Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Computing/2012 May 25

= May 25 =

Adobe Captivate
I'm using Adobe Captivate to make tutorial videosof a new software. My office uses 2 monitors for each computer, and for some reason, I can't record the videos when the application window stretches across both in the "maximised" form. The recording starts, and later, when I press the End button to stop recording, Adobe Captivate simply vanishes from the taskbar and quicklaunch menu, without having saved the recorded video. Can anyone help me? This happens only when I use the Automatic or manual mode. It works fine when I use the Full motion mode. However, in the full motion mode, the video is jerky, as if the individual slides are being played very slowly.. Can someone please tell me what I'm doing wrong? 204.4.182.14 (talk) 04:57, 25 May 2012 (UTC)


 * You might just be beyond the maximum screen resolution the software can handle. After all, if both screens are 1920×1200, that's 3840×1200 total.  That's a lot of pixels.  Try lowering the resolution. StuRat (talk) 05:24, 25 May 2012 (UTC)

Regular expression - understanding answer
I am trying to understand this answer to a question on how to split a string into groups of 4, eg "Thequickbrownfoxjumps" to ["Theq","uick","brow","nfox","jump","s"]. The answer given is "Thequickbrownfoxjumps".split("(?<=\\G.{4})") I can see that the \\G.{4} matches the an expression of 4 characters either at the beginning or following the last match. I am not sure why this doesn't work by itself, but has to be included in a look-behind. Also, the look-behind is usually used with a following character, for example (?<=a)b matches the b (and only the b) in cab, but does not match bed or debt. So without anything following doesn't that mean it matches nothing? The expression does work (I've tested it) but I can't see how. -- Q Chris (talk) 10:27, 25 May 2012 (UTC)


 * The part of the string matched by the regex won't be included in the output, so the regex needs to match nothing. More precisely, it needs to match nothing at positions 4, 8, ... -- BenRG (talk) 17:35, 25 May 2012 (UTC)
 * I need to think about that some more - but I do get it that if you match anything then that "something" would be missing from the output. -- Q Chris (talk) 21:21, 25 May 2012 (UTC)
 * The regular expression means "the point in the string that's immediately preceded by the previous match point and then four arbitrary characters". Before anything has matched, the previous match point is the beginning of the string, so the first actual match can only be at position 4. Then the previous match is position 4, so the regex can only match at 8, and so on.


 * If I might editorialize, I think this is an awful hack, as well as being probably pretty slow. And it won't work in most other languages because it relies on the fact that Java's split doesn't return trailing empty strings. I think you'd be better off with the second- or third-ranked solutions in that thread. It's only because of Java's general verboseness, compared with the ridiculous terseness of the regex syntax, that the regex solution looks better. In Python the "brute force" solution is just . -- BenRG (talk) 23:23, 25 May 2012 (UTC)


 * Thanks, I understand now. I realise it is a hack, though surprisingly it is almost as fast as the more terse solution, though I just wanted to understand it! -- Q Chris (talk) 08:36, 26 May 2012 (UTC)

Text to Speech
Does anyone know of a handheld device that will 'read' then 'speak' text, which is available in the UK for a blind friend of mine please? Many thanks in anticipation.--85.211.222.224 (talk) 13:23, 25 May 2012 (UTC)


 * The RNIB is a great resource for this kind of thing. Their glossary page calls this kind of thing simply a "reading machine", of which this Word document lists several. Moreover their Technology Support Squad, which is staffed by volunteers, can help advise about which product is most suitable for your friend, based on the specifics of their needs and circumstances. -- Finlay McWalterჷTalk 13:59, 25 May 2012 (UTC)

Many thanks, why did I not think of the RNIB ?!!!--85.211.222.224 (talk) 15:19, 25 May 2012 (UTC)

Caller tune in mobile phone.
I would like to know who had invented the caller tune. It is to appreciate the person who used the time space for getting the revenue out of it. I would like to know the first mobile company who used this & the first caller tune used. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Satish.patwardhan99 (talk • contribs) 15:00, 25 May 2012 (UTC)


 * Are you perhaps thinking of the Nokia tune? -- Finlay McWalterჷTalk 15:55, 25 May 2012 (UTC)


 * If you're talking about having music play instead of a traditional ring when somebody calls, I think this rather evolved over time. The first electronic phones (without a metal bell) made various beeping sounds.  From this we got some very rudimentary electronic tunes.  Then, as the audio capability increased, we got better electronic tunes and, eventually, they were close enough to the songs being copied that they fell under copyright protection laws, meaning you had to pay for them. StuRat (talk) 16:25, 25 May 2012 (UTC)


 * And now you can even get a sound file that replicates the metal bell of old analog phones!   → Michael J Ⓣ Ⓒ Ⓜ 18:48, 25 May 2012 (UTC)


 * I think Satish.patwardhan99 is referring to the feature where the caller hears a song (instead of a ringing signal) while your phone is ringing. See Ringback tone. --Bavi H (talk) 00:36, 26 May 2012 (UTC)

Firefox images background color
If I click on a file for an image, for instance, when using Firefox, and then click on "Full resolution", I get a black background surrounding the image. Firefox did not used to do that. I am assuming this is a consequence of a recent upgrade in Firefox. Safari still works fine in this regard. When using Safari, the "Full resolution" image has white surrounding it, which I find preferable. How do I make Firefox display these images on a white background? I don't see a "Preference" setting at Firefox that might adjust this but maybe I am overlooking it. Thanks. Bus stop (talk) 15:38, 25 May 2012 (UTC)
 * AvrillirvA (talk) 15:48, 25 May 2012 (UTC)


 * (ec)The enhancement which added this feature is covered by this bugzilla bug. As that notes, the colour is set by the prevailing theme.  So options you have are:
 * Use a theme that sets this option (as it's fairly new, many won't change it)
 * Change the default theme (which is a bit drastic); doing that is discussed in the 2012-04-10 post in that bug by Dieter Hansen
 * Use an add-on like ImageTweak which lets you set it.
 * -- Finlay McWalterჷTalk 15:50, 25 May 2012 (UTC)


 * ImageTweak, by Carlo Alberto Ferraris, does the trick. It might come in handy to zoom and rotate images too, or to put against other backgrounds. Very interesting. Thank you everyone. Bus stop (talk) 16:38, 25 May 2012 (UTC)


 * It's not true black, by the way. (I established this by looking at a PNG of mine that has black against transparency.) —Tamfang (talk) 08:07, 27 May 2012 (UTC)

I was wary myself of it, but it definitely has its pluses (since so many images are on or are antialiased by having formerly been on white backgrounds), but really it should be a checkerboard. I assume a simple modification of userContent.css/userChrome.css or equivalent could manage it. ¦ Reisio (talk) 21:04, 25 May 2012 (UTC)

Android alarm/calendar integration
Are there any Android apps that can automatically detect when an appointment in Google Calendar requires me to wake up early, and set the alarm clock accordingly? Neon Merlin  21:41, 25 May 2012 (UTC)

replacing references temporarily
Using Perl, I've slurped an article.

I need to match the first sentence of the article, but intervening references with a period in them create an ambiguity so the script does not find the period at end of the sentence (it finds the period in the embedded reference instead).

So, I'd like to be able to save references off, and put them back again into the first sentence after I've extracted and processed it.

How can this be done?

This message is a copy. Please reply to the original at Village pump (technical). Thank you. The Transhumanist 21:55, 25 May 2012 (UTC)