Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Computing/2013 March 27

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March 27

email on Surface RT

Earlier this month my daughter got a Surface RT. She says that there is an email program but it doesn't work with our ISP. Is there a way to get it to use our ISP? Or is there an email program she can download that will work with our ISP? Or is there a different server that will work with the Surface RT email program? (She doesn't want to use web-based email.) Bubba73 ^{You talkin' to me?} 00:32, 27 March 2013 (UTC)

As to the first part of your question, seemingly "no". Most clients use Post Office Protocol (or sometimes IMAP) to access email on mail servers. For Surface RT, Microsoft says the mail app "doesn't support adding email accounts that use POP". Their only suggestion, bar webmail, is "look for an app" in their store that does do POP. -- Finlay McWalterჷTalk 00:44, 27 March 2013 (UTC)

Incidentally this eWeek story claims this particular deficiency is the cause of many Surface RT returns, and says that as of the start of this month "There are no third-party email apps that support POP". I can't actually find the darn App Store myself to search to see if that's true. -- Finlay McWalterჷTalk 00:50, 27 March 2013 (UTC)

The Windows Store. Bubba73 ^{You talkin' to me?} 01:22, 27 March 2013 (UTC)

Actually the story doesn't say it is the cause. It says it likely is. In other words, they appear to be randomly speculating on the cause, with no actual evidence (it doesn't sound like they even asked one store if they had any returns for the reason). There could be plenty of other reasons for the returns, e.g. people not being aware of the lack of a proper desktop (since you can't install such apps other then Office), people not being aware it can't support x86 apps, people who find the tablet crap etc. BTW, I couldn't find any POP supporting clients in the Windows Store. As mentioned by the story you can set up a number of providers like Gmail and Outlook.com to download POP email from other providers. So one option is to use such a provider which also provides IMAP support for access to your mail (like Gmail) or perhaps Exchange Activesync (like Outlook.com I think). Nil Einne (talk) 01:55, 27 March 2013 (UTC)

IMAP has been popular and preferred over POP for a long time now - has she double-checked with her ISP that there is no IMAP server she can connect to? 38.111.64.107 (talk) 12:33, 27 March 2013 (UTC)

It seems not, see this. Bubba73 ^{You talkin' to me?} 16:17, 31 March 2013 (UTC)

Vimeo hosted video, access denial

Hi-- this self-proclaimed internet broadcaster uses Vimeo to host their videos. They claim half a million people watched the trailer to the current episode on Brampton.

<iframe src="http://player.vimeo.com/video/62519592?title=0&byline=0&portrait=0" width="760" height="427" frameborder="0" webkitAllowFullScreen mozallowfullscreen allowFullScreen></iframe>

Is there any way to see even their channel, let alone the video? -- Zanimum (talk) 13:23, 27 March 2013 (UTC)

No. This appears to be a feature of Vimeo's 'PRO Membership': "As a Vimeo PRO member, your account and your videos are automatically hidden from Vimeo.com since PRO allows for commercial use." - Cucumber Mike (talk) 22:08, 27 March 2013 (UTC)

Darn it. Thanks! -- Zanimum (talk) 13:34, 30 March 2013 (UTC)

"SUMMER STORM"

hello Sir, Actually I want to know about the "summer storm" which occurs due to the increasing temperature.How it effects the networking field? — Preceding unsigned comment added by Tanubapun (talk • contribs) 18:52, 27 March 2013 (UTC)

First let's consider the signal: High winds can blow down telephone lines where they are mounted on telephone poles. Lightning strikes from electrical storms can also damage them, and attached equipment, or even underground copper wires. Underground fiber optic technology is the safest way to connect your network to protect from storms. As for wireless technologies, lightning can also cause interference in those, and high winds can blow exterior antennae out of position.

Next let's consider electricity: Power is often interrupted and/or surges, due to storms. An uninterruptible power supply with surge protection should be used for critical systems, and at least a surge protector for non-critical systems.

For the most critical system, like the control room in a nuclear power plant, the facility should also be hardened against tornadoes, hurricanes, forest fires, and flooding, depending on location. Backup electrical generators may be needed for long-term power. StuRat (talk) 21:59, 27 March 2013 (UTC)

computer specifications

I'm trying to find out what would be the best sort of computer to get for the software I use, and apparently I want one that, among other things, has a good 'stack memory'? I have no idea what this is, though, or where to find out how different pieces of hardware compare. any help?

Kitutal (talk) 19:11, 27 March 2013 (UTC)

What kind of software is it, and where did you read about "stack memory"? I think there's no such thing. There are stacks, which are stored in memory, but there isn't a special kind of memory for stacks. -- BenRG (talk) 19:53, 27 March 2013 (UTC)

There are special registers and machine language operations that are specifically used for stack manipulations, so in principle there could be differences in their quality for different machines. But beyond that I cannot go. Looie496 (talk) 20:03, 27 March 2013 (UTC)

There is such as thing as "stack memory." Some microprocessors have it. However, I've never heard of it in x86 desktop processors (not saying it doesn't exist; I just don't know about it). (Addendum: I'm guessing whoever told you really meant for you to have a lot of RAM, but that's the best I can do without context.) --Wirbelwind(ヴィルヴェルヴィント) 21:51, 27 March 2013 (UTC)

I think they said I needed it alongside the RAM, I wasn't really paying attention. I guess it doesn't matter. Anyways, now I think I know what I want, just not where to get it. Anyone know where I might find an AMD FX-6350 CPU? none on their website or amazon, do they still sell them anywhere? Kitutal (talk) 22:07, 27 March 2013 (UTC)

'Still'? I'm not even sure they launched properly yet [1] [2] (although some sources claim they've been shipping in OEM computers since October). In any case it sounds like they're OEM only which may explain the difficulty finding them. Nil Einne (talk) 00:05, 28 March 2013 (UTC)

"Cache memory", maybe? -- BenRG (talk) 02:54, 28 March 2013 (UTC)

I thought that at first, but I don't think stacks are implemented in cache. --Wirbelwind(ヴィルヴェルヴィント) 04:13, 28 March 2013 (UTC)

I mean maybe the OP misheard "cache" as "stack", since this was apparently communicated orally. -- BenRG (talk) 05:25, 28 March 2013 (UTC)

Any software running on a normal desktop processor won't need anything special for stack memory. A running program will use a part of it's allocated memory as a stack, but there isn't anything you need to worry about for that when selecting a computer. If your software gave you an error about being out of stack memory, you can probably assume that it was out of memory in general. That is usually a sign that you're asking the program to do more than it can handle, or it has run into a bug that causes it to eat through memory. Even if you only have a half gig of memory, your operating system will use a page-file to let the program use much, much more, but at the expense of performance.

If you let us know what software in particular you are interested in running we can help you decide what is needed. Since this is a reference desk, I suppose I should point out the best reference is probably the system requirements list for the software you want to run. 38.111.64.107 (talk) 12:17, 28 March 2013 (UTC)