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March 26

Dropbox String-Matching Algorithm

Dear Wikipedians:

I used to search for my pictures and videos by doing "2014-04" to pull up all all pictures and videos in April, 2014 for example. This used to work beautifully.

Today I did the same search again, and finds that Dropbox is breaking the 2014 and 04 apart and coming up with many irrelevant results such as 2014-05-03 12.04.05.jpg!!! It's driving me nuts!!!

How do I get the old, exact string-matching algorithm back?

Thanks!

184.144.50.168 (talk) 13:52, 26 March 2015 (UTC)

I added a title OldTimeNESter (talk) 13:57, 26 March 2015 (UTC)

Thanks! OP 184.144.50.168 (talk) 15:16, 26 March 2015 (UTC)

To clarify, are you doing the search within Dropbox or using an external search tool, such as Google, with the "site:dropbox.com" clause ? (If not, try using Google that way and see if it works any better.) StuRat (talk) 06:19, 27 March 2015 (UTC)

Thanks StuRat for your response. I am doing the search within Dropbox and it seems that recently they have changed the algorithm behind their filename-searching and matching. 184.144.50.168 (talk) 01:11, 28 March 2015 (UTC)

OK. Did you try Google, as suggested ? (Annoyingly, Google also feels free to change how their search works, often making it worse, without telling anyone, but hopefully they didn't mess up this yet.) StuRat (talk) 01:54, 28 March 2015 (UTC)

Just tried it, it doesn't work. The search either returned public Dropbox corporate documents, or returned nothing (with the search string "site:dropbox.com/home" clause. But thanks for all your help! 184.144.50.168 (talk) 20:21, 28 March 2015 (UTC)

Oh! What a joy! The search algorithm reverted to the old one! 184.144.50.168 (talk) 20:28, 28 March 2015 (UTC)

March 27

TinyCore Linux

Hi!

I am trying to get Tiny Core Linux v.6.1 up and running.

The PC is a Dell Optiplex 740 that boots and runs Tails (operating system) from a DVD or USB drive just fine, so I know the the BIOS is set properly.

TinyCore boots from a DVD that I made from a downloadable ISO, but instead of a GUI I get the shell/command prompt. Here is what I tried:

 tc@box: ls
 tc@box: pwd
 /home/tc
 tc@box: startx
 -sh: startx: not found
 tc@box: tci
 -sh: tci: not found
 tc@box: tc-install
 -sh: tc-install: not found

The tci and tc-install setup commands are from this page.

I can move around the file system and ls the usual files in the usual places solscommand just shows that /home/tc is empty.

I tried both TinyCore and CorePlus downloaded from here

This looks like a really interesting distro to play around with (9MB command line, 15MB GUI!) if I can only get the installer working and put it on my (preformatted with ext2) thumb drive.

Somehow I just can't stop thinking that I am missing something blindingly obvious. --CypherPunkyBrewster (talk) 00:40, 27 March 2015 (UTC)

The tinycore FAQ has a section "Help X does not start. Why does my system boot up to a login prompt?" Does that help?-gadfium 22:52, 27 March 2015 (UTC)

I tried it, and the result was (when booting from the DVD):

tc@box: tinycore xsetup

-sh: tinycore: not found

However, I did find another way the get it running.

1. Prepare a formatted FAT32 USB thumb drive.
2. Plug it into a computer running Windows Windows XP, Vista, or 7 (I don't know about 8 or 10)
3. Put a DVD made with the CorePlus-current.iso in the DVD drive.
4. Download core2usb.exe from http://sourceforge.net/projects/core2usb/
5. Run core2usb.exe (it's a standalone -- no install)
6. Follow the instructions for loading TinyCore Linux to the thumb drive.
7. Boot from the thumb drive (it has to be before the DVD or HDD in the BIOS boot sequence)
8. It should boot into the TinyCore GUI (it did for me)
9. Follow the instructions in the corebook to load and run tc-install.
10. Now you can install TinyCore on another thumb drive using ext4 or one of several other formats.
11. If you want the new thumb drive to be able to install or remaster, It will get the files to do that from the DVD.

I still haven't figured out why the DVD dumped my into the shell with no way to install anything, but with the workaround I have a working system. I will do a followup here if I figure out the DVD GUI problem. BTW, TinyCore does everything I want it to do, boots faster than any distro I have ever tried, and at 15MB it fits on those old, small thumb drives we all end up collecting along the way. --CypherPunkyBrewster (talk) 04:33, 29 March 2015 (UTC)

Reboot Android to Safe Mode

• Pipo m9pro wifi
• Android 4.2.2 (rooted)

Something's wrong with my tablet. The popup dialog box says "Unfortunately, the process com.android.phone has stopped". I clicked OK. The dialog pops up within a second over and over.

I can't select reboot to safe mode because of that noisy dialog box.

I can't press volume + and - together to enter safe mode because this tablet does not have these two buttons. It only has ESC and power. I can only press the power button for several seconds to turn off the tablet. When I turn on the tablet again, it gives me the same dialog boxes.

What can I do to enter safe mode?

I am using this tablet mainly as a book reader. I can do factory reset. It's just I can't do anything now except for press OK. This tablet is not a phone. I am more than pleased to disable com.android.phone if I could. I am more than pleased to disable most of the crap put into the system by Google. -- Toytoy (talk) 09:58, 27 March 2015 (UTC)

According to this information there could be a reset hole on the side of the device which you can press with a paperclip. You might find that a short press will do a 'soft reset' - basically just power off and on again - while a long press (5 or 10 seconds) will do a 'hard reset'. If that doesn't work, there are instructions here (under 'WHAT TO DO IF FLASHING GOES WRONG') that require connecting a PC but seem to offer hope for re-flashing the ROM (i.e. resetting the firmware). - Cucumber Mike (talk) 12:04, 27 March 2015 (UTC)

Deinstalled a game but I still lost 7GB of total space...

I installed The Elder Scrolls:Skyrim after purchasing it on Steam, which left me with 93GB free on hard drive. It took up 7GB of space. Then I deinstalled it via "Delete local content" but still only have 93GB available. I even went into SteamApps and deleted its file there, but that didn't help. Where are these 7 worthless GB and how can I delete them? 107.10.22.138 (talk) 12:06, 27 March 2015 (UTC)

In my experience, a Disk Defrag actually frees up disk space (sometimes). You can also use CCleaner (which is free). That should clean most of the content which is remaining. KägeTorä - (_虎) (もしもし！) 12:28, 27 March 2015 (UTC)

TFC (temp file cleaner) does a better job. Depending on your OS you may have saved game files in your Documents folder or in your User folder. -- Gadget850 13:16, 27 March 2015 (UTC)

Obvious but worth mentioning: Did you check the recycle bin? Are you sure the free space hadn't dropped to 86GB for some unrelated reason before you deleted Skyrim?

If there is a System Restore point from when the game was installed, that might prevent the space from being marked as free, but I'm not sure that's how free-space accounting works with System Restore.

WinDirStat or a similar utility will tell you which folders are using the most disk space (it will not see System-Restore-related disk space, though). -- BenRG (talk) 18:03, 27 March 2015 (UTC)

Defrag never conquers free disk space, is only moves blocks, a prefefined number of sectors, to anoter place of the disk to line up the whole file for accessing it at once. When ever it would result of recompressing uncompressed files, if ever the program an filesystem support this. More likely is freeing file fragments of inconsitent file systems. Such is to repair with the chkdsk command.

Games save you score, custom settings and some games inclde an editors to create own parts of the game. Online games need to store information about your game user identity to prevent cheating or store bought or achieved virtual items or keys to acces them on the games manufacturers server. See waht information and values are behind that if any and know this information will be stored on the computer's user profile as your data if not explicit removed. --Hans Haase (有问题吗) 12:51, 28 March 2015 (UTC)

Does Steam keep the installer file after you've installed the game (and then uninstalled it)? LongHairedFop (talk) 13:08, 28 March 2015 (UTC)

I have Steam, and Steam does not move anything to the recycle bin when deleting local content. I still recommend CCleaner and also Advanced System Care. Also, check your AppData folder for anything remaining. I can't check it now, because I am on a Mac at the moment. When I get back to my PC, I can do it, but that will be a bit later on. KägeTorä - (_虎) (もしもし！) 13:30, 28 March 2015 (UTC)

In my experience, the file system on current Macs will only notice removed files when the recycle bin is emptied, even if files are removed with rm and never show up in the bin. I don't know how or why that is, but I've observed this more than once. --Stephan Schulz (talk) 16:18, 28 March 2015 (UTC)

Sometimes after deinstalling a Steam game, I find that there isn't a noticeable gain in harddrive space until after I restart my computer. Ian.thomson (talk) 16:23, 28 March 2015 (UTC)

power point

how can one design a linking power point to the web — Preceding unsigned comment added by Aine Prosper (talk • contribs) 12:21, 27 March 2015 (UTC)

See this article. -- Gadget850 13:18, 27 March 2015 (UTC)

Adding whitespace to pdfs in adobe

I have been sent a scanned PDF document that has text too close to the edge at the page at the top (it will be cutoff if I print and I don't want to reduce the size). So, I was wondering if there was a way to add whitespace to the top of the page, sort of the opposite of cropping whitespace. This is a multiple page document. I can think of some ways to do it and would if it was one or two pages, like printing, then scanning with the page moved a little bit down on the scanner. I suppose I could even convert to an image and move the image down in an image program then covert back to a pdf, but:

I was wondering if there is a direct way to do this with adobe acrobat professional (for mac)? Thanks in advance, even if the answer is you can't.--108.46.137.89 (talk) 14:19, 27 March 2015 (UTC)

You may have more luck searching for "add margin" rather than "add whitespace". This thread seems to answer your question. -- BenRG (talk) 18:07, 27 March 2015 (UTC)

Thank you Ben. Unfortunately, while I did find the right place to do what I wanted from that discussion, when I try it gives me the message "Page size may not be reduced". No idea why. Oh well.--108.46.137.89 (talk) 21:04, 27 March 2015 (UTC)

I feel quite certain that ImageMagick can do what you want. You can use it to convert the PDF file into images and use -crop, -repage, -resize, or some other options to process the images, then convert the processed images back into a PDF file. (The tool supports a large number of options, so you will probably need to do some research to find the right method to get the result you need.) --173.49.16.112 (talk) 02:00, 28 March 2015 (UTC)

You could embed the PDF pages into a LaTeX document with \usepackage{graphicx} and \includegraphics{pageX}, and process the thing with pdftex. You can adjust and move the printable area of the document with appropriate (La)TeX magic if the default has to large margins. --Stephan Schulz (talk) 19:26, 28 March 2015 (UTC)

One article redirecting to another one!

I've found quite a few Misplaced Pages articles that redirect to something else unrelated. Wrex The Robo-Dog and Regretsy are two i could find. Sorry if i posted this in the wrong category, but someone needs to explain this to me. RocketMaster (talk) 19:28, 27 March 2015 (UTC)

April_Winchell#Internet explains why Regretsy redirects there. You could change the redirect to that specific section if you like. I don't know whether there's ever been a WP page for the Regretsy web site. It may or may not be notable enough for inclusion in the encyclopedia. So in the mean time, someone has redirected that name to the coverage that is available on WP, rather than having a less helpful redlink. Roko's basilisk is in a similar situation. SemanticMantis (talk) 19:35, 27 March 2015 (UTC)

But, what about Wrex, the animated robotic dog? It's a toy. It redirects to something about Teen Titans. RocketMaster (talk) 19:41, 27 March 2015 (UTC)

"Wrex The Robo-Dog" is redlinked - there is a robot dog of that name that one can buy from WowWee, so that might be a good target, and Robo-Dog redirects to List of LazyTown episodes (probably due to the reference to a "vicious robotic dog" on that page). Which is the redirect that's causing the problem? (This might be a better question for the Help Desk (WP:HD), incidentally.) Tevildo (talk) 19:44, 27 March 2015 (UTC)

I'm having problems with Wrex the Robo-Dog. That one redirects to Johnny Rancid. I have no idea why. RocketMaster (talk) 19:48, 27 March 2015 (UTC)

I'm afraid I can't help with this particular issue, as the page in question doesn't even have an entry for Johnny Rancid. Perhaps a Teen Titans expert can assist? Incidentally, to make a factual correction to my previous post, WowWee's product is Wrex The Dawg™, not "Wrex The Robo-Dog". Tevildo (talk) 19:54, 27 March 2015 (UTC)

OK! Research has indicated that Mr Rancid and his dog appear in "Can I Keep Him?" (Season 3, Episode 10) - see List of Teen Titans Episodes. I think we may be slightly under the WP:GNG threshold at this point, and a more appropriate redirect target could be found. Tevildo (talk) 20:04, 27 March 2015 (UTC)

March 28

Wireless Module Not Found at Workplace

Hello. Each time I start up my laptop (HP dv6-2138ca running Windows 7) at my workplace, a black screen appears and claims "Wireless Module Not Found" then I continue to my Starting Windows screen. I cannot connect to my workplace wifi as a result. However, I have no difficulty finding wi-fi connections at home. What is wrong with my laptop? Thanks in advance. --Mayfare (talk) 03:27, 28 March 2015 (UTC)

One possibility is that they have extra security at work, and your laptop is denied access. StuRat (talk) 06:19, 28 March 2015 (UTC)

That would be a different message. Dbfirs 17:43, 28 March 2015 (UTC)

Looks like this is a BIOS message indicating the laptop does not sense the wireless module is physically installed. Seems like a fairly common issue. A hard reset fixes this in some cases. There are recommendations to do a system restore, but that does not make sense, as the error occurs before Windows ever starts. -- Gadget850 07:53, 28 March 2015 (UTC)

Internet infrastructure and nuclear war

Is the internet infrastructure nowadays able to survive an atomic war? Wouldn't it be cheaper to have big nodes processing the traffic, instead of a distributed network? Noopolo (talk) 15:51, 28 March 2015 (UTC)

If there was a nuclear war, I think the last thing people will be worried about is the internet. However, as the internet operates mainly on underground cables, many cables would still be in operation, as the entire planet would not be carpet bombed by nuclear weapons. Some servers would be destroyed, but others would still exist, and connections between areas which have not been bombed may still be possible (e.g. Nauru and Tahiti). KägeTorä - (_虎) (もしもし！) 17:45, 28 March 2015 (UTC)

I think people would be extremely interested in the internet after a nuclear war, as it might be the only way remaining to get information (like where the radiation danger is the least) and contact distant relatives. Then, long term, there's the preservation of human knowledge to be used to rebuild civilization. StuRat (talk) 18:57, 28 March 2015 (UTC)

:Ah. But would our hardware survive the multiple EMP's. What's the good of an intact optic-fiber cable network when nothing above ground (that can connect to it) works? --Aspro (talk) 21:11, 28 March 2015 (UTC)

I think we are missing the point that electricity, gas, and water supplies would be severely damaged/completely destroyed in the event of a nuclear attack. It would be completely implausible for people to whip out their PC and get on Facebook or Twitter. They would rather be more concerned with trying to find food and water. The task of getting in touch with family and friends would come later, however much they think of it as a priority. We're not talking about surviving a suicide attack at a train station. We are talking about bombs of up to 15 megatons here, with a radius of 30 miles. Multiple ones, overlapping. See the film Threads. Even the phone lines would be down, and I doubt the milkman will be delivering. Where the radiation danger is the least would not be relevant, as the military would prevent people from migrating, as a mass exodus from affected areas would only create traffic jams, which would prevent or hinder movement of military, emergency, and security personnel. KägeTorä - (_虎) (もしもし！) 11:36, 29 March 2015 (UTC)

Electric supply is very vulnerable. See High-altitude nuclear explosion and the Soviet Project K nuclear tests which accidentally blew 1,000km of power lines.-- Gadget850 12:26, 29 March 2015 (UTC)

March 29

Why break backward compatibility, when developing new programming languages?

As I understand, C++ is be a kind of expanded C, developed when a developed was needed. I am aware that this does not apply to everything written in C, but a C program is also a C++ program.

Why weren't all the new programming languages built with a backwards compatible compiler? You don't like C, you are missing something? Fine, expand C like Bjarne Stroustrup did with C++, do not re-build anew. A language can incorporate different programming styles after all, can't it? --Senteni (talk) 02:50, 29 March 2015 (UTC)

C++ broke compatibility with C in several ways, most importantly by strengthening the type system. Preserving compatibility with C is limiting because C claims a lot of concise readable syntax and assigns it less-than-ideal meanings. Strictly speaking, you couldn't even add any keywords to the language (unless they started with an underscore). C compatibility means that 1 <= x <= 10 has to mean (1 <= x) <= 10 instead of 1 <= x && x <= 10 (or at least a compile-time error), and x & 15 == 0 has to mean x & (15 == 0) instead of (x & 15) == 0, and that you have to accept if (x = y) even though the programmer probably meant if (x == y). It means you can't use x, y, z or (x, y, z) as a convenient tuple notation. It probably means that programmers would shoot themselves in the foot by using a fast unsafe operation when they meant to use a safe one, because the syntax makes it too easy. -- BenRG (talk) 05:25, 29 March 2015 (UTC)

These are all good points, but I don't know if they hit the nail completely on the head. The syntax examples are (with the exception of =/==) probably not what most people think about when talking about "breaking compatibility" (although they are the kind of changes that will bite them in the end ;-). Many of the newer languages do indeed follow C in many respects - and for good reason, because C got many things right. But sometimes a different syntax is one of the goals of the language. Look e.g. at Python. Of course, in a really rational world we would all use S-expressions... --Stephan Schulz (talk) 07:30, 29 March 2015 (UTC)

Well, the question was not much about C/C++ compatibility, but about losing compatibility across languages. So, if I understand correctly, it's a must to break compatibility, since some abstractions can not co-exist? However, couldn't a language accept different types of syntax for expressing the same thing? If you have an explicit expression like int a = 3, the compiler will know that this is an integer, but if if comes across an implicit expression like a = 3 it will try to guess what's the type. If the compiler finds a class with {} and then it finds a class declaration with indents, it will create a class in the same way. Both syntaxes do not exclude each other. --Senteni (talk) 16:08, 29 March 2015 (UTC)

Having multiple types of syntax to do the same thing sounds like a recipe for unreadable, hard-to-maintain code. It would also be a lot harder to learn. Learning a programming language would require learning every other language that it's compatible with. The design goals of Python include an emphasis on readability. Allowing people to mix C and other languages in would defeat the purpose.

And how would that work with regard to libraries? Would every library need an implementation in every possible variant of the language, or would certain ones only work with certain variants? Could you use a Python dict with C libraries or a C struct with Python libraries? And then there's the compiler itself. Many modern languages like Python and Perl are interpreted, not compiled, and there are things you can do in an interpreted language that can't be done in a compiled one.

And I say "every other language", because it's not like C is like the father of all programming languages. There were dozens of others developed around the same time and earlier. Mr.Z-man 18:25, 29 March 2015 (UTC)

You may find the paper "C++: as close as possible to C—but no closer" an interesting read, as it describes the rationale for some of the incompatibilities between C and C++. -- Tom N talk/contrib 16:17, 29 March 2015 (UTC)

While S-expressions may be a fantastric way to describe how a computer "thinks" about a problem, they're seriously limited for describing how humans think about a problem. Of course, humans are flexible enough that they can bang their thought processes into the shape of an S-expression for the sake of a computer, but if you view programming languages as a way for humans to tell a computer what to do (as distinct from a way for a computer to be told what to do), then they have severe deficiencies. That, of course, is part of what underlies the wide diversity of programming languages. Each creator of a new programming language has their own conception of what a programming language "should be": Should it be easy for new users to use, or should focus be on power for established users? Should it be "pure" based on this or that theory of computation, or is "practicality" in real-world usage more important? What sort of operations should it make easy, which are to be ignored, and which are actively prevented? Are words better than symbols, or are symbols better than words? Each set of design decisions forces particular restrictions onto the language. C had its own set of design goals, and these may conflict - perhaps severely - with the design goals another language designer. You can't maintain C-compatibility if the design goals of the two languages are completely different. C-compatibility may be one of your design goals, as it was for Stroustrup, but doing so forced Stroustrup's hand in a lot of other areas, areas where other designers might not want to be forced. -- 162.238.240.55 (talk) 16:27, 29 March 2015 (UTC)

"Why weren't all the new programming languages built with a backwards compatible compiler?" Because some language designers believe that past languages had design flaws and that it's better to fix them than try to be compatible with them. You'll note that C# is a rewrite of C++ and avoids many of the mistakes made in C++. In fact, there's an entire category of languages (Coffeescript, Typescript, etc.) which attempt to fix the issues in JavaScript and transcompile to JavaScript. A Quest For Knowledge (talk) 01:37, 30 March 2015 (UTC)

Hard Disk Unformatted?

I have a hard disk that was running on my eSata port. I keep it turned off mostly. Today, when I tried to turn it on, Windows Explorer described it as not formatted. When I open Computer: Manage: Disk Management, it describes the File System as: RAW. I've stored about 1.5 gigs of data on it. Now my OS (windows 7 Pro) wants to format it? I'll lose all my data! Is there a way for this disk to be recognized as it was before without wiping it clean and losing all my data? HELP!72.47.125.4 (talk) 03:43, 29 March 2015 (UTC)Carl J LaFong

Is the filesystem on the disk compatible with the operating system on the computer? If yes, check: The disk might be not detected in is correct (former) geometry or size. Check for data sheets, specifications, firmware issues and comptibility lists. All information to the M/B, used controllers and the drive. --Hans Haase (有问题吗) 08:52, 29 March 2015 (UTC)

Create a Linux boot CD such as Knoppix on a different computer to avoid any additional damage to the drive. Knoppix is fairly intuitive and Windows-like. If the disk shows up in Knoppix (it should appear as icon on the desktop, if I recall correctly), use an external usb drive to back up the contents of the possibly damaged disk. Knoppix is designed not to touch the hardware configuration of the system it runs on, unless you explicitly tell it to. --NorwegianBlue 09:14, 29 March 2015 (UTC)

Knoppix is as good as any. Don't panic and just take your time. How to Recover Data with Linux--Aspro (talk) 16:48, 29 March 2015 (UTC)

Skype

When I was using MSN, I was getting random 'add me' messages from people. I would add them, in case they were from project managers for the many agencies I worked with, but the majority were just "Hey, wanna do webcam sex?" or "Visit my webcam site" etc., so I switched to Skype. For a while, I only had colleagues (and a few friends and family) on it, but since Microsoft bought Skype, it has all started again. Is there any way to remove my Skype ID from their public listings, because I am getting these things almost twice a day now. KägeTorä - (_虎) (もしもし！) 11:23, 29 March 2015 (UTC)

PDF direct from bitmap?

Is there any way to convert a bitmap image (from MS Paint) into a PDF wothout printing out and rescanning?--109.146.20.31 (talk) 14:20, 29 March 2015 (UTC)

With imagemagick: convert foo.bmp foo.pdf -- Finlay McWalterᚠTalk 14:33, 29 March 2015 (UTC)

With Openoffice or Libreoffice: open the Write application, drag and drop the image into the new document that opens, and press the "export directly as PDF" button. -- Finlay McWalterᚠTalk 14:35, 29 March 2015 (UTC)

I cant drag and drop the image from within Paint, but I can pretend to send it as email and then drag/drop the icon in the email form to the empty text document in Open Office. So yes, this is a workable solution. Thanks.--109.146.20.31 (talk) 19:45, 29 March 2015 (UTC)

Do you see the second-from-left icon, right at the top, the one that looks like a floppy disk? You can save the .bmp from there, and choose a destination to save it on, such as the Desktop. Then, you will be able to drag'n'drop it into any of the programs we have mentioned. KägeTorä - (_虎) (もしもし！) 20:22, 29 March 2015 (UTC)

With GIMP: open the bmp, then file->export_as, type foo.pdf and click export -- Finlay McWalterᚠTalk 14:38, 29 March 2015 (UTC)

MS Word 2007 onwards also has an export to .pdf function. KägeTorä - (_虎) (もしもし！) 14:42, 29 March 2015 (UTC)

With Inkscape: create a new document, drag and drop the bmp into the document (and choose "embed" on the dialog that appears), then resize the image so it fits on the page template, then "save as" to foo.pdf -- Finlay McWalterᚠTalk 14:44, 29 March 2015 (UTC)

BTW, are we correct in assuming it's OK to leave it as a bitmap in PDF, versus converting it into a vector drawing ? I'm guessing that's the best all the methods above can do. StuRat (talk) 17:01, 29 March 2015 (UTC)

I have just tried it, with some random squiggles, and it converted perfectly, using my method above: MS Paint> MS Word> Save as PDF. KägeTorä - (_虎) (もしもし！) 20:17, 29 March 2015 (UTC)

It takes a "little bit" of setting up but you can actually get a free windows priter driver that prints to a PDF file directly from just about any applicaiton that can "print". That way you don't need to copy the BMP out of MS Paint and there is only one single step to the process. cute pdf is an example of one, i'm not sure how easy it is to set up but it doesn't look too hard, if you get it working, all you'll have to do is print your BMP from MS Paint exactly as if you were going to print it to a printer, but select the PDF driver instead and it will save it as a PDF file. . Vespine (talk) 22:12, 29 March 2015 (UTC)

I would still recommend saving the oroginal .bmp, in case the OP decides it needs to be modified at a later date. Therefore, it's not just a 'one click' process, and avoids the download of unnecessary software. KägeTorä - (_虎) (もしもし！) 10:42, 30 March 2015 (UTC)

Computing

Which was the first microcontroller chip? — Preceding unsigned comment added by Surya2208 (talk • contribs) 15:57, 29 March 2015 (UTC)

The Intel 4004 is considered to be the first I think. It was expensive too. --Aspro (talk) 16:56, 29 March 2015 (UTC)

Apparently, it sold for US$200, a bit less than US$500 after inflation. That's about the price of a cheap laptop, or a medium-range i7 processor today. --Stephan Schulz (talk) 17:25, 29 March 2015 (UTC)

The Intel 4004 was the first first microprocessor. The first microcontroller was the TI TMS1000. See , , and I believe that the TMS1802 was the first chip in the TMS1000 family but it is generally considered to be a microprocessor. The TMS1000 was the first microcontroller. See and . --Guy Macon (talk) 19:39, 29 March 2015 (UTC)

I think you must be using a fairly odd inflation statistics or may be made a mistake. I've tried several different ones including the US government one and they give something over $1000, gives US$1,159.12 from 1971 - 2015 for US$200. Nil Einne (talk) 05:28, 30 March 2015 (UTC)

Indeed, I forgot to press "calculate", and got the default (US$20 from 1913 to today ;-). So it's a medium class laptop but still a medium class i7 (server model). --Stephan Schulz (talk) 12:46, 30 March 2015 (UTC)

Does anyone know what the Busicom 141-PF calculator -- the first calculator to use a microprocessor (Intel 4004) -- originally retailed for? --Guy Macon (talk) 05:45, 30 March 2015 (UTC)

March 30

Major downloading problem

Hello,

Yesterday, I downloaded 'Adobe_CC_keygen_32and_64_bit_keygen_downloader' and another similar software that I deleted now as it was not functioning, ever since that time, my computer keeps on downloading things I'm unaware of. Everytime I view my 'data received' information after turning the internet on, it accelerates to 'Mbs' instantly without downloading or using the internet... I'm lost. I'm on pay as you go 'kbs' and its rinsing it out... How could I stop this downloading from occuring without my wish and will? Adobe CC is not installed yet...because two other software automatically downloaded themselves (noted below) without my wish and will...

Note: Two softwares also automatically installed/downloaded themselves without my choice, 1) 337 Gaming for Fun 'link shortcut' on my Desktop (deleted) and 2) SearchProtect from EULA&Privacy (can't find it in the control panel).

I need urgent help peeps, please, I can't use the internet because of this problem.

(SuperGirlsVibrator (talk) 03:42, 30 March 2015 (UTC))

Use System Restore to roll back to a time before you were infected. If that doesn't work, and you're not willing to factory reset your machine, you might have to ask someone at bleepingcomputer.com to talk you through the diagnosis and removal process.

In the future, don't download and run random crap from random web sites. People rename malware downloaders to XXX_keygen for every XXX imaginable and add stuff like "32 and 64 bit" and whatever other nonsense they think will convince gullible people to run it. -- BenRG (talk) 06:10, 30 March 2015 (UTC)

Yeah, I know, well I was aware until someone gave me the software for free, I just couldn't resist... I do become an 'Idiot No:1' sometimes.

I was hopeful of my antivirus too, the 1st time (after/over a year) the antivirus did not protect me... Anyway, I don't usually 'System Restore', what I recall of it is, they eat 'disk space', not sure. I have to give the 'website' you stated ago, after a few days or a week, as soon as I run out of my internet's monthly 'timeline' date. Btw, thank you for the reminder! Need(ed) it... -- (SuperGirlsVibrator (talk) 19:29, 30 March 2015 (UTC))

Using System Restore won't cost any disk space. If you previously disabled it to save disk space then you won't be able to use it, but if you never did that, it will probably work. -- BenRG (talk) 20:46, 30 March 2015 (UTC)

I don’t know how to disable it to save disk space. I have used ‘system restore’ before a few times, after re-installing the ‘operating system’, I don’t seem to possess a drive in my ‘Computer’ folder, probably called ‘repository’ or something, neither a BIOS option that becomes available at the start up when you turn on the Computer.

I do find a hidden drive by entering into the ‘Computer Management’ window, after selecting one of its features i.e. ‘Disk management’ from its left pane-it is called ‘System Reserved’ drive, of 100Mb (65Mb free left).

What you stated, can you guide me please? I don’t want anything to be saved on disk. When I ‘system restore’ I mean to do a ‘system restore’ i.e. no matter how many times I do ‘system restore’ I want the same results i.e. ‘no disk space eaten’…

Note: Can I use ‘system restore’ option in the near future instead of uninstalling (Add/Remove programs/Programs and features) option? (This is a desire), I understand they do different things, but they do something quite similar as I recall.

Steps I’ve taken so far:

Entered Control Panel, Recovery, clicked and viewed the ‘Advanced recovery methods’ option–not adequate, clicked Open System Restore, selected the second option, nothing I found about the two software I stated above, ticked ‘Show more restore point’–only goes up to 24/03/2015–not adequate, clicked on ‘scan for affected programs', found no problem whatsoever. Clicked ‘Back’ button and selected the first option, clicked the 'Next' button, the software it selected does not have anything to do with the ones stated above…

(SuperGirlsVibrator (talk) 05:56, 31 March 2015 (UTC))

Xforce

Anybody know where I could find this particular (or similar) software I've been searching for it for the last two days, I can't seem to find the downloadable link. -- (SuperGirlsVibrator (talk) 04:34, 30 March 2015 (UTC))

We cannot give information on illegal cracking software. KägeTorä - (_虎) (もしもし！) 09:55, 30 March 2015 (UTC)

See: DMC Notice--Aspro (talk) 13:29, 30 March 2015 (UTC)

Apology, I understand.

I thought it (well any) comes from the company, like the way for Microsoft Outlook, you know, the problem that people have, not wanting to use the internet's Calender with their phone...

How do cheat codes for games come then? Don't they make it while they are making the software?

(SuperGirlsVibrator (talk) 19:32, 30 March 2015 (UTC))

Online converter for RAR

Dear All

I am looking for a online converter, that can to convert RAR files into Zip and is up to 1GB.

Thank you for your answers.

All the very best.--178.195.98.161 (talk) 11:50, 30 March 2015 (UTC)

Programs like 7-zip will read RAR files (for most versions of Windows). Linux and MAC tools will be available as well. LongHairedFop (talk) 13:41, 30 March 2015 (UTC)

Discover hosting, given a web-site

How can someone discover who is hosting a web-site given it's url? How can law enforcement serve papers to a hosting company, if a hosted web-site is infringing some law? Noopolo (talk) 12:05, 30 March 2015 (UTC)

Reading this may help: The Best Online Tools To Know Everything About a Website. If you find a web site infringing your local laws then all you have to do is google for advice. There are lots of ways of reporting instances according to your geopolitical location. Example: .--Aspro (talk) 13:44, 30 March 2015 (UTC)

The WHOIS information for the domian may indicate who the site is registered to. A reverse DNS or WHOIS on the site's IP number will tell who owns the IP address range that the site is hosted on; they can then be asked to reveal site's the owner. Likewise the domain name registrar can be asked who owns the domain name. LongHairedFop (talk) 14:19, 30 March 2015 (UTC)

Extended Unicode Characters in Serial Read of EEPROM

I'm trying to read the data off an EEPROM via the serial port, and store the data in a text file. The read seems successful (i.e. there is data in the file), but when I open the file, it contains mostly Unicode characters from the Latin-1 supplement (in particular, the ¥ and §). I didn't expect to see assembler mnemonics, but I thought I would at least see hexadecimal opcodes (e.g. 01, A4, BB, etc.); I'm worried that something went wrong with the data transmission, and I don't want to spend time trying to decipher a corrupted data file. So, when I read data like this, should I take the presence of these extended Unicode characters as a sign that something is wrong, or is this just how text editors display this type of data? Thanks. OldTimeNESter (talk) 12:06, 30 March 2015 (UTC)

If you think the EEPROM contains executable binary code, then that would be binary machine code, not ASCII assembly language. So surely you'd want to look at with a hex editor or hex dumper, not a text-mode text editor? -- Finlay McWalterᚠTalk 12:15, 30 March 2015 (UTC)

A hexdump will normally look something like this

0000000  54  68  65  20  71  75  69  63  6b  20  62  72  6f  77  6e  20          The quick brown    
0000010  66  6f  78  20  6a  75  6d  70  73  20  6f  76  65  72  20  74          fox jumps over t
0000020  68  65  20  6c  61  7a  79  20  64  6f  67  0a                          he lazy dog  \n
000002c

although the character representation may be suppressed. The first column is the offset, in hexadecimal. There are tools that will generate a hexdump from a binary file (I used od -tx1 -tc -A), but the EEPROM reading program may have an option to do it for you. LongHairedFop (talk) 14:06, 30 March 2015 (UTC)

Thanks to both of you for the responses. I took a closer look at the program that reads the data from the EEPROM. As far as I can tell, it should format the data as hexadecimal before printing, regardless of what the data is. It is also supposed to print a space between each byte. Since I'm not seeing this in the output, I suspect that the program never actually read any data from the EEPROM, and that the output I'm seeing is just the unfiltered serial port data formatted as Unicode. Even if I wired the EEPROM incorrectly, so that it returned garbage data, it should be printed as hexadecimal if it is printed at all. So, back to the designing board. OldTimeNESter (talk) 18:42, 30 March 2015 (UTC)

What kind of right do you buy, when you buy a domain?

From a legal perspective, is the ownership of a domain a copyright, a trade mark, or what kind of ownership is that? What do you own when you own a domain? Couldn't I and a group of people create a network, and instead of forwarding google.com to 8.8.8.8 forward it to another IP? After all, you are not paying me to associate your domain to a specific IP.Noopolo (talk) 12:13, 30 March 2015 (UTC)

The registrar, from whom you buy the domain, normally runs the DNS service for you (although you can use an alternative DNS provider, or host it yourself). Assuming you've bought example.com, in the DNS configuration, you can add any hostnames to it you wish. For example, you can add www.example.com and then map it to 91.198.174.192. LongHairedFop (talk) 12:27, 30 March 2015 (UTC)

But if I wanted to run a DNS service on my own server, and point web-sites like cnn.com to my own pages, who would block me from doing that, and under what legal grounds? And what would happen if lots of people became rough and started doing this, how can you force them to resolve cnn.com to the news page?--Noopolo (talk) 12:43, 30 March 2015 (UTC)

Look up how DNS works (Name_server#Recursive_query). But basically, there are 13 root name servers. When someone asks for www.cnn.com, their PC asks their ISP to look it up.

• The ISP's DNS server then asks one of the root server for www.cnn.com's IP address. It replies "I don't know, but I know that ###.###.###.### handles .com. This answer is valid for 7 days".
• The ISP's DNS server then asks that machine the same question. It replies "I don't know, but I know that .cnn.com is handled by 204.74.108.238. This answer is valid for 7 days".
• The ISP's DNS server than asks 204.84.108.238 the same question, and is told "www.cnn.com is 185.31.19.249. This answer is authoritative, and is valid for 1 day"
• This answer is then passed back to your machine. All the replies are stored by your ISP's DNS server for later use.

Unless you can intercept these messages, then you cannot trick someone else trying to access www.cnn.com to visit your webserver instead. However man-in-the-middle attacks do exist, which DNSSEC and https attempt to mitigate. You can however, make your own DNS lookups go astray. LongHairedFop (talk) 12:58, 30 March 2015 (UTC)

The World Intellectual Property Organization deals with disputes over domain names. For example, if Chris N. Nickleson had registered cnn.com before Cable News Network had bought it, the Cable News Network could ask the WIPO to take the domain from Chris. As Chris has a legitimate right to cnn.com, he may (or may not) be able to keep it. LongHairedFop (talk) 13:14, 30 March 2015 (UTC)

Let's phrase it this way: if you were my internet service provider, then I would be paying you to host correctly-configured domain name resolution servers. If you redirected my DNS queries elsewhere, you would not be fulfilling the terms of our service contract.

If you host a private network - no matter how large - you can configure your systems to send DNS queries anywhere you like - but when you charge service fees to clients who connect to your network, you ought to make sure that the terms of service match the actual service you provide.

Nimur (talk) 14:57, 30 March 2015 (UTC)

We have several pages on this topic:

• Domain hijacking
• Pharming
• DNS hijacking

--Guy Macon (talk) 23:52, 30 March 2015 (UTC)

USB port monitoring on Windows

Hi all,

i'm trying to reverse engineer the command protocol of mediatek's spflashtool. It works by the bootloader exposing a virtual COM port via USB... and I want to monitor what data is sent and recieved. However, portmon does not work at all under win7 x86, and usbpcap produces loads of "malformed packets", not to mention the overhead of the USB CDC protocol. I also tried using Process Explorer but it does not show any serial port-related entries, just access to the filesystem.

Can I somehow monitor all serial port communication in the system (especially, the COM port only exists for ~1 sec during bootloader start, so I cannot set up a filter in advance)? Googling does not help very much as SEO crapware floods everywhere... 89.15.239.140 (talk) 14:52, 30 March 2015 (UTC)

Process Monitor (also from WinInternals) might give you some insight. LongHairedFop (talk) 15:00, 30 March 2015 (UTC)

I already tried Process Monitor, it unfortunately does not reveal anything except a couple of registry reads and filesystem operations on the target file :( Also, I tried looking into the dll with IDA Pro, but it's a hell of a beast to RE...89.15.239.140 (talk) 19:35, 30 March 2015 (UTC)

Tablet Coby Kyros Mid 8127

I have a tablet Coby Kyros MID 8127. It worked perfectly until a friend of mine opened it and now it doesnt turn on. I have tried to connect it to the PC and I have also tried to connect it like if I were going to charge it but it doesn´t do anything. So, I googled it and I found a video where they say that in this case I should re-install the firmware but I cant find the firmware for this model. Can anyone help me to find some link. Miss Bono 15:24, 30 March 2015 (UTC)

Opened as in disassembled? Re-open it and look for loose connectors, and especially if the power button (the outside part) actually is connected to the power button on the PCB. 89.15.239.140 (talk) 19:38, 30 March 2015 (UTC)

ASP.NET compilation error: the same type is defined in two different DLLs

I have run to this error frequently at work. When deploying an ASP.NET web site on a test or production server under IIS on Windows, when I access an ASPX page containing an ASCX component, I get a compilation error message claiming that the type constituting the ASP.NET code-behind is defined in two separate DLLs under "Temporary ASP.NET files". This happens completely deterministically and can be reproduced each time.

No such thing happens on my own development computer where I use the IIS Express plug-in on Visual Studio to host the pages on the fly.

The only solution I have found on the Internet is to add the attribute batch="false" to the node <compilation> in web.config. This might have drawbacks like slower compilation times every time the site is modified, but so far it has been the only solution that works.

Does anyone have any idea why this is happening, and is there any better way to fix it? JIP | Talk 19:49, 30 March 2015 (UTC)

March 31

LibreOffice / MS Office interoperability 101

I often have to make elementary use of spreadsheets, for which I use LibreOffice Calc. Let's say that the contents of my cells B3, B4, and B5 are 4532, 97.6 and =B3*B4 respectively. I save the file (in ODS format) and mail it to a coworker, who opens it in Excel and finds that the content of B5 is not =B3*B4 but is instead the product thereof (442323.2). Making no change to the file, I use Calc to save it in XLSX format instead, and email the result; in cell B5, my coworker finds =B3*B4 as originally intended.

I'm not happy about this, less because I have anything against XLSX format than because any time I use Calc to save to it, Calc warns that "This document may contain formatting or content that cannot be saved in the currently selected file format", a warning that in my experience can be safely ignored but that might encompass the occasional actual risk. (Can't Calc, or some utility, check whether a file does have such formatting or content, and if it does then identify it?)

One way around actual/potential problems would be for me to install MS Office; but it's expensive, I'm stingy, and it would require WINE and probably be slow. Another would be for my coworkers to install LibreOffice; but it's free (in both senses) and therefore the IT people who control the computers are deeply suspicious of it: a request to install would probably involve a written application, committee meetings, etc: yawn. Any tips for avoiding problems, or (more likely) links to web pages that describe these? (Unfortunately I lack the spreadsheet vocab for successful googling. I mean, if Excel has converted =B3*B4 to 442323.2 then I suppose it has ed the formula, and I've no idea of what the verb should be.) -- Hoary (talk) 01:11, 31 March 2015 (UTC)

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