Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Computing/2013 May 30

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May 30

Can't edit SVG file

Hello everyone. I've been trying to edit this SVG file with Inkscape (doesn't identify any text) and with a text processor (a search doesn't find the names I want to translate). Is there any problem with this file? Thanks! Leptictidium (mt) 10:29, 30 May 2013 (UTC)

It would appear that its creator has chosen to transform the text into paths. Thus, there is no easy way to translate it beyond deleting the labels you want to change, sorry. - Jarry1250 ^{[Vacation needed]} 10:43, 30 May 2013 (UTC)

(ec) Someone has transformed the text objects in the SVG into paths (so each individual letter is just a shape). This is usually, in my opinion at least, a bad idea (for images for Wikipedia), for just the reason you've discovered - the text isn't editable, and to translate or alter it, you'd need to manually recreate new text objects and delete the old letter shapes. -- Finlay McWalterჷTalk 10:52, 30 May 2013 (UTC)

And yet WP:SVG help#Rendering Inkscape files recommends you do exactly that, without explaining why. Bobmath (talk) 13:07, 30 May 2013 (UTC)

Above that (in the Font issues section) it says "For ease of subsequent editing and significantly smaller file sizes, substituting the font with an available font is the recommended option." (rather than convert to path). I think the later section means only to describe how that convert-to-path should be done, in the unusual cases where doing so is necessary (where there's a real requirement for a specific font, or where the text is in a language which is poorly supported by the fonts installed on Wikimedia's servers). -- Finlay McWalterჷTalk 13:16, 30 May 2013 (UTC)

That makes sense, but the SVG help page could be made clearer.

Playing with the current version of Inkscape a bit, it seems that "stroke to path" does not change text objects at all; "object to path" flattens them into shapes. Has this changed, or am I misunderstanding something again? Bobmath (talk) 13:43, 30 May 2013 (UTC)

Yes, it's not clear enough. By default, when Inkscape makes a text object, it doesn't give it a stroke (an outline, essentially). So stroke-to-path on that is a no-op (you'll note that doing that doesn't push a task onto the undo stack). If you take a text object, add a stroke (in the fill and stroke dialog : Ctrl+⇧ Shift+F), you can then meaninfully do a stroke-to-path, in which case you get an editable path for the outline (with the fill colour removed). -- Finlay McWalterჷTalk 14:13, 30 May 2013 (UTC)

Ah, thanks. I'd say "I feel stupid" but really I feel like hitting the Inkscape folks with a wiktionary:clue-by-four until they learn to write proper documentation. Bobmath (talk) 14:43, 30 May 2013 (UTC)

I've had to convert fonts to paths several times myself. As mentioned above, the need arises because Inkscape and other SVG editors support many more fonts than Wikipedia's servers do, and even the fonts that the servers support are not all supported correctly. When good support isn't there, the text doesn't look right in Wikipedia unless it is converted to a path -- you can easily end up with text that runs into other text, for example. Looie496 (talk) 14:47, 30 May 2013 (UTC)

Had the same problem as Looie496, when making maps with text labels. Often the font size turned out too large/small relative to other elements or texts was positioned incorrectly when interpreted by wikipedia's servers. Converting fonts to paths fixes this somewhat. That's also one of the reasons that many map making people at de:Wikipedia:Kartenwerkstatt prefer to upload png maps as they are just easier to make look good and identical to anybody. bamse (talk) 22:03, 30 May 2013 (UTC)

Me too! Ideally have one file with text labels for future modification and then also save a second file with paths for good display in SVG and PNG. I think this is a problem even if you only use Wikimedia-supported fonts.[1] Thincat (talk) 18:59, 31 May 2013 (UTC)

Deleting from gmail's spam folder

If I click the "delete forever" button for a message in my spam folder in gmail, does it makes it more likely that similar messages will be treated as spam in future (and the reverse for the "not spam" button)?

I ask, as sometimes I get things which I do not consider spam, but which after a quick glance at I'm happy to delete. For instance today someone sent me something advertising money off sandals, which I know from the subject I don't need to read - but I don't want to click "delete forever" if it means an e-mail advertising money of men's formal shoes gets treated as spam in future.

What I ended up doing was clicking "not spam" then going to the inbox and deleting it from there, but is there a need to do this if I want to avoid reinforcing it's 'belief' that the message was spam?

Thanks, davidprior ^t/_c 20:19, 30 May 2013 (UTC)

Only Google knows how Google interprets your user-actions - like "delete" and "mark as spam" - let alone complicated behaviors like repeatedly marking and un-marking a message as spam.

We could speculate wildly about their behind-the-scenes data aggregation, but Google does not publish how they "make it work." You can read about how open-source spam filters can interact with mail agents: for example, Perceptron in SpamAssassin can work with mail agents (user-interface programs or webmail clients) to back-propagate metadata information about spam to the filter as training data for its machine learning algorithm. Nimur (talk) 20:45, 30 May 2013 (UTC)

Facebook redirecting to another site

Sometimes when I navigate around Facebook I get redirected to a site called histle. org, can't figure out how this is happening is it possible that my laptop is infected with something? And if yes any ideas on how to fix. Mo ainm~Talk 22:51, 30 May 2013 (UTC)

It's certainly possible. Histle(dot)org looks like it might be some type of mirror. Legitimate or not I'm not sure. Without knowing exactly when you are being redirected, all I can advise you to do is a virus scan on your computer. --Yellow1996 (talk) 23:28, 30 May 2013 (UTC)

It happens at different times, I could click Home and it will happen or click a game or any of the groups I'm in, also did a scan with Malwarebytes and it found nothing. Mo ainm~Talk 23:36, 30 May 2013 (UTC)

Hmmm it could be something to do with your browser. Try a different one and see if it still happens; or maybe clear your cache/delete your cookies. --Yellow1996 (talk) 23:54, 30 May 2013 (UTC)

I also have recently started getting directed to Histle(.)org when clicking Facebook... I did a search on my issue and this page is the only mention of it... I use Chrome, Win 8 64 bit but will try viewing FB in IE 10 as its more secure. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 99.242.168.157 (talk) 03:35, 31 May 2013 (UTC)

According to this [2], which isn't the greatest, the issue may be related to an extension in chrome, you might want to take a look there for starters. Does the redirect always happen? If not, does it always happen for the same pages or is it just random and intermittent? If you download HijackThis and post the results of a log file from a scan on my talk page (hatted so as not to take up too much room), I'll take a look at it if none of this resolves the issue.Phoenixia1177 (talk) 07:40, 31 May 2013 (UTC)

I have disabled all my Chrome extensions see if that helps, thanks. Mo ainm~Talk 09:32, 31 May 2013 (UTC)

Anyone experiencing this problem could also contact facebook directly and report it, as this seems to be relatively recent (if this page is the only result for a search, like 99.242.168.157 said.) --Yellow1996 (talk) 01:07, 1 June 2013 (UTC)

Phoenixia1177 : thank-you for that '3' it seems anyone getting the issue all use Chrome - and all use FB extensions and deleting those FB extensions seems to do the trick.I personally have 3 FB extensions which are ad blockers and privacy blockers - so I have deleted 1 of 3. If I get that 'Histle .org' redirect again I will delete another until its pinned down. Thanks so much, cheers — Preceding unsigned comment added by 99.242.168.157 (talk) 10:36, 1 June 2013 (UTC)

Happy to hear it helped:-) Hopefully that'll be the end of the trouble:-)Phoenixia1177 (talk) 23:59, 1 June 2013 (UTC)