Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Computing/2013 January 23

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January 23

I don't know how to add a reference.

I'm Rich Geldreich's wife. I have been through all of this with him and got the technical tough stuff from his many blogs and posts. It's all public information but I can't quite get it to code right. I get 44k hits on him. It's hard to sort out as well. Which is the most important. Axehandlerose (talk) 02:37, 23 January 2013 (UTC)

We don't seem to have an article on Rich Geldreich. If you click on his name here in red you will be offered the option of creating an article. Click on that, add the text and sources that are relevant, and then go here if you have further problems. The computing desk is not the proper place to seek further assistance, we offer information about computing in general, not wikipedia as such. μηδείς (talk) 04:16, 23 January 2013 (UTC)

Be sure to carefully read the official Wikipedia policy on biographies of living people. Wikipedia rules tend to be more firmly enforced for articles on living people (for all sorts of good reasons); so, while you may create the article, you should definitely read the relevant rules and policies first. Nimur (talk) 04:34, 23 January 2013 (UTC)

The article in question is Richard Geldreich Jr. To add a web-based reference to an article, at its most simple all you need to do is enclose the URL within <ref> 'ref' tags, like this </ref>. Then copy and paste the following at the bottom of the article:

==References==

<div class='references-small'>

<references/>

</div>

This instructs the software to create a list of all the references used in the article.

There are many optional things you can put between ref tags in order to give the reader more information. Personally I find it difficult to remember how and when to use them all, so I find this site useful. Simply select what sort of reference work you used (website, news site or newspaper, conference paper, etc) and then fill in as much detail as you can. The site will give you a properly formatted reference that you can just copy and paste into Wikipedia.

Good luck with your first article! I hope you enjoy editing around here. If there's anything I can do to help out, feel free to leave a message on my talk page. - Cucumber Mike (talk) 08:44, 23 January 2013 (UTC)

Worst possible consequences of hand falling asleep repeatedly?

Wikipedia cannot offer medical advice
The following discussion has been closed. Please do not modify it.

Passwoed Recovery

How can I get back into my account? I forgot my administrator user password. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 108.176.193.170 (talk) 18:46, 23 January 2013 (UTC)

Is this your Wikipedia account, account on your PC, or something else ? StuRat (talk) 18:49, 23 January 2013 (UTC)

malware not really there?

When I attempted to access a page, my antivirus checker, Avira, gave me this warning:

Warning: In order not to compromise your security, this page will not be accessed. The requested URL has been identified as a potentially dangerous website. The requested URL was http://www.cedar-rapids.org/government/departments/animal-control/pages/default.aspx.

This page is on the site of the Cedar Rapids, Iowa, Animal Control department. I doubt they would knowingly place malware on their web site. Could a third party do so? Could they install it directly on the web server? How? --Halcatalyst (talk) 20:08, 23 January 2013 (UTC)

Somewhere you should be able to find a link to more information, and see what Avira is saying is there, and then you can determine yourself what the risk level is. Some A/V packages consider every JS popup or redirect script “malware” nowadays. Others keep lists of sites that have been compromised in the past, but don’t as assertively determine whether they are still compromised now. ¦ Reisio (talk) 22:11, 23 January 2013 (UTC)

To answer your later questions, yes a third party could install malware of their web site. It happens all the time due to site insecurities. Most commonly unpatched software of some kind (not just Windows), sometimes combining poor site design meaning they can get the necessary access when they shouldn't from what was compromised. Occasionally, it may just a poorly protected admin account. Nil Einne (talk) 03:16, 24 January 2013 (UTC)

Character doubling only at Gmail and Wikipedia while using Safari

I use a Logitech external keyboard and the Safari browser for online activity on a Gateway NV78 laptop running Windows 7. Starting yesterday, any entries I make at wikipedia (edit or search box) or the compose box at gmail cause my charaters to double, like this: EExxaampmplele, either one character (eexxaammppllee) or two characters (exeamamplplee) at a time depending on my typing speed. This problem does not happen with Internet Explorer (which I am using for this edit) or with Chrome, and does not happen in the browser's URL or search box, or at any other site I have tried using. I am flummoxed. Could there be a problem with a Safari update? Does anyone have any idea what might be going on? Thanks. μηδείς (talk) 20:34, 23 January 2013 (UTC)

TTeesstt.. μηδείς (talk) 22:55, 23 January 2013 (UTC)

strange - does it also happen when using the onscreen keyboard from the accessibility tools menu. ---- _nonsense ferret 03:45, 24 January 2013 (UTC)

How would I access the accessibility tolls menu, no joke intended? μηδείς (talk) 03:52, 24 January 2013 (UTC)

I found this: [1] . Start menu->control panel->ease of access->ease of access center. The link describes the different things you'll find in there, including an on-screen keyboard. RudolfRed (talk) 04:55, 24 January 2013 (UTC)

Oh, I was looking for it as a wikipedia drop down. It works flawlessly, and a good 10-20 times slower than I can type with a regular keyboard. μηδείς (talk) 05:43, 24 January 2013 (UTC)

Key bounce or keyboard driver problems. Astronaut (talk) 14:51, 24 January 2013 (UTC)

The issue seems to have gone away on its own. I take it the consensus is this was a local mechanical/electronic issue. Thanks. μηδείς (talk) 22:39, 24 January 2013 (UTC)

Perhaps something (a JavaScript library? browser plug-in?) was erroneously translating both keydowns and keyups into characters. If the symptoms re-occur, you might see if the characters appear at the exact moments you press and release keys, keeping the key presses short so the key repeat feature doesn't kick in. For example, you might quickly press J, press K, release J, release K, and see if it consistently produces jkjk. If so, you might look for common JavaScript or plug-ins used by the sites where the problem happens. --Bavi H (talk) 03:30, 26 January 2013 (UTC)

How precise IP to location websites are?

How precise IP to location websites are? They can mistake one country for another?201.78.202.81 (talk) 22:54, 23 January 2013 (UTC)

The term for this is "geolocation", and the accuracy varies depending on many factors, including the quality of the geolocation database being used, the policies of whoever owns the IP address, and so on. Information about the country is almost always correct. --Carnildo (talk) 03:16, 24 January 2013 (UTC)

I agree there can be inaccuracies - but the system as a whole is broadly reliable enough for the limitation of internet services to people in a particular country. Such restrictions though are not wholy effective. ---- _nonsense ferret 03:43, 24 January 2013 (UTC)

So, at least the country part is precise?187.115.225.89 (talk) 10:32, 24 January 2013 (UTC)

I think it depends on what information the ISP supplies to whoever holds the whois database. In the UK, the information that retail ISPs supply for a particular IP address is very often the address of the ISP itself, not the end user's location. That is not too surprising, the ISP dynamically allocates IP addresses to different customers and keeping the whois database up to date would be a nightmare; much easier to set the ISP company address once.

For larger companies though, the situation might be different. Microsoft's IP address geolocates to their corporate HQ in Redmond, WA. My employer's IP address geolocates to the company they hire to host their website, which is thousands of km from our corporate HQ and on a different continent. Astronaut (talk) 15:49, 24 January 2013 (UTC)

Yes, I was asking about location of the server that host the website when I asked this question. And when I said "at least the country part is precise?" I was asking if its precise at least at saying what country the server is on (no matter if it will totally miss the state or city).177.98.127.77 (talk) 17:15, 24 January 2013 (UTC)

So it is generally correct, but it is not guaranteed to be correct, there are exceptions, particularly when it is easily circumvented by anyone with a mind to do so, using a vpn or proxy. ---- _nonsense ferret 22:36, 24 January 2013 (UTC)

Ok Thanks177.158.46.77 (talk) 10:31, 25 January 2013 (UTC)

I made this question because kim dotcom mega website (mega.co.nz) said it wouldnt be putting their server in US (and even not allow us based server partners). YET, geolocation websites say mega.co.nz is on US not new zeland (or another place). http://mega.co.nz.ipaddress.com/ 177.158.46.77 (talk) 10:31, 25 January 2013 (UTC)

Hosting a major website which expects a substantial amount of international bandwidth usage in New Zealand is just silly unless you have a very good reason to do so. The bandwidth costs will kill you. Particularly if your usage isn't high enough to deal directly with Southern Cross Cable. Evidently it took a while for Kim Dotcom to realise what every Kiwi geek could tell you but he figured it out eventually [2]. BTW according to the article, Congent is hosting Mega in Germany not the US. Geolocation for large company including international hosting companies will often be particularly useless. For example geolocation for 74.125.237.152 tends to give the US, but as the host name will tell you, this isn't one of Google's US servers. Nil Einne (talk) 12:31, 25 January 2013 (UTC)

BTW, carrying out a traceroute, I believe Congent/Kim Dotcom may be telling the truth. With my first attempt yesterday, this was largely based on latencies as it stays within Congent's network once reaching the US and the later IPs where I believed it reaches Europe lacked reverse lookups or hostnames to give a clue to the location. However the second traceroute show it going to an IP which based on the hostname 'te0-3-0-6.ccr22.fra03.atlas.cogentco.com' and latency and latency change, I suspect is in France. Traceroutes at different times, from different locations and with different ISPs may help, in particular traceroutes from within Germany or parts of Europe with direct peering with Germany. Nil Einne (talk) 05:12, 27 January 2013 (UTC)