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

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July 31

how do i get rid of this annoying toolbar?

i upgraded from mac os 4 to 6 and chose the installl.com version from cnet and now i have this nasty toolbar which i hate how can we make it go away? http://download.cnet.com/1770-20_4-0.html?query=mac+os+x+10.6&searchtype=downloads — Preceding unsigned comment added by 108.212.70.237 (talk) 03:55, 31 July 2013 (UTC)

As far as I'm aware, you can't download OS Xs from CNet, and you may have inadvertently installed malicious software. You can purchase OS X 10.6 from the Apple store.  drewmunn  talk  12:40, 31 July 2013 (UTC)

In case it is not obvious, only ever download an operating system from the official source. Using third-party sites is just asking for trouble. Astronaut (talk) 15:17, 31 July 2013 (UTC)

The toolbar is probably the least of your worries - try and remove that fake OSX as soon as you can. --Yellow1996 (talk) 16:43, 31 July 2013 (UTC)

Unable to update Nexus 7 with Android 4.3

Every time I reboot the device after downloading the device, the update stops at some time with a dead android error. I've tried installing the update multiple times with the same error each time. What is going on? 74.15.104.237 (talk) 05:59, 31 July 2013 (UTC)

What's that site which shows the old state of a web page ?

StuRat (talk) 06:47, 31 July 2013 (UTC)

Internet Archive is one. WebCite also has snapshots of a few web pages, but you need to have the webcite link, AFAIK. -84user (talk) 07:03, 31 July 2013 (UTC)

Thanks, the first one had the web site archived, but only once a month, so missed the day I needed, while the 2nd one didn't have it at all. I guess I'll have to start archiving important web sites myself. :-( StuRat (talk) 08:40, 31 July 2013 (UTC)

TOR BROWSER

Hey ... in my office my pc is not having internet connection my bosses pc has net connection ...i can ping to his pc.. and we use a proxy with username and password .... now how to use tor toget internet to my pc.. plz tell thnaks — Preceding unsigned comment added by 203.197.246.3 (talk) 08:22, 31 July 2013 (UTC)

Is your boss ok with you using TOR at work? I know it's outside the scope of this question, but I have to wonder what your motivation for using TOR at work is. 217.158.236.14 (talk) 08:48, 31 July 2013 (UTC)

TOR runs through a recognisable set of commands sent across the internet connection, and many proxies will block the information required for TOR to work. This is because use of TOR by the people channelled through the proxy goes against the reason the proxy exists; companies and internet providers need to track data requested over their network for legal reasons. If you were to use TOR, you could potentially access a massive collection of illegal material and, with the proxy unable to track who found it, the company would be liable. Try using a different browser, like Chrome, and you should find that everything is perfectly fine!  drewmunn  talk  10:31, 31 July 2013 (UTC)

indeed....my boss dosent know that i am using tor,any experienced person please answer this question...i dont want to access any illeagal material anyways... on fb etc.. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 175.101.60.14 (talk) 14:10, 31 July 2013 (UTC)

As I wrote above, your company's proxy blocks access to TOR, so you cannot use it. I know many companies who will gladly fire any employees who find workarounds to access TOR, as it violates their network use policies and opens the company to prosecution.  drewmunn  talk  14:19, 31 July 2013 (UTC)

As others have mentioned, it would be really weird for your company to block FB but not block TOR. I guess if it's just a home-brew ad hoc proxy they might. One thing that might work for you is tethering your PC to the Internet via a smart phone. That's probably also a firing offense at many companies. Caveat browsor. --Sean 14:52, 31 July 2013 (UTC)

Perhaps a different approach would be to ask if internet access can be opened up to your PC. Evading or circumventing company policies might get you fired; asking if those policies can be reviewed and perhaps modified might be a much safer route. However, you might have to accept that you employer has no obligation to allow you to access facebook when you should be working. Astronaut (talk) 14:58, 31 July 2013 (UTC)

You should read this which can be considered to be written against you. 2A02:8422:1191:6E00:56E6:FCFF:FEDB:2BBA (talk) 22:29, 31 July 2013 (UTC)

Writing statistical x types in word

When i need to serve homework in statistics, i often need to write one of the x's (such as x_roof \ x_tag \ x_dot in a table. how could i do it easily by hotkeys? is there any way? (right now i copy the symbols from a picture and it's far from being comfortable). Much thanks ! 13:14, 31 July 2013 (UTC) — Preceding unsigned comment added by Ben-Natan (talk • contribs)

In Word, the 'Insert' ribbon has a 'Symbol' tool (on the far right). That has a 'Insert more symbols' option which brings up a dialog box allowing you to pick your required symbol. A symbol can be attached to a shortcut key (there might already be a default shortcut key) or to the autocorrect list. Astronaut (talk) 15:13, 31 July 2013 (UTC)

Dear Astronaut, i looked for those symbolms there more than once, but haven't find them. what Word version you use? (me 2007, enterprise). maybe you installed an extension for it? in what symbol family have u found it? thanks. Ben-Natan (talk) 20:47, 31 July 2013 (UTC)

Here is a screen capture showing my Word 2007 and the dialog box I get if I click the "Symbol" tool (highlighted with a red circle). On the symbol dialog, I have chosen a characher which might serve as x_dot. I can click "insert" to put it where the Word caret currently is. I can configure a shortcut key or autocorrect option to make x_dot appear without needing to bring up the dialog each time. It also tells me I can type "1E8B" then hit ctrl+X ... word will replace the 1E8B with the x_dot character. I didn't do a full search, so I can't be sure all the symbols you are looking for are present. Astronaut (talk) 16:45, 1 August 2013 (UTC)

If there are not too many such characters you have to deal with, you can use the AutoCorrect feature of Word to create essentially your own custom escape sequences, e.g. \xdot for the "x dot" character. One nice thing about this trick is that you assign meaningful names to your shortcuts. --71.185.178.102 (talk) 12:17, 2 August 2013 (UTC)

display of file details

Every once in a while Windows 7 suddenly changes the file property display in folders from details (date, size etc.) to file name only. How can I change it back? -- Halcatalyst (talk) 14:06, 31 July 2013 (UTC)

Click the Views button on the toolbar (when you're in a file) and then choose Details. See this webpage - straight from Microsoft - for pictures and more information regarding file folder arranging. --Yellow1996 (talk) 17:19, 31 July 2013 (UTC)

Thanks! I have to admit I never looked at the upper right side of the page. On the other hand, MS could have placed "Views" on the left with the other menu items, so that it appears as a word; and the somewhat obscure views icon could then be scrapped. -- Halcatalyst (talk) 13:43, 1 August 2013 (UTC)

No problem, always happy to help! :) And yeah, I use Windows Vista, and on there the views tab is in the top left, and very difficult to miss. I wonder why they changed it... though there doesn't seem to be much rhyme or reason to what MS changes in each successive OS... ;) --Yellow1996 (talk) 16:28, 1 August 2013 (UTC)

Screen sharing from PC to XBOX 360

Does anyone know how to share a screen from a PC to an XBOX 360? I have an HP dv6 Pavillion, and would like to play games over wifi on a rather larger screen (i.e. my TV). I have googled this all night, and have only found out how to share media (through Windows Media Center), and lots of blogs with lots of meandering chat about this guy's life and whatever before coming to some non-informative conclusion. I found one about having to connect with a HDMI cable, and then buy some other stuff (even though it said 'wireless'). Is it possible to share via wifi on a home network? KägeTorä - (影虎) (TALK) 22:31, 31 July 2013 (UTC)

If I anderstand, you want your PC send video output via the XBOX? You also want to communicate to the XBOX with wif-fi? 2A02:8422:1191:6E00:56E6:FCFF:FEDB:2BBA (talk) 23:38, 31 July 2013 (UTC)

I would like to know how to have my PC screen shown on my TV, via my XBOX, over the home network Wi-Fi. KägeTorä - (影虎) (TALK) 00:08, 1 August 2013 (UTC)

I don't think that's possible. The best you could do is stream video from your PC to your TV via the Xbox 360 (as 2A02:* mentions.) The only way I know of to get your computer screen to display on your TV would be with an HDMI cable. --Yellow1996 (talk) 01:05, 1 August 2013 (UTC)

There is a better solution. You connect your Computer video output to your TV. Some video card allow use of HDMI and various signals such as S-Video/Composite-Video as well as old I2C. According the connectors you have, The signal can be converted in wirelless or in a special way with Ethernet between the computer and the TV.

Can you list the available video output on your computer video input on your TV. If you don't know the connector, post a photo of them here. 2A02:8422:1191:6E00:56E6:FCFF:FEDB:2BBA (talk) 10:46, 1 August 2013 (UTC)

What better solution? Connecting your computer's HDMI to the TV as Yellow1996 suggested is connecting the computer's video output to the TV. While there are various ways to convert the signal to send wirelessly or over ethernet, these steps would very likely either significantly reduce the quality or significantly increase input latency (since if you're sending a 1080P output over such a low bandwidth channel you're obviously going to have to compress and decompress it) which if you're planning to play FPS or similar sort of games probably is not what you want. And I'm not evem sure of these are any better than say WiDi or Miracast in which case the merits of going from HDMI to them is questionable. Your best bet by far is simply to stick with HDMI or similar. So either move the computer or run a long HDMI cable (you should be able to manage 15 metres). If that's not enough, I suggest you choose a HDMI extender with low latency, most likely one that sends it over Cat5e/Cat6 rather then trying wirelessly or power line or ethernet. I would suggest before running anything you do try it first by moving the computer, some people find no matter how the TV is set up the latency is just too high and this does depend on the TV. You may also find it's simply not that great, despite some moves e.g. with Steam BigPicture, some games computer games still don't work that well on a TV IMO from personal experience and while many big name games are console ports, sometimes poor ones, they aren't necessarily still going to work well on a TV even if it is a port (plus I'm uncertain why you'd want to run a poor console port on computer on a TV if you have a console so I presume we aren't talking about them). BTW, it seems unlikely any big TV won't have HDMI, and if your computer doesn't have either HDMI or DVI (which can basically be considered the same thing, if it can't handle audio when adapted to HDMI you should be able to handle that) or something capable of being simply adapted to it like Displayport, it seems unlikely it's worth that much effort trying to get it to work. P.S. The named computer is a laptop so I'm even less certain why you'd want to keep it at a very distant location from the TV. Nil Einne (talk) 16:25, 1 August 2013 (UTC)