Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Computing/2009 October 9

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October 9

Weird

I have my cell phone right next to my wireless optical mouse and whenever I receive a phone call or text message, the mouse doesn't work for like a few seconds before the phone call. I wonder what's causing this. -- penubag  (talk) 01:15, 9 October 2009 (UTC)

I think you've answered your own question? :) It sounds literally like the wireless data transmission to your phone is interfering with the wireless mouse and really the only options are to get a Bluetooth mouse (I'd be very surprised if that didn't work!) or switch to a cellphone provider that uses a different frequency to what you have now (althought that may not help). You could try it a different phone and see if that fixes it, but that seems unlikely. ZX81 ^talk 03:03, 9 October 2009 (UTC)

It's not really a problem :) I just thought it was interesting. Why does the interference last several seconds before I receive the call/text? Is the interference just hanging in the air...but that doesn't make since. -- penubag  (talk) 08:51, 9 October 2009 (UTC)

The cell tower begins talking to your phone, establishing a firm connection, a couple of seconds before your phone rings. If you keep your phone beside an FM radio you'll hear a pattern of thumps before the call or text message nominally arrives, and occasionally when the phone checks in with the cell tower for routine reasons. -- 87.113.39.157 (talk) 09:41, 9 October 2009 (UTC)

So THAT's what those noises are! Thanks for the answer ZX81 (again) and anon. -- penubag  (talk) 09:55, 9 October 2009 (UTC)

Yeah, my alarm clock / radio makes all kinds of random static when my cell phone is charging on top of it. I had wondered why the static started before the phone starting ringing, but that "firm connection" thing makes sense. Useight (talk) 00:26, 10 October 2009 (UTC)

But why is it that when I am currently talking on the phone and transmitting and receiving that these side effects don't occur?-- penubag  (talk) 01:00, 10 October 2009 (UTC)

That is an excellent question. I'm not an expert in EM propagation or cell phone technology, but I can offer a plausible speculative explanation. Each tower in a cell phone network uses slightly different frequencies to avoid interfering with other towers. Also, once you're connected to the tower, it uses some sort of beamforming (probably SDMA) to remember and transmit to the physical location of your phone (it used to resolve down to less than a meter; these days it probably knows the location of your phone to within inches).

But in between calls, your phone probably goes into a power-saving mode where it only contacts the tower once an hour or something. So when you get an incoming call, the tower has to find your phone again. It probably broadcasts on all frequencies with relatively high power, because it doesn't know how far away your phone is. Or maybe your phone responds with high power to give a precise location and distance to the tower. Either way, once the connection is established, the RF spectrum should quiet down a bit.

BTW, this happens to me sometimes with speakers. I've heard that a ferrite bead around the cable to the speaker will cut down on the noise, but I've never tried it. I've also heard of people successfully using aluminum foil to make little shields between their phone and their other devices.Indeterminate (talk) 06:56, 10 October 2009 (UTC)

(Unindent). Standard cell phone aerials do not use beam forming - this requires multiple element aerials (see MIMO) which are not used by current cell technologies - we need to wait for WiMAX and LTE for that. The noise you hear is signalling traffic. Once the call has been set up, the signalling subsides and the voice traffic has a less "noisy" pattern. --Phil Holmes (talk) 12:09, 10 October 2009 (UTC)

Multiple iTunes accounts on one computer?

In my household we have now 2 iPods and only one computer. Can we have 2 iTunes accounts on one computer? Is this possible?Dieselsmamma (talk) 01:44, 9 October 2009 (UTC)

Although I haven't tried this personally, if you are using separate user profiles then I don't see any reason why not. iTunes stores it's database and settings in your "My Music" directory and the location of that on the disk changes per user profile. ZX81 ^talk 03:05, 9 October 2009 (UTC)

If you Google "two itunes accounts on one computer" you get some very useful hits, like this one from Apple. --Mr.98 (talk) 12:56, 9 October 2009 (UTC)

Thank you both, this looks promising! —Preceding unsigned comment added by Dieselsmamma (talk • contribs) 01:01, 10 October 2009 (UTC)

Update on my Yahoo situation

The last question I asked was here. [1]

If User:Comet Tuttle can't be bothered to come here, fine. If User:Zunaid doesn't want to laugh at my postings any more, then don't read them.

At least User:KoolerStill is providing me with helpful information. And Yahoo is too (the names have been removed to protect the innocent; the details about how to take a screenshot may be useful to others with my type of computer who are reading the reference desk questions):

Thank you for contacting Yahoo! Mail Customer Care.

I understand you are experiencing an 'Error Code 21' loop.

Before I go into addressing your concern, I'd like to first apologize for the delay in my responding to your inquiry. Yahoo! Customer Care is committed to answering your questions as quickly and accurately as possible. However, we are currently receiving unusually high volumes that caused the delayed response.

Regarding your issue, I've tested your account, but wasn't able to duplicate the behavior you've described. To help me troubleshoot and assess the issue, please take a screenshot of the entire page when the issue occurs next. You may then include this file as an attachment in your next reply.

To take a screenshot, simply do the following:

1. Press the "Print Screen" key on your keyboard. 2. Click the Windows "Start" menu and select "Programs", then "Accessories", then "Paint". 3. Once the Microsoft Paint application is open, click the "Edit" menu then select "Paste." If you're prompted that the "image in the clipboard is larger than the bitmap", click the "Yes" button. 4. Click the "File" menu in the upper left-hand corner of the Paint application then select "Save As". 5. Enter a name for the "File name" field. 6. Choose "JPEG" as the "Save as type" option. 7. Save the file to an easy to remember location like your computer then close the Paint application. 8. Attach the file to your email response and include any other relevant information.

It would be very helpful if you could send it via the Yahoo! account you are having trouble with, and also leave a copy in your Sent folder. Once we have this information, we will be happy to help investigate the issue further.

I appreciate your patience and understanding while we troubleshoot this issue for you.

Thank you again for contacting Yahoo! Mail Customer Care.

Vchimpanzee · talk · contributions · 16:43, 9 October 2009 (UTC)

Do you have a question for the Reference Desk? Comet Tuttle (talk) 16:52, 9 October 2009 (UTC)

http://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/bugs.html --93.106.239.206 (talk) 17:12, 9 October 2009 (UTC)

Hi Vchimpanzee... sorry you are having trouble. I assume you have tried accessing it on different browsers? What you want to help the tech support do is narrowly define the problem. Screenshots can help, but trying out different options (browsers, settings, etc.) will help narrow down what exactly the difficulty is. Good luck and let us know if we can help. Ignore the ones who give you grief. --Mr.98 (talk) 20:30, 9 October 2009 (UTC)

I don't want to change browsers, but one day I might use Yahoo on another computer which has Firefox and see what that does.

The endless loop happened today, but I saw nothing that a screenshot could help with. Vchimpanzee · talk · contributions · 20:45, 9 October 2009 (UTC)

Furthermore, I went to Yahoo email a second time while trying to find some information, and not only can I not go back, but the list of folders disappeared. I tried following the directions, and I got a screenshot and supposedly saved it but when I try to attach the file, I click on "Browse" and there's no such file.Vchimpanzee · talk · contributions · 21:12, 9 October 2009 (UTC)

Oh, those are all documents. Okay, when I click on "picture" it works.Vchimpanzee · talk · contributions · 21:26, 9 October 2009 (UTC)

I still haven't heard back since I sent the screenshots. The one worthwhile result of this question being here is the information on how to send one. I also haven't tried Yahoo on another computer but I plan to tomorrow since I'm going to a Yahoo group and that would give me the opportunity. I know it wouldn't hurt anything to use my various email addresses here, but I only use three--one that came from my Internet service provider, and one which delivers messages from my other Yahoo group.

Most of the email addresses have problems of their own, and this inability to use the back button seems to be a feature of Hotmail and Lycos Mail as well.Vchimpanzee · talk · contributions · 18:14, 14 October 2009 (UTC)

Here's what I've been told to do: A) Disable Internet Browser Add-ons/Plug-ins

Each Internet browser comes with optional upgrades or enhancements commonly known as "add-ons" or "plug-ins." These features make your Internet browser more useful & certain add-ons or plug-ins can potentially cause issues with Yahoo! Mail.

To find out if this is the case, please try one of the following tasks for your specific browser: common uses include (but aren't limited to) Toolbars, News or Stock Tickers, Instant Messaging, Weather alerts, Email alerts, Anti-virus/Anti-spy or Games

If you're running Internet Explorer 6.0:

1. Close out of all instances of the Internet Explorer Internet browser. 2. Select "Start". 3. Select "Settings". 4. Click "Control Panel". 5. Double-click "Internet Options". 6. Select the "Advanced" tab. 7. Under "Browsing", clear the "Enable third-party Internet browser extensions (requires restart)" check box. 8. Relaunch your Internet browser.

If you're running Internet Explorer 7.0:

1. Close out of all instances of the Internet Explorer internet browser. 2. Select "Start", "Settings", then click "Control Panel". 3. Double-click on "Internet Options". 4. Select the "Advanced" tab. 5. Under "Browsing", remove the "Enable third-party internet browser extensions" check box. 6. Relaunch the Internet Explorer internet browser.

If you're running Internet Explorer 8.0:

1. Click "Tools" and select "Internet Options". 2. Click the "Advanced" tab on the right. 3. Under "Browsing", remove the "Enable third-party browser extensions" check box. 4. Click "OK" and close out of all instances of Internet Explorer. 5. Relaunch Internet Explorer.

B) Clearing your Cookies and Cache

We've found that clearing your cookies and cache usually takes care of a lot of issues. When you need to clear your cache, follow the instructions below for your browser and version.

Internet Explorer 6.x for Windows:

1. Choose "Internet Options" from IE's Tools menu. 2. Click the "Delete Cookies" button, and choose "OK" when prompted. 3. Click the "Delete Files" button, and select to "Delete all offline content". 4. Click "OK" when prompted. 5. In the bottom right-hand corner of the Internet Options page, click the "Clear History" button, and choose "OK" when prompted. 6. Click the OK button at the bottom of the Internet Options window. 7. Close and re-start your browser.

Internet Explorer 7.0 for Windows:

1. Choose "Internet Options..." from IE's Tools menu. 2. Click on "Delete" under "Browsing History". 3. Click on "Delete All" at the bottom, and choose "OK" if prompted. 4. Click the OK button at the bottom of the Internet Options window. 5. Close and re-start your browser.

Internet Explorer 8.0 for Windows:

1. Choose "Internet Options..." from IE's Tools menu. 2. Click on "Delete" under "Browsing History". 3. Place a check in the "Temporary Internet Files", "Cookies" and "History" checkboxes 4. Click the OK button at the bottom of the Internet Options window. 5. Close and re-start your browser.

C) Temporarily disable Anti-virus/Anti-spy and Firewall Products

Maybe one of your security applications, such as your ant-virus, anti-spyware, or firewall products, is causing a problem with your Yahoo! Mail. To see if this is the problem, please temporarily disable your security software.

1. For most security software products, you can right-click on the security software icon in the bottom right-hand corner of your screen, by the system clock. This will usually pop up a menu with "Preferences" or "disable" as an option. 2. Try to change one of those options to see if the issue goes away.

PLEASE NOTE: In some cases, you might not be able to disable the security software. The directions for each security software package differ from vendor to vendor. If you need help, please get in touch with your security software vendor or computer help desk.Vchimpanzee · talk · contributions · 21:46, 16 October 2009 (UTC)

Cyrillic fonts

I would image that, just as with the Roman alphabet, which has tons of different fonts, there are also Cyrillic alphabet fonts. Can someone point me to some free downloadable Cyrillic fonts? 99.166.95.142 (talk) 16:59, 9 October 2009 (UTC)

If you Google "cyrillic font" then many links will be displayed that in turn have links to Cyrillic fonts. Comet Tuttle (talk) 18:37, 9 October 2009 (UTC)

And it's of note that many unicode fonts that you probably have (Times New Roman, Arial, etc.) already have Cyrillic character sets. (And I assume you are looking for "real" Cyrillic and not Faux Cyrillic.) The difficulty in Googling for them, of course, is that most of those that you'll find on English pages will be Faux Cyrillic. The word for "font" in Russian is Шрифт (shrift). But even that is of limited help... sites like those listed at the Russian Wikipedia "font" page, like, ifont.ru, which you'd think would have Cyrillic fonts, are as far as I can tell almost exclusively Roman fonts... (with the exception of a page of Old Church Slavoic fonts...).. hmm. You might ask on the Language Desk, actually, as this will probably require someone who is used to using Cyrillic character sets more regularly. --Mr.98 (talk) 20:27, 9 October 2009 (UTC)

OK... playing around some of those pages led me to paratype.com, who are apparently the biggest producers of Cyrillic versions of fonts in Russia, so says one site. They appear to have made Cyrillic versions of many other fonts. Not for free, though. Their samples show up as Roman when you visit the .com version, but if you visit paratype.ru you can see them in their Cyrillic glory. --Mr.98 (talk) 20:32, 9 October 2009 (UTC)

Great, thank you. 99.166.95.142 (talk) 17:42, 12 October 2009 (UTC)

Hello world

So here's a simple "Hello world" program I wrote. It doesn't work. What's wrong with it ? (Not homework, just trying to learn C on my own.) 68.79.112.163 (talk) 23:58, 9 October 2009 (UTC)

 #include <iostream>

 using namspace std;

 int main(int argc, char* argv[])
 {
         // Without "using" statement, this would be std::cout
         cout << "Hello world!" << endl;    // "endl"  = next line
 return 0;
 }

Telling is it "doesn't work" isn't telling us anything; you need to tell us exactly what you did, with what compiler, on what operating system, and what precisely happened. Anyway, this is a C++ program not a C program, so you need to tell your compiler that you're compiling C++; a C compiler will complain about that "using" statement (and probably will find stuff in iostream that it doesn't like either). 87.113.39.157 (talk) 00:06, 10 October 2009 (UTC)

You misspelled "namespace". Aside from that it looks fine. -- BenRG (talk) 01:51, 10 October 2009 (UTC)

The compiler will normally be told it is C++ instead of C by the file name ending in .c++, .cpp, or .cxx or some such extension rather than a .c extension. When compiling a C program the compiler wouldn't normally even find iostream never mind not know what to do with it. Dmcq (talk) 08:43, 10 October 2009 (UTC)

Correcting the obvious typo ("namspace" -> "namespace"), your program works perfectly as C++. I think the problem here is that you're trying to compile it as C, in which case it would most likely fail at the very beginning. Despite what many people would have you think, C and C++ are very different things. JIP | Talk 22:58, 10 October 2009 (UTC)