Computing desk
< April 30	<< Apr \| May \| Jun >>	May 2 >

Welcome to the Wikipedia Computing Reference Desk Archives
The page you are currently viewing is an 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 1

Flash player in JavaScript?

In light of the iPhone's restriction of Flash, I was wondering if it would be possible to port an open-source Flash player, like Gnash, to JavaScript, which can then be run on the iPhone as well as other devices that have a browser, without installing a separate plugin (which may not be available on some platforms, or may be inconvenient to install). You could, say, have a "Flash-to-JavaScript gateway" website which acts as a proxy for other sites, but interprets and translates the embedded Flash applets into JavaScript instructions. It may not be the most efficient of course, but it might be a way to circumvent restrictions when there is no other way. What do you think? --Spoon! (talk) 06:14, 1 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Something like that already exists, it's called Gordon. It's definitely not a comprehensive Flash run time but the demos are promising. --antilived^{T | C | G} 06:38, 1 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]

What is required is full HTML5 support. Without that, you cannot perform all the common functions provided by Flash. When full HTMl5 support is provided by the web browser, you will be able to load SVG images, resize, rotate, and move them. You will be able to alter opacity, brightness, and contrast. So, graphically, you will be able to mimic Flash. It will be done with HTML5, CSS, and JavaScript. -- kainaw ™ 12:01, 1 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Data packets

What would data packets be equivalent to in MB or GB? What are they measured in? Why are they used to measure data being sent/received rather than just GB, MB, or Bytes? Chevymontecarlo. 14:36, 1 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]

A data packet could be any size. It depends on the definition of the data packet. Depending on what kind of speed you are measuring, you may be interested in actual megabytes/second or you may be interested in packets/second. They give two very different results. -- kainaw ™ 14:39, 1 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Packet (information technology) is our article. Comet Tuttle (talk) 14:56, 1 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]

When sending a large amount of data on Ethernet the packet size is around 1500 bytes, so 666 packets in a megabyte and 666666 packets in a gigabyte. Graeme Bartlett (talk) 22:36, 1 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Fonts

Is it possible to make a custom font display on web pages where the viewer doesn't have the font installed? 82.43.89.71 (talk) 14:59, 1 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Yes, many methods use javascript. Two options may be:

Typeface which allows you to load fonts into a webpage so that a user then can read them or Fontjazz which renders the text as an image which the user then sees -- CmdAltDel (talk) 15:09, 1 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]

The feature that you're looking for is called @font-face. It's pretty new to CSS, and only recent browsers support it (it does, of course, fall back to normal web typefaces when the browser doesn't support it). See Web typography, and http://nicewebtype.com. Paul (Stansifer) 15:15, 1 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]

(even though @font-face doesn't work for all users, it has the advantage that the result that it produces is bona fide text for everyone, and you don't have to worry about the complexities of making the result properly usable, resizeable, color-matched, and everything. As time passes, and users upgrade their browsers, more and more will see the custom font you want. Paul (Stansifer) 13:29, 3 May 2010 (UTC))[reply]

When I want to display a custom font, I just type out the text in an image-editing program like Photoshop or Illustrator and then save the text as an image. This will enable the largest number of viewers to see the text as it was meant to be seen. However, to ensure that people using screen readers are still aware of the text, be sure to add an alt attribute to the image (e.g., <img alt="Main section title" src="img.png">.--Best Dog Ever (talk) 02:48, 2 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Extra heavy period

Speaking of custom fonts, is there one with extra large/bold commas and/or periods ? I ask because I can't tell them apart on my screen without magnifying the text. And, if there is one, how can I use it as my default font in Wikipedia ? StuRat (talk) 17:18, 1 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]

I don't have a real answer for you, but I'd check out people who will do all kinds of stuff for $5. For a small fee, you could probably find someone who would modify a few of the standard font files on your system -- problem solved! DaHorsesMouth (talk) 20:42, 1 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]

What font do you currently use? Maybe you can customize your font using a font editor and replace the regular period and comma glyphs with their bold variants. --98.114.146.58 (talk) 08:53, 2 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]

I'm not sure what font I currently use. How can I find out for Firefox 2.0.0.20 ? StuRat (talk) 14:04, 3 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Not sure. Try the Content tab under Tools>Options. Once you find out what your default font is, try changing it to something else and see if the period and comma glyphs look more different in the new font. If that doesn't work, you can try creating a customized font using a font editor, such as Fontforge. --98.114.146.58 (talk) 02:50, 4 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks. It lists my current font as Times New Roman, 16 point. None of the other fonts available seems to have commas or periods which are proportionally any larger larger. StuRat (talk) 17:59, 6 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Looking for Cloud Computing Reference in a University environment

I am trying to design from scratch an Infrastructure with application saervices on the cloud for a new university. This includes the server, intra-network, the HR system with its DB , HR system , email as well as the Student information System (banner like). I am looking for a university that have implemented or is planning to implement such system. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Shaltout51 (talk • contribs) 20:09, 1 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Project Athena, from MIT, has been the de-facto standard for large (enterprise-scale) university network infrastructure, servers, and clients. Understandably, this infrastructure is very complex, and consists of many variants and sub-elements. Unifying the compute infrastructure is one thing; implementing an HR system from scratch is an endeavor unto itself. Nimur (talk) 20:13, 1 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]