Wikipedia:Reference desk/Computing: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 00:01, 16 June 2022

Latest revision as of 14:44, 2 September 2025

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[[Category:Wikipedia reference desk|Computing]]

[[Category:Wikipedia help pages with dated sections]]

[[ Category:Wikipedia resources for researchers]]
</noinclude>

= June 9 =

= August 19 =

== Shortest video game ==

== Google Chrome autofill suggestions ==

[[A Short Hike]] (as the name suggests) can be beaten within a few hours. What other games are like that? [[User:JuniperChill|JuniperChill]] ([[User talk:JuniperChill|talk]]) 19:18, 19 August 2025 (UTC)

Hello!

: "50 Games Like" aims to be a weighted-category based games recomendation engine. Just based on ''A Short Hike'', it lists [https://www.50gameslike.com/games-like/a-short-hike these games]. But that's based on ''all'' the categories ''A Short Hike'' is in ("cute", "adventure", "exploration", etc.). If you just want "short" games, you click on just the category button and it gives you [https://www.50gameslike.com/best-games-by-type/short short games in all genres] (which aren't like ''A Short Hike'', except in shortness). Subjectively, it looks more useful than Steam's recommendation engine, which gives me some fairly bonkers suggestions ("you liked FTL, so you might like Doom Eternal"). -- [[User:Finlay McWalter|Finlay McWalter]]'''··–·'''[[User talk:Finlay McWalter|Talk]] 19:40, 19 August 2025 (UTC)

Can someone tell me where are the Google Chrome omnibox autofill/autocomplete suggestions stored as a database file in Windows?

:Finlay's answer is excellent, but I can't help mention that the original ''[[Portal (video game)|Portal]]'' game is both famously short and considered one of the best games of all time. If shortness is the prime criteria, you could do worse. But apart from the duration, it's nothing like ''A Short Hike''. [[User:Matt Deres|Matt Deres]] ([[User talk:Matt Deres|talk]]) 12:40, 20 August 2025 (UTC)

::Guess that means that ''A Short Hike'' is unique in its shortness, cosiness, and adventure. ''[[Lil Gator Game]]'' is quite close in terms of layout and that the player can climb but idk about its length since I haven't played the latter, but have played the former. I was mostly focusing on shortness, hence the title of the discussion. [[User:JuniperChill|JuniperChill]] ([[User talk:JuniperChill|talk]]) 19:37, 20 August 2025 (UTC)

:Check out https://howlongtobeat.com/user/a19xys/lists/25829/%5B-Short-%26-Good-(-5h)-%5D, perhaps. [[User:Aaron Liu|<span class="skin-invert" style="color:#0645ad">Aaron Liu</span>]] ([[User talk:Aaron Liu#top|talk]]) 23:37, 20 August 2025 (UTC)

:@[[User:JuniperChill|JuniperChill]] In Far Cry 4, if you just sit at the table and wait for Pagan Min to return, it is a very short video game. Less than 15 minutes. [[User:Polygnotus|Polygnotus]] ([[User talk:Polygnotus|talk]]) 00:56, 21 August 2025 (UTC)

::Well, consuming the crab rangoon can't be so bad it's considered an "adventure", can it? [[User:Aaron Liu|<span class="skin-invert" style="color:#0645ad">Aaron Liu</span>]] ([[User talk:Aaron Liu#top|talk]]) 01:04, 21 August 2025 (UTC)

:::@[[User:Aaron Liu|Aaron Liu]] Traveling to a country far away, ending up in a firefight in which some people get killed, seeing a murder close-up (over a simple miscommunication), getting invited to the palace of the dictator of said country as a VIP guest, bringing moms ashes to their final resting place and learning about your tragic family history is quite an adventure (although some would just call that Tuesday). [[User:Polygnotus|Polygnotus]] ([[User talk:Polygnotus|talk]]) 13:40, 21 August 2025 (UTC)

= August 20 =

I thought they would be on ''C:\Users\user\AppData\Local\Google\Chrome\User Data\Default\Shortcuts'' but after deleting some entries from there for testing purposes I quickly noticed those words still showed up as suggestions on the omnibox with the little clock on the left side of them suggesting they still lived somewhere on a specific file. - [[User:Klein Muçi|Klein Muçi]] ([[User talk:Klein Muçi|talk]]) 22:25, 9 June 2022 (UTC)

== Which year American staté the bill on count ==

:It's stored in "%LOCALAPPDATA%\Google\Chrome\User Data\Default\Web Data", you can open it with an [[SQLite]] browser/opener. Look under the 'autofill' table. [[User:WhoAteMyButter|<span style="color:#ffb300">'''WhoAteMyButter'''</span>]] ([[User talk:WhoAteMyButter|<span title="Talk Page">📨_talk</span>]]│[[Special:Contributions/WhoAteMyButter|<span title="Contribs">📝^contribs</span>]]) 23:02, 9 June 2022 (UTC)

::@[[User:WhoAteMyButter|WhoAteMyButter]], I did but it is not. :/ I find none of the current suggestions I get in the omnibox in there. - [[User:Klein Muçi|Klein Muçi]] ([[User talk:Klein Muçi|talk]]) 23:24, 9 June 2022 (UTC)

:::They might not be stored. If they are, they might be in a cache somewhere else. Autofill suggestions could be extrapolated from your history. [[User:WhoAteMyButter|<span style="color:#ffb300">'''WhoAteMyButter'''</span>]] ([[User talk:WhoAteMyButter|<span title="Talk Page">📨_talk</span>]]│[[Special:Contributions/WhoAteMyButter|<span title="Contribs">📝^contribs</span>]]) 23:33, 9 June 2022 (UTC)

::::@[[User:WhoAteMyButter|WhoAteMyButter]], maybe they get extrapolated from the history of other devices using the same Google Chrome account somehow? I'm sure they are not extrapolated from the history on the current device as that was the first thing I looked upon - made sure to clear the correlated browsing data from the in-browser application and from the db itself using SQLite browser. - [[User:Klein Muçi|Klein Muçi]] ([[User talk:Klein Muçi|talk]]) 23:38, 9 June 2022 (UTC)

:::::I must say though that I've set the history on the current device to not synchronize with the other devices (even though the opposite is true - the other devices are being synchronized with the history of the said device). - [[User:Klein Muçi|Klein Muçi]] ([[User talk:Klein Muçi|talk]]) 23:40, 9 June 2022 (UTC)

We need to know that year [[Special:Contributions/41.114.142.143|41.114.142.143]] ([[User talk:41.114.142.143|talk]]) 05:21, 20 August 2025 (UTC)

= June 14 =

:I can't understand the question. ―<span style="font-family:Poppins, Helvetica, Sans-serif;">[[User:Panamitsu|Panamitsu]]</span> [[User_talk:Panamitsu|(talk)]] 06:41, 20 August 2025 (UTC)

== Sending an email from Gmail to Yahoo ==

:Are you sure this question is about computing, which includes information technology, electronics, software and hardware? Otherwise, please post it at a more fitting section of the reference desk. If the question is about history, politics or economics, the appropriate section is [[Wikipedia:Reference desk/Humanities|Reference desk/Humanities]]. Also, do not repost your question as it is now. Please rephrase it, so that we have a chance to understand the question. &nbsp;&ZeroWidthSpace;‑‑[[User talk:Lambiam#top|Lambiam]] 13:21, 20 August 2025 (UTC)

:Google AI says: The United States passed the Coinage Act of 1792, which established the U.S. dollar as the unit of currency and mandated that public accounts and court proceedings use this standard, making it the first "bill on count" in the sense of the financial unit. [[User:Shantavira|Shantavira]]|[[User talk:Shantavira|^{feed me}]] 17:45, 23 August 2025 (UTC)

::{{small|I am unaware of ''[[wikt:count#Noun|count]]'' having a sense "dollar" (or any financial unit). &nbsp;&ZeroWidthSpace;‑‑[[User talk:Lambiam#top|Lambiam]] 13:09, 24 August 2025 (UTC)}}

:::<small>AI is aware of all sorts of imaginary stuff.</small> [[User:Shantavira|Shantavira]]|[[User talk:Shantavira|^{feed me}]] 07:54, 25 August 2025 (UTC)

Why don't Yahoo-recipients see the sender's Gmail profile picture, even though Gmail recipients do see it? Can the sender/recipient do something, for the recipient to see it? [[Special:Contributions/147.236.152.145|147.236.152.145]] ([[User talk:147.236.152.145|talk]]) 08:55, 14 June 2022 (UTC)

:From Google's documentation: "Your name and profile picture can be viewed by other people who use Google services where your main Google Account profile is shown, including when you communicate or share content." Yahoo is not a Google service. [[Special:Contributions/12.116.29.106|12.116.29.106]] ([[User talk:12.116.29.106|talk]]) 11:49, 14 June 2022 (UTC)

:The picture is not included in the email sent by Gmail to Yahoo! Mail (or any other email services), and Google has not given Yahoo! Mail access to its database of Google account profiles. &nbsp;--[[User talk:Lambiam|Lambiam]] 12:04, 14 June 2022 (UTC)

== Split/Explode calculations in SQL ==

In programming, it is common to split or explode a complex value into multiple values, perform an operation on those values, and recombine them into the original complex format. For example, if I have the value "8,12,4", I can double each number with some pseudocode like: newval=implode(',',explode(',',oldval)*2);. I explode/split the old value by commas, multiply the resulting numbers by 2, and implode/concatenate the updated values with commas.

I want to know what search term could be used to find practices like this in SQL. Using the example above, I might have a field with a value like "8,12,4" and I want it to become "16,24,8". I'm not looking to solve this one specific problem. I'm looking for search terms that would lead to examples and explanations of splitting or exploding a varchar into parts, performing an operation on those parts, and then recombining those parts. [[Special:Contributions/12.116.29.106|12.116.29.106]] ([[User talk:12.116.29.106|talk]]) 16:19, 14 June 2022 (UTC)

:I searched for "SQL [[vector multiplication]]" and found a page where somebody is doing [https://www.mssqltips.com/sqlservertip/5809/matrix-multiplication-calculated-with-tsql/ matrix multiplication in SQL]. I don't know enough about SQL to be certain that this is useful to you, but anyway the term "vector" (for "complex value") is worth trying. (Come to think of it, wasn't this kind of mathematics, on objects containing multiple values, [[Edgar F. Codd|a significant motivation for the development of relation databases in the first place?]]) ... I get the impression that you have the specific problem of treating multiple values as one, and packing and unpacking them, which that link probably doesn't address. So I tried "split varchar string", and here's a couple of Stack Overflow questions which may be relevant: [https://stackoverflow.com/questions/5199849/split-varchar-into-separate-columns-in-oracle] [https://stackoverflow.com/questions/26152632/split-varchar-string-in-mysql] - they mention [https://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/8.0/en/string-functions.html#function_substring SUBSTR], among other functions. [[User:Card_Zero|<span style=" background-color:#fffff0; border:1px #995; border-style:dotted solid solid dotted;">&nbsp;Card&nbsp;Zero&nbsp;</span>]]&nbsp;[[User_talk:Card_Zero|(talk)]] 16:52, 14 June 2022 (UTC)

*I do not know if that term applies within the SQL ecosystem, but across the Python/Matlab/etc. scientific calculation world, that is called "vectorized code" or "[[array programming]]". [https://www.cs.cornell.edu/courses/cs1112/2015sp/Exams/exam2/vectorizedCode.pdf Here’s an exam sheet] with easy-to-understand examples. [[User:Tigraan|<span style="font-family:Tahoma;color:#008000;">Tigraan</span>]]^{[[User talk:Tigraan|<span title="Send me a silicium letter!" style="color:">Click here for my talk page ("private" contact)</span>]]} 17:09, 14 June 2022 (UTC)

*What with the unpacking and packing, this is essentially ''[[unfold (higher-order function)|unfold]]''–''[[map (higher-order function)|map]]''–''[[fold (higher-order function)|fold]]'', which is also related to the [[MapReduce]] paradigm. Like Tigraan, I don't know if such terminology has gained any currency in the SQL world. &nbsp;--[[User talk:Lambiam|Lambiam]] 19:11, 14 June 2022 (UTC)

= JuneSeptember 151 =

== Estimating nodes in a tree for depth-first search ==

= June 16 =

I need to traverse a large tree with a depth-first search. I need an estimate of the number of nodes to get an idea if it is feasible to do it. What I have in mind is to start the search but at each node, select one edge at random. Keep track of the branching factor at each level. Then repeat this maybe 10⁵ times and get an average branching factor at each level. Then multiply the branching factors to get an estimate of the total number of nodes.

Should this give a reasonable estimate of the total number of nodes? [[User:Bubba73|Bubba73]] ^{[[User talk:Bubba73|You talkin' to me?]]} 22:18, 1 September 2025 (UTC)

:If you know nothing about the tree in advance you will still not know, as the branches may go to any huge depth, including those branches you don't go near. Are you going to go full depth 10⁵ times? That would give you some sort of probabilistic idea, but not any certainty. [[User:Graeme Bartlett|Graeme Bartlett]] ([[User talk:Graeme Bartlett|talk]]) 10:18, 2 September 2025 (UTC)

: Do you have any way of knowing or estimating the total number of nodes? That in conjunctin with your "branching factor" might give a better estimate. —[[User:scs|scs]] ([[User talk:scs|talk]]) 10:48, 2 September 2025 (UTC)

::I think the point of the described sampling method is to ''obtain'' an estimate of the total number of nodes, to be used to determine whether a full traversal is feasible. &nbsp;&ZeroWidthSpace;‑‑[[User talk:Lambiam#top|Lambiam]] 14:44, 2 September 2025 (UTC)

= September 2 =

== What does ''illegal'' mean in the context of HTML? ==

To use it in a sentence (no pun intended), it's illegal to place a div inside an inline tag. – [[User:MrPersonHumanGuy|MrPersonHumanGuy]] ([[User talk:MrPersonHumanGuy|talk]]) 01:15, 2 September 2025 (UTC)

:It violates the specs of the HTML syntax, is not correct HTML, and may be expected to cause renderers to behave erratically. [[User:Aaron Liu|<span class="skin-invert" style="color:#0645ad">Aaron Liu</span>]] ([[User talk:Aaron Liu#top|talk]]) 03:05, 2 September 2025 (UTC)