Jump to content

Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Computing/2024 October 7

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Computing desk
< October 6 << Sep | October | Nov >> Current desk >
Welcome to the Wikipedia Computing Reference Desk Archives
The page you are currently viewing is a transcluded 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 7

[edit]

^ A^ B^ C^ D

[edit]

This section was previously titled ^[[A^[[B^[[C^[[D but that caused some issues with section links. --Komonzia (talk) 18:51, 18 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

On Windows command prompt instead of up, down, right, left cursor functionality (arrow keys). Any ideas? All the best: Rich Farmbrough 17:26, 5 October 2024 (UTC).[reply]

Your keypresses are being incorrectly converted into control characters. I see the same thing regularly on Linux, though, and not Windows. See here for more info: Stackoverflow question
If you launch the command line from the Start menu, then it shouldn't be doing this at the first prompt.
Are you sure you have launched cmd.exe from your desktop, and it's doing this? Or maybe you have launched Powershell instead, or something in WSL. Komonzia (talk) 23:42, 5 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]
Absolutely command prompt, and, yes I found the stack overflow and other items. I'm pretty sure some weird keystroke caused it, because I was using up-arrow almost immediately before it happened. It's likely to happen again, and I like to know how to get out of these funny states (there are more of them than most people are aware). All the best: Rich Farmbrough 00:20, 6 October 2024 (UTC).[reply]
I've played around with the keyboard to try to reproduce, no luck with that. However I did find the caps lock temporarily stops the mains hum on my soundbar... All the best: Rich Farmbrough 00:26, 6 October 2024 (UTC).[reply]
Did you try numlock? Or insert Andre🚐 00:28, 6 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]
Numlock doesn't affect the actual cursor keys which I was referring to. The numpad keys work as cursor keys or numbers as expected. Cheers. Rich Farmbrough 00:38, 6 October 2024 (UTC).[reply]
Usually on Linux and Powershell it happens after pressing another key combination, or after having started a command / program which runs for a long time or returns another prompt.
Ctrl+C or Ctrl+Break to force quit it and return a new prompt usually works. I think in cmd.exe it would return a new prompt which isn't stuck in that mode. Komonzia (talk) 00:59, 6 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]
Interesting, thanks. I think I did something that closed the command prompt in the end, which was unplanned. I wonder if it's worth writing a little keystroke logging program to help analyze these sorts of things. All the best: Rich Farmbrough 15:26, 6 October 2024 (UTC).[reply]
You can avoid this problem by reconfiguring the shell to a Linux-based virtual drive with parametric feedback. It’s a pretty simple and basic fix. Dikelan (talk) 00:23, 7 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]
Damn, I was hoping to use hyper-parametric feedback with a conch shell. But your idea is clearly better. All the best: Rich Farmbrough 10:12, 7 October 2024 (UTC).[reply]

Ripping Google Street View

[edit]

I'd like to rip entire streets' worth of photos from Google Street View of my old hometown, for nostalgical sake. I've found [1] and its update [2]. However, going by their README descriptions, they only seem to be able to manually select single photos and download them, all manually.

As said, I wanna be able to just enter a street name (together with town name) and rip frontal views of the houses left and right from the 360° views as single JPGs, BMPs, or TIFs for the entire street, and on each position, I additionally want shots when rotating the view at 45° degrees horizontally (as when the viewer is rotating around his own axis), so I'm getting 8 shots (360° / 45° = 8 shots) per position.

Additional requirement is that on full zoom out (which is the default with Google Street view, and it's where it jumps back everything you move from one position to the next), the place looks kinda alien (see perspective distortion). I've found that when zooming in by means of mouse scrolling, the first and second zoom-in level below full zoom-out look perfect. So, that would make 16 screenshots per position (8 shots, each at two different zoom levels).

Is there any way to do that in an automated fashion: Ripping an entire street worth of photos by street name and town name, rotating at 45% on each position, zooming in on level 1 and 2 below fully zoomed out, and taking a screenshot? Whether by means of the linked GitHubs or another way? Or could it be easier ripping the entire 360° views for each position and then use a different tool or script on those downloaded 360° views to get those 45° screenshots? --2003:DA:CF2E:4532:8439:C5C9:2522:57ED (talk) 15:05, 7 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

I think the first program you linked can work for what you want to do. You could get the coordinates for where each street starts and ends (Google Maps), interpolate between them to get a list of positions on the street (scripting language of your choice), then grab the closest panorama for each. GIMP has a perspective tool, but there's still the issue of automation. FifthFive (talk) 17:48, 7 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]
Photos seem to be taken at specific points, using wide angle lenses + software magic to create a 360 view. This will restrict you a tad. Google have some 3d rendering stuff going on but it is a little crude, good at boxes, less good at trees etc. All the best: Rich Farmbrough 19:49, 18 October 2024 (UTC).[reply]