Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Computing/2013 October 11

Welcome to the Wikipedia Computing Reference Desk Archives
The page you are currently viewing is an archive page. While you can leave answers for any questions shown below, please ask new questions on one of the current reference desk pages.

October 11

Do you see the Amazon banner on this page?

If you go to this page and scroll down a bit, do you see a banner for Amazon.com below the paragraph about Amazon? I don't see it on a Windows 7 machine with Firefox but I can see it if I switch to Chrome. On FF, there's a blank white space where the banner should be but it's not there. It also shows up fine on my Linux box using Firefox and on my iPad using, of course, Safari. So, it seems to just be FF on Windows that is my issue. Any idea what would be causing this? Dismas|^(talk) 04:45, 11 October 2013 (UTC)

Could be a plugin. Since Wikipedia doesn't allow adverts like that the simplest assumption is that something on your computer is inserting them. Check your Browser plugins for anything suspicious. I'm use FF on Windows 7 and i have never seen advert banners here, other than those asking for donations. Thanks ツ Jenova20 ^(email) 08:27, 11 October 2013 (UTC)

There's no point in trying to fix cross-browser problems when your page doesn't validate. Oddly this page has two conflicting DOCTYPE directives - it looks like the header of one page has been glued onto the start of another. There are other validate errors too, but they may be fixed when you've gotten a sane DOCTYPE and only a single head and body tag. -- Finlay McWalterჷTalk 08:40, 11 October 2013 (UTC)

D'oh...completely missed the hyperlink and thought this was a Wikipedia problem...ツ Jenova20 ^(email) 08:43, 11 October 2013 (UTC)

Finlay, where are you getting those errors? The site is built on WordPress, so I'm not sure what I can do about the head and body tags. Jenova, I noticed what you missed and was about to point it out but ran into an edit conflict with your correction.  :) Dismas|^(talk) 08:46, 11 October 2013 (UTC)

Using either http://validator.w3.org or HTML Tidy. WordPress does not habitually generate invalid html, so your WordPress site is misconfigured. -- Finlay McWalterჷTalk 09:03, 11 October 2013 (UTC)

Thanks. I'm not sure where to begin since I didn't put the page together to begin with. Looks like there's some digging to do. Dismas|^(talk) 09:55, 11 October 2013 (UTC)

Yes I did, but then I added ecx.images-amazon.com to Firefox's built-in list of blocked image servers, and it went away. That's one thing that could be causing it.  Card Zero  (talk) 01:08, 12 October 2013 (UTC)

Shows up for me without issue (Windows Vista, IE9.) --.Yellow1996.^(ЬMИED¡) 02:49, 12 October 2013 (UTC)

Bah! I wasn't thinking of it as an ad. I was just thinking of it as a linked image. It's my AdBlock that's taking it out! Thank you! Dismas|^(talk) 04:14, 13 October 2013 (UTC)

"the google talk subscriber you have called is not available" when calling a number

Hi,

I called a number from someone's signature and got this message. What does it mean? How did they get a number like that - does this mean it doesn't actually ring their physical phone, or it does, by means of automatic forwarding?

google talk seems to be a downloadable client. can someone use it as a physical phone number that just seamlessly directs to their mobile phone (number) or landline number? 212.96.61.236 (talk) 15:21, 11 October 2013 (UTC)

Are you saying you tried to use an IP address as a phone number? Thanks ツ Jenova20 ^(email) 15:39, 11 October 2013 (UTC)

Yes, for example 212-966-1236 would be me, though I can't imagine how Wikipedia got it. No, just kidding, just a funny coincidence that I hvae the right number of digits at the moment!!  :) :) That's not at all what I meant.. I meant, in the signature after an email it included a telephone number. I called it, it rang ,then I got the google talk voice mail. What happene in this case - did the person's physical phone ring? Which one? How was it set? etc. 212.96.61.236 (talk) 18:04, 11 October 2013 (UTC)

It would have rang whatever phones the user has configured with it. In my case it would have rung my home phone and my cell phone. My home phone is actually plugged into an adapter that talks directly to Google Voice rather than using a traditional phone line, so I only pay for internet, not phone. Whichever one I answer first gets the call and the other one stops ringing. Since no one picked up it went to voice mail. I have the Google Voice plugin in my browser, so your "phone number" is a link on my screen. If I click it I can send a text from my PC or ask for one of my phones to ring. If I did that, then when I picked up the phone it would dial that number and start ringing on the other end. It's definitely a neat service.Katie R (talk) 19:19, 11 October 2013 (UTC)

Yes, check out our article on it: Google Talk. The number can automatically ring multiple phones for the user, letting them pick up on any of them, and provides online texting and voicemail transcription along with some filtering options. 209.131.76.183 (talk) 15:43, 11 October 2013 (UTC)

If you are calling the number (like yours: 212.96.61.236), that's not a phone number. That's an IP address. the two aren't connected, even if you are using Google Talk. Mingmingla (talk) 16:26, 11 October 2013 (UTC)

Ah, I somehow missed that part of the question and was a bit confused that Jenova20 brought up IP addresses for no reason. There's no way to go from an IP address to a phone number, except for in situations like criminal investigations where the ISP is asked to give up contact information. 209.131.76.183 (talk) 16:47, 11 October 2013 (UTC)

Right, he misunderstood "signature" he thought I meant like my signature at the end of this edit. Which coincidentally has the right number of digits for a phone number (212.966.1236). 212.96.61.236 (talk) 18:06, 11 October 2013 (UTC)