Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Computing/2011 November 28

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November 28

x86 tablet PC that uses EFI or a simple boot ROM

I am looking for a decent quality (can be Chinese) x86 tablet that uses EFI or a simple boot ROM in place of a traditional BIOS to experiment with. I want to install Android-x86 on it, which has now released a 3.x version of Android. --Melab±1 ☎ 02:33, 28 November 2011 (UTC)

Anyone? --Melab±1 ☎ 22:16, 28 November 2011 (UTC)

I would really like an answer. --Melab±1 ☎ 00:01, 30 November 2011 (UTC)

I should be clearer. I do not like the typical set up of PCs where the first block of code has a mandated format that is so small. With EFI, I can have a better boot interface and allow for a larger bootloader. The only problem is that it has a legacy MBR, which is where I want the bootloader to start. In smartphones and tablets the boot ROM allows for flexibility. --Melab±1 ☎ 16:18, 30 November 2011 (UTC)

[1] suggests the HP Elitebook 2730p can expose EFI instead of the BIOS compatibility layer. It's a convertible tablet; I don't know whether it is resistive/capacitive/Wacom/whatever though. ~Alison C. (Crazytales) 17:38, 30 November 2011 (UTC)

How do you design a new database management for library??

How do you design a new database management for library?? — Preceding unsigned comment added by Michelle denise (talk • contribs) 10:51, 28 November 2011 (UTC)

What do you want to manage, the books or the readers? How big is the library. Maybe take a look at database management? Will it be online or offline? --Ouro (blah blah) 12:21, 28 November 2011 (UTC)

When designing a database, you need to start with how it is used. Is it for storage or for reporting (or a little of both)? Who will be storing data? How do they want to do it? Do they already have forms they fill out? What is on them? Who makes reports? What do they want in the report? Starting from the database technical view will lead to complete failure. -- kainaw™ 13:40, 28 November 2011 (UTC)

Go to a similar library doing what you want and copy theirs. I am never forget the day he taught me the secret of success, plagiarize. Dmcq (talk)

Agreed. Since libraries are generally in favor of the free flow of information, you may find them willing to share any software they've developed in-house for free. However, those who outsourced their DB creation may find the contractor unwilling to share for free. A modest effort might be to replicate the card catalog online, while a much more ambitious program would have all the books themselves available online, which would bring up security and copyright issues. StuRat (talk) 23:29, 30 November 2011 (UTC)

Scratch (programming language)

Is there an easy way to run a Scratch (programming language) file on a computer that doesn't have the Scratch software installed? Bubba73 ^{You talkin' to me?}

The official website (http://scratch.mit.edu/), with its tours, tutorials, wiki, forums, and user contributed projects, might be the place to start. Astronaut (talk) 17:06, 28 November 2011 (UTC)

Resolved

Bubba73 ^{You talkin' to me?} 18:45, 28 November 2011 (UTC)

Excel 2003: multiple password-protected spreadsheets feeding data to another

Hi all. I have to design a series of spreadsheets (in Excel 2003) which feed data into an overall "dashboard"-type spreadsheet. There are eight spreadsheets of data, from which data is pulled into the dashboard s/s by way of cell references ... you know the sort of thing: =SUM('[One_of_the_spreadsheets.xls]January'!$A$2:$A$42) and so on. Now, each of the eight spreadsheets has to be password-protected with a different password, as different teams within the department are using them. Sadly, when trying to open the dashboard, it will of course ask for each password in turn. Is there a way of avoiding having to enter each password when the dashboard is opened? I tried using SendKeys to populate the password pop-ups but that didn't work. (I am not very familiar with adding VB code to Excel documents, but I know a little VB in relation to MS Access and am willing to try any suggestions!). Thanks, Hassocks5489 (tickets please!) 16:24, 28 November 2011 (UTC)

Might not be much help, but what harm will befall your organization if you drop the paranoia and simply trust each team to fill in their bit and not mess with other teams' sheets? Astronaut (talk) 17:11, 28 November 2011 (UTC)

I don't have the choice; I have been asked (well, told!) to include passwords. I wouldn't normally use password protection on any stuff personally. Hassocks5489 (tickets please!) 18:21, 28 November 2011 (UTC)

Maybe your management will be satisfied if you password-protect each team's folder with a different password. The spreadsheet itself is not password-protected. The superuser, you, get to suck all the data out of the spreadsheets at will, but this might solve whatever problem your management is trying to solve by imposing the password requirement. Comet Tuttle (talk) 20:00, 28 November 2011 (UTC)

Two thoughts:

1. Have you tried using the "record macro" button, and then entering the passwords? It is quite useful for finding out the syntax of things; you then go into Visual Basic editor afterwards to get the code to do exactly what you want.
2. If it is a problem that the password prompts pop up as soon as you open the spreadsheet, you can probably turn off "automatic updating" of cells somewhere in the properties for that worksheet. Then, you will have time to manually start the password-entering macro before the password prompts appear automatically. The best would probably be to have the macro opening the spreadsheets and entering passwords _before_ the update routine loads, so you have full control over when the prompts appear and in which order. Once the worksheets are open, you would not be asked for passwords anymore in that session, right? Jørgen (talk) 20:10, 28 November 2011 (UTC)

Internet Explorer 8 in Windows 7

Due to multiple major hardware problems with my old Windows Vista computer, I've just bought a new computer with Windows 7. Some time ago, I tried IE9 on the Vista computer, but due to a range of problems, I returned to IE8; since the new computer has IE9, I downloaded IE8 from Microsoft's website and attempted to install it, but all I got was a message saying that it wouldn't work. Given the existence of images such as File:Internet Explorer 8.png, which shows IE8 running in Windows 7, I suspect that there's some way to do it — but how? Google isn't helping me: pretty much everything is help pages on how to get rid of it, not how to get it in the first place. Nyttend (talk) 20:46, 28 November 2011 (UTC)

Try this. Control Panel -> Programs -> View Installed Updates. Select "Windows Internet Explorer 9" and uninstall it. It should revert back to IE8.
However, I would give IE9 a few weeks - it is (in my opinion) better than IE8. TheGrimme (talk) 22:17, 28 November 2011 (UTC)

Thanks for the advice, but I already gave it a few weeks on the other computer, and I've been using it at work for months; IE8 does all I want it to, and it doesn't have the annoying ability for me to close tabs that aren't currently selected (I typically use tons of tabs) or the amazingly short window for typing the URL. I'll try the uninstall route momentarily. Nyttend (talk) 22:24, 28 November 2011 (UTC)

And I'm now viewing this page in IE8. I wouldn't have thought of checking updates, since I assumed that IE9 came with the computer: I had no clue that it was among the tons of updates that I installed (selectively, following advice from a tech-savvy trusted friend) upon initial setup. Thanks! Nyttend (talk) 22:36, 28 November 2011 (UTC)

I'm afraid to try uninstalling IE9, but I'm glad to see how to do it. It has been nothing but a pain on any computer where I have used it, including the one at home. I can't do that at a library.Vchimpanzee · talk · contributions · 14:29, 29 November 2011 (UTC)

Larry Ellison: Ever a coder?

When's the last time, if ever, Ellison himself wrote source code that was compiled into part of an Oracle product? 69.243.220.115 (talk) 23:24, 28 November 2011 (UTC)

I can't clearly answer the question you asked in the comment. But you seem to be asking a question in the subject which you didn't really make clear (I guess the 'if ever' is similar but it's fairly unclear as it sounds like your actual question is the last time not the if he ever did so bit) in the thread. I see some suggestion he did some work on Oracle 2 (the first released version) [2] [3]. From what I can tell from the earlier refs and the article on Ellison and Bob Miner, the jobs he had before joining Oracle were primarily ones were he was a coder (a skill that was self taught). However it sounds that as with Bill Gates (mentioned only because he's a somewhat related example), he quickly became much more involved in the management, planning, design and sales side of things where he was quite successful. How quick I don't know, per the Bob Miner article, it sounds like miner was much more involved in programming Oracle 3 but it also sounds like there probably weren't many employees (and you can probably find info on this if you look in to this) which suggests Ellison was likely still involved. And unlike with Bill Gates, whatever programming he did do is not that well known, perhaps partially because of the sort of stuff he worked on (not of much interest to early hobbyists or home users) and because he tends to keep a lower profile, but perhaps partially also because he wasn't interested or that great, which doesn't mean he was bad. (According to our article Bill Gates reviewed every line of code for the first 5+ years of Microsoft and rewrote parts of it. From [4] he said he occasionally worked on code as a hobby into the 2000s and also wrote some code that made it in to a shipping product in the early 1990s.) Other then products were the source have been released and with dated comments, it seems the only way we'll know when the last time any code made it in to a shipped product would be if someone probably Ellison commented on it and I can't find any interview where he was asked or commented on it. Nil Einne (talk) 16:22, 29 November 2011 (UTC)