Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Computing/2015 November 9

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November 9

http://adadvisor.net/adscores/g.js?sid=9276253823

I keep getting a script error saying that a script from http://adadvisor.net/adscores/g.js?sid=9276253823 is not working, would I like to keep running it or not. The problem is very recent compared to the age of my computer and the last reboot of my OS.

I run windows 7 on a Gateway NV78 laptop. The problem seems to be occurring whether I am using IE, Firefox, or Chrome, although I am not exactly sure if it corresponds to one of these browsers specifically.

I have run AVG, emptied all my caches and rebooted a few times. The problem continues. The best advice I can find via googe is to turn off my windows script error notifications, which sounds insanely unhelpful.

Can anyone suggest what's going on and how to fix it? Could it be a file on my desktop or some other problem? Who the hell is http://adadvisor.net/adscores/g.js?sid=9276253823? I am already insane, but this is slowly driving me into even deeper levels of Lovecraftian madness.

Thanks. μηδείς (talk) 03:42, 9 November 2015 (UTC)

Looks like code to control which ads you see. So, you surely don't need it. When exactly does it get called ? StuRat (talk) 05:17, 9 November 2015 (UTC)

To rephrase the above for understanding, is this just happening randomly, or only when you go to certain Web pages? Does it happen whenever a browser is open? General advice for getting help: remember, we can't see your screen. Screenshots are often helpful (just remember not to include any information you don't want public). --71.119.131.184 (talk) 08:52, 9 November 2015 (UTC)

Have you tried restoring your PC? Note: Don't if you are not good at handling PC; most of the time the restoring points are linked with other softwares. Also remember that restoring always creates problems starting from the first time you do it. Now:

1)Check your 'uninstaller program window' and check the 'restoring point window', see if you find this rubbish. If not uninstall the web browsers, but first 'right click' the browsers 'shortcut' icon, go to 'properties' and or open its file/folder location. Delete the files and folders of the browser(s) thereafter uninstall is complete. If wished: After you uninstall the browsers, ensure you delete its folders and sub-folders from 'AppData' Folder. Delete the browser's hierarchy available in the PC (recommended for professionals because some files are requisites). Use CCleaner (or something), reboot, reinstall the web browsers... If it doesn't work and you choose to use restoring point window, make sure you keep a Windows OS CD handy for the near future.

2) Just follow the advice on how to delete the code, if possible. I'm sure someone will assist you in a step by step manner. -- Space Ghost (talk) 10:31, 9 November 2015 (UTC)

Adadvisor.net is owned by TARGUS information corporation [1]. They are "... a leading, independent provider of real-time, on-demand information and analytics services including Caller ID..." [2]. Which makes it sound a lot like they are shadily trying to collect your browsing info without your express consent. I don't know what the problem is, but I'd generally advise the use of NoScript to keep malicious javascript from messing with your computer. That will solve this and many other issues, at the cost of having to whitelist pages that you trust. SemanticMantis (talk) 16:01, 9 November 2015 (UTC)

Oh, my. Now I really am paranoid. I have both a restore point, and backup install disks, so I am not totally clueless, and I did actually reboot this computer from the install disks a few months ago. I have never gone back to a restore point, though. My big question at this point is, is the script something that's now on my hard drive, so it doesn't matter what browser I am using? Or is it a browser related issue? I can basically avoid IE, firefox or chrome until I can fix the problem. If it's on my hard drive I will make fixing it a much higher priority. Thanks for all the help above so far! μηδείς (talk) 02:03, 10 November 2015 (UTC)

Your complain sounds like its on your hard drive. I'm not sure though, because this problem should be saved temporarily somewhere in the 'AppData' Folder or in the 'temp' folder (could be somewhere that I don't know, e.g., internet problem). Its up to you what you wish to do. Two options are provided. Option (1) Have you checked on the two enquoted points I stated? (2) Have you done what others stated? Option (1) is for the people who hate programming, also for those who only know reinstalling OS (uninstall the OS then install it again in a way that the computer feels new; no restoringrubbish...) if any virus or problem like yours occur, and so on. Try option (2) first which is much easier, quicker and without a problem. -- Space Ghost (talk) 05:45, 10 November 2015 (UTC)

I don't know, seems to me like the javascript code is hosted that URL, and something has gotten in to your browser(s) or possibly OS to make calls to that script. I would recommend uninstalling and reinstalling a browser and seeing if the problem still persists on that browser, and for more than one web page. If so, then it's not limited to the browser. Seriously though NoScript will save you a lot of hassle, and help make you aware of all the weird third party scripts that websites attempt to load. SemanticMantis (talk) 17:07, 10 November 2015 (UTC)

• Earlier today I tossed all my cookies and rebooted. The problem recurred, so when I got home at dinner time I did a system restore to five days ago before the problem started, and then checked my windows updates and saw that the last 16 had been aborted. So I reinstalled and rebooted and the problem has gone away with no loss of files. Thanks for the assistance above. I probably would just have followed the very stupid advice to disable the script error notification. This is the first time I have used a restore point rather than a reboot from back-up disks, and it went very well. Again, thanks to all. μηδείς (talk) 03:36, 11 November 2015 (UTC)

Its not stupid, its probably the easiest and probably could've been the less problematic way for you. The logical thing is to do is the scripting. The illogical/dumb way to do is what I said. But I guess, since you have the utilities, you are alright. Regards. -- Space Ghost (talk) 07:24, 11 November 2015 (UTC)

Resolved

"Virtual" email address?

For many years I've had a domain name which I'll call "xxx.net" for privacy reasons. I have a small website and email servers at xxx.net, and my primary personal email address is me(at)xxx.net. The website is no longer worth the recurring cost of the domain name and the hosting, so I'm considering dropping both, but I don't want to change my email address if that can be helped. Is there some way to pull this off? 68.97.47.26 (talk) 13:27, 9 November 2015 (UTC)

If you stop renewing the registration of the domain name, then anyone else can take it over and intercept your emails. Your registrant might allow email forwarding without hosting, or you can move the registration to a registrant that does allow this. You can then spoof the "from" field when you send emails from any other free email address. I don't think there's any way to achieve what you require at zero cost, but xxx.net can be registered at very low cost (.net isn't the cheapest of domains to register, but perhaps as low as $10 per year if you shop around). Dbfirs 13:47, 9 November 2015 (UTC)

Seconded. If you want to keep the email address, you'd at least have to keep the domain name. Most big domain name hosts (GoDaddy, etc.) offer some sort of email package directly through them, and I'm willing to bet you can mark it as forward-only for a very low price, if not for free. This would simply forward all email sent to that address to another email address of your choosing. As for the cost of the domain name itself, most are only like $15 per year. RegistryKey^(RegEdit) 13:53, 9 November 2015 (UTC)

The idea that the new domain owner might be helpful and forward your email is a definite long-shot. The (many) domain names I've owned for short-term reasons and left to expire have all been bought up by domain name squatters within weeks of me abandoning them. Those organizations presumably think that I forgot to renew - and then pester me to buy the domain back for some outrageous fee. Those are clearly not very nice people - so I'd be absolutely astounded if they'd be of any assistance to you whatever.

It's also possible that nobody will buy your domain name - and when it lapses, your email will simply stop working.

A third possibility is that somebody will buy the domain - but will not want to make it appear that you are an employee of XXX-corp by letting you continue to use joe@xxx.com because of the huge risk that you might say something inappropriate online and people would think that they had said it. So all in all, you don't have a snowball's chance in hell of getting someone to be that helpful to you - and certainly not without a prolonged break in service while they get their site set up and mail-servers running - during which you'd get no email.

If you want to keep your email address - then you very definitely need to keep ownership of the domain name...which, as others have pointed out...ought to be very cheap if all you need is email and a one-line HTML file saying that your site is no longer available.

SteveBaker (talk) 21:41, 9 November 2015 (UTC)

Got it; drop the hosting, keep the domain, add forward-only, changing registrars if necessary. The only piece I was missing was the possibility of forward-only support. Thanks all. 68.97.47.26 (talk) 07:18, 10 November 2015 (UTC)

Crypto-currency Mining

How profitable can crypto-currency mining of currencies like Bitcoin, Litecoin, Dogecoin, Peercoin, etc be if I can source all the electricity I need for free?--Lukepeters36 (talk) 19:04, 9 November 2015 (UTC)

Even with free power, you'd still likely need to invest in dedicated mining hardware, like FPGAs and ASICs, if you actually wanted to turn a profit. And those aren't cheap. 67.133.155.66 (talk) 19:33, 9 November 2015 (UTC)

Is this primal-general-simplistic axis accurate?

I'm just starting to learn some JS programming. I never did porgramming before and never studied even half a course in computer science. Trying to arrange my humble knowledge into a frame, I created for my self a primal, general, and simplistic axis that describes the main stages from the electricity in the Hardware, to the JS on the screen. Please tell me if I am wrong anywhere, in the most simple words you can:

Program.

^

One or more programming language(s). Usually high, in this level.

^

--- optional ---

Server database (Server DB).

^

Server-proxy (If there is one!).

^

Server.

---

^

OS shell 1 (CLI) || OS shell 2 == GUI.

^

Operating system [OS] (and it's DB's, like registry).

^

One or more programming language(s). Usually low, in this level, and surly in the levels under it.

^

One of the assembly languages.

^

Assembler.

^

Machine code (MC). Usually binary.

^

Electrical processes in the chemical hardware, bootstrapped and maintained by the nature of the hardware by a given electrical current.

Thanks, Ben-Yeudith (talk) 21:43, 9 November 2015 (UTC)

Unfortunately, we don't appear to have an introductory-level article on this topic. Operating system#Components and Kernel (operating system) aren't quite as impenetrable as most of our Computer science articles. Tevildo (talk) 22:06, 9 November 2015 (UTC)

Maybe include interpreters or compilers as well, below the high-level language item I guess. --Canley (talk) 06:18, 10 November 2015 (UTC)

Can you please (in great plea) detail a bit more; I know what they are doing (interpret row after row, or compiling all to a single end product) but I would like to know why you suggest to put them there, Thanks Ben-Yeudith (talk) 09:28, 10 November 2015 (UTC)

user:Canley? And user:Tevildo can you guys please elaborate more? It's very important for me to have these data. Ben-Yeudith (talk) 21:17, 10 November 2015 (UTC)

Well, I may have misunderstood your axis diagram, but basically a "program" in a high-level programming language without something converting it to machine code/binary and executing/running it is just text. I suggested it sits below the high-level language item because interpreting or compiling program code is dependent on the lower factors of the system such as the OS and the microarchitecture. --Canley (talk) 22:43, 10 November 2015 (UTC)

[ec] I'll see what I can do.

Let's start with the client machine. This has its own hardware, including the CPU, memory, and disk drive. When it boots up, the OS kernel is loaded from the disk drive into memory. This knows how to talk to the specific pieces of hardware in the machine, and is unique to it. On top of this runs the OS itself. This is common to millions of similar machines, and provides an API to allow developers to write applications for that OS (without having to know the details of each individual machine it might be running on). Part of the OS will be the TCP/IP stack, and one of the applications running on it will be the web browser.

Now, the server machine. This has its own hardware, OS kernel, and OS, on top of which runs the server application itself (Apache, or something similar). On the server is stored the web page which contains the JavaScript. The server application knows how to send this web page to the client machine.

When the user wants to visit the webpage, they use the web browser on the client machine. This sends a request via the TCP/IP stack, the modem, and the internet, to the server. The server then sends the web page, containing the JavaScript, to the client.

The web browser on the client sees that the web page contains JavaScript. It sends this to its local JavaScript interpreter. This calls the various API functions in the client machine's OS to display the application to the user and interact with them. It may also talk to the server (via the TCP/IP stack) to request information from the server database. Tevildo (talk) 23:00, 10 November 2015 (UTC)

If you're learning JavaScript, I don't think these are the sort of concepts you need to concentrate on. You should think about JS in terms of something like: a web browser and web pages it displays are sets of objects (see Document Object Model); each object has its own properties, events and methods; a script is a series of instructions, what JavaScript does is interpret these instructions to access and manipulate those attributes of certain objects. --Canley (talk) 00:31, 12 November 2015 (UTC)

I do learn Javascript and do concentrate on these programming, and JS concepts: Properties (Generally, holds values), Methods (Generally, Get's a value), Objects (A part of the DOM), Functions, and many others; I just want to have this axis before I continue to greater stages and because of more reasons I have to know it. BTW, I've sent you an email. Ben-Yeudith (talk) 03:10, 12 November 2015 (UTC)