Computing desk
< May 16	<< Apr \| May \| Jun >>	May 18 >

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.

May 17

How long it would take give all bitcoins to miners if halving was not a thing?

When would it probably happen?2804:7F2:591:8124:DC97:FEBD:4BEB:86C0 (talk) 00:55, 17 May 2020 (UTC)[reply]

If seven maids with seven mops swept it for half a year, do you suppose, the Walrus said, that they could get it clear? Robert McClenon (talk) 01:00, 17 May 2020 (UTC)[reply]

It would've happened at the moment of the second halving under the current system. Currently, first you mine 1/2 the blocks, then 1/4, 1/8, 1/16... If there was no halving, you'd first mine one half, then the other, and then you'd be done. 93.136.69.56 (talk) 02:24, 17 May 2020 (UTC)[reply]

In fact sooner. Because hardware is getting faster, more people doing it etc. All the best: Rich Farmbrough (the apparently calm and reasonable) 23:07, 17 May 2020 (UTC).[reply]

Actually no. Bitcoin hashing difficulty is regularly adjusted to maintain a constant block production rate of 1008 blocks per week. 93.136.148.29 (talk) 05:52, 20 May 2020 (UTC)[reply]

This is correct, all other rules equal, all bitcoins would have been mined at the exact moment of the second halving. However it's notable that if halving wouldn't have been implemented, other rules would be different as well, possibly delaying exhaustion in some other way.--TZubiri (talk) 07:02, 23 May 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Registry Entry for Default Size of Windows

About a month ago, someone, in response to a question that I asked, told me about a registry change that sets the default width of windows in Windows 10. I have a wide monitor and sometimes my windows are getting trimmed down to fit a normal rather than wide monitor. Can someone again tell me where this registry change is documented? Thank you. Robert McClenon (talk) 01:02, 17 May 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Your earlier question, with answer, is at Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Computing/2020 April 12#Display Resizing Itself. --Lambiam 20:55, 17 May 2020 (UTC)[reply]

User:Lambiam - Thank you. I will try that when I feel like it. Robert McClenon (talk) 21:26, 20 May 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Intel 3930 stock cooler

I am wanting to upgrade a G3930 CPU but I notice that many second hand CPUs are sold without a HSF. I was wondering if there is somewhere I can look up information about the stock cooler of the G3930 CPU so I know what TDP it can dissipate. Thanks! — Preceding unsigned comment added by 213.205.200.125 (talk) 04:27, 17 May 2020 (UTC)[reply]

According to Intel's data sheet TDP is 51W. Elizium23 (talk) 04:43, 17 May 2020 (UTC)[reply]

I know that this is the TDP of the CPU but is it also the limit of the cooler it is supplied with? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 88.111.17.83 (talk) 12:17, 17 May 2020 (UTC)[reply]

The coolers supplied with Intel CPUs are sufficient for the TDP of those CPUs on a very hot day. Might I suggest a Noctua NH-L9i or Noctua NH-L9x65 instead? https://www.amazon.com/dp/B009VCAJ7W/ https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00VB3Y89E/ --Guy Macon (talk) 14:57, 17 May 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Intel stock coolers are crap. CPU won't exactly termal throttle at 100% use the day the stock cooler is installed, but it causes the CPU to run at high temps and you're not doing its shelf life any favors by doing that. I've had good success with Scythe coolers which are also very quiet. 93.142.75.94 (talk) 15:25, 17 May 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Computer became too slow

Not responding frequently. In Vlc software, video image freezes, audio rewinds 3 to 4 seconds and gets stuck in a loop & also CPU light glow red in color normally it's blue. Mine 4GB RAM (usage is always above 85%-90%) Windows 7 is operating system. Shutdown takes 10-15 mins. i3 processorRam nareshji (talk) 13:45, 17 May 2020 (UTC)[reply]

First, make sure your fans/heatsinks are not covered with dust.

Second, save your data a and do a clean install starting with a disk format.

Third, seriously considering making that fresh install Windows 10. As of January 14 2020 Windows 7 stopped getting Security updates, and there is now a bunch viruses and malware that target Windows 7. --Guy Macon (talk) 15:03, 17 May 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Ok before we get into installing new operating systems let's troubleshoot a bit. Are you having 85-90% RAM use or CPU use? In Task Manager go to Processes tab, click on the bottom on "Show processes from all users" and check which process(es) is/are using a lot of RAM (or CPU). RE: red/blue light, usually this light indicates disk access. You can go to the Performance tab and click on the bottom on "Resource Monitor". In the Resource Monitor select the Disk tab. You can see there if a process is reading/writing a lot of data to/from the disk. It sounds like you've installed something recently and it's abusing your computer's resources. 93.142.75.94 (talk) 15:20, 17 May 2020 (UTC)[reply]

...or maybe it got installed for him. He is using an OS that is known to be easily infected with malware, after all.

So long as he has an up-to-date firewall, he still had to do something, like visit an infected webpage. Windows 10 has better off-the-shelf protection against drive-by and "click on this file" infections but there's nothing inherently unsafe about 7 or safe about 10 (which one could even say comes with some malware preinstalled). The biggest risks are usually outdated firewall and outdated software. Both can still be fixed in 7. Keeping software up to date, getting an up to date non-Microsoft firewall and installing Cryptoprevent, alone goes probably >75% of the way towards Win10 off the shelf safety level. 93.142.75.94 (talk) 03:10, 18 May 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Hello IP user, how can I find abusing software in my installed programs? Ram nareshji (talk) 15:32, 17 May 2020 (UTC)[reply]

I thought "In Task Manager go to Processes tab, click on the bottom on "Show processes from all users" and check which process(es) is/are using a lot of RAM (or CPU)" was pretty clear. --Guy Macon (talk) 15:58, 17 May 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Yeah. Task Manager can be started by Ctrl+Alt+Delete, or by right-clicking the taskbar and selecting it from the menu. You'll get a list of mostly .exe files that are currently running, looking something like this. You can sort it by CPU, CPU Time or Memory to see which are the most demanding. If the columns I mentioned are missing use the menu View > Select Columns to add them. This is not a surefire method but works over 90% of the time in my experience. 93.142.75.94 (talk) 03:10, 18 May 2020 (UTC)[reply]

‴ and ⁗

I'm not seeing these html entities as characters - yes the unicode items work, and the numeric representations ‴ as ‴.

But ′, ″, ‴ and &qprime; renders as "′, ″, ‴ and ⁗", on both Chrome and Firefox. Strangely the characters display fine on W3Schools tprime and qprime.

The code is:

‴
I will display ‴
I will display ‴
I will display ‴

which renders here as: ‴

I will display ‴

Is this the mediawiki software getting in the way?

All the best: Rich Farmbrough (the apparently calm and reasonable) 16:13, 17 May 2020 (UTC).[reply]

Yes, mediawiki is getting in the way. See the discussion at Talk:List of XML and HTML character entity references regarding (non) support of HTML5 character entities. 87.112.77.203 (talk) 17:26, 17 May 2020 (UTC)[reply]

For all but the 5 character entities that HTML and XML share, mediawiki will translate the ones it knows about to numeric literals, and will escape the rest (as you've seen). The responsible code is in https://github.com/wikimedia/mediawiki/blob/master/includes/parser/Sanitizer.php You'll notice that it has all the HTML4 entities, but not the large number of additional entities that HTML5 added. 87.112.77.203 (talk) 17:41, 17 May 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks. All the best: Rich Farmbrough (the apparently calm and reasonable) 23:15, 17 May 2020 (UTC).[reply]

I did come across this and this. All the best: Rich Farmbrough (the apparently calm and reasonable) 23:15, 17 May 2020 (UTC).[reply]

Uploading files to GitHub

I've now created a GitHub repository for my Amiga games. It's a private repository so far so I can get things set up, I'll probably convert it to public later.

I ran into a problem right away. I clicked on "Upload files" and then "Select files". A file requester window popped up and I selected some files and clicked "Open".

At this point GitHub should have probably uploaded the files. But no, it did nothing whatsoever. The page said "Uploading 1 of 62 files" and just stayed there. System Monitor showed that the computer wasn't uploading anything.

Uploading the files from the command line using the git command worked like a charm. But the web interface did nothing whatsoever. Why? Did I do something wrong? JIP | Talk 16:33, 17 May 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Which browser and OS do you use? Do you have an ad blocking/script blocking extension? These are often the culprits. 93.142.75.94 (talk) 03:11, 18 May 2020 (UTC)[reply]

I am using Mozilla Firefox on Fedora 26 Linux. However, uploading images to WikiMedia Commons works all OK with the exact same browser. But for some reason, I can't upload text files of only a couple of kilobytes to GitHub with the browser, only with the command line tool. JIP | Talk 08:26, 18 May 2020 (UTC)[reply]

I can't able to share download URL

My friend complaining me about download link I gave him is not working, it's actually working in my ip but not worKing in another ip. Why is that happening ? Ram nareshji (talk) 16:42, 17 May 2020 (UTC)[reply]

One possibility is that the download site itself is causing this. A web server is completely free to decide not to serve content to some client IPs. But this depends on what kind of site you are using. It's impossible to give a definite answer without knowing the details. JIP | Talk 17:11, 17 May 2020 (UTC)[reply]

His download link not working in my ip. It's weird , is there any computing term for it for download link works only at one ip ? Ram nareshji (talk) 17:33, 17 May 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Geo-blocking. But there are other possible reasons. If you post a bare url then it may be truncated by his software. What is the url and how do you share it? PrimeHunter (talk) 18:00, 17 May 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Firewalling is also a computing term that could apply. IP ACLs (access control lists), blacklisting, etc. etc. Elizium23 (talk) 23:28, 17 May 2020 (UTC)[reply]

I Think it's Hotlink protected link, so Geo blocking is same as Hotlink protected link ? Ram nareshji (talk) 19:18, 17 May 2020 (UTC)[reply]

It is not the same, and if it is hotlink protected how does it work for you? Please, what does it mean "not working"? Error message, nothing happens, file is corrupted on arrival, ... ? 2003:F5:6F08:8200:351A:656A:496C:6A58 (talk) 19:38, 17 May 2020 (UTC) Marco PB[reply]

How it works: your browser sends the server a HTTP request containing the URL address you want to load and a few other things.

Geoblocking - server receives your request, looks up the IP it was sent from (your IP) in a sort of address book to see which country/city it's from, and either sends you the file or gives you an error message.
Hotlink protection - server receives your request and checks the contents of the HTTP REFERER field. The REFERER field contains the URL of the page that contains the image, and if the page is from an unknown web domain, server gives you an error message.
Cookies - when you uploaded that file, the website has probably set cookies in your browser. The HTTP request will contain these cookies. The site sees that your friend's request doesn't have these cookies, so he's clearly a different user than you. If you set the file as "private" or something like that when uploading, the fileshare server might be using cookies to make sure only the original uploader can see the file. 93.142.75.94 (talk) 02:57, 18 May 2020 (UTC)[reply]
Just as a quick note, while REFERER might be the most common method I'm fairly sure some sites use cookies or other measures probably even including IP whitelisting for a custom URL (which means that users with certain setups where their IP changes with every request are SOL), for "hotlink protection". (To some extent of course, protections to ensure only a authenticated user allowed access to a file can download it can be called "hotlink protection". But I think such measures can be said to have a meaningful functional and end user difference. By comparison, if the site's sole purpose for protections is to ensure you see their ads, whatever measures they use to enforce this requirement they are IMO all clearly "hotlink protection".) To the OP, if you think hotlink protection is the problem, you should share the main URL for the file not the fine download link. For example if you visited a URL and then had to click on through one or more download confirmation screens, you should share the URL before you clicked through those confirmation screens. In some cases, whether for hotlink protection or other reasons, you can't even share a URL for the specific file. If you had to search or select the file you wanted to download, in some cases you need to just provide instructions on how to do the same thing. Nil Einne (talk) 21:38, 18 May 2020 (UTC)[reply]