Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Computing/2011 December 25

= December 25 =

Looking at night sky from Earth's surface in Celestia
Is there a way to view as if from a given position on the Earth's surface in a certain direction on a certain date and time in Celestia v1.6.1? 69.243.220.115 (talk) 02:44, 25 December 2011 (UTC)

Is there an English <-> Middle English translator anywhere?
I would like for it to work JUST like Google Translate.

The idea is to type in "Where are you?" and after clicking on a translation button, it produces "Where Art Thou?"

So where is a browser-based program that allows me to convert my text to Middle English or any other historical forms of our mother tongue? Thank you. --75.39.137.175 (talk) 10:10, 25 December 2011 (UTC)


 * "Where art thou" is not Middle English; at best, it's Early Modern English ("Elizabethan" English). Have you read those articles?  You may find actual Middle English very incomprehensible: "whær" and "þou" use orthography that is not present in the Latin alphabet for Modern English.  I am not aware of any computer software or web services that provide accurate English to Middle-English translation.  Numerous dictionaries exist: The Electronic Middle English Dictionary, from University of Michigan, seems to be the most popular.  In order to construct a machine translation for a language, there are several prerequisites: a critical mass of programmer-linguists who are fluent in each language; a critical mass of already-translated works (a "corpus") to form a training set for the algorithm; and sufficient feedback to correct errors in the algorithm and the training set.  Middle English doesn't really satisfy those criteria very well, so it's probably going to be a long while before a free machine translator is available.  Nimur (talk) 16:05, 25 December 2011 (UTC)


 * A corpus should be not hard to find, since many works were adapted to modern English. I don't know if there's gonna be a long until a translator is found. Google Translate includes Latin, so they are not automatically against dead languages, but not Ancient Greek, which might be more interesting than Middle English. 88.8.76.47 (talk) 23:36, 25 December 2011 (UTC)

In Multiplayer games
Please add for MMORPG game lists Star Wars Galaxies. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 68.255.255.121 (talk) 15:41, 25 December 2011 (UTC)
 * WP:BOLD 82.45.62.107 (talk) 17:55, 25 December 2011 (UTC)

DDR3 in a computer with DDR2 motherboard
Dear Wikipedians:

Before you dismiss my post right away from subject line. Please hear out what I have to say:

I know that there is no way of making DDR3 memory work directly on DDR2 motherboard, so I am wondering: is there a PCI-Express expansion card that act as a "Bus Card" that allows me to plug DDR3 memory onto the said PCI-Express card, and then pluging the PCI-E card into the motherboard and allow my Windows to use said DDR3 memory?

Also out of pure academic interest: why can't they make DDR3 memory backward compatible with DDR2?

Thanks,

70.29.24.167 (talk) 18:40, 25 December 2011 (UTC)


 * I did a Google search and found the 'GIGABYTE GC-RAMDISK PCI Others RAM Drive Add-On Card.' It's discontinued, but there may be other similar products. http://www.google.com/search?q=PCI+RAM — Preceding unsigned comment added by 24.208.225.140 (talk) 20:00, 28 December 2011 (UTC)


 * Thanks. 70.29.24.167 (talk) 21:26, 29 December 2011 (UTC)

Is there an English <-> Shakespearean English translator anywhere?
The idea is to type in "Where are you?" and after clicking on a translation button, it produces "Where Art Thou?"

So where is a browser-based program that allows me to convert my text to Shakespearean English or any other historical forms of our mother tongue? Thank you. --75.39.139.46 (talk) 22:09, 25 December 2011 (UTC)


 * As Nimur said above, it's unlikely. A machine translator is difficult to create, and the value of translation between two mutually-intelligible forms of one language, one of which is no longer spoken, is small enough that it's probably never been done. Paul (Stansifer) 22:59, 25 December 2011 (UTC)


 * I prithee, kind Sir, for what end doest thou seek it? Methinks such artifice may be beyond the capabilities of those who dwell in cellars, and instruct the marvelous mechanical mills to which you allude. Or perhaps these learned gentlemen have not the incentive, nor the necessary stipend, to pursue such arcane quests.


 * What I clack upon this fine board of orthographic switches may be not what you seek; but at this link you shall find merriment that echoes the question you have put before us. Twill occupy you for hours as you peer at yonder text window. --75.39.130.250 (talk) 09:01, 26 December 2011 (UTC)


 * Sir thou art a plagiariser of the most pernicious and pestilential persuasion. Thou hast pirated my well-wrought words of the month of July, and presented them as your own - as this enlinkment will clearly illustrate, should you pierce it with the mechanic arrow that is to hand Reference_desk/Archives/Computing/2011_July_28. Kindly compose in future such wit and cunning for yourself sir, rather than usurping those of your superiors, like some prattling playwright from Stratford on Avon, content to claim the words of Oxford Scholars as his own... AndyTheGrump (talk) 07:24, 27 December 2011 (UTC)


 * Maybe not quite what you're after, but there's at least a pretty cool Shakespeare insult generator here, with the DIY list here. Worth keeping on hand. --jjron (talk) 14:45, 26 December 2011 (UTC)

Configuring texvc in MediaWiki
So this is my first time working with MediaWiki (latest version 1.18) and I'm having a bit of troubling getting math to render properly. When I attempt to use a mathematical expression, I get the "Failed to parse (unknown errornable to run external programs, passthru is disabled.)" error. What exactly does that mean, and what can I do to fix it? I'm using a free online webhost (which I suspect is part of, if not the source of, the problem). 141.153.214.66 (talk) 23:48, 25 December 2011 (UTC)
 * Okay, I've confirmed with the hosting service that, indee, PHP functions like exec, passthru, etc are disabled "for security reasons". So, then, are there any alternatives to displaying math on MediaWiki which don't require the aforementioned functions? 141.153.215.162 (talk) 02:49, 27 December 2011 (UTC)