Computing desk
< August 9	<< Jul \| August \| Sep >>	August 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.

August 10

Audio-only video on iPhone

I often listen to video lectures on my iPhone. Sometimes they are in podcast form, other times they are on YouTube. I would like to listen to these videos with the iPhone in auto-lock mode, with the screen off. I can do this with all kinds of audio but not video. Is there a way around this? Otherwise, when I'm listening to a video lecture when I'm walking or jogging with the phone in my pocket, it's using up the battery. Viriditas (talk) 10:57, 10 August 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Load the video, start it playing, then lock the screen. The video will pause, but you can double-tap the 'home' button to restart it, without turning the screen back on. See the first comment here. - Cucumber Mike (talk) 10:59, 10 August 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks! Viriditas (talk) 11:02, 10 August 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Tweeting on a phone

Hello, I love to tweet via my computer on twitter but I would really like to be able to tweet from my mobile phone. I live in the UK and have a pay as you go telephone (I am a poor man). I understand there is a procedure where I can "align" my twitter account with my telephone and then text tweets to a certain number, but I have no idea of the following items:

Which number I need to call (I have an orange phone)
How much each tweet will cost
Whether I will get @ replies texted to me
Whether it will cost me to receive @ replies

Can anyone shed any light on this situation? Horace Grundle (talk) 12:11, 10 August 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Unfortunately, you won't be able to use the full features of Twitter from your Orange phone, since Orange is not one of Twitter's 'Supported Mobile Carriers' in the UK. You will, however, be able to send tweets by using the number 07624800379. Follow the instructions here under 'To add your phone to your Twitter profile via long code:'. You will not be able to view tweets or receive replies by this method. In terms of how much it will cost, this will depend on what Orange charges you! The text should be charged the same as any other text to a (non-Orange) phone, although if you're concerned you could always call Orange customer services (dial 150) to check.

If you want to use all the features, including replies, over SMS, you will need to switch to another carrier - either 3 or O2. You should be able to get a SIM-only deal on a comparable pay-as-you-go tarrif, and be able to keep your existing phone number - just go into your favourite mobile phone shop and ask the nice man about it :) - Cucumber Mike (talk) 13:29, 10 August 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Unless I'm seriously misunderstanding the list you linked, Orange is not only a supported carrier in the UK but even has slightly broader (MMS) support than 3. 77.97.198.48 (talk) 22:53, 10 August 2012 (UTC)[reply]

The list is poorly designed. The borders are barely visible so the boundary between countries is not obvious. If you don't either look carefully, hover over Orange or select the UK, it looks a lot like MTN, Orange and Vodafone are part of Uganda whereas only MTN is for Uganda, the rest are for the UK. Nil Einne (talk) 14:25, 12 August 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Oh bum. Yes, I got this one completely wrong. My sincere apologies. Nil Einne has picked up what went wrong - on my PC the borders weren't just difficult to see - they were non-existent! It's only been today when I got to another PC that I've been able to see what all the fuss was about. Hopefully this is all straightened out now. Again, apologies for the duff info. - Cucumber Mike (talk) 15:04, 13 August 2012 (UTC)[reply]

HDMI to monitor

My custom built PC has a hdmi port and it will not display on my Monitor(hd). How can i get it to work? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 205.142.178.36 (talk) 16:23, 10 August 2012 (UTC)[reply]

What graphics card are you using? And what operating system? Looie496 (talk) 16:50, 10 August 2012 (UTC)[reply]

ios:windows

Graphics card is nvidia geforce i dont know any more stats for the graphics card — Preceding unsigned comment added by 205.142.178.36 (talk) 18:13, 10 August 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Windows 7 ? Has this computer ever displayed anything on any monitor ? If so, please describe what changed between then and now. StuRat (talk) 20:55, 10 August 2012 (UTC)[reply]

You can check if it's a problem with the monitor or the computer by trying out a different monitor, preferably one that you know works on a different computer. Alternately, find another computer that has a working HDMI port, and try it out on your monitor. Does the monitor have different possible inputs? Make sure that the source of the monitor is set to the correct port (my TV, that I sometimes use for a monitor, has 2 HDMI ports. Once, I was frantically trying to figure out why it wasn't displaying an image from the computer - I had the wrong HDMI port selected). It would help to give the make and model of the monitor as well. Buddy431 (talk) 22:11, 10 August 2012 (UTC)[reply]

The problem could also be the HDMI cable, so, if you have a spare, try it (your spare might be currently plugged into other devices). StuRat (talk) 02:07, 11 August 2012 (UTC)[reply]

the computer displays with vga on the monitor and the hdmi cable works on my tv to xbox but not pc to monitor — Preceding unsigned comment added by 205.142.178.36 (talk) 19:42, 11 August 2012 (UTC)[reply]

OK, so the HDMI cable is good. This leaves either the computer not sending a good HDMI signal or the monitor not being able to display an HDMI signal. I suggest you connect the computer to the TV via the HDMI cable. If this works, then we know the issue is with the computer monitor. (Incidentally, why not just continue to use the VGA cable to connect the computer to the monitor, does it not display at max resolution ?) StuRat (talk) 19:49, 11 August 2012 (UTC)[reply]

I have two monitors one takes vga and hdmi and the other is vga only i wanted to use hdmi on the one and vga on the other but now i feel like i will have to buy a new hdmi cord but they cost alot. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 205.142.178.36 (talk) 15:54, 12 August 2012 (UTC)[reply]

But I thought you already tested that HDMI cable between the XBOX and TV and found it to work ? If so, it's not the problem.

Also, to clarify, you are able to get the computer to display on both monitors using VGA, right ?

Now, a bit more on what you are trying to do. Do you want to clone the display, that is, have both monitors display exactly the same thing ? It's possible the computer can only send a VGA signal or an HDMI signal, not both at once. Did you try only connecting the computer to the one monitor, via HDMI, to see if that works ? StuRat (talk) 02:39, 13 August 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Hotmail Code

Hello. I received an email from what, according to Outlook.com, is a trusted source, Microsoft Account Team (account-security-noreply[at]microsoft. com), claiming that my Microsoft account has been verified along with a code. I don't remember verifying my account. What would one do to receive such an email? The email asks me to change my password if I didn't request this code. Has my email been infiltrated? Thanks in advance. --Mayfare (talk) 16:38, 10 August 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Does it invite you to click a link to change your password? If so, inspect the link address carefully .... —Tamfang (talk) 23:50, 10 August 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Given that outlook.com says it's legitimate I think it probably is (unless the claim that it's legitimate is in the message itself :-) ). It may be evidence that someone is trying to hack your account, though they haven't succeeded. Therefore you might want to change your password if you use the same password on other sites, or it's easily guessable (like a dictionary word). -- BenRG (talk) 19:12, 11 August 2012 (UTC)[reply]

A few days ago, I received an e-mail like that, too. Probably a leak on Microsoft's end? 189.19.225.111 (talk) 20:14, 15 August 2012 (UTC)[reply]

oldest website

What is the oldest still active website. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 205.142.178.36 (talk) 18:14, 10 August 2012 (UTC)[reply]

It would potentially depend on your definitions but if you follow similar ones to those used in our article History of the World Wide Web, the first website [1] is hard to beat as the oldest still active one.

April 1985 it was a six way tie. .edu#HistoryMarketDiamond 06:48, 11 August 2012 (UTC)

That's DNS, not the World Wide Web. -- BenRG (talk) 18:07, 11 August 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Interesting, you're right, but some definitions of "website" would precede the 1990 invention of the WWW, in fact even from 1990-1993(even 1995) "websites" were not HTML nor HTTP rather mainly File Transfer Protocols or Gopher, basically simply file retrieval services. Given that Gopher dates to 1991 and FTP dates to 1980 [2] but it wasn't until mid-1993 (and really not until mid-1995) for HTML and HTTP "websites" despite the World Wide Web being around for five years using mostly only TCP and Gopher, the six .edu sites would qualify as the first websites in the world. The "World Wide Web" having used non-HTML and non-HTTP sites for 4-6 years Q.E.D. the first "World Wide Web(sites)" would have to be something other than HTML and HTTP, it would have to be judged on DNS since FTP dates to 1980 and there were no "websites" until 1985. MarketdiamondMarketDiamond 10:06, 12 August 2012 (UTC)[reply]

CMU-April 24 1985 5000 Forbes Ave. Pittsburgh, PA 15213 along with 5 others . . . still active and very much a world wide web site! MarketDiamond 10:33, 12 August 2012 (UTC)

Granted as I said in my first post, it will depend on your definition and you could argue earlier services providing something you could call a website, I don't really get why DNS is so important to your definition of a website. If my DNS is broken and I visit simple webservers (which don't use things like virtual hosting and so don't care if I visit them via the IPv4 or IPv6 IP) I would still consider myself as visiting a website as I would expect many users even those who don't understand DNS. It's possible that nothing predating DNS is still at the same IP (IPv4 IP obviously) and therefore you could argue the website isn't still active, but this seems to be a completely unproven hypothesis rather then something supported by any sort of references. Nil Einne (talk) 13:43, 12 August 2012 (UTC)[reply]

DNS is just a name service. What CMU got on 24-Apr-1985 was the right to assign names ending in ".cmu.edu" to their past and future machines. No new Internet hosts suddenly appeared on that day.

There is an ftp: URL scheme that allows FTP sites that predate the WWW to be browsed from web browsers. There's also a file: URL scheme that allows you to browse files on your local machine. I don't think these should be called "web sites". -- BenRG (talk) 18:55, 12 August 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Interesting discussion, I just don't see a "server" as the same as visiting a "website" so then I go back into the HTML HTTP came about roughly 10 years after the first DNS's were assigned (and roughly 5 years after the first CERN server). This is great technical information! Nil Einne, if I read you correctly web servers=web site? And if that is the technical truth then ARPA/DARPA from 1969-1980ish and then FTP from circa 1980 until 1990 were not considered "web sites" in the way it would be understood today (I realize that semantically web site refers to "world wide web" but prior to 1990 there were "sites" on what we would call today the "web" even if it was simply FTP and storage), and if so what was the approximate date of the first website as would fit todays definition of a place on the internet? BenRG, I would be interested to know what you consider the first website or when approximately the first website was created (since the 1990 CERN server is 4-6 years before HTML or HTTP). And thanks for the great technical analysis! user:MarketdiamondMarketDiamond 01:55, 13 August 2012 (UTC)[reply]

No I'm not saying web servers are the same thing as a 'web site'. I'm saying I don't see any reason to restrict the definition of web site, however you define it, to something with a domain name. Having said that, I don't really understand how you 'web' anyway. I wouldn't personally call FTP sites solely used for distribution of software applications part of the 'web' for example. Some people think of the web as the same thing as internet but this definition is usually used by those with limited understanding of the internet and little experience of much besides WWW (not that I'm saying there's really a good definition of the web), and I think many people playing dedicated console, computer or even mobile games over the internet wouldn't in fact say they are playing them over the web (if they're playing them in their browser they may say that). Nil Einne (talk) 21:13, 13 August 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Clothing android app?

I don't know if this is the right type of question for the reference desk, but...

I really need a good app (preferably free, but beggars can't be choosers) for my phone that allows me to take pictures of my clothes and sort them into categories (for instance, business casual, casual, etc). I've tried looking around for one myself, but I haven't found a good one. Does anyone know of one? - Purplewowies (talk) 18:44, 10 August 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Have you tried Pinterest? It's not an app, and it won't let you use private settings, but it will allow you to upload images of your clothes and sort them into categories. I'm not sure if they have an app for Android just yet (I heard it was coming out) but I think you can still use it. Viriditas (talk) 02:16, 11 August 2012 (UTC)[reply]

To what end? Are you trying to make some sort of custom catalog of your clothes so that you can look at it and decide what to wear the next day? Not trying to be nosy here, just trying to understand what the eventual goal is to maybe come up with a solution by a different direction if necessary. Dismas|^(talk) 02:56, 11 August 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Yeah, pretty much. I want to be able to sort my clothes into business casual and non-business casual, maybe with some intermediate category there. (I have to wear business casual for a teaching practicum (unless I end up in the preschool class) and I'm bad at clothes, so I figured maybe some sort of way to sort them where I can see all of them at once and put them in different combinations without taking all my clothes out of my closet would be helpful.) - Purplewowies (talk) 03:39, 11 August 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Well, I managed to find an app called ANDress 2 after clicking through related ones from a couple apps that didn't do what I wanted. It's simple but sufficent for now. - Purplewowies (talk) 17:37, 11 August 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Resolved