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November 11

Error Clicking Link

I was sent an email containing a link providing a listing. When I clicked on the link on my laptop computer within Outlook, I get the error message: "Your organization's policies are preventing us from completing this action for you. For more info, please contact your help desk." I tried copying the link from an email document to a Word document and clicking on the link, and get the same message. If I copy the link into the URL bar, I can open it. I just can't open it on my desktop computer. I don't have a help desk that configures the laptop computer/ What rule or restriction is interfering with my ability to open the link on of two computers? Robert McClenon (talk) 07:35, 11 November 2024 (UTC)

125 people found the reply by TedFritchlee given here helpful  --Lambiam 12:25, 11 November 2024 (UTC)

Thank you, User:Lambiam. I am not number 126. I understood the answer to mean to use the Registry Editor and to look for [HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.html]. But the default is already set to htmlfile, and the content type and perceived type are as described. So I see nothing that I can fix with the Registry Editor.

Is that a forum that I can use to ask for help? Robert McClenon (talk) 18:39, 11 November 2024 (UTC)

I have no personal experience with answers.microsoft.com. It does not look different from other community support forums where users offer other users advice on how to cope with less-than-perfect software.  --Lambiam 19:06, 11 November 2024 (UTC)

Are you using Office 365? There are "sharing" options in Office 365 that can cause that issue. 12.116.29.106 (talk) 17:41, 12 November 2024 (UTC)

Sharing Options in Office 365

Yes, I am using Office 365. The errors occur when clicking the link from within Outlook, or by copying the link to a Word document. The error can be worked around by doing a Copy Hyperlink and then clicking the hyperlink in a URL in Chrome. So I think that we agree that the problem is in Office 365. How do I work on the sharing options in Office 365? Robert McClenon (talk) 18:12, 12 November 2024 (UTC)

There are two common issues that have nothing to do with one another. Both are in Office 365 settings, which is separate from your computer settings. The first one is file and document sharing. Hunt for that setting (the menus change all the time, so it is difficult say "click this, then this, then this..."). Try setting it to allow everyone. If that doesn't fix the problem, change it back. The second is under your default application handler settings. Your html handler should be your web browser. You are probably like most people and have at least 2 web browsers, Edge and Google or Edge and Firefox or Edge and Opera. Whatever is selected, select the other one. Try it. It should open links in that browser. Try to switch it back. If it won't work, the best path forward is usually to delete and reinstall the browser so you can select it. If neither of those works, it is still likely an Office 365 settings issue. 12.116.29.106 (talk) 18:25, 12 November 2024 (UTC)

Thank you, 12.*. But how do I get to the Office 365 settings? I have an Office 365 thing on the taskbar of my desktop computer, but I don't have one on the taskbar of my laptop computer, and it is my laptop that has the problem. How do I open the Office 365 settings? Robert McClenon (talk) 19:23, 12 November 2024 (UTC)

Office 365 is, essentially, web based. Go to microsoft365.com (I assumed it was office365.com, but when I tried that it redirected to microsoft365.com). Sign in with your Office 365 account. From there, you will see settings. 12.116.29.106 (talk) 19:28, 12 November 2024 (UTC)

Thank you, sort of, 12.116.*. I have signed into microsoft365.com, and there is a Settings gearwheel in the upper right corner. When I click it, it gives me the option to turn on Dark Mode and to display third-party notices. To the left, it displays a list of Office apps and allows me to create documents, but I create documents using the versions of the apps that are installed on my C: drive. What am I missing? Robert McClenon (talk) 19:40, 12 November 2024 (UTC)

Problem Solved

This problem was solved, with help from a technical support person. The default browser was set to Microsoft Edge, but Microsoft Edge was broken. The problem was solved by reinstalling Microsoft Edge. It was possible to work around the problem by copying the hyperlink into a Chrome or Firefox URL window because Chrome and Firefox were not broken. A conclusion is that another cause of this problem may be that the default browser cannot be launched successfully. Maybe that is the whole meaning of the message, in which case it is another case of a message that doesn't say what is wrong because the software, being broken, is confused as to what is wrong. Robert McClenon (talk) 19:55, 13 November 2024 (UTC)

Robert, I am glad you resolved this problem to your satisfaction. Possible over-arching solution: do not use M$ Edge as your default browser. In fact. have nothing to do with it, ever. A few years back Internet Explorer was frankly the pits (Mozilla totally broke FF <sob> as well when they destroyed extensions), and it's a moot point whether Edge is one level above IE in the generally-acknowledged pecking order, or in fact constitutes the very bottom of the barrel itself. Just my 2¢ worth. MinorProphet (talk) 20:53, 13 November 2024 (UTC)

Off-topic maybe, but Edge is now chromium based, sharing most of it's code base with Chrome, so this advice is more of an emotion than based on fact. Rmvandijk (talk) 14:25, 21 November 2024 (UTC)

Encyclopedia.com

Hi, I've no idea which section this goes in, or if this is even the correct noticeboard for my question.

A new user has posted an update about the website and change of owners, but for me, on my mobile, the website comes up with 'Bad gateway, error code 502, Visit cloudflare.com for more information. (It says it's a host error). I'm an old mare, t'internet wasn't even invented until I got to uni! @Zubyp: to see if I ca get an answer. I haven't posted the link just in case its harmful but the edit is here [1]) Knitsey (talk) 22:40, 11 November 2024 (UTC)

It looks like a call to false interpretations all across the board except for the genuine distress perceptible in the author prose ( Zubyp's interpretation being at least half-erroneous as a result I think: "some of the information herein is fabricated ( .. ) for privacy purposes", not validable for any kind of primary source. ) -- Askedonty (talk) 01:35, 12 November 2024 (UTC)

I don't get an error message. The page reads like a press release, but the text is bizarre, not something people maintaining an encyclopedia would write. It looks like someone hacked the website and then posted a link here on Wikipedia to draw attention to their prose.  --Lambiam 07:26, 12 November 2024 (UTC)

Thank you both for checking. I really appreciate it. I will let the user know. Knitsey (talk) 14:00, 12 November 2024 (UTC)

November 12

UserScript

Why does this script works only from console but not from a userscript on wikipedia websites?

// ==UserScript==
// @name         x
// @match        *://*/*
// @run-at       document-start

// ==/UserScript==
window.setTimeout ( ()=>{
if (window.location.href.includes('wikipedia.org')) {
    window.open("https://example.com/", "_self");
    // window.location.replace("https://example.com");
    // window.location.href("https://example.com");
}
}, 100);

Thank you in advance. 223.24.184.76 (talk) 04:57, 12 November 2024 (UTC)

More information needed for an answer: How do you run the UserScript? Are you using a method that Wikipedia supports or a browser addin? If you are using a browser addin, which addin?

Do other scripts that use setTimeout or access window work fine?

Also, if we run into issues reproducing the problem you have after you've answered the above, we would also need to know what browsers (and version) you have tried this in. You've also not given any information about error messages in the console, so I'm assuming there are no error messages when you check the browser console. Komonzia (talk) 20:36, 17 November 2024 (UTC)

HTTP 451 and GDPR

HTTP 451 mentions that many non-EU websites use this code when refusing traffic from EU countries, since they don't want to comply with the EU's General Data Protection Regulation. I'm confused: if you're not in an EU country, why do you have to comply with EU regulations of any sort? What can the EU do to you if you're not in the EU? Nyttend (talk) 22:06, 12 November 2024 (UTC)

Impose fines and if they're not paid, impound property you happen to have in the EU. Or, if you're traveling via the EU, holding you hostage until you've paid the fines.  --Lambiam 23:48, 12 November 2024 (UTC)

Not that most of that is likely for 'legit' websites, but these organisations don't want the extra overhead of even having to think about any of that, so this is the cheap way out for them. —TheDJ (talk • contribs) 12:35, 13 November 2024 (UTC)

November 13

PNG Transparent Background

I've got some images with off-white backgrounds that I'd like to set as transparent, and I'm following the instructions at https://www.photoroom.com/blog/transparent-background-in-ms-paint. I'm left with two images. The first (after the instruction "Right-click on the protected object and select "Cut" to remove it from the image.") has the off-white background with a white hole the shape of the foreground object, the second has the foreground object with a white background. Neither shows any sign of transparency when I insert it into my target application!

Questions:

• Do .png files support transparency? My research suggests they do.
• I'm using the Paint app that comes with Windows 10. Is that the same as the MS Paint referred to?
• What am I doing wrong???

Thanks. Rojomoke (talk) 11:42, 13 November 2024 (UTC)

PNG images DO support transparency. The application you are using must support saving a PNG image with transparency. Paint is MS Paint. The instructions provided appear correct compared to other guides. There is another question you didn't ask. Does the application you are using to display the images support transparent PNG images? If not, it will display the transparent area with the color indexed at 0 in the color pallete. 68.187.174.155 (talk) 11:58, 13 November 2024 (UTC)

I do not have recent experience with paint and transparent backgrounds, but it used to be horrible. paint.net is an open source alternative that does what you want. Added benefit is that it looks just like paint does/did, so for simple stuff it doesn't have much of a learning curve (it has much more options than paint does, but those might need some practice). Note that it's also available from the microsoft store, but then it isn't freeRmvandijk (talk) 13:25, 13 November 2024 (UTC)

I'm not familiar with using MS Paint to make transparent images, but it sounds to me like the instructions you're following are having you 'cut' the foreground object out, which likely copies it to the clipboard. You should be able to paste that copied image into a new file that already has a fully transparent background, or even just erase the background from the current image and then re-paste the cut image back in. Amstrad00 (talk) 16:42, 13 November 2024 (UTC)

This webpage is promoting an app. It's an advert dressed up as advice. Eventually the advice turns into "use an app such as ours".

PNGs support transparency. They also support an alpha channel which allows degrees of transparency, to smooth jaggy edges. You may need to select the option to include an alpha channel when saving the PNG. We have a Comparison of raster graphics editors, which includes a column for the ability to use the alpha channel. I hear Krita spoken of favorably lately, I haven't tried it.  Card Zero  (talk) 19:23, 13 November 2024 (UTC)

November 17

Jiggly computer game characters

For want of a better word, there's a trope used in the depiction of creatures (humanoid or other) depicted in video games where the characters are constantly jiggling about. I can guess several reasons why this might be the case. Is there a name for this sort of depiction? Does it have an interesting history perhaps? --jpgordon^{𝄢𝄆𝄐𝄇} 00:58, 17 November 2024 (UTC)

That's rather vague, can you give an example? Are you thinking of the spasms sometimes afflicting puppets due to ragdoll physics? Or something simpler, like the jerkiness of two-frame animation?  Card Zero  (talk) 09:52, 17 November 2024 (UTC)

If you've played any video games in last decade, you'll have seen it; here is an example. Has nothing to do death throes (unless that's where the trope started.) It doesn't seem to have any purpose other than visual; it's not denoting actual motion or anything vaguely realistic. --jpgordon^{𝄢𝄆𝄐𝄇} 16:05, 17 November 2024 (UTC)

The name of that type of depiction is idle or idling animation, as indicated on that page. Shantavira|^{feed me} 17:48, 17 November 2024 (UTC)

Idle animation. Thank you, that's what I was looking for. --jpgordon^{𝄢𝄆𝄐𝄇} 18:34, 17 November 2024 (UTC)

Two-factor authentication and repeated codes

One form of two-factor authentication (or 2FA for short) uses six-digit codes. So, how likely will one encounter a code that one has already seen before? If a six-digit code is generated 1,000,001 times, then the pigeonhole principle guarantees that at least one of them must be repeated. So, if a six-digit code is generated every 30 seconds starting from the beginning of a year, then there must inevitably be a repeated code by the end of the year. GTrang (talk) 15:34, 17 November 2024 (UTC)

Yes, and? The codes don't need to be unique. --jpgordon^{𝄢𝄆𝄐𝄇} 16:40, 17 November 2024 (UTC)

The likelihood of encountering a code that one has already seen before (which appears to be your question) depends entirely on how many you have seen before. Shantavira|^{feed me} 17:52, 17 November 2024 (UTC)

Let $n$ stand for the number of possible outcomes of a discrete random variable with a uniform distribution. For a fair standard die, $n=6;$ For the six-digit codes with range 000000–9999999, $n=1,000,000.$ Assume that each next turn is independent of the history. Let $q(t)$ denote the probability that the first $t$ turns gave $t$ different outcomes – no repeats (yet). Obviously, $q(0)=1.$ For turn $t+1$ to be different from the earlier $t$ turns, the outcome has to be one of the still remaining $n-t$ outcomes that have not yet occurred. The probability, independent of the past, is ${\frac {n-t}{n}},$ so

$q(t+1)=q(t){\frac {n-t}{n}}={\frac {n}{n}}{\frac {n-1}{n}}{\frac {n-2}{n}}\cdots {\frac {n-t}{n}}.$

For $t>n$ this has a factor ${\frac {n-n}{n}},$ so then $q(t)=0.$ Otherwise,

$q(t)={\frac {n!}{(n-t)!\,n^{t}}}.$

When $n=1,000,000,$ you already have $q(1178)\approx 0.49981\,,$ less than 50% chance of repeat-free survival. See also Birthday paradox.  --Lambiam 19:19, 17 November 2024 (UTC)

Everyone is told not to re-use passwords, but that doesn't apply to one-time singleton keys such as are typically used in 2FA.

• If I somehow know that last year your regular password was "gzornnplatz", and I'm trying to hack into your account, "gzornnplatz" is a reasonable thing to try; it's considerably more likely to still or again be your password today than some other 11-character string.
• But if I'm trying to guess a 2FA code, and I know that some time ago the generator randomly generated 123456, that tells me nothing about what code it's likely to use today. During any given authentication session, every one of those 1,000,000 codes is equally likely. The security rests on the assumption that there's no way you can possibly try more than a tiny fraction of the codes in that space before the authentication session times out and starts over with a new code (or locks you out for a while).

—scs (talk) 01:20, 18 November 2024 (UTC)

November 18

Follow up to Can high memory usage make the Internet not work?

Referring to this question, a man came to my house this morning and replaced the phone line. He said it was old and just barely working. They've been talking about that for quite some time. When I was told I could get a faster speed at no charge, the men who came didn't do anything because there was no way to do it without drilling a hole in the wall. I said it was fine if they didn't. I thought they were going to do it behind some heavy furniture where the outside equipment was. The last time anyone came to my house nothing was done inside and there was no talk about replacing the phone line. But the man this morning wanted the line to go in the house near my computer, and there was nothing heavy to move.— Vchimpanzee • talk • contributions • 18:51, 18 November 2024 (UTC)

Electronically notarize a plain text file

Does anyone know of a use case for electronically notarizing a plain text file in the United States or country with similar laws? The reason is that rules for notaries public are being developed in my state that, depending on how they are written, might make notarizing such files more difficult because they might require the notary's signature to be present as a graphic image (JPEG or the like) which is not supported in somes kind of computer files. Jc3s5h (talk) 19:58, 18 November 2024 (UTC)

Because laws don't keep up with technology, a company I used to work for used a workaround. They printed out a large hash of the text files (mainly computer code) and notarized the hash. So, the file itself was not notarized, but the hash of it was. So, in court, if the file has the same hash you can state that the hash the file has is the hash that was notarized. There is a minor limitation. It is possible to alter a file while not altering the hash. It isn't common, but with hashes, there is always an issue of collision. That wasn't a big enough issue for the needs of the company. 12.116.29.106 (talk) 13:31, 19 November 2024 (UTC)

@12.116.29.106: I was aware of that approach, which is why I said that not supporting graphic images in a file merely made it more difficult to notarize. While respecting everyone's privacy, can you describe why it was necessary to indirectly notarize computer code and the other files? Jc3s5h (talk) 22:50, 19 November 2024 (UTC)

It is one thing to create a sequence of bytes matching a given hash. It is another thing to do this such that the sequence of bytes is not gibberish, and not even just something meaningful, but something meaningful that conveys an intended message.  --Lambiam 13:41, 20 November 2024 (UTC)

November 19

Windows.old

My desktop computer is a Dell Inspiron 3910 running Windows 11, and has 12 GB of RAM and 216 GB of solid-state storage as the C: drive. I recently moved some folders that I don't need to a removable disk. I also have a great monster external drive with 4 TB that I use for backup. As of 9 November 2024, a folder called Windows.old has appeared on my C: drive. It occupies about 27 GB on my C: drive, and now I am getting red warnings in the This PC screen for low remaining disk storage, but not actually running out of disk storage. It appears to contain copies of some of the contents of the Windows, Program Files, and Program Files (x86) folders. My first question is why it has appeared on my computer. I didn't do anything intentionally that I thought would create it. It is possible that the cat did something random. She's a cat, and sometimes walks on the keyboard. My second question is whether I need it, or whether I can safely move it to the monster. Is anyone familiar with the creation of this backup folder? Can I move it to a different device? Robert McClenon (talk) 06:34, 19 November 2024 (UTC)

This file appears when a Windows upgrade is performed. I've an idea it is used in a system restore. If everything is running fine, you can delete it by running a disk cleanup and ticking clean up system files. It is probably worth having a look through the folder before you delete it. TrogWoolley (talk) 07:34, 19 November 2024 (UTC)

Your computer likely got the Windows 11, version 24H2 update. The system files from the old update were moved in Windows.old to allow you to temporarily roll back if there's any problem. You can try running a disk cleanup (I remember Windows once asking me to delete this folder because of free space shortage), or it will be eventually removed on its own. You definitely don't have to back it up in an external storage medium. Ian P. Tetriss (talk) 00:57, 20 November 2024 (UTC)

User:Ian P. Tetriss, User:TrogWoolley - Thank you for the explanation. I had already backed up the Windows.old folder to an external device and then had disk cleanup delete it before I read your advice that it is not necessary to back it up. So I will move it from the disk drive to the 4 TB drive. I will also check to see if my laptop computer has a Windows.old file, and do disk cleanup on it. Robert McClenon (talk) 04:24, 20 November 2024 (UTC)

My laptop computer does not have a Windows.old file. It is old, older than my desktop computer, and so may not be one of the computers that Microsoft has updated to 24H2. Robert McClenon (talk) 04:34, 20 November 2024 (UTC)

November 21

AI and the 2024 US election

Resolved

My question is, how much did rudimentary "AI" (or what we like to refer to as AI) contribute to the outcome of the 2024 US election? I haven't seen much written about this, but if there are articles on this subject, please point me to them. Viriditas (talk) 09:21, 21 November 2024 (UTC)

There's an amusing ref desk phenomenon where a questioner accidentally formulates a good search query to use for the question's title. Here's my first two results: The AI-generated hell of the 2024 election , AI's Underwhelming Impact on the 2024 Elections. Opinions differ, evidently.  Card Zero  (talk) 09:44, 21 November 2024 (UTC)

Ackshually, that's exactly what I was looking for. Are you a mind reader? Viriditas (talk) 10:05, 21 November 2024 (UTC)

November 23

ClipChamp.exe and Disk Backup

If I am backing up my C: drive (which I still think of as a hard disk, although it is a solid-state device) to an external medium (a 4TB removable device), I get various error messages that I have to Skip. One of them says that it is unable to copy Clipchamp.exe, which has size 0 bytes. I can Try Again or Skip or Cancel. Only Skip makes any sense. I have looked up what Clipchamp is, and I see that it is a Microsoft video editor tool, but that it has a web-based architecture, so that the code resides on a web site and is loaded temporarily into my computer to run the application. My first question is: If I am doing the backup in the usual fashion, by dragging a folder from C: to a folder window on F: (the removable storage device), is there any way that I can tell Windows 11 in advance to Skip errors rather than prompting me for action? Second, is there any alternate easy-to-do way to copy folders from C: to a folder on F: other than dragging and dropping that allows me to specify action on errors? Third, I see that Clipchamp, and some of the other stuff that gives me errors on backup up, are in the Users folder. Do the error messages that I am getting mean that copying the Users folder is problematic, and that I should be backing up some of its subfolders instead? Robert McClenon (talk) 04:00, 23 November 2024 (UTC)

I found Robocopy, if you want a copy utility with sophisticated options. (Does figuring out a new tool save effort? Debatable.) This is built-in to Windows 11, I tried it out myself just now.  Card Zero  (talk) 04:54, 23 November 2024 (UTC)