Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Computing/2012 October 13

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October 13

I hate Farmville!

What's the nicest way to stop people sending me Farmville requests in Facebook? (And any other silly nonsense activities?) I seem to get up to half a dozen a day. HiLo48 (talk) 02:17, 13 October 2012 (UTC)

You could block Farmville or any other apps entirely by going to your News Feed, clicking the pencil icon to the right of the app title (e.g. “Farmville”, etc.), and clicking “Remove App”. Alternatively, you could message them and politely tell them to stop.71.146.0.234 (talk) 06:45, 13 October 2012 (UTC)

Geez, don't have a cow. :-) StuRat (talk) 08:12, 13 October 2012 (UTC)

Good luck keeping Facebook from doing the one thing they care about doing: selling. ¦ Reisio (talk) 21:31, 13 October 2012 (UTC)

But me getting annoying Farmville requests (and I got a Truth game one just now - hate them too), which I ignore, sells me nothing.HiLo48 (talk) 21:46, 13 October 2012 (UTC)

It's not about "you" per se those financial analysts on Wall Street are demanding to see scalable monetization. It's about the 10% who do go into farmville, especially online where its all measured by "clicks". Marketdiamond (talk) 00:52, 14 October 2012 (UTC)

But I see HiLo's point. Once you make it clear you aren't interested in buying a product or service, they would then do better by trying to sell you other products or services, not by continuing to try to sell the same old thing. That's poor marketing. I have a similar complaint about ads for cable TV I get mailed to me about once a week. By now they ought to have a fair idea that I'm not interested. StuRat (talk) 00:57, 14 October 2012 (UTC)

Is the ROI to change the programming at the critical level where those that would completely sign off Facebook are greater than those that would finally succumb to the Farmville ads? Or better question are all consultants under the same MBA brainwashing lol? Marketdiamond(talk) 01:11, 14 October 2012 (UTC)

Advertising customized to the individual is the hot new thing on the Internet, and Facebook appears to be behind the ball on this one.StuRat (talk) 01:20, 14 October 2012 (UTC)

There seems to be a lot of confusion in the above thread. As highlighted by 71, it isn't actually that hard to block requests from Games, games from specific friends etc. And Facebook does a lot of customized/targeted advertising in their actual advertising. The friend game spam is not Facebook advertising per se so it comes down to a matter of Facebook choosing between what their partners (app developers etc) want and what their users want (which varies between the user) although Facebook does do some degree of automatic customisation there (as well as real paid advertising with the recent promoted post feature) it's primarily up to the user to control what they want to see. Nil Einne (talk) 05:38, 14 October 2012 (UTC)

Great points but it's all theoretical until OP (and many more) close their FB accounts because of it (or stop buying en masse). It isn't silicon valley calling the shots its Wall Street now, cause it is their money. There are millions of $s betting OP and others won't leave at the status quo. (For a time there was even more $ betting they wouldn't be effectively monetized but that's a whole other trade). Marketdiamond(talk) 01:49, 14 October 2012 (UTC)

Numbers.doc

I'm sorry if I posted this in the wrong section, but I'm trying to list a team's win-loss record by adding one to the win column for every game won and adding one to the loss column for every game lost. I have the scores for every game played by the team in a season and was wondering how to add one for every win or loss by using the > and < signs with the score. For example, if the team's score was in cell A1, the opponent's score was in cell B1, and the win loss record was in cell C1, how could I say something like “If A1>B1, add 1 to C1”? I'm sorry if I sound confusing, this isn't very easy for me to explain in writing.71.146.0.234 (talk) 06:44, 13 October 2012 (UTC)

I'd first be tempted to try just what you listed: "If A1 > B1, then C1 = C1 + 1". Apple numbers does have an IF function, although I'm unsure of the exact syntax.

The 2nd approach might be to use the SIGN function: "SIGN returns 1 when a given number is positive, –1 when it is negative, and 0 when it is zero.". So, you could do something like C1 = C1 + (SIGN(A1-B1)+1)/2. This might not handle ties, though. Adding the CEILING or ROUNDUP function in might fix ties. StuRat (talk) 08:32, 13 October 2012 (UTC)

• I'm mostly a spreadsheet-avoider, so this might not be the right answer, but here is what I would try to do. I would first create a column C that would contain a 1 if the game was a win and a zero if the game was a loss. Then I would create a column D that is the cumulative sum of all of the entries from column C on the current line and above (wins), and a column E that subtracts the number in D from the total number of lines (losses).Looie496 (talk) 15:51, 13 October 2012 (UTC)

You can't have C1 simultaneously be a value and add to its own value — that makes it self-referential. If column C is a running total of wins or losses, what you can do is have C2 be something like, =IF(A2>B2,C1+1,C1), assuming row 1 contains score data. Notice the row numbers —it references the cell above it. (If you paste it to different rows, the references should automatically update.) The IF syntax (for Numbers or Excel) is IF([test condition],[value if true],[value if false]). This means that the formula for C1 must be something like, IF(A1>B1,1,0), to initialize the values. Or you could do it the way Looie suggests, which doesn't mean you have to have a different formula for the first row.--Mr.98 (talk) 16:36, 13 October 2012 (UTC)

Personal Hotspot on iOS

From http://support.apple.com/kb/HT3574: "To use this feature, your wireless carrier must offer Personal Hotspot and your devices must meet certain system requirements." Why does Internet tethering on iOS require carrier support? It is technically possible to use Internet tethering with any connection without carrier support, Android phones and tablets prove this. Write English in Cyrillic (talk) 15:46, 13 October 2012 (UTC)

There's no technical reason; they disable this feature if the carrier doesn't like it. A carrier might not like it because it means more traffic on their network. See the tethering article. -- Finlay McWalterჷTalk 16:08, 13 October 2012 (UTC)

As I understand the situation, the United States Federal Communications Commission has published several regulatory orders requiring service-providers (specific wireless carriers) to cease these limitations. However, enforcement of those requirements is pending litigation in several different jurisdictions. Until these legal issues are resolved, responsible vendors of mobile radio devices are complying with the current status-quo. It may be technically possible to circumvent such regulations (or contractual obligations) on some devices, but selling devices that flaut their radio license or service contract terms is typically a bad idea. You might find the FCC's web page informative:Open Internet, from FCC.gov, explaining some of the technical and legal issues. Outside of the United States is a different regulatory environment altogether: vendors who sell to diverse geographies have to find a compatible way to comply with regulations in lots of different places. You can check your iPhone's radio license by going to the device settings, "Settings > About > Legal > Regulatory" (and in some places, you may see additional licenses and other information). You should also see a radio license shorthand logo printed on the device, somewhere. Nimur (talk) 18:02, 13 October 2012 (UTC)