Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Computing/2011 March 23

= March 23 =

Mobile internet
Why do almost all major companies charge more for mobile laptop internet service than data plans for phones one the same network technology and hardware chips. Now my question is not about the rationale, I already know computer based users, on average, consume much more bandwidth resources and that justifies charging more. My question is really why do they do it considering it's incredibly easy to tether the computer to a modern smartphone using wifi, usb, or bluetooth without any possible way for the provider to find out. Even though that may be considered dishonest and what not, I think it actually makes the company seem dishonestly charging you more for something everyone can easily get without paying more. Besides tethering, I have heard simply puting the SIM card that was activated for a phone into the computer's hardware will acheive the same thing. And finally, on a related note, why do many companies charge more for "BlackBerry internet service" than other phones. Again, I'm not talking about compnanies with different 2G and 3G services, I'm talking about the majority of North American providers who are providing the exact same technology and service at different prices to BlackBerries, Laptops, and other smartphones at 3 different price points. The incredible ease of circumventing it undetectably (and arguably, with a good legal argument of ignorance or unfairness) makes it just seem to me that they are pathetically and hopelessly trying to over charge the "hopefully ignorant" customers. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Roberto75780 (talk • contribs) 00:44, 23 March 2011 (UTC)


 * One more ridiculous thing is that some companies i know in canada officially released a software update that enables tethering for upto 5 computers off of one phone, and still that data plan, including the phone voice plan, costs way less than a laptop plan for the same amount of data. What on earth is the point? — Preceding unsigned comment added by Roberto75780 (talk • contribs) 00:53, 23 March 2011 (UTC)


 * I would bet that the majority don't do that, and they make a tidy profit from them. StuRat (talk) 06:39, 23 March 2011 (UTC)


 * Doesn't Blackberry internet service include the connection and access to the Blackberry servers for the messaging an all that jazz and isn't it basically the only way you can actually use those things? At least that was my impression not actually using those devices but supported by BlackBerry Internet Service and BlackBerry. If so I'm guessing BlackBerry takes a cut and I don't think you can easily circumvent it. Nil Einne (talk) 20:50, 24 March 2011 (UTC)


 * The phone companies likely bet that most users lack the skills or imagination to do this. The sales department of mobile phone companies are like modern confidence tricksters.Electron9 (talk) 07:21, 26 March 2011 (UTC)

firefox on a mac
Hi. I have a powerpc mac (ie not intel) and was misled into downloading firefox 4, which does not work on my AMD architecture. Where do I find a universal version of firefox 3? Robinh (talk) 06:38, 23 March 2011 (UTC)
 * This is a little outddated, I'm not sure if it's still true, but might be of interest: http://news.cnet.com/8301-30685_3-20014666-264.html Shadowjams (talk) 07:10, 23 March 2011 (UTC)
 * Thanks, but no download page! I'm beginning to panic that I won't be able to find a universal binary. Robinh (talk) 07:54, 23 March 2011 (UTC)
 * Wait, what? AMD makes chips that are compatible with Intel chips.  It looks like there's an independent project that has a version of Firefox 4 for PowerPC: TenFourFox.  Paul (Stansifer) 13:21, 23 March 2011 (UTC)

(OP) I asked on the firefox help page and got this: http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/all-older.html (my comment was that googling didn't seem to help, which is corroborated by the responses here). There is also a third-party version at http://www.floodgap.com/software/tenfourfox (but I haven't tried it yet). Best wishes, Robinh (talk) 07:12, 24 March 2011 (UTC)

Chain text messages
As a form of chain letter in the form of mobile phone SMS, the SMS would usually contain interesting factoids or a sad emotional story promising the recipient good luck if they forward such SMS to ten hundred people (or bad luck if they dont). Is it true that these chain SMS was actually started by any mobile network operator in order to boost their revenue? I heard about this somewhere but I cant find info on this on the net. ќמшמφטтгמ torque 07:35, 23 March 2011 (UTC)

Basically you're reporting a rumor you heard, and asking others to tell you whether it's true or false. You might be interested in TinyURL. Com/TruFut which will be a truth-futures market, whereby the uncontested buy/sell orders will establish a de facto estimate of truth-value of the rumor/allegation, and conflicting estimates will result in actual buy/sell transactions whereby the more-correct estimator ultimately gains funds at the expense of the person who was mistaken. 198.144.192.45 (talk) 17:20, 28 March 2011 (UTC) Twitter.Com/CalRobert (Robert Maas)

The 'C' button don't work on my keyboard. why?
Hey, my Computer works Completely fine, exept for the 'C' button. It started with that button sometimes not working and then Coming bak to work again without problems and then it just stopped working again. It happened a few times before it now has stopped working for good, or so it seems... But when it worked it seems to do so just fine, and sinCe it had worked/not worked several times, then the button at least is not ruined or broken. Taking the "hood" of the button off and plaCe it bak on doesnt help either. Maybe it is some adjustments or Configuration needed to be done? It's impossible to write effetively without all buttons..

Any Clues as to what to do and what might be the problem?

All C's in this text has simply been Copied and pasted ofC..

Crossing my fingers that someone knows what to do. tnx —Preceding unsigned comment added by 85.165.121.35 (talk) 08:42, 23 March 2011 (UTC)


 * It won't be a software problem, it's the keyboard itself. Crumbs or spills are the usual culprits.  If you pry off the key and clean underneath with alcohol and a cotton swab, and it still doesn't work, just buy a new keyboard.  They are only like $20. StuRat (talk) 09:19, 23 March 2011 (UTC)

tnx, tried that though. looks like my keyboard might be ready to be replaSed I guess.. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 85.165.121.35 (talk) 09:55, 23 March 2011 (UTC)


 * It probably just needs a good cleaning. Some people even put their's in a dishwasher but completely stripping it and cleaning all the components (particularly the plastic sheets with the printed circuit inside the keyboard) with a damp cloth should be adequate. I've done it a number of times. Just messing about with the outside surface under the keys doesn't do much so get your screwdriver out. Roger (talk) 11:09, 23 March 2011 (UTC)
 * I have successfully cleaned keyboards with sticky or non-functioning keys. Take a photo first so you can remember where all the keys go.  Prise off all the keys, noting how the large keys such as the space-bar, the enter-key and so on often have small metal rods underneath.  Remove the screws from the keyboard and dismantle the keyboard casing.  Put aside any circuit boards and the cable.  Wash everything else in hot water with a little added detergent (or use the dishwasher as mentioned above).  When reassembling, make sure everything is dry - the keys in particular trap water in little corners and holes; paper tissues are good for this.  Astronaut (talk) 11:58, 23 March 2011 (UTC)
 * Yes, water from the hot tap works wonders, as I found out when someone spilled a can of coke into a computer with integral keyboard.   D b f i r s   13:14, 24 March 2011 (UTC)
 * Searching for gives detailed cleaning instructions. ---—  Gadget850 (Ed)  talk 14:06, 24 March 2011 (UTC)
 * I usually just use a Dyson on my keyboard - saves the hassle of disassembly. Besides, repeatedly plucking the keys off and putting them back on causes the keyboard to wear out faster! Rocketshiporion ♫ 07:45, 27 March 2011 (UTC)

Cross compilers
Are there any free cross compilers like Javaground they only give you a 30 day trial and then you have to purchase the licence, I am looking to develop iphone apps using Windows, thanks Mo ainm  ~Talk  15:49, 23 March 2011 (UTC)
 * Are any of these results for 'making iphone apps on windows' or 'developing iphone apps on windows' (both as suggested by Google) (links to ),,  www.ehow .com/how_6032531_make-iphone-apps-windows.html (blacklisted site),  (look at the end since many of the ones at the top are fairly old, it links to  for example),  www.associatedcontent .com/article/1849055/how_to_write_iphone_applications_with_pg3.html?cat=15 (blacklist site, comments possibly more useful then article); of use? Nil Einne (talk) 12:22, 24 March 2011 (UTC)

Can J2ME Midlets be made to work on an iPhone 3Gs?
Heading says it all. Thanks20.137.18.50 (talk) 16:46, 23 March 2011 (UTC)


 * The iPhone does not run Java (nor Java ME). Reading some old internet news, it looks like a lot of people speculated that Sun was planning to port J2ME to the iOS platform - but it never happened.
 * You should be able to recompile your J2ME code to work on the Android system, which supports a dialect of Java - but the standard libraries provided do not fit the profile of J2SE or J2ME, so your MIDlet will not work without a bit of minor technical modification (by a programmer). Nimur (talk) 15:16, 26 March 2011 (UTC)

Animated graph
I'm making a graph for a presentation that would be a bit more fun if I could have it animated in some way other than making the different series just appear as I click forward (which is easy to do in Keynote, for example).

The date is quite straightforward -- the X axis are years, the two columns in the Y axis are the values for two countries. The Y data starts out small but soon gets quite large — this is what I'd hope the animation would emphasize, by "zooming out" in some way to reflect the change of scale I go through the timeline.

None of the tools I have at my disposal (Powerpoint, Keynote, Excel, Numbers) seems to do this. Google Docs doesn't seem to. The Google Visualization API doesn't seem to quite do it either.

Is there something obvious I am missing?

Again, just to help you understand what I want -- imagine I had a series that was something like:

1910 -- 2 1920 -- 4 1930 -- 8 1940 -- 30 1950 -- 300 1960 -- 2000

or something like that. If graphed on a line graph all at once, the small parts just look small. What I'd love is that if I showed only 1910-1920, the y axis would be modified so that its top was the max data. Then I click forward, and it adds the 1930-1940 data to the visible set, adjusting the axis. Then I click ahead and 1950-1960 get added, and now we're really bowled over, because we thought the previous jump was large, but it is really dwarfed by comparison. And so on, so that what seemed like a big deal originally ends up looking very small compared to the later trends.

Obviously I could just set it up to do this with a series of graphs, which is what I'll probably end up doing anyway. But it would be wonderful if there was some slick way that this sort of transition would be done automatically -- e.g. it would add the data and then "zoom" out a bit to adjust the axis. --Mr.98 (talk) 17:14, 23 March 2011 (UTC)


 * The first thing that pops into my mind is Blender, but I know that's totally making it an animation and no longer a graph at all. Actually, Google Sketchup would probably be simpler if you acquiesced to the idea of a modeling solution. I don't know if the free version comes with an animation plugin and a recording plugin, but I know there are lots of plugins for it.20.137.18.50 (talk) 17:22, 23 March 2011 (UTC)
 * Yeah, I don't want to do it from scratch, e.g. modeling or hand animating or flash. I'm hoping for something just a tiny bit more automated. --Mr.98 (talk) 18:43, 23 March 2011 (UTC)


 * You didn't say what the media is which you are using. Is this a computer display you are projecting onto a big screen ?  If so, perhaps you could have the full graph displayed, and block some of the projection in both the horizontal and vertical directions, with just some pieces of paper, then remove them to reveal the full graph. StuRat (talk) 17:44, 23 March 2011 (UTC)


 * It's being projected, but I don't see why using paper or anything is going to help. It's not a matter of hiding data and revealing it — that's easy to do. It's the animated way in which the data is revealed/added/changed that I'm interested in. It is very trivial in Keynote to have data series not appear all at once, but there's no way to make the new series change the axis, from what I can see. --Mr.98 (talk) 18:43, 23 March 2011 (UTC)


 * What I'm proposing is some way to "normalize their expectations" one the smaller graph, then "exceed their expectations" by expanding not only the data on the graph, but the size of the graph itself. Masking part of the graph would have them think that the small graph is what's "normal".  Perhaps there's a software way to do this, but I was thinking you would still see some light projected where the full sized graph will be, thus "giving away the game", and only masking can prevent that. StuRat (talk) 21:52, 23 March 2011 (UTC)


 * I'm reminded of Al Gore's An Inconvenient Truth, where they used a cherry picker to add to the top of the global warming graph, for dramatic effect. StuRat (talk) 17:47, 23 March 2011 (UTC)


 * Yes, exactly. Something a bit silly and flashy but to emphasize the change in numbers. --Mr.98 (talk) 18:43, 23 March 2011 (UTC)


 * You say you are doing a presentation and you have Powerpoint. Are you making a Powerpoint presentation? If so, make each graph a new image and place them in successive slides. Then, as you click from one slide to the next, you get the new graph. That is how I do Powerpoint animations because the built-in animation stuff is way too buggy. -- k a i n a w &trade; 18:46, 23 March 2011 (UTC)
 * The entire point of the question was, as I tried in vain to explain, to do something other than just this. :-/ As I said, obviously I could just do it as a series of separate graphs on separate slides, but I was trying to find something slightly more flashy. I know that the built-in Powerpoint tools don't do this. --Mr.98 (talk) 00:01, 24 March 2011 (UTC)


 * Also, maybe something like this for the final graph might make it seem like you had to go "beyond the normal size limits":

_                                  _    | |                             _    | |   | |                       _    | |   | |   | |                 _    | |   | |   | |   | | ^         _    | |   | |   | |   | |   | | |    _   | |   | |   | |   | |   | |   | | |   | |  | |   | |   | |   | |   | |   | | +--->


 * So, the point is that the graph goes beyond the original vertical axis. You could also have it go beyond the original grid lines. StuRat (talk) 21:59, 23 March 2011 (UTC)


 * I think we're having a failure to communicate here, unfortunately. In any case, I'm not looking for alternatives to what I wanted to do — I'm trying to see if there's way to do what I wanted to do. If the answer is "no," or "I don't know," that's a fine answer. --Mr.98 (talk) 00:01, 24 March 2011 (UTC)


 * I googled "zoomable graphs", found this stackoverflow question and then the javascript library flot and this example of zooming . Perhaps you could do it all in a browser. 81.131.9.214 (talk) 01:56, 24 March 2011 (UTC)


 * Despite your assertion that Powerpoint can't do this with its built-in animation tools and Kainaw's assertion that Powerpoint's animation is buggy, I have just tested it successfully and it works. Make successive frames in your animation as images - a set of .PNG images could be ideal for this to keep the file sizes smaller than jpegs. Place them in a powerpoint slide, one on top of the other and use the animation controls to (quickly) fade out the previous frame while simultaneously fading in the next frame on each click.  Seemed acceptable to me in the small 2-frames test I've just done.  Astronaut (talk) 12:53, 24 March 2011 (UTC)


 * This is not what I am going for. I know Powerpoint can do fade in/out transitions. That's not what I'm trying to do, as I've said a few times... --Mr.98 (talk) 15:04, 24 March 2011 (UTC)


 * Is there anything useful in List of information graphics software? 81.131.63.251 (talk) 17:20, 24 March 2011 (UTC)

Internet in Uganda?
I will be traveling to Kampala, Uganda for a few weeks this summer. I asked the local tour guide there and he said while there won' tbe WiFi access in the rooms that I will be staying, I can get a "wireless internet access card" that will help me access the Internet. What could this "wireless internet access card" be? Is it some sort of 3G modem card that will let my laptop access the Internet via cell phone towers much like the wireless hotspotting feature on my smartphone? If so, would anyone know roughly how much it will cost and how fast the service will be in a city like Kampala? Thanks. Acceptable (talk) 22:08, 23 March 2011 (UTC)


 * It might just be a paper card with access information for using a VSAT network connection. ¦ Reisio (talk) 22:33, 23 March 2011 (UTC)


 * I might suggest asking the tour guide in question? It will probably be better to get the official info rather than guessing (perhaps wrongly). --Mr.98 (talk) 23:52, 23 March 2011 (UTC)


 * There are a number of cell phone companies active in Uganda - all use the GSM system. This page has more information . BTW the Communications in Uganda article is very superficial and out of date. Roger (talk) 13:44, 24 March 2011 (UTC)

You can also use an Iridium satellite phone to connect to the internet. Count Iblis (talk) 15:26, 24 March 2011 (UTC)


 * Iridium is ridiculously expensive to use in a location where cheaper alternatives are available. Iridium is really meant for places where there is no telecom infrastructure - in the middle of a dessert or ocean. Roger (talk) 15:55, 24 March 2011 (UTC)