Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Computing/2012 January 1

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January 1

fuses that can be attached to a printed resistive heating device so as to maintain a temperature range ie: 100 degrees F

Looking to improve temperature control over a printed resistive heating device. Have been testing using a themistor type system, but am looking for added protection. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 99.155.19.96 (talk) 09:51, 1 January 2012 (UTC)

this looks as complex as the question ;-) fredgandt 10:18, 1 January 2012 (UTC)

malfunctioning header and footer in HTML file

Resolved

I’m maintaining a web site in which each file invokes header.htm and footer.htm, which of course provide the header and footer information for the pages on the site. My skill in HTML is not great; mostly I use Front Page and only go into the code to make small changes. I’ve never attempted to change the header/ footer files.

Yesterday, the content files I changed appeared on the web with no header/footer. Investigating, I found the header/footer files missing on my computer but still present at the web site. I don’t know how they came to missing; I’m the only one who uses this computer. I transferred header/footer back to my computer, re-saved the content files and transferred them back to the web. But the header/footer are still missing. What can be going on? --Halcatalyst (talk) 17:23, 1 January 2012 (UTC)

What language is the scripting in? E.g. how are you invoking the header/footer pages. (Pure HTML cannot invoke other pages, so there must be something else going on here.) --Mr.98 (talk) 17:53, 1 January 2012 (UTC)

• The language is Javascript.

• I forgot to add that there are differences in the code between the successful and unsuccessful “compilations.” I give that for the header.

Good: ...!--webbot bot="Include" U-Include="header.htm" TAG="BODY" startspan --> / <div align="center">...

Bad:...<!--webbot bot="Include" U-Include="header.htm" TAG="BODY" startspan --> / <strong>[header.htm]</strong><!--webbot bot="Include" i-checksum="4229" endspan --> / <div align="center">...

--Halcatalyst (talk) 18:10, 1 January 2012 (UTC)

Mmm, that's not Javascript. It appears to be some kind of FrontPage markup language. Perhaps there is someone who knows FrontPage who can help... --Mr.98 (talk) 21:45, 1 January 2012 (UTC)

The problem is that the files went missing on your computer, not your server? Do you use Filezilla? An inadvertent double click somewhere could have deleted the files from you computer. Or am I getting the wrong end of the stick? fredgandt 22:09, 1 January 2012 (UTC)

• I'm using FrontPage and Filezilla as well, and yes, the files were missing on my computer, not on the server, from where I recovered them. Not sure if the temporary loss of those files is related to the current problem.

• I wonder: how does FrontPage "include" files? In the code of the "content" files I can see header-related material, but it's not the same as in header.htm. The code above is from the content file, not header.htm. --Halcatalyst (talk) 01:12, 2 January 2012 (UTC)

FrontPage must run some sort of processing to manually make the include work, unless there is something server side that does it. I suspect that somewhere in this issue lies the problem — you're manually uploading files that need to be rendered or managed by FrontPage first. --Mr.98 (talk) 14:35, 2 January 2012 (UTC)

I managed to make one page work by replacing (with a few tweaks) the header and footer code with that of a page that worked. It was obvious that the code was corrupted; by comparison, there were huge gaps. To check whether FrontPage was then altering the code, I brought up the file in FP, inserted some text, saved, and FTP'd the file to the server. It worked fine.

Another editor I've had trouble with is KomPozer. It would intermittently foul up image paths (also in the header, but images that were used in menu items, so quite annoying. I figured out how to fix these -- KomPozer was sometimes changing the relative path to the absolute path on my computer.. Once I understood the situation, I could fix the problem easily, but it was, as I said, annoying. So I stopped using KomPozer and went back to FrontPage, which I had been using for a long time. I might try Kompozer again, with the known bug, and see if the current problem reappears.

Meanwhile, back to the remaining problem files, to see if the straightforward but tedious method will work for all. --Halcatalyst (talk)

The corrupted files on the site are now repaired and all is well. Thank you for your comments. --Halcatalyst (talk) 22:12, 2 January 2012 (UTC)

Laptop Purchase

Resolved

Hi, Not sure if this belongs here, but I am looking at buying a new 14" laptop in Canada for around $400. I'm planning to use it in class (high school), and around the house for web browsing, video watching, and hopefully some gaming too. I've pretty much narrowed it down to two options, an HP with 4GB of RAM and an AMD Quad-Core A6-3400M processor. [1] The other option is not available online but is an Acer with 6GB of RAM and an Intel Core i3-370m processor. It seems to me to be a tradeoff between the extra RAM on the Acer and the better processor and integrated video on the HP. I am computer literate (I've published applications on the Android Market, etc.), but I am not sure which one to go for. Any suggestions? Thanks, 99.240.226.174 (talk) 17:54, 1 January 2012 (UTC)

If you are planning any serious gaming, I would recommend that you focus on the graphics capabilities. Memory is easily upgradable, but most other laptop components are not. 24.254.222.77 (talk) 18:53, 1 January 2012 (UTC)

That's true. HP's product spec page says that it's upgradable to 8GB by yanking out the old 4GB DIMM and inserting a new 8GB one, so eventually you can get more RAM if that is needed. I would not say this is a "serious gaming" laptop, though, because video RAM appears to be shared with main RAM. Comet Tuttle (talk) 19:45, 1 January 2012 (UTC)

If you're going to be moving it around a lot, which it sounds like you are, you should check the respective weights of the laptops (the HP is 2.12kg). If one is significantly heavier, you may regret having to lug it around for the next few years. There's always a tradeoff to be had - between portability, performance, and price. -- Finlay McWalterჷTalk 19:53, 1 January 2012 (UTC)

You saying they're the same price? What's the graphics device on the Acer? ¦ Reisio (talk) 23:19, 1 January 2012 (UTC)

OP here. Thanks for the help: I decided to go with the HP, on the principle that RAM is more easily upgraded than a processor. For the record, the Acer had only an Intel Graphics 3000. Thanks, 72.136.170.188 (talk) 03:31, 2 January 2012 (UTC)

Keyboard layout defaults to English/US on Fedora 14 Linux

Now that I've upgraded to Fedora 14 Linux, I have found that my keyboard layout defaults to English/US instead of Finnish. I specifically configured the original Fedora 12 system to use the Finnish layout, and I didn't change that when upgrading to Fedora 14. But still, when I boot up the computer, and try to enter the letter ä, the computer prints an apostrophe ('). (The "ä" key on the Finnish layout is two keys right of the "l" key.) When I go to keyboard preferences and select the "layout" tab, there are two options listed: "Finnish" first and "English/US" second. After I delete the "English/US" option, the keyboard starts working with the Finnish layout as normal. But when I reboot the computer, the problem comes back. How can I make this setting permanent? JIP | Talk 19:45, 1 January 2012 (UTC)

You'd really get more Fedora help on IRC: http://webchat.freenode.net/?nick=JIP&channels=#fedora ¦ Reisio (talk) 20:10, 3 January 2012 (UTC)