Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Computing/2011 December 4

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December 4

trouble editing blog

Here it is - blog - I'm browsing with Firefox on a Mac - usually, there are a couple of icons on the top right bar of the blog page - today, nothing... Thanks for any suggestions.--Adambrowne666 (talk) 00:30, 4 December 2011 (UTC)

Is it possible that you are no longer logged in as yourself, and so it thinks you are a visitor without edit capabilities? Try Logging in. TheGrimme (talk) 01:28, 5 December 2011 (UTC)

Thanks for the answer, but I thought of that. I have managed a work-around by finding the last time I visited the Dashboard in my History, and going in directly that way. Not ideal, but it worked. I wonder if the computer has some cookie issues - totally guessing, here... Adambrowne666 (talk) 02:57, 5 December 2011 (UTC)

Musical note software

Is there a software program that would allow me to record musical notation on my computer? (Doesn't have to actually make sound -- that's what guitars are for -- but it does have to be able to create sheet music.) Also, if there is indeed such a program, how affordable is it? Thanks in advance! 67.169.177.176 (talk) 01:14, 4 December 2011 (UTC)

GNU LilyPond is free; Sibelius (software) isn't, but is well regarded. -- Finlay McWalterჷTalk 01:18, 4 December 2011 (UTC)

I use Noteworthy Composer and Lilypond. I've just started a music course and have to use Sibelius and I think it's the worst abomination of music scorewriting software ever invented. Ughh. --Phil Holmes (talk) 11:34, 4 December 2011 (UTC)

See Scorewriter in general. -- Finlay McWalterჷTalk 01:21, 4 December 2011 (UTC)

Guitar Pro 5 is great and easy to use. I think it's free. It goes back and forth between tab and sheet music fairly well and will play back what you write in various midi-type voices. NByz (talk) 03:05, 4 December 2011 (UTC)

Thanks for your feedback, everyone! 67.169.177.176 (talk) 05:46, 4 December 2011 (UTC)

How can you make a network IPv6 capable?

When I dig the domain of my organization (when I'm in the local network), I get DNS records which also include AAAA records for the nameservers (I don't see these AAAA records when I google the DNS records for the site). But there is no IPv6 routing possible and the host itself does not have a AAAA records. Do you know what are things organizations need to do to migrate their servers to IPv6? Do you need to change any hardware to make this possible if the routers already support IPv6? More generally, what sort of changes do networks need to make to become IPv6 compatible? — Preceding unsigned comment added by Rain titan (talk • contribs) 12:55, 4 December 2011 (UTC)

In addition to registering a quad-A DNS record, the network needs to provide actual IP addresses. In IPv6, just like IPv4, this can be accomplished using static allocation, or more commonly, using DHCP. RFC 3315 Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol for IPv6 (DHCPv6) specifies the protocol implementation; if you work at the system-level, this simply means that you need to purchase IPv6-compliant network equipment (routers, switches, host configuration managers, DHCP servers, gateways, NATs, firewalls, and whatever other esoteric networking hardware that your enterprise needs). You can buy such routers from Cisco and other companies, or you can build your own out of a NetBSD IPv6 computer system.

If you want an IPv6 network to coexist with an IPv4 network, the problem is sufficiently complex that you often need to hire an expert. In theory, you will have a dual network-stack on most routers and hosts so that either IPv4 or IPv6 can be interpreted. In practice, this means ensuring that all of your computer systems are running recent software and that you have compatible IPv4/6 equipment on any shared network segment. If you intend to use IPv6 to communicate to the rest of the internet, you will need a service-provider that can assign IPv6 addresses. If your organization is large enough to have peering arrangements or other "non-ISP" connection to the Internet, you will almost certainly have a network operations center whose staff will know how your intranet connects to the internet. Nimur (talk) 17:20, 4 December 2011 (UTC)

How do I find Google Chrome's bookmarks in a recovered data directory?

I had my university's ITAC recover 40 GB from a failed hard drive (even though there were about 160 GBs, so clearly not good enough.) When I sifted through the directories/folders listed by file types, there was a "Web Bookmarks" folder all listed as PLISTs.

Apparently an Apple device recovered my data that belonged to a Windows computer. Regardless, where can I find my Chrome bookmarks, please? They were thousands, accumulated over the years. Thanks. --70.179.174.101 (talk) 19:52, 4 December 2011 (UTC)

I don't have a Windowss install to hand, but on Linux it's in a file called Bookmarks (stored in what looks like JSON format) in the Default chrome config file. On windows XP that should be somewhere like C:\Documents and Settings\<username>\Application Data\Local Settings\Google\Chrome\User Data\Default and on Windows Vista and Windows 7 I think it should be somewhere like C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Local\Google\Chrome\User Data\Default -- Finlay McWalterჷTalk 20:00, 4 December 2011 (UTC)

( ... exactly right for Vista!) Dbfirs 20:47, 4 December 2011 (UTC)

Just to confirm any possible confusion, the file is simply called "Bookmarks". There is no file extension for it, but the contents are in JSON format. TheGrimme (talk) 01:22, 5 December 2011 (UTC)

Why are shotgun microphones so expensive ?

Like on the order of 10-100X as much as many other types. StuRat (talk) 21:23, 4 December 2011 (UTC)

For a start, anyone that needs a shotgun microphones needs a higher performance. Therefore the mic itself need to be of better quality. Then there is the need to include the interference tube. On top of that, they are manufactured in much smaller quantity’s, so one doesn’t benefit from the savings that can be had from high volume production. Look at the price differential in say cars. --Aspro (talk) 22:18, 4 December 2011 (UTC)

Good mics generally are more expensive but they will last you a lifetime. BTW with many advanced mics you will need a phantom power unit or a mixing panel with phantom inputs. S_peakF_ree ^(talk)_(contribs) 22:40, 4 December 2011 (UTC)

Internet utility to project the horizon

Somewhere on the internet there is, or used to be, a utility that would accept latitude/longitude coordinates and a viewing elevation and direction and produce an outline drawing of the visible horizon, possibly with elevation peaks labelled. Every day I walk out of my house and look at the Vancouver North Shore mountains and it's time I learned the name of every peak I can see - however I've forgotten where that handy utility resides. Can anyone point me to a similar functionality? I'm not looking for Google Earth-style rendering, just a simple outline drawing so I can identify all the peaks. Thanks! Franamax (talk) 22:36, 4 December 2011 (UTC)

It's not a general service like you want, but Jonathan de Ferranti's viewfinderpanoramas.org has about 200 labelled panoramas like this one which show what's visible from specific locations. It looks like he has some general purpose software that takes a location and elevation info (presumably a DEM) and emits a labelled horizon graph. In the worst case, you might be able to persuade him to render some for you. To my mind it would be nice to have a general solution (linked from the GeoHack) for all Wikipedia articles with locations; perhaps writing an on-demand labelled horizon renderer would make for a nice Summer of Code for someone... -- Finlay McWalterჷTalk 23:26, 4 December 2011 (UTC)

http://www.heywhatsthat.com/wjr.html appears to do exactly what Franamax wants. --NorwegianBlue ^talk 15:25, 10 December 2011 (UTC)