Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Computing/2017 March 27

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March 27

Amazon app on Ubuntu

So, not talking about the online search results in the dash controversy. More about the Amazon app included on Ubuntu 16.04. Does anyone know if Canonical benefits financially if I buy through this instead of just using the website in a regular web browser? I assume so but i'd like a confirmation. Search results are filled with people asking how to remove it so it's hard to find an answer to my question. Thanks ツ Jenova20 ^(email) 11:14, 27 March 2017 (UTC)

Using the Amazon icon in the launcher attaches an affiliate tag for Canonical to your purchase so Canonical gets a cut of the sale. Amazon is just the first step. The plan is to do the same for as many online stores as possible, embedding it all into the dash search. You search for "minecraft nightlight" and it will show links to Amazon, Walmart, ThinkGeek, etc... and embed a Canonical affiliate tag into each search result so if you make the purchase, they get a cut. 209.149.113.5 (talk) 14:35, 27 March 2017 (UTC)

Is that last part an assumption/paranoia or based on a statement from Canonical? Thanks ツ Jenova20 ^(email) 08:33, 28 March 2017 (UTC)

Canonical official statements have explained that they plan to expand what they are now doing with Amazon to everything else to raise funds. 71.85.51.150 (talk) 10:26, 28 March 2017 (UTC)

Ah...So I was right not to use it...Thanks for that anonymous user ツ Jenova20 ^(email) 12:01, 28 March 2017 (UTC)

The actual quote that stuck in my mind in response to asking if we should trust Ubuntu with handling our purchases and cramming their affiliate IDs into everything was: "Well, we have root." In other words, Canonical feels that they own your machine if you install Ubuntu on it and if they want to get a cut of your online purchases, they are justified in doing so. 209.149.113.5 (talk) 12:12, 28 March 2017 (UTC)

I believe I read something similar to that quote on Reddit. And here was me looking to contribute financially lol. I withdraw that offer now...Thanks ツ Jenova20 ^(email) 12:35, 28 March 2017 (UTC)

No Wikipedia article on data traps?

Wikipedia doesn't seem to have an article on data traps.

For those who are not familiar with the term, a data trap is something like a breakpoint, except that it is tied to a memory location, not a location in a program. When a trapped memory location is accessed, program execution is interrupted and control is transferred to a handler.

Data traps are not a recent invention. That makes it more curious that Wikipedia doesn't have an article on it.

May I suggest that one of the regular contributors here create one, if there's indeed no article on it? --134.242.92.97 (talk) 22:23, 27 March 2017 (UTC)

I've not heard the term "data trap", and a quick inspection of google search results doesn't seem to show that it's commonly used. This concept is usually called a "data breakpoint", and it's mentioned in our breakpoint article, in the Breakpoint Conditions section, and discussed further in the Implementations section. If you have references showing the use of the term "data trap", it could be added as a redirect to breakpoint. CodeTalker (talk) 00:23, 28 March 2017 (UTC)

Interesting. I first learned of the concept in the early 80s in a book. An exercise in the book asks the reader to design a data trap, the concept of which is described in the exercise. The author used the term rather matter-of-factly, so I thought it was a widely used term. Apparently these days the concept is much better known as a data breakpoint. --134.242.92.97 (talk) 14:11, 29 March 2017 (UTC)

Around here, we use the term "watchpoint" - which is discussed in our article section on breakpoint conditions. The lldb tutorial covers watchpoints; you surely can find similar documentation for your favorite tools.

Sometimes, technical details are sufficiently domain-specific that our encyclopedia doesn't have an article on them... but if you think you have enough material to write an entire article on watchpoints, you can write one! lldb's online help is fairly encyclopedic, and it is free, so if you felt it was suitable, you could source and cite a lot of their documentation.

Nimur (talk) 00:22, 30 March 2017 (UTC)