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January 19

Keyboard (wired)

I can't find the wired version of the following two keyboards for purchase, Microsoft Sculpt Ergonomic Desktop and Surface Ergonomic Keyboard, could someone help me please? Also, what is the difference between a 'normal' and a 'business' keyboard? 103.230.107.19 (talk) 07:10, 19 January 2017 (UTC)[reply]

The Microsoft keyboard is not produced in wired form. It is only wireless now. Finding out-of-production items is always going to be difficult. 209.149.113.5 (talk) 13:18, 19 January 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Computer keyboards (see article) come in a number of varieties and prices. For business use, one may look for wireless rather than USB connection (to reduce cable clutter), mechanical rather than membrane keyswitches (if the audible feedback is preferred for prolonged typing) and the presence of a dedicated 10-key pad for number entry, for example in spreadsheets. Blooteuth (talk) 14:09, 19 January 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Since ebay began, finding out-of-production items has become far simpler. StuRat (talk) 14:41, 19 January 2017 (UTC) [reply]

Triumph-Adler Alphatronic P1/P2

Greetings,

I am trying to write an article about the microcomputer Triumph-Adler Alphatronic P1/P2 using its tecnical and user manuals, and with the computer itself. As it proved a long time ago, they provide insuficient information to write the article with quality, as I don't have some data.

I would need sources which could tell me when its production was finished (retirement), how many where built (in general; per variation could be also great) and sold, and at what countries did they arrive really.

Thank you very much,

Buran Biggest Fan (talk) 15:56, 19 January 2017 (UTC)[reply]

If you failed to find authoritative sources for that, it is likely that the subject is not notable enough to even bother with writing the article. Tigraan^{Click here to contact me} 17:26, 19 January 2017 (UTC)[reply]
There appears to be several german language sources here which may be helpful. --Jayron 32 17:43, 19 January 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Scanning these sources into page 4 or so of search results, there's plenty of technical information about all aspects of the machine and its software, but none of the generalized business info you desire. Sorry :( You might consider asking Triumph-Adler directly; these kinds of figures strike me as uncontroversial and the kind of information that is fine to ref to primary sources, and the company would very likely be happy to provide historical information. --Elmidae (talk · contribs) 18:34, 19 January 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Microsoft Natural Ergonomic Keyboard 4000 UK layout (wired)

Require link(s) to buy from U.S.A. Paying with "$" via 'card'. This is the UK querty model no: "B2M-00008" and this is the USA querty model no: "B2M-00012". 103.230.104.30 (talk) 07:33, 20 January 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Mouse (wired)

Looking for a mouse that will satisfy me and my wrist. Current possession; I use it heavily, doesn't satisfy my wrist so, give me something good please! 103.230.105.5 (talk) 19:13, 19 January 2017 (UTC)[reply]

How is anyone supposed to guess at how you hold your mouse? Have you tried simply NOT pressing your wrist down? Wrist problems didn't exist for the years and years that typewriters were used. Typists were trained to keep their wrists off the desk. If your wrist ever touches the desk when typing or using the mouse, you are doing it wrong. 209.149.113.5 (talk) 19:19, 19 January 2017 (UTC)[reply]

^{[citation needed]}, specifically for sentences 3 and 5. SemanticMantis (talk) 19:54, 19 January 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Have you tried an alternative pointer device like a trackball? --Jayron 32 19:34, 19 January 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Here [1] is a UK store that specializes in ergonomic computer peripherals. The vertical mouse seems to be a popular alternative. SemanticMantis (talk) 19:56, 19 January 2017 (UTC)[reply]

I use a mouse for at least 8 hours most days of the week and have had wrist "issues" in the past, I use a silicon wrist rest (the kind attached to a mouse mat) and find it helps. Vespine (talk) 22:33, 19 January 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Wired mouses are brutal to your hand; the wire is resisting every movement. I had nasty carpal tunnel sorts of issues until I switched to a wireless mouse and wireless keyboard, which allowed me to constantly change my position. --jpgordon^{𝄢𝄆 𝄐𝄇} 16:39, 20 January 2017 (UTC)[reply]

The company Anker Technology or short Anker has a history of offering budget (cheap) mice of excellent design quality. The "Anker® 8200" for example is a famous "gamer mouse" often refered to as "insider" or "pro" choice because the brand name is practically unknown compared to "Logitec" or "Razer". --Kharon (talk) 07:43, 23 January 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Wired mouses are brutal to your hand; citation needed. That seems ridiculous to me, I use wired and wireless mice and I very much doubt the wire provides any meaningful "resistance" if it's kept relatively loose. I use very high sensitivity so my mouse movements are rarely more than a couple of inches, I can easily nudge the mouse to slide that far across the table and the cable really does nothing. Vespine (talk) 22:12, 23 January 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Kill Saddam Hussien Windows 3.1 game

I'm looking for an old free/shareware video game that was made for Windows 3.1 that involved multiple Saddam Hussiens running across the screen with a shopping cart full of weapons and you had to try and click on them. If you successfully clicked one a rocket would fly across the screen and kill him. The game was NOT a DOS game, it was a Windows 3.1 game. The Windows 3.1 desktop and program manager remained visible while the game played with the Saddam Hussiens running around in front of it in a similar way to how "screenmates" such as BonziBuddy worked. My searches have found several DOS games about killing Saddam Hussien but these are NOT what I am looking for. The game was a Windows-only game played from within Windows. If you can give me any information about it, or better yet a link to it, that would be great. Thank you for your time. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 131.72.7.18 (talk) 19:58, 19 January 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Muslim Massacre ? although it's not a Windows 3.1 game - I very much doubt there was one. Wasn't Saddam considered a good guy in the early 1990s? --TrogWoolley (talk) 10:17, 20 January 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Desert storm was in the early 90s. Bush took the military right up to Hussien's front door, rang the doorbell, and ran away (I know - it seemed pointless back then also). He wasn't considered a good guy. 209.149.113.5 (talk) 14:04, 20 January 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Actually it was a well thought-out plan. Bush Sr., unlike his son, was pretty smart. He knew that removing Saddam from power would create all sorts of problems, like eliminating the check on Iran, and potentially leaving Iraq in chaos, and this is exactly what happened, with ISIS resulting, after Saddam was removed. So, just freeing Kuwait and weakening the Iraqi military was the perfect solution. StuRat (talk) 03:14, 21 January 2017 (UTC)[reply]

This? 2A00:6D40:60:6D69:0:0:0:1 (talk) 00:16, 22 January 2017 (UTC)[reply]

January 20

Tweaking a font

I would like to make some tweaks to an (open-source) font that I like. I want to change the weight of the bold glyphs and the slant angle of the italic glyphs. Is there an easy way to modify those two aspects consistently for all the glyphs in a font? --134.242.92.97 (talk) 20:52, 20 January 2017 (UTC)[reply]

For a pixel-based font, somehow I doubt it, as doing those things might close up interior spaces in some characters, and you would need to manually fix those by changing them pixel by pixel. You might also run off the edge of the bitmap in some cases, and need to adjust for that. StuRat (talk) 03:09, 21 January 2017 (UTC)[reply]

It depends on the font format. If it's Metafont, it should be relatively easy, as that format was designed to make those changes easy. But few people know all the details of Metafont, and I'm not one of them. The format is rarely used directly nowadays, but often automatically converted to more common formats. In other formats, changing the slant angle of an italic font may be doable, but is unlikely to give very good results without manual tweaking.

Note that things like Arial-bold, Times-roman, Times-italic and Computer-modern-bold-italic-10pt are properly called fonts, things like Helvetica, Times New Roman and Computer Modern are called font families. Metafont actually describes font families; by choosing the right values for parameters like stroke width and slant angle it can generate multiple fonts. PiusImpavidus (talk) 12:48, 21 January 2017 (UTC)[reply]

For the common outline formats, this sort of thing should be easy in FontForge, a free font editor. —Tamfang (talk) 07:48, 22 January 2017 (UTC)[reply]

January 21

Class rule injection with JavaScript

How do you inject a stylesheet rule onto the page to create a class?

(I'd like to toggle the display property of the class, but the class needs to be defined first).

Since I don't have access to the sytle sheet, I'd like to do it right on the page (in the HTML). The Transhumanist 02:40, 21 January 2017 (UTC)[reply]

A search for "dynamic CSS javascript" seems to yield some promising results, including the article Dynamic style - manipulating CSS with JavaScript. -- Tom N talk/contrib 08:11, 21 January 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Thank you. That document covers stylesheet access and manipulation. What I need to do is inject stylesheet rules directly into the html of a page after it has been loaded into the browser. Locally, without access to the stylesheet server-side. The Transhumanist 11:07, 21 January 2017 (UTC)[reply]

A new stylesheet can be inserted using document.body.appendchild() or document.head.appendchild(). (The reference suggests the former, but the latter seems more appropriate to me. Both appear tohave the same results.) Here's a working example:

<html>
	<head>
		<title>Dynamic CSS example</title>
		<script>
			var colors = ["Red", "Green", "Blue"];
			var sequence = 0;

			function demo()
			{
				var newClassName = "newClass_" + sequence;
				var newColor = colors[sequence % colors.length];
				++sequence;

				var sheet = document.createElement('style');
				sheet.innerHTML = "." + newClassName + " { color:" + newColor + "; }";
				document.head.appendChild(sheet);
				
				document.getElementById("sampleText").className = newClassName;
				document.getElementById("sampleText").innerText = newClassName + " is " + newColor;
			}
		</script>
	</head>
	<body>
		<button type="button" onclick="demo()">Click Me!</button>
		<div id="sampleText">Sample text</div>
	</body>
</html>

-- Tom N talk/contrib 18:25, 21 January 2017 (UTC)[reply]

software project Euler

What software does the project Euler (at projecteuler.net) use? Is there some package that can provide an equivalent functionality? Like user accounts, keep track of progress, check for answers and so on. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 31.4.146.76 (talk) 23:08, 21 January 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Unfortunately, the references in our article (Project Euler) aren't helpful, since they are essentially primary sources from the website. --2606:A000:4C0C:E200:8C1C:681F:58B9:E020 (talk) 00:14, 23 January 2017 (UTC)[reply]

The source code is very clean. It is highly likely that much of the back-end code was written just for the site. When packages are used (such as Wordpress), the source code tends to become very convoluted. 209.149.113.5 (talk) 18:57, 23 January 2017 (UTC)[reply]

January 22

probability substitution tables

The Art of Computer Programming §3.4.1.A (vol.2 pp 120-121 in the third edition) shows a clever way to generate a random number from an arbitrary discrete distribution, with one call to the random number generator. If the number of possible results has n bits, you take the top n bits of the RNG's output as a tentative answer, and compare the lower bits to a table entry to decide whether to return that result or a different one. I amused myself by generating a table for the three highest of four dice with a 16bit RNG. (For simplicity of exposition, these dice are marked 0–5 rather than 1–6.)

x	0	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15
criterion	4045	3894	3590	3034	2174	961	203	100	0	50	405	0	505	708	1365	3035
substitute	10	9	11	12	7	10	8	8	(8)	8	11	(11)	9	6	13	8

y = random16bits()
x = (y>>12) & 0xf
if y & 0xfff ≥ criterion[x]:
    return x
else:
    return substitute[x]

The probability of returning 10 is (4045+961+(4096-405)) in 2^16. I hope that's tolerably clear. (Knuth's version, arguably more natural to the eye, has < rather than ≥, with the values of criterion accordingly inverted; my way, the generation of the table is more natural.)

My question is about generating the table.

Initially criterion[j] is 2^12 minus 2^16 times the desired probability; for unlikely results this is positive, for the most likely results it is negative.

x	0	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15
initial criterion	4045	3894	3590	3034	2174	961	-505	-2074	-3388	-4349	-4601	-3995	-2529	-657	1365	3035

I used a greedy algorithm: let j be the index of the highest number in criterion and k that of the lowest; set substitute[j]=k and criterion[k] += criterion[j]; repeat, excluding j from further consideration.

For speed, we want to minimize the likelihood of looking at substitute; thus, minimize the sum of criterion. The greedy algo works pretty well, but I suspect it can be bettered. Ideas? —Tamfang (talk) 08:33, 22 January 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Here's an improvement: while there exist j,k such that criterion[k] < 0 ≤ criterion[j]+criterion[k], choose the pair with the smallest nonnegative sum. This reduces sum(criterion) by 759 in the example:

x	0	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15
criterion	4045	3894	3590	3034	2174	961	0	100	202	51	0	50	505	304	1365	3035
substitute	11	10	8	12	7	13	(6)	10	10	10	(10)	10	6	10	9	9

—Tamfang (talk) 19:50, 22 January 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Need help with OpenOffice!

Okay, I think what I'm trying to do is to create a template in OpenOffice 3.0 (Writer). Or maybe what I'm trying to do is called a master page. Or a vastly other outlandish name. See, the official documentation and googling has me so confused already that I don't even know what this thing I want is called. When I'm looking at the official documentation and what it says about templates, it mainly looks like an invitation to overwrite existing templates from the word go. And when I'm googling for how-tos on OpenOffice templates on the web, they seem to be occupied with way other things than what I wanna do, as they're mainly about tables, paragraphs, and square borders on a page.

Okay, so what I've done is set my page to a specific size in width and heigth, to achieve dimensions that were nowhere in the available page templates. Here's my main goal: How do I save this new page size (into a template?) so it will be available via Format --> Page..., and then under the header Page, to be one template option next to A4, Legal, Letter and other such templates? Of secondary interest would be stuff like default font and default font size for this page template, and maybe also default paragraph/indent/tab (Absatz, where I can define that every paragraph's first line is indented by 0.30cm). --2003:71:4E6A:B447:D574:717B:EA24:352A (talk) 19:12, 22 January 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Hm, okay, googled again, this time with create "page size" template OpenOffice rather than just create "page template" OpenOffice, and it seems the solution is to set all the parameters (page dimensions, font, font size, and indent), with no text or anything whatsoever on the page yet, and then go File Templates --> Save. In the open window, add your new template's name and hit OK. That's how your new page template is created. To open it from now on, you go File --> New --> Templates and Documents, and there it is, ready for you to open, complete with all the parameters. The official documentation said nothing of the sort, they only told me to do F11 to open a way different template window where I can never be sure what I'm saving and where most stuff you can do looks like overwriting existing templates, as there's no way to select parameters or set a template name. And the most online tutorials in relation to OO templates were only about tables, paragraphs, and drawing borders on your page. --2003:71:4E6A:B422:D574:717B:EA24:352A (talk) 20:39, 22 January 2017 (UTC)[reply]

January 23

Wipe harddrive except for OS?

I have an HP Pavilion DV6 with Win7 that I'm trying to sell. I don't have a windows disc. I've googled everything - this doesn't work in my situation. I've been monkeying with the F11 thing for several hours to no avail. I don't think this laptop has a restore to factory default function. There are no restore points. So far I've just uninstalled and shift+deleted everything on the laptop, so it seems maybe good to sell but I know there's still a bunch of my personal stuff lingering.

Is there a program that just wipes every single thing except the OS? The thing's hardly worth anything anyway, if I can't completely wipe it I'll probably just use it as kindling once bonfire season comes around. NIRVANA2764 (talk) 17:44, 23 January 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Without the OS disk that came with the laptop or a restoration partition, you'd have to wipe the entire hard drive and re-install Windows. This would also be the safest option for protecting your personal data. A program like DBAN will securely wipe the disk. As for re-installing Windows, if your laptop has a Windows product key sticker somewhere on it, you can download a corresponding Windows installation disk for that version (Home Premium, Ultimate, etc.) and use the product key to activate it. (Edit: you can also find the product key for the current installation of Windows using certain programs, such as Magical Jelly Bean Keyfinder.) See here for more on how to find and download a Windows 7 disk image, which you can then burn to a DVD. clpo13_(talk) 18:01, 23 January 2017 (UTC)[reply]

If you have a valid Windows 7 product key: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows7

If you don't have a valid Windows 7 product key: https://www.ubuntu.com/download/desktop

--Guy Macon (talk) 18:08, 23 January 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Before you do ANY of the above, check if your computer has a recovery partition. A lot of laptops since xp / win7 days include a recovery partition which can reinstall the OS to the factory state. First thing I would try is try tapping "F" key used for "Recovery" immediate after turning the computer on. If this works, you're done. Just make sure you have any data you want to keep copied off the laptop. If it doesn't work, I can't find a good tutorial from HP it self but there's a few threads in the HP support forums which might be able to help. reset pavilion dv6 to factory state and recover from partition. Vespine (talk) 22:08, 23 January 2017 (UTC)[reply]

This may sound like overkill, but I'll post it anyway. You're going to sell a laptop to somebody you don't know. So you can't trust the next owner of the laptop. Therefore, you should securely wipe the hard drive. Simply deleting all files is not enough, but a tool like DBAN can do the job. At the same time, the next owner of the laptop can't trust you. After all, you're not a reputable computer salesman. You could have installed your own malware, unknown to the malware scanners. The logical result is that both you and the buyer should wipe the hard drive. You could deliver a Windows install dvd along with the laptop, but the new owner shouldn't trust that either. And maybe he doesn't want Windows at all; it only has 90% market share. PiusImpavidus (talk) 10:15, 24 January 2017 (UTC)[reply]

January 24

Font descenders cut off

I have a font which has its descenders cut off in font viewer (Windows), Word etc.: [2] But the descenders are definitely there because in Inkscape they show up. And the font doesn't appear in Photoshop at all. ANy suggestions? Amisom (talk) 00:12, 24 January 2017 (UTC)[reply]

I've seen descenders cut off in Word before. In that case, the line spacing was manually set too small relative to the font and the font size. Maybe you can do this as an experiment -- increase the line spacing by a large amount and see if the descenders are still cut off. If they aren't, then line spacing is part of the problem. --100.34.204.4 (talk) 13:42, 24 January 2017 (UTC)[reply]

HP 6830s Windows 7 Corrupted, help!

Here's what happened. A user tried hibernating the machine (no idea why) and subsequently it got stuck in a boot loop where the machine wouldn't progress past the bios logo and the hit X to enter setup. I literally couldn't even hold down F8 before it would reboot and the loop would start again.

So I used the inbuilt system utilities to run a HDD diagnostic, and after 2 hours of that it checked out fine.

I grabbed hirens boot USB, loaded into that and changed the windows folder to windowsX. Rebooted, Lo and behold, the boot progressed this time to windows recovery. I let the recovery do its auto repair and I was back in windows.

Suprisingly, it wasn't smart enough to name windowsX to back to windows. It just created another windows folder with some rubbish in it.

So I went back into my boot USB. Changed it back manually to windows and rebooted. Unfortunately, windows is still confused and I get a boot menu now with two Windows 7 (recovered) options. One is from a previous install, which I don't use. Although it's hard to distingish which is which.

But anyway, when it boots I now get put on to a temporary profile. Any idea how I can get out of this mess, please?

Thanks. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 185.52.181.184 (talk) 00:15, 24 January 2017 (UTC)[reply]

The Colorful Pins of the Asus Pi Clone

http://www.pcworld.com/article/3160097/computers/the-asus-tinker-board-is-a-powerful-raspberry-pi-rival-that-plays-4k-video.html

As can be seen in these pictures, the 40 GPIO pins of the Asus Tinker Board are color coded according to their own functions.

Sometimes, I use colored pins on my own boards to make it easier to locate +5V, GND and other pins. However, it's very time consuming to do this job. You have to insert colored pins one by one.

How do they mass-manufacture boards with colored pins? -- Toytoy (talk) 09:56, 24 January 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Looking at that photo, the whole insulator blocks aren't coloured. There's just a printed label that's been put across the insulator blocks (or maybe the colours are screenprinted directly onto the blocks). Coloured labelling for jumper headers is fairly common on motherboards (example), for both the case connectors (pwr/reset/driveLED etc.) and case usb connectors. -- Finlay McWalter··–·Talk 11:56, 24 January 2017 (UTC)[reply]

I think you're right. The colors are printed on the black plastic base. -- 180.217.167.66 (talk) 13:39, 24 January 2017 (UTC)[reply]