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December 23

The Mysterious Android Hiding Bar

The first-generation Nexus 7 tablet

What is the name for the black-and-white navigation bar (back, UI, select opened app, volume +/- ..., not these app icons) at the very bottom of the Android interface?

My Android 4.4.2 no-brand tablet sometimes keeps on hiding this bar. Most of the times I can swipe out the bar if I try hard enough. Sometimes, the bar just refuse to show up. Is there a way to set this bar always on? -- Toytoy (talk) 03:55, 23 December 2014 (UTC)

Turning excel into a grid

What height a width would I use to turn a standard excel page into a perfect grid?205.143.205.150 (talk) 20:35, 23 December 2014 (UTC)

The required grid measure is up to you, try an use the print preview.

Marking the whole sheet CTRL+A and moving the width of col A as wide as posible, doubleclick between line 1 and 2, mouse cursor looks like this: ←|→ then doubleclick between col A and B. Your table should have optimal formatted cells. --Hans Haase (有问题吗) 20:47, 23 December 2014 (UTC)

Sorry I used some incorrect words. I know I can set the height and width to anything I want what I am looking for is perfect squares for a graph paper effect. It seems that the units of measurment that the height and width are measured in are different one is pica the other is inches ( I think ) so they have to have a certain ration of one to the other to make the perfect squares. What would that raito be?205.143.205.150 (talk) 20:57, 23 December 2014 (UTC)

The ratio is a little hard to work out due to the way Excel measures rows and columns. This support page notes that "width of cells is displayed in characters and pixels... the height of cells is displayed in points and pixels." Note however that pixels are only displayed when you actually use the cursor to drag the cell boundary; if you use the cell format menu to set width or height you will only see a number in characters (for column width) or points (for row height). While there is a conversion of 18 points = 24 pixels (see the link above), the conversion for characters isn't so exact. Trial and error in my copy of Excel suggests that 24 pixels = 2.71 characters.

And in the end, it still may not work. I did a quick grid in Excel with columns 2.71 characters/24 pixels wide and 18 points/24 pixels high. That should have been a quarter-inch grid. I then printed it out and measured it, and it wasn't. An eight-by-eight block, which should have been two inches on a side, was actually 2-1/8" wide and 1-7/8" high. So something seems to go ever so slightly askew between the screen and the printer. There may be some other subtle formatting issue I don't know about, or maybe I just need a better printer.

So if you want an exact grid, you may be out of luck with Excel. But if you can handle losing or gaining one-sixteenth per inch, you will be OK. - Eron^Talk 21:37, 23 December 2014 (UTC)

No, there's no problem with your printer; it's a known issue and a pain in the ass. Honestly, the best way to make this work is to make up a series of slightly different "squares" using different row/column coordinates until you get something useful to you. Note, if you use page control to force Excel to squeeze an oversize amount of spreadsheet down to a single page, it will likely become hopeless. Matt Deres (talk) 04:19, 24 December 2014 (UTC)

The perfect mp3 file with lyrics

I am trying to create the perfect music discography collection of my favorite band. I Bought all of their music from their website and I am editing the meta data on windows 7 in foobar. All the files are mp3, how can I add and more options in the mp3's metadata? I think you can add a slot for lyrics and i wanted to add all of the lyrics to every mp3 file. How would I go about doing this? I am not to good with mp3 stuff. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Lostboy.exe (talk • contribs) 23:59, 23 December 2014 (UTC)

Try searching for "edit mp3 metadata"; you'll find plenty of suggestions. --jpgordon^{::==( o )} 17:11, 25 December 2014 (UTC)

After trying a number of apps, I now use Mp3tag. --  Gadget850 ^talk 18:17, 26 December 2014 (UTC)

December 24

Bizarre TV interference problem ?

1) My TV has many inputs, including composite (R,G,B) and component (Y,R,W). The same plug is shared between the composite Green cord and the component Yellow cord (which contains the entire video).

2) I use a set-top box to receive broadcast TV stations and pass them on to the TV. The set-top box only has component outputs, so I have plugged in the Yellow, Red, and White cords (Red and White being audio right and left channels).

3) If I set the TV to display using the component inputs, it displays properly. Surprisingly, if I set it to composite inputs, it still displays something, even though it only has the composite video sent to the Green plug, and nothing at all plugged into the Red and Blue plugs. I get a grey-scale image, with what looks like every other pixel blacked out.

4) Now here's the really weird part. My set top box gets much better reception when the TV is set to composite inputs than component, on the same station. The reception bars go from about 1/3 to 2/3 up. This is on US RF frequency channel 45, which should help to identify the final frequency.

So, all I can think of is that the TV generates some type of interference when in one mode that it doesn't in the other, which affects the set-top box's ability to receive broadcast TV. Is this possible ? Any other theories ? StuRat (talk) 18:06, 24 December 2014 (UTC)

Actually, the red, green, and blue cables are component video. The yellow, red, and white cables are composite video and stereo audio. Component video encodes brightness on the green cable, and color on the red and blue cables; composite video encodes brightness and color on one cable.

I think the major difference between composite and component is composite uses a special color signal that is combined with brightness on the cable and then re-extracted into color information by the TV. The composite color signal is 3.58 MHz (see NTSC - Color encoding and Colorburst) and RF channel 45 is from 656 to 662 MHz (see North American television frequencies - Broadcast - UHF band), but I don't know if this suggests interference or not. Maybe something in how the TV decodes the composite color signal is causing interference? --Bavi H (talk) 01:14, 25 December 2014 (UTC)

If your prob is not solved, check the following:

• If your two devices have a interference of power line, connect the chassis' ground by ground or when one of the devices is using a C1, C7 or C9 connector, turn it by 180 degrees frist.
• Whe using TV color system PAL, SECAM, NTSC, international sold devices support all this and the color freqency shift of 3,58 Mhz or 4,433 Mhz.
• Only use a 75 Ω electrical impedance coaxial cable for video.

--Hans Haase (有问题吗) 23:24, 27 December 2014 (UTC)

December 25

TeamViewer

I do a lot of travelling (for my freelance work), and am a musician (of sorts) doing music on my computer. Whilst on the train (or waiting for it), I connect to my main PC using my Mac and I will do whatever I have to do. When making music, however, it annoys my mother (I live with parents, looking after them) because my PC suddenly starts playing music when I am hundreds of miles away. Is there any way to turn the sound off the PC, whilst still being able to hear it on the Mac via TeamViewer? KägeTorä - (^影_虎) (Chin Wag) 00:04, 25 December 2014 (UTC)

All sorts of ways:

1) Use external speakers with a volume control, and turn it all the way down.

2) Use an external speaker plug, with no speakers attached. I use this method on my laptop, as it's a lot quicker to plug and unplug a jack than bring up the volume control panel and pick the mute icon.

3) Plug in headphones. Even at full volume, they will still be quiet unless on your head.

4) Mute the PC. Not quite as good, as some software can unmute it. StuRat (talk) 00:11, 25 December 2014 (UTC)

Un-install what ever operating system you have and install Linux. On top of that, reinstall what ever operating system you have on your / parents PC in a virtual machine. Your parents and you, can still surf the web, email and make beautiful music together. But it stops Microsoft from controlling your computer – which you own – from doing whatever Microsoft wants it to do.--Aspro (talk) 00:21, 25 December 2014 (UTC)

StuRat has the correct answer. --  Gadget850 ^talk 01:20, 25 December 2014 (UTC)

I don't think any of StuRat's answers are really necessary. If the OP is using Windows on the computer in their shared house, you can just enable one of the other outputs and make it the default device even if there's nothing plugged in. It should still work on the OP's laptop since it's mostly irrelevant to the audio stack which TeamViewer is I presume connecting to whether anything is plugged in or not. I also have doubts that muting the parents computer will work. I suspect it will also disable audio on the OP's Team Viewer session. I suspect you will have the same solutions and problems for most other OSes.

Aspro's answer seems particularly silly since Microsoft Remote Desktop (although only available on the high end versions of Windows) has supported what the OP wants for a very long time. VNC probably the most common traditional alternative on Linux doesn't generally support audio in any form. Now Remote Desktop has a number of annoying limitations (depending also on OS), but ultimately unless you're coding your on software there's always a strong chance it does something you wouldn't want and doesn't do something you do want. It is true with any commercial software, particularly one made by a company with which also does other stuff, the limitations may relate to the company wanting to convince you to pay for something. In any case, there are of course alternatives on both Linux and Windows which support (like TeamViewer the OP is using) and don't support audio or playing the audio remotely only (I imagine tunneling X over SSH may work) so it's ultimately a matter of choosing what best meets your needs. But there's no evidence the OP is particularly interested in looking at any of these alternatives so I wouldn't have even mentioned RDP were it not for Aspro's stupid suggestion. Np>Running stuff in virtual machines may help in some cases, but I'm a bit uncertain it will help here. For starters, if you're actually playing music with a keyboard and some other stuff, you often want very low latencies which mean running something in a virtual machine in probably a bad idea. Obviously this is a moot point for the remote session but it'll be fairly annoying to have one OS for the remote sessions. Also, it's unclear to me whether this is actually a shared PC or whether it's just the OP's PC which is in their shared house, the OP never actually said anything about the parents using this PC. If only the OP uses this PC, then there's also less reason to worry about VM.

Nil Einne (talk) 03:17, 26 December 2014 (UTC)

"If" the OP has the high end versions of Windows. “Now Remote Desktop has a number of annoying limitations”. I'm suggesting to the OP that he is not compelled to jump though all the hoops that Microsoft demands. There is more than one way to skin a cat.--Aspro (talk) 16:52, 26 December 2014 (UTC)

Telling the OP to uninstall Windows and install a different OS just for this issue is not useful.

Remote Desktop has nothing to do with this issue. Although it has the same purpose and many of the same features, it takes more work to access it from outside your LAN, especially with a dynamic IP.

I will do some testing in a day or so. --  Gadget850 ^talk 18:14, 26 December 2014 (UTC)

Just updated all my systems to TeamViewer 10, so YMMV. This is quite simple: After logging in, set the remote system to mute. Then click off of the remote session (anywhere on the local screen) and adjust the local volume as desired. If you don't click off, then you will be adjusting both remote and local volume. I'm using a knob on my keyboard for volume but it should work using the mouse. --  Gadget850 ^talk 23:47, 26 December 2014 (UTC)

How to find an Apple Authorized Service Provider near Hastings, UK.

I have Googled but can only find actual apple stores. I prefer to go to mom and pop repair shops but still have applecare plan so need to find someone who honors that. Any help appreciated. Saudade7 01:01, 25 December 2014 (UTC)

This looks promising. You should probably phone ahead and make sure the place can service your particular machine, and accepts Applecare, of course. (I hope that's the right Hastings, I'm not very familiar with UK cities.) Horselover Frost (talk · edits) 14:01, 26 December 2014 (UTC)

Hastings is a town, not a city. It's on the south coast, 50 miles SE of London. Best remembered for the Battle of Hastings, 1066. And, I kid you not, there's a small town called Battle nearby :-) Igor the facetious xmas bunny (talk) 16:01, 28 December 2014 (UTC)

December 27

Activating IPA Extensions for Windows 7

I use Windows 7 and am interested in using IPA Extensions through unicode. I understand this requires me to edit my registry, which I am loathe to do. The article is a bit too jargony for my comfort. Is there a trustworthy program I can use to activate unicode? Is there a site that would give step by step instructions on editting the registry? Or am I confused, and is this unnecessary? I am going by my experience with ASCII which allows some non-English characters and accented characters but which does not include any IPA symbols like ʃ, ð, or ŋ. Thanks. μηδείς (talk) 02:14, 27 December 2014 (UTC)

I couldn't find anything on modifying the registry to make this happen (maybe I'm misunderstanding) what exactly do you want to make your computer do when you say "activating IPA extensions". Something in here [1] may help with using IPA, please let me know if this is not what you're looking for, I'm sure there is a doable solution with minimal risks. :-)Phoenixia1177 (talk) 07:02, 27 December 2014 (UTC)

Yeah I'm a bit confused by what the OP is trying to achieve and what the current problem is. Windows has been Unicode native since XP or earlier and there's no need to enable it. Application support for Unicode has sometimes been a a bit hit and miss, but it should be fine in any recent decent browser by now (this includes IE, I think since IE 7 or 8). And AFAIK Windows 7 has a decent complement of default IPA supporting fonts [2]. Are many of the characters that μηδείς pasted not working for them? Or many here Phonetic symbols in Unicode (probably showing up as boxes)? If these are rendering fine, then perhaps the problem is data entry. If that's the case there are vaious methods to do that already. For example those in the above link. The wikipedia edit box also lets you enter IPA. Help:Special characters has some info, but I'm not sure if it's useful here. Help:IPA does have some recommendations on checking for possible rendering issues. That (sort of by the font comparisons), the special characters help page (in the IPA section) and Help:IPA for English (under see also) has some font suggestions if the OP isn't happy with whatever ones on their browser. Either way there should almost definitely no need to touch the registry. Nil Einne (talk) 13:09, 27 December 2014 (UTC)

The problem is that I am ignorant enough of the issue that I am finding it hard to formulate the question. Let's say I am typing a paper in default settings in MS Word using times roman, etc., and I want to use the ð character. I know how to type the ñ character using ASCII. ALT+XXX whatever the code is, since I don't have the numbers for XXX in front of me. I understand that ð will require a four digit hexadecimal code, and am familiar with hexadecimal from the RBG color format. But how would I actually enter the code for it, what keystrokes? If I can do that, then all is well. But for some reason what I have read has implied to me that the registry in windows 7 has to be editted to allow such entries. That latter part may be totally wrong, based on my ignorance and misunderstanding. So, if we go step by step and assume my windows seven laptop is already compatible, what would be the keystrokes to enter the symbol ð, (U+00F0) when simply typing in a blank word document? Thanks for your patience. μηδείς (talk) 00:38, 28 December 2014 (UTC)

Apparently, windows will type something when you use the alt+, but it need not follow the unicode hex values. I would suggest using one of the programs I linked too - then you don't have to memorize hex numbers. However, to get it so that if you type in Alt+<number in hex form> (you'll need to hold both alt and +) to give the symbol, you may need to add a value to the reg. I'll email you a reg script and instructions to use it, then you don't have to do it manually. (you will need to logout, then back in, for this to take effect - or you can restart the computer).Phoenixia1177 (talk) 04:55, 28 December 2014 (UTC)

If you want to use Alt codes with Unicode hex values, you do need to edit the registry. Here's a page that shows the steps: Typing Arbitrary Unicode Characters in Windows.

To find the Unicode hex value you need, go to Character Map, click on the character, then look at the bottom status bar. I happened to know ð is called eth, so I used the Advanced View search box to find eth. ð is U+00F0.

Once you know the Unicode hex value you want, careful reading of Wikipedia's Alt code article suggests you would enter it like this:

• Make sure Num Lock is on.
• Hold down the Alt key.

• On the number pad press +.
• Press F.
• On the number pad press 0.

• Release the Alt key.

--Bavi H (talk) 08:12, 28 December 2014 (UTC)

You do not need edit the registry or anything. You do not need remember any codes. Entering the IPA symbols as simple as that (for Windows):

1. Download this installation.
2. Run and wait until it installs.
3. Add the new layout. Use as any other layout.
4. If you do not remember or do not want to remember where each character is, use the On-Screen Keyboard.

I've been using this layout already for 10 years.--Lüboslóv Yęzýkin (talk) 10:05, 28 December 2014 (UTC)

TIFF source code capable of reading and writing 16-bit color images

I'm looking for source code (C or C++ preferably), capable of reading and writing TIFF 16-bit color images. I'm aware of Libtiff. However, this library appears to handle only 8-bit color images [3]. Any suggestions? Thanks, --NorwegianBlue ^talk 11:38, 27 December 2014 (UTC)

According to [4] the library should support 16 bit - however, the user manual says that it does not, yet that it does for 24/32 bit. I've never used it, so I'm not sure if there is a typo somewhere - but it might be worth a look.Phoenixia1177 (talk) 11:56, 27 December 2014 (UTC)

For clarity, I'm fairly sure when the OP refers to 8 bit and 16 bit images, these are referring to the bit depth per channel. For a RGB images 8 bits per channel (well most colour formats without transparency) these will be 24 bit per pixel. For RGBa (i.e. with the alpha channel/transparency) these will be 32 bit per pixel. These are almost definitely the 24/32 bit referred to since 24 or 32 bit per channel image formats are almost unheard of, if they exist. 16 bit per channel images will be 48 or 64 bit per pixel. So there isn't any contradiction with the user manual saying it supports 24/32 bit per pixel but not 16 bit per channel. There may be a contradiction with the site saying it supports 16 but although I don't see it saying that. I only see mention of support for 16 and 48 bit for the PNM plugin which I guesss supports the Netpbm format and a few other formats like PNG as well as generally better support for such formats, but no specific mention of support for 16/48/64 for TIFF. Is it at some other part of the site? Nil Einne (talk) 12:41, 27 December 2014 (UTC)

From under 3.7.0 "The main additions concern the support for HDR and 48-bit TIFF/PNG images" - which is why I assumed they were talking bit depth in the user manual - there is no 48 listed there, thus, it didn't make sense to me to say they support it, but not even mention it (and, personally, if they're putting down things they don't support, 16 bit depth isn't unreasonable, it seems odds not to include it). --just justifying why I made the assumptions I did.Phoenixia1177 (talk) 13:19, 27 December 2014 (UTC)

Whoops sorry, I missed that one. Would seem to suggest there may be support. May be checking the libtiff source and comments will help clarify what the status is. Nil Einne (talk) 17:09, 27 December 2014 (UTC)

Thanks, Phoenixia and Nil! Yes, I was referring to the bit depth per channel. Encouraged by your replies, I downloaded LibTIFF 3.9.7, which with some minor adjustments compiled in Visual Studio Express 2013. I built some of the tools, and did some testing. It turns out that it does support reading 16-bit-per-channel (=48-bit) color images. I haven't checked whether it will read 64-bit RGB+alpha images. With the tool tiffcrop (which does a lot more than cropping), I was able to turn an original upside-down, and concatenate the original and the upside-down image. However, the tiff2bw tool, which generates a black-and-white image from a color TIFF image, failed with an error message about only supporting 8-bit images when given a 16-bit-per channel image, but worked nicely whith a 16-bit image an 8-bit image. So there is support for reading and writing 16-bit-per-channel images. How much support there is for manipulating 16-bit-per-channel images, remains to be seen, when I delve into the difficult part: figuring out the API. Thanks again! --NorwegianBlue ^talk 19:41, 27 December 2014 (UTC)

It works. I was able to read a 16-bit image scanline by scanline, manipulate it (switched red and green channel, just to prove the point), and write the result as a new 16-bit image. I cut and pasted from the code of the tiff2bw tool, which did not contain too much clutter, and modified as necessary. Googling the function names that were used (or "man <functionname>"), was the easiest way of getting information on how the API worked. --NorwegianBlue ^talk 13:46, 28 December 2014 (UTC)

Resolved

One thing you might want to check - some tools that claim to support more than 8 bits per channel are actually reading the wider data but storing it as 8 bits internally. This can fool you into thinking that it's working when it's really just throwing away the low order bits. SteveBaker (talk) 16:09, 28 December 2014 (UTC)