Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Computing/2014 June 22

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June 22

Using Excel for complex scheduling

So, I just got promoted to a new position at my company (Yay!). Unfortunately, the new requirements involve scheduling a ridiculous number of people. It turns out my predecessor has just been doing dozens of iterations manually until one kind of worked, but every slight change puts a bunch of other things out of wack. I feel like Excel could probably be capable of doing it, but I have no idea how I would go about designing such a spread sheet.

Here is an analogy I've constructed, with the analogy of having to fill a maintenance schedule. I have a table with a list of names, their rank, their days off. Every night has to have a plumber and a sweeper on. Workers can’t work 2 shifts in a row. There are 3 ranks. Master plumber, Plumber, and Junior plumber. Junior plumbers can only sweep when a master plumber is on with them. The workers are very sticky about equal distribution. They’ve agreed to a “point system” where sweeping is 3x harder than plumbing, and that weekend shifts are 2x harder than weekday shifts. They really want every worker to have a similar (if not equal) number of points. They each have a list of days off. Ideally, the shifts are as far away from each other as possible. Is such a thing even possible in Excel? To plug in the table and out comes a schedule, or several schedules?

Excel SOLVER seemed awesome, but then it failed to even solve a simple 3 person schedule so that people weren't on 2 days in a row. Here is a template I used: https://www.dropbox.com/s/3owex2z774wkz7v/cacofonie.xlsx

I imagine it would require VBA, would it be difficult to do in VBA?

If so, where would be a reputable place where I could pay someone to build this for me and what would be a reasonable cost? — Preceding unsigned comment added by Cacofonie (talk • contribs) 00:58, 22 June 2014 (UTC)

I've never done anything sophisticated in Excel or in VBA, but this took only about an hour to code in Python (if I understood the "analogy" correctly, which seemed like a fun project), so paying more than $100 would be insane. --Tardis (talk) 18:22, 22 June 2014 (UTC)

I've done some scheduling in Excel; it's certainly possible to do, but I would not recommend it. The problem isn't really with the program itself, it's with keeping all the formulas straight and making sure you don't accidentally reference the wrong cell, etc. There's just too much variability in a schedule to be sure you've met all your criteria. I'd suggest hiring Tardis. :) Matt Deres (talk) 20:15, 23 June 2014 (UTC)

A Graphics application.

I have posted before with a similar title but this question is in fact different. I am looking for a graphics application which would take numerical input and produce either a one dimensional curve like for instance exp (x) but the curve is actually experimental or better a two dimensional surface in 3-D space again with numerical (experimental) input. I looked into Blender and could not see how a numerical input can be accommodated although I may be wrong.

I would appreciate any suggestions especially based on personal experience. --AboutFace 22 (talk) 01:40, 22 June 2014 (UTC)

Gnuplot (example)? I think I misunderstood the question. If it's curve fitting you're after, as opposed to specifically drawing a plot, that's more of a job for a maths package. I think gnuplot does that, too, but it's involved. I've never used it for anything beside simple plotting Asmrulz (talk) 10:36, 22 June 2014 (UTC)

There are many programs for data plotting -- you can find an overview at List of information graphics software. We would have to know more about your specific needs to advise on which one would be best for you. Looie496 (talk) 15:21, 22 June 2014 (UTC)

Thanks for the pointers. I had trouble formulating the question for sure. Now I will try to do it again from a different angle. Imagine a function F(φ, θ) defined on a 2-sphere. This is what I have: a function. Its small size (especially in the direction of longitude: θ ) allows it to be represented as a 2-D function on a plane. It could be actually a Gaussian hill so to speak, or like any relief on the earth surface e.g. Rocky Mountains. The function is then undergoing a certain Fourier transform, and then a reverse transform. The reverse transform gives an imperfect reconstruction of the function. I would like to plot this 2-D function or as a compromise a cross-section thereof. As far as the cross-section is concerned, I realized that I do have software which I myself wrote years ago to plot that, although having a ready made "external" package would make it easier. --AboutFace 22 (talk) 16:40, 22 June 2014 (UTC)

Gnuplot can do all that. So can MATLAB, if you have access to that (Octave is a free Matlab clone). Another Free/Open Source option would be to use NumPy for the math, though that might also need Gnuplot. Many of the free IDE for R_(programming language) also have plotting routines. Finally, with some persistence, you might even be able to get Wolfram alpha to make a decent plot. SemanticMantis (talk) 18:08, 22 June 2014 (UTC)

Many thanks for the pointers again. I downloaded and installed Gnuplot into my Ubuntu VM and now reading manuals. I am certain it will work for me. Other suggestions are also helpful. --AboutFace 22 (talk) 18:33, 22 June 2014 (UTC)

Does a website know which directory I download a file to when I download a file?

--Fp-770 (talk) 10:50, 22 June 2014 (UTC)

In general, no. Looie496 (talk) 15:25, 22 June 2014 (UTC)

Facebook messages

On Facebook, how can I read (the integrity of) messages I receive, without the senders being notified I have seen them like this: ✓ Seen 12:34am? --CuroiusQuestioner (talk) 14:43, 22 June 2014 (UTC)

I’m not sure I understand your question. As far as I know, facebook does not “notify” the authors, (or give any way to check) if you just read the message or a post, unless you click “Like” or “comment” on it. Just like there is no way to check who has looked at your profile. If this is not what you mean, can you try re-phrasing your question. Vespine (talk) 01:02, 23 June 2014 (UTC)

I mean private messages (facebook.com/messages). --CuroiusQuestioner (talk) 02:04, 23 June 2014 (UTC)

I'm not sure what you mean by "the integrity of" but my messages are sometimes emailed to me. The sender doesn't know if/when I've read those emails. You might want to check your settings for this option. Dismas|^(talk) 02:10, 23 June 2014 (UTC)

By "integrity" I mean all of the messages and not just part of them. Clicking on the tab with the red number indicating how many new messages I have, a menu appears where I can read the first few words of the most recent message in each conversation but no further. Are messages "seen" if they're seen only through that menu? --CuroiusQuestioner (talk) 02:58, 23 June 2014 (UTC)

Oh! I think you mean "entirety". As in the entire message. Integrity is something different. And no, as far as I understand it, just looking at that preview in the menu does not trigger the "Seen" message. I think it's only when you pull up the entire message that the other user gets the Seen message. Dismas|^(talk) 03:10, 23 June 2014 (UTC)

On the desktop site, if the message appears in one of the smaller message/chat panels at the bottom, it will not be counted as "seen" unless you interact with that panel (you can continue to use the rest of the site, and it will sit there flashing away). Not sure if there's a way of getting this to happen when you don't have a chat panel open already though. MChesterMC (talk) 09:07, 23 June 2014 (UTC)

There are browser plugins available that prevent the "message read" flag from being triggered. I don't know how trustworthy they are, but if you search google you will find them. Katie R (talk) 13:04, 23 June 2014 (UTC)

E-reader context sensitive help

Do any E-readers allow you to click on a word in the text you are reading, to get a definition ? Ideally this would be context sensitive definitions, so if I looked up "reservoir" in the phrase "A reservoir of knowledge", it would skip the definition involving water storage and go directly to the relevant def. StuRat (talk) 15:20, 22 June 2014 (UTC)

I just got the latest Kindle paperwhite and it does that. It's actually very nice. You can get definitions in e.g. NOAD and OED if you select "american english" as your language. So it's actually almost worth the price just to get free access to those dictionaries (buying both in paper would cost more than the kindle). If that isn't enticing enough, you can also search WP from the same context menu! (No I do not work for kindle/amazon I am just very happy with my recent purchase :) SemanticMantis (talk) 18:12, 22 June 2014 (UTC)

Cool, what are the prices ? And does it skip the "wrong" definitions ? StuRat (talk) 03:40, 23 June 2014 (UTC)

@StuRat: the prices vary depending on if you want both Wifi and cellular, or only cellular, etc. I think I got mine for $119, but just check Amazon for the latest paperwhite spreads. As to the "right" definition- I don't think it has that ability, but these are not unabridged dictionaries that have 50 pages of definitions for some words. For instance, I just clicked on "joint" in "joint effort" as a test. It took me to the noun entries, and I had to scroll past e.g. "marijuana cigarette" until I got to the adjective def. Whole process took about 3 seconds. SemanticMantis (talk) 17:16, 23 June 2014 (UTC)

That's too bad. If they are abridged, then they might lack the def I need, as I'm only likely to need to look up obscure words or usages of words. One example is in No Country for Old Men, where the taxi driver refuses to drive into a dangerous location and says "I don't want to get in a jackpot situation here". It apparently is western US slang for when a gambler, often drunk, would stumble out of a bar after winning a jackpot in a card game, and turn up dead the next morning, with his money stolen. Not sure if an abridged dictionary would have had that.

BTW, is there a monthly charge for access to the online dictionary ? StuRat (talk) 13:30, 24 June 2014 (UTC)

@StuRat: No monthly charges for online access to e.g WP and web access. The dictionaries are stored locally on the device, though you can remove them and download again later if you need the space. As for abridgement, I don't think there are many 'missing' entries, just shorter definitions. In fact, I can't say for sure that it's abridged, but they do seem a bit shorter than the last time I used a paper OED. I've never had a problem with lacking a word I wanted to know. Btw, most OEDs are abridged to some extent. The "full" version is rarely seen, and takes up several large printed volumes, roughly the size of 10 Miriam Websters. SemanticMantis (talk) 14:42, 24 June 2014 (UTC)

Thanks. StuRat (talk) 02:37, 25 June 2014 (UTC)

Stop network sharing

I have asked this before, but now I am on Windows 8. Just today I found three sharing links on my computer. These are family members, but I don't want these links. How do I get rid of them and stop my computer showing up on theirs? KägeTorä - (^影_虎) (Chin Wag) 15:41, 22 June 2014 (UTC)

AFAIK Windows only sets sharing by folder, not by computer. You probably can't delete the links on your Desktop, but if you create a "Junk" folder, you may be able to place it there, where it won't annoy you, then repeat this on every other computer on the network. StuRat (talk) 16:51, 22 June 2014 (UTC)

Thanks, but one of the family members is in Spain. I can't go all the way there just to delete the link. KägeTorä - (^影_虎) (Chin Wag) 17:13, 22 June 2014 (UTC)

You could instruct them how to do so, or just not worry about that one. StuRat (talk) 03:44, 23 June 2014 (UTC)

Color ink cartridges

Regarding color ink cartridges, my printer uses cyan, magenta, and yellow. I believe that is standard for most printers. Question 1: Why don't they just use the "normal" "regular" colors of blue and purple (as opposed to those less common colors of cyan and magenta)? Is there any reason behind this? Question 2: I never understood why they don't use the three primary colors (red, green, blue). I thought that all other colors are, essentially, some mixtures and combinations of the three primary colors (red, green, and blue). So, why do printers not use the three primary colors and use the alternative three of cyan, magenta, and yellow combinations instead? Thanks. Joseph A. Spadaro (talk) 17:09, 22 June 2014 (UTC)

Monitors (Red-Green-Blue) use the additive color model; they start black and add one of the three colours. Printing (Cyan-Magenta-Yellow) uses the subtractive color model; without any ink you see the white paper, and then remove the appropriate amount of red, green or blue to get the colour you want. CS Miller (talk) 17:56, 22 June 2014 (UTC)

CSmiller has the right short answer. But there's a lot more going on there. Color_theory is really hard. All kinds of different approaches, from artistic to scientific. And then color perception comes into play... SemanticMantis (talk) 18:16, 22 June 2014 (UTC)

It's mostly a matter of naming. In computer terms, the color "Cyan" is a pale sky-blue that's a mix of true blue and green. In additive systems (light mixing, tv and computer screens, etc) - Cyan is therefore a secondary color. Magenta is a "shock-pink" that's a mix of red and blue. When you talk to artists and other people who work with paint, ink and dyes, they say that "Red, Yellow and Blue" are the primary colors - but it's a linguistic thing. The colors are the same three that computer folk call Magenta, yellow and cyan...although they may be a somewhat reddish-magenta and a blueish-cyan. It's never an exact thing anyway. Since printers are made by computer people - we talk about cyan/magenta/yellow...but logically, it's the same thing that the artists and others call blue/red/yellow. Naming colors is a tricky matter - it's culturally determined, and our fairly sucky human color perception doesn't help much. SteveBaker (talk) 04:23, 25 June 2014 (UTC)

What's in a name? Have a look at paint charts for absurd names.85.211.200.217 (talk) 14:50, 25 June 2014 (UTC)

Thanks, all. Joseph A. Spadaro (talk) 16:42, 27 June 2014 (UTC)

Occasional glitch with my computer

Once in a while, my computer has an issue where, upon waking up from sleep (or rarely, starting up), I cannot access the internet. In addition, during that state, if I try to get the computer to go to sleep/shut down, the screen turns off, but the computer never actually shuts down. It just hangs like that until I make it force shut down by holding down the power button for a few seconds. I'm pretty sure it's not malware, since both Microsoft Security Essentials and Malwarebytes Anti-Malware don't find anything on scans.

Has anyone here heard of this problem? My computer is a Toshiba P745 laptop (hooked up to a monitor and keyboard) with Windows 7 64 bit Service Pack 1. Any response would be greatly appreciated. Thekillerpenguin (talk) 20:29, 22 June 2014 (UTC)

I've had similar problems, but don't have a cure, only workarounds. Disabling sleep mode is one option. The related hibernate mode may work better, so you could try that. StuRat (talk)

Have you updated your drivers using those available on your motherboard manufacturer's website? There should be a set of pages dedicated to your particular motherboard. --Seans Potato Business 11:45, 23 June 2014 (UTC)

I would reinstall the OS. Do you have an OS restoration/recovery disk? --AboutFace 22 (talk) 16:20, 23 June 2014 (UTC)

Seems extreme to me. Worst case scenario, and just disabling sleep mode fixes the problem, while re-installing the O/S could cause more severe problems, like the loss of anything installed after the O/S was initially installed. StuRat (talk) 23:09, 23 June 2014 (UTC)

I don't think I have an OS disk, but I'll check. Anyway, in the Event Viewer, I checked the events that came up as the glitch was happening, and I think the computer couldn't get an IP from the router, and then tried to get an IP from the DHCP server. Seans, how can I figure out who manufactured the motherboard? Sorry, I'm not very savvy at computer hardware. Thekillerpenguin (talk) 18:27, 23 June 2014 (UTC)

Windows 7 install DVDs can be downloaded from DigitalRiver, who are an authorized Microsoft reseller. Assuming you are using Home Premium 64bit, then the download link is here http://msft.digitalrivercontent.net/win/X17-24209.iso You will need a valid Certificate of Authenticity key to active the installation. This version won't ask you which webbrowser or media player you want to use, but you can change them later. Checksums are MD5SUM: 971843a457b6e0db0af61258cbe7256a SHA1: b4821f46a171708f5f8f8a0ef48fc16529437961 CRC32: d236fd70 CS Miller (talk) 19:49, 23 June 2014 (UTC)

Can I convert a PDF file into a photograph?

Here is what I am trying to do. I need to upload a file onto the Internet; the website will only accept photograph extension files (and just one photo, at that). It will not accept a PDF file or a Word document, for instance. I have several (18) individual photographs (JPEG files). Using copy-and-paste, I took all 18 of these photographs, shrunk them down in size, and placed them side-by-side in a one-page Word document. Then I converted the one-page Word document into a one-page PDF file. On this specific Internet website, I can only post one file (and it must be a photograph file extension, like JPEG). So, I'd like to post the PDF file (or some converted version of it) that has all 18 photographs side-by-side on one page. So, is there some way to convert a PDF file into a photograph? Or is there some other way to accomplish this? Thanks. Joseph A. Spadaro (talk) 20:43, 22 June 2014 (UTC)

With your PDF as the current, active window, hold down the ALT key and hit the PrtSc key. This will save the image of you document into the scrapboard. You can then open MS Paint, Paste it into the window, and save it as a .jpeg or other format file. Rojomoke (talk) 21:39, 22 June 2014 (UTC)

Thanks. I tried that; nothing happened. I opened up the PDF file, then I held down ALT and hit the PrtScr button. It did not seem like anything happened at all. What exactly is a scrapboard and where do I find it? Maybe this process did work, but I have no idea what/where a scrapboard is. Please let me know. Thanks. Joseph A. Spadaro (talk) 23:15, 22 June 2014 (UTC)

(ec)To be pedantic, you probably want to convert the PDF to (e.g.) a JPEG. It won't be a photograph (at least not according to our and most other definitions) , but it should work on your web page. There are many ways to do that. If you are on a Mac, just open it in Preview, and export it via 'File->Export', choosing "JEPG" as the export format. On nearly any UNIX or Linux system (including OS-X), you will have or can install ImageMagick and just type convert myfile.pdf myfile.jpg, and it will do the necessary magic. Apparently, it also is available for Windows - see this page. --Stephan Schulz (talk) 21:43, 22 June 2014 (UTC)

Alt print screen will take a screenshot of the current active window, including the application.. Can you fit all the photos onto your screen at once or does that make the pictures too small? If you are on windows Vista or later, perhaps you could use Snipping tool? Vespine (talk) 00:57, 23 June 2014 (UTC)

Thanks. I am on Windows 8.1 operating system. All of the pictures fit perfectly fine; they are all on one page. (The PDF file is a one-page document; the Word file is a one-page document.) They look like, say, 18 postage stamps lined up next to each other (in 4 columns of 5 rows). So, yes, they fit nicely on one page. When I hit ALT and PrtScr, nothing seems to happen (?). The computer is taking a screen shot? And putting it where? Once I hit the ALT and PrtScr, what should I do next? Where should I expect to find these results? Thanks. Joseph A. Spadaro (talk) 01:37, 23 June 2014 (UTC)

It should just go to the clipboard, from there you can paste it wherever you need - you can, actually, just use PrtScr. Or, on win 8, win + prtscr will directly save a file, see step 3 in [1].Phoenixia1177 (talk) 03:23, 23 June 2014 (UTC)

Thanks. I used that "Step 3" method and it worked. For my future reference, where is this clipboard located? Thanks. Joseph A. Spadaro (talk) 04:02, 23 June 2014 (UTC)

See Clipboard (computing).--Shantavira|^{feed me} 07:16, 23 June 2014 (UTC)

My Acrobat Pro allows a File -> Save As -> JPEG. Seems easier. Justin15w (talk) 14:35, 24 June 2014 (UTC)

Thanks. Is My Acrobat Pro a free program, or one needs to purchase it? Thanks. Joseph A. Spadaro (talk) 16:45, 24 June 2014 (UTC)

Ha, the name of the program is "Adobe Acrobat", often just called "Acrobat", and it comes in a free version, and a "Pro" paid version [2].(I can see your confusion, since "My" has crept into all kinds of names. Hilarity ensues.)

"My" - a short silly play about an even sillier naming convention
(A row of cubicles, anytown USA, circa 2005 - slightly after lunch) --'Where that report I wrote for the Jenkins account?' --'It's in "My Documents" ' --'Is it in my "My Documents" or your "My Documents" ' ? --'I don't have your report; it's in your document folder. ' --'Wait I don't have a "Your Documents" ' -- 'This is pointless' -fin-

Anyway, I suspect it's not worth your money to pay for Acrobat Pro for this one small task, but it does have a free 30 day trial. SemanticMantis (talk) 18:48, 24 June 2014 (UTC)

Note that there's no such thing as a free version of Adobe Acrobat. There used to be Adobe Acrobat Reader but that's long since renamed to Adobe Reader. Adobe Acrobat generally comes in Standard and Pro versions, neither of which are free. (Nowadays there's also the online versions.) Nil Einne (talk) 14:35, 25 June 2014 (UTC)

Thanks, all. Joseph A. Spadaro (talk) 16:43, 27 June 2014 (UTC)