Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Computing/2014 May 17

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May 17

Is facebook having problems?

All of a sudden, perhaps an hour ago, my facebook timeline, photos, friends, etc are gone. I tried going to the timeline of one of my friends, and it is there. I tried two browsers and two computers - same thing on all. Is facebook having problems? Bubba73 ^{You talkin' to me?} 02:10, 17 May 2014 (UTC)

Well, now it is back. Must have been a temporary glitch. Bubba73 ^{You talkin' to me?} 02:26, 17 May 2014 (UTC)

It probably wouldn't have helped here but due to its relevance, I figured I'd point out DownForEveryoneOrJustMe.com. Just in case you hadn't heard of it. Dismas|^(talk) 02:37, 17 May 2014 (UTC)

Thanks, I had not heard of it. Bubba73 ^{You talkin' to me?} 04:23, 17 May 2014 (UTC)

Some sites also keep you updated through Twitter when their main server is not reachable. OsmanRF34 (talk) 17:12, 17 May 2014 (UTC)

I don't have a Twitter, but the website was up - my info was not available. But today I got a message from someone that I added as a friend a few days ago. She said to not accept any new friend requests from her - two of them had been hacked in the last hour. I unfriended her to be on the safe side, and changed my PW. Bubba73 ^{You talkin' to me?} 18:10, 17 May 2014 (UTC)

I hope you reported this to FB, they might consider improving their (lack of) security. OsmanRF34 (talk) 18:42, 17 May 2014 (UTC)

I put it on a support forum last night (about my case) but I haven't gotten a reply. Bubba73 ^{You talkin' to me?} 20:25, 17 May 2014 (UTC)

Well, the problem is back after working for almost a day. My page comes up and I can see things other people have posted, but my timeline, friends, photos, etc won't come up. Bubba73 ^{You talkin' to me?} 00:58, 18 May 2014 (UTC)

Now it is back to normal. Bubba73 ^{You talkin' to me?} 03:19, 18 May 2014 (UTC)

Two Partitions

I have been given a 500 GB Toshiba Satellite Pro C660-255 by someone recently. She made an account for me on the computer (as I was using it occasionally when it was hers), and after she gave me the computer to keep (she bought another one), I removed her account from it. Now, not too long after that, I noticed there were two partitions. One partition is the usual C: drive, and has all my stuff on it, and takes up half the disk. The other (D:) is labelled 'Data', and also takes up half the disk. On this drive, there are the HDD recovery files (which take up around 12GB, and there are 220GB free. This is extraordinarily large, I think, for a partition solely used to store the recovery files, so I am wondering if I have done anything wrong in deleting her account (has it been merged with the D: drive?). There is no point in asking her if she has done it, as she is not computer literate and does not know what a partition is, never mind how to create one. So, my question, in two parts, is as follows:

• a) Is it safe to use this partition for anything (e.g. Dropbox folder (which is HUGE!)?
• b) How do I go about re-partitioning the D: drive and then safely merging the 'empty' part with the C: drive, without losing all data and settings on the C: drive?

KägeTorä - (^影_虎) (Chin Wag) 06:49, 17 May 2014 (UTC)

You can use the D: partition for data and programs alike. For example, when installing a new game (the biggest programs on my machine) you are probably asked if you want to install them to C:\Program files\GAME or C:\Program files\COMPANY\GAME. (COMPANY and GAME are placeholders.) You can make a new Games folder on D:, and during installation, you can change the path to D:\Games\GAME, or D:\Games\COMPANY\GAME. Moving a program which is already on C: usually doesn't work, but even there, some will.

Data are even easier. You don't have to use the Microsoft folder C:\Users\USER to store your data; you can store them on D: as well. The one thing I wouldn't do is the actual recovery process; even Microsoft doesn't get it right all the time.

There are tools which allow for resizing a partition. Even though they usually work, you should make a cmplete backup first. Then...

• Move all data except the recovery stuff from D: to C:. Your HDD should look like this in Disk management:

CCCCCCCCCC|DDDDDDDDDD

• Shrink the D: partition to, say, 20GBytes and make sure that the free space appears between C: and D:, not at the end.

CCCCCCCCCC|.......|DD

• Now enlarge the C: partition. There shouldn't be anything left unused; use the maximum figures possible.

CCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCC|DD

• This asumes that you can fit everything from D: on the C: partition. If you don't have the space on C: to move all data from D: there, you have to make two trips (move some data, shrink D:, expand C:, move more data, shrink d:, expand C:).

Of course, you can leave anything you want on D: and only move the data you need more than once a year. That's actually a great idea, because these data won't end up between the more important files that way. - ¡Ouch! (^{hurt me} / _{more pain}) 06:19, 19 May 2014 (UTC)

Not that "end[ing] up between the more important files" is a major problem; it's only limiting HDD performance. If you have several important files, say some near the beginning of the partition (1) and one near the end (3), and the less important (or less frequently used) files (2) between them,

CCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCC|DD

^   ^^^^^     ^

|     |       |

1     2       3

the read/write heads have to "skip" past these files (2) frequently. If you don't move these to C: at all, they can't occupy space between (1) and (3). Your data would then look like this:

CCCCCCCCCCCCC|DDDDDDD

^         ^   ^^^^^

|         |     |

1         3     2

In the long run, that'd save access time, (very little) energy, and possibly limit noise and wear on the moving parts of the HDD. (Heck, all those partitioning/defragmenting issues are hard to explain. There should be a wikimanual project for these topics.) I hope I didn't confuse anyone with my answer. - ¡Ouch! (^{hurt me} / _{more pain}) 07:13, 20 May 2014 (UTC)

Service Level Agreements of Wikipedia

Are there any real service-level agreements of Wikipedia?

I have not found any so far and I would appreciate it very much if someone could help me.

I would need to analyze them for my course. ITILv321234 (talk) 12:35, 17 May 2014 (UTC)

It would be very unusual for a service that you don't pay for to have an SLA. Perhaps the nearest thing here would be the Privacy policy and even that has a disclaimer at the end. The Policies of the Wikimedia Foundation are available to view and I'm sure WMF make efforts to abide by them. Under limited circumstances the law might intervene if someone brought a case against WMF for breaching its own policies unreasonably. I doubt that any Wikipedia (sic) policies are legally enforceable and any community enforcement is decidedly haphazard! Thincat (talk) 13:10, 17 May 2014 (UTC)

You mean SLA's for random users? You must be kidding, not even best effort is assured. There might be SLA's in place for paying WMF customers of stuff like data feeds. 70.36.142.114 (talk) 16:32, 17 May 2014 (UTC)

Thank you for your answers so far.

Might there then be SLAs related to IT services with third parties and Wikipedia? For example for an external company which provides an IT service for Wikipedia? ITILv321234 (talk) 22:06, 17 May 2014 (UTC)

This question has already been answered at the Help Desk, where you asked the same question [1] In future please do not post the same question in multiple places. AndyTheGrump (talk) 00:03, 18 May 2014 (UTC)

Yes, it's not good to do this. If it ever is appropriate to ask a question in two places, at the very least there should be cross references to show this is being done. Thincat (talk) 09:35, 18 May 2014 (UTC)