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

= October 25 =

What voice-changing Android apps let me alter voices to specific, desired specifications?
I'm hoping for a voice-changing Android app that I can specify gender, age, ethnicity, accent and other variables which will let me sound like other people. (Artificial, fake cartoony voices are okay but not needed; I hope for options to sound like other, actual people with this voice.)

Moreover, would those apps let me use them on a phone call, or would I be made to only use them while not on a call?

Thanks in advance for recommending some. --98.190.13.3 (talk) 04:14, 25 October 2011 (UTC)


 * Ethnicity? They make such things? "I want to sound more black!" ... very curious to see any answers to this question O_o The Masked Booby (talk) 05:37, 25 October 2011 (UTC)


 * Even "Artificial Intelligence" software running on the fastest computers would struggle to make an attempt at changing accents, in fact many human brains struggle to achieve this. Just changing frequency to address a gender/age stereotype would be simple, but the other requirements will probably not be achievable in a phone app in my lifetime (though possibly in yours).  It has long been possible to create artificial voices of any required flavour to read typed text, of course, but I don't know what apps are available.    D b f i r s   06:59, 25 October 2011 (UTC)

Okay, maybe not ethnicity/accent, but other factors are fine.
So if I just wish to change how old I sound, which app would be ideal for that? --Let Us Update Dusty Articles 09:05, 25 October 2011 (UTC)


 * I don't even have an Android phone, so I've no idea what apps are available, but the frequency changing software should be fairly simple to write if the hardware allows the change. A deeper tone tends to make you sound older, but your use of language will easily give away your true age unless you are very careful.    D b f i r s   18:37, 25 October 2011 (UTC)
 * That's okay; sometimes I may try to see what it's like to sound old, but in order to help me write a fiction book whose protagonist is a precocious child, I need to find out how I'd feel if I heard a child speak with a college student's vocabulary. Hopefully someone with an Androidal background can come along and share suggested apps. --Let Us Update Dusty Articles 00:02, 26 October 2011 (UTC)
 * I don't think you will find any app that will adjust the speaker's vocabulary, but there are many college students who speak with child-like voices, and just a few young children who have a college student's vocabulary. Good luck with your book.    D b f i r s   06:41, 26 October 2011 (UTC)

Sothink DHTML menus
how can take the code written in sothink dhtml menus to asp.net progrmmes?pls tell — Preceding unsigned comment added by FemiThanvi (talk • contribs) 07:28, 25 October 2011 (UTC)
 * Section title added - presumably the question refers to this product. AndrewWTaylor (talk) 08:45, 25 October 2011 (UTC)

UPC-A Barcode Check Digit when Calculated result is 10.
The other wise excellent an highly informative article entitled "Universal Product Code" includes information of calculating a UPC-A check digit as follows : - In the UPC-A system, the check digit is calculated as follows: 1.Add the digits in the odd-numbered positions (first, third, fifth, etc.) together and multiply by three. 2.Add the digits in the even-numbered positions (second, fourth, sixth, etc.) to the result. 3.Find the result modulo 10 (i.e. the remainder when divided by 10.. 10 goes into 58 5 times with 8 leftover). 4.If the result is not zero, subtract the result from ten. ... BUT WHAT SHOULD BE DONE IF THE RESULT IS ZERO ?

Thanks in advance for any advice.Markhigham01 (talk) 08:55, 25 October 2011 (UTC)


 * Do nothing, so 0 stays 0. Step 4 is an if-then construct with no  branch. 98.248.42.252 (talk) 10:18, 25 October 2011 (UTC)

RAM address lines and data lines
what are the difference between the functionalities of address lines and data lines of a RAM chip? Does they both store data? — Preceding unsigned comment added by Intr199 (talk • contribs) 14:02, 25 October 2011 (UTC)


 * The address lines say where the data is to be stored, The data lines say what data is to be stored.  So if the CPU wants to store 0x1234 at address 0xF004, 0x1234 goes on the data lines and 0xF004 on the data lines. -- Finlay McWalterჷTalk 14:35, 25 October 2011 (UTC)


 * what does "x" signify in the address: "0x12234"?--Intr199 (talk) 14:12, 26 October 2011 (UTC)


 * Sorry, that's just me writing a 16 bit address in hexadecimal with the C-language prefix for hex (so 0xsomething means that the something is in hexadecimal). -- Finlay McWalterჷTalk 14:16, 26 October 2011 (UTC)

Standby consumption of Virgin Media V+ box
Hi. In UK. How much leccy do you think a Virgin Media V+ box uses when on standby? I ask because I usually try to remember to turn off appliances at the mains when not in use, but the V+ box takes forever to reboot, and often gets stuck in the process. The Virgin technician said not to turn it off overnight, but I don't know if that is their standard advice or how they would reconcile it with the general consumer advice to save energy by not leaving applicances on standby. Itsmejudith (talk) 20:11, 25 October 2011 (UTC)
 * According to the company which makes the newest one, about 20 watts at the very maximum. A quick google indicates the older one is similar. 20 watts is pretty negligible really, and if it has some kind of standby function then it won't be using much at all. Nevard (talk) 06:22, 26 October 2011 (UTC)
 * Thanks. Itsmejudith (talk) 13:14, 26 October 2011 (UTC)
 * I would contest that 20W is 'pretty negligible'. If that is 20W 24/7, that gives you around 500Wh per day, or 180KWh/year. At 25p/KWh that is £40/year in electricity costs, which I consider pretty outrageous for an appliance that probably isn't worth that much. Granted, this is max consumption and stand-by (if it has such a thing) is likely(?) to be less. But I wouldn't want 20W just on all the time for nothing 109.158.229.158 (talk) 23:04, 26 October 2011 (UTC)

"Format' missing from menu
What could cause "Format" to disappear from the menu in Microsoft Word? (On a Mac.) The other options are still there. I.e., File - Edit - View - Insert - Tools.

(Supp question, is "menu" the proper way to refer to these functions?)

Thanks, Wanderer57 (talk) 20:28, 25 October 2011 (UTC)


 * I found Word for OS X missing format menu, which doesn't say what could cause it, but does direct you to the preferences file, which you might want to throw away. Card Zero  (talk) 21:56, 25 October 2011 (UTC)

Printing calculator
Hi guys.

I am looking to replace my printing calculator, a Canon P60-D, with another calculator that does the same thing. The printer is broken in my current one. The catch is that it must NOT use the "accounting rules" where you press extra keys for operations. To quote a review from a similar product:

"The only thing that I didn't like about this calculator is that to subract [sic] one number from another, you have to press the number, then the plus sign, then the other number, then the minus sign. I don't know if this is how all of these types of calculators are or not, since this is the only one like this that I have ever used... but pressing the addition symbol to subract [sic] seemed a little weird to me."

That is the exact function I do NOT want. To subtract two numbers, pressing 3, -, 2, should produce 1.

Any ideas for a replacement? It turns out these are harder to find than they should be. Alternatively, if I can buy another P60-D from somewhere that would be great too.

Thanks guys.

Sorlac (talk) 22:40, 25 October 2011 (UTC)

Reading QR codes manually
Would it be possible to read a QR code without a computer? On the QR code page, there is an example containing "www.wikipedia.org", and some of the w's and i's match. However, I cannot figure out which direction to read the 2x4 boxes in, and there's some mention of flipping every other row. How are these encoded? KyuubiSeal (talk) 23:19, 25 October 2011 (UTC)
 * The explanation in the article is a bit unclear, but let's consider the example there, starting with the size byte marked "Len". It appears (1=dark)
 * 10
 * 11
 * 10
 * 11
 * We flip alternate rows: if you go down from the top you flip every second row
 * 10
 * 00
 * 10
 * 00
 * To know the order to read this, you need to turn it so you have a block which is 2 wide and four high. Look at the arrow, which runs from bottom to top. You therefore rotate so the arrowhead is at the top (in this case no rotation is required) and read the bits in this order (0=low, 7=high)
 * 01
 * 23
 * 45
 * 67
 * Normally when you write binary numbers you put the high bit first, so we can decode this from bit 7-bit 0 as 00010001. This equals 17 in base-ten.
 * You can now move on to the next character which appears as
 * 11
 * 01
 * 11
 * 01
 * Flipping rows gives
 * 11
 * 10
 * 11
 * 10
 * This gives you the binary 01110111, which is the ASCII code for "w" (lower case).
 * The next value is
 * 1011
 * 0001
 * You first reverse the lower row:
 * 1011
 * 1110

Then you rotate it so the arrow is at the top of the block, like this
 * 11
 * 10
 * 11
 * 10
 * You can see that's another "w". Now you follow the order of the arrows around the code.  Remember to invert the rows before you rotate them.
 * It's a lot easier to use a computer. --Colapeninsula (talk) 12:35, 26 October 2011 (UTC)

Doesn't rotating the second w make this?
 * 11
 * 10
 * 11
 * 01

KyuubiSeal (talk) 14:34, 26 October 2011 (UTC)


 * You don't rotate the whole thing as a block, you read up the right side, then down the left side. There's more information at Reed–Solomon codes for coders, but that's incomplete as well. It gets a lot more complicated with the larger codes, because you have to work around the alignment patterns and deal with the interleaved code blocks. 130.76.64.119 (talk) 15:37, 26 October 2011 (UTC)
 * Okay. At least since I can read it more accurately than a camera, I won't need the error correction codes, right? KyuubiSeal (talk) 16:26, 26 October 2011 (UTC)


 * Yes, you can just ignore the EC codes as long as you have a good quality image to work with (both QR codes on this cake are decodable, with some difficulty) and nobody has messed with it. 130.76.64.118 (talk) 16:57, 26 October 2011 (UTC)