Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Computing/2011 October 6

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October 6

Browser keeps imploding

Hi. My Internet Explorer browser, quite problematic in itself, is continuously closing and re-starting very frequently, often when I save or preview an edit on Wikipedia. What can I do to correct this? Moreover, is the problem likely inherent within my browser or the wiki-syntax, and what is a likely source? Thanks. ~AH1 ^(discuss!) 00:34, 6 October 2011 (UTC)

FWIW, that's started happening to me too over the last few weeks, initially only when ascending levels on a couple of games on the Miniclip site, and now occasionally with Wikipedia (happened twice when I tried to save an edit on this very RefDesk a few hours ago), and probably one or two other sites I haven't consciously registered yet. Sometimes IE "recovers" the tab, sometimes it simply shuts down instantly. I'm running Windows XP and consequently IE6: my inexpert suspicion is that because these programs are getting long in the tooth, minor incompatibilities are starting to crop up with more up-to-date sites' programming, but I too would like an informed diagnosis if possible. {The poster formerly known as 87.81.230.194} 90.197.66.118 (talk) 00:56, 6 October 2011 (UTC)

It's probably both. IE6 is notoriously troublesome, and as it gets less used, web designers are probably thinking about it less and less (hehe, I just found a sarcastic website trying to save it), and making changes without testing them thoroughly on IE. At the risk of being obvious, have you considered switching to Firefox, or at least upgrading to a recent IE? Paul (Stansifer) 02:05, 6 October 2011 (UTC)

Speaking for myself (sorry, AH1 - I don't want to hijack your thread!), I already have Firefox (and Google Chrome) available, and occasionally resort to it when IE6 is being recalcitrant (something on Scientific American's hosted blogs is currently breaking it, for example), but prefer to stick with the more familiar engine browser (and avoid having to work out how to transfer all my Favorites entries) while it still seems viable. As for updating IE from version 6, my limited understanding is that IE6 is standard for and integrated with Windows XP, and despite some searching on the Microsoft site, haven't found out how (or if it's even possible) to upgrade it to a more recent version. Experience over the decades has taught me not to try and fix something before it's (too) broken, in case I wind up with a worse situation which due to my present circumstances I couldn't easily afford to pay to have corrected. Similar considerations are, of course, why I'm also sticking to XP for the nonce. {The poster formerly known as 87.81.230.195} 90.197.66.175 (talk) 14:18, 6 October 2011 (UTC)

[Addendum: on going to the Internet Explorer website linked from our article on that browser, I found I was wrong and IE7 and 8 are updatable to with XP. I've bitten the bullet and installed IE8, but it hasn't made the slightest difference to the (currently merely irritating) problem - looks like it might be an XP issue. {The poster formerly known as 87.81.230.195} 90.197.66.142 (talk) 04:09, 7 October 2011 (UTC)

You might be interested in importing your favorites to Firefox, if you ever decide to switch over. Paul (Stansifer) 14:01, 7 October 2011 (UTC)

Hello. This section may be of interest to you: Wikipedia:VP/T#IE8. --Dweller (talk) 14:34, 6 October 2011 (UTC)

No sound in laptop

Without warning, my laptop just ceased to give sound. This isn't after a particular update of any sort that might've adversely affected it. It just randomly happened. I've even restarted it in hopes that it might come back, but still no sound. And no, the computer hasn't sustained any physical damage, either. If it's the sound card, how do I diagnose the problem and how do I fix it? I'm using Windows 7 on a T-series Lenovo Thinkpad, if this helps. 70.29.250.180 (talk) 03:31, 6 October 2011 (UTC)

Never mind, it was the mute button that was behind the issue (although I pressed it several times at first and it did nothing). 70.29.250.180 (talk) 03:33, 6 October 2011 (UTC)

Probably you didn't press it an even number of times. Quest09 (talk) 00:52, 7 October 2011 (UTC)

Although, if it was muted originally, you'd want to press the button an odd number of time to unmute. Slow response time often leads to people pressing buttons multiple times, which causes poor results. Some type of "working cursor" might help, but, then again, if it can't unmute for several seconds, it probably can't put up a working cursor in that time, either. StuRat (talk) 22:01, 7 October 2011 (UTC)

word finder

Pl. recommend a simple software to find out the words from the letters of a word? e.g what are words can be formed from the letters of the word "building"? (build, bind,guild etc. etc. thank you.175.157.80.224 (talk) 05:39, 6 October 2011 (UTC)

The Internet Anagram Server (Or, "I, Rearrangement Servant") may be what you're looking for.

If you choose the "advanced" settings, and turn on "Show candidate words only", you'll get a complete list of every word that can be made from the letters you inputted.

here are all the words that can be made from "building".

here is a list of anagrams of the word "building". (In an anagram, all letters must be used.)

Hope this helps. APL (talk) 08:52, 6 October 2011 (UTC)

By the way, some of these words are pretty obscure. I don't even know what a "blini" is. APL (talk) 08:53, 6 October 2011 (UTC)

Blini is the plural of blintz, a type of pancake popular in eastern Europe. — Michael J 14:01, 11 October 2011 (UTC)

9 phone-only apps, but only 30 MB of space left? Nonsense!

My Xperia Play is down to 9 "phone-only" apps (according to the App2SD app.)

The 9 apps consume a grand total of 9.038 megabytes.

However, it shows that I only have 30.37 MB available, and the total internal memory is 380 MB.

Clearing the cache will remove 5-7 MB, tops. I surmise that it does no good to delete all SMS messages and phone history logs because a Freenode chatter stated that "the entire text of War & Peace only amounts to 500 KB." That was after I deleted all SMSes. (I had happened to back them up to my Gmail, hence I didn't mind trying.) I had to inquire as to why it hardly made a dent; the War & Peace remark was the response.

Next, I tried deleting/uninstalling apps that I no longer needed, plus the history and temp files of the Android browser. It still didn't make the expected impact.

I remember having more than 9 phone-only apps early in my ownership and still hundreds of MB of internal storage left. This was even before I learned to move the movable ones to the SD card. (All of that has already been done, as you'd expect.)

So why am I still left with 30.37 MB of empty space? What have I not found that I can safely delete, and where in the file directory would it be?

If I need to download a special app to find what I need to delete, please share. Thanks. --70.179.174.63 (talk) 08:14, 6 October 2011 (UTC)

There is a lot to check - not just cache. How many txt messages are sitting in memory? Do you have any photos sitting in memory (make sure they are saving to the card). Does your browser have a lot in cache? Does your browser have a lot of old windows opened in the background? How many downloads do you have sitting in memory? Did your contact list explode in size before that bug was fixed? For me, the three biggest offenders were: My web browser has about 20 old windows opened and sitting in the background. I had a huge PDF sitting in downloads. My contact list was about 30 times larger than it should be. I deleted it and restored it from backup. -- kainaw™ 15:21, 6 October 2011 (UTC)

How many txt messages are sitting in memory?

That shouldn't make a dent. I already tried deleting them all after backing them up to my gmail. After it didn't seem to work, I later found out that the text to War and Peace only takes up 500kb. I'm trying to free up many megabytes.

Do you have any photos sitting in memory (make sure they are saving to the card)

All indications point to them going to the card by default.

Does your browser have a lot in cache?

I delete cache in both App2SD and the phone's in-built browser. That doesn't seem to make much of a difference either.

Does your browser have a lot of old windows opened in the background?

No, I close them when I'm done with them.

How many downloads do you have sitting in memory?

I remember finding and deleting a download list.

Did your contact list explode in size before that bug was fixed?

Some contacts show up twice. When I tried to transfer them to SD card, there was a total of 425 contacts. However, it only seemed to copy and transfer, not cut and transfer. How many KB does each contact entry take, therefore, how many contacts to a megabyte?

Now, is there an app that lets me view the file directory? If so, where in the internal memory do I go to find and delete unneeded files? Or, what app will know which to delete (with the option to back up to an SD card first, if desired?) Thanks, --70.179.174.63 (talk) 07:57, 9 October 2011 (UTC)

What do you mean you deleted a download list? If you deleted a list of downloads in a browser or something that was likely fairly useless unless you were asked if you also want to delete all downloads since it is unlikely the downloads were deleted Nil Einne (talk) 12:34, 10 October 2011 (UTC)

Tool Bar Blacked Out

Sometimes, out of the blue, my bars at the top of the screen become black and I can't read any words on them. Sometimes only some are black, but always the tool bar becomes black when it happens. Sometimes there are "holes" in the bars where I can see a blue screen behind them peeking out. Sometimes there are vertical white bars on the left. Most times they go away by restarting, but I'd like to not have this happen in the first place. I'm in IE6. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 98.77.183.51 (talk) 08:44, 6 October 2011 (UTC) Me again: I solved the problem myself. I changed the theme in properties (Right clicked on blue screen) to Windows Classic, and then checked Internet Explorer and it was gone. I then changed it back to my favorite theme and it was still gone. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 98.77.183.51 (talk) 09:37, 6 October 2011 (UTC)

I'm glad you solved your problem, but, by the way, you really need to upgrade to a newer browser than IE6, which has been labeled "the least secure software on the planet". Comet Tuttle (talk) 15:44, 6 October 2011 (UTC)

This is actually a common problem [1] - it happens consistently to me when attempting to use IE7, or IE8 - the fix is as described - reset themes. I think it may be an XP issue. Microsoft claims to have published fixes (for my particular problem) but they do nothing. It may be worth searching microsoft support for the specific case you have - they may have a script to fix it but dont hold your breath.87.102.42.171 (talk) 22:54, 6 October 2011 (UTC)

From checksum to DVD

If a checksum identifies a DVD, then just with this checksum, should I be able to text 700 MB long strings to discover it? Maybe it's a lot of processing, but it is theoretically possible? Wikiweek (talk) 12:30, 6 October 2011 (UTC)

No.

There is more than one 700mb long string that would produce the same checksum. (You should be able to convince yourself of this via the Pigeonhole principle. There could not possibly be enough checksums to match up with every possible 700MB dvd!) Checksums are not compression techniques, they're just error-checking. APL (talk) 12:39, 6 October 2011 (UTC)

(By the way you say a "lot" of processing, but perhaps you don't realize how much. If you tried this experiment The Universe would end before you finished.) APL (talk) 12:44, 6 October 2011 (UTC)

I don't know that I agree with APL on this one. If the number of possible DVDs were (700MB x 256) then, yes, but the number of DVDs ever produced (including one-time writable DVD-Rs!) is many orders of magnitude less than this, and if you use CRC or a similar, more-sophisticated "checksum" technique, I don't think there's any likelihood of duplication in the real world. Comet Tuttle (talk) 15:42, 6 October 2011 (UTC)

Oh, OK then. The mention of testing "700 MB long strings" made me think that the checksum was for any arbitrary possible DVD. Like, If I throw some of my files onto a DVD, then give you the checksum, it would take you past the end of the universe to check all possible combinations, and you'd wind up with a lot of them that matched the checksum.

I also agree with Comet Tuttle, though. If you know for sure that the DVD in question is a commercially produced DVD, I guess you could hole up in a Netflix shipping center for a few years and figure out which movie the checksum belongs to. APL (talk) 23:05, 6 October 2011 (UTC)

Uh, remembering of course, the DVDs hold a lot more than 700MB. Wikiweek may be thinking of CDs. APL (talk) 23:06, 6 October 2011 (UTC)

using ms access

I have a table contain names and codes of some 250 employees. I have kept their photos in jpg format in a separate directory. The name of each picture file is code of the respective employee. I wish to connect these pictures with the table so that whenever I print letters to the employees their photo must also included in their letter. How can I include the pictures in the letter form. The table is in MS ACCESS. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 117.241.56.189 (talk) 14:16, 6 October 2011 (UTC)

Access has a form control called an Image control. It has a field where you can specify a filename. What you'd need to do is make a script in VBA that, on printing (or opening, or whenever you want the image to be used), it populates the contents of the Image control with a link to the image file in question. See this for more information on using the Image control, or your Access help file. If you have more specific questions, don't hesitate to ask on here, but take a look at how the Image control works first. --Mr.98 (talk) 15:23, 6 October 2011 (UTC)

Steve Jobs

Steve Jobs died on October 5, 2011. What's next for apple?

Post by Larsona; Send me a message at my talk page. 14:35, 6 October 2011 (UTC)

Tim Cook. -- kainaw™ 15:17, 6 October 2011 (UTC)

Please see WP:CRYSTALBALL. Dismas|^(talk) 15:55, 6 October 2011 (UTC)

Official statements are available at the Apple Press Info webpage. Nimur (talk) 19:25, 6 October 2011 (UTC)

There are also any number of "experts" giving their analysis/opinions all over the internet. Try What's next for Apple —Akrabbim^talk 20:09, 6 October 2011 (UTC)

He's actually been on medical leave since January, and officially quit his job back in August. So it's not a sudden change for Apple. He hasn't really been running the company in a hands-on, day-to-day way since last year. APL (talk) 22:38, 7 October 2011 (UTC)

Difficulty accessing google

Recently (last month) I've been having periodic difficulty accessing google (in the UK). At first I assumed it was my internet - but I subsequently discovered that other sites are working fine - I've had to use Bing to do searching. It appears to go off for ~10mins and come back. It's happening now. I checked "down or just for me" and it worked http://downorjustforme.com/google.com - the page gave me an IP to try .. and yes - this works eg http://209.85.148.103/ .. But at the same time http://www.google.com or http://www.google.co.uk wasn't working..

2 Questions

• What's the numerical IP about? Is it what the address resolves to? Does that work globally?
• Does anyone recognise this problem (it's definately only happening to google -rest of web is fine - very odd) (and it's happening more than once per day almost everyday) - using Google Chrome/XP. 87.102.42.171 (talk) 22:31, 6 October 2011 (UTC)

The IP points to one of Google's servers in Mountain View. (You can find this out by Googling "WHOIS IP" and using one of the Whois services there to locate it).

The reason it's happening is probably because of some problem with your DNS service. The DNS servers are what turn URLs like "google.com" into IPs (like the one you have there). Usually these things resolve themselves given enough time, but if it's been happening for a month, it might be worth looking into how to change your DNS lookup service to something like OpenDNS. How to do that exactly will depend on the specific OS you are using. --Mr.98 (talk) 22:50, 6 October 2011 (UTC)

OK thanks (Q1 answered) - I just about understand about DNS - so I understood that - but it's consistently google .. surely the problem would be more widespread for me?

Also some googling turns up an issue relating to google chrome doing "DNS pre-fetching" to improve stuff - some reports say this may be the issue - I'm not convinced - this used to be an option to turn off in chrome's settings - but it seems to have gone now - possibly replaced by the even more optimistic "Predict network actions to improve page load performance" - I don't think that can be a cause - is that irrelevant here?

The issue is that the problem appears confined to google seems to tell me that the DNS server is ok? (the idea that google is down several times a day consistently seems to be impossible.)87.102.42.171 (talk) 23:10, 6 October 2011 (UTC)

I suggest, if you can, that you use another browser such as Firefox for a while, in an effort to see whether it is a chrome-specific issue. --Tagishsimon (talk) 23:30, 6 October 2011 (UTC)

I'll try that next time.87.102.42.171 (talk) 23:35, 6 October 2011 (UTC)

Chrome does have a well-reported difficulty with accessing, of all things, the Google website. Google claims that it has something to do with prefetching, but no fix they've suggested has actually fixed the problem. It isn't only Google. I've found other websites that fail to load. Even here on Wikipedia, there is a periodic failure to load the stylesheet, making the page look weird. -- kainaw™ 23:43, 6 October 2011 (UTC)

Yes. I've seen the wikipedia missing style sheet thing a couple of times. It's difficult to imagine what sort of software bug could produce such specifically consistent problems (in a temporally inconsistent way) - all DNS lookups are equal I would have assumed. 87.102.42.171 (talk) 00:00, 7 October 2011 (UTC)

One thing which no one seems to have mentioned. If the OP is in the UK, there's a very good chance their DNS is correctly providing a different range of IPs since Google has a large number of servers that are used in different countries. (Here in NZ or at least with my ISP, we use 74.125.237.80 - .84.) Testing against 209.85.148.103 is therefore flawed as this isn't what your browser is normally trying to access. It would be smart to do a nslookup locally (try 'nslookup www.google.com' in the command prompt (cmd.exe) in Windows) and try one or more of the IPs instead when you are having problems. If these servers don't work, this would suggest the Google mirrors for your ISP or location are having problems for whatever reason, it isn't a DNS problem. Another thing, if your ISP uses a transparent proxy for caching (or whatever) it's possible accessing Googe via IP bypasses this and it's the transparent proxy that is having the problems. Nil Einne (talk) 20:24, 7 October 2011 (UTC)

Mmmh. What Kainaw said makes me think - wikipedia stylesheet is needed for every page (?), and google homepage will be the site I visit most. It could be that the issue happens on the most visited page (per user/computer?) - no idea how or why that causes problems.77.86.107.151 (talk) 01:13, 7 October 2011 (UTC)