Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Computing/2016 May 6

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May 6

How do I copy-and-paste a set of Excel data from a spreadsheet into a Wikipedia page?

How do I copy-and-paste a set of Excel data into a Wikipedia page? I'd like it to look "normal" (like columns of numbers). But it looks like this: User:Joseph A. Spadaro/Sandbox/Page71. Thanks. Joseph A. Spadaro (talk) 01:19, 6 May 2016 (UTC)

Typing wikipedia table excel into Google sent me to WP:Tools, which suggested this site, among others. Matt Deres (talk) 01:58, 6 May 2016 (UTC)

Wow, that worked perfectly. And it took all of three seconds! Hard to believe! Thanks. It created the new chart at the same page: User:Joseph A. Spadaro/Sandbox/Page71. Joseph A. Spadaro (talk) 03:20, 6 May 2016 (UTC)

(EC) You'll find some excel import tools at Wikipedia:Tools such as excel2wiki. I've not used it, but it looks promising. The alternative is to get the spreadsheet to generate the wikicode needed for a table, by setting up a column in which each cell uses a formula to calculate the wikicoded string needed for each row of the table ... i.e. based on the data intersperced with the wiki markup using a formula something like ="||"&B3&"|"&B4&"|"&B5, etc. You can then cut & paste the contents of that column (with an appropriate table header and end brackets) into wikipedia --Tagishsimon (talk) 02:01, 6 May 2016 (UTC)

Basicly, the tab characters or comma on CSV are replaced by "||", A linefeed is replaced by "|-", header and end of table are added. The cells in the head are separated by "!". If an online tool fails on a too long texts, use gedit on Linux or Notepad++ on Windows. --Hans Haase (有问题吗) 04:32, 6 May 2016 (UTC)

A general recommendation. Make your files ".csv" (example) and then use a script language to process it. You can use .html output, cgi script, a TCL program, etc to make some kind of presentation of the data. Modern scripting languages can even produce graphic files like .ppm or .svg to make a .html document complete with illustrations. MS-Excel is usually great for beginners with small amounts of data. Once it grows, things gets complicated.. There's always Gnumeric and others if you still want the spreadsheet thing. As for getting excel data into a wikipedia page. I would have from Excel exported all the data to a .csv file, processed it with a script, and then pasted it into the page in raw wikicode mode. If the generated data is too large for a paste to work. Then you can copy the wikipedia edit page to your local disk. Insert the (wiki) code using an editor or a script into preloaded textarea, change the base href to wikipedia.org and then submit. Bytesock (talk) 23:23, 6 May 2016 (UTC)

Joseph A. Spadaro, sorry, I foregot: Usually first scan/search the ecxel/calc sheet for cell splitting characters like tab, ";", "," or "|" to prevent a later mess it the mediawiki CMS. --Hans Haase (有问题吗) 05:28, 8 May 2016 (UTC)

Thanks, all. Joseph A. Spadaro (talk) 05:45, 8 May 2016 (UTC)

How to get a good job in IT industry?

The job market for computer based jobs is constantly expanding, so this is a great time to get your foot in the door. But how to get a good post in IT career? I am qualified with MCA. What are things we need to do to impress the interviewer. The first thing we need is a CV. When an employer looks at a CV that person is going to want to see evidence that you are capable of applying yourself, have an ability to learn and have experience of the tool or functional area you are applying for. I cannot stress how important it is to demonstrate to employers that you have that capability. So please tell me how we develop our CV. Can I use Professional resume writing service? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 59.92.216.135 (talk) 09:00, 6 May 2016 (UTC)

I am not sure if you are trying to promote a service, or ask if you can use it. I would not recommend using resumeplus.us. The Quixotic Potato (talk) 09:13, 6 May 2016 (UTC)

Spamlink removed.--Shantavira|^{feed me} 09:30, 6 May 2016 (UTC)

Get a job working for a small charity with just the odd server or two. You'll be a big fish in a small pond where you can (will have to) demonstrate all your skills, with no-one higher up to defer to when things go wrong. OK, you may not earn much to start with but you'll be able to prove to future employers that you're worth more than their other applicants on the short-list. Musicians are more open to expressing, that it was their early years waisted, just bumming around, which gave them the practical experience and confidences to make it into the big time. To get a good job, one's employer needs to see your chosen vocation is driven by the passion to be the best and that means being willing to do anything required. If you don't want to put that amount of effort in, and just take the easy route to securing a good income and wealth – go into politics.--Aspro (talk) 15:10, 6 May 2016 (UTC)

Radio Restricted Mode Checker

I have been looking at all the apps preinstalled my phone and I found one called "Radio Restricted Mode Checker." I searched for a description of the app, but I can't find anything about it at all. I'm interested because it has access to everything: making calls, camera, all files, location, etc... So, I just wonder what it is and what it is supposed to do. 209.149.115.199 (talk) 14:51, 6 May 2016 (UTC)

Hmmm. Some cellphone providers only allow roaming users to use voice/text but not data. Some users like it that way so they can avoid huge phone bills. Perhaps this is related to that? --Guy Macon (talk) 15:55, 6 May 2016 (UTC)

Converting from KB to KiB (and similar stuff)

For converting from KB to KiB (or the other way round), do you have to convert to B and then to KiB, or is there a direct way of converting?--Llaanngg (talk) 22:58, 6 May 2016 (UTC)

If you're talking about converting 1000-byte KB to 1024-byte KiB, then multiply by 0.9765625. Example: (38582*1000)/1024) = 37677.734375, and (38582*0.9765625) also = 37677.734375. For KiB to KB, divide by 0.9765625. -- 143.85.169.19 (talk) 23:14, 6 May 2016 (UTC)

Conversion of KB If that is representing 1000 bytes is done by simply divide by 1024. So "32 KB" would then be 32 000 bytes which is the same as 32 000 / 1024 = 31.25 KiB. HOWEVER.. your question makes it obvious that you have perhaps missed some essential about the SI-system. There's no "K" prefix anywhere in that system so both KB and KiB is invalid units. Only JEDEC recognize these ones. And that system of units has been deprecated since 1997. Still at least in 1970-1990s "KB" was very common and meant units of 1024 Bytes. Which was fine until computer memory and storage got big. Because KB can be interpreted as 1024 because there's no other unit with the same character code. When we get into the MB and GB sizes. Confusion becomes great because especially harddisc manufacturers took the chance to specify their capacity with the base 10 instead of base 2 which inflated those ratings. So the byte and KB works fine until you get into 1024 KB which is then written MB, but that can also be interpreted 1000 000 bytes OR 1048 576 bytes. To simplify matters. Assume that computer buses, transfers, RAM memories are all with the base 2. For harddisc the safe bet is in base 10. Then there's the issue of "kB" and "kb", where the first one is to be interpreted as 1024 bytes. And the latter as 1000 bits. A great difference. To avoid confusion, write kBytes, and kbits. Bytesock (talk) 23:41, 6 May 2016 (UTC)

Using the definitions and symbols in our articles Kilobyte and Kibibyte:
kB / 1.024 = KiB
KiB * 1.024 = kB ―Mandruss ☎ 20:16, 7 May 2016 (UTC)

Design and structure of the datapath between read head and microcontroller

Has anyone found out how the pathway from the read/write head in a harddisc is designed before it ends up as a DMA transfer into the buffer memory on the controller card? For example, the "WD Scopio Blue 160 GB" harddisc has three ARM microcontrollers. That the data is put into the cache memory by DMA seems obvious and also that it's sent to the S-ATA transmission line with another DMA transfer. But how is the circuitry between the read/write head and the ports and DMA sources that is presented to the ARM controller structured? Is it possible to read the analog values directly? or is that all hidden from the CPU? Is it possible to alter the decode process in any way? The input signal ought to be in the range of 200 Mbit/s decoded data per head and a bandwidth of circa 2 GHz. Bytesock (talk) 23:54, 6 May 2016 (UTC)

I believe the exact details are closely-guarded trade secrets. Hard drives are designed as black boxes. You can't "see" anything other than what the drive sends out over SATA/SCSI/whatever. To change anything the drive does you'd have to replace the drive's firmware, but, again, the drive manufacturers don't intend for you to be able to put anything other than their firmware on the drive, so you'd have to reverse-engineer it. --71.110.8.102 (talk) 05:04, 7 May 2016 (UTC)

I know it's an area where you have to figure out essentially everything by testing and analyzing. However some people have successfully entered the debug mode both through jtag and also by serial link. And even made one of the three MCUs run a program that modified the contents of the cache on the fly. The ROM is only 64 kB and the Feroceon 1 seems to be the one that do the read/write stuff. So I would say one can find out way more than what the drive sends over the official S-ATA/SCSI link. My question is more like what kind of interface the Feroceon 1 deals with towards the read/write lines? Someone ought to have tested some or handled a similar system. Bytesock (talk) 08:58, 7 May 2016 (UTC)