Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Computing/2012 November 25

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November 25

What is the current standard for form descriptions?

Is Extensible Forms Description Language the standard or is there a new one. I'm actually looking for a definition language for which a user friendly editor is available, that can be compiled to a web form, for which an open source library is available. And most importantly, has a DotNet WinForms implementation so I can show the form directly in an application. Thanks! Joepnl (talk) 15:41, 25 November 2012 (UTC)

A bit more information: there are lots of validated surveys to score a subject (quality of life, eyesight, etc). I'm looking for a standard format which these questions would fit in. Joepnl (talk) 17:42, 25 November 2012 (UTC)

2.0 Megapixel cell phone camera ?

I bought a Samsung 425G cell phone. The manual says it has a 2.0 Megapixel camera, see page labeled 177 (actually page 121, counting the unnumbered forward pages) here: [1]. The camera settings allow for a max resolution of 320×240, which, by my calculations, means 0.0768 Megapixels, or 1/26th what they advertised. Why the huge discrepancy ? My guess is that they mean 2.0 Megabits (not Megabytes or Megapixels), and that they are using 24-bit color. However, the advertising clearly says Megapixels, not Megabits. So, did they screw up the advertising big time ? StuRat (talk) 16:21, 25 November 2012 (UTC)

Many cameras record video at a much lower resolution than they will take still images (because their CPUs can't compress full-resolution video in real time, and/or because the bandwidth of their serial flash memories isn't fast enough to store it). Are you sure that you can't take stills at 2 Megapixels? -- Finlay McWalterჷTalk 16:28, 25 November 2012 (UTC)

Yea, that must be it. I see where it says in the manual it supports resolutions up to 1600×1200. Apparently the settings are just in the wrong places, with the video res showing up under the options for the stills. I haven't found where you set the still resolution yet. StuRat (talk) 16:37, 25 November 2012 (UTC)

It should be in the camera mode options screen. Note from the later using the camcorder section that camcording is a mode of camera; if you're only seeing resolution options 174x144 or 320x240, then you're in camcorder mode and need to get back into camera mode (which is an option in that same menu). -- Finlay McWalterჷTalk 16:41, 25 November 2012 (UTC)

Thanks. StuRat (talk) 16:51, 25 November 2012 (UTC)

Resolved

reverse the direction of the mouse?

I just got a new mac mini with a magic mouse. It works fine except it's exactly backwards--when I flick my finger up it scrolls the screen down and vice versa. How do I reverse the direction (and why would they make the default backwards?)--108.14.111.183 (talk) 21:08, 25 November 2012 (UTC)

Just to clarify what you mean, that gesture on the Magic Mouse seems almost the same as the motion of the wheel on a regular mouse - you roll the wheel as if you were rolling it away from your hand - and the text on the screen scrolls down so you can see the top of the page? If so, that is exactly the kind of behavoir I would expect. Anyway, this page from Apple describes the basic gestures you can use, and system preferences lets you configure it (though I somehow doubt it will let you reverse the scroll direction). Astronaut (talk) 21:28, 25 November 2012 (UTC)

No, no it's the exact opposite of a scroll wheel (which is the problem). If it was a wheel it would be the same as me pushing the scroll wheel toward the screen and having this text climb up the page. Anyway, I know there is a solution because this happened to me once before but my friend who is a computer guy, fixed it but I have no idea how.--108.14.111.183 (talk) 21:48, 25 November 2012 (UTC)

It all depends on if you think the window stays still and the wheel is moving the text or if you think the text stays still and the wheel moves the window. They are completely opposite motions. Sadly I am a PC person and know nothing of Mac setup. -- SGBailey (talk) 21:52, 25 November 2012 (UTC)

If you go to System Preferences -> Mouse or System Preferences -> Trackpad -> Scroll & Zoom, you can tick (or untick) "Scroll direction: natural" to change the scroll direction for mouse and trackpad. --Stephan Schulz (talk) 22:04, 25 November 2012 (UTC)

I can confirm that the way the OP describes is correct. It's intuitively backwards if you ask me. I have Macs at home and only discovered that Apple had done this after using my mother-in-law's Mac. They have a newer OS and the Magic Mouse. I hate it but have gotten sort of used to it. Dismas|^(talk) 14:27, 26 November 2012 (UTC)

The change came with MacOS 10.7 (Lion) to be more compatible with iOS devices (where the metaphor is that you "drag" the screen around directly). As I wrote above, at least in Mountain Lion, you can disable this change. I skipped Lion, so I do not know if it can be disabled there, too. --Stephan Schulz (talk) 18:17, 26 November 2012 (UTC)

Skype 6.0 broken on windows 7

I just logged into skype, and it started a forced update to 6.0.

After it finished, it said the program stopped working. I tried to start it again and found out i don't have access to the skype program folder. I tried to gain ownership in Windows 7 by using various tricks including elevated command prompt, and even activating the hidden Windows 7 administrator ("net user administrator /active:yes")

No option allows me to gain permissions for the folder, and it claims that it's unable to display the current owner of the folder when i go to the security tab?

This is my damn computer and i have admin on it. How can i tell windows to let me use my own damned computer? Or.... how can i get skype working again? This really pisses me off!

137.81.118.126 (talk) 23:54, 25 November 2012 (UTC)

http://community.skype.com/t5/Windows/Skype-won-t-install-quot-insufficient-privileges-quot/m-p/1005556/highlight/true#M74534 Trio The Punch (talk) 14:24, 26 November 2012 (UTC)