Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Computing/2013 October 31

= October 31 =

YouTube
Hello, how to upload a song in Youtube ? 198.105.111.86 (talk) 00:27, 31 October 2013 (UTC)


 * If you have a YouTube account, there is an upload button to the right of the search bar on YouTube's home page. Dismas |(talk) 00:58, 31 October 2013 (UTC)

How to make a video file ? 198.105.111.86 (talk) 01:13, 31 October 2013 (UTC)


 * First get written permission from the copyright owner. Bubba73 You talkin' to me? 01:15, 31 October 2013 (UTC)


 * If you're using a recent version of Windows, you can use Windows Movie Maker to create a video with a slide show (or single image) as background and an arbitrary audio track -- lots of Youtube videos are created that way. Looie496 (talk) 15:28, 31 October 2013 (UTC)

How to change the key of music and upload in Youtube ? 198.105.111.86 (talk) 21:45, 31 October 2013 (UTC)
 * You can change the musical key of an audio file using Audacity. -- benlisquare T•C•E 20:53, 2 November 2013 (UTC)

editing a pdf?
I've sent an application for an online service I'm interested in, and they've emailed me a form to fill in with my details and send back to them. Trouble is, it's in this strange .pdf format that doesn't let me write anything on it or open it in any other program. The only thing it's let me do is export it as a .txt which is even more useless. So, how do I go about filling this form in?

thank you,

213.104.128.16 (talk) 11:16, 31 October 2013 (UTC)


 * Could you print it, fill the form in, scan it, and then send them the resulting file? Dismas |(talk) 11:46, 31 October 2013 (UTC)


 * If they didn't screw it, they sent you a fillable pdf file, that can be filled and saved with the Adobe Reader (free to use). OsmanRF34 (talk) 14:20, 31 October 2013 (UTC)


 * Yes, I think the default setting must be non-editable, because I frequently get a PDF form that I can't edit. StuRat (talk) 14:26, 31 October 2013 (UTC)


 * Make sure you have the latest version of Adobe Reader. Not all PDF readers allow you to fill in a PDF form.--Shantavira|feed me 14:30, 31 October 2013 (UTC)


 * Otherwise, the only easy solution is to print, fill and send per post or scan. Otherwise you'll need to edit the file with the commercial version of Adobe, or contact the company and ask for an editable pdf. OsmanRF34 (talk) 14:33, 31 October 2013 (UTC)
 * There are programs that support some PDF editing beyond simple form filling, e.g. Apple's Preview, and, IIRC, Skim, also on the Mac. Skim is Open Source, but I suspect it heavily depends on the Mac system libraries. List of PDF software has several likely candidates for all major platforms, but I have not tried any for this purpose. --Stephan Schulz (talk) 15:45, 31 October 2013 (UTC)

What causes "about:blank"?
All I am doing is clicking on the back button trying to get back to the results list (washingtonpost.com in this case), in order to go to the next one. On this computer one of the first things I saw was "Set up Internet Explorer 9". I think it's Windows 7.

At home I have Internet Explorer 9 with Windows Vista. This happens when I try to go back sometimes.— Vchimpanzee  ·  talk  ·  contributions  · 13:55, 31 October 2013 (UTC)


 * about:blank is just that - blank page constructed by your browser. I've never seen it appear spontaneously, but you can set it to be your home page (with the advantage that it doesn't use network traffic, or hang like other home pages can do if you are disconnected from the network).  Internet Options is the place to go to see if it is the home page or the page that is first shown on a new tab.  Astronaut (talk) 20:01, 1 November 2013 (UTC)


 * I have had this happen too. It seems to occur when there is an interruption to down-loading either from stopping it manually, or my modem battery has gone flat. This is only my personal experience (WP:OR!). I am using a tablet, but it doesn't seem to matter whether I am editing 'mobile' or 'desktop' Wikipedia. 220  of  Borg 07:33, 3 November 2013 (UTC)

Script needs to be stopped
Again, I am on a Windows 7/Internet Explorer 9 computer, on citizen-times.com. I clicked on links to individual articles, but when I tried to shorten the URL to go to the newspaer's main page, nothing happened. When I tried to type in a new URL, the circle to the left of the description of where I was (to the right of the URL, there are a bunch of blue rectangles)just kept turning and turning. Finally, in one of the cases, I was told citizen-times.com is not responding due to a long-running script. I stopped the script and didn't have any of the problems. But when I didn't get that message in the other situations, all I could do was click on the x to the right of the description of where I was. How do I stop the script if it won't tell me to?— Vchimpanzee  ·  talk  ·  contributions  · 13:58, 31 October 2013 (UTC)


 * I'm not sure if the Task Manager would allow you to stop an individual IE script, but stopping IE and restarting ought to get the job done. StuRat (talk) 14:23, 31 October 2013 (UTC)


 * No, can't do that. I have stuff I'm trying to save.— Vchimpanzee  ·  talk  ·  contributions  · 14:33, 31 October 2013 (UTC)


 * Can't you save it first, then restart IE ? StuRat (talk) 15:58, 31 October 2013 (UTC)


 * I should mention this happens on Firefox too, at another library. The computer is really slow sometimes, though I used to see a message about updated virus protection when it would do that. Only occasionally am I told of a script problem I can stop.— Vchimpanzee  ·  talk  ·  contributions  · 14:41, 31 October 2013 (UTC)


 * Turning off javascript (in Firefox, Options->Content->Enable Javascript) will stop any scripts. You can turn it on again when you've finished with the troublesome site. Card Zero  (talk) 22:39, 31 October 2013 (UTC)
 * I'm looking for a simple solution. Restarting IE is too big a step when all I have to do is click on the red X in the upper right corner and, if it's the right version, tell it JUST the current tab. Being told I can close just the current tab is a big step toward making tabs acceptable to me, but I still need windows. If I'm at a library, I can't turn off javascript. Besides, the problem web site is one in which I get one page of an article and have to click on the page number to get the other pages. If I copy and paste, I get the whole article, not just that page, with the software in use at that library where I was. If I click on "back" from the seond page, it's as if I was on the first page and I get sent to where I was before. I think I was told all that was javascript. In other words, to read articles on that site requires javascript.— Vchimpanzee  ·  talk  ·  contributions  · 19:22, 1 November 2013 (UTC)

Spreadsheet functions
In a spreadsheet, I want to be able to combine text fields to only show characters common to both fields. Eg, If A1 = "adfghi" and A2 = "aeiou", the function would result in "ai",the letters common to both. In terms of sets, I want the intersection of the two sets of characters.

I can do this using the built-in functions that come with the spreadsheet but it would make the spreadsheet very cumbersome to work with.

If I can achieve what I need using a bunch of nested built-in functions, is there a way to "define" a function that accomplishes the same thing but is simple in format? Eg, the defined function is, say, Intersect(A1;A2).

Alternatively, are there sources for pre-written functions, not supplied with the spreadsheet, but that can be added in?

Thank you. CBHA (talk) 18:40, 31 October 2013 (UTC)


 * It depends what spreadsheet you're using
 * If you're using Microsoft Excel then check out - I think the language it uses is Visual Basic for Applications which I've never used, but I think its very similar to VBScript and if it is then something like the following would do the job (albeit inefficiently).  Hopefully someone who knows VBA will come along and verify or fix

Function Intersect (strFirst,strSecond) intLenShortest=min(len(strFirst),len(strSecond)) for i = 0 to intLenShortest if left(strFirst,i)=left(strSecond,i) then Intersect = left(strFirst,i) end if    next End Function


 * d avid p rior t/c 23:45, 31 October 2013 (UTC)


 * Thank you. I'm currently using LibreOffice Calc.  CBHA (talk) 23:52, 31 October 2013 (UTC)


 * In that case, see for how to define functions.  Below is something that seems to work in LibreOffice Calc (the 2nd line is optional, and the if/else/endif is because I can't find a min function in that language.  I'm sure there is one so it could be tidied up

Function Intersect (strFirst,strSecond) dim intLenShortest,i if len(strFirst) < len(strSecond) then intLenShortest=len(strFirst) else intLenShortest=len(strSecond) end if    for i = 0 to intLenShortest if left(strFirst,i)=left(strSecond,i) then Intersect = left(strFirst,i) end if    next End Function
 * d avid p rior t/c 00:07, 1 November 2013 (UTC)

Quantum software testing
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/tech/making-more-stuff.html#making-stuff-colder

Is the Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II notable for being the first aircraft to have its software tested by a quantum computer? Hcobb (talk) 20:36, 31 October 2013 (UTC)


 * I'm not familiar with this particular story, but there are no useful quantum computers right now (where useful means you couldn't do the same thing much more easily and cheaply with an ordinary computer). Also, I'm not sure how any of the known quantum algorithms would help in testing airplanes. -- BenRG (talk) 21:51, 31 October 2013 (UTC)


 * More details on the computer being used: http://www.lockheedmartin.com/us/news/features/2013/quantum.html Hcobb (talk) 22:40, 31 October 2013 (UTC)
 * That press release doesn't say what they're doing with the D-Wave machine. Presumably this is a research project of some sort, possibly related to the NASA/Google/USRA collaboration mentioned at the top of the D-Wave article. D-Wave is a controversial company in the quantum computing world, as the article mentions. D-Wave's machines don't run quantum algorithms and some researchers have expressed doubts that they're using coherent quantum states at all, but they do solve optimization problems by simulated annealing (albeit no more quickly than other techniques), and I'm sure there are problems in aircraft design that can be solved by simulated annealing. -- BenRG (talk) 07:00, 1 November 2013 (UTC)

talk host?
Every time I shut down my computer, the shut down is delayed a few minutes, waiting for background programs to close. The only title for the still-running background program is "Talk Host". I'm not sure what Talk host is, if I need to ignore it or get rid of it.2600:100E:B11D:E528:C5B0:9E15:C149:B245 (talk) 21:51, 31 October 2013 (UTC)


 * It actually says "task host", not "talk host". See http://support.microsoft.com/kb/975777/en-us for more information and a possible fix. Looie496 (talk) 22:09, 31 October 2013 (UTC)

Laptablet
I would like to add a new word. Laptablet -- a tablet of 15 inches or larger. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 107.196.101.223 (talk) 22:42, 31 October 2013 (UTC)


 * A better place for this would be Wiktionary. They're all about words over there. -- .Yellow1996. (ЬMИED¡) 00:07, 1 November 2013 (UTC)


 * The appropriate place to add a word you have made up is wikt:Appendix:List_of_protologisms. Card Zero  (talk) 00:18, 1 November 2013 (UTC)


 * Yes, if you want to add it as a main entry, you need to provide three cites (durably archived) according to Wiktionary standards. ( You might just manage that if you are careful. )  Is the fifteen-inch size a consistent limit?     D b f i r s   16:52, 1 November 2013 (UTC)