Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Computing/2013 March 10

= March 10 =

Are the source codes of old versions of Ruby relicensed under BSD License?
The author has announced that, since version 1.9.3, Ruby is dual-licensed under Ruby License and BSD License. Can I assume that all older versions that he holds copyright are relicensed? Czech is Cyrillized (talk) 01:02, 10 March 2013 (UTC)
 * No you can't assume that. Nothing in our article or the sources it links to suggests that the older versions were relicensed with new terms.  RudolfRed (talk) 01:52, 10 March 2013 (UTC)

Windows backup and recovery - follow up
My original message is now in the archives.

The other day I tried a mirror-image backup to a 1TB USB 2.0 external drive - it seemed to lock up after a couple of hours, but maybe it was just taking a long time. Today I successfully did a backup to a 3TB USB 3.0 drive - I think it took less than 1 hour (for 300GB). And it accepted the disc being larger than 2.1TB, so that answers that question back there about it not working with large drives.

The mirror image is not automatically updated with the Windows 7 backup & restore in Windows 8, right? Is it automatically kept up to date with Carbonite HomePlus? Bubba73 You talkin' to me? 02:23, 10 March 2013 (UTC)


 * Carbonite automatically updates the mirror image every day, so that answers that question. I assume that the one built in to Windows only does it when you run it, right?  Bubba73 You talkin' to me? 02:53, 10 March 2013 (UTC)

Big problem with FS2004
I've been playing Microsoft Flight Simulator 2004 for quite a while today (using the keyboard for flight controls) when suddenly the aircraft completely stopped responding to the controls and crashed. I've tried to investigate this problem further (even to the point of completely reinstalling the program), and this is what I found out: The program, for no apparent reason, is getting the basic keyboard and the Shift keyboard mixed up, so when I press e.g. Keypad 2 (up elevator), it interprets my keystroke as Shift + Keypad 2 (look back) and accordingly changes the view instead of pulling the plane's nose up. There doesn't appear to be anything wrong with the keyboard itself, but this problem persists despite all attempts to restore the default controls. Any suggestions? Thanks in advance! 24.23.196.85 (talk) 07:37, 10 March 2013 (UTC)

Update: Flight Simulator X has the exact same problem on my computer -- but no other program does, as far as I know. 24.23.196.85 (talk) 09:34, 10 March 2013 (UTC)


 * Is your Caps Lock turned on accidentally? I've had this cause me no shortage of confusion in the past when it comes to key bindings going wacky. And, have you rebooted? --Mr.98 (talk) 15:12, 10 March 2013 (UTC)


 * Yes, I've rebooted but the problem persisted afterward. But never mind, I've got it figured out: in fact, it WAS the damned keyboard after all -- somehow the Num Lock (not Caps Lock) key became permanently stuck in the "on" position (which is weird, because I'm absolutely positive I didn't touch it).  My attempts to turn the Num Lock off were unsuccessful, but swapping out the keyboard for a spare solved the problem. 24.23.196.85 (talk) 00:12, 11 March 2013 (UTC)

what is difference between call stack and stack trace in java?
Hi !

My doubt is on call stack and stack trace in java.

Call stack: “The call stack is an internal list of all the methods that are currently executing.”

Stack trace: ”It is a list of all all the methods in call stack.”

According to above definitions Stacktrace contains list of all the methods in call stack.

Then what is the difference between call stack and stack trace?

Please explain the difference. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Phanihup (talk • contribs) 17:09, 10 March 2013 (UTC)


 * A stack trace is the call stack printed out on the screen when there's an error. See stack trace. -- BenRG (talk) 17:54, 10 March 2013 (UTC)

Adding HTTP compression support to wget
How easy would it be to modify the wget source code to add HTTP compression - handling of html files compressed in gzip format - for someone who has never coded a line of C or any other programming language ever? Piping wget output to gunzip is not useful because none of the mirroring or recursive options of wget can be utilized when using this method. wget really needs to do the decompression itself so that it can immediately read and process the decompressed file. 92.233.64.26 (talk) 18:23, 10 March 2013 (UTC)
 * wget is free software, so you could modify it to add support for HTTP gzip/deflate. Alternately, you could use cURL, also free software, that already supports HTTP gzip/deflate, and many additional features compared to wget or other command-line HTTP clients.  cURL is becoming more popular than wget, because it supports so many additional common web protocols and advanced HTTP features.  cURL is free software, and is mostly covered by a BSD license, and some parts using other licenses, including the GPL.  Nimur (talk) 07:19, 11 March 2013 (UTC)
 * Thanks but it is the mirroring and recursive options of wget that I need, which cURL does not offer at all. wget is perfect for what I want except that it doesn't support http compression. I am aware that wget is free software that can be modified, I was more asking from a practical standpoint how easy it would be to do for someone who has never coded anything ever 92.233.64.26 (talk) 10:47, 11 March 2013 (UTC)
 * Perhaps the most practical option would be to pay someone to add it for you. --Sean 15:07, 11 March 2013 (UTC)
 * Though I suspect it would be easier to implement recursive spidering by wrapping cURL in a simple driver script - say, in Python - rather than try to port the gzip/deflate system to wget. This approach may be significantly easier if you are not a C programmer.  Nimur (talk) 15:26, 11 March 2013 (UTC)
 * It really depends on you, if you haven't coding anything ever it would take about a whole learning programming and basics, then it would really take a lot of time to you to read and understand each line of code what it means, etc... I really doubt you're interested on that, although if you are, I can suggest some books out there. 190.60.93.218 (talk) 15:50, 11 March 2013 (UTC)
 * I really thought they (wget and curl) had gzip and deflate support built in, but now I'm not so sure. If you're using curl in a script, you can do a "| gzip -d" and get around most of it, if you want to be more elaborate you can check the input format, etc. Shadowjams (talk) 21:05, 11 March 2013 (UTC)
 * Someone already tried adding gzip support for wget in Windows although I don't know how far they got. Nil Einne (talk) 18:04, 12 March 2013 (UTC)

Can Universities access your school e-mail?
Suppose one attends a US university that administers its school email accounts with Google. Can the school access your account and read your e-mails if they so chose? Acceptable (talk) 19:15, 10 March 2013 (UTC)


 * I doubt it, but if you’re presuming that if not for the university, your email would be 100% private, you’d be mistaken. ¦ Reisio (talk) 22:02, 10 March 2013 (UTC)
 * Correct, given the insidious email server log trawlers that send information back to certain "trusted" companies. Ten years later, facebook made a friend recommendation that I swear I had only sent one email to, ten years ago, without answer and with no other form of communication. Sandman30s (talk) 14:28, 11 March 2013 (UTC)


 * If you're using computers that are owned by the university, then technically the answer is yes. Whether they're permitted to would depend on the local law.--Phil Holmes (talk) 09:28, 11 March 2013 (UTC)


 * Is it possible? Yes, given enough effort by the school. Is it probable? No. Given the shit-storm that they'd bring down on themselves from the media and the ACLU by doing that, they'd have to have an ironclad reason.  And any reason they had would probably mean that they should be reporting something to legal authorities who would then try to get access from Google and the school itself would not be involved in the actual access.  Dismas |(talk) 09:55, 11 March 2013 (UTC)


 * This FAQ says "Per your domain’s Customer Agreement, Google Apps administrators for a domain can access all end-user accounts and the associated data, as described in our Privacy Policy. [...] We do require that you have a policy about such actions that is published to your end-users." So you should check your university's policy, just as if the data was stored on university-owned hardware. -- BenRG (talk) 15:45, 11 March 2013 (UTC)