Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Computing/2011 December 27

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December 27

Issues with Flash Games in Firefox - help, please!

I've got the latest version of Firefox, and the latest Flash version, but I'm having issues with the mouse in certain flash games, (not all of them, but it seems pretty random). Basically, when I click in the flash window, it doesn't pick up the mouse click, unless I do loads of them, then it will eventually react. It seems like it's not registering the mouse pointer properly, but there are no other issues with my mouse. I have done a little research, but the only suggestion I found said to switch off flash hardware acceleration, which I have done, without effect. Any other suggestions? It's really annoying, as I like to play random flash games online. Snorgle (talk) 14:41, 27 December 2011 (UTC)

When requesting help with something, you should specify the exact version number, not say "I've got the latest", for various reasons, including: you may have made a mistake, people may know of a better version you could be using that isn't the latest, etc.. In the case of Flash please also specify your OS version. Alternatively, copy and paste the two fields shown in the Flash object here. ¦ Reisio (talk) 19:09, 27 December 2011 (UTC)

Cheers. Flash Player version is 11.1.102.55 and Windows 7 (64-bit). Snorgle (talk) 00:22, 28 December 2011 (UTC)

The flash games may just be slowing down your computer. Try running only the window with the flash game, and nothing else. Heck froze over (talk) 20:31, 27 December 2011 (UTC)

Agreed, and do this right after a reboot, to minimize what's running in the background. StuRat (talk) 21:50, 27 December 2011 (UTC)

If you notice that your computer is slowing down, you may still be able to save your windows/game/whatever. When you notice the computer is slowing, just let it sit for a few minutes. It can usually catch back up given a bit of time (when you click and move windows you tax its cpu and/or ram even more than without so leave it alone). If the computer only slows down at certain websites, it may be that said websites have viruses and/or cookies trying to get on your computer. If the site is fairly well known, there could be lots of other people accessing the same site (and thus slowing the connection on the other end). Heck froze over (talk) 14:17, 28 December 2011 (UTC)

Thanks for everyone's suggestions, but it's only the flash game that is the problem, everything else is fine. Does flash usually slow down computers?Snorgle (talk) 18:06, 28 December 2011 (UTC)

Not to this extent. You might try another version first. ¦ Reisio (talk) 19:01, 28 December 2011 (UTC)

Mobile phone

I bought a mobile phone but my friend says that it is a low quality one. How can i check the quality of a mobile phone? I want to know Where it was made in?, Is it an assembled one or original one? and other details. Thank you.175.157.84.14 (talk) 15:33, 27 December 2011 (UTC)

Do a Web search for its model number. Jim.henderson (talk) 15:39, 27 December 2011 (UTC)

Short of things outright breaking or not functioning, "quality" is fairly subjective (though there are manufacturers that have better (or more enduring) reputations than others). ¦ Reisio (talk) 19:11, 27 December 2011 (UTC)

Some things to check for:

1) Do the buttons "click" when you press them, or just "smoosh" ? Do you get one letter from each every time, or sometimes no letters and sometimes many ? Do you need to press some buttons harder than others ?

2) Is the display clear and bright ?

3) Is the sound good ?

4) Does the charger and/or phone get hot during charging and stay hot even after it's fully charged ? That could mean it's overcharging, which shortens the battery life ans wastes energy.

Those are quality issues. Which features it has are also important, like a camera, full keyboard, internet capability, etc. StuRat (talk) 21:46, 27 December 2011 (UTC)

iPad2 Messenger

When using my iPad2 for the first time trying to send a message to a friend on my Address Book, I got a message that the name was "Not Registered". This happens when either I click the 'Message' app or when attempting to send via the contacts address page. I don't understand this can anyone explain please and how do I 'register' my contacts? Thanks in anticipation.--85.211.148.143 (talk) 16:18, 27 December 2011 (UTC)

Make sure you've spelled the name exactly right. If it's supposed to be an email address (sometimes it can be hard to tell), make sure to include the @domain.tld bit and not just the first part. You could try and get one of your friends to register you instead to possibly give yourself some clues as to what needs to be done. ¦ Reisio (talk) 19:13, 27 December 2011 (UTC)

Scroll bar when there is NOT suppose to be one

When I look at certain Wikipedia articles on my 15 inch laptop, the sentences go to the right into never-never land producing at the bottom a scroll bar so I can go find the end (which is a long ways down to the right as I am looking at it). They are suppose to, of course, break at the end of the screen and drop down to continue the sentence (with no scroll bar). Another 17 inch laptop I am able to look at displays the page correctly with no scroll bar. What setting do I have wrong on my 15 inch laptop that causes the sentences not to break properly and drop down correctly? It always worked correctly before, however a couple of days ago everything went screwy. I know of nothing I changed on any steeings. What is wrong?--Doug Coldwell ^talk 16:35, 27 December 2011 (UTC)

The problem only shows up where the article has in it "{{cquote". Other PCs do NOT have the problem, just mine. Perhaps I could use something else for the quote?--Doug Coldwell ^talk 16:43, 27 December 2011 (UTC)

Other PCs with the same monitor size and resolution set do not have the problem? Otherwise please specify what your resolution is, and link to a page at which the issue manifests. ¦ Reisio (talk) 19:37, 27 December 2011 (UTC)

No, another laptop I am able to look at is 17 inch and it appears correctly. My PC says Resolution 1366 x 768. The 17 inch says: 1440 x 900.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Otium --Doug Coldwell ^talk 19:44, 27 December 2011 (UTC)

Not just you, I'd bet most people with that "narrow" a resolution would see that issue at that page. Unfortunately {{cquote}} like many other templates has been protected, so the only way to fix it (if the problem indeed stems from that template) would be to prostrate yourself to an admin. ¦ Reisio (talk) 19:53, 27 December 2011 (UTC)

Turns out there was some poorly chosen CSS and some malformed HTML is all. Fixed. ¦ Reisio (talk) 19:59, 27 December 2011 (UTC)

Yes indeed. It is fixed! Works fine now. Thanks.--Doug Coldwell ^talk 20:05, 27 December 2011 (UTC)

Class design in web application

I just realised I'm facing a problem with class design at work. I'm supposed to implement a .NET web application where a WCF service running on the server decides what controls should be on the page (e.g. buttons, drop down lists, tables...) and what they should contain, and the web application on the client decides how to draw them. The client queries the server for a list of controls, which the server returns as simple objects that are only supposed to be used for data transfer, and the client generates full-blown System.Web.Controls controls out of them, to place on the rendered web page.

The problem I am having is with the inheritance design of these data transfer objects. I need different kinds of objects for different controls (buttons, drop down lists, tables...) At the moment I have an abstract base class and subclasses for different kinds of controls. I have thought of three possible options:

1. Put all the logic of creating full-blown System.Web.Controls controls into the data transfer object classes. But this ties the server code together with the UI code, when the server isn't even supposed to care about how the controls are rendered on the page. And if I decide to use third-party UI libraries for rendering the controls, these libraries are going to end on the server side too, when the server code doesn't even use them.
2. Only use one class for the data transfer objects, with an enumeration describing the kind of the control, and have the client code use a giant switch block to figure out what System.Web.Controls controls it should create. But this faces the problem that different controls use different data. For example, drop down lists have one-dimensional data, whereas tables have two-dimensional data. And buttons only need one string of text.
3. A mix-up of the two above options: Have a full inheritance hierarchy for the data transfer objects, but do all the logic of creating the System.Web.Controls controls on the web application, not the data transfer objects. But this faces the problem of how the web application is supposed to know which control it should draw from which data transfer object. Using a switch block based on the data transfer objects' classes or an enumeration seems like a hack or a kludge.

Can anyone give me information on how I should design this? JIP | Talk 19:09, 27 December 2011 (UTC)

http://webchat.freenode.net/?nick=JIP&channels=##asp.net (see topic for other .NET channels not focused on ASP specifically) ¦ Reisio (talk) 19:41, 27 December 2011 (UTC)

I read the article Visitor pattern and decided to adapt it as a solution to my problem. I now have all the control rendering logic in the web application, as it should be, and there is no giant switch block deciding what kind of control to render, as each control has its own specific Visit() method. JIP | Talk 21:21, 28 December 2011 (UTC)

Using HTTPS in an ASP.NET web application under IIS

It appears that an ASP.NET web application, running on Microsoft IIS, that we're delivering to a customer's servers has to use HTTPS instead of plain HTTP, because it's visible to the outside world and thus encrypting the communication between the users' browsers and the web application is required to prevent third parties from eavesdropping on the transferred data. How does one set up such a web application to use HTTPS? Is it simply a matter of application configuring in IIS or do we have to make code changes? Does our customer have to buy a certificate from some trusted certificate agency? JIP | Talk 20:10, 27 December 2011 (UTC)