Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Computing/2015 November 8

= November 8 =

Online maps for vertigo-safe roads ?
I have vertigo and get dizzy when the landscape falls away from under me as I drive, which is dangerous. Is there an online resource that would show me which roads I can take that are vertigo-safe ? That is, they have a flat plain on both sides of the road ? (In general, going through mountains is a problem, but roads that go through tunnels are far better than those which hug the edge.) I suppose I could go over a contour elevation map superimposed on a road map and eventually figure it out, but I'd much rather have roads colored green, yellow or red to show degree of danger. StuRat (talk) 00:46, 8 November 2015 (UTC)

I should add that roads and bridges can be "vertigo-safe" if they have barriers on the sides that block the view of the depths below. On the other hand, expansion cracks in bridges that let you see the water below are bad for vertigo. StuRat (talk) 19:30, 8 November 2015 (UTC)


 * That seems like a tough thing to discover. Google maps does not include such thing, and I don't believe many people would have the same problem. Maybe you could avoid bridges all-together, or, let someone else drive, or, use the sun visor to block the view. --Denidi (talk) 00:12, 9 November 2015 (UTC)


 * The only one of those with any possibility is blocking the view, but the difficulty of blocking and unblocking the view quickly, while driving alone is quite a problem. Maybe some kind of blinders that could be flipped up and down on both sides of my sunglasses might work ? StuRat (talk) 05:22, 9 November 2015 (UTC)


 * How about trying to cure the vertigo? Ask your ENT specialist what he thinks of tissue salts if standard medicines like Stugeron don't work. Sandman1142 (talk) 09:36, 10 November 2015 (UTC)


 * Check the hatnote on vertigo; we're not supposed to be diagnosing people here but I suspect the term is being misused by all present. Wnt (talk) 12:32, 10 November 2015 (UTC)


 * Yes, I'm not looking for a diagnosis or treatment here. (If anyone is interested, I had a dual ear infection as a kid, and since then my inner ear balance system doesn't seem to work, making my brain rely exclusively on visual cues to balance.) StuRat (talk) 19:18, 10 November 2015 (UTC)

How do I type weird letters in Xubuntu Linux?
For example I want to type Fëanor with double dot on top of the e letter, or Andúril with the top accent u, and what is the correct term for that kind of weird character thingy? 139.193.247.7 (talk) 05:58, 8 November 2015 (UTC)


 * Take a look at this or this. In short, you configure one of the keys on your keyboard to be a Compose key, using the Keyboard Layout options under System Settings. You can then use that key in combination with others to generate many different accented and other special characters. For example, to generate a "ë", you could could type . -- Tom N  talk/contrib 06:37, 8 November 2015 (UTC)


 * Well it works, so now I don't need to copy paste words from google anymore 139.193.247.7 (talk) 10:03, 8 November 2015 (UTC)


 * And to answer your question about what they're called... The first is an umlaut. Dismas |(talk) 19:35, 8 November 2015 (UTC)
 * An umlaut (diacritic) rather than an umlaut (linguistics), to assist disambiguation. Tevildo (talk) 20:13, 8 November 2015 (UTC)
 * Some would prefer to call it diaeresis; Germany adopted it as an imperfect imitation of a mark already used to represent umlaut. —Tamfang (talk) 20:22, 8 November 2015 (UTC)


 * In general, marks that distinguish variants of a base letter are diacritics. —Tamfang (talk) 20:22, 8 November 2015 (UTC)

How can Skype run with Ubuntu on a windows computer?
I have 2 windows computers with Ubuntu which is anti-virus software and I need my brother to set up Skype because I talk to my friend a lot through Facebook and on the phone. She lives thousands of miles from me and when I use a computer I open several tabs and my brother set up my computers so I don't get virus. He says Skype can't run with Ubuntu. Please give some computer advice. 209.53.181.75 (talk) 22:44, 8 November 2015 (UTC)
 * Ubuntu isn't anti-virus software, it's a Linux distribution. It's not clear what operating system your computers are running—Windows or Ubuntu, or both? If you are running the Ubuntu operating system, Skype is available for Linux (and for Windows of course). --Canley (talk) 06:03, 9 November 2015 (UTC)
 * That site only gives a version suitable for Ubuntu 10.04, not the latest version. I've checked in the software centre, since installing Ubuntu on my Mac via Parallels, and it is not available. KägeTorä - (影虎)  ( もしもし！ ) 07:29, 9 November 2015 (UTC)
 * Actually, there's instructions for installing it on Ubuntu Palmtree5551 (talk) 17:12, 9 November 2015 (UTC)