Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Computing/2017 December 2

= December 2 =

Android map apps that work near the poles?
What Android apps, if any, can display maps when the user is closer to the WGS84 North or South poles than the 85.051129° N/S latitudes where Google Maps cuts off? Do any of them use a map projection that can show the poles on screen (as e.g. a gnomonic projection centered on the screen would do)? Neon Merlin  02:28, 2 December 2017 (UTC)
 * Google Earth might be able to do it. I haven't used the Android version, though. Jc86035 (talk) 14:18, 3 December 2017 (UTC)

Influence of MINIX on Linux?
Authoring Linux was a monumental accomplishment by Linus Torvalds. However, it seems that the history surrounding the development of the Linux kernel version 0.01 is mostly legend.

Did Linus have much formal training? Did he study earlier kernels (MINIX)? Who were the influences that led to Torvalds' Linux kernel (or was it all Linus)? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 72.221.67.126 (talk) 03:11, 2 December 2017 (UTC)
 * Have you seen our Linus Torvalds article? The "Youth" paragraph says


 * Torvalds attended the University of Helsinki between 1988 and 1996,[11] graduating with a master's degree in computer science from the NODES research group.[12] His academic career was interrupted after his first year of study when he joined the Finnish Army Uusimaa brigade, in the summer of 1989, selecting the 11-month officer training program to fulfill the mandatory military service of Finland. In the army he held the rank of Second Lieutenant, with the role of a ballistic calculation officer.[13] Torvalds bought computer science professor Andrew Tanenbaum's book Operating Systems: Design and Implementation, in which Tanenbaum describes MINIX, an educational stripped-down version of Unix. In 1990, he resumed his university studies, and was exposed to UNIX for the first time, in the form of a DEC MicroVAX running ULTRIX.[14] His M.Sc. thesis was titled Linux: A Portable Operating System.[15] 


 * Rojomoke (talk) 07:44, 2 December 2017 (UTC)


 * See Tanenbaum–Torvalds debate. Linux and Minix are structurally very different Linux. Calling Minix a "stripped-down version of Unix" entirely misses the point (and it's wrong); Linux, like original Unix (and its descendents, including ULTRIX, SunOS, Solaris, and the BSDs), is (effectively) a monolithic kernel; Minux (like Mach) is a microkernel. Tanenbaum's book was clearly influential; Tanenbaum's OS clearly wasn't. -- Finlay McWalter··–·Talk 14:49, 2 December 2017 (UTC)
 * Well, OS-X/macOS, probably the most widely used certified UNIX, and the spiritual UNIX most widely used on desk- and laptops, uses a microkernel architecture under a BSD "personality" layer. --Stephan Schulz (talk) 15:12, 2 December 2017 (UTC)

What To Do If i Want To Play Homescapes Android Game On My Mac PC?
hey guys i am lover of mobile games. Problem is that i want to play homescapes game on my office PC? because they doesn't allow mobile phone on office i tried so many sites but nothing works for me. in last i tried GamingRun site i don't know who is the author of this site. but this site provide solution of Homescapes Hack on Windows. Please help guys :( — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2405:205:3090:9D68:E18A:E587:F444:56E6 (talk) 08:26, 2 December 2017 (UTC)


 * Try BlueStacks. -- Finlay McWalter··–·Talk 14:36, 2 December 2017 (UTC)

Blockchain
People talk about blockchain and specifically distributed ledgers as being beneficial in so far as that they keep a record of every transaction conducted. It strikes me that wikis do this already, in so far as they keep a record of every edit made at least. I know that wikis are not perfectly comparable to blockchain given that in some cases I believe edit histories may be retrospectively purged, and I am not sure of the extent to which wikis operate on a decentralised basis, but it strikes me that there may be some similarities or overlaps within the technologies. Am I totally wrong in thinking this? Freeknowledger (talk) 21:52, 2 December 2017 (UTC)
 * You miss one important part: A blockchain is a public record that ensures a permanent unalterable record between untrusted parties. A wiki uses a central database (possibly replicated and distributed) under control of only one entity. Whoever controls that database can change the history. We all (well, maybe most ;-) implicitly trust the Wikimedia Foundation to not do malicious changes - but would you trust a random anonymous public/private key pair with your life savings? In Proof-of-work system (like Bitcoin), you need over 50% of the computing power in the network to reliably change the history. In a Proof-of-stake system, you need 50% of the "stake", which is a less well defined concept, but also will be unlikely to be controlled by one party in a large-scale system. --Stephan Schulz (talk) 22:54, 2 December 2017 (UTC)