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July 3

Copy and Replace

What does the entitled ‘’feature’’ do?

a) Copy’s/adds whatever that is not there - reason for asking because I recall something in Win XP that does this.

b) Deletes the old file and replaces it with the new one

Apostle (talk) 18:35, 3 July 2016 (UTC)

If you try to copy or move a file to a place where there is already a file of that name, you will be warned and asked whether you want to replace the existing file. If you choose to do so, the existing file is not deleted but is simply overwritten. There is no need to delete data before writing the new data - the process of overwriting erases every trace of what already existed. Your question was a bit unclear but I think that was what you were driving at. Akld guy (talk) 19:59, 3 July 2016 (UTC)

Just to clarify, I'm assuming bite size will remain the same for the file and the location volume you are overwriting on, right? It won't add extra because its being overwritten...? Are you aware of the indexing issue? -- Apostle (talk) 18:35, 4 July 2016 (UTC)

Managing photos on iPhone and ipad

This ought to be really straightforward but I'm completely stuck and reading forum posts, I don't think I'm the only one. I have an iPhone 5 and an iPad. The phone storage is full. I have photos on there that I want to keep. The iPad has spare storage capacity. How do I get the photos onto the iPad and make sure they are stored there, so that I can then delete them from the phone? I have Bluetooth and airdrop enabled on both. The iPad doesn't appear in the phone's AirDrop for some reason. Would particularly appreciate advice from someone who also has an iPhone and iPad and does this regularly. 81.97.236.216 (talk) 19:19, 3 July 2016 (UTC)

I'm guessing you do not sync your 2 devices to the same itunes? It would be pretty easy to sync your photos into itunes and then out onto your ipad. That's how I do it. 04:05, 4 July 2016 (UTC)

Also, the most basic troubleshooting, do you have wifi AND Bluetooth enabled on both devices? I believe airdrop relies on both so if you don't have Bluetooth enabled on both devices, airdrop won't work. Vespine (talk) 05:53, 4 July 2016 (UTC)

OP here again. Thanks for advice. I can get the photos over to the IPad. If I then delete them on the phone they will still be on the iPad? I had a bad experience but I think it was with photo stream. 90.22.70.101 (talk) 21:00, 4 July 2016 (UTC)

I know what you mean.... What you need to make sure is that the copy on the ipad is "separate" than the one on the iphone. I.e. that you are NOT syncing both devices to iCloud for example, then deleting the photos on one device will probably delete them on both. Personally I would not tryst ANY method described online, just delete one photo you don't mind losing, then wait an hour, sync both devices, wait another hour and if the "other" copy of that photo remains on your ipad, I think you are safe. The PROBLEM then is, and I can't stress this enough: your iPad is ONE single point of failure, iPad uses solid state memory, if your device becomes corrupt or dysfunctional (Don't think it can't or won't, electronic devices can and DO fail, given enough time it's pretty much inevitable that it will fail at some point), it may be practically impossible to recover the data. if you have photos you actually care about losing, you really need to back them up somewhere else, like a computer, (which would ideally then have its own backup) I would NOT use a iPad as a storage device for photos you care about. Vespine (talk) 00:10, 6 July 2016 (UTC)

July 4

Unix program head

Head is a unix program that shows the first n lines of a text file. But I want is to ignore the first 5 lines of a text file and show all the other lines in the text file. I cannot make head and tail to work the way I want (pun intended). Please help. 175.45.116.105 (talk) 00:21, 4 July 2016 (UTC)

tail -n +6 foo.txt --Tagishsimon (talk) 00:38, 4 July 2016 (UTC)

Bot program

Hello if anyone wanna help me then please write a program for me to make a bot. NepaliKeto62 02:45, 4 July 2016 (UTC)

People have already written numerous automation libraries for Mediawiki that can be used to make bots if you have a bit of programming knowledge. Look at Misplaced Pages:Creating a bot. There are also programs for semi-automated editing. And nothing personal, but the Reference Desk is intended for non-Misplaced Pages-related questions. If you have additional questions, you'll probably get more attention at the Teahouse or help desk. See also Misplaced Pages:Questions. --71.110.8.102 (talk) 05:18, 4 July 2016 (UTC)

30-day buffering on a CAPTCHA

Trying to submit a question to https://answers.usgs.gov, I made a mistake with the CAPTCHA, and the system told me here was a problem with your form submission. Please wait 2592000 seconds and try again 86,400 seconds equals a day; 2,592,000 is a full thirty days. If we ignore unintentional typos and matters unknowable to outsiders (internal politics, webmaster's desire to reduce contact emails, etc.), why would anyone require you to wait a full month between CAPTCHA failures? Also, what's the term I'm looking for, the term that denotes the waiting period imposed between attempts to solve a CAPTCHA or a password? Finally, the text of my question appears below; it's basically for my own sake (so I can re-attempt to contact them in the future), so you can ignore it.

Thanks! Nyttend (talk) 12:33, 4 July 2016 (UTC)

"rate limiting" -- Finlay McWalter··–·Talk 12:50, 4 July 2016 (UTC)

I can't think of any good reason. Rate limiting (on an IP or login-cookie) basis goes some way to limiting brute force attempts by bots (e.g. ones with a low but non-zero probability of solving the CAPTCHA scheme) - but these can always delete cookies and shift IP addresses - but that only makes sense with timeouts of the order of a few seconds. I think the software has been misconfigured. -- Finlay McWalter··–·Talk 13:20, 4 July 2016 (UTC)

KiCad problem

I gave KiCad a spin but the interface icons are too small for me, to the point of making the whole program unusable. Is this a bug in KiCad? Or did I misconfigure it somehow? Or is this sort of minimalist look just fashionable in the electronic design automation industry? Crudiv1 (talk) 13:58, 4 July 2016 (UTC)

That screenshot resolution is very high. If you didn't upscale it for some reason, and it doesn't look upscaled, you should bear in mind if you're using a 4K 24" inch monitor or something that support for such high PPI monitors can be quite variable. To me, the screeshot looks like it would be fine, if used on a more normal PPI monitor viewed from normal viewing distances (both of which are unlikely but the point stands). Notably, cross-platform APIs may have poor support if they were mostly designed for one platform and just do the same thing on other platforms and no one even bothered to deal with PPI issues. I don't know what OS you're using but since you shouldn't need pixel level accuracy for KiCad you may be able to find someway to fix it albeit with an uglier looking program. Nil Einne (talk) 16:01, 4 July 2016 (UTC)

I encounter similar problems quite often. That is, some program is written with fixed sized text or icons, which were suitable when those icons filled, say, 10% of the width and height of the screen each. Then we get higher resolution screens, and now the same text or icon only covers maybe 5% of the screen in each direction. That makes it 1/4th the size, if the screen size is kept the same. Some ways to deal with this problem:

1) A larger screen is an obvious fix. Of course, there is a limit beyond which you have to sit back farther to see it all at once and then there's not much advantage to the large screen. Large screens are also expensive.

2) Turn resolution down. Of course, then you can't view multiple applications at once. I would turn it back up after using the application in question.

3) Use a screen magnifier. Those can allow you to have the high resolution you want yet still read whatever is under the magnifier. I prefer the setting where you have a magnifying glass that follows the mouse.

If you don't know how to do steps 2 or 3, list your operating system and we can help. StuRat (talk) 19:30, 6 July 2016 (UTC)

July 5

Google Analytics

I have a Google Analytics account for an organization whose web site I maintain, but I don't know how it was installed. Now I would like to add the capability to another site. Searching the web, I can't find out how to do it. When I get into it from my dashboard, it shows the existing site but there is no indication of how I could add another. What can I do? Thanks, --Halcatalyst (talk) 14:51, 5 July 2016 (UTC)

Google Analytics refers to websites as "properties" (), mainly because you can apply analytics to devices or applications in addition to websites. So in order to add a new website to track, you go to Admin at the top and look at the Property column in the middle (). Click the drop down and at the bottom, click "Create new property", which will bring up a new page for you to fill out. When it's time to add the tracking code to the site, this help article will show you how. Hope that helps. clpo13_(talk) 18:49, 5 July 2016 (UTC)

This worked. Thank you! --Halcatalyst (talk) 23:28, 5 July 2016 (UTC)

Shortcut keys (in Windows 7) Is it free or already taken? (and If taken, then by which app?)

When I am about to assign a shortcut key combination to something, in Windows 7, then I want to avoid the ones already in use by the system or by other applications.
Is there an easy way to see all current assignments of shortcut keys? (In Windows7).
--89.8.41.244 (talk) 22:54, 5 July 2016 (UTC)

Good question, there might be a utility somewhere that might show these. Otherwise Keyboard shortcuts at support.microsoft.com should be helpful. - 220 of 11:58, 6 July 2016 (UTC)

Well, yes, but that Keyboard shortcuts is a static list of standard, default, basic keyboard shortcuts that comes with the Windows7 OS, and some of its standard apps. The problem is that those key combinations will often be redefined, deleted or permanently or temporarily overridden (hijacked) by third party apps. And, of course there will also allways be a lot of completely new key‑combinations used as either global or window specific shortcuts by third party apps.
So what I need, and also everybody else needs — who want to make a new keyboard shortcut for some function or another — is a dynamic (real time) overview of all currently active shortcuts.
--(OP)178.232.238.17 (talk) 15:33, 6 July 2016 (UTC)

Generally this is impossible. There is no central registry of key combinations in Windows. Instead, each program is notified when the keyboard state changes. To figure out which key combinations it responds to, you have to reverse-engineer the code. The best an automated tool could do would be to recognize certain common ways of handling shortcut keys (for example, accelerator resources in Win32 programs), but it would miss a lot. -- BenRG (talk) 19:36, 6 July 2016 (UTC)

I bet something in Sysinternals will let you find this out, though I don't know for sure. --71.110.8.102 (talk) 18:54, 6 July 2016 (UTC)

July 6

Free updating to Win 10

• I have over 3 Gb to use up (in ≈2 hours!) before the end of my monthly download 'credit'. I may as well use it up on the Win 10 download, so I was wondering if anyone could comment on how fast this download would be? I have found 'standard' windows updates to be rather slow downloading. 220 of 11:50, 6 July 2016 (UTC)

• Is it possible to download the upgrade files, then run them later? (It seems not, but I'm not certain) 220 of 12:34, 6 July 2016 (UTC)

Yes it's possible to download Windows 10 installer and delay installation until later. Note however that the free update requires installation before the end of the month. Nil Einne (talk) 12:47, 6 July 2016 (UTC)

Thanks Nil Einne. Is the 'installer' that you are referring to the 'tool' at https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows10 ? 220 of 12:56, 6 July 2016 (UTC)

The tool is probably the best method, especially as it reduces the chance you will need to download again if something goes wrong. However if you enable the update offer application (that's automatically offered over Windows update), if you're careful you can also download it there and choose when to install it. Nil Einne (talk) 04:11, 7 July 2016 (UTC)

Viewing source coding

Is there a way to find out a software’s full coding? - like the way we find out a webpage source code...? -- Apostle (talk) 20:44, 6 July 2016 (UTC)

In Your webbrowser, press STRG+U to view te source code of the webpage. --Hans Haase (有问题吗) 21:37, 6 July 2016 (UTC)

Of course a webbrowser cannot disassemble or decompile an executable program file. AllBestFaith (talk) 21:42, 6 July 2016 (UTC)

"STRG"? Oh, I see. --69.159.60.163 (talk) 06:21, 7 July 2016 (UTC)

Yes if it is Open-source software whose source code made available with a license by which the copyright holder provides the rights to study, change, and distribute the software to anyone. Otherwise, a disassembler is a computer program that translates machine language into assembly language—the inverse operation to that of an assembler. A decompiler is a computer program that takes as input an executable file, and attempts to create a high level, compilable source file that does the same thing. It is therefore the opposite of a compiler, which takes a source file and makes an executable. However decompilers cannot perfectly reconstruct the original source code nor discover the original programmer's comments without which it can be difficult to deduce the working of a computer program. AllBestFaith (talk) 21:42, 6 July 2016 (UTC)

Noted. Thanks all. -- Apostle (talk) 05:25, 8 July 2016 (UTC)

x32, x64 and x86

What's the difference between the three entitled? - In simple terms please. -- Apostle (talk) 20:44, 6 July 2016 (UTC)

Generally, in practice, these days, "x86" means software that will run on a 32-bit desktop operating system (and probably also on a 64-bit desktop OS). "x64" means software that will only run on a 64-bit desktop OS. When talking about Linux, "x32" may mean another type of 64-bit-only executable (using the x32 ABI). Otherwise, it's probably the same as x86. -- BenRG (talk) 21:28, 6 July 2016 (UTC)

x86 is a series of CPUs. x86 in software installers means the 32 bit version, sometimes described as x32. x64 describes the 64 bit versions of never (~2004) CPUs, made for 64 bit architecture, also compatible with 32 bit instructions. 64 bit can address, more the 4 GB of memory. As the x64 CPUs are stil compatible to 32 bit, 32 bit software can be executed un the system, but least 4 GB RAM, only. Using a 64 bit Windows, the Memory can be addresses and 32 bit software is executable on a 64 bit windows, no 64 bit software on 32 bit Windows. --Hans Haase (有问题吗) 21:35, 6 July 2016 (UTC)

Watch out for those "never CPUs". Never work, never fast enough, etc. :-) StuRat (talk) 22:26, 6 July 2016 (UTC)

x86 is based on the 8086 architecture, which was originally 16-bit. StuRat (talk) 22:26, 6 July 2016 (UTC)

And the Intel 8086 was in turn based on the Intel 8008, which was an 8-bit processor. CodeTalker (talk) 23:53, 6 July 2016 (UTC)

The 8086 wasn't based on any earlier processor. It had very little in common with the 8085, let alone the 8008. The Intel 8086 article says that it was marketed as "source compatible", but that just means that the 8086 had enough registers and address space to support mechanical translation of code from simpler processors. It wasn't compatible with them at any level. -- BenRG (talk) 20:54, 7 July 2016 (UTC)

July 7

July 8

Shared speakers ?

I have several sets of speakers (mostly "2.1" systems), for various TVs, computers, radios/CD players, etc. I was wondering if it would be possible to plug all the devices in one room into the same speakers. There would be the physical problem of splicing the lines together, then issues of the devices interfering with each other, especially if more than one was on at a time. They might also have different plugs, impedance/resistance, etc. So, is this possible ? Would it only work with a physical switch to connect only one at a time ? StuRat (talk) 01:04, 8 July 2016 (UTC)

Hang on you want to connect several devices into ONE set of speakers or into SEVERAL sets of speakers all at once? Vespine (talk) 04:46, 8 July 2016 (UTC)

Sorry after reading it multiple times I think I got it. You want to get rid of several sets of speakers and just use one set for everything. Yes this will work, but does depend on several things. Whether you get ground loops happening with all the equipment running straight into your speakers would be my biggest concern. The "real" solution is to get a mixer, which I don't think there's really any super cheap option, starting at about $50 for a 4 stereo channel mixer. Vespine (talk) 04:59, 8 July 2016 (UTC)

Arithmetic mean symbol "x bar"

The symbol for the arithmetic mean is called "x bar", which is the letter "x", italicized (I believe), with a bar over the "x". You can see it in this article: arithmetic mean. My question is how do I get that symbol to print in Word? I looked through all of their symbols on the "Insert" tab. They have a million odd symbols, but I can't find this one anywhere. Thanks. Joseph A. Spadaro (talk) 03:22, 8 July 2016 (UTC)

This is the symbol: ${\displaystyle {\bar {x}}}$ (read ${\displaystyle x}$ bar). Joseph A. Spadaro (talk) 03:24, 8 July 2016 (UTC)

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