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:::And so, many web designers have taken this to mean that putting important things "above the fold" is old fashioned and ignorant.(Typical article: [https://medium.com/rareview/the-above-the-fold-myth-f0f93b1b9875]) The modern fashion is that you should ''have'' to scroll to absorb the 'story' of the page before reaching the call to action. (Even if they have to space the content out with whitespace!) |
:::And so, many web designers have taken this to mean that putting important things "above the fold" is old fashioned and ignorant.(Typical article: [https://medium.com/rareview/the-above-the-fold-myth-f0f93b1b9875]) The modern fashion is that you should ''have'' to scroll to absorb the 'story' of the page before reaching the call to action. (Even if they have to space the content out with whitespace!) |
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:::Personally, I think this new extreme is just as silly and ignorant as the previous extreme of cramming everything along the top of the web-page. But what do I know? I'm certainly not a designer. Probably, I'm the ignorant one. [[User:ApLundell|ApLundell]] ([[User talk:ApLundell|talk]]) 16:41, 28 September 2017 (UTC) |
:::Personally, I think this new extreme is just as silly and ignorant as the previous extreme of cramming everything along the top of the web-page. But what do I know? I'm certainly not a designer. Probably, I'm the ignorant one. [[User:ApLundell|ApLundell]] ([[User talk:ApLundell|talk]]) 16:41, 28 September 2017 (UTC) |
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== URL for reference desk questions == |
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I'm trying to write a book about borders - and I'm making VERY slow progress - and this Reference desk thread is pertinent: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Reference_desk/Humanities#How_exactly_do_countries_assert_control_over_land_when_the_land_is_evolving.3F |
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Will it persist (for the years I expect to need it)? [[User:Hayttom|Hayttom]] ([[User talk:Hayttom|talk]]) 17:59, 28 September 2017 (UTC) |
Revision as of 17:59, 28 September 2017
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September 23
Error checking software for Hard Drive(s)
Error checking required for my drives, they are way to big (over 1TB each) and will take far too long normally. Partitioning is impossible. What I require is a "Play|Pause" (start from where it was last left) button function, - if you know what I mean - an opensource software that I could use even after I restart my PC the next day or so... Could someone help me please. 103.67.156.38 (talk) 02:42, 23 September 2017 (UTC)
- Have you tried running your existing checks when you are asleep ? Can't it complete in that time ? StuRat (talk) 03:21, 23 September 2017 (UTC)
- A proper check of a 1TB+ drive takes time, and nothing you do can change that. That's a billion bytes. A billion seconds ago, the first Blockbuster Video rental outlet opened in Dallas, Bill Watterson introduced us to Calvin and Hobbes, the first dot com domain name was registered, and Microsoft Corporation released the first version of Windows, Windows 1.0.
- Also, you won't be happy trying to do something else on a PC that is running a really comprehensive disk test program.
- You can pick up a used PC for less than $100 including shipping: https://www.amazon.com/Refurbished-Optiplex-DVD-Rom-Windows-Professional/dp/B01CZ2OK4C/
- Buy one, put your drive in it, and run TestDisk: http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/TestDisk
If it's not a laptop or some weird difficult to access OEM computer, it's maybe 5-10 minutes if you know what you're doing. I guess this is a lot of work to you, but to the rest of us, this is less time than I'm sure the OP has spent with their many, many questions asking for random software. As for damage, again if you know what you're doing the risk is minimal.
The biggest risk by far is actually running the check, although that just means the disk should be binned or RMAed anyway. That said, I'm not sure if I agree that a PC is unusable when it's running a comprehensive disk test program. Unless you're doing something really intensive, if you aren't actually trying to use the disk, and if you have a decent multi core processor and RAM, you're not likely to notice nowadays. An exception is if there's really something physically wrong, in that case slow downs can sometimes affect the whole system (although often not). But in that case I don't see a point checking, just get the data off it if you actually need to then either RMA or bin the drive. (Getting the data off may be where having a second computer will be useful.)
I'd note that for a 1TB disk, if it's IO limited it'll take maybe 2-3 hours to read the whole disk. If it's not IO limited, what exactly are you concerned about and testing? If it's a file system issue, that may take a while but it shouldn't have to read the whole disk. If you want to read and write, the whole disk, you can maybe double to triple that. Ideally of course you should just clear the disk in which case the writing and read steps can be separate.
If you're leaving the data there, remember what I said earlier, if there really is a physical problem and you need the data and don't have a backup, doing this could easily mean further damage. You really should be getting the data off ASAP, so concentrate on that first before worrying about checking the disk. And then next time make sure you have backups do don't have to do this again.
- 5-10 minutes ? Let's look at some of the steps required:
- 0) Power down both PCs, unplug all the cables and power cords from them, and place them where they can be opened up. (It's a good idea to label where each cord goes, as sometimes there are multiple seemingly compatible ports, only some of which work.) Ensure a bright light source you can direct into each case, such as a gooseneck lamp or bright flashlight. (You could also leave the mice, keyboard, monitors, etc., connected, and only unplug the power cord, but that may impede your ability to move it all to an area where you can open up the case. If you are lucky enough to have it all where you can open it up and work on it to begin with, as opposed to jammed under a desk, then good for you, I'd love to have room for that setup.)
- 1) Open both cases. This often requires removing screws (usually needs a Phillips head screwdriver of the proper shape and size), and sometimes a key is needed and/or there are levers to depress or turn simultaneously.
- 2) Ground yourself to prevent electrical damage from static electricity to any of the sensitive equipment.
- 3) Move anything out of the way which is blocking the source or destination drive bays. In a densely packed PC this can require pulling cards out, etc. In a less densely packed PC you may still need to tie back some cables which are in the way (requires wire ties).
- 4) Remove the data and power cables. Not always easy, in my experience, since they lack good handles to pull on, often requiring needle-nose pliers. The removed data and power cables should then be tagged, so you don't confuse them with all the other unplugged data and power cables likely to be present.
- 5) Remove any screws holding the hard drive into the drive bay. Carefully store these screws separately from the case screws, as they may be different sizes. I suggest magnetic trays, placed a safe distance from the PC.
- 6) Remove the hard drive from the old PC, carefully transport the hard drive to the new bay and insert it into position (if there was already a hard disk there you would first need to remove it, following all the steps listed previously, and being careful not to remove the boot drive).
- 7) Secure the hard disk in the new bay with screws (you could skip the screws if it's only temporary and you are careful not to jostle this PC during that time).
- 8) Plug in the power and data cables to the hard drive, very carefully, to avoid bending any pins. This assumes that this PC has compatible cables and that the wattage limit from the power supply has not been exceeded.
- 9) Jumper settings may need to be changed, review the documentation.
- 10) Close the cases. You can skip the screws if it's just temporary.
- 11) Plug all the cables back into the two PCs. If the PC to be used to run the drive checks didn't already have a mouse, keyboard, and monitor connected, you will need to do so now, although you really should have done so before starting this process, just to ensure that everything was working. Optionally, you may want to connect other devices, such as external speakers.
- 12) Attempt to boot both PCs, and see if they boot and if the new hard drive is accessible (and it may not be obvious which drive letter is the new drive, if it even has a drive letter assigned, requiring you to check the properties of each for manufacturer, GBs, etc.). Many errors are possible here, some of which will just give you a series of beeps instead of any visual feedback, so then you will need to go online to determine what those beeps mean. For example, if you nudged a RAM chip out of position, it may not boot.
- 13) Now you can attempt to run the hard drive check on the one PC while using the other.
- 14) Repeat all these steps, in reverse, to put everything back the way it was.
- Presumably you aren't including step 13, and maybe 14, in your 5-10 minute estimate, but steps 0-12 sound like far more than that, to me. You would need to perform each step in under 30 seconds to finish in 5 minutes, and in under a minute each to finish in 10 minutes. If you have a video of you doing this, without cuts, in that time, I'd love to see it (not like a cooking show where all the ingredients are already prepared, and they just pour them into a pot on camera, then they cut to when it is done). StuRat (talk) 16:32, 23 September 2017 (UTC)
- WTF changes jumper settings on hard disk in the past 10 years? (I mean seriously, IIRC by 2005 SATA hard disks were generally cheaper than PATA ones. Also we're talking about a 1TB HD here. And does the computer suggested by Guy Macon even have a PATA port*?) WTF uses needle nose plies to remove SATA power and data connectors? (And incidentally, WTF do you have multiple unused SATA data connectors in your computer and WTF do you care which SATA power connector you plug the disk into?) WTF do you need to remove all external connectors, let alone label them? You're just removing the hard disk, not doing anything major, if you really can't do it in-situ then fine but you should not need to label anything. I read all these three highly flawed suggestions and stopped reading. Clearly you don't know what you are doing, so you should not be giving advice on such matters. I explicitly said this only applies to people who know what they are doing and also explicitly said it doesn't apply to difficult to access OEM computers (e.g. anything which you will need to remove a card to simply remove a hard disk). * = seems that it does [1]. If you really are using a PATA 1TB drive then maybe you can add a few more minutes, especially if there isn't a PATA cable plugged into the second computer, I'll give you that as something I didn't specify. Nil Einne (talk) 12:58, 24 September 2017 (UTC)
- The "used PC for under $100" might indeed be over 10 years old. I've also seen lots of PCs with some non-functional ports, such as USBs, or some that provide limited functionality, such as an HDMI port without full audio support, so it's a good idea to label which port you unplugged from to avoid any unexpected problems. Another difficulty I should mention is in plugging the display and power cables into the monitor on the backup PC for the first time. I have monitors (Phillips 32PFL5708/F7) with the PC inputs on the bottom of the back, and recessed, so it is necessary to turn the monitor upside down to plug them in. This absolutely horrid design requires me to balance them, upside down, say between pillows, to avoid damage, when plugging anything in. If anyone made the mistake of mounting these monitors on the wall before plugging them in, they would also need to be dismounted first (I use stands instead of wall mounts to make them somewhat more accessible). Also, if you pulled a wireless mouse and/or keyboard out of a drawer to use with the backup PC, you may need to change batteries. The backup PC may also want to run a slew of updates and/or complain about expired or missing licenses.
- For these and many other reasons, this approach is a bad idea. Just run the disk check at night, when asleep, and be done with it. This will require far less of the user's time than swapping hard drives. And ever heard the saying "If it ain't broke, don't fix it" ? This applies in a major way to PC repair. Every time you open up the box there is a risk of damaging something, say if you didn't ground yourself properly and a static spark hits a sensitive electrical component. If you have a good reason to do so, then it's worth the risk, but not when it's not needed, as in this scenario.
- The need to remove the external cables is that you typically will only be able to move the box a few inches before you will reach the limit of motion of some cord or the other, and possibly pull the monitor off the table in the attempt. This is especially true if you're a neatnik who has used cable ties to keep all the cables neat, as this limits their ability to move freely. As for me knowing what I'm talking about, I've done many disk swaps, admittedly years ago, but it sounds to me like you haven't done any in the real world, since you don't seem to know that PCs are likely to be under a desk or under a monitor, on a crowded desk, where there's just no room to work on them. Perhaps you have some type of a lab where they are all laid out on large empty tables with plenty of room to work. StuRat (talk) 15:50, 24 September 2017 (UTC)
- @103.67.156.38 . Suggest you find out the manufacturer and version of your drives then google around for the manufacture's own diagnostic tools (which should be free to down load). Especially taking note of the advice for your type of Operating System. Reason being, is me thinks, if it takes that long you aren't using Linux but Microsoft. Think about it. Microsoft operating systems insist that all background applications continue to run and thus will keep interrupting the check in oder keep accessing the drive and keep monitoring all the ports and all that short of stuff. 'You' need to shut them down yourself and also disable power management controls, otherwise it will notice your not actively using the keyboard and wiggling your mouse or scrolling thus repeatedly try to shut down to low power mode. These background task on Microsoft systems take up far more time by the order of several magnitudes than the drive checks themselves. Also, with the manufactures software they should give the option of short and fast checks, drive health diagnostics etc. My checks happen over night but I think Linux can check a terabyte in about 90 minutes. If I'm wrong, I will shortly be corrected here. Aspro (talk) 16:00, 23 September 2017 (UTC)
- Oh! a last thought. Haven't tried it for a while. Yet you could download a 'Live' Linux flavor on to a pen-drive and check the disks via that - without having to run Microsoft. Puppy Linux is good for sorting out problems with HDD's and very quick to download. The check should go very much faster with that little rascal in your USB. Aspro (talk) 16:20, 23 September 2017 (UTC)
Not likely. If you're simply reading the entire hard disk, you will be physically IO limited whether on Windows or *nix. There is no magic here. For a 1 TB hard disk, 90 minutes is simply not realistic. To read 1TB in that time, your HD will need an average transfer speed of ~186MBb/s. This is one of the fastest HDs out there [2]. Yet even it can only achieve an average 179MB/s over the whole disk. Now if short stroke it, you will have a higher average speed and some 1TBs may be short stroked, but they'll often also have lower platter densities. New 1TB hard disks in the 3.5" category are fairly rare anyway. So more likely you'll get maybe 150MB/s or lower.
Incidentally, you recommend manufacturer tools then bring up *nix. There are only two manufacturers of 3.5" hard disks that survive, Seagate and Western Digital. SeaTools for DOS hasn't been updated since 2010. It may still work particularly on a SATA drive or obviously with an old computer like that recommended by Guy Macon above but I wouldn't guarantee it. If you have compatibility problems, SeaTools for Windows is your only option, and no it will not be slower unless there's something majorly messed up with your computer or if you're trying to check an use drive (especially a system drive).
Western Digital is updating their Data Lifeguard Diagnostics for DOS [3] [4] although I'm not sure how well they've kept up with compatibility especially for USB. Again, whether you use the Windows version or DOS version, you should not expect significant speed differences unless you're trying to test an in use drive, or there's something majorly wrong with your computer. (Or I should mention also if it's USB3 on a USB3 controller but limited to high speed probably because of some DOS compatibility issue.)
Mind you nowadays the manufacturer tools don't tend to do that much special except perhaps give you an RMA code. The extended/long test is simply part of S.M.A.R.T.. Likewise, for the SMART values, from my experience it's often actually better to use better SMART utilities which can keep track of changes. The manufacturer tools tend to just give you a pass or fail. So generally, there's nothing wrong with using the manufacturer tools (and actually I normally do that myself for the tests, but not the SMART values), but they often don't actually give you that much more than other tools. So if you did want to use something else on *nix, Windows or whatever, go ahead just don't expect it to be any faster. The main things which are semi unique from the manufacturer tools are stuff like checking for new firmware (which for SeaTools and I think WD requires the Windows version because it simply sends you to the website) or maybe the few feature controls (especially short stroking) unrelated to diagnostics.
- If the OP has a Seagate, Samsung, LaCie or Maxtor drive then this may help. How to use SeaTools for Windows. Aspro (talk) 12:25, 24 September 2017 (UTC)
September 24
"open source programming language"?
I see the term "open source programming language" used every so often (a few times in Wikipedia articles). Is this a standard term? It seems silly to me- I think what it means is that there is an "official" compiler or interpreter which is open source. Surely the language itself is an abstraction and therefore has no "source". I guess it could mean that there is some official language specification or standards document, and that document itself has some sort of copyleft license, but I don't think that's what they mean. See Go (programming language), with a reference to Google saying the same thing. Staecker (talk) 00:10, 24 September 2017 (UTC)
- I believe some really do provide the source code for the language directly, which then allows programmers with the ability to rewrite it and add to it, to create their own extensions. For example, if it has a square root function that can't handle negatives, it could be rewritten to provide imaginary numbers in this case. StuRat (talk) 01:47, 24 September 2017 (UTC)
- For many languages, the standard tools are available as a free-software or open-source reference implementation. That means that a compiler, any system library, and any runtime environment (if required) exist and you may read, modify, and share the implementation details.
- For some languages, additional information such as a formal grammar and/or a language specification may exist, and may be provided as free software or freely-licensed documentation.
- Consider the Java programming language: it was commercially-developed, but you do not need to pay anyone to get or use its tools or its documentation; it is free in cost and in licensure. (For certain commercial purposes, you can choose to pay for a non-free licensed version, if that makes more sense for your business).
- So - the Java language is (mostly) free and open source software. You can write new programs in the Java language, and your program might be open- or closed- source, depending on how you choose to distribute it.
- Contrast this to a language like VAL3 or MATLAB. For both languages in this example, the language itself, including its documentation and its standard implementation, are not free. The specification for the language is copyrighted; it costs money to get it; it costs money to use it; and the license restricts certain use (sharing, modifying, re-selling). Although you can find some free documentation and some free software associated with these languages, the standard version of each language is controlled by one commercial vendor whose license terms reflect a business-desire to restrict certain types of sharing. They want to keep certain implementation-details private, so they do not share source code; they want to sell software-products, so they do not share tools at zero-cost. Even if you write software in those languages and give your software away for free (at zero cost, or under a free license), other programmers and users will probably still need to buy commercial tools from the vendor if they want to use your stuff.
- In this example, compare GNU Octave - a free-software tool that tries to be compatible with the MATLAB programming language - but if you read the fine print, "octave" is a different programming language that is "somewhat compatible" with software written in the MATLAB language. The Octave developers can not call themselves a "free implementation" of MATLAB for many reasons: the MATLAB language and brand-name is protected by copyright, trademark, and software licensing. It is not sufficient to say that Octave is a clean-room implementation. It is not sufficient to say that Octave is a "non-standard" or "unofficial" implementation. The protected intellectual property is not just the version of software sold by Mathworks - they actually own the rights to the language, its documentation, its specification, and its implementation. This is something that has been battled in court; but here's at least one example indicating legal precedent: National Instruments Inc. v. The MathWorks, Inc. (rather, pertaining to Simulink as a programming language system - try explaining that subtlety to an attorney!)
- On the other hand, you can read about Dalvik (software) and the decade-long, billions-of-dollars- court battle it created. Google implemented a language that was substantially similar to the Java language - and even called it the Java language - but they claimed that their clean-room implementation circumvented any duty to pay a license for copyright-protected use of the language. Google actually won their case using an argument based on that legal theory, to the surprise of many experts.
- Free software is great - there are many good reasons to use it - but non-free software sometimes provides enough advantage that it's worth the trade-off.
- Nimur (talk) 05:06, 24 September 2017 (UTC)
- Thanks for the response. It still seems to me that it's the compiler and libraries and documentation which are open source, rather than the language itself. I don't know what it would mean for the language itself to be open source. But I'm not here to argue whether this way of speaking is sensible or not- I just wanted to know if it was standard usage. I guess it is? This is like when a student asks me: "Can I get Java on my computer for free"? I pedantically say, "Java is a language, so you don't 'get' Java on your computer. You get a Java compiler, and yes, you can get it for free." Staecker (talk) 11:12, 24 September 2017 (UTC)
- You are correct; a "language" is distinct from software that implements that language, and both are distinct from software that use that language. Each of these categories represent something distinct; and each use-case might be subject to different terms of use.
- So, we should not say a "language" is open-source; we would be perpetuating a far-too-common abuse of terminology. Only source code can be "open-source." Other things can be "freely licensed," "unencumbered by patent protection," and so on. A language specification could be "freely licensed," and an implementation of that specification could be provided by "free and open source software." A company might write an application using this language, and may provide their application "at no cost."
- However, in common usage, many people conflate "open source" to mean all of those other words. Only a small number of very pedantic people and lawyers seem to use the words correctly.
- A famous and influential essay: Why Open Source misses the point of Free Software - actually helps make clear that source-code availability is only a small part of free license as it pertains to software. Nimur (talk) 15:26, 24 September 2017 (UTC)
- Thanks for the response. It still seems to me that it's the compiler and libraries and documentation which are open source, rather than the language itself. I don't know what it would mean for the language itself to be open source. But I'm not here to argue whether this way of speaking is sensible or not- I just wanted to know if it was standard usage. I guess it is? This is like when a student asks me: "Can I get Java on my computer for free"? I pedantically say, "Java is a language, so you don't 'get' Java on your computer. You get a Java compiler, and yes, you can get it for free." Staecker (talk) 11:12, 24 September 2017 (UTC)
Font from an image
Hello, I was working on a project and came across this image - https://imgur.com/a/Vin89. Can someone help me identify which font is being used in the image? I would be really grateful. Thanks! 180.151.239.29 (talk) 11:14, 24 September 2017 (UTC)
- There are plenty of free online tools to assist with this, such as Font Squirrel and What The Font. RegistryKey(RegEdit) 11:45, 24 September 2017 (UTC)
"Find and replace" issue...
I have a Word (well, actually LibreOffice...) question. I'd like to copy-paste the source material at User:Soman/sandbox into a text document and use 'find and replace' to replace the current
|- | ZXC Vajpayee, Atal Bihari WWW [[Atal Bihari Vajpayee|Vajpayee, Atal Bihari]] | [[Bharatiya Janata Party]] | [[ Lucknow (Lok Sabha constituency)| Lucknow ]] | [[Uttar Pradesh|UP]] | | QQQ | | QQQ | QQQ | QQQ | QQQ | | | QQQ | QQQ | QQQ | QQQ | QQQ | | | 10 |
with
|- |ZXCVajpayee, Atal BihariWWW[[Atal Bihari Vajpayee|Vajpayee, Atal Bihari]] |[[Bharatiya Janata Party]] |[[Lucknow (Lok Sabha constituency)|Lucknow]] |[[Uttar Pradesh|UP]] | |QQQ | |QQQ |QQQ |QQQ |QQQ | | |QQQ |QQQ |QQQ |QQQ |QQQ | | |10 |
but I can't use 'find and replace' on the tab spaces. Any idea on how to resolve this? --Soman (talk) 16:00, 24 September 2017 (UTC)
- Open the text file in a Hexadecimal editor such as Hexplorer. It has a Find and Replace function that works at byte level. Blooteuth (talk) 16:10, 24 September 2017 (UTC)
The Absolute Minimum Every Software Developer Absolutely Must Know
Joel on software has an interesting article named The Absolute Minimum Every Software Developer Absolutely Positively Must Know about Unicode and Character Sets (No Excuses).
I want to know what are more of those common basic things that software developers (or people serious with computing) must know. I'd like to find basic literature explaining basic concepts like bits, bytes, unicode, RAM, peripherals, basic computer architecture, and really basic stuff like these. Something that would be a good reading for teenagers or older interested in computers.
Maybe a collection of articles (but not wiki articles, I want something with a higher publishing standards) would do.--Hofhof (talk) 22:47, 24 September 2017 (UTC)
- You seem to have skipped over some even more basic things, like data types, assignment statements, conditional statements (if-then-else, case, etc.), loops, functions and subroutines, compiling and linking, etc. StuRat (talk) 02:09, 25 September 2017 (UTC)
- How to Google. (((The Quixotic Potato))) (talk) 07:13, 25 September 2017 (UTC)
- You could pick some CompTIA exam preparation study guide. Some `IT Fundamentals` certification would be fine for your purpose. They are targeted at people who want to become technicians, but I suppose this is a more thorough approach than basic computer literacy material targeted at school kids. B8-tome (talk) 11:14, 25 September 2017 (UTC)
- Design Patterns would be one. Although WP, with its inimitable sense of timing, has just tagged that as "not notable". Best read it soon before it gets deleted. Andy Dingley (talk) 16:00, 25 September 2017 (UTC)
- The minimum you need to know is based on what you plan to do. It would be nice if every programmer knew absolutely everything in Computer Science. That is not realistic. In my opinion, a great team consists of a handful of people who can program reasonably well and one or two people who really know all the details. My personal job is to sit in on code reviews and suggest improvements. That means that the coders don't need to know the details. They come up with a solution and I either tell them it is great or I explain how it can be improved. I am sometimes surprised. For example, I was in a review last week and I asked if they understood that the data set would be loaded as a two-dimensional vector of doubles. One of the women in the group immediately said that she already went through the code to ensure that they never test for equality with the floating point values. I didn't ask that, but she understood where I was going while the rest of the team was still double-checking to verify my claim that all of the incoming data was being stored as doubles - even the data that was originally an integer. 209.149.113.5 (talk) 14:32, 26 September 2017 (UTC)
- Code: The Hidden Language of Computer Hardware and Software by Charles Petzold is a book I recommend to anyone who isn't already a CS expert. - ☆ Bri (talk) 18:03, 26 September 2017 (UTC)
September 25
Website where you can publish Ebooks for free
I have a story idea I want to self publish as a ebook so is there a website where I can publish it as a e book free of charge
- You can just set up your own website and place it there. There's a small annual charge from the host, unless you get some free web space hosting from your ISP. But that will allow you to control it completely, so it doesn't end up with ads for porn, etc. We can help setting it up. You could even start it on your home page here, then move it later. As long as there are no pics, the text should take up very little space. StuRat (talk) 22:24, 25 September 2017 (UTC)
- @StuRat:, you're not suggesting the OP uses their user page are you? That's so not what it's for. WP:NOTWEBHOST. Rojomoke (talk) 00:35, 26 September 2017 (UTC)
- Not even temporarily, especially for something like an ebook. If the OP tries there's a very good chance it will be deleted (and I mean deleted rather than simply having the content removed or replaced in the latest version of the page) very fast. Further by posting it here, the OP will have irrevocably licenced their content under CC BY-SA 3.0 and the GFDL licences which may not be their intention. This means for example, anyone else is free to republish it including commercially provided they meet the licencing terms primarily giving attribution to the OP and licencing the content under the same or a compatible licence. Nil Einne (talk) 06:49, 26 September 2017 (UTC)
- You may be able to self publish on Amazon via the Kindle Direct Publishing programme for free [5]. You may be able to do so on iBooks [6], Kobo [7], Barnes and Noble/Nook [8], Google Play [9] etc. Maybe the Windows Store [10] if Microsoft ever gets self-publishing off the ground. And plenty of others. Note you will need to provide the ebook in a format the publisher accepts, for example these are those accepted by Amazon [11]. (I'm not a fan of Amazon, but they're the biggest distributor of ebooks in many areas.) And you may find the formatting doesn't translate as well as you would have hoped. There are various tools you can use to help, some of them may be free. Many self publishers choose to pay for things like covers, formatting help, proof-reading, editing etc [12] [13]. If you're distributing your books for free maybe you don't care enough to do these sort of things, OTOH it's likely the reasons still apply, you want people to actually read your book. You can also pay generally a small amount for automated services to help you publish on multiple platforms rather than handling each on yourself. (There can be some advantages to going exclusive with some publishers but I don't think these apply if you aren't charging for your books [14].) In any case there must be a million guides to self publishing, you probably should read at least one. (Specifically one without a significant COI.) Nil Einne (talk) 07:28, 26 September 2017 (UTC)
How long is your story? Why not "publish it" on USENET for free? 110.22.20.252 (talk) 07:38, 27 September 2017 (UTC)
I understood what you all said, and capable of doing certain (hardware) things. Software usage (downloading and installing) will be a problem monetarily and with lack of ability. Electric usage is also an issue as power cuts occur oftenly. Partioning is also an issue because both disks are almost full.
I possess a HDD' and an SSD. Both USB 3.0. A "Play|Pause" - (start from where it was last left) button, start from where it was left, whenever I turn my PC the next time - type of software is required.
116.58.205.203 (talk) 18:48, 25 September 2017 (UTC)
- While running Windows you can use hibernation https://www.howtogeek.com/102897/whats-the-difference-between-sleep-and-hibernate-in-windows/ (((The Quixotic Potato))) (talk) 23:10, 25 September 2017 (UTC)
- You can probably use TestDisk while running Windows, and hibernate the computer if the power goes out so that it powers down before the UPS runs out of power. (((The Quixotic Potato))) (talk) 23:13, 25 September 2017 (UTC)
- Sounds like you need a better backup power supply, one that can last more like a day, so you can walk away and leave things running. This won't just be an issue here, but for everything you do on the PC. StuRat (talk) 23:14, 25 September 2017 (UTC)
Deleting Issue
I’m failing to completely delete a folder and its files for some reason. Every time I try to enter, its displays a window with a message stating ‘not accessible, the file or directory is corrupted or unreadable’. I wish to delete the folder and its files completely from my drive.
Yes, its getting on my nerves every time I think about it and/or use PC...
I require solution please.
116.58.205.203 (talk) 18:48, 25 September 2017 (UTC)
- Have you tried running chkdsk? Ruslik_Zero 20:40, 25 September 2017 (UTC)
- No, I'm having difficulties with it, the drives are too big... I worry of the frequent electric outage. How long does the cancellation takes? My UPS gives me less than 5 minutes to shut my PC down... 116.58.205.203 (talk) 21:41, 25 September 2017 (UTC)
- https://sourceforge.net/projects/filexile/ (((The Quixotic Potato))) (talk) 23:05, 25 September 2017 (UTC)
Turning off the GPU by commands instead of waiting 15 minutes (or whatever OS is set to)
When you leave a Windows computer for a while, if set up appropriately, the GPUs go to sleep and the monitors, receiving no signal, follow suit. Upon moving the mouse or pressing a key, the GPUs and monitors awaken. Is there a command to send the signal to the GPUs to go to sleep at will (the will of the user, not the GPU which has no will; but awakening upon moving the mouse or pressing a key)? --178.170.142.117 (talk) 21:50, 25 September 2017 (UTC)
- As opposed to just turning off the monitor "at will" ? That's what most people do. Admittedly, that does mean the GPU stays on for the extra 15 minutes or so. StuRat (talk) 22:19, 25 September 2017 (UTC)
- Obviously as opposed to turning the monitor off "at will". Most people never install an app on their phone and use only what came preinstalled. I don't give a flying ~*#&! what most people do. 178.170.142.117 (talk) 00:31, 26 September 2017 (UTC)
- https://superuser.com/questions/463646/is-there-a-command-line-tool-to-put-windows-8-to-sleep/463652#463652
- https://superuser.com/questions/42124/how-can-i-put-the-computer-to-sleep-from-command-prompt-run-menu
- https://superuser.com/questions/988428/sleep-windows-10-using-cmd-command-prompt
- (((The Quixotic Potato))) (talk) 23:04, 25 September 2017 (UTC)
- Thanks but those all pertain to putting the entire computer to sleep. I want the computer to stay powered on with only the GPUs sleeping. 178.170.142.117 (talk) 00:31, 26 September 2017 (UTC)
- Which GPU are we talking about? AFAIK usually most GPUs simply downclock themselves, but keep running while the PC is turned on. You can simply instruct the display to go to sleep and the GPU will downclock itself automatically. If you have the GPU's driver installed that may give you more options. (((The Quixotic Potato))) (talk) 00:51, 26 September 2017 (UTC)
- How do I instruct the displays to go to sleep from the computer? Ultimately I want a macro key to make multiple monitors (up to four go into stand by). The GPUs are the Intel 6700 integrated GPU and the nVidia 950 GTX. 178.170.142.117 (talk) 02:03, 26 September 2017 (UTC)
- I agree with TQP. I think you're confusing the GPU from the display. The computer may turn off the display after a set amount of time depending on settings. The GPU will generally just downclock (and probably down volt) and otherwise reduce power depending on demand. I'm not up to speed with current power saving functions in GPUs so maybe some parts are turned off. But either way these are more dependent on demand on the GPU of which whether the display is on will probably only be a very minor component. In other words, if you don't have a game, GPGPU program or something else using the GPU, it's likely the GPU will already be in a highly power saving mode and turning off the display will not affect the GPU much if at all. It doesn't take 15 minutes for the GPU to significantly reduce power, it will generally happen within seconds just like for the CPU. If you have a laptop with Nvidia's Optimus or similar [15], the "external" GPU itself can be completely switched off but again this is much more dependent on whether you're doing anything which needs the Nvidia GPU (instead of the Intel GPU) then on whether the display is on or off. Nil Einne (talk) 07:54, 26 September 2017 (UTC)
- And once it's throttled down to idle, the 950's power consumption is roughly 8W (ref), which is trivial compared to the system power. -- Finlay McWalter··–·Talk 12:47, 26 September 2017 (UTC)
- In terms of simply turning off the display, it sounds like there's no simple command or utility that allows this on Windows. This is a relatively simple Powershell script [16] that seems to work on Windows 10 Pro Creator's Update. I haven't tested it with multiple displays but I imagine it will simply turn them all off. I'm not sure how easy it is to selectively turn off displays. There's an even simpler script here [17], I haven't tested it but it looks like it basically does the same thing but with less well structured coding. There are some third party utilities recommended here [18] although I don't think any of them allow you to selectively turn off certain displays. This looks to have the same recommendations but less [19]. There are some additional recommendations including for doing it direct in AutoHotKey [20] [21] although it's claimed it doesn't work to turn the display back on on Windows 10 (and 8). I didn't read that well but it looks to be doing the same thing as the PowerShell Script so I think this means you can't simply modify the script to turn the display back on Windows 10 or 8 either. (A simple solution if you need a script to turn the display back on seems to be to stimulate mouse movement.) Someone there does explicitly claim you can't easily selectively turn off displays. Nil Einne (talk) 09:12, 26 September 2017 (UTC)
- Creating a shortcut on the desktop with the following line
- “C:\nircmd\nircmd.exe” cmdwait 1000 monitor off
- (including the quotes) is probably one of the easiest ways. You can download nircmd.exe here. https://www.howtogeek.com/howto/windows-vista/create-a-shortcut-or-hotkey-to-turn-off-the-monitor/ (((The Quixotic Potato))) (talk) 09:22, 26 September 2017 (UTC)
September 26
Regex: How to delete all comments and all that comes after them in a row?
I tried this:
?^# *
To delete all commets starting with #space (and that might be preceded by a space).
It does delete them, but not everything coming after them in the same row. Ben-Yeudith (talk) 06:34, 26 September 2017 (UTC)
- Try "^ ?# .*" based on your description, if a comment is always on its own line. The last two characters (.*) means 'everything'. -- zzuuzz (talk) 07:11, 26 September 2017 (UTC)
- Hmm, sadly this seems to delete everything in the file, not only comments. Ben-Yeudith (talk) 07:19, 26 September 2017 (UTC)
- Depending on how you open the file, ".*" will usually match newline characters as well.
^ ?# [^\n]*
could work (I have not tested it) ([^\n] means "any non-newline character"). TigraanClick here to contact me 11:05, 26 September 2017 (UTC)
- Depending on how you open the file, ".*" will usually match newline characters as well.
- Hmm, sadly this seems to delete everything in the file, not only comments. Ben-Yeudith (talk) 07:19, 26 September 2017 (UTC)
- If you want to express " lines that begins with # or with space and #" that won't be
?^
- This
^
- matches the beginning, there's nothing before the beginning, optional or not. Make the space optional.B8-tome (talk) 12:20, 26 September 2017 (UTC)
- The following worked. Thanks.
# [^\n]*
Ben-Yeudith (talk) 13:27, 26 September 2017 (UTC)
September 27
Why do audio CD .WAV files show up in Ubuntu but not in Windows?
I have a laptop that came with Windows 8.1 preinstalled on it and several music CDs; when I insert a CD, it shows up in Windows Explorer, but the only files that show up as being on the disk are the .cda files for each track. However, after I installed Ubuntu 16.10 on my laptop alongside Windows, I noticed that when I inserted one of the same audio CDs, it showed up in Ubuntu's file manager as containing the full WAV files for each track.
In summary:
- Windows: CDA stub files appear
- Ubuntu: full WAV files appear
Why is this? Whoop whoop pull up Bitching Betty | Averted crashes 00:53, 27 September 2017 (UTC)
- I would guess security through obscurity. Perhaps an attempt by Microsoft (back in the day) to make pirating CDs more difficult? 196.213.35.146 (talk) 06:25, 27 September 2017 (UTC)
- Audio CDs have no file system, it's just a big chunk of data with numeric indices so it's up to the OS how to display the tracks. Windows displays them as tiny files that identify the track to the CD playing program which then does reading the actual audio data (aka "ripping.") Linux displays them as WAV files because it's easy to convert audio data to WAV on the fly, plus user programs only have to implement one set of semantics (open a file on a data CD/extract tracks from an audio CD are normally very different operations.) If it wasn't so computationally intensive, it could display them as MP3 or FLAC, too. The point is the files do not exist on the CD as such. 78.53.241.14 (talk) 10:47, 27 September 2017 (UTC)
- Simple answer: Install Foobar2000 and VLC media player on every Windows machine and let those programs handle all audio and video playback. Those two programs are free, and are light years ahead of competing media payers, including anything from Microsoft. Do that and you will pretty much never have a problem playing audio or video on your Windows machine. --Guy Macon (talk) 12:14, 27 September 2017 (UTC)
- I already have VLC installed on the Windows side of my laptop (great minds think alike, it seems! :-P), having installed it well before I installed Ubuntu alongside Windows; I was just curious as to the reason for the discrepancy between what was shown by the two different file managers. Thanx for the suggestion, though! :-) Whoop whoop pull up Bitching Betty | Averted crashes 13:54, 27 September 2017 (UTC)
- Frankly I find VLC's handling of subtitles, the interface and controls and a lot of other stuff with it crap. (For example while there is a famous extension, AFAIK it still lacks any support for internal subtitle downloading without it.) It also lacks support for MadVR, or for that matter SVP or anything that similar. And frankly they took way too long to get DxVA working. I do normally install it just in case there's anything that I need it for but frankly most stuff just plays fine on MPC-HC and it's actually been a very long time since I've really needed VLC for compatibility and no I do not install codec packs or other shit like that. (Probably MadVR although I'm mostly watching 1080P content on a 1080P TV nowadays so haven't needed it for a while, maybe SVP (but unlike with MadVR I've never been convinced I'm noticing a difference so don't really bother that much). And I'm definitely far from the only one to feel this way. PotPlayer is also popular, although I didn't really find anything to rave about when I tried it (which was quite a long time ago now). Still to each their own. For streaming, I'm pretty sure VLC is better but I don't use that. Note if any of the default Windows players have problems playing audio CDs, probably since XP there's probably some serious issue there you should fix rather than just papering over the cracks. As 78 said, audio CDs don't have a file system as such but no serious media player nor Windows installation should have problems playing them. Incidentally, if you're using a laptop on battery, you may want to compare how your player is doing on battery life/power usage. Presuming there isn't a reason for it, e.g. MadVR, and you've enabled hardware acceleration etc, I'd personally choose the player with the significantly better battery life even if it is MS which may very well be the case. Microsoft's support for subtitles is even worse than VLC, still you can probably find a solution for that which doesn't significatly affect battery life nor require much effort. Nil Einne (talk) 14:14, 28 September 2017 (UTC)
- Simple answer: Install Foobar2000 and VLC media player on every Windows machine and let those programs handle all audio and video playback. Those two programs are free, and are light years ahead of competing media payers, including anything from Microsoft. Do that and you will pretty much never have a problem playing audio or video on your Windows machine. --Guy Macon (talk) 12:14, 27 September 2017 (UTC)
- Do any Ubuntu power-users know which program or piece of system-software is actually doing this work of decoding the CD audio and displaying it as a normal WAV file? Is it nautilus, or lower-level software like GVfs or GIO (here's the developer documentation); or is it some cryptic semi-proprietary solution provided by Canonical or its vendor? Or is some other GNU application software that is cosmetically but seamlessly blended into the main Unity user-interface?
- As far as I can tell, it looks like gvfsd-cdda can perform this CD-audio-to-virtual-file-system, abstraction; and Ubuntu has a man-page for it; but is this GNU software the real work-horse that Ubuntu is actually using?
- Nimur (talk) 15:29, 27 September 2017 (UTC)
Java programming help.
tokenizer = new Scanner(output);
Now "output" could be stuff like "5" or "5 5" or "5 5" or "5 + 5" or "5 5 +" or "5 5+"
Point is, they are all separated by spaces. How do I make an if statement that will
-check if there is no integer in the output? -check if there are no + - * or / in the output?
Thanks. 12.239.13.143 (talk) 19:37, 27 September 2017 (UTC).
Edit: 2nd question, how do you return the size, of a stack? 12.239.13.143 (talk) 20:22, 27 September 2017 (UTC).
- You'll want to split the data like this example: http://crunchify.com/java-stringtokenizer-and-string-split-example/. From there, you can use the Java versions of isInteger() and instr() on each token. As for stack size, if you're referring to the stack used by the JVM, you can adjust it like this: http://www.onkarjoshi.com/blog/209/using-xss-to-adjust-java-default-thread-stack-size-to-save-memory-and-prevent-stackoverflowerror/. OldTimeNESter (talk) 20:32, 27 September 2017 (UTC)
If one radio station is louder than another, is there a way to measure the volume?
This station is considerably louder than this one even though my computer says the volume is set at 31. Is there some method for determining how much louder one is than the other, so I'll know where to set each one so they will be equal if I want to listen to one rather than the other? I have Windows 10 and Microsoft Edge.— Vchimpanzee • talk • contributions • 20:11, 27 September 2017 (UTC)
- Oh. Before Microsoft came on the seen to disrupt everything we could rely on our Automatic gain control. Ask Microsoft. Aspro (talk) 20:19, 27 September 2017 (UTC)
- Waiting on Microsoft.— Vchimpanzee • talk • contributions • 20:37, 27 September 2017 (UTC)
September 28
Clock keeps changing
The clock keeps changing (showing older date and time). I understand the battery could need replacing. But the computer hasn't been off. Is it only when the computer has been off that the clock can change like that? Anna Frodesiak (talk) 01:37, 28 September 2017 (UTC)
- (ec) No, they typically use a non-rechargeable watch battery, such as a CR2032, to run the clock. It doesn't care if the power is on. StuRat (talk) 01:56, 28 September 2017 (UTC)
- Never mind. I think Windows was changing it and not letting me know. Stupid Windows. And seeing as Windows tries to be really personal, consider that a personal attack against Windows. Anna Frodesiak (talk) 01:54, 28 September 2017 (UTC)
- Understood. Thank you, StuRat. :) Anna Frodesiak (talk) 02:47, 28 September 2017 (UTC)
Electromagnet to wipe HDD and make it new again.
Is there such a thing? Anna Frodesiak (talk) 01:38, 28 September 2017 (UTC)
- Wipe it yes, make it new again, no. That is, a strong enough magnetic field could certainly scramble it, but it wouldn't be very usable like that. StuRat (talk) 01:57, 28 September 2017 (UTC)
- So it would kill it? When they refurbish HDDs, do they just format it or what? Anna Frodesiak (talk) 02:46, 28 September 2017 (UTC)
- There are usually timing tracks and hardware formatting indicators that should never be erased. If they were erased it would need a factory format to put it back, and the drive itself may not be able to do that. To erase, a degausser can be used. This has an alternating magnetic field, and the item is gradually withdrawn from it. Mearly having a static field could just add to the magnetism in the drive and leave the data still there and readable. But pushing the magnetism backwards and forwards will remove all trace. A way to do an erasure is to write random data multiple times to completely cover the disk. |The Apple Mac has such a feature built in. But you may not be sure that you erased all the disk, as that may include bad blocks, spare blocks, data past the end, track 0 etc. Graeme Bartlett (talk) 03:37, 28 September 2017 (UTC)
- So it would kill it? When they refurbish HDDs, do they just format it or what? Anna Frodesiak (talk) 02:46, 28 September 2017 (UTC)
- I understand. Thank you. So, what if I have a HDD that has a virus on it. Would that virus be removed by booting with a windows DVD and only that HDD, and then removing partitions? Would installing Windows on it and then removing Windows from it help to overwrite? What about making partitions and removing them and then making more? Anna Frodesiak (talk) 03:46, 28 September 2017 (UTC)
- Removing the partition, creating a new partition using a virus-free operating system (booting with a windows DVD gets you that) and formatting using a full format, not a quick format leaves no place for the virus to lie that hasn't been overwritten. An easy-to-do extra step for the paranoid would be to first partition and format it as FAT and then repartition and reformat it as NTFS. --Guy Macon (talk) 04:08, 28 September 2017 (UTC)
- See here and search "once it’s formatted your drive". Below that text is the box that appears when installing win10. The format option is only a single button with no FAT choice, I think. Plus, when formatting, it does it in seconds, so I suspect it's a quick format. I'll check and see to be sure. Cheers. Anna Frodesiak (talk) 04:23, 28 September 2017 (UTC)
- Removing the partition, creating a new partition using a virus-free operating system (booting with a windows DVD gets you that) and formatting using a full format, not a quick format leaves no place for the virus to lie that hasn't been overwritten. An easy-to-do extra step for the paranoid would be to first partition and format it as FAT and then repartition and reformat it as NTFS. --Guy Macon (talk) 04:08, 28 September 2017 (UTC)
This is not applicable to what Anna Frodesiak is trying to do, but let's say you want to destroy the data on a drive so that even the US/Chinese/Russian government cannot recover it. To do that you would first degauss it and then physically destroy it. The following products are well-regarded in the data destruction industry:
- TS-1 Hard Drive Degausser
- PD5 Hard Drive Destroyer
- Solid-State and Flash Destroyer Accessory for PD5
These also work great on smartphones. You can rent them if you only need to destroy your data once.
Just the thing if you happen to be the head of ISIS, an international spy, a major drug cartel, or a US Presidential candidate with something to hide... --Guy Macon (talk) 04:25, 28 September 2017 (UTC)
- I want to wipe a HDD clean that has a virus on it and be able to use it again. If I wanted to simply make it forever unreadable, I'd ask someone to drop a giant stone on it. :) Anna Frodesiak (talk) 04:47, 28 September 2017 (UTC)
- I just checked using a Windows 10 DVD. The infected HDD can be partitioned, but no FAT option. The format is very quick. Anna Frodesiak (talk) 04:50, 28 September 2017 (UTC)
- Thus my comment, "This is not applicable to what Anna Frodesiak is trying to do, but..." And the giant stone would hardly slow down the NSA if you were the head of ISIS, an international spy, a major drug cartel, or a US Presidential candidate with something to hide.
- Giant stone wouldn't work, understood. :)
- Yes, in the Windows 10 DVD install disc, there is just what you see at this pic below "once it’s formatted your drive". No options. Just "format" and "partition", no NTFS, FAT, etc. It just does it and automatically does NTFS (which you can see in disk management). Anna Frodesiak (talk) 05:16, 28 September 2017 (UTC)
- Oh well. I think you are fine. You could accomplish the same thing after everything is set up by telling CCleaner to wipe the free space on that drive, or you could just do nothing The virus that came with the infected verion of CCleaner isn't particularly tricky, doesn't hide information anywhere, and is fully removed by all major antoivisus tools. I think you are fine. --Guy Macon (talk) 05:42, 28 September 2017 (UTC)
- Thank you!!!!!!
- Oh well. I think you are fine. You could accomplish the same thing after everything is set up by telling CCleaner to wipe the free space on that drive, or you could just do nothing The virus that came with the infected verion of CCleaner isn't particularly tricky, doesn't hide information anywhere, and is fully removed by all major antoivisus tools. I think you are fine. --Guy Macon (talk) 05:42, 28 September 2017 (UTC)
Guy, I can't thank you enough. By the way, I've gotten rid of ccleaner and will never use it again. I've put a lot of programs through this and all looks good. This has really been a pain. My edits dropped to practically nothing during this ordeal. I'm still exhausted and am quite considering throwing the PCs out the window and buying some pencils and pads of paper. Thank you so much for all your good guidance. I tried IRC ##windows and ##security and what you've had to say has been 1000x better. I am so grateful! If there's anything you ever need, please ask. Anna Frodesiak (talk) 06:08, 28 September 2017 (UTC)
Getting data from an infected disc
Is there a way to get data like photos from an infected HDD without the virus coming along for a ride? Anna Frodesiak (talk) 03:47, 28 September 2017 (UTC)
- Mostly yes, but there are a few specific exceptions. Here is what you should do:
- First, get a large capacity thumb drive and move them all there.
- Next, reformat as discussed in the section above.
- I am going to do a bit of research before giving you the next step. More in a followup post. --Guy Macon (talk) 04:29, 28 September 2017 (UTC)
- [EC] I was going to write a long explanation, but the following website covers everything I was going to say:
- So the next steps would be:
- Configure Windows to show extensions and make absolutely sure that your images have the right extension (*.jpg good, *.jpg.exe bad).
- Scan the images on your thumb drive with virustotal and Windows defender.
- Copy to your main drive.
- Reformat the Thumb drive just to be extra paranoid.
- Usually, though not always, viruses only affect and live in various types of executable files (broadly defined). Most, though not all, viruses only target a limited number of such executable files rather than trying to live in every compatible executable file. Usually it is safe to remove non-executable data from infected hard drives provided you boot the system from an independent, uninfected operating system. If you know the identity of the virus(es) that have affected your system, then you can often get more specific information on what files are expected to be affected and what steps are appropriate for eliminating the virus and/or rescuing unaffected data. Dragons flight (talk) 04:38, 28 September 2017 (UTC)
- It is the dreaded, recent Ccleaner malware. Anna Frodesiak (talk) 04:52, 28 September 2017 (UTC)
- CCleaner Hacked With Data-Stealing Malware: What to Do Now --Guy Macon (talk) 04:56, 28 September 2017 (UTC)
- Thank you. However, that gives little advice about what to do. Plus, there are more recent articles, but also with little advice. To let you know, when I tried to run ccleaner last week, AVG said it caught it and removed the program. Whether it did or not, I don't know. All scans with Malwarebytes and AVG look fine now. Plus, I am running a newly installed Win10 on a new HDD. I did, however, grab data from the mirror HDD I had installed at the time, and put it on the current system. I do wonder if this bug followed. Is it likely? Anna Frodesiak (talk) 05:10, 28 September 2017 (UTC)
- Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh, music to my ears. Thank you so, so much! I've been petrified. Anna Frodesiak (talk) 05:17, 28 September 2017 (UTC)
Truck driver's CB radio transmissions over the net
Is there a site that has that? Anna Frodesiak (talk) 03:48, 28 September 2017 (UTC)
- You need to be more specific. Audio samples of random CB conversations? Replacing a CB with an internet connection? Explain in detail what you are trying to accomplish. --Guy Macon (talk) 05:00, 28 September 2017 (UTC)
- I wanted to listen in live to those big, surly truck drivers talking about whatever they talk about. Anna Frodesiak (talk) 05:05, 28 September 2017 (UTC)
- I would suggest searching for trucker citizens band podcasts --Guy Macon (talk) 05:11, 28 September 2017 (UTC)
- I will do that! Thank you kindly. :) Anna Frodesiak (talk) 05:22, 28 September 2017 (UTC)
- Hows about http://www.cbradioclub.com/view-all-channels.html --jpgordon𝄢𝄆 𝄐𝄇 15:21, 28 September 2017 (UTC)
- I will do that! Thank you kindly. :) Anna Frodesiak (talk) 05:22, 28 September 2017 (UTC)
- I would suggest searching for trucker citizens band podcasts --Guy Macon (talk) 05:11, 28 September 2017 (UTC)
Windows safe mode
If I have two HDDs, one with Windows 10. I put in a second, infected HDD and boot up in safe mode. Can the virus on the infected HDD still jump to the Windows system HDD? Anna Frodesiak (talk) 04:18, 28 September 2017 (UTC)
- No. And you don't need safe mode. An uninfected install of Windows 10 will not access the data on the infected second hard disk unless you tell it to. However, by careful that you don't copy anything from the infected disk to your main disk or run any programs on it. --Guy Macon (talk) 04:33, 28 September 2017 (UTC)
- I see. So don't copy photos from the second HDD to the first? Anna Frodesiak (talk) 05:03, 28 September 2017 (UTC)
- Ah yes. I missed those links. Reading now. Many, many thanks! Anna Frodesiak (talk) 05:19, 28 September 2017 (UTC)
another github question
Hello
A few weeks ago I started using github to edit my (LaTeX) thesis, and used 'github issues' to keep track of the many handwritten comments made by the two reviewers. My thesis has 8 chapters, each of which is a separate .tex file.
I work in emacs which means that I can't use the website's editor, so I use "git commit -m 'fixes #123' " from the commandline.
This sort of works but I have a couple of problems:
(1) I need to refer back and forth between my emacs session and the github repository webpage, which is a pain. I might fix an issue in emacs, then wonder if the commit fixes other related issues so have to go back to the webpage to check, and often some lag means that there is an annoying time delay.
(2) I need to type 'git push origin master' after *each* commit so that the repository correctly closes issues as I fix them. I get the impression that this isn't good practice.
(3) quite often I see an issue on my repository webpage and fire up emacs to fix it, then realize that it has already been fixed. What I want to do is to close the issue with a comment "commit XYZ123 fixed this". But I can't find the commit that did fix it. How do I find the relevant commit?
I can't quite figure out the correct way to think here. Can anyone advise? Robinh (talk) 07:53, 28 September 2017 (UTC)
- I haven't tried it, but it looks as if this page has the relevant information. --Stephan Schulz (talk) 08:21, 28 September 2017 (UTC)
- ...or I misunderstood your question and you already use this, but need an improved workflow. I don't see an obvious way how - if you rely on GitHub's issue tracker, your issues will only be closed when you tell GitHub about the fixes (which happens at the push). I suppose you know that you can close many issues with a single commit, right? If you really type
git push origin master
, you should use a shell with a command history and/or alias support (e.g. bash or tcsh). I'll have to say: For a single user project with a lot of small issues, this seems like a heavy process - I'd put the issued as TODOs into an emacs org-mode buffer, and just work the list down. You can add the org file to git, so the repo will always be up to date with the state of the repo. But if you have already set up the tracker, it's probably not worth changing. --Stephan Schulz (talk) 15:24, 28 September 2017 (UTC)
- For (1), I imagine that if you just alt-tab between the text editor and the github issue tracking, you will not lose a whole lot of time, provided that each issue has a sufficiently meaningful title that the mere sight of the issue list allows you to know which issue might have been solved by the commit (without needing to reopen each issue each time...). Obviously, I must be missing something.
- For (2), this sounds weird. A quick-and-dirty solution is to script the whole commit-and-push process; from [26] (assuming you use bash), I gather that the following untested line might do the trick:
alias commitandpush='function _commitandpush(){ git commit -m $1; git push origin master; };_commitandpush'
creates the alias, and then you just usecommitandpush "the commit message"
each time. Well actually it creates an alias that will create a function on the fly when it needs to be used. It may be cleaner to use a function. But obviously, the root problem is not solved. If you use keywords to close issues (see link from Stephan Schulz) I would imagine that you would not need to use one push per commit. You might want to post on a specialized forum, e.g. stackexchange if you are sure of that behavior. - For (3), if we assume a scenario where you unknowingly fix an issue and a week later want to find which commit fixed it, you could try searching the commit history for modifications around the line where the change happened. I know enough to know the relevant tool is git-blame, but not enough to actually use it, though [27] seems promising for your case. TigraanClick here to contact me 17:06, 28 September 2017 (UTC)
Extracting the disk from the HDD
If a hdd gets physically damaged, but you have reasons to believe the disk inside is not, how would you proceed to remove it and read its content? What tools and expertise is needed for that?B8-tome (talk) 08:57, 28 September 2017 (UTC)
- See data recovery and data recovery hardware for a general overview. This is not something you can do at home - unless you have a clean room for starters. 196.213.35.146 (talk) 09:45, 28 September 2017 (UTC)
- I actually do have a cleanroom, and years of experience engineering hard drives going back to the original IBM 30-30 drives, and I still wouldn't try it. I would hire a professional data recovery service.
- That being said, there is one situation where there is something you can do yourself. If [A] the data is very important, [B] the actual drive is old and cheap, and [C] you can get your hands on an identical model of drive, it may be worthwhile trying to swap out the circuit board containing the electronics. You can usually do that without trying to open up the sealed enclosure that holds the platters.
Why don't web pages fit on my browser (Chrome) ?
Google Chrome on Windows 7. Most web pages come in too big, and I have to zoom out to see them. For example, I went to https://www.hubblecontacts.com/pages/subscribe, and had to zoom out to 50% to see the "Get Started" button at the bottom, which I assume they meant to be visible. I need to zoom out to 33% to see the entire page. And this is typical, unfortunately. My screen resolution is 1920×1080, and the browser is set to full screen. Are web pages created today assuming 4K res ? StuRat (talk) 15:51, 28 September 2017 (UTC)
- No, most are not. Most are created with the assumption that you you are an ADHS-afflicted squirrel with bad taste who likes 15 noisy, garishly coloured moving objects at the same time, but that is a different problem. I suspect yours is a configuration issue - try going to Preferences and check the "page zoom" option. --Stephan Schulz (talk) 15:58, 28 September 2017 (UTC)
- For a long time the common knowledge was that everything must exist "above the fold" or users will get bored before scrolling to find it.
- Research has shown that, in certain situations, users are pretty likely to scroll no matter what, especially on mobile.
- And so, many web designers have taken this to mean that putting important things "above the fold" is old fashioned and ignorant.(Typical article: [28]) The modern fashion is that you should have to scroll to absorb the 'story' of the page before reaching the call to action. (Even if they have to space the content out with whitespace!)
- Personally, I think this new extreme is just as silly and ignorant as the previous extreme of cramming everything along the top of the web-page. But what do I know? I'm certainly not a designer. Probably, I'm the ignorant one. ApLundell (talk) 16:41, 28 September 2017 (UTC)
URL for reference desk questions
I'm trying to write a book about borders - and I'm making VERY slow progress - and this Reference desk thread is pertinent: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Reference_desk/Humanities#How_exactly_do_countries_assert_control_over_land_when_the_land_is_evolving.3F
Will it persist (for the years I expect to need it)? Hayttom (talk) 17:59, 28 September 2017 (UTC)