I'm trying to insert a null value into a MySQL table but I keep getting all zeros for the date, i.e. 0000-00-00. I've tried single quotes around the Null, I've tried lower case null... What am I doing wrong?

if (isset($_POST['add_animal'])) {      // /user hit submit
   // check the NOT NULL columns to be sure they have a value. 
	    // the next 5 post vars are NOT NULL so they should have a value
	    $name=$_POST['name'];
	    $species=$_POST['species'];
		$birthdate = $_POST['birthdate'];
        $color = $_POST['color'];
	    $breed = $_POST['breed'];
	    // For values that allow a NULL
	    $fixed_date = !empty($_POST['fixed_date']) ? $_POST['fixed_date'] : "NULL";
	    
	 
        $query = 
		"INSERT INTO animal (name,species,birthdate,color,breed,fixed_date) VALUES
		('$name','$species','$birthdate','$color','$breed','$fixed_date')";
         // print $query;
         $result = mysqli_query ($db, $query);
         if (!$result) 
             print "ERROR: Add New Animal Failed on INSERT " . mysqli_error($db);
         else {
             print "<br />New Animal Added <br />";
			 print "<form>";
             print "<button type='button' >\"window.location='add_animal.php';\">Add Another Animal</button>";
             print "<button type='button' >\"window.location='animals.php';\">Display Animals</button><br>";
			 print "</form>";
    } 
}

Thanks, Dismas|^(talk) 02:01, 30 April 2016 (UTC)[reply]

One point - don't use the raw $POST variables to generate the SQL. See SQL injection. Tevildo (talk) 07:29, 30 April 2016 (UTC)[reply]

I don't use either MySQL or PHP, but one obvious problem is that you seem to be using the string 'NULL' in your INSERT statement, which MySQL may be converting to 0000-00-00. As Tevildo says, this way of constructing dynamic SQL statements is not best practice, especially without sanitising the inputs, but if you're going to do it then you would need to set $fixed_date to either (the string) NULL or (e.g.) '2016-05-01' (including the quotes) and not use the quotes in the $query = ... statement. AndrewWTaylor (talk) 10:15, 30 April 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Thank you both. I got it figured out by using the following:

	    $fixed_date = !empty($_POST['fixed_date']) ? $_POST['fixed_date'] : 'null';
	    if (empty($_POST['fixed_date']))
			$query = 
			"INSERT INTO animal (name,species,birthdate,color,breed) VALUES
			('$name','$species','$birthdate','$color','$breed')";
		else 
		    $query = 
			"INSERT INTO animal (name,species,birthdate,color,breed,fixed_date) VALUES
			('$name','$species','$birthdate','$color','$breed','$fixed_date')";

It's a bit lengthy but works. I'm not too worried about SQL injection as this is only a class project and not meant for a live environment. Also, it's a course on databases and not web dev, even though our final project is to slap a front end on the database. Thanks for responding though! Dismas|^(talk) 11:56, 30 April 2016 (UTC)[reply]

This is the way into the abyss. --Stephan Schulz (talk) 12:42, 30 April 2016 (UTC)[reply]

I have a thought experiment that doesn't quite make sense to me, so I'm hoping to clarify it here:

• First consider an ordinary queue system: To make it easier to visualize, let's make it a real world situation, like a queue ("line" in US English) at a grocery store. Each person joins the queue when they are ready to be checked out, then waits for their turn.

• Now consider my queue reservation system: Back in the grocery store, we assume each customer has a kid with them, and asks the kid to wait in line as soon as they enter the store, while the parent goes shopping. So, while the parent shops, the kid moves higher and higher in the queue order. If they get to the front before the parent is done shipping, they let one, and only one, customer past them, until that customer is checked out, then they let the next customer past them, etc. Let's assume that the shopping time is sufficiently long compared with the queue length so that the kid is always at the front by the time the parent finishes shopping. So then, when the parent returns there should only be 0 or 1 customers in front in the queue.

So, the second scenario is a gain for the customer (and kid) who uses it, at the cost of those customers who would have been in front of them, but are now behind them, having to wait longer. (Let's not discuss the ethics of this, I'm just interested in the facts.)

My trouble comes in when I consider what happens if everyone uses the same queue reservation system. It seems like there should be no gain for anybody then, on average. However, I have difficulty conceptualizing how this works out to be the case. For example, if there would have been 10 customers in front with full baskets, if nobody used the queue reservation system, and now instead there are 10 kids holding places, when Mom is ready to check out, doesn't she still go right to the front of the queue ? I suppose there is some chance that other customers with earlier queue reservations will finish shopping right at the same time, so our customer will have to wait for them, too, but it seems implausible that all 10 would finish at once. So, would we end up with more place holders than we would have customers, without the queue reservation system ? I can see this when the business first opens, but a business that is open 24 hours a day doesn't seem like it would have this issue.

Any thoughts ? (This is posted on the Computer Desk because of the possible application to computer queues.) StuRat (talk) 17:00, 30 April 2016 (UTC)[reply]

There are two issues you need to detail. Assume all the kids are in line and nobody ever finishes shopping. Do the two kids in the front of the line keep swapping places? Now, one person who is not in the front finishes. What happens? You said one and only one may pass. If the two in front aren't done shopping, they can, at most, just swap places over and over. They won't let the person finished shopping move up in line. So, how does that person get to the front of the line? 47.49.128.58 (talk) 17:47, 30 April 2016 (UTC)[reply]

When a customer checks out, the next real customer moves to the front, past all place-holders. A place-holder never lets another place-holder move past. If the queue consists of place-holders only, then nobody moves. StuRat (talk) 18:49, 30 April 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Isn't this just the same as having priority customers who automatically go to the front of the queue past normal customers? In the case of the computer implementation, you just interrupt the normal processing to give priority (no placeholders needed). Dbfirs 19:02, 30 April 2016 (UTC)[reply]

No, it's like giving all customers high priority, which doesn't seem like it should change anything, but when we talk about the specifics, it somehow seems like it does. This is what I don't quite understand. StuRat (talk) 22:08, 30 April 2016 (UTC)[reply]

I don't really understand why you think it will change anything, unless behaviour changes. Queing is complicated but if we assume there is no change in behaviour (which is unlikely but beside the point), then your high priority isn't going to work if everyone is using it. I haven't read the complicated discussion but what will happen will either be that the ques are exactly the same with a bunch of kids pointless standing somewhere in the que, or the que will be different because some people who happen to be lucky will get to skip the que because their kid happens to be at the right place when they come to join the que. Either way the average waiting time will be the same. Nil Einne (talk) 17:58, 1 May 2016 (UTC)[reply]

I should have been more careful in my phrasing. As 209 pointed out below (I think some other people did elsewhere but as said, I didn't pay that much attention), another possibility is that the first to arrive in the supermarket will be pushed to the front of the que. So it's not random or "luck" based but is different from the normal order (first to arrive in the que after finishing). The main point still stands though, the average wait time isn't going to significantly change but the order in the que may or may not change. Significantly is another clarification here. For large numbers, the averages will likely not change much. For small numbers, the averages may change. Even by random chance, those who take longer may end up more in front or at the back. It may not even be random. Depending on precisely how it works there may be a built in bias. (If it's first in to supermarket ends up in front of the que, these could take longer on average.) Nil Einne (talk) 18:07, 2 May 2016 (UTC)[reply]

I've already stated that it shouldn't make any difference, on average. What I'm asking about is the exact mechanism by which those with a queue reservation are delayed as much as they would have been without one. By analogy, we know that perpetual motion machines are impossible, but if we see something that keeps moving seemingly forever, we then need to figure out how (such as hidden source of energy, like sunlight). Or, for a math example, the "always double your bet until you win" gambling strategy seems to guarantee you can never lose, but we know that isn't possible. The answer there is that there is a very low, but significant, possibility you will lose your entire bankroll, which makes it so you won't win on average. StuRat (talk) 16:25, 3 May 2016 (UTC)[reply]

FILO (first In – last Out) = stack (abstract data type) or FIFO (first in – first out), which is a queue or circular buffer, when input and output are syncronized, in a basic circuit, called a shift register, also used in CPUs to divide by two when shifting right or multiply by two when left left. Analog shift registers are used for sustain of sampled audio or reverberation. Did You mean basics of computer multitasking on depending tasks like parallel computing (Parallel processor)? --Hans Haase (有问题吗) 19:11, 30 April 2016 (UTC)[reply]

The question asked, "What happens if everyone uses the queue reservation system." That means there are no actual customers in the queue, ever. There is simply an unending number of mothers who enter the store and send their child to the back of the queue. Now, in that case, no child would move until a mother showed up with her groceries at her child's position. At that time, the most logical thing to happen would be for that mother to advance to the head of the queue, pay at the checkout, and leave with her child, with every other child retaining his/her position in the queue. There is no logical justification for the children ahead of hers to drop back. Why should they lose their priority? Akld guy (talk) 21:26, 30 April 2016 (UTC)[reply]

When that mother shows up with groceries and moves to the front, that pushes every child which was in front of her child back one spot, while children who were behind hers are in the same position in the queue, although now one of those in front of them is a mother with groceries which was formerly just a place-holder. However, I disagree with your statement that that "...means there are no actual customers in the queue, ever". If it were that simple then my queue reservation system would have somehow eliminated all waiting at the checkout counter, and we know that can't be right. Here's where the question comes in. Why isn't it that simple ? One reason is that additional mothers can show up with groceries before that last one has finished checking out, but still, that doesn't seem like enough to make the universal queue reservation system just as bad as if nobody was using it. StuRat (talk) 22:03, 30 April 2016 (UTC)[reply]

However, I disagree with your statement that that "...means there are no actual customers in the queue, ever". Really? But your own question said, My trouble comes in when I consider what happens if everyone uses the same queue reservation system. When you've figured out what you're trying to say, get back to us. Till then you're just wasting everyone's time. Akld guy (talk) 22:29, 30 April 2016 (UTC)[reply]

By 'customers', I meant mothers. You surely didn't think I meant there would be no queue at all, did you? Akld guy (talk) 22:46, 30 April 2016 (UTC)[reply]

No, I took "customers" to mean mothers with full baskets, but I don't understand why you think there will never be any in the queue. StuRat (talk) 23:01, 30 April 2016 (UTC)[reply]

I am unable to understand what part of the description is unclear to you. Perhaps you are thinking of "reservation" as meaning a specific time ? That's not the case here, all that is reserved is an earlier spot in the queue. Thus, if some other mom with an earlier reserved spot shows up first, she will still get in front of later moms, and then we have more than one mom in the queue with a full basket. StuRat (talk) 22:46, 30 April 2016 (UTC)[reply]

I see now what you mean. Initially (when the doors open) a queue of children forms at the checkout as customers come in, but within a short time mothers with carts join the queue at random times, so yes, the children at the head of the queue would drop back to the tail of the queue, allowing each mother/child to move up to the back of the mother/child queue. Akld guy (talk) 23:35, 30 April 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Not quite. The children at the head of the queue don't drop back to the tail. Rather each mother joins her child at that child's spot in the queue. The only case where a child drops back is when they are at the front of the queue and then they only drop back one spot, as the next mother/child pair moves up to the front. The remaining mother/child pairs remain where they are in the queue. StuRat (talk) 23:58, 30 April 2016 (UTC)[reply]

OK, child or empty position=0, mother+child=1. In 8-bit, the queue would initially be 00000000. A mother with cart joins her child at bit2, which would be 00000100. They go to bit7 (checkout) and displace the child there. Bit7,6,5,4,3 children drop back 1, so bit2 is again occupied and it's now 10000000. While they're paying, another mother joins her child at bit4 (10010000). This mother and child advance to bit6 to wait for the checkout to become available and the children at 6 and 5 drop back to 5 and 4 respectively, so it's now 11000000. In each case when a mother joins her child and advances to the back of the mother+child tail, the child there and the ones that were ahead of her child drop back 1. Is that it? I could write that as a right shift operation in Assembler in a few lines. It's fairly trivial. Akld guy (talk) 01:20, 1 May 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Almost right. The second mother/child pair wouldn't advance until the first pair had checked out completely. Also, I'm not sure if we should equate an empty slot with one reserved by a child. If I were to model it, I would use lowercase letters for the child only, uppercase for the child/mother pair, and a 0 for empty. So, your scenario might go like this, with the addition of another pair:

00000000 <- store opens
abcdefgh <- kids fill the queue while their mothers shop
abcdeFgh <- mother of child f joins him in the queue
Fabcdegh <- pair F is promoted to front of queue
FabCdegh <- mother of child c joins him in the queue
FaBCdegh <- mother of child b joins him in the queue
aBCdegh0 <- pair F checks out and leaves queue
BaCdegh0 <- pair B is promoted to the front of the queue

StuRat (talk) 01:35, 1 May 2016 (UTC)[reply]

This is the same as the "give each customer a number as they enter" system, with the proviso that places are reserved if a customer is not ready when their turn arrives. Dbfirs 09:15, 2 May 2016 (UTC)[reply]

I'm still don't think this has been described well enough. Assume there are only two customers, A and B. A comes in first. B comes in second. B finishes shopping first, so B checks out first. Then, A checks out when done. There was no point in the kids standing in line. It is just the first to check out will check out first. Now, assume that A finishes shopping first. A checks out first, then B. So, again, there was no point in the kids being there. Assume B is checking out when A finishes. A has to wait for B to check out. Assume A is checking out when B finishes. B has to wait for A to check out. With two customers, having kids makes no difference. Now, add customer C. They arrive in order A, B, and C. Whomever finishes shopping first is promoted to the front of the line and checks out. Then, the next person to finish shopping is promoted to the front of the line and checks out. Then, the last to finish shopping checks out. There was no point in the kids standing in line. The only way the kids can make a difference is if someone finishes shopping while someone else is checking out. With A, B, and C, if one is checking out when another finishes, then one waits in line and then checks out. In the case that only one customer waits in line for a checkout, the kids don't matter. The checkout order is the same. Now, the problem... Assume that A is checking out. Then, C finishes and gets promoted to the front of the line behind A. Then, B finishes. Does B get promoted in front of C? If not, then it is a first-to-finish-shopping is first-to-checkout system. If C does get in front of B, then it is a priority system. The line is always sorted in alphabetical order for customers A, B, C, D... The kids don't matter either way. It is either a FIFO system or a priority system. So, what makes this so different? 209.149.115.199 (talk) 12:31, 2 May 2016 (UTC)[reply]

209.149, I agree with your analysis up to here: "Now, the problem... Assume that A is checking out. Then, C finishes and gets promoted to the front of the line behind A. Then, B finishes. Does B get promoted in front of C?" Answer, yes, that is the whole point of the kids holding the places in strict A,B,C... priority as they entered the store, as declared by the OP. It is a priority system. Akld guy (talk) 20:02, 2 May 2016 (UTC)[reply]

The logic box posted above by OP makes that clear. Pair B is promoted to checkout ahead of pair C who were actually ready to pay and leave before pair B. Akld guy (talk) 22:14, 2 May 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Yes, that's why I added that part. Customer B, who finished shopping after customer C, still checks out earlier, because they arrived at the store earlier, and their kid had a higher place in the queue. The only way a later arriving customer should check out earlier, is if they are done shopping first and also there is nobody checking out at some time between when they finish shopping and when the earlier arriving customer finishes shopping. StuRat (talk) 16:19, 3 May 2016 (UTC)[reply]

It's a shortest job first scheduling with everyone starting at time=0. In the 'thought experiment' scenario, there's no difference whether all the boys line up at time 0 or they stagger in.

Using that notation:

abcd <- original queue
Cabd <- C is done shopping at TimeC, so it starts checking out
CaBd <- B is done shopping at TimeB, nothing happens yet
CABd <- A is done shopping at TimeA, which is the same time as TimeB effectively (difference is in granularity of checkout time)
ABd  <- C is finally done
ABde <- E joins in
BdE  <- A is done, B starts checking out, and E gets done
Ed   <- B is done, E starts checkout, cause TimeE is shorter than TimeD

E joining the queue just proves that joining the queue after the start doesn't matter. It could have started with abcde with the same result. The shortest order will be TimeC, TimeA == TimeB, TimeE, TimeD. --Wirbelwind(ヴィルヴェルヴィント) 06:43, 4 May 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Once again online dezoomify has failed here. Firefox suggests they are separate unstitched images at full size, but I'm not sure. What software is good for extracting full-sized images from that Digital Scrolling Paintings Project? Thanks. Brandmeister^talk 19:22, 30 April 2016 (UTC)[reply]

I don't know why dezoomify failed, but I downloaded and stitched the 1,911 tiles with my own script. Should I upload it over File:Court Ladies Preparing Newly Woven Silk.jpg or somewhere else? -- BenRG (talk) 09:37, 1 May 2016 (UTC)[reply]

@BenRG: Yep, feel free to overwrite. For some reason I still can't run dezoomify.py properly on Win 7. After launching Dezoomify.py and opening the command line, I copy-paste, for instance, python dezoomify.py -i http://www.bl.uk/onlinegallery/onlineex/evancoll/a/zoomify72459.html -q 90 -o c:\output.jpg to the command line, but after pressing "enter" get "the name python is unrecognizable". Same is happening with other URLs. That said, when I start dezoomify.py, it looks like it's opened but I can't see it running anywhere, although Python 3.4 is installed. Maybe there's a more simple script out there. Brandmeister^talk 11:59, 1 May 2016 (UTC)[reply]

I uploaded it. Instead of "python" try "py". It's a launcher that will find the right python executable (probably). -- BenRG (talk) 23:08, 1 May 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Your error message means the shell can't find Python. Did you put the Python installation directory in your PATH? See the official Python help. (If you have a different Python version, you can get to its help files from the top navigation bar.) --71.110.8.102 (talk) 02:45, 2 May 2016 (UTC)[reply]

As of whenever PEP 397 was adopted, the Python installation directory doesn't need to be in your PATH; py.exe can find it in the registry (and py.exe is in \Windows, which is always in the path). That help page is years out of date, despite being from the latest 2.x release. The 3.x page is more current. -- BenRG (talk) 08:16, 2 May 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Ok, I've now reconfigured. At scrolls.uchicago.edu zoomify object syntax failed, it seems, so I tried base URL per commons:Help:Zoomable_images/dezoomify.py#Examples. When trying for instance http://scrolls.uchicago.edu/scroll/night-revels-han-xizai I get this in the command line:

ERROR: Could not open ImageProperties.xml <HTTP Error 404: Not Found>. URL: http://scrolls.uchicago.edu/scroll/night-revels-han-xizai/ImageProperties.xml.

Any ideas? Is Dezoomify ever workable with http://scrolls.uchicago.edu? Brandmeister^talk 08:24, 2 May 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Why does my CPU restarts automatically with the monitor turning black and showing no notification and sometimes with the freezing of the desktop as if it is paused and mouse keyboard or anything doesn't run at that time of freezing? I have Intel's 2.67 GHz processor with 2 GB RAM and 500 GB harddisk. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Sahil shrestha (talk • contribs) 05:00, 30 April 2016 (UTC)[reply]

This problem is not described specific enough and too less precise. If the machine reboots without Your order. Malware or hardware problems can cause this effect. The machines' configuration seems to be 4 years or older. Such hardware may have some problems today, usually caused by mainboard, power supply or graphic card. --Hans Haase (有问题吗) 19:26, 30 April 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Overheating is another potential problem. Smart systems will detect overheating and warn you first, but dumb ones keep going on happily until they freeze up. You can remove the case and point a fan at it to test this theory. If that stops it, then overheating was the problem. If so, you can look for a more elegant solution (perhaps clean or upgrade the main or CPU fan or improve the attachment to the heat sink). If the problem happens more often when the room is hot, that's another sign of overheating. StuRat (talk) 22:13, 30 April 2016 (UTC)[reply]

A loose power cord is another possibility, but there I would always expect a black screen or a "no signal" message. StuRat (talk) 22:15, 30 April 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Yes, there I can see a "no signal" as you said and my CPU gets overheated very soon as well. Is there any method to reduce CPU's overheating. sahil shrestha (talk) 02:08, 1 May 2016 (UTC)[reply]

As I said, the quick fix is to open up the case and point a big fan at the innards and turn it on full. I also described some long term fixes you might try above. And if you have a way to keep the room cool, that will help, too. StuRat (talk) 04:04, 1 May 2016 (UTC)[reply]

The above procedures should not be attempted unless you know what you are doing. The inside of a computer is sensitive to static electricity and hence one must ground themselves (e.g. by touching the bare metal of the case itself for a few minutes) regularly while looking at it. With that said, however, cleaning can only help for overheating problems. @Sahil shrestha: In the worst case, the CPU is permanently damaged from overheating and needs replacement, but I am not sure that the problem is your CPU in particular. Make sure that your RAM is also in working order and that all cooling devices (i.e. fans) are functioning properly.--Jasper Deng (talk) 06:27, 1 May 2016 (UTC)[reply]

I think you meant "seconds", not "minutes". All you have to do is touch metal on the case briefly to equalize your voltage with the case's. I've been tinkering with computers for decades and have never had anything damaged by static. --71.110.8.102 (talk) 02:36, 2 May 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks. I was never sure exactly how long I needed to do it, so I always did at least one minute to be safe.--Jasper Deng (talk) 07:29, 2 May 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Couple of milliseconds should be fine. The Quixotic Potato (talk) 02:04, 5 May 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Anyone know how to turn these off (and then back on)? I want to see the layout of the pins without the names getting in the way. -- SGBailey (talk) 05:55, 1 May 2016 (UTC)[reply]

And whilst at it, can you turn the geograph icons off too? -- SGBailey (talk) 06:10, 1 May 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Does the Lenovo Thinkpad 13 have user upgradable RAM? The memory upgrade option on their website is a little too expensive compared to how much the RAM sticks cost in retail. Johnson&Johnson&Son (talk) 09:20, 1 May 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Yes. See pages 61 and 69 of this document.—Best Dog Ever (talk) 09:43, 1 May 2016 (UTC)[reply]

I'm in the middle of replacing a broken keyboard for a friend, and the keyboard I first used to get her going again, unknown to me, had a very slightly smaller key size and spacing than the standard.

I didn't even notice the difference when I used the smaller keyboard (and I use it regularly... it's a backlit USB wireless keyboard that I connect to my subnotebook particularly in low light situations) but she greatly prefers it. She has small hands, I suspect that's the reason, but it may also be the influence of the many typewriters she has used over the years. That would be a good PhD for someone probably!

But in researching keyboard sizes... well, maybe I should say trying to research them... I found little data. The manufacturers websites (including the website for the slightly smaller one I have) don't even mention key size or spacing in their online specifications. The keyboards in shops don't mention it on the packaging. The sales staff either stare blankly or (a few I must say) say that I'm lying to them, that they are all the same.

I found one website on the history of computer hardware (see Talk:Computer keyboard#Standard size keyboard) that says the standard spacing is 3/4" and is universal, and it gives reasons for this. While that seems to be true of most keyboards I have (and all the older ones), it obviously isn't true of all USB keyboards and with the advent of subnotebooks may even be completely out of date.

Any information? Andrewa (talk) 16:23, 1 May 2016 (UTC)[reply]

I'm just curious... Have you actually measured this keyboard of which you speak? Dismas|^(talk) 16:39, 1 May 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Yes... see the wikilink above. The overall length of the row QWERTYUIOP inclusive (but just the alpha keys, not the Tab and special character keys at the ends of the row) is 19cm for most keyboards (with standard spacing) but only 18cm for the backlit Logitech that inspired this question. It seems too small a difference to matter, but it does. Andrewa (talk) 16:58, 1 May 2016 (UTC)[reply]

A better measurement (I took those before encountering any data at all) is the Q-T spacing, centre to centre... standard is 3" of course representing .75" (or 3/4") key spacing, but the Logitech is only 2.75". I chose to measure four key spaces for greater accuracy. Andrewa (talk) 17:10, 1 May 2016 (UTC)[reply]

I think you are stuck opening packages and measuring them. Of course, you don't need to buy them in the same place, if you can get a better deal elsewhere, after you find the model you want. StuRat (talk) 02:52, 2 May 2016 (UTC)[reply]

So it seems. Done that now, see below. Andrewa (talk) 08:26, 5 May 2016 (UTC)[reply]

It's always worth reading on-line reviews, where previous customers are likely to mention something like this. I always make a point of writing on-line reviews, especially if I am disappointed with a product.--Shantavira|^{feed me} 07:18, 2 May 2016 (UTC)[reply]

I've tried searching for such. No mention of key sizes and spacing that I can see. Andrewa (talk) 08:26, 5 May 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Maybe email a company that sells compact and mini keyboards? http://www.fentek-ind.com/minikb.htm The Quixotic Potato (talk) 23:41, 4 May 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Good suggestion. They don't appear to have much presence in Australia... fentek.com.au even seems to have been registered by a cyber squatter. But probably a good course of information for inclusion in Wikipedia, which is the main point here now (see below). Andrewa (talk) 08:26, 5 May 2016 (UTC)[reply]

I have now bought a second Logitech keyboard with slightly reduced size keys (same size as the other, but different model... no backlight, and alkaline rather than rechargeable batteries) and it seems perfect for the application. That was half the reason for raising the issue here, and I'm grateful for the input. JB Hifi (Hornsby) did well, made and deserved the sale... had the product, had the product knowledge, were happy to open the packages and measure the keys. (Some other local suppliers were a lot less helpful.)

The other half of the question is still of interest however. I looked for information on key sizes in Wikipedia, and didn't find it anywhere in our main namespace. It seems to be encyclopedic information. This is a job for... Wikiman!

I'm guessing that full size keys is seen as a plus and a selling point, and that reduced size keys aren't seen as a selling point, that's why no supplier seems to mention key size unless it's to say that they are full-sized. All the more reason that it would be good for us to have this information. Andrewa (talk) 08:26, 5 May 2016 (UTC)[reply]

I downloaded and installed this, and it seems to be running OK, but it's not obvious to me how I actually use a PHP file and see the results. I tried creating a file with the PHP extension, but my PC (Windows 7) doesn't know what to do with it when I click on it. The links they provide for "Introduction" seem to just take me back to pages talking about how to download, install, and upgrade, not actually use it. Any ideas ? Does it have a development window I need to start somehow, then cut and paste code into it ? StuRat (talk) 02:39, 2 May 2016 (UTC)[reply]

It's a software bundle for running a local dev server. You run the server on a loopback interface and connect to it. If you don't know how to use it, you should probably look for a good book on Web development. --71.110.8.102 (talk) 02:52, 2 May 2016 (UTC)[reply]

It really shouldn't require reading a book to figure out what I need to click on to get a PHP program to run on a PHP server. StuRat (talk) 03:05, 2 May 2016 (UTC)[reply]

I assumed you were trying to do Web development, because that's generally why you'd download a dev server package. I'm smelling XY problem here. Let's step back. What are you trying to accomplish? If you have a command-line PHP program you just want to run locally, all you need is PHP, which you can download here. However, you need to be sure the program is intended to be run locally from a command line. If you're trying to run a local install of "Web software" like Mediawiki, you will need to set up the full server environment, because those programs are designed to interact with clients over an Internet connection. --71.110.8.102 (talk) 04:55, 2 May 2016 (UTC)[reply]

While PHP does have a command-line tool, it is commonly used as a web server scripting tool. It is likely that your problem is not with PHP. Your problem is in understanding how to use your web server. 209.149.115.199 (talk) 13:51, 2 May 2016 (UTC)[reply]

I want to get the following "Hello World" program to run:

<html>
 <head>
  <title>PHP Test</title>
 </head>
 <body>

<?php echo '

Hello World

'; ?>

 </body>
</html>

(Wiki seems to do something weird to the echo line, go into edit to see the unmolested version.) How can I do that ? I am helping somebody out who is taking a class in PHP, and the instructor said to download the EasyPHP Devserver and run it there. Presumably more challenging PHP programs will follow, but for now this is all that is needed. So, how do I get it to work ? StuRat (talk) 15:02, 2 May 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Run the EasyPHP server. That is a web server. It listens on port 80. If that is confusing, step back and study "What is a web server?" Now, put your PHP file in the server's document folder. Where is that? It should be somewhere in the EasyPHP install. Assume you called the file 'hello.php'. Open your web browser and go to localhost/hello.php. If EasyPHP is installed and EasyPHP is running and you put the file in the correct folder and the file doesn't have a typo... you will see the web page with Hello World in it. This is *not* a PHP problem. This is a "How do I install and use a web server?" problem. 209.149.115.199 (talk) 15:42, 2 May 2016 (UTC)[reply]

OK, Google Chrome seemed to recognize "localhost" when I typed it in the address bar. It took me to a page that says EasyPHP Devserver, so that's a good sign. It lists 3 folders there, all empty: my portable files, projects, and scripts. I went into "my portable files", and the address bar changed to "http://localhost/my%20portable%20files/". But here's where I hit a wall. I can't navigate there using the "My Computer" icon on the Desktop, and I can't find it using Start + search bar. So how do I place my hello.php there ? I tried dragging it into the folder in the Google Chrome window, but that didn't work.

I also found an option on the EasyPHP Devserver mini icon (down by the clock) labeled "Local Web", and that takes me to the same folders listed above (within Google Chrome), except the word "localhost" is replaced by "127.0.0.1". StuRat (talk) 04:40, 3 May 2016 (UTC)[reply]

One point - StuRat's file should be called "hello.htm" (or something similar), not "hello.php", as it's an HTML file. It may need some additional HTML headers to stop various elements of the system complaining. Tevildo (talk) 15:50, 2 May 2016 (UTC)[reply]

From a cursory scan of the EasyPHP docs, it uses the .php extension to identify a file as containing PHP. Naming it .htm indicates that it does not contain PHP and will not be parsed. It is possible to alter this behavior in the setup. From the question here, it is not possible to know if StuRat altered the default setup or not - or even if EasyPHP is running. 209.149.115.199 (talk) 15:53, 2 May 2016 (UTC)[reply]

It's definitely running (see above). The only modification I made was changing the name of the folder from "EasyPHP" to "PHPEasy", because I want to find it when looking for "PHP", not "Easy". StuRat (talk) 05:03, 3 May 2016 (UTC)[reply]

The reason you code appears weird here is because the <p> paragraph HTML element is a valid HTML element in wikimarkup. (I used the <p> element all the time rather than manually introducing new indented paragraphs although I just realised properly I should also add a closing </p>.) It is intepreted even when you start the sentence with a space indicating it should be displayed as code, as I think is most other valid wikitext which doesn't conflict (try for example a template or a link). To avoid the problem, you should <nowiki></nowiki> the <p> elements and any other elements that are valid in wikimarkup or do something else which will ensure the elements are not passed. Nil Einne (talk) 08:07, 3 May 2016 (UTC)[reply]

I tried <nowiki>, and it did this to it:

<html> <head> <title>PHP Test</title> </head> <body> <?php echo '<p>Hello World</p>'; ?> </body> </html>

Any other suggestions ? StuRat (talk) 16:08, 3 May 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Sorry I guess I wasn't as clear as I thought. You need to <nowiki></nowiki> only elements you do not want to be intepreted as wikimarkup. If you <nowiki></nowiki> anything which you do want to be intepreted as wikimarkup then these will also not be intepreted. This includes the spaces before lines to force them to be intepreted as code and also I guess any simple line breaks. Since I'm pretty sure only the <p></p> elements are being intepreted, one of the simplest method is probably:

 <html>
  <head>
   <title>PHP Test</title>
  </head>
  <body>
   <?php echo '<nowiki><p>Hello World</p></nowiki>'; ?> 
  </body>
 </html>

Note the above text is intended to be read on the intepreted version of this page as an example of what you want to do in source. In other words, you shouldn't need to view source to understand this comment. In fact you can copy the above text in intepreted form into source and as shown below, it will produce what I assume is your desired result:

<html>
 <head>
  <title>PHP Test</title>
 </head>
 <body>
  <?php echo '<p>Hello World</p>'; ?> 
 </body>
</html>

BTW I nowikied your nowiki above since I'm not sure if it could cause problems.

Nil Einne (talk) 05:58, 4 May 2016 (UTC)[reply]

I see. So either it can look good in edit mode or in read mode, but not in both ? StuRat (talk) 06:03, 4 May 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Not really sure the relevance of your observation. That applies to pretty much everything on wikipedia. The nature of any markup means you can either see the markup which helps you to understand what's going on and edit it but doesn't generally look so pretty. Or you can see the rendered view which shows you what was hopefully intended by the markup. (I'm pretty sure there are alternatives to nowiki which could be used which will obviously look and work different.) The same with indents, links, let alone tables etc. This of course also applies to the HTML markup you're trying to test on your PHP server or whatever. (I'm not denying some markup is simpler and more readable than other markup. And perhaps I should also mention some markup may be intepreted and replaced with other markup, e.g. signatures or substituted templates after saving.)

In case there's some confusion over my clarification above, the normal assumption is the code displayed in a guide is the code you want to use presuming the person writing the guide didn't screw up. The main exception would be if it's specifically presented as an example output and you should check the code to see what the input was to get the output. So I presented my code accordingly. However since there had already been confusion here along with discussions about viewing source, I wanted to make it clear that this was just a normal example where you should view the rendered text rather than the code. The clarification was otherwise irrelevant to my example.

In a similar fashion, if I tell someone to sign their posts with four tildes ~~~~, I don't generally expect them to sign their posts like this <nowiki>~~~~</nowiki> in code form to produce ~~~~ in displayed form. If they do, there's a slight chance they genuinely made a mistake, but more likely they're trolling. And yes, these examples are intended to be read in the rendered view.

Nil Einne (talk) 08:18, 4 May 2016 (UTC)[reply]

I am just partial to WYSIWYG. I would have preferred if putting a space in front alone was enough to disable wiki markup, or perhaps if a <wiki></wiki> pair was needed to enable wiki markup in the first place. StuRat (talk) 15:03, 4 May 2016 (UTC)[reply]

I appreciate if you can assist me with creating a SQL query for a specific situation I am facing, which I can best explain through an example.

Suppose I have this table, with people's favorite fruits:

I want to be able to summarize this data; however I want to explicitly show that FavoriteFruit "Strawberry" has received zero responses.

In other words, I want the output of the query to look like this:

Thank you, --Hia10 (talk) 07:09, 2 May 2016 (UTC)[reply]

I think you can still query for "Strawberry" if you like. The query would just show 0 rows matching. This also does depend exactly what you mean by your question. I assume you have some external list you want to check the table against, and that "Strawberry" is in that list.

216.173.144.188 (talk) 08:26, 2 May 2016 (UTC)[reply]

The issue I expect you've had is that if you use something like "select fruit, count(*) from fruits join favorites on fruits.fruit=favorites.fruit", then strawberry won't show up. If you use "left outer join", strawberry gets a count of 1 for the null row. A simple solution, use a subselect of "select fruit, count(*) cnt from favorites". Then "select fruit, nvl(cnt,0) cnt from fruits left outer join (select fruit, count(*) cnt from favorites)..." Then, strawberry will have a null value for cnt, you null-value it to zero. 209.149.115.199 (talk) 12:37, 2 May 2016 (UTC)[reply]

The issue I see is where exactly does the word "Strawberry" come from ? If it doesn't exist in any table, then SQL isn't going to find it unless you explicitly list it in your query. Using embedded SQL, I would do something like this:

SELECT COUNT(*) FROM FAVORITES WHERE FAVORITES.FRUIT = "Apple";
SELECT COUNT(*) FROM FAVORITES WHERE FAVORITES.FRUIT = "Banana";
SELECT COUNT(*) FROM FAVORITES WHERE FAVORITES.FRUIT = "Orange";
SELECT COUNT(*) FROM FAVORITES WHERE FAVORITES.FRUIT = "Strawberry";

Then I would format my own output based on those results. However, this list of potential fruit is then in the program, not the database, and that's not ideal. It would be better to have a 2nd table which lists all potential fruit types. This can be used for validation of the main table as well as the joined query. StuRat (talk)

I guess the selected fruit may change. The practical solution is a pivot table query, to do it with a single query. A record containing zero in Your query is beeing generated when Your query is based on a table or query containing or listing all selected fruit, first. This table or query is Your table sample Favorite Fruit. Favorite Fruit can be generated from suppliers, recipe ingredients list or orders. --Hans Haase (有问题吗) 19:44, 4 May 2016 (UTC)[reply]

SELECT "Orders"."Article", SUM( "Stock"."Qty" ) "Qty"
FROM { oj "Stock" RIGHT OUTER JOIN "Orders" ON "Stock"."Fruit" = "Orders"."Article" }
GROUP BY "Orders"."Article"
ORDER BY "Orders"."Article" ASC

In this sample, created with LibreOffice Base, the zero is returned as null. In can be subsistuted in furter use to enforce the zero be displayed. --Hans Haase (有问题吗) 20:10, 4 May 2016 (UTC)[reply]

For SSH using RSA, do the RSA key sizes have to match exactly for the server side and the client side?

Or could the following situation work？

Server side public key 3072-bits

Client side private key 2048-bits

Johnson&Johnson&Son (talk) 08:45, 2 May 2016 (UTC)[reply]

The public and private key are a pair that come from the same number. The private key will have two numbers that multiply to give the public key. So you cannot vary the length like that. Graeme Bartlett (talk) 11:43, 2 May 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Just to beat this topic into the ground (and avoid paying attention in this meeting)... Public-Private keys are often used for handshaking. In that case, there is a server key pair and a client key pair. The server holds a private key and sends out a public key. The client holds a private key and sends out a public key. Using RSA, the key pairs are produced using two large prime numbers. The server's key pair uses two large prime numbers. The client's key pair uses a different set of two large prime numbers (technically, they could use the same prime numbers, but the chances of that are very very small). Because the public-private pair are produced at the same time, the public key and private key have the same number of bits. But, the server and client don't need to use the same number of bits. The server might produce a 2048-but public-private pair. The client produces a 1024-bit public-private pair. It still works. For a simple handshake, the client encrypts a message using its private key. It encrypts the result of that using the server's public key. The server gets it and decrypts it using its private key - the pair with the public key that was last used. Then, it decrypts the result with the client's public key - the pair with the private key that was used. At no point in that process was the server's key used to encrypt/decrypt the client's key. They are used independently of each other, but used on the same message. With this basic understanding, you can work on a DH key exchange in which both the client and server have public-private key pairs. You'll see that the same principle still holds. While the bit size of a pair is constant, the bit size of all key pairs used doesn't need to be constant. 209.149.115.199 (talk) 13:28, 2 May 2016 (UTC)[reply]

are there Borrow Skip Subtractor? if yes how it's done?-95.239.177.216 (talk) 14:07, 2 May 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Reverse subtract and skip if borrow?--178.103.251.111 (talk) 00:02, 3 May 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Found something: http://r.search.yahoo.com/_ylt=A7x9UnAO6ydXrncA9IV3Bwx.;_ylu=X3oDMTByMm4zYjFxBHNlYwNzcgRwb3MDNQRjb2xvA2lyMgR2dGlkAw--/RV=2/RE=1462262670/RO=10/RU=http%3a%2f%2fwww.retroprogramming.com%2f2009%2f01%2fultimate-risc-one-instruction-set.html/RK=0/RS=iYRCaDq.HjbksW_CfBXpLArtuZU- --178.103.251.111 (talk) 00:07, 3 May 2016 (UTC)[reply]

178.103.251.111, this link can not be retrieved by other users! --Hans Haase (有问题吗) 13:35, 3 May 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Ok try this. One instruction set computer--178.103.251.111 (talk) 17:13, 3 May 2016 (UTC)[reply]

No, I would the logic circuit (only HW) .--95.239.177.216 (talk) 10:52, 4 May 2016 (UTC)[reply]

This website talks about the process that he uses to find love on the Internet. It says that he adds bots to the website, and the server detects those as invalid bots. On other websites, I've heard that some people try to take advantage of the lack of security and send bots to automate the process of performing certain activities on the site. How does that work? Does a person just make a program that reads the HTML file and searches specific text and prompts the program to execute instructions that interact with the web browser? Is there a way for the computer to confirm the identity of a legitimate human user as opposed to a bot? 140.254.77.172 (talk) 17:28, 2 May 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Web communications use HTTP (primarily over IP). HTTP is just text. When you go to a web page in your web browser, it sends text to the web server. The web server sends text back. (If you want to be an ass about it, you can argue that the response will contain binary data if you specifically requested a binary file, such as a jpeg - but how does that help anyone understand what is going on?) So, I can write a program that sends the text request on port 80 (the web port) to a server. It doesn't know that my program sent the request. It just sees text. It responds. I can have my program read that text and, based on what it sees, send another request - again, just some text. I can automate a lot of processes by doing this. For example, I need to get a lot of census data at work. So, I wrote a program that sends requests to the census website and reads the responses to get the data that I need. That particular practice is commonly called screen scraping. Hopefully it is easy to see that since all you are doing is sending and receiving text, it is actually a rather easy program to write. 209.149.115.199 (talk) 17:36, 2 May 2016 (UTC)[reply]

See Internet bot. Here are some instruction on how to make one: [1]. And even easier, a semi-automatic bot maker application [2]. Here [3] is an interesting article that talks about how bots work in concept, and about how bots can be used for various nefarious purposes. SemanticMantis (talk) 19:03, 2 May 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Our article on CAPTCHA should answer your last question. Dbfirs 12:35, 3 May 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Is it safe to carry one in the wallet all the time? Can you put several in a envelope where they will have contact with each other? --Llaanngg (talk) 02:10, 3 May 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Interesting question. However I would be more worried about the safety of the data on the card, which is likely more fragile than the card. A nylon, plastic or similar wallet would be inadvisable to to possibly static electricity which could damage the card. I could comment on USB flash drives, from personal experience, having put one through a washing machine, twice, and it seemed to come through physically undamaged and data intact. Ruggedised SD cards are available. [4] . If you have a card with vital data, apart from keeping backups, I would strongly recommend keeping the card in a case, that they sometimes come in, when not in a device. After market cases are also available. [5]. Some interesting commentary on cards (mostly orientated to data reliability) is here. 220 of ^Borg 11:57, 3 May 2016 (UTC)[reply]

• This article [6] mentions one apparent physical weakness of SD cards, the divider between the contacts 220 of ^Borg 12:06, 3 May 2016 (UTC)[reply]

The first SD-cards had a small printed circuit board with one or two flash memory chips and a controller on in in a plastic case, molten the two plastic shell parts. Bending caused a crack, pressure damaged the devices arrond the controller. The switch is a button only. Similar to 3.5" floppy disks, the drive or card reader has the write protect switch installed. Todays µSD-cards are the chip case itself. Tape it due getting pushed out of an envelope or similar container. Electrostatic discharge an current through the SD card can be a problem. --Hans Haase (有问题吗) 13:29, 3 May 2016 (UTC)[reply]

SD cards these days are dirt cheap. Why spend a bunch of time analyzing their resilience? Just buy them by the handful and toss them if they go bad. Having a hypothetical indestructible SD card still wouldn't protect the data on it from other things like accidental deletion or you losing the card, so SD cards' resilience does nothing to affect the need to back up data you care about in multiple places. --71.110.8.102 (talk) 20:55, 3 May 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Beside the quality of the flash memory, human interactions cause losts of data or make the data inaccessible. Cheap USB sticks are known to be built with a low quality of flash memory. SD cards still use a different interface. In cameras a higher performance is required to store the data in time. SSDs use flash specified with more write cycles before failure. --Hans Haase (有问题吗) 19:26, 4 May 2016 (UTC)[reply]

I was looking at some random news story accessed via news.google.com when a box appeared saying that I had "recommended the story on Facebook." I recall that the story display had been glitchy, with a video ad preceding it which hung up, and a box asking if I wanted to restart "shockwave" or some such program, which I had clicked. My clicking had somehow unintentionally "recommended" the story about some lurid crime. Googling "unrecommend on Facebook" advises to go to the story and "unrecommend." The story on the newspaper website now has a blue box at the top which has a checkmark to the left of "Recommend", and the number one in a box to the right of the Recommend box. If I hover over the blue Recommend box, a textbox appears below it which says "Undo recommendation." If I click on the Recommend box nothing changes.It still has a check by "Recommend." I cannot click on the "Unrecommend" word since it disappears if I move off Recommend. I would expect the status to toggle between Recommed and Unrecommend when I click on the Recommend box. How can I control the Recommend status? I would prefer to set Facebook status to "Never recommend anything," since I have no desire to tell people what I read,but I doubt that is possible. Where on Facebook can I determine if it is currently "Recommended?" Thanks for any good suggestions. Edison (talk) 14:09, 3 May 2016 (UTC)[reply]

In this case, "recommendation" is a euphemism for "promoted advertisement." Somebody paid money to the web host so that you would see that spammy web page. There is no user-accessible option to "turn off" that promoted content. You cannot directly "un-recommend" such content in any fashion that will make it appear differently on your screen. The "social network" businesses want you to believe you're getting real recommendations from real friends - but in fact, if you want real recommendations and disrecommendations, you actually have to devolve into real conversation with real humans to discern between their real- and insincere- recommendations!

Promoted content is designed to control what you see, not to actually match your "likes" and "interests." At best, the job of a "recommended link" is to drive advertisement revenue.

You can learn to use an ad blocker, and ratchet up the settings all the way to 11 - but in today's internet media environment, it's sometimes very difficult to determine whether any specific piece of content on your screen is "real" or if it is merely a robot-assisted-advertisement. After searching for technical solutions for many years, with various success, my solution has devolved into a much simpler one, of editorial control: I simply will not visit websites produced by content-creators who wish to abuse my trust by misportraying advertisement-content in this fashion. There are plenty of news websites that are 100% free of advertisement: for example, in the United States, we have www.voanews.com, the website of Voice of America (a federal news service); and they will never deliver commercial or promoted content. I'd rather be propagandized by the Feds than by the shady spammers who lurk on social-media-news-sites.

Don't look too deeply into it, but most of your favorite Silicon Valley Social-Web-3.0 start-ups are sitting in a shared Silicon Valley office building with a few folks who are probably in on the secret. Who do you think is really programming those algorithmic recommendations?)

Nimur (talk) 14:56, 3 May 2016 (UTC)[reply]

This was not a "clickbait," but a legitmate AP news story which was also carried by all major newspapers. I looked at a different story on that same paper's site, and the Facebook "Recommend" box was unchecked on the other stories. I restarted the computer to clear out the glitch and accessed the story again, and it still has a check next to the blue "Recommend." Could it be one of those cases where I need to "clear the stack cache" or some such? I do not see the story on my own Facebook page, nor does it show up on someone else's Facebook account, so apparently it is no longer actually "Recommended" or perhaps never was. Maybe it is a stale indicator of recommendation on the one newspaper's site. or just poor programming by Facebook. An unintended and irreversible "Recommendation" might be a problem for someone if the material advocated something socially unacceptable to one's friends or to the government. Many people sometimes read a news story about something they would not want to or publicly advocate.Edison (talk) 15:17, 3 May 2016 (UTC)[reply]

I am not a representative of any social media corporation - I'm just a lone nut on the internet - but if you'll take my word for it, clicking "recommend," has exactly zero technical influence on how the media conglomerate's web servers treat that content, or how it portrays that content to people in your circle of friends. It is unlikely that they will even waste the effort to process your click in a "big data analysis." The role of that "recommendation" user-interface is to produce an atmosphere in which you feel that your user experience is interactive, rather than passive; its role is not in any way to actually participate in the promotion or recommendation of content. Not even in the statistical aggregate. Nimur (talk) 15:23, 3 May 2016 (UTC)[reply]

I had assumed that "recommending" a news story would cause it to appear on Facebook to my "friends" similarly to if I had written something and hit "save." I oftn see news or webpages somehow posted by others in Facebook. How do they get posted other than via "recommend?" Edison (talk) 15:29, 3 May 2016 (UTC)[reply]

On Google Chrome I clicked the tool box ( a rectangle filled with horizontal stripes) at the top right of the screen, then I clicked "more tools," and the "clear browsing data." That caused the news story's blue "Recommend" box to display without a checkmark, which was my goal Thanks for the help , or at least for the thoughtful comments. Edison (talk) 15:33, 3 May 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Are you still logged in to Facebook? "Clear browsing data" will by default remove cookies. The normal time is 1 hour but if you changes it to be longer, or if you just logged in to Facebook recently, it's unlikely you were still logged in to Facebook. If you weren't logged on to Facebook, it has no way of knowing what you recommended, so it's not surprising if the recommend cleared even though you've still recommended the page. Also would you be willing to share the news site you're referring to? Nil Einne (talk) 18:53, 3 May 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Anyway speaking generally, you should always force refresh a page (control F5 on most browsers) if having problems like where the unrecommend didn't work. If you force refresh a page and you're still logged in to the website you recommended and there's no longer any sign of it, it probably means your recommendation is mostly removed. If you think something happened on Facebook, it pays to check out your activity log [7] Nil Einne (talk) 19:48, 3 May 2016 (UTC)[reply]

If you don't want to tell other people what you read, you need to install an ad blocker, tell your browser not to send third-party referers, and do some cookie management. As is, your browser is telling Facebook and the ad networks what you're looking at any time you load a page with their stuff on it. All your clickbox-checking is doing is giving more information to Facebook's algorithms to help them tailor the ads they show you. --71.110.8.102 (talk) 21:00, 3 May 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Sure, but doing those steps only adds a tiny bit of extra work for the companies who want to track you. The efficacy of blocking their ads or their cookies is pretty close to zero, in terms of the degree of additional anonymity it provides. As this famous article from Electronic Frontier Foundation makes clear - even if you enable no cookies, you are very trackable - part of a three-part series on the erosion of anonymity. That article series was based on the state of affairs five or six years ago - and since then, there have been even more advances in user-tracking. Nowadays, major web providers use server-side tracking, server-side data-sharing, and business collusion between content-providers and advertising affiliate conglomerates. This means that even with an anonymized browser, for most users, simply accessing the website provides the trackers with enough information to uniquely and personally identify you. The only solution - if you really really wish to dissuade trackers - is total avoidance of their content and services. Even then, it's foolish to assume that you have a completely stealthy and untraceable digital trail - all you've got is a signature that's a little bit harder to follow than the average.

Nimur (talk) 21:41, 3 May 2016 (UTC)[reply]

For those who are curious: go to panopticlick.eff.org, do the test, and then click on the orange "fingerprinting"-hyperlink. The Quixotic Potato (talk) 00:30, 4 May 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Hey QP and Nimur: the panopticlick is cool. I'd been there before, but forgot the results, so I clicked again... and the test won't complete. I'm assuming that's because very few fancy things on the internet work for me without special effort, because I use NoScript with fairly paranoid settings. Any comment on my relative anonymity/traceability if the EFF's scanning report can't even finish? I mean, I could allow them to run the scripts, but then that would be a report on the aspects of less-safe mode, not my default safe mode. SemanticMantis (talk) 22:05, 4 May 2016 (UTC)[reply]

QP is my rap name. I think that that makes you even more traceable, because it means you are more unique. Imagine if you visit my website. I can see in my logs that you are the only visitor who doesn't access files that are loaded via JS. I can also see your useragent string is not empty, and if you actually use my site I can see that you are human and not a bot. That makes it very very easy to identify you, because you behave differently than the average user. It would be interesting to know what setup (browser+plugins+configuration) is most frequently used, and to create an experimental browser that emulates it. The Quixotic Potato (talk) 22:42, 4 May 2016 (UTC)[reply]

NoScript is a great and powerful tool - but I strongly agree: you are more uniquely identifiable simply because you're not running scripts. You have become a statistical anomaly, whose configuration differs from the median by a detectable measure.

Don't worry. Although they're able to track you, you're probably too uninteresting to really pay attention to: if the Government really surveillanced everybody, "...we would get a great quantity of useless information and very little useful information. How would we sort through all of this? ... We don't want secrets on just anything! We have our priorities..."

Of course, all those web-advertisers are in the private sector! All those mobile social Google-Maps-location-based-advertisements have a plausible and profitable explanation! They're not ... spooky CIA technology! Couldn't be!

Nimur (talk) 02:08, 5 May 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Disabling Javascript doesn't make you more uniquely identifiable. Browser fingerprinting techniques put you in a bucket with everyone else who has the same fingerprint. With Javascript enabled, you can often uniquely identify the machine running the browser, with a combination of canvas fingerprinting, the list of installed fonts, etc. With Firefox and NoScript and no cookies, you are likely to be in the same bucket as everyone else who runs Firefox with NoScript and no cookies. That's a small fraction of web users, but it's much larger than 1, so you're probably better off.

They indeed don't have time to watch everyone, but you don't know whether you're one of the people they're watching, and that in itself is a problem. See chilling effect and telescreen and this recent research and this satirical news article. -- BenRG (talk) 03:50, 5 May 2016 (UTC)[reply]

I've got a 137-page document (~52,800 words) written on my Alphasmart. Alphasmarts don't have italics, so whenever I wanted to italicize something I just used [i]forum code.[/i] Now I could use Find to locate them one-by-one, but is there some quicker way? Any forums with absolutely no word limit on pasting things into a WYSIWYG box? --Aabicus (talk) 22:18, 3 May 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Is there a quicker way ... to do what? You're not being very clear about what your mission is, nor even if the text remains on the Alphasmart or has been removed to another machine. --Tagishsimon (talk) 22:27, 3 May 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Sorry, the text has been transferred to my computer, and is in a Google document. Let me try to be clearer. I have over a hundred pages on my computer that read like this:

Character runs up and says "blah blah [i]blah blah blah[/i] blah blah!" And then [i]this[/i] happened and then a few minutes later something occurs [i]right[/i] here and now, and then something [i]else[/i] is italicized..." 

Etcetera. Just like that, the words aren't italicized, they just have the code around them because it was written on a device that doesn't do italics. So now I want to know if there's a faster way to take everything surrounded by [i]these[/i] and make them italics. For example, I could paste the text into a forum box that automatically translates the code into italics, but I know of no forum that would accept a text this large. --Aabicus (talk) 22:33, 3 May 2016 (UTC)[reply]

....And you desire to convert this plaintext into an output document? You will need to specify the type of output document you want... rich text format? docx format? HTML? Whatever hypertext representation is used internally by the Google Documents service? Something else?

Perhaps the easiest way to treat this problem is to use a simple "find/replace" or some text tool (like sed or perl) to convert forum markup into HTML markup.

Then, load the document into a web browser, and let the web browser render the document as HTML. You can copy and paste that text out of your web browser (on most operating systems); and when you paste it back into an advanced word-processor like Microsoft Office, the text formatting will persist. Nimur (talk) 22:42, 3 May 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Oooh good idea! I converted to HMTL code and got what I needed instantly. Thanks you two! --Aabicus (talk) 22:48, 3 May 2016 (UTC)[reply]

You could also fix it within OpenOffice using Find&Replace ... it allows you to use regular expressions to find strings demarcated by your start & end italic marks, and render them as italics whilst removing the tags. Other WPs probably support regex ... not sure about Google. --Tagishsimon (talk) 22:55, 3 May 2016 (UTC)[reply]

If you think you will be doing a lot of this sort of thing in the future, I highly recommend spending a day or two learning the ins and outs of Libre Office and Vim. A little time spent now will same boatloads of time and effort in the years to come. --Guy Macon (talk) 16:49, 4 May 2016 (UTC)[reply]

This irrelevantly brings up memories of WordPerfect 5.x. WordPerfect allows searching for format tags. To replace underlines with italics, I'd change </u> to <i></u></i>, then change <u> to <i>; in the second step the original </u> disappeared, and the new <i> swallowed the first pass's <i>. But this failed on WordPerfect 6; I have forgotten exactly how. —Tamfang (talk) 21:24, 4 May 2016 (UTC)[reply]

I asked the Internet Archive about a specific page from census.gov, whereupon the IA told me that it couldn't crawl the Census page because of its robots.txt file; okay, that's normal, but I'm curious to see what the page says. We begin with:

User-agent: *
Disallow: /

Robots exclusion standard tells me that this code tells all robots to stay away. Makes sense, but below this code are lots of instructions to Googlebot, Yahoo! Slurp, and Bingbot. (1) What are these instructions doing, i.e. as long as they're behaving properly, what do these bots do differently because of these instructions? (2) What's the point of these instructions, since all robots have already been instructed to stay away? Do they act as a whitelist for these three websites' bots? Nyttend (talk) 13:24, 4 May 2016 (UTC)[reply]

A number of online sources, such as this one, quote Google as saying "Each section in the robots.txt file is separate and does not build upon previous sections", although the URL they give at for that no longer says those precise words. -- Finlay McWalter··–·Talk 14:18, 4 May 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Furthermore, compliance with the Robot Exclusion "standard" is entirely voluntary. The robots standard provides no technical enforcement to prevent a robot from ignoring any or all directives. Disallow... only helps with well-behaved robots. Nimur (talk) 18:13, 4 May 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Our article says that a number of crawlers permit "Allow" sections to override previous "Disallow" sections, even though this is not strictly conforming to the standard. So yes, it's whitelisting those bots. --71.110.8.102 (talk) 23:07, 4 May 2016 (UTC)[reply]

This critical part of my Q went unanswered in my EasyPHP Devserser Q from a few days back. Can anyone help me locate these folders and add files to them ? StuRat (talk) 15:08, 4 May 2016 (UTC)[reply]

OK, Google Chrome seemed to recognize "localhost" when I typed it in the address bar. It took me to a page that says EasyPHP Devserver, so that's a good sign. It lists 3 folders there, all empty: my portable files, projects, and scripts. I went into "my portable files", and the address bar changed to "http://localhost/my%20portable%20files/". But here's where I hit a wall. I can't navigate there using the "My Computer" icon on the Desktop, and I can't find it using Start + search bar. So how do I place my hello.php there ? I tried dragging it into the folder in the Google Chrome window, but that didn't work.

I also found an option on the EasyPHP Devserver mini icon (down by the clock) labeled "Local Web", and that takes me to the same folders listed above (within Google Chrome), except the word "localhost" is replaced by "127.0.0.1". StuRat (talk) 04:40, 3 May 2016 (UTC)[reply]

"Localhost" and "127.0.0.1" are the name and address of the local loopback network for modern computers. Both mean "this computer" as opposed to some other computer. 209.149.115.199 (talk) 18:09, 4 May 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Somebody said something to the effect that EasyPHP Devserver "listens to port 80", if that helps any here. StuRat (talk) 15:09, 4 May 2016 (UTC)[reply]

It's probably C:\Program Files (x86)\EasyPHP-5.3.8.1\www. This link might help you: [8] CodeTalker (talk) 15:52, 4 May 2016 (UTC)[reply]

You might find this makes more sense and is easier to work through if you do this all through Cygwin, as described here [9]. Maybe that's a bad idea, but if so someone will probably tell you/me. I just feel like PHP's natural environment is unix-y and CLI-ish, but I'm really just making guesses ;) SemanticMantis (talk) 16:21, 4 May 2016 (UTC)[reply]

With EasyPHP running, you should have an EasyPHP icon in the taskbar. Click on it (right-left-middle-inner-outer - I don't know. I don't use Windows). Some click of some kind should get you into the settings. Under the Apache settings, you will see the httpd.conf file open in Notepad (or some sort of text editor if Windows doesn't use Notepad anymore). Look for DocumentRoot. The value following DocumentRoot is the root directory of the web documents. 209.149.115.199 (talk) 18:02, 4 May 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Found it ! It's in:

C:\Program Files\EasyPHP-DevServer-13.1VC9\data\localweb

I even got my hello.php test script to work !

But I would still like to know if there is some general way I could search for something like this myself. For some reason, the regular Windows search function didn't work when I typed in the names of folders in that directory. What went wrong ? StuRat (talk) 19:17, 4 May 2016 (UTC)[reply]

I assume that Windows search only searches your personal folder. That was in the program files folder. 209.149.115.199 (talk) 19:21, 4 May 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Install cygwin to get access to better search commands. SemanticMantis (talk) 20:19, 4 May 2016 (UTC)[reply]

I believe Windows Search, by default, only looks at the search index, and by default only user profile folders, the Start Menu, and Internet Explorer history are indexed. You can change what is indexed from the Control Panel. You can also explicitly tell Windows to do a full disk search. --71.110.8.102 (talk) 23:01, 4 May 2016 (UTC)[reply]

@StuRat: I use PowerGrep, because fuck Windows Search. PowerGrep is awesome, and that is my totally unbiased opinion. If you do not believe me you can download it from a torrent site and use it for free for a while, I did, but then I ended up using it so often that I actually bought the software to support the creator (who happens to be the sexiest man alive, and a genius). I also recommend his regex tools. The Quixotic Potato (talk) 23:45, 4 May 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Dear Wikipedians:

Does anyone know of a bitcoin betting site other than bitbet.us?

I really want to try my luck betting on Donald Trump becoming the U.S. President.

Thanks,

69.158.76.23 (talk) 00:49, 5 May 2016 (UTC)[reply]

I would bet all these online gambling sites are rigged to cheat you huge. If you like to bet on Trump go find something that will gain value if Trump becomes President, like his "Make Amerika great again"-Basketball Caps. Buy 500 and resell them when his fame goes over the top. --Kharon (talk) 01:14, 5 May 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Congratulations Kharon! You have won your bet. Please give me all your personal information and bank account details to receive your fabulous price! The Quixotic Potato (talk) 01:52, 5 May 2016 (UTC)[reply]

[10] and [11] has reviews and information on sites which accept BitCoin. However I'm not sure if all these sites actually price their bets in BitCoin if that's what you want or simply accept it for conversion to USD or EUR or GBP or whatever they price their bets in. Note that I also have zero knowledge of these review and info sites. For example, they could be run by some betting site conglomerate themselves. I also suspect neither site will have info on which of the sites is accepting bets on the US presidential election although it's possible they will have info on which sites generally accept electoral or similar bets.

For specific examples, both sites I noticed listed on [12] as offering US Presidential election bets namely Bovada and BetOnline (there may be more, I didn't look very well) seem to accept Bitcoin although I'm pretty sure this is only for conversion. Also the link for US presidential election betting on Bovada doesn't work for me. But I also see it from an internet search suggesting it did at least exist at one time. Whether they stopped accepting bets or perhaps more likely it doesn't work because of my location (when I first visited it said they can't accept bets from my location) I'm not sure. I have zero experience with either site so you'd want to check out reviews etc.

The first review/info site I linked to also mentions ways you can attempt to detect if a site isn't cheating. However it seems to me this is mostly irrelevant to you. You can compare the odds to more reliable sites like BetFair [13], Paddy Power [14] (actually these 2 seem to be the same company now), Ladbrokes sports.ladbrokes.com/en-gb/betting/politics/american/presidential-election/2016-presidential-election-winner/216136503/ or whatever [15] to see if they're giving you really bad odds which will be the main way they can cheat.

Next, there is a slight risk that there will be a very weird situation e.g. as happened in 2000 or an even more controversial one such as the electoral college voting for someone other than who they were supposed to or even someone gaining the most electoral college voters in early November followed by a military coup and no actual electoral college vote let alone the person being inaugurated. How the lesser regulated sites will handle such a situation I'm not sure although I presume any remotely decent one will say precisely what you're betting on and when they will pay out, whether they will observe it or not when the time comes. Ultimately this risk IMO seems small and you could call it part of your odds anyway.

The bigger risk will be whether they'll pay out in general or pay out with different than promised odds. Many of these sites have existed for a resonable length of time. For such simple bets (and these tend to be treated similar to sports bets), it seems likely people would have realised by now what's going on and you should be able to find lots of complaints. It gets more complicated if they pay out properly on some bets but not others, still it seems likely the complaints would have come in that you can find. So presuming you properly check, it becomes a case of their future performance being different from current and the unknown but likely small risk of that happening. (I'm not sure how likely it is that they will accept so many long odd bets on Trump to cause them problems, since many of them seem fairly large and I somehow doubt it's going to compare to generall sport betting, but I could easily be wrong.)

You could come up with other risks like "match" fixing but there's so much money in the US election that it seems very unlikely the sites could do that.

In other words, while I personally think betting on the presidential election is a dumb idea; and using sites which accept Bitcoin, many of which seem to be incorporated and regulated in environments without much oversight is riskier; the comment above seems to IMO overestimate the risk. The exception may be if you do want a site which prices their bets in Bitcoin (as opposed to simply accepting Bitcoin), as I'm not sure how many of these there are and how long they've existed. (Although if they were playing a longcon, again I'm not sure the US presidential election or anything in between is what they'll target.)

Nil Einne (talk) 08:55, 5 May 2016 (UTC)[reply]