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August 8

I can't install the Widgets extension on my wiki

I tried to install the Widgets extension on a wiki, but after installing it, pages that use this extension throw an error. The error content is at here. Could anyone who can understand this code analyze what the problem is? ChatGPT says it's a Smarty version issue, but I reinstalled Smarty and it didn't help. Also, the MediaWiki used by this wiki was recently upgraded, and I'm not sure if that has anything to do with it. Ataled (talk) 00:39, 8 August 2026 (UTC)

This is more a question for Wikipedia:Village pump (technical).→  ​‑‑Lambiam 09:35, 8 August 2026 (UTC)

Now I have fixed the bug. Thanks for ChatGPT. Ataled (talk) 13:11, 9 August 2026 (UTC)

August 10

Google not indexing Wikipedia article

In April this year I wrote the Wikipedia article Pyrox Wire Recorder. Just now I searched google for pyrox wire recorder but the Wikipedia article did not show up. Even pyrox wire recorder wikipedia did not yield the article. I got the same result in incognito mode. The lack of inclusion in the search results is interesting.

P.S. The search the archives at the top of this page only searches Wikipedia. I am on a mobile device. Commander Keane (talk) 10:54, 10 August 2026 (UTC)

Could be because the article is an orphan? Morwen (talk) 10:57, 10 August 2026 (UTC)

I don't know if that plays a part or not, but it's only an orphan from other articles; it has links from categories, image pages, and the like. Matt Deres (talk) 16:03, 10 August 2026 (UTC)

Well, I would suggest that's the essential definition of an orphan article. I made some WLs in 'See also' sections in various other articles, let's see what happens. MinorProphet (talk) 01:51, 11 August 2026 (UTC)

I just googled pyrox wire recorder, without quotes, having never visited the article or googled it before, and the Wikipedia article was the top result. DuncanHill (talk) 01:54, 11 August 2026 (UTC)

Bing, on the other hand, didn't find the article in the first three pages, but it did find the article talk page. DuncanHill (talk) 02:00, 11 August 2026 (UTC)

DuckDuckGo's results page first features a box contaning the start of the Wikipedia article ("The Pyrox Wire Recorder is an Australian wire recorder [...] dubbed on to an acetate disc..."), followed by "Continued in Wikipedia".  ​‑‑Lambiam 09:21, 11 August 2026 (UTC)

It is now the top result on Google.--Commander Keane (talk) 09:30, 11 August 2026 (UTC)

DuckDuck and G**gle results replicated. I cannot bring myself to use Bing, that way insanity lies. Removed orphan tag. Apparently, hurrah: WP Ref Desks 1, ROW 0

Resolved

MinorProphet (talk) 15:15, 11 August 2026 (UTC)

If I remember correctly, DuckDuckGo is pretty close to being a Bing shell anyways, especially after cutting out Yandex in 2022 Sesquilinear (talk) 07:11, 12 August 2026 (UTC)

Not replying to anyone in particular, but my question was not about getting Pyrox Wire Recorder indexed by Google, but understanding why it was not in the first place. I thought potentially the Google spiders were blocked by the Wikimedia Foundation (I have heard about 2 billion requests are blocked each day). Commander Keane (talk) 09:01, 12 August 2026 (UTC)

Commander Keane, take a look at Wikipedia:Controlling search engine indexing. It takes 90 days for an article to be allowed to be indexed on search engines if the article isn't patrolled, but if the article is patrolled it can immediately appear on a search engine. You are an administrator but you don't have the autopatrolled user right which explains this. ―Panamitsu (talk) 09:22, 12 August 2026 (UTC)

Mathematical moron here: The article was created on 14 April 2026, so theoretically (imho) it should have been available for the indexing by the evil search engine on 15 July. Signed, a recently confirmed non-autopatrolled editor. Ready to be shot down in flames, or at least trouted ...MinorProphet (talk) 17:31, 14 August 2026 (UTC)

The page suggests that it will sometimes only happen when an edit is made. Presumably that happened to this article, since it wasn't edited between April and August. Sesquilinear (talk) 00:59, 15 August 2026 (UTC)

August 11

Update to 'Problem with Firefox browser' 23 July query

 Courtesy link: Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Computing/2026 July 23 § Problem with Firefox browser 23 July 2026

As promised, I'm reporting back on the above. Thanks to all who offered advice. The first thing I did was follow MinorProphet's directions for saving my Firefox bookmarks, which worked perfectly.

I continued periodically opening Firefox, which continued to freeze after a few minutes. A day or so later, Firefox offered an update, which I implemented – this just seemed to make Firefox freeze more quickly! However, a few days later it offered another update, and this seemed to get it working again, though with an impression of 'frailty', if I can put it like that; there has been another update since which seems to have 'strengthened' it. So there does seem to have been a problem at Firefox's end.

That left the problem with accessing Gmail, which would no longer open my account with only my password. I went out to a network shop (EE) and purchased a new SIM card for my (non-smart) mobile phone (whose SIM had expired from non-use), but it turned out the phone (bought 2016) was locked to only two (other) networks (O2 and Vodafone). EE sent me round the corner to a mobile phone shop, which sold me the current 'any network' version of the same model phone, and I had the EE shop insert their SIM into this (which I could have done, but I wanted an expert to ensure everything was working properly).

Today I opened Firefox, opened Gmail again (which seems to have undergone a radical upgrade), and with a now-working mobile I was able to give its number and receive a text message with a verification code, and am now into my email account.

Phew!

Thanks again to Gadfium, Antonissimo, PiusImpavidus and MinorProphet for your help and advice.

In the next few months I am planning to buy an entire new (Windows 11-capable) IT setup, probably change ISP, and buy a smartphone, but I want to research all the best options first. {The poster formerly known as 87.81.230.195} ~2026-43920-01 (talk) 11:29, 11 August 2026 (UTC)

Hurrah for you from us all. Whatever, do not delay, the price of DRAM has shot through the roof with the mainstream deployment of LLM agents ('AI' although it's not), and the price of yer average desktop PC/Laptop/Apple has followed suit. MinorProphet (talk) 15:30, 11 August 2026 (UTC)

August 13

Longest mobile phone numbers still in active use

Current E.164 standard defines that phone numbers shall not exceed 15 digits, including country code (not the + sign).

1. Are there any mobile phone numbers still in use exceeding this limit?
2. What are the longest phone numbers in use country-wise? (I guess any country is interesting for me.) --KnightMove (talk) 08:27, 13 August 2026 (UTC)

The article you link to tells us that before 1997, the limit was 12 digits, so I somewhat doubt that numbers longer than 15 digits were ever common.

The schematic in the linked article indicates that this 15 digit limit includes the international dialling prefix, but the text tells that it doesn't include this prefix. The + sign in international phone numbers is a placeholder for this international dialling prefix, which varies by country (most commonly 00). I suppose the schematic may be wrong.

For question 2, do you want an answer for every country in the world? In my country (Netherlands), phone numbers are of the form +31 12 3456789 or +31 123 456789 (those numbers aren't in use). So, 11 digits, fixed length, except some special, short numbers. For machine-to-machine communication, numbers with 2 additional digits exist.

However (and this applies worldwide), subscribers can choose to add their own extensions to their base number, to which the 15 digit limit doesn't apply. For example, organisations that have an internal phone network may do this. PiusImpavidus (talk) 10:18, 13 August 2026 (UTC)

Thank you very much. But to avoid a misunderstanding: Does the latter also apply to mobile phones which may be associated with a single person for some timeframe? Or only to landline? --KnightMove (talk) 12:47, 13 August 2026 (UTC)

It seems extremely unlikely that phone number extensions would be used for mobile numbers. Mobile phone providers are based on one phone per number (and SIM), other organisations would be unlikely to use number extensions to forward one landline to multiple mobile phones, as (I think) they would need their own mobile network. PiusImpavidus (talk) 17:44, 14 August 2026 (UTC)

August 14

New kit

NB Completely unwonted hijack of recent vague request: please delete if unwanted.

"In the next few months I am planning to buy an entire new (Windows 11-capable) IT setup, probably change ISP, and buy a smartphone, but I want to research all the best options first. {The poster formerly known as 87.81.230.195} ~2026-43920-01 (talk) 11:29, 11 August 2026 (UTC)"

I'm sure that many of us would be more than happy to point you in the vague direction of some useful hardware - but any takers before this gets stricken? MinorProphet (talk) 18:29, 14 August 2026 (UTC)

To get any useful advice you will need to be much more specific about your requirements and your budget. Then try looking in computer magazines or ask for advice at your local computer shop. Shantavira|^{feed me} 07:55, 16 August 2026 (UTC)

To be clear, I wasn't soliciting advice from responders here, who don't know me, or my specific needs, or indeed my domestic, geographical and commercial milieux (and I am not particularly restrained by budgetary considerations). I will seek advice from IT knowledgeable acquaintences, and from local vendors. Thanks for the thought, though. {The poster formerly know as 87.81.230.195} ~2026-43920-01 (talk) 15:59, 16 August 2026 (UTC)

August 15

Vector graphics on Commons

I have left this comment on Talk:Seven-segment display character representations but as few eyes will be on this article, I repeat it here:

This reader, whose color vision is less than ideal, has difficulty in distinguishing between red and pale grey, so some diagrams are difficult to follow, and would be impossible for someone who is truly color-blind. Reducing the width (or, rather, breadth) of the grey segments by half would be beneficial to all readers.

I believe these are all .svg files, of which I have no knowledge or tools for editing. Would their replacement in the manner suggested be a trivial or difficult task? Doug butler (talk) 22:32, 15 August 2026 (UTC)

Inkscape is a popular tool for editing vector graphics files. .svg, if not too complex, can also be edited in a text editor. But I think that, instead of changing the dimensions of the off-elements, it would be both clearer to the viewer and easier for the editor to change the colours. What if we made the on-elements black instead of red? Although the aricle occasionally talks about on-elements being lit, these seven segment displays are also widely used on lcds, where the on-elements are dark and the background is light. PiusImpavidus (talk) 08:42, 16 August 2026 (UTC)

Agreed. Thank you. Doug butler (talk) 00:33, 17 August 2026 (UTC)

August 16

Backing up a folder/file tree (Windows) to a datastick

I want to backup a windows directory and all its subdirectories and files onto a Datastick. I later want to be able to restore the entire tree to a "hard disk" with exactly the same structure/content. I have used SYNCTOY to do this, but I have come across one situation where there appear to be more files in one directory than the datastick can support and it errors out.

Is there a straightforward solution? I would like to avoid moving half the files in the overlarge directory elsewhere, then using SYNCTOY, then putting the half files back again. It is too error prone. -- SGBailey (talk) 19:59, 16 August 2026 (UTC)

What filesystem is on your datastick? Most come from the shop formatted as FAT32 (the smaller ones) or exFAT (the larger ones), which have tighter limits on number of files and filesize than NTFS, the native filesystem for harddrives on Windows. You can format the stick to NTFS using your favourite storage device management tool, which will relax the limits, but may also reduce the life expectancy of your stick. This will destroy all files currently present on the stick. PiusImpavidus (talk) 09:36, 17 August 2026 (UTC)

It is FAT32 at present. Might exFAT work? Why will NTFS reduce the life expectancy of the stick? -- SGBailey (talk) 10:58, 17 August 2026 (UTC)

exFAT is better than FAT32 (more files, larger files) and is designed for removable flash storage devices, like datasticks and sd cards. In particular those of 32 GiB or larger.

NTFS is a journaling filesystem. It makes additional writes to help maintain filesystem integrity even when writes are interrupted (physically disconnecting the device, power failure), but those additional writes cause wear in the storage blocks of flash storage. Flash memory chips used in removable drives can't handle that many writes over their lifetime; built-in SSD storage can handle more, but is more expensive. There may be some settings to tweak these additional writes, but exFAT will be easier. There are other filesystems designed for removable flash storage, but exFAT has native Windows support. PiusImpavidus (talk) 12:39, 17 August 2026 (UTC)

I formatted the 256GB datastick as NTFS with 4096 allocation block doing a slow format (about 6 hours!). It worked fine. Thank you very much. -- SGBailey (talk) 15:49, 17 August 2026 (UTC)

Looking back 30 years or more, it used to take me around 6 hours to hard-format a 20 Megabyte MFM HDD with FAT with DOS 3.1 - has something gone horribly wrong in the meantime? MinorProphet (talk) 00:49, 21 August 2026 (UTC)

August 18

Question about object serialisation and deserialisation

I recently watched a video about insecure object serialisation and deserialisation. The video claimed that tampering with the serialised form of the object can cause malicious code to be executed on the target system where the object is deserialised.

Now I understand the principle, but I was left wondering how exactly deserialisation could introduce malicious code instead of corrupted data. Isn't the idea in classful object-oriented languages such as Java and C# that the executable code is stored in a separate part of memory from the actual object instances? I would imagine the executable code is shared between each instance of a particular class and only the data contained in the instances are separate.

Now I have myself only dabbled in serialising objects to XML or JSON in my work. This only serialises the data contained in the instances. Is it really possible to serialise and deserialise the actual executable code in languages such as Java and C#? JIP | Talk 18:43, 18 August 2026 (UTC)

Not all languages are object-oriented. In particular, C, probably the most commonly used vehicle for systems programming, has hardly any guardrails against data of one type being interpreted as data of another type. See further Code injection § Object injection and the sources cited there.  ​‑‑Lambiam 11:00, 19 August 2026 (UTC)

I understand that, but the video explicitly mentioned that Java, C#, Python and Ruby are vulnerable to this. JIP | Talk 12:32, 19 August 2026 (UTC)

Deserialization without validation can create objects of any type that exist in the application. For example, the deserialization code might think that it is deserializing a Cookie object, but the malicious data might actually result in creating a File object or a Login object or anything else. An attacker can't use this technique to generate literally any arbitrary code that he desires, but he can make the application call existing code in an unintended manner. The app thinks that it is calling a Cookie object to do something, and it actually ends up calling a File object containing hacker-supplied data, and calling it does something completely unintended. It does take some cleverness to make such an exploit actually do something useful to the attacker. CodeTalker (talk) 22:03, 19 August 2026 (UTC)

The Python pickle module's manual includes an example exploit. In that case, the serialised stream says "create an object of type os.system", but os.system is a standard library function, and since Python object creation looks the same as a function call, the effect is just to call the function immediately with arguments supplied by the stream. Adam Sampson (talk) 21:37, 20 August 2026 (UTC)

August 19

First mobile phone with polyphonic ringtones

I have been trying to find it to no avail (context here in talk page). Don´t know what else to say without being redundant with what i have already posted. Please remove the "definately" page from wiktionary, it is useless and confusing to people, ai and standard autocorrect (reading comprehension and attention span test). -xh-xe-xg- (talk) 07:15, 19 August 2026 (UTC)

wait i didnt place the -xh-xe-xg- (talk) 07:16, 19 August 2026 (UTC)

it still signed by itself? -xh-xe-xg- (talk) 07:16, 19 August 2026 (UTC)

August 20

Why are older AC/DC adapters bigger than modern AC/DC adapters?

I want to understand why older AC/DC adapters are bigger than modern ones. After some research, this is the answer I came up with. Is it correct?

1. Older AC/DC adapters are significantly larger and heavier than modern adapters primarily because they use linear power supply technology, whereas modern adapters use switched-mode power supply (SMPS) technology which is smaller.
2. Linear power supplies require large iron cores (or laminated silicon steel cores). SMPS uses smaller cores made of ferrite.
3. Linear power supplies waste more energy as heat and require larger heat sinks and more internal space.
4. Linear power supplies operate at a slower speed (50 to 60 Hz) and require larger capacitors to store more energy between cycles. SMPS operates at a higher speed (50,000 Hz to over 1,000,000 Hz) and uses smaller capacitors because they don't need to store as much energy between cycles.
5. In addition to using SMPS, modern capacitors (made of ceramics and polymers) are smaller than older capacitors (made of electrolytics).

A Quest For Knowledge (talk) 13:49, 20 August 2026 (UTC)

Hi, sorry for the intrusion, I changed your bulleted queries to numbered ones:

re 4: "Linear power supplies operate at a slower speed (50 to 60 Hz)" No change there, then, if you are considering domestic AC power in the US and elsewhere. MinorProphet (talk) 20:34, 20 August 2026 (UTC)

The description's basically correct. In a linear power supply, the AC from the supply is fed directly into a transformer to reduce the voltage. In a switch-mode power supply, the AC from the supply is rectified to give DC, then the DC is chopped up by an oscillator (the "switch" part) to give higher-frequency AC, and that's what goes into the transformer. (Leaving out a lot of details!) Transformers are much more efficient per weight at higher frequencies; that's why aircraft AC power is traditionally 400 Hz. Adam Sampson (talk) 21:26, 20 August 2026 (UTC)

The only bit there I'd quibble with is "made of electrolytics"; an electrolytic capacitor is called that because it uses an electrolyte between the layers. Electrolytic capacitor technology has improved over time too -- modern PSUs do still use them because they're much cheaper than other kinds of capacitor for large capacities, but they can be about half the size for the same rating than they were 40 years ago. Adam Sampson (talk) 21:30, 20 August 2026 (UTC)

August 22

DVD VOB empty play next

I selected the movie DVD, and then played an empty video. Can anyone explain why, when I played the next DVD, it was empty for about 3 seconds? Ranch9613 💬 17:38, 22 August 2026 (UTC)