Computing desk
< September 4	<< Aug \| September \| Oct >>	September 6 >

Welcome to the Wikipedia Computing Reference Desk Archives
The page you are currently viewing is an archive page. While you can leave answers for any questions shown below, please ask new questions on one of the current reference desk pages.

September 5[edit]

Can anyone find my real name if I released an app on Google play under a different name?[edit]

I am pretty sure that someone can't just find out my real name(connect it to my personal email address or username) unless they have access to Google servers, which only few employees of Google have. Yesterday, my friends told me that "anyone" can find my real name even if I wanted to hide it. Please tell me who's right. 20:12, 5 September 2015 (UTC) — Preceding unsigned comment added by 183.83.224.138 (talk)

You can't prove a negative. If your friends are so sure it can be done, ask them to prove it. ^Avic _ennasis @ 01:07, 24 Elul 5775 / 01:07, 8 September 2015 (UTC)[reply]

@Avicennasis: I asked them but they say that I can't hide my real name on the Internet. They are five and I am only one. They are saying that majority is saying that I can't hide then I can't hide. I said it was a silly argument. When I asked them how can anyone find my real name, then they answered saying that hacking and bribing the Google and etc will reveal my real name which was total bullshit. 183.83.230.126 (talk) 13:43, 9 September 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Microsoft Edge knows a lot about me[edit]

In Windows 10, Microsoft Edge is certainly far more than a search engine. There is a small personalized section on the right side of the page with the local weather as well as "My Watchlist." I would expect it to show the financial securities I wish to follow, and indeed it does, but... I didn't tell it which ones to watch! How in the world would this program know which mutual funds I'm interested in? --Halcatalyst (talk) 20:23, 5 September 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Based on searches you've done before ? StuRat (talk) 20:42, 5 September 2015 (UTC)[reply]

No, not with Microsoft Edge. This is the first time I've looked into it. --Halcatalyst (talk) 03:02, 6 September 2015 (UTC)[reply]

It's not Edge which knows about you it's Microsoft. Windows 10 sends a lot of information from your PC to M$ and, according to recent press, this is very difficult to turn off. It seems as though just as somebody thinks they've turned the sending off, another setting is discovered. http://arstechnica.co.uk/information-technology/2015/08/windows-10-doesnt-offer-much-privacy-by-default-heres-how-to-fix-it/ Microsoft have backported this tracking to Windows 7 and 8 too http://www.theregister.co.uk/2015/09/01/microsoft_backports_data_slurp_to_windows_78_via_patches/ Somewhere I saw an article which said that if you use Bing, that is tracking you also. It's all part of the Microsoft user experience. --TrogWoolley (talk) 12:45, 6 September 2015 (UTC)[reply]

I'm not surprised to hear this about M$ but how could they know, specifically, about the funds I follow? There is one possibility: a few years ago I gave he information to CNNmoney for tracking purposes. Could M$ have purchased the information from them? Next question: why wouldn't they see that a lot of people like me would be bothered to see it turn up my personal little corner? You can't be outraged over a breach to your privacy if you don't know about it. --Halcatalyst (talk) 17:17, 6 September 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Where are you seeing this information? Is it on the new tab page? Are you sure you never used MSN Money to track those funds? -- BenRG (talk) 05:58, 7 September 2015 (UTC)[reply]

I did do that. I had forgotten. --Halcatalyst (talk) 12:27, 8 September 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Probably Microsoft has decided that the experience of Google, Facebook and Apple has shown sufficient people don't really care enough compared to those who are happy by the benefits. (Microsoft's Scroogled campaign for example didn't seem to have much success AFAIK.) Of course there's no reason to breach the privacy if you aren't going to do something with the information, and Microsoft doesn't have a big advertising business. In terms of the wider issue, I agree with BenRG, however Microsoft got the information, it's fairly unlikely it came from CNNmoney. More likely something you did in the past somewhere tied with Microsoft that you don't remember. Nil Einne (talk) 07:34, 7 September 2015 (UTC)[reply]

If you somebody sets up an expensive website and lets you use it for free, then you are not the customer. You are the product being sold.

One solution is to give your computer and as many websites as possible the same fake name, bogus birthdate, fake address, etc. Pick a really common name like John Smith or Susan Jones, pick a vacant lot in the next town over for your mailing address, and use a separate email address that you only check when some website sends a confirmation email. Soon all of these corporations will have a nice tidy file on you containing all your personal information, all completely phony.

BTW, Social Security numbers between 987-65-4320 and 987-65-4329 are reserved for use in ads, and (212) 664-7665 is a fake number used in films to avoid the 555 prefix. --Guy Macon (talk) 08:15, 7 September 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Wireless Connectivity Issue in Xubuntu[edit]

Resolved

Hi, all. I am running an HP Stream 11 (11-d010nr) with Xubuntu 15.04 on it, running the latest mainline kernel (3.19.0-26) whose wireless connection (rtl8723be chipset) has recently developed a habit of randomly failing after an extended period, temporarily fixable by manually re-associating with the router most of the time, but sometimes requiring a restart.

I recently re-installed the entire operating system in a last-ditch effort after troubleshooting this issue over the past week to no avail, but that too has not fixed my issue. After hours of internet searching, I've decided to ask here in the hopes that someone knows something I can't find myself.

Previously I had this issue before as well, when I first got the laptop, but I was able to fix it by downloading this git patch: https://github.com/lwfinger/rtlwifi_new As of this past week, this no longer fixes my issue but instead causes the connection to flap every 30-60 seconds.

Any insight into this matter is greatly appreciated. Thanks! -Amordea (talk) 20:53, 5 September 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Update: Still not fixed, but I've discovered something interesting. Leaving a browser page opened to my router creates a small, but steady flow of traffic since the router is set to update its state every 3s, which causes the connection to stop flapping completely (uptime of 17.5 hours now and still going). -Amordea (talk) 15:23, 6 September 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Update #2: Okay, I think may be able to mark this as resolved. I suspected some kind of power save issue based on the clue left by the router page temporary solution, but what I didn't know was how to shut that off. After some more internet searching, from what I can tell, using modprobe I can set parameters for my adapter.

To my knowledge, however, these would reset to defaults upon restart and the problem would then appear once more, so I needed to create a more permanent solution. In the /etc/modprobe.d directory I created a configuration file called rtl8723be.conf with one line of parameters in it: options rtl8723be fwlps=0 swlps=0 ips=0

I am unsure if all those features need to be turned off, however as of this past reboot (~15 minutes ago) my dmesg has been blissfully free of any re-association messages (which normally would appear every 30-60 seconds or so), so unless I encounter more issues, I am going to leave it as is. Hopefully this information helps somebody else out there with a similar issue. -Amordea (talk) 17:25, 6 September 2015 (UTC)[reply]