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May 3

Problem printing an Excel document

I am having a problem printing an Excel document. Any help will be appreciated. Thanks in advance. When I look at the document on my screen, it all fits onto one page. When I hit "print", the document creates light-colored dashed lines around the spreadsheet cells to indicate where one page ends and another begins (top and bottom, as well as left and right). So, these dashed lines indicate/confirm that the data will all fit onto one single page. However, when I go to print the document, it always comes out as two pages: one page with the data, and a second blank page afterward. When I converted the Excel document (by "save as") into a PDF file, it does the same thing: page 1 is the data and there is a blank white page as page 2. How do I get rid of this second blank page? I tried playing with the margins, and I tried adjusting the cell heights and widths, such that there is plenty of "free" blank space around the data. And it should all appear on one page. Any idea as to why that second blank page is always appearing? And how to get rid of it? This is Excel 2013. Thanks. Joseph A. Spadaro (talk) 00:58, 3 May 2014 (UTC)[reply]

I've had the same problem, though I use a much older version of Excel. I've assumed that I must have something in a lower cell, or the software thinks there is, but deleting following rows doesn't always solve the problem. Perhaps someone else can come up with the full reason and solution, but, meanwhile, what I do is to highlight the cells I want printed, and use "print selection". Dbfirs 11:21, 3 May 2014 (UTC)[reply]
Or you can just use the print option to specify how many pages to print. StuRat (talk) 11:38, 3 May 2014 (UTC)[reply]
When you "delet[e] following rows" (or columns), you have to be sure that you delete the whole row/column, not merely its contents. Last I checked, this was achieved by highlighting the row/column header, then right-clicking on it and choosing a "Delete" option. --Tardis (talk) 17:08, 3 May 2014 (UTC)[reply]
Yes, that is exactly how I go about deleting a row or a column. Joseph A. Spadaro (talk) 19:30, 3 May 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks. However, the problem is not only the printing, but also the creation of the PDF file. Now, a 1-page PDF file always becomes a 2-page PDF file (with the second page blank). That is another problem I'd like to solve, above and beyond the printing issue. Any ideas? Thanks. Joseph A. Spadaro (talk) 13:03, 3 May 2014 (UTC)[reply]

There may be a "Print to file" option that allows you to specify the number of pages and create a PDF file. Also, as far as actually fixing the problem, could there be blank header or footer sections it's printing out ? If so, maybe you need to remove those, rather than just leave them blank. StuRat (talk) 13:31, 3 May 2014 (UTC)[reply]
Another option for printing is in the print options where you can "fit to one page". For the PDF, you could use Cute PDF Writer, a free plugin from CutePDF that acts like a printer but creates a PDF. I've been using it for many years without problems. Dbfirs 15:05, 3 May 2014 (UTC)[reply]
Is it possible that you have some discrepancy between the paper size you're using for printing and the paper size you're using in Excel or in your printer setup? That's usually the cause of these kinds of mixups. SteveBaker (talk) 15:17, 3 May 2014 (UTC)[reply]
The fact that it saves to a file with a blank page, too, implies that it's not a printer issue. StuRat (talk) 15:21, 3 May 2014 (UTC)[reply]

No, I do not think this has anything to do with the printer. As I said above, the Excel spreadsheet – on its own – places little dashed lines around the cells at the four margins (left, right, top, bottom) to indicate where one page ends and the next begins. And those dashed lines indicate that the data are all on Page 1. Is there any way for me to place a copy of my Excel spreadsheet onto this Ref Help Desk page? Then, maybe someone can look at the actual spreadsheet and see what exactly is going wrong. Joseph A. Spadaro (talk) 19:33, 3 May 2014 (UTC)[reply]

If you highlight just the data you want to print and copy-paste it to a completely new Excel sheet, does it do the same thing? -- 140.202.10.134 (talk) 15:05, 5 May 2014 (UTC)[reply]
Hmmm. Never thought of that. I just tried it. And ... it does indeed contain itself to one page. However, it removes all the formatting of the original spreadsheet: colors, column widths, row heights, fonts, alignments, etc. This particular spreadsheet has a lot of formatting involved, so it would be a lot of work to re-create it all over again the second time around. Joseph A. Spadaro (talk) 16:21, 5 May 2014 (UTC)[reply]
(e/c) When I run into this, it's almost always caused by text on the far right column not fitting entirely within the cell. If even a tiny sliver of text falls outside the margin, Excel assumes you obviously need that sliver printed on a second page. It could even be the tiny bit of blank space at the edge of a character being printed. Make sure nothing is overhanging, even by a little bit. Matt Deres (talk) 16:38, 5 May 2014 (UTC)[reply]
Yes, I understand what you are saying. But ... the Excel program itself specifically delineates where a page stops and a new page starts by indicating light-gray dashed lines around the cells at the four margins of each page (top, bottom, left, and right). Right? How can that indication signify only one page ... yet two get printed? Also, the "print preview" shows only one page of data and one page blank. Those "overhanging" characters of data would typically show up on the next page in a print preview. And, furthermore, my bottom-most row and my right-most column are actually blank (and are only there for aesthetic reasons to provide blank white space around the edges of the data on the page). Joseph A. Spadaro (talk) 19:01, 5 May 2014 (UTC)[reply]
Is there any way for me to place a copy of my Excel spreadsheet onto this Ref Help Desk page, somehow? Then, maybe someone can look at the actual spreadsheet and see what exactly is going wrong. Joseph A. Spadaro (talk) 19:19, 5 May 2014 (UTC)[reply]
Go to the View menu, and select Page Break Preview. You will see your document broken up into Page 1, Page 2 etc and blue dotted lines where the page breaks are. Click and drag the blue dotted lines to get your document all onto one page. --Viennese Waltz 19:26, 5 May 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks, all. I actually called the tech support people at Microsoft. The rep took remote access of my computer. Even he could not figure out what the problem was. Joseph A. Spadaro (talk) 15:14, 6 May 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Did you try doing what I said in the post above? --Viennese Waltz 15:24, 6 May 2014 (UTC)[reply]
Thanks. Yes, I did try that. It did "squeeze" everything onto only one page. But, it screwed up all the formatting and margins, so the page did not look aesthetically pleasing (neat, clean, centered, etc.). For some reason, the computer "thinks" that Column I exists, when in fact, it is a blank column with no entries whatsoever (and nothing overlapping into it from Column H). So, it is printing Column I (blank) as page 2. I can't figure out the problem. Joseph A. Spadaro (talk) 17:23, 6 May 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks, all. Joseph A. Spadaro (talk) 16:56, 7 May 2014 (UTC)[reply]

I think probably Matt Deres (above) has identified the reason for the problem. There is a cell in column H that is overflowing into column I so the print driver thinks it has to print a second page with just a blank column I. Even text that goes near the right hand edge of column H might be reinterpreted as overflowing by a printer driver that treats the font differently. Also check for trailing spaces as Matt suggests. Oh, I've just re-read what you wrote above, and it can't be that, can it? Are you sure that column H is completely blank? Have you tried deleting it? Dbfirs 08:24, 8 May 2014 (UTC)[reply]
Hi. Thanks. Yes, I have deleted the column, so it no longer "exists". And, furthermore, the column to its immediate left is entirely blank; there is nothing in it to "spill over" into the next column to the right. As I said, even the Microsoft techs could not diagnose this problem, when they took remote access of my computer. The only thing that "worked" was to do a copy/paste into a new blank spreadsheet; but that removed all the formatting of the original, which would be too cumbersome to do a second time. Thanks. Joseph A. Spadaro (talk) 13:37, 8 May 2014 (UTC)[reply]

HD copying speed on Windows

On Windows computers (at least), when copying files from one hard drove to another, copying a large number of small files is a lot slower (in MB/s) than copying a few large files. What is the primary reason for this? Is it the time it takes the head to seek the track or is there a big overhead in creating and closing files? Bubba73 You talkin' to me? 04:58, 3 May 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Probably both of those. Also:
3) Indexes need to be updated, and the smaller the files the higher the ratio of index space to data space.
4) As far as prioritizing jobs, the O/S may give a higher priority to a copy job when it's in the middle of copying a file, to avoid leaving that file open, than when between copying two files.
5) When copying a file, it needs to find an open spot for it, and copying lots of files requires lots of searching for open spots. StuRat (talk) 11:42, 3 May 2014 (UTC)[reply]
Thanks. I'm usually copying to a HD that isn't indexed. Bubba73 You talkin' to me? 16:30, 3 May 2014 (UTC)[reply]
Different filesystems have different performance depending on their design. Depends what you mean by "indexed", but probably what stu's referring to is the file table (called various things depending on the filesystem). This is probably a large portion of the difference. There's also metadata to update (file name, timestamps, permissions, etc.). The other, possibly biggest, performance penalty is going to be disk seeks on both ends, including seeks to the file table itself. Shadowjams (talk) 21:38, 3 May 2014 (UTC)[reply]
By "indexing" I meant in Windows, the drive property "Allow files on this drive to have their contents indexed...". Copying over a million files to USB 2 external drives is a painful process - one I've been doing for about 2 days. But I'm nearly finished. Bubba73 You talkin' to me? 22:42, 3 May 2014 (UTC)[reply]
That kind of indexing is not your problem. It's not directly related to the filesystem (NTFS). The Windows file indexing is done offline... that is to say, it does it whenever it can find spare time (system isn't busy). It doesn't do it immediately on files if that would slow things down. Shadowjams (talk) 23:04, 3 May 2014 (UTC)[reply]
Right. To explain to the OP further, the files in a folder may be spread out physically all over the hard disk, and individual files may even be spread out over multiple locations, if the hard disk is badly fragmented. In order to use this mess, it's necessary to have records of where to look for each file, and that needs to be kept up-to-date at all times, so those types of indexes must be updated whenever a file is moved or copied. StuRat (talk)
Some file systems are killer when it comes to speed, but the moving metal of HDDs is a final frontier to all of them, unless the files are physically close (as in, on the same physical track). Good defragmenters try to order files, but that takes a lot of time, since they have to move about every file to maintain perfect order. You can get lucky if most of the small files are in the same directory (or "folder", in Microsoft-speak), or you can spend all night and not get lucky :(
The latter is a non-issue with Random Access Memories like SSDs and thumb drives; it's the sustained data transfer that counts there.
Mere defragmentation is not good enough with small files; they are usually way too to small to get fragmented in the first place. In my experience, file copying depends on the number of accesses per megabyte more than anything else, and you cannot get any lower than one access per file, discounting the few "lucky" cases. - ¡Ouch! (hurt me / more pain) 06:56, 6 May 2014 (UTC)[reply]

YouTube and musicI'M do eamgites not working

No matter which site I go to, anything that's streaming audio and/or video doesn't play. It's either got that spinning circle forever or it quits after the first two seconds. And if I try on a different browser, it'll make the program stop responding altogether. What is causing it and how do I fix it? 69.156.170.189 (talk) 08:26, 3 May 2014 (UTC)[reply]

I'm rather amazed it ever works, as the Internet just isn't designed for that. They make no guarantee that you will get real-time communication, which is required for streaming media. StuRat (talk) 11:44, 3 May 2014 (UTC)[reply]
Yes, it never works for me either unless I travel to the nearest town to get a faster connection. In theory, buffering should overcome the real-time problem mentioned by StuRat, but the buffer always seems to be too small for slow connections. One day, we'll all get a proper broadband connection ... maybe. Dbfirs 14:59, 3 May 2014 (UTC)[reply]
And here I thought the internet was designed to move packets of data around the world. —Nelson Ricardo (talk) 02:40, 4 May 2014 (UTC)[reply]
It is, but not in real time, as StuRat said above. Those of you with a fast connection probably don't notice the delays that cause frustrating stuttering and spinning circles, so you don't realise how fortunate you are compared with those of us who get only a third-world service. I wonder if the OP is able try a different internet connection? (I assume that the deleted comment from a proxy in a different country was not the OP) Dbfirs 08:42, 4 May 2014 (UTC)[reply]
No, that really was from me (the different IP addresses are the result of me traveling). I normally have no issue streaming anything, but the problems I described started suddenly and made it impossible to access music streaming sites (not even on NPR could I play anything). I'm on Bell Fibe, which means this sort of crap shouldn't even be an issue (although Bell typically sucks). Telling me I shouldn't expect it to work because that's not what the internet is designed for isn't the least bit helpful. 66.249.88.33 (talk) 18:55, 4 May 2014 (UTC)[reply]
Bell does typically suck, but that's not always the simple answer. Do you have any browser add-ons or plugins installed that may be interfering? You could try disabling them. Clear your cache and all that, too. Maybe reinstall the browser. No idea if it'll work or what the actual problem is, but sometimes that works for various things, for some reason. InedibleHulk (talk) 19:18, May 4, 2014 (UTC)
You didn't say that this was a new problem. I assume that you've tried a different computer on the same internet connection, because this would determine whether the problem is in your computer as InedibleHulk suggests. The fact that the problem occurs across different browsers indicates that it's either the operating system (malware?) or the internet connection. If you've tried the same computer on different internet connections, then the problem is almost certainly within the computer, and not as I initially thought. Try running some anti-virus software. Dbfirs 21:14, 4 May 2014 (UTC)[reply]
The fact that you're traveling may be a clue. You may have a slower connection there than at your usual location. You could try streaming video at a lower resolution or frame rate. Not sure what you can do about streaming audio, though. If there's an option to download first, then play it, I'd certainly recommend that. If need be, you can download it all night long, as you sleep, and play it in the morning. StuRat (talk) 21:38, 4 May 2014 (UTC)[reply]
Hard to imagine a wonky or slow connection could cause a crash, like in the "different browser". During blizzards or rainstorms, my wireless sometimes drops to dialup levels, and it's never caused a stability problem. That said (and without being trying to be that guy), I have a Mac. Microsoft does typically suck.
Another thing to consider is the sketchiness of some of these streaming sites. Virtually anything that offers free live sports will throw in a large bonus bundle of Javascript voodoo. I recommend pirating with current virus protection and NoScript (or similar), and only letting the bare minimum through. Same for YouTube, I guess. Google typically doesn't suck, but better safe than sorry. InedibleHulk (talk) 21:58, May 4, 2014 (UTC)
Well I'm on a different ISP now and I left my computer behind so I have no way of knowing which is the main culprit. Guess I'll know when I get back, hopefully the issue will be resolved by then. 66.249.88.33 (talk) 01:50, 5 May 2014 (UTC)[reply]

removing websteroids

I can’t uninstall the unwanted program websteroids from my computer. I’m using windows vista and google chrome.

I looked up how to delete it but the situations other people have experienced don’t seem to apply for me. For example, numerous websites I have accessed state that one should simply uninstall the progam from your list of programs by going to control panel -> programs and features -> uninstall a program. When I do this, Websteroids does not appear in my list of programs.

Another website says when using chrome, go to Tools -> extensions and remove it from there, again, it does not appear as one of my extensions.

I have also completely reset the browser settings in google chrome, to no avail.

Every time I turn my computer on, my anti-virus software asks me if I want to block websteroids, to which I say yes, but I still get the annoying spaceship flying in front of my web pages!

Please help! Thanks RichYPE (talk) 18:45, 3 May 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Websteroids might be the publisher name, not the program name. If you pick on each program in the list of programs to remove, the publisher will be listed. Hopefully some of the programs will be published by Websteroids. Remove all of those. StuRat (talk) 20:44, 3 May 2014 (UTC)[reply]
In a search for "websteroids", most of the top results are "how to remove". —Tamfang (talk) 02:58, 4 May 2014 (UTC)[reply]

I have just checked all the programs installed on my computer, unfortunately, none are published by websteroids. As I stated before, I have followed the advice from numerous 'how to remove' pages but still not got anywhere. Please help! RichYPE (talk) 08:50, 4 May 2014 (UTC)[reply]

There are a number of suggestions on both the first and second page of this forum thread. Dismas|(talk) 09:46, 4 May 2014 (UTC)[reply]

May 4

Free Barcode generating softwares

Hi, Can anyone point out some free Barcode generating softwares?--Joseph 05:29, 4 May 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Sure: [1]. Shadowjams (talk) 06:51, 4 May 2014 (UTC)[reply]
Hi, I go through that link. But couldn't find a download link! All I got is a zip file that contains component files.--Joseph 12:23, 4 May 2014 (UTC)[reply]
I found a tgz file, not a zip file. That's the way much of free software is distributed. You don't specify what platform you are on - on most UNIX/Linux/OX-X boxes, you can follow the instructions in the README file and build the program. If you are on Windows, the situation might be more complicated - you may need to get a UNIX compatibility environment like Cygwin. --Stephan Schulz (talk) 13:10, 4 May 2014 (UTC)[reply]
See I don't have expertise in this. Is there any 'ready made' software that I can use directly on windows?--Joseph 13:35, 4 May 2014 (UTC)[reply]
A quick search reveals several possible options, including at least one that is online and requires no installation at all. WegianWarrior (talk) 13:49, 4 May 2014 (UTC)[reply]

FB Message in Inbox

Can a facebook user send a message directly to the inbox of a person who is not his friend,is not being followed by him nor is the senders follower and with whom he shares no mutual friend under any circumstances and if such messages can be sent what does it mean and imply for the sender.Because i can send message to a few such persons that is not going to their other folder but going to their inbox.Why? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 117.194.225.143 (talk) 07:30, 4 May 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Facebook had a scheme last year where a person could send a message directly to a non-friend's inbox by paying $1. I don't know if this scheme is still in place since I can't find any mention of it in Facebook's labyrinthine help section. This site suggests that there's a "Strict" setting that people may have changed to be less strict and that may be how your messages get through. There is also mention of messages going straight to the inbox if the receiver has already corresponded with you. So, even though you may not be friends, if they've messaged you in the past, they will continue to get your messages in their inbox and not their Other box. Dismas|(talk) 09:38, 4 May 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Fedora 20 installed alongside Windows 8, but dual-boot doesn't work

I have now installed the new hard drive into my new computer and installed Fedora 20 on it, being explicit about not changing anything on the existing Windows 8 drive.

Now both Linux and Windows work, in a way. To be able to install Fedora at all, I had to go to the boot menu and set the optical drive to override Windows EFI in the boot priority. Then I could install Fedora as normal.

When I restarted the computer, Fedora gave me a dual-boot menu asking if I wanted to boot Linux or Windows. Booting Linux worked and Fedora 20 ran all OK. But when I selected to boot Windows, I got this message:

File "/EFI/Microsoft/Boot/bootmgfw.efi" not found.
You have to boot the kernel first.

When I went to the boot menu again, and set Windows EFI to take priority over Fedora, I could boot into Windows and Windows 8 worked all OK, but the computer acted as if the entire second drive and Linux wasn't even there. Then when I went to the boot menu again and switched the priorities, I was back at the situation when only Linux worked.

Now I can sort-of boot both Linux and Windows, but I have to switch boot priorities every time. What can I do about this?

And lastly, the first thing I did in Fedora 20 was to install Cinnamon because I hate the new GNOME Panel. Cinnamon works, but I have to select it explicitly every time in the log-in screen, otherwise the session defaults into GNOME Panel. How can I make Cinnamon the default? JIP | Talk 13:41, 4 May 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Is this http://amidstsky.com/tech/install-ubuntu-or-fedora-in-dual-boot-with-windows-8-1-uefi/ of any help? If you manage to solve the dual boot problem, please let us know! --109.189.65.217 (talk) 19:50, 6 May 2014 (UTC)[reply]
I have learned through bitter experience, not to allow windows on the same hard drive on which I have Linux. The Widows OS appears to have bloat that bugger up any other non-windows OS on the same hard drive. The only way I have found for a care free life, is to either have windows on a second hard drive or to run windows in (or should be on) a virtual machine, running on a Linux host. Change over now... because when Window 9 comes out it, will more than likely be given away free (as in beer) (the microsofties are learning). You will only be able to use it however, if you subscribe to their cloud; and that will come at a cost of so many dollars a month. Far more than you ever amortized on XP etc. --Aspro (talk) 01:03, 7 May 2014 (UTC)[reply]

How secure are password managers?

I've heard good things about password managers (such as LastPass), but I'm curious as to how secure they are. Doesn't this create a single point of failure? Also, to a lesser extent, aren't these solutions incomplete? For example, I don't think that a password manager would work for Windows since I would need to be logged in first. Also, what about game systems such as my PS3, PS4, Vita and Wii U? I don't think there are apps for these systems. A Quest For Knowledge (talk) 20:31, 4 May 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Are you talking mainly about web passwords? Those programs have had a number of notorious security failures and I've been just using the Firefox password store instead. There is various FUD around the internet advocating separate password applications but I haven't found anything I've seen so far to be convincing. For sites where you have significant security exposure (financial sites including Paypal, domain registrars, code hosting, etc), you should use two-factor authentication (2FA) if you can, rather than relying on a re-usable password. If you register an email address with any security sensitive sites where you don't have 2FA, you should consider the email account associated with that address to also be sensitive, as someone who gets access to the email account can potentially use it with the "reset password" link for the other account. That means you should enable 2FA for your email account if the email service supports it. 70.36.142.114 (talk) 21:48, 4 May 2014 (UTC)[reply]

May 5

Can files disappear when moving them onto a flash drive?

Can files being moved off a pc and onto a flash drive disappear from the pc but not reappear on the flash drive without you having received error messages? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 216.207.8.170 (talk) 06:30, 5 May 2014 (UTC)[reply]

They've never done that for me, but, in theory, it is possible if the control software in the flash drive is malfunctioning, and reports a successful write to the computer's operating system when in fact the write was faulty. Another possibility is that the write was successful but a section of the flash drive has become unstable. In this case, file recovery software might (or might not) recover lost files. Dbfirs 08:53, 5 May 2014 (UTC)[reply]
This is also a symptom of some cheap generic or counterfeit flash drives produced in China that have a fake capacity. These are low capacity drives (typically 4GB or 8GB) that have been hacked to report a greatly inflated capacity (16GB up to 512GB, sometimes more) to the operating system. Once the true capacity is exceeded, data is quietly lost or corrupted. 24.254.222.118 (talk) 22:53, 5 May 2014 (UTC)[reply]
It can happen if you remove the flash drive from the computer before the files are completely written. Flash drives can be slow, so to speed things up, the operating system will cache the data, basically making a note of "when I've got time, finish writing this to the drive". Selecting "eject", "safely remove", or whatever your operating system calls it tells the OS to do the writing as quickly as possible, and let you know when it's done so you can remove the drive without losing data. --Carnildo (talk) 02:33, 8 May 2014 (UTC)[reply]
You can lose data this way, but you should get a warning when you unplug the drive ("Delayed Write Failed" on Windows), and there should be truncated version of the file on the flash drive (after repairing the file system). I don't see how a file could disappear completely and silently. -- BenRG (talk) 08:03, 8 May 2014 (UTC)[reply]
Yes, the operating system shouldn't lose track of a moving file because it checks the copy before deleting the original. If the write was incomplete, then the original should still be on the PC. Dbfirs 08:16, 8 May 2014 (UTC)[reply]
For valuable files, I usually copy to flash drive, then check that the files are readable there, or copy to backup elsewhere, before deleting the originals. I've never lost files in moving them to a flash drive, but, for various reasons mentioned above, sometimes it pays to be over-cautious. The problem with just moving is that the files cannot be restored from the recycle bin if something goes wrong (though in theory they still exist on the PC hard drive until the space is overwritten). "Move" is really a "copy" followed by a "delete". My operating system (Windoze) does not perform the "delete" until it thinks it has checked the existence of the moved files, but when it does delete as part of a "move", it simply removes the file table links without recording the data in the recycle bin and without protecting the space on the hard drive. (Other operating systems might behave differently.) Dbfirs 08:09, 8 May 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Hexapawn

I tried to build a "sweet computer" to play the game of Hexapawn as per these instructions (pdf), but I'm having trouble understanding the instructions. Page 7 of the pdf shows that there are two possibilities for the computer's first move. Now, having played several games, I've worked out which is the right first move for the computer. But this means that the game will never get to the stage where I have to work out which is the right second move. What am I doing wrong? Many thanks, --Viennese Waltz 15:43, 5 May 2014 (UTC)[reply]

It looks like an interesting game. If you read the first paragraph of the pdf "One of the most exciting branches of computer science is called machine learning" so I would expect machine learning to play a role. The instructions do say on page 3 that a possible move should be picked at random. The way the learning for the computer seems to happen is in the eating sweets corresponding to the last moving move. As you repeat the game it will not be able to repeat that move so bad moves are avoided. To appreciate how the machine learns you should not really try to second guess the computers moves, while there are still un-eaten sweets for each state always pick one at random. --Salix alba (talk): 16:28, 5 May 2014 (UTC)[reply]
Are you doing the 3x3 version ? If so, it looks like you can do a brute force approach and just create a tree of every possible game. From there, each player would choose the move on the tree which offers the greatest chance of winning. This method looks like it might work for the 4x4 version too, but 5x5 may well be too much for it. StuRat (talk) 23:16, 5 May 2014 (UTC)[reply]
You might be interested in finding a copy of "We Built our own Computers" by A.B.Bolt (1966). I think there is a 2010 re-issue and there are pdfs of it on the web. I'm lucky enough to own an original. There is a section about a matchbox computer that plays Hexapawn and it might help you. When I was a spotty faced schoolboy in 1974, a couple of us made a machine inspired by the JACKIE computer featured. I hope one day to recreate it. --TrogWoolley (talk) 03:14, 6 May 2014 (UTC)[reply]

What is Half Compiled Code in .Net?

In .NET programming language like C#, VB.NET, etc;get compiled differently but does not compile into executable code instead it compiles into an intermediate code called Microsoft Intermediate Code Language (MSICL)which is a common language for both the languages. It is also called Half-Compiled Code since it cannot be fully decoded. It is then passed to an Interpreter called Common Language Runtime (CLR). Merlin Thomas (talk) 17:15, 5 May 2014 (UTC)Merlin Thomas-[reply]

You appear to be answering your own question. Why? AndyTheGrump (talk) 18:06, 5 May 2014 (UTC)[reply]

What is Compiler and Interpreter in .Net Framework?

1.JIT is the internal compiler of .NET which takes MicroSoft Intermediate Code Language (MSICL) code from CLR and executes it to machine specific instructions whereas CLR works as an engine its main task is to provide MSICL code to JIT to ensure that code is fully compiled as per machine specification.
2.Common Language Runtime(CLR) is interpreter while Just In Time(JIT) is compiler in .Net Framework.

Merlin Thomas (talk) 17:15, 5 May 2014 (UTC)Merlin Thomas-[reply]

You appear to be answering your own question. Why? AndyTheGrump (talk) 18:06, 5 May 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Recovering data when a hard drive crashes

I have a question about recovering data when a hard drive crashes. I don't know much about computers and all the technical jargon, so please keep answers at an elementary level. Thanks. So, here is my question. My hard drive crashed. I sent it to a data recovery service center. They told me that they were able to recover the data. Now, my data contains many hundreds (if not, thousands) of files and folders. Obviously, I cannot recall the name of every single file and folder that I have had (over the years). When I receive my recovered data, how will I know if it is all there? Or if even some of it is missing? In other words, how do I know if the service center recovered 100% of my data ... or perhaps only 50% or 10% or whatever? The tech rep on the phone said – essentially – that I am the only person who would know whether all my files are there or not. He said that the recovery team just recovers what they can recover ... and they don't know if there is any data that they "missed" or were not able to recover. I think he said something like: if files are corrupted, they themselves don't even know that the files exist; they don't "show up". So, is there any way to know the percentage of how many files have been recovered and how many became lost (other than my memory or recollection of the names of my thousands of files)? I kept pressing the repair tech for a "better" answer; he simply kept saying that they have no way of knowing how much (and what) data I originally had on the hard drive before it crashed; I am the only person who will know that. He did offer this: he said, "your hard drive holds 64 gigs; we recovered 50 gigs". Does that mean that my original hard drive had only 50 gigs of data and 14 gigs of free space? Or does that mean that my hard drive originally had 64 gigs of data; they recovered 50 gigs; and the remaining 14 gigs are lost? I am totally confused. Can anyone offer any insight on this? Many thanks. Joseph A. Spadaro (talk) 19:12, 5 May 2014 (UTC)[reply]

In general there is no way to know. Say you have a 100 page notebook and your dog chews it up. Careful reassembly and photography lets you reconstruct 86 pages with stuff written on them. The other 14 pages are chewed up beyond hope of recovery. So did they have stuff written on them or were they blank? You can't tell. 70.36.142.114 (talk) 19:59, 5 May 2014 (UTC)[reply]
Thanks. Not the answer I wanted to hear, of course. But, that leads me to two follow up questions. (Question 1) In your example, at least you know that there are 14 missing pages. Whether these pages were blank or had writing, you don't know. What is the analogy to the hard drive? Shouldn't they be able to say how many "pages" are missing ... without specifying if the "missing pages" had data or were empty/blank? And (Question 2) so, does the customer just blindly pay the service? I am paying them $ XXXXX, and I have no idea how much of my data they are recovering? It could be 100% or it could be 5% ... and I am still paying them the same flat fee of $ XXXX? Is that how this works? It seems like you are paying a lot of money, and you don't know exactly what you are getting in return ... no? Thanks. Joseph A. Spadaro (talk) 20:06, 5 May 2014 (UTC)[reply]
Was there super valuable stuff on the drive? Do you know what happened with the drive, i.e. did it physically crash? Raw data blocks (equivalent to pages in a notebook) aren't intrinsically associated with files. Instead, a few of the blocks (to first approximation, call this the "directory") says which blocks belong to which files. Blocks also get reallocated when you delete files and create new ones. So your partial recovery can result from some blocks having been physically unreadable, but it's also possible that some blocks were readable and yet not associated with files because the file metadata in the directory was itself clobbered somehow (this happens with some drives due to power failures and the like). It's also possible that the blocks were in a file and then you deleted the file, which typically erases the directory entry but leaves the raw blocks alone (they get rewritten when they're reallocated to another file). You can sometimes recover content from the raw blocks if you have an image of the physically recoverable blocks, a reasonably good idea of what you're looking for, some scripting ability, and a lot of time on your hands. It was more reasonable to do manually in the era of 1 megabyte floppy discs than it is with 50 gigabyte hard drives.

Data recovery is expensive, partly because of special equipment and parts that the recovery places have, but (it seems to me) partly because there is obscure knowledge involved, particularly on the hardware side.

No they can't guarantee results. If you are hit by a bus and you go in for surgery, your doctors can't guarantee (cue various jokes) that you'll play the violin normally afterwards, but they do a lot of work on you and you'll get billed for it either way. 70.36.142.114 (talk) 20:16, 5 May 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Added: if 64gb was the physical capacity of the hard drive and they recovered 50gb, you did pretty good. If it was something like a 500gb drive and they said you had 64gb of data and they recovered 50gb, they probably figured out the 64gb from the metadata and it's remotely possible that you could piece together some of the rest by content-specific means (digital forensics might have some useful references). Usually recovery goes by first imaging the physically readable blocks from the crashed drive to another drive, then trying to reconstruct files and directories from the raw image using various kinds of software tools. The imaging phase involves special hardware and knowledge that I mentioned: there are some scary youtube videos with conflicting advice, showing people taking drives apart and unsticking heads, and that type of thing. That's where those guys make their money. The software phase, it seems to me, takes some patience and experience, but the tools they use aren't terribly magical and equivalent tools can often be downloaded from the internet.

If you want to keep working on it you could ask about getting the raw sector image that the recovery guys were able to make, if they made one and kept it. You could hire consultants to work on it with you, who would explain what they were doing and use your knowledge of the drive contents to possibly get a little bit more data than the generic recovery did, but if you don't even know what files you had, I don't see how it's worth the expenditure. I lost several boxes of "treasured" personal possessions in a move some years ago, and was upset til I realized that since I couldn't really remember what was in the boxes, they must not have been that important after all, if that makes any sense to you. 70.36.142.114 (talk) 20:43, 5 May 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks. In all honestly, I hardly understood a word that you said. Too technical and complicated for my basic understanding. Nearly all of that went over my head, unfortunately. But, to answer your question. Yes, it was very valuable. It was all of my files and folders and data from the last 20+ years. I could hire a second consultant, but I don't even know if there are missing files to be found (in the case that the first service recovered 100% of the data). So, is the bottom line that I can never know and will never know whether all or only part of my data has been recovered? When they do their physical work with the hard drive, they can't even "know" (determine) that there is data that they were unable to access? In other words, can't they determine something like: "sector 12 of the hard drive was corrupted, but all the other sectors are fine" ... ? Which will give me some indication of the extent of lost data. Thanks. Joseph A. Spadaro (talk) 21:09, 5 May 2014 (UTC)[reply]
I'd be more optimistic. As they have recovered 50GB they have had a pretty high success ratio. If it was mechanical failure which did not actually damage the actual disk platters then they may have been able to get everything. If some block got corrupted then that can be enough to stop things running but not enough to do significant damage to all your personal files. Its relatively rare to damage a large number of blocks. --Salix alba (talk): 21:22, 5 May 2014 (UTC)[reply]
Yes, they should be able to give you a complete list of the sectors they couldn't read, as well as a raw disk image containing all of the sectors that they could read. And they should certainly be able to answer your totally reasonable question about the meaning of "your hard drive holds 64 gigs; we recovered 50 gigs". Call them back and demand an answer. Eventually they will transfer you to somebody who knows something. -- BenRG (talk) 22:11, 5 May 2014 (UTC)[reply]
They should be able to tell you "sector 12 was unreadable". But if sector 12 was part of the "directory" (file allocation table etc) then they will no longer know that it described a file that lived at sectors 108241, 697, 30824, 797979, and 50038 in that order. That means there is the possibility that 108241, 697, 30824, 797979, and 50038 are all recoverable but they have no way to know whether they belonged to actual files. If those sectors contain ordinary text you could maybe say "oh that's my wonderful letter from Mom!" and figure out what order they were supposed to be in. But if they were chunks of compressed video, they look basically random and it's near hopeless.
If you had 20 years worth of data on a 64gb disk, that suggests you migrated the data from older and smaller discs and other places, since discs of the mid-1990's were much smaller than 64gb. Is there some chance you can put your hands on the original places where the data came from?

If you've got a consultant working with you, it might be easier for him/her to ask the right questions of the recovery place about getting the images, than for you to figure out exactly what to ask.

How old was this hard drive and what OS was it? There's an issue with the FAT filesystem (basically Windows 98 and earlier, I think) that the blocks in a file are chained by block numbers directly in the blocks, so if the middle block of a 100 block file is corrupted, it can be difficult for recovery to figure out where the rest of the blocks are. But if that happens they should be able to detect the dangling blocks with software and say "here's this 50 block fragment we picked up, it's likely to be the tail end of some file, but we don't know for sure and we don't know which file". That might or might not do you any good. 70.36.142.114 (talk) 22:39, 5 May 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Added: I've actually never heard of a 64gb hard drive. 40gb, 60gb, 80gb, 120gb were standard sizes. Do you know the make and model of the drive you had recovered? 70.36.142.114 (talk) 22:40, 5 May 2014 (UTC)[reply]
Also, no it's not always possible to tell corruption from good data. They try to read a block and one of three things happens: 1) they read it successfully and it has good data; 2) it is unreadable because the disk surface has been physically damaged; 3) they read it successfully but the data is no good. They can tell you if #2 happens but it's harder for them to distinguish between #1 and #3. Like if they recover a page from your written notebook with stuff written on it. If it is readable English it's probably good. If it's random-looking gibberish, maybe it's because the page was corrupted, but maybe it's because random-looking gibberish is actually what you wrote on the page and it's a successful recovery of that page. Big hard drives are often full of compressed data such as video, and compressed data looks quite random if you haven't got the whole file in one piece. What were the most important types of files on the disk if you don't mind my asking? (I don't mean about the content, I just mean at the level of "photos", "text files", "spreadsheets", etc. since that will affect the ease of identifying files with software.) 70.36.142.114 (talk) 22:47, 5 May 2014 (UTC)[reply]
Thanks. I have no idea of the name/model of the hard drive. I guess that it is whatever came standard with my Dell computer. The OS is Windows 8.1. These are files that I have had for 20+ years. I have always backed up my files on, say, a weekly basis. Then, I got lazy. The last time that I did a back up was approximately December 2013. Meaning that four months of new data and new files had never been backed up on my external hard drive. These files, 99% of them, are Word files, Excel files, PDF files, maybe a few photographs. Mainly Office documents (Word, Excel). Thanks. Joseph A. Spadaro (talk) 23:05, 5 May 2014 (UTC)[reply]
I just looked around in my Dell computer, under the "PC Information" and such. They actually have four or five hard drives listed! So, I don't know which is the relevant one? Joseph A. Spadaro (talk) 23:08, 5 May 2014 (UTC)[reply]
I looked some more. For my "C" Drive, it says "OS (C:)", then it says 2 TB. The only place where I see the value 64 mentioned is where it says "64-bit Operating System". This is all Greek to me!?!?!?! Joseph A. Spadaro (talk) 23:21, 5 May 2014 (UTC)[reply]
1) If there are several drives listed I'd say look in all of them for useful info. 2) Wait, if you have a 4 month old backup then this is about 4 months worth of data rather than 20 years, right? If the recovery operation got most of the 4 months back, you're doing pretty good and can look into ways of recreating whatever is missing if it's important. 3) A Dell computer with Windows 8.1 sounds pretty recent, so the data must have gotten onto it from someplace else, like an older computer. So if you still have the old computer with its disk intact, your data from before the migration should still be there.

External hard disks aren't that great a backup strategy by the way: they tend to fail by sitting on the shelf for too long. If the amount of data you're accumulating is growing relatively slowly then you could back up to an external drive daily (a USB flash stick might be big eonugh, and much more convenient) and burn a CD or DVD once a week or so. There are probably also some fully automatic Windows backup tools like AirPort Time Capsule that Apple sells. You just install the backup application on your computer and put the backup machine in your closet, and it takes care of everything for you, backing up all your files over wifi while you sleep at night. Or if you have fast internet and don't mind cloud backup (privacy concerns etc.) you could look at Backblaze. Cheap monthly fee, completely automatic backups over the network, and if your drive crashes and it's too much data to download, they'll put your data on a physical hard drive and ship it to you for a reasonable charge. 70.36.142.114 (talk) 00:58, 6 May 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks. From what I can gather, my C Drive is 2 TB. I am not sure why the guy said to me: "out of 64 gigs, we recovered 50 gigs". The computer is brand new, less than a year old. I have data from 20+ years ago. Up until December 2013, all of that data was backed up (external hard drives). The last time I did a back up to my external hard drive was December 2013. So, there is only 4 months of data that is potentially missing (December 2013 through April 2014). Everything, pre-December 2013 is safe and sound on the external hard drive from my most recent back up. After this crisis happened, I went out and subscribed to not one, but two, cloud back up services. I had always been meaning to, and never got around to it. Until this happened. Joseph A. Spadaro (talk) 04:52, 6 May 2014 (UTC)[reply]
Also, the data from my last back up (December 2013) was about 8 gigs. I am referring only to files and folders. I don't back up the OS or the program files. I only back up the Word documents, Excel spreadsheets, PDF files, photos, etc. On my December 2013 back up, all of those data files amounted to just about 8 gigs. In the last 4 months, I doubt that I accumulated much more than that. Joseph A. Spadaro (talk) 04:56, 6 May 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks, all. Joseph A. Spadaro (talk) 16:56, 7 May 2014 (UTC)[reply]

It might be a good idea to do a list dump of all the files on your hard drive to a text file (Command Prompt, "dir /S" in your main folder) to a USB stick every so often; that way you have a list of everything on your drive and can refer back to it if need be. -- 140.202.10.134 (talk) 20:19, 7 May 2014 (UTC)[reply]
Ahhh, great idea. I did not know about that. Thanks. Joseph A. Spadaro (talk) 23:53, 7 May 2014 (UTC)[reply]

May 6

Javascript Error: "Uncaught ReferenceError: __adroll is not defined"

Hi, Recently I added AddThis share buttons on my blog. And they went suddenly disappeared one day. When I contacted their support team, they told that it's due to a Javascript error. Also, they sent me a screenshot. There I could see an error named Uncaught ReferenceError: __adroll is not defined. I've searched a lot on net to find a solution to fix this. But couldn't find one. Can anyone help me out to fix this?--Joseph 03:22, 6 May 2014 (UTC)[reply]

First off try just regenerating the code from their website. You may be linking to an out of date script. If that does not work post the code you used or add a link to your website, we would need more details to help. You could try it just on a blank page to see if anything else is conflicting.--Salix alba (talk): 07:22, 6 May 2014 (UTC)[reply]
I've removed the code and used a new one from their site. But it doesn't solved the problem. Here is the code I'm using:
<script type="text/javascript" src="//s7.addthis.com/js/300/addthis_widget.js#pubid=ra-5358bd9112b31987"></script>
<script type='text/javascript'>
var addthis_product = "blg";
document.doAT = function(cl)
{
        var myclass = new RegExp('hentry');
        var myTitleContainer = new RegExp('post-title');
        var myPostContent = new RegExp('post-footer');
        var elem = this.getElementsByTagName('div');

        var url;
        var title = "";
        
        for (var i = 0; i < elem.length; i++)
        {
            var classes = elem[i].className;
            if (myclass.test(classes))
            {   
            	var container = elem[i];
            	url = window.location.href;
            	
                for (var b = 0; b < container.childNodes.length; b++)
                {
                    var item = container.childNodes[b].className;
                    if (myTitleContainer.test(item))
                    {
                        var link = container.childNodes[b].getElementsByTagName('a');
                        if (typeof(link[0]) != 'undefined')
                        {
                            var url = link[0].href;
                            var title = link[0].innerHTML;
                        }

                    var singleq = new RegExp("'", 'g');
                    var doubleq = new RegExp('"', 'g');                                                                                                                                                                                                                        
                    title = title.replace(singleq, '&#39;', 'gi');
                    title = title.replace(doubleq, '&#34;', 'gi');

                    }
                    if (myPostContent.test(item))
                    {
                        var footer = container.childNodes[b];
                    }
                }
	                var n = document.createElement('div');
	                var at = "<div class='addthis_toolbox addthis_default_style addthis_32x32_style' addthis:title='"+title+"' addthis:url='"+encodeURI(url)+"'   > 
<a class='addthis_button_preferred_1'></a> 
<a class='addthis_button_preferred_2'></a> 
<a class='addthis_button_preferred_3'></a> 
<a class='addthis_button_preferred_4'></a> 
<a class='addthis_button_compact'></a> 
<a class='addthis_counter addthis_bubble_style'></a> </div> ";
	                n.innerHTML = at;
	                container.insertBefore(n , footer);   
            }
        }
    return true;
};

document.doAT('hentry');
</script>

And this is my blog. What all more details should I provide you?--Joseph 11:48, 6 May 2014 (UTC)[reply]

I've tried this code and it works for me. You need to change the code from the line var myclass = new RegExp('hentry'); to var myclass = new RegExp('h-entry'); as their seems to be an incompatibility with you blogspot page and the code addthis is expecting. Is you software upto date?
I think the __adroll issue is something separate. The error message you are getting seems to refer different site.--Salix alba (talk): 13:13, 6 May 2014 (UTC)[reply]
Wow! That fixed it. Thanks a lot Salix alba. You're a genius!--Joseph 13:39, 6 May 2014 (UTC)[reply]
Resolved

May 7

Using supercomputers instead of distributed computing

Some universities use powerful computers for a number of problems beyond the reasonable capacity of a normal computer. Is it more economical to use these computers than use a distributed computing system to make use of the spare capacity of their many, many desktop computers? --129.215.47.59 (talk) 12:26, 7 May 2014 (UTC)[reply]

It depends on the problem - in particular how linked the various bits are. One can easily search for primes using distributed computing because the only thing each processor needs to know is which ones it should check. It would be very difficult to get any useful speed increase using distributed processing in weather forecasting because that depends on what happens all around the world. Plus of course you need a lot of people to be interested in the distributed computing problem. Dmcq (talk) 14:09, 7 May 2014 (UTC)[reply]
Some supercomputers are essentially performing distributed computation. As Dmcq says, what is optimal depends on the nature of the problem, and how parallelizable it is. Automatic parallelization attempts to parallelize problems algorithmically, but traditionally it takes lots of human cleverness, unless the problem "naturally" consists of independent sub units, e.g. the prime hunt mentioned above. (As a small point of fact, global circulation models are usually run on large clusters, though computer scientists and physicists have spent huge amounts of effort to allow for it.)SemanticMantis (talk) 14:51, 7 May 2014 (UTC)[reply]
I would say that most university supercomputers are massive clusters. They may have a high-speed interconnect, but it has gotten to the point where gigabit Ethernet is enough for most applications. A dedicated cluster is preferable to using the other on-campus computers as compute nodes because of the level of control and reliability that you get from dedicated systems. There's no risk of the PC's other users rebooting or shutting down computers, the OS and performance is consistent across nodes, and the system as a whole is simpler to reconfigure. Dedicated ethernet switches mean that you can expect consistent transfer rates between nodes. It also allows better heat management - a coworker and I tried installing some grid computing software in a university computer lab once, and the CPUs running at 100% 24/7 overwhelmed the building's HVAC system. Katie R (talk) 19:03, 8 May 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Editing from a private-network IP

Over at WP:AN, there's a discussion about User:10.68.16.31, which has been making lots of bot-type edits; it's clearly User:ClueBot III editing while logged out. However, WHOIS and Geolocate both tell me that 10.68.16.31 is a private IP address. How can an address from a private network be assigned in a way that it's credited with edits? I've heard of people being able to spoof IP addresses, e.g. to avoid being blocked for stuff like this, so I can imagine someone spoofing a private address — but obviously that's not the case with one of the ClueBots. Nyttend (talk) 22:29, 7 May 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Yes, it's running on a machine inside WMF's private network. "Private" means "not routable across the public Internet; in this case it's going from one WMF machine to another, inside that private network. The MediaWiki software just sees the address of the client (user agent) that's talking to it, and reports that. -- Finlay McWalterᚠTalk 22:40, 7 May 2014 (UTC)[reply]
[edit conflict with 82.44.76.14] So the ClueBots are running on WMF computers; I didn't know that. I just figured they were run on the ClueNet computers or on Cobi's (or someone else's) private home computer. If someone started editing from WMF-run computers, would we likewise be shown a private-network IP address? Six months ago, when localhost was editing due to a glitch, someone suggested that people were editing from the server computer. Nyttend (talk) 23:01, 7 May 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Here's an interesting case 82.44.76.14 (talk) 22:57, 7 May 2014 (UTC)[reply]

I think that those 10.* bots are running from toolserver. They shouldn't be allowed to edit while logged out, since it loses the info that the edits came from a bot. That's funny about 127.0.0.1. There is also one from 8.8.8.8 (the Google public DNS server). 70.36.142.114 (talk) 02:42, 8 May 2014 (UTC)[reply]
According to https://wikitech.wikimedia.org/wiki/IP_addresses , 10.68.16.xx is assigned to machines in WMF's Ashburn, Virginia cluster ("equiad"). Cluebot migrated from WM-Deutschland's Toolserver to WM-Labs "Tool Labs" at equiad in March (ref). A list of the equiad machines is here, but I'm not aware of a detailed IP map, so I don't know which one(s) specifically host Tool Labs. -- Finlay McWalterᚠTalk 08:27, 8 May 2014 (UTC)[reply]

May 8

Uneven text size on Android browsers

So, I have a Lenovo A369i, and while I managed to turn this text reflow option off on the default browser, and turning on Text Wrap in Opera did the trick, for some reason I couldn't find the equivalent setting in Firefox. Blake Gripling (talk) 07:42, 8 May 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Python

print(*[hi_stem(word) for word in line.split()])

What does the * in front of "[hi_stem..." signify? This is written in Python 3.1, and I use 2.7 and I can't get to make it work in my version. Any help is much appreciated. La Alquimista 07:46, 8 May 2014 (UTC)[reply]

The * unpacks the arguments. It doesn't work in Python 2 because print isn't a function. It should work if you add from __future__ import print_function to the top of the file. -- BenRG (talk) 07:55, 8 May 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Discarding prime powers in PARI

I've written the following PARI code

N=10^9; for(n=2, N, if(Mod(binomial(2*n-1, n-1), n) == 1 && !isprime(n), print1(n, ", ")));

The problem is that this also reports all prime powers, which I don't want. Is there an easy way to tell PARI to not report prime powers? -- Toshio Yamaguchi 17:13, 8 May 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Mobile phone text message screenshots

OK, I'll have to ask. I have seen various screenshots of mobile phone text message conversations on the Internet. They all follow the same graphical pattern, and are pixel-for-pixel accurate. How are these made? Can people these days take screenshots of their mobile phone screens and upload them to the Internet, or is there some sort of fancy on-line tool that creates graphical images of text message transcripts? Or do people really type all the messages by hand to an on-line tool, which I rather doubt? JIP | Talk 17:54, 8 May 2014 (UTC)[reply]

You didn't say what phones you're referring to. On recent (past few years, not sure precisely when it was added) versions of iOS and Android, there are built in ways to take screenshots. Android has also supported taking screenshots on the computer via ADB probably since version 2 or earlier. I suspect Windows Phones also have some way to take screenshots or really any decent smartphone OS. And any decent smartphone can upload local media such as photographs taken via the phone or screenshots to sites which support them via the browser or other methods. (I'm pretty sure even iOS which severely restricts what apps can access allows this.) Nil Einne (talk) 18:46, 8 May 2014 (UTC)[reply]
A lot of them will be iOS screenshots taken on iPhones. Those will be pretty nearly pixel-perfect to each-other because they're all running exactly the same software.
There's also websites (example) that will fake it for you. (ie:for comedy reasons)
APL (talk) 20:25, 8 May 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Good note taking application?

Hi, I was wondering if anyone here could recommend a good application that can be used to take quick notes and doodles, perhaps emulating standard paper and pencil. I've searched Google quite a bit but I seem to only come up with text note apps, but missing the feature where I can draw shapes and diagrams, or maybe even drag text boxes around. I'm on Windows but a web-based application would be great too. Thanks -- penubag  (talk) 04:30, 9 May 2014 (UTC)[reply]

I use EverNote pretty heavily. The "paper and pencil" approach is one I've used a little, but don't have much practical need for. There are Moleskine notebooks designed by Evernote specifically to be easily digitized (quite expensive, though) and Skitch interfaces with it well for the kinds of graphical tasks you're talking about. It has decent OCR. You can use the web-based client, but that will quickly become cumbersome; the Windows client seems pretty reliable and is frequently updated. --— Rhododendrites talk |  05:59, 9 May 2014 (UTC)[reply]
I was mostly looking into free options. Free as in free lunch not necessarily GPL. One that I can use on my computer to storyboard and take notes. Can I draw on Evernote for free? I tried it and it looks like it only takes keyboard text. -- penubag  (talk) 07:13, 9 May 2014 (UTC)[reply]
OneNote can do all that, and Microsoft recently made it free for everyone. It has a web version, an offline version, and phone/tablet apps. —Noiratsi (talk) 09:40, 9 May 2014 (UTC)[reply]

I lost my PC's screen commands

Hello Wise Ones ! I recently found in a dump a rather good-looking Medion Notebook PC, hosting an XP OS who had been asleep for some 6-7 years. As its screen had been gouged in, I plugged my new PC to a monitor, & it worked OK, though slowly; but, the image being blurry, I tried to make it more crisp, and got on my screen a very widened panorama of the Blue Mountains, with no commands at all. Figuring they were somewhere & not very far, I tried to click outside the screen, but nothing changed. How can I go back to the former screen ? At length, by switching power in & out several times I got a "failure-less boot" which did not give me back a normal screen but allowed me to surf a little, & enter WP to consult it , but not to edit...Thanks a lot beforehand for your help ( though I'm an old timer (& entered in comput. just before retirement), I can hear geeks chuckling from afar ;-). If I can get this Medion to work, it'll offer it to one of my grand-sons, & it'll learn him to keep his fortitude in front of his pals' sneers ) Arapaima (talk) 09:48, 9 May 2014 (UTC)[reply]

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