak, was not there anymore. Ptg93 (talk) 19:15, 22 September 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Spotty East Asian Character Support

All my East Asian characters display fine on webpages and most programs, but are rectangles on mouseover tooltips and certain programs like iTunes. This is mainly irritating when I'm reading an article and I'm mousing over links for their destinations, and half of them (When I'm on the relevant language's Wiki) are unreadable.

I've tried uninstalling and reinstalling my language packs. Again, the text displays fine on webpages and most other places, but doesn't in a few other places. Help? 24.59.187.117 (talk) 04:29, 22 September 2012 (UTC)[reply]

I can't address the specific issue, but I can tell you that when characters show up as rectangles, what it means is that the font being used there does not contain a rendering of that character. Ergo, the things that are showing rectangles are using a different font than your web browser uses in most places. The challenge, of course is to figure out how to change the font for the things that are problematic. Since you neglected to mention what web browser you use or what operating system you are running, it's impossible to be any more specific. Looie496 (talk) 05:33, 22 September 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Wi-Fi Connection

How can I make my windows 7 PC WI-FI enabled? Should I install a software or fix a hardware or both? Thank you.175.157.136.78 (talk) 09:07, 22 September 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Both. You will need hardware to send and receive Wi-Fi signals, and a software driver to run the hardware. Of course, you also need to be in a Wi-Fi hotspot to use it. StuRat (talk) 09:17, 22 September 2012 (UTC)[reply]
If it is a laptop (or netbook etc), it will have a WiFi card built-in, and should have the device driver for it pre loaded into Windows. For a desktop machine, you can either get a PCIe internal card, or a USB external card. USB is easier to install, and if its on a USB extension cable, can be moved to find the strongest signal.
Both should come with a CD containing the drivers, and instructions on how to install the card and drivers. Normally you insert the card into the the computer; Windows will detect the card, and ask for a driver, you then insert the CD, and the rest is automatic. BTW, Windows itself knows how to join a WiFi network, but it doesn't know how to talk to newer (or obscure) network cards. CS Miller (talk) 17:50, 22 September 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Setting the clock in linux

Why does Linux ask you for your admin password to set the clock? Why is it unsafe to leave it unprotected? OsmanRF34 (talk) 13:21, 22 September 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Allowing processes to freely manipulate the clock can lead to security issues, as various encryption and authentication protocols rely on an accurate clock. Setting it backwards may allow eg a replay attack or an expired certificate (which may have been compromised, but noone might bother to revoke expired certificates) to be reenabled, or may complicate logfile analysis after an incident (where you may need to analyze the logfiles of several separate machines to establish the order in which break-in events happened) Unilynx (talk) 13:42, 22 September 2012 (UTC)[reply]
Linux is a UNIX, and as such a multi-user system. Allowing each and every user to change the clock would not only lead security problems, it also can lead to other errors, from incomplete software builds (since make relies on time stamps), missed cron jobs, missed dates and meetings (since users may rely on the system clock) to over-steeped tea (I use a small script to time my tea ;-). --Stephan Schulz (talk) 14:03, 22 September 2012 (UTC)[reply]
You can however change the timezone for your applications without being root by setting the 'TZ' environment variable, which might solve some of the cases where you would want to change the time as a non-root user. Unilynx (talk) 14:14, 22 September 2012 (UTC)[reply]
Not to mention missing dates. ¦ Reisio (talk) 22:23, 22 September 2012 (UTC)[reply]

How may I externally choke the bit rate on streaming web-TV?

I use Windows7 and InternetExplorer or Firefox.
When I watch streaming video, The TV-channel web site automatically chooses the best possible bitrate out of 1000 kbps, 600 kbps or 300 kbps.
Even though my mobile broadband modem fully supports the top speed, sadly I have a far to tight quota on allowed data transfer per month. ;-(
Strangely there is no longer any "settings" page on the website in question (http://tv.nrk.no (the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation)).
Is there some way that I may externally choke down the streaming video bit rate to, and preferably toggle between, 600 and 300 kbps?
-- 89.9.197.199 (talk) 14:13, 22 September 2012 (UTC)[reply]

What you're talking about is traffic shaping (specifically the "bandwidth limiting" kind, rather than just the "bandwidth prioritisation" kind, which really should be called QoS). This can be implemented in the router (if you have a better-than-basic router like a Cisco, Draytek, Billion, etc., or if you have a better-than the-rubbish-they-ship router firmware like Tomato) or by software on your PC. I've no personal experience of doing it the latter way, but people seem to hold NetLimiter in reasonable regard (that article also links to a couple of similar products). -- Finlay McWalterჷTalk 16:06, 22 September 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Desktop recording programs

Are there any other desktop recording programs other then Fraps? For some reason Fraps does not work on my laptop very well and I want to know if there are others with sufficient quality 72.235.221.120 (talk) 20:27, 22 September 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Look at the "Comparison by features" table in Comparison of screencasting software - all those with "yes" for OpenGL and DirectX capture are broadly comparable to Fraps. -- Finlay McWalterჷTalk 20:37, 22 September 2012 (UTC)[reply]

September 23

about files in c

i am not able to below lines "data is stored as lines of characters with each line terminated by \n which may be translated into carriage return +line feed" my doubts: 1)what is the meaning of carriage return what is the meaning of line feed? — Preceding unsigned comment added by Phanihup (talk • contribs) 01:09, 23 September 2012 (UTC)[reply]

See carriage return and line feed. So, together they mean you go to the beginning of the next line in the file. StuRat (talk) 01:10, 23 September 2012 (UTC)[reply]
Note that the line ending conventions vary based on operating system. The carriage return+line feed convention is used in Windows, but Unix-based systems (including Linux and Mac OS X) just use line feed (with an implicit "return to the first part of the line when you advance a line"), and Mac OSs prior to OS X used just a carriage return (with an implicit "advance a line with the return"). Other systems may have their own conventions for ending a line of text, which may not involve a carriage return or line feed at all. (Though as I understand the C standard, they would still be represented by '\n' in C strings on those systems.) -- 71.35.101.136 (talk) 19:05, 23 September 2012 (UTC)[reply]
"\n" is translated to and from whatever the end-of-line convention on any given system is by the standard C library stream functions only (those working on FILE* streams. This translation does not happen in strings, and does not, e.g., affect low-level read() and write() calls. The strlen of "a\n" is always two, even if printf("a\n") sends 3 characters to the terminal. --Stephan Schulz (talk) 20:38, 23 September 2012 (UTC)[reply]
That's not entirely correct. It depends on how the file is opened. If a file is opened in text mode, fopen("foo.txt", "wt"), \n will be translated to \r\n when writing. If it is opened in binary mode, fopen("foo.txt", "wb"), translation does not take place. The same holds true for reading files, \r\n is translated to \n when reading files opened in text mode, fopen("foo.txt", "rt"). Each character is returned if the file is opened in binary mode, fopen("foo.txt", "rb"). See [6]. --NorwegianBlue talk 21:19, 23 September 2012 (UTC)[reply]
Well, on UNIX and Linux there is no distinction between a binary and a text file. All files are opened as binary files (i.e fopen("foo", "wb") is equivalent to fopen("foo", "w")) [POSIX fopen()] Ebaychatter0 (talk) 00:54, 24 September 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Polymorphism

hi ! polymorphism means one message peforms different operations on the object which it receives. then " what is the benefit of polymorphism in c++?"?why polymorphism? suppose you consider function overloading. what is the benefit of using same function for different purposes? can you explain clearly? — Preceding unsigned comment added by Phanihup (talk • contribs) 01:19, 23 September 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Well, often that just means the same function on different data types. For example, you could have a square root function for short integers, one for long integers, one for real numbers, one for double length real numbers, etc. StuRat (talk) 01:31, 23 September 2012 (UTC)[reply]
It's even more common for a ToString() function. Converting a number to a string could be a completely different operation to converting a colour to a string, but ToString(int) and ToString(colour) could both work with polymorphism.--Phil Holmes (talk) 09:37, 23 September 2012 (UTC)[reply]
See: Polymorphism (computer science) and Polymorphism in object-oriented programming. Mitch Ames (talk) 14:15, 24 September 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Guest account on private wiki

I have recently created a private wiki to be used in a collaborative project, and need to add a guest account, i.e. an account with read-only access to the wiki. I am using mediawiki-1.16.1 on a hosted Linux server. The installer created the following lines in LocalSettings.php: 

# The following permissions were set based on your choice in the installer
$wgGroupPermissions['*']['createaccount'] = false;
$wgGroupPermissions['*']['edit'] = false;
$wgGroupPermissions['*']['read'] = false;

I tried adding, below that, 

$wgGroupPermissions['Gjest']['read'] = 'true';

and created a user 'Gjest', but the 'Gjest' user received normal editing privileges. I'd be grateful if someone could advise me about how to add a guest account to the wiki. --NorwegianBlue talk 08:57, 23 September 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Solved it, sort of, by adding the following at the end of LocalSettings.php:
  $wgGroupPermissions['user']['createaccount'] = false;
  $wgGroupPermissions['user']['edit'] = false;
  $wgGroupPermissions['sysop']['createaccount'] = true;
  $wgGroupPermissions['sysop']['edit'] = true;
i.e. normal user accounts lose editing rights, and serve as guest accounts. To edit the wiki, you need to be an administrator. I'm sure there's a better way, but for this small project, this solves the problem. --NorwegianBlue talk 14:18, 23 September 2012 (UTC)[reply]
You might have better luck with this question at mw:Project:Support desk. 69.228.171.70 (talk) 18:57, 24 September 2012 (UTC)[reply]

How to enable turn-by-turn navigation with voice on iOS 6 running on iPad 3?

I can't figure it out. Write English in Cyrillic (talk) 10:13, 23 September 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Is Siri enabled? Moondyne (talk) 14:23, 23 September 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Game name wanted

Hi all, maybe you can help... i'm searching for a mini-game in which one has to operate a rotary telephone in order to correctly set a series of strowger switches. Anyone has an idea how the game is called? thanks,85.181.73.55 (talk) 19:17, 23 September 2012 (UTC)[reply]

You might have more luck at the Entertainment desk, which lists video games among the topics covered.—Odysseus1479 (talk) 03:49, 24 September 2012 (UTC)[reply]

August sales charts showed that 90% of newly sold smartphones in Spain are using Android OS and only 2.9% (compared to 35.2% in US) are made on iOS. What are the social reasons for it? Do Spanish people, eh, think different? (pun intended)

Here's link with charts: http://tctechcrunch2011.files.wordpress.com/2012/09/screen-shot-2012-09-03-at-12-20-48.png?w=640&h=555

213.87.131.50 (talk) 19:17, 23 September 2012 (UTC)[reply]

The recession, which is hitting young people (the chief consumer group) especially hard, may have something to do with it. Android phones tend to be cheaper. And it may, of course also have something to do with Android phones actually being superior, and the economic situation is making more people realize... --NorwegianBlue talk 20:19, 23 September 2012 (UTC)[reply]
Android based phones surpassed iPhones in (worldwide) market share some time ago. As NorwegianBlue stated, principally, they are cheaper, much cheaper (as is the case with most non-Apple products). ¦ Reisio (talk) 21:46, 23 September 2012 (UTC)[reply]
But that wouldn't necessarily single Spain out so distinctly from the other countries listed — they're pretty significantly lower there. I wonder if there isn't a difference in what kind of plans they have on offer, too. --Mr.98 (talk) 00:26, 24 September 2012 (UTC)[reply]
If the question is what accounts for the difference of 14.6 between Spain and the next one down, Germany, I dare say that could be a tough question to answer perfectly. Maybe Apple spends less on Spain (due to historical reasons / projections of potential earnings), or maybe they do just think that differently (only a decent poll could confirm this). As for Spain vs the US, I would say Apple being based in the US covers the difference nicely. ¦ Reisio (talk) 00:41, 24 September 2012 (UTC)[reply]
Well, we can all speculate — there are near infinite possibilities in a vacuum of data. Presumably the OP was interested in more than just empty speculation. Things like advertising paid for, plan availability, total numbers sold (are the percentages masking radically different base numbers?), age demographics, and so on, could be possible sources of difference. --Mr.98 (talk) 02:13, 24 September 2012 (UTC)[reply]
Mmm, presumably. ¦ Reisio (talk) 02:20, 24 September 2012 (UTC)[reply]
The OP is apparently from Russia so they probably don't need this but it's perhaps helpful for Americans reading this thread. Phone subsidies are a far less important then they are in US in a lot of the world (0particularly in Asia). In Europe it depends on the country, in some of them they are somewhat common but even then they tend to be less restrictive (i.e. your less likely to need to go with carrier A to get phone X and carrier B to get phone Y because the carrier is subsidising the end user not the developer as seems to happen in the US) and I don't believe they are as important as the US. To put things a different way, the unsubsidised price of the phone generally has a far closer connection to the overall price you pay even if you do get your phone subsidised, then it seems to in the US. People from the US frequently seem to talk about the iPhone being $99 or $199 and a price above $199 being seen as a major barrier to a new phone, which just seems strange to some of us when to get that price you're often signing up for a contract meaning you have to spent at least a couple of thousand and often a fair amount more over the next 2 years. [7] [8] (The first source mentions Spain, in particular it suggests the high tariffs needed for the subsidies caused a dropped in revenue because people turned to using Skype and other VOIP solutions.) According to [9] [10] [11] earlier this year or last year, Spain's two largest carriers dropped subsidies completely because of the high cost to them and the fact they didn't seem to benefit them much (they have very high churn) although the last one does suggest the subsidies pushed people to smart phone from feature phones.
Prepay is also a more important part of the market, again not as much as in Asia, but far more significant then the US. E.g. [12] mentions the growth of prepay in the US, but it's still only ~25% whereas [13] mentions the growth of contracts in Europe including Spain; and while no overall figure is provided for Spain, one operator is mentioned whose figure is 51% contracts in 2010.
The graph here for 5 major European countries and Australia [14] is interesting, it shows Android has quite significant dominance in Germany and Spain, in Germany the iPhone is the only other one to have any impact. In all countries bar Italy, Android is growing in relative terms (not unusual of course), in fact the only real one growing, with clear overall declines for iOS. Overall, smartphone penetration in (Western?) Europe is fairly high and Spain has one of the highests penetrations of the big 5 [15] [16], so I don't think the pure numbers are that radically different.
At a guess from these sources one of the factors, is the nature of the smart phone growth in Spain which seems to have been pushed at least partially by the now dead subsidies. But unlike in the US where this seems to have pushed a relatively expensive phone with expensive plans helped somewhat by the nature of subsidies there, in Spain it's pushed cheaper phones with cheaper plans. The non subsidised portion of the market is of course quite sensitive to the actual price of the phone. BTW, speaking of prices, while I don't know for sure if this applies to Europe or Spain in particular, sources like [17] suggest to me it does. With Android, while there are the phones specifically targetted at the mid range and high mid range, last years models often end up coming to this level. While Apple does sell their older iPhones cheaper, they usually seem fairly expensive compared to older Android phones. In other words, while Apple may be fairly competitive at the high end with their new models, they only really compete lower down on the strength of their brand, interface, app availability, OS updates, etc and even then still expensive enough there is a major portion of the market they can't touch. This [18] is also interesting. While it's commonly claimed iPhone users spend much more then Android ones that source claims Android users actually used more data (iPhone did use more apps), I'm somewhat sceptical of the source since it doesn't even say what country it's referring to and the stupid graphical nature of the source but if true it's an interesting point since carriers obviously don't make money directly from apps except from some carriers still trying the old failed model, whereas they do make money directly from data usage.
Nil Einne (talk) 06:12, 24 September 2012 (UTC)[reply]
Thanks for digging up some interesting data and bringing more to the conversation than empty guessing! You get the "We're Not Yahoo! Answers" award of the day. --Mr.98 (talk) 14:50, 24 September 2012 (UTC)[reply]
Yes, thanks for not being mediocre like me, Nil. ¦ Reisio (talk) 16:54, 24 September 2012 (UTC)[reply]

September 24

Google book text

I can't view text using Firefox, but can with Chrome. Is this due to some setting or is it part of Google's plans for world domination. Clarityfiend (talk) 07:43, 24 September 2012 (UTC)[reply]

I viewed text in books on Google books using Firefox 5 seconds ago. Without knowing anything about what specifically you mean by 'I can't view text using Firefox', there's no real way we can say what your specific problem is although the later is unlikely. Nil Einne (talk) 09:08, 24 September 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Reports of similar issues on various support websites suggest it is a problem with javascript not being interpreted properly. The solution seems to be to create a new profile in Firefox AvrillirvA (talk) 10:45, 24 September 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Sending large data files

I have huge files that I want to send over but gmail caps attachments at 25 MB. I try to compress it by using Winrar but it's still 2 gigs. What's the easiest way for me to transfer the files? (Assume very low computer literacy on my part.) Thanks reference desk. Globalistcontributor (talk) 15:24, 24 September 2012 (UTC)[reply]

You'll probably have to upload it to some site intended for purposes like this. A (rather old, but still relevant) Guardian article that discusses this is here. -- Finlay McWalterჷTalk 15:30, 24 September 2012 (UTC)[reply]
We have a list of such services at Category:Email attachment replacements. Most of these are intended for people without a high level of technical knowledge, so they should be fairly straightforward to use. -- Finlay McWalterჷTalk 15:33, 24 September 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Mediafire. You would need to split the archive into 195MB parts as Mediafire has a 200MB per file limit (195MB to be on the safe side). WinRAR has this option under the "Split to volumes" section of the compression dialogue box. Type 195 into the box and change "B" to "MB". It will output ~11 parts which can then be uploaded to Mediafire, then downloaded and recombined with WinRARat at the other end AvrillirvA (talk) 15:40, 24 September 2012 (UTC)[reply]

  • Well, it really depends on where you want to send it. If the target site supports FTP it can be done directly -- or if you have two Windows machines and you can enable file sharing. Looie496 (talk) 15:55, 24 September 2012 (UTC)[reply]
    • Second Looie496's advice . If you need to send large files then its best to use the right tools for the job. FTP is well worth becoming familiar with. As you're a self proclaimed low computer literacy user there is no point in me saying how easy it is to do on linux. However, there must be by now some windows guide-lines to using FTP client servers. Discus this with the person or organisation your downloading from. After all, their offering these big files and so some of their target audience must experience the same of the same problems you encounter. They may be able to offer step by step advice (like, can we stick it on a DVD and post it to you - a god send for some).--Aspro (talk) 16:14, 24 September 2012 (UTC)[reply]
I would use a cloud storage site that lets you share folders with other people: Google Drive lets you send files up to 5GB in size for free. DropBox does up to 2GB for free. SkyDrive is 7GB. They are all very easy to use -- install software, copy attachment to special "sharing" folder, use interface to share the folder with someone else. --Mr.98 (talk) 17:37, 24 September 2012 (UTC)[reply]
A very simple option is also to put the file on a USB stick and send it via sneakernet. --Stephan Schulz (talk) 18:06, 24 September 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Fixing history errors in svn repository

Is there a way to fix history errors in SVN? I am in the process changing source control system from RCS to SVN. The process involves using a shell script to build a temporary file containing a list of all the changes made under RCS, and another shell script that checks out each version from RCS and adds it to SVN, and thereby keeping the RCS revision history. The process has been largely successful and over 30,000 revisions have be moved to SVN. Unfortunately, a few revisions have been skipped due to various minor errors such as SVN reporting that it could not be checked in for some reason. So for example, file xyz.c had revisions 1.1, 1.2, 1.3 and 1.4 under RCS but under SVN the check in of 1.2 failed and the script simply continued with revision 1.3. That resulted in the SVN history combining revisions 1.2 and 1.3 into a single change. Is there a way to now insert revision 1.2 in its correct place in the history, without deleting the SVN repository and starting again (the process is pretty darn slow so I would really prefer not to have to start all over again). Astronaut (talk) 17:41, 24 September 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Somebody else may be able to give you a better answer, but my opinion is that you're getting into some deep voodoo here. You can try to read the relevant chapter of the SVN book (http://www.visualsvn.com/support/svnbook/reposadmin/), but it probably won't help. SVN is built around a Berkeley DB, and trying to make low-level changes to a database is generally best avoided unless it is absolutely necessary. Looie496 (talk) 18:43, 24 September 2012 (UTC)[reply]
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/enwiki/w/index.php?title=Wikipedia:Reference_desk/Computing&oldid=514368087"