Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Computing/2019 April 18

= April 18 =

Transitioning from AOL to Gmail
I would like to move from AOL to Gmail. What do I need to do to make it a easy, efficient, transition98.210.136.2 (talk) 01:22, 18 April 2019 (UTC)
 * What *I* would do is install Thunderbird. Set up both accounts on it. You can then easily select all of the AOL email and drag it to the Gmail account. You can then see mail coming in on both accounts. If someone sends to AOL and you want it to go to Gmail, you can drag it to Gmail and email the person to tell them about the change. When you don't see any more AOL mails of importance, you can delete that account from Thunderbird and then decide how you want to continue checking your Gmail account. There are two advantages here. First, you can move emails from one account to another easily. Second, you can view both email accounts in one program easily. The drawback is that you have to install Thunderbird and set up both accounts - which really means that you have to know your password for each account. In my experience, no matter how many times a person claims that he or she knows a password, they consistently have no clue what it is when it comes time to type it in. 68.115.219.139 (talk) 11:48, 18 April 2019 (UTC)

Security risk of storing WiFi password in config file on ESP8266
I'm thinking of using an ESP8266 device to control some lights from a Raspberry Pi. I was planning to use this project on GitHub but I notice in the configuration file, it has a place for the Wi-Fi password to be stored in plain text. I was just wondering what kind of security risk that poses, if any? It's just a home network so probably not a lucrative target or anything but I wondered whether it was any kind of risk. 213.205.242.130 (talk) 12:17, 18 April 2019 (UTC)


 * If someone gets physical access to the device, they can retrieve the WPA2 password, and thus they can access your network. How much of an issue that is, is for you to decide. This isn't really different for most systems - Linux and Windows just store the password in plain too; phones kinda do, but because you don't (typically) have root access, the password is encrypted, and so is somewhat harder to extract. -- Finlay McWalter··–·Talk 15:44, 18 April 2019 (UTC)

Soliciting an advice to purchase a tablet
Having years of experience in working with computers, designing software, etc, I am confronted now with a task to draw an artificial hand with elements of pure geometry and elements following curved lines of natural objects. I've never owned a tablet and have no idea how to choose. The multitude of choices confuse me. On the one hand I can buy a tablet but it will lack the ability to draw on the level I need, so I will have to purchase an application to draw what I want, however, some applications might be more designed to draw architectural elements, etc. It is all confusing to me.

What I want is to buy a tablet, like Microsoft Surface, even professional, I can afford the best, and be able to open a project, draw lines and click on a feature/button that will straighten this line or if it is a closed line to make a perfect circle out of it. If the circle is not the correct diameter, I want the tablet to enlarge or shorten it, in terms of circumference, etc on demand, and even draw ellipses of given axes.

I also want to be able to move elements of the design on the screen and even take into account 3-D features and if necessary to hide some parts of elements behind others. IN SHORT I WANT THIS PIECE OF HARDWARE TO ASSIST ME IN MY DESIGN.

Then there is this Facebook portal:. What does it do?

Is it possible to buy a tablet like this?

Thanks, - AboutFace 22 (talk) 18:27, 18 April 2019 (UTC)


 * So the Microsoft Surface is a tablet that runs Windows 10, just like a laptop would, which will allow you to run any software compatible with Windows. You can purchase the Surface Pen (which is bundled with the package you have linked in your question), a stylus that will aid you in drawing on the device. Given the technical demands of your task, I'd say this would probably the best option for you. Another option might be a pen tablet, such as the Wacom Intuos Pro. This device connects directly to your computer, and allows you to use a pen like a mouse to draw objects on the screen naturally, and will allow you to work with a more powerful computer than the Surface line offers, if your 3D model requires that. The Facebook Portal would certainly not be a good choice for your task, as it is designed primarily for video calling, and functions like an Amazon Echo device. TheMrP (talk) 02:04, 19 April 2019 (UTC)

Thank you, @TheMrP. It is very helpful

Overwrite a directory with a file in Unix?
A friend of mine recently wrote on Facebook that he almost ran this command in Unix:.

According to him, it would have overwritten the directory  with the file. He said he had intended it as  (note the slash at the end), which would have put the file inside the directory.

Now as we all know, it will put the file inside the directory either way, so the command would have worked.

But is it possible in Unix to actually overwrite a directory with a file this way? And if so, what happens to the files and subdirectories inside the directory? J I P &#124; Talk 18:37, 18 April 2019 (UTC)


 * All standard utilities will look after you. :-) As regards your second question: there are no files or subdirectories in a directory.  A directory is just a list of filenames and the associated Inodes.  Run stat(1) in a file to see.  So the question now is, if a directory indexing a particular file disappears, what happens to the file?  Not a lot.  If the file is explicitly unlink(2)'ed then the file may eventually go away, but merely removing the directory will cause a lost file that should end up in lost+found.  Remember that a file can appear in multiple directories (hard links) under different names.  Illegally removing a reference to the file must not cause damage to the file.  See checks 5 & 6 in xfs_repair(8) for example.  Martin of Sheffield (talk) 19:13, 18 April 2019 (UTC)