Why did WslApi suddenly stop working in WPF applications

Question: When attempting to access a WSL distribution through the wslapi within a WPF application, it indicates that the distribution is not registered, even though it is definitely registered. (For example, I can launch it from powershell, etc.)
The issue seems to only occur in WPF applications (or, at least it doesn't occur in console applications).
This issue suddenly appeared two days ago, when it did not exist before.
I have a program that interacts with a custom Linux distribution in WSL. The distro is not important; what is important is this:
The program, upon startup, uses the wslapi (dll imports) to detect whether the distribution is installed. If it's installed, then it launches the program. If not, it diverts to a wizard to load the wsl distro.
A couple of days ago, the INSTALLED version of the program (so we're NOT talking about code changes) suddenly stopped detecting that the WSL distro is installed. This is indicated by always diverting to the wizard even though the distro is installed.
Since then, I've been able to narrow down the circumstances of the failure to detect installation to cases where I'm NOT in a console application.
To troubleshoot this, I created a single WslLink class library, which has a WslService class, which executes this code to detect whether a distro is registered:
<code>[DllImport("wslapi.dll", CharSet = CharSet.Unicode)]
public static extern bool WslIsDistributionRegistered(string distributionName);

...

bool IsInstalled()
{
    var isRegistered = WslIsDistributionRegistered("MyLinux");
    return isRegistered;
}
</code>
This is the same code that was working in the installed application up to two days ago.
In a bare-bones .NET Framework WPF App, which refrences the WslLink project described above, I have the following code in App.OnStartup() (having removed the StartupUri setting from the xaml):
<code>    var wslService = new WslService();

    if (wslService.IsInstalled())
    {
        MessageBox.Show("The MyLinux is installed");
    }
    else
    {
        MessageBox.Show("The MyLinux is not installed");
    }
</code>
This code posts a message box with "The MyLinux is not installed" -- indicating that the distro is not registered according to wslapi.
In a similar bare-bones .NET Framework Console App in the same solution, and referencing the same WslLink project, I have:
<code>    var wslService = new WslService();

    if (wslService.IsInstalled())
    {
        Console.WriteLine("The MyLinux is installed");
    }
    else
    {
        Console.WriteLine("The MyLinux is not installed");
    }
</code>
This outputs "The MyLinux is installed" -- indicating that the distro IS registered according to wslapi.
Well, either the distro is registered or it is not, and based on the fact that I can launch it from powershell, and commands like wslconfig /l shows the distro, it clearly is.
In either case, though, since the console app and the wpf app are using the SAME CLASS LIBRARY to invoke the wslapi registration check, I would expect both of them to yield the same result--either both saying "not installed" or both saying "installed".
But, instead, the wpf app always fails to detect the installation and the console app always detects the installation.
To re-iterate (I'm beating this drum really hard, because it just doesn't make sense): The INSTALLED wpf app that was running identical code had been working for months, and then suddenly, a couple of days ago, it stopped working. I'm not talking about a re-install, or anything like that. I'm talking about starting it up one day and suddenly it's not detecting the installation anymore.
Does anyone know anything that might have changed in Windows to cause this?
Comment: I'm not sure about this but try. Can you do a test if LxssManager service is running before calling that WSL API? The code will be like "if LxssManger service is running call that API, if not start the service then call the API".
Answer: I found out that automatic Windows update KB4493464 breaks wslapi calls from WPF applications. This is why the installed program just suddenly stopped working. I verified this with A/B/A testing (backing out the update to verify, then letting it re-apply).
Thanks for the suggestion, @Biswapriyo, but the LxssManager was running in all cases, which is why the console app was able to work correctly.
I've notified Microsoft, but I don't expect action to fix this soon. I'm sure only console application use cases were considered for this API, so the fact that we can't use it from a GUI application is probably not a priority.


Xcode cannot run using the selected device on 7.1.1

Question: I got the following error:
Xcode cannot run using the selected device.
No provisioned iOS devices are available with a compatible iOS version. Connect an iOS device with a recent enough version of iOS to run your application or choose an iOS simulator as the destination.
xcode 5.0.2 (5A3005)
iphone 4S with iOS 7.1.1
Development Target is 7.0
Code signing Provisioning profile is set to IOS Team Provisioning Profile.
In Xcode -> Window -> Organizer - Devices
The version of iOS on   is not supported by this installation of the iOS SDK. Please restore the device to a version of the OS listed below, or update to the latest version of the iOS SDK; which is available here.
OS Installed on
7.1.1 (11D201)
Xcode Supported iOS Versions
Not sure why the xcode supported IOS versions is blank here.
Already tried to project clean, remove device and reconnect and set target to lower version. None of these methods work.
Please advise.
thank you
Answer: After upgrading to Xcode 5.1.1, it's working fine now.
Thx


Lay question about formation of singularity (black hole)?

Question: I have never been able to quite grasp the following- in the collapse of a stellar body that meets the requirements for the creation of a black hole...Upon the initiation of core collapse, spacetime is deformed infinitely, thus according to general relativity light is unable to escape at or beyond event horizon due to warping...This is how it has been explained to me. Wouldn't, from an observational point of view, the collapsing body forever appear to be approaching infinity, rather than be infinitely small, due to the stretching of time (relative) itself approaching zero proportionally with gravitational warping approaching infinite? Wouldn't i only be able to confirm that there is an actual singularity if I were infinitely long lived, or if I entered the black hole?  I may misunderstand general relativity (and special relativity, as the speed of collapse would have to increase to c, wherein gen and special relativity meet in regards to falling bodies/gravitation and time dilation), but does a black hole ever actually become a singularity or is it forever approaching it?
Comment: Related/possible duplicates: https://physics.stackexchange.com/q/5031/50583, https://physics.stackexchange.com/q/110033/50583, https://physics.stackexchange.com/q/21319/50583, https://physics.stackexchange.com/q/95366/50583
Answer: You are correct in assuming that an outside observer would never the see collapse all the way through.
Let's look at the Schwarzschild solution, the simplest black hole solution:
\begin{equation}ds^2 = -\left(1-\frac{2M}{r}\right) dt^2 + \left(1 - \frac{2M}{r}\right)^{-1} dr^2 + r^2d\theta^2 + r^2 \sin^2 \theta d\phi^2
\end{equation}
These coordinates approach flat space as distance goes to $\infty$. Hence, they are adapted to an observer far away from the horizon.
If we want to see how light rays (radially incoming or outgoing) behave in these coordinates, we can solve the equation above with $ds^2 = 0$ and get
$$\frac{dt}{dr} = \pm \left(1- \frac{2M}{r}\right)^{-1}$$
which can be nicely drawn as:

You can see how the light cones, which are bounded by the light rays, begin squeezing, the light ray coming from very near the horizon would therefore to a distant observer be infinitely redshifted.
The solution to understanding the singularity comes in changing the coordinates. Notice that the solution above has a divergence in $r=2M$. This divergence is only due to the choice of coordinates.
We settle this first by doing
$$r^*=r + 2M \ln \left(\frac{r}{2M} - 1\right)$$
to get the metric to the following form:
\begin{equation}
ds^2 = \left(1 - \frac{2M}{r}\right)\left(-dt^2 + dr^{*2}\right) + [r(r^*)]^2 d\Omega^2
\end{equation}
Now there is no divergent behavior, and the radial light rays are now described by:
\begin{equation}
 \label{Tortoise}
 t= \pm r^* + \text{const.}
\end{equation}
The only problem now is that the event horizon is now moved to $r^*(2M)=-\infty$.
Now we sit on the light rays by the following change of coordinates:
$$v=t+r^*\nonumber\\
u= t - r^*$$
A constant $v$ represents light rays going inwards, and a constant $u$ represents light rays going outwards.
If we now choose to use the original coordinate $r$ and instead of the original coordinate $t$ use $v$, then the metric looks like:
$$ds^2 =- \left(1 - \frac{2M}{r}\right)dv^2 + (dv dr + dr dv) + r^2 d\Omega$$
These coordinates $(v, r, \theta, \phi)$ are called Eddington-Finklestein coordinates.
The equation for radial light rays is now
\begin{equation}
\frac{dv}{dr}=
\begin{cases}
0    \text{      for incoming light ray}\\
2\left(1-\frac{2M}{r}\right)^{-1} \text{  for outgoing light ray}
\end{cases}
\end{equation}
Which can be nicely drawn as:

Where you can see how after a certain $r$, all light rays, and all geodesics (thus all particles) must hit the singularity.
So if we were the distant observer, the particles we observe going to the horizon will to us appear never to get there. But if follow the path through the horizon (which is here represented by a suitable coordinate change), we will see they will go through and inevitably reach the singularity.


Getting the depth of properties in ArcGIS

Question: Is there a way to get the depth of a parcel in ArcGIS Basic (or QGIS)? Depth meaning the distance from the road (frontage) to the rear of the property. I should also mention that not all parcels are rectangular or square, many parcels are irregular shapes.
Comment: Can you include a few diagrams and/or links describing how depth of properties is defined for some of those with irregular shapes, please?
Answer: In order to accomplish your task, your workflow could go something like this:

Ensure you polygons have some sort of unique_id on them
Convert your polygon vertices to points (maintaining the unique_id on each point)
Run a near analysis for the points to the roads
Run a statistics on the results of the near to find the maximum distance from a road for each unique_id - this should give you depth
Comment: That could work, I am just trying to visualize how that would work for irregular parcels. For example, if a property was wedged in between two roads, I would not be able to derive depth at the longest point. In this case, both roads would be taken into account, when in reality the property is only accessible by one road.


How to enable the SD card to be written on by all apps [Mrashmallow]

Question: Is there any way without rooting the device? My device is a Sony Xperia C4.
Answer: Yes, you can use adaptable storage to do this. This means that your SD card with merge with your internal storage and display itself as one big SD card. This is really nice if you need extra storage, but things can go crazy if you pull your SD card out of your phone as it's used as internal storage.
Just make sure NOT to pull out your SD card from your phone if you decide to enable this.
You can enable it in 2 ways:
ADB:
<code>adb shell sm set-force-adoptable true
</code>
From Settings
Go to Settings -> Storage -> SD Card -> Format as internal
Comment: @Reza Some OEM's remove the Adopted Storage options from the user interface for Marshmallow, but using the ADB method works in most cases. It would be a good idea to update your original question with your make/model of device as that can change the answer.
Comment: I don't see that option in the settings. Would either of these actions delete the files already on the SD card?
Comment: @Reza Yes, all contents will be deleted off the SD card.
Comment: I enabled debugging and ran the command but I get an error that sm was not found. I don't know how to install it in Ubuntu.
Comment: @Reza I don't know, sorry. I have the option in my settings. I just found this command on the internet. Installing Busybox might solve it. (Busybox installer is free on Google Play)


Gobble gobble - Are the two meanings related?

Question: Turkeys say, "gobble". We also "gobble" down a lot of turkey on Thanksgiving. This is just a bit of idle musing, but are the two meanings of this word somehow related via the American & Canadian holidays?
Comment: I was just watching a program about wild turkeys, and apparently they make all sorts of noises - upwards of 20 different sounds - but not a single one could be accurately described as sounding like "gobble gobble".
Answer: Etymonline has this:

gobble (1)
  "eat fast," c.1600, probably partly echoic, partly frequentative of gob, via gobben "drink something greedily." Related: Gobbled; gobbling.
gobble (2)
  "turkey noise," 1680, probably imitative.

The Free Dictionary agrees. So it appears that these are actually two unrelated words that just happen to be spelled identically (much like cleave).
Answer: The O.E.D. lists "gobble" as a noun meaning mouth, and "gobbling" as gorging, the latter dating from 1630. Still, I would not be surprised if the verb form meaning the sound a turkey makes is at least in some sense onomatopoeic.  Where the two senses may be related is likely to be a confusion of the two.
Comment: Onomatopoea is my favorite word.


When is service connection completed for water / sewer for new construction?

Question: Is it after Final Inspection that the lines are run from the house to the street? I'd like to hire a contractor for the service connection portion and need to know at what point in the process this is done. I'm in the US.
Comment: Have you called a contractor to ask this question?  They would be able to answer very specifically based on your location.
Comment: @DanGNelson I think this also depends on your locality with in the USA.
I think the lines can be run from the house to the street but not turned on until after final inspection - if I am not mistaken they are locked at the supply side. Your local water company should know the exact answer to your question. I recall something on this but not enough to specifically say it is this way. As I said states and municipalities have different standards and yours is relevant to your state and municipality. I think in Fl it is locked until inspection.
Answer: Typically, tie-ins are done in conjunction with the locality (town/city maintenance) and are done independently of the state inspections. This is because of locality-specific backflow prevention devices.
You see, hypothetically, nowhere in code do I need a backflow prevention device for sewer in my house in town. However, because I have a full basement, and my plumbing runs lower than the town's sewer system, it'd be in the best interest of all concerned for me to install one.
Get with your local contractor. He/she knows what to do.


Remove stickers and decals from frame

Question: I am trying to remove the stickers/decals so I can repaint the bike.
I have tried scrapping, paint thinner, and xylene.
I also tried using a heat gun, but the process seems rather tedious.
Is there some method that is faster?
Comment: Possible duplicate of [How can you remove logos from a bike frame?](https://bicycles.stackexchange.com/questions/10595/how-can-you-remove-logos-from-a-bike-frame)
Comment: Is it a decal?  Or is it a top layer of paint?  Is there a clearcoat layer over the top?   Given its a Huffy BSO perhaps sanding is the best solution.
Comment: @Criggie There is no clearcoat layer as far as I can tell.
Comment: @DavidRicherby That's a good and relevant find - thank you.   OP does specifically want to repaint, so will have to be sanding the existing paint anyway.
Answer: I'd suggest stripping all the components off the bike (yes, ALL of them) then hit the frame lightly with a flap disk in a hand grinder.  You want to key the paint, not necessarily remove it.

Keying provides a mechanical surface that is not flat.  This will allow your new paint to form a three dimensional bond with the previous coat and will be more abrasion-resistant.
You also have to mask off every part that doesn't need paint.  That's the bottom bracket shell and threads, and anything else that has threads.  Your fork's bearing races must be paint free, both on the fork and in the head tube.  Noone paints their seat post because tolerances are too fine and it will scratch up anyway, so remove that.   There's no point painting the inside of the seat tube, but a little overspray's no big deal.
Your frame appears to be a Huffy, which is a low end bike so probably made of steel.  So any scratches through the existing paint will show bare bright steel which will need a steel primer.  Sometimes this is called an etching primer, which chemically does a similar thing to the sanding process.  Both is a great idea.  Don't wait - you should be spraying the primer within an hour of finishing the sanding.  Don't give the rust monster a chance to get stuck in.
If your bike frame is aluminium/aluminum then you need a primer for AL and not FE.
Then when the primer is hardened, a light wet-sand over the whole frame to remove any flecks and provide the next keying surface, for your top coats to sink their teeth into.  Use this to examine the frame for light spots and missed areas.  There's a lot of surface area to your bike - more than one might think.
Depending on your paint and its thickness, density, and grippiness, you probably want to do a minimum of two top coats.   Some of the 80s bikes had 12~20 coats of paint total.
If you're adding new decals, then put them on top of the last colour coat after light sanding and wipe down, and do at least one clear-coat over that.  If no decals, do the top coat anyway.  This provides the first line of defense against dings, whangs and scratches.
You can choose a matt or satin or gloss finish at all layers, but the clear coats are on the outside and give the most finish-effect.

If all this sounds like too much work, and your plan is just to blast it with a rattle can with no preparation, then go ahead.  Its your bike, do what you want with it.  But expect it to look like a rattlecan job and to flake off pretty quick.

Remove stickers and decals from frame


Do "good for you" and "I am happy for you" have a negative or positive connotation?

Question: I am not sure if this is the right place, but I was wondering if "good for you" and "I am happy for you" have a negative or positive connotation.
Answer: At face value, and taken literally, these are both positive.
Both can also be said sarcastically or with self-pity, and in that sense they could be negative.
Comment: So by default, would people consider it positive or negative in different cultures around the world?
Comment: @Alec Probably positive.
Comment: @Alec: All language can be used in different ways depending on context. Both phrases are semantically positive. There are no negative words in either. But there's always room for sarcasm, and both can be used sarcastically. A statement that would elicit 'good for you' might be self-promotion. 'good for you' sounds like it might be used sarcastically to such self-promotion more often than 'I'm happy for you'
Answer: I think they are both pretty positive. I never heard people use them in a negative way.
Comment: @Alec Smart: As a phrase on its own it certainly *can* be used negatively - often as "Good for *you*", meaning "That's great as far as *you're* concerned, but how does that help the rest of us?". And of course saying that a certain food or medicine is "good for you" can be a euphemism for it having a horrible taste ;-)
Comment: I always thought "Good for you" is negative and "I am happy for you" as positive.


Bi-monthly Android traffic to a URL getting blocked

Question: Last month, I reset my cell phone, also immediately installed Malwarebytes and Avast. Every scan until now was/is safe.
But I also have a virus scanner which is included in my ISP safety package (Telenet Safeguard - Not a lot is known, but it appears to be based on Bitdefender, although no settings or user info is really available (only very simple logs and 'on/off'))
Every 2 weeks (Sunday morning), Telenet Safeguard blocks 10 tries to browse to columbus.shortest-route.com. 10 is probably the retry count.
When googling this, it seems to be related to malware, but the indications are not that clear for me.
I checked my phone with multiple virus scanners (Malwarebytes, Avast, Bitdefender), but all scans are clear.
Is this something known? My cell phone is a Samsung device running Android.
And if not known, how can I check what process (or app) is doing this? Because it definitely isn't an action done by me on my phone.
Answer: Found it out myself. It appears to be related to mails coming from Procter & Gamble. When opening them, this 'browse attempt' is blocked.


Can I cook a food differently than the instruction?

Question: So the instruction on the food carton that I just bought only mentioned of oven-method but I actually know the food can be served via frying (on another brand product).
Is it bad if I cook the food differently?
Comment: Welcome to the site. It's hard to answer this without knowing the food, it would help get an answer if you edited and added more detail. Anyway, if you know you can cook it a different way why are you asking? More details there would be good as well.
Comment: what food are we talking about ? is the food uncooked/raw or cooked (i.e. only needs to be re-heated?)
Comment: Taken to extreme - you ***could*** deep-fry sponge cake. The result would be technically safe to eat, given adequate time to cook through thoroughly. The taste & texture, however, might not be all you'd desire in a sponge cake, especially if you used the same oil you'd just done your onion bhajis in ;)
Comment: @GdD I'm actually OK with there being a generic question about that. Many manufacturers suggest a specific method for finishing their prefab food, and it is not obvious whether one can always assume "if I can fry X, I can also fry this prefab X despite it not being mentioned on the package" or not.
Comment: anecdotal, I don't have a microwave oven, and I often re-heat frozen food in a pan.
Comment: There are two things to consider here. 1. will the result be tasteful? and 2. will the result be safe to eat? Neither can be answered without knowing what food exactly you are talking about.
Answer: You can cook your food any way that you like, or is practical.  There are two issue to consider.  First, is the packaged product already fully cooked (and thus only needs reheating) or does it need to be fully cooked?  Your cooking or reheating procedure should be appropriate for this first distinction.  Secondly, if you use a cooking procedure different from the one specified on the package, your results might differ from the picture or the product's instructions.  However, as long as you cook or re-heat appropriately, the product will be safe to eat.
Comment: I regularly nuke foods that call for oven baking. Sometimes I just don't have the time to follow their instructions. It's hot, tastes essentially the same, but may not have the identical finished texture hat baking could produce.


Why are angels opposed to Sam using his powers?

Question: In Supernatural season 4 episodes, why are angels opposed to Sam using his powers to remove demons from human bodies so they can be sent back to hell?
Comment: Because the powers are fueled by demon blood and demonic/dark in nature.
Answer: Sam's powers are Demonic and are a result of his status as Lucifer's Perfect Host.  The more he uses them, the farther down the dark path he would be drawn.  This is borne out by the story, as Sam eventually ends up addicted to Demon blood with little self control to enhance his powers.
Answer: I think its deeper than that. The angels have proved before they will do whatever it takes even if it means being evil.
I think its because they know if Sam continued, eventually he will he able to do the same to angels.


Quadruped is to four-legged animal as ___ is to six-legged animal?

Question: A creature which walks on two legs can be referred to as biped; bi- meaning two.
A creature which walks on four legs can be referred to as quadruped; quad- meaning four.
What is the corresponding word for a six-legged creature?
Comment: In principle it would probably be a [***hexapod***](http://www.dictionary.com/browse/hexapod). But apart from the specific case of *a six-legged arthropod of the class Insecta (formerly **Hexapoda**)*, there aren't many examples, so you wouldn't need it often enough to justify confusing readers with an unfamiliar term. Just call it a six-legged creature.
Comment: @JEL - just for clarity, what details do you think are missing? Doesn't hexapod answer OP question?
Comment: @FumbleFingers: Unless you happen to be a science fiction writer :-)
Comment: Quadruplets -> Sextuplets. Why not Quadrupeds -> Sextupeds?
Comment: Are they called "insect"?
Comment: @Josh, 'hexapod' does provide an answer, but not the best answer nor the complete answer because the question takes the form of 'X1 is to Y1 as X2 is to Y2'. I think the whole answer is worth having, partly because of what Webster said in 1828 about the words (that last is not necessary for the bonus, but would be nice to include).
Answer: Hexapod (n., plural hexapods):

Any organism or being with six legs.

(The Free Dictionary)
Hexapod (n.) etymology:

"six-footed insect," 1660s, from Modern Latin hexapod-, stem of hexapodus, from Greek hex "six" (see six) + Greek pod-, stem of pous "foot" (from PIE root *ped- "foot"). Greek hexapous (adj.) was used only with reference to poetic meter. As an adjective from 1856.

(Etymonline)
Comment: Any insight on why the ending changed from *-ped* to *-pod*?
Comment: Robots with six legs are also called hexapods.
Comment: @R.M. Yeah interesting shift from Latin to Greek alright!
Comment: Apparently a preying mantis is a *hexapod* but usually seen as a *quadruped*  as it usually does not use its grasping forelegs to walk (though it can)
Comment: @JeppeStigNielsen: Shouldn't it be sextuped?
Comment: Hexapodia is the key insight.
Answer: In theory, if you're using quadruped to refer to a four-legged creature, the word would indeed be sexaped. However, English, being a hosh-posh of other languages, uses the word hexapod.
Comment: "*hosh posh*"??? Do you mean ***hodgepodge***?
Comment: We also use quadropod. I think either hex- word would be OK in terms of being understood.
Comment: @Jim: Some people would say that the correct spelling is "hotchpotch".  The word seems to be particularly prone to mutation. That said, I haven't seen this specific variant before.
Answer: Well, people balk at the risky-sounding sexaped, so you need to switch to Greek and use hexapod.  Doing the same for 4- and 2-legged creatures would result in a tetrapod and a dipod.  Problem with those are that they are reminiscent of a tripod, a clearly inanimate object.
All those foreign language terms come with associations reducing the applicability of the originally rather generic meaning.
Why not switch back to English and use "six-legged"?  Works for insects (which is Latin for grooved beasts) as well as furniture.
Answer: Hexapod, Hexaped, Sexaped, Sexiped...—Take your pick.
I think requiring a single word for this concept is a bit unnecessary. (As user256320 says, you can just use "six-legged" or "six-footed"). But setting that aside, it's a bit tricky to say what "the" corresponding word is.
I am not a Classics expert, so some of what I say in this answer may be incorrect. If you care about forming a word in accordance with Latin/Greek precedent, probably it's best to ask the experts at the Latin Stack Exchange, or even to ask someone outside of the Stack Exchange network (gasp!) whose judgement you trust.
If you don't care about that, you can choose between any of "hexapod," "sexapod", "hexaped", "sexaped", "sexiped", "sextuped", etc. based on whatever criteria you do care about—if you want more help with that here, it would help to make it explicit what those criteria are.
(JEL in a comment references an entry in Webster's 1828 arguing for "hexaped" on the basis of uniformity with "quadruped" and "centiped". That's fine, but there's no inherent reason why anyone has to care about uniformity. Some people have an aversion to compounds that blend Latin and Greek elements, and might reject "hexaped" for this reason.)
My own preference would roughly be as follows, from my favored to least favored options: hexapod, hexaped/sexiped, sextuped, other variants.
Hexapod: the most common word
As other answers and comments have pointed out, the word "hexapod" from Greek is the most common single word for something with six legs. I think Josh's answer is therefore quite satisfactory. Many people think frequency of usage is a good criterion for word choice.
The -pod and -ped words, and Greek and Latin compounds

We have other "-pod" words from Greek: the most common are tripod and tetrapod. These are based on Greek compounds ending in pous, the Greek word for "foot". There are also compounds where the initial element is not from a numeral like arthropod and gastropod. Some other words that ultimately come from Greek pous, but have developed to end in different ways in present-day English are octopus and polyp, and the plural antipodes.
From Latin, we have biped and quadruped. These are based on Latin compounds ending in pes, the Latin word for "foot". With slightly different spelling and pronunciation of the second element, we have centipede and millipede. (Centiped and milliped do exist as less common variants: someone who values consistency more than following common usage should perhaps consider choosing to use these forms.)

As far as I know, neither set of words exists in a generally-agreed-upon complete series of words for animals with n numbers of legs. Each of these words has its own history leading to its present-day use and understood meaning. For example, tripod is usually used to refer to inanimate objects (as few living organisms have three legs), while tetrapod is used in biology to refer to a specific group of animals, not all of which have four legs (humans and birds are biological tetrapods). Although the prefix milli- comes from the Latin word for "thousand," the animals we call millipedes have fewer than a thousand legs.
Compounds in Greek, in Latin, and in English from Greek and Latin
One thing that I have read is that compounding was not as common or productive in Classical Latin as it was in Classical Greek. Latin compounds are often somewhat artificial and belong to a learned register of the language; or they are just two separate words written together, like benefacio = bene facio "do good (literally "do well"). To me, this suggests that it's a more "risky" matter to coin words based on Latin than it is to make new words based on Greek. But that's just how I feel about it.
As I mentioned above, some people like to avoid forming or using compound words in English that have been made by combining Latin and Greek elements. Of course, many of these are too well-established to avoid, like television, but it's a matter of opinion whether that fact renders the whole endeavor pointless. See e.g. Is there a reason to use "mono" over "uni"?, Prefixes milli- and cent- used for years.
Latin prefixes for "six": sexa-/sexi-/sexu-? sexti-/sextu-?
General formation of Latin compounds: connecting -i-
In Latin, the elements of a compound are usually "connected" with the vowel i, for some complicated historical reasons that I am not qualified to explain (but in brief, my understanding is that regular sound changes and analogy both played a role). This however is often not present when the second element of the compound starts with a vowel.
Another complication: sometimes u was used in place of i when the following consonant had a labial place of articulation, like b or p. This explains the u in the combining form quadru-, a variant of quadri- that is found in present-day English words like quadruped and quadruple. But the use of u vs. i doesn't seem to be particularly regular, as we also have centipede and millipede mentioned above, and quadripartite (which does apparently have a variant quadrupartite).
Latin six words
The Latin word for "six" was sex.
A search of the Perseus Digital Library turned up no compound words in Latin with "sexi-" as a prefix.
However, the Oxford English Dictionary (OED) does have an entry for sexi- as an English prefix, and this entry mentions the form "sexiped". It says

< classical Latin sex six (see sex- comb. form) + -i- connective, perhaps after quadri- comb. form, septi- comb. form1, etc. Compare sex- comb. form, sexti- comb. form, and also hexa- comb. form.
  Formations are found from the first half of the 19th cent. (compare sexiped n. ).
Some formations have parallels in sex- comb. form, and some have parallels in hexa- comb. form.

Although the prefix precedes a labial consonant in the word "sexiped", for some reason the "i" doesn't seem to mutate to "u" as in quadruped. I don't know if there is any theoretical way to rule out sexuped as a possibility.
sex- and sexti-
The OED entry quoted above references two other similar prefixes, sex- (with no linking vowel) and sexti- (from sextus).

"Sexped" does in fact seem to have been used at leat once, in Systema Vegetabilium, but it is certainly extremely rare.
Sexti- is apparently derived from the Latin word for "sixth", sextus. Although it doesn't make much sense to me to use an ordinal number as the base of a word meaning "six-legged", the meaning of sexti- seems to have broadened compared to its origin, as the OED says it is "Attested in a small number of formations of the 16th and 17th centuries [...] forming adjectives and nouns with the sense 'having six, sixfold'". The OED's examples are sextipartite (divided into six parts), sextisection (division into six parts), sextipartition. It is also present in the variant form sextu- in the word sextuple, and the less common sextuplex.
While I haven't been able to find much evidence indicating that "sextiped" is used as a word meaning "having six legs", "sextuped" does seem to have a small but definite amount of use, judging from Google results. (I would guess that people are going on the analogy quadruple : sextuple :: quadruped : "sextuped": in fact, I see a comment by Eric Duminil made that analogy already.)

The mysterious sexa-(?)
For some reason, many people seem to have the intuition that a prefix sexa- exists corresponding to the number "six". I somewhat suspect that this is simply a confusion of Latin sex and Greek hexa-, but it's possible that there is more to it. I haven't able to find any good evidence of a Latin origin for sexa- as a prefix, though.
There are Latin words starting with starting with "sexa", but as far as I can tell,they are all either compounds of "sex-" plus a word starting with "a" (as in "sexangulus"), or seem to be composed of "sex-" plus a suffix starting with "a" (as in the word sexaginta "sixty"—compare quadraginta "forty", or sexatrus "the sixth day after the Ides"—compare quinquatrus, decimatrus, septimatrus, triatrus). So, I would say that I don't know of any convincing evidence demonstrating that "sexa-" was used in Latin as a combining suffix of the same type as quadri-/quadru- or centi-.
A Wikipedia article asserts that "sexa-" is one of the "Latin" "number prefixes in English", but it's not clear what it means by  this and that specific piece of information has no citation (the page as a whole cites the OED, Carl Darling Buck's  Comparative Grammar of Greek and Latin, and Sihler's New Comparative Grammar of Greek and Latin, so maybe one of these sources has it, or maybe not).
Also relevant: the supposedly Latinate form "sexadecimal" as an equivalent to "hexadecimal", mentioned in the linked answer and disputed by Gilles' comment below ("but Latin would be "sedecim-", not "sexadecim-"").
The OED does not have an entry for "sexa-" nor the word "sexaped". That said, a word doesn't have to be in the OED to be used. As I said, it's really a matter of opinion—and if you want an educated opinion about which word is most "correct", you'd have to ask someone with an education that's relevant to whatever your idea of "correct" is.


Firewall: Add command-line tool to rules (mosh-server)

Question: How can I add a command line tool I've installed manually to the system firewall? The tool is Mobile Shell (mosh) installed via the excellent Homebrew)?
Specifically, I want to add a rule for /usr/local/bin/mosh-server that allows incoming UDP traffic on 60001-60999.
I've tried using System Preference's Firewall pane and the "+" button, but I cannot seem to browse to /usr. I've configured Finder to display hidden and system files using TinkerTool, but that seemingly has no affect on the selection dialogue, which still hides /usr.
I've read a bit about using ipfw, but that's no longer available in Yosemite (v10.10). pfctl seems to be the replacement. I'll use these if I have to, but I'd much rather add an entry to the system firewall UI, so the change is discoverable.
Answer: I knew I was being dumb: in the Finder dialog that pops up, press Shift+⌘+G and enter /usr. From there I can browse to the binary.
Turns out this is a completely ordinary Finder shortcut for "Go to folder".


Quotation marks for interpreted statements

Question: I interviewed a Spanish speaking individual with the help of a Spanish/English interpreter.  I am writing an article about the individual and want to quote him in English.  Can I use quotation marks around the interpreter's words and attribute them to the individual?
Comment: I won't make the change myself but I suggest chasing "interpreted" to "translated" in the title. The answers for the two most common meanings of "interpreted" will be very different.
Answer: You would use quotation marks when directly quoting the individual you interviewed. The use of a translator does not change the fact that the individual is a primary source, and the words he uses belong to the person being interviewed.
Answer: I would use a block quote format with a footnote explaining the situation.
Comment: This may have the makings of a useful and valid answer. Could you expand a little to include some supporting evidence, for example reference to a reputable style guide?
Comment: Sportswriters use: Ramirez said (via his interpreter), "I just wanted to help the team win." Later translations are understood. I feel this is problematic because quoted material should be exactly what the person is saying. I use THE CHICAGO MANUAL OF STYLE. They recommend using the actual quotation followed by the translation in parentheses (13.73). However, if you use block quotations, then you don't have to worry about quotation marks at all and just explain using a following parentheses or footnote. If I were an editor, I would bong any submission that didn't explain a translator was used


Prove that every $n$-element set has the same number of subsets with even and odd cardinality without creating a bijection

Question: I need to prove that the number of even and odd subsets of a finite set if always equal. This is not a problem once we assume that $n$ is odd. Then, every "even" subset of the set defines in a unique way an "odd" subset and vice versa.
The problem starts once we assume that $n$ is even. The argument used in the previous case no longer works. I read some answers on Stack, but each of them, at this point, constructed a bijection which looked strange to me.  Is there a combinatorial or algebraical way to prove this theorem?
Comment: binomial theorem? And there's nothing strange about the bijective proof.
Comment: https://math.stackexchange.com/questions/248245/exactly-half-of-the-elements-of-mathcalpa-are-odd-sized The comment made by  Andrés E. Caicedo provides a simple to follow proof, using the binomial theorem.
Answer: A bijection is a combinatorial way IMO. But there's a simple inductive argument. It's true for $n=1;$ suppose true for $n$ and take a set $S$ of size $n+1.$ Let $a$ be any element of $S$. Now $S- a$ is a set of size $n$, so has the same number of odd and even subsets. Therefore $S$ has the same number of odd subsets not containing $a$ as it has even subsets not containing $a.$ By adding $a$ to each subset, it also has the same number of even subsets containing $a$ as odd subsets containing $a.$ So in total it has the same number of odd and even subsets.
Answer: Give each size-$k$ subset a score of $(-1)^k$. The result you want is that the sum of all subsets' scores is $0$. But we can factorise that sum as $(1+(-1))^n$, since each element is either in or not in a subset, and multiplies the empty set's score of $1$ by $-1$ if it's included.
Comment: That's so simple..,
Answer: Here's my way of thinking... A set of cardinality $n$ will have $2^n$ subsets (why?)
Suppose that, for some $n$, the number of even and odd subsets is the same, i.e. $x$ for some $x$. Then $2x=2^n$.
Now suppose I introduce a new element, so we have a set of cardinality $n+1$. All the even subsets of the original $n$ items are still even subsets of our new slightly larger set - so we have $x$ even subsets AND all of the odd subsets of $n$ can be made into even subsets of $n+1$ by including our new element - and so we have another $x$ even subsets, giving $2x$ even subsets. However, we know that $2x=2^n=\frac{1}{2} \times 2^{n+1}$ and so exactly half of the subsets of our new set are even (implying the other half are odd). This is the inductive step in a proof by induction, you now just need to find an $n$ such that the base step holds (hint, $n=1$ might be worth a go).
Answer: The number of elements in $P(S)$ is $2^n$.  Suppose that $P_o(S) = 2^{n-1} = P_e(S)$ for all $1 \leq n \leq N$.  Then the sets are $P(S \cup a) = P(S) \cup (a \cup P(S))$.  Thus there are $2^{n-1} + \#\{ a \cup A : A \in P(S), |A| \text{ odd}\}$ even elements, and similarly for odd.  Proof by induction.


Switch tabs using command + number in WebStorm?

Question: Is there any way to switch tabs using command+number?
This feature is available in Atom, Code, and many other IDEs,
Answer: Unfortunately WebStorm does not have such functionality.
https://youtrack.jetbrains.com/issue/IDEA-68324 -- watch this ticket (star/vote/comment) to get notified on any progress.

At the same time -- try GoToTabs plugin -- it can do that.
You will have to add keyboard shortcuts yourself: to prevent any possible conflicts with already assigned commands, those actions do not have any shortcuts assigned.
Answer: As of 2018.3, it is now possible to switch tabs using a keyboard shortcut.
The option name in keymap preference is "Other > Tabs > Select Tab #1"


UIView inside UIScrollView not resizing on 3,5 inches screen iOS

Question: I need your help / suggestions guys.
I'm using a UIScrollView (horizontal) to show some data. There is a custom UIView inside this scrollView, made in Interface Builder. I'm not using Auto layout (maybe I should... I tried, but it's doesn't look as I want, or I don't understand how it works...).
Well, here is my code where my scrollView is powered:
<code>- (void)loadList
{
    for (int i = 0; i < [DBManager getSharedInstance].getCountItems; i++) {

        Item *item = [[DBManager getSharedInstance] getCachedItemAtIndex:i];

        PanelPage *page = [[PanelPage alloc] initWithItem:item];

        CGRect frame;
        frame.origin.x = self.scrollView.frame.size.width * i;
        frame.origin.y = 0;
        frame.size = self.scrollView.frame.size;

        page.view.frame = frame;

        [self.scrollView addSubview:page.view];

    }

    self.scrollView.contentSize = CGSizeMake(self.scrollView.frame.size.width * [DBManager getSharedInstance].getCountItems, self.scrollView.frame.size.height);

    self.pageControl.numberOfPages = [DBManager getSharedInstance].getCountItems;
}
</code>
It works good. The size of the UIView inside the scrollView :
Height: 397px
Width: 285px
I have a UINavigationBar (64px height) and a UITabBar (44px height), working on iOS 7
For screen of 4 inches, it's perfect, but on 3,5 inches, I would like to resize the view insides my scrollView, but I don't know how to proceed. A tried many things but no good results :/
Thank you so much for your help.
Any suggestion is appreciate ;)
EDIT:
Well, I can now resize my scrollview when size screen change. See: https://stackoverflow.com/a/15401903/2061450
Searching for resize the views inside the scrollview now...
Answer: You should call loadList function in viewDidAppear, not before (e.g. in viewDidLoad).


Sending email in php with inline images

Question: I am using php's built-in mail-function to send emails. So far I've accomplished a lot by looking at other examples and stripping what I thought would be necessary.
My current code for sending emails with inline images looks like this. The content is generated by using a template which may or may not have some placeholders which are replaced by values from my database (this is omitted)
<code>function sendEmail($to, $subject, $htmlmessage, $inline_images = array()){
   define('RN', "\n");
   /* define mime boundaries */
   $mime_boundary_mix = "_mix_" . md5(time());

   /* set headers */
   $headers = "From: email@example.com" . RN;
   $headers .= "Reply-To: email@example.com" . RN;
   $headers .= "Return-Path: email@example.com" . RN;
   $headers .= "Message-ID: <".time()."_DOMAIN@".$_SERVER['SERVER_NAME'].">" . RN;
   $headers .= "X-Mailer: PHP v".phpversion() . RN;

   $headers .= "Mime-Version: 1.0" . RN;
   $headers .= "Content-Type: multipart/mixed;" . RN;
   $headers .= " boundary=\"{$mime_boundary_mix}\"";

   /* start email body with mime_boundary */
   $msg = "--{$mime_boundary_mix}" . RN;
   /* include html */
   $msg .= "Content-Type: text/html; charset=\"iso-8859-15\"". RN;
   $msg .= "Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit". RN . RN;
   $msg .= $htmlmessage . RN;

   /* check if there are inline images */
   if(count($inline_images) > 0) {
      foreach($inline_images as $image) {
         $path_to_image = $image['path'];
         $image_filename = basename($path_to_image);
         $image_type = filetype($path_to_image);

         $file_handler = fopen($path_to_image, 'rb');
         $image_data = chunk_split(base64_encode(fread($file_handler, filesize($path_to_image))));
         fclose($file_handler);

         /* start mime boundary */
         $msg .= "--{$mime_boundary_mix}" . RN;
         /* add image data */
         $msg .= "Content-Type: {" . image_type_to_mime_type (exif_imagetype($path_to_image)) . "};" . RN;
         $msg .= " name=\"{$image_filename}\"" . RN;
         $msg .= "Content-Disposition: inline;" . RN;
         $msg .= " filename=\"{$image_filename}\"" . RN;
         $msg .= "Content-Transfer-Encoding: base64" . RN . RN;
         $msg .= $image_data . RN . RN;

      }
      /* end mime boundary */
      $msg .= "--{$mime_boundary_mix}--" . RN;

   }
   /* end mime boundary */
   $msg .= "--{$mime_boundary_mix}--" . RN;

   return mail($to, $subject, $msg, $headers);
}
</code>
$inline_images is an array which contains items with paths to images like:
array([0] => array('path' => "myimage.png")) (if I'm not mistaken, but this is not important)
Can anybody tell me why using this code, Outlook puts an attachment icon with this e-mail and why gmail shows a warning: do you want to show all images and doesn't show any when I allow these?
A few questions about this:
- Receiving this e-mail in Outlook works fine, but I'd like to hide the paperclip icon if possible, afterall it's an embedded image and not really an attachment.
- In GMail I receive the e-mail with the images as attachments and blanks (broken image-icon) at the place of all images in the e-mail, how do I fix this? GMail asks me first if I want to allow the images, but after I allow the blanks show up. And can I also hide the images as attachments in GMail?
- I also tried viewing the e-mail in Office Outlook Web Access, which presented the e-mail in the same manner GMail did: images not shown, but only as attachments.
Can anyone help me with this?
If you need more details, please ask.
Answer: Why can't you go for libraries like phpmailer or switmailer.? They provide full support for html mails. Also you won't need to create all the headers.
Comment: I myself would opt for something like PEAR, but it's not on my webhost, and I'm not in the position to swap webhosts.
Comment: I didn't use PEAR for mailing. Why you need to swap webhosts.? you can simply use this libraries, without any external dependencies.

Sending email in php with inline images


Base system changed

Question: Im using 16.04 with gnome and I used katoolin to install some programs. Well after a reboot when I tried to install pidgin every shows up as if I was using kali. Is there a way to make ubuntu my base system again? Or is there some thing else causing this problem.
Answer: Since Kali is not supported on this site, the best we can really suggest is to reinstall Ubuntu clean.  You can take steps (like making a backup before you start) to preserve your personal files in /home, but the changes that will make everything show up as if you were using Kali are pervasive enough that reinstalling will be the most efficient way to fix your system.
Then, if you wish to experiment with Kali, install it in a separate volume, ideally with its own /home separate from that for your Ubuntu Gnome installation.
Comment: Well I use the tools along with my own work flow. Its the problem of something changed something that makes it look like its kali.

Base system changed


JSON data response

Question: I need to obtain point features for UNESCO sites of italy in JSON format using :-UNESCO POIs (OGC API): https://demo.pygeoapi.io/master/collections/unesco_pois_italy. But unfortunately I am not able to get it. It look like this OGC API don't contain point features in JSON format. What's the matter here?
Answer: The OGC API request to use for reading the features from this service is https://demo.pygeoapi.io/master/collections/unesco_pois_italy/items?f=json.
However, when I tried it the response is a generic error message
<code>{
    "code": "NoApplicableCode",
    "description": "generic error (check logs)"
}
</code>
The description of the service is

Unesco Points of Interest in Italy. Using GeoSolutions GeoServer WFS
demo-server as backend WFS.

It looks like the demo is down now.
Comment: Yeah, it seems it's not working.
Answer: The FQDN of the backend WFS server from GeoSolutions changed to https://gs-stable.geosolutionsgroup.com/geoserver/wfs?request=GetCapabilities.
PR to fix the issue has been submitted and merged https://github.com/geopython/demo.pygeoapi.io/pull/37

JSON data response


Software for managing medium sized projects

Question: So, at my current job we're usually 1-3 developers, 1-2 art directors and 1 project manager on each project, with the smallest ones just being one of each and the larger ones being three developers and two art directors.
I'm looking for a software, combination of softwares or some type of service that will allow us to manage our projects individually, it's important that we're able to manage several projects at once within one system/piece of software (without going through a too complicated setup process for each project) since we usually have 2-3 ongoing projects in parallel.
We need to be able to integrate with SVN, Track bugs/features/request, Put up milestones and some type of agile management a´la SCRUM would be nice.
Preferably it should be able to run on Windows (without to much hassle, ever tried to put up Apache+Python+Svn+Trac on the same Windows 2003 server and get them all to run together? not fun.) since we mostly do .NET development and most of our servers run Windows 2003.
Comment: Get a real server (ie, not windows) and you'll have less trouble setting things up.
Answer: Since you seem to have a maximum of six people working in a single room - I'd give serious consideration to not using software at all.
A whiteboard & cork board for each project, plus a whole lot of index cards / stickies can go a long, long way towards meeting the project management needs of one or two small projects.
(Failing that - I've found basecamp a fairly lightweight tool for small projects - although it doesn't do any sort of source control integration. I've also heard good things about the latest FogBugz - but I've had such bad personal experiences of earlier versions I've not tried it yet myself)
Answer: http://www.project-open.org/ covers your requirements and is available for Windows. However it is targeted at larger organizations (>20 employees), so that you might find it overkill for a group of 6.
Answer: I personally use BaseCamp for my company and have had great luck with it!
Edit oops, I didn't notice the SVN requirement, BaseCamp can help with the other stuff.
Answer: You might want to try out Mantis (www.mantisbt.org). It is a little cumbersome at first, but with a little bit of customization, it will work for you. It has SVN integration, and a bunch of other stuff which I haven't used yet... :|... such as Mobile support, Wiki support, etc.
And it's OSS (Open Source Software). Written in PHP, works with MySQL, or PostgreSQL. Just check it out, it's good.
http://www.mantisbt.org/
Answer: Atlassian's Jira Studio sounds like exactly what you need.  It's hosted, so there's nothing to install.
Answer: If you want something that is quick and easy to work with that integrates well with Windows I would suggest Microsoft Office Groove.  I have been using it on my current project and it also easily allows you to start new projects and add members.
It is not the best solution in the world, but it is included with Office '07 and it has tools to help with project management, bug reporting, calendar, meeting summaries, etc.
The one major problem I have found with it is that version control is not included by default.  From what I understand you have to setup a SharePoint server to have version control in Groove, but I have not done this yet and have been hoping that my backups will work fine.
Answer: +1 for starting out with a whiteboard, stickies and whatever other office supplies you can think of. Being able to visualize the state of your project in a big visible wall can be really useful, more so than software-based tracking, IMHO.
You need to make sure the team is committed to keeping it up-to-date, though.


How do I remotely control an SB-800 with my Nikon D5500?

Question: Is there a way to use the Nikon SB-800 speedlight with the D5500 remotely? I've looked up tutorials and they keep showing how to put the camera in commander mode which I don't seem to have on this camera.
Answer: The SB-800 can be put into optical slave (SU-4) mode and be triggered by the popup flash on your camera.

First, turn on your flash.

Press and hold the "sel" button for 2 seconds.

Arrow right (the "single tree" button) to get the upper right quadrant highlighted.

Push the select button again.

Scoll down ("-" button) until "SU-4" is highlighted.

Push "sel" again to select.

Push and hold "sel" for 2 seconds to get out of the submenu.

Your flash will now say "REMOTE."

This is not remote control/commander, only remote triggering. It only works well when both flashes are set to manual, and it does have the limitations of being optical; but it is also free.
Answer: For remote flash, the Nikon solution is the SU-800.
At that price, I would look in to wireless (RF) flash triggers which are more versatile since it doesn't require line of sight like the SU-800. Inexpensive units can be found for under USD 100.
Another option is a TTL flash cord. If you're handy with a soldering iron, you can splice the cord and add length using CAT5 Ethernet cable.
Answer:
Is there a way to use the Nikon SB-800 [speedlight] with the D5500 remotely?

You can fire it if you put the SB-800 into SU-4 mode and fire the D5500's pop-up flash. This is a "dumb" optical slave mode that uses a sensor on the SB-800 to fire when another flash burst is sensed. This is a manual-only triggering method that cannot use TTL or HSS/FP, and the only thing you can tell the flash to do is fire.
This is not Nikon's CLS/AWL "smart" optical triggering, which allows for full remote control over the SB-800.

I've looked up tutorials and it keeps showing to put the camera in commander mode which I don't seem to have on this camera.

Nikon reserved commander mode in the pop-up flash for their higher-end camera body. It's only in the D7x00 series and higher end bodies. Neither the D3x00 or D5x00 bodies can do this. To use CLS/AWL, you'd need another flash unit that has commander capability, such as the SU-8 or a higher-end SB speedlight like an SB-700 or another SB-800.
Keep in mind that optical slaving is light-based communication. It requires "line of sight" from the commander to the sensor on the side of the speedlight. It works best in studio conditions where the ambient light level is low and there are a lot of bounce surfaces around.
If used outdoors in bright sunlight, range and reliability can be reduced. And you cannot block the light path from the commander to the SB-800.
Which is why most folks prefer using radio triggering instead. Your easiest solution might actually be to get a radio transmitter/receiver set to remotely control your flash. Something like a Godox XPro-N transmitter to use on the hotshoe of your D5500, and an X1R-N receiver to attach to the foot of the SB-800 would let you remotely control the flash in TTL as well as M, and to remotely set the power on the flash, turn its group on/off, and remotely zoom it. If you upgraded to an HSS/FP-capable body, you'd have remotely high-speed sync/focal plane flash, too.
Comment: "the only thing you can tell the flash to do is fire" -- I don't know about the SB-800 but at least the SB-900 can be used with SU-4 in automatic mode where it will also stop when the master flash stops.  That's of course still limited but might be useful in some scenarios.


Is it possible to displace cerium from cerium sulphate using aluminium to get pure cerium metal?

Question: I'm unable to find cerium any reactivity series, hence the question..
Answer: No
The std. electrode potential for Ce3+/Ce is -2.33V, the std. electrode potential for Al3+/Al is -1.66V. This shows that Al is not reactive enough to reduce Ce(III), it is reactive enough to take Ce(IV) to Ce(III) so I think you would get a mixed salt of Ce/Al sulfate.
This reference here states that calcium metal is used with cerium fluoride as a preparative method.
Note: you can't do this in aqueous solution. Your reactive metal will react with the water preferentially.
Comment: Is it possible to simply add a highly reactive metal like aluminium to a solution  of ceric sulphate? Forgive me is this question sounds silly but  I'm new to chemistry.
Comment: The electrode potentials show that Aluminium is not reactive enough to reduce Cerium. It requires metal with electrode potential below -2.33V.  Potassium,  Sodium and Lithium would  do it in addition to Ca. Ce has a reactivity close to Magnesium (-2.37V). Also note; you can't do this in aqueous solution. Your reactive metal will react with the water preferentially.
Comment: Not to mention that sulfates would get reduced to sulfides in the presence of such powerful reducing agents. That is wasteful of your reducing agent.
Comment: Thanks! May I know if it is possible to use electrolysis to extract cerium?
Comment: @mayur-sharmila yes it is. The reference I quoted in the answer mentions electrolysis of cerium chloride as a preparative method. If you are happy with the answer, please accept it.


Is there a way to display both videos and JavaScript animations on a beamer-generated PDF under linux?

Question: I use the beamer package for presentations and often complement it with animate (together with tikz) and multimedia. animate creates embedded JavaScript, playable with acroread. multimedia embeds videos (avi, mp4, ...) playable via okular via some video player available to it (e.g. mplayer). Unfortunately I have not found a PDF player capable of displaying both JavaScript and videos under Ubuntu. How can I circumvent this issue? I have an upcoming presentation where I would like to be able to play both types of content.
Comment: Perhaps [this](https://tex.stackexchange.com/questions/67663) old thread may still be of some help.
Comment: The problem is that currently there is no actively developed PDF viewer for Linux with a JavaScript engine.
Comment: @AlexG See my (unsatisfying) workaround.
Answer: Well, after getting very frustrated about this I finally managed to get both animate and media9 content (using the embedded VPlayer.swf, see How to include multimedia files in beamer) to play under Ubuntu 18.04 by installing the latest Windows 10 Adobe Reader via wine. To play videos, one also needs to install the Firefox Flash Player plugin via wine.
This is a disappointing solution but it will have to do until someone developing native Linux PDF viewers decides to incorporate JS functionality.

Update 27/01/2020:
I recently had to make a fresh install on a new machine, so I took the chance to gather the steps. On Ubuntu 18.04.03 this works:
sudo apt install wine-stable winetricks winbind
winetricks mspatcha
# Important to get this version of AcrobatDC, newer versions didn't work for me
wget ftp://ftp.adobe.com/pub/adobe/reader/win/AcrobatDC/1800920044/AcroRdrDC1800920044_en_US.exe
wine AcroRdrDC1800920044_en_US.exe
wget https://fpdownload.macromedia.com/pub/labs/flashruntimes/flashplayer/install_flash_player.exe
wine install_flash_player.exe

Comment: @AlexG It could be that you need the latest Ubuntu. I'll try to extend the answer when I have the time. Having to embed the videos is still a bother for large ones. I have even tried a local webserver approach which works, but the loading time is quite long, so not workable for a live presentation in front of an audience. Thanks for developing the media9 package by the way.
Comment: Thank you very much for your contribution. I have tried the same a couple of times without success on my Linux PC running Gentoo Linux. Could you please extend your answer, including a step-by-step instruction for the installation procedure and perhaps a list of additional packages, libraries etc.?
Comment: @AlexG See my edit, hopefully this works out for you
Comment: Thanks a lot for adding instructions!


Log individual users out of a period of inactivity?

Question: There is a setting under Security & Privacy -> Advanced, to "Log out after X minutes of inactivity".  However, this is a system wide setting.  I just want to have my kids account log out after a period of inactivity, but leave my account logged in.  Is that possible?
Comment: @GrahamMiln I don't think this is a duplicate. It's broader than the question you linked to, so people searching for this will more likely find an answer
Comment: See also [Logging out one specific user after inactivity?](https://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/324265/) Linking this to help tie together similar questions.
Answer: The MacEnterprise list has discussed this topic recently, Forcing Log-Off For Idle Users.
autologout Defaults
John NcNair suggested the following autologout defaults:
defaults write /Library/Preferences/.GlobalPreferences com.apple.autologout.AutoLogOutDelay -int 900
defaults write /Library/Preferences/.GlobalPreferences com.apple.securitypref.logoutvalue -int 900

Limitations
Bruce Carter mentioned...

Note that nothing using Apple's internal mechanism for this will work if
  the user has unsaved files open.  It will simply stop at the dialog box and
  time out.

See the related question How can I automatically log out the guest account after a period of inactivity? for other approaches and tools.


Debugging drools when deployed in camel / fuseesb

Question: I am currently building upon the camel-drools example found here: https://github.com/FuseByExample/camel-drools-example
The route is as follows:
<code><route trace="false" id="testRoute">
    <description>Example route that will regularly create a Person with a random age and verify their age</description>
    <from uri="timer:testRoute"/>
    <bean method="createTestPerson" ref="personHelper"/>
    <to uri="drools:node1/ksession1?action=insertBody" id="AgeVerification">
        <description>valid 'action' values are:
                'execute' that takes a 'Command' object (default)
                'insertBody' that inserts the Exchange.in.body, and executes rules
                'insertMessage' that inserts the Exchange.in (type org.apache.camel.Message), and executes rules
                'insertExchange' that inserts the Exchange (type org.apache.camel.Exchange), and executes rules
            </description>
    </to>
    <choice>
        <when id="CanDrink">
            <simple>${body.canDrink}</simple>
            <log logName="Bar" message="Person ${body.name} can go to the bar"/>
        </when>
        <otherwise>
            <log logName="Home" message="Person ${body.name} is staying home"/>
        </otherwise>
    </choice>
</route>
</code>
I have expanded on this example for my own project and have added more complicated rules and different Facts, which I would now like to debug, however I can't figure out how to get Drools debugging working in the camel / fuse environment.
I would ideally like to see all the various debugging views that the Drools IDE provides such as the agenda view, working memory view, etc (as per http://docs.jboss.org/drools/release/5.5.0.Final/drools-expert-docs/html/ch06.html#d0e8478). I have converted my Eclipse project to a Drools project. I have created a new 'Drools application' debug configuration, but have no idea what to put in the 'main class' section. I don't have my own main class since it's camel that invokes the firing of the rules and inserting facts into the working memory.
I've tried debugging the application as a normal Java application, so I set breakpoints before  the drools part of the application is executed. I have followed the drools documentation that says that if you set normal breakpoints and click on the workingMemory variable that the drools 'Working memory' or 'Agenda' view should then populate, however I always see 'The selected working memory is empty', even though I know that it isn't. I've stepped through the code from start to finish clicking on all possible WorkingMemory variables but i still see 'the selected working memory is empty' error.
Has anyone been able to successfully debug drools when deployed using camel? If so, what steps did you take?
Cheers.
Comment: Note that there's work being done for 6.0.0-SNAPSHOT around osgi, camel and karaf improvements.
Comment: Hi, i'm not sure of the answer to this; But I'd love to see what you've done with drools :) Is it open source at all?
Answer: I use the KnowledgeRuntimeLogger to help debug my camel/drools app.  It creates a log file that I view in the Audit view (you can drag it into the view in eclipse).
KnowledgeRuntimeLogger flogger = KnowledgeRuntimeLoggerFactory.newThreadedFileLogger(ksession,"c:/temp/wmlog");
If you need to do this in spring, you can create it as a bean with the two constructor arguments (or create you own little bean that creates the logger).
hth


In theory, can I deploy Matter protocol on my cloud platform?

Question: In theory, can I deploy Matter protocol on my Cloud Platform? Then the Matter device (Matter node) will communicate with the smartphone (Matter controller) through the cloud when they are not on the same local network.
Comment: Been 6 months now. Did it work ? In theory, you could setup a VPN and always "be at home in the cloud", wherever you are. But that is painful. Usually, you have a "controller" at home and then control that remotely by some method from the phone. MQTT for example.
Comment: in theory, you can do anything
Answer: The whole point of Matter is to standardize the behavior of the nodes. What you're describing is non-standard behavior. Of course, your devices might do such communication additional to Matter communication, but three-point communication is currently not defined in Matter (with the exception of Matter bridges bridging to non-Matter devices).
You could build something on top of Matter, but unless you are in control of all three participants that wouldn't work afterwards and more importantly it would only work for those nodes were you built your stuff on top. For the consumer—if you are building a consumer product—that would look very weird. Any other Matter device wouldn't buy into the process of calling different nodes based on availability.
Lastly, you might fail the Matter certification by doing this.
If you don't need certification and just want to use Matter as a technological basis because you don't want to create a proprietary protocol there is nothing really stopping you. Not sure if you should call it Matter then.


How to burn fat while doing workout?

Question: I use the food supplement Le Carnitine to burn fat. When using this, do i need to do cardio before or after workout? Which one is more effective for burning fat?
OR can you offer another product to burn fat?
Comment: I'm voting to close this question as off-topic because it is a product recommendation request. Moreover, the links lead to a Turkish site, so the question, and its possible answers, are very esoteric.
Answer: Please don't forget that you can't "buy" results. You can use all the L-carnitine in the world, which will certainly help a little, but unless you're actually in a caloric deficit, your cardio and supplements won't lead to anything but disappointment. I learned this through my years in high school, you can NOT outtrain a bad diet, so please make sure your diet is appropriate first!
For burning fat it's been proven that cardio after the workout is a lot more effective. This is because when you do a workout, you are burning the glycogen that your body has stored via carbohydrates. Since after the workout your glycogen stores are lower than they were when you started, when you do cardio you have to burn less glycogen in order to get into the fat burning zone.
This also burns more fat indirectly since the workout itself actually has quite an effect on fat burning. There is something that occurs called post exercise oxygen consumption, which is basically your body using energy in order to repair the muscles you've damaged through the workout, i.e higher metabolic rate. So, if you put more energy into your workout by not doing cardio first, this amount will be higher.
So that's 2 very good reasons to do cardio after the workout.
As for other supplements for fat burning, I won't give specific ones but there are some proven ingredients for this purpose. The first is the ECA stack, stands for ephedrine, caffeine and aspirin (ive never actually used the aspirin part I don't see a point). Just pure caffeine is also pretty good, it mobilizes fat cells for you to burn them faster. Yohimbe and l-carnitine have also been shown to be effective. Green tea extract helps with insulin levels and apparently has been shown to help metabolism to a very small degree.
But in my honest opinion, nothing beats a proper diet with caffeine as the fat burning/ pre-workout supplement in terms of pure simplicity, price, and effectiveness. The rest of the supplements you see have very questionable ingredients using bogus science studies to say false and over hyped claims to make people think they can "buy" fitness.

How to burn fat while doing workout?


Making terms as a list format

Question: This is my layout http://www.gorgeoushentai.com/content/saber-marionette-j-2
If you look at the genres section it shows them as a div class and I want it as a
 . How can I make it a list format? I can't find where it's printing the terms in the templates. This is for drupal 7
Answer: The template file you're looking for is field.tpl.php. The naming suggestions for this template are explained fairly well here and here - although they aren't in the documentation and I haven't tested them. So the steps you need to take are:

Copy the .tpl.php file from modules/field/theme
Rename it so it
targets only the field type you wan't ('list_text' I think in your
case).
Change the divs into ul/ol and li as required.
Comment: @Ruriko [Display comma-separated list of taxonomy terms?](http://drupal.stackexchange.com/questions/3926/display-comma-separated-list-of-taxonomy-terms/3939#3939) is similar and may help you get started. Simply change the DIV outside the `foreach` to a `` or `' and the DIVs inside the `foreach` to ``'s

Making terms as a list format


What is 'Cultural Armor'?

Question: I see certain towns, in my case more specifically Divinity's Reach have 'Cultural Armor Merchants'.  Each one of these merchants has a tier which as I understand tiers with levels.  What is the significance of this armor vs. other armor that you can find? Also, why is this armor separated by race? Is it strictly appearance?
Answer: Cultural armor is indeed different for each race. The differences aren't just cosmetic, as each race's set of armor has different set bonuses.
Race        Major Bonus     Minor Bonus 1     Minor Bonus 2
Asura    Condition Damage     Vitality           Power
Charr          Power        Critical Damage    Precision
Human          Power          Precision      Condition Damage
Norn           Power          Vitality         Toughness
Sylvari  Condition Damage     Precision        Toughness

The armor is roughly analogous to Prestige Armor from Guild Wars 1, though that armor was entirely cosmetic. Because of its higher cost, it's a way to reward players who have had the time/resources/money to acquire that much gold to afford the items.
As of this moment, because it's so early in release and the Trading Post is still disabled, it's difficult to know exactly how this armor compares, stats-wise, to the crafted Legendary sets in the game, though it is almost certainly better than the random mob drops.
Comment: You say "random mob drops". Does this apply to ANY mob drops? What about dungeons and such?
Comment: @Emerica. They have [already stated](http://massively.joystiq.com/2012/07/12/arenanet-devs-talk-legendary-weapons-endgame-and-more/) that the dungeon rewards are better in regards to the cosmetic aspect only. They will still have the same stats as other max-level armors, it's just that the skins are rarer.
Answer: Cultural armour are armour for your specific race. No other race can buy it. It's some sort of distinctive set. You can be a proud insert race name here if you want.
For example, the Norn have sellers in the great lodge that sell these.
They come in three tiers, with each type (light, medium, heavy) per tiers.
First one can be wear at level 35. Furthermore, they are gold armours :P

What is 'Cultural Armor'?


Outlook Add-ins manifest and Installer folder VSTO

Question: I'm developing an outlook addins vsto using visual studio 2010,
When I publish my project I found a new install folder inside "Application Files\MyAddin_version\Installer\MyAddin.exe.deply"
This is a new file with the deploy, before I was able to deploy without this file.
My question, what setting in my build generate this file?
The problem every time I build my project now I found in the manifest file the new entry:

I'm pretty sure the entry was not found in the old builds, I didn't change the code, but I was trying to change the build and publish, switching between local publish and UNC and http.
 (Need to remove this new entry, don't need it every time i build, it causes problem.)
Many Thanks
Answer: Sorry it was a bug in my solution, some files were marked as content in the build actions.


Views: How to change entity view mode settings when a contextual filter is available?

Question: I have a view it displays a few nodes in teaser mode. The view takes contextual filter and when filter is available I would like the content (node) to be displayed in full view mode. Is this possible?
Answer: Just create a view with two page displays.
The first display will be on the path with no arguments and will display teasers.
The second display will be on the same path with an argument such as thepath/% and will display full view mode.
When you alter the format and add the contextual filter in the second page, make sure to select it only for that display, otherwise it will overwrite the first display as well.

This is what views displays are for. Use it.


Low level cross-platofrm C game API

Question: I would like to code games, but the issue is, I only get the algorithms down. I have a hard time creating the user interfaces. I have used Metal for Mac, but this is non-portable. I have considered OpenGL for Windows/Linux, but that is not recommended for Mac. I also use <unistd.h> for directory functions for saving game data. I would just use C++20 filesystem for this (no strong preference for C vs C++), but unfortunately I cannot use that with old versions of MacOS. What are some low-level, cross-platform frameworks suitable for games, in C and/or C++?
Answer: Hey I'm not sure if this fully fits your criteria for this, since you seem to be asking for a "game framework", "game API" and UI framework, and I'm not sure if you want one of them, any of them or all of them. I'm going with UI framework since that's what you said your problem was.
Have you looked at dear imgui? From the github:

Dear ImGui is a bloat-free graphical user interface library for C++.
It outputs optimized vertex buffers that you can render anytime in
your 3D-pipeline-enabled application. It is fast, portable, renderer
agnostic, and self-contained (no external dependencies).
Dear ImGui is designed to enable fast iterations and to empower
programmers to create content creation tools and visualization / debug
tools (as opposed to UI for the average end-user). It favors
simplicity and productivity toward this goal and lacks certain
features commonly found in more high-level libraries.
Dear ImGui is particularly suited to integration in game engines (for
tooling), real-time 3D applications, fullscreen applications, embedded
applications, or any applications on console platforms where operating
system features are non-standard.

It's cross-platform in the sense that you can choose many different 'backend' for whatever OS/whatever you're running it on.
I don't know how the backend setup process will be for C++, but I know that when I used it in rust it was relatively simple (once I figured out the docs, since they were designed for C++ not Rust).
Edit: Also might want to check out this similar question I want to start making a 2d game engine in C++ . One of the answers mentioned SFML, which I haven't used myself so I can't give you much advice on, but I think it's cross-platform too.
Comment: Thats a good first answer
Comment: Thanks Rohit! Also just found another related question: https://softwarerecs.stackexchange.com/q/53279

Low level cross-platofrm C game API


Can I report a confidence interval for a kappa in which two raters have perfect agreement?

Question: In a test of inter-rater agreement, I planned to report a kappa and lower+upper confidence bounds.  However, I found 100% perfect agreement between the two raters.  Is it possible to produce a confidence interval from this?  In addition, is it appropriate to report a Kappa of 1?
Answer: If your point and interval estimates are are $1.00$ then you can and should report that. However, it's important to interpret these results in the context of the design of the reliability experiment (i.e., are these estimates good?). For example, how large was the sample of objects being rated and how large was the sample of raters? Were these samples large and representative enough of the populations of interest to be trustworthy? In my experience, it is pretty rare to see perfect agreement on a large sample, so I'm wondering if this  result may be revealing underlying issues in the experimental design.


What stabilizes the alternators/generators?

Question: I've completed my intern in hydroelectric power plants. I've seen large generators working to maintain voltage in 50Hz. They were turning at 187,5 rpm with 32 poles. But I wondered what stabilizes them? What if water flow makes turbine turn a little bit faster or slower frequency should change, right? When I asked this to them they said, the pipes which turns the turbine are designed to get just enough flow to make turbine turn at 187,5 rpm. But I wonder what if we maintain greater flow or pressure to the turbines, would it produce 55-60-70+ Hz? Are there any electromagnetic force that is holding-back from speeding up?
Comment: You need a frequency controler for a stand alone hydroelectric power plant to regulate frequency at 50 Hz.
Answer: The turbine always runs at the speed of the grid.
Power from the water sends power into the grid. Increasing the water flow increases the power into the grid. Turn the water flow off, and the generator becomes a motor, spinning the turbine at grid speed.
Answer:
Are there any electromagnetic force that is holding-back from speeding
  up?

Yes, the grid is controlled to be 50 or 60 Hz (country dependent) and although a particular hydro plant may produce many megawatts it pales into insignificance compared to the grid. The grid has many power contributors and these are all regulated to push out power at 50/60 Hz. A particular Hydroelectric plant won't be able to fight against this and hope to push-up the operating frequency. This is why grid connected plants have a sophisticated level of control and will shut down or de-pressurize water feeds should anything be going wrong.
If the hysro plant was stand-alone and there were no safeguards against maintianing the correct flow to the turbine then clearly both output frequency and voltage would rise.
Comment: Thanks for your answer, that's what I was looking for :) Besides that, what happens if system wouldn't shut down when there was no water flow? Would it try to act like a motor?
Comment: Yes it would rotate due to being fed electricity.
Answer: If the flow is increased, then the power output must be increased to keep the speed constant - the power output is increased by increasing the excitation current.
Once the maximum power has been achieved then the flow cannot be increased any more as then the frequency starts to increase. There are some hydro turbines that take flows of 45m^3/s which can't be changed very quickly...
This is more of a problem with wind turbines when the wind speed exceeds about 25m/s (depends on the manufacturer of the turbine) and if the wind goes over that limit then the wind turbine is stopped ie brakes on.
I was half-way up a turbine tower when the brake was put on... full speed to 0 rpm bang - a brown-trouser moment - almost...
Answer: It helps that gravity and water are two well known and constant factors.
There are two ways to change the speed of the turbine:

Changing flow. Limiting the intake using valves.
Changing power output. If you take more energy from the generator, it takes more energy to spin the turbine. Making it run slower.

Maybe there is a third way, by changing the angle of the blades. But I do not know if this is common for hydro generators.
A hydro turbine without these two regulations cannot create a stable AC grid on its own. It will overspeed when you don't consume enough power. And it will stall when you take too much.
Your permanent magnet wind turbine on your yacht is like this. It needs batteries and a controller to create a stable grid with fluctuating winds and loads.
There is a different situation when it is connected to mains. This has a very low impedance due to being many times larger in capacity than one turbine, thus it can only feed power to the grid. To change the frequency of the grid it needs to takeover the load from all other power plants. But it will reach current limits first.


can you combine a regular return filter if you have a electrostatic hvac filter system

Question: can you combine a regular return filter if you have a electrostatic hvac filter system as the house? we moved into a house that has this system but my kids have allergies and i understand that the electrostatic filters are not great if you have allergies.
Comment: Are you asking if you can install a "regular" paper-type filter (of whatever quality necessary) _in addition_ to the electrostatic filter? You can, so long as you have some place(s) to put it, but it will impact air flow. I'll leave it to the HVAC guys to detail what impact that may have on the overall workings of the system.
Comment: I have heard from some specialist that electrostatic filter is not good for heals. It emmits some ions. Especially if it affect your child health is better to replace it. Regular filter will not stop the ions. It is just for dust.
Comment: I added regular filters to the return vents, just worried that it will reduce the airflow too much and create an issue with the system.
Comment: @user263983 a electrostatic system can emit ozone but a properly set up system will not have excess ozone / health hazards there is a balance. We could take everything out of the air with electrostatic but then a large amount of ozone would be generated. Pre filtering the large particles reduces the needed strength of the electrostatic field required to capture the particles also keeping the plates cleaner for longer.
So a properly sized electrostatic won't have excessive generation that could be harmful but needs pre filters to block the larger particles.
Answer: Yes standard fiber filters can be added, I suggest adding them at the return point if possible this keeps the heavy dust particles out of the duct system. Having a granddaughter that has severe breathing problems I can tell you keeping the electrostatic filter clean is your best bet. Adding fiber filters for large dust particles is the next best thing.
Adding filters that are very fine are actually counter productive as they slow the air down and reduce the exchanges through the filter system. Also systems are designed for a flow and excessive obstruction can cause shorter system life and even trigger safety components causing the furnace to shut down or cooling system to ice up.
The last few times where my area was choked with smoke from Forrest fires my grand daughter was not hospitalized as has happened in the past.
The electrostatic elements did need to be cleaned at 2 weeks where it is normally a monthly thing and there are the cheap fiberglass filters at the entrance(s) to the system plus the electrostatic.
Answer: past 4 years I have been using a washable electrostatic and a $2 washable 3/16" poly foam sheet additionally on top as a pre-filter... (just because),
But I like to just pull the pre off more often and do a quick vacuum off/return in between the times I clean the 1" main electrostatic.
Using both I have negligible air flow loss.
There's also various MERV rated material (cut to size) you can use as a pre-filter if you want a specific rating... but the higher you go the lower the flow and more work for the fan.


Can Lucio's Speed Boost Increase Fire Rate?

Question: I want to assume the answer is no and that I'm just going crazy. I just lost a match in which a Reaper, in the kill cam, seemed to be firing much faster, as well as moving faster. There was a Lucio using speed boost at the time. Is Lucio ever able to increase fire rate?
Answer: No. You can see from his abilities breakdown here and here that it will only increase movement speed. The key phrase from the official site is
He can switch between two songs: one amplifies movement speed, while the other regenerates health.
Comment: Okay, that answers it. Just wanted to make sure i wasn't going crazy.


How can I fix roller marks on a surface with oblique lighting?

Question: I am painting a stairway with a ceiling light shining down at the top of the stairs. The walls have been textured with mud and a loop roller. At the bottom of the steps there are windows and a glass door that reflect light on the upper section of the stairs. I used 2 coats of primer and also 2 coats of BM regal paint and a Wooster lambswool roller cover. The problem is that when looking upwards from the bottom of the stairs, I can see uneven places that look like roller marks. The landing and flat walls look perfect. I put a straight edge on the problem areas and they are straight. Is this the way stairwells are because of light reflection or is there something I can do? The paint color is a very light gray and the ceiling light has fairly dim bulbs.
Comment: Is your problem with the texture or the paint?
Comment: Pictures would help.
Comment: Still unclear of what is the problem you dislike of the texture or the paint?
Comment: If the wall is textured I can't imagine there would be paint streaks. How pronounced is the texture? There are paint sprayers, and I think one of them being used could resolve your issue, as opposed to rolling the paint.
Comment: Are you sure it's not a shadow line?
Answer: If you are having trouble with lighting I would suggest covering the window and door and putting a work light somewhere on the stairwell close to the wall so you can make sure your lighting is even and you don't miss any spots. I have problems with lighting sometimes and that always seems to help me especially on textured walls.
Answer: I understand the problem now.  (Saw the same thing with light gray over orange peel with a 1/2" roller cover )
The 1/2" nap is too heavy for a texture like orange peel.  I have seen the lines from the edge of the roller cover get pronounced at certain angles.
Roll another coat with a 3/"8 " cover.. you may be able to just roll the areas that have the noticeable lines.


Does p value depend on n for binomial distribution?

Question: Im new to statistics,I have a sample with P=0.034 and n=1000, can I say the parameters for population are n and 0.034 ?
Comment: The number 0.034 is an unbiased estimate of the true binomial parameter p. It is not the population parameter. The p-value does changes as the sample size changes.
Answer: No. If either was dependent on the other, they wouldn't be separate parameters.
Answer: We can define the likelihood of observing $k$ successes in a binomial distribution as
$$
f(k) ={n \choose p} p^k (1-p)^{(1-k)}.
$$
This means that for a given binomial distribution with $n$ and $p$, we can calculate the number of successes. $n$ is simply the number of individual experiments that are run, and $p$ is the probability of a given experiment resulting in success. Neither of the parameters is generally a function of the other.


How to create a Blackberry notification message that opens the app like twitter does?

Question: does anyone know what is the actual code to create a local notification in the Blackberry app that has a customized application icon and when the user clicks on the notification in the inbox, it goes directly to a specific page in the application?
This is similar to how Twitter for blackberry works, whereby you can be notified of new tweets via your inbox and on clicking on the link brings you to the tweets list in the twitter app. Thanks.
Comment: Can you include a screenshot or two of the Twitter functionality you're talking about?
Comment: here it is, notice the 13 and twitter logo on top...
http://www.getblackberry.info/wp-content/uploads/2010/12/b597a46599WFDej.jpg.jpg
Answer: What you're looking for is referred to as Message List integration or sometimes as Message Folders.  Note that the name "message folder' is a little misleading. This isn't to create a "folder" that the user has to go into  (that threw me off first); rather it creates the message in the inbox as you describe.  For the best user experience you'll also want to create an application notification icon.
The package name to concern yourself with is net.rim.blackberry.api.messagelist. You will need to implement ApplicationMessage to do what you've requested.
There is an example of how to do this in the sample source code that ships with the JDE, the project name is "MessageListDemo".  All JDEs dating back to (at least) OS 4.5 will have it this sample app. If you want to use the new notification bar integration for OS6, make sure to take a look at the 6.0 MessageListDemo.
Here is a quick overview of the process and bare-bones example. It's for 6.0 but I believe the API they remains the same back to 4.6, and had minor changes from 4.5).  The MessageListDemo sample will be better though, as it's more thorough and includes everything you'll need to do -- such as implementing MessageFolderListener to detect when the user opens one of your custom messages.
Finally - I see that you have asked many questions but not accepted any answers, even valid ones. Please make sure to accept this answer if it helps you in order to ensure people keep replying to your questions.
Comment: Marc,thanks for the answers and thanks for caring enough to point out the fact that i forgot to click the accepted checkmark. I did vote up on the good answers,but along the way,i forgot about the checkmark. Your answer here is correct,along the way,i realize i need to implement this using webworks so i am still waiting for blackberry support on it. I'll also try to put checkmarks back on the past questions as well. Thanks again
Comment: np, thank you for going back and doing that.  I am just learning Webworks myself; my understanding is that RIM is actively developing the platform to add as much integration as possible -- so I wouldn't be surprised to see this coming soon.
Comment: Yes, you can find the message list feature under active development here...lets hope it will be released soon.
https://github.com/blackberry/WebWorks/wiki/Enhancement-Candidates


Reminder of questions that you have asked but have not selected an answer for

Question: There has been many times when I got a notification of an upvote on one of my questions, and I notice that I haven't selected an answer yet. Even if I eventually used one of the posted answers; I just forget to select an answer sometimes. Does stackoverflow have a system for pushing notifications to users to remind them of questions that they have asked but have not selected an answer for?
Answer: There is no such feature, but you can instead perform a search with the following query:
<code>user:me hasaccepted:no answers:1
</code>
This link will give you all your questions  which have at least one answer but no accepted answer.


co-located CORBA call optimization for performance

Question: I am working with a CORBA based system which originally was designed to run on multiple servers.  If I wanted to co-locate the CORBA services so that the calls are happening across process boundaries but not across machines, are there any optimization settings which can be set to let the ORB know this is happening?  For example, is it possible to bypass the TCP/IP stack in this mode (I suspect not)?
Comment: Do you actually need the ORB process at all? Lots of CORBA code doesn't.
Comment: "The ORB" can be a set of libraries. Most modern ORBs don't require an "ORB process" unless there is a need to dynamically create/activate objects or provide other services.
Answer: The ORB should be able to figure this out on its own, and dispatch the invocation in the best way.
However, support for cross-process calls without using IIOP or TCP/IP is going to be dependent on which ORB you are using.  Some ORBs do support shared-memory, named pipes, UNIX domain sockets and other variations, but you'll need to check the ORB's documentation to figure out how to configure them.  You may need to construct your object references in a different manner.
Answer: Standard optimisation advice applies: only optimise that which has been shown to be causing a performance issue.
In 2002 I addressed this exact same issue and found a message related to OmniORB shared memory transport. For OmniORB a 10-15% reduction in round trip time could be expected, which as a percentage of overall resource usage was so small as to be insignificant.