Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Computing/2014 December 12

= December 12 =

Photoshop performance
Eh... So it's more of a technical question. I draw using photoshop and for some reason the animated zoom effect does not work anymore, and also the edges on the lines look pretty rough except for some zoom levels. I understand it has something to do with the GPU settings and I don't know why but it gets stuck in the "basic" option without me being able to change it. While I was typing this I closed and re-opened the program a few times and now it's back to normal. But I's like to know how to avoid this happening in the future. Thanks. --Irrational number (talk) 00:09, 12 December 2014 (UTC)


 * Photoshop has a support page for these sort of question. You might get a quick reply there from their experts. Support--Aspro (talk) 01:59, 12 December 2014 (UTC)


 * Integer zoom levels will tend to look better, so 2x, 3x, 4x, etc. A 1.5x zoom, on the other hand, would mean a line originally 1 pixel wide might jump between 1 pixel and 2 pixels in width at various points, looking horrid.  There are ways to fix that, but they probably wouldn't bother to do so unless you are permanently changing the scale. StuRat (talk) 09:22, 14 December 2014 (UTC)

Can TeX generate “heap dumps” to analyze+optimize out-of-memory situations?
Deleted question by Ram nareshji deleted as probable copyvio as remarked below Nil Einne (talk) 14:26, 16 December 2014 (UTC)


 * (Sorry I can't help but let me take this opportunity to thank you for making a cool package!) SemanticMantis (talk) 16:05, 12 December 2014 (UTC)

There's probably a TeX mailing list where you could ask or you could just hack into the code directly. 70.36.142.116 (talk) 05:22, 15 December 2014 (UTC)


 * This question was asked verbatim over a year ago, on StackExchange, by the real author of this TeX package. Nimur (talk) 04:23, 16 December 2014 (UTC)

Burning with Nero a movie with subtitles
Hi there,

I got a movie(.mp4) with subtitles(.str).

I would like to burn it on a DVD disc.

I have Nero.

Can anyone guide me?

15:53, 12 December 2014 (UTC) — Preceding unsigned comment added by Exx8 (talk • contribs)


 * I pasted your header into google and these instructions were the first hit - they might be helpful but I have never personally followed them www.ehow.com/how_6540994_burn-dvd-subtitles-nero.html - URL is not linked because the domain triggers a protection warning. SemanticMantis (talk) 16:03, 12 December 2014 (UTC)
 * It doesn't work.There is no such option in nero.Exx8 (talk) 15:23, 13 December 2014 (UTC)
 * I can't help with Nero but if you use Aimersoft they have lots of options for subtitles. Toast has some as well. Aimersoft isn't free but it's not very expensive, like $20 or $30 or so. Last time I checked Toast was still free but Aimersoft (of course) is in my experience more reliable and powerful and much faster than Toast. --MadScientistX11 (talk) 21:00, 14 December 2014 (UTC)

Chromecast help
I'm trying to get my desktop computer, Windows 8.1, to talk to my Chromecast. It has worked previously, but now I'm stuck on 'No Cast Devices Found'. So...1) The TV is setup with Chromecast, and I regularly cast from my Samsung tablet, no problem. 2) I do have the Chromecast extension installed on the destop, and the icon is present in the upper right hand corner of my monitor. 3) The Chromecast device and the computer are on the same wifi network. 4) I have made sure that the 'Find Devices and Content' setting is ON' in Windows. I've turned everything off and on a few times. Any ideas? Thanks if you can help. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 84.106.118.196 (talk) 18:52, 12 December 2014 (UTC)

When can you say that you can program without being called a liar?
After solving the Fizzbuzz, or all the Project Euler's problems? Or something in the middle, but where exactly? Where do certification exams draw the line?--Noopolo (talk) 19:47, 12 December 2014 (UTC)


 * The answer to your first question is clearly a matter of opinion - and we do not answer requests for opinion. As to exams, they simply indicate whether the person sitting them has passed or fail a particular test - they do not purport to give definitive answers to vague questions that again can only be answered as a matter of opinion. AndyTheGrump (talk) 20:02, 12 December 2014 (UTC)


 * I guess in most countries it is not a dedicated profession. Simple checklist: you know 80 to 100 percent of the instuctions of the programming language. On MS-Office-VBA 50 percent may be be enough. You are familiar with the environment you are working or get instructed how to handle this on to access all necessary like input output, files, databases, hardware, interfaces or drivers, each if present in the environment you are or will be working on. You already have coded routines or programs and finished some solutions. Either you convert a flowchart into code which is outsourced often or you design a solution into flowchart and code it. Else negociate about your job. If you know how to prevent abuse and know how to secure a system or speed up code in processing, your will be more relevant. An other opinion from a programmer would be nice to read here. --Hans Haase (talk) 06:54, 13 December 2014 (UTC)


 * It would help to have more information about the question. What exactly do you mean by "say you can program"? Is this a resume, or party conversation? &#8209;&#8209; Mandruss  &#9742;  07:02, 13 December 2014 (UTC)


 * I mean in a resume, not asking for personal opinions, but rather about a soft definition.Noopolo (talk) 16:11, 13 December 2014 (UTC)
 * If it's in a resume, and relevant to the job you're applying for, I'd reccomend being more specific. If you are a hobbyist programmer, say so, and state which programming languages you are able to program in, and what sorts of programs you have written. If you have worked professionally as a programmer (which seems unlikely since you're asking this question), write about what your contributions to the project(s) you worked on were. Same thing if you've contributed to open source projects. Write about your level of fluency in the programming languages you know. If it's irrelevant to the job ("other interests" or whatever), it isn't really important, just say you're a hobbyist programmer, and be prepared to answer questions about it. --46.9.44.66 (talk) 17:29, 13 December 2014 (UTC)
 * Certification exams are generally for administrative qualifications (database admin, etc) rather than programming. If you can code Fizzbuzz you have had at least some minimal exposure to programming.  If you can solve a few Euler problems (let's say at least 5 of them) then you have both some programming skill and some math skill and enough problem persistence to be of some value.  Software development work needs additional experience in organizing big programs, debugging them, using tools like configuration systems and source control, and familiarity with at least a few existing code ecosystems.  The types of programming tasks you're likely to be faced with in a real job won't look anything like Euler problems.  They'll be more like dealing with file formats, network services, etc.  rubyquiz.com has some nice problems that are closer to real-world than the Euler problems are.  A few of them are Ruby-specific but for most you can use your favorite language.  70.36.142.116 (talk) 05:38, 15 December 2014 (UTC)

How does the page do this?
I currently do most of my web browsing using Firefox 34.0 on Linux, with JavaScript disabled by default (using NoScript). When I open a Time magazine page such as this one, I get an odd effect: the scrollbar that normally appears whenever the page is too tall to fit in the window is missing, so only the first screenful of the page is available. None of the usual ways to scroll vertically works. If I want to see the whole article in this mode, I can only do it by enlarging the window and reducing the font to a small enough size.

If I select View -> Page Style -> No Style, then the scrollbar appears and I can see the full text. Likewise if I enable Javascript for all sites. So I can see the content if I want to; that's not what I'm asking about. My question is, what is the page doing that causes this effect, and is a bug in Firefox involved? (I know essentially nothing about styles in HTML.) --65.94.50.4 (talk) 22:08, 12 December 2014 (UTC)
 * The same effect happens for me in Chrome on Windows if I disable JS. I've tried to see what's going on with Chrome Developer Tools (F12), and can't quite work it out, but I see some elements of the page have the CSS style, which prevents the scrollbars from showing. Presumably when JavaScript is enabled one of the things the script does is to change the CSS. AndrewWTaylor (talk) 22:59, 12 December 2014 (UTC)
 * Huh. Weird.  Thanks, anyway. --65.94.50.4 (talk) 04:06, 13 December 2014 (UTC)
 * Late to the party, but I just wanted to add that the Time magazine site you linked to seems to use quite a complex "infinite scrolling" paradigm, where you can just keep scrolling the page further down and new content will be loaded on the fly. A lot of sites do this, notably Facebook and Twitter. It means there will be a lot of JavaScript involved in keeping track of and programatically altering the current scroll position on the page: essentially the designers of the site have rewritten the scroll function. (I personally find it really irritating when website designers try to override features of my browser in this way). They've removed it using CSS, then added it back using JavaScript—meaning that if you have CSS (styles) enabled, but not scripts, you end up with no scroll feature at all. It seems likely that, in implementing their fancy new scroll functionality, the site designers got so carried away that they forgot to leave in a normal scrolling function that would work without JavaScript. —Noiratsi (talk) 10:42, 15 December 2014 (UTC)